The Sweating Sickness. Caius John
my former purpose, two thynges compell me, in writynge therof, to returne agayne to Englishe, Necessite of the matter, & good wyl to my countrie, frendes, & acquaintance, whiche here to haue required me, to whome I thinke my selfe borne.
Necessite, for that this disease is almoste peculiar vnto vs Englishe men, and not common to all men, folowyng vs, as the shadowe the body, in all countries, albeit not at al times. Therfore compelled I am to vse this our Englishe tongue as best to be vnderstande, and moste nedeful to whome it most foloweth, most behoueth to haue spedy remedie, and often tymes leaste nyghe to places of succourre and comforte at lerned mennes handes: and leaste nedefull to be setfurthe in other tongues to be vnderstand generally of all persons, whome it either haunteth not at all, or els very seldome, as ones in an age. Thinkynge it also better to write this in Englishe after mine own meanyng, then to haue it translated out of my Latine by other after their misunderstandyng.
Good wyll to my countrie frendes and acquaintance, seynge them wyth out defence yelde vnto it, and it ferefully to inuade thẽ, furiousely handle them, spedily oppresse them, vnmercyfully choke them, and that in no small numbers, and such persons so notably noble in birthe, goodly conditions, graue sobrietie, singular wisedõe, and great learnynge, as Henry Duke of Suffolke, and the lorde Charles his brother, as fewe hath bene sene lyke of their age: an heuy & pitifull thyng to here or see. So that if by onely learned men in phisicke & not this waye also it should be holpen, it were nedeful almost halfe so many learned men to be redy in euery toune and citie, as their should be sweatynge sicke folkes. Yet this notwithstandynge, I wyll euery man not to refuse the counseill of the present or nighe phisicen learned, who maie, accordyng to the place, persone, cause, & other circũstances, geue more particular counseil at nede, but in any wise exhorte him to seke it with all diligence. To this enterprise also amonge so many learned men, not a litle stirreth me the gentilnes and good willes of al sortes of men, which I haue well proued heretofore by my other former bokes. Mindynge therefore with as good a will to geue my counseil in this, and trusting for no lesse gentlenes in the same, I wyll plainly and in English for their better vnderstandynge to whome I write, firste declare the beginnynge, name, nature, and signes of the sweatynge sickenes. Next, the causes of the same. And thirdly, how to preserue men frõ it, and remedy them whẽ they haue it.
The beginnyng of the disease In the yere of our Lorde God M.CCCC.lxxxv. shortly after the vij. daye of august, at whiche tyme kynge Henry the seuenth arriued at Milford in walles, out of Fraunce, and in the firste yere of his reigne, ther chaunced a disease among the people, lastyng the reste of that monethe & all September, which for the soubdeine sharpenes and vnwont cruelnes passed the pestilence. For this commonly geueth iij. or iiij. often vij. sumtyme ix. as that firste at Athenes whiche Thucidides describeth in his seconde boke, sumtyme xj. and sumtyme xiiij. dayes respecte, to whome it vexeth. But that immediatly killed some in opening theire windowes, some in plaieng with children in their strete dores, some in one hour, many in two it destroyed, & at the longest, to thẽ that merilye dined, it gaue a sorowful Supper. As it founde them so it toke them, some in sleape some in wake, some in mirthe some in care, some fasting & some ful, some busy and some idle, and in one house sometyme three sometime fiue, sometyme seuen sometyme eyght, sometyme more some tyme all, of the whyche, if the haulfe in euerye Towne escaped, it was thoughte great fauour. How, or wyth what maner it toke them, with what grieffe, and accidentes it helde theym, herafter thẽ I wil declare, whẽ I shal come to shewe the signes therof. In the mene space, know that this disease (because it most did stand in sweating from the beginning vntil the endyng) was called here, the Sweating sickenesse: and because it firste beganne in Englande, it was named in other countries, the englishe sweat. Yet some conjecture that it, or the like, hath bene before seene among the Grekes in the siege of Troie. In thẽperor Octauius warres at Cantabria, called nowe Biscaie, in Hispaine: and in the Turkes, at the Rhodes. How true that is, let the aucthours loke: how true thys is, the best of our Chronicles shewith, & of the late begonne disease the freshe memorie yet confirmeth. But if the name wer now to be geuen, and at my libertie to make the same: I would of the maner and space of the disease (by cause the same is no sweat only, as herafter I will declare, & in the spirites) make the name Ephemera, which is to sai, a feuer of one natural dai. A feuer, for the feruor or burning, drieth & sweating feure like. Of one naturall day, for that it lasteth but the time of xxiiij. houres. And for a distinction from the commune Ephemera, that Galene writeth of, comming both of other causes, and wyth vnlike paines, I wold putte to it either Englishe, for that it followeth somoche English menne, to whõ it is almoste proper, & also began here: or els pestilent, for that it cõmeth by infection & putrefaction, otherwise then doth the other Ephemera. Whiche thing I suppose may the better be done, because I se straunge and no english names both in Latine and Greke by commune vsage taken for Englishe. As in Latin, Feure, Quotidiã, Tertian, Quartane, Aier, Infection, Pestilence, Uomite, Person, Reines, Ueines, Peines, Chamere, Numbre, &c. a litle altered by the commune pronunciation. In Greke, Pleuresie, Ischiada, Hydrops, Apostema, Phlegma, and Chole: called by the vulgare pronunciatiõ, Schiatica, Dropsie, Impostume, Phleume, & Choler: Gyne also, and Boutyre, Sciourel, Mouse, Rophe, Phrase, Paraphrase, & cephe, wherof cometh Chaucers couercephe, in the romant of the Rose, writtẽ and pronoũced comõly, kerchief in ye south, & courchief in the north. Thereof euery head or principall thing, is comonlye called cephe, pronoũced & writtẽ, chief. Uery many other there be in our commune tongue, whiche here to rehearse were to long. These for an example shortelye I haue here noted. But for the name of this disease it maketh now no matter, the name of Sweat beyng cõmõly vsed. Let vs therfore returne to the thing, which as occasiõ & cause serued, came againe in the M.D.vi. the xxii. yeare of the said Kyng Henry the seuenth. Aftre that, in the yeare M.D.xvii. the ix. yeare of Kyng Henry the viii, and endured from July, vnto ye middest of Decẽbre. The iiii tyme, in the yeare M.D.xxviii. the xx. yeare of thesaied Kyng, beginning in thende of May, & continuing June and July. The fifth tyme of this fearful Ephemera of Englande, and pestilent sweat, is this in the yeare M.D.LI. of oure Lorde GOD, and the fifth yeare of oure Souereigne Lorde king Edwarde the sixth, beginning at Shrewesbury in the middest of April, proceadinge with greate mortalitie to Ludlowe, Prestene, and other places in Wales, then to Westchestre, Couentre, Oxenfoorde, and other tounes in the Southe, and such as were in and aboute the way to London, whether it came notablie the seuenth of July, and there continuing sore, with the losse of vii. C. lxi. from the ix. day vntil the xvi. daye, besides those that died in the vii. and viii. dayes, of whõ no registre was kept, frõ that it abated vntil the xxx. day of the same, with the losse of C. xlii. more. Then ceassing there, it wente from thence throughe al the east partes of England into the Northe vntill the ende of Auguste, at whiche tyme it diminished, and in the ende of Septembre fully ceassed.
This disease is not a Sweat onely, (as it is thought & called) but a feuer, as I saied, in the spirites by putrefaction venemous, with a fight, trauaile, and laboure of nature againste the infection receyued in the spirites, whervpon by chaunce foloweth a Sweate, or issueth an humour compelled by nature, as also chanceth in other sicknesses whiche consiste in humours, when they be in their state, and at the worste in certein dayes iudicial, aswel by vomites, bledinges, & fluxes, as by sweates. That this is true, the self sweates do shewe. For as in vtter businesses, bodies yt sore do labour, by trauail of the same are forced to sweat, so in inner diseases, the bodies traueiled & labored by thẽ, are moued to the like. In which labors, if nature be strõg & able to thrust out the poisõ by sweat (not otherwise letted) ye persõ escapeth: if not, it dieth. That it is a feuer, thus I haue partly declared, and more wil streight by the notes of the disease, vnder one shewing also by thesame notes, signes, and short tariance of the same, that it consisteth in the spirites. First by the peine in the backe, or shoulder, peine in the extreme partes, as arme, or legge, with a flusshing, or wind, as it semeth to certeine of the pacientes, flieng in the same. Secondly by the grief in the liuer and the nigh stomacke. Thirdely, by the peine in the head, & madnes of the same. Fourthly by the passion of the hart. For the flusshing or wynde comming in the vtter and extreame partes, is nothing els but the spirites of those same gathered together, at the first entring of the euell aire, agaynste the infection therof, & flyeng thesame from place to place, for their owne sauegarde. But at the last infected, they make a grief where thei be forced, which cõmonly is in tharme or legge (the fartheste partes of theire refuge) the backe or shulder: