forth do not so readily convey away the vaporous Effluvia's of the blood hence it is that we fan the Air that it may be made more moveable and carry away more quickly and plentifully the soot or smoke from our Praecordia There yet remain some other smaller Considerations of Fire and Flame respecting indeed not so much the Essence as the production and extinction of either which whether and how far they may agree with the life of the Blood we shall briefly inquire into Fire or Flame is produced two ways viz. either it is kindled from another fire or flame or begot by an intestine motion of sulphureous Particles We have largely shewed the Species of either and the manner of their being made in our Tract of Fermentation only we omitted there that the accession of nitrous food was necessary for the sustaining it even as flame the life also of the hot or warm Blood we have observed to be produced by a twofold way to wit it is either inkindled from another life or soul as in Creatures that bring forth alive or intrinsical Particles predisposed to animation are at length raised up to life with the blood by a long cherishing of external heat as in oviparous or egg-laying Creatures If it be further demanded when and how the vital Flame is kindled first in the Blood I say some small beginnings of it are laid up from the conception it self in the Genital humour to wit when the rudiment of the bodily Soul culled out from the Souls of the Parents as a little spark stricken from those flames is hid in a convenient matter which being from thence raised up by the Mothers heat begins a little to glow and shine and afterwards being daily dilated with the blood brought forth and leisurely increased is equally extended with the Body which it actuates and animates But yet as long as the young one is included in the Egg or Womb the vital fire getting very little or scarce any aery food doth not yet break out into open flame but like a Brands end covered over with ashes burns only slowly and very little and spreads abroad scarce any heat wherefore both the formation and increase of the Embryo depends very much on the Mothers heat or the cherishment of some other analogical thing whereof being destitute it perishes but as soon as the young one is born in due time and begins to breathe the vital fire presently receiving the nitrous food largely unfolds it self and an heat or effervescency being raised up through the whole bloody mass it inkindles a certain flame and because the blood then first rushing into the Lungs having there gotten an accession of Air begins to burn the flesh of that Bowel at first reddish is shortly changed into a whitish colour like burnt ashes and the blood it self undergoes a notable alteration for what did flow of a dark Purple colour into the Pneumonick Vessels from the right side of the Heart returning from thence presently out of the Lungs becomes Crimson and as it were of a flame-colour and so shining passes through the left Ventricle of the Heart and the appending Arteries Indeed that in Creatures new-born the colour of the Lungs is so suddenly changed I think it ought to be attributed to the blood there at first more openly inkindled and their flesh as it were somewhat roasted although the mere inflation of the Lungs in a dead Embryo produces the like effect because the Membranes of the Lungs and the Parenchyma being distended and increased into a greater capacity shake off the stagnating blood and so draw it away into little and scarce to be discerned rivulets As to the Colour of the Blood so variously changed into circulating from a dark purple to a crimson and from this to that I say that the immediate cause of this is the admixtion of the nitrous Air with the Blood which certainly appears because the change into a crimson begins in that place where the blood chiefly gets the access of the Air viz. whilst it is transferred out of the Arteries into the Pneumonick Veins for in those it appears of a dark Purple in these every where florid as the most Learned Doctor Lower hath observed Further it yet farther appears that this alteration of the colour proceeds from the admixture of the Air because that crimson colour follows in the superficies of all blood let out of the Vessels by reason of its meeting or mingling with air and if the flowering or top be taken away another presently arises Besides the blood being let out of a Vein and very much struck with a switch or rod it becomes crimson through all and in like manner the blood of living Creatures shines at first within the Pneumonick Veins to wit presently after the influx of the air by the Wind-pipe and from thence by reason of the same Particles of inkindled air being yet retained it passes through all the Arteries still florid in the mean time from the Nitre of the Air mingled with the sulphureous Particles and burning with them the blood being greatly rarified and in truth expanded into flame impetuously swells up within all the passages of the Pneumonick Vein and the great Artery sending from it self copious breaths and hot Effluvia's but being dilated towards the ends of the Arteries and returning towards the Heart that it may enter more closely into the little mouths of the Veins it lays aside its turgid and burning aery Particles and being presently made more quiet and half extinct and so both its vigour and also its colour being changed it returns through the passages of the Veins that at length running into the Lungs it might renew its burning After this manner that the inkindled blood might flame through the whole Body with a perpetual and equal flame and successively renew its burning in all its Particles it ought to be carried about by a perpetual course from the nest of its accension into all parts and from these to that For this end the Machine or Engine of the Heart was needful as a Pin or Cock which being made with a double bosom might receive in it self from the whole Lungs the blood fresh inkindled that it might presently drive forward whilst burning into every part of the whole Body and might then receive the burnt and half extinguished blood returning from the whole Body which being imbued with new inflammable juyce it might deliver to the Lungs to be re-inkindled In performing this task although the Heart be a mere Muscle and exercised only with an animal motion seems to serve alone for the Circulation of the Blood yet in the mean time it so much helps to moderate the accension of the blood and its burning according to the rage of the passions and to direct other works and uses of the animated Body that we have thought the vital or flamy part of the Soul to have its chief and as it were Imperial seat in the Heart and
of the primary intention of Nature but result only secondarily and accidentally from the complication of the Brain he will be far from thinking that the supreme seat of the Soul is fixed there where being hem'd in with a most noble Guard of Spirits it doth execute and perform its Functions For it neither appears at all out of what matter and by what artifice the Spirits are there begotten nor by what ways of emanation they are derived from thence into the other parts of the Brain and nervous System Wherefore almost all Anatomists who are of a later Age have attributed that vile office of a Jakes or sink to this more inward chamber of the Brain To which Opinion there has been some trust given for that these Ventricles are often seen in the dead to be filled with water also from these ways seem to lye open for excretion both towards the Tunnel and also into the Sieve-like Bone It is observed that where-ever the blood flows more copiously into any part and waters it there Vapors or watry Humors are begotten from the superfluous Serum left in the circulation which for the most part either exhale out through vaporous Effluvia's or are brought back into the blood by the Veins or Lymphatick Vessels But when the blood by a plentiful influx waters not only the Cortex of the Brain but the interior marrow also it remains that the serous Latex when-ever it abounds more in the blood than that its superfluities may be reduced immediately by the Veins or by the Lymphaeducts if they be there or may be separated by the Glandula's should slide down into this den made hollow within the infolding of the Brain Truly there are many instances which plainly evince that the serous humors are ordinarily laid up in the Ventricles of the Brain Anatomical Observations of men dying of many Cephalick diseases and especially of soporiferous or sleepy distempers confirm this Yea it may be lawfully thought that natural sleep follows for that the Pores and passages of the Brain are occupied and stuffed with a watry Latex which serves for a Vehicle to the Spirits Then as often as a profound sleep invades any one from a Surfeit or drinking of Wine the cause is that the little spaces in the medullary substance of the Brain destinated for the motions of the Spirits are too much obstructed by a Narcotick or a watry humor certain reliques of which being resolved into vapor and thrust out from the company of the Spirits do often sweat out or drop into this Vacuum or empty space After this manner it may be believed concerning the Ventricles of the Brain or the empty space left within its plicature or folding together But in truth because this matter hath been very much controverted among Physicians of every Age and the right decision of it seems to be of great moment for the explicating the offices of the other parts of the Head I will here compare together the reasons for and against this Opinion that we may at length give our Judgment of this Opinion what may be either true or most likely CHAP. XII It is inquired into whether the serous Humors heaped together within the Vacuity of the Brain be sent out by the Pituitary Glandula and the Sieve-like Bone or not SInce Experience testifies that the Serum and excrementitious I may justly say morbifick and oftentimes deadly Humors are found frequently within these Ventricles of the Brain we ought to inquire more diligently concerning their passage in and out and the rather for that it is very much doubted by some concerning the use of these Dens nor are there wanting those in this late Age who have endeavoured to bring into vogue the ancient Opinion though long since exploded concerning the Spirits being begot in this place and here exercised I believe without doubting for the reasons before alledged that the Spirits are not here begotten nor exercised and no less certain is it made by Experience that the serous Colluvies is here often gathered together This therefore only remains that we should see from whence and how this flows hither and then by what ways of Excretion the same should be carried out As to the first it is exceeding probable that the serous Latex which is the Vehicle of the Spirits newly produced and is introduced together with them into the Pores of the Brain after it is grown stale and being attenuated into Vapour doth distil forth into this Cavern and there at last grows into a watry Humor for otherwise what becomes of that Humor or into what other Receptacle could it be derived Besides this ordinary and I believe assiduous heaping together of the serous Colluvies within the Ventricles of the Brain certainly it may be believed that this kind of serous Humor is distilled out of the Glandula's inserted in the Choroeidal infolding being too much filled into the Ventricles so called I have often seen in a Dropsie the Glandula's of the Brain to be intumified and like grains of Barley bursting with too much wet to become flaccid or withered so that they could not retain the ferosities brought to them but continually disposed them into the Cavity beneath Truly in a Dropsie of the Brain these Cavities or Ventricles are always seen to be full of water the cause of which kind of distemper is the blood being made more watry puts off in its circulation a greater heap of Serum than the Veins can presently carry back or the Glandula's are able to receive and retain For indeed that the Serum redounding on every side from the Vessels may the better slide into the Ventricles of the Brain it is so ordered that the greater infoldings of the Vessels with the inserted Glandula's should be disposed near all the Ventricles of the Head because not only the infolding Choroeides is placed nigh the concourse of the three Ventricles in the Brain but another infolding and no less noted which we above described with greater Glandula's is set behind the Cerebel nigh the fourth Ventricle In all as it seems for that end such care is taken that the watry part coming from the blood which is destinated either for the Brain or the Cerebel for that it is not fit for the procreating of Spirits might run into these infoldings of the Vessels But yet if a greater plenty of Serum be there laid up than can be contained in them or may be sent away outwardly whatever is superfluous will slide into the Cavity underneath Hence it appears from whence and by what means the serous heap is gathered together within the Ventricles of the Brain certainly to deny this going out is no other than to assert every ones Brain big with a Viper which cannot be brought forth but by gnawing asunder the bowels of its parent Who shall lightly consider the parts nigh the Ventricles and their Fabricks at first sight only would swear with the Ancients that the excrements of the brain were laid aside both lower
is only a double Tertian and doth arise from a dispersed matter having gotten a twofold Nest to which I cannot assent and I suppose its begining is to be attributed to a peculiar Dyscrasie of the Blood In this the symptoms of cold and heat are more remiss but its fit is longer continued and oftentimes it is wont to last eighteen or twenty hours This Feaver for the most part follows a Tertian for when the Vital Spirit is very much flown away by the frequent deflagration of the Blood and the Feaverish disposition still remaining the Blood is made weaker it doth not concoct the nourishing Juice or ripen it but perverts almost the whole into a Fermentative matter wherefore it comes sooner to its increase and is gathered together to a plenitude of swelling up within double the time than at first But because the congested matter participates equally of crudity and adustion therefore the heat of the burning is lesser and more unequal and like green wood laid on the fire slowly burns for which reason the fit endures longer Somtimes it happens that a Quotidian Feaver doth arise without a Tertian going before viz. when a Feaverish disposition falls upon a Cacochymic Body or full of evil humors and stuffed with depraved Juices for then the Blood being poor in Spirits perverts in a greater measure the nutritious Juice and in a shorter time gathers to a fulness of swelling up But that which begins an every days Ague oftentimes changes its figure and becomes a Tertian just as a Tertian often goes into a Quotidian because between these Feavers and their causes there is a great vicinity and the constitution of the Blood being a little changed it makes a transition from one to another A Quotidian Intermitting Feaver is not so easily cured as a Tertian For whether it comes at first simple or follows upon another Intermitting Feaver it is still excited from a stronger cause and argues a greater dyscrasie of the Blood which will not presently give way to Remedies But also if this Feaver be of long continuance or comes upon another Chronical Disease it has most often adjoyned to it besides the taint of the Blood the infirmities of the inwards to wit the Blood being spoiled easily affixeth its impurities by degrees heaped up on the Viscera whilst it passes through their Meanders from hence it is that in a Quotidian Feaver the weight of the Ventricle an extension of the Hypochondria Obstructions or Tumors now of the Liver now of the Spleen or Mesentery are joyned together but these kind of distempers are not the cause of the Feaver as is commonly believed but only its product Wherefore in this Feaver besides the simple method of Cure which is shown in the Tertian many other intentions or coindications come under consideration to wit that the Ventricle be cleansed from its load of humors the stuffings of the Inwards freed Infirmities corroborated and that together with these the Dyscrasie of the Blood may be mended and the Accessions of the Feaver may be restrained must by all means be endeavoured from whence by reason of these kind of various intentions we come to the Cure by a longer way In this case Vomits if strength will bear them are of benefit before all other Medicines also Purges whereby the assiduous supply of Excrementitious matter may be drawn forth are often to be repeated Besides these digestive Remedies openers of Obstructions such as restore the Ferment of the Viscera and Blood and correct their evil dispositions are frequently to be administred Wherefore the fixed Salts of Herbs and their Extracts Acid Spirits of Minerals and somtimes preparations of Steel do very much help concerning these main things the task will be hard when by reason of the manifold evil many things are to be done together yet by reason of the assiduity of the Feaverish fit there is leisure for the sick to use few only In Distempers so complicated tho the reason of the method requires the impediments to be first removed and then to Cure the Disease yet I have known this kind of Feaver beset with many other distempers in a Body full of humors often Cured without method and by an Empirical way viz. after a light provision of the whole Ague-resisting Remedies being outwardly applyed have at first stopped the Feaverish fit that then there was time for the Curing the other distempers and more happy occasions of healing were granted I lately visited a Noble Lady who being long indued with a Cachectical habit of Body a month after her lying in being weak and languishing was taken with a quotidian Intermitting Feaver after six or seven fits of it her strength was so much cast down that she could scarce rise out of or sit up in her Bed nor able to take never so little Food tho very slender but upon it most grievous molestations were raised up in her stomach besides the Region of her Ventricle and left Hypochondrium was wholly beset with a hard shining tumor and cruelly painful by reason of her strength being mightily cast down there was no place left for Evacuation but the use of Clysters also her Stomach being very weak loathed all other Remedies unless very grateful and only in a very small quantity In this difficult case circumscribed between narrow limits of Curing I counselled these few things to wit that twice in a day she should take this mixture viz. The magisterial water of Earth-worms two Ounces of Elixer Proprietatis twelve drops Moreover I ordered to be applyed to her Ventricle a Fomentation of the Leaves of Sea-Wormwood Centaury Southernwood with the Roots of Gentian boiled in White-Wine in an open Vessel also that after the Fomentation a Cake of Tosted-Bread and dipped in the same Liquor should be worn upon her Stomach besides Ague-resisting Medicines were ordered for her wrists and with these Remedies only she mist her Ague fit on the third day and remained free from it afterwards then by the use of Chalybeat Remedies she became perfectly well within a short time CHAP. VI. Of a Quartan Feaver IN a Quartan Feaver the period is longer than in the rest to wit which is extended to the fourth day inclusively also its continuance uses to be longer and its cure harder because this Disease is protracted for many months yea oftentimes for years and seldom or scarce at all is cured by Medicines The Fit for the most part begins with cold and shaking to which a very troublesome heat succeeds but more remiss than in a Tertian Sweat for the most part concludes the Fit At the first coming of the Disease the Fits are more grievous and very infestous and keep the sick in their Beds yea they make them lose their strength and vigour of Body But afterwards the trouble is more easily born so that the Fits are suffer'd out of Bed and somtimes in a Journy or being about any business If it continue long it induces the Scurvy or Hypochondriac
symptom coming upon that other Disease of which sort is accounted what depends upon the squinancy plurisie the inflamation or imposthume of the Lungs or any imposthume from a wound or ulcer in a principle part or its neighbourhood of which we think a little otherways viz. That truly no Putrid Feaver is merely Symptomatical perhaps it may arise occasionally from some other Distemper but it is founded immediatly in the Sulphureous part of the Blood being made too hot and as it were inkindled for without a Procatarsis or preceeding indisposition of the Blood the aforesaid Distempers rarely or not at all cause a Putrid Feaver As to what respects the squinancy plurisie the inflamation or imposthume of the Lungs and the like I say that these are the products of the Feaver or Distempers following it but by no means the cause of it for most often the evident cause went before which produced the Feaverish effervescency of the Blood as a taking of cold evacuation being hindered c. then altho the sick do not openly grow presently into a Feaver yet a greater ebullition of the Blood than was wont is stirred up as may be easily conjectured from the Urine Pulse and inquietude of the whole Body After some days â—nhw sooner now later an Inflamation is brought forth in one part or other the reason of which may probable enough be said to be of this sort The Blood by reason of the effluvia being retained which are like ferment is increased in its bulk and grows more turgid than its wont in the Vessels and when for want of Ventilation it is streightned in the space of its circulation it easily springs forth where it can find a passage through the Arteries and being extravasated from the broken thred of Circulation it gathers together into a Tumor and because from this kind of tumor an heat and pain are increased in the part the Blood is more disturbed in its motion and so the Feaver at first inkindled is more aggravated Further in these kind of Distempers we may take notice of a certain aptitude of the Blood to be coagulated whereby it is made less fluid so that it is apt to be congealed in the lesser Vessels even as it is to be perceived in Milk when it begins to sour for then it will not be boiled nor heated over the fire without coagulation and in like manner there is to be suspected in the Blood a certain disposition to growing sour by reason of which it is made more obnoxious to coagulation for it easily appears that in a plurisie a peripneumonia the squinancy and the like Diseases the inflamation or extravasation of the Blood does not always depend on the exuberancy of the Blood and plenitude of the Vessels for oftentimes the Blood is stopped in its motion with a weak pulse and a sinking down of the Vessels and being extravasated in the side or elsewhere causes a most acute pain yea being driven from one part by and by it is fixed in another and somtimes it begins to stagnate in the heart it self and there oftentimes induces a deadly oppression wherefore some pluritical people are wont when the pains are gone to complain of a great burthen and as it were weight fixed about the region of the Heart And when we have opened the dead Bodies of such as have dyed of these kind of Diseases we have seen the Blood to be gathered together in little bits or oblong gobblets in the secret parts of the Heart and round about the cavities of the Vessels But for that these Diseases are wont to be handled apart from the Feaver therefore we shall say no more of them here It only remains that we inquire whether the Feaver which accompanies these Distempers is to be esteemed in the rank of those that are called Putrid or not To which we reply that most often they are simple Feavers in which only a subtil and spirituous part of the Blood is inflamed and therefore it the extravasated Blood may be restored to circulation by a plentiful detraction of the Blood or an emptying the Vessels by sweat presently the growing hot of the Blood is appeased and the Feaver shortly allayed But somtimes when a predisposition as in a Plethora or fulness of good humor or in a great Cacochymie or fulness of evil Juices brings it on together with the same kind of distempers a Putrid Feaver is inkindled wholly from the same cause Among the symptomatick Feavers is reckoned that which is commonly called the slow Feaver they who are sick of this are more than usually hot especially after eating any motion or exercise the Urine for the most part is red the Spirits are feeble and strength cast down as to their appetite and rest they are indifferently well they have neither Cough nor much spitting but they daily like those in Consumptions grow lean without any evident cause The fault for the most part is ascribed to obstructions in some inward as the liver spleen or mesentery by whose default the aliment is not well Cooked nor rightly dispensed But it seems to me that this sort of distemper is immediatly founded in the evil disposition of the Blood by which it is inclined into a too salt and sour temper and therefore is rendred less apt for nutrition and an equal circulation For the Blood in the Heart just like oil in a Lamp if it redounds too much with saline Particles is inkindled not pleasantly and equally but with a noise and great evaporation of the parts whereby indeed it is sooner wasted and exhibits but a languishing and weak flame I opened one somtime since dead of this Disease in whom the Viscera destinated to concoction were well enough but the Lungs were without moisture and dry and beset throughout with a sandy matter like Chaulk Also oftentimes in this Disease the Mesentery is beset the glandules being filled with such a Chaulky matter But whether the Blood being made more saltish doth first bring in these kind of distempers of the Viscera or whether the Dyscrasie or evil disposition of the Viscera first brings it upon the Blood is uncertain it seems probable that either distemper depends upon the other and that the causes of either evil are reciprocal But the Feaver which chiefly deserves to be called Symptomatic is that which is excited in Phthisical persons from an Ulcer or Consumption of the Lungs For the whole Blood whilst it passes thorow the Lungs in its circulation often impresses on this Inward the ideas of very many Diseases and on the other side receives the same from it being evilly affected whatsoever impure thing is conteined in the mass of the Blood as the flowring of New Wine is cast forth by extremities of the Arteries wherefore when Nature being made more weak it cannot transfer its recrements into the superficies of the Body it deposes them by a more near Purgation into the Lungs From hence a Cacochymia or fulness of ill
wherefore children most often escape old men or such as are of years are more in danger viz. in children or young people transpiration is more easie also the habit of the Body more firm and healthful But altho the venomous seeds of this Disease for the most part are wont to be dispersed or blown away at once and with one sickness yet it somtimes happens that a part of the ininfection being still left the sick have fallen into this Disease twice or thrice 2. The evident cause which stirs up these fermentative seeds and most often brings them into act may be said to be threefold viz. The contagion received from some place the disposition of the Air and the immoderate perturbation of the Blood and Humors It is most manifest by daily experience that this Disease doth come upon others and spread abroad by contagion viz. from the infected Body continually flow Effluvia which being received by other Bodies presently like poyson they ferment with the Blood and suscitate or awaken the lurking or sleeping seeds of the same Disease Homogeneous with themselves and dispose them into the figure or Idea of this Disease neither is the infection only communicated by contact but at a distance They who live within the same house or neighbouring to the sick easily receive the infection also it is cherished in Cloaths and dissipated afar off and transferred to more remote places They who are of kin one to another soonest infect each other also they who are fearful and extreamly dread this Disease more readily fall into it For by fear the Particles of the infection are conveyed inwardly from the superficies of the Body At what time the contagion spreads and that the Small-pox are Epidemical all other Diseases almost degenerate into this Secondly a certain peculiar disposition of the Air notably induces the Small-pox hence most often it becomes Popular and rages ordinarily through whole Regions Cities and Villages hence also it more often exists in the Spring and Autumn because at that time especially diverse manners of little Bodies and by that means tumultuating flow about in the Air which we draw in with the vital Air and so various effervescencies of the Blood and Humors and Ideas of Diseases are raised up Neither doth this Disease become only more frequent and Epidemical for these Causes but also it gets a manifold Nature that somtimes the Small-pox are deadly and as it were pestiferous and somtimes they are more mild and benign to wit as they have contracted more or less of malignity from the Air hence also somtimes black and livid Whelks or Pustils appear and have much of the Nature of the Plague Thirdly somtimes tho the tinder of contagion be absent and that no malignant constitution of the Air had gone before yet by reason of the Blood and Humors being immoderately disturbed the Small-pox do arise so I have known some to have fallen into this Disease from a surfeit or immoderate exercise when none besides in the whole Country about hath been sick of it to wit the seeds of this evil lying hid without any previous infection being stirred up by a too great fervor of the Blood and being associated gathering together easily defile and infect the whole mass of the Blood with their ferment 3 So much for the secret leading and evident causes but as to the conjunct cause viz. which is the formal reason of this Disease or the manner of its being made the business seems a little more intricate It is commonly wont to be compared to Must growing hot or Beer when it Purges in the Vat For if you put to these Liquors any thing of ferment as their Particles are Heterogeneous and of wonderful activity presently they diffuse themselves through the whole substance of the Liquor they exagitate the more thick and impure Bodies against which they are dashed beat them asunder and role about them until a flowring being made they drive the same from the intimate embrace or company of the Liquor to the outmost superficies After the like manner the Heterogeneous seeds of this Disease are thought to ferment the Blood and then by a certain eruption of Whelks or Pustles like the flowring purifies it But indeed if we should more strictly consider the business there will appear here a great difference because the infection of the Small-pox is as it were a ferment but corruptive and compels the Blood to grow hot not towards perfection but depravation for when the Particles of this venomous infection strike against the receiving subject they presently raise up little Bodies like to themselves and born with us with which being associated they pass through the whole mass of the Blood and make it to grow highly turgid and to boil up and after some time growing fervent to go into parts and to be coagulated viz. the dispersed seeds of the Poyson dissolve the mixture of the Blood presently profligate the more pure Spirits then they joyn its more thick Particles to themselves and by their adhesion render them as it were congealed The portions being so coagulated together with the infolded seeds of the poyson being left by the rest of the Blood in its circuit between the extremities of the Vessels are affixed to the skin by which means if Nature being strong enough doth cast forth the whole poyson with the congealed Blood the remaining mass of the Blood altho made poorer remains however in a condition to continue life and health but if the Blood being too excessively congealed cannot be purified after this manner or if portions of the Blood growing together with the poyson do not fully break forth or at last do stagnate within they wholly corrupt the Liquor of the Blood or else being affixed to the Viscera and especially to the Heart they destroy their constitution and strength Portions of the congealed Blood with the poyson begin to break forth about the fourth day now sooner now later because coagulation is not presently induced but after some time in which the venom unfolds it self and ferments the Blood with its effervency First light portions of the infected Blood and those but few in number like to Flea-bites are fixed in the skin quickly after more appear and those first broke forth by the accession of new matter and by the continual appulsion of the congealed Blood increase and are elevated into a tumor then these whelks at first red being by degrees increased at length grow white viz. the Blood being thrust forth of the Vessels with the poyson by reason of the heat and stagnation is changed into matter about the seventh day after the eruption the white tumors grow crusty into a dry scab for the more thin part of the matter being evaporated the rest grows hard which then having eaten and broke off the Cuticula or outward thin skin falls away from the flesh or next skin When the infection of the Small-pox is at once impressed on the Blood and
head moreover a leaping up of the tendons in her wrists also she had sudden concussions of her wholy Body yet still her loosness held to her were administred by the prescripts of several Physicians Cordials and other Remedies and kinds of Administrations carefully but nothing profited her Pulse being more weak and her strength leisurely wasting she died on the ninth day after she was delivered This Feaver very much depended upon the vitious provision of the Body as the procatartic cause for I have often observed that it fares ill with Women Lying in who when Big bellied devoured fruit and any unwholsom trash and living without motion or exercise indulged themselves with ease and rest the Blood by reason of the previous Cachexie conceived a burning without any evident cause as it were of its own accord But growing hot laying inwardly still its recrements and impurities caused the Diarrhea neither yet was its mass made more pure by its almost continual excretion yea rather being still more depraved in its mixtion or crasis the Blood at length wholly departed from its proper disposition and became unable to be fermented in the heart whereby heat and breath might be every where dispersed The loosness excited by the motion of Nature was untowardly stopped especially by the use of astringent things for this I have often observed never to be done without paying for it because the Flux of the Belly has cured some that have been ill but in this Lady and in many others as has abundantly appeared to our experience altho it did not take away the Feaver yet it freed her from the more grievous distempers of the Brain and nervous stock from whence this sick person was wholly free from a Delirium nor was struck with Convulsive motions till reduced almost to extremity The Mother of a Family and a Gentlewoman about 36 years of Age or upwards being with Child of her seventeenth Child was troubled and very anxious lest she should die of that Child-bearing But God favouring she was delivered well enough of a Son and for three days after she was very cheerful on the fourth day when she had eaten more than she should do of a Chicken a little before night she fell into a feaverish Distemper with vomiting and a stopping of the Lochia all night she lay restless and without sleep the next morning she had four stools and seemed somewhat eased about Noon about which time I came to her she complained again of heat and thirst as also a palpitation of the heart and of the ascent of some substance in her throat her Pulse was quick and small her Urine red the Lochia scarce appeared I ordered her Juleps Cordials and things to purge the Womb besides a fomentation for the bottom of her Belly also her Legs and Feet to be rubbed often with warm Wollen Cloaths at going to sleep I gave her of Laudanum one grain with Saffron Pouder half a scruple in a spoonful of Treacle-water She slept well and the Lochia came down plentifully and by that means with a slender dyet and continuing to provoke moderately the Flux of the Womb for a few days she became very well The immoderate eating of flesh as an evident and almost only sufficient cause without any great provision or vitious predisposition induced the Feaver The Lochia restagnating into the Blood increased its intemperance and presently brought troubles upon the nervous kind but in the mean time the Blood altho growing hot did not undergo any great corruption but when the recrements heaped up by the Surfeit were sent forth by the loosness and the Blood the Lochia being restored began to be purged forth again after its wonted manner this Feaver wanting a further malignant ferment quickly vanished A noble Lady young and fair was brought to Bed of a second Child and for six days as to the Lochia and other accidents she was well and wholly free from the suspicion of any intemperature she ate flesh daily and rising from her Bed was brisk and chearful in her Chamber on the seventh day without any manifest cause a shivering came upon her with a Feaver and a lessning of the Lochia but not suppressed to the tenth day after her Delivery she was only moderately feaverish whilst the purgings of the Womb yet flowed she remained free from any grievous symptom but then although she was greatly feaverish she was more cheerful than ordinary and seemed more confident of her health at Night she slept little or nothing the morning following at which time I first visited her she clearly raved the Lochia were stopped also her whole Body was shaken with horror the tendons in her wrists were pulled together so that I could hardly distinguish her Pulse which in the mean time was weak unequal and very quick I said she would die quickly unless God should miraculously restore her by his Divine Power however six grains of Oriental Bezoar being given her in a spoonful of Cordial Julep brought upon her a plentiful sweat with a better Pulse then other Cordials being given wiâ—â— due intervals gave some little hopes tho I doubted they would not continue aâ—tâ—r four hours from the time that I came the sick Lady had of her own accord a great Stool and presently her strength wholly failed her and within half an hour she died When there hapned nothing of ill to this Lady as to her Delivery or Womb so pernicious a Feaver and so suddenly Mortal could not happen without a great and malignant procatarsis of the Blood and humors whether a more full Dyet or taking Cold or any other evident cause gave a beginning to this is uncertain because the Women and Nurses helping her knew of no manifest occasion of her sickness The Feaver being inkindled the infection of the Blood could not be wholly carried away by the purging of the Womb tho long continued tho for that reason the more cruel symptoms came not presently upon her yet the evil still lurked within and the Disease being very acute shewing it self with a swift motion on the fourth day when Nature should have indeavoured a Crisis the matter of the Feaver being moved but not overcome as it were in a moment overturned at once the Brain and nervous parts whence Death was to be expected and suddenly followed A Woman well known who had scarce passed the twentieth Year of her Age of a florid countenance and slender Body after her being brought to Bed when the Lochia flowed immoderately made use of some astringent Remedies by the counsel of those about her by which means they were wholly stopped but a Flux of her Belly succeeded which when it had increased for three days the Women gave her other things for the stopping her Loosness nor were they frustrated in the success in the mean time in the place of the former evil they had brought a most dangerous Feaver and distempers as it were hysterical for the unhappy Gentlewoman Lying in was troubled
to vomiting let a more plentiful evacuation be procured by a gentle Emetie in the time of the fit The opening of a Vein and Purging ought not to be administred unless between the fits for whilst the Blood grows mainly hot or is resolved into sweat Nature ought not to be called back from the Work begun nor her endeavours to be disturbed by the prescriptions of Physicians wherefore after the 〈◊〉 being past and the sweat throughly finished a Purging may be instituted by a gentle Cathartic and the same afterwards sometimes repeated on the like occasion for by this method not only the provision of the excrementitious matter is brought away from the first passages but chiefly the choler-bearing Vessels being emptied the choler is copiously drawn forth from the mass of Blood and by that means the Blood is restored to its natural Crasis or disposition The Letting of Blood if it be indicated should be performed presently after the beginning for so its Liquor being too turgent or swelling up is eventilated whereby both the nutritious juice is less perverted and the fit urging it burns forth with a less heat together with the morbifick matter but otherwise if a Vein be opened after a long sickness when the Blood being made poorer and more watry more of the morbific matter is heaped together and does not rightly concoct and sift it forth it detracts much from the strength of Nature and nothing from the power of the Disease In the interval of the fits when there is no place for opening a Vein nor Purging let the Belly be kept loose by the constant use of Clysters also digestive Remedies of acetous or saline Liquors and Powders are to be exhibited of which sort are Cream of Tartar fixed Salts of Herbs Tartar Vitriolate Harts-horn burnt Spirit of Vitriol and Salt c. for these restore the lost or sleepy ferments of the Viscera purifie the Blood by fusing it also separate the morbific matter and as it were precipitate it also at this time between if pertinations waking infest the sick and overthrow their strength it may be lawful to administer anodyne and gentle narcotic Remedies but never in the fit for then they greatly hinder the subduing and sifting forth of the feaverish matter and draw out in length the fit that would end sooner These things are to be done about the interstitia or intervals of the fits but whilst the fit is urgent altho the sick then chiefly send for and call upon Physiicans yet at this time their prescripts are limited to a narrower space If Vomiting notwithstanding an Emetic being given still infest it may be more freely provoked either by simple Posset Drink or with bitter Herbs boyled in it But let the chiefest means of help be in temperating the heat and thirst which most grievously torments the sick in this Feaver For whilst the Blood growing hot with the morbific matter and being inkindled in the Heart leaps forth into the Lungs stirs up there a cruel Inflamation which requires a profusion of a cold humor as it were for the extinguishing the Flame wherefore they greedily desire without any measure drink for want of which the sick are almost killed with too great heat and their Blood being almost wholly rarified into flame and fume the thrid of Circulation is hardly continued wherefore drink ought to be wholly granted to those in Feavers which however if it be taken in too large a quantity it at first more disturbs the estuating Blood and at length brings confusion to the feaverish matter begun to be separated that from thence the Work of subaction and secretion is longer protacted and the fit is made longer also besides large drinking causes troubles in the Ventricle and by disturbing it and often provoking Vomiting hinders the breathing forth and calls inward the sweat breaking forth or perhaps already broke forth wherefore at first the heat of the Feaver being inkindled altho the sick be very thirsty let them only sip a little and abstain from drink as much as they can afterwards when the matter being burnt and subdued begins to be dissipated by sweat they may be more freely indulged as to this for so the sweating is greatly helped and the fit is sooner finished as to the nature of the Drink let them take sometimes Posset Drink sometimes Small Beer or Barly Water and sometimes simple Water or sharpned with the juice of Lemons In this case the use of Sal Prunellae is deservedly praised to be given in every Liquor for this with its nitrosity wonderfully allays the raging Blood and potently moves sweats I have often observed in the midst of a fit the sick wont to fall into a swoon or syncopy to whom presently they give Cordials or hot Waters that much increase the violence of the Feaver and bring forth more troubles than usual that the fit is more difficultly finished But these faintings for the most part happen either from a bilous humor suffused in the Ventricle or by reason of the sweat suddenly breaking forth and against these I always found the most present Remedy that either a feather being put down the throat Vomiting may be provoked or that Liquor being plentifully drunk a sweat may be again raised up also in the whole course of this Feaver I am wont never to give any Cordials or alexiteriums The Dyet in this Feaver ought to be only slender and not nourishing all sorts of Flesh or any thing prepared of them are wholly to be avoided for as these abound with Sulphur they give a more plentiful food as Oyl poured on Flame to the hot or enkindled Blood besides nothing spiritous as strong Waters strong Beer or Wine is to be yielded to but Decoctions or Broths of Oat-meal or Barly altered with cooling Herbs are chiefly to be used also Posset Drink and small Beer or Whey is to be given them at their pleasure for by this means when a very slender and watry nourishing juice is conveyed to the mass of Blood the soluted Particles of Sulphur burn forth sooner and with the less tumult also the recrements of the adust matter are more easily carried from the bosom of the Blood but if on the contrary a more rich or plentiful nourishment be administred the effervency of the Blood is thereby very much augmented and the Blood is more infected by the confusion or pouring in of the adust matter After that the Blood being much burnt forth by frequent fits and the Feaver being in its declination remits of its fervor and fierceness you must take heed lest the sick at length growing well fall not into a Cachexie or Scorbutic Distemper for the disposition of the Viscera being hurt and the Blood very much depauperated the alible juice though not scorched so as at first is not however rightly concocted and ripened into perfect Blood but by reason of the want of transpiration the serous excrements being imbued with a fixed salt are greatly heaped together
or straitned in its motion and the effluvias being constrained inwardly could not be sufficiently eventilated or cooled In every year tho temperate it is usual in the Spring and Autumn for some Epidemical Diseases to reign because at this time the Blood being as it were restored flowers anew and therefore intermitting Feavers and sometimes the Small Pox ordinarily spread in this season wherefore 't is no wonder after a great unequal constitution of the year and not natural when in this Spring the Blood boyling up more lively within the Vessels by reason of transpiration being hindred could not be freely circulated and sufficiently eventilated if for that cause great disorders follow and from this most common cause a distemper greatly Epidemical should be excited As to the symptoms joyned with this Disease a feaverish intemperature and whatsoever belongs to this the heat of the Praecordia thirst a spontaneous weariness pain in the Head Loyns and Limbs were induced from the Blood growing hot and not sufficiently eventilated hence in many a part of the thinner Blood being heated and the rest of the Liquor being only driven into confusion a simple Synochus or of more days was induced and this for the most part ceased within a few days But in some endued with a vitious disposition of Blood or evil habit of Body this kind of Feaver arising by reason of the same cause quickly passed into a very dangerous Putrid Feaver and often Mortal The Cough accompanying this Feaver with a Catarrh draws its Origine from a serous humor heaped up together in the Blood by reason of transpiration being hindred for a long time and then an effervescency being risen dropping forth more from the little Arteries gaping within for when the Pores are constrained the superfluous serosities in the Blood being wont to evaporate outwardly are poured forth on the Lungs by a proper castration or cleansing of the Blood wherefore by taking cold as they commonly term it that is from transpiration outwardly being hindred the Cough for the most part is stirred up And for a foregoing cause to this Distemper the flowing forth of the serum into the mass of Blood hath for the most part the chief place for from the long cold hindring the scorching of the Blood or the provision of the bile and prohibiting the breathing forth of the watry humor there was a necessity that very much of the serous humor should be heaped up in the Blood wherefore when the Blood flowring in the Spring conceived an heat the flowing forth of the serum and a pouring of it on the interior parts was wont to cause first the Cough as the proper symptom of this Disease and those whose Blood was more diluted by the mixtion of the serum and who were greatly obnoxious to the Cough and a Rheumatic Distemper were cured with less trouble of the feaverish Distemper the Prognostick of this Disease concerning private persons is for the most part easie that one may deliver the event from the first assault for if this sickness be excited in a strong Body and healthful before and that the feaverish Distemper be moderate and without any grievous and horrid symptom the business is free from danger and the Distemper is to be accounted but of light moment as that commonly is of catching cold neither needs a Physician be consulted nor Remedies unless trivial and ordinary be administred But if this Distemper happens in a weak and sickly Body with an evil provision or that the Feaver being carried into a Putrid Feaver or the Cough growing grievous induces difficult breathing and as it were a tabid or Consumptive disposition the event of the Disease is much to be suspected and often terminates in Death The common Prognostic that was taken from hence concerning the future state of the year conteins nothing to be feared or ominates any great ill by reason of the unequal intemperance of the year the great heats and then excessive cold we might fear Diseases to arise from the Dyscrasie of the Blood yet from the present condition we need neither suspect any noted depravation of the Air or Infection with poysonous breaths that from thence may be had any judgment of the Plague or Malignant Disease to be at hand As to what belongs to the Cure when this Disease is more lightly inflicted its Cure for the most part is left to Nature for this Feaver when it is only a simple Synochus is wont to be cured within a few days by sweat wherefore by a copious sweating for the most part about the third or fourth day the heat and thirst the weariness and heavy pains are allayed then the Cough being somewhat longer protracted by little and little afterwards remits and at length the sick leisurely grow well if this Disease hath rooted it self more deeply there is need of fit Remedies and an exact method of curing the Feaver growing worse is to be healed according to the Rules to be observed in a Putrid Feaver but nevertheless with this difference that because transpiration being hindred and the suffusion of the serous humor on the Lungs are chiefly in fault therefore Diaphoretic Remedies and those called pectoral are of more frequent use for these restrain the flowing forth of the serum from the Vessels within or by opening the Pores convey it forth of doors or precipitating it from the bosom of the Blood send it forth be the urinary passages therefore the method of Medicine for this Disease being brought into the worser state respects both the feaverish intemperance for the sake of curing which you are to be directed according to the intentions shewn in the Putrid Feaver and also the Rheumatic Distemper which however let it be secondary and not every expectorating Remedy or those used against a Cough are to be admitted but of that kind only which do not increase the Feaver the forms of these and the means of curing are to be sought from the precepts delivered generally for the Cure of the Putrid Feaver and of the Cough the helps which now by frequent experience are commonly said to bring Cure chiefly in this Disease are sweating or the provoking of sweat and letting of Blood for the Vessels being emptied by this or that means both the immoderate heat of the Blood and the abundance of the serum are restrained A Description of an Epidemical Feaver arising about the beginning of Autumn 1658. taken the 13th of September THE vernal Feaver but now described did not last longer than six weeks that it plainly was seen that it was only a more light flowring of the Blood which swelling up in the Spring and at the same time streightned in space for want of ventilation most impetuously boyled up like new Wine close shut up in Bottles and then ceased of it self Yet from thence as neither the year so neither our Blood did recover its due temperature and so another tinder or nest for a new Feaver was quickly gathered together
to wit whether by Accension or by Fermentation or by any other way we shall first in general inquire by what means and for what causes any liquid things are wont to grow hot then we shall consider to which of these the growing hot of the blood ought to be attributed Concerning these we say that there are only three ways or so many kinds of causes by which Liquors conceive a heat viz. first by fire or heat being put to them as when water is made to seeth or boil over the fire or that it grows hot by the heat of the Sun a Bath or Stove or by the dissolution of quick Lime instances of all which are commonly known For the same reason Bath-waters seem to boil For that we may instance in our own Baths to wit they are impregnated neither with Sulphur nor fixed Salt as I have plainly experimented by distilling and evaporating them and by pouring into them precipitating Liquors yea by dissolving them with Sulphur and many other ways They most resemble Lime-water and they as we believe grow hot from a like cause to wit by imbibing the fiery little bodies somewhere hid within the Earth Of these unless it had been superfluous we had here given a fuller description which may perhaps be done at some other time Secondly when saline Corrosives which are of a diverse kind being mingled with themselves or with sulphureous things work mutually one on another with a great strife and agitation of Particles and oftentimes excite heat yea sometimes fume and flame as when the Spirit and Butter of Antimony are poured to or mixed with stygian Water wherein lixivial Salts are melted or with Oyl of Turpentine or other distilled things besides when corrosive Liquors eat metallick Bodies they often grow hot Thirdly and the only way besides as I suppose whereby a liquid thing is made hot is when any humour being very much imbued with Sulphur or Spirit conceives a burning by putting a flame to it and so grows hot by burning forth This is ordinarily seen in oily or very spirituous Liquors being inkindled and inflamed There remain indeed some other ways of Calefaction to wit Fermentation Putrefaction and Attrition whereby more thick Bodies or Solids often conceive a fervour but they produce not such an effect in Liquids whilst the mealy Mass or Dough is fermented the active Particles being stirred up into motion unfold themselves on every side and lift up the bulk or substance of the subject in the mean time for as much as the sulphureous Particles being agitated with them take hold one of another and begin to be combined a certain heat though more remiss is excited in like manner from Putrefaction Dung or wet Hay get an heat to wit for as much as the sulphureous Particles within included are very thickly heaped up together then being combined together they break out in troops yet no Liquors either thin or thick whether they ferment or putrifie do for that reason at any time grow hot For Wines whilst in fermenting they break in pieces the sides of the Tun or overflow the top of the Vessel with a great noise and ebullition do not actually grow hot yea not so much as grow warm The blood being let out of the Body and placed in convenient Glasses either to ferment or putrifie doth not get any actual heat yet in truth we grant the Blood in living Creatures to be fermented and by fermenting to be putrified yea and some other offices of the animal oeconomy to perform the same moreover we have formerly shewed from its Fermentation being hindred or too much increased or otherwise depraâ—ed divers kinds of diseases to be produced yet we deny the heat of the blood to be excited by Fermentation Because neither the blood of more frigid Animals nor Wines nor any other Liquors though agitated with the highest Fermentation are for that reason actually hot And indeed the reason seems evident enough to wit because the sulphureous Particles being raised up in the more thick subjects though they lay hold on one another mutually and being more thickly heaped together raise up heat yet in Liquids the same kind of Particles however stirred up or agitated are immediately disjoyned by the watry coming between and are hindred from their mutual embrace and combination so that they cannot of themselves produce an actual heat For the same reason hard Bodies being rubbed one against another or violently knocked or bruised do not only produce heat but oftentimes fire whenas yet Liquids however shaken and agitated do not grow warm Therefore as there are only three ways whereby actual heat may be begotten in all Liquors we shall inquire to which of these the heat of the Blood may be ascribed First Some say it is the first way from the opinion both of the Ancients and of some of the Moderns the Blood is said to grow hot by reason of some hot thing put to it to wit whilst those affirm an innate heat and these a little flame to be placed in the Heart and to heat the blood passing through it but either of these opinions easily fails from which it is clear that the Heart is a mere Muscle her doth contain in it self any tinder or matter for a flame or heat I know not how implanted fit for their continuance For though it be confessed that on the continual motion of this Bowel which is only animal the Circulation of the Blood doth depend yet the Heart borrows heat altogether from the blood and not the blood from the Heart Secondly As to what respects the second way of making hot a liquid thing to wit whereby a great heat is excited by the mixing of saline Corrosives together or also oily or by corroding a metallick Body I think there is none that will seriously assert that the blood grows hot from such a cause for that its liquor in its natural state is always homogene and although it be stuffed with plenty of Salt it is however with that which is volatile gentle and benign only But there is not to be found either in the Heart or in any other place a saline or any otherwise heterogene Mine whereby the bloody liquor by working or corroding may get or conceive an heat to wit it behoves either such a Mine or the Body to be corroded to be perpetually renewed because the ebullition and heat raised up by the strife of Salts ceases as soon as the Salts are combined or the Body corroded If at any time the saline Particles of the humours in our Body depart from their right temper and become enormous and unbridled for that reason the blood as to heat and motion enters into some irregularities yet it seems impossible that it should originally and perpetually become hot by the congression and strife or corrosion of the Salts Thirdly As to the third way whereby Liquids are made hot though it may seem an uncouth saying That the blood is so inkindled
knots of reflection are not alike on both sides also for what end the Cardiack branches proceed from both knots As to the first that the left returning Nerve not as its pair binds about the axillary Artery some reason seems to be because the left axillary Artery arising below is carried as the right by a bending and not a straight passage into the Arm wherefore the little cord of the Nerve compassing about its Trunk hath no fixed but a very moveable knot of reflection for that it might easily slide from its place But it may rather be said that it is for other uses and those more necessary that these Nerves compass about those Vessels after that manner For when they as it were Reins or Bridles cast on the blood-carrying Vessels by pulling them hither and thither variously determine the course of the blood it seems to be required that one returning Nerve should bind together or constringe the axillary Artery and the other the descending Trunk of the Aorta for as often as there is need for the blood to flow forwards towards the Head more plentifully the returning Nerves perform it easily by pulling upwards the aforesaid Arteries But the blood after a sort ought to be continually urged into the higher parts lest otherwise by its weight it should turn too much downwards wherefore in all Expiration or breathing forth when the Trachea drawing nearer together its folds is contracted upwards the blood about to descend through the Aorta is snatched upwards by one tract of the nervous little cord and in like manner the axillary Artery in the right side being shaken with it the blood flowing in the whole ascending Trunk of the Aorta is driven upwards a little swifter But besides this continual and equal snatching up of the blood towards the upper parts it is sometimes occasionally urged towards the Head by a more intense and quick motion of the Trachea and also by a more full and swift course For as often as any Animal grows angry the voice presently shews signs of such an Affection and oftentimes by chiding they make it sharp as men when they are angry chide or brawl and Dogs bark Now from such an intension of the voice and chiding as the upper rings of the Trachea a reciprocation being there made are often struck together so the blood also the Aorta being strongly drawn is urged upwards by a copious afflux so that it presently dyes the countenance and eyes of angry people with a redness and induces to the Brain it self a greater heat and provocatives to anger and a greater glowing or infiring to the Spirits by stirring them up For the same reason in Joy and Gladness forasmuch as the Trachea is exercised by singing or laughing the blood also is poured out more plentifully towards the exterior and especially the upper parts And from hence the cause is plain wherefore either returning Nerve sends forth Cardiack branches from the knot of reflection or turning back to wit that in those kind of affections the notice of which the Trachea in sounds or voices gives by the help of the Nerves the Heart it self by its means also might be affected For so as often as we wrangle or brawl the Heart being irritated presently inkindles the blood more and drives it forward more plentifully as food for those Affections towards the Brain Also in laughter great rejoycing or singing by the passage of those Nerves the Heart being brought into a consent or Sympathy or joynt action presently explodes or drives out the blood by a swifter pulse and casts it hastily out which otherwise would be heavy and troublesom by a slower motion or stagnation wherefore those sort of actions to wit laughing and singing are said to alleviate the Heart because they make the blood more freely and readily to be poured out of the bosoms of the Heart and also by the supplying help of the Lungs to be emptied into the same Below the production of the left returning Nerve another noted Nerve is carried towards the hindermost region of the Heart which being carried with a certain compass about its Basis sends forth frequent shoots which cover the left side of the hinder Hemisphere Fig. 9. o. Then this branch meeting with another pair sent from the opposite side towards the Heart and distributing shoots into the right side of the hinder Hemisphere is united with it Fig. 9. q. This Cardiack branch destinated to the hinder region of the Heart is produced apart below the rest that it might be carried by it self to its Province without the meeting with or implication of others the pairs are ingraffed on either side that they might accompany one another and be together drawn in the same action of the Heart It appears not plain whether these nerves conspire with the other Cardiack nerves arising above reaching forth to the anterior Hemisphere of the Heart or whether this pair effect not the Systole of the Heart and the upper its Diastole However it is certain shoots of the kindred or stock of either being ingraffed with others of another stock communicate one with the other The Trunk of the wandring pair sends forth on both sides very many noted branches from the region of the Heart which are spread on every side into all the Lobes of the Lungs the Bronchia of the Trachea and the Coat of the Oesophagus hard by descending Fig. 9. s.s.s. Those which go into the Lungs pass every where through their whole substance following the ramifications of the Veins and Arteries and the Pipes of the Bronchia which chanels of blood and air they variously climb over and bind about through their whole tract When that so many noted branchings of the Nerves are bestowed on the Lungs it is a wonder that by some they should be thought to be insensible and immoveable of themselves Yea it is doubted by many whether these Bowels do cause the motions of the Systole and Diastole of themselves by their own endeavour For that it is a received Opinion That this reciprocation of the Lungs doth proceed wholly from the motion of the Thorax and doth obey or observe its dilatation or constriction with a certain necessary dependency viz. that the Breast being dilated or spread open after the manner of a pair of Bellows doth compel the ambient Air into the Trachea which rushing into the Lungs blows up and distends them then the same Breast subsiding or sinking of it self that the Lungs being pressed together with the weight of it do breath forth the Air before intruded In truth however that I might judge that the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Breast do conduce much to Respiration yet that these parts should perform this office alone and that the Lungs are merely passive I cannot grant For Respiration is chiefly instituted for the sake of the blood and the Heart and its act is wont to be determined according to the various disposition of these and to be
altered every minute of an hour almost according to the manifold necessity of the Pulse But indeed the Lungs themselves are they and not the Diaphragma or the Muscles of the Thorax which the blood boiling out of the Heart passes through and continually affects according to its temper and the tenour of the Pulse wherefore from hence it may be concluded That the Lungs themselves do conceive the first instincts of their motions and by the help of the aforesaid Nerves do in some measure exercise themselves and endeavour the Systole and Diastole and design them according to the sense of its proper necessity but when in these Fibres requisite for local motion are wanting therefore the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Thorax help continually the endeavours of the Lungs and by the cooperation of these compleat breathing is effected And so when Nerves of a twofold kind to wit some from the Spine being inserted into the Muscles of the Diaphragma and the Thorax and others from the wandring pair distributed into the Lungs actuate the Organs of Respiration for that reason it comes to pass that the act it self of Respiration of it self unforced and involuntary may be at our pleasure somewhat restrained interrupted and diversly altered The Sympraxis or joynt action of the Nerves of either kind in the work of Respiration shall be shewed hereafter when we shall speak particularly of the Nerve of the Diaphragma It yet appears more plain that the Lungs are oftentimes the chief in the act of Respiration because they being irritated from strange and improportionate objects presently conceive irregular and violent motions as when a vehement Cough is stirred up for the exclusion of any troublesom thing to which motion the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Thorax presently obey In like manner in difficult and sighing breathing or any other ways unequal its first instinct for the most part is begun by the Lungs yet sometimes when the exterior Organs of Respiration are excited into irregular motions the Lungs also are compelled to follow their irregularities so when the Diaphragma after a manner begins laughter the Lungs perform the same with a following cackling sound so all the Organs of Respiration intimately conspire and agree among themselves that although one of them do a thing inordinately rather than there shall be a Schism the rest do imitate or follow its irregularity But that the Nerves following the Arteries and Veins through the whole frame of the Lungs do variously bind about and cloath their Trunks with a thick series of shoots the reason seems to be both that the Coats of the Vessels being gifted with a constant influx of animal Spirits might imitate the motion of the Heart and by that means by a continual pulsation of the Arteries and the constriction of the Veins they might easily carry the blood in this its more short lustration through the Lungs and the rather that the pneumonick Vessels being bound about with such Reins of Nerves might moderate the course of the blood according to the forces and instincts of the Passions For whenas the exterior circulation of the blood depends upon this interior as the blood is commanded to pass sooner or slower through the Lungs or to stay there and be hindred the excursion and return of it also from or towards the Heart is wholly performed In Joy or Anger because the Lungs rapidly transfer the blood out of one bosom of the Heart to the other therefore it s swifter and more plentiful flowing out into the outward parts follows In like manner in Fear and Sadness for that the Lungs its Vessels being strained together deliver the blood to the Heart by the Veins and do not then presently carry it back by the Arteries the outmost region of the Body is destitute of its due influx Notwithstanding these kind of pathetick snatches of the blood are in some measure performed because its Vessels are bound about in other places in like manner with the Nerves If at any time Spasmodick Affections should afflict the pneumonick Nerves from a morbific cause so that being twitcht with inordinate motions they should pull or draw together here and there the Arteries and Veins which they embrace for that cause the blood either too much flowing out of the Lungs makes them to flag and to fall together into themselves so that drawing to them copiously the Air they do not easily render it back again or which frequently happens the blood being detained within the Lungs and there stagnating stuffs them up and holds them a long while stiff that they cannot inspire or drawn in the Air. The Symptoms of either kind ordinarily happen in the Hysterick distempers and in some Hypochondriacal Yea sometimes the Bronchia themselves are pulled together by the like Convulsion of the Nerves and are hindred in their motion so that they cannot take in and send forth the Air after its due manner as may be seen in Asthmatical Fits The distempers of which sort are oftentimes produced by the fault of the Nerves without any implanted Dyscrasie or evil disposition of the Lungs I have sometimes observed some Cases of sick people in which when at one time the morbifick matter besieging the Brain had induced Lethargick or Vertiginous Symptoms a little after the same matter occupying or possessing the origines or middle processes of the nerves belonging to the Lungs has suddenly excited a most horrid Asthma without any previous Cough or Catarrh But that out of the same tract of the wandring pair many shoots are distributed into the Lungs and also many others into the Coats of the Oesophagus from hence a reason may be given why a troublesom Cough oftentimes causes Vomiting and a subversion of the Ventricle why also on the other side a perturbation of the Ventricle so frequently induces a troublesom endeavour of Coughing I have known in Hypochondriacks that aliments of ill digestion taken into the Stomach have presently excited a vain and very pertinacious Cough in the mean time that the Lungs were free from any consumptive disposition The cause of either distemper seems to be that when the nerves disseminated in either part are taken with a Convulsion oftentimes those which are of the other part are drawn into a consent of the same distemper Perhaps from hence it happens that sometimes an Asthma is induced by reason of the evil of the Ventricle and that that distemper as Riverius observes is often wont to be cured by an emetick Medicine After so many branches and shoots have been sent from both sides the wandring pair at length its Trunk is divided below the Lungs into two branches viz. the exterior and interior either of which inclining towards the pair of branches on the other side are united to them and after a mutual communication they constitute the two Stomachical branches viz. the superior and the inferior Fig. 9. t. u. w. x. It is worth observing with what wonderful artifice either Trunk of the
most part to the head it self and the same Distemper when it begins in the brain as in the Epilepsie is derived in like manner thence downwards to the remote Viscera and also to the exteriour members and Limbs The spasmodic matter causes Convulsions either continued or periodical or by fits The morbifick matter flowing in the heads of the nerves produces divers kinds of convulsions according to their various plenty and dispensation for first of all it is to be observed that the whole passages of the nervous System or of some of its parts through the abundant and exuberant matter are sometimes possessed so that the animal Spirits both flowing in and there implanted being full of an heterogeneous Copula and a perpetual supplement of it are urged into continual Spasms I have known some who have had all the muscles and tendons through their whole body afflicted with Contractions and leapings without intermission I have known others whose thighs arms and other members were perpetually forced into various bendings and distortions and also others I have seen who of necessity were compelled to leap and run up and down and to beat the ground with their feet and hands and if they did it not they fell into cruel Convulsions of the Viscera and Praecordia 2. If the explosive and heterogeneous Particles be combined with the Spirits in a lesser plenty they stick to them without tumult or perturbation untill after some time both Particles leaping again one from another and from their striking one another raise up Convulsive paroxysms which sort of Paroxysms are periodical and are repeated exactly at certain hours which happens by reason of the morbifick matters being dayly poured upon the nervous stock with an equal dimension and therefore about the same space of time it is also dayly heaped up to an explosive plenitude or they are wandring and uncertain in others for that the heterogeneous particles are poured in with a lesser company and so arise not to an explosive fullness under a long time when in the mean time the more full heaping of them together and their explosion are wont to happen sometimes more often and sometimes more seldom by reason of several occasions or evident causes hence it comes to pass that the Spasmodic Distemper is sometimes altogether attributed to the evident cause when indeed if a more remote convulsive cause had not gone before such a cause had stir'd up none Therefore that we may say something of the evident causes of Convusions The Evident causes of Spasms we have already observ'd if they be more vehement and happen to a weak and tender constitution of Brain and nervous stock they are sometimes solitary or of themselves cause convulsive passions but as often as the Spasmodick Distemper is heavier and being made habitual is wont to return oftener though the evident Cause be manifest and bears the blame of the effect nevertheless it is to be suspected that a procatartick or more remote cause exists and is the more strong efficient though it lies hid within for unless the Spirits are imbued with an heterogeneous Copula they would not be so easily nor so often driven into involuntary and praeternatural Explosions We meet with a double order or Glasses of Evident causes The Evident Cause twofold viz. Filling and Irritateing for either they are of that sort which increases the procatarick or more remote and brings it sooner to an explosive fullness as are an ill manner of living and errors in the six non-naturals which by infecting the blood and nervous juice heap up to a Saturity in greater plenty on the Spirits heterogeneous particles and by that means do the sooner procure Spasmodick accessions Or 2dly the evident cause is said to be whatever stirs and irritates suddenly the spirits that they presently fall into explosions and whatever it be that causes them to strike off their Copula and of this sort there are very many accidents that provoke the spirits The irritateing Cause stirs up Spasms direct or reflected planted now within the Head and now within the nervous System to convulsive motions by a divers instinct as is wont in the regular motions which motions are either direct or reflected 1. Of the former kinde chiefly are violent perturbations of the minde wherewith the spirits of the brain being agitated and confused they excite others lying within the nervous stock and often praedisposed to irregular explosions so a vehement fear anger or sadness do not only introduce epileptical and hysterical fits to those that are disturbed in their health but sometimes cause to divers others palpitation and trembling of the heart and also horrid convulsions of the members and Limbs 2. As to the other kinde of evident cause to wit whereby Spasms are excited by a reflected Act this indeed comes to pass not unfrequently as often as any heavy trouble with an irritation of the fibres and spirits happens any where to the nervous stock for that this trouble being by and by communicated to the chief fountains of the Spirits to wit the brain or Cerebell from thence inordinate and violent motions against the will of the minde that is convulsive being begun they are returned back for so either worms physick or sharp humours cruelly hauling the coats of the Intestines cause spasms in those parts and not seldom in the outward members So much for the several kindes of causes the conjunct procatartick and evident whereby convulsive Diseases becoming habitual and are wont to be repeated with more grievous Paroxisms do arise But as we have assigned another species of this Disease where the Paroxysms depend on an evident solitary cause or at most only from irritation the Spirits being not yet praeoccupied with an explosive Copula it is now next to be inquired into by what and how many ways this may come to pass Concerning this in general it is affirmed that the Spasmodic fits produced by mere irritation are either lighter and quickly passing away or more grievious and not seldom deadly as when poyson is taken or when they come upon an overpurging medicine Moreover it is noted when the morbifick or irritative matter falls upon the tales themselves or the foldings of the nerves that it also not rarely becomes explosive The irritateing Cause distinguished as to the places affected as to the subjects and so Spasms produced also from mere irritation as we have already noted are certain explosions these being thus premised we will dispatch the business in hand The irritation of the Nervous parts which is wont to cause convulsive motions happens in various places and from various matters which are incongruous and inimical to the spirits and fibres As to the things enemies to the Nature of the spirits you may observe besides poysons The places affected are the beginnings the extremities and the middle processes and foldings of the Nerves and the excess of cangible quallities which are inflicted from without many
whilst she Cough'd the Diaphragma being caried upward and with a renewed Sistole held so a long time she made a great noise as if about to be suffocated then this little maid growing more apparently feavourish complained of thirst and heat and lay all night without sleep with a mighty agitation of her body and began to talk idly after the same manner as her brother of her coat being fallen into the water and when all things grew worse she began to be tormented with Convulsive motions first in her Limbs by and by in her face and then in her whole body the Paroxysms coming by often turns twice or thrice in an hour did most grievously trouble her so that this little wretch within the space of 24. hours after the Convulsive Distempers began to grow more grievous her animal spirits being almost quite spent she dyed whilst the Convulsive Fits tormented her her pulse was very much disorder'd and often intermitting also a frequent vomiting molested her Being sent for to visit this maid also too late a little before her death when I could contribute nothing to the proroguing of Life I endeavourd what I could to finde out from her Death the knowledge of the aforesaid disease therefore having got leave to dissect her body the reasons and marks of the Symptoms chiefly urging in this feavour more clearly appear'd Opening therefore first the lower belly The knâ—wledg of the disease found â—ut by dissecting the Carcase I found all the bowells in it sound enough and well furnish't The ventricle altho tyred with empty vomiting contained nothing besides the Liquor lately taken in at the mouth for neither in it nor in its Appendix were worms or sharp humours found which are wont oftentimes to give a cause to these kinde of Convulsions the small guts were in many places mutually involved to wit the Convex superficies of one part was thrust into the concave of another as into a sheath and hid far in it which indeed I judge to have hapned wholly from the convulsive Motions of those bowels for whilst by reason of the vehement Convulsion excited from the nervous origine the opposite fibres being drawn together did work the same Intestine into contrary motions it easily hapned that a part of the Intestine of the Ilion being carried upward might run into the hollowness of the other being snatch'd downward The Thorax being opened the flesh of the Lungs appeared very red and as it were sprinkled with bood yea in some places as it were livid and almost black out of the same whereever it was cut there flow'd forrh a thin and frothy matter Certainly this shewâ—d that the feavourish matter or the serous impurities of the boyling blood being soon impacted in the Lungs did so stuff up their pores and passages that the blood it self being in its wonted and free Circulation there stagnating and being extravasated did excite a certain inflammation We found a no less clear track of this so deadly disease in the head for the shell of the skull being removed presently the vessells creeping thorow the meningae were seen to swell very much with blood as if almost the whole mass of blood were gathered together in the head for the veins being cut or broken about the Inwards of the lower and middle belly little blood flowed forth Besides those membranes where they cloath the Cerebel and being higher spread divide it from the brain being sprinkled in very many places with extravasated blood were noted to be of a black-purple colour that it was not to be doubted but the Phlegosis or Inflamation round about excited was the cause of the so cruelly infesting Convulsions These coverings being taken away the substance of the brain was seen to be altogether moist and watered above measure with a watery humour yea its rine or bark being taken off all the ventricles were full of a limpid or clear water of which kinde of very clear Liquor there was judg'd to be more then half a pinte From these appearances the Pathologie of the aforesaid feavour is easily Collected to wit in this sicknesse as also in many others The Pathologie of the aforesaid Feavour the blood feavourishly growing hot presently deposes its recrements both into the Lungs and into the brain wherefore a serous Colluvies or watery heap did presently overflow the constitution of either then because the blood being hindred both here and there from its due circulation it began to grow into a very great heap about the confines of the affected parts and at length to stagnate and to cause as it were a phlegosis or Inflammation hence by reason of the serum being plentifully heaped up in the lungs and baked by the heat the troublesome cough with the thick and discoloured spittle for the most part came in this disease and by reason of the like affection excited within the head the vertigo swimming stupifaction and other Cephalic passions constantly seased on the sick which kinde of Distempers in this little maid and in her brother by reason of the infirm constitution of the brain before in either of them being made more greivous terminated in an Apoplexy I might easily here propose many other histories of persons sick of this feavour at that time but from these but now recited the Type of the aforesaid disease may be sufficiently known But because the same feavour happens almost every year on some prae-disposed and perhaps by reason of an evill constitution of the year may hereafter at some time become Epidemical it will be worth the while to represent some Method about its Cure Concerning which first of all take notice that in this feavour The Curatory Method no Critical days were to be observed as in the vulgar continual feavours for the blood as soon as it began to grow hot poured out a part of the morbific matter as yet crude and not overcome from its embrace to the head or breast wherefore it were vain to expect that the blood should suffer the heterogeneous particles to be heaped together in its mass to a fullness that from thence a flowring or putting forth arising at the set intervalls of times it might thrust the same subtilities out of doors yea rather this growing hot glows not with a great and open burning but like a fire covered over with chips sends forth a moist smoke or breath rather then a flame But so that from thence by reason of the nervous juice being depraved soon in its disposition and not rarely because of the lungs being stuffed with the consumptive matter the convulsive or phthisical or consumptive symptoms did molest chiefly in the whole course of the disease Blood to be taken away at the beginning of the disease It behoves us to designe the curative Intentions according to the various times of the disease and the diversities of the symptoms chiefly urging About the beginning of this feavour the taking away of blood seem'd convenient allmost to all This
may perhaps seem the same thing as if any one should go about to describe the midst of our Country for a Land before unknown For what respect the Diagnosis of this Disease seem to be firmly Established already by the Precepts and Practice of the Antients and Moderns yea by long Experience they are so generally in the mouth and known of all men that nothing can be more However I deserve pardon if I a little receed from the Vulgar Opinion concerning Feavers as a way mightily worn out and go in a less trodden Path because I am not the first or only man that directs his course against the received Opinion as against a Stream For in truth in the Medical Art and that deservedly those things have not pleased the men of our Age which did those of the former because the Antients relying on a false Position concerning the motion of the Blood proceeding as it were through slippery and moist places often fell foully and dangerously wherefore it is no wonder if those who come after should take care for the thorough instauration of Physick and for the Re-Edifying the Building as they say even from the ground the Antient Props being fallen down on that which our most Famous Harvy hath laid the Circulation of the Blood as a new Foundation in Medicine But in this Work Learned men of other Countrys but chiefly of our own have happily laboured not only in removing the Rubbish of the former Building but for the supplying this plentifully with Stone Planks and other matter In times past among the Antients as the distribution and Natural motion of the Nutritious humor of the Blood and Nervous juice so the Feaverish heats and preternatural motions of them were wholly hidden and lay in the dark but now new Lights have shined forth and it is granted us to know the Causes of things before hidden it doth not become prudent men and professing Philosophy even to shut their Eyes and remain blind in the Light it self but especially about a Disease by which the third part of Mortals have still fallen to this day to be rather willing to Err with the Antients than to understand the Truth with the Moderns or to believe what is more likely argues a mind guilty of notable stubbornness When therefore the Puretology or Feaver Tracts of former Medicine had no firm and stable Basis and that it is easie to shew that it was built upon very many and plainly false Errors what should hinder but that we having gotten more certain Principles should endeavour to erect a better Science concerning Feavers Truly I think it would hardly be altho the pleas of the Antients should be yet openly maintained in the Schools but that many Physitians who have a mind to look within the Bark would frame new Hypotheses to themselves from their own Ratiocination by which they might more exactly quadrate the Phaenomena of Feavers than by that of the Antients But it may be objected that Feavers have been happily cured by the same Remedies and the like method of Curing from the times of Hippocrates and Galen even to our days and therefore it may seem a rash Work and little safe that we should endeavour new things after having had the Experience of so many Ages especially since it is about the human Body To this it will be easie to answer that Medicine was at first Empirical and Remedies were not invented by general Precepts or by Rule but by the frequent trial of several things And if led by the Example of Hippocrates his Followers had only polished his Observations and Experiments without doubt the Medicinal Art had grown up better more handsomly and with greater benefit to the Sick But that the Light clearly inkindled by the Antients did so suddenly shut up and darkned the Eyes of Posterity it was the preposterous study of those who too bastily framed almost out of their own Brain Physick into a general Method after the manner of some Speculative Science for by this means before they had laid a firm Foundation a sufficiently specious and deceitful Pile of unstable Doctrine was erected That therefore in the Cure of Feavers some Indications being more antiently received remain yet confirmed and are to be perpetually observed is to be ascribed wholly to Experience the first Mistress of this Art and not to the Precepts of Scholars And from hence I hope for my self to have gotten a defence sufficient enough for if the Opinions wholly erronious of the Antients had not hindered but that the practice of Medicine at first instituted by a certain induction of observations had proceeded commodiously enough the Theory being joyned with Truth would have brought much less hurt to the Sick or have less carried away those exercising Medicine quite contrary from that Path which Antiquity had left commended to us In the mean time 't is not to be dissembled that naked Experience without the helps of Method and Reason avails little yea very often doth much hurt for neither are the same Diseases every where to be driven away by the same Remedies But he seems to have hit the mark who joyns both together that Reason may not pervert Experiments and Nature it self not that this may remove Reason from its place Altho that I know well enough I have not obtained it yet I will freely profess that I have aimed at this Mark and perhaps I may have deserved some praise even in failing in these sort of Adventures for after I had not found in Books what might satisfie a mind desirous of Truth I resolved with my self to search into living and breathing Examples and therefore sitting oftentimes by the Sick I was wont carefully to search out their Cases to weigh all the symptoms and to put them with exact Diaries of the Diseases into writing then diligently to meditate on these and to compare some with others and then began to adapt general Notions from particular Events and when by this means for a long time observing the Accidents and Courses of Feavers I had busied my self for the finding out forms of Reasons for their Cure at length a new Pathology of this Disease was conceived in my mind which afterwards by the frequent increasing Concourse of Observations as it were the Juice and Blood was formed by degrees into a Child such as it now appears But the Infant which I had ordered to be kept closely in our private house being remarkable for Paradoxes as it were a monstrous shape the importune diligence of Friends has taken care to bring abroad being gotten forth of my hands and to be publickly beheld What therefore is there said concerning Feavers besides the common manner I would not have any one esteem it brought forth by me as from a Doctor in the Chair doubting I bring these thoughts into Public and submit them to the Examination and Emendation of the more Learned That others before me have not spoken all things truly concerning this thing
shall be an Argument that I may Err yea if you please that I have Erred however if I should have rightly traced forth any marks in this at least new search of Truth and shall have incited others who are far better able by this occasion to the full finishing of it it will not repent me altogether of this tho rash beginning OF FEAVERS CHAP. I. The Anatomy of the Blood and its Resolution into five Principles A comparing it with Wine and Milk THE Doctrine of Fermentation being explicated it remains that we handle the chief Instance or Example of it to wit Feavers For it seems that a Feaver is only a Fermentation or immoderate Heat brought into the blood and humors It s name is derived from Februo or Purgament which also is derived from Ferveo to be Hot which word indeed is commodiously put to every Feaver for that the blood in this Disease grows hot and besides by its fervor as working must it is Purged from its filthinesses But that this Fermentation or Feaverish effervescency may be rightly explicated these three things are to be considered First What the Fermenting Liquor is whether only blood or any humors besides Secondly In what Principles in the mixture and in what proportion of them this Liquor consists Thirdly and lastly By what motion and turgescency of those parts or Particles of which the blood is made the Feaverish effervescency is stirred up These being thus premised the Doctrin of Feavers shall be delivered not from the Opinions of others but acccording to the comparisons of Reasons picked tho from ours yet from diligent and frequent observation and confirmed by certain Experiments all which however I willingly submit to the judgment of the more skilful It plainly appears even to the sense that the Blood doth hugely boil up and rage in a Feaver for every one tho rude and unskilful being in a Feaver complains of the blood being distempered and of the same growing hot in the Vessels and as it were put into a fury Also besides the blood raging in the Veins and Arteries it may be lawfully suspected that that juice with which the Brain and Nervous parts are watered is wont oftentimes to be in fault for when this Liquor is seen to be carried back from the blood into the Nervous stock by a constant motion and certain Circulation and from thence through the Lymphatick Vessels into the Bosom of the blood it is probable if by reason of a taint contracted from the blood that humor be depraved in its disposition or is perverted from its equal motion that from thence the Rigor and Pain Convulsion Delirium Phrensie and many more symptoms of the Nervous kind usual in Feavers do arise After the Blood and Nervous Liquor two other humors for that being apt to grow hot fall into our consideration viz. The Chyme or nourishing Juice continually coming to the Mass of Blood and the serous Latex perpetually departing from the same which tho they be the first and last Liquors separated from the Blood and distinct from it yet being confused with it they ought to be esteemed as its associate parts or complements For the nourishable Juice being fresh brought is accounted the crude part of the blood and to be assimilated and the Serum its stale part and to be carried away And after this manner so long as either are Circulated with the blood it self in the Vessels they participate of the heats of the first begotten blood and oftentimes occasionally begin them or increase them being begun but by what means these things come to be done is declared hereafter in their proper places As to the rest of humors which are only the recrements of the Nutritious juice or the blood when they are included either in their proper Receptacles or constrained in the narrow spaces in the Viscera neither wash the several parts of the Body with a continual lustration as the blood or Nervous Liquor or the other humors but now recited are to be exempted from this rank somtimes perhaps they may be the occasional cause that the blood doth conceive an undue Effervescency or that it persists in it longer but it is only the blood with the Nervous Liquor the alible juice and Serum associates which boiling up above measure with its heat and stirred up with a rage through the Vessels diffuses the preternatural heat and induces the formal reason of the Feaver but how this comes to be done is not to be known plainly but by a more near beholding the Nature of Blood and as it were an Anatomy made of its Liquor There are in the Blood as in all Fermentative Liquors Heterogeneous Particles which as they are of a diverse Figure and Energy remain a long while in the mixture by their mutual opposing one another and subaction the motion of Fermentation is continually conserved as is perceived in Wine Beer and other Liquors then if the mixtion of the Liquor be somwhat unlocked by the adding of Ferments the Native Particles being freed from their bonds do yet more swell up and induce Fermentation with a more rapid motion and heat which is seen in a familiar Experiment of the Chymists viz. when fluid Salts are mixed with Saline Liquors of another kind from thence a great heat and ebullition are stirred up Wherefore we ought to inquire concerning the Blood of what Particles it consists that it should be fit to Ferment as Wine Beer and other Liquors of its own Nature then by the help of what kind of Ferments both its Natural and Feaverish heats are performed with warmth and a more quick motion The Mass of the Blood by the opinion of the Antients was thought to consist of four humors to wit Blood Phlegm Choler and Melancholy and it was affirmed that according to the eminency of this or that humor diverse temperaments are formed and that by reason of their fervors or exorbitances almost all Diseases do arise This Opinion tho it flourished from the time of Galen in the Schools of Physicians yet in our Age in which the Circular motion of the Blood and other affections of it were made known before not understood it began to be a little suspected nor to be so generally made use of for the solving the Phaenomenas of Diseases because these sort of humors do not constitute the blood but what are so called except the Blood are only the recrements of the blood which ought continually to be separated from it For in truth the Blood is an only humor not one thing about the Viscera and another in the habit of the Body nor is it moved at one time by Phlegm and another time with Choler or Melancholy as is commonly asserted but the Liquor growing hot in the Vessels is only Blood and wheresoever it is carried through all the parts of the Body it is still the same and like it self But because by reason of the abundance of the implanted heat in some and because of the
not much vitiated goes into parts like Milk but if it be exceedingly depraved when it settles it shews a far different disposition and as to its single Contents is allotted into various appearances for the Cream growing together on the top is seen to be somtimes white somtimes green now yellow or of livid or lead colour also it becomes not tender but very viscous or clammy that like a Membrane it can scarce be pulled in pieces When the blood long growing hot with a Feaverish distemper is let forth from the cut Vein in its Superficies instead of a Scarlet Cream there grows together often a white skin or of some other colour the reason of which is because the blood is throughly rosted by too great Ebullition and its more pure portion as it were by a certain elixation is boiled forth from a red and tender substance to a white and tough but if in the mean time the bloody mass be not sufficiently purged from the adust recrements of Salt and Sulphur the colour of this little skin becomes yellow or livid and therefore the water swimming over it is often tinged by the same means Further the Purple Crassament or thick substance is also various viz. somtimes it is of a blackish colour when the blood is scorched too much by a long effervesency When the Fibres are vitiated as in the Liver they grow not together but the Liquor like Beasting Milk remains somwhat thick and yet fluid which indeed argues a great corruption of the blood as uses to happen in a putrid Feaver a very great Cachexy somtimes the watery Latex is wanting as in Hectical people and in too great a Diaphoresis Somtimes it superabounds as in Dropical people neither will the whole go into a white Coagulum by heat In some Cachectical people the blood being made more watery appears like watered flesh I knew one indued with a vicious habit of body that was wont to have blood of a whitish colour and like to Milk when it was let forth and afterwards when he grew better by Chalybiat Medicines his blood was moderately red but concerning the setling of the blood and its appearances there is enough But as blood being emitted from the Vessels by its coagulation and departure of the parts one from another imitates the various substances of congealed Milk so somtimes being shut within the Veins and Arteries like same fused by a Coagulum enters altogether into the like mutation from Morbific causes by reason of which change being hindred in its Circulation or somwhere congealed and fixed according to its portions it produces many distempers for it seems that from hence the Pleurisie the Squinancy the Inflammation of the Lungs the Dysentery take their Original and to this Cause the Pestilent diseases ow chiefly their deadliness as shall be said hereafter in its place It is sufficient that we have hitherto drawn a parallel of the blood from which comparison with Wine and Milk may be gathered what sort of Particles and Substances it comprehends in it self viz. Spirituous and very agil or nimble such as generous or rich Wine has for the heat and motion and besides soft and tender such as are in Milk for the nourishment of the Body Yea also this Analogy of it with Wine and Milk is yet further confirmed by the use of them in our diet out of which the blood is generated forasmuch as Milk is the best and most simple Aliment and with it Infants and Children who have need of a plentiful provision of blood are nourished chiefly But Wine copiously begets vital Spirits before all other things and being weak and fallen excellently restores them wherefore it is wont to be esteemed instead of Nectar for old men or those of ripe years The Nature and Analysis of the blood flowing within the Vessels being opened after this manner the Nutritious Juice deserves yet our consideration being supplyed from the blood and separated out of the mass of blood for the nourishment of the solid parts and cleaving to them whereby it may be the better assimilated like Dew For the Nerves Tendons and the rest of the solid parts of the whole Body are washed with a certain alible juice The Vital Spirits having obtained the Nervous Bodies for a Vehicle of this blow them forth at length and expeditiously execute the actions of Sense also that humor coming upon the solid parts and assimulated with them inlarges their bulk and growth This is not a place to inquire after the Origine Birth and manner of the dispensation of this It shall suffice only that we have noted that it is supplyed from the mass of blood and as it is rendered highly probable by the most Learned Doctor Glisson and Doctor Wharton after it hath past through the Nervous part by a certain Circulation what remains being now made as it were poor and lifeless is sent back by the Lymphatic Vessels to the blood Whilst this Juice being little cocted or purged from dregs is sent from the depraved blood to the Nervous parts t is wont variously to irritate them into Cramps and Convulsive Motions also no few Symptoms in Feavers arise by reason of the depravation and irregular Motion of this Juice as shall be more largely laid open in another place CHAP. II. Of the Motion and Heats of the Blood SO much for the Anatomy of the Blood as to its primary Elements and Constitutive parts into which it is sensibly wont to be resolved also as to its Affections which appear clearly by the comparing it with Wine and Milk it remains for us next to enquire concerning the motion of the Blood both Natural viz. by the help of what Ferment and by what swelling up of parts it is Circulated in a perpetual motion through the Vessels and preternatural viz. for what Causes and what fury of parts when it boils up above measure in the Vessels and conceives Feaverish Effervescences These being rightly unfolded and premised we will enter upon the Doctrine of Feavers Concerning the Natural Motion of the Blood we shall not here enquire of its Circulation viz by what Structure of the Heart and Vessels it is wheeled about after a constant manner as it were in a water Engine but of its Fermentation viz. by what mixtion of parts and mutual action of them together among themselves like Wine fermenting in the Ton it continually boils up And this kind of motion as it were truly an intestine war of the blood depends both on the Heterogeneity of the parts of the blood it self and on the various Ferments which are breathed into the mass of the blood from the Bowels As to the first those things which have altogether like Particles do not ferment wherefore neither distilled waters Chymical Oils Spirits of Wine or other simple Liquors are moved as hath been already observed but I have said that Blood according to the Nature things quickly irritable doth consist of a proportionate mixture of the Elements
Particles of this or that being not agreeable to the rest are loosned from the mixture being loosned they become more violent than they ought shake much the Liquor of the Blood and bring forth a heat which is not allayed till the Blood being as it were inflamed burns forth with the long fire of a Feaver By either way whether the Blood grows hot in the Vessels by reason of the pouring in of a thing not miscible or by reason of the rage of the Spirit or Sulphur being carried forth because from thence its frame is more loosned therefore it is more inkindled in the Heart and the active Particles first loosned from the Ferment there implanted do grow exceeding hot leap forth from the mixture and disperse on every side by their motion a strong heat and as it were fiery but yet with this difference that the Effervency which depends upon the mingling of some extraneous thing with the Blood is for the most part short or renewed which when what was Heterogeneous is separated or subdued is quieted of its own accord and the shaken parts of the Blood and put out of order easily return to their Natural site and disposition But the Ebullition which arises from the inordination of the Spirit or Sulphur being enraged is continual to wit here the whole mass of the Blood is so loosned and dissolved from the strict bond of the mixture that as an Oily Liquor having taken fire it ceases not to grow hot or to be inflamed till the Particles of Spirit or Sulphur or the Combustible matter be for the most part burnt out There remains yet a third manner of Preternatural Fervency whereby the Blood is subject to alteration which happens not to Wine but most often to Milk viz. when at any time from a Morbific cause a coagulation of its Liquor is induced so that its substance is poured forth and goes into parts and there is a separation made of the thick and earthy from the thin by which means the Blood is not fitly circulated in the Vessels but that its congealed portions being apt to be fixed in the extream parts or to stand still in the Heart do interrupt the equal motion or grievously hinder it For the sake of the restoring of which Effervency greater are wont to be stirred up in the Blood to wit such as happen ordinarily in a Plurisie the Plague Small-pox or the Venereal Disease CHAP. III. Of Intermitting or Agues Feavers BY the Premises which we have spoken of already concerning the Anatomy Motion and Heats of the Blood there now lies open an easie passage to the handling of Feavers The Notions which are commonly set forth concerning a Feaver out of the force and Etymology of the word I here purposely omit It may be described after this manner that it is An inordinate motion of the Blood and a too great Heat of it with burning and thirst and other Symptoms besides whereby the Natural oeconomy or Government is variously disturbed As we have remarked already concerning the growing hot of the Blood so now we do of a Feaver that indeed its accession is either short and by fits which is therefore termed Intermitting or else great and long protracted which is called a continual Feaver We will first speak of the Intermitting Feaver Tho an Intermitting Feaver in our Popular Idiom is known by a proper Name and is distinguished contrary to a Feaver commonly taken yet because it hath too great Effervency of the Blood joyned to it it is to be called a Feaver It is peculiar to this from a continual Feaver that it hath certain remissions or times of intermission that every fit begins with cold or shaking for the most part and ends in Sweat that the accessions or coming of the fits return at set Periods and certain intervals of times that a Clock is not more exact Wherefore we will first discourse concerning this Feaver in general what sort of heat of the Blood it is which continues its fit and from whence it is raised up Secondly Wherefore the fit appears equally with cold and shaking as with sweat following Thirdly What may be the cause of the Inmission as also of its certain set Periods Fourthly and Lastly Are added some irregularities of Intermitting Feavers as when now cold now heat or sweat is wanting or when the Periods are wandring and uncertain when the Remission or space of Intermission is not equal but now comes sooner now later and somtimes redoubled and I will endeavor to show the reasons of these and of other Phenomena or appearances which variously happen in this Distemper These being laid open we will go on to unfold in the next Chapter the division of an Intermitting Feaver and the kinds of it As to the first The Effervency of the Blood in an Intermitting Feaver or Ague for the time of the fit is as violent and strong as in a continual Feaver wherefore it is concluded that the parts of the Blood among themselves or some Heterogeneous thing being mixed with it do strive together and Ferment above measure But there is required that they may Ferment or too greatly boil up among themselves that some Principle as chiefly Spirit or Sulphur being too much exalted and enraged do appear above the rest which when it cannot be yoaked with them brings in a continual strife and heat but from this cause a continual Feaver draws its rise because such an Ebullition of the Blood being once begun is not suddenly allayed and when it is appeased it does not afterwards presently return Wherefore for an Intermitting Feaver 't is to be supposed that some Heterogeneous thing is mingled with the Blood whose Particles when they are not assimilated make so long an Ebullition of the same till either being kneaded they are rendered miscible or being subtilised are shut forth of doors Wherefore such a matter being brought under or shut forth of doors the fit ceases and when this matter springs again it stirs up a new Ebullition and so a new fit is brought on Concerning this Matter which being mixed with the Blood induces the periodical Heats and the other Symptoms of an Intermitting Feaver 't is very ambiguously and diversly disputed among Physicians where it is generated in what seat or place it lodges and by what means it so exactly observes the times of its Motion and Ebullition But it would be a work of too much labour and tediousness to recount here all the Arguments of the Ancients and Moderns to reduce them into order and to weigh their reasons Wherefore doubting I propose what has come into my mind when I thought deeply of the matter and submit to the judgment of others Of necessity there is somthing which brings in the Heat of the Blood exactly periodical that is generated in our Body at the several periods or accessions of the Feaver always in a set measure and equal proportion and is communicated to the mass of Blood with which when
the Blood is filled to a plenitude it forthwith grows turgid and conceives an heat But this is supposed to be either an Excrementitious humor sliding down into some Mines which by degrees and at a set time being brought to an increase and moved Ferments with the Blood or it is the nutritious Juice supplyed from the matter of Food and delated in weight and measure which when it is not assimilated by reason of a defect in sanguification being heaped up to a fulness for its own expulsion induces a turgency in the Blood The reason of Intermitting Feavers is commonly explicated by the former way and the causes of the Intermission and set times of approach are fetcht from the nature of the Humor and the seat or place where it is cherished The Nest or Mine of this Disease almost by an unanimous consent is fixed on the first shop of the Body and from hence the reason of the Intermission is fetched and the continual difference of an Intermitting Feaver but they affirm the matter to be Choler Phlegm and Melancholy and as these humors are said to putrifie flower or sooner so the Feaverish courses are said to be absolved in the space of one or more days But this Opinion after the Circulation of the Blood hath been made plainly known to all is deservedly rejected For when the Blood never stagnates in the Vessels but washes every place with a perpetual motion and continually carries away their filth it is impossible that the Mine of this Disease should subsist in the Mesaraick Veins where it is commonly asserted to be as to what belongs to the cavities or dens for the heaping up of the humors in the Viscera it neither appears by what means such should be formed without a Tumor or Imposthume nor by what instinct such humors shut up in their Nest do increase are consumed and lastly spring forth again at so exact intervals of times Besides what is affirmed concerning Bile Phlegm and Melancholy and of their periodical motions we hold wholly suspected because these sort of humors are not afforded sincere such as are described in the Schools but the Blood having gotten a various disposition now being hotter now colder its nature imitates the qualities of such humors or in its Circulating it lays aside its Recrements which being deposited in little Chests or Vessels are falsely believed to be Morbific and Preternatural humors Wherefore as the nutritious Juice is the only humor wherewith the mass of Blood is dayly refreshed and its supplements are made still in measure and proportion without doubt the periodical heats of the Blood are to be drawn from the accession and commixtion of this I have already remarked concerning the Particles of the Blood a triple state of crudity maturation and defection to wit the nourishing Juice supplyed from the dayly Food comes crude is mixed with the Blood and being for some time Circulated is assimilated to it and is ripened into a perfect humor afterwards growing stale it goes into parts and is laid aside Whilst after this equal manner the Blood is continually restored and its losses repaired it very quietly Ferments without any trouble or immoderate heat and is Circulated within the Vessels but if the supplement of the nourishing Juice is not as before ripened nor goes into Blood by a perfect digestion its Particles being confused with the Blood remain as it were some Heterogeneous thing and not exactly akin in the mass of Blood with which when it is filled to a plenitude the Blood forthwith grows troubled and conceives a Feaverish heat whereby the fresh supply of this depraved Juice is either overcome or cast forth of doors I say therefore from the first instant in which the nourishing Juice is not assimilated with the Blood its Particles tho mixed with it are as yet Circulated with it without any great tumult or perturbation and so afterwards till the mass of the Blood is filled with them to a turgency but then it quickly boils up and conceives a heat almost after the same manner as new Beer put into Bottles which if they are closely stopped that nothing may evaporate is at first contained in those Vessels without heat or force afterwards when the Effluvia being still restrained the mass of the Liquor swells up notably Ferments and by reason of the force of Fermentation oftentimes makes the Bottles fly in pieces also this happens at a set time and in the space of so mnay hours as in an Intermitting Feaver the Liquor arises to its height of turgescency There yet remains a difficulty for what cause the nutritious Juice being confused with the Blood is not assimilated but degenerates into an Heterogeneous and Fermentative matter I suppose this to be done for the most part not by the default of the Aliments nor yet of the Bowels but by the vice of the Blood it self For the Blood even as Wine somtimes passes from its native and genuine disposition into an acid sowr or austere disposition and because the Blood makes Blood it comes to pass that when it is departed from its due temper it easily perverts the provision of the nutritious Juice by which it should be repaired What that disposition of the Blood is and by what means contracted shall be told hereafter when we speak of the kinds of Intermitting Feavers and of their evident and Procatarctick causes The Heat or Effervescency therefore of the Blood which constitutes the fit of an Intermitting Feaver depends only upon the assimilation of the nourishing Juice being hindered the Particles of this being commixed with the Blood are not as before ripened nor are made into perfect Blood but by the mixture of these the mass of Blood as it were new drink is imbued with little Bodies greatly Fermentative when the which are more thickly heaped together and the Blood is filled with them to a swelling up it presently grows hot and a mighty agitation and strife of the Particles is made by which they break and subtilise one another till at length the vital Spirit getting the dominion and the rest being brought under what is extraneous is thrust forth of doors from the company of which the Blood being freed the remission and intermission of the aguish fit follows but afterwards from a new supply of this Juice a new fit is brought on Secondly As to the shaking or cold preceding the heat in this Distemper I say when the Particles of the nourishing Juice do proceed from a state of crudity towards maturity but do not attain it they contract a notable sowrishness with which they greatly prick and haule the nervous parts and cause the sense of cold even as new Beer which being stopped close in Bottles passes from a sweet into an acid and nitrous tast that for the cuttingness and cold can scarce be swallowed When therefore the Particles of this sort of crude Juice being indued with a Nitrous sowrness do fill the mass of the Blood to a fulness
or to a swelling up and when they being more thickly heaped together begin to enter into a Flux they first of all strike down the Vital Spirits with their sharpness and somwhat overthrow their heat wherefore the Blood becomes colder and is more slowly circulated yea and by reason of the defect of heat the sense of cold is perceived in the whole Body and a pulse very rare exists Moreover when the nervous and solid parts are watered with this sort of acetous Juice for their last nourishment by the Flux of this which happens together with the turgescency of the Blood these sensible parts are pulled and irritated into Tremblings and Convulsions And this without doubt is the true and genuine cause of the cold and shaking which are excited in a fit of the intermitting Feauer to wit the Flux and swelling up of the nourishing Juice degenerated into a Nitrous matter with which the Spirits and Heat being suffused are blunted and the Nervous Bodies being provoked are moved into tremblings But afterwards when these Nitrous Particles being thrust forth from some part into the Superficies of the Body the Blood is somwhat freed from their weight and oppression the Vital Spirits recollect themselves and begin to shine forth but from thence a most intense heat succeeds because both the mass of Blood by reason of the growing hot with the Feaverish matter being loosened and also its mixture being laxed the Sulphureour Particles are more plentifully inkindled in the Heart and because the pores of the skin being possessed by the same matter thrust forth towards the circumference of the Body the vaporous Effluvia are restrained within which do more shake and make hot the Blood that heat persists still in the Blood until that Fermentative matter being wholly burnt out and together with the adust recrements remaining after the burning being fully brought under and subtilised and involved with the Serum insensibly evaporates by sweat or transpiration Thirdly These things being premised it will not be hard to shew the reasons and causes of the intermission as also of the set periods viz. the intermission follows because all the Morbific matter is dispersed in one fit and so till new be substituted there is a necessity that a remission follow But new matter begins to be begot of which the last fit failed to wit the mass of Blood being but now emptied receives the nourishing Juice and perverts it as before by reason of its defect of due making of Blood and of Concoction into a Fermentative matter but its little plenty stirs up little or no trouble or Fermentation but when the Blood is filled to a swelling up it presently ferments and is in Flux even as when new Beer or new Wine shut up a long while in a Vessel at length at a certain time boils up and leapes forth at the mouth of the Vessel But that the Fits or Accessions do for the most part come again at set intervals of times and that so certainly that a Clock is not more exact the reason is because the nourishable Juice is for the most part supplyed from the Viscera to the Blood flowing in the Vessels in an equal measure and manner for tho we do not dayly take exactly so much meat and drink in weight and dimension yet because we for the most part eat at set hours for the satisfying the Appetite from the things eaten and the mass of the Chyme heaped up in the Bowels an equal portion of the nutritious Juice is conveyed to the Blood through the Milky Vessels wherefore if at such hours so much of the nutritious humor is poured into the Blood which increasing to a fulness and swelling up it brings on the fit that day certainly this being finished in the space of the same time sufficient matter is laid up for the following fit But if errors in feeding be committed and that the sick indulging their Appetite eat more plentifully or inordinately the approach of the fit anticipates the wonted hour by reason of the Bloods being filled sooner with the Feaverish matter if that the sick are abstemious and more sparingly take their Food the intermission is drawn out longer If it be yet asked wherefore the periods of intermitting Feavers be not of one kind and of the same distance but that some repeat or come again dayly others on the third or fourth day The cause is the diverse constitution of the Blood to wit whereby it is perverted from its due temper now into a sourish now into an acid or sharp or into an austere or harsh disposition By reason of the diverse evil constitution of this the alible Juice being fresh carried departs more or less from maturation and is perverted into matter apt sooner or later to ferment When the Blood has acquired a sour hot and bilous disposition I suppose that some part of the nourishing Juice is ripened into perfect humor and is assimilated with the Blood and so goes into Food to be carried to the solid parts and is affixed to them but the other part of it from the Blood being too much cocted and depraved is changed into a Feaverish matter and supposing that half of the nutritious Juice is after this manner perverted in double the time in which it is said to have a full Concoction in our Body that is after eight and forty hours this kind of Fermentative matter rises to a plenitude and turgescency and then induces the fit of a Tertian Feaver If that by reason of the austere and pontic nature of the degenerated Blood in which a fixed Salt with an Earthy Faeces is exalted too much and therefore apt to ferment more slowly only a third part of the nutritious Juice is corrupted then in three times the space of the aforesaid time the fit is induced that is after seventy two hours in which the period of a Quartan is wont to be concluded But if by reason of a greater infection of the Blood almost the whole supplement of the nutritious Juice is perverted into a Feaverish matter then in the space of that time in which the plenary coction ought to be absolved in the Vessels and habit of the Body that is after twenty four hours this matter arises up to the motion of turgescency and brings on the Quotidian fit And hence it comes to pass that in a Quartan Feaver strength and courage do not presently fail whilst in a Tertian the sick are wont to become more weak but in a Quotidian Feaver they are sooner brought into languishing and greatest weakness to wit in each as more or less of the nutritious Juice goes into the Food of the Disease so much also is drawn away from the strength and firmness of the Body But more fully of these when we treat of the several kinds of Intermitting Feavers and the Causes of them Against the equal Circuits of these Feavers it is argued that for the most part the fits do anticipate the set time of the
day by the space of some hours and sometimes also come after it But in truth this objection is taken away if the times of intermission be computed not by days but by hours for so the intervals which but now seemed to be now sooner now longer protracted will appear for the most part equal by this Rule forasmuch as in respect of the day it is said a Tertian Feaver somtimes prevents the wonted time of its accession two three or more hours or comes after it in the mean time every circuit exactly repeats or comes again every time after so many hours Wherefore the chief differences of Intermitting Feavers consist in this only that the time of the accession in one Feaver comes more swiftly and in another more slowly viz. now at twenty four hours distance now at thirty four now at seventy or the like From what hath been said unless I am deceived it clearly appears what the Effervescency of the Blood is which constitutes the fit of an Intermitting Feaver from whence the fore-runners of cold and shaking and lastly what may be the reason of the intermission and of the set periods But that these and many other appearances of this distemper depend upon the evil disposition of the Blood and because of the depravation of the nutritious Juice and not from humor lurking in some mine will yet more manifestly appear from the collation of the signs and symptoms which are to be met with worthy of note in this distemper then secondly from the Procatartic or more remote causes being truly weighed which are wont to induce this distemper and thirdly and lastly from the ways of the Crisis and Cures by which this Disease either ceases of its own accord or is driven away by the help of Medicines First Among the Signs the Pulse and Urine deserve the chief consideration The Pulse the cold fit coming on is very rare and low which clearly argues the Heat and Vital Spirits in the Blood to be as it were overwhelmed by some crude matter not easily combustible just as a fire inkindled on the Hearth and then covered with green wood glows very slowly and flames forth little which afterwards the crude humor being blown away breaks forth into an open and very strong flame so also the Blood the crude matter which is in Flux being somthing overcome or dispersed is very much inkindled and what remains in the Blood is burnt up when fermenting with the Particles of it and induces a most violent heat with thirst wherefore the Blood growing impetuously hot is urged with a vehement and most swift Pulse otherwise it being too much heaped together in the Heart might cause the danger of choaking As to the Urine that is imbued especially in a Tertian Feaver with a deep colour and as it were inflamed also when the Contents are wanting which seems to denote a scorching of the Blood and too adust temper moreover in this Distemper different from others the Urine for the most part is ill when the Patient is pretty well and on the contrary forasmuch as all the time of the intermission it is at a great distance from its natural state it becomes filled with a red colour and thick being exposed to the cold and lays down a plentiful sediment like to Bole-Armoniack which is of necessity to be so done because in the whole interval of the remission the Feaverish matter is circulated with the Blood and there rises to maturity with a secret increase But in the middle of the fit when the heat and burning are at the greatest the Urine is laudable and comes more near to the natural viz. the Fermentative matter being sent to the Circumference of the Body The symptoms preceding the fit confirm the same thing for many hours before the fit begins a perturbation of the humors and blood is perceived an Headach Vertigo sparkling of the Eyes unquiet Sleep c. which plainly shew the Blood first infected with the Fermenting matter and the assault of the fit to be only so long deferred until the mass of the Blood is filled to a swelling up with the same kind of matter The fore-runners of the approach of the fit are now a paleness at the ends of the Fingers or Toes or in the Nails somtimes a Convulsion or numness now a coldness and pain in the Loins and Thighs and somtimes a shivering and trembling invade the whole Body which clearly shew the Blood in the Arteries and Veins and also the thin Liquor in the Nervous parts first to conceive the motion of Fermentation and this Effervescency not to be excited from any other fire-place or mine If it be objected that the sick are most often infested with Vomiting about the time of the fit from whence it may seem to be concluded that the chiefest hurtful matter is established in the Ventricle and in the first passages especially when this distemper is chiefly cured by the timely taking of a Vomit I confess very great Vomitings are somtimes stirred up in the fit of an intermitting Feaver but this more often happens because in the Feaverish shivering the membranes of the whole Body are pulled wherefore the Ventricle also as it is a very Nervous part is distempered with a Convulsion and having from thence contracted a Spasm casts forth upwards whatsoever lurks in its bosom Besides if that the Choler-bearing Vessels swell up with Bile or Choler by the same Convulsion also of the Viscera the Bile is pressed forth into the Duodenum by the Galish passage and is emptied into the Ventricle and there by its fierceness provokes yet to more cruel Vomiting wherefore for the most part the vomiting which is excited for this reason follows the shaking only But that the Choler was not in the Stomach before the fit troubled it but only pressed forth from the Choleduct passage by the Spasm and Convulsive motions of the Viscera and poured forth into the Ventricle appears from hence because if a Vomit be given in the midst of the interval between the two fits little or nothing of bilous matter will be drawn forth besides this bitter humor is of that fierceness that it cannot be long contained in the Ventricle but presently it will procure the pain of the Heart and Vomiting Besides this sort of Vomiting excited in the shaking fit somtimes a Vomiting is provoked in the midst of the burning fit or in the sweat the cause of which is the redundancy of the bilish humor in the Blood of which if there be greater plenty than what diluted with Serum may be sent forth by Sweat a great part of it whilst the Blood is circulated about the crevises of the Liver is laid aside in the Choleduct Vessels which when being filled to a distention exonerate themselves and send away the Choler to the Intestines and Ventricle and there a Convulsion being presently stirred up somtimes Vomiting is provoked and somtimes the Belly becomes loose and the Stools liquid In this Year
any part it grows more tumultuous in the other parts and so by this perturbation stirred up in the whole Blood the spontaneous Effervescency of the Liquor being about to follow is hindred But that the Fit by this or ony other means being once hindred does not afterwards easily return the reason is Because if this Feaverish and depraved matter be contained longer in the Blood it is afterwards cocted and in some measure ripened and therefore the Blood does not as before altogether pervert either this or the provision coming to it anew but begins to digest and assimilate it besides when the Fit is once stop'd its custom is broke by the instinct of which alone Nature oftentimes repeats those her Errors for as when it has once made a fault it is wont more readily to do ill after the same way so when it once omits its fault it more easily accustoms it self to do better The dogmatical cure is instituted for the most part by Vomitory and Purging Medicines also with the letting of Blood with which the sick are miserably tormented and the Disease seldom profligated or driven away that deservedly this Distemper is called the shame of Physicians but Tertian Feavers are sometimes carried away by a Vomit given just before the coming of the Fit which indeed happens as I think for the reason before mentioned For I have said That the cause of a Tertian Feaver is an evil disposition of the Blood whereby it passes into a four and bilous Nature and therefore it doth not rightly assimilate the nutritious Juice brought to it but changes it into a Fermentative matter wherefore if the Bile or Choler be copiously drawn forth of the Blood that Cholerick and hot intemperance is very much taken away and that Fermentative power ceases of it self But Emetick Medicines do chiefly perform this for if they operate-strongly a Convulsion is not only brought to the bottom of the Ventricle but also the Duodenum with an inverse motion is drawn together towards the Pylorus and the Choler by a continual thrusting forward being squees'd forth from the Choleduct passage is poured into the Ventricle which is presently cast out by Vomit which being copiously performed the galish bladder is almost emptied and after that it becomes a receptacle that draws forth and separates the bilous humor or the particles of adust Sulphur and Salt plentifully poured into the Blood the next Fit sometimes is by this means prevented not because the mine of the Disease is extirpated by Vomit but because an Evacuation and motion is excited contrary to the Feaverish motion and for that reason the spontaneous Effervescency of the Blood is prevented Also by this means sometimes the Disease is taken away after the Fit because this way the Blood is fully cleared from the bilous humor It is worthy observation that in a Quartan Feaver Vomits profit nothing and seldom in a Tertian unless administred presently at the beginning whilst the Feaverish disposition is yet light and not fully confirmed Concerning Intermitting Feavers in general there yet remain some Irregulars of them to be explicated which vary from the wonted manner for unless these unusual appearances be solved this our Hypothesis will seem to be defective and to halt in one part First therefore they are wont somtimes to lack the cold or shaking fit This Intermitting Feaver is frequent in Autumn whose fits are wont to exercise the sick only with heat and that most Violent and in many they come with great Vomiting but no Sweat or Cold then after four or five periods upon the coming on of the fit the sick are wont to be chil and presently after to quake and in the declination to sweat The reason of this was because from the very hot Summer the Constitution of the Blood was become sharp and very much burnt Wherefore the Particles of the crude Juice being commixed with it were presently terrified or made hot and scorched that they did not at first like new Beer grow hot with an Acrimony and then afterwards blaze forth but a turgescency being stirred up like dry wood laid upon a fire presently the whole took fire and broke forth into flames but afterwards the Liquor of the Blood being fired by several fits became less torrid that the depraved Alible Juice was not presently torrified but passed into a Nitrous matter and fermenting with a sharpness which at first swelling up induced the sense of cold to the whole Body When the cold fit was begun for the most part Sweat concluded it which indeed hapned because the Blood being made more watery is more easily resolved into vapour with the Feaverish matter even as a watery Liquor is more easily drawn forth by distillation than what is Oily or of a more thick consistency It often happens in the declination of this Disease when the fits begin to lessen that the sense of cold and shaking by little and little are diminished and at length vanish and the fit only troubles the sick with a light burning The reason of which is because at this time the Blood being somwhat restored towards its natural state begins to concoct and ripen the crude juice so that a great part of it is assimilated but some Excrements being heaped together in the Blood bring forth as yet a light burning but when the Feaverish Particles do not participate of the Nitrous Acrimony the Fermentation of the Blood is induced without any shivering by which what was extraneous burns forth is either subdued or carried forth of doors Somtimes also in the declination of this Disease the fits appear without any burning only with a light cold The reason of which is because the Morbific matter being rather Nitrous than Sulphureous when it is in Flux does somwhat blunt the Natural Heat and by that means is dissipated and vanishes without any great deflagration There is yet a great doubt concerning the intervals of the periods which somtimes seem to be double in the same Feaver that the first Accession answers to the third and either perhaps comes in the morning and again the second to the fourth and both happen in the Evening and so forward wherefore the Feaver bearing this figure is wont to be named a double Tertian or Quartan of which it doth not easily appear how they should be done if the fits depend upon the evil disposition of the Blood and from thence on a Congestion to a Turgescency of the depraved Nourishing Juice for which cause they commonly affirm that this double figure is stirred up or draws its original from a double Nest or Mine but to me it seems most likely that in this case somtimes it happens for the Feaver to be simple and of one kind also its types or figures to be alike and all congruous one to another but the error to arise because the interstitia of the periods are not computed by hours but days For when as the beginnings of the fits are distant one from
another not exactly twenty four hours but either sixteen or thirty hours in a Quotidian and in a Tertian not forty eight but forty or fifty six more or less or thereabouts it comes to pass that every other fits happen before and the others after Noon To which also may be added that the different manner of eating which the sick use very often produces great inequalities of figures that somtimes the fit is redoubled twice in a day as I have often observed in Cachectical men or full of ill humors and living disorderly but it doth not seldom happen that Intermitting Feavers repeat fits which do neither observe the same distance nor bear altogether the figure of the same mode I have many times observed in a Quartan Feaver that besides the set comings or Accessions returning on the fourth day about the same hour some wandring and uncertain fits did infest the sick that somtimes on the day preceeding the wonted fit somtimes on that following it another fit tho lighter was excited anew with shivering Heat and Sweat exactly like the figure of an Intermitting Feaver and nevertheless the primary Accession returned at its accustomed time This for the most part is wont to happen either from diet evilly instituted chiefly from surfeit and drinking of Wine or else from Medicines wrongfully administred The reason of which unless I am deceived consists in this The mass of Blood being wont to be filled to a swelling up with the Fermentative matter at a set time often by reason of some errors in eating and drinking heaps up more matter than can be easily dissipated in one fit and when it unequally Cooks the same Fermentative matter it often happens that it first shakes off its superfluous or more thin part as it were by a certain skirmish in a more light fit but dispels the more thick after the primary Accession as yet remaining in the Blood by a Feaverish Fermentation arising anew And when the fits in an Intermitting Feaver redouble after this manner either become more remiss for that the same matter in either is only divided and eventilated by two accessions Besides when this Fermentative matter or Nutritious Juice depraved in its circulation is continued partly in the Arteries and Veins with the Blood and partly in the Nervous stock and solid parts it may happen that both humors do not ferment at once but a great part of one may be dispersed in one fit and then a great part of the other in another fit CHAP. IV. Of the kinds of Intermitting Feavers and first of a Tertian WE shall easily accommodate to our Hypothesis delivered in the former Chapter concerning the nature and beginning of Intermitting Feavers all the Phaenomena which belong to it and the reasons of them But as those which are of this sort do not observe the same space of Intermission or of return and their figures as to the appearances of their signs and symptoms do not altogether happen after the same manner therefore according to the diversities of these and especially from the distance of the fits the various species and differences of Intermitting Feavers are assigned The chiefest division of them is into Tertian Quotidian and Quartan We shall here remark the chief things worthy of note concerning each of them It is called a Tertian Feaver not which is accomplished at the distance of three days but inclusively from the day in which one Fit begins from thence the other returns on the third In the mean time if the Fits be sometimes longer viz. protracted almost to twenty four hours and the Remissions anticipated also by their accessions or comings of the Fits the space is oftentimes less by a night and a day This Disease is commonly distinguished into exquisite and spurious The exquisite or exact Tertian Feaver is which begins with a vehement shaking to which succeeds a sharp and biting heat which goes off in sweat and its Fit is finished in twelve hours and that the perfect intermission follows In the spurious or bastard Tertian the cold and heat are more remiss but the Fit is often extended beyond twelve hours yea often to eighteen or twenty These differ as to the various disposition of the Blood which is in the former more torrid and sharp therefore perverts the alible Juice from Crudity towards an adustion wherefore a more vehement Effervescency is stirred up but as the matter more equally burns forth it is sooner finished In the latter besides the adustion the Blood abounds with too much serous humidity wherefore the nourishing Juice degenerates into a Crude matter and therefore less apt to be overcome and to burn forth wherefore its Fit is gentler and more unequal but is not finished but in a longer space The Essence therefore of a Tertian Feaver consists in this That the Blood like Beer brew'd with too high dry'd Mault being too sharp and torrid does not rightly subdue and ripen the alible Juice which is taken in from crude things eaten but very much perverts it into a nitrous-sulphurous matter with which when the mass of Blood is filled to a swelling up like new Beer stop'd up in Bottles it conceives an heat From the flux of this nitrous matter which blunts the heat and vital spirits and pulls the nervous parts first the cold with shaking is excited then the vital spirit geting strength again this matter growing hot in the Blood begins to be subdued and inkindled in the heart from whose deflagration an intense heat is diffused thorough the whole body then its reliques being separated and involved with serum are sent away by sweat This torrid Constitution of the Blood consists in this That 't is impregnated more than it ought with particles of Sulphur and Salt wherefore the Procatartick causes which dispose to this Disease are an hot and bilous temperament a youthful age hot dyet as an immoderate use of Wine and spiced Meats but especially in the Spring and autumnal feafons of the year when the Blood as all vegetables is apt to flower and to ferment of its own accord By reason of these occasions the liquor of the Blood is want to be thorowly roasted and to be changed into a cholerick temper and when it departs from its natural Disposition so much that it perverts the nutritious Juice into a matter plainly Fermentative the beginning of this Feaver is induced which sometimes happens from this intemperance being leasurely increased and brought to the height but more frequently an evident cause raises up this disposition into act and we ascribe the origine of this Disease to some notable Accident Wherefore lying on the Ground or taking cold after sweating or transpiration being any ways hindred also a Surfit or a perturbation of the Stomach from any thing inordinately eaten and lastly What things soever stir up an immoderate heat in the Blood bring the lurking disposition of this Disease into act for that from every such occasion the nutritious Juice being heaped in the
Blood and somewhat depraved conceives a Flux and departing from the rest of the Blood ferments with a nitrous sharpness then being inkindled and shaken by the Spirit and vital heat it induces the Fit with a very strong burning A Tertian Feaver is wont to be more frequent in the Spring at which time the Blood is livelier and richer and therefore more fitted for this kind of Feaverish distemper If this Feaver being taken be ended within a moderate time t is commonly said to be a Medicine rather than a Disease which is partly true because by this means the impurities of the Blood burn out the obstructions of the Viscera are discharged and in truth the whole body is ventilated so that 't is wholly freed from every Excrementitious matter and the seminary of growing Diseases But if this Disease be long protracted it becomes the cause of many Sicknesses and of a long want of Health For from hence the mass of the Blood is very much deprived of the vital Spirit and like Wine too much fermented in a manner grows lifeless wherefore the Jaundice Scurvy or Cachexia follow this Feaver being long er'e it be cured For by its frequent Fits the vital Spirit very much evaporates and because it is but little restored by things eaten the Blood therefore becomes weaker and almost without life In the mean time the particles of Salt and Sulphur are carried forth more and exalted from whence the Blood is made sharp and salt and so more unfit for Circulation and Transpiration Moreover This Disease being long protracted oftentimes changes its Figure and from a Tertian Feaver becomes either a Quotidian or sometimes a Quartan then sometimes from either it returns into a Tertian The reason of this is the disposition of the Blood being variously changed which at first being sharp and bilous had perverted the nutritious Juice by that means that it arise to a fulness of swelling up on the third day afterwards by the frequent Deflagration becoming less sharp or in truth more waterish it grows far weaker as to its Constitution so that it doth very little or not at all assimulate the nourishable humor and ripen it and by that means the increase of the Fermentative matter is made sooner and the Fits return daily or else the Blood from a sharp and bilous intemperance the constitution of the Heaven or the year bringing on this alteration is changed into an austere or saltish and therefore more slowly perverts the nourishing Juice and the increase of the Feaverish matter gathering together more slowly it doth not conceive the Fits till on the fourth day but if either by the means of Physick or Dyet the temper of the Blood is reduced from either Dyscrasie towards a bilous the periods also are altered and they resume the figure of a Tertian Certain symptoms are wont to come upon a Tertian Feaver which are commonly esteemed for the Crises of this Disease and in truth sometimes these appearing the Distemper either clearly ceases or begins to abate of its wonted fierceness But these kind of signs are chiefly these three viz. The Erysipelas or an Eruption of pimples in the Lips the yellow Jaundice and an Inflamation or swelling suddenly excited in this or that part of the body very often there happens after three or four Fits to the Sick little ulcers with a crusty scab to break forth about the Lips and altho there be no coming away of any matter in all the body beside yet from hence they presage that the Feaver is about to depart which sometimes the event proves true But indeed sometimes I have observed that the hoped for effect has not succeeded but that the Feaver pertinaciously and for a long while hath afflicted them when their Lips have been broken out But as to what respects this Symptom it seems to arise for that the Blood having got a more free Diaphoresis it not only thrusts forth adoors the more thin and smokie recrements but also the more thick and when the same in other parts more easily exhale thorow the more open Pores they stick in their passage about the Lips by reason of the skin being more strictly bound together and because the vaporous matter abounds in particles of adust Salt and Sulphur being fixed in the skin it there hinders Circulation and therefore induces Pustles and little Ulcers perhaps the more hot breath which is breathed forth from the mouth and nostrils may contribute something to this Distemper forasmuch as it scorches and burns the Blood and Juices flowing thither wherefore it may be said That this eruption of Pustles denotes only a more full Diaphoresis in the whole by which the more thick as well as the thin recrements of the adust Blood evaporate forth of doors For I have known in some from a Tertian Feaver little welks like the small Pox to break out in their whole body that if by this more plentiful Ventilation as it were a purging the Blood be so freed that it recovers its pristine disposition the Feaver is cured But if as sometimes it happens some recrements tho more thick break forth yet others stay within and still cherish the Feaverish disposition those little Ulcers argue only a greater taint of the Blood and pertinacy of the Disease therefore it may be observed when that scabs break out in the lips if the Feaver does not presently abate that it will be more grievous and tedious for the future Sometimes the yellow Jaundice comes upon a Tertian Feaver and cures it which Hippocrates has also taken notice of the reason of which is because when the Blood has got a sharp or bilous disposition that therefore it had perverted the alible Juice and from thence had heaped together excrementitious matter it is oftentimes freed by that Dyscrasie when by a sudden Secretion the recrements of adust Salt and Sulphur are more plentiful purged forth This the Choleduct vessels being irritated by Physick or of their own accord and so pouring out plentifully the Bile from the Blood do often perform because Vomiting Purging and especially a Diarrhea or Lask very much conduce to the cure of this Disease yea sometimes the Blood it self putting forth of its own accord thrusts forth the bilous recrements as its off-scourings and in the circulating puts them forth in the skin and so inducing the yellow Jaundice cures this Feaver When an Inflamation as sometimes t is wont comes upon this Distemper the Ague is commonly said to fall down into the part distempered with the Tumor But that by such a breaking forth this Disease is cured 't is no wonder because the Blood by this means continually lays aside out of his bosom the provision of the degenerate nutritious Juice and transfers it to the distempered part and therefore the degenerate and fermentative matter in the mass of Blood does not easily arise to a fulness of swelling up wherefore the Belly being perpetually loose hath by degrees helped some for that the
Medicine the disposition of the Blood was very much hurt and when at first it was prone to a bilous Dyscrasie that it hardly did assimilate the alible Juice from this evident cause it forthwith degenerated that it wholy perverted the Nutriment into a Fermentative matter and so conceived the Feaverish disposition It is a common opinion that a Tertian Feaver can scarce be cured without a Vomit wherefore some Medicasters are wont under the pretext of the necessity to give to all whatsoever labouring with this Disease tho languishing and weak an Emetick Medicine not without great danger of life and those whom they judge wholy unfit for such a Medicine they leave as not easily cureable to Nature But as I have often found the contrary by experience this sort of practice is evilly instituted yea I rather judge for the cureing of a Tertian Feaver that Vomits are rarely or never to be required unless in a strong Body and very easily prone to Vomiting and when the Ventricle happens to be burthened with excrementitious matter but instead of it that a gentle Purge by which the load of the humors may be pleasantly brought away may be of better use because a Purge in this case doth the same thing as a Vomit to wit it evacuates the choleduct Vessels that the Bile being plentifully exhausted from the Blood the Feaverish Dyscrasie is mended But when the galish humor being emptied forth into the Ventricle is cast out upwards from thence there is great hurt brought to the stomach and a mighty perturbation excited in the whole Body But if that humour be inticed downwards by a gentle Purge it is sent forth of doors without any trouble Then if to a gentle Purge once or twice repeated be added a very slender dyet without flesh it often answers the preservatory Indication that there needs no other Remedies for the taking away the cause of this Disease but that these being rightly performed shall render beneficial those things which being either inwardly taken or outwardly applyed stop the Feaverish accession By this sort of plain and easie institution of Medicine viz. A Purge of the infusion of Senna and Rhubarb a slender dyet and a Febrifuge or Ague-resisting Topick laid either to the wrists or the breast I have known very often and in a very short time Tertian Feavers cured without the use of any other destroying Physick yea a thin dyet only with Amulets timely administred hath very happily cured Big-bellied women and also very weak old men whose strength could not bear Purging I have so often made tryal of this method with good success that I doubt not but that a Tertian Feaver may as easily be cured as any other Disease if it be at the begining handled after this manner viz. before the temper of the Blood be more hurt by an evil manner of Dyet or by Medicine untowardly administred For the truth of this thing I will relate this following History A certain noble young man indued with a bilous Temper had caught an intermitting Tertian Feaver upon the approach of the Fit he Vomited forth much yellow and greenish Choler then he was troubled most grievously for many hours with a great pain of the Heart and most strong Heat and Thirst On the day of the intermission there was taken from this person with whom I was by chance by my prescription eight ounces of Blood and in the afternoon was given an Emollient Glyster he also used a most slender Dyet viz. only made of Barly He took every night going to sleep this Opiate viz. Conserve of Roses vitriolated half a dram of Diascordium a scruple also every morning of the Salt of Wormwood a scruple in a spoonful of the Juice of Orange but when these did not succeed for the Fit returned somwhat more remiss but with cruel Vomiting as at first besides for that this sick person extreamly abhor'd a Vomitory Medicine because not long before this from a very gentle Emetick he had Vomited almost thirty times until being distempered with the Cramp and Convulsions he was brought into great weakness with hazard of his life therefore the day following the aforesaid Fit I gave him a Potion of an infusion of Senna Rhubarb and yellow Sanders with Salt of Wormwood in Spring-water by which he was Purged ten times with ease In the morning after and three hours before he expected the Fit I put to his wrists an Ague-resisting Medicine and took from him six ounces of Blood by which means he mist his Feaverish Fit and then being again Purged after the same manner became perfectly well If that the Tertian Feaver by reason of the evil Constitution of the sick or because of errors in Dyet or committed by Physick hath more deeply rooted it self that after a long sickness the Fits still grow worse and the sick extreamly languish with want of Strength Thirst and almost continual Heat want of Appetite wakeings weak Pulse high colour'd Urine and very full of Contents the Curatory method ought to be a little otherways instituted In this case first it is to be endeavour'd that the Dyscrasie of the Blood may be taken away wherefore the sick are to be fed with slender Aliments only as Barly broth or Grewel with opening Roots boiled in it flesh-broth being wholly laid aside the Belly is to be kept loose if need be with the use of Emollient Clysters besides Purges being omitted only digestive Medicines which fuse the Blood and bring away gently the serous Impurities by Urine also comforting Remedies which corroborate the Viscera and cherish the Spirits are chiefly to be insisted on To this end Apozems are fitly to be prepared of Herbs and Roots gently Diuretic also Opiats help very much of temperate Conserves with Sal Nitre or the fixed Salt of Herbs with shelly powders and the Spirit of Vitriol mixed together When the disposition of the Blood is somwhat mended that the Urine is clearer and less coloured also sleep quieter with a remission of thirst and heat following then may be profitably administred Remedies to stop the Feaverish fit wherefore Ague-resisting Amulets may be applyed to the Wrists or to the Soles of the Feet also the powder of Peruvian Bark or of somthing instead of it or also of the Barks of the Ash-Tree Tamarisk or Gentian with Salts mixed with them and drunk in White-Wine after the comings of the fits are taken away and the sick being to get strength and desire Food and in some measure to digest it gentle Purges may be of use but let the sick still abstain from a more plentiful Diet or participating of Flesh and they will shortly after recover perfect Health without any violent Purge or Phlebotomy CHAP. V. Of the Quotidian Intermitting Feaver BEcause of its affinity to the Tertian Feaver and likeness of fits the Quotidian or dayly Feaver comes next viz. whose Accession is wont to return every day It is the opinion of some that this sort of Feaver
so also prone to this sort of Feaver as is already shewed If the Remedies which for the Curing of this have been made tryal of both by Physicians and Empericks were collected together their description would swell into a great Volumn but altho there is instituted a manifold provision of Medicine against this evil yet very few are cured in the Autumn In some about the begining of their sickness before the Disease has taken too deep root a Vomit hath brought help but in most all manner of Cathartics tho an hundred times repeated have profited nothing In whom the evil had deeply implanted it self the sick received no help from the most studied Medicines made use of all the Autumn But when at this time I perceived the ordinary method of Medicine was administred in vain I proposed to a Noble Virgin requiring a sudden Cure by any means to be performed that if she would indure a Flux at the Mouth for some days from a Mineral Medicine by that means it might be hoped that the Disease would be profligated When she had readily assented to this I gave her a gentle and very safe Medicine by which a light spitting only was provoked and that finished within twelve days As soon as the Salivation began she mist her fits but at those times they were wont to come she felt a perturbation in her whole Body with an oppression of the Heart and dread of swooning but after the spitting was finished she appear'd very well and when again after two months space she was troubled with some light fits of this Disease from an Emetick pouder twice or thrice taken she was wholly cured without relapsing After the winter Solstice this Disease began to rage less and to cease in some of its own accord and in many others to be easily expung'd by the use of Physick because at this time the Dyscrasie of the Blood contracted by the Summers heat is wont to be blotted out leisurely by reason of the cold of the Winter and the mass of Blood growing old as it were to put off its old spoils and to be reduced towards its natural State But those who were of a melancholick temper or had their viscera and especially the Spleen evilly affected or that used an ill manner of Dyet received no change at this Tropick but to the next period of the year viz. to the vernal Equinox or the Spring kept the Disease and then in most the Blood being either restored of it self or its intemperance more easily mended by the use of Remedies this Distemper was seen to be overcome But in the mean time many old men and such as were full of evil humours or otherways unhealthy ordinarily dyed in all that space of time of this Disease also some liv'd who could not shake off its yoak tho the Summer Solstice were past But altho very many had labour'd with this Feaver as it were Epidemical almost thorow the whole year yet none that I know contracted it first in the Spring and very few grew well of it during the Autumn that in truth I do not doubt the Dyscrasie of the Blood to be the cause of this and the cure to consist in the change of it The Remedies which most often brought help as appeared at least to our observation were of this sort which did restrain the Feaverish Fit for the evils of the disposition of the Blood being somwhat mended by the time of the year being changed if now the habitual custom of the Fits were broken off Nature recollected her self and easily recover'd the pristine state of health by her own endeavour And this kind of intention to wit the inhibition of the Fits tho somtimes performed by Vomits given a little before the coming of the Fit for these did not rarely stop the Feaverish motion of the Blood by raising up another motion contrary to this yet this Indication is far more certainly and indeed happily effected by the use of those kind of Medicines which do not altogether evacuate from the Viscera but induce either a certain fixation to the Blood or a precipitation of the Feaverish matter for a time Wherefore those whom I undertook to cure in the Spring and afterwards I handled and in most with good success with this method a provision being made of the whole somtimes with an Emetic Medicine somtimes with a Solutive I was wont three hours before the Fit to lay a peculiar Ague-Medicine to the wrists and together to give them to drink in Sack an Ague-resisting pouder and to order the sick to be kept in Bed in a gentle sweat It seldom hapned but at the first or second time the Feaverish Fit was by this means restrained and then by the same Remedy somtimes reiterated the Disease at last wholly ceased To this kind of practice besides our experience the use of the pouder of a certain Bark brought of late from the Indies seems to give some Faith and approbation which is said most certainly to cure this Disease but the vertue or operation of this without any evacuation consists in this only that it hinders the coming of the Feaverish Fits Concerning this Peruvian Bark because of late it hath begun to be in use there are some things to be said which offer themselves to common observation The common manner of exhibiting this is that two drams of it beaten to pouder be infused in Sack or Whitewine in an open Glass for two hours and then upon the coming of the Fit the Patient being put to Bed that the liquor and pouder be drunk up This potion often takes away the approaching Fit yet oftentimes tho taken after the wonted manner it prevents the next however either in the first second or third period the Fit is inhibited and the Disease seems to be cured it is often wont to return within twenty or thirty days then this pouder being again exhibited the Disease is for a time deferred about the same space and by this means I have known many sick of a Quartan to have suffered some few Fits only a whole Autumn and Winter and so to have detained the enemy in his precincts till the Spring coming on the disposition of the Blood is altered for the better by the help of the time of year and of other Physick and so this distemper vanishes by degrees Those who by this means have procured these frequent truces of the Quartan have liv'd chearful lively and ready for any business when otherwise being weak and pale they were brought into languishment and a vitious habit of Body scarce one of an hundred hath tryed this Medicine in vain yea if but half or a lesser quantity viz. the weight of but one dram taken it very often takes away the Fits and suspends the same a shorter space only neither is it any matter whether it be taken in strong or small Wine unless with the respect to the disposition of the sick because in a more hot temper it may
be profitably taken in distilled Water or Whey also a clear infusion of it the more thick substance being cast away produces the like effect but of shorter durance I have taken care to reduce this powder into Pills with the mucilage of Tragacanth with a little cost to the sick to be given to some after what manner soever it is taken unless to those loathing and abhorring every Medicine it causes no manifest evacuation and takes away the Fit almost from all neither is it only in a Quartan Feaver but in the other kinds of intermitting Feavers to wit in every one where there is any remission coming between given with good success It is commonly ordered that a gentle Purge should be taken before this but in some who are very weak and keep their Beds this powder being taken carefully without any previous Medicine hath procured laudable effects In the mean time I will ingeniously confess that I have not seen an intermitting Feaver quite cured by this Bark once taken nay rather the Fits not only of a Quartan but of a Tertian and Quotidian Feaver wholly overcome easily by other Remedies seeming to be driven away by this powder have constantly return'd after a short time For this Reason they who suppress intermitting Feavers otherways easily curable no necessity urging them by this Medicine for a little while only seem to institute a deceitful Medicine and do no more than those who skin over a rotten Ulcer which will shortly break out again in truth in some cases the use of this will be requisite viz. when by the too great assiduity of the Fits the spirits of the sick are cast down truces are by this means procured by which Nature may recollect her self and afterwards may be more able to fight against this potent Enemy also that a Quartan Feaver during the Autumn and Winter may pass over with little trouble this Bark is profitably administred But those who expect a longer resting time from the assaults of this Feaver are bid to take this powder in greater quantity and more often to wit that they should take two drams three several times one after another whether the Fits return or no by this means they remain longer free yet they retain within the Enemy still tho asleep If it be demanded concerning the Nature of this Bark and the virtue in suppressing the fits of Intermitting Feavers it is not to be dissembled that 't is very difficult to explicate the causes of these kind of effects and the manner of working because there is not found as yet in any Subject besides the like efficacy but from a singular experiment a general Reason is not to be rightly fitted however from the appearances diligently Collated we will deduce some Theses in order which may make at least some steps towards if not obtain the verity of this thing It is to be noted therefore in the first place that this Medicine being inwardly taken especially exerciseth its force and energy on the mass of Blood because it does not at all irritate the Viscera neither causes in them any excretion or trouble besides whilst it communicates its virtue to the Blood it doth not at all put forth Antifeaverish property wherefore not always the next following fit but the second or the third is prevented by the same being taken and for this reason that it may sooner affect the Blood it is a usual thing to drink the Liquor very much impregnated with the same powder for so its Particles are more easily conveyed into the mass of Blood Secondly the virtue of this Bark being impressed on the Blood stays in it for some time and that either shorter or longer according as either a greater or lesser portion of the Medicine was taken inwardly for the Particles of this being confused with the Blood are a long while circulated with it and by how much the longer they stay by so much the more they affect its mass and produce a longer effect for though Aliments and some other things taken in for that they are presently overcome by the native heat put off whatever they have of virtue within some few hours this being then assimilated or sent forth adoors they cease to operate yet some Medicines being taken inwardly because they are not easily tamed nor cast forth of doors presently by an irritation stirred up they remain for many days very active and hold a long time the Juices and the Blood in this or that manner of Fermentation this may be observed of some Medicines also of Poysons and Counterpoysons the once or twice taking of which for some days is wont to affect our Bodies for a longer time for 't is an usual thing with Cathartic Medicines when they work little by Vomit or Stool to break forth after many weeks outwardly in Pustles and Wealks yea if Death be avoided from the drinking of Poyson every body knows that the virulency will lie hid a long time in the Blood and Juices In like manner also this powder and perhaps very many other things inwardly taken altho they seem asleep yet continue to act on the Spirits and Humors Thirdly altho this Medicine acts immediately on the Blood and Humors yet it takes not wholly away the Feaverish Dyscrasie implanted in them for as soon as its force is consumed and all its Particles are flown away from the mixture of the Blood the Distemper being only suppressed for a time at length rises up and repeats its fits after its wonted manner but forasmuch as Nature by the space of this cessation becomes stronger therefore after the Relaps the fits not as before but on the third or fourth day according to the first figure of the Disease are wont to return Fourthly It is remarked that this Remedy does not stop the Feaverish accessions as the ordinary Ague-resisters or Febrifuges by fixing or also by fusing the Blood for then the next fit always and not the second or third following after is prevented According to which positions that we may instead of a Corollary subjoin some things concerning the manner it self of working whereby this Medicine seems to act we say it is most likely that when the Particles proceeding from the same being taken are throughly mixed with the Blood they compel it into a certain new Fermentation by which whilst the Particles of the Blood are continually agitated they are wholly hindered that they cannot heap up any Excrementitious matter or enter into Feaverish turgescencies for as after the biting of a mad dog or stinging of any venemous Creatures the Blood it self and nervous Juice are a long while impoysoned yet lest they should conceive presently great irregularities Counter-poysons being taken do hinder their Liquors by retaining them in another Fermentation the use of which if so long continued whilst the virulent little Bodies are quite flown away no horrid symptom is to be feared from that evil being contracted but if the strength of the Remedy being too sparingly
given be first consumed forthwith the Venom repullulates and the old Poyson thought to have been exploded is at length brought into act by the same way when the Blood having gotten a vitious disposition perverts the Alible Juice and whereby it might more rightly expel it heaped together to a fulness conceives Feaverish swellings up this Peruvian Bark being beaten and administred by the Commerce of its Particles so agitates the Blood tho distempered with an evil disposition with a new excited Fermentation and alters it that it in some measure concocts the nourishable Juice and continually evaporates its Recrements that they are not heaped together as before into the matter of a fit But when the Particles of this Remedy are wholly flown away from the company of the Blood and the whole virtue consumed the evil disposition of the Blood before contrancted at length rises up and so the Feaverish fits return after their wonted manner Somtimes perhaps it happens that whilst the Feaverish fits are suppressed by the use of this powder by reason of the season of the year being changed or by the help of another Remedy or by the endeavour of Nature it self that Dyscrasie of the Blood may be mended by degrees and so the Feaver may at length vanish of its own accord This I have known to happen but very rarely because almost with the same certainty by which you expect the Feaverish fits to be suppressed by that powder you may afterwards look for their return As to what appertains to the sensible qualities with which this Bark is noted it appears to abound with bitterness and a certain stipticity that it seems to the tast to have the likeness of Savor which is in most Conterpoysons as the Root of Gentian Serpentary Contrayerva c. for what are bitter in act are strong in excellent virtue for the suppressing the force of preternatural Ferments yea the Root of Gentian which is likest to this Bark was in times past of famous use for the Curing of Quartan Feavers But now altho this Peruvian powder be the only Alexiterion or Counter-poyson as yet found out against a Quartan Feaver to wit that inhibits tho only for a time its fits and of other Intermitting Feavers yet it is not to be doubted but that there are in the world other Medicines extant which are as good Ague-resisters and it is hoped that led by the example of this new invention we may be excited to the finding out the virtues of Herbs almost as yet unknown so whilst we shall insist on the trial of several and the Empirical be joyned to the Rational Medicine without doubt the Cures of the Quartan Ague and of other invincible Diseases may more happily be accomplished which therefore I promise more willingly to this Age or at least to the next when being led by the Analogy of this Book I have found out a Medicine for the profligating of Feavers of use not contemptible it not being long since variously tryed which also I am wont to give to the poorer sort instead of somthing else with good success CHAP. VII Of continual Feavers A Continual Feaver is that whose fit is continued for many days without intermission It hath its times of remission and of more fierceness but never of intermission the burning is now more remiss now more intense but still the sick are in a Feaver until by the temperament or insensible growing well the Disease is wholly Cured Concerning this it behoves us to inquire what Effervescency of the Blood it is which causes a continual Feaver then by what ways and from what causes it is wont to be excited also how it differs from that which is in Intermitting Feavers And these being performed we will descend to the Species of Continual Feavers There are many ways by which the Blood growing hot induces a continual Feavear the chief of which may be reduced to these Heads The first way is when the more spirituous and subtil Portion of the Blood becomes too hot and is distempered with a certain burning which therefore agitates the other parts of the Blood and incites it into a certain rage so that the Sulphur or the Oily part of the Blood is more dissolved and more inkindled in the Heart also for that cause there is among all the Particles of the Blood a certain syncrisis contrariety or perturbation by which in truth being confused and put out of order they are not able quickly to be extricated and reduced into their former posture wherefore a heat and burning more than is wont to be is stirred up in the whole Body but when the Spirits are only in fault their heat and disorder are wont within a short space to be allaied of their own accord therefore this Feaver is often terminated within a day and is rarely continued beyond three and therefore is called an Ephemera or a Feaver of a day or Synochus of more dayr 2. The second manner or degree of growing hot is when the Sulphureous or Oily part of the Blood being too much heated conceives a Fervor for then it both grows immoderately hot in the Vessels and being very much inkindled in the Heart produces by its deflagration a very strong heat in the whole Body Indeed the Blood as to its temper mostly depends on the condition of the Sulphur when by reason of crudity the Sulphur is less dissolved the Blood is made watery and cold and is moved slowly in the Vessels but if the Sulphureous or Oily part of the Blood grows hot beyond its Natural disposition presently it becomes fierce and improportionate with the rest so that almost the whole being acted as it were into a flame by the Ferment of the Heart compels the mass of Blood to grow immoderately hot and to boil up For as when Wines indued with a rich Lee are stirred up into an heat by the too rancid Sulphur or as Hay laid up too wet by reason of the want of Ventilation conceives of its own accord a burning the Particles of the Sulphur being loosned from the mixture in like manner when the Blood is not rightly ventilated but being restrained from Evacuation by reason of the admixtion of some hot thing or a more plentiful sanguification or for some other cause the Particles of the Sulphur begin to be thickly gathered together presently all its Liquor immoderately boils up by the Sulphurs being loosned and inflamed in the Heart and this kind of Feaver is induced which is called a putrid Synochus notwithstanding which appellation tho of many rejected for that the Blood so long as it is in motion doth not putrifie yet forasmuch as in this Feaver the mixture of the Blood is somwhat loosned by the Sulphur being too much exalted and the mass of its Liquor being changed from its Natural disposition tends toward putrefaction therefore the term of a putrid Feaver as hath been anciently used may be still with good reason retained 3. The third degree of
growing hot and which constitutes a distinct kind of continual Feaver is excited from a certain malignant and invenomed Ferment by which when the mass of the Blood is imbued and the Spirits and the Sulphureous part together conceive an heat and their burning is not sooner appeased than that either that malignant matter be consumed and cast forth of doors or else a certain coagulation and as it were putrefaction of the Blood from its corruptive venom is induced by which both circulation is hindered and the Vital Spirit extinguished This malignity is wont to arise either from a certain contagion received from without or from some infection begotten within us according to these ways the malignant Feaver Small-pox Measels and also the Plague draw their beginnings and by their contagion far and near set upon many There are therefore three degrees or manners of growing hot by which the kinds of continual Feavers are determined From the subtil portion of the Blood made hot or the Ebullition of the Spirits the Ephemera arises as also the Synochus of one or more days by the Sulphureous or Oily part of the Blood being too hot and inkindled the putrid Feaver is stirred up then thirdly upon an invenomed taint infecting the Blood and congealing its Liquor malignant Feavers depend In every one of these by the depravation or rather corruption of the Alible Juice fresh carried into the Blood the various fits inequalities and critical motions arise But before I enter upon the several kinds of a continued Feaver it is requisite for me to consider how the growing hot of the Blood in a continual Feaver differs from that other which constitutes Intermitting Feavers I say therefore that the growing hot of the Blood in an Intermitting Feaver depends only upon the commixtion of a certain Fermentative matter and not rightly miscible with the Blood and on its growing up to a fulness of boiling over Because of this heat with the Blood in the Vessels and of the deflagration in the Heart the fit is induced because of its growing cool the intermission follows that in the coming between of the fits neither the Spirits nor Sulphur become outragious but the bond of the mixture being kept whole the Liquor is circulated in the Vessels equally and without trouble on the contrary in a continual Feaver the disorders of the Spirits and of Sulphur of either or both together by their proper Ebullition also without the mixture of any other stir up the Ebullition of the Blood wherefore there are required for an intermission besides the difflation or cooling of the Excrementitious matter a deflagration of the inkindled Blood and a reduction of it to its due Temper The Constitution of the Blood in a continual Feaver is of the same sort as of Wines when they grow hot upon too rich a Lee to wit are mighty in Spirit and grow turgid with exalted Sulphur and therefore they conceive a Fervor and greatly boil up of their own accord without the mixture of any other thing In an Intermitting Feaver the Blood is moved after that manner as Wines when they conceive an heat because of somthing poured to them that is not miscible with them Moreover in this Feaver the disposition of the Blood is of that sort as of Wines when in their decay and declination they become ropy unsavory or acid to wit in which the Spirit is depressed that in the mean time either Salt or Sulphur or both together appear above the rest and infect the whole Liquor with their disorder An Intermitting Feaver for the most part is free from danger because the constitutive parts of the Blood altho they should somwhat change their disposition however keep the bond of mixture and whilst they are in power are circulated equally in the Vessels yea they pervert the nutritious Juice into a matter not altogether besides Nature but rather infesting with its fulness and turgescency In a continual Feaver besides the intemperance the mixture of the Blood and constitution of the Liquor are somwhat loosned and its corruption easily follows wherefore this Disease often ends in death further the nourishing Juice is depraved into a matter wholly vitious and altogether infestous to Nature CHAP. VIII Of the Ephemera or Feaver for a Day I Have said the least degree of heat which induces a continual Feaver is placed in the subtil and Spirituous part of the Blood being too much agitated and heated for this like the Spirit of Wine boils up on every light occasion and conceives a fervor by a too great motion of the Body or perturbation of mind by the ambient heat as of the Sun or vapours by hot things taken inwardly as the drinking of Wine and the eating of peppered meats and being irritated by such like For the Spirits of the Blood easily take fire and being impetuously moved are not presently appeased but they move throughly other Particles of the Blood variously confound and snatch them into a rapid and disorderly motion also from this motion of the Spirits the Sulphur or Oily part of the Blood is more boiled forth somwhat more dissolved and somthing more fully inkindled in the Heart by which means an intense heat is raised up in the whole Body But forasmuch as Sulphur is inkindled and inflamed only by small parts and not in the whole that fervor of the Spirits is quickly appeased and ceases wherefore the Feaver which is excited by this means for the most part is terminated within twenty four hours and therefore is called an Ephemera or a Feaver of a day If that by reason of a greater heat of the Spirituous Blood it is prolonged further it rarely exceeds three days and is called an Ephemera of more days or a Synochus not putrid but if it should happen to be lengthned beyond this time this Feaver easily passes into a putrid viz. from the dayly Ebullition of the Spirituous Blood the more thick Particles of the Sulphur at length begin to take fire and involve the whole mass of Blood in its Effervescency even as the Spirit of Turpentine being shut up in a Cucurbit and being put into a Sand Furnace if it be forced with a moderate heat boils up gently as the Blood in a Feaver of a day but if the heat be made more strong the Liquor grows impetuously hot till it breaks forth into a flame to which the inflamation of the Blood in a putrid Feaver may be very aptly compared The Days Feaver and Synochus simple rarely begin without an evident cause Besides what hath been but now said immoderate Labour Watchings a sudden passion of the mind a constriction of the pores a Surfeit also a Bubo or inflamed Sore a Wound the coming down of the Milk in Child-bearing Women are wont to induce them The procatartic Causes which dispose to this are an hot temper of Body an active habit a sedentary life and difuse of exercise The chief beginnings of this Disease depend upon the
presence of the evident cause for either little Bodies of extraneous heat being confused with the Blood like water boiling over the fire make it to boil up or this Feaver is induced by motion or by reason of transpiration being stopped even as Wines made hot by motion or when too closely stopped in the Ton are put into a Fervor but what way soever an inflamation is first excited presently the Spirits become enraged and being moved hither and thither compel the Blood to boil up and to be inlarged into a greater space with a spumous rarefaction wherefore the Vessels are distended and the membranous parts hauled hence follow pain chiefly in the Head and Loins a spontaneous weariness and as it were an inflation of the whole Body If that with the Spirit of the Blood a certain Sulphureous part be also in some measure inkindled a sharp heat is diffused through the whole the Pulse is vehement and quick the Urine red also thirst watchings and many other symptoms infest the reasons of which are added hereafter Concerning the Solution or Crisis of the Ephemeran Feaver and of the not putrid Synochus three things are chiefly requisite viz. a removing of the evident cause secondly a separation and a scattering of the depraved or excrementitious matter from the mass of Blood Thirdly a quieting of the parts of the Blood and a restitution of them to their natural and equal motion and site According as these succeed now more suddenly now more slowly and difficully this Disease is finished in a shorter or longer time 1. The evident cause which for the most part is extrinsick is easily removed and the sick are wont presently to avoid the presence or assiduity of that thing and do perceive a sense of any thing that is hurtful none taking a Feaver from Wine will still indulge the drinking of it as soon as any one grows more than usually hot in a Bath or the heat of the Sun 't is a trouble to them to stay longer 2. As to the Excrementitious matter which ought to be scattered and separated from the Blood this is either brought from without as when the Blood is infected by surfeit drinking of Wine sitting in the Sun or from a too hot Bath with Effluvia or little dry and Fermentative Bodies or this matter is begotten within as when its Liquor is stuffed with recrements or adust Particles from the deflagration of the Blood Either of these matters ought to be separated from the Blood to be dispersed and either by sweat or insensible breathing forth to be thrust out of doors before the Feaver be appeased wherefore when as the pores are bound up and transpiration hindred the Ephemeran Feaver is longer protracted and somtimes passes from a simple Synochus into a putrid 3. The evident cause being removed and this degenerate matter dispersed there is required for the remission a quieting and reducing into order the parts of the Blood for diverse Particles of the Blood being after this manner confused and by reason of the Feaverish heat carried up and down they do not presently get again the former order of situation and position but it is needful that they be by degrees extricated and by little and little restored to a just mixture Although this Disease after the removing of the evident cause for the most part ceases of its own accord within a while yet some Medicinal Remedies may be administred with good success especially when there is danger lest the Ephemeran Feaver should pass into a putrid The chief intentions should be to suppress the fervor of the Blood and to procure a more free transpiration to the which conduce first a breathing of a Vein a slender diet or rather abstinency cooling drinks and a bringing away the filth of the Belly by Clysters Sleep and Rest greatly help above all the rest which if wanting should be procured in time by Opiats and Anodynes Verily altho the Histories and Observations of those distempered with an Ephemeran Feaver contain in themselves nothing very rare yet I shall subjoin an example or two in this place whereby the delineation or type of this Disease may be illustrated A certain young Gentleman about twenty years of Age endued with a strong habit of Body by the immoderate drinking of strong Wine fell into a Feaverish distemper with thirst heat and with a great burning of his Precordia being let Blood he drank a great quantity of fair water and upon it presently a plentiful sweat following he grew shortly well In this case the more thin portion of the Blood being heated by the Spirits of the Wine fell into a rage caused the whole mass of Blood to be shaken and its frame to be loosned more than t was wont and for that reason that hapned to be more dissolved by the Ferment of the Heart and to be as it were inkindled by the active Particles loosned from the mixture until the Vessels being emptied by Phlebotomy the raging Blood was cooled and by the drinking of the water its fervor was attempered then the hot Effluvia being involved together with the adust matter with a copious Serum and sent away by Sweat the Blood at length recovered its due temper Moreover an ingenious young man of a sedentary life and also very much addicted to the Study of Learning when he had for somtime exercised himself beyond his strength in the hot Sunshine he began to complain of the pain of his head a want of Appetite a heat of his Precordia and of a Feaverish distemper all over to whom for that he was wholly averse to Physick I ordered an abstinence from all things whatsoever unless from Small-Beer and Grewel on the second day and so more on the third the symptoms remitted by little and little on the fourth he went home freed from the Feaver without any Medicine CHAP. IX Of a Putrid Feaver SO much for a Continual Feaver which is raised from the most simple heating of the Blood or its lowest degree of inordinate heat that which depends on a greater degree of heat follows viz. when the Oily or Sulphureous part of the Blood being too much heated swells up above measure and as it were forced into a flame and therefore from the similitude by which humid things putrifying conceive an heat this kind of Ebullition of the Blood because it induces an immoderate heat is called a putrid Feaver which name ought to be retained without injury because that in this Feaver the Synthesis of the Blood as is wont to happen in putrifying Liquors is very much unlocked When the Spirits only grow inraged as in an Ephemera the frame of the Blood is somwhat set open and loosened that it is more dissolved by the Ferment of the Heart than is wont and more Particles than naturally use to do leap forth and diffuse a more intense heat but yet the mixture of the Liquor as to its chief parts is conserved But when the Sulphureous matter taking
fire grows hot above measure the bond of the mixture for the greatest part is loosed that its Principles are almost wholly drawn away by the Ferment of the Heart and the active Particles being loosned from the mixture break forth as it were into a flame Wherefore the Liquor of the Blood being after this manner rarified in the Heart and as it were inkindled is from thence carried through the Vessels with a most rapid motion and disperses very many Effluvia of heat from its deflagration Hence the whole mass of Blood like water put over the fire continually boiling distends the Vessels pulls the Brain and Nervous parts raises up Convulsions and pains in them very much destroys the Vital Spirits with its heat wasts the Ferments of the Bowels hinders the Offices of concoction and dispensation often depraves the nourishing Juice destinated for the Nervous stock that from thence exceeding great disorders of the Animal Spirits follow yea almost perverts the whole oeconomy of Nature The course of this Disease shews it self after this manner It rarely begins without a procatartic cause or previous disposition to wit the Sulphureous or oily part of the Blood is first too much carried forth and exalted beyond its due tenor which afterwards either of its own accord like Hay not eventilated begins to grow hot or by the coming of an evident cause it is forced into a preternatural heat But when it grows turgid in the first place by reason of the admixtion of a crude Juice with the Blood now a shivering now heat infests which shew themselves unequally like fire which is covered with green wood sends forth now smoak now flame But at length the fire glowing more largely as here the victor fire spreads it self abroad so there sooner than said the whole mass of Blood is inflamed and is urged at once with heat and a most swift motion Nor is this immoderate heat of the Blood appeased before its active particles being loosned from the mixture and then successively inkindled in the Heart are wholly burned out which doth not happen but in the space of many days And then at length this Feaver ceases when the remaining Liquor of the Blood the Spirit and Sulphur being very much consumed being made lifeless and poor is fit only for a weak and small fermentation From this kind of deflagration of the Blood and also of the alible Juice by the same fire burnt out the recrements or little Bodies of torrified matter are heaped up in the Blood which yet do more promote its fervor and ebullition and for a time increase the Feaverish distemper After the Blood hath very much burned forth and these kind of little Bodies are gathered together to a fulness of swelling up the vital Spirit endeavors a separation and tries to concoct and to overcome what it may these adust recrements and then having put a great many of them into a swelling up a Flux being risen strives to shut them wholly out And indeed in the subaction and seclusion of this matter chiefly consists the event of this Disease for if the vital Spirit being strong the Bloody humor when it hath sufficiently burned forth and shall be freed from these adust particles should recover its pristine tenor whereby it is made fit for motion and a due fermentation in the Heart the sick tends towards health but if by a long deflagration and an inextricable confusion of the morbific matter the liquor of the Blood being wanting of Spirits and more pure Sulphur or those same by the impure mixture growing ill being as it were put under the yoak is rendred so lifeless that it is not any longer rarified by the ferment of the Heart or inkindled by degrees its heat and motion together with Life it self decays The procatartick causes which dispose to this Disease are an hot and humid Temper an active habit of Body a youthful Age the Spring time or Summer season a high and rich Dyet besides the often drinking of rich Wines a sedentâ—ry and idle life a Body full of gross humors and stuffed with vitious Juices but above all the rest it appears by observation that the frequent letting of Blood renders men more apt to Feavers wherefore it is commonly said from whom Blood is once drawn that unless they do the same every year they are prone to a Feaver The reason of this is unless I am deceiv'd by the frequent letting of Blood the Sulphur is more copiously gathered together in the mass of Blood in the mean time the Salt which should bridle it and hinder it from raging by this means is drawn away for the Blood the older it grows becomes so much the more Salt the Salt of all the Elements not evaporating But by how much the more the Blood abounds in Salt by so much the less it abounds in Sulphur for Salt eats and consumes the Sulphur and makes it evaporate wherefore they who are lean and abound with a Salt Blood are less prone to Feavers But when by the letting of Blood the ancient Blood is drawn forth in its stead another more rich and more impregnated with Sulphur is substituted so that it becomes less Salt and more Sulphurous Hence it is that those who often let Blood are not only prone to Feavers but also are wont to grow fat because of the Bloods being more impregnated with Sulphureous Juice The evident causes which deduce the latent disposition of this Feaver into act are of the same sort which procure an Ephemeran Feaver and simple Synochus in this rank chiefly come Transpiration being hindred and Surfeiting By reason of the effluvia being restrained the mass of the Blood being increased in bulk grows turgid and conceives a Fervor as it were from a certain ferment inspired anew and cruelly boyls up from thence presently the pores are more obstructed by the infartion of the effluvia and the frame of the Liquor being loosned the particles of the Sulphur exuberating in the Blood leap forth from the mixture and are inflamed by the ferment of the heart as it were by fire put to them and so they enkindle a very intense Feaver But from a Surfeit both an immoderate fermentation is induced in the Blood and also a nitrous Sulphureous matter apt for adustion and an inkindling is conveyed as it were food to the burning Blood In this Feaver four times or seasons are to be observed in which as it were so many posts or spaces its course is performed These are then The Beginning the Augmentation the Height and Declination These are wont to be finished in some sooner in others more slowly or in a longer time The beginning ought to be computed from the time the Blood begins to be made hot and its Sulphur to conceive a burning untill the ardors and burnings are diffused thorow the whole mass of Blood The Increase or Augmentation is from the time that the Blood being made hot and inkindled thorow the whole burns forth
for some time and its mass is aggravated with the Recrements or burnt Particles which increase the fermentation The state or standing of the Disease is when after the Blood has sufficiently burned forth and its burning now remits the long vexed Blood like a noble wrestler when his adversary is a little yielding recollecting all his strength endeavours a bringing under and a separation of that adust matter with which it is filled to a plenitude and also a Crisis or separation being once or oftner attempted an expulsion of it forth of doors The Declination succeeds after the Crisis or secretion in which the Blood grows less hot with a languishing fire and either the vital Spirit being as yet strong overcomes what is left of that adust and extraneous matter and by degrees puts it forth until it is restored to its former vigour or whilst the same Spirit is too much depressed the liquor of the Blood is still stuffed with adust recrements and therefore becomes troubled and depauperated that it neither assimilates the nourishing Juice nor is made fit for an accension in the heart for the sustaining the lamp of Life 1. When therefore any one is taken with a putrid Feaver the first assault is for the most part accompanied with a shivering or horror for when the Blood begins to grow hot there is a flux made and a swelling up of the crude Juice freshly gathered together in the Vessels even as in the fit of an intermitting Feaver heat and somtimes sweat follow upon the shivering by which the matter of that crude Juice is inkindled and dispersed afterwards a certain remission of the heat follows but yet from the fire still glowing in the Blood a lassitude and perturbation with thirst and waking continually infest A pain arises in the Head or Loins partly from the ebullition of the Blood and partly from the motion of the nervous Juice being hindred also a nauseousness or a vomiting offends the Stomach because the Bile flowing out of the Choleduct Vessels is poured into it and a Convulsion from Vapors and from the sharp Juice brought thorow the Arteries is excited in the Stomach In the mean time altho the heat be more increased and inequal it is not yet strong because the Blood as yet abounding with crude Juices is only inkindled by parts and therefore burns out a little and then ceases and at last returns like a flame that is made by wet and moist straw In this condition for some days the Disease remains the Urine is more red than usual by reason of the Salt and Sulphur being more dissolved and infected with the serum It still retains its Hypostasis or substance because the Coction and assimilation are not altogether depraved it appears greater than ordinary in its sediment which is yet easily separated and falls to the bottom of its own accord At this time they may let Blood and administer Physick by Vomit or Purge so it be done without any great perturbation of the Blood it often happens from these kinds of evacuations timely performed that a greater increase of the Disease is prevented and the Feaver as it were killed in the shell The limits of this stadium or space are variously determined according to the temper of the sick and other accidents of the Disease somtimes the first rudiments of this Feaver are laid in a day or two somtimes the beginning of the Disease is extended to more if in a corpulent Body full of Spirit Juice and hot Blood or it happen in a youthful Age and very hot season if the disposition to a Feaver be potent and the evident cause coming thereupon be strong the Feaverish heat being once begun quickly invades all the Blood and on the second or third day having rooted it self the Disease arises to its increase but if the Feaverish indisposition be begun in a less hot Body a Phlegmatic temper or a melancholy and in old age or a cold season the entrance is longer and scarce exceeds the limits of this first stadium or space before the sixth or seventh day 2. The increase of this Disease is computed from what time the burning of the Feaver hath possest the whole mass of Blood that is the Sulphur or the oily part of the Blood having been long heated and growing fervent in parts at length like Hay laid up wet breaks forth after a long heating all at once into a flame the Blood at this time cruelly boils up and very much inkindled in the Heart by its deflagration diffuses as it were a fiery heat thorow the whole Body and especially in the precordia hence the sick complain of intolerable thirst besides a pain of the head pertinacious wakings and oftentimes a delirium Phrensie and Convulsive motions infest all food whatsoever is loathsom either it is cast up again by Vomit or if retained being baked by too much heat it goes into a Feaverish matter besides there happens a bitterness of the mouth an ingrateful savor a scurfiness of the Tongue a vehement and quick Pulse an Urine highly red and for the most part troubled full of Contents without Hypostasis or laudable sediment when the Blood is at this time almost wholly inkindled by its deflagration it begets great plenty of adust matter as it were ashes remaining after a Fire with which the serum being very much stuffed renders the Urine thick and big with Contents Also the Blood being filled with a load of this to a rising up is irritated into Critical motions by which this Feaverish matter if it may be done being brought under and separated is shut out of doors and indeed this state of the Feaver induces that in which a Judgment is discerned between Nature and the Disease the strife being as it were brought to an aequilibrium and therefore the evacuation which follows from thence is called the Crisis The state therefore or height of a putrid Feaver is that time of the Disease in which Nature endeavors a Crisis or an expulsion of the adust matter remaining after the deflagration of the Blood To this is required in the first place that the Blood hath now for the most part burned forth because in the midst of its burning Nature is not at leisure for a Crisis nor is it ever prosperously endeavored nor in truth procured by Art with good Success Secondly that the spirit of the Blood doth first by some means subdue this adust matter or Caput mortuum separate it from the profitable and render a period to the expulsion for otherways tho a copious evacuation happens Nature will never be free from her burthen Thirdly that this matter be gathered together in such a quantity that by its turgency it may irritate Nature to a Critical expulsion If these rightly concur a perfect Crisis of the Disease for the most part succeeds in which even as in the Fits of intermitting Feavers a Flux being arisen whatsoever extraneous and heterogeneous thing is contained in the bosom
aforesaid humors but especially the Choleric when they are supplied in abundance often Ferment with the mass remaining of the Chyme that the same swelling up with a spumous rarefaction irritates the intestines and provokes to the motion of excretion somtimes also about the standing of the Disease and in the declination of it a Lask is excited and so either Nature being Conqueress the more thick purgings of the Blood are this way critically sifted forth or being overcome the Flux of the Belly is the effect and sign of the Viscera wholly losing their strength and firm tenour It somtimes happens in a Feaver that the Belly is always bound that it is not at all loosned but by Physick and tho the sick take nothing but liquid things for many days the stools are still of a solid consistence and hard this seems for the most part to be done when the Blood growing sharply and exceeding hot like fire consumes the humidities wherever they flow and draws to it self out of the Bowels the watery matter by a Copious emission of vapours and presently makes it to be evaporated outwardly wherefore the thicker part being left in the intestines is made firm from the scorching heat as it were a Caput Mortuum remaining after distillation A Dyssentery is a distemper so frequent in continual Feavers that some years it becomes Epidemical and not more mild than the Plague kills many The cause of it is wont to be not any humor produced within in the Viscera that corrodes the intestines with its Acrimony as some affirm but a certain infection impressed on the Blood and so intimately confused with it that under the form of a vapour or a sincere humor it cannot be pulled away from the Blood wherefore the thrusting forwards towards the intestines unlocks the little mouths of the Arteries and makes there little Ulcers and exudations or flowings forth of the Blood like as when from the Feaverish Blood Pustles and inflamations break forth outwardly with a flowring towards the skin But it is most likely these dysenteric distempers which accompany Malignant or Epidemical Feavers arise from a certain coagulation of the Blood as shall be more fully declared hereafter And here also among the symptoms of Feavers might be recited what are wont to appear outwardly in the superficies of the Body as are Spots Whelks Buboes Carbuncles c. but because these belong after an especial manner to a Malignant Feaver therefore we will forbear in this place from the consideration of them until we shall speak of the Plague Small-pox the Pestilential and Malignant Feaver The Pulse and Urine shall conclude here the troop of symptoms and signs in a Putrid Feaver which are much heeded for the finding out both the state and the strength of the sick For as there are two things by which our life is propped viz. Heat inkindled in the Heart and concoction to be made in the Viscera and Vessels because the Pulse and Urine best show the alterations in either induced in a Feaver therefore from hence a most certain judgment is taken of this Disease about to end in Death or Health I think it is not needful to speak of thâ—se at large or to recount the several causes and differences of either It will suffice for me to note here the chiefest things of them and what are worthy of consideration in the course of Feavers And first of all the Pulse is consulted as it were a Thermometer or Weather-Glass constituted by Nature that from thence the heat inkindled in a Feaver might be meted which if it should be more strong stirs up a great ebullition or boiling up of the Blood the Artery beats more strongly and quicker so long as the Spirits are in strength then they being a little exhausted the more strong Pulse is remitted which however is compensated with swiftness and is made quick and small If the Feaver be gentler and is troubled with a lesser burning the Pulse also declines less from its Natural condition and the moderation of this in the whole course of the Disease denotes the truces of Nature Neither doth the Pulse only betray the forces of the Feaver as of an Enemy but shews also plainly the strength of Nature and her ability of resisting So long as the Pulse is laudable the matter goes well and it shews good hopes but from the evil state of this a bad omen is shewn and a despair of Health So without a frequent and diligent examination of the Pulse a Physician connot make a right judgment or Prognostication or safely prescribe Physick 1. As to the first thing it ought to be known as much as may be what every ones Pulse is according to its Natural Constitution for it is in these stronger in those weaker then it is to be considered in every moment of the Feavers by what degrees it is distant from its Natural state for now it is somtimes more vehement and argues the Feaver to grow stronger now it is depressed below its wont and denotes the Spirits and Strength dejected Those whose Pulse in Health beats weakly and languishing when taken with a Feaver if they have a small and weak Pulse it is not so evil a sign that we should presently despair of their Health In whom the Pulse is by Nature strong and vehement if after the Crisis of the Disease it hath scarce a moderate vigour tho it be not wholly weak it argues the condition of the sick to be suspected and not safe If from the begining of the Feaver before the Blood has flamed out or if a Crisis being made when part of the burthen is drawn away or at another time without an evident cause the Pulse becomes weak it portends evilly but if after long watchings or great evacuations the Pulse is made a little weaker Health is not therefore to be despaired of because the strength cast down by these means or overwhelmed may be restored and the Spirits renewed When the Pulse is suddenly altered for the worse tho the sick seem to be better as to the rest of the symptoms you may forespeak the sad prognostication of Death and so contrariwise altho most horrid symptoms urge and yet the Pulse is laudable Health may be yet hoped for If in a strong man that hath a Feaver the Pulse is very small and creepingly or becomes like the motion of Ants death is at hand 2. In the exhibiting of Medicines cautions and rules of no small moment are taken Purging and Vomiting are forbid by the pulse being too quick and violent also by being low and depressed because whilst the Blood is too fervent evacuation helps little because both what is hurtful is not separated also for that by the perturbation the strength or spirits are more debilitated But when the spirits are broken and strength cast down Medicines cast them more down and somtimes wholly overthrows them Wherefore when a Physitian thinks of evacuation upwards or downwards he first examines the pulse
and goes about this work only when Nature is strong and quiet that she may at once be at leisure for the operation of the Medicine and may have sufficient strength Nor is there less need of circumspection in sweating Medicines and Cordials which if administred in the Feaverish fit do too much strengthen the former violent motion of the Heart and oftentimes break its strength also when the Pulse is very languid if hot and strong Cordials are administred as when a small flame is troubled with a more strong blast of wind life is easily extinguished wherefore t is a vulgar observation that Cordials often accelerate death for that by too much troubling the Blood they sooner beat down strength There is yet the most need of the caution and direction of the Pulse in exhibiting narcoticks for these because they perform their work by extinguishing and fixing the too fierce vital spirits if used in a weak or inconstant Pulse either by diminishing the vital spirits render them wholly insufficient for the Disease or by suffocating them too much cause a perpetual sleep wherefore in a languid unequal or formicating or creeping Pulse opiats are to be shun'd more than a mad Dog or a Snake An unequal and intermitting Pulse has a most evil report from the writings of Physitians yet altho of an ill note does not so certainly portend death as a weak Pulse for I have known many to have recovered tho by those kind of signs condemned to the Grave because the inordination of the Spirits and the Blood may be more certainly and easily composed or allayed than their dejection restored 2. The inspection of Urines in Feavers before all other Diseases whatsoever hath more of certainty and is of greatest use for from hence the conditions of the sick and of the Disease are best known and the medical intentions concerning what is to be done are better directed what observations and rules concerning this thing are vulgarly set forth are so many that it would be almost an infinite labour and tediousness to recount them all it will be sufficient here to note the chief of them Concerning the Urines of persons in Feavers there are chiefly to be considered the colour consistency contents and subsidency or setling The colour of the Urine shews the measure or excess of heat in the Blood which as it is increased and becomes more remiss the Urine also is more or less red the cause of which is the ebullition of the Blood or the effervescency induced from the Feaver to the Blood by reason of which the particles of Salt and Sulphur implanted in the Blood humors and solid parts are more dissolved and incocted with the serum and impart to it a redness even as when Salt of Tartar and common Sulphur being mixed one with another and boiled in water impart a deep red colour to the Liquor The Urines of some are highly red when they are but a little or lightly Feaverish and on the contrary the Urines of others labouring with a Feaverish burning are less coloured Who abound with lively heat and a very hot Blood or are obnoxious to the Scurvy phthifis or hypochondriac distemper when by taking cold condensation surfeit or drinking of Wine they are troubled by any little Feaver they render a Urine strongly red for that the particles of Salt and Sulphur remain exalted in their Blood and before half loosned wherefore there is a necessity that the Feaver urging they are more boiled in the serum on the contrary they who are indued with a cold temper with a faint and weak Pulse being taken with a Feaver with a greater effervescency of the Blood render their Urine less coloured The consistency contents and subsidency of Urines being put as it were upon the same thrid depend all of them on the adust and recrementitious matter which is remaining in the Blood after the Feaverish deflagration if there shall be plenty of this the consistency of the Urine becomes somwhat thicker and after it has stood it is troubled by the cold but if there be a lesser quantity of this or otherways derived than to the Reins to wit by sweat or is called away by a critical translation to this or that part the consistency is made thinner and the Liquor remains clear Also the particles of this matter do inlarge the contents of the Urine which shew themselves diversly according as the nutricious Juice is now somwhat cooked and assimilated by the Blood now altogether perverted and carried into a putrifaction some signs of concoction and assimulation shew themselves in the Urines of Feaverish persons now a laudable Hypostasis now some marks and rudiments of the same A want of Hypostasis and the confusion and perturbation of the Urine denote the concoction vitiated But as this matter is more or less roasted in the Blood the contents are now of a pale now of a red colour like oker By reason that the recrements confounded with the Blood either the Spirit being strong begin to be overcome and separated or the same being depressed too much they are less able to be separated also the contents of the Urine are wont to be more or less sooner or slower separated from the rest of the Liquor and to sink down towards the bottom As to the Prognosticks to be taken from the Urine we may take notice that the colour of the Urine being somwhat more remiss the consistency mean the contents few and the subsiding free or easily collected into a Cloud portend good on the contrary a deep red a thick and troubled consistency thick and cloudy contents which slowly or scarce at all sink to the bottom denote a very great heat plenty of adust matter and its being brought under and secretion difficult or frustrated As to the Medicinal directions the business depends on this that we attend by the frequent inspection of the Urine the motion of Nature and be helpful to the same neither is it to be moved by purge or sweat but when a certain hypostasis of the Urine shews signs of concoction and separation I thought it needless to say any more here concerning this matter because those things are more largly handled elsewhere in a proper place which belong to Urines CHAP. XI Of the Kinds and Cure of a Putrid Synochus or contitinual Feaver ANd thus much for a Putrid Synochus in general in which is described its formal reason according to the accidents and symptoms which are commonly observed in its Figure there are besides I shall not say species but some varieties or irregularities of this Disease in which this Feaver somtimes declines from this common Rule and by reason of some accidental Distempers gets new names and distinctions In the first place therefore a Putrid Synochus is wont to be divided into Symptomatick and essential It is called Symptomatick which draws its beginning from some other Distemper or Disease before excited in the Body so that the Feaver is only a
juices and many Chronical Diseases end in a Consumption in like manner when the flesh of the Lungs wasts or abounding with an Ulcerous matter becomes half putrid the Blood passing through it is infected with the purulent matter or tabid infection and for that cause is stirred up into a continual Effervescency by reason of the confusion of somthing not miscible and wherefore it induces an assiduous Feaver and wholly perverts the Alible Juice The same reason is of Feavers form an Ulcer or Imposthume oftentimes raised up in other parts for these even as the tabid constitution of the Lungs cause oftentimes a Consumption and Hectick Feaver The full consideration of these are not for this place wherefore we will return whence we have digressed to a Putrid Feaver properly called or essential The Essential Putrid Synochus is wont to be divided into a Putrid such as is already described into a Causon or hot burning Feaver and besides into a Quotidian Tertian and Quartan The Putrid Synochus but now delineated ought to be the rule or square of the rest to whose type most Feavers which are of this kind are to be composed As to the rest but now mentioned according as they vary their kind I shall briefly subjoyn The Causon or Burning Feaver is that which performs its course with a greater heat almost intolerable thirst and other symptoms arguing a greater inflamation of the Blood The formal reason of it by which it is differenced from the rest consists in this that the temper of the Blood is hotter that is abounds more with fireable Sulphur therefore when it grows fervent it is inkindled in a greater plenty and with its deflagration diffuses the Effluvia of a most intense heat through the whole Body its motion is acute and quickly comes to its standing it is compassed about with more horrid symptoms hath a difficult Crisis and an even full of danger But as to what respects those periods or fits in which a Putrid Feaver somtimes is wont to be more cruel at a set time and as if intermitting now every day now every third or fourth day repeats as it were the Feaverish fit the reason of this seems not easily to be explicated especially if we reject from this cense the fewer humors to the spontaneous motion of which this distemper is commonly ascribed concerning this matter what seems most likely to me I shall doubtingly propose In a continual Feaver there are two chief things as we have already noted which for the most part induce the Effervency of the Blood to wit the exaltation and inkindling of the Sulphureous part of the Blood then consequently an heaping together of the adust matter and remaining after the burning of the Blood to a swelling up upon the former the continuance of the Feaver upon the other its standing and critical perturbations depend to these some times a certain third thing happens to wit a fulness and swelling up of the crude Juice from the Aliments newly taken which in a continual Feaver as in the fits of Intermitting Feavers induces a greater Effervency at set intervals of times But why this does not always happen nor wholly after the same manner the reason is this when the Putrid Synochus is very acute and the whole Blood almost is quickly inflamed and highly rages whatsoever of Nutritious Juice is poured to the Blood is presently burnt and consumed by the fire wherefore little or nothing of it is conteined in the mass of Blood for the matter of a fit But if this Feaver be less acute and the Blood only flames forth moderately and in parts the supplement of the crude Juice is not wholly consumed by the burning but is perverted by a more gentle fire into a Fermentative matter which when it arises in the Vessels to a fulness of swelling up conceives a Flux and by its Effervency makes stronger the Feaverish heat before glowing in the Blood as it were by the coming of new fewel The flowring of this matter doth not seldom begin with a light shivering or cold and somtimes end with sweat but for the most part it is exhaled by insensible transpiration In every fit besides the provision of the degenerate Nutritious Juice somthing from the adust and burnt matter of the Blood evaporates wherefore the Crisis of the Disease is drawn forth longer that t is hardly cured under eleven or fourteen days yea for the most part in this sort of Feaver with fits and remissions coming between the perfect Cure of the Disease happens scarcely within twenty days and somtimes leisurely without any through Crisis it remits and then by a long declination it is ended in Death or Health But that this kind of remission and acerbation or growing more violent are varied according to the type of an Intermitting Feaver that they repeat their turns now every day now every other day and somtimes not but within four days the reason of this is to be sought from the Doctrine before delivered of Intermitting Feavers to wit that according as the Dyscrasie of the Blood diversly appears the suppliment of the degenerate Nutritious Juice arises to the fulness of swelling up either sooner or later and for that reason its Effervency causes now more frequent now more rare fits in this Feaver Concerning the Cure of Putrid Feavers of every kind there are four general intentions on which the whole stress of the matter depends First that the Blood if it may be done may be defended from burning and the flame or fire inkindled in its Sulphureous part be wholly suppressed which about the first beginning of this Disease happens to be often brought about Secondly that when the Blood having taken fire cannot be presently extinguished that at least it may perform its burning more mildly and with lesser hurt Thirdly the deflagration being ended that the Liquor of the Blood be freed from the recrements of the adust and burnt matter and afterwards restored to its Natural temper and vigor Fourthly that the symptoms chiefly troubling may be timely helped the which unless taken away will frustrate the work both of Nature and Medicine As to particular Remedies with which these intentions may be served there are various prescriptions and forms of Medicines not only among Physicians but also among old women and Emperies ordinarily in use from which however like a Sword in a blind mans hand used without difference and exact method of healing more hurt than good most often accrues to the sick There will be no need here to repeat the forms of Purges Cordials and of other Medicines eligantly enough delivered among many Authors I will add in few words some chief indications and Medical Cautions which ought to be observed in the course of this Feaver according to its various times and divers symptoms 1. At the first beginning of this Disease the business will be that the Feaver may be presently suppressed and the inflamation of the heated Sulphur may be inhibited to which
time his Pulse was small and weak that when it was consulted upon for the letting him blood again 't was thought dangerous lest his dejected strength would not admit of such a remedy wherefore Phlebotomie was performed only in a very small quantity and a fomentation and a Cataplasme was prescribed to be diligently applyed to his side besides twenty drops of the spirit of Harts-horn to be taken in a spoonful of Cordial Julep and the same to be repeated continually within the space of six hours He sweat that night very much and the pain much remitted his spitting was but little interspersed with Blood which within a day wholly ceased and the pain also leisurely vanished The sick man took twice a day a scruple of the same spirit of Harts-horn and within a few days he grew perfectly well without relapsing This Feaver was a simple Synochus stir'd up from the evident cause viz. a Constriction of the pores as soon as the Blood began to be somwhat filled with adust recrements and so to swell up more the matter which should have been separated by reason of its peculiar evil was transferred into the Pleura and being there fixed compelled the Blood coming to it to be coagulated and therefore to be stopped in its circulation and when it could not be received by the veins presently to be extravasated from hence hapned the acute pain in the side and bloody spittle by and by after the beginning of this Disease then afterwards the same matter being thrust out of that nest which it had got and being supped up again into the mass of Blood was fixed in the head and there inducing the like stagnation of the Blood and as it is probable coagulation caused the vertigo and cruel pain which nevertheless was quickly cured by the hemorrhage being arisen by reason of the extravasated Blood A part of the morbific matter being after this manner drawn away the other part resumed by the Blood was again conveyed to its usual nest to wit the side before distempered where depositing its latex to wit a portion of the Blood it did coagulate it again and compelled it to be extravasated or to flow out of the vessels For that pain being renewed on the fourth day with the bloody spittle from the ebullition of the Blood too extreamly and therefore flowing out of the vessels would not be brought away because at that time the Pulse was small and weak with a falling down of the vessels that indeed the Blood was thought to have been run all out of the vessels for that being coagulated by the morbific matter and therefore tho expulsed the Arteries yet not being able to be carried back by the veins it was stopped in its circulation Upon this an acute pain followed because the Blood being heaped together by its frequent approach and elevated into a Tumor made a dissolution of the union also by and by from the beginning a bloody spittle came upon it because the Blood being restrained within in the Body somwhere in its motion by reason of the most tender and easily opening little mouths of the vessels ran forth into the Cavities when to the same outwardly extravasated by reason of a more thick skin and the mouths of the little vessels being locked up no way lay open unless by its being made and ripened into an Imposthume The opening of a vein profited in the beginning of the Pleurisie because it restrained the Blood somwhere hindred in its circuit from too great effervency but especially for that when the vessels were by that means greatly emptied they did again receive and render fluent whatsoever humors were before exterminated and also the Blood beginning to stagnate in the distempered part Also the remedies helping most about the beginning of this Disease were of that sort which hinder the coagulation of the Blood or dissolve it in the coagulating such they are which abound very much with a volatile or an alchalisate Salt to wit spirit of Soot of Blood Harts-horn also spirit and salt of Urine the pouder of the claws and eyes of Crabs of a Boars tooth or the Jaw of a Pike are of known use Among the common people it is a custom to drink an infusion of Horse dung which medicine indeed I have known often to have brought help in deplorable cases In the mean time all acid things whatsoever because they more coagulate the Blood and hinder expectoration are highly hurtful in this Disease CHAP. XII Of a malignant or pestilential Feaver in general BEsides the continual Feaver which is already-described and which arises from some principle of the Blood being too much carried forth there is another species of this which is stirred up by reason of the Blood being touched with some invenomed Infection and therefore liable to enter into various coagulations and corruptions In which not only the Spirit and the Sulphur as in a Putrid Feaver rage and compel the Blood to grow immoderately hot but besides the mixture of the Blood is presently dissolved and its liquor goes into parts and so most horrid Symptoms with manifest danger of life are induced in this sort of distemper Under this rank we comprehend malignant and pestilential Feavers the Plague small-Pox and Measles of which we shall speak presently Pestilential Diseases wander so in the dark and have an unknown original that their causes and beings are seldom explicated without having a recourse to occult qualities By the unanimous consent of all the strength and power of these are placed in an invenomed matter because we perceive from a pestilent distemper strength suddenly to be overthrown and life quickly destroyed no otherwise than from the driâ—king of Poyson And therefore for the explicating the nature of the pestilence it will not be besides the matter first to inquire concerning Poyson in general and by what means it distempers our Bodies then to shew what sort of Poyson is sprinkled in the Plague and contagious Diseases which being performed we will treat particularly of the Diseases but now recited Every thing deserves the name of Poyson which striking into our Body after an occult manner vehemently hurts the temper and actions of any part or of the whole profligates the Spirits or perverts their motions solves the mixtures of the Liquors and induces Coagulations and Corruptions destroys the functions and ferments of the Viscera and so suddenly and hiddenly brings life into danger of these which after this manner lie in wait for us there is a mighty plenty and very rich provision in the nature of things oftentimes they are inly begotten within our body outwardly they are abundantly supplyed from every Coast and out of every tract of Earth water and air these daily arise out of the distinct families of minerals vegetables and Animals and so mingle themselves with our food yea with our medicine that we may complain with Plinie quod non sit fateri an rerum natura largius mala an remedia genuerit That
pass through most swiftly as the Rays of light through a Diaphanous medium the whole mass of one another 2. As often as the Blood contracts hurt from some Poysonous thing the Poyson is fixed within either slow and of lesser activity which does not presently betray it self nor break forth into cruel symptoms till of a long time after it is ripened by a silent fermentation and hath first infected the whole mass of Blood as may be observed in some Poysons which are said to kill at a distance and not till after some months or years Or the Poysons inspired into the Blood are imbued with a much more acute sting that from their Contagion the Infection contracted presently breaks forth into cruel symptoms and thereupon follows now a Feaverish effervency with Vomiting Thirst and burning of the Precordia now a swelling up of the whole Body a discoloration of the skin oftentimes a breaking forth of whelks and buboes and frequently also a sudden loss of all strength so that sudden death without tumult and almost insensibly steals upon one where by the way it is to be noted If the Spirits of the Blood provoked by the enemy are able to encounter him and to strive for the victory this Feaverish ebullition of the Blood is stirred up from the conflict but if the Particles of the Poyson being far stronger suddenly profligate the Spirits of the Blood and extinguish life presently the Bloody mass is corrupted neither can it be circulated in the Vessels nor rightly inkindled in the heart If it be yet demanded what mutations the Blood infected with Poyson undergoes either in its substance or consistency that for that reason it is rendered unfit for the sustaining of Life I answer after this manner some Poysons fuse the Blood and too much precipitate its serosity such are Medicines which by a strong killing Purging or by a Profluvium of Urine or a discoloration or swelling up of the whole Body or with an eruption of Pustules cause a very great secretion of the serous Latex in the mean time a great ebullition of the mass of Blood is induced whereby the Vital Spirits are greatly destroyed the Particles of Salt and Sulphur too much exalted by the Concoction and are often so roasted that a Yellow or Black Jaundies is caused There are Poysons of another kind far more dangerous which congeal the Blood and by destroying its mixture corrupt it viz. the first induce a congelation to the Bloody mass and then a Putrefaction for when the Spirits of the Blood being overthrown by the contagion of the Poyson are dissipated the equal mixture of the Liquor is loosned wherefore the more thick Particles mutually infold one another and like Milk when Rennet is put to it or growing sowr of it self are coagulated apart hence the Blood curdles in the Vessels that it is less readily circulated in them coagulated portions of this being inwardly diluted into the bosom of the Heart are apt to stagnate there and so to bring forth frequent syncopes and swounings being carried outwardly and in the circulating fixed in the skin somtimes being more plentifully heaped together they induce a suffusion of blackness through the whole somtimes being more sparingly dispersed they cause only spots or Purple marks like black and blew stroaks and other appearances of malignity But the coagulation of the Blood quickly disposes it to putrefaction or corruption as is seen in extravasated Blood which is wont to grow soon black and putrid For the Spirit being exhaled the Particles of Sulphur and Salt remaining in the Blood begin to go apart one from another and to break the bond of the mixture from whence follows Putrefaction These things being thus premised of Poyson in general the reason of the method requires that we enter upon the handling of Feavers which draw their Original altogether from a malignant and invenomed infection and as under this title the Pest or Plague easily obtains the chief place I will begin with its consideration and afterwards I will speak of malignant Feavers Small-pox and Measels in order But yet before I shall propose its definition I will briefly inquire of the pestiferous Poyson what its disposition and Nature may be also from whence it may be born and lastly by what means it is propagated into others by contagion For the expressing the Nature of the Plague Authors are wont to choose some invenomed Bodies and from their names to frame an Elogy of this most wicked Disease wherefore in the definition of the pest are commonly recounted the Nepelline Aconital and Arsenical Poyson the Lethiferous force of which however as it consists in a very thick matter and does not exert or put forth itself but by a Corporal contact doth not truly imitate the essence of the Pestilential Disease for this is founded in a Spiritual and Vaporous infection by which its Effluvia being every way diffused so potently unfold themselves that out of the best seminary or seed plot they quickly propagate a fruitful Crop of death and destruction By reason of its notable activity this infection may deserve to be called as it were a certain quintessence of Poyson the very agil and subtil Particles of this do penetrate all Bodies and inspire them with its ferment for either being dispersed through the Air or hid in a certain tender or cherishing nest tho they strike against the human Body but lightly and as it were through a Casement they easily subdue it for both the Animal Spirits and those of the blood they quickly infect and by that means shortly pour forth the Venomous taint into all the members When a Pestilential Breath or Vapour hath invaded any one and that Poyson hath first laid hold on the Animal Spirits or those of the Blood or both of them at once as hath been already said of Poysons the taint is quickly derived from the subtil and more thin substance of these into a more thick matter because it quickly ferments the whole mass of Blood or of the Nervous Juice and the excrementitious humors every where abounding and from thence is deduced into the solid parts and fixes the evil in them If this Disease first possesses the Animal Spirits presently the hurt is communicated to the Brain and the Nervous stock and especially to the Ventricle forthwith it impoysons the humour growing in these loosens its mixture perverts the regular motion and renderr it wholly incongruous and infestous to the more tender substance of the containing parts by and by from thence Cramps and Convulsive motions cruel Vomitings pains of the Heart also Phrensies deliriums or pertinacious watchings are stirred up about the first assault of the Disease when in the mean time the infection not being yet dispersed through the Blood the sick are not Feaverish nor are troubled with inordinate Pulse or Syncope or appearances of marks which symptoms however arise afterwards as soon as the Blood is infected If when the Spirits of the
Region or Tract of Land Secondly somtimes the Plague comes simple and unmixt with other Diseases wherefore privily and as it were by surprise almost without a Feaver or vehemency of symptoms brings a secret killing of the sick Somtimes it is complicated with a number of other Diseases that the business is carried with tumult and frequent skirmishing between Nature and Death Thirdly the degree of malignity constitutes a great difference for the Plague in some places and times is much more mild that many of the sick escape somtimes it is highly mortal that most taken are killed and that scarce one of an hundred recovers But because this Disease hides its weapons and coming on men unawares kills them suddenly therefore it shall be our work that by some signs as it were watchmen planted we may know the Clandestine coming of this enemy altho we are not able to foresee it from afar Very many signs happen which foretel shortly a Plague about to come to wit if the year keeps not its Temper but has immoderate and very unseasonable excesses either of heat or cold or of dryness or wet if the small-pox or Measles do every where rage if Boils or Buboes accompany reigning Feavers Besides Astrologers are wont from the Aspects of the Stars or appearances of Comets to predict the approaching Plague but this ought rather to be called a vain conjecture than a certain foreknowledge From a preceeding Famine a most certain presage may be taken of a Plague to follow as in the Adage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Plague comes with the Famine For the like Constitution of the year which for the most part by reason of the Corn being blasted brings scarcity is apt also to produce the Plague also an evil way of feeding which people in dearths use eating all unwholsom things without choice disposes their Bodies to the more easie receiving the Infection Yea also earth-quakes fresh openings of Caverns and secret Vaults by the gaping of the Ground by reason of the eruptions of malignant and impoysoned Airs often give beginning to the Pestilence For indeed as there is need of great diligence to foresee as it were from a watch-Tower the approaching Plague so there is no less need of care and diligence to consider or take notice of the same being fresh risen and the shooting of its first darts For oftentimes being too solicitous we dread vulgar Feavers if perchance they end in death for this Disease and somtimes being too secure contemning the Pestilence by reason of its Symptoms like to a common Feaver we apprehend not out danger till too late wherefore for the more full knowledge of this Disease we will subjoyn its Signs and Symptoms both common and Pathognomic or peculiar and briefly describe their causes means and manner of being done Besides the signs already delivered which by a certain demonstration à priori or before-hand bring a suspicion of the Plague about to come there are others the concourse of which plainly shew its presence in the sick body of these some are common to the Plague with a Putrid Feaver some are more proper to this distemper For the impression of the Pestilence most often stirs up an effervency of the Blood and so has frequently a Feaver joyned with it that among some in the definition of the Plague it hath the place of a kind of Feaver wherefore by reason of the ebullition of the Blood and the hurt brought to the Viscera presently there follows a growing hot a spontaneous weariness thirst a burning of the precordia often great Vomitings pains of the Heart torments of the Intestines a scurfiness of the Tongue or a blackness a pain of the head watchings Phrensie palpitation of the Heart swooning and sudden loss of strength tho Feavers are most often beset with these kind of Symptoms yet if at the same time the Plague hath spread in the neighbourhood and a fear of it hath possessed the minds of men hence a greater suspition of this evil is caused especially because whilst the Pestilence reigns other Diseases in any one leave their proper Nature and change into it wherefore if there happens to the distempers but now recited a Communication of the same sickness to many and a frequency of Burials that it becomes every where very deadly and spreads largely even by contagion and if besides Buboes Carbuncles Spots or other marks of the pestiferous infection appear the business is put without doubt and we may with no less faith denounce it the Pestilence than when we see an house flaming with fire breaking through the Raftures we cry out Fire But because here is mention made of Buboes Carbuncles and of other Symptoms of which we have already spoken where we treated of Putrid Feavers it remains that we briefly touch the causes of them and the manner of their being made They are these A Carbuncle a Bubo Whelks Inflamations and malignant Pustles Concerning these in common we say that they are all produced of the Blood and nervous juice touched with the pestiferous Poyson and coagulated in parts in their circuit and distempered variously with putrefaction forasmuch as the Spirits residing in either Liquor especially in the Blood are no sooner profligated by the blast of this malignant Disease but a coagulation is induced to the remaining Liquor even as milk growing sour or when some acid juice is poured to it wherefore portions of it being more grievously touched with the Poyson they soon curdle or grow into gobbets and suffer corruption with blackness like Blood out of the Vessels from whence presently they hinder the motion of the rest of the Blood in the Vessels and in the Heart and by means of its ferment more coagulate it but whatsoever by congelation grows into curdled gobbets unless it be presently cast out of doors causes death quickly by restraining the circulation of the Blood and being thrust forth outwardly towards the superficies of the body ir is stopped in its motion between the narrow windings of the Vessels and being wholly destitute either of Spirit or being struck by a blasting produces its deadness black and blew spots and black or purple marks or by reason of the Salt and Sulphur being exalted by the pestilential ferment and affecting new things grow together into tumors of a various kind A Carbuncle or Fiery Inflamation is a fiery Tumor with most sharp and burning Pustules round about it and infesting the sick with an acute pain which arising in various places severally will not be ripened but creeping more abroad on the superficies burns the skin and at length shakes off the lobes or gobbets of its Corruption and leaves an hollow ulcer as if burnt by an Escharotick or burning Plaster The generation of Plague-sores seem to be made after this manner when Poysonous infections do strike into the Blood in its own nature torrid portions of it congealed are fixed in the superficies of the Body and in that place because the
Liquor easily contracts the taint of this from whence it being made improportionate to the Brain and Regiment of the Animal Spirits stirs up great irregularities in them wherefore upon these sort of Feavers come not only spots and whelks but most often a Delirium Phrensie Sleepiness Tremblings of the Limbs Cramps and Convulsive motions I have often observed that in some certain years Malignant Feavers have increased which have shown their virulency without the appearances of marks chiefly about the Nervous stock because in some presently after the beginning has followed a sleepiness with a mighty heaviness of the Head in others strong Watchings a perturbation of mind with Trembling and Convulsive motions but in most either none or only an uncertain Crisis and instead of it a translation of the Feaverish matter to the Brain besides it is observed that these Feavers creep upon others by contagion and that very many are killed by them that therefore they do deserve to be called Malignant But these kind of Feavers are somtimes first begun from a venomous infection and the Blood being touched with the Particles of the venom conceives of it self an Effervescency and is inkindled as when from a contagion or malignant Air being inspired any one hath fallen into a Malignant Feaver without any evident cause or predisposition But somtimes the Feaverish Distemper is induced from a proper cause and then the seeds of the Malignity either lying hid within in the Body exert themselves in the Effervent Blood or they come from another place by the contaminated Air as it were the Food of the flame before inkindled for it appears by frequent observation in the time in which an Epidemical Feaver spreads that others being any way arisen turn into it Malignant Feavers as also Pestilential for the most part are popular and invade many at once but somtimes they are private and not ordinary so that perhaps only one or two are taken in the whole Region in such a case it is to be suspected that they come not from a malignant Air or Epidemical cause but from a morbous provision of the Body for I have often observed that when in the Spring or Autumn a Feaver sufficiently common hath spread in some City or Town of which very many have dyed perhaps some one on whom an evil predisposition and a more strong evident cause hath brought the Feaver hath lain by it with more horrid symptoms and great notes of malignity in which case that malignity is not to be called common to the Feaver but not ordinary and accidental only Altho the greatest reason of the difference by which these kind of Feavers are distinguished from one another and from other Feavers consists in their deadliness and contagion yet somtimes they are noted with a certein peculiar symptom from which they take for that time both the note of malignity and the appellation of the name hence in some years an Epidemical Feaver reigns which induces to most of the sick a Squinancy another time an inflamation of the Lungs a Pleurisie Dysentery or some other distemper and that oftentimes most dangerous and contagious so the seeds of Diseases not only derived from the Parents by traduction excite their fruits as it were by a certain designation in the same part or member but also those received from an Infection commonly spreading produce in all a distemper of the same mode and figure which yet I think to happen not because the seeds of the venomous Infection respect either this or that Region of the Body with a certain peculiar Virtue but these so affect the mass of Blood by a like manner in all that there is a necessity for the sake of washing away this stain that a Crisis be attempted after the same manner in all For when without malignity the Blood by reason of Coagulation or perhaps other causes is apt to be extravasated the usual places in which portions of the same being extravasated are wont to be fixed are the Throat Pleura Lungs and Intestines wherefore 't is no wonder when from a malignant cause the congelation of the Blood and for that reason an extravasation is induced if the Disease is nested in the accustomed cherishing place of Nature Concerning the causes of these kind of Feavers there is not much business they are for the most part deduced in respect of the malignity from the vicious Constitution of the Air in respect of the Feaverish heat from the morbous provision of the Body either of these are easily made clear by what hath been already said concerning a Putrid Feaver and the causes of the Pestilence If the malignity be stronger than the Feaver and hath induced it the impression of it is to be imputed to the inspired Air or to a Contagion received from others if the Feaver be first its inkindling is ascribed to transpiration being hindred to a Surfeit or to some other of the evident causes above enumerated As to the signs besides contagion and destruction these shew the malignity of the Feaver a sudden loss of strength a weak and unequal pulse and evil affection of the Brain and nervous parts being suddenly induced cruel Vomitings blackness of the Tongue a suffusion of darkness through the whole Body but chiefly the appearances of Spots Buboes and of other marks For the cure of Feavers both Pestilential and Malignant there is greater need of Judgment and Circumspection than in any others whatsoever For when there are two primary Indications to wit the Malignity and the Feaverish intemperance and when one can scarcely provide for the one without detriment to the other it is not easily to be discerned which should first be helped or soonest regarded In respect of the Feaver purging opening a Vein and cooling things do chiefly help but whilst these are performed the Malignity for the most part is increased and being neglected spreads abroad more largely its Poyson against the Malignity Poyson-resisting Cordials and Diaphoreticks are required but these extreamly heighten the Feaver they more shake the Blood and Spirits before inkindled as it were with the blast of Bellows and force all as it were into a flame wherefore here is great need of skill that these things be rightly ordered in themselves and where there is most of danger appearing thence the Curative Intentions are to be more immediatly designed but so as whilst one is consulted about the other be not neglected But in these cases besides the private Judgment of every Physician experience may supply the chief means of healing for when as these Feavers first spread every one almost tryes several Remedies and by the success of them collated together it may be easily reckoned what kind of method is to be relyed on till at last by a frequent tryal or the footsteps of those passing before there is made as it were a high and broad Road for the curing of these sorts of distempers bounded both with various observations and warnings Besides these sort
of Feavers which spread on many at once and by reason of the Contagion deadliness and conspicuous notes of virulency deserve to be called Pestilent or Malignant there are some others epidemical or popular which almost every year either in the Spring or Autumn rage in some Countries of which the Inhabitants for the most part of them are wont to be sick and not few especially of the Elder to dye In which notwithstanding no signs of Pestilence or Malignity appear neither does the Disease seem to spread from one and so to another so much by Contagion as to lay hold on many by reason of a predisposition impressed almost on all But these kind of distempers depend chiefly upon the foregoing Constitution of the year for if the season going before was very intemperate by reason of excess of cold or heat of dryness or humidity and so had continued for a long time it changes our Blood very much from its due temperature whereby it is apt afterwards to conceive Feaverish effervescencies and from hence a Feaver now of this Type or Figure now of that is produced which presently becomes Epidemical because it draws its beginning from a common cause wherewith the bodies of all are in a manner affected But such Feavers forasmuch as they depend upon the Blood having gotten a disposition now sharp now austere or of some other kind by reason of the temper of the year for the most part are of the rank of intermitting Feavers yet by a proper provision of Symptoms they are wont to be noted according to the peculiar Constitution of every year These are not able to be comprehended under a certain common rule or formal reason which may quadrat to the nature of each of these because they vary every year according to their several accidents However we will give you the descriptions of these kind of Feavers spreading of late years in this Region had at that time for some specimen of the rest and add it for a conclusion at the end of this Tract There yet remains to be ascribed to the rank of malignant Feavers some other private Feavers and participating of no Contagion of which sort chiefly are those which are wont to happen to Child-bearing women by reason of difficult and hard labour or by reason of the stoppage of their Courses Indeed it sufficiently appears by common observation that these are very dangerous and often mortal for if by the parts of the Womb being hurt or by cold being admitted or perhaps by any other cause the Courses are stopped and the humour which ought to be thrust forth shall be confused with the mass of the Blood it most wickedly infects it as it were with a certain venomous mixture that by that means presently a Feaver is excited which with an evil provision of Symptoms is very much beset viz. with heat and cruel thirst Vomiting pain of the Heart and watchings and for the most part obtains either no Crisis or a very difficult one because unless the wonted way of the flux of the Courses may be at length restored it is wont after the heat of the Blood hath been continued for some days to Communicate the evil to the Brain and nervous stock from whence by and by a Delirium Phrensie Convulsions and other most wicked distempers are most often induced which do not seldom end in Death but these sort of Feavers deserve a peculiar consideration which we have more fully determined to shew hereafter in a particular discourse concerning this business in the mean time we will undertake to propose some instances or examples of the Feavers but now delivered viz. of the Pestilent and Malignant The pestilent Feaver of late years hath more rarely spread in these Regions than the Plague it self of the only one of this kind which fell under our observation I will give you a brief description In the year 1643 when in the coming on of the Spring the Earl of Essex besieged Reading being held for the King in both Armies there began a Disease to arise very Epidemical however they persisting in that work till the besieged were forced to a surrender this Disease grew so grievous that in a short time after either side left off and from that time for many months fought not with the Enemy but with the Disease as if there had not been leisure to turn aside to another kind of Death this deadly Disease increasing they being already overthrown by Fate and as it were falling down before this one Death Essexe's Camp moving to the Thames pitched in the places adjacent where he shortly lost a great part of his men But the King returned to Oxford where at first the Souldiers being disposed in the open Fields then afterwards among the Towns and Villages suffered not much less For his Foot which it chiefly invaded being pact together in close houses when they had filled all things with filthiness and unwholsom nastiness and stinking odors that the very Air seemed to be infected they fell sick by Troops and as it were by Squadrons At length the Feaver now more than a Camp Feaver invaded the unarmed and peaceable Troops to wit the entertainers of the Souldiers and generally all others yet at first the Disease being yet but lightly inflicted tho beset with an heavy and long languishment however many escaped About the Summer Solstice this Feaver began also to increase with worse provision of Symptoms and to lay hold on the Husbandmen and others inhabiting the Country Then afterwards spread through our City and all the Country round for at least Ten miles about In the mean time they who dwelt far from us in other Counties remained free from hurt being as it were without the sphere of the Contagion But here this Disease became so Epidemical that a great part of the people was killed by it and assoon as it had entred an house it run through the same that there was scarce one left well to administer to the sick strangers or such as were sent for to help the sick were presently taken with the Disease that at length for fear of the Contagion those who were sick of this Feaver were avoided by those who were well almost as much as if they had been sick of the Plague Nor indeed did there a less mortality or slaughter of men accompany this Disease because Cachectic and Pthisical old men or otherways unhealthful were killed by it also not a few of Children young men and those of a more mature and robust age I remember in some Villages that almost all the old men dyed this year that there were scarce any left who were able to defend the manners and priviledges of the Parish by the more anciently received Traditions When this Feaver first began it was somthing like the figure of a putrid Synochus but it was harder to be cured and when it seemed to be helped by a sweat or loosness presently it was wont to be renewed again
used all that Night this Youth seemed to be in a little better condition so that in the morning he continued a long time from sleep but began to role about his Eyes hither and thither and to set himself up a little yet without speaking or knowledg of those that were about him before noon his Eyes being shut again he wholly lost the use of every Animal faculty he lay for three days as it were Apoplectick with an high and vehement Pulse with a palpitation of the Heart and a difficult and painful breathing his Pulse at length growing lesser by degrees he dyed the thirteenth day of the Feaver On the fifteenth of February his Sister somwhat lesser than he was began to complain of a pain and torments in her Belly a trembling in her hands and a painful tension or stretching out of the Muscles of her Neck with a Feaverish intemperance and thirst on the last day of February she growing plainly into a Feaver could not keep out of her Bed moreover she was troubled with a wandring heat now in her Face now about her lower parts also she became heavy and somnolent and awaking from sleep could not presently come to her self On the first of March she was lightly Purged and with ease with an expression of Rhubarb her Urine was thick and red elso petechial red spots as in the rest were conspicuous we gave her after that for four days at several times to wit after the interval of every six hours space ten drops of the spirit of Harts-Horn in a Spoonful of Cordial Julep the aforesaid symptoms afterwards leisurly remitted and this sick child tho slowly recovered health without a manifest through Crisis About the same time her little Brother younger than any of these fell sick almost after the like manner who yet a loosness arising Naturally of it self for many days voyding Choleric and greenish stuff was easily cured Also in the same Family many other Domestics and some strangers coming to help them the evil being propagated by Contagion fell sick of the same Disease who notwithstanding at length became well tho with difficulty and slowly without any regular Crisis being made That this Feaver was malignant plainly appears by the Contagion Mortality and appearances of spots and many other signs tho that infecting Contagion whereby it spread from one to another shewed it self slow and of lesser Efficacy because between the sicknesses of each of them many days and oftentimes weeks hapned to be that the infection of this tho acute Disease and the dissemination on others was scarcely finished in four months space in the same House The Feaver about the first beginning seemed gentle and mild not very terrible as to burning but the matter being heaped together from the deflagration of the Blood became presently untameable hard to be exterminated also enemical to the Brain and Nervous stock wherefore in each of them the beginning of the Disease was to be known rather by the torpor and somnolency than the fervor and heat also the Crisis tho by several ways attempted viz. by Sweat Flux Bleeding did not happily succeed but for most part the Blood growing turgid with the critical motion endeavoured to transfer the Feaverish matter upon the dwellings of the Animal Spirits yet it self notwithstanding became not putrified by this means but that about the standing of the Disease both humors to wit the Blood and Nervous Juice being vitiated by an impure mixture together and grievously touched caused the event of the Disease to be either deadly or extream dangerous CHAP. XV. Of the Measles and Small-Pox IN the next place we refer the Small-pox and Measles to the rank of pestilential and malignant Feavers which indeed are mixt Distempers consisting at once according and contrary to our Nature As to their Original they have their seminary born with us but as to the effect they produce preternatural symptoms and as the Plague it self poysonous so that they constitute ar it were a certain peculiar kind of Feavers proper indeed to men but after another manner than Porphyrius has assigned for it happens for every man only and once to be distempered with the Small-pox or Measles if perchance any one lives free their whole life or another more often fall into these Distempers they are rare and unusual events of Nature which lessen not common observation yea t is fully confirmed to wit that all and only men are obnoxious to the Small-pox and Measlles and are wont to be rid of them at one sickness Concerning the Small-pox we will treat of them apart from the Measles what the cause of them is then what signs and symptoms they have and lastly what things belong to the Crisis and Cure Concerning the Causes we ought to consider in the first place what is the secret leading Cause to wit which renders only and all mankind and that once obnoxious to this Disease Secondly we will inquire concerning the evident Causes viz. by what and how many ways this latent and occult disposition is wont to be now sooner now later deduced into Act. Thirdly it shall be declared what is the conjunct cause to wit by what motion and alteration of the Blood the figure of this Disease is produced 1 As to the first this disposition or Natural predisposition which inclines human kind to this Disease seems to be a certain evil or impurity of the Blood conceived in the Womb among the first Rudiments of Generation almost all Authors would have this ascribed to the Menstruous Blood which Opinion seems not altogether improbable because in a womans Womb otherways than in most other living Creatures there is generated a certain Ferment which being communicated to the mass of Blood affords to it vigour and spirit and then at set periods procures a swelling up and an excretion of the superfluous Blood but at the time of Conception when the Menstrua wholly cease very much of this ferment is bestowed on the Faetus or Child and its Particles being Haeterogeneous to all the rest as a certain extraneous thing are confused with the mass of Blood and humors with which being involved and separated one from another lurk or ly hid a long while yet afterwards at some time being moved or stirred up by some evident cause they ferment with the Blood and induce to it an ebullition and then a Coagulation from whence very many symptoms of this Disease arise These fermentative seeds somtimes are few and gentle and so involved with other little Bodies as they do not easily appear and are brought into act somtimes they are more and stranger so that on the least occasion they are ripened into this Disease hence indeed some are taken sooner with the Small-Pox in their tender years others more slowly and not till full or more ripe age also some easily receive the contagion but others converse often with the sick without danger The sooner that any one hath this Disease the more secure they are
Spirits it very rarely can be blotted out or dissipated by Medicines or blood letting but that its hidden disposition will break forth into act wherefore at first it diffuses it self by little and little and inspires the mass of Blood as it were with a ferment hence an ebullition and growing hot are produced in the whole Body the Vessels are distended the Viscera provoked the membranes pulled until the seeds of the contagion by fusing and coagulating the Blood being at length involved with its congealed portions are thrust forth of doors The essence of this Disease will be better laid open if that I shall recount the signs and symptoms which are to be observed in its whole course and shall add in order the reasons and causes of them on which they depend but they are those which either indicate the Disease being present or that foretel its state and event As to the Diagnosis of this Disease by which it may be known whether any one at first falling sick will have the Small-pox or not at that time are to be considered the force of the contagion and the concourse of the symptoms first appearing for if by reason of the evil constitution of the Air this Disease doth spread abroad every where none then is taken with a Feaver without the suspition of the Small-pox especially if they never had them before in their lives but if this Disease be more rare and without fear of contagion yet its unlooked for assault quickly betrays it self by these sort of signs and symptoms 1. There is a wandring and uncertain Feaver somtimes strong somtimes more remiss observing no reason of increase or growing continually hot so that the sick are now highly hot by and by without any evident cause they are without a Feaver the cause of which is for that the fermentative seeds are not agitated by an equal motion but like fire half choaked now increases more and now are almost quelled and ready to expire until the burning spreading more largly the flame every where breaks forth 2. A pain in the Head and Loins is so peculiar a sign in this Disease that it almost alone in a continual Feaver signifies the approach of the small-pox the reason of which is commonly imputed to the greater Vessels being very much distended by the effervency of the Blood but indeed it appears not wherefore the same trouble is not caused equally in other parts by reason of the like distention of the Vessels and wherefore in the small-pox more than in a burning Feaver or in other Feavers where the Blood grows more hot these kind of pains should increase yea it may be observed that great pains now in the Head now in the Loins do urge when the Blood but little swelling up the Vessels are not amplified viz in the beginning of the Disease when the Feaverish distemper is not yet conspicuous whilst the sick as yet goe abroad and are well in their stomach upon the first coming on of the small-pox they betray themselves by these kind of pains Wherefore the cause of these kind of dolorific pains seems rather to subsist in the nervous stock viz. in the Brain and spinal marrow and that by reason of the membranes and nervous parts being pulled or hauled by the particles of the Poyson these pains do arise For it is most likely that the innate seeds of the small-pox are chiefly hidden in the Spermatick parts and that first of all the Contagion lays hold on for the most part the animal Spirits hence the first effervency is stirred up in the juice wherewith the Brain and nervous parts but especially the Spinal marrow are watered and from thence the evil is Communicated to the mass of Blood wherefore this Disease beginning the Head and Loins are tormented with cruel pain afterwards the venom being translated into the Blood the Feaverish effervescency is stirred up in the whole 3. Great anxiety and unquietness and somtimes a swooning infest the sick viz. by reason of the perturbed motion of the Blood as also its equal mixture beginning to be solved by the Poysonous ferment the Blood from thence being apt to stagnate in the Heart and to be hindred in its Circuit causes these affections to be thus excited 4. Cruel Vomiting also when the Ventricle is free from an impure ballast of humors very often accompanies this Disease the reason of which is because the fermentative seeds being stirred up into motion by the little Arteries gaping into the Coates of the Ventricle are deposed by every appulse of the Blood and raise up Vomiting as if the particles of stibium had been swallowed but afterwards assoon as sweating being procured the Poyson is driven forth outwardly this Symptom ceases and the sick are well in their stomach without any purging forth of the noxious matter 5. With these may be ranked the Symptoms which shew themselves according to the various habitudes of the Body after a diverse manner as heavy sleepiness terrors in sleep deliriums tremblings and convulsions sneezing heat redness a sense of pricking over the whole Body involuntary tears a sparkling and itching of the eyes a tumor or swelling up of the face a vehemency of Symptoms from the beginning that the Disease seems presently to have attained its strength the reason of all which may easily be elucidated if what hath been already said concerning the Symptoms of Feavers be observed with respect to the diverse tempers of the sick their habit and age as also the condition of the year 2. As to the Prognosis of this Disease by the Symtomatick signs it is indicated to be either salutary or mortal or of a doubtful Event 1. The business promises well when this Disease has benign circumstances to wit when it happens in a good constitution of the Air and Year at what time the small-pox are less malignant and pestilential as in the year 1654 at Oxford about Autumn the small-pox spread abundantly yet very many escaped with them but before in the year 1649. this Disease was more rare yet most dyed of it Also there is less danger if it should happen in the age of Childhood or Infancy or in a sanguine temper and good habit of Body or in a Family to whose Ancestors the small-pox have not proved mortal Besides if in the whole course of the Disease the Symptoms prove laudable if in the first assault there be a gentle Feaver without cruel Vomiting Swooning Delirium or other horrid Distempers if the Feaver about the fourth day be allayed with the Symptoms chiefly urging and then some little red spots begin to appear if on the second day of the coming forth of those little red spot they become more conspicuous which afterwards grow together by degrees into little Pimples and are ripened into matter if about the tenth day or thereabouts after the eruption the white tumors begin to scab and by little and little from thence to fall off if after their first coming forth the small-pox
CHAP. XVI Of Feavers of Child-bearing Women VUlgar Experience abundantly testifies that the Feavers of Women lying in are very dangerous beyond the disposition of other common Feavers also that the same differ very much as to their essence from both a simple and putrid Synochus plainly appears from their signs and symptoms rightly weigh'd wherefore I believe it not to be from the matter to handle after malignant Feavers the acute Diseases of Women lying in being exceeding neer of kin to those for their mortality or perniciousness Yet before I shall enter upon the unfolding these Diseases it behoves us to consider their subjects viz. the Bodies of Women in Child-bed after what manner they are predisposed and by what provision they are made obnoxious to these kind of sicknesses Concerning this the first thing that offers itself is that the Flux of the menstruous Blood is wholly convenient to be suffered by human kind and at this time for Women concerning whose nature and original we shall not inquire in this place but it shall suffice to note that in them the particles of the Blood to be periodically thrust forth are very Permentative which if reteined in the Body beyond the wonted manner of Nature are very often the cause of many Diseases unless only when a Woman conceives with Child For all the time of her being big Bellied the monthly Flowers are stopped without any incommodiousness and in the mean time milk or the alible juice is disposed in great plenty about the parts of the Womb for the nourishment of the Child but after the Birth this daily suppression of the monthly Flowers is recompensed by a copious flowing forth of the Lochia or what comes away after the Birth and the milk within three days having wholly left the Womb springs forth plentifully into the Breasts at which time Women lying in are wont to be troubled with a small Feaver If that the milk be driven away from the Breasts it restagnates again towards the Womb and is thrust forth together with the Lochia under the form of a whitish humour In the mean time the Womb after the Birth becomes subject to various distempers for oftentimes its tone is hurt the unity is dissolved and many other accidents are induced which render Women lying in subject to danger wherefore that their acute Diseases may be rightly unfolded it is convenient for to consider chiefly these three things viz. first the nourishment of the Child or the Generation of Milk both in the Womb and in the Dugs and the metastasis or translation of it from one to another Secondly the purging of the Mothers Blood or the profluvium of the Lochia after a long suppression of the Menstrua Thirdly the condition of the Womb after the Birth and its influence on other parts of the Body And these being premised we will speak of the Feavers of Women lying in viz. both the milkie and the putrid called and that deservedly malignant by reason of its deadliness First the Milk and nourishing humour being heaped up in the parts of the Womb for the nourishment of the Child are of a like nature tho somewhat different in consistency Milk is indeed more thick because it ought to be received in at the mouth and to be kept in the Ventricle and afterwards it more thin portion to be conveyed to the mass of Blood The other alible Juice is more thin and like the water of distilled Milk because 't is immediately poured into the Blood of the Embryo thorow the umbilick Vessels without any previous digestion Either Juice is supposed to come from the Chyle fresh made in the mothers stomach what is reposed or laid up in the Breast is more thick and white by reason of the more thin or open strainer and coction in the greater Glandulas on the contrary it happens in the Womb ootherwise where the Glandulas are smaller and the Straining more close But there is a great disagreement among Authors concerning the passages by which this humor is carried both in the Breasts and into the Cake of the Womb. Some contend that Milk only is begotten of the Blood more plentifully cocted in the Glandulas which yet by reason of the immense dispense of Milk which consists not with the Blood this seems not probable Others affirm that the Chyle or Milkie humor is immediately conveyed from the Viscera of Concoction thorow occult passages without any alteration into either receptacles But in the mean time while these passages lie open it seems indeed to me more likely that from the meat taken into the Mothers Stomach a portion of the Chyle thence made is presently supped up into the Veins which having obtained the vehicle of the Blood before it be assimilated by it is said up in the Glandulas destinated here and there for the receiving of it being carried by the Arteries and lastly separated from the mass of Blood for as it appears that drink being plentifully taken presently passes thorow the whole mass of Blood and is rendered by Urine like water and as old Ulcers by means of the Blood coming between prey upon the nutritious humor from the whole Body and pour it forth under the shape of a putrified matter Why may not the alible Juice in like manner being strained by the Collander of the Glandulas before it has indued the colour of Blood go into a Milkie humour This indeed seems more probable because whilst the Milk is carried from the Womb into the Breasts and on the contrary passing thorow the mass of Blood it is wont to stir up a perturbation thorow the whole with a feaverish intemperance besides in the first days after the Birth when the Glandulas do less rightly perform the office of secretion Beasts who have not the Lochia give a bloody Milk which is drawn forth of their Udders that is mixt with Blood by reason of the plenty of it flowing forth together Secondly As to what belongs to the Menstrua being suppressed in the time of being with Child and the Lochia plentifully coming away after being Delivered we say that after the Conception of the Child the Menstrua ought to be suppressed by Divine Designation for that the flowing of them often causes abortion then because the Vessels are filled by a continual stilling forth of the alible juice into the parts of the Womb the mass of the Blood doth not arise into swellings up to be allayed by the menstruous Flux For the same reason Women for the most part have not their courses so long as they give suck Perhaps in some indued with a more hot Blood the monthly courses flow both whilst they are Big-bellied and in the time of their giving suck but that more rarely and is wont not to happen without trouble yet in the mean time the Menstrua being suppressed during the time of being with Child because much less of the nutritious humor is expended at that time for Milk they much more deprave the Blood
Womb an inflation of the Belly and hypochondria a rumbling vomiting sobbing and streightness of the Praecordia difficult breathing a sense of choaking and oftentimes a stupor and want of speech or at least some of these are excited nor does the Tragedy to easily leave but that also the Brain being hurt by the continuance of the distemper by that means the evil is retorted upon other parts that oftentimes the whole nervous stock is compelled into irregularities of motions For what commonly is said to be done by vapours and the distemper called the ascent of vapours creeping from the nether parts to the upper is nothing else than the parts of the Membranes and nervous passages being successively driven into Convulsions Further in these sort of distempers the hurt action doth not always begin or is at first perceived in that region or place where the hurt is inflicted neither do the passions which are called hysterical proceed only from the Womb for sometimes the trouble is immediately brought from the Brain or the Convulsions and Contractions begin in the extreme parts and sometimes the extremities of the Nerves somewhere in the Viscera as the Stomach Spleen Reins no less than the Womb are haled in which irregularities being arisen they are continued into the neighbouring part and from thence to the Brain From whence again the Convulsions are reflected to other parts and not seldom thorow the whole Body Just so the business in Child-bearing Women and with others in Feavers as I have often observed to wit some by reason of their Womb being evilly affected but others by reason of a Feaverish matter fixed in the Brain by a critical metastasis or translation fall into passions like to the hysterical And these things being rightly prepensed concerning the praevious provision in the Feavers of Women in Child-bed there is not any thing that we should stick at in the entrance more so that we take notice that the bodies of Women lying in especially those who are feeble and of a more tender constitution are debilitated chiefly after a difficult and hard Labour so that by reason of this occasion only they easily conceive feaverish intemperatures and being brought in by this or any other means they are hardly able to bear them We will next speak of the Feavers themselves with which Women Lying in are wont to be sick of which Distempers there are commonly recounted as it were three kinds viz. the Milkie Feaver the Putrid the Symptomatic or of that manner by a certain borrowed symptom but is chiefly marked with the Pleurisie Squinancy or the Small-Pox of which we will discourse in order The Milkie Feaver WE have already said that as yet it was uncertain of what matter Milk was immediately made and by what passages it is carried into the Breasts moreover when this part appears not at all to anatomical inspection I am of the opinion that the Milkie Chyme being made out of aliments in the Bowels and from thence confused to the Blood for nourishing juice is presently again for the most part of it separated from its mass by the help of the Glandulas in the Womb or in the Breasts that it might supply the Child with nutriment either in the Mothers Belly or in her bosom by the Breasts In the time of going with Child altho the greatest part of this is derived to the Womb yet in the last months a little quantity of it is laid up in the Breasts but about the third or fourth day after being brought to bed the Milk is more plentifully carried into the Breasts and as it were with a certain force that it quickly fills them to a stretching them forth and begins to be troublesome At this time Women lying in tho not all yet most are wont to be troubled with a feaverish intemperature with thirst heat and an inquietude of the whole Body they complain of a pain very troublesome in the Back and Shoulders of a fullness and burning of the Breasts and unless the Milk be diligently drawn forth it being too much congested or heaped up oftentimes brings forth an inflamation with an Imposthume following of it in the Breasts This Feaver whilst the Lochia are in good order hardly lasts three days but that about that space it is wont to be allayed a plentiful sweating arising of its own accord yet this intemperature being excited by the coming of the Milk is somewhat increased and continued longer if that the Milk entring the Breasts in abundance be not milked forth but is again repelled from thence for by its departure as well as by its coming a perturbation is wont to happen in the whole Body with thirst and heat which also more certainly comes to pass if it happens to be driven away violently by repelling Topicks But being driven by their help from the Breasts or departing of its own accord it is thrust forth with the Lochia in the form of a whitish humor and a sweat or more plentiful transpiration exterminates the Reliques of the Disease If that with this kind of intemperance brought in by reason of the commotion of the Milk the Lochia be stopped or errors in eating and drinking be committed or any other evident cause should happen that may encrease the fervor of the Blood very often the Milkie Feaver presently acquiring worse symptoms changes into a putrid or rather malignant Feaver The cause or formal reason of the aforesaid Feaver whilst the way of the Milk lies hid may be only proposed from an hypothesis and as it were a certain Augury for being supposed that this milky humor is carried to the Breasts immediately by a peculiar passage from the Viscera of concoction without any commerce with the Blood this feaverish Distemper arises for that the Breasts being filled with Milk and greatly distended the sanguineous Vessels are so compressed that they do not easily transmit the Blood flowing thither from whence the Blood being hindred in its circuit begins to tumultuate thorow its whole mass and the Spirits being inordinately moved and wholly confused it conceives a fervor such as being induced by a stopping Surfeit Inflamation or Wound constitutes ordinarily the simple Synochus but if the matter of the Milk as it is not improbable passes thorow the Blood this Feaver of Women in Child-bed seems to spring from hence that when this Latex is transferred to the Breasts having left the Womb a great portion of it subsists in the mass of the Blood which indeed for that it exceeds the due provision of the nourishing juice and so cannot be wholly assimilated and besides abounds in heterogeneous parts and as it were something extraneous and not mingleable with the Blood creates a trouble therefore for the carrying it forth of doors and putting it forth this three days feaverish Distemper is employed For when the milky Chile being used to be separated about the Womb by and by after being Delivered of a Child that wax of excretion is hindred restagnating into
the mass of Blood it is there first of all heaped up more plentifully than that the whole may go into nourishment or be received into the Breasts wherefore the Milk not only in its passage to the Breasts but also in its return towards the Womb brings forth the Feaver to wit by reason of either passage thorow the Blood But however the cause of this Disease is ordained it matters little or nothing towards the Cure for this is wholly committed to Nature and so long as the Lochia are in good order it proceeds for the most part happily without any Physical help because after the growing hot of the Blood for three or four days either a plentiful sweat or a more free transpiration cures this Distemper to wit either the Particles of the Milky humor degenerate in the assimulating or the adust recrements remaining after the deflagration of the Blood or both of them at once supplying the food or tinder of the Feaver are by little and little subdued and evaporated out of doors which being excluded the Blood becoming free from the extraneous mixture quickly recovers its pristine condition yet in the mean time certain vulgar Rules are wont to be observed about the admission of the Milk into or the driving away of the same out of the Breasts If the Milk too plentifully springs into the Breasts that their inflamation as also the immoderate growing hot of the Blood may be prevented at that time a more thin and sparing dyet to wit no flesh broths and also in a less quantity is to be ordered also the Breasts are to be frequently drawn If it be not commodious for the Mother to suckle her Child it is usual after the first or third day of her being Delivered to cover all the Breasts over with Sear-Cloaths moderately binding as the Plaister of Red-lead e. for so the spongious substance of the Glandulas is somewhat constrained or closed together whereby they less readily receive the milky humor flowing thither yet this kind of Remedy ought to be cautiously administred lest if the Milk be wholly excluded or driven out of the Breast too abruptly restagnating suddenly in the Blood it induces its disorder the prodromus or forerunner of the Putrid or Malignant Feaver of which it remains that we speak next The Putrid Feaver of Women in Child-bed WOmen Lying in from the fault of an evil affected Body as by the Contagion of a received Pestilential Air are found to be too obnoxious to the Putrid or rather Malignant Feaver but all do not a like receive the Infection of this sort of Disease for poor people Labouring Women Country Women and others accustomed to hard Labour as also Viragoes and Whores which are brought to Bed clandestinely bring forth without any great difficulty and then after a little time leaving their Beds return to their wonted Labours But more rich Women tender and fair and most living a sedentary life as if participating after a more grievous manner of the Divine Malediction bring forth in pain and then presently after the Birth they are subject to difficult and dangerous chances the reason of which seems to lie in this that those who are used to much exercise continually agitate and eventilate the Blood and therefore fewer infectious taints from the monthly Flowers being suppressed do gather together for the matter of a Disease moreover laborious and nimble Women as they have their nervous parts more firm therefore they are less subjected to convulsive motions and to the passions commonly called hysterical on the contrary in delicate and idle Women the mass of Blood in the time of their going with Child becomes very impure and fermentisible besides because they have the system of the Nerves and the Brain soft and weak upon every light occasion they suffer distractions of the animal Spirits and inordinate motions of the nervous parts And here by the way it is to be noted that Women more than men and that some of the same Sex before others are sensible of the affections called hystorical not so much by the default of their Womb as for that they are of more weak constitution of Brain and nervous stock for in those so affected the passions of anger sadness fear as also all troublesome and more strong objects easily pervert the dispositions and functions of those parts which when they are once hurt for the most part afterwards are accustomed to those irregularities But we will return from whence we have digressed The Feaver but now proposed is wont to infest Women Lying in indeed at various times and by reason of divers occasions now presently after the Birth especially if it be difficult and laborious now it arises in the first now the second third or fourth week yet the sooner it begins the more safely it is wont to be cured The Type or Figure of this Disease is performed almost after this manner After a previous indisposition an open feaverishness for the most part with a shivering or horror constitutes the first assault which is followed with heat and afterwards succeeds a sweat perhaps for a day or two they have various reciprocal fits of heat and cold then the Blood being wholly inkindled the Lochia if not before suppressed either flow smally or are wholly stopt If the Disease be acute and of a swift motion it comes to its height on the third or fourth day then an intense heat with a very troublesome thirst a vehement pulse and quick pertinacious wakings a great inquietude of the whole Body that they are continually tossing themselves in their Beds hither and thither a thick Urine and high coloured and other most grievous symptoms are wont to trouble them whilst the Feaver is after this manner at its height no Crisis is to be expected for I never saw this Disease cured by a critical sweat but that the business was still very precipitously acted as after the Blood was grown hot for a little time presently the adust matter being translated to the Brain most dangerous and heavy inordinations of it and the whole nervous stock forthwith come upon them for most often are stirred up convulsive motions of the Tendons wonderful distentions and inflations about the Viscera like to the hysterical passions then sometimes also follow a phrensie or dilerium not seldom a stupefaction and speechlessness the strength is suddenly cast down almost in all without any manifest cause the Pulse becomes weak and unequal and the sick are suddenly precipitated to death If that any perhaps escape either by the return of the Flux of the Lochia or a Lask coming upon it they hardly recover but of a long time I have known in some purple spots to have appeared and certainly in many symptoms that respect either the Blood or nervous juice which argue no light Malignity We will distinguish the causes of this Feaver after the ordinary manner into Procatartic Evident and Conjunct Those of the first sort upon which the
malignity and the greatest perniciousness of the Disease depend are two viz. first a depraved disposition of the Blood from the long suppression of the monthly Flux Secondly after the Birth the evil affections of the Womb from the dangerous Labours of Women who undergo the Divine Malediction appointed them from the Menstrua being long suppressed the Blood not only swells up and its Sulphureous parts being too much carried forth are rendred more apt for burning but besides the mass of the Blood is imbued with very fermentative Particles so that as hath been already hinted as if it were touched with a venemous infection presently growing fervent it is disposed towards putrefaction and corruptive disorders and besides forthwith impoysons the nervous Liquor and renders it infestuous to the Brain and the whole nervous stock These kind of evils being impressed on the Blood ought to be purged forth by the Flux of the Lochia but if after the Birth the Womb be out of order the Lochia are not only stopped and so a purifying of all the Blood is hindred but besides stinking corruptions or defilements are thence bestowed on the Blood and grievously infect it Also by reason of convulsive motions begun about the Womb and from thence continued to other parts inordinations are stirred up in the Blood and juices which oftentimes conspire either the production or the acerbation or growing worse of the Feaver The evident causes which induce an actual effervescency either to the Blood having gotten an ill disposition or invert the vices of the whole Body to the Womb are after a diverse sort A painful Labour a solution of the unity about the Womb a bruise a retention of preternatural things an ulcerous disposition and very many other accidents which are induced by a certain necessity may do this But the occasions that are at the dispose of the Patients and easily to be avoided which are wont to excite this kind of Feaver are chiefly two viz. an ill manner of Dyet and the taking of cold It is an usual thing to give to weak Women after being Delivered on the first or second day the flesh of living Creatures or Broths made of flesh meats and other foods very improportionate to their dispositions from whence presently arise an indigestion and great trouble in the Bowels and a feaverish distemper in the Blood by reason of a more rich nutritious juice than ought to be Besides the errors in Dyet oftentimes hurt is caused for that their Bodies being so very tender also by reason of the labours of the Birth and bringing forth the Child the passages are on every side opened they are exposed too heedlessly to the cold for most of them being impatient of their Bed within a day or two or sooner than they should do rise out of it and put on their Cloaths from whence presently the Pores of the skin being suddenly contracted and the Air being admitted into the parts of the Womb transpiration is hindred and often the Lochia on the sudden are stopped either of which suffices to excite the feaverish distemper The conjunct cause or formal reason of this kind of sickness chiefly comprehends these three things to wit there are present first a very notable discrasie of the Blood that growing hot from the Feaver being occasionally induced it doth not equally burn forth nor leisurely overcome the adust recrements and afterwards critically thrust them forth but the Blood growing hot is presently loosned in its mixture and its frame being unlocked turns and declines towards corruption hence when it grows but a little cool the spirits being shaken out of their dominion are moved into confusion In the mean time the Sulphureous Particles become untamed and fierce wherefore the strength falls down without any manifest cause the Pulse is made weak and disordered after the deflagration of the Blood altho the adust recrements are very much heaped up yet nothing is rightly concocted or separated but the sick being greatly oppressed in Nature tho they continually sweat receive nevertheless oftentimes no ease from thence but the feaverish matter which ought to be thrust forth being transmitted into the head and nervous stock induces there most grievous perturbations of the animal regiment Secondly the Tragedy of this Disease owes no small part of it to the nervous juice being presently made sharp and so improportionate to the Brain and its Appendix for this being infected from the taint contracted from the Blood doth not gently water or pleasantly blow up its subjects but notably hale or pull those tender parts as when an infusion of vitriol is poured upon a Worm and irritates or provokes them into convulsions and into motions as if of dancing or suddenly leaping forth and sometimes wholly overturns their functions hence comes contractures grievous convulsions dilerium wakings and sometimes stupification and the sleepy Disease upon Women Lying in Thirdly whilst these things are done oftentimes a third band of symptoms infest the sick to wit for that the Womb being hurt by some evil moves it self disorderly and is struck with a Convulsion according to these or those parts from thence by and by convulsive motions invade by the membranes and nervous passages the whole Region of the Abdomen wherefore the Viscera and Hypocondria are blown up belchings and grievous vomitings are stirred up then the Distemper creeping upwards and possessing the nervous parts of the Thorax a difficult breathing and unequal a palpitation of the heart a sense of choaking in the throat by reason of the Muscles being there drawn backward and other symptoms through the whole Body are excited the same evil being at last carried to the Brain The Feavers of Women in Child-bed almost never want danger but sometimes it happens about the beginning that they are cured by a slender Dyet and by the Flux of the Lochia being restored but if the feaverish distemper does root it self more deeply that the whole Blood is inkindled and immoderately grows hot the Prognostick ought not to be esteemed of a light Omen and there will be a greater reason of danger if besides the heat being suffused all over the sick are troubled with a frequent shivering if they are affected or molested with a great disquietness and wakings with sudden concussions of the Body or a contracture of the Tendons or if thirdly they complain on the fourth day of a tingling of their ears with a great repletion or fulness of the head you may from thence collect the evil to grow worse viz. a translation of the feaverish and hurtful matter to the Brain nor is it less to be feared if they have on them an oppression and weight of the Praecordia that the sick cannot breath freely nor draw their breath deep and from the bottom of their breast but only from the top and that frequently and sighingly and that they move themselves restlesly hither and thither For this argues the Blood to stagnate in its circulation about the Heart and
things and that are indued with a styptic or binding vertue are equally to be avoided for these fix the Blood and bind it too much and hinder its very requisite Purgation both by the Lochia and by transpiration thorow the skin But rather though the Feaver be urgent give them decoctions powders and confections of things moderately hot of which sort are as is already said decoctions or Distilled Waters of the Flowers of Marigoids the Leaves of Pennyroyal Mugwort the roots of Scorzonera also Bezoartic Powders Spirits of Harts-horn fixed salts of Herbs c. If the Lochia should be stopt that their Flux may be again provoked must be indeavoured every way To the moving of this conduce frictions and ligatures about the Thighs and Legs sometimes Cupping-Glasses or Blisters about the Thighs or Hips also in the soles of the Feet also sometimes the opening a Vein in the Ankle is convenient in the mean time a fomentation of the hysterical decoction is to be applied about the Pubis or the Caul of a Weather or Sheep taken out warm may be layed to the bottom of the Belly and experience manifests that sometimes injections into the Womb are profitable If the Belly yields not it may be gently brought down with a violet suppository so called or an emollient Clyster of more strong provocations you must take heed because in Women Lying in even as in a Malignant Feaver from a copious dejection with loss of Spirits Life is quickly lost If with the suppression of the Lochia there be a notable perturbation of the Blood with vomiting thirst and wakings I have often known Laudanum mixt with Saffron given with happy success Instead of a cooling Julep this kind of mixture is convenient viz. take of water of Pennyroyal and Balm each three ounces of hysterical water two ounces of the Syrrop of Mugwort three ounces and an half of the tincture of Saffron two drams of Castor ty'd in a rag and hung in the glass one scruple mingle these and let them drink of this three or four spoonfuls oftentimes in a day 2. If notwithstanding the use of these Remedies the Feaver grows still worse and by degrees is increased with worser symptoms that besides the disorders of the Blood the Brain and nervous parts begin to be touched Medicines tho many of every kind may be tryed do little yea in this case the indications are almost the same with those made use of in the Plague it self forasmuch as the Lochia being for a good while suppressed they cannot easily be reduced or scarcely at all in the great confusion of the Blood and humors therefore it is convenient quickly to move a sweating to wit that the corruptions impressed on the Blood and nervous juice and restagnating from the Womb may be carried forth some how by sweat and insensible transpiration Therefore here Powders and Confections of Bezoar Spirit of Hartshorn or of Soot tinctures of Corals or Pearls help I have sometimes seen by the help of those kind of Medicines in a desperate case when the Pulse and other symptoms have appeared a little better some small hopes to shew themselves yet Cure rarely to follow but when the use of these Cordials were left off the sick with a weak Pulse and a Loosness presently arising have been precipitated to Death 3. When yet the business of the sick proves still worse when the Feaver being increased the Pulse is weak and unequal and frequent horrors and convulsive motions in the whole body with a delirium and stupefaction infest them then the Physitian having first made a Prognostication of Death may insist upon a few Remedies and those only Cordials and must wholly abstain from blood-letting scarification blistering or the use of Cupping-glasses for such administrations beget only an odium and blame that by so doing we are esteemed by some Women as wicked and cruel The Symptomatic Feavers of Women in Child-bed THE Acute Diseases of Women in Child-bed shew themselves not only according to the Figure of the aforesaid Feaver but sometimes they are beset with some signal symptoms to wit the Squinancy Pleurifie inflamation of the Lungs Dysentery Small-Pox or of some other kind and at that time they get the appellations of those Distempers It will not be here seasonable to repeat at large what belongs to the essences and natures of each but I shall briefly shew what these sicknesses being complicated with the distempers of Women Lying in contain peculiarly as to the Causes or Cures All these symptoms we suppose to proceed from a certain Coagulation of the Blood and from thence its extravasation But whilst the Blood is extravasated or put forth of the Vessels in one part its efflux however natural and critical is hindred in another wherefore it is dangerous lest whilst the Blood begins to be coagulated either in a particular or accustomed nest of Coagulation or universally in its whole mass the flowing of the Lochia be stopped which in truth for the most part happens and therefore these Distempers for the most part are deadly to Women in Child-bed yet the cause of their Death for the most part happens with some difference viz. in the Small Pox the flowing of the Lochia draws inwardly the malignity begun to be carried forth outwardly and forthwith compels the mass of Blood and the heart it self to be impoysoned with its evil and therefore in the Small Pox these purgings of the Womb are convenient to be stopped But in the Pleurisie Squinancy and the rest when the provocative of the Disease being fixed here or there in a particular place draws to it self the impurities of the Blood which ought to be separated or sifted forth by the Lochia and derives it streight from the Womb for that reason it increases the impurity of the Blood The Lochia being stopped in the Small Pox by the more universal manner or way of excretion may be shut forth of doors with the venemous Particles of the Disease which thing indeed does not succeed in the rest by reason of the minute and more sparing manner of excretion Of these the Squinancy Pleurisie and Inflamation of the Lungs by reason both of the great similitude of the Cause and analogy of the Cure may be considered together when any Woman Lying in is distempered with any of these it is to be supposed that besides the Infection gathered together in the time of being Big-bellied there happens a certain sourish disposition of the Blood by the means of which whilst that it self grows feaverishly hot certain Particles of it being fused with the sourness enter into congelation in this or that part like Milk growing sour and then to be coagulated The Blood being there frozen or congealed and hindred in its circuit stops the passage of the rest but the Blood being obstructed in its motion buts against the impediment and so being heaped up about it and driven forth of the Vessels grows into a tumour from thence presently whatsoever is
with thirst heat wakings and at several turns with swoonings and cold sweats at this time being sent for I prescribed her Cardaic Remedies and such as moved the purgings of the Womb and also a Clyster to be given her at length the Flux of her Belly being provoked the Lochia also came down and the sick Woman being freed from the aforesaid symptoms and the more grievous Disease to wit the Remedies of the Nurses quickly grew well of her Feaver The more plentiful Flux of the Womb hapning to this Woman removed the Procatartic cause of a more grievous Disease wherefore when they had committed so many errors about the ordering her viz. first in stopping the Lochia then what might compensate their defect in hindring the Flux of her Belly yet the Feaver was only light and without any venomous taint impressed on the Blood the like to this I have known to happen frequently to wit when at first the purgings of the Womb have flown very plentifully afterwards when they have flown very sparingly and sometimes stopped the Women in Child-bed have escaped And by the way it is here to be noted that it is wholly dangerous to inhibit or at least divert and cross any motion of Nature incited tho irregular A Noble Gentlewoman about 20 years of Age indued with a smooth and full habit of Body miscarried twice in the space of a Year when she had again Conceived by the prescription of her Physician she provoked a Vomit once a month by drinking plentifully Posset Drink by which she was wont to cast forth much thick tough Phlegm also in the time of her being with Child he Let her Blood 5 times the time of her going being over she was brought to Bed of a Son with very hard Labour the Secundine came whole away and she purged notably on the second day whilst she was lifted upon her feet in Bed that the Sheets and the Blankets might be laid in better order she took Cold and by that means the bloody Lochia wholly stopped and only a little serous Water came away on the third day she began to complain of an acute pain in her right side to which the Women laid Bags of Camomil made hot with Bricks but the distemper grew worse with a bloody spittle on the fourth day of her being brought to Bed a most â—harp pain with a difficult breathing and very Laborious invaded her by the prescription of her Physician then coming to her from the neigbourhood six ounces of Blood was taken away out of the Basilic Vein and she felt sudden ease for 10 hours she was better in the middle of the night the pricking pain returned with its wonted fierceness at length other Physicians being called to Counsel they agreed that it was necessary to open a Vein again in the arm of the distempered side four ounces of Blood being taken away the pain remitted and the sick breathed better then by Diasphoretic Remedies she fell into a great sweat with a quiet sleep But the Pulse was made quicker and weaker also contractures of the tendons in her wrists appeared presently afterwards she talked idly and within 24 hours after she was last Let Blood she departed That this Lady fell into a Pleurisie with a Feaver upon the Lochia being suppressed the cause in some measure seemed to be the Letting of Blood so often in the time of her being with Child for by this means the Blood being accustomed to be eventilated at the arm afterwards growing hot leaving the Womb was carried violently towards the place of its letting forth where when it found not a passage it fixed in the neighbouring side as the next nest to the place of extravasation yea besides the usual manner of a Pleurisie there was no small malignity hapned to this Disease for the Blood being hindred from being let forth of the Vessels began presently to be corrupted in its disposition and in the third day of the Feaver was so much depraved that it could not be any longer fermented in the heart so as to Prorogue Life It was not so with the Wife of a certain Smith who was brought to Bed at what time her Children had the Small Pox in the same House and she her self as it seemed had taken the Contagion of the same Disease for on the second day after her Delivery they began to break forth with a feaverish heat and pain in her Loyns which indeed for three days whilst the Lochia moderately flowed arose rightly into little swellings altho the purging of the Womb was very copious at that time she had the Small Pox very thick all over her Body not only in the superficies of her skin but also they filled the cavity of her mouth and throat so that she could scarce speak or swallow The sixth day of her Lying in the Lochia flowed immoderately from whence presently fell upon the sick a frequent swooning with a flagging of the Small Pox Convulsions and other symptoms of an ill nature which threatned Death soon being sent for I prescribed half a dram of this Powder to be taken constantly every three hours in a spoonful of the following Julep viz. take of the Roots of Tormentil in Powder drams two of the best Bole Armonie dram one of the species of Hyacinth half a dram make a Powder Take of the Compound Water of Scordium of Dragons of Meadowsweet each three ounces of Therecal Vinegar one ounce of the Syrup of Corals two ounces of Harts-horn burnt half a dram make a Julep Besides I ordered to be boyled in her Broths and in every thing she drank the Roots of Tormentil by these Remedies the purging of her Womb was soon wholly stopped and the Small Pox by degrees being ripened came off without any grievous symptom Indeed this case was difficult and was cured with great danger viz. for either the Lochia or the Small Pox to have been restrained inwardly was very dangerous and yet the more full eruption of the one hindred the motion of the other so long as either moderately proceeded things being permitted to the conduct of Nature was moderately well but when one of them became ill the work of Art was required and it was requisite to bridle the Lochia but to provoke the Small Pox. CHAP. XVII Of Epidemical Feavers HAving meditated rather a Commentary than an intire Tract I had thought here to have concluded our Discourse of Feavers But forasmuch as certain Epidemical Feavers do often spread which observe no Laws nor can be brought to any certain rule of Doctrine but being irregular vary every year and for that reason as often as any of them increase or spread abroad presently it is called the new Disease therefore I thought it worth our while because general precepts concerning these Feavers are not to be delivered to subjoyn some particular Histories of some of this kind for out of the various provision of symptoms whereby they are wont to be noted the nature and the whole
formal reason of these kind of distempers may somewhat appear Since therefore of late years within a short tract of time three popular Diseases have spread in these Countrys I will add as a Crown to this work the several Descriptions of them made at those times when these Feavers raged A Description of an Epidemical Feaver spreading about Autumn in the Year 1657. taken in the middle of September WHilst we meditate the Description of a Feaver at this time cruelly raging it is fit that following the example of Hippocrates we first consider the foregoing constitution of the Year its intemperance and excess of qualities For Epidemical Diseases and commonly excited among the people are from a common cause such as the habit of the Year and by that means contracted a disposition of the Blood by which many are alike affected But that we may draw the matter from the beginning the last Spring and the time succeeding it even to the end of the Summer was all that half years space extremely dry and hot but especially after the Summer solstice the heats were so intense for many weeks following that day and night there was none that did not complain of the heat of the Air and were almost in a continual sweat and were not able to breath freely About the Calends of July this Feaver at first sporadical or particular began to break forth in some places that perhaps one or two were taken in the same City or Village In many it imitated the likeness of an intermitting Tertian viz. the Fits returned every other day which yet infested the sick with a most intense heat without any cold or shivering going before Vomiting and Choleric Stools plentifully hapned to most sweat succeeding but difficultly and often interrupted whereby the feaverish fit rarely ended in a remission but that all the time between the sick continued languishing and weak with thirst and restlessness in some when the business began to grow better after three or four fits cold and shivering began the fits and the Feaver became an exact intermitting Tertian But in most the Feaver still grew worse and presently became of an evil nature and difficult Cure with a depraved provision of symptoms for when the sick were highly heated in their fits and hardly sweated they were wont to commit errors which daily increased the strength of the Disease because by reason of the inpatience of the sick and the unskilfulness of Servants the sweat being interrupted which should have ended the fit of the Feaver after one fit was scarce finished another presently succeeded and so the Disease was wont to have wandring and uncertain periods without any intermission betweene and afterwards to pass into a kind of continual Feaver The condition of which sometimes being very dangerous with an evil affection of the Brain and nervous stock so that oftentimes a Lethargy or Delirium or not seldom cramps and Convulsive motions were excited About the month of August this Feaver began to spread far and near among the people that in every Region and Village many were sick of it but it was much more frequent in the Country and smaller Villages than in Cities or Towns It was still like an intermitting Feaver unless that it seemed more infestous than that is wont and with more cruel fits and shorter intermissions and therefore was called the new Disease besides it underwent the note of a certain malignity and gave knowledg of its Contagion and Deadliness insomuch that it crept from house to house infected with the same evil most of the same Family and especially those familiarly conversing with the sick yea old Men and Men of ripe Age it ordinarily took away If you respect the nature and essence of the Disease this Feaver properly should be referred to the rank of intermitting Feavers for the fits returned at set times also for the most part they began with cold and shivering and oftenest with vomiting and by and by a most intense heat proceeding they were finished at last with a sweat The Urine in most appeared of a flame colour thin in the fits with some hypostasis without it more thick and with a redish sediment altho with a most copious sweat and often iterated the Disease was not cured which might be expected in a continual Feaver yea the distemper continued exceeding long for many days sometimes months tho much evacuation almost daily hapned by vomit and sweat which we observe frequently in an intermitting Feaver rarely to happen in a continual out of the fit at any time of the Disease a purge was profitably instituted which in a Synochus before the sign of concoction were a wicked thing to attempt besides that this Feaver was of the intermitting kind it seems to appear from hence because very many recovered of it that scarce one of a thousand died which I scarce ever knew in an Epidemical Synochus About the first beginnings of this Disease it appeared very like to an intermitting Tertian altho afterwards in some by reason of the vitious provision of their body and errors committed in Dyet and sweating it seemed to change into a continual for in whom the fits were not rightly concluded nor ended in a remission by reason of the morbific matter not being throughly dispersed their Blood was continually hot from whence it came to pass that the fits sooner returned and continued longer till at length by reason of the plenty of matter and the languishment of Nature the Blood being made weaker endeavoured no longer to swell up and to separate the feaverish matter at set hours but to subdue it by little and little with a continual effervency We are to inquire concerning the causes of this Disease what may be the leading evident and conjunct cause viz. by the means of which it spread so generally and became Epidemical through all England by what means and for what occasion it was wont to be excited in all men and lastly what kind of alteration of the Blood and humors being induced brought forth this kind of Feaver with such a provision of symptoms and conserved it in the Act. I know it is easie to place wholly the cause of this so popular Disease in the malignant constitution of the Air to wit that the Particles of the Air in which we breath were infected by a certain extraneous Infection and not agreeable to our Nature the little bodies of which Infections being admitted within did ferment with the Blood and humors and so in most brought in this Feaver almost with the same appearance of symptoms For who dares deduce the original of a Disease so generally raging from a less public fountain or refer to any other place the received causes of Diseases than to that nest of Vital Air on which every one seeds But whilst I more attentively consider the thing it seems to me that its stem and as it were its first beginnings are to be sought a little deeper To wit that this Feaver is
born not from the Contagion communicated by the Air and immediately fixing its evil on men but rather from a certain feaverish predisposition or nature impressed somewhile before on our Bodies because of the intemperance of the Year which at length having gotten maturity on the least occasion is brought into Act and so breaks not forth into this Feaver so much as it sifts it forth For when about the Calends of July the Air was immoderately hot with a most intense heat for many days is easily altered our Blood towards an hot and bilous intemperance by which as 〈◊〉 â—ine growing more hot than it should do the sweet part and the spirituous was much consumed in the mean time the Saline and Sulphureous was too much carried forth that by that means the Liquor easily contracted a rancor or sourness We have in another place shewn that this kind of disposition of the Blood whereby indeed it turns from a sweet and spirituous temper into a bilous or choleric is most apt for intermitting Feavers Hence the alible juice which is continually carried into the mass of Blood is not rightly concocted nor assimilated into Blood but perverted as it were into an extraneous and fermentative matter which arising to a fulness in the bosom of the Blood it self and growing turgid according to its increase at set periods as we have already shewn induces the fits of the intermitting Feaver when therefore from the great burning heat of this Summer the Blood almost of all men becoming more hot than usual was very much scorched it is no wonder if from thence it should contract a great aptitude for intermitting Feavers But why not whilst the fervor of the Heaven was yet urgent but a little after this Disease spread it self the reason is because this indisposition is not impressed on our Blood at once or at one time but by little and little and not but of a long time and therefore Diseases like Fruits are chiefly ripened in Autumn after the foregoing heat of the Summer This aptitude or feaverish disposition all do not contract alike those whose Blood is of a more hot Nature and abounds more in Sulphur and for that cause is sooner scorched also such who labour or stay long in the heat of the Sun and open Air by reason of their Blood being more remarkably torrified more easily fell into this Disease wherefore at first it chiefly raged among Husbandmen in the Country of these who had acquired an aptitude to this Feaver from the Blood being before scorched some perhaps fell into this of their own accord the feaverish disposition being leisurely carried forth to a maturity others by reason of a light occasion or evident cause which was wont otherways to stir up the feaverish burning as from taking Cold Surfeit drinking of Wine and the like and others fell sick from the Contagion received of others for as the effluvia constantly came away from the sick when they pierced Bodies predisposed to the like distemper they easily excited the hid powers into Act. As to the third Proposition to wit that the conjunct cause of this Disease and its formal Reason may be known we must put you in mind of those things which we have elsewhere delivered concerning the nature of intermitting Feavers for we suppose the retorrid and bilous constitution of the Blood as the basis of this Disease by reason of which the alible juice being supplied daily as it were in a certain measure is not rightly concocted but by the assation or scorching becomes or goes into a fermentative matter not miscible with the Blood When the Blood is filled to a fullness with this matter which happens at set intervals of times because the alible juice is supplied as it were by a set measure it of its own accord conceives a swelling up and the growing hot or effervescency being excited for the carrying away of this matter causes the feaverish fit which so long indures till this feaverish matter being inkindled and as it were burnt in the heart is wholly dissipated with sweat From these things premised it is made plain that in this distemper we now discourse of there are some things happen by a peculiar way from the common kind of intermitting Feavers and therefore it was noted and that not undeservedly with the appellation of a New Feaver which are First That about the beginning of the Disease fits did a long while afflict the sick without cold or shaking but with a most intense heat thirst and cruel vomiting by which the sweat hardly and for the most part partial and often interrupted succeeded whereby the fit was not finished but of a long time The reason of which may be only laid upon the very choleric disposition of the Blood and being above measure scorched For this proceeding from the domineering Sulphur wholly inhibits the wonted sourness of the Blood which follows its turgency or swelling up and is wont to stir up the cold or shivering and by reason of this kind of temper of the Blood too much roasting and as it were burning the alible juice the Blood growing turgid together with that juice and being stirred up into motion is inkindled more than it is wont in the heart and by its deflagration induces a most intense and troublesome heat with thirst to the sick Cholerick vomitings happen not only at the beginning but in the middle of the fit by reason of the abundance of choler with which the Choleduct Vessels being too much filled infuse the intestines which then a Convulsion being stirred up is easily emptied into the Ventricle sweat hardly succeeds because the bile abounds more than the serum wherefore the feaverish matter being burnt it is not easily sifted forth by sweat but being either mingled with the Blood causes the long effervency or being carried towards the intestines produces Vomiting or a Flux Secondly This Feaver differs from the vulgar intermitting Feaver because after the fit was ended there was no full intermission even to a remission but the sick still remained languishing and thirsty and as to appetite sleep and other accidents very ill which indeed hapned because by the intense heat of the fit more of the Blood and feaverish matter is inkindled than that its recrements remaining after its deflagration are able presently to be dissipated especially because the sweat by reason of the dryness of the matter very hardly succeeds nor is the feaverish matter enough diluted with the serous Latex to be sifted forth wherefore the Blood by its Contagion in the time of the fit not being perfectly freed grows hot still neither the fit being ended doth it get any full truce from the Disease In the mean time whilst the Blood is urged after this manner with almost a continual effervency it differs from a Synochus because in this the Sulphureous part of the Blood being too much carried forth and as it were inflamed causes the Feaver by its deflagration but the continual
Fire and to renew it by little and little with spirit and vigor in a long time yet in the mean time after the heighth of this Disease when the Blood being made more weak and impure could not expel forth of doors this feaverish matter or adust recrements by a critical motion it often transferred it to the Brain and therefore about the height of this Feaver a torpor and stupidity of spirits sleepiness vertigo tingling of the ears tremblings and convulsive motions with a great oppression of the whole animal faculty were most often induced Men of a more cold temperament or in years who were taken with this Disease altho they were but little feaverish were wont however to be in greater danger of Life because in these besides the disposition of the Blood not easily reducible also what was gathered together in the fits that was extraneous and not to be mixed was hardly subdued and difficultly sifted forth of the mass of Blood wherefore both the Blood was still more notably depraved in its Crasis and in every fit more infected by the impure mixture Moreover the nervous Liquor was greatly perverted from its due temper and defiled most badly by the adust recrements continually poured on the Brain Therefore when old men melancholic or otherways sickly persons fell into this Feaver they became presently after its first assault stupified and for the most part vertiginous Tho in the fits the heat was not very sharp and piercing they were however very unquiet and still tossing about oftentimes they talked idly and at random after a long burning either no sweat or only partial and often broke off followed whereby the fit was not fully helped but that in the whole intervals the sick were thsrsty and remained very ill with a driness of the mouth a scurfiness of the Tongue and a suffusion of a viscous filth After some fits their strength being exceedingly cast down they were wholly fixed to their Beds or rise only for a little while could scarce stand or set a foot before another to move from place to place or able to walk in the mean time they laboured with a languishment a difficult breathing a nummedness of senses and a great debility of the whole nervous stock The Urine in most was highly red of a more deep colour and of a thicker consistency than in a common Tertian The Pulse whilst the strength was not wholly cast down for the most part was strong and equal afterwards when the sick became very languishing it was weak and unequal and oftentimes intermitting to which also constructures of the tendons and convulsive motions in the wrists being joyned were for the most part prognosticks of Death Those who leisurely being debilitated declined towards Death some little time before they died lay for the most part without speaking or knowing those about them as it were stupid and it rarely hapned in this Feaver that any one about to die was so perfect in their memory and intellect as to dispose of their Family affairs or to take leave of their friends But it hapned to those who escaped from a deep languishment and almost desperate condition not quickly or suddenly to recover from their manifest evil disposition but lying a long while wavering stupified and without strength that Nature at length not but after a doubtful and difficult strife got indeed scarcely the better of the Disease and then recovered strength by degrees and health lingringly and slowly If the nature and formal reason of this Epidemical Feaver but now described be demanded we say that this as that of the former year properly is an intermitting Feaver for what commonly spread bore that figure altho some here and there more rarely had it continual which we shall by the way mention by and by The seed plot or seminary of this need not be derived from the air being infected with any Infection but rather its leading cause is to be sought from the undue constitution of the year and from thence an indisposition of our Blood being acquired Because in the Spring and Autumn intermitting Feavers have yearly sprung up and increased to wit for that our Blood like to the juice of Vegetables is wont to be more lively moved than usual and to flower at those times Wherefore if the mass of Blood by reason of the foregoing season of the Summer or Winter should be altered from its due temperature and should contract either a sharp or atrabilous disposition or of any other kind its evil dispositions begun before are chiefly ripened about the Equinoxes to wit when the Blood more freely fermenting if that it hath departed from its natural disposition doth not so easily sanguifie but that it will be apt to pervert the alible juice poured to it into an extraneous and feaverish matter When therefore this year had not very much declined from a right constitution as not only the Dog-days going before but that the two solstices and the equinoxes were wholly intemperate it was no wonder if intermitting Feavers more frequent than usual and those noted with some unusual symptoms did increase about the Autumn That therefore an intermitting Epidemical Feaver raged at this time I judg it not to be attributed to the fault of the present Air but to the irregularities of the foregoing season yet from what causes and occasions some symptoms proper to this Feaver and distinct from the common rule of intermitting Feavers did arise will be worth our Inquiry I have already said that the provision that made this Feaver so deadly consisted in two things chiefly viz. the temper of the year now extremely cold then upon it very hot then that it had variously perverted the disposition of our Blood and had distempered the pores of the skin with an undue constitution According to the reasons taken from either I shall endeavour to explicate the accidents of this Disease and to assign the causes of its appearance 1. First We shall observe that the type of this Feaver was various to wit in some with a continual heat in others with an eruption of spots but in most intermitting and like a Tertian and sometimes tho rarely a Quotidian repeating the fits every day or every other day the cause of this diversity we impute to the more strong and potent morbific procatarxy of this year which produced in the Autumn a more common intermitting Feaver than it was wont wherefore in some perhaps indued with a more praved habit of Body it stirred up Feavers something malignant and in whom it caused intermitting Feavers according to the wonted manner of the season it made them to be noted with a peculiar appearance of symptoms 2. Those taken at this time with the Epidemical Feaver whether it was continual or intermitting suffered presently evil Distempers of the head viz. now they were wont to be infested with cruel head-ach now with a stupor or too great distraction of the Animal Spirits The reason of this is that the nervous
feaverish matter or exclude the whole but that by its impure mixture it is still more and in every feaverish fit more infected and the Spirits being continually consumed it becomes poorer we may pronounce the life of the patient to be in much danger Besides these if the vices of the nervous juice happen that being altered from its due temper or being too dull and as it were liveless little actuates the Brain and nervous stock or being above measure sharp continually provokes the same into Convulsions and Distractions and if besides the vaporous effluvias continually falling away from the Blood or the adust recrements being wont to be sifted forth by a critical sweat should be transferred into the head and there induce Lethargic or Phrensical Distempers the hopes of health will be little and we may fear a very deadly event Concerning the Cure of this Disease the intentions will come under three considerations chiefly First a quick reduction as much as may be of the Blood and nervous Liquor to their natural tempers or at least a prevention of their too great depravation Secondly Concerning the right handling the fits of the fick it ought to be procured First that less of the degenerate juice may be gathered together for matter of the fit Secondly that what is gathered together may be wholly dispersed by every fit that thereby the sick may be better in the intervals Thirdly that the Body being altered for the better the fits may be inhibited by anti-feaverish Remedies The third intention respects the symptoms chiefly urging which should be timely opposed whereby Nature being not hindred may reduce whatsoever intemperance may be conteined in the Viscera or Vessels may subdue and sift forth the extraneous matter and at length may recover a lively force and pristine vigor First therefore for the reduction and emendation of the Blood and nervous juice diverse manners of evacuations are wont to be exhibited in this Disease about the beginning of the Sickness with good success It appears plainly from Modern practice that vomitories are of more noted use in this Distemper than in a common Tertian wherefore in a robust Body and prone to Vomit about the beginning of the second or third fit it is convenient to give an Emetic Medicine The operation of this seems to be very helpful in this Feaver forasmuch as it more plentifully evacuates the filth from the ventricle and the yellow bile from the choler-bearing Vessels and because it copiously presses forth the serous juice from the emunctories of the nervous stock planted about the Pancreas and Intestines and by provoking them draws it out Wherefore we observe that from a Vomit being taken the sick do find themselves better about the Distempers of the Head A Purge to whom a Vomit is not convenient may be ordered instead of it the day following the fit also tho an Emetic have been taken it may be well permitted after a fit or two But yet only with gentle and benign Physic let it be performed which will not disturb or too much move the Blood We were wont in these Feavers letting alone Diagridium or any Aloetic Medicine only to give an infusion or Powder of Senna Rhabarb and yellow Sanders with Tartar and Salt of Wormwood and to celebrate this kind of Purgation not very long after the beginning of the Disease But at other times to keep the Belly soluble with the frequent use of Clysters Frequent experience has sufficiently taught that Letting of Blood is highly profitable in this Disease for when by reason of the Pores in every one being more strictly closed than usual the Blood growing hot by the Feaver wanted Ventilation the Letting of Blood supplies the place of a more free breathing forth and prevents the restrained effluvia from so readily suffusing themselves on the Brain and nervous stock But this Remedy is chiefly indicated from the very fervent Blood and more hot temperament nor ought to be indifferently used to old men Phlegmatic and other very weak persons unless perhaps in a small quantity that the mass of Blood may be somewhat eventilated and that the removal of the feaverish matter into the Brain may be hindred If it be convenient to open a Vein let it be done about the beginning of the Feaver or at least before the fourth or fifth fit viz. before the Blood is made very lifeless by the frequent deflagration and rendred too impure by the confusion of the adust matter because if Phlebotomy be made use of whilst the Blood is highly corrupted the Vital Spirits and by that means the strength of the sick are more debilitated nor yet is there any thing taken away from the power of the Disease or from its cause There remains another famous way of evacuation in this Feaver to wit Vesicatory Plaisters applied to various parts of the Body these are commonly observed to be so helpful that those that abhor and dislike very much such a Remedy by the example of others being the better for them have admitted them By what means they separate the Cuticula from the skin and lift it up like a Bladder filled with Water or whether they press forth this watery and limpid humor out of the Arteries or out of the nerves is not in this place to be inquired into yet that they are profitably administred in this Disease besides experience Reason seems something to persuade because it in some manner compensates the want of transpiration by the large profusion of this kind of serous Latex Moreover this kind of Remedy as it were opens the ways and doors by which both the Blood and nervous juice may forthwith send forth by a proper purging the extraneous matter confused with them wherefore in the Plague and Malignant Distempers Vesicatories are esteemed very profitable Also it appears by common observation that in this and other Feavers frequent at the same time they did prevent the more grievous Distempers of the Head and were wont to help them if they were brought in before wherefore epispatic Plaisters may be applied about the beginning of the Disease for preservation sake to Phlegmatic persons elderly people and men of a more cold temper and they are wont profitably to be administred to several others labouring with a Vertigo Stupefaction or cruel Head-ach for the Cure of the same Distempers But in constitutions very hot where with the defect of the serum the Blood is too much burnt and if those sick of the Feaver are obnoxious to wakings or a Phrensie with intolerable heat blisterings seem then to be of little use For the mending of the temper of the Blood and also the tenor of the Viscera at vacant times when there is leisure from purging attemperating Remedies have place and digestives which fuse the Liquor of the Blood and separate its faeculencies and as it were by precipitating them thrust them towards the emunctuaries For these sort of intentions are wont to be given Juleps and refrigerating Decoctions sharpned
rest which as to colour and consistency are pale and thin in healthful persons may be drawn For from the Salt and Sulphur more or less dissolved and boiled in the Serum the appearances of a pale and straw-coloured Urine and of other colours under a Citron colour are excited and by the like means which was said of the watry they may be unfolded There remains another certain kind of Urine more pale than the Citron colour not thin but thick and cloudy and of a whitish colour it appears by common observation that children do often make such water when they are troubled with the Worms The reason of which seems because the matter whereof the worms are made is a certain viscous Phlegm heaped up in the Viscera by reason of the indigestion of the Chyle and a defect of making or generating Spirits which matter at first transmits no tincture to the Urine because of its fixity the same afterwards putrifying is exalted and is in some manner volatilized and then partly by heat and spirit is formed into worms and partly being confused with the passing Chyle and carried into the vessels when 't is made unfit for nourishment it is separated with the Serum from the blood and being mixed with the Urine gives it that white colour Sometimes also in Feavers especially of children the Urine is whitish the reason of which is because the supplement of the nutritious juyce being poured from the Chyle to the mass of blood is not rightly assimilated but degenerates into an excrementitious humor A portion of which being incocted in the Serum imparts to it the thick consistence and milky colour otherwise than in the Feavers of those of riper years where when the heat is stronger the same degenerate juyce impresses on the Serum a red colour Also the Urine is whitish in the flowing of the Whites the Gonorrhoea Ulcers of the Reins and Bladder and of the urinary passages by reason of the confusion or mingling of the filthy matter or the corrupted seed however it be that the colour of the urine be white it is produced from its contents which at last putting down its settlement to the bottom the liquor for the most part becomes of a palish and yellowish colour even as it may be perceived by the making of the Milk of Sulphur where the milky substance sinking down to the bottom the over swimming liquor is of a Citron colour Urines whose colour is deeper than Citron owe their appearance not only to the Salt and Sulphur dissolved more than usual but in some sort to the more thick contents in the liquor The more plentiful dissolution of the Salt and the Sulphur is chiefly performed in the vessels in the mass it self of the blood and from thence the Tincture is impressed on the serous Juyce But this happens to be done for the most part after a double manner viz. either by reason of the feaverish fervour for as much as the blood boiling in the vessels and being more kindled in the Heart is very much loosned in its mixture and so copiously fixes on the Serum the particles of Salt and Sulphur wasted as it were by the boiling Or without a Feaver when these kind of sulphureous and saline little bodies wont to be sent forth at other sinks are restrained and so being by degrees heaped up in the blood are poured into the Serum Of this also there are two chief causes or means for either the excrements of the blood which chiefly participate of adust Sulphur and that ought to be sent away by Choler-carrying vessels are retained and so they impress being suffused on the serous humor a tincture of yellowness or else the Effluvia's which are chiefly of a saline nature and ought to be evaporated by insensible transpiration are restrained and from those the urine is filled with a lixivial tincture The urines of the former kind are proper to people that have the Jaundice but those of this latter are familiar to the Scurvy for in the Scurvy the saline particles of the blood depart from volatilization and get a Flux wherefore by reason of their fixity they will not evaporate and so being more fully heaped together in the blood they more and more pervert its Crasis and very much impregnate the serous humor with a saltness The contents which heighten the colour of the urine are of a twofold kind to wit either adust recrements remaining after the deflagration of the blood or particles of the nutritious juyce degenerated into an extraneous matter Concerning which we shall speak hereafter in their proper place It now remains that we describe particularly the several Colours of Urine more intense or deep than Citron colour 1. The first is a flame-coloured urine which shines with a brightness like the Spirit of Nitre and this is very often seen in an intermitting Tertian Feaver this colour arises from a portion of the thinner yellow Bile mixed with the Serum whilst it is in motion for that in this Feaver there is a sharp and hot intemperature of the blood which burns and scorches all the humors and so plentifully begets Choler But although this for the most part is separated from the mass of blood by the bilary vessels and passages yet when it abounds in the vessels a part of it or which is the same thing some burnt and adust particles of the blood and humors being boiled in the serous water impart to it an high or deep yellowness This urine is thin and shining for that there is in this disease almost a continual breathing forth that thrusts out the recrements of the nutritious Juyce and all the thicker parts of the Serum towards the circumference of the body 2. The Saffron-coloured urine and which dyes Linen with the same colour undoubtedly is a sign of the Jaundice it is tinged after this manner by the yellow Bile or Choler or by the Salt and Sulphur burnt and plentifully mixt with the Serum for the yellow Bile is necessarily begot from the yoked heat and motion of the blood but for this the Gall bag is designed by Nature for the separating it from the mass of the blood its passages being rooted in the Liver But if such a separation be any ways hindred that humor flowing back in the blood and copiously heaped together infects the skin with its yellowness the blood and especially the serous Latex The Saffron-coloured urine differs from the flame-coloured because in this only a certain portion of the more thin Bile is poured into the urine but in that the more thick part and much more plenty besides in the yellow Bile the Sulphur with the Salt being joyned and long circulated is fully dissolved by it that it becomes like paint imparting to every subject a Saffron-coloured tincture as when common Sulphur and Oyl of Tartar are mixed together But what things cause a redness in urines without the restagnation of this Bile happen after the same manner as in the Lye of
Ashes where the particles of the Sulphur without any previous disposition from the saline are forthwith put down with them in the Liquor 3. It remains that we speak next of red Urines which are of a divers habit neither do they always depend on the same causes nor plainly denote the same kind of distempers we shall briefly run through the chief differences and proper significations of them First the liquor of the urine is either red of it self and remains after the same manner nor is the colour altered by the setling or sinking down of any of the parts or secondly the redness of the urine chiefly owes its colour to the Contents which being setled to the bottom the liquor grows yellow or is less red The distempers that these kind of urines are wont to shew are chiefly Feavers and a confirmed Scurvy and Consumption We shall consider the reasons of each 1. When the Urine that is made red so remains it is first either of a mean consistency and somewhat clear and then it owes its colour to the Salt and Sulphur being burnt more than usual and so boiled more copiously in the Serum or secondly such an urine is red and also troubled and cloudy but this besides the contents of Salt and Sulphur has boiled in it some earthy particles also which indeed being impacted in the Pores and passages of the serous Latex do not descend because the liquor of the urine is destitute of convenient spirits which may segregate all heterogeneous things and drive them to the bottom as is wont to happen usually in dead drink or Beer growing sour by reason of Thunder where the liquor is infected with a troubled Feces and by reason of the defect of spirits will not grow clear wherefore this kind of urine is a very bad sign in Feavers because it shews such a confusion in the blood of adust and to be separated matter such as the vital spirits are not able to master by taming and subjugating it 2. Sometimes the Urine is made red by reason of its contents which setling in the bottom the liquor becomes of another colour but these contents as before we hinted are twofold viz. now thin which are the remaining matter or adust recrements after the burning forth of the blood now more thick to wit the degenerate particles of the nutritious Juyce both these being torrified and separated from the burning blood are partly thrust forth by Sweat and partly mixed with the serous Latex thicken its consistence and heighten its colour viz. so long as these kind of contents are included in the Pores and passages of the liquor they are sustained the colour of the urine appears more deep and the consistency thicker but these being precipitated to the bottom both the redness and thickness of the liquor are lessened The reason of this shall be given anon where we shall speak of the Causes of the Colours and also of the Clearness and Cloudiness of Urines we shall now inquire what is the reason of the difference that red urines are wont to be made both in Feavers and also in the Scurvy Consumption and perhaps in several other distempers 1. In Feavers the liquor of the Urine is filled with redness because of the more plentiful dissolution of the Salt and Sulphur and their particles copiously boiled in the Serum for whilst the blood and humors grow hot from the feaverish cause by reason of the heat being more fully inkindled the saline and sulphureous little bodies being burnt and torrified are more dissolved and being boiled in the serous Juyce impart to it a deeper tincture Even as if the Lye of Ashes be boiled over the fire it grows more red than if it were only made by infusion Also in Feavers the contents of the urine most often increase its colour viz. by reason of the intemperance and deflagration of the blood both the degenerate particles of the nourishing Juyce and also other matter as it were the Ashes remaining of the burning of the blood are burnt together as it were into a reddish Calx which being included in the Pores of the urine renders its colour deep and afterwards sinking down makes a sediment like red Oker 2. In a long Scurvy the liquor of the Urine grows sometimes so highly red that it cannot be greater in a burning Feaver if such urine be evaporated or exposed to distillation it will shew great plenty of Salt with a muddy Feces or dregs wherefore it seems to be manifest that this deep redness doth chiefly arise from the Salt as we have already hinted by this Experiment because in Scorbutick people the saline particles which ought to be made volatile and so constantly exhaled by transpiration become fixed and being hindred from a flux are heaped together more plentifully in the distempered body The Salt remaining within is variously coagulated with Sulphur and Earth and then is continually dissolved and from this diverse coagulation and dissolution the to be admired Symptoms of this Disease are caused Also from the saline little bodies plentifully dissolved with Tartarous feculencies and diluted with the Serum urines are filled with an high redness to which most often happen in this inveterate disease vices of the Liver and Gall for when these Inwards being either obstructed or other ways depraved cannot perform their tasks for the separating the adust particles of the blood they being more fully heaped up in the blood are dissolved in the serous Juyce and infect it yet with a more lixivial tincture And if the adust particles of the Sulphur do excel the rest of the fixed and scorbutick Salt the yellow Jaundice happens together with the Scurvy and the urine fixes to Linen a Saffrony tincture But if they be less than they and that the saline particles excel the Scorbutick distemper only is produced in which the urine is intensly red yet does not dye the Linen I am perswaded that it is thus because when I have opened the dead carcasses of many dead of the Scurvy in whom there was a red urine I observed that the Liver or Gall was in fault In some the Liver was wholly without blood and dry like a Cows Udder in others the bag of the Gall was empty and nothing in it in others it was beset with little stones in others it was filled with filth not bitter in all these Inwards were so distempered that the secretion of the Bile was hindred 3. By reason of this kind of dissolution of the Salt Urines sometimes grow red in Arthritick diseases for besides the Gout in which such urine is often made I have observed in some a painful distemper and as it were like a Feaver caused with a very high-coloured urine they had wandring pains now in this place now in that grievously tormenting that the sick were scarce able to stand or to stir their limbs they were obnoxious to wakings and frequent sweats they were also troubled much with thirst and heat of their mouth and
they had a urine highly red with a plentiful red sediment In the mean time it did not appear either by the Pulse languishing of the Spirits or Head-aches that the blood grew excessively hot or that they had a Feaver Wherefore I suppose that this kind of distemper doth chiefly consist in the nervous stock and depends on the exorbitances of the saline Principle rather than the sulphureous 4. Also in the confirmed Phthisis or Consumption especially if an Hectick Feaver be joyned with it there is a red Urine the reason of which is if at any time an Ulcer is excited in the Lungs the putrid filth from thence being mingled with the blood sliding by causes in it almost a continual effervescency whereby the sulphureous and saline particles being more plentifully dissolved and boiled in the Serum affect its liquor with redness besides by reason of the blood being defiled after this manner the nourishing Juyce degenerates almost wholly into putrefaction by whose recrements the urine being filled grows more red and is very much stuffed with contents The sign or note of this is that the sick for the most part grow hot after eating and that they are troubled with an heat through their whole body followed with a nightly sweat besides their urines yield a thick and copious sediment to wit when the nourishing Juyce being mixed with the blood is not assimilated it stirs up in it a fervour and being degenerate into an extraneous matter exhales partly by sweat through the Pores of the skin and partly being transmitted to the urine very much heightens its colour and consistency Thus far of a red Urine whose several species but now related have more degrees of intention and remission accordingly as the causes altering the colour and consistence in them are either weaker or stronger 4. As to what belongs to a green and black Urine I confess I have never seen those kind of deep colours exactly like those of Leeks and Ink in any urine but I imagine I may have seen the appearance of a greenish colour from a more deep yellow and of a blackish urine from the same with a cloudy and somewhat a dark mixture and from thence called by Authors a green and black Urine But those urines coloured after that manner are esteemed either signs of the Jaundice or of being distempered with some virulency of the blood if they continue so constantly for some time or such urines as occasion offers are variously changed and are now of this or that and presently of another colour So I have known Hypochondriacks wont to make such urines as it were critically for some time and then afterwards to render them like sound men As to the first when the Jaundice is very great upon them that the adust portions of Sulphur and Salt remain a long time in the mass of blood they acquire by a long incoction a fulness of the yellow colour at first green and afterwards black and impart the same to the Serum For if the yellow Bile being taken out of the bag of the Gall and put into a Cucurbit be exposed to the gentle heat of a Bath the same in a short time will grow green and afterwards appear like the blackest Ink wherefore in the black Jaundice which is only the yellow carried forth into a worse state by its long stay or continuance there is nothing more usual than to make black urines Besides these kind of urines sometimes appear in a malignant Feaver and in the Plague also often from drinking of poyson and in this case it is for the most part a sign of death because it argues the blood greatly corrupted and the spirits profligated and the bond of the mixture loosned as it were the deadly or mortified distemper even as where some part of our body being distempered with an Ulcer is afterward taken with a Gangrene or mortification forthwith the flowing corrupt matter which was at first white waterish or yellow becomes black Wherefore in the forementioned distempers when the urine grows black the Serum and the blood being wholly vitiated the skin also is dyed outwardly with such a colour As to what belongs to urines periodically tinctured with a greenish colour and especially with black which happen often to Hypochondriacks it is most likely that such arise from the melancholick Feculencies laid up in the Spleen and from thence by reason of its congestion too much flowing forth sometimes and confused with the blood for such a matter being often poured into the Ventricle in some men stirs up black Vomitings also in others the same being supp'd up from the blood passing through may impart suffusions of the same colours to the serous Juyce So much for the Colours of Urines of which the more pale arise from too much Crudity almost all the high-coloured either from the Salt and Sulphur plentifully dissolved and sometimes from the adust recrements throughly boiled in the Serum or from the more thick contents of the urine whether they be the Calx and remaining part of the aliment degenerated in the concoction or the wasting or melting of the pining body or some part of it evilly distempered what hath been said may be better understood if the means whereby these kind of dissolved things or contents are able variously to change the colour of the urine be unfolded The causes of the diversity of appearances of colours and their variously changing as also of the cloudiness and clearness in Urines as in all other Liquors depend only on the various incidency and emersion of the beams of light as is hinted in another place in the Tract of Fermentation For if the substance of the liquor be rare and thin with open Pores and passages that the beams of light may easily pass through it is shining and clear like fountain-water but if the Pores of the liquor be filled with contents or little bodies swimming in it so that the luminous beams are broken in their passage but so that at length they may shew themselves according to those various manners of refraction and emission there will appear a Citron a Saffron or red colour in a yet clear liquor If that in the little spaces of the Pores yet more obstructed the light cannot pass through there is a darkness induced but then if the immersed beams be a little or nothing reflected the liquor will appear of a brown or dark colour but if they are beaten back according to the diverse manner of reflection a white ashy or some other kind of appearance is induced From this being supposed according as the liquor of the urine sometimes almost wholly deprived of Salt and Sulphur and other things dissolved easily admits of light sometimes either very much stuffed or else moderately with these kind of contents either distorts the beams falling on them in their passage or wholly imbibes them or lastly beats them back it were easie to explicate all the Phenomena or appearances of colours and their
it seems that it should wholly depend on the juyce or humour heaped up about the bulk or substance of the stone For where the stone is fixed in the Kidney or Bladder the nutritious humour is there perverted from assimilation and degenerates into a more thick mucor which uses to be copiously heaped up like Ichor which by reason of a Pea put into an Issue runs out plentifully But this mucor or filth being washed with Serum makes that white sediment CHAP. VI. Of Judgments to be given concerning the Urines of sick People SO much for the Anatomy of Urines wherein are unfolded their Elements and constitutive Principles together with their chief Accidents viz. Colour Consistence and Contents both what ought naturally to be in them per essentiam or essentially and also what are wont to happen to them preternaturally by reason of the body being ill affected It will be easie for any one to accommodate this Hypothesis to practice and to give Judgment on Urines beholding them in the Urinal for from what hath been said it appears of what parts the Diseases are made known by the inspection of the Urines and what the Urine signifies in each of them Concerning this subject there hath been enough said by Authors I shall therefore only touch upon it briefly and lightly pass it over Although the matter of Urine viz. the Serum of the blood washes the whole region of the Body and is circulated with the blood through all the several parts yet it doth not lay open the condition and diseases of them all but only of those to which it owes either the natural perfection and genesis of it self or from which it receives every alteration wherefore in some respect it shews the action and disposition of the Viscera serving to Concoction and besides denotes the temper and motion of the blood and humours in the Vessels but that any one should pretend to know from the Urinal and to divine a pain in the Head an Imposthume in the Throat or any other Disease of any part from whence nothing is communicated to the Serum he shews rather his ignorance than the knowledge of any Disease Urines brought from sick persons sometimes are wholly like those of sound peoples and then they give no light to the disease or distempered part but it may be lawful having inspected them to say something negatively viz. that the Patient is free from a Feaver that as to the Ventricle and Concoction of the food they are indifferently well wherefore unless he be inclining to a Consumption or is sick of an Imposthume or some other disease of the unity being broken whatsoever it be the distemper seems not very dangerous or hard to be cured But in the mean time I would not have him declare any thing rashly nor proceed farther than he can with safety return for I have often observed in some most grievous distempers viz. in a malignant Feaver when with loss of strength a weak and unequal Pulse eruption of Spots and other dangerous Symptoms the Patients have been desperately sick that the urines as to the colour consistence and Hypostasis have been laudable as in sound persons so that in such a case the Physician by only viewing the Urine as to his Prognostication had grievously erred wherefore there is scarce credit to be given to the single testimony of the Urine unless there be other signs agreeable but that it is a lyar in the Plague and malignant Feavers and deceives the reason is that in those diseases the blood is leisurely and as it were silently corrupted sometimes without any great fervour and so although its liquor be infected by Coagulation or by mortification or deadness yet because it doth not burn out much at the same time so as to make an heap of adust matter as of Ashes the Serum is little or nothing altered from its usual disposition or tenour Besides sometimes when in such a sickness the blood grows very hot whatever of excrementitious is heaped up in its mass is presently transferred to the Brain and nervous stock wherefore the serous water being free from preternatural contents remains after its usual manner besides this case when the Urines appear of a deep colour troubled and without any sediment there is no reason why the Piss-prophet should make a Prognostication As often as the Urines of sick people are unlike those of sound either something natural is wanting or what is preternatural is added or it happens both together 1. There may be wanting Colour Consistence Contents and Quantity If the Colour be more remiss than it should and the Liquor paler it indicates Crudity and a defect of making Spirits to wit that the nourishing Juyce is not rightly concocted or exalted either in the Viscera or in the Vessels so that the saline and sulphureous Particles being carried out together following the distribution as it were the distillation of the Serum might throughly stick to the same and impart also to it the tincture wherefore such Urine being viewed from these kind of Symptoms you may unfitly divine that there is a weight in the Ventricle want of Appetite evil Digestion a tension in the Hypochondria an unfitness for motion sleepiness difficult breathing and a frequent palpitation of the Heart upon exercise a pale colour a swelling of the Feet and Belly you may say they are in danger of falling if not already fallen into a Cachexy or Dropsie and if it be a Maid that she is troubled with Longings and the Green-sickness If the Colour of Urines be remitted in a Feaver without a Crisis it is a sign that the fermentative matter or adust recrements of the blood are separated from the bosom of the blood and fixed somewhere which for the most part happens in the Brain and for that cause such Urines use to foretel a Delirium or Phrensie in those troubled with the Stone a sudden alteration of the urine into a pale and watry colour denotes the approach of a Fit A copious and pale Urine often shews the too great resolution or melting of the Salts by reason whereof the serosities are sent away as it were in a flood from the whole body and chiefly from the nervous parts such an Excretion sometimes is healthful and as it were critical when the superfluities happen only to be carried away sometimes it is symptomatick and causes a great debility to wit because the nutritious Juyce and the good humours are purged out If the Consistence be thin and the Liquor pale it argues Crudity want of Spirits or too much Drinking or the Nephritick distemper if it be of a flame-colour it is a sign of an intermitting Tertian Feaver If the Contents be wanting and it be pale want of Concoction is signified and a Cachectick distemper of the body But if it be of a Citron colour and the consistency mean without Hypostasis you may suppose the Patient to have used too much labour or exercise or to be frequently
yet since we cannot attribute it to any other way besides what should hinder from attributing its heat to this Cause And the rather for that the proper passions of Fire and Flame are agreeable to the life of the Blood alone For indeed these three things are chiefly and principally Essentials requisite for the perpetuating flame First that there be granted to it assoon as it is inkindled a free and continued accession of the Air. Secondly that it may enjoy a constant sulphureous food Thirdly that its recrements both sooty as also the more thick be always sent away So then if I shall shew these things to agree after the same manner with life as flame and to those only without doubt I think that life it self may be esteemed a certain kind of Flame In the first place therefore that a flame may be inkindled and remain inkindled there is need of a free and undiscontinued access of Air and that not only that the vaporous Effluvia's threatning the suffocation of the flame may be carried away and always depart but much rather that the nitrous food necessarily requisite for the burning of any thing may be supplied by the Air. For indeed every sublunary fire and especially flame is compounded or made up altogether of sulphureous Particles breaking out in heaps from a combustible Body and of nitrous Bodies which every where flow in the Air meeting with them when Particles of Sulphur breaking out slowly or interruptedly get to themselves a few nitrous only planted near them a fire is usually produced such as is seen in a burning Coal But when the former going away more impetuously either of their own accord or forced by blowing presently lay hold on very many nitrous Particles flowing round about in the whole circuit a flame arises In truth the whole region of the Air is abundantly stuffed with nitrous little bodies which are every where ready for the constituting of fire and flame and they being any where inkindled meet them after the manner of a stood although not always after the like manner or measure because it is observed at some times especially in the Winter-cold when the Air abounds more in Nitre that fire or flame doth more ardently burn and diffuse farther its heat on the contrary in rainy weather as also when the beams of the Sun shine upon the fire and so dissipate the Nitre of the neighbouring Air the fire is so dull'd as is commonly said that it is extinguished by the Sun If at any time the nitrous Particles of the Air are excluded from the sulphureous of any subject breaking out in the inkindling or burning the fire and flame quickly perish which appears because this or that being put into a Glass after the Air is sucked out or excluded they presently expire Further in the open Air although a naked fire propagates a fire in a fireable matter by mere contact yet a flame is hardly inkindled without a flame be put to it or a very strong fire because for the stirring up of a flame very many nitrous Particles of the Air implanted round about ought to be inkindled at once as if Nitre and common Sulphur being pounded together be commixed because both incentives agree even the least spark falling into such a mixture begets an highly impetuous flame which desiring no farther a nitrous food is inkindled or burns under water in a place void of air or in any place as freely as in the open air In like manner the least sulphureous things as a bit of ponderous wood being cast into a red-hot Crucible in which Nitre is fused the same at first touch presently conceive a flame and continue till it be wholly consumed But that fire and flame being included in a place empty of air expire by reason of the food of Nitre being drawn away rather than choaked by their own proper smoke Exper. Phys Mec. 50. the Illustrious Mr. Robert Boyle hath most clearly demonstrated by very many Experiments For a Candle being lighted and put into a capacious globe of Glass and the Vessel stopped up assoon as the air was sucked out by a wind-instrument the flame did expire Moreover he observed what concludes for our Hypothesis Exper. 1.3 that the flame contracted it self according to all its dimensions assoon as ever the Engine began to suck then after the second or third draught of the drawn forth air the flame about the utmost extremities appeared very blue and to go back more and more from the Tallow till at length getting to the top of the snuff it expired the same Candle being again lighted and shut up in the recipient this worthy Gentleman tryed how long it was able to sustain its light when the air was not exhausted and he found it to endure much longer lighted than before From these it clearly appears that the flame shut up expires not so much because it is suffocated by its own proper smoke as because it is destitute of the nitrous food of the Air. For in the former Experiment the air being exhausted there was more space for the smoke and fume that the flame might not be stifled and yet this dyed sooner the Recipient being empty than the same being full of air besides the flame dying became bluish for as much as it participated of more Sulphur than Nitre and it left the Tallow and expired at the top of the snuff for that it followed its most necessary food as far as it was able Exper. 78. to wit the nitrous Particles of Air. The same Experiment succeeded alike in live Coals viz. the naked fire after the food of Nitre was drawn away suddenly dyed Here also it doth what the flame of a Candle doth in Mines or Caves under ground where the nitrous air is wanting or dispelled at first it becomes more contracted and blue and then a little after expires I have been more large in this Argument because there is for both the like necessity of drawing in of the air after the same manner for the sustaining the life of the Blood and for the continuing of flame For the more hot Animals if they are hindred from respiration dye quickly wherefore the same means of killing is most ready and common to shut up the breath which being wholly obstructed life perishes as a flame If it should be objected that those choaked do dye because the foot or smoke being retained blow up and intumifie the bloody mass which for that reason the bulk or substance being increased and made almost immoveable fills the bosom of the Heart and hinders its motion I say that this is improbable because if the Arteries every where in the Limbs and about the Neck be strained hard together with Ligatures that the blood being straitned as to the compass of its circuit be very much stopped about the Praecordia more certainly than can happen from the mere retained smoke yet for that cause death neither presently follows nor any deadly
Symptoms That this happens in those that are hindred from respiration because the vital flame of the blood is wanting of the nitrous food of the Air rather than overthrown by its proper soot or smoke being detained Exper. 41. the most Famous Boyl also by his Experiments hath put it out of doubt for he hath observed that hot living Creatures being put within a glassy Globe and shut up did far sooner expire the air being drawn away from them than the same being left within it though in the former case there was more space left for the receiving the smoke left the retaining of it might constipate the blood yet however if the heat of the blood should arise from Fermentation or the congression of dissimilar Particles or from an ebullition by reason of admitted heat or from any other cause besides accension it is so far that that effect could be inhibited or suppressed by reason of the air being excluded that on the contrary it would rather for that cause become more strong or intense For it appears by a common observation that Liquors chiefly fermentable the more strictly they are kept in the Vessel the more they grow hot and the air being admitted through some vent-hole they presently cease from their fury Moreover Mr. Boyl's Experiments clearly shew that the effervescencies or growing servent stirred up by the ebullition of unlike Particles or by corrosion also the boiling up of hot water in a glassie Sphere are above measure increased after the air is sucked out Experiment Physicom 41 42 43. That most ingenious Tract of the aforesaid Author supplies us with many Experiments whereby it is abundantly manifest that the intestine motions of those Particles and almost of every thing besides fire and life are very much heightned or made strong in the space emptied of air but their act presently after the air is withdrawn is extinguished hence we may conclude the life of a living Creature to be either fire or something analogical to it The like to these is yet more clearly observed by the diggers of Minerals who ordinarily experiment in subterranean Caves where either the Nitre is wanting or is driven away by some strange damp or vapour so that they are in danger of being stifled or smothered at the same time the flame of the Candle is diminished becomes blue and at length expires The second thing requisite to sustain a flame is a constant supply of sulphureous food whereby it may continually be fed which being substracted or by reason of some incongruous mixture depraved the flame is extinguished as is perceived in a Lamp which for want of oyl or water poured in its place expires further as this sulphureous food is more or less suggested sometimes more plentifully sometimes more sparingly the flame being more or less intense is sometimes produced clear sometimes smoaky in the mean time the food being constantly consumed by burning goes away partly into vaporous Effluvia's and partly into ashes which are made up of some Particles of Earth Salt and Sulphur But it is much otherwise in Liquors exposed to Fermentation to which if new Particles be continually administred and the old ones depart the Fermentation is hindred or disturbed In like manner as in Flame the Blood of the hotter Animals and this only in all natural things besides fire requires a constant and copious sulphureous food and that being quickly worn is for the most part consumed in vaporous Effluvia's a Caput mortuum being left of Earth Salt and stinking Sulphur In the mean time from its food consumed by burning it disposes other Particles for other uses That the life or flame of the blood doth continually want aliment there is none but daily finds it in himself For if that be for some time denied the vigor of the blood is diminished yea and consuming the solid parts it snatches into its bosom their remnants and other humours of the Body whereby it may be fed If the nutriment daily suggested from things taken be too thin and watry the fervour of the blood like flame without food uses to be remitted but if the food be very sulphureous and swelling with a vinous Spirit and plentifully taken in the blood is presently inflamed and often breaks out into a Feaver as it were an open burning In the interim out of that food of the blood exhausted or consumed as it seems by accension hot Effluvia's full of soot and vapour go away which according to a just account far exceed all the other excrements of the Body and that their nature is plainly fiery the frequent burning of the mouth and tongue and infecting them with blackness like the soot or smoke of a Chimney witnesses besides from the inflamed blood adust Feces like a Caput mortuum are sent into the Bladder of the Gall Spleen and perhaps into other Emunctories Thirdly That inkindled Flame may for some time continue there is need of continual ventilation to wit that its sooty Effluvia's may still fly away which else being detained and heaped together thereabouts will suffocate the fire because by obstructing the Pores of the inflamed Body they hinder the eruption of the sulphureous matter to be inflamed Although this condition doth often interfere with the other more potent viz. the necessity of nitrous food to be so drawn in from the air that it can scarce be distinguished from it yet we may plainly perceive from the detained soot gathered together about the snuff the light to be put out for which cause a Lamp whose wick is made of plumous Alum or other incombustible matter will not as it promises endure any long time because the soot sticking to the wick hinders the access of the oyl to the flame for this reason blasts of wind from the Air wiping away the sootiness doth not only render the flame more clear that is free from fume and thick vapour but food being sufficiently given to it it becomes more durable Even as Flame the life of the Blood requires also continual ventilation to which end besides the greater breathing places of the Breast innumerable lesser viz. the Pores of the skin gaping every where through the whole Body do send forth Effluvia's departing plentifully from the boiling blood which if it happens to be hindred or too closely shut up the blood will grow excessively hot being as it were beset with fume and vapour besides there is need to shorten its circuit that passing through the Lungs with a more frequent turn it might there as much as it can dispel all its soot or smoak When the Heavens are heated the Air seems as it were immoveable and to stagnate we are wont very much to estuate or grow hot about the Praecordia for that the blood being fed with a more sparing nitrous food doth not burn so clearly but glows with a more suffocating and intrinsick burning further for that the Particles of the Air being less nimble when they are inspired and expired or breathed
the root of this extrinsick one lyes hid within the Body For this very cause it is that from the Mains of Horses and the Skins of Cats or other hot Animals being shaken little sparks as it were of fire leap out and often flames only conspicuous in the dark arise Besides we here take notice in a burning Feaver caused by immoderate drinking of Wine or strong Waters that the blood as the flame of it is very much increased doth grow excessively hot and such are wont to emit dry breaths and sharp Effluvia's of heat not like those that proceed from fermenting or boiling Liquor but only inflamed That which some in Feavers have imagined to have seen or observed even burning fires and flame in the eyes argues indeed that the flame of the blood is very strong and also that it penetrates the inclosure of the Brain I knew a certain ingenious Man of a very hot brain who affirmed that after a very plentiful drinking of Wine he was able in the darkest night to read clearly from hence also may be collected how the accension of the blood like that of burning Liquors is to be increased or made stronger viz. by an agitation of the parts and a more plentiful affusion of sulphureous food But that in the hot blood of living Creatures the Properties Affections and many other accidents of Fire or Flame are found without the manifest form or species of it what if we should say the cause to be for that the vital flame of the blood is subjugated or made subordinate to another form viz. to the corporeal Soul Wherefore although it retains the chief qualities and affections of common flame yet it loses the species of flame or fire for in every natural mixture the superiour form exercises a Right and Dominion over all included Particles whatsoever however fierce and untameable they may be in themselves and stripping them of their species ordains and disposes them to peculiar actions in that proper Concrete when the form of fire excels that bright burning that it might propagate largely its ends destroys and consumes all inflammable objects But if the form of the corporeal Soul be induced upon the fire kindled within the blood it burns forth without fulgor or shining or destruction of the subject and is invisible and as it were subjugated flame is ordained for the sustaining of life and its offices but truly the Divine Providence from the very Creation of the World hath seemed to have predestinated Forms to natural Bodies to wit that they might remain as so many Figures or Types according to which every portion of matter framing the Concrete whether animate or inanimate might be modificated so that the Mass according to the virtues of the hidden Seeds being disposed after this or that manner happens to have the form of a Stone a Plant or Brute or of any other kind then the acts and affections appropriate to such a Species follow the form it self When therefore Life or Soul is destinated to these kind of Functions of the more perfect Animals for the performing of which the blood after the manner of burning Liquors ought to be perpetually hot and as it were inkindled what should hinder but that the act of Life or of that corporeal Soul consisting in the motion and agglomeration or heaping together of most subtil and agil Particles may be called a certain Burning or perpetual Fire of the bloody Mass Wherein although the accidents and chief qualities of common fire are implanted yet the form of fire is obscured as being subjugated to a more noble form viz. of the corporeal Soul not much unlike water which being congealed into Ice or Snow lays aside the species of water for a time and may be applied to other uses far distant from fluidity But truly though we affirm that the corporeal Soul doth stick in the Blood yet we do not that it is adequated or limited to it because whilst the more thick portion of it as the Roots of some Tree fixed in the Earth are sowed in the bloody Mass the more noble part of the same Soul as the higher branches are expanded in the Brain and nervous System or as we before hinted when the vital or flamy part of the Soul is contained in the blood the animal or lucid portion of it is contained in the Head and its Appendix by which just limit the Sphere of either may be defined neither may the vital flame impetuously break through the animal Region the substance of the Brain being more cold and also shining or bright is opposed to it as it were an icy or glassie Bar whose interiour frame or substance the small and slender as it were rivers of the blood for the sake of cherishing heat can enter but truly spirituous Particles plentifully flow from its juyce or liquor every where heaped up near the confines of the Brain and there disposed as it were to be stilled forth which being immersed in the Brain and more exalted affords matter out of which the animal Spirits are procreated to be derived through the Nerves into the various Regions of the Body The second Medical and Physical DISCOURSE Of Musculary Motion AS there are two chief or primary Faculties of the Corporeal Soul to wit the Sensitive and Motive we have assigned certain exteriour Powers of either of them which are chiefly acted in the Nervous stock and others interiour the Exercises of which lye within the Brain to wit such as the Imagination Memory Appetite c. What we have publickly discoursed of some time since both concerning internal and external Senses may perhaps hereafter be brought to light and made publick in the mean time because I am opposed concerning both the natural and convulsive Motion I think it fit at present to publish what I had meditated touching the Motive power and what Hypothesis I had conceived of so hard and highly intricate a thing The motive Faculty of the bodily Soul is wont to be exercised with another kind of Action than the sensitive viz. with a diverse aspect and tendency of animal Spirits For that every Sense is a certain passion wherein the Soul or some portion of it being outwardly struck is forced to nod or shake and a wavering of the Spirits being inwardly made to look back towards the Head but on the contrary every Motion is a certain Action wherein the Soul seems to exert it self whole or part of it self and by a declination or fluctuation of Spirits being made to bring forth a Systasis and to extend something as it were its member Further whilst the Soul so exerts it self or some part of it self that the works then designed might be performed an heap of animal Spirits being every where disposed in the motive parts sometimes one sometimes more are raised up by the Soul which by that means being expanded with a certain force and as it were exploded they blow up the containing bodies and so the same being
two Tendons are ordained to each of them to wit to the end that the animal Spirits might be carried through short passages from the Tendons into the fleshy fibres and might leap back again because the compounded Muscle doth not always contain more series of moving fibres that it might perform many and divers motions but that it might make the same motion often with the greater strength For as we hinted before as a simple Muscle was as a single leaver or bar the compound seems as if it were many leavers or bars serving for the removing the same body conjunctly Further hence we may observe in some Muscles which are simple and regular that all the fleshy fibres are equal and so all the tendinous of one extreme being put together are equal to all of the other end being put together yet they single where they are shorter in one Tendon are longer in the other and so disposed that the tendinous fibres on either part the top and bottom have their excesses inverse and at once equal to wit that here a long is laid upon a short or the longest upon the shortest and there quite contrary the shortest upon the longest to the end that the motion might be so made every where in this or that side of the Muscle or at the end more strong more plentiful Spirits flow together into those parts from the longer tendinous fibres and on the contrary wherefore in some Muscles less necessary where the part of the flesh growing to the bone either becomes immoveable or only serves for the filling up of empty spaces one Tendon is shorter or lesser and oftentimes degenerates into a bony or cartilaginous hardness Further it is observed as to other strong and greatly moving Muscles that their Tendons are not so disposed as if they were only stays props handles or hanging crooks of the fleshy fibres for so they are only constituted in their extreme ends yet the tendinous fibres that they may be made more apt promptuaries of the animal Spirits being stretched out almost into all parts of the Muscle receive every where both ends of the fleshy which indeed yet more manifestly appears in the compound Muscles for that one Tendon being compounded embraces the extreme flesh and the other enters into the middle of the flesh as hath been already shewn But truly the animal Spirits whilst they leap out of the tendinous into the fleshy fibres are not sufficient of themselves for the wrinkling of them but require another elastick Copula from the blood this may be argued from many reasons First it seems to appear from this that the same Spirits being solitary or by themselves though most thickly planted within the Tendons stir up no Tumor or Contraction whilst they are moved in them wherefore being dilated within the fleshy fibres in a lesser quantity and having got a larger space they would be stretched out unless they met or strove with other Particles much less would they obtain a contractive force Besides when any wound or grievous trouble happens to a Tendon the belly of the Muscle or fleshy part is chiefly troubled with a Tumor or Spasm for the Spirits being irritated not so much within themselves but where they are violently driven among heterogene Particles stir up the greatest tumults and inordinations But further when the fleshy fibres are watered with the sanguineous humor beyond other parts and more than may suffice for their nourishment for what other use should it be assigned unless that it may contribute to the motive function Especially we take notice in lean Bodies which are more sparingly nourished that the Muscles being fused or drenched with more plentiful blood do perform the strongest endeavours of motions moreover it doth not appear by what way besides the expence of the Spirits in a Muscle consumed with continual hard motions or labours should be made up or renewed unless besides the small supplements by the Nerves others sufficiently plentiful should be supplied from the bloody mass Add to these that members destitute of the wonted afflux of blood easily fall into weakness or a Palsie and that from the observation of Doctor Steno in a live Dog the trunk of the descending Artery being tyed all the lower or posterior members were suddenly deprived of motion And though it doth not yet appear plainly to me whether the exclusion of the blood from the spinal Marrow or from the Muscles themselves or from both together be the cause yet however it comes almost to the same thing for as much as the animal Spirits being procreated within the Head and stretched out by the medullary and nervous Appendices into every member without the concourse of the blood they should not be able to perform the loco-motive power Having thus far explained by what means a Muscle being contracted in the fleshy part as to all the fibres at once performs the motive function we shall next inquire what is the reason of the Instinct whereby every motion both regular and irregular is wont to be obeyed or is performed Concerning this in general it first appears that the motions of every regular motion yea and the impulses of some irregular motions being conceived within the Brain or Cerebel are transmitted from thence by the Nerves to every Muscle This as we have elsewhere shewn is most evidently declared by the effects and consequences yet here great difficulties remain to wit how by the same passages fresh forces of animal Spirits are conveyed from the Head to every Muscle and at the same time the old ones exercising the Empire of the Soul besides with what difference and divers carriage of the inflowing Spirits the Nerves perform either of these tasks or both these offices Of these as I conjecture it seems that the animal Spirits which flowing continually from the Head to refresh the forces of the implanted Spirits are carried to the Muscle by the Nerves do move to it quietly and easily and being there presently received by the membranaceous Fibres they go apart into the Tendons which kind of relief although it should be but little in bulk yet because it is carried night and day by a constant course it easily arises to a sufficient provision for the continual filling up of the Tendons But that we suppose the Spirits so brought perpetually to the Muscle to be transferred by the membranaceous Fibres and not by the fleshy to the Tendons the reason is because if they should first enter into these straight running into an elastick Copula they would stir up the Muscle into continual motions more over for that in the Heart and Muscles of Respiration the fleshy Fibres are exercised with a perpetual motion they wait not for the passage of fresh Spirits to the Tendons But as to what respects the Instincts delivered through the Nerves from the Head for the performing or staying or any ways altering of the musculary motion of these we ought first to consider that the moving
suspected that those strong Fibres and as it were Ligaments do sometimes contract sometimes dilate and variously draw the Membrane to which they are knit From these kind of motions of the dura Mater the blood flowing within the bosoms may be variously agitated and as occasion serves sometimes hastened in its Circle and sometimes restrained or hindred for in many affections of the sensitive Soul the blood being disturbed from its equal circulation is sometimes precipitated by heaps and impetuously to the Heart and sometimes detained from its nest longer nigh the confines of the Brain But that various whirlwinds of passions stir up such irregularities in the motion of the blood the nervous parts implanted about the Praecordia are in some measure the cause which by contracting or dilating the same variously moderate the course of the blood yet so that in the mean time some part of this office is due from the brain it self or at least to its Appendix Indeed the brain it self wants motion but the blood passing through its substance for as much as it is poured wholly in this Meninx and passes through its receptacles is at the motion and beck of this Membrane sometimes driven away from the brain and commanded to succour the Heart as in fear and great sadness sometimes being hastened towards the brain is for some time prohibited from flowing back as in shame indignation and some other affections Truly that these kind of interior processes of the bosoms and as it were transverse strings or cords do conduce to the more commodious reduction of the blood we gather also from hence that in working beasts whose brain because they feed and go with a prone and hanging down head is in greater danger of an inundation of the blood those processes are very big for that they being successively contracted may leisurely thrust out the blood apt otherwise to stagnate by reason of the inclination of the head Neither is it from the purpose to observe here that these same Animals are always furnished for that reason with a greater wonderful Net by which means indeed it is provided that the blood may not too much invade the brain by heaps as care is taken by the artifice but now described lest the same should make too long stay in the brain and so oppress its more weak frame Therefore in the last place that I may recollect what I have said of the dura Mater and rehearse its chief uses First It covers over the Skull within and reaches to it somewhat of nourishment by the Vessels Secondly It is a covering to the whole head and serves to distinguish its chief parts Thirdly It contains the Vessels designed for the reducing the blood from the whole interior head which in the mean time by reason of the plenty of the blood contained in them and the opportunity of their situation administer requisite heat for the distillation of the Spirits Fourthly It provides ways for the admission and going out of all the Vessels within the Skull and fortifies them to which may be added that it bestows on some of them their Coats as shall be shewn anon Fifthly and lastly This Meninx being here and there contracted or divided by the animal Spirits variously moved according to the passions of the Soul or the necessities of Nature stays the blood sometimes longer near the confines of the Brain sometimes drives it forward from thence towards the Praecordia CHAP. VII Of the thinner Meninx or Pia Mater of its stretching out as also of the Infoldings of the Vessels every where interwoven with it THE interior Meninx or Pia Mater is far thinner than the exterior and consists of a most subtle contexture of Fibres This does not compass about the Encephalon's superficies as loosly as the Dura Mater but embraces it so very strictly that it is very hardly separated from it besides it insinuates it self into all its turnings and windings and furrows and clothes their inward parts Further this Meninx although it be thin yet being covered over throughout with the infoldings of Arteries and Veins is interwoven with them and so waters all the spaces of the Brain and Cerebel with innumerable rivers For as the Region of either of these especially of the Brain is full of turnings and windings this Membrane in like manner grows to the deep furrows of the crankling turnings about and also to the tops of the ridges yea the chief complications of the Vessels are still placed in the vallies as if they were there hid in regard of their safety Neither doth this Meninx only cover the gapings of the turnings and windings about but also gathers together the tops or heights of all their interstices or places between and knits them together and so makes the whole superficies of the Head plain globous and as it were like the World That the diffusion of this wonderful Membrane into all the turnings and windings of the Brain and the distribution of the Vessels through those most intimate recesses may be the better beheld let the head of a man or of a brute beast that dyed of the Dropsie be opened For in such whose brain abounds with much moisture the little stays whereby this Meninx is fixed to the substance of the brain are loosned so that the Membrane with the infoldings of the Vessels may be easily drawn away and pulled off almost whole which indeed being pulled off the folds of the brain will appear naked also the insertions of the Vessels every where into the more inward substance of the brain may be perceived But to a sound and dry brain the Pia Mater sticks so closely that it can scarce be drawn away in any part or separated with a Penknife We have already shewn after what manner the Veins and Arteries which creeping like Ivy are knit into the Pia Mater and variously interwoven into it cover over with most thick little shoots the whole compass of the Brain and Cerebel and their Interstices the gapings of the crankling turnings and windings about bosoms and cavities and send forth every where small shoots into the medullary substance so that it is not to be doubted but that the animal Spirits being as it were stilled forth immediately from the blood every where in the whole head are received into the Pores and passages of the Brain and Cerebel From hence it will be easie to assign the use or office of the Pia Mater viz. First this Membrane clothes the universal parts of the whole Encephalon and distinguishes them all one from another For indeed this lying over all the gapings and interstices of the turnings and windings is instead of a mound or fence by which the animal Spirits are restrained every where within their proper cells and orbs of expansion nor are they permitted by this means to run beyond their bounds and so confound the acts of the many Faculties Then secondly this Meninx sustains all the blood-carrying Vessels viz. both the Arteries and Veins
kind of Conformation be inquired into it easily occurs that in an humane Head where the generous Affections and the great forces and ardors of the Souls are stirred up the approach of the blood to the confines of the Brain ought to be free and expeditious and it is behoveful for its River not to run in narrow and manifoldly divided Rivulets which would scarce drive a Mill but always with a broad and open chanel such as might bear a Ship under Sail. And indeed in this respect a man differs from most brute beasts in which the Artery being divided into a thousand little shoots lest it should carry the blood with a fuller chanel or more quick course than is requisite makes the Net-like infoldings by which indeed it comes to pass that the blood slides into the Brain very slowly and with a gentle and almost even stream If that be true as some affirm that the wonderful Net also is sometimes found in an humane Brain I believe it is only in those sort of men who being of a slender wit or unmoved disposition and destitute of all force and ardor of the mind are little better than dull working beasts in fortitude and wisdom Secondly The conformation of the Carotidick Artery in a Horse comes nearest its structure in a man for in this the Artery enters the Skull also lower and with a greater compass than in other four-footed beasts which being passed its Trunk being intorted with a certain compass and then a little depressed goes forward whole to the side of the Turky Chair still with a full and broad chanel which truly ought to be made so because magnanimous and fierce forces are convenient for this Animal born as it were for War and any dangerous attempts and so there was need that the blood might ascend the Brain with a free and plentiful course and when occasion requires with a full Torrent But though the blood passes through the Basis of a Horses Skull in the same undivided chanel yet it ought not to come to the Brain it self in one single passage because the frame or substance of this in a Horse being far weaker and colder than in a man it might be overthrown and drowned by the blood rushing in by heaps wherefore the great River of the Artery disburdens it self by two Emissaries and pours out its Latex at so many distinct places of the Brain Further as if by this means there were not yet sufficient caution against the Deluge of the Brain a transverse or cross chanel as it were a diversion is formed between the chanels of either Artery through which the blood being straitned for room may go aside and flow and reflow from one bank or chanel to another rather than oppress or overflow the Brain Also besides certain shoots being sent out from the Trunk of either Artery are inserted into the pituitary Glandula the use of which is doubtless to separate certain serosities of the too watry blood and to lay them up into that Glandula whereby the rest of the bloody Latex to be carried to the Brain becomes more pure and free from dregs By what means the Carotidick Arteries in the head of a Horse pass through the Basis of the Skull is represented in the second Figure of the following Table I have not yet had the means to inspect the brains of a Lyon or a Monkey but there is reason to suspect that in these also the Carotides do pass through the Skull with a single Trunk In a Sheep Calf Hog yea in a Dog Fox Cat and other four-footed beasts which I have hitherto opened this Artery is divaricated into Net-like infoldings which Vessels for what causes and for what uses they are so made we shall now inquire into Thirdly therefore most other four-footed beasts different from a Man and a Horse have the wonderful Net adjoyned to the Carotidick Artery In truth this is met with in so many that common Anatomy hath ascribed it to all Animals and also to man it self In whom it is found we observe that the Artery about to enter the Skull is not carried about with so long a compass but rising up nigh the hinder part of the Turkish Chair is presently divided into small shoots yet so as one little chanel is stretched right out which the blood quietly running to passes through without any stay being carried straight into the Brain but from the side of this many rivulets are derived on every side into which the blood impetuously ascending may be easily diverted These little rivers are partly ingrafted into the veinous passages of the same and the Vessels of the other side and are partly carried into the pituitary Glandula and partly a compass being fetched are returned into the former chanel or belly of the Artery That it is so besides naked inspection appears plainly by this Experiment If below the Skull an inky liquor be gently and by degrees injected into the Trunk of the Carotis that passing through the strait passage is carried presently into the Brain nor does it dye the lateral infolded Vessels with its tincture but if this liquor be immitted continually and forcibly presently running into the folds it will make black the Vessels of the same and of the opposite side also entring the hither part of the Glandula and its interior substance If the use of these kind of infoldings of the Vessels or the wonderful Net be inquired into I say that it is made chiefly for these ends viz. First that the Torrent of the blood being divided into small rivulets it s more rapid course may be so far dull'd or broken that it may be but leisurely instilled into the Brain For otherwise in labouring beasts who go with their heads hanging down and have but a weak brain the more free influx of the blood might easily overthrow the fabrick of the Brain and spoil the animal Spirits Secondly the divarication of the Carotides into Net like infoldings hath another use of no less moment to wit that the more watry blood being as it is its temperament in most Beasts and especially in those who are fed with herbage before it be poured upon the Brain might carry away some part of the superfluous Serum to the pituitary Glandula and instil the other part into the branches or shoots of the Veins to be returned towards the Heart Thirdly and lastly for as much as the Vessels on either side are mutually inoculated by this means there is care taken both that the blood may be exactly mixed before it ascends to the Brain as also that more certain ways may be made for its passage because if perchance an obstruction should happen in one side of the wonderful Net the blood by that infolding being presently carried to the other may find a passage for this cause to wit that the blood might be the better prevented from any impediment in its passage the Vessels are not only inoculated under the Dura Mater about
of which sort are Hearts-case Water-Pepper Ranunculus or Crowfoot and the like which very much abound in volatile Salt being bruised into a mass and put into the Ears of the diseased Horse and kept there for twenty four hours it is scarce credible by what means all the Ulcers are presently dryed up and the disease healed as it were by Inchantment is quickly profligated in the whole For since this Application is made far from the affected parts without any alteration of the bowels or the blood it should be so healed at a distance certainly the cause of such an Energy must only be that by this kind of Medicine the Dyscrasie or evil disposition of the Brain and nervous Juyce is taken away and so the first root of the sickness being cut off the shoots and fruits presently wither It were worth our labour to try such kind of Experiments also in our Medicines Yea it may be well suspected that such a way ought to be ordered for the common Cure of the Kings-Evil Among our Country-men as delivered from our Ancestors it is thought that the seventh Son or he that is born the seventh one after another in a continued series can cure this disease by stroking it only with his hand and truly I have known many whom no Medicines could help to have been cured in a short time only by that remedy Few doubt but that this disease is wont to be cured often by the Touch of our King The reason of such an effect if it be merely natural ought to be assigned not to any other thing than that in the sick especially those of ripe age the Phantasie and strong Faith of the hoped for Cure induces that alteration or rather strengthning to the Brain whereby the morbid disposition radicated in it is profligated But I shall return from whence I am digressed to inquire what the nervous Juyce contributes to nutrition 2. I say therefore secondly although nutrition depends in some measure upon the influence of the nervous Juyce yet it is highly improbable that all the several parts of the whole Body should be nourished only by this provision For besides that this were to impose upon the Government of the Soul it self and its primary Organs the cooking office of nutrition wholly unworthy the excellency and dignity of those parts it seems also that the nervous Liquor should be altogether unfit for the administring to this Province because when oftentimes immense expences are made of the aliment to be assimilated into the substance of the solid parts especially by immoderate sweat also by continual labour and exercise which Country-men and Labourers daily use it is not possible that such losses should be repaired only by the nourishment supplied or sent through the small passages of the Nerves When I had long and seriously considered with my self concerning this thing what I at length thought I shall tell you freely and without any covering or making any reflection or blaming the Opinions of others It seems first that the nourishing matter of the whole Body is distributed into all parts from the blood through the Arteries yet it may lawfully be thought that the conversion of this matter into nutriment and the assimilation of it into the substance of the part to be nourished is performed by the influence and help of the nervous Juyce as it were of a certain spirituous Ferment As to the first we have already noted that the sanguiferous Vessels do not only follow almost every where the Muscles and Bowels but also the Head and its Appendix yea the Membranes Bones and Nerves themselves and affix to them all thick shoots as so many little chanels for the receiving the nourishment Moreover as there is a purple crassament or thick substance in the blood whose substance stuffs and nourishes the Pores of the Parenchyma of the Muscles so there is a whitish Gelly by which the Membranes and the whiter parts seem to increase Besides it may be observed that the blood it self increasing contains in it self fibres and small threads such as are interwoven in the Muscles and nervous parts and if the same stand long in any Vessel it is presently coagulated into longish white and hard crusts or bits whose substance is plainly fleshy so that the blood produces flesh of it self though the same be rude and unformed wherefore the configuration and the apt disposition of the nourishing matter supplied from it depends on the coming and Energy of the nervous Juyce but after what manner this is done we shall endeavour now to shew After the web or stuff of all the parts is laid it is required then that they be both drawn forth in due proportion and grow in substance and also that the little spaces which are left by reason of the Effluvia's perpetually falling off may be continually filled with the nourishing substance cast in In these two things the business of nutrition chiefly consists for the performing of either of which the blood affords matter and reaches it forth as was said in the circulating to the several parts of the concrete and as it were stands at the doors of the part to be nourished yet that this matter may be rightly disposed and its particles to wit the thick and thin saline and sulphureous and others of a several nature separated one from another may be imployed with some choice to the destinated uses there seems need of a certain directing faculty and as it were plastick virtue got somewhere else than from the blood it self For indeed the blood being destitute of animal Spirits is unfit for the performing these offices Wherefore for that it appears there doth lye hid in the nervous stock a certain juyce and the same being gifted with animal Spirit to be diffused to all parts how can we suppose less but that this subtil and spirituous Liquor every where meeting with the arterious which is duller and thicker actuates and inspires it and as it were ordains it for the performing the designed work of nutrition especially when it plainly appears that by reason of the defect or depravation of this nervous Juyce nutrition is always frustrated or perverted Therefore it may be lawful in the difficult Controversie concerning the Matter and Method of Cure to propose this our Hypothesis though it be a Paradox and very abstruse to wit that the nervous Juyce which we have said was like the male seed is poured out with the nutritious humor copiously suggested from the Arteries as it were the genitive or seed of another Sex every where upon all the parts and that this former being indued with active Elements imbues the more thick matter as with a certain Ferment and impregnates it with animal Spirit and when it so makes it with a mutual entring in or coming together to be dissolved and to go into parts its particles being extricated one from the other the Spirit infused helping they are put upon bodies of the same measure with themselves
roots of the Teeth Jaws Throat the farther end of the Palate yea and the Tongue for this reason chiefly that the nerves going out of the lower branch of the fifth pair might effect besides sense the divers offices of Taste and Touch or Feeling and motions of a various kind in the aforesaid members and parts most of which as the chewing of the aliment also those which have respect to configuration or framing of the mouth and face in laughing or weeping as we have already noted are performed unknown to the Brain that is involuntarily and by the help of the Cerebel only from which these Nerves are derived The other superior and also the greater branch of the fifth pair under the Dura Mater nigh the side of the Turkey Chair goes straight forward for a little space and is inlarged into some shoots over against the pituitary Glandula to the trunk of the Carotick Artery or the wonderful Net where it is present then it is inoculated into the nerve of the sixth pair and from thence sends back sometimes one sometimes two shoots which being united with another shoot turned back from the nerve of the sixth pair constitute the root or first trunk of the intercostal Nerve Concerning this intercostal nerve which is made of the lower ramification or branching out of the nerves of the fifth and sixth pair it shall be spoken of particularly hereafter Presently after the branches or shoots reflected or bent back for the root of the intercostal nerve that greater nerve of the fifth pair is divided into two noted branches The lesser and uppermost of these tending towards the globe of the Eye and becoming again twofold sends forth two branches from it self one of which turning towards the inward side of the Bone containing the ball or angle of the Eye is divided into two shoots The other of these having passed through the Bone nigh the mammillary Processes is carried into the nostrils the office of this nerve is to keep a Sympathy and consent of action between the nostrils and some other parts but the other branch of this division is bestowed on the Muscle by which Brutes wink The second Ophthalmick branch of the fifth pair is divided into four or five shoots all which going forward above the Muscles of the Eye and in some part passing through its Glandula's are almost all lost in the Eye-brows unless that in the passage they send down two small shoots which enter the Sclerotick Coat a little below the Tendons of the Muscles and reach to the Vvea or the fourth thin Membrane that cloaths the Optick nerve yea and also send in the passage small shoots to the Glandula's of the Eye It seems that these nerves of the fifth pair being distributed into the Glandula's of the Eyes and Eye-brows serve chiefly to the involuntary and pathetick actions of those parts the chief of which are the languishing and mournful aspect of the Eyes in weeping and the unwilling pouring out of tears For as the lower branching of the fifth pair to wit the intercostal nerve provideth in man for the Praecordia it easily happens that from the sad affection of these the Cardiack branches of this nerve being forced and wrinkled into Convulsions the aforesaid Ophthalmick branches also so correspond and by wrinkling the Eye-brows and by compressing the Glandula's produce those kind of looks of the Eyes and marks of sorrow and grief Further it is observed that from the Ophthalmick branch of the fifth pair a certain shoot is sent back higher nigh the heads of the Muscles which when it has passed through at a proper hole the Bone containing the ball of the Eye is carried straight into the caverns of the Nostrils Hence as I think a reason may be given wherefore passing out of a dark place into the light at the first beholding of the Sun presently whether we will or no we shall sneez to wit the eyes being too strongly struck by the object and being suddenly and disorderly moved that they might turn themselves aside the same affection is immediately communicated through the aforesaid Nerve to the Membrane covering the hollow caverns of the Nostrils which being thence contracted and wrinkled as it is wont by some sharp thing pulling it provokes sneezing The second or greater branch of the second division of the Nerve of the fifth pair being carried nigh the ball of the Eye is again divided into two branches The lower of these being bent downwards cleaving into many shoots is bestowed on the Palate and upper region of the Jaws The other and higher branch of this second division stretching beyond the ball of the Eye passes through together with the Vein and Artery a proper hole made in the bone of the upper Jaw which Vessels this Nerve climbs and variously compasses about with many shoots sent forth then arising out of the bone it imparts little branches to the Muscles of the Cheeks Lips Nose and to the roots of the upper Teeth Therefore forasmuch as this Nerve embraces and binds about the sanguiferous Vessels destinated to the Cheeks and the other parts of the Face from hence a reason may be given why the face is covered with blushing by shame for the animal Spirits being disturbed by the imagination of an unseemly thing by and by endeavouring as it were to hide the face their irregularities enter this Nerve so that the shoots of the same Nerve embracing the blood-carrying Vessels by compressing and pulling the same cause the blood to be more forced into the Cheeks and Face and the Veins being bound hard to be there for some time staid and detained But forasmuch as many shoots and fibres of the same maxillar Nerve derived from the fifth pair interweave themselves with the flesh and skin of the Lips hence the reason is plain why these parts are so very sensible and besides why the mutual kisses of Lovers impressed on the Lips so easily irritate love and lust by affecting both the Praecordia and Genitals to wit because the lower branching of the same fifth pair actuates these parts constituted in the middle and lower Belly and draws them into the like affection with the Lips The same reason holds of Love presently admitted by the eyes that as the Poet says Mars videt hant visámque cupit As soon as Mars saw her he desir'd her We have but now intimated that many shoots of this Nerve were destinated for the business of chewing and therefore because the aliments to be taken ought to undergo not only the examination of the taste but also of the smell and sight from the same Nerve whose branches being sent to the Palate and Jaws perform the business of chewing other shoots as it were fore-runners are carried to the Nostrils and Eyes to wit that these Organs of the other Senses might be furnished with some helps of probation also for the better knowing or distinguishing the objects of taste Certainly from the nearness of kindred
supplied from the blood and less of the Spirits which are brought by the passage of the nerves is bestowed And here it may be rightly inquired into whether the Pulse of the Heart so necessarily depends on the influence of the animal Spirits through the Nerves that it being hindred the action of the Heart should wholly cease For the decision of this we once made a tryal of the following Experiment upon a living Dog The skin about the Throat being cut long-ways and the Trunk of both the wandring pair being separated apart we made a very strict Ligature which being done the Dog was presently silent and seemed stunned and suffered about the Hypochondria convulsive motions with a great trembling of the Heart But this affection quickly ceasing afterwards he lay without any strength or lively aspect as if dying slow and impotent to any motion and vomiting up any food that was given him nevertheless his life as yet continued neither was it presently extinguished after those nerves were wholly cut asunder but this Animal lived for many days and so long till through long fasting his strength and spirits being worn out he died The carcass being opened the blood wiâ—hin the Ventricles of the Heart and the Vessels on every side reaching from thence to wit both the Veins and Arteries being greatly coagulated was gathered into clotters to wit for this cause because the blood though for the sustaining of life it was in some measure circulated yet for the most part it stagnated both in the Heart and in the Vessels The cause of which stagnation I can assign to no other thing than that the Praecordia the influence of the animal Spirits being hindred wanted its usual motions If it should be further demanded from whence the animal Spirits the passage of both the wandring pair being shut up should be supplied to the Heart continuing still its motion I say that this may be done by the returning Nerves as from the knots of which many Cardiack shoots and fibres proceed and besides the end of either nerve meeting with the nerve sent from the upper infolding is united But we shewed already that the animal Spirits may be carried either this way or that way within the passages of the nerves wherefore when the necessity of life urges the provision of the Spirits though lesser being sent from the aforesaid infolding is received by the tail of the returning nerve and from thence by a retrograde passage it was derived into the Cardiack branches and at length into the Heart it self Further there lyes open also another passage and that perhaps more obvious through the passage of the intercostal nerve by this way in a man as well as by the passage of the wandring pair the Spirits are conveyed from the Brain to the Praecordia yea also in Brutes a branch is carried into the Trunk of the wandring pair from the intercostal infolding so that by this by-path some little rills of the animal Spirits if by chance their influence should be hindred through their wonted chanels might be carried to the Heart However that Experiment seems to conclude that the motion of the Heart depends no less upon the inflowing of the blood than upon that of the animal Spirit the total privation of either takes away life an Eclipse of the Spirits wholly takes away from the Heart its motive power and by the defect of the blood forasmuch as the sulphureous Copula is denied to the Spirit implanted in the Heart the vigour and elastick force of the Heart is supprest so that the Pulse being by degrees weakened life is by little and little extinguished Without doubt in the finding out the tenour of the Pulse we ought always to mind what the alteration of the animal Spirits and what the fault of the blood may bring to it There is yet another consideration concerning the Nerves reaching from the Trunk of the wandring pair to the Heart to wit that by their passage not only the solemn influence and state of the Spirits for the equally performing of the vital Function is conveyed but also the instinct of every irregular motion stirred up in the Praecordia by the force of the Passions is in some measure transferred this way I say as to these we ought to discourse and to shew by what means as often as the impression of any Affection exercises the Imagination or rather the Appetite presently the Praecordia are disturbed by the passage of the Nerves and by reason of their various Affections the motion of the blood is diversly altered But because in a man the irregular and extraordinary motions of the Praecordia depend on the intercostal Nerve as much as and perhaps more than on the wandring pair therefore we think good to defer this Speculation till the Theory of that Nerve is proposed In the mean time we will proceed to the other branches of the wandring pair and what next follows we will inquire into the offices and uses of the returning Nerves The returning Nerve in the left side going away from the wandring pair below the aforesaid infolding and sent towards the Aorta is reflected or turned back about its descending Trunk from whence being carried upwards it imparts shoots to the Muscles of the Trachea and the Larynx sent forth by a long tract from either side of the Nerve then its top or height is united with a shoot meeting it out of the Ganglioform infolding Fig. 9. n. **** h. But the returning Nerve on the right side is reflected much higher about the axillar Artery to wit proceeding from the lower infolding of the wandring pair and after the same manner is bestowed on the other side of the Trachea Fig. 9. L. But either returning back about the knots of reflection sends forth towards the Heart very many shoots and fibres which are inserted into its little ears the appending Vessels or its Infoldings What the chief use of this Nerve is we have already shewn to wit being rolled about on both sides the Artery as it were a Windlace it causes the little rings of the Trachea or Weasand to be drawn hither and thither like the folds of a pair of Bellows both for breathing and making a sound But indeed either Nerve forasmuch as it being reflected about the Artery is carried upward into the part to be moved doth move downwards the little rings of the Trachea or Wind-pipe by certain shoots of it also forasmuch as either is terminated in the Nerve sent from the Ganglioform infolding it carries upwards the folds of the Trachea by other shoots of it Hence a reason may be given why the returning Nerves being cut off every Animal is presently dumb to wit because unless the Trachea be moved the breath being blown out passing without any refraction through its cavity as it were through a Pipe alike hollow in its whole passage gives no sound Concerning these Nerves we ought to inquire what is the reason of the difference that the
respect for this end also that the superfluous or excrementitious humidities heaped together about the spinal Marrow might be sent away by these Processes for indeed we have already shewn that a certain humor doth abound within the Head the medullar Appendix and nervous System which oftentimes when it becomes watry or abounds above measure begets a serous heap in those parts wherefore when the branches of the intercostal nerve are terminated into the Mesentery Kidneys Intestines and some Genital parts it is probable they do transfer into these sinks superfluous humidities not only their own but also of another sort to wit those received from the spinal Nerves As to the Nerves which as Emissaries are carried from the aforesaid Ganglioform infolding into other parts we observe first that a noted shoot is carried from hence into the Sphincter of the Throat Fig. 9. γ. This nerve in the Sphincter of the Throat corresponds with others akin arising higher from the fifth pair and distributed into the parts of the Palate and Mouth and is helpful to them in the business of chewing for when the maxillar branches of the fifth pair should perform their work for the chewing of the food taken in the task of this nerve mediately arising also from the fifth pair follows to wit whereby the Throat being opened the chewed meats may be thrust forward into its passage Another shoot is stretched out from this infolding into a like infolding of the wandring pair placed near Fig. 9. α. The reason of this insertion is delivered above where we treat of the wandring Pair But it may be observed further concerning this when so nigh a communication happens between these infoldings and when shoots are sent from one of them into the Muscles of the Larynx and from another into the Muscles of the Throat from hence we may give a reason why in Hysterick distempers and in some Hypochondriacal there is so frequent and familiar a Symptom of the sense of choaking in the Throat For a Cramp or Convulsion being begun in any nerve it is wont to creep forward further by the passage of the same and so to invade sometimes these parts sometimes those successively If therefore at any time a Spasm arises any where in any nerve of the wandring or intercostal pair and from thence tending upwards or downwards shall come to either infolding presently both being affected and the Muscles of the whole neighbourhood being contracted a bulk or Tumor like a Globe or round thing in the Throat is excited with a sense of choaking The intercostal Nerve descending a little lower contains in the neck another greater infolding proper to man to which a noted Vertebral nerve is inserted also out of which many nerves destinated to the Praecordia are sent forth on either side Fig. 9. Τ. As to the principal parts to wit the Brain and Heart there is no such great difference between a Man and a Brute as there is about the passage of one to the other or the commerce that those parts have mutually among themselves In either kind for the exercise of the vital Function the animal Spirits are derived from the Head with a constant emanation into the Heart to which sort of influence of theirs the passage of the wandring pair of nerves seems sufficient wherefore in most Brutes the passage to the Heart and its Appendix lyes open only by this way and scarce at all by any nerves of the intercostal pair But in Man the intercostal nerve besides its offices in the lower Belly common to him with other Animals serves in the place of a special Internuncius also before the Cloister of the Breast which bears the mutual senses of the Brain and Heart this way and that way or to and fro For when besides the nerves of the wandring pair stretched out also into the humane Praecordia which certainly seem sufficient for the executing of the offices of the Function merely vital so many noted branches are sent forth from the aforesaid intercostal infolding what kind of office should be attributed to these unless that they should contain the animal Spirits by whose work and ministry the mutual respects and affections of the Brain and Heart should be communicated to one another Whilst I consider this difference of either kind it comes into my mind that Brutes are like Machines framed with a more simple furniture and with less workmanship and therefore furnished with a motion of one kind only or determined for the doing still the same thing But in Man divers series of motions and as it were complications of wheels within wheels appear For indeed by the passage of the aforesaid infolding the conceptions of the Brain presently affect the Heart and its Vessels and cause the rest of the Appendix together with the Diaphragma to be moved Hence the motion of the blood and its inkindling in the Heart together with the Pulse and Respiration are altered and for that cause from the Heart being altered not only impressions are retorted upon the Brain by the passage of the same nerves but also the blood it self its course being changed drives to the Brain with a different or unaccustomed fluctuation and so by moving the animal Spirits with various impulses causes first one sort of conceptions and then others to be produced and so by reason of these reciprocal affections of the Heart and Brain which are wont by a long series to be propagated vicissively a multiplicity of thoughts and Phantasms arises Hence both the ancient Divines and Philosophers placed wisdom in the Heart Certainly the Works of Prudence and Vertue depend very much on the mutual commerce which happens to the Heart with the Brain because that cogitations about the acts of the Appetite or Judgment may be rightly described it is behoveful for the flood of the blood to be restrained in the Breast and the inordinations of it and of the Heart it self to be governed by the Nerves as it were by Reins and to be composed into requisite and apt motions We might say more concerning this but that this Speculation is from our purpose and belongs more properly to Pathology or the Doctrine of the Passions of the Soul In the mean time we may refer hither one or two Observations taken from Anatomy When of late we had dissected the Carcass of a man that was a Fool from his birth we could find no defect or fault in the Brain unless that its substance or bulk was very small But the chief note of difference which we observed between the parts of this man and of a man of judgment was this That the aforesaid infolding of the intercostal Nerve which we call the Internuncius of the Brain and Heart proper to man was very small in this Fool and beset with a weaker guard of Nerves Whilst we were writing these we made an Anatomy of a Monkey whose Brain differed little from that which is seen in a Dog or a Fox unless that it
may sometimes draw together and constrain the blood-carrying Vessels sometimes open and inlarge them that as occasion serves the Feculencies of the blood may be sometimes more plentifully sometimes more sparingly laid aside out of the Arteries into the Spleen also that more or less of the Ferment preserved in the Spleen may be poured out on the blood according to the requirings of the Passions or of the natural Instinct No Hypochondriack but doth abundantly perceive that some Splenetick nerves do perform motions for those great perturbations which are wont to be excited in the left side as when sometimes Inflations sometimes constrictions of the inward parts and sometimes various concussions are perceived with a wandring pain running here and there they are only Spasms or Convulsions or wrinklings together with which the nerves of the Spleen are ordinarily affected Nor do its nerves taken with a Convulsion stir up tumults only in the neighbourhood of the Spleen but oftentimes further into the Heart it self yea into the whole Body the effects of their inordinations are carried I have known an Hypochondriack who presently upon the Spleen being disturbed seemed to have his Praecordia being drawn downwards to be cruelly prest and bound together so that being very sad and dejected in his mind also complaining of an exceeding great straitness and constriction of his Breast he thought himself almost dead The cause of which kind of distemper was without doubt that when many Fibres going out of the Splenetick infolding are united with other Fibres sent from the farthest end of the wandring pair it easily happens that the former being distempered with the Convulsion do draw together and pull downwards their yoke-fellows and by consequence the Trunk it self of the wandring pair from which the nerves are sent into the Praecordia certainly by the Sympraxis or joynt action of either kind of the aforesaid nerves viz. whereof these respect the Spleen those the Praecordia it is effected that the Trembling Oppression and other grievous Distempers of the Heart as also of the Spleen so ordinarily happen Further forasmuch as the Fermentation of the blood depends on the Spleen according to the influence of this that performs its Circulation sometimes pleasantly sometimes disturbedly Whilst the Spleen is at quiet and free from any perturbation the blood also is quietly moved in Hypochondriacal persons but if the same be moved and exercised as it is wont to be in any passion or violent motion of the Body or by a Medicine presently its nerves being distempered with a Convulsion shake it more with reiterated contractions so that the fermentative Feculencies being shaken out of its bosom flow back more plentifully into the blood which cause its Latex presently to be troubled and as it were muddy and sharpen it with so great acrimony and mordacity that it burns and pricks the Brain and Heart like needles from whence in Splenetick people besides that the Reason is obscured the affections of the Mind especially Sadness Hatred and Anger are very much increased Concerning the Splenetick Nerves by another conjecture we are yet brought to believe that they besides the exercise of the motive Faculty do both instil into the Spleen it s own humor which promotes the fermentative virtue of that Inward and also because the nerves as was shewn already convey the Spirits and sometimes the humors by either way viz. forward and backward the same implanted in the Spleen do often imbibe from it an acetous or Vinegar-like humor and as it were Vitriolick from whose acrimony and notable twitching they are forced into Convulsions But forasmuch as the nervous Infolding respecting the Spleen communicates more nearly with the Ventricle Mesentery Liver and Kidneys and more remotely with the Praecordia and other parts placed at a distance from hence the cause is plain wherefore not only these several Viscera and parts by reason of the fault of the Spleen are folded together but also on the contrary why the Spleen being indisposed by any Disease or trouble raised up in any of those parts is wont to be disturbed so it is not altogether for nothing that the Symptoms every where infesting the cause of them being unknown are ascribed ordinarily to the Spleen because it fixes not only its own inordinations in other parts but also suffers for their peculiar faults which notwithstanding is wrongfully ascribed to Vapours transmitted from this or that part when the formal reason of every Distemper of this kind for the most part consists in the communication made through the Nerves The lower Infolding of the left side seems to be made for the Kidney placed near into which chiefly the bundle of its Fibres is carried Fig. 11. ♃ γ. γ. Certainly that these nerves following the emulgent Vessels do embrace the same and bind them about with a various and frequent complication that is so made for that end that by reason of the Artery being so strained and frequently shaken by the drawings of the nerves the Serum may the more easily be precipitated from the blood wherefore it is observed in very great difficulty or danger when the mind and all the nerves are strained for fear that a frequent and more plentiful making of water and that often painful is wont to be provoked The Renal Infolding receives besides the Nerve common to it with the upper infolding another new and peculiar one from the intercostal nerve or rather that coming between from the spinal Marrow Fig. 11. β. Hence it is that the Loyns have a great consent with the Reins and suffer so ordinarily for their Distempers with a grievous and largely diffusive pain Forasmuch as this infolding communicates with the greatest of the Mesentery the Colick distemper and the Nephritick are much akin and it is often difficult to distinguish their fits one from the other The Mesenterick branch in the right side as well as the left being forked contains two infoldings the upper of these which we call the Hepatick sends forth from it self many little bundles of nervous Fibres the greatest of which being carried towards the Liver cloaths the Hepatick Artery as it were with a Net made of Fibres Fig. 11. ♂ o. The most Learned Glisson observes That the Hepatick Artery is bestowed on the Trunks of the Vessels to wit of the common Chest of the bilary Pore and of the Vena Porta for the watering of which and for the actuating them with heat and nourishing Juyce it carries the arterious Blood to which notwithstanding for the recarrying an associate Vein is wholly wanting wherefore that ought to carry the blood not with a full and free influx but by little and little and always in a constant measure to those membranaceous parts for otherwise there had been danger lest from the bloody Latex plentifully rushing forward for that it could not be still remanded presently through the Veins an Inflammation should be excited or lest from its torrent being transfused beyond its banks the courses
fear or Anger or of Sadness of spirit affecting the inhabitants of the Encephalon the passion called Hysteric and Hypochondriac doth so often arise Further that in the evill Crises of Feavours when the adust recrements of the blood are transfer'd into the head Convulsions do generally succeed Moreover and this is the reason why the Vertigo the inflation of the head torpor of the minde and other accidents of the Supreme Region are wont to be the proamium of Spasmes presently following in the Inwards and not seldom in the whole Body Wherefore it is not to be doubted but that the heterogeneous and explosive particles are instilled from the Blood together with the nervous juice into the Brain which afterwards being thrust forth into the nervous stock do there grow to the Spirits and with them bring on a Convulsive disposition In truth the Spasmodick distempers which are either universal or at least occupie many parts of the body at once arise for the most part by this only means But in the mean time we will not deny but that particular Spasms which contain themselves within Certain places the Head being no ways affected are induced sometimes by other means For if the nerves imbibe their humour from either end to wit the root and the extream fragments which both the learned Glisson maintains to be most likely and by us is shewed in our Neurologie not without great probabillity it may be from hence inferr'd that the Spasmodick particles are broght inwardly not only from the beginning of the Nerves but somewhat also by their extremities Therefore that perhaps appears clear and plain enough Sometimes received from the ends of the Nerves that from the spleen being evilly affected Spasms arising about its region do not seldom affect the Hypochondria and Praecordia I have known some from a tumour or ulcer existing in the Mesenterie womb and other inwards were wont to have Convulsions both in the grieved part and also all about it the reason of which seems to be no other than that the heterogeneous particles being more plentifully heaped up in the affected place Creeping also into the nervous fibres planted nigh thereunto supply them with matter for Convulsive motions like to fired gunpowder But indeed Spasms arising from such a cause are not wont to diffuse themselves far about nor always to ascend to the Head These things being thus premised concerning the inward and next Cause of the Spasmodic Distemper which we affirm to arise chiefly and most often from the head it self and in some respect also from the extremities of the Nerves it now remains that we more particularly declare the Various remoter Causes in either Kinde The more remote Causes of Spasms and the manifold provision of this disease The Convulsive Disease therefore for the most part takes its original from the head to wit as often as the heterogeneous and explosive particles being diffused from the blood into the Brain or its medullarie Appendix are afterwards derived to the nervous stock and there grow together with the Spirits But this happens to come to pass from various causes for there are very many ways and means whereby the morbifick matter is admitted into the head and very many also whereby it is deduced into this or that region of the nervous System and according to the various translations of this kind of morbifick matter the divers kinds of Convulsive motions are constituted 1 The mortifick matter is heaped up within the Head by the default both of the blood send-it Therefore that the Heterogeneous and Spasmodick particles are admitted into the Encephalon it is to be imputed to the fault both of the blood sending and of the Brain receiving it 1. When the Blood powrs upon the Head the morbifick matter either all its whole mass is depraved as it frequently happens in malignant feavours also in the Scorbutick cacochymick and chiefly in an originally corrupt Distemper or the Blood of it self innocent and incorrupt receives elsewhere malignant little bodys and afterwards fixes them on the brain so in great impurities of the Inwards and chiefly when any parts are affected with an Inflamation or virulent ulcer or hurtfull ferment for from such mines the taint of the disease the noxious particles bubble up into the blood and afterwards in its passage are laid up in the Brain So by reason that the spleen womb and other inwards being evilly affected Convulsive Diseases are excited which notwithstanding depend more immediatly upon the Brain receiving the corruption of those parts through the commerce of the Blood And also of the brain receiving it 2. But in the second place the Blood however vitious it should be and impregnated with the morbid seed it could not easily leave its Infection on the head unless there were some fault in the Constitution of the brain and its Appendix as long as these parts are well made and are full of vigour they defend themselves and what belongs to them and the doors being shut they admit nothing but an unmixt spirituous Liquour destinated for their use but if either the passages and pores of the Brain are too lax or the door-keeping Spirits leave or are called off from their watches an heterogeneous and morsific matter creeps in together with the nervous juice and unfolds its malignity in the animal government As to the evil disposition of the Brain it self The evil disposition of the brain is either hereditary it is sometimes hereditary So those sprung from parents obnoxious to the Epilepsie or Convulsions are themselves for the most part prone to the same Distempers and indeed the Constitution of the brain may several ways become vitious from the birth for either its temperature is more moist or more dry than it should be or it may be faulty by the excess or defect of either Quallity Sometimes the pores are more lax or its consistency is too soft or too hard and also the Conformation of the parts of the Brain Or acquired and its Appendix may be after an undue manner But sometimes the disposition of the Brain and Nerves originally whole and firm is vitiated by accident and acquires a morbid inclination long Intemperance may enervate these parts as also malignant feavours and chronical Diseases very much debillitate them besides outward accidents as the excess of heat or cold an ulcer or a blow oftentimes perverts their Crases and renders them more incident to the impressions of Diseases But as to the Constitution or irregularities of the animal Spirits by reason of which the heterogeneous and Spasmodick particles enter the brain without any repulse and more easily cleave to it it is to be observed that the animal Spirits are in some more tender and easily dissipable from their very birth so that indeed they are not able to suffer any thing very strong or vehement to be brought to the sense or Imagination but strait they fly into confusions For this Reason women
by the use of medicines there happens yet a diverse event in several sick Patients The Epilepsie is changed into other Diseases for it either ends immediatly in Death or is changed into some other Disease to wit the Palsie stupiditie or melancholly for the most part incureable As to the former whenas the fits are often repeated and every time grow more cruell the animal function is quickly debilitated and from thence by the taint by degrees brought on the Spirits and the Nerves serving the Praecordia the vital function is by little and little enervated till at length the whole body languishing and the pulse being loosned and at length ceasing at last the vital flame is extinguished But that this Disease often ends in the Palsie melancholly or madnesse the reason is because the tone and confirmation of the brain is depraved by the often explosions of the animal Spirits and at length its natural state is so perverted that by the morbifick particles of another Kinde also admitted the spirits are fixed nor are any more exactly prone to explosions but rather sometimes by a contrary vice introduced their Elastick virtue is too much wanting so that they become dull and sluggish beyond measure even as oftentimes the intemperature of the blood being more cold than it should be admits the more intense burning of a feavour and indeed these depressions of the spirits happens partly by their own proper fault for that their more agill particles being too much explosed the more dull or heavy are only left and from them they are supplyed but partly as we have said they happen from the fault of the brain for that its pores and passages are so dilated and opened from the often paroxisms of this falling evill that afterwards there is an open passage made for any heterogeneous and divers kindes of morbifick particles to enter with the Nervous juce Thus much for the Diagnosis and Prognosis the description and judgment of the Epilepsie or falling sicknesse in the unfolding of which Of the Curatory part of the Epilepsie it was necessary to bring reasons not altogether abstruse and different from the common Pathologie neither are we constrained to receade in the Therapeatick or Curatory part of this Disease from the common and usuall method of curing in other Distempers But in truth are prescriptions of such who follow the ordinarily received Opinions by which for the most part they endeavour to carry away and wholly to eradicate the morbific matter by Catharticks only do little or nothing avail in the falling sickness yea they are wont frequently to be hurtfull to it I have known some famous Practitioners omitting wholly the series of the Curatory intentions betake themselves to certain Empirical Remedies without any foresight of the whole this kind of practise tho sometimes it succeeds happily would much more certainly perform the proposed cure if the Body being rightly prepared they should in like manner take away all Impediments by other medicines Wherefore the Indications concerning the Cure of the Falling Sicknesse shall be as they are Commonly set down either Curatory which have respect to the Fit and drive it away either coming on or when upon them to set it going the sooner or prophylactic or preventory which have respect to the Cause of the Disease which if they can take away its accessions will be inhibited afterwards A general evacuation has scarce any place in the former Intention for in the fit neither a Vomit or Purge and very rarely the opening a veine are wont to be administred if the amazed Insensibility and disorder continues very long sometimes a Clyster is wont to be used but what that chiefly aimes at is to fix the too fierce and Volatil animal Spirits and also to suppress their begun Explosions For which ends two kinde of Remedies chiefly are made use of to wit First such as repress the animal spirits being too apt to grow firce and to leap forth and repell them with some perfume that is ingratefull to them and Compell them into order which thing indeed medicines imbued with a volatile or armoniack salt or also with a vitriolic sulphur do effect of which kinde are salt and oyle of Amber Spirits of Blood Harts-horn Sut tincture of Castor and such like for these being inwardly taken or put to the nose often times bring help and the evill Spirits of this Disease are thought to be driven away even as in Tobit the Devill was by the fume of the gall of a fish Secondly the animal spirits are call'd away or hindred from their begun explosions when they are allured or held busied in some work they are accustomed to wherefore the fit urging frictions being used and for some time continued thorow the whole body do often help But some that set upright the diseased and altogether hold or restrain their Arms and legs from their Convulsive motion or hold them violently in this or that posture that also blow things into their noses to make them sneese and power down strong Cordials at the mouth and apply either Cupping glasses and Scarrifications and handle more sharply with other manner of administrations those sick people and disturb the manner of the fit I say this kinde of practise is most often too roughly instituted or ordained because after this manner there is a double trouble put upon nature to wit one from the disease and the other not lighter from the standers by and helpers when it were wuch better for the Fit to be suffer'd to pass over after its own manner and the sick to endure but one trouble only Truly the chiefest care of a Physitian and efficacy of medicines is used about the prevention of this Disease that the cause being taken away or its root cut off all the fruits might wither medicines requisit to this Indication respect many Intentions which may yet be reduced to those two chief heads to wit in the first place that the enkindling or matter of the disease being supplyed immediately from the vicious Blood or nervous Juice and mediately from the viscera and first passages be cut off then in the second place that the evill disposition of the Brain and the spirits its Inhabitants which is peculiar to the Epilepsie be taken away As to the first Indication here Vomits purges and other things both evacuating and altering yea phlebotomy and Cauteries have place for as much as by these means and ways the impurites both of the viscera and humours are subdued or brought away and their dyscrasie or evill disposition amended for although these kinde of medicines and medicall administrations rarely or never cure the Epilepsie by themselves yet those take away impediments set nature upright and incite her to encounter her enemy also they prepare the way that so specific Remedies might more certainly and efficaciously shew their virtues wherefore usually whilst they take care to cure this disease with secrets and hidden mysteries they make use of
exterminated by the putting forth the Red-gum or red spreadings thorow the skin Wherefore a water now thin and Serous now thick and sticking and either participating of praeternatural Salts and sulphures is layd up within these or those recesses and Cavities of the Brain Cerebel and oblong pith the recrements of which when they begirt the beginings or ends of this or that nerve and sometimes many together affix on the Spirits inhabiting them heterogeneous particles and apt for Spasmodic or Convulsive explosions For as soon as the nerves have deeply imbibed such particles the spirits being burthened with their Copula endeavour either of their own accord or being incited by evident Causes to thrust and shake it off and so they enter into Spasmodic or Convulsive explosions The evident Causes which bring on Convulsive motions in children praedisposed are of two Kindes viz. In the first place whatsoever stir up unwonted effervescencies of the blood whether they be excesses of heat or cold a too plentifull nourishment or hotter then should be the changes of the air and weather and chiefly the periodical times of the Moon for by reason of these and other the like occasions the Blood growing more hot than by right it should be affixes sooner to the Spirits an heterogeneous Copula even to a fullness and causes it presently to be struck off and exploded by them throughly disturbed 2ly An Irritation in almost every part of the nervous System does not seldome bring into Act a Spasmodic or Convulsive Disposition wherefore not only an excess of tangible qualities outwardly inflicted but the milk Coagulated in the stomack choler or other sharp humours or also wormes knawing the Intestines are wont to excite Spasms or Convulsions Besides these kinde of evident Causes as they are stronger sometimes induce Spasmodick Distempers of themselves and without a praevious Disposition even so worms and perchance sharp humours cause Convulsive motions to some children at least to the more tender That it might more certainly and to the sense appear what kinde of morbific matter might be in Convulsive motions I have opened the dead bodies of many which this disease had opprest I have allways in vain sought the cause within the Visecra and first passages of Concoction In the heads of many a serous water being heaped up within the Cavity under the Cerebel and distending the Membrane which cloaths the oblong pith or marrow did overflow the beginings of the nerves in some no footsteps of this Disease appeared so that what sticking to the Spirits did irritate them into explosions was of so imperceivable a bulk and its originall so altogether hid that it could not be found out by the most perspicatious scrutiny of the sight Sometime past in this City many chilbren of a certain woman dyed of this Disease at length the fourth as the others dyed within the month we dissected the Head and here no serous Colluvies or water did overflow the ventricles but only the substance of the Brain and its appendix was moister then ordinary and looser what was most worthy of observation was that in the Cavity which lyes under the Cerebel upon the trunk of the oblong pith we found a remarkable heap of clotter'd and as it were concreted blood but in truth it is uncertain whether this matter deposited there from the begining had primarily caused the convulsions or rather whether this blood being extravasated and expressed by the contraction of the parts planted round about was not the effect and product of the Convulsions and not the cause of them for also in Apoplectical people this kinde of Phaenomenon ordinarily happens which yet we shall afterwards shew to be rather the effect than the cause of the disease Indeed the heterogeneous Particles which flow to the blood from the womb are wont to be sent away through efflorencies or Cutaneous Pustles in the whole Body in many children in others being poured on the head are the material cause of the Convulsive Distemper may be inferr'd besides the reasons before recited from the remedies chiefly helping For that in little children obnoxious to this haereditarie Disease the Convulsive fits are best prevented if that an issue be made Presently after they are born in the nape of the neck and blood drawn with a Leech from the jugular Veins for the corruptions of the nervous juce are brought away by that and the impure buddings of the blood are diverted from the head by this by these ways of Administrations when before two or three children of the same Parent have dyed of Convulsions soon after they were born all the rest have been freed from the same evill 2ly Thus much concerning the Convulsive motions of Children which are wont to infest them by reason of an Infection contracted from the womb â—f that at this bout they should escape the Disease it self or at least its deadly strokes nevertheless about rhe time of breeding teeth they would be found at last to be obnoxious to the same danger for when the Teeth especially the greater are about to cut oftentimes a feavour is excited to which not seldom Convulsions are Joyned and though at this Time children are grown stronger and may better bear the fits of the disease then when new born yet the convulsive Distemper now stirred up by no other grievous occasion becomes very dangerous and sometimes deadly But forasmuch as childern who fall into feavours about the time of breeding of Teeth are not all tormented with Convulsions it therefore follows that some disposition to this disease either innate or acquired doth precede and that the pain caused from the breeding the Teeth is to be esteemed only the means of a more strong evident Cause to wit Children who being indued either with a Cacochymia or juce causing ill digestion or with a more weak constitution of the brain and nervous stock have their animal Spirits too much adulterated or dissipable are sometimes disposed for the coming of Convulsive distempers wherefore when so acute pain together with a feavor afflicts that latent disposition is brought into Act. If it be here ask'd for what reason a feavour and then Convulsive motions following thereupon come to those Praedisposed in teething it may be answer'd that either effect may be attributed to the pain as the immediate Cause We experimentally know by our selves what the torment is that follows an irritation about the roots of the Teeth in truth so great and so cruell that a more cruell can scarce be for that one or two notable shoots of the 5th pare of nerves reaches to the roots of each Tooth which when it ss hauled by the sharp particles of the Blood or other humours there layd up causes a most sharp sense of trouble or pain by its Corrugation But this kinde of Vellication or hauling of this Nerve happens thus to children breeding teeth because that the membranes and fibres are every way distended by the Teeth now increasing into a greater bulk and
another place did they tumultuously break forth there for during the fit the sick person was still in his senses or had the use of his memory But the morbific matter being more plentifully laid up in the head when from thence it was slid more deeply into the pipes both of the Interior und Exterior Nerves it had placed mines of explosive seeds very diffusive in the viscera both of the lower and middle belly and also in the exterior members so that when the animal spirits began to be exploded near the beginnings of the nerves presently from thence others inhabiting the mesenteric enfoldings and then others in the other nervous enfoldings interjected from the outmost bound even to the head being explosed in order did even continue the Convulsions from one part to another untill they came to the head it self but presently the explosion being translated from thence to the spirits dwelling in the spinal marrow and Appending Nerves the most strong Convulsions of the muscles and members of the whole body follow'd But that that ascent as it were of a bulk or substance which very often was perceived in the lower belly about the beginning of the Convulsions proceeding from the spirits within the mesenterick enfoldings being brought into explosions shall be more largely declared anon when we come to treat of hysterick passions In the mean time if it be ask'd for what reason that the convulsive paroxysm beginning in the part of the head near the beginnings of the Nerves presently the spirits dwelling in the outmost parts as many as are pre-disposed for that Symptom enter into explosions and so transfer the convulsive Distemper being there fully raised upwards for it is for the most part so whether the entrance of the disease begins in the bottom of the belly or about the middle of the abdomen the Hypochondria or praecordia for that the Convulsion is wont to creep by degrees Wherefore the Convulsions begin from the extremities of the Nerves from those places towards the head I say for the solution of this these two considerations are offer'd to wit in the first place we consider that when some whole series of spirits is disturbed those who reside in the extreamest bounds are first destituted of their originall Influence wherefore they before others grow tumultuous and begin to grow irregular hence it is when the Nerve of the arm or thigh is strained hard by leaning on it that the wonted Influence is hindred that a numness with a sense of pricking or tingling is first felt in the fingers or toes from whence by degrees it creeps upwards towards the places affected Secondly the other is and rather the reason of this distemper to wit that the spirits being ready for explosions when they are contained within the nervous pipes one or more as so many distinct little Tubes they require a sufficient ample space in which they may be able very much and indeed successively to be rarefied and expanded which thing because it cannot be easily performed within the Trunks of the Nerves from the beginning towards the end therefore while the Spirits about the nervous origine being first struck off leap back towards the Encephaleon for that cause they stir up the Vertigo the more open explosion of the spirits for the most part begins about the inferior passages of the nerves or at their extremities where the Trunk of the nerve is either dilated into more ample foldings or terminated in more fibres largely dispersed abroad then those Spirits being explosed there is room made presently for others succeeding in order whereby in like manner they may be exploded Hence we may observe whilst the exterior Spirits are exploded if a Ligature or hard Compression being made the succession of others into the same space or their progress toward the exterior parts be intercepted the Convulsion is wont to be hindred that it cannot ascend upwards wherefore when a numbness as medical Histories testifie being arisen from the farthest end of the finger or toe creeps to the superior parts with a tingling or like a cold air and at length reaching the brain causes most horrid Convulsions if by and by after the motion is begun the Arm or thigh be strongly tyed the Spasm or Convulsion not being able to get over the bound place is hindred from coming to the head yea it is usuall for histerical women as soon as the swelling of the belly or the ascent of the bulk in the abdomen is first perceived to gird strongly their waists with Swathing-bands and so oftentimes they prevent the Praecordia and the region of the brain from being disturbed by that same Convulsive Fit But that the Blood being let out in the midest of the fit was so soon congealed indeed it very ordinarily happens to be so in Convulsive and Apoplectical Distempers as the most learned Heighmore hath first noted out of Hendochius Wherefore the blood is soon congealed in convulsive distempers But that some from hence contend that Convulsions rely altogether upon the thickness of the Blood and stagnation its motion being hindred cannot be granted Because the blood taken from those who are subject to convulsions a little before the fit is dilated with serum and fluid enough wherefore we may lawfully think that that Congelation is caused by the paroxysm it self because in Convulsive motions and immoderate Contractions of the Nerves and Viscera the interflowing Blood by the exhalations of its spirit and serum is somewhat loosened in its mixtion and therefore in some sort coagulated like as when milk by reason of too much agitation and separation of the parts one from another grows into butter wherefore this kinde of Coagulation of the Blood seems rather to be the effect than the Cause of the Convulsions The Curatorie Method AS to the Cure of these kinde of Convulsive Distempers which in women or men proceed from the morbific cause lying upon the beginnings of the Nerves The first Indication will be to draw away the tinder or inkindling of the disease viz. to hinder that the blood may not affix on the head the heterogeneous particles either begot in it self or received elsewhere from the Viscera For this purpose an evacuation both by catharticks and blood-letting unless something contradict is wont to be benificially prescribed Vomiting most often brings help wherefore Emeticks of the Infusion of Crocus metallorum or of the Salt of Vitriol or wine of Squills Emeticks is to be taken at the beginning Then almost the next day the taking away of Blood either by phlebotomy in the Arm or by Leeches in the Sedal veins is to be performed then afterwards a gentle purge of pills or solutive Apozems is to be ordained and timely repeated Take of the pills of the Amber of Crato or of the Tartar of Bontiusʒ ii Purges of the Resine of Jalap gr xvi of Caster ℈ i. of the oyle of Rosmary or Amber ℈ ss of gumm-Ammoniac disolv'd in
white sagar â„¥ ii make a Julap The dose 4. or 6. spoonfulls twice in a day after a dose of a solid medicine Take of millipedes or chesslogs cleansed i pint of Cloves cut â„¥ ss put to them i quart of white-wine let them be distill'd in a glass-Cucurbit The dose â„¥ i. to â„¥ iss twice in a day For poor people medicines easie to be prepared may be prescribed after this manner Take of the Conserves of the Leaves of Rue made with an equal part of sugar â„¥ vi take of it the quantity of a nutmeg twice in a day drinking after it of the decoction of the Seeds and Roots of Burdock in whey or posset-drink made of white-wine Or there may be prepared a Conserve of the leaves of the Tree of Life with an equall part of Sugar dose Ê’ss to Ê’ i. twice in a day Take of millipeds prepared Ê’ iii. of ameos seedsÊ’ i. make a powder divide it into 10. parts take a dose twice in a day or 12 Sows or woodlice brused and white-wine put to them let the juce be wrung out make a draught let it be taken twice a day In the mean time while these Medicines are taken Inwardly it is sometimes convenient to raise blisters with Vesicatories in the nape of the neck and behinde the ears for so the serous and sharp humours are very much brought away from the head besides sneezing powders and such as purge Rhume from the head often give signal help The taking away of Blood from the Sedal veins or the foot ought sometimes to be itterated yea and the Distemper urging Plaisters or Cataplasms are profitably applyed to the soles of the feet It is also beneficial to apply drawing medicines about the calves and thighs CHAPTER VI. Of Convulsive Motions whose cause subsists about the extremities of the Nerves or within the nervous foldings SOmetimes Convulsive distempers do arise without any fault in the Head by the irritation and explosion of the spirits remaining about the extremities of the nerves which plainly appears because when medicines haul sharply the Ventricles or Intestines or worms gnaw them there do not only follow Convulsions in those parts but besides convulsive motions do sometimes torment or are retorted on the members and outward Limbs for indeed as we have shown elsewhere when the sense of a very grievous Trouble torments any part and from that is communicated to the chief Sensorie presently from thence an involuntary and irregular motion is wont to be reflected on the spirits in that place irritated and that not only by the same nerves to which the sense of the pain was carried but sometimes also the Convulsion is reciprocated by others either neighbouring or altogether extraneous So the Stone being fixed in the Ureters and irritating very much its nervous fibres excites Convulsive motions not only in the distemperd Vessell but almost in all the Viscera of the Abdomen So that the urine being suppressed Torments diffused here and there and very often horrid Vomitings follow Wherefore 't is not at all to be doubted but that both diseases and some Convulsive Symptoms are very often induced by reason of an outward hurt brought to the Tops of the Nerves terminating within the membranes muscles or Viscera yea in the hysterical hypochondriacal and certain other passions if at any time Convulsive motions are excited in the hurt head by the fault of the womb spleen or other Inward verily they arise by this only means to wit by the Trouble of the rest of the parts being translated this way through the Nerves but in no wise by the Vapours to the brain and are propagated all about into various Regions of the Body Convulsions begin from the ends of the Nerves both by reason of irritation But it should here be noted that although the evident Solitary cause forasmuch as it is strong and vehement may sometimes induce Convulsions of it self and without a praevious disposition because indeed the Animal Spirits being irritated beyond measure begin greater and more than ordinary explosions as in overgreat purging and Vomiting and the fits of the Collick and Stone is ordinarily wont to happen yet in many other Convulsive Distempers whose fits are often and habituall besides the irritation made about the extremities of the nerves which serves for the most part for the evident cause also a certain more remote cause is present to whose efficacy the assault of the disease is chiefly beholden to wit when Convulsive motions are wont to be excited and at every turn repeated by the fault of the Spleen womb or other private part it may be suspected that the animal Spirits of the Fibres in the distemperd part and those disposed in its neighbouring parts had first contracted an heterogeneous explosive Copula And by reason of an Explosive Copula by which being filled to a running over they were provoked by a light occasion to Convulsive explosions Then those being first begun about the extremities of the nerves creep upwards by the passage of the same nerves and are often caryed to the same nervous origine and sometimes beyond to the middle of the brain from whence lastly being reflected on the nervous stock they also secondarily cause the Convulsions of the members and Limbs But after the Brain and a Superior portion of the nervous System are wont to suffer and be affected often by the Convulsions below excited the spirits inhabiting those parts also begin to be themselves adulterated at length and to admit an heterogeneous and explosive Copula and so to acquire in part a procatartick cause hence at length a Convulsive procatarxis or more remote cause becomes Common to either end of the Trunk of the same nerves and the animal spirits of one nerve or more being evilly disposed both at the head and tail conceive explosions from either part and deliver them presently to the other as shall be more largely declared below when we treat particularly of hysterical and other passions in the meantime we will add some histories and observations of Convulsions arising from the farther ends or extremities of the Nerves Observation 1 A fine maid about the 16th year of her age falling from her horse and lighting upon a Stone grievously hurt her left breast from whence a Tumor arose with pain which Symptoms notwithstanding by the use of medicines at the beginning seem'd to be mitigated and to be indifferently well for a long time after Three years after she having taken cold and having observed but a bad course of dyet all things began to be exasperated the hurt part swelling into a bigger bulk troubled her with an accute and almost continual pain that the sick Virgin for the cruel torment could take no rest for many days and nights neither could she suffer the glandula's of her Breast being then made more tumid to be either touch'd or handled yea nor any noyse or shaking to be made in the Chamber When to this Tumour about
with abundance of spitle and thick was excited this hapned in some about the declination of the disease to wit whilst the confines of the brain were serene as it were the clowds sent from thence to the thorax a great Catarrh suddenly rained down upon the Lungs But in others who especially had little infection of the disease in the head presently after the beginning of the feavour a cruell cough and a stinking spitting with a consumptive disposition grew upon them and suddenly and unthought of precipitated the sick into a Pthisis from which nevertheless they recovered by the timely use of Remedies often beyond hope It was observ'd in some that after a long ecclips of the sensitive facultie and oppression of the brain from the morbific matter at length tumors did follow in the glandula's neer the hinder part of the neck out of which being hardly ripened and broke a thin and stinking ichor or matter ran for a long time and brought help I have also seen watery pustles excited in other parts of the body which pass'd into hollow ulcers and hardly curable sometimes little spots and petechiales appeared here and there yet I never heard that any more broad or blew of these kinde were seen in the sick Notwithstanding tho this feavour was not remarkable for very many malignant spots yet it was not free from Contagion For that in the same Family it invaded almost all the Children and youths successively yea not rarely those of more ripe years and at mens estate who looking to the sick were familiarly conversant in their Chambers or about their beds were infected with the same infection But indeed there was not so much cause of suspition that for it the friends of the sick should be wholly interdicted from commerce with or visiting of them Altho the course of this disease unless when it intimately settled in the brain did appear so gentle and continued without any horrid Symptome yet its cure being always difficult succeeded not under a long time For the sick rarely grew well within three or four weeks yea for the most part scarce in so many months If this disease fell upon men of a broken Age or strength especially those who were before obnoxious to cephalic distempers as the Lethargie Appoplexie or Convulsion it oftentimes kill'd them in a short space but if there was any hope of recovering it could be but slowly procured all Remedies whatsoever scarce bringing any sensible help so that the sick did no sooner come out of the sphear of this disease than they fell into the confines of a Consumption The reason of them If the formal reason and courses of this aforesaid sickness be demanded it here easily appears the watering Liquor of the brain and nervous stock for the most part both together with the blood to be in fault and the immediate cause especially of the troublesome Symptoms to wit forasmuch as this water presently after the first assault of the disease was grown more poor then usuall and as it were lifeless therefore a Languishing and enervation with a spontaneous weariness and impotency to motion hapned in the whole body and with a sudden wasting of the body in the sick Further forasmuch as the same Liquor was stuffed with heterogeneous particles viz. partly narcotick partly explosive therefore a numbness a sense of pricking leapings up of the tendons and muscles and contractures also the Virtego giddinesse and other more grievous Cephalick distempers did arise Moreover forasmuch as by reason of the evil of the nervous juice being not quickly or hardly to be mended the cure or healing of the disease became so hard and lingring But for that the fault of this Latex necessarily depended on the discrasie or evill disposition of the blood also of the depraved constitution of the brain what their morbid dispositions were and by what means they brought forth the beginning or tinder of the Symptom of the feavour but now described let us now see As to the former it seems that at this season by reason of the hot and humi'd constitution of the year and no blast from the north the little bodies of which imbue the blood and juices of our body as it were with a nitrous seasoning and by agitating them defend them against putrefaction the blood in most men and chiefly in children youths and women became like standing-water that so contracts a setling very impure stuff't with heterogeneous particles and turning to a clammyness and watrishness in which the more pure spirit and sulphur being somewhat depress'd the watery particles being carried forth with the impure salt and sulphur were too much exalted Wherefore the blood both by reason of its Crisis or constitution being vitiated also by reason of heterogeneous particles being heaped up more plentifully in its bosome was made more fit either of its own accord or occasionally or because of the contagion to receive a feavourish Effervescency so that from thence very many fell at this time into feavours But the blood growing hot from the feavourish taint being received did not presently burn with an open flame but like green wood laid on the fire with a flame as it were suppressed and much incumbred with smoke Wherefore the morbific matter being heaped within its mass was not wont as in a regular feavour to be consumed by the burning and its reliques at the set time to be exterminated by the Crisis but yet a little after the beginning of the feavour a great portion of this matter being powred into the head at Thorax or into both at once and afterwards being continually supplied in those parts it induced either the aforesaid distempers of the brain and nervous stock or a cough with a consumptive disposition or both together and for this reason about the beginning of this disease when a pulse quicker than it ought to be and a high colour'd urine and full of contents did show the blood to grow hot with a feavourish distemper the sick did not complain of heat or thirst because the blood growing hot did lay up its impurities and recrements forthwith into the provision of the nervous Liquor or into the Lungs wherefore within these receptacles the Symptoms presently became worse but afterwards the disease growing on a somewhat sharp heat with scurfness of the tongue was wont to be troublesome to some yea in all a slow and as it were hectick feavour continued throughout which neither by sweat nor by insensible transpiration could be so wholly removed but that it was daily renued chiefly after eating tho never so small which thing truly seem'd to happen because the nervous juice being full of the feculencies brought from the blood did not afterwards receive them in so great plenty but that these recrements together with the nutritious humour and for that this was not consumed by nourishing the solid particles remaining within the bloody mass caused it then to grow feavourishly hot 2ly Besides this morbid disposition of
same disease did fall upon our Countrey men here and there also at other times for that of late in this City all the younger people of a certain family were sick of it yea I remember that some time past very many laboured with such a feavour Out of the many histories and examples of sick people which it rendred when it was epidemical I will here propose one or two A strong and lively young man about the beginning of the spring 1661 falling Observation 1 sick without any evident cause without any great heat or thirst he became suddenly weak and as if enervated with a dejected appetite and languor of spirits Cathartick Remedies Antipyretics or allaying of heat digestives and also antiscorbuticks and others of various kindes administred by the prescriptions of the most famous Physitians availed nothing But notwithstanding the sick man hitherto languishing with a slow and wandring feavour with a quick and feeble pulse a deep-colour'd urine had kept his bed a fortnight besides being reduced to the greatest leanness he complained of a giddiness and as it were the fluctuation of a sound in his head and a tingling noyse in his ears Altho he was troubled with a great stupor yet his sleeps were mightily troubled and broken with delirious fables After four days when the feavour was not yet declined it was thought good to take away four or five ounces of blood by Leeches from the sedal veins from hence the feavour began to be much exasperated for a great intense heat with thirst watchings and almost continual tossing of the body also the tongue dry and scurfy appeared then quickly a troublesome cough with abundance of discoloured spittle followed to him were administred almond and barly-drinks with temperate bechicks or things to stop coughing boyled in them water of milk distill'd with snails and pectoral herbs the shelly-powders prepared nitre and often Cordial opiats which notwithstanding scarce giving any help the sick man still became more weak when in this manner being sick above two months space the feavourish distemperature and cough also dayly growing worse he seemed near death at length a voluntary sweating arising so that every night or every other night he sweat abundantly and from thence finding himself better using then the aforesaid Remedies he grew well within six weeks Till I had seen many sick people after the same manner I suspected this disease to be alltogether an hectick feavour with a consumptive disposition of the Lungs but when I saw many others at that time fall sick ordinarily after the like manner I easily instituted the Aetiologie or national account of this feavour such as I have already described to wit that the blood because of the intemperature of the year and perhaps from errors in dyet The reason of it had contracted a vitious procatarxis or remote cause Then it growing feavourishly hot and presently carrying its impurities to the brain and so depraving the juice watering it and the nervous stock induced the vertiginous distempers with a stupor a languishing of spirits and an atrophy of the whole body but so long as the blood did transfer its recrements from its own bosom into the brain and nervous appendix the feavourish heat continued more gentle and milde But afterwards when the tending downwards of the morbific matter by the opening of the hemorhoid veins was drawn away from the brain the same being first retained within the bloody mass increased the feavour then being poured on the Lungs excited the cruel cough with plentifull spittle but forasmuch as the flesh of the Lungs remained free from putrefaction as soon as the serous water was sent away by a more plentifull sweating the sick man became free both from the feavour and phthisis or Consumption that seemed so deplorable Observation 2 In the mean time whilst he lay sick I visited another about 12. years of age after the like manner affected But this when I was firâ—t sent for having been sick above a month was reduced to the leanness of a Skelliton besides he was troubled with a vertigo with a noise in his ears and deafness and also with a violent cough with yellow and as it were consumptive spittle his pulse was quick and feeble his urine red and thick his appetite much dejected his spirits so languid and his strength so cast down that he could not keep out of his bed I gave this youth to drink often in a day water distill'd from milk with snails and temperate herbs besides I ordered him an open decoction such as is in use for the Rickets to be daily taken instead of his ordinary drink by the help of which Remedies he was restored to his health in a months space At this time I was sent for to many other people of every age and sex distemper'd by the same disease now clearly Epidemical for it running thorow whole families not only in this City and the neighbouring parts but in the Countries at a great distance as I heard from Physitians dwelling in other places increased very much Those for the most part labouring with this feavour so be they were otherwise whole grew well by the fit use and order of medicine and dyet but it hapned very often but ill to those who were indued with a weakly constitution of brain and nervous stock or broken with age but not seldom the case of the sick became dangerous because the Physitians were not wont to be sent for presently after the beginning of the disease yea scarcely before it had more deeply spread abroad its roots and the opportunity of healing was past Observation 3 For that reason this feavour became very deadly in the family of a certain Noble man among his children originally obnoxious to Cephalic distempers About the vernal Aequinox a Boy of about eleven years of Age began to be sick At first without any vehement heat or thirst a dejection of appetite and want of strength came upon him Besides an almost continual giddiness did trouble him with a frequent danger of fainting that he often thought he was just dying By the advice of a certain woman attending him they dayly gave him Clisters then when from the foulness of the mouth and Tongue manifest signes of a Feavour appeared this Emperick on the fifth day gave him a vomit of the Infusion of Crocus metallorum and on the seaventh day a Cordial powder being administred she incited the sick youth covered with blankets to sweat his skin hardly began to be moist but presently he began to talk idly complained that his Cap was fallen into the water by and by becoming speechless within four hours whilst I was sent for he expir'd before I came Observation 4 A little while after the same disease fell upon his yonger Sister whose sickness however because it was accompanied with a frequent and humid Cough was thought at first to be only a taking of Cold but within a few days this Cough became plainly Convulsive so that
feavour a phrensie or madness should come remedies appropriate to those distempers are made use of 2dly But if either with or without this sort of displeasure In the Cough brought to the head the Lungs also have taken the evill of this disease so that the sick not yet free from the feavour seem to fall into a waisting or Consumption with a troublesome cough with abundance of thick and often discoloured spittle Medicines commonly prescribed for such kinde of Distempers are convenient enough wherefore pectoral Decoctions Electuaries syrrops distill'd waters of milk and snails and other remedies of the like nature ought diligently to be made use of the forms of which may be found in the before-described Cases Thus far we have described the continual feavour for the most part convulsive and arising no less from the fault of the nervous juice then of the blood I will here further propose an example of a disease having the likeness of an intermitting feavour but radicated chiefly in the nervous juice the nature of which kinde of distemper for that it is very rare and truly pertinent to our convulsive Pathologie will appear from the following history A noted Woman very young A very rare Observation and indued with a more weak constitution of brain and nervous stock and for that cause very obnoxious to convulsive distempers after she had conceived with child about the fourth month of her being big from cold being taken she was grievously afflicted with Astmatical fits and besides with a frequent sinking down of her spirits but by the use of remedies indued with a volatile salt she grew well within a fortnights space but after that about 14. days an unwonted and truly admirable distemper fell upon this Gentlewoman One morning awaking after an unquiet sleep that night she felt a light shivering in all her body as if she had had the fit of an Ague frequent yaunings and reatchings with an endeavour to vomit followed thereupon then her urine which was but now of a citron colour and of a laudable substance became pale and waterish and was rendred at every turn to wit almost every minute of an hour moreover about her loins and hypochondria and in other places pains with light Convulsions running about here and there were excited which kinde of symptoms plainly convulsive with her frequent making of a lympid urine continued in the Morning allmost to Evening in which space of time a great quantity of water at least three times more then the liquor she had taken was rendred in the mean time neither was the heat great nor did thirst trouble her nor was her pulse encreased In the evening the aforesaid distempers ceased and her urine became citron colour and moderate and besides all night she enjoy'd a moderate sleep then the morning following about the same hour the fit returned accompanied altogether with the like symtoms and so dayly acted the same Tragedy The reason of it Visiting this Gentlewoman after she had been sick in this manner for 12. days I framed the Aetiologie of the aforesaid case to wit that this disease chiefly radical in the nervous stock did depend upon the effervescency and flux of the humour watering the nervous parts For it might be suspected that this water being diffused from the blood made degenerate by reason of the suppression of her Terms upon the brain and nervous stock became more sharp and serous than it ought to be and for that cause incongruous to the containing parts wherefore being gathered together to a plenitude by the nights sleep it did stir them up or provoke them for the expulsion of it every where into wrinklings and contractions hence shiverings yaunings streachings and wandring pains were excited in the whole body Furthermore from the sollid parts after this manner contracted and shaken not only the nervous Liquor but also the nutricious every where laid up in the sollid parts but not truly assimilated were shaken off and then either Latex being exterminated from its receptacles and received by the veins or Lymphaducts or water-carrying vessells was render'd to the Mass of blood from whose bosome before it had acquired a lixiviall tincture from it being at last cast forth by the reins constituted a clear and Copious urine But that this distemper observed such exact periods the reason is because the nervous water being supplyed with an equall dimension did arise to a fulness of running over dayly at the set time Therefore also the urine appeared concocted and yellow before and after the fit because then its matter consisted only from the serum of the blood Afterwards during the convulsive fit the limpid humour being shaken off from the solid and nervous parts and passing quickly thorow the blood adulterated the colour and the quantity of the urine I prescribed to this big-bellied woman Phlebotomie and besides a powder composed out of Corall pearls ivory and other Cardiacks to be taken thrice in a day in a proper Liquor morning and evening she took of the tincture of Antimony 12. drops whose singular effect in the too great flux of urine I have many times experienced By the use of these all the symptoms ceased in a short time CHAPTER IX Of Vniversal Convulsions which are wont to be excited because of the Scorbutic disposition of the Nervous juice Vniversal Convulsions by reason of the Scorbutic disposition of the nervous juice THus much concerning universal Convulsions diffused thorow the whole nervous kinde which come upon feavours and especially concerning the Convulsions which are wont to be excited in the commonly called malignant hectick Feaevour There yet remains which was proposed in the third place for us to shew by what means and from what causes universal Convulsions are induced without poyson or feavourish infection by reason of the scorbutick or otherwise vitious dyscrasie or evill disposition of the nervots juice For indeed the Liquor watering both the nerves and the nervous parts sometimes disceding from its naturall disposition is so much stuff'd with heterogeneous and explosive particles that the animal spirits admitting an incongruous Copula every where growing to themselves are irritated into continuall as it were cracklings or convulsive explosions These kinde of Affections of the spirits Two kindes of these viz. Separate and Connex or joyned together are either divided or separated between which no Communication or dependency intercedes viz. When many parts of the body are troubled at once with so many Convulsions proper to themselves which do not come successively one from another but are terminated in the same muscle or member where they begin After which manner I have known some sick people who have had their muscles and tendons all at once in their whole body perpetually to leap forth with so many distinct Convulsions Or Secondly the Convulsive Distempers which are excited in the whole nervous kinde together are continued or connex which succeed one another with a certain perpetual vicissitude continued
then when the evident causes daily fixing the infection more on the bloud and humours did happen upon this remote hereditary cause for there were many chances and unfortunate accidents which continually brought sadness and melancholly upon this Gentleman indeed therefore the nervous Liquor being imbued above measure with a fixed and Scorbutic salt became highly sharp and irritative like aqua fortis or the Stagma's of Vitriol and so continually incited the Spirits and the bodys containing them into Corrugations and contractions just as the aforesaid Liquors when poured upon worms do the same thing Why this Distemper grew worse by the use of the Baths But that this disease leasurly at first increasing was quickly brought into a much worse condition by the use of the hot Bathes the reason easily appears It is known by experience that the hot Bathes do very much exalt and quickly bring to the hight the Sulphureous-saline particles in the humane body and otherwise morbid which abound in the Bowells and humours viz. do render them more fierce by agitating them throughly and force them from their first passages into the blood and from thence into the Brain and nervous stock yea and joyn together those that were before seperate and idle and incite them into a certain fermentation wherefore those who are hereditarily obnoxious to the Gout or Stone and have not as yet suffer'd any fits of those distempers very often feel the fruit of either disease in themselves to grow ripe soon by the use of the Bathes When therefore in this sick person both the blood and Liquor watering the Brain and nerves were imbued both with narcotick or stupifying and convulsive particles and also when they did degenerate from their sweet and balsamy Disposition that towards a saltish and this into a sour Ciaemul of a Stagma of Vitriol the use of the hot minerall waters was so far from bringing help that on the contrary these evills for that very cause presently grew all very much worse and the Disease proceeding from the humors being so depraved as to their temper and mixture could never be cured by any medicines no easier than vinegar may be reduced into wine When this Gentlemans body being at last dead of the Phthisis or Consumption was opened by me we could finde but very few foot-steps of these kinde of most grievous Symptoms Hence as it appear'd the Palsie and Convulsion did not depend so much on a thick and copious matter heaped together somewhere in mines as of an evill affection of the animal Spirits who are subtle and Invisible I will lay forth what was worthy taking notice of in the anatomy of this person Things worthy to be noted in the body being dissected The Abdomen being opened the Caule as is wont to be in most who dye of a Consumption and other Chronical Diseases was putrified and almost consumed In the mean time the Ventricle Intestines Pancreas and Mesentery were well enough to wit the membranes were firm well coulour'd and free from any ulcer or hard swelling There grew to the greater Intestines certain excrescencies like to the ears of a mouse for that there were very many of these kinde of things out of either side of the Colon and right intestine they shewed like twins at certain distances like the branches of Trees The like I formerly found in a Consumptive person The Reason of this seems to be that the nourishment in Consumptive people though it be deficient about the more solid and outward parts yet sometimes within neer the fountains of the nourishing juice performs more than it ought and for that cause superfluous and unnaturall additions grow forth The milt or Spleen which always is thought ill of and of most Physitians condemned for being the Principal cause of the Scurvy and of all other distempers appear altogether blameless and free from any fault For as in most sound people we observed it was of a darkish Colour soft and of an equal superficies free from any obstruction or swelling indued with vessells and fibres distinct and firm enough out of its substance flowed black biood when it was cut The Liver which indeed might be wondred at was indifferently well neither was it from so long and grievous a sickness become harder then usuall or scirrhous or planted with little whelks but it was somewhat big and of a darkish colour The Kidnys though free from any ulcer or gravell were not however free from fault for in the middle of the right Kidney was seen a great cavity distinct from the Tunell and much greater then it full of clear water the like I have very often found in hydropical people But indeed this perhaps arose from the serum deposited in that kidny that could not easily be strained thorow its passages and pores for that the serum subsisting therein had in the beginning made for it self a little den which afterwards by degres was inlarged and when for this Reason the secretion of the serum and its passing forth by the ureter were something hindred its Latex restagnating into the blood brought in the grievous trouble to the head which indeed was the rather to be suspected because also the left Kidny being mightily extenuated and consumed contained many Cisterns and Cavities full of clear water The Lungs growing on every side to the Sternum or part of the breast where the ribs meet sides and Diaphragma seem'd without any distinction of Lobes of one substance only of putrid spongy flesh staâ—fed throughout with a frothy or ichorous matter without doubt the sick man had not contracted this evill so long before to wit when he was not able to perform any exercise of the Body nor stay in bed that it might breathe out any thing more freely the faeculencies and recrements of the blood which were wont to evaporate thorow the skin being layd up in the Lungs were the cause that they grew together among themselves and with other parts and did vitiate their tone and conformation wholly so that a Consumption being at last arisen was the effect and product and not the cause of the rest of the distempers wherewith he had bin a long while miserably afflicted In either ventricle of the heart blood was concreted into a solid whitish substance and bak'd like flesh which being formed neer the Cavities and processes of the vessells of the Heart resembled the figure of a Serpent with a manifold divided tail than which indeed nothing is more usual in many dead People after long sickness The reason of which is that the Blood being without life from long sickness and from thence circulated slowly about the Praecordia begins to stand or stagnate in the heart and depending vessells and by that means is congealed leasurely into this kinde of fleshy Concrete When the Skull was opened we sought among its contents the chief Cause of the Disease The first thing that occurr'd was the bulk of the brain was less than it should be
the diseaâ—e suâ—… either nephâ—… begâ—…ings of the Nerves As to the morbific matter or explosive Copula which cleaving to the spirits flowing within the head and with them derived into the nervous passages is often the cause of the distempers commonly termed of the Womb we say that this as in other kinds of Convulsions is the heterogeneous particles poured forth from the blood which yet are wont to be affixed to the spirits flowing into the beginnings of the nerves cheifly for two causes to wit either by the fault of the spirits themselves or by the force of the matter it self instances of either kinde are ordinarily met with It sometimes happens that the animal spirits planted within the brain and in the passage leading from it to the praecordia are very much disturbed by a sudden passion as of fear anger sadness c. And forced into disorders and that by that means they being driven out of their orders do acquire to themselves heterogeneous particles whereever met with and combine with these that by and by for that reason they acquire an explosive disposition as we have already declared Further in the second place sometimes the morbific matter it self being made more fierce and strong in spite of the succour of the animal Aeconomie or rule is poured forth into the brain and its appendix from the bloody mass which cleaving fast to the spirits presently disposes them into explosions This is ordinarily discerned in the evil crises of feavours also in some malignant distempers also in Scorbutic and other Chronical diseases ill cured An ill or weak constitution of the brain or nervous stock whether it be hereditarie or acquired by reason of an ill manner of living very much cherishes these causes For in bodies so disposed both the animal spirits from every light occasion are moved in Confusion and the passages of the brain and nervous System more easily lye open for the running in of the heterogeneous and explosive matter In truth for this reason women are more obnoxious to convulsive distempers than men and some women then others as we will shew more largely hereafter But altho these kinde of passions of women called hysterical most often proceed from the fault of the head or from the morbific cause arising within the Encephalon yet sometimes such distempers are stirred up Or near the womb or other Inwards by reason of a Cause beginning somewhere else viz. Now in the womb now in the other Bowells and of this Convulsive Pathologie there are chiefly two heads viz. 1st Sometimes it happens that a Tumour or an ulcer This last happens after a twofold manner or a congestion of sharp humours arises in the membranous parts about the womb or planted about the other Viscera and often irritates the parts so distemper'd by reason of the breaking of the union into painfull Convulsions then forasmuch as the animal spirits placed round about and those inflowing Either by reason of the dissolution of the union are moved into frequent disorders they at length getting to themseves heterogeneous particles sent either from the distemper'd part or from some other place are disposed to convulsive assaults and when first of all the convulsive motions happen only in the neighbourhood of the affected place to wit that the bulk ascending in the lower part of the belly or its swelling up be only perceived afterwards they are propagated by the passage of the nervous bodies and by the consent of the convulsion there begun leasurely into the other viscera of the lower belly then to the praecordia and lastly into the head it self and the distemper being thus by little and little delated to the spirits inhabiting the brain they moreover having gotten in their proper Sphear an heterogeneous Copula retort the same back to the viscera and so the morbific cause being made reciprocall is begun at either end of the nervous Trunk Some time past I have seen a noble virgin in whom a small Tumour arising with most cruel pain below the Os pubis did stir up huge Convulsions first in the lower belly and afterwards ascending to the Praecordia and head were at length stretch'd to the outward members for once or twice in a day after that great pains did torment her in the affected part the abdomen and by and by the hypochondria were wont to be lifted up then difficulty of breathing on an Insensibility succeeded and presently the distemper being brought outwardly most horrid Convulsions and Contractions of the members and Limbs followed Sometimes it also happens that convulsive symptoms are induced in Child-bearing women by reason of some hurt or evill brought to the womb Harvie Relates that wonderfull convulsions were caused by the injection of some sharp thing into the womb So sometimes tho rarely it happens that a morbific matter or explosive Copula is fixed to the spirits dwelling about the extremities of the nerves and near the womb immediately from the place there affected and without fault of the brain There yet remains another case or manner of affecting 2. Or by reason of an obstruction of the Nervous juice by which the convulsive disposition is produced from the fault or the parts lodg'd at a great distance from the brain tho in the mean time the taint which is the cause of this distemper is often mediately communicated to the brain it self to wit when at any time the nervous juice is hindred somewhere in its motion or circulation from thence stagnating in the nervous parts and loading them does often bring in a convulsive disposition So when some usual Evacuation whereby the superfluities of the nervous Liquor were wont to be sifted forth is stopp'd as from Issues suddenly shut up or old ulcers dryed up without a purge many fall into convulsive distempers Yea it may obtain here some place what is wont commonly to be noted for a cause of the hysterical passions in maids and widdows to wit the untimely restraint of the seminall humour which ought to be bestowed about the pleasure of Venus at least if they receive help from the state of a conjugal Life it therefore happens because the restagnations of the nervous humour which often fix a taint to the brain and nervous stock by this means are prevented Moreover the nervous juice flows back towards its beginning because its passage is somewhere shut up by a swelling or cancrous Tumour Lastly in this City a notable instance of this kinde of distemper hapned viz. A certain maid of 12. years of age had contracted an hernia or burstness hence by the order of her Mother she wore a truss ill fitted for a fortnight not without great pain and torment a little hard knot much pressing upon the glandulas of the Groin within this space when before she was perfectly well she began to complain of a giddiness and heavy dulness of her head and so a little after she felt convulsive and as it were hysterical distempers
Glandulas on either side of the bottom of it which are called the testicles appeared very small and flaggy without any superfluous or virulent humour contained in them the body of the womb whereever it was dissected equal'd a thumbs breadth in thickness its inward Cavity was no bigger than what would hold a bean within this hollowness as use to be in the Caverns of other Inwards was included a mucous or dreggy matter in a very small quantity but in truth about the womb or its appendix there was nothing to which might be imputed as a morbific cause of the symptoms but now described from whence therefore it may be demonstratively concluded as I at first thought that the passions termed from the womb hysterical are most often excited from some other cause than the fault of the womb The Intestines being removed we found also the reins sound enough but one of them was of an unusual figure viz. It was cleft into many lobes like the Kidney of a Calf The Milt Pancreas and Caul without fault the ventricle was much blown up and its inward Coat was plain without folds or wrincles which certainly hapned by reason of its frequent Vomiting this Inward being almost continually troubled with Convulsions Besides for this reason the tone of the stomach being broken it did neither rightly desire or concoct the food or aliment The Liver very much differ'd from a sound constitution for it was tumid and somewhat hard of a pail colour like rotten wood wholly dry and without blood and this without doubt the frequent use of Cordiall and highly hot liquors had effected The Lungs were of a blewish colour and every where obstructed and stuff'd with a stinking and frothy matter Certainly this Inward and the Liver had been vitiated of a long time wherefore as the blood being degenerate and very much depraved of a long time from its right temper had yielded the first seeds of this sickness so also it afforded a constant cherishment of it But indeed we sought and that not in vain for the chief and as it were originall cause of the disease in the head therefore the skull being taken off the vessells of the Meningae and those creeping about the brain appeared full and distended with blood when in the rest of the body scarce any blood had flowed forth in the cutting of it the thicker meninge being removed thorow the other thin and pellucid one was discerned a clear water filling the enfoldings and crevices of the brain and as it were overflowing its whole substance In truth the serous heap of waters had filled full all the Cavities and inward places of the brain the enfoldings of the choroides or net-like membranes of the brain being a long while immersed in water and as it were boyled were become discolour'd and half rotten nigh to the beginning of the Splanchnick nerves or belonging to the Spleen the water insinuating it self very much had separated the pia mater from the trunk of the oblong marrow or pith for two fingers breadth without doubt the morbific matter descending from the head by the passage of these nerves into the enfolding of the mesentery was the cause of the pains and Convulsions Further the same matter also afflicting the heads of other nerves and paffing thorow their pipes produced afterwards these most cruel distempers in other parts to wit almost every where of the whole body As to the Cure or means of healing used in the passions commonly called Hysterical forasmuch as the symptoms of this disease are very much convulsive The Method of Curlng the hysterical distempers therefore it is fit that anti-spasmodic or anti-convulsive Remedies such as were before described should be chiefly indicated but when these distempers most often happen to the female sex in whom for the most part the menstrual flux and other accidents of the womb do challenge a part in the morbific cause therefore medicines respecting the various dispositions of the womb are to be added to the former and many ways to be compounded with them The Therapeutic or Curatory Indications are either Curatory to be administer'd in the fit or preservatory which are instituted out of the fit that take away the cause of the disease and prevent its comings or accessions 1. As to the first if the fit is wont to be light and without other perturbation of the spirits it may be permitted to pass away of it self Curatory but if it being more heavily troublesome there will be need to bring some help to nature much oppressed this only thing is to be done that the spirits being freed from the Embraces of an heterogeneous Copula they may remit their inordinations and explosions for this purpose it is grown into use to put to the nose stinking and ill smelling things the scents of which compell and repress the too fierce spirits ready to leap forth into their orders and also shake off from them the heterogeneous Copula and often drive it quite away Asafaetida Castor Galbanum being put into fine Linnen and applyed to the nostrills are convenient also burning of Partridg feathers old skins and sulphur Besides the spirits and oyl of sut or of Harts-horn do not seldome help yet I have known these kinde of fumigations being very troublesome to some women to increase the fit it is probable that the same sometimes may too much irritate the spirits and drive them into greater disorders and as stinking things put to the nose so the like poured into the mouth do often bring help wherefore we give often with good success to hysterical people Tinctures of Castor Solutions of Assafaetida and Galbanum spirits of Harts-horn and Sut with proper waters Take of the spirits of Harts-horn from 12. to 15. and 20. drops let them be taken in a little draught of the following Julap Take of the waters of penny Royall and mugwort each ℥ iii. of the water of Briony compound ℥ ii of Castor tyed in a knot and hung in the glass ʒ ss of the whitest sugar ℥ i. mix them Take of the Tincture of Castor ℈ i. to ʒ ss let it be taken ia a little draught of small beer Take of Assafaetida and Galbanumʒ ii let it be dissolved in spirit of wine to the extraction of a red tincture The dose ℈ i. in two or three spoonfulls of featherfew water Riverius very much crys up that of Solenander Take of musk and of dragons-blood each ℈ i. take more or less of it in water of Lillies of the Valley ℥ iii. or iiii John Anglicus commends parsnip-seeds or the seeds of Penny-royal in wine or other proper Liquor as a most certain Remedy If the fit persisting a long time should cause want of speech or motion the more sharp Clysters as of bryony-Roots and Carminatives boyled in water are to be administred and frictions of the thighs and feet are to be order'd and if they shall yet grow stronger Cupping-glasses are to be applied to
the side of the groin is wont to give a suspition of another child or the secondine or afterbirth to be left behinde or also of some hard swelling tumor there increasing but afterwards when the menstruum coming plentifully away the womb is reduced to its due magnitude that tumor by degrees vanishes but while it there remaineth unless for that reason the Lochia or menstrua were stopp'd it doth not produce the hysterical passions For the reducing of this part the sooner into its due position fomentations Liniments and Plaisters are convenient But most times that Symptom passes over of it self without any further harm To what other distempers the womb is obnoxious in child-bearing and by what method to be helped we have fully shown in another place As to the other vices of that part which happen to some women not bearing children we declare that they chiefly are either a disease of the womb made by the breaking of the unity viz. which is either some ulcer or Tumor or an inhibition of some wonted excretion or putting forth to wit a suppression either of the menstruous blood or the whites or the seminal humour Moreover because of the menstrua being retained the heterogeneous particles being often poured forth into the head bring in the Convulsive passions in like manner when the whites are stopped the excrementitious matter being supped up by the blood is deliver'd to the brain and nervous stock yea when an usual evacuation of the seed is hindred the superfluities of the nervous humour flow back upon the brain and infect its indwelling Spirits with an explosive and morbific tincture There is no need here to discourse more largely or particularly of those Peculiar distempers of the womb but to compound medicines and intricate administrations proper for womens diseases with anticonvulsive Remedies CHAPTER XI Of the Distempers commonly called Hypochondriack which is shown to be for the most part Convulsive briefly also of Chalybeats or Steel-Medicines IN the foregoing Chapters we have clearly shown that the Passions called hysterical do not allways proceed from the womb yea more often from the head being distemper'd next we shall inquire concerning the hypochondriacal Distempers of what original and nature they are and upon the fault of what parts they chiefly depend The vulgar opinion is that the symptoms wont to accompany this disease are wholly produced from the spleen wherefore they are ascribed very much to vapours arising from this inward and variously running up and down here and there when in truth these sicknesses for the most part are convulsions and contractions of the nervous parts but that it might appear by what causes they are wont to be excited we ought to consider first the Symptoms themselves and to place them into some order or rank A description of the hypochâ—ndriaca Affections As to the Distempers therefore which are vulgarly termed hypochondriac it is observable that they happen chiefly to men of a melancholly temperament with a dark aspect and more lean habit of body it is rarely that this disease troubles fair people with a fresh Countenance or also those indued with a too Phlegmatic complection It betrays it self in manifest fignes about the hight or midest of their Age men are found to be more frequently obnoxious to this than women being made habitual in either it is very hardly or not at all to be cured in women by reason of their weaker Constitution it is accompanied with a great many more Convulsive Distmpers wherefore Commonly it is said in this Sex the hysterical to be joyned with the hypochondriacal Passion The Symptoms which are imputed to this Disease are commonly very manifold and are of a divers nature neither do they observe in all the like beginning or the same mutual dependency among themselves for they seem in these most to affect the Inwards of the lower belly in those the Praecordia in others the Confines of the Brain and in most though not in all the ventricle labours much concerning the appetite it is often too much but presently burthened with what it hath taken in and when the food staying longer in it by reason of slowness of Concoction their Saline particles being carried forth into a flux pervert the whole mass of the Chyle into a pulse or pottage now Sour or austere now salt or sharp from hence pains of the heart great breakings forth of blasts rumbling of winde and often vomiting succeed and because of a pneumatick defect or of Spirits the Chyme or juice is not wholly made volatile and carried forth of doors but that the ballast of the Viscous or Slimy matter sticking to the coats of the ventricle is left behinde an almost continual Spitting infests them a distention in the hypochondrium and often there and under the ventricle a cruell pulsation is felt also there pains ordinarily arise which run about here and there and for many hours miserably torment with a certain lancing In the mean time from the Contractures of the Membranes and from the fluctuation of winds stirred up by that means rumbling and murmurs are produced Also in the Thorax oftentimes there is a great constriction and straitness that the respiration becomes difficult and troublesome upon any motion also most grievous asthmatical fits fall upon some moreover the sick are wont to complain of a trembling and palpitation of the heart with a noted oppression of the same also a sinking down or melting away of the Spirits and frequent fear of a trance comes upon them that the sick think Death is always seising them In this Region about the membranes and chiefly the mediastinum or that divides the middle of the belly an accute pain which is now Circumscrib'd to one part now extended to the shoulders is a familiar Symptom of this Disease But indeed in the head an Iliad of evills doth for the most part disturb hypochondriacal people to wit most cruell pains returning at set times do arise also the swimming of the head and frequent Vertigoes long watchings a Sea and most troublesome fluctuation of thoughts an uncertainty of minde a disturbed fancy a fear and suspition of every thing an imaginary possession of diseases from which they are free also very many other distractions of Spirits yea sometimes Melancholly and madness accompany this sickness besides these interior Regions of the Body beseiged by this Disease wandring pains also Convulsions and numbness with a sense of pricking invade almost all the outward parts nightly Sweats flushings of the Blood in the face and the palms of the hands eratick feavours and many other Symptoms of an uncertain original do every where arise concerning which forasmuch as the genuine Causes and the manner of their coming to pass could not be readily determined presently all the fault is cast upon the Spleen and Physitians accuse that as if it were the chief author of every irregular Distemper but by what right or authority by and by shall be sought into In
neerest means of the passage whereby these parts Communicate one with the other and mutually affect themselves For it seems that when the black bile or melanchollic tumor in the Spleen grows turgid or swells up of its own accord or is moved by some evident cause its particles enter the nervous fibres thickly distributed to the same which disturb the animal Spirits flowing in them into explosions or at least into some disorder then the Spirits being so distrubed infect those next to them and they others till by their continued series the passion begun within the Spleen is propagated even to the brain and there produces inordinate Phantasms such as happen to hypochondriacks also on the other side when a grievous distemper of the minde occasionally excited within the brain doth disturb the Spirits inhabiting it the impression being carried to the Phantasie by the series of the Spirits planted within the nerves of the wandring pair and the Intercostals and successive affection it is brought even to the Spleen hence its ferment being put more into commotion stirs up Convulsions both in that Inward and in the whole neighbourhood of fibres and membranes and besides forces the blood into ebbings and flowings and into various aestuations or vehement motions yea and reflects the perturbations of the Spirits upon the brain From this kinde of reciprocal affection of the brain and Spleen it comes to pass that hypochondriacks are so unquiet unstable and fluctuating at every thing that 's proposed as if according to the Poet Ten mindes strove in them at once A certain noble Gentleman of a melanchollic temper and always accounted Observation 1 for a Splenetic man very much complained of a pain and inflation of his left hypochondrium with a frequent rumbling noyse and sour belching a so of a trembling of the heart of an assiduous vertigo too much waking and a disturbed phansie About the 35th year of his age the disease growing worse he began hardly to sleep and yet more rarely to get it at night and to be molested in the day time with a world of fluctuating thoughts to have in suspition all things and persons and greatly to be afraid of every object his Praecordia seemed to be very much bound and straitened and to sink down to the bottom as if the heart it self were depressed even into the belly which Symptom troubling him he became very sad and dejected in minde yet afterwards those distempers of the minde remitting he felt with it his heart to be a little lifted up and also his Praecordia to be loosened and stretch'd forth besides he very often sustained pains and Contractions variously excited about the muscles of the Viscera and Members and running up and down here and there As to the nature of the disease it is plain that it is this kinde of Distemper which is commonly called hypochondriacall but as to what respects the Causes of these to be admired Symptoms we may suppose the mass of blood being degenerate and stuffed with melanchollic or atrabilarie faeculencies to administer or continually to suggest its adust recrements to the head from whence the Liquor watering the brain and nerves being made sharp and improportionate to the Spirits did stir up the containing Bodies into painfull Corrugations or wrinklings and Contractures Further when this Infection is chiefly derived from the head into the Nerves of the wandring pair and the intercostall the brain and the Praecordia are very much punished by the malady from thence raised up But that the Blood is depraved by that means it seems to be imputed to the vice of the Spleen forasmuch as this Inward being amiss it did not rightly strain forth the atrabilarie dreggs from the blood but rather did more pervert whatsoever recrements it received from it and the same being exalted into an hurtfull ferment sent it back to the blood and so very much infected its mass and imbued it with a plainly acetous and vitriolick evill Disposition It is plain to be understood that those symptoms troubling the Head viz. too much waking the vertigo a disturbed phantasie with many others did proceed from the heterogeneous particles poured forth from the Blood into the brain As to that straitness of the Breast and falling down of the heart with great fear and sadness it may be thought that the nervous fibres inserted to the heart and chiefly to the Pericordium being moved into Convulsions and wrinklings do binde hard those parts and pull them downwards wherefore there is perceived in the whole breast as it were a certain constriction and the heart it self seems to be depressed Further forasmuch the Praecordia being so streitened and depressed the blood within the bosom of the heart is stop'd and compell'd as it were to stagnate both the vital and the sensitive Soul is much hindred from its wonted expansion and irradiation and for that Cause being lessened and shortened in its constitution those Cruell distempers of fear and sadness arise but when the Convulsions remitting that constriction of the heart and its appendix is released the Soul also as a flame more expansed or enlarged endeavours by little and little to shake off the Chains of those Passions For the Cure of these Distempers he had for a long time tried very many remedies and medical Administrations but without much benifit at last he was somewhat eased by the use of Spaw-waters and from thence by degrees finding himself better he became free from those grievous Symptoms however he still liv'd obnoxious to the hypochondriac Distemper Observation 2 A Certain young Academic originally of a Sanguine temper fair of a florishing Countenance excellent disposition and mild by reason of immoderate and untimely Studies in the mean time exercise and good order of dyet being wholly neglected had contracted an obstruction of the Spleen or some other morbid distemper of that Inward For he had almost continually infesting him an inflation and tumor of the left hypochondrium with a most heavy Pain After he had laboured with this sort of Distemper about half a year he began to complain of a frequent giddiness a blindness of his eyes an unquietness of his minde and of disturbed sleeps Which Symptoms were then plainly imputed to vapours arising from the Spleen but after that followed a trembling of the heart with a frequent deliquium of the Spirits a pulsation of the hypochondrium and at length pains and Contractions in the outward members with a frequent stupor and a sense of pricking running up and down here and there and last of all being broken with a world of evills contrary to his genius and native Disposition he became greatly hypochondriacall That I may dispatch the Pathologie of this Case in a word it appears here plain enough that the Spleen was first of all in fault by whose fault when the bloody mass was depraved the taint creeping from thence into the humour watring the brain and nervous stock and infecting it did induce the
where there is a predominancy of adust Sulphur and in wandring effervescencies in scorbutical and unequall heats both of the blood and nervous stock by it self or mixed with other medicines as an enforcement but yet in more tender Constitutions 't is dangerous lest the tone and fibres of the ventricle should be hurt by its acrimony and too great constriction or astringency 6. In the last place follows the astringent Crocus Martis or the Crocus of Steel prepared by fire through a long Calcination viz. The filings the off-scourings or thin plates of Iron should be so placed in a reverberating fornace that they may be continually heated by a most strong flame The filing being thus exposed to the naked fire first of all it grows reddish and runs together into little hard round balls but after 3. or 4. days swelling up suddenly into an higher heap it becomes extream light impalpable and of a most curious purple Colour In this preparation the Sulphureous and saline particles whilst by the force of the fire they begin to come away from the concreet do mutually take hold one of another and so being combined together grow into little balls but afterwards those particles both Saline and Sulphureous being wholly profligated and fiery particles succeeding in their place the whole mass swelling up into a bulk and made as it were spungie becomes most light A Medicine thus prepared in some Cases is of most excellent use and second to none of the Chalybeats to wit almost in all extravasations or too great eruptions of the Serum and blood as in outward haemorrhages or in inward bleedings in the Diarrhaea the Diabatis and in a vehement Catarrh also I have known no remedy better than this in the Ascitis or in the beginning of a Dropsie and this also I have heard to be highly approved of lately by a most famous and expert Physitian of our own Country Concerning which medicine notwithstanding since it is wholly destitute both of Saline and sulphureous Particles and consists almost only of earthly and fiery particles it is very ambiguous by what faculty it operates and produces so praise-worthy an effect in man's body for there seems to be in this left no more Caput mortuum or dead head or terra damnata then in vitriol or in any of the other mettalls distilled be a most intense fire As to this if I may Conjecture it seems first that to this preparation some Activity is due whereby it exerts it self and unfolds its virtues either by shutting up obstructions or by binding together the Vessells or nervous fibres of the Viscera from the fiery particles shut up in the most fixed earth and from them breaking forth within the body But the chiefest reason of helping consists in this that the earthy particles the Saline by which they were strickly held being wholly gone desire greedily to be reunited to them or such like Wherefore this Crocus martis being immersed in our Bodies snatches to it self whatsoever Salts it meets with and intimately binds them and so while it sucks up like a sponge very many saline particles it takes away many enormities arising chiefly from the flux of the Salts By this means Burnt harts-horn Spodium and Antimony Diaphoretic when they bring help exert or put forth their virtues CHAPTER XII Of the Convulsive Cough and Asthma An example of a Cough meerly Convulsive THe history before related doth clearly manifest that sometimes a Cough may be caused without any great fault of the Lungs by reason of the sliding down of the morbific matter upon the pneumonick nerves or those belonging to respiration to wit where it was shown in the Case of the noble Virgin labouring with Convulsive fits and also with a grievous and continual giddiness that when by the prescript of the Physitian a fomentation of Cephalic Decoction was applyed to her head presently the Giddiness ceas'd and in its place follow'd a great Cough without any Spitting but night and day almost perpetually troubling her which without doubt hapned by reason of the Convulsive matter being driven from the brain into the beginnings of the nerves This kinde of example of a Cough meerly Convulsive more rarely happens in persons of ripe years as the like distemper I have not often seen But in children 't is usual This distemper frequent enough in children also sometimes I have known it in Men for a cough to arise from a serous Colluvies overflowing the Lungs which when at first it was Simple and moderate afterwards it became vehement and Convulsive so that in Coughing the Diaphragma being drawn upwards and held in a long Systole or frequently repeated the Lungs being greatly straitned were much hindred in their motion In the mean time by reason of the breathing being hindred and the blood being restrained within the Praecordia and for that cause stagnating in other places the sick were in danger of being choaked and often acquired a livid or dead countenance But in this Case besides the Convulsions raised up about the Praecordia by the force of Coughing the Ventricle also being often brought Into a consent cast forth by vomit whatever it contained in its bosom yea and I know in some tender ones after this manner affected the Disease wandring from thence into other parts did raise up Convulsive motions in the Face eyes and limbs and at length became deadly This kinde of Convulsive Cough is very frequent among children and some years lays hold on so many that it seems to be plainly Epidemical when it roots it self it is very difficult to be cured by Remedies yea often being long protracted it is hardly otherwise to be cured but by the state of the year being changed If the causes of the aforesaid Case be inquired into it will be so plain The reason of it to refer the procatartic or more remote cause to the redundancy of the Serous humour in the bloody mass and in some sort in the whole body a portion of which matter dropping forth from the little mouths of the Arteries on the Lungs creates the ordinary Cough afterwards when the serous Colluvies or heap of waters yet exuberateing in the Blood and stuffed with Convulsive particles is also heaped up within the head the same entring the pneumonic nerves increases the simple into a Convulsive Cough For when those nerves being irritated first about their extremities are exercised above measure for that reason they more easily imbibe the Convulsive matter laid up nigh their beginnings and so when at length they are driven into irregular motions in two places to wit in the head and at the tale and that for two distinct causes viz. from the irritation of the Spirits and from their explosion it is no wonder if the Cough at first Common being afterwards brought into this evill state becomes so cruel and Convulsive Moreover when it sometimes happens that the same matter heaped up in the head does enter some other nerve
aforesaid Cases those fits of the Asthma did wholly depend on the Convulsive matter being fallen into the nerves serving to the stretching forth of the Lungs which cleaving to the Spirits and being by them struct off or explosed by reason of plentitude or irritation caused the Praecordia to be lifted uywards and as it were inflated and by that means hindred from its reciprocal motion An Asthma sometimes exciteed by reason of the Bronchia being Convulsively affected Moreover we suppose that such a kinde of Convulsive Dyspnaea or difficult breathing is sometimes excited by reason of the bronchia of the Trachea or the sharp arteries of the Throat being too much streightned and often almost drawn together we have shown in our discourse of the Nerves that very many branches of nervous fibres and of the nerves do every where embrace all the ramifications of the asper Arterie and bind them about which nerves if it happen that they being possessed by the morbific matter should be irritated into frequent Convulsions for that reason it follows that the channells or passages which they compass about must be greatly bound together and in some places wholly shut up There was a very choyce Virgin of a tender constitution and of a flourishing Observation 3 countenance scarce past the second lustre of her Age i e. about 12. years old that began to be grievously tormented with Asthma fits and before she was entrusted to my cure she had liv'd obnoxious to them at least 4. years sometimes she remained free from any fit of this disease for two or three months yet oftentimes by reason of errors in Diet or the great mutations of the year or the air she fell into most cruel fits of the Dyspnaea or difficult breathing So that her Lungs being inflated and carried upwards towards her throat and there held almost in a continual Diastole she could hardly nay not at all breathe in the mean time for that respiration might be somehow made the Diaphragma and the muscles of the breast were exercised with repeated endeavours of motions This kinde of fit by degrees remitting within 7 or 8. hours at length gave over but then after a week or two it was wont to come again either of it self or from any the least occasion after that the force of the Disease its matter being bestow'd on very many of these kinde of fits pass'd away this excellent virgin was well enough for many weeks yea sometimes months after and breath'd freely without any fault of the Thorax For this person I instituted this following method Spring and fall and now it is more than two years since she has had any fit of this Distemper Take of our Sulphur of Antimony gr vi of Cream of tartar vi grains mix them Let it be given in the pap of a rosted apple with this medicine she was wont to vomit 4. or 5. times four days after she took this cathartic which was wont to be repeated twice after 6. or 7. days between Take Calomelun xii grains of the Resin of Jolop v. grains of castor gr iiii with what will suffice of Ammoniac dissolved make iii. pills every day besides she took morning and evening of the tincture of Antimony grains xii in a Spoonfull of the following Julap drinking after it 6. or 7. Spoonfulls of the same Take of the water of Snailes â„¥ vi of earth-worms â„¥ iiii of water of penny-royal and rue each â„¥ iii. of hysterical water â„¥ iii. of Castor tyed in a knot and hung in the glass Ê’ss of white-sugar â„¥ i. mix them in the glass and make a Julap About the Autumn of the last year another noble Virgin being sick after the same manner viz. with a Periodical Asthma I was sent for to cure her Observation 4 who received great help by the aforesaid Remedies being used in a little lesser dose and the same repeated at the first of the Spring In these Cases also nothing seems to appear more clearly than that the cause of the Disease without any phlegm or viscous humour being impacted in the Lungs as is commonly beleeved doth subsist within the nervous stock and that this kind of Dyspnaea or difficult breathing meerly convulsive is excited by reason of the Pneumonic nervs being possessed by the Convulsive Distemper The verity of this may be yet more clearly evinced by an anatomical observation An Anatical Observation lately Comunicated to me by the learned Physitian Doctor Walter Needham That most famous man told me that he knew a Butcher of Wallsallen in the County of Stafford who when he had been long sick of a periodical Asthma returning within 14. or 20 days at farthest at length he dyed in a fit The Body being opened all his Viscera appeared sound chiefly his Lungs neither were there to be seen any signes either of excrement gathered together in the Bronchia or of the blood restagnating in the veins this only hapned besides nature that the bladder of the gall contained in it many stones But added he the causes unknown to us certainly not Conspicuous to our eyes were to be attributed to the nervous stock being affected Sometime past I was consulted with about a noble child Anoiher Anatomical Observation who being about 12. months old was grieviously afflicted with Convulsion fits and as it were Epileptic of which he quickly dyed I often observed that whilest the Convulsion of the outward parts intermitted he was taken with a cruel sobbing or hooping Cough from whence I suspected that the morbific matter was no less fixed in the breast than in the brain But after its Death the body being opened the Lungs well furnish'd appeared clear from any fault that it clearly appeared that this cough meerly Convulsive was excited by reason of the Distemper of the nervous stock As to what respects the Remedies and curatory means which ought to be used in the aforesaid cases when that convulsive Symptoms come upon the Cough or difficulty of breathing first excited from the default of the Lungs and so by reason of the taint communicated to the brain it must be carefully heeded that Convulsive medicines be aptly compounded with those respecting all the Intentions of the Thorax Yea that sometimes these sometimes those being given by themselves may between whiles fill up the times of curing it will not be needfull in this place to bring the bechic or Pneumonic medicines and forms of them since an immense company of them are extant every where among Physical Authors It will be sufficient for our purpose to add a method of medicine also some more select Remedies convenient for the Cough and Asthma meerly Convulsive The cure of the Convulsive Cough As to the former Distemper which is most familiar to children the cure is difficult and for the most part not to be performed but of a long time The chief Indications will be to purge forth both the serous and sharp humours from the blood and Viscera that
of the belly just above the privie member Os Sacrum Or the sacred bone is the great bone upon which the end of the ridge or back-bone resteth Oviparous Egg-bearing Creatures or that lays Eggs. P. Panacea All-heal or a plaister or medicine to heal all things Pancreas Called in an Hog the Sweet-bread It is a remarkable kirnel placed below the Ventricle and serves for a division of the Vena porta as also to defend the Ventricle from touching the back Papillary Belonging to the Teats or like paps or teats of a dug Papillae Little paps or little pieces of flesh in the body so called of the shape of paps Paracentisis Is an incision made to draw forth the water from those swelled with the Dropsie vulgarly called a Tapping Paracelsus A famous Dutch Emperick Paradox A thing contrary to the common opinion Paralytick That is troubled with the Palsie Parallel Equal alike like a line drawn to write by another Parenchyma The substance of the Liver Spleen and Lights supposed to be made up of congealed thick blood therefore so called Parotida The two chief Arteries and Veins on the right and left side the throat going up towards the ears Parotides The two chief Arteries and Veins on the right and left side the throat going up towards the ears Parotid To them belonging Particles Little parts or portions of any thing Paroxisms Fits or the returns of fits as of an Ague or Feavour Pathetic To passion belonging Nerves so called by Dr. Willis Pathologie The doctrine of the passions also as Aetiologie Pathognomic That moveth the affections or that properly belongs to the thing Pathognotic That moveth the affections or that properly belongs to the thing Pepasmus A kind of a concoction of the humors in the disease Percolation A straining thorow Pericardium The thin skin or membrane covering the whole heart like a case Peritonaeum The inner skin or rim of the belly joyned to the Caul wherewith all the Intrails are covered called by the Anatomists Siphach Peripneumonia An Inflammation or Impostum of the Lungs with a shortness of breath Peristaltick Motion a certain motion compassing about as in certain Convulsions Perspiration Breathing thorow as sweat through the pores of the body Perturbations Disturbings vexing troubles disturbances Pervious That many be passed through or that has a passage or way through it Peruvian Belonging to the Country of Perue as Peruvian Balsom thence brought Pharmacy The Medicines of the Apothecaries or the art of making them up Pharmaceuticks The part of Physick that cureth with Medicines Phaenomena Appearances of things Philonium A Confection made of many ingredients compounded together Philtre A potion to cause Love or poysonous Medicines that operate magically or not naturally Phlebotomie Letting blood or opening of a Vein Phlegmon An Inflammation of the blood with a red swelling Phlegosis The like Inflammation fiery red Phthisis The Consumption of the Lungs with a wasting away Phthisic Belonging to that disease or that has it Physiologie The reasoning of the Nature of a thing or the searching it out Pia Mater The thinner inward soft skin that inwrappeth the pith and marrow of the brain and is every were joyned to it called the thinner and soft Meuinx Pica The longing disease of Women with Child Pineal Kirnel in the brain in form of a Pine-apple called also Conarium Pituitous Snotty thick phlegmatick matter Plastic Formative or that worketh and formeth Plenitude Fulness or store Plethora A fulness or plenty of humors in the body good or bad Pleura A skin or membrane which clotheth the ribs on the inside which being inflamed by the blood causeth the Disease called the Pleurisie Pneumatic Windy or belonging to wind or breath Pneumonic One sick of the disease of the Lungs Polypus A filthy disease in the nose breeding stinking and ulcerous flesh within the nostrils Pontic Belonging to the Sea or to the Country of Pontus Porta Vena Is a Vein that hath many small roots fastened to the Liver from whence arising grow into one trunk or stock which going forth from between two eminent lobes of the Liver passes into the Gall Ventricle Spleen Mesentery and Caul and other parts of the body Pores Are the little small holes or breathing places in the skin of the body through which heat and moisture insensibly breath continually Porous Full of such like holes or pores Praxis Practice or action Praecipitation A casting down used by the Chy for a certain way of distillation when the matter is thrown back into the Receiver Praeternatural Besides or more than natural not natural or besides nature Praeceding Going before Praevious That went before Praecordia The parts about the heart as the Diaphragma or midriff separating the heart from the other bowels Praemised Sent before or before made known Praepollency Of very great force strength excellency or virtue Priapismus Is a disease in the Yard that causeth it always to be stretch'd forth and extended without any thing provoking it Primigenious The first original not having its beginning or birth of another Procatartic Remoet not next cause of a disease Processes The parts of a bone or other parts that exceed the natural height or posture and are yet dependences of the bone and parts and proceed or go out from it as also some Nerves going forth of other Nerves being still parts of the main stock Profusions A pouring forth or running or spreading abroad Profluvium A flowing of humors a gushing forth in abundance a flood Profligated Driven away or overthrown discomfited Prognosis The praescience or fore-knowledge or Prognostication of the event of the disease Promptuary A Store-house or place where any thing is laid up Prominences Bunchings forth those parts that notably shew themselves above the rest as a hill in a plain Prophasis The appearing or shewing of a thing Prophylactic That part of Physick that preventeth and preserveth from diseases Prostatae Kernels in the Groyn or about the privie-members Protension A stretching forth at length Protraction A drawing forth at length also a prolonging Protuberance A bunching forth above the rest Protrusion A thrusting forward Psoa A great muscle beginning at the 11th rib and going through the bowels to the privie-members Psora The scabbado or scabbiness with pustles Ptyalismus Salivation or a great flux of spitting Ptisan Decocted Barly with other ingredients Puretology The doctrine or a discourse of Feavors Pungitive Pricking like needles Purulent Full of matter or filthy corruption as a Bile or Impostum Pubis That part of the privy parts where the hair grows Pulsific That strikes as the Pulse or beating of the Arterie or that causes such striking or pulse Pylorus Is the lower mouth of the stomach or ventricle whereby the meat being digested is transmitted into the Stomach-gut or Maw-gut Pyramidical Of the shape or form of a Pyramide broad at bottom and sharp at the top Pyretology The doctrine of Feavers or of fire Q. Quotidian Daily or every day an Ague
an Elastic Copula for Muscular motion 43 The reason of the instinct of Muscular motion 43 44. See further under Muscles and motion Musick Why easily learned by some and not by others 119 N. Nates And Testes of the brain what they are 106 107. Neck Why it swells in anger or great passion 150 Nerves The Vehicle of the instinct of motions 34 Of the Chambers of the Optic Nerves 103 104. Of the Nerves which serve to the involuntary function 116 117. Whence they arise 116 Ehe fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth pair of Nerves serve to the involuntary function 121 Of the Nervous System in general 125 What the Nerves are 127 When the Nervous fibres arise 128 Of the Nervous juice 131 Its use 133 Of the first four pair of Nerves arising within the skull 137 Of the smelling Nerves ibid. Their use 138 Of the Optic or seeing Nerves 139 Of the Nerves that move the eyes 140 Of the pathetic Nerves of the eyes ibid. Of the fifth sixth and seventh pair of Nerves 141 The fifth Conjugation of the Nerves described 141 142. The sixth Conjugation of the Nerves described 143 The seventh Conjugation of the Nerves described 143 144. The first and second figures of the Nerves explained 144 145. Of the eighth pair of Nerves or the wandring pair 145 147. Of the wandring pair in Man 147 Of the wandring pair in Beasts 148 Of the Nervous Infoldings and their uses 146 Of the returning Nerve 147 The uses of the wandring pair 149 Of the Nerves inserted into the heart 150 Of the communications of the wandring pair 156 The Intercostal Nerve described 157 The uses of the Intercostal Nerve 160 161 162 c. Of its lower branchings serving the lower belly 164 Of the Nerves that serve the Spleen 166 167. Of the Renal Infolding 168 Of the Nerves serving the Pancreas Choleduct Vessels Duodenum and Pylorus 168 169. Of the Nerves of the Womb 169 Of the Nerves belonging to the Vreters 170 Of the Nerves serving for Dung Vrine and Seed 171 Of the Nerves belonging to the Testicles 172 Of the spinal Nerve 173 The spinal Nerve constantly found in Man Beasts Fowls and Fishes ibid. The use of this Nerve 174 Of the Nerve of the diaphragma and its use 174 175. Why the Nerve of the Diaphragma proceeds from the Brachial Nerve 176 The difference of the Nerves of the wandring pair and the intercostal Nerves in Man and Bruits 176 177. Of the ninth pair of Nerves arising within the skull 177 Of the tenth pair arising within the skull 178 Of the Nerves arising from the spinal marrow ibid. Why the brachial and crural Nerves are larger far than others 178 179. Net Of the wonderful Net and its use 85 The explication of the figure of the wonderful Net 86 Nourishment Of the Body how made 134 135. Noise Why Beasts at an affright make a sudden noise 118 Why noise or schreeching is made in great passion 150 O. Offices Of the brain and its parts 77 Of th skull 77 78. See Vses Optick Nerves see Seeing Nerves P. Passions Why troublesome to the Praecordia and why seen in the face 108 109. Why more clearly seen in the eyes 110 Phantasie How made 96 Pituitary Glandula what it is 104 105. Pia mater Its description 58 59. Its uses and several parts 81 Of the sanguiferous Vessels covering the Pia mater 83 What sense and motion is in the Pia mater 90 Pineal Kirnel what it is 106 107. Praecordia Their agreement with the Diaphragma 163 Why they seem to be drawn downwards in some Hypochondriacks 167 Prominences Of the Orbicular Prominences of the Brain 106 107 121 122. How different in some Creatures 122 Protuberances Of the annular Protuberances of the brain 121 122. How different in Man and in some Beasts 122. Q. Quantity Of Vrines 2 Of the Quantity of sick people Vrines 6 7. R. Respiration Variously interrupted and how See Breathing 175 S. Saltness Of the Saltness in Vrines 1 Shreeching Out in a sudden passion why made 150 Seed How made 173 Seeing Of the Seeing Nerves 139 How Seeing is performed 140 Sense What it is 34 The formal reason of the common sense 95 Sensory Of the common Sensory what it is 102 Sleep How made 97 Sight Why sometimes things appear double to the sight 103 104. Why the sight of some things cause spittle in the mouth 141 Skull The parts of the Skull unfolded 70. 61. Of the cune form or wedg-like bone of the Skull 70 The fifth and sixth figure concerning the Skull explained 73 74. The uses of the Skull 77 78. Of the furrows in the Skulls of Men and Beasts 78 Of the difference of the Arteries passing through the Skulls of Men and Beasts 84 Smelling Of the Smelling Nerves 137 138. Why large in Beasts 137 The cause of the nearness betwixt the taste and the smell 139 The Smelling fibres differently figured in several Creatures and why ibid. Why the Smell of some things causes spittle in the mouth 141 Sneezing Why people Sneeze going suddenly out of a dark place into the Sun-shine 142 Why men before other Creatures Sneeze 175 Why and how Sneezing is made ibid. Soul Two parts of the inferiour soul 95 In what the essence of the sensitive Soul consists 130 The corporeal Soul of flame and light 29 The Soul depends upon the temperament of the bloody mass 31 The root of the corporeal Soul is in the blood and its branches in the brain and nervous stock 33 Two chief faculties in the corporeal Soul 34 Sounds Of the Ideas of Sounds in the head 118 119. How sharp and flat Sounds are performed 150 Spirit In Vrines 2 Spirits How the animal Spirits blow up the fleshy fibres in a Muscle 41 Of the nature of the animal Spirits proceeding from the brain by the Nerves into the Muscles 42 Of the fresh supplies of the animal Spirits for the motion of the Muscles 44 How the animal Spirits are begotten in the brain 87 88. How first begot in the Cortex of the brain 93 After what manner the animal Spirits diffuse themselves for the producing the faculties of the Soul 95 The place of the exercise of the animal Spirits 101 102. The reason of the passage of the animal Spirits through the Nates and Testes 108 Of the acts of the Spirits of the involuntary function 114 115 116. The difference of the Spirits flowing from the brain and from the Cerebel 114 The passage of the Spirits compared to light 126 Of the great troops of Spirits how they pass through the Channels of the Nerves and supply the whole Body 130 Whether the pulse of the heart depends upon the animal Spirits 152 Of the flowing of the animal Spirits from the nervous infoldings 165 Spittle Why the sight and smell of some things causes Spittle to come into the mouth 141 Spleen Its office 166 Sulphur In Vrines 1 Sulphur the food of flame 29 Sulphur in the blood the cause
of its flame 32 T. Tables Of the figures of the Nerves explained from page 183 to the end Tast The cause of the nearness of the Tast with the smell 139 Tendons Of the Muscles what they serve for 35 Tenasm What it is and causes of it 46 An History of it 47 Testes Of the Testes of the brain 107 Testicles Of the Nerves belonging to the Testicles 172 173. A spirituous Liquor distilled into the Testicles 173 Tongue The fifth and ninth pair of Nerves serve to the Tongue one for its motion and the other for its tast 177 Tunnel Of the brain 99 V. Veins Of the Veins belonging to the Spine 181 Venerial Act how the pleasure and tittillation in the Venerial act is made 171 Why the loynes are enervated by the Venereal act 173 Ventricles Of the brain 96 97. Vessels That arise in the hinder part of the brain 68 69. Of the Vessels of the Dura mater 79 Of the joyning together of the Vessels of the brain 82 Of the sanguiferous Vessels covering the Pia mater 85 Of the blood-carrying Vessels in the Spinal marrow 179 Why the blood-carrying Vessels of the Spine are frequently ingraffed one into another 180 181. Vomiting Why caused by a troublesome Cough 156 Ureters Of the Nerves belonging to the Vreters 170 Urines The elements and accidents of Vrines 1 Of the quantity and colour of sound peoples Vrines 2 3. How Vrine is made 3 Why Vrine after plentiful drinking comes forth clear 4 Of the consistence and contents of the Vrines of sound people 5 6. What the cloud in Vrine signifies 5 Of the quantity and colour of Vrine of sick people 6 7. Of a large quantity of Vrine suddenly flowing 7 The several colours of sick peoples Vrines what they signifie 8 9. Of the deep colours 10 11. Of pale-coloured Vrines 8 9. Why Vrines grow red in the Scurvy and Gout 11 Of a green and black Vrine 12 Why the colours in Vrines change 13 Of the contents of sick Peoples Vrines 13 14. What Vrines signifie full of contents 14 15. What the crust of the Vrine sticking to the sides of the pot or glass is 15 Of the gravel sand or stones in Vrines 16 Of the white contents in Vrines 17 Judgments of Vrines how to be given 17 18 19. The ignorance of some in the judgments of Vrines 18 Sickness sometimes not shewed by the Vrine ibid. The chief use of the inspection of Vrines 20 The examination of Vrines 21 How Vrines are to be ordered e're you give judgment ibid. Why many things taken in at the mouth colour the Vrine ibid. Of the odor or smell in Vrines 21 22. Of the sweeâ— smell in Vrines 22 Of the evaporation and distillation of Vrines 22 23 Of the putrefaction of Vrines 23 How the pain in difficult Vrine or making of water is made 172 Uses Of several parts Of the brain and its parts 77 78. Of the skull see skull Of the Dura mater 78 79. Of the Pia mater 81 Of the wonderful Net 85 Of the Choroeides 89 Of the Brain properly so called 91 Of the crankling turnings and windings in the brain 92 Of the Cortical and Medullar substance of the brain ibid Of the callous body of the brain 93 Of the Fornix 93 94. Of the Ventricles of the brain 96 97. Of the Tunnel 99 Of the sive-like bone 100 Of the oblong marrow and its parts 101 102. Of the chamfered or streaked bodies 102 103. Of the chambers of the optick Nerves 103 Of the pineal kernel 106 Of the choreidal infolding ibid. Of the Nates and Testes 107 108. Of the Cerebel and its parts 110 111 112. Of the orbicular prominences 121 Of the annular protuberance 122 Of the spinal marrow 124 Of the nervous humour 128 133. Of the mamillary processes 138 Of the cribrous bone ibid. Of the Nerves see Nerves Of the wandring pair 149 Of the intercostal Nerve 160 Of the infoldings of the Mesentery 164 165 166 Of the Nerves that serve the Spleen 166 167 168. Of the Womb 169 The use of the Renal infolding 168 Of the Nerves serving the pancreas cholduct vessels duodedum pylorus 168 169. The use of the spinal Nerve 173 174. Of the Nerve of the Diaphragma 174 175. Of the ninth pair 177 Of the Nerves arising from the spinal marrow 178 Of the bosoms in the spine 181 W. Water Of making water see Vrines Watry part of Vrines 2 Wisdom Why placed in the heart by the Ancients 162 Womb Why furnished with so many Nerves 169 The bigness of the Womb in Virgins 170 Y. Yard Why sometimes it is involuntarily erected 172 Yauning By what means caused 143 THE THIRD INDEX or TABLE WHEREIN IS Alphabetically digested all the principal matters contained in the Treatise of Convulsive Diseases A. AMulets For the Epilepsie 23 Apozems For the Epilepsie 24 Diuretick Apozems in a Feaver 58 Astmah Convulsive 102 103. Of a Convulsive Astmah by reason of the Bronchia being affected 104 Histories of such an Astmah 105 106. Anatomical observations on the same ibid. The Cure of it 106 B. Blood The Blood not the immediate cause of the Convulsive motion 5 The Blood the cause of the morbific matter of spasms 6 Why the Blood is soon congealed in Convulsions 39 Brain The Convulsive Copula proceeds immediately from the Brain 5 The Brain the cane of the Morbific matter of Convulsions by receiving it from the blood 6 The evil disposition of the Brain two-fold ibid. The Brain the cause of the Hystorical passion 78 Breast Why men beat their Breast in the fits of the Epilepsie 18 Bronchia The Bronchia being affected the cause of a Convulsive Astmah 104 C. Chalybiats See Steel Medicines Children Of Convulsions in Children 25 Children very liable to Convulsions 26 The causes of them 26 27. Why they follow upon their breeding of teeth 28 How to cure the Convulsions of Children 29 How to preserve Children from them ibid. How to Cure the Convulsion in Children coming of breeding of teeth 30 Of other sorts of Convulsions in Chldren 30 How to Cure them ibid. Children are subject to a Convulsive Cough 102 The reason of it 103 Convulsions Of Convulsive motions in general 1 What they are ibid. The conjunct cause of Convulsions 3 Repletion and emptiness not the cause of Convulsions ibid. The kinds of Convulsions 4 The more remote cause of Convulsions 6 How the morbific matter of Convulsions is disposed in the head 7 Twofold Convulsions continual or by fits 8 The evident cause of Convulsions 9 Of direct and reflected Convulsions ibid. Of the places affected by Convulsions ibid. The difference of Convulsions in respect of their origine 10 The cause of them 11 Of the extent of Convulsions ibid. Of the duration of a Convulsive fit ibid. Of an intermitting Convulsion 12 Of Convulsions in Children 25 The causes of them 26 Whey they come upon the breeding of teeth 28 How to cure Convulsions in Children 29 Of other
ebullition which after this manner comes upon this intermitting Feaver wholly depends upon the confusion of the not miscible matter and its hard secretion from the Blood The Synochus happens like Wine growing hot of its own accord by reason of its richness the other conceives its fury like the same Wine by reason of some heterogeneous thing poured to it wherefore we remark that whilst our Feaver is seen still to be continual it is not cured by sweat or the Flux of the Belly altho they frequently and copiously happen because it depending upon the Blood being depauperated rather than being inflamed it continues long and disposes the sick towards a Cachexie 3. There is a third reason of difference by which this Feaver may be distinguished from the common rank of intermitting Feavers and it is this that it is easily propagated to others by Contagion the reason of which is because here very many bodies are predisposed after the same manner towards the same distemper which happens not at another time wherefore the meer effluvias from a diseased Body are able to excite the like effect in a very fit subject even as some Beams of Flame enkindle Flame in a very combustible matter In the mean time all do not alike contract the Infection of this Feaver but that some being less prepared or fitted for it converse with the sick without harm 4. There is another symptom occurs not constant to this Feaver but only hapning in some places that discriminates it not only from the common but varies its own proper type to wit sometimes it happens this Disease to be accompanied with a Dysenterick distemper in some cholerick Vomits and bilous Stools very much infest and in others Bloody Stools follow with cruel pains and torments of the Belly The former I often observed in our Neigbourhood and the reason of it may be deduced from the highly bilous temper of the Blood For by reason of this the adust matter not to be dissipated by sweat is copiously sifted into the Liver then by reason of the choler-carrying Vessels being filled to a flowing over it is sent away to the Ventricle and Intestines The other Dysenterical distemper was found only in some places and there peculiar rather than common it laid hold only of some sick The origine of it may be referred to the peculiar dispositions of some Bodies or vitious provision also to the site of the place or condition of the Air then the Disease is to be suspected to be thence translated to others not without the communication of a certain Infection There is to be had a double Prognostication concerning this Disease First of the Feaver in General what end it shall have and when what it may threaten to the Land whether it precede not which is commonly feared the Plague or Pestilential Sicknesses Secondly The signs ought to be laid down whereby we are wont to presage health or danger in the various cases of the sick As to the First Because we have shown that the Origine of this distemper is not to be fetched from the Contagion of the Air or its being infected with any venomous Infection nor from any malignant seeds of Vapours diffused through the Air but only from the signal bilous temper or disposition of our Bodies with the Blood being made adust and roasted extremely by reason of the Summer heats I think there is no reason of fear that this Feaver should be carried forth into any thing worse by the vice of the Air or might at length grow to be Malignant or Pestilential But rather that the season of the Year being changed and the alteration of our Blood assuredly to be expected we might fear lest this Feaver which now imitates the way of an intermitting Feaver should afterwards pass into a Quartane the Blood growing into a melancholy temper Which thing indeed I observed to happen to some already and I believe that before the Autumn be fully passed over will happen to many more As to the particular Prognostication the chiefly notable signs which occur in the course of this Feaver and in a manner foretel its condition and event are of this sort if the Disease happens in a firm Body well tempered and easily perspirable if vomiting with ease succeeds and that the Belly be loose if the fit begins with a light shivering and afterwards a moderate heat with sweat concludes it and that the intermission be with some tolerable remission if the Pulse be strong the Urine of a flame colour clear and with a laudable hypostasis we may Predict that the Disease will quickly end without any danger But if this Feaver be excited in a fat Body and or a vitious habit it with troublesome vomiting an intolerable thirst and fierce heat long exercise the sick if to the heat a difficult sweat and partial and often interrupted and between frequent vomitings succeed and that it ends not in a remission we may declare that this Disease may be long and of a dangerous issue But if the sick remain in strength and the Urine shew signs of concoction we need not despair of health especially if after four or five periods the Disease as it is wont to do remits of its wonted fierceness Thirdly we observe if this Disease is excited in an old Body or others broken with sicknesses or debilitated if besides horrid vomitings there happen swoonings faintings Deliriums or Lethargic distempers if after many fits the sick having lost their strength the Disease remits nothing but exerciseth the Blood with a continual effervency and that the Vital Spirits are much destroyed if the appetite be lost wakings pertinacious and that they have Convulsive motions with a weak Pulse and Urine troubled or thick we judg the matter to be full of danger yet is not the sick to be left as desperate because the Disease is not hasty and kills not suddenly and out of hand but is drawn out at length and grants time and occasions to nature of recollecting her self and to the Physician of giving Remedies The Therapeutic Indications which have place in the Cure of this Feaver are chiefly four First That the Blood being now scorched and made too choloric may be reduced to its due temper Secondly That the depravation of the nourishable juice and its alteration into a fermentative matter may be inhibited or at least lessned Thirdly That about the declining of the Disease the Blood depauperated by a frequent deflagration and made more impure by the fusion or pouring into it the morbifick or adust matter may be restored and rendred as it should be volatile Fourthly That the symptoms which chiefly infest in the course of the Disease may be timely helped by fit Remedies that these intentions may be satisfied I counsel that this following method be used About the beginning of the Disease if the bilous or cholorie humor flowing forth of the choler bearing Vessels and being suffused into the Venticle cause the sick to be prone