f _Preservation_ against the
_Plague_, and shall conclude with some general Directions concerning the
_Cure_.

CHAP. III.

_Of the Cure of the Plague._

IT appears, from what has been said in the beginning of this Discourse,
that the _Plague_ and the _Small-Pox_ are Diseases, which bear a great
Similitude to each other: both being _Contagious Fevers_ from _Africa_,
and both attended with certain _Eruptions_. And as the _Eruptions_ or
_Pustules_ in the _Small-Pox_ are of two Kinds, which has caused the
Distemper to be divided into two Species, the _distinct_ and
_confluent_; so we have shewn two Sorts of _Eruptions_ or _Tumors_
likewise to attend the _Plague_. In the first and mildest Kind of the
_Small-Pox_ the _Pustules_ rise high above the Surface of the Skin, and
contain a digested _Pus_; but in the other, the _Pustules_ lie flat, and
are filled with an indigested _Sanies_. The two kinds of critical
_Tumors_ in the _Plague_ are yet more different. In the most favourable
Case the _Morbific Matter_ is thrown upon some of the softest _Glands_
near the Surface of the Body, as upon the _inguinal_, _axillary_,
_parotid_, or _maxillary_ Glands: the first Appearance of which is a
small Induration, great Heat, Redness, and sharp Pain near those Glands.
These _Tumors_, if the Patient recover, like the _Pustules_ of the
distinct _Small-Pox_, come to a just Suppuration, and thereby discharge
the Disease. In worse Cases of the Distemper, either instead of these
_Tumors_, or together with them, _Carbuncles_ are raised. The first
Appearance of them is a very small indurated _Tumor_, not situate near
any of the fore-mention'd Glands, with a dusky Redness, violent Heat,
vast Pain, and a blackish _Spot_ in the middle of the _Tumor_. This
_Spot_ is the beginning of a _Gangrene_, which spreads itself more and
more as the _Tumor_ increases.

BUT, besides the Agreement in these critical Discharges, the two
Distempers have yet a more manifest Likeness in those _livid_ and _black
Spots_, which are frequent in the _Plague_, and the Signs of speedy
Death: for the same are sometimes found to attend the _Small-Pox_ with
as fatal a Consequence; nay, I have seen Cases, when almost every
_Pustule_ has taken this Appearance. Moreover, in both Diseases, when
eminently malignant, Blood is sometimes voided by the Mouth, by Urine,
or the like[94]. And we may farther add, that in both Death is usually
caused by Mortifications in the _Viscer