Page:A practical method as used for the cure of the plague in London in 1665.pdf/17

 is very difficult to erace; yet I will be bold to aver, that it is not impracticable, but that such a Medicine may be so composed out of Volatile Salts, and some generous and noble Drugs, (which, by the increase and Decrease of such proper Doses, as may fit every Age, Sex, and Constitution) as will overcome this Herculean Distemper.

This Contagion, which, at the beginning, crept from the Shipping into Marseilles, soon changed its first slow and languid Pace, into a horrible Slaughter; and through the City was almost drained by her Funerals, yet there was not the least Appearance of a Relax, until the approach of the Winter; at what Time it declined leisurely by Degrees, as it had gradually made its first Advances. The Multitudes, which have since fled from the City, and carried the Infection along with them into the adjacent Towns, have been the Occasion of its spreading its Cruelties, since the Spring, into the neighbouring Countries, where it, at present, rages with equal Fury: So that now all hopes is lost, that this Pestilence will cease, 'till there is want of Subjects to act upon.

But I will stop here, though it is not easy to retire from so copious a Subject; that as it affordeth so much Matter, so upon many Accounts, raiseth a Heat of Thought, that is not easily governed. I will now lead you to a Scene that giveth less Disorder: It is that Rh