Welcome to the penultimate episode of our current Tale for Our Time - Daniel Defoe's 1722 account of life in London 57 years earlier: A Journal of the Plague Year.
The great theme of our serialization is that not much has changed between contagions of 1665 and those of 2020. A pronounced exception to that is the elite hostility toward hydroxychloroquine, where the Democrat-media's position is that they'd rather you die than be cured by a medication of which Trump has spoken favorably. As tonight's episode makes clear, physicians were not so deranged by such fevers 355 years ago:
I remember my friend the doctor used to say that there was a certain set of drugs and preparations which were all certainly good and useful in the case of an infection; out of which, or with which, physicians might make an infinite variety of medicines, as the ringers of bells make several hundred different rounds of music by the changing and order or sound but in six bells, and that all these preparations shall be really very good: 'Therefore,' said he, 'I do not wonder that so vast a throng of medicines is offered in the present calamity, and almost every physician prescribes or prepares a different thing, as his judgement or experience guides him... Some', says he, 'think that pill. ruff., which is called itself the anti-pestilential pill is the best preparation that can be made; others think that Venice treacle is sufficient of itself to resist the contagion; and I', says he, 'think as both these think, viz., that the last is good to take beforehand to prevent it, and the first, if touched, to expel it.'
According to this opinion, I several times took Venice treacle, and a sound sweat upon it, and thought myself as well fortified against the infection as any one could be fortified by the power of physic.
Theriaca andromachi - or "Venice treacle" - in fact originated in Greece, and is a compound of cinnamon, lavender, gum arabic, turpentine, rhubard and whatnot all pulverized into an electuary. Could be worth a try.
On the other hand, if you've followed recent news out of South Dakota and Alberta, you'll be aware of concerns about the meat market being infected. They worried about that too in 1665:
Those who remember the city of London before the fire must remember that there was then no such place as we now call Newgate Market, but that in the middle of the street which is now called Blowbladder Street, and which had its name from the butchers, who used to kill and dress their sheep there (and who, it seems, had a custom to blow up their meat with pipes to make it look thicker and fatter than it was, and were punished there for it by the Lord Mayor); I say, from the end of the street towards Newgate there stood two long rows of shambles for the selling meat.
It was in those shambles that two persons falling down dead, as they were buying meat, gave rise to a rumour that the meat was all infected; which, though it might affright the people, and spoiled the market for two or three days, yet it appeared plainly afterwards that there was nothing of truth in the suggestion. But nobody can account for the possession of fear when it takes hold of the mind.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read this penultimate installment of of A Journal of the Plague Year simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you're minded to join our many members around the world in The Mark Steyn Club, you'll find more details here - and don't forget we always do a special live Tale for Our Time on our annual Mark Steyn Cruise. In the event free peoples are ever again permitted to be out on parole and venture abroad, we'd love to see you aboard.
Please join me tomorrow evening for the conclusion of A Journal of the Plague Year - and just before that for a cavalcade of great music chosen by our listeners in the first ever all-request audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week.
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7 Member Comments
Disappointingly, it appears the emerging evidence for hydroxychloroquine use for Covid-19 is not compelling.
By contrast, the evidence that the virus is synthetic is substantial. But hey, it's just a bad flu that kills nearly-dead people - so let's carry on doing business with "our friends".
I just read about two leftist (of course) US governors (Michigan and Nevada) who issued orders making it illegal to prescribe chloroqine, which appears as if it may be highly effective, for corona virus. (How these orders are legal is beyond me, but who cares about that anymore?) Certainly, they don't want to have to admit that Trump might have been right about something, but Trump is just a dog whistle to alert their apparatchiks to the issue. What's more important to them is that nothing interfere with the shutdown. It's shutdown for the sake of shutdown. It's giving the left exactly the type of world they want.
Happily, the media-idiots are leaving themselves open to another review of recent history with regard to the current "distemper," as Mr. Defoe refers to the disease. While I agree that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data," we are hearing a lot of anecdotes about preventative and therapeutic treatments. We also know that none of the currently recognized experts thought there was anything to worry about until the end of January. So, who was late doing what?
One of the functions of science is seek proof of a theory, and to question everything. I would appreciate hearing some of the positive sides of the stories instead of only the worst outcomes possible. When every bit of news is carefully filtered to glean ammunition to form an attack on a person or a group, only those who stand to gain from the negative publicity benefit from it. Not to blow sunshine up anyone's backside, but we could use a dose of perspective, reason, humility, and civility. Thanks again to our host.
I greatly appreciated our host's perspective on the death rate. While the numbers are very significant to those affected, merely focusing on the numbers of deaths without considering the population and its density is a foolish caricature of science. A few days earlier, I made this point to my wife, who is an avid Facebook-er and was reacting to folks around the world gleefully reporting that the U.S.A. is now No. 1 in total deaths. I said to tell them that when their death rate as a fraction of the population comes down to that of ours, we'll listen to any suggestions they have about how to make things better.
Another bit of news -- from the same university serving as the source for the main models and most of the widely published statistics driving the response to the current distemper comes a word of reason. As the reduction in the number of anticipated fatalities associated with the disease continues its steep slide after the earlier (now widely regarded as absurdly conservative) estimates, another scientist has published numerous studies showing the closure of open-air recreational spaces was exactly the wrong thing to do. A point made by our host earlier this week. I am glad to know that someone learns from history, though you can lead a person to knowledge but you can't make them think.
Not much has changed? Well I can think of two things. A mortality rate of the Wuhan flu that probably is a couple orders magnitude less than the London plague. And a far more decadent, cozened culture that fears and is outraged by any risk to an immortality that never was.
I'm grateful that "science" is once more proving that it cannot be regarded as "settled." Your last sentence is especially apt. "No one gets out of this life alive," as one has put it. There is something to be said for the quality of life, which in some cases is not improved by merely extending its length.
"And a far more decadent, cozened culture that fears and is outraged by any risk to an immortality that never was."
As in, "death panels!!!"...?
"There is something to be said for the quality of life, which in some cases is not improved by merely extending its length."
Well, that argument is not new to people with disabilities who are constantly at mercy of the value judgments of members of the medical profession regarding quality of life (noting the entirety separate issue of medical futility). They correctly identify the promotion of "voluntary" euthanasia for its intended coercive effect.
I too appreciate the host's perspective on such things.
https://www.steynonline.com/8616/life-belongs-only-to-the-strong