that causes the Vegetation of Plants is doubtless more active and less divided and it is for this reason requisite to make choice of the smallest and yellowest because the greatest blackest is most likely to be taken from old sapless Trunks Such as make the goodness of Remedies to consist in the strength of their activity do rather employ the Bark of this same Wood which is in good truth more drying than all the rest of the Tree but is accompanied with so much Heat and Acrimony that I would not counsel any body to make use of it and it would be much better on an occasion to render the use of the ordinary Decoction longer and more frequent 3. The part of Sassafras which is commonly made choice of and which I esteem also to be the best is its Root of which nevertheless there is little use made at present either because its Vertue is not well known or because the other Sudorifick Roots are dearer and so consequently more esteemed It is true notwithstanding that its Decoction hath a very pleasant and agreeable Smell and Taste and that use may be made of it as well as of Guaiacum to consume the superfluous Humidities in driving them either by Sweat or Urine or else by siege adding some light Catharticks to it I have observed nevertheless that its Root doth not desiccate so powerfully as Guaiacum and that it is consequently good for such as must be more moderately dried But more force may be found in the Bark of its Wood which also gives a Tincture yet more Aromatick more quick and sharp 4. Whereas the Root of China is the dearest of sudorifick Druggs that serve to prepare or cure such as are infected with the Pox the Merchants and Travellers who have brought it hither from the places where 't is found have all endeavoured to boast its good effects very much to its advantage that they might thereby have the better Market of it and its Vertues have been also so much exaggerated by some Authors that such as have preferred their Report before the Experience and Observations which they might have made themselves would have thought they had laboured in vain if they had presumed to cure the Pox without employing it to this intent Nevertheless we must acknowledge that this preoccupation deserves to be blamed and that this Root hath nothing in it proportionable to the esteem that hath been made of it nor to the dearness with wich it hath been sold seeing the Decoctions that are made of all these Drugs do principally and most properly serve to dry the Bodies of such as use them and the Decoctions of the other two I now mentioned may be employed to this effect with more success Not that this may not be very useful to prepare such as should be more gently desiccated Yet it may be also let alone when occasion serves only by diminishing the Doses of those that are stronger or augmenting the quantity of those that are weaker 5. The Root of Sarsaparilla is now-a-days more commonly employed to the abovesaid use because it gives a Tincture very like that of Wine and its Decoction hath nothing disagreeable for Smell or Taste Nevertheless I have observed that it dries something less than the other three Sudorificks of which I have spoken and that it passes more willingly by way of Urine than through the Pores whence it comes to be of great use for the curing Gonorrheas that are caused by virulent Serosities which do sometimes occupy the Testicles and and other parts that serve for the Concoction and Distribution of the Seed CHAP. V. Of the Observations it is necessary to make on Mercury to know whence the different Effects that follow its application do proceed 1. Whence it comes to pass that the Qualities of Mercury have not been yet known and the necessity there is of knowing them 2. That it easily joyns it self with sulphurous and metallick Bodies and that it is by consequence necessary that it be revived from Cinnaber to become pure 3. That it is always in motion and that it never loses its mobility but only to retake it 4. That its Sulphurs do render it volatil and penetrant but its Gravity inclines it to search downwards 5 That Resinous substances do serve for the division of its particles but Acids do dissolve it more perfectly 6. That Heat sublimes it but Alkalis does precipitate it 7. That Acids do diminish its Volatility but that it is so much the more Corrosive as there are Acids mixed with it 8. That the diversity of Bodies with which it joyns makes the diversity of its Actions and Effects 9. That it is no way poysonous in it self and that the divers dispositions of Subjects on which it is applied do cause the different Effects that do result from its application 1. SEing the Ancients have not explicated the Qualities of Medicaments but only by the different degrees of Hot and Dry Cold and Moist and these same degrees have not been at all known or distinguished more precisely than by the Actions and Effects that result from these Qualities we must not at all wonder if they have held Opinions so very different on the subject of Quicksilver since that this Mineral doth act so diversly and doth produce such different Effects not only in the several Bodies that receive it but also at different times when received in the same subject Whence it comes to pass that some have maintained it to be cold by reason of the cold Diseases that it creates and others have esteemed it to be hot because it doth consume Phlegm and desiccates the bodies in which it is made to enter Some also have judged it to be Venomous by reason of the Accidents that ordinarily arrive to such as draw it out of the Mines to Gilders and other Artificers that make use of it and yet some others again have asserted that it is an Antidote of poisons and an Enemy of Corruption because it generally kills all Vermine and is used with success in malignant Feavours the Pestilence and Pox lastly all their Conceits on this subject have been so opposite that they have determined nothing at all yet and modern Authors who have ordained this Remedy against certain Diseases have been contented to say that it acts by unknown occult Properties Though there is nothing less known or understood in all Physick it is true nevertheless that nothing doth really deserve to be known more since the use of it now a-days is acknowledged to be equally familiar profitable and dangerous and the little knowledge that is generally had of its true Motions is perhaps the only cause of all the misfortunes that follow its application This therefore ought to engage you and I good Reader to use our utmost endeavours to render them more sensible that we may by this means avoid the Reproaches Posterity might otherwise make to our Memory much more justly indeed than to that of our Predecessours
it is sufficiently known to Physicians and the most part of other Men Again it may be easily remarked that the Venereal Matter is a Venemous Salt only by making some reflections on the effects which do result from its mixture adhaesion or penetration And lastly it may be easily understood that this Salt is partly Fixt having the quality of Acids and partly Volatile as having that of Poisons It should now remain to shew you how it can originarily proceed from the mixture and corruption of the Seeds of divers persons But seeing this matter will be fully explicated in the following Chapter speaking of the causes of this Disease I 'll say nothing more particularly of it here to avoid needless repetitions Let it suffice to tell you by the by that the principles which it contains are as probable as new that they do agree throughout with the following Observations and that they consequently ought to be well understood by those who are desirous to receive profit from them 3. As for the Origine or first begining of the Pox nothing hath been ever canvassed with more heat and differences of opinion by the Authors who have written of it some have maintained that it was an effect of God's Judgment on Men and that the source of it was to be sought only in the punishment that Men had drawn on themselves by the Debaucheries of the last Age Others have drawn it from the Indians Spain Naples and other places from whence they tell us it was not long since brought Some have proposed the carnal copulation of a Leper and a Strumpet or the conjunction of a Man with a mangy Beast and others also have had particular Opinions on this subject which we have reason to believe have as little truth in them as those I have already hinted at because all of them are either Theological or Fabulous and consequently out of the consideration of Physicians who ought to have for their End nothing else but the conservation of the Nature of Man considered simply as a reasonable Creature or else the destruction of what is contrary to it Wherefore it may be said that they ought not to use any other means to attain this end but only such as are purely Natural and that they should not draw their Knowledges and Maximes but from things sensibly known In truth if Natural Philosophy serv's for a Basis and Foundation to Physick ought not Physicians to demonstrate all things that depend on it by the principles of Nature or of Art that imitates Nature And is not it very fit to leave Divines the consideration of whatsoever is Supernatural and also to the Poets by the same reason all things feigned Chimerical and supposed That we may the better observe the Rules now mentioned and satisfy Reason it self by searching into the Origine Causes and Remedies of all Diseases in the true Agents that have produced them or may be able to destroy them that is to say in whatsoever causes the diminution depravation or abolition of Natural Motions or else in the Medicaments that can correct their Defaults for otherwise we must be obliged to acknowledge Cures that are Miraculous Magical or Superstitious for the Effects of Physick Moreover seeing the true Origine of the Pox is the same with that of its Matter that shall not be particularly proved till the following Chapter for the reason before marked it seems the Reader must be sent thither to learn the account of it Nevertheless as there have been at all times debauched Women who have prostituted themselves indifferently to all sorts of Men it may here be observed by way of provision that the Pox is almost as ancient as the World and that its Origine ought to be drawn from the Impurity of the first Ages in which it was but little less common than in the present times we live in since the most ancient Physicians have spoken of all the Accidens that it produces as well as other Indispositions that were then common familiar and that they have known them as well as wee under the Names of Heat of Urine Gonorrheas Virulent Ulcers impure Buboes dry Pustules Tetters Warts and lastly Nodes and rottenness of the Bones We may also conceive that the settled inveterate Leprosie which they speak of as a Disease very rare and incurable was what we now call Leprosie and that the other species of simple Leprosies which they have mentioned as very common were the different impressions that Venereal Salts made upon the skin since they were accompanied with the greatest part of the other Accidents of the Pox and that they were cured by the application of Mercurial Oyntments which we now make use of to anoint and cure those that are infected with the Pox. But it is very likely that the regularity which our Fore-fathers observed in their way of living did render it more rare and less apparent than it is now adayes As also it may be believed by the same reason that the brutality of the Indians hath render'd them the more subject to it and that the extreme heat they suffer in most places they inhabit renders its Accidents more terrible and apparent by making the Blood boil more violently CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Pox. 1. Reflections on the Divisions of some Authors 2. Division of the Causes of the Pox and a Discourse of its Generation 3. A remarkable Observation on the same subject 4. Divers necessary Observations on the cause of its Communication 1. THose who despise common Expressions and affect to use terms extraordinary and unknown to cast as they say dust into the eyes of their Readers divide the Causes of Diseases into Occult and Manifest Sympathick and Antipathick in a word into Agents and Patients to which they also often add by way of subdivision those which they pretend Efficient Material Formal and Final Primitive Antecedent and Conjunctive Near and Remote Internal and External Nay some Authors seem to strain themselves to divide things that appear indivisible Nevertheless it is observed that these sorts of Divisions have no other profit but to plung the minds of Men into confusion into ignorance and obscurity though they are or ought to be taught with the design of instruction An Example of this truth may be seen in the greatest part of young Students who often employ a considerable time to learn things that are either unuseful or of which they are not able to give any reason whether it be that they do not understand them or that they are really inconceiveable and those who write of them have not been able themselves to conceive them 2. But that we may not fall into the like inconvenience and to enlighten the matter I treat of as much as it is capable I shall consider but only two Causes of the Pox to wit that of its Generation which consists in the Mixture and Corruption of the Seeds of divers persons received and retained in the
be desired to maintain my Opinion yet I do not pretend to make it pass for a thing altogether unquestionable both for that it is possible to be false and because there might have been some unknown Abuses under equal and as good appearances I therefore leave all curious persons the liberty of making what other Experiments they please and to every one in particular that of judging the other circumstances of this Opinion according to their own Ideas or particular Observations as things Problematical and no way absolutely necessary to the Art of curing the Pox. 4. After having sufficiently explicated what I mean by the Original Cause or Generative of the Pox it is now necessary to observe the several sorts of Contact that can conduce to its Communication which are here considered as Causes of this Disease because it is by them principally gained But we must not imagine that this second Cause is always found in Coition as the first it matters not after what manner the Contact is made provided that it permits an adhesion or entrance to some part of the Venereal matter it may be made either directly or indirectly and here 's an Example of it A Woman with Child who in the Company of one that hath the Pox shall attract into her Womb the corrupted Seed that shall be there ejaculated will catch the Pox immediatly by reason of the Coition and Contact that preceded and the Infant that shall be in her Womb will be also infected with it by reason of the same Coition but not by reason of the Contact because the remoteness of the Infant hinder'd the Infection from being direct in respect of it The same thing may be said of Infants that are engendered of divers like Seeds according to the ordinary course of Nature or by way of Superfetation Besides the Example that I just now gave many other sorts of Contacts may be found which are made by other ways and yet fail not to cause the Pox For Example if one should happen to drink after him that hath the Pox and by chance put the Lips to the same place of the Glass where some little Poison of the Ulcers of his mouth or else some of his spittle fill'd with Venereal Salts shall have stuck it often happens that this either causes other Ulcers by superficially adhering to the parts or else without delay the universal Pox when the Salt that they contain is volatil and penetrant enough to enter into the Veins and Arteries without leaving any marks of its passage for let ever so little of it be once mixt with the Blood it will work like Leaven in a great deal of Dough or rather it ferments and corrupts as other Poisons do which are always more pernicious by their quality than by their quantity Another Example of this nature may be drawn from those who are infected with this Disease for having unfortunately lain in the sheets wherein one in the Pox had sweated or in which there might remain some of the matter that run from his Ulcers Besides these sorts of Contact all others may be said to be immediate because they are made by the application of one part against another Among them all the most ordinary is Coition because this Disease doth for the most part begin in the parts that serve for Generation and its matter is not always dispersed universally through the Body In this action if a Man hath Venereal Ulcers on his Yard some part of the Poison that nourishes them and which is nothing else but a dissolution of the Salts that constitute the Pox doth almost always stick in some part of the Womb or else in the wrinkles of the neck of her Womb that he lies with wherein he often causes other Ulcers by adhering to the skin or pellicules that cover those parts on which matter it may be observed that I have just reason to add this last circumstance by reason that this matter doth not always necessarily adhere in Women either because the Membrane that covers the Vagina is very smooth polished and cover'd with a slimy Humour or because the Seed that is therein ejaculated doth often slide out at the same time and carries away with it this Virulent matter so much the more easily as it hath not had time to adhere and as the scituation and form of this part do much contribute to its easier sliding out it is also for this reason that common Strumpets do sometimes give hurt to others though they have none at all themselves because the approaching them a little after they have enjoyed the Company of other men that are impure doth give some part of the impurity they received though themselves may be exempt from any adhesion or effect of the remaining matter by the means that I have mentioned It is observable that a virulent Clap and the universal Pox are able equally to render the Seed impure in so much that if that of a Man who is infected with it be attracted and retained in the Womb of a Woman it may cause in her either a Virulent Clap by adhering particularly to the spermatick Vessels or else the universal Pox by passing through the Oririfices of the Arteries and Veins that terminate in this part In a word a Woman that shall suffer such Indispositions may in like manner communicate them to a sound Man that shall converse with her by the adhesion or entrance of the matter that can cause them It is also observeable that the Impurities of the Mouth of a little Infant that hath the Pox are able to infect the Nurse by adhering to her Teats or else the air of his Respiration that can easily penetrate them through the pores that give passage to the Milk In like manner an infected Nurse can impart her Disease to the little One by an adhesion of the matter of her Ulcers or by the use of the corrupted Milk that is suckt from her Teats To ly with one that hath the Pox and touch him naked while he sweats or when he hath Ulcers and Pustules on his skin is a thing that may well be believed very dangerous and chiefly for those that have their pores very open and therefore do easily receive the impression of any thing that touches them The custom of Kissing with open Mouth is another very dangerous business for the reasons I have spoken of Lastly there are so many different Contacts which are capable of giving the Pox to those who have it not that when you shall once know it assuredly by its Signs you need not trouble your self but little about the manner how it was communicated since you cannot always find it out and since it is often unknown even to the persons sick themselves CHAP. III. Of the Differences of the Pox which may serve to make a Prognostick 1. An Advertisement on this Subject and general Division of the Degrees from whence may be drawn some Differences 2. Explication of the
than an indeterminate prejudice that hath for its foundation nothing but pretended occult and specifick qualities which no body can understand Nevertheless we know they look on no other Remedies to be otherwise than to be impotent of unuseful for these sorts of Maladies And so we must not at all wonder that they are so stiff and refractory in never making use of any other Causticks than such as are made with Mercury which in good truth is the most assured Remedy for raising the Crisis of the universal Pox but this only by reason of such Motions and Actions as may be determinate and known Whatsoever is the truth of it you 'll find by Experience that the Caustick Stones which are prepared of unslackt Lime and the Cineres Clavellati have a much more certain effect since they cause a skar more profound than Red Precipitate and act with less pain than Sublimate Corrosive You must use them notwithstanding with prudence and discretion and remember that a part already exulcerated is more easy to penetrate than when it is covered with its skin and consequently you must use them in a smaller quantity and they must be limited to fit places only by means of a Plaster with a hole in the middle of it of the exact bigness you desire to make your skar and this to hinder the Salts from overspreading themselves after they have been dissolved by the moisture of the Ulcer But if you will be still more assured in what you do you may then make use of the Lapis Infernalis with which you may see and conduct the Operation as it were in an instant After having made a skar by some of these means but more particularly by the two last you may procure the fall of it with the common Suppurative in which you may afterwards mix a little Red Precipitate and burnt Alum to encrease the Suppuration and consume the hardness that may remain But if it is considerable or you have to do with a body Dry and Melancholick you may add with good store of the foresaid Ointment a little Sublimate Corrosive and wash the Ulcer every time you dress it with the last Collyre of Liquour I described adding a little Aegyptiack when there is need to make it more detersive You may also lay over the Tents the Plaster of Mucilages in which you shall have mixed 4 or 6 ounces of Mercury for every pound and rub the places about the part with the Neapolitan Ointment double or treble of Mercury in the mean time not forgetting the Purgatives that you must reiterate on this occasion as well as the other general Remedies I have proposed for a preservation from the universal Pox. 7. When these sorts of Mischiefs are on the Yard of a Man there happens sometimes a Phymosis to the prepuce either by the Patient's negligence or the ignorance of him that takes the cure in hand and this hinders him from being able to uncover or dress the Ulcers or Chancres that are underneath The common way of remedying this Accident is to make one or two Incisions and this Operation is so much the more subject to unhappy consequences as the part is already afflicted and therefore more disposed for receiving Fluxions and therefore you will do much better to try some Emollient Fomentations and Cataplasms that you may prepare with the Decoction and Residence of Mallow-leaves Roots of Marsh-Mallows and Lin-seed not forgetting the frictions of the Ointments and application of the Plasters I named before During which you must mundifie the Ulcers and Chancres as well as you can with the Collyres or Liquours before described of which Liquours you may often make Injections under the Prepuce with a little Syringe observing to stretch it by little and little with your fingers by drawing it toward the root of the Yard as often as you dress your Patient till the Gland becomes again wholly uncovered but all this must be done very gently and without any violence for otherwise there will happen a Paraphymosis which is an Accident much worse than the former for besides that the Balanus is suffocated and cannot by any means be uncovered this suffocation causes such a pain as presently draws Fluxion Inflammation and Gangrene if all possible care be not suddenly used Some have indeed very happily cured this Indisposition by only bathing the Yard or Belly in cold Water but this principally in its beginning All the Remedies described against the Phymosis are also useful in the Paraphymosis when there is time to make use of them But oftentimes one is obliged to practise and prefer the Incisions before any of the other Now I shall not say any thing of the means how to cicatrize the Ulcers and Chancres since they do principally consist in mundifying them well and Nature labours enough of her own accord to reunite the divided parts when the Physician knows how to remove the Impediments CHAP. II. Of the other particular Poxes that are called Claps and Virulent Gonorrheas 1. That the Salts which cause these sorts of Poxes are very Volatile and have some similitude and some difference between them 2. Diverse necessary Observations on the Method of Curing them 3. Concerning the Inflation or Swelling and Inflammation of the Testicules with the means of Healing them 4. Of Carnosities that sometimes follow these first Mischiefs and of their Remedies 5. A very useful Observation on particular Poxes 1. THe other particular Poxes which I have said do happen to the parts our senses cannot discover are Claps and Virulent Gonorrheas which are the effects of a very subtile or rather volatile matter since in Women it often passes from the Vagina wherein the Seed is received into the Ejaculatory Vessels and into their Testicules and since it passes in Men all along the Ureters to make their adhesion to the same Vessels and to the Bladder without leaving nevertheless in the one or in the other any marks at all of its passage in the parts it goes through Though Virulent Claps or Heats of Urine do never happen without Gonorrheas that is to say without the corruption and flowing of the Seed yet they must not be confounded indifferently together under these two Names as some Authors have very inconsiderately done because this last Indisposition remains sometimes a great while after the former and it is seen sometimes to happen alone that is to say without Exulceration and apparent Inflammation though indeed it be actually caused by the presence of impure Salts which possess the Spermatick Vessels Nevertheless as the Gonorrhea is inseparable from a Clap and the Remedies which agree to it as an Accident do also serve for curing it when it is a Disease apart it will not be necessary to treat of it here more particularly it may suffice to acquaint you that it is often taken in Women for the Whites for want of observing that its Flux is continual whereas that of the Whites is almost always Periodical and
Menstrual Furthermore I have sufficiently explicated otherwise what I mean by Virulent Claps and after what manner I conceive them to be produced that there is no need of making repetitions here I believe also that all the divisions which I could make of it be altogether useless because I do not intend to speak but only of those that are caused by the entrance and adhesion of some Venereal Salt or else because its Accidents do sufficiently distinguish it from such as happen by violent Exercises by the use of fermented Liquours and by other causes Therefore I believe it will suffice to give you in this Chapter the circumstances it is necessary to observe for the curing successfully all the Accidents that accompany this I am now going to speak of or else for assuredly preventing the universal Pox that might otherwise follow 2. Inflammation may be said to be the most pressing Accident of all that happen in this degree of the Pox for 't is by it that the matter which runs out is rendered the more sharp and corrosive that the Ulcers of the passages become greater and more profound that the pains grow insupportable and lastly that the means of making Urine become so extream difficult nay and sometimes in a manner impossible 'T is therefore requisite to take care betimes of preventing or else curing it by cooling Remedies such as may be those I am now going to propose Some persons whom we must by no means imitate do begin with Blood-letting in the Arm which may be apt to attract or drive the Venereal matter more inwardly into the body and must consequently be suspected as dangerous others are not afraid to let Blood in the Foot which also may have the same effect or else precipitate the Defluxion into the Stones wherefore you should abstain from them both and prefer the use of the following Ptisanne which will serve at the same time to cool the parts drive the matter outwards and diminish its Acrimony Take the Roots of white Lillies and Marsh-Mallows of each a pound Sorrel half a hand full Liquorish a sufficient quantity Barley three hands full Linseed two ounces common Water four and twenty pounds make a Ptisanne the usual way remembring to press the remainder well for to draw out the Mucilage the better Add in every Bottle of this Ptisanne ten or twelve drops of the Spirit of Vitriol and make your Patient drink of it as much as his stomach will bear and this indifferently at any hour day or night Though this Ptisanne be often sufficient to answer the intentions I have named when you begin in good time to make use of it yet it is found every day in some persons that the malignity of the matter and disposition of the body and parts do cause the Inflammation to grow so great as to communicate it self to the Reins and neck of the Bladder so that the Patients do suffer extreme pains when they are in Bed during the erection and in urining but this more particularly in Men for the Convulsion of the Nerves of their Yard which by retiring toward their origine do swell and thereby render this part crooked or bended doth cause the degree of the Pox in which it is said to be corded and stringed and in which also you must add to the fore-named Ingredients for the Ptisanne two ounces of the Cold Seeds half an ounce of white Poppy Seed and the Juyce of two or three Limons for to render it more Anodyne more refreshing and agreable You shall also give from time to time emulsions made of Whey sweet Almonds and the Seeds and Juyce I have now named You may for the same intention rub the Reins and Perineum with the Cerecloth of Galen which you must afterwards cover with Linnen dipt in Oxyerat that is made of one part of Vinegar and six of Rose-water The use of cooling Clysters must be frequent too as well as Injections of this quality which must be made into the Yard by means of a little Syringe and this with luke-warm Milk for Example which is marvellous for this effect and one may make use of it much more successfully than of common Water to dip the Yard in whil'st he urines and so facilitate the passage of the Urine Some of those who do not esteem things that are common chuse rather to make use of the Waters of Night-shade Roses and Plantain to make Injections which are indeed Refrigerant and Anodyne because they hinder the matter from flowing and drive it back by their astriction but it is a dangerous thing to do so and therefore you must have a care of using them unless the matter be grown thick and hath run sufficiently Turpentine of Chios or in defect of it that of Venice hath a marvellous effect for asswaging and qualifying the matter and driving it out because it very easily slides into those parts and is very Diuretick You may give it in Bolus or Pills from two drachms to half an ounce or its Spirit drawn Chymically from five drops to fifteen in Aperitive Waters or Ptisannes Experience will let you know that the Salt which is called Polychrest is a powerful Remedy to drive out the Venereal Salts if you dissolve two drachms of it in two glasses of the former Ptisanne or of Pellitory-water to give it a little after the Inflammation is past and reiterate it after this manner two or three times augmenting the Dose each time with a drachm more After the use of these Remedies you must begin to purge gently with a light Infusion of Senna Crystal Mineral and Cassia and may reiterate this Purge some days afterwards augmenting the Dose or else adding other Medicaments that are most convenient to the present Dispositions When the matter shall come to run more white more thick in less quantity you may then hinder its effluxion for altogether shutting up and closing the Spermatick Vessels by astringent and inward Remedies whil'st you are cleansing and desiccating the Ulcers of the Ureter with detersive and desiccative Injections Some of those that abuse Physick and its Remedies do strive to stop the matter that runs in Claps only with astringent Injections which causes the matter to sink into the more inward parts and so consequently there happens a greater Evil then they pretended to cure or at least the effluxion begins again so soon as they have left off the use of these pretended Remedies in so much that they are compelled sometimes fifteen or twenty times to reassume the use of them without attaining the end they proposed themselves For these Injections cannot go in Men further than the inward extremity of the common passage to the Seed and Urine nor in Women further than the neck of the Womb or the neck of the Bladder but this happens chiefly because by this means they hinder the evacuation of such Impurities as may still remain sometimes after the Operation of the former Medicaments and are too
than he that is able to live like other men by advancement of years Notwithstanding there is no necessity of giving different Methods for all Ages because the many various Intentions Respects and Remedies which I have already mentioned may also serve for the Cure of Infants only observing a due proportion of them to their small condition But it is needful nevertheless to prescribe the particular Method of curing well the smallest of all that so having examples before you of the greatest and least you may the more easily judge of the quality and quantity of things which ought to be employed in the different degrees of mediocrity 3. So soon as you shall have discover'd the Pox in an Infant that sucks you must first of all endeavour to discover the person that did communicate it to the end you may remove such person before you entreprise any thing After which you must choose a good Nurse to contribute towards the purification of his blood by the use of wholsom Milk which you must carefully preserve in all its purity by prescribing her a good Dyet and separating your little Patient from her and you must give him Milk only with a little spoon or else with fine Linnen that he may suck after 't is dipt in it But you must know that the Milk of a Goat well fed is infinitely to be preferred before that of an unsound Woman It will be necessary to purge him in the beginning of all with a little Water of Cassia or the Syrup of Roses and repeat this Purge several times according as he is more or less replete You may prepare a Ptisanne for him with a handful of French-Barley and three or four drachms of China-root which you may boil in three Quarts of common Water to the diminution of the third part adding to it toward the end a little Licorice after you have passed it ten grains of Crystal Mineral for to give him to drink or suck of from time to time day and night After having opened by this means the common passages of the Excrements you may rub the bottom of his Feet every third day with a drachm of the following Ointment Take a drachm or a drachm and a half of Mercury revived from Cynnabre and kill it in two ounces of the Balsom of Arceus adding afterwards six ounces of Hogs-grease well washed and make use of it six or eight times the way I have told you If these first Frictions don't procure a Flux or do cause some other sort of Crisis you must even continue them without other Mystery as long as they shall be thought necessary or else you may make them stronger by the augmentation of the Dose of the fore-said Ointment with half a drachm or more for each Friction and by employing it partly on the Feet and partly on the hands During the time of the Critical Evacuations you may give him every six days two or three grains of the volatil Salt of Vipers dissolved in a little of the Tisanne described before and you may prefer this same Remedy before all the Treacle Philosophical and Sudorifick Waters from whence some Authors do promise such false wonders Now the most important precept I have to give you on the account of little Infants is to treat them as gently as they have but little strength and to spare neither time nor pains to encrease their small strength or at least to preserve it for if you weaken them by the force of your Remedies you 'll miserably drive them into an inevitable death instead of curing them as you designed seeing the Operation of Medicaments is always either dangerous or unuseful if it be not seconded by the efforts of Nature CHAP. VII Of the Misfortunes which may follow the Application of Mercury 1. The Causes of the Death of some that are infected with the Pox and the Causes of the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury 2. What are those Accidents 3. General Remedies that serve to put a stop to their Violence 4. Particular Remedies for the Cure of them 1. THough the Pox be not a Disease mortal of it self and I hold it curable in all its degrees it is true nevertheless that Men may dye of it as I have said before when its matter hath corrupted or destroyed the parts without which there is no living when one infected with it hath fallen into the unhappy practices of Ignorants and Impostors Lastly when careless Physicians do not soon enough remedy the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury Not but the precepts which I have given are almost infallible for curing this Disease suddenly easily and surely and hardly can they fail in one of a thousand when they are regularly observed But there are some dismal Circumstances which it is impossible to remove For besides that Men are necessarily mortal the true Cause of their Death is often unknown the time of it cannot be avoided and the Cacochymie of bodies is now then so very great that it cannot possibly receive Correction to which may be added that there are some inward Dispositions which can no way be known or there is no possibility of taking away Whence it comes to pass that the success of this undertaking is not always so happy as we could wish and Accidents may indeed happen which could in no wise be expected to which nevertheless we ought to adhibite Remedies with all manner of care and exactness which are things greatly necessary in all Occasions where Life and Death are concerned 2. Now though all these Causes are of the same consequence it would be but a vain attempt to deliver the means of destroying them all since that some of them cannot be known and others cannot possibly be removed It may be sufficient to say something of the ill Tempers of Bodies and the too great quantity of Mercury which may be made enter into them because they are the usual Causes of all the Accidents which follow its application and there are none but may happen by reason of them For when all the things that cool and moisten have been used to no purpose for quenching the Fire and correcting the dryness of an extraordinary Melancholick body there is often found to follow a loosness accompanied with unsufferable gripes pains and which soon leaves a constipation behind that causes an Inflammation of the Entrals Brest Throat and Mouth with difficulty of Breathing Swallowing and Speaking which Symptoms soon begin a Fever that in a small time becomes violent enough to sublimate the Mercury up to the Brain and thereby cause Swoonings Phrensies Convulsions and very often Deafness and Blindness Apoplexies and Palsies or lastly Death it self if care be not suddenly taken to prevent it by due applying fit Remedies against this train of misfortunes In like manner if the Dyet drying Decoctions and strong Sudorificks have not been used sufficiently to make a convenient alteration of a very
Phlegmatick and replete body or else if Mercury hath been applyed in too much hast it will sublimate along with it all on a sudden so great a confluence of Humours that the most part of the Accidents I now reckoned up will also appear but more particularly an extraordinary Swelling of the Throat Tongue Cheeks and often of all the whole Face with considerable hardness and loosness of Teeth and with an immoderate Flux of Blood from the Ulcers of the Mouth which in a short time become great spreading black stinking and gangren'd and which do at last cause Death if a Suffocation don't prevent their malignancy 3. In all these miserable Conjunctures the best means to be used do consist in hindring the Activity of Mercury in the diminution of its quantity by change of Bed Linnen and Chamber and in the precipitation of the rest downwards by astringent Gargarisms Clysters Phlebotomies in the Foot and especially by often repeated Purges in which you must be sure always to mix the Salt of Tartar proportionating the rest of the Ingredients to the Age Strength and Temperament of your Patients Some do make use of a Golden Pill which they cause to be swallowed several times after as many Lotions and which always indeed carries off some very little Mercury on its Superficies but it is so very small a quantity for so long a time that no great effect can be expected from it and its use must by no means hinder that of the former Remedies 4. After having thus provided against all these Accidents in general by the means that I have proposed 't is time to think of such as demand particular Correctives and apply Cupping-glasses with scarifications on the nape of the neck or on the shoulders for all Phrensies Convulsions Apoplexies Deafness Blindness and in general for all Indispositions of the Brain and Nerves A Gargarism made with a Decoction of Plantain red Roses and Agrimony in which you must drop a little Spirit of Vitriol will prove astringent enough to repel the Blood or Phlegm that runs out of the Mouth and detersive enough to cleanse the Ulcers which shall be toucht from time to time with the Chymical Spirits before named It is observable that this same Gargarism may also serve to strengthen the loose Teeth by closing of the Gums which nevertheless may be much better fastned by touching them with the Aqua secunda An Oxyrrhodin made of one part of Vinegar and two of Oyl of Roses outwardly applyed on the Throat asswages it takes down the Swelling and diminishes the Inflammation You may also for the same effect make use of the Cere-cloth of Galen mixt with the Oyl of sweet Almonds A few spoonfuls of good Wine will do a great deal of good in all Faintings and Swoonings for to fortifie the Heart and disperse again the suffocated Spirits which you must prefer in this occasion before all the Confections Cordial Potions and other artificial Cardiacks Cows-Milk luke-warm will wonderfully appease the pains in the Guts if you make Fomentations of it outwardly and Injections within in which you may add some Yelks of Eggs and some grains of Laudanum to render them yet more Anodyne Besides these Ordinary Remedies the knowledge which you ought to have of things that appertain to Physick the Instructions which you may learn and the Counsel you may please to take will furnish you with an infinity of others on particular Occasions FINIS INDEX SECT I. IN which some useful Reflections and Observations are made on the Names Definition Origine Causes Differences Signs and Prognosticks of the Pox. Chap. I. Of the Pox in general Chap. II. Of the Causes of the Pox. Chap. III. Of the differences of the Pox which may serve to make a Prognostick Chap. IV. Of the Judgment of the Pox. SECT II. In which necessary Observations are made on the means to Cure the Pox while it is but Particular on the Natural and Critical Motions that do terminate it when it turns to be Universal and on the Medicines that serve to raise the Artificial Crisis of it Chap. I. Of the kinds of Particular Poxes that are called Vlcers and Chancres Chap. II. Of other Particular ones that are called Claps and virulent Gonorrheas Chap. III. Of the Natural Crises of the Vniversal Pox. Chap. IV. Of the Plants which have been esteemed capable to carry off the Pox by Sweat Chap. V. Of the Observations it is necessary to make on Mercury to know whence the different effects that follow its application do proceed SECT III. In which the true Method of artificially raising the Crises of the Universal Pox is explained Chap. I. Of the Crises that are provoked by common Remedies and of the proper Seasons for the application of Mercury Chap. II. Of the Preparation of Bodies in which Mercury must enter Chap. III. Of the different ways of making Mercury to enter into the Bodies of such as are infected with the Pox. Chap. IV. Of the Critical Motions that are provoked by Mercury Chap. V. Of the Dyet of those who are in the Artificial Crises of the Pox. Chap. VI. Of the particular Circumstances which ought to be observed for treating Methodically Women and little Infants Chap. VII Of the Misfortunes which may follow the application of Mercury FINIS
same Womb And that of its Communication which consists in the contact of impure Persons It is so much the more necessary to prove the possibility of the former as it is a new Opinion that will consequently be pretended false by those who admit no Novelties at all And I fear also that Reason and Experience do not furnish us with proofs clear enough to discover this truth before the eyes of Opiniators that love rather to follow blindly what they conceive through prejudice than take the pains to examine things to distinguish rightly the true from the false 'T is after this manner I reason on this Subject Philosophers and generally the Learned do acknowledge no considerable change in Nature that is not made by a fermentation of which no cause is found more evident than the motion and action of contrary Bodies An Example of this truth which may particularly serve for a proof of my Opinion is observed in the Generation of perfect Animals and principally in that of Man for the Seeds of which he is generated do contain not only the Idea and Form of all the parts but also the good and ill Qualities the Temperaments and Natural Inclinations of those from whom they are emitted and this is so true that the particles which convey these powers act one upon the other after the Conception and that Infants of the same Family are sometimes Male sometimes Female now like Father another time like the Mother and often partly like one and partly like the other Now if it be true to say that the different qualities which are found in the Seeds of only two persons may be agitated so considerably as to cause one to over-rule the other whilest they are contained in the Womb for Generation that of a third person which is there received a little afterwards may be lookt upon as a matter extraordinary which must hinder Generation or at least render it imperfect by a more unequal mixture and stronger agitation this serves to perswade me that Moles in Women may be as well the effects of Cuckolding or Adultery as the production of Imagination since it is known besides that the best Anatomists do esteem great quantity of Menstrual Blood which is notwithstanding another principle of Generation for one cause of this confusion and disorder To which may be added that it is by reason of this Confusion that common Strumpets never conceive at all though they often do the same with those that have Children perhaps also with more advantageous circumstances because the different Seeds that they receive do cause a more vehement and irregular fermentation as they come from abundance of persons and are filled with a great many contrary and opposite particles from which fermentation there must consequently proceed a very bad change and further from Perfection to which Nature doth always tend On this subject it may further be observed that Corruption is the change which follows fermentations that are absolutely against Nature and it is easily to conceive how those Seeds being mixed together may pass from their fermentation to corruption almost at one and the same time since this mixture doth render them improper for their Natural Use and that the heat and moisture of the part which contains them do quickly dispose them to be corrupted Now the most important thing that remains on this subject is to let you see how they can become Venemous that is to say subtile penetrant and proper to coagulate and corrupt the Blood as other Poisons do But as the Seed is generally acknowledged for the best part of our Blood and every body knows that Corruption is so much the worse as the matters corrupted were more pure and delicate before It seems that this truth is sufficiently proved of it self and that there is no necessity of searching Reasons more strong or convincing to sustain it Nevertheless if we reflect on the great store of Spirits wherewith all the Seed is filled and on the quality of the Part that receives them we shall then see that there is no matter which can remain more Spirituous and consequently more Venomous after its Corruption because there is none better stor'd with Spirits nor any more diligently preserved this change being made in the Womb which is a part Naturally disposed to receive the Seed and conserve all the parts of it And what is still observable is that in passing from its Natural subject into other subjects it becomes so much the more Venemous as it hath passed a greater number of new Fermentations 3. Furthermore we may say of this Opinion that it is one of those that cannot well be proved by any other way but our Reason and that it is almost impossible to find subjects on which Experiments sufficiently sure and undoubted may be made for besides that the Pox doth not always appear and that there are but few persons who may be believed absolutely pure and clear from it there must therefore remain but few indeed who can be esteemed proper for such an Experiment Nevertheless I shall here report an Observation that meer chance was the cause of to one of my Friends and which may also serve to prove my thoughts on this subject A young Girle of between 14 and 15 years of age being pursued by her Mother who would needs beat her throws her self into the arms of one who was a Brother of a certain Community of Workmen established in a part of the Town that it is not necessary to name this Man conducts her to his Chamber and forces her he presently communicates the opportunity to him that usually lay with him who failed not to make use of the occasion and to discover it also to another of his Camerades in so much that in three days she was there six several persons made use of her After this the wisest among them foreseeing that this business was like to draw some dangerous consequence sent her home again by a Woman that feigned to have found her in a Church her Mother presently shuts her up in a Closet wherein no body was suffer'd to enter but her self and six days afterwards she complain'd of great pains that she suffered when she made Urine her Mother caused her to be visited and was told that she had got a Clap nevertheless they neglected to make use of any Cure because they would not believe it and twelve days afterwards there appeared a Bubo in her right Groin then they began to question her about it and she accused the persons she had been with they were all visited by Order of Justice and were all found clean and in good health And the Chirurgeon that imparted to me this story assured me that he had familiarly frequented their Company a long time afterwards and that he had never found any Venereal Distemper among any of them though 't is now twelve years since it hapned Though this Observation seems to be accompanied with all the Accidents that can