Chapter IV: Section IV

_Of the Complication of a Pestilence with
other Distempers, and particularly with
the Scurvy._

AS the Pestilence is the most powerful of all other Distempers, so it also claims a particular Privilege of joining with all others; so that it does not more excel in its own Contrariety and Antipathy to Nature, than it asserts a Prerogative over all those various Evils which the humane Frame is subjected to, and draws them into its Assistance in exercising its cruel Power over Mankind.

THIS Assertion might be supported by a Multitude of Instances, if it were not for taking up too much of the Reader’s Time; for which Reason we shall only take Notice, that amongst all those Distempers which are thus inclined to join their Forces with this most powerful Enemy, some seem to have a more particular Fitness for such a Union, from a common Affinity in the Nature of their Infection, and the Energy of their Poison.

ONE of the First of this Class is the venereal Disease, with which the pestilential Venom does in a very familiar Manner unite it self. At the first breaking out indeed of the last Sickness it was given out by common Fame, that those who were previously infected with any foul Distemper, as the Pox in particular, would be secured thereby against the pestilential Taint; but wicked and impious was the Consequence of such a Suggestion; for many were hereby encouraged to seek the most lascivious and filthy Prostitutions, on purpose to be secur’d by one previous Infection against another: But besides the poisonous Quality peculiar to this nasty Disease, besides that Expence of Spirit in the procuring it, and besides a lost Force of the Constitution thereby, the greatest Aggravation to this Misfortune was, that the very Taint which was to defend against another, had it in its Nature to be more forcibly attracted by it; so that the rash Adventurer was soon brought to a bitter Repentance for his Experiment, by sinking immediately under the pestilential Contagion at its first Stroke; and it was common to find, by a very easy Transition, the venereal Buboes changed into pestilential Carbuncles, except in a few Instances where Nature found out an uncommon Artifice against these united Powers, by endeavouring an Ejectment of their joint Malignities by Salivation, whereby sometimes the Patient was brought into some Chance for his Life, both the Poisons being in a great Measure cast off together that way.

BUT here it may not be improper to admonish the young Physicians not to be too forward Imitators of Nature in such a Circumstance; unless they will run the same Hazard with a certain Empirick, who crouded his Powders upon the Sick that raised an untimely spitting, and brought a great many into a dangerous Condition, which by a regular Practice might have been, tho’ with Difficulty, saved.

Yet to set this whole Affair in a clear Light, there is great Reason to suspect that in many Cases Mercury had for some time remained in the Body, which, like a Snake in the Grass, being raised by the Pestilential Infection, flew up into a Salivation; for the febrile Heat, assisted with Medicines also of an hot Nature, throw up the Mercury, which had long lain quiet, like a Sublimation; which should be a Caution, not only to young Physicians, but those of more standing in Practice, not to be so buisy with mercurial Medicines, to Children as well as grown Persons, as they are too much apt to be; least besides the Inconveniencies already mentioned they cause malignant Ulcers, and Rotenness upon the Bones, as it is too commonly observed to be done in irregular Practice, to the irreparable Detriment of the Patients.

I am not however ignorant that sometimes the Pestilential Venom may tumifie the salival Glands without any other Assistance, and occasion Ulcers in the Mouth as with Mercury; for it is a common Case in many malignant Fevers.

BUT it is so clear a Matter that the Pestilential and venereal Poysons may intimately join together by their Affinity with one another, to the great Detriment of Mankind, as to want no further Proofs to confirm it; nor does their Opinion at all obviate ours, who place the venereal Poyson in Humidity, and that of a Pestilence in Dryness, as long as the Symptoms and Affections of both discover one common Principle, that is, somewhat saline; but yet if this should not be granted, they are naturally enough joined together by their known Malignity and Destruction to human Nature.

BUT the Affinity between a Pestilence and a Scurvy is not a slight, and a supposititious Conjecture, but strengthened and confirmed by a plain Union between them, whereby they attack like confederate Troops; and both confess the same Origin, _viz._ a saline Principle; as is most remarkably obvious in their eager Coalition, whether we consider the forementioned Transplantation of the like Plague from _Turky_ to _Holland_, where their Alliance was first formed; Or whether we reflect upon them both as Distempers equally epidemical, which when joined make such cruel Havock among the human Species; as neighbouring Flames catch together from a like Affinity of Parts, and burn with united Fury.

FOR although there is a great Difference in Salts of different Kinds, yet there is a common Property amongst them all, that when joined together they cannot hardly by any Means possibly be afterwards separated, for which Reason when these two Enemies of Mankind were joined, the complicated Evil was at first customarily distinguished by the _outlandish Scurvy_, which by a confederate Power had increased its Malignity to so great a Degree. But to give some apparent Facts, which irrefragably prove the natural Union between these two Origins of Mischief, it may be proper to recite some Symptoms common to them both, and first of all those Spots which were their certain Characteristicks.

THE Spots of those in the Plague were sometimes so numerous, as to cover all the Body, of which we shall say more hereafter; and if we consider the Appearances and Conditions of the Spots in both, we shall find a very great Agreement; the pestilential Spots sometimes break out broad, at other Times more contracted, just in the same Manner as it happens in a Scurvy; and as to their Duration, sometimes they are longer out than at others in both; now also suddenly appear, and then again as suddenly turn in, and sometimes remain out for two or three Days together; and their Likeness in all Respects is frequently so great, that amongst the ignorant Nurses and Empiricks, sometimes the fatal Tokens of a Pestilence have been mistaken only for Scurvy Spots: As to their Colour in a Plague, as well as in a Scurvy, they are sometimes florid, resembling fresh Flea-Bites, and at others dusky and livid; and I met with them in a certain Youth resembling Violet Flowers painted all over the Body; and in some I have seen them almost quite black, which are with great Difficulty to be distinguished from the true pestilential Tokens.

THERE are other Symptoms also that denote the Agreement herein, such as large Stools, of a saline and fetid Nature, and which are with great Difficulty restrained by the most powerful Medicines; but if such a Flux continues, it threatens irretrievable Injuries, as Corrosion, Inflammation, and sometimes even Sphacelation of the Bowels, with intolerable Gripings, and sometimes Loss of Blood: Furthermore, the Agreement that there is between the Ulcers and Tumours of both evidently demonstrate the Affinity of both their Origins, as will hereafter more fully appear in that Part about the Cure.

THE Pestilence likewise shews its Affinity with the Scurvy, by leaving behind it a scorbutick Habit, even where a Person was not given to it in the least before; and it is not indeed at all strange, that after such Disorders, and Corruption of the animal Juices, and such an Exhalation or Suffocation of subtile and spirituous Particles, an Habit should be confirmed, that can be removed but by the most generous Remedies, and the most powerful Antiscorbuticks.

IT remains now briefly to enquire, whether a Pestilence coming upon another Disease, in any Instances proves of Service; and this I shall dispatch in two Histories of Cases, one in a Consumption, and the other in the _King’s-Evil_.

A Girl of fifteen Years of Age was so emaciated, that she had left little besides Skin and Bones, and taking no Nourishment for 14 Days together, she was given over as gone, but being called to the same House, to see her Mother, and two others who had the Infection, and recovered, the same Distemper seized that Creature almost half-dead before, whom also I then attended; but she who just before lay as expiring, seemed animated by the feverish Heat, began to move her Limbs, and with the Help of Alexipharmick Medicines, although before speechless, began to complain of painful Swellings about her; but those Buboes, which I suppose would otherwise have broke out, for Want of Matter to raise them, were dissipated by Transpiration; so that she recovered, and in about two Weeks also manifestly lost her former Distemper, and gathered Flesh and Strength.

ANOTHER Maid of about 16 Years of Age had been so scrophulous from her Childhood, as to have many indurated Glands remain after all possible Means had been used to dissipate them. She at last was seized with the Contagion, and pestilential Buboes rose upon the strumous Glands, which suppurated, and let out a great Quantity of Filth; and upon her Recovery from thence, her former Distemper was quite lost.

SOME gouty Persons likewise, and others accustomed to very obstinate Complaints, were, by a lucky Conjunction with this Infection, quite restored: and indeed most who were rightly managed in the Plague, and perfectly recovered of it, were afterwards, in many Respects, better in their Health than before; so that this terrible Enemy, as it was commonly fatal, so it also sometimes proved a Remedy. And thus much for the Complication of the Pestilence with other Distempers. We shall now proceed to its Symptoms.