Page:A practical method as used for the cure of the plague in London in 1665.pdf/24

 Fermentation of the Humours, when other Circumstances do make the whole ripe for it.

In some, these Corporeal Evils manifest their Cruelty when the Child is very young, by one Sign or other, evident to the Sense; as, by Vomiting, Looseness, Restlessness, or Convulsions: Sometimes by Acrimonies, external, or otherwise; by which their Lives are quickly cut off, if they be not help'd with Remedies, that can fortify the natural Powers to resist these Maladies. And that general Opinion, that Physick is not proper for Children, hath, in all Probability, destroy'd many, that might have otherwise been preserved: For such Maladies, how violent soever they may seem, are seldom mortal, if the internal Powers are strengthen'd by proper Medicines; because the Spirit in them is not so vitiated, as to nourish the Disease.

As to those of riper Years, these putrid Ferments lye hid and harmless for a long Time in their Bodies; they not being always alone sufficient to disturb the Mixture of the Blood, so as to make an Effervescence, until such Time as they are stirred up by the violent Heat of the Air, or other Accidents, to an Ebullution, and then a Coagulation, whereby the Plague, and other Contagious Diseases, are generated.

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