Page:A practical method as used for the cure of the plague in London in 1665.pdf/18

 of the Plague in London, in 1665; wherein Sir Charles Scarborough, that celebrated Physician, acted his Part, in a Measure of Knowledge, far above the common Practitioners of the Town, and more than could be expected from a Person of his Rank; whose great Performances in the Cure of the Duke of York, had kindled that Esteem for him in France and Italy, and other Catholick Countries, that they accounted him among the peculiar Blessings of the Age.

This Plague, which the eminent Doctor Sydenham calls, in his Practice of Cures, by the Name of a Mortal Fever; discovered at first its Malignity among the poorer Sort of People, in St. Giles's in the Fields, towards the latter end of the Year 1664: At what Time that Contagion was thought to be brought in thither from Dantzick, by the Sale of some Pillows, and other Bedding, that were belonging to a Master of a Ship, who died of that Pestilential Distemper in the Voyage. For though that Part of the World lies between Fifty and Sixty Degrees of Northern Latitude, and a frozen Climate; yet as it borders upon the Turks, it is seldom free from such Infections.

There are others, who espouse a contrary Opinion, and give an Account that these Pestilential Effluvia, were first imported to us from Holland, by the Means of a Spaniel Dog, brought over from thence in an Rh