changeth his Note of the great danger our little Patient was in and out of a Malignity to the other Physician Benigns the Disease That which is also the more ridiculous because this Gentleman in the immediately preceding Observation viz. the 14 th of his 2 d Book says thus of a Pleurisie in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecè a loco affecto nimirum Pleurâ Latinis morbus costalis seu lateralis dicitur estque inflammatio Membranae costas succingentis quae Pleura nominatur Haec inter morbos acutos lethales vel imprimis numeratur gravia Symptomata pericula secum adfert morbus est gravissimus A Pleurisie is called in Greek Pleuritis from the part affected to wit the Pleura or Side In Latin it 's called the Rib or Side-Disease and it is an Inflammation of the Membrane that covereth the Ribs within which is called Pleura Amongst acute and mortal Diseases a Pleurisie is especially reckoned it brings with it grievous and dangerous Symptoms and is a most grievous Disease A Pleurisie then is a most dangerous Disease when Mr. Loss cures it but when Alius Medicus cures it it 's a Benign Pleurisie The Nature of an Acute Disease consists in two things in its being a great Disease and in its moving nimbly with vehemency and danger Young Mrs. Moore 's Fever was peracute putrid continual worse every night it had joined with it an Inflammation of an internal Part next neighbour to the Heart It was occasioned by Choler in a Bilious thin Body it caused bad Symptoms and threatned death and if notwithstanding all this it must pass for one of Mr. Loss his Benign Pleurisies so let it Mr. Loss his Judgment of the Cause of this Patient's Pleurisie Examined THE Conjunct Cause of her Pleurisie was Inflamed Blood The antecedent-Antecedent-Causes were of two sorts some did cause the Blood to be inflamed as her Plethora quoad vires and her Cacochymia Some did cause her inflamed Blood to fall upon her left Side as the the weakness and debility thereof that Side being weakned first by an Issue and afterwards by an Afflux of Humors causing a soreness in her left Breast some years before her sickness The Procatarctick Causes were her being obnoxious to Catarrhs her Cholerick Constitution her over-heating her Blood by play and her drinking cold Beer whilst she was hot that which Sennertus takes especial notice of for a Cause of a Pleurisie But Mr. Loss mentions no other Cause but an External only her catching cold by walking forth late in the Evening in an Autumnal cold Season with her Breasts naked as is the manner of most Noble Virgins This is but a vulgar account any one that comes in to see such a sick Patient can readily suggest that She might get her sickness by taking some cold and being too late out in the Evening It is too general an account and although it gives sometimes very good satisfaction unto ordinary Persons that understand little of Physick or Philosophy yet how will any wise man acquiesce if asking after the Cause of a Particular Disease his Physician tells him he hath got cold which is in a manner a general Cause of all Diseases It is an illogical Inference She got cold therefore She got a Pleurisie for we may predicate of an Individual the Species and next Genus and so upwards For example Peter is a Man A Man is an Animal an Animal is a Corporeal Substance c. But we cannot invert this order and go downwards saying A Corporeal Substance is an Animal An Animal is a Man A Man is Peter Thus we may say That a Pleurisie may be caused by catching of cold but we cannot say catching of cold is the cause of a Pleurisie because a Genus cannot be confined to one Species and catching of cold might as well have caused other Diseases as a Pleurisie The Consideration of such a Cause is useless to a Physician he can make no benefit of it for Causa transiens non indicat because it is one of the conditions of an Indicans that it be Manens in corpore for how else can it indicate its ablation from thence What though this young Lady did catch cold that was past before Mr. Loss was sent for and the need a Patient hath of a Physician is to find out and remove the Cause that doth actually cause the sickness not to talk of that which is already gone If Mr. Loss had understood that the division of Causes of Diseases into External and Internal is an error among some Physicians because it may so fall out that against the Rules of Logick both Members of the division may be predicated of one and the same thing as when a Dagger is stuck into the flesh He would not have called the cold Air an External but a Procatarctick Cause of her Disease Besides all that hath been said this only account which Mr. Loss gives of this Patient's Sickness is also false either this young Lady was too hard for this old Gentleman by concealing her over-heating her self at play and then drinking cold Beer or else our trusty Observator according unto his manner of seeing and proving things in his Observations never troubles himself to examine the business but easily takes upon trust what as easily he puts forth in Print But suppose we that what he says were true let 's a little dive into his profound Philosophy I know this old Gentleman is no friend to the new Philosophers he had rather that those that went before him should be accounted wiser than any that come after him Antiquity he reverenceth but he doth not consider that the younger generation of Men is the older World and that as all things else here below so Knowledg and Learning cannot but grow and increase by time and the daily experiments and inventions by which it is improved and advanced or else for which I see no reason he must conclude that Learning is past its Zenith and upon the decline I shall not therefore trouble him with questioning whether Heat be an Accident or a Substance I mean that Heat which he saith so easily causeth a Pleurisie by melting the Humors but I ask him in what Subject it is It 's plain that he means by Cold the cold Air that which caused as he says this Gentlewoman's sickness and therefore I presume he means by Heat the hot Air. But how hot Air can insinuate it self into and single out the Pleura a membranous and colder part and yet there by melting the Humors easily cause a Pleurisie I cannot easily understand I acknowledg it may help to increase Choler in the Body which abounding may take fire and inflame the Blood and I can easily imagine that some of this inflamed Blood may strike to the Pleura and inflame that but then this is contrary to what Mr. Loss would have for thus the Fever must needs precede the Pleurisie whereas he says positively that the
things being most diligently made use of by the blessing of God and cooperation of Nature within few days this Virgin was freed from the pain of her side and spitting of Blood so that she could rise out of her bed a Cough remaining but not very troublesom to remove which out of a vain fear of a Consumption it seemed good to the most noble Mother through the instigation of the Vncle to call into Counsel another Physician who after the manner of many others accusing what had been done and especially that a Vein had not been opened and that her having been bled by Leeches was of no moment orders on the sixth day of the Disease that a vein should be opened then when the Fever and other Symptoms were gone So taking away some four ounces of Blood that he might not seem to do nothing from the Basilick Vein of the opposite side that which by the most learned Fuchsius is accounted an error in Physicians who alledgeth many reasons to the contrary The seventh day he gives her Powder of Sena by which she was purged six or seven times About the Evening of the same day she fell into a plentiful voluntary Sweat by which she grew altogether well excepting that for some time afterwards she took Balsam of Peru. Though these things were ordered without method or reason yet they did the Patient no harm for strength when it is good as it was in this Virgin it contemns and tolerates all things but when it is weak every thing offends it I have already above mentioned what the Medicinal Materials are with which a Physician is to build any Medicinal work I shall now offer at the Method of ranging these into a Medicinal Observation which according to what I yet best understand ought to consist of these five Parts 1. A Title which is to invite the Reader to peruse it telling him what it is he may expect in the Observation and therefore it ought to contain either the sum of it or somthing very remarkable in it and commonly it speaks the Patients Disease 2. A Narrative of the Case containing its history or the matters of fact which the Physician met with in that Case such as are these three especially 1. His Natural viz. His Parentage Age Sex and Natural Constitution in which I include his Temperament Complexion Predominant Humor and his habit of Body 2. His Non-naturals which some thus in short express Aer Esca Quies Repletio Gaudia Somnus Haec moderata juvant immoderata nocent 3. His former Praeternaturals what Disease he hath formerly had from what Causes and with what Symptomes as likewise the Juvantia and Laedentia what did formerly do him good or hurt 3. The Judgment of the Physician founded upon this Narrative and this Judgment ought to be the delivery of his Opinion touching these three particulars especially 1. What the part Affected is and whether it be Primarily affected or by Sympathy 2. What the Disease is I mean the Principal Disease and that in regard of its Essence Accidents or Mutation 1. In respect of its Essence whether it be a Similar Disease a Distemper only or an Organical consisting in some default of 1. The Conformation of the Part Affected respecting its figure its roughness or smoothness or Cavity in its being Compressed Obstructed or Dilated 2. The Magnitude of it when the Part is either Bigger or Less than it should be 3. The Number when in a greater Organical part there are more or fewer lesser Organs 4. The Connexion when a Part doth not Cohere where it should or Cohere where it should not or is otherwise faulty in its site 2. In respect of its Accidents of which four are especially considerable As 1. It s Magnitude whether it be a great Disease such as being very intense afflicts the Body with a great force or a little Disease that receding but little from the natural constitution doth but little impair the strength 2. It s Motion in respect of its Quantity in its parts as being in its beginning increase state or decrease or in the whole whether it be an Acute Disease or a Chronical 3. It s Motion in respect of its Quality or Manner whether it be a Benign Disease or a Malign 4. It s Event whether it be likely to be Salutary or Mortal Besides these Accidents taken from the Properties that do accompany the Essence of a Disease there are also other accidental differences that a Physician may judg of As 1. Whether in respect of the subject or part affected the Disease be Idiopathick or Sympathick Protopathick or Deuteropathick If Sympathick whether Positive or Privative whether Sympathick by reason of Neighbourhood Society of the same kind Communion of Office Site or Connexion 2. Whether the efficient Cause of the Disease or peccant Humor be Legitimate or Bastard 3. Whether in respect of the Causa sine quâ non especially the Region or Place where the Patient lies sick the Disease be Endemick Epidemick or Sporadick 3. In respect of its Mutation whether it will change into another Disease or it self terminate either by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Life or Death 4. The Practice of the Physician according unto his Judgment of the Case his Method of Cure and his Remedies made use of whether Dietetick Pharmaceutick or Chirurgick 5. The Event and Success of what was done I do not undertake to prescribe to any one this Method for his framing of any Medicinal Observation but because I think it doth contain whatsoever needs to be taken notice of by any Physician in any particular Patient's Case according to it I shall follow my Examination of the newly mentioned 15 th Observation of Mr. Loss his Second Book of Medicinal Observations supposing that my having premised it hath not been any fruitless digresson since by it the Reader may be informed unto what head each Particular that shall be spoken unto belongs and thereby himself become a more competent judg both of Mr. Loss his Observation and of my Examination This 15 th Observation is more than ordinary remarkable in that there is a double case to be taken notice of in it The First did belong to young Mrs. Bridget Moore the Sickness of her Body The Second doth belong unto my self her other Physician who was sent for to consult with Mr. Loss in her Sickness and it is the wounding of my Reputation by his private whispers and now publick slander The first of these Patients by the blessing of the Almighty grew well in a short time and she may now say to me Physician cure thy self To which my Answer shall be the very same that when she lay sick it was unto her honoured Mother upon somewhat the like question The Case is indeed very dangerous but I 'll do the best I can for the Cure And although it is not in my power to perswade any one contrary to what they themselves please yet
most predominant naturally in his Patient's Body and whether the present peccant humour and the disease be nearer or farther off from his natural constitution and what measure of health is to be aimed at in his recovery and what probability there is of it To his non-Naturals belong these queries 1. What is the Air he breaths in To this belongs the Country he dwels in the situation of his habitation the time and seasons of the year the wind and weather the influences of the Sun Moon and Stars and the neighbourhood of any thing that is contagious or noxious 2. What Dyet hath he kept To this belong the substance quantity quality manner of preparing order of using and the time of taking either his Meat or Drink But it is not convenient though the Patient should be a Drunkard or Glutton or great Tobacconist to follow this Gentleman's example and publish them for such in print 3. What Exercise doth he use To this belongs whether he useth any exercise or none what its kind is when the time before dinner or presently after and upon a full stomach as also how long it is continued whether only until the body begin to swell a little and grow florid or until it sweats and is weary 4. What hath been his sleeping and waking To this belongs the posture he sleeps in the time how long the time when he begins as also the benefit or hurt which is received thereby 5. What are his Excretions or Retentions To this belongs very many things even all the particular sensible evacuations of the Body or non-evacuations and above all the insensible transpiration which as Sanctorius observes in his Medicina Statica by many degrees exceeds all the sensible 6. What are the Passions of his Mind his Love or Joy or Grief c. To his former praeter-naturals belong an enquiry after such sicknesses as at any time heretofore he hath suffered in any remarkable manner what they were by what causes extraordinary they came about what symptoms did follow them and what did formerly do him either good or hurt For these things many times will much contribute to the understanding of the present case and its desired cure And thus much briefly of the first General Who the Patient is To the second What in the stating of cases already past of which Medicinal Observations are made do belong these two parts 1. What the Patients Complaints were 2. What the Physitian did fore-see or prognosticate what he did do and what was the effect of all To the first of these belong the Patient's praeter-naturals in the case proposed and they can be none other than either his disease or its causes or symptoms and because these are accidents quae adesse vel abesse possunt sine interitu subjecti but which cannot subsist without their subject therefore hereunto likewise belong the disquisition of the part or parts affected I shall not reckon up all diseases and what belong to them their causes or the parts affected that would be to transcribe Physick and Anatomy but forasmuch as the Patients complaints are generally symptoms and by symptoms principally are found out the disease the causes and the parts affected it will be no great digression to such as I write unto if I set them down here the heads of Symptoms All the Symptomatical complaints which any Patient can make they must belong to one of these three Heads To his injured Actions or Functions whether such as are diminished or depraved or totally abolished and whether again they be 1. Animal whether 1. Principal as Reason Imagination c. or 2. Less-Principal as Sense and Motion To Sense belong all a Patients Complaints of Pain whether heavy pricking shooting corroding beating c. To Motion belong all Gestures and Postures of the Body as also Tremblings Shiverings Convulsions c. 2. Vital whether belonging to his 1. Respiration be it weak or strong free or stopt short or long or 2. Pulse be it strong or weak quick or slow c. Upon the Respiration of the Pulse do depend the Circulation of the Blood 3. Natural whether belonging to 1. The Formation of the Faetus in the Womb done wonderfully and strangely when neither We nor our Parents think on 't a Meditation which alone methinks is enough to convince an Atheist 2. His Nutrition and Accretion subservient whereunto are vulgarly reputed Attraction Retention Concoction and Expulsion I am not ignorant of some men's finding fault with this ancient Division who do reduce it unto the Dichotomy of Animal and Vital because the Natural is supposed to be nothing else but involuntary Animal But as far as I can yet understand there seems then to me no necessity at all of any Division in us for all our Actions may be accounted Animal since I cannot conceive what Vital is if I abstract from it Sense and Motion which belong to Animal and if the Formation of us in the Womb be Involuntary Animal as also our Nutrition and Accretion why may not all our Actions be Animal Voluntary Involuntary or Mixt 2. To his Excretions or Retentions whether 1. Vniversal by the Pores of the skin or 2. Particular by the Eyes Ears Nose Mouth Bladder Belly Womb c. The things which belong to this Head are very large 3. To his Altered Qualities whether 1. Of the First Sort as Hot Cold Moist Dry and their Compounds or 2. Of the Second Sort as Hard Soft Rare Dense Light Weighty Subtile Crass Arid Slippery Friable Glutinous Rough Smooth c. 3. Of the Third Sort as belonging to Colour Smell Taste or Sound And thus much of the First Part of the Second General What. To the Second belong the Physician 's Judgment on the Case what is the Part affected what the Disease and what the Cause is of the Disease His Prognosticks touching the Event His Method of Cure and all his Instruments for the satisfying his Indications by a right use of Remedies Dietetick Chirurgick and Pharmaceutick These and all things belonging to these are the Limits and Boundaries of all such Medicinal things of which Medicinal Observations ought to consist A Catalogue of Mr. Loss his Impertinencies IF I should go about to mention all the particulars of his Non-Medicinals in his Book of Medicinal Observations I doubt whether I should not transcribe a great share of it I shall therefore content my self with mentioning some of the chief Heads to which they all seem reducible As 1. Divine or Moral Meditations are not Medicinal I do not say they are not good yea most willingly I do acknowledg that Divinity and Morality do treat of the most Excellent things such as so far exceed matters of Physick as the Soul is in worth above the Body And forasmuch as the World are generally apt to brand Physicians more than other Men with the abominable sin of Atheism I do heartily wish that every Physician would vindicate his Profession and himself as much as
perstarent de venâ secandâ cogitavi ut quae summum in pleuritide commodum afferre soleat Cum vero venaesectionem Galenus in pueris ante decimumquartum annum vix suscipiendam suadeat praesertim in corpore molli raro atque ad dissolutionem prono quale erat hujus puellae siquidem internam habent copiosam perpetuam vacuationem ab actione sui innati coloris excitatam qui substantiam humidiorem facilè digerit absâ—mit unde timendum ne huic liberali vacuationi altera addita vires prosternat Itaq sanguinis uncias quinque sic jubente Doctissimo Sennerto hirudinibus ex internâ sinistrï cubiti vena emungendas curava praemisso enemate emolliente refrigerante Hoc facto dolorem lateris fotu unctione lenire studeo Fovebam autem malvarum florum Camomillae meliloti anethi seminum lini decocto admota insuper inunctione ex unguento dialtheae pectorali oleo amygdalarum dulcium superimposito cataplasmate dolorum lenitivó Recipe Malvae florum Camomillae ana M. 1. Meliloti Anethi Violariae ana M. s Floram Violarum P. 1. Seminum Foenugraeci Lini ana unc s Decoquantur in aqua contusis adde Olei Amygdalarum dulcium unc i. Pinguedinis Gallinae unc s farinae hordei fabar ana q. s Fiat Cataplasma quibus continuatis dolor plurimum alleviatus Hinc ad promovendum sputum conversus mane in jusculis exhibui Oleum Amygdalarum dulcium recenter sine igne extractum quo alvus quoque fluidior reddita subsequente promtâ facili anacatharsi interdiu verò utebatur linctu ex Syrupo Violaceo capillorum veneris diatragacantho frigido diaireos Saccharo Cando atque penidiis In principio morbi assumpsit tincturam florum papaveris erratici cum aqua cardui Mariae scabiosa cum spiritu sulphuris addito pugillo uno vel altero Florum Violarum extractam Postea etiam Decoctum pectorale officinarum hausit pro potu ordinario bibit decoctum hordei cum passulis liquoritia Seminibus Anisi His summâ diligentiâ administratis aspirante Gratiâ Divinâ Natura cooperatrice intra paucos dies puella haec a lateris dolore sputo cruento liberata ut e lecto surgeret remanente tussi non admodum molestâ cui removendae phthiseos vano metu visum est nobilissimae Matri instigatione avunculi Alium Medicum in Concilium adhibere Hic acta pro more multorum accusans maxime veró quod venaesectio neglecta quae sanguinis per hirudines detractio instituta fuisset nullius sit momenti venaesectionem instituit sexto morbi die cum febris reliqua symptomata cessassent detractis ne nihil fecisse videretur quatuor circiter unciis sanguinis ex basilicâ dextrâ oppositi scil lateris id quod inter errores Medicorum a doctissimo Fuchsio numeratur qua plures rationes in contrarium allegat Die septimo exhibet pulverem senae quo sexties vel septies fuit purgata Sub vesperam ejusdem diei incidit in sudorem spontaneum copiosissimum a quo omnino convaluit assumpto tamen aliquandiu Balsamo Peruviano Haec licet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine ratione instituta nullo tamen aegrae damno quod vires ubi valentes sunt quales erant in hac Puellâ omnia contemnant tolerent ubi infirmae fuerint a quovis offendantur Observation the 15 th Book 2 d. A Benign Pleurisie resolved in a Week THE most Noble Damsel Elizabeth Eldest Daughter of the most Noble Gentleman Mr. Thomas Moore Esq aged more or less about ten years thin and cholerick and of a very rare Constitution boarding at Dorchester at a School-mistress's house for her better education subject to Rheums in Autumn when eventilation is less than at other times for which cause the Body is more prone to admit of the Internal inflammations of parts after a precedent rigour was taken in a Fever mild indeed but continual and worse every day towards evening with a pricking pain in the left side reaching to the Throat a difficulty of breathing a cough and spitting of blood Being called unto her and considering what has been said I judged that this noble Maid was sick of a Pleurisie whose external cause was by catching cold seeing that in a cold season late in the evening she had gone forth a walking with naked breasts as is the manner of Noble Virgins For as heat melting the humors easily causeth a Pleurisie so doth cold likewise by compacting them the Blood being gathered by reason of cold about the Intercostal Vessels and causing an Inflammation in the Membrane compassing the Ribs called the Pleura and the neighbouring internal Muscles Presently therefore for as much as her strength was yet pretty good I was thinking of opening a Vein as being that which uses to give great relief in a Pleurisie But because Galen adviseth hardly to admit of bleeding in Children not yet 14 years old especially in a body soft and spare and prone to dissolve such as this Damsels was for these bodies have a continual and plentiful internal evacuation caused by the action of their innate heat which easily digests and consumes their moist Substance so that there was reason to be afraid lest her strength should fail if to this liberal evacuation an other should be added Wherefore following therein the command of the most learned Sennertus I took care to evacuate by Leeches five ounces of Blood from the Internal Vein of the left Arm having first ordered an emollient and cooling Glyster Afterwards I made it my business by fomentation and unction to asswage the pain of her side My Fomentation was a Decoction of Mallows Chamomile-flowers Line-Seeds and Dill after which she was anointed with Althaea and pectoral Ointments and oil of sweet Almonds and this Cataplasm was applyed Take of Mallows Camomile-flowers of each one handful of Dill and Violet-Leaves of each half one handful of Violet-flowers a pugil of Faenugreek and Line-Seed of each half an ounce boil them in Water and when hey are bruised add to them one ounce of Oil of sweet Almonds half an ounce of Hens-grease and as much Meal of Barley and Beans as is enough Make a Pultess These things being continued the pain was much asswaged applying my self therefore to promote expectoration I gave her in the morning in her Broth oil of sweet Almonds fresh-drawn without fire by which She was also more soluble and a ready and easie expectoration followed But in the day She used a Linctus of Syrup of Violets Maiden-hair Diatragacanth frig Diaireos Sugar Candy and Penidice In the beginning of the Disease she took a Tincture of Wild Poppy-flowers extracted with Waters of Card. Marand Scabioso Spirit of Sulphur and a pugil or two of Violet-flowers Afterwards she drank the pectoral Decoction of the shops and for her ordinary drink a decoction of Barley with Raisins Loquorice and Aniseeds These
much that some play with him as with a Child and work him to consent by urging for that which is contrary to what they would have I say this Gentleman that hath many times uncivilly contradicted others is so civil as here and elsewhere to contradict himself 4. This Pleurisie was not resolved within a week for the great Sweat which did resolve it befel not the Patient until the Evening of the seventh day and the seven days were out before the sweat was off 5. It is no news nor worthy Observation That a Benign Pleurisie should be resolved within a Week for of all the five ways by which a Tumor may terminate Resolution is not only the safest but the nimblest for the Morbisick matter is not probably very great in quantity if it passes off by discussion nor very thick for then it would rather end in suppuration or induration neither doth it make any great stop of the circulation of the Blood in the part affected and Nature is still Mistress in this way of Termination neither is she wont then to be long about her work If he had told us of a Pleurisie that ended by Induration or Corruption of the Part and yet passed off in seven days he had given us an Observation indeed but to tell us of a Benign Pleurisie resolved in seven days is trivial There is scarce any Disease that admits of so speedy a Cure as this doth sometimes I have heard a Patient presently upon bleeding before yet his Arm was tyed up tell with rejoycing how he plainly felt his pain go off and such a discussion of the Disease hath followed that it returned no more what then is the great observable that this Gentleman seems ambitious that the World should take notice of from him Is it that of his certain Knowledg a Pleurisie was resolved within seven days Alas Almost every Body can tell that such a thing may sometimes happen in less than seven hours 2. The Narrative of the Case THis begins with the Observation it self and reacheth unto these Words With a Cough and Spitting of Blood Elizabeth This old Gentleman did forget that his young Patient's Name was Mrs. Bridget this would have been a gross mistake in a Law-Case but in Physick notwithstanding all the ado Mr. Loss makes in the Naming of every Patient it little concerns him that readeth the Observation to know what the Christian or the Sir-name of the Patient was In the Autumn This Second mistake is a little more Material because the time of the year when a Patient lies sick is Medicinal but the third mistake of this Patient 's getting this Sickness by taking cold in her Breast whereas it was by violent heating of all her Body and drinking cold Beer whilst she was hot was yet grosser as we shall by and by see in the interim have we not just reason to admire this Author for a very Trusty Observator A faithful Historian in matters of Fact upon whose authority and verity the Reader may securely build his belief and confidence of the things he writes that they are true and certain Such as he would make us believe in his Epistle Dedicatory he either saw himself or sufficiently examined This Patient had but two names and he hath hit right in one of them and hath some reason why he mistook the other for the Mother's Name being Mrs. Elizabeth who would have thought that her eldest Daughter's Name should have been Mrs. Bridget But he recovers himself a little from this ominous stumbling in the beginning he tells us truly whose Daughter she was and how she was his eldest Daughter things very Medicinal no question that she was about ten years old and she might have been 12 or 20 or almost of any other age and yet have been taken with a Pleurisie That she was thin and cholerick and of a very rare Constitution this Disease might have befaln her had she been full and fat phlegmatick and of a very thick Constitution as he will have it taking Constitution for the Skin It 's true also that she was at a Boarding-School for her better education but little to our better notification and that this School was in Dorchester a place he could not easily forget for he hath lived in it above thirty years But as for the time when the occasion whereupon this young Gentlewoman fell Sick these must be look't upon as less Material than those above mentioned and as faults easily pardonable in a Gentleman of his Gravity But what May he mistake the Disease likewise the Cause of it the Cure of it the Success and Event of it and all the Forgeries he hath invented and vented against Alius Medicus Let others think what they will for my part I shall not easily confide in such a mistaking Author but rather think that he did not begin to write before he began to dote giving us a mighty formal account from the Time of Autumn of his Patients Disease that lay sick in the Spring When Eventilation is less That it is so in Autumn it is confessed but this Patient'ts sickness was in April These words make nothing to the Observation they serve only to convince the Reader that this mistake can with no reason be attributed to any fault in the Printer since Mr. Loss himself builds upon it and gives a reason why the Autumn did contribute unto this Patient's Sickness imitating in this the forwardness of some young Philosophers though himself be old who will readily give you a reason of any thing even before they know whether the thing be so But if he had ever read my Lord Herbet's Zetetick Questions in his Book de Veritate he would have found that An sit is the first neque enim tutò in reliquarum profundum solvitur nisi exploratâ istâ After a precedent Rigour This cold shrug in the beginning or first on-set of a Fever is one of the signs that shew that it 's putrid for when the Blood begins to boil through Putrefaction the sowr crude and nitrous parts of it which have not yet arrived unto maturity and sweetness the bond of mixtion being much loosned naturally they get together as Birds of a Feather and unite particles and so make up a body of Crudity and Sowrness which at first smothers the fire in the Blood and hinder much the Circulation of it in which yet those cold sowr particles do associate themselves most willingly to the comparatively cold Membranous parts of the Body which Membranes partly through the absence of the influential natural heat which the Heart all this time oppressed cannot send forth vigorously enough and partly by the over-much presence of these cold sharp Particles do suffer that chill and general vellication which I suppose is the Rigour or cold shrug But why should Mr. Loss I pray be so busie to inform us that this Fever was a Putrid Fever which in its very Essence is dangerous though not always mortal
according unto which the advice of the Physician ought to be directed For the concern is not what a Patient's Age is but what his strength is Therefore a strong Child is safely Cured Thus Avenzoar makes mention of his successful bleeding his own Son at three years old and we find by experience that Children of four or five years old do by bleeding most commonly escape dangerous Diseases The same Author likewise in his Praxis and Chapter of a Pleurisie says thus Adeo necessaria est Venaesectio in principiò ut nunquam omitti debeat nedum in sene puero gravidâ puerpera menstruas purgationes Patienti docuit ènim Experientia hisce omnibus utilissimam fuisse Venaesectionem presente hoc morbo So necessary is opening of a Vein in the beginning of a Pleurisie that it must never be omitted no not in an old Man or Child or Woman with Child or that hath her Terms for Experience doth teach us that in all these in this Disease opening of a Vein hath been most profitable By Experience It is not long since that I knew a Girle not five years old that fell into an Atrophy a meer wasting and pining away without any Symptoms of a Consumption or Phthisis she was too young forsooth to be bled and all other means were to no purpose for she died and upon the opening of her Body her Liver was found so largely grown as to out-weigh the Spleen seventeen times Now whether the Liver be the Fons Sanguinis or the Heart or neither but that every Bowel contributes its office towards the making of the Blood yet since the Liver by separating the Choler into the Gall sweetens the Blood much and that sweetness helps to increase both Liver and Blood as also doth the absence of the acid ferment from the Spleen and I am prone to think that the Helluo the Blood eat her up and caused such an over-fast growing of the Liver as starved the Spleen and other parts Should another such a Case offer it self of such a Plethora would any rational man forbid bleeding until the Child were fourteen years old of which there is no likelyhood it should live until seven I am sure I did not in a Brother to this Sister about seven years old that not long after was treading in her steps and making haste apace unto the same end but being forwarned I bled him and I never saw more advantage by bleeding befal a Man than hapned unto this Child his recovery was so speedy and his health so good ever since as those then about him can witness I might instance also in the two above-mentioned Experiences wherein Mr. Loss himself can bear me witness of successfulness of bleeding under fourteen years of Age. Yet by all this which I have said I do not mean that I would encourage any Physician to be rash and venturous one that should hand-over-head pell-mell bleed all younger Patients as readily as Men without due consideration of their tender Age but I only urge from what I have written That there may be a time wherein it may be necessary to bleed a Child by Lancet under fourteen years old 2. That this Gentlewoman young Mrs. Moore might be bled by Lancet Here were several Indications for Bleeding and Co-Indications and there were no Contraindicantia nor Correpugnantia The Indications Here was Plethora quoad vires such a fulness of Humors in the Mass of her Blood as Nature could not rule well or manage so as to preserve them in their due Temperament and Mixture from separating and corrupting and therefore to remove this Morbifick Cause and to disburden the Body of a good share of that load it was pressed under that so Nature might the better comport with the remainder and by degrees master and subdue the Disease opening of a Vein was requisite Here was also need of Revulsion from a weak Part and Revulsion did Indicate Bleeding for this Patient was represented to me when I first visited her as a Child always Sickly Splenetick and Scorbutick and having her left Side weak by being Splenetick and pained in her left Breast more or less for two years before she fell sick Formerly she was obnoxious to Catarrhs and now also there was a flux of Humors in the mass of Blood flowing to her left Side part of the inflamed Blood had already got thither and lodging it self within the Pleura and Vicine Muscles caused in her a Symptomatical Pleurisie and there was great fear lest that inflammation should increase farther and therefore as bleeding was principally Indicated by the Plethora so was it likewise accidentally Indicated by Revulsion Here was Heat likewise that did Indicate accidentally the opening of a Vein in order unto the cooling her whole Body which was in a flame she having a putrid Scorbutick Feaver for her principal Disease Now this Preternatural Heat and Fire was to be put out and bleeding would help upon two accounts 1. By it part of the Fire even part of the Inflamed Blood might be taken away 2. By it Insensible Transpiration whose Evacuation alone is greater far than all the sensible together as Sanctorius observs in his Medicina Statica might be promoted the Pores of the skin opened whereby the Heat might breath forth and perhaps the cold Air get some ways in These Pores were before as it were wedged up with the plenty of Humors as is sometimes a Church-door by a throng of People each hindering another from getting forth but bleeding might unwedg them by letting some out another way and giving Nature room to drive forth what was superfluous by an open and free Transpiration as was also effectually done in this Patient who not long after fell into a great universal Sweat which completed her Cure The Coindications Some were taken from her Naturals and some from her Non-Naturals To her Naturals did belong her 1. Strength This was good even Mr. Loss himself being Judg so good as nothing could hurt 2. Habit of Body For lean people are generally fuller of Blood and have larger vessels than those that are fat and gross their Blood also wants more sweetning and 3. Her Age Though it was not fourteen yet was it about four It seems noways unagreeable to Reason to assert that one and the same thing may both Contraindicate and Coindicate bleeding as it is diversly considered For example He that considers of age under fourteen years that it is tender and wasts very much by the pores or habit of Body may so far look upon it as a Contraindicans as not to bleed in such an age except there be great need and good strength for fear the Patient should not be able to bear two large Evacuations at once And thus Mr. Loss seems to have considered this Patient's Age but notwithstanding this if need requires and strength will bear bleeding in a Patient not fourteen years old this Age as it intimates predominancy of Blood it may coindicate bleeding and