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
THERE is no Occasion to say much concerning Hemorrhages at Nose; this
Symptom happening much more often from the Colliquative Nature of the
Poison, and its Erosion of the Vessels, than from a Plethora; as is
evident more from the ichorous Colour of the Blood than its continual
Distillation from those Vessels.
Were it not here that we study all possible Brevity, many other Symptoms
might be enumerated which commonly attended this pestilential Fever, as
Heat of the _Præcordia_, Hiccup, Gripings, _&c._ all which I at present
pass by, and close the whole with such as are more peculiar to it,
particularly those poisonous Vesications commonly called _Blains_.
THESE Vesications used commonly to rise with an exquisite and shooting
Pain, containing a serous Humour or _Ichor_, for the most part of a
Yellowish or Straw Colour, and encompassed with a variegated Circle,
generally Reddish.
THESE Pustules broke out in many Parts of the Body; and as their Station
was various, so their Number was also uncertain; in some they were few, in
others many, and a Woman I once met with covered all over with them; as to
their Bigness, they were also uncertain; for some were as a small Pea,
while others increased to the Magnitude of a Nutmeg.
THE included Matter (near perhaps to the Nature of Urine) was altogether
incapable of Suppuration, as it was saline and almost caustick; for very
soon after its Eruption it would corrode its Vesicle, and burst out, of a
Colour yellowish, livid, or black. Moreover, the surrounding Circle was
not always of the same Appearance, although at first coming out it was
continually inflamed.
BUT this is highly observable, that sometimes these Vesicles broke out
without any other previous Indications of Infection, and, as I imagine,
from the expeditious Separation of the pestilential Venom, and the sudden
Conquest of the Distemper by a strong Constitution: But whensoever the
Pain and Heat of the Part was so aggravated, that no proper Applications
would asswage it, there was commonly Danger of a Mortification from so
great a Concourse of pestilential Particles together; and once I remember
a Vesicle to change into a Carbuncle, from the continued Accession to it
of fresh morbifick Poison.
WE come now in Course to speak of Buboes, which were hard and painful
Tumours, with Inflammation and Gathering upon the Glands, behind the Ears,
Arm-Pits, or Groin.
THESE Tumors immediately upon Seizure are found so hard, that they will
not at all give Way to the Touch. In some these were moveable, and in
others fixed; but after some Time this great Tension remitted; and it was
common to prognosticate the Event of the Distemper from their sudden or
slow Increase, and from their genuine or untoward Suppuration, as also
from the Degrees of Virulence in their Contents.
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