the followers of Erasistratus upon this subject But above all that ever intermedled I will give this character to Thomson that never did any presume more upon so weak grounds Nor ever was Confidence so poorly mounted and so pittifully be-jaded After much trouble and enquiry the sum of all he sayes in this case amounts to this The promiscuous mass of Bloud which flows in the Veins and Arteries he divides into three parts the one is called by him the Latex the second Cruor the third Sanguis or most properly Blood The Latex so called by Helmont by some Lympha by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a diaphanous clear liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabricated in the second digestion by virtue of a ferment there residing It is the inseperable companion of the Bloud and closely pâ—rambulates with it through all the wandring Maeandrous pipes in this Microcosme It is the matter of Vrine and Sweat Spittle c. and renders several other considerable services to the body The goodness or pravity of the Latex depends much upon the bloud as it is constituted for albeit it is no essential part thereof yet is it altered for better or worse according to the channels it passeth through the lodging it taketh up and the condition of its associate notwithstanding that it may be sometimes impaired in its due excellency and the bloud withall remain very pure and sincere The second part is called Cruor from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Crudus concretus It is the more crude impure part of the bloud the purer part of the chyle being digested into a saline juyce is carried into the milky vessels and veins and mingling at last with that ruddy liquor is called Cruor and at last becomes perfect bloud It undergoes manifold guises and is often the subject matter of a multitude of diseases being sometimes changed into an Ichor Tabum or Sanies The third part is properly called Sanguis or Bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a most pure sweet Homogeneous Balsamie Vital juyce for the most part of a bright Red or Reddish colour made by the Archaeus by virtue of ferments implanted in the ventricles of the heart lungs veins and arteries causing a formal transmutation of the Ckyme or milky substance into this sanguineous liquor ordained to be the seat of Life and and the principal matter for sense motion nutrition accretion and generation It is for good reason called Balsamum seu Condimentum totius corporis â—orasmuch as it hath a sanative power sweetly uniting all the parts of the body for the conspiration of the good of the whole It is a great preservative against putrefaction as long as it remains in its integrity for consisting of many saline particles it seasoneth whatsoever it toucheth with a pleasing sapour It is the proper habitation of the vital spirit the immediate instrument of the soul in which it shines displaying its radiant beams every way that sensation motion nutrition and all other functions may be exquisitely performed God and Nature never intended other then that the bloud should be Homogeneous pure plain symbolical with that single principle of the Vniverse Now these Peripatetick Philosophers deliver to the world that the contexture of this vital juyce is made up of Choler Phlegm Melancholy and Blood which united produce this compounded body which we call Sanguis How grosly erroneous and dangerous this Tenet is most Learned Helmont hath made evident Wherefore we conclude with that noble Philosopher that Bloud is an Vnivocal substance divisible only by some external accidental means as the Air or Fire which cause a various texture and different position of its Atomes whereby it seems to consist of parts which are not really inherent in it as is manifest in its degeneration from its native colour sapour consistence and goodness which it had before it became corrupt in the pottinger or underwent the torture of fire Both of which do strangely larvate and disguise the puniceous Balsome giving occasion to the Galenists to frame their four fictitious humours no where really existent This being the foundation of all his declamations against Phlebotomy before I proceed any farther it may seem requisite that I should make some Animadversions thereon I might take much notice of and dislay his errours as to what he sayes that the Latex is by the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the first time I ever read it called so the usual terms being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The notion whatever Helmont say is not new at all an hundred Galenists have mentioned and treated of it as the vehicle of the bloud and nourishment But that cruor should come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crudus concretus is an opinion singular to the Baconical Philosopher That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie cold I know well and that cruor properly signifies the the bloud of dead people or the mortified bloud issuing from putrefied wounds I no less understand though Authors frequently confound it with Sanguis But that his Latex and the Lympha so called by moderns are the same is news for it is not held that the Lympha in its peculiar form was pre-existent in the Arteries and as such did accompany the Blood through the Maeandrous piteâ— but is generated as it is discharged into the Lymphaeducts and from them is re-mixed with the bloud And if it were yet would not the definition of this Latex agree with it for the Lympha is no inseparable companion of the bloud as appears by its peculiar vessels it is seldome a diaphanous clear liquor being commonly tinged with several colours oftentimes whitish sometimes yellow or as it were stained with bloud And whereas this Latex is devoid of all sensible qualities those who have experimented the Lympha do not find any such thing but a variety of tasts Nor is it true that the Serum which accompanies the Bloud is such a Latex as our Helmontian describes it being never to my taste free from a salsuginous sapour though it retain that with a great Latitude nor devoid of colour so as to be clear and diaphanous and 't is very seldome seen that the said Serum will not coagulate unless preternaturally upon a gentle fire so that it is no more to be termed a Latex than the whites of eggs beaten to the like fluidity In like manner that in the Lympâ—aeducts will coagulate as Bartholin observes and others As for the Cruor that there are graduations of the Bloud as to its crudity and impurity is no doubt amongst the Galenists and that it may oftentimes transcend the state of due maturation and so become degenerate is as easily granted as that it should come short of its desired perfection and when this Blood degenerates any way into a Tabum or sanious matter I must tell him
consider how far that is true That the Bloud is not so much as a part of the body but the Aliment thereof is the assertion of most Authors it is not continuous to the rest of the body but floateth as Liquor in a vessel and in vulgar speech no man takes the loss of bloud for a mutilation or dismembring and there are sundry distempers and phaenomena which conclude in favour of the spirits or what is Analagous to them and the Nerves to assert their pre-eminence above the Blood and its Vessels and whatever may be said concerning Generation which is very disputable 't is a certain mistake in our Helmontian to make the Bloud the principal matter for sensation whereas sanguine persons are not the greatest wits and the senses are most quick in women during their lyings in after a great effusion of bloud as also in dying persons or motion which is not in paralytick members though the Bloud flow unto them continually as it was wont before I add that there is not any convincing Argument to prove that the Bloud is animated I confess the conjunction of the soul and Body and operations consequent thereunto are most mysterious unto me and I think it no less true that our Life is a constant miracle then that we are at first wonderfully framed nor can I determine what particular use the soul makes of all the parts and ingredients of our humane bodies But this appears unto us daily that the conjunction betwixt the Soul and Blood and the dependance of our Life thereon is not so great or intimate as that upon the effusion of a little no nor of a great deal of the bloud Death or any debility extraordinary and durable should ensue unavoidably and if it happen but sometimes 't is apparent thereby that 't is but accidental and not a proper consequence of that effect 'T is manifest that the operations of the Soul are not restrained to one determinate proportion of bloud in every body nor to the same in any albeit that there seem requisite in all Animals that there be some bloud or what is equipollent thereunto 'T is also maniâ—est that this Bloud for which some are so sollicitous doth continually expend and waste it self in nutrition and that even the nourished parts are in a continualexhaustion so that without supply it would degenerate â—nto choler except in those miraculous fasts and diminish to little or nothing as appears upon great fastings and several diseases 'T is no less manifest that upon great evacutions of bloud by wounds or otherwise when the Bloud hath been so exhausted that very little can be imagined to remain yet in a few dayes the veins and arteries do fill again and nature is so replenished and vigorated that this lost bloud seems not only as good in order to the functions of life but better in order to health and strength since the production of this last in the end of diseases is accompanied with convalescence whereas the precedent did not hinder the indisposition Out of what hath been said the Answer to this Objection is facile viz. The Blood is not so the seat and residence of the Soul nor so absolutely necessary to Life granting all that can be desired of us as that some of it may not be let out without present danger or irreparable detriment so that if the motives for Phlebotomy be cogent or so probable as to render the Action prudential no difficulty can arise from this scruple It is written in Deut. 24.6 No man shall take the upper or nether milstone to pledge for he taketh a man's life or soul to pledge Here the milstone is called the life or soul of a man as much and as properly as ever the Blood is any where else But though there be a prohibition for a man to deprive his poor neighbour thereof as of the support of his Life yet undoubtedly none was ever interdicted by virtue of this precept to help the distressed Miller to pick and dress his Milstones His third Argument is this Moreover one would think it should put a stop to their prodigal profuse bleeding if they did but consider with what difficulty Nature brings this Solar Liquor to perfection how many hazards of becoming spurious and abortive it pusses through how easily it is stained by an extraneous tincture how often intermixed with something allogeneous and hostile to it how many elaborate circulations digestions and refinings it undergoes before it be throughly animated and made fit for the right use of the immortal Soul One would imagine by this Objection that the Generation of the Bloud were as difficult a work and required as much of sollicitude as the Philosophers stone and that the least errour would disappoint the process and eject the poor soul out of its tenement and mansion But there is not any such thing he that considers the perpetual supply of Chyle by the Ductus Thoracicus and with how much ease it is transformed a great part into Blood by the similar action of that which pre-existed in the veins together with the concurring aid of the Heart and sanguiferous emunctory vessels and the previous alterations in the stomach and intestines will imagine neither the production of Bloud nor the reparation of it to be so tedious and hard a matter Nor is it true that the Bloud is so easily stained with hostile tinctures since it is a liquor that is in perpetual depuration and hath the convenience of so many out-lets to discharge it self by Neither will every crudity in the immature Chyle or bloud render the blood unfit for the use of the immortal soul there is extraordinary and unimaginable difference betwixt the bloud of one person and another as appears upon distillation burning and mixing it with other liquors yet are all these within the latitude of Health and with equal perfection exercise the operations of Life Nor doth every allogeneous mixture vitiate or deprave the bloud for the Chyle Bloud and Flesh retain some particles of the original food taken into the stomach hence it is that sheep fed with pease-straw though as sat as others yield a flesh differently tasted from other mutton the like is to be observed in the feeding of other Animals generally Nor is this more evident in other Animals than 't is in Men for not to mention those Medicaments which by the alteration they make in the Vrine do demonstrate they have passed along and been once mixed with the bloud as Cassia Rhubarb Annise-seeds c. In fonticulis observavi quod si praecedente die aliquis allium aut cepam comederit pus quod in fonticulo est odorem allii aut cepae obtinebat sanguis autem qui per fonticulum expurgatur non nisi per venas expurgari potest unde possumus dicere quod sanguis acutum odorem detinere possit The like phaenomenon is to be observed in wounds and ulcers which feel detriment
warmth and concurrence of the contemporary fabrick for the first blood can neither give a beginning to its self nor is it comprehensible how the weak impulse thereof should shape out all the veins and Arteries in the body according as they are scituated Out of which it is â—vident that the Soul or Plastick form doth at first reside and principally animate in the Spermatic parts so called not that they are delineated out of the Sperme but out of the Colliquament which is Analogous to it and that they are her first work the blood is but the secundary and generated out of the Colliquament for other Materials there are none by the Plastic form which is the proper efficient thereof and besides the Auxilary Heat there are no other instrumental aids but the spermatick vessels wherein the Colliquament at first flows to the punctum album which when blood is generated do become the Heart and sanguiferous Channels This is avowed by Doctor Glissen himself Liquor hic vitalis antequam sanguinis ruborem induit sese a reliquis ovi partibus quibus promiscue commiscetur segregare incipit in rivulos seu ramificationes quasdum excurrere quae postea venas evadunt Rivuli isti in unum punctum colâ—untes in eum locum conveniunt qui postea punctum saliens cor appelâ—â—tur Idque fieri videtur diu antequam sanguinis aliquod vestigium compareat Herewith agree the most exquisite Observations of Doctor Highmore Most certain it is by the History of Generation that no Parenchymatous part hath any operation in the first production of the blood all their â—arenchymas being post-nate thereunto And if the blood be thus generated at first it is but rational for us to imagine that it is alwayes so generated during life For as it is true that the same cause acting in the same manner will alwayes produce the same effect So in this case to argue from the identity of the effâ—ct to the identity of the cause is allowable Est enim causarum identitas quae faâ—it ut effectus sit idem quippe effectus supponitur non esse donec a causis existentiam suam indeptus â—uerit dum existentiam illam largiuntur oportet ipsius quoque identitatem impertiant qua sine effectus ipsemet nequaquam fuerit That the Spermatic vessels in which the blood moves do contribute to â—anguification much seems apparent from hence that the blood is seen in them before it is in the heart And because it is observed that the fluidity of the blood seems to depend much on them and therefore in the dead it doth not coagulate except praeternaturally in the veins though it do commonly in the Heart or wheresoever it is extravasated Manat praeterea aliquid a venis nobis incognitum quod dum earum ambitu sanguis concipitur prohibet â—jus concretionem etiam post mortem in cadaveribus jam perfrigidis nequis hoc colori acceptum ferat quod vero coralliorum instar aliquando repertus est concretus in venis ipsis hoc merito Fernelius ascribit morbo occulto And not only the â—â—uidity but motion of the blood seems to depend much thereon for if by a lâ—gature the impulse and succession of blood be prevented yet will the blood in the veins continue its course and not stagnate Exempto e corpore corde motus tamen sanguinis isque satis câ—ler in sanis videntur Et si vena ulla etiam lactea duobus locis ligetur laxata ea sola ligatura quae cordi propinquior est dum partes adhuc calent semper Chylus ad hepar sanguis ad cor cum movebitur qui nec a corde per Arterias nec ab intestinis per lacteas objecto potuit obice propelli nec stuiditate sua potius sursum quam deorsum movetur The truth hereof seeming undeniable to Pecquet he makes use of a new Hypothesis to solve this motion of the blood as if it arose from compression of other parts or contraction in the vein it self But the Phaenomenon will appear in such cases as admit not this pretence From these reasons it is that the blood doth not need so much as any pulse in the veins and arteries as appears in the first faetus but as soon as it comes to the Heart it does to prevent coagulation the punctum saliens being endowed with no such quality practiseth its systole and diastole when yet no such motion is observable in the Arteries at that time Whence the colour of the blood ariseth is a secret unto me I know that digestion reduceth some Juyces to a redness in some Fruits the â—ire doth the like in some the mixture of acid Liquors begets a Vermilion But here I conceive none of these causes produce the effectâ— the generation of the blood is manifestly an Animal Action and as such unsearchable Whatever I attribute to the veins it is not to be expected that supposing they should instrumentally sanguifie the blood should turn blew from them any more than that water put into new vessels of Oak should turn white whereas it becomes reddish Thus the Plastic form produceth blood at first and whilest thâ—re is no first concoction in the stomack supplieth that defect by that albuiginous Colliquament which is of the same nature with the Chyle we digest our meat into and convey by the Lacteous Thoraciducts into the Heart That it is of the same nature appears hence that it resembles it and that it is extracted from the Blood of the Mother and produceth in the Embryo the like excrements of Choler and Vrine and Mucosities nay it hath been observed by Riolanus to have been tinged yellow How much more may be concluded hence in favour of the Galenical alimentâ—ry humours supposed to constiâ—ute the Blood I leave those to judge who consider the variety of female constitutions and their condition during their being with child perhaps the Hypothesis of a proportionate mixture of the five Chymical Principles will not seem more colourable Having thus related how Sanguification is performed in the Faetus at first I come to give an account how it is performed afterwards and even here it seems an Action perfectly Animal for even Concoction in the Stomach is not the bare â—ffect of Heat elixating the meat nor of acid or saline Ferments dissolving it nor of any other kind of imaginary Fermentation But 't is the effect of an Animal power operating upon the Meat in the stomachs of sundry Men and Animals by several wayes This appears most evidently herein that the same meat eaten by several Persons or different Animals produceth different Blood and different Excrements therefore Chylification is an Animal operation and is modulated by the speciâ—ick and individual constitutions Having thus determined of things that the Soul in all these actions is the Efficient we may consider that the meat being masticated in the mouth and commixed with the salival juyce
tender habit of body cannot bear a violent transpiration swoon not by bleeding in water though otherwise they do by reason that the great effects of the Air upon the Blood are impeded by the ambient water the like happens in Scarification with Cupping-glasses and in bleeding with Leeches I did suppose that oftentimes in a Plethora quoad vires transpiration being hindered by the change of the texture of the Body the not-exhaling particles remix with the Blood and there also happens a subsidence of the vessels and change of the porosities so that the Fermentation is is not only clogged with morbose particles of several sorts but so hindered by the subsidence or compression of the vessels and alteration of the pores as not to be able to ferment for freedom of room is necessary to Fermentation nor transpire nor continue its due course nor by reason of the charge of porosities confer aliment aright so that a Plethora ariseth hereupon But as soon as the vein is breathed and the Blood as in your common water-pipes when a Pipe is cut acquires a more free passage that way it presently becomes more rapid and its motion also is accelerated by the fuliginous exhalations hastening to the vent together with the natural Fermentation resuscitated and so the whol◠〈◊〉 by a natural coherence and dependance is not only eâ—â—cuated but altered in its minute texture and conformation It is most evident that the Blood in the Veins and Arteries is conveyed as it were in conduit-pipes the Heart being the great Elastic Engine which drives it being fed by the vena Cava and disburthening it self by the Aorta though even the motion of the Heart depend upon a Superiour influence by its Nerves which wherein it consists and how derived from the Brain and Soul is a thing to us incomprehensible I do suppose that the Circulation is continued and carried on principally by Anastomoses betwixt the Capillary veins and Arteries many whereof having been discovered by Spigelius Veslingius and others the rest may well be supposed and perhaps in the coats of the Veins and Arâ—eries there may be a certain texture requisite whereby the transpiration is managed in order to the safe continuance of the digestive fermentation in the Blood and the nutrition of the body The impulse of the Heart together with the pulsation is sufficient to convey the blood to the lesser capillary Arteries and there though the pulse be lost which yet a little inflammation in the extremities of the body will make sensible and in some Ladies as also in Children the least preternatural heat yet it is impelled by the subsequent blood still into the veins and having acquired by the common miscele in the Heart and the digestive fermentation which naturally ariseth in such heterogenious liquors an inclination to expand it self the compression in the Capillary vessels adds to its celerity of motion when the larger veins give liberty for it the Aiery corpuscles of several kinds which are easie to be discovered upon burning by their expansion and contraction adding much thereunto Thus in Water-engines the narrowness of the Pipes do add to the impetus with which the Water issues forth And I do conceive by the Phaenomena which daily appears in practise that the Animal heat in the Blood actuating that heterogeneous miscele and according to the diversity of its parts producing therein with the help of its fermentation a rarefaction of what is aiery and according to the room there is a liberty or inclination to expand and evaporate themselves this is the principal cause of the continuance of the motion of the blood in the veins and of its saliency upon Phlâ—botomy Thus upon Scariâ—ication there is no salience or spurting out of the blood there being no room for such an expansion or for the Aiery halituous parts in which there is as great a difference as in those exhaling from the terraqueous Globe to rush forward out of the continued Arteries and together with themselves to protrude the blood Upon this account the Methodists and old Physicians as also the Aegyptians where the tender bodies and constitutions of Children and Women or Men admit not of or requireth that great relaxation of the pores and texture of the body which a more robust and firm habit wherein as the natural resistance in health is greater so the recess from it in a bad estate is much greater would be cured by they use these Scarifications and prefer them most judiciously to Phlebotomy This constitution of the Body doth evince the great utility of Phlebotomy and best as I suppose explicates the effects thereof which we daily experiment From hence not only is manifest how the Body is evacuated in a Plethora but in case of Revulsion and Derivation It is manifest in Aqueducts and Siphons that the liquors though much differing in nature from the Blood nor so inclined to evaporate does accelerate their motion and issue out so rapidly upon an incision or fracture in one of the Pipes that a lesser in such a case will deplete the greater notwithstanding its free passage in its own entire Canale Thus the most learned and considerate Physician Sir George Ent having observed first thus much Videmus aquam per siphones delatam si vel minima rimula hiscat foras cum impetu prorumpere And Sanguis per aortam ingressus fluit porro quocunque permittitur peraeque sursum ac deorsum quia motus continuus est quemadmodum in canalibus aquam deferentibus contingit in quibus quocunque feruntur aqua continuo pergit moveri Quare nugantur strenue qui protrusionem hujusmodinon nisi in recta linea fieri posse arbitrantur After this He explains the doctrine of Revulsion in this manner Quae postea de revulsionibus dicuntur nullum nobis facessunt negotium Tantundem enim sanguinis a pedibus ascendit per venas quantum ad eosdam delabitur per Arterias Facto itaque vulnere in pectore aut capite revulsio instituitur si modo tam longinqua instituenda sit in crure Quia sanguis alias quoquoversum ruens facto nunc in pede egressu copiosius per descendentem ramum procul a vulnere delabitur Non enim arbitramur sanguinem aeque celeriter sua sponte per arteriam aut venam fluere atque is secta earum aliquo effluit Nec sanguis ad laesum pectus aut caput per venam cavam impetu affluit quia fluxus ille aperta inferius vena intercipitur I do acknowledge that the reading of these passages did first create in me the thoughts I now impart unto you And hereby it is evident how the Ancients with their large Phlebotomies might derive even the morbiâ—ick matter or revell it though impacted Our minute Phlebotomies do seldom produce such an effect for since it is not otherwise done but by a successive depletion out of the Arteries it would seem necessary to extract three or
imposture contrived on purpose to stop the mouth of those who scruple and question Phlebotomy This is the principal Argument which he hath against Phlebotomy yet doth he so handle it as that the onely evidence it carries with it is that the Author is a most illiterate person It is very ignorantly done of him to make as if the Galenists in general did let their Patients bloud merely for a Cacochymy or depravation of the bloud as if it were a Rule amongst them that Whensoeâ—er the blood is depraved vitiated and corrupted it ought to be emitted by Phlebotomy Whereas there is not any tenet amongst them more general then that Cacochymicat bodies require purging the Plethorick or such as are in danger to be surcharged with excess of blood require Phlebotomy nor do they recede from this resolution but in urgent cases and with deliberation and many are so cautious herein that if the bloud appear in the porringer to be of an evil colour and very corrupt they enjoyn us to stop the vein presently and not continue or repeat the evacuation I shall set down the words of Horatius Angenius Hic vulgarium Medicorum error detegendus est Putant quo sanguis impurior fuerit à sua natura magis alienus eo plus detrahendum in hoc mirifice sibi placent in vulgusque proponant admodum utilem factam fuisse vacuationem quod corruptissimum pessimumque sanguinem vacuaverint Tu vero cui in animo est humano generi prodesse Medicinam inculpate exercere contra facies quanto enim magis sanguinem videbis à propria natura discedere tanto minorem quantitatem vacuabis aliquando nisi copia urgeat cacochymiae permista à venaesectione prorsus abstineto Nor is this the judgment of a single writer hundreds are of the same opinion the Learned L. Septalius Animadv Medic. l. 4. sect 2. is of the same judgment In sanguine detrahendo cavendum maxime ne quanto putriorem deterioris conditionis sanguinem è vena profluere viderimus tanto majorem quantitatem effluere sinamus quod plurimos facere observamus tali enim existente sanguine pauciores subesse spiritus constat vires facillime solent collabascere Even Galen and Avicen are alledged for it And it ought with less reason to be objected in England because our Physicians generally as likewise are the Germans seem not so prodigal of the bloud of their Patients as to make a Cacochymie much less a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or total corruption of the sanguineous mass to be the proper indication for bleeding nay most that hold Blood-letting in great diseases arising from Cacochymie to be a necessary remedy not indicated by the depravation of the bloud but violence of the disease they are cautious in the quantity which they take away because in such an habit of body the strength of the patient is seldom great enough to bear much Out of which it is manifest that what he sayes about the impurity of the bloud in the porringer that 't is an excuse or imposture used by the Galenists in defence of Phlebotomy it is a fiction of his own not made use of directly by any but the followers of Botallus the rest will give him other reasons for their practice than a Cacochymie alone or total corruption of the mass of bloud A farther mistake it is in him that he represents the Galenists as such pittiful fellows that should not know but that each corruption of the bloud is incorrigible and therefore let it out It is true that we do hold that it is possible for the bloud to be so vitiated as to be incorrigible and that one may assoon hope to see the regress from a total privation as it restored This hath been observed in pestilential diseases sometimes and in sphacelated parts and perhaps I may be allowed to reckon as such the bloud of that person in Fernelius which was universally coagulated in the veins so as to be taken out as 't were branches of coral And that Woman 's in the observations of Pachequus whose bloud in a continual fever did issue out upon Phlebotomy as cold as Ice or Snow the like to which in the spotted fever is taken notice of as a fatal prognostick by Petrus à Castro If â—lempius give me leave I would reckon in putrid fevers that bloud to be incorrigibly depraved which doth not coagulate and is destitute of its fibres since Fernelius and others esteem of such as an evident testimony of the highest putrefaction It is also true that we do hold that where diseases are ordinarily or frequently curable yet by accident from the idio-syncrasie of the patient or some other intervening cause the bloud may be continued in such a vitiated estate as to be incorrigibly corrupted and yet its essential form not lost as in case of Cancers Hypochondriacal and Scorbutical distempers Scirrhosities of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery Leprosies knotted Gout calculous indispositions c. I might mention other cases but they relate not to the present controversie and I have already said enough to shew the ignorance of this Baconist To come nearer to the main matter It is true that we do hold that in many distempers as in the Scurvey putrid Fever and some others the mass of bloud is so putrified and corrupted that even that which is termed more stricktly Blood is depraved sundry wayes for if the vessels that generate and convey the Chyle and the Chyle it self be corrupted 't is impossible but that which is produced and supplied daily out of the Chyle should participate of it pravity and so much the more in that they flow intimately commixed in the same Arteries and Veins But that in such cases we hold the Blood to be so depraved as to have lost its formal essence totally and irrecoverably is most notoriously falle and any man may see hence that this Ignoramus understands not the Galenical way but deserted it before he had acquainted himself therewith We do hold that the blood and associated humours may come to a partial putrefaction and yet be recovered again and 't is this recovery and redintegration that we design by our practice and if we cannot effect it totally yet that we aim at is to concoct the several humours so that what there is of them that is alimentary and agreeable to nature may be mitified and retained and the rest so digested as that it may be with ease and safety ejected the body and so the Mass of bloud regain its former lustre and amicableness This being the grand intention of the received Method of Physick 't is one thing to debate Whether blood-letting practiced according to Art for we are not otherwise concerned in the Quarrel be a suitable proper means to atchieve our purposes And another to say that we pierce poor mans skill and rashly throw away the support of life out of
which being hostile to life irritates the Archaeus to frame the Idaea of a disease not as it is meerly provoked by nimiety or plurality but from the pravity of the matter wherefore the case is altered now and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signification or demonstration of evacuating doth in a strait line respect the Cruor or Cacochymy directing the Artist to reform mundifie and rid those impurities contained in the seemingly corrupted marred juyce by proper means sequestring the vile from the precious not to let out indistinctly what comes next at randome to the furtive castration of the Eutony lustiness liveliness and strength of the Patient which is to be preferred before all motives whatsoever T is certainly known to those who are throughly versed in the Analysis and Synthesis of the parts of bodies that ebullition aestuation effervescence of febrile liquors arising from a pleonasme of degenerate Sal. and Sul. c. as they would have it may be appeased and allayed by Remedies assisting the vitals to make separation and afterwards an exclusion every way of what is reprobate reserving what is acceptable This being performed there is no fear that a plenitude simply of it self can do any harm for hereby so expedite a course is taken that the overplus is in a short time sent packing away by vomiting stool urine expectoration and sweat For this reason considering what strict abstinence the Patient is put upon in a Feaver 't is very unlikely a plenitude should be of any duration Is it not then greater prudence in a Physician to minorate what is superfluous by safe profitable wayes of secretion and excretion still advancing the principal Agent then for that end to give vent indiscreetly to what comes next without any election incommodating if not hazarding the loss of the vital principles For believe it whosoever hath any great quantity of blood taken from him either rues it for the present or hereafter Let him that is heterodox prate what he will alledging examples of those sturdy lusty bodies which have hereby received immediate succour I can make good by practise â—nd challenge any one to come to that otherwise let him forbear his Garrulity whosoever is cured by a Lancet in this sort is either prone to relapses or to live more crazy in his younger or elder years although for some short time he may not by reason of a robust ingrafted constitution be sensible of these inconveniences As for Phlebotomy in order to Revulsion he thus explodes it Another pretended waâ— for sanguimission is Revulsion by which they say a violent flux of morbifick liquor into any noble parts is intercepted for this end they use the Lancet in a Pleurisie Peripneumony or any inward inflammation But how far they erre herein is well known to the best Practitioners for although I confess they do sometimes in the beginning suppress and as it were crush the aforesaid diseases yet is it done accidentally very uncertainly rather by way of distraction of the Nature for the loss of its substantial treasure than from any true Revulsion or direct pulling back of what is in flux or already flowed in 'T is true where the vessels are depleted a repletion is forthwith made ob fugam vacui to avoid a vacuity but the supply is from what comes next for as intro as well as intro foras However there is no streight immediate Revulsion intended from the part affected to the Orifice It seems strange to me that any man should pretend thus long to have diligently attended on the practise of Physick and yet never have seen or have the impudence to deny that there can be any such thing as a surcharge of Blood which is that which Physicians call a Plethora or Plenitude But the continuance of these Baconical Philosophers will in time free us from any admiration of this kind In Greece when the Athletae or Wrastlers were publickly maintained the observation indeed was more facile than now but every Countrey almost yields frequent cases of such an indisposition particularly 't is easily to be remarqâ—ed in strong healthy and plethorick Children whose sudden death â—s it often ariseth from no other cause so it astonisheth the vulgar and usually raiseth in them suspicions of Witâ—hcraft Hippocrates and Galen having taken notice of the evil consequences attending this habit of body do advise the owner to attempt the change of it though it be accompanied with the most perfect health and vigour imaginable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this habit of body and fulness of blood which he saith would do Methusalem no harm is observed by those who had daily opportunity to see the sad experience of it to abbreviate the life and occasion many diseases as Apoplexies Cardiacal Syncopes and Ruptures of veins in the Lungs Squinancies Pleurisies c. So that Hippocrates condemns that habit of body again in his book De Alimento and Celsus concurs with him therein Ea corpora quae more eorum Athletarum repleta sunt celerrime senescunt aegrotant i. e. Those bodies which are dieted and brought up to an Athletick habit do soonest of all decline into sickness and premature old age I never read of any Physician who in his directions for health recommended unto his Patient that course of life wherein the Athletae were bred up thereby to acquire such a Plethoric habit and whatever the present sanity were which they injoyed as to strength of body their intellectuals were very dull and the most understanding persons would have thought it prudential in such a case to broach some of the Balsome of life and weaken Nature thereby rather than to live in a perpetual danger of such perillous diseases as that Euexy subjecteth men unto But our Helmontian doth think otherwise If such an habit of body be thus perillous during perfect health how ought a Physician to apprehend it upon the first approaches of sickness Doth not then Nature add to the redundance of blood by a defective transpiration whereas the veins are so full as not to be able to contain more Is not the pulse weak slow and opprâ—ssed and the Heart so debilitated as not to be able to discharge it self of the Blood which flows into it and in danger to stagnate in the Lungs or coagulate in the Ventricles Can there seem any thing more agreeable to common reason in this case than to practise Phlebotomy whereby Nature is at present alleviated the surcharge of blood abated and the imminent dangers prevented Is it not prudential were a little blood so precious a thing and the loss thereof attended with some small irrepairable debility Is it not I say a part of prudence to submit to lesser though certain inconveniences then to run an almost inevitable hazard of the greatest imaginable I read not that the famous Milo arrived to the years of Methusalem nor yet to those of Hippocrates though I am apt to think
more in years every superficial wound gives them much trouble but when they become old every scratch degenerates into a foul Vlcer notwithstanding that the Patient all this while commits not any errour in his diet nor is sensible otherwise or any alteration in his body or blood In fine diligent observation will assure any man thâ—t not only the Quantity of blood doth vary in sundry persons but even the Quality according to the age temperament and diet of the parties nay even according unto the seasonablenâ—ss and season of the years Nor shall I exclude the passâ—onately angry or melancholick or phlegmatick from a latitude yet doth their blood exceedingâ—y vary in the porrengerâ— and consequently in the veins I have oftentimes seen and so hath Van der-Linden that in some healthy persons the blood hath been of a redness equally florid from the top to the bottome in some there hath appeared only some blackish spots at the bottome which no conversion to the open Air would rectifie into a florid crimson and perhaps some Observations may inform a man that the florid colour in the surface of the blood ariseth from a thinner sort of blood of a peculiar kind which radiates through a subtle pellicle on the top and when the blood is turned topsie-turvey 't is not the impressions of the Air that restores the decayed colour in the more black blood â— but the assent of this Ichorous blood through the more black and fibrous mass I have some grounds for this suggestion but I never could see any pellicle or thin concretion upon the turned blood and to the defect thereof I have been willing to attribute the Phaenomenon when the turned blood hath not equalled in floridness the first superficies Some have attributed that florid colour to the concretion and shooting of some volatile Salts in the surface of the Blood and think that Kiâ—cher mistook those saline striae for Worms in his Microscope Besides this difference in the Mass of Blood as to several Individuals it may not be amiss to consider the difference that is betwixt the Blood in sundry vessels and parts of the body It is the most common tenet amongst Anatomists that the Blood of the Arteries differs very much from that of the Veins Though Harvey seems to deny it with much confidence and appeals to Experience for the proof of his Opinion yet the Generality as Doctor Ent Walaeus and Lower grant there is a great difference in the colour of them and that the Arterious blood is the most florid the venous is of a darker red Besides this difference in colour there is a greater which ariseth from the quantity of serum which abounds in the Arterious blood more than in the venous Comprobavimus in accepto per nos ex crebris Arteriotomiis cruorum duplem ferme compertam ichoris portionem qua fit fortassis ut crediderit Auctor lib de util respir. Sanguinem Arterialem non concrescere velut venalem quanquam nos eum concrescere non semel observavimus So Aurelius Severinus with whom Bartholin agrees And Doctor Ent sayes it is more dilated than the venovs Besides this there is a discrepancy in the venous blood it self for in the Lungs the Blood acquires by the mixture of the Air a tenuity of parts and florid colour exceeding any other venous Blood this Columbus first observed and gave this reason for the colour and great change which is made in the Blood by passing the Lungs proceeding to an imagination that the vital spirits in the Arterious blood might be the result of this intermixture of Air with the Blood in the Lights Most of whose opinion is taken up by Doctor Willis of late and Doctor Lower Besides this there is a discrepancy betwixt the Blood of the Vena porta commonly and that of the Vena Cava which is not barely supposed by Riolanus but yielded by Bâ—rtholin Sanguinem in cava prope cor puriorem esse illa qui in vena portae continetur omnibus in confesso est qui circulum norunt Upon this account it is that by the Emerods there is often discharged a black faeculent blood to the great benefit of the Patient but whensoever it is florid the effusion thereof brings a great debility sometimes very lasting unto many persons May I be allowed here to take notice of the Observation of Spigelius concerning the Saluatella that the Blood which issues thereat is more florid and Arterious than any can be drawn from the greater veins this he attributes to the frequent Anastomoses that are betwixt the Arteries and Veins in the remote parts of the body wherein he was defended by Veslingius and Van der Linden Doctor Harvey observed in the most healthy and robust persons a certain muccaginous humour to jelly upon the surface of their Blood which he esteemed to be the most spiritous part thereof others take it to be not an excrementitious Phlegm but indigested Chyle concerning this Maebius doth profess he never observed any of it in the blood drawn or issuing from the veins in the head but frequently in that let out of the arms and most of all in that which hath been taken by Phlebotomy in the feet It hath been observed that the Blood which hath issued from the head at the nose hath been of a laudable colour and consistence when that which hath been let out at the same time by Phlebotomy hath seemed impure And the like difference hath been taken notice of betwixt the Menstruous evacuations of Women and the blood taken from their armes This variety in the blood of several persons oftentimes is a cause of that discrepancy which is to be in the blood of Men that are sick in so much that when sundry men are afflicted with the same Malady yet may it happen so that there be little or no resemblance found in their blood Oftentimes it is observed that in â—utrid feavers the blood that is let out by Phlebotomy is seemingly good Saepe ad speciem visum purus est qui aliqui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malus est Vt contra impurus cernitur â— specie qui non ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malus The blood often seems to be good when it is essentially corrupted and noxious and it seems often to be bad when as yet it is incorrupt and alimental In malignant and pestilential Feavers the blood is sometimes good to see to whilest yet the sick languish under most violent symptomes and commonly such blood is of an evil prognostick Pessimum signum est timoris plenum cum sanguis vena scissa extrahitur si purus rubicundus inculpatus educatur venenositatem superare indicum est aut putredinem in penitioribus cordis latitare In me ipso olim observatum nam ter per hanc febrem misso per venam sanguine nulla prorsus putredinis nota apparâ—bat aliis
to it then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of that sound and the seemingly corrupt blood I do say that in the Blood of all persons that are in health there is upon Phlebotomy somewhat that justifieth the supposition of the Galenists but not which confirms the Hypothesis of the Chymists The coagulable serum doth commonly represent their choler in part the florid fluid red their blood which if lightly washed away their is another more darkly-coloured which is proportionate to their Melancholy and if you wash the fibrous mass well it will be white and answerable to their Alimentary Pituita or Phlegm In this last part I have the concurrence of Malpighius who upon washing all the blood from the concrete Mass of blood found the remainder to be a fibrous contexture of a whitish colour which he pitcheth upon as the materials for a Polypus in the Heart And had he taken more particular notice of that fluid blood in the cells of those interwoven fibres he might have discovered two sorts of blood one that readily ascends and is florid the other more black and faeculent which moveth not and both these stain the water they are washed into with different reds the one much brighter than the other That some fibrous concretion in some diseases as Rheumatismes and Plurisieâ— covereth like a pituitous mass the surface of the blood whilest that remains fluid and blockish underneath nay I have out of healthful blood in the Spring I am almost convinced that the blood varieth with each quarter of the year cast it up to the surface in just such a mass as covers the top of the blood in those distempers by putting some spirit of Harâ—shorn into the Porringer before the party bled into it I place the choler in the serum not but that I know that it hath not the taste or consistence of the excrementitious Bile but because it hath frequently the colour of it and the Vrine and Pancreatick juyce not to mention the Lymphaeducts are tinged with it and oftentimes have the Sapor of it I am sure that herein I have the suffrage of Pecquetus thus far that the choler which is separated in the Liver and which â—ingeth the Vrine is extracted out of the serum of the blood where it circulates first along with it and is percolated out of it in the place aforesaid Et vero nullibi per universas animalium species absque bilis mixtura sanguinem reperias slavescens id serum salsumque testatur nisi forsitan aliquot in suppositis quibus dulcem mitior natura sanguinem concoxit secuâ— in aliis quibus acciditatis expertem infudit aut nullo prorsus liene instruxit aut sane perexiguo I cite him the more willingly because that If the Galenists seem inâ—atuated for saying the Gall is a constitutive part of the mass of blood whereas they cannot demonstrate signs thereof by its bitterness a great part of the scorn may fall upon Pecquet Backius and Sylvius de le boe and other Neoterics who hold it is incorporated in the Mass of blood But these Controversies can be no better decided than by an Enquiry into the Generation of Blood how that it is at first begun and afterwards continued the knowledge whereof will conduce much not only to the decisâ—on of that Question Whether there be in Nature any foundation for those Galenical Humours that they are constitutive parts of the Mass of Alimental Blood But also to the main debate in hand Concerning Phlebotomy There is not any thing more mysterious and wonderful in the Vniverse I think then the production of Creatures In so much that Longinus a Paynim doth hereupon take occasion to celebrate the judgment of Moses in that He represented the Creation by a Divine FIAT and God said let there be and it was so The Mechanical production of Animals from so small and tender rudiments out of a resembling substance in all that variety which we see by a necessary result of determinate Matter and Motion is so incomprehensible and impossible that were not this Age full of monstrous Opinions the consequent of Ignorance and Inconsiderateness one would have thought no rational Men much less Christians would have indulged themselves in the promoting and propagating such Tenets 'T is an effect of that Soveraign command that every thing hath its being and faculties Quin nil aliud est Natura quam jussus ille Dei per quem res omnes hoc sunt quod sunt hoc agunt quod agere jussae sunt Hic inquam non aliud quicquam cuique rei suam dedit speciem formam Per hunc non agunt modo pro sua natura hoc est prout preceptum est ipsis res creatae omnes sed per eundem reguntur conservantur propagantur Et nunc etiam quasi creantur This is that which gives a beginning to the Faetus particularly and by unknown wayes contrives the seminal vertue its receptacle or Egg and that colliquament out of which the Body is formed Because the first rudiments of conception are tender and minute such a provision is made in order thereunto that the albuginous substance of ordinary Eggs is no other than what is derived into the female womb And if we may continue the comparison it will seem most rational to imagine that the parts of the whole are contrived at one time though they neither appear all at the same nor in a proportionate bulk for in some their minuteness in others their whiteness and pellucidity conceals them from the Observer But that even then there are exerted the proludes of those vital operations which are so visible after in Nutrition I doubt not and that as in the Coates of our eyes the minute veins and arteries convey their enclosed liquors though undisernable except in Eyes that are blood-shotten and as in the brain there hath been discovered veins by some drops of blood issuing in dissection though no Eye can see most of the capillary vessels and as even the veins and arteries themselves are thought to be nourished by other arteries and veins rendring them that service which they do to the more visible parts even so it is in the first formation wherein after some progress the vessels begin to appear and blood first discovers it self in the Chorion and thence continues its progress to the punctum saliens or heat and undoubtedly proceeds in its Circle though the smalness of the vessels as in other cases conceal the discovery So that we may imagine that the Plastick form or whatever else men please to call it doth produce the blood out of that albuginous liquor which seems as dissimilar as the blood out of which it is derived though the parts be providentially more subtilised and refined by its own power as it doth the rest through the assistance of
according to their Art nor is it denied but that All of them may atchieve their ends by their several Methods So that it is a gross paralogisme for any one to conclude this or that Physician is mistaken or takes a wrong course because another takes or prescribes a different one All the Physicians in Spain France and Italy do not bleed with equal profuseness In Germany and England some do practise more frequent Phlebotomies than others do and neither of the parties do erre in case the other remaining Method be inviolately observed It is in humane bodies as it is in the body Politick where there is a Method of ruling though it be carried on by several wayes and means and whilst each States-man doth prudentially sway the Government procuring peace and plenty to the subject his conduct though it vary from that of his Predecessour is not to be blamed It is not to be doubted but that many grievous distempers are cured by Nature without the use of any remedies at all Yet will no wise man adventure his life on such incertainties 't is not to be denied but some are cured with fewer Remedies than others are But yet 't is not prudence to put Nature upon too great a stress or to account all means unnecessary which are not absolutely requisite or without which the effect may though with more difficulty and hazard be brought to pass It lyeth upon the Physician therefore to pursue all those means which may secure the life of his Patient to alleviate the disease in its course by preventing all troublesome and mitigating all dangerous symptomes and to facilitate as well as hasten his recovery It is not questioned but Patients have been and may be recovered of Feavers with little or no blood-letting yet when I consider the great hazard they run in that course the vexatious and perillous symptomes which they languish under longer and with more violence than others I cannot approve of the practise nor think the Physician dischargeth his duty and a good conscience in so doing Extrema necessitas in moralibus ut certumest vocatur quando est probabile periculum and the Patient doth offend against himself if he refuse to take a befitting course against dangers that probably are impending and the Physician doth trespass against his neighbour if he do not propose and practise such a course I cannot to use the words of the incomparable Riolanus I cannot without pity to the sick and some resentment against the Physician read in Platerus's Observations how sundry of his Patients were broyled and torrefied with burning Feavers whom he never let blood He doth relate of himself how he was sick of a most burning Feaver yet did he never so much as let himself blood therein albeit that it were requisite in those cases Such are not obliged to their Doctors but peculiarly to the Divine Providence for their recovery It was the mature consideration of that tenderness w ch is requisite in Physicians towards their Patients which advanc'd the present course of Physick to its glory above all other Methods it being endeared to our esteem by all those regards that represent it as prudential It was not introduced by chance or the subtlety of some persons but the choice of all and so established by the Magistracy that to transgress against the traditions of this Art was criminal in a Physician even by our Laws It may in some cases seem to be troublesome and unpleasant yet SAFETY requires it It may seem tedious sometimes by multiplication of Medicines yet Prudence obligeth by all those means to preserve and secure life and if the omission thereof be criminal in a Physician in case of any sinister accident why is not the practise laudable Would Men but seriously consider How much danger they run and How much more they suffer upon the negligence or indulgence of a Physician who leaves all to Nature and adviseth them to wear out a distemper they would rather hate than love such a Man and the apprehension they should have for the unnecessary jeopardy he put them on would extenuate his credit very much The most rash and brutish counsels may succeed well but yet the most prudent are to be preferred Amonst Physitians I do not reckon the Helmontians as any there is no doubt but a Plethorick indisposition requires Phlebotomy Nature being surcharged with blood forceth us thereunto least some vein should break in the Lungs or the Patient be strangled with that excess this is called Plethora quoad vasa when the vessels are so full of blood that there is danger of their breaking or that the blood should stagnate in the Heart Lungs or Head there wanting room for its motion or take some inordinate course and so strangle the Patient There is another redundancy of Blood which is called Plethora quoad vires or such a plenitude of blood as brings along with it no apparent hazard of breaking the vessels yet doth it oppress Nature so as thereby to become redundant It is more than she can bear in the present juncture 't is more than she can rule and it will suddenly fall into an exorbitant motion to the detriment of some principal part in case timely prevention be not used In both these cases in which the blood is not supposed to be much depraved from its natural estate all do allow of Phlebotomy and if it be timely put in execution it may hinder the progress however it expedites the cure of the disease In these cases we consider not only the present plenitude but also the future what may be in a few dayes to the great exasperation of the disease and peril of the Patient For it is possible that in the first beginnings of a disease there may be neither of these plenitudes but they may ensue a little after For when the insensible transpiration shall have been a while abated as inquietude pain and watching will abate it the Blood degenerates and no longer continuing its usual depuration those excrementitious particles which were lodged in the habit of the body and pores do remix with the sanguine mass and become like so many fermentative corpuscles agitating and attenuating the blood so that whereas before there was no plenitude now there is that the excrementitious particles do contract a fermenting heterogeneous quality different from what they had in the Blood appears hence that those which sweat much as the new-comers in the Indies their sweat is less noysome and bilious by far than it is in those that sweat more seldome Thus Soot is a different body from any thing that is burned Hence it is that those particles being reimbibed into the blood are so offensive to the nervous parts and introduce a lassitude as if the body were surcharged with a plenitude Besides these two cases in which Phlebotomy seems to be directly indicated by a Plethora or surcharge of blood It is practised in other cases by way of
Physicians ascribe the disease unto be evacuated by vomit sweat or stool yet the distemper continues and becomes worse and more dangerous by reason of such evacuatians As little did they regard the first qualities of heat and cold siccity humidity concluding them to have no immediate effect in producing diseases but as they varied the symmetry of all or any parts of the body the grounds they went upou were such as were deduced from that Philosophy which makes Rarity and Density the principles of all bodies and they placed Health in such a conformation of the body and such a configuration of particles as did best suit with its nature they held that the intertexture of the minute particles of our bodies were such as admitted of an easie alteration the fabrick being so exquisitely interwoven not only in the solid vessels and parts but a commensuration of prorosities every where the alteration of which texture of the body into a great laxity or streightness and this change of the pores did they make the great causes of all Maladies and the restoration of them to be the way to sanity and this they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the variation of the texture and combination of Corpuscles in the symmetry whereof they placed Health and in the asymmetry or improportionate and incongruous state whereof they placed all Sickness It was their Tenet that amongst those Remedies which did most alter the texture of the body from streightness to laxiiy the most powerful were Phlebotomy and Purging and that their principal effects were not meerly to evacuate such or such peccant Humours but in doing so to create a new Texture and configuration of Corpuscles in the whole Body and therefore they held them to be General Medicaments and of use in most great diseases since such distempers were rather occasioned by a streightness than laxity of the pores and even such as were laxe one way as Dysenteries and Diarrhaeas might be accompanied with a streightnâ—ss in the habit of the body This Hypothesis for the furtheâ— explication whereof I remit you unto Prosper â—lpinus having been of great renown and most accommodated to the course of life by which the Romans and since the Turks and others that follow not our Physick did preserve their Health and recover theâ—â— Malâ—dies did merit my regards and I observed the truth of that part of their Opinion which avows that purging and bleeding have further effects than meerly the evacuation of Blood and other Humours that they had such an influence upon the whole body as to restore and promote all the natural evacuations of the body by its several emunctories and pores and that Phlebotomy did particularly incline to sweat promote urine and sometimes instantly allay its sharpness and make the body soluble so that upon Phlebotomy there needs no antecedent Glyster Neiâ—her is it convenient in a great Cacochâ—my to purge before bleeding not so much for fear of irritating the Humours but that the purge operating so as to attenuate and alter the whole mass of blood and promote secondarily all natural evacuations without preceding Phlebotomy it is scarce safe not secure to purge except in bodies the laxity of whose texture is easily restored or with gentle Medicaments for the Humours being powerfully wrought upon by the strong purges and inclined to be expurged by their sevâ—ral emunctories and those being either defective or the veins and arteries too full to admit a greater rarefaction in the mass of blood which is requisite to their separation and transpiration hereupon there happens a dangerour Orgasmus or turgency of humours in the sick which Phlebotomy doth prevent And 't is I conceive in reference to this alteration of texture that Hippocrates saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I observed a great congruity betwixt the Static observations and those of the Methodists and that Sanctorius hath a multitude of Aphorismes which agree with them viz. That such bodies as transpire well in the hottest weather they are lighter and not troubled with any vexatious heat That nothing prevents putrefaction like to a large transpiration In fine I did observe that it was the general sense of Physicians that Phlebotomy did draw the Humours from the Centre to the Circumference and I had taken notice of it alwayes in my self even in the Colick bilious when I was tired out with pains vomiting and want of sleep when I took no Laudanum and reduced to extream debility and emaciation I determined in that forlorn case having used all other means for several weeks to bleed so long yet partitely as that I might be freed from a most troublesome pulsation of the descending Artery below the reins I bled eight ounces at first and found a vextious heat in the whole habit of my body I repeated the Phlebotomy in the afternoon and was very hot all night thus I continued to bleed twice each day for three dayes loosing above sixty ounces and then fell into sweats was eased totally in my back and afterwards recovered with a more facile Paresis in my Armes and no contracture then that disease commonly terminates in there These considerations made me think that there was some more important effect in Phlebotomy than the evacuation derivation and revulsion of the Blood and other Humours and that it must consist in promoting that Statical transpiration and I conceived that the Blood was in perpetual motion and though Motion doth hinder Fermentation yet I had observed that in Pipes at Owburne Abby where the drink runs from the Brew-house to the Cellar to be tunned up the Fermentation continues so especially in the stronger drink that the Pipes frequently break therewith as rapid as the motion is I did not imagine that the nature of the Blood was such as to be exalted into one Vniform liquor resembling Wine for such a liquor would not be liable to such sudden changes and alterations from one extream to another but that it was a miscellary of heterogeneous liquors in a perpetual digestive fermentation and depuration by halituous particles arising from it as in more gross by the emunctories which if the conformation of the pores and passages be such as to give it due vent all continues well if they be obstructed or vitiated then several maladies ensue except timely prevention be used I conceived that in Phlebotomy as the Blood issueth from the vein so as in the pouring out of other liquors the Air comes in by the orifice and mingling with the Blood produceth as great or greater effects than in the Lungs when it mixeth there with the Blood invigorating it in an unexpressible way whence we commonly see that the pulse grows stronger and stronger during the bleeding and upon this account I think it may happen that bleeding with Leeches though equal quantity be taken away oftentimes does harm never alleviates so much as Phlebotomy and such persons as by reason of their
four pounds of Blood to effect such a matter Neither indeed is it necessary albeit that I believe the most speedy cures but great judgment is requisite in such operations were atchieved thereby for though we do not retract the Humour or Blood unto the place where we Phlâ—botomise we do revell it from the place whither it was flowing and the course of the Blood and Humours being diverted the Arteries leading to the part affected or depleted and the Flux of Humors which was by them is abated their tenseness there which appears by their pulsâ—tion there where they did not beat before is relaxed and so becomes less opportune to extravasate either the Blood or other Humours whereupon Nature it self alone or with a little help of the Physician doth digest and dissipate the impacted matter Whereupon if we add the motion of restitution in the parts affected which is hereby facilitated the great change in the digestive fermentation of the Blood which is manifest by the melioration of the Blood which is seen in repeated Phlebotomies and the relaxation of the whole body in order to the transpiration and other depuration of the Blood by its several Glandules the Kidneys Liver Guts the reason of those prodigious benefits which Patients have had of old and now under our practise is manifest nor do we want a justification for reiterating Phlebotomy or exercising it in different veins and divers manners I designed long ago to set aside some spare hours to a further study of this Hypothâ—sis and in order thereunto to acquaint my self with the Hydraulic Arts as also to examine the truth and solidity of the Static Experiments out of which this texture of the Body the digestive motion of the Blood its change and restitution is demonstrable and to enlarge my prospect by a comparison of the several Methods and Medicaments used by sundry Physicians both Methodists and others in order to the cure of diseases and preservation of health But I must tell you that the malice of my enemies renders my LIFE and Condition so ill-assured And the apprehensions I have least the Projects of Campanella are powerfully and subtly driven on in this Age I am the more confirm'd in my suspicions in that my Adversaries are most intent to ruine me but not to remove those Vmbrages together with the imminent subversion of the Faculty of Physick by the toleration of Divines to practise which is contrary to the Ecclesiastical Canons and makes them irregular the great incouragement of Quack-salvers and Baconical Physicians These reflexions have so discouraged me that I have no mind to pursue those studies or to be much concerned for the present on succeeding generation But could I see Physick regain its lustre the Faculty encouraged by such Acts of Parliament as our Predecessors and Forreign Potentates have made and your Colledge advanced as the Proper and Supreme judicature in reference to Medicine I would willingly imploy all my leiseure in the improving of the present state of Medicine without subverting Learning or disparaging the Ancients without the knowledge of whose writings 't is impossible for any man to be excellent in Physick Poets and Comical Wits owe more to their Birth and need less of industry study and judgment than Physicians The knotty Staffe the Serpent the Pine-apple the Dog the Dragon the Cock with which the pourtraicture of Aesculapius was beautified were not Symbols and Hieroglyphiâ—s of a facile study The first Principle that we are taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now the reading of two or three Books a Comical Wit a Bacon-face a contempt of Antiquity and a pretence to novel Experiments which are meer excuses for Ignorance and Indiscretion are sufficient Qualifications Notwithstanding the Melancholy and pensiveness into which the present posture of Learning here in England alwayes puts me into when I reflect thereon I will constrain my self to proceed further and examine the cases of Phlebotomy in a Pleurisie the Small-pox and Scurvey concerning all which diseases as I shall debate what an Intelligent Practitioner may do nay is oftentimes obliged to do in conscience and out of discharge of duty to his Patient so I will not justifie any Action of those persons who understand nothing nor can distinguish circumstances in particular cases A thousand things are to be considered by him that would practise Physick exactly the present disease the past condition of the Patient in reference to himself his parenâ—s his dyet preceding distempers the latter the more remote the conjunct causes what hinders what promotes what effects the cure What will what may happen in the disease what will or may ensue upon recovery In all these cases since he hath not a sensible and easie knowledge thereof but must proceed upon Conjecture you understand well How great a comprehension of affairs and how much in each case he must inquire into who will discharge well the duty of a Physician It was prudently said of the incomparable Aristotle the meanest of whose Works deserves to be read above all that the Novel Experimentators have published if it were but for the wise Apothegmes therein for Civil Society is the grand work of this Life and that is more useful which qualifieth us thereunto then what makes us admirable Mouse-trap-makers Physicians saith he do not cure man in general except it be by accident but Cullias or Socrates or some other individual person Hence even a man that is a speculative Artist how much more those that are neither speculative nor Empiriâ—s may be deceived in the application of general rules to singular cases and so may mistake He tells us that it is not for the most dexterous railers or witty Sophisters to judge of State matters nor yet for any man to direct therein who hath not served an Apprenticeship in the Ministry of State for neither in Physick doth the knowledge of a common Praxis accomplish a man thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is it to the purpose if they learn a multitude of Knick-knacks and have an infinite of Conundrums in their Heads if they know not what appertains to Practise These narrow-sighted Verulamians may recommend themselves by success in a few the Grave may conceal or a strong Nature amend their defaults but they are nevertheless ignorant In a calm many can steer a Ship whose imbecillity of judgment sinks it in a storm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already spoken concerning Phlebotomy in the Plague In a Pleurisie 't is no less evident that Physicians are divided in their judgments To begin with the true state of the Question This is more than this Baconical Philosopher did ever think upon for he without any distinction derives the usefulness of Phlebotomy in a Pleurisie If thou beest unsatisfied whether opening a vein as it is indicated from Evacuation or Revulsion be a competent sufficient Remedy for the cure of a Pleurisie or any high Feaver thou shalt find
in this short Tract a Resolution in a Negative sense grounded on Reason Authority but especially that which is the sum of all Matter of Fact delivered according to what Experiments are past offered to be made good for the future Thus he bespeaks his Reader in the Preface and a little after he assures him that He is able to resolve any one that is capable that the most Plethorick body taken with a Feaver or any one Cachochymic afflicted with a Pleurisie may be cured without the Lancet more speedily and safely than by using the same Though I cannot imagine G. T. to be good at resolving Controversies in Physick yet such is his impudence that I will not refuse him the Title of Doctor Resolutus I have read over his Book with some attention but I could not find any Pretensions in it to Authority nor any Experimental Histories related All amounts to this G. Thomson saith It is not good to bleed in a Pleurisie And G. Thomson avows that 'T is verified by observation they who recover by this Apospastick means do for the most part find a great debility succeeding are incident to Empyemas Consumptions and prove to relapse into the like condition again On the other side those who rise from their sick Beds restored by vertue of adaequate Remedies are secured from the forementioned discommodities Assuredly of all those Pleuriticks I have handled above these half-score years I have not known one after their evasion procured by a legitimate form of Physick either live crasie fall into secondary calamities or recidivate into a Languour of the like Idaea This is that irrefragable Argument drawn from past Experiments which is the Sum of all Proofs and must satisfie all that are capable which it is possible it may do if there be persons in the World that are capable of being resolved hereby But impossible Suppositions are equipollent to Negations Assuredly either this Age affords no such Men or they are a Company of Fools Who else will give credit to the bare assertions of G. T He should have done like his Brother Odowde printed an account of Cures though they had been all false and fictitious but as the case is he neither cites so much as Van Helmont and the Peasant that cured Pleurisies with stoned-horse-dung but is himself Author and Witness Thus he bristles most Porcupine like Se jaculo sese pharetra sese utitur arcu This is all I reply to his Authority and Experiments His pretences to Reason are no less gain He sayes That when we bleed any Pleuritick there is no streight immediate Revulsion intended from the part affected to the orifice which is a most TRUE and Bacon-like Aphorisme for we never thought that the Revulsion could be streight whereas the line in which 't is made is crooked If we Phlebotomise in the Arm whether it be on the same side or on the contrary or in the foot none was ever so besotted as to avow the Revulsion to be streight though he held not the Circulation of the Blood But such as hold that the Revulsion is made thus in that the Veins draw from the Arteries and so as in Siphons divert the stream they cannot hold any thing like it nor that the Blood impacted or flowing was immediately revelled and drawn back But I am apt â—o think that some upon large and repeated Phlebotomies may have drawn some of the purulent and degenerate blood out of the veins of the Arm in which there is no more of impossibility than that it should be carried by the emulgent Arteries into the Kidneys and discharged by urine which last is avowed to have been done I do not know that such large Phlebotomies in a Pleurisie are practised by the English Physicians though I think there is not so much of Reason as vulgar prejudice to oppose the thing when the Doctor is an understanding Man For why may not we in England bear that which they do in Holland there Heurnius took away above four pounds of blood from one Plethorical Pleuritic at one time in a dangerous Pleurisie and recovered him when all others gave him up for dead I believe there may be some amongst us that repeat Phlebotomy too often but I am confident the generality erre in taking away too little at one time in the beginning of Pleurisies and Feavers His next Argument is that the Cure by Phlebotomy is accidental only and uncertain sometimes in the beginning they do thereby suppress the disease and as it were crush it but it is a contingent not at all Rhizotomous Cure which ought to be performed by those things which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dulcifying the acid Latex carrying it off through all its emunctories rectifying the stomach and mortifying the malignity That all Pleurities shall be cured by Phlebotomy is a thing no wise man will undertake for As little will any man promise to cure a Pleurisie by sole Phlebotomy without giving the Patient any Expectorating or Sudorifick Medicaments or other Potions besides the Powders of Pikes-jaws Boares-teeth Crabs-eyes c. which correct the acidity of the Latex if there be any such thing But to shew the folly and impertinence of this G. T. There are several sorts of Pleurisies in many whereof no Galenical Practitioner is obliged to Phlebotomy at all though in some such cases it be left to their discretion either to use it or omit it as in Bastard Pleurisies Of those which have the Character of true Pleurisies some are occasioned by the Wormes in which G. T. cannot imagine that any man would rely on Phlebotomy There are also Pestilential Pleurisies wherein the effects of Phlebotomy are as uncertain as in the Pest it self Gesner in his Epistles somewhere speaks of such a one in which all died that were blooded So doth Bartoletus and Wierus There was also an Epidemical Disease in Friuli which Vincentius Baronius first named a Pleuripneumony in which the Pleura and Lungs were both affected where the seat of a Pleurisie is is doubtful amongst Physicians but yet so that though they had all the signs of a common Pleurisie at the beginning yet did they never come to suppuration but were cured by Phlebotomy immediately upon the administration whereof they were relieved and with the help of accessional Medicaments expectorated bilious and pituitous spittle and so recovered As to those which are confessed to be Pleurisies it is to be observed that neither can all persons nor all places bear Phlebotomy therein and in such cases no wise Physician will administer it the qualities of the Climate and individual constitutions or debilities are circumstances he will alwayes regard It is granted that some Pleurisies are so mild and attended with such favourable symptomes of so good a prognostick that they do not need Phlebotomy In moderata pleuritide in qua videlicet parum urgent respiratio tussis dolor febris Phlebotomia inuâ—ilis est aut
natures work be not irritated with heat nor turned back by cold as any man will see who consults Caius and Wierus and others Another omission of my Lord Bacon's was That he forbids not the patient to sleep during the disease whereas I observed out of Cogan If they were suffered to sleep commonly they sâ—ooned and so departed or else immediately upon their waking Which caution is ingeminated by Wierus Quamdiu durat vis sudoris faetidi nec manus detumescunt nec symptomata cessant oportet à somno abstinere eique resistere vel piis colloquiis vel aliis licitis mediis In all pestilential feavers we are usually cautious how the patient sleep till the venome of the disease be somewhat driven out and abated and so in such feavers as are Cordiacal and attended with fainting fits malignity encreaseth and diffuseth it self insensibly into the principal parts during sleep As to the name of the disease and under what species of feavers it was to be reduced the Physicians could not agree in those dayes nor whether the sweat it self were symptomatical or critical for though all that recovered did recover by sweating yet all that had the disease did not sweat such dyed and if it were symptomatical yet the evacuation was of that nature that it seemed agreeable to the Rules of Physick neither to stop it not yet to help it but only to continue it and if it were Critical it was to be continued onely in like manner and nature not to be assisted or vigorated beyond what was necessary It being our Aphorism Quae judicantur judicata sunt integre nâ—que movere neque novare neque pharmacis nâ—que aliis irritamentis sed sinere But though they had these controversies amongst them yet I do not find this to be one Whether that the Feaver or Pest did consist in a vapour afflicting only the vital spirits Cum enim eam sudores copiosissimi multa pessima symptomata comitata sint inde facile colligere est spiritus non solum incensos verum ipsos humores ac calidiores affectos corruptos esse Et licet viginti quatuor horarum spatio haec febris solveretur non tamen ideo ad Ephemeras referenda est sed inde potius maxima inter naturam inter pessimum morbum colligitur pugna So Wierus though he hold that it seized first on the vital spirits yet avowes that the mass of blood was also corrupted by the pestilent venome Nor can any man doubt it who considers but the Type and Symptomes of the Disease which I formeriy and now again have represented as also the precedent season of the year And I could not but smile at the reason given by my Lord Bacon to shew that the pestilent feaver was not seated in the veins or humours nor the Mass of the body tainted Because there followed no Carbuncle no purple or livid spots or the like For there are many pestilential diseases recorded in which the mass of the bloâ—d and humours are infected and yet there are no such symptomes ensuing as this Lord specifies Such was the disease called Coqueluche or Morbus Arietis and Catarrhus Epidemius in the year 1580. which over-ran all Europe and of which sundry Authors have written such were the pestilent pleurisies pestilent plearipneumonies and pestilent peripneumonies dysenteries worms small pox of which our Physicians give us large accounts and in the Histories of sundry Camp-feavers being pestilential and infecting the humours and mass of bloud you may often read how none of these cutaneous eruptions were observed no 't is not constant in the Hungarian or spotted feaver that they appear Neither is there any thing more true than what Massarias layes down Etsi diximus peticulas caeteros decubitus propria esse signa fere febris pestilentis tamen id Sciendum est neque id generaliter verum esse neque hujusmodi symptomata illis propria inseparibilia esse Siquidem ex una parte nonnunquam evenit ut in febre manifeste pestilenti ac forte caeteris maligniore neque papulae neque tumores neque ulla naturae depulsio conspiccatur ex altera autem ut non solum in simplici febre sed etiam ut placet Altio multis qui id confirmant verum esse sine febre interdum compareant maculae alia id genus symptomata quae ab omni pestilentis affectus ratione sunt aliena nullum periculum afferunt In fine How often doth every practitioner see that those purple or livid spots do not appear till after the party is deceased And when they do appear 't is a Question with me Whether they argue so great an infection in the mass of bloud and veins as my Lord intends seeing they have their original from the bones and thence rise up to the skin pyramidally Iacobus Bontius cadaver cujusdam qui exanthematibus hisce laborarat dissecuit invenitque ab ossibus ipsis initium sumere ea incipereque à latiori basi pyramidisque instar assurgere ac tandem in summo cutis in conum desinere And this doubt of mine is confirmed unto me by sundry reasons which may be seen in Isbrandus â— Diamerbrook The Lord Bacon concludes his Narrative with a passage so ridiculous and absurd that so gross an opinion is enough to extenuate his judgment in Physick and convince any man that he had little insight into those studies It was conceived not to be an Epidemick disease but to proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the Air gathered by the predispositions of the seasons As if Epidemical diseases and diseases from the constitution of the Air were contradistinct and that none of the former could arise from infection or corruption of the air The opinion is so false and universally known to be so that it needs no refutation Having premised these things for the better understanding of the present Controversie most whereof were set down before in my Animadversions I now come to consider the Defence which Thomson makes in behalf of the Lord Bacon and I find it so defective that of all the Exceptions I have brought only two are controverted the rest are passed by in a profound silence by my talkative Antagonist The first is as to the Cause of the Disease that It consisted in a malign vapour flying to the heart and seizing on the vital spirits which stirred Nature to send it forth by an extream sweat The second that The proper cure of the Sweating Sickness consisted in extream sweats To the first Thomson's reply is The material cause of this truculent disease proposed by him is a malignant vapour i. e. Gas sylvestre an incoercible spirit which by reason of its subtilty resembling the vital spirits câ—uld readily mix it self with them forthwith infecting the same especially those about the heart whereby the plastick power of the Archaeus
Besides if the Latex or serum be a concomitant of the blood as he sayes How is it true that the disease was not seatâ—d in the veins Is not the bloud there mixed with the Latex If it were in the Serum How are the Humours of the body free from infection since that is one of them A Lawyer that should thus defend his client would deserve to be cast over the barr What your Baconical Experimentators may adjudge Thomson unto I know not but no intelligent person can favour him The next point is Whether the cure of the disease consisted in extream sweats My Adversaries words are these You cavil at our Lord because he sayes Nature did strive to send forth its virulency by an extream Sweat Whereas your beloved Authors tell you all that recovered were recovered by the continuance of a moderate sweat This say you Experience and Observation taught them but 't was but Galenical and that may be certainly verified of you to be the Mistris of Fools for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None but a pyrotechnist can explore as he ought healingly I pray Sir what but Nature should strive to send forth the virulency Doth not Hippocrates tell us what is infallible Naturae i. e. vitales spiritus sunt morborum medicatrices which you ought to imitate in deed and not as you word it then the Quarrel would quickly be at an end betwixt us But the Extream Sweat it seems stumbles you But why should that An extream disease must have an extream remedy This Hippocrates doth also dictate In extremis morbis extrema exquisite remedia sunt optima Malo nodo malus cuneus But let us know a little strictly what is meant by an Extream Sweat and a moderate in relation to this truculent plague The extream sweat i.e. very large was according 〈◊〉 the story mortal The Moderate salutary VVhich I deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— quatenus mere Sweats for according to my Observation this twenty three years all malignant pestilential Feavers the Pest it self and the Griping of the guts which holds a fair proportion with the Sudor Anglicus did all receive a most certain and expedite Cure best by extream large sweats if the strength were kept up otherwise no sweat more or less is of any significant benefit Quicquid fit virtute naturae fit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhatsoever Evacuation is attempted by Nature robust directly supported is performed plentifully impetuously and incontinently not dribling by piece-meals In this discourse I shall pass by that ignorant comparison betwixt the Griping of the guts and the Sweating-Sickness betwixt which there is no affinity that I can learn and perhaps Spigelius in his book about Semitertian feavers may give the best account of that disease 't is one I confess I never saw but I dare avow 't is not of the nature of the Sweating-sickness though it may so happen that the Griping of the Guts as well as other diseases may be not only malignant but pestilential He is a Baconical Philosopher and therefore may write any thing It is also observable that I gave him no ground for that demand VVhether nature did not eject the virulency and VVhether we ought not to imitate Nature No Galenist or sober Physician did ever deny these things and the latter assertion is that on which all our practise is founded 'T is for the Virtuosi who approve and talk of Commanding Medicaments which over-rule nature to deny it or for the followers of Van Helmont who teaches that 't is an imbecillity of a Physician to attend or permit any Crisis or concoction of a disease We are willing to be tryed by that Rule yet not to be reconciled to Thomson I must also take notice of the contempt which he expresseth for the Experience of the Galenists in comparison of that of the Pyrotechnists whereas very few of these Philosophers by â—â—re have so much judgment as to make an exact experiment But those of the others are as certain and accurate understand me not of all as humane nature and the mutability of humane affairs are capable of I now come to the principal controversie concerning thâ— benefit of Extream sweats in this disease I confess 't is hard and strange in a Peripatetick that I should be pressed with arguments against matter of fact this is a weakness of judgment saith Aâ—istotle But though all the writers else do dissent from my Lord. Bacon herein and 't is bruitish to call the credit of so many attestations into dispute yet I shall shew some regard to the reasons alledged That the remedies of a disease must be as exquisitely extream as is the disease it self may with some interpretations and restrictions pass for there is a caution to the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extream evacuations are dangerous and no man putteth the Life of his Patient if the disease admit of any delay which some plagues have done so that there is judgment to be used and observation to warrant that practise such as my Adversary is not capable of But however this doth not specificate the remedy or inform us whether we ought to bleed or purge or sweat in extremity A Squinancy or Apoplexy are extream diseases yet no man in his wits would in them rely upon the most potent sudorificks So that I am obliged to desire my Adversary to apply that general proposition to his conclusion for violent sweats â— for I cannot But he sayes that Extream sweats have been observed by him to be the most expedite cure for all malignant pestilential feavers the pest it sâ—lf and the Griping of the guts and for this he alledgeth the Experience of twenty three years Had our Author been one of those Rosicrucians who pretend to have lived about three hundred years his Experience concerning the Sweating-sickness might have imported somewhat but since he never saw that disease nor hath had any tryals to cure it 't is most impertinently argued that because some other malignant and pestilential diseases the plague it self or Griping of the guts are cur'd so sometimes for 't is no more with success therefore the Sweating sickness ought to be so cured I dare say an hundred Galenists have taught us to cure the Plague by extream sweating I shall only mention Sennertus Petrus Paaw Palmarius Van der Heyden Gâ—rdinius Isbrandus à Diemerbrook Concerning pestilential and malignant feavers the assertion is false or must be regulated by many considerations before it can be admitted As to the cure of the Griping of the Guts I do not hear such a character from London of his Cures thereof or the success of his pâ—pper-drops to endear his Method unto me But after all this he concludes me by a third reason which if it were true I would submit thereto viz. Whatsoever evacuation is attempted by Nature robust directly supported is performed plentifully impetuously and incontinently not driblingly by piece-meals Therefore since the
though one of the best of the Chymical practisers did not gain him credit in Switzerland but that his famed extracts proved fatal to many persons of quality there There is not any thing so lying as a Chymist and the Medicines they boast of and the Laboratories they talk of so much are commonly found to be delusory braggs I shall not prove this out of Agyrto-mastix nor insist upon it that Mr. Odorde did pretend to as great Arcana as any of the Fraternity God had been pleased to communicate unto him a Method in the plague to preserve thousands from the grave which he promised to administer publickly and freely to all that should desire it Yet did he and his wife dye thereof in 1665. They will write books of Theories Processes and Medicaments yet never make or try them Thus Faber of Montpelier writ much in Chymistry but most notorious untruths An eminent person told Becherus that being excited with the renown of the man and a curiosity in Chymistry he went from Italy into France on purpose to converse with him but could not find that he had so much as one Furnace or was at all versed in the practice of Chymistry So Agricola who writ upon Poppius was put to publick shame by an Apothecary for writing so many untruths So that it behoveth the people to consider not so much with what impudence a man vaunts himself 't is an usual sign of a proportionable ignorance and imposture but to examine rather as I do the solidity of their aiscourses and efficacy of their Medicaments 't is not a casual cure that makes a man knowing 't is not a sudden alleviation which lasts not long and perhaps throws the Patient into a worse disease or destroyes him in a short time that argues the goodness of his Medicines No the constitutive qualities of a Physician are skill in the real causes or such as are as effectual as if they were so and the signs of diseases the diagnosticks and prognosticks and a Method of curing authenticated by the History of Medicine and Medicaments such as the Experience of Sage practisers recommends unto us to which end he must be well read in the History of the Materia Medica and not set up with two or three praxes these render him accomplish'd He that understands Humane Nature best and the operation of the non-natural and preternatural things upon it is the person to be employed not everry one that can proclaim a catalogue of diseases which oftentimes are of necessity to be cured several wayes and boast of effectual pleasant and universal medicaments is to be regarded 'T is not the most acute experimental Philosopher that is the best practitioner many Theoremes are plausible which practice refutes this was the death of Van Helmont thus Des Cortes died of a pleurisie when through a prejâ—dicate novelty he refused to be let bloud 'T is not great ingenuity and parts employed in florid or different studies that make any man a competent judge of a disease or the operation of a Medicament The Lord Bacon is a great instance of this truth and the instance of the Sweating-Sickness convinceth us of the vanity of him and the Comical wits in their pretences to discourse of or reform what they so little understand I had thought to have prosecuted some other points by him agitated and to have demonstrated the vanity of the courses he takes and Medicines by him recommended and to have vindicated the ancient Physick and Medicaments particularly and given an Historical account of the inconveniences that have befallen this last Century by reason of these Pseudo-physicians but I have not leisure now to do it nor is my Adversary so considerable that I should take so much pains to expose him what I have writ here is enough to shew his intolerable ignorance and folly and represent him as unfit to be entrusted with the life of any man A POSTSCRIPT I Think I cannot better conclude this Treatise than by representing to Thomson that account which he himself gives elsewhere of the Sweating-Sickness for thereby it will appear how out of an ambition to contradict me he opposeth himself yet is even that as little agreeable to truth as 't is to the relation of my Lord Bacon G. T. Of the true way of preserving the Blood pag. 24. Here I cannot but make an animadversion upon that truculent disease which formerly raged in England to the destruction of some thousands It had its original undoubtedly from a degenerate Latex turned into a malignant Ichor which caused a tabefaction or colliquation of the Blood and nutritive juyce which issuing forth in a copious measure symptomatically witbout any Euphoria or alleviation quickly consumed the stock of life The attempt made at first to cure this malady by stopping the sweat by astringents and cooling things proved not only frustraneous but also very mortal for the malignity being thereby more concentrated wanting a Momentaneous vent through the universal membrane it forthwith preyed upon the Archaeus extinguishing the lamp of Life in such sort as a Mephitis or subterraneous damp doth obfuscate and at length put out the flame of a Candle Now the proper adequate remedies that took effect in this feral evil were Eustomachies as likewise counterpoysons that did immediately resist the venome by obliterating the Idaea thereof by corroborating the enormon exterminating the intoxicated Ichor and ill-condition'd Latex through the habit of the body carrying it that way quo natura vergere studebat This Baconical Philosopher here directly contradicts what he would seem to assert against me viz. His Author and he say there that the mass of bloud in the veins was not infected for then there would have ensued spots and botches but only the vital spirits Whereas here he saith that It had its original doubtless from a degenerate Latex turned into a malignant Ichor which caused a tabefaction or colliquation of the blood and nutritive juyce And undoubtedly he is deceived in fixing the original of that disease in the Latex whereas it depended and had its beginning and being from a particular venome and corruption of the Air for notwithstanding that the unseasonableness of the preceding year might have depraved the bodies of men yet did both arise spread and cease so suddenly that 't is evident its original and continuance was derived from another cause Whereas he sayes it was Symptomatical 't is a sign he understands not what he sayes for symptomatical evacuations at best are neither to be promoted nor provoked but only continued whereas such as did not of themselves sweat were to be forced in this case to sweat moderately otherwise they dyed I profess I do not know yet the nature of that disease whereunto to reduce it or how to speak of it in the language of a Physician they that saw it were as much perplexed with the notion of it as with the Cure That any Physician did then
that Aristotle and his followers acquainted us therewith before that Helmont was ever heard of whose Cruor bred in the Liver and distinct from the Bloud impregnated with vitality is such a piece of non-sense as ought not to be mentioned in this Age but to Baconical Philosophers who not only connive at but applaud any Hypothesis Concerning the Blood when I read the Elogies he bestowes upon it as the Seat of the Soul by which sensation motion nutrition generation are performed I thought upon the opinion of Aristotle and his zealous sectators amongst the Physicians who have denied all Animal spirits fixed the principality of the Members in the Heart and from thence derived even the nerves If â— T. will defend the generality of his Assertion I assure him that Hofman Van der Linden and Harvey will be more serviceable to him than Van Helmont But this consideration hath little influence upon the present Controversie that which follows hath nothing of Truth in it that the Bloud is an Homogeneous pure body for nothing homogeneous can ferment But it is most evident that the bloud is in a perpetual fermentation and that it is such a liquor as is constantly generating constantly depurating and constantly expending it self so that nought but Imagination can represent unto us such a thing as pure bloud and I hope the specious pretences of a Real Philosophy will not terminate in Speculation and Phansie When the bloud either naturally issues forth or upon incision of a vein it representeth unto us different Phoenomena oftentimes in several porringers and in the same porringer different substances sometimes a supernatant gelatine and mucus a coagulated mass consisting of thinner and a less fibrous crimson and a grosser and more blackish-red body enterwoven with fibres both which may be washed away from the fibrous part and a serous fluid liquor sometimes limpid sometimes of a bilious or other colour in which the concreted mass of bloud doth float All these with other Phoenomena in a great variety are to be seen in the aforesaid cases and even the Bloud of the same bâ—dy as it issues from several veins furnisheth us with matter for different observations Now in a liquor so pure and Homogeneous as our Disciple of the Lord Bacon imagineth the Blouâ— to be though we should suppose the Air to corrupt it as it issues into and settles in the pottinger yet would the corruption thereof be uniform which seeing it is not I take it for demonstrated that it is Heterogeneous And that being granted it matters not whether the four humours so frequently mentioned by Physicians be actually or potentially in the blood Whether they be the constitutive parts thereof or whether it be one entire Liquor made up of Heterogeneous parts which in the bodies of sundry individuals produceth such Phaenomena as if it did consist of such Alimentary Humours and degenerates occasionally into those others that are Excrementitious In order to our practice 't is all one for it to be so and to appear so and our documents are nevertheless useful though they seem not rigorously true The Galenical Physicians are not herein agreed nor is any man confined in his sentiments about this subject 'T is malapertness in this Bacon-faced generation to dispute these points since the phaenomena of diseases and the operation of Medicaments doth correspond with this Hypothesis and are as adequate thereunto as humane nature which is not capable of an exact knowledge and ought to acquiesce in what is useful can adjust them Nor is it any more of disparagement to Physick that should be built upon so tottering a foundation then that the Temple of Diana one of the wonders of the world should be situated upon a bogg Hitherto I have examined his preliminary discourse of the Bloud and its concomitant Latex and have made it evident that this person understands not what he asserts nor what he rejects and indeed such is his ignorance that after so much study having rolled every stone and searched out every scruple to be informed concerning the truth of the Galenick and Helmontian way he understands neither Nature nor the Galenists nor Van Helmont I now come to examine his Arguments against Phlebotomy which if they be so weak and inconsiderable as not to justifie so extraordinary an impudence let him blame himself not me who do not intend if possible in such a confused obscure Treatise to injure him in the recital His first Argument against Phlebotomy Had they but considered how this vital moysture the Blood ebbs and flows in goodness and pravity upon slight accidâ—ntal occasions of any exorbitant passions as fear sorrow anger c. the manifold impressions of the ambient Air ill Diet immoderate exercise divers excessive evacuations and long retention of any excrement did they rightly understand how bloud like Mercury may be polymorphised and changed into different shapes and at length be retroduced to the same state and condition as when it was in its primitive essence certainly then these Dogmatists would never be so forward to pierce poor man's skin rashly let out and throw away that substantial support of life foolishly and falsely apprehending that to be totally corrupt and deprived of what it was in its former being and in no wise capable to be retrograde and return to it self again because it seems to their eyes when it appears abroad discoloured invested with a contemptible apparel as yellow greenâ— white blue c. supposing it to be corrupt and so unfitting to be retained within the verge of life It is no such matter I can maintain for this superficial alteration proceeds from the Air spoiling it of its pristine goodness not that it was really corrupted in the vein For the demonstration of this I will undertake upon forfeiture of a great penalty to open the vein of a Cacochymic body emitting about two or three ounces of the visible aforesaid degenerate matter then stopping the Orifice make use of proper remedies to this Individual whose habit I doubt not so to alter in the space of about a fortnight that no such putrid matter as they improperly call it shall be found in any vein whatsoever opened which may fully satisfie any sober enquirer after truth that the corruption was never really existent in that whilst it was in the vein which in so short a time is thus redintegrated for Corruption being an absolute privation of that formal essence of the thing and sith there is no retrogradation in this kind that an Eâ—s losing its form by dissolution should assume it again Nam à privatione ad habitum non datur regressus it infallibly follows that this juyce thus restored Technicâ—s by Art was never truly corrupted as they would have it Hence it follows that the fair pretence of the Galenists that the juyce drawn out of the Patient forasmuch as it is corrupt in the porringer is happily discharged appears a mere
bled him in the open field the bloud fell on the ground to the quantity as he guessed of a quart when a Lipothimy approached he put him to bed and giving him a Cordial he fell into a sweat and was recovered perfectly in very few dayes There is no doubt but the practice was justifiable in men of a convenient habit of body to bear it and where neither the climate which oâ—tentimes is particularly repugnant to large Phlebotomy nor idiosyncrasie which sometimes happens or evil diet preceeding or the particular malignity of the venenate disease nor the prejudicate opinion of the people do contraindicate It hath authority from Hippocrates Galen Avicenna and many others Nature doth seem to direct us thereunto by her own excessive evacuations in that kind by which diseases are frequently acted and no evacuation is to be accounted immoderate which is beneficial By this and expurgation even to Lipothymy in the first beginning of several diseases men were cured presently nor did the maladies proceed to those times which in the usual method they make their progress through In my Exercitations against Dr. Sydenham as yet unfinished I have entreated largely of the several methods of curing which I shall not now transcribe As for that way of bleeding which is now generally in use though practised with a great latitude in several Countries and by several Physicians in the same Countrey it is most manifest that if due circumstances be regarded and all other medicaments dexterously administred it is so far from debilitating Nature that it adds to its strength mitigateth the present symptomes prevents the violence of the future and concocteth the disease apparently I will not undertake to justifie the demeanour of each particular Physician any more than I will answer for their intellectuals and skill in Physick It is not the reading of Sennertus and Riverius with a little knowledge of the new discoveries in Anatomy and a few Canting terms about Fermentation texture of bodies or such like knick-knacks and Conundrums of the novel Philosophers which accomplish a man for practice These men will never come to be ranked with Vallesius Mercatus Fernelius Dureâ—us Rondeletius Massarius Septalius Claudinusâ— Crato or Rulandus If Experience be our Guide leâ— us inform our selves by the Histories of such as they have given us of Epidemical and pestilential diseases and of particular cases as also the cures and following them let us come to practise and not deserting our own reason let us be cautioned by them These others for want of judgment to consider each circumstance cannot make an Experiment or relate it whilest they extenuate the credit of the ancient and modern Physicians that are not Innovators though more observing and experimental than themselves they do it only to excuse their ignorance in that kind of Learning and whatever they have of the Lord Bacon â— they have this of the Russe in them that they neither believe any thing that another man speaketh nor speak any thing themselves worthy to be believed For such as these or any else that do not practise Phlebotomy according to the rules of Art I cannot make any Apology nor do I think that their errours ought to extend so far as to disparage all Physicians who demean themselves prudently and discretely Notwithstanding all our care some Patients will dye no Physician can secure all men from what their frail condition hath subjected them unto If our Method and Medicaments be such as the general rules of Medicine and an Experience generally happy do warrant 't is as much as can be expected from us and the Imperial Laws allow of this defence though they punish the immethodical and novel Experimentators and the Ignorant Sicut Medico imputari eventus mortalitatis non debet ita quod per imperitiam commisit imputari ei debet pretextu enim humanae fragilitatis delictum decipientis in periculo hominis innoxium esse non debet To conclude this Argument I say that although it often happens that diseases are cured by sole Phlebotomy Evenit ut saepius missio sanguinis sola curationem perficiat Misso sanguine saepe sponte naturae expurgâ—tur corpus alui profluvio vomitu aut sudore succedente Yet no wise Artist will rely upon that alone but with the addition of other auxiliary medicaments Herein Spain and France are pretty well agreed And as no wise man will undertake to cure by bleeding alone so it is most foolishly done of our Helmontian to demand or expect it as he doth here I come now to his fifth Argument The means to let out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof is no direct method of healing Now Phlebotomy lets out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof Ergo Phlebotomy is no direct Method of healing The Major is proved thus Whatsoever suffers the cause to remain can never remove the effect For manente causa manet effectus Now Phlebotomy suffers the cause to remain Ergo it can never remove the effect The Minor is made good by frequent experience If the cause of bad blood were cut off the Feaver or Scorbute depending according to Dr. Willis upon the degeneration Sal and Sulph therein would quickly cease but we plainly see the contrary for after the veins are much depleted the disease becomes more truculent and oftentimes mortal which could never be if this depraved blood were any other than a product or an effect of an essential morbisick cause The same agent which in sanity sanguifies regularly without any considerable defection in sickness becomes exorbitant sending out a vitious juyce into all parts be it good or bad it still springs from a root which continually feeds the branches so that it cannot be other than great folly and wrong to the Patient to let out that juyce though it seem never so corrupt when another of the like condition must needs enter into its place derived from the shop the duumvirate where it first receives a previous rudiment which ought in all reason rather to be reformed than to give vent to those easily evanid particles inseparably joyned with this ruddy liquor how ill soever represented If all contained in the reins supposed to be corrupt were discharged yet as long as the ferments principally of the first and sixth digestion deviate from their right scope there would in a short space be a succedaneous repletion of a matter equally contemptible yea worse in respect of an enervation of strength than before This Argument though our Helmontian rely so much upon it is a pure Paralogisme First He supposeth that we use Phlebotomy in all diseases as a direct method of healing which is not true except in some maladies as Apoplexies Squinancies Haemorraghies or great eruptions of blood some Atrophies and sometimes in Feavers in which 't is frequent with us to rely solely or principally upon Phlebotomy yet even here we would think it very
improper to admit of our Phlebotomy to be stiled our direct Method oâ— curing because it is but a part of our Method which will include if not some other prescriptions yet at least dyet In many cases we use Phlebotomy as one part of our Method but not as the principal as when we use it antecedently to other remedies Pharmaceutical and dietetical to prepare way for or facilitate their happy operation I am not now to write Institutions in Physick for the documentising of this Disciple of my Lord Bacon 't is enough that he may learn any where almost as in Vallesius Mercatus Claudinus and Plempius that we propose more than one scope to our selves in Blood-letting neither is it ever except in diseases arising from a partial or total Plethora our direct method of healing If it be but a part and necessary or useful part thereof we are sufficiently justified Thus his Major is enervated for if he would have opposed the modern practise he ought to have urged it thus The means used to let out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof is no direct Method of healing nor an useful or necessary part thereof This is manifestly false as I shall shew anon As to his Minor That Phlebotomy lets out bad bloud without removing the efficient cause thereof This would the Ancients deny who bled their Patients in many cases until they swooned or fainted with great success â— and we must say it is not absolutely true there being no Practitioner I believe but hath seen some cases in which sole Phlebotomy hath effected the cure he may see many Instances of this in Botallus and that in diseases where the body was undoubtedly cacochymical I have seen Agues tertian and anomalous perfectly cured with once bleeding in women with child and in children I have seen some Atrophies so cured that the principal cause of their recovery was to be attributed to their Bleeding the like I have observed in several Chronical diseases even in inveterate quartanes as also others have done nor is there any thing more common almost in our Cases than the relation of several diseases absolutely cured by single Phlebotomy which I shall not transcribe here but in my large discourse of Phlebotomy in Latine I intend to represent all such cases at large with their circumstances and the History of Phlâ—botomy with all that variety of success which judicious Practitioners relate of it in several diseases and persons I add now that No man can be an accomplished practitioner who is not versed in the History of Diseases and particular cures for the general rules and directions make no more a Physician than such a knowledge in Law would do a Lawyer the res judicatae import more with us than they do in Lawâ—cases and as Reports of the Iudges in special cases must be known by a compleat Lawyer so must our Book-cases be our presidents and regulate our practise Duobus enim tanquam cruribus innititur Medicina neque solis theoreticis rationibus contenta insuper etiam practicas experientias particularium requirit indefessam ad singulos casus intentionem Thus is his Minor false as was his other Proposition and it should have run thus But Phlebotomy lets out the bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof or conducing thereunto But he proceeds to defend the Minor thus If the Cause of bad blood were removed then would the effect cease but oftentimes we see that notwithstanding such a depletion the disease continues and if it be not mortal yet it becomes more truculent Here he commits the same errour that before expecting a greater effect from Phlebotomy than we propose generally to our selves in it we do it sometimes for revulsion of the matter flowing to any part as in some Pleurisies Squinancies the Colick Bilious and Rheumatismes c. wherein we never rely solely upon bleeding and though oftentimes the effect transcend our expectation yet do we not presume upon it Sometimes we let blood for prevention of future diseases as in great contusions and wounds Sometimes we let blood only to prepare way for future Pharmacy Ita plerumque in febribus mittitur sanguis qui non superat naturalem mensuram neque simpliciter neque in hoc homine sed quia nisi mittatur ob febrilem calorem qui adest succorum putrescentium mistionem corrumperetur ac fortasse malignè cutis rarefactioni ventilationi vasorum relaxationi ad futuram expurgationem necessariâ— impedimento esset Itaque mittitur non quia multa subest copia sed quia ea quae subest tunc est inutilis noxia ac proinde facultate ferente deponenda etsi causa morbi non inclinet ad ideam sanguinis modo non ab ea plurimum evariet i. e. Thus in feavers we usually let blood not that the blood abounds above its due proportion either in general or in reference to this or that individual but because the blood which flows in the veins is infected with a feavourish heat and would be corrupted thereupon and by reason of the intermixed humours now inclined to putrefaction and that perhaps joyned with malignity for the prevention thereof and least that plenitude and depravation of the Blood should hinder that transpiration in the habit of the body ventilation of the blood and laxity in the vessels which is requisite for the subsequent purge do we use Phlebotomy not imagining that there is any superfluous abundance of blood but that there is then in the body some that may well be spared and which if the Patient hath strength to bear it may with prudence be let out to prevent so great dangers as are imminent and to secure unto us the good effect of the subsequent Physick And if the disease do sometimes encrease upon Phlebotomy it behoveth wise persons to distinguish whether those symptomes happen by reason of bleeding or only succeed it in course the disease being in its increment for this makes a great difference in the case as also whether amidst those symptomes which are in due course most violent in the progress and state of the disease whereas we bleed usually in the beginning only there be not some that yield signs of concoction and melioration which if they do as we may justly attribute those hopeful consequences in part to Phlebotomy so we need not be amazed at the present truculency of the disease which affrights none but the ignorant If notwithstanding all our care and due administration of Medicaments according to Art the Patient do dye yet is neither Phlebotomy nor the other Physick to be blamed but we ought rather to reflect upon Physick that 't is a conjectural skill in the most knowing men and that we are not as Gods to inspect into the bowels and secret causes of diseases that besides the special judgment of God upon particular persons all diseases are not curable in all individuals either by reason of the
Latine words I shall not transcribe now but only the English Let them make it appear if this do not imply a contradiction that a Feaver hath the property to pollute the blood and that this property can be taken away a posteriori by a posterous manner to wit by withdrawing what is putrified For if first the fouler blood be let out they open a vein again all this while they overthrow and confound the strength and so thereby wholly disappoint a Crisis But suppose sometimes a fresh ruddy blood run out they presently cry as cock-sure that a whole troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash as if the resting place of the Feaver did only extend from the heart to the bending of the arm and the good blood did take up its abode about the liver This Argument proceeds upon a most gross falshood in that part of it where we are supposed to place such a value upon the colour of the blood as by the goodness or ruddiness thereof we should esteem our selves as cock-sure that a whole troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash whereas no intelligent Physician ever thought so for we do say that the blood of all men is not alike neither as to colour nor consistence naturally and therefore in diseases we do not expect to see such nor intend to make any alteration to such a degree as transcends the natural estate of the body for 't is our business to preserve each man his natural habit be it bilious melancholy or phlegmatick We do also say that in diseases the blood may be corrupted in its substance and vitiated and yet the colour amended or not altered Saepe ad speciem visum purus est sanguis qui alioqui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malus est ut contra impurus cernitur specie qui non ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malus est And Iacob Thevart his Scholiast doth observe that several times in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanguis laudabilis ipsa sectione apparet qualitatibus alienis praeditus est est enim acriusculus biliosus nimis Nay we are so far indefinitely from pronouncing a cure upon the ruddy colour of the blood that in malignant Feavers we make a quite contrary prognostick Pessimum signum est in febre maligna puncticulari timoris plenum cum sanguis vâ—na scissa extrabitur si purus rubicundus inculpatus educatur venenositatem superare indicium est aut putredinem in penitioribus cordis latitare In meipso olim observarem nam ter per hanc febrem misso sanguine nulla prorsus nota putredinis apparebat aliiâ— signis immani ferocitate saevientibus The same is asserted and illustrated by fatal instances in Simon Pauli which it would be too long to transcribe here Having demonstrated unto him these errors I say further that we do not hold the blood to be putrified in all Feavers as in Diaries nor many of us in intermittent not to mention others and in those Feavers wherein 't is said the Blood doth putrifie we do let blood often to prevent putrefaction and not alwayes to cure it by Phlebotomy and we do it in order to cure the putrefaction we do not pretend to emit all the putrified blood thereby but only to alleviate nature of a part thereof that so she may better overcome the rest especially being assisted by other Medicaments So that the whole assertion is false if it import that any intelligent Physician designs to cure a putrid Feaver solely and directly by letting out the putrid blood by repeated venae-section I will not deny but some in France and Spain have gone about to do it but the practise is generally condemned by Physicians of the best repute and therefore ought no more to be charged on us especially in England then the miscarriages of any bold Experimentor or Baconical practitioner at London upon the Colledge of Physicians This insolent Disciple of my Lord Bacon understands not the rudiments of our Physick nor knows what we aim at in the use of Phlebotomy there being sundry occasions why we use it and sundry effects what we expect from it Neither is he less deceived in saying that Phlebotomy duly administred overthrows the strength of the Patient I mean that strength which is necessary to the concoction of the disease and so thereby wholly disappoints the Crisis For it is manifest that by those profuse Phlebotomies of the Ancients the Crises were accelerated and in ours promoted This is not only manifest out of Hippocrates and Galen but confirmed unto us by the certain experience of Forrestus and those learned Florentine Physicians who composed the Academy there for the renewing of the Hippocratical and Galenical Method in opposition to the most prevalent Avicennists Nos igitur Galeno sisi quoniam sic conducit magis dum vires ferant sanguinem misimus plurimum nam bilibre pondus trilibre in acutis febribus aut magnis aliis morbis superavimus atque id non nodo impune sed tanta aegrorum tolerantia ut nil supra eligi potuerit Quam rem abunde nobiscum experientia nosti ut nos quoque aliquantisper experientiam oftentemus ut qui praeter caetera quorum Paulo ante mentio fuit venae quâ—que sectione abunde usi sumus atque id citra discrimen quin et exactam illam vivendâ— formulam veteribus quidem familiorem neotericis vero ne nomine quidem ipso notam instituimus Quo factum est ut jam crises multae appareant ac velut novus naturae ordo aegris faelicissime faveat Cum antehac vel pharmacis agitata velintem-pestivo victu impedita nullas ostenderet aut admodum raras easque non nisi in rusticis atque infima plebe qui nec pharmacorum multitudine neque ciborum aut potionum faâ—igari aut impediri quirent I have more willingly cited this passage because the renown of that Academy was such that it gave a check to the grandieur and prâ—vâ—lence of the Arabian Method and the truth of what they say cannot be questioned by any that knows the persons and the revolution they brought about in Europe and hence we may learn the reason of that difference which seems frequently to occur betwixt the ancient diseases and their critical motions and terminations and what we generally find It ariseth not from any such great change in the nature and types of maladies as some have ignorantly writ of late nor as this Bacon-face talks because we reiterate moderate Phlebotomy but because we do not follow at all the Method of Hippocrates and Galen in the curing of diseases However we pass for Galenists and Hippocratical Physicians yet in truth we are not such our practise is made up most out of the Arabian Method and Medicaments and is a mixture of the Grecian and Sarracenical Physick together with those accessionals which improved Chymistry hath
courses then Phlebotomy In short I my self have been let blood above fourscore times and yet am lean and so far from being feavourishly inclined that I never had any except the Measils once and Small-pox twice and twice a tertian Ague and I find no imbecillity or prejudice in the least that should induce me to repent what I have done or resolve against it for the future But we must distinguish upon what is produced by any thing as its cause and what is only a concomitant thereof If it ten thousand times proves otherwise we must not impute the growing fat of one Patient to Phlebotomy indefinitely but rather to some alteration the disease in which it was applyed hath wrought in his body to his Analeptic diet and course of life subsequent thereunto or to his individual temper And perhaps it may be not impertinent to add here that as Distillation and the burning of the blood of a Multitude of persons hath convinced me that there is no such deflagration of blood as that learned Physician imagines nor any vital fermentation in the blood depending upon the Chymical ingredients of Salt Sulphur and Spirit c. so neither is the Blood of corpulent persons I never tryed the Obese because they do not bear Phlebotomy except once in a Youth lately was extream fat and in danger of an Apoplexy and it did not burn with so vigorous and lasting a flame as that of many lean men but by its crackling gave testimonies of much Salt yet the Serum was insipid it is not properly sanguine but pituitous But to resume the discourse I expected to have seen the Minor proved by our Helmontian but although I find that he saith his observation did jump with that of Doctor Willis that Phlebotomy did incline to Feavers Yet my Reader may see that in the first part of the Argument as I have urged it in his own words he reckons amongst the evil consequences of bleeding none that proceed from an opulent and sulphureous blood transcending the dominion of the spirit that remains after Phlebotomy but such as argue an impoverishing of the blood or a cold indisposition I will repeat it again to shew how justly I censure his Logick and so dismiss the Argument If it be so that striking a vein often in a long and tedious disease is a preparatory for a sharp Feaver as we both herein jump right in our observation then am I certain that Phlebotomy repeated in an acute Sickness is a door set open and an in-let for a long infirmity so that this mode of defalcating the vigour of the spirits doth for the most part as I have strictly heeded many years disarm and plunder Nature in such sort that it cannot resist the assaults of every petty infirmity witness those multitudes of relapses or Agues Scorbute Dropsies Consumptions Atrophy Iaundise Asthmaes c. The proof of the Minor here is not only defective but the mischief is that Doctor Willis who judiciously useth Phlebotomy commends it in Feavers both in the beginning and augment of those that are putrid and also in Diaries as the principal remedy inprimis conducit and speaks in the place cited by our Helmontian only of a customary letting blood in time of health Whereas this Bacon-faced Pyrotechnist saith that their Wits jump in this that often striking a vein in a long and tedious disease is a preparatory for a sharp Feaver Let any man read the place and see how he abuseth that excellent Practitioner whose words are Prae caeteris vero observatione constat quod crebra sanguinis missio homines febri aptiores reddat quare dicitur vulgo quibus sanguis semel detrahitur eos nisi quotannis idem faciant in febrem proclives esse I am sorry he should seem to give a reason for a vulgar error for once or twice bleeding doth no more create a Custom or dispose Nature to an anniversary commotion in the blood than one Swallow makes a Summer But certain it is I speak of our cold Climates not of those hotter where sweat and transpiration often prevent those determinate motions of nature that such here as are very much accustomed to bleeding keep certain times for it their bodies will require it at that time and if they refrain it they will feel an oppression and dulness or lassitude and may fall into a Feaver but Aches Rheumatisme Gout are more likely except other accidents concur to produce a Feaver if the ebullition be no greater than to produce a Lassitude 't is possible in some bodies that the Scurvy Cacochymy Cachexy Dropsie Asthmaes Cephalalgyes may ensue for the morbifique ferment like the scum boyled into the broth may mix inseparably with the blood and vitiate for ever that great sanguifier with an unexpressible pravity But he that thinks 't will be so in diseases when the Patient is phlebotomised neither understands the motions of nature nor the effects of a sound recovery Instead of Doctor Willis this illiterate Baconist who professeth to be so well versed in the way called Galenical should have as he argues made his recourse to Avicen and his followers who are in many cases fearful of Phlebotomy least it should produce an ebullition yf choler or crudity which two inconveniencies may produce all that G. T. talks of Thus sometimes Tertians have been doubled nay turned into irrecoverable continual Feavers But all the cases relating thereunto concern not an intelligent Physician who understands what is past present and to come and knows when to presume when to fear But I intend not to teach these fellows it were better for the Nation and them too that they were Coblers or day-labourers than Practitioners in Physick a Doctoral Diploma though purchased will not sufficiently qualifie them for the profession and as little doth the title of Experimental Philosophers and Verulamians avail them The next Argument of his that I come unto and which is more than once inculcated as if he thought it a Demonstration is this as I may form it If it be not fitting nor useful to bleed in the Pest which is a Feaver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not fitting nor useful to bleed in any ill-conditioned Feaver whatsoever But it is not fitting nor useful to bleed in the Pest. Ergo. The Consequence of the Major is thus proved It is no less criminal to suffer the Blood to spin out in any ill-conditioned Feaver whatsoever then in that which is so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Albeit our Phlebotomists do extenuate the matter setting a fair gloss upon it pretending that in malignant Feavers of the inferiour clast Plethorick or Cacochymical indications do manifestly require their utmost assistance before â—hat inconsiderable venome lying occult I must by their favour be bold to tell them they will never solidly and spâ—edily make a sanation of any great Feaver or any other disease till they handle it in some manner like the Plague for there is
is that to any purpose which this Baconical Impostor saith that after such a strict abstinence as the Patient is put upon in a Feaver it is very unlikely a plenitude should be of any duration For if the Feaver be such as is accompanied with a particular defluxion upon ony principal part the effects of that abstinence will signifie nothing for the party will dye in all probability before he can reap any benefit by such abstinence no benefit accrues by abstinence but after some time whereas the malady permits no delay It is notorious that suppuration is not the effect of a few hours and that pain doth attract explain the notion how you will the Phaenomenon is manifest so that 't is not to be conceived how so acute a disease should admit of a lingâ—ing cure The residue doth not need any answer for to say that whosoever looseâ—h any blood doth rue it first or last is a matter as easily denied by an intelligent Physician as it is avowed by one that it is not so If a prudent man advise it there is not any danger abstracting from casualties if the Patient and those about him do their duty These last circumstances are such that Hippocrates placed them in the first of his Aphorismes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not impossiâ—le but that a Patient may be so debilitated with his malady and the means used for his recovery that he continue afterwards infirm if he refuse thereupon to take that Analeptick Physick in order to a perfect convalescence whatever ensues is neither the default of the Doctor nor the evil consequence of Phlebotomy The same I may say in case either the sick party be not tractable or those about him malapert or negligent or some extraordinary casualty do fall out For where many concurrent causes are requisite to the producing of an effect if it succeed not we are not to blame what did operate but what failed As to Revulsion that which he saith is very weak G. T averrs that the best Practitioners take it for an Errour 'T is no great vanity to pretend to know more than a Baconical Philosopher I do say that no experienced Physician ever denied the operation though since the tenet of the Circulation of the Blood the manner how such an effect doth succeed admits of some dispute and is obscure We the silly followers of Galen and the Ancients do think it an imbecillity of judgment for any to desert an experimented practise because he doth not comprehend in what manner it is effected In eruptions of blood and Catarrhs every one sees the thing is done and that the Fuga vacui is not the occasion of the subsequent blood flowing to the orifice of the vein I believe those to whom he dedicated his Book will assure him How perfect our Cures are continual tryals demonstrate How little confidence there is to be placed in the Brags of G. T. after his ten years practise any man may determine by taking a due estimate of his Ignorance Having thus examined all his Arguments against Phlebotomy I come now to give our Reasons for it But before I proceed to them it is necessary that I give my Reader some account of The quantity of Blood in Humane bodies The several Qualities of the aforesaid Blood The manner of its Generation As to the Quantity of Blood that is to be found in Humane bodies Gassendus holds that the utmost thereof exceeds not five pounds but he is justly reproved for that errour and for intermedling with Medicinal debates by Riolanus who avows that in suffocating diseases he had taken away much more than that within the space of twelve hours without indangering the Patients life To relinquish therefore these impertinent Naturalists whose discourses in Physick have done more hurt than good being accommodated generally to some prejudicate Hypothesis they take up or founded upon a narrow experience let us see what Artists teach us Avicenna and several of the Arabians do hold that there are ordinarily in a man twenty five pounds of blood and that a man may bleed at the nose twenty pounds and not dye but if the flux exceed that after the loss of twenty five pounds he dies inevitably Moebius doth allow or twenty four pounds to be the usual quantity Homo staturae decentis ad libras xxiv sanguinis in corpore habet Riolâ—nus imagines there may be in such a person fifteen or sixteen pound at most but twenty in a French mâ—n though in a German he sayes Plempius supposed there might be thirty In an healthy sanguine person being in the prime of his years Marquardus Slegelius doth so calculate the matter that he concludes there cannot be above twenty or eighteen pounds and that the generality of men contain but fifteen Doctor Lower in his excellent Treatise Of the Heart doubts whether any man hath twenty five pounds of blood in his body and sayes that according to Anatomists the quantity seldome exceeds twenty four pounds or is less than fifteen Perhaps the consideration of such fluxes of blood as spontaneously happen may give some light unto the controversie and contribute most to the decision of the grand one concerning the prejudice that may arise from the loss of Blood by Phlâ—botomy It is recorded by Matth. de Gradi that he had under his cure a lean slender and seemingly Phlegmatic Nun which by the Nose Mouth and Vrine did void at least eighteen pound of blood and yet there remained so much in her that upon the application of Cupping-glasses they were instantly filled with Blood and he recovered her notwithstanding that lâ—ss of blood Brassavolus relates how he had in cure one Diana a Lady of the House of â—ste which bled so much at the Nose that he saved and weighed eighteen pounds besides what was lost in the clothes applied to her so that the whole quantity might amount to twenty two pounds He recovered her by the use of several Remedies one whereof was Phlebotomy Marcellus Donatus doth avow that he weighed eighteen pounds of blood which issued from the Nose of a certain Cook of the Cardinal Gonzâ—ga's who was recovered to as perfect health and as good an habit of body as he ever enjoyed befored Amatus Lusitanus gives an account of one in a Quartane which bled at the Nose within five dayes twenty pounds and of another who bled in like manner within the space of six dayes forty pounds whom yet he cured by Phlebotomy Montanus saith he cured one of the Emeroids which bled every day for forty five dayes two pounds of blood and more Arculanus doth tell of one Woman that avoided by the Womb in three dayes twenty five pounds of blood and yet recovered Almericus Blondelus cured in a very short space a Souldier who was wounded under the right Arm-pit unto the Lungs after the man had lain without sense or motion many hours on
a sudden there issued an incredible quantity of blood out of his mouth The like incredible fluxes of blood in men and women he professeth to have observed many times Forrestus relates how a Gentleman that was his Patient did bleed at the nose in three dayes time about twelve pounds of blood and was recovered as well as ever And when William Prince of Orange was wounded in the throat by an Assassine he bled at the Iugulars before the flux could be stopped which was not done in several dayes twelve pounds of blood and was perfectly recovered to his strength again He also tells of another Gentleman that having drunk Wine-must fell into such an Haemorrhagy at the nose that he bled without intermission six pounds and was cured by Phlebotomy and other befitting Medicaments Massarias did see a young Lady of twelve year old which avoided at the nose about twelve pounds of blood but fell afterwards into a Cachexy To conclude in the words of Io. Riolanus Imo decem vel duodecim libras per nares vel haemorroidas per uterum in mulieribus effundi intra sex octove horas sine vitae detrimento quotidie observamus As to the Quality of the Blood it is observable that there is a great variety in the colour and consistence thereof even in men of perfect health many upon Phlebotomy convince us that their blood is seemingly bad whereas they are not molested with any distemper at all but enjoy as entire a sanity and are as free from diseases as those whose blood is to appearance better I have elsewhere given an account of several Phaenomena to be remarked upon the burning of Blood which Observations are the more considerable in that I. I. Becherus hath published a great mistake about it viz. Siccum sanguinem in igne ut lardum flâ—grare absumi non minori celeritate quam ipsum olium vini spiritus in hoc quidem balsamino spiritu igne totius sanguinis vis bonitas consistit quoque corrupto aut alterato totius ejus crasis alteratur But I say that it is not requisite the blood of every healthy person should burn so and 't is evident by those Experiments of mine that there is a very great diversity betwixt the blood of several persons as to inflammability and I know a most fair Lady whose blood will not burn at all only crackles that enjoyes a constant health beyond most of the Sex excepting a pain at her stomach and I have observed that to be an usual consequent to such blood I shall not illustrate this matter at present by demonstrating the great discrepancies of the blood in several healthy persons by mixing it with sundry liquors wherein the diversity of Phaenomena doth manifest the great variety thereof It is observed by many Practitioners that in healthy persons such blood doth often appear upon Phlebotomy as to the Eye seems bad I have seen many saith Blondelus who being casually hurt in the Eye by a tennis-ball or by some other accident wounded and bruised have been let blood and the blood which issued out seemed corrupt yet have not these persons had any thing of a Feaver on them nor been some of them sick of twenty years before And Ballonius observed in several Ladies that out of humour rather than any indisposition were let blood in May and six or seven poringers taken from them that their blood was very putrid And he avows that in the most fair Ladies there generally is found such blood as looks impure and evil yet that such persons enjoy a greater or at least as perfect an health and live as long as any that have a better-coloured blood It is granted by Slegelius that oftentimes upon Phlebotomy the blood which issueth forth may seem impure and yet the Patient be healthy Nonnunquam satis insignis impuritas inest sanguini ex cava educto nullis gravioribus symptomatis homini molestis ex quo patet non tantum semper periculum imminere si nonnullae sordes sanguini admisceantur I shall repeat here again the strange blood which Simon Pauli observed in an healthy person In the year 1654. a Citizen of Coppenhagen aged almost sixty years being accustomed to be let blood every year in May for prevention of the diseases incident in Summer would needs be Phlebotomized in the presence of Me and his Wife and Children the Chirurgeon having prick'd the Mediane vein the blood as it issued oâ—t had a peculiar but most noysome smell transcending any rotten Egg or stinking Vlcer c. which was so offensive to all in the room that we were forced to remedy it by burning some perfumes As soon as the Blood was cold in the porrenger the stench ceased and the blood seemed to be of a very good consistence and of so radiant a Scarlet that it equalled or rather exceeded the best red that is to be seen in the most beautiful Flowers it contained but little serum This passage of his recalls to my mind the serum of the blood of a Maid of a sanguine colour and perfect health excepting a pain in her stomach the blood which I caused to be taken from her seemed laudable and burned very vividly but the serum being set to coagulate seemed in consistence like to tallow and smelt like thereunto In another Child that died of an Hydrops thoracis I observed the serum as it heated to sent extreamly ill and with a penetrancy as if it had been Vitriol burning it would not coagulate though I boyled it but afterwards when it had stood to be cold it did jelly I know a Gentlewoman of extraordinary beauty troubled with nothing but Morphew or Vitiligo alba on her Armes in some places being let blood it appeared to be all serum almost and very little of any crimson mâ—ss was in it and that not so tenacious or fibrous as is usual though it were as well coloured as any is I boyl'd away all the serum which made up about six ounces or more and it would never inspissate or coagulate The variety of Blood is further illustrated by the case of Henry van Bueren a Brewers man who in perfect health had his Blood such that though it came out of the vein with a ruddy colour yet as it cooled all the serum did turn lacteous and resembled Milk though the sanguineous Mass retained its due colour and this was constant to him whether he bled by Phlebotomy or any other way A case like unto this is related by Bartholin from Ioh. Bapt. Caballaria Concerning the variety of blood in healthy persons it is further observable that not only in some small wounds admit of no cure or a diffiâ—ult one whilest others heal with more facility in the same persons when they are young wounds will be easily cured even by the first intention and conjoyning of the lips thereof And afterwards as they grow
to be very serous and that of a livid and citrine colour and in Hydropics that have bled at the nose there was not any serum in the blood at all In the Febris alba virginea which I here contradistinguish from the Chlorosis I extracted four hours after dinner out of the Saphena of such blood as that the Crassament was laudable for colour and consistence but the serum was so white as not to be distinguished from milk the lacteous serum did coagulate but retained no smell whereas it usually resembles a roasted egg it was saltish to taste At the same time I blooded two more in the foot neither of which had any such lacteous serum but a citrine serum Hers which was a young Lady and in health burned very well and crackled the other being aged sixty years was excellently and equally coloured from top to the bottom and the serum inclining to citrine but would not burn at all only crackled much and puffed with wind She had no indisposition on her only was troubled with a flushing in her face swelling of the nose and an inward hear such as is commonly attributed to an hot liver I do not attribute that lactescense in the first Ladies blood to the mixture of new Chyle which Doctor Lower saith he hath observed in Men and other Animals being phlebotomised a while after meat to create a lacteous ferum for I never in all my life was so happy as to see that though I have blooded my self on purpose two hours after dinner to make the tryal and have an hundred times examined the blood of others who have been blooded at such times as we might expect to see that Phaenomenon of his Yet hath the reality of his observation been confirmed unto me by other credible witnesses so that I question not but he may have seen it though I could not in these Ladies who all dined together about one of the clock and had done bleeding by four Neither may I pass by this Observation that of all the Sâ—rum which I have tasted I never found any to be bitter though I extracted some once that seemed so bilious that being put into an Vrinal none could know it from urine highly tinged as soon as I set it on the fire it coagulated with a less heat than I imagine it to have had in the veins â— and it exchanged its hue for the usual white smelling like a roasted Egg. Yet doth Van der Linden say that some have tasted the blood of Icterical persons and found it bitter Actu nihil naturaliter in sanguine amarum est Sed nec esse potest redderet enim sanguinem ineptum suo muneri ceu observare est in Ictericis In his enim sanguinem amaricare accepimus ab iis qui ipsum vena emissum urinam ejus gustarunt Asclepiadio more And Vesalius gives us an account of one Prosper Martellus a Florentine Gentleman much inclined to and troubled with the Iaundise whose Liver was scirrhous but Spleen sound and his Stomach turgid with choler and wheresoever he opened any of his veins they were full of thick choler and the fluid liquor which was in the Arteries did tinge his hands as if it were choler I find the like Observation in Th. Kerckringius that an Icterical Woman brought forth a dead Child in the eighth moneth which was so yellow all over that it rather seemed a Statue of such wax than an humane Abortion being diffected By him instead of blood in the veins there was nothing but choler and all the bones were tinged with such a yellow that one would have thought them painted The Scholiast upon Ballonius observed that however the blood is naturally sweet even such as upon obstructions from the Menstrua hath regurgitated and discharged it self at the Gums of women as they have told me yet in one that was troubled with the Green-sickness the blood though florid was salt Potest esse storidus color in se esse acrior biliosior unde quaedam mulier 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ejusmodi praedita temperamento mihi affirmavit siquando vel ex dentibus sanguis affluit vel e capite eum sibi gustum sentiri salsum molestum When I was at Barbadoes we carried off several poor English thence to Iamaica where many of them falling sick and some being well were let blood I observed that in those poor people which live upon nothing almost but Rooâ—s and drink Mobby a liquor made of Potatoes boyl'd and steep'd in water and so fermented that their blood did stream out yellow and in the Porringer did scarce retain any shew of red in the coagulated mass yet are they well and strong but look paâ—â— and freckled such persons which are frequent in Barbadoes are called Mobby-faces It were infinite at least beyond my present leisure to relate all that variety of morbid blood which hath been observed in sundry diseases and in several persons languishing under the same distemper as in Pleurisies the Scurvey French-pox Hypochondriacal Melancholy and the like wherein if it be true as it is that oftentimes diseases vary in individuals 't is no less certain that the blood doth also vary in them so that oftentimes ignorant Physicians do imagine a greater corruption in the blood and a greater recess from what is natural to the person and a greater danger in the disease or in the practise of Phlebotomy than they need yet in Epidemical or some Sporadical diseases if the Phaenomena be as general as the disease 't is certain then that the resemblance of the blood argues a resembling cause which prevails over the idiosyncrasy of particulars I know it will be expected that I should say something about the Controversie whether the Blood be one Homogeneous liquor the recrements whereof make up the four Galenical Humours which are no otherwise parts thereof than the Lees and Mothers of Wine are constitutive parts thereof Or whether the four Galenical Humours viz. that which is properly Blood Melancholy Choler and Phlegm are the constitutive parts of the Blood in its natural consistence and Crasis I shall say therefore about this point as much as may be requisite to my present purpose First I observe that the Galenists are at a difference whether the Mass of blood contain those Humours actually or only potentially so that one may hold according to them that the blood is as homogeneous a liquor as any Neoteric doth hold it to be though it arise by the mixture of their five principles Amongst others Erastus hath a disputation in which he amply asserts that all those Humours when they are actually in the blood they become excrementitious and are no longer parts thereof but such as the ejectment thereof depurates and perfects the other remaining blood which he confesâ—eth to consist of several parts constituting one body to which they are as essential as the serous caseous and butyrous
part are to Milk which if they be deficient 't is no longer Milk Nam ut non potest lac bubulum intelligi sanum perfectum sine tribus suis partibus sero caseo butyro ita non potest sanguis probus animo concipi definiri absque partium illa varietate Fernelius doth compare the generation of Blood to that of Wine wherein the Chyle is supposed to resemble Must which by fermentation separates and throws out such parts as are not actually in that liquor but arise upon fermentation and are ejected several wayes the more crude parts are by time digested and then the noble wine brought to perfection so he supposeth it to be in the blood and thus though all the humours be at once as it were produced in the Chyle yet are they no more parts of the blood than the Tartar and Mothers are parts of Wine Both these Similitudes of Milk and Wine to Blood were first I think introduced by Galen I am sure he made mention of them and so did his Successours to Mercatus Fernelius Platerus Palleriaca then Carolus Piso began to carry the comparison further in his discourse of Feavers and after him Quercetan and since that our learned and judicious Countrey-man Doctor Willis Others held that the blood as it flows in the veins and is designed by Nature for the Aliment and other uses in man is not to be understood as one liquor consisting of some variety of parts yet united into one similar body the rest whereof were to be excrements but a more confused Mass of several distinct Alimentary Humours which Nature never intends to unite into one similar body but to continue in a certain more loose mixture each thereof retaining its proper congruity for the continuance of life and health They do confess that there is a pure crimson part sweet and balsomical which they call in rigour Blood but they say Nature never intended this for the sole vitalliquor because she never produceth it alone or if it be ever seen so 't is in a morbid condition as in malignant Feavers where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Blood free from the proportionate mixture of other Humours is reckoned amongst evil signs Qualis sanguis in malignis adurentibusque febribus solet excerni aut e vena tunsa educi And therefore as none of the Humours are ever seen alone any more than Blood is for they hold them all to be excrementitious when separate so they conceive they all together in a certain proportion make up that aggregate called Nutritive Blood and are all actually there because they do observe that all of them at sometimes have their distinct corruptions though they continue still in one mass which they conceive they could not have except they were actually there They do conceive them to be so there that the resemblance betwixt Gall or extravasated Phlegm is but Analogical so that they do not pretend to shew in the Blood a bitter Gall or a pontic arminonious Melancholy They will not allow these to be other than depravations of the Alimentarious Humours and the sincere alimental juyces are no more pretended to be evinced by them then the pure Elements except it be a posteriori by a diversity of effects arguing different causes They saw there was a great latitude in the blood of healthful men yet so as that the blood appeared with different colours and consonant to the colours there seemed a variety in their dispositions and other corporeal qualities they saw the Mass of blood upon perfrigeration to go into several substances and they intellectually disjoyned them more for doctrine-sake obâ—iging themselves to produce each Humour in its imaginary purity when the Chymical fire should exhibite any body not decompounded or the Corpuscularians make more manifest their configurations of Atomes or Texture of Particles Having thus stated the Question with as much perspicuity as I could I pursue to enquire which is most conformable to the effects in Physick for I will not undertake to determine what God and Nature do in the production or mixture of bodies It is easie for a man to loose himself in those inquiries He that made us can tell how we were made our Argumentations are as vain as if one should assert that a Loaf of bread consisted of Cubes Lozenges or Trapeziums because we can cut it into parts of such a configuration Let us but imagine a subtle Chymist to analyse Chymically our Ale if ever he thereby discover that it is the product of a Barley-corn growing into a stem and grain then turned into Malt grinded boyled with water and fermented I will assent unto the Chymical resolutions of blood Physicians have been alwayes allowed hitherto to be a sort of gross Artisans and I remember Massarias somewhere calls it an Hippocratical demonstration Indicium autem Curatio To know bodies exquisitely mixed and to mix them intimately is a divine attribute this last is avowed by Galen Miscere corpora tota per tota non Hominis sed Dei Naturae est opus Perhaps it may be replyed that the most ignorant persons may say thus much It is true and if he speak it knowingly I confess I can say no more than he Sed quod dicemus objectioni illi Ignarus aeque ac Philosophus deum causam omnium assignabit Hoc ignarus inscienter Philosophus scienter assignabiâ— quemadmodum Aristoteles ait de Parmenide Meliss quemadmodum caecus alicujus tunicam albam esse asserit Nil seimus Dicamus ergo Primarum rerum principiorum aut elementorum causas reddere nostri non est captus secundarum vero utcunque Id in singulis quaestionibus experiri possumus I say then that notwithstanding any allegations to the contrary it is manifest that a certain proportion of salt sulphur and spirit besides earth and water is neither requisite to perfect sanity nor its defect as to any particular the cause of diseases and this is manifest out of the constitution as well as colour of the blood in morbid and healthy bodies as appears by the burning and distillation of blood There is much of truth that T. T. sayes or may be so Now I am ready to discover in reference to miserable man that the pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in an high Feaver doth afford more salt water and earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that diseased blood termed corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur being clearly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joyned thereto I have by a graduated fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little sulphur in comparison of each of the rest At another time I procured the purest blood I could get from an healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion
vesiculae natura adhuc magis quam antea habent solicitum As to the Pancreatick juyce its variety is no less observable So for the Phlegm and â—lood it self Having said thus much in behalf of the Ancients against some Dullmen of this Age who laugh at any one that mentions but those Humours I might proceed to demonstrate practically their several motions in diseases and justifie the Medicinal Documents created thereon by such instances as countenance thereunto But the digression would be excessive I return therefore to the principal Discourse and shâ—ll from what hath been said erâ—ct an Hypothesis concerning Plebotomy which will authenticate the received practise which is so judiciously and happily followed by all prudent men 1. If it be true that there is so great a Quantity of Blood in the body as I have evinced then may we very well suppose that the loss of a few ounces is no great dammage to the Patient 2. If it be true that so great effusions of Blood have happened to several persons without any subsequent prejudice If it be true that large Phlebotomy even usque ad Lipothymiam hath been succesfully practised then is it evident that our partite and diminute Phlebotomy may be safely continued and that whatsoever ill effects follow thereupon the default is not to be ascribed to Blood-letting but to the indiscretion of him that ignorantly made use of it or the unknown idiosyncracy of the Patient or the over-ruling Providence of God which disappoints frequently the most rational and best Methods of curing Quaedam ejus sunt conditionis ut effectum praestare debeant quibusdam pro effectu est omnia attentasse ut proficerent Si omnia fecit ut sanaret peregit Medicus partes suas etiam damnato reo Oratori constat eloquentia officium si omni arte usus sit 3. If it be true that there is so great a variety and discrepancy in the Blood then is there no secure judgment to be made of the Blood issuing out of the vein either to the continuing or stopping its Flux But the Physician is to proceed according to the Rules of Art and accordingly as they direct him may he promote stop or repeat the evacuation A seeming Cacochymy in the Blood doth not impede venae-section nor call for purging and rectifying Nothing is evil that is natural to a man but real Cachochymy or redundance of Humours offending Nature this doth call for our assistance and requires sometimes Phlebotomy and sometimes other Medicaments 4. If it be true that Sanguisication is an Animal Action if it be true that the Plastick form is in being before the Blood and produceth it and the whole Fabrick and subsequent operations and that the motion of the Heart is proved by Doctor Lower to depend upon the Nerves during life then in there no such strict connexion betwixt the Soul Life and Blood as G. T. doth fancy 5. If it be true that the Blood doth continually waste and spend it self in Nutriment and Excrements then is it manifest not only that the loss of a little Blood partitely taken away is not the loss of life or prejudicial thereunto Neither doth it follow that the loss of Blood in a moderate quantity is any imminution of the vital Nectar it is neither the chief residence or seat of the Soul nor in a determinate quantity requisite to the continuance of Life but comes under a great latitude It abounds more in some seasons of the year and times than at others and why may not Artists imitate Nature in diminishing its redundance upon occasion as she does As long as he proceeds not to exhaust all or too much The loss is easily repaired upon convalescence and the quantity is more than can be governed by Nature in sickness 't is but the observation of a Geometrical proportion in such a Phlebotomist The same Agent will produce the same effects if Nature be corroborated and the vitiated tonus of the concocting and distributing vessels be amended there is no fear of wanting a new supply proportionate to the exigence of the Patient The Blood we take away is no other than what would be expended or exhausted naturally within a few hours or dayes as the Staticks shew and it must needs be considering the quantity of Chyle which flows into the veins upon eating and drinking 6. If it be true not only that Nature doth thus expend in transpiration and Excrements as well as Nourishment much of the Blood and repairs her defests by a new supply whereby Life is continued not impaired so as that the melioration of the following Blood is rather evident in his first years by his growth vigour strength and intellectuals But also that She doth of her self make men and women apt to bleed at some times ages and seasons which is known to all then is not the effusion of this solar liquor so unnatural a thing nor so homicidial an Act as 't is represented 'T would seem a strange Law that should punish every Boy that breaks the Head or Nose of another as a Bronchotomist or Cut-throat If it be true that Nature doth oftentimes alleviate even in the beginning and in the end cure Diseases by spontaneous evacuations of Blood at the Nose and Vterus by vomiting and stool then a Physician whose business it is to imitate Nature in her beneficial Operations is sufficiently authorised and impowered to practise due Phlebotomy by the best of Presidents Having premised these Conclusions which are all either proved in the foregoing discourse or evident in themselves to all understanding men I shall proceed to give an account of the Reasons why Physicians do so frequently and in so many Diseases practise Blood-letting and those deduced from its variety of effects in Humane bodies For it is not a single Remedy subservient unto one Indication or End but conducing to many and therefore made use of upon several occasions to different intentions Vtile est id remedium ad quamplurima vix potest in ullo magno morbo non esse aliquid cujus gratia utile sit Before I come to particulars it is necessary I tell you that in the cure of all diseases Physicians propose unto themselves sundry considerations they regard the disease the antecedent causes and the symptomes which attend or will ensue thereupon either generally or in such an individual constitution they employ their cares to prevent some inconveniences as well as to redress others Some remedies they make use of because they are necessary of some because they are beneficial yet may the disease 't is granted be cured oâ—herwise in case the Patient have a reluctancy thereto or for some private reasons the Physicians esteem it fitting to alter their course Upon this account 't is assented unto that many distempers may be cured without Phlebotomy which yet are ordinarily cured with it or may be so And herein the disagreement of Physicians or different procedures are all
thought of As for the Arabians nothing is more certain than that they considered the disease and all circumstances and did determine in the behalf of Phlebotomy and whosoever is principled from them as all in a manner of the subsequent Physicians have been must allow thereof I do not remember to have read that any of them did ever prohibit Phlebotomy in this case except it be Avenzoar who is said to have given the like directions that Doctor Sydenham doth viz. To do nothing in a manner but relinquish the work to Nature entirely How Avicenna determines the doubt his words will best shew Oportet in variolis ut incipiatur extrahatur sanguis sufficienter cum conditiones fuerint Et similiter si morbillus fuerit cum repletione sanguinis Et spatium illius est usque ad quartum Sed quando egrediuntur variolae non oportet tunc ut administretur phlebotomia nisi inveniatur vehementia repletionis dominium materiei tunc enim phlebotometur quantitate quae alleviet seu minoret Et convenientius quidem quod in hac administratur aegritudine est phlebotomia Et si phlebotometur vena nasi confert juvamentum fluxus sanguinis narium tuetur partes superiores a malitia variolarum Et est magis facilis super infantes Et quando necessaria est phlebotomia non phlebotomatur iterum complete timetur super ipsum corruptio extremitatis Whence it is apparent that amidst such circumstances as amongst Physicians usually seem to require Phlebotomy he doth allow the practise thereof in the Small Pox before they come out be it on the fourth day or later that they discover themselves After they do appear he alloweth not except there be a manifest plenitude and surcharge of morbiâ—ic humours then he alloweth only a minute letting of blood and not what is too copious and adds that in this disease 't is most convenient to let blood and if the Patient be not blooded in a Plethoric constitution and that by a repeated phlebotomy according to the exigency of the case that is compleatly there is danger least the party suffer the corruption or loss of some of his limbs by a Gangrene or other evil accident for when the redundance of the expelled matter is such that it cannot duly maturate and trâ—nspire in the pustules it frequently corrodes the ligaments and tendons and otherwise vitiates the remoter parts of the body even Worms have been bred in a pestilential Small Pox all under the pustules as at Stralesund in 1574. sometimes the matter not finding room to disburthen it self in the circumâ—erence turns its course into the bowels and begets mortal Diarrhaeas and Dysenteries Of the same opinion is Rhases as appears by what is extant amongst the Scriptores de febribus viz. Si antequam apparere incipiant medicus aegrum inveniat minuere eum faciat aut cum ventosis sanguis extrahatur Minuatur equidem sanguinis multitudo It is true that there he prohibites Phlebotomy after the Pox come forth but I find him cited by others as concurring with Avicenna as to bleeding even at the nose as extreamly beneficial and to approve of phlebotomy after they come forth in case the Patient find no alleviation thereupon but there continue signs of a plenitude or redundancy of ill humours a great Feaver and difficulty of breathing But there is another piece entitled unto Rhases wherein how indulgent he is to Phlebotomy you may learn from Augenius Rhases libro suo de peste capite sexto mittendum esse sanguinâ—m vult pro quantitate plenitudinis si enim maxima suerit non veritur vacuare usque ad animi deliquium si mediâ—cris mediocriter educit si parva fuerit paulum singuinem educit verba ejus sic habent Tu venam incidito quam multum sanguinis effundito scil ad sanguinis defectionem usque Supra vero syndromen attulit maximae plenitudinis paucis interpositis inquit Cum vero haec signa admodum evidentia non erunt veruntamen vehementia quidem parum sanguinis fundito Sin minime minimum haec ille How successful so large bleeding may be though Augenius and Ranâ—hinus and others condemn it we may judge by the practise of Botallus To these I add the authority of Serapion which runs thus Si haec febris fuerit propter causam variolarum virtus aetas consentit tunc non aliquid magis juvativum quam phlebotomia venae Et si aliquid prohibet phlebotomiam tunc oportet ut administrentur ventosae Out of which it is evident that the generality of the Arabians were of a different sentiment from what Doctor Whitaker ascribes unto them and Claudinus is less mistaken when he as do many others avoweth that The Arabians universally agree to let Blood in the Small Pox upon occasion Nor is there more of truth in that which follows in our Doctor viz. that Their followers have not determined this doubt For though two or three may seem refractory still in the World yet it is not amongst Physicians but amongst them that are not Physicians that the doubt is indetermined I shall take some pains to undeceive this Age as to the present point Gordonius's words are these Inprimis si corpus est Plethoricum aut si sanguis dominatur aut virtus est fortis fiat Phlebotomia de mediana postea de summitate nasi i. e. In the first place if the body be plethoric or if the Disease be such as is attended with abundance of blood or if the Patient be strong let him bleed first in the middle vein and afterwards at the Nose Petrus Bayrus having repeated the signs of the Small Pox when they are violent adds His apparentibus statim fac Phlebotomiam copiosam prius scilicet quam variolae ad extra appareant licet possit fieri etiam ipsis incipientibus apparere stante multa repletione non tamen tunc fiat ita copiosa sicut ipsis non apparentibus dicente Avicenna in casu Extrahatur sanguis quantitate quae exiret hoc est minoret i. e. when the Small Pox begin with such a vehemence of symptomes presently take from the Patient a large quantity of Blood before the Small Pox begin to come forth yet may he also be let blood after they begin to appear if there be a great repletion but yet not in so large a manner as otherwise for so Avicenna directs in the case and let the Patient bleed in such a quantity as may dry the habit of his body that is you may lessen the quantity of the morbifick matter so to bring them forth to a kind maturation but not so as to divert Nature from her work I shall not trouble my self to repeat the words of others at large but refer my Reader to the places cited Horatius Augenius one of our best Writers upon the Small Pox and who
mala quae praeter rationem fiunt pleraque enim horum sunt infirma neque diu manere atque durare consueverunt In this time I say there may happen such cases as require Phlebotomy and in which it ought to be practised 'T is observed that a Flux in the declination of the Small Pox is generally mortal although it be not accompanied with a Dysentery or exulceration of the Gutts It is no critical evacuation because such happen not at that time and because it be falleth the Patient in the most unseasonable time of the Disease when Nature is most debilitated with the precedent Disease and ought rather to testifie signs of strength then of further imbecillity it enforceth us to employ all those cares which a symptomatical evacuation doth call for and in this case since purging is dangerous and astringents full of hazard there seems no way so safe as Phlebotomy duly administred It may also happen that the Patient fall into a Pleurisie Thus in the case of Frommannus in the declination of the Measils the Gentlewoman fell into a Pleurisie which he indeavered to cure by Phlebotomy and was defended in the practise by the best Physicians in Germany The Reasons which have been urged already in the other times will many of them justifie the Practitioner in this and nothing is more certain in Physick than that the use of Phlebotomy is not indicated by the time of the Disease or contraindicated by any number of dayes but by other motives and that whensoever it is necessary upon any urgency nothing but want of strength doth repugne thereunto It may perhaps be demanded Whether upon the declination of the Small Pox if there be any danger of an Asthma or Consumption to be contracted it be safe to let blood or in order to better convalescency I profess it may safely and prudently be done for Revulsion before the humours â—e more radicated and 〈◊〉 there and the Disease become incurable for this is an infallible sign that the Disease is not well terminated and then those Rules which oblige us not to intermeddle with any perfect Crisis or indication are infirm conclude us not Oftentimes we see Rheumatismes and Botches to ensue and they shew that all the morbifick matter is not ejected Besides in order to a better convalescence if Phlebotomy have been omitted in the beginning and that the recovery is likely to be slow I think and 't is said to be the judgment of Avicenna that it may be done and I have seen it practised with a much more happy success than ever I saw Purge given in that time But in this last case I referre it to every mans judgment to act as he please and request only that they would not condemn others of a different practise from what they follow After all this discourse of bleeding in the Small Pox I must conclude with this intimation that in sundry cases and some habits of body 't is possible that Phlebotomy may be supplied by Cupping-glasses and Scarification and I profess that were the Scarification of the Aegyptians mentioned by Prosper Alpinus and frequently used amongst the Ancients admitted into our practise I should frequently prefer them before any Phlebotomy Being in Iamaica I observed that the Spanish Negroes there did much use them and during my sickness of the Colick bilious I had the curiosity to have them tryed upon me in the beginning I observed that they were as indolent as Prosper Alpinus and Mannus do relate them to be but no blood almost ensued thereupon whence they presaged to me a long and violent sickness saying that all the water of my blood was translated out of the veins into my bowels yet I have seen them to extract one from another a pound or more as they pleased But I find my self wearied with the prosecution of this Letter and the sickliness of the season permits me not leisure to carry on the debate unto the Scurvey But whosoever examines attentivâ—ly that disease will be easily satisfied that it may be beneficial and oftentimes absolutely necessary to the cure thereof In those Countries where it is most frequent and where the Climate bears a great correspondence with ours this is the practise as you may see in Forrestus I add the Authority of Claudinus Ioel who prescribes the repeating of Phlebotomy at least three times Rembertus Dodonaeus Severinus Eugalenus Balthasar Brunerus Henricus Brucaeus Baldassar Timaeus who also reiterates bleeding several times Platerus Sennertus Baldwinus Ronsseus Io. Wierus Salomon Albertus Matth. Martinus Gregor Horstius Valentinus Andreas Mollenbroccius and the Colledge of Physicians at Coppenhagen in their advice for the Scurvey published by Bartholinus I might add others to this Catalogue but that 't were needless 'T is true that in the Scurvey many do not bear well large Phlebotomy but that is not the Question 't is enough that they minute venae-section and that reiterated doth agree well with them â— and is oftentimes so necessary to the cure that the omission thereof doth frustrate the most efficacious Medicaments The Disease generally ariseth from an obstipation of the Pores and such an alteration in the texture of the body as the Methodists would bring under Adstriction and therefore it seldome occurreth in hot Countries except the wind suddenly change into a cold quarter and a multitude of Cures are recorded wherein Phlebotomy hath been the leading Remedy The sick do frequently bleed at the Nose and Emrods c. and since in distempers of the Spleen I find Phlebotomy commended 't is not to be denied in this case without some special contra-indicant which I am not yet acquainted with I think I have in the precedent discourse enervated all that M. N. hath maliciously and ignorantly suggested against Phlebotomy neither do I know one passage in him that can raise any scruple in the breast of a judicious person but I must particularly caution him not to give too much credit to the dotages of Thonerus a man of little note in his own Countrey nor to go about to delude the World with Fables as if the Northâ—rn Climates did not suit well with Phlebotomy whereas it is notorious that no Nations do bleed more largelyâ— nor more frequently than they I will not insist on what they do in their natural or artificial Bathes with Cupping-glasses and Scarifications whereby they extract many ounces frequently every year they applying ten or fifteen Cupping-glasses with Scarifications which sometimes they repeat twice in one hour As to Phlebotomy in Denmark nothing is more common than whensoever the Almanack recommends bleeding for every man almost to sâ—ep into the Barbers-shop and having bled to go about his business which custom though Bartholinus condemn yet doth it evince the general use thereof in time of health and who can doubt but that they who bear it so well whilest free from any Disease but a tincture of the Scurvey might endure it in sickness did not
Pay the usual Contributions All the mistake of mine was that I supposed him to have payed Admission-money and so to have been heretofore of the R. S. Whereas He never payed so much as that and the Finess is more manifest that they pick up a company of men and desire they would augment the Speciousness of their Catalogues and ducquoy others and they will ask no more of them The excuse of Ecebolius is the more unpardonable because at our Enterview at Bathe I told him this very thing before Doctor F. C. I forgot to take notice of one passage in Ecebolius abâ—ut Flavius Goia that He invented the Compass He acknowledgeth that it is a mistake but 't is an errour of the Press it should have been Flavius or Goia He is confident it was so in his Copy and that he was sensible of the mistake committed about it elsewhere But I am confident the mistake was not in the Printer but Author for in his Plus ultra He doth make Flavius Goia of Amalphis to be the discoverer of the Compass whereas all the best Writers say the inventor was either Flavius of Amalfi or Iohannes Goia or Gira of Melfi FINIS Cassiodor Hist. Hen. 7. p. 9. take notice that this Book hath no Index Joh. Wierus observat l. 2â— de Sudore Anglico sect 8. and sect 14. Signa morbi hujus breviter talia sunt Frigus horror sudor faetidus cum magna angustia caloris sensu circa cor pâ—ctus praecâ—rdia etiam palpitatu cordis calor Rubor tumor faciei cum dolore capitis multi etiam dolore lumborum teneantur alii ventris alii stomachi alii aliis in partibus dolores percipiunt Ludov. Septal. de peste l. 1. c. 21. Carolus Valesius Dubourghdieu de peste c. 14. p. 227. This boâ—k also hath no Index Describit hanc pestem Erasmus harum calamitatum spectator in epistola ad Carolum Utenhovium citante Forresto in Schol. observ 7. lib. 6. Caâ—ol Valâ—â— ubi supra J. Wiâ—rus ubi supra sect 9 He speaks of its original in relation to Germany wheâ—e it fiâ—st appeaâ—ed at that time Cornel. Gemâ— Cosmocrit c. l. 1. c. 8. Laevin Lemniuâ— de complâ—xion l. 2. c. 2. fol. 110 111. I. Wierus ubi supra sect 15. Tho. Cogan's Haven of health p. 272. I. Wierus ubi suprâ— sect 10. 〈…〉 l. 2. â— â—3 Hippocr Aph. sect 1. aph 20. â—um notis Vâ—llesâ— Sennert de â—ebr l. 4. c. 15. de sudore Anglico I. Wierus ubi â—upra sâ—ct 7. 〈…〉 de 〈◊〉 c. 24. Heuricus â—â—rentius in Petr Paaw de pâ—ste c. 4. p. 72. This book 〈◊〉 no Index Isâ—râ—à Diemâ—râ—brook de peste lib. 1. c. 14. p. 19. edit ultimâ— Vide Valleâ—ium in praef comment in Epidemia Hippocr Ruland de febre Hungar c. 8. qu. 1. Fernel de morb occult lib. 2. cap. 11. â—ul Palmar de Febre pestilenti c. 2. Ludovic Septal. de peste lib. 1. c. 2. Neucrahtzuyn de Purpura c. 9. pag. 106. Zacchia qu. medico-legal lib. 3. tit 3. Qu. 1. sect 23. Mercatus de febr l. 9. c. 1. Anton. Sarracen de pest nat pag. 6 7 8. Th. Jordan de pest phaenom tr 1. c. 2. p. â—â— I suppose 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gremâ—s Arbor integr ruinos lib. 1. c. 6. de meteoris sect 2. sect 5. Hiâ—poâ—rat sect 3. aphor 6. Langâ—â—s ep mâ—d l. â—â— ep 19. Io. Becherus physic subterran l. 1. sect 5. c. 2. sect 29. Hippocr sect I. â—phor 23. Vallâ—sius in Aphor. 23. sect 3. Prosper Alpin de praesag vita mortâ— l. 7. c. II. â—r Vâ—llesius mâ—â—hod med l. 2. c. 13. Sepâ—al de peste l. 5. c. 20. p. 45. I. I. Becherus physic subter l. I. sect 4. c. I. sect 7. H. Lavateâ—us Defens Galeniâ— adv A. Salam p. 81. Odorde's poor mans Physician p. 89. I.I. Becherus ubi supra Iac. du Bois in praef scripti adv Wittichium What resemblance is there betwixt this disease and that of the Griping of the Guts Sennert Iustit medic l. 3. part 3. c. 10. Fr. Valles Controv. medic l. 15. c. 3. Prosper Alpinus de praesag vita morte l. 6. c. 3. Ludov. Septal. Animadvers l. 3. sect 60 61. Th. Cogan's Haven of health p. 273. With this relation of T. C ' s. do agree both Polidore Virgil Hollinshed and Hâ—ll in their Chronicles of Henry 7. Wierus observ l. 2 de sudorâ— Augl G. T. Vindic. of the Lord Bacon p. 3â— Lacuna in 〈◊〉 Galeni Iâ— Vossius de Philos. c. 12. sect 19. Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let D. M. take notice here that there private Arcana such as the Quacks pretend unto concealing the Medicamâ—nts and others by that name published in Print in Crollius Schroder and others In his Pâ—eâ—â—ce to the Reader he sayes He doubts not the time will come yea is not far off that a Phlebotomist as he hath characterized him will be looked upon as little better than a Broachotomist a 〈◊〉 throaâ— Galen de Sangu miss c. 2. G. Th. of the Blood p. 19 20. Ibid. p. 22. â—bid p. 1 2. and 34. Ibid. p. 2. Some peoples flesh will not heal upon the least cut notwitâ—standing this Sanative quality in the Blood â—et are several glandules sweeter to taste than the sanguincous fleshly parts of Animals What becomes of the duumvirate then And may I not ask if the Spirits be nâ—t the immediate Instruments of the Soul Ibid. p. 5. If God and Nâ—ture inâ—enâ—ed the blood for so pure and homogeneous a liquor why did they produce man with such a fabrick that the chyle several ways tinged should mix with it in the sub-clavian veins Ibid. p. 6. C. Hofmann de Ichor sect 12 13.9 Th. Scheuck de sero sangu câ— 1. Glisson de hepaâ—e c. 45. Charleton Oâ—câ—â— Anim. 〈◊〉 9. sâ—ct 7. a Glissoâ— Anaâ—â—epat c. 45. Quipâ—e tota 〈◊〉 Lympha 〈◊〉 expeâ—ientia compertum est deâ—sior minusque pellucens interdum Iâ—ctis instar albescons oliqâ—onâ—o susflava nonnunquam loturae caâ—niâ— simdis Vide Charlton ubi supra b Centies facto experimento vndi semper serum ipsum non modo leviter iâ—crassarâ— sâ—d agglutinaâ—â—â—ieâ—â—â—qnt memâ—â—aneum H. Barbaâ— diss de sangu sero pag. 16. c Tâ— Bartholin Spicileg p. 71. M. Begdanâ— apolog adv Oâ— Rudbek â—ect 116. Vide Hofman de Ichoribus sect 71 c. â—r Willis de â—erment c. 6. Kerger de fermentaâ— sect 1. c. 11. Evenis capitiâ— nunquam â—alem mâ—câ—aginem affluentem vidâ—mus creâ—â—ius venis brachiâ— â— pedum autem venis creberrimâ— in majo i eopia 〈◊〉 fundâ—m medic de 〈…〉 p 259 p. 87. p. 6 7â— p 18. Vallesius method-medend l. 2. c. 4. Horat. Augen de miss sangu l. 9. c. 24. Petrus Câ—stel de abusu Phlebot pag. 73. Alex. Massaria Apolog. l. 11. disp 11. c. 14. Fernel Physiolog l. 6. c. 7. River obs