the hardness of the Spleen with a Pultis made of a Root which produces the effect of a Vesicatory in drawing to it abundance of Water This has some affinity to the practice of the Ancients who were wont to apply actual Cauteries to the region of the Spleen He was also to have discoursed to us of their ingenious method of curing Venerial Distempers and the Lethargie â—n a Description of Virginia which at my request he was making An American named Raocomoco one of their Physicians for a little money shew'd him a certain Root which if chewed in the Mouth and the hands rubbed therewith one might handle all sorts of Serpents without danger He said that none besides himself understood the vertues of that Plant which he called Kibaschkonko that is in their Language the Death of Serpents or Serpents-bane Its vertues are much like those of the Plant called Dictamnus Virginius which is found in Virginia The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Anno 1665 relate that with this Plant â—ounded and put upon the end of a Staff they kill that kind of Serpent by them called Rattle-Snakes if they but smell it it s very smell making them dye within the space of half an hour That in all places where this Plant grows none of those Serpents are found In the same Transactions we find that the Virginians have a Root called Vichacan wherewith they cure Wounds Raocomoco passed for so able a Magician that he could by the Invocation of one of their Gods called Heiamsough cause Slaves that were run away to return to their Masters and could handle burning Coals without receiving any harm He foretold that he should die a violent death for which cause he preserved a friendship and conversed much with the English from whom he apprehended less danger than from those of his own Nation as indeed he had good reason for he was assassinated by order of one of their petty Kings he having rendred himself suspected for having sojourned too long among the English of Carolina The knowledge of the qualities of so many Plants is admirable in those ignorant people There may be some reason to believe that those Daemons which instruct their Priests or Sacrifisers in the art of Physick cure Diseases only by the knowledge of certain Plants and Minerals whose vertues they understand and not without such external means as may naturally produce the effect A Fragment of the Oracles of Aesculapius may be seen in Gruter where the Remedies which this God or rather this Daemon prescribes to the Sick which come to consult him are natural and proper for the Disease Here follow three which I have translated LVCIVS BEING SICK of a pain in his side and being given over by all the God Aesculapius pronounced this Oracle That he should come and take off from the Altar Ashes which he should mix with Wine and apply the mixture to his side Which he did and was presently cured and came publickly to give thanks unto the God and the people congratulated his recovery Here 's the Remedy which Women use for the pain in their Sides for they are wont upon this occasion to apply to their side a little bag fill'd with hot Ashes The Wine augments the vertue of the Ashes in dissipating the Wind which is sometimes the cause of this pain But as it must be a Physician who can discern whether this pain proceed from Wind or from some other cause it happens oftentimes that people do more harm than good with their Applications and instead of discussing a Wind augment an Inflammation which was but beginning JVLIANV'S SPITTING Bloud being given over by every body the God being asked commanded him to come and take off the Altar Kernels of Pine-apples and eat them with Honey for three days wherewith he was cured and came to give thanks to the God in the presence of all the people Kernels of Pine-apples are good for the Breast they sweeten the Humours and serve for a Balm to shut up the Vessels so that they are excellent in Ptisick and Spitting of Bloud and every one knows that Honey is 〈◊〉 great Pectoral Hippocrates whâ— is by some accused to have copied his Remedies from those iâ— the Temple of Aesculapius prescribes these Kernels with Myrrhâ— to compose a Remedy for thâ— Breast VALERIVS APER BEINâ— Blind the God ordered him 〈◊〉 his Oracle that he should come and take of the bloud of a white Cock and mix it with Honey and make thereof a Collyrium to be put upon his Eyes for three days and he recovered his Sight and came to give thanks publickly to this God The bloud of a Cock is very proper by its heat to dissipate the spots that are beginning in the Eyes and Honey clears the sight so that there is nothing strange in it if Medicines composed of these two ingredients recover the sight of a man that began to be blind 'T is true indeed that upon the same Marble may be read the Cure of another blind man whom the God commanded to put his five fingers upon the Altar and then put them upon his Eyes which has in it no natural cause which might produce such an effect But to return to our Febrifuges we may hope that the reserches which shall be made herein may discover unto us many things which now lie hid And to this purpose I think it would be necessary for us to disengage our selves from the Sentiments of the Antients wherewith we are prepossessed for these tell us of nothing but Choler Flegm Melancholy Remedies cooling and evacuating and such-like For upon their Principles there is no way for any new discoveries but we are confin'd and hindered from penetrating further into the nature of things I shall now give you some Idea's the clearest I can of the nature and causes of a Fever which are not much different from the Sentiments of the most learned of the Moderns upon which it will be easie to explain its Symptoms and cure A Fever is an extraordinary agitation of the mass of Bloud which disturbs the Oeconomy of the body of man This Agitation is produced by many external causes as immoderate Exercises heat of the Sun Falls all those Objects which may stir up our Anger Fear or Sadness and by other causes which move the Bloud with too much violence But the most ordinary cause of Fevers and which doth not onely produce Ephemera's and those of a few â—ays but also intermitting and â—ontinual Fevers with their returns at certain periods and also malignant Fevers is a Ferment or Chyle become too sharp which being introduced into the Bloud does there produce an extraordinary Emotion which causes different Symptoms And this may be proved from this that all sharp Liquors or Acids mixed with other Liquors of an opposite nature which we call Alkalies do cause an Effervescence So if you mix Oyl of Vitriol with Oyl of Tartar they make a considerable ebullition and become
have done no great service to the Publick by explaining in French what they have written in Latine 8. Whence is it that the hands and feet and sometimes the faces of those who have Fevers swell Because the aqueous parts of the corrupted Chyle being driven to the extremities of the Body the heat of the hands and feet in comparison of the other parts of the Body being so small that it cannot dissipate it and the hardness and density of the skins does not easily admit of Transpiration This may be considered in the hands and feet where working and walking render the skin of those parts harder than that of the rest of the Body And our Practice shews us that these Swellings happen most commonly in those who void the least Urine and sweat not and in feeble and aged persons So that these Swellings are not so much to be feared provided they depend not on some Disease of the Viscera and the Fever diminish for they will afterwards be dissipated by Purgatives and Cordials 9. Why do Quartains when they continue long introduce a Dropsie hardness of the Liver or Spleen or a Jaundice A Dropsie succeeds a Quartain by the same means that cause the swellings of the extreme parts of the Body When this Serosity instead of discharging it self upon the hands and feet falls into the Belly or when those parts are already puft up then the Swelling rises up to the legs then to the thighs and so to the belly or what is yet worse when by the long continuance of the Disease the Viscera are so dried and hardened that they cannot purifie the Bloud nor separate the Serosity from it This hardening and schircus of the Liver and Spleen are the effects of the continual dissipation which the febrifick heat makes of the nutritive moisture And the Jaundice is an effect of these hardenings and obstructions of the lower Belly caused by the acid Ferment which makes the Choler flow back into the Veins stopping the passages which should convey it to the bladder of the Gall. Now it is certain that Acids obstruct and coagulate in those parts where they predominate So that what Hippocrates saith That a Quartain is not onely not dangerous but exempts those that have it from other great Diseases may be true in Greece which lying under a hotter Climate than ours produces not Quartains so obstinate and incommode as are those which reign in this Country as well because their Bloud is not so gross as because there is a better Transpiration In effect Climates do strangely diversifie Diseases for we are not acquainted with those Quintains Septain and Nonain Fevers which have their Fits every fifth every 7th and every 9th day whereof the same Hippocrates speaks A Collegue of mine told me that he had seen not long since a Septain Fever the Patient having had five or six Fits which happened regularly every seventh day And I saw one lately who had three Fits every seventh day which might perhaps be the effect of hazard rather than of a regular motion 10. Whether a great Abstinence can cure a Fever That which gives occasion for this Question is what I have already said That it was the corrupted and sharp Chyle that was the most ordinary cause of Fevers whence it might be inferred that eating nothing from one Fit to another would cure the Patient To which I answer That it is the ordinary Remedy of the Greeks who have few Physicians among them they remain four or five days together without eating any thing or taking Broths drinking nothing but Water wherein are a few pounded Almonds and most commonly in this time they are cured of the Fever whether it be Continual or Intermitting especially of Tertians and double Tertians But this Example is not to be imitated in our Country For the Greeks keeping Fast two third parts of the year and oftentimes fasting whole days without taking any thing at all 't is no wonder if they can support so long an Abstinence But in our Climate where we eat much and that of very nourishing Aliments it were no less than the hazard of ones life to undertake such an Abstinence And we have seen here a Person of Quality die with fasting from one Fit of a Quartain to another It may be objected that they ought to be cured after the second or third day but you must consider that their Drink which has in it somewhat of nourishment makes a little Chyle which may cause some Fits though less than if the Patient had taken more solid Aliments And yet the heat being at liberty from the digestion of the Aliments doth more easily dissipate the rest of the Ferment The method of the most part of Italian Physicians is yet more cruel and less reasonable for they forbid their Patients to drink during the whole Fit which doth grievously heat them and for the most part nothing advance their Cure 11. Whether is Phlebotomy a Febrifuge As the word Febrifuge signifies every thing that may drive away the Fever there is no doubt but that bloud-letting is oftentimes a Febrifuge especially when the Fever proceeds onely from some exteriour cause which has excited an emotion in the Bloud as Exercise heat of the Sun Wine Anger for in these cases bleeding has almost the same effect that giving air to a Tun when the Wine boils lest it should burst If bleeding were not used the Bloud which then possesses more room than at other times might open the vessels of the Lungs and of the Brain and so cause spitting of Bloud a Phrensie or some other grievous Symptoms But in Intermitting Fevers where an acid Ferment is the principal cause bleeding is no Febrifuge not but that we must often begin with it especially in double Tertians which are next to Continuals and that with designe to render the Bloud less susceptible of Agitation or to diminish its plenitude but I take it to be for the most part dangerous in Quartains and onely apt to make the Disease of longer continuance unless there be some other Indication which require it the knowledge whereof belongs only to the Physician 12. Whether Laxatives Plisanes and other Purgatives be Febrifuges When the Ferment of the Fever is supported by Crudities of the Stomach then purging may be a Febrifuge and prevent the Fit which would have followed by delivering the Organs from that burthen which loaded them leaving them the liberty to contract themselves and to drive out the rest of the Ferment But if this Levain or Ferment have its source in the posts we have assigned it or if the Stomach have any disease which may make it corrupt the Aliments that are taken then purging cannot be a Febrifuge unless by accident For Example by exciting a Diarrhea which often cures the Patient Purgatives are for the most part necessary to clear the way for Febrifuges otherwise Catharticks do not cure the Fever whether it be that the Ferment being not yet qualified
sensibly hot The same may be said of many other Liquors of which I shall say nothing in this place since it may be seen at large in a book of Dr. Grews of the mixture of Liquors translated into French by Monsieur Mesmin a Physician of Paris Another proof which to me seems convincing is that the Chyle mixing it self with the Bloud causes every day naturally even in the most healthy a certain shadow as it were of a Fever which differs not from a real Fever but as more and less For half an hour or an hour after Meals as soon as the most subtile part of the Chyle or but the vapour which by its fermentation it drives before it doth insinuate it self into the Bloud it causes a coldness in the hands and feet which is taken for a signe of Health In some it produces Yawnings and a desire of Sleep with a Pulse less and more frequent than ordinary Here you have the beginning of the Fever This cold being past there succeeds a heat all over the Body which is very great in the palms of the hands and soals of the feet of such as are of a Cholerick temperament and at the same time the Pulse rises and beats stronger Here you have the state and vigour of the Fever Four or five hours after Meals when all the Chyle is mixed with the Bloud and has receiv'd a part of its perfection from the circulation the Heat diminishes the Pulse comes to his natural state and Appetite returns Here you have the declination of the Fever If after this one stay twelve hours or more without eating any thing the Pulse becomes extreamly slow and the vigour one had diminishes Here you have the state of a man when the Fever is almost past But as the Aliments wherewith we are nourished are not all alike and our Temperaments different which is the reason why some have little or no Cold that others feel a great heat after Meat and are lighter or heavier all which has relation to the different accidents or symptoms which accompany the Fever If the Chyle find the Bloud too much subtilized or exalted it produces a lingring Fever which may be particularly perceived after Meals This causes leanness and a considerable falling away in the Patient By this may be understood the reason why Coffee and Thea taken after Meals hinders those from sleeping who are subject to sleep unless a common custome of drinking one or other of them render them ineffectual because by their bitterness and moderate heat they dissipate the over-thick fumes of the Chyle This also conduces to the understanding what the Naturalists say of Lions and Goats that they have every day a Fever for as they are of a Temperament hot and dry their Chyle has the greater disproportion to their Bloud and in mixing it self with it it procures a greater Combat than in other Animals Pliny makes mention of one Caius Maesenas who had all his life long a Fever and never slept a moment during the three last years of his life On the other side Deer that are of a cold and dry Temperament and by consequence their Bloud less apt to ferment never have any Fever as the same Author says He adds that certain Ladies having accustomed themselves to eat Deers flesh every morning lived very long free from Fevers This Ferment in intermitting Fevers has its seat in the Glandules of the Velvet-coat of the Stomach and Intestines described by Monsieur Payer These Glandules have each their little Channels of Excretion through which they discharge a very lympid Serosity which is of the same nature of the Lympha which circulates through the whole Body and this subtile Liquor joyned to that which is constantly furnished by the ductus Salivales and to the Pancreatick juice serves for a ferment and dissolvent for the Chyle This Dissolvent being too acid communicates to the Chyle its Aciditie even as Acids cause a Coagulation in Milk so that the Chyle entering into the Veins and Arteries and not being capable of being perfectioned by the ordinary circulation when a quantitie thereof great enough to produce a Fermentation remains in the Bloud more violent than that which happens after Meals the fit of the Fever begins and continues until this sharp Chyle be dissipated and driven out by Sweat or insensible Transpiration Now according as this Ferment is in greater or less quantitie or the Bloud more or less susceptible of an Effervescence Fevers become Tertians double Tertians or Quotidians Quartains or double Quartains So the Cholerick having their Bloud more boyling and subtile fall commonly into Tertian or double Tertian Fevers Hence it is that the Antients have said and 't is in some measure true That Choler is the cause of Tertian Fevers both intermitting and continual for there is reason to believe that that which causes an Intermittent causes also a continual Fever of the same kind seeing that every fit of an Intermitting Fever is as it were alittle Continual Fever and a Continual as a long fit of an Intermittent the fit of this beginning continuing and ending almost as a Continual Fever The continuity proceeds from this that the Chyle introduced into the Bloud could not be perfected and by consequence the mass of Bloud could not furnish a Ferment fit to make the digestion of the Aliments perfect 'T is also to be observed that the mass of Bloud acquiring a more acre and inflamable disposition the Chyle although natural produces also a Continual Fever which is a thing to be noted in the practice of Physick for then bleeding and cooling Aliments and Medicines will be more convenient and above all such Acids as calm the agitation of the Bloud by thickning and cooling it and by precipitating the sulphurous parts which maintain the Tumult This being thus laid down it will not be difficult for me to answer many Questions that may be made about Fevers and Febrifuges And First Whence come the Shiverings in Fevers and why are the Shakings greatest in Quartains The Acid Liquors thickning the Bloud among which they beging to mix themselves hinder it from communicating its heat to the parts and the Bloud the more distant it is from the Heart the less hot it is This is the reason why the Shiverings begin at the Extremities of the Body and continue until by the efforts of the Heart and Arteries to purifie the Bloud by their redoubted pulsation all that fume be dissipated the heat of the Bloud violently agitated succeeding the cold fit The Ferment of Quartains is more acid and glutinous and the Bloud more gross which causes most commonly the Cold to be more violent And as these Vapours often have much acrimony in them they sometimes affect the membranous parts by which they pass in such manner that the Patient suffers pains as if one stuck Pins in his Body Those who have their Bloud subtile and the Chyle more gross have their Fits without any
and tamed is thereby rendered more fierce and wild or that they pass but onely into the Veins and Arteries Nay it often happens that the Agitation which they make in the several parts of the Body pervert their Action and do extremely weaken the Patient and carry off too much Bile which is the balm of the Chyle and Bloud when it is not irritated 13. Whether Vomitives be Febrifuges Vomitives are sometimes necessary for the sick of Fevers but especially when the sick person finds in himself a disposition to vomit because they discharge the Stomach of those impurities which hinder it from doing its office and evacuate the matter which would augment the Ferment so that they are not Febrifuges but by accident Nay they are very often dangerous because they do much fatigate the Patient weaken the Stomach and sometimes open the vessels of the Lungs In a Quartain particularly you must make no use of them when it hath continued too long because the Ferment being glutinous and infilterated into the first Region cannot be dislodged without violent efforts if they are mild they do but cause an emotion or disturbance and if they are violent they put the Patient in danger of his life unless he be of a very robust Constitution And herein I think my self obliged to give the Publick this Advertisement That they be very cautious how they commit themselves to those Barbers Empericks and Mountebanks who promise to cure all Diseases with a little Powder or a little clear insipid Water because these Medicines are for the most part Antimonial and of the most violent which are put up in a little room or Water wherein they have boiled Vitriol or Arsenic or Reagale which never operate without causing a furious Irritation or Convulsion of the Stomach And if they do carry off the Fever yet do they leave behind them impressions of heat in the Visera pains in the Stomach and spitting of Bloud It were but just that the Judges of the Court established for the punishment of Poysoners should take cognizance of such as kill the sick by these Poysons Though they may say that a small quantity of these Drugs is not capable of poysoning yet I will maintain that when they give them to persons of delicate Constitutions who die of it one may justly say that they have given them Poyson Besides that under pretence of these dangerous Remedies it would be easie for a Poysoner to augment the quantity of his Dose and then say he gave it onely for a Vomit 14. Whether the making ones self drunk with Wine or Aquâ Vitae will cure a Fever Wine drank to an excess causes a great ebullition in the Bloud and often drives out by different ways the cause of the Fever and some have been so cured but this is not an Example to be imitated for one ought to be very well assured of his own strength and the resistance which a body already grown feeble with the effects of the Disease can make against the effects of Drunkenness as it may be either a Lethargie Pleurisie or Death it self so that he must neither have common Sense nor any the least tincture of Christianity that would preserve the health of his Body by a dangerous Remedy to the prejudice of that of his Soul I leave it to others to think whether a man dying drunk die in a good condition As for Brandy we shall leave it to the Hollanders who have accustomed themselves to drink it and so can better support the effects they drink it commonly before the cold Fit which it may possibly lessen but must needs render the succeeding hot Fit more intense and violent And when they would quite rid themselves of it they drink whole pints which has sometimes good success upon Seamen and other robust bodies 15. Whether are Mineral Waters Febrifuges 'T is certain that Mineral Waters are a great help towards the cure of Intermitting Chronical Fevers but you must observe that 't is those Waters particularly which are hot and impregnated with a niterous salt like that of the Antients and with some sulphur as those of Bourbon l'Archambaud and Vichy This I observed in them in the Journey I made last Spring with Monsieur Garnier the Son and Monsieur de Ville my Collegue In this Journey I say we throughly informed our selves of all that ought to be believed of these great Piscines from which indeed many sick people return very much relieved but we found that they were not universal Remedies as several Historians have written who have rather applied themselves to the making a description of the magnificence of the Bathes Vases and Buildings that belong to them than to perswade us by repeated Experiments of the Salt and of the Mineral wherewith they are impregnated And when they undertake this whether it be that they understand not how to make the Analysis or that they believed that one single Salt could not be capable of producing so many effects one while they tell us that they are impregnated with Niter Sulphur and Vitriol altogether another while they tell us that 't is with Sulphur Vitriol and Alum After all this they tell us that they are impregnated with Iron Niter and Vitriol whereof they are pleased to give us no other proofs than the pretended Cures done by those Waters But if happily for us they had set about it as did the learned Monsieur du Clos and after him Monsieur Fouet a Physician of Vichy they had spared us the trouble of a Journey of six or seven weeks to examine the Waters of about thirty Mineral Springs arising thereabouts of which one cannot rightly make use without first having taken the pains to visit them and anatomize them by several Experiments Hereby may one avoid the confusion of seeing his Patients return from the Waters in a worse condition than they went thither And had not the most part of our Physicians been herein so often deceived the wittiest Comedian of our Age would never have made it the subject of his publick Raillery But to return I say that the Waters of Bourbon l' Archambaud and those of Vichy provided one know how to use them and that great care be taken of the state and condition of the sick are often Febrifuges by reason of their niterous Salt wherewith they are impregnated and the sulphurous and balsamick parts wherewith they are inriched By this Composition I say the Acidity of the Lympha is very much sweetned the nutritive parts are fortified and the natural heat restored to its former state the obstructions of the first Region opened and in fine what remains of surcharge and sediment in the whole mass of Bloud is thrust out from the centre to the circumference by Transpiration Sweats and Urine Yet nevertheless if before the use of these Waters the sick be not duly prepared or be subject to a defluxion of sharp Serosities upon his Breast or to Obstructions of the Hypochondres
of Bloud so that 't is no wonder if we see many Relapses because there are a sort of Patients who will rather govern their Physicians than be governed by them and who will deny nothing to their Appetites Others there are who no sooner cured but they straight conclude that they have no more need of the Physician and that he prescribes now onely for the benefit of the Apothecary to make his 〈◊〉 â—he longer And probably this may be the reason why after the English Remedy so few have been subject to Relapses for the great sum they paid for it made those that gave it not to spare it Indeed there is no appearance that this Remedy should put the Patient out of all danger of a Relapse or that it should have power enough to hinder a new Fermentation which an excess in eating or drinking may cause in a Convalescent a fortnight or a month after he has left taking it But Fevers that have continued long and much weakened the Organs are much more subject to return than when they are cured after a few Fits 26. Whether there be any universal specifick Febrifuges which put away Fevers by an occult quality These occult qualities are a very commodious subterfuge for the ordinary ignorance of man who does not penetrate into the essence of the Works of Nature And it cannot be denied but that what is unknown unto us may justly be called occult and that there are some things in Nature which it will be always more easie or if you will more honest to admire than to explain However we ought to have as little recourse as we can to this Asyle and methinks according to the Principles I have laid down it will not be so hard a matter to give an account of all those pretended Specificks I have not spoken of Kinkina because a famous Physician of Paris whom I do infinitely honour hath written a Book of it without putting his name to it 't is the same Book which Monsieur de Blegny thought to have been written by one of Lyons because it was first printed there I say further that there may be found every-where in Plants and Animals whereof to compose Febrifuges and we cannot imagine that Nature has been so illiberal to our Climate that it should not produce Aliments and Medicines necessary for the preservation of Life We have oftentimes a preoccupated opinion in favour of Drugs which come out of the Indies and other remote Countries which makes us put an esteem upon them and on the contrary slight and despise those that grow in our own Gardens If we have not Rheuburb Sena and Cassia we have instead thereof Peach-flowers and leaves Roses Berbery and many other Purgatives which may be used with good success provided that either one Plant alone or many Drugs mixed or united in a Composition by Chymistry or a simple Galenical Preparation have all the qualities which we have said to be necessary for a true Febrifuge we need not doubt but that they will have their effect without putting us to the necessity of attributing it to an occult quality But what is yet considerable and serves to establish our Hypothesis of the cause of Fevers is that all the Plants and other Drugs which have hitherto gained a Reputation for the Cure of Fevers are so far from having an Acidity which might sympathize with the acid Ferment that they have a bitterness an astriction heat volatile salt and Alkalies the Enemies of all Acids and cure Fevers by their manifest qualities So that one may with good hopes of success taking such Precautions and using such Preparations as are necessary make use of the Powder of Vipers Salt of Vipers Pepper Nutmegs Sulphur Wormwood bark of Ash roots of Centrayerva Mullein Gentian wild Valerian Mustard-seed Salt Armoniac salt of Tartar Salts of Centaury and Speedwell Panax or Clowns-all-heal Carduus Benedictus Angelica Chamemile Juniper Sage Rue St. Johns wort Galengal Vervain Centaury Germander Nettle Asarum Celendine Betony Thea Coffee Opium Antimony Sassafras Guyacum nay and Mercury it self I cannot imagine how one and the same Medicament can cure all Fevers they being diversified by a thousand circumstances yet I cannot deny but that there may be found some which either naturally or by Art have almost all the qualities of the true Febrifuge And as an ill Cook with the best Ingredients cannot make a good dish of Meat and on the contrary a good Cook with a few Ingredients will make a very good one so a man unlearned in Physick and little versed in the work of Nature cannot succeed unless by chance whereas he that a serious Study or at least a frequent Experience hath enabled will cure his Patients happily and with a few Medicines In fine I cannot but perswade my self that all Physicians may invent Febrifuges and administer them seasonably provided they understand well the nature of the Fever in general and the state of their Patient in particular The famous Sir Theodore de Mayerne Physician to the King of England whose particular Talent lay in the understanding the Materia Medica which he did admirably well he I say had Waters and other lexipuretick Compositions which were made onely of Plants growing in our Climate as I find by some Manuscripts now in my hands Methinks for this effect it were expedient not to neglect any thing and to try those Medicaments which may seem extravagant provided they be not such as may endanger the Patient The Liver of a Hare or of a Cat dried in an Oven poudered and drank in Wine may to many seem ridiculous and yet these have been commended by learned Writers and there may be some reason to believe them to be Febrifuges because these parts abound in alkalious and volatile Salts as doth the bloud whereof they are composed Authors are full of this kind of Medicines where in truth a good Judgment is very necessary that the Physician be not exposed to the confusion of seeing his Patient become worse than when he first began with him For conclusion of this Discourse we ought to rejoyce that we live in an Age so fertile in new Inventions and under the Reign of so great a Monarch who does no less make the liberal Arts than the Art of War to flourish which may rationably make us hope to see the study of Physick arrive every day at a higher point of perfection we on our parts contributing thereto as 't is but just we should by our Reflections and Experiments whatsoever may serve for its Ornament Thus Sir you see how far the Complaisance I have for you has engaged me I must confess that desiring to inform you of those things you desired I have instructed my self in examining a matter which multiplied it self under my hands And thinking to write you onely a Letter I have almost made a just Treatise which I may perhaps hereafter enlarge However I ought to content my self with these Idea's how unpolite