The first Thing we are presented with, is a heavy Charge against the Winds, for not doing their Duty; but that Æolus himself is an Aider and Abettor of Plagues, by not sending his Winds Abroad, and thereby stagnating the Air; for we are taught in this curious Discourse, [[10]]That the Use of Winds is to purify the Air by their Motion. But this Charge is altogether false, and ill grounded, because, Wind in England is put to many Uses; it not only blows cold, but it blows hot; it fans our Ladies, and our Corn too; it dries Linnen, and sails our Ships, &c. Besides, this Charge is absolutely false, for the Physician that has left an Account of the Winds Behaviour in 1665[[11]], tells us, That it was very dutiful, and, that the whole Summer was refreshed with moderate Breezes, sufficient to prevent the Air’s Stagnation and Corruption, and to carry off the pestilential Steams: The Heat was likewise too mild to encourage such Corruption and Fermentation as helps to taint the animal Fluids. And therefore howsoever fond Dr. Mead is of Stagnation, through any failure of the Winds, it is certain that they were then very blameless, let the Doctor find his Stagnation where he can. Moreover, the Physicians were not of Opinion, at that Time[[12]], that the Air was infected, and therefore Doctor Hodges tells us, That they were against making Fires, for the Reason of this Purity of Air; and, that Fires are only proper when it is impure and corrupted. After this Account of Things, who will question Dr. Mead’s great Acuteness and Accuracy in making Observations; or, whether am not I more to be blamed for observing those Trifles of the Doctor? Yet I cannot avoid making one short Observation more, which may proceed from the small Regard the Doctor has to Memory; for at two Pages off he assures us, That our Air is not disposed to receive such (contagious) Impressions; then what need we mind the Stagnation of the Air? Is there a Man in England, that will not forgive him this Contradiction, if he will make the last part of it good?
But we are immediately to have more Comfort of this Kind; for he assures us, That Plagues seem to be of the Growth of the Southern and Eastern Parts of the World; and I am sorry that they only seem to be so; because what follows may seem only to be true, That there is not in this Island particularly, any one Instance of a pestilential Disease among us, of great Consequence, that we have not received from other infected Places. Here is another Draw-back upon us again: A pestilential Disease of any Consequence! Is any Plague in a Country without Consequence? Surely many Widows and Orphans find it otherwise. But the Doctor will make amends for Families brought to Ruin and Poverty, by the loss of Parents and Husbands; by ridding us of a vulgar Error, of the Plague visiting us once in Thirty or Forty Years. So that if a Plague brings a mighty Calamity along with it, we may comfort our selves, that it comes but seldom.
This was the very Purpose for which he gave us, with great Assurance, the Origine of Plagues; because he would charitably rescue us from an Opinion propagated by Authors of great Name, that we are visited with the Plague once in thirty or forty Years; which is a mere Fancy, without any Foundation either in Reason or Experience. I cannot assign any Reason for the Plague thus visiting us; but Experience is not of the side of the terrible, but common Opinion, as Hodges[[13]] assures us, and the Bills of Mortality confirm; for there we find it has visited us oftner, with all its Tokens, Buboes, and Carbuncles, and more than once since that Time, if Dr. Mead’s pestilential Diseases, of smaller Consequence, are admitted.
Now if the Plague of Pestilence has thus frequently shewn it self, in its most terrible manner, and very often not so terribly, how can People prevent taking Fright at the King of Terrors? Or, with what Face can Dr. Mead call terrible Death, vain Fears? Can a reasonable People, relying on History, and their own Experience of Things, be delivered from their Fears, by a bold Assertion, that can proceed from no other Cause, than great Ignorance, or the worst Opinion of the Reason and Experience of Mankind, that they are subject to so gross an Imposition, as to take Comfort in the most lamentable Danger, exposed to Death, and forsaken by their dearest Friends; and all upon an Assertion, that is neither grounded on Knowledge, nor Integrity? It may be a pia Fraus, a well meant Cheat, but it cannot be of any manner of Use.
The truest Comfort arises from an Opinion, That an Adviser knows what he says; and says, what in his Conscience he believes to be true. How much greater is the Comfort we take, from a Perswasion that the Plague seldom, or never, passes from one Body into another, as was lately proved? As also, that Observations rather inform us of the Seeds of a Pestilence, seldom, or never, being brought over to us in foreign Goods; and besides these two Perswasions, founded on Reason and Experience, we have the Authority of the best Physicians in all Ages, that the Plague, nor any other Disease, is speedily generated. By the first of those Accounts, we have fewer Chances for being sick; and we are sure, by the second, that we have Time to prevent it, or to take the Distemper early, before it is settled into a Habit, or confirmed in a Disease. Such Reasoning, such Observation, is proceeding on good and firm Ground; the other, altogether depends on the Knowledge and Honesty of the Insurer, which can never be depended on, if we have any doubt about his Sincerity, or Understanding.
What Doctor Mead has already said, is contrary to the Experience of Mankind, and is purely supported on his bare Assertion; and therefore, I am afraid no great Comfort can be reasonably taken from it.
His next Assertion, about the Sweating Sickness, labours under all the Defects imaginable. He will not allow it to be of British Original; nay, that it is a Plague abated in its Violence by the mild Temperament of our Climate. He, afterwards, brings it from France, and clears the French of its being bred among them; for they, says he, brought it from the Siege of Rhodes. Can any Man equal this Doctor in Assertion? Or in quoting History absurdly? For it carries the Name of Sudor Anglicus, and our Country charged for having produced it. All foreign Physicians declare it peculiar to England; and, that a parcel of it went into Holland; but neither French, nor Italian Physician, heard any Thing of it, in their own Country, nor among the Greek Islands; and the Dutch fix the Scene of the Sweating Sickness in England. So the Sweating Sickness was four Times in England, and no where else; yet it is the Fag-end of the Plague brought from Rhodes, and thither God knows how, or from whence: But all this supported by much foreign Reading.
He calls this Distemper a Plague with lessen’d Force, because the Symptoms of it were of that Kind, tho’ in a less Degree, as great Faintness and Inquietudes, inward Burning, Pains in the Head, a Delirium, &c. I am glad we have Dr. Mead’s Description of a Plague, it being the first Time he has ventur’d to mention it; and, to do him Justice, he has touched upon it very gently: But, if this is the Plague, we are not seldom, but often visited with it. So there ends our Comfort.
Is this truly a Plague, feeble and week thro’ travelling? And did infinite Persons die suddenly of it? And that in Twenty four Hours. Pray, what can we think happen’d to the Nations that felt the sharp end of it, and those that came under its Fury, long before it reach’d us? Surely more than infinite Persons of them must have perished, and in infinitely shorter Time than Twenty four Hours, so that great Tracts of Country must have been dispeopled in one Day. Can any Man think an Æra as remarkable as the Deluge, could pass in History without Observation? Or, that all Historians should overlook so great a Wonder, the very Soul of an Historian, and all to fix a Calumny on our English Air, and to call a monstrous Disease a British Fever? It must be owned, that the Doctor is the greatest Traveller that ever was; for he has entertained us with the most admirable and surprizing Relation of the Feats and Travels of a Plague that ever was told.
This sufficiently shews the great Candor of our Author, and his great Judgment in comparing Diseases, as has been already noted by another Hand; for if a Plague kills infinite Persons in Twenty four Hours, I cannot see how properly it can be called Feeble; nay, if a true Judgment is made of it, the Plague in France is not to be compared to it for its Strength; and, God knows, the French find its Power too great, and God grant that we may never try its Feebleness. Our Author’s Judgment is no less conspicuous, in comparing what he calls the Dunkirk Fever, with the Sweating Sickness, for that was neither an Ephemera of one, nor of more Days; neither did it terminate in Twenty four Hours. How then are those two Diseases alike, that have nothing of the same Features or Resemblance, no more than the Time of their Duration was the same. Besides, this was not the Fag-end of any Plague, but a Fever we find to be very common in all the Marshy Places in the Low Countries; and what the Dutch call a Fever from the Polders, and that happens in the end of a hot Summer, or in the beginning of the Autumn.