“ For this Reason, and that Matters may proceed not only in greater Order, but also with greater Truth, Dr. Mead has gone through much Philosophy and Theory in Medicine, with great Labour and Fatigue; even to fainting away, despairing often in doing any thing to his own Satisfaction, knowing by much Experience, that the World is not so hard to please.
And therefore, he begins this second Part, by telling us, how great a Satisfaction it is, to know that the Plague is no Native of our Country. ”

“ Here is a Devil raised indeed, and he will not be in the least quieted, unless Dr. Mead will contradict himself, and renounce the half of his Defence, for the Pureness and Uncorruptedness of Air. And what will not a Man do for a quiet Life. And even the English Air, that could formerly kill the greatest Plague, is now without doubt under a State of Corruption: For if that is not admitted, God have Mercy on all English Men. This is very kind in the Doctor, to take shame to himself for the Good of his Country. ”

“ Mankind is more easy, and not only bears with what is not possible, but even with Blunders, that proceed from Ignorance and Stupidity. All that is expected from Physicians, is to have such Rules, whereby our Health may be secured to them, as far as it is consistent with Human Nature, and the known Means: And if Dr. Mead would have communicated some of those wise Rules, that are to be found in Books of Physick, even without deducing them from any Principle of Reason, he then had done them the greatest Good, and what they seem to want and desire. ”

“ We live a great way from the South of France, and the Doctor has assured us, that the Plague cannot reach us, by some hundreds of Miles. For, to our Satisfaction be it remember’d, that Air it self is very pure and harmless; nor can it otherwise be infected, than by pestilential Steams issuing out of Bodies, at the end of the Disease; as also, that they cannot travel any length, if there is not a Disposition in the Air, which it only has when supposed. And therefore, we are very little obnoxious to a Plague, and consequently have no great Occasion for Lazarettoes or Quarantines. ”

“ I think the Doctor has made a little too free with the Civil Magistrate, and his Brethren of the Faculty; especially, that he has no where told us any Thing of the Nature of Contagion; not so much as what we may read in many Books of Physick. And therefore his further inveighing against Physick and Physicians, is the most surprizing, unaccountable Indiscretion that Man ever was guilty of: A Man that has done nothing, but to corrupt it: For thus he puts an End to a great deal of rambling Stuff, about shutting up Houses. ”

“ It is not only the Numbers that fall by the Plague that strike Terror into Men, but the Suddenness and Manner of Dying heighten our Fears, and make every thing more terrible; for Physicians have been Strangers to the Disease, nor have their Remedies been able to give any Check to its Fury. The People die with Medicines and without them, and those that have seemed to be useful in one Case, have seldom failed to prove hurtful in another. No body is found strong enough to resist it, neither they who had the best Constitution, nor they who have been treated in the best Method. ”

“ Mead, to have shewn the Disposition that may be in every Man to receive, and entertain the Plague, and with all the Variety in which it palpably affects them. For a Plague has often laid its devouring Hands on Children and Young Men, when it has spared the Old; and, on the contrary, it has proved fatal to Age, when Youth has been excused: Nor has a Pestilence that afflicted Men hurt Women. At other Times Men and Women of all Ages have felt its Strokes promiscuously, and some have conversed boldly among the Sick of the Plague with Safety, while others are quickly punished for their Rashness. ”

“ Hence it is that we find in all Times, tho’ never more than in the present, that Physick is the common Resort of all indigent Men, that no other Arts can provide with a Living. Here Doctor Rosary has made a better Market for his Beads, than ever was in any Roman Catholick Country, Spain and Portugal not excepted. At this Time too, he is among the chief Writers on the Plague, and with insufferable Assurance, dedicates that Trifle to the President of the College of Physicians, where, in the end, he tells the World, how useful his Necklace is for the Plague. ”

“ I cannot assign any Reason for the Plague thus visiting us; but Experience is not of the side of the terrible, but common Opinion, as Hodges [13] assures us, and the Bills of Mortality confirm; for there we find it has visited us oftner, with all its Tokens, Buboes, and Carbuncles, and more than once since that Time, if Dr. Mead’s pestilential Diseases, of smaller Consequence, are admitted.
Now if the Plague of Pestilence has thus frequently shewn it self, in its most terrible manner, and very often not so terribly, how can People prevent taking Fright at the King of Terrors? ”

“ Conveniency is a pretty Argument, but not very cogent, as we now see; for this corrupted State of Air is only an Expedient to get rid of a Pestilence; because by Supposing an Emendation of the Qualities of the Air, and restoring of it to a healthy State, capable of dissipating and suppressing the Malignity, we put an end to the Plague in an instant. Mighty fine, and Meadish; tho’ he might have put a stop to a Plague at an easier rate, than the Loss of his Hypothesis ”

“ A pestilential Disease of any Consequence! Is any Plague in a Country without Consequence? Surely many Widows and Orphans find it otherwise. But the Doctor will make amends for Families brought to Ruin and Poverty, by the loss of Parents and Husbands; by ridding us of a vulgar Error, of the Plague visiting us once in Thirty or Forty Years. So that if a Plague brings a mighty Calamity along with it, we may comfort our selves, that it comes but seldom. ”

“ Mead call terrible Death, vain Fears? Can a reasonable People, relying on History, and their own Experience of Things, be delivered from their Fears, by a bold Assertion, that can proceed from no other Cause, than great Ignorance, or the worst Opinion of the Reason and Experience of Mankind, that they are subject 41to so gross an Imposition, as to take Comfort in the most lamentable Danger, exposed to Death, and forsaken by their dearest Friends ”

“ He has only told us, hitherto, that the pure Air is only infected with pestilential Steams, that rise out of Bogs; or out of Men that have died of the Plague; or else that these Steams were packed up in Goods, and with them carried from one Country into another: and tho’ this be bravely told, without any Reason assigned for it; yet we know not where they first have their Origine, and of what Country they are Natives. We have seen an Original English Plague, that came from no Place in the World, and took up its Abode altogether here ”

“ That this Plague is not propagated from the Body of a Sick Person into the Body of the Sound: That it makes no Nest, is not cherished, nor nursed in soft or porous Bodies, that its Seeds may be propagated and conveyed into far distant Countries. And therefore, as we are to follow Dr. Mead in the remaining Part of his Short Discourse, we must go back to consider some Phenomena, he thought fit to premise to his Inquiries about Contagion, but what, I hope every Reader will think, are most properly considered in this Place, if he will pardon the considering them at all. ”

“ But the Reason of this Fact seems to surmount his Understanding, and no wonder, for it has already puzzled all other Philosophers and Physicians, insomuch, that it has driven them into absurd Notions of Maggots, against all Observation. But, before a Philosopher would spend his Time about this Difficulty, he should be sure his Fact is indisputably true, for thereby he may save himself much Trouble and Babling, about a Matter that is false in Fact. ”

“ Mead, as well as his signal Humility, I must crave leave to dissent, at this time, from the Reports of these Men, tho’ they carry his daily and hourly Orders: for how do such Reports sute all those his known good Qualities, the last more especially. Can any Man think it consistent with his singular Humility, to teach the Secretary of State, what has been practised in our own and other Countries for some hundred of Years: Quarantines and Pest-Houses, or if the Doctor pleases, Lazarettoes, are not unknown to English Lawyers, nor English Ministers. ”

“ Mead’s Method, as far as that does not obscure the Subject: In that Case I will take the Liberty to keep the Thread of our Discourse as much in our view is it is possible. Dr. Mead then having taken leave of Contagion, tells us, that this unknown Contagion is propagated by three Causes, The Air, diseased Persons, and Goods transported from infected Places. What a propagating Cause may be, shall be left to those that deal in Metaphysicks, to determine; it matters not what it appears to be, while the begetting Cause is unknown. ”

“ Mead in managing an Argument; and, at the same Time, I have over-turned and exploded some common Opinions, that were by him 37weakly defended; and that, because it is of great Use and Importance that Mankind be rightly apprized of them. How easily are any Man’s Fears dispell’d? What real Security does he acquire, when his Reason is convinced, that the Plague of Pestilence is not begot by any Contagion, properly speaking? ”

“ That we may see, how little Doctor Mead understands the Method of Preventing, and also how practicable it is: We find Hippocrates values himself for being the first that foresaw a Disease; and he tells us, That [20] Diseases do not come upon Men of a sudden; 61but being collected by degrees, shew themselves afterwards in the bulk. And [21] Galen says, That all Physicians are agreed, that there must be some Time for breeding a Distemper. Now, if Diseases take a Time before they are bred; then it is an obvious Consequence, that Diseases may be prevented. ”

“ For, after the Foundation of any Position is over-turned, there is nothing more to be done, but merely to repeat what is already proved, and that as often as the Position is offered and assigned. And therefore it must not be expected that any one will spend, and waste his Time, in the pursuit of every Trifle, with the like exactness and fullness: That may be, perhaps, the Business of an Orator, but never of a Philosopher. ”

“ The following Paragraph is of no Force, after what is now said concerning Hippocrates; the best Historian, that is not a Physician, is never presumed to go beyond an Account and Relation of Matter of Fact, as he apprehends it; and so far went the great Thucydides, in relating the Plague of Athens. We will rather consider what the Doctor alledges for strengthning his Conjecture about Contagion. [2] Stinks of stagnating Waters, in hot Weather; putrid Exhalations from the Earth; and above all, the Corruption of dead Carcasses being unburied, have occasion’d infectious Diseases. ”

“ But, how dares he undertake to give Rules for preventing a Pestilence, and proceed in corrupting the 35Means of Knowledge that are common among other Physicians, and absolutely neglect this Disposition? It is for this Reason, that we hear them speaking another Language than Doctor Mead does, even while they talk of what he calls his propagating Causes. Hear the excellent, and learned Fracastorius [8] . Contagion, says he, takes its Rise, often from the Air; it often passes from one Person to another; it is often receiv’d by a Fomes ”

“ And how comes it to pass, That during this constant, and uninterrupted Commerce, when soft and porous Goods, the proper Fomes, have been brought from Smyrna, Scanderoon, Aleppo, Constantinople, and other Parts, the Pestilence has never taken a Journey hither, in all Appearance, those Fifty five Years? In all that Time Turkey Goods have not served a Quarantine, nor visited any other Lazaretto’s, besides the Companies Cellars; a certain Proof that Goods very seldom, or ever, bring a Plague into a Country ”

“ The Heat was likewise too mild to encourage such Corruption and Fermentation as helps to taint the animal Fluids. And therefore howsoever fond Dr. Mead is of Stagnation, through any failure of the Winds, it is certain that they were then very blameless, let the Doctor find his Stagnation where he can. Moreover, the Physicians were not of Opinion, at that Time [12] , that the Air was infected, and therefore Doctor Hodges tells us, That they were against making Fires, for the Reason of this Purity of Air; and, that Fires are only proper when it is impure and corrupted. ”

“ Yet we cannot forbear admiring, if People should swallow all this Trifle and Contradiction, against all Sense and Reason. We are, indeed, at a loss to explain this lazy Credulity; and therefore we must have Recourse to the general Infection, that has wrought so strong Delusion, of late Years, all over Europe; when we find Men 29have become wonderfully Credulous, even to Infatuation. ”

“ This is not only ridiculous, but overthrows every Opinion of Physicians that ever was broached about it. But not to baulk his Wit, this Perfume of the Plague, like Musk, is best kept in animal Substances; (Attraction would have preceded very decently, for a more proper Introduction) but is Musk, commonly kept in Furs or Cotton; if in the last, what Animal is it that yields us Cotton? As for Civet it is no runaway Merchandize. It is therefore very obvious, that Men are now passing a Review of their Credulity before Dr. Mead and the World. ”

“ Imprimis, Then, instead of ignorant old Women, we ought to have understanding and diligent Men. There is nothing New in this, nor very Unreasonable; but as the Doctor has enhansed the whole Knowledge of Physick in his own Person, and made old Women of his Brethren, I hope he will allow these Officers of Health to consist of discarded Physicians. Secondly, When the sick Families are gone (whether?) all the Goods of the Houses, in which they were, should be burnt; nay, the Houses themselves, if that can conveniently be done. ”