Wood the said Alkaly by causing a Division of the Particles of the Nitre and Sulphur does so alter the Property of it that instead of burning placidly and easily the least Spark of Fire falling into it will cause an Explosion viz. make it take Fire all at once and so be consumed as 't were in an instant Are not the Attacques of some Fevers and other acute Distempers much like to this Explosion wherein Nature seems to be overthrown and the whole Course of it put out of order almost in an instant This is all at present I think necessary to take notice of in relation to the warm Particles you speak of and that Acids are the only Medicines to suppress this unnatural Heat I think I have already made appear As for the Inferences you are pleased to draw from them I think I have nothing more to do with them but slightly to touch at them they having already fallen under my Consideration And I have sufficiently demonstrated that Alkalies are the Causes of all preternatural Heats in our Bodies But supposing that preternatural Heats are occasioned by the superabundance of Alkalies in the Blood you still seem to be dissatisfied about them also For say you if they are fixt ones how comes it to pass that on the Dissolution of the Texture of the Blood they claim the highest Place and nothing will serve their turn but they must needs swim in the Serum if Volatile how is it that we often-times find this warm Serum little better than insipid Volatile Salts you know are aculeated and affect the Palat strongly May they not rather be of a sulphureous Nature since 't is the Nature of such Substances to sit uppermost on the Dissolution of Bodies First I don't remember that I have any where said that fixt Alkalies do claim the highest Place in the Dissolution of Bodies and that they swim uppermost in the Liquors in which they are dissolved But this I believe you infer from my Experiment with the Serum which is the lightest part of the Blood and therefore is uppermost in the Poringer after it hath stood some time and that a Separation is made in the Parts thereof Now I did not make use of the Experiment with the Serum and Syrup of Violets thereby to intimate that Serum only was over impregnated with Alkalious Particles but that being the most colourless part of the Blood was therefore most proper for such an Experiment For should I have made such an Experiment with the fibrous and globulous Parts of the Blood which are combined together in one Mass they are so imbued with a scarlet Dye that a small quantity of it would tinge a great quantity of Solution of Syrup of Violets with the same Colour altho at the same time it were greatly overcharged with Alkalious Particles Therefore in my plain and easy way of analizing the Blood I have made use of it altogether as it came out of the Veins But if a Man considers with what Rapidity the Blood moves along the Vessels it is impossible but all the Parts must be so mixt together that if the Serum be overcharged with Alkalious Particles the other parts must be so also or if the other parts be overcharged the Serum must be in like manner so But however as for sixt Alkalies the Blood is very rarely overcharged with them the Substances we take in for our Nourishment affording very little of them after burning and therefore Nature has provided but one Emunctory for the carrying them off viz. the Ductus Biliaris which empties it self into the Duodenum and is conveyed off along with the Excrement of our Food by stool Whereas there are Millions of Emunctories besides that great Discharge that is made by Urine to carry off the Volatile Alkaly But if at any time the Glands of the Liver are obstructed that the fixt Alkaly cannot be separated from the Blood what fatal Effects does it produce I have scarce ever known a true Ascites which is that kind of Dropsy that is scarcely ever to be cured which hath not had its Origine from an Obstruction of those Vessels in the Liver which separate the Bile from the Blood Nay frequently they have a Jaundice upon them thro the whole Course of the Distemper But if not so I never yet knew an Ascites that had not a Jaundice preceded it and in what manner the whole Oeconomy of the Body is destroyed in this Distemper is but too well known But this is not the only Distemper that hath its Origine from the Obstruction of these Vessels tho it be one of the most dangerous Secondly As for what you say concerning the Insipidness of the Taste of the warm Serum I suppose you mean that Serum which is overheated in Fevers c. the Serum being always warm whilst People are alive I can assure you it is contrary to my long Experience for of many Years it has been my Custom to taste the Serum of the Blood not only in Fevers but all other Distempers where I have had occasion to prescribe Blood-letting and in some Fevers I have found the Volatile Salt to bite my Tongue very severely but never once could find the Serum insipid and by this way of tasting I can better judg of the Condition of my Patient than from the Colour of the Blood But in those Cases where the Serum is much inviscated as in most Pleurisies Rheumatisms and many Fevers the Volatile Alkaly is so involved that it doth not very strongly affect the Taste tho it is never insipid that I could ever yet find As for Volatile Salts being aculeated and affecting the Palat strongly I am very glad you take notice of it since the general Notion that most people have of all Alkalies is that they are of such a sweet soft mild Nature that they carry a sanative Virtue along with them wherever they go Thirdly I own that sulphureous Substances are wont to sit uppermost in the Dissolution of Bodies and that the Blood is impregnated with such Substances I am far from denying but they appear in all respects to be equally distributed through all its parts but suppose they should sit uppermost here and the Serum more impregnated with them than the globulous and fibrous parts of the Blood Sulphureous Substances won't change Syrup of Violets from blue to green and the Serum abounding with those Particles that will do so which are Alkalies these Alkalious Particles by breaking and dividing the Particles of the Sulphur will increase and excite the Flame I have before taken notice of to a more intense degree For the Serum would not be the more hot supposing it did abound with sulphureous Particles unless the said Particles were some way or other enkindled Letter But thirdly if Alkalies are the Original of all Distempers whence is it that in Dropsies Catarrhs some Gouts and other Distempers we find the Texture of the Blood so thin 'T
again let it lie never so long which argues plainly that the Particles of the Air are not Alkalious And therefore were Acids so injurious to Mens Bodies as some would have us believe they are every Draught of Air we take in must poison us since the Air is full of Acid Particles and I believe no body doubts but that the Air has a free Communication with the Blood if not by the Lungs at least by the receptory Pores of Skin But I think it 's plain that there is a Communication with it both ways By all the ways I could yet contrive I have not been able to procure one Grain of pure Acid from the Blood of either healthy or sick People But in the before recited Experiments you find there is always a proportion of fetid Oil with which Oil the Acid is imbodied to make it a proper Pabulum for the vital Flame and when once Acid and Oleaginous Bodies are well united which they will very readily do it is no very easy matter to cause a Separation of them Now the reason that this Oil hath such a very ill Savour is from its coming over the Helm along with the Volatile Alkaly all Alkalies whether Volatile or fixt giving a very ill Smell to sulphureous oleaginous Bodies especially if together they are exposed to a great degree of Heat and the Heat that is required to bring them over the Helm is much greater than that of our Bodies tho in a burning Fever Yet from the Action of the Volatile excrementitious Alkaly upon the sulphureous parts of the Blood may I think a very good reason be given for the Symptoms that attend most if not all Fevers for all Alkalies destroy Sulphurs as may be seen in the making of Soap Hepar Sulphuris c. Sulphurs are the active Principle in both Animal and Vegetable Juices Alkalies by breaking and dividing the Particles of the Sulphurs excite Fermentations and by degrees cause a total Dissipation of them Acids are a sort of Vinculum to Sulphurs and therefore they suppress Fermentations and keep the Sulphur from Dissipation From whence I infer that a true Oleosum must be the great Medicine but it must not be such a one as commonly goes under that Name which is only a Combination of Volatile Alkaly with Spirit of Wine and Aromatick Oils or Spices instead of which it must be an Acido-oleosum an exalted Acid combined after the foresaid manner The Life of Man it self being principally supported by an Acido-oleosum If any one asks me what I mean by Sulphur My Answer is whatsoever is inflammable And with such kind of Substances the World is almost every where filled For without them neither the Lives of Men nor Beasts could be any way supported and therefore those places that are best supplied with them are best stockt with Animals of all kinds whereas those that are deficient in them such as the Desarts of Arabia c. are almost wholly destitute of all kinds of living Creatures Letter But secondly there is another way of discovering an Alkaly besides that of its Appearance and that is by its effects to wit its Fermentation with Spirit of Vitriol Now I aver this green Serum will not ferment with the foresaid Spirit Wherefore if it be an Alkaly it is an Alkaly of a particular nature It must be granted that we oftentimes find in the Blood some Particles of a very warm nature predominant in which cases I have found Acids to be of great use but whether they are of an Alkaline Nature or not I leave to the Learned to determine If they are Alkalies then either fixt or Volatile if fixt how comes it to pass that on the Dissolution of the Texture of the Blood they claim the highest place and nothing will serve their turn but they must needs swim in the Serum if Volatile how is it that we many times find this warm Serum to be little better than insipid Volatile Salts you know are aculeated and affect the Palat strongly May they not rather be of a sulphureous nature since it is the Nature of such Substances to sit uppermost on the Dissolution of Bodies Answer I own it is one of the genuine and constant Effects of an Alkaly to cause an Effervescency when mixt with Spirit of Vitriol or any other Acid Spirit but whether this Effervescency be to be accounted a Fermentation I greatly question Tho Alkalies will excite Fermentation in fermentible Liquors as is well known to many Mechanicks and I fear too well by the Brewers about this City As for what you mean by the green Serum which you say will not ferment or effervesce with Spirit of Vitriol I cannot tell But sure I am that if you put a little Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a small Bottle and upon that pour some Serum of Blood that will turn Syrup of Violets green it will immediately become intensly hot and a great many Bubbles will immediately rise which looks very like a Fermentation if it be not one therefore when you made this Experiment upon which you are so confident there must needs be some Error committed for upon your urging this thing the first Opportunity I had I made the Experiment afresh and it succeeded the very first time and I doubt not but if you will give your self the trouble of making this Experiment again it will not fail of succeeding As for those warm Particles that you say are often predominant in the Blood I must confess I don't understand what you mean by them the Blood whilst we are in a state of Health is always warm the reason of which I have before given you If we have a Fever upon us the Blood exceeds its natural Temper according as the Fever is more or less violent Now the Cause of this Excess of Heat in a febrile state I take to be as follows in most Fevers especially in the beginning of them there is a Constipation of some of the Emunctories so that the excrementitious Alkaly which should be carried off by them is detained in the Blood which by breaking of its Globules and dividing of the sulphureous Particles which are the Pabulum of the vital Flame does either excite what we call a Fermentation or rather by dividing the sulphureous Particles and subduing the Acid that held them together does increase the Flame to an intense degree An Instance of which we have in common Fire as I have elsewhere taken notice of and shall here again repeat viz. let the Matter of which Fire is made be laid close together and then kindled and it will consume leisurely and by degrees whereas let it be laid at some little distances one from another and it will consume with a rapid and intense Flame Salt-Peter also and Brimstone being mixt together will burn with a gentle and easy Flame but by adding a Proportion of Charcoal-Dust as is the Method in making Gun-powder wherein is contain'd the fixt Alkaly of the
c. But my Hypothesis doth not altogether hang upon so slender a Thred as the change of Colour tho that be a better Foundation than a great many Hypotheses are built upon You may very well remember that I brought this Experiment upon the Stage only to satisfy Gentlemen who have not the conveniency of making more elaborate ones And all Mankind having imbibed the Notion that if any thing ailed them they immediately concluded that it proceeded from an Acidity of their Blood I therefore thought it my Duty to convince them of the contrary in the most familiar manner I could but I never expected that Physicians should take up with it I referring them to a more certain Method viz. to analize the Blood of their sick Patients and to compare the Substances produced from it with the Substances produced from the Blood of People in a state of Health And if once they will but take that Method I am morally certain that the number of my Enemies will every day decrease But let People continue to say what they will of me I shall endeavour to satisfy my self and to act for my Patients with as clear a Conscience as possibly I can And if after all I am reproached by my Brethren I must bear it as well as I can It never will be in any Physician 's power to make people Immortal but at the same time I am absolutely certain that peoples Lives are frequently prolonged by the use of proper Remedies and I doubt not but that they are also shortned by the use of improper ones And if we are mistaken as to the Cause of Diseases I don't see how we can readily find out proper Medicines Letter For first if this Alkalisated Serum is the Original of Distempers then it must follow that wheresoever we find this Serum there must be likewise a Distemper now I appeal to your self if the Blood of a healthy Person will not give Syrup of Violets a green Tincture does not then the Argument labour may we not then impute this Phaenomenon to arise rather from a due mixture of the Principles than from any vitiated Habit of Blood Answer I confess this is close arguing and much to the purpose But you may remember that I no where say that the Serum of well Persons Blood will not turn a Solution of Syrup of Violets from a blue Colour to that of Greenness But on the other hand I have asserted that the Blood of those labouring under any Distemper I have met with will do it in order to prove that the said Distempers did not proceed from Acids because if it had abounded with Acids instead of turning it from blue to green it would as is before observed have turned it from blue to red Well but still the Serum of the Blood of a well Person will cause the same change in the Solution of Syrup of Violets as that of a sick one and therefore to rid my self of that Difficulty is the great thing I have now to do First I all along throughout my Tract of the Gout the Piece you refer to and elsewhere do endeavour to prove that the Blood of Persons in a morbid state doth more abound with Alkalious Particles than that of well Persons but no where say that the Blood of well Persons hath no Alkaly in it And that the Blood of sick People in all or most Distempers doth abound with such Particles more than that of those that are in a state of Health is to be demonstrated several Ways First If you take an equal Proportion of the Serum of the Blood of a healthy Person and of that of a Person in a Fever Pleurisy c. and pour them into the same Quantities of Solution of Syrup of Violets of equal Strength you will find that wherein the Serum of the sick Person 's Blood was poured to be much greener than the other Secondly If you take two Ounces of the Blood of a healthy Person as it comes out of the Veins Serum and all together and two Ounces of the Blood of a Person in a Fever Pleurisy a Fit of the Gout c. and commit them to Distillation in the same degree of Heat you will find that the Blood of the sick Person will produce a much greater quantity of Alkaly than that of the Person in a state of Health Secondly What shall I do with this Alkaly that is to be found in the Blood of healthy Persons Because every Body has some Alkaly in their Blood must every Body therefore labour under some Distemper Why truly I can't say that I ever yet met with that Person who upon strict Enquiry had not some Complaint or other to make Mankind since the Fall is subject to Death every moment there being since that time a Principle of Death in opposition to that of Life implanted in our Natures and not only in our Natures but in the Natures of every thing else for our sakes And God said to Adam upon his Fall Cursed be the Ground for thy sake c. I confess there are many in our Age who will laugh at and ridicule me for having recourse to Sacred Writ especially to the Writings of Moses which they look upon as a kind of Romance but let them laugh on If there were not a Principle of Death within us how is it possible for a Man one Hour to be in a good state of Health and the very next to be expiring How this may be I shall endeavour to demonstrate as clearly as possibly I can All the Alkaly that there is to be found in the Blood is most certainly an Excrement and in a way of being carried off by some of the Emunctories and if any of the Emunctories chance to be stopt that this excrementitious Alkaly hath not room to pass out by them why then there is a Distemper of some kind or other caused the Blood being overcharged with this excrementitious Matter How many Distempers are occasioned by what we call taking of Cold which is nothing else but a Constipation of the Pores What is the Occasion of the Jaundice but an Obstruction of those Vessels in the Liver which separate the bilious Particles from the Blood and what dreadful Distempers does the Jaundice frequently cause How are Mortals tormented by the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder and what is the original Cause of them but an Obstruction in the Kidneys whereby the excrementitious Alkaly which should be carried off that way by its over long stay in those Parts is converted into that Substance we call a Stone And whoever will give themselves the trouble of distilling Stones either from the Kidneys or Bladder will find that they are composed of Alkalious Particles I could expatiate and I doubt not give an Account of the Cause of all or most of the Distempers attending Human Bodies from the excrementitious Alkaly being hindred from being carried off by the proper Emunctories And I appeal to all
is observable that those Particles you term Alkalies the more the Blood is saturated with them the more thick consistence it is of as we see in Pleurisies Rheumatisms and other inflammatory Cases in which Distempers if in any these Alkalies abound is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion and render it thin Answ In most inflammatory Cases where the Blood is immediately affected there the Serum is viscous and sizy being overcharged with Alkalious Particles but in those Cases you mention and in some others where the Blood is over thin it is not the over Thinness of the Blood which is the only Cause of those Diseases but a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts and where the Tone of any Part is once spoiled the great quantity of excrementitious Matter is soon thrown thence and so the Violence of the Malady is increased Besides in Dropsies the Quantity of fluid taken in they being always thirsty is so very disproportionate to what is carried off they always making Water but in very small quantities in proportion to what they drink that it 's no marvel that their Blood is over thin I have frequently in Dropsies known People drink three Quarts in a day when they have not pissed a Pint And that Acids should occasion the Thirst that attends Hydropical People is ridiculous to imagine when they are the only things in the World that will quench Thirst Besides do but consider the Nature of the Medicines that are most effectual to bring the Blood to a Consistence when it is over thin I have scarcely ever met with any thing equal to Calibeats and that Steel is an Acid I have elsewhere endeavoured to prove And as a farther Proof of it I shall produce the Testimony of Beckerus no contemptible Man in his Minera Arenaria pag. the 88th Non recensebo jam qualiter ille spiritus esurinus in aquis subterraneis latitans varia sibi Salium Aluminum Vitriolorum Sulphurum Realgarium mineralium compositionum species producat nec demonstrabo quâ ratione supra terram in Aeris regione tractus quidam hujus Acidi spiritus de uno Polo ad alterum perillum acus Magnetica feratur Hoc tantum hic loci allegabo omne Acidum substantiae martialis esse in quocunque oleo pinguedine fuligine limo silice arena imo etiam ipsa flamma reperibile ac ad oculum demonstrari posse quaecunque ergo naturae Acidae martialis sunt illa potestatem habent Alkali tanquam substantiam metallorum mercurialem alterandi transmutandi Now if this Thinness of the Blood be to be taken off and the Blood brought to its due Consistence by the means of Acids it is not reasonable to suppose that Acids should be the cause of its fusion But then I confess here lies a great Difficulty viz. how is it possible for Acids to make the Blood thin when 't is too thick and viscous and to bring it to a due consistence when it is over fluid To which I answer That should I pretend to give an account what Acids taken in the proper Latitude would do I should be guilty of the greatest Arrogance imaginable for that would be to pretend to as much Knowledg as Solomon had who knew the Virtues of Plants even from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hysop which grows upon the Wall And Divine Providence had determined him to be the wisest of Men that had ever been before him or that should come after him All Plants from the greatest to the smallest are principally composed of Acido-sulphureous Particles for what Comparison is there to be made between the small quantity of fixt Alkaly that is to be found in the Ashes after burning and of Volatile Alkaly in the Soot in relation to the great quantity of Acido sulphureous matter that is spent in Flame Or to come nearer to the matter let a Pound of any Vegetable which affords the greatest quantity of fixt Alkaly viz. Broom or any such Plant be sufficiently dried so that the superfluous Humidity may be evaporated after that is done let it be committed to Distillation per se and it will afford between two and three Ounces of an Acid Spirit with a good quantity of Oil when all the Art of Man is not able to procure from the Caput Mortuum above two Drams of fixt Alkaly and as is before observed Broom is one of those Plants that affords the largest quantity of fixt Alkaly Now the Acid Spirit and Oil are those Substances which in burning serve to supply the Flame and from the Caput Mortuum unless it be afterwards burnt there is no fixt Alkaly to be obtained But here again to obviate the Objection before taken notice of viz. that the Fire may produce new Substances which were not existent in Bodies before or that for instance the fixt Alkaly to be produced out of the Ashes of the Caput Mortuum of the Broom is only the Product of the Fire If this were so why then the Ashes after all the Salt has been once extracted being again committed to a Violent Fire must produce more Salt whereas on the contrary let it be committed to the Fire in the most violent degree of heat and continued there for never so long a time yet it will never after afford the least quantity of Salt of any kind But that I may return to answer the former Objection viz. how Acids are capable of making the Blood thin when over viscous and also to reduce it to its consistency when it is over thin All the Bodies in Nature are differently specificated by the all-wise Author of Nature and at the same time are all animated by one Universal Acid Spirit which is what the Antients were wont to call the Soul of the World and I think not improperly Now the more any Bodies are impregnated with this universal Acid Spirit and its beloved Sister Sulphur the more perfect they are and Gold which is one of the most perfect and durable Bodies in Nature seems to be composed of nothing else but a pure Acidum and Sulphur as I think has been sufficiently made appear by some of the most strict Enquirers into Nature's Secrets Now the more perfect any Bodies are the more Acidum and Sulphur they contain and afford the least quantity of Excrement viz. Alkaly that being the only Destroyer of all Bodies and is what brings them to a state of Putrefaction and Corruption Well but what 's all this to the answering of the Objection twice started Why it 's only to make my way clear But I shall now apply my self to it There are two general sorts of Acids viz. manifest and inveloped ones the manifest ones are such as immediately appear to the Taste and these altho originally the same proceeding from the same universal Fountain yet have different Operations upon Human Bodies The inveloped ones are such as