But bleeding debilitates and exhausts the strength which should contend with the Disease how can you then expect a good Crisis when Nature is enfeebled and checkt in her encounters for by the Strength of Nature the Crisis is procured sooner or latter as she is strong or weak Natura Corroborata est Morborum Medicatrix If this Truth were rightly considered in the Practice of Physick there would not be such frequent recourse to enervating Phlebotomy To incourage and countenance Bleeding as a laudable Remedy and to captivate the Understandings of People They endeavour to prove the good effects thereof by ocular Demonstration exhibiting to the view of the Sick and by Standers the Pravity of the Blood taken away as appearing variously discoloured and different in consistence if compared with others The Blood after it hath stood some time thus presenting to the Eye so depraved they straitway undoubtingly conclude it was discreetly and happily taken away for the Patient 's good Thinking hereby so much matter of the Disease is abated and let out And since they find the Blood thus faulty they charge all the mischief or mostly to lye in the vitiousity of the Blood Quid planius This incourageth to proceed on in the same way and to repeat this Operation to draw out some more of the morbific Matter as the most ready way to free the Patient from the Complaints But all this while they are not aware of the Errours they are under in this Prosecution For they do not consider the different State of the Blood under the Power and Protection of the Life in its proper native Place the Veins and Arteries and how apt it is to change and variously to degenerate when extravasated and exposed to the Air The Blood is not the same now 't is exhibited to the View as it was in the Vessels of conservation The Life was in the Blood before but now in the Porringer it is dead Blood Between the Dead and the Living there must needs be great disparity so that the Judgment passed upon the dead Blood does not affect or represent the live Blood for it is not what it was Tho' it is now ill coloured coagulate or in a state of separation and abounding with Serosity Before it was more ruby florid Balsamic and more intire when running in the Veins and Arteries which have a conservative Power I do not deny the Blood of several Persons to differ in Purity and Goodness and the difference thereof in the same Persons as they are in a good or bad state of Health But I do not approve of the severe rash Judgment pronounced upon the Blood extramitted from the dead Aspect thereof concluding from thence it was fit for no other use but to be thrown away and better to be out than in the Body True it is there are some Diseases that the Blood is much in fault as the Cause of such Maladies yet notwithstanding that is not a sufficient Cause to let it out since there are efficacious purifying Remedies to reduce the Blood into a better Condition and not prodigally to waste that vital Stream so necessarily useful and serviceable to the whole Body For the Mass of Blood is not depraved and amended by Phlebotomy let out as much as you will equal Parts of good and bad will remain behind from this promiscuous evacuation Besides A degenerate bad Blood does arise mostly from the insufficiency and depravedness of the previous alimental Juice of which Blood is made And then the fault to be remedied is not in the Blood or office of sanguification but in the preparatory offices and those Parts defective upon which Bleeding hath no Influence nor possibility to rectify And as for Fevers which arise more oft from other Causes than from the Blood there is no Pretence for Bleeding in such Cases if you will be governed by Indications and not go on blindfold Nidus Febrium in primis est officinis extenditur scilicet à Pyloro per Duodenum vasa ibidem multiplicia Intestina item Venas Mesenterii Lienem usque ad Hepar Helm de Febr. According to this great Author the Seat of Fevers both Continual and Intermitting is not in the Veins or Arteries but in the first Region of the Body from whence they take their Rise Then what signifies Bleeding in such cases but to add more mischief Their Cures are performed by Abstersives and Depuratives to cleanse where such morbific matter is bred And those are the true Antifebrific Remedies And not only such but they are also universal Medicines required as necessary in all other Cures I do allow of Bleeding upon some suddain great Inflammation that threatens the Life and when efficacious discussing Means are wanted to prevent Apostomation But otherwise if it come o◠gradually and slowly giving warning and good Medicine ready for use at Hand then bleeding is not required and better to forbear the Lancet Some are so bold at Bleeding that they forbear not in the highest Malignant Fevers Small Pox c. But if the Sick recover 't is wonderful Providence that saves them but more oft Death is procured thereby In the expectance of the Small Pox they will Bleed under Pretence of abating the corrupt Matter that breaks forth thinking thereby the Patient may not be so much disfigured with Pustles and may be a Help to preserve the Face from Deformity which before was beautiful The end proposed was good but the Medium they go by is very dangerous and unlikely to succeed well For saving a Face to hazard the Life is no good designing They begin at the wrong end of such malignant Distempers for by Bleeding they aim at and apply only to the Effects the producted Matter and neglect the producing Cause the Venemous Miasm or fermenting Leven that corrupts the whole Mass of Blood To prevent Impurity and Corruption of the Blood is much better than to lessen and abate the Quantity of the Blood after it is corrupted The main design in such cases is first how to expel the putrefying venom before it spreads and taints the whole at least so to fortify Nature that she may be able to Master it and defend her self The Indications for Cure are these to assist and strengthen the Life that she may be able to resist the Venom And to Mortifie the malign Ferment by proper Alexipharmacals thereby to preserve the vital streams from mortal Putrefaction or Coagulation But bleeding is quite contrary to this Method and Intentions for Cure and is the ready way for killing That which makes a promiscuous evacuation of good and bad together is no true Remedy for Curing Phlebotomy does not distinguish the better Part of the Blood from the worse but le ts both out together the remainder in the Vessels is not amended thereby but equal Proportions continue behind of good and bad Therefore abating the Quantity of naughty Blood in any case by bleeding is an indirect way to amend it and
appears that from what Cause soever a Fever doth arise this Juleping and Cooling Mode of Practice is dangerous more or less as the Disease is in its self whereon the Fever does depend But in no Case advantageous making acute Diseases to Commute and terminate in chronic and lingering chronic Diseases to hold on their Course and become more Contumacious Febrile Heat is much safer and sooner allayed with hot things than with cold for Coolers only are but like the sprinkling of Water upon Fire which burns the fiercer for it afterwards Coolers cast a damp for the present makes a short suppression of Heat and it soon bursts out again But hot Medicines that have Spirit and Life in them do assist Nature in ejecting of the peccant Matter which being cast out Nature then returns to her sedate moderate temper Therefore one good Sudorific Medicine checks a Fever better than ten Juleps Here I shall make some Observations useful in Practice First from the Denominations of Fever and Inflammation what affinity there is and near relation they have to each other for from the Etymon of the words they seem to import a Parity as denoting only an extraordinary Heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 febris from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflammatio from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uro But the difference lyes here Fevers are known and defined by preternatural Heat and effervescency through the whole Body Inflammation is a preternatural Heat of a particular Part. Hence we remark that Fevers are general and dilated Inflammations Inflammations particular Fevers of a Member Thus they differ in Latitude and Extent But withal observe the order of Causation Inflammation commonly precedes and lays the Foundation in this or that Part there is the fomes minera Morbi A Fever follows upon the whole Body caused by consent from thence and condolency Here you may take notice that Fevers are erroneously defined by Authors à calore praeter Naturam in Corde accenso assigning the Heart to be the focus where febrile Heat is first kindled and from whence it is maintained when almost in any other Part of the Body if an Inflammation happen there a Fever will follow taking its Rise from thence not from the Heart So that the Heart then suffers Sympathically by consent not idiopathically and primarily as Sedes Morbi Since most Inflammations cause Fevers and Inflammations so frequent as being the certain Consequents of great Pain then two things are to be noted First that upon the appearance of a high Fever you may suspect an Inflammation couched under it from whence as the Spring this Fever doth arise Secondly that the Cure of many Fevers ought so to be designed and managed as respecting and aiming chiefly at a particular Inflammation of some Part upon which the Fever doth depend And when a Fever ariseth upon this bottom as often it doth then little regard is to be had to the general Fever but the stress of Cure lyes upon removing the occasional and material Causes of Pain and Inflammation in the particular Part the Foundation of all the rest which being removed the depending Fever falls of Course Thus all our endeavours tend to make a true Discovery of Causes that when preternatural Heat does arise in the Body and begets a Fever you may know not only what to call it but also what to do by levelling at the right Mark And I must tell you also how a Fever sometimes does arise and not from Inflammation of a pained Part That is when some depraved discordant Matter or some malign venenate Miasm is mingled or got into the Blood Nature which is the Life raiseth a preternatural Fermentation and febrile effervescency in the Mass of Blood for a Purification and Separation of this exotic Mixture and admits of no sedation or rest until that work be finished From hence you may be warned of the dangerous common Practice in Fevers by Juleps Barley-Water and other such like Coolers to allay the Heat from a great Mistake of Fevers and from whence that Heat doth assurge For whether the Fever does depend upon a particular inflamed Part or a general Fermentation of the Blood for Purification in both Cases of Fevers such Cooling Medicines are pernicious and have killed thousands For by insisting so much upon them and aiming to suppress the Fever by Coolers not possible to be done that way thus mischievously spending Time the opportunity of Curing is lost and the Disease prevails The Error of those Cooling Medicines is apparent from the insuccess thereof for never was the Thirst of a sick Person satisfied by Juleps but a Draught of good Drink such as the Patient's Stomach affects that is refreshing and relieving Julops are but Cold Comfort or rather no Comfort to a Fevorish sick Man for those Cold Medicines imposed upon the sick are no Coolers in effect and are so far from assisting Nature to do the work she is strugling about that they nauseate and flat the Stomach which should vigorate and inforce the other Faculties they damp and check the Power of Nature contending with the Disease and leave her languishing for Refreshment coveted in her natural common Drink Thus cheating the Patient of that desired assistance by Drink which would be Comfortable And thus much may suffice to shew the Vanity and Insufficiency of Juleps and other Cooling Inventions to allay the Heat of Fevers Having now gone through the Common Practice upon Fevers shewing the Errors and Dangers thereof in their Designs for Curing All which ariseth from their Mistakes in the true Notion of Fevers not knowing what they are and from what Principle they proceed It remains now that I set forth the direct Ways and due Means for effecting their Cures which will appear more plainly and probably Succesful being compared with the common irrational Practice grounded upon false Notions of Fevers wholly mistaken SECT XIII The Author 's Compendious Method and Medicines for Curing Fevers compared with the Common Practice IN the first place I shall set before you the Common Prctaice upon Fevers and take the Account thereof from Riverius a French Author of great Repute much consulted with and followed by most Practisers He having Collected from the best Writers what is most remarkable and thought most useful for Curing so that in his Praxis you have the Methods and chief Matter of all the rest And his Book being furnished with variety of Medicines many that are inquisitive after Physick do peruse and esteem that Book I shall here only take notice and cursorily view the great Magazine of Medicines disposed under the several Divisions of Fevers as properly and necessarily assigned to answer all the Indications of those different Fevers variously denominated and distinguished as Diseases requiring different Methods and various Remedies But how unnecessary improper and injurious most of that trouble and charge of Medicines will appear upon inquiry into the Nature and Vanity of them As
before the Production of Animal Spirits by the Assertors of animal Spirits and those Operations are not performed without vital Heat issuing from the vital Principle and there can be no other rationally assigned The Second as improbable and difficult to be proved For the Heat of animal Spirits is but mutuatitious at best borrowed dependant and supported by vital Heat and not arising from an independant Principle This preternatural Heat ascribed to animal Spirit is the same in Specie with natural Heat and they differ only in gradu Febrile Heat assuring from the same Principle as natural Heat But why in Sanguine accensus and no where else As if the Blood were the first and the only Place where Fevers do begin and have their Residence which Doctrine I cannot comply with and must assert otherwise That Fevers being only the preternatural Heat of the Life incensed and Symptomatical only what ever the Morbifick cause be and wheresoever it be in any Part of the Body there the Fever begins and from thence it is continued until the Morbous Matter be removed or much abated For no Part of the Body is injured but the Life being ubiquitary in the Microcosm is first sensible of the Hurt and is disturb'd thereby grows angry hot and fiery nisu quodam irato endeavouring thereby to extricate and free her self from the mischief Miasmate quodam deleterio contaminate ex accidenti quodam irritato Here 't is said the Animal Spirit is contaminated with some Venom and irritated thereby This being the Definition of acute Fever in general then all sorts of acute Fevers must arise after this manner and from such a cause as venemous Matter Quicquid praedicatur de genere praedicatur etiam de Specie Ax. Let us know first what this learned Author means by venemous miasm of which we have no better Account than this from himself Hujus miasmatis heterogenei descriptionem nemo sane à nobis requirat quandoquidem omnes nostros sensus plane Superat Pa. 50. Here is an imaginary venom seizing and affecting imagined and supposed animal Spirits and upon the Result or conjunction of these two dubious and difficult conceptions to be proved The Doctrine of Fevers is founded and a general Practice conform to these Notions is regulated thereby But I should be loth to venture my Life or the Lives of others upon such Vncertainties and Improbabilities for the Rule of Curing To shew therefore the incomprehensiveness and unfitness thereof to govern and direct the general Practice of Fevers I shall propose some cases of acute Fevers that we may see how these Positions do prompt and indicate proper Means and sutable Methods of Cure And from thence we may rationally conclude the Verity or Errour thereof A Person that hath eat and drank too much the night following is very restless next morning complains of fulness and loathing of any Food is very Fevorish hot and burning A Fever now presents plainly but what is to be done in the case for Remedy By the Doctrine aforesaid the animal Spirits are invenomed and the Patient must be Cured with Alexipharmacal Antidotes to expel the Poison that causeth this Fever Such as the Jesuits Powder that hath no manifest operation but an occult vertue to resist venemous Matter And this is the Febrifuge so much magnified and used by Dr. Morton as excelling all others But my Judgment leads me another way in this case Here is an oppression from Meat and Drink loading the Stomach not being digested and duly sent away Now what does this case indicate but only a discharge of the matter offending either upwards or downwards by Medicine of Such Operation The Fever is plainly perceived and the cause as easily understood But where the venom afflicting the animal Spirits in this Fever will be found I know not nor do I think there is any such Another is afflicted with the Colic by great Torsions and Pain from Obstruction or acrid lancinating humoral Matter in the Colon These Pains being violent and continued prevents sleep and unavoidably raiseth a Fever The vital Regent Principle being molested and provok'd hereby then aestuats with Inquietude and grows hot with Indignation being disturb'd in Government Now what manner of Cure is here required for this Fever But only some good Aperitive and Abstersive Medicine to open cleanse and free the Guts from all degenerate obstructing flatulent Matter that causes these Pains Which being well performed by a true Purgative and not of the common virulent sort the Pains ceaseth and the Fever is gone because the Life is then pacified at Ease and Rest cool and temperate the offending Cause being removed What Occasion or what need was here for a Febrifuge But only what was Curative as aforesaid for removing the Cause aforesaid The Jesuits Powder would contribute nothing to this Cure so much admired and used by some I rather think it might do Hurt in this Fever as the medicine by its nature does Suggest which we shall enquire into anon No Venom I can discover in this case requiring such an Antidote Pains of the Gout or from the Stone raiseth a Fever for the Reasons aforesaid being the common Symptom attendant upon all dolorous Diseases that disquiet and incense the Life Here is no need of a Febrifuge in these Fevers but only such proper Means as these Diseases require The febrile Heat goes off or abates as the Diseases yield to the Power of Medicine Symptoms come and go with their Diseases on which they depend and febrile Heat is only Symptomatical as before proved Here we might enumerate and run over many depending Fevers where no such Poyson is to be found But these may suffice to inform that acute Fevers are not so venomous in their nature generally as the Definition of Fevers recited would have us to believe Genus praedicatur de omnibus Speciebus sub se contentis Ax. But now let us understand if it can be understood what this Venom is that our Author assigns to be the material Cause of Fevers and of most other Diseases that is so frequent and common and requires Curing by Alexipharmacals The Inventor and Assertor of this Novel probably can give us the best Account who defines Poyson thus Venenum seu toxicum est quid deleterium atque vitae principio seu spiritibus animalibus inimicum unde facultas corum expansiva penitus obruitur flamma vitalis necessarie extinguitur p. 147. We must consider this Definition in its several Parts distinctly whereby we may the better apprehend the Result and Comprehension of the whole This is the Standard set to examine and know febrile venemous Ferments by and to shew the manner of their acting destructively For by this Definition of Poyson in general he would have us to understand analogically the Nature of that Poyson which causeth Fevers as he intimates in the same Page Venenum seu Toxicum est quid Deleterium This is idem per idem or
liquor in vasis effervescens solummodo sanguis ubicunque loci per singulas corporis partes defertur usque idem est sui similis D. Willis de febr p. 99. If the Blood then be in such a state as this Author even now said perfectly mixed and homogeneous in the vessels I see no cause why and cannot understand how this sulphureous part thereof if such there be in living Blood that it should be apt and ready to take fire and produce the effervescency and ebullition of putrid Fevers Nor can I reconcile this learned Man to himself where in another place setting forth putrid Fevers he saith Cum vero cruoris materies sulphurea excandescens supra modum effervet mixtionis vinculum maxima ex parte solvitur ut principia ejus à fermento cordis fere in totum distrahantur particulae activae meaning spirit and sulphur à misto solutae velut in flammam erumpant Ibidem p. 164. In one place he affirms the Blood to be a liquor united in its principles woven together into one uniform nature and in another place he says the parts of the Blood are loosed and in a state of separation Now when the Blood is thus dissolved the Sulphur does not abide to take fire but takes flight Substantia Sulphuris nusquam sincera cernitur imo seorsim ab aliis non consistit quin tenues evanescit in auras D. Willis lib. de ferment p. 7. Observe from hence The Blood in its compage and texture is not capable of firing and deflagration in its retexture and dissolution the inflammable Sulphur abides not for a combustion but disperseth and vanisheth haec tota Doctrina in flammam abit Sic transit gloria ficti Notwithstanding these incongruities He proceeds to make out the deflagration of the Blood in putrid Fevers That the principles of the Blood are separated by the ferment of the Heart and being there rarified and kindled from thence with a most swift motion motu rapidissimo is carried through the vessels and in the deflagration disperseth many effiuviums of Heat Ibidem p. 164. This is soon said but not so easily proved And in answer to all this I will give you the sentiment and determination of a late Physician of great repute reasoning and denying all this as irrational Verum nec in sanguine talem ebullitionem excitari nec in corde hujusmodi fermentum adesse facile erit ostendere quanquam enim inter corpora quae ex salibus contraria prorsus indole praeditis constant ubi commiscentur magna effervescentia atque lucta exoritur multaque effluvia discedant dissimilis tamen omnino magis benignae naturae Sanguinis liquor existit quam ut in corde aut vasis suis tam aestuose subito effervescat quippe novimus quam mitis ejus liquor quam benigno plerumque succo perfusus quam lenis placidus ejus in venis versus cor refluxus D. Lower de corde p. 57. And farther to null this fiction of abounding sulphur and effervescency from thence in putrid Fevers Take the testimony of a learned Chymical Physician demonstrating by fact The pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high Fever doth afford more salt water and Earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that Diseased Blood termed Corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur And being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joined thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the other Dr. Thompson Aimatiasis chap. 6. p. 51. Then he gives you another experiment I procured saith He the purest Blood I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it Then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the Sound and that seeming Corrupt which gives testimony that a Fever doth not principally arise from an excess of Sulphur Idem Ibidem Much more might be alledged against this improbable opinion But I think there is enough said to dispel the fiction of inflammable Sulphur in the Blood which is made the rise of putrid Fevers causing effervescency ebullition and deflagration And now I cannot but admire that the learned of this Nation should receive this phantasm with such applause and what advantage it brought to the Inventor But the handsome latin Dress that this was presented in so captivated their understandings that they could not perceive the errour and vanity of the Doctrine that set it off and so it pass'd without suspicion And frequently since we have had other Physick works come abroad which affords me more matter and Men to oppose but little to inform and be a gainer by yet if it be latin then it is learned with many But I do not judge of learning nor of men learned after that manner I am not to be snared with any language when I expect something else that I seek for Truth is truth in any language errour is so likewise 'T is the matter in writing not the Stile of writing that is useful and praise worthy in Physick But this by the way Now after all this labour and ingenuity of invention by learned Men setting forth how putrid Fevers are generated I find Helmont that great Philosopher and Physician denying there are any such common Fevers Sciant igitur Scholae cruorem in venis putrefieri nunquam quin simul ipsamet vena putreat ut in Gangrena mortificationibus Helm lib. de Febr. cap. 2. He acknowledgeth the putredinous excrements in veins not the Blood to putrifie And he subjoins this reason quippe qui juxta Sacra est Sedes thesaurus vitae si vitanon servet à putridine sanguinem in quo gliscit quomodo preservabuntur ossa Ibidem The meaning of all this I judg is to take away the frequency of putrid Fevers that they are not so common as Authors and Practisers do make them That the putrid matter of Fevers Salutary is not putrefaction of the Blood For when the Blood is putrified the case is mortal A Corrupto sive privato non datur regressus ad vitam If the mass of Blood comes to be corrupt in the great streams of the Veins and Arteries there is no hopes of reducing it but death soon follows Now you must understand the difference and distinguish between putrifying and putrifyed putrefactio incipiens infieri and putrefaction in facto esse finished The first is curable the latter incurable But after all this Dissention and Contention in and about putrid Feavers what certain knowledge have we in this Disease so called but a Name Since the material Cause or Matter offending giving the Denomination is not adjudged and agreed upon And how
dictated injurious Methods and Medicines deceiving many Practisers with the Ruine of many Patients The appearance of a Fever hath so long detained them unnecessarily and perniciously in applying to damp and extinguish the febrile vital Heat thereby suppressing the fortitude of Nature and giving Time to the morbifie Cause for prevailing Having gained little satisfaction in the doctrinal Part of Fevers we will now pass on to the next Stage the Curative Practice We shall then see whether Curing comes by Chance and sometimes only or is the Effect of certain true Design and right adapted Means as the most frequent Event SECT VII The Operations and Effects of Cortex Peruvianus the Jesuits Powder BEfore I give my Sentiment of this famed Remedy so much used against Fevers I shall first recite the Opinions of some Authors thereupon And then comparing Judgments with the matters of Fact you may easily know who comes nearest the Truth in determining the virtue or Vitiosity of this Medicine Dr. Willis in his Book de Febribus put forth in the Year 1660 makes mention of this Cortex which he had often used and was then reputed a certain Febrifuge But he does not say it was a Remedy adapt to his Doctrine of Fevers but only an empyrical Medicine and pretends not to know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why and how this should Cure Fevers p. 154. And in another Place he saith That sometimes it did prevent the next Fit to come but if not then the second or third Fit was thereby prevented and the Fever Cured Yet this Cure lasted for a while only for within twenty or thirty Days saepissime redire solet most often it returned again P. 152. Then the Pouder was to be given again and that would make another Cessation And after this manner saith He I have known many afflicted with a quartan a whole Autumn and the Winter following to be thus handled The Fever kept off for a Time and returning again until the Spring came Then by the Help of Physick and the Change of the Season the ill Disposition of Blood was altered and the Fever by Degrees vanished P. 152. What great Cause is here to boast of and proclaim the Jesuits Powder for an excellent Febrifuge many of the common Medicines have done as much And in the Page following He adviseth this Medicine to be given urgente Necessitate When the Patient is worn down by continuance of Fits this Febrifuge makes a Ceslation for a Time that Strength may be recovered to be able to contend with the Disease And if you would have a long Truce you must take larger quantities of the Powder by that means you will be longer free from your Ague P. 153. Thus he commends it for a Palliative only not a compleat Curative Medicine This Physician of great Name and a vast Practice had more opportunities to try the worth of this Bark than any Man in the Kingdom And by his writings you may see that he had made various Tryals thereof whose Judgment in the use of it and the Verity in matters of Fact I do depend upon And therefore shall esteem of it no more than what He saith of it Dubitandum non est quin alia in rerum natura extent Medicamina quae sunt aeque febrifuga P. 156. For my Part I never had such an Opinion of it as to put me upon many Experiments in the use of it Because I had another Medicine which proved more certain in Stopping any Quotidian Tertian or Quartan Ague and also for removing the Morbific Matter out of the Body to prevent any Return And without such Security the Patient is not safe and in a hopeful condition Dr. Morton in his Pyretologia is of another mind and extols this Pouder above all things efficaciae mirabilis sanè ac Stupendae p. 242. and as a universal Remedy appoints it in Fevers and most Diseases This being chosen as adapt to support the new Hypothesis of animal Spirits male affected in all cases by venom in the most requiring Alexipharmacals And this Aetiology of Diseases against the antient Doctrine of Humors he espouseth and labours to maintain by proving the methods of Curing to be governed hereby and the Jesuits Pouder as the chiefest Remedy I am not so much a Humorist as to assert the quaternary of the Galenists deriving all Diseases from thence distinguishing them thereby and adapting peculiar Medicines thereto But in all Diseases as the Cause or the Product there is degenerate Matter so various in divers Persons as not to be reduced to four Heads and we may rationally judge the depravedness thereof by the symptoms arising from thence more or less dangerous as the Faculties are disordered or hurt and Curing results from bridling and discharging such offensive Matter To discourse this farther would draw us more out of the way of our present Purpose therefore I wave it and return to the Peruvian Bark To have a true aestimate of this Remedy we must examine it by the manifest Qualities it is endowed with By the manner of its Operation And from the Effects or Success that usually attends it These are the only ways to discover the genuine Nature and Virtues of this Cortex Herein I shall not be guided or byassed by the Accusations and Invectives of some foreign Writers Men of Note against this Cortex I shall wave their Arguments and the Faults they object that I may not be accounted an Enemy to this Medicine by joyning with the great opposers of it tho' I cannot say I am so much a Friend as to promote and incourage the use of it But I ground my Judgment of this Remedy from those that are the great Applauders of it who give all the Advantages they can in setting it forth by Argument and Fact From their Expressions and Confessions I shall raise some Doubts and make some Exceptions against the validity and worth of this famous Febrifuge The manifest Qualities attributed to it and declared are these Hot and Dry Bitter and Stiptic or restrictive But these do not perform the great work of a Counter-Poyson That is effected by an occult Quality they say And I will grant your occult Quality wherein you place the Efficacy of this Antidote But with this proviso that you make it out clearly and prove it by the Effects For if you cannot make it appear à pricri in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must make it manifest in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 else we must believe against all Reason and Sense The Hypothesis occult as not fairly proved and the Remedy occult in its chief reputed virtue I wish the good effects and success may not be occult also or only to found inter rar◠Comingentia The three foremost Qualities named I like well and the fourth I do not dislike in some Cases But when Nature is upon the Expulsion and makes an Effort to send off the Morbific Matter by Vomit or Stool Then the Astriction
Part of the Practice of Physick The consequents whereof must prove fatal Observe what great Helmont saith Infebribus universis est unica Archei accensio sive indignatio unde in essentia nomine febrili conveniunt Solum autem per causam occasionalem distinctae De febr cap. 13. When the Life aestuates and complains it is not without a cause and you must find that cause out and apply proper means there Then you are in the right way of Curing and there is no other safe and hopeful way to allay febrile Heat Farther you need not trouble your self about Fever What Indication have you from Fever or febrile Heat by the Galenic Rule of contraries you will say Cooling is indicated but that is the ready way for killing in some Fevers and in all other frustraneously and injuriously used Because Indication for Cure in all febrile cases is taken for Diseases and their Causes not from febrile Heat a symptom of the Life Fever therefore does but amuse the World and leads the unwary and herein unknowing out of the way for Curing When a Person is wounded fractur'd or dislocated a Fever commonly ariseth as the consequent of Pain But this Fever makes no Curative Indication gives no Direction for Curing the Wound Fracture or Dislocation and forbids nothing that such cases does require The Chirurgical Means are indicated by those several cases and the Surgeon is not to regard the Fever but proceed by the true Indications according to Art So likewise in all other Diseases and Causes Because febrile preternatural Heat is but a Symptom of the Life hurt not a Symptom of the Disease or morbific Cause immediate Whereas I have in this Discourse asserted Fever to be a Symptom dependant upon Diseases my meaning is a dependant remotely concern'd and occasionally procured But properly approximatly and intimately preternatural Heat ariseth from and is dependant upon the Life as its Principle and an Emanation thereof Omnis Morbus indicat Remedium Febris non indicat Ergo non est Morbus The Major Proposition is the Doctrine of the Methodus Medendi generally received nemine contradicente The Minor appears true and fully proved from the preceeding Reasons and needs not Repetition Since Fever being no Disease nor morbific Cause does not indicate a Remedy and is not to be regarded as requiring Curative Means directly pointing and aiming thereto Then why so much noise and so much to do about Fevers 'T is all a great mistake and blustering in the dark giving false Names to Sickness and adapting Curatives where none are indicated or required Thus much in general of male Practice upon Fevers In the next Place we will examine more particularly the Methods and Means Chirurgical and Pharmaceutic commonly appointed and used as Bleeding Blistering Juleping c. how they do properly answer their Intentions as truly indicated by Fevers Or rather how erroneous and wide from what they ought to aim at SECT X. Blood Letting in Fevers Examined UPON the Doctrine delivered we are now to Inquire how fitly Phlebotomy does answer as a proper and sutable Remedy in the Cures of Fevers being so generally used and most commonly appointed in the first place as of right to begin the Method of Curing The Blood may well be accounted the Treasury of Nature for as this Store-House is full or empty with good or bad the Person is chiefly adjudged to be in a good or bad State ut Signum Causa The dependants from hence are so many and so great that much Caution and Circumspection is to be used in the Diminution of it not prodigally to be wasted upon slight and seeming occasions but upon very urgent and necessitous Cases Some there are that appoint Bleeding not considering so much an Indication for it as the Custom and present Fashion of Physicians so to do Thinking their Method of Cure not compleat unless this come in course Causes in Sickness are always to be principally regarded and sought for where the Seat of the Disease is and from whence it ariseth If the cause of febrile Heat does not lye in the Blood as many Times and more often it does not Then Bleeding is vain and gives no Relief in such cases but rather Hurt by debilitating Nature Diseases take their Rise more frequently from the Stomach than any other Part of the Body This being the first and chiefest office of Elaboration for supplying the whole Body And being the Seat of the Life more eminently where the Power of Government is distributed and does virtually or influentially preside over the rest There you may expect to find the Origine of Diseases mostly or more often The Defects and Insufficient Performance of that Office lays the Foundation of most complaints either by Transmission of ill matter by Consent or Debility of Influx to enable the several Parts governed for acting their Duties Curing must begin where Diseases have their Beginning What advantage then will Bleeding afford when the Stomach requires rectifying and corroborating no Benefit but much harm thereby All Remedies are or ought to be adapted to Diseases and their Causes Fever is no Disease as before proved but a dependant upon Diseases therefore bleeding in Fevers for Fevers sake only is erroneously instituted Inquire into some of the Diseases that commonly have Fevers attending them As when a Fever presents from a Surfeit and over-charge of the Stomach from too much received or something disagreeing and not digesting but oppressing Such cases are very frequent for most Sick People complain at the Stomach of Nauseousness Fulness or Heaviness and Oppression Now what can Bleeding do in such like Complaints How shall the Stomach receive any Benefit thereby Bleeding empties the Veins but it does not discharge the Stomach of peccant Matter does not cleanse and roborate that principal Part Therefore is no Curing Means in such Cases A Fit of the Stone produceth a Fever And likewise the Gout with continued Pain hath a Fever attending The Colic also will procure febrile Heat Obstructions of the Spleen causing Pain in that Part raiseth a Fever And all other Pains of the Bowels continuing begets a Fever Now inquire rightly into the true Causes of all these Pains you will not find the Blood so much concern'd as the Cause thereof for to let it out You are to distinguish a Fever arising from the vitiosity of the Blood as the continent Cause of Stagnation in the smaller venal Pipes which is rare And a febrile Distemper Communicated to the Blood which is frequent occasioned from some remote Cause disturbing the vital Stream by Superfermentation When the cause of Fever is in the Blood Vessels you have then some pretence to appoint Phlebotomy But when the cause of Fever is extraneous and not in those Tubes of conveyance the Blood affected by Consent only from the disturbance elsewhere in all such cases and which do commonly present there is no occasion to use the Lancet In all
then Because the vital spirit is extinct which plainly does shew that preternatural febrile Heat efficienter is seated in the Life And that peccant febrile matter non fervet ex se contains no such heat in it self but produceth excitativè by irritating the vital Heat spiritus impetum faciens beyond moderation and its natural temper Fourthly A wound received and pain arising thence begets a Fever though a great effusion of blood doth happen therewith Now letting out the sulphur if such there were with the blood was more likely to prevent a Fever than to cause it if that Doctrine were true but I find the contrary that pain continuing the Fever continues also Fifthly Persons that are heated by great labour violent exercise or heat of weather if they drink a glass of Sack or other spirituous hot liquor it reduceth them safely to good temper and prevents a Fever But if they drink much small Beer after such heats thinking to cool themselves sooner that cold liquor commonly makes them sick and raiseth a Fever thereby Now observe that Sack and not spirits are more likely to kindle Sulphurous inflamable matter and a Fever from thence as small Beer and cool liquors most likely to prevent Fevers by that Doctrine But the contrary hereof does prove that inflamed sulphur is not the material cause of Fevers but any other offending matter Sixthly Wet and cold taking are oftentimes the causes of sickness and a Fever But such causes are so far from kindling Sulphur that they are more likely to damp and extinguish Sulphur kindled if any such inflaming matter were in Human Bodies All which does plainly shew that Fevers have not their Rise or any dependance from sulphur kindled in the Heart and that Doctrine erroneous founded upon false Principles I must now make this observation not to follow an Author by the cry of the People nor the Vogue of the learned Party who commonly are catcht with a fine dress of good latine not suspecting or not discerning the substance and matter thereof Since my writing I lately met with another Piece de Febribus much differing from the former Author who derived all the causes of Fevers from Sulphur of the Blood this only and wholly from a venemous Ferment infesting the Animal Spirits Dr. Morton Puretologia This novel Doctrine coming in my way I cannot pass it by without regard but must inquire into the verity thereof The common received learning that asserts Humours and Qualities this Author rejects as fictitious and useless to set forth and explain the causes of Diseases and their Symptoms Hoping to give a better account thereof by this new Hypothesis For setting forth and explaining of which he premiseth postulata quaedam Pag. 6. some precarious concessions promising to prove them afterwards which are these following 1. Dari reverà Spiritus animales This Assertion of Animal Spirits was the common received Opinion in former Ages and does yet keep up as a Truth not to be questioned in the Judgment of most for that they perform such necescessary offices in the Body as without their help many Functions they think must cease And in giving an Account of many Diseases especially such as are attributed to the Brain and Nerves they can give no probable Reasons without alledging and accusing the Animal Spirits setting forth their exorbitant Motions or preternatural cessations their interruptions or impetuous Influx their sluggish dull and torpid Fixations And scarce any Passion is named but the Spirits are Actors and by them All that is done or should have been is imputed to the Spirits And Dr. Morton gives a greater Prerogative and ascribes more Power to Animal Spirits in the Government of the Body than others have primum Principium activum totius Machinae p. 6. and bottoms his new Hypothesis upon Animal Spirits quasi fermentum universale totius corporis p. 12. making them universal in the causes of Diseases and as generally necessary in a State of Health to perform all vital Actions If this be so 't is very fit we should all know and assent to it Notwithstanding it is so undoubtedly asserted I question whether there be any such distinct Beings in Human Nature as Animal Spirits or only the Fancies of Mens Invention And my Reason perswades me to deny their Existence First Because their Matter and Manner of Generation their Ways and Motions are so uncertainly and contradictorily set forth by disagreeing Judgments Secondly For that all human Actions internal and external may be performed without their help and a rational and full Account of all Diseases may be given without them Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessitate I shall therefore divide Human Nature into these two grand Principles An Invisible Spirit And a visible organized Body with canals containing liquid alimentary Juices to feed and supply this wonderful Machine The first a Vital Active Regent Principle The latter altogether Passive and Instrumental under the Power and Domination of the former which is the Life More than these two comprehensive Principles I know none nor can admit of as necessary or useful in the composition or oeconomy of Human Nature No Subordinate nor Co-ordinate Agents such as Archeus Helmontii or Anima Sensitiva of the Antients Nor as Dr. Willis understands and holds the Animal Spirits to be the Sensitive Soul That Plastic or formative vital Principle termed Anima that delineated and fabricated the Body in the Womb does also govern and is the sole Efficient cause of vital Actions in the state of Health and also in Sickness Vnicus tantum est vitae Moderator nec plures From hence Vegetation Sensation and Loco-Motion without a Duplicity or Triplicity of Souls which elsewhere is set forth and proved Monarchia Microcosmi that I shall not repeat here True it is that the contained current liquors in the Body are various in colour consistence use and gradual Perfection Some elaborated as finer and more spirituous in the common Sence and Acceptation of artificial rectified Spirits Yet when all this is done by Defaecation and refining they are but liquors still of one continued cohaerent visible expanded Body and not separate Atomical Beings to act conjunctim aut divisim as divers Agents in combination or separation upon Occasions so requiring as the Notion of Animal Spirits does insinuate and are so alledged and taken in that Sence Now if what we have said be true and the Reasons cogent then Animal Spirits have no Residence nor Office in Human Nature and the Basis of that Author 's new Hypothesis is annihilated and all the derived Doctrine and depending Practice thereupon comes to nothing or to naught But in casting off so antique and beloved Opinion so frequently made use on to set forth the causes of many Diseases and that Book de Morbis universal acutis brings in Animal Spirits invenom'd almost into all Diseases as principal Causes That I may not be thought singular and absurd in denying the Existence of these
Animal Spirits so positively asserted so much noted and often quoted I shall therefore call in some other Men eminently learned in this Science and justly so reputed to give their sentiments upon this matter controverted which perhaps may be more perswasive and definitive than what hath been said by me Dr. Charlton in his Enquiries into Human Nature there treating of Motion voluntary and how performed by Animal Spirits according to the Opinion of the Ancients He saith Page 495. But in this our more illuminate Age Fate hath brought forth some Physicians of this Nation and Colledge of most profound Learning and admirable Sagacity of Spirit who laying aside that so antique Hypothesis of Animal Spirits as both improbable and unnecessary hold it to be sufficient to solve all the Phaenomena of voluntary Motion if it be supposed That the dictates of the Soul are transmitted from the Brain to the Nerve and Muscle to be used not by emission of any Substance whatsoever but by a meer contraction of such fibres of the Brain as are continued to that Nerve And Page 501. he saith deridingly We Physicians indeed speak magnifickly of Spirits Animal as of the plenipotent and immediate Instrument of the Soul in all her Operations upon the Body Yea more in a preternatural State also we make them only not omnipotent For what Disease of the Brain can ye Name which hath not been referred to their Vices Afterwards Page 503. And yet notwithstanding after all our specious Discourses of these Emissaries of the Soul Animal Spirits we are distracted by various Opinions concerning them still anxiously inquiring of what Matter in what Place and how they are generated what are their Qualities Motions Ways and Manner of acting and in fine uncertain whether they be real Creatures of Nature or only the Idols of human Imagination And Page 515. he adds Perhaps then we are equally uncertain whether there be in rerum Natura any such things as Animal Spirits of distinct Species from the vital Spirits or not Truly my Opinion is that we are so And no less Man than Dr. Harvey expresly denied their existence De generat Animal exercit 70. Nihil sane in corpore animalium Sanguine prius aut praestantius reperitur neque Spiritus quos à Sanguine distinguunt uspiam ab illo separati inveniuntur So do all the Peripatetics hold against Galen Vnum esse duntaxat spiritum vitalem singulis partium omnium officiis deservientem Joan. Imperial de Ingen. human Page 52. And Sir G. Ent Antidiatribae pag. 141. Ego praeter unum sanguinis calorem nullos in animali spiritus agnosco sed in partibus singulis privum hospitari sensum qui ad Animae imperium excitetur You see now the concurrent Opinions of these great Philosophers and Physicians against Animal Spirits and that they have no Being but only in the Fancies of some Men. Then Dr. Morton's whole Doctrine of various kinds of Fevers is fictitious null and void and the Indications from thence in Practice must needs be false Guides extravagantly leading out of the right way of Curing And now I must make use of this Author 's own words as levelling against himself An enim fas est ut ii qui falsas fictas tantum Morborum causas contemplantur veram eorundem vivam Ideam ratiocinando unquam formarent eventum certum denunciarent vel justas Indicationes at que aequam Medendi Methodum Stabilirent Praefat. ad Lectorem Pag. 11. To establish the verity of Animal Spirits and to perswade a belief thereof This learned Author tells us that the Existence of Animal Spirits may be proved with as much Demonstration and a like Reason as the Soul it self Because they are both known only by their effects and not à priori Hoc modo existentia Spiritus Animalis atque Animae ipsius aequaliter demonstrari potest adeo ut utriusque existentia pari ratione vel agnoscenda vel neganda sit Page 7. I beg his pardon and must deny that equality of Proof for Reasons following First There is a Necessity of allowing and owning the Architectonic Spirit the vital Principle Anima that formed the Machine of Human Body and is Supreme Moderator in the Government The Specific Form is not to be questioned or doubted in every Creature but that there is such which gives the Being and the Distinction from others only the quiddity and quality thereof may be doubted and controverted Secondly None have denied nor so much as doubted of the Souls Existence the Heathen Philosophers not excepted but they have denied Animal Spirits from the difficulty of Admittance Thirdly There is a great Disproportion and Inequality of Proof between a Thing that must be and can by no Reason be denied but assented to by All And a Thing dubious that may not be that by many is denied to be from valid Reasons where there is no Necessity for the use of it and where is great Difficulty and Discord of Opinions in proving the Reality and Certainty thereof Fourthly The Effects of the one are so manifest as altogether undeniable But the reputed and supposed Effects of the other are so dubitable disputable and improbable that many learned Men of the highest Rank do not own such Effects to proceed from Animal Spirits but have assigned other causes to produce those Effects Wherefore Equality of Proof does not and cannot possibly so appear Here we might end as not expecting to gain Information of Fevers by farther Disquisition herein since this first Position being the Basis of the whole work is but an imaginary and erroneous Supposition Yet for Discourse sake and to observe the Novelties dependant upon these Supposed Animal Spirits we will proceed a little farther and take notice of some remarkables Spiritus Animales esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu primum Principium activum quasi fermentum universale totius Corporis à quo Sanguis humores varie agitantur immutantur non dubito Dr. Morton de Puretolog Pag. 12. This is a Note above Ela that passes my understanding This Sounds Metaphysically appertaining to non Entities such as Animal Spirits and above the lower Region of Notions in Physick If this Report be true there is a strange Revolution in the Monarchy of the Microcosm The Supreme regent Principle Anima is dethroned and Animal Spirits have usurp'd the Government Anima which was Forma informans and always Principium Regens must now truckle under the Power of Animal Spirits according to this new Doctrine I never met with any that ascribed such a Domination that gave away the Priority and Supremacy to Animal Spirits That is an Assertion against the Prerogative of the Regent vital Spirit Anima which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first active Principle and the last acting ad terminum vitae and the only acting Principle potestate propriâ in Human Nature This is the Spring movent and all the rest are moved Animal Spirits