and tamed is thereby rendered more fierce and wild or that they pass but onely into the Veins and Arteries Nay it often happens that the Agitation which they make in the several parts of the Body pervert their Action and do extremely weaken the Patient and carry off too much Bile which is the balm of the Chyle and Bloud when it is not irritated 13. Whether Vomitives be Febrifuges Vomitives are sometimes necessary for the sick of Fevers but especially when the sick person finds in himself a disposition to vomit because they discharge the Stomach of those impurities which hinder it from doing its office and evacuate the matter which would augment the Ferment so that they are not Febrifuges but by accident Nay they are very often dangerous because they do much fatigate the Patient weaken the Stomach and sometimes open the vessels of the Lungs In a Quartain particularly you must make no use of them when it hath continued too long because the Ferment being glutinous and infilterated into the first Region cannot be dislodged without violent efforts if they are mild they do but cause an emotion or disturbance and if they are violent they put the Patient in danger of his life unless he be of a very robust Constitution And herein I think my self obliged to give the Publick this Advertisement That they be very cautious how they commit themselves to those Barbers Empericks and Mountebanks who promise to cure all Diseases with a little Powder or a little clear insipid Water because these Medicines are for the most part Antimonial and of the most violent which are put up in a little room or Water wherein they have boiled Vitriol or Arsenic or Reagale which never operate without causing a furious Irritation or Convulsion of the Stomach And if they do carry off the Fever yet do they leave behind them impressions of heat in the Visera pains in the Stomach and spitting of Bloud It were but just that the Judges of the Court established for the punishment of Poysoners should take cognizance of such as kill the sick by these Poysons Though they may say that a small quantity of these Drugs is not capable of poysoning yet I will maintain that when they give them to persons of delicate Constitutions who die of it one may justly say that they have given them Poyson Besides that under pretence of these dangerous Remedies it would be easie for a Poysoner to augment the quantity of his Dose and then say he gave it onely for a Vomit 14. Whether the making ones self drunk with Wine or Aquâ Vitae will cure a Fever Wine drank to an excess causes a great ebullition in the Bloud and often drives out by different ways the cause of the Fever and some have been so cured but this is not an Example to be imitated for one ought to be very well assured of his own strength and the resistance which a body already grown feeble with the effects of the Disease can make against the effects of Drunkenness as it may be either a Lethargie Pleurisie or Death it self so that he must neither have common Sense nor any the least tincture of Christianity that would preserve the health of his Body by a dangerous Remedy to the prejudice of that of his Soul I leave it to others to think whether a man dying drunk die in a good condition As for Brandy we shall leave it to the Hollanders who have accustomed themselves to drink it and so can better support the effects they drink it commonly before the cold Fit which it may possibly lessen but must needs render the succeeding hot Fit more intense and violent And when they would quite rid themselves of it they drink whole pints which has sometimes good success upon Seamen and other robust bodies 15. Whether are Mineral Waters Febrifuges 'T is certain that Mineral Waters are a great help towards the cure of Intermitting Chronical Fevers but you must observe that 't is those Waters particularly which are hot and impregnated with a niterous salt like that of the Antients and with some sulphur as those of Bourbon l'Archambaud and Vichy This I observed in them in the Journey I made last Spring with Monsieur Garnier the Son and Monsieur de Ville my Collegue In this Journey I say we throughly informed our selves of all that ought to be believed of these great Piscines from which indeed many sick people return very much relieved but we found that they were not universal Remedies as several Historians have written who have rather applied themselves to the making a description of the magnificence of the Bathes Vases and Buildings that belong to them than to perswade us by repeated Experiments of the Salt and of the Mineral wherewith they are impregnated And when they undertake this whether it be that they understand not how to make the Analysis or that they believed that one single Salt could not be capable of producing so many effects one while they tell us that they are impregnated with Niter Sulphur and Vitriol altogether another while they tell us that 't is with Sulphur Vitriol and Alum After all this they tell us that they are impregnated with Iron Niter and Vitriol whereof they are pleased to give us no other proofs than the pretended Cures done by those Waters But if happily for us they had set about it as did the learned Monsieur du Clos and after him Monsieur Fouet a Physician of Vichy they had spared us the trouble of a Journey of six or seven weeks to examine the Waters of about thirty Mineral Springs arising thereabouts of which one cannot rightly make use without first having taken the pains to visit them and anatomize them by several Experiments Hereby may one avoid the confusion of seeing his Patients return from the Waters in a worse condition than they went thither And had not the most part of our Physicians been herein so often deceived the wittiest Comedian of our Age would never have made it the subject of his publick Raillery But to return I say that the Waters of Bourbon l' Archambaud and those of Vichy provided one know how to use them and that great care be taken of the state and condition of the sick are often Febrifuges by reason of their niterous Salt wherewith they are impregnated and the sulphurous and balsamick parts wherewith they are inriched By this Composition I say the Acidity of the Lympha is very much sweetned the nutritive parts are fortified and the natural heat restored to its former state the obstructions of the first Region opened and in fine what remains of surcharge and sediment in the whole mass of Bloud is thrust out from the centre to the circumference by Transpiration Sweats and Urine Yet nevertheless if before the use of these Waters the sick be not duly prepared or be subject to a defluxion of sharp Serosities upon his Breast or to Obstructions of the Hypochondres
sensibly hot The same may be said of many other Liquors of which I shall say nothing in this place since it may be seen at large in a book of Dr. Grews of the mixture of Liquors translated into French by Monsieur Mesmin a Physician of Paris Another proof which to me seems convincing is that the Chyle mixing it self with the Bloud causes every day naturally even in the most healthy a certain shadow as it were of a Fever which differs not from a real Fever but as more and less For half an hour or an hour after Meals as soon as the most subtile part of the Chyle or but the vapour which by its fermentation it drives before it doth insinuate it self into the Bloud it causes a coldness in the hands and feet which is taken for a signe of Health In some it produces Yawnings and a desire of Sleep with a Pulse less and more frequent than ordinary Here you have the beginning of the Fever This cold being past there succeeds a heat all over the Body which is very great in the palms of the hands and soals of the feet of such as are of a Cholerick temperament and at the same time the Pulse rises and beats stronger Here you have the state and vigour of the Fever Four or five hours after Meals when all the Chyle is mixed with the Bloud and has receiv'd a part of its perfection from the circulation the Heat diminishes the Pulse comes to his natural state and Appetite returns Here you have the declination of the Fever If after this one stay twelve hours or more without eating any thing the Pulse becomes extreamly slow and the vigour one had diminishes Here you have the state of a man when the Fever is almost past But as the Aliments wherewith we are nourished are not all alike and our Temperaments different which is the reason why some have little or no Cold that others feel a great heat after Meat and are lighter or heavier all which has relation to the different accidents or symptoms which accompany the Fever If the Chyle find the Bloud too much subtilized or exalted it produces a lingring Fever which may be particularly perceived after Meals This causes leanness and a considerable falling away in the Patient By this may be understood the reason why Coffee and Thea taken after Meals hinders those from sleeping who are subject to sleep unless a common custome of drinking one or other of them render them ineffectual because by their bitterness and moderate heat they dissipate the over-thick fumes of the Chyle This also conduces to the understanding what the Naturalists say of Lions and Goats that they have every day a Fever for as they are of a Temperament hot and dry their Chyle has the greater disproportion to their Bloud and in mixing it self with it it procures a greater Combat than in other Animals Pliny makes mention of one Caius Maesenas who had all his life long a Fever and never slept a moment during the three last years of his life On the other side Deer that are of a cold and dry Temperament and by consequence their Bloud less apt to ferment never have any Fever as the same Author says He adds that certain Ladies having accustomed themselves to eat Deers flesh every morning lived very long free from Fevers This Ferment in intermitting Fevers has its seat in the Glandules of the Velvet-coat of the Stomach and Intestines described by Monsieur Payer These Glandules have each their little Channels of Excretion through which they discharge a very lympid Serosity which is of the same nature of the Lympha which circulates through the whole Body and this subtile Liquor joyned to that which is constantly furnished by the ductus Salivales and to the Pancreatick juice serves for a ferment and dissolvent for the Chyle This Dissolvent being too acid communicates to the Chyle its Aciditie even as Acids cause a Coagulation in Milk so that the Chyle entering into the Veins and Arteries and not being capable of being perfectioned by the ordinary circulation when a quantitie thereof great enough to produce a Fermentation remains in the Bloud more violent than that which happens after Meals the fit of the Fever begins and continues until this sharp Chyle be dissipated and driven out by Sweat or insensible Transpiration Now according as this Ferment is in greater or less quantitie or the Bloud more or less susceptible of an Effervescence Fevers become Tertians double Tertians or Quotidians Quartains or double Quartains So the Cholerick having their Bloud more boyling and subtile fall commonly into Tertian or double Tertian Fevers Hence it is that the Antients have said and 't is in some measure true That Choler is the cause of Tertian Fevers both intermitting and continual for there is reason to believe that that which causes an Intermittent causes also a continual Fever of the same kind seeing that every fit of an Intermitting Fever is as it were alittle Continual Fever and a Continual as a long fit of an Intermittent the fit of this beginning continuing and ending almost as a Continual Fever The continuity proceeds from this that the Chyle introduced into the Bloud could not be perfected and by consequence the mass of Bloud could not furnish a Ferment fit to make the digestion of the Aliments perfect 'T is also to be observed that the mass of Bloud acquiring a more acre and inflamable disposition the Chyle although natural produces also a Continual Fever which is a thing to be noted in the practice of Physick for then bleeding and cooling Aliments and Medicines will be more convenient and above all such Acids as calm the agitation of the Bloud by thickning and cooling it and by precipitating the sulphurous parts which maintain the Tumult This being thus laid down it will not be difficult for me to answer many Questions that may be made about Fevers and Febrifuges And First Whence come the Shiverings in Fevers and why are the Shakings greatest in Quartains The Acid Liquors thickning the Bloud among which they beging to mix themselves hinder it from communicating its heat to the parts and the Bloud the more distant it is from the Heart the less hot it is This is the reason why the Shiverings begin at the Extremities of the Body and continue until by the efforts of the Heart and Arteries to purifie the Bloud by their redoubted pulsation all that fume be dissipated the heat of the Bloud violently agitated succeeding the cold fit The Ferment of Quartains is more acid and glutinous and the Bloud more gross which causes most commonly the Cold to be more violent And as these Vapours often have much acrimony in them they sometimes affect the membranous parts by which they pass in such manner that the Patient suffers pains as if one stuck Pins in his Body Those who have their Bloud subtile and the Chyle more gross have their Fits without any
considerable Cold. 2. Whence proceeds the heat of Fevers which succeeds the cold fit whence the thirst pains of the Reins and Head-ach The heat proceeds from the irregular motion of the Particles of the Bloud which is composed according to the Observations of the English by the Microscope of an infinite number of little red Globules swimming in a clear water for the heat of all Bodies proceeds but from the motion of their several Particles The thirst proceeds from the heat which consumes the serosity of the Chyle The pains of the Reins which accompany sometimes the cold fit sometimes the hot are caused by the ebullition of the mass of Bloud in the great Vessels lying along the Reins The Head-ach is the effect of the violent beating of the Arteries of the Brain against the Membranes that encompass it so those whose Bloud rises higher or beats stronger or who have their Membranes more sensible have also more of the Head-ach than others 3. Why are melancholy People which abound with acid humours less subject to Feavours than others Because the mass of Bloud being infected with this Acidity and unapt to ferment and the Chyle though it often contract an acidity in the Stomach yet produces it no Fever as being of the same nature with the Bloud for two Liquors that are not contrary one to the other do not ferment together no more than two Friends whose Sentiments are agreeable do quarrel and fight So that you need not wonder if in cold Countries they be less subject to Fevers than in hot Climates and if those whose Bloud is more gross and melancholy are less attacked by Fevers than others This made Hippocrates say That those who have sharp Winds are not very subject to the Pleurisie because their Bloud is more gross and so less apt to precipitate it self with violence upon the side to cause Inflammation I remember I saw at Monpellier a Dane who in a Fit of Melancholy had cast himself out of a Window two stories high into the street and had with the fall broken his legs and arms This man during his whole Cure had no Fever at all 4. Whence is it that Fevers are more frequent and more obstinate in Autumn than in the other Seasons of the year 'T is because the preceding Summer has rendred the Bloud too inflamable and more susceptible of a Fever besides that the inequality of the Season helps much to corrupt the Chyle Further Fruit coming in now in abundance produces in those that eat much of it a Ferment that causes long and obstinate Fevers particularly Quartains which sometimes continue from one year to another according to the Sentence of Hippocrates and the old method of curing them Pliny says that Quartains begin not in Winter and indeed it is but very rarely that they do But the temperature of the Seasons is uncertain for sometimes we see in the middle of Winter days like those in the Spring or Autumn 5. How is it that Tertians change into double Tertians and Quartains and Quartains into Tertians Tertians change into double Tertians and Quartains into double Quartains when the Chyle becomes more disproportionate to the Bloud and these two Liquors not agreeing together do justle one another the oftener Tertians become Quartains when by a too cooling Diet or cooling Medicines unseasonably given the Ferment becomes sharper or sowerer and the Bloud thicker On the other side Quartains change into Tertians when by a too hot Diet or Medicines the Ferment and the mass of Bloud become more subtile and more inflamable And generally Intermittents may be changed into Continuals by an ill Regimen and over-hot Medicines which makes all the Ferment pass into the Veins and renders the Bloud too susceptible of an Agitation of long continuance And Continuals become Intermittents when Nature strives to disengage her self from this Ferment in precipitating it into its first passages as after the ebullition of Oyl of Vitriol and Oyl of Tartar there is precipitated to the bottom of the Glass a white matter which we call Tartar Vitriolat 6. What is the cause of the regular Return of Fevers Though there be something inexplicable in the return of Fevers which is sometimes as certain as the flux and reflux of the Sea I say that it seems probable that it proceeds from the equal portion of Aliments which is taken and of the Chyle which is made For those who eat too much cause the Fit to come sooner though indeed it might come sooner for other reasons as when the Bloud heated by the preceding Fits becomes more susceptible of Fermentation On the other side it comes later when less nourishment is taken or when the Ferment begins to grow milder In fine there are some Fevers that are both uncertain and unequal as to their Returns which is a mark of disorder either in the Orgains or in the mass of Bloud which renders the cure of such Fevers more difficult and more subject to Relapses and this may be called a Symptomatick Fever as is that which proceeds from Obstructions 7. Why comes not the Fever upon the sick soon after Meal The reason will easily appear if you do but consider that the last Fit of the Fever has dissipated and driven out by a considerable Transpiration and sometimes by a copious Sweat a great part of the Acidity of the Lympha that produced these disorders So that immediately after a Fit it is not strong enough nor in quantity great enough to give to the Chyle a certain degree of Acidity which may produce when it is mixed with the mass of Bloud that Fermentation and Emotion which we call a Fever But this Ferment having recruited its forces and being augmented both by time and the Aliments taken will not fail to give battel to the Bloud as formerly Those who have any knowledge in Chymistry and have made Observations on the Opperations of Nature will easily be of my Opinion for they will have observed that a long Fermentation is required to make a Liquor that is sweet become acid and that there must be a certain quantity of Liquors one contrary to another to produce a Fermentation that is considerable By this one may give a reason why those who observe no Regimen and forbear nothing that they imagine will gratifie their Appetites cause the Fit to come sooner and to continue longer On the contrary those who govern themselves regularly are sooner delivered from that domestick Enemy At the same time may be seen the reason why the Fever ceases if the Ferment be changed by a Medicament contrary to its nature and which may reduce it to its first state and that without any considerable evacuation Had I been minded to make a Book rather than a kind of Letter I should here have made some Observations upon the Nature and Origine of Acids and upon the difference of Fermentations but since these things are so learnedly treated of by D'Willis and Monsieur Maiow I should
effects And Nature teaches us this way in malignant Fevers in making deposition of sharp humours where the Gangrene takes hold particularly among the Muscles of the Os Sacrum to which the heat of the Bed which heats that part contributes much And sometimes this which at first seem'd a thing of ill presage is the Cure of the Sick by the suppuration and expulsion of the malignant humours which Nature hath produced and that Art durst not have attempted So it is by the drawing out these sharp Serosities that Vesicatories promote the Cure of Fevers 21. Whether are Medecines applied to the Wrists with designe to put away the Fever Febrifuges These sorts of Medicaments to which the People give so great credit are for the most part a kind of Vesicatories as being compounded of Salt Vinegar Gunpowder Nettles Soot the Root of Ranunculus or Crowfoot Garlick and other such-like Ingredients They are sometimes more troublesome than Vesicatories because they are applied to the Wrists which are rather membranous and nervous than fleshy Some are made of Drugs that have not this quality to ulcerate the skin yet may communicate to the Bloud a healing and precipitating quality as those made of Camphire and Aqua Vitae or of fixing in some sort the Bloud or those made of Spiders Webs with Snails or Shepherds Purse which is an Astringent Plant. However we see no great success of this kind of Medicines unless the Imagination of the Patient be strongly moved by those which apply them promising a quick and infallible Cure And it may be also that they have not recourse to these but when they are weary of other Medicines which have half cured the Patient The Fever perhaps ceases two or three days after the application of these Medicines which it would accordingly have done had they never applied them These may indeed be of some use for Children who refuse to take any internal Medicines and whose Bloud is more susceptible of the impressions of an external Remedy 22. Whether Centaury or Germander be Febrifuges These Plants are extremely bitter yet one is willing to do any thing to be rid of so troublesome a Companion The Country-People use the Decoction of them to drive away their Agues Many Authors make great esteem of the less Centaury to which they have given the name of Febrifuge And Diascorides doth very much commend Germander in Tertians so that we need not doubt but that they are good when methodically and duely administred yet does it not seldom fail of producing the effects expected from it either because it is unseasonably given or else given to People of too delicate Constitutions wherein it stirs up Heat and Thirst Further they have not all the qualities of a true Febrifuge which ought to be at the same time Diuretick Diaphoretick or Sudorifick to drive out the Ferment Balsomick to repair lost Strength Styptick or Astringent to fortifie the Fibres of the parts sometimes Narcotick to calm the too great Agitations of the Bloud and also a true Alkaly to dull and break the points of the Acids Hippocrates gives the Root of Pentaphillam or Cinquefoil in Tertians but unless that Plant had greater Vertues in Greece than in France it could not effect the Cure although it be somewhat Astringent He also adds that if the Fever cease not the Patient must take the juice of Trefoil with that of Silphium in equal parts of Wine and Water mixed 'T is pity that we have lost the knowledge of that famous Plant called Silphium or Laserpitium which the Antients cried up for a Remedy against so many Diseases Pliny writes a whole Chapter of its Vertues It grew in Lybia and the figure of it may be seen yet upon a Medal of the Cyreneans where it has some resemblance to Apium or Seleri as Theophrastus and Diascorides have observ'd in their Works of Plants Hippocrates would have the juice of these Plants given in pure Wine in Quartains from which it may be observed that he did not so much fear to give Wine in Fevers as do most part of the Physicians of our times though they boast themselves to be his Disciples He also prescribes in this Fever Garlick pounded and mixed with Honey which should heat much more than Wine Diascorides and Serenus Sammonicus add to it Punaises to render the ragoust more excellent The Medicaments which the Antients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Febrifuges were generally composed of hot Ingredients as may be seen in Galen Marcellus and Trallian 23. Why does the breaking out of the Lips shew that the Fever is past Because it is a signe that Nature or Medicines have made a considerable Effort to drive out the sharp and acid Ferment of the Fever which in passing has made impressions upon these parts being delicate and spongy And for the same reason the Itch breaking out in a Quartain makes it cease and striking in again makes it return This ought not to hinder from purging the Patient after the Fever to evacuate the Relicks which neither Sweat nor simple Transpiration were able to carry off and which might cause a Relapse 24. Whence come Loathings and bitterness of the Mouth after Fevers Loathings proceed from the disorders of the Stomach which has not of a long time rightly done its office or from the Ferment of the Stomach which the heat of the Fever and frequent drinking have dissipated and washed away Bitterness of the Mouth is caused by the fumes which the boiling of the bloud in the Veins and of the Chyle in the Stomach has left and which have insinuated themselves into the Tongue being a very spongeous part for no body but knows that Smoak and Soot are bitter So that there is no necessity of attributing this bitterness to Choler which is often unjustly accused 25. Why do Milk-meats raw Fruits and new Wines often cause a Relapse of Fevers Milk-meats new Wines and raw Fruits abound much with acid Particles which in a weak Stomach separate themselves and renew again the former disorders of the Fever So that it was well said of Pliny That fresh Grapes are naught for the sick of the Fever yet it falls out sometimes by accident that they cure a Fever being eaten in a great quantity at the time of the Vintage because they commonly cause a Diarrhea which carries off all the ill humours and the Leven or Ferment of the Fever The same things may be said of low Wines as of new Wines because its Tartar or else its Lye being remixed with the Wine hath made it sharp and by consequence hath rendered it proper to renew the Ferment And for the same cause the Patient should for some time after he is cured forbear Pastry Meats salt Meats and Ragousts or compounded Dishes which are commonly made up of sharp biting and fiery parts These raise a tumult in a weak Stomach without being perfectly digested they fatigate the parts destined for the digestion and heat the mass
then the Waters which abound in Niter meeting with a mass of Bloud very sulphurous and inflamed will not fail to raise very impetuous motions and to change an Intermitting Fever into a most acute Continual and so reduce the Patient to the last extremity as may be seen every day in those who neglect the Advice of an able Physician 16. Whether Theriaca Orvietan and such-like cure Fevers It may happen that Bodies that have been well prepared by bleeding purging and other means wanting strength and vigour have been holpen by a dose of Theriaca or other hot Compositions which subtilize the humours But as People give these Remedies without indication or method it happens oftentimes that the Bloud is thereby rendred more apt to serment which increases Thirst Head-ach and the Fever it self There are some who cure a Quartain when it is inveterate by rubling the back-bone with Theriaca and Aquâ Vitae which subtilizes the Bloud and helps to dissipate the Ferment by Transspiration But for the most part stronger Machines are required to subdue an Enemy so pertinatious 17. How can Fear cure a Quartain Some have been known to be cured of a Quartain by a sudden fear even when they were shivering in their cold Fit 'T is reported that Henry the Fourth cured one on this manner He had taken a Castle wherein he found a Gentleman in a Fit of a Quartain Ague the King made as if he had been in great anger and looking upon him told him he 'd dispatch his Fever presently and call'd for a Paper and wrote thus Quartain Ague I conjure thee By the long Beard of Mercurie Out of this Body thou dislodge As from hence has done Desloges The poor Gentleman who thought the King was writing the Sentence of his Death was seized with so great a fear that the Fever left him 'T is the effect of the extraordinary agitation of the Spirits which subtilizes the gross bloud of Quartains Nevertheless this is a Remedy not to be used for if the Fear be but ordinary it is not capable of producing the desired effects and if it be great it may cause Death for there are many that die of Fear either suddenly or some small time after by the disorder which it raises in the whole Oeconomy of the Body 18. Why are Fenny Morish and Moist places most subject to Fevers Because out of these places there is a perpetual Exhalation of acid Corpuscules which by respiration mix themselves with the Bloud and so communicate their Acidity to the Lympha which produces different sorts of Fevers according to the disposition of the Body This may be seen in Iron which in all moist places contracts Rust in a very short time and every body knows that Rust is caused by all Acids And further if in moist grounds there be vaults which may stop those Atomes they become considerably furnished therewith and afford us Saltpeter which is so acid that out of it they make Aqua Fortis Hence it is that going by Water especially fresh water is not good for those People who have Agues as for the Sea-water so far is it from being prejudicial to them that many lose their Agues after their going to Sea because the Marine Air abounds with Saline Particles contrary to the acid ones There are notwithstanding some Sea-ports which are very subject to Agues by reason of the standing Waters about them and the Vapours which arises from thence mixed with those that arise out of the Earth infect the Neighbouring Air. So there is no place more subject to Agues than Alexandretta where almost all that arrive catch Agues and no wonder for the place being very Morish by reason of the breaking down the Harbour and a very high Mountain on the Eeast which hinders the Sun from shining upon it before the day be far spent The most certain and ready Remedy and that which is most practised there is to depart quickly from thence that they may breathe a better Air. So likewise Smyrna which is seated at the bottom of an Arm of the Archipelago having the unwholsome neighbourhood of Marshes is subject to Agues in the Autumn And so the Inhabitants of Lyons seldom fail to catch Agues when they go into the Dombe which is a Country full of Ponds and standing Waters From all this may be drawn practical consequences which may be of good use As for Example it may be good for the sick of Fevers or Agues to be removed out of Ground-rooms and Apartments which stand upon or adjoyn to Rivers and to cause those who by an ill Air have taken an Ague to change the Air. 19. Whether the skin within the shell of an Egg tyed to the end of the Finger or a live Tench applied to the Back-bone or to the soal of the Feet can cure an Ague These are the Remedies of the Country-people which having perhaps cured one of a hundred are ever after employed as if they had some specifick quality yet how often do we see their inutility If they have cured any 't was either by the force of the imagination of the Sick or by the pain which their coldness and binding them upon the heated nervous parts caused The pain causing an extraordinary agitation of the Bloud even to that degree that we have seen a person die here of the violent Symptoms caused by the application of a live Tench to the soals of his feet the Tench becomes sometimes black and then the People straight imagine that it is the malignity of the Disease which passes out of the body of the Sick into that of the Fish though it be no more than an effect of the heat and moisture which corrupt the Fish The Antients according to the report of Pliny had some Febrifuges a great deal more ridiculous and superstitious which he himself laughs at as the paring of Nails which they were to seek for before the rising of the Sun and apply them with Wax to another mans door and into this mans body the Ague was to transmigrate For Quartains they took three drops of Bloud out of the vein of an Asses Ear which they drank in about a gallon of Water the Liver of a Cat kill'd in the wane of the Moon and salted and drank with Wine before the Fit For all Intermitting Fevers they took the Eye-tooth of a Crocodile and filled it with Incense and tyed it to the right arm of the Sick Diascorides saith also that three Spiders pounded and put in a linnen cloath being applied to the Forehead and the Temples cure the Tertian Ague 20. How do Vesicatories cure Fevers and particularly malignant Fevers In Holland they apply Vesicatories to the arms thighs and legs not onely in malignant Fevers but also in simple Tertians The French who are more delicate will scarcely suffer them to be applied unless it be in case of a Delirium Lethargy or Convulsions 'T is true the Remedy is somewhat cruel but yet it produces great