could that Fume excite such horrid Phoenomena's Answer Thus The Stalk being hollow within and perforated onely with a very small hole and also outwardly compressed on every side by the Boys hand the more volatile and less cohering Particles were forced from within outward but seeing all those could not at once pass out together the one urged the other and so were driven out far more swiftly No otherwise than as we see Water forced out of a Syringe though the Pistil be but gently or very slowly thrust forwards or as we discern by an easie compression of the sides of Bellows the Air through the Pipe or Nose thereof is driven out with very great force But some one may perhaps ask me of what nature those dusty Particles are To him I answer They are Accido-corrosive and sharply cutting That such Acid-Particles are in this Stalk is sufficiently evident by the frequent use thereof in stopping Bloud For when a small part of this Stalk is put into a sanguiferous Vessel wounded the Bloud is stayed partly by reason of the stringy Particles folded one within the other and closing the Orifice of the open Vessel and partly by reason of the Acid-Particles of that hollow Stalk which coagulate the Bloud as Milk is coagulated by an Acididity infused Therefore these Acid-Particles with great force driven through the aforesaid Stalk deeply penetrated into the Pores of the Eyes and interior-Superficies of the Eye-lids and so with their cutting sides excited the Nervous Fibres there dispersed to a motion more vehement by which Vehemency the Mind first perceived the sense of pain which was augmented by that Distention which took beginning thus The Pores being obstructed by the Particles of that Stalk the Vapours wanted their natural Exit and so were collected within the small Pipes of the Membranes in the form of Humour which in a very short time waxed sowre by reason of the Acid-particles of the said Stalk acting as a Ferment no otherwise than as we see any sowre Ferment taken in a small quantity to convert a great mass of Dough into its own Nature These Acid-Particles I say with the acuteness of their sides forcibly striking upon the Nervous-Fibres drew to those parts a more copious influx of Animal Spirits than usual whence arose certain slight Contractions which notwithstanding proved sufficient in some measure to impede the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours circulating through the small Veins of those circulating parts For they were in this case helped by the Vapours within the Veins of those parts converted into Water When the Bloud conteined in the Capillary Vessels and the Humours in the Veins were thus stagnized they likewise in the aforesaid manner waxed sowre and were coagulated and by that means rendred more unapt for Circulation Hence it is sufficiently manifest whence the Redness and Tumour of the Eyes and Eye-lids had their Original But whence proceeded that continual efflux of sharp Tears From the aforesaid the true cause thereof is easily gathered and it is thus Certain Acid-Particles forced from within that hollow Stalk had entred the Pores of the Glandules and Lachrymal Vessels and there by their irritation exciting certain Convulsions did continually force out Tears But whence were they imbibed with a more than usual sharpness There is no mortal Man who by the taste onely finds not Tears to be Saline wherefore these in their passage with the acid Particles there inherent were invaded with a certain sudden Effervescency These things being by me for some small time considered of I soon ceased to admire that that Fume should be the cause of so great Evils thence ensuing and also at that time discerned that the Cure would not be difficult For I knew that hot Milk coagulated by an Acidity if digested with some fit Salt would again be dissolved in the space of one hour Like wise I knew Vinegar was easily deprived of its sharpness by infusing Crabs-Eyes or Lithargyry therein Also I understood the reason of that Effervency which is excited by commixion of the Saline Oyl of Tartar with the Acid Oyl of Vitriol Hence I concluded that the Bloud coagulated by Acidity might again be made fluid and the sowreness temperated by Crabs-Eyes Lithargyry and many other Medicines containing much Salt such are White-Vitriol Gum Ammoniac Sagapenum Galbarum c. Therefore I being called the third day after the Boy was hurt instilled hot into his Eyes some Drops of a certain Collyrium compounded of White-Vitriol and other things mixt with convenient Waters and upon the Eye I applied a Plaister of Gum Ammoniac Galbanum Sagapenum Lithargyry c. spread upon a Linnen-cloth This I changed daily twice and commanded the Boy should be kept in a dark place by which means in the space of two Weeks he recovered his pristine Sanity OBSERVAT. II. Of the use of an Issue and its way of Operating A Young Maid Thirteen years of age had for several years been afflicted with dolour and redness of her Eyes and tumour of her Eye-lids which after sleep were closed together by a viscous Humour concreted into a Rosin-like matter This Ophthalmy for a long tract of time was attempted to be cured by two Surgeons but not overcome I being afterwards sent for judged the cause of the Disease to be the too great Acidity of the Bloud and a Ferment of the same nature produced from that Bloud and firmly inherent in the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids there causing the Bloud in the Capillary Vessels and the Humours in the small Veins to become too acid and be coagulated and stagnized For from these few signs it was not difficult to judge of the aforesaid apparent Symptoms Moreover I firmly perswaded my self that the Maid might soon be cured provided that Acidity could be temperated and expelled by the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids and that acid Bloud purged out of the Body wherefore I used a Collyrium consisting of Medicaments containing much Salt and besides that applied to the Eyes a Plaister made of like things But I did little good by this method for so soon as any part of that Ferment was rendred temperate and cast out shortly after a new Ferment arising from the Bloud succeeded in place of the former Seeing this I for several weeks purg'd the maid twice a week but in vain At length I found the Assertion of the famous Silvius which is written in the first Book of his Praxis Chap. 2. in the 26 Section to be most true viz. That there are scarcely any purging Remedies at least known to us which can purge out acid Humours from the Bloud Finding the matter thus I judged it high time to betake my self to the searching out of better Remedies and whilst I was occupied in consideration thereof the following Experiment came seasonably into my mind and it is this When you have a Compound of Water and Oyl mixt and would separate the one from the other proceed thus If you would
are and how difficultly they can be consolidated also hence whence proceeds Bloud excreted with the Urine when the Reins are wounded is easily understood Whilst I am speaking of the Reins I call to mind a certain Question often bandied about among Physicians viz. which way the Drink a little after it is assumed cast out by the Urinary passage can come so soon into the Bladder or whether it first comes to the sanguineous Mass or not touching the Bloud presently and immediately hastens to the Reins or Bladder The latter seems more probable and is confirmed by the following Experiment If a Vein be cut in any one a little after he hath eaten Garlick or Asparagus neither the Bloud extracted nor the whey-like Humour floating above it shall have either the odour or taste of the Garlick or Asparagus eaten when in the mean while the Urine shall manifestly exhibit the odour of Garlick or of Asparagus Now whether this Urine pass out through the Pores of the Stomach and Bowels from within looking outward and through the Pores of the Bladder from without looking inward under the form of Vapours having surrounded the Cavity of the Belly and so at length is conveyed to the Bladder or rather hath its tendency thither by a peculiar passage I shall not at this time dispute though the latter Opinion seems to me most probable Wounds inflicted in the bottom of the Bladder are very full of danger but those that wound the fleshy neck of the Bladder are oftentimes consolidated by reason of the abundance of sanguiferous Vessels and multitude of small passages conveying the nutritious Humors This is what we daily experience after the exection of Stones viz. that though those wounds be healed yet sometimes the Urine flows from the sick involuntarily by the Yard the reason of this is because in Section and Extraction of Stones not a few Fibres of the Spincter Muscle of the Bladder are cut in sunder and broken But if in the Cavity of the Belly some of the small Lymphatick Vessels be wounded may not an Ascites be by this means produced What shall I say such a case seems not to be impossible though I cannot remember that I have in my practice seen any such thing or elsewhere read of it Dolour of the Testicles in perilous wounds of the Abdomen is a sign of approching death as the most experienced Parey testifies I have here hitherto spoken of wounds of the Abdomen inflicted from without there is yet a Wound remaining to be spoken of which is inflicted from within viz. as when in an Ascites the Navel bursteth partly from the great distention of Water and partly from the acuteness of the cutting Particles floating upon that Water So I remember an Hydropick Maiden-Child aged five years which her Navel being after the aforesaid manner burst dyed in a few days after In such a disruption of the Navel diligent heed is to be taken that the Water flow not out too fast therefore here must be prescribed an Apozem prepared of Guaiacum Sarsaparilla and other things Some affirm that if the Moon shine upon a wound whatsoever it be that wound cannot be healed without difficulty but whether this be true or no I know not It is certain that the cold Air hurts wounds but whether that be more injurious when the Moon shines than at any other time is indeed what I have not as yet experienced Mr. Blankard in his Medico-Physical Collections saith that Spirit of Wine mixt with Spirit of Sal-Armoniac doth very much profit in Wounds and so saying doth not a little confirm my Opinion whereby I judge Acidity hurtful in every wound and that our principal care ought to be employed in correcting that OBSERVAT. IV. Of an Artery of the Arm wounded A Souldier Forty years of age was wounded with the point of a Sword in his Arm below the Cubit from which wound the Bloud issued with great force and indeed with intermediate stops as if forced out of a Syringe by intervals That Artery was wounded which is touched when we feel the Pulse of the sick We have known Bleeding at the Nose to kill some and have read that the hasty flowing out of Bloud after Extraction of a Tooth hath killed others If the opening of such very small Arteries can infer Death into how great danger of life shall the Aperture of so great an Artery precipite the miserably-wounded party Therefore because so great danger is sited in delay I judged the Cure was to be presently set about and accordingly so soon as I came I applied two Lints pleated together cross-wise a little above the wound over them putting a sufficiently strict Ligature Then to the wound with Lint I applied the following Medicament mixt with the White of an Egg. ℞ Root of Tormentil ℥ ij Acorn Cups Galls of eachʒj ss Mastich ℥ ss Bole armenac Terra sigil of each ℈ 14. Mix and make a Powder In the mean while the Patient often took two Spoonfuls of the following Mixture ℞ Water of Plantane ℥ ij Of Roses ℥ j. Sugar perlate ʒiij Sanguis or Sanguinis Draconis ʒss Terra Sigillata ℈ ij Salt prunell Gr. 25. Laudanum Opiat Gr. 3. Make a Mixture The Bloud thus stopping we did not unbind the Wound before the third day and then from the Wound issued out a little Pus but no Bloud Thus was this wound so very full of danger with the help of a good Digestive very well consolidated after the manner of other wounds in two Months space This Wound was very dangerous but would have been much more perilous if it had been inflicted above the Cubit because there is found one onely great Artery which below the Cubit is divided into two sufficiently large Branches so that one of them being closed by Art the Bloud may freely pass through the other It sometimes happens that the Bloud from an Artery wounded below the Cubit running out with great force cannot be stopped in the above-prescribed manner therefore at such a time certain Iron-Instruments must be used which I have always by me though I cannot in words well give a plain Description of them I remember two that were by this means cured by my Father So also I have by me an Iron-Instrument by the help of which my Patron Consul and Ordinary Physician of Stenovicum as he told me had happily stopped the Bloud flowing out from the Artery Carotides in the Neck of a Fox wounded Therefore forasmuch as wounds of the Arteries are so very dangerous as we see I thought good in this place to subjoyn a double caution The first is that we do not after the manner of the Ancients in dolour of the Head and other affects attempt to use Arteriotomy about the Temples Forehead or elsewhere For greater benefit from the opening of an Artery than from the simple cutting of a Vein is not to be expected Secondly Least judging an Aneurisma to be a vulgar Abscess we unawares cut
Oleaginous Volatile Salt xxv drops Make a Mixture Using this Lavament for one day and finding little benefit by the use thereof I scarrified the parts affected and washed them with Unguentum Egyptiacum mixt with Spirit of Wine I did not at all fear any damage to accrew from the Vinegar which is put into this Unguent because in the boiling that is all evaporated Also I anointed the exteriour Circumferences of the affected parts with Oyl of Tyles called Oyl of Philosophers Lastly I applied a Cataplasm of Rue Wormwood Dittany of Crete Root of Galangal and Calamus Aromaticus Flower of Lupines Metheglin and other things temperating Acidity By use of these aforesaid Remedies good Pus began to be generated which by its gently cutting Particles brake in sunder the remaining intermediate Fibres which as yet had retained the dead and living flesh together and by this means the parts affected with the Gangrene were separated Seeing this I applied Common Turpentine mixt with Basilicon and the White of an Egg by which all the viscous Particles were removed which were otherwise wont to obstruct the Pores of the Arteries and cavities of the Veins By this means several Particles came forth from the Arteries and adhered to the Ulcers by reason of the similitude of their Superficies and soon after all the Ulcers were discerned to be filled with flesh then I applied dry Lint scraped and in a short time induced an Eschar by that onely For that imbibed all the Pus which otherwise would have corroded and wholly closed the Orifices of those tender Vessels Thus our Patient was compleatly restored to her pristine sanity Octob. 21. OBSERVAT. IV. Of a Sphacelus of the Foot A Man of Seventy years of age that had all his life-time devoted himself to Wine and Venery and by frequent intervals was afflicted with a Spasmus of his right Leg in the year 1681 February 22 was invaded with a small Fever not vehement On the 26th day of February his prostrated appetite seemed to return wherefore on that day he twice eat a great quantity of very sowre Butter-milk and the same day about nine at night he began to complain of a very great pain of his right Foot and soon after of a Stupor and great coldness of the same and the same Dolour Stupor and Algor in two hours space ascended above the Knee The 28th of February I was called and by Scarification found that the Sphacelus had ascended an hands breadth above the Knee for so far was present that extream Cold and Rottenness and in Scarification no sign of Dolour appeared nor did any Bloud issue out except a very little very black and coagulated breaking out in one part or other Very attentively considering all these things I concluded that the abuse of Wine and Venery had rendred the Bloud of this Man its more subtile and more volatile part being absumed too viscous and acid and when certain acid and viscous Particles of this Bloud were by Circulation come to the right Foot perhaps they there stagnized and afterward pertinaceously adhered and by their stay there acquired greater sharpness These Particles inferred no Dolour so long as they remained unmoved but when by intervals they were forced from their residence by the Humours circulating and by them excited to motion then they became the cause of the Spasmus of the right Leg irritating and cutting the small Fibres of those parts and so gave occasion to a greater afflux of the animal Spirits But the continued excess of Wine and Venery had left scarce any thing in the Bloud of this man except a Caput-mort as I may call it that is nothing besides Bloud very viscous and acid which could no longer duly exercise its proper effervescency in the Heart nor circulate through the parts yet this Bloud when it had by a small Fever received greater motion and was rarified more than usual did sufficiently open the Pores of the Arteries so that many acid and viscous Particles issued out and stayed without and this hapned rather in the right Foot than elsewhere because there resided the acid and viscous Ferment which caused the Acidity and Viscosity contained in the Bloud to draw nigh to it self in such a way as we explained in the Second Observation and perhaps a great cause was that abundance of acid Butter-milk eaten because this happened the 27th day of February rather than at any other time Those acid and viscous Particles that passed out from the Pores of the Arteries on the 27th of February setled in the Veins of the right Foot and conjoyned themselves with the acid Ferment therein contained and there by the acuteness of their sides impressed on the small Fibres a very vehement motion and so produced that Dolour but the small Fibres being not long able to sustain that violence were soon after wholly cut in sunder and by that means the sense of pain notwithstanding the Scarification then made was totally annihilated and the broken Fibres infolding themselves each within the other had so obstructed the veiny passages of the right Foot that the Bloud and Animal Spirits could not enter this was occasioned by the coagulation of Humours in the Foot produced by the aforesaid Acidity Hence I discerned the Original of the Sphacelus of his right Foot also that it must needs take beginning from Acidity is confirmed by that black and coagulated Bloud which in scarifying had its Exit For every man knows that the Bloud waxeth black and is coagulated by Acidity This Sphacelus had by this time transcended the Knee and soon after a little above the part affected the Patient felt an intolerable pain I considering with my self the fore-passed dessolute Life of the Sick-man his Age his Leg above the Knee infected with this Sphacelus and his whole Mass of Bloud grievously tainted and moreover calling to mind that I never knew any Old men infected with this Disease to escape did boldly predict the inevitable death of the Patient yet in the mean while I promised I would mitigate the dolour as much as I could and if possible prevent the further ascent of the evil In order hereunto I commanded the Patient should every two hours take two spoonfuls of a mixture tempering Acidity consisting of Borrage and Bugloss-water Treacle-water Sugar-perlate Crabs-Eyes Coral Mineral Bezcardic and other things infringing Acidity and attenuating Viscosity Also I caused a Decoction to be made consisting of Water Wine Roots of Calamus Aromaticus and Enula Campane with Rue Dittany of Crete Wormwood Flower of Lupines c. which I applied hot with a double Cloath by which Application some ease of pain was induced For the Acidity inducing dolour by its accuteness was thereby rendred more temperate Therefore when the Cloath was dry I again moistned it in the same Liquor and this reiterated Application I continued for several days Now when the 7th day of March was come I saw that Down or Mossy Lanugo which
is vulgarly called Mouldiness or Mucor dispersed through the whole internal part of the Leg from the Ankle to the Knee and had I at that time had at hand a good Microscope I might have there discerned many Plants with their Stalks Leaves and Flowers in excellent order disposed springing up from the Leg of the man yet living no otherwise than as a Fungus or Mushroom is wont to arise from the Earth The Sick-man in the mean while eat not any thing and was every day afflicted with a Fever often coming and vanishing At length on the 14th day of March at four in the Morning he slept well his Pulse before death often intermitting which also may easily be understood to proceed from Acidity But his whole Mass of Bloud was infected therefore here Phlebotomy could in no wise be admitted for three days before the Sick-man died his left Foot also from the great Toe to the Ankle was infected with a Sphacelus and both his hands for 24 hours before his death were cold as Ice though after return of the Fever they again waxed warm Now that to this Evil I applied convenient Remedies will I suppose be very apparent by this viz. that the Sphacelus which at first good advice being neglected had in four hours space ascended from the great Toe to above the Knee after the application of my Remedies had not ascended in the space of two Weeks above one hands breadth OBSERVAT. V. Of an Erysipelas of the Leg. A Man Forty years of age was invaded with a Fever which vanished the 12th hour after the Assault then the Sick-man began to complain of pain and redness of his right Leg. In some solid part of this man lay hid a a certain acid Ferment which by some cause or other was thence expelled and forced into the Mass of Bloud in which it excited that Inimical Fermentation which is known by the name of a Fever But when that Ferment was circulated with die Bloud perhaps certain Particles thereof stagnized and inhered within the Cutis of the right Leg which Particles in a short time compelled all the other Particles of that acid Ferment to recede from the Bloud and approach to them almost after the same manner as one Magnet causeth another to approach to it self Those Particles there inherent and sufficiently corroding the small Fibres excited dolour in the Leg But the Redness took beginning from the Bloud stagnized in the Capillary Veins by reason of the coagulation beginning and proceeding from Acidity as we perceive a sufficiently intense redness in the Face when the Neck and Veins there contained are by a Collar or any other thing too much constringed To this affect we give the name Erysipelas But how came the Fever so soon to vanish when the Erysipelas appeared I answer Because at that time the Sanguinous Mass was freed from that acid Ferment which then passed into the Leg. This Disease I entirely cured in two days space with one onely Lavament temperating the Acidity which consisted of Spirit of Wine Camphire Lithargyry Chalk Salt-prunella c. being firmly perswaded that these Phoenomena's had derived their Original from Acidity OBSERVAT. VI. Of Varicous Vlcers of the Leg. A Virgin aged Forty years having for a long series of time devoted her self to an ill habit of Diet and among other inimical Foods she too much delighted to eat things viscous Vinegar and other sowre things in the Summer-season also often putting her Feet into cold Water she had now for Fifteen years been afflicted with a Varix of her left Leg extending it self from the Sole of the Foot up to the Knee and also with two Ulcers nigh the inward Ankle of the same Leg deep sordid and very dolorous and for the most part filled up to the top with a certain sharp and thin matter and often having round about them an Erysipelas attending Many Physicians and Chyrurgeons for a long time in vain attempted the cure of these Ulcers yea also that most famous Practitioner of Feium Lord of Cranenburg From the too great quantity of acid and viscous Meats assumed the Bloud of this Maid was rendred gross and apt to stagnize wherefore a certain portion thereof conveyed to the left Leg there stayed and resided about the small Valves of some Vein the Membranes of which by a great abundance of Bloud there congested were so distended that the Humours passing out from the small Arteries dispersed among the Membranes of that Vein for among the Membranes of the Veins you may by a Microscope discover small Arteries Veins and Nerves and undoubtedly there are also present small Lymphatick Vessels and wandring through the small Cavities of the same Membranes could not freely pass but stagnized there and thrust themselves between the Interstitiums of the small Fibres in so great abundance that they not onely enlarged those Interstitiums but also denied passage to the Animal Spirits from the small Nerves gliding into the aforesaid small Cavities and otherwise in some sort constringing the Vein and in it producing a certain Peristaltick motion for promoting the Circulation of the Bloud in the Vein and so the Bloud in that Vein in some sort stagnizing and above measure distending the Membranes thereof was the cause of the aforesaid Varix But why should that Varix rather present it self to sight in the Leg than elsewhere I answer Because die Veinybloud must there ascend by a Perpendicular way to the Horizon and besides this way is in some measure closed up by the Garters we are wont to use to retain and keep up our Stockings so also the same was here occasioned by this Maids too often putting her Feet into cold Water Therefore the Bloud in greater abundance than was fit congested in this Vein distended the less resisting parts of the Membranes of the same more than other more gross parts and so formed to itself certain Recesses and especially about the small Valves in which die Bloud now of its own nature become much too acid contracted to it self a greater Acor because it stay'd too long there without Circulation But many of the more acid Particles of this Bloud penetrated the more distended and consequently more rare parts of die Varix that is through those Recesses and so the small Fibres being there irritated and afterwards cut in sunder great dolour was excited and soon after two very painful Ulcers which by the breaking of more-small Fibres were rendred very deep Those acid Particles pertinaciously adhering in the pores of the Lips and bottomes of the Ulcers they converted the as yet sincere Humours into acid which being unable to continue their Circulation were by the Humours continually following them forced outwards into the Cavities of the Ulcers which they usually filled almost up with a sharp acid and thin Humour yet not so thin but that in the mean while certain more viscous and more stringy Particles were mixt therewith which with their strings entangled each within
the other and sticking in the Superficies of the Ulcers rendred them very sordid Thus far we have explained how certain and acid Particles have passed through the aforesaid Recesses unto the near adjacent Flesh now 't is time to observe that many more acid Particles were from those Recesses forced into the sanguineous Mass circulating with which they entred into the Ulcers rather than into other parts by reason of the acid Ferment lurking there after the same manner as we shewed in the Second Observation Thus was the abundance of acid Humour filling the Ulcers and from them proceeding augmented The Erysipelas which for the most part surrounded the Ulcers derived its Original also from the Acidity there inherent When I had for sometime well weighed all these things in my mind I at length converted my endeavour to the cure of the Varix as the first Original of the Evil which if in things profitable it be lawful to use the Terms of Art may be called the Procatartick or primitive Cause therefore from the Varix opened with a Lancet I drew forth several ounces of stagnized Bloud acid and black Then I proceeded to the sanguineous Mass infected with the acid Ferment which may be called the anticedent Cause according to the subtilty of die Wits of our time which more regards the Pomp of vain Words than things themselves and by a good Diet instituted began to correct that prohibiting all things viscous and acid by a Powder temperating Acidity daily taken consisting of ℈ j. of Crabs-eyes and the same quantity of White Coral After this I set about the Ulcers themselves in the bottoms and Lips whereof lay hid an acid Ferment which if it be the pleasure of some may be called by the Name of a Conjoyned Cause The principal thing that remained for me to do was to temperate and remove that Ferment and gradually and without sense to depress the Lips of the Ulcers to the bottom for from this last business I promised to my self a threefold Utility First I knew that the cavities of the Ulcers being thus removed none of that acid and at least in some part Viscous Humour could be there collected which by reason of its viscous and stringy Particles had before rendred the Ulcers sordid and through its acid and cutting Particles daily more and more excavated them there being always in the Cavities of them a great abundance thereof continually congested But if this Humour have access to the Ulcers it must be cast out presently after its coming there to the sides of the Ulcers their Lips being strongly depressed by some hard and heavy Body superposited Secondly I was certain by this means to restore the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours in which is sited a great part of the cure of Ulcers For the Lips of the Ulcers being not prominent as before over the Superficies of the bottoms I could discern it was possible to be effected that the Humours circulating through the small passages contained in the Lips of the Ulcers which before by reason of those passages obstructed did flow into the Cavities of the Ulcers would now find out their own way through other passages in the bottoms of the Ulcers and so again renew their Circulation which cannot as before be impeded by the ambient Air because that is sufficiently repelled by the same body which depresseth the Lips of the Ulcers that being sufficiently thick solid and hard to answer my purpose Thirdly In cure of Ulcers and Wounds I have often observed that an Eschar to be generated never took beginning from the Center or any adjacent parts of Ulcers or Wounds but always begun from the extremity of the ambient Cutis by reason of the similitude of Superficies which is found between the Cutis and the Eschar Hence I firmly perswaded my self that the Ulcers first freed from their acid Ferments and Filths and rendred plain in the aforesaid manner their pristine Circulation being restored would in a short time be covered with an Eschar Therefore I prepared certain fit Medicaments temperating Acidity to resist the peccant Ferment lying hid in the Ulcers and that as the saying is I might with one Brush whiten too Walls I formed of them two Cakes sufficiently hard and thick and somewhat larger than the Ulcers so that they would also cover a small part of the Lips and those I laid upon the Ulcers and with a sufficiently strict Ligature firmly bound them on and left them so for 12 hours which being elapsed I could soon discern that the hope I had of them conceived failed me not For I found the Ulcers wholly plain freed from all filths and conspicuous with a pleasing redness and little or nothing painful Whereby being almost wrapt into admiration I concluded that the acid Ferment in the Ulcers for the most part was and the remainder would in a short rime be temperated After a few days Circulation being restored certain well-known Particles passing out through the Pores of the ambient Cutis firmly adhered to the extremity thereof having a like Superficies with the Cutis it self Thus we plainly understood the certain Rudiment of that Eschar which had in the space of five Weeks fully closed either Ulcer for it every day increased more and more Afterward I every year once opened the aforesaid Varix and drew from it lib. j. of Bloud by which means those Ulcers never after opened any more In the mean while to the Erysipelas which I had almost forgot I applied a four-doubled Cloath moistned in a mixture prepared with Water of Elder-Flowers Spirit of Wine Camphire and Saccharum Saturni for temperating the peccant Acidity which being effected all Symptoms of the Erysipelas ceased together with the burning before induced by the acid Particles when with the acuteness of their sides they oftner than usual invade the small Fibres But whence was it that these Ulcers could not be healed in so great a space of time by so many Physicians and Chyrurgeons though men well in years I answer Those men by reason of their age contemning the solid Reasonings of others would never approve of any thing but their own experience Experience without true Reason can profit little For as among a thousand humane Faces no one is found exactly in all things like to another so among so many Diseases there is not one which in all things wholly agrees with another Moreover it is very credible that the Bloud and internal Parts of one man do no less differ from the Bloud and internal Parts of another than the External Whence again ariseth the various Temperament of men the variety of which requires various Remedies and besides Experience sound Judgement in the Physician that he may know how to make choice of this or that and other Remedies instead of either Now plainly to shew the Case as it is those Physicians and Chirurgeons directing their Conceptions according to a certain vain and unprofitable Theory and Philosophy could neither
Superficies did adhere and were aglutinated and so formed an Eschar which covered the Wound and drove out that fibrous and white Matter But because it was so thick that it prohibited the Celestial Lights therefore the fight of that wounded Eye remained lost But in the mean while this Eye as to bulk scarcely differed from the right Eye though it had cast out no small part of the aqueous Humour when the Wound was first inflicted because certain smooth and slippery Particles flowed through the Pores of the Arteries into that Cavity in which the aqueous Humour is contained and so supplied the defect of that Humour In time of the Cure I always abstained from cold things because they obstruct the very small passages and Pores of the Eyes For the same cause I here also reject fat things being such as with their small Branches do so profoundly and pertinaceously infold themselves within the most small Pores of the Eyes that you cannot without very great difficulty expel them again But why could not this Wound be sooner healed I affirm this happened partly through the errour of the Chyrurgeon and partly of the sick Lord himself For he too much indulged both Venery and Wine whence his Bloud was very much disturbed and what was so disturbed in no small quantity ascended upwards as by a more strait path and there struck upon the obstructions of the wounded Eye which notwithstanding by reason of their pertinacy it could not break and by this means the dolour increased Besides in most deep Snow falling from the exceeding cold Air of that Season he would sometimes ride on hunting whole days with his right Eye against my will open and hence the Obstructions were rendred yet more pertinaceous and numerous The Chyrurgeon who for the first three days applied Medicines to the Wound erred in this viz. that to that fibrous matter which impeded die afflux of the aqueous Humour and therefore should not have been taken away he applied sharp things which the Eye it self cannot bear also to the remaining part of the Eye he applied cold things to stay the afflux of Bloud and Humours as he himself said But are you ignorant good Sir that this afflux of Bloud and Humours is to the Eye and also to other parts both natural and necessary and had your Medicaments operated according to your wish a Gangreen would certainly have immediately followed You see Bloud and Humours in greater abundance than is fit to be present in the Eye but you reason amiss when you think this to be caused from a greater afflux than usual whereas it rather proceeds from Obstructions which prohibit the reflux of Bloud through the Veins and of Humours through the Lymphatick Vessels whence the Bloud and Humours were in greater abundance collected into the Eye stagnized and waxed acid Wherefore you should rather have applied things temperating Acidity which would also have been convenient for taking away the lividness of the Iris and Pupil produced by the clotted Bloud For it is certain that clotted and coagulated Bloud cannot be restored by cold things but are unavoidably rendred more gross and the peccant Obstructions by this means not removed but augmented But before I put an end to this Observation there remains yet one Phoenomenon to be discoursed of relating to Wounds It is undoubtedly true That the Cause being taken away the Effect ceaseth But why then the Sword Knife or any other thing wounding being taken away is not the dolour in the wound presently removed but sometimes persists very long Dolour in the part hurt is not unless there be a Concussion of the small Fibres more vehement than usual which cannot be unless by another body put into motion Therefore what shall I say of the dolour which sometimes is portracted whole days yea whole weeks after the Wound is inflicted when the Sword Knife or any other thing wounding hath been long before laid aside Let me circumspectly consider whether I can find any thing that can excite the small Fibres of the wounded part to a greater agitation than usual Behold I have found it When certain small Fibres are cut in sunder by a Sword then suddenly they crisp up on heaps and obstruct the small passages of the wounded parts so that the Humours cannot freely circulate but strike upon those Obstructions whence is excited dolour which still increaseth when those Humours begin to wax acid and with their cutting Particles yet more and more irritate Besides many small Fibres which before were covered with skin after the Wound inflicted are exposed to the ambient Air which affects them with more vehements trembling than is fit whilst it communicates somewhat to them from its own motion by which indeed it is continually and powerfully enough agitated OBSERVAT. VIII Of a Suppurated Tumour also of Rottenness of a Bone A Young Maid ten years of Age afflicted with a burning Fever soon after the Fever felt a pain and quickly after that a Tumour in her Shoulder which was of the same colour with the skin and somewhat hard The Bloud more than usually agitated by the Fever from the recesses of this or that solid part washed off many acid and viscous Particles which circulating with the Bloud did part of them pass out from the Pores of the Arteries at that time too much dilated by reason of the heat of the Fever into the small passages about the Shoulder sited far within the Cutis in which passages they adhered and excited dolour whilst with their pricking sides they more vehemently than usual made a commotion and by this means in some measure distorted the bordering passages whence also the Humours there stagnized which though they were before pure by a small delay there waxed acid hence also the Bloud stagnized in many Capillary Vessels but so deeply sited within the Cutis that the redness could not be apparent through the skin and therefore appeared of the same colour with the Cutis But whence was that hardness of the Tumour for it was Liquor that was contained therein and such liquor as being fluid and gently touched with the hand offering no resistance could not be judged either hard or soft A great quantity of liquor is contained in an Apple and may be pressed from it yet in the mean while it is found to be somewhat hard because that Liquor is very much divided and abides separated in severall small passages and Pores of the Apple distinct each from other Therefore the hand touching the Apple meets with the first small passage whence the Particles of Liquor in that contained do indeed in some measure recede but approaching to the subjacent passages they find resistance Hence the hardness of the Apple is made manifest and by consequence also the hardness of the Tumor Therefore being perswaded that in this case the viscous Particles obstructing and the acid cutting and irritating I judged nothing could be more conducent for altering them than things aperient
I have often observed in fat Boys a Vein presently after the usual Ligature to be sufficiently tumid and manifest but if not quickly opened hath soon disappeared viz. when the Bloud pressed downwards the subjected and readily-yielding Fatness that so notwithstanding the Ligature it might again freely pass through the Vein After the cutting of a Vein when the Vein seemed sufficiently closed I have often beheld the Bloud issuing out thence with great violence and indeed from no other cause than that the Chyrurgeons first applied their Ligature and Lint compressing and afterward inbowed the Arm For by this means the Lips of the Orifice which before in the extension of the Arm were conjoyned again separated each from other when the Arm was inbowed Oftentimes a certain Lividness is found left after the cutting of a Vein the cause of which is too frequently the evil use of Vinegar in which is imbibed the Lint compressing which is put upon the Aperture of the Vein whereas it is indeed sufficiently manifest that the Bloud is coagulated by Acidity and acquires a Livid and black colour Before I put an end to this Observation I think fit to add the counsel of Peter Pigraeus that we may thence if possible reap some further benefit That very famous and most dexterous Chyrurgeon commands that after the cutting of a Vein the Aperture should be anointed with Oyl if it be intended again to extract Bloud the same day from the same Orifice without a new made Aperture But if Oyl can though for a short time applied hinder the closure of the Orifice of a Vein cut how evilly do they act who use Oyl in the cure of Wounds and for no other reason than because they have seen the same thing done by their Masters As for Example Oyl of Saint-Johns-Wort For if Saint-Johns-Wort profits Wounds by reason of its Volatile Salt temperating Acidity why do they not rather extract the Tincture of Saint-Johns-Wort by Spirit of Wine into which it much more easily and more copiously transfers its Volatile Salt than into Oyl which hurts Wounds because that obstructing the Pores and Passages stops the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors whereas that Circulation should rather be excited to which excitation Spirit of Wine is not a little available For it egregiously temperates Acidity which usually coagulates the Bloud and Humors in Wounds and renders them unfit for Circulation But least I should be found too prolix in this matter I here put an end to this Observation OBSERVAT. V. Of the Cracking of a Tendon A Woman aged Forty three years after greater Labour than usual in her right Hand suffered an impotency to motion with Tumor and Dolour and when the Tendon sited in the Hand was pressed with the Finger it gave a sound This is an Affect which often occurs in the Practice of Chyrurgy though it hath hitherto been treated of by no man that I have heard of therefore I shall call it Crepitus Tendinis or the Cracking of a Tendon By this Woman's unaccustomed Labour the Fibrils of the Tendon were so distorted that the Humors impeded in their Circulation there subsisted and were coagulated whence the Impotency of Motion Tumor Dolour and Cracking of the Tendon were most readily induced I feared that the Humors stagnizing in the Tendon would be daily more and more coagulated and thence that Tumor take beginning which is known to many by the name of a Ganglion Yea I suspected that certain Particles of the subsisting Humors would be received within the Pores of the Fibrils compounding the Tendon and obstruct them so as in the Third Observation of this Decade we shewed to be apt to render them too propense to induce both Contracture and rigidness of the Tendon Wherefore judging it high time to set about the Cure I ordered Spirit of Wine to be enkindled in such wise that the Vapour arising thence might surround the hand affected and this being done commanded a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury to be applied By this means the coagulated Humors were dissolved the Obstructions removed and the Patient in a few days restored to her pristine state of health OBSERVAT. VI. Of an Haemorrhagia from a Varicous Vlcer of the Tibia IN the right Tibia of a Woman aged Forty years from an Internal cause an Ulcer was formed upon a sufficiently large Varix which yielded to no Remedies This Evil was also attended with a Tumor and a large Erysipelas very troublesome which in like manner could not be removed by any Medicaments After a few days the Varix was unexpectedly opened by the Acido-corrosive Humor there inherent from which issued out at least lib. ij of black and as the standers by affirmed very stinking Bloud I ordered that Placentula in a form somewhat hard composed of Medicaments temperating Acidity which I commended in the Sixth Observation of the First Decade to be applied by the Chyrurgeon and so not onely closed up the Varix but also temperated that Acidity inherent in the Ulcer which otherwise by its corrosion would easily again have opened the Varix and besides have much impeded the cure of the Ulcer It was wonderful to see that after the Varix unexpectedly opened had cast out so great abundance of Bloud the Erysipelas and other Symptomes soon vanished and the Ulcer daily shewed it self in a state more and more meliorated so that within the space of three Weeks by the onely help of the aforesaid Placentula it wholly closed I now intend not here to treat of the Original and Cure of the Varix Ulcer and Erysipelas having accurately enough discoursed of that in the Sixth Observation of the First Decade because a dish of Crambe twice cocted was always deadly to me if to any other man But my intention here is to confirm what I have spoken by Experience and hath been before by me treated of in the said Sixth Observation of the First Decade viz. to shew that undoubtedly the Erysipelas and Ulcer derived their Original from Acidity and likewise how opportunely I instituted the Section of the Varix in that varicous Ulcer of the Tibia But from the Example before-alleadged these Conclusions may easily be drawn for neither the Erysipelas nor the Ulcer would give place to any Remedies so long as that Varix was replete with so great abundance of black and undoubtedly by its long delay acid Bloud which no sooner issued out but the Erysipelas vanished and the Ulcer closed in a short time after OBSERVAT. VII Of a vast Contusion of the Arm. A Matron aged Fifty six years after a Fall from on high complained of an unaptness to motion and very great dolour of her left Arm which appeared very much swoln although of the same colour with the sound skin I perceived by the Pulse a more than usual swiftness of motion in the Bloud viz. by reason of the Terrour which the Patient had conceived by the Fall After we had very acurately inquired into the
must needs be livid and very painful But what may hence be inferred Can cold Water profit in a Contusion It seems more likely to do hurt because it incrassates coagulates and stagnizeth the extravasate Bloud Would not Spirit of Wine and other Medicaments that increase the motion of the Bloud be more convenient in this case That you may the more clearly conceive the solution of this difficulty it is behooful to know that in the parts hurt by the Ball so forcibly driven certain very small sanguiferous Vessels were opened which had they before the Water was applied poured out the Bloud into the small passages of the Parts hurt then the cold Water would have done hurt but this cold Water was applied before the Bloud issued out and so not onely by its coldness again closed these very small Vessels but also was the cause that no new Bloud could for a certain space of time enter the same Vessels So we see our Face to be red for no other reason than because through the Cutis of the same very many small Vessels full of Bloud lie dispersed and discern the same to wax pale by the coldness of Water Air and other things because such coldness for a time prohibits the Bloud from entring these very small Vessels of the Face So we see the pleasant redness of the Lips in a beautiful Virgin augmented by the kiss of a young man to be changed into a pallid colour by Acidity restraining the Bloud from entring the small Vessels distributed throughout the Superficies of the Lips But whosoever he be that will attempt such a way of Cure as this here mentioned after the small passages of the parts contused shall be replete with extravasate Bloud seems to me to be not well in his wits for I have not seldom known a Gangrene to arise in a part contused from the unseasonable application of cold and astringent things OBSERVAT. IX Of an hard Tumor of the Abdomen A Girl Five years of Age accustomed to evil Diet was for a long time afflicted with a very great Tumor and hardness of her Abdomen and her face was very pale The following Liniment had before been in vain used â„ž Vnguent Altheae comp Oyl of white Lillies of eachÊ’ss Of TilesÊ’j Mix these Which notwithstanding in a like case is not a little commended by the famous Sylvius in the first Book of his Praxis Chap. 14. under the Title 56. Well considering the matter I judged the Bloud of this sick child to be very viscous and acid and by reason of this that many Glandules of the Omentum were obstructed and augmented to a strange bulk But which way Paleness of the Face is induced by such Bloud I suppose to be known to every man therefore needs not be here explained Perhaps some one will wonder and not believe it possible that the Glandules of the Omentum should increase to so great a Magnitude as to become the cause of so great and hard a Tumor as was in the Abdomen of this Child perceptible by the touch but I would have him peruse Fabritius Hildanus who in the 62 Observation of his Third Century declares that he opened a Carcass the Omentum of which by reason of the tumified Glandules weighed Fifty six pounds Things being thus I judged nothing would be more profitable than Paracelsus his Stiptick Plaister which I commanded to be applied to the Abdomen after it was spread upon a Linnen Cloath and anointed with Oyl of Nutmegs To correct the viscous and acid Bloud I commanded certain drops of oyly Volatile Salt to be given daily twice a day and by this means our little Patient in the space of a few Months was happily restored to her pristine state of health OBSERVAT. X. Of the Scurvey A Man aged Thirty years every day evily accustoming himself to viscous and sowre Aliments according to the bad custom of the Gelders was afflicted with heaviness and dolour of his hands and Feet his Gums in a great measure consumed would bleed with the least touch his Spittle was in taste salt as Brine Having diligently considered these things I judged the Bloud too acid and viscous to be here peccant which by reason of Acidity inferred that dolour of Hands and Feet and corroded the Gum and its sanguiferous Vessels and by its too great Viscosity did so obstruct the small passages of the Hands and Feet that the usually-free transit of the Animal Spirits into the Muscles was somewhat impeded whence arose the aforesaid Heaviness I speak here of the Animal Spirits for seeing the Liquor that is through the Nerves for exciting motion carried into the Muscle is subtile I know not why this Nervous Liquor should less deserve to be insignized with the name of Spirit than that Liquor which in Chymical Distillation is extracted from Hartshorn But omitting vain Disputes about the Name let us set about the Matter it self This Disease is very familiar in these Regions and is generally known by the name of The Scurvey and is most difficultly cured if in process of time it have taken deep root Wherefore I presently applied my self to the Cure of this Disease seriously commanding the Patient for the future to eat no more acid and viscous Aliments and prescribing the following Medicament â„ž Syrup of Scurvy grass â„¥ ss Of Salt Armoniac distilled with Salt of Tartar â„¥ ij Oyl of Tartar per deliquium Tincture of May-worms of eachÊ’j I commanded the Patient to take 16 drops of this Medicine thrice a day in a Decoction of the Tops of Firr and indeed to the end that the Spirits of Scurvey-grass and Sal-Armoniac and the Tincture of May-worms with the aforesaid Decoction might attenuate the viscous Bloud and infringe the Acidity thereof I added Oyl of Tartar per deliquium that by this means the Volatile Salt of the Bloud subdued and bound by the Acidity might again recover its pristine liberty and so render the Bloud more fluid and more agile As we see the Volatile Salt of Hartshorn or any other Volatile Salt coagulated and conjoyned with an Acid Spirit with the help of an Alkali-Salt and Common Water by distillation to be again restored to its pristine liberty and separated from that Acidity As to the Tincture of May-worms it is to be observed that that ought not to be extracted with the acid Spirit of Salt as Artists are wont to do because by this means the Volatile Salt of the May-worms is infringed and enervated By these Remedies our Scorbutick Patient was cured in a short time But before I put an end to this Third Decade a Difficulty not very small remains yet to be removed I here affirm the Cause of this Disease to be Acidity and in the mean while say the Spittle was imbibed with a Saline taste how do these agree Do they not manifestly contradict each other No. I promise to unfold this Riddle in few words No small quantity of Volatile Salt contained in the
have the Oyl to pass through a Filter of Paper the Water remaining in the Filter you must first anoint the Paper with Oyl but if you would filter the Water onely and have the Oyl remain in the Paper then you must first well moisten the Paper with Water But what is the cause of this Phoenomenon The Pores in Oyl are otherwise figured than in Water therefore that most subtile matter of the World which flows through the branched particles of the Oyl much differs from that which passeth through the moist and smooth particles of the Water Suppose to your self Water put into Paper first imbibed with Oyl and you will easily discern that the same must necessarily be debarred entrance by that most subtile matter proceeding from the Oyl contained in the Pores of the Paper and not able to enter through the Pores of the Water otherwise disposed as also by the most subtile matter of the Water unable to enter the Pores of the Oyl inherent in the Paper But if Oyl hasten to pass through Paper before moistned with Oyl then the most subtile matter of either of them holds parallel and what passeth out from one part enters through another and on the contrary So Oyl approacheth to Paper anointed with Oyl and is filtred through it and if it happen that any aqueous Particles poured in should in any measure obstruct this Filtration they must be removed to the sides and so taken away Often pondering this Experiment in my mind and the reason thereof I at length cut a small Wound called a Fontinel or Issue in the sick Maids Arm and kept it open by a-Pea put in and dairy renewed and by this means many Humours freely circulating through the Veins of the Arms by reason of those passages interrupted by the Wound made concentred in that Issue were changed into Pus and by long staying there waxed acid and like a sowre Ferment infected the Pores of the Veins nigh to the Issue Therefore whensoever certain bitter sweet or other Particles of the Bloud endeavoured to enter the aforesaid passages the Pores of which were filled with that acid Ferment they were repelled by a most subtile Matter every way unlike themselves no otherwise than as in the above-recited Experiment we have even now explained but when the acid Particles of the Bloud approached they had access without repulse and entred the passages nigh the Issue which were before infected with the acid Ferment but if Particles of another nature intruded themselves they were repelled by the same most subtile Matter which admitted the acid Particles like it self to enter those passages imbibed with Acidity no otherwise than as one Magnet is seen to approach to another by reason of particular Rays which proceeding from one Magnet enter the other without impediment and so exclude all intermediate Air. By this means I happily effected that which I had before in vain attemped by Catharticks For the Bloud was daily disburthened of a large quantity of Acidity by the Issue and this Evacuation the better succeeded because what was in the mean time externally allied rendred the acid Ferment more temperate and attracted it through the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids which being too much enlarged and distorted were again restored to their natural state by gentle Astringents This last work I effected with a Cataplasm prepared onely of Wild-Tansey or Silver-weed boiled unto softness in Water For this Herb contains in it self much volatile Salt which first evaporating from the Cataplasm did temperate the acid Ferment and attract it through the Pores but the more gross and astringent Particles which besides its volatile Salt this Herb possesseth came forth last and being gently Astringent closed the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids as was fit almost after the same manner as we see Cinnamon and Nutmeg in a Diarrhaea by their volatile and aromatick Salt first to temperate and extract from the Pores of the Bowels the acid and irritating Ferment and afterward by their more gross Particles with gentle force to constringe the too much dilated Pores of the Bowels and Vessels Thus this young Maid within one month after her Issue was made recovered her pristine state of health and so remains to this day After this Maids Cure was in this manner compleated I cured many others according to my wish OBSERVAT. III. Of a Gangrene IN the year 1680 September 7. A Woman Sixty years of age was suddenly afflicted in her Back Breast and left Arm with many Blisters rising containing a limpid Water and very painful yet in the mean while she could eat well and was not sensible of any internal dolour Therefore she neglected Remedies for two days which being elapsed I was called Then I opened the Blisters and found the subjacent Skin and Flesh black and gangrenenate For that very acid and corrosive Ferment lay hid unmoved and indeed very deep within the Pores of those parts and whilst it lay so unmoved it could infer no dolour because pain is excited by motion of the Fibres of the Nerves more than usual and the Body being unmoved another part cannot move But when that acid corrosive Ferment was expelled from its own Pores by the Humours issuing from the Pores of the Arteries and circulating through the Veins of the Parts very great dolour was suddenly excited and the Humours circulating were speedily coagulated and by that Ferment changed into a corrosive Acidity Now the more slippery flexile and smaller Particles of those coagulated Humours were by the Humours following them driven up to the Superficies of the external Cutis which because the Pores were constringed by the cold Air they could not penetrate therefore elevated the same on high in form of Blisters but the more gross more acid and more ponderous Particles remained in the bottom and so corroded the small Fibres of those parts that the circulating Humours could no more enter into them and hence the Gangrene of those parts took beginning It being now obvious to me that the aforesaid corrosive Acidity was peccant in this case I could readily conclude what Remedies were fit to be applyed viz. Such as I had known to render like Acidities more temperate And because I knew that Spirit of Nitre and the Acidity of Salt would wax sweet by Spirit of Wine adjoyned therefore I made a Lavament of Spirit of Wine to which I added Lethargyry Crabs-eyes Spirit of Scurvy-grass Chalk and other things resisting Acidity I often in a day applied this Lavament with a Linnen-cloth four double and in the mean time the Patient every two hours took two Spoonfuls of the following Mixture temperating Acidity that part of that coming through the Arteries to the parts affected might contribute help to the Remedies externally applied ℞ Water of Bawm ℥ iij. Treacle-water Mathiolus his Aqua Vitae of each ℥ i. Sugar Perlat ʒiij White Coral prepared ʒj Crabs-Eyes prepared ʒj ss Bezoardic Dinerale ℈ j. ss Spir. Harts horn xx Drops
find out the Cause of the Varix nor its Effects much less the Remedy of the same For they deduced almost all Diseases from their Four Humours viz. Choler Phlegm Bloud and Melancholy though in the mean time they understood not what any one of them is or of what Particles it consisted Hence it came to pass that it was impossible for them to find out true Remedies They had much more prudently acted if they had in a special manner had respect to the various Particles of the Bloud which differ each from other in Figure Magnitude and Motion as also to the Acidity and Salt as well as they might have done whether of these holds dominion in the Bloud If it were Acidity then Purgations by the Belly could in no wise be thought convenient In like manner they too much confounded their Conceptions when they thought those Ulcers were first to be cleansed by certain peculiar Medicaments then by others incarnated lastly that again by others the Eschar must necessarily be induced Now that this too anxious distinction is very unprofitable will be plainly evident by this viz. That I with my one onely Placentula in a short time cured both Ulcers Likewise they in the Cure had respect to their own Axiom which saith Contraries must be cured by Contraries and discerning great heat in the Erysipelas surrounding the Ulcers they endeavoured to expel that by cold things which stopped the Bloud and Humours and by that means did in no small measure augment the burning hear of the Erysipelas But these men were abused by their own Axiom which had they endeavoured to make a right use of they should first have considered that burning Heat to be onely the Effect and owned for the Cause certain acid Particles by reason of Obstruction inherent about the Ulcer which with their cutting sides struck the Nervous Fibres with a more than usual trembling and then they had more rightly cured Contraries with Contraries viz. applying such things which they had by experience found fit to resist the corroding Acidity and remove the Viscosity obstructing OBSERVAT. VII Of a Wound of the Eye IN the year 1680 on the 21th day of November I was commanded to be sent for by a young Nobleman leading a Military life who three days before was wounded with a Leaden-Bullet in that part of the left Eye which is between the Iris and Pupil so that the Bullet had penetrated even into the Eye and soon after the Wound made no small quantity of aqueous Humour flowed out I found the Orifice of the Wound closed with a certain fibrous and white Matter The Iris with the Pupil wounded waxed very livid and the remaining part of the Eye thus hurt was intensly red and swoll'n attended with burning Heat and a proflux of sharp Tears The dolour was continual except that it was more remiss when the Patient held his head backward but as oft as he held his head down the pain augmented The Sight of the Eye hurt was wholly lost and the right Eye though it remained untouched was red and much pained A certain Chirurgeon to that matter closing the Wound had applied sharp things and to the remaining part of the Eye cold things This was done three days before I was called It will perhaps seem strange to some that all the aqueous Humour issued not out by the Wound but their wonder will soon cease after they have well weighed and considered the following Reasons First Let them consider that the Bullet in its inferiour part was more strongly forced into the Eye than in its superiour part and so it broke the inferiour part of the Membrane of the Eye the superiour part of that Membrane remaining entire By this means part of the Membrane broken turning inward formed a certain Aperture through which part of the aqueous Humour issued out and in its efflux again turned outward the before turning inward Membrane which then like a Valve turning from without to within not from within outward again closed the Aperture of the Wound and so impeded the out-flowing of the aqueous Humour from die Eye Secondly That fibrous and white shining Matter closing up the Orifice of the Wound falls under our consideration But whence had this Matter its Original Should I now with the Company of vulgarly-learned men fly to the accustomed Asylus of Ignorance I could readily subjoyn a Reply saying onely that Nature was so provident in this case that she in a short time filled up the hole with fit Matter not onely that all the aqueous Humour might not issue out but also that the most cold ambient Air might not penetrate to the parts and endamage them But such an Answer seems to me no less rediculous than if I should ask why in boyling hot Broath exposed to the Air a thin Skin is generated on the Superficies And another should answer The nature of the Broath is so provident that it presently forms a Pellicle on the Superficies of the hot Broath lest the cold Air having access to the internal Particles should hurt them and that the heat in the Broath might be longer preserved and the otherwise flying Vapours retained and constringed within the Broath by the superposited Membrane whereas he should rather have said that many of the more thin parts of the Broath apt for motion having figures fit for the same easily evaporated into the Air and in their flight carried with themselves up to the Superficies of the Broath certain Particles more gross stringy and less fit for motion which their motion being terminated by the ambient Air acquiesced in the Superficies of the Broath where with their small Fibres folded one within another they concreted into that Cuticle which covered the Broath But returning to our purpose we shall by a better right answer in this manner Some Particles passed out from the Pores of the Arteries and circulating in the small passages of the Membranes of the Eye were carried to the end of those passages interrupted by the Wound and so indeed the more thin parts evaporated but certain more stringy Particles prolapsed without the said passages their motion by the extream coldness of the Air at that season being taken away by their stringy Fibres infolded themselves one within the other and so concreted into a certain fibrous and white Matter not unlike to that which is often seen in that Water into which flows the Bloud from a Vein of the Foot or Hand That leaden Bullet could not enter into the Eye but very much contused it and broak certain small sanguiferous Vessels from which the Bloud flowing by reason of the cold was stagnized and infected the Iris and Pupil with a livid colour This Wound could not be made in the Eye but many small Fibres must needs be broken and being broke retire together into Curls and so obstruct many passages in which the circulating Humours accumulated did press the sanguiferous Vessels nigh so that the Bloud in the
Vessels stagnized whence the tumour and redness almost all over the Eye had their beginning The Bloud stagnizing in the Capillary Vessels especially that which lay extravasate in a short time assumed Acidity and then with its cutting Particles sooner than usual and more vehemently shook the small Fibres nigh whence that burning heat and dolour derived their Original Moreover the acid Particles of the same stagnized and coagulated Bloud by their irritation excited certain light Concussions in the Glandules of the Eye whence the Liquors contained in them viz. Tears were expelled almost continually which were more sharp than usual For they being saline in their eflux excited a certain suddain effervescency with the acid Particles of the Bloud stagnized inherent in the passages But the Dolour of which I spake did not onely proceed from the acid and cutting Particles but also from the Leaden-Bullet within the Eye turned now hither and then thither again and this was that Dolour which remitted when the Patient held his head backward because then that Bullet lay unmoved and rested upon the Bony Orbit of the Eye But when the Patient inclined his Head to his Breast then a very acute dolour was perceived because the Bullet was again moved and pressed the wounded part of the Eye A great part of the Pupil was covered with that fibrous and white Matter so that Globuli Coelestes the Coelestial Globes could not enter through the Pupil to excite the small Fibres of the Optick Nerve dispersed through the bottom of the Eye therefore no man hath cause to wonder that the Patient was wholly deprived of the sight of his wounded Eye But it may rather be cause of admiration that the right Eye which was not hurt by the Bullet should in the mean while be vexed with redness and dolour yet I shall endeavour to remove this cause of Wonder There is no man but sometimes experimentally finds in himself that one Eye being moved he can scarcely retain the other unmoved The reason of this is because the Animal Spirits suddenly passing from the Brain through the Nerves into the Muscles of one Eye can scarcely be terminated but some of them will at the same moment of time pass into the Muscles of the other Eye Whence it is manifest that when one Eye is pained that is when in it is present a more vehement agitation of the small Fibres than usual then I say a greater abundance of Animal Spirits by reason of the Pores in the Brain then more open must needs flow not onely into the Eye affected but also into the found Eye in which by this means are produced certain light Contractions which in some measure constringe the small Passages and sanguiferous Vessels and by that means the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours is in some sort obstructed so that they in a short time wax acid and by their cutting Particles infer dolour which is attended with Redness proceeding from the Bloud stagnized in the Capillary Vessels Things standing thus I predicted to the sick Noble-man an impossibility of recovering the sight of his wounded Eye in which he readily acquiesced saying He would give me eternal thanks provided I could preserve the fight of his other Eye This I suddenly promised him Therefore proceeding to the Cure of this Wound I judged my principal work was to restore the Cireulation of the Bloud and Humours impeded and then to repress the external Air and temperate the Acidity In order to this I first for temperating the Acidity instilled hot into both his Eyes some few drops of the following Collyrium twice a day rx Water of Eye-bright Of Celandine of each ℥ ij Of Hysop ℥ j. Crabs eyes prepared Coral prepared of eachʒj Troches alb Rhasis ℈ ij ss Saccarum Saturni ℈ j. ss Tutia prepared ℈ ij Make a Collyrium Then I applied to the Eyes two small Bags filled with Faenugreek Hysop Lavender-flowers and other things abounding with volatile Salt afterward instead of these I applied Plaisters containing much Salt such as is found in Gum Ammoniac Sagapenum c. And at length I so bound both Eyes that they remained unmoved and kept the Patient in an hot and dark place But to take away all occasion of wonder which some one or other may perhaps conceive because I had so much trouble to cure the right Eye which was not wounded I purpose here to subjoyn Reasons which I judge sufficiently valid I did not this that I have done so much in respect of the right Eye as of the left For if the right Eye had remained open the sick man would often have moved it and seen with the same That external motion of the right Eye scarcely ever happened but the left Eye was also moved and hence how much the dolour in the wounded Eye would have been exasperated he can easily conjecture who hath at any time experienced with how great dolour a wounded Hand or Foot is moved from place to place Moreover if the right Eye had not been closed without doubt it would with the sight have touched many Objects at one time or other and that could not have been without the producing of some internal motion de novo by the Celestial Globes in the small Fibres of the Optick Nerve because indeed the least fibre in the opticknerve in the right Eye cannot be moved but at the same time the small Fiber of the same Order in the Optick Nerve of the left Eye must necessarily be moved also This is evidently apparent by the following Figure which the famous Rohaultius also used in his Physical Treatise never to be sufficiently commended but for an end far other than mine He shews the way by which two Images whereof one is described in the right Eye the other in the left when they come to the Brain might give Conception to the Mind of one onely Image In this Figure each Eye hath delineated onely five small Fibres that thereby the matter may be more easily conceived But what is here spoken of five small Fibres may be understood of many more viz. that there is no small Fiber of the Optick Nerve of the right Eye can be moved but the Fiber of the same Order in the left Optick Nerve will presently be moved also The reason is because these Fibres joyn together and are terminated into one point Thus to the right Eye in a short time both pristine Sanity and entireness of sight returned but the left Eye could not be healed before the Month of March in the Year following About that time all Tumour and Redness passed away the livid colour being long before discussed The Bullet stuck fast to one part or other of the Eye and so remained unmoved and to the Bloud and Humours their free Circulation was restored And then the Humours by the Wound interrupted circulating through those small passages continually deposited certain Particles to the sides of the Wound which Particles by reason of the similitude of the
and temperating Acidity Wherefore to the Tumor I applied Paracelsus his Stiptick Plaister but I am willing briefly to note this the Magnet in it seemed to me superfluous in this case that being added onely to attract things hurtful to it self Yet the Magnet cannot draw to it self all bodies without distinction but another Magnet and Iron onely and it wholly loseth this attractive power when reduced to powder as Rohaultus found by experience because then the striate Pores are broken This same Rohaultus reduced a very good Magnet to powder which he put into Lint and rubbed the powder well in to joyn with the same and by Application found the pristine vertues in the Magnet to be totally vanished But to return to our purpose I left the aforesaid Plaister several days upon the Tumor hoping by this means the Acidity would be temperated and the viscosity so attenuated that it might be partly restored to its pristine Circulation and partly evaporated through the Pores of the Skin but the evil was too pertinaceous and frustrated my hope What was to be done then The Acidity with its cutting Particles had broke the small Fibres and several concave passages so that the Liquor in the Tumor contained flowed all into one place then the Tumor was no more hard but soft no otherwise than as the Liquor before expressed out of an hard Apple and received into some Vessel exhibits it self soft to the touch In that I judge the Suppuration made in the Tumor to consist Now I seem to hear our vulgarly-learned men exclaiming against me saying I proceeded not in cure of this diseased Girl according to Art that is according to their false and unprofitable Theory which commands first of all to apply to Tumors repelling Medicines But this clamour is easily silenced by onely saying that the cause of almost all Tumors is Obstruction which according to their proper Axiom viz. that Contraries are cured with Contraries must be removed by Aperients but not multiplied by repelling Medicaments vulgarly so called viz. by cold and astringent Remedies But what if I should beat the Adversaries with their own Weapons and convince them by two Arguments that repelling Medicaments vulgarly so called in the beginning of almost all Tumors very rarely yea never can be profitably useful I will at least attempt it Their will is that repelling Remedies be applied in the beginning of Tumors yet they except two Cases The first is when the Tumor is made by Congestion The second when it is found in an Emunctory As to the first it is known to every man not plainly blinded with prejudice that no Tumor is made by a Fluxion as such provided it be natural but every Tumor is made by Congestion that is when the flowing of Bloud and Humours is impeded by Obstruction by reason of which the Bloud and Humours must be somewhere congested and accumulated hence it most evidently follows that repelling Medicaments can never be available in Tumors As to the other for brevity sake let us take one onely Emunctory by them vulgarly so called They affirm repelling Medicaments not safe in Tumors of the Groin because that is the Emunctory of the Liver that is to say because by it the impurities of the Liver are expelled but this in truth is a most false reason For the Lymphatick Vessels conveigh their contained Liquor upwards from the Groin so that nothing remains but Nerves and Arteries through which the Excrements of the Liver are deposited but though the Nerves eject some Excrements by the Groin yet it doth not follow that that is the Emunctory of the Liver but rather of the Brain and Spinal Marrow For the Nerves of which there are very few found in the Liver receive nothing from it and although by the Arteries which also receive nothing from the Liver certain Recrements are driven into the Groin and by that expelled the Groin doth not therefore deserve to be called the Emunctory of the Liver but rather of the whole Mass of Bloud Therefore if repelling Medicaments be not to be applied to Tumors of the Groin because that is the Emunctory of the Bloud then by consequence it will be unsafe to repel in any other part of the Body because every where many Particles of the Bloud are eevacuated and exhale through the Pores of the Body But it is now time we should return to the purpose from which we have too far digressed Because the Tumor was ripe and the Pus contained therein so deeply sited that it could not break through the superposited Skin and Flesh I therefore made an Apertion in that part of the Tumor which appeared more soft and more eminent this peared more soft and more eminent this being done not a little Pus issued out But behold I then found a black and putrid Subject rendred such by the Acidity contained in the Tumor which had cut in sunder the small Fibres of the Periosteum and after that had corroded the Bone it self and corrupted its volatile Slat which is natural to Bones and is found abounding in them as is evident by the distillation of the Humane Craneum from which is forced out much Spirit and no small quantity of Volatile Salt in a dry form But if any man be not as yet fully satisfied with these my Reasonings let him apply to his Teeth Oyl of Vitriol which is very acid and he will by proper experience find them not onely to rot but also to fall out by piece-meal Yea this was well understood by Fabritius Hildanus that most famous and highly-experienced Chyrurgic-Physician therefore he in rottenness of the Bone condemned nothing more than acid Oyl of Vitriol Oyl of Sulphur Aqua Fortis c. and indeed deservedly I long since knew that Ulcers attended with rottenness of die Bone could not be healed unless by restoring the Bone first to its pristine condition therefore I here first took in hand to cure the perished Bone I also was not ignorant that Fat things were very hurtful to the Bones because they with their stringy Particles do easily obstruct the small Pores and passages of them and indeed pertinaciously enough For which cause I here shunned all Fat things worse than I would a Dog or Snake and upon the putrified Bone I strewed Rowder of Euphorbium which contains much Volatile Salt and that indeed very tart By this means in a short time all the rottenness was gradually removed from the Ulcer in form of an impalpable Powder That the Fatness of Euphorbium is not acid as some perhaps may conjecture but saline is manifest by this viz. because it so vehemently excites Sternutation no otherwise than as Spirit of Sal Armoniack which every man owns to be saline On the contrary apply to your Nostrils the acid Spirits of Nitre Vitriol Salt and Sulphur and you will find them though most sharp yet not to excite Sternutation Now that with External Medicaments I might help the Internal whilst I was using the
Euphorbium I gave to the sick a Decoction made with China Sarsaparilla and other things containing much Volatile Salt When I saw the rottenness would not give place to these I applied red-hot Iron which is by some called an Actual Cautery to distinguish it from that which is called a Potential Cautery but very improperly For there is no such thing as a Potential Cautery Every Cautery that is every thing that burns acts If that may deservedly be called a Potential Cautery which though it cannot presently burn yet in a short time will effect the same then Ice by a better right shall be accounted a Cautery because that may be reduced into boiling Water but how improper such a saying is I leave to the judgement of others But burning Iron in rottenness of a Bone for two causes helps First it communicates so much by its own motion to the Acido-corrosive Ferment inherent in the Bone that it can evaporate as Spirit of Vitriol is in distilling by Fire elevated on high Secondly it can temperate that part of the Acido-corrosive Ferment which is left in the rotten Bone For Iron egregiously resists Acidity as is evident in preparation of Vitriol and Mars in which is excited a sufficiently manifest Fermentation when the Spirit of Vitriol is infused upon the Filings of Steel and so in a short space of time the Spirit of Vitriol loseth much of its acor and corrosive force yea it waxeth sweet The rottenness of the Bone removed the remaining Ulcer was in a short time filled up with flesh onely by Common Turpentine applied with the White of an Egg and Skin was induced by dry Lint onely that continually imbibed the Pus which left in the Ulcer did not a little hinder the generation of the same There are many that suppose that Arteries and Veins partly cut off can never be regenerated because they are Spermatick parts so by them vulgarly called but they are deceived Why may not the Bloud issuing from a small Artery cut off thrust to the sides certain Particles stringy and less apt for motion infolding themselves each within the other there form the rudiment of some Tunick which may deserve the name of a small Artery and why may not the same Bloud in its course impeded by somewhat offending be reflected and so the stringy Particles being again cast to the sides there produce the rudiments of some Vien no otherwise than as may be seen in an Egg after Incubation for some days in which both Arteries and Veins after the same manner proceed from the liquid matter of the same Egg This case is indeed very easie to be understood Yea a very light contact of that tender flesh with which the Ulcer is filled presently causeth Bloud to issue out which certainly could not be were not the Arteries and Veins so far prolonged But if there be yet found any one that shall be so incredulous as not to belive what I have written him I refer to the Medico-Physical Collections of the industrious Blankart wherein he declares that either himself or some other man in Ulcers first hollow and afterward filled up with new flesh hath by a Microscope discovered Veins and Arteries yea by his Eyes onely without a Mycroscope if the part healed was first sucked for a little time Thus far proceeding I have now as I judge so clearly explained the Phaenomenons occurrent in this little Maid that her Case may by all be understood having acted far otherwise than the anxious Sectators of old Authors were wont to do For should I ask them Whence that Tumor of the Shoulder of which I spake even now derived its original in the sick Maid They would presently answer Nature had discharged her self in that place But I judge this equally as absurd as if I should ask why Beer newly boiled casts up its Dreg through the Bung of the Cask and another should answer The nature of the Beer in that place and by that means frees it self from its burthen whereas it should rather be said the Beer forments that is there is a certain intestine motion in the small Particles of the Beer and by them the stringy and other Particles not sufficiently apt for like motion are thrust out by the Bung where they are not compelled to a motion so swift Moreover should I ask them why that Tumor rather exposed it self to sight in the Shoulder than elsewhere they would readily thus answer This hapned by reason of the debility of the expulsive Faculty in the Shoulder An excellent way of reasoning indeed containing as many Chimaera's as words If any one from a large Vessel pour any Liquor with a small and equally continued Ray through a small Tunnel into a narrow-mouth'd Bottle and see the Liquor to pass out with the same celerity as it was poured into the Tunnel but afterwards observes the liquor in the Tunnel to be more and more accumulated doth he not egregiously expose himself to the derision of every man if he produce as a cause of this the debility of the Expulsive Faculty in the Tunnel whereas the cause is some obstruction in the inferiour small Pipe of the Tunnel or in the narrow Neck of the Bottle induced by some more gross body by chance contained in the Liquor Whosoever shall diligently weigh all these things in his mind will find the matter to hold parallel in either case and discern the reason of either side alleadged to be equallyridiculous Before I put an end to this Observation there remains yet one Problem to be discussed by me and it is this viz. Whether an Ulcer or hollow wound may not be filled up with some other Flesh whether that Flesh be taken from some other part of the same man or else from another man or from some Beast especially seeing we often find that the Spurs which Cocks use in fighting one with the other cut from their Legs are not onely agglutinated to the head but also largely increase in a short time as we daily see the like when Cocks are castrated yea almost every man hath at some time or other seen how a Branch cut from one Tree doth grow together and unite with another But the reason here is far unlike for the passages or Pores existing in the Spurs of Cocks and Branches of Trees are constant so that the Section of them distorts them not wherefore the circulation of Liquors through them is easily renewed although inserted into another part or another Body In our flesh it is otherwise the small passages there are very tender so that by Section or any other force they are presently distorted and their sides by this means do almost close together and so at that time the circulation of Humours through the same is wholly impeded OBSERVAT. IX Of a Fracture of the Shin-bone A Man Thirty years of Age leaping out of a Coach suffered an oblique Fracture almost in the middle of his Shin-Bone which was attended with inequality
as an Hair do notwithstanding enjoy a certain Cavity OBSERVAT. III. Of the Contracture of a Tendon after a Fracture of the Shoulder-Bone A Young man aged Twenty two years after a Fracture of the Shoulder-bone healed could not extend his inbowed and rigid Arm. The more remote cause of this Evil was the Surgeon's negligence who left the Arm inbowed for five or six Weeks whereas he should as often as and every time he bound up the Fracture have frequently extended the same as a thing of special note in Chyrurgick Practice But this is not therefore a wonder seeing we daily see a Bow which hath for some tine remained unbowed not to be easily bowed again Yea who doth not sometimes experience in himself how difficultly he is able to go and extend his feet after he hath sate unmoved in a Coach but for one onely day But forasmuch as this Comparison doth not as yet sufficiently illustrate the matter my purpose is somewhat more narrowly to search out the cause of the same When the Arm was inbowed about the Cubit the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle bowing the Cubit was contracted but what is here spoken of the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle may be understood of other Tendons of Muscles bowing the Cubit and so the Pores of the Fibrils of which the Tendon consists before round are changed into oval so that the greater Diameter of the Pores hath respect to the Latitude of the Fibrils In the mean while the Humors passed out from the Pores of the Arteries which by reason of motion often instituted freely perfected their circulation now by reason of rest did in some sort subsist in the Tendon Yea in a short space of time certain gross Particles of those Humors deeply insinuated themselves into those Oval Pores of the Fibrils and conserved and confirmed them in that oblong Figure and in process of time those recited Particles so pertinaceously adhered in the above-named Pores that they could not by any means be expelled thence Henee the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle was made shorter no otherwise than as we see new Ropes or new Cloath sprinkled with Water to shrink Hence also the said Tendon appeared hard and rigid whence it is as I judge sufficiently manifest why the Arm could not be extended for the Muscles extending the Arm could not perform their wonted action being before contracted these could not be contracted but the Tendon with its two-headed Muscle must needs begin to cease acting This was impossible by reason of the Pores of the Fibrils obstructed by the aforesaid Particles by which the Tendon was tumified The cause of this Phaenomenon by this means found out the method of curing was without difficulty understood viz. that it was behooful to expel the Particles obstructing the Pores wherefore I used a Fomentation of Wine in which were boiled Herbs and other things abounding with much Volatile Salt and then I applied a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury and after I had continued that for several days I often commanded the Patient to hold some weight in his hand that so the Particles inherent in the obstructed Pores and by the aforesaid Medicaments in some measure macerated in the Dutch Idiom los gewyckt might by a certain force be ejected By this means the Patient recovered his pristine Sanity in a short time OBSERVAT. IV. Of a Vein Cut. A Man aged Thirty six years commanded a Vein to be cut in the Flexure of his Arm the next day several Ounces of Limpid Humor flowed out from the Orifice of the Vein cut and that Efflux continued for several days after but the Arm in the mean while was neither affected with dolour nor with redness A rare Phaenomenon indeed which I cannot remember ever to have hapned in all my Practice Perhaps some small Lymphatick-Vessel lay above the Vein to be cut which in cutting the Vein was wounded and by certain Particles stagnizing and waxing acid nigh the Orifice of the small wound made irritated and continually gently convulsed sent forth this abundance of Lympid Humidity I temperated the peccant Acidity nigh the Lymphatick-Vessel with Oyl of Turpentine poured in hot and so compelled the Aperture to close and the Lympid Humor in a short time to subsist or rather again to circulate by a natural way I likewise knew a certain Tyro in Chyrurgy who in Section of the Median-Vein wounded a subjected Tendon whence arose dolour and redness which being removed at length was inferred so great a Contracture of the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle that the Arm having now for a long time been inbowed could not be extended by the Patient whose Cure was effected even after the same manner as I shewed in the foregoing Observation That is to say some Humors stagnizing about the wounded Tendon waxed acid and irritating that Tendon caused the Animal Spirits to flow in greater abundance than usual by which means the Tendon with the Muscle annexed was contracted and the Arm incurvated which afterward remained so inbowed by reason of certain Particles which obstructed the Pores of the Fibrils in the Tendon after the same manner as I in the precedent Observation have largely explained But dolour and redness which often attend the Puncture of a Tendon acknowledge the same Cause and require the same Cure that I proposed in the Puncture of a Nerve Many Chyrurgeons when they would evacuate gross Bloud make a large Orifice of the Vein and when they purpose to let out Bloud more subtile a lesser Orifice but evily For if the gross Particles of the Bloud mixt with the more subtile can accurately enough circulate through the Arteries and Capillary Veins is it not more clear than the Sun that no Orifice in the cutting of a Vein can be made so very small but that with the more subtile part of the Bloud that which is more gross may be expâ—lled by the same Which the most acute Bayle perhaps Boyl did well observe The famous Mr. Leeuwenhoeck by a Microscope discovered Humane Bloud to consist of small red Globes floating in a Chrystalline Humor which when the Bloud after cutting of a Vein received in a Porringer was coagulated their motion being lost descended to the bottom the Chrystalline Humor through which they were before moved floating above Certainly a strange and pleasant Invention but of no use in the Medicinal Practice For they who from this ground endeavour to deduce the Causes and Cures of Fevers and other Diseases seem to me to trifle out the time and lose all their labour whereas rather had they respect to Acidity Salt Bitterness Sweetness and other properties undoubtedly contained in the Bloud they would certainly thence reap far greater understanding in cure of the sick Many Authors prescribe the opening of the Cephalic-Vein rather than of the Median or Basilic but unadvisedly For I have often found by experience that that Vein easily recedes from its proper place and so when it is cutting shuns the wound intended
cause of the Evil we could not through the whole length of the Arm find either Fracture or Dislocation but a very great Contusion of the whole Arm so that much of the Extravasate Bloud and also of the Humors adhering in the small passages of the Arm distorted by the Contusion stagnized and in a short time waxed acid whence that Imbecility Tumor and Dolour may rationally be concluded to have derived their Original Some to render the motion of the Bloud more pleasing do here presently cut a Vein whereas I on the contrary omitted the opening of a Vein gave to the Patient an Anodine Tincture prepared of Opium and other things which much more securely and with greater Utility diminished the motion of the Bloud After some few hours I exhibited to the Sick a sudorifick Powder which would also temperate the Acidity of the Extravasate Bloud and stagnizing Humors this I repeated the two following nights with good success This Powder consisted of Diaphoretick Antimony Crabs-eyes prepared Salt-prunella Antimoniat and other things and hereby the dolour was in no small measure remitted and the Extravasate Bloud was driven out to the Cutis which then all over the Arm from the Shoulder to the Fingers was very livid yea waxed black The Chyrurgeons that were present with me did in the beginning of the Cure without my consent anoint the whole Arm with Oyl of Roses which hurts not so much by reason of the Roses as by reason of the Oyl-Olive For although this might do some good yet it could not profit unless it could have penetrated to that place where the Extravasate Bloud and stagnizing Humours lay but so far it could not penetrate unless in form of Vapour and the heat of our Bodies is too weak to convert Oyl-Olive into such Vapours seeing indeed a sufficiently strong Fire made of Wood and Coals is not of force sufficient to reduce the Particles of Oyl-Olive put into a Pot into the form of Vapours Therefore the Oyl-Olive was so far from doing good that as I judged it rather did hurt because by its stringy Particles it augmented the Obstructions and so caused the Bloud and Humors yet more to stagnize and besides by its closing the Pores of the Skin it hindered the access of other Medicaments to the place affected If common Roses be cold as many think I should reject them in this case but because from their bitterness and penetrating Odour the contrary may be judged by those who laying aside their prejudices will rather follow Verity than Antiquity Therefore I in this case condemn Oyl of Roses by reason of the Oyl-Olive but not by reason of some Particles of the Roses mixt therewith The same Chyrurgeons applied to the whole Arm anointed with Oyl of Roses that Defensive Plaister the description of which is found in the Ultrajectine Pharmacopoeia which indeed I do not here wholly reject because it containeth many Ingredients temperating Acidity as Bolus Terra Sigillata Lithargyry and other things but to what end should here be added Myrtle-Berries Oyl of Myrtles and Austere Red-Wine These indeed bind up the Pores of the Skin and so wholly impede the penetration of other fit Ingredients to the affected part Experience did in a short time confirm the truth of my Assertion when many Pustles dispersed through the whole Arm came in sight Wherefore I prescribed the following Lavament which I substituted instead of the Oyl and Plaister as being a Medicament that would powerfully resist Acidity and consequently well dissolve the coagulated Bloud and Humors â„ž Roots Of the Flower de Luce. Of Calamus Aromaticus Of Bryony of each â„¥ ss Herbs Rosemary Betony Sage of each M. ss Berries Of Juniper Of Bays of eachÊ’iij Boyl these in a close Vessel with French-Wine and to two pound of the Colature add Of Gum AmmoniacÊ’ij Of Salt of TartarÊ’j Make a Lavament By this means the Pustles vanished the Dolour was diminished the motion of the Arm gradually returned and the Livid colour was turned yellow Then the Chyrurgeons willing the Medicaments should be changed instead of the Defensive Plaister which they again proposed I prescribed a Fumigation temperating Acidity which consisted of Bay-Berries Juniper-Berries Frankincense Mastich Myrrh and other things For if these latter could help in the aforesaid Plaister where they lay bound up by the Suet and Wax they must needs be much more profitable when in the form of Fume they could fly up and surround the Arm its superiour part being covered and so being forcibly enough agitated could enter the Pores of the Arm by that time well opened by the heat After this I commanded Spirit of Wine to be burnt the Vapour of which ascending to the Arm and entring through the Pores infringed the Acidity which had in no small measure coagulated the Bloud and Humours and by that means the Patient was healed the dolour and yellowness removed and the motion of the Arm restored I most assuredly perswade my self that the Contusion would not have been so great if a Fracture of the Bone in the Patients Arm had also been concomitant For the Bone when broken recedes and contuseth no more but when the Bone remains entire and consequently by reason of its hardness makes strenuous resistance and when there is on the other part a solid Body contusing then the interstanding Flesh is no otherwise pressed on either part than as if it were put under a Press and so it is in a strange manner contused And this is no more than what our daily practice confirms in which I have often observed a Contusion where the Bone hath been broaken to be much less than where the Bone hath remained unhurt In this Cure my fear was that the Extravasate Bloud should be so much coagulated that it could not be afterwards dissolved and so might at length become so very acid and corrosive as to infect the adjacent parts with a Gangrene For it was not long before that I was called to a young Man who had for eight days neglected a Contusion of the Tibia after that I was called and seeing how it was compelled to open the contused part with a Lancet I perceived many sufficiently large Clots of Bloud firmly coagulated black and putrid which had in some sort infected the Cavity in which they were conteined with a Gangrene which notwithstanding I in a short time removed by washing it with Spirit of Wine and by inspersing the Pouders of Myrrh and Aloes OBSERVAT. VIII Of a Ganglion in the Hand A Youth aged Sixteen years complained of a Tumour hard and painful which sited in the upper part of his right Hand in magnitude equallized an Hazel-Nut and was of the same colour with the Cutis and there was now near three Months passed since the Patient by unaccustomed labour was affected with this Evil. The Tendon lay in the upper part of the Hand the small passages of which were by that unusual labour so distorted that the Humors
may in this place also be subservient to me let any man smell to that ungrateful Odour which in burning of Linnen is wont to penetrate his Nostrils For what Fire acts in respect of Linnen the same operates the Acido-corrosive humor in an Ulcer whilst it corrupts many Particles of the Volatile Salt which in an healthful state is in great abundance contained in the parts of the Humane Body and in the parts of the Bodies of other Animals as Distillation plainly shews changeth their Figures and so causeth them their Bonds with which they were before tied being broken to fly away at which time by the Air wherewith they mix themselves forced into the Nostrils they affect the Fibrils of the Nerves subservient to Smelling with too great trembling and so to the Mind is exhibited a conception of evilly-smelling odour The Phaenomenons of this Disease so often occurring in the Praxis and by no man that I know of as yet sufficiently explained and discoursed of it will be all one to me whether with Hildanus it be called a Gangreen with Charles Battus a Cancer or with Cornelius vander Voorden an Eating Ulcer seeing I little regard those mere Disputes about the name being affected with nothing so much as the matter it self This Evil augments very swiftly and may in a short time strangle the sick as I two Months before experienced in a Maiden-Child four years old which was brought to me the fifth day after the invasion of the Disease so deformed as she seemed not to resemble Humane kind For half her Nose and a fourth part of her Tongue was already consumed her left Cheek hard as a stone perforated with a great hole by reason of which and other Symptomes according to my Prognostick she died within four days Therefore these things being by me seriously considered I prescribed the following Unguent resisting corrosive Acidity ℞ Of Treacle ʒij ss Of Vnguent Aegyptiac ℥ j. ss Of Gum Lacca Spirit of Salt Armoniac of each ℈ ij Mix and make an Vnguent With this mixt with a little Spirit of Wine I six times a day washed the affected part and applied thereto scraped Lint moistned in the same Medicine by which onely Remedy I have happily cured not this Child onely but also many others in a very short time The end of the Second Decade DECADE III. OBSERVAT. I. Of a Coadnate Tumour of the Forehead A Maiden-Infant Fourteen days old was deformed with a very red Tumor void of pain which she had contracted whilst in the Womb. For the Mother of this Infant when with child was wounded in her Forehead From that Wound which inferred great dolour much Bloud issued out Wherefore the Mother willing to be more certain of her own misfortune hastned to a Looking-glass and so was not a little terrified Now who knows not how strict the union is between the Mother and her Infant in the Womb This should not be accounted a wonder seeing the Circulation of the Bloud is common to both In the Hospital in Paris a Fool is reported to have lived till Twenty years of age the Bones of whose Legs Arms and other parts were broken from his Nativity The reason of this was because his Mother when with child of him had not without terrour beheld the Bones of a certain Malefactor publickly broken by the common Hangman If a pregnant Mother can impress so great evils upon her tender Young when she sees another afflicted with great dolour consider what greater evil may happen when she both sees and feels in her proper body a bleeding Wound But to write of the way how this happens that being little conducent to the Practick part I shall in this place forbear If any man be more curious in this matter let him peruse L. de la Forge his Annotations upon Cartesius his Treatise of Man also that most acute Author of a certain French Treatise intituled La Recherche de la Verité who very elegantly there discourseth of this Effect and how it is produced Having beheld and observed this Tumor I applied to it a Corrosive composed onely of Calx vive and common Soap mixt together which was extended all over the Tumor and by that means an Eschar was induced Common Soap is made of a strong Lixivium and Fatness so long boiled together as until the many small strings of the fat Particles are broken in sunder as is evident by this viz. because fatness produceth Spots in Clothes pertinaciously inherent by reason of those stringy Particles with which it infolds it self within the Fibrils of the Cloth and Soap on the contrary is easily washed off with Water only Calx vive is an Alcalick fixed and sufficiently acid Salt Therefore it is mixed with Water because that by reason of its effervescency with the Calx infringeth the powers of the same not with Fatness which too much obstructs the Pores of the Skin but with common Soap by its own Lixivial Salt not a little helping the virtues of the Calx This Corrosive being applied the Vapours in their usual manner passed out from the small Arteries through the Pores of the Cutis into the Air by which they again forced into the place they left a subtile matter which in its transit agitated both the saline Particles of the Calx and the slippery rigid and pungent Particles of the Soap and carried them with it self up to the Cutis and indeed according to the Longitude not according to the Latitude of the Particles as an Arrow shot up on high cuts the Air not transversively but by its Longitude because thus it finds less resistance and a more easie way in the Air. These saline Particles driven up to the Cutis and by the subtile matter egregiously agitated there broke the Fibrils of the Cutis in such wise that the small passages of the same were in so great a measure distorted that the circulation of the Bloud Humours and Spirits was there wholly impeded that part died presenting it self under the form of an Eschar which being in a short time separated all the Tumor vanished Seeing this I applied my Placentula in a form somewhat hard of which I have often made mention which compressed the Flesh otherwise easily luxuriant and induced a thin Cicatrice which was indeed at first somewhat red but that redness was afterward wholly taken away when that thin skin had been several times touched gently with Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium The Forehead of this Child being by these means happily freed from all Deformity Chyrurgeons should hence be excited to endeavour the removal of many like deformed Blemishes and Tumors in Infants impressed whilst they were held captive in the Prison of the Womb which by many have been accounted insanable OBSERVAT. II. Of an Vlcer with Rottenness of the Jaw-Bone A Matron aged 28 years was afflicted with a small deep and dolorous Ulcer of her Under-Jaw from which daily issued out a great abundance of Pus and
of Motions that are made in this Corporeal Universe and according to the rules of these Motions giving heed onely to the magnitude of Bodies to the figure and position of them not onely the Phaenomenons of this Disease but also many other far more wonderful than these may very accurately be explained If you be desirous to know how Plants proceed from a Grane or Seed it will behove you attently to peruse the Anatomy of Plants made by Mr. Grews Microscope published both in English and in French There in the greater Bean you may behold the Rudiment both of Root and Plant already formed there you may perceive how the Juice strained through the Membranes of the Bean committed to the earth is fermented in the Body of the Bean also how there through a small hole of the Bean admittance is given to the Air and an exit also permitted to the superfluous Vapours how the Juice thus fermented is constringed into the Rudiment of a Root and converts that Rudiment into a true Root which then receiving nutriment from the Earth repels the other Juice coming from the other part upwards to the Rudiment of the Plant that so at length it may present it self to the sight as a true Plant. If you desire to know the causes of the stupendious powers in the Magnet of the Ignis Fatuus Rainbow and other things consult Cartesius who will clearly explain them to you The same Philosopher in his Treatise of Meteors will also there teach you that Souldiers sometimes seen fighting in the Air touching which the ignorant Vulgar tells so many tales are no other than certain Clouds I know not indeed whence arose this so evily-founded Judgement of the people by which such cases as this of ours is are accounted Inchantments and Mawworms so frequently ejected from the Bodies of men by Vomit and Seidg esteemed meerly natural whereas the generation of Mawworms is far more wonderful than that of these Eggs in the Humane Body Vigelius professor of the Mathematicks is reported to have formed an Horse of Metal which in one day for several hours could by the help of Rotula's walk like a living Beast Rayselius is reported to have fabricated an Engine like a man in which a certain Liquor poured into the mouth was seen to circulate like our Bloud the more thin part of which Liquor was expelled by the Yard as Urine but the more gross part as Dregs or Dung of the Belly by the Fundament If Man can do such things what cannot GOD the supream Architect effect according to the ordinary rules of Motions Therefore how were these Eggs produced in this Woman I answer In the Thigh of this Woman from this or that cause many Pores of this or that Artery were distorted and enlarged so that many Humors flowed out and were collected in one place in which when they began to be fermented the Particles stringy and less apt for motion were thrust out to the sides where they were not compelled to so swift a motion and there cohering and twisting themselves one within the other were formed into that sufficiently gross Membrane which did include all the Eggs afterward generated But because the Pores of the above-mentioned Artery were diversly distorted therefore some of the Particles contained in this gross Membrane did in some measure differ from the other in figure and magnitude and perhaps the Particles like each other flowed into almost an hundred divers places and so every of those Particles besides the Congesture of their like still exercising a certain kind of Fermentation did again thrust out the more stringy Particles to the sides and so were formed the Membranes in which were included all the Eggs. Thus I suppose I have produced a sufficiently intelligible cause of this Phaenomenon which I beheld with my own Eyes OBSERVAT. V. Of a vast Tumor of the Neck A Young Maid aged Fifteen years being otherwise very well had now for six years sustained an hard round Tumor in her Neck of the same colour with the Skin and void of pain equalizing in magnitude a white Loaf that is wont to be sold at the price of half a Sesterce and miserably defacing the Patients Countenance I judged the humidity of this Tumor to be very viscous and divided almost after the same manner as we see the Juice in a Pome-Citron or Orange contained in many Cells By reason of the viscosity of the Humor this Tumor could not be discussed nor in the common way brought to suppuration therefore I applied a Corrosive and the Eschar being removed put in a Tent anointed with the Unguent Basilicon mixt with common Turpentine By this means some part of the viscous Pus issued out daily and so the Bulk of this horrid Tumor began to be diminished the viscous Humor nearest the hole was first evacuated and afterward that also which lay far remote from the Ulcer But when the small passages round about this hole made by Art were obstructed by the viscosity of the Humor as it often hapned then with the Unguent wherewith the Tent was anointed I mixed some Crocus Metallorum that so an Eschar might be induced which being separated the small passages were again opened and so this young Maid in the space of three Months was wholly freed from this Tumor and that great deformity attending it I shall not in this place speak of the way or manner of the Corrosives operating having already discoursed of that in the First Observation of this Third Decade nor will I at this time further explain by what means the Eschar is separated because this may sufficiently be understood by the Second Observation of this Decade where I teach how the rotten Fragments of Bones may be separated from the sound part Perhaps some one will wonder that I use Medicaments so few and so little compounded but to what purpose are so many Simples and so many composed Forms of Remedies which many Physicians use at this day for no other cause than to boast of their vain Learning before the Ignorant If Gun-powder made of Cole-dust Nitre and Sulphur onely produceth such stupendious effects in the Macrocosm that omitting all other it can blow up into the Air vast and heavy Ships and also if put under the Earth cause the same to tremble and cleave in sunder why may not a few Medicines seasonable taken be sufficient to heal very many Diseases in the Microcosm I do indeed assent to Bacon Verulam great Chancellor of England who is by some called the Day-star of Cartesius thus speaking Variety of Medicaments is the daughter of Ignorance OBSERVAT. VI. Of a wonderful Abscess A Man Fifty years of age was vexed with an Abscess arising below his Ear which was round painful waterish and soft with this he had been afflicted some days before he came to me I being certainly perswaded that ripe Pus was contained in this Abscess made an Aperture with my Lancet and so presently issued out no small
trouble whereas the Spirit of Nitre doth not a little corrode the Tongue because it is now at liberty and separated from the other Particles of the Nitre with which it was before mixed After the same manner Vitriolate Tartar bites the Tongue little whereas Spirit of Vitriol by distillation thence again separated recovers its pristine corrosive force which it had before These Acido-corrosive Particles freed from their Cells in which they before lay included and collected in a very small part of the Abdomen did with their sharpness in a wonderful manner continually agitate the Fibrils and so inferred that almost intolerable torment which must necessarily cease when these corrosive Particles were driven out with the Pus through the Issue OBSERVAT. VII Of a Bleeding Teat AN honest man's Wife giving suck whilst she was cleansing her Infant from his Excrements was not a little offended with their blackness the Infant in the mean while was somewhat ill I being consulted about this case first asked of the Infants Mother whether she felt any pain in her Nipple She answered she did I therefore bid her in my presence somewhat to compress her Nipple and then I saw Bloud issuing out thence because one or other of the small Vessels was hurt which assumed by the Infant and carried through the Belly waxed black by reason of the acid Ferment in the Infants Stomach mixed therewith The Mother by my order sprinkled Gum Arabic cut into thin slices dried and pulverized upon her finger first moistned with her proper Spittle and with that Finger touched her Nipple by this means she was the next day wholly freed from this Evil and remained well The most famous Sylvius in the third Book of his Medicinal Praxis Chap. 10. under the Title 28 and following instanceth this Bloud sometimes issuing from the Nipples of Women giving suck as an uncontroulable Argument to demonstrate that Milk is not generated of the Chyle but of the Bloud yet in this he is deceived because that Bloud issueth out from the sanguiferous Vessels hurt or otherwise opened by the Child's sucking Chaps are often seen in the Nipples of Suckling Women which affect them with very great torment and are difficultly healed because they can have little or no rest by reason of the Infants continual sucking But I have frequently healed these Chaps in a short time by every day often gently touching the Nipples with a Feather moistened with Oyl of Myrrh the description of which may be seen in the Amsterdam Pharmacopoea Prudent Old Women are wont to advise Young Men affecting Matrimony first with their hands gently to touch the Breasts of the Maids they love that so they may be assured that they either have or have not Nipples But though Virgins may often seem to be without Nipples yet Experience teacheth that the Nipples before hid when they become Mothers may easily by the help of a fit Instrument be drawn forth and commodiously enough perform their office therefore there is no need of Nurses to which many Mothers are much averse because they firmly perswade themselves that the Infants by the Milk they assume must needs imbibe the evil and bad qualities of their Nurses In this case I can determine nothing certainâ— yet this I know viz. that Infants daily nourished with Cows-milk do not thence acquire to themselves bruitish and Cow-like manners OBSERVAT. VIII Of an exceeding great Dolour of the Ear. A Virgin aged Twenty four years had now for 15 Weeks very much complained of an almost intolerable pain of her Ear which sometimes would whole nights hinder her sleep the Ear in the mean while daily poured out abundance of well digested Pus many Medicaments being adhibited in vain I being called gave heed to all and indeed the least Circumstances as circumspectly as I could and at length with my Fingers felt a certain Undulation of Pus deeply sited behind the affected Ear. This Abscess was not observed by others though it was the cause of the whole Evil. Well weighing and considering the matter I soon understood that this Abscess behind the Ear would never spontaneously viz. without external Artifice be opened not onely by reason of its depth but also because the Pus there contained had already sought an Exit for it self by the Ear although that passage was full of crooked turnings and not sufficient Wherefore I quickly applied a sufficiently sharp Corrosive by which the Eschar being separated an abundance of well-digested Pus issued out by the hole made by Art and after that time the dolour of the Ear and the out-flowing of Pus from the Cavity of the same wholly ceased The hole made by the Corrosive all the Pus being by it evacuated in the space of two Weeks wholly closed up and the Sick Maid was perfectly restored to her pristine state of health I judged this Aperture behind the Ear was to be made without delay lest otherwise the Pus should have touched the subjected Bone and in time have infected the same with rottenness although good Pus abiding for some time upon a Bone doth not always necessarily infect the same with rottenness as I shall easily demonstrate by the following Example A Man about the Thirty sixth year of his age travelling in very stormy Weather in the Winter-time soon after felt a great pain in his right Ear out of which every day after some Pus issued out and then followed no small abatement of that dolour Afterward the Pus flowing out no more the Sick man again complained of very great torture which in the night often producing a Dilirium had continued now for several Months and yielded to no external or internal Remedies Being called I found a Tumor behind the Ear extended far and wide in which I firmly perswaded my self Pus was contained although by reason of the deepness of the place in which the Pus lay hid no Undulation could be perceived by the touch therefore I applied a Corrosive by which a very gross Eschar being separated an incredible quantity of Pus issued out This Pus lay upon the Petrose Bone which was wholly bare as I could easily observe by my Probe Yet in the mean while without any separation of Fragments of the Bone the Patient in the space of six Weeks was perfectly healed and remained well afterward no other Medicaments being used than a fit Injection a good Digestive and at length the Bone being again covered my Tincture of Antimony which I daily find wonderfully profitable in many cases externally used The Drum of the Ear being eroded by an Ulcer the Hearing is recorded to have remained by Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius in his Fundamentals of Medicine page 148. Moreover I remember I have at Rotterdam with Jacob Lodensteyn chief Chyrurgeon of the Navy a most dexterous man seen all the small Bones pertinent to Hearing which after an Ulcer came out of the Ear of a certain Boy but that Boy never heard of the same Ear afterwards I
with an acid Spirit not to fly away as it is otherwise wont to do The end of the Fourth Decade DECADE V. OBSERVAT. I. Of a Wound of the Head A Youth aged Sixteen years fallen from an Horse to the ground received a sufficiently large Wound in the forepart of his Head which was indeed so great that the Bone presented it self bare to the sight in the mean while the Patient did often vomit and was very ill Two hours after this mishap were scarcely elapsed before I was called to this Youth in whose Head I could perceive neither Fissure nor Fracture nor imbowing of the Cranium and at that time the Vomiting ceased and the sick Youth was pretty sedate and complained not much of pain or of any other discommodity It would in this place be superfluous to explain whence this Vomiting proceeded the matter being as I judge sufficiently clear of it self The Hair being shaved off I filled the Wound with dry Lint and indeed did this for two reasons First that the Flux of Bloud might by this means be stopped And Secondly that the Lips of the Wound might be in some measure separated each from other to the end that the Cranium might the next day be the better discovered Then I superposited a Plaister made of the following Mass â„ž Emplast Diapalma â„¥ ij Bolus and common Chalk of eachÊ’ij Diaphoretic Antimony â„¥ j. Oyl of Bays Ê’ij Of Tartar p. d. Ê’ss Mix and make a Plaister The next day nothing of evil appeared in the Cranium discovered and the Patient was scarcely vexed with an evil Symptome whence I conceived hope that the Interior part of the Cranium had also received no hurt and that the Brain likewise lay unprejudiced within both its Infoldings Therefore the Bone being first covered with dry scraped Lint I applied to the Lips of the Wound this following Medicament â„ž Common Turpentine Honey of Roses of each â„¥ ss Myrrh Aloes of eachÊ’ss Mix these make an Unguent By this means the Patient was in a short time restored to his pristine state of health The Plaister was applied for temperating the Acidity and that it might speedily dissolve whatsoever was coagulated by the Contusion The Unguent was also added for restoring the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors somewhat impeded by reason of the small passages in the Wound interrupted and distorted The bared Cranium was covered with dry scraped Lint partly that the Pus issuing from the Lips of the Wound might infer no damage to the Bone and partly that the ambient Air might by this means be kept from the Cranium to which by reason of its Acidity with which it abounds it is very inimical as the daily coagulation of Bloud let out from a Vein cut caused by the external Air doth plainly teach But that kind of Lint which is in Dutch called Catoen is not convenient in Wounds because it is often wont by its acute Angles with which it abounds as by the help of a Microscope may easily be seen to excite Inflammation All fat things I here studiously avoided because they with their stringy Particles too pertinaciously obstruct the very small passages of the Cranium and so cause the Humors to stagnize and wax acid corrupt the Volatile Salt of the Cranium and induce rottenness and then the Cure must needs be not a little procrastinated by reason of the perished part of the Bone which must first be separated Scultetus in his Chyrurgick Armoury anoints the part adjoyning to a Wound with astringent Oyls for some time to prevent Inflammation as he judgeth but improperly For in an Inflammation the Circulation of the Bloud should not be stopped but promoted because the Bloud and Humors by reason of their coagulation in an Inflammation stagnize more than is fit therefore it would in this case be an Argument of much greater prudence to dissolve the coagulated Humors by Plaisters temperating Acidity The cutting of a Vein which many egregiously extol in Wounds of the Head I wholly omit because I see not any Utility thence to arise To distinguish Medicaments into Mundificatives and Narcoticks and to take sometimes These and afterwards Those into use is a matter of no Utility for our Unguent onely is sufficient and performs whatsoever is necessary whilst it temperates Acidity and restores the Circulation of the Humors But in the mean while it is to be observed that when the Wound was almost filled up with flesh omitting the aforesaid Unguent we at length applied dry scraped Lint for otherwise the Flesh would have been too luxuriant and risen higher than was fit The Ancients in Wounds of the Head used a Swathe which is called Cancer the delineation of which may be seen in Scultetus but in these our days a common Napkin fitly applied is generally used Vomiting in a Wound of the Head for the most part portends much evil but that it is not always an infallible sign of a Fracture of the Cranium of a Fissure or any other very great discommodity is clearly evident by our proposed case Full of peril is a Wound of the Head which beguiles us most when it seems most pleasing Therefore no Wound of the Head though very small should be lightly esteemed or negligently handled but here we should rather suspect all things because where Chyrurgeons are most secure there commonly lies a Snake in the Grass Having for some time pondered these things in my mind I judge it worth while before I put an end to this Observation to enlarge my Discourse more than I am wont to do that if in this case I cannot satisfie others I may at least give satisfaction to my self for whose Instruction I write these It is out of all doubt that a very small Wound of the Head long after it hath been inflicted may infer Death yet this hinders not but that it may sometimes happen that a Patient having a Wound of his Head accounted almost by all men most dangerous and mortal may recover contrary to the expectation of Physicians and Chyrurgeons So I remember some years since to my Fathers care was committed a certain wounded man who had with a Spade received so horrid a Wound in the forepart of his Head that by the stroke inflicted not onely a very great part of the Cranium but also no small portion of the Brain it self was shattered and notwithstanding this the same man is at this time at Arenacum living and well yet his Hemiplegia still remains By this History I shall perhaps prove the opinion of the most famous Willis to be false who endeavours to perswade his Reader that the seat of the Memory is found to be in the Cortex of the Brain for if this were true then our above-recited Patient must needs have had his Memory much impaired whereas it is at this time no less vigorous than it was before the Wound received But what do I speak of those who have recovered of an horrid Wound of the Head
in the Groins which Glandules are no other than a Congesture of very small Vessels much inflexied in the Meanders of which the Humors more easily subsist than elsewhere if Chyrurgeons by cold and astringent things unseasonably applied retard their Circulation All penetrating Wounds of the Abdomen are dangerous but far more perilous when they are large because the Omentum or Bowel at that time easily slips out and if it be not presently after its Egress forced into its proper place it dies and changeth its colour by reason of the ambient Air. But whence is it that the Omentum for some time remaining out of the Belly so suddenly dies The Omentum consists of very many small Bags into which the Grease is conveyed through several fatty Vessels as the most accurate Anatomists of this Age plainly witness Hence it is now easily manifest how readily the Grease in its small Bags and the Matter contained in the very small fatty Vessels may be coagulated by the cold Air. Now when the Omentum issuing out of the Cavity of the Abdomen by reason of some delay is in the aforesaid manner corrupted then must a Thred be tyed between the sound and the corrupted part and least the sound part also be infected what is corrupted must be cut off and if the Wound be found too large that must be sewed up but the aforesaid Thread hanging out of the Abdomen must be a left so until it falls off of it self in process of time Thus I knew one part of whose Omentum by its too long stay out of the Abdomen was corrupted recovered happily of his Wound who was after the same manner handled by my Father In a large wound of the Abdomen the Bowel sometimes issues which must be presently thrust in for otherwise it is so distended with Flatus's as it cannot be thrust into its pristine place But whence is it that the Bowel is so distended with Flatus's remaining out of the Belly for some short time I answer A certain Fermentation is excited not onely in the Chyle Pancreatick Juice and Choler but also in the Feces left of the Chyle and in the Ferment adhering to the sides of the Bowels Hence arise many Vapours not to mention those Vapours which from the Pores of the small Arteries continually enter into the Cavity of the Bowels which must needs be accumulated in the Cavity of that Bowel and distend it if in the Bowel abiding out of the Abdomen the Pores from within looking outwards be closed up by the ambient Air. Now what remains to be done when the Bowel out of the Abdomen is seen distended with Flatus's The closed Pores are to be opened and greater agitation contributed to the Vapours contained within which may well be effected if a Thred newly twisted but not purged by boyling having been first boyled in sweet Milk be applied hot Then the Bowel the Flatus's being absumed must be reposited and if need be the Wound in some part sewed up If the Bowels be also wounded the life of the Patient is in very great danger and indeed the more if the Wound be inflicted in a thin Bowel but not so if in a more gross Bowel because in this the Wound after it is sewed up is more easily conglutinated the Bowel being such as consists of a greater number of small passages through which the nourishing Humors are conveighed So the gross Bowels generally contain onely Feces but Bowels more slender the Chyle Whilst I here treat of the Bowels a certain Dispute which hath been for a long time contraverted among Physicians comes into my mind viz. whether nourishing Clysters injected do obtain the wished Effect or whether as some say they be wholly unprofitable for Nutrition because according to their opinion they come not so far as to the sanguineous Mass But they err who embrace the last opinion if credit may be given to credible men who taught by Experience witness that the same quantity of Spirit of Wine if injected into the Fundament by a Clyster will sooner inebriate than if taken in by the Mouth The Liver consists of certain glandulous Kernels into which the small sanguiferous Vessels conveying their own Humor are terminated and of the Branches of the Bilary-Pores which receive the Choler separated in those glandulous Kernels Moreover great sanguiferous Vessels are seen in the Liver whence it is easily understood how dangerous are those Wounds that are inflicted on the Liver For if the great Vessels be opened an Haemorrhagia yielding to no Remedies follows And though those great Vessels be not hurt yet a wound of the Liver though but small doth in the mean while disturb the separation of Choler which notwithstanding we know to be exceeding necessary in the Oeconomy of an Animal But notwithstanding these Paulus Aegineta speaks of a man that recovered of a Wound that had taken away a piece of his Liver It is wonderful indeed that one man should supervive the loss of a piece of his Liver and another die by the too-great increase of his Liver So some years ago to my Fathers care was committed a Sick-man afflicted with a vastly tumified Belly continuing so unto Death His Carkass being opened clearly presented the cause of this Evil to the sight for his Liver was incredibly augmented I remember the same hapned in an Hen which never laid Egg the Liver of which weighed an entire pound The Spleen is a congesture of small Membranes formed into small Cells and Concamerations in which Cells innumerable oval and white Glandules into which the Arteries Veins and Nerves are opened do in a wonderful manner adhere Here it is to be understood as an industrious Anatomist of this Age judgeth that the Humor is carried through the Arteries into the Glandules of the Spleen and by the Glandules being there separated and somewhat acid into the above-named small Cells and from those Cells imbibed with an acid Ferment into the Splenetic-Branch and so to the Liver where in the Bloud it in some sort precipitates the Choler to the end that may so much the more easily be separated in the glandulous Kernels of the Liver Hence it is now manifest what great misery a Wound of the Spleen infers on the sick The Reins consists of Glandules into which the small Arteries Veins and Branches of the Ureters are terminated Through the small Arteries the Humour is deferred into the Glandules of the Reins in which the Urine is separated and taken from the Branches of the Ureters is forced into the Bladder That the matter is thus you will more easily believe when you shall know the following Experiment which a certain Professor communicated to me and is this If you by a Syringe inject warm Milk into an emulgent Artery the more gross part will return by the emulgent Vein and the wheyish Portion be sequestred in the Reins and thence conveyed into the Ureter Hence it is apparent how perilous Wounds of the Reins
the dilated Artery For by this means I have certainly known some to have augmented the number of the Dead Moreover Ligatures must not be tyed too close for by this means I remember a mortal Sphacelus hath unexpectedly been introduced But if the Patient from the wound of an Artery lose so much Bloud as he suffers great Swoonings and Death seems to stand at the door what is then to be done Cannot the Transfusion of Bloud so much praised in this case profit especially seeing it is declared by credible men that a Dog from whom in one day so much Bloud was taken that he could scarcely move by Calves-Bloud received the next day in a moment of time shewed recovery of strength and incredible vigour I answer I cannot remember this Operation to have been at any time instituted by our Country-men therefore warily suspended my judgement about this matter OBSERVAT. V. Of a Fracture of the Tibia with a Wound A Virgin Twenty years of age by the sudden and unexpected discharge of a Gun I know not by what misfortune happening charged with Small-shot received a wound on the inside of her Leg a little below the Knee Which wound presented it self in length and breadth very large yea so large that it exceeded an hands breadth There was also present a very great Contrition and Commination of the Bone of the Tibia broken into very small pieces which extended it self the whole length of the Wound and thickness of the Bone of the Tibia Whence the sick Maid was afflicted with most cruel dolour which caused her to pass many Nights without sleep or if she at any time slept for a very little while she would suddenly awake not without very great terrour attended with a Convulsion as it were of her wounded Leg by which means the broken Bones were often distorted The broken Bones were reposited without great Extension and the Fragments which were wholly separated loose and at liberty were presently taken out without much trouble the remaining Fragments yet somewhat adhering were left till in process of time they should be separated Then was applied a digestive prepared of Turpentine the Yolk of an Egg Powder of the Roots of Flower de Luce and Birthwort with Myrrh and other things together with a Plaister and Lavament temperating Acidity After these was used a common Ligature and at length the affected Leg included in a case of Wood was aptly placed in the Bed over which hung a Rope by which the Patient might raise her body when necessity was and at her Feet was erected a Semi-circle of Wood lest the weight of the Bed-clothes should create any trouble to the wounded Leg. The cutting of a Vein which very many are wont to commend in such a case was wholly omitted because no benefit can thence arise nor were Purgers here according to the vulgar method revoked into use because in this Evil nothing is more desirable than Rest and nothing more pernitions than Motion Therefore whensoever the Patient was necessitated to discharge her Belly a four-doubled Cloath was laid under her to receive the Excrements In the mean while the Patient eat Foods easie of digestion drank new Beer and the first Evenings after she was wounded assumed a certain gentle Anodine for mitigating the dolour and removing that terror of which I spake The Bones were reposited as often as they were found distorted by that Nocturnal terror The Wound by reason of great abundance of Pus was dressed twice a day and so in process of time very many Fragments were separated And then we could daily see the Generation and Accretion of a Callus arising not from the Marrow but from the very small Pores or passages of the Bone through which are conveyed the nourishing Humors coming from the small Arteries This Wound so very perilous was closed up in a Months space and the Patient could again as well stand and walk as she had done before this wound was inflicted I remember another Woman afflicted with the same Evil to have been cured by my Father But these two Examples should not render any Artist so secure as slightly to regard a Fracture with a Wound For I have known that to have caused death in many So when in the Hospital as Rotterdam I was present with others daily for almost whole days dressing very many wounded Men which came from the Siege of the City of Graaf I remember all they that laboured with a Fracture and Wound of the Tibia died and among others one was afflicted with a Fracture and wound of the Tibia in whose wound I beheld not without Admiration very many broad thick and white shining Worms But whence had these Worms their Original I answer From Eggs fallen from the Air into the wound out of which the Worms were excluded when a certain Fermentation was excited in the stagnizing Humors So not a few Eggs fall from the Air into Milk of which Cheese is afterward made As long as that Cheese is new these Eggs are not excluded but when the Cheese putrifies that is when in process of time a certain Fermentation is produced in the Cheese then do the Worms crawl out of the Eggs. So in a very great contrition of a Bone the Fracture with the wound attending I remember to have been cured no otherwise than by cutting off the Leg a little below the Knee In a Fracture of the Tibia with a wound some are wont to use the Ligature of eighteen Heads which is in Dutch called een boexwiise Ligatuur but we have happily used the common which we changed twice a day by reason of the great quantity of out flowing Pus I knew a Chyrurgeon who instead of the wooden Case of which I spake used a certain Iron-Instrument into which the Leg affected was put and so kept extended and unmovable but I cannot here in words give a description of that Instrument In a simple Fracture of the Tibia Ferula's made of Pastboard are generally applied but in our Patient these were wholly omitted because in a wound so vast they seemed not convenient With our Digestive which was put upon the Wound by reason of the bared Bone no Fatness was admixed For that Fatness hurts the Bones Experience doth abundantly testifie the reason of which we have before given Parey in the Chyrurgick Practice was very deserving and had much Experience yet in a Fracture with a Wound he improperly commends Astringents which why and how much they hurt we have often shewed I suppose no man will take it in evil part that I should dare to reprehend so great a Man seeing the more famous any man is the more dangerous are his Errours because very many moved by the onely Authority of so great a Man with a certain blind force follow him treading a Path that hath been trod but not that which should be trod It is to be observed that a Callus is most difficultly produced in Fractures of women with Child
thrust out through the Skin the Affect is mortal of greater danger if restored than if not restored For if it be not restored an Inflammation Convulsion or sometimes Death follows Secondly Foulness of that Member will be present And Thirdly an uncurable Ulcer which if it happen to be covered with a Cicatrice that by reason of softness is easily broken If it be restored it infers very great danger of a Convulsion Gangrene and Death But some fear dangers of this kind onely in the great Articles viz. in the Wrist Shoulder Talus and Thigh which by reason of the strength of the Tendons and magnitude of the Ligaments and Vessels prohibit Restitution Then he adds If a Convulsion follows the Joynt must be presently again Dislocated My purpose is no otherwise to answer these words of Scultetus than by an exact and faithful Declaration of the Medicines we applied to this our Patient seeing thereby it will be sufficiently manifest how well or how ill the above-named Author hath written First We washed the Bone of the Tibia forced out of its seat with Spirit of Wine warm for removing the coagulated Bloud and Filths adhering then sufficient Extension being made we set the dislocated Bone in its place applying to the Wound a good Digestive with a fit Plaister superposited not omitting a Lavament temperating Acidity and a Common Ligature The Leg thus bound up was laid upon a soft Cushion and so the Patient was carried to his Bed over which hung a Rope by the help of which he could raise his Body as I said in the precendent Operation and at the Feet of this Sick-man we set up a Board that the Clothes with their Weight might infer no detriment to the wounded Leg. The Leg affected by reason of the abundance of Pus flowing out of the Wound was dressed twice a day But in the mean while most vehement dolour exercised its Tyranny on our sick Patient who was both feverish and had a Delirium passing whole night almost without sleep or if he was between whiles somewhat refreshed with sleep a little after that was excited the aforesaid Terrour of which we spake in the precedent Observation whence the Talus was often of some measure distorted again To remove the Dolour Fever Watchings and Delirium the Patient at time assumed some of the following Mixture ℞ Water of Betony ℥ iv Of Bawm ℥ j. Syrup of Card. Bened. ʒiij Antimony Diaphoretic ʒj Salt prunella antimoniate ʒss White Corals Crabs-Eyes of each ℈ j. Laudanum Opiat Gr. 4. Make a Mixture But the Talus as often as it was found distorted after sleep was reposited By this means the space of three Weeks being scarcely elapsed the Fever and Delirium ceased then also but more slowly the aforesaid Terrour vanished and at length the Dolour and Watchings likewise But here I call to mind one thing which I had almost forgot viz. that two Abscesses arose in the affected Leg one nigh the Wound the other in the External part of the Leg but both these Abscesses after Apertion were healed In process of time very many Fragments were separated from the Bone of the Tibia which we then gently and easily took out of the Wound and upon the fungous flesh which was seen in the Wound we strewed almost every day once the Powder of Burnt Allum and so at length a Cicatrice came in sight which from day to day increased more and more so that about the sixth Month the whole Wound was almost covered Wherefore the Patient began to walk with Crutches but by this motion the Wound was again inlarged so that it closed not in every part which should seem strange to no man For I at this day know two who after Dislocation of the Talus with a Wound had an Ulcer several years But what if after setting the Dislocated Talus the Patient had been afflicted with a Convulsion must we needs have followed the counsel of Scultetus and again have dislocated the Article so lately set in its place I think not seeing I see no cause that should incite us to such an Action In this place I render not a Reason of many Phaenomenons and indeed considerately least I should set before the Readers a Dish of Crambe twice cookt For I think I have here omitted no reason of any Phaenomenon which may not be found in one or other of the foregoing Observations OBSERVAT. VII Of a Nose hurt by Winters-Cold A Young Maiden Sixteen years of age in Mid-Winter in extream cold Weather complained of a Tumor Redness and Dolour in the Tip of her Nose and she had been often before afflicted with this Evil in the Winter-Seasons The coldness of the Air both within and without affecting the Nose the Bloud in its very small Vessels and the Humors in their small passages were in some measure stagnized and in process of time contracted a certain Acor whence the Tumor Redness and Dolour were easily excited But whence was it that this Evil had now several times returned in the Winter This Return proceeded from no other cause than because the small Vessels and Passages were the first time so distorted by the Bloud and Humors stagnizing and waxing acid that afterwards they could never so well return to their pristine state but they would in Winter-time much impede the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors This Affect in Dutch called de Roud is without danger as to life yet in the mean while it is not a little displeasant to young Maids accounting their own Form whatsoever it is as their chiefest good and therefore are often willing rather to lose their Life than their Beauty This Evil I wholly removed in a few days with a Linnen-Cloath onely anointed with Sperma Ceti I shall not now dispute what that is which is known by the Name of Sperma Ceti whether it be the Seed of that great Fish or a certain Substance which is found in the form of thick Oyl in certain small Cells in the Head of the Whale about the largeness of Goose-Eggs or lastly whether it be a certain artificial Composition of the Brain of some Fish dried made up with a Lixivium of Lime In this place I say I will not dispute of this matter it sufficeth me that much Oyly Volatile Salt is contained in the aforesaid Medicament which corrects the Acidity in the bloud and stagnizing Humors This Evil is wont to invade not only the Tip of the Nose but also the Fingers Toes and Soles of the Feet To attempt to render a Reason of this would be superfluous seeing it is manifest that the cold Air doth more affect the Extreamities of the Body than other parts and small Vessels are sooner obstructed than others more capacious To prevent this Evil Cupping-glasses with Scarification are wont to be applied but improperly because the Obstructions are not by this means removed but multiplied and the distorted Vessels are not reverted to their pristine state but more
distorted Much better would be the Vapour ascending from Spirit of Wine set on fire or a Fermentation made of Wine and Herbs abounding with Volatile Salt To prevent this Evil when it is wont to infest the Tip of the Nose some apply Leeches but evily for I have known this Affect to be by them not a little exasperated the reason of which Exasperation I should here add were it not sufficiently manifest by the foregoing Paragraph This Affect is wont leisurely to increase but sometimes it meets with another Evil suddenly proceeding from intense Cold and is called a Gangrene of Cold which beginning is wont to be cured by Immersion into cold Water But is this a rational way of Cure Yes and consentaneous both to Reason and Experience Cast a frozen Apple into cold Water and you shall see that in a short space of time to be thawed within all the Ice adhering to the external Skin of the Apple without loss of its pristine taste or former consistency but set the same frozen Apple near a Fire and it will presently wither and lose the sweetness of its taste Very many Particles contained in the Pores and small Passages of the congealed Apple which before were fluid have now by reason of the Frost put on the form of Ice that is many Particles which before by the subtile matter sufficiently strong were in their motions each from other diverse continually agitated do now rest each with other because they are surrounded with a subtile matter which is too weak to conserve them in their usual motion When such a congealed Apple is cast into cold Water the more strong part of the subtile matter from the Water flies into the Apple and so thaws the same But the more weak part of the subtile matter rusheth out of the Apple into the Water most nearly touching the External Rind or Skin which is therefore covered over with Ice But when such a frozen Apple is set to the Fire the most subtile matter of the World very strong and attended with many gross particles of the burning Wood or Turf endeavours with great violence to enter the Pores of the congealed Apple but cannot because the Pores are very much constringed with Cold therefore it breaks them by force and so the consistency and good taste of the Apple is changed and wholly spoiled Hence it is now sufficiently manifest that this Cure of a Gangrene from Cold is rational though in the mean while it may perhaps seem fit to some to vary one Circumstance and that is as here following expressed A congealed or frozen Apple is cast into cold Water and indeed well because the Liquor in a well-constituted Apple is found cold as to the touch but our Bloud and Humors well constituted are not cold to the touch but warm therefore a Member lightly affected with a Gangrene from cold should rather be put into luke-warm-Water by the Dutch called bloet-laeuw than into cold OBSERVAT. VIII Of an Atrophia Imbecillity of Motion and an Algor of the Arm. A Young man 24 years of age as to all other things very well had now for six Months laboured with an Atrophia of his Left-arm from the Shoulder to the Cubit and he could not lift up or otherwise move his Arm but continually complained of an Algor or extream coldness thereof Some Chyrurgeons had long attempted to cure this Affect according to their vulgar method and applied their Plaisters Unguents Linements and other such Medicaments but in vain The very viscous Humor in the Arm of this Sick man had produced not a few very pertinaceous Obstructions whence the Astrophia of the Arm its Impotency to motion and Algor of the same readily took beginning But this gross Humor lay so very deep that it could indeed be in no wise dissolved by Unguents or other such-like Remedies Had the cure of this Evil been longer procrastinated there would have been great cause of fear that the Ligaments connecting the Shoulder-bone with the Scapula would in a short space of time have been so much extended in length that thence would have followed such a Dislocation of the Shoulder most difficult to heal as we described in the Last Observation of the First Decade Therefore without any delay I set about the Work and ordered seven or eight Cupping-glasses with Flame but without any Scarification to be applied twice or thrice every Week and left on till the Skin waxed red at which time the affected part was washed before a Fire with the following Liquor first made hot and every other day when the Cupping-glasses were not applied the same was also twice used ℞ Root of Sarsaparilla ℥ j. Bark of Lign Guaicum ℥ ss Herb Rosemary Sage of each M.j. ss Flowers of Lavender M. ss Bay-berries ℥ j. Salt of Tartar ʒ j. ss Of Armoniac ℈ ij Boyl these in a double Vessel with two pounds and an half of Spirit of Wine and strain the Liquor from the Simples We also took care sometimes to burn Common Spirit of Wine so that the Vapour thereof ascending might surround the affected part covered above and by this means the Algor vanished in 14 days and the Patient in six Months time could as well move and use his Left-arm as his Right and in the mean while the affected Arm became daily more and more fleshy Which way the Cupping-glasses and aforesaid Medicaments effected the cure of this our Patient I here pass over in silence and that indeed considerately because the same is sufficiently manifest in the Ninth Observation of the Fourth Decade OBSERVAT. IX Of the Vvula and Tonsils evily disposed A Young man aged 30 years walking in a very cold season was afflicted with dolour redness and tumor of the Tonsils and Uvula whence he perceived difficulty in Swallowing though he was in the mean while almost continually forced to swallow The Bloud in its small Vessels and the Humors in the minute passages of the Tonsils and Uvula stagnized by reason of the cold Air admitted by Inspiration were coacervated and waxed acid whence arose the aforesaid tumor dolour redness and difficulty of swallowing But whence did that so great Impulse to swallowing derive its Original I answer The Membrane subject to the Uvula hath Nerves which touched by the relaxed and incumbent Uvula are the cause that the Nervous Juice is in greater abundance carried into the Muscles adapted for swallowing Being called to the sick I prescribed the following Gargarism ℞ Spirit of Wine ℥ iij. Water of Elder-flowers ℥ ij Spirit of Sal. Armoniac drops 20. Mix these according to Art By this means our Patient was cured in a very short time The prescribed Gargarism proved very profitable because it temperated the Acidity dissolved the coagulated Humors and removed the Obstructions I have in my self often restored the Uvula relaxed by reason of viscous and coagulated Humors there stagnizing when I gently touched the same with the tip of my Finger moistned onely with