Present Remedies against the plague. Showing sundry preservatives for the same, by wholesome Fumes, drinks, vomits and other inward Receipts; as also the perfect cure (by Implaisture) of any that are therewith infected. Now necessary to be observed of every Housholder, to avoid the infection, lately begun in some places of this City. Written by a learned Physician, for the health of his Country. Printed for Thomas Pauyer, and are to be sold at his shop at the entrance into the Exchange. 1603 To the Reader. FOR as much as the force and infection of the ordinary disease called the Plague or Pestilence, hath heretofore been too well known and felt in sundry places of this Realm: and considering that it hath of late begun to increase in many chief Cities and populous places; I thought it good to publish to you in time, sundry preservatives against the said disease, the better to defend those that are in health, from the infection of the diseased: And also to cure those that are any way infected, grieved, or troubled with the same. And to this I was emboldened, the rather for that it was written by a very learned and approved Physician of our time, who desireth more the health of his Country, than by discovering his name seem vain glorious to the world. Accept the same I pray you in good part, and thank God for the physicians pains, who hath his desire if it may do but that which he wisheth: namely expel sickness, and increase health to this Land. Which God for his mercy sake, prosper and preserve from all plagues and dangers for evermore, Amen. These things ought duly to be looked unto. (Viz.) RIght necessary and convenient it were, that you keep your houses, streets, yards, backsides, sinks, and kennels, sweet and clean from all standing puddles, dunghills, and corrupt maystures which engender stinking savours that may be noisome, or breed infection: nor suffer no dogs to come running into your houses, neither keep any (except it be backward, in some place of open air, for they are very dangerous, & not sufferable in time of sickness, by reason they run from place to place, and from one house to another, feeding upon the uncleanest things that are cast forth into the streets, and are a most apt cattle to take infection of any sickness, & then to bring it into the house. For airing your Rooms. Air your several taimes with Charcomle fires, made in stone pans or Chasingdishes, and not in attorneys: set your pans in the middle of the Rooms: air every room once a week (at the least) and put into your fire a little quantity of Frankincense, juniper, dried Rosemary, or of Bay-leaves. A Fume of great experience. Take Rosemary, and put it into strong Vinegar, steep it in a Basin or bowl heat four or five Fl●ntstones red hot and cast them into the Vinegar and so let the Fume ascend into the middle of every room. Another. Air your apparel in the same sort, and with the same fume: & bear in your hands some handkerchief, Sponge, or Cloth, wetted in the juice of Wormwood, Hearbegrace, and red Rose-vinegar, mixed together. To smell to. The root of Enula Campna steeped in vinegar & lapped in a handkerchief, is a special thing to smell unto, if you come where the sickness is. Another. Hearbgrace, and wormwood steeped in vinegar, in some powter piece close slopped, is to be used in like sort. To taste or chew in the mouth. The root of Angelica, Setwall, Gencian, Valerian, or Cinnamon, is aspeciall preservative against the plague, being chewed in the mouth. To eat. Eat Sorrell steeped in vinegar, in the morning fasting, with a little bread and butter, Sorrel sauce is also very wholesome against the same. Another. Take the kernel of a walnut, mince it with three or four leaves of Hearbgrace, and a corn or two of Salt: then put it into a Fig, warm it and eat it fasting: fast three hours after, and take it twice a week. A special thing to eat, found very comfortable. Take strong red Rose-vinegar, sprinkle it upon a toast of white bread, spread Butter thereon, and then cast the powder of cinnamon upon it, & eat it fasting: or eat bread and butter with Hearbgrace. Another. Give to the diseased for their ordinary food, some broth made with a neck of Mutton: boiled with a good quantity of Burridge, Sorrell, and bugloss. To comfort the stomach. Aleberries are very comfortable, made with Cloves, Mace, Nutmegs, Saunders, Guinea grains, and such like. To drink. Take Rue, Wormwood, and Scabias, steep it in Ale a whole night, & drink it fasting every morning. Another. Take the water of Carduns Benedictus, or Angelica, and mix it with Mithridate, Another. The root of Enula Campana, beaten to powder, is a special remedy against the plague, being drunk fasting. Another. Drink the powder of Turmentill, in Sorrell or Scabias water. Another. If any feel themseules already infected, take Angelica-water mixed with Mithridate, drink it off, then go to bed and sweat thereon. Another to drink. Take a spoonful of Bayberries, and husk them before they be dry, heat them to powder, and drink it in good stale Ale or Beer, or in white wine: then sweat upon it, and forbear to sleep. to procure Sweat. Take Posset-Ale sodden with Sorrel, and Burridge, mixed with treacle of Diatesseron and get you to your naked bed. A special preservative against the Plague. Take of the root of great Valerian, a quarter of an ounce: of Sorrell a handful: an ounce of the root of Butter-burr: boil them in running water, from a quart to a pint, two spoonfuls of Vinegar to it, and let the patient drink it so hot as he may, and then sweat upon it. another special preservative. Take an Egg, make a hole in the top of it, take out the white and the yolk, and fill the shell only with Saffron, roast the shell and Saffron together, in embers of Charcoals, until the shell wax yellow: then beat shell and altogether in a martyr, with half a spoonful of Mustard-séed: Now so soon as any suspicion is had of infection, dissolve the weight of a French crown in ten spoonfuls of posset-Ale, drink it lukewarm, and sweat upon it in your naked bed. another preservative to be distilled. Take half a hundred green Walnuts being new taken off as they hang green on the tree, and a pound of the inner Bark of an ash-tree: then take Petimortell, Houseleek, Scabias, & Vervin, of each a handful Saffron half an ounce, and mince all these small together: then put a pottle of the strongest Vinegar on them boil them over a soft fire in a close pot, and after distill them in a limbeck: keep the distilled water, and give the Patient two ounces to drink thereof, four times in four & twenty-houres, when he is in his naked bed, & let him be provoked to sweat, and he shall find great ease thereby. If the Patient be bound in the body. Take a suppositor made with a little boiled Honey, & a little powder of Salt: let this be put up at the fundament with a little butter until it move him to the stool. Drink for ordinary Diet. So near as you can let the patients ordinary drink be good final ale of eight days old. For Vomiting. Vomiting is better than bleeding in this case and therefore provoke to vomit so near as you can. To provoke Vomit. Take three leaves of Castrabecca, stamp it, and drink it in Rhenish wine, ale, or posset ale. Another. A little quantity of 〈◊〉 Helibor, grated and drunk in the like fort procureth vomit. A special Vomit. Take two ounces of Oil of Walunts, a spoonful of the juice of Celandine, and half a spoonful of the juice of Reddish roots: Let not the party sleep for two hours after, and in so doing it is better than any purging. For purging. If the party be full of gross humours, let him blood, immediately upon the right arm, on the Liver vein or on the median veyn, in the same arm: so as no sore appear the first day. A very wholesome purge. Put into the pap of an apple, a sixepennie weight of Aloes, and so take it: or the pills of Rufus. A wholesome water to be distilled. Steep sorrel in vinegar, four and twenty hours, then take it out and dry it with a linen doth, than still it in a Limbeck, drink four spoonfuls with a little sugar, then walk upon it till you sweat if you may: if not, keep your bed and sweat upon it. Use this before supper on any evening. If the patient happen to be troubled with any swellings, Botches, Carbuncles, or God's tokens: let him sweat moderately now and then. Outward medicines to ripen the sore. Take the root of a white Lily, roast it in a good handful of sorrel, stamp it and apply it thereto very hot, let it lie four and twenty hours, and it will break the sore, Another. Take of old swines-grease salted, two ounces, with the yolk of an egg, and two handfuls of Scabias, stamp them together, and lay it warm to the sore. Another. Take a small quantity of leaven, a handful of mallows, a little quantity of Scabias, cut a white Onion into pieces, with half a dozen heads of garlic, boil these together in running water, make a poullus of it and then lay it hot to the sore. Another. The like may be made of two handfuls of Valerian, three roots of Danwort, and a handful of smallage, seeth them in sheeps suet and Rose water, with a few crumbs of bread, and apply it hot to the sore. Another. Take a hot Loaf, new taken forth of the Oven, apply it to the sore, and it will doubtless break the same but afterward bury the same loaf deep enough in the ground, for fear of any infection: for if either dog or any other thing do feed thereon it, will infect a great many. Other Observations. Let the sick and infected persons be separated and kept from the whole, until the sore be healed: but generally let them be kept within the space of a month. For a Fume. Take a new burnt Brick, & heat it red hot, then put it into a Basin of Vinegar, and let the fume thereof ascend into your houses. For Airing Apparel. Let the apparel of the diseased persons, be well and often washed, be it linen or woollen: or let it be aired in the Sun, or over pans of fire, or over a Chasing-dish of Coals, & fume the same with Frankincense juniper, or dried Rosemary. A perfect good Plaster for the Cure of the sore after it is broken. Take unwróght Wax, white Turpentine, the yolk of an Egg, a little fresh butter, & a quantity of English honey, boil all these together to a salve, and apply it to the sore, being thin spread upon a cloth, in manner of an ordinary Plaster. Additions. To preserve from the Infection of the Plague. Take Garlic peel it and mince it small, put it into new milk and eat it fasting. To take the infection from a house infected. Take large onions, peel them, and lay three or four of them upon the ground, let them lie ten days, & those pieled onions will gather all the infection into them that is one of those Rooms: but bury these onions afterward deep in the ground. Another. Take new milk and set it in a Basin in the middle of the infected Rooms, and the milk will draw the infectious vapour into it, letting it stand two days in the said Room, Against the new burning Fever. If the Patient be in a great heat as most commonly they will, take of fair running water a pretty quantity put it on a Chasingdish of Coals, than put thereinto a good quantity of Saunders beaten to powder: and let it boil half an hour between two dishes: that done put a couple of soft linen clothes into the dish, wet the clothes well in water and Saunders, and apply the same so hot as you can suffer it to your belly. To drink for the hot Fever. Take two handful of Sorrell, and a handful of Violet leaves with a bunch of sour Grapes, beat them together stalks and all: then strain it into Buttermilk, then make a posset of the same Buttermilk, and let the Patient drink thereof so much as he will. To procuresleepe to the sick Persons that are diseased either with the Plague or the hot Fever. Take of a woman's Breast-milke a good quantiti, put thereunto of the like quantity of Aquavite, stir them well together, and moisten therewith the Temples of the Patient and his Nostrils, lay it on with some feather, or some fine thin rag. Buttermilk in this contagious time is generally wholesome to be eaten, and is a good preservative against either the Plague or the pestilent Fever. Finis.