to make an encrease I am very confident nothing in all the World hath ever put so considerable a stop to the successive career true Science would daily make as a blind Suffrage and mean submission to the dictates of persons we have a good opinion of And for this reason I cannot but commend and admire the declared designs of some Worthy men among us who though they do not transact Wonders every Month and shew themselves Chosen Sons of Nature yet sure they deserve good words at least and that Petulancy with which some do daily nibble at them might methinks be well spared But to return again as I do not profess my self a Disciple of this Gentleman in all things he is pleased to utter so I cannot but give him his due and commend him much for his ingenious Attempts For whether Mercury be of such absolute importance to the cure of this Disease when Fermented a while in the Blood and grown a little inveterate as this Author would have it or whether the Ceremony of omission of a Flux in some persons of Quality and especially Women be not the True and Latent Cause of their continual Indispositions I leave to every man to judge by his own Discretion and Experience For my part as I do not assent to those who violently maintain that nothing at all can be done without Mercury so I much pity the poor Spirit of those who think of it as a Hobgoblin and are as apprehensive of giving or receiving the administration of it as they would be of meeting a hungry Lyon Men ought indeed to be Wonderful Cautious how they presume to make use of so suspected a Medicine yet he hath seen but little into the Nature of things or is wholly involved in a popular prejudice who knows not that Quicksilver as quick as it is may be tamed by Art and may sometimes by Discreet Masters be very seasonably employed to good purpose I know 't is very hard to speak of this subject without being mistaken on without being thought to have too great a kindness for it if one doth not utterly Declare War against all who magnifie its effects Nevertheless I am sure all knowing men will interpret what I have now said favourably enough There 's a famous Doctor in Paris one of the King's Professors of Physick but one who can never hear speak of Mercury without presently reckoning up twenty Mortal Diseases it must needs be apt to produce This person hath told me when I took occasion to speak of the Salivation that he hath performed a Flux before some Doctors of his Faculty without the assistance or use of Mercury and that he mixed the Ingredients and gave them the Patient faithfully before their faces The truth of it is I had so little Faith in the possibility of raising a Flux or at least a sufficient one without Mercury and had so much condescention as rather to submit with a complacent nod than offer to dispute so considerable and perhaps beloved an asseveration that I had not curiosity enough to enquire the manner how it could be done though I know the person to be the greatest enemy in the World to such things as Secrets But I am apt to believe that those Mortal Diseases he so zealously Fathers upon Mercury do rather arise from the indiscreet use of it and gross abuse that is easily made of so Active a Medicine when Quacks or Ignorants boldly take it into their hands Whatsoever is the Nature and how dangerous or beneficial soever are the effects of Mercury certainly the Author of these Observations hath made a fair progrese towards the clear Explication of its various Activities and deserves to be commended for so considerable a Design If the French are able to begin well lead the way with Courage our English I am sure can not only do the same but be very useful to them in a brave prosecution of what they undertake Let the French with their nimble Fansies start and Invent things sometimes the solid Judgment of an English man is required to bring them to a due Perfection As particular persons so particular Kingdoms have their peculiar Genius Abilities we must and ought to assist one another with our Communications One man's head is not big enough to comprehend or sufficiently contain the vast extent of the Great or Infinite Curiosities of the Little World And the necessity of this mutual correspondence and free intelligence among men especially of different Countreys whereby Envy and Jealousie are not able to breed the Poyson they usually do upon the same spot puts me in mind of those Advantages a Traveller may therefore meet with in Forreign Countreys more than the Natives themselves are capacitated to enjoy For if he be not too raw and young he shall easily gain admittance into the Closets of their most Ingenious men all the Rarities they pretend to and Observations they have made will be discovered by them 't is doubtful whether with more Ambition of Delight Lastly all their Arcanums and close Reserves of Knowledge shall with a slight Promise of silence while among them be submitted to his open view The truth of what I now say I have indeed experimented more than I could any way pretend to from several Ingenious persons abroad and particularly from the Worthy Author of this present Treatise into whose House I had a long time free access there to see the several Degrees of the POX treated not Speculatively but Practically according to the different Progress it usually makes The Approbations of the Chief Physicians of the Royal Family I Vnderwritten Counsellor of the King in his Counsels Chief Physician of his Majesty do Certifie that I have read and examined the Book of Monsieur de Blegny treating of Venereal Diseases in which I have found his Principles well established his Therapeutick part very Methodical and his Observations Good Curious and such as must needs be very useful to the Publick At Versailles this 15th of March 1674. Signed Daquin I Vnderwritten Chief Physician of the Queen of Sueden and the Prince of Condè do Certifie that I have read and examined the Book of Monsieur de Blegny containing many exact and useful Observations from which he draws good consequences for the Knowledge and Cure of the Venereal Disease his Reasonings are very clear the whole Work is very solid and Experience does confirm it So that I cannot but testifie my Approbation of this Book At Paris this 20th day of May 1674. Signed Bourdelot I Vnder-written Doctor of Physick Counsellor of the King Physician in Ordinary to his Majesty and chief Physician of Madam do certifie unto all to whom it may appertain that the New and Curious Observations made by Monsieur de Blegny the Queen's Chirurgeon on The Art of curing Venereal Diseases are very advantageous for all such as are afflicted with them and do contain the most assured means of curing them At Paris the 16th of
be desired to maintain my Opinion yet I do not pretend to make it pass for a thing altogether unquestionable both for that it is possible to be false and because there might have been some unknown Abuses under equal and as good appearances I therefore leave all curious persons the liberty of making what other Experiments they please and to every one in particular that of judging the other circumstances of this Opinion according to their own Ideas or particular Observations as things Problematical and no way absolutely necessary to the Art of curing the Pox. 4. After having sufficiently explicated what I mean by the Original Cause or Generative of the Pox it is now necessary to observe the several sorts of Contact that can conduce to its Communication which are here considered as Causes of this Disease because it is by them principally gained But we must not imagine that this second Cause is always found in Coition as the first it matters not after what manner the Contact is made provided that it permits an adhesion or entrance to some part of the Venereal matter it may be made either directly or indirectly and here 's an Example of it A Woman with Child who in the Company of one that hath the Pox shall attract into her Womb the corrupted Seed that shall be there ejaculated will catch the Pox immediatly by reason of the Coition and Contact that preceded and the Infant that shall be in her Womb will be also infected with it by reason of the same Coition but not by reason of the Contact because the remoteness of the Infant hinder'd the Infection from being direct in respect of it The same thing may be said of Infants that are engendered of divers like Seeds according to the ordinary course of Nature or by way of Superfetation Besides the Example that I just now gave many other sorts of Contacts may be found which are made by other ways and yet fail not to cause the Pox For Example if one should happen to drink after him that hath the Pox and by chance put the Lips to the same place of the Glass where some little Poison of the Ulcers of his mouth or else some of his spittle fill'd with Venereal Salts shall have stuck it often happens that this either causes other Ulcers by superficially adhering to the parts or else without delay the universal Pox when the Salt that they contain is volatil and penetrant enough to enter into the Veins and Arteries without leaving any marks of its passage for let ever so little of it be once mixt with the Blood it will work like Leaven in a great deal of Dough or rather it ferments and corrupts as other Poisons do which are always more pernicious by their quality than by their quantity Another Example of this nature may be drawn from those who are infected with this Disease for having unfortunately lain in the sheets wherein one in the Pox had sweated or in which there might remain some of the matter that run from his Ulcers Besides these sorts of Contact all others may be said to be immediate because they are made by the application of one part against another Among them all the most ordinary is Coition because this Disease doth for the most part begin in the parts that serve for Generation and its matter is not always dispersed universally through the Body In this action if a Man hath Venereal Ulcers on his Yard some part of the Poison that nourishes them and which is nothing else but a dissolution of the Salts that constitute the Pox doth almost always stick in some part of the Womb or else in the wrinkles of the neck of her Womb that he lies with wherein he often causes other Ulcers by adhering to the skin or pellicules that cover those parts on which matter it may be observed that I have just reason to add this last circumstance by reason that this matter doth not always necessarily adhere in Women either because the Membrane that covers the Vagina is very smooth polished and cover'd with a slimy Humour or because the Seed that is therein ejaculated doth often slide out at the same time and carries away with it this Virulent matter so much the more easily as it hath not had time to adhere and as the scituation and form of this part do much contribute to its easier sliding out it is also for this reason that common Strumpets do sometimes give hurt to others though they have none at all themselves because the approaching them a little after they have enjoyed the Company of other men that are impure doth give some part of the impurity they received though themselves may be exempt from any adhesion or effect of the remaining matter by the means that I have mentioned It is observable that a virulent Clap and the universal Pox are able equally to render the Seed impure in so much that if that of a Man who is infected with it be attracted and retained in the Womb of a Woman it may cause in her either a Virulent Clap by adhering particularly to the spermatick Vessels or else the universal Pox by passing through the Oririfices of the Arteries and Veins that terminate in this part In a word a Woman that shall suffer such Indispositions may in like manner communicate them to a sound Man that shall converse with her by the adhesion or entrance of the matter that can cause them It is also observeable that the Impurities of the Mouth of a little Infant that hath the Pox are able to infect the Nurse by adhering to her Teats or else the air of his Respiration that can easily penetrate them through the pores that give passage to the Milk In like manner an infected Nurse can impart her Disease to the little One by an adhesion of the matter of her Ulcers or by the use of the corrupted Milk that is suckt from her Teats To ly with one that hath the Pox and touch him naked while he sweats or when he hath Ulcers and Pustules on his skin is a thing that may well be believed very dangerous and chiefly for those that have their pores very open and therefore do easily receive the impression of any thing that touches them The custom of Kissing with open Mouth is another very dangerous business for the reasons I have spoken of Lastly there are so many different Contacts which are capable of giving the Pox to those who have it not that when you shall once know it assuredly by its Signs you need not trouble your self but little about the manner how it was communicated since you cannot always find it out and since it is often unknown even to the persons sick themselves CHAP. III. Of the Differences of the Pox which may serve to make a Prognostick 1. An Advertisement on this Subject and general Division of the Degrees from whence may be drawn some Differences 2. Explication of the
Differences that the first Degree furnishes us with and general division of those that may be observed in the second 3. What may be understood by Particular Poxes 4. What the Vniversal Pox is 5. Explication of the differences that may be drawn from the third Degree 1. BEfore I come to speak of the Differences of the Pox it is good to acquaint you that I do not conceive any different Species of it nor own any Sanguine Cholerick Phlegmatick and Melancholick ones as some Men have inconsiderately done but on the contrary do always esteem it as the same in what degree and whatsoever subject it may be found since it is always produced by one and the same cause that always acts after the same manner and produces different Effects according to the various disposition of the parts that receive its action This being once presupposed you will easily grant that the differences of this disease can only be drawn from the diversity of its degrees that is to say from the time that its matter hath been received from the progress that it hath made and from the Accidents that it produces 2. Though I consider the time that the Venereal matter hath been received for one degree from whence some differences of the Pox may be drawn and that some Authors do think to ascertain the Prognostick of it by the consequences they thence draw yet it must be acknowledged that they are of no great consideration For though it may be said that this Disease is either New or Inveterate according to the more or less time it hath been contracted yet one cannot judge for all that of the easiness difficulty or impossibility of its Cure because this same matter is more or less active according to its quality or quantity or else according to the particular dispositions of the Bodies in which it enters For 't is certain as I have already observed that it becomes more Venemous consequently more penetrant subtile when it hath had duration in the change that may be made of it from different subjects and the great quantity of it doth very much advance the disorder it is able to make in every particular person To which may be added that it acts the more suddenly when it is excited by the heat that is found in the Temperaments of Cholerick or Sanguine Bodies which are so much the more disposed to suffer its insinuation as their pores and other passages are naturally more open but on the contrary it is sometimes so fixt and shut up in the cold or gross Humours of Phlegmatick or Melancholick persons that it can lye there a long time like fire under ashes and experience lets us see that it can lurk 10 or 12 years before any effects of its Motions will be felt whence it follows that the Judgment of the three Circumstances I related do chiefly depend on the examination that ought to be made on the progress it hath already made and the accidents it hath produced For by the consideration of the first circumstance the Particular or Universal Pox may be judged of and this distinction is of such importance to the right prognostick of the easiness or difficulty of its Cure that it lets us see in what degrees particular or common remedies may suffice or whether the stronger and more general are also necessary 3. Before we pass further it seems very proper to explicate what I mean by this Difference that I may let you see how it doth not serve only to distinguish the degrees of this Disease and that it is not any way contrary to what I said of it at the beginning of this Chapter I do call then a particular Pox when its matter doth continue fixt to some parts which suffer it to be dressed and cured with particular Remedies external or topical and for which those are employed chiefly that are called General or Internal as well as to hinder the progress it might make by the penetration of its Salts such are for example the Venereal Ulcers and Chancres or else Claps and Virulent Gonorrheas and which I call the Pox as well as the others named before because they are all of them productions of an impure Contact and of some Venereal matter received of which all the effects may be observed though it doth still adhere to some particular parts as well as when it is dispersed over all the Body for the coagulation and corruption that I have said doth happen by it in the liquid substances may be observed in the Seed that runs in Virulent Gonorrheas or else in the fixation of the Juyce that nourishes the parts in which the Venereal Ulcers are that do by this means degenerate into Chancres or Carnosities The pricking gnawing or drying up of the Flesh may be also observed in the beginning augmentation and changes of these same Ulcers in a word the elevation rottenness and corruption of solid parts are sometimes the consequents of these first Evils when they happen upon Bones or Cartilaginous parts in so much that you may hence see with how much reason I do reckon them for degrees of the Pox since it is commonly by then that it is found to begin and they are almost never seen to advance into a higher degree when they arâ— drest as they ought to be I do acknowledge nevertheless that this name of the Pox was at first given to this Disease only by reason of the resemblance that was thought to be between it and the Small Pox through their spots and pustules and it seems consequently that this Name should then only belong to it when it is in the degree that produces them But we must observe that it often passes from one degree to another almost insensibly so that sometimes it cannot properly deserve that Name if we stick close to this Circumstance besides it may be said that Names do not establish the essence of Diseases and it matters not how this Disease is called provided that it be considered as always of one Species according to my opinion 4. When the Venereal Salts are subtile enough to penetrate through the pores without staying in the places through which they pass as hath been seen in some persons or rather when they there stop and cause the particular Poxes of which I have spoken without the persons taking care notwithstanding to oppose its insinuation by the means of fit Remedies that drive or attract from within outwardly they then cause what I call the universal Pox by insinuating into the Vessels that contain the Blood and spreading universally over all the Body by the Circulation They who have read the Authors that write on this subject will wonder doubtless that I make the Venereal Salts pass from the superficial parts into the Veins and Arteries without speaking of that Species of the Pox they make consist only in subtile Vapours and Spirits but as I have already told you I cannot acknowledge any different Species of it and
it is sufficiently known to Physicians and the most part of other Men Again it may be easily remarked that the Venereal Matter is a Venemous Salt only by making some reflections on the effects which do result from its mixture adhaesion or penetration And lastly it may be easily understood that this Salt is partly Fixt having the quality of Acids and partly Volatile as having that of Poisons It should now remain to shew you how it can originarily proceed from the mixture and corruption of the Seeds of divers persons But seeing this matter will be fully explicated in the following Chapter speaking of the causes of this Disease I 'll say nothing more particularly of it here to avoid needless repetitions Let it suffice to tell you by the by that the principles which it contains are as probable as new that they do agree throughout with the following Observations and that they consequently ought to be well understood by those who are desirous to receive profit from them 3. As for the Origine or first begining of the Pox nothing hath been ever canvassed with more heat and differences of opinion by the Authors who have written of it some have maintained that it was an effect of God's Judgment on Men and that the source of it was to be sought only in the punishment that Men had drawn on themselves by the Debaucheries of the last Age Others have drawn it from the Indians Spain Naples and other places from whence they tell us it was not long since brought Some have proposed the carnal copulation of a Leper and a Strumpet or the conjunction of a Man with a mangy Beast and others also have had particular Opinions on this subject which we have reason to believe have as little truth in them as those I have already hinted at because all of them are either Theological or Fabulous and consequently out of the consideration of Physicians who ought to have for their End nothing else but the conservation of the Nature of Man considered simply as a reasonable Creature or else the destruction of what is contrary to it Wherefore it may be said that they ought not to use any other means to attain this end but only such as are purely Natural and that they should not draw their Knowledges and Maximes but from things sensibly known In truth if Natural Philosophy serv's for a Basis and Foundation to Physick ought not Physicians to demonstrate all things that depend on it by the principles of Nature or of Art that imitates Nature And is not it very fit to leave Divines the consideration of whatsoever is Supernatural and also to the Poets by the same reason all things feigned Chimerical and supposed That we may the better observe the Rules now mentioned and satisfy Reason it self by searching into the Origine Causes and Remedies of all Diseases in the true Agents that have produced them or may be able to destroy them that is to say in whatsoever causes the diminution depravation or abolition of Natural Motions or else in the Medicaments that can correct their Defaults for otherwise we must be obliged to acknowledge Cures that are Miraculous Magical or Superstitious for the Effects of Physick Moreover seeing the true Origine of the Pox is the same with that of its Matter that shall not be particularly proved till the following Chapter for the reason before marked it seems the Reader must be sent thither to learn the account of it Nevertheless as there have been at all times debauched Women who have prostituted themselves indifferently to all sorts of Men it may here be observed by way of provision that the Pox is almost as ancient as the World and that its Origine ought to be drawn from the Impurity of the first Ages in which it was but little less common than in the present times we live in since the most ancient Physicians have spoken of all the Accidens that it produces as well as other Indispositions that were then common familiar and that they have known them as well as wee under the Names of Heat of Urine Gonorrheas Virulent Ulcers impure Buboes dry Pustules Tetters Warts and lastly Nodes and rottenness of the Bones We may also conceive that the settled inveterate Leprosie which they speak of as a Disease very rare and incurable was what we now call Leprosie and that the other species of simple Leprosies which they have mentioned as very common were the different impressions that Venereal Salts made upon the skin since they were accompanied with the greatest part of the other Accidents of the Pox and that they were cured by the application of Mercurial Oyntments which we now make use of to anoint and cure those that are infected with the Pox. But it is very likely that the regularity which our Fore-fathers observed in their way of living did render it more rare and less apparent than it is now adayes As also it may be believed by the same reason that the brutality of the Indians hath render'd them the more subject to it and that the extreme heat they suffer in most places they inhabit renders its Accidents more terrible and apparent by making the Blood boil more violently CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Pox. 1. Reflections on the Divisions of some Authors 2. Division of the Causes of the Pox and a Discourse of its Generation 3. A remarkable Observation on the same subject 4. Divers necessary Observations on the cause of its Communication 1. THose who despise common Expressions and affect to use terms extraordinary and unknown to cast as they say dust into the eyes of their Readers divide the Causes of Diseases into Occult and Manifest Sympathick and Antipathick in a word into Agents and Patients to which they also often add by way of subdivision those which they pretend Efficient Material Formal and Final Primitive Antecedent and Conjunctive Near and Remote Internal and External Nay some Authors seem to strain themselves to divide things that appear indivisible Nevertheless it is observed that these sorts of Divisions have no other profit but to plung the minds of Men into confusion into ignorance and obscurity though they are or ought to be taught with the design of instruction An Example of this truth may be seen in the greatest part of young Students who often employ a considerable time to learn things that are either unuseful or of which they are not able to give any reason whether it be that they do not understand them or that they are really inconceiveable and those who write of them have not been able themselves to conceive them 2. But that we may not fall into the like inconvenience and to enlighten the matter I treat of as much as it is capable I shall consider but only two Causes of the Pox to wit that of its Generation which consists in the Mixture and Corruption of the Seeds of divers persons received and retained in the
same Womb And that of its Communication which consists in the contact of impure Persons It is so much the more necessary to prove the possibility of the former as it is a new Opinion that will consequently be pretended false by those who admit no Novelties at all And I fear also that Reason and Experience do not furnish us with proofs clear enough to discover this truth before the eyes of Opiniators that love rather to follow blindly what they conceive through prejudice than take the pains to examine things to distinguish rightly the true from the false 'T is after this manner I reason on this Subject Philosophers and generally the Learned do acknowledge no considerable change in Nature that is not made by a fermentation of which no cause is found more evident than the motion and action of contrary Bodies An Example of this truth which may particularly serve for a proof of my Opinion is observed in the Generation of perfect Animals and principally in that of Man for the Seeds of which he is generated do contain not only the Idea and Form of all the parts but also the good and ill Qualities the Temperaments and Natural Inclinations of those from whom they are emitted and this is so true that the particles which convey these powers act one upon the other after the Conception and that Infants of the same Family are sometimes Male sometimes Female now like Father another time like the Mother and often partly like one and partly like the other Now if it be true to say that the different qualities which are found in the Seeds of only two persons may be agitated so considerably as to cause one to over-rule the other whilest they are contained in the Womb for Generation that of a third person which is there received a little afterwards may be lookt upon as a matter extraordinary which must hinder Generation or at least render it imperfect by a more unequal mixture and stronger agitation this serves to perswade me that Moles in Women may be as well the effects of Cuckolding or Adultery as the production of Imagination since it is known besides that the best Anatomists do esteem great quantity of Menstrual Blood which is notwithstanding another principle of Generation for one cause of this confusion and disorder To which may be added that it is by reason of this Confusion that common Strumpets never conceive at all though they often do the same with those that have Children perhaps also with more advantageous circumstances because the different Seeds that they receive do cause a more vehement and irregular fermentation as they come from abundance of persons and are filled with a great many contrary and opposite particles from which fermentation there must consequently proceed a very bad change and further from Perfection to which Nature doth always tend On this subject it may further be observed that Corruption is the change which follows fermentations that are absolutely against Nature and it is easily to conceive how those Seeds being mixed together may pass from their fermentation to corruption almost at one and the same time since this mixture doth render them improper for their Natural Use and that the heat and moisture of the part which contains them do quickly dispose them to be corrupted Now the most important thing that remains on this subject is to let you see how they can become Venemous that is to say subtile penetrant and proper to coagulate and corrupt the Blood as other Poisons do But as the Seed is generally acknowledged for the best part of our Blood and every body knows that Corruption is so much the worse as the matters corrupted were more pure and delicate before It seems that this truth is sufficiently proved of it self and that there is no necessity of searching Reasons more strong or convincing to sustain it Nevertheless if we reflect on the great store of Spirits wherewith all the Seed is filled and on the quality of the Part that receives them we shall then see that there is no matter which can remain more Spirituous and consequently more Venomous after its Corruption because there is none better stor'd with Spirits nor any more diligently preserved this change being made in the Womb which is a part Naturally disposed to receive the Seed and conserve all the parts of it And what is still observable is that in passing from its Natural subject into other subjects it becomes so much the more Venemous as it hath passed a greater number of new Fermentations 3. Furthermore we may say of this Opinion that it is one of those that cannot well be proved by any other way but our Reason and that it is almost impossible to find subjects on which Experiments sufficiently sure and undoubted may be made for besides that the Pox doth not always appear and that there are but few persons who may be believed absolutely pure and clear from it there must therefore remain but few indeed who can be esteemed proper for such an Experiment Nevertheless I shall here report an Observation that meer chance was the cause of to one of my Friends and which may also serve to prove my thoughts on this subject A young Girle of between 14 and 15 years of age being pursued by her Mother who would needs beat her throws her self into the arms of one who was a Brother of a certain Community of Workmen established in a part of the Town that it is not necessary to name this Man conducts her to his Chamber and forces her he presently communicates the opportunity to him that usually lay with him who failed not to make use of the occasion and to discover it also to another of his Camerades in so much that in three days she was there six several persons made use of her After this the wisest among them foreseeing that this business was like to draw some dangerous consequence sent her home again by a Woman that feigned to have found her in a Church her Mother presently shuts her up in a Closet wherein no body was suffer'd to enter but her self and six days afterwards she complain'd of great pains that she suffered when she made Urine her Mother caused her to be visited and was told that she had got a Clap nevertheless they neglected to make use of any Cure because they would not believe it and twelve days afterwards there appeared a Bubo in her right Groin then they began to question her about it and she accused the persons she had been with they were all visited by Order of Justice and were all found clean and in good health And the Chirurgeon that imparted to me this story assured me that he had familiarly frequented their Company a long time afterwards and that he had never found any Venereal Distemper among any of them though 't is now twelve years since it hapned Though this Observation seems to be accompanied with all the Accidents that can
there is no reason besides for considering what they have proposed on this subject as one of its degrees since it is not at all likely that these Spirits they pretend infected are able to circulate about the body to penetrate the narrowest pores cause Itchings Inquietudes and fall of Hair the consequences of it without mixing with the blood by penetrating the Vessels I now spoke of which are but too porous for this effect and are generally dispersed into all parts of the body 5. Moreover it may be said that the differences which may be drawn from the Accidents the Pox produces are very considerable for it may be said to be Mobile during the ebullition of the blood the dispersion and motion of its matter that is to say when it yet causes those wandring pains or other Accidents that appear and vanish away successively one after another and on the contrary it may be considered as in a fixt condition when this dispersed matter doth adhere more particularly to some parts out of which it is not able to get neither of it self nor by the endeavours that Nature uses unless seconded by proper Remedies which also do become useless in those that have their Internal and Principal parts much injured by the adhesion and action of this matter But as the dispersion of it as well as of all other Humours that are extravasated is caused most commonly in the Extremities the most familiar Example of this degree may be observed in those that suffer in the night fixt pains of these same parts the elevation and corruption of bones and cartilages Lastly it may be seen by what I have said that these differences are able to furnish us with the most important consequences for the better making a good Prognostick of the Pox because we can easily judge that the degree in which its matter continues still in Motion can be carried off with easiness enough without leaving any impression at all of its ill effects and on the contrary we may judge it sometimes incurable where this same matter is absolutely stopt fixt because it hath made us see in some persons all its effects on those parts that are necessary to life and it is also rarely carried off in those I mentioned for the ordinary Example without leaving the sad marks of its activity since it is sometimes impossible to regenerate those parts that have been consumed for Example the bones and among others those of the Palate Nose which are often consumed in this degree and leave after their entire corruption very considerable deformities that can never be repaired CHAP. IV. Of the Judgment of the Pox. 1. It s division and how ignorant Men and Impostors do commit Abuses in this Disease 2. Many notorious Deceits and Impostures on this subject 3. A general division of the Signs that make us know this Disease 4. Particular division of the Symptomes that happen in all its degrees by the means of which the Prognostick of it may be assuredly made 1. THe Judgment of the Pox consists in knowing its Essence or Prognosticating as I have already said the easiness difficulty or impossibility of its Cure The Signs by which these things may be judged of are the Symptomes that accompany this Disease in all its degrees and are of a very great number and do therefore deceive ignorant Men because they do not all happen at a time and Symptomes do often happen that much resemble them though they are indeed produced from other causes This is that which gives occasion to Impostors to make but ill use of the credulity of those that doubt of the condition they are in and therefore find themselves engaged in this uncertainty to ask Counsel and require succour of those from whom they in Justice ought to expect it if they had but Honesty and Charity which are things very necessary for all such as do profess Physick The Reason that I have to speak after this manner â—â— that the greatest part of those who pretend to cure this Disease now-a-days do make the smallest appearances pass for undoubted degrees of the Pox and they do not fear to establish their Reputation at the cost of those who are not wise enough to know their own Folly and yet have a blind confidence on others so mighty ingenious as to run the hazard of losing all their Employments their Estates and Lives for to be cured of an imaginary or supposed Disease Though I have learnt an infinity of Cheats of this nature by the report of those who have come to consult me after others on this subject and by what I have seen my self by feigning my self sick and several other ways yet I will not by relating them encrease the bulk of my Book without profit and I believe it will suffice to relate some of the most remarkable of these Impostures to serve for an Advertisement or Warning to those who may be for the future in the like perplexities 2. The greatest part of those who think they know the World well do believe themselves sufficiently assured if they have escaped from falling iâ—â—o the hands of Empiricks and such as distribute secret Remedies nevertheless it is too true that there are many of those who are contrary to this sort of Men that are not really Honest but only in appearance and do indifferently make profit of all the occasions they meet with This truth is sufficiently known to many curious persons who have feigned themselves to have the Pox have found among those I spoke of persons that love their interest enough to confirm them in this Opinion upon the smallest suppositions and I have seen my self by chance that there are some among them who do not so much as endeavour to hide their Impostures by affected appearances but without any fear make ill use of the ignorance and easiness of those that go to consult them with a very strange piece of confidence The story that I am going to relate may serve so much the better for a proof of what I here affirm as it happened to a man of good credit that is now living and might be able to assert the truth of it This man came to consult me upon the account of several hard Pustules that grew over all his skin Upon this occasion I made all the necessary remarks on his past Life his Temperament the present condition of his person his Wife and Children and by this examination I knew it was nothing else but what Physicians call the Gnawing or Corrosive Herpes and I therefore proposed to him the use of a Bath and other Remedies both general and particular that ordinarily serve for the cure of this Distemper But because he was afraid he had the Pox and people often think they have the misfortunes they are afraid of he still continued in the apprehension he was in before and came to desire me some few days afterwards to conduct him to some famous Practitioner to see
whether he would joyn his Opinion with mine that so he might be better assured what to believe of it To this end I waited on him to a certain person whom a fair show of seeming Honesty store of Riches and a good Reputation of being an Able man have assuredly placed above the common Rank but was guilty nevertheless on this occasion of an action altogether unworthy of those good qualities for without giving leasure to the Patient or my self to relate those things that the sight cannot discover without making any examination at all and only after a precipitate inspection of these Pustules he told him it was a very fine sort of Pox and therefore he had best presently resolve for a retreat of six weeks This new way of judging of Diseases will surely very much surprize all those that shall make some reflections on the difficulty there is of knowing them and chiefly those Diseases whose causes are absconded in the secret internal parts such as is the universal Pox since the difficulty of knowing them is sometimes so great that the most expert profound and most knowing Physicians do happen to be mistaken in taking one for another and they do observe for this purpose the common Rule of Lawyers by which they do never offer to give determinate Judgment upon the presence of one Witness only But besides these considerations it must also be remarked by the by that those words of Fine Pox do show at the same time both the ignorance and quacking of those who make use of them But after all this same Patient was a little afterwards comforted again by one that proved more honest who after an ample knowledge of the circumstances I related gave the same Name to this Disease that I had done before and so advised him to those Remedies that I had proposed to him by the use of which Remedies he was quite cured in a short time Moreover it may be said that Interest was the sole Motive of this treacherous dealing for there is no likelihood that the ambition of appearing a great Doctor should have been the cause since he might have appeared so much more by reasoning on the Disease than pronouncing such fine words Nor is there any reason to believe he did it to render me a good Office since Offices of so high a nature are but seldom done without the hopes of receiving equal ones again and we two were not of Intelligence enough for that Therefore it is much more likely he thought with himself that I desired to put this person under his hands for some particular consideration and so he might have no other thought but of embracing the occasion offered Besides those that engage credulous persons to suffer the Salivation when there is no necessity of it there are also a great many Mountebanks to be found who give a false Judgment of the Pox and perswade men they have it when they are altogether free The easiness they have found in perswading men so hath given them encouragement for another sort of cheating They cause Billets to be distributed in most parts of the Town and clap up papers in the most resorted places nay and sometimes presume to write little Pamphlets filled with nothing but follies and lyes wherein they confidently boast that they are able to cure the Pox without Mercury without garde or keeping their Chamber and they have so much the more easily found persons who will believe them and render their Imposture somewhat likely by their own mistaken Experience as there are many persons who think themselves sick of this Disease when they do really enjoy most perfect Health But that which plainly shows us it had not subsisted hitherto but only by this means is that they are known to give the Salivation to those they think really in the Pox for they do then suppose their Disease in a degree almost desperate and they are not able consequently to cure them but by making use of this Remedy which they make pass for the extreme one of all and do nevertheless very familiarly employ it under this disguise with such a conduct as must always be believed very dangerous in those that have learnt nothing of it but by Receipt Though this Imposture be the more common and ordinary of all yet it must not be esteem'd the only one and there are some among them that do practise another still more remarkable Whatsoever Accidents those that have the Pox do suffer when they address themselves to these men they will always assure them they have no such thing as the Pox and so will promise to cure them with such Remedies as they call pleasant mild and insipid but are always notwithstanding the strongest and most violent Sudorisicks Purgatives and Vomitives that do extremely exhaust and dry up the body to make the Accidents cease by consuming the serosities that are spred abroad and are the Causes of them insomuch that these Patients find themselves cured in all appearance till the next ebullition of the Blood begins again and there happens a new dispersion of the matter that is able to produce other Symptomes which they then make pass for unhappy Relapses or else new Diseases that must undergo a new Cure So that these persons thus affected do furnish them with continual profit as Cows with Milk and a small number of them will be able to provide them Employment enough But among all those that impose on credulous persons there are none that make use of a more abominable Stratagem than these that follow for they do endeavour to perswade all their Patients that apply to them for help that all their bodies are filled with Mercury or else with Venereal matter that must be driven out as fast as may be if they desire to escape death and to convince them of the truth of this supposition they tell them they shall presently see abundance of Impurities come out of their bodies so soon as ever their Remedies begin to be applied In effect as this pretended Remedy is nothing else but an Oyntment applyed on their skin that is compounded of Cantharides this promise of theirs seems true to many men because it raises Blisters full of serosities that seem to come through their pores and because it makes them Urine prodigiously nay often blood it self by causing an inflamation and exulceration of the Bladder which are mortal Accidents 3. But after having sufficiently spoken of the false Judgments of Impostors and the means they make use of for commiting their Abuses it is time to let you see what are the true Signs that candid men must take notice of for to judge aright of this Disease These Signs may be divided into such as are known to the Patient alone and such as are sensible both to Patient and Physician The former are the impure Contacts that have preceded this Disease the pains they feel while they Urine the Inquietudes and universal Itchings the loss of Appetite the indifference
for Coition the Nocturnal pollutions without pleasure the suppression of the Terms in Women or of the regulated Hemorrhoides in some men Lastly the mobile or fixt pains of the Head the Shoulders and Extremities The latter Signs are Gonorrheas Buboes or Poulains Ulcers and Chancres of the Yard and of the Privities of Women or else the hardness that remains after their Cicatrices the fall of Hair from Head and Beard the Wounds and Ulcers that cannot be cured with ordinary Remedies the Tetters Pustules and Warts lastly the Elevation Rotteness and corruption of Bones But we must be sure to observe that all or most of these Signs that I have named are but Accidents of the Pox it self that it produces not all of them at all times nor in all subjects and that they become different according to its divers degrees in so much that they do not happen always in a constant and assured Order For there have been some persons seen whose bones have rotted with the Pox before ever any of those Accidents Authors do call Antecedent have been at all felt which Accidents I had rather call Consequent because they do most commonly follow those that accompany the particular Poxes of which I have spoken Nevertheless as it is impossible to make a good Prognostick of this Disease without being able to distinguish all the degrees it can happen in it will be necessary to reflect on all that hath been already said to the end we may the better find how it passes out of one degree into another and why in each particular one it doth produce very different Symptomes 4. It may with Reason be said that the Ulcers which are caused by impure Contacts do constitute the first degree of the Pox because they are the effect of some matter that very superficially adheres they cannot be distinguished from ordinary Ulcers at their beginning but by the preceding Contact and the parts in which they happen and they may be cured in this condition with common and ordinary Desiccatives But when the Salts that caused them cannot be destroyed by these or other means they then penetrate into the Vessels that contain the blood or else mix with the Natural moisture that remains in the ulcer'd part and fix it in such manner that from Ulcers they degenerate into Chancres and then indeed they are much more dangerous and hard to cure but are known by the elevation of their white sides by their obscure colour and by their hardness You may easily judge that Claps or Virulent Gonorrheas are of a yet higher degree than the Ulcers I now spoke of because the matter that makes them is more deeply driven into the bodies of those who suffer them and the parts that are infected with them are such as are inward and concealed The Bladder for Example and the parts adjacent or dependent on it are the first that suffer the Inflammation which is sufficiently known by the heat and pains that are felt in urining and sometimes by an entire suppression of the Urine the seminal parts and the Seed it self are not more free from an Alteration since the loss thickness corruption of the Seed are undoubted marks of it Lastly the passages through which these Impurities are carried do not long remain free from their ill effects but become exulcerated by the sharp points of the Salts they contain and this exulceration doth cause them to suffer very grievous pains during the passage of their Urine While this particular Pox is but newly contracted it can be cured with a great deal of ease and safety by preventing that which we ought otherwise to fear and taking away whatsoever appears by the use and application of proper Remedies to this effect But when it hath had a considerable duration without necessary succour it must be then believed to be of a much more difficult and dangerous Cure because all its Accidents become greater and the further penetration if its matter that is the universal Pox may be then with just Reason suspected Therefore it must then be treated with more care and precaution and the Prognostick that is made of it must be more doubtful We may now observe that the Venereal Salts do often pass from the parts I spoke of into the orifices of the Veins and Arteries and do sometimes penetrate more directly by the subtilty keenness of their points Nevertheless what way soever they enter it is always true that they cause in some a great ebullition of their blood either by the particular dispositions they find in it or else by their own deleterious quality during which ebullition the Impurities do separate much after the same manner as Lees do in the fermentation of Wine and so are driven out after a while by the force of Nature or if you will so by the Faculty Expultrive into the Glandules of the Groins where it causes a Bubo or Botch that serves for a Crisis of the Pox if it be attracted and brought to perfect Suppuration It may be distinguished from other Tumours that sometimes happen in those parts by the impure Contact that preceeded it by the Claps Gonorrheas Ulcers and Chancres that often happen a little before its discovery but principally by its slow advancement its durity and large Basis But this penetration of the Venereal matter into the mass of the blood is not always attended with so happy success as the extrusion of such a Tumour the Venereal Salts do sometimes participate more of fixt than volatile and the blood is not equally hot and subtile in all sorts of men so that in some it presently coagulates by this means much after the same manner as some curious persons have experimented by syringing Acid Liquours into the Veins of Brutes and this coagulation is often the Cause of those suppressions I took notice of and of their loathing all Meat aâ—â— of their indifference as to Coition because whil'st it continues the Circulation grows very slow and consequently the Natural Functions that depend on it become interrupted Wherefore this time may be observed for another degree of the Pox that can nevertheless be clearly carried off by the inward Sudorisicks which do dissolve and attenuate the blood by new ebullitions provided that Nature be also assisted in her other evacuations At the time that this coagulation of the blood ceases by the separation of the different particles it then contains we may consider the beginning of its fermentation which is performed so much the more gently and by degrees as it met before with Obstacles to hinder it whence it comes to pass that this blood doth but only rise and boil by little and little though indeed this gentle ebullition fails not nevertheless to cause Symptomes very much different from those I have already spoken of and such as I shall remark hereafter For whil'st it lasts light vapours arise from it that are carried all over the body and do cause those inquietudes of mind and body
those Itchings of â—â—â— skin and fall of the Hair from the Head and Beard Wherefore this time may be also considered as another degree of the Pox wherein nevertheless it may be absolutely cured as well as in the former by a good use of ordinary Remedies or else by a Critical Motion of some other Disease supervening But as these means do fail sometimes of the desired effects it were much better in this condition to provoke a light Salivation by which a quick easie and assured Cure may be hoped for When the fermentation encreases or that it is in its height the Venemous serosities do separate from the blood and pass á travers the coats of the Vessels that contain it after which they slide along the Nerves and Membranes and cause those wandring pains that are felt now in one part and now in another sometimes also Nature strives to drive them forth through the pores but as these serosities are heavy and full of Salts they adhere to the skin instead of going forth and there cause Ulcers when they are mixt with some corrupted matter or if on the contrary they are chiefly charged with fixt Salts they there raise pustules that are flat scaly dry and of a red drawing towards an Orange colour or else if they are fill'd with volatil Salts they rise somewhat higher and produce hard Tetters and Warts upon the Yards privities of Women the Groin and other places This degree of the Pox is not the most difficult of all to be cured but it is known very well by experience that there is nothing but Mercury among Remedies that is able to excite the Crisis that can terminate it Oftentimes after these matters have been thus wandring about the body they altogether adhere and absolutely stay in some parts and cause by this means the last and most terrible degree of the Pox. For though their adhesion doth sometimes happen only in the Muscles and Periostium they fail not to cause most lamentable Accidents because by pricking gnawing and continually drying the nervous Fibres of these parts they there produce those fixt and nocturual pains some persons have found insupportable The Cartilages and especially the bones are also other parts that suffer great changes by their penetration for they cause a sort of fermentation in the Marrow or Juyce they contain by the means of which Tumours are seen to happen that are called Nodes and which are nothing else but an elevation of their very substance that is at last rotted and corrupted by the presence and action of these Impurities Nevertheless though the Pox is very hard to cure when its matter is thus stopt and sunk into the parts I named it may be observed that it would be always curable even in this degree if this same matter were not sometimes stuck to parts that are still more considerable But it hath been unhappily proved in some Men that the parts which are called Noble and those that immediately administer to the Noble ones have not been exempt from its activity and cruel effects Wherefore the Prognostick that may be made of it is so sad and lamentable that it always consists in judging the extraordinary difficulty or else impossibility of the Cure But besides the general Considerations that I have marked for making a good Prognostick of the Pox in all its degrees there must be respect had to the particular circumstances of each subject as for example to the Temperament Sex Age Strength and also Employment of him we pretend to cure For I have known by Experience that the inquietudes which important affairs do give some men do heat and inflame the Spirits and thereby cause the Mercury to enter into the Brain where it finally causes most deplorable Accidents SECT 2. In which necessary Observations are made on the means to cure the Pox while it is but Particular on the Natural and Critical Motions which do terminate it when it becomes Vniversal and on the Medicines which commonly serve to raise the Artificial Crisis of it CHAP. I. Of the sorts of Particular Pox that are called Ulcers and Chancres 1. Why the particular Poxes are here treated of in the first place and of the general division that may be made of them 2. Of Venereal Vlcers in general 3. The particular Method of curing them 4. Observation on the Purges that ought to be employed in their Cure 5. Of other Preservatives 6. Divers necessary Observations on the Remedies that serve for curing them when they degenerate into Chancres 7. Of the Phymosis and Paraphymosis 1. AFter having thus remarked all the general things that I have judged necessary for the understanding those that more particularly relate to the Art of curing the Pox It is now time to speak of its Remedies and the circumstances that must be observed for the using them well and without danger And seeing the matter that causes the Pox doth in a manner always adhere to some particular parts before it advances to infect the whole body some Reflections shall here be made in the first place on the means of curing it while it doth continue particular and on the Preservatives that ought to be used for hindring its becoming Universal But to the end we may avoid useless Repetitions I shall say nothing more in general of particular Poxes nor of the Reasons for which I have so named them because these things have been already sufficiently explicated when I spoke of the Differences and Signs which may serve for the Knowledge and Prognostick of all the degrees of this Disease It will suffice to say here that they maay be divided into such as appear only in the parts that may be seen and touched and into such as happen in other parts that our senses cannot discover so that according to this Division different Remedies may be given the more successfully as occasion requires 2. The first are the Ulcers and Chancres which are caused by a light and superficial adhesion of some matter that hath not penetrated more inwardly I add this distinction because I do not now intend to speak of those that are made in the Ureter by the passage of Virulent matter in Claps or Gonorrheas nor of such as are the Symptomes of the universal Pox since the manner of treating them is much different and that they do depend on other degrees This particular Pox is nothing else in the beginning but the ruption or dilaceration of the superficial Fibres of the skin or pellicules that cover the parts to which the matter doth adhere so that no other Name must consequently be given to it than that of Venereal Ulcers especially if we will not do like Ignorants or Impostors who make the smallest Excoriations pass for Chancres of a most difficult cure and they do not indeed cure them but with a great deal of pains and time because they dress them with caustick burning Medicines which make them become very painful hard and apt to suppurate
though oftentimes the gentlest desiccatives are sufficient to cure them in three or four days These Ulcers may indeed happen in all parts of the body because they are all capable of an impure Contact but the more tender and delicate ones are most subject to them by reason that the impure Salts do more easily stick in their susceptible substance whence it comes to pass that the Yards in Men the Privities in Women the Teats in Nurses and the Mouth in Infants are the parts which are most commonly infected with them 3. That which ought to be done towards their Cure while they are in this condition consists principally in drying them up like other Ulcers only regard must be had to the matter that causes them and proper Desiccatives employed for breaking the points of the Salts they contain and to oppose their penetration which is so much the rather to be feared as it is done insensibly The following Liquours will very well answer this first respect if you wash the Ulcers twice a day with them and lay Tents upon them that are dipt in these Liquours observing always to give such a strength to them as is most agreable proper to the particular Temperaments of the bodies and parts on which you shall apply them and this by encreasing the quantity of Pouders to render them the stronger or else that of the Waters to make them the weaker Take of the seventh Water of unslakt Lime one pound Spirit of Vitriol Salt of Saturn and Verdegrease of each half a drachme Or else Rose and Plantain Water of each half a pound Aqua-vitae two ounces Orpiment a drachme and a half Verdegrease two scruples Aloes half a drachm Or again white Wine a pound Rose and Plantain Water of each four ounces Orpin two drachmes Verdegrease one drachm Mirrh and Aloes of each a scruple Make the Liquours according to Art for the use above mentioned To answer the second respect that I remarked you must use both Purgatives and Diureticks if the Ulcers are upon the Yard of a Man the Genitals of a Woman or about the Groin of either of them or else you may use inwardly Sudorisicks that drive from the Center to the Circumference if they are in any other parts 4. It must be especially observed that the Purgatives which you shall make use of for this effect be strong enough to move Nature and help it to drive by Stool any impure matter that might have penetrated a little more inwardly than the Ulcers which appear to you and also that they be not violent enough to attract the Humours from the remoter parts for this attraction would help the matter to make a further penetration then it would otherwise have been able to do of it self and so cause by this means the universal Pox which you do endeavour to avoid And here you may take notice that the greatest part of Men are themselves the causes of the frauds and deceits that are done to them for there are very many who will never think themselves well purged unless they have felt excessive pains and cruel gripes in their guts and unless they go to Stool fiveteen or twenty times at least though to speak the truth Nature can never endure these extraordinary and violent Motions without the diminution or depravation of their Functions which nevertheless are the principal Agents in the separation and expulsion of Impurities If you desire therefore to avoid these excesses you 'll find nothing more safe than an Infusion of Senna with Salt of Tartar in which you may also dissolve the Syrups of Roses or Peachflowers proportionating the doses to the age and strength of the Patient you take in hand 5. The Diuretiks you must make use of to repel by Urine are Crystal Mineral which you may give from half a drachm to two or three and the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur from six to thirty drops in Pellitory Water or an Aperitive Ptisanne you may prepare with the Roots of Strawberries wild Succhory Grass and Dandelion Those of Parsly Fennil Sperage and Rest-harrow are much more aperitive than the former and divers forms of Ptisannes may be prepared with them that are useful indeed to some but may have very ill effect on persons extremely hot and dry as well as Radish-seed bruised and taken in white Wine which is notwithstanding a most powerful Aperitive For the Sudorisicks that are taken inwardly you may successively make use of the Spirit of Harts-horn which you may give in half a Glass of Carduus-water from six to twenty drops or a like number of grains of its volatile Salt dissolved in the same Water But among all you 'll find none to have a greater effect than the Pouder or volatile Salt of Vipers if you give the first from ten to thirty grains and the latter from five to fiveteen in equal parts of Cinnamon and Carduus-waters or in the Water that remains in the distillation of this same Salt 6. It remains to say that these Evils do not long continue under the Name of Ulcers simply for it is well known that the matter which causes them doth sometimes insinuate more deeply and by this means doth make another degree of the Pox but it more often happens that by long continuance in the exulcerated part it makes the Ulcers turn into Chancres after the manner I spoke of before Wherefore it is good to observe that you dress them in this condition with Escaroticks and Suppuratives because you must consume the hardness that is found in them for fear of leaving a ferment in the parts that might produce afterwards a far greater Evil than you are going to destroy They who follow the ordinary Practice in this case are content to apply Red Precipitate which in truth makes a skar when it is good but that a light and superficial one such as is not able to hinder the hardness from encreasing in latitude and profundity and from remaining also after their Cicatrice what time soever is employed towards their consumption Some do make use of sublimate Corrosive but besides that it causes intolerable pains during the Operation it attracts watry fluxions on the parts it is applyed to which are very hard to dissolve and do besides dispose the parts to a Gangrene and this principally in those parts that are near the passages which serve for expulsion of the Excrements The causes of these misfortunes and many others is an Errour of some ancient Authors that every body may easily be convinced of yet hath nevertheless been received by way of Tradition by the greatest part of those who have written ever since or do still write on this subject according to which Errour they represent Quicksilver to be like a Ferret that goes and searches out the Venereal matter in all parts of the body for to expel it thence presently as this little Animal doth the Connies out of their Holes For which Opinion nevertheless they have had no other proof
have been perfectly purified by receiving through the rough Artery some part of the Mercury that is sublimated from the Stomach up to the Mouth and might by that means be carried to the Heart from whence it becomes universally spread through the Vessels by the Circulation or else by attracting through the Lacteal Veines some particles of that which is precipitated downwards by the conjunction of Purgatives out of which Veins it may be also carried to the Heart and thence dispersed by the Motion of the blood after the manner I now spoke of 2. Nevertheless if you will be desirous of trying to raise the Crisis of the Pox after this manner you had best cause a loosness with it by mixing crude Mercury or sweet Sublimate with purging powders such as Aloes Colocynth and prepared Scammony which you may reduce into the consistance of Pills of which you may give every day a Dose proportionable to the present condition of your Patient You may also provoke the Salivation with these two sorts of Mercury by incorporating as much as you can of the first with Turpentine and the Crust of Bread dryed and powdred to reduce it afterwards into the form of Pills of which you may give from half a drachm to one drachm or else by mixing the second from fifteen to thirty grains for each Dose in a little Conserve of Roses remembring always that this last ought to be preferred and that the former is much more suspicious because it may reunite it self in the Stomach or in the Guts after the Turpentine is dissolved Besides sweet Sublimate there are several other Chymical Preparations of Mercury that are pretended to be Purgative too and do really Purge both by Vomit and Stool Such as are red and white Precipitate which are given from four to eight grains and Turbith Mineral from three to six But you must observe that this effect doth principally proceed from the Corrosion and Acuteness of corrosive Salts that hold Mercury under these several forms and so the inward use that is made of them is always to be accounted dangerous unless you break the points of these Acids before-hand by burning more then once these powders in the Spirit of Wine Almost all the Receipts and pretended Secrets of Empyricks and generally of such as promise to Cure the Pox without obliging their Patients to quit their Employments for some time or any way changing their usual way of Living do consist in the use of the Powder of Algarot and some other Preparations of Antimony which have no considerable effect besides that of spoiling the Stomach and disordering all the Natural Functions or else in the several ways of giving Turbith Mineral and the two Precipitates I now spake of For some of them give these things simply and without any other Preparation in the Conserve of Roses and pretend to make them pass quickly into all parts of the body by giving presently afterwards to their Patients as much Wine as they are able to drink on which subject you must observe that Wine taken in good quantity is mighty Diuretick and that Mercury thus impregnated with Salts is easily dissolved and carried off by Urine which for that reason then becomes very Salt and Acid and is therefore the cause that there is but a very small part of them that can enter or continue in the sanguiferous Vessels and so very small help can be expected from them Others again give these powders mixed with Gumme Gutta the Resine of Jalap and other Purgatives alike violent which truly do preserve it in Motion and do hinder it from adhering to the Stomach and Guts but do often cause most terrible Accidents by the fire that they enkindle in the body and by the violence of theâ—â— activity 3. It remains then to make Mercury enter through the pores of the body bâ— applying Mercurial Plasters or Ointments upon it and by reducing it into a Fumigation when mixed with resinous Drugs Mercurial Plasters and Ointments are applyed to the same places and have very near the same effect the manner of using them doth not differ neither only the first must be spread upon Leather before they are applyed whereas the latter are applyed directly upon the skin which is afterwards only covered with some Linnen That which is particular in this matter is that the Mercury which enters into Plasters requires a longer time to penetrate the Mass than that which is put into Ointments because it is more closely confounded in the solidness of the matter and therefore you must not change them but seldom or not at all and cover from the beginning all the parts that ought to be covered The Plaster which is ordinarily made use of is that which is described by and called de Vigo and is found prepared in all Shops simple double or treble with Mercury But for as much as it is of too hard a consistence and doth not easily adhere to the skin you may to better purpose prepare another with eight ounces of Mercury four ounces of Turpentine and two pounds of the Plaster of Mucilages 4. That which is commonly called Emorbo or the Grey Ointment and by the Physicians Neapolitan is found prepared in Apothecaries Shops and some make the friction with it But because the Dose of Mercury is very small in it and because it is of an unsavoury smell you may prepare another more effectual Oyntment with four ounces of Mercury two ounces of Turpentine one ounce of the Oyl of Bays two drachms of Saffron and a pound and a half of the Ointment of Roses You may employ about two ounces of this Ointment for the first friction which you must make from the Ankles till above the Knees and from the Wrists to the end of the Shoulder-blades Though this quantity of Mercury be seldom sufficient to bring Nature to a Critical Motion nevertheless some persons have been found so tender and delicate or easy to put into this Motion that they have received a Salivation even from the very first Friction and in which persons a second would have proved very dangerous so that you must observe narrowly the Patient you undertake so soon as you have thus given him Mercury and you must diligently examine whatsoever happens to him anew to the end you may presently leave of your Frictions so soon as the signs of a Salivation do appear and this to avoid Suffocation which doth always happen when the Humours are carried up to the Throat in too great an abundance In the second Friction which must be made four and twenty hours after the first you may employ up to four ounces of your Ointment and rub the Legs and Thighs with it from the middle of the Foot to the upper part of the Hips the Chine or Back-bone from the end of the Os Sacrum to the middle of the Neck and the Arms from the Wrists again to the Shoulder-blades not forgetting the places where the Glandules are seated which serve
Phlegmatick and replete body or else if Mercury hath been applyed in too much hast it will sublimate along with it all on a sudden so great a confluence of Humours that the most part of the Accidents I now reckoned up will also appear but more particularly an extraordinary Swelling of the Throat Tongue Cheeks and often of all the whole Face with considerable hardness and loosness of Teeth and with an immoderate Flux of Blood from the Ulcers of the Mouth which in a short time become great spreading black stinking and gangren'd and which do at last cause Death if a Suffocation don't prevent their malignancy 3. In all these miserable Conjunctures the best means to be used do consist in hindring the Activity of Mercury in the diminution of its quantity by change of Bed Linnen and Chamber and in the precipitation of the rest downwards by astringent Gargarisms Clysters Phlebotomies in the Foot and especially by often repeated Purges in which you must be sure always to mix the Salt of Tartar proportionating the rest of the Ingredients to the Age Strength and Temperament of your Patients Some do make use of a Golden Pill which they cause to be swallowed several times after as many Lotions and which always indeed carries off some very little Mercury on its Superficies but it is so very small a quantity for so long a time that no great effect can be expected from it and its use must by no means hinder that of the former Remedies 4. After having thus provided against all these Accidents in general by the means that I have proposed 't is time to think of such as demand particular Correctives and apply Cupping-glasses with scarifications on the nape of the neck or on the shoulders for all Phrensies Convulsions Apoplexies Deafness Blindness and in general for all Indispositions of the Brain and Nerves A Gargarism made with a Decoction of Plantain red Roses and Agrimony in which you must drop a little Spirit of Vitriol will prove astringent enough to repel the Blood or Phlegm that runs out of the Mouth and detersive enough to cleanse the Ulcers which shall be toucht from time to time with the Chymical Spirits before named It is observable that this same Gargarism may also serve to strengthen the loose Teeth by closing of the Gums which nevertheless may be much better fastned by touching them with the Aqua secunda An Oxyrrhodin made of one part of Vinegar and two of Oyl of Roses outwardly applyed on the Throat asswages it takes down the Swelling and diminishes the Inflammation You may also for the same effect make use of the Cere-cloth of Galen mixt with the Oyl of sweet Almonds A few spoonfuls of good Wine will do a great deal of good in all Faintings and Swoonings for to fortifie the Heart and disperse again the suffocated Spirits which you must prefer in this occasion before all the Confections Cordial Potions and other artificial Cardiacks Cows-Milk luke-warm will wonderfully appease the pains in the Guts if you make Fomentations of it outwardly and Injections within in which you may add some Yelks of Eggs and some grains of Laudanum to render them yet more Anodyne Besides these Ordinary Remedies the knowledge which you ought to have of things that appertain to Physick the Instructions which you may learn and the Counsel you may please to take will furnish you with an infinity of others on particular Occasions FINIS INDEX SECT I. IN which some useful Reflections and Observations are made on the Names Definition Origine Causes Differences Signs and Prognosticks of the Pox. Chap. I. Of the Pox in general Chap. II. Of the Causes of the Pox. Chap. III. Of the differences of the Pox which may serve to make a Prognostick Chap. IV. Of the Judgment of the Pox. SECT II. In which necessary Observations are made on the means to Cure the Pox while it is but Particular on the Natural and Critical Motions that do terminate it when it turns to be Universal and on the Medicines that serve to raise the Artificial Crisis of it Chap. I. Of the kinds of Particular Poxes that are called Vlcers and Chancres Chap. II. Of other Particular ones that are called Claps and virulent Gonorrheas Chap. III. Of the Natural Crises of the Vniversal Pox. Chap. IV. Of the Plants which have been esteemed capable to carry off the Pox by Sweat Chap. V. Of the Observations it is necessary to make on Mercury to know whence the different effects that follow its application do proceed SECT III. In which the true Method of artificially raising the Crises of the Universal Pox is explained Chap. I. Of the Crises that are provoked by common Remedies and of the proper Seasons for the application of Mercury Chap. II. Of the Preparation of Bodies in which Mercury must enter Chap. III. Of the different ways of making Mercury to enter into the Bodies of such as are infected with the Pox. Chap. IV. Of the Critical Motions that are provoked by Mercury Chap. V. Of the Dyet of those who are in the Artificial Crises of the Pox. Chap. VI. Of the particular Circumstances which ought to be observed for treating Methodically Women and little Infants Chap. VII Of the Misfortunes which may follow the application of Mercury FINIS