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A26307
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Physical reflections upon a letter written by J. Denis, professor of philosophy and mathematicks, to Monsieur de Montmor, counsellor to the French King, and Master of Requests concerning a new way of curing sundry diseases by transfusion of blood / by George Acton ...
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Acton, George.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing A450; ESTC R21309
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8,325
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17
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Mangie Dog to be wholly corrupted in his veins imagines it probable that the cooler blood of the sound Dog alaying the extreame heate of the other may work the cure ascribing the Disease to the Transpiration of corrupted blood and that to an extraordinary heat But the blood being supposed to be vitâ—â—â—â— to prevent its difflation by cooling were sooner to introduce death than a remedy besides Transpiration is not the effect of heat effective but excitative only for the blood is propâ—â—ly volatiz'd by the Vital spirit and its own Ferment whose operation is more powerful than that of Fire for Glass held for the last act of Fire is really further reducible by the help of Ferment into water So then the action of extream heat such as is supposed here would rather have desiccated and and fixt the blood than have mov'd it to Transpiration Be it then properly the act of the Vital spirit and Ferment and not of heat and consequently no need of cooling in our case Now as to the Disease it self I take it to be the excretion of an Acid salt from the blood closing with Hippocrates Acidum Acre Amarum Ponticum c. for Morbifick causes This hostil Acidity as we see in Tartar of Wine which is no other than a congelation of the Acetous part of the Wine into Salt beginning some degree of fixation of the volatile Salt of the blood contrary to the scope and intention of Nature which is to have it totally volatil and transpirable without any foeces is by the prepotency of the Vital spirit and Ferment driven out together with the half fix'd Salt into the skin where for want of volatility it sticks and turns to the Mange Hence I suppose that if the sound Dog had been coupled up with the other for some time he had been more likely to have received his contagion than by the Transfusion of blood The Experience upon the youth labouring of a violent fever and cur'd by immission of the Arterial blood of a Lamb into his veine is more observable as being more applicable to practice now As to the fever I take it for a Maxime Quidquid in sanis edit actiones sanas idipsum in morbis edit actiones vitiatas But in health the vital Spirit naturally warmes a man the same Spirit therefore aestuates in a fever vehemently striving to expell the occasional matter of the Disease and this I take to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spiritus impetum faciens of Hyppocrates Van Helmont proves this by the example of a thorne run into the finger which though both actually and potentially cold neverthelesse quickly raises a burning paine and phlegmot in the part inasmuch as the sensitive Spirit being hurt by the thorne provokes the Archeus to expulsion in which endeavour the Spirit is first accended and then the part Hence expert Physitians direct their cure of fevers and other acute Diseases to the pacation of the Archeus without purging or letting of blood how contrary was the procedure of those Physitians who blooded this youth twenty times to asswage the heat of his fever but to how little purpose these large profusions of blood are may appear by the miserable death of Pr. Ferdinand Governer of Flanders who in the year 41 fell sick of a fever his Physitians according to the method of these with reiterated Phlebotomies so exhausted the stock of his blood that being dead and his Heart Lungs Liver Veines and Arteries dissected in the presence of Van Helmont there was scarce found a spoonfull of blood left in his body and yet the day before his death he had susteined as violent a fitt of his feaver as at first I leave it then to the Judgement of the indifferent Reader that hath not Subjugated his reason to the Authority and vulgar practice of others to the contrary to judge whether Bleeding be a proper Remedy for a fever when the Exantlation of allmost the whole Masse of blood had not so much as made any Diminution of the Paroxisme But to strengthen this my opinion a little further which seemes to be singular easily to gain credit take this familiar Instance Let a vessel of new Wine before its clarification be supposed to be agitated by a vehement Fermentation which motion in the Wine as in our case of the fever is stir'd up by the natural force and activity of its Spirit striving to attain the vertue of its perfection which cannot be but by the shaking off and Separation of the Tartarous and other wild Heterogenious and Immissible parts from the truly Vinous and Homogenial the scope of Nature is the very same in the fit of a fever viz. Separation now let any man to stop this Fermentation draw off a part of the Wine and he shall soon perceive that although he hath lessened the quantity of the Wine he has by this meanes made no alteration in the quality the Fermentative principles in the remaining part keeping still their natural Energie in proportion to the whole but if an untimely Fermentation happen tending to the destruction of the Wine let him but cast in a due proportion of milk and he shall quickly finde that furious orgasme of the Wine to cease so that this turbulent motion in the Wine either ceases naturally the Heterogenious parts being separated by due Fermentation or else by Sedation as in the experiment by milk the like method seemes most rational in the cure of a fever either by Medicines separative of which I prefer Diaphoreticks or sedative without phlebotomie by which there alwayes happens some irreparable losse for though not only the blood but influous Spirit too be restorable by our daily food yet the losse of the insitous or innate Spirit is never recoverable by art or Nature if it were it would not be impossible by art to render men immortal If then either the insuccesfulness of the practice or reason may prevaile I advise the Gallenists to make use of powerful Diaphoreticks in rectifying the blood or such sedative Medicines as can quiet the enormontick Spirit rather than this needlesse custome of Bleeding Especially since the Angina Peripneumonia and Pleurisie can more speedily and securely be cured without it The Experimentor here seemes to be well satisfied with his conceipt of stagnation of the blood in the vessels thinking his opinion sufficiently confirm'd by the issuing forth of a blood blacker and thicker than ordinary upon the opening of the patients vein But the Aethiopians in their youthful and most vigourous estate of health are said to have their blood very black with little or no Serum And upon inspection of the blood of neer 200 several persons drawn in one day it being a custome amongst the Bores in Flanders to be blooded upon a certain day there were found all sorts of colours and consistencies the most dissimilar imaginable to be found in blood and the several men from whom such variety was drawn all of them in a
Physical Reflections UPON A LETTER WRITTEN By J. Denis Professor of PHILOSOPHY and the MATHEMATICKS TO Monsieur de Montmor Counsellor to the French King and Master of Requests Concerning a New way of Curing sundry Diseases BY TRANSFUSION of BLOOD BY GEO. ACTON a Spagyricis Regiis in Ordinario LONDON Printed by T. R. for J. Martyn at the Bell without Temple-Barr 1668. TO THE KING SIR HAd not the subject of this following discourse been the discovery of the most acute and curious Genius of this age the Virtuosi of the Royal Societies of London and Paris and the quality I bear of your Majesties servant given me some title to your Majesties Protection I durst not have presum'd to front such a bagatelle as this with an Adress to the mightiest Monarch in Europe But a Cherry or Rose preventing the ordinary seasons of the maturity of the rest by their rare singularity are rendred acceptable to Princes not for their own real value which is none but novelty which challenges their acceptance And Sir the Experiments of Healing by Transfusion of Blood are both New and Curious and I hope these Reflections may cast some Radiatiations of light upon the obscure and devious paces of Nature such as may perhaps discover some of her more hidden recesses especially in her regiment of Humane Bodies I have as far as was possible avoided hard and obscure words but having taken upon me to inquire into the reasons and examine the admirable success of these late Experiments by the Test of Hermetick Phylosophy it was not possible for me to avoid such Terms as this Art necessarily requires to render it intelligible though if I mistake not this method gratifies the understanding with far more evident and apparent reason than that of the Peripateticks commonly receiv'd in the Schools I need not labour to perswade Your Majestie into a good opinion of the noble Science of Chymistry which solely possesses all the keyes of the three Kingdomes of Nature the natural propensity of Your Royal Genius strongly inclines You to the love of all Learning but more particularly of this the most worthy perhaps of all humane Sciences such as that antiently amongst the Egyptians Chaldeans Arabians c. Many of their Kings have gloried more in the knowledge of this Art than in the lustre of their Diadems such were Hermes Tresmegistus Morienus Calib Alphonso King of Portugal c. and although the ignorance and Thrasonick boasting of Pseudochymists have almost brought it into contempt in this Age yet it is a most undoubted truth That Paracelsus Van Helmont and many others have been able to conquer all Diseases Gallenical Physitians now call incurable and that with great facility in effect true Philosophers have not only had Vniversal Medicines for Humane but Metallick bodies also insomuch that the Chrysopaean Art is said so to have flourished in Egypt about the year 294. that the mighty Emperor Dioclesian could never conquer that people by force till he had by Stratagem in time of peace possest himself of the Books together with the Artificers and by that means subjected them to his Empire But Mr. Denis's Letter gives me onely opportunity at present to expose some few Physical observations tending to health and prolongation of life both which with excess of all humane felicity may the King of Kings by the guidance of his inviolable providence inseparably annex to your Majesties Crown and Sacred Person Your Majesties most Loyal and most Obedient Subject and Servant GEO. ACTON Physical Reflections UPON A LETTER c. THat which I find most remarkable in Mr. Denis's Letter is first the Transfusion of the Blood of a Mangie Dog into a Sound one to try whether the Mange would be communicated with the blood the Mangie Dog is found cur'd and the other who had received his blood not become Mangie The next is the Experiment upon a Youth who had for the space of above two Months been tormented with a contumacious and violent Fever which saies the Narrative oblig'd his Physitians to bleed him twenty times in order to assuage the excessive heat Before this Disease he was not observed to be of a lumpish dull Spirit his Memory was happy enough and he seem'd cheerful and nimble enough of body but since the violence of this Fever his Wit seem'd wholly sunk his Memory perfectly lost and his body so heavy and drowsie that he was not fit for any thing to trouble you no longer with every particular of the relation They opened his vein and took about three ounces of blood so black and thick it could hardly form it self into a threed to fall into the Porrenger At the same time they brought a Lamb whose Carotis Artery was prepar'd out of which they emitted into the Young mans vein about three times as much of its Arterial blood as he had emitted into the dish and so stop't the Orifice of the vein as usually in other Phlebotomies being ask'd how he found himself he said during the operation he felt a very great heat all along his Arme but in brief he presently became more cheerful and lively eat his meat very well and shew'd a cleer and smiling Countenance the next day slept better and from that time got the victory over his drowsiness he had no longer slowness of Spirit nor heaviness of Body grew fat visibly and is saies Mr. Denis a subject of amazement to all that know him Though Mr. Denis hath sufficiently answered the weak objections aagainst the Practice of this new Art yet how the sound infus'd blood of one Animal mingling with the infected Mass of another and especially of a different Species induceth renovation and health into the diseas'd without receiving infection from so desperate acommixtion seems worthy of a further inquiry than has been yet made As to the Experiment of the exchange of blood between the Mangie Dog and the Sound one by which the first receives his cure the other remains uninfected Mr. Denis inquires whether the blood of the Mangie Dog were putrefied and corrupted in his veins or not As if putrefaction of the blood were necessarily the efficient cause of the Disease but by the common experience of Anatomy the blood is found not to putrefy within the vein many daies after death much less than it is to be suspected ordinarily of putrefaction in the living vein where by continual circulation and the irrigation of the vital Balsome of its volatile salt congelation the beginning of putrefaction is most powerfully refitted Besides the Adepti know how to rectify the blood in all Fevers the Gallenists call putrid citò tutò jucundè with the precipitate Diaphoretick of Paracelsus But surely if putrefaction be the repulsion of the Crasis of the thing putrefied necessarily inducing a new form the blood must either be granted not putrefied in the Vessels or a regression from privation to habit which is absurd In the same Experiment Mr. Denis supposing the blood of the