could that Fume excite such horrid Phoenomena's Answer Thus The Stalk being hollow within and perforated onely with a very small hole and also outwardly compressed on every side by the Boys hand the more volatile and less cohering Particles were forced from within outward but seeing all those could not at once pass out together the one urged the other and so were driven out far more swiftly No otherwise than as we see Water forced out of a Syringe though the Pistil be but gently or very slowly thrust forwards or as we discern by an easie compression of the sides of Bellows the Air through the Pipe or Nose thereof is driven out with very great force But some one may perhaps ask me of what nature those dusty Particles are To him I answer They are Accido-corrosive and sharply cutting That such Acid-Particles are in this Stalk is sufficiently evident by the frequent use thereof in stopping Bloud For when a small part of this Stalk is put into a sanguiferous Vessel wounded the Bloud is stayed partly by reason of the stringy Particles folded one within the other and closing the Orifice of the open Vessel and partly by reason of the Acid-Particles of that hollow Stalk which coagulate the Bloud as Milk is coagulated by an Acididity infused Therefore these Acid-Particles with great force driven through the aforesaid Stalk deeply penetrated into the Pores of the Eyes and interior-Superficies of the Eye-lids and so with their cutting sides excited the Nervous Fibres there dispersed to a motion more vehement by which Vehemency the Mind first perceived the sense of pain which was augmented by that Distention which took beginning thus The Pores being obstructed by the Particles of that Stalk the Vapours wanted their natural Exit and so were collected within the small Pipes of the Membranes in the form of Humour which in a very short time waxed sowre by reason of the Acid-particles of the said Stalk acting as a Ferment no otherwise than as we see any sowre Ferment taken in a small quantity to convert a great mass of Dough into its own Nature These Acid-Particles I say with the acuteness of their sides forcibly striking upon the Nervous-Fibres drew to those parts a more copious influx of Animal Spirits than usual whence arose certain slight Contractions which notwithstanding proved sufficient in some measure to impede the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours circulating through the small Veins of those circulating parts For they were in this case helped by the Vapours within the Veins of those parts converted into Water When the Bloud conteined in the Capillary Vessels and the Humours in the Veins were thus stagnized they likewise in the aforesaid manner waxed sowre and were coagulated and by that means rendred more unapt for Circulation Hence it is sufficiently manifest whence the Redness and Tumour of the Eyes and Eye-lids had their Original But whence proceeded that continual efflux of sharp Tears From the aforesaid the true cause thereof is easily gathered and it is thus Certain Acid-Particles forced from within that hollow Stalk had entred the Pores of the Glandules and Lachrymal Vessels and there by their irritation exciting certain Convulsions did continually force out Tears But whence were they imbibed with a more than usual sharpness There is no mortal Man who by the taste onely finds not Tears to be Saline wherefore these in their passage with the acid Particles there inherent were invaded with a certain sudden Effervescency These things being by me for some small time considered of I soon ceased to admire that that Fume should be the cause of so great Evils thence ensuing and also at that time discerned that the Cure would not be difficult For I knew that hot Milk coagulated by an Acidity if digested with some fit Salt would again be dissolved in the space of one hour Like wise I knew Vinegar was easily deprived of its sharpness by infusing Crabs-Eyes or Lithargyry therein Also I understood the reason of that Effervency which is excited by commixion of the Saline Oyl of Tartar with the Acid Oyl of Vitriol Hence I concluded that the Bloud coagulated by Acidity might again be made fluid and the sowreness temperated by Crabs-Eyes Lithargyry and many other Medicines containing much Salt such are White-Vitriol Gum Ammoniac Sagapenum Galbarum c. Therefore I being called the third day after the Boy was hurt instilled hot into his Eyes some Drops of a certain Collyrium compounded of White-Vitriol and other things mixt with convenient Waters and upon the Eye I applied a Plaister of Gum Ammoniac Galbanum Sagapenum Lithargyry c. spread upon a Linnen-cloth This I changed daily twice and commanded the Boy should be kept in a dark place by which means in the space of two Weeks he recovered his pristine Sanity OBSERVAT. II. Of the use of an Issue and its way of Operating A Young Maid Thirteen years of age had for several years been afflicted with dolour and redness of her Eyes and tumour of her Eye-lids which after sleep were closed together by a viscous Humour concreted into a Rosin-like matter This Ophthalmy for a long tract of time was attempted to be cured by two Surgeons but not overcome I being afterwards sent for judged the cause of the Disease to be the too great Acidity of the Bloud and a Ferment of the same nature produced from that Bloud and firmly inherent in the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids there causing the Bloud in the Capillary Vessels and the Humours in the small Veins to become too acid and be coagulated and stagnized For from these few signs it was not difficult to judge of the aforesaid apparent Symptoms Moreover I firmly perswaded my self that the Maid might soon be cured provided that Acidity could be temperated and expelled by the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids and that acid Bloud purged out of the Body wherefore I used a Collyrium consisting of Medicaments containing much Salt and besides that applied to the Eyes a Plaister made of like things But I did little good by this method for so soon as any part of that Ferment was rendred temperate and cast out shortly after a new Ferment arising from the Bloud succeeded in place of the former Seeing this I for several weeks purg'd the maid twice a week but in vain At length I found the Assertion of the famous Silvius which is written in the first Book of his Praxis Chap. 2. in the 26 Section to be most true viz. That there are scarcely any purging Remedies at least known to us which can purge out acid Humours from the Bloud Finding the matter thus I judged it high time to betake my self to the searching out of better Remedies and whilst I was occupied in consideration thereof the following Experiment came seasonably into my mind and it is this When you have a Compound of Water and Oyl mixt and would separate the one from the other proceed thus If you would
cause of the Evil we could not through the whole length of the Arm find either Fracture or Dislocation but a very great Contusion of the whole Arm so that much of the Extravasate Bloud and also of the Humors adhering in the small passages of the Arm distorted by the Contusion stagnized and in a short time waxed acid whence that Imbecility Tumor and Dolour may rationally be concluded to have derived their Original Some to render the motion of the Bloud more pleasing do here presently cut a Vein whereas I on the contrary omitted the opening of a Vein gave to the Patient an Anodine Tincture prepared of Opium and other things which much more securely and with greater Utility diminished the motion of the Bloud After some few hours I exhibited to the Sick a sudorifick Powder which would also temperate the Acidity of the Extravasate Bloud and stagnizing Humors this I repeated the two following nights with good success This Powder consisted of Diaphoretick Antimony Crabs-eyes prepared Salt-prunella Antimoniat and other things and hereby the dolour was in no small measure remitted and the Extravasate Bloud was driven out to the Cutis which then all over the Arm from the Shoulder to the Fingers was very livid yea waxed black The Chyrurgeons that were present with me did in the beginning of the Cure without my consent anoint the whole Arm with Oyl of Roses which hurts not so much by reason of the Roses as by reason of the Oyl-Olive For although this might do some good yet it could not profit unless it could have penetrated to that place where the Extravasate Bloud and stagnizing Humours lay but so far it could not penetrate unless in form of Vapour and the heat of our Bodies is too weak to convert Oyl-Olive into such Vapours seeing indeed a sufficiently strong Fire made of Wood and Coals is not of force sufficient to reduce the Particles of Oyl-Olive put into a Pot into the form of Vapours Therefore the Oyl-Olive was so far from doing good that as I judged it rather did hurt because by its stringy Particles it augmented the Obstructions and so caused the Bloud and Humors yet more to stagnize and besides by its closing the Pores of the Skin it hindered the access of other Medicaments to the place affected If common Roses be cold as many think I should reject them in this case but because from their bitterness and penetrating Odour the contrary may be judged by those who laying aside their prejudices will rather follow Verity than Antiquity Therefore I in this case condemn Oyl of Roses by reason of the Oyl-Olive but not by reason of some Particles of the Roses mixt therewith The same Chyrurgeons applied to the whole Arm anointed with Oyl of Roses that Defensive Plaister the description of which is found in the Ultrajectine Pharmacopoeia which indeed I do not here wholly reject because it containeth many Ingredients temperating Acidity as Bolus Terra Sigillata Lithargyry and other things but to what end should here be added Myrtle-Berries Oyl of Myrtles and Austere Red-Wine These indeed bind up the Pores of the Skin and so wholly impede the penetration of other fit Ingredients to the affected part Experience did in a short time confirm the truth of my Assertion when many Pustles dispersed through the whole Arm came in sight Wherefore I prescribed the following Lavament which I substituted instead of the Oyl and Plaister as being a Medicament that would powerfully resist Acidity and consequently well dissolve the coagulated Bloud and Humors â„ž Roots Of the Flower de Luce. Of Calamus Aromaticus Of Bryony of each â„¥ ss Herbs Rosemary Betony Sage of each M. ss Berries Of Juniper Of Bays of eachÊ’iij Boyl these in a close Vessel with French-Wine and to two pound of the Colature add Of Gum AmmoniacÊ’ij Of Salt of TartarÊ’j Make a Lavament By this means the Pustles vanished the Dolour was diminished the motion of the Arm gradually returned and the Livid colour was turned yellow Then the Chyrurgeons willing the Medicaments should be changed instead of the Defensive Plaister which they again proposed I prescribed a Fumigation temperating Acidity which consisted of Bay-Berries Juniper-Berries Frankincense Mastich Myrrh and other things For if these latter could help in the aforesaid Plaister where they lay bound up by the Suet and Wax they must needs be much more profitable when in the form of Fume they could fly up and surround the Arm its superiour part being covered and so being forcibly enough agitated could enter the Pores of the Arm by that time well opened by the heat After this I commanded Spirit of Wine to be burnt the Vapour of which ascending to the Arm and entring through the Pores infringed the Acidity which had in no small measure coagulated the Bloud and Humours and by that means the Patient was healed the dolour and yellowness removed and the motion of the Arm restored I most assuredly perswade my self that the Contusion would not have been so great if a Fracture of the Bone in the Patients Arm had also been concomitant For the Bone when broken recedes and contuseth no more but when the Bone remains entire and consequently by reason of its hardness makes strenuous resistance and when there is on the other part a solid Body contusing then the interstanding Flesh is no otherwise pressed on either part than as if it were put under a Press and so it is in a strange manner contused And this is no more than what our daily practice confirms in which I have often observed a Contusion where the Bone hath been broaken to be much less than where the Bone hath remained unhurt In this Cure my fear was that the Extravasate Bloud should be so much coagulated that it could not be afterwards dissolved and so might at length become so very acid and corrosive as to infect the adjacent parts with a Gangrene For it was not long before that I was called to a young Man who had for eight days neglected a Contusion of the Tibia after that I was called and seeing how it was compelled to open the contused part with a Lancet I perceived many sufficiently large Clots of Bloud firmly coagulated black and putrid which had in some sort infected the Cavity in which they were conteined with a Gangrene which notwithstanding I in a short time removed by washing it with Spirit of Wine and by inspersing the Pouders of Myrrh and Aloes OBSERVAT. VIII Of a Ganglion in the Hand A Youth aged Sixteen years complained of a Tumour hard and painful which sited in the upper part of his right Hand in magnitude equallized an Hazel-Nut and was of the same colour with the Cutis and there was now near three Months passed since the Patient by unaccustomed labour was affected with this Evil. The Tendon lay in the upper part of the Hand the small passages of which were by that unusual labour so distorted that the Humors
Oleaginous Volatile Salt xxv drops Make a Mixture Using this Lavament for one day and finding little benefit by the use thereof I scarrified the parts affected and washed them with Unguentum Egyptiacum mixt with Spirit of Wine I did not at all fear any damage to accrew from the Vinegar which is put into this Unguent because in the boiling that is all evaporated Also I anointed the exteriour Circumferences of the affected parts with Oyl of Tyles called Oyl of Philosophers Lastly I applied a Cataplasm of Rue Wormwood Dittany of Crete Root of Galangal and Calamus Aromaticus Flower of Lupines Metheglin and other things temperating Acidity By use of these aforesaid Remedies good Pus began to be generated which by its gently cutting Particles brake in sunder the remaining intermediate Fibres which as yet had retained the dead and living flesh together and by this means the parts affected with the Gangrene were separated Seeing this I applied Common Turpentine mixt with Basilicon and the White of an Egg by which all the viscous Particles were removed which were otherwise wont to obstruct the Pores of the Arteries and cavities of the Veins By this means several Particles came forth from the Arteries and adhered to the Ulcers by reason of the similitude of their Superficies and soon after all the Ulcers were discerned to be filled with flesh then I applied dry Lint scraped and in a short time induced an Eschar by that onely For that imbibed all the Pus which otherwise would have corroded and wholly closed the Orifices of those tender Vessels Thus our Patient was compleatly restored to her pristine sanity Octob. 21. OBSERVAT. IV. Of a Sphacelus of the Foot A Man of Seventy years of age that had all his life-time devoted himself to Wine and Venery and by frequent intervals was afflicted with a Spasmus of his right Leg in the year 1681 February 22 was invaded with a small Fever not vehement On the 26th day of February his prostrated appetite seemed to return wherefore on that day he twice eat a great quantity of very sowre Butter-milk and the same day about nine at night he began to complain of a very great pain of his right Foot and soon after of a Stupor and great coldness of the same and the same Dolour Stupor and Algor in two hours space ascended above the Knee The 28th of February I was called and by Scarification found that the Sphacelus had ascended an hands breadth above the Knee for so far was present that extream Cold and Rottenness and in Scarification no sign of Dolour appeared nor did any Bloud issue out except a very little very black and coagulated breaking out in one part or other Very attentively considering all these things I concluded that the abuse of Wine and Venery had rendred the Bloud of this Man its more subtile and more volatile part being absumed too viscous and acid and when certain acid and viscous Particles of this Bloud were by Circulation come to the right Foot perhaps they there stagnized and afterward pertinaceously adhered and by their stay there acquired greater sharpness These Particles inferred no Dolour so long as they remained unmoved but when by intervals they were forced from their residence by the Humours circulating and by them excited to motion then they became the cause of the Spasmus of the right Leg irritating and cutting the small Fibres of those parts and so gave occasion to a greater afflux of the animal Spirits But the continued excess of Wine and Venery had left scarce any thing in the Bloud of this man except a Caput-mort as I may call it that is nothing besides Bloud very viscous and acid which could no longer duly exercise its proper effervescency in the Heart nor circulate through the parts yet this Bloud when it had by a small Fever received greater motion and was rarified more than usual did sufficiently open the Pores of the Arteries so that many acid and viscous Particles issued out and stayed without and this hapned rather in the right Foot than elsewhere because there resided the acid and viscous Ferment which caused the Acidity and Viscosity contained in the Bloud to draw nigh to it self in such a way as we explained in the Second Observation and perhaps a great cause was that abundance of acid Butter-milk eaten because this happened the 27th day of February rather than at any other time Those acid and viscous Particles that passed out from the Pores of the Arteries on the 27th of February setled in the Veins of the right Foot and conjoyned themselves with the acid Ferment therein contained and there by the acuteness of their sides impressed on the small Fibres a very vehement motion and so produced that Dolour but the small Fibres being not long able to sustain that violence were soon after wholly cut in sunder and by that means the sense of pain notwithstanding the Scarification then made was totally annihilated and the broken Fibres infolding themselves each within the other had so obstructed the veiny passages of the right Foot that the Bloud and Animal Spirits could not enter this was occasioned by the coagulation of Humours in the Foot produced by the aforesaid Acidity Hence I discerned the Original of the Sphacelus of his right Foot also that it must needs take beginning from Acidity is confirmed by that black and coagulated Bloud which in scarifying had its Exit For every man knows that the Bloud waxeth black and is coagulated by Acidity This Sphacelus had by this time transcended the Knee and soon after a little above the part affected the Patient felt an intolerable pain I considering with my self the fore-passed dessolute Life of the Sick-man his Age his Leg above the Knee infected with this Sphacelus and his whole Mass of Bloud grievously tainted and moreover calling to mind that I never knew any Old men infected with this Disease to escape did boldly predict the inevitable death of the Patient yet in the mean while I promised I would mitigate the dolour as much as I could and if possible prevent the further ascent of the evil In order hereunto I commanded the Patient should every two hours take two spoonfuls of a mixture tempering Acidity consisting of Borrage and Bugloss-water Treacle-water Sugar-perlate Crabs-Eyes Coral Mineral Bezcardic and other things infringing Acidity and attenuating Viscosity Also I caused a Decoction to be made consisting of Water Wine Roots of Calamus Aromaticus and Enula Campane with Rue Dittany of Crete Wormwood Flower of Lupines c. which I applied hot with a double Cloath by which Application some ease of pain was induced For the Acidity inducing dolour by its accuteness was thereby rendred more temperate Therefore when the Cloath was dry I again moistned it in the same Liquor and this reiterated Application I continued for several days Now when the 7th day of March was come I saw that Down or Mossy Lanugo which
I have often observed in fat Boys a Vein presently after the usual Ligature to be sufficiently tumid and manifest but if not quickly opened hath soon disappeared viz. when the Bloud pressed downwards the subjected and readily-yielding Fatness that so notwithstanding the Ligature it might again freely pass through the Vein After the cutting of a Vein when the Vein seemed sufficiently closed I have often beheld the Bloud issuing out thence with great violence and indeed from no other cause than that the Chyrurgeons first applied their Ligature and Lint compressing and afterward inbowed the Arm For by this means the Lips of the Orifice which before in the extension of the Arm were conjoyned again separated each from other when the Arm was inbowed Oftentimes a certain Lividness is found left after the cutting of a Vein the cause of which is too frequently the evil use of Vinegar in which is imbibed the Lint compressing which is put upon the Aperture of the Vein whereas it is indeed sufficiently manifest that the Bloud is coagulated by Acidity and acquires a Livid and black colour Before I put an end to this Observation I think fit to add the counsel of Peter Pigraeus that we may thence if possible reap some further benefit That very famous and most dexterous Chyrurgeon commands that after the cutting of a Vein the Aperture should be anointed with Oyl if it be intended again to extract Bloud the same day from the same Orifice without a new made Aperture But if Oyl can though for a short time applied hinder the closure of the Orifice of a Vein cut how evilly do they act who use Oyl in the cure of Wounds and for no other reason than because they have seen the same thing done by their Masters As for Example Oyl of Saint-Johns-Wort For if Saint-Johns-Wort profits Wounds by reason of its Volatile Salt temperating Acidity why do they not rather extract the Tincture of Saint-Johns-Wort by Spirit of Wine into which it much more easily and more copiously transfers its Volatile Salt than into Oyl which hurts Wounds because that obstructing the Pores and Passages stops the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors whereas that Circulation should rather be excited to which excitation Spirit of Wine is not a little available For it egregiously temperates Acidity which usually coagulates the Bloud and Humors in Wounds and renders them unfit for Circulation But least I should be found too prolix in this matter I here put an end to this Observation OBSERVAT. V. Of the Cracking of a Tendon A Woman aged Forty three years after greater Labour than usual in her right Hand suffered an impotency to motion with Tumor and Dolour and when the Tendon sited in the Hand was pressed with the Finger it gave a sound This is an Affect which often occurs in the Practice of Chyrurgy though it hath hitherto been treated of by no man that I have heard of therefore I shall call it Crepitus Tendinis or the Cracking of a Tendon By this Woman's unaccustomed Labour the Fibrils of the Tendon were so distorted that the Humors impeded in their Circulation there subsisted and were coagulated whence the Impotency of Motion Tumor Dolour and Cracking of the Tendon were most readily induced I feared that the Humors stagnizing in the Tendon would be daily more and more coagulated and thence that Tumor take beginning which is known to many by the name of a Ganglion Yea I suspected that certain Particles of the subsisting Humors would be received within the Pores of the Fibrils compounding the Tendon and obstruct them so as in the Third Observation of this Decade we shewed to be apt to render them too propense to induce both Contracture and rigidness of the Tendon Wherefore judging it high time to set about the Cure I ordered Spirit of Wine to be enkindled in such wise that the Vapour arising thence might surround the hand affected and this being done commanded a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury to be applied By this means the coagulated Humors were dissolved the Obstructions removed and the Patient in a few days restored to her pristine state of health OBSERVAT. VI. Of an Haemorrhagia from a Varicous Vlcer of the Tibia IN the right Tibia of a Woman aged Forty years from an Internal cause an Ulcer was formed upon a sufficiently large Varix which yielded to no Remedies This Evil was also attended with a Tumor and a large Erysipelas very troublesome which in like manner could not be removed by any Medicaments After a few days the Varix was unexpectedly opened by the Acido-corrosive Humor there inherent from which issued out at least lib. ij of black and as the standers by affirmed very stinking Bloud I ordered that Placentula in a form somewhat hard composed of Medicaments temperating Acidity which I commended in the Sixth Observation of the First Decade to be applied by the Chyrurgeon and so not onely closed up the Varix but also temperated that Acidity inherent in the Ulcer which otherwise by its corrosion would easily again have opened the Varix and besides have much impeded the cure of the Ulcer It was wonderful to see that after the Varix unexpectedly opened had cast out so great abundance of Bloud the Erysipelas and other Symptomes soon vanished and the Ulcer daily shewed it self in a state more and more meliorated so that within the space of three Weeks by the onely help of the aforesaid Placentula it wholly closed I now intend not here to treat of the Original and Cure of the Varix Ulcer and Erysipelas having accurately enough discoursed of that in the Sixth Observation of the First Decade because a dish of Crambe twice cocted was always deadly to me if to any other man But my intention here is to confirm what I have spoken by Experience and hath been before by me treated of in the said Sixth Observation of the First Decade viz. to shew that undoubtedly the Erysipelas and Ulcer derived their Original from Acidity and likewise how opportunely I instituted the Section of the Varix in that varicous Ulcer of the Tibia But from the Example before-alleadged these Conclusions may easily be drawn for neither the Erysipelas nor the Ulcer would give place to any Remedies so long as that Varix was replete with so great abundance of black and undoubtedly by its long delay acid Bloud which no sooner issued out but the Erysipelas vanished and the Ulcer closed in a short time after OBSERVAT. VII Of a vast Contusion of the Arm. A Matron aged Fifty six years after a Fall from on high complained of an unaptness to motion and very great dolour of her left Arm which appeared very much swoln although of the same colour with the sound skin I perceived by the Pulse a more than usual swiftness of motion in the Bloud viz. by reason of the Terrour which the Patient had conceived by the Fall After we had very acurately inquired into the
must needs be livid and very painful But what may hence be inferred Can cold Water profit in a Contusion It seems more likely to do hurt because it incrassates coagulates and stagnizeth the extravasate Bloud Would not Spirit of Wine and other Medicaments that increase the motion of the Bloud be more convenient in this case That you may the more clearly conceive the solution of this difficulty it is behooful to know that in the parts hurt by the Ball so forcibly driven certain very small sanguiferous Vessels were opened which had they before the Water was applied poured out the Bloud into the small passages of the Parts hurt then the cold Water would have done hurt but this cold Water was applied before the Bloud issued out and so not onely by its coldness again closed these very small Vessels but also was the cause that no new Bloud could for a certain space of time enter the same Vessels So we see our Face to be red for no other reason than because through the Cutis of the same very many small Vessels full of Bloud lie dispersed and discern the same to wax pale by the coldness of Water Air and other things because such coldness for a time prohibits the Bloud from entring these very small Vessels of the Face So we see the pleasant redness of the Lips in a beautiful Virgin augmented by the kiss of a young man to be changed into a pallid colour by Acidity restraining the Bloud from entring the small Vessels distributed throughout the Superficies of the Lips But whosoever he be that will attempt such a way of Cure as this here mentioned after the small passages of the parts contused shall be replete with extravasate Bloud seems to me to be not well in his wits for I have not seldom known a Gangrene to arise in a part contused from the unseasonable application of cold and astringent things OBSERVAT. IX Of an hard Tumor of the Abdomen A Girl Five years of Age accustomed to evil Diet was for a long time afflicted with a very great Tumor and hardness of her Abdomen and her face was very pale The following Liniment had before been in vain used â„ž Vnguent Altheae comp Oyl of white Lillies of eachÊ’ss Of TilesÊ’j Mix these Which notwithstanding in a like case is not a little commended by the famous Sylvius in the first Book of his Praxis Chap. 14. under the Title 56. Well considering the matter I judged the Bloud of this sick child to be very viscous and acid and by reason of this that many Glandules of the Omentum were obstructed and augmented to a strange bulk But which way Paleness of the Face is induced by such Bloud I suppose to be known to every man therefore needs not be here explained Perhaps some one will wonder and not believe it possible that the Glandules of the Omentum should increase to so great a Magnitude as to become the cause of so great and hard a Tumor as was in the Abdomen of this Child perceptible by the touch but I would have him peruse Fabritius Hildanus who in the 62 Observation of his Third Century declares that he opened a Carcass the Omentum of which by reason of the tumified Glandules weighed Fifty six pounds Things being thus I judged nothing would be more profitable than Paracelsus his Stiptick Plaister which I commanded to be applied to the Abdomen after it was spread upon a Linnen Cloath and anointed with Oyl of Nutmegs To correct the viscous and acid Bloud I commanded certain drops of oyly Volatile Salt to be given daily twice a day and by this means our little Patient in the space of a few Months was happily restored to her pristine state of health OBSERVAT. X. Of the Scurvey A Man aged Thirty years every day evily accustoming himself to viscous and sowre Aliments according to the bad custom of the Gelders was afflicted with heaviness and dolour of his hands and Feet his Gums in a great measure consumed would bleed with the least touch his Spittle was in taste salt as Brine Having diligently considered these things I judged the Bloud too acid and viscous to be here peccant which by reason of Acidity inferred that dolour of Hands and Feet and corroded the Gum and its sanguiferous Vessels and by its too great Viscosity did so obstruct the small passages of the Hands and Feet that the usually-free transit of the Animal Spirits into the Muscles was somewhat impeded whence arose the aforesaid Heaviness I speak here of the Animal Spirits for seeing the Liquor that is through the Nerves for exciting motion carried into the Muscle is subtile I know not why this Nervous Liquor should less deserve to be insignized with the name of Spirit than that Liquor which in Chymical Distillation is extracted from Hartshorn But omitting vain Disputes about the Name let us set about the Matter it self This Disease is very familiar in these Regions and is generally known by the name of The Scurvey and is most difficultly cured if in process of time it have taken deep root Wherefore I presently applied my self to the Cure of this Disease seriously commanding the Patient for the future to eat no more acid and viscous Aliments and prescribing the following Medicament â„ž Syrup of Scurvy grass â„¥ ss Of Salt Armoniac distilled with Salt of Tartar â„¥ ij Oyl of Tartar per deliquium Tincture of May-worms of eachÊ’j I commanded the Patient to take 16 drops of this Medicine thrice a day in a Decoction of the Tops of Firr and indeed to the end that the Spirits of Scurvey-grass and Sal-Armoniac and the Tincture of May-worms with the aforesaid Decoction might attenuate the viscous Bloud and infringe the Acidity thereof I added Oyl of Tartar per deliquium that by this means the Volatile Salt of the Bloud subdued and bound by the Acidity might again recover its pristine liberty and so render the Bloud more fluid and more agile As we see the Volatile Salt of Hartshorn or any other Volatile Salt coagulated and conjoyned with an Acid Spirit with the help of an Alkali-Salt and Common Water by distillation to be again restored to its pristine liberty and separated from that Acidity As to the Tincture of May-worms it is to be observed that that ought not to be extracted with the acid Spirit of Salt as Artists are wont to do because by this means the Volatile Salt of the May-worms is infringed and enervated By these Remedies our Scorbutick Patient was cured in a short time But before I put an end to this Third Decade a Difficulty not very small remains yet to be removed I here affirm the Cause of this Disease to be Acidity and in the mean while say the Spittle was imbibed with a Saline taste how do these agree Do they not manifestly contradict each other No. I promise to unfold this Riddle in few words No small quantity of Volatile Salt contained in the
distorted Much better would be the Vapour ascending from Spirit of Wine set on fire or a Fermentation made of Wine and Herbs abounding with Volatile Salt To prevent this Evil when it is wont to infest the Tip of the Nose some apply Leeches but evily for I have known this Affect to be by them not a little exasperated the reason of which Exasperation I should here add were it not sufficiently manifest by the foregoing Paragraph This Affect is wont leisurely to increase but sometimes it meets with another Evil suddenly proceeding from intense Cold and is called a Gangrene of Cold which beginning is wont to be cured by Immersion into cold Water But is this a rational way of Cure Yes and consentaneous both to Reason and Experience Cast a frozen Apple into cold Water and you shall see that in a short space of time to be thawed within all the Ice adhering to the external Skin of the Apple without loss of its pristine taste or former consistency but set the same frozen Apple near a Fire and it will presently wither and lose the sweetness of its taste Very many Particles contained in the Pores and small Passages of the congealed Apple which before were fluid have now by reason of the Frost put on the form of Ice that is many Particles which before by the subtile matter sufficiently strong were in their motions each from other diverse continually agitated do now rest each with other because they are surrounded with a subtile matter which is too weak to conserve them in their usual motion When such a congealed Apple is cast into cold Water the more strong part of the subtile matter from the Water flies into the Apple and so thaws the same But the more weak part of the subtile matter rusheth out of the Apple into the Water most nearly touching the External Rind or Skin which is therefore covered over with Ice But when such a frozen Apple is set to the Fire the most subtile matter of the World very strong and attended with many gross particles of the burning Wood or Turf endeavours with great violence to enter the Pores of the congealed Apple but cannot because the Pores are very much constringed with Cold therefore it breaks them by force and so the consistency and good taste of the Apple is changed and wholly spoiled Hence it is now sufficiently manifest that this Cure of a Gangrene from Cold is rational though in the mean while it may perhaps seem fit to some to vary one Circumstance and that is as here following expressed A congealed or frozen Apple is cast into cold Water and indeed well because the Liquor in a well-constituted Apple is found cold as to the touch but our Bloud and Humors well constituted are not cold to the touch but warm therefore a Member lightly affected with a Gangrene from cold should rather be put into luke-warm-Water by the Dutch called bloet-laeuw than into cold OBSERVAT. VIII Of an Atrophia Imbecillity of Motion and an Algor of the Arm. A Young man 24 years of age as to all other things very well had now for six Months laboured with an Atrophia of his Left-arm from the Shoulder to the Cubit and he could not lift up or otherwise move his Arm but continually complained of an Algor or extream coldness thereof Some Chyrurgeons had long attempted to cure this Affect according to their vulgar method and applied their Plaisters Unguents Linements and other such Medicaments but in vain The very viscous Humor in the Arm of this Sick man had produced not a few very pertinaceous Obstructions whence the Astrophia of the Arm its Impotency to motion and Algor of the same readily took beginning But this gross Humor lay so very deep that it could indeed be in no wise dissolved by Unguents or other such-like Remedies Had the cure of this Evil been longer procrastinated there would have been great cause of fear that the Ligaments connecting the Shoulder-bone with the Scapula would in a short space of time have been so much extended in length that thence would have followed such a Dislocation of the Shoulder most difficult to heal as we described in the Last Observation of the First Decade Therefore without any delay I set about the Work and ordered seven or eight Cupping-glasses with Flame but without any Scarification to be applied twice or thrice every Week and left on till the Skin waxed red at which time the affected part was washed before a Fire with the following Liquor first made hot and every other day when the Cupping-glasses were not applied the same was also twice used ℞ Root of Sarsaparilla ℥ j. Bark of Lign Guaicum ℥ ss Herb Rosemary Sage of each M.j. ss Flowers of Lavender M. ss Bay-berries ℥ j. Salt of Tartar ʒ j. ss Of Armoniac ℈ ij Boyl these in a double Vessel with two pounds and an half of Spirit of Wine and strain the Liquor from the Simples We also took care sometimes to burn Common Spirit of Wine so that the Vapour thereof ascending might surround the affected part covered above and by this means the Algor vanished in 14 days and the Patient in six Months time could as well move and use his Left-arm as his Right and in the mean while the affected Arm became daily more and more fleshy Which way the Cupping-glasses and aforesaid Medicaments effected the cure of this our Patient I here pass over in silence and that indeed considerately because the same is sufficiently manifest in the Ninth Observation of the Fourth Decade OBSERVAT. IX Of the Vvula and Tonsils evily disposed A Young man aged 30 years walking in a very cold season was afflicted with dolour redness and tumor of the Tonsils and Uvula whence he perceived difficulty in Swallowing though he was in the mean while almost continually forced to swallow The Bloud in its small Vessels and the Humors in the minute passages of the Tonsils and Uvula stagnized by reason of the cold Air admitted by Inspiration were coacervated and waxed acid whence arose the aforesaid tumor dolour redness and difficulty of swallowing But whence did that so great Impulse to swallowing derive its Original I answer The Membrane subject to the Uvula hath Nerves which touched by the relaxed and incumbent Uvula are the cause that the Nervous Juice is in greater abundance carried into the Muscles adapted for swallowing Being called to the sick I prescribed the following Gargarism ℞ Spirit of Wine ℥ iij. Water of Elder-flowers ℥ ij Spirit of Sal. Armoniac drops 20. Mix these according to Art By this means our Patient was cured in a very short time The prescribed Gargarism proved very profitable because it temperated the Acidity dissolved the coagulated Humors and removed the Obstructions I have in my self often restored the Uvula relaxed by reason of viscous and coagulated Humors there stagnizing when I gently touched the same with the tip of my Finger moistned onely with
is vulgarly called Mouldiness or Mucor dispersed through the whole internal part of the Leg from the Ankle to the Knee and had I at that time had at hand a good Microscope I might have there discerned many Plants with their Stalks Leaves and Flowers in excellent order disposed springing up from the Leg of the man yet living no otherwise than as a Fungus or Mushroom is wont to arise from the Earth The Sick-man in the mean while eat not any thing and was every day afflicted with a Fever often coming and vanishing At length on the 14th day of March at four in the Morning he slept well his Pulse before death often intermitting which also may easily be understood to proceed from Acidity But his whole Mass of Bloud was infected therefore here Phlebotomy could in no wise be admitted for three days before the Sick-man died his left Foot also from the great Toe to the Ankle was infected with a Sphacelus and both his hands for 24 hours before his death were cold as Ice though after return of the Fever they again waxed warm Now that to this Evil I applied convenient Remedies will I suppose be very apparent by this viz. that the Sphacelus which at first good advice being neglected had in four hours space ascended from the great Toe to above the Knee after the application of my Remedies had not ascended in the space of two Weeks above one hands breadth OBSERVAT. V. Of an Erysipelas of the Leg. A Man Forty years of age was invaded with a Fever which vanished the 12th hour after the Assault then the Sick-man began to complain of pain and redness of his right Leg. In some solid part of this man lay hid a a certain acid Ferment which by some cause or other was thence expelled and forced into the Mass of Bloud in which it excited that Inimical Fermentation which is known by the name of a Fever But when that Ferment was circulated with die Bloud perhaps certain Particles thereof stagnized and inhered within the Cutis of the right Leg which Particles in a short time compelled all the other Particles of that acid Ferment to recede from the Bloud and approach to them almost after the same manner as one Magnet causeth another to approach to it self Those Particles there inherent and sufficiently corroding the small Fibres excited dolour in the Leg But the Redness took beginning from the Bloud stagnized in the Capillary Veins by reason of the coagulation beginning and proceeding from Acidity as we perceive a sufficiently intense redness in the Face when the Neck and Veins there contained are by a Collar or any other thing too much constringed To this affect we give the name Erysipelas But how came the Fever so soon to vanish when the Erysipelas appeared I answer Because at that time the Sanguinous Mass was freed from that acid Ferment which then passed into the Leg. This Disease I entirely cured in two days space with one onely Lavament temperating the Acidity which consisted of Spirit of Wine Camphire Lithargyry Chalk Salt-prunella c. being firmly perswaded that these Phoenomena's had derived their Original from Acidity OBSERVAT. VI. Of Varicous Vlcers of the Leg. A Virgin aged Forty years having for a long series of time devoted her self to an ill habit of Diet and among other inimical Foods she too much delighted to eat things viscous Vinegar and other sowre things in the Summer-season also often putting her Feet into cold Water she had now for Fifteen years been afflicted with a Varix of her left Leg extending it self from the Sole of the Foot up to the Knee and also with two Ulcers nigh the inward Ankle of the same Leg deep sordid and very dolorous and for the most part filled up to the top with a certain sharp and thin matter and often having round about them an Erysipelas attending Many Physicians and Chyrurgeons for a long time in vain attempted the cure of these Ulcers yea also that most famous Practitioner of Feium Lord of Cranenburg From the too great quantity of acid and viscous Meats assumed the Bloud of this Maid was rendred gross and apt to stagnize wherefore a certain portion thereof conveyed to the left Leg there stayed and resided about the small Valves of some Vein the Membranes of which by a great abundance of Bloud there congested were so distended that the Humours passing out from the small Arteries dispersed among the Membranes of that Vein for among the Membranes of the Veins you may by a Microscope discover small Arteries Veins and Nerves and undoubtedly there are also present small Lymphatick Vessels and wandring through the small Cavities of the same Membranes could not freely pass but stagnized there and thrust themselves between the Interstitiums of the small Fibres in so great abundance that they not onely enlarged those Interstitiums but also denied passage to the Animal Spirits from the small Nerves gliding into the aforesaid small Cavities and otherwise in some sort constringing the Vein and in it producing a certain Peristaltick motion for promoting the Circulation of the Bloud in the Vein and so the Bloud in that Vein in some sort stagnizing and above measure distending the Membranes thereof was the cause of the aforesaid Varix But why should that Varix rather present it self to sight in the Leg than elsewhere I answer Because die Veinybloud must there ascend by a Perpendicular way to the Horizon and besides this way is in some measure closed up by the Garters we are wont to use to retain and keep up our Stockings so also the same was here occasioned by this Maids too often putting her Feet into cold Water Therefore the Bloud in greater abundance than was fit congested in this Vein distended the less resisting parts of the Membranes of the same more than other more gross parts and so formed to itself certain Recesses and especially about the small Valves in which die Bloud now of its own nature become much too acid contracted to it self a greater Acor because it stay'd too long there without Circulation But many of the more acid Particles of this Bloud penetrated the more distended and consequently more rare parts of die Varix that is through those Recesses and so the small Fibres being there irritated and afterwards cut in sunder great dolour was excited and soon after two very painful Ulcers which by the breaking of more-small Fibres were rendred very deep Those acid Particles pertinaciously adhering in the pores of the Lips and bottomes of the Ulcers they converted the as yet sincere Humours into acid which being unable to continue their Circulation were by the Humours continually following them forced outwards into the Cavities of the Ulcers which they usually filled almost up with a sharp acid and thin Humour yet not so thin but that in the mean while certain more viscous and more stringy Particles were mixt therewith which with their strings entangled each within
the other and sticking in the Superficies of the Ulcers rendred them very sordid Thus far we have explained how certain and acid Particles have passed through the aforesaid Recesses unto the near adjacent Flesh now 't is time to observe that many more acid Particles were from those Recesses forced into the sanguineous Mass circulating with which they entred into the Ulcers rather than into other parts by reason of the acid Ferment lurking there after the same manner as we shewed in the Second Observation Thus was the abundance of acid Humour filling the Ulcers and from them proceeding augmented The Erysipelas which for the most part surrounded the Ulcers derived its Original also from the Acidity there inherent When I had for sometime well weighed all these things in my mind I at length converted my endeavour to the cure of the Varix as the first Original of the Evil which if in things profitable it be lawful to use the Terms of Art may be called the Procatartick or primitive Cause therefore from the Varix opened with a Lancet I drew forth several ounces of stagnized Bloud acid and black Then I proceeded to the sanguineous Mass infected with the acid Ferment which may be called the anticedent Cause according to the subtilty of die Wits of our time which more regards the Pomp of vain Words than things themselves and by a good Diet instituted began to correct that prohibiting all things viscous and acid by a Powder temperating Acidity daily taken consisting of ℈ j. of Crabs-eyes and the same quantity of White Coral After this I set about the Ulcers themselves in the bottoms and Lips whereof lay hid an acid Ferment which if it be the pleasure of some may be called by the Name of a Conjoyned Cause The principal thing that remained for me to do was to temperate and remove that Ferment and gradually and without sense to depress the Lips of the Ulcers to the bottom for from this last business I promised to my self a threefold Utility First I knew that the cavities of the Ulcers being thus removed none of that acid and at least in some part Viscous Humour could be there collected which by reason of its viscous and stringy Particles had before rendred the Ulcers sordid and through its acid and cutting Particles daily more and more excavated them there being always in the Cavities of them a great abundance thereof continually congested But if this Humour have access to the Ulcers it must be cast out presently after its coming there to the sides of the Ulcers their Lips being strongly depressed by some hard and heavy Body superposited Secondly I was certain by this means to restore the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours in which is sited a great part of the cure of Ulcers For the Lips of the Ulcers being not prominent as before over the Superficies of the bottoms I could discern it was possible to be effected that the Humours circulating through the small passages contained in the Lips of the Ulcers which before by reason of those passages obstructed did flow into the Cavities of the Ulcers would now find out their own way through other passages in the bottoms of the Ulcers and so again renew their Circulation which cannot as before be impeded by the ambient Air because that is sufficiently repelled by the same body which depresseth the Lips of the Ulcers that being sufficiently thick solid and hard to answer my purpose Thirdly In cure of Ulcers and Wounds I have often observed that an Eschar to be generated never took beginning from the Center or any adjacent parts of Ulcers or Wounds but always begun from the extremity of the ambient Cutis by reason of the similitude of Superficies which is found between the Cutis and the Eschar Hence I firmly perswaded my self that the Ulcers first freed from their acid Ferments and Filths and rendred plain in the aforesaid manner their pristine Circulation being restored would in a short time be covered with an Eschar Therefore I prepared certain fit Medicaments temperating Acidity to resist the peccant Ferment lying hid in the Ulcers and that as the saying is I might with one Brush whiten too Walls I formed of them two Cakes sufficiently hard and thick and somewhat larger than the Ulcers so that they would also cover a small part of the Lips and those I laid upon the Ulcers and with a sufficiently strict Ligature firmly bound them on and left them so for 12 hours which being elapsed I could soon discern that the hope I had of them conceived failed me not For I found the Ulcers wholly plain freed from all filths and conspicuous with a pleasing redness and little or nothing painful Whereby being almost wrapt into admiration I concluded that the acid Ferment in the Ulcers for the most part was and the remainder would in a short rime be temperated After a few days Circulation being restored certain well-known Particles passing out through the Pores of the ambient Cutis firmly adhered to the extremity thereof having a like Superficies with the Cutis it self Thus we plainly understood the certain Rudiment of that Eschar which had in the space of five Weeks fully closed either Ulcer for it every day increased more and more Afterward I every year once opened the aforesaid Varix and drew from it lib. j. of Bloud by which means those Ulcers never after opened any more In the mean while to the Erysipelas which I had almost forgot I applied a four-doubled Cloath moistned in a mixture prepared with Water of Elder-Flowers Spirit of Wine Camphire and Saccharum Saturni for temperating the peccant Acidity which being effected all Symptoms of the Erysipelas ceased together with the burning before induced by the acid Particles when with the acuteness of their sides they oftner than usual invade the small Fibres But whence was it that these Ulcers could not be healed in so great a space of time by so many Physicians and Chyrurgeons though men well in years I answer Those men by reason of their age contemning the solid Reasonings of others would never approve of any thing but their own experience Experience without true Reason can profit little For as among a thousand humane Faces no one is found exactly in all things like to another so among so many Diseases there is not one which in all things wholly agrees with another Moreover it is very credible that the Bloud and internal Parts of one man do no less differ from the Bloud and internal Parts of another than the External Whence again ariseth the various Temperament of men the variety of which requires various Remedies and besides Experience sound Judgement in the Physician that he may know how to make choice of this or that and other Remedies instead of either Now plainly to shew the Case as it is those Physicians and Chirurgeons directing their Conceptions according to a certain vain and unprofitable Theory and Philosophy could neither
find out the Cause of the Varix nor its Effects much less the Remedy of the same For they deduced almost all Diseases from their Four Humours viz. Choler Phlegm Bloud and Melancholy though in the mean time they understood not what any one of them is or of what Particles it consisted Hence it came to pass that it was impossible for them to find out true Remedies They had much more prudently acted if they had in a special manner had respect to the various Particles of the Bloud which differ each from other in Figure Magnitude and Motion as also to the Acidity and Salt as well as they might have done whether of these holds dominion in the Bloud If it were Acidity then Purgations by the Belly could in no wise be thought convenient In like manner they too much confounded their Conceptions when they thought those Ulcers were first to be cleansed by certain peculiar Medicaments then by others incarnated lastly that again by others the Eschar must necessarily be induced Now that this too anxious distinction is very unprofitable will be plainly evident by this viz. That I with my one onely Placentula in a short time cured both Ulcers Likewise they in the Cure had respect to their own Axiom which saith Contraries must be cured by Contraries and discerning great heat in the Erysipelas surrounding the Ulcers they endeavoured to expel that by cold things which stopped the Bloud and Humours and by that means did in no small measure augment the burning hear of the Erysipelas But these men were abused by their own Axiom which had they endeavoured to make a right use of they should first have considered that burning Heat to be onely the Effect and owned for the Cause certain acid Particles by reason of Obstruction inherent about the Ulcer which with their cutting sides struck the Nervous Fibres with a more than usual trembling and then they had more rightly cured Contraries with Contraries viz. applying such things which they had by experience found fit to resist the corroding Acidity and remove the Viscosity obstructing OBSERVAT. VII Of a Wound of the Eye IN the year 1680 on the 21th day of November I was commanded to be sent for by a young Nobleman leading a Military life who three days before was wounded with a Leaden-Bullet in that part of the left Eye which is between the Iris and Pupil so that the Bullet had penetrated even into the Eye and soon after the Wound made no small quantity of aqueous Humour flowed out I found the Orifice of the Wound closed with a certain fibrous and white Matter The Iris with the Pupil wounded waxed very livid and the remaining part of the Eye thus hurt was intensly red and swoll'n attended with burning Heat and a proflux of sharp Tears The dolour was continual except that it was more remiss when the Patient held his head backward but as oft as he held his head down the pain augmented The Sight of the Eye hurt was wholly lost and the right Eye though it remained untouched was red and much pained A certain Chirurgeon to that matter closing the Wound had applied sharp things and to the remaining part of the Eye cold things This was done three days before I was called It will perhaps seem strange to some that all the aqueous Humour issued not out by the Wound but their wonder will soon cease after they have well weighed and considered the following Reasons First Let them consider that the Bullet in its inferiour part was more strongly forced into the Eye than in its superiour part and so it broke the inferiour part of the Membrane of the Eye the superiour part of that Membrane remaining entire By this means part of the Membrane broken turning inward formed a certain Aperture through which part of the aqueous Humour issued out and in its efflux again turned outward the before turning inward Membrane which then like a Valve turning from without to within not from within outward again closed the Aperture of the Wound and so impeded the out-flowing of the aqueous Humour from die Eye Secondly That fibrous and white shining Matter closing up the Orifice of the Wound falls under our consideration But whence had this Matter its Original Should I now with the Company of vulgarly-learned men fly to the accustomed Asylus of Ignorance I could readily subjoyn a Reply saying onely that Nature was so provident in this case that she in a short time filled up the hole with fit Matter not onely that all the aqueous Humour might not issue out but also that the most cold ambient Air might not penetrate to the parts and endamage them But such an Answer seems to me no less rediculous than if I should ask why in boyling hot Broath exposed to the Air a thin Skin is generated on the Superficies And another should answer The nature of the Broath is so provident that it presently forms a Pellicle on the Superficies of the hot Broath lest the cold Air having access to the internal Particles should hurt them and that the heat in the Broath might be longer preserved and the otherwise flying Vapours retained and constringed within the Broath by the superposited Membrane whereas he should rather have said that many of the more thin parts of the Broath apt for motion having figures fit for the same easily evaporated into the Air and in their flight carried with themselves up to the Superficies of the Broath certain Particles more gross stringy and less fit for motion which their motion being terminated by the ambient Air acquiesced in the Superficies of the Broath where with their small Fibres folded one within another they concreted into that Cuticle which covered the Broath But returning to our purpose we shall by a better right answer in this manner Some Particles passed out from the Pores of the Arteries and circulating in the small passages of the Membranes of the Eye were carried to the end of those passages interrupted by the Wound and so indeed the more thin parts evaporated but certain more stringy Particles prolapsed without the said passages their motion by the extream coldness of the Air at that season being taken away by their stringy Fibres infolded themselves one within the other and so concreted into a certain fibrous and white Matter not unlike to that which is often seen in that Water into which flows the Bloud from a Vein of the Foot or Hand That leaden Bullet could not enter into the Eye but very much contused it and broak certain small sanguiferous Vessels from which the Bloud flowing by reason of the cold was stagnized and infected the Iris and Pupil with a livid colour This Wound could not be made in the Eye but many small Fibres must needs be broken and being broke retire together into Curls and so obstruct many passages in which the circulating Humours accumulated did press the sanguiferous Vessels nigh so that the Bloud in the
Superficies did adhere and were aglutinated and so formed an Eschar which covered the Wound and drove out that fibrous and white Matter But because it was so thick that it prohibited the Celestial Lights therefore the fight of that wounded Eye remained lost But in the mean while this Eye as to bulk scarcely differed from the right Eye though it had cast out no small part of the aqueous Humour when the Wound was first inflicted because certain smooth and slippery Particles flowed through the Pores of the Arteries into that Cavity in which the aqueous Humour is contained and so supplied the defect of that Humour In time of the Cure I always abstained from cold things because they obstruct the very small passages and Pores of the Eyes For the same cause I here also reject fat things being such as with their small Branches do so profoundly and pertinaceously infold themselves within the most small Pores of the Eyes that you cannot without very great difficulty expel them again But why could not this Wound be sooner healed I affirm this happened partly through the errour of the Chyrurgeon and partly of the sick Lord himself For he too much indulged both Venery and Wine whence his Bloud was very much disturbed and what was so disturbed in no small quantity ascended upwards as by a more strait path and there struck upon the obstructions of the wounded Eye which notwithstanding by reason of their pertinacy it could not break and by this means the dolour increased Besides in most deep Snow falling from the exceeding cold Air of that Season he would sometimes ride on hunting whole days with his right Eye against my will open and hence the Obstructions were rendred yet more pertinaceous and numerous The Chyrurgeon who for the first three days applied Medicines to the Wound erred in this viz. that to that fibrous matter which impeded die afflux of the aqueous Humour and therefore should not have been taken away he applied sharp things which the Eye it self cannot bear also to the remaining part of the Eye he applied cold things to stay the afflux of Bloud and Humours as he himself said But are you ignorant good Sir that this afflux of Bloud and Humours is to the Eye and also to other parts both natural and necessary and had your Medicaments operated according to your wish a Gangreen would certainly have immediately followed You see Bloud and Humours in greater abundance than is fit to be present in the Eye but you reason amiss when you think this to be caused from a greater afflux than usual whereas it rather proceeds from Obstructions which prohibit the reflux of Bloud through the Veins and of Humours through the Lymphatick Vessels whence the Bloud and Humours were in greater abundance collected into the Eye stagnized and waxed acid Wherefore you should rather have applied things temperating Acidity which would also have been convenient for taking away the lividness of the Iris and Pupil produced by the clotted Bloud For it is certain that clotted and coagulated Bloud cannot be restored by cold things but are unavoidably rendred more gross and the peccant Obstructions by this means not removed but augmented But before I put an end to this Observation there remains yet one Phoenomenon to be discoursed of relating to Wounds It is undoubtedly true That the Cause being taken away the Effect ceaseth But why then the Sword Knife or any other thing wounding being taken away is not the dolour in the wound presently removed but sometimes persists very long Dolour in the part hurt is not unless there be a Concussion of the small Fibres more vehement than usual which cannot be unless by another body put into motion Therefore what shall I say of the dolour which sometimes is portracted whole days yea whole weeks after the Wound is inflicted when the Sword Knife or any other thing wounding hath been long before laid aside Let me circumspectly consider whether I can find any thing that can excite the small Fibres of the wounded part to a greater agitation than usual Behold I have found it When certain small Fibres are cut in sunder by a Sword then suddenly they crisp up on heaps and obstruct the small passages of the wounded parts so that the Humours cannot freely circulate but strike upon those Obstructions whence is excited dolour which still increaseth when those Humours begin to wax acid and with their cutting Particles yet more and more irritate Besides many small Fibres which before were covered with skin after the Wound inflicted are exposed to the ambient Air which affects them with more vehements trembling than is fit whilst it communicates somewhat to them from its own motion by which indeed it is continually and powerfully enough agitated OBSERVAT. VIII Of a Suppurated Tumour also of Rottenness of a Bone A Young Maid ten years of Age afflicted with a burning Fever soon after the Fever felt a pain and quickly after that a Tumour in her Shoulder which was of the same colour with the skin and somewhat hard The Bloud more than usually agitated by the Fever from the recesses of this or that solid part washed off many acid and viscous Particles which circulating with the Bloud did part of them pass out from the Pores of the Arteries at that time too much dilated by reason of the heat of the Fever into the small passages about the Shoulder sited far within the Cutis in which passages they adhered and excited dolour whilst with their pricking sides they more vehemently than usual made a commotion and by this means in some measure distorted the bordering passages whence also the Humours there stagnized which though they were before pure by a small delay there waxed acid hence also the Bloud stagnized in many Capillary Vessels but so deeply sited within the Cutis that the redness could not be apparent through the skin and therefore appeared of the same colour with the Cutis But whence was that hardness of the Tumour for it was Liquor that was contained therein and such liquor as being fluid and gently touched with the hand offering no resistance could not be judged either hard or soft A great quantity of liquor is contained in an Apple and may be pressed from it yet in the mean while it is found to be somewhat hard because that Liquor is very much divided and abides separated in severall small passages and Pores of the Apple distinct each from other Therefore the hand touching the Apple meets with the first small passage whence the Particles of Liquor in that contained do indeed in some measure recede but approaching to the subjacent passages they find resistance Hence the hardness of the Apple is made manifest and by consequence also the hardness of the Tumor Therefore being perswaded that in this case the viscous Particles obstructing and the acid cutting and irritating I judged nothing could be more conducent for altering them than things aperient
of the Leg grating of the Bone dolour and imbecility of morion For one extremity of the Shin-bone by reason of the Fracture tended this way the other that way whence was the inequality of the Leg and when those two extremities hit upon each other the grating of the Bone was heard and when they with their sharpness pressed the Periosteum and adjoyning parts the first cause of dolour discovered it self but the second cause when the extremities of the broken Bone by their pressure compelled die Humours in the small passages of the bordering parts to stagnize wax acid and irritate the small Fibres But when the Fibrils were thus disturbed by the points of the Bones and acid Humours the Animal Spirits could not be determinated rather into this than into that Muscle but without distinction rushed into all disturbed parts and if though but in a small quantity they approached nigh to certain Muscles they could not enter and flow in by reason of the passages of those Muscles obstructed by the stagnizing Humours And although some Spirits had flowed into the same Muscles yet all their tendency was was to move one extremity of the cutting broken Bone to this party the other to another whence proceeded nothing but Vellication Pressure and Renovation of the dolour Hence the cause of the imbicility of motion is sufficiently manifest I being called presently set the Broken Bones and then my principal end was to restore the circulation of the Bloud and Humours for without doubt the Bloud was here and there stagnized Therefore to temperate the peccant Acidity I washed the affected part with Sprit of Wine in which a little Gum Ammoniac was dissolved and for the same end I applied a Plaister composed of Diapalma Bolus Spirit of Wine and Oyl of Camomil Then for retaining the Bones so lately set I used Ligatures and other things fit renewing these by certain intervals and so the Patient in six weeks time could again walk I am not willing in this place to say that a Fracture made transverse may more easily be retained than an oblique Fracture nor that it is for the most part accounted a good sign of restriction if the great Toe of the Foot directly respect the Knee seeing these things are well known Nor shall I endeavour to render a reason why the dolour is mitigated after the Bone is let because it is known that this is effected by removal of the first cause of the Dolour of which I so lately spake But before I conclude I purpose to shew how the Callus is induced which conglutinates the fractured Bones When the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours is again restored as well in the fractured Bone as elsewhere then certain Particles issuing from the Pores of the Arteries pass through the small passages of the Bone and when they come to the extremity thereof they can proceed no further by a right Line because the passages were interrupted by the Fracture therefore they turn to the sides where adhering to die Bone and each to other they constitute a Callus which again conjoyns the Bones This Callus in the aged and weak is difficultly generated by reason of the gross and viscous Bloud which cannot pass through the streight passages of the Bones Therefore in such a case the more gross Particles of the Bloud must be attenuated by Ê’j of the Stone Osteocolla daily taken Yea it will not be injurious if powder of the same stone be mixed with the Plaister that is externally applied But in our Patient the matter was far otherwise For the Callus extended it self to a very unseemly bulk wherefore I applied a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury to the end that this Plaister should so attenuate certain Particles of the Callus that they might fly away and also a good Ligature that it might so compress the Callus as no-nothing new might have access thereunto Thus I put an end to this Observation after I shall have told you that I commanded the Sick-man's Leg always to lie extended and took care that the Sole of the Foot might rest upon a small Pillow in the middle of which was an hole For otherwise as experience testifies a Gangrene might have invaded the bottom of the Foot because the Vessels and small passages of the parts are vehemently compressed by long lying There are some who in a Fracture of the Tibia as this was commend viscous things which I reject as noxious because in a body without exercise Obstructions do not a little augment which on the contrary should rather be diminished OBSERVAT. X. Of a Dislocation of the Shoulder A Man Thirty two years of Age falling from a Coach suffered a Dislocation in his left Shoulder so that the head of the Bone fallen into the inferiour part was the cause of a certain eminency there whilst on the contrary in the superiour part was discerned an unusual Cavity The Patient complained of very great pain and could not move his hand by the anteriour part to his Forehead nor by the posteriour to his Neck For the Bone fallen from its seat compressed the Periosteum and adjoyning parts whence arose pain which was augmented because in the small passages of the parts compressed and distorted the Humours stagnized waxed acid and shook the small Fibres He could not move his Arm as formerly because the head of the Bone thrust from its former Cavity no longer as before enjoyed an hollow and slippery place requisite for its motion also hence was the occasion that the Animal Spirits could not enter through the small passages obstructed by the stagnizing Humours and compressed by the dislocated Bone into the Muscles and excite them hence it happened that no motion could be because the head of the Bone did more and more compress the parts adjoyning whence arose a new excitation of dolour which also induced no small impediment to the due performance of motion I being called to the Sick reposited the dislocated Bone and then the motion presently returned there was indeed some dolour present because the acid Humours stagnizing did as yet in some measure irritate the Fibrils nevertheless the pain was very much diminished because the head of the Bone now contained in its proper Cavity did no longer press upon the sensible parts The Bone being set I endeavoured by things temperating Acidity to dissolve the stagnizing Humours and restore to them their due Circulation wherefore I washed the affected part with Spirit of Wine in which Gum Ammoniac was dissolved and applied a Plaister composed of Spirit of Wine Bolus Diapalma and Oyl of Camomil and then put Lint wrapt up like a Ball under the Arm-pit and by this means the Patient was healed in a short space of time Peter Pigraeus a French Author and Chyrurgeon worthy of praise commends Astringents to a Bone lately reposited but be it spoken with the leave of so famous a man in this he is egregiously deceived For Astringents augment Obstructions
which should rather be diminished Paulus Berbette wills that the influx of Humours in this case be prohibited but improperly because that influx being natural should not be stopped That man undoubtedly saw in 2 Dislocations the near adjoyning parts often elevated into a Tumour Also he observed by frequent experience that Frankincense Mastich Bolus and the like removed this Tumour But when he judged this Tumour to be produced from an influx more copious than usual and when according to this stated opinion he thought his Medicaments did therefore help because they prohibited that Influx then I say he erred For Obstructions were the cause that the Humours were coacervated and elevated into a Tumour and so waxed acid and the said Medicaments onely profit because they remove the Obstructions and temperate the Acidity Having now spoken of the Dislocation of the Shoulder suddenly happening there is yet another Dislocation slowly invading and more slowly sanable viz. when by External force the Ligaments of the Shoulder are contused so that the small passages are distorted whence the Humours circulating through the Ligaments do there subsist and in process of time insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Fibrils of which the Ligaments consists and extend those Pores not according to the breadth but according to the length of the Ligaments For the Ligaments when motion is are often extended in length even so the Ligaments which otherwise were wont to contain the head of the Bone in its Cavity are now so far prolonged that the Bone falls out of its proper seat This Dislocation is easily restored but the Bone reposited is very difficultly retained in its place External Medicaments helpful to retain a Bone reduced to its place are such as consist of much Volatile Salt because Volatile Salt can attenuate the Particles inherent in the Pores of the Ligaments and so force them out and restore the circulation of Humours But the cure will be rendred more easie and in less time accomplished if we contribute help to the external Medicaments by a Decoction to be inwardly taken consisting of Lign Guaiacum Root of Sarsaparilla China and other Medicaments abounding with much Volatile Salt The end of the first Decade of Chyrurgick Observations DECADE II. OBSERVAT. I. Of the Puncture of a Nerve A Young Man aged Twenty years exercised in Chyrurgery with the Puncture of a Lancet hurt the middle Finger of his left Hand about the middle Article whence arose pain at first not very great but by the next morning it was vastly augmented and besides redness invaded the whole Finger attended with burning heat and swelling and the Cutis in places nigh the Wound was separarated pallid and insensible After I had accurately considered the Phaenomena's I concluded the Nerve to be hurt by the Razor whence at first arose but small pain But by reason of the small passages bordering on the wounded Nerve Humours interrupted by that small Wound otherwise freely circulating were constrained to subsist about the Wound and there became acid and so by the Humours following them were driven to the wounded Nerve where permixt with the Animal Spirits hastning through the Nerve they excited a certain effervescency by reason of the Volatile Salt contained in those Animal Spirits and by this means the acid Particles constituted in motion great enough with the acuteness of their sides egregiously vellicated the Fibrils of the wounded Nerve and so excited that grievous dolour I even now spake of The acid Humours thus forced into an effervescency with the Animal Spirits not onely irritated and disturbed the Fibrils of the wounded Nerve but also the Fibrils of the adjacent parts yea of the whole Finger whence many small passages were so distorted that the Bloud and Humours setled in them and by a short delay there assumed the nature of Acidity whence the heat and tumour of the whole Finger or inflammation of 〈◊〉 same were readily induced The same acid Particles exercising their Effervescency had wholly cut in sunder those Fibrils which knit the Skin sited round about the Wound together with the subjected part and so the Cutis was separated pallid and insensible because those often-cited acid and cutting Particles had cut in sunder very many Fibrils constituting the same Cutis which Fibrils crisping on heaps produced so many and so pertinacious Obstructions that the circulation of the Bloud Humours and Spirits through the Cutis was totally impeded Things being thus I judged the Wound sufficiently dangerous and therefore the cure thereof to be diligently set about having long before seen a French Souldier whose Nerve about the Cubit of the Arm was but lightly prickt with a Sword who after a long series of time and many difficulties overcome was with very great care and pains at last restored to his pristine state of health Yea I also saw an Husbandman the Nerve of whose Thigh was wounded with a Leaden-bullet shot out of a Gun this man a Convulsion being excited died in a short time after the wound was inflicted I had often before mixed Oyl of Turpentine with the acid Oyl of Vitriol and saw an Effervescencâ—â—o arise thence yea with my hands I â—ave felt sufficient heat produced in the Glass containing those Liquors Hence I did without difficulty perceive how powerfully Oyl of Turpentine did resist Acidity and by consequence how excellently serviceable it would prove in this our case wherefore I poured Oyl of Turpentine before made sufficiently hot into the Wound that so the Parades thereof of put into greater motion might more easily and more profoundly penetrate and consequently act more powerfully in temperating the peccant Acidity Then I applied Paracelsus his Stiptick Plaister which also temperates Acidity Afterward on the Finger and indeed all over the Hand I laid a doubled Cloath moistned with a Lavament consisting of Spirit of Wine Water of Elder Camphire and Salt-prunella changing these twice a day and with an Instrument removing the Cutis already separated from the subjacent flesh Thus our Young man was cured in a short time In the mean while it is worthy observation that I saw a necessity of being industriously careful to prevent the access of the ambient Air because that contains in it self Acidity which is apparent thus viz. because it coagulates Milk yea Bloud it self when extravasate is in a short time coagulated by the Air whereas the same is found to persist in its wonted Fluidness for several days if it remain in the Vessels of any Carkass where it is free from the ambient Air. By the aforesaid it is sufficiently manifest why there is much less dolour in a Nerve wholly cut off than in that which is onely prickt or but lightly wounded for when a Nerve is totally cut in sunder one Extreamity is retracted to this part the other to another and is absconded by the flesh so that the acid Humour inherent in the Wound and the ambient Air cannot have access to the Nerve The famous Sylvius
deduceth extream dolour and other Phaenomena's occurring in a Wound of the Nerve from a far other cause than I do For he thinks some of the Fibrils in the Nerve being cut the other as yet intire suffer so much the more by a continued stretching produced by the Animal Spirits and that hence ariseth Dolour Convulsion and other Evils frequently observed in such cases But with the leave of so great a man this Cause pleaseth me not seeing from it I cannot conclude that the pallid and insensible Cutis is frequently separated from the adjacent part This Cause of his is repugnant to Experience which teacheth that the Puncture of a Nerve is more dangerous than if the Nerve were cut to the midst For in a Nerve cut to the midst many more Fibrils are cut than in a Nerve prickt in which often but a few Fibrils onely are hurt But it is certain that Sylvius did himself believe his own reason not sufficient seeing in the same Twenty third Chapter of his Second Book he saith that Phaenomenons exhibiting themselves in the Puncture of a Nerve seem to him more like a Dream than to any observation made by the Senses Therefore that I may put an end to this Observation I say that in the wound of a Nerve Acidity is peccant and that such Medicaments should be applied as infringe Acidity For this Cause is commended Oyl of Wax and Ear-wax but acid things are not fit here to be used which was well observed by Felix Plaiterus who in his Book of Observations page 468 saith Acidity is very inimical to the Nerves OBSERVAT. II. Of Dolour of the Head A Man Forty two years of Age was vexed with a most vehement dolour of his Head and indeed that only about the Temple of one side where it remained fixed which Affect if any one will for this cause insignize with the name of a Clavus let him for me I judged the cause of this Dolour to be an Acido-corrosive Humor there lying hid and stagnizing by reason of Obstruction very pertinaceous There was one studious of Medicine present who perswaded himself that the cure of this Affect would be best performed by Sudorificks which by reason of the pertinacy of the Obstruction in this Disease I judged equally as impossible as in the Panaritium which I never heard to have been healed by Sudorificks though the same Affect derives its original from an Acido-corrosive Humor for it is but a very small portion of the Sudorifick that can arrive to the pained part Therefore I rather applied to the affected part Powder of Cantharides with his own Spittle formed into a Vesicatory about the evening and left it on all night The famous Sylvius to Cantharides addeth Vinegar thinking there would thence arise a certain Fermentation and so the Vesicatory operate the better Yea the most Learned Willis also adjoyns acid things to many forms of Vesicatories which I my self have often imitated but as often observed that after the space of a whole day no Blisters have been raised by the Cantharides when I mixed them with Vinegar viz. for this reason because the Volatile Salt of die Cantharides was enervated by the Vinegar in which Salt the principal Virtue of them consists Coming the next day I beheld a large Blister raised by the Cantharides and understood that the sick-man was wholly eased of his pain But I could not perswade my self that this dolour was removed by the Blister raised and by reason of the Water flowing from the same when opened For the Water that issued out was neither sharp of taste nor could be such because had it been so it must needs have inferred some dolour on the subjected skin before apertion of the Blister which notwithstanding it did not although the Cutis the Epidermis being by this means removed be of it self sufficiently sensible as is apparent because it is often hurt and feels pain by the ambient Air. What was it then that removed that Dolour The Volatile Salt of the Cantharides which by the Vapours passing out through the skin stirred up to a sufficiently swift motion penetrated to the Acido-corrosive humor and temperated and cut the same and took away the obstruction But whence then did the Blister derive its original I say that in the mean time when the more volatile Particles of the Cantharides had penetrated far enough for correcting the peccant Humor other more grose and more acid Particles subsisted about the Cutis in which they brake certain Fibrils which crisping up together did so obstruct the small passages that the Humors in circulation were partly impeded and so gathered together in the Superficies of the Cutis and elevated the Cuticle into the form of a Blister which might easily happen because the Fibrils which joyn die Cutis with the Cuticle were now broken in sunder by the aforesaid more gross and more acid Particles of the Cantharides But some one may perhaps here say that that Water should not have been there congregated but rather have passed out by the Pores of the Cuticle by which we so often see Sweats to issue out To him I answer the most gross Parts of the Cantharides remained and adhered about the Cuticle and very much constringed the Pores thereof which should seem strange to no man who even but once in his life-time hath seen how easily by heat of fire Parchments may be crumpled up and that the common Fire which so crumples them doth also sometimes excite small Blisters wholly like those that are raised by Cantharides but because the Pores of the Cuticle were so closed therefore the Vapours otherwise freely exhaling were accumulated and augmented the abundance of Humor contained in the Blister If any man not as yet plainly convinced by our way of reasoning believes that the long lying on of the Cantharides by reason of the Blisters raised helps until his mind be altered by the Authority of some approved Writer I would have him go to Lazarus Riverius who in his Third Century Observation 4. declares that a Vesicatory left on but a quarter of an hour had in that time wholly removed the dolour of a Bees sting no Blisters being raised by reason of so short delay Francis Redi in a Treatise of Insects affirms that he had seen a white shining Humor undoubtedly Acido-corrosive flowing out from the Stings of Scorpions and it is very probable that such an humor in the Punctures of Bees doth in like manner flow from their Stings which is the cause of dolour Hence it is now manifest that the dolour of which Riverius speaks vanished because the acid Humor which flowed out from the Bees Sting and excited dolour was temperated by the Volatile Salt of the Cantharides But that the Stings of Bees are hollow no man will wonder who hath at any time seen the Glass-Pipes made by Art which are used for examining and beholding the Bloud and other Liquors through a Microscope seeing they though small
of Motions that are made in this Corporeal Universe and according to the rules of these Motions giving heed onely to the magnitude of Bodies to the figure and position of them not onely the Phaenomenons of this Disease but also many other far more wonderful than these may very accurately be explained If you be desirous to know how Plants proceed from a Grane or Seed it will behove you attently to peruse the Anatomy of Plants made by Mr. Grews Microscope published both in English and in French There in the greater Bean you may behold the Rudiment both of Root and Plant already formed there you may perceive how the Juice strained through the Membranes of the Bean committed to the earth is fermented in the Body of the Bean also how there through a small hole of the Bean admittance is given to the Air and an exit also permitted to the superfluous Vapours how the Juice thus fermented is constringed into the Rudiment of a Root and converts that Rudiment into a true Root which then receiving nutriment from the Earth repels the other Juice coming from the other part upwards to the Rudiment of the Plant that so at length it may present it self to the sight as a true Plant. If you desire to know the causes of the stupendious powers in the Magnet of the Ignis Fatuus Rainbow and other things consult Cartesius who will clearly explain them to you The same Philosopher in his Treatise of Meteors will also there teach you that Souldiers sometimes seen fighting in the Air touching which the ignorant Vulgar tells so many tales are no other than certain Clouds I know not indeed whence arose this so evily-founded Judgement of the people by which such cases as this of ours is are accounted Inchantments and Mawworms so frequently ejected from the Bodies of men by Vomit and Seidg esteemed meerly natural whereas the generation of Mawworms is far more wonderful than that of these Eggs in the Humane Body Vigelius professor of the Mathematicks is reported to have formed an Horse of Metal which in one day for several hours could by the help of Rotula's walk like a living Beast Rayselius is reported to have fabricated an Engine like a man in which a certain Liquor poured into the mouth was seen to circulate like our Bloud the more thin part of which Liquor was expelled by the Yard as Urine but the more gross part as Dregs or Dung of the Belly by the Fundament If Man can do such things what cannot GOD the supream Architect effect according to the ordinary rules of Motions Therefore how were these Eggs produced in this Woman I answer In the Thigh of this Woman from this or that cause many Pores of this or that Artery were distorted and enlarged so that many Humors flowed out and were collected in one place in which when they began to be fermented the Particles stringy and less apt for motion were thrust out to the sides where they were not compelled to so swift a motion and there cohering and twisting themselves one within the other were formed into that sufficiently gross Membrane which did include all the Eggs afterward generated But because the Pores of the above-mentioned Artery were diversly distorted therefore some of the Particles contained in this gross Membrane did in some measure differ from the other in figure and magnitude and perhaps the Particles like each other flowed into almost an hundred divers places and so every of those Particles besides the Congesture of their like still exercising a certain kind of Fermentation did again thrust out the more stringy Particles to the sides and so were formed the Membranes in which were included all the Eggs. Thus I suppose I have produced a sufficiently intelligible cause of this Phaenomenon which I beheld with my own Eyes OBSERVAT. V. Of a vast Tumor of the Neck A Young Maid aged Fifteen years being otherwise very well had now for six years sustained an hard round Tumor in her Neck of the same colour with the Skin and void of pain equalizing in magnitude a white Loaf that is wont to be sold at the price of half a Sesterce and miserably defacing the Patients Countenance I judged the humidity of this Tumor to be very viscous and divided almost after the same manner as we see the Juice in a Pome-Citron or Orange contained in many Cells By reason of the viscosity of the Humor this Tumor could not be discussed nor in the common way brought to suppuration therefore I applied a Corrosive and the Eschar being removed put in a Tent anointed with the Unguent Basilicon mixt with common Turpentine By this means some part of the viscous Pus issued out daily and so the Bulk of this horrid Tumor began to be diminished the viscous Humor nearest the hole was first evacuated and afterward that also which lay far remote from the Ulcer But when the small passages round about this hole made by Art were obstructed by the viscosity of the Humor as it often hapned then with the Unguent wherewith the Tent was anointed I mixed some Crocus Metallorum that so an Eschar might be induced which being separated the small passages were again opened and so this young Maid in the space of three Months was wholly freed from this Tumor and that great deformity attending it I shall not in this place speak of the way or manner of the Corrosives operating having already discoursed of that in the First Observation of this Third Decade nor will I at this time further explain by what means the Eschar is separated because this may sufficiently be understood by the Second Observation of this Decade where I teach how the rotten Fragments of Bones may be separated from the sound part Perhaps some one will wonder that I use Medicaments so few and so little compounded but to what purpose are so many Simples and so many composed Forms of Remedies which many Physicians use at this day for no other cause than to boast of their vain Learning before the Ignorant If Gun-powder made of Cole-dust Nitre and Sulphur onely produceth such stupendious effects in the Macrocosm that omitting all other it can blow up into the Air vast and heavy Ships and also if put under the Earth cause the same to tremble and cleave in sunder why may not a few Medicines seasonable taken be sufficient to heal very many Diseases in the Microcosm I do indeed assent to Bacon Verulam great Chancellor of England who is by some called the Day-star of Cartesius thus speaking Variety of Medicaments is the daughter of Ignorance OBSERVAT. VI. Of a wonderful Abscess A Man Fifty years of age was vexed with an Abscess arising below his Ear which was round painful waterish and soft with this he had been afflicted some days before he came to me I being certainly perswaded that ripe Pus was contained in this Abscess made an Aperture with my Lancet and so presently issued out no small
Bloud with the Acidity was coagulated therefore the Spittle burthened with this Coagulate exhibited the afore-mentioned Saline taste to the Tongue So Common Salt which we daily use with our Meats ceaseth not to taste Saline though it hath not a little Acidity permixt with it self as Spirit of Salt extracted by Chymical Distillation doth plainly teach The end of the Third Decade DECADE IV. OBSERVAT. I. Concerning the Indisposition of the Gum. A Matron Forty years of age very much afflicted with the Scurvey complained of an excessive pain of her Gum which was very much corroded and at the least touch immediately poured out Bloud and besides her fore-Teeth were loose Also the Patient according to the common custom after Bloud-letting had been often purged but in vain How the Acidity in some sort corrosive should be the cause of this dolour corrode the Gum and make the Teeth loose I forbear in this place to explain because I judge the case to be sufficiently clear of it self This Evil doth sometimes degenerate into that Malady which we in Dutch call De Water-kanker therefore not to be slightly regarded My order was that the sick Woman should as much as was possible abstain from acid things and unto her I gave the Spirit of which I spake in the last Observation of the foregoing Decade and did also prescribe the following Medicament to be externally used â„ž Tincture of Gum Lacca â„¥ j. Spirit of Scurvy-grass Ê’iij Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium drops xiij Make a Mixture With this Medicament the Gum was four times a day touched and washed and so in a few days the diseased Woman was freed from her pain and the out-flowing of Bloud from the Gum ceased and the Teeth were no longer loose but that part of the Gum that was eaten away grew up no more at which no man should wonder because it is as impossible for part of the Gum consumed to be regenerated as a Finger once cut off to grow again Sometimes a certain Lapideous matter grows upon the Teeth which by its roughness lacerates the Gum in which case the precedent Medicament must in no wise be used unless this Lapideous matter be first removed with some fit Instrument If you desire to know the way of preparing Tincture of Gum Lacca consult Frederick Deckers that most famous Practitioner in his Practical Observations about the Method of Healing page 15. Before I finish this Observation I cannot forbear to tax the frequent errour of those men who use Oyl of Vitriol for whitening black Teeth For though this immediately takes away the blackness of the Teeth yet it afterward hurts them because it corrupts the Volatile Salt which is naturally found in great abundance in the Teeth It would be far better for those that delight in white Teeth always after Meat to wash and cleanse their Mouths with pure Water and once in a Week rub their Teeth with the powder of Porcellane Earth which is China If any man either cannot or will not give credit to my words saying Acidity as Oyl of Vitriol and other like things hurts the Teeth let him at least give credit to Solomon the wisest of Kings who speaking by the Spirit of GOD said As Vinegar to the Teeth and as Smoak to the Eyes so is the Sluggard to them that send him Now if Vinegar according to the testimony of Solomon be so inimical to the Teeth what damage will not Oyl of Vitriol infer which is much more sharp and far more corrosive OBSERVAT. II. Of an Ambustion A Man Thirty years of age setting fire to Gun-powder burnt his whole Face and both his Hands whence presently arose redness and exceeding great pain to asswage which the Patient applied Ink which was as it hapned ready at hand Had you seen the Patient in this state you would have affirmed you saw the Devil unless you could with the Aethiopians perswade your self the Devil is white which Opinion Sir Thomas Brown in his Pseudoxia Epidemica seems to favour contrary to the Testimony of the holy Scripture which saith in the Revelation of St. John Chap. 19. vers 20. The dwelling of Satan is a lake of Fire burning with Brimstone But the Smoak of Brimstone burnt as our above-recited Author philosophizeth is known by frequent experience to whiten Wollen Garments as Stockings and other things and hence he concludes that whatsoever is found in Hell must needs be white These things onely cursorily mentioned let us omit them and come to the matter it self I being called to the Patient applied to the parts hurt Onions bruised with common Honey Which Remedy is very profitable to burnt parts if presently applied whilst the Skin is yet entire for that being hurt vehement dolour will undoubtedly follow the use of this Medicament which shews that then it is in no wise convenient The next day many Blisters all over his Face and both his Hands presented themselves to sight which the third day after the accident being opened poured out no small quantity of Limpid Water Then I prescribed the following Cerot â„ž Ceruss Pulp of the Root of the greater Comphry of each lib. j. Lithargyry Lapis Calaminaris Oyl-Olive Wax of each â„¥ vj. Make a Cerot In the preparation of which it is to be noted that to the Oyl and Wax first melted together the Pouders beaten very fine and sifted must be added and when these are almost cold the aforesaid Pulp must be mixed which Pulp is thus extracted The Roots are first made clean and then cut into thin round slices which afterwards boyled in common Water till they are soft are then squeezed through a fine Linnen-Cloath With three Ounces of this Cerot I mixed as much of Unguentum Aureum the description of which is found in the Amsterdam or Augustine Pharmacopoea and this Medicament spread upon fine and soft Linnen Clothes I applied to the parts hurt and by this means our Patient was perfectly healed in a short time Whence the redness and dolour proceeded you may easily understand if you do but consider that the Gun-powder fired and so posited in a most swift and very vehement motion had hurt and broke many Fibrils of the Cutis For hence the dolour manifesting it self in that Ambustion may easily be judged of the continuation of which Dolour proceeded from the Obstruction of many small passages by reason of the broken Fibrils in which the Humors stagnized and distended the adjacent parts and then also waxed acid and by this means tore and cut in sunder the aforesoid Fibrils The Blisters were raised by the Humors stagnizing and coacervated about the Cutis which being constringed by the flame they could not penetrate I applied Onions with Honey that with their abounding Volatile Salt they might open the constringed and stopt Pores of the Cuticle temperate the acid Humors and restore to them their usual Circulation The third day I opened the Blisters for had I sooner opened them the subjacent Cutis would have suffered
thrust out through the Skin the Affect is mortal of greater danger if restored than if not restored For if it be not restored an Inflammation Convulsion or sometimes Death follows Secondly Foulness of that Member will be present And Thirdly an uncurable Ulcer which if it happen to be covered with a Cicatrice that by reason of softness is easily broken If it be restored it infers very great danger of a Convulsion Gangrene and Death But some fear dangers of this kind onely in the great Articles viz. in the Wrist Shoulder Talus and Thigh which by reason of the strength of the Tendons and magnitude of the Ligaments and Vessels prohibit Restitution Then he adds If a Convulsion follows the Joynt must be presently again Dislocated My purpose is no otherwise to answer these words of Scultetus than by an exact and faithful Declaration of the Medicines we applied to this our Patient seeing thereby it will be sufficiently manifest how well or how ill the above-named Author hath written First We washed the Bone of the Tibia forced out of its seat with Spirit of Wine warm for removing the coagulated Bloud and Filths adhering then sufficient Extension being made we set the dislocated Bone in its place applying to the Wound a good Digestive with a fit Plaister superposited not omitting a Lavament temperating Acidity and a Common Ligature The Leg thus bound up was laid upon a soft Cushion and so the Patient was carried to his Bed over which hung a Rope by the help of which he could raise his Body as I said in the precendent Operation and at the Feet of this Sick-man we set up a Board that the Clothes with their Weight might infer no detriment to the wounded Leg. The Leg affected by reason of the abundance of Pus flowing out of the Wound was dressed twice a day But in the mean while most vehement dolour exercised its Tyranny on our sick Patient who was both feverish and had a Delirium passing whole night almost without sleep or if he was between whiles somewhat refreshed with sleep a little after that was excited the aforesaid Terrour of which we spake in the precedent Observation whence the Talus was often of some measure distorted again To remove the Dolour Fever Watchings and Delirium the Patient at time assumed some of the following Mixture ℞ Water of Betony ℥ iv Of Bawm ℥ j. Syrup of Card. Bened. ʒiij Antimony Diaphoretic ʒj Salt prunella antimoniate ʒss White Corals Crabs-Eyes of each ℈ j. Laudanum Opiat Gr. 4. Make a Mixture But the Talus as often as it was found distorted after sleep was reposited By this means the space of three Weeks being scarcely elapsed the Fever and Delirium ceased then also but more slowly the aforesaid Terrour vanished and at length the Dolour and Watchings likewise But here I call to mind one thing which I had almost forgot viz. that two Abscesses arose in the affected Leg one nigh the Wound the other in the External part of the Leg but both these Abscesses after Apertion were healed In process of time very many Fragments were separated from the Bone of the Tibia which we then gently and easily took out of the Wound and upon the fungous flesh which was seen in the Wound we strewed almost every day once the Powder of Burnt Allum and so at length a Cicatrice came in sight which from day to day increased more and more so that about the sixth Month the whole Wound was almost covered Wherefore the Patient began to walk with Crutches but by this motion the Wound was again inlarged so that it closed not in every part which should seem strange to no man For I at this day know two who after Dislocation of the Talus with a Wound had an Ulcer several years But what if after setting the Dislocated Talus the Patient had been afflicted with a Convulsion must we needs have followed the counsel of Scultetus and again have dislocated the Article so lately set in its place I think not seeing I see no cause that should incite us to such an Action In this place I render not a Reason of many Phaenomenons and indeed considerately least I should set before the Readers a Dish of Crambe twice cookt For I think I have here omitted no reason of any Phaenomenon which may not be found in one or other of the foregoing Observations OBSERVAT. VII Of a Nose hurt by Winters-Cold A Young Maiden Sixteen years of age in Mid-Winter in extream cold Weather complained of a Tumor Redness and Dolour in the Tip of her Nose and she had been often before afflicted with this Evil in the Winter-Seasons The coldness of the Air both within and without affecting the Nose the Bloud in its very small Vessels and the Humors in their small passages were in some measure stagnized and in process of time contracted a certain Acor whence the Tumor Redness and Dolour were easily excited But whence was it that this Evil had now several times returned in the Winter This Return proceeded from no other cause than because the small Vessels and Passages were the first time so distorted by the Bloud and Humors stagnizing and waxing acid that afterwards they could never so well return to their pristine state but they would in Winter-time much impede the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors This Affect in Dutch called de Roud is without danger as to life yet in the mean while it is not a little displeasant to young Maids accounting their own Form whatsoever it is as their chiefest good and therefore are often willing rather to lose their Life than their Beauty This Evil I wholly removed in a few days with a Linnen-Cloath onely anointed with Sperma Ceti I shall not now dispute what that is which is known by the Name of Sperma Ceti whether it be the Seed of that great Fish or a certain Substance which is found in the form of thick Oyl in certain small Cells in the Head of the Whale about the largeness of Goose-Eggs or lastly whether it be a certain artificial Composition of the Brain of some Fish dried made up with a Lixivium of Lime In this place I say I will not dispute of this matter it sufficeth me that much Oyly Volatile Salt is contained in the aforesaid Medicament which corrects the Acidity in the bloud and stagnizing Humors This Evil is wont to invade not only the Tip of the Nose but also the Fingers Toes and Soles of the Feet To attempt to render a Reason of this would be superfluous seeing it is manifest that the cold Air doth more affect the Extreamities of the Body than other parts and small Vessels are sooner obstructed than others more capacious To prevent this Evil Cupping-glasses with Scarification are wont to be applied but improperly because the Obstructions are not by this means removed but multiplied and the distorted Vessels are not reverted to their pristine state but more
the other way seems to be far more difficult For they judge that the Pus can in the form of Dew transpire through the Pores of the Diaphragma from within looking outward and so passing through the whole Abdomen at length enter the Cavity of the Bladder through the Pores of the same from without looking inward That such Pores from without looking inward may be found is evident by the following Experiment In an hot Room invert a Bladder and fill it with hot Water and then you will see the Water transpire like Dew When it happens that the Pus copiously contained upon the Diaphragma cannot be expelled by the wounds being too highly sited nor by the Mouth with coughing nor be evacuated by the Bladder with the Urine then is commended a Paracenthesis that is an Artificial Incision in a lower place of the Thorax This Incision is usually made between the fifth and sixth Rib if you number from the Inferiour not in the midst of the Breast but in the Side and this rather in the Anterior than in the Posterior part thereof and rather about the Superiour than the Inferiour part of the Rib and indeed with a Knife having for a good part of it a Cloath wrapped round about just at that moment of time in which the Patient breaths But in this Age wherein we now live and in these Regions this operation is very rarely exercised The Paracenthesis being made the Pus must not be let out all together and at once but at several times This all Chyrurgeons concede to but few of them know why they do so Some say the Spirits would be dissipated if the Pus should be let all out at one time others feign that provident Nature is then sensible of that Vacuum therefore presently sends much yea too much Bloud and Humors into that place But both these Reasons are so very frivolous that they deserve no refutation Therefore I shall briefly declare what I judge to be the reason of this It is certain that into that place from which the hot Pus hath receded the cold Air hath immediate access which doth not only molest the Fibrils before somewhat injured by the Pus but also produceth many Obstructions in the small passages so that in them the Humors stagnize are coacervated wax acid and by that means an Inflammation is excited much after the same manner as when we have been exposed to the cold Air and presently after are well warmed we are not seldom afflicted with Catarrhs as they are vulgarly called and when we are above measure hot and at that time drink cold Beer we are sometimes punished with a Pleurisie OBSERVAT. III. Of a penetrating Wound of the Abdomen A Young man aged Twenty years was wounded by an Adversary of his so that the Sword passed through the anterior part of the Abdomen and pierced through his Back The Patient soon after he was wounded took his Bed and the first days did somewhat complain of this or that Discommodity but afterwards from day to day he waxed better and better and both his Wounds in three weeks space were perfectly consolidated with the use of Tents put in which were first anointed with a good Digestive and a fit Plaister superposited It was not necessary in this case to search into the profoundity of the Wound it being sufficiently manifest that this Wound had penetrated into the Cavity of the Abdomen because the Swords point had passed through the Belly and came forth at the Back Otherwise the profundity of a Wound is wont to be searched out by an Iron or Leaden Probe but better is a Wax-candle which is in Dutch called een Waslichie because it can much more commodiously be bowed and accommodated to all occurrent Meanders Here in the mean while it is to be studiously observed that sometimes the Probe enters very deep passing through the Interstitiums of the Muscles and the Wound notwithstanding penetrates not so far as into the Cavity of the Belly And on the contrary the Wound sometimes penetrates into the Cavity of the Abdomen though the Probe when thrust in presently finds resistance viz. because the parts in the Body hurt were otherwise figured when the sick was wounded than afterward when the state of the Wound was searched into A Wound of the Abdomen though it penetrate not into the Cavity of the Belly yet is difficultly healed by reason of the motion of Respiration For Wounds to be consolidated require Rest But if a Wound of the Abdomen not penetrating be in the White-Line so called then it is much more difficultly healed and very painful In the Second Observation of this Decade I willed the enlargement of very small wounds of the Breast but this Operation deserves not place in wounds of the Abdomen For in such it is to be feared that the Omentum of Bowel through too large an hole of the Belly should slip out of the Cavity of the Abdomen Some dream that the Resurrection of the Dead shall take beginning from the small Bone contained in the 18th Vertebra but they dream indeed without any similitude of Truth Truly I know not what answer men of such an Opinion would give me if I should ask them whether that man should not rise in whom that small Bone had while he lived been broken to pieces by a Wound The Testicles hang without the Cavity of the Abdomen and therefore may be easily wounded yet their being wounded hazards not the life of the Patient For we by experience find that a man can supervive the cutting out of both his Testicles I my self familiarly knew a man studious of Medicine who had both his Stones by reason of a carnous Hernia happily cut off What then are the Testicles They are no other than a certain Congesture of very many most small Threds or Vessels confecting the Seed which Threds if separated each from other without breaking would in a man easily exceed the length of twenty Ells. For the Testicle of a Dormouse is extended to fifteen Ells. Many Chyrurgeons to Wounds do first of all apply repelling things that is things cold and astringent but in wounds of the Groin omit them If you ask their reason they will answer you Because the Emunctory of the Liver is in the Groin This Answer is both frivolous and rediculous and we have already in the Eighth Observation of the First Decade exploded and and sufficiently refuted the same What then is the reason that Chyrurgeons do any where else but in the Groins use cold and astringent things Attend a little and I will tell you Cold and astringent things hurt almost every where but more in the Groins than elsewhere which Experience the Mistress of Fools hath taught them The fact they know and confess but are wholly ignorant of the cause of such an Effect Therefore they seign to themselves such a Chymaera whereas in the mean while the true cause is that certain Glandules have their seat
in the Groins which Glandules are no other than a Congesture of very small Vessels much inflexied in the Meanders of which the Humors more easily subsist than elsewhere if Chyrurgeons by cold and astringent things unseasonably applied retard their Circulation All penetrating Wounds of the Abdomen are dangerous but far more perilous when they are large because the Omentum or Bowel at that time easily slips out and if it be not presently after its Egress forced into its proper place it dies and changeth its colour by reason of the ambient Air. But whence is it that the Omentum for some time remaining out of the Belly so suddenly dies The Omentum consists of very many small Bags into which the Grease is conveyed through several fatty Vessels as the most accurate Anatomists of this Age plainly witness Hence it is now easily manifest how readily the Grease in its small Bags and the Matter contained in the very small fatty Vessels may be coagulated by the cold Air. Now when the Omentum issuing out of the Cavity of the Abdomen by reason of some delay is in the aforesaid manner corrupted then must a Thred be tyed between the sound and the corrupted part and least the sound part also be infected what is corrupted must be cut off and if the Wound be found too large that must be sewed up but the aforesaid Thread hanging out of the Abdomen must be a left so until it falls off of it self in process of time Thus I knew one part of whose Omentum by its too long stay out of the Abdomen was corrupted recovered happily of his Wound who was after the same manner handled by my Father In a large wound of the Abdomen the Bowel sometimes issues which must be presently thrust in for otherwise it is so distended with Flatus's as it cannot be thrust into its pristine place But whence is it that the Bowel is so distended with Flatus's remaining out of the Belly for some short time I answer A certain Fermentation is excited not onely in the Chyle Pancreatick Juice and Choler but also in the Feces left of the Chyle and in the Ferment adhering to the sides of the Bowels Hence arise many Vapours not to mention those Vapours which from the Pores of the small Arteries continually enter into the Cavity of the Bowels which must needs be accumulated in the Cavity of that Bowel and distend it if in the Bowel abiding out of the Abdomen the Pores from within looking outwards be closed up by the ambient Air. Now what remains to be done when the Bowel out of the Abdomen is seen distended with Flatus's The closed Pores are to be opened and greater agitation contributed to the Vapours contained within which may well be effected if a Thred newly twisted but not purged by boyling having been first boyled in sweet Milk be applied hot Then the Bowel the Flatus's being absumed must be reposited and if need be the Wound in some part sewed up If the Bowels be also wounded the life of the Patient is in very great danger and indeed the more if the Wound be inflicted in a thin Bowel but not so if in a more gross Bowel because in this the Wound after it is sewed up is more easily conglutinated the Bowel being such as consists of a greater number of small passages through which the nourishing Humors are conveighed So the gross Bowels generally contain onely Feces but Bowels more slender the Chyle Whilst I here treat of the Bowels a certain Dispute which hath been for a long time contraverted among Physicians comes into my mind viz. whether nourishing Clysters injected do obtain the wished Effect or whether as some say they be wholly unprofitable for Nutrition because according to their opinion they come not so far as to the sanguineous Mass But they err who embrace the last opinion if credit may be given to credible men who taught by Experience witness that the same quantity of Spirit of Wine if injected into the Fundament by a Clyster will sooner inebriate than if taken in by the Mouth The Liver consists of certain glandulous Kernels into which the small sanguiferous Vessels conveying their own Humor are terminated and of the Branches of the Bilary-Pores which receive the Choler separated in those glandulous Kernels Moreover great sanguiferous Vessels are seen in the Liver whence it is easily understood how dangerous are those Wounds that are inflicted on the Liver For if the great Vessels be opened an Haemorrhagia yielding to no Remedies follows And though those great Vessels be not hurt yet a wound of the Liver though but small doth in the mean while disturb the separation of Choler which notwithstanding we know to be exceeding necessary in the Oeconomy of an Animal But notwithstanding these Paulus Aegineta speaks of a man that recovered of a Wound that had taken away a piece of his Liver It is wonderful indeed that one man should supervive the loss of a piece of his Liver and another die by the too-great increase of his Liver So some years ago to my Fathers care was committed a Sick-man afflicted with a vastly tumified Belly continuing so unto Death His Carkass being opened clearly presented the cause of this Evil to the sight for his Liver was incredibly augmented I remember the same hapned in an Hen which never laid Egg the Liver of which weighed an entire pound The Spleen is a congesture of small Membranes formed into small Cells and Concamerations in which Cells innumerable oval and white Glandules into which the Arteries Veins and Nerves are opened do in a wonderful manner adhere Here it is to be understood as an industrious Anatomist of this Age judgeth that the Humor is carried through the Arteries into the Glandules of the Spleen and by the Glandules being there separated and somewhat acid into the above-named small Cells and from those Cells imbibed with an acid Ferment into the Splenetic-Branch and so to the Liver where in the Bloud it in some sort precipitates the Choler to the end that may so much the more easily be separated in the glandulous Kernels of the Liver Hence it is now manifest what great misery a Wound of the Spleen infers on the sick The Reins consists of Glandules into which the small Arteries Veins and Branches of the Ureters are terminated Through the small Arteries the Humour is deferred into the Glandules of the Reins in which the Urine is separated and taken from the Branches of the Ureters is forced into the Bladder That the matter is thus you will more easily believe when you shall know the following Experiment which a certain Professor communicated to me and is this If you by a Syringe inject warm Milk into an emulgent Artery the more gross part will return by the emulgent Vein and the wheyish Portion be sequestred in the Reins and thence conveyed into the Ureter Hence it is apparent how perilous Wounds of the Reins