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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33709	A physico medical essay concerning alkaly and acid so far as they have relation to the cause or cure of distempers : wherein is endeavoured to be proved that acids are not (as is generally and erroneously supposed) the cause of all or most distempers, but that alkalies are : together with an account of some distempers and the medicines with their preparations proper to be used in the cure of them : as also a short digression concerning specifick remedies / by John Colbatch.	Colbatch, John, Sir, 1670-1729.	1696 (1696)	Wing C5003; ESTC R26032	33,359	174

suppose to be from a quantity of such Particles being some way or other admitted into the Blood which being of a quite different Texture from that of the Blood and so not capable of being mixt with it causes a hurry and disorder there which is what I * Nov. Lum Chyr elsewhere observe to be the occasion of both continued and Symptomatick Fevers Now it is well known that a Fever always precedes the Eruption of the Pustles in the Small-Pox And when the Pustles are well come out that is when the Heterogeneous or Particles of a different Texture from those of the Blood are thrown out to the Surface of the Body then the Fever ceases Now to assist Nature in throwing those Heterogeneous Particles out of the Blood to the extream Parts which they pretend to be mightily hindred by a great quantity of Acids in the Blood they give repeated and large quanties of Testatious Alkalious Powders and other Diaphoreticks Which indeed seldom fail of answering their Intentions in throwing out large quantities of Pustles even more than Nature is able to supply or bring to maturity and if she doth chance to cope with them is the only occasion of spoyling so many angelick Faces as we every day observe But the spoyling of Faces is not all for besides the throwing out of so great a quantity of Pustles by breaking off the Globules of the Blood when it is brought to the Cataneous Glands instead of those Glands separating the Excrementitious Serum which in a State of Health is all or most part of it to be carried off by sweat or insensible transpiration but at this time to supply the Pustles till they are brought to maturity I say by breaking off the Globules of the Blood when it is in its confused State Serum and all together the Excrementitious Serum only according to the Rules of Nature ought to be separated those Glands being so many strainers adapted to receive into them the Serum only and not the least drop of Blood when it is in its natural State and its Globules unbroken I can liken the separation of the Serum from the Blood by the mediation of the cutaneous Glands to nothing better then to a mixture of oyl and water made by continued agitation when that compound mixture seems to be one intire white liquor tho' with good eyes or a good glass the oyl may be seen floating in the Water in small Globules as the Blood doth in the Serum as I elsewhere * Nov. Lum Chyr observe Yet this mixture of Oyl and Water let it be done never so exactly if it be poured into a funnil lined with brown Paper wet before hand the Pores will be so disposed as to let all the Water run through though not the least Particle of the Oyl yet if there be some Alkalious Salts boyled with this mixture of Oyl and Water the Globules of the Oyl will be so broken as to pass readily with the Water through the forementioned brown Paper which before it would not in the least do In like manner the Globules of the Blood being broken by the means of Alkalious Medicines together with too great a quantity of Alkalious Particles being before admitted into it is by that means made capable of being received into the Cutaneous Glands which is the only occasion of those purple spots upon the surface of the skin not only in the Small-Pox but other Fevers which spots seldom or never fail of being the certain Prognosticators of future Death But this is not all for by the foresaid breaking of the Globules of the Blood by Alkalious Medicines these small broken Globules getting into the small Meanders of the Brain hinder the Motion of the Animal Spirits through the Nerves and so cause Deliriums and all those fatal disorders of the Brain that are but too frequently seen Likewise the Blood not being capable of being contained in its proper Channels is the occasion of violent Bleeding at the Nose bloody Urine c. which are none of the best Symptoms but what too frequently happen by the aforesaid means Besides breaking of the Globules of the Blood and causing the ill Symptoms before-mentioned with many others I don't think fit here to enumerate By their Diaphoretick quality there is so vast a waste made of the Serum of the blood that there is not a sufficient quantity left to supply and bring to maturity those many Pustles even more than Nature designed that those Medicines alone had thrown out So that about the ninth eleventh or thirteenth day for want of a sufficient quantity of Serum to supply them the Pustles fall and the Acrid corrosive matter being absorbed into the Blood causes secondary Fevers which oftentimes prove of very dangerous consequence I might expatiate a great deal more but I design brevity It may be said you have gone far enough in condemning the ordinary Practice as to the use of Alkalies and Diaphoreticks not having substituted a better and safer Method and Medicines in their room but not too fast that follows in its proper place The Small-Pox is a Distemper that requires the giving of as few Medicines as in any Distemper whatsoever unless in some extraordinary cases But yet I think it the most unreasonable thing in the World that People as is the common practice in this case should be left to the sole management of old Women and Nurses which thing alone I verily believe has been the destruction of more people than the Sword it self And although but very few Medicines as I said before are generally necessary yet the eye of a careful skilful Physitian and that from the beginning is as convenient as in any Distemper whatsoever that he seeing Natures operations may also see the fit time when to give the Medicines requisite I confess I have heard some people complain that such a Physitian has had so many Fees and never wrote one Bill for them for such people let me tell them that they complain without cause for in many cases especially in this the Physitian deserves his Fees better for not writing at all then for so doing I own my self to be a profest Chymist and in many things though not all a Disciple of Helmont and know nothing in this World so delightful to me as Chymical Operations Yet in this case nor indeed in scarce any acute Distemper do I judge Chymical Medicines to be absolutely necessary though many of them may do well and are sometimes to be used But I don't know any reason we have to flye to elaborate Preparations when Nature has provided Medicines ready to our hands Acids are the things skilfully and timely given which I have seen not only by my own but by other Great mens Practice to be the only safe effectual and seldom or never erring Medicines in this Distemper so that they are rightly timed and given with discretion and why should we flye to Acids Chymically prepared when as I

which by many experiments I have found to be as much an Alkaly as either Crabs Eyes Corral Pearls c. the which I suppose no man will deny Now it being granted that the matter contained in the aforesaid Nodes to be an Alkaly how is it possible for this Distemper to proceed from Acids when in those very parts where the Distemper most violently rages there should be produced such large quantities of an Alkalious substance For if the Distemper proceeds from Acids as 't is generally agreed upon the Patient need not clog his Stomach with Alkalies as is generally practised there being a Remedy already placed in the part affected And I verily believe that the only reason why this Distemper has been accounted amongst the Opprobria Medicorum has been from the mistaken Notions they have had concerning it But if men will still persist to assert that this Distemper proceeds from Acids and at the same time own the chalky substance before-mentioned which is only the Morbifick Matter indurated to be an Alkaly they must tacitely believe the Doctrine of Transmutation though openly they are ashamed to own it and will laugh at and ridicule those that do But this is not all for suppose the Acid Matter causing this Distemper to be transmuted into a chalky alkalious substance the Distemper must never more pretend to come in or near the part where this substance is lodged it being placed as a Centry to guard it off Nay the Blood at times must all or at least great part of it pass through the Part or Parts where this chalky substance is lodged by which means a man would think it should be sufficiently guarded from any more growing Acid and so by consequence when the chalky Nodes are once setled people have not the least reason for the future to be in fear of the return of their Distemper The contrary of which a great many honest Gentlemen to their sorrows experience So that a man would think that these very Nodes alone were sufficient if there were no other reasons to be given for it to satisfie any man who is master of his reason that Acids are not and that Alkalies are the cause of this Distemper And if the Blood abound with too great a quantity of Alkalious Particles the giving of Alkalies must be preposterous is being to add Fuel to the Flame which instead of quenching or extinguishing makes it so much the greater It may not be amiss to take notice that few people are troubled with the Gout but those who drink large quantities of Wine or some other generous Liquors abounding with vinous Spirits so that the Blood and other Juices being impregnated with the said vinous Spirits these Spirits meeting with the volatile alkalious Salt of which even the Blood of sound People is never destitute By the means of which Salt the vinous Spirit is coagulated and turned into that substance or somewhat like it which Helmont calls his Offa Alba which coagulated substance not being capable of moving with the Blood and Juices through the small Vessels causes obstructions and violent pains and in time by the addition of other gross terrestrious Particles into the beforementioned chalky substance By the foresaid coagulation of vinous Spirits with the volatile Alkaly of the Blood may a very good reason be given for the Generation of the Stone in the Bladder and Kidneys And Mr. Boyle tells us being what Helmont had before done that having obtained some Stones of a certain Lythotomist he put them into a Retort and exposed them to a strong fire and found that the better half consisted of volatile alkalious Salt like unto that obtainable from Humane Blood and a considerable quantity of heavy Oyl so that it is plain that the Generation of the Stone is not from Acids but Alkalies From which may be inferred that it is not from the Acidity of Rhenish Wine that makes the drinking of it pernicious to Gouty People but from its abounding with spirituous Particles more than most other Wines CHAP. IV. Of Rheumatisms THIS is another of the Distempers generally said to proceed from Acids in the Blood but very falsly as I hope fully to make appear I having had to do with multitudes under this Distemper and that thanks to God with very good success I. shall not trouble my self to investigate the original causes of this Distemper which are various that being foreign to my design but shall immediately proceed to the business I have undertaken First of all Having by the fire analyzed the Blood of Rheumatick Persons I have found it to abound more with Alkanious Particles than that of sound Persons but not the least grain of any Acid substance in it from which alone it may readily enough be inferred That it proceeds not from Acids but on the contrary from Alkalies But it may be Objected From whence proceeds that syziness and viscosity of the Serum which is generally observed in the Blood of Rheumatick Persons if not from Acids For we know that Milk which is a sort of Serum of the Blood let it be in never so fluid a state by the addition of any Acid though never so gentle a great part of it will be immediately congulated and turned into Curds To which I Answer That the foresaid Objection is altogether invalid the viscousness that is observed in the Serum of the Blood being quite different from that of the Curds in Milk Though there are those substances contained in Milk that are fit to make both Blood and Serum but Milk is a much more compound liquor than the Serum of the Blood so the comparison being made between subjects so vastly different it is of no validity at all But suppose the comparison between the two Liquors good What agreement is there between Curds and a substance like unto Gelly None at all that I know of But if instead of curdled Milk they had made the comparison between the inviscated Serum and Hartshorn Gelly they had been in the right on 't for indeed I know not any two subjects more fit to be compared together But then this comparison will not in the least prove the inviscation of the Serum to proceed from Acids but on the contrary from Alkalious Particles for every body that knows what Harts-horn is know that the reason of its making a Gelly is from its abounding with volatile alkalious Salts And for the same reason it is that Calves Feet Izing-glass Ivory c. make Gellies By what I have said I hope I have freed Acids from occasioning the viscousness of the Serum of the Blood in Rheumatisms which viscosity if it can be once taken off every one knows that the Distemper immediately vanishes But this is not to be done by Alkalies that ever I could see although I have given them in large quantities But it is expeditiously to be done by proper Acids such as the before-mentioned Tincture of Antimony c. and Calibiats But