De pestilentia vera
Creator: Abraham Vater | Date: 1710 | Notes: Unknown
- Title
- De pestilentia vera
- Creator
- Abraham Vater
- Date
- 1710
- Notes
- Unknown
Document notes
Unknown
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G. VII. Vol 52492/P 2. B. V. RECTORE MAGNIFICENTISSIMO SERENISSIMO PRINCIPE REGIO AC DOMINO DN. FRIDERICO AVGVSTO ELECT. SAXON. HEREDE DISSERTATIONEM SOLENNEM DE PESTILENTIA VERA PRAESIDE PRORECTORE MAGNIFICO D. IO. GOTHOFREDO BERGERO ARCHIATRO REGIO, COLLEG. MED. SENIORE ET PROF. PRIM. PRO LICENTIA IMPETRANDI SVMMOS IN ARTE SALVTARI HONORES P. P. M. ABRAHAMVS VATER VITEMBERG. A. D. APRIL. cl[.] I5 cc X. IN AVDITORIO MAIORI HORIS ANTE ET POST MERIDIEM CONSVETIS. VITEMBERGAE, PRELO GERDESIANO.
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G. VII. Vol 52492/P 2. B. V. TO THE MOST MAGNIFICENT RECTOR, THE MOST SERENE ROYAL PRINCE AND LORD, LORD FRIEDRICH AUGUST HEIR OF SAXONY SOLEMN DISSERTATION ON THE PESTILENCE TRUE UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF THE MAGNIFICENT PRO-RECTOR D. IO. GOTHOFRED BERGER, ROYAL ARCHIATER, SENIOR OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE AND FIRST PROFESSOR FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING THE HIGHEST HONORS IN THE HEALING ART PRESENTED BY M. ABRAHAM VATER OF WITTENBERG. ON APRIL cl. I5 cc X. IN THE GREAT AUDITORIUM AT THE CUSTOMARY HOURS BEFORE AND AFTER MIDDAY. WITTENBERG, PRINTED BY GERDES.
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DE PESTILENTIA VERA DISSERTATIO SOLENNIS I. D Vo sunt horrenda morborum genera, quæ, ex ceteris terrarum orbis partibus delata in Europam contagione, et propagata, vitæ mortalium ac valetudini, tot alioqui casibus opportunæ, insidiantur. Ex his alterum, superioribus ignotum seculis, a Græcis certe, et Latinis, Arabibusque nusquam notatum, sed anno demum a nato Servatore c[uius] cccccxiii, cum A 2
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ON PESTILENCE A TRUE SOLEMN DISSERTATION I. Two are the dreadful kinds of diseases, which, brought into Europe by contagion from other parts of the world, and spread abroad, lie in ambush for the lives of mortals and for health, which is otherwise exposed to so many accidents. Of these, the one, unknown to earlier ages, certainly not noted by the Greeks, and Latins, or Arabs anywhere, but first only in the year from the birth of the Savior c[uius] cccccxiii, when A 2
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DE PESTILENTIA cum redeunte ex Indiis Occidentalibus, infecto Christophori Columbi exercitu advectum, Barcinonem primum in Hispaniis, mox deinceps, expeditionis Gallicæ occasione, Neapolim et Italianiam reliquam invasit, indeque in Galliam, et Germaniam, ac ceteras orbis partes, pervenit. Hoc malum virus suum crassum lentumque non nisi impuri contactu corporis per magis hiantes atque meabiles partes infundit, et quia blanditiis et complexibus potissimum venereis sese insinuat, merito venereum vocatur, atque, ob miras commiscendorum corporum libidines, nusquam locorum cessat, et nunc palam se prodit, atque gravissimis dolorum cruciatibus, et exanthematis ac tumoribus variis excruciat hominem et conficit, nunc vero clanculum et aliorum specie morborum, quibus se implicat, infirmat eundem ac perdit. Alterum ex Oriente, et vicinis ei locis, ubi est perpetuum ac veluti domesticum, cum infectis hominibus atque exili sæpe fomite in alias immigrat regiones, et obscurissimi contactus, halitusque contagione ab uno susceptum, facile subitoque manat latius, magnaque celeritate plures adoritur, ac veluti ab irato Numine missum, in populum, nil tale metuentem, et in- cau-
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ON THE PLAGUE brought back from the West Indies with the infected army of Christopher Columbus, it first invaded Barcelona in Spain, then soon afterward, on the occasion of the Gallic expedition, Naples and the rest of Italy, and from there reached France and Germany, and the other parts of the world. This evil infuses its thick and sluggish poison only through impure bodily contact, by means of the more open and accessible parts; and because it insinuates itself chiefly through amorous embraces and especially venereal intercourse, it is rightly called venereal. And, because of the remarkable lust for mingling bodies, it never ceases anywhere: now it shows itself openly, and torments and destroys a man with the most grievous pangs of pain and with various eruptions and swellings; now, however, it works secretly and under the appearance of other diseases, with which it entangles itself, weakens the same man, and brings him to ruin. Another disease comes from the East, and from the regions neighboring it, where it is perpetual and, as it were, domestic; with infected people and often with only a small germ, it migrates into other regions, and, once taken up by one through the contagion of the most hidden contact and of breath, it easily and suddenly spreads more widely, attacks many with great speed, and, as if sent by some angry divinity, lays hold upon the people, who fear no such thing, and in-
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VERA 5 cautum, grassatur, et, quod tabum venereum mora et tardius, hoc celerrime efficit, eoque maximam ægrorum partem et populosissimas civitates brevi funeribus tantisper exhaurit, dum serpendo elangvescat tandem, et sæpe tam subito finem affligendi faciat, ac si fato quodam divino diutius sævire prohibeatur. II. S Aevum hoc et immane ac perniciosissimum genus mali vulgo Pestis, rectius Pestilentia, dicitur, et quia contactu occultiore polluit et suscipitur, atque contagii et nocendi vi ac sævitia morbis contagiosis omnibus aliis longissime antecellit, etiam contagionis nomen sibi vindicavit. Nos vero Pestilentiam diximus veram, ut omnem evitaremus vocum ambiguitatem, et luem hanc contagiosam, de qua agere nobis est animus, ab epidemia, quæ varia esse potest, distingveremus. Quod cum vulgo minus animadvertatur, hic mox in limine dissertationis monendum est, apud veteres pestem proprie omne noxium, pestilentiam vero, quam Græci λοιμὸν vocant, non unum aliquod certum morbi genus, sed generatim morbum quemcunque perniciosum, qui B 3
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VERA 5 which, while hidden, creeps along; and, because this venomous contagion acts more slowly and tardily in one case, it accomplishes its work most swiftly in this one, and in a short time drains off the greatest part of the sick and the most populous cities by funerals, until at last, as it creeps onward, it grows feeble, and often brings its work of destruction to an end so suddenly, as though it were prevented by some divine decree from raging longer. II. This age-old and monstrous and most harmful kind of evil is commonly called the Plague, more correctly Pestilence; and because it corrupts and is received by a more secret contact, and by the force and savagery of its contagion and harm far surpasses all other contagious diseases, it has also claimed for itself the name of contagion. But we have said Pestilentia, true pestilence, so that we might avoid all ambiguity of words, and distinguish this contagious plague, which we intend to discuss, from epidemic disease, which may be of various kinds. Since this is less commonly noticed, it must at once be stated here at the threshold of the dissertation that among the ancients pestis properly meant every harmful thing, and pestilentia, which the Greeks call λοιμὸν, did not signify some single definite kind of disease, but generally any pernicious disease, which B 3
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DE PESTILENTIA qui ob causam aliquam communem, eamque non patriam, sed externam et adventitiam, ac præsertim ob pravam anni constitutionem, in po- pulum grassatur, appellatum fuisse. Qua ratio- ne omnes prope morbi, qui a Græcis ἐπιδημιοι dicuntur, in hunc censum veniunt: uti ex pluri- bus Hippocratis in Epidemiis historiis, et Celso de Med. lib. I, cap. 2 et 10, multisque aliis patet. Et hos quidem cum Galeno complures hodie in mor- bos epidemios puros, sive simpliciter dictos, et λοιμώδεις, sive pestilentes dividunt, ita tamen, ut hos æque ac illos a communis vitio aeris, tum et publici victus labe deducendos putent. Sed rectius faciunt, qui ab illis pestilentiæ generibus morbum hunc maxime acutum, qui carbunculis efferatus et bubonibus, atque exanthematis va- riis, cum immani symptomatum syndrome, vi contagionis oritur, et serpit, distingvunt, eum- que demum veræ pestilentiæ nomen mereri arbi- trantur. Hæc enim est pestilentia illa calamito- sa, quæ, ut habet Propheta Regius Psal. XCI, v. 3 et 6, occultis contagii insidiis nil tale metuen- tes implicat, sicuti aves laqueo aucupis irre- tiuntur, et celeri volatu, volantis instar sagittæ, domus urbesque peragrat, ac metam tangit, nec
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OF THE PESTILENCE which, for some common cause, and that not native, but foreign and adventitious, and especially on account of the corrupt constitution of the year, spreads among the people, has been so called. By this reasoning nearly all diseases, which are called by the Greeks ἐπιδημιοι, come into this category: as is evident from several histories in Hippocrates’ Epidemics , and from Celsus, De Medicina , book I, chapters 2 and 10, and many others. And these, indeed, together with Galen, many today divide into pure epidemic diseases, or simply so called, and λοιμώδεις, that is, pestilential; yet in such a way that they think these, no less than those, are to be derived from a defect of the common air, and also from corruption of public diet. But those act more correctly who distinguish from those kinds of pestilence this disease, which is most acute, and which, made furious by carbuncles and buboes, and by various exanthemata, arises and spreads by the force of contagion, with a vast syndrome of symptoms, and who judge that it alone at last deserves the name of true pestilence. For this is that calamitous pestilence which, as the Royal Prophet has in Psalm XCI, verses 3 and 6, by the hidden snares of contagion entangles those who suspect nothing of such a thing, just as birds are ensnared in the fowler’s snare, and with swift flight, like an arrow flying, traverses houses and cities, and reaches its mark, nor
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VERA 7 nec minus in tenebris grassatur, quam in meridie vastat. III. QVæ cum mecum considero, in eam venio opinionem, pestilentiam hanc contagiosam vix latis perspectam veteribus fuisse, quod minus vim contagii attenderint, sed pestilentiam omnem communi aeris, quem spiritu ducimus, iniuriæ atqve intemperaturæ, et cibi potionisque improbitati, tribuendam putarint. Neque enim ad veræ pestilentiæ naturam pertinere, ut morbus sit epidemius, præclare Eustachius Rudius Pract. lib. I, c. 30, monuit. Quem sequutus Sennertus noster, de Febr. lib. IV, cap. 1, si vel unus in urbe pestilentia corriperetur, propterea, quod solus ille laboret, eundem pestilentia laborare, non negandum esse, recte censuit. Nam satis quidem crebra animadversione compertum est, invecta aliquo undecunque per contagium pestilentiæ causa, quæ saltem pluribus communicari apta sit, eam tamen non ilico epidemiam fieri, sed in paucis sæpe subiectis aliquandiu hærere, nec raro extingui ante, quam epidemia vel communis evadat. Quod vero CL. Conringius Dissert. de
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VERA 7 no less in darkness does it creep about than it ravages at midday. III. When I consider these things with myself, I come to this opinion, that this contagious pestilence was scarcely clearly understood by the ancients, because they paid less attention to the power of contagion, but thought that every pestilence was to be attributed to the common air, which we draw by breathing, and to its corruption and irregularity, and to the unwholesomeness of food and drink. Nor indeed does it belong to the nature of a true pestilence that the disease should be epidemic, as the excellent Eustachius Rudius has noted, Pract. lib. I, c. 30. Following him, our Sennertus, de Febr. lib. IV, cap. 1, rightly judged that if even one person in a city were seized by pestilence, and only he were afflicted for that reason, it should not be denied that he is laboring under pestilence. For it has in fact been ascertained by sufficiently frequent observation that, once some cause of pestilence has been introduced by contagion from somewhere or other, a cause at least capable of being communicated to many, it does not immediately become epidemic, but often remains for some time in a few of the affected, and not rarely is extinguished before it becomes epidemic or general. But what the famous Conringius, Dissert. de
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DE PESTILENTIA de peste, thes. 6, hic distingvendum esse putavit inter pestem, et morbum pestilentem aut pestiferum, illaque morbum semper communem significari voluit, pestilentem vero etiam illum esse, qui nondum actu est communis, modo ea sit natura, ut facile communis reddi possit, perinde scilicet, quo simili cum Scherbio rem illustrat, atque in republica cives interdum seditiosi reperiantur, seditionem tamen aut non, aut nondum molientes; id quidem hoc minus ad rem facere videtur, quo notius est, morbi pestilentis aut pestiferi notionem non unum certum morbi genus denotare, sed morbos quosvis malignos et exitiales complecti. Satis est, propria pestilentiæ symptomata adesse, et vim se per contagium propagandi, etiamsi non ita exeratur, ut actu commune pluribus malum fiat. Quod profecto sciri plurimum interest reipublicæ, quo contagii propagatio sine mora matureque declinari possit, quæ alioqui, serius paulo adhibita cura, non unis ædibus, sed universis civitatibus periculum creat. Sicut enim ignis natura quidem sua urit, nec tamen naturæ suæ vim amittit, si non urat subtractam materiam: ita nec contagiosa pestilentia nomen amittit, quæ ex una domo, aut
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On Pestilence Concerning the plague, in thesis 6, he thought that a distinction should be made between plague and a pestilent or pestiferous disease, and he wished the former to mean always a common disease, but the pestilent one also to be that which is not yet actually common, provided that it is by nature such that it can easily be made common, just as, for example, by a similar comparison with Scherbius he illustrates the matter, in a commonwealth citizens are sometimes found to be seditious, yet either not at all, or not yet, plotting sedition; this indeed seems the less to bear on the matter, since it is more obvious that the notion of a pestilent or pestiferous disease does not denote one fixed kind of disease, but embraces all diseases that are malignant and deadly. It is enough that the proper symptoms of pestilence are present, and that it has the power to spread by contagion, even if it is not so exercised that the evil actually becomes common to many. This certainly matters greatly for the state to know, so that the spread of contagion may be averted without delay and in good time, which otherwise, if care is applied a little later, creates danger not to single houses, but to entire cities. For just as fire by its nature burns, yet does not lose the force of its nature if it does not burn the material taken away from it: so too does a contagious pestilence not lose its name, which from one house, or
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VERA 9 aut platea, aut vico, prohibito infectorum commercio, non effertur, eoque multos non sustulit. Illud certe ex Prospero Alpino, de Med. Aegypt. lib. I, cap. 15, et Petro Della Valle, in Itiner. or. tom. I, p. 10, et seqq. atque aliis huius generis scriptoribus iam satis constat, pestem in Valachia, nec non Bizantii, itemque in Græcia, Syria, et Aegypto, ac præsertim in Barbaria, quod nulla illis gentibus, quæ fati necessitate pestilentiam immitti, credunt, sit devitationis cura, nunquam non clanculum obrepere, et tam propiore consortio, infectorum nempe hominum contactu afflatuque, propagari, quam cum vestimentis, et rebus variis laneis, lineisque, ac bombycinis, tradito quasi per manus contagio, ex ædibus et urbibus aliis in alias deportari, subinde autem, invalescente contagio, citissime sævissimeque per populum ita diffundi ac disseminari, ut paucorum spatio dierum multa sæpe millia hominum depascatur. Pari modo Hieron. Mercurialis tradit, pestem, quæ anno MD LXXV, mense Iulio, per contagium Venetias delata fuit, ab eo tempore usque ad totum Decembrem, sparsis paulatim per urbem inquinamentis, modo unum saltem, vel alterum, modo plures invalisse, ac B ineun-
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VERA 9 whether in a street or in a lane, the commerce of infected persons having been prohibited, it is not carried out, and by that means it has not carried off many. This at least is already sufficiently established from Prosper Alpinus, de Med. Aegypt. book I, ch. 15, and Pietro Della Valle, in Itiner. or. vol. I, p. 10, and following pages, and other writers of this kind, namely, that the plague in Wallachia, as well as in Byzantium, likewise in Greece, Syria, and Egypt, and especially in Barbary, since those peoples, who believe that pestilence is sent by the necessity of fate, have no care to avoid it, never fails to creep in secretly, and to spread both by more intimate association, namely by contact and breath of infected persons, and, as it were by hand-to-hand transmission, with garments and various woolen, linen, and silk goods, being carried from one house and city to another; then, as the contagion gains strength, it very quickly and most savagely spreads and disseminates itself through the people, so that in the space of a few days it often devours many thousands of human beings. In like manner Hier. Mercurialis reports that the plague, which in the year 1575, in the month of July, was brought to Venice by contagion, from that time until the whole of December, with the infections gradually spread through the city, sometimes took hold of only one, or another, sometimes of several, and B ineun-
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DE PESTILENTIA incunte anno sequenti omnia semina visa fuisse penitus extincta. Circa Martii vero initium malum recruduisse ex occasione contaminatæ suppellectilis, quæ per aliquot menses latuerat occlusa; ab eoque tempore ad mensem usque Iulium semina modo maiorem, modo minorem vim exercuisse, ita ut interdum plures dies sine cuiusquam morte transferint, interdum unus vel alter obierit, quandoque plures, quandoque pauciores. Circa medium Iulium mala omnia acerbiora facta esse, complures visos ægros, frequentiores mortes, atque hæc omnia incrementum sumisse per totum mensem Augustum, Septembrem, atque etiam initium Octobris, ita ut his mensibus morbis in suo vigore fuerit. Postea omnia coepisse declinare. Et quidni pestis vocanda erit, quæ, ut habet Anton. Deusingius, tr. de peste c.2, anno 1656 Groningam per contagium vestibus allata, sparsimque in urbe amplissima oberrans, paucas tantum ædes inquinavit, quosque infecit, plerosque omnes extinxit: aut quæ, ut refert Mart. Listerus, Comm. in Med. Stat. Sanctor. Sect. I, aphor. 137, cum vestimentis, ad ducenta millaria Londino tempore pestilentia missis, totam familiam infecit, in eaque substitit. Taceo, quod
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On the pestilence at the beginning of the following year all the seeds appeared to have been utterly extinguished. But around the beginning of March the evil broke out again, on account of contaminated furniture, which had lain shut up for several months; and from that time until the month of July the seeds exerted at one time a greater, at another a lesser force, so that at times several days passed without anyone’s death, at times one or two died, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. Around the middle of July all things became more severe, more patients were seen, deaths were more frequent, and all these things increased throughout the whole month of August, September, and even the beginning of October, so that during those months the disease was in its full vigor. Afterwards everything began to decline. And why should it not be called a pest, which, as Anton. Deusingius says in tr. de peste c.2, was brought to Groningen in the year 1656 by contagion in clothing, and, wandering scattered through a very large city, infected only a few houses, yet all or nearly all whom it infected it destroyed: or which, as Mart. Listerus reports, Comm. in Med. Stat. Sanctor. Sect. I, aphor. 137, with garments sent from London to a distance of two hundred miles at the time of pestilence, infected the entire family, and there came to a stop in it. I say nothing, because
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VERA 11 quod Matth. Untzerus lib. I. de Peste memorat, sibi oculato testi constare, quod tum Halis Saxo- num, tum alibi interdum, una aut altera dunta- xat domus pestifera contagione, peregrinis locis illata, fucrit contaminata, ceteris in tota urbe ni- hil ab eadem passis. Ita enim usus docuit, hanc pestilentiam non nisi contagio ex aliis in alias, re- motas æque ac vicinas, regiones inferri, et in eodem coeli, quamvis salubri, tractu, in uno oppi- do grassari, ab aliis vero arceri, et importatam in ea, ac nascentem, ipso in fomite ac veluti in in- cunabulis extingvi, et unius ædis, vel plateæ, aut urbanæ cuiusdam regionis limitibus ac terminis coerceri ita posse, ne erumpat ac evagetur in urbem reliquam, admissam vero interius plures in ædes & plateas, virus suum maiore vi in po- pulum evomere, et miseras hominum strages in- ferre. Quæ cum ita crebro admodum evenire prudentiores perspicerent, orta demum est sa- pientissimo consilio, quæ, quantum ex silentio autorum liquet, antiquis temporibus minus qui- dem in usu fuisse videtur, cautio illa ac provisio, quam pestilentiæ tempore magno cum fructu servari diligenter videmus, ut nemo, qui ex lo- cis suspectis, nedum ex infectis accesserit, reci- pia-
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VERA 11 what Matth. Untzerus records in book I on the Plague, that, as he knew from eyewitness testimony, both at Halle in Saxony and elsewhere, now and then only one or two houses had been infected by pestilential contagion brought in from foreign places, while the rest of the city suffered nothing from it. For experience has taught that this pestilence is brought in only by contagion from one place to another, into distant as well as neighboring regions, and that in the same tract of the heavens, however healthy, it rages in one town, yet is kept away from others; and that, once imported there and beginning to arise, it is extinguished, as it were, in the very source and cradle, and can be confined within the bounds and limits of a single house, or street, or some district of the city, so that it does not break out and spread to the rest of the town; whereas, if it has gained entry deeper into many houses and streets, it may pour forth its poison upon the people with greater force and bring dreadful slaughter upon mankind. Since the more prudent saw this happening very often, there finally arose, by the wisest counsel, that caution and provision which, so far as is clear from the silence of the authors, seems indeed to have been less in use in ancient times, namely, that precaution which in time of pestilence we see diligently observed with great benefit: that no one who has come from suspected places, much less from infected ones, is to be recei-
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DE PESTILENTIA piatur, nec quicquam, quod ex talibus locis ad- vectum sit, admittatur, quamdiu id malum gras- setur. IV. H Oc pestis genus ante annos hos xxx recorda- mur, ex Asia Bizantium, indeque per Hungari- am, Austriam et Bohemiam, Misniam et Saxoniam invasisse, et oppida alia eadem gravissime laborasse, alia, etsi non longe dissita, exclusa cum illis locis omni commerciorum necessitudine, nihil vitii traxisse. In his memoranda est Vitemberga no- stra, quæ cum vulgo minus salubris præter ra- tionem dicatur, hoc demum fatali tempore sin- gulari Dei beneficio inter urbes hac lue afflictas omnis periculi expers suit. Eiusdem generis pesti- lentiam hucusque in Polonia, Borussia, Moldavia, et quibusdam Transylvaniæ locis sæviisse, non minus ex modo propagandi, quam omni sympto- matum concursione, dilucide apparet. Quos enim lues hæc incessit, in his repente magna fit totius corporis mutatio, qua non solum plerique omnes intereunt, sed suo etiam halitu alios pol- luunt, vel relictio fomite idem genus mali prose- minant. Ac primo quidem insultu lastitudo quæ-
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of the pestilence should be purified, and nothing brought in from such places should be admitted, so long as that evil is raging. IV. We remember this kind of plague, some thirty years ago, to have invaded Byzantium from Asia, and thence through Hungary, Austria and Bohemia, Misnia and Saxony, and other towns suffered very severely, while others, though not far distant, were excluded together with those places from all intercourse of commerce, and drew no taint. Among these our Vitemberga must be noted, which, although commonly called less healthy than is reasonable, at this fateful time was, by a singular benefit of God, among the cities afflicted by this contagion wholly free from danger. That a pestilence of the same kind has hitherto raged in Poland, Prussia, Moldavia, and certain parts of Transylvania is clearly apparent, no less from the manner of its spread than from the entire concurrence of symptoms. For those whom this plague attacks are suddenly changed in the whole body, by which not only do most of them perish, but they also infect others by their own breath, or, if left behind, propagate the same kind of evil by a contagion left as seed. And at the first onset lassitude is ...
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VERA. 13 quædam subita atque improvisa, et gravitas ac dolor capitis, per spinam et lumbos protensus, ingruit, accedit etiam nausea quædam, horroreque corpus vario plerumque perfunditur. Mox opinione citius vehemens assiduaque fit vomitio, cum cardialgia, et insigni præcordiorum angustia, magnaque inquietudine, et gravibus anxii pressique cordis successibus. Sæpe illuvies serosa biliosaque aluo deturbatur, et diarrhæa oritur, sangvisque eodem loco, nec raro ore, naribus, utero erumpit tam floridus ac tenuis, ut, quod Isbrand. Diemerbrockius notavit, tr. de Peste, lib. 1, cap. 14, hæmorrhagia plerumque sisti non possit. Dolores nunc in ventre tantum, colicam mentientes, nunc toto corpore sæviunt mobiles et vagabundi, membraque punctim feriunt. Vigiliæ alios perpetuæ excruciant, quas subitum sequitur delirium, alios sopor tenet. Pulsus frequens est, et debilis, inæqualis ut plurimum: aliquando etiam, si obiter tangatur, moderato non absimilis videtur. Lotium alias aquosum redditur et limpidum, ac sanorum simile, alias varium, rubrum, turbidum et confusum, sicut iumentorum. Vires, quas alioqui non nisi progressu morbi atteri consentaneum est, hic statim principio mali omnes B 3
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VERA. 13 Certain sudden and unforeseen symptoms occur, and a heaviness and pain of the head, extending through the spine and loins, comes on; nausea is also added, and the body is usually overwhelmed with various chills. Soon, more quickly than one would think, violent and continual vomiting sets in, with cardialgia, marked constriction of the precordia, great restlessness, and severe paroxysms of the anxious and oppressed heart. Often a serous and bilious discharge is forced from the bowels, and diarrhoea arises, and blood erupts in the same place, and not rarely from the mouth, nostrils, or womb, so florid and thin that, as Isbrand. Diemerbrockius noted, tr. de Peste, lib. 1, cap. 14, the hemorrhage can generally not be stopped. Pains now rage only in the belly, feigning colic, now through the whole body, moving and wandering, striking the limbs with stinging pains. Some are tormented by perpetual wakefulness, which is followed by sudden delirium; others are held by sleep. The pulse is frequent and weak, for the most part irregular: though sometimes, if merely touched, it seems not unlike a moderate one. Urine is at times passed watery and clear, and like that of healthy persons; at others varied, red, turbid, and confused, like that of beasts of burden. The strength, which otherwise it is fitting to suppose is worn away only by the progress of the disease, here at the very beginning of the malady all B 3
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DE PESTILENTIA omnes concidunt, tam ex, quæ motionum, quam quæ sensuum, ipsiusque adeo mentis operationibus sunt necessariæ. Vultus vividi caloris gratia caret, sibique plane sit dissimilis, ac crebræ existunt animi defectiones. Calor nunc foris mitior, reapse autem intus vigens et urens, ut satis ex lingva scabra et nigra, anhelosa, et quæ ore obitur patulo, respiratione, sitique aliquando inextingvibili patet, nunc acrior, cum siti nulla, vel parva, variorum symptomatum febrilium agmine stipatur. Inter hæc die tertio quartove, ocyus tamen interdum, aliquando serius, bubones extumescunt subito, magnitudine, colore doloreque varii, frequentius ad ingvina, vel sub alis, nonnunquam sub genibus, mento, et pone aures, et modo in hac, modo in illa corporis parte comites erumpunt anthraces, quibus, tanquam accensis facibus, pestilentia intus fulgurat, donec tandem sideret. In aliquibus etiam variegantes cutem maculæ, paucæ, copiosæve, et vel culicum morsibus similes, aut minores, quas vocant petechias, variorum colorum, purpureæ, violaceæ, virides, lividæ, nigræ, et piperis ideam referentes, vel maiores, vibicum instar, æque aliquando a bubone, sæpius ab anthrace,
Transcription: Translated (English)
OF PESTILENCE all powers fail, both those necessary for the operations of movement and of the senses, and indeed of the mind itself. The countenance lacks the warmth of life and is wholly unlike itself, and frequent faintings occur. The heat is now milder outwardly, but in truth burning and active within, as is sufficiently shown by the rough and black tongue, the panting, and the fact that the mouth lies open; by the breathing, and sometimes by an unquenchable thirst. At other times it is more acute, with no thirst or only slight thirst, and is accompanied by a train of various febrile symptoms. Among these, on the third or fourth day, though sometimes sooner and at times later, buboes suddenly swell, varying in size, color, and pain, most frequently in the groin or under the armpits, sometimes under the knees, on the chin, and behind the ears; and in one part of the body or another carbuncles break out as companions, by which, as though with kindled torches, the pestilence flashes within, until at last it sinks. In some there are also spots on the skin, few or many, various in color, either like mosquito bites or smaller, which are called petechiae; of different colors, purple, violet, green, livid, black, and resembling the appearance of pepper; or larger, like bruises, sometimes arising from a bubo, more often from a carbuncle,
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VERA 15 thrace, caudæ instar a cometa protensæ, vel etiam amplissimæ, et suffusionis more aut erysipelatis, integras corporis partes complexæ, ac sæpe punctis notatæ livescentibus nigrisve, efflorescunt, nec raro inter hæc omnia bullæ, sive vesiculæ serosæ, variæ magnitudinis, ac sæpe miliariæ servent. Videas tamen interdum ante, quam vel intumuerint bubones, vel efferbuerint carbunculi, vomitione assidua, vel fluxu alvi, crebraque animi defectione ita hominem repente prosterni affligique, ut non solum vires, sed etiam anima deficiat, apparentibus in cute, si non ante mortem, statim ab eadem, ex atro livescentibus maculis. Sed rarius id ita evenire, nec fere nisi in pestilentiæ admodum funestæ exordio, bene Th. Sydenhamius advertit, sect. III, obs. med. circa morb. crisin et curat. cap. 2. E contrario fieri etiam animadvertas, ut ex improviso alicubi bubo aut carbunculus emergat, nullo antegresso, aliquando etiam nullo succedente graviore symptomate, ita ut et in publicum prodire quis, et sua obire munia possit. Id de se ipso testatur Diemerbrockius l.c. lib. IV, cap. 120, quod cum centurionem prima vice invisisset, statim ab ipso contagium contraxerit, aborto in sinistra manu cum dolore ingen-
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Vera 15 Spread abroad, with tails like a comet’s, or even very large, and, in the manner of a suffusion or erysipelas, embracing whole parts of the body, and often marked with blackish or dark livid spots, they break out, and not rarely among all these there appear also blisters, or serous vesicles, of various size, and often miliary. Yet you may sometimes see, before either the buboes have swollen or the carbuncles have broken out, that by constant vomiting, or diarrhoea, and frequent faintness, a man is suddenly so cast down and afflicted that not only his strength fails, but even his life, with dark livid spots appearing on the skin, if not before death, then immediately at the moment of death. But that this happens more rarely, and scarcely except at the beginning of a very fatal plague, Th. Sydenham rightly observed, sect. III, obs. med. circa morb. crisin et curat. cap. 2. On the other hand, observe that it also happens that a bubo or carbuncle suddenly appears somewhere, without anything preceding it, and sometimes even without any more severe symptom following, so that a person may both go out in public and attend to his duties. Diemerbrockius testifies this of himself in the passage cited, lib. IV, cap. 120, that when he first visited the centurion, he at once contracted the contagion from him, with an abscess in the left hand accompanied by pain in-
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DE PESTILENTIA ingenti carbunculo, quem sola quidem toxicorum applicatione curaverit, cetera incolumis et sanus. Idem ille tradit evenisse militi, centurionis servo. Haud aliter refert Platerus, Prax. tr. II, cap. 2, et 17, sibi ipsi in manibus, et servo chirurgo in pedibus, pustulam pestilentialem citra febrim, vel aliquam noxam obortam fuisse. Sed quoquo modo ea lues afficiat, nunquam tamen non coniunctum habet seminarium contagii, quo manare longius et propagari possit. Ac solet quidem pestilentia, pro vario contagionis vigore, et habitudine partium, quas hæc invadit, itemque ipsorummet natura ægrotantium varia, varia excitare symptomata, adeo ut sæpe Prothei ostendat faciem, et in magna infectorum multitudine raro unus alterve eodem prorsus modo affligatur: eam tamen, facta eorum, quæ commemoravimus, symptomatum inter se et cum contento ac præcipiti totius morbi cursu, qui tam brevi tempore, et paucarum spatio die- rum, aliquando etiam unius flexu conficitur, collatione et comparatione, non difficile erit cognoscere intelligenti et perito, ei præsertim, qui in hæc tempora inciderit, et versatus cum aliis peste correptis fuerit. Quodsi iam latius malum serpat,
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ON PESTILENCE with a great carbuncle, which he cured, indeed, only by the application of poisons, while otherwise he remained unharmed and healthy. The same author relates that this happened to a soldier, the servant of a centurion. Plater likewise reports, Prax. tr. II, cap. 2 and 17, that in his own hands, and in the feet of a surgeon’s servant, a pestilential pustule arose without fever or any injury. But in whatever way that plague afflicts, it never fails to have joined with it a seedbed of contagion, by which it may spread further and be propagated. And indeed pestilence, according to the varying strength of the contagion and the condition of the parts which it attacks, as well as the varying nature of the sufferers themselves, is accustomed to produce various symptoms, so much so that it often shows the face of Proteus, and in a great multitude of the infected scarcely one or two are ever afflicted in exactly the same way. Yet by comparing among themselves, and with the whole course of the disease, full of tumult and haste, which is completed in so brief a time and within the space of a few days, sometimes even in the turn of a single day, the symptoms we have mentioned, it will not be difficult for one who is intelligent and experienced to recognize it, especially one who has fallen into these times and has been acquainted with others seized by the plague. But if now the evil should spread more widely,
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VERA 17 serpat, tunc luculentam suæ præsentiæ significationem exhibet. V. ATque hæc quidem facies exterior est illo- rum, qui pestilentia conflictantur, ex quo non difficulter de interiori constitutione existimes. Nam, uti Ambr. Paræus, lib. de peste, Laur. Gieselerus, obs. de peste 18, Io. Fernelius, lib. de febr. c. 18, Gall. Etschenreuterus in epist. ad Gesner. Th. Cornelius Consent. epist. Marc. Aur. Severini ad Tim. Locrens. aliique fidem faciunt, sectione cadaverum, pestilentia extinctorum, compertum est, non solum foris cutem, sed quoque intus viscera maculis undique obsideri, easque per musculos etiam, et membranas, vasaque ipsa, ita diffundi, ut, sumto ab interioribus initio, partes omnes ad cutem usque pervadere videantur. Ita Diemerbrockius l.c. lib. IV, hist. 32, maculas illas vidit in femore ab ipso periostio originem ducere, et latiore basi, pyramidis instar, per medios musculos recta sursum ad cutem usque ascendere, atque ibi in conum terminari. Idem in brachio deprehendit, basin duorum exanthematum a duro tendine cuiusdam musculi origi- nem C
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VERA 17 it spreads, then it displays a clear indication of its presence. V. AND this indeed is the external appearance of those who are afflicted by pestilence, from which one may not difficultly judge their internal condition. For, as Amb. Paræus, lib. de peste, Laur. Gieselerus, obs. de peste 18, Io. Fernelius, lib. de febr. c. 18, Gall. Etschenreuterus in epist. ad Gesner. Th. Cornelius Consent. epist. Marc. Aur. Severini ad Tim. Locrens. and others testify, by the dissection of bodies of those dead from pestilence, it has been found not only outside the skin, but also within the viscera to be beset everywhere with spots, and these to be spread through the muscles as well, and the membranes and the vessels themselves, so that, beginning from the interior, all parts seem to extend all the way to the skin. Thus Diemerbrockius l.c. lib. IV, hist. 32, saw those spots in the thigh arising from the periosteum itself, and, with a broader base, like a pyramid, through the middle of the muscles ascending straight upward to the skin, and there ending in a cone. He found the same thing in the arm, the base of two exanthemata from the hard tendon of a certain muscle ori- ginem C
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DE PESTILENTIA nem ducere. Neque vero minus anthraces sive carbunculi non modo in partibus externis, sed etiam in interioribus, ventriculo, intestinis, renibus, liene, hepate, pulmonibus, atque visceribus aliis, observati fuerunt. Sangvis præterea fluidus et compage sua solutus a nonnullis repertus fuit, qui medicinæ publicæ in quibusdam Poloniæ oppidis præfuerunt. Quibuscum convenit, quod notavit Diemerbrockius l. c. lib. I, cap. 14, et lib. IV, hist. 17, sangvinem in peste correptis, vel secta vena missum, vel naribus aut utero manantem, non raro tam tenuem fuisse, ut sisti fluxio haud potuerit. Additque is contra V Villisium, in peste extinctis sangvinem nunquam in corde, aut vasis, coagulatum inveniri. Thomas autem Cornelius Consent. l. c. se vidisse, scribit, sangvinem, in dextro præsertim cordis ventriculo concretum, atque in duriusculam massam coactum, quo quidem fortean polypum cordis intellexerit, quem etiam Marcell. Malpighius, diff. de polypo cord. ait, in pestilentia extinctis aliquando reperiri. VI. Nunc, cum de causis pestilentiæ, de qua agimus, dicendum sit, consulto quidem præteri-
Transcription: Translated (English)
Of pestilence to lead. Nor indeed were anthraces, or carbuncles, observed no less not only in the external parts, but also in the internal parts, the stomach, intestines, kidneys, spleen, liver, lungs, and other viscera. Moreover, blood fluid and loosened from its structure was found by some, who were in charge of public medicine in certain towns of Poland. With these agrees what Diemerbrock, l. c. book I, chap. 14, and book IV, hist. 17, noted, that the blood in those struck by pestilence, whether drawn by a cut vein or flowing from the nostrils or womb, was often so thin that the bleeding could not be stopped. And he adds, against V. Villisius, that in those who died of the plague blood is never found coagulated in the heart, or in the vessels. But Thomas Cornelius, Cons. l. c., writes that he saw the blood, especially congealed in the right ventricle of the heart, and collected into a rather hard mass, which perhaps he meant to indicate as a polypus of the heart, which also Marcell. Malpighius, diff. de polypo cord. says is sometimes found in those who die of pestilence. VI. Now, since we must speak of the causes of the pestilence of which we are treating, it has indeed been purposely omitted beforehand...
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VERA 19 terimus, quæ vulgo de vi aeris pestifera, ex qua- litatum exuperantia, vel variis anomaliis, et magnis temporum tempestatumque conversionibus, aut etiam ex adspirationibus virosis paludum, stagno- rum, barathrorumque, vel commotæ intus concus- sæque et hiantis terræ, ac variorum fossilium, vel cadaverum insepultorum, corruptorum et com- putrescentium, asserri solent. His enim causis morbos quidem varios malignos et populares, ac pestilentiam aliquam nataxensinæs vocatam, nequaquam vero veram pestilentiam nasci, qui- vis facile intelligit, quicunque expertus est, hanc luem sæpius in regiones, magna coeli temperie gaudentes, sine ullo aeris vitio deferri, nec simul omnes in iis pagos et civitates, sed primo locum unum saltem, vel alterum, in eoque non omnes eodem tempore ædes invadere, inde vero loca alia post alia, ac sæpe, intactis vicinis, aut minus salubribus, dissita, et omnium confessione saluberrima, infestare, ac præterea sine ea multas magnas- que aeris vicissitudines, et aquarum terrarumque expirationes graves tetrasque, fieri. Quare, si quas plerique prædictis aeris vitiis pestilentias tri- buunt, recte intueamur, eas vel a vera pestilen- tia longissime abesse deprehendemus, vel ori- ginem C 2
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VERA 19 [?] are commonly ascribed to the harmful force of the air, to excesses of qualities, or to various anomalies and great changes of seasons and weather, or even to noxious exhalations from marshes, ponds, and swamps, or from the earth, when it is stirred up within and open-riven, and from various fossils, or from unburied corpses, corrupted and putrefying. For from these causes, various malignant and popular diseases, and a certain pestilence called nataxensinæs , may indeed arise; but not true pestilence, as anyone who has experience readily understands. This plague is often brought into regions enjoying a great temperateness of climate, without any fault in the air; and it does not at once seize all the villages and cities there, but first one place at least, or another, and in that place not all the houses at the same time; then other places one after another, and often, the neighboring places remaining untouched, or those less healthy and distant, which by common confession are most salubrious, it attacks. Moreover, without it there occur many great changes in the air, and grave and gloomy exhalations from waters and lands. Therefore, if we examine properly those pestilences which most people attribute to the aforementioned defects of the air, we shall find that they are either far removed from true pestilence, or their origin C 2
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20 DE PESTILENTIA ginem suam istis aeris mutationibus haudquaquam debere, comperiemus. Quæ perspiciens Fernelius, lib. II. de abdit. rer. caus. cap. 12, pestilentiæ causam non tam a labe quadam aeris manifesta, quam a superiorum corporum ac siderum, multifariam coeuntium, maligna quadam vi in hæc inferiora occulto influxu, deducendam putavit. Ac nescio, annon ad illas mutationes aeris vel manifestas, vel abditas et confictas, aut etiam μιάσμα sive inquinamenta eius, de quibus deinceps dicetur, referendum sit τὸ Θεῖον Hippocratis, quod hic morbis eiusmodi inesse voluit, quum notum sit, superstitiosam vetustatem statuisse αποθέωσιν elementorum, atque Hippocratem aerem fecisse divinitatis participem, et hunc Deum Iovemque ab aliis vocatum fuisse. Sed quoquo id modo se habeat, uti nullo idoneo argumento demonstrari potest, virus pestiferum ab aere gigni: sic illas Astrologorum ineptias tot contrariæ observationes, ut alia taceam, iam pridem exploserunt. Neque adeo operæ pretium est, huc referre vaticinationes illorum, qui ex aspectibus planetarum, et coniunctionibus eorum ac oppositionibus, ex ecclipsibus, cometis, stellis, quas vo- cant,
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20 OF PESTILENCE We shall find that it is by no means due to these changes of the air. Fernel, seeing this, lib. II. de abdit. rer. caus. cap. 12, thought that the cause of pestilence is to be derived not so much from some manifest corruption of the air, as from a certain evil power of the upper bodies and stars, coalescing in many ways, acting by hidden influx upon these lower regions. And I do not know whether Hippocrates’ τὸ Θεῖον, which he wished to be present in diseases of this kind, ought not to be referred to those changes of the air, whether manifest or hidden and fabricated, or even to its μιάσμα, or defilements, of which mention will be made hereafter; since it is known that superstitious antiquity established the ἀποθέωσις of the elements, and that Hippocrates made the air a participant in divinity, and that this God and Jupiter were called by others. But however this may be, since it can be demonstrated by no suitable argument that pestilential poison is generated from the air, so too all those follies of the astrologers, to say nothing of other things, have long ago been exploded by contrary observations. Nor is it worth the trouble to bring here the prophecies of those who, from the aspects of the planets and their conjunctions and oppositions, from eclipses, comets, and the stars, as they call them,
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VERA 21 cant, candentibus, et aliis in coelo evenientibus phænomenis, pestilentiam prædicere volunt, cum idem mereantur iudicium, quod prædictiones ex rosarum, violarum, aliorumque florum, sub autumni tempore nova germinatione, ex fungorum porro, aut boletorum, ut et vermi- um, ac insectorum, reptiliumve, proventu copio- so, ex frequentibus gravidarum abortibus, et re- bus similibus, quibus nimium indulgent plerique. VII. NEc vero attinet hic victum accusare, quasi a communis cibi potionisque labe pestilen- tia oriatur, idemque observetur in castris, et obsidionibus urbium, atque temporibus, ma- gna annonæ caritate afflictis, quibus situ putrilagineve obsita atque inquinata, corru- pta herbacea, atque insalubria inidoneaque o- mnia, nullo discrimine, vitæ tuendæ causa, in- geruntur, adeo ut iam olim apud Græcos na- tum sit proverbium: μετὰ λημβὸ λομίδος, post famem pestis. Hos enim morbos, quos hæ causæ pariunt, cuivis intelligenti clarum est cum pestilentia vera confundi, cum nullis testimoniis, fide dignis, convincamur, id mali causis his or- tum C 3
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TRUE 21 they wish to predict pestilence from signs, from glowing things, and from other phenomena occurring in the sky, when they deserve the same judgment as predictions from roses, violets, and other flowers, with new sprouting in the autumn season, furthermore from the abundant growth of fungi or mushrooms, as well as of worms, insects, or reptiles, from frequent miscarriages of pregnant women, and similar things, which most people indulge in too much. VII. Nor indeed is it relevant here to accuse diet, as though pestilence arose from corruption of common food and drink, and the same were observed in camps and in the siege of cities, and in times afflicted by great scarcity of provisions, when, covered and tainted with filth or putrefaction, spoiled vegetables, and all unhealthy and unsuitable things are thrust in indiscriminately for the sake of preserving life, so much so that long ago among the Greeks the proverb arose: μετὰ λημβὸ λομίδος, after hunger, pestilence. For these diseases, which these causes produce, it is clear to anyone of understanding are confounded with true pestilence, since by no trustworthy evidence are we convinced that this evil has arisen from these causes C 3
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DE PESTILENTIA tum fuisse, uti prolixe Diemerbrockius ostendit, l. c. lib. I, c. 8, probl. 4. Sicubi autem extitit, potius exi- stimandum est, id aliunde per contagium adventum fuisse, cum constet, multis in locis, gliscentibus fa- me et annonæ difficultate, ex insolentium, et eo- rum, a quibus natura plane abhorret, usu esuque, ex sideratis frugibus, quæque seu rubiginem, seu æruginem contraxere, febres quidem malignas, diarrhæas, dysenterias, aliosve similes morbos, non tamen pestilentiam veram, emersisse. Quæ cum sæpe occultæ tectæque vi contagionis accedat, ea- que, nunc aliquandiu quiescente, nunc iterum exci- tata, varie propagetur, minus mirandum est, si de- inde de causa eius, ubi sævit, non raro tam variæ falsæque opiniones exoriantur. IX. Cum autem de aere hic aliter, atque alii, sentia- mus, eum quidem non ita omnis vitii absolvi- mus, quin fateamur, licet ex aere non nascatur malum hoc, tamen aerem, variis mutationibus suis varie maleque afficientem corpora, hæc ita disponere, ut aptiora fiant ad pestilentiæ semina suscipienda et alenda. Præsertim cum ipse quo- que, vitiis expirantium inquinatus, licet virus pe- stife-
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OF PESTILENCE then to have existed, as Diemerbroeck has amply shown, l. c. book I, ch. 8, probl. 4. But if it has ever appeared anywhere, it ought rather to be judged that it came from elsewhere by contagion, since it is known that, in many places, famine and the scarcity of grain increasing, from the unusual use and eating of things from which nature plainly shrinks, from blighted crops, whether they have contracted rust or mildew, malignant fevers, diarrheas, dysenteries, and other similar diseases have indeed arisen, but not true pestilence. And since this often comes with the hidden and concealed force of contagion, and that contagion, now remaining quiet for some time, now roused again, is spread in various ways, it is less surprising if afterward, concerning its cause, where it rages, so many different and false opinions often arise. IX. Now although on the air we think differently from others, we do not, however, free it from all fault, but confess that, although this evil does not arise from the air, still the air, by its various changes, variously and harmfully affecting bodies, disposes them so that they become more fit to receive and nourish the seeds of pestilence. Especially since it also, polluted by the exhalations of those dying, though the pestif-
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VERA 23 stiferum non pariat, tamen receptum collectumve provehat, et cum spiritu immittat. Multa, neque id diffitemur, speciosa in hac causa dici possunt, neque id nobis sumimus, ut alios omnes errores arguamus. Si tamen id, quod, re diligentius agitata, sentimus, dicamus libere, omnem huius mali culpam non aliunde, quam a contagio, repetendam ducimus. Quod enim de lue venerea supra diximus, id cum præsenti malo comparatum eiusmodi esse reperimus, ut utriusque rei causam vere effectricem contagium esse credamus. Id superioribus temporibus præ aliis agnovit Io. Crato, cum Assertione lib. de pestil. febr. in eo totus est, ut confirmet, febres pestilentes & contagiosas, quibus pestilentiam intelligit veram, aliam causam non habere, quam contagium, a seminario seu morbida expiratione corporum infectorum ortum, de causis autem aliis eos disputare sinit, qui contentionibus delectantur. Post hunc Th. V. Willi[us], de febr. c. 12, in eorum propendit sententiam, qui pestilentiam veram contagione volunt perpetuo inter mortales superesse, neque de novo oriri, sed a fomite conservari, atque ab una regione subinde in aliam deferri. Atque eam demum opinionem suam fecit Sydenhamius, quum l. c. sect. II, cap.
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VERA 23 that it does not produce putrid matter, yet it promotes what has been received or collected, and sends it forth with the spirit. Many things, and we do not deny it, can be said that are specious in this case, nor do we presume to accuse all others of error. If, however, we should speak freely of what we think after the matter has been more carefully examined, we judge that the entire fault of this evil is to be sought nowhere else than from contagion. For what we said above about venereal disease, when compared with the present illness, we find to be such that we believe contagion to be the truly efficient cause of both matters. This was recognized before others in earlier times by Io. Crato, for in his Assertiones, book on pestilential fevers, he is wholly concerned to establish that pestilential and contagious fevers, by which he means true pestilence, have no other cause than contagion, arising from a seminary or morbid exhalation of infected bodies; as for other causes, he allows those to dispute them who delight in controversies. After him, Th. V. Willi[us], on fevers, c. 12, inclines to the opinion of those who hold that true pestilence continually survives among mortals by contagion, and is not newly born, but preserved from a source of infection, and from time to time carried from one region to another. And at length Sydenham made that opinion his own, when in l. c. sect. II, cap.
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DE PESTILENTIA cap. 2, aeris dispositionem, quantumvis , pesti suscitandæ per se imparem esse, statuit, et pestilentiæ morbum, alicubi semper superstitem, aut per fomitem, aut per pestiferi alicuius appulsum, e locis infectis in alios deportari, ibidemque, non nisi accedente simul idonea aeris diathesi, popularem fieri; quod alias non appareat, qua ratione in eodem coeli tractu, dum unum aliquod oppidum pestilentia gravissime affligitur, aliud non longe dissitum, omnem commercii necessitudinem cum loco contagioso caute inhibendo, prorsus immune se præstiterit. Quod ut doceat, pestilentiæ, commemorat, puta novissimæ, per universam fere Italiam immaniter grassanti, Magni Ducis cura atque prudentia aditum in Hetruriæ fines interclusum penitus fuisse. IX. ID quidem, opinor, res ipsa ostendit, et observatione diuturna, ac illarum cautionum, quibus grassantem alicubi contagionem declinare atque avertere usus docuit, utilitate clare constat, eam apud nos luem communis culpa vel aeris, vel victus, nunquam nasci, sed ex oriente, et vicinis ei locis, contagio ad nos commigrare. Illud etiam
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ON PESTILENCE chapter 2, he states that the disposition of the air, however much it may in itself be unequal to the generation of pestilence, and that the disease of pestilence, always surviving somewhere, is transported from infected places into others, either by means of a contagion-bearing source or through the arrival of some pestilential matter, and becomes epidemic there only when a suitable condition of the air is present at the same time; which otherwise does not appear, by what means, in the same region of the sky, while one city is most grievously afflicted by pestilence, another not far distant, carefully preventing all intercourse with the contagious place, has shown itself entirely immune. To prove this, he mentions the pestilence, namely the most recent one, raging savagely through almost all Italy, and says that through the care and prudence of the Grand Duke access into the boundaries of Etruria was completely barred. IX. Indeed, I believe the matter itself shows this, and from long observation, as well as from the usefulness of those precautions by which experience has taught us to avoid and ward off a contagion raging in some place, it is clearly established that this plague among us is never born from a common fault either of the air or of food, but migrates to us by contagion from the East and from the places neighboring it. That also
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VERA 25 etiam fateri habeo, vim contagionis aeris vi- ctusque vitiis et improbitate, quod per se vehe- menter valetudinem et vires corrumpant ac de- bilitent, perquam augeri, et, quod bene Fer- nelius advertit l. c. graviorem esse pestilenti- am, quæ epidemiis, aut endemiis constitu- tionibus permiscetur, quam quæ pura sola- que consistit, et hanc causam esse præcipuam, quamobrem una pestilentia non omnes regiones peræque afficiat et lædat. Quanquam cum vi- tiato aere non ita coniungenda est contagio, ut hanc sine isto nunquam grassari posse, existime- mus. Nam satis quidem experientia docuit, fæ- pius sine inæqualitate vel anomalia quadam aeris, nec raro sine æstu, omnique alia illius inclemen- tia, eam luem sæviisse, ac media etiam hyeme, qua minui alias extinguique solet, aliquando coeptam, æstivis caloribus desiisse: uti Platerus l. c. cap. 2, Fernelius l. c. cap. 12, Morellus de febr. purp. cap. 3, et alii testantur. Ex his Sydenhamius l. c. scri- ptum reliquit, illum ipsum annum, Londino vi postremæ pestilentiæ tot millium strage fune- stum, alioqui mitissimum ac saluberrimum exti- tisse, ita quidem, ut prope omnes, qui a peste immunes perstiterint, nunquam meliori valetu- D dine
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VERA 25 I must also confess that the contagion of the air and of food, through vices and corruption, because they themselves greatly corrupt and weaken health and strength, is very much increased; and, as Fernelius rightly observes, l.c., that a pestilence is more severe when it is mixed with epidemic or endemic constitutions than when it stands pure and alone; and that this is the chief cause why one pestilence does not affect and injure all regions equally. However, contagion is not so to be joined with corrupted air that we should think it can never spread without it. For experience has sufficiently taught that it has often raged without any inequality or anomaly of the air, and not rarely without heat, and without any other severity of it, and that this plague, even when begun in midwinter, when it otherwise usually lessens and dies out, has sometimes ended with the summer heats: as Platerus, l.c. cap. 2, Fernelius, l.c. cap. 12, Morellus de febr. purp. cap. 3, and others testify. From these things Sydenham, l.c., has left it in writing that that very year, made infamous in London by the destruction of the last pestilence with the slaughter of so many thousands, had otherwise been the mildest and healthiest; indeed, so much so that almost all who remained free from the plague had never been in better health
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26 DE PESTILENTIA dine visi fuerint usi. Similem diversorum anno- rum constitutionem meminimus, cum Dresda, Lipsia, et Halæ Saxonum ultimam pestem expe- rirentur. Antiquiora exempla non requiro, cum ex his ostendi possit, solius vi contagionis, sine aeris labe, pestilentiam serpere, nec quic- quam coeli temperiem proficere, ubi ea lues in- crebuit et exarsit. X. QVibus vero temporibus et initiis illa conta- gio in oriente extiterit, non magis adhuc constat, quam quando, et unde, in novo orbe contagium venereum ortum sit. Namque incerta sunt omnia, quæ de huius origine ab anthropophagia, vel a morsu victuque venenato, aut esu serpentum quadrupedum, quas vocant inguanas, adduci a quibusdam solent. Neque certior est opinio, quæ ab eximia atque extrema putredine ortum pestilentiæ in oriente deducit. Ita quidem multi eam luem cum Prosp. Alpino et Hier. Mercuriali l. c. nil esse aliud existimant, quam summo putredinis gradu diffluens corpus, et consimilem excretionem, tanquam seminarium pestilens, ex succo et sangvine spi-
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26 ON PLAGUE in which they were seen to have been used. We remember a similar constitution in different years, when Dresden, Leipzig, and Halle of the Saxons experienced the last plague. I do not seek older examples, since from these it can be shown that, by the force of contagion alone, without corruption of the air, plague spreads, and that no condition of the sky is of any avail, where that disease has increased and broken out. X. But at what times and from what beginnings that contagion first arose in the East is not yet known any more than when and whence the venereal contagion arose in the New World. For uncertain are all those things which some are accustomed to bring forward concerning its origin from anthropophagy, or from the bite and poisonous diet, or the eating of serpents and four-footed creatures, which they call iguanas. Nor is the opinion more certain which derives the origin of plague in the East from extraordinary and extreme putrefaction. Indeed many, with Prosper Alpinus and Hier. Mercurialis, l. c., think that it is nothing else than a body flowing away in the highest degree of putrefaction, and a similar excretion, as it were a pestilential seed-bed, from the juice and blood of spi-
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VERA 27 spirans undique et exhalans. Quod vero illis doctissimis viris, quos vitalis sangvinis circulus latuit, facile condonamus. Sed postea- quam hic sangvinis motus innotuit, neminem nunc, autumemus, affirmaturum, in pestilentia correpto succum hunc vitalem, qui cordis pul- su per arterias venasque corpus circuit, non mo- do putrescere, sed etiam in eminentissimo putre- dinis gradu constitui, cum id quidem nec san- gvis, quoquo modo corpore manans, ostendat, neque sanguinis in corpore motus et circuitus, sine quo vita consistere nequit, neque eorum, qui pestilentia gravissime laborarunt, aliosque in- fecerunt, restitutio, neque vis haustæ contagio- nis agendi necandique celerrima, nullo apparen- te putredinis indicio, quod certe cum summo il- lius gradu stare haud potest, admittat. Neque enim, ut illi volunt, contagium vel oriri, vel propagari potest, nisi putredo ad illum gradum iam pervenerit, ut consimilem excretionem exhalet. Quod, si ita est, mireris merito, in pestilentia summum putredinis gradum sine si- gno putredinis adesse, et vel manifestam pu- tredinem in homine vivo, ubi fermentum can- cri putrefactivum, et foetore abominandum, par- tes D 2
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VERA 27 spreading and exhaling everywhere. But this we readily pardon to those most learned men to whom the circulation of the vital blood was unknown. Yet after this motion of the blood became known, we now suppose that no one would assert, in the plague-stricken, that this vital juice, which by the beating of the heart courses through the body by the arteries and veins, not only putrefies, but is also placed in the highest degree of corruption; since neither blood, flowing in any manner from the body, shows this, nor the motion and circulation of the blood in the body, without which life cannot exist, nor the recovery of those who suffered most severely from the plague and infected others, nor the power of the breathed contagion to act and kill most swiftly, with no apparent sign of putrefaction, which certainly cannot stand together with its highest degree, admit this. For neither, as they wish, can contagion arise or spread unless putrefaction has already reached that degree that it exhales a similar excretion. If this is so, you may rightly wonder that in the plague the highest degree of putrefaction is present without any sign of putrefaction, and even manifest putrefaction in a living man, where the putrefactive ferment of gangrene, and the foul stench to be abhorred, the parts D 2
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DE PESTILENTIA tes populatur, atque correptum sphacelo mem- brum, et succis, et carnibus, valisque ac ossibus, totum putre, cadaverosam spirat mephitim, vel ipsa cadavera, fluentia tabo, et horridam foetoris diffundentia nubem, pestifera contagia non difflare. Hæc, ut omittam alia, in quibus multus est Diemerbrockius l. c. lib. 1. cap. 8. probl. 4. & 6, si recte considerentur, fatendum omnino erit, in pestilentia corruptionem sangvinis, quæ multo patet latius, quam putredo, antecedere, et con- sectariam esse putredinem, illaque corruptione et seminarium pestilens spargi, et afferri mortem etiam ante, quam corpus putredine diffluat, utpote quæ corruptionem sangvinis, non illius, qui in orbem adhuc agitur, sed alicubi derelicti et hærentis, ac demum post mortem etiam in omni cruore, totoque cadavere, consequitur, in sangvine autem, corpus hominis vivi, nec raro convalescentis, circumeunte, neque fieri profecto, neque concipi potest. Vnde multi quidem, etiam ante cognitum sangvinis circulum, vel contagionem in putredine consistere, ab eaque oriri, negarunt, vel cum Paræo l. c. lib. XXI, cap. 3, putredinem pestiferam longe aliam esse voluerunt, et diversi generis a communi, atque occultæ cu- iusdam
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infects, and the limb struck with gangrene, and from its juices, flesh, bloodless flesh, and bones, wholly putrid, breathes forth a cadaverous stench; or even corpses themselves, flowing with corruption and diffusing a horrid cloud of foul smell, do not exhale pestiferous contagions. These things, to omit others, in which Diemerbrockius is copious in the passage cited, book 1, chapter 8, problems 4 and 6, if rightly considered, it must altogether be confessed that in pestilence the corruption of the blood, which extends much more widely than putrefaction, precedes, and that putrefaction is consequent upon it, and that by that corruption the pestilent seed is spread abroad, and death is brought on even before the body is dissolved by putrefaction, inasmuch as it follows the corruption of the blood, not of that which is still circulating, but of that which has been left somewhere and is adhering, and at length after death also in all the blood and throughout the whole corpse; but in the blood circulating through the body of a living man, and not rarely of one recovering, this can neither certainly happen nor even be conceived. Hence many, indeed even before the circulation of the blood was known, either denied that contagion consisted in putrefaction and arose from it, or, with Paraeus, in the passage cited, book 21, chapter 3, wished putrefaction to be something very different, and of a different kind from the common, and from some hidden
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VERA 29 iusdam malignitatis, et toto genere vitæ nostræ insensæ, participem, cuius ratio plane atque aper- te exponi haud possit. Ex quibus etiam, quan- tum putredini vivæ sive verminosæ, propter quam pestilentiam animatam vocavit Athan. Kircherus, lib. de peste sect. 2, cap. 4. tribuendum sit, cuivis intelligenti patere potest. XI. Illud autem iam notius esse arbitramur, quam ut exponi debeat, contagione generatim excre- tionem notari morbidam, sive effluvium et , quo, tanquam fermento quodam, aut ve- luti traduce ac seminario, labes et corruptio unius corporis in alia eiusdem speciei transfertur et pro- pagatur: sive id contrectatione ipsius corporis morbosi, sive medio aere, tanquam vectore, aut alio quodam obvio corpore, cui, ceu fomiti, efflu- vium vel morbosum adhæret, fiat. Quo- rum quidem cum magna sit varietas, tum vero omnium perniciosissimum esse pestife- rum, satis effectus declarat, et tristium exemplo- rum adeo ferax est orbis, ut hæc recensere sit supervacaneum. Verum, quale, et cuius sit na- turæ illud , non deerunt fortasse sagaci- ores, D 3
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VERA 29 that is a participant in a certain malignity, and in the whole kind of our insensate life, whose cause cannot be fully and clearly explained. From these things it may also be plain to anyone who understands how much must be attributed to putrid matter, whether living or verminous, on account of which Athan. Kircherus, lib. de peste sect. 2, cap. 4, called it an animated pestilence. XI. But this we judge to be now more known than that it should need explanation: that contagion generally denotes a morbid excretion, or effluvium, by which, as by some kind of ferment, or as if by a conveyance and nursery, the decay and corruption of one body is transferred to and propagated in another of the same species; whether this be done by contact with the diseased body itself, or through the surrounding air as a vehicle, or by some other body encountered along the way, to which, as to tinder, the effluvium or morbid matter adheres. And although among these there is great variety, yet the most destructive of all is unquestionably the pestilential one, as the effect sufficiently shows, and the world is so fertile in sad examples that it is superfluous to recount them. But what that thing is, and of what nature, perhaps there will not be lacking those more keen-sighted, D 3
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DE PESTILENTIA ores, qui, uti solent naturas rerum investigare, ex principiis physicis inquirant. Nos, eam, scimus, adhuc dum latere et ignorari, et illud [Octov], uti multis in morbis aliis, quorum profecto causæ non ita exploratæ sunt, quemadmodum multis in mentem venit, qui in cancellos Asclepiadeos redigere artem conantur, ita hic etiam cum prudentioribus libenter agnoscimus, et miramur merito cum laudato ante Cornelio Consent. l.c. tot, et tanta quotidie volumina de peste exarari, quum nemo non fateatur, impervestigatam esse illius naturam, et omnino ab humana intelligentia remotam. Scilicet insitum esse nonnullis, quanto minus sciunt, quæ scribunt, tanto plura conscribere. Non dispicet tamen nobis, quod Io. Alprugnus Vindobonæ in Austria, refert, ex pure et materia virulenta bubonis pestilentialis destillatione chymica primum aquam non nihil limpidam, deinde liquorem crassum et oleosum, ac salem volatilem, collo vitri adhærentem, prodiisse, et fracto vitro, vaporem prorupisse tam abominandum, tamque acutum, ut, quoquo modo præmunitus, tota mente atque omnibus artubus contremuerit, quasi fulmine ictus, et degustatam salis illius volatilis
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ON PESTILENCE Those who, as is customary, investigate the natures of things from physical principles, may inquire. But we know that this, as yet, is still hidden and unknown; and that in this, as in many other diseases, the causes of which are certainly not so thoroughly explored, as has occurred to many minds who try to reduce the art to Asclepiadean lines, here too, along with the more prudent, we readily acknowledge, and rightly marvel, with the praised Cornelius Consent. l.c., that so many and so large volumes are daily written about the plague, when no one does not admit that its nature is uninvestigated, and altogether removed from human understanding. Indeed, it is innate in some people that the less they know of what they write, the more they compose. Still, it does not escape us what Io. Alprugnus of Vienna in Austria reports: that from pus and the virulent matter of a pestilential bubo, by chemical distillation, first there came forth a not inconsiderable clear water, then a thick and oily liquid, and a volatile salt, adhering to the neck of the glass; and that when the glass was broken, there burst forth a vapor so abominable and so pungent that, however protected, he trembled with his whole mind and with all his limbs, as if struck by lightning, and the tasting of that volatile salt
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VERA 31 latilis particulam, saporem linguæ acerrimum impressisse. Neque observationem illam Paræi reiicimus, cum l. c. lib. XXI, cap. 12, memorat, ex commoto ægri lecto, ruptoque abscessu pestilenti, tanquam e fimo agitato, actutum vaporem nares subiisse densum, tam tetrum et putridum, ut præceps in terram decidit, cum repetita pluries vehementi sternutatione, et hanc consequente hæmorrhagia. Sed enim ex his omnibus nil aliud colligitur, quam aliquam hic acrimoniam adesse, de qua tamen in ea rerum acrium varietate et latitudine nil certi definiri potest. XII. ETsi vero naturam contagionis sensu minus cernere et assequi possumus: tamen, si cuncta phænomena, quæ et pestilentia laborantibus eveniunt, in eaque defunctis deprehenduntur, recte æstimemus, et cum iis conferamus, quæ in curatione eius mali præ aliis profuisse visa sunt, id demum ratione et intelligentia comprehendimus, contagium seu pestilens veneni cuiusdam tenuium valde partium, acrisve, et septici, particeps, ac eius esse naturæ, ut per os naresque cum spiritu, vel cibo, potioneque, vel per alios
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VERA 31 a small particle of lye, to have impressed upon the tongue a most sharp taste. Nor do we reject that observation of Paræus, when in the passage cited, book XXI, chap. 12, he relates that, from the disturbed bed of the sick man, and the bursting of a pestilential abscess, as if from stirred dung, a dense vapor immediately entered the nostrils, so foul and putrid that he fell headlong to the ground, with repeated violent sneezing, and the hemorrhage that followed it. But from all these things nothing else is gathered except that some acrimony is present here; yet in so great a variety and breadth of acrid things, nothing certain can be defined. XII. Although, indeed, we are able to perceive and apprehend the nature of contagion less by sense: nevertheless, if we rightly estimate all the phenomena which occur in those laboring under pestilence, and are found in those who have died from it, and compare them with those things which, in the treatment of that disease, have seemed to have helped more than others, then at last we comprehend by reason and understanding that contagion, or the pestilential poison, is partaker of certain very subtle, sharp, and septic particles, and that its nature is such that through the mouth and nostrils, with the breath, or with food and drink, or through other
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DE PESTILENTIA alios etiam poros et meatus penetrans, introque penitus subiens in sanguinem, hunc, quoad eius constitutio patitur, pervadendo fermentare, et consistentes vel gelatinosas eius partes, in quibus cohæsio et crasis partium sanguinis fundatur, dissolvere, ac in sui motus leges flectere, eoque se- se multiplicare, atque ex humore miti effe- rum et malignum, et sui similem toto corpo- re exspirationem reddere, et crasin sanguinis, pro vario sui et naturæ laborantis vigore, nunc serius, modo ocyus, ita pervertere possit, ut is circuitioni derivationique, ac rigando succis vi- talibus corpori, impar minusque idoneus evadat, et nunc quandam sui partem, veneno foetam, ex- trudat, et modo in pluribus unius partis arteriolis congestam, modo depositam in glandulis, unde anthraces et bubones varii emergunt, derelin- quat, nunc vero maximam partem fusus va- rie, ac disiectus per capillaria arteriarum va- la, in substantiam viscerum, membranarum, et musculorum, ad summam usque cutem, varias colore, magnitudine, et copia, maculas efficiat. Quo minus miremur, eius vi contagionis lassitu- dinem corporis improvisam, et sensum quendam quasi ponderis et gravitatis membrorum, et ma- gnum
Transcription: Translated (English)
PESTILENCE penetrating also other pores and passages, and passing deeply inward into the blood, fermenting it by pervading it for as long as its constitution allows, and dissolving its coherent or gelatinous parts, in which the cohesion and crasis of the parts of the blood are founded, and bending them to the laws of its own motion, and multiplying itself thereby, and from a mild humor rendering a corrupt and malignant effluvium similar to itself throughout the whole body, and according to the various vigor of itself and of nature laboring, now more slowly, now more quickly, so perverting the crasis of the blood that it becomes less fit and less apt for circulation and derivation, and for watering the vital juices of the body, and now drives out some part of itself, pregnant with poison, and now, collected in many small arteries of one part, or deposited in the glands, whence various anthraces and buboes arise, leaves behind it, but now, dispersed in the greatest part in various ways and scattered through the capillary vessels of the arteries into the substance of the viscera, membranes, and muscles, even to the very skin, it produces various spots in color, size, and abundance. Whence we should wonder less that, by the force of its contagion, there comes an unexpected weariness of the body, and a certain sensation as of weight and heaviness of the limbs, and great
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VERA 33 gnum virium lapsum, mox initio mali exoriri, eumque, si vi contagii vegeta subita fiat solutio sanguinis, subinde tantum, ut cum crebra animi defectione, etiam sine sensu doloris, repente homo concidat, et extinguatur. Et cum contagio sine offensione eius partis, quam primum attigit, in sanguinem invadere, neque cum eo corpus, per cor, et vasa, fibrasque partium, sine molestia atque incommodo, circuire, neque in his, illisve, interioribus, externisque, partibus, illæsis iisdem, hærere, ac sævire possit, hinc ratio elucet anxietatum, inquietudinum, et iactationum corporis, vomitionum item, et fluxionum alvi, ac hæmorrhagiarum, dolorumque variorum, et aliorum, quæ supra commemoravimus, foeturæ symptomatum febrilium. Nam simul ac pestiferæ luis seminaria in venas irrepserint, sanguinemque inquinarint, a vertice usque ad calcem fere nihil inoffensum relinquunt in corpore. Quodsi minor vis contagii partem tantum corporis externam tetigerit, et in villis eius, ac vasculis consistens, in flumen sanguinis non perreptet, illam tantum partem, quousque serpsit, textum eius vi sua septica et caustica excedendo, prunæ instar urentis dolente anthrace E vel
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VERA 33 a decline of strength arises from the very beginning of the illness, and if, through the force of contagion, a sudden dissolution of the blood occurs, it is such that, with frequent fainting of the spirit, even without any sensation of pain, a man suddenly falls down and dies. And since the contagion can, without injury to that part which it first touches, invade the blood, and neither with it through the heart and vessels and fibers of the parts can it, without trouble and inconvenience, circulate, nor in these, or those internal and external parts, being left unharmed, can it remain and rage, hence the reason becomes clear for the anxieties, restlessness, and tossing of the body, likewise vomiting and fluxes of the bowels, and hemorrhages, and various pains, and the other febrile symptoms of the kind already mentioned. For as soon as the seeds of the pestilential plague have crept into the veins and have polluted the blood, they leave scarcely nothing unharmed in the body, from head to heel. But if the lesser force of contagion has touched only the external part of the body, and, remaining in its hairs and little vessels, does not travel on into the stream of blood, it exceeds only that part as far as it has crept, by its septic and caustic force, burning like a live ember, a painful anthrax or
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DE PESTILENTIA vel carbunculo mulctat, nec quicquam damni in reliquum corpus transfert. Sin quacunque via interius permanet in sanguinem, sed prius, quam vires suas satis exercere possit, lympha implicatum, vivido cordis, et sanguinis motu exhalatione corporis dissipetur partim, partim in glandulas, et vascula, ac villos huius, illiusve membri exterioris exterminetur, opinione citius, et aliquando sine magnis incommodis, bubones erumpunt et anthraces, ex quibus, emissa veneficalabe, natura allevatur, retrocedente vero eadem in sanguinem, succumbere cogitur. Haud aliter, ac cum sanguis, dominantis contagii copia, et impetu subactus, atque per membra fusus, corpus ubique maculis aspergit, et quadam sui parte glandulas, atque arteriolas variarum partium infarciens, bubones et carbunculos, serius, et cum insigni malorum comitatu, emergentes, tanquam victæ naturæ perniciosa indicia, efficit. XIII. QVo rerum statu, cum sanguis, tanta veneni vi et copia inquinatus, et subactus, hic, illic, non modo in externo corporis habitu, sed etiam in
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OF THE PLAGUE or carbuncle it afflicts, and transfers no damage at all to the rest of the body. But if by whatever route it remains within, into the blood, yet before it can sufficiently exert its powers, entangled in the lymph, by the living motion of the heart and blood, it is dispersed by the exhalation of the body, partly, partly driven into the glands and the little vessels and fibers of this or that external member, sooner than expected, and sometimes without great inconvenience, buboes and anthraces break out; by these, the venomous matter being discharged, nature is relieved, but if the same returns into the blood, it is compelled to succumb. Not otherwise than when the blood, subdued by the force and abundance of a prevailing contagion, and driven onward, and spread through the limbs, sprinkles the body everywhere with spots, and by stuffing in part the glands and small arteries of various parts, produces buboes and carbuncles, arising later, and with a notable company of evils, as pernicious signs of nature overcome. XIII. In which state of affairs, since the blood, polluted and subdued by so great a force and abundance of poison, here and there, not only in the external habit of the body, but also in
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VERA 35 in interioribus partibus, atque visceribus, insi- deat, et inflammationes abscessusque varios pa- riat, fieri haud aliter potest, quin, ubicunque lo- corum iter sanguini est interceptum, is ad pu- tredinem vergat, membraque ipsa, eodem in- farta, in virus putre dilabantur ac colliquescant, et cadaverosum spirent odorem, illorum more, qui cancro atque sphacelo pereunt. Ex his ve- ro corporis corruptelis orientibus exspiratio- nibus, et præcipue afflatu atque halitibus mori- bundorum crassis, et magis cohærentibus, ac nebulosis, aucta et cumulata copia, necesse est, gliscat vis contagionis, ut ignis oleo, quod illa et circumfusum aera magis inquinent, afflatuque huius non modo vicinos inficere, sed etiam latius propagari, et corporibus obviis faci- lius adhærere, atque in fomitem abire queant. Ac recipiendis quidem illis ac semini- bus pestiferis aptissima sunt: plumæ, et pelles animalium pilosorum, lana, linum, xyllon seu gossypium, et quæ ex his conficiuntur, linteami- na, stragula, vestes, integumenta, et eiusmodi alia, quæ et ob mollitiem, et pororum copiam, excipere seminaria contagii possunt, et retinere. In huiusmodi vero rebus, tanquam in fomite, latis E 2
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VERA 35 in the interior parts and in the viscera, lies hidden, and produces various inflammations and abscesses, it cannot otherwise be but that, wherever the passage of the blood is obstructed in the parts, it inclines to putrefaction, and the limbs themselves, distended with it, dissolve and melt away into putrid venom, and breathe a cadaverous odor, in the manner of those who perish from cancer and sphacelus. From these corruptions of the body, however, arising exhalations, and especially the thick, more cohesive, and cloudy effluvia and halitus of the dying, with increased and accumulated abundance, it is necessary that the force of contagion grow, as fire does with oil; for they both contaminate the surrounding air more, and by means of this breath can not only infect nearby persons, but also spread more widely, and more easily adhere to bodies that they meet, and pass into tinder. And indeed most suitable for receiving those pestiferous seeds are: feathers, and the skins of hairy animals, wool, linen, xyllon or cotton, and things made from these, linens, coverlets, garments, coverings, and other such things, which, because both of their softness and the abundance of their pores, can receive the seedbeds of contagion and retain them. In things of this kind, however, as in tinder, E 2
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DE PESTILENTIA fatis sæpe diu hærere ea solent, et ex longinquis regionibus in alias cum illis transportata, tandem, ventilatis rebus iis, exsiliunt: cum interea nullum plane putredinis indicium in fomite reperiatur, ut bene Crato advertit l. c. XIV. QVousque autem μιάσματα sive semina illa pestifera aere ventisque vehi, et circumferri possint, certo definiri nequit. Nam quod quidam velint, sævam illam pestem Atheniensem aere delatam ex Æthiopia in Græciam fuisse, id quidem ex eo colligi minus potest, quod scripserit Thucydides, forte per continuum ex Æthiopia quædam fluxisse putredinis contagia. Quin potius existimandum est, pestilentiam illam per fomitem ex Æthiopia in Ægyptum, indeque in Græciam, et Athenas transiisse, quod solum in urbe contagio hæserit, salvis oppugnatoribus. Quod minus accidisset, si cum aere diffusum contagium in tam longinquum spatium fuisse. Illud vero certum est, levibus alicubi orta initiis pestilentia, et aliquandiu clanculum per urbem oberrante, dum alii alios infecerint, atque ad plures malum dimanarit, eius loci aerem ea
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DE PESTILENTIA they are often accustomed to cling to these causes for a long time, and, being carried from distant regions into others along with them, at last, when those things are shaken off, they break out: meanwhile no clear sign of corruption is found in the source matter, as Crato observes well in the passage cited. XIV. But how far those μιάσματα, or pestiferous seeds, can be carried and circulated by air and winds cannot be determined with certainty. For that some would wish to claim, namely that that savage Athenian plague was brought by air from Ethiopia into Greece, can indeed be inferred less from this, that Thucydides wrote that perhaps certain contagions of corruption flowed continuously from Ethiopia. Rather it must be thought that that pestilence passed by means of a source matter from Ethiopia into Egypt, and thence into Greece and Athens, since only in the city did the contagion remain, while the besiegers were spared. This would have happened less if the contagion, spread with the air, had been over so long a distance. But this much is certain: that pestilence, arising from slight beginnings in some place and for some time roaming secretly through the city, while one infected another, and the evil spread to more and more people, the air of that place
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VERA 37 ea copia cumulari, ut non solum in iisdem ædibus, sed et vicinis, ii, quibus nul- lum est cum ægrotantibus commercium, infi- cientur, et cum vis morbi initio in multitudi- nem atque colluviem hominum, congressum non vitantium, sævierit, postmodum in ædes et- iam nobilium irrepat, atque opinione citius fa- cta lues epidemia, universam sæpe civitatem exhauriat. Quam sparsi volatilis spermatis vim in fomite, atque aere, cum minus cognitam ve- teres haberent, quod nullo se sensu prodat, et tam improvisum sit illius telum, ut, priusquam sentiatur, feriat, eius luis causam non in con- tagione corporum, primo ægrotantium, sed vel in anomaliis, atque immoderatis affectionibus aeris, vel in permixtis ei terræ et aquarum ad- spirationibus, vel in occulta quadam, eaque ma- ligna, e sublimi atque ab astris nata, eius qua- litate, quærebant, eamque adeo luem cum morbis aliis epidemiis confundeant. XV. EX his iam clarum est, id quod initio dixi- mus, pestilentiam malum esse sævum, et im- mane ac perniciosissimum, quod paucorum flu- E 3 xu
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VERA 37 to accumulate in such abundance that not only in the same houses, but even in neighboring ones, those who have no contact with the sick become infected; and when the force of the disease at first rages among the multitude and the throng of men who do not avoid intercourse, afterward it even creeps into the houses of nobles, and, sooner than expected, the plague having become epidemic often drains an entire city. Since the force of this scattered, flying seed in the tinder and in the air was less known to the ancients, because it makes no sign perceptible to the senses, and its weapon is so sudden that, before it is felt, it strikes, they sought the cause of this pestilence not in contagion from bodies first falling ill, but either in anomalies and excessive conditions of the air, or in mixed exhalations from the earth and waters, or in some hidden and malign quality, born from above and from the stars; and they even confused this plague with other epidemic diseases. XV. From this it is now clear, what we said at the beginning, that pestilence is a savage evil, monstrous and most destructive, which from the few below E 3 xu
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DE PESTILENTIA xu dierum, nec raro secundo, vel tertio die occidit, et quod vix quisquam effugere potest, nisi robusta et valens natura, suisque usa viribus, naviter per abscessus expurget. Qui proinde quo citius, et maiore cum ægrotantis allevatione, ac locis, periculo vacuis, erumpunt, hoc maio- rem spem salutis faciunt. Quo vero difficilius et serius emergunt, non mitescentibus sympto- matis, hoc maius subesse periculum, significant. Æque vero periculosum esse patet, et mortem plerumque inopinatam sequi, si dispareant ite- rum, et evanescant, qui, sive serius, sive ocyus, et apparentibus quoque bonis signis, prodie- runt, abscessus. Liquet etiam, maculas, quo magis a rubedine secedunt, eo peiores, nigras- que omnes, sive parvæ fuerint, sive magnæ la- tæque, pestis, intimo corporis recessu conditæ, et subacti veneno, et fusi disiectique per omnes partes sanguinis, ac imminentis adeo mortis, prænuncios esse, et hoc in certiori ægrotum periculo versari, quo maior est virium lapsus, et frequentiores foedæ vomitiones, atque graveo- lentes deiectiones, et graviora eum alia sympto- mata affligunt. Præterea nihil hic, apparet, vel urinæ, vel pulsui fidendum esse, et, se ostentendibus inter-
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On Pestilence within xu days, and not rarely on the second or third day it kills, and what scarcely anyone can escape, unless a robust and strong nature, using its own powers, diligently clears it out through abscesses. Those therefore which break out the sooner, and with greater relief to the sick person, and in places free from danger, this make greater hope of recovery. But the more difficultly and the more slowly they emerge, with the symptoms not abating, this indicates that a greater danger lies beneath. Likewise it is clear that it is dangerous, and that death usually follows unexpectedly, if the abscesses again disappear and fade away, which, whether later or sooner, and even with good signs appearing, have come forth. It is also clear that spots, the more they depart from redness, the worse they are, and all black ones, whether they be small or large and broad, are signs of the plague, hidden in the innermost recess of the body, and of subjugated poison, and of blood spread and scattered through all the parts, and therefore of impending death, and that the sick man is in greater danger the greater the decline of strength is, and the more frequent the foul vomiting, and the foul-smelling evacuations, and the more severe the other symptoms afflict him. Moreover here nothing appears to be trusted, either in the urine or in the pulse, and, when they show themselves inter-
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VERA 39 interdum optimis signis, contraria tamen omnia fieri, et evenire, id quod Celsus annotavit, spem eius interdum frustrari, et mori aliquem, de quo medicus securus primo fuit. XVI. CVm igitur ea sit pestilentiæ ratio, ut peregrinando a locis infectis ad alia accedat, et vel in exili fomite, aut halitus et atmosphæræ ambitu comprehensa, facile et cum tristissima strage per populum spargi, et disseminari possit, id quidem nemo non intelligit, omnem hic diligentiam adhibendam esse, ne admittatur tantum malum, utpote difficilime, nec nisi summo periculo, eiiciendum. Quo, secundum Deum, magistratus cura, et autoritas plurimum conferre potest, ne ob liberum hominum, rerumque aditum contagium inferatur. Neque enim cum rebus tantum, sed hominibus quoque infectis, malum hoc illatum esse, crebra experientia compertum est, et testatur inter alios Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. lib. IV, c. 28, contigisse in maxima peste, ut sæpe sani homines, ex infectis regionibus discedentes, et in liberas abeuntes, inficerent sanos illos, et regiones illas,
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VERA 39 sometimes with the best signs, nevertheless all the opposite things happen and come to pass, as Celsus noted, his hope is sometimes frustrated, and someone dies, about whom the physician was first confident. XVI. Since, therefore, such is the nature of pestilence, that by traveling from infected places it passes to others, and, even when contained in the slightest spark, or in the surrounding breath and atmosphere, can easily be spread through the people with most grievous slaughter, everyone indeed understands that all diligence must here be applied, lest so great an evil be admitted, since it is with the utmost difficulty, and not without the greatest danger, to be driven out. In this matter, under God, the care and authority of the magistrate can contribute greatly, so that contagion may not be brought in by the free access of men and things. For it has been established by frequent experience that this evil has been introduced not only by infected things, but also by infected persons, and among others Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. lib. IV, c. 28, bears witness that it happened in the greatest pestilence that often healthy men, leaving infected regions and going into healthy ones, infected those healthy persons, and those regions
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DE PESTILENTIA 40 illas, eo, quod in se ipsis conservantes, veluti in fomitibus, venenum pestiferum, idem commu- nicarent aliis, atque ita aerem insipientes, pestem inducerent. Imo vero, ubi a pestilentia metuen- dum est, inter cetera magni refert, ut magi- stratus publici vigilantia inops turba, et collu- vies hominum, quæ arcte cohabitans, invicem sibi officit, ac sordibus, quibus maximæ quæ- que urbes scatere solent, plerumque squalet, ex urbe dimittatur in loca liberiora, in quibus ad vitam tolerandam plus libertatis et adiumenti sit. Quo consilio recte usos fuisse Venetos, ex Antonio Coccio Sabellico observat Mercurialis l.c. Gallo etiam et Mediolanenses eandem cautio- nem ætate sua feliciter adhibuisse, idem testa- tur, quod, ut ipse causam reddit, verus ac præ- cipuus pestis fomes sit populus ipse, plebs, pau- peres, qui et propter domos angustas, et præ- vam victus rationem, maxime omnium conta- minentur, maximeque omnium pestem disse- minent. XVII. QVod si pestilentia locum aliquem corripiat, in id incumbendum est, quo impetus eius vires-
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OF PESTILENCE 40 those, because by preserving within themselves, as it were in tinder, the pestiferous poison, they communicated the same to others, and thus, tainting the air, brought on the plague. Indeed, where danger from pestilence is to be feared, among other things it is of great importance that, by the vigilance of the magistrates, the destitute crowd and the rabble of men, who, living closely together, hinder one another, and who, through the filth with which the largest cities are wont for the most part to abound, usually are foul, be removed from the city to freer places, in which there may be more liberty and aid for sustaining life. That the Venetians made good use of this plan, Mercurialis notes from Antonio Coccio Sabellico. He likewise testifies that the Gallic and Milanese people in his own time successfully employed the same precaution, because, as he himself gives the reason, the true and chief tinder of the plague is the people themselves, the common crowd, the poor, who, both because of their cramped houses and because of their corrupt manner of living, are most of all contaminated and most of all spread the plague. XVII. But if pestilence attacks some place, one must devote oneself to this, that the force of its onset may be weakened,
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VERA 41 viresque quam celerrime frangantur, et magna cura providendum, ne semina contagionis latius diffundantur: ex levi enim scintilla maxima arsisse incendia, constat. Itaque, quod primum omnium est, et lege Mosaica sancitum, curandum est, ut statim infecti ab integris segregentur, ita quidem, ut nihil ipsis desit, quod ad salutem, vel animæ, vel corporis, pertineat. Cavendum etiam, ne quicquam suppellectilis, et quicquid contagione vitiatum videtur, ad alios perveniat, sed ut extra urbem cum averso ab ea vento citissime cremetur. Aedes quoque, quibus correptus quis pestilentia fuit, apto suffitu, igneque purgandæ. Quod si plures malum adoriatur, arctiores congressus omnes, et quivis contagionis suspecti, ipsique adeo medici, qui ægrotantium huiusmodi curam gerunt, vitandi sunt, quod pestifero halitu polluti, ipsos non raro sanos inficiant. Neque enim præstantius ullum adversus hanc luem præsidium hucusque inventum est, quam cavere omnia, quæ lethali halitu fuerint inquinata. Præclare in hanc rem Crato l.c. Magna quidem pars præcautionis in aeris perpurgatione sita est: Sed si medicamentis idoneis vis miasmatum infringatur, atque imminuatur, priusquam e corporibus exhalent, præcipuum ex eo præsidium iis locis, in quibus F est
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The forces should be broken as quickly as possible, and great care must be taken lest the seeds of contagion spread more widely: for from a slight spark, it is certain, the greatest conflagrations have been kindled. Therefore, what is first of all necessary, and is enjoined by the Mosaic law, is to see that the infected are immediately separated from the healthy, in such a way, indeed, that nothing is lacking to them which pertains to the welfare of either soul or body. Care must also be taken that nothing of household goods, and whatever appears to have been corrupted by contagion, comes into the hands of others, but that it be burned as quickly as possible outside the city, with the wind blowing away from it. Houses too in which someone has been stricken by pestilence are to be purified by suitable fumigation and fire. But if the evil attacks many, all close gatherings, and anyone suspected of contagion, and even the physicians themselves who have charge of patients of this kind, must be avoided, since, polluted by the pestilential breath, they often infect even the healthy. For no better safeguard against this plague has yet been found than to avoid everything that has been tainted by the deadly breath. Crato speaks excellently on this matter, l.c. A very large part of precaution lies in the purification of the air; but if by suitable remedies the force of miasmas is broken and diminished before they exhale from the bodies, the chief safeguard against them is in those places in which it is
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DE PESTILENTIA est pestilentia, hominibus sperandum. Franguntur autem et imminuuntur, cum vel minus multa corpora ægrotant, plurima recte sanantur, et non aliis coniunguntur, priusquam mia[m]mata ex corporibus et vestibus plane dissipentur. Hoc fit idoneis et tutis remediis in curatione morbi adhibitis. Sæpe enim evenit, ut mia[m]matum malitia importunis remediis gravius augeatur, atque inde pestis gravior fiat, ac ea incremen- ta sumat, ut nulla remissio sit speranda, nisi mi- asmata hebetentur, vel lethalis eorum vis inhi- beatur. XIX. M Vlta quidem, scimus, vulgo præcipi, cum ad obfirmandum corpus adversus veneni impe- tum, tum ad causarum noxiarum emendationem. Nec improbamus illorum consilium, qui ad fu- giendam pestilentiam corpus volunt ab omni sua improbitate humorum, et abundantia, vindicari: quod, qui viribus sint integris, et corporis mun- dici præditi, habeantque succos neque victu in- salubri, neque intemperantia inquinatos, facilius contagio resistere, idemque superare posse vide- antur. Sed cavendum hic sedulo, ne robur et virtus corporis remediis quibusque evacuantibus, vel exagitantibus, minuatur. Et fugiendum, quoad fieri
Transcription: Translated (English)
ON PESTILENCE there is pestilence, something for men to hope for. But these are broken and diminished, when either fewer bodies are made sick, very many are rightly healed, and they are not joined with others before the miasmata from the bodies and clothes have been completely dispersed. This is accomplished when suitable and safe remedies are applied in the treatment of the disease. For it often happens that by untimely remedies the malignity of the miasmata is more greatly increased, and from this the pestilence becomes more severe, and gains such growth that no remission can be hoped for unless the miasmata are weakened, or their deadly power is restrained. XIX. We know indeed that many things are commonly prescribed, both for strengthening the body against the attack of poison, and for correcting harmful causes. Nor do we disapprove of the advice of those who wish the body, in order to avoid pestilence, to be freed from all corruption and excess of humors; for it seems that those who are in full strength, and endowed with a clean body, and whose juices are not contaminated either by unhealthy diet or by intemperance, can more easily resist contagion and likewise overcome it. But here one must diligently beware lest the strength and vigor of the body be diminished by any evacuating or exciting remedies. And it must be avoided, as far as possible
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VERA 43 fieri potest, cautissime, quicquid vires exolvere et labefactare solet. Vires enim firmæ et integræ, si in ullo alio morbo, hic quam maxime desiderantur. Libenter etiam iis assentimur, qui animo opus esse præsenti, metuque, et expectatione mali vacuo, iubent, non ideo quidem, ut delirat Helmontius in libello, cui titulus Tumulus pestis, ne metu in Archeo, nescio quo, pestilentiæ imago procreetur, eaque inficiatur corpus, sed quoniam metu contagium facilius recipi, et receptum confirmari, graviusque lædere fractam, et debilitatam metu et pavoire, naturam potest. Sed videas tamen, tam pravum pestilentiæ genium esse, ut nullum moretur sexum, ætatem nullam, nihil temperamenta curet, nec minus corpora pura, quam cacochymica, atque omne robur, floremque inventutis, et tam fortes, ac magnanimos, quam meticulosos, depascatur. XIX. ET qui præservantia, quæ vocant, remedia polliceri possumus, cum nulla sint cognita, quibus a pestilentia tutus evadas, eiusque telum avertas, vel depellas. Nam quæ vulgo hic interius commendantur bezoardica, et alexipharmacaca, ex terra, marique, et omni animantium, herbarum, et fossilium familia, conquisita, tam simplicia, quam composita, non ita se habent, ut certo juvent, nihilque no- cere F 2
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VERA 43 can be done, with the utmost caution, whatever is wont to drain away and weaken strength. For strong and sound powers, if in any other disease, are here most especially required. We also gladly agree with those who bid that the mind be present, and free from fear and from the expectation of evil, not indeed for the reason, as Helmont raves in the booklet entitled Tumulus pestis , that fear may beget in the Archeus, I know not what, an image of pestilence, and that image infect the body, but because fear may cause contagion to be more easily received, and, once received, to be strengthened, and may more grievously harm nature when broken and debilitated by fear and dread. Yet you may see nevertheless that the genius of pestilence is so perverse that it spares no sex, no age, cares for no temperament, and no less preys upon bodies pure than upon cacochymic ones, and upon all strength and the flower of youth, and upon the courageous and magnanimous no less than upon the timid. XIX. And we cannot promise what are called preservative remedies, since none are known by which you may safely escape pestilence and ward off or drive back its weapon. For those things commonly recommended here as alexipharmics and bezoardics, gathered from earth and sea and from every class of animals, herbs, and fossils, both simple and compound, are not such as to help with certainty, and not to harm at all F 2
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cere possint. Quod ne soli dixisse videamur, au- diamus Sydenhamium, cum l. c. scribit: Prophylaxin, ut verbo attingam, non sum nescius, etiam ad illam antidotalium calidorum usum passim deprædicari, at quo emolumento, adhuc probandum restat. Imo vinum liberius ingurgitatum, aliaque fortiora præservativa, statis horis dietim assumta, complures, qui alias salvi intactique verisimiliter permanissent, in hunc effectum coniecerunt. In tanto autem antidotorum, ut appellant, numero Crato l. c. unum laudat electuarium e nucibus, cuius meminit Galenus, lib. de bon. et vit. succ. estque illud ex facile parabilibus, et innoxiis. Habetur compositio ex sicubus, nucibus iugland. ruta, et sale, quam Pompeius in scriniis Mithridatis reperisse dicitur. XX. NEque fere aliter se res habet cum remediis externis, quæ præservationis gratia laudari, et adhiberi solent. Nam amuleta omnia, ex hydrargyro, arsenico, bufonibus, et rebus quibusque aliis, facta, plus inanis fiduciæ, quam auxilii, habent, et quosdam tam incautos sæpe reddunt, ut securitate perdantur. Vt taceam, multa superstitione non carere, quod de xenexeto Paracelsi Kircherus statuit l. c. Fonticuli merito laudarentur, si, quod vulgo dicitur, per illas portas venenum exiret, quod, qui
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cere possint. Lest we seem to have said this alone, let us hear Sydenham, when in the passage cited he writes: “Prophylaxis, to touch on the word, I am not unaware, is also everywhere praised for the use of hot antidotes; but for what benefit, remains still to be proved. Indeed, even wine swallowed more freely, and other stronger preservatives, taken daily at fixed hours, have brought many, who otherwise would probably have remained safe and untouched, into this condition. But among so many, as they call them, antidotes, Crato in the same place praises one electuary made with nuts, which Galen mentions, lib. de bon. et vit. succ., and it is one of things easily obtainable and harmless. There is a compound made of dried figs, walnuts, rue, and salt, which Pompey is said to have found among Mithridates’ caskets. XX. Nor is the matter much different with external remedies, which are commonly praised and used for the sake of preservation. For all amulets, made from mercury, arsenic, toads, and any other such things, have more empty confidence than help, and often make some people so careless that they are ruined by their sense of security. To say nothing of the fact that many of them are not free from superstition, as Kircher, in the passage cited, states concerning Paracelsus’ xenexetus. Fontanels would be deservedly praised if, as the saying goes, through those doors the poison were to go out, which, who
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VERA 45 qui circulum sanguinis novit, haud crediderit. Sed nihil eos, novimus, profuisse, quamvis plures in corpore gestarentur. Crebro sputum edi, iis, qui inter ægrotantes versantur, vel contagium per os intrare, et cum saliva deglutiri, putant, si non prodesse, nil nocere potest. Propterea plurimum qui- dam, secuti Diemerbrockium, fumo tabaci tribu- unt. Tantique sputationem fecit Dobrenzensky- us, ut, eam, cum Vindobonam pestilentia exerceret, Augustissimo R. Imperatori Leopoldo commenda- ret, quamvis paulo post peste Pragensi ipse rapere- tur. Adeo certa sunt hæc remedia, ut, quo quis magis eis fidit, eo minus adiuvetur. Id non igno- rasse veteres, satis ex Celso constat, qui, l. c. hanc ob- servationem necessariam esse putat, qua quis in pe- stilentia utatur, adhuc integer, cum tamen securus esse non possit, ut nempe tunc naviget, et peregri- netur. Idem consilium, cum anno M D LXXV. pestilentia graviter Italiam affigeret, multos tan- dem meliori successu iniisse, quam qui medicorum antidotis confisi, in urbium angustiis, pestilentia inquinatis, hæserant, tradit Natalis Comes, hist. lib. 27. Ad ferinam hanc pestem avertendam, inquit, in loca tuta liberiora et apertiora recedentes, genio indulgere coeperunt, alii solam moderationem vi- ctus esse remedium horum malorum putabant: alii sobrietatem et temperantiam animi et corporis. Li- berius F 3
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VERA 45 one who knows the circulation of the blood would hardly believe it. But we know that they profited nothing, although many were carried about in the body. They think that frequent spitting out of phlegm, for those who live among the sick, or the contagion entering through the mouth and being swallowed with saliva, if it does not help, can do no harm. For that reason some, following Diemerbrockius, attribute much to tobacco smoke. Dobrenzensky esteemed expectoration so highly that, when the plague was ravaging Vienna, he recommended it to His Most August Imperial Majesty Leopold, although shortly afterward he himself was carried off by the plague at Prague. These remedies are so certain that the more one trusts in them, the less one is helped by them. That the ancients were not unaware of this is sufficiently clear from Celsus, who, in the passage cited, thinks this precaution necessary, which one should use in time of pestilence while still unharmed, though one cannot be secure, namely that one should then travel by sea and journey abroad. Natalis Comes relates that the same advice, when in the year 1575 the plague was severely afflicting Italy, was finally adopted by many with better success than those who, trusting in physicians’ antidotes, had remained in the narrow confines of cities, polluted by the plague. To avert this savage pest, he says, retreating to safe, freer, and more open places, they began to indulge their inclinations; others thought that moderation in diet alone was the remedy for these evils; others sobriety and temperance of mind and body. More freely F 3
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46 DE PESTILENTIA berius his, quod sensit, dixit Sanctorius a Sanctorio, in Med. stat. sect. 1, aph. 138. Qui aliud remedium pro vitanda peste instituunt, quam fugam, vel sunt homines ignorantes, vel volunt æruscare. XXI. QVod si locum mutare minus liceat, hæc inprimis duo, quibus vitam custodimus, nimirum aer, et victus, ne forte noxia sint, observanda sunt. Ac quo quis quidem, gli- scente contagione, propius ædes infectas habitat, hoc magis aerem, ventis agitatum, ex loco infecto clausis fenestris vitare debet. Nec spernendum est illorum consilium, qui aerem domesticum purgari volunt suffimigiis, posthabi- tis pretiosis, solum ex aceto acerrimo cum sale cocto, et ignito lateri, aut candenti ferro asperso, vel accenso, ex- plosoque pulvere pyrio, vel igne luculento, ex incensis iuniperi et lignis durioribus aliis. Namque insignem vim esse ignis ad aerem purgandum, satis hinc discere possu- mus, quod inter alia depellendæ contagionis, per aera diffusæ, remedia doctissimi medici omni ævo præcipiunt, crebras lignorum strues succendi. Quod etiam Hippo- crates in magna illa pestilentia, quam Thucydides descri- bit, non sine insigni utilitate, magnaque sua laude facti- tasse, proditur. Qui se odore munire cupiunt, his merito Crato l. c. rutam, cum aceto odorandam, suadet, quam ali- quid, quod cerebrum lædat, adhibendum. Idem de iis, quæ in ore gestantur, ut Zedoaria, flavedine citri, et ra- dicibus, quæ sunt odore suaves, præcipit. Acida vero omnia, tam sapore, quam odore, convenientia esse, ex- pertus, et sapienter monet. Neque aliter peritissimi qui- que medici testantur. Iis igitur ex herbis, aceto, malis aureis, citreis, punicis, sale, sulphure, vitriolo, nitro, ita uti conveniet, inprimis in victu, ne abusu noceant. Ac temperantia et moderatio sic uti in victu, ita in motibus ani- mi, et rebus omnibus salubribus, plurimum omnino pro- derit. XXII.
Transcription: Translated (English)
46 ON PESTILENCE ... Sanctorius of Sanctorius said, in Med. stat., sect. 1, aph. 138, that whoever institutes any remedy for avoiding the plague other than flight is either ignorant or wishes to grow rich. XXI. But if it is less permissible to change one’s place, these two things above all, by which we preserve life, namely air and diet, must be observed, lest they perhaps be harmful. And indeed, the closer one dwells to infected houses as the contagion spreads, the more one ought to avoid the air stirred by the winds from the infected place, keeping the windows shut. Nor should the advice of those be despised who wish domestic air to be purified by fumigations, setting aside costly ones, using only very sharp vinegar boiled with salt and sprinkled on a heated stone or glowing iron, or with gunpowder exploded and burnt, or with a bright fire made from burning juniper and other harder woods. For we may sufficiently learn from this that fire has remarkable power for purifying the air, since among the remedies for driving away contagion spread through the air, the most learned physicians of every age especially recommend kindling frequent heaps of wood. It is also reported that Hippocrates did this, not without notable usefulness and with great praise of his own, during that great pestilence described by Thucydides. Those who wish to protect themselves by smell, Crato, in the passage cited, rightly advises rue to be smelled with vinegar, rather than something that would injure the brain. The same author prescribes the same for those things that are carried in the mouth, such as zedoary, the rind of citron, and roots that are pleasant in odor. He also wisely notes, from experience, that all sour things are suitable, both in taste and in smell. Nor do the most expert physicians testify otherwise. Therefore it will be proper to use these from herbs, vinegar, sweet oranges, citrons, pomegranates, salt, sulphur, vitriol, and nitre, especially in diet, lest by misuse they do harm. And temperance and moderation in diet, as in the movements of the mind and in all healthful matters, will by all means be of the greatest benefit. XXII.
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Transcription: ATR-1
VERA 47 XXII. Quod demum ad curationem tam diræ luis attinet, id iam quidem cuivis est perspicuum, omnem illius cardinem in eo verti, ut natura contra concepti vim contagii confirmetur, idque et infringatur in corpore, et ex eodem per vias convenientes educatur. Quo loco vehementer explorata hic remedia optaverimus, quæ vel corrigere venenum pestilens, vel sine noxa educere possint, ut quidem virus venereum in siphylide tam confertim per vias salivæ, quam sensim, paulatimque per alias eiicere usus docuit, nec idem nobis hodieque fatendum esse, de quo cum multis doctis viris conquestus est Crato l, c. remedia multa ostendi a medicis, verum, quæ sine periculo iuvent, per pauca esse, ac verum alexipharmacum pestilentiæ penes Deum repositum, ab eoque precibus expetendum. Idem fateri habet Sydenhamius l. c. Mibi, inquit, verisimile est, peculiare pestis remedium, propriumque ipsius perniciei alexiterium adhuc in naturæ sinu abditum delitescere, nec eandem, nisiratione quadam mechanica tolli posse. Nec dissensuros credimus alios, qui unquam pestilentiæ interfuerunt. XXIII. Sed cum hucusque nondum cognitum sit, cui tuto fidas, luis huius remedium, cavendum tamen, si minus prodesse possis, saltem ne noceas, nec veram reddas observationem nominati modo Sanctorii l. c. apb. 139, nobilium neminem fere cum, remediis, plebeios vero sine iis plures sanari. Ac providendum adeo est, ut natura, quæ per abscissus contagium expurgare nititur, in suo opere non impediatur, sed adiuvetur, et fulta viribus suis, ac confirmata, id, quod molitur, exequi recte possit. Cui quidem fini, facile est intellectu, neque sangvinis missiones, neque emetica, neque catharctica, neque sudorifera fortiora, et quæcunque evacuando, exagitandoque vires debilitant, succosque nimia commotione perturbant, convenire, sed anta
Transcription: Translated (English)
VERA 47 XXII. As to the treatment, in the last resort, of so dreadful a disease, it is now indeed clear to everyone that its whole point turns on this: that nature be strengthened against the force of the imbibed contagion, and that this be both broken down in the body and carried out of the same through the proper channels. At this point we would greatly desire remedies here carefully tested, which could either correct the pestilential poison or discharge it without harm, as indeed experience has taught that the venereal virus in syphilis is expelled both copiously through the passages of saliva and, by degrees and little by little, through other routes; nor must we today admit anything different from what Crato, in the passage cited, complained of together with many learned men, namely that many remedies are shown by physicians, but few that help without danger, and that the true alexipharmic for pestilence is kept by God alone and must be sought from Him by prayer. The same admission Sydenham also makes in the cited place: “It seems to me,” he says, “that the special remedy for plague, the proper antidote for so great a destruction, still lies hidden in nature’s breast, and that the disease cannot be removed except by some mechanical means.” Nor do we think others who have ever taken part in a pestilence would disagree. XXIII. But since as yet it is not known to whom one may safely entrust oneself for a remedy for this disease, one must nevertheless take care, if one cannot do good, at least not to do harm; and not to confirm the true observation of the aforesaid Sanctorius, namely that few of the nobility are healed with remedies, whereas more of the common people are healed without them. Provision must therefore be made so that nature, which strives to purge itself through the separated contagion, may not be hindered in its work, but assisted, and, supported by its own powers and strengthened, may properly carry out what it is attempting. For this end, it is easy to understand that neither bloodletting, nor emetics, nor cathartics, nor stronger sudorifics, nor anything whatever that weakens the forces by evacuation and agitation and disturbs the humors by excessive commotion, is suitable, but rat...
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Transcription: ATR-1
DE PESTILENTIA VERA apta inprimis esse remedia diaphoretica, et alterantia, quæ cum aucta perspiratione corporis, blandoque sudore, sangvinem purgant, præterea et acrimoniam, æstumque humorum temperant, et debitam sangvinis consistentiam, et crasin tuentur, inter quæ aceta stillatitia, quæ vocant, bezoardica et alexipharmacaca, aquæve prophylacticæ, succus citri, et alia, supra laudata acida, et tot seculis cognita remedia ex bolis, et terris sigillatis, cornu cervi, ebore; lapillis cancrorum, crystallo montana, et eius generis aliis, ex quibus tot pulveres, et species in officinis prostant, ut novæ cudi formulæ non debeant, laudem merentur. His sæpe sales fixi, et, si æstus urgeat, nitrosi permisceri possunt, nisi vomitiones, fluxusque alui prohibeant. Camphoram et volatilia alia, antidotum Mithridaticam, theriacam, diascordium, et omnes huiusmodi compositiones, in quibus potissima vis ab opio pendet, ut ut vulgo magni fiant, non sine cautione, raroque sine acidis, ad movendum sudorem adhibenda esse, cautiores usus docuit, et inter alios Hier. Capivaccius submonuit Pract. lib. VI. cap. 38. Atque his quidem remediis in tempore uti conveniet, et ante, quam venenum intimius se in sangvinem inseruerit. Nam si in ullo morbo, in hac certe lue observandum est, quod in Ep. ad Cratevam Hippocrates scripsit: Ab omni arte aliena est procrastinatio, maxime vero a Medicina, in qua dilatio vitæ periculum affert: temporum autem opportunitates curationum sunt animæ, earumque observatio, finis. XXIV. Quousque autem cienda perspiratio corporis, movendusque sudor sit, considerata natura ægrotantis, prudens Medicus iudicabit, et, observato hoc primario scopo, mitigandis etiam symptomatis prospiciet, ac inprimis operam dabit, ne elatum in bubones, anthracesque virus importuno quovis remedio redeat in sangvinem, sed ut omne recte expurgetur. De quibus tamen plura non dicemus, cum his pleni sint libri, et nos temporis,
Transcription: Translated (English)
ON THE TRUE PESTILENCE remedies especially suitable are diaphoretics and alteratives, which, by increasing the perspiration of the body and by a gentle sweat, purify the blood; moreover they moderate the acridness and heat of the humors, and preserve the proper consistency and crasis of the blood; among these are distilled vinegars, so-called bezoardic and alexipharmacal remedies, prophylactic waters, juice of citron, and other acids praised above, and those remedies long known from boluses and sealed earths, hartshorn, ivory; crab’s stones, mountain crystal, and others of that kind, from which so many powders and compounds are kept in the shops, that new forms ought not be devised; they deserve praise. Fixed salts are often, and if the heat press hard, nitrous salts, may be mixed with these, unless vomiting and fluxes of the belly forbid it. Camphor and other volatile remedies, Mithridatic antidote, theriac, diascordium, and all compositions of this sort, in which the chief power depends upon opium, however highly they are commonly esteemed, are to be used with caution, and rarely without acids, for the excitation of sweat, as more careful use has taught, and among others Hier. Capivaccius warned, Pract. lib. VI. cap. 38. And indeed these remedies ought to be used in due time, and before the poison has more deeply inserted itself into the blood. For if in any disease, in this certainly this plague it must be observed, what Hippocrates wrote in the Epistle to Cratevas: Delay is foreign to every art, but most especially to Medicine, in which postponement brings danger to life: the proper opportunities of times, however, are the soul of cures, and the observance of them, the end. XXIV. But how far the perspiration of the body is to be aroused, and sweat induced, a prudent Physician will judge, considering the nature of the sick person, and, having observed this primary aim, will also provide for the mitigation of symptoms, and above all will take care that the infected poison be not, by any untimely remedy, driven back into the blood when it has risen into buboes and carbuncles, but that everything be rightly purged out. But concerning these matters we shall say no more, since books are full of them, and we are short of time,