Читать книгу Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665 - John Quincy - Страница 3

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THE Plague which we are now to give an Account of, discovered the Beginnings of its future Cruelties, about the Close of the Year 1664; for at that Season two or three Persons died suddenly in one Family at Westminster, attended with like Symptoms, that manifestly declared their Origin: Hereupon some timorous Neighbours, under Apprehensions of a Contagion, removed into the City of London, who unfortunately carried along with them the pestilential Taint; whereby that Disease, which was before in its Infancy, in a Family or two, suddenly got Strength, and spread Abroad its fatal Poisons; and meerly for Want of confining the Persons first seized with it, the whole City was in a little Time irrecoverably infected. Not unlike what happened the Year following, when a small Spark, from an unknown Cause, for Want of timely Care, increased to such a Flame, that neither the Tears of the People, nor the Profusion of their Thames, could extinguish; and which laid Wast the greatest Part of the City in three Days Time: And therefore as there happens to be no great Difference between these two grievous Calamities, this Mention of them together may not be improper; and the more especially, because by a like irresistable Fate from a Fever and a Conflagration, both the Inhabitants and their Houses were reduc’d to Ashes.

BUT as soon as it was rumoured amongst the common People, who are always enough astonished at any Thing new, that the Plague was in the City, it is impossible to relate what Accounts were spread of its Fatality, and well were it, had not the Presages been so ominous; every one predicted its future Devastations, and they terrified each other with Remembrances of a former Pestilence; for it was a received Notion amongst the common People, that the Plague visited England once in Twenty Years; as if after a certain Interval, by some inevitable Necessity, it must return again. But although this Conceit, how well soever justify’d by past Experiences, did not so much obtain with Persons of more Judgment, yet this may be affirmed, that it greatly contributed, amongst the Populace, both to propagate and inflame the Contagion, by the strong Impressions it made upon their Minds.

AND these frightful Apprehensions were not a little increased by the Predictions of Astrologers, from the Conjunctions of Stars, and the Appearances of Comets; for although but little Regard was given to such Things by Persons of Thought, yet Experience daily shewed, what Influence they had with the meaner Sort, whose Spirits being manifestly sunk by such Fears, rendered their Constitutions less able to resist the Contagion. Whosoever duly considers it, can never imagine that this Pestilence had its Origin from any Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, in Sagitarius on the Tenth of October, or from a Conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the same Sign on the Twelfth of November, which was the common Opinion; for all the Good that happens during the like Conjunctions is assignable to the same Causes.

THE like Judgment is to be made of Comets, how terrible soever they may be in their Aspects, and whether they are produced in the higher Regions from a Conglomeration of many Stars, and returning at certain Periods; or whether they are lower, and the Production of sulphureous Exhalations, kindled in our own Atmosphere; For there is nothing strange in the Accension of heterogeneous Particles into a Flame, upon their rapid Occursions and Collisions against each other, howsoever terrible the Tracks of such Light may be circumstanced. The People therefore were frightned without Reason at such Things, and the Mischief was much more in the Predictions of the Star-Gazers, than in the Stars themselves: Nothing could however conquer these sad Impressions, so powerful were they amongst the Populace, who anticipated their unhappy Fate with their Fears, and precipitated their own Destruction.

BUT to pass by Things of less Moment, it is to be taken Notice, that a very hard Frost set in on December, which continued three Months, and seemed greatly to deaden the Contagion, and very few died during that Season; although even then it was not extinguished, for in the Middle of Christmas Holy-days, I was called to a Young-Man in a Fever, who after two Days Course of alexiterial Medicines, had two Risings about the Bigness of a Nutmeg broke out, one on each Thigh; upon Examination of which, I soon discovered the Malignity, both from their black Hue, and the Circle round them, and pronounced it to be the Plague; in which Opinion I was afterwards confirmed by subsequent Symptoms, although by God’s Blessing the Patient recovered.

THIS Case I insert, both to shew that this Season did not wholly destroy the Distemper, although it greatly restrained it; but upon the Frost breaking, the Contagion got Ground, and gradually got out of its Confinements; like a Flame that for some Time seems smother’d, and suddenly breaks out with aggravated Fury.

AS soon as the Magistracy, to whom belonged the publick Care, saw how the Contagion daily increased, and had now extended it self to several Parishes, an Order was immediately issued out to shut up all the infected Houses, that neither Relations nor Acquaintance might unwarily receive it from them, and to keep the infected from carrying it about with them.

BUT whether this Method proved of Service or not, is to this Day doubtful, and much disputed; but it is my Business here however to adhere to Facts, and relate the Arguments on both Sides with all possible Impartiality.

IN Order whereunto, it is to be observ’d, that a Law was made for marking the Houses of infected Persons with a Red Cross, having with it this Subscription, LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US: And that a Guard should there continually attend, both to hand to the Sick the Necessaries of Food and Medicine, and to restrain them from coming Abroad until Forty Days after their Recovery. But although the Lord Mayor and all inferior Officers readily and effectually put these Orders in Execution, yet it was to no Purpose, for the Plague more and more increased; and the Consternation of those who were thus separated from all Society, unless with the infected, was inexpressible; and the dismal Apprehensions it laid them under, made them but an easier Prey to the devouring Enemy. And this Seclusion was on this Account much the more intolerable, that if a fresh Person was seized in the same House but a Day before another had finished the Quarentine, it was to be performed over again; which occasion’d such tedious Confinements of sick and well together, that sometimes caused the Loss of the whole.

BUT what greatly contributed to the Loss of People thus shut up, was the wicked Practices of Nurses (for they are not to be mention’d but in the most bitter Terms): These Wretches, out of Greediness to plunder the Dead, would strangle their Patients, and charge it to the Distemper in their Throats; others would secretly convey the pestilential Taint from Sores of the infected to those who were well; and nothing indeed deterred these abandoned Miscreants from prosecuting their avaritious Purposes by all the Methods their Wickedness could invent; who, although they were without Witnesses to accuse them, yet it is not doubted but divine Vengeance will overtake such wicked Barbarities with due Punishment: Nay, some were remarkably struck from Heaven in the Perpetration of their Crimes, and one particularly amongst many, as she was leaving the House of a Family, all dead, loaded with her Robberies, fell down dead under her Burden in the Streets: And the Case of a worthy Citizen was very remarkable, who being suspected dying by his Nurse, was before-hand stripped by her; but recovering again, he came a second Time into the World naked. And so many were the Artifices of these barbarous Wretches, that it is to be hoped, Posterity will take Warning how they trust them again in like Cases; and that their past Impunities will not be a Means of bringing on us again the like Judgment.

MOREOVER, this shutting up infected Houses, made the Neighbours fly from theirs, who otherwise might have been a Help to them on many Accounts; and I verily believe that many who were lost might have now been alive, had not the tragical Mark upon their Door drove proper Assistances from them.

AND this is confirmed by the Examples of other pestilential Contagions, which have been observed not to cease, until the Doors of the Sick were let open, and they had the Privilege of going Abroad; of the same Authority is the Custom of other Nations, who have due Regard to that Liberty that is necessary for the Comforts both of Body and Mind.

IT now remains that we take Notice of all that is of any Weight on the other Side; as therefore it is not at all deemed cruel to take off a mortify’d Limb to save the whole, by a Parity of Reason is the Conduct of a Community justifyable, who, out of a Regard to the Publick Good, put Hardships upon particular Persons; in a pestilential Contagion therefore, what can be of more immediate Service than securing those that are well from the Infection? And the more especially in a Disease that reaches not only the Body, but taints the very Breath; for in this Case the infected Breath poisons upon the healthful, and even at the Point of Death endeavours to diffuse that Venom to others that conquer’d them. From this delirious Pleasure arises those Tricks of transplanting the Corruption of a pestilential Tumour to another; not to say any Thing of that Woman, who with her Importunities drew her unhappy Husband into her Embraces, which ended his Life with hers.

AGAIN, to take away all Doubtings in this Case, I am not ignorant of what Moment it is, to shut up the Houses of all those who are infected, according to Custom; for by this means a Contagion may at first be stifled, which otherwise would go beyond any Remedy; and with equal Advantage might Gun-Powder be fired, if too much Time is not wasted in Deliberation, before these Things are put into Practice.

BUT if hereafter again a Plague should break out, (which God forbid) with Submission to Superiors, I should think it not improper to appoint proper Accommodations out of the City, for such as are yet untouched in infected Families; and who should continue there for a certain Time; the Sick in the mean time to be removed to convenient Apartments provided on Purpose for them: For by this Means, that Practice so abhorrent to Religion and Humanity, even in the Opinion of a Mahometan, of shutting up the sick and well together, would be avoided.

BUT to return: The Infection had long doubtfully reign’d, and continued through May and June, with more or less Severity; sometimes raging in one Part, and then in another, as in a running sort of Fight; as often as the Number of Funerals decreased, great Hopes were conceived of its Disappearance; then on a sudden again their Increase threw all into Dejection, as if the whole City was soon to be unpeopled; which Uncertainty gave Advantage to the Distemper; because Persons were more remiss in their Provisions against it, during such Fluctuation.

IT must not however be omitted, with what Precipitation the trembling Inhabitants left the City, and how they flocked in such Crowds out of Town, as if London had quite gone out of it self, like the Hurry of a sudden Conflagration, all Doors and Passages are thronged for Escape: Yet after the chief of the People were fled, and thereby the Nourishment of this cruel Enemy had been in a great Measure taken away, yet it raged still; and although it seemed once to slay as Parthians in their Flight, it soon returned with redoubled Fury, and kill’d not by slow Paces, but almost immediately upon Seizure; not unlike what is often seen in Battle, when after some Skirmishes of Wings, and separate Parties, the main Bodies come to engage; so did this Contagion at first only scatter about its Arrows, but at last covered the whole City with Death.

THUS therefore in the Space of one Week were eighty Persons cut off, and when Things came to Extremity, all Helps were called in; so it began now to be solely the Magistrates Business, how to put a Stop to this cruel Devastation, and save some Part of the City at last from the Grave; first then therefore were appointed a Monthly Fast for Publick Prayers, to deprecate the Anger of Heaven; nor proved it in vain, or were their Supplications altogether fruitless; for if we have any Regard to the Temperature of the Season, 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 pervert them from their natural State.

THE Government however, to the Duty of Publick Prayers, neglected not to add what Assistances might be had from Medicine; to which Purpose his Majesty, with the divine Helps, called in also all that was humane; and by his Royal Authority commanded the College of Physicians of London, jointly to write somewhat in English that might be a general Directory in this calamitous Exigence: Nor was it satisfactory to that honoured Society to discharge their Regards for the Publick with that only, but some were chose out of their Number, and appointed particularly to attend the infected on all Occasions; two also out of the Court of Aldermen were required to see this hazardous Task executed; so that encouraged with all proper Means, this Province was chearfully undertaken, and all possible Caution was used fully to answer the Intention; but this Task was too much for four Persons, and wanted rather the Concurrence of the whole Faculty; we were however ashamed to give it up, and used our utmost Application therein; but all our Care and Pains were eluded, for the Disease, like the Hydra’s Heads, was no sooner extinguished in one Family, but it broke out in many more with Aggravations; so that in a little Time we found our Task too great, and despaired of putting an entire Stop to the Infection.

NOR was there at this Time wanting the Help of very great and worthy Persons, who voluntarily contributed their Assistances in this dangerous Work; amongst the Number of which, the learned Dr. Glisson, Regius Professor at Cambridge, Dr. Nath. Paget, Dr. Wharton, Dr. Berwick, Dr. Brookes, and many others who are yet alive, deserve very honourable Mention; but eight or nine fell in this Work, who were too much loaded with the Spoils of the Enemy; and amongst whom was Dr. Conyers, whose Goodness and Humanity claim an honourable Remembrance with all who survive him.

AFTER then all Endeavours to restrain the Contagion proved of no Effect, we applied our selves altogether to the Care of the diseased; and in the Prosecution of which, it may be affirmed without Boasting, no Hazards to our selves were avoided: But it is incredible to think how the Plague raged amongst the common People, insomuch that it came by some to be called the Poors Plague; yet although the more opulent had left the Town, and that it was almost left uninhabited, the Commonalty that were left felt little of Want; for their Necessities were relieved with a Profusion of good Things from the Wealthy, and their Poverty was supported with Plenty; a more manifest Cause therefore for such a Devastation amongst them I shall assign in another Place.

IN the Months of August and September, the Contagion chang’d its former slow and languid Pace, and having as it were got Master of all, made a most terrible Slaughter, so that three, four, or five Thousand died in a Week, and once eight Thousand; who can express the Calamities of such Times? The whole British Nation wept for the Miseries of her Metropolis. In some Houses Carcases lay waiting for Burial, and in others, Persons in their last Agonies; in one Room might be heard dying Groans, in another the Ravings of a Delirium, and not far off Relations and Friends bewailing both their Loss, and the dismal Prospect of their own sudden Departure: Death was the sure Midwife to all Children, and Infants passed immediately from the Womb to the Grave; who would not burst with Grief, to see the Stock for a future Generation hang upon the Breasts of a dead Mother? Or the Marriage-Bed changed the first Night into a Sepulchre, and the unhappy Pair meet with Death in their first Embraces? Some of the infected run about staggering like drunken Men, and fall and expire in the Streets; while others lie half-dead and comatous, but never to be waked but by the last Trumpet, some lie vomiting as if they had drunk Poison; and others fall dead in the Market, while they are buying Necessaries for the Support of Life. Not much unlike was it in the following Conflagration; where the Altars themselves became so many Victims, and the finest Churches in the whole World carried up to Heaven Supplications in Flames, while their Marble Pillars wet with Tears melted like Wax; nor were Monuments secure from the inexorable Flames, where many of their venerable Remains passed a second Martyrdom; the most august Palaces were soon laid Waste, and the Flames seemed to be in a fatal Engagement to destroy the great Ornament of Commerce; and the Burning of all the Commodities of the World together, seemed a proper Epitome of this Conflagration; neither confederate Crowns, nor the drawn Swords of Kings, could restrain its Phanatick and Rebellious Rage; large Halls, stately Houses, and the Sheds of the Poor, were together reduced to Ashes; the Sun blush’d to see himself set, and envied those Flames the Government of the Night, which had rivalled him so many Days; as the City, I say, was afterwards burnt without any Distinction, in like Manner did this Plague spare no Order, Age, or Sex; The Divine was taken in the very Exercise of his priestly Office, to be inrolled amongst the Saints Above; and some Physicians, as before intimated, could not find Assistance in their own Antidotes, but died in the Administration of them to others; and although the Soldiery retreated from the Field of Death, and encamped out of the City, the Contagion followed, and vanquish’d them; many in their old Age, others in their Prime, sunk under its Cruelties; of the Female Sex most died; and hardly any Children escaped; and it was not uncommon to see an Inheritance pass successively to three or four Heirs in as many Days; the Number of Sextons were not sufficient to bury the Dead; the Bells seemed hoarse with continual tolling, until at last they quite ceased; the burying Places would not hold the Dead, but they were thrown into large Pits dug in waste Grounds, in Heaps, thirty or forty together; and it often happened that those who attended the Funerals of their Friends one Evening, were carried the next to their own long Home:

———— Quis talia fundo Temperet à Lachrymis? ————

Even the Relation of this Calamity melts me into Tears, and yet the worst was not certain, although the City was near drained by her Funerals; for the Disease as yet had no Relaxation.

ABOUT the Beginning of September, the Disease was at the Height; in the Course of which Month more than twelve Thousand died in a Week: But at length, that nothing might go untried to divert the Contagion, it was ordered by the Governours who were left to superintend those calamitous Affairs, (for the Court was then removed to Oxford) to burn Fires in the Streets for three Days together; yet while this was in Debate, the Physicians concerned were diffident of the Success, as the Air in it self was un-infected; and therefore rendred such a showy and expensive a Project superfluous, and of no Effect; and these Conjectures we supported by the Authority of Antiquity, and Hippocrates himself; notwithstanding which, the Fires were kindled in all the Streets. But alas! the Controversie was soon decided; for before the three Days were quite expired, the Heavens both mourned so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. I shall not determine any other Person’s Conjecture in this Case, whether these Fires may more properly be deemed the ominous Forerunners of the ensuing Conflagration, or the ensuing Funerals; but whether it was from the suffocating Qualities of the Fuel, or the wet Constitution of Air that immediately followed, the most fatal Night ensued, wherein more than four Thousand expired. May Posterity by this Mistake be warned, and not, like Empyricks, apply a Remedy where they are ignorant of the Cause.

THE Reader is by the Way to be advertised, that this Year was luxuriant in most Fruits, especially Cherries and Grapes, which were at so low a Price, that the common People surfeited with them; for this might very much contribute to that Disposition of Body as made the pestilential Taint more easily take Place.

NOR ought we here to pass by the benificent Assistances of the Rich, and the Care of the Magistrates; for the Markets being open as usual, and a greater Plenty of all Provisions, was a great Help to support the Sick; so that there was the Reverse of a Famine, which hath been observed to be so fatal to pestilential Contagions; and in this the Goodness of Heaven is always to be remembred, in alleviating a common Misery by such a Profusion of good Things from the Stores of Nature.

BUT as it were to balance this immediate Help of Providence, nothing was otherwise wanting to aggravate the common Destruction; and to which nothing more contributed than the Practice of Chymists and Quacks, and of whose Audacity and Ignorance it is impossible to be altogether silent; they were indefatigable in spreading their Antidotes; and although equal Strangers to all Learning as well as Physick, they thrust into every Hand some Trash or other under the Disguise of a pompous Title. No Country sure ever abounded with such wicked Impostors; for all Events contradicted their Pretensions, and hardly a Person escaped that trusted to their Delusions: Their Medicines were more fatal than the Plague, and added to the Numbers of the Dead: But these Blowers of the pestilential Flames were caught in the common Ruin, and by their Death in some Measure excused the Neglect of the Magistracy, in suffering their Practice:

——— Nec Lex est justior ulla Quàm necis Artifices Arte perire suâ.

ABOUT this Time a Person of Distinction and great Humanity, going to France upon some Affairs of State, heard that some Frenchmen were Masters of an Antipestilential Remedy, and took Care to send some Doses of it over here: By Command of the Government we were ordered to try it with due Caution, which we did with Expectations of uncommon Success, but the Mountain brought forth Death; for the Medicine, which was a Mineral Preparation, threw the Patients into their last Sleep. May it never hereafter be injoined to try Experiments with unknown and foreign Medicines, upon the Lives even of the meanest Persons! For certainly nothing is more abhorrent to Reason, than to impose a universal Remedy, in Cases whose curative Intentions are different, and sometimes opposite; and the various Indications of a Pestilence require very different Methods of Remedy, as shall hereafter be further demonstrated.

TO this may be added, that many common Medicines were publickly Sold, which by their extraordinary Heat and Disposition to inflame the Blood, could never be fit for every Age, Sex, and Constitution indifferently, and therefore in many Cases must undoubtedly do Harm. On this Account not only the Sacred Art, but the Publick Health also suffered; yet we who were particularly employed in this Affair as Physicians, used all Sollicitations with the Magistracy to restrain such Practices, in Order to stop the Ruin they aggravated. Hence notwithstanding it was made a Question, whether in a Plague, where so many Physicians retire, (not so much for their own Preservation, as the Service of those whom they attend) it is not expedient for every one, according to his Abilities, to do his utmost in averting the common Ruin? In the same Manner as in a Fire all Hands are required, even of the Croud as well as Workmen, to extinguish it.

BUT in this Case my own Opinion is determined: In the Restauration of Health, a Person must proceed with more Caution and Deliberation than in the supposed Case of a Fire; for there are Difficulties occur in the Practice of Medicine which are insuperable but by the unlearned; and the fine Texture of a humane Body is not to be managed by as clumsie Hands as the Materials of a House; in the former, if a Person makes a Mistake, it is with great Difficulty repaired; and therefore upon a serious Consideration of the whole Affair, I cannot make any Doubt, but that it is much better even to want Physicians in such Calamities, than to have the Sick under the Care and Management of the unlearned; for such Persons, like those who fight blindfold, know not in what Parts to attack the Enemy, nor with what Weapons to do it; besides which, they also are in Hazard of obstructing these Efforts of Nature, which would many Times, without Help, if not thus hindred, get the better of the Distemper.

NOR in this Account are we to neglect, that the Contagion spread its Cruelties into the neighbouring Countries; for the Citizens, which crowded in Multitudes into the adjacent Towns, carried the Infection along with them, where it raged with equal Fury; so that the Plague, which at first crept from one Street to another, now reigned over whole Counties, leaving hardly any Place free from its Insults; and the Towns upon the Thames were more severely handled, not perhaps from a great Moisture in the Air from thence, but from the tainted Goods rather that were carried upon it: Moreover, some Cities and Towns, of the most advantageous Situation for a wholsome Air, did notwithstanding feel the common Ruine. Such was the Rise, and such the Progress, of this cruel Destroyer, which first began at London.

BUT the worst Part of the Year being now over, and the Height of the Disease, the Plague by leisurely Degrees declined, as it had gradually made its first Advances; and before the Number infected decreased, its Malignity began to relax, insomuch that few died, and those chiefly such as were ill managed; hereupon that Dread which had been upon the Minds of the People wore off; and the Sick chearfully used all the Means directed for their Recovery; and even the Nurses grew either more cautious, or more faithful; insomuch that after some Time a Dawn of Health appeared, as sudden, and as unexpected, as the Cessation of the following Conflagration; wherein after blowing up of Houses, and using all Means for its Extinction to little Purpose, the Flames stopped as it were of themselves, for Want of Fuel, or out of Shame for having devoured so much.

THE Pestilence did not however stop for Want of Subjects to act upon, (as then commonly rumoured) but from the Nature of the Distemper, its Decrease was like its Beginning, moderate; nor is it less to be wondred at, that as at the Rise of the Contagion all other Distempers went into that, so now at its Declension that degenerated into others, as Inflammations, Head-achs, Quinseys, Dysenteries, Small-Pox, Measles, Fevers, and Hecticks; wherein that also yet predominated, as hereafter will be further shewn.

ABOUT the Close of the Year, that is, on the Beginning of November, People grew more healthful, and such a different Face was put upon the Publick, that although the Funerals were yet frequent, yet many who had made most Hast in retiring, made the most to return, and came into the City without Fear; insomuch that in December they crowded back as thick as they fled: The Houses which before were full of the Dead, were now again inhabited by the Living; and the Shops which had been most Part of the Year shut up, were again opened, and the People again chearfully went about their wonted Affairs of Trade and Employ; and even what is almost beyond Belief, those Citizens, who before were afraid even of their Friends and Relations, would without Fear venture into the Houses and Rooms where infected Persons had but a little before breathed their Last: Nay, such Comforts did inspire the languishing People, and such Confidence, that many went into the Beds where Persons had died before they were even cold, or cleansed from the Stench of the Diseased; they had the Courage now to marry again, and betake to the Means of repairing the past Mortality; and even Women before deemed barren, were said to prove proliffick; so that although the Contagion had carried off, as some computed, about one hundred thousand, after a few Months their Loss was hardly discernable, and thus ended this fatal Year.

BUT the next Spring indeed appeared some Remains of the Contagion, which was easily conquered by the Physicians, and like the Termination of a common Intermittent, ended in a healthful Recovery: Whereupon the whole Malignity ceasing, the City returned to a perfect Health; not unlike what happened also after the last Conflagration, when a new City suddenly arose out of the Ashes of the old, much better able to stand the like Flames another Time.