Part 12
DR. _Plot_[20] tells us, That about Twenty Years since, two Persons were employed to dig a Well in the Parish of _North-Leigh_ in _Oxfordshire_, but upon being taken ill, left off the Work: Whereupon it was undertaken by two others of _Woodstock_; who, before they could do any thing considerable in it, sunk down, and died irrecoverably in the Well: Which being perceived by a Miller hard by, and he coming to their Assistance, fell down dead upon them. Another also venturing to do the same, with a Rope tied about him, fell from the Ladder just in the same Manner; and though presently drawn up by the People above, yet he was scarcely recover’d in an Hour or more. And since then, upon a Bucket’s falling into a Well in another Part of the Town, a Woman perswaded a strong lusty Man to go down a Ladder to fetch it, who, by that Time he had got half way down, fell from the Ladder into the Well; upon which, the Woman called another of her Neighbours to his Assistance, who, much about the same Place, met with the same Fate, without giving the least Sign of Change; so fatal (says the Doctor) are the Damps of that Place. Dr. _Boot_[21] tells a Story that happened at _Dublin_ in _Ireland_, just of the same Nature. And in the _Philosophical Transactions_[22], there are the like Relations of Damps in the Coal-Mines belonging to the Lord _Sinclair_ in _Scotland_.
THE most surprizing Effect of these subterraneous _Effluvia_ that I ever met with, is in a Relation of Dr. _Bernard Connor_, of certain Persons in _Paris_ digging deep in a Vault or Cellar, who were so suddenly transfixed by some subtile Vapour, that when a Servant-Maid came down to speak with them, she found them in Postures as if at Work; one with his Pick-Ax advanced, another with his Shovel full of Earth, half lifted up, and a Woman sitting by with her Arm upon her Knee, her Head leaning upon that Hand, with manifest Expectations in her Countenance of what they were in Search after.
THE same Author, from his own Knowledge, gives a very exact Account of a _Grotta_ in _Italy_, much talked of, and commonly called _la Grotta de cani_, by this Author, _Crypta_ Κυνιχυς; But Dr. _Mead_ hath since, from his own Knowledge also, given a very particular and rational Account of this Place, and the Manner of its killing; to whom therefore the Reader may turn for further Satisfaction.
ANOTHER, and more general Cause than any hitherto mentioned of these Maladies, is some bad and unwholsome Constitution of Air. Such Constitutions may arise from several Causes, which although they affect us in different Manners, yet as they are equally fatal, we call them all _Malignant_ or _Pestilential_: In Order therefore to understand the better how we are differently affected by those different Constitutions, it will be proper to consider them somewhat distinctly, under these general Heads, _viz._ _A dry hot Air_, _hot and moist_, _cold and moist_, _and cold and dry_; to which most Variations of Air may be reduced.
THAT from the several Constitutions of Air, our Bodies are differently affected; and that most Diseases are in some Measure more or less influenced thereby, is quite out of Dispute. _Hippocrates_, in a great many Places declares himself of this Mind: His whole third section of _Aphorisms_ is a Proof of it; and in several Places[23] he discovers his Opinion, that _Pestilential Diseases_ have their Rise from hence. _Galen_, his best Interpreter, understood his το θειον, which some will have to be meant of somewhat Divine, or the immediate Hand of God, to be nothing else but a particular Constitution of Air arising from natural Causes; and that he was of the same Mind himself, is very plain from his own Writings[24].
IT is almost endless, as well as altogether needless, to cite all the Authorities for this Opinion, that might be collected from the most remote Antiquity down to the present Age. We shall therefore proceed to consider the different Constitutions of Air, according to the forementioned Distinction; premising only, that the Terms _Hot_, _Cold_, &c. are used in a twofold Sense, the one is _Absolute_, and the other _Relative_; by the former, _viz._ _Absolute Heat_, _Cold_, &c. is understood one simple Property of the Air only, as it is different not in Degree, but in Quality from others: By the latter, that is, _Relative Heat_, &c. is meant certain Degrees of those Properties: As the same Air may at the same Time be said properly to be both Hot and Cold, or Dry and Moist, as it is compared with another Air, either Hotter or Colder, Dryer, or Moister; for with Regard to a hotter Air, it will be termed cold, when at the same Time if it be compared to a colder Air, it would be accounted hot: And so of the rest. To which Distinction, it is very necessary to have constant Regard to avoid Confusion.
THOSE Countries where the Air is hot and dry for the greatest Part, are related to be healthful, and free from _Pestilential Diseases_, except where there are great Swamps and stagnant Waters, or by any accidental Causes Bodies are exposed there to Putrefaction, the Steams of which render Persons Diseased. In such Countries, for the most Part of the Year, there is but very little Rain, and the Nights are comparatively colder than elsewhere, from the great Dews which then fall. As _Piso_[25] informs us, that the colder the Nights are in _Brasil_, and the more plentifully the Dews fall, the Inhabitants account it most agreeable to their Soil, and conducive to Vegetation; and Physicians reckon it much the most healthful for the Inhabitants.
THE Heat of the Air alone, where it is constant and uniform, does not appear to render Persons born in it, or long accustomed to it, any more unhealthful, than that which is more temperate. _Aristotle_[26] indeed says, a hot and dry _Southerly_ Wind will bring a _Pestilence_; but of such we have very few Instances, especially on this Part of the Globe. There is in _Livy_[27] an Account of a _Plague_ at _Rome_, from a great Drought; and _Nicephorus_[28] relates such another: But these generally come from some other manifest Causes besides Heat, and in Places not accustomed to a dry Air.
BUT a hot and moist Air is very different. By _Moist_, is meant what arises from sudden or long Rains. This is the Constitution of Air that most Authors charge with being the greatest Instrument in _Pestilential Distempers_. _Hippocrates_[29] ascribes a great deal to such an Air, and relates a _Pestilence_ that had its Rise from great Heat, joined with _Southerly_ Winds and much Rain. _Galen_ is of the same Mind, as appears from several of his Writings[30], with many others too tedious to mention. The Truth of this is likewise manifest from the Histories of those Countries, where there are long settled Heats, and afterwards much Rain, as in several Parts of the _East-Indies_, which are known at such Times to be most grievously afflicted with Fevers and Diseases of a very malignant Kind. The same we are informed of from some Places in _Africa_,[31], _viz._ That if Showers fall soon upon the sultry Heats of _July_ and _August_, pestilential Distempers certainly ensue. It may be generally observed here too in our own Climate, that the most unhealthful Times are after warm Rains, and the more if the Air is then agitated but little with Winds.
FROM a cold and moist Air, we have little complained of, as to their occasioning these Diseases, unless such a Constitution sets in immediately upon a contrary Extream; for all sudden Changes of Weather are more or less unhealthful, as well as in other Respects of living; for which Reason particularly, _Corn. Celsus_ advises to be very slow in all Alterations of Moment: And _Sanctorius_ frequently inculcates the same in his _Aphorisms_, and tells us[32] how it is hurtful, both to go suddenly out of a hot Air into a cold one, and out of a cold Air into a hot one; and is also very particular[33] in the Inconveniencies of such a Constitution of Air we are now speaking of, setting in after the Heat of Summer. _Hippocrates_[34] does tell us of a _Pestilence_ from long continued cold Rains, as likewise does _Fernelius_[35], but such Instances are not common.
THE last Constitution of Air we are to take Notice of, is that which is cold and dry, against which there are a great many very heavy Complaints. _Galen_ writes of a most Raging Pestilence about _Aquileia_ in _Italy_, that began in the very Middle of Winter, and had its manifest Cause in extream Cold. _Fernelius_[36] asserts the Rise of several Pestilences from the same Causes: As also does _Morellus_[37] observe great Malignities to proceed from some _Northerly_ cold Winds. _Titus Livy_[38] likewise mentions a _Pestilential Constitution_ arising from intense Cold, but _Physical Histories_ abound with such Relations.
OF the strange and sudden Effects of intense Cold and dry Winds, we have very surprizing Accounts from those who have travelled into Countries where they are the most frequent. Dr. _Bernard Connor_[39] beforementioned, relates, That when he was in _Poland_, it was asserted to him by very creditable Testimonies, that it frequently happens in _Lithuania_, and some of the _Northern_ Tracts of _Muscovy_ and _Tartary_; that if sometimes, through the Neglect of the Shepherds, their small Cattle, as _Sheep_, _Goats_, and the like, be left exposed in the Night-time to the _Northerly Winds_, they are frequently found next Morning perfectly stiff and dead, in the same Posture as they are wont to be in at their Stalls and Cribs: And there are divers Accounts of Persons in those Countries, who have been so suddenly transfixed, stiffened, and killed by those _Blasts_, as to have continued on Horseback in the same Posture as when Living, till the Horse, acquainted with the Road, has brought them to their Journey’s End: And the above-mentioned Physician[40] tells us, that when he was at _Brussels_, he was informed by a _Spanish_ Captain, that of a Party of Horse that was sent out for Booty in a very cold Season, one by Accident lost the rest of the Body; and Riding about some time, before he could find his Way, or any Refreshment, he was so transfixed with the Cold as to be quite killed, but continued on Horseback in the Posture of a Live Person, until his Horse at last happened to find the Way back to his Quarters, whither his Company had before got, and missing him, feared he had fallen into the Enemies Hands; but when they came to congratulate him upon his safe Return, they went so near as to speak to him, and take hold of him, before they perceived him to be dead.
TO _Blasts_ of this kind it undoubtedly is, that Fruit Trees and Plants do so frequently suffer, especially after a warm early Spring, after the vegetable Juices have began to rise and shoot into Buds and Leaves. Instances of this Nature we frequently find in our own Countrey; and I have had Opportunity to observe, more than once, that upon such _Blasts_, the Trees have, on that side towards the Wind, been in one Night’s Time quite changed in the Colour of the Leaves; and some, of the most tender sort, almost stripped bare, their Leaves falling off dry, as in _Autumn_.
BUT there is something yet further, besides particular Constitutions of Air, that is taken Notice of by Physicians, as a general Cause of Maladies of this kind; and that is what is commonly called _Contagion_ or _Infection_; by this Term _Contagion_, is understood a Disease arising from the Contact of such Bodies or Particles as have in them a Power of Altering the due Crasis of a healthful Person, and inducing still one common Disease; these Particles are generally called by Physical Writers μιασματα, _Contagiosa_, or _Contagij Seminia_; and the Difference of Pestilences arising from these Causes seems much to differ from what have been hitherto taken Notice of, as the former cannot be shunned but by quite leaving the diseased Climate, or by such a Strength, or Turn of Constitution, as resists, or yeilds not to the general Disorder; whereas in this last Case, a Person seems to be equally safe in any Air that is not impregnated with these contagious _Effluvia_, and the greatest Danger arises from the Nearness to diseased Persons, or whatsoever else is capable of harbouring those mischievous and secret Messengers, as the Poet[41] takes Notice.
_Quo proprior quisq; est, servitq; fidelius agro In partem Lethi citius venit.————_
THE Histories of Physick abound with Relations of Pestilences from no other Cause than what arises from the Importation of the Disease, if it may be so termed, from distant Countries; and sometimes not by Persons themselves distempered, but by the Conveyance of these _Pestilential Miasmas_ in their Cloaths or Wares imported in the Way of Trade. _Fracastorius_,[42] an eminent _Italian_ Physician, tells us, That in the Year Fifteen Hundred and Eleven, when the _Germans_ were in Possession of _Verona_, there arose a deadly Disease amongst the Soldiers from the Wearing only a Coat purchased for a small Value; for it was observed, that every Owner of it soon sickened and died; until, at last, the Cause was so manifestly from some Infection in the Coat, that it was ordered to be burned. Ten Thousand Persons, he says, were computed to fall by this Plague before it ceased.
FROM the same Cause, that is, infected Garments, and Merchandize, _Mercurialis_ takes Notice of a Plague in his Time at _Venice_; and _Appianus Alexandrinus_[43] assures us, that the _Celtæ_, after a Conquest over the _Illyrici_, and in Possession of their Plunder, were infected with a grievous Plague, which the _Illyrici_ then laboured under. _Thycidides_ also, in his Relation of the Plague at _Athens_, intimates, That it was brought from some Part of _Ethiopia_ by the like Means. And _Prosper Alpinus_[44], before mentioned, seems to lay the greatest Stress for the Frequency of the Plague at _Grand Cairo_, to the Traffick with those Countries as are hardly ever free from _Pestilential Diseases_. A great many Physicians have charged the Plague in Sixteen hundred and sixty three at _Amsterdam_, to the Infection of some _Pestilential Miasms_ which were transported from _Smyrna_ and _Algiers_, then much infected with such Diseases, with some Merchandize; by which Means likewise it was conjectured soon afterwards to reach _London_, and several other Parts of _England_, as it appears from the preceding Account of Dr. _Hodges_. To this Purpose I remember to have read a strange Story, somewhere in _Baker_’s Chronicle, of a great Rot amongst Sheep, which was not quite rooted out until about Fourteen Years Time, that was brought into _England_ by a Sheep bought for its uncommon Largeness, in a Country then infected with the same Distemper: And upon this Account it is that the Prudence of those Nations and States are to be justified, who enjoin all Persons and Merchandize from infected Countries, to stay a certain Time upon their Coasts and Borders before they are suffered to intermix with a healthful People; having by such Instances as here mentioned been justly alarmed at the Incroachment of such dreadful Destroyers.
THESE Historical Fragments are put together, in Order to apprize those Readers who have not been very conversant with Things of this Kind, with the various Ways by which the most dangerous Diseases, and even sudden Death, may be introduced into our Constitutions, by the Agency of very minute and unheeded Causes; and likewise the better to support the Distinction necessary to be made between _Epidemic_ Diseases, and a _Contagion_; as well as to illustrate the Manner whereby the latter subsists, spreads, and proves fatal, when the Causes producing the former are absent.
_Epidemic_ Diseases of all Kinds and Degrees of Exacerbation, have their Rise from some common Cause, that affects all within its Extent more or less, in Proportion to the particular Fitness of different Constitutions to be affected by it: And by the _Bellinian_ Doctrine we are taught, how all those Changes are made in the Blood, when thrown into a Fever by these Causes, even from the most simple _Ephemera_, to the most complicated and malignant Cases whatsoever; to which therefore the Reader must be referred, for a clear Understanding of such Matters; it being sufficient to our Purpose here to observe, that he demonstrates all Fevers to be attended with some Fault in the Blood’s Motion, Quantity, or Quality, or in some or all of them together; and that its chief Fault in Quality, (which is most to the present Case) consists in an unequable Fluidity, some Parts of it being rendered thinner, and others thicker at the same Time, than in a natural State; not unlike what happens to all coagulated Liquors.
FROM this Condition of Blood, this great and wonderful Man goes on to shew, through the whole Course of his Propositions, that the coagulated Part, which he commonly distinguishes by the Name of _Lentor_, does accumulate in the capillary Vessels until their Endeavours of Restitution, as in all Elastick Bodies, are greater than the protruding Force, when by the Arteries Re-action upon it, the _Lentor_ is shook, dislodged, and washed away into the Veins, and ordinary Course of Circulation, there continuing its Progress till it is either fitted for some Secretion and Evacuation, or again lodged in the Capillaries, to bring on a new Paroxysm.
THIS unequable Fluxility of the Blood arises from two general Causes, either from such Means as diminish its Motion, or from the Mixture of such Particles, as cannot only of themselves be reduced by the digestive Powers into homogeneous Dispositions therewith; or as have a Faculty to put in Fusion some Parts of the Mass, and leave the other thicker than before; these are particularly enumerated, and their Ways of Operation distinctly demonstrated by _Bellini_.
CONFORMABLE to this Change in the Blood, which is the common Promptuary of all the other animal Fluids, every Thing separated from it hath some correspondent Affections; and the nervous Fluid in particular, which is separated from a Mass so unequally fluid, cannot but in it self have some Parts too fine, and others too gross, besides the Inequalities in the Times and Quantities of its Separation; from all which the same Author accounts for those Affections, termed nervous, which are the _Concomitants_ of Fevers: And in the Prosecution hereof he frequently takes Occasion to speak of this Fluid to be thin, sharp, hot, fiery, dry, _&c._ as the saline and rigid Parts in its Composition are by the Distemper more or less subtilized, or more or less defrauded of its humid Parts by Exhalation.
FURTHERMORE, in this great Disorder of the Constitution, and inordinate Hurry and Colluctation of the Fluids, sometimes the Solids are maintained in their Contractions and Motions, until the Particles either introduced from Abroad, or generated in the Body, which cannot be assimulated into homogeneous Qualities, are thrown out of the Course of Circulation by the natural Discharges, by Transpiration, or by Abcesces; and the animal Fluids restored to their natural State. But when Matters are brought to this pass, it happens that the very Means of saving one Person, may prove the Destruction of many others; because what is thus critically thrown off by one, hath a Faculty of exciting the like Disorders in the Fluids of another, when it is insinuated into them; as a very small Quantity of some fermenting Substances will communicate its Efficacies a very great Way, and put very great Parcels of Fluid into the like Agitation. And this is the Way by which a malignant Fever comes to be infectious, and a _Pestilence_ changes into a _Contagion_; as _Bellini_ more largely explains it in his XXVIII_th Proposition_ of Fevers; from the whole of which it is manifest, as Dr. _Mead_ hath expressed it in his fifth _Essay of Poisons_, that _the Effects of the +one+ are the Cause and Beginning of the +other+_.
TO bring then this nearer to the Matter under Examination, the Plague which is described in the foregoing Pages, was strictly and properly a _Contagion_, and by all Accounts of the best Authority, That which hath made such vast Devastations in some Parts of _France_, and now continues to rage amongst them, to the great Terror of their Neighbours, is also of the same Kind; and was brought to them in Merchandize, and by a Ship’s Crew, who were sick of a pestilential Disease all their Voyage Home from some Parts of _Turkey_; in neither of these there being any Manner of Fault chargeable upon the Air, or to any other Causes before enumerated in producing a _Pestilence_.
THE Symptoms of That now Abroad are reported by the best Physicians amongst them to be _sudden Pains in the Head_, _great Loathing at Stomach_, _Reaching to Vomit_, _Consternation_, _wild Looks_, _trembling Voice_, _Coldness in the extreme Parts_, _low unequal Pulse_, _Paleness_, _Delirium_, _Convulsions_, _Carbuncles_, _Buboes_, _livid Vesications_, _purple Spots_, _and Hemorrhages_; _the last are certain Forerunners of Death_. All which, more or less, are the constant Attendants of all pestilential Fevers.
BECAUSE then there is such a vast Difference between a _Pestilence_ arising from assignable Causes in the Air, _&c._ and a _Pestilence_ from a _Contagion_, as to the preservative Means especially against them; and that what we are now in most Apprehension of, is of the latter Kind; it most concerns us to be well acquainted with the Manner of Infection, as far as we can reason about Agents so extreamly minute and subtle. How all other _Antecedents_ to a _Pestilence_ exert themselves in their Influences over the animal OEconomy, _Bellini_ has brought even to a Demonstration; but as to a _Contagion_, he says little; which therefore, as introductory to some following Remarks, we shall here insert.
‘As this Coagulation and Fusion may go on so far as to set at Liberty, and perspire through the Surface of the Body, or with the Breath in Respiration, many noxious Particles, which may be so subtil and active, as to enter the cutaneous Pores of other Persons, or mix with that Air which they draw in Respiration, and when got into the Body, be able to make the same Change in the Blood, both as to its Coagulation and Fusion; hence it comes that such a Fever proves _contagious_, which is an inseparable Requisite to a _pestilential_ Fever.
‘But this is not only thus brought about; but also the dissolved, and dispersed Particles may longer adhere to some inanimate Bodies than others, as to Woollen and Linen Cloaths, Papers, _&c._ and these Particles may, by the Steam of a living Body, or by the Means of any other Heat, be put into Motion, so as to breath out of those Lodgments, where they quietly resided, and obtain so much Liberty, and Action on all sides, as will carry them into the cutaneous Pores of any Persons within their Reach, and infect them; and on this Account a _Pestilence_ may be brought from very distant Countries, lying a long Time in such Manner concealed, and then suddenly breaking out; with many other Circumstances of like Nature.