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A defensative against the Plague.
The first Treatise
CHAP. I. What the Plague is.
THe antient Phisitians in times past have greatly doubted, what the essentiall cause of this dis∣ease, which we commonly call the Plague or Pestilence, should be; yet all doe agree, that it is a pernitious and contagious Fever, and reckoned to be one of the number of those which are called Epidemia, chiefly proceeding of adusted and melancholy bloud, which may be easily perceived, by the extream heat and inflammation, which inwardly they doe feel, that are infected therewith; first assaulting the heart, and astonishing the vitall spirits, as also by the exteriour Carbunkles and botches which it produceth; whose malignity is such, both in young and old, rich and poor, noble and ignoble, that using all the meanes, which by Art can, or may be devised, yet in some it will in no sort give place, untill it hath by death con∣quered the party infected therewith.
CHAP. II. Cause of the Plague.
THere are divers causes whereof this disease may pro∣ceed, as sundry Writers doe alledge, as by over great and unnaturall heat and drought, by great rain and inundations of waters, or by great store of rotten and stinking bodies,