Part 1

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_Doctor MEAD_’s

Short DISCOURSE

EXPLAIN’D.

BEING A

_Clearer_ ACCOUNT

OF

Pestilential Contagion,

AND

_PREVENTING_.

_Nec satis est dixisse, ego mira poemata pango._

_LONDON_:

_Printed, and Sold by _W. BOREHAM_, at the Angel in _Pater-noster Row_._ 1721.

Dr. _MEAD’s_ Short Discourse EXPLAIN’D.

Many and various are the Opinions about the Design, as well as about the Meaning and real and true Sense of the short Discourse lately writ by the Celebrated Dr. _Mead_, for preventing the Plague. The various Turns of the Heads of different Men, their different Capacities, and the Sublimity of the Doctor’s Style may, no doubt, occasion all this Variety in understanding Him and his Book. Some, and if we may judge by the great Run and Demand for his Book, the greatest Number of the People of all Ranks expected some _Esculapian_, but easy Rules, whereby they might govern and conduct their Life against so silent an Enemy as the Pestilence, which walketh in Darkness. This seems to be more than a _Conjecture_, because this great Demand ceas’d of a sudden, as the Plague it self commonly does, after they found the Physician had no hand in it, or that his Rules were locked up for the Favourites of his Faculty. And as the People commonly make the best Judgment of Things after a little Experience, so we find this Judgment of the Town confirmed, by what his _Friends_, _Adepts_, and other _Officers_, who only understand or declare what Dr. _Mead_ would have believed; and accordingly they labour to declare, that the genuine Meaning and Design of the Celebrated Doctor was, to give a Politick Account, how the Plague may be staved off by Force of Arms.

I grant this Authority is very cogent; yet, on the other hand, if we either consider the Title Page of the Book, the great Accurateness and Veracity of Dr. _Mead_, as well as his signal _Humility_, I must crave leave to dissent, at this time, from the Reports of these Men, tho’ they carry his daily and hourly Orders: for how do such Reports sute all those his known good Qualities, the last more especially. Can any Man think it consistent with his singular Humility, to teach the Secretary of State, what has been practised in our own and other Countries for some hundred of Years: _Quarantines and Pest-Houses_, or if the Doctor pleases, _Lazarettoes_, are not unknown to English Lawyers, nor English Ministers. And therefore I think it much the fairest Course, to consider the Discourse well, because it is short, and from thence to draw the Sense of its Author.

To do all imaginable Right to Dr. _Mead_, we will begin with the Title-Page, that nothing material may seem to be neglected. There we find it is to be a Discourse concerning _Pestilential_ Contagion, and Methods to prevent it. Turning next to the Dedication, he tells his Patron that he rather chuses to _put down the principal Heads of Caution, than a Set of Directions in Form_. This Head he seems to suggest chiefly to consist in performing Quarantines, and other things that may be collected from History. The next (Head I suppose) is concerning the _suppressing Infection here_; which he tells us is _very different from the Methods taken in former times among us, and from what they commonly do abroad; but_ (as he very modestly perswades himself) _will be found agreeable to Reason_. This Account differs very much from the Rumours and Opinions now prevailing in the World; for we are to be entertain’d with a preventing Method, as far as Physick and Politicks extend, and on that Account cannot fail to be very new when finished; because all former Accounts are very defective, the silent Attacks of the Pestilence having been hitherto undiscover’d by all former Physicians. And therefore is there any Person so hard-hearted, or so stupid, that does not rejoyce and prick up his Ears at those ravishing Expressions, who does not desire to be instructed in this Method of preventing this unmerciful Enemy to Mankind. Come on then, and listen to the Celebrated Dr. _Mead_, who brings Death to Pestilential Contagion; as he is said to have promis’d while he was composing this Work. But we will next follow Dr. _Mead_ into the Book it self, where we find that he thinks it _necessary to premise somewhat in general concerning Contagion, and the Manner by which it acts_. But alas! we are to meet with nothing but Disappointments, so soon are we fallen from all our Hopes and Expectations: Nothing to be found either of _Contagion_, or the manner of its acting, tho’ the Title of the Book promises it, and the first entring upon the Discourse declares it to be necessary; This is the very Soul of the Book, the subject Matter upon which every thing turns, the Cause of the Plague, and the Indication for preventing and curing the Plague, are to be drawn out of it.

Besides, the most ancient and best Physicians knew nothing of Contagion, and far less of _Pestilential Contagion_; Words only brought in by Physicians in later times, and of Ignorance; and therefore such suspected Words ought to be well described and defined before they are made use of; either in discovering the Nature of abstruse Diseases, or when we are to found Methods of preventing or curing them, upon such Discoveries.

To leave this Enquiry about Contagion to another Occasion, we will only observe, that this necessary Article is overseen and neglected by the Accurate Dr. _Mead_, for Reasons well known to himself, and easily to be guessed at by every body. It must be acknowledg’d that the Doctor’s way of writing and inquiring is very singular, the remaining part of his Book being carried on without Principles, or any known thing with which his Subject to be explained has any relation.

But, as I have now undertaken to make this short Discourse more intelligible, I will pursue my Design in Dr. _Mead_’s Method, as far as that does not obscure the Subject: In that Case I will take the Liberty to keep the Thread of our Discourse as much in our view is it is possible. Dr. _Mead_ then having taken leave of _Contagion_, tells us, that this unknown _Contagion is propagated by three Causes, The Air, diseased Persons, and Goods transported from infected Places_. What a propagating Cause may be, shall be left to those that deal in Metaphysicks, to determine; it matters not what it appears to be, while the begetting Cause is unknown.

As to Air, he now undertakes to shew us how it becomes _Infectious, and how it communicates its noxious Quality to other Bodies_. The first, by the Authority of _Hippocrates_ and _Galen_; but in this he mistakes his Authors, as he commonly does when they do not come up to his Purpose; for _Hippocrates_ is thought, by many Authors, not to treat of the Plague, in this third Book of his Epidemicks; _Galen_, in the Commentary quoted by Dr. _Mead_, is so far from thinking that _Hippocrates_ was resolved to give us Cases of the Plague, that he thought quite otherwise: And for the Truth of this Assertion, take an irrefragable Authority, _instar omnium_, the learned Dr. _Friend_, who says at the Remark [1]__Λοιμωδης_, hic non est proprie pestilens & contagiosus, siquidem in his morbis ab Hippocrate descriptis, nullum est contagii vestigium: Sed ut Galenus innuit aliud non est, quam _Επιδημια ὀλέθριος__. And a little after, _sed ipse titulus Galeno paululum suspectus est_.

[Footnote 1: _Sect. 2._]

We will not insist upon this Sense of _Hippocrates_; but suppose he there truly treats of the Plague, and that he has observed such a Temperament of Air to have preceded it, what is this to Contagion and Infection, which neither _Hippocrates_ nor _Galen_ ever dream’d of. Besides, _Hippocrates_ calls the Plague a Fever, and in his Opinion several Affections of Air, to him, and us, perhaps, unknown, produced Plagues, or Fevers (for these Words are synonimous with him) and the greatest Part of other Diseases. So that it is manifest from _Hippocrates_, that this, and many other Alterations of the Air do not make it _Infectious_.

The following Paragraph is of no Force, after what is now said concerning _Hippocrates_; the best Historian, that is not a Physician, is never presumed to go beyond an Account and Relation of Matter of Fact, as he apprehends it; and so far went the great _Thucydides_, in relating the Plague of _Athens_. We will rather consider what the Doctor alledges for strengthning his Conjecture about Contagion. [2]_Stinks of stagnating Waters, in hot Weather; putrid Exhalations from the Earth; and above all, the Corruption of dead Carcasses being unburied, have occasion’d infectious Diseases._ Let us now suppose this Account to be true, yet his chief Article about Carcasses is absolutely false, as may be prov’d by one of the best Physicians in any Age; what is all this to Contagion breeding the Plague: For suppose again, some or all of them occasion’d _infectious_ Diseases, the Consequence is not, _Ergo_, the Plague; there being many contagious Diseases that are neither _Plague_ nor Mortal.

[Footnote 2: _Page 3._]

Yet, as if all this were Demonstration, he asserts, That the Plague is produced by a _Concurrence_ of Causes; _and their first Effect is a Degree of Stagnation in the Air_, which is follow’d by _Corruption_, and Putrefaction. It is needless to enter upon this Hint of a new _Hypothesis_; for if his Machine of Contagion, or Infection, be good, these are unnecessary. But alas! the celebrated Doctor has, in the Conclusion, destroy’d the whole Fabrick he had rear’d with so much Trouble, after he had borrow’d Brick from one, Mortar from another, and Timber from a third; and only because he became, against Nature and his own Genius, a Master-Builder. Is a Concurrence of all the supposed Causes necessary to make a Plague? Then there never was a Plague in the World; and that because these Causes never all met together: A hopeful Conclusion! and which at once delivers the World of insufferable Fears, they hitherto groan’d under, by a vulgar Error; which is now contrary to Experience, because it is so to Dr. _Mead_’s Reasoning.

_Hippocrates_, on the other Hand, undertakes only to relate the Constitution of the Year when _Plagues_ and _Fevers_ were very frequent; he never thought of making any particular Constitution, or the Weather in it, the Cause of Plagues universally: If he had, Experience should have shewn the contrary, to which he would have submitted. But not to enter into any other Constitutions that might happen in _Greece_, Experience cries loudly against this _Hypothesis_ of Dr. _Mead_; since we know that _hard_ and _continued frosty_ Weather produces the Pestilence, most commonly, in our Northern Climates. The Winter 1664, was a continued Frost all through, as Dr. _Hodges_ informs us; yet the Plague broke out in the _Christmas_ time, when it was in its _Strength_. The Plague in _Dantzick_, mention’d by Dr. _Mead_, was in the Winter, when every thing was bound up with a severe _Frost_; yet so violent was this Plague, that it bred the _Dunkirk-Fever_ in the Fag-end of it, as Dr. _Mead_ learnedly conjectures. So that the Pestilence frequently, and most commonly, happens in a Season very opposite to what the Doctor finds necessary for breeding _Infection and Corruption_, the _Fore-runners_ of a Plague.

From all this Account it is manifest, that we hitherto know nothing of _Contagion_, nor of any Corruption convey’d into Air, which it is to foment and cherish, to beget or propagate the Pestilence; as also that this Notion of Contagion taken up and espoused by later Physicians, is very ill supported by them, and still worse by Dr. _Mead_, who is little acquainted with their Opinions, so common and obvious in Books of Physick. And therefore as he has been very unhappy in discovering the _Change_ in Air that makes it infectious; we will try for better Success, in his discovering the _Means_, whereby it _communicates its noxious Quality to other Bodies_.

In order to pursue this Discourse with greater Exactness, it is necessary to ease our Memory from carrying the different Particulars of seven Pages, and not to oblige the Reader to take, on trust, what is writ so long before. It may, perhaps, be useful to Dr. _Mead_ to tell us[3], that he, lately, left the _Air in a putrid State_; but that is nothing to us, who are at this present time sensible that the Doctor has not been able to bring the least Speck of Putrefaction into it. However, not to balk him in his projected Means, whereby it communicates its noxious Quality; he desires us to observe, that _Putrefaction is a kind of Fermentation, and that all Bodies in a Ferment emit a volatile active Spirit, of Power to agitate, and put into intestine Motions, that is, to change the Nature of other Fluids, into which it insinuates it self_. Now we have observed it, we find every Article of this Observation to be false; for Putrefaction does not always precede Fermentation, nor that every body in a Ferment emits volatile Spirits, nor that volatile Spirits have a Power to agitate, or to put into intestine Motions all Liquors into which they insinuate themselves; and still far less, that being put into intestine Motions, is to change the Nature of the Fluid thus put in Motion. What Use the Doctor may have for this Roll of precarious Assertions, time may tell us: for he has now got the Master-Key of all Philosophy, even _Fermentation_, into his Hand. By Fermentation _Stones_, _Metals_, _Plants_, _Animals_, and (if it pleases him) the _Pestilence_, are generated, and cherished. This makes Diseases; this cures them; by this we live, by this we die.

[Footnote 3: Page 11.]

Neither does this Machine only answer all our Wants in performing the greater, but even the smaller feats, as we chance to employ it: for if we are asked, why _Glow-birds_ shine in the Night? or why _wet Hay_ takes Fire of it self, _&c._ one short Answer is sufficient to all these, that these great Works are done by _Fermentation_. A Poet in ancient times, pronounced those Nations happy, that had their rural Gods growing in their Gardens. But I esteem the Man far more happy, who has at hand so ready an Answer to every thing: who has got a Machine equally serviceable on every occasion, the _Philosopher’s Stone_, the _universal Medicine_, the making a Plague.

Being thus possessed of this useful Machine, he tells us what wonderful feats he could perform by it, with the Help of _Bellini_’s Doctrine of Fevers, if he had any time to bestow on so _great a Digression_: for he could shew us, _how the Alterations made in the Blood will favour Pestilential Diseases, by rendering the Body obnoxious to them_. Why, this is the Favour we have waited for in eleven tedious Pages; and if he writes in English, we may thus be taught how the Blood is affected in Pestilential Diseases, by laying us a-bed languishing with them. This would not only be one step towards Contagion, as he artfully begins the next Paragraph, but might fully inform us of every thing we want to know concerning it. Why should the Great and Celebrated Dr. _Mead_ call this a Digression? I wish he would begin thus to digress: but it is now too late, since he has already digressed from all his Title-Page, and the half of his Preface. _Contagion_ was dropt at first, and now we find that _Pestilential Contagion_ has no better Fate. How _preventing_ may thrive under his Hands, is not hard to guess, since he knows nothing of what he promises to prevent. These _Methods are very different from those taken in former times among us, and from what they commonly do abroad_. Insomuch, that had any body writ in this Method, besides the Celebrated Doctor, I should have thought him the most ignorant, impertinent, and self-sufficient Person that ever made a Sale of Physick.

What Account can he give to Physicians, for thus despising the received Opinions of _Hippocrates_, and of all their learned and experienc’d Predecessors, who unanimously declare, that the Plague differs in nothing from a Fever; or else that a Fever attends every Plague of Pestilence. And, therefore, in him is all Physick, or else he knows nothing of it.

Nay, how can he answer it to himself, who in his Manifesto, in the very next Paragraph, is under an unavoidable Want of a Fever he formerly neglected. Here he tells us a Tale, That, _the next_ (Step towards Contagion, and it is not safe to go too near it) _as it seems to me, proceeds after this Manner_. This kind of introductory Humility has been very fashionable, of late, among dignify’d Authors; for in advancing a Proposition, whereof they can bring no Proof, it is not to be thought how humble, how self-deny’d they are in that Instant; but they _rant_, _swagger_, and _bully_, if they get their Reader but Three Lines further. So this celebrated Author, after this humble Cringe, tells us, _The Blood in all malignant Fevers, especially pestilential ones_ (to be sure) _at the latter End of the Disease, does, like fermenting Liquors, throw off a great Quantity of active Particles upon the several Glands of the Body, particularly upon those of the Mouth and Skin, from which the Secretions are naturally the most constant and large. These, in pestilential Cases, although the Air be in a right State, will generally infect those who are very near to the sick Person; otherwise are soon dispersed and lost._

The first Part of this Declaration, if my Memory fails me not, is taken from the Doctor’s elaborate Essay on Poisons; and is brought forth with all its primitive Elegance, for the present Purpose; but by no means answers his Want of it: For it does not appear, by _any manner of Observation_, that the Blood throws off any active Particles at the latter End of _malignant_ Fevers, _so there is no need to have Recourse to this_ Supposition. But why upon any Glands? This Expression does not favour of understanding _Anatomy_. Why upon the Glands of the Mouth? Surely this Supposition is not of any Use in this Place, however serviceable it might prove in the mentioned Book, when the _Slabbering_ of a mad Dog was upon the Anvil. Moreover, Is Secretion most constantly performed at the Glands of the Mouth and of the Skin? Surely not, as _Sanctorius_ evinces, and is evident from the Doctrine of Secretions, perfectly well explain’d many Years ago.

Next, let us suppose that this is Standard Physick, as it is quite the Reverse of it; what mighty matter is to be drawn from it? Why, these active Particles, tho’ the Air be pure, _will infect those who are very near to the sick Person; otherwise are soon dispersed and lost_. I hope there is no harm in the last, and there is no Proof alledg’d for the former. So that his next Step towards Contagion, does not proceed at all. I cannot tell how well he manages in the remaining Part of the Paragraph; and therefore I will only set it in View, that any Person of a more enlighten’d Understanding than my self may profit by the Doctor’s own Words. _But when in an evil Disposition of this they meet with these subtle Parts its Corruption has generated, by uniting with them, they become much more active and powerful, and likewise more durable and lasting, so as to form an infectious Matter, capable of conveying the Mischief to a great Distance from the diseased Body, out of which it was produced._

Now if Dr. _Mead_’s Narration is to the Purpose, it goes further than he design’d it should; for how are the active Particles, like fermented Liquors, thrown out of the Blood in the latter End of malignant Fevers, and that in so great Plenty, and of so great Energy, that they themselves had been able to have helped to his next Step of Contagion, if he had not luckily interposed with a saving Clause, _especially pestilential ones_, whereby the last would have been deprived of all the Honour of making Contagion: But what is still worse, Fevers, especially those that are malignant, are now the chief Article in this Account, and leave Dr. _Mead_ inexcusable, for not applying Almighty _Fermentation_ to the learned _Bellini_’s Theory of Fevers. And here let it be observ’d, That those pestilential Steams go no great Length, ’till they are enabled by the next, unintelligible Means, whereby is formed an infectious Matter capable of conveying the Mischief to a great Distance. I hope Doctor _Mead_ understands his last Words; for my Part, I do not, and by the next Paragraph I find my self still more unqualify’d to receive his Story of Contagion.

The former Piece of Knowledge is open to those only who are the familiar Friends of _Attractions_ and _Combinations_ made by Volatile Spirits; and we who are Strangers to these powerful Words, cannot hope for any Instruction. But to shew Dr. _Mead_ I have been at true Pains to come acquainted with them, I find there was Old Attraction, Son of _Aristotle_; and there is Young Attraction, the great Geometrician; and a Counterfeit of this in the Works of the celebrated Doctor _Anodyne Necklace_; which last is mighty like Attraction before us; but as he is spurious, I must own that I do not find how this Attraction brings me to a clearer Understanding of the foregoing Paragraph. As to Combination, whether that of Cooks, or Algebraists, it is of very little or no Use to me. I must confess, a good Use may be made of these Words; for they will exchange with _Fermentation_, at any Time that an Author finds himself disposed to write on a Subject without understanding it.

For Instance, I now intend to make a short Discourse about the _Philosopher’s Stone_, and a Method for finding it; a very agreeable Offer to the Publick, when Money is scarce, and Credit very low, through the great Industry of the ingenious Directors of the _South Sea_. When, I say, a Man forms to himself this useful Project, _Attraction_ and _Combination_ does it at once. The Receipt is easy; it is but taking of _Attraction_, _Circulation_, _Cohobation_, _Concentration_, _a. q. s. Combination_, _q. s. M._ If this Receipt is duly managed, it will not only make the _Philosopher’s Stone_, and the grand _Elixir_, but cures the Plague, and all Diseases, _Curable_ or _Incurable_. But it is to be noted, that when you would explain how Attraction makes a Plague, you must be sure due Consideration be had to the Facility and Aptness of _all kind of Effluvia to be diffused in a warm Air, such as we have described an infectious one to be_. And, therefore, as the Whole of Infecting Air is an ill-made Story, supported by Cant and Gibberish, we will take Leave of it, and his mortify’d Limb together, tho’ it is brought to give further Light to this strange Stuff.