Malign And such are great Anxieties Inquietude sudden Prostration of the Strength Spots cold Sweats Tumors about the Glands called Parotides c. In enquiring after the Cause of these Malign Fevers I can find nothing save obscurity in the different Opinions of Authors While some with Willis fancy to themselves a great Coagulation of the Blood Again others who follow Sylvius strive as much for a lixivious and urinous Acrimony of the same De la Font pleads hard for an Arsenical and Corrosive Poyson inspired with the Air. For me in such ambiguity I willingly profess my Ignorance But still enclines to look upon their Cause as always Epidemick coming either from the Air Meat or Drink And whenever it effects seazeth especially upon the Head we ordinarly observing Symptoms of the Brain to insult whilst Pulse and Urine suffer small or no change And hence I suppose is the Proverb Good Pulse good Urine and the Patient Dies Acute Fevers are such as terminate against the 9 14 20 or 21. day But continuing no longer as the 7 they are called Peracute Yea sometimes they Kill in the Third and Fourth Day and so get the Name and that deservedly of Peracutissimae While these who extend themselves to the 40 day are termed Acutae ex Decidentiâ And all that exceed this Term whether Fevers or other Distempers have obtained the general Denomination of Lent or Chronick Diseases It is certainly beyond all question that this Diversity ariseth from the weakness or strongness of the morbifick Matter which in Lent Diseases at the beginning brings litle or no alteration to the Humane Body but through process of time partly by defatigating the Body partly by rendring more of the Blood like unto it self proves exitial to the Patient Which is too frequently seen in a Hectick it being of all Lent Fevers the most formidable Lastly Fevers were divided into Primary and Secundary or Symptomatick The first are such as have their Cause within themselves and own their Being to no other Disease as do the others called Secundary or Symptomatick Which be sometimes excited by pain as in the Gout Gravel c. sometimes they accompany Wounds Inflammations Ulcers and many other Maladies By all which the Motion of the Blood as well Circular as Intestine may be augmented and that which we call a Fever produced In the Page 185 of the V. S. the Doctor 's Exactness and great Skill in Physick is very conspicous For there he asserts Fevers and Tumors I suppose he means Inflammations Tumors being of a large extent to be perpetual Companions So that according to his Pathology the one cannot exist without the other Whereas all the World knows yea dayly finds it that Fevers can exist without his Tumors yea not one of ten Thousand without all Hyperbole hath them True it is indeed that Inflammations are ordinarly yet not always followed by Fevers and they are among the number of these I called Secondary or Symptomatick Many Things appertaining to Fevers and their Theory as Symptoms Prognosticks c. do as yet remain But I being far from presuming to give a particular Account or Description of that Disease knowing it to be a Load too heavy for my young and tender Shoulders finds my self nowayes obliged to mention them here My purpose being only to give a general and for what appears to me the easiest and best Description of the Malady into whose Method of Curing I resolve to inquire Neither will I labour it being more my desire to do well my self than to discover that others have done ill in refuting the Opinions of others as the Doctor doth though with Arguments I confess sometimes against but as often for them Yet I must pass some Reflections upon the Doctor 's New and Mechanical Hypothesis left my passing it by should offend its Author And to speak ingenuously his description of the Disease is as obscure as his Method of Curing is dangerous Have then the Scheme of the New and Mechanical Hypothesis in the Author 's own words P. 104. Seing then for the five Pages which go before contain only the Fundation though very unproportionable to the Noble Building afterwards erected in little more as one the returns of Repararation to the parts and functions ought to be made both in time and quantity in proportion to the waste by the efflux of the arterial Blood from the Heart as the Vehicle and thorow the Arteries as the Conduites of these Recruites When this is done Vegetly Integrally without any stop or delay then redounds Felicity Ease and Integrity of the Functions and Life But when that Efflux is retarded or stopt either by reason of the Blood it self or some stopage in the Extremities and small Channels of the Vessels or by reason of immoderate and unusual waste beyond the proportion of the ordinary supply as falls out in immoderate Exercise and Motion And so I say when by reason of any of these Causes the Heart cannot convey and lay in the desired Supplement in due proportion and timously by Stroaks repeated at the usual Intervals then it does by precipitating the Stroaks and straitning the Intervals of the Pulsations endeavour what in it lyes to overcome the slowness of the Motion of the Blood and to come so near as it can to the due and proportionable distribution of Nutriment in respect of the waste But if notwithstanding of these sedulous Endeavours of the Heart by redoubling of the Pulsations that slowness of the Blood shall by a gradual encrease of the thickness and of Obstructions in the Capillary Vessels prove yet so obstinate as still to be augmented then this leads straight to the Porch and Gate of Death Death being nothing else but a total and permanent Cessation and defect of this distribution Behold the Description of a Disease and it never once named Is this Doctor because it is so clear that who runs may read it surely then my Capacity is very shallow For had not the Title of that 7. Sect. promised a New and Mechanical Hypothesis I should from this Description never have inferred it and had not the very next Paragraph proposed an Objection I should further have looked back for it Yea I believe it would puzle your self were it not for these Marks to find it For my part I see nothing here described save Death and that perhaps not undeservedly for by means of the New Method Death and Fevers are become Synonima and so the one with you may safely go for the other But Thanks be to God it is otherways with us who walk in the Good Old and Experienced Path where it becomes but sometimes a passage unto it But why pray a New Hypothefis it being as old as since Bontekoe write de Febribus It is indeed very hard to know that Author's proper Opinion he being more taken up in refuting others as in explaining himself And what he hath said is so harsh and obscure that he can scarcely
does not go from the Vena Cava to the Vena Pulmonalis as is generally affirmed but rather terminates in the left Auricle it self and Canalem Arteriosum Now I hope the Doctor will never say that Sanguification is the work of the Lungs when the Blood is made for Nine Months in the Foetus and they never once concurr After the Doctor hath considered and soundly answered this Objection if I can raise no other against it I shall adopt his New Hypothesis But till such time I expect he 'll not be offended if I shall assert Sanguification to be a Function partly Organical and partly Similar i. e. in the Liver Reins Pancreas c. Such Particles as could not turn into Blood are deposed and so its Organical Also by the continual Motion thereof the sulphureous and nobler Particles of the Chyle are assimilate to the Blood for which it is called Similar Yet I am so ingenuous as to grant to the Doctor that Sanguification hath more help from the Lungs the Blood descending always more florid and brisk by the Vena Pulmonalis as it did ascend by the Artery as from any other part whatsomever Nevertheless they concurr only as an Instrument with many others albeit they may perhaps be the principal As for that Argument so much insisted on by the Learned Glisson it creates me no great difficulty For albeit I cannot but grant ocular Inspection having demonstrat it to me that the Blood appears in the Embryo before any Organ and so consequently cannot be made by that which is posterior to it self Yet I still think there is great difference betwixt Sanguification in the Foctus and in an Adult Person For in the former it is not simple Chyle that is converted into Blood but that which already circulating in the Mothers Body hath demitted its Bile in her Liver its Urine in her Reins c. by which it is disposed to turn into Blood So that if it had not experienced already the organical part from the Mother the similar action in the Foetus should hardly have produced the effect For which I hope none will deny as the same Subject may be differently affected by diverse Agents so the same Agent will produce divers effects upon various Subjects As expert seems the Doctor to be in Chymistry as either Anatomy or Physiology In all his Book there occurs nothing that savours of that Noble Art save one passage from Helmont and Tackenius which without any prejudice to either Author or Book might have been omitted it being beyond all debate now that alcalizate or fixed salts are not formerly preexistent in any Body being only produced by the acting of the Fire so cannot as the Doctor would have it be dissolved and extracted by the Aire before they exist He ought rather to have said That the Saline there being a great difference amongst Salts and Sulphureous Atoms which by joining together do constitute fixed they not being Natural but Factitious or alcalizat Salts while the Herbs are a drying exhale and fly away After having dwelt so long upon the Theory of Fevers it 's time to proceed to their Method of Curing Which indeed is the principal Thing it being no great Matter how wild a Mans Opinions be in Speculations providing he do not apply them to practice No Man must expect here a Description of all the various Indications which may and ordinarly do require Attention in a dogmatick and methodical Cure My design being only as I often said to propose the Good Old Rational and Successful Method and to vindicate it from D. Brown's Objections who hath not himself albeit the Author of a New One noticed the half of what deserves consideration in a Rational Cure Which nevertheless I 'le readily grant in some Epidemick Constitutions or Seasons and in certain Subjects especially where the Critical Motions of Nature happen per secissum which is not once in a hundred times to prove unsuccessful This only I would say that it is the most frequent and therefore deserves the Name of the best Method And where nothing happens about the Patient that is singular it ought always to be practised Before I go further it will not be impertinent to lay down some general Axioms which being founded upon sound Reason and frequent Experience have extorted Assent from and Credit with Physicians of all Ages Nevertheless they are not understood or rather not much regarded by our Learned Author I. Cures are threefold 1. Cura Curatoria which respect the Continent Cause as in Fevers and all acute Diseases 2. Praeservatoria which especially regards the Antecedent Cause ex gr in a person troubled with Gout Gravel c. after the removal of the Paroxism we Purge Bleed c. to prevent the Accession of another And 3. Cura Paltativa v. g. in a Patient troubled with incontinency of Urine which cannot be Cured the Sphincter of the Bladder being lacerate we apply such an Apparatus as Van Heer in his Observations provides for such a Strait II. Indications ordinarly sometimes they be moe but they are only particular are Three 1. Indicatio Curatoria which levels at the Disease and its Continent Cause 2. Conservatoria preserving the Strength that being by all means to be cherished And 3. Mitigatoria for it is principally occupied against the urgent Symptoms Such as Thirst Pains Watching c. which being sometimes more troublesome as the Distemper it self do require Attention even with the neglect of the primary Disease Some indeed there be who have denied this any room among Indications alledging that the one being removed the other will necessarly cease Symptoms following only the Disease as a shadow does the Body But to this moment I never heard of any who refused an Indication to the Continent Cause and Disease it self as Dr. Brown in the 71 Page of the V. S. hath precariously done Where leaving the Essence of the Disease he prosecutes the Antecedent cause Can any Person that knows or hath a respect for Physick and Physicians read or hear this without offence And this really is the Fountain from which many of his Errors do flow But consider Doctor and I intreat you as you love your Neighbours Safety and your own Quiet do Continual Fevers are not Intermittent in which the Antecedent Cause continues in the first ways and from thence is gradually and successively carried in to the Blood so that whoever can take away the Fomes may expect in all reason to prevent the accession of a new Paroxism though never hinder the present Whereas in Continual Fevers the whole Antecedent Cause is Semel Simul carried into the Blood and excites the Fever Which we must especially regard and not the Antecedent Cause which now is not it being turned into the Continent Further when the Doctor is called to a Patient is it to Cure the present Fever or to prevent a future If it be to prevent a future then he does well to look to
the Antecedent Cause which still respects the future and so he institutes that Cure in the first Axiom called Praeservatoria But if it be to Cure the present then Sense and Reason require that he should level at its Continent Cause and Essence Whereas according to the New Method the present Distemper is committed to Nature while the Doctor only labours to prevent a future Evil which really as I am informed he does sometimes very successfully by putting them beyond all fear of Misery as well as Happiness except what 's Eternal III. The Third of our Axioms is That Contraries are Cured by Contraries and the like preserved by the like By some a Controversie is here again moved as if Diseases were sometimes Cured by the like v. g. an Hemorhagie by Bleeding a Flux by Purging c. But it ought to be considered the question is not about the Disease and its Remedy which may indeed sometimes prove alike but betwixt the Indicans and the Indicanus or that which indicates and that which is in dicated they still being oppositite Loosness ever indicating binding it matters not much by what mean it be done IV. Whatever is natural ought to be preserved and that which is preternatural must be removed V. Of two Evils the least is to be chosen VI. Critical Evacuations are wisely to be discerned from Symptomatical The not distinguishing of which is a mater of great Moment and of bad consequence while it brings the Physician into the greatest of difficulties and errors as well as the Patient into the greatest of Hazards Out of which nevertheless both the Physician and Patient may be easily extricate by rightly ponderating the following four 1. The times of the Disease are prudently to be noticed the Coction and Crudity of the Humours discernable especially in the Urin must exactly be observed the Evacuation which happens in the beginning of a Distemper with the signs of Crudity being still Symptomatick 2. The place where the Evacuation happens signifies much for if it chance in a place whither Nature in that Malady useth to tend other things concurring it is still convenient So a loose Belly is alwayes more suspected in a Feaver as sweat this being natures ordinary path in that Distemper whereas a Flux is still looked on as dangerous And if there were no more as this Natures own Course it is sufficient to evert the whole new Method 3. The quality of the Humour voided if such as it ought is to be noticed And 4 Neither should the quantity be neglected for larger Evacuations make us still affraid VII Whatever is to be evacuat drive it to the way it most tends according to the 21. of the first Section of Hippocrat's Aphorisms VIII Concocted not crude Humours are to be expelled by the 22. Aphorism of the same first Section IX The Times of Diseases are precisely to be noticed it being safe to do at one time that which is perfect Death at another Which times are four the Beginning the Increment the Status and Declination X. The vast difference betwixt Purges is also worth the considering Some being so Gentle that they only evacuat the Ventricle and first ways never reaching the Mass of the Blood and are ordinarly designed by Laxantia Others tend farther in the Body precipitat the Serum and properly are called Purges or Catharticks Which division of Purges acknowledged and admitted by all Will I hope stand us in no small stead At length I come to the Method of Curing wherein to keep close to the matter according to the second Axiome a skilful Physician proposeth to himself these three Indications 1. To remove and expell the Disease and its continent cause as preternatural 2 To preserve as much as he can the Strength it being natural And 3. To mitigat the urgent Symptoms if any such appear I am abundantly sensible that there occure many other things in a Feverish person which require attention But as I said before these are the ordinary and general Indications and under them most others may come therefore can only be treated of in a general Method For the Removal of the Disease and its cause it will be convenient to remember what was formerly said concerning the Nature of Fevers in general When I asserted their Formality to consist in a preternatural Exagitation of the Blood being most frequently thereto excited by Heterogeneous Atomes transferred into it Therefore to ende vour the Removal of the Disease is to lay this commotion and to expell the cause is to banish the Body whatever it is that sets the Blood thus a working And this we labour to accomplish by several means and Medicaments as well Alterants as Evacuants but concerning the last I am now especially engaged As to the second Indicant of preserving the strength and the third of mitigating the Symptoms the Doctor and I do agree at least his Book contains nothing of them Therefore I whose only purpose it is to defend as much of the Old Method as D. Brown does molest and to refute his wherein it goes opposite thereto am no ways engaged to treat of all that in an accurate and exact Method ought to be practised Especially I said by Evacuants we remove the Disease and expels it's cause Among which the first that offers its self to our consideration is that Noble and excellent Remedy if duely and skilfully applied of Bleeding Which as the Doctor observes P. 143. is granted by all as very beneficial And if this be true as certainly it is the Doctor hath given us no new Method as to this part and so might have spared his Labour in Writting a Book to convince the World of that of which never Nan doubted When and how often the Doctor useth this Remedy which was absolutly necessary in an accurate Method there being four very different times as the 9th Axiome observeth he does not inform us and therefore I can say nothing against him However I must not omit to reprehend that Vulgar as well as pernicious Error of Bleeding all persons and in all Fevers For so long as a Plethory is the only Indicant of Bleeding of Revulsion Derivation and Exploration which do frequently call for and allow of the same I am not now speaking it can never safely and with advantage to the Patient be Administrat but where that Plethory is So that if a Fever fall out in a Young and robust person where any natural Evacuation is suppressed in one using a good and laudable Dyet in a word where the way of Living or any other circumstance may perswade us of abundance of Blood no doubt the Physician does wisely who adviseth it's Eventilation if he cannot set a working the natural Evacuation it self Providing it be in the beginning and Increment of the Malady otherways when Nature is endeavouring her own Liberation he may be apt to disturb her Motions But that rash and inconsiderat Course of Bleeding without any difference subjects of all
Ages Constitutions and Sexes is a practice which neither Reason perswades to nor Experience allows of We all acknowledge and not without Cause that our Life and Strength consists in our Blood It 's also confessed that Nature and Strength do Cure Diseases The Physician only assisting where Nature is weak and directing when she 's wrong Why then do we evacuate that Blood which we expect should Cure the Disease and relieve the Patient Ay but say some with the Doctor The ill Blood comes away and leaves the good behind I answer this is a Reason so ridiculous in its self and so repuguant to the Laws of the Circulation that hardly any save Gardners Old-wives c. to whom that Noble Invention is a Mystery will ever pretend it For whatever comes to the Vein good or evil is also evacuate Yea the Evil is so intermixed with the Good that till it self have made a separation no Art can disjoin them For Example suppose a sick Man having in his Body Twelve Pounds of Blood Eight of which are Good and Four Evil Now being all circulate through the Heart at least twise every quarter of an Hour is there any Man so absurd as to affirm that only the Evil and only at that time will come to the Vein which is wounded while the Good being strangely sagacious and desirous to stay in the sick persons Body to restore him his Health will go to the other and remoter places Is there I say any Man so absurd as to maintain this prodigious Fancy Nay I think it is far more credible that of the whole Twelve one Pound being evacuate two parts will be Good and one Evil just as it was in the Body And all the Advantage which the Patient by Bleeding does reap is only this That before he had Twelve Pounds of Blood Eight whereof were Good and Four Evil but now he hath only Eleven in all whereof Seven Pound with Four Ounces are Good and Three Pound with Eight Ounces are Evil. However the Doctor for his timous assistance to this decaying Opinion deserves to be listed with if not to get the precedence among the forenamed Medicasters For says he P. 151 As in a River we observe the heterogeneous Body still to tend towards the Brink so in the Veins the feculent and ill Blood runs to their sides and runs first out while the finer returns to the Heart A notable Invention indeed to preserve this feculent and exploded Figment What way pray can the fine Blood return not by the Arteries that being absolutely impossible for grant their Motion should invert which yet no Man of common Sense will imagine the three Semilunar Valves do still hinder Neither by the Vein for your Band put betwixt the Orifice and the Heart stops the passage So that of necessity whatever enters the Vein good as well as bad runs out at the Wound For do we not see that the Ligature being removed and passage being granted neither good nor bad appears a sure Evidence that it being present both of them evacuates When Doctor Brown finds the third way he hath gained the point If the Doctor had only given this as an Answer to some of the impertinent Questions of a Patient I could have forgiven him and applauded his Wit but seriously to propose it in a printed Book is absolutly inexcusable The Chirurgical Fountain does further supply us with Vesicator Platsters from which in Fevers whatsomever we obtain no small Advantage But especially in Malign and where the Head is affected yea in all Cephalick Distempers their use by reiterated Experience is approven But there being no debate about them and their use I proceed to Pharmacie which assists us with moe Weapons to strugle against this destructive Enemy The First whereof shall be Vomiters which providing they be timously and warily administrate do oftentimesnip the Evil in the very Bud and by stricking at the Root do with one blow dislodge this unkind Guest From what hath been said I suppose that for the most part the Antecedent Cause of a Fever comes from the Ventricle If then in the beginning of the Malady before the Antecedent Cause be all transferred to the Mass of the Blood and there become the Continent we use this Remedy we do thereby purge the Stomach withdraw the Matter and either extinguish or at least so notably asswage the Fury of the Fever that after it is hardly ever able to make great disturbance Nevertheless they are not to be given indiscriminatly but with great wariness as all other Remedies whatsomever Albeit the D. in his whole Book hardly ever mentions one Caution And First We are to consider where the Matter does lodge For if the Antecedent Cause should be any Evacuation supprest great Motion and the like There could be nothing more ridiculous than to advise Vomiting but if it be in the Stomach which is easily known by the Hypocondria Swelling frequent Rifting Nauseating c. they can hardly be neglected but with the Patients eminent danger Providing his Constitution Age shape of Body and other Distempers v. g. Hemorhagy adjoined do not disswade it All which being carefully observed they are most innocent as well as powerful Remedies in the beginning of Fevers It is likeways to be noticed that if the Circumstances require Bleeding it ought to preceed Vomiting lest by the shaking of the Body some small Vessel burst Next I come to Diaphoreticks which I may truly call the universal Cure of Fevers Nature pointing with its Finger to their use while in the universal Declination of Continual and in the parricular Declination of Intermittent Fevers Sweat breaks forth in a very great plenty This nevertheless is the Method which our Author rejects wherefore I shall take the more pains to confirm it Which I 'le endeavour to do by the following Three First By declaring how they work Secondly By giving some Reasons why we use them And Thirdly By answering the seeming Objections instanced by D. Brown against them About the First I need not be very prolix for if we consider what Conditions are requisite to insensible Transpiration and Sweating in a state natural Betwixt which there is no greater difference as that in the former the Matter is excerned in a lesser quantity and so absorbed by the Cloaths or ambient Air under the name of Vapour whereas in the latter or Sweat it chances in a greater abundance and so cannot be sweept up but rather constitutes Drops called Sweat I say whoever will be at the pains to consider the Conditions requisite for this insensible Transpiration and Sweating while they are natural Which are Fluxibility in the Liquor a due Amplitude in the Pores and a Briskness in the circular Motion will easily understand how Diaphoreticks work when given according to Art Whatever can either attenuat the Blood in its Consistence quicken it in its Motion or dilate and amplify the Miliar Glands and Pores will certainly procure Sweat And such
are either Heterogeneous Bodies mixed with the Blood which by stimulating the Ventricles of the Heart the interiour Coats of the Vessels and muscular Fibers of the Parts cause frequent Contraction and consequently swiftness of Motion or inciding and volatile Medicaments which partly attenuating and inciding the Mass of Blood partly amplifying and inlarging the Pores and Passages produce the same effect with the former When I speak here of intending the circular Motion I mean only that of the Arteries for both Reason and Experience teach us that the acceleration of the returning Motion by the Veins would rather prove a hinderance as a help to this as well as to all other Secretions First It is clear from Reason for if the Blood were as readily taken up by the Capillary Veins as its is brought in by the Arteries it must necessarly return again to the Heart from whence it came Whereas admittance being denied by the Veins it seeks another way or passage which is that of Secretion Neither does Experience deny its assent to this perpetual Truth For if you will tye the social Vein of any Artery by which Blood is carried to the secerning Organ v. g. the Vena emulgens you shall quickly observe the Secretion to be far more copious than when the regressive Motion was allowed So that I may reasonably affirm The slowness of the refluent Motion of the Blood by the Veins to be none of the least among the efficient Causes of Secretion And this much for the First Secondly I come to give some Reasons why in the Cure of Continual Fevers Physicians of all Ages have adopted and practised this Method of Sweating As also why we at this day especially while D. Brown offers a Surer and Better do imitate them in that which to speak in his Language is pernicious and destructive to Mankind Indeed if without Reasons and these weighty ones too we should do that which according to the V. S can be nothing but horrid Murder and devilish Malice In stead of being Cherished Honoured and Entertained as in all Ages and among all civilized People Physicians have been we ought to be taken and Hanged for Villains and publick Murderers But if I can prove our Method to be right which I 'le endeavour now and his to be wrong which is to be done hereafter when discoursing of Purging Then let him judge upon whom the Punishment ought to be inflicted It were easy to accumulate Arguments in Favours of Diaphoreticks but I shall satisfy my self and I hope my Reader to with the following three Let us then First According to the seventh Axiome consider the motion of Nature I mean the course it takes when left to its self as in many mean and Indigent People it ordinarly is And this is continually to seek its own Relief by Sweating so that not one Fever of a hundred and that of all sorts is Cured another way Is there any Country Clown so foolish but in a Fever he 'll cry for a Sweat and if either by Art or Nature he can procure it he will promise himself speedy Relief and certain safety Now this being granted the Dr. himself not darring deny it should not the Physicitians who have taken to themselves that modest Denomination of Natur 's Servants and whose duty it is to assist her when doing right and to Correct her when doing wrong as by all she is looked upon to do when endeavouring to ease her self by Seige in a Fever except perhaps once in a hundred times when it comes critically should not they I say imitate her in Curing Fevers by Diaphoreticks the ordinary yea I I may say the only way by which she removes that Distemper yea certainly they should and that according to good Old Hippocrats excellent Aphorisme Whethersoever Nature enclineth to go thither lead her and it conduceth Besides this it becomes us Secondly to consider the Seat of the Morbifick matter in Fevers which none will deny to be in the Arteries veins Likeways the conformation of these Vessels deserves our attention Their Roots being in the Heart while their Branches tend to all parts of the Body that I may shun all occasions of Objections I know that properly speaking the Origine of the Veins is in the parts and they terminate with one Root in the Heart Now let us consider by what way that which is contained in these Vessels may be best and easiliest expelled Surely any Man of sense and Reason will freely confess by their Extremities or ends of Anastomoses or Inosculations I have said what I thought necessary before which acknowledged we can not but also grant that whatsomever part of the Body manyest of these Extremitieâ— run to or where most of the Arteries end in there will be the readiesâ— and most natural way providing iâ— be as patent as others to discharge whatsomever is contained therein But most of these Extremities do terminate by far in the habit and that this way is as patent as any other insensible Transpiration which by the Doctors own concession exceeds all other Evacuations of the Body no less as three times does clearly evince Therefore from these premises I may lawfully conclude the habit to be the readiest and best way to expell whatsomever is contained Heterogeneous in the Blood It was not unadvisedly that I said where most Arteries end there will be the readiest way to expell the Morbifick matter For whosoever is not altogether ignorant of Anatomy will easily allow that whatever once enters the Veins can never be eliminate till such time as it again run through the Arteries At their small end it cannot be seing what once enters there can by no means return First because of their valves Secondly Because of the tonick motion of the parts And Thirdly because of the continual Influx of the Arterial Blood And as it cannot happen at their small ends arising from the parts so far less can it be at the great end which terminats in the Heart Nothing entring its Ventricles in the Diastole but what is again thrust out into the Pulmonal and great Artery in the Systole from all which it is clear that neither Secretion nor Excretion can be of the Venal Blood Yet here I 'll present the Doctor with a stronger argument for Purging in Fevers as his whole Book hath done to his Readers And it is this being I assert what no Physician if he be not destitute of Anatomy and Physiology the want of which bring inexpressible Damage to Physick will deny that wherever Arteries end and depositate what is in them contained there must needs happen the Expulsion of the Morbisick matter But the Arteries some of them at least end in the intestines Ergo there in these intestinal Glands must happen the secretion of the Morbifick matter All which I grant and acknowledge yea farther confirms by avowing the faces Ani to be not only Excrements of the first but also of the third and second Digestion
which may be proven by several Observations one of which at this time shall suffice viz. in the Foetus the Meconium is still observed to have its beginning and greatest quantity in the crass intestines Nevertheless all this concludes nothing against what either hath already or shall hereafter be said Because First the Arteries are but very few in respect of that infinit number which direct their course to the habite from the Coeliack and two Mesenterick Branches which tend to the Intestines Secondly Neither do we altogether for as little as it is neglect it but partly by applying Clysters partly by giving these Medicaments in the 10 and last Axiom called Laxantia drive away what may be lurking in the first ways But we never give Purges properly so called which by entring the Mass of the Blood do play therein their unlucky Tragedy except we intend which God forbid so wicked a Thought should ever enter a Physicians Heart to send the Patient to the House of all Living Yea farther it is with respect to this that after the Recovery we ordinarly advise Purging My Third and last Argument shall be the general Practice and constant Observation of Physicians in all Ages in all Countries and of all Perswasions yea of the Excellent Sydenham himself as shall afterwards be shewn Who as one Man acknowledge not only the great Advantage of Diaphoreticks but exclaim against the constant use of Catarticks in the Curing of Fevers What would the Doctor have all these so ignorant as that they should not know how to Cure the most ordinary of Distempers or so malicious and wicked as when they knew it yet neither to practise it themselves nor communicat it to others or were they so stupid as not to have known what they used neither from whence the Cure did proceed Were there never Physicians so conscientious in the World before D. Brown came to it as to confess the damage of Diaphoreticks or were they so blind that they could not see it Was Hippocrat was Galen Fernelous Sennert Harvey and all the rest of these brave Souls who have enriched the noble and useful Art with their curious Observations excellent Inventions and judicious Reasonings were all these I say besides many others who practised this Method themselves and recommended it to their Successors Fools or Ignorants Nay nay it is far better to say that D. Brown is both But of Experience more hereafter Therefore I go on to the Examination of the Arguments urged by the Doctor against this Old and long Practised Method Which we find in the 71 Page of the V. S. where the Common and Diaphoretick Method is considered and rejected forsooth and they be neither moe nor stronger as the following Two First We have no Specisick in Continuat Fevers therefore must not level at the Continent Cause which is truly the Disease According to which way of Reasoning I will go on and conclude We have no Specifick in any Disease save Intermutent Fevers therefore except them none must be Cured The consequent of the one is as native as that of the other and truly in both it is none at all Physick and Physician are obliged to the Doctor for bringing the Imployment to this weak pass Is not this a strong Argument to destroy a Theory of some Thousand Years standing Yet it is as strong as the other to be found in the same 71 Page where he farther inveighs against this our approved Method in these words This indeed were no unfit Design c. I look upon it as needless to resume what is formerly said anent Fevers and their Causes which I hope do sufficiently prove the Doctor 's Hypothesis to be none of the best I shall rather here observe that the force of this sham Argument drives at these Two First That Sudorificks translate the morbisick Matter or antetecedent Cause from the Ventricle Mesentery and Intestines into the Muss of Blood and by that means turns the Antecedent Cause into the Continent And Secondly That by the same we drive it to the Head whereby we produce these terrible Symptoms under which Nature not being able to overcome must of necessity succumb To which I answer these Three 1. All save D. Brown do know and confess that in Continual Fevers the morbisick Matter is in the beginning translated to the Blood and so does procure the Disease which otherways we should never have but only an Apparatus to it Yea in this seems to me to consist the difference betwixt Continual and Intermittent Fevers That in the former the morbisick Matter is translated all at once and so produces one great and Continual Fever whereas in the latter or Intermittent Fevers it is conveyed at several times and so constitutes several Paroxisms which may be said to be as many Continual but shorter Fevers By which we may clearly discern how falsely the Doctor alledges that by Diaphoreticks we carry the Matter from the first Ways to the Blood that being a thing already done else there could be no Fever And really all along it appears that it is not a Fever but an Apparatus thereto the Doctor would Cure So that instead of intituling his Book A new Method of Curing Fevers he should rather have named it A new Method for preventing them Secondly How any thing can be more urged on the Head by the use of Sudorificks I suppose if the Doctor were asked he could not well tell it being a meer precarious Assertion grounded upon no Foundation and he might with as good Reason have said the same of the Hands Feet or any other part of the Body For as they were only the Artertae Carotides and Vertebrales which furnished the Brain with Blood before So for ought I know by the use of Sudorificks no other are added Neither is there any other way by which any thing whatsomever can be carried to the Head save by the forenamed Arteries I hope the Doctor is not come to that Pitch of lgnorance to averr that Diaphoreticks by some occult quality are offensive to the Brain True it is indeed that Sudorificks by intending the Motion as well Circular as Intestine put all the Humours and perhaps the Spirits too in a little confusion But this carries nothing to the Head rather as to other places which went not before But Thirdly Where learned the Doctor that Sudorifick Medicines had their operation in the Ventricle Mesentery and Intestines Can any Man read this without Laughing Surely this is another Errour in which Physians till this time have been in for they still taught that Diaphoreticks did work in the Blood and not in the first Ways So then to grant what the Doctor desires which nevertheless so long as Physicians are Masters of Reason will never be That the Continent Cause for the Antecedent is no more it being converted into the Continent lodges about the forenamed places it will profit him nothing since Diaphoreticks will never awake it they working only in
Willis Bontekoe and others But also I am fully convinced that Fermentation properly taken is very improperly either in a Natural or Praeternatural State adscribed to the Blood For to let alone many other Reasons reiterate Experience hath taught me that no ardent or sulphureous Spirit can be distilled from the Blood of feverish persons Which nevertheless the same Authors tell us should always be obtained from fermented Liquors However if these Learned Men who delight in the word Fermentation understand only an extraordinary Commotion Ebulition c. I assent to what they say and think as they write never loving to contest about Words my Humor being most averse to Disputes and Debates when we can agree in Things Some there be and these none of the Unlearnedst as particularly that excellent Anatomist and Physician Barbette who maintain the Essence of a Fever to consist solely in the circular Motion augmented But besides some Arguments to be had from Barbette himself Not only the slowness of the Pulse in the beginning of all Fevers and through the whole Course of malign ones But also the very nature of a Fluid Body consisting in the perpetual intestine Motion of its Minute or small Particles which clearly appears by the dissolution of Sugar Salt c. in any Menstruum the gathering together of the dissolved Particles of Silver to the injected Copper besides several other Experiments to be met with in the immortal Boyle his History of Fluid and Firm does sufficiently in my Opinion overturn this ingenious Hypothesis Howbeit I shall adventure to say that the intestine Motion of the Blood being troubled with its Circulation sometimes diminished but oftner augmented does constitute that Disease which is known to the Vulgar by the Name of a Fever From this Exagitation or Commotion it will be no hard matter to derive all the other Symptoms which in different Subjects do differently invade Yea which is no small Argument to confirm the Truth of what I have said with this Exagitation they ordinarly increase and remit I do not incline to treat of them all therefore shall only take notice as the most frequent and principal of the following Four And to begin with Heat in which the Ancients either sought the Pathognomonick Sign or placed the Essence of a Fever for betwixt these two there is no small difference which were easie to show if my intended Brevity did not forbid me it especially deserves our Consideration The Opinion of the Schools placing the Formality of Fevers in Heat albeit it prevailed long with Physicians yet at length it was exploded by Helmont Sylvius and other And that 1 Because in the beginning of Fevers which by all is acklowledged as one of their parts Cold creats greater trouble as Heat Yea 2 some malign Fevers there be in which the Patients are never heard to complain of Heat but rather at sometimes do tremble with extream Cold. Nevertheless by admitting a distinction betwixt the Beginning and Status of Fevers and betwixt Internal and Supprest and External and Manifest Heat I had far rather grant to the Ancients that the Formality of a Fever consisteth in Heat as say with D. Brown that Heat is the genuine Effect of slow Motion in the Blood Whether it be the sublimity of his Discourse or my shallow Capacity I shall not rashly determine But forced I am to confess that I can hardly understand what he there intends only by the Title of the 8. § p. 111. I find he resolves to prove Heat to be the genuine Effect of slow Motion in the Blood The contrary of which I have ever been taught and shall here endeavour to evince And First I would have it observed that the intestine Motion of any Fluid or Body whatsomever deserves as well the denomination of Motion as the progressive does yea the Doctor himself in the end of the Section by his Instance of the Breath and Hand seems also to acknowledge it And if I thought he doubted thereof I could send him to Cooks to behold their boiling Liquors not now to mention the Experiments afforded us by the Incomparable Boyle in his Mechanical production of Heat Now consequently Heat cannot be the Effect of slow Motion absolutely spoken since the Intestine which is most properly so called is with it and in it exceedingly intended The Doctor ought at least to have distinguished betwixt the Two and not to have attributed indefinitly to both that which Experience denies properly to any of them and he himself as I noted before to one Secondly The Cause why by swift progressive Motion the Heat is abated as I think is not because that Motion is intended but rather that the determinate Intestine Motion Sursum deorsum ad utraque latera is thereby diminished or at least not proportionably therewith augmented So that if the Intestine can be conform to the Local as you shall intend the progressive Motion proportionably you shall increase the Heat Thirdly I cannot enough admire how the Doctor comes to assert that Heat is the genuine Effect of gross Blood since with all others he himself will acknowledge Heat to be produced with intestine Motion For sure I am the more gross and thick any Body is the more unfit it is for Motion whatsomever and consequently rendered the more innept to procure Heat This is a thing so clearly demonstrat by Philosophers that it were but a consuming of time to insist in its probation and had it come from some old Peripatetick I could easily have pardoned it but in the Doctor who pretends so much Skill to the New and Experimental Philosophy I can hardly forgive it Nay I have a greater esteem of our Author's Knowledge than to think him ignorant of this common and perpetual Truth But the matter is his false and precarious Hypothesis does necessarly extort it For grant one Absurdity a hundred will follow More excusable had he been to have said That crassness of Blood was the native product of Heat although that be but also accidental For whatsomever causeth Heat in the Body v. g. volatile Salts the Sun Commotions of the Body and Mind do all of them immediatly and necessarly bring along with them Thinness of the Blood and only accidentally Crassness viz. By accelerating its Motion they do augment Transpiration by which the thinner Particles are exhaled and the remainder consequently turns thicker and so much the thicker so much the unfiter to produce Heat Hereby it is clearly evinced how falsly the Doctor philosophizeth when he would perswade us that Crassness of the Blood is the Cause of Heat When on the contrary it is rather the Effect and that but accidentally too For whoever can stop or impede the Consumption of the thinner Particles in Transpiration shall also prevent the Thickness of the Blood notwithstanding its Heat Fourthly So far is it from being true what the Doctor averrs P. 111. that Heat is caused by the Attrition the Muscles make on themselves and
Blood in the Veslels passeth the Reins without all alteration But the cause of this thin consistence in the Urine as we speak of the Blood may be a twofold Crudity First That in the Stomach where the Aliments being frustrate of their due Digestion cannot supply the Serum with its ordinary Salts And the second is that in the Reins whose Tubult being thereby obstructed admit only the thin and Watery excluding the gross and terreous particles The Citrine or natural Colour of the Urine as it depends in a natural state which I think none will deny from the saline and sulphureous Particle of the Chyle in the different Digestions extracted and more intimatly therewith commixed So from the greater or lesser quantity of these Minima admixed in a praeternatural state their Colour is sometimes highned sometimes darkned However I never intend to exclude other Causes such as congrumate Blood the use of Rhubarb c. And this shall suffice for the Changes of the Urine upon which I have insisted the longer because they are wholly neglected in the Vindicatory Schedule suppose of all others they give us the greatest Light both as to the Prognosticks and Cures of Fevers Neither was this Omission of the Doctors altogether without reason for not only the Signs of Crudity and Coction which ever have and still will be observed by Learned Physicians in Fevers and by which the New Method is intirely destroyed from them and them only are to be had but also few or none of the Moderns from whom the Doctor might expect help have write any thing tollerably of them Having briefly handled some few of these Symptoms with which a Fever is ordinarly attended I come next to enquire after the antecedent Causes which may and ordinarly do produce this Exagitation or Commotion in which I have been labouring to prove the continent Cause of Fevers to consist And these I think for the most part never intending to exclude all others will be found the following Four viz. Obstruction too violent Motion Natural Evacuation suppressed and especially Cruaâ—ties transferred into the Mass of Blood By Obstructions I would have nothing else understood as the Coagulation of that limpid and serous Humour which being secerned in the Subcutaneous or Miliar Glands is excerned through the Pores of the the whole Habit and that in no small plenty under the Name of Insensible Transpiration Which Excrement being condensed and coagulate by the cold ambient Air or any other Cause does interrupt not only the further Transpiration But also disturbs the whole Circulation in the capillary Vessels or rather muscular Fibers By which means the Motion of the subsequent Blood being intercepted the Fibres of the Muscles as well as these of the Vessels are irritate and thereby urged into frequent and irregular not unlike to Convulsions Contractions by which both the circular and intestine Motions of the Blood are notably intended and that which we call a Fever produced It being enough here for brevities sake to suppose from Pathologie that the Motion of Fluids is augmented either by the Movent Mobile or Canals And this account seems to me and I hope will also to others far more reasonable than with the Learned Author of the V. S. P. 106. seq to attribute Sense and Reason to gross and stupid Matter Concerning Obstructions more may perhaps be found hereafter when I come to consider our Author 's New and Mechanical Hypothesis For of all other Causes I look upon them as the most seldom It is easie to gather from what is immediatly said that these Anastomoses or Inosculations of the Arteries and Veins which with the Ancients some of the Learned Moderns do admire as very convenient if not absolutly necessary for the Explication of the animal Functions are not by me admitted I desire to move a Debate to no Man therefore shall suffer them to abound in their own Sense who embrace them providing they will only allow me to give some Reasons why I reject them Without which I never have neither I think ever shall adopted or repudiat any Opinion because it was defended by this or impugned by the other Man And to let alone Secretion and Nutrition which to me these Inosculations being granted seem altogether unexplicable There be two Experiments to be found in some place of the Learned Bohn his Cire Anat. I not having the Book by me cannot design the Page but sure I am of them having oftner as once seen them tryed which do clearly evince the Bloods Extravasation As First Inject with a Syphon tepid water into an Arterie v. g. of the Arm of any subject whatsomever a knot being cast upon its fellow Vein The Water will never run out at the wounded Vein it being lanced betwixt the Ligature and the Arterie till the whole Arm and Hand be exceedingly distended i. e. The Pores of the Muscles be all replenished Secondly Injection being made of melted Wax into an Arterie as also of the same but of another colour into its neighbour Vein They will be found to have penetrate to the extremities of both the capillary Vessels but especially in the Arteries the Valves hindring much in the Veins but we shall never discern any intermediate Canal communicating with both The grand yea only Objection formed against this Opinion is That this Extravasation being admitted a continual Hemorhagie must of necessity follow and that the Blood would rather diffuse it self through the Flesh as enter the small capillary Veins This Objection indeed appears to be plausible and to create some difficulty But yet there is nothing in it what serious and after reflection will not easily remove which were no hard matter to shew if my design and leasure did not hinder me now I shall at this time only desire the Objectors to consider and say whether or not there be any difficulty in the Extravasation of the Blood which is not in each of the following Three Observations I offer to their consideration The First of which is That ordinary way of separating Waters from Oyls commonly called Filtratio per Elychnium where the Water or Oyl any of them in which the Cotton is dipped will by means of the Wool be carried from one Glass to another without the loss of so much as a drop And why pray may not the Blood be carried the very same way by the fleshy Fibers from one Vessel to another especially since the Tonick Motion of the Parts and influx of the Artereal Blood do help much Whereas the Experiment with the Oyl hath no other Assistant than the gravity of the Air. Secondly That Experiment first tried by Burnerus de Paner and afterwards succeeding to others as also to my self does in my weak Judgement not a litle confirm what I am saying And it is this Blow with a Tub into the Weazand of a Goose whose Intestine being tyed nothing can descend the Flatus will enter the open Extremities of the Mesaraick Veins and
tend to the vena porta From which Experiment without any constraint the following Conclusion I think may be drawn That the capillary Veins may be open and yet no Hemorhagie or Effusion of Blood will follow Thirdly This is further made probable per purgationem menctruam where no doubt the capillary Vessels by which that Excretion does happen are always patent There being none I think who will affirm that they being otherways closed should at the due and set time get open If that were objected I know no other cause that could with the least appearance of Reason be assigned for their so doing save the Blood it self which being yielded it could hardly be refused that whatever gave the Cause the first being would beyond all question still endeavour its perpetuation from whence there must of necessiry arise a continual Hemorhagie the contrary whereof is nevertheless dayly experienced What needs more these Anastomoses are repuggnant to Reason and they yet never appeared to the Senses The Second of the antecedent Causes I alledged to be too violent Motions of the Body I may perhaps also add these of the Mind It were needless to produce Observations for proving this my Assertion there being abundance to be had from the general Collectors I mean Forrest Schenkins Hildanus and others I shall rather explain the ways by which they seem to produce their Effects Which may be the following Two First By attenuating the Blood and accelerating its Motion as well Circular as Intestine Which is done either by rarefying it self or by opening the Pores and admitting calorifick Atoms Though this last chances very rarely for it rather happens that the Pores being dilated cold Particles get entry by which these Obstructions formerly mentioned are procured And this I think may be the other way too violent Motions work in exciting a Fever In the Third place ordinary Evacuations suppressed come under our Consideration whose concurrence I expect by none will be denied Seing that not only Blood-letting prevents yea sometimes Cures Continual Fevers but also Nature it self does frequently endeavour and sometimes obtain its own Relief by bleeding at the Nose and elsewhere But this as a thing conceded by all I shall leave and rather consider the Description afforded us by our Author of insensible Transpiration it being of all most frequently suppressed in which he shews nothing of that knowledge and exactness that might reasonably be expected from an Author of a New Method It 's needless to mention how impertinently and prolixly he insists not only upon the Invention Utility and Greatness of this Secretion But he must needs discourse also of Chylification Respiration and fixed Salts how skilfully shall be afterwards shewn all which are transcribed from Sanctorius Majou Etmuller c. and for any thing I can see upon no other Design save to enlarge the bulk of his Book For all that can any ways concern Fevers in that large 9. § consisting of 14 Pages may be easily contained in seven Lines Yea surely it must argue no small Folly in a Man to bring in such stuff as neither the subject requires nor he himself understands First How he makes the Air the principal efficient of Transpiration I cannot understand for to any considering Man it is evident that the Ambient by its Gravity and Elasticity will rather impede as promove it But that I may shew him all the Favour I can I suppose it is rather that which according to him is mixed with the Blood in Inspiration he here intends Yet in the mean time it is no small Debate whether the Air be mixed with the Blood in Respiration or not as he may see in Harvey de Circ San. Higemore Disq Anat. Needham de Form Fort. c. And really it must be confessed there want not Reasons on both sides However grant it were so none who hath the least knowledge in Physiology will call it the efficient Cause of Transpiration That being acknowledged by all to be nothing else as the circular Motion of the Blood which nevertheless noways depends upon Respiration as Maurocordatus would have it The Doctor may make the Experiment in himself it being in his power to stop his Breathing though not the Bloods Circulation Ay there is no School Boy in the Kingdom but knows that by Runing the Circulation is accelerate the Pulse augmented and insensible Transpiration intended to Sweat Secondly By what Figure our Author comes to call that no natural Excretion in the 128 Page which in the 119 he says and that truly does twise exceed all other Evacuations whatsomever perhaps he himself hardly does know Unless it be for the Reason immediatly after Page 128 subjoined viz. That Sweat is only profitable in so far as it shuns a greater Evil was ever such Reasoning heard For what pray are all other Evacuations natural or are any whatsomever natural Nay really by this New Method of Reasoning they are not Thirdly Who will ever believe that insensible Transpiration suppressed condenseth and thickneth the Blood while in the mean time except what goes to the Spirits its thinnest and subtilest Portion is thereby retained and so by its abode does rather render it thin and aqueous than crass and viscid Yea all Practitioners whatsomever advise Sweating as a fit and proper Expedient to render the Blood thick and consequently its suppression insensible Transpiration and Sweating differing only secundum majus minus must have the contrary effect in making it thin Will the Doctor answer These condensed Particles being absorbed and carried back do of necessity render the other more viscid But to this I reply These by their being suppressed do not only impede the Excretion of Twenty times as many thinner and watry ones and thereby abundantly compense their own thickness but also it will appear no great Paradox to say that these crass and absorbed ones are by the far greater quantity of the Blood and its continual Motion reduced to their former and limpid condition By all which it is clear that insensible Transpiration suppressed rather attenuates as thickens the Blood contrary to the mind of the Author of the V. S. P. 126. And hence I conclude that all or most part the stoping of insensible Transpiration does in procuring Fevers is only by creating Obstructions and so disturbing the Blood in its Motion The Last and by far the most frequent of the Four named antecedent Causes of Fevers viz. Crudities conveyed into the Mass of the Blood do as yet remain To insist in proving of this which is universally acknowledged were a meer consumption of Time and Paper Yea from hence it is that the generality of the Moderns have perswaded themselves that the Formality of a Fever consisted in a Fermentation Conceiving this Heterogeneous Body under the Notion of a Ferment which when it could not be assimilate to the Mass of Blood did therein raise an Effervessence I gave my Reasons before why I could not fight under their Banner
be understood yet if I be not deceived he endeavours to evince a thickness of Blood in Continual Fevers Leaving this I go to things more serious where it seems to me not improbable that one of the fundamental Errors into which the Doctor himself hath slipped is that which I have noticed before viz. The drawing of universal Conclusions from particular Propositions For by what I can learn from this Description it being indeed very hard at least for me to draw any thing therefrom he would gladly perswade us that Obstructions and only they are the Antecedent and for what I can see the Conjunct to Cause of Fevers The contrary of which not only innumerable Authors with infinite Examples have evinced But I my self have shewn above that there can be and frequently are other Three besides many moe by me over looked This is indeed a Rock upon which many excellent Men have split therefore to be pardoned in our Author and to disswade him therefrom to the Observation I gave before I shall now join other Two And First There was nothing more ordinary as upon the seeing Acids coagulate to assert that wherever Coagulation hapned there must of necessity exist an Acid While yet after Experience did teach us that Alcalies can crudle Milk and Spirit of Wine coagulate Humane Blood In the like manner Practitioners having found the good success of Acids at some occasions for they do it not always as Poterius observes in quickning the Digestion precariously they conclude an Acid Humor the principal Agent in Chylification Yea as Moebius observes it was received with so general Applause and Consent that it became almost Heresie to call it in question Albeit later Anatomists have not only demonstrate that Alcalies and Urinous Bodies may have the same yea greater Effect but have intirely banished the famed Acid its fictitious Office To shut up all it is this that hath given occasion to a great many Errors in Physick as well as Philosophy viz. That Phoenomena peculiar to this or the other subject have been generally applied to all kinds and so from particular Experiments and Observations we have formed universal Hypotheses Secondly I cannot conceive how Obstructions can be either so efficacious or so frequent as the Doctor insinuates I shall not make use of the ordinary Objection which nevertheless of no small force That there can be no Obstruction without a subsequent Tumor However I wish the Doctor had told us in which of the Vessels I mean Arteries or Veins these Obstructions fall out For first it is to me unconceivable how they can be in the Arteries seing nothing enters them that hath not first run through the small milky Vessels from thence to the Ductus Thoracicus which empties it self in the subclavial Vein and that again by the Vena Cava into the right Ventricle of the Heart out of which it is conveyed to the Lungs by the Pulmonal Artery and from thence to the Hearts left Ventricle by the Vein of the same Name from which as from a Fountain it is dispensed to the whole Body by the great Artery and its Branches All which being considered may not I reasonably argue That surely whatsomever hath passed these small Lymphaticks commonly called the milky Vessels and the capillary Branches of the Pulmonal Vein will never stick in any part of the great Artery especially when its strong and frequent Vibrations do afford great assistance to this its Motion Yea without stopping the Course of the Blood in the whole Branch it is altogether impossible that any Obstruction can happen in the minutest Artery The same Difficulties if not greater will meet us in the Veins which are the other kind of Vessels For if we consider their Figure we find it a Cone inverted now no Man of Sense will alledge that what hath entered the small end of a Cone as the Blood does in the Veins will stop in the great Ergo the Doctor 's Obstructions must be denied Several other Observations might safely be made on this Paradoxical as he himself P. 109 justly calls it Hypothesis But I shall detain the Reader no longer Only I cannot omit that in the beginning of the 8 Sect. he perswades himself that the rapid Circulaâ—ion of the Blood is wholly overturned and yet P. 105 where he is giving that which he would have us digest for a New Scheme of Fevers he boldly and as I think contradictorly affirms the Heart to redouble its Pulsations Which how it can happen ingenuously I nor I suppose none else can conceive Yea it is clearly repugnant to Reason and the Circulation Nevertheless I see by the 27 P of Philanders second Letter that the Doctor will needs defend it What D. Black or any who carries that Name may have said against it I am wholly ignorant these Books having never come to my Hands But what I shall do shall be only this to give a brief Account of the Hearts Motion and its Cause and so leave the Doctor and others to judge how reconcilable these Two are For the Heart to double its Pulsations and yet not to accelerate the Bloods Circulation The Blood that enters the right and left Ventricles of the Heart from the Vena Cava but especially Pulmoners does stimulate its Fibers By which stipulation the Animal Spirits are brought from the Brain by the Eight or wandring pair of Nerves and being deposed in its lax Fibers do contract the samen and straiten its Ventricles with so great a force that whatever is contained therein is expelled and thrust into the Arteries in this its Systole by which they are distended and acquire a Diastole After which the same Fibers are laxed and these of the Auricles contracted whereby the Blood these Auricles had immediatly received from the Veins is dismissed to the Heart which now by the Relaxation of its Fibers is in the Diastole Which Blood does a new stimulate as formerly and so procures to the Heart a new Systole under which the Blood is again thrust forth into the Arteries and occasioneth in them a Diastole or Beating So that the Arteries will never be distended except the Blood be admitted for they can be the cause of their own Systole but never of their Diastole Now how can a Man averr that the Heart can double its Pulsations and yet not render the Circulation more rapid Seing except it emit what Blood it had received in its last Diastole it can never obtain a new Systole The Systole being nothing save the contraction of the Fibers and expulsion of that Blood it had received in the former Diastole In a word it is as impossible for the Heart to be contracted in the Systole without expelling the contained Blood which must of necessity go into the Arteries and cause their Dilatation as it would be for the Doctor to press together the two sides of a Bladder filled with Water without expelling the contained Liquor By which brief and true Account of the