c. One house I know more especially by Curfitors-Alley where the Man his Wife and Childe liv'd in a Room that look'd more like for bigness a great Chest then any thing else They had not space enough according to the vulgar saying to swing a Cat in so hot by reason of the closeness and so nastily kept besides that it even took away a mans breath to put his head but within the doors In this house all this little family died lately in two dayes The childe dying suddenly the neighbours were afraid to come near them The man having languished a long time for want of Air as well as money and he not able to stir out and none coming to his relief dyed quickly after The woman being as big with child as she could tumble seeing her child dead on the one side and her husband in his cloaths on the other and forsaken by all fell in labour and dyed too instantly A very true and sad accident which doubtless was occasioned by their loathsom living but perfected by the cruelty of those that lived near them Furthermore nearness of blood and kindred by sympathy of nature is another aptness But old folks whose bodies are cold and dry confident spirits whose very courage is an Antidote if they keep their bodies clean by a regular course of life and those that have the Gout in whom the nobler parts of the body do expel the noxious humours to the ignobler have the same benefit of non-infection as Milch-nurses have because their children suck the evil juices from them with their milk These are in the way likely to escape but if the Nurse be infected the childe cannot recover it Lastly they who keep themselves private or have Issues Ulcers Haemorrhoids or women that have their courses abundantly are least subject to infection because the hurtful humours are by those means drained away What things are to be observed by every man that is desirous to preserve himself from the infection of the Plague BY discovering to you the six strings of Apollo's Viol I shall shew wherein consisteth the whole harmony of Health which are Air Meat and Drink Repletion and Evacuation Exercise and Rest Sleep and Watching and lastly the passions of the Minde If these be in tune the body is sound but any of these too high wrested or too much slackned that is immoderately used makes a discord in Nature and puts the whole body a jarring Aer Esca Quies Repletio Gaudia Somnus Haec moderata juvant immoderata nocent Air Meat and Rest Repletion Joys and Sleep As they are us'd an healthful body keep Or thus Sleep Joys Repletion Resting Air and Food Immoderate are bad if moderate good Air we shall first begin with since it is that we draw in with our breath continually and we cannot live without it one minute for it is the food of our spirits and therefore we had need take heed that the Air we draw be pure and wholesom The whole stream of opinion runs upon a cold and dry air so commending the North and East windes as most wholesom and condemning the hot and moist air engendred by the South and West windes as the fittest matter for infection because most apt to putrefaction So Galen affirmeth saying That the hot and moist constitution of the Air doth most of all breed pestilential diseases From his mouth many modern Authors have learned to speak the same thing yet we know that the hot and dry weather also may cause a contagious air Titus Livius mentioneth in his Decades that Rome was so infected by an hot and dry distemper of the Air. It is not out of my remembrance that the Summer 1624. preceding the great Sickness was an extream dry and parching Summer I pray God this Summer prove not a Mother to a like Contagion Now to avoid the mischiefs of an unwholesome air take Hippocrates his counsel in his Treatise of humane Nature walk abroad as little as may be and as much as may be shun passing by any place infected but by no means would I advise any to flie though the Sickness should spread all over the City For in the last great Visitation many with Daedalus did put on wings that with Icarus dropt down by the way Only my counsel is this Should the Sickness increase let every one keep himself as private as he may shun throngs of people and all wet close and stinking places walk not abroad before not after Sun keep moderation between heat and cold in all things yet rather incline to heat a little because of drying up superfluous moistures Let not your houses be pestered with many Lodgers and it is best for those that are able to have change of Beds and Chambers to lie in that the air in them may be kept free and sweet Keep every Room daily very clean and let there be no sluts corners let not water stand so long in any vessel as to putrifie which in hot weather it will soon do Make fires every day in every room in quantity according to the largeness of the room and the temperature of the weather perfume them in cold and moist weather with Frankincense Storax Benjamin Pitch Rozin Lignum-Aloes Lignum Rhodium Juniper-wood or the Berries in hot and dry weather with Rose-water on a hot fire-shovel or some such like cool fume in a perfuming-pot strew the windows and ledges with Rue Worm-wood Lavender Marjoram Peniroyal Costmary and such like in cold weather but in hot with Primroses Violets Rose-leafs Borage Bugloss and such cooling scents For garments avoid as much as may be all leather woollen and furr also velvets plush and shag but chuse such as may be watered as chamlets grograms c. for their gumminess excludeth infectious air best shift your shirt often and cloaths also and before you put them on again perfume them well be sure you take care that you buy not old cloaths bedding or such like stuff for the garments of infectious persons deceased are usually put to sale which oftentimes prove very dangerous to the buyer Carry in your mouth a piece of the Pill of Citron or Lemmon a Clove is of excellent use to that purpose forget not to carry in your hand a Lemmon stuck with Cloves sweet Marjoram Lavender Balm Rue or Worm-wood and thereunto smell frequently I should commend for your use Camphire because it is accounted an excellent cool fume for ill airs but I would have those that have cold and weak stomacks to beware thereof since such are very much weakned by the use of it Though Dioscorides and Cardan commend Galbanum burning of leather and smelling to horse-dung yet my advice is to eschew unsavoury smells and stinking odours judging what are sweet and pleasant more proper because they dilate restore and comfort the spirits whereas the contrary do contract and by repugning them weaken the faculties What manner of Diet is to be observed for self-preservation THe next thing which we
these are not sick at all and the most recover by good looking to The Carbuncle is a little venemous pustle with a broad compass of a deep redness upon it wonderful angry and burning like a fire-coal thence comes his name Carbunculus It riseth like a Blister producing an ash-colour'd or else a blackish crust sometimes it rises in many pustles like burnt blisters on the outward skin which being broken and the matter run out the like crusty escar grows over it till it falls off It appears in any part of the body or limbes many times on the breast and sometimes in the face with it alwayes go these evil companions itching inflammation and erosion for it is so full of burning poyson that it consumes the flesh and will in a short time if it be not well lookt to eat so deep and large a hole as if the flesh were hollowed with an hot iron It riseth from the same cause in the Botch but the blood is more hot black thick and feculent proceeding from burnt choler or adust melancholy The Spots otherwise called Gods Tokens are commonly of the bigness of a flea-bitten spot sometimes much bigger their colour is according to the predominancy of the humour in the body red or reddish if choler pale blue or dark blue if flegm leaden or blackish if melancholy abound but they have ever a circle about them The red ones a purplish circle and the others a reddish circle they appear most commonly on the breast and back and sometimes on the neck arms and thighs on the breast and back because the vital spirits strive to breath out the venom the nearest way In some bodies there will be very many in some but one or two or very few according to the quantity of the venom and the strength to drive them out They usually shew themselves on the third fourth fifth or seventh day sometimes not till death the venom yet tyrannizing over the dead carcase sometimes they appear together with the sores but for the most part without the cause is the venemous matter condensed and hardned in the act of penetrating the Pores of the skin if they be skilfully dissected in the dead body you may finde some half way deep in the flesh and some in the muscles of the breast have been followed with the Incision-knife even to the rib-bones The reason why they are thus congealed is the thickness of the venemous matter and the coldness of it for it is the most flegmatick part of the blood yet mixed also with the other humours according to the colours They appear in dead bodies most because nature fainting in her labour to thrust out the venom through the skin life's hear going out the privation thereof and the nearness of the outward air do congeal them presently and because many times at the last gaspe Nature gives the stoutest struggle it comes to pass they are not so far thrust forth as to appear till death All these symptoms must be lookt to very diligently and skilfully How to know whether the dead body died of the Plague though neither sore or Token appear HEnricius says those that die of the Plague are known from others by these marks The nose looks blue sometimes blackish blue as if it had been beaten bruised the like colour is in the ears and nails and their bodies are ever worse coloured then other dead bodies be But add to this one signe more approved by experience and standing with good reason viz. That whereas other dead bodies must be laid out strait while they are warm or else when they are cold they will be too stiff to be straitned in those of the Plague or poysoned either the flesh is soft and the joints limber and flexible after the body is cold which shews the vileness of putrefaction in all the humours and moist parts of the body How to know whether the person infected at the first or soon after be likely to be recovered or no. IF one be taken with the first signes of sinking of his spirits causless sadness shortness of breath on the sudden that he cannot forbear sighing yet knows no cause why sick-heartedness c. If this happen at his meat or presently after let him if he can vomit if he offer and cannot help him with a little warm water and oyl or dip a feather in Linseed-oyl or oyl of Scorpions and thrust it into his throat Then or if he be taken betwixt meals or fasting make this draught for him Take of Bole-Armoniack one dram powdred juice of Oranges half an ounce white-wine an ounce Rose-water two ounces If he vomit it up again it is a signe the venom is abundant and hath gotten great power over the vital parts therefore wash his mouth with a little white-wine and give him the same Potion again If he again cast it up repeat the wine-Lotion and this Potion again three times This is taken out of the second Canon of Avicen by Guanerius who testifies upon his own knowledge that never any that at first kept it without casting it up again dyed of that Sickness Let the infected take this following Medicine which hath been approved the best Remedy against the Plague Take three pints of Muskadine and boyl therein a handful of Sage and a handful of Rhue till a pint be wasted then strain it and set it over the fire again then put thereto a penyworth of long-pepper half an ounce of ginger and a quarter of an ounce of Nutmegs all beaten together then let it boyl a little and put thereto three peniworth of Triacle and a quarter of a pint of the best Angelica-water you can get Take of it always warm both morning and evening if infected two spoonfuls and sweat thereupon if not a spoonful a day is sufficient half in the morning the rest in the evening Keep this as your most estimable treasure for under God in the Plague-time you may safely trust to this since it never deceived any AN Excellent Preservative against the Plague Pestilence and all Infectious Diseases Noisome Smells and Corrupt Air Sea-fogs Kentish and Essex-Agues Scurvy and Dropsies prepared by R. Turner Med. Sold by Sam. Speed at the Rainbow neer the Inner Temple-gate at 2 s. 6 d. per Paper sealed Directions for the use thereof TAke of it morning and going to bed and at any time going abroad hold a piece in your mouth letting it there dissolve The quantity may be from the bigness of an Hazel-nut to a small Nutmeg FINIS Euseb Hist Eccle. l. 7. c. 11.
MEDELA PESTILENTIAE Wherein is contained several Theological Queries CONCERNING THE PLAGUE WITH Approved Antidotes Signes and Symptoms ALSO An exact Method for curing that EPIDEMICAL DISTEMPER Humbly presented to the Right Honourable and Right Worshipful the LORD MAYOR and SHERIFFS of the City of London LONDON Printed by J. C. for Samuel Speed and are to be sold at his Shop at the Rain-bow near the Temple in Fleet-street MDCLXV TO â—HE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir John Lawrence Knight LORD MAYOR of this Honourable City of LONDON AND THE Right Worshipful Sir GEORGE WATERMAN and Sir CHARLES DOE Knights and Sheriffs thereof Right Honourable And Right Worshipful FAME proclaiming every-where your deserved worth it reach'd my ear and hearing how careful your Honour and Worships have been in the preservation of every individual person but such more especially committed to your Tutelage wherein you have shewn your selves indulgent Fathers as well as prudent Governors I could do no less then step in amongst the crowd of your Honours and Worships admirers to make my grateful acknowledgement I have but this Mite to offer but as much water as the palm of my Hand will hold to east into this new-kindled fire and yet it may quench it ere it rise to a flame if the heavenly Physician see it good The peaceful Dove hath now got some few fick feathers let her not therefore be deserted Some of late have forsaken her because fallen sick a little which argues both their ingratitude and folly in flying that Mother which gave some breath others benefit and profit thinking thereby they can shun the hand of Gods just judgement In this Honourable City I first drew my breath and received the major part of my education as your Honours and Worships therefore are our Fathers in general so I hope you will not deny me your particular Patronage Let your noble favours then strengthen this weak hand which a Sons duty reacheth forth to a Mothers support grateful pity commands me thus to do and my knowledge in reading with the experience of others justifieth the act Accept therefore of these my well-wishing indeavours and whilst some are using the means let others joyn with them in Prayers to Almighty God to be merciful to this City and if it be his blessed will to sheath his sword and unbend his bow that the dreadful Judgement of the Plague may be averted from us Pardon I beseech you this grand presumption and I shall glory in subscribing my self Right Honourable And Right Worshipful Your most devoted and obedient Servant Richard Kephale POSTSCRIPT TWo most soveraign Antidotes against the Plague found out first and experimented by the Author of the ensuing Treatise to be the most infallible Preservatives against pestilential Contagion The one is in form of a Conserve to be taken first in the morning the quantity of an Hazel-nut on the point of a knife fasting one hour after and then you may both eat and drink what you please Take the same quantity also two hours before dinner and about three or four in the afternoon and at night when you go to bed The other is a most admirable and pleasant Spirit which you are to take as the fore-mentioned four or five times a day These two are to be sold sealed by Mr. Samuel Speed at the Rain-bow in Fleet-street near the Temple where also you may have the Spirit of Salt which is excellent good to prevent infection causing a good appetite and curing most diseases most truly prepared according to the Method of Rhodocanasi Take thereof when you desire to drink two drops in a middle-siz'd cup of Ale or Beer provided it be not stale Medela Pestilentiae OR Rules for the Prevention and Cure OF THE PLAGUE How the Plagues began 1603 1609 1625 1630 1636. For what sins the Divines of those times judged they were inflicted and with what Godly meanes they were allayed 1 OUt of Gods tender Goodness towards this Nation after many warnings before hand by his Ministers who observing what sins were impudently and impenitently committed foresaw and fore-told what God would bring upon this People and particularly a Plague throughout that year before it came He began this sore Judgement by degrees in those times Jan. 24. onely one died Feb. 3. three died Feb. 10. five Feb. 17. three Feb. 24. one March 17. two March 24. eight March 31. six April 7. eight April 14. eighteen April 21. eighteen and after that the Bill increased every week more and more till August 18. when there died in one week 4463. of the Plague which began the first time by a surfeit in White Chappel the second time by Sea-men about the same place the third by reason of rotten Mutton at Stepney the fourth with a pack of Carpets from Turkey the fifth with a Dogge that came over from Amsterdam 2 Bishop Sandersons words in a Sermon at an Assizes at Lincolne Aug. 4. 1625. upon Psalm 106.30 are these As God brought upon that people for their sins a fearful destruction So hee hath in his just wrath sent his destroying Angel against us for ours the sins that brought the Plague upon them were Whoredome and Idolatry I cannot say the same sins have caused ours for although the execution of good Laws against both Incontinent and Idolatrous persons hath been of late years and yet is wee all know to say no more slack enough yet Gods Holy Name be blessed for it neither Idolatry nor Whoredome are at that heighth of shameless impudence and impunity among us that they dare out-brave our Moseses and out-face whole Congregations as it was in Israel But still this is sure no Plague but for sin nor National Plagues but for National sins So that albeit none of us may dare to take upon us to bee so farre of Gods Counsel as to say for what very sins most this Plague is sent among us yet none of us can bee ignorant but that besides those secret personal Corruptions which are in every one of us and whereunto every ones heart is privy there are many Publick and National sins whereof the people of this Land are generally guilty and is abundantly sufficient to justifie God in his dealings towards us when he judgeth us 1. Our wretched unthankfulness unto God for the long continuance of his Gospel and our Peace our carnal confidence and security in the strength of our wooden and watry walls our riot and excesse the noted and proper sins of this Nation and much intemperate abuse of the good Creatures of God in our meats drinks and disports and other provisions and comforts of this life Our incompassion towards our Brethren miserably wasted with war and famine in other parts of the World our heavy oppression of our Brethren at home in racking the Rents cracking the backs and grinding the face of the poor Our cheap and irreverent regard to Gods Holy Ordinances of his Word Sacraments Sabbaths and Ministers our wantonnesse and toyishness of