Loimologia

In Short

Written by a physician who remained in London throughout the Great Plague of 1665, this treatise offers a firsthand clinical account of the epidemic's origin, symptoms, and medical management. Dr. Nathaniel Hodges detailedly describes how the pestilence enters the human body, attacks the vital spirits, and produces severe fever, carbuncles, and buboes. He lays out diagnostic signs, prognosis criteria, and chemical recipes alongside surgical interventions. Supplemented by John Quincy’s essay on pestilential contagion, the text endures as a vital medical document detailing early modern epidemiology and frontline clinical practice during a historic crisis.

The Story

The work opens with a vivid historical recollection of London during the summer of 1665. As the contagion takes root, wealthy residents flee the capital, leaving the city deserted yet filled with the impoverished mass of common people. By August and September, the plague breaks out into an outright slaughter. Up to eight thousand citizens die in a single week. Whole families perish together; infants draw their last breath at the breasts of deceased mothers, and newlyweds die in their first nocturnal embrace. Victims stagger through the streets like intoxicated men, drop dead in markets while purchasing provisions, or lie comatose until death claims them.

Hodges counters prevailing superstitions by systematically establishing the physical nature of the contagion. He rejects the notion that the plague is an open cloud visible to the eye or sweet-smelling like flowers, identifying it instead as a highly volatile, invisible pestilential aura. This poisonous seminium enters the human body through skin pores or inhalation, targeting the animal spirits. Once inside, it weakens the body's natural defenses, causing the vital fluids to curdle or break down.

The narrative tracks the physical manifestation of the disease within infected individuals. The attack opens with violent shuddering, shivering, and severe nausea, signaling that the body's internal systems are overwhelmed. As the fever advances, patients experience parching internal heat, cold sweats, and delirium. The sickness soon erupts outwardly upon the skin, forming distinct, agonizing pustules known as blains, followed by deep, mortifying carbuncles and swellings in the lymph nodes.

To combat this onslaught, Hodges details the physician's active role at the bedside. The primary goal is promoting sweat to drive the poisonous vapors out through the pores before they destroy internal organs. Doctors administer powerful herbal alexipharmicks, warm cordial broths, and volatile oils while enforcing strict sleep deprivation to keep the patient awake during treatment. When hard carbuncles form, surgeons cut deep incisions, burn the tissue with actual cauteries, or apply butter and oils to separate dead flesh from healthy muscle.

The volume concludes with John Quincy’s supplemental essay, which broadens the scope to examine foreign outbreaks, subterranean gas damp accidents in wells and mines, and preventive measures. Quincy highlights dietary safeguards—such as consuming garlic, onions, and vinegar—alongside cold-water immersion to strengthen the body's natural resilience against contagious particles.

How It Unfolds

The plague takes the city The pestilence invades London in 1665, triggering a massive flight of the wealthy while causing catastrophic mortality among the poor. Thousands die weekly in horror-filled homes, public markets, and open streets.

The poison strikes the body The invisible, volatile pestilential aura enters the bloodstream and attacks the animal spirits, disarming the body's natural defenses. The onset brings sudden involuntary shivering, intense nausea, and an total loathing of food.

The sickness erupts on the skin Internal fever turns into violent physical eruptions, producing yellow, pain-riddled blains, gangrenous carbuncles, and swollen buboes. The body attempts to push out the internal venom through these severe lesions.

Physicians fight the contagion Doctors use sweat-inducing botanical remedies, rich medicinal broths, and volatile spirits to force out pestilential vapors. Surgeons perform deep incisions and cauterizations to clear mortified flesh from carbuncles.

Quincy assesses pestilential causes An added treatise explores foreign shipborne infections, toxic subterranean gases, and daily preventive habits. It urges readers to use strong dietary acids, garlic, and cold-water baths to resist subtle, air-borne particles.

The People

• Dr. Nathaniel Hodges: A courageous Fellow of the College of Physicians who remains inside London during the entire 1665 outbreak. He moves from house to house to treat the sick, observe symptoms firsthand, and record detailed clinical notes on the disease's progression.
• Dr. John Quincy: An 18th-century physician and editor who presents Hodges's text to later generations. He adds historical commentary and an original essay analyzing foreign contagion, subterranean toxic damps, and preventive medicine.
• The common people of London: The primary victims of the outbreak, often referred to as the sufferers of the "Poors Plague." Abandoned by wealthy residents who fled the capital, they endure immense mortality while relying on public charity and municipal relief.
• The empirical mountebanks and quacks: Unlicensed medical practitioners who profit off public terror during the panic. They sell ineffective charms, dried toad secrets, and hazardous arsenical amulets that frequently cause caustic skin burns or fatal delays in actual treatment.
• The surgeons: Frontline medical practitioners responsible for manual treatments. They drain infected buboes, apply vesicating ointments, and use knives or hot irons to cut away dead, gangrenous tissue from plague carbuncles.

In Its Own Voice

"Death was the sure Midwife to all Children, and Infants passed immediately from the Womb to the Grave; who would not burst with Grief, to see the Stock for a future Generation hang upon the Breasts of a dead Mother?"

— Hodges describes the tragic, relentless destruction of family life across London during the peak of the epidemic.

"Hens, as after I have enumerated the Conditions of a contagious Exertion, I doubt not but to make this Matter clear to every one."

— Hodges asserts his rational, empirical approach to proving how contagious diseases physically spread from person to person.

"What Madness was it, in such a terrible Calamity, to put the Hazard of Life upon such idle and ridiculous Experiments?"

— Hodges condemns the popular reliance on mercury-filled walnuts, dried toads, and toxic arsenical amulets.

What It's Really About

At its core, the text is an empirical crusade against medical ignorance and public panic. Hodges works to strip away supernatural superstitions, atmospheric myths, and quackery by demonstrating that the plague operates according to understandable physical laws of contagion. He focuses on the breakdown of the human body's natural economy when exposed to minute, highly volatile toxic particles. Beyond its physical medical theories, the work explores human duty during an urban disaster, contrasting the flight of the wealthy with the obligation of medical professionals to remain at their posts. It presents rigorous observation, systematic classification, and structured clinical intervention as humanity's strongest defense against lethal natural phenomena.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to medical historians, classic epidemiology readers, and anyone interested in early modern London life. Reading Hodges feels like stepping directly into a disaster area alongside a calm, observant physician who documents every detail with clinical precision and quiet human sympathy. The narrative offers a vivid window into 17th-century medical practice, showing how early doctors combined botanical remedies, chemical distillations, and aggressive surgical measures without modern antibiotics.

Readers must navigate archaic medical terminology, obsolete chemical symbols, prescription measurements (drams, scruples, ounces), and dense Latin recipes. It also reflects 17th-century medical theories regarding animal spirits, humors, and bodily vapors. Yet beneath these historic frameworks lies a deeply moving account of human endurance, scientific curiosity, and professional duty in the face of widespread mortality.