Strainers not from any Fermentation Nay it is a very easie thing for a man to perceive that there is no such thing as a Fermentation in the Blood by the following easie Experiment viz. let a few ounces of Blood run out of the Veins or Arteries of Man or other Animal into a very clear Glass Vessel which vessel you may put into a Sand Furness wherein the heat may be such as to keep the Blood in the same degree of warmth as it came out of the Vessels and if there be any commotion to be seen with the best Light and best Eyes like unto what may be seen in such Liquors which are in a state of Fermentation upon information I shall gladly own my self mistaken There is I confess a Froth to be seen upon the surface of some Blood after it is let out into the Porringer which looks like the surface of Liquors which are fermenting But this Froth is so far from being the effect of Fermentation that it proceeds from nothing else but the different stream that the Blood runs in For in the same Person let one Parcell run out in a rapid stream and it will occasion froth or bubbles let another Parcel run out gently and it will produce no such thing Will not simple Water or any other Liquor do the same but Blood being a Liquor of greater consistence the bubbles when raised will not so soon disappear as in Water or other Liquors that are more fluid from which I hope it is plain that the constant natural heat of the Blood does not proceed from Fermentation And if the progressive Motion from the Heart to the Extremities gives it its heat by the same reason I think the Water that runs from our Cocks should be warm also whereas I dare be bold to say that instead of gaining any heat by its rapid propulsion through the Pipes it is much colder than the Water in the River at the place from whence it was received into the Engine I had like to have forgot to take notice of what you have said concerning the production of Alkalies but it being a very material thing I shall here expatiate a little upon what I have before said upon that Subject and shall take care as much as may be to avoid repetitions I have already own'd that Alkalies do actually exist in several Bodies as the principle of their death and destruction but I never could yet see or hear of any one that has seen any such thing as either a volatile or fixt Alkalizat Salt that was any other ways to be obtained out of Vegetable or Mineral Bodies than from the Bodies after they had been burnt viz. out of the Ashes or Soot of them which are their Excrements or rather the Excrements of Fire or else after the Body had undergone a Putrefaction which is analagous to Fire Now this being so in relation to Vegetables and Minerals I think in may not be amiss to infer that the Alkaly to be found in Animal Substances is the Excrement of their Fire and which mightily confirms me in this Notion all the Excrements of Animals are Alkalious viz. a Matter thrown away either as useless or incommodious and of consequence all the Alkaly to be met with in the Blood or elsewhere is an Excrement in a way of being carried off More upon this Head I shall not say at this time by reason I shall have occasion to enlarge upon this and upon the Heat of the Blood in my Tract of Fevers But what I have now and before said is I think sufficient to satisfie any one who is not a meer Sceptick But for manifest Acids they are to be met with every where almost both in the Mineral and Vegetable Kingdoms even in those Bodies that have never undergone a Putrefaction but are in the greatest state of Perfection and for Vinegar and the like it is so far from being the effects of Putrefaction that it is the last degree of Perfection Nature alone is capable of bringing those Liquors to It is also to be observed that those Fruits of which Wine is made were first Acid before they came to a state fit to make Wine of and that Putrefaction is the Cause of the Acidness of Unripe Fruits I believe none will assert This Subject is also too long to treat fully of in this place and therefore I shall also omit the further prosecution of it for a Practical Discourse Reply If Alkalies are the Original of Distempers whence is it that in Dropsies Catarrhs some Gouts and other Diseases we find the Texture of the Blood so thin 'T is observable that those Particles you term Alkalies the more the Blood is saturated with them of the more thick Consistence it is as we see in Plurisies Rheumatisms and other Inflammatory Cases in which Distempers if in any the Alkalies abound Is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion and render it thin Your Answer to this is that 't is not the Thinness of the Blood is the only Cause of these Distempers but a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts Here methinks you do not argue so fairly For you mention little or nothing of the Destruction of the Tone of the Parts in your Etymologies of Distempers till now And why may not I as well say in Inflammatory Cases the Blood is not affected with any Alkaline Particles These Inflammations only arise from a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts especially if you consider what you asserted in your Notion of Fevers For there the Emunctories are very much out of order But you object since Acids will reduce the Blood to its due Consistence it is not reasonable to suppose they should be the Cause of its Fusion Answ Whether Acids will restore the Consistence of the Blood I shall examin by and by I fear they will not But this I am certain of they will put it in a Fusion 'T is well known that you celebrated Oyl of Vitriol taken alone or tho in a Vehicle if in too great quantity kills Now how does it kill Does it not by dissolving the Mass of Blood by separating the Grumous Parts from the Serous and breaking its Texture after the same Manner as it does that of Milk Sure I am that Blood coagulated by the aforesaid Oyl does much more resemble Whey and Curds than Jelly of Harts-horn Now then what is all this but an Extraordinary Fusion And if a large Dose will make such mad Work and put the Blood into so great a Fusion certainly a less Dose must cause somewhat of a Fusion And 't is rational to believe that Oyl of Vitriol is proper only in those Distempers where the Blood is too thick very pernicious in such as have it too thin And here I am very glad that you so opportunely give us your Sentiments of Dropsies A Dropsie say you or the Thinness of Blood in that
abounding with Alkaly a part of this superabundant Alkaly is thrown upon them and causes all the havock that is made by this Tyrannical Distemper and this being a Distemper that most of my Predecessors have died of and of which I my self am apprehensive has made me not a little inquisitive into its Nature and Cause Secondly That you might load the Blood of the healthy person with more Alkaly than I take notice of you pretend from my own Hypothesis tho without reason to assign the cause of the Lucidness of the Atoms of the Caput Mortuum to proceed from the said Caput Mortuum's abounding with Alkalious Salts Now I can assure you that the whole quantity of Caput Mortuum which that Blood produced would scarce afford one grain of Salt of any kind But supposing it to contain but the fourth part of a grain of Phosporus which is a true Animal Fire that would diffuse it self through the whole and make it lucid The Phosporus is a true Animal Fire and is to be extracted from all Animal Substances and if it did not exist in them how is it possible for it to be extracted from them And that the Phosporus is an Acidosulphureous substance is to be demonstrated without difficulty And I have plainly told you that the Pabulum of Animal Fires is a sulphureous Acid. Your second and third Replies I shall not meddle with because you either grant me what I have said or else proceed upon meer suppositions of which I can take no notice But here you fall upon me again without that order I could wish for first with Answer and then First and Secondly again and so on Of this I shall take no notice but go on from your first Reply to the Second Third and Fourth c. in their order and mark the pages in the Margent Reply You say That in page not 67th of my Answer I know not what to make of your warm Particles And by way of Reply you say you mean Alkalious Particles such as you believe the Blood abounds with in some Fevers and in which you grant Acids are of use But yet say you I cannot agree with your notion of Fevers A Fever say you Pag. 68 proceeds from a Constipation of some of the Emunctories so that the excrementitious Alkaly which should be carried off by them is detained in the Blood which by breaking its Globules c. This Doctrine does not seem at all to correspond with your Practice For Spirit of Vitriol and other Acids which are very stiptick the use of which you applaud in Fevers should methinks constipate the pores more closely And then they being of a very fixing nature should fetter or retain those excrementitious Alkalies Again if Fevers are occasioned only by a detention of these Alkalies then it must follow that when ever they have free vent the Fever must abate But the contrary has been sometimes experienced where the Patient has sweated very liberally and yet died at last If this will not serve the turn I hope to make it appear anon that Alkalies are not capable of breaking the Globules and making such a bustle in the Blood But I cannot but speak one word or two in their defence before I go any further I am very apt to think that in some Fevers especially Pestilential and Malignant the Spirits are primarily affected according to the Hypothesis of the ingenious Dr. Morton witness those symptoms which attend the Nervosum Genus immediately upon the first seizure But you must not admit of this notion from the soil which you must lodg in the Blood and thence be communicated to the Spirits Well let it be so I will not dispute it the difficulty on your side will be great still For tho I shall readily grant the Globules to be broken in the aforesaid Fevers yet 't will be a hard matter to convict Alkalies of those tragical disorders For first experience shews that nothing is more proper in those Cases Malignant I shall adventure to use the term notwithstanding it has been so scouted of late than pul e Chelis Rad. Serpentar nay Sp. C. C. it self given in a proper Vehicle But secondly Nothing does so readily dissolve the mass of Blood or separate its Principles as Acids which I shall prove by and by when I come to speak something of Dropsies But this long discourse of the heat of the Blood does naturally lead me to consider somewhat of its Flame Remark I do still affirm that Fevers in general do proceed from a constipation of the Emunctories Now what I mean by Emunctories are those parts which are only designed and provided by Nature for the separation of the Excrements from the Blood and whenever they are so disordered as not to be able to perform that office why then there must either a Fever or some other great disorder follow And that this Doctrine quadrates with my practice is very plain For whenever these Emunctories are over relaxed they cannot squeeze out the excrementitious Particles in sufficient quantities and so they return back again into the Blood and cause Fevers or some other disorder and so of consequence Spirit of Vitriol or some such kind of Stiptick is the only proper remedy to take off this disorder But to knock this matter on the head you say that in many Fevers the Patient sweats so much that by so doing it has cost him his life This I will readily grant you but the Sweats you mean are certainly such as we call colliquative ones in which cases the Emunctories are so overmuch relaxed that they cannot bear a congestion at all and so there is no such thing as a secretion but the Juices good and bad are all let out together and unless they can be prevented by proper Stipticks which will put Nature into her right course the whole Fabrick must soon be destroyed And it is also to be observed that in such Fevers the heat doth scarce exceed that of the natural temper the Pulse being also exceeding low In the latter part of this Reply you altogether go upon suppositions without the least kind of demonstration and so it is scarce worth my taking notice of but however to manifest my respect I shall go on with it As for what you mean by the Spirits being primarily affected in Pestilential and Malignant Fevers all deference being had to the worthy Dr. Morton it is Heathen Greek to me For by my own experience to use your own terms in such cases I have found the Blood so full of soil that from thence I stick not to acount for all the depression of Spirits and other nervous Symptoms that attend those Fevers And for a Fever of the Spirits purely a very late Author has sufficiently exploded that matter And in my own Practice within the space of a twelve month I have been concerned with three Persons and thanks to God I have seen no more that have had the true Pestilence or
of his Life He instead of magnifying the skill of his Physician tells his Friends my Physician tells me I have had a Fever such as my Neighbour such a one had but I believe he is mistaken mine could be no more than a Cold which would have gone off had I done nothing at all and this is frequently the reward that honest men meet with and I doubt not but the same reflections will be made upon Mr. Philipson's Cure viz. that he would have been well in the same time had nothing at all been done to him Several Physicians have publickly said that a prick with a Needle or the point of a Lancet in some Parts would occasion as dreadful sympoms as this man had Supposing this to be true I believe every body will allow that the taking off of such Symptoms in so small a time let the occasion of them be what it will is not ordinarily seen and Dr. G. with the prick of a Lancet only was hurried away into another World who yet was as likely a man to â—ake the forementioned Objection â—o undervalue any thing done either by me or upon the Basis of my Hypothesis as any one now living I will not pretend to justifie Mr. Stringers conduct in a great many things but he being a person greatly concerned in the first and most material part of what was done for Mr. Philipson in order to his Cure I could not in justice but make use of his Name as he deserved But for Mr. Small the Surgeon he is a man of an unblemished Reputation and as hopeful a Young Man as any of his Profession the Testimony of whom only were sufficient upon such an Occasion but the Testimonies of Mr. Philipson the Apothecary and the man himself being joined to his makes the matter of fact unquestionable Remarks upon Dr. Tuthill's Vindication of his Objections against my Hypothesis Worthy Sir YOU are the only fair Antagonist that ever I have had to do with and therefore I ought to treat you with all the tenderness and respect imaginable You cannot but be sensible that I walk in an unbeaten path and therefore if I now and then am out of my way I am the more excusable It 's true some few other Physicians have heretofore used Acids in the Cure of several Distempers and the friendly correspondence I have had with some of them has been of great use to me but the assistance I have had from them as to the establishing of my Principles has been very inconsiderable If I have made any false steps neither of them are obliged to answer for me and if I have made any good ones which I cannot forbear flattering my self that I have I am sure it is owing to my own labour and industry and altho I were not bred up at the University yet I have taken as much true pains to inform my self in all the Parts of Physick as perhaps any man ever did Let an Hypothesis be laid down with all the caution and care in the World and established upon never so certain a Foundation yet there will still be some room left for men to object and he that will spend his time in answering all trifling Objections that may and will be raised against a thing that is new must lead but an uneasie life But Sir I do not mention this in relation to you what Objections you have raised have seeming weight in them and therefore I have given my self the trouble to clear my self of them as well as I can I no where tell you that I have said all that is to be said on the behalf of my New Hypothesis that requiring several years to perform But I have already said so much that I believe I may boldly say it is the best and clearest Hypothesis in Physick now extant and upon the foundation of which a man may with greater certainty attempt the Cure of more Diseases than upon any other that has yet been made publick The present business of my Profession together with another Piece of Work I am ingaged in viz. A General Treatise of Fevers does so take up my time that I cannot make any very large Remarks upon your further Objections and were it not that I am willing to let the World see that I have a greater esteem for you than for those Scoundrels that have heretofore appeared in Print against me for the present I should have been silent For I must assure you that I do not think my Hypothesis at all shaken by what you have now said there being little or nothing more than what was contained in your first Objections However I shall transcribe your fresh Objections in the order I find them and make my Remarks in the same manner Reply If you please to compare the Alkaline Spirit that you extracted from the Consumptive Man's Blood with that which the healthy Blood afforded you 'l find no great disproportion especially if you consider the Caput Mortuum of the sound Blood For you say that it being broken into small Atoms each Atom appeared to be so many little Bodies of Fire in your Microscope That there is not the least spark of Fire in the Blood I shall endeavour to prove anon wherefore 't is not irrational to suppose that those lucid Atoms were of the Family of Salts And if Salts then Alkaline according to the Rules of your own Hypothesis But then you reply the Tabid Blood would have yielded much more Alkaly had not the great quantity of Luxuriant Alkaly been thrown upon the Lungs Methinks this looks a little strange For if you remember the Consumptive Person did sweat prodigiously Now you make Sweat to be nothing but an excrementitious Alkaly If this Alkaly then was carryed off in such quantities it could not well abound so much in the Lungs Remark This Objection or Reply to my Answer is a tolerable good one and not without some seeming weight but is what I am easily able to clear my self from For First I my self have before taken notice of the small disproportion between the two peoples Blood and have assigned one very good reason for it but according to your wonted Candor you have furnished me with a second and that is the profuseness of the Sweats Now if after these two great discharges of Excrementitious Alkaly by sweating and spitting the Blood at last abounds with any quantity of Alkaly more than that of a sound person it is I think very reasonable to suppose that the Blood 's being at first overcharged with Alkaly was the cause of the Distemper and in very many Consumptive Cases it is usual for the Patient to spit up perfect Chalk and that in great quantities Now if the Blood were overcharged with Acids in Consumptions the whole Mass passing so frequently through the Lungs could not fail of being sweetned by this Chalky Alkaly But on the contrary I think it very plain that the Tone of the Lungs being spoiled and the Blood
Disease does not proceed from Acids but overmuch Drinking Answ That large Draughts there being little Evacuation by Urin render the Blood more thin is very obvious But now the Patient had no such desire for Drink till the Distemper was actually upon him So that the Question is what first brought on the Distemper Was it not a weakness of Blood or want of due Consistence I do not see how you can well deny it But then you reply let it be so 't is impossible Acids should occasion this ill Habit of Blood For Hydropical People are Thirsty and 't is ridiculous to imagin that Acids should excite Thirst when they are the only Things in the World that will quench it Answ This I confess at first sight looks like an invincible Argument But I must crave leaver to weigh it a liltle That Acids drank or held in the Mouth usually quench Thirst is an undeniable Truth Tho 't will hardly hold good in all Cases For let a Man drink Brine which is very much impregnated with Acids or eat high-seasoned Meats I believe tho he were a Stoick he would immediately grow thirsty But common Salt is not an Acid of a right Nature Well admit this The most famous Acids that I know for suppressing Thirst are Oyl Vitriol Spirit Vitriol c. Now I hope to make it appear that these or Acids of the same nature abounding in the Blood may provoke Thirst I proved just now that Oyl of Vitriol had an ugly Faculty of coagulating the Blood or separating its Serum That there is a Separation of the Serum in Dropsies is evident If any Man should deny it let him look upon the Abdomen and extream Parts and his Eyes are enough to convince him Well then the Serum being thus separated pray observe and the Mass of Blood not enough diluted the oral Glands must necessarily be defrauded of their due Moisture and consequently Thirst excited But still you harp upon the same string Those Medicines which restore the Consistence of the Blood cannot well be supposed to impair it Now Acids restore it and Steel in particular Answ That Steel is of excellent Use and a very great Restorative is not to be denied But under favour tho you discourse very ingeniously of the Nature of Steel Yet all you have said will not amount to a Proof of its being an Acid. I am still inclined to think it is an Alkaly For tho it does not discover it self to be such by its Colour yet it plainly does by its Effects viz. its Fermentation with Acids If notwithstanding this Phoenomenon you will needs have it to be an Acid why then one Acid will ferment with another and so one Alkaly with another wherefore tho we should subscribe to the Hypothesis that Alkalies are the Original of all Distempers yet 't is hard to exclude the Use of them in general in Distempers For some Alkalies or other might be found out that should dispute it with these offending Alkalies You are pleased to quote Beeker for a Confirmation of the Acidity of Steel The chief Sentence of the Citation seems to be this Hoc tantum hìc loci allegabo omne acidum substantiae martialis esse in quocunque oleo pinguedine fuligine limo silice arenâ immo etiam ipsâ flammâ reperibile ad oculum demonstrari posse quaecunque ergo naturae Acidae martialis sunt illa potestatem habent Alkali tanquam substantiam metallorum mercurialem alterandi transmutandi If I apprehend the Sense of the Author this does not make so much for you But suppose it did Beeker was never reckon'd Infallible And tho Chalybs were an Acid it does not follow because one Acid will renew the State of the Blood that others will do so too But since we have so happily fallen on this Subject viz. the strengthning the Mass of Blood let us see what other Medicines besides Chalybs are subservient to this End And here I suppose your bitter Herbs may not be infimi subsellii 'T is needless to prove it for hardly any Physician but what has experienced it I do not believe you will dare to say there is any thing of an Acid in these since you know very well that Alkaly may be extracted from most if not all of them So that poor Alkaly is effectual in some Cases you see But then you say Oakbark Bistort Tormentile Comfrey-roots and others of that Tribe will reduce the Blood to Consistence Answ That they are astringent I grant whether they will reduce the Blood or invigorate its depauperated Principles I much question 'T is very rare to see them prescribed in Dropsies Cackexies and the like Distempers where the Blood is poor and low They are proper indeed in Fluxes by virtue of their astringent Faculty but then they owe this Astringency to Acids Whether they do or not it matters not much But why may not this Quality be derived as well from the Terrestrious as the Salt Particles of these Vegetables Since Bol. Arm. Terra Lemnia and other plain Earths are very stiptick I do not say these Earths are so simple as to have no manner of Salt in them but surely they have very little Acid. Remark I am very glad you own Alkalies to abound in Plurisies and Rheumatisms and other inflammatory Distempers Upon my work if this be granted I have gained a great point for to have put the World into a true way of Curing but one single Distemper is what deserves no small Honour And for the business of Dropsies I do assure you I have no reason to recede from what I have said upon that Subject but if you or any one else would favour the World with as certain a Method of curing a Confirmed Ascites or Belly-Dropsie as I have done of curing Rheumatisms Gouts c. I may self would spare no pains to trumpet up that Man's Fame let him be who he would But this is a thing I am afraid I shall never live to see effected because the Tone of the Parts principally affected is so destroyed and spoiled that it would be next door to a Miracle to recover them And although you are pleased to charge me with arguing unfairly for attributing the Cause of Dropsies in a great measure to proceed from a destruction of the Tone of the Parts because I had not before in my Etymologies of Distempers taken sufficient notice of that Matter Well suppose I had before been deficient in that point I hope it is no Crime to bring it in late rather than not at all But I do assure you I have frequently taken notice of that Matter and do lay as great a stress upon it as upon any one thing whatsoever and I do still insist upon it that the great Thinness of the Blood in Dropsies dos in great measure proceed from the great quantities of Liquids taken into the Body and the small quantity discharged by reason the Parts of it