Richard Mead

“ I say in the first Place, that Life, so far as it respects the Body, is, in one Word, the Circulation of the Blood; that is, its Motion in Conical Distractile Vessels from the Heart to the Extreme Parts, and its Return to the Heart again by the same Canals inverted; For ’tis upon this that all Animal Functions, all Sense and Motion Voluntary and Involuntary, do depend; so that the Regularity of this Course is the Measure of Health, or the most perfect Life, as its various Irregularities are the Occasions of Sickness and Diseases, or a beginning Death. ”

“ Truth stands no more in need of the patronage of error, than does a natural good complexion of paint. And it is certain, that the opinion which has been prevalent for many ages, of the power granted to devils, of torturing human bodies and minds, has been several ways made subservient to the subtle designs of crafty men, to the very great detriment and shame of the christian religion. ”

“ THE Methods practised in France are likewise obnoxious to great Objections. Crowding the Sick together in Hospitals can serve to no good Purpose; but instead thereof will promote and spread the Contagion, and besides will expose the Sick to the greatest Hardships. It is no small Part of the Misery, that attends this terrible Enemy of Mankind, that whereas moderate Calamities open the Hearts of Men to Compassion and Tenderness, this greatest of Evils is found to have the contrary Effect. ”

“ If it seem strange that a Pleasure in the Stomach should so powerfully Influence the Mind; let it be considered, on the other Hand, how violent Effects, an uneasie and disagreeable Sense in the same Part does produce; what a terrible Agony Two or Three Grains of Crocus Metallorum throws the whole Fabrick into; how readily the Fluid of the Nerves is with a more than Ordinary Impetus determin’d and commanded into the Muscles of the Stomach and Abdomen, in order to throw off the Enemy, and remove the ungrateful Sensation. ”

“ XLIIIf Fear, Despair, and all Dejection of Spirits dispose the Body to receive Contagion, and give it a great Power, where it is received, as all Physicians agree they do, I don't see how a Disease can be more enforced, than by such a Treatment. ”

“ But when in succeeding ages, the use of medicines became more common, a great number of remedies for this dreadful disease were invented, some of which indeed were too filthy and shocking: such as drinking the warm blood of a gladiator just slain; eating human or horse’s flesh, the testicles and penis of some animals, and other things of the same kind; [132] as if matters so repugnant to nature, could be contrary to such grievous defects of it. For so it often happens, that when a rational medicine is not to be found, any improper and rash one is attempted. ”

“ Indeed, as it has been frequently experienced, that of all the Goods, which harbour Infection, Cotton in particular is the most dangerous, and Turky is almost a perpetual Seminary of the Plague; I cannot but think it highly reasonable, that whatever Cotton is imported from that part of the World, should at all Times be kept in Quarantaine: Because it may have imbibed Infection at the Time of its packing up, notwithstanding no Mischief has been felt from it by the Ship’s Company. ”

“ Families seized with a Distemper, which the most of any in the World requires Help and Comfort, lockt up from all their Acquaintance; left it may be to the Treatment of an inhumane Nurse (for such are often found at these Times about the Sick;) and Strangers to every thing but the Melancholy sight of the Progress, Death makes among themselves; with small Hopes of Life, and those mixed with Anxiety and Doubt, whether it be not better to Dye, than to survive the Loss of their best Friends, and nearest Relations. ”

“ I am well aware, that all this is related, as if God himself had struck the house with this plague. But it is well known, that that way of speaking is not uncommon in the jewish history; as in unexpected evils and dreadful calamities, which are sometimes said to be done by the hand of God, tho’ they may be produced by natural causes. Nor can I be easily induced to believe, with some divines, that God, who commanded his people to be always free from [26] every sort of uncleanness, would vouchsafe to work a miracle, in order to inflict this most filthy punishment on any person. ”

“ IN a word, the more I consider this Matter, the more I am convinced that the Precepts I have delivered, both with regard to the Preventing the Plague from coming into a Country, and the Treatment of it when present, are perfectly suitable to the Nature of the Distemper, and consequently the fittest to be complied with. But how far, in every Situation of Affairs, it is expedient to grant the Powers, requisite for putting all of them in Practice, it is not my proper Business, as a Physician, to determine. ”

“ Nor is it at all strange, that the Symptoms from a Vegetable, and from a Mineral Virulency, should be so different, although of the same kind, and only of unequal force; for the more solid Parts of Minerals, eroding the Coats of the Stomach, induce a perfect Mortification and Gangrene, and thus do their Work at once; whereas the weaker Salts of Plants can make but a slighter Excoriation, upon the painful Sense of which those Agonies and Convulsions that follow do rather gradually exhaust the Strength; and thus the Animal is not kill’d so speedily, nor with the same Appearances. ”

“ Nothing indeed can give us so just a Notion of Infection, and more clearly represent the manner of it, than Odoriferous Bodies. Some of these do strangely revive the animal Spirits; others instantaneously depress and sink them: We may therefore conceive that, what active particles emitted from any such Substances do, is in the like way done by Pestiferous Bodies; so that Contagion is no more than the effect of volatile offensive Matter drawn into the Body by our Smelling. ”

“ Sleep is the sweet soother of our labours, and the restorer of our exhausted strength. But the loss of appetite, and disgust to our food, generally robs us of this comfort. Hence subjoining this evil of old-age to the foregoing, he says: he shall rise up at the voice of the bird; that is, the old man is awaked at the cock’s first crowing. Wherefore his sleep is short and interrupted, tho’ his weakness would require longer rest.
But he returns to the senses, among which he gives the third place to hearing; for receiving the benefits of which the Creator gave us the use of ears. ”