The New Disease; OR A Rational Account of the Great COLDS AND COUHGS Now Raging amongst Us: SHOWING The true Causes of the said Distempers, and Approved REMEDIES for Their speedy Cure.  
TOGETHER With the Author's Solemn Invitation to all that shall escape those Maladies, to come and Dine with Him at Christmas next.  
By J. L. Student in Physic and Astrology.  
London Printed for W.T. 1676.   

The New Disease; OR A Rational Account of the Great Colds and Coughs now raging amongst Us, etc.  
OBserving Colds of late to be a General Affliction wherewith most Persons (especially about this City) are troubled, and which in Many at this time are far more Dangerous, and attended with worse Symptoms than ever were known heretofore; I could not but think myself obliged in Pity and Christian Charity towards the Multitudes now Labouring under Them, to give some Physical Account thereof, with the best and most approved Remedies for the same, that People may know how to help themselves in time, and prevent the more mischievous Consequences; The rather, for that I do not remember any Physician that has Professedly treated thereof, But generally they over-pass them, as scarce worth their notice, though 'tis well known that they are the principal Cause to which most Diseases have their Original; An overflowing of Rheum being as destructive in the little World, as an Inundation of the Sea in the Great: I confess a Cold to many, seems a very Contemptible matter, not fit to trouble a Doctor with; People generally slight it, but often pay for their Vanity; They find their Head stuffed with crude vapours, and their Breasts clogged with vicious unconcocted Humours, and the cry— 'tis but a Cold; They find their Lungs afflicted and obstructed in their Functions and Offices, and themselves scarce able to draw their Breath, and yet— 'tis but a Cold; They find a want of Appetite, and weakness of Digestion, a general Stupefaction of the Animal Spirits, and faint with Coughs, and languish with Catarrhs, and sink under Lethargies, and lose their Senses in Apoplexies, yet still— 'tis but a Cold: In short, their Brain is at last drowned by a deluge of Phlegm, and the Soul is forced to leave the ruinous cottage of the Body, and the Man dies, and is fairly buried, and still— 'tis but a Cold; When it may be a little Care, and a Medicine of Three-halfe-pences, might (under God) have preserved him alive till the Year 1700.  
And therefore I hope none will think this our friendly Undertaking, Superfluous or Impertinent, nor undervalue it because it's presented in a single Sheet; As opiniated Ladies (that have more Money than Discretion) refuse many times wholesome Medicines merely because they are Cheap, and may be had in their own Gardens;  
In all Medicinal Inquiries, the Great Masters of the Art of Healing, advise us to begin with the Cause, For Scire est per Causas Cognoscere; Now the Causes of these extreme Colds that at this time so universally afflict us, are either General, or Particular, Immediate, or Remote; The Immediate or Particular Causes are various according to each Persons occasions and circumstances; The Remote, primary, or general Cause; we are not to look for on this ●ide Heaven, for let Ignorance, or narrow Learning rail at Astrology as they list, we are satisfied 'tis only that Art, can give any tolerable Account of the Reasons of Epidemical, or Endemial Distempers; and why they Rage at such particular seasons more than at other times;  
If therefore we lift up our Eyes to that glorious Glass, we shall find in the last Month of October, a great number of very rough and threatening Positions; first a Conjunction of Mars and Mercury, an Opposition of Mercury and Saturn, a Conjunction of Mars and the Sun, an Opposition of Saturn against both the Sun, Mars and Venus, and a Conjunction of Venus and Mars all within the space of one Month; From the Consideration whereof, it was very easy (without the least suspicion of Witchcraft or Conjuring) to Judge and conclude that Mankind would at or about that time, be afflicted with some kind of general Disease or Distemper; The particular kind of which is sufficiently intimated unto us by the Signs through which the opposing Planets make their present Transit, as Saturn (the fountain of Cold (as the Sun is of Heat) and causer of most frigid Diseases) in Taurus an Earthly cold Sign, and the Sun, Mars, Venus, and Mercury all in Scorpio, a Sign Watery and Feminine, Cold and Moist, and of which J. Gadbury has affirmed in Print, that it is the most vicious Sign of the Zodiac Anim. Cornutum, p. 20. Now is it less evident that London more especially, should suffer in Its Inhabitants by these extraordinary Colds, since Jupiter the only Planet that can lend us any Assistance in this case, is posited in Opposition to the Radical Ascendant of that City.  
These are the Celestial reasons of this raging Distemper, for by these rugged and contradicting beams, and unwholesome infrigidating Influences, the Air was not only suddenly altered, and the we●●her changed from very warm to very cold (as we may remember) but likewise impregnated with certain unseasonable particles, which are no sooner drawn in by the Lungs, but they incorporate with the Serum or waterish part of the Blood, and render it more impure, and thence is generated that vast quantity of Mucus (or Snivel) which we find Nature unloading herself of continually at the nose and other Emunctories; raised and increased by reason that the External cold, unwarily received at some of the Pores, gets up to the bra●n, and by compressing and overcooling the same, adds still fresh crudities, whence proceed continual distillations of Rheum, which falling upon the Lungs, and Aspera Arterea (or windpipe) causes a tickling by the Acrimony and sharpness of the humour, and thence comes the Eructation (or little Earthquake in the Microcosm) which we call a Cough.  
For the Prognostics of this Distemper, we conceive it to be of longer continuance than ordinary, and of a more stubborn and contumatious nature, not yielding to common Remedies, besides people shall be in much danger of Relapses, and at sometimes the Disease shall seem almost wholly vanished, of which mitigation we shall have an instance about the 10th. of December, and from thence continue very moderately till Christmas, but afterwards shall spread it sel● abroad a fresh. I is a common saying, Prevention is the best Physic; I know no better way for them to avoid this troublesome companion, that makes a kitchenstuff pot of your head, and a Limbeck of your nose, than for to keep yourself wa●m, but be sure arm yourself against him Cap a Pe, I mean whatever you do secure your head and your feet, for they are common sally-por●s where the Enemy enters, keep them therefore warm and dry, a cap will be a good bedfellow, and 'tis better to pay the Shoemakers bill than the Apothecaries.  
But if the intruder have already by a forcible Entry got Possession of the Tenement of your body, the best way in the world to Eject him is by a sound Sweat, to this purpose take a Drachm of Diascordium, or two drams of Mithridate, or a small quantity, about four Drams of Matthiolus his grand Antidote, or if you please take Aurum Diaphoreticum, or Diaphoretick Antimony, or what other Sudori●iques (or sweat-provoking Medicines you please) and in sweeting whether for this or any other Distemper order your body thus, if you would receive more benefit than harm by it.  
Take the Medicine in your bed, and be covered warm, drink often as you lie Posset drink, as hot as you can endure it, sweat an hour or two, if your strength will bear it, than the chamber being kept very warm, shift yourself all but your head, about which (your cap which you sweat in being kept on) wrap a hot napkin, which will be a means to repel the vapours back.  
This sweeting will turn the humours in your bodies into vapours, and setting open the Pores will rid you of them without any more to do, or you may make use of the following Syrup, by which several scores about this City have been perfectly cured, a thing no less excellent in its virtues than cheap and easy to be obtained.  
Take a whole head of Garlic the largest you can get, peel the several Cloves, and bind them all up together again, then put it with a quart of running water into some earthen vessel, and stop it up very close with paste, and let it stand in a hot Oven twelve hours, then being took out do not open it till 'tis quite cold, for if you should, the spirits and virtue would evaporate, then strain out the Garlic and press out as much as you can of the juice, and boil up that liquor that remains with brown sugar candy to the thickness of a Syrup, and eat thereof as you have occasion, but be sure you keep yourself warm after it for it as a great opner of the Pores.  
To eat a raw Pippin, is a usual Remedy for a Cold, and I know a Gentleman that commonly Cures himself by drinking of a pint of cold Water when he goes to Bed; These may seem strange Medicines, but not to those that truly understand the mystery of Sympathy and Antipathy, and that Diseases are cured by their Likes, as well as by their Contraries: It often happens that Colds leave ill-favoured effects behind them in the Body, and settles with pain and trouble in some particular Member, in such a case you have no more to do, but send to the Apothecaries for a little Vnguenium Nervinum, and it will help you, having restored several even in dead Palsies; for Wind, anoint your Belly with it; for want of Digestion; your Stomach; for the Colic, your Belly; For whatever Disease in any part of the Body comes of Cold, esteem this Ointment as a Jewel, and bless GOD who hath given Man the knowledge of it.  

For a Cough.  
First cut the phlegm with Syrup of Vinegar, then purge and cleanse the Breast and Lungs, which may be done by giving wine of Antimony, and taking several times after it Diacassia, then comfort the Lungs with Syrupus Succorum, and give Troches Bechice to hold constantly in your mouth, which you may buy at the Apothecaries and carry about you in a paper, and at night take Tincture of Sugar or extract of Elecampane, or Elixir Proprietatis is very useful, the best of which to be had in London is prepared and sold by my worthy friend Doctor Coelson at the Royal Oak on Tower Hill, and is very necessary for all families to keep by them, being an excellent Medicine in all kind of colds, as likewise in the Griping of the Guts and most common diseases.  
I might have entertained the Reader with disputing whether these colds now so rife amongst us are not contagious or catching, most Physicians hold they are, which seems confirmed by experience, in that when they come into a house they usually go quite round the Family, by I have not time to enlarge, only because I would be civil at parting, I care not if I invite all persons gentle and simple, that shall not have a cold since Michaelmas to dine with me the day after Christmas day next where they shall be very welcome, and have an Hermetical Banquet, dressed by a spagyrical Cook, that like (the Ambrosia of the Heathen divinities) shall render all that taste of it immortal.   
FINIS.