Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665. John Quincy
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