The pest anatomized : five centuries of plague in Western Europe. An exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine ... 4 March to 24 May 1985 / [compiled by Richard Palmer and Christine English].
- Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
- Date:
- 1985
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: The pest anatomized : five centuries of plague in Western Europe. An exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine ... 4 March to 24 May 1985 / [compiled by Richard Palmer and Christine English]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Thomas Cocke, Advice for the poor by way of cure and caution. [London, 1665]. The poor suffered most in any epidemic of plague and advice books aimed at the poor were common. Cocke's pamphlet was sanctioned by the principal officials concerned with controlling the London plague, the Duke of Albemarle and the Earl of Craven. A recommendation signed by the latter desiring that every parish clerk should obtain a sufficient quantity to distribute among the poor, is printed at the end of Cocke's text. Londons Lord have mercy upon us. A true relation of seven modern plagues or visitations in London, with the number of those that were buried. London, 1665. A broadsheet with statistics of burials and of plague mortality for 1592, 1603, 1625, 1630, 1637-8 and 1665. The printed statistics to September 5th 1665 have been continued in manuscript to May 29th 1666. Burials at St. Martins in the Fields from May 1665 to July 1666 have also been added in manuscript. The woodcut shows an angel with sword and flail, representing plague as the scourge of God, and Death with an arrow and hourglass. The runaways fleeing from London are met either by death with coffins and shrouds or by the weapons of countrymen guarding their villages and towns. Guildhall Library, London, Broadside 26.12. Orders conceived and published by the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London concerning the infection of the plague. London, [1665.] The regulations include directions for the burial of the dead between sunset and sunrise, though at the height of the plague this system broke down, as Pepys noted: 'The people die so, that now it seems they are fain to carry the dead to be buried by daylight, the nights not sufficing to do it in.' The shutting up of infected houses as it is practised in England soberly debated. [London, 1665.] This anonymous tract argues that the practice of shutting up sick and sound together increases the spread of the plague. The author paints a gloomy picture of the plight of the sick cut off from medical attendance, deprived of antidotes and medicines, and left to the ministrations of the nurses, the 'off-scourings of the City' motivated solely by avarice, those 'dirty, ugly and unwholesome Haggs.' George Thomson, AoLfiTOfiia ; or the pest anatomized. London, 1666. George Thomson (1619-77) was a follower of van Helmont. He tried to organise a College of Chemical Physicians in 1665, issuing an advice book on plague to rival that of the College of Physicians. Thomson performed an autopsy on the body of a fifteen year old servant, assisted by another servant and protected by burning sulphur, as the frontispiece (which illustrates the cover of the catalogue) shows. Thomson was anxious to quash rumours that several of his friends, including George Starkey, died as a result of participating in this post-mortem. Thomson fell ill soon after performing the dissection and consulted Starkey, who was already ill and dying of plague. Thomson believed that he cured himself by wearing a linen bag containing a large dried toad which swelled; 'the adjunction of this Bufo nigh my Stomack, was of wonderful force to master and tame this Venom then domineering in me.' Nathaniel Hodges, Loimologia: or, an historical account of the plague in London in 1665. London, 1720. Nathaniel Hodges (1629-88), Fellow of the College of Physicians, published what is probably the best account of the 1665 plague. The Latin edition was published in 1672 and this is the first English translation, with additions by -18-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457790_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
