above any except my self infected by the dissection of the Pestilential body to which he was instigated by his allevation and my presagition of what would fall out so that he expresly declared not long before I was undermined nigh the eleventh day that I had foretold him whatsoever came to pass to that time yea withall had been an instrument to save his life A man would think this should be obligation sufficient to keep a sick man from listning to the obloquies of any slander But behold how inconstant one is and malicious the other They falsly now upon his Recovery inveigh against me that I gave him violent hot things urging withall Vesicatories would have done him most good He foolishly gives credit to it whereupon another must be entertained to reap the fruits of my labours to carry away the credit of the Cure Hos ego versiculos feci tulit alter Honorem Sic nos non nobis mellificamus Apes Well what is the issue their cooling dull flat sycophantizing slops their putrefying Vomits Purges their colliquating Epispasticks their uncorrected opiates continued for a months space could in no wise rid him of his Ague which I offered upon the Reputation of the Spagyrical Science valued by me above any temporal thing quickly to eradicate Yea the supinity and blindness in sounding the bottom of the relique of the feaver gave occasion that an acid or acride feculent bloud restagnant about the spleen was afterward in part derivated symptomatically to those tender vessels of the fundament afflicting him by anxious excretion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a dribbling manner superstite causa intrinseca materiali the true cause no whit removed Now Gentlemen de vobis fabula narratur what ye wrongfully cast upon my hot medicines I can make appear not saying only but by doing something experimentally for the future that your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your erroneous practice brought all the succeeding mischiefs upon this infirm subject too tractable and condescending to your Authority 9. How unworthy of a Learned Philosopher was it to let out the bloud of the arm robbing a man of his strength for the pain of the Haemorrhoides whose efficient material cause was in the spleen or the parts circumjacent not to be reached by the Lancet Sith moreover there are some Amulets prevalent Anodines for the mitigation of Haemorrhoidal Dolours witness Van Helmonts factitious metal with which he could by bare application to the skin of the hand asswage their anguish in the space of repeating an Ave Mar. 10. What a dis-repute is at this day brought upon the Honourable Science of Physick through the ignorance of some famous Doctors that a meer Chyrurgeon should be esteemed more able to remove the grief of the Haemorrhoides or piles depending upon an inward cause then they who have made it their continual study and care thirty or forty years to be acquainted with the essential properties of things 11. That indiscreet bleeding palliation and a neglect of the original cause of the vexatious piles brought a feaver upon this merchant the 2d time is as perspicuous to a genuine Artist as light at noon-day which if I had not prevented absit jactantia had he been guided by my directions I would have been liable to a severe mulct 12. Lastly 't is no firm argument at all that the Lancet doth directly solidly or radically cure any great feaver because this Merchant at last through innate vigour accidentally recovered For this will be but Elenchus causae pro non causa unless they will stand to maintain it according to my Lord Bacon's way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 experimentally After this little digression I now return to our Dâ—ctor that we may examine the fourth Quaery 4. Whether the succession of a new supply of bloud for the old corrupt emitted will produce any considerable melioration in it according to our Authors assertion There hath been of late an invention I suppose more ingenius than useful of the transfusion of the bloud of one body into another which according to Report of some knowing men hath caused such an alteration in this balsamick mass that great diseases have been Cured I wish this experiment might so far hold currant that our Phlebotomists might infuse some laudable juice in lieu of the depraved they effuse then should I quickly concur with them in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remotion of evil and reposition of good then should I conclude they were Spagyrists indeed did really perform what they verbally express But sith I see no such matter acted by them their utmost scope they level at being the piercing the vessels and drawing out what is contained in them good or bad without any solicitude to make a vicisitudinary immission of what is better I have very good reason to contradâ—ct this Phlebotomical method of curing which debilitates Nature by emission of bloâ—d termed corrupt the efficient cause thereof remaining untouched For the Confirmation of this truth I shall alledge Reason Authority and Experiment The means used to let out bad bloâ—d without removing the efficient cause thereof is no direct method of healing Now Phlebotomy lets out bad bloud without removing the efficient cause thereof Ergo Phlebotomy is no direct method of healing The major is thus proved whatsoever suffers the cause to remain can never remove the effect for manente causa manet effectus Now Phlebotomy suffers the cause to remain Ergo it can never remove the effect The minor is made good by frequent experiments if the cause of bad bloud were cut off the feaver or Scorbute depending according to Dr. Willis upon the degeneration of sal and sul therein would quickly cease but we plainly see the contrary for after the veins are much depleted the dâ—sease becomes more truculent and oftentimes mortal which could never be if this depraved bloud were any other than a Product or Effect of an essential morbifick cause The same Agent which in sanity sanguâ—fies regularly without any considerable defection In sickness becomes exorbitant sending out a vicious juice into all parts be it good or bad it still springs from a Root which continually feeds the branches so that it cannot be other than great folly and wrong to the Patient to let out that juice though it seem never so corrupt when another of the like condition must needs enter into its place derived from that shop the Duumvirate where it first receives a previous Rudiment which ought in all reason rather to be reformed than to give vent to those easily evanid particles inseparably joyned with this ruddy Liquor how ill soever represented If all contained in the veins supposed to be corrupt were discharged yet as long as the ferments principally of the first and sixth digestion deviate from their right scope there would in short space be a succedaneous repletion of a matter equally contemptible yea worse in respect of an enervation of strength than before But sith a total
rightly constituted There is in the Cruor or cruder part of the bloud a disposition or potential capacity to be formally changed into fat Membranes Veins Arteries Nerves Gâ—isâ—es Bones into pâ—rest Bloud Milk and seed by power of the seminal Archeus operating by active ferments not by heat as any efficient cause which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible as I shall shew hereafter but I cannot apprehend how Butyrous or Caseous Portions of a substance having acquired its destinated end for the Lactation of the young being dis-joyned by the Air or by Art destroying its texture should be so far concerned as to establish therein the Origination of spirits accretion nutrition and generation so that this white juice the Chyme intermixed with the bloud should contain the same Heterogeneities as Milk made a compleat entire body by the Archeus and ferments reciding in the Glandles of the breast Shew me if you can any pinguedinous or Caseous matter in the bloud unless fabricated by Vulcan proportionable to the parts of milk then will I listen to your Lacteous division of this rubefied juice which being Homogeneous is sufficient without any milky partition to repair by means of archeal ferments all that is Continent or contained in the body in the same manner as I have seen an hundred different sorts of Plants bitter sweet sharp acrid austere resinous corrosive purging venemous fed and vegetated in a very small compass of Earth by Water The seminal ferment of each Root changing this similar Liquor attracted into a substance agreeable to its specifick nature A digestion or rarefaction being made in the Root as it were the stomach of the vegetable it becomes capable to be transmuted by a metamorphizing Zymosis or seminal spiritual diffusion of magnetick Gorganical effluviums arising from the alterant penetrating the matter alterable whereby it becomes one with the Bark Stock Stem Leaf Flowers and fruit Thus the Chyle having received in the stomach of animals a previous umbratile signature for that ultimate end destinated is in the second digestion converted by the felleous contact from acid into saline being made more volatile in the intestines from whence this white Liquor passing through pipes is swallowed up by the veins and there rubefied by an urinous like salt then falling into the right ventricle as into a gulf where being agitated by a most spirituous Zumôsis it forthwith impetuously boils up into the Lungs being whirled about into another profundity the lest ventricle out of which it is violently forced by a strong current into the utmost confines hence is it again circulated or pelecanised Thus in all these shops it enters is it by means of ferments and motion more and more refined simplified and volatilized that it may be the more easily convertible into the identical substance of every part altering what is needful for proper uses The same matter which serves the fabrication augmentation and nutrition of the tender membranes is also ordained for the structure of a Rigid Bone and that which is allotted for both may also become spirituous if the Archeus so please without first as it were Churning and adding a Renet thereto that Butyrous and Caseous parts may be elicitated for whatsoever restores this frail body of man must be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. volatile before it come to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fixed or solid so that the Coagulation proceeds not from the nutritious juice but from the part to be nourished As for the Creation of spirits which Dr. Betts would have to arise from a Butyrous matter by vertue of heat efficiently as he delivers in p. 252. Butyrosa à caloris actione in spiritus abit is by no means to be admitted for truth by a Physical inquirer who studies to improve his knowledge for the benefit of others For first I find no sequestration of any thing really pinquedinous in the bloud after it hath stood sometime in the Porringer no unctuosity or inflammability of parts yea if it be put to the test of the fire little oily substance is extracted therefrom in comparison of what is saline Secondly neither whatsoever is fatty is easily convertible into spirits unless by ferment and addition of something else it becomes saline for as long as it remains unctuous it doth by its laxity and softness hinder tensity and activity requisite for whatsoever is spirituous consisting of saline particles for if you draw over in glasses by what gradual heat soever meer oil by it self an hundred times yet still will it remain oil it may indeed be purifyed and made more subtle by reason of the grosser part remaining behind as a common effect of the fire yet cannot it be changed by this bare process so as to be properly termed a spirit The efficient cause reckoned by the Doctor to be heat for the framing of spirits is very insufficient For how can that be said to be the principal Agent of making any thing which is made thereby for fith as Helmont truly declares the spirits issue from a fermentation and motion of the bloud subtiliated and illuminated vitally how can heat be any more than a meer adjacent or consequent depending accidentally upon what went before in the same manner as fire succeeds the rapid motion of nitrous effluviums emitted by strong and sudden mutual concussions of the Flint and Steel 'T is not possible the native heat of Animals of which fishes are actually deprived working upon the Butyrous part of the bloud but where existent I would fain see should produce as our Peripatetick sets down page the 147. Mixtum quoddam aliquanto plus igneae Naturae continens a certain mixed thing somewhat of a fiery nature which he would have to feed upon the unctuous Radical moisture in the same manner as our Culinary fire doth prey upon pinguedinous combustibles Here he minces the matter describing the essence of animal spirits to be of a fiery condition so that being very much to seek what they are he seems to vacillate in his intellect thinking it enough if he tell us 't is as it were fire but no fire that is indeed he knows not what Yet in another place where he speaks of an uncessant carrying of every little particle of the bloud by insensible transpiration his words are positive page 300 Quare cum in sanguine puro emineat inque eo altè ac ubique insideat ignis idem in corpore humano efficiet i. e. expressing how fire diffuses it self every way from the Center to the Circumference bearing along with it the particles of every thing intimately involved in it Wherefore seeing there is an apparent fire every where still seated in the pure bloud it will perform the same in mans body which I absolutely deny can be done by fire fine Capite mortuo without residence to the perpetual prejudice of the health 'T is one of the greatest riddles in the world to me that fire should be actually in a place
evacuations and long retention of any recrement Did they rightly understand how bloud like Mercury may be Polymorphised and changed into divers shapes and at length be retroduced to the same state and condition as when it was in its Primitive essence certainly then these Dogmatists would never be so forward to pierce poor mans skin rashly let out and throw away that substantial support of life foolishly and falsly apprehending that to be totally corrupt and deprived of what it was in its former being and in no wise capable to be retrograde and return to it self again because it seems to their eyes when it appears abroad discoloured invested with a contemptible apparel as Yellow Green White Blew c. Moreover one would think it should put a stop to their prodigal profuse bleeding if they did but meditate with what difficulty Nature brings this solar Liquor to perfection how many hazards of becoming spurious and abortive it passes through how easily it is stained by an extraneous tincture how often intermixed with something allogeneous and hostile to it how many elaborate circulations digestions and refinings it undergoes before it be throughly animated and made fit for the right use of the immortal soul Now that we may be informed concerning the efficient and material cause of this vital juice let us contemplate its original the place where 't is first generated or conception as an Embryon of its Nativity Growth and full Maturity The proper Womb where the bloud receives a previous Rudiment earnest or signature of what Nature intends to perfect by degrees is the stomach where by vertue of a vigorous ferment the food is converted into a whitish Chyle subacide somewhat fixed agreeable to the part involving or containing and to the subordinate instrumental cause that is employed in this notable change of what is ingested After the Chyle hath continued so long in the stomach that it hath attained that scope Nature hath intended it is emitted out of this vessel either oppressed with abundance or stirred up with an extimulating sharpness which makes an apertion of the Pylorus through which it passes into the Duodenum Jejunum and Ilion where a very bitter yet a most balsamical dark deeply tinged Condiment attending the foresaid Acide juice strait converts the same into a saline exceedingly Volatilized chyme the more pure rarifyed part of which being made capable and pervious is sucked up by those invisible lacteous vessels implanted in the mesentery the more impure and grosser is discharged through the Intestines In these smal Fistulary cavities runs this innocent white Liquor through the Pancreas into the descending Trunk Vena Cava and through the Thorax into the Subclavian Veins by means of which it is conveyed into the right ventricle of the heart dilating where intermixt with the bloud it is immediately altered in several accidents there receiving the Character or Idaea of vitality by vertue of an inherent ferment concurring Upon the contraction of the heart the valves belonging to the Cava hindring regress a fair way is laid open for its free egress through the Arteria pulmonica into that spongy body the Lungs in which part it is freed from some foulness and Dross which this Porous Parenchyma in its filtration as it were imbibes and separates the ambient Air inspired much conducing to the mundification rarefaction of the same bright red juice by helping the fermentation thereof and sending out many nocuous exhalations in expiration The matter being thus far prepared it is at lenght brought down by Vena Pulmonica into the left ventricle of the heart expanding whence it is more vitalized and graduated in its excellency and by a strong sudden constriction yirked and exploded by the Arteries meliorating it through the extream Orifices of the fore-named vessels into all parts of the body where some portion is assimilated into the Identical substance of that which is to be nourished what juice fitting being spent in assimilation the rest is taken up by the veins returning it to the right ventricle and so through the Lungs to the left where it is advanced to a greater degree of perfection by often Circulation part of which is made fit for the generation of vital spirits Accretion Nutrition and Procreation Thus much concerning the material cause of bloud Now the Efficient or Agent is the innate Archeus or vital spirit which chiefly makes this formal Transmutation of whatsoever is nourishable This works by his principal instrument the ferments in the Duumvirate and in the rest of the digestions For this Primum Mobile moving sine Motore alieno sets all the other wheels in motion till being exantlated and its vital power exhausted all the inferiour Orbs forthwith subsist are at a stand and fail This Auto Kineton is the seat or subject of the sensitive soul where it is emicant and translucent in the same manner as the beams of the Sun received in by the air in a serene clear sky are effulgent and bright but in a cloudy dusky heaven are offuscated and opacous Needs must melancholly sad thoughts attend the mind when the spirits are tenebrous dim and dark being clouded and over-spread with dark misty fogs of noysom exhalations arising from impure feculent malignant degenerate moisture which causes the soul lodging therein to act irregularly in as much as the primary instrument this vital steam by which the soul operates is depraved and bereaved of its genuine goodness Wherefore that this place of the lifes residence may be capable to receive so divine a guest Nature hath ordained and curiously fabricated several Pipes venal arterial and nervous with fit cavities and convenient parts adjoyning for the Circulation Fermentation Digestion Exaltation Purification of this vital juice So that if any thing dissonant violent adverse incongruous and of a different Texture enter into it the same is either forthwith exploded or a great inquietude displacency and confusion ariseth in the Oeconomy of the body to the hazard of the whole frame of Nature Likewise if the stomach titubate and come short in its right digestion all the other succeedng shops ordained for maturation and perfecting this rubicund Liquor cannot correct the mistakes errours and defects of the first so that we may conclude without controversie that this Noble Membranous cavity layeth the foundation for the further erection and superstructure of the prime matter which makes this stately edifice entire and firm Let not any harbour a conceit that the Liquor current in the veins and arteries will ever be brought to that requisite maturity and cleansed from that dross it is incident to unless the stomach the Key that unlocks all the Privy Chambers and Closets of this little world be first set in order and rectifyed 'T is all one as if one should pump without stopping the leak if he apply Remedies à Posteriori to the consequent indigencies in the parts neglecting the main defect of the Duumvirate à priori which like the Helme of a
way proportionable to the Idaeas of Maladies which he would have to come efficiently and materially there-from then were his Chymical principles more plausibly taking But sith I am sure he cannot demonstrate this I contemplate the fermentation exaltation depression of sul the fusion fluidity and coagulation of Sal borrowed from the speculation of Wine and Milk analogically introduced by him to confirm his Quinary Institutions of Pathology to be no immediate essential cause of diseases as I doubt not practically to make evident If Dr. Willis seriously meditate he shall find in Reality a vast difference between the operations of the vital bloud and those proceeding from the Zymôsis of the juice of a vegetable or the separation made by air or any other artificial means in Milk tending to corruption of the same For these dead things are in no wise able to give us adaequate light of those regular and Irregular actions that are performed by a vital beginning whose Type is of a more sublime extract than to be parallel'd by any thing inanimate I confess some small illustration may be made by way of simily between animate and inanimate mechanical artificial and natural which may please the phantasie of those that are not throughly acquainted with the intimate Radical and efficient causes of vital powers and actions the priority of which are not intelligible by any mortal only we are taught à posteriori the effects of this primum movens perpetrating every thing by such a plat-form that is unerring unless impeded by intervening outward accidents according to that Mandate the great Creator hath given it till the dissolution of the universe We believe there was the same principles of all Concretes before the fall as since and that the Archeus of the stomach before the lapse of the Protoplastes did perfectly intirely change whatsoever was taken in for nourishment without any Relique of annoyance of excrements dross or filth those Tribuli Spinae which since the eating of the forbidden fruit the stomach of man being thereby vitiated do continually infest it in such sort that the vita Media of every thing assumed is hardly conquered an injurious impress being oftentimes left behind Hence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first rise of all our calamities for the deviation of the Archeus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives occasional matter to an infinite number of infirmities Not that the sulphur and salt of any Concrete is separated in the first digestion and so according as either is multiplyed or degenerate sickness breaketh forth No such matter for let a strong vigorous stomach take into it any sulphureous fat oily food the ferment makes in some short space such an essential transmutation that the sulphur becomes acid quite another thing to what it was before and afterward in the second digestion by vertue of the vital contact of the Gall it is changed saline Again the Alkali of vegetables is so altered in the stomach and other digestions that use the best skill you have you shall not be able to draw out of the urine bloud or any other part a lixiviate salt although Dr. Willis erroneously attributes to this and an acid Liquor like vitriol the cause why in a Scorbutical Arthritis a worm laid upon the part affected becomes in a short space mortifyed v. p. 292. de Scorbu Moreover pure spirit of Wine upon touch of the vital spirits looses its inflammability and its former saline sulphureous nature being changed into something of an urinous substance And here I am bound justly to taxe some Physicians of great ignorance in that they so scruple in feavers to give their Patients a large quantity of spirit of Wine rectifyed as it ought supposing they should add more fuel to the fire thereby to make a Phlogôsis a greater efferviscence or conflagration in the body not considering that nothing is more congenerous symbolizing with the animal Gas of life then highly exalted spirit of Wine being forthwith imbraced united and identifyed one with another by reason of their affinity and congruity 2. They do not truly understand the energy of Zymôsis what a powerful alterity is made by it and how the sulphureous particles of the vegetable becomes urinous like the spirit of the animal whereby it is enabled to profligate the morbifick matter through all the Emmunctories sluces and secret passages of the body This really is the direct way of curing feavers fundamentally not seeming cooling Julips Barley Water Posset-drink made with small Beer least it should be too hot prone to make the sulphur in the bloud as they alledge incensed already to become more impetuously head-strong no wayes to be reined or governed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormon whose fate they conclude must needs be sad when such presumptuous Phaeton like Pyrotechnists drive the mettalsome Horses of the Son of this microcosm so furiously For all this let the Dogmatists say what they please if they will vouchsafe to be spectators I can discover to them Autopsiâ that I am able to cure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many feavers more expeditely and effectually by those things they call hot then by all the infrigidating preparatious they can invent or all the farraginous mixture belonging to the Apothecaries shop I wish with all my soul the Galenists would now at length reject those insufficient invalid medicines made by others and recond as a Treasure Arcana's elaborated by their own fingers then would they be truly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the equivocal sense of the word making a unity in that profession which through the Covetousness pride laziness of Physicians hath been divided into a Tripartite station to the great dishonour debasement and total Ruine of a his Noble Science if some Worthy Prudent Magistrates the Heroes of this Nation do not timely prevent This Parergôs I return to Dr. Willis his Quinta prima as the efficient causes of diseases Sith as I have delivered there is no separation of them in a healthful living body It follows that if any at any time a secretion of the five be made then are they Products and Epigenomena from a disorder or defection then cannot they be properly said to be primary precedent causes of the impairment of our health but consequents of the same Wherefore it 's preposterous to take in that for a cause which is but a meer effect whose Posteriority plainly shews a dependency upon something going before For example in a febrile state we see rejected by vomit or any other way excreted a yellow matter which the Doctor may call sulphureous This as he conceives joyned with something saline causes an effervescence boiling or Accension whence arises the feaver First let us examine whence came this excessive ebullition what is the efficient cause thereof in a living body 2. What separates and expels these parts denominated salt and sulphur 3. Whether the Doctor or any other ever saw sul so sequestred from an Animal so
riddance of this foul guest can hardly be made by Art in a very Cachochymick body without hazarding the life there being a kind of necessity to leave some behind no sooner is there an accession of any approved every way compleated Chyme but it is forthwith deteriorated and infected by the contact of the relique of that filthy reprobate Gore which still harbours in the vessels wherein is a peccant ferment endangering as long as it continues the faedation of the whole mass a little Leaven leavening the whole lump Wherefore in my judgment with humble submission to better reasons the Doctor is much out of the way in taking this course of mutilating and impoverishing the vitals the preservation of which transcends all other indications whatsoever considering no solid benefit accrues thereby withall weighing how the cause of most calamities as the Scurvy venereal Lues have their rise from a venomous seed ingrafted about the Hypochondries for the abortion or strangulation of which all our best Arcana 's are but little enough efficacious In brief the true method is to scour every way by proper Mediums the filth or feculency gathered together in the first foundation destroying likewise the venom reducing the errour of the parts to their due Eupraxie corroborating them then need we not doubt whatsoever is superstructed will quickly be brought to a handsome conformity whereby this stately structure may be kept Sarta tecta in good reparations many years 2. The Authority I shall cite against this extramission of putrid bloud to the diminution of the strength without any amolition of the cause thereof is Van Helmont who is to me as an hundred testimonies His words are these p. 184. lib. de Febr. Etenim ostendant non contradicere quod febri proprium sit Cruorem ipsum inquinare hanc proprietatem tolli à posteriori à putrefacti scilicet remotione Etenim si primum Imperuor sanguis è vena depromatur iteratò venam pandunt interim vires consternunt turbantque hinc Crisis spem tollunt quid si tum rubicundior effluxerit Certè exclamant Quasi totum mali Agmen ablatum prima vice fuissetque febrium sedes à Corde ad cubitum duntaxat extensa bonus autem circa Hepar resideret i. e. But let them make it appear if this do not imply a contradiction that a feaver hath a property to pollute the bloud and that this properly can be taken away à posteriori by a posterous manner to wit by withdrawing what is putrefyed For if first the fouler bloud be let out they open a vein again all this while they overthrow and confound the strength and so thereby wholly disappoint a Crisis But suppose sometime a fresh ruddy bloud run out they presently cry with open mouth as Cock-sure that a whole Troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash as if the resting place of a feaver did only extend from the heart to the bending of the arm and the good bloud did take up its abode about the Liver In another place of the same page our Author delivers this In confesso est quod Materia Febrilis non consistit in vena supra Cor per consequens neque vena Sectio Materiam Occasionalem ullatenus exhauriat aut directa Medendi intentione effectivè sanet i. e. It is taken for granted that the material cause of a feaver is not seated in the vessels above the heart then it must necessarily follow that breathing a vein doth in no wise discharge the matter which stâ—rs up the feaver neither is this a down-right effectual way of healing Thus far he who is instar Omnium Yea for the countenance of this truth I have something very conducible from Dr. Willis his words are these p. 75. de Feb. Prae caeteris vero observatione constat quod crebra sanguinis missio Homines febri aptiores reddat i. e. Now above all it is certainly known according to observation that o ten bleeding makes men more apt to fall into a feaver Again he follows it close Hinc fit ut qui crebro mutunt sanguinem non tantum in febres sunt proclives verum etiam pinguescere soleant propter Cruorem Succo Sulphureoâ—plus impregnatum i. e. Hence it comes to pass that they who often breath a vein are not only prone to fall into feavers but are also wont to grow fat by reason the bloud is full of sulphur In another place to this purpose he drives it home Qui sanguinem habent sale volatilizato bene saturatum ii sunt minus febribus obnoxii hinc etiam qui saepius sanguinem emittunt ad febres aptiores sunt i. e. They whose bloud abound with volatile Salt are not subject to feavers For this cause they that use Phlebotomy often are more liable to feavers Well then the Doctor and I agree thus far in the main that frequent bleeding procures feavers which is sufficient to back my assertion that Phlebotomy is no good method of healing sith it is plainly a Procatartick cause of feavers For whatsoever means exhausting the strength as I can demonstrate this course doth more or less sensibly or insensibly inviting and making way for feavers instead of preventing them is not to be approved of or allowed in Curing the Scurvy or other diseases unless we act like Tinkers some of whom are reported to mend one hole and make another for how possible can it consist with the Honour and Credit of a Physician quem creavit Altissimus to go about to correct the bloud by often letting it out in a Chronick infirmity likewise withall to usher in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were to be a Pander to the introduction of an Acute feaver which in a short space dissipates that strength which this Phlebotomical harbinger hath in part worsted Certainly then there is a better way if we could hit on it to reform this juice without an elumbation of the vitals by proper Medicines which the good Creator hath ordained able to supply the bloud with a sufficient quantity of volatile Salt and to take away the exuberance of its sulphur if the cause of feavers as this Learned Defendant would have from whom I dissent unless he can convince me by practice or mechannically shew to my eye more sulphur in the Pyrotechnical Analysis of bloud taken from one afflicted with a high feaver than from that extracted from a Scorbutical or venereal body c. The sum of all is this if it be so that striking a vein often in a long tedious disease is a preparatory for a sharp eaver as we both herein jump right in our observation then am I certain that Phlebotomy repeated in an acute sickness is a door set open an in-let for a long infirmity so that this mode of defalcating the vigour of the spirits doth for the most part as I have strictly heeded many years disarm and plunder Nature in such sort that it cannot resist the assaults
concurrence of two Sulphurs how different soever 5. The most strong impetuous explosive motion is commonly seen to proceed from nitrous matter exceedingly advanced in its Tonitruous eruption by an Alkali 6. Art can far more easily change a sulphureous or pinguedinous matter into salt than this into that as is visible in common sulphur hence we may take notice of a tendency or propensity in every concrete to arrive to this substance 7. It is very considerable what abundance of salt is daily made in the body of man let the Aliment be never so fresh Witness Urine Tears c. 8. All parts of man put to the fire afford a great quantity of salt especially the Bones and Bloud yea the excrements are full fraught therewith 9. The bloud in Dropsies is colliquated into a salsuginous Ichor 10. Most diseases have their material irritating cause from a saline fretting Liquor 11. The better sort of Remedies are Haliptêtica volatile salts which have great affinity with the vital spirit symbolizing with it being quickly identified with it 12. Spirit of Wine with which the vital spirit â—olds much correspondence is by contact thereof transmuâ—ed into a salurinous like condition loosing its igneity and inflammability which it had before in the same manner as when affused to sal Tartari whatsoever was before sulphureous and combustible in it becomes Tartareous 13. 'T is apparent when any part is benummed through compression hindring the free course of the spirits that upon their return here is a pungitive sense as it were of a multitudâ— of Acicles or small needles which can be attributed to nothing more than to saline particles 14. The Chromatism or various colour of bodies is chiefly attributed to salts simple or intermixt wherefore this deeply red tinged liquor may in all likelihood arise from a copious salt in the bloud whence the spirits emerge Lastly I doubt not to prepare such a Halipneumatical spirit of so nigh kin Concordance as it were Cousin German to the Animal that upon the approach of each other they shall forthwith embrace and be marryed together These foresaid experimental effects with their circumstances being duly weighed any but one very obstinate may be induced comparatis comparandis per Analogismum to grant that this tenuicle expiration of the bloud is of a saline Hypostasis In the next place we are to contemplate the Luminosity of the spirits wherein I shall contract what I could deliver at large chiefly aiming at an Hygiastick end that sickly man may be relielieved For confutation of Dr. Betts his opinion that Light is a corporeal substance I shall refer him to that Learned Philosophical Tract of Helmont De Ortu Forma which I dare aver all the Wits of the Galenists were they concentrated in one are not able to disprove 'T is enough â—f I can at this time instruct the Reader for a practical improvement of his knowledge that the Archeus hath in it a formal or vital Light not igneous 1. 'T is certain there is a Light accensed without fire or heat 2. Sith heat is an inseparable property of a fiery Light where e're this is existent that must needs be apparent Now in fishes there is no actual tangible heat yet do they abound with Luminous spirits as well as creatures living in the air For this we may conclude their Light â—s not fiery 3. Let a fiery light be so modified or regulated that it become tepid or gently warm yet cannot it efficiently produce an essential form all it can do is to excite and put the Architectonical spirit in the seed into action If its Luminoâ—s beams be united it torrefies forcibly alters dâ—ssolves and consumes every Concrete so that now it only deserves the name of a Destroyer not a Genitor or Preserver 4. No sooner was the Heavens and Earth created but the spirit the principal Agent of all things living moved upon the waters the material cause of whatsoever was destinaâ—ed for a being This spirit was not only Luminous but the fountain of Light which in a sort brooding upon this Element made a previous disposition in it for future productions Afterward the igneous Light being created then diffused in an ample manner every way was by the command of the omnipotent gathered together and as it were conglomerated into the Globe of the Sun whose fomenting beams being displayed and darted upon this Terrestrial Orb in their just mediocrity do stir up allure and provoke that splendid spirit succedaneous or Vice-gerent to that Protopneuma wâ—th which all the System of this sublunary world is impregnated to prolification and Reception of forms essential vital and substantial 5. We have no Reason to question otherwise but the Light of the Moon is fontally cold as the Sun is hot That having a Blas or Influence upon Water and Fishes living therein This upon the Air and whatsoever breaths therein so that 't is plain the Photism or Illumination of the spirits of all Animals hath no essential dependance upon the fire but upon a vital formal principle specified and individuated which makes the quiddity of the thing 6. Nothing expresses more visible lustre and lucidity than salt or what is seasoned therewith as is evident in the Sea Bones Glass Precious Stones which may by a Technical Process be reduced totally into Salt Sith then the spirits be saline no better subject can be imagined wherein the vital Phosphorus can better reside Neither is there need of any sulphureous particles to feed it for as much as it is not of a nature like the Culinary fire no longer continuing than it is maintained with something pinguedinous 7. The Clarity Diaphaneity and Lucidity of the spirit is most remarkable in the eye consisting of an Aqueous Vitreous and Christalline humour involved in proper Tunicles which parts being moist and cold are a very unfitting subject to entertain any thing of a fiery Nature 8. If the spirits had any Igneous Light in them the eyes of Cats Owls Bats would illuminate the medium It being proper to fire to send forth bright enlightning beams wheresoever it is if not intercepted But no such Radiant lustre is emitted from them therefore igneity cannot be present 9. Nothing more lively represents Lucidity of the spirits than the Gloworm yet is there nothing of perceptible heat to be found in this Insect Lastly Metalline and mineral sulphurs are not without merit said to be full of Light yea some of them carry the denomination of fire yet are we not to understand this otherwise than in a metaphorical sense For if it were meant a meer literal fire it must either be Intense i. e. Light gathered together Centrally which must of necessity according to its property destroy not preserve or it must be Remiss in its degree i. e. Igneum Calidum a moderate heat then would it exert its vertue only by heating not able to reach to a greater excellency It s active energy depending upon heat principally would quickly
Liquors as Wine the spirit of Mault or any other vegetable than by gross lazie rude blunt provisions of the Kitchin Lastly I have sometimes considered of how great a Deception some Culinary Doctors are guilty in prohibiting their Patients infested with the Stone Gout Scurvy Tissick and other maladies the lawful use of common Salt the most necessary commodious creature next the Sun for the welfare of mans life Now the reason they give for this prohibition is as they often dictate to the sick that it engenders salt humours encreasing the saline matter of diseases I confess I cannot altogether exempt Table salt from some little inconvenience which most things are liable to yet if the great benefit thereof be comparatively weighed with the damage that doth far transcend this For it is a great preserver against corruption most grateful to the stomach which it corroborates exciting an appetite It attenuates cleanses dissolves mucilaginous excrements being a great enemy to worms yea as Helmont notes pag. 20. de Lithi eaten in large quantity it hinders the coagulation of the Stone destroying it while it is in the Egg. Hippocrates commended it in his time as a powerful Antidote against the Plague Let none therefore fear to eat salt freely with their fresh meat nor any food well corned only forbearing if they can ship flesh or fish whose best alible juice is consumed by long excessive Conditure the more volatile parts of the Salt being exhaled or become fixed for some part thereof is made urinous the rest being discharged by the Intestines or Kidneys with profit to the health Sith also sugar is reckoned to be a kind of sweet salt I advise any one according to sound experience Scorbutical or vexed with a long emaciating infirmity notwithstanding Dr. Willis prejudice against it from the delusion of the fire to take if his stomach bear not an innate Odium to it plentifully thereof morning and between meals dissolved in a proper Liquor as stale Beer white wine c. with a small portion of Ale added the worser sort of which is much corrected by Sugar A short Discovery of the Nature of that malignant calamity the Griping of the Guts I Am constrained to pity distressed man when I contemplate how his poor skin is daily sacrificed to the Jaws of death through the transverse method and medicines of those who though they see their endeavours usually frustrated yet like a blind horse in a Mill they will by no perswasions leave their ill wonted Tract of Practice It is obvions to any circumspect observer that our corporal infirmities as well as our mental vices are at this day exceedingly multiplyed and magnified in such sort that Physicians are startled to see them so insulting and raging such innovations of truculent terrible symptoms accompanying them yet for all this very few labour to acquire applicate and appropriate Remedies proportionable to the grandity of our evils Nay rather they who attempt so noble a design are discouraged being looked upon as so many Hereticks in Physick There hath of late among other upstart feral Plagues appeared upon the Stage of this little World a strange Heteroclite Monster called the Scurvy acting its part continually in divers shapes counterfeiting the guise of all or most other diseases Sometimes it consumes by little and little as it were grating and crumbling one into the Grave then again it rends distracts separates the union of body and soul in a very short space suddenly puffing out the Lamp of life Now it seems to be Couchant then Rampant so alternately Acute and Chronick Among multitude of Phaenomena or appearances of this grievous calamity there is none at this day more eminently Atrocious than this termed the Griping of the Guts which although it passeth among the vulgar for a substantial Disease yet is it in reality only a Product Concomitant Accident fruit or effect of a Scorbutical virulent Root which must be struck at if any good be done to a purpose I plainly perceived the Scurvy long before the late most fierce Pest brake forth did gradually get strength spreading it self in an extrordinary contagious form insomuch as it arrived according to my prediction to a high pitch of venenosity making havock of thousands This out-ragious Tragedy being passed over it returned in Statum quo prius as it was before still harbouring an occult poison which works in a Clandestine slow furtive mode to the insensible undermining and depredation of the vitals till upon an extimulating contingent it takes advantage making an assault or irruption unawares upon the principal part the stomach whose ferment was before debilitated as likewise its long Appendix the Intestines which it lancinates convels and cruciates colliquating the nutricious juices turning them into an acid fretting vexatious Ichor bringing a damp upon the spirits and if not timely revoked totally extinguishing them The excretions or evacuations of some are very large to twenty thirty forty fifty yea an hundred stools with wringing Gripes usually yea oftentimes with intollerable racking Convulsive pains One hath only a flux down-ward another throws off both ways by vomit and dejection These Torminous Griping pains have several other signs and symptoms accompanying them as a feaver manifest or hidden Vertigo or Giddiness Cephalalgie great pains of the head a Sopor or drowsiness tedious watching phrensie or alienation from right reason lassitude notable weakness of the limbs difficult breathing a pulse commonly weak inordinate a palpitation or trembling at the heart Lypothimie fainting away oftentimes great drought soarness of the Throat rough dry Tongue pains about the sides Haemorrhagies fluxes of bloud Cardiogmus heart-burning oppression at the stomach a nauseousness or loathing of every thing yexing unsufferable torment in the loins spots lying deep in the flesh hardly to be discerned urine for the most part like one in health sometimes thick and troubled The irritating or provoking cause of these torminous wringing passions is a very sharp fretful Cruor Ichor or Sanies generated by a seminal fermental poison concentrated about the Duumvirate which puts the Archeus into a great indignation whereupon it makes in some places a colliquation or tabefaction in other a coagulation of the wholsome juices The fore-going causes are many as Air Diet Contagion hereditary disposition c. which any one ingenious may according to his own intelligible capacity examine how this calamity is like to terminate or what will be the event thereof a judicious Prognostication grounded upon Philosophical Remedies can best inform for 't is impossible a Galenist should be Critical as he ought If there be a great malignity virulency and extream pravity in the Scorbutick Gripings so that it becomes graduated a feaver with other bad symptoms as Lypothymie great pain in the head yexing convulsion c. joyned thereto such an one must needs miscarry unless the venomous matter be transmitted by vigour of the Archeus to the skin in form of madefying large Sweats or more gentle Breathings with
eruption of great store of spots pimples or red blotches For 't is a certain truth a medullary Radical Cure can never be performed unless this intoxicating Ichor or Tabum become Eccentrical being sent packing to the surface of the body the readiest Emunctory or conveyance of whatsoever is of a Deletery condition having made a morbifick impression upon the stomach If these malignant Gripes copulated with a Feaver invade any who hath been enervated or debilitated by a long infirmity 't is very hazardous if such an one escape Intemperate persons are in greater danger hereby than those who observe the Rules of mediocrity If the ferment of the stomach be very much spoiled the Archeus being at a very low ebb the case is very desperate If some of the worser symptoms appear and the patient be also foolishly adverse to take spagyrical preparations that person is to be leâ—t to a prognostick Whosoever evades by vulgar Medicines doth often live crasie being apt to fall into some evil affect of the like Idaea unless nature be extraordinary benevolent It falls out though rarely that there is a Metastasis or translation of the Torminous matter of the Gripes into the Limbs whereupon a Palsie or Gout supervene to the preservation of the Life The Indications directing the Physician to discharge his duty are either Preservative or Curative Principiis obsta venienti occurrite morbo Prevention is the very Quintessence of Politie The best way is to break this Cockatrice Egg in time wherefore observing the Diet set down in the Chapter going before if the Scurvy so far get head that it threatens these grinding torturing Gripes the most certain means I have found effectual is forthwith to offer a proper vomit such as I formerly deciphered Afterward to give Eustomachicks Anti-scorbuticks corroborating dulcifying Abstersive Resolving attenuating Specifick Anti-malignant Medicines as several factures of Tartar infusion of Scurvigrass Hors-radish Aron Roots in spirit of Wine also the volatile parts of the foresaid vegetables brought over in a clean glass tinged with a little English Saffron Garden Scurvigrass Water-cresses Hors-radish Juniper-Berries Ginger c. steeped in strong Liquor Drink thereof every morning with perseverance dissolving in every draught a scruple of Cremor of Tartar poudered very fine and Chalybeates technically made with the Artists own fingers are of great validity also certain Pills I call Polychrestae are powerful to strangle this Scorbutical feed Let any of these or the like be taken according as the Idisyncrasie of the stomach of each individual doth best relish but let none be startled at the subtil particles of the Medicine dreading they be too hot listning to Dr. Willis who erroneously delivers there is a dyscrasie in the bloud of one Scorbutical Sulphureosaline in another Salinosulphureous Out of this respect he orders his Prescripts suitable as the disease is more or less hot Now this is meerly Galenical to be rejected by an Helmontian who knows the Scurvy fontally is neither hot nor cold withall 't is the part of an honest able Physician to eradicate not to insist upon the Lopping of qualities meer Suckers or Sprouts arising from the Root Touching the Cure or removal of the vexatious Gripes frequently connexed with a Feaver the best upright method is to search this primary Malady to the bottom i. e. forthwith to give an Emeto-Diaphoretick which may cleanse away any fermenting impurity about the Duumvirate likewise to carry off through the pores of the universal Membrane and other larger passages the venemous Scorbutical Serum or filth sweetning the violent acidity thereof and mortifying the poison Beware of meer Astringents whatsoever constipateth or stoppeth for this course will but aggravate the grief Alexipharmaca Diaphoreticks Analeptick Sudorificks spiritual Liquors are to be followed close without jealousie of heating too much let the Hâ—morist say what he will I much commend spirit of Tartar C. C. which although certain Galenists declaim against as too hot dangerous c. I 'l stand to make it demonstratively evident there is not a more safe effectual Remedy in all the Apothecaries shops from one end of the Town to the other than this if it be sabricated by a true Pyrotechnist as for that Caveat Emptâ—… The essence of Ginger Elixir Proprietatis Med. Helmont Alexistomachon nost are to be approved also spirit of Tartar well desaecated Oil of Sulphur Vitriol spiritualized Antimonium Diaphoreticum made Philosophically as also Lac Sulphuris a most safe Remedy though formerly a great stumbling block to those who run upon the false Sent of Qualities The Tincture of Haemaâ—…es or Bloud-stone The exalted Sulphurs of Metals and Minerals He that is acquainted with the Spagyrical Manufacture of some of these forenamed together with their just use need not doubt to act the part of an Artist in the solid Cure of this and other Calamities FINIS The Contents of the Chapters in this TREATISE Chap. 1. OF the Nomenclature of Bloud and its definition Page 1 Of the different sorts of Bloud 3 Of the Efficient and Material Cause of Bloud 5 The manifold occasions that alter clarifie taint and deprave the bloud also the true signs of its purity im-impurity integrity or degeneration 11 Concerning the Latex or insipid Aqueous Liqur that is concurrent with the Bloud 19 Of the manifold diseases that take up their Lodging in the Bloud 27 Concerning the prevention with the Cure of those Diseases that take up their Lodging in the Bloud 52 Wherein Dr. Willis his Method of Bleeding asserted in his Books De Febribus De Scorbuto is detected by Reason Authority and Practice to be indirect and destructive to mankind Whereunto are added A brief Animadversion upon some notable Errâ—urs committed by Dr. Betts in his Tract De Ortu Natura Sanguinis 39 A Stomachical Spirit or Essence commended to the World 139 Certain Instructions appertaining to the Diet in Acute and Chronick Diseases 163 A brief Discovery of the Nature of that Malignant Calamity The GRIPING of the GUTS 174 FINIS SEveral Errours are committed at the Press which the Reader is desired to Correct himself the Avocations of the Author not permitting him to Remark them
Cruor a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Crudus Concretus which undergoes manifold Guises and is often the Subject matter of multitude of Diseases being sometimes changed into an Ichor Tabum or Sanies Sanguis called bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a most pure Sweet Homogeneous Balsamick Vital Juice for the most part of a bright Red or Reddish colour made by the Archeus by virtue of Ferments implanted in the Ventricles of the Heart Lungs Veins and Arteries causing a formal transmutation of the chyme or milky substance into this sanguineous Liquor ordained to be the seat of Life and the principal matter for Sense Motion Nutrition Accretion and Generation It is for good reason called Balsamum seu Condimentum totius Corporis for as much as it hath a Sanative power sweetly uniting all the parts of the Body for the conspiration of the good of the whole It is a great preservative against Putrefaction as long as it remains in its integrity for consisting of many Saline particles it seasoneth whatsoever it toucheth with a pleasing Sapour It is the proper Habitation of the vital spirit the immediate instrument of the Soul in which it shines displaying its Radiant Beams every way that Sensation Motion Nutrition and all other Functions may exquisitely be performed It s colour is various in some White as in Testaceous Creatures In some Black as in the fish Polypus but usually of a Reddish or Crimson Dye in the most perfect Creatures The efficient cause of its Production is the Archeus or Animal spirit making an Essential Alteration of a praevious Lacteous juice into this most highly exalted Liquour of Life through the efficacy of those Operative fermenrs which the great Conditor of all things hath destinated to reside in convenient places principally in the cavities of the heart CHAP. II. Of the different sorts of Bloud THe Air Climate and Food do not a little alter the bloud of all Animals For creatures that live in lofty places more remote from the faeculent exhalations of the Earth for as much as they participate of a more subtile clean magnale have their bloud more rarified volatilized and so consequently Circulation the better performed without those Coagulations or Grumosites which those resting nigh the lower surface of the Globe always sending out some noxious emanations are commonly incident to Hereupon the winged common-wealth that frequently draw breath in a sublimer Region have their juices for the most part better digested mundified and subtilized than those which are constantly contiguous to the earth For it is certain look Coeteris paribus what air you draw in such accordingly is the texture of the vital spirits as these are generated good or bad so likewise is the bloud as this is constituted so are the Carneous Membranous and Osseous parts Laudable or depraved food conduces much to the meliorating or pejorating this animal liquor for as the diet is regulated in Quality or Quantity so Euchymy or Cacochymy follow making several discriminations therein Of all Creatures the bloud of man is graduated to the highest Perfection fitting to be a Receptacle of so divine a Guest the Immortal Soul which as long as it is here incarcerated lying couched in the sensitive being bound to act by Corporeal Organs suffers many Obscurations Defections and Eclipses through variety of Meteors arising in the Horizon of this Microcosm from the bloud degenerate and depraved It would take up too much time strictly to examine this vital juice in several species and in certain Individuals whose Qualities Properties Endowments Inclinations Affections Actions and Passions depend upon the Seed the exquisite essential part of this animal Balsom both of which make up Stamen Subtegmen the Warpe and Woofe of every creature This Liquor is in some animals thick gross and fibrous in others thin serous and more fluid There are those who have it endued with a Medicinal vertue as that of Cats and Goats the last whereof affords us an Arterial Balsom of admirable effect in Pleurisies Others have in it an Intoxicating and Poysonous property as Bulls Dogs c. In certain species it is intensly red in others more remisly There are creatures which have only a Whitish Liquor in the body there are those also which possess it either obscure or of a black colour The bloud of some animals is tangibly hot in others it is sensibly cold as in fishes It is more ponderous in those that continually adhere to the Earth than in volatiles soaring aloft Saturnine persons have usually a more gross and stable juice very fibrous causing deliberate pulse Those who are jovial have by nature a brighter thinner Liquor with a pulse more quick Many other distinctions of this sanguine Balsom might be delivered which for the present I can only lightly touch upon directly aiming at those things of greatest moment in which the welfare of man hath a more peculiar interest CHAP. III. Of the Efficient and Material cause of Bloud THe Galenists have reckoned for this sixteen hundred years four humours analogous to the four Elements in mans body requisite for the essential constitution of this ruddy mass all of which they affirm are separable and demonstrable to the eye Thus they make a division of that which God Nature never intended other than Homogeneous pure plain symbolical with that single principle of the universe for as much as every thing the more it hath of similarity in it self the more capable it is to be altered into multiplicity of divers different specifick bodies by the Magical power of metamorphising ferments Now these Peripatetick Philosophers deliver to the World that the contexture of this vital juice is made up of choler phlegm melancholly and bloud which united produce as they would have it the compounded body we call Sanguis how grosly erroneous and daâ—gerous this Tenet is most Learned Helmont hath made evident Wherefore we conclude with that Noble Phylosopher that bloud is an univocal substance divisible only by some external accidental means as the air or fire which cause a various texture and different position of its atoms whereby it seems to consist of those parts which are not really inherent in it as is manifest in its degeneration from its native colour sapour consistence and goodness which it had before it became corrupt in the Porringer or underwent the torture of the fire Both of which do strangely larvate and disguise this puniteous Balsom giving occasion to the Galenists to frame their four fictitious humours no where really exsistent Hence occasion hath been given of taking wrong indications in the cure of those Diseases easily sanable if a firm foundation were laid a great Catalogue whereof have been reputed incurable Had they but considered how this vital moisture ebbs and flows in goodness and pravity upon flight accidental occasions of any exorbitant passions as Fear Sorrow Anger c. the manifold impressions of the ambient air Ill Diet immoderate exercise divers excessive
ship reduces into the right channel the aberrations of other Kitchins ordained for the formal alteration of nutriment For this purpose our principal study ought to be employed about the search of such Remedies that are amicable and delectable to the Archeus corroborate the tone of the stomach augment regulate and fortifie its ferment scoure away any thing recrementitious in it dulcifie and mitigate what ere is acrimonious preter-naturally austere acid corroding saline or putride therein This being duly performed by a Pyrotechnical Philosopher a sure door is opened for the exemption of Nature much oppressed from sundry grievous Diseases which otherwise would prove incurable banking and eluding all the trivial medicaments of the Galenists CHAP. IV. The manifold Occasions that alter clarifie taint and deprave the Bloud Also the true signs of its purity or impurity integrity or degeneration EXtrinsecal occurrences and intrinsecal occasions cause a goodness depravation and deflection of the bloud from its native sincerity Those inseparable things without which we cannot subsist as air diet retention evacuation exercise sleep watching passions and perturbations of the mind do very much affect this noble jâ—ice Above all it is most altered by the air and the perturbation of the spirits such fixed impressions are sometimes made by these that they become indeleble all our life after Many laborious Chymists have to their miserable experience found that those deletery venemous fumes and poysonous Realgars arising from minerals imbibed by the air and so inspired have so infected this Balsom circulating through the Lungs that all the art of man hath not been able by the greatest medicinal Arcana's to expunge the malignity contracted thereby How insensibly do those virulent pestilential atoms fluctuating in the air cause a miasm contagion in this red mass whereby it becoms coagulated or colliquated which inconveniencies are no more to be avoided in some places than that it is possible for any one to live without air Doubtless that tedious Chronick disease the Scorbute which is so predominant and Grassant in this Nation doth in greatest part diffuse it self by means of the air which insensibly conveys its pernicious Nature from Body to Body So that some few having a high tincture of this evil may in some short space resorting to much Company annoy by a spreading ferment many hundreds who according as their Bodies are disposed and capable for the reception of this infectious Leaven suffer more or less in pollution of this Nectar of life which by degrees falleth off from its pristine goodness If then timely prevention be not made either by potent strength of Body or a prevalent art the man decays in his faculties the Archeus becomes aculeated exstimulated and becomes exorbitant framing variety of Exotick Morbifick Idaeas causing a Syndrom of Heteroclite symptoms Infinite are the exhalations flowing out from all sorts of Bodies greedily sucked up by the magnale or porosities of the air which when where and how it affects the bloud is not easily known to us only this we can assert that we have received injury from this subtil ambient that adheres as close to us as we to place 'T is a common Opinion taken up frequently by the vulgar when they are indisposed or incident to any disease to say they have taken cold thereby mincing and extenuating the magnitude and malignity of many feral Diseases to their final overthrow being so taught by their Oracle like Galenical Doctors as they fancy them whom they observed to insist upon bare Qualities meerly transitory momentany and shadows of true substances for the Cure of most desperate Diseases especially Fevers which I acknowledge is often produced excited and irritated by the ambient but not meerly from the bare quality thereof quatenus cold but as it is stuffed full of atoms Hostile to the Texture of our bloud which rushing in through the more patulous passages of the Body or stealing in through the less visible pores do frequently alter and contaminate this Aetherial Liquor 'T is granted that cold doth sometimes accidentally put the Body much out of order in as much as it stoppeth up the pores of the skin in such wise that many noxious recrements are constringed within to the depravation of the bloud the impediment of its Circulation and so to the great prejudice of the health which otherwise having free vent rid nature of a burdensome clog oftentimes pressing it down either into dangerous or mortal Feavers In this case the principal means to be used is to open the coarctation constriction and constipation of this general membrane by proper Diaphoreticks withal rectifying the air that there may be a free aporrhaea of whatsoever doth infest Nature and bloud The next notable cause that makes great alteration for the worse in this vital juice are the extravagant perturbations storms and tempests that arise in this microcosm raised through mis-apprehensions mis-applications and mis-interpretations of things obvious to our sense contrived by a luxated or dislocated imagination e. g. Some frightful object presented to our eye or a lamentable story related to our ear doth strait disturb the Archeus with its concomitant in such manner that a plain discovery is made what is done within by its sudden flux into and reflux from the face the Index of the souls affections Henquam difficile est says the Poet Crimen non prodere vultu Joy Sorrow Fear Hope Love Anger Envy Jealousie are so conspicuously to be read in the countenance by means of the access or recess of this sanguine matter that the best of Politicians study hath been to conceal those evident Signatures Impressions Stamps and Characters of their Inclinations Motions Dispositions and Affections arising from the bloud but yet could never attain to any perfection therein How florid is the Front when the heart is chearful how sweetly diffused is this spirituous Ruby through all parts in an equal proportion circulating in every vessel with a quiet stream on the contrary how luride discoloured tawney yellow dark pale wan for the most part is the aspect when sorrow hath laid siege to the fountain of life what stagnations coagulations unkindly colliquations exorbitant fermentations dyspepsies apostases defections transmutations allogeneities vapidities malignities austerity acidity acrimony is this juice liable to at first disordered in part at length by degrees quite subverted from those deformed odious Idaeas of Sorrow Grief and Anguish of spirit O triste nomen O diis odibile Melancholia lachrymosa Cocyti filia Tu Tartari specubus opacis edita This feral Brat of Hell melancholly doth so disturb the Oeconomy of the souls residence that the ruddy Balsom of the Body hath become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lutulent faeculent deprived of its primitive excellence so that whereas it was before the fit matter of clear luminous active spirits from whence arose regular sound comformable actions it is now being degraded the Original of a Black Fuliginous Archeus which clouding the soul in such a manner that
the whole frame is disordered and all the powers are violently hurryed into an ataxie Briefly all immoderate passions do exceedingly operate upon the bloud spoiling it more or less of its integrity Thus inter spemque metumque timores inter iras is this subject matter wherein the soul delights agitated concussed sometimes as it were charm'd into a coagulum or curdly substance again then colliquated into a virulent corroding fretting Ichor or Serum now a modest apprehension of shame adornes the skin with a lovely rosie blush a sudden fear leaves the superficies of the body exanguious pale and Ghost-like as likewise excessive love perpetrates the same by degrees Pallidus omnis amans Envy consumes this vitae pabulum as a Moth a Garment Jealousie as cruel as the Grave never leaves till it devours its vigour and fibrosity Anger intoxicates it pourtraying the perfect Idaea of madness therein which sometimes is so graduated that no poyson in this part of the world seems to be more active for a few atoms of this venomous gore penetrating the Cutaneous membrane hath infected the whole ruddy mass introducing most truculent symptoms wherefore Ira furor brevis est hanc tu compesce catena Let it be our whole endeavour ut sit mens sana in corpore sano for if we be not Master of our unruly passions 't is impossible there should be an Eutomie an Eucrasie and Eumetry in this solar juice Likewise food is to be considered as powerful to make an Euchymy or Cacochymie for those things whose Vita Media are so tenacious that they cannot be conquered by the stomach do often put Nature to very great stress causing it to frame many strange Images so leading it captive into a morbifick state I have found experimentally that flesh or any thing Dyspepton of difficult digestion in any Feaver putrifies in the stomach contaminates the bloud augments the Feaver which the good old man Hipp. verifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. if you give any thing very highly nutritiotous to one in a Feaver the same will encrease his Disease weakning the Patient which given to an healthful body would strengthen him Again whatsoever superfluity is retained after the six Digestions are performed do either by their quantity or quality incommodate the blood causing it to deviate from its sincerity likewise all profuse excretions do much disturb it Motion Rest Watching and Sleep passing their due limits cause great inconveniences herein The Phaenomena or signs whereby the blood may be judged good or bad are some apparently Visible others more obscurely latitant A skin tinged with a preter-natural Black Citrine Yellow Green Pale colour supposed it be not contracted from the impression of the Air Climate or any outward accident doth certainly indicate that all is not well with the juice within for qualis color cutis talis corporis habitus sanguis spiritus A feaverish state cutaneous eruptions a spontaneous lasitude difficulty of breathing an irregular pulse Arythmus Dicrotus Formicans Serratilis observing no just proportion Degenerate excrements arising from several Digestions of various colours Green Yellow c. of bad consistence as lentous viscous clammy thin sharp fretting cause some suspicion that the blood is impure Likewise if a man be melancholly without any just reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indisposed dull delirious forgetful sleepy or over-watchful he may suspect all is not well within There is no greater sign of notable impurity in this mass than when there appears any excessive Haemorrhagy as from the Nose Piles or Mouth for then we may conclude that some irritating matter is got therein which like a Thorn extimulates the Archeus so that it becomes impatient fretful and furious profusely squandring away the most precious stock of life in a prodigal manner Now if we desire to keep a constant Tenour of health we ought strictly to observe whether any of the six Digestions do at any time titubate or faulter and forth with to seek out for means to correct the same and reduce it to integrity sith it is not possible that the liquor of life should be free from feculencies imperfections and apostasies if the Organ that frames it be irregular and depraved Here I must give a Caution to all intelligent Persons that they do not rashly censure that blood let out in the Porringer necessary to be sent packing because it is disguised in various colours as blackish blew green yellow white c. supposing it to be corrupt and so unfitting to be retained within the verge of life It is no such matter I can maintain for this superficial alteration proceeds from the Air spoiling it of its pristine goodness not that it was really corrupted in the vein For the demonstration of this I will undertake upon forfeiture of a great penalty to open the vein of a Cachochymick body emitting about two or three ounces of the visible foresaid degenerate matter then stopping the Orifice make use of proper Remedies to this Individual whose habit I doubt not so to alter in the space of about a fortnight that no such putrid matter as they improperly call it shall be found in any vein whatsoever opened which may fully satisfie any sober inquirer after truth that the corruption was never really existent in that while it was in the vein which in so short a time is thus red integrated for corruption being an absolute privation of that formal essence of the thing and sith there is no retrogradation in this kind that an Ens losing its form by dissolution should assume it again nam à privatione ad Habitum non datur regressus it infallibly follows that this juice thus restored Techniâ—…s by Art was never truly corrupted as they would have it Hence it follows that the fair pretence of the Galenists that the juice drawn out of the patient forasmuch as it is corrupt in the Porringer is happily discharged appears a meer imposture contrived on purpose to stop the mouth of those who scruple and question Phlebotomy CHAP. V. Concerning the Latex or insipid aqueous Liquor that is concurrent with the Blood TReating of the blood I cannot omit its inseparable companion that closely perambulates with it through all the winding Maeandrous Pipes in this microcosm It is called Latex by Helmont by some Lympha by the Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Diaphanous clear liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabricated in the second digestion by vertue of a ferment there residing It is the matter of Urine and Sweat It undergoes various alterations partly from sanguine mass and partly from the solid parts of the body whose ferments as they are mis-affected so they infect this limpid liquor It is of very great use first as a vehicle to the bloud to convey and usher it freely into all parts Secondly to hinder the condensation and coagulation thereof that it may not restagnate and so be hindred in its constant circulation Thirdly that it may
foundation of this proud lofty fabrick delineating exactly according to the Copy set it every part continent or contained requisite to the discharge of those various Faculties Uses Offices and Functions which all conspire for the preservation of the whole As it alone began so it proceeds to finish this beautiful structure and to keep it in repair by a continual supply of new spirits instead of those that are daily expended and exhausted by the labour of body and mind 'T is this Archeus let no captious Sermocinal Galenist take exceptions at the word for it is proper enough according to the Etymon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principium vitae being duly constituted and modified makes an Eutonie Excrasie Eumetrie and Eutaxie in this little universe This implanted spirit forthwith emerging apparent so soon as the omnipotent Creator breathed into man the breath of life is really the Architectonical president of Generation Accretion Nutrition Sense Motion and whatsoever belongs to vitality à puncto initiante ad punctum definitum This being granted by any intelligent moderate Person that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sanity or well being depends principally upon the goodness serenity candor peace tranquillity activity and good condition of the vitals It must necessarily follow according to the formerly mentioned received Axiom Quicquid in Sanis edit Actiones Sanas id ipsum in Morbis edit Actiones vitiatas That which is the chief Agent in maintenance of our health the same also principally acts in the production of Diseases that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickness and all diseases whatsoever spring from the same Root the immediate cause of our health the Archeus depraved clouded disturbed hurryed away with divers Passions Anger Fear c. Morose Sullen Dull and Malignant It is not possible that a disease should harbour any where but in this Gas of life for as soon as it is extinct all diseases forthwith cease so that all irritating and exasperating causes which strait disturb these luminous particles in a living body causing them to frame Idaeas of Indignation Fear Hatred whereby many kind of evils easily distinguishable one from the other by certain signs are hatched do not at all cause any inconvenience in that which is defunct And although the Quinary principles of Dr. Willis are as demonstrative by the fire but no other way in the Carkase as they were in the living body yet seeing that great Agent and Patient of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health and sickness is wanting in that no such passions are incident to it as to the other For example apply an Epispastick of Cantharides or any Caustick to what is mortifyed containing the Quinta Prima no vesicle arises nor is any impression made Let it be but laid on where there is vitality the skin in a short space is separated from the flesh by an Acrimonious Ichor which the Archeus fabricated being put into a fretting condition upon the apprehension of this virulent Plaister Observe Cantharides doth equally vesicate healthful and crasie bodies Hence this evidently discovers that the spirit of the part conceiving ire upon the contact of what is odious to it acts upon nutritious juice colliquating the same and turning it into a Liquamen Corrosivum making a solution of those particles before united A thorn or splinter entring unawares without the advertency of the person into any part and there impacted sometime excites the vital spirit to perturbation and discontent hereupon it frames Characters of pain throbbing feaver intumescence and redness in a body where the soul is resident of which a Cadaverous matter being deprived hath not the least fore-going symptom from the puncture and inhaesion of any thing extraneous yet are there not wanting these Quinta Prima made evident only by Vulcan I look upon every degenerate abortive acid acrimonious malignant virulent matter assumed or acquired in the body to be only an exstimulating occasional cause of all sickness and so is but exotick and a meer stranger in comparison of that which essentially makes the Quiddity of a disease What if a depraved sulphur or salt be generated and abound in the bloud are these able per se to generate specifie or determine any sickness that it can properly be said to be hoc aliquid All the excrements that are engendred in mans body through the errours of the digestion are either occasional and irritative causes of this or that infirmity or they are Products and consequents of the disease If any sulphureous saline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refuse or Dross Acid Austere Bitter Nidorous Acrimonious Fracedinous Dregs any virulent malignant venemous Sanies Ichor or Tabum be in progress of time brought to an egg by the Archeus of the stomach principally other digestions secondarily conspiring Then at length after long brooding this serpentine Mola or Cockatrice-like egg being hatched so hostile sometimes to nature and that efficicient cause that produced it as the almost dead viper was to the Countryman that fomenting it by the fire resuscitated that life in the Creature which at length became prejudicial if not destructive to him after a strong invasion made it gives an Alarum to that sentinel which continually watches for the preservation of this Cittadel The guard I mean the spirits being roused finding an enemy at hand all possible force is raised to repel retard and expel this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this encroaching invading mortiferous matter that instrumentally aims at the cutting of the thread of life Hereupon presently arise Idaeas Characters Images of discontent fury fear inquietude despondency pusillanimity peevishness sottishness prodigal effusion and confusion of all things Thence is the perfect image of this or that disease contrived in this Aethereal exhalation according to the condition nature or property of that provocative exorbitant hateful matter which at first put it into this passion and perturbation Otherwise if this efficient were not lascivious or extravagant in forging a numerous company of different Pictures of diseases how were it possible the sulphur or salt separate or conjunct could cause so many distinct species of feavers or other griefs For take the bloud or urine of five hundred persons afflicted with feavers whose constitutions have a manifest disparity in them put them mechanically to the test of Vulcan Separate their sulphurs and salts by Art it will be found there is no such certain discriminating signs apparent either by odour or sapour inspection or effect in any of each that one may not be taken for the other If so how will Dr. Willis make good his Assertion that sul and salt which according to the tryal of Pyrotechny for I know no other way to make a true discovery of them seeming similar to sense though taken from several bodies can possible produce such a Catalogue of calamitous infirmities differing in symptoms one from another Toto Coelo If he could shew us optically several distinct species of sul or sal any
the inward Coat then have I found by strict observation that such a gentle Emeto-cathartick which if it excite not this tender membrane neither by vomit nor stool will carry off any Scoria through the eccentrical parts or urinous Pipes in no wise impairing the strength notably This I pass over lightly intending to speak more expresly in some other place 3. Quaery requires a mechanical demonstration or firm experiment i. e. whether the Doctor or any Philosopher ever saw sulphur sequestred in a living body so entire but that the sulphur judged what it seems by colour consistence odour might not by the tryal of Vulcan afford rather more Salt Water and Earth each of them then sulphur Assuredly so far as I can apprehend it is but equity that as these Chymical principles owing their first discovery to the fire gave occasion to some indirectly to improve and apply them too rashly without serious advertency to the erecting a systeme of Physiology so likewise a thorough Pyrotechnical search may very justly excuse those who are versed therein not to accept of them upon these terms I have as I conceive sufficiently made it good that Pyrotechny can only detect them that no Art of man can extract them out of some bodies that they are equivocal mutable transient one into another Now am I ready to discover in reference to the Cure of miserable man that the pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high feaver doth afford more salt water and earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that diseased bloud termed corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joyned thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the rest At another time I procured the purest bloud I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the sound and that seemingly corrupt which gives testimony that a feaver doth not principally arise from an excess of sulphur Reprobate too much advanced or graduate but rather from some other illegitimate matter as Spurious Salts Lancing Goading â—nd Gauling the most exquisitely sensitive Archeus whereby it becomes Active to lay the plat-form of thâ—s specâ—fick Malady CHAP. VII Concerning the Prevention with the Cure of those Diseases that take up their lodging in the Bloud WE are taught by Divine Writ that in the bloud that Spiritus rubens is Life In the same also is contained death as we find experimentally If it be pure in the fountain free from mixture of a strange matter notable defection apostacy or contagion incessantly circulating in those Labyrinthaean Pipes without impedidiments health vivacity strength of body and mind attends that person If on the contrary it be sordid feculent degenerate from its native goodness pestered with any thing of a Texture different from it sickness dullness melancholly and a disorder in the whole frame follows It ought to be the labour and study of every individual if he have acquired any knowledge of himself to be well veâ—sed in the Prophylactick part of Physick by keeping his bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without staining and foulness by preserving the digestions strong lively especially that of the stomach introductory of good or bad to all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation in all things is a most excellent compass to steer by 'T is not the quality of what we assume as the quantity that is injurious to us For I am of Celsus his mind who advises a healthful man to eat any thing that his stomach can well alter If he commit an errour in eating or drinking a little too much at one time let him use abstinence afterward for the correction of the same I have observed of late years a great proneness in the bloud to be soil'd and conspurcated in an extraordinary manner by reason of a great Scorbutical malignity lurking in the body the Procatartick cause of which may very justly be deduced from our prodigious Lusts our enormous Intemperance in compotations I am easily perswaded that the Venereal Lues at first procreated this spurious Brat whose Heteroclite and discrepant existence from other diseases doth plainly testifie that an anomalous seed arising from the conjunction of two evils differing in specie brought forth this horrid Monster to light being since propagated and traduced from one to another spreading like a Leprosie over the whole Nation by reason of a Clandestine miasm or infection that nestles within whose subtil Aporrhaeas or Emanations diffuse themselves in such contagious manner that most of the Nation are thereby infected It seems to me very dissentaneous to truth what Dr. Willis alleges to be the fomenter of this calamitousevil among us condemning the frequent use of Sugar and his reason is that this matter being put to the proof of the fire a spagyrical Analysis made thereof affords a Liquor but little less corrosive than Aqua fortis as if the ferment of the stomach did dissolve in the same manner as the solution made byart or that such a acid matter were really contained in the Concrete which dâ—stillation produced He shall find the best food we take in if put into a glass set in hot sand will send forth a most nasty empyrematical Liquor shall we therefore refuse such wholsome Aliment withall let him be pleased to take notice that the effects of the fire are Aequivocal various and mutable according as the matter distilled receives such or such an Adjunct for I can by vertue of Vulcans Art make the whole body of the better sort of Sugar adding something to it congenerous or of like kind become excellently medicinal for the Cure of the Scurvy above all the Apothecaries preparations the Doctor makes use of This I can demonstrate moreover I know no reason that a substance so pleasant to the taste of most as it were a sweet Alkali so useful for preservation and mundification of what is foul and prone to corrupt should be rejected guilty of so high a Crime as to promote the Scurvy most infamously For satisfaction of those that are wavering in this thing I dare undertake to keep half a score or more persons drinking liberally every day Beer and Sugar yea eating Sugar with meat plentifully as I knew a Galenical Physician of great renown allow of as very wholsom freer from the Scurvy than any Dogmatist in England shall perform with all his Art exercised on the same number debaring them this delicious congeled salt Under favour of better judgments if I may deliver what I have observed without offence I conceive our Sybaritical voluptuousness ebriety
too violent and hot affrighted at every intense motion of the Archeus invigorated by active medicines to profligate whatsoever is hostle were very busie in prompting to the sick man the worse representing every thing in the most deformed dress enough to make him despond to the postergation of the Cure Whereupon another Physician a Kinsman of the Merchants formerly a great Philo-chymist before he entred into the colledge was by my consent admitted to consultation who approved of all I had done hitherto neither could he deny but that my Remedies were sufficient yet being ignorant of the right use of them advised me to give not above the tenth part of what I exhibited however least he should visit for nought an Apothecary one Mr. Battesbee was forthwith sent for who I knew would soon disturb my method Now must Pottle glasses of Julips to cool him forsooth into his grave I am certain had they not been counterchecked be obtruded which for quietness sake I confess I connived at for the present knowing all was in Vado secure and that the vertues of my Remedies were able to correct the vitiosities of the other Now a subtil Trade is carryed on they aim at the lopping off the branches I at the pulling up of the root So at length we begin to jar after a former harmony for as soon as another opportunity was offered to me on the fifth day I gave him the third Emeto-Cathartick for more security which he willingly accepted still finding it beneficial much confiding in me for my pre-monitions although he was encompassed with those that were very diffidently adverse to my Remedies Now exception is taken by the coadjutor in that I should presume to give a vomit before I consulted with him I answered his remoteness a mile and half of and the fear of loss of the nick of time sith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might very well excuse me And sith we were both concerned in one principal End the safety of the sick man which I did then asseverate might be attained otherwise it should lie at my door supposed he would be ruled no petty difference should arise between us For all this the Galeno-chymist was troubled with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heart-burning and attempted to allay it by proposing and urging upon the sixth day when nature was victorious the most non-sensical application of Epispasticks or Vesicatories which I utterly refused having declaimed against them by my Pen withall certainly knowing the main Cure being already performed I should both wrong my Conscience and my Reason if I should condescend to such an absâ—rd act Then finding he could not corrupt me by all his glozing Rhetorick and Paralogistical discourse of the rare effects of Cantharides c. he flung away in discontent saying he would now leave the sick man to my Custody my reply was and I to yours if the Patient be so pleased which would by no means be granted by him being very sensible and thankful that I took a direct means to save his life I then proceed asserting upon good grounds that the danger of the disease was passed over besides I would ingage my self perfectly to cure him without relapses and long vexatious Ague or any Chronick infirmity whatsoever This I would make good or I would have no reward for all my pains and medicine hereupon the patient gratefully resenting every thing fully resolved to resign himself over to my solitary care In the mean time there were not wanting instruments any one may easily guess at the prime agent to supplant me and to introduce even upon the eleventh day when all the blustring storms of various symptoms were passed over the said Galeno-chymist who was represented to this convalescent person as able to do great matters for the removing his Ague by his cooling or more temperate preparations mine being looked upon after I had helped him out of the mire as too strong burning now the reason of this my dismission must be coloured over with a fair pretence that the Patient would betake himself to Kitchin Physick Through this door was the Galeno-Chymist with his Apothecary entertained once again into the sick mans Chamber to attend him who kept him fast in their clutches for the space of a Lunary revolution how and with what they plyed him all this while any that hath the least inspection into our Phisosophy may conjecture Blisters are raised without controulment for what reason I cannot tell unless in opposition to my judgment or least he should recover too soon This I am certain they exceedingly wronged the ferments of the stomach and spleen thereby encreasing the acidity of the bloud as appeared by extream dolour he suffered from the Haemorroides the cause whereof they attributed to my hot spirits the continuation of his Ague at the months end for the cure of which he applyed himself to me after that he protested they had done what they could Pretermitting what errours were past for which he might thank himself I told him I doubted not to cure his Ague and take away the Haemorroidal anguish radically if he would be obliged now at length to take what ere I gave without scruple he consented in great part thereto excepting vomits i. e. Galenical with which he affirm'd he was tir'd It was dispensed with his Ague in a short time cured with certain Pills I call Polychrest with other slight things yet still the Haemorroides torment him I offer if he will give me leave to act freely a fundamental abolition of them without further prejudice I my self having been miserably cruciated with the same wound many years before I knew Pyrotechny so having suffered in this kind Miseris succurrere disco I could the better help others Here he ties my hands behind me I leave him to another Galeno-chymist who both ignorantly and injuriously inveighing against my Pills forthwith opens a vein in the arm to his detriment increase of the present pain of the piles with introduction to a future relapse at length finding no comfort by thiâ— Learned man he commits himself to a Chyrurgion who by topical means asswages the grief palliates and cicatriseth without searching out the intrinsecal cause which lying dormant some weeks produces another feaver of which by accident he recover'd nature being benevolent notwithstanding it was retarded by Phlebotomy prescribed by a third Galeno-chymist who I am certain cannot maintain the solid truth of this practice if he and I come to an equal experimental determination in the presence of vertuous explorators I have been a little punctual and somewhat prolâ—x in setting down this instance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Therapeutical deportment of the Galeno-chymists and my self in reference to this sick person to the end the world may plainly understand if they please by this Narrative how one dares promâ—se and effect having a firm foundation what the other will by no means ingage himself upon being conscious of his rotten principles I conceive
it worth my labour to collect some useful observations from this History 1 None but the absolute Spagyrical Philosopher can give any assurance of his Patients recovery in a high malignant feaver seldom erring if he come in any seasonable time neither can any but one so instituted give any certain prediction of the variety of Phaenomena several Scenes to be acted in this microcosm when ere it is put out of order and what will be the conclusion of al his sanative endeavours 2. The Spagyrist can in a shorter space with confidence without fear of a relapse remove a Pleurâ—sie or any pain of the side without bleeding far beyond the other executing the same 3. It is all one to him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endued wiâ—h the gift of healing whether the sick bodies veins be fuller or emptier turgid or flaccid Sith he knows it is gross preposterous folly to think to dry up a River without obstructing the fountain to save a ship from sinking neglecting to stop a great leak therein The like madness it is to draw out of the Limbs a great deal of excessive bad bloud and not to have recourse to the efficient cause thereof concentrated in the Trunk 4. The most upright genuine regular immediate way to take off the exorbitant commotion and tumult in the Archeus in the bloud so thereby to reform it is to eliminate with all expedition that sordid apostatized yellow green clammy filth adhering to the Tunicles of the stomach like Bird-line or transmitted from the parts circumjacent especially the spleen to open the passages of the Hypochondries obstructed to carry off through all the Emunctories of the whole body whatsoever is not under the Guardian-ship of Life This is to be done by that which Antimalignant cleansing away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whaâ— is really excrementitious not what is so made in great part by deletery Laxatives of the shops 5. The only noted sluce through which the poisonous matter of all malignant feavers passes away is the universal memorane the skin on the which the stomach hath no small influence governâ—…g this Catholick Coat at its pleasure â—n so much no successful sweat or eruption can be expâ—cted as long as the Duumvirate lies prostrate under any insulting calamity Wherefore the arch design of the Pysician is to cherish corroborate and remove all impediments of this eminent part that it may protrude explode or ejaculate from its bosom to the utmost limits whatsoever is virulent closely supplanting the fortress of life Now whether bleeding be any competent Medium to achieve this let any one infferently versed in the knowledge of the Pest be judge wherein no honestable Artist dare open a vein because it will attract the miasm inward hindring the extrinsecal motion of the Archeus for the expulsion of what is mortiferous Albeit our Phlebotomists do extenuate the matter setting a fair gloss upon it by their sophistical evasions pretending that in malignant feavers of the inferiour Class Plethorick or cachomchymick indications do manifestly require their utmost assistance before that inconsiderable venom lying occult I must by their favour be bold to tell them they will never solidly and speedily make a sanation of any great feaver or any other disease till they handle it in some manner proportionable to the plaugue For there is quiddam Deleterium a certain venenosity in most maladies as I can prove ex facto Had a vein been opened in this Plethorick Cachochymick Merchant when I first undertook him as I make no question most of that Sect would have strait consented thereto they had infallibly destroyed him sith all their medicines could never have expiated their first Crime of retraction and fixation of that within which by the Dowry of prevalent Remedies afterward appeared without Moreover I deliver it faithfully I have not acording to these ten years strict observation seen any one firmly evade a vehement feaver unless there hath been an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 efflorescence or breaking forth of something in the surface of the body which cooling Julips Posset-drink made only with small Beer Barley Water c. repress 6. The great offence the Galenists still lay to my charge is that my Medicines are too hot and violent where the sulphureous particles are advanced preter-natural fermentation promoted and so the feaver encreased This they would fain have granted without any proof thinking it enough for their purpose to buzz it continually into the vulgars ears easily seduced by their Authority How many by this false allegation have been deterred from making use of the right means I am not a little apprehensible Me thinks these men should be ashamed to censure that rashly of which they are ignorant nor will be instructed in by any clear experimental probation For if I do not ratifie by Art before my Lord Bacons Disciples that what of my Remedies they call too hot burning enflaming and violent are effectually temperate amiccable to Nature gentle in operation and far from any excessive quality in no wise causing any Dyscrasie in the bloud although they be given in a treble quantity let me be forthwith made an exile from all Artists Now upon this stumbling block of a mis-conceit that such or such things are extream hot they do infinitely err in the oblation of one part of that whereof ten ought to be given where the state of the Paâ—…ent is very hazardous as it was in the fore-menâ—…oned sick man to whom the Dr. sent for to consuâ—t with me after a gust of a spirituous Liquor advised a srcuple to be gâ—ven for one Dose of that which I gave some ounces otherwise I dare maintain he had perished By this it may appear how ridiculous and incogitant it is for any one to detract vilifie anothers Arcana's or impute any evil effects to that which they neither know how to make or use neither will be convinced by the Touch-stone of tryal how far its virtue and dose extends 7. I am satisfyed by the late example with some hundreds beside that sulphur clarifyed by a Philosophical hand likewise volatiles prepared as they ought I mean not the ordinary spâ—rits of Harts-horn yet of very good use have a gift bestowed upon them to subjugate atrocious feavers if they be given according to substantial not an accidental method depending upon poor beggarly momentany Heats and Colds 8. A true judicious Prognostication of the progress state and termination of a disease begets in the Patient a strong perswasion of the ability of his Physician and the sufficiency of his Remedies this invites him to take liberally of of them this large sumption of what is efficacious will in a short space alter the sad scene suggesting his restauration if he be capable thereof neither will there be need to stand gaping for a Crisis sith that may be anticipated and all secured before that time if there be a regular procession For instance this person took the greatest quantity of my remedies
of every pettey invading infirmity witness those multitudes who after sharp conflicts fall either into Relapses or Agues Scorbute Dropsies Consumptions Atrophie Jaundies Asthma's c. which might be easily prevented if a mature regular course were taken to give convenient Emeto-catharticks Analepticks Diaphoreticks which safely and speedily cleanse the stomach keep up the strength and breath the whole body then need we not fear any mischief from this late invention Redundance of Sulphur or Salt in the bloud no more than choller phlegm and melancholly of the ancients I would fain be satisfyed how this sanguimission is the cause of such a congestion of sulphur in this bloudy mass out of which there is no elective subduction of the Salt and a reservation of sulphur behind but both fly out promiscuously not to be discriminated by the eye till the fire which produces these Phaenomena makes a secretion of the homogenous juice into these heterogene parts inconfiderately denominated principles which are never so separated by the Archeus in so much as if one spin oâ—t more than another it is by accident never intended by Nature then a feaver may as well be sometimes prevented as invited according to the Aetâ—ological Hypothesis Neither can I apprehend where and how a greater quantity of sul above salt should be engendred after iterated Phlebotomy unless be meant by sul a spurious matter growing out of kind never intended by the scope of Nature which works regularly and uniformly Indeed so this may very well be after the stock of life is exhausted that the stomach Archeus and ferments becoming flaccid more dregs exotick strangely disguised abortive conceptions do forthwith start up attiring themselves in various shapes appearing afterward upon some stimulating occasions upon the Theater of the microcosm acting various Scenes of diseases according to the pravity and malignity of each excrement dis-junctive or copulative Me thinks 't is more consentaneous to Reason that a degenerate salt should rather abound in the body after this unkindly evacuation sith all the shops of digestions endeavour much about acid or urinous salts as is eminently apparent in the first and second Laboraâ—ories most of the visible excrements urine tears c. even of a hall person being saline Hence we may very well conclude that our Phlebotomist is much to seek in the cause and cure of a feaver sith he makes hat cause thereof which is only a Product of the fire not really existent withall pretends to take it away by that means which brought it for certainly what did mischief in this kind ab Anteriori can hardly do otherwise à Posteriori What gave occasion to admit it at first cannot well be expected to dismiss it once entred unless it be for a while that it may again return to take stronger possession Serius ejicitur quam non admittitur Hospes Experto Crede What the great Philosopher Van Heâ—mont hath set down before-cited I can maintain as certain truth by multiplyed experiments above these two and twenty years having in procincture not a few Patients ready to appear upon meet opportunity to attest how their veins have been acquitted of abundance of corrupt bloud as they thought yet their infirmitâ—es grown more strong and pertinacious and Nature more weak so doubtless must have perished had they noâ— râ—ceived succour at length by this powerful Câ—ymical Art Many medical Histories could I mention apposite for this purpose tending to the subversion of this Phlebotomical method but I conceive it will signifie little with those who are obstinately prejudiced against whatsoever I relate in this kind Wherefore I rather chuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come up close to them earnestly pressing they would either stand to some Aequiâ—able trials as we shall mutually propose for the final decision according to the senâ—ence of our experimentally knowing Philosophers of this Controversie of so great moment wherein Princes Noblemen and the greatâ—st Hero's Lives are concerned otherwise let them desist for the future prodigally to spend this Balsom of life keeping in its proper place for better uses that Lancet which I may safely aver hath been the destruction of more than the Sword At length I am put in mind of the last Quaery What Experiments the Doctor will undertake to testifie unto us that Phlebotomy is a way aequivelent with the best Remedies to amend impure bloud corrupted Here now am I so zealous a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indagator of verity by the Touch-stone of experience that I even blush to deliver any great matter of importance in reference to the health of man unless I have made trial my self or received it from a Learned honest Pyrotechnist Were it not that I should be censured for a stentorian Boaster by those who bear an Odium to this Science I would presume to take to my self a priviledge of knowing more practically than all those Physicians who altogether depend upon the Gregal Pharmacopaean set up principally to foment Laziness as likewise to keep up a meer mercenary Trade for the Reciprocal interest of each other to the injury of thousands Pish why should I be dared by any mortal only speaking physical truth Let Zoili or Momi do their worst I value them not Thus much I can uprightly and boldly deliver I have been both Agent and Patient in the examination of the Galenical and Chymical Dispensatory the former of which after a tedious expectation of some Benefit several years in reference to my sickly condâ—tion gradually filtching away my strength quite tyred me out usque ad nauseam so that I abhorred to look upon a painted Gally-pot or a bright Lancet The last in a short space gave me Relief not long after totally eradicating my infirmity repairing my decayed Constitutives in some measure Although some Philautists may judge me a little too venturous careless of my own safety in taking into my stomach Spagyrical medicines the effect whereof were as yet unknown to me yet I have not in the least repented thereof being perswaded it was but Charity that I my self rather than my Neighbours should run the hazard of virulency if they had any Withall I thereby collected those Documents by frequent sumption of my preparations for their correction and safe exhibition which a vulgar head could never have imparted to me For this end I give not a Remedy effectually Authentick which these hands of mine have not contrived and this stomack approved Neither was there any other Reason why I forsook this old smoothly beaten more profitable Road beâ—aking my self to this seldom trodden rugged poor contemptible way at that time but a plain forcible conviction within my self that one was erroneous unsatisfactory full of doubts and perplexities seldom bringing a man to his intended End The other was veriloquos right scientifical performing for the most part what is promised Herein I acquired after some labour a satisfactory notion of things with a sweet content far surpassing any Pecuniary Reward so that I
most uncapable of it where great quantity of moisture much abounds or if it be really present as is here asserted that it doth not quickly destroy that body where it harbours for fire being an anomalous Ens neither substance nor an accident created for the special use of man is always of a voracious nature and is never seen but in some fit subject which it either quickly alters or consumes Were there any thing of fire in mans composition it would either be quickly extinguished or the frame of that body soon consumed Neither is it enough to mitigate this Hypothesis to alledge that the purer part of the bloud spirits are of an igneous nature though not formally fire or flame This is but to puzzle wilder our understanding to make us more to seek what the spirits are for if they be fiery they must needs have in them that which agrees with the properties of fire as to burn consume inflame separate otherwise the Epithete is very ill appropriated thereto now according to our Philosopher Non verus censetur ignis qui non summo gradu ferveat connexiis Radiis in Cono Luminis centraliter haereat i. e. that can never be reputed real fire which is not hot in the highest degree inhering centrally in the beams conjoyned in the cone of Light whether there be any such graduated heat in mans body let any judge by his sense of feeling Who ever felt any thing of fire in the healthful bloud of any animal dissected alive Are not the bloud of fishes actually cold yet are they full of spirits as appears by their strength pernicity and extraordinary digestion Certainly were there any fiery heat in our bodies it would be most pespicuous in that place where it might be most requisite the first digestion which our Peripatetick would have performed by it as an efficient cause I wonder any one dare obtrude such absurd Tenents upon this nice circumspect age contrary to all sense and reason Great gobbits of hard substances even stones are dissolved in some mens stomachs bones in dogs Glass Stones Iron in winged creatures whole fishes devoured and digested by others The Shark can bring to a Chale by a specifâ—ck ferment the leg of a Man or Horse sooner than the culinary fire can calcine it yet are not the stomach of any of these tangibly a little more than luke-warm and some actually cold Will any vertuous person experimentous subscribe that a Chimaerical heat of a fiery nature I know not where nor what no way truly discoverable can produce this rare vital Analytical effects Moreover fire can but heat rarefie condense and disgregate sending packing the thinner part the grosser remaining behind but it can never make a seminal formal transmutation of a thing which only belongs to fermental operations excited by an accidental heat but never intrinsecally fabricated thereby as our Peripatetick undertakes to indigitate making light to pass over the mystery of fermentation sicco pede as if it consisted in nothing else but a certain Rarefaction from heat chiefly fire that being a bare quality never subsisting alone in no wise capable of it self to produce a substance that a Heteroclite creature destinated to destroy not to generate for as much as it certainly mortifies all seeds wherefore the Nativity of the vital spirits can never be from heat efficiently subtiliating a pinguedinous matter from which results an unctuous fuliginous spirit for that is the utmost solitary heat can bring forth according to any mechanical trial which our humorist calls a mixt thing of a fiery nature continually maintained by this oleaceous like substance as the flame of a Candle by the attenuated particles of Wax or Tallow Those Allusions Comparisons Analogies and Metaphors which are cited to give Light to the abstruse operations of nature to the end that we may be more edified meliorated in the Therapeutical Science suppose they still keep their distance not invading the priviledge of vital Ergasie whose secret working is not to be every way matched or demonstrated by any sublunary thing whatsoever inanimate I am very well pleased and affected with but when the shadow shall stand in competition with the substance as of equal validity with it the similie or Representation presume an univocal equality in every respect with the thing represented and that to the detriment if not the subversion of the Life and Soul of man in reference to the Curative part of Physick Such metaphorical expressions comparisons c. I justly abominate and detest What truculent mischiefs come upon this and such like erroneous principles of Dr. Betts is sufficiently known to those whose Physical speculations are sincerely regulated by the Canon of solid and Authentick experiments in practice For according to this Doctrine of heat as a principal Agent of all actions in the body and the igneity of the spirits the Galenists curiously insist upon the impertinent and Treacherous qualities of Calidity and Frigidity of Medicines for the Cure of most atrocious diseases neglecting the seminal formal specifick luminous and spirituous vertues of effectual Remedies That the essential structure of the vital spirit may be more clearly understood for the sanative benefit of mankind I shall borrow our Great Philosophers definition pag. 443. de Aura vit Est spiritus vitalis sanguis per vim fermenti motus cordis resolutus in Auram salsam illuminatam vitaliter i. e. the vital spirit is pure bloud relented or broken by the power of a ferment and motion of the heart into a thin airy salt substance endued with vital light The material cause is pure Homogeneous bloud part whereof is changed by the efficient power of a ferment and vigorous motion of the heart into a substance as subtil as the clearest air of a saline nature not pinguedinous where it becomes capable of luminous not igneous vitality which light in man and other Terrestrial creatures effectively is hot but in fishes actually cold I must wave for brevity sake to make a strict comment upon this definition and shall only at this time endeavour to prove that the vital spirits are saline luminous without unctuosity or igneity 1. Whatsoever concrete is disposed to be spiritualized ought according Pyrotomy to contain saline parts 2. That matter which contains parts most salsugâ—nous far beyond any pinguedinous is in all Reason more inclinable to be converted into saline exhalations such is the bloud 3. It is observed the incessant work and grand design of Nature is to produce abundance of salt in the macrocosm as appears by the copious Niter in the Air and the notable brinishness in the Sea being therefore called Salum Wherefore we may very well argue the same to be acted in the microcosm 4. 'T is mechanically demonstrable two saline Liquors of a different kind being mixt with each other doth forthwith raise a spumous ebullition ejaculating a Gas or wild spirit incoercible which like motion is not observed in the tangible