through the whole course of our Life so that we Live no longer when the Heart and Lungs do quite give over the faculty of Moving Every one then ought to take singular care that Circulation of the Blood may be in no wise intercepted nor free Breathing be intermitted for that purpose the Exercise of the Muscles of the Limbs gentle and sweet Recreation of the Mind do avail Moderate Equal Diaphoretick Alterative and duly Excitative Labor joyned with pleasant variable admirable rare and desirable Objects doth Expand and Dilate the Lungs and Arteries whereby the Breast becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Arteries Emicant Nothing promotes these Actions better than cheerfulness or temparate Joy constant love of what is truly amiable never to be repented of A probable hope of some good not long to be deferred at length a sweet enjoyment of that which is durable and capable to usher in better things For I am of a very brave Man's Opinion The Comfort of our whole Life depends upon expectation of better things Also Magnanimity or Courage founded upon Virtuous Enterprizes aspiring to Noble Designs for a Publick as well as Private Interest do sweetly enlarge the Spirits quickning the Ferments causing an expulsion of Superfluities Yea just Indignation kept within its due Limits facilitates Respiration Transpiration and Pulsation On the contrary Fear Sorrow Melancholy Hatred Jealousie Envy contract the Diaphragme and the Muscles of the Breast hindering legitimate breathing occasioning an Immature Importunate Systole or a Supine Connivence in the Arteries It is not amiss sometimes to be transported beyond the common bounds of Moderation to be agitated with some Extraordinary passion of the mind and to sustain tedious Labor that the sweeter composition of Mind and most delightful rest of Body may follow sith one constant strict tenor pertaining to Diet is hardly to be obtained without greater damage whensoever we offend not to be avoided by any Man who hath a Publick Employment or a secular Interest to look after so that it is better to be accustomed to any Exercise or labour of Body and mind voluntarily least we be surpriz'd unawares unwillingly to our notable hurt I advise those parts should undergo most gentle Exercise which are weakest to walk oftner upon the lower Limbs when they are somewhat feeble to move rather the Arms and Hands when incident to a debility lest the stronger by motion defraud the weaker and so Alogotrophia or disproportion in the nourishment of parts follow I approve Frication of all parts especially three noted Emunctories the Groin Arm-pits and Neck with a course Cloath without curious superstition of rigtht oblique or transverse Directions Combing the Head every Morning is an exercise profitable for the Brain and upper Limbs encreasing their vigour and opening the Pores for the emission of Excrements engendred in the sixt Digestion which is not a little depraved by a superfluous covering so that the Brain through too much Heat becomes Effeminate Soft and Imprudent Let every man make choice of that Exercise or Recreation he is most inclined most agreeable to his Constitution whereby he is most relieved CHAP. VIII THe fifth inseparable Companion of our Life neerly related to Exercise and Motion is Sleeping and Waking These make almost a Divident of the Life of this Microcosm And happy it is for Man that the first was Instituted sith great are the Cares of miserable Mortals that he hath reason to bless his Creator that he can fall into a sweet Lethean Sleep which like a short Death deprives him of Sorrow and Anguish of Spirit Pax Animi quem cura fugit Albeit great is the comfort of a moderate Sleep as to the refreshment of Body and Mind whereby they are enabled to execute their Faculties and Offices more vigorously awake yet no small are the Discommodities brought upon us by excess therein as an Indisposition to follow Ingenious Arts or Sciences a Stupidity to comprehend the Truth of things Forgetfulness Supinity or Indifferences what becomes of our future State leaving Affairs in a confused condition Indigested and Desperate It heaps up Crudities flats the Archeus hinders the Expulsion of Superfluities makes the Body Woman-like Delicate Tender Wanton unfit for any Noble Enterprize accumulates Excrements yielding abundant Matter for all sorts of Diseases c. Excess also in Waking is accompanied with multitude of ill Consequents Impovrishment and Distraction of the Spirits Absurd Idea's Indigestion an Augmentation of A-aids Hypochondriack Fits Melancholy and Madness CAAP. IX THe last Inseparable Concomitant of Life to be Insisted upon whereby our condition is made better or worse according as we govern them well or ill is our Passions which if they move regularly produce a sweet Tranquility in the Mind and a Salubrity in the Body but if extravagant flying out beyond their bounds they confound the whole Oeconomy of this Admirable Frame The Stoicks seem to endeavour to deprive themselves of a Sensitive Life when they would have a man to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is all one as not to take notice of any thing adverse to Nature for it is impossible for a Man Apprehensible and Imaginable not to be moved by the Object he apprehends or Imagines as it is pleasing or distastful so he desires it or abhors it the Affections hereby set on work great reluctancy effervescence perturbation arise in the Spirits which sometimes strangly alter the Texture and Crasis of the Blood The Idea's or Images of Sorow Fear Anger Joy Jealousie Hatred Emulation are sometimes so fixed in the Animals that they become indeleble hence vain Imaginations of the whole Man Dotage Melancholy and Furie are Emicant neither do the absurd Conceptions and vain Imaginatiors of the whole Man only cause disturbance in the Stomack or Brain Storms or Tempests in the Universal Archeus but likewise the Spirit of every part frameth particular Images of Indignation Fear c. Any Spinous acculeating or pricking Matter in any particular part presently puts the Vital Spirit there into a passion the Archeus of the Eye is forthwith put into an indignation when an Extimulating Fretting Liquor is either injected into it or engendred in it through a fault in its peculiar Degestion whereupon the Lympha Latex or the Wheyish Humour is lured or summoned for the Ablution of this Blot or Defect which when it cannot perform the Ocular Water as well as the Nourishment thereof is depraved through the ringing Attrition of the Sensitive Spirit which ought by all means to be pacified The like Perturbation is observed to be raised in the Archeus of the Ear Nose Windpipe c. when any troublesome cause ariseth there 'T is certainly true Omne Vivens Mortui impatiens esse solet Whatsoever is alienated from Life engendred either within assumed or injected from without brings sometimes sooner or sometimes latter the Custos of the Whole or Part into an Inquietude For this reason Cantharides applyed raise Blisters in the Skin of a
specified yea although they seem to be Singular yet may they be severed into diversity of parts E. G. Sulphur which to the eye appears to be all of one Frame may be brought into a sharp corroding Liquor the same also may be brought into liquid Balsome or into an Earthy Pouder Out of Sallad Oyl a Corrosive Liquor may be made besides it may without any difficulty be altered into VVater Salts may be turned into an Oyly Substance then after become Insipid Mercury doth as Van Helmont and Experience testifie consist of a double Sulphur Inward and Outward This being capable to be separated from it by Art CHAP. II. Of the Efficient Cause or Primary Agent of all Sublunary Bodies THe Best Philosophy teaches us that alâ— Constitutes have their Material Beginning from VVater How this Liquor comes to be diversified into innumerable kind of Substances is further to be enquired The first alteration of this fluid Body is made by a Sulphureous Ferment giving a Hogo to it whereby a Seminal Spirit is excited to dispose and mould the Matter into a Form agreeable to that Image or Type iâ— hath laid That which doth chiefly occasion and further the Fermentation of VVater is some secret Acide or Sharpness proceeding from the Aire or elswhere This insinuating closely unites with the Alkali in the VVater whence ariseth an Agitation or VVorking commonly observed when these two meet together consequently the Watery Particles are exceedingly rarified acquiring a certain peculiar scent which they carry along with them infecting the whole Mass wherein they reside hereupon the Archeus or Vital Spirit breaks forth into Act containing in it the true Seminal Idea or Picture of the thing capable to receive its Form and Perfection CHAP. III. Concerning the Aitiologie Efficient Immediate and Material Cause of all Diseases WHat the Antients generally and some at this day call the Conjunct or immediate Cause of Diseases I shall with most knowing Helmont assign to be the Occasional Provoking or Incensing Forasmuch as whosoever desires to enquire into the Nature of things aright ought to be informed concerning the very Being of the same as it relates to that which made it so Now no Disease can have any Subsistence Mansion or Lodging place but in a Body endued with a Vital Spirit albeit in the Dead the Four Humours of the Galenists and the three Principles of the Chymists be not wanting For this Reason the Archeus or Spirit must of Necessity be the nighest Fundamental Beginning of all Maladies whatsoever For as our Health depends upon this Living Spirit when it is in all respects duly constituted without any considerable defect in it so Sickness ariseth when the same Preserver of Strength is depraved or estranged from that Clearness Proportion and Regularity which ought to be in it Those Degenerate or Bastard Juices engendered through manifold Errors in the Helmontion six Digestions especially the First are only means to put the Living Spirit into Perturbation Vexation and Inordinate Motions whereby it frames Images of Evils according to the Condition of the Troublesome Abusive Intruding Guest So that in short the Seed of this or that Disease with an absolute Pattern how it is to be acted is planted in this first Founder of the whole Fabrick the Grief being as inseparable from the Vital Spirit as Life it self yea it is even concentrated or seated in the very middle point thereof and never to be separated therefrom till the Kernel wherein this Diseased Image is drawn be extinct and quite abolished This Doctrine may seem strange to those who are unacquainted with the Writings of our Profound Philosopher however so great is the Truth thereof that 't is impossible any one should either Prevent or Cure Diseases to a purpose unless he be well Disciplined in this Solid Knowledge Hence it is that Opinionative Doctors do so often blunder and mistake in Healing any Rooted Infirmities because they either insist upon their four Aristotelian Elements and Humours Analogous to them as Choler Phlegm Melancholy Blood with the Distemper coming from thence or take their false Measure of Curing from the Principles I mentioned before borrowed of the Chymists which some will have to be the next Cause of Diseases whereas they being present only vex gaul bring into divers Passions the Archeus whereupon that which before did perform all things requisite in the Body decently and in order is now become tumultuous acting in an inconvenient preposterous manner By this means the Ferment or Dissolvent in the Stomach produces many Raw Juices Fretting Liquors which congeal the Blood or melt it into filthy Matter then follows a detention of Excrements or a profuse indiscreet throwing out good and bad also a Specifick Poison is created proportionable to those without hence a Crowd of sad Symptoms appear Wherefore I repeat the great cause why the Galenists have been so unsuccessful in their Curing is because they did not truly distinguish between Prevocative Occasional and the Essential inseparable Cause between the Concomitants Accidents Products and Consequents of Humane Calamities For while they conclude a Feaver to be principally Heat they have thereby taken a false Indication or Instructions to free the Body from that Affliction neglecting to blot out the Image of the Sickness to appease the enraged Vitals and to remove the Vexatious Thorny Degenerate Dead Juices without empairing Nature wronging the Stomach or offering any Violence to any shop ordained for Digestion They may plainly perceive if Sordid Gain did not blind them 't is labour in vain to Purg Bucketfuls of Choler and Melancholy which they suppose to be the Conjunct united Cause of the Evil to let out great quantity of Blood from the Limbs for the Cure of the Scurvie c. sith generally the Patient is more weakened and his Evil oftentimes more confirmed hereby Assuredly did they set Nature upon her Legs when she is either sitting or prostrate under any Calamity she would soon conquer her Enemy which kept her in Subjection Would they but follow Hippocrates who taught them that Naturae sunt Morborum Medicatrices they would speedily renounce Bleeding and Feeble Hurtful Purgatives to be looked upon as Contrivers and Factors of filthy Matter which the Expulsive Power stirred up casts out with the Poison So that in reality the Common Way of Purging is only like Pumping without stopping the Leak For as Hippo. delivers 't is not how much but what is cleansed away doth good the Occasional Exciting Peccant Fermenting Matter being often very small as to its bulk Humane Sickness hath a Spiritual beginning Progress State and Declination arising from a Seed as all other things therefore they have a Real Entity consisting of an Efficient and Material Cause both seated â—n the Spirit of Life Active and Passive in Contriving its own Ruine when at any time it is disturbed through any outward Accident When any thing very injurious to Nature approaches from without or is engendered within our Bodies the
Archeus or Vital Aire takes notice of it and being incensed it frames in it self some Ill-favoured Dark Images agreeable to the Cause Offensive According to this Model or Proportion it Acts never ceasing to follow the Copy or Draught of the Malady made by its own Activity in a certain determinate quantity of it self even to its own great damage and destruction unless the Character of the Disease be blotted out or the Archeus pacified and diverted by some pleasing Object or the External Vexing Occasion removed Those Defunct Excrements or Superfluities separated from Life never to be rconciled to it are most tedious and noisome to the Vital Spirits wherefore becoming impatient they Rage Fret Chafe at the presence of so unwelcome Guests Hereupon they stir upon the Ferments or Instrumental Transfigurators to become disordered sometimes to cause a Confusion Tumult Boiling and Huffing in the Juices whereby a Feaver is kindled sometimes to produce Congelation of the Blood otherwhile to turn it into sharp gauling Liquor causing many long Calamities Now the Filth or Dregs lodging in our Bodies are not Diseases themselves but stir up the Archeus to create those Evils we are liable to These are either Antecedent Causes of our Maladies or they are Products and Consequents stirring up Secondary Calamities accompanied with various Symptoms Accidents Dispositions and Alterations Moreover the Miseries of our Bodies do now and then begin from an Invisible Immaterial Occasion imprinting in our Phansies a lively Character of a Disease which converting the Good Juices into Bad both Foment the present Evil also excite the Vitals to procreate more Mischiefs through the Contagion of a Seed implanted in the Life That the Phansie can out of a Non Ens or Nothing frame Hoc Aliquid or something of this or that Species is evident in Women with Child who upon earnest longing after Fruit c. or some sudden Terrour make the Idea or Figure of what they greatly Covet or are terrified at in their Spirits which conveied to the Womb is absolutely conformed in that part of the Child which answers to the place the Woman at that instant touched when she was so passionately affected Withal this Plant or Living Creature pictured in the Skin shall express all those remarkable Alterations Defections Vigour and Maturation that the Real Type or Example of what is shaped is subject to at certain times of the year Thus 't is plain that the Spirits being exalted excited or put into a vehement Motion through any notable Passion can fashion that bringing it to visible Light on the Superficies of the Skin which before lay hid within Wherefore I doubt not there is as perspicuous a Signaturi of every Disease in the Spirits as the Platform of the Plant to be produced in a Bean divided The Principle Difference being that the one is more Spiritual the other Corporeal The Seminal Figure then of all Diseases made in the Spirit of Life is the only Efficient Active Cause of their Being Likewise some Degenerate Portion of the Spirit wherein the Calamitie is as it were stamped separated from that which remains in its Integrity becomes the Material Subject thereof That 't is the Blast of Life which conceives and brings forth all manner of Evils is most evident seeing no Dead Body is capable of Sickness this being the true only Reason to be given that the Principal Contriveâ— thereof viz. the Archeus or Vital Spirit is wanting For the Forbidden Fruit which Adam took into his Stomach having a Power inserted into it of stirring up Lust or Concupiscence The Omnipotent for that Reason giving Advertisement to Man not to meddle with was appropriated and applicated by means of the Animal Spirits to the Immortal Soul whereby it presently sets up Images of filthy Diseases forthwith entertaining the Sensual Soul common to all Beasts being then so continuing to this day the Fundamental Cause of all Calamities I assert the Irregular Imagination of the Living Spirit of Man in the Stomach chiefly the Brain and every Part besides doth first set on work every Infirmity seizing upon us which at first seems very inconsiderable but in process through the uncessant Motion of the First Mover it arrives to a great Height of Malignity as appears by various sad Symtoms Accidents and Products to be distinguished precisely from the Substantial Being of Diseases For Example A Stone in the Kidneys Bladder or elsewhere likewise any congealed Matter or Cancrous hollowness are not Diseases but the Products Effects or Fruits thereof The Petrifying Imaginary Seed closely seated in the Archeus is that which first laid the Foundation of the Stone carrying the same on as it began to full growth so that although the Stone be removed out of the Kidneys as long as there remains that stonifying Seed or invisible Beginning the Person before rid of this hard Concretion may ere long if the Idea the Principle of the Congealing be not absolutly brought to naught or blotted out be vexed tortured or crucified with the like deformed Matter again That the Archeus should be put into such a disturbance or Passion through any disorders in Diet c. as to frame within its own Bowels such a dreadful unhandsome Substance is to be lamented but that the Seminal Character of the Stone should be contrived fomented born with us taking deep root as we grow up is far more deplorable For Diseased Seminal Ideas derived from the Matrice are hardly to be razed out they are so incorporated with our Constitutes challenging as great priviledge to act their part upon the Stage of this Little World in an uniform Manner and Dress though depraved as Nature in its Integrity directed by wholsome Images performs all things orderly according to just proportion and approved Rules of Sanity At that very time when the chief Author moulds the Seed containing the shadowed Likeness of what is to be made capable of a perfect Form doth the same Workmaster draw the Pourtraiture of those manifold Mischiefs which happen to Body and Mind many years after So fixed are those Hereditary Miseries that although the whole Mass of every Numerical Part of the Body be changed again and again yet the Radical Tincture or dye of the Congenite Disease shall remain ready to put forth it self flourish spread into various Branches and Fruits when the full time is come that it meets with an Outward Cause to stir it up This is demonstrable in the Gout the Stone Consumption Madness Small Pox c. whose Images for some years lie as it were asleep till they be roused up through some Provocative Occasions The Idea's of Evils which the Archeus contrives when we are come out of the Womb abroad in the open Aire are flitting may easily be blurred wiped off by a stronger Figure these often interfeering each other at length clash together and both become annihilated Infinite are the Number of Idea's or Representations made by a Working Phansie some of which are no sooner
Living Body from the same cause do virulent Animals Vegetables or Minerals taken inwardly Purge violently for as much as the Sensitive Spirit falls into an indignation at the presence of that it abhors so makes a confusion of the holsome Juices by Colliquating and Putrefying them Hereupon so little benefit arises from things meerly loosening the Body the Principal Agent being exasperated by what is contrary to its Texture and Nature After this rate did I begin my Practice being taught no better than to give many Stools or Vomits without indulging or pleasing this great President which as I have often proved is the Supreme cause of Sanity and Infirmity But afterward instructed by a far more able Tutor than the Schools I began to correct my former Traditional Error following the sure Thread of repeated Experiments so that at length I never gave any Solutive not fitting to Corroborate the Stomach not friendly to the Ferments and Vitals Before I took this course all frequent Laxatives were fruitless because they did anger and enrage the Archeus stirring up Storms and Tempest in the Microcosm instead of a sweet Tranquility By this means the Idea's of the Phantasie ingeneral were rectified and clarified after that the Spirits in particular places were composed aright He that desires to be free from absurd Melancholy thoughts furious passions and perturbations let him take Eustomachical Benign Benevolent Remedies sufficient always to cleanse away Impurities without causing Hatred Frowardness or high Displeasure in Nature whose genuine course is to be observed without putting her to any violent stress or compulsion CHAP. X. The Pharmaceutick or upright Method of Curing Diseases by Medicines in general HOw the Galenists have been mistaken concerning the Four Elements their Mixture for the Composition of Bodies their Contrarieties Qualities Complexions deduced from thence how falsly they have delivered them to be Principles of Natural Existences and the Causes of Sickness and Health hath been perspicuously detected by our Philosophical Pyrotechnist upon this foresaid rotten Foundation have they raised their Stately and Pompous Fabrick of Curing Obstinately endeavouring still to keep it up The Rule of Contraries derived from Imaginary Supposition of the Hostility and Reluctancy of the the Four Elements whence they say all Concretes have their Original by which they chiefly act for the end to debellate Mans Infirmities hath been the bane of many Myriads Where they find any notable heat in a Feaver they presently take Indication to cool the Body in a degree proportionable to its Antagonist in hopes thereby to reduce the Body to an Eucrasie but still with unlucky success For neglecting the Radical Cause and aiming at the Abolitions of Accidents Products or Symptoms how can it be otherwise but that they must needs miss the Mark unless they hit it by casualty A Faithful Knowing Physitian is unconcern'd and indifferent whether the Patient be Hot Cold or Temperate as to the touch in a Feaver whether Thirsty or no. For asmuch as he understands the same Agent that sends forth a hot Blas doth also send sometimes a Cold from the same Matter He also frequently observes a Cold dead Splinter or Thorn doth Vex Gaul Fret the Archeus of the Finger in such a manner that the Pulse becomes above measure Magnified the Colour Rubified the Blood incensed the Heat Exalted All which arise from the Material cause of the Thorn impacted Likewise the Eye waters smarts abhors the Light looks red or inflamed from a mote or a small fragment of Glass c. Cold things by reason of the Passion of the Ingenite Spirit much provoked at the presence of the Guest so unwelcomed to life Moreover a spark of fire Essentially Hot lighting upon the hand or elswhere causes a sudden shivering Coldness all over the Body What is more frequent than to sustain a grievous Rigour or Coldness even to chattering of the Teeth from the abundance of a supposed humor called Choller analogous to Fire as they will have it Hot and Dry. On the other side how Hot and Dry have I known some Phlegmatick Bodies in Feavers even beyond Cholerick In this Case how without contradiction to their Theorems can they without lethiferous Mistakes give cooling things for the encrease of Phlegm and Hot for the advancement of Choller were not this to augment the cause of the Disease Is not this rather the very strait course to relieve the misaffected to exempt the Thorn or Splinter out of the Finger the Mote Fragment of Class out of the Eye by proper Instruments also to attenuate rarifie Phlegm to mitigate Edulcorate Retund and alter Choller by what is adaequated operative for the ablution abstersion and carrying away both Sospite Stomachi ac Naturae robore through all the most requisite Sluces of the Body This done like a true Philosophical Artist a sweet Tranquility appears in the Vitals all evil Symptoms of Heat Cold c. forthwith or in a very short time vanish Neither in this case is it of Moment whether the Remedies bringing this to pass be Hot or Cold sith as substracting the Fuel from the Fire it will quickly be extinguished so removing the occasional Matter of Heat this is soon annihilated Did the Schools rightly comprehend how Fire may be procured by the Rapid Collision of two cold incombustible solid Bodies as Stone and Steel or by the long attrition of an accensible Matter no whit hot to the touch or by the Fermentation Agitation Conglomeration or Compression of Acids and Alkali's also by Concentration of Light into a Cone or Minute Compass they would be better acquainted with the Cause of the Aestuation Effervescence and Accension of the Vital Spirits in Feavers hereby suitable Remedies might be provided When at any time the Genuine Domestick Spirits of the Microcosm and a Wild Exotick Gas meeting together do strike or grate one upon another in a confused whirled manner there strait breaks forth a preternatural heat to be corrected by Pacifying the Vitals enraged and enabling them to profligate or subjugate this hardly tameable both subtil Wild Spirit and the matter from whence it emerges which is never to be accomplished by Cooling Prescriptions but by that which pleases the Archeus indulging it exceedingly If degenerate Salts Acid or Alkali couched in a rotten Matter create Thirst or excessive Heat by framing a Tumult in the Animals whatsoever doth correct the same is to be embraced indifferently whether hot or cold 'T is enough if I can attain my Grand Intention the ablation of the Nocuous Thermopoietick Matter the Substance on which all Qualities Accidents depend If I can compass this Fundamentally why do the Galenists wilfully blind cavil and rail at my Elaborate Preparations as violently Hot Burning Drying Inflaming when they cannot but be informed that I spurning at their Silly Insignificant Qualities of Heat and Cold as to Essential Cures I Extirpate all Feavers by amotion and abandoning the Original Exciter thereof But in this state I renounce
keep one from and to Cure Surfeits It is very powerfully good against the Scurvy or any poysonous ill-conditioned infectious Evils It prevents and helps to Cure all kind of Feavers It quencheth the Thirst to an Admiration above all supposed cooling things whatsoever It bringeth Preternatural heat or coldness to a due moderation by removing the Efficient Cause thereof reducing the parts to their former strength It is available against Fits of the Mother the Whites It dissolves Congealed Curdled Matter ripeneth raw Juices bringing them either to a better Condition for the Use of Nature or preparing them to be sent packing out of the Body by convenient ways and Medicaments It abates a nauseons Disposition or Vomiting by confirming the Membranes of the Stomack and by promoting the throwing off that which disturbs it It cutteth and cleanseth away slimy Birdlime-like Flegm giving ease in difficulty of Breathing mitigating the violence of the Tissick It is admirably useful against Melancholy Imaginations passions from the Spleen c. called Hypochondriak an evil state of body arising for want of proportionable Nutriment or from Galenical Medicaments It availeth against the Dropsie or Consumption The frequent use thereof strengthens the Brain Sinews Loyns Memory and all the Senses Stom Ess. outwardly applyed challengeth noble effects For 't is very Healing Balsamical curing green Wounds and plain Soars being often touched therewith I have hitherto found it constant in happily Curing Burnings Scorchings or Scaldings some drops being frequently distilled thereon and forced inward by the bottom of a smooth Glass I cannot but experimentally commend it as one of the best asswagers of the pain of the Teeth I have hitherto met with It is also of great force to preserve them from corruption likewise in part to restore them resisting the putrifaction of the Gums Neither is it to be contemned for the mitigation of the pains of any part strengthning and quickning the Vital Spirit thereof With many more laudable properties is Stom Ess. or Alexi flomachon endued which the frequent use thereof and a longer strict observation will bring to light The quantity to be given is measured by the greatness and stâ—bborness of the Disease for sometimes ten or twenty times as much as the common portion ought to be offered neither is it to be feared that any hurt will arise therefrom The ordinary Dose or extent of giving it is twenty thirty forty fifty sixty drops in a draught of any Liquor as Beer Ale separate or mixt sometimes Wine as Sack or whatsoever doth best relish with the person It may be taken at any time when the Stomach is out of ordeâ— troubled with Indigestion Wind Pains Gripes or any of the foresaid vexations then let them take liberally thereof He that constantly takes every morning thirty or forty drops shall prevent many mischiefs in reference to his Health I doubt not but the Galeno-Chymists or the Pseudo-chymists will like Apes endeavour to imitate and counterfeit this experienced Essence which before I am convinced by Fact I shall presume to prefer before any Medicament of its rank yet visibly extant among us Of such I shall advise my Countreymen to beware for these Adulterators will but disgrace and degrade it for I am sure none can find out the true way of making it unless he be a knowing Philosopher working with his own hands and taking Preparations into his own Stomach Thus much I advertise He that dextrously can volatilize Salt of Tart. may do something tending to this purpose otherwise not He that desires to be farther instructed concerning the defence of the Virtues of this Essence and the disproving of what is spoken against it by Malâ—volents let him read with integrity the just commendation of it in Haematiasis c. Indefatigable perseverance in opening Bodies â—y the Fire and the repeated Assumption of what was thence produced hath brought me to the knowledge of a Pill I call Polychrest which consists of three Golden Sulphurs from Minerals well purified and friendly to Nature whose innocence as well as effectual Operation is remarkable and upon tryal to be justified by any who understands a good Remedy They are conducible in most Diseases They act by cleansing opening corroborating and purifying the Blood without leaving the least ill impress behind for they contain no laxative so noxious as Senna or Rewbarb they are of great force to conquer the Scurvie also prevalent against the Dropsie They prevent the Stone and carry off Gravel They sweeten sharp Liquors in the Body They overcome the Venereal or foul Disease if taken a considerable time neither is it to be suspected that one may be weakned by the long frequent use of them for they contrary to other purging Concretes make one more lusty and vigorous as I have found in my having taken many thousands of them with an advancement of my strength They reform the Spleen help to cure Feavers prevent relapses and long Maladies They may be swallowed at any time of the day or night neither will they cause injury but rather benefit if they loosen not the body in twenty four hours which is rare for usually they give a stool or two in that space The Dose is two or three Pills a little before Supper or early in the Morning The Patient proceeding thus for three or four days and resting a day or two and then repeating them Tinct nost Emetica is profitable in all Malignant Feavers in the griping or loosness of the Belly difficulty of Breathing pain of the Sides Headach Diseases of the Stomach Spleen It leaves the Vitals more cheerful and active It matters not whether it work or no by vomit or stool however it will do good by Sweat or causing Urine If the party be capable it may be given a week together at any time of the day or night I often give it in bed Pul. Emeto Catharticus is profitable in many Diseases as Emetica Tinctur It searches out the Morbifick matter leaving wholesome Juyces untouched when other Vomits are given in vain this Profiteth Pil. Emeto Cathart are useful for the same Diseases as Pulvis Emeto Cathar Polyacea Tinctura Solaris or Balsamica are great supporters of Nature the tamers of Malignant Feavers they go into all parts illuminate and augment the Archeus or Vitals They carry off by Sweat Urine and Expectoration There are few Diseases which will not somewhat yield to these Cordials if exhibited in a just proportion Elixi Proprietat nost resists Putrifaction opens the Spleen helps Digestion purifies the Blood It is very cordial expels Menfâ—râ—a stopped and gives a check to them flowing excessively It is most efficacious to cause an easie and speedy delivery in difficult labour of Women Its Dose is from ten to an hundred drops or more in strong Liquor With several other salutary Remedies could I acquaint the World but now I must desist hoping God may spare my life till the Edition of my Physical Observations the history
Enemy shortly withers I grant the Dogmatists own the use of Specificks affirming that they substantially and formally resist the Evils of Life For all that 't is well known to the Faithful Philosopher how little they trust to them being conscious to themselves how ieiune and barren they are therein never profoundly to a purpose examining this Ideal Doctrine or putting it to the Test of Solid Learned repeated Experiments as they ought but rather trusting to what Good-wives have Taught them who Happily deprived of their false Methods slighting their Hodg podg Bolmong Non-sensical jumbling together of multitude of Ingredients looking Ninety nine ways at once but in no wise at the right Mark led by their own Genius put to some difficulties moved to pity their Neighbours Languors simply looked upon by them with a sincere Eye of Healing without that chief Sordid Mercenary End our Galenical Hucksturs or Ingrossers drive at have been by Divine Providence conducted to the knowledge of those Specificks that have beyond expectation made a Metamorphosis of the Infirmity into Sanity To the Rude contingent Essays of the Plain Candid Immethodical People are our Fine-finger'd Disingenuous Methodical Galenists beholding hardly affording a Mantissa of their own Experimental Discoveries to the weight of Direct Immediate Scheme of Curing This is the Reason we have so few Patterns of Antidotes in this kind sufficient to annihilate those Venemous Characters made by multitude of dayly Occurrent Occasional Causes such is the Laziness of these Antichymists that they will neither labour themselves nor encourage Industrious men Their Main study is to disguise themselves that they may rather seem than be truly Philosophical wherefore like the worst of Thieves stealing Pretious Truths out of Van Helm or his Legitimate Disciples they conceal them by dressing them in a strang Habit thus bring them upon the Stage of the world to be Admired as the Off-spring of their own Head and Hand whereas indeed they are but meerly Surreptitious for which they ought severely to be animadvâ—rted especially for Cavilling and Carping at this Noble Philosopher to whom they owe what Orthodox Knowledge they have Of this Crime I know some cryed up by the Ignorant for great Spagyrists who as I can expressly shew hath pillaged our Philosopher of Substantial Physical Verities changed their Name cut out their Mark put on a larg fine Coat of Rhetorick to make them look more gaudy so exposed them to Sale at the Phantastical Fairs of this Foolishly Affecting willingly to be deceived World Now let us find out if possible some Rare Gifts Instilled into the Creatures by the Conditor of all things These are fitly to be divided into three Monarchies or Republicks each one bound to act according to that Power they are subject to viz. Animal Vegetable Mineral to which is added Marine CHAP. XV. AMong the Tribe of Animals with their Parts the Spirit of the blood of Man blots out the Idea of the Falling-sickness which the Spirit of Urine in every respect besides equal with the former cannot effect The Pouder of the Skul of a Man strangled is reputed a Specifick in the Epilepsie The Spirit of the Brain is valued after the same rate To drink his own Urine preserveth from the Image of the Pest. The repeated Potation of Urine cures the Tertian and makes the Seminal Character to fade away The Uterine Blood of a Child-bed Woman drank hath an excellent faculty to stop immoderate Fluxes of the Womb arising from a furious Idea The Blood flowing from the Nose stops excessive Haemorrhagies Menstruum Virginis extinguisheth Erysipelas Blood Extravsated or quitture hath a Sympathetical Sense diffusing Beams at a great Distance towards the Vital Blood causing Idea's Sanative or Corruptive in Wounds or Ulcers according as Moderate or Violent Impresses are made upon the Matter removed from the Body The Gaul of Man correcteth Deafness The Mumy of Mans Body duly prepared acts strangly upon the Innate Spirits Ferments and Idea's for saith our Philosopher Nec etenim tutum est satis Mumiarum ad invicem connexum concordantiam exprimere inde nempe tota dimanavit Necromantia veterum A man may presume to dive too far into this abstruse Philosophy to his own prejudice imitating the Necromancy of the Antients Without Controversie the true Mumy operates notably upon the Morbifick Seal enabling the Spirits to abolish it to make salutiferous Images in place of the former But it is not to be purchased sincere at this day nor a succedaneum thereto for that liquor as it is described was of a thick Mellaginous consistence of good Odour of singular Efficacy proceeding from the Balsome of Myrrhe Aloe Cinamon with which they seasoned Mans Body Ours at this day is of a different form to the right Being only a Cadaverous Liquamen or a piece of Flesh Condited and dryed very little significant for the cure of any great Disease The Fat of Man wants not its worth as a Topick in removing weak troublesome tormenting Marks made on certain parts of the Body The Fat of Man enters into the Weapon Salve for the advancement thereof To what Nefarious Impious uses Witches put the parts of Mans Body for the execution of their horrid Enterprizes is known to those who have enquired into Natural Magical Causes of things The same parts of Man differently handled may destroy their wicked villanous Bewitching Idea's by introducing Good Moral Divine Religious Representations 'T is vulgarly known how Fasting-spittle doth take off some Griefs not so much by power of a volatile Salt in it as by a gift conferred of spoiling the Stigma in the part affected Ear-wax cometh not short thereof in Energie The Spirit of Hair applyed causeth Hair to grow Man's Dung is reported to be an Adaequate Antidote for mortifying the terrible Idea of some Poysons The great Tooth of a Dead Body placed upon an aking Tooth causeth it to fall out by bare contact Van. Hel. affirms Morientium sudor mirificas vires mortificandi Haemorrhoides excrescentias possidet p. 233. The Sweat of a Dying Man destroys the form of the swelling of the outward Piles and other Excrescenscies A Dead-mans hand caused to stroke the same acts in like manner Lice swallowed alive diminisheth as is confirmed by some experimentally the Tincture of the Jaundice and sometimes totally removes the steps thereof Intestinal Worms dried poudered taken inwardly destroy the Figure of living Worms Lice are said to rid away Lice Some declare the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder prudently Ordered by an Expert Pyrosophist marreth the fashion of the Duelech loosening the Compage thereof making it become Retrograde to the Principle of it's first Concretion There are some who have such an Idiosyncrasie or peculiar Constitution of Body that upon Contact Palpation or stroaking another Living Body they change the Texture of the same alter a valetudinary Melancholy stamp to a wholsome Chearful Image And I doubt not but some Infected with the Venereal Poysonous sting