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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61146	Observations on fevers and febrifuges. Written in French by Monsieur Spon, one of the most eminent physicians of Lyons; upon occasion of reading a book entituled, The discovery of the admirable English remedy. Now made English, by J. Berrie	Spon, Issac, 1647-1685.; Berrie, J.	1682 (1682)	Wing S5019; ESTC R219131	25,424	122

Observations ON FEVERS AND FEBRIFUGES Written in French by Monsieur SPON one of the most eminent Physicians of Lyons upon occasion of reading a Book entituled The discovery of the admirable English Remedy Now made English by J. Berrie LONDON Printed for Mark Pardoe at the black Raven in the Strand against Bedford-house 1682. A LETTER To the ABBOT of SYLVECANE Containing Some Observations upon Fevours and Febrifuges SIR I Did not at all wonder at your earnestness the other day in reading the first Pages of a little Book entituled A Discovery of the admirable English Remedy c. upon which ●ou desired I should communicate my Sentiments to you as also concerntng Febrifuges about which there is now so much discourse And this I thought I might better do by Letter than by a verbal Discourse This Book of Monsieur de Blegny's to which we are indebted for the new Discoveries in Physick was no sooner brought hither but I had the curiosity to run it over to see whether the Remedy and the Method of administring it were the same I had practised with good success in Tertians double Tertians Quartans and also in continual and Malignant Fevers for five or six Months last past In the last of which Fevers it is not so infallible as in the Intermittents which it cures in few days I read or rather devoured the Book in a short time in hopes to find what I sought after but I found nothing of it but onely the manner of his Discovery with an engagement to dispense it to such as shall have occasion I was at first a little offended at his manner of proceeding and I doubt not but other Readers of that Book have been so too But after some Reflections made upon it I found that the Author had done as became a wise and prudent man For the making this Remedy common were in effect to render it contemptible and to expose it to the abuses of Apothecaries to whose interest the longest Fevers are most agreeable or to the calumny of those old Physicians who have long since taken the Oaths of Allegiance to Hippocrates and Galen these Gentlemen are unwilling to use any Medicines but those left them by their Ancestors lest their present Practice should prove a convincing Argument of their past Ignorance Nay every little Barber would pretend to know as much of it as the most learned of Physicians who have for several years made it their study and would have abused a Remedy which ought no more to be trusted in the hands of the unskilful than Fire-Arms in the hands of a Child Methinks it were not just that the pains and study of a Curious and Ingenious man should be exposed as a prey to every ignorant fellow And that the Honey of an industrious Bee should be a prize for a lazy and idle Drone The desire and emulation of discovering what is by others kept as a secret is an admirable way to find out many other secrets though perhaps we find not that we search for Many Physicians I suppose in France have as well as my self applied themselves to the study of Experiments about Febrifuges ever since they have been so much spoken of Indeed there are Medicines which seem too loathsome to be taken their Composition being known but go down without difficulty when they are kept as Secrets The saying of St. Augustine may possibly be objected to me That being Christians we ought not to conceal that which made known would conduce to the utility and good of Mankind To which may be added what Dr. Sidenham a learned English Physician saith That whoever hath any Specifick Remedy or any certain Method of curing intermitting Fevers merits not the name of a good Citizen or of a prudent man if he communicate not a thing so necessary for the good of Mankind For it is not the part of a good Citizen to turn to his own particular profit that which may bring so great an advantage to Humane Society nor of a prudent man to deprive himself of the Divine Benediction which we may expect when we apply our selves to procure the publick good and when we prefer Virtue and Wisdom before Riches and vain Reputation To this may be answered That if one were assured of the benefit the Publick would receive by communicating the Composition of this Remedy an honest man could not conceal it without a crime But on the contrary if it be more advantageous not to divulge it then 't is the part of a good Citizen and a prudent man to keep the mystery of it secret procuring means whereby all such as desire to have it prepared may be furnished with it I have already given my reasons in a few words and Dr. Sidenham himself may serve for an instance that the publishing of a Remedy does not gain it a general acceptation He printed about four or five years since his Observations upon Acute Diseases wherein there are excellent methods for the cure of many Diseases and of Fevers also which he cures so perfectly that at London he is called the Fever-Doctor and yet for all this we do not see that his method is much used There have come out Books very learned about the cure of Fevers and other Subjects which have been considered rather as subtile Idea's than as Discourses grounded upon Experience and yet these Books have been very well received But the English Doctor had no sooner signalized himself by the great Cures he did but every one strove to imitate his method And some particular persons who thought they had his Secret have sold it by the name of the English Doctors Remedy at Paris and all over France So much did the very name of Secret promote its reputation And now seeing that nothing will take but what has the name of a Secret it is fit that we speak no more of our Remedy but as of a Secret to justifie the saying Populus vult decipi decipiatur I 'm so far from being of their opinion who treat the English Doctor as a Mountebank that I do ingenuously acknowledge that Physick is much indebted unto him and though he were but an Apothecary in his own Country yet his Merit should make him be considered as a famous Physician of Fevers or Ague-Doctor And those who slight and scorn his Method without knowing it deserve much less than he to be called true Physicians Not that I approve either of the great mystery which he made of his Remedy or of his exorbitant Price for this shew'd too much of Covetousness and too little Charity And if this be not the hiding ones Talent it is at least a too reserved employing it I should think that to keep the Scales even and to preserve as well the quality of a good Christian as of a good Citizen these Rules might be prescribed as well for the satisfaction of those who would have it made publick as of those who would have it still kept secret 1. Endeavour

sensibly hot The same may be said of many other Liquors of which I shall say nothing in this place since it may be seen at large in a book of Dr. Grews of the mixture of Liquors translated into French by Monsieur Mesmin a Physician of Paris Another proof which to me seems convincing is that the Chyle mixing it self with the Bloud causes every day naturally even in the most healthy a certain shadow as it were of a Fever which differs not from a real Fever but as more and less For half an hour or an hour after Meals as soon as the most subtile part of the Chyle or but the vapour which by its fermentation it drives before it doth insinuate it self into the Bloud it causes a coldness in the hands and feet which is taken for a signe of Health In some it produces Yawnings and a desire of Sleep with a Pulse less and more frequent than ordinary Here you have the beginning of the Fever This cold being past there succeeds a heat all over the Body which is very great in the palms of the hands and soals of the feet of such as are of a Cholerick temperament and at the same time the Pulse rises and beats stronger Here you have the state and vigour of the Fever Four or five hours after Meals when all the Chyle is mixed with the Bloud and has receiv'd a part of its perfection from the circulation the Heat diminishes the Pulse comes to his natural state and Appetite returns Here you have the declination of the Fever If after this one stay twelve hours or more without eating any thing the Pulse becomes extreamly slow and the vigour one had diminishes Here you have the state of a man when the Fever is almost past But as the Aliments wherewith we are nourished are not all alike and our Temperaments different which is the reason why some have little or no Cold that others feel a great heat after Meat and are lighter or heavier all which has relation to the different accidents or symptoms which accompany the Fever If the Chyle find the Bloud too much subtilized or exalted it produces a lingring Fever which may be particularly perceived after Meals This causes leanness and a considerable falling away in the Patient By this may be understood the reason why Coffee and Thea taken after Meals hinders those from sleeping who are subject to sleep unless a common custome of drinking one or other of them render them ineffectual because by their bitterness and moderate heat they dissipate the over-thick fumes of the Chyle This also conduces to the understanding what the Naturalists say of Lions and Goats that they have every day a Fever for as they are of a Temperament hot and dry their Chyle has the greater disproportion to their Bloud and in mixing it self with it it procures a greater Combat than in other Animals Pliny makes mention of one Caius Maesenas who had all his life long a Fever and never slept a moment during the three last years of his life On the other side Deer that are of a cold and dry Temperament and by consequence their Bloud less apt to ferment never have any Fever as the same Author says He adds that certain Ladies having accustomed themselves to eat Deers flesh every morning lived very long free from Fevers This Ferment in intermitting Fevers has its seat in the Glandules of the Velvet-coat of the Stomach and Intestines described by Monsieur Payer These Glandules have each their little Channels of Excretion through which they discharge a very lympid Serosity which is of the same nature of the Lympha which circulates through the whole Body and this subtile Liquor joyned to that which is constantly furnished by the ductus Salivales and to the Pancreatick juice serves for a ferment and dissolvent for the Chyle This Dissolvent being too acid communicates to the Chyle its Aciditie even as Acids cause a Coagulation in Milk so that the Chyle entering into the Veins and Arteries and not being capable of being perfectioned by the ordinary circulation when a quantitie thereof great enough to produce a Fermentation remains in the Bloud more violent than that which happens after Meals the fit of the Fever begins and continues until this sharp Chyle be dissipated and driven out by Sweat or insensible Transpiration Now according as this Ferment is in greater or less quantitie or the Bloud more or less susceptible of an Effervescence Fevers become Tertians double Tertians or Quotidians Quartains or double Quartains So the Cholerick having their Bloud more boyling and subtile fall commonly into Tertian or double Tertian Fevers Hence it is that the Antients have said and 't is in some measure true That Choler is the cause of Tertian Fevers both intermitting and continual for there is reason to believe that that which causes an Intermittent causes also a continual Fever of the same kind seeing that every fit of an Intermitting Fever is as it were alittle Continual Fever and a Continual as a long fit of an Intermittent the fit of this beginning continuing and ending almost as a Continual Fever The continuity proceeds from this that the Chyle introduced into the Bloud could not be perfected and by consequence the mass of Bloud could not furnish a Ferment fit to make the digestion of the Aliments perfect 'T is also to be observed that the mass of Bloud acquiring a more acre and inflamable disposition the Chyle although natural produces also a Continual Fever which is a thing to be noted in the practice of Physick for then bleeding and cooling Aliments and Medicines will be more convenient and above all such Acids as calm the agitation of the Bloud by thickning and cooling it and by precipitating the sulphurous parts which maintain the Tumult This being thus laid down it will not be difficult for me to answer many Questions that may be made about Fevers and Febrifuges And First Whence come the Shiverings in Fevers and why are the Shakings greatest in Quartains The Acid Liquors thickning the Bloud among which they beging to mix themselves hinder it from communicating its heat to the parts and the Bloud the more distant it is from the Heart the less hot it is This is the reason why the Shiverings begin at the Extremities of the Body and continue until by the efforts of the Heart and Arteries to purifie the Bloud by their redoubted pulsation all that fume be dissipated the heat of the Bloud violently agitated succeeding the cold fit The Ferment of Quartains is more acid and glutinous and the Bloud more gross which causes most commonly the Cold to be more violent And as these Vapours often have much acrimony in them they sometimes affect the membranous parts by which they pass in such manner that the Patient suffers pains as if one stuck Pins in his Body Those who have their Bloud subtile and the Chyle more gross have their Fits without any

the hardness of the Spleen with a Pultis made of a Root which produces the effect of a Vesicatory in drawing to it abundance of Water This has some affinity to the practice of the Ancients who were wont to apply actual Cauteries to the region of the Spleen He was also to have discoursed to us of their ingenious method of curing Venerial Distempers and the Lethargie ●n a Description of Virginia which at my request he was making An American named Raocomoco one of their Physicians for a little money shew'd him a certain Root which if chewed in the Mouth and the hands rubbed therewith one might handle all sorts of Serpents without danger He said that none besides himself understood the vertues of that Plant which he called Kibaschkonko that is in their Language the Death of Serpents or Serpents-bane Its vertues are much like those of the Plant called Dictamnus Virginius which is found in Virginia The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Anno 1665 relate that with this Plant ●ounded and put upon the end of a Staff they kill that kind of Serpent by them called Rattle-Snakes if they but smell it it s very smell making them dye within the space of half an hour That in all places where this Plant grows none of those Serpents are found In the same Transactions we find that the Virginians have a Root called Vichacan wherewith they cure Wounds Raocomoco passed for so able a Magician that he could by the Invocation of one of their Gods called Heiamsough cause Slaves that were run away to return to their Masters and could handle burning Coals without receiving any harm He foretold that he should die a violent death for which cause he preserved a friendship and conversed much with the English from whom he apprehended less danger than from those of his own Nation as indeed he had good reason for he was assassinated by order of one of their petty Kings he having rendred himself suspected for having sojourned too long among the English of Carolina The knowledge of the qualities of so many Plants is admirable in those ignorant people There may be some reason to believe that those Daemons which instruct their Priests or Sacrifisers in the art of Physick cure Diseases only by the knowledge of certain Plants and Minerals whose vertues they understand and not without such external means as may naturally produce the effect A Fragment of the Oracles of Aesculapius may be seen in Gruter where the Remedies which this God or rather this Daemon prescribes to the Sick which come to consult him are natural and proper for the Disease Here follow three which I have translated LVCIVS BEING SICK of a pain in his side and being given over by all the God Aesculapius pronounced this Oracle That he should come and take off from the Altar Ashes which he should mix with Wine and apply the mixture to his side Which he did and was presently cured and came publickly to give thanks unto the God and the people congratulated his recovery Here 's the Remedy which Women use for the pain in their Sides for they are wont upon this occasion to apply to their side a little bag fill'd with hot Ashes The Wine augments the vertue of the Ashes in dissipating the Wind which is sometimes the cause of this pain But as it must be a Physician who can discern whether this pain proceed from Wind or from some other cause it happens oftentimes that people do more harm than good with their Applications and instead of discussing a Wind augment an Inflammation which was but beginning JVLIANV'S SPITTING Bloud being given over by every body the God being asked commanded him to come and take off the Altar Kernels of Pine-apples and eat them with Honey for three days wherewith he was cured and came to give thanks to the God in the presence of all the people Kernels of Pine-apples are good for the Breast they sweeten the Humours and serve for a Balm to shut up the Vessels so that they are excellent in Ptisick and Spitting of Bloud and every one knows that Honey is 〈◊〉 great Pectoral Hippocrates wh● is by some accused to have copied his Remedies from those i● the Temple of Aesculapius prescribes these Kernels with Myrrh● to compose a Remedy for th● Breast VALERIVS APER BEIN● Blind the God ordered him 〈◊〉 his Oracle that he should come and take of the bloud of a white Cock and mix it with Honey and make thereof a Collyrium to be put upon his Eyes for three days and he recovered his Sight and came to give thanks publickly to this God The bloud of a Cock is very proper by its heat to dissipate the spots that are beginning in the Eyes and Honey clears the sight so that there is nothing strange in it if Medicines composed of these two ingredients recover the sight of a man that began to be blind 'T is true indeed that upon the same Marble may be read the Cure of another blind man whom the God commanded to put his five fingers upon the Altar and then put them upon his Eyes which has in it no natural cause which might produce such an effect But to return to our Febrifuges we may hope that the reserches which shall be made herein may discover unto us many things which now lie hid And to this purpose I think it would be necessary for us to disengage our selves from the Sentiments of the Antients wherewith we are prepossessed for these tell us of nothing but Choler Flegm Melancholy Remedies cooling and evacuating and such-like For upon their Principles there is no way for any new discoveries but we are confin'd and hindered from penetrating further into the nature of things I shall now give you some Idea's the clearest I can of the nature and causes of a Fever which are not much different from the Sentiments of the most learned of the Moderns upon which it will be easie to explain its Symptoms and cure A Fever is an extraordinary agitation of the mass of Bloud which disturbs the Oeconomy of the body of man This Agitation is produced by many external causes as immoderate Exercises heat of the Sun Falls all those Objects which may stir up our Anger Fear or Sadness and by other causes which move the Bloud with too much violence But the most ordinary cause of Fevers and which doth not onely produce Ephemera's and those of a few ●ays but also intermitting and ●ontinual Fevers with their returns at certain periods and also malignant Fevers is a Ferment or Chyle become too sharp which being introduced into the Bloud does there produce an extraordinary Emotion which causes different Symptoms And this may be proved from this that all sharp Liquors or Acids mixed with other Liquors of an opposite nature which we call Alkalies do cause an Effervescence So if you mix Oyl of Vitriol with Oyl of Tartar they make a considerable ebullition and become