The disease of London, or, A new discovery of the scorvey [sic] comprising the nature, manifold differences, various causes, signs, prognostics, chronology, and several methods of curing the said disease by remedies, galenical and chymical : together with anatomical observations, and discourses on convulsions, palsies, apoplexies, rheumatisms, gouts, malignant fevors, and small pox, with their methods of cure and remedies : likewise, particular observations on most of the fore-mentioned diseases / by Gideon Harvey ...

CHAP. XXX. Of Malignant Fevors, and Small Pox.

1. The Cause of Malignant Fevors. 2. The Cause of the Small Pox. 3. The Cure of the Small Pox.

§. 1. THe Malignity that so oft is Concomitant and Su∣pervenient to continual Fevors, con∣stantly almost Reigning in and about London, seems chiefly to derive its Original from the ill temperature of the Air, which as hath been declared, is Salin and Scorbutic. That this is the principal Procatarctic, is evident from these two Reasons: 1. Because Persons differing from one another in the use of all the other Non-naturals, are subject to be surprised by the same Malignant Fevor, which consequently must then solely be derived from the Air, that only of all the Non-naturals being the same, and common to all. 2. Because many of those, that have the misfortune to fall Sick of a Malig∣nant

Fevor, have been most temperate and regular in their Diaet, Motion, and Resting, Sleeping and Waking, Ex∣cretions and Retention••, and Passions of the Mind; so that it must be the Air only, that lies imputable of this Ma∣lignant Effect; add hereto, that Eng∣lish Bodies when incident into Fevors in some other Climates, are not afflicted with those Malignant Symptoms. The causality through which a Salin Air produceth such Malignant febril Ef∣fects, is by disposing the Body to en∣gender great measures of gross Fuligi∣nous and very Acrimonious steems, which by reason of the constipation of the External pores, and of other In∣ternal obstructions are repelled, and incorporated into the whole current of the Blood, kindle and inflame its Bi∣tuminou•• parts, whose flames are there∣by rendred Malignant and venomous to the Spirits, which then prove the immediate Cause of those Malignant Symptoms. 3. By this means the Blood soon becomes Lixivially Salin, Saponary, and runs into a gross deli∣quious Oyl, as plainly appears, when occasionally tapt out by Phlebotomy.

Now the great difficulty of reducing this unctuous saponary Blood to its former qualification, and freeing it from that gross Salin and ••crimonious Fuligo, is the Cause, that renders Ma∣lignant Fevors so indomitable, and extremely pernicious. Upon this Hy∣pothesis, which your strict Scrutiny and Observation in Practice will a∣bundantly confirm, how Deleterious the ordinary Method of Curing the said Fevors, and how contrary those hot Cordials exhibited by spoonfuls prove, is easily discovered; for in∣stead of moving Nature to sweat by an Incisive, Attenuating, and Volatili∣zing quality, and by Amortizing the Lixivial Salts, they render the said Salts more Lixivial and absorbing, and consequently dispose the Body not to∣wards, but against Sweating. Nei∣ther are the Times or Seasons observed for exhibiting of Medicines, that are accordingly to be varied in quantity quality and other circumstances; a certain directory of all which can ne∣ver be attain'd by Indications, desu∣med from that impertinently impro∣ved Notion of Fermentation, which

hath been the occasion of posting hun∣dreds to the jaws of Orcus. What measures ought to be taken in point of Management and Cure of this Distem∣per, I have already proposed in my Tractatus Theoret. & Pract. de Febri∣bus; But in short, the necessary prae∣misses not being omitted, I do repose a great confidence in an Antifebril Eli∣xir, consisting of Ingredients of a mixt nature; and in Spir. cornu cervi prae∣pared in a peculiar manner.

§. 2. The Small Pox being in some kind not unlike the foregoing Di∣stemper, I will only give my Senti∣ment, with Directions relating to the Cure, and then take leave. I cannot give Credit to the received Opinion, importing, that the Small is caused by some impurities, the Foetus contracted in the Womb, which afterwards Na∣ture doth cast forth into those viru∣lent Pustles: this among the rest is cer∣tainly a Deliramentum Antiquitatis; for considering that in Guinee, most parts of Africa, and almost through∣out whole Asia, the Natives, or in∣deed the Strangers are never surprized

with the Small Pox, though their Im∣purities contracted in the Womb (if any after many years interval) can∣not be supposed less than ours, we must conclude, that it is rather an En∣demic Disease, peculiar to the Northen Climes, or rather a seasoning or alte∣ration of the Nature of Man, arriving out of the Microcosm of his Mother into the Macrocosm, impressed by the rudeness and difference of tempera∣ture of the Air of Northern Climes from his primogenial Temperament, which needs no other Confirmation, than the Instance of those Guineans, Indians, and others, who soon upon their arrival into those Climes are at∣taqued by the Small Pox, which I can term nothing but a Seasoning, in like manner, as Northern Bodies are season∣ed with other Diseases of the Climate that transport themselves to Virginia, Barbados, or other parts of the West, or East-Indies. That some undergo this seasoning of the Small Pox, soon after they are crept out of the shell, others when they are grown up to ri∣per years; and some not at all, being praevented by some Mortal Distem∣per,

is occasioned, through the strength of Nature, some Bodies are indued with above others (that under∣go the fore-mentioned seasoning soon after their Birth) whereby they are rendred capable to resist the alte∣rative impressions of the Air.

Since then it is so obvious, that the Air is the principal External efficient, you must necessarily apprehend, that where the Air is Salin and Scorbutic, the Small Pox proves much more Ma∣lignant, and fraequently mortal, and that, by reason the Blood becomes Lixivial, Saponary, and Absorbing, which to dispose to a Diaphoresis, or Breathing, by those hot inflaming Cor∣dials is in some as impossible, as to force Water out of a Flint; but on the contrary, the Salts of the Humors being rendred more Lixivial and Ab∣sorbing by them, they do not only through that absorbitive and droughty Faculty exhaust and dry up the Serum of the Blood, but concentrate and re∣tract, or draw in from the circumfer∣ence those vol••til fuliginous Salts, toge∣ther with the External Salts engendred in the Air, which otherwise Nature is

striving to cast forth; and hence it is, that Old Women and Nurses by giving only large measures of plain moi∣stening posset Ale, very small Ale boyld, or thin Fig-drink, prove infi∣nitely more successful, than many if not most of Physicians: But now I must tell you also, that some of the ingeni∣ous Practicers of the College of Lon∣don, taking their measures from the event the management of Old Wo∣men doth procure, and the ill Exit that attends the advice of other Physi∣c••ans, do abandon all those hot aduring Species, and distill'd Waters, and praescribe temperate Moistening Dia∣phoretic Decoctions, and distilled Wa∣ters, whereby they justly deserve the Character of most Experienced and Learned Physicians, scarce one in a very great Number stooping to the Conquest of his Distemper, and that by reason of their apt and exquisite praescriptions. In fine, there are no principles, either those of Dogmatic putrefaction, or that of Fermentation, which to me do so evidently expound the causality and reason of all those Symptoms and Changes, that so ordi∣narily

happen in the Small Pox, and Measels, than the Hypothesis I have pro∣posed; and what concerns the Practi∣cal Indications they are such, that in Success and happy Event, I am confi∣dent exceed all others.

§. 3. The Alexiterial simples are Rad. scorzoner. hisp. Vincetox. fol. Galeg. Scabios. flor. Calend. sem. Aquileg. fruct. caric. (in case of a Loosness or Vo∣miting Rad. Bistort. and Tormentil.) aq. Card. Ben. Scabios. Malv. the Com∣posites are Aq. Scord. compos. Dias∣cord. not that of Fracast. as it is set down in the London Pharmacopoea with the addition of Pepper, Ginger, Cinamon, &c. which must necessarily be very pernicious in this Distemper, Spec. e chel. caner. Diamarg. frig. Car∣diac. Magistral. and such like

The Decoct. Lent. though commend∣ed almost in every Author, I am certain is not agreeable to this Distemper in our Climat. Spir. Corn. C••rv. particularly praepared, and Elix. Antifeb••il. are aequal to any of the fore∣mentioned.

This Treatise being swelled beyond my In∣tention, am Obliged to omit particular Ob∣servations, and Conclude.

FINIS.