how his Grand-Father perisht by Phlebotomy and his Father being four times Bleeded Died Consumptive through that loss in the space of two months He said His Sister falling sick a Physician was sent for who when he came found her Pleuritically affected therefore orders fourteen ounces of Blood to be taken away presently and the next day at his coming again six or seven ounces more by which means she whose age was but ten years was so extreamly debilitated and consequently her life endangered that for the space of a month she was not able to go and recovered not her strength as formerly in many months after But now at length she hath outgrown it Whereas had the Physician given her an excellent Medicine or two inwardly to strengthen the Stomach kill spurious ferments and slay the stimulating thorn in the Pleura and Blood also had applied another to her side for the same purpose he might without a loss of Blood and exhausting her strength have taken away the occasional cause and with ease have strengthened Nature so as to have dispos'd of the out-hunted Blood to her greatest advantage and profit either by admitting it again into the Veins which thing is very common if a good Medicine is present or by dismissing it by the mouth or fundament So that a Person thus cured without Phlebotomy may be well and vigorous in a week or little more Or if through the far absence of good and able Medicines he had for the present drawn out six or eight ounces of Blood had afterwards exhibited remedies to slay Acidity in the remainer and the Forreign guest in the Pleura he might with more ease and less hurt to the Patient have head her without running a hazard Only observe that though this way brings greaer ease yet scarce so much benefit to the Doctor forasmuch as a months time keeping people in hand produceth more Angels than a Week However 't was well the young Woman recovered at last when her Fathers pocket had paid well for it But had one forty or fifty years old been dealt with after this Bloody rate the loss would not have been so easily made up But in all likely-hood 't would have made the party weakly if it had not cost her her life Or which is oft-times the event of a great loss of Blood have laid the foundation of some bad Disease Witness Helmont Pleuritis quae per Phlebotomiam est restituta saepe post annum recurrit saepiusque tabem post se relinquit The Pleurisy which is cured by Blood-letting oftentimes after a year returns and oftner leaves a Consumption behind it And which Helmont here takes not notice of so great a loss of Blood laies oft the Foundation of the scurvy as is daily too too obvious Nor do I write feigned Notions or imaginary Conjectures having whilst I was for many years conversant and a tabler in the House with an ingenious aged Chymical Physician known of a great many cured after this manner to wit without Blood-letting nor to the best of my remembrance did ever any one miscarry under his hand Yea so acute was he at it that several have recovered by following his mehod without the least assistance of Phlebotomy that have been given up for Death by eminent Galenists So that observing such cures frequently done by him and on the contrary often Miscarriages by others I set upon the study of Physick out of a desire to inform my self that I might prevent being purg'd out of my life as my Father was And after a twelve months pursuing my studies and observing curative passages I began out of an affection to the Chymical Science to prove a general student in Physick being daily improv'd in my intellectuals by hearing my experienced Intimate Discourse his patients declare the effects of his Medicines Nor was I less admonisht by hearing them amongst the rest to intersperse complaints some against Mercurial and Purgative or Vomitive Antimonial Medicines others against other horrible Vomits declaring how such a Person took one and was thereby so weakened that she never left vomiting till she died Another declares how her Husband was Bleeded by an Apothecaries order and had twentyounces taken away whereby he through weakness fainted and died Another relates how a Doctor I might call him a Horse-Doctor had given a Dose of Pills to her Neighbour that kill'd him before the had done working These with many more such-like narratives minded me of my Fathers Death and the harm I my self had sustain'd by twice bleeding often Purging and Vomiting and an Issue So that for many years I at every Autumn had a tedious fit of sickness and was often indispos'd at other times Thus it continued till about the twentieth year of my age when I happily came acquainted with this Chymical Doctor who by ordering me to take his abstersive wholsom Medicines kept me so healthy that now for seven years together I have not been sick to say sick two daies Only through too closely pursuing my studies I once made my self somewhat Hectical but with good wholsome Medicines and laying my Books aside a little I in about a month was cured again Yet believe that what with the hurts of the Small-Pox when I was a Youth seconded with the dammage received from Purges Bleedings Vomits c. I have been so weakened that I shall scarce ever regain my former Complexion and chearful countenance whilst I notwithstanding through Gods mercy am pretty healthy But to return Thus having spent about four years in my studies I began to fancy the practice of Physick But when I considered on the other hand the dangerousness of working with unexperienced tools and such remedies as Books alone will afford me without a faithful Tutor to open my understanding in the Analysing of Bodies the reasons of applying Agents to Patients and the compounding and applying of Remedies I say when I considered this I was somewhat disheartened through an unwillingness to turn Experimenter and as Physicians too often do Ludere cum corio Humano Because I saw much of the mischief frequently done by Physick was effected through too great confidence in Vulgar Prescripts and Authors whilst Diseases were not the same But Providence favouring and my most Cordial friend intirely loving me I obtain'd he being aged the knowledge of all his Method and Medicines with what was the result of twenty I might say for he himself had an Aged and Learned Tutor in Chymistry almost forty years experience in Chymistry nor was I wholly ungrateful Being therefore for several years since no Botcher in Medicine I thence-forward applied my self to a more narrow search and from frequent Readings Operatings and daily converse having made some discovery of Abuses and Injuries in Physick I thought meet at length for a General good to publish them That the Physician may be admonisht to defend himself and his Patient and the Patient likewise fore-warn'd to take heed of such who being confident
been Feverish seeing at that time the morbous Fex was present in my Blood and was going to be driven to without Where will they find lurking-holes now and how will they prove Phlâ—botomy needful They will tell you or at least-wise they may that they love to walk safely in the foot-steps of the Antients though were those Antients now living in our Northern Climats doubtless our modern and more stubborn diseases would baffle both them and their frigid methods and that though some of them wrote like Ignoramus's and were scarcely in the least acquainted with Dame Nature they had rather persist in their Heathenish methods whilst Diseases in the interim get footing than now being old and wanting Medicines to cure leave destructive Plebotomy off They would do well in the mean time to tell us if the Antients were such excellent Naturalists why the Romans who were a people not void of sense by the perswasions of Caâ—o the Censor banisht the Method of Physick from their City he alledging how easily a man might live without it having lived fourscore and five years himself without a Physician but doubtless not without Physick for all things that are good and by experience found innocent and healthy may without a solecisme be termed Physick but what-ever is destructive disgustful or a weakner of the Faculties is improperly called so But that which I believe was banisht from Rome as hurtful and exasperated their spirits against the Art was their poysonous dosâ—s and those methods that rather weaken than strengthen a man I could wish they to wit poysonous Remedies had never return'd and had never been counted more as Physick for then my Father for ought I know might have been alive to this day However I will not leave the matter thus but will prove by one example more that the occasional thorn and cause of a Fever has its seat and residence in the Stomach and that therefore to let the Blood out whilst 't is only hot by accident is a needless thing if not hurtfull A Gentleman my acquaintance falling sick after the eating of something that disagreed with him fell into a Fever an eminent Galenist was sent for and for a fort-night laboured in vain to abate the Fever notwithstanding his Bleedings and his Coolers Hereupon the Gentleman being given over as incurable though as many are he was afraid of a Chymist yet sent for my honest Tutor knowing at last he could but die as the Alder-man his Father and also his Mother had done about six weeks before of a Fever and were buried together in one day after they had each of them been bleeded once or twice at least The Chymical Doctor hereupon visited him and finding him very weak and in a Fever with a very great pain in his stomach went home and sent him two Medicines on an enemy to Acidity and Acrimonious spurious Ferments and the other Cordialine to revive his drooping spirits He took the first as ordered several times and about six hours after when the Doctor visited him again he found him a small matter better but the Fever not removed and the pain in his Stomach remaining because the Medicine taken inwards was not strong enough alone to conquer the Diseasie Leaven in his stomach which as a thorn or rather thorniness there Implanted was the cause and parent of the Fever Hereupon he took another Remedy that kills acidity and that was somewhat akin to the first and applies it outwardly to the Pit of his Stomach and then gave him Medicines as before plentifully to drink These by their insinuating and subtil liveliness so narrowly on both sides beset the forreign spurious Guest that next morning there remained no foot-steps on`t see here the power of Ferments so that the Doctor visiting him found him pretty well only weakened with his fortnights sickness for which cause cordials such Medicines still were successively given him and Sack and good strong Beer with a Tost in moderate quantities were not omitted By following of these he in less than four daies space left his bed and walked about the chamber a fame of which flying abroad a certain pretender to huge skill in Medicine and to as great in feeling the Pulse concerning whom also else-where came boldly to give him a visit Whereupon seeing him so well to the end the Chymical Doctor might not have the whole honour feeling his Pulse tells him he was in a continual Fever and that 't would hazard his Life if he were not bleeded This exceedingly disturb'd the young Gentle-Man for Death is the King of Terrors and caus'd him forthwith to send for the honest Doctor in haste to hear what he would say to it The Gentleman having told what the Apothecary had said concerning bleeding him The Chymical Doctor askt him how he found himself he replyed very well and that the pain was remov'd from his Stomach Upon this the Doctor heartned him up and admonisht him not to let in fears for he doubted not of his doing well adding that if a Fever had been present his Body would have been out of order and chearfully bad him farewell The Gentleman got strength apace and yet kept his blood and saw the Cunning Pulse-feeler mistaken for within seven or eight daies after he walked abroad and remains well now 't is several years since But by this means he is become such a Chymical Convert that he cares for none but Chymical Remedies nor cares he for them unless they are stomachical and agree with the Life of that part Abundance of instances as remarkable as these I could bring did I think it needful here but omitting them I shall desire you to consider how little benefit Phlebotomy affords whilst the Blood is not concern'd in the matter For though the Blood seems to look of various colours when 't is let out as being inflamed for the sake of the Vitals at the Disease that intrudes yet does that not argue in the least a necessity of letting it out seeing a Fever is and may be safely cured without it to say that there is putrefaction in the Blood and that for that cause it should be emitted won`t do neither seeing if it be deviated or putrefied good and bad together will be retain'd aswell as let out Besides that the Blood is not putrefied plainly appears from its return to vitality when the Fever is overcome though not an ounce of it was transmitted also from its losing that discolouredness which appear'd in the Fever when the cause in the stomach is remov'd and the preternatural aestuating cease Whereas were the Blood really putrefied it could not be seeing a returning from Real corruption to Life and Health is denied Besides if the Blood should putrefie in the Veins the Veins themselves would putrifie as in Gangrenes c. But what are the Signs of the Blood being putrefied Is it not from Diverse colours appearing in the porringer after 't is let out As Black Yellow Duskish White
one being unwilling to testifie what the Scripture in this thing and my own experience will not warrant however I am sufficiently confirm'd that the chief seat thereof is in the Stomach for reasons before mentioned though likewise perswaded it in some sort inhabits in the Head Spleen Heart Blood c. Others would endeavour to prove the Prime or chief seat of the Soul to be the Brain but in the first place experience denies it from trouble and grief suddenly possessing the Stomach and bringing a loss of Appetite with it which doth not in the least affect the Brain unless the Life grows outragious and then it affects it by mediation of Arteries and Nerves Secondly the appearance of Christs Spirit withstands it in regard solace is felt in the Stomach not in the Brain Thirdly the Holy Scriptures gainsay it which declares out of the Belly not out of the Brain or Head of Believers in Christ shall flow Rivers of Living Water Thus far with Arguments to excite the ingenious and studious in Physick to strive after Remedies suitable to the Stomach such being most excellent and safe yea with such I have seen almost incureable Diseases heal'd At leastwise such that had not only encreased and grown worse under the aids of Phlebotomy and the Drossy Medicines of the shops with their clogging Electuaries and Syrups but also such as had vanquisht with loud laughter the single and associated endeavours of Physicians For alas as pittiful a fellow as a Disease seems to be he scorns to be frightened at a Bombast word or Fustian Term or in the least scared at an Aphorisâ—â— of Hippocrates's though I never so cunningly quoted and though it may carry a great gloss in the tail on 't Nor is he more astonisht at a rehearsal of one of Galen's Celsus Sennertus Riverius or Helmontâ— sayings whilst he domineering through deficiency in Medicine causeth the lamenting Patient to cry out if he is able Give me a Medicine or else I die A Medicine I say for Non Verbis sed herbis Diseases are not cured with words Nor with Medicines without endangering the Life unless they are homogenial and lively Forasmuch as Malignant ones not seldom do mischief and exasperate the Disease thereby assuredly telling us if such at any time profit the sick the praise is due to Nature not to the Medicine Because being provok't had she not been strong enough for both the Disease and the Remedy Death had inavoidably followed But with Remedies truly Stomachical Vital and the destroyers of Spurious forreign ferments I have seen and known of Various Tough slurdy and Venomous Diseases cured when they had non-plust Methodical Prescriptions A few of the cures I wil candidly relate and such whose occurrences may not be unworthy your remark A young Gentle-Woman my acquaintance falling into a violent Vomiting of Blood at several times brought up about two quarts Hereupon one and afterwards a second Physician was sent for who forthwith ordered a Vein to be Breath'd but in the interim praescrib'd and order'd various cooling things neglecting the sharpish-Sharpish-cause which entred the Blood through a more than accustom'd converse with White-Wines and had there being corrosive and Turgent fretted a Vein and given vent to it self So that the occasional Acidity not being heeded all arrows were shot at the Viâ—als And although Phlebotomy was often repeated and Spiritless Medicines oftner given all was in vain For whilst the Acidity in the Blood was in being she frequently even almost every day vomited up Blood yea sometimes twice or thrice a day and that not by ounces but by greater Quantities Insomuch that in less than fourteen daies notwithstanding the united endeavours of the two Galenical Doctors she was almost Dead through daily languishing and the loss of about two Gallons of Blood was grown so weak as unable to lift up a spoon to her mouth or which is worse to sit up right in her bed against a Pillow unless they held up both her and it She being in this condition A Chymical Physician my acquaintance was sent for who when he came and saw in what a weak state she was told the By-standers he doubted of her recovery and that her other Physicians had done ill to let out so much of her Blood and neglect the Oâ—â—asional cause and preternatural sharpness in it However seeing that they sent for him and the other Physicians were Non-plust if they would give him that liberty he would do his utmost endeavour and use the best of his skill to recover her 'T was yielded to and Medicines being sent he gave her a Dose or two of one of them that is heating but not inflaming Stomachical and an enemy to sharpness the Parent of this mischief and turgency in her Blood aiming thereby at fortifying her Vitals and the Stomach their prime seat shooting his arrows directly at the cause the which being remov'd he easily foresaw the Blood would soon be placid and that it would not he very difficult to close the New-made Orifice and confine the vital juice to its channels By taking this Medicine often she began to revive so that other Medicines were admitted likewise yet did not the Blood presently stop nor did he mind that much but aim'd at dulcifying the remainer knowing that must be the way to quiet it and judging the loss of two or three ounces of Blood in a week not material seeing she got strength Thus with his Remedies he gradually subverted the sharpish ferment and in about ten daies time made her chearful and much stronger though then through so great a loss of her blood she could not go alone but in less than six weeks he stâ—pt her Bleeding quite and made her without help able to walk about the Chamber Nor did he retard the Cure by denying her generous liquors but being a profest enemy to the Small-Beer Method gave her orders to drink strong smooth-ale liberally after the Cold was taken off with a Toste Whilst she thus gain'd strength daily and through Cold-weather was confin'd to her Chamber one of her former Physicians came to visit her again Who perceiving a very great amendment and no fear of her Death that he might preserve his own and the Credit of his Brother Galenist and that he might say she recovered soon after the taking something of him when the Chymical Doctor under God had snatcht her from the very Jaws of Death perswaded her that for all she was pretty well and that the Chymical Medicines had reviv'd her there was something in her Body that if nor carried off would certainly hurt her for the future and moreover with many submissives tells her if she pleas'd he would order a gentle Purge As if forsooth the Chymical Doctor who was a Learned and well-studied Physician and the Son of a Physician knew not Extractum Rudii Pilulae Ruffi oâ— some such dispensatâ—ry purge but must be beholden to him for one for his Patient But of this
carries a great face with it I shall tell thee Yes But moreover assure thee I was more happy than to spend years there about Genus and Species and such unprofitable Notions and Arts that could not at last teach me how to cure a cut Finger radically much less a violent Disease Yet truly I exceedingly honour them as they are Schools of Learning and could wish they did not mind Words more than Things And prethee Reader don't ever the more under value this Discourse because thou findest it neither dedicated to some Great Man nor yet set off with flattering Verses in commendation of me and my Work The last I disesteem because though some ingenious Physical Tracts at a chance comes forth with some and deserve them yet almost every Mass of Collections or Bundle of Insignificancies have them to perswade the Reader to buy it I am therefore resolv'd to have mine come simple and naked that if thou likest it so thou mayest buy it if otherwise let it alone Nor did I not Dedicate it through want of those to whom I might have tendred it or those who would willingly have accepted on 't But that which made me not do it was an unwillingness to sooth and flatter any Man and to follow the custom of ascribing all Vertues to One scarce acquainted with them For I am somewhat of an humour differing from the generality in that whilst they ascribe all Vertues to a Rich Man I am prone to ascribe all Riches to a Vertuous Man And to account him that is Wealthy and Vertuous for some such there are to be rich in a two-fold measure However to the most Vertuous of them without Your most humble Servant Sir in the close of it I should have tendred an unacceptable Gift And therefore did not Dedicate whilst I savouring more of a Rustick than a Courtier could never yet frame my mouth to such artificial Speeches Besides if I had dedicated it to the most Noble and Wealthy be could not have preserv'd it from the censures of the meanest Peasant much less from those of the Ingenious whilst every one has the priviledg to speak his mind in his Chimney-Corner and to censure and dispraise what he please So that with or without a Dedication I shall be counted and call'd a Fool if I have writ like one or have written what is prejudicial to Mankind But if I have writ what 's not disagreeing with Verity nor detrimental to Humane Society and the Nation I shall be commended by the Impartial and Honest which thing is as much as I expect Knowing that it is impossible to please all men And that what the Father of Lights does not bless and defend will be but as Chaff and will fade in spight of the greatest of Patrons Also that he which builds on ought but the chief Corner-Stone will come to confusion at last Therefore Reader without a Complement or calling thee Courteous or Kind I desire thee thorowly to view what I have written and if thou art benefited by it give thanks to the Almighty and thou wilt please thy Friend Robert Godfrey VARIOUS INJURIES AND ABUSES IN BOTH Chymical Galenical Physick detected TO hear the groans of the Sick unsuccesfully lying under cure from ill-applyed and oftentimes worse-prepared Remedies might undoubtedly would considering the daily growth of Diseases have excited the Studious in Physick to a more curious pursuit after such Vertuous Medicines whose Piercing and Innocent Liveliness might extinguish the Venomous Characters of Diseases and without any Additional Weaknings of Nature by poysonous Medicines and Phlebotomy have radically not cloakatively cured the Sick had not too great belief in the Doctrines of Galen an unwillingness in many to be Wise beyond the Antients with too much adhering to Sloth like the Tares in the Parable spoiled their good intents But this happening in the time of Ignorance is scarce worthy of note if with it we compare the Stubbornness and incuriousness of some in this Generation who oppose the breakings forth of fresh advantages in Medicine whilst the poverty of the Galenick method is discovered Some using and pleading for Venomous Purges Vomits c. Taking a dirty besome to sweep a dirty house and others using and defending Blood-letting notwithstanding manifest frequent and Safe cures are daily done without it yea more safely and certainly than with it The first of which were not Diseases themselves especially if they be of somewhat long continuance in a manner poysonous and Fermentive and therefore to be withstood by Alexipharmick not Poysonous Remidies would be somewhat pardonable and so would the second were not the Blood the nourisher and enlivener of the whole Body and by consequence of the Stomach the prime preparer of nourishments For doubtless as Anatomists confess the Various Arteries and Veins which it has are bestowed on it to nourish it and that it may reap some of the fruit of its own Labour after the subservient Digestions have fully maturated it Which thing considered how hurtful is Phlebotomy that takes away the Blood which gives vigour to the Stomach And if the Blood is grown bad through a weakness in the Ventricle and Scorbutick impurity introduc'd think you ever to remove it through renewed Weaknings and taking away from the Stomach part of that Blood which envigorates enlivens and nourisheth it Which you do when ever you breath a vein seeing whilst it runs out or soon after through the Bloods circulation all parts are co-sharers in the loss Therefore is Phlebotomy the direct way to make the Blood worse instead of taking away the Scorbutick impurity of it because the Stomach being debilitated through a loss of that Crimson-juice will be more disabled for the future whereby through weakness a worse Chyle being made a worse nourishment will be sent through the Venae Lactâ—ae to the Blood and the whole Fabrick of the body more impair'd Therefore for a Physician under pretence of relieving Nature to rob her of her prime Treasury and Force instead of fortifying her with Medicines is as equally ridiculous as if one pretending to defend a Country already invaded should take away from them a great part of their Ammunition and Weapons To declare which more amply I will venture to Tautologize and tell you 't is unfit to take away the Blood unless better can be put in its place Which can no waies be rationally expected because from a loss of that lively juice a weakness as I said before is confer'd on the Stomach 's and other digestions all parts being nourisht therewith But we ought rather to consider the cause of its impurity to wit whether it had its Original from the Air being so or from any precedeing Digestions of the body caus'd by an Ill diâ—t overmuch Study Grief or Anxious thoughtfulness c. If from the first to wit impure air whereby a forreign Ferment is bestowed on the blood and Stomach too what good can be expected from
opening a Vein so long as the spurious Ferment in both Stomach and Blood is unremoved seeing that good and bad will be lest behind as well as emitted and that the Vitals being weakened by it will be less able to subdue the spuriousness in the remainer Besides the Digestions being debilitated will be hindered from thorowly concocting what shall be taken for nourishment and thereby damnify the whole mass of blood and produce a greater weakness if the party be not vigorous and active But if he is strong and Lusty he may outwear it as many robust stout people do who are accustomed to be bleeded once a year and by that means make it so customary that their bodies expect it in the absence of a good Medicine Though such are not much to be heâ—ded because the loss of four ounces to one that is sick is more injurious than thrice four to once that is strong and healthy But if the bloods impurity is from an error in the first shops of digestion caus'd by those enormities mentioned what good does Phlebotomy so long as the cause is not remov'd and the Digestions send immature aids through debility For if it be granted that we make several ounces of blood daily dismiss as much through the Pores of the Skin likewise that the blood is subject to mutation by adhering to what succours are sent from the Stomach as truly it is and that through deficiency and debility impurity enters the blood is it not agreeable and consentaneous to Reason that after a thorow and perfect strengthening it and removing the occasional cause the same Crimson-juice should grow healthy again whilst all digestions are gradually cleansed Yes ' t is But this can no waies be better and safelier done than by Spirituous Valiant and Innocent Healers seconded by a regular Diet. By such Healers I say as are assistant to Nature and may help her to expel the Diseasie leaven and insinuate into the private recesses of Life such as may subvert all Forreign Hostile ferments without craving the assistance of the Lancet For notwithstanding the Taunts and Negations of careless Men such Medicines are to be found but I can assure them not by sleeping nor only reading of Books which may be the cause some meer Notionists say thus of themselves and discover their own Sloth by their Scoffs For all the boastings and Vain talks of these Chymists say they we can find no Remedies that can Dissipate a Fever certainly and cure Scorbutick affects without having recourse to Phlebotomy much less in a Pleurisy to deliver a Person from the Jaws of Death that is almost suffocated with blood For surely had there been any such Medicines we should have known them who have tumbled over so many Volumes But they should consider that although to be well-read is a thing needful and so requisite that he which is not deserves not the Name of a Physician yet that he who on the contrary is so incumbent on his Books as to neglect that most Material part of Pharmacy the making improving of Medicines by Pyrotechny may doubtless pass for a good Scholar unless he be egregiously Dull but will scarce work Wonders in Physick Because good vertuous and lively Medicines must cure the Sick for all words and such are not obtain'd without practice in making For if Hippocrates and Galen were well-studied and good Linguists yet 't is to be understood that they spent not their whole time about the Nominative case and the Verb or in Readings only and subscribing to the errors of their Predecessors but the greatest part in Materia Medica and in procuring such noble Remedies as might credit a Physician and cure the Diseases of their Age. For if the first of them had not he scarcely ever had obtained such excellent Medicines as he did wherewith to out-do all the Physicians of his time had scarcely ever been solicited and promis'd great Honours and Rewards to attend on King Artaxerxes's Court and stop a depopulating Plague in Persiâ— that had baffled the Kings Physicians and all other and for his famous cures to have been by his Nation counted one descended of the Gods Five hundred years after him was Galen who for composition of Medicines and making them with his own hands as also for curing or at least-wise palliating those Diseases which were Grassant in his dayes was famous But seeing that as Generations succeeded maladies were entail'd on the world as wel as lands and do still grow worse and worse through the intrusion of several Diseases whose foot-steps were unknown to the Antients it must needs be necessary to exalt the Vertues of Medicines as much as Diseases are exalted in Malignity by making them innocent piercing and lively and by with-drawing all nauseous and hurtful qualities from them whilst Agents are duely apply'd to Patients And for a Physician to affirm or think that no man is a Possessor of such lively innocent Remedies as may safely and certainly cure Diseases without Phlebotomy because through either his Neglect want of a Physical genius or a faithful Tutor to communicate the result of twenty or thirty years experience in Pyrotechny he never was owner of such or because he hath unsuccesfully tried some weak if not mischievous Chymical Remedies such as Apothecaries frequently buy of incurious and mercenary Operators to wit Spurious Mercurial and ill-made Antimonial ones that will purge and vomit unreasonably or have the Mercury unslain That are rather disturbers than aiders of Nature and that were at their first entrance banisht the Laboratories and Repositories of the Ingenious who will harbour no Medicine that may not be safely taken by the healthy I say for such a one to undervalue and desame those innocent and vertuous Chymical remedies he never knew nor experienced and to affirm or think no Man a Possessor of such because he himself is not is a thing both â—idiculous and idle For he should call to mind the old Adage vix gemma in trivio that things excellent are not found in common Roads And that the Poet tells us and that not untruly Gods sells Arts to sweats therefore not to readings only though to be well-studied becomes a Physician This with many other such like absurdities I should scarcely have Detected had I not prefer'd peace of mind and the welfare of my Neighbour before my ease and leisure Neither should I have thus attempted a publick discovery of some Injuries in Physick caus'd through the Ignorance and conceitedness of some and the carelesness and dishonesty of others For when I observ'd some through a Vulgar abuse to make a prey of the People and under the notion of preventing future Diseases like Lice fatten themselves with Mens blood or at leastwise grow rich by their miseries and by the poysoning the good juices of the Body and saw others whilst Diseases themselves are in a manner poysonous give poysons and venoms to the Sick to cure Diseases take Beelzebub to cast
Medicines as a Carduus posset c. or a Medicine made of two or three Ingredients for commonly the simpler a Medicine is the better 't is which the long experience of Mothers Grand-Mothers and Great-Grand-Mothers have told them is good and profitable the Sick might be sooner reliev'd than by such Recipe confused Medicines as are commonly huddled into Books and Printed through desire of Fame There being scarcely one Receipt of ten that is good for any thing but that is subject one time with another to dammage more than help Nature and those that are good in such books are commonly some few Balsams Vnguents Emplasters or Salves But now to speak of a Fever and its seat Concerning a Fever its seat and and the Nature of Remedies most proper for its Cure ANd first I judge it will not be amiss as Perliminary to Treat a little of the vices of Ferments and the contrary They being of Genuine proper and true the producers of quietude and health in the Body and é contra if spurious malign estrang'd and forreign the Authors of all disorders and Fevers Thus a Thorn or Splinter in the hand makes such disturbance through its forreigness to the part and its spurious fermentive odour that it excites a preternatural heat and sometimes make the whole hand and arm sensible of its power thereby so altering and corrupting the Saline Blood which flows thither as summon'd by the inraged Spirit of the part which by Helmont is called the Archeus to expel the incroaching Enemy as to make it put off vitality So that thus in the mean time the Blood is busie to expel but not able and for that cause angry and hot in approaching the Thorne which through the excitemenes of heat sends forth a spurious odour 't is changed from its saline and Balsaâ—ick nature and becomes as injurious as the Thorn Insomuch that at last instead of a Hostile Thorn only a Thorn and Thorniness are present to the more violent exalperating the Archeus And indeed Optima Corrupta pessima the Blood the most lively juice of the Body being thus once deviated and infected is no less mischievous than the Thorn For it having through adheering to the thornyleaven put on corruption lost its salineness and its vitality is thenceforth forbidden to circulate in with the Blood and enjoy the benefit of Life However a ferment being begun it glanceth forth its vitious raies and whilst the Archeus is inraged at what doth afflict him and neglects the defence of his Territories the neighbouring good Blood is gradualy perverted for a little Leaven leavens a whole Lump and the Life of the part is endangered Thus you may see the cause of a Fever and that though it takes its denomination from Heat yet that heat is but the effect and therefore not so much to be minded seeing the thorn or thing causing is cold and Deadly But if whilst the thorn in the hand is unremov'd or if removed whilst the begun Thorny Ferment or leaven is in being they should to abate the accidental Feverish-heat let the Blood out or apply coolers outwardly or inwardly opposing the preternatural heat with contraries could you possibly forbear smiling and not think them half witted or at least wise well furnisht with Ignorance surely I think not yet this way might and should doubtless have serv'd had not Chyrurgical experience prov'd it Vain and not only have serv'd but we should perhaps have been able to bring some old musty rotten Axiom to have prov'd it Authentick if not backt with sufficient Authority For a great many of the Antients who were wonted as at this day 't is too common to strike at the effect not the cause loving sloath and ease and being loath to swim against the stream of a received opinion lest they should be accounted Hereticks in Physick deem'd it better more safe and profitable to Transcribe Collect from and comment on their Antients than in the least to oppose their dark notions Insomuch that till within the space of an hundred years there was rarely any who sung not the same Cuckows note But Diseases growing more obstinate daily and baffling the common method of healing whilst the Pox and Scurvy prevail'd God whose Mercies are beyond his judgments mercifully sent us Men tender of the health of their Neighbour and that sought not wealth so much as Wisdom who have so effectually laid open the errors of Galen who was but a man at best and therefore Subject to err and manifested the defects of the Antients who were likewise Men that unless we wil wilfully shut our eyes as the greater is the Misery too many do we may plainly enough see their barrenness I remember a Learned Gentleman of my acquaintance no Physician but a general student and by that means intimate with some Court-Physicians seriously told me that on a time he lately Discoursing with an eminent Doctor a lover of Chymical Principles and asking him why he let his Patients be bleeded seeing he knew better things had what follows for an answer Sr. saith the Dr. I am forced to do it otherwise I should have little to do for the people will be bleeded and look strangely on him that wont admit on 't and they must be humour'd I must needs confess the Doctors dealing is politick but how in the interim it fares with his Conscience I know not but surely I think mine would fly in my face should I do any thing which I knew might prove injurious to the Sick though the Patient being ignorant perswaded me Much good may his gain by bleeding do him But to reassume our discourse about Forreign Ferments and to prove them the cause of heat in a Fever leaving our Thorn let us consider a Mote in the eye not unlike a Thorn to the part of which I will Treat after I have desired you to take notice that all Ferments are injured by strange ones and that all parts and Liquors of the Body abhor the intrusion of a forreigner Thus a Mote in the Eye stirreth up a Feverish heat in the part whilst Nature being hurt sends moisture plentifully to wipe it away But labouring in vain grows inraged and angry and gives leasure to the Mote heat being present to lay the foundation of a spurious Acrimonious Ferment that corrupts ' the Latex flowing thither and endeavours a total extirpation of the life of the part Insomuch that unless a Medicine contradictory to Acidity and the Spurious Ferment subvenes a a continual weakness if not loss of the sight is threatned whilst the Latex or Liquor which flows Saline from the Eyes when wel is corrupted by the acid acrimonious Ferment Thus a certain Merchant from some Hay-dust or such like Motes that fell into his Eyes contracted a violent soreness he took various remedies as ordered but they still grew worse and worse at last when he had for nigh too months used many Medicines to cure them and all attempts prov'd unsuccesful
because they struck not at the cause a judicious Chymical Doctor my acquaintance whose many years converse with Pyrotechny had made him well skil'd in Physiology and the Doctrine of Ferments hearing the Merchant complain to his Physician that told him he must have Blisters Blisters rais'd in his Neck to draw the humour backwards after the pretty ill-contriv'd old way strike at the effect but neglect the cause I say the Chymical Doctor hearing him complain and seeing him like to loose his eyes sight out of compassion offered him his help contrary to his custome for I believe he hateth that shabbed trick of asking people to buy health and told him he would give him something to cure him should not cost above half a Crown the Merchant replyed he cared not what it cost provided he could be cured and thereupon coming next day to the Doctors house he gave him a Liquor that kills Spurious acid Ferments and is very friendly to the eye which being dropped into his eyes three or four times a day they were well in the space of as I think three daies By which you may still see the force of Ferments and what Medicines are likeliest to prevail And as a Fever in the hand is caus'd by a Thorn a forreigner and an enemy to the part as also the like in the Eye by a Mote both the begetters heat being present of Spurious Ferments so if it happens that any thing is admitted into the Stomach which I have in following Discourse endeavoured to prove the Prime seat of life there through its weakness or neglect of the Vitals called away from their duty by some sudden fear surprisal or otherwise for there may be twenty waies to cause it what ever is received in for nourishment deviates puts on a Hostile dress and through debility is detained in that Noble Bowel longer than it should know the thing so detain'd is an Enemy and Metaphorical Thorn to the Stomach the prime seat of Life and consequently the Parent of Feverishness in the whole body byeconsent The which thing happens not to the Eye or Hand in regard they are less noble and nourished and are not those on whose welfare the life of the Whole Body depends therefore no more to be compared to the stomach in point of Excellence then Servants are to their Masters wherefore seeing the blood which is innocent is commonly charg'd with the guilt of harbouring the cause of a Fever and is therefore let out and Nature impoverisht I will proceed to prove that 't is mightily wrong'd and lay the blame on the Stomach as its due To tel you that with Stomachical Medicines and those that resist Spurious Ferments I have known of many hundreds that were cured of Fevers without the least assistance of Phlebotomy or endangering the Life of the Patient and such Fevers that the single and associated endeavours of several Galenists before the Doctor that at last cured them with such was called will be I suppose much to weak an argument to prove it inasmuch as some may on on the other hand object that those Medicines I call stomachical might be aswell adapted to the Blood and might destroy the Spurious Ferment in it I therefore shall endeavour more amply to prove by arguments aswell as examples And first I wil begin with a Hectick Fever which though numbered by many and that not ineptly in the Catalogue of Consumptions I shall here Summon in to prove the stomach the seat of a Fever To tell you its definition and to spend time and paper to tell you the opinion of the Antients about it would be a thing besides the matter it being not my intent to spin out a tedious Discourse whilst the Disease is too notoriously known That the foundation of that febrile heat which accompanies a Hectick is in the stomach and that its weakness is the causer thereof is so apparent to any one that has but half an Eye that to deny it would be vain whilst in the beginning of the Disease when 't is in its Bud a Feverishness is wonted to possess the palms of the hand and sometimes the whole Body in less than an hour after eating any thing liberally and this when as yet the food is in the stomach and no chyle sent from thence to the Venae Lacteae much less to the blood in the Veins that it might there prove the cause of that Heat Nor doth the Aestuating and Feverishness cease till the stomach hath overcome the oppression of the food and in some sort fitted it for the Duodenum yet at last having digested and clear'd it self of it the Aestuating spontaneously ceaseth till the stomach is over-loaded a fresh Here we see that a Fever is caus'd and cured again whilst the Blood in the Veins is unconcerned That this is true my own experience hath told me besides what I saw from others For being some years since a little too Bookish I in studying for the health of others lost my own Yet not so but that I could pretty well walk about for 't was only my Spirits were flag'd and the digestion of my stomach weakened This I felt for a mouth together and could by no means be drawn to give over till by apparent signs I fully perceiv'd my self in a Hectick Fever For usually at noon after eating a moderate dinner or at evening a supper the palms of my hands would burn my head ach I was sometimes more than ordinarily Feverish that this Feverishness was from my Stomach and that the Blood was not concerned any otherwise than as 't was hot for the sake of the vital Spirit I will thus prove I usually about an hour sometimes less after Dinner or Supper whilst as yet the meat was in my stomach was wonted to have the palms of my hands hot and sometimes other parts too with no little pain in my head Being therefore a Tabler with my Câ—rdial Tutor I knew how to come at Medicines and would usually when I found the Fever and Head-ach violent drink about four spounful of two Medicines which were stomachical and abstersive and as usually remove them both in half an hours time hy enabling my stomach to master the food whilst it destroy'd all inclinations to Spuriousness Whereas should the food have laid long have declin'd and prov'd Thorny and the stomach not able to dismiss it the thing to be expected had been a continual Fever from Natures endeavouring to expel it Nor is the heat in a Hectick otherwise differing from that in a continual Fever than that the one is occasion'd by food receiv'd into a stomach that is unable to digest it through an ill-habit and general weakness and that the other is caus'd from food received into a healthy strong stomach which either through its being too too much or from some other accidental error Nature being unable to dispose of it lies there and degenerates and Thorn-like produceth a Fever But a
Fever which assaults Persons strong lusty is commonly by far the more vehement and raging therefore wanteth the most excellent remedies For their stomachs being vigorous a small matter hurts them not and their strength being confirm'd bear`s them out so that if they are caught commonly the offence is to some purpose and they sometimes dearly pay the punishment of their offence For what is more common than to have robust and jovial people if after surfeiting and surcharging their Stomachs they fall into a continual Fever for want of potent abstersive remedies to destroy the forreign ferment and enable the stomach to do its duty to take their last farewell of this World when Phlebotomy and the Doctors coolers have done their best And all because they mistaking the matter fall soul on the innocent Blood and never level at the cause in the Stomach Whereas they that are weakly tender and feeblish not daring to be so bold with their stomachs if they exceed their little Doses and their healths are prejudiced by it yet it not being so over much to excess they make shift to wade from under it with some slender disturbance and pretty easily recover again But what is the seat of a Continual Fever alwayes in the Stomach and no where else If you mean those Fevers which are bred by themselves alone and don 't borrow their being from strange passions I say yes for experience tells me so To the truth of which Helmont testifies after he had said I will shew both the seat and manner of a Fever in such manner as experience and a long diligent search of things hath made manifest unto me Thus he delivers himself First of all therefore a Diary and that which is called an Ephemerial Fever from the duration of one day siâ—s in the hollow of the Stomach and is for the most part from vitiated food therefore also after â—omiting or the finishing of digestion it ceaseth of its own accord Likewise a consumptional or Hectick Fever is a certain quotidian or daily Diarie returding soon after the taking of food from a part of it being corrupted And in ch 10. he saith that they are so much the worse Fevers which shall not sit in the hollowness of the Stomach but in its convex parts because none but an extraordinary Arcanum can reach unto those places And therefore all Camp and all Endemical Fevers are more stubborn than others and for the most part without Thirst wherein the heat is scarce perceivable and a continual perplexity alone brings the sick unto their Coffin for such-like Fevers defile only from without and affect the last nourishment of the stomach Because indeed so long as we live our whole Body according to Hippocrtes is transpirable and exspirable For I have elswhere demonstrated the Lungs and Diaphragma are on every side passible with pores in live-Bodies Through which while Endemicks pass and smite the convex part of the Stomach they oft-times infect the last nourishment Else-where in the same Chap. he saith that those Fevers that are nearest to the Orifice of the stomach are by so much the more molesting and formidable in their perplexities To confirm the truth of which Doctrine concerning a Fevers seat in the Stomach a loathing just after the beginning of a Fever an abhorring of fleshes fishes and those things which readily corrupt do offer themselve as likewise thirst and want of Appetite do prove it Pain in the forepart of the head Do tages a great Drowsiness sometimes and watching other some pain about the mouth of the Stomach and sometimes in that part of the back on which the stomach resteth do also shew it Burntish and stinking belchings a prostrated Digestion and Vomitings plainly attest it as also roughness foulness Dryness and Blackness of the tongue and mouth But to prove more fully that the stomach is the harbinger of the Thorn and the Blood only hot by consent and for the sake of the Vitals as also to manifest that Helmont was no waâ—es mistaken when he said that the nigher the seat of Fevers are to the Orifice of the stomach they are by so much the more troublesome and formidable in their perplexities take these following examples In the year 1660. being the fifteenth year of my Age about Mid-Summer occasions requiring my taking Coach for London I return'd from thence into the Country again about a month after and the last night upon the road my Jovial companions requiring it by consent after supper we went to be merry or rather to speak more properly be Mad. We having drunk pretty high though not to drunkenness I that alwayes before was accustom'd to moderate drinking was illish next morning and about noon had a pain in my Stomach But at night when I came home was assaulted with a violent fever whilst my Head and stomach grievously ach'd a violent pain possessed my Back doubtless caus'd by the stomachs leaning on the back-bone In this plght I was when next morning they sent to a Physician who sent me a purging dose I took it the next day and had six or seven stools but my pains were more and more increast insomuch that I did little but roar At night after taking some Kitchen-Physick I went to bed being ill and next morning when I awakt I found my selâ—-well and accordingly arose and came down They wondered to see me whilst with Joy I told them I was well and had not the least pain or Fever But a few hours after they viewing my hands and face found the Small Pox coming out thick and three fold as being I believe made worse by the purge Hereupon my bed being warm'd I was sent back again to it with Difficulty escapt with my life but for five years after this with what with the weakennings of this fit twice bleeding an Issue often vomitting and oftner purging I was every year as duly as autumn came laid up with a continual Fever or an intermitting one Though ever since through the benefit of such healters whose properties I have describ'd I was not sick to say sick two dayes By this my sickness was manifested the seat of a Fever and that Helmonts assertion is true For if the seat of a Fever is the Blood at which the Galenists shoot their arrows how came it to pass I was not pain'd through all parts seeing the Blood doth circulate through all and that only my stomach as chief and my Head and Back by consent should be punisht by the Feverish cause also how came it to pass that after it was out of my stomach and that the pain from thence and from my Head and Back was remov'd that the Fever ceased and all illness was banisht whilst yet the impurity was in my Blood For if a Fever should have its Throne in the Blood to wit a forreigner or Enemy being in it It should then at that time when I thought and felt my self perfectly well have Aestuated most and
and somewhat Greenish colour is it not from a slimy gross watry thin matter and lastly is it not from a consistence not thready or fibrous scarce cleaving together And if these be the tokens of Blood being putrified let us hear what the Learned Chymical Physician Van Helmont faith concering it from whom I made bold to borrow these queries In answer to them saith he I declare under the penalty of a convicted Ly if any one will make tryal that I have examined the Bloods of two hundred wanton Country healthy people in one only day and many of them were exceedingly unlike like in their aspect colour matter and consistence Many of which I destil'd and found them a like profitable in healing For our country-People are wonted at every Whitsuntide to let out their Blood to to the end they may drink the more largely and though many of them seem'd to be putrefied others Cankery or Black-Chollery yet nevertheless the Country-men from whence those bloods issued were very healthfull Therefore they confirm'd me the tokens of corruption not gain saying it that they had their bloods not alien'd in the least or estrang'd from the Nature of a Balsame Wherefore I have laughed at the Table of judgments from the beholding of Blood emitted and have really concluded that by Physicians the venal Blood is commanded to bekept on this account that at least-wise they might number one visit to the sick For if corruption of the Blood hath any where a place and if under that name it betokeneth the letting forth of it self surely that must be in the Plague But in the Plague the cutting of a Vein is destructive Therefore Putrefaction is no where in the Blood of the Veins nor a fear lest the putrefaction of that Blood should prevail and by consequence the scope of letting out the Blood is in this respect erroneous Thus said Helmont Nor is his Doctrine coatradictory to experience for let others talk of the Blood being faulty in a Fever and of its being the cause of the aestuating and corrupted if they will call it so Yet I testify I have known of many hundreds cured safely and happily of a Fever by remedies that were innocent Stomachical and lively and the destroyers of forreign ferments without the least assistance of Blood-letting Nor were months required to cure a Fever with such whilst commonly five dayes space did it sometimes four sometimes three sometimes two And sometimes if the Patient was pretty strong and not much weakened in his Vitals one dayes time would do it without attending the leasure of a Crisis But if the party had been one that had long languisht under other Physicians and was thereby much impair'd and debilitated though it required many times three weeks if not longer to regain his lost strength yet four or five daies time at most carried off the Fever One thing there is which I have observ'd very injurious in Physick that is mask'd under the vizard of Art To wit that a Physician being called whether in a Fever or otherwise doth notwithstanding his pretences to Method and withstanding the Disease see it violently get footing whilst he gapes for a judicial Crisis And for all he tells them Principiis obsta sero Medicina paratur Cum mala per longas convaluere moras Withstand at first for healers late I say Prepared are when evils through delay Have waxed strong And is permitted by being sent for in time obstare principiis yet by clogging drossy Medicines and debilitating methods le ts the Disease grow worse And when through the ineffectualness of his Remedies he sees the sick party dangerously Ill he tells the bystanders that the Disease is pertinacious stubborn and difficult to be cured and that he hath done the utmost Art and method will allow him and therefore now he will wait for a Crisis But if in the inteâ—im or a little after Nature being not wholly defeated does like a Fire almost extinguisht with water and dirt through the benefit of a few sparks of life left in its Embers revive and get strength by the assistance of a little Kitchen Physick when the clogging Medicines are laid aside and non-plust how is the Doctor applauded for his mighty Cure and Nature not in the least commended notwithstanding â—hee opposing the Disease Medicine too did the Cure by her proper strength This I have often beheld wondered to see that the people could suffer themselves to be so signally deluded For if a Person is slightly affected illish the Doctor being sent for gives him medicines so ineffectual as to exasperate the disease or let it grow stronger thereby confining his Patient to the Dungeon of a sick bedd and yet after all this if Nature by her own strength does the work and restores the sick again or if by other remedies aiding shee does it Know this for certain the first Method Medicines were destructive and no waies assistant to Nature For shall Remedies not be able to deliver one out of the hands of a slight Disease and yet be able to effect it when 't is twice worse I say no For you may as well imagine that person able to carry five hundred weight on his back who upon trial could not carry three But indeed that their Remedies do not do it is plain and 't is as manifest that Phlebotomy is useless for commonly when they have brought the Sick to that pass that 't is dubious whether they will live or dye and only attend upon a Crisis then they apply themselves to Cordials and to Kitchen Physick and their Patients are sometimes recovered by them Whereas if Medicines are truly Stomachical the destroyers of forreign Ferments Friendly to the life Resisters of poyson and innocent they do not use to permit the growth of diseases But laying the Axe to the Root cut them down if they are acute in the space of four or five dayes And the first day give the Patient such a Testimony of their Vigour and of their Power and abilities in healing that instead of growing sicker they arefar more chearfull and have thereby encouragement to take them But if such Medicines have been exhibited as I have several times known and the Patient hath vomited them up and hath after taking them often still done the same so that no such Medicine could be admitted to work upon the Disease It was an apparent sign of the Patients not recovery and that the morbous Faex reigned in his Stomach And if such innocent Medicines as I have before spoken of with others as occasion have been taken in some Diseases of long continuance and that therefore required the longer time for extirpating them and their Semina And have not in six dayes time or less given some testimony of their Vigour and Virtues but have nevertheless suffered either the Disease to stand at a stay or get strength I say the Remedies being thus non-plust if the Disease did
more narrowly beset the life in the Stomach c. It was a real sign of the Patients not recovery and that the best shop Remedies would be baffled Therefore I say and say it again that that Physician who lets a Patient for several dayes decline whilst he makes use of Remedies in a Fever or other such like Acute distempers and yet at last the Party recover deserves not in the least to have the honour of the Cure whilst Nature by her goodness effected it For had she not done it for all his Crisis the Patient had died at last And let it not suffice to say this learned man or that learned man useth Phlebotomy in a Fever and therefore we may do so for if they do so know 't is through a penury of good Remedies for where noble Remedies are there 's no need of it And know also that Helmont who out of compassion to his neighbour wrote expresly against it was as Learned as the Learndest oâ— them all and that not a few Learned and Graduated Doctors in this Nation have appeared in Publick against it I remember one of our ingenious Moderns in a treatise of his lately publisht candidly confesseth that he through a penury of good Remedies in some high Fevers made use of the Lancet I must needs highly commend his candor whilst he does his best to find better and could wish more Physicians had so much good will towards their Neighbour as to be as diligent as he â—or Purging and Phlebotomy the two main Pillars of the common Method where found by learned Helmont so fruitless and destructive in Fevers that with a serious Character he affirms he should be guilty before God if he did not perswade we must wholly abstain from them What must we doe then Go to labour as other honest Physicians have done and take heed of Mercury and Antimony by which means you may get Medicines that will credit a Physician and certainly cure a Fever Such Medicines I say if you are as fortunate as some others have been that will not stand shall I shall I but will fall to work on the Disease presently and if Nature be not too weak will enable her to cast it out the dores either by Vomit Sweat Stool or Urine according as she best can dispose on t But what is a Fever by no means safely to be Cured by Phlebotomy and borrowing the assistance of the Lâ—ncet do not we see that a person in a Fever that is exceeding hot has that aestuating abated by bleeding and it afterwards the heat increaseth and the Fever is renewed cooling again is produced by sanguimission is not this obvious and manifest I answer 't is obvious that after bloodletting the Patient is cooled but you do not consider how for 't is no otherwise then as the Vitals are weakned and so a desisting for a time from the Combate between Nature and the Occasional cause in the Stomach is admitted of For when shee has rallied and gained a reinforcement and is enabled to give another onset the Fever renews and is as ill as before and if you think meet requires a cooling But I don't mean by a loss of more blood for if you go that way to work your cooling will but add weakness to weakness and take away strength from the shoulders of Nature And yet after a second or third opening of a Vein and a loss of that Crimson Treasure if the Cause the Cause the Cause I say in the Stomach remain and Nature is not wholly prostrated the Fever will again renew in spight of the Lancet's assistance For Manente causa non tollitur effectus A Thorn in the hand remaining a heat and Fever in that part doth not cease And the occasional matter like a Thorn remaining in the Stomach heat in the whole body will not cease so long as the Life can make resistance But when you have let out too much of the Bload so that not enough remains to make good the Combate the Patient is fairly cool'd and to the small honour of Phlebotomy dies whilst the numbers of the Fatherless are increast Whereas had a Medicine that is able to preserve it self from Mouldiness in the Glass or Gally-pot and not only so but also lively innocent friendly to the Stomach and a resister of Spurious ferments been administred with some other Cordialine Medicine according to the necessities of the sick to revive and keep up his spirits Nature might not only have been enabled to expel the Occasional cause by wayes most meet and easy but likewise the Thornyness or bad Character imprinted on the stomach and its dependants might be obliterated as also the faculties and functions strengthened So that a person cured after this method and way might be as lusty in few dayes as before When as those that are cured after repeated Phlebotomy and such like exhausters of the strength if they at length recover through the benefit of Nature or otherwise How slowly do they get strength how thin and weak like small beer it s own self are they for a long time and how subject on the least error or cold to suffer a relapse The last of which the learned Dr. Willis confesseth saying They who let their blood often out are the more prone to Fevers Neither as some suppose is Putrefaction in the Heart or Stomach the producer of heat of it self and so consequently the cause of heat in the whole body For if so that Putrefaction which of it self is so Hot as to extend its heat to the Extreams and Surface of the Body i. e. to the hands and feet must of necessity scorch or burn thot bowel wherein it resides But that the real producer of that aestuating and Feverishness is not an inflamed mass of putryfyings I shall prove by a Thorn thrust into the hand which is so for from being hot that 't is actually and potentially could and yet through its being an Enemy to the life of the part inrageth it and exiteth a Fever Which cannot better be extinguisht than by a strengthening of the injured life and enabling it by good remedies to expel the Thorn and Thornyness By doing which the Praeternatural heat will of its own accord cease without the aid of Coolers or taking away the Blood Therefore is the Heat in a Fever a thing by accident a latter product not the being or occasional cause and consequently not so much to be regarded as for that cause and for fear of inflaming the sick by adding a kind of Fire to Fire as they phrase it to deny when the Patient desires it a Glass or two of comfortable Liquor to wit Good Beer Ale or Sack in moderate quantities It having been by long experience proved that through the assistance of such in Fevers much good may be done Seing many have recovered by their sole aid when the Apothecaries Drugs have proved aidless without them But if with them good innocent yet
next and of the safety of curing it without Blood-letting by the assistance of vertuous Remedies as also of the needlesness of opening a Vein provided Remedies that will cure are at hand Though in their absence to prevent a greater mischief the use of the Lancet may prove advantageous we being admonisht by the vulgar proverb To choose the least of Evils Concerning a Pleurisy and theÌ„ curing of it without Blood-letting And first it will not be amiss to take notice that as Salt is the Savourer and preserver of all things so is it next to the life the preserver of integâ—ety in the Humane Fabrick and that no otherwise than from a pricking and stimulating Sharpness entred into the Blood and laid aside in the Pleura has a Pleurisy its rise For as the Blood the most livelyliquor in the body is Saline and consequently an enemy to Acidity and Acidity to it if through an error in any of the preceding Digestions to wit the Stomach Duodenum c. or through a contagion in the inbreath'd Air a hostile Sharpness is admitted into the Blood and it proving like a Thorn to the part it fixeth in doth take-up its residence in the Membrane which cloaths the Ribs called the Pleura whilst the circulating Blood would dismiss it Then doth the life in the part muster up the neighbouring Blood in endeavouring to cast forth this forreigner which whilst it runneth thither to assist the life of that part and by the stimulating Sharpness the life being incensed that membrane is torn from the Ribs the new-made cavity is filled by the Blood running thither Whereas had there not been that hostil Acidity Thorn-like in the Blood and Pleura that Crimson juice would of its own accord have been quiet and contained it self in its limits But it being the property of the Blood to flow where pain is according to that â—â— the Antients Vbi dolor et calor èo â—ffluit cruâ—r Where Pain and Heat is to that place Blood flows what profit may Revulsion bring seeing that when part is let out the remaining Blood will in short time be equalliz'd in the veins and that if Nature is not too much debilitated by her loss she will give the other onset so long as the Enemy is conversant in her Territories I say what can be expected from Phlebotomy unless an enervation and weakening of Nature though some respit from Death be granted and a laying the foundation of some Chronick disease so long as the acidity is not remov'd from the Blood and Pleura by suitable Medicines or by Nature For by a loss of Blood a desisting is only caused from the combate between the Metaphorical Thorn and Nature no otherwise then as shee has scarce strength left to defend her self But what in the mean time will become of the acidity if any is in the Blood as well as Pleura how shall that be taken away for good and bad will be left behind as well as emitted after the Lancet has done its best what must that be left to be overcome by the strength and vigour of Nature who after the Blood is let out and she weaken'd hath enough and sometimes too much to do to preserve her self and dispose of the begun Apostem Yes that 's the way For striking at the cause and omitting Phlebotomy is somewhat a strange Doctrine yet though not half so Heretical as formerly since Experience has prov'd it Safe and Usefull But for all the poor relief of Phlebotomy does diminish the Blood and consequently hinders the Growth and increase of the Pleurisy through forbidding the Bloods flowing too fast by the Vein Azugos c. Yet it withdraws none or very little that is out-hunted nor hinders it in the least from Apostemizing Which thing ought chiefly to be look after by the Physician though that whole burthen is commonly left on Natures shoulders who failing through want of good Remedies and proper assistants the Patient dies at last Nor is this all for if she struggling out-wears both the loss of Blood and the Acidity whereby some recover after long lying by it whilst others lose their lives through want of Medicines yet by reason of so great weakening of the Vitals by the Lancet the functions and ferments of the body being impair'd 't is not many of those that prove not Scorbutical or consumptive if they do not next year relapse into the same 'T is a miserable thing that so many should yearly perish of this Disease whilst the Venal Blood is emitted by lavishing the strength through taking away its magazine and neglecting the cause in the Blood and Plenta seeing that the bountiful Father of Lights has afforded Medicines for its Safe and Perfect cure without exhausting the Vitals in the least As Van Helmont testifies who cured Pleâ—risies safely without Blood-letting nor have a few of our Moderns frequently done the same As I also can testifie who am owner of such and that have known of many safely cured of Pleurisies without the loss of one ounce of Blood But as long as sloth dictates and Paganish Doctrines are doted on by Christians as long as Physicians shall refuse to be wise beyond their Ancestors who were Men Humanum est errare So long must we expect an impoverishing of Nature under pretence of aiding and assisting her besides could a Pleurisie be cured safely by breathing a Vein which it cannot yet curing it by the sole aid of stout and innocent Remedies must needs be the excellenter way seeing that Nature by not diminishing her strength which is the Blood may be much sooner enabled after her enemy is Vanquisht to recover the loss she sustain'd Whereas if the Blood be let out though the Patient escape choaking and is perhaps delivered from the jaws of death yet is he so shattered and shaken in his Vitals by the loss of that Vital juice that if he recover 't is very long First But if the Patient Die than the blame is impos'd on the too vehementness of the Disease when the Doctor is often more in fault in that he let out the Blood which is the strength of Nature and neglected that sharpish cause which from an error in digestion was let slip into the Blood and furiously assaulted the Pleura For though sharpness is grateful in the Stomach if it exceeds not its Ferment yet out of it 't is as a Thorn to the part it fixeth in 't is the causer of gripes the Parent of a Consumption and of all other Diseases almost To which Hippocrates testifieth and saith Non calidum frigidum humidum siccumve sed quod acre amarum acidum austerum morbi sunt But omitting narratives concerning such who have miscarried in this Disease under the Lancet it being a thing too too frequent I shall only relate what was accidentally told me by the Brother of a Person not many years since Pleuritical it being extorted from him by hearing another declare