Scelera aquarum: or, a supplement to Mr. Graunt on the bills of mortality. Shewing as well the causes, as encrease of the London, Parisian, and Amsterdam scorbute ... / By J.H. M.D.

J. H. (James Harvey)

Date:: 1701

Credit: Scelera aquarum: or, a supplement to Mr. Graunt on the bills of mortality. Shewing as well the causes, as encrease of the London, Parisian, and Amsterdam scorbute ... / By J.H. M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$But altho’ Pliny takes xhzScorl-utc oft he Roman Legion^ cou¬ rt-rafted in Camp tor a Solitary Difeafe * and takes it for granted, rthat it had its rile iblely from one Univocal Caufe* -that is to fay, from lorne Mineral Juice, or SalCiti the Earth, diluted thence, and Wate^Cfwhifh feemeth in¬ sinuated by the Words, Scelmaqua & Loci: Yet we find by an addition of Envenomed Symptoms, that the Scorbute nOW Sn Civil Societies, especially-hnce its Trail fplantatioti into England^ is a Compound, and moft complicated Cafe, and thuft be owned to'have had its Origioe from many Accumulated Gaufes; amongft which I enilmcrate Cdx vive and Argot ufed in all the Brewer’s YVells through'Eartff, which being ren* der’d both Fiery and Corrofive in Nature and Quality by Calcination, are much more adpated to extraft the Tinfture out of Man It, than to cprreftthe IVhrbifick Acid in Efurine Waters. From thefe, 'together, with fome other ufcful Obfervations made by me, on the Infaiubrity of the Elements, in the re- fpeftive Scituations of London, Pari*) and Amfterdam* and from the Waters there impregnated in part by Nature, in part by Induftry, and unluckily wrought into Bread. I pre¬ tend to be able [and I hope without Vanity] to ihew the origine of all fuchLocal Difeafes, as depend on, or are com¬ puted Branches of the Scorbute. f f - ; It is an unhappinefs to Mankind, that the Natural Ma- glck of Baptifta Porta -, together, with the natural Hiftory of the Lord Bacon) have taught Bakers and Cow- men, round about London-) by unnatural Ways and Means, to multiply Bread in Weight * and [ikewife how to encreafe Milk in Milch Bcafts, by the fame unlucky Ways and Means/ with¬ out adding Refleftions on the ill. confequcncc, of the faid encreafe, or inftrufting the World how far the one might tend towards the Dcftruftiohaf Men, and the other to the Base of Children. And this imjuppiiicfs is fo much the greater, by reafoii ibarRread i\ irjiiy calfd. the'Staff of Life, and the Daily SiibfiflStncte of as Milk is that of Children. Audi do here affert, and ft all hereafter prove the fame,by ma.kin g thefe things yiilblc i;i their proper place; that this modern Mortality we ffehold of the fender, Fruits, both of Womin and Brutes, char are4 Deftroyed either in the Belly$