specified yea although they seem to be Singular yet may they be severed into diversity of parts E. G. Sulphur which to the eye appears to be all of one Frame may be brought into a sharp corroding Liquor the same also may be brought into liquid Balsome or into an Earthy Pouder Out of Sallad Oyl a Corrosive Liquor may be made besides it may without any difficulty be altered into VVater Salts may be turned into an Oyly Substance then after become Insipid Mercury doth as Van Helmont and Experience testifie consist of a double Sulphur Inward and Outward This being capable to be separated from it by Art CHAP. II. Of the Efficient Cause or Primary Agent of all Sublunary Bodies THe Best Philosophy teaches us that alâ— Constitutes have their Material Beginning from VVater How this Liquor comes to be diversified into innumerable kind of Substances is further to be enquired The first alteration of this fluid Body is made by a Sulphureous Ferment giving a Hogo to it whereby a Seminal Spirit is excited to dispose and mould the Matter into a Form agreeable to that Image or Type iâ— hath laid That which doth chiefly occasion and further the Fermentation of VVater is some secret Acide or Sharpness proceeding from the Aire or elswhere This insinuating closely unites with the Alkali in the VVater whence ariseth an Agitation or VVorking commonly observed when these two meet together consequently the Watery Particles are exceedingly rarified acquiring a certain peculiar scent which they carry along with them infecting the whole Mass wherein they reside hereupon the Archeus or Vital Spirit breaks forth into Act containing in it the true Seminal Idea or Picture of the thing capable to receive its Form and Perfection CHAP. III. Concerning the Aitiologie Efficient Immediate and Material Cause of all Diseases WHat the Antients generally and some at this day call the Conjunct or immediate Cause of Diseases I shall with most knowing Helmont assign to be the Occasional Provoking or Incensing Forasmuch as whosoever desires to enquire into the Nature of things aright ought to be informed concerning the very Being of the same as it relates to that which made it so Now no Disease can have any Subsistence Mansion or Lodging place but in a Body endued with a Vital Spirit albeit in the Dead the Four Humours of the Galenists and the three Principles of the Chymists be not wanting For this Reason the Archeus or Spirit must of Necessity be the nighest Fundamental Beginning of all Maladies whatsoever For as our Health depends upon this Living Spirit when it is in all respects duly constituted without any considerable defect in it so Sickness ariseth when the same Preserver of Strength is depraved or estranged from that Clearness Proportion and Regularity which ought to be in it Those Degenerate or Bastard Juices engendered through manifold Errors in the Helmontion six Digestions especially the First are only means to put the Living Spirit into Perturbation Vexation and Inordinate Motions whereby it frames Images of Evils according to the Condition of the Troublesome Abusive Intruding Guest So that in short the Seed of this or that Disease with an absolute Pattern how it is to be acted is planted in this first Founder of the whole Fabrick the Grief being as inseparable from the Vital Spirit as Life it self yea it is even concentrated or seated in the very middle point thereof and never to be separated therefrom till the Kernel wherein this Diseased Image is drawn be extinct and quite abolished This Doctrine may seem strange to those who are unacquainted with the Writings of our Profound Philosopher however so great is the Truth thereof that 't is impossible any one should either Prevent or Cure Diseases to a purpose unless he be well Disciplined in this Solid Knowledge Hence it is that Opinionative Doctors do so often blunder and mistake in Healing any Rooted Infirmities because they either insist upon their four Aristotelian Elements and Humours Analogous to them as Choler Phlegm Melancholy Blood with the Distemper coming from thence or take their false Measure of Curing from the Principles I mentioned before borrowed of the Chymists which some will have to be the next Cause of Diseases whereas they being present only vex gaul bring into divers Passions the Archeus whereupon that which before did perform all things requisite in the Body decently and in order is now become tumultuous acting in an inconvenient preposterous manner By this means the Ferment or Dissolvent in the Stomach produces many Raw Juices Fretting Liquors which congeal the Blood or melt it into filthy Matter then follows a detention of Excrements or a profuse indiscreet throwing out good and bad also a Specifick Poison is created proportionable to those without hence a Crowd of sad Symptoms appear Wherefore I repeat the great cause why the Galenists have been so unsuccessful in their Curing is because they did not truly distinguish between Prevocative Occasional and the Essential inseparable Cause between the Concomitants Accidents Products and Consequents of Humane Calamities For while they conclude a Feaver to be principally Heat they have thereby taken a false Indication or Instructions to free the Body from that Affliction neglecting to blot out the Image of the Sickness to appease the enraged Vitals and to remove the Vexatious Thorny Degenerate Dead Juices without empairing Nature wronging the Stomach or offering any Violence to any shop ordained for Digestion They may plainly perceive if Sordid Gain did not blind them 't is labour in vain to Purg Bucketfuls of Choler and Melancholy which they suppose to be the Conjunct united Cause of the Evil to let out great quantity of Blood from the Limbs for the Cure of the Scurvie c. sith generally the Patient is more weakened and his Evil oftentimes more confirmed hereby Assuredly did they set Nature upon her Legs when she is either sitting or prostrate under any Calamity she would soon conquer her Enemy which kept her in Subjection Would they but follow Hippocrates who taught them that Naturae sunt Morborum Medicatrices they would speedily renounce Bleeding and Feeble Hurtful Purgatives to be looked upon as Contrivers and Factors of filthy Matter which the Expulsive Power stirred up casts out with the Poison So that in reality the Common Way of Purging is only like Pumping without stopping the Leak For as Hippo. delivers 't is not how much but what is cleansed away doth good the Occasional Exciting Peccant Fermenting Matter being often very small as to its bulk Humane Sickness hath a Spiritual beginning Progress State and Declination arising from a Seed as all other things therefore they have a Real Entity consisting of an Efficient and Material Cause both seated â—n the Spirit of Life Active and Passive in Contriving its own Ruine when at any time it is disturbed through any outward Accident When any thing very injurious to Nature approaches from without or is engendered within our Bodies the
Archeus or Vital Aire takes notice of it and being incensed it frames in it self some Ill-favoured Dark Images agreeable to the Cause Offensive According to this Model or Proportion it Acts never ceasing to follow the Copy or Draught of the Malady made by its own Activity in a certain determinate quantity of it self even to its own great damage and destruction unless the Character of the Disease be blotted out or the Archeus pacified and diverted by some pleasing Object or the External Vexing Occasion removed Those Defunct Excrements or Superfluities separated from Life never to be rconciled to it are most tedious and noisome to the Vital Spirits wherefore becoming impatient they Rage Fret Chafe at the presence of so unwelcome Guests Hereupon they stir upon the Ferments or Instrumental Transfigurators to become disordered sometimes to cause a Confusion Tumult Boiling and Huffing in the Juices whereby a Feaver is kindled sometimes to produce Congelation of the Blood otherwhile to turn it into sharp gauling Liquor causing many long Calamities Now the Filth or Dregs lodging in our Bodies are not Diseases themselves but stir up the Archeus to create those Evils we are liable to These are either Antecedent Causes of our Maladies or they are Products and Consequents stirring up Secondary Calamities accompanied with various Symptoms Accidents Dispositions and Alterations Moreover the Miseries of our Bodies do now and then begin from an Invisible Immaterial Occasion imprinting in our Phansies a lively Character of a Disease which converting the Good Juices into Bad both Foment the present Evil also excite the Vitals to procreate more Mischiefs through the Contagion of a Seed implanted in the Life That the Phansie can out of a Non Ens or Nothing frame Hoc Aliquid or something of this or that Species is evident in Women with Child who upon earnest longing after Fruit c. or some sudden Terrour make the Idea or Figure of what they greatly Covet or are terrified at in their Spirits which conveied to the Womb is absolutely conformed in that part of the Child which answers to the place the Woman at that instant touched when she was so passionately affected Withal this Plant or Living Creature pictured in the Skin shall express all those remarkable Alterations Defections Vigour and Maturation that the Real Type or Example of what is shaped is subject to at certain times of the year Thus 't is plain that the Spirits being exalted excited or put into a vehement Motion through any notable Passion can fashion that bringing it to visible Light on the Superficies of the Skin which before lay hid within Wherefore I doubt not there is as perspicuous a Signaturi of every Disease in the Spirits as the Platform of the Plant to be produced in a Bean divided The Principle Difference being that the one is more Spiritual the other Corporeal The Seminal Figure then of all Diseases made in the Spirit of Life is the only Efficient Active Cause of their Being Likewise some Degenerate Portion of the Spirit wherein the Calamitie is as it were stamped separated from that which remains in its Integrity becomes the Material Subject thereof That 't is the Blast of Life which conceives and brings forth all manner of Evils is most evident seeing no Dead Body is capable of Sickness this being the true only Reason to be given that the Principal Contriveâ— thereof viz. the Archeus or Vital Spirit is wanting For the Forbidden Fruit which Adam took into his Stomach having a Power inserted into it of stirring up Lust or Concupiscence The Omnipotent for that Reason giving Advertisement to Man not to meddle with was appropriated and applicated by means of the Animal Spirits to the Immortal Soul whereby it presently sets up Images of filthy Diseases forthwith entertaining the Sensual Soul common to all Beasts being then so continuing to this day the Fundamental Cause of all Calamities I assert the Irregular Imagination of the Living Spirit of Man in the Stomach chiefly the Brain and every Part besides doth first set on work every Infirmity seizing upon us which at first seems very inconsiderable but in process through the uncessant Motion of the First Mover it arrives to a great Height of Malignity as appears by various sad Symtoms Accidents and Products to be distinguished precisely from the Substantial Being of Diseases For Example A Stone in the Kidneys Bladder or elsewhere likewise any congealed Matter or Cancrous hollowness are not Diseases but the Products Effects or Fruits thereof The Petrifying Imaginary Seed closely seated in the Archeus is that which first laid the Foundation of the Stone carrying the same on as it began to full growth so that although the Stone be removed out of the Kidneys as long as there remains that stonifying Seed or invisible Beginning the Person before rid of this hard Concretion may ere long if the Idea the Principle of the Congealing be not absolutly brought to naught or blotted out be vexed tortured or crucified with the like deformed Matter again That the Archeus should be put into such a disturbance or Passion through any disorders in Diet c. as to frame within its own Bowels such a dreadful unhandsome Substance is to be lamented but that the Seminal Character of the Stone should be contrived fomented born with us taking deep root as we grow up is far more deplorable For Diseased Seminal Ideas derived from the Matrice are hardly to be razed out they are so incorporated with our Constitutes challenging as great priviledge to act their part upon the Stage of this Little World in an uniform Manner and Dress though depraved as Nature in its Integrity directed by wholsome Images performs all things orderly according to just proportion and approved Rules of Sanity At that very time when the chief Author moulds the Seed containing the shadowed Likeness of what is to be made capable of a perfect Form doth the same Workmaster draw the Pourtraiture of those manifold Mischiefs which happen to Body and Mind many years after So fixed are those Hereditary Miseries that although the whole Mass of every Numerical Part of the Body be changed again and again yet the Radical Tincture or dye of the Congenite Disease shall remain ready to put forth it self flourish spread into various Branches and Fruits when the full time is come that it meets with an Outward Cause to stir it up This is demonstrable in the Gout the Stone Consumption Madness Small Pox c. whose Images for some years lie as it were asleep till they be roused up through some Provocative Occasions The Idea's of Evils which the Archeus contrives when we are come out of the Womb abroad in the open Aire are flitting may easily be blurred wiped off by a stronger Figure these often interfeering each other at length clash together and both become annihilated Infinite are the Number of Idea's or Representations made by a Working Phansie some of which are no sooner
Living Body from the same cause do virulent Animals Vegetables or Minerals taken inwardly Purge violently for as much as the Sensitive Spirit falls into an indignation at the presence of that it abhors so makes a confusion of the holsome Juices by Colliquating and Putrefying them Hereupon so little benefit arises from things meerly loosening the Body the Principal Agent being exasperated by what is contrary to its Texture and Nature After this rate did I begin my Practice being taught no better than to give many Stools or Vomits without indulging or pleasing this great President which as I have often proved is the Supreme cause of Sanity and Infirmity But afterward instructed by a far more able Tutor than the Schools I began to correct my former Traditional Error following the sure Thread of repeated Experiments so that at length I never gave any Solutive not fitting to Corroborate the Stomach not friendly to the Ferments and Vitals Before I took this course all frequent Laxatives were fruitless because they did anger and enrage the Archeus stirring up Storms and Tempest in the Microcosm instead of a sweet Tranquility By this means the Idea's of the Phantasie ingeneral were rectified and clarified after that the Spirits in particular places were composed aright He that desires to be free from absurd Melancholy thoughts furious passions and perturbations let him take Eustomachical Benign Benevolent Remedies sufficient always to cleanse away Impurities without causing Hatred Frowardness or high Displeasure in Nature whose genuine course is to be observed without putting her to any violent stress or compulsion CHAP. X. The Pharmaceutick or upright Method of Curing Diseases by Medicines in general HOw the Galenists have been mistaken concerning the Four Elements their Mixture for the Composition of Bodies their Contrarieties Qualities Complexions deduced from thence how falsly they have delivered them to be Principles of Natural Existences and the Causes of Sickness and Health hath been perspicuously detected by our Philosophical Pyrotechnist upon this foresaid rotten Foundation have they raised their Stately and Pompous Fabrick of Curing Obstinately endeavouring still to keep it up The Rule of Contraries derived from Imaginary Supposition of the Hostility and Reluctancy of the the Four Elements whence they say all Concretes have their Original by which they chiefly act for the end to debellate Mans Infirmities hath been the bane of many Myriads Where they find any notable heat in a Feaver they presently take Indication to cool the Body in a degree proportionable to its Antagonist in hopes thereby to reduce the Body to an Eucrasie but still with unlucky success For neglecting the Radical Cause and aiming at the Abolitions of Accidents Products or Symptoms how can it be otherwise but that they must needs miss the Mark unless they hit it by casualty A Faithful Knowing Physitian is unconcern'd and indifferent whether the Patient be Hot Cold or Temperate as to the touch in a Feaver whether Thirsty or no. For asmuch as he understands the same Agent that sends forth a hot Blas doth also send sometimes a Cold from the same Matter He also frequently observes a Cold dead Splinter or Thorn doth Vex Gaul Fret the Archeus of the Finger in such a manner that the Pulse becomes above measure Magnified the Colour Rubified the Blood incensed the Heat Exalted All which arise from the Material cause of the Thorn impacted Likewise the Eye waters smarts abhors the Light looks red or inflamed from a mote or a small fragment of Glass c. Cold things by reason of the Passion of the Ingenite Spirit much provoked at the presence of the Guest so unwelcomed to life Moreover a spark of fire Essentially Hot lighting upon the hand or elswhere causes a sudden shivering Coldness all over the Body What is more frequent than to sustain a grievous Rigour or Coldness even to chattering of the Teeth from the abundance of a supposed humor called Choller analogous to Fire as they will have it Hot and Dry. On the other side how Hot and Dry have I known some Phlegmatick Bodies in Feavers even beyond Cholerick In this Case how without contradiction to their Theorems can they without lethiferous Mistakes give cooling things for the encrease of Phlegm and Hot for the advancement of Choller were not this to augment the cause of the Disease Is not this rather the very strait course to relieve the misaffected to exempt the Thorn or Splinter out of the Finger the Mote Fragment of Class out of the Eye by proper Instruments also to attenuate rarifie Phlegm to mitigate Edulcorate Retund and alter Choller by what is adaequated operative for the ablution abstersion and carrying away both Sospite Stomachi ac Naturae robore through all the most requisite Sluces of the Body This done like a true Philosophical Artist a sweet Tranquility appears in the Vitals all evil Symptoms of Heat Cold c. forthwith or in a very short time vanish Neither in this case is it of Moment whether the Remedies bringing this to pass be Hot or Cold sith as substracting the Fuel from the Fire it will quickly be extinguished so removing the occasional Matter of Heat this is soon annihilated Did the Schools rightly comprehend how Fire may be procured by the Rapid Collision of two cold incombustible solid Bodies as Stone and Steel or by the long attrition of an accensible Matter no whit hot to the touch or by the Fermentation Agitation Conglomeration or Compression of Acids and Alkali's also by Concentration of Light into a Cone or Minute Compass they would be better acquainted with the Cause of the Aestuation Effervescence and Accension of the Vital Spirits in Feavers hereby suitable Remedies might be provided When at any time the Genuine Domestick Spirits of the Microcosm and a Wild Exotick Gas meeting together do strike or grate one upon another in a confused whirled manner there strait breaks forth a preternatural heat to be corrected by Pacifying the Vitals enraged and enabling them to profligate or subjugate this hardly tameable both subtil Wild Spirit and the matter from whence it emerges which is never to be accomplished by Cooling Prescriptions but by that which pleases the Archeus indulging it exceedingly If degenerate Salts Acid or Alkali couched in a rotten Matter create Thirst or excessive Heat by framing a Tumult in the Animals whatsoever doth correct the same is to be embraced indifferently whether hot or cold 'T is enough if I can attain my Grand Intention the ablation of the Nocuous Thermopoietick Matter the Substance on which all Qualities Accidents depend If I can compass this Fundamentally why do the Galenists wilfully blind cavil and rail at my Elaborate Preparations as violently Hot Burning Drying Inflaming when they cannot but be informed that I spurning at their Silly Insignificant Qualities of Heat and Cold as to Essential Cures I Extirpate all Feavers by amotion and abandoning the Original Exciter thereof But in this state I renounce
Cinabaris Nativa called of Paracelsus Metallus Primus sive Masculus comprehends a most Radiant Solar Sulphur This brought into a red Oyl afterwards into a Mercurial Juice named Vinum vitae or dissolved in some Aromatick Oyl Circulated with an Alkali in Spirit of Wine doth not onely cleanse away banishing what is hurtful in the Body but also renovates the Strength â—mpaired in the whole reducing the Tone and Vigour of every part to a just proportion and Equal Action Hence it is deservedly conducible for the protelation of Life The Sulphureous Particles of Lapis Haematites extraverted by Sublimation send forth a most fragrant smell like Saffron These Flowers immerged in a Benevolent Menstruuum digested often Distilled give a Tincture no whit different to a dissolution of Gold Great is the Power hereof to please the Vitals to Illuminate the dark Corners of the Microcosm Out of Bismuth Zink Talk Ludus Paracel and divers other Marchasites are extorted good Sulphurs which Elaborately Refined United with Symbolizing Liquors afford Remedies fitting to allay the perturbations of the Archeus There are also certain Precious Stones as the Emeral'd Saphire Granat c. whose rutilating Sulphurs although they are fast locked up yet may be recluded by means of penetrating Dissolvents whereby their shining Dowries being diffused in a Friendly Diaphanous Bath the Rigour of the Archeus may be made supple compliant and enlightned when at any time it is obnubilated For if Precious Stones be reputed to have a Happy Influence upon the Vitals by those bright Beams darted outwardly Certainly they will perform it much better when that Light imprisoned shall be set at Liberty from the grosser part being United as it were in a Cone shall be received into a fluid serene Matter so taken inwardly Those Luminous Concretions Nature seems to have taken extraordinary pains about to free from Heterogeneâ—ty or Alloy namely Unions or Pearls indigitate to us by their Clarified Signature that such shining Sulphureous Remedies may be fabricated by Analysis of them which the Archeus may esteem as Vitae Deliciae Feasting upon â—hem with admirable delight Now this Dainty Morsel for the Archeus to Banquet on is not to be acquired by a trivial affusion of Vinegar which doth onely imposie upon our Eyes representing them as truly dissolved whereas indeed they are no otherwise than Masked no better than pulverized Moreover doth likewise fleece them castrating these splendid Concretions of their real eminent Lustre they had before but by means of such a dissolvent able to make them retire to their Ens primum This is verily a great Cordial sweetly imbibed by Nature worthy to be called Elementum sive lac Margaritarum because it is a great Restorer of what is impaired a disperser of those black Meteors darkning the Spirits Thus I have I hope pro modulo confirmed one Leg of this spacious Body of Therapeutick Physick viz. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Indication dedueed from the Necessary support Augmentation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Placation Moderation Applause Photism of the Vital Spirits CHAP. XIV THE other Leg to be insisted upon or principal immediate Indication to be Considered is the ablation of the Inwarâ— Efficient Cause of a Disease and the Ouâ—â—ward Occasional Irritative Morbifick Matteâ— That the Archeus is the Prime Author 〈◊〉 all Sickness is an undoubted Truth Nether can any Malady Seat it self any where but in the Life as it 's proper Subject foâ— the Body once extinct all Diseases vanish Now this Ens morbosum as all otheâ— things arises from a Seminal Principle thâ— Quiddity or Activity of which necessarilâ— depends upon an Idea impressed upon thâ— Spirit As soon as this Idea is formed by the Arâ—cheus invested therewith it forthwith falls to Action uncessantly Labouring to pollute part of the Vitals hereupon an unkindly Forreign Ferment emerges which the Archeal Idea makes use of to alienate the Life more and more from it's Integrity Thus from an Invisible Beginning a Real Morbous Ens is Created defined by our Philosopher Vitalis Potestatis Actus Idealis Efficiens induens sibi Vestem ex Ideali materia atque aâ—quirens formam Vitalem substantialem juxta differentiam Tarditatis Celeritatis seminum Ide alum That this depraved Efficient Act of the Vitals may be hindred frustrated and deprived of Ideal Matter to clad it self so be disappointed from arriving to or continuing in a Vital Formality the Ideal Seed is to be defaced blurred and extinct by all means possible To bring this Intention home to a purpose Immediately and speedily requires the best of Van Helmont's Arcana Yet I doubt not but some of those Medical Instruments I have before proposed will by Degrees in some reasonable space at least Cancel if not totally deface those black Preternatural Ideas that the Archeus disturbed with irregular Passions hath delineated in the very Essence of Life Certainly when a supreamly clarified Salt and Sulp. shall be taken into the Body then Conducted into the very Bed-Chamber of Life shewing the Archeus as in a Looking-Glass the ugly shape of the Disease Pourtrayed it cannot but after some Re-collection Repent of Former Errors exceedingly contented at the presence of so beautiful an Object offered to the view whose salutiferous Idea causes a Composure in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon it falls to razing out the deformed Image of Mortality instead thereof limns though rudely at first the Picture of future Sanctity Pulv. noster Bezoard vel Pestifugus Tinct Bals. Solar Polya Sulp. ♂ ♀ most defaecated destroy in some sort Diseased Ideas producing luminous instead of Caliginous Images I question not but there are Remedies to be purchased as Active in framing Healthâ—ful Characters on the Spirits as there arâ— things noxious framing with admirablâ— Agility deadly Impresses Did we not too much acquiesce upoâ— Traditional Notions prone to be ratheâ— Credulous through Idleness than to make a narrow Indagation into the formal Essenâ—tial Virtues given to Concretes we should without Question be better Instructed concerning the specifick Properties of Animals Vegetables and Minerals we should more directly understand what is to be adapted adequately immediately for the abolition of contumacious long Maladies whose difficulty of Curing consists in fixed Ideas the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which would quickly make a Cure 'T is I say for want of the knowledge of the seminal Endowments of Creatures able to wash away the foul Tinctures or black Ideas of Evils and in lieu to ting the Body with a Vital Balsom Creating good Images in the Spirits that our Calamities are so Grievous and long How Vainly then Foolishly Obstinately yea deceitfully do the Galenists obtrude upon their mâ—serable Patients Faint Cordials Insignificant Juleps Destructive Bleeding Pernicious Solutives together with outward Butcheries as Vesicatories c. for the Conquering those Radicated Maladies whose Essence principally depends upon a Spiritual Morbifick Idea which once expunged salutiferous Images come in place Nature flourisheth it 's
οÏθο-μιθοδοσ ιατâ—-χεμικη OR THE DIRECT METHOD OF Curing Chymically Wherein is conteined the Original Matter and Principal Agent of all Natural Bodies ALSO The Efficient and Material Cause of Diseases in General Their Therapeutick Way and Means I. Diaetetical by Rectifying Eating Drinking c. II. Pharmaceutick 1. By Encreasing and supporting the Vital Spirits â— By Pacifying and Indulging them 3. By Defacing or Blotting out the Idea of Diseases by Proper Specificks Lastly By removing the Extimulating or Occasional Cause of Maladies To which is added The ART of MIDWIFERY Chymically Asserted The CHARACTER of an ORTHO-CHYMIST And PSEVDO CHYMIST A Description of the Sanative Virtues of our STOMACH-ESSENCE Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Just Complaint of the METHOD of the GALENISTS By GEORGE THOMSON M. D. Plurimi Morbi cedunt per Simplicia â—st ubi Morbus in Gradum surrexit altiora exiguntur Remedia V. Helm London Printed for B. Billingsley at the Printing-press in Cornhill S. Crouch at the upper end of Popes-Head-Alley 1675. The Epistle Dedicatory To the Most Illustrious PRINCE RUPERT DVKE of Cumberland EARL of Holderness KNIGHT of the most Noble Order of the Garter and one of His MAIESTIE 'S most Honourable Privy Councel c. May it please your Highness IT was once my Happyness in the late Wars to be under the MARTIAL CONDUCT of your Renowned BROTHER PRINCE MAVRICE Beloved by all Loyal Generous Spirits for his Valour and Prudence Now I bless the Heavens that promise me the Benevolent Aspect of your Candid Mercurial Genius upon these Chymical Labours which I humbly present to the View of your Piercing Eye most able to make an In pection into the Verity of Things arising from Pyrotechnie and Manufacture My Thoughts did heretofore seem to be settled never to Dedicate for the future a Writing of mine to any whomsoever yea I had continued in that mind to expose Truth abroad solitary to shift for it self conceiving it best able to maintain her own Propriety but that hearing it frequently discoursed in most Company I met with how ardently your Highness was devoted to serve the Nation for Publick Good What a Philomathes and Philalethes Sincere Lover and Defender you were of Essential Truths and Ingenious Arts in General especially Mechanical Pyrotechnical Operations an Assertor of Experimental Optical and Sensible Effects Fruits and Products of things and that for this Reason you had an extraordinary Kindness for our most Excellent Philosopher Van Helmont your Country-man I fortwith affected with these Rare Endowments altered my former Intentions resolving now to make my Address to such a Mecaenas for the discussion of these our Chymical Problemes by Fact whose Head is known to be endowed with Subtil Inventions Indefatigable Inquiry after Rarities and Arcana's whose Heart is full of Integrity Heroick Designs Magnanimity and Hands most active in contriving Exquisite Works and Daedalean Mechanicks Wherefore Truly Noble SIR be pleased to accept of this Oblation which hath its chief Original from Pyrotechnie And according as you find it bear the Test Entertain or Reject it The Sum of this Physical Tract is a Practical Discovery of the Notable Errours of the Galenists Avouching that their Principles in Physiologie are False that they are Ignorant of the Quiddity Essence or the True Radical Essential Cause of all Diseases That they are grosly to seek in the Direct Method or shortest Way of Curing them That the Indications or Measures they take from Heat and Cold applicating upon that ground according to the Rule of Contraries their Indicata or Remedies are both Fraudulent and Pestilent to Mortals That their Unacquaintance with the Synthâ—sis or Constitution of the Vital Spirit the Cause of its Rage and Perturbation from somthing very offensive to it wherepon the Image of a Disease is delineated is the Reason why they thus neglect to support Nature as they ought to allay its Tempests to deface Morbisick Idea's by Specificks Lastly being altogether Occupied about the Cutting off the Accidents Qualities Epigenomena Symptoms and Products of Evils by Bleeding and Purging they are insufficient to Cure Directly Immediately and Radically any great Malignant Feaver Pleurisie c. The Boon I beg of your Highness is not to suffer the Truth to be abused through the Collusions Sophistical Evasions Equivocations Supplantations Scurrilous Language and Affronts of our Antagonists but that there may be a plain Judicious Determination of these Controversies according to the clear Evidence of Fact and the Reality of Experiments For which the Genuine Professors of this Philosophical Chymical Art will be bound to Celebrate your Praises to all Posterity Your Highness Faithful Servant George Thomson THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Dear Countrey-man IF thou beest a hearty Lover of truth and a Solid Genuine English-man no Phantastical Affecter of the Levity of this Age enter upon the Reading of this Treatise without Prejudice or Partiality Having perused it give the World freely thy Iudgment concerning it Object what thou canst like a Candid Philalethes no Caviller or Wrangler but still let thy most rectified Reason and firm Experience be as inseparable as Hippocrates his Twins always giving place to the Latter If thou censure me harshly not giving me leave to clear my self by the assured Evidence of Action I shall absolutely deny thee to be one called a Virtuosi pretend it never so much or a Friend to the Lord Bacon Here is no Hot Fruitless Disputation about things Indifferent in Religion No subtil Pleading by Covin or Collusion as often happens in the Law Nothing Historical or Traditional to be subscribed to for Antiquity or Authority sake Here is no deceitful Conclusions or Captious Argumentations fitting for the Schools Nor Acribology an exact discussion of Matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little Serviceable or Vseful in the General becoming some Virtuosi at this day No Logomachie an Idle Velitation or Contention about Words the Exercise of Pedanticks But in this Enchiridium is cortained that which will Teach you directly to enjoy Health of Body and Consequently more Integrity and Clarity of Mind For Animi Actiones Spirituum Synthesin Eupathiam vel Dyspathiam Eutoniam vel Atoniam sequuntur By this means you will Learn to be Cautious how you impair Nature either for the present or future by the false Method of Bleeding Caco-stomachick Purging c. If you be capable to receive this Doctrine not onely your self but your Posterity will fare the better By Virtue of this Goddess Sanity thou mayst Atchieve Noble Exploits either keeping off or bearing more Couragiously all the Adverse strokes of Fortune enjoying hereby a far more Happy Life in the Lowest Condition than they in the most Prosperous State Tormented with the Stone Gout c. In this Paper I Counsel thee to keep up thy Spirits the Principal Efficient Cause of Health and Sickness by multiplying them with what is most nigh their Texture by Pacifying their Rage and Fury with pleasing Objects indulging their frowardness
gratifying their Ardent Appetite Illuminating their obscurity Next I put thee upon the search of proper Specificks having a Dowry bestowed upon them able to fully marr or quite expunge the Idea or Image of a Disease Lastly I give Directions how to Banish Exterminate Exclude through the Proper door with Euphorie and Benefit succeeding that Irritating Aculeating Peccant Matter which causes those manifold Tumults and Disorders in the Archeus of the Microcosin All which is to be performed without wronging the Ferments or Altering the Instruments of any shop of Digestion especially the first In avouching these substantial Verities thou mayst perhaps conceive I have too severely reprehended the Galenists to the Eclipsing the Illustrious Fame of such Learned Clerks whom both Great and Small in all Ages have Admired To which I reply I am fully satisfied within my own Breast that I have in no wise wronged them although they have me often-times in laying to their Charge what they are not guilty of being ready upon all fair Opportunities to demonstrate what I have here declared Besides so weighty and Precious is the Praedicate or Subject we handle that it would be an Offence more hainous in me above others Indangering my Immortal Part if Conscious what Slaughter of Mankind is daily made by their Pseudo-Method of Curing I should be silent Indulge Connive at Extenuate or Palliate such Capital Crimes This considered with their delight in the darkness of Galenical Falsities also their Active Obstinate Ignorance Now when the splendid Beams of Chymical Truth appear they deserve to be handled with far greater Rigour than I have expressed I wish my Antagonists would behave themselves as Candidly and Ingenuously to me as I to them they would soon find me alter from an Acid to an Alkali Nature from a Tart to a sweet Disposition If they would please to put me to the Tryal they will find me really what I profess a Lover of my King and Countrey upon the Foundation of Verity and Virtue a Hater of Vice Debauchery Lewdness all Irreligion in any whatsoever a Resolute Promoter to my Power of all good Arts and Sciences especially that of Healing Man's Infirmities a Defender of Learning and an Admirer of great Abilities and Integrity Farewel expecting as soon as I can get it well Printed a Tract in Latine viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Splenectomia Lithocolo Loimotomiae Synopsi Novemb. 4. 1674. From my House at Soper-Lane alias Queen-street in Well-Court nigh Cheapside Geo. Thomson An Explanation of Some Terms of Art CHymist is one who imitates Nature in the Separating the Pure Juice from the Dross and â—ilth for the use of Medicine Mechanicks and the â—dvancement of Mettals Spagyrist is the same Therapeutick i. e. a Healing Faculty Iatrical pertaining to Physick Healing Chymicophant one who seems to be a Chymist but is not really Philomathes a Lover of Learning Philalethes a Lover of Truth Caco-stomachick hurtful to the Stomach Pyrotechnist in general any Workman by the Fire in particular by way of Excellency a Chymist Pharmaceutick Physick which Cureth by Medicines Ortho-method a direct upright short way Ortho-chymist the True Artist Pseudo-chymist the â—alse Physiologie the Reason of the Nature of Things and a Searching into their Cause Idea the Figure Seal or Pattern of things conceived in the Imagination The Idea of a Disease is the Essence of it Archeus of Paracel and Enormon of Hippo. is the Seminal Vital Spirit the Principal Impetuous Agent or Spiritual Contriver and Supporter of every Thing the Arch Preeminent Author of Health and Sickness Gas is a wild invisible Spirit not to be imprisoned or pent up without damage of what conteins it arising from the Fermentation of the Concourse of some Bodies as it were eructating or rasping this untamable Matter Thermologists and Psychrologists are they who principally treat of Heat and Cold neglecting Essential Properties Ferment according to Van Helm is a Formal Ens neither Substance nor Accident but Neutral as Light Fire c. stored or laid up from the beginning of the World in certain determinate places for the preparing and exciting the Seeds oâ— Things It carries some Allusion or Similitude witâ— the Leaven or Ferment Bakers or Bruers use whicâ— is of a Contagious Diffusive Odour Rarefyingâ— Dissolving Nature rousing up the Spirit to fall tâ— action to Digest and make Separation Alkali is properly a Salt from the Herb Kaliâ— Potash any Lixjviate Salt extracted by Calcinationâ— or whatsoever Volatile Salt having Concordancâ— or affinity with the former Alcohol Vini is its Spirit totally depriv'd of Phlegm Xeuexton an Amulet against the Pest. Relollaeuâ— is a bare Quality without a Seminal Being Liquâ— Alcahest is the Universal Dissolvent preserving thâ— Seed of Things inviolated Nosopoietick that causeth a Disease Anadromâ— a running back Phaenomena Appearances Epigâ—nomena supervenients whatsoever succeed ERRATA PAge 10. line 15. read Helmontian p. 12. l. 5. r. Provocatiâ—â— p. 16. l. 5. r. Signature p. 17. l. 8. r. Stomach chiefly p. 18. l. dele the. p. 26. l. 11. r. quot p. 3. l. 3. r. be careful p. 32. l. 6. r. Digâ—â—stions p. 33. l. 7. r. Those l. 8. are p. 35. l. 18. r. to the. p. 39. l 25. r. deâ—â—ceent p. 38. l. 6. r. draining p. 38. l. 22. r. light p. 42. l. 30. r. Assistaâ—â— p. 49. l. 2. r. and rest p. 47. l. 6 r. Acids p. 60. l. 24. r. Concrete p. 65 〈◊〉 9. r. Channel l. 13. r. Contraction p. 67. l. 24. r. Theorems p. 68. l. â—â— r. Pyrotechnical p. 69. l. 17. r. Pyrotechnicôs l. 29. r. Balsamical â—â— 72. l. â—â— r. Acid Meliorated p. 72. l. 8. r. Philalethes l. 20. r. Physioâ—â—ger p. 73. l 2. r. iterated l. 14. r. dulcifie p. 80. l. 11. r. Salsi l. 21. r. â—â—tyrous p. 88. l. 30. r. miss p. 9. l. 29. r. imbued p. 103. l. 12. r. Trituâ—â—â—tion p. 110. l. 15. r. of â™ by the. p. 111. l. 4. r. Extermination p. 21 〈◊〉 l. 9. r. Rutilating l. 21. r. and being l. 23. r. Empyical p. 116. l. 27 〈◊〉 Idealium p. 118. l. 1. r. defaecated Sulphurs p. 125. l. 16. r. found 〈◊〉 p. 139. l. 27. r. Empyical p. 152. l. ult r. Corrector p. 157. l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ps 166. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 173. l. 6. r. Intestinal p. 174. l. 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 181. l. 8. r. Learned Chymical THE DIRECT METHOD OF CURING Chymically CHAP. I. A Brief Examination of the Original Matter of Natural Bodies with their Dissolution I Shall first declare what Nature is according to our Philosopher viz. A Power implanted in the Creature to act in such a manner and measure according to the will of the Creator for ends best known to himself The Course and Order of producing Effects suitable to the first Seminal Cause is constant unless hindered by cross Accidents intervening or by some extraordinary stop put thereto by Him
framed but strait vanish becoming Non Entia for they are momentany and easily thrust out by the next Successour But when any Object shall often savourly and seriously affect us then the Representation of the same doth take deep Roots in the Spirit altering the Texture of the Blood Latex or Lympha so that according to the Species of the Immoderate Passion and the Picture thereof drawn either in the Innate Archeus or that continually repaired different Accidents Symptomes Signs and Effects arise That all Diseases have a Type Copy or Example set according to which the Archeus that first moulded it acts may be confirmed by the Uniformity Regular Motion Inseparable Appearances or Signs belonging to them from which they receive a Name proper to their Nature Those tell us of what kind the Sickness is insomuch a Judicious Physitian is able as well to make distinction between one Maladie and another as between a Pippin and a Pearmain an Almond and a Chesnut likewise to sort them into several Kinds Classes Forms Degrees a thing never to be done if there were not a certain Director Informer oâ— first Mover that laid a Platsom of whatsoever Grief depending upon an Efficient and Material Cause as all other Sublunaries Again that the Archeus doth first make a draught of the Evil in self working afterward accordingly to its own Hurt or Destruction may be proved by that Intermission Silence we find in Feavers Falling-sickness Gout Stone Convulsions Tissick c. which as it were sleep for some time then awake repeating their former Tragical Act exactly Certainly if there were not an Agent lead by a strict Rule it were impossible such a constant Mode and Method could be observed in the Beginning Progress Height Declension and Determination of Maladies Briefly therefore the true Efficient with the Material Cause of all Diseases is not any Distemper of the Elementary Qualites not any of the supposed four Humours derived from the four Elements not Salt Sulphur Mercury c. not any thing meerly Excrementitious Vexatious Ambient but the Vital Spirit stirred up to Indignation Fear c. by some loathsome tedious Object present whereupon it makes the very shape planting the Seed of the Maladie in some Portion of that Aetherial Blast separated from that in Integrity upon which Matter as a Patient the Seminal Ideal Agent works shooting forth those Manifold Fruits or Appearances in Sickness CHAP IV. Of the Therapeutick or Healing Method 1. Of Diet in General respecting the Prevention and Sanation of Mans Infirmities THe Immediate Undoubted Cause of all Diseases made Manifest their Cure will become more Easie to the Purpose Speedy with less Danger and Loathsomness There are two Capital principal Indications Ends or Marks which ought to direct us in the ordering our Diet as well as Pharmacy 1. The Support of the Strength or Vital Spirits 2. The Declining or Eschewing whatsoever is an Enemy to Nature that Incenses and puts it into inordinate Passions Laudable Diet then both Supports the Vitals encreasing them also Clarifies Pacifies and Diverts them from making Hurtful Images yea in some proportion Duls Defaces and Eclipses those already framed Now by Diet are comprehended all those Necessary Succours Requisites or Concomitants without which the Life of Man cannot Subsist Namely 1. Ingestion or taking into our Bodies whatsoever is Alimental or Nourishable 2. The Egestion or Discharge of Superfluities arising from our Food and the Retention of what is agreeable to our Nature 3. The Rectification of the Aire 4. The right ordering of Rest and Motion by Turns in due Measure and Time 5. A just Allowance of Sleep and Watching Lastly The Moderation or Regulation of the Passions aed Perturbations of the Mind In the first place the direct way to uphold increase the Spirits to keep them Clear Bright and free from unreasonable Sickly Turbulent Melancholy Idea's or Impressions is to have an especial Care of the Fountain from whence these subtil Particles spring i. e. the Stomach This Noble Part is with Care and Tenderness to be respected above any other for this purpose nothing is to be taken offending it either in Quality or Quantity Neither is the Substance and Quality of any Nourishable to be insisted upon so much as the just Quantity we are to observe for if the Stomach earnestly desire what is generally Reputed to be hard of Digestion or to afford bad Aliment notwithstanding if there be an eager Appetite to the same this Noble Part is to be indulged or favoured in such a Case only allowing a lesser Quantity Doubtless this most sensible Membrane of Exquisite Gust doth for the most part best prompt uâ— to what is for the Good of the whole so that giving a Repulse or Check to a vehement Appetite hunting after any thing eatable or drinkable we oftentimes cause a cloudiness dulness sullenness and darkness in the Vital Spirits bringing them into such a disorder that they Coin many foul black Images whereas if the Archeus of this eminent Ventricle were gratified and humoured in what it extreamly desires there would be a serenity and lustre in the Spirits and then alâ— Actions executed with more strength The severity of some Physitians in forbidding their Patients to eat that to which their Appetite is exceedingly addicted hath caused no small discommodity Neither do they less offend who strictly impose upon them such a Diet as they according to some general Rules apprehend most fitting derived from bare Qualities of Heat and Cold c. not considering that in all Diseases especially those of long duration enquiry ought to be made to what Diet the Sick is most naturally inclined to and accustomed what his Gust doth best relish then according to that account to grant him some small Portion of what he eagerly covets although usually reckoned amongst Food of hard Digestion of ill juice of bad quality or very Hot c. For none can give better Arguments of a Diet more proper for the satisfying the Appetite than a Man himself especially if he be of years carefully taking notice what doth most agree with the Genius of his Stomach I have known Posset-drink out of an intent to cool prescribed by some Doctors Humorists without farther Examination of an Antipathy thereto even to the endangering the Life in Malignant ill-conditioned Feavers Such Darkness hath forthwith seized upon their Spirits and such Loathsome foul Shapes have been delineated thereby that they have approached the shadow of Death undoubtedly perishing had not prevalent Art blotted out speedily those deformed Figures So hazardous it is to withhold what Nature doth most Sympathize with or to offer what it bears an inbred Hatred to This certainly is to be known by a Man 's own Experience whether he have an absolute dislike to Honey an Egg Sider any Spice c. For this Reason methinks 't is great vanity in those who will undertake to be Magisterial and over-rule Persons in Diet more able to judge of this
is saturated with abundant Exhalations Let him beware to eat unless his Appetite invites him then not till he be glutted Commedat non quidem ad repletionem cavitatis Stomachi nec ad voluptatis sive gustus dictamen 'T is the misery of many to have better Appetites than Nigestions which is the frequent cause that many raw Juices are contracted the Body becoming more clogged ponderous and indisposed to stir for if no more Food be taken in than can be throughly altered Excrementitious Superfluitieâ— being sent packing insensibly one will continue the same weight or little different many mornings togehter if otherwise any Caput Mort or Dreggy substance remain behind indigested the Spirits become Dull Cloudy and Obscure and the whole Mass Lumpish and Heavy Mastication an exact chewing of what we eat doth exceedingly avail to a happy Digestion for he that hastily gobleth in his Food had need to have a Cormorants or an Ostritch's Dissolvent in his Stomach Variety of Dishes is a Lure to make us Eat more than ordinary and a means to pester the Stomach with more than it can Digest to make a confusion in the separation so that which is raw being blended with what is duly changed both are thrown off without Distinction The plainest simple Home-bred Food is generally to be preferred for holsomness before the fine pampering curiously-dressed far-fetched Dainties Beef Mutton rightly prepared before Partridges Pheasants c. Brown Bread Leavened before White That Tyrannical Severe Overbusie Precepts the Galenists enjoyn their Patients is to be rejected for misere vivit qui medice vivit To be rigidly kept from what is Lawful and Useful for want of fitting Remedies is little better than a Turkish Slavery Celsus his Rule Not to be much solicitous or curious in Diet supposed some measure be observed is to be embraced by every man who enjoys a competent Health Yea sith they who are oppressed with any great Sickness Nature becoming prostrate subject to the Dominion of the Enemy can never be cured by the strictest Government in their Food Therefore even those when the Maladie shall meet with Remedies able to over power it ought to take liberty to gratifie their Appetite and sometimes to indulge their Genius more liberally than ordinary with what it is greatly affected For how often hath it been known the thing the Physitian hath sternly forbidden upon pain of Death that the same being either secretly stoln by the Patient or privately offered by the Nurse or some Friends hath proved the unexpected Means to make Nature Mistress of the Disease the Vital Spirits hereby highly exalted at the presence of that which doth so match their Inclination and vehement Longing in so much that they have taken Courage and scattered those black clouds of mischievous Idea's entertaining instead thereof clear bright Images tending to health It is no small prudence in a Physitian to examine to what Diet the sick person hath accustomed bimself for saith Hippo. Quarum rerum inveteravit Consuetudo quamvis deteriores sint illae minus tamen insuetis male afficiunt Aphor. 5. lib. 2. In this case we ought sometimes not so punctually to stand upon what is Holsome as what is Customary nor is this any Argument to allow of Poison Chaulk Tobacco Tiles or Coles which some to Admiration have frequently devoured in great quantity without a mortal Event But the question is what Indifferent Food may be commended dispensed and afforded to the Infirm in relation to custome and a strong desire with a capacity of digesting it for these Considerations laid aside it were by no means to be granted In Conclusion I advise that Curiosity Severity Nicety in Diet be laid aside that the Physitian as well as the Patient insist upon what the Importunity of the Appetite dictâ—tes the Custome of any Food doth urge â—nd the largness of Digestion may permit â—or what is earnestly desired doth conduce to â— better Alteration what is well Altered doth encrease the Vitals otherwise it doth â—ut strengthen the Disease weaken Nature It is as possible that flesh thrown into the â—ennel should not corrupt lying there long â—s that food taken into a stomach deprived in greatest part of its Dissolvent or Ferment â—hould not Cadaverate or Putrifie whereupon the former Calamity is augmented by anoâ—her Not how much we eat but what is accuâ—ately prepared in this Vital Kitchen is chiefâ—y to be considered Veins Arteries Nerves Ligaments Gristles Bones are all beholding â—he Blood and Spirits for their happy subsistâ—nce and those to the Stomach Wherefore 〈◊〉 any aim at a comfortable life ut sit mens saâ—a in corpore sano let him avoid excess in â—oâ—d and liquid Diet but especially the first â—et him endeavour so far to understand himâ—elf or be governed by those who are knowâ—ng her in that no more ought to be put inâ—o this Membranous Body than what it 's able â—o convert into a laudable substance for the â—ood of the whole Neither let any one â—hink to be rightly instructed by the Galenists sith they prescribe a Diet according to false Suppositions of Heat and Cold Recollaeâ— nowhere active of themselves in the producing any vital Ens But let the upright Philosophical Chymist be heard who gives Counsel according as the Spirits and their Instruments shall dictate Hereby no considerable Eerror can be committed in the Superstructure as long as the Foundation is so strong CHAP. V. THe next thing Diaetetical to be considered tending to the bene esse or Wellfare of mans life is Evacuation of what is Superfluous or Excrementitious and the Retention of a Salubrious and Friendly Matter for the Sustentation of a commodious prosperous Health That all Foulness in no wise to be taken into the custody of the Vitals may be discharged Secretion or Separation is to be made of Good from Bad of Pure from Impure by the Active Separator the Archeus for when any thing rejectaneous is thrown off promiscuously with any laudable Sudstance fitting to be conserved many inconveniencies follow as is frequently observed by the more acute Physitians in Haemorrhagies or Fluxes both natural and Artificial for what can be more absurd than â—o cast away the Wheat with Chaff the Spirit of Wine with the stinking dreggy Sulphur Now Superfluities the more they are rarefied and volatilized by kindly Ferments the â—ooner they are difflated or sent packing by Respiration and Transpiration through the habit of the Body without the least remainder of a gross Dregg in which if it fail there forthwith follows a declination from Integriâ—y a brisk sound constitution of body becoming according to Statica Medicina a little more dull and ponderous if then a considerable quantity of this filthy setling be accumuâ—ated the occasional cause of a disease is hatching which if not timely prevented breaks forth actually disturbing the Oeconomy of â—his admirable Frame Wherefore due caution is to be taken that we ingest not any thing not capable to be digested
through the whole course of our Life so that we Live no longer when the Heart and Lungs do quite give over the faculty of Moving Every one then ought to take singular care that Circulation of the Blood may be in no wise intercepted nor free Breathing be intermitted for that purpose the Exercise of the Muscles of the Limbs gentle and sweet Recreation of the Mind do avail Moderate Equal Diaphoretick Alterative and duly Excitative Labor joyned with pleasant variable admirable rare and desirable Objects doth Expand and Dilate the Lungs and Arteries whereby the Breast becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Arteries Emicant Nothing promotes these Actions better than cheerfulness or temparate Joy constant love of what is truly amiable never to be repented of A probable hope of some good not long to be deferred at length a sweet enjoyment of that which is durable and capable to usher in better things For I am of a very brave Man's Opinion The Comfort of our whole Life depends upon expectation of better things Also Magnanimity or Courage founded upon Virtuous Enterprizes aspiring to Noble Designs for a Publick as well as Private Interest do sweetly enlarge the Spirits quickning the Ferments causing an expulsion of Superfluities Yea just Indignation kept within its due Limits facilitates Respiration Transpiration and Pulsation On the contrary Fear Sorrow Melancholy Hatred Jealousie Envy contract the Diaphragme and the Muscles of the Breast hindering legitimate breathing occasioning an Immature Importunate Systole or a Supine Connivence in the Arteries It is not amiss sometimes to be transported beyond the common bounds of Moderation to be agitated with some Extraordinary passion of the mind and to sustain tedious Labor that the sweeter composition of Mind and most delightful rest of Body may follow sith one constant strict tenor pertaining to Diet is hardly to be obtained without greater damage whensoever we offend not to be avoided by any Man who hath a Publick Employment or a secular Interest to look after so that it is better to be accustomed to any Exercise or labour of Body and mind voluntarily least we be surpriz'd unawares unwillingly to our notable hurt I advise those parts should undergo most gentle Exercise which are weakest to walk oftner upon the lower Limbs when they are somewhat feeble to move rather the Arms and Hands when incident to a debility lest the stronger by motion defraud the weaker and so Alogotrophia or disproportion in the nourishment of parts follow I approve Frication of all parts especially three noted Emunctories the Groin Arm-pits and Neck with a course Cloath without curious superstition of rigtht oblique or transverse Directions Combing the Head every Morning is an exercise profitable for the Brain and upper Limbs encreasing their vigour and opening the Pores for the emission of Excrements engendred in the sixt Digestion which is not a little depraved by a superfluous covering so that the Brain through too much Heat becomes Effeminate Soft and Imprudent Let every man make choice of that Exercise or Recreation he is most inclined most agreeable to his Constitution whereby he is most relieved CHAP. VIII THe fifth inseparable Companion of our Life neerly related to Exercise and Motion is Sleeping and Waking These make almost a Divident of the Life of this Microcosm And happy it is for Man that the first was Instituted sith great are the Cares of miserable Mortals that he hath reason to bless his Creator that he can fall into a sweet Lethean Sleep which like a short Death deprives him of Sorrow and Anguish of Spirit Pax Animi quem cura fugit Albeit great is the comfort of a moderate Sleep as to the refreshment of Body and Mind whereby they are enabled to execute their Faculties and Offices more vigorously awake yet no small are the Discommodities brought upon us by excess therein as an Indisposition to follow Ingenious Arts or Sciences a Stupidity to comprehend the Truth of things Forgetfulness Supinity or Indifferences what becomes of our future State leaving Affairs in a confused condition Indigested and Desperate It heaps up Crudities flats the Archeus hinders the Expulsion of Superfluities makes the Body Woman-like Delicate Tender Wanton unfit for any Noble Enterprize accumulates Excrements yielding abundant Matter for all sorts of Diseases c. Excess also in Waking is accompanied with multitude of ill Consequents Impovrishment and Distraction of the Spirits Absurd Idea's Indigestion an Augmentation of A-aids Hypochondriack Fits Melancholy and Madness CAAP. IX THe last Inseparable Concomitant of Life to be Insisted upon whereby our condition is made better or worse according as we govern them well or ill is our Passions which if they move regularly produce a sweet Tranquility in the Mind and a Salubrity in the Body but if extravagant flying out beyond their bounds they confound the whole Oeconomy of this Admirable Frame The Stoicks seem to endeavour to deprive themselves of a Sensitive Life when they would have a man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is all one as not to take notice of any thing adverse to Nature for it is impossible for a Man Apprehensible and Imaginable not to be moved by the Object he apprehends or Imagines as it is pleasing or distastful so he desires it or abhors it the Affections hereby set on work great reluctancy effervescence perturbation arise in the Spirits which sometimes strangly alter the Texture and Crasis of the Blood The Idea's or Images of Sorow Fear Anger Joy Jealousie Hatred Emulation are sometimes so fixed in the Animals that they become indeleble hence vain Imaginations of the whole Man Dotage Melancholy and Furie are Emicant neither do the absurd Conceptions and vain Imaginatiors of the whole Man only cause disturbance in the Stomack or Brain Storms or Tempests in the Universal Archeus but likewise the Spirit of every part frameth particular Images of Indignation Fear c. Any Spinous acculeating or pricking Matter in any particular part presently puts the Vital Spirit there into a passion the Archeus of the Eye is forthwith put into an indignation when an Extimulating Fretting Liquor is either injected into it or engendred in it through a fault in its peculiar Degestion whereupon the Lympha Latex or the Wheyish Humour is lured or summoned for the Ablution of this Blot or Defect which when it cannot perform the Ocular Water as well as the Nourishment thereof is depraved through the ringing Attrition of the Sensitive Spirit which ought by all means to be pacified The like Perturbation is observed to be raised in the Archeus of the Ear Nose Windpipe c. when any troublesome cause ariseth there 'T is certainly true Omne Vivens Mortui impatiens esse solet Whatsoever is alienated from Life engendred either within assumed or injected from without brings sometimes sooner or sometimes latter the Custos of the Whole or Part into an Inquietude For this reason Cantharides applyed raise Blisters in the Skin of a
Ludus Paracels reduces the Stone of the Kidneys or Bladder to it's first Principles Spirit of Mercury causeth the Corrupting Impress of the Sore in the Kidneys or Bladder to fade away revocating a Healing Facultie The true tincture of Coral purified Sulphur of ♂ puts a stop to Diabetes Antimony fixed restrains the virulencie of a Gonorrhaea The Emeral'd Red Coral well ordered gives succour in Pissing Blood Crocus Metallorum easeth the blind Piles but above all Van Helm Ring Aetites or Eagle stone placed in the upper parts above the Navil hinders Abortion Situate below about the Thighs cauâ—seth timely Delivery Osteocolla or Lapis Ossifragus taken Inwardly helps to Unite broken bones Vitriol healeth Wounds at a distance The Stone called a Saphire wonderfully brings to naught the Poysonous form of a Carbuncle Arsenick after a peculiar manner Cures Ulcers Antimony the eyes If Hydrophobus be soused in Sea Water the Image of the Dog pourtrayed in the Phancie of him who is bitten becomes annihilated Crystal dug out of the Earth resists the Malignity of Arsnick Auripigmentum Sandaracha Thus far have I pointed at that Pharmacy which having a Gift of Healing implanted in it strikes immediately at the inward Efficient Cause of our Infirmities In the next place I shall make a progress in Removing the Outward Occasional Irritating or Exasperating Matter which provokes enrages the Archeus causing it to fall into inordinate Passions and Perturbations whereby Diseases break forth are encreased become tedious or lethiferous if not timely prevented CHAP. XVIII THere is not any Faculty or Profession hath more imposed upon the Credulity of Mankind than Physick considering how precious the Subject is to be handled likewise how easily we might be Convinced of the grand Errors and abominable Abuses thrust upon us to the loss of our Lives yea our very Souls were we not obstinate self-conceited unspeakably Idle and Malicious In a Comedy called the Cheats an address is made to a Reverend Learned Doctor a Galenist for advice in a difficult Disease who no sooner views the Urine but forthwith gives Councel to Bleed and purge I wish this were only Comical and were not indeed Tragical What Cruelty Tyranny Torments hath been Exercised by the Galenists ovâ—r Mankind What Butcheries and 〈◊〉 hath been made of poor Mortals 〈◊〉 by bleeding and purging is practically known to all Perspicacious Physitians every Week yea every Day How indirectly do these Men assume to themselves priviledges who I 'le maintain to their Faces demonstratively are not able to Cure any great Feaver Radically with Judgment worthy of a Philosopher Can any deliberate well advised Man think that it was ever the intent of any Prince to set up a Company of Men to destroy their Subjects or at least to suffer them to enjoy any Royal priviledge if they perversely against the perspicuous Light of Reason and clear testimony of Fact should persist in their male-praxis their Active wilful Homicide at this day when Van Helm like a Prometheus hath by means of Fire blown up by a Heavenly Benediction Discovered and taught the World the Cure of those truculent Calamities which that Epimetheus or Protoplastes by opening Pandora's Box hath brought upon it I have in Haematia offered Dr. Willis or any other Semi-Chymist or Chymicophant to make it appear by Solid Experiments that Bleeding as there stated is an indirect way to overcome any Grand Disease Seâ— surdo narro dum sibi plaudunt 'T is all one as if I should vociferate to Neptune that he would forbear to swallow up Ships Passengers and Treasure sith 't is the Nature of the Ocean agitated with the Fury of a Tempest to Execute such mischief So it is equally in vain for me to cry aloud if I had Stentor's Voice that Dogmatists would forbear to destroy their Countrey-men for as much as Nature Education Voracious Appetite of Gain and Honour hurry them to that End However I shall always discharge my Duty in reprehending their vitious Method detecting how mischievous it is to the Life of Man As I have deservedly declaimed against Phlebotomie with Arguments and Experiments sufficient to perswade any intelligent Person that it is a Reprobate means of Conquering any great Infirmity So I shall at this time make manifest for the satisfaction of the Senses of all Judicious Men that the common Instruments the Galenists use in Purging or carrying off the Occasional Provoking Morbisique Matter are unworthy to be prescribed by those who own themselves Learned Doctors That I may therefore justly reprove those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who keep Men in Purgatory without Expiation of the Errors of Life I shall besides most clarified Reasons depending upon long Experience alledge the Authority of Hippocrates and Galen for the Countenancing what I deliver That brave Heroe Hippocrates hath delivered to Posterity two Aphorisms worthy to be Written in the Frontispiece of every Honest Able Physitians House The Sense of the first is mentioned five several times in divers places as Aphor. 2. Lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Also Lib. 1. Aphor. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Again Aphor. 25. of the same Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Likewise Aphor. 3. Lib. 4. the same words are repeated And Aphor. 2. of the same Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intimating by these Repetitions that Physitians ought to have a singular care what they purged out of the Body The Second most useful Rule he gives is Aphor. 21. Lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Denoting that in all Evacuations we ought to Observe the Motion Orgasm Inclination of Nature and most convenient passages for that purpose If these Catharsists were Legitimate Disciples of a Master so excellently well Versed in Healing they would never thus promiscuously exclude good and bad Juices by their colliquating Solutives without any Euphorie or Profit to the Sick Man giving Purging and Vomiting Medicines so often repeated that their Patients have complained they have emptied upward and downward 500. times yea some a Thousand yet have found no melioration of their Health but a decay of their Vitals Nothing is more Common than to meet with those who when for their Redress I commend Vomiting or Purgative Physick presently Reply they have undergone too much of that desiring me to forbear When some upon promise of Safety and Efficacy have taken my Emetick Tincture Emeto Diaphoret or Emeto Cathar Powder or Pill with benefit Yet having found little sensible Evacuation they have murmured fearing lest the Physick lay in their Body to their future hurt supposing the same malignity to be in mine as in the Galenical Solutives and that we were to judge of the Patients Restauration according to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the largeness and number of Sieges The miserable Experience of Colliquating Purgatives taken into my own Body the space of Seven or Eight Years without any solid Cure taught me that the uncorrected Catharticks of the Dispensatory oftentimes carry off peccant
cause cure of 3 Cholick-stones of a vast unwonted magnitude also the History of the Exection of the Spleen out of a Dog that lived two years and a quarter after very lively and well with sufficient reasons to back the Experiment the Diseases of the Spleen with preservative and Curative Instructions of the same Lastly a Synopsis or Abridgment of Loimotomia the dissection of a Pestilential Body all in Latine wherein Materia Medica and its Philosophical management shall be more amply examined From Queen-street formerly called Soperâ— lane in Well-court nigh Cheapside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR A just Complaint of the Deceitful Dangerous and Pernicious Method or Way of Curing obstinately insisted upon by the Galenists at this day when a far better means is found out by the Philosophical Chymists Also the Advantage or Benefit arising from a Legitimate Learned Colledge established by Authority Moreover an Invitation to the Galenists to become Ortho-Chymists TO offend when a man neither knows nor is taught better deserves Pity To act amiss through an Importunate Imperfection with an earnest desire to reform argues Ingenuity and a Noble Spirit But wilfully to persist in a Capital Errour to the Ruine of aur Neighbour when one is Advertised thereof and may have better things indigitated to the Senses makes one guilty of abominable Wickedness The time was 26 years past that following those Dogmatical Rules received from Antiquity I did help for two or three years to fatten the Churchyard howsoever with many anxious thoughts much regret and checks of my Soul that I neither did nor could tell how to perform my Duty with more ability in this Weighty profession So disquieted was I night and day upon consideration how being sent for in the beginning of an Acute Evil I suffered a young Man in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Flower of his Strength to be cut off for want of due Medicinal Provision that I resolved to take some other course of life to get a Subsistence rather than thus Conscious of my own Insufficiency to be accessary to the Death of my Patients Yea I did believe persevering in this common road of Malepractice I might contract the guilt of plain Homicide to the utter undoing my Soul Thus after many an Agony or Conflict of Spirit I fell off by little and little from that great Dictators Method and Pharmacie reputed by me at first Oracular Having acquired some Furniture of ordinary Chymical Medicaments I exhibited them though with a trembling Hand and Heart partly through Prejudice partly through fear of being Adulterated to those tired out with long Sickness as the Scurvie Qâ—artane Hypocondriak Passions c. yet with a success happy beyond my expectation The Galenical Doctrine becoming at first suspected and at length less reputed incited by my Tutor and another Friend an excellent Chymist I was fully bent without wavering to purchase Van Helmont one formerly slighted by me for inveighing without cause as I foolishly thought against the Schools to read him intirely impartially with a single Eye and a Marginal Note In the upshot after a serious rumination of those Physical Verities relating to the Radical Essence and Cure of Diseases communicated by this incomparable Searcher into Nature I forthwith took out a new Lesson of Theory and Practice renouncing my former mistakes imploring an Influence from Heaven that I might be farther informed Wherefore nauseating a Hundred Treatises of Feavers and other 〈…〉 nothing but Cramben millies coctam the same obsolete stuff over and over I rid my self of the Impediments or luggage of a fruitless Library wholy addicting my self to the Lecture of Initia Physicae inaudita and other of the most Authentick Authors coadjuvant to the understanding of the more obscure places delivered by our Philosopher Then according to his Advice I bought Glasses erected Furnaces fell to labour with my own hands prepared according to his general direction the Materia Medica which I first took into my own body for Tryal afterward tendred it to my Patients In this manner making a progress twenty years compleat from that time to this Having maturely received a farther Illumination and Confirmation of the solid Principles of Chymical Physiologie and the rotten Foundation of the Galenical abominating Bleeding as rightly stated uncorrected Purgatives c. I have with convincing predictions been able Auspice Deo to relieve the Calamities Languors and grievous Wounds of poor Mortals to the infinite satisfaction of my own Spirit A proof whereof I have tendered to Dr. Willis Dr. Merret Dr. Goddard and divers others of our London Colledge and am now ready to make good by Fact in a publick Hospital or private Families that the Galenical Design of Healing is Fraudulent Dangerous and Deadly As likewise that our rightly Instituted Fabrick of Pharmacy with the Method of dispensing and distributing it is Upright Safe and Sanative withal that those Allegations of excessive preternatural Heat Virulency Violence consuming the Humidum Radicale or shortning the Life imputed to our Remedies are Malicious Slanders False Accusations Detractions Cavils and subtil Devises contrived by these Traders in Men's Skins on purpose to keep up their Interest though Myriads perish Any but one obstinate rash self-conceited will judge Charitably of my proceedings in this kind sith deserting the Galenical usual manner of prescribing I incurred the displeasure yea hatred of most Apothecaries a dis-repute among the Galenical Chirurgeons because I condemn Phlebotomy and the common way of Healing Wounds Sores c. The rash Incogitant censures and Raillery of Midwives Nurses or such like Creatures with the Huffings sâ—ibs tepulses of Fortunes Favourites and the Abuses Sarcasms opprobrious Language of the ruder sort Moreover hereby I haue lost my Ease outward Applause Riches and Honours and many secular Respects laid hold by the Galenists in Oliver's Days and since without the least touch or scruple of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides upon Consideration that had I then plaid my Game Craftily which I could easily have done as well as the best of them I should have enjoyed no less Temporal Advantages than they But seeing I had more sublime thoughts esteeming nothing too dear so that I might attain the Gift of Healing as I ought Therefore in all Equity and Reason I ought to be listned to who request nothing more than that the Helmontian Doctrine which I assert may be accepted so far as I can make it appear true by repeated Experiments Once more I shall entreat those Learned Galenists they would be pleased out of Respect to their own Souls Commiseâ—ation to miserable Mortals for the Dignity Glory and Promotion of this Divine Science to put a stop to their profuse Effusion of Blood Consumption of the strength of the Body by tabefying Purgations withal to abandon fruitless cooling Julebs Pusillanimous Cordials Poysonous Vesicatories If the Galenists whose Estimation I should abhor to blemish did not the Life of Man stand in Competition still
for the Future 4. The Medicinal Profit Advantages and Service that will attend a Chymical Society established by Law is most remarkable which the Reader shall find described in Ortho-Methodus Iatro Chymica That Catalogue of Incurable Diseases given in by the Galenists will be Cancelled and an appropriate means found to Remedy the most Truculent Sickness and Atrocious virulent Malady Deus Omnes Nationes fecit sanabiles The Powerful Benign Father of every good and perfect Gift hath Created a Salve for every Sore onely ungrateful sloathful supine Man will not exert his Faculties for the Indagation or narrow search of such precious latrical Pearls to be valued above any thing in this World yea so indifferent he is so Paralytical in his desires towards the Summum Bonum Sanity of Body and Soul so wilfully miserable that he is loath to put out his Hand to receive so great a favour though he may have it gratis rather Envying retarding than furthering those who labour for a publick good Were this Iatro Chymical Exploit indulged and quickned by those in Authority such Polyacea's might be brought to light enriched with Virtues abundantly sufficient to Conquer and quite cut off those complicated Evils which like Hydra's Heads elude the Vulgar Medicaments If Artists were animated the Epilepsie Appoplexy Gout Quartan Lues Venerea Scorbute Radicated yea and the Itch which I wondred they omitted amongst the List of their Incurable Diseases for I am sure their Method cannot Cure Directly would not thus Tyrannize in this Microcosm An Adaequate Lithontribon might be detected Potent to dissolve the Stone in the Bladder without Cruel uncertain Lithotomie Were the World furnished with Compleat Learned Pyrotechnists no Man would fail to be Cured in due time of a Pleurisie by Anti-Pleuriticks not Bleeding expeditely radically without relapse or future danger of being obnoxious to the like pungitive vexation again All Feavers might in a few days be strangled The Measles and Small Pox might be Cured without Scandal in the same manner as other defaults in Nature to the Contempt of Ignorant and Presumptuous Nurses Midwives and the like Gang who in this stare fear to meddle not without just Reason with Opinionative Physitians having been so notoriously un-successful in the management of this Malignant Disease Neither let any one think that their Method is more prevalent to Cure other malignant Feavers no such Matter onely their unlucky dealing is more obvious to the common People in this Cutaneous affect who cannot in more obscure passages so easily pry into their egregious Imperfections Were there frequent consultations of Philosophical Spagyrists receiving mutual Assistance one from another the Liquor Alkahest and Butler's stone might in all probability be enucleated and set on work for Mortals Good The Magical Magnetical and Sympathetical Mystery of Healing might be improved and confirmed The Feat of Obstetrication might be far more advanced to the Grand disgrace of certain Men who profess it and to the Regulating of some self-conceited rash Women Chirurgery made appear to belong principally setting aside Manual Operation to the Skilful Chymists who have in their Custody such mortifiers of the Idea's of Cacoethick Sores Fistula's Cancers Herpete's c. Such Vital Balsoms and Sanatives to be taken inwardly and outwardly that the Chirurgion should be forced to confess that in most Cases the Physitian is to be sought to and that in long Voyages none are to be compared to Spagyrical preparations for duration with which being accurately Fabricated he and the Apothecary should be furnished upon Occasions A Legitimate Substantial Efficacious Pharmacy being introduced the Supposititious AAdulterated Trivial Insufficient Factures rejected Then will the promiscuous indifferent confused comprehension at this day of the Counterfeit and Real the Apish and Manly Chymical Exercitations be made plain to mean Capacities How our Colluding Galenists have imposed upon the World by owning themselves the best Chymists though worse than the greatest Adulterators of Sack for which none can plead but the impudent Sophisticator or Compounder Then will the Thermologist be either ashamed so much as to mention Hot and Cold for the cause or Câ—re of Diseases Or if he should he might perhaps be ridiculously discarded by the Friends of the Patient to his detestable shame as a singular Fool. If once the Omnipotent encline the Hearts of our Governours to cherish and resolutely protect this Divine Science cutting holes in the Skin will grow out of fashion Epispasticks Blysterings Scarifications will be thought fitting for none but Malefactors Common Purgation and Bleeding with their dreggy Decoctions little better than Drenches will be confined to the Cure of Horses If Prometheus Fire were throughly kindled among us our eyes would be opened that we might understand how those very Galenists who have declaimed undeservedly railed at and condemned Chymical Remedies in General have been forced at length unless they ventured to come off with unsufferable disgrace to minister closely the same sleight Preparations of the Shops altogether renounced by the Spagyrical Sophist Yea it will appear how in time of their greatest Ignorance they have advised their Patients to the Sumption of Mineral Waters thereby implicitly and tacitly denoting against their wills that Natute taught them to be Chymists if they had not been obstinately blinder than Bats and Owls Lastly if such a Philosophical Chymical Company be Authorized and Countenanced Mechanicks will be much promoted their Manual faculties will be more dextrously carried on The Art of Gilding Painting Writing Artillery may be wound up to a higher pitch Metals might be more intimately purged refined volatile made more fixed the terrestrial parts more sublimed their colour and sound exalted those friable made Ductile the Ignobler provected and Generous augmented Mercury precipitated coagulated c. then combined with multiplicity of Bodies with which it will shew variety of Shapes useful for divers Mechanical Factures Antimony likewise technically prepared might be employed for the advancement of many Handycrafts Sulphur Anreum Fulminans might be made in greater quantity and cheaper for the atchievement of many rare Designs Such Electrums might be made which would perform Stupendious things A clearer Light of the Lapis Chrysopoeus might be given Doubtless Artificers would find that the compleat Learned Spagyrist would be able to instruct them for the contriving of several Mechanies to his advantage never to be attained by Ideot-Chymists I hope these Important Motives and Persuasive Reasons will excite the Magistrate to Constitute with all Expedition such a Learned Society of Ortho-Chymists that they themselves and these Nations may gather the delicious fruits thereof and Forreigners may be lured to follow their good Example Withal I Supplicate the Omnipotent to put it into the Hearts of the more Generous and Refined Spirits of the Galenists to take for the future Right Measures for the Cure of Humane Griefs to wave when they are to aim at Essential Sanation those Childish Fopperies of Heat and Cold and to abdicate and