is observable that those Particles you term Alkalies the more the Blood is saturated with them the more thick consistence it is of as we see in Pleurisies Rheumatisms and other inflammatory Cases in which Distempers if in any these Alkalies abound is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion and render it thin Answ In most inflammatory Cases where the Blood is immediately affected there the Serum is viscous and sizy being overcharged with Alkalious Particles but in those Cases you mention and in some others where the Blood is over thin it is not the over Thinness of the Blood which is the only Cause of those Diseases but a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts and where the Tone of any Part is once spoiled the great quantity of excrementitious Matter is soon thrown thence and so the Violence of the Malady is increased Besides in Dropsies the Quantity of fluid taken in they being always thirsty is so very disproportionate to what is carried off they always making Water but in very small quantities in proportion to what they drink that it 's no marvel that their Blood is over thin I have frequently in Dropsies known People drink three Quarts in a day when they have not pissed a Pint And that Acids should occasion the Thirst that attends Hydropical People is ridiculous to imagine when they are the only things in the World that will quench Thirst Besides do but consider the Nature of the Medicines that are most effectual to bring the Blood to a Consistence when it is over thin I have scarcely ever met with any thing equal to Calibeats and that Steel is an Acid I have elsewhere endeavoured to prove And as a farther Proof of it I shall produce the Testimony of Beckerus no contemptible Man in his Minera Arenaria pag. the 88th Non recensebo jam qualiter ille spiritus esurinus in aquis subterraneis latitans varia sibi Salium Aluminum Vitriolorum Sulphurum Realgarium mineralium compositionum species producat nec demonstrabo quâ ratione supra terram in Aeris regione tractus quidam hujus Acidi spiritus de uno Polo ad alterum perillum acus Magnetica feratur Hoc tantum hic loci allegabo omne Acidum substantiae martialis esse in quocunque oleo pinguedine fuligine limo silice arena imo etiam ipsa flamma reperibile ac ad oculum demonstrari posse quaecunque ergo naturae Acidae martialis sunt illa potestatem habent Alkali tanquam substantiam metallorum mercurialem alterandi transmutandi Now if this Thinness of the Blood be to be taken off and the Blood brought to its due Consistence by the means of Acids it is not reasonable to suppose that Acids should be the cause of its fusion But then I confess here lies a great Difficulty viz. how is it possible for Acids to make the Blood thin when 't is too thick and viscous and to bring it to a due consistence when it is over fluid To which I answer That should I pretend to give an account what Acids taken in the proper Latitude would do I should be guilty of the greatest Arrogance imaginable for that would be to pretend to as much Knowledg as Solomon had who knew the Virtues of Plants even from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hysop which grows upon the Wall And Divine Providence had determined him to be the wisest of Men that had ever been before him or that should come after him All Plants from the greatest to the smallest are principally composed of Acido-sulphureous Particles for what Comparison is there to be made between the small quantity of fixt Alkaly that is to be found in the Ashes after burning and of Volatile Alkaly in the Soot in relation to the great quantity of Acido sulphureous matter that is spent in Flame Or to come nearer to the matter let a Pound of any Vegetable which affords the greatest quantity of fixt Alkaly viz. Broom or any such Plant be sufficiently dried so that the superfluous Humidity may be evaporated after that is done let it be committed to Distillation per se and it will afford between two and three Ounces of an Acid Spirit with a good quantity of Oil when all the Art of Man is not able to procure from the Caput Mortuum above two Drams of fixt Alkaly and as is before observed Broom is one of those Plants that affords the largest quantity of fixt Alkaly Now the Acid Spirit and Oil are those Substances which in burning serve to supply the Flame and from the Caput Mortuum unless it be afterwards burnt there is no fixt Alkaly to be obtained But here again to obviate the Objection before taken notice of viz. that the Fire may produce new Substances which were not existent in Bodies before or that for instance the fixt Alkaly to be produced out of the Ashes of the Caput Mortuum of the Broom is only the Product of the Fire If this were so why then the Ashes after all the Salt has been once extracted being again committed to a Violent Fire must produce more Salt whereas on the contrary let it be committed to the Fire in the most violent degree of heat and continued there for never so long a time yet it will never after afford the least quantity of Salt of any kind But that I may return to answer the former Objection viz. how Acids are capable of making the Blood thin when over viscous and also to reduce it to its consistency when it is over thin All the Bodies in Nature are differently specificated by the all-wise Author of Nature and at the same time are all animated by one Universal Acid Spirit which is what the Antients were wont to call the Soul of the World and I think not improperly Now the more any Bodies are impregnated with this universal Acid Spirit and its beloved Sister Sulphur the more perfect they are and Gold which is one of the most perfect and durable Bodies in Nature seems to be composed of nothing else but a pure Acidum and Sulphur as I think has been sufficiently made appear by some of the most strict Enquirers into Nature's Secrets Now the more perfect any Bodies are the more Acidum and Sulphur they contain and afford the least quantity of Excrement viz. Alkaly that being the only Destroyer of all Bodies and is what brings them to a state of Putrefaction and Corruption Well but what 's all this to the answering of the Objection twice started Why it 's only to make my way clear But I shall now apply my self to it There are two general sorts of Acids viz. manifest and inveloped ones the manifest ones are such as immediately appear to the Taste and these altho originally the same proceeding from the same universal Fountain yet have different Operations upon Human Bodies The inveloped ones are such as
c. But my Hypothesis doth not altogether hang upon so slender a Thred as the change of Colour tho that be a better Foundation than a great many Hypotheses are built upon You may very well remember that I brought this Experiment upon the Stage only to satisfy Gentlemen who have not the conveniency of making more elaborate ones And all Mankind having imbibed the Notion that if any thing ailed them they immediately concluded that it proceeded from an Acidity of their Blood I therefore thought it my Duty to convince them of the contrary in the most familiar manner I could but I never expected that Physicians should take up with it I referring them to a more certain Method viz. to analize the Blood of their sick Patients and to compare the Substances produced from it with the Substances produced from the Blood of People in a state of Health And if once they will but take that Method I am morally certain that the number of my Enemies will every day decrease But let People continue to say what they will of me I shall endeavour to satisfy my self and to act for my Patients with as clear a Conscience as possibly I can And if after all I am reproached by my Brethren I must bear it as well as I can It never will be in any Physician 's power to make people Immortal but at the same time I am absolutely certain that peoples Lives are frequently prolonged by the use of proper Remedies and I doubt not but that they are also shortned by the use of improper ones And if we are mistaken as to the Cause of Diseases I don't see how we can readily find out proper Medicines Letter For first if this Alkalisated Serum is the Original of Distempers then it must follow that wheresoever we find this Serum there must be likewise a Distemper now I appeal to your self if the Blood of a healthy Person will not give Syrup of Violets a green Tincture does not then the Argument labour may we not then impute this Phaenomenon to arise rather from a due mixture of the Principles than from any vitiated Habit of Blood Answer I confess this is close arguing and much to the purpose But you may remember that I no where say that the Serum of well Persons Blood will not turn a Solution of Syrup of Violets from a blue Colour to that of Greenness But on the other hand I have asserted that the Blood of those labouring under any Distemper I have met with will do it in order to prove that the said Distempers did not proceed from Acids because if it had abounded with Acids instead of turning it from blue to green it would as is before observed have turned it from blue to red Well but still the Serum of the Blood of a well Person will cause the same change in the Solution of Syrup of Violets as that of a sick one and therefore to rid my self of that Difficulty is the great thing I have now to do First I all along throughout my Tract of the Gout the Piece you refer to and elsewhere do endeavour to prove that the Blood of Persons in a morbid state doth more abound with Alkalious Particles than that of well Persons but no where say that the Blood of well Persons hath no Alkaly in it And that the Blood of sick People in all or most Distempers doth abound with such Particles more than that of those that are in a state of Health is to be demonstrated several Ways First If you take an equal Proportion of the Serum of the Blood of a healthy Person and of that of a Person in a Fever Pleurisy c. and pour them into the same Quantities of Solution of Syrup of Violets of equal Strength you will find that wherein the Serum of the sick Person 's Blood was poured to be much greener than the other Secondly If you take two Ounces of the Blood of a healthy Person as it comes out of the Veins Serum and all together and two Ounces of the Blood of a Person in a Fever Pleurisy a Fit of the Gout c. and commit them to Distillation in the same degree of Heat you will find that the Blood of the sick Person will produce a much greater quantity of Alkaly than that of the Person in a state of Health Secondly What shall I do with this Alkaly that is to be found in the Blood of healthy Persons Because every Body has some Alkaly in their Blood must every Body therefore labour under some Distemper Why truly I can't say that I ever yet met with that Person who upon strict Enquiry had not some Complaint or other to make Mankind since the Fall is subject to Death every moment there being since that time a Principle of Death in opposition to that of Life implanted in our Natures and not only in our Natures but in the Natures of every thing else for our sakes And God said to Adam upon his Fall Cursed be the Ground for thy sake c. I confess there are many in our Age who will laugh at and ridicule me for having recourse to Sacred Writ especially to the Writings of Moses which they look upon as a kind of Romance but let them laugh on If there were not a Principle of Death within us how is it possible for a Man one Hour to be in a good state of Health and the very next to be expiring How this may be I shall endeavour to demonstrate as clearly as possibly I can All the Alkaly that there is to be found in the Blood is most certainly an Excrement and in a way of being carried off by some of the Emunctories and if any of the Emunctories chance to be stopt that this excrementitious Alkaly hath not room to pass out by them why then there is a Distemper of some kind or other caused the Blood being overcharged with this excrementitious Matter How many Distempers are occasioned by what we call taking of Cold which is nothing else but a Constipation of the Pores What is the Occasion of the Jaundice but an Obstruction of those Vessels in the Liver which separate the bilious Particles from the Blood and what dreadful Distempers does the Jaundice frequently cause How are Mortals tormented by the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder and what is the original Cause of them but an Obstruction in the Kidneys whereby the excrementitious Alkaly which should be carried off that way by its over long stay in those Parts is converted into that Substance we call a Stone And whoever will give themselves the trouble of distilling Stones either from the Kidneys or Bladder will find that they are composed of Alkalious Particles I could expatiate and I doubt not give an Account of the Cause of all or most of the Distempers attending Human Bodies from the excrementitious Alkaly being hindred from being carried off by the proper Emunctories And I appeal to all
do not immediately appear to the Taste but by taking of the Bodies asunder appear to be such There is an Axiom that Unumquodque in id dissolvitur unde compactum est Every thing is dissolved into that whereof it is made Now if this Axiom be true as I think it is an infallible one a Man may reasonably conclude that those Bodies which upon their Dissolution are reduced into Acid Substances are Acids tho before their Dissolution they did not appear to be so Most Vegetables upon the Dissolution of them or analyzing by the Fire appear principally to be composed of Acid Substances and therefore I think are to be accounted Acids altho they are so differently specificated and have such different Operations upon Human Bodies that a Man who has not nicely examined them would be tempted to believe that the original constituent Parts of them were much more different than they are Now the more perfect and durable any Vegetable is the greater quantity of Acidum and Sulphur it affords and less of excrementitious Alkaly And from the different Combinations of the two Sisters Acidum and Sulphur I believe it possible to give a very probable Account of all the differences in Plants as to Colour Taste c. And as these two perfect if it be lawful to call any natural thing perfect Principles are more or less clogged with excrementitious Allkaly so they are more or less durable as to themselves and more or less friendly to Human Bodies for whose use they were principally created so that here you may see that when I preach up Acids it is not only Vinegar Lemons Oil of Vitriol Oil of Sulphur c. that I recommend but all the perfect Parts of the Creation and decry the use of those things that are the Principles of Death and Destruction in Bodies viz. Alkalies From what I have before said I think I may without Presumption reckon Oak-bark amongst the number of Acids and yet Oak-bark being given in Substance or a Decoction of it is so far from making the Juices over fluid or thin that it will reduce them to a Consistence when they are so the same may be said of Bistort Tormentil and abundance of things of that Tribe the same thing will Comfry Roots do and all the things of that Tribe the same I could say of many more but here I have not room to expatiate Asparagus Parsley c. will make the Juices fluid when they are over thick and viscous and so will a multitude of things more of that Tribe I could range my self out into the mineral Kingdom but the different Operations of them are so well known to every body that I think it needless to take any particular notice of them yet this much I will presume to say altho it be foreign to my present Design that after having made all the Enquiry into the Nature of Metals that Human Industry is capable of I am perfectly satisfied that they differ one from another only in degrees of Purity and therefore for ought I know the Business of Transmutation is not so ridiculous a thing as some People would make it As to those Acids that are manifestly so they greatly differ in their Operations upon Human Bodies I have before observed that there are those which may properly be called Acido-sulphurea and others Sulphureo-Acida but in Nature I don't know a simple Acid or a simple Sulphur there being such an indestructible Bond of Union and Friendship between them that they are never one without the other Now those Acids that have most Sulphur united with them are Aperitives Openers of Obstructions and keep the Blood and Juices in a proper state of Fluidity Those that have little Sulphur mix'd with them are Stipticks and bring the Blood and Juices to a Consistence when they are over fluid What I have said upon this Subject is not the effect of Fancy but of a Series of several Years strict and nice Observations Letter Besides if Alkalies did always offend and cause Pain it must follow that Acids must give ease But I assure you I have often experienced the contrary for upon the exhibition of Rhenish White-Wine and other Acids I have found the Pains immediately exasperated and many times it has been a long while e're they went off Answer If Alkalies cause Pain I do agree with you that Acids of consequence must give ease but I don't suppose that an ill habit of Body that has been perhaps some Months or Years a contracting is to be altered with a few Doses of the most exalted Medicine in the World let it be Acid or what you please But supposing Acids to be the most proper Medicines in the World to ease Pain as I believe they are yet it is not improbable but upon the giving a small quantity of Acid in such cases where there is a large quantity of Alkaly lodged upon any Part so as to cause Pain it may only in part dissolve the Alkaly which was before more fixt and so by accident may exasperate the Pain whereas by continuing the use of the Acid the Alkaly would be perfectly dissolved and extirpated and so the Pain would altogether vanish But Pain being sometimes exasperated upon the first giving of them in too small quantities has I doubt not been one great Cause of deterring people from proceeding in the use of them and also of attributing to them the Cause of Pain But in great Pains it is my constant Practice to apply Acids externally to the Part affected as well as give them inwardly and there are but very few Pains especially Gouty and Rheumatick ones that I am not able to overcome in a small time And for the Pain you say you have often found to be excited upon the giving of Rhenish and White Wine I have assigned a Reason for that if they are drunk in too large quantities both in my Essay of Alkaly and Acid and in my Tract of the Gout and therefore shall not again repeat it but refer you thither Letter Again if the Gout proceed from an Alkaly what is the reason you use so much Sassafras in its Cure Is Sassafras an Acid and so proper to subdue this Alkaly Answer I can cure the Gout if there were no such thing as Sassafras I only use Sassafras in Apozems as a proper Vehicle to dilute other Medicines in the Stomach But however Sassafras is no contemptible Medicine and if you will but give your self the trouble of Distilling a Pound or two of it in a Retort per se if you afterwards reckon Sassafras amongst the number of Alkalies I am mistaken and if I am so I shall willingly own it Letter I have only a word or two to speak concerning the green Colour of Syrup of Violets and so I have done I believe it may be turned green without an Alkaly On the exhibition of it to Infants it comes away green very often and brings away a great deal of green Matter