Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665: With Precautionary Directions Against the Like ContagionHodges, Nathaniel
History
Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665: With Precautionary Directions Against the Like Contagion
Hodges, Nathaniel
Plague -- England -- London -- Early works to 1800
BUT to go on in the Enumeration of Symptoms, Sweat deserves mention,
because sometimes it breaks out in such Profusion as if the whole
Constitution was dissolved, and with a vast Loss of Spirits and Strength,
to the imminent Danger of the Patient, by such a Dissipation of Spirits,
such a Colliquation of the Balsam of Life, and an Extinction of the
natural Heat. And indeed I know nothing that more powerfully attenuates
the Humours, and more suddenly puts all the animal Juices into Fusion, so
as to run them through the Pores of the Skin, and the pestilential
nitro-aereal Poyson; and by whose colliquative Quality even the fleshy
Parts are dissolved and exhaled in vapour.
THESE Sweats also of the Infected are not only profuse, but also variously
coloured; in some of a citron Hue, in others Purple, in some green or
black, and in others like Blood; which I take to be from the various
Dispositions of the morbifick Venom, to give different Tinctures to the
Humours: And by this Means some experienced Nurses could prognosticate the
Event of the Distemper from the Colour of the Cloaths or Linen tinged with
the Sweat.
THE Sweat of some would be so fetid and intolerable, from a kind of
Empyreumatick Disposition, possibly, of the Juices, that no one could
endure his Nose within the Stench; sometimes it was sharp, and in a Manner
caustick; and hence it was easy to judge from what Origin the Pestilence
derived its Qualities, _viz._ From a sharp and burning _Ichor_, that would
even excoriate the Parts, and sometimes vesicate them, as if scalding
Water had been poured upon them.
SOMETIMES cold Sweats would break out, while the Heat raged inwardly, and
excited unquenchable Drought. Some continued in a Profusion of Sweat until
Life it self exhaled with it, while others had short Intervals of Truce
and Cessation; nay, some at the same time sweat on one Side, while the
other was quite parched with Dryness.
BUT the Benefit of this Evacuation, when it was regular, either natural or
by Art, was so manifest, that all the Infected that recovered were
sensible of it, and greatly rejoyced at its good Effects; for those
pestilential Particles, which eluded the Power of all other Means,
immediately upon a Sweat, as at a common Signal, made their Escape with
the transpiring Steam; but whensoever Diaphoreticks could not conquer the
Coagulation, Viscidity, or Obstinacy of the pestilential Poyson, it
always went very bad, being commonly followed by a Symptomatical Sweat,
and a fatal Separation of the animal Fluids.
YET the Energy of the pestilential Contagion not only freely discovered
its self in these Profusions amongst the Living, who (as already observed)
were dissolved as in an _Helodes_ and a _Typhodes_, but commonly the very
Carcases when dead, would weep out, as it were, the morbid Ferment, both
through the cutaneous Pores, and the common lachrymal Ducts of the Eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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