Digestion submitteth to it as an admitted Guest and ceasing to strive against it sends Superfluities as Nourishment thereunto This is apparent in every true Gout Before the Paroxysm begins Loathing at the Stomach and a restless Disposition is perceived for a Day or two and the Pain never approacheth till the Burthen be thence removed thô indeed the Torture which happens afterward doth many times cause as it were a Loathing Yet that is rather the Effect of Anguish than of Matter For whereas at the first these Universal Remedies work upon the Matter by Vomits Sweats Stools or Urine and when the Pains exist in the Joynts have no action at all yet when the Dolours are removed then they operate the same way again And this is a sufficient proof of the possibility of keeping even Hereditary Diseases from growing or increasing to any great height by General Medicines if seasonably applyed These General Dispositions of Medicines here treated of are singularly useful to keep Physicians from Error because Medicines of an Universal Tendency do manifest the Distempers of particular Parts and as with the Finger point at the Seats of Diseases beyond the Imagination of Any that have not proved them for they most sensibly act on the diseased Part. And where such Medicines are first administred there particular Remedies that are specifick to Parts have afterwards the greater efficacy because Nature being assisted in General doth readily dispose of the Particular according to its Gift also For althô they cannot cure every Disease yet their clearing the first Digestion by strengthening and removing the Evil thereof cause the particular Medicine to act without any stop upon the affected part And by this method it is that Distempers accounted uncurable have often been cured But the great Occasions of Errors committed in the Medicinal Faculty are 1. Ignorance of Nature what she is able to do 2. Want of Knowledg of the possibility of Remedies to be so universal in their nature as to do or leave undone as it most conduceth to Nature's help 3. The grand mistake of Practitioners touching the Causes of Diseases judging all Distempers to have their Original from Humorous filths and in the mean while never thinking of Venoms arising through Ferments much less of the Spirit that makes the Assault For althô they hourly see the Effects of Anger Sorrow Envy Fear c. yet when they apply Remedies the first obvious Cause that turns the whole frame of Man is not consider'd by them and only what they produce is the Subject against which their Medicines are directed As for Example When Rage kindleth Choler they seek to allay Choler that is only the product of Rage Choler maketh not Men angry but Anger conceived maketh that sensible For Nothing liveth but hath enough of that Juice so called to be in Rage sufficiently yet unless the Spirit be defiled by a wrathful Image there is no sense of it apparent So also when our thoughts are greatly exercised with a strong desire to attain what is unknown the Constringing Fiat presently ferments the Chyle with so great a sharpness through the Contraction of the Spirit in that Exercise that it is manifest in the Gust or sensible Tast and is in Nature the Cause of what is called Melancholy but if persevered in so long till Separation happen without great helps a certain distraction is produced or some violence that is worse Envy and Malice have not much different Effects for the former cause when they are conjoyned with a strong desire except that Madness hence does more rarely happen yet in that Cold dark harsh fire they impregnate the Chyle and induce great Leaness on the Body harshness and darkness in the Skin and Hair and are not curable any more than the other by any Means applied to the Humour For althô that be altered by the force of Physick to day and wholly separated yet if the Spirit strenuously persist in the same Design the Disease in the twinkling of an Eye is generated again because what is once done may be done a second time and needs not any intervening Agent Althô 't is true that Matter once generated augments the Evil and increaseth the Darkness so largely that the Spirit is thereby more materiated more exasperated and in greater Anguish Fear stagnizes the Blood brings Coldness Sighing intermittent Pulses Convulsions and if strongly persisted in sudden Death or great Stupidity Now it is true that in case the occasion of Fear be removed it is no hard matter to conquer the Effects And so it is consequently true in other Idea's but if continued in thô but in a mere dejection or sinking of the Life they are rendred more difficult to cure than the more evil and active Passions Sorrow is accompanied with debility of Faculties a pining away of the Body and a wasting of the Spirits and is a Causer of Pains in peculiar Vessels through the alteration of Chyle the Parent of manifold Evils yet if once overcome the Effects are not long in expelling thô they have altered almost all the Constitution Now in as much as 't is evident that Disturbance of the Spirit is the Generator of defects in the Body can it be thought that real Venomes whether Epidemical Endemical or Artificial shall less distast then the aforementioned Conceptions since they absolutely assault the Spirit and endeavour the Extirpation of Vital Light the former arise as well from feigned as real Objects the later only from real active and after a sort living Essences therefore in reason more perceptible and causes of greater Wrath Fear Stupor Sorrow or irregular Action in our Nature unless we think every thing is agitated by Necessity as Sparks fly upward and that there is no living Understanding and Election in Us. But if we bring these things to a sensible Test it cannot be denyed but that we feel the force of Anger Fear c. in our Bodies which if the Spirit in Us were not the Ruler could never be so Yet to come nearer to our Selves Do not trivial Errors even of Meats and Drinks Heats and Colds primarily affect the Spirit Who is there whom fulness of Meats and Drinks doth not affect with Dulness and Heaviness Do not Heats when overmuch cause Faintings and Languishments and doth not the Supplement of Cordials actual or potential supply that defect Likewise is it not apparent that Cold when offensive stagnizeth the Bloud giveth Cause for dolour in the external Parts to Imposthumous Humors or stirs up Disorders internally through the let of vital Separations and is usually the Begetter if the Spirit be not helped to perform its natural Separations of Vomitings Fluxes Feavers Coughs and what not through the obstructing of the vital Spirit Yet however this can be no more than the Occasional Cause the Efficient must be the Spirit erring in its own Acts that must constitute this formal part of distemperature and bring it to a Disease And doth any thing sooner restore Nature
Actions unto which she had no tendency and by taking her off from her own work to take part with the Disease The same Hippocrates long since declared that the Man who in all his Life brought forth nothing which was of Service or Benefit to his Neighbour deserved no remembrance among Men. Therefore if I have herein aimed according to my narrow Talent to be serviceable to Mankind I am thereby but a Disciple to that great Master yet if what is contained in this Treatise be of any advantage to Others the thanks thereof is not so much due to me as to my Opposers whose Provocations have excited me to this Vindication of my Proceedings like the Philosopher's contranatural Fire which in destroying the outward Form excites the inward Spirits to unite and concenter for their own Preservation to the begetting or bringing forth of some new Substance of another Species Charge not on me the Scribe's or Printer's faults Who see with Others Eyes but they whose Thoughts Vulgar Opinion governs are worse blind In me the Organ's dark in them the Mind The First Part. A Manuduction DISCOVERING The True Foundation of the Art of Medicine THE Practice of Physick being various and in the Judgment of most very uncertain because the Galenists have one Theory and Chymists another I cannot perceive any thing herein more serviceable to the Publick than to distinguish their Foundations and what use I have made of them The Galenists have 4 Humors 4 Complexions and 4 Qualities to raise their Structure on And when either of these exceed their due Temperament they judg a Disease present and to that apply their Remedies never so much as thinking of a Mover or first Cause of these Disorders The Chymists according to Paracelsus and Helmont establish their Theory on the first disturbance given to Nature in her own Inns and Acts not so much respecting Effects as Causes nor the Matter disturbing as the Spirit disturbed and to this they apply their Remedies This later Foundation with me under great trouble of Spirit at last overcame all doubtings and I readily adhered to these sublime Conceptions having for their Basis such perspicuity as the Light of Nature did really demonstrate and Hippocrates their allowed Patron doth attest saying Nature is the Physician and Curer of Diseases Yet upon Examination of their Remedies against this Spiritual assault or first being of Diseases I perceived they depended not upon any particular known Medicines but on universal Dispositions drawn from Metals Minerals Salts Animals or Vegetables Hence I began to despair of arriving at any certainty to attain Remedies so gifted as to be capable to reduce Nature to her Primitive Unity with and in the Faculties of the Body For I well knew that all the known Remedies of these Times were not the Medicines of our Famous Progenitors nor capable to answer to those Ends being the Products and Off-springs either of unfound Hearts or ignorant Heads too much devoted to Gain and Applause who having forsook the Substance embraced the Shadow and gave Names to Remedies as Paracelsick which have as much difference from his in Disposition as Light has from Darkness All their Medicines were either endued with particular Faculties and hostile Dispositions as Purging and Vomiting the Sound as well as the Sick or else curtailed by Fire and fiery Spirits and so rendred Diaphoretical under all which Considerations they became wholly unfit to answer that great End of Nature Curation I did not think those supream and general gifts were wanting in Nature but because I knew not the Artifice by which they might be attain'd they were to me as things of no value or concern having therefore suspended my thoughts till I better understood them I greatly bent my Mind to Animals Salts and Vegetables and from them endeavoured as far as in me lay to separate their Terrestreity and by Mistion their Specificality and having spiritualized them I found they were not unfit to be administred in any Case so far as communication of Strength was needful And so great a Blessing attended for some space of time that they seemed to answer the utmost desires of Nature Yet my Mind being not idle I allways feared that this Success might arise from the smallness of the Malignity or the happy Genius that prompted me to these Endeavours Nor was it long before my suspitions proved truths For when I found some Persons not cured thô the Principal Parts were not perished and that continual strife stirred up by Nature ended in her own Conquest I positively concluded that those Medicines that were fit to stir up Action if not also endued with a Vitality to keep Nature in Union with and in her own Organs to act unto the time of Death without loss of sensibility were far short of what a true Physician should endeavour to compass Now was I again bewildred my Grief renewed my Ignorance seemed greater then at first and my Labours I undervalued as things of no Moment Books could not help and Counsel at that time among Men was not to be hoped for Therefore I accused my self as rash in attempting that which seemed impossible to be attained and even despaired thereof But considering in my self that these my endeavours had not their Original in me by Education nor by any Consideration of Profit or Honour that might accrew from the pursuit of the same but from a natural Propensity strongly overweighing my other Inclinations which at that time to my outward Man were pleasing enough and not without great strife fully subdued I resigned my self to the good Pleasure of the Highest and endeavoured Stilness more then Understanding Indeed I plainly viewed all things but would not discuss them so far as to raise any Foundation therefrom or to bring thoughtfulness in my Self For I perceived a Disquisition of ought that stood not in Unity with all things would be particular uncertain and dangerous yea utterly unfit to answer the ends of Nature because I found it wanting to the attainment of true Healing and in this way of simplicity I was found of What I knew not how to search for Nature in stilness brought forth that which Reason without Light could never have acquired even under its most acute Scrutiny For it not being sensible there was no ground for Reasoning In this opening I saw that every Universal Remedy had its Root in the first or second Life of Minerals and Metals the last Life of them being either over-compact or venomous This Aspect was grateful to me and gave me strong hope that Time and Stilness might produce more Evidence Nor was I deceived for the way of destroying the last Life of some Subjects endued with an Universal Tendency was in the Properties of Nature made manifest to me Then did I see as in a Glass the wonderful Gifts implanted in Metals Minerals c. by the Pleasure of the Most High as a Relief to Mortals in this latter Age of the World wherein Diseases are
to compose those Confusions that cause so great a Complication and indetermination may indeed by its particular act alter the Scene but not the Tragedy and change the Seat of a Disease from one Bowel to another but if any do impartially observe the Event they will soon perceive that the change of Place hath rendred the Disease before easily cured not curable unless with great difficulty and not at all but by General Remedies Yet let no Man mistake me so far as to think these Medicines I mention to be very easily obtained No the Common Preparations have no such Endowments Nor can the converting of a Vomitive and Purging Medicine into a Diaphoretick render its Gifts more splendid nay rather what before in it self had an universal Disposition is now become only a particular Bemedy being no otherwise serviceable than where Sweats are needful And it is clear to every skilful Labourer in the way of natural Medicines that every universal Being tormented by Fire or fiery Spirits is not bettered thô changed For every direct Change is a diminishing of the Natural Gift And whosoever spends his time this way to alter General Medicines will injure both himself and his Neighbour and shall never arrive to any certainty in the true Matter of Medicine The outward Life of Metals or Minerals is poyson which unless overcome with Conservation of the Species of them they cannot exhibit their natural Gifts For Mineral Virtues are like Lillies among Thorns if a Man remove not these he will be wounded with their Prickles before he can attain the Sweetness of those The outward life of Minerals must dye and be annihilated their middle Life is Medicine Antidote against Poyson an Exhilirator and Server of Nature without any determinate Action a great Light impressed with a Divine Seal capable to extirpate the Characters of diseasy Images or at least to subvert their Acts having a natural faculty to remove every occasional Matter by Nature's own Power not compelling but exciting Her as hath been sensibly experimented This proved to me the Truth of Helmont's Theory which thô believed yet without this Testimonial Act I might with the generality of Searchers have ruined my Self by adhering to what was visible and supposing what I enjoyed not as impossible to be attained For every true Natural Medicine worketh not by its own Power which is ever inimical to Nature to Vomit Purge Sweat provoke Urine c. but by Nature's dispose being such as never operates on Bodies well and in health althô taken in a six-fold quantity nor on the diseased and sick but in the way Nature finds most conducent to health Because Nature is the Physicianess and all that is ministred to her ought to be at her Dispose And that she knoweth how to use Medicines of an universal Disposition appeareth in that she doth by them Purge Vomit or Sweat where occasion is and that as forcibly and sensibly as the strongest direct Medicines can do yet with so different Success that Sweats thô endured for many daies do not weaken so much as others thô only for some hours excited by a forcible Diaphoretick Nay the Patients each day grow stronger and stronger than the first Day of taking them So likewise in Vomiting and Purging there is no debility of Nature thô they work many Weeks together in such a measure that the gentlest of direct Purgers if used so long and wrought after the same manner would bring to Death's dore if not totally extinguish Life but these separate the occasional Matter only and weaken not Besides these Properties mentioned that prove their Subserviency which is but the dark part of Vniversal Remedies there are other more vital Separations which manifest their Endowments insomuch that the very same Medicines that did provoke do also stay Vomiting repress unnatural Sweats stop Fluxes cure the Dysentery and Gripings of the Guts as also all Fluxes of the Womb white or red stay the Menses if inordinate and bring them down when stopped hinder Abortion further the Birth when ripe prevent the After-pains yet cleanse more securely than any Specifick whatsoever dissolve or ripen Imposthumes transmit seemingly fixed Tumors from one part to another so as sensible Tumors of the Womb have by the use of them become Imposthumes of the Abdomen an Action if well noted of no small Advantage to the Sick and of great Comfort to an honest Ingenious Physician I have also known Urine in a great Obstruction thereof contrary to the Common course of Nature yet naturally vented through the fleshy parts about the Kidneys and that in such a Quantity as was not inconsiderable had it been voided the usual way thô this continued no longer than the Obstruction was separating for then Nature assumed her usual Passages And for a Crown to the Reality of Vniversal Medicines I shall add They more powerfully excite Nature by insensible Transpiration than by all the usual Passages which Operation If Physicians be not stark blind is of more service a Thousand fold especially in our days than Purging Vomiting Sweating c. were it not the grand unhappiness of Mankind to measure the offices of their Living Spirits by the Effects and Consequences of their intemperate Lives For these Remedies of an universal Tendency exciting Nature to Insensible Transpiration perform that part of Medicine which is least minded thô of greatest Concernment and althô of late years it hath been conceded to as true because sensibly experimented yet the Medium by which it is performed is a mystery to the greater part of Physicians But to proceed to more sensible and less disputable Actions what hath been already specified being most certain because so often known by my Self Nothing below an Universal Tendency is capable of such different Operations nor can it be so disposed as Nature may be capable by the same to extravert the introversate and that without Damage to the Parts or Organs since it is not given to Nature to create Gifts but to use them For every particular Remedy thô most pure cannot be extended beyond its Gift As for Instance The purest Stomachical that hath Gifts to fortifie to cleanse and separate the Impurities of that Part not being indowed with an Universal Disposition to strengthen Nature to war against those dark Images she hath conceived and by that means impressed on another Digestion and also a Capacity of removing occasional Causes it shall indeed corroborate the part for the present but at the same time shall separate the Impurity thereof to other Digestions and so rather render the Party worse because the Root of the Disease being in the Archeus and that Specifick is uncapable of communicating ought thereunto except what concerned that particular Bowel the Disease it self must necessarily be increased in the place to which it is transferr'd and never be subdued until the Darkness overwhelming the Spirit shall be driven away or the occasional Matter in which those Idea's are impressed nullify'd Whence it
their Fore-fathers never knew thinking that Man who was made in the Image of GOD hath no Light or Guide in himself sufficient to direct Him to his own help or the help of his Neighbour O great Blindness What Man the Summary of all created things that hath an immortal Soul shall not that in him which descended from above be capable to distinguish what is fit for his help Shall Birds and Beasts have the priviledge to know the fitness of Remedies and Man be judged uncapable thereof Shall barbarous Indians and rude Shepherds Husbandmen or Old Women do greater Cures than the Learned Doctors of our Age O Shame For to be ignorant of what illiterate Persons know is a great reproach to the Learned if they pretending great knowledg perform little even in the Faculty of which they call themselves Masters and the other pretending little are able to do much more than they But this is because the One is excited by natural Instinct and the Other only by credulous reading Althô at present these things may sound harsh to the Ears of some yet being true and having Nature for their Foundation they will perhaps out-live the Enemies of the same and in this latter Age be as generally received as heretofore in times of Apostacy they have been denyed Our Ancestors in Art though vulgarly reverenc'd under the notion of Antiquity were really but the Infancy of the World 't is our Age which by following long after theirs is indeed the true Antiquity Why then should we dote wholly upon their Childhood-inventions and not rather having the advantage of Example which the Beginners must needs have wanted proceed and grow old in Understanding as well as in Time a Pigmey set upon a Giant 's shoulders may be able to see farther than Him The Second Part. OF THE General Nature of Diseases A Person is then properly said to be Sick when some Part at least cannot perform its due Action and whatever produceth that Infirmity is styled the Cause and that Disability of the Part to do its proper Office or Function is call'd a Disease of which some are Simple some are Complicated Simple Diseases are either Natural Preternatural or Contranatural Pardon the Coinage of the last Word because it seems as analogical as the Terms Supernatural Vnnatural Connatural and the like Of the first Sort are all Hereditary Diseases transferr'd from Parents to Children and may be considered under the deficiency of Parts transmitted Idea's or corporeal Venoms sometimes singly as when any weakness of Parts in Parents not labouring under any other Disease is conveyed to their Off-spring who have those deficiencies during Life in one measure or other yet are not at all thereby the more lyable to greater Diseases but to the trouble of Nature's exercise where that deficiency is except Nature failing in her own endeavour admit Retents of things to her further Disturbance which yet may easily be prevented by the help of Remedies specifick to the Parts But if to the weakness of a Part a material Evil be added then indeed the Persons if not quickly cleared of that Disease through the weakness of their inward Parts do either soon die or live a miserable Life Nevertheless even in the conveyance of such Morbifick Idea's if the Parts be sound and no accidental thing happen to give vigour thereunto they perceive nothing thereof for a long time as is observable in the Derivative Gout which a Child thô begotten by Parents strongly possessed therewith feeleth many times nothing thereof till 40 or 50 years of Age For it is absolutely necessary and essential to every Ideal Disease except Mental Evils to have material filths for the Idea to work upon For instance I have observed that those who have contracted the poyson of the Lues mummially and have otherwise been of sound Parts have had no tokens nor appearance thereof in several Years themselves and perhaps never may yet some of the Children proceeding from the same Bodies have been naturally infected therewith And likewise I have known other Parents Ideally defiled to have had Issues that appeared sound and free because Seeds admit not of ought but Idea's for 7 10 or 12 Years and afterwards that Ideal Disease by occasional Matter hath manifested it self apparently as an hereditary Communication Besides it is observed generally that those who are contaminated with that Disease by a seminal Contact have never any Sense thereof for several Months and Others on whom the Disease so acquired breaks out at any time are conscious of some disorderly Acts that have introduced Superfluities for captivating the Spirits without which that Malady when seminally induced is not made manifest But if the Lues be materially contracted then the soundest Body and the clearest Spirit escape not free from the sense thereof for many hours or at the most not for above 3 days because it materially affects the Parts discovers its proper Signs and manifesteth it self to be material and the Archeus striving against it produceth Sores and Fluxes in the Parts infected thereby to center the Evil in the Part to prevent its further progress in the Body by which means Gororrhea's newly gotten are quickly healed all the internal Parts being sound nor do they ever arise to the Lues except Means be wanting to keep them from further spreading For Material Diseases thô very venomous by reason of their corporeity are easier overcome than the spiritual or Ideal because they aseend not to so great an height as to captivate Nature so as to make her nourish the Evil without resistance except great Errors are committed whereas the Ideal do at first darken the Spirits and then make them subservient through insensibleness of the unmateriated Venom to prepare Matter for the existence and nourishment of that spiritual Evil and then is the Disease formed Now for corporeal Evils that are derived from Parents having their original from maternal Nourishments they manifest their cruelty so soon as the Child is born by one Sign or other evident to the Sense as by Vomitings Loosness Restlessness Thrush or Convulsions sometimes by Acrimonies external or otherwise by which their Lives are quickly cut off if they be not helped with Remedies that can fortify the natural powers to resist those Evils And that general Opinion grounded upon the defectiveness of common Remedies that Physick is not fit for Children hath in all probability cast away many that might have been preserved for material Evils how great soever they seem are seldom mortal if the internal Powers are strengthened by natural Medicines because the Spirit in them is not so vitiated as to nourish the Evil thô indeed a diseasy Idea imprinted upon the Archeus of a Child striveth to bring the Disease into act upon the advantage of every occasional disorder Preternatural Diseases so called because they have no Root naturally from Parents or from diseasy Seeds but are accidentally begot by variety of Distempers as the Spirit or Part is more
Drops at a time in all his Drink Day or Night This Method being continued for some few Dayes his Convulsions ceased the Weakness of his Limbs began to abate and instead of great Chilness and Coldness that formerly attended Warmth and Itchings began to discover themselves and at last gentle breathing Sweats by which Means his Palsy was taken off his lost Speech restored by little and little he recovered the Use of his Limbs and was at length wholly freed from his Disease and lived thô alwayes a weakly Man Thirteen or Fourteen Years after Example 2. An Aged Gentlewoman afflicted with Rheumatism-like Pains after an Autumnal Feaver which Physicians labouring to remove by applying cooling and altering Things did indeed take off the external Dolours but by their Remedies retracted the Matter causing those Pains inwards to the Bowels and Mouth of the Stomach which great Evil deprived her totally of the use of her Limbs Whilst in this sad and deplorable State being utterly given over as a dying Person or at least uncurable by her Physicians I was sent unto When I came and had well considered her Condition and found her Stomach to be so very weak as not able to retain a Glass of Sack without rejecting the same suddenly by Vomit I did not in this Case as in Others give her my Pouder at first but my Scorbutic Cordial and Scorbutic Tincture as I saw Cause and the Exigency of her present State required When by these Means I discerned her Spirits to be somewhat enlivened and her Stomach fortified in some competent measure I then gave my Pouder once a Day and my Arcanum Metallorum at Night Having continued this Method for six or seven Dayes I found her Water began to Change and some Signs of Separation therein whereby I judged her Digestion to be in some measure recovered This Course I continued Day by Day for a long time together in which I discerned that those Pains which were before by their Medicines brought into her Belly and Mouth of her Stomach were again retired outward after which many Pustles came forth and her Limbs by little and little gathered Strength and about three quarters of a Year after she recovered her pristine State of Health and is now alive at this Day thô several Years since Example 3. Another Woman thô Young yet through Convulsions was so drawn together as to go almost double and when no Remedy could be had for her from other Physicians she came to me After I understood from her how it had been with her I proceeded to the Cure as follows I gave her my Pouder every Morning my Arcanum Metallorum and Arcanum Veneris at Night sometimes one sometimes the other as occasion was and the Exigency of the Disease required not omitting to give my Scorbutic Tincture to be taken in all her Drink during the whole time of the Cure Continuing this Method she was recovered in a short time and is yet living thô several Years since Example 4. A Young Gentlewoman afflicted with a great Congelation in the Sternon always inclining her Head downwards to the Stomach as if it had been contracted and forced thitherwards never having the benefit of Sneezing but long suffering great Palpitations of the Heart little or no Sleep and such as was much confused continually under Terrour and at the same time with Child sustaining this Misery until the time of her Delivery and after that finding no Abatement of the Evil notwithstanding the Advice of several Physicians and the frequent Use of their Remedies did at last send to me I finding her in that sad Condition and understanding all the Remedies she had used to be fruitless and unsuccessful discerned her Disease to arise from Congelation under the Scorbutic Power Therefore the Fourteenth Day after her Delivery being come I first gave her my Pouder which quickly brought her to more sedateness than she had found in some Months before and the small Sleep she then had proved more refreshing than formerly as she her self acknowledged This Encouraged me to proceed and She according to the Result of her own Reason and Judgment rationally submitted to the following Course My Pouder was given once in 4 or 6 hours my Scorbutic Tincture in all the Drink she took my Arcanum Veneris and Arcannm Metallorum every Night alternately my Hysteric Cordial and Hysteric Drops upon every Occasion or Exigency of Nature not neglecting other Cordials by intervals for support This Method being dayly continued till Strength came and she was able to move did at last with a few other Auxiliaries accomplish the Cure so apparently that the external Cutis all peeled off her whole Mass of Bloud renewed and she seemed unto All that knew her to have assumed a new Complexion and Nature Note That this Woman had not Sneezed in 6 or eight Months but upon the first Motion thereunto the Congelation seemed to be much more easy and afterwards she sneezed usually twice a Day and by that Means the Contraction daily lessened until it was totally dissolved Also among the various Scenes that hapned in this Disease there never was any Purgation by Stools and Vomits but the Distemper gradually vanished by Transpiration small Sweats and Vrine without any other sensible Evacuation thereof And now she hath attained her full Strength and perfect use of her Limbs with as great Activity of Spirit as did ever attend her before and hath since conceived with Child It cannot rationally be expected I should here set down every Accident that hapned and the particular Auxiliaries I used in this and the other Scorbutic Diseases before spoken of because so doing I should extend this Treatise to too great a Bulk and render it less serviceable by augmenting the Price than otherwise as by me intended it is like to prove I could also here subjoyn many more Examples of Scorbutic Distempers by me Cured after the former Method but for the same Reason I omit them and proceed to Examples of Cures performed in other Diseases no less deplorable Of Palseys PAlsies are four-fold and therefore have rightly obtain'd four distinct Denominations as follows Palseys of Contraction Palsys of Resolution Numn-Palsyes and Shaking Palsyes which two last are partly resolved and partly congealed therefore cannot be ranged under either of the former Of the Cure of these by four Examples only I intend to speak with as much brevity as the Subject Matter it self can admit Example 1. Of a Contracted Palsy A Mayden Child about Ten years old having her Arms and Legs drawn together and her Neck drawn of one Side this being certainly known to every Physician to be a Paralytic Contraction I began at first as I had done in other Cases with my Pouder giving it twice the first Day and at Night my Arcanum Metallorum This Method I continued Day by Day using frequently my Mixtura Simplex given five or six times every Day Sometimes I gave her my Volatile Spirit not the fetid acid
application of suitable Remedies adding Light to her to act by and Power to overcome the present Stagnization For in so doing the Scene is altered and Nature rendred capable with ease to remove That which before could not be removed without too great Molestation For the Wisest of Men upon the first Appearance of a Tumor cannot by any known Rule judge of Nature's Capacity or Propensity to determinate the Evil or whether it be more profitable to resolve or suppurate the same As is apparent in some Tumors where by attempting Resolution the subtillest or thinnest Parts being separated the Remainder is so indurated as not to be resolved or suppurated and so it becomes the same that Chyrurgeons call a Schirrus But in suppurating Tumors great Pains Anguish and different Symptomes in differing forms of Heats Colds c. often happen through the Distress Nature falls under by reason of the Largeness of the Tumor and the difficulty to bring such Evils to perfect Suppuration and at last unless they open themselves and be judiciously handled they are often changed from one thing into another For 't is evident that the Opening of some Tumors by Incision and keeping them open by cramming in of Tents a Practice too often used doth either change the nature of the Tumor or at least prolong the Cure Whereas in either Case viz. in Resolution or Suppuration if Nature be well minded no such Symptomes or Accidents happen Now if such Errors be committed as is daily obvious they are in External Imposthumes how much more in the Internal I mean not those that are internally caused by Contusion or other Acts of Violence because of them I have elsewhere spoken which are never seen or known but by their Effects thô in truth every Internal Imposthumation hath the same occasional Cause as the External have For they being also caused by the Relicts of Nourishment not separated fall under the Laws of a disturbed or sensible Spirit which makes so great Variety in them not sensibly to be discerned by the Physician that he must of necessity either refer himself to the help of such virtual Remedies as are capable to take off the Disturbance and fortifie the sensible Power of right Distinction in Nature or he can never arrive to so much Satisfaction in himself as Scientifically to declare how or which way the Disease is or may be cured This is by reason of the great Uncertainty of the Inclination of Nature in these Cases for sometimes shee seeks to resolve or maturate the Relict in the Place where it is which is a true natural Way at another time invirons the same with a Cistis in order to Suppuration and at another Season and in another Place sends forth Bloud out of the Veins intending thereby to separate that Retent without Digestion by the common Passages which if stopped or letted by the way quickly tends to Pus and then if in that form it be separated the Irruption is so violent that it sometimes proves mortal as is too frequently apparent by those Cataracts of Bloud and Matter that in such Cases issue out by the Nosethrils by the Vreters by Vomiting by Stools and by the Womb. Here Nature her self erroneously acts like those Physicians who inconsiderately attempt to purge out Retents before they are digested contrary to the Mind of Hippocratâ—s and the known Rule of Paracelsus who saith Every Disease to which I add every Diseasy-Inclination ought to be cured in its own place For 't is evident that some Imposthumes are not wholly Sanguineous and the Retents being rarely such because the Veins as they have their own Valves so they have their peculiar Passages to evacuate Superfluities by the Bloud that attends them is rather in order to Resolution than Putrefaction provided Nature be in her own Path but if diverted therefrom either through the want of Light in her self to act by or the Physician 's Error in mis-application of Remedies those sad Effects above spoken of do inevitably follow For every Retent which Nature can neither resolve nor digest being forsaken naturally corrupts by the Heat and Moisture of the Place and so maketh a real Imposthume but Experience proves that those Actions of Corrupting may be prevented by a timely application of suitable Remedies as is apparent by the following Example Where Relicts of preceeding Feavers are there Nature sends Bloud to be materiated to maturate by putrefaction the offending Evil in order to its Expulsion but if prevented by due Medicines and Transpiration happens then no Putrefaction follows For where proper Means are used Bloud extra Vasa is not corrupted but kept from putrefying or otherwise resolved without Pus I my self having often seen Bloud after long extravasation coughed up dry and hard without the least Sign of Putrefaction Likewise every Vessel of what kind soever being over-filled and Nature not capable to separate the same by the Common Passages that Fullness by her forsaken becomes the Matter of Imposthumes Or if any Matter be stagnized that also is liable to the same Transchangement and produceth Effects as bad or worse than the former as is sufficiently witnessed by the Dry Belly-Ache in the West-Indies and by some of our Country-Men afflicted with the Scurvey in whom the Knots in their Nerves give a palpable Testimony not only of Siagnization but also of preternatural Congelation not much unlike to our knotty Gouis or Tophuses in the Lues which happen upon the Bones where for want of Internal Attraction of the Parts or External Separation from them the nutritive Juice of the Parts is indurated and thereby becomes the Matter it afterwards shews it self to be For when a floating Evil or Diseasy Spirit undetermin'd assaults the Life then Nature sends forth Bloud out of the Veins to encompass that Spiritual Evil to materiate the same and so makes Fiery Phlegmones and Diseases of like kind which are true real and natural Imposthumes proper Issues of her own Intentions Of Fiery Phlegmones in general and their Cure I forbear to write particular Examples of these Diseases because they are so numerous so frequently cured by my Method and so certainly known to the Patients themselves But in general the Tumors are large the Blood at first appearance uncorrupted yet it is not long before great Pains the Forerunners of Putrefaction discover themselves And thô at the first manifestation of these Tumors when only a weight and burthen upon the life is perceived letting Blood doth somewhat diminish the Tumor and prevent Pain yet if it have a diseasy Character that doth not hinder the foregoing determination of Nature towards separation but allaying part of her fury doth I acknowledge render the Suppurative Power less burthensome But if Quitter be begun to be made then Nature by Phlebotomy is hindred of her own Determination and being thereby weakened languisheth and labours to little purpose making those Distempers tedious in suppurating whereas had not that supposed Expedient been used