A Discourse on the Plague by Richard Mead (early readers txt) 📕

to examine the suspected Bodies, and to visit the Houses in the Neighbourhood, especially of the poorer Sort, among whom this Evil generally begins. And if upon their Report it appears, that a Pestilential Distemper is broken out, they should without Delay order all the Families, in which the Sickness is, to be removed; the Sick to different Places from the Sound: but the Houses for both should be three or four Miles out of Town; and the Sound People should be stript of all their Clothes, and washed and shaved, before they go into their new Lodgings. These Removals ought to be made in the Night, when the Streets are clear of People: which will prevent all Danger of spreading the Infection. And besides, all possible Care should be taken to provide such Means of Conveyance for the Sick, that they may receive no Injury.

As this Management is necessary with Respect to the Poor and meaner Sort of People; so the Rich, who have Conveniences, may, instead of being carried to Lazaretto’s, be obliged to go to their Country-Houses: provided that Care be always taken to keep the Sound separated from the Infected. And at the same Time all the Inhabitants who are yet well, should be permitted, nay encouraged to leave the Town, which, the thinner it is, will be the more healthy.

No manner of Compassion and Care should be wanting to the Diseased; to whom, when lodged in clean and airy Habitations, there would, with due Cautions, be no great Danger in giving Attendance. All Expences should be paid by the Publick, and no Charges ought to be thought great, which are counterbalanced with the saving a Nation from the greatest of Calamities. Nor does it seem to me at all unreasonable, that a Reward should be given to the Person, that makes the first Discovery of Infection in any Place: since it is undeniable, that the making known the Evil to those, who are provided with proper Methods against it, is the first and main Step towards the overcoming it.

Although the Methods taken in other Countries, as well as in our own, have generally been different from what we have here recommended; yet there are not wanting some Instances of extraordinary Success attending these Measures, whenever they have happened to be put in Practice.

The Magistrates of the City of Ferrara in Italy in the Year 1630, when all the Country round about them was infected with the Plague, observing the ill Success of the Conduct of their Neighbours, who, for Fear of losing their Commerce, did all they could to conceal the Disease, by keeping the Sick in their Houses, resolved, whenever occasion should require, to take a different Method. Accordingly, as soon as they received Information, that one had died in their City of the Pestilence, they immediately removed the whole Family he belonged to into a Lazaretto, where all, being seven in Number, likewise died. But though the Disease was thus malignant, it went no farther, being suppressed at once by this Method. Within the Space of a Year the same Case returned seven or eight Times, and this Management as often put a Stop to it. The Example of this City was afterwards followed more than once by some other Towns in the same Territory with so good Success, that it was thought expedient, for the common Good, to publish in the Memoirs of the People of Ferrara this Declaration: That the only Remedy against the Plague is to make the most early Discovery of it, that is possible, and thus to extinguish it in the very Beginning[80].

No less remarkable than this Occurrence at Ferrara, is what happened at Rome in the Plague, I have taken Notice of before, in the Year 1657. When the Disease had spread itself among both Rich and Poor, and raged in the most violent Manner; the Pope appointed Cardinal Gastaldi, to be Commissary General of Health, giving him for a Time the Power of the whole Sacred College, with full Commission to do whatever he should judge necessary. Hereupon he gave strict Orders, that no sick or suspected Persons should stay in their own Houses. The Sick he removed, upon the first Notice, to a Lazaretto in the Island of the Tyber; and all who were in the same Houses with them to other Hospitals just without the City, in order to be sent to the Island, if they should fall sick. At the same Time he took diligent Care to send away their Goods to an airy Place to be cleansed. He executed these Regulations with so much Strictness, that no Persons of the highest Quality were exempted from this Treatment; which occasioned at first great Complaints against the Cardinal for his Severity; but soon after he had general Thanks: for in two Months Time, by this means, he entirely cleared the City of the Pestilence, which had continued in it almost two Years. And it was particularly observed, that whereas before, when once the Disease had got into a House, it seldom ended without seizing the whole Family; in this Management scarce five out of an hundred of the sound Persons removed were infected[81].

I cannot but take Notice, that the Plague was stopp’d at Marseilles a full Fortnight by the same Measures, and probably might have been wholly extinguished, had not new Force been given it by the unseasonable Confidence of the Inhabitants upon this Intermission: which, we are informed, was so great, that they would not believe the Pestilence had been at all among them, and publickly upbraided the Physicians and Surgeons for frighting them causlesly[82]. At this Time, no doubt, they must have neglected the Cautions necessary for their Security so much, as to leave us no room to be surprized, that the Disease should after this break out again with too great Violence to be a second Time overcome.

But, besides these Examples in foreign Countries, we have one Instance of the same Nature nearer Home. When the Plague was last here in England, upon its first Entrance into Poole in Dorsetshire, the Magistrates immediately suppress’d it, by removing the Sick into Pest-Houses, without the Town, as is well remember’d there to this Time. A very remarkable Occurrence has greatly contributed towards preserving all the Circumstances of this Transaction in Memory. They found some Difficulty in procuring any one to attend upon the Sick after their Removal: which obliged the Town to engage a young Woman, then under Sentence of Death, in that Service, on a Promise to use their Interest for obtaining her Pardon. The young Woman escaped the Disease, but neglecting to solicite the Corporation for the Accomplishment of their Engagement with her, three or four Months after she was barbarously hanged by the Mayor upon a Quarrel between them.

I would have it here observed, that as the Advice I have been giving is founded upon this Principle, that the best Method for stopping Infection, is to separate the Healthy from the Diseased; so in small Towns and Villages, where it is practicable, if the Sound remove themselves into Barracks, or the like airy Habitations, it may probably be even more useful, than to remove the Sick. This Method has been found beneficial in France after all others have failed. But the Success of this proves the Method of Removing the Sick, where this other cannot be practised, to be the most proper of any.

When the sick Families are gone, all the Goods of the Houses, in which they were, should be buried deep under Ground. This I prefer to burning them: because, especially in a close Place, some infectious Particles may possibly be dispersed by the Smoak through the Neighbourhood; according to what Mercurialis relates, that the Plague in Venice was augmented by burning a large Quantity of infected Goods in the City[83]. A learned Physician of my Acquaintance lately communicated to me the Relation of a Case, (given to him by an Apothecary, who was at the Place when the Thing happened) very proper to be here mentioned. The Story is this. At Shipston, a little Town upon the River Stour in Worcestershire, a poor Vagabond was seen walking in the Streets with the Small-Pox upon him. The People frightened took Care to have him carried to a little House, seated upon a Hill, at some Distance from the Town, providing him with Necessaries. In a few Days the Man died. They ordered him to be buried deep in the Ground, and the House with his Cloaths to be burnt. The Wind, being pretty high, blew the Smoak upon the Houses on one Side of the Town: In that Part, a few Days after, eight Persons were seized with the Small-Pox. So dangerous is Heat in all Kinds of pestilential Distempers, and so diffusive of Contagion. And moreover the Houses themselves may likewise be demolished or pulled down, if that can conveniently be done; that is, if they are remote enough from others: otherwise it may suffice to have them thoroughly cleansed, and then plastered up. And after this, all possible Care ought still to be taken to remove whatever Causes are found to breed and promote Contagion. In order to this, the Overseers of the Poor (who might be assisted herein by other Officers) should visit the Dwellings of all the meaner Sort of the Inhabitants; and where they find them stifled up too close and nasty, should lessen their Number by sending some into better Lodgings, and should take Care, by all Manner of Provision and Encouragement, to make them more cleanly and sweet.

No good Work carries its own Reward with it so much as this kind of Charity: and therefore, be the Expence what it will, it must never be thought unreasonable. For nothing approaches so near to the first Original of the Plague, as Air pent up, loaded with Damps, and corrupted with the Filthiness, that proceeds from Animal Bodies.

Our common Prisons afford us an Instance of something like this, where very few escape what they call the Goal Fever, which is always attended with a Degree of Malignity in Proportion to the Closeness and Stench of the Place: and it would certainly very well become the Wisdom of the Government, as well with regard to the Health of the Town, as in Compassion to the Prisoners, to take Care, that all Houses of Confinement should be kept as airy and clean, as is consistent with the Use, to which they are designed.

The Black Assise at Oxford, held in the Castle there in the Year 1577, will never be forgot[84]; at which the Judges, Gentry, and almost all that were present, to the Number of three hundred, were killed by a poisonous Steam, thought by some to have broken forth from the Earth; but by a noble and great Philosopher[85] more justly supposed to have been brought by the Prisoners out of the Goal into Court; it being observed, that they alone were not injured by it.

At the same Time, that this Care is taken of Houses, the proper Officers should be strictly charged to see that the Streets be washed and kept clean from Filth, Carrion, and all manner of Nusances; which should be carried away in the Night Time: nor should the Laystalls be suffered to be too near the