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All this time they give the sick no medicines, besides Venice treacle for the poor, and some doses of bezoar for such as can afford to pay for it; and they never can be persuaded to change their method; for when you gave them Doctor James's powder, they never tried what effect it might have.
I am of opinion that all antiphlogistics should be used before the eruptions; and all alexipharmics and antiseptics after them; more particularly camphire, and some doses of bark always in the remissions of the fever, and blisters ought to be of great use in the sleepy and stupid plague, for rousing the animal spirits, and for giving them some motion: but they are never used here; and, as they live by custom, it is impossible to prevail upon them to change it.
As to preservatives, I think the best is to remove from the infected persons and houses, and to keep at a proper distance for many days from them.
Some are of opinion, that fire preserves from the plague, and purges the air; from whom I beg leave to differ; for I have remarked here, that cooks and cooks mates, who are always near the fire, suffer more by the plague, than any other set of people in proportion to their number. Besides, the fire enlivens and gives energy to the poisonous effluvia lodged about them, which otherwise might die and disperse in the open air, if exposed sufficiently to it. Fire moreover opens the pores, relaxes the fibres; and, as the hot weather propagates the plague, fire should do the same more or less; and for the same reason I imagine, that all perfumes must be of very little service.
The next best preservative I take to be moderation, and a diet of such meats as are of easy diges-
