plague-water

In April of 1665, a pandemic that came to be known as the Great Plague struck London. By August it had spread to other English towns and cities, and by the end of the year it had claimed a hundred thousand lives. The terror of the disease gave rise to desperate attempts at cures and preventions, including a concoction called "plague-water." Samuel Pepys alluded to this home remedy in his diary entry for July 20, 1665: "So walked to Redriffe, where I hear the sickness is, and indeed is scattered almost every where, there dying 1089 of the plague this week. My Lady Carteret did this day give me a bottle of plague-water home with me." Chambers Cyclopedia of 1727 noted that among the learned, plague-water was known as aqua epidemica, and was made from the roots of masterwort, angelica, pyony, and butter-bur, viper-grass, Virginia-snakeroot, rue, rosemary, and baum, all of which were infused into wine, and then distilled. Aqua mirabilis, a drink whose name means "wonderful water," was also imbibed as a cure-all, its ingredients being cloves, galingale, cubebs, mace, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger, infused in wine for a day before being distilled.

mark morton is the author of Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (Insomniac Press, 2004). His most recent books are The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp through the Language of Love and Sex and The End: Closing Words for a Milennium. He teaches English literature at the University of Winnipeg in Canada.

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