During Epidemics, strong scents have long been used to avert ‘foul air’. Vinegar, or Vinegar and Rose water were often sprinkled around sick rooms and hospitals, and steaming bowls of vinegar have been used up until recently. Having a sponge dipped in Vinegar which usually has aromatic herbs steeped in it carried around the neck and smelled to avert infection. Vinegar with a little Camphor was commonly used.

Numerous herbs and compounds were used to avert infection. Some large and costly formulas were marketed during times of infection, many being bogus and purely to cash in on the vulnerable. But a number of medicines and tactics including using vinegar haven proven efficacy to a certain degree.

“Antidotes or Preservatives … of small Cost, easy to find and prepare for Poor Folk”:

1. Take Garlic and drink wine after
2. Two Figs, Two Walnuts, 20 leaves of Rue and a little Salt
3. Take 6 leaves of Rue with Vinegar
4. Pellitory of Spain (Pyrethrum)
5. Root of Angelica
6. Root of Gentian
7. Root of Zedoary
8. Carduus benedictus
9. Carline Thistle
10. Scordium in powder, 1 dram, taken with Honey and Vinegar, or Syrup of Lemons.
11. Sorrel alone, or taken with Pimpernel mixed with Vinegar in the morning. (Secrets of Alexis)

---

1. Swallow a clove of Garlic, drinking a little wine after
2. Juniper berries can be chewed to avoid infection during epidemics;
3. Betony: ‘Preserves the lives and bodies of men from the danger of Epidemical diseases’. (Gerard)
4. Of Gentian: ‘a more sure remedy cannot be found to prevent the Pestilence’. (Culpeper)
5. Any of the following can be chewed: Pyrethrum, Angelica, Gentian, Zedoary, Blessed Thistle
6. Juniper, Pimpernel, Betony, Pennyroyal, Sorrel, beat together, boil in Honey and mix a little vinegar to form a conserve. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
7. Juniper and Armenian Earth (equal weight). Form pills. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
8. Ivy berries powdered and taken with white wine, then going to bed to sweat has supposedly cured some infected overnight. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)

---

Tincture of Juniper Berries
Tincture of Rue
Tincture of Sulphur
Elixir of Camphor
Wormwood Wine
Four Thieves Vinegar
Powder of Crabs Claw (Countess of Kents Powder)
Preservative Powder
The Saxonian Powder
Emperor’s Powder Against the Plague
Maximillians Powder Against the Plague
Troches Resisting Poison
Pestilential Pills
Pills of Ruffus (Common Pills)
Pills for Pestilence Compound
Electuary of Eggs (Electuarium de Ovo) (Maximilian)
Electuary of Juniper Berries
Electuary of Scordium (Diascordium)
Common Theriac
London Theriac
Theriac of Andromachus (Venice Theriac)
Mithridate

---

Special Formulas