The physicians could do little or nothing for the people in this extremity[370]. They are nowhere alluded to throughout this epidemic, and even those who might have come forward to succour their fellow citizens, had fallen into the errors of Galen, and their dialectic minds sank under this appalling phenomenon. This holds good even of the famous Thomas Linacre, subsequently physician in ordinary to two monarchs[371], and founder of the College of Physicians, in 1518. In the prime of his youth he had been an eye-witness of the events at Oxford, and survived even the second and third eruption of the Sweating Sickness; but in none of his writings do we find a single word respecting this disease, which is of such permanent importance. In fact, the restorers of the medical science of ancient Greece, who were followed by all the most enlightened men in Europe, with the single exception of Linacre, occupied themselves rather with the ancient terms of art than with actual observation, and in their critical researches overlooked the important events that were passing before their eyes[372]. This reminds us of the later Greek physicians, who for four hundred years paid no attention to the small-pox, because they could find no description of it in the immortal works of Galen[373]. No resource was therefore left to the terrified people of England but their own good sense, and this led them to the adoption of a plan of treatment, than which no physician in the world could have given them a better; namely, not to resort to any violent medicines, but to apply moderate heat, to abstain from food, taking only a small quantity of mild drink, and quietly to wait for four-and-twenty hours the crisis of this formidable malady. Those who were attacked during the day, in order to avoid any chill, immediately went to bed in their clothes, and those who sickened by night did not rise from their beds in the morning; while all carefully avoided exposing to the air even a hand or foot. Thus they anxiously guarded against heat or cold, so as not to excite perspiration by the former, nor to check it by the latter—for they well knew that either was certain death[374]. The report of the infallibility of this method soon spread over the whole kingdom, and thus towards the commencement of 1486, many were rescued from death. On New Year’s Day, a violent tempest arose in the south-east, and by purifying the atmosphere relieved the oppression under which the people laboured, and thus, to the joy of the whole nation, the epidemic was swept away without leaving a trace behind[375]. SECT. 3.—CAUSES.