THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND Physical Opinions Written by her Excellency the Lady MARCHIONESSE of NEWCASTLE LONDON Printed for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1655. Collegium sive Aula S.S. t Trinitatis in Academiâ Cantabrigiensi 1700 TO THE LADY MARQVESSE OF NEVVCASTLE On her Book intitled her Philosophicall and Physicall Opinions WEre the old Grave Philophers alive How they would envy you and all would strive Who first should burn their Books since they so long Thus have abus'd the world and taught us wrong With hard words that mean nothing which non-sense When we have Conn'd by heart then we commence Masters and Doctors with grave looks and then Proud because think thus we are learned men And know not that we do know nothing right Like blinde men now led onely by your sight And for diseases let the Doctors look Those worthy learned men but in your Book They 'le finde such news in their art and so true As old Hippocrates he never knew Nor yet vast Gallen so you need not seek Farther then English to know lesse in Greek If you read this and study it you may Out of dark ignorance see brighter Day W. NEWCASTLE AN EPISTLE To justifie the LADY NEW CASTLE AND Truth against falshood laying those false and malicious aspersions of her that she was not Authour of her BOOKS I Would willingly begin with the common and Dunstable rode of Epistles Gentle Readers but finding you much otherwise I will fall to our discourse in hand First 't is but your envious Supposition that this Lady must have converst with many Scholers of all kindes in learning when 't is well known the contrary that she never convert with any profest Shooler in learning for to learn neither did she need it since she had the conversation of her Honorable and most learned Brother from her cradle and since she was married with my worthy and learned Brother and for my self I have lived in the great world a great while and have thought of what has been brought to me by the senses more then was put into me by learned discourse for I do not love to be led by the nose by Authority and old Authours ipse dixit will not serve my turn were Aristotle made a more Philosophical Bible then he is and all scholers to have a lively faith in him doth not move me to be of their Philosophical churche at all And I assure you her conversation with her Brother and Brother-in-law were enough without a miracle or an impossibility to get the language of the arts and learned professions which are their terms without taking any degrees in Schooles It is not so difficult a thing though they make mountains of mole-hills say they thatthis Lady useth many termes of the Schooles but truly she did never Impe her high-flying Phancies with any old broken Fethers out of any university and if you read well which is to understand and look on her Poems you will 〈◊〉 they are all new born Phansies never toucht of heretofore But for the rarity of the terms or nests of Divines Philosophers Physicians Geometricians Astrono mers and the rest of the Gown-Tribe as one tearms them how is it possible she should know them And first for Divinity when she speaks of Predestination Free-will 〈◊〉 and consubstantiation truly these termes are not so hard to be got by heart as to be understood since I beleeve it puzzels the learned to make sense of them But I beseech you give this Lady so much capacity as to get them by heart since every Tub-preacher discourses of them and every sanctified wife gossips them in wafers and hipocris at every Christening Next are the termes of the Philosophers Certainly 't is no Conjuration to conceive Atomes invisible and indivisible bodies elements earth air water and fire whereof your elementary fire under the moon is much doubted of and then you have but three elements Motion is a difficult thing indeed to understand the varietes of it but certainly not of a body moved that 's no such transcendent thing Dilation a spreading Contraction a gathering together Rarificationthinning and Condensation thickning I confesse in the Latine it seems very learned but in the English very vulgar there-fore I beseech you give this Lady leave to have the wit and the judgement to understand these Great no mysteries And put the case now that this Lady should name materia prima and understand the English of it to be first matter and ask her friend again what they mean by it and he tells her they say they mean matter without form and she should answer there is no matter without some form so materia prima are two Latine words that mean nothing An incorporeal substance is too learned to be understood so that is waved Now for the termes of Physicians when she speaks of Choler Phlegme Melancholy and Blood and of Ventricles in the heart and brain of veines arteries and nerves and discourses of fevers apoplexies convulsions Dropsies and divers other diseases with their particular causes symptoms and cures how should this Lady understand these terms say some truly a good Farmers wife in the country by seeing one of her sheep opened may well understand the tearms of most of these and a Constables wife of a hundred in Essex that useth Physick and Surgery may well talk of the diseases without any great learned mystery they are so plain and so common as none needsto construe Greek in Hippocrates or Galen for them But would you know how we know the great Mystery of these Physical terms I am almost ashamed to tell you not that we have been ever sickly but by Melancholy often supposed our selves to bave such diseases as we had not and learned Physitians were too wise to put us out of that humour and so these tearms cost us much more then they are Worth and I hope there is no body so malicious as to envie our bargain neither truly do I repent my bargain since Physitians are the most rational men I have converst with all and my worthy and very good friends and truly this Lady never converst with any Physitian of any disease but what she thought she had her self neither hath she converst with many of that profession Now for the great learning of knowing the terms of Geometricians when this Lady touches upon Triangles Squares Circles Diameters Circumferences Centers lines straight and crooked c. I will not dissect these great mysteries because they are so very common as the meanest understands all these termes even to Joyners and Carpenters therefore surely this Lady is capable of them Then of Astronomers say they when she speak's of the Horizon Meridian Equator Zodiack Eclyptick Tropicks Poles of the world c. When these termes are understood thats their meaning they are no such subtilties since every boy may be taught them with an apple for the Globe and the parings for the sphears
part of an Animal is of a different figure and every part hath different figures belonging thereunto as man for example to the hand there is the palm the back the fingers the nailes yet all makes but one hand So the head there is the brain the pia mater the dura mater the scul the nose the eyes the fore-head the ears the mouth the lips the tongue the chin yet all this is but a head likewise the head the neck the brest the arms the hands the back the hips the bowels the thighes the legs the feet besides the bones the nerves the muscles the veins the arteries the heart the liver the lights the midrif the bladder the kidnies the guts the stomacke the brain the marrow the blood the flesh the skin yet all these different figurative parts make but the figure of one man So for Vegetables the root the sap the peath the bole the bark the branches make but the figure of one tree likewise every figure is different this man is not like that man this tree is not like that tree for some trees are larger or lesser higher or lower more or lesse branched crooked or straghter so in Animals some are of one shape some of another as men some are slender and tall some little and low some big and tall others thick and low some high-nos'd some flat-nos'd some thick some thin lipt some high fore-heads some low some broad some narrow and numbers of like examples may be given not onely to man but all other Animal creatures according to their shapes that every particular in one and the same kinde hath different figures yet every particular kinde hath but one and the same motion which properly and naturally belong to that Kinde of figure as a horse to gallop to amble to trot to runn to leap to kick and the like and man to lift to carry to walk to run to pitch to dig to shut to chop to pull back to thrust forward likewise every particular part in one and the same Kinde hath but one and the same kinde of motions local or otherwise and ever particular bird hath but one and the same kinde of motion in their flights and in their feeding So beasts every particular kinde hath but one and the same manner of motion and feeding so likewise all mankinde hath after one and the same Kinde of motions belonging naturally to every particular part of his body the onely difference is in the strength or weaknesse their restraints or facilities but not different in manner of the movings But to return to the figures I say there are different figures belonging to one and the same kinde of figure but the ground or fundamental figures in every particular figure are there As for example a tree at first is the figure of wood the second is such a sort of wood as a Cedar an Oak an Elm an Ash and the like also of such a nature of wood some fitter to burn then to build others that will grow but on such or such soils others to last longer or die sooner or bud and bear in such and such seasons some to bear fruit others to bear none Likewise for Animals the first figure is to be an Animal that is to have a local figure the second figure is to be flesh not wood The third is to be such a kinde of flesh as mans flesh not bears flesh or dogs flesh or horse flesh or cows flesh and more examples may be given then I am able to repeat or my book to infold but Animals and Vegetables have more different figures belonging to every particular figure or Kinde then Minerals especially metals which are as it were composed of one piece Chap. 80. Of the gloomy figures and figures of parts and of one piece AYre is not a shining body of it self but as the lines of light shine upon it it is smooth and may be aglossie body but not a shining for though there are infinite several sorts of brightnesse and shining yet two I will describe As there are two sorts of shining figures some that cast forth beams of light as bright shining fire and likewise from some sorts of stones bones and wood so there are some sorts of figures that onely retain a bright shining quality in themselves but cast forth no beams there-from or else so weak and small as not useful to our sight but what is represented to us thereon by other lights this sort is water metal and vulgar stones which perchance ayre may have such a shining body These shining bodies as water or metal or the like are not perceived in the dark but when light is cast thereon we do not onely perceive the light but their own natural shining quality by that light Again some figures have onely a glosse which is a faint shining like as a fained light or an eclipsed shadow as all the pores Vegetables and Animals skins have and some figures are glossy through the thinnesse or transparentnesse not in the nature for by reason the figure is thin and transparent the light shining though transparent doth not onely shew the light but the light gives those figures a glosse Some figures as I have said are as it were all of one piece as some sorts of earth water vapor and ayr which may be metamorphosed by contracting and dilation Others of divers pieces and several works as Vegetables and Animals wherein are joynts and knots some parts soft and some liquid some firme some hard every part having a several figure which varieties and contrarieties serve to the consistence and preservation but of one perfect figure but Animals of all other figures have the most variety of works and several motions Chap. 81. Of the dull and innated matter SOme may say that if there were infinite dull and in-moving matter some of it may lie unmoved eternally I answer that cannot be for as there is infinite dulnesse and solidity so there is infinite acutenes and facility by which I mean searching and penetrating which in some sense makes it equal if there be equality in infinite but the innating matter works not upon the dull matter as upon a new material for the innate matter is mixt with the dull part of matter For the innated matter moves in the dull part of matter and on the dull part of matter as I have described in my first part for the innated matter takes not fresh and new as I may say for distinction sake to make a figure with but turns the dull matter into several figures joyning each degree as the innate matter will or as it is proper for such a kinde of figure for some degrees of matter will not make I do beleeve some kinde of figures but the dull part of matter is not mixed in the innate matter although the innate matter is mixed in that for the innate matter is pure in it self without any gross mixture for it is the infinite pure part of
Judge in Nature NO Intreaty nor Petition can perswade Nature nor any Bribes can corrupt or alter the course of nature Justly there can be no complaints made against Nature nor to Nature Nature can give no redresse There are no Appeals can be made nor Causes determined because Nature is infinite and eternal for Infinite cannot be confined or prescribed setled rul'd or dispos'd because the Effects are sa infinite as the Causes and what is infinite hath no absolute power for what is absolute is finite Finite cannot tell how Infinite doth flow Nor how infinite matter moveth to and fro For infinite of Knowledge cannot guess Of infinite of matter more or lesse Nor infinite of Causes cannot finde The infinite Effects of every Kinde Chap. 9. Of Perfection IN infinite can no perfection be For why Perfection is in Unity In infinite no union can combine For that has neither Number point nor Line Though infinite can have no Figure Yet not lie all confus'd in heaps together Chap. 10. Of Inequalities IF infinites have infinite degrees And none alike to make Equalities As if a Haire be cut with curious Arts Innumerable but unequal parts And that not any part alike shall be How shall we joyn to make them well agree If every one is like it self alone Three cannot be unlesse three equal One. If one and one make two and two and two make four yet there must be two equal ones to make two and two equal two's to to make four And as two and one make three yet there must be two equal ones joyned to a single one to make three or three equal single ones to joyn in three The like is in weight and Measure Motion and Strength Chap. 11. Of Unities IN infinite if infinite degrees Then those Degrees may meet in Unities And if one man should have the 〈◊〉 of four Then four to equal him will be no more As if one Line should be in four parts cut Shall equal the same Line together put So two and one though odd is theer Yet three and three shall equal be Like those that equal spaces backwards go To those that 's forward equals them we know Like Buckets in a Well if empty be As one descends the other ascends we see So Motions though their crosse may well agree As oft in Musick make a Harmony Chap. 12. There is no Vacuity IN Nature if Degrees may equal be All may be full and no Vacuity As Boxes small and smaller may contain So bigger and bigger must there be again Infinite may run contracting and dilating Still still by degrees without a separating Chap. 13. Of Thin and Thick Matter THus may thin Matter into Solid run And by its motion make thick Matter turn In several wayes and fashions as it will Although dull Matter of it self lie still T is not that Solid Matter moves in Thin For that is dull but thin which moves therein Like Marrow in the Bones or Blood in Veins Or thinner matter which the blood contains Like Heat in Fire the effect is straight to burn So Matter thin makes solid matter run Chap. 14. Of Vacuum IF Infinite inequalitie doth run Then must there be in Infinite Vacuum For what 's unequal cannot joyned be So close but there will be Vacuity Chap. 15. The Unity of Nature NAture tends to Unity being but of a kinde of Matter but the degrees of this Matter being thinner and thicker softer and harder weightier and lighter makes it as it were of different kinde when t is but different degrees Like several extractions as it were out of one and the same thing and when it comes to such an Extract it turns to Spirits that is to have an Innate motion Chap. 16. Of Division THe several degrees of Matter cause Division by different motion making several Figures erecting and dissolving them according as their matter moves This makes motion and Figure alwayes to be in War but not the matter for it is the several effects that disagree but not the Causes for the Eternal matter is alwayes in peace as being not subject to change but motion and Figure being subject to Change strive for Superiority which can never be because subject to Change Chap. 17. The Order of Nature THe Reason that there is not a Confusion in Nature but an orderly Course therein is the Eternal matter is alwayes one and the same for though there are Infinite degrees yet the Nature of that Matter never alters But all variety is made according to the several Degrees and the several degrees do palliate and in some sense make an Equality in infinite so as it is not the several degrees of matter that strive against each other but several motions drive them against one another Chap. 18. Of War and no absolute Power THe Reason that all things make War upon one another is the several Degrees of matter the contradiction of motion and the Degrees and the advantage of the shapes of Figures alwayes striving Chap. 19. Of Power THere is no absolute Power because Power is infinite and the infinitenesse hinders the absolutenesse for if there were an absolute power there would be no dispute but because there is no absolute power there would be no dispute but because there is no absolute power therefore there be Disputes and will be eternally for the several degrees of matter motion and Figure strive for the Superiority making Faction by Sympathy and Fraction by Antipathy Chap. 20. Similizing the spirits or Innate Matter THe Spirits or Essences in Nature are like Quick-silver for say it be fluid it will part into little Sphaerical Bodies running about though it be nere so small a Quantity and though they are Sphaerical yet those Figures they make by several and subtle motion may differ variously and Infinitely This innate matter is a kinde of god or gods to the dull part of matter having power to form it as it please and why may not every degree of Innate matter be as several gods and so a strong motion be a god to the weaker and so have an infinite and Eternal Government As we will compare motions to Officers or Magistrates The Constable rules the Parish the Mayor the Constable the King the Mayor and some Higher power the King thus infinite powers rule Eternity Or again thus the Constable rules the Hundred the Major rules the City the King the kingdom and Caesar the world Thus may dull matter over others rule According as ' tis* shap'd by motions Tool So Innate matter Governs by degree According as the stronger motions be Chap. 21. Of Operation ALL things in the world have an Operative power which Operation is made by Sympathetical motions Antipathetical motions in several Figures for the assisting Operation is caused by one the destructive Operation by another like Poyson and cordials the one kills the other cures but Operations are infinite as motions Chap. 22. Natural or
matter infinite it is the spirits or essence of nature Chap. 82. An answer to an old question what becomes of the shape or figure or outward forms of the old figure when the nature takes a new form ALL Created or not created or created and dissolved again figures or forms lie in onely matter either in by parts or in the whole for the materials of every figure is but of one matter and the lump of all figures is the figure of eternal matter for the infinite particular of figures is the infinite form shape or figure of infinite and eternal matter and the creation disposals and dissolvings of figures are the several actions of that onely matter for infinite motions are the infinite life of the infinite and eternal life which life is as eternal matter being part of the matter it self and the manner of moving is but the several actions of life for it is not an absence of life when the figure dissolves but an alteration of life that is the matter ceaseth not from moving for every part hath life in it be the parts never so small or disperst amongst other parts and if life there must be consequently sense if sense knowledge then there can be no death if every part hath life in it so that which we call death is onely an alteration of such motions in such a figure in onely matter Chap. 83. Of Transmigrations TRansmigrations are not metamorphosed for to metamorphose is to change the shape and interior form but not the intellect which cannot be without a new creation nor then but so as partly the intellect changes with the shape and interior form but all bodies are in the way of transmigrations perpetually As for example the nourishing food that is received into the stomack transmigrated into Chylus Chylus into blood blood into flesh flesh into fat and some of the chylus migrated into humors as Choler Flegme and melancholy some into excrement which transmigrats through the body into dung dung into earth earth into Vegetables Vegetables into Animals again by the way of food and likewise Animals into Animals and Vegetables into Vegetables and so likewise the elements But indeed all creatures are created by the way of transmigration As for example hens or other fouls lay eggs and then sit on them from whence a nourishing heat is transmigrated from the hen into the eggs which transmigrates into a kinde of a Chylus then into blood blood into flesh flesh into sinews sinews into bones and some into veines arteries brains and the like For transmigration is onely the mixing sifting searching tempering faculty of innated matter which is self-motion and motion is the onely transmigrater otherwise infinite matter would lie idle eternally though I cannot well conceive how infinite can be without motion but howsoever we perceive so much as there are proper motions and mixtures of matter belonging to every particular figure and though figures doth produce figures yet figures do not order the creation for it is not the figures that create but creation that produceth by figures which creation is motion which motion is innated matter which matter creates and dissolves by the way of transmigrations all figures dissolving to create and creates to dissolve but dissolving and creation which is that we call life and death hath onely a reference to the figures but not of the nature of the matter Chap. 84. Of metamorphosing of Animals and Vegetables IT is impossible for Animals and vegetables to be metamorphosed without a creation as to transform a man into a tree or a tree into a man nor a man into the form of a beast as to turn mans-flesh into horse-flesh or horse-flesh into mans-flesh or one mans-flesh to turn into another mans-flesh or an Oak into a Cypres or a Cypres into an Oak and so the like in all Vegetables and Animals thus Transforming the interior forms or rather changing the interior form like garments putting one and another interior form upon one and the same intellect nature which is impossible by reason the interior forms and intellect natures are inseparable so that destroying the one destroyes the other and a change cannot be made of either without the dissolution of the whole no more then a man can change the whole building without pulling down the house for though they may make some alterations in the outward shape as to add something more or take away and make all lesse or thicker or thinner or higher or lower but cannot alter the interior form which is the foundations but if they pull it down the same materials may be put into another form or into the same form it was at first but it must first be new built again before it can have those forms and they must stay the time of building so for every Vegetable creature and Animal creature they cannot be metamorphosed by the reason metamorphosing is to change their forms without a new creation and they cannot change their forms without a dissolution and then created anew by reason the intellect and the interior form is as one body and not to be separated for the interior forms of these creatures and the intellects depend upon one another and without one the another cannot be The intellect and the interior form may be divided together into parts but not separated apart though the several sorts of one and the same kinde as Animal kinde may be mixed in their creations as to be some part a beast some part a dog or the like and part a man and some creature partly a bird and partly a beast or partly a beast and partly a fish yet the intellect is mixt with the interior form and the exterior shape with the interior form The like in vegetables and if the interior forms and intellects of each sort nay of each creature cannot be changed much lesse of each kinde thus the intellect natures and interior forms of it can never be without a new creation and as for the exterior shapes of Animals may be altered but not changed for Animals of all other creatures have their shapes most unite to the interior form and 〈◊〉 intellect nature of any other creature in nature But I desire my readers not to mistake me for want of terms and words of Art For the interior or intellect nature I mean is such properties disposition constitution Capacity and the like that makes it such a creature The interior form is such a substance and such a sort as flesh or fish or wood or metal and not onely so but such a sort of flesh as mans-flesh horse-flesh dogs-flesh and the like So the wood of oak the wood of maple the wood of ash And the like so the gold metal the iron metal and the like For horse-flesh is not mans-flesh nor the wood of oak the wood of ash nor the metal of gold the metal of iron And as for the exterior form I mean the outward shape Chap. 85.
according to the several motions in the head is the sound made therein although the ear is stopp'd without Chap. 175. Of Weakness SOwning is caused by the obstruction of the spirits or too great evacuations or when any thing suppresses or laies siege to the heart or head they being the magazine of the life of the body wherein the least disorder is like fire to gunpowder Weakness is caused by a too much relaxing of the sinews and small fibres of the body which are like laths to an house and flesh like the morter laid thereon The bones like the strong timber rafters and beams therein which when the morter is worn off the laths are apt to loosen so when the body is lean the flesh is wasted the sinews are apt to slacken Again some are weak by reason the sinews are boyl'd too tender as too much towards a jelly which the body will be after moist extenuating diseases as after extraordinary sweatings small pox measels or the like or in hydropical diseases Weakness is in a degree to death as being towards a final or general expulsion of the figure Chap. 176. Of numb and dead palsies A Dead palsie is not onely made by mis-tempered matter and disordered motions but by unnatural motions as improper to the nature of that kinde of figure working or mis-working most commonly upon the exterior parts drawing up or shutting close those passages that should be open working by contrary motions from the nature of the figure which causes insensibility but as long as the vital parts be untouch'd which are the stewards and trustees to the life of the body which are to dispose discharge and direct to take in and lay out for the subsistance of the body as I may say as long as these are untouch'd the life of the body may subsist although the other particular parts be as we say dead or lost to the natural use of the body A numb palsie is of the same nature but not of the same degree as for comparison a dead palsie is as if a door for common and necessary passage should be close shut and lock'd or nail'd up and a numb palsie is as if the door or doors should be half open and according as it is open or shut the numb palsie is more or less but both dead and numb palsies are occasioned by some unnatural contractions for if it were by some unnaturall expulsions the parts infected would rot and fall from the other parts as 〈◊〉 which certainly are caused by such kind of unnatural expulsions as dead palsies are of unnatural contractions thus we finde by experience that they are unnatural contractions that cause dead palsies because they do not rot Wherefore in these diseases there must be applied opening medicines that work dilatively and if they be caused from a cold contraction then hot dilating medicines must be applied but if they proceed from hot contractions the cold dilating medicines must be applied but the difficulty and skill will be to finde whether they proceed from cold or heat although most commonly all physicians do apply in these diseases very hot and dry medicines which are contracting which medicines are quite contrary to the nature of the diseases which makes them cure so few but the surest way is to apply dilating medicines whether hot or cold Chap. 177. Of that we call a sleepy numbness A Sleepy numbness is also caused by obstruction or stoppages as for example if any over-burthensome weight lies upon the arm or hand or the like it will become numb which is vulgarly called sleepy the reason is that pressing too hard upon those parts we stop the pores which by touch is received for if the pores be close shut touch cannot enter no more then if the eye be shut an outward object can enter or stopping the ears or nose a sound or scent can enter as we may finde by experience for if any part is bound too hard it strait becomes numb likewise a violent blow or when any part is tied too hard that part becomes numb the reason is by striking or thrusting back the bloud for the bloud is like a running company which when they are forcibly beaten back on those companies that are thrusting forward unite by contraction into so firm a body that no particular part can stir which solid and thick body stops the pores of the 〈◊〉 and the running motions in the veines but also as we give liberty by uniting or unbinding or by taking off waight or by gently rubbing to open the pores and disperse the bloud it is cured Likewise the sleepy numbness may proceed from a superfluity of vapor which flying to the pores for vent may stop the passage by too great a concourse being more vapor then sudden vent but any alteration of motion cures it by dispersing the vapor more thin and evenly Chap. 178. Of the head feeling numb WHen the skins which wrap up the brain as the pia mater and dia mater are contracted by an inward cold or an outward cold taken in at the nose ears mouth or pores of the skin they shrivel or are drawn in as a handkerchief or the like when we carry some bulk within it and when those skins are drawn into a straiter compass then the nature is it presses upon the brain as being too strait wherein the brain cannot freely move Besides the veins and little small strings that run about the brain being contracted with cold the bloud in those veins cannot so freely run and those strings being shrunk make the brain feel as if it were so hard bound as to be numb but this doth rather afright the life of the diseased then destroy it for a little warmth by rubbing the head or a hot cloth laid on the head or some warm spoon-meat cures it Also numbness may proceed from too much bloud in the veins or too much matter in the nerves for being too full causeth a stopping for want of space or room to move naturally in but this numbness is not so easily cured especially when the oppressions lie in the nerves for opening a vein gives liberty to the bloud but I know not how one should so easily open a nerve neither is the matter within so liquid as suddenly to run out but this numbness is rather of the nature of a dead numbness then a sleepy numbness Chap. 179. The manner of motion or disorder in madness THe motions that make that extravagancy we call madness is as a carver or painter ingraver printer or the like should place the figures they work the wrong end upwards or as if Mathematicians should draw a plat-form and should make a square where a circle should be or should put equall weights in uneven scales or set false numbers or make false measure or as a painter printer carver or graver should paint print carve or grave a Coaches head to a Lions body or if a painter should draw feathers on beasts and hair
but drawing it forth by broaching some veines and the body will be saved from the destruction Chap. 187. The remedies of Malignant Diseases IN malignant diseases expelling medicines are best which expelling medicines are not hot and dry medicines for all drugs that are naturally dry have a contracting quality which is an utter enemy in this disease for they must be dilating medicines and all dilating medicines have a fluid faculty working after the nature of a flowing tide which is thrusting or streaming outward as to the circumference and the operations of drying medicines are like the ebbing tide that draws backward or inward as to it self but as I said before that all hot and dry medicines have a contracting quality which contractions draw or gather up the malignity as in a bundle or heap together and if it be a fiery contraction it sets it on a fire which burns out the life of the body for fire makes no distinguishment of good or bad but destroyes all it can in compasse so as it will not onely burn up the superfluities or corruptions but suck or drink up the radical moisture or charcoales the vital parts and consumes the animal life Wherefore dilating medicines must be applied in these diseases but not strong expulsives medicine by reason the malignity is so intermixt or spread in the body that striving with a strong force to cast forth the malignity they should cast forth the nourishing and consistent matter for the malignity and corrupt humours being more strong having a greater party can resist with more strength the force of expulsion then the nourishing consistant part can being weak so that the expulsions give strength to the malignity or corrupt humours by taking away the pure and well tempered matter but leting blood in these diseases 〈◊〉 be excellent good for bleeding is rather of the nature of sweating then of purging besides it will draw the malignity more from the vital parts into the veins for the veins having a natural quality or faculty to draw and to suck into them will draw and suck in that which doth most abound so as it is but still letting blood as the malignity is drawn in for it is better to let out the blood then endanger the vital parts by keeping it in for if most of the blood should bee let out there will fresh blood increase in a short time but if the vital parts be never so little corrupted or putrified or wasted we cannot heale or make up those parts again Chap. 134. Diseases caused by conceit or cured AS for the Producing diseases by conceit is thus the vital spirits which are the motions of life have an absolute power over the body as working every part thereof and therein so the animal spirits which are the motions of the mind create imaginations and conceptions and the animal spirits and the vital spirits being as man and wife the animal as the husband the vital spirits as the wife whereupon the animal spirits many times beget that desease it figures which is an imagination and the vital spirits brings that childe forth being like the figure the animal spirits made that is the vital spirits oft times work such motions as makes such diseases wherefore the animal spirits work those motions into imaginations and to prove it those that conceit they shall have the small pox measels pleague or the like most commonly they fall sick of that disease although they come not neer the infection and to prove the animal spirits which is the minde works the same motions by an imagination as the disease is that those which conceit a disease do not fall sick of any other disease but the same they imagine and the reason why these malignant diseases are produced oftner by imaginations then other diseases is that those diseases are dangerous or that they are apt to deform which makes a fearful conception or imagination to work more strongly for did the imiginations work as strong to other diseases as to these they would produce the same effects As for those which are cured by conceit is when the motion of the animal spirits works stronger then the vital spirits which causeth the vital spirits to altar those motions that made such diseases but those effects are produced but seldom by reason that the animal spirits seldom work so strong imaginations for it requires a double or treble strength to resist or alter the force another way which must be to cure a disease after this manner then to joyn and assist as in the producing a disease for when the imagination produceth a disease the vital spirits joyn with the animal but when the disease is cured by imagination the animal spirits takes the animals from their work but a great fright or a sudden joy is a good remedy in some diseases by reason those passionate motions are strong and violent yet they can cure onely loose diseases not such diseases as are rooted or fixt for then the vital spirits are not to be altered by the animal Chap. 188. Of the expelling malignity to the outward parts of the body THe reason why malignant diseases as the plague or purples or small pox measels or the like there break forth spots swelling scabs or whelks is by the power of expelling motion But the reason why it sticks in the flesh and not quite out is because the irregular motions that maintain the health and strength of the body are opposed by disorderly motions which makes corrupted matter that makes disordered motions for though there can be no corrupted matter but what is caused from disordered motion yet when the humors of the body are once corrupted the motions are more violent again superabundant humors cause disordered motions for as there is too much humor obstructing the body therewith so there is too much motion to work regularly therein and being against the natural constitution to have so much humor and motion it produceth violent sickness working to the destruction and not to the maintenance of the body but the regular motions which are digestive motions which unites strengthens and defends the vital parts by atracting good 〈◊〉 by retaining the useful parts by concocting it into a sollid substance by expelling of superfluieties or malignancy out of the body after a methodical manner and according as the strength of expelling motions are so is the malignity cast forth for if the repelling motions be stronger then the expelling motion the malignant presses so hard upon the vital parts as it smothers the life therein or burns up the materials thereof Again the expelling motions may be so weak as they cannot thrust out the malignity so far as the circumference of the body which is the skin or if so far yet not to stay there so long as to evapor it out and then the malignity fals back with a greater violence for what is forced and resisteth when once it hath liberty or gets power it becomes
a glibby and moist body rather then a soaking wet body but when this watry extenuation extenuates beyond the degree of water they turn to vapour which causeth the diseased to be puft or blown like a bladder rather then swell'd out as we shall perceive that a little time before the patients fall into a consumption they will be so puft out as their flesh wil be like a fire-bal the next degree they fall into a fiery extenuation For when the humour extenuates beyond vapor which is a kinde of an aire then it becomes hot like fire which is a hective fevour and when the humour hath extenuated to the farthest degree it expulses and so pulls down and throws out the life of the diseased but in the hidropical diseases there must first be applied attractive medicines to draw out the watry overflows by issues cupping-glasses or the like then there must be applyed expulsive medicines as purgings and bleeding and sweatings yet they must be gently applyed for fear of weakning the body by drawing out the humour too suddenly then there must be applied contracting medicines to draw into an united substance as to gather or draw up those parts that have been made loose porous and spungie with the disease then there must be applied retentive medicines to confirm and settle them after their natural manner or form then last there must be applied disgestive medicines to restore what is wasted but if any of the principal parts be impaired wasted or expulsed they neither can be restored nor mended but by a new creation which uncreating braines perhaps conceive not but I must intreat my readers to observe that some sorts of motions begin a disease that is they lay the foundations thereof and other sorts of motions work upon those foundations Chap. 193. Of apoplexies SOme sorts of apoplexies are caused by an inbred superfluous water in the brain which being congealed by a cold contraction falling to the knitting part of the head which is the hinder part it stupifies the senses stopping the natural motions as a flowing river that is turned into ice but those sorts of apoplexies are curable if assistance be taken in time which is by hot dilating medicines not onely to stretch out the icy contraction but to expell that cold watry humour by a rarification but if the apoplexie be caused by an inbred slime as flegme which is of a thicker nature then water and is become crusted or peterated by hot contractions it is seldom or never cured no more then brick which is once baked by the sun or in a fire can be made to such clay as it was before it was burnt But mistake me not for I do not mean the humour is as hard as stone or brick in the head but so hard as to the nature of the brain that is the flegme is grown so dry and tough as not to be dissolved so soon as the nature of the brain requires it for though flegme will be contracted into stone as in the bladder and kidnies yet not in the brain by reason the nature of the brain is so tender and so sensible as it cannot indure so solid a substance therein nor suffer so long a time as the humour will be penetrating to stop the passages to the brain not but those kinde of motions that produce stone may be so strong and so swift as to turn matter into stone immediately but I do beleeve not in the animal bodies for they are too weak figures for so strong motions to work in but as I said these hot or cold contractions for both sorts of contractions produce stone so both sorts of contractions make tough clammy crusted hard flegme which is some degree towards stone flegme if it stop the passages to the brain it causeth an apoplexie but the 〈◊〉 why the watry contractions are more apt for cure is because the nature of water is fluid and is easily dissolved by dilations having interior nature to extenuations but slime and flegme are more solid and so not so flexible to be wrought upon as suddenly to change shape or nature in being dissolved or transformed The third cause is a fulnesse of blood or a thicknesse of blood for when the veins are too full there is not vacuity enough for the blood to run so stops the motion thereof or if the blood is too thick or clammy it becoms lesse fluid and the more solid it is the slower the motion is and though the blood may have too quick a motion by reason of heat so it may have too slow a motion by reason of thicknesse and if the veines are filled too full of hot blood wherein are many spirits it endangers the breaking some of the veines like as when strong liquor is put into a barrel if it be filled too ful the strength of the spirits striving for liberty break the barrel the like will the blood in the veins and if a vein chance to break in the head it overflows the brain and drowns the life therein The last is grosse vapor which may ascend from the bowels or stomack which causeth so great a smoak as it suffocates or choaks the brain smothering out the life of the body All apoplexies are somewhat of the nature of dead palsies Chap. 194. Of Epilepses which is called falling-sicknesse THis disease is caused by a water in the brain which water is most commonly green like sea water and hath an ebbing and flowing motion like the tides thereof and when the water is at full tide on the forepart of the head it takes the diseased after the manner of panting and short breathing beating themselves and foaming at the mouth neither can they hear see smell nor speak the reason is that the flowing motion driving the watry humour so far out as it extends the pia mater and dia mater of the brain farther then the natural extention which extention swelling out towards the outward part of the head hinders all recourse stopping those passages which should receive the objects through the exterior senses and the froth or slimy humor which is betwixt the skin where the brain lies and the skull being pressed out fals through the throat into the mouth and there works forth like yeast which is called foaming but though the motions of the head are thus altered for a time so as there is neither sense nor rational knowledg yet the body may be after the natural course and not any wayes altered but the body feeling life opprest in the head the several parts or members in the body strive and struggle with what power and strength they have to release it Like as a loyal people that would defend or release their natural and true born King from being prisoner to a foraign enemy but when this water flows to the hinder part of the head the pia mater and dia mater extending out that way stops all the nerves in the nodel of the head by which
stopping it stops the exterior motions of the whole body by reason that place is the knitting place of those moving strings and when the water is flow'd as I said to this part the diseased lies as in a swoon as if they were quite dead having no visible motion but as soon as the water begins to fall back they begin to recover out of the fits but as often as the water in the head is at full tides either of the fore part of the head or the hinder part the diseased fals into a fit which is sometimes oftner then other for it keeps no constant course time nor measure and according as the pia mater and dia mater extends the 〈◊〉 are stonger or weaker Likewise such green water with such motions about the heart may produce the same disease for oft times this green water or green thin humor ascends or runs from several parts of the body into the cesterns of the head and the heart and this kinde of water or humor if it be in the nerves causeth dangerous convulsions by reason of the sharpness that shrivels up the nerves and when it is in the bloud causes the veins to contract through the same reason if in the stomach it causes vomiting or great fluxes by subdividing the humors and the sharpness prickling or tickling the stomach provokes a straining as tickling in the nose doth sneezing so the stomach either to strain upwards or downwards Chap. 195. Of Shaking Palsies SHaking palsies proceed from a supernatural extenuation in the nerves which by the extenuating becomes more porous and hollow and becomes like a perpetual earthquake having a flatuous or windy humor in the bowels thereof and cannot finde passage out if it proceeds from a hot extention there must be applied cold condensing medicines If by a cold extention there must be applied hot condensing remedies Chap. 196. Of Convulsions and Cramps COnvulsions proceed from contrary contracting motions quite from the natural motions of the body as winding up the sinews nerves or veins but especially those sinews which joyn and impair the muscles together drawing not onely contrary but contracting several wayes and after divers manners for some time the nerves are as if we should tie strings in bowt-knots others as if we should winde 〈◊〉 Lute strings on pegs and some are twisted like whip-cord and many the like wayes which would be too long to recount but these contractions proceed either from a winde got into the nerves or veines which troubles them as the winde-cholick doth the guts or a sharp humor that shrivels them together or as salt watery humor mixt with winde which strugling and striving together turns windes folds or roles up the nerves like the waves of the Sea or a cold icy humor which draws and gathers in the nerves as frost will do all spungie bodies or some thick clammy humor which stops some passages which causeth the natural motions to turn irregular but if the humor be onely in the veins it is cured by letting bloud if the bloud be corrupted sharp or salt or if the bloud be cold windy or watry hot liquid medicines cure it or cordial water or the like and if it be a cold humor in the nerves hot oyls and extraordinary hot medicines cures it as the spirit of Caster oyl of Amber and the like but if it proceed from a salt sharp watery humor or a thick clammy humor in the nerves it is seldom or never cured because it is not easily got out neither can medicines so suddenly get into the nerves as into the veins for though the cold in the nerves may be easily cured by melting and dissolving by the comfortable warmth or violent heats from the hot cordial medicines which spread about the body as a great fire in a chimney which spreads about and heats all the room if the fire in the chimney be answerable to the bigness or largeness of the room it is in and the lesser the room is and the bigger the fire is the hotter it is wherefore it is to be considered that those that are at full growth or are larger of body if thus the diseased ought to have a greater proportion or a larger quantity of those medicines then a childe or those that are but little of stature for though those that are of little stature may be more stronger then those that are of a far bigger bulk yet in the cause of diffusing or dilating medicines the circumference of the body must be considered as well as the strength of the medicines and if the convulsion be in the stomach caused by the aforesaid humor purging medicines or cordials may cure it unless the stomach is gathered shrivell'd or shrunk up by an unnatural contracting heat like as leather that is put into the fire which when so the stomach can no more be cured then leather to be made smooth which is shrunk up in a purse by fire after the like manner as corvulsions or cramps but cramps most commonly are only contractions of the smal veins 〈◊〉 tie or twist them up many times so hard as they break for those that have been much troubled with the cramp wil have all the skin where the cramp hath taken them all stretch'd with broken veins I mean the small hair veins but rubbing the part grieved with a warm cloath will untie and untwist them again by dissolving the cold or dispersing the 〈◊〉 or rarifying the bloud therein this we 〈◊〉 by experience wherefore I should think that in convulsion fits that are 〈◊〉 by the like that if the diseased should be rubbed with hot cloaths outwardly applied as well as hot medicines inwardly taken it may do the patient much good But I must remember my Readers that in Convulsions the strength of the medicines inwardly taken must be according to the strength of the fits for if they be strong fits weak medicines do no good for more strength goeth to untie a hard knot then a loose knot or to untwist a hard string then a loose string besides it is hard to know after what manner the knot is tied or twisted and many indeed are so ignorant of medicines as the manner of the disease to apply such as shall hap of the right end as those which are cured by chance and chance hits so seldom right as not one of an hundred escapes of these kinde of diseases if the disease is any wayes violent for then the motions tie so fast and so strong as they break the life of that figure asunder There be natural contractions and unnatural contractions that is proper or improper to the health of the figure Chap. 197. Of Collicks ALL Collicks are towards the nature of Convulsions or at at least Cramps Some Collicks proceed from raw undigested humors Some from sharp melancolly humors Others from cold flegmatick humors Others from hot cholerick humors Others from putrified humors Some Collicks are in the stomach
and hath as much recourse to the heart as to the head and so to the other parts of the body for any thing I can perceive But that matter I call the rational and sensitive spirits which others call the animal and vital spirits perchance fools may think me extravagant for giving the matter other names but I was forced to take these names because they were more significant to the sense of my discourse besides perchance they may think when I speak of rational and sensitive spirits that they are hobgoblins ghosts or visions such as nurses fright their children with or superstitions or as the wiser sort doth to make credulous fools beleeve to keep them in awe knowing they are apt to disorders Chap. 182. Musick may cure mad folks THere is great reason why Musick should cure madnesse for this sort of madnesse is no other but the spirits that are in the brain and heart put out of their natural motion and the spirits having a natural sympathy with Musick may be composed into their right order but it must be such Musick as the number of the notes must goe in such order as the natural motion of the brain though every brain hath not one and the same motion but are set like notes to several tunes wherefore if it were possible to set notes to the natural motion of the heart or that brain that is distempered it might be perfectly cured but as some notes do compose the brain by a sympathy to the natural motion so others do make a discord or antipathy and discompose it putting the natural motions out of tune Thus much for the sensitive Maladies Chap. 183. Of the fundamental diseases first of fevours THere are many several sorts or manners of fevors but I will onely treat of the fundamental fevours which are three from which three all other fevors are partly derived the first is a malignant fevor the second the hective fevor and the third the ordinary burning fevours the first is catching and often deadly the second is never catching but alwayes deadly the third is neither catching and seldom deadly the first proceeds from violent disordered motions and distempered matter and humour The second from swift motions which distemper and make waste of the matter which matter I mean the substance of the body The third is too violent motions on well tempered matter And these three sorts of fevours are often mixt as it were a part of all mixt into one but a high malignant fevor is a sudden usurpation for the disordered motions joyned with a mistempered matter which is corrupt humours surprise the body and destroy the life therein as we shall see in great plagues the body is well sick and dead in a moment these or the like diseases are caused after three manner of wayes as being taken from outward infection or bred by an evil habit in the body or by taking some disagreeing matter therein which causeth a war of sicknesse for upon the disorder which the disagreeing matter makes the natural motions belonging to the body grow factious and like a common rout arise in an uproar which strives onely to do mischief stopping some passages that should be kept open and opening some passages that should be kept shut hindring all regular motions from working after that natural manner forcing those they can over power to turn rebels to the life of the body For it is against the nature of the innated matter to be idle wherefore it works rather irregularly then not work at all but as long as a body lies sick the power is divided one part of the innated matter working irregularly the other according to the natural constitution which by the regularity they strive to maintain the chief forts of life which are the vital parts especially the heart and disordered motions striving to take or pull them down making their strongest assaults thereon for the disordered innated matter makes out-works of corrupted matter stopping as many passages as their power will give leave so striving either to starve the vital parts or to oppresse them with corruption or to burn them by their unnatural heat they make in the body or to drown them with watrish humor which is caused by the distemper of ill disgestions and obstructions the regular innated matter strives to break down those works and to cast and expel that filth out of the body and according as each party gets the better the body is better or worse and according as the siege continues the body is sick and according as the victory is lost or won is life or death Chap. 185. Of the infections of animals Vegetables and elements Such motions as corrupt animal bodies corrupt vegetable bodies and as corrupt and malignant air is infectious to animals so likwise to vegetables and as malignant diseases are catching and infectious to those that comes neer them so oftentimes vegetables are infectious to animals as herbs and fruits which cause some yeers such dangerous sicknesse and killing diseases to those that eat thereof likewise those bodies that are infected do infect sound and nourishing food when once it is eaten causeth that which is good also malignant when once in the body Chap. 186. Of burning fevros ALL burning fevours for the most part are produced from the vital spirits as when they move irregularly they corrupt the natural humours which cause a distemper of heat in the body moving towards expulsions which are dilation and when they move with supernatural quicknesse after an extenuating maner they inflame the body in either causes emptying the body and quenching the fire is to be put in execution for the emptier the body is the lesse humours there will be Ltkewise lesse motion as having lesse matter for in matter motion lives likewise the lesse cumbustible matter there is the sooner the unnatural fire will be quenched unlesse that the fire be in the arteries then it is like a colepit set on fire wherein there is no quenching it unlesse you drown the coles so when the unnatural heat is in the arteries you must drown the life of the body like the colein the pit before you can quench the fire but a 〈◊〉 may be eased somwhat prolonged with cooling brothes and quenching julips for though they cannot enter the arteries yet they may keep the outward parts cold and moist which may cast cold damps quite through the body but in this case all evacuations are dangerous for the more empty the body is of humour the sooner the body is consumed for the humours serve as oyl and though they flame yet they keep in the light of life in all other fevours evacuations of all sorts are good for if it be some melancholy pitch humours that are set on fire in the body or some oylie cholerick humours it is but quenching it with cooling julips without any hurt to the body and if it be a brandy blood set on fire it is