there is no reason besides for considering what they have proposed on this subject as one of its degrees since it is not at all likely that these Spirits they pretend infected are able to circulate about the body to penetrate the narrowest pores cause Itchings Inquietudes and fall of Hair the consequences of it without mixing with the blood by penetrating the Vessels I now spoke of which are but too porous for this effect and are generally dispersed into all parts of the body 5. Moreover it may be said that the differences which may be drawn from the Accidents the Pox produces are very considerable for it may be said to be Mobile during the ebullition of the blood the dispersion and motion of its matter that is to say when it yet causes those wandring pains or other Accidents that appear and vanish away successively one after another and on the contrary it may be considered as in a fixt condition when this dispersed matter doth adhere more particularly to some parts out of which it is not able to get neither of it self nor by the endeavours that Nature uses unless seconded by proper Remedies which also do become useless in those that have their Internal and Principal parts much injured by the adhesion and action of this matter But as the dispersion of it as well as of all other Humours that are extravasated is caused most commonly in the Extremities the most familiar Example of this degree may be observed in those that suffer in the night fixt pains of these same parts the elevation and corruption of bones and cartilages Lastly it may be seen by what I have said that these differences are able to furnish us with the most important consequences for the better making a good Prognostick of the Pox because we can easily judge that the degree in which its matter continues still in Motion can be carried off with easiness enough without leaving any impression at all of its ill effects and on the contrary we may judge it sometimes incurable where this same matter is absolutely stopt fixt because it hath made us see in some persons all its effects on those parts that are necessary to life and it is also rarely carried off in those I mentioned for the ordinary Example without leaving the sad marks of its activity since it is sometimes impossible to regenerate those parts that have been consumed for Example the bones and among others those of the Palate Nose which are often consumed in this degree and leave after their entire corruption very considerable deformities that can never be repaired CHAP. IV. Of the Judgment of the Pox. 1. It s division and how ignorant Men and Impostors do commit Abuses in this Disease 2. Many notorious Deceits and Impostures on this subject 3. A general division of the Signs that make us know this Disease 4. Particular division of the Symptomes that happen in all its degrees by the means of which the Prognostick of it may be assuredly made 1. THe Judgment of the Pox consists in knowing its Essence or Prognosticating as I have already said the easiness difficulty or impossibility of its Cure The Signs by which these things may be judged of are the Symptomes that accompany this Disease in all its degrees and are of a very great number and do therefore deceive ignorant Men because they do not all happen at a time and Symptomes do often happen that much resemble them though they are indeed produced from other causes This is that which gives occasion to Impostors to make but ill use of the credulity of those that doubt of the condition they are in and therefore find themselves engaged in this uncertainty to ask Counsel and require succour of those from whom they in Justice ought to expect it if they had but Honesty and Charity which are things very necessary for all such as do profess Physick The Reason that I have to speak after this manner â—â— that the greatest part of those who pretend to cure this Disease now-a-days do make the smallest appearances pass for undoubted degrees of the Pox and they do not fear to establish their Reputation at the cost of those who are not wise enough to know their own Folly and yet have a blind confidence on others so mighty ingenious as to run the hazard of losing all their Employments their Estates and Lives for to be cured of an imaginary or supposed Disease Though I have learnt an infinity of Cheats of this nature by the report of those who have come to consult me after others on this subject and by what I have seen my self by feigning my self sick and several other ways yet I will not by relating them encrease the bulk of my Book without profit and I believe it will suffice to relate some of the most remarkable of these Impostures to serve for an Advertisement or Warning to those who may be for the future in the like perplexities 2. The greatest part of those who think they know the World well do believe themselves sufficiently assured if they have escaped from falling iâ—â—o the hands of Empiricks and such as distribute secret Remedies nevertheless it is too true that there are many of those who are contrary to this sort of Men that are not really Honest but only in appearance and do indifferently make profit of all the occasions they meet with This truth is sufficiently known to many curious persons who have feigned themselves to have the Pox have found among those I spoke of persons that love their interest enough to confirm them in this Opinion upon the smallest suppositions and I have seen my self by chance that there are some among them who do not so much as endeavour to hide their Impostures by affected appearances but without any fear make ill use of the ignorance and easiness of those that go to consult them with a very strange piece of confidence The story that I am going to relate may serve so much the better for a proof of what I here affirm as it happened to a man of good credit that is now living and might be able to assert the truth of it This man came to consult me upon the account of several hard Pustules that grew over all his skin Upon this occasion I made all the necessary remarks on his past Life his Temperament the present condition of his person his Wife and Children and by this examination I knew it was nothing else but what Physicians call the Gnawing or Corrosive Herpes and I therefore proposed to him the use of a Bath and other Remedies both general and particular that ordinarily serve for the cure of this Distemper But because he was afraid he had the Pox and people often think they have the misfortunes they are afraid of he still continued in the apprehension he was in before and came to desire me some few days afterwards to conduct him to some famous Practitioner to see
those Itchings of â—â—â— skin and fall of the Hair from the Head and Beard Wherefore this time may be also considered as another degree of the Pox wherein nevertheless it may be absolutely cured as well as in the former by a good use of ordinary Remedies or else by a Critical Motion of some other Disease supervening But as these means do fail sometimes of the desired effects it were much better in this condition to provoke a light Salivation by which a quick easie and assured Cure may be hoped for When the fermentation encreases or that it is in its height the Venemous serosities do separate from the blood and pass á travers the coats of the Vessels that contain it after which they slide along the Nerves and Membranes and cause those wandring pains that are felt now in one part and now in another sometimes also Nature strives to drive them forth through the pores but as these serosities are heavy and full of Salts they adhere to the skin instead of going forth and there cause Ulcers when they are mixt with some corrupted matter or if on the contrary they are chiefly charged with fixt Salts they there raise pustules that are flat scaly dry and of a red drawing towards an Orange colour or else if they are fill'd with volatil Salts they rise somewhat higher and produce hard Tetters and Warts upon the Yards privities of Women the Groin and other places This degree of the Pox is not the most difficult of all to be cured but it is known very well by experience that there is nothing but Mercury among Remedies that is able to excite the Crisis that can terminate it Oftentimes after these matters have been thus wandring about the body they altogether adhere and absolutely stay in some parts and cause by this means the last and most terrible degree of the Pox. For though their adhesion doth sometimes happen only in the Muscles and Periostium they fail not to cause most lamentable Accidents because by pricking gnawing and continually drying the nervous Fibres of these parts they there produce those fixt and nocturual pains some persons have found insupportable The Cartilages and especially the bones are also other parts that suffer great changes by their penetration for they cause a sort of fermentation in the Marrow or Juyce they contain by the means of which Tumours are seen to happen that are called Nodes and which are nothing else but an elevation of their very substance that is at last rotted and corrupted by the presence and action of these Impurities Nevertheless though the Pox is very hard to cure when its matter is thus stopt and sunk into the parts I named it may be observed that it would be always curable even in this degree if this same matter were not sometimes stuck to parts that are still more considerable But it hath been unhappily proved in some Men that the parts which are called Noble and those that immediately administer to the Noble ones have not been exempt from its activity and cruel effects Wherefore the Prognostick that may be made of it is so sad and lamentable that it always consists in judging the extraordinary difficulty or else impossibility of the Cure But besides the general Considerations that I have marked for making a good Prognostick of the Pox in all its degrees there must be respect had to the particular circumstances of each subject as for example to the Temperament Sex Age Strength and also Employment of him we pretend to cure For I have known by Experience that the inquietudes which important affairs do give some men do heat and inflame the Spirits and thereby cause the Mercury to enter into the Brain where it finally causes most deplorable Accidents SECT 2. In which necessary Observations are made on the means to cure the Pox while it is but Particular on the Natural and Critical Motions which do terminate it when it becomes Vniversal and on the Medicines which commonly serve to raise the Artificial Crisis of it CHAP. I. Of the sorts of Particular Pox that are called Ulcers and Chancres 1. Why the particular Poxes are here treated of in the first place and of the general division that may be made of them 2. Of Venereal Vlcers in general 3. The particular Method of curing them 4. Observation on the Purges that ought to be employed in their Cure 5. Of other Preservatives 6. Divers necessary Observations on the Remedies that serve for curing them when they degenerate into Chancres 7. Of the Phymosis and Paraphymosis 1. AFter having thus remarked all the general things that I have judged necessary for the understanding those that more particularly relate to the Art of curing the Pox It is now time to speak of its Remedies and the circumstances that must be observed for the using them well and without danger And seeing the matter that causes the Pox doth in a manner always adhere to some particular parts before it advances to infect the whole body some Reflections shall here be made in the first place on the means of curing it while it doth continue particular and on the Preservatives that ought to be used for hindring its becoming Universal But to the end we may avoid useless Repetitions I shall say nothing more in general of particular Poxes nor of the Reasons for which I have so named them because these things have been already sufficiently explicated when I spoke of the Differences and Signs which may serve for the Knowledge and Prognostick of all the degrees of this Disease It will suffice to say here that they maay be divided into such as appear only in the parts that may be seen and touched and into such as happen in other parts that our senses cannot discover so that according to this Division different Remedies may be given the more successfully as occasion requires 2. The first are the Ulcers and Chancres which are caused by a light and superficial adhesion of some matter that hath not penetrated more inwardly I add this distinction because I do not now intend to speak of those that are made in the Ureter by the passage of Virulent matter in Claps or Gonorrheas nor of such as are the Symptomes of the universal Pox since the manner of treating them is much different and that they do depend on other degrees This particular Pox is nothing else in the beginning but the ruption or dilaceration of the superficial Fibres of the skin or pellicules that cover the parts to which the matter doth adhere so that no other Name must consequently be given to it than that of Venereal Ulcers especially if we will not do like Ignorants or Impostors who make the smallest Excoriations pass for Chancres of a most difficult cure and they do not indeed cure them but with a great deal of pains and time because they dress them with caustick burning Medicines which make them become very painful hard and apt to suppurate
whether he would joyn his Opinion with mine that so he might be better assured what to believe of it To this end I waited on him to a certain person whom a fair show of seeming Honesty store of Riches and a good Reputation of being an Able man have assuredly placed above the common Rank but was guilty nevertheless on this occasion of an action altogether unworthy of those good qualities for without giving leasure to the Patient or my self to relate those things that the sight cannot discover without making any examination at all and only after a precipitate inspection of these Pustules he told him it was a very fine sort of Pox and therefore he had best presently resolve for a retreat of six weeks This new way of judging of Diseases will surely very much surprize all those that shall make some reflections on the difficulty there is of knowing them and chiefly those Diseases whose causes are absconded in the secret internal parts such as is the universal Pox since the difficulty of knowing them is sometimes so great that the most expert profound and most knowing Physicians do happen to be mistaken in taking one for another and they do observe for this purpose the common Rule of Lawyers by which they do never offer to give determinate Judgment upon the presence of one Witness only But besides these considerations it must also be remarked by the by that those words of Fine Pox do show at the same time both the ignorance and quacking of those who make use of them But after all this same Patient was a little afterwards comforted again by one that proved more honest who after an ample knowledge of the circumstances I related gave the same Name to this Disease that I had done before and so advised him to those Remedies that I had proposed to him by the use of which Remedies he was quite cured in a short time Moreover it may be said that Interest was the sole Motive of this treacherous dealing for there is no likelihood that the ambition of appearing a great Doctor should have been the cause since he might have appeared so much more by reasoning on the Disease than pronouncing such fine words Nor is there any reason to believe he did it to render me a good Office since Offices of so high a nature are but seldom done without the hopes of receiving equal ones again and we two were not of Intelligence enough for that Therefore it is much more likely he thought with himself that I desired to put this person under his hands for some particular consideration and so he might have no other thought but of embracing the occasion offered Besides those that engage credulous persons to suffer the Salivation when there is no necessity of it there are also a great many Mountebanks to be found who give a false Judgment of the Pox and perswade men they have it when they are altogether free The easiness they have found in perswading men so hath given them encouragement for another sort of cheating They cause Billets to be distributed in most parts of the Town and clap up papers in the most resorted places nay and sometimes presume to write little Pamphlets filled with nothing but follies and lyes wherein they confidently boast that they are able to cure the Pox without Mercury without garde or keeping their Chamber and they have so much the more easily found persons who will believe them and render their Imposture somewhat likely by their own mistaken Experience as there are many persons who think themselves sick of this Disease when they do really enjoy most perfect Health But that which plainly shows us it had not subsisted hitherto but only by this means is that they are known to give the Salivation to those they think really in the Pox for they do then suppose their Disease in a degree almost desperate and they are not able consequently to cure them but by making use of this Remedy which they make pass for the extreme one of all and do nevertheless very familiarly employ it under this disguise with such a conduct as must always be believed very dangerous in those that have learnt nothing of it but by Receipt Though this Imposture be the more common and ordinary of all yet it must not be esteem'd the only one and there are some among them that do practise another still more remarkable Whatsoever Accidents those that have the Pox do suffer when they address themselves to these men they will always assure them they have no such thing as the Pox and so will promise to cure them with such Remedies as they call pleasant mild and insipid but are always notwithstanding the strongest and most violent Sudorisicks Purgatives and Vomitives that do extremely exhaust and dry up the body to make the Accidents cease by consuming the serosities that are spred abroad and are the Causes of them insomuch that these Patients find themselves cured in all appearance till the next ebullition of the Blood begins again and there happens a new dispersion of the matter that is able to produce other Symptomes which they then make pass for unhappy Relapses or else new Diseases that must undergo a new Cure So that these persons thus affected do furnish them with continual profit as Cows with Milk and a small number of them will be able to provide them Employment enough But among all those that impose on credulous persons there are none that make use of a more abominable Stratagem than these that follow for they do endeavour to perswade all their Patients that apply to them for help that all their bodies are filled with Mercury or else with Venereal matter that must be driven out as fast as may be if they desire to escape death and to convince them of the truth of this supposition they tell them they shall presently see abundance of Impurities come out of their bodies so soon as ever their Remedies begin to be applied In effect as this pretended Remedy is nothing else but an Oyntment applyed on their skin that is compounded of Cantharides this promise of theirs seems true to many men because it raises Blisters full of serosities that seem to come through their pores and because it makes them Urine prodigiously nay often blood it self by causing an inflamation and exulceration of the Bladder which are mortal Accidents 3. But after having sufficiently spoken of the false Judgments of Impostors and the means they make use of for commiting their Abuses it is time to let you see what are the true Signs that candid men must take notice of for to judge aright of this Disease These Signs may be divided into such as are known to the Patient alone and such as are sensible both to Patient and Physician The former are the impure Contacts that have preceded this Disease the pains they feel while they Urine the Inquietudes and universal Itchings the loss of Appetite the indifference
for Coition the Nocturnal pollutions without pleasure the suppression of the Terms in Women or of the regulated Hemorrhoides in some men Lastly the mobile or fixt pains of the Head the Shoulders and Extremities The latter Signs are Gonorrheas Buboes or Poulains Ulcers and Chancres of the Yard and of the Privities of Women or else the hardness that remains after their Cicatrices the fall of Hair from Head and Beard the Wounds and Ulcers that cannot be cured with ordinary Remedies the Tetters Pustules and Warts lastly the Elevation Rotteness and corruption of Bones But we must be sure to observe that all or most of these Signs that I have named are but Accidents of the Pox it self that it produces not all of them at all times nor in all subjects and that they become different according to its divers degrees in so much that they do not happen always in a constant and assured Order For there have been some persons seen whose bones have rotted with the Pox before ever any of those Accidents Authors do call Antecedent have been at all felt which Accidents I had rather call Consequent because they do most commonly follow those that accompany the particular Poxes of which I have spoken Nevertheless as it is impossible to make a good Prognostick of this Disease without being able to distinguish all the degrees it can happen in it will be necessary to reflect on all that hath been already said to the end we may the better find how it passes out of one degree into another and why in each particular one it doth produce very different Symptomes 4. It may with Reason be said that the Ulcers which are caused by impure Contacts do constitute the first degree of the Pox because they are the effect of some matter that very superficially adheres they cannot be distinguished from ordinary Ulcers at their beginning but by the preceding Contact and the parts in which they happen and they may be cured in this condition with common and ordinary Desiccatives But when the Salts that caused them cannot be destroyed by these or other means they then penetrate into the Vessels that contain the blood or else mix with the Natural moisture that remains in the ulcer'd part and fix it in such manner that from Ulcers they degenerate into Chancres and then indeed they are much more dangerous and hard to cure but are known by the elevation of their white sides by their obscure colour and by their hardness You may easily judge that Claps or Virulent Gonorrheas are of a yet higher degree than the Ulcers I now spoke of because the matter that makes them is more deeply driven into the bodies of those who suffer them and the parts that are infected with them are such as are inward and concealed The Bladder for Example and the parts adjacent or dependent on it are the first that suffer the Inflammation which is sufficiently known by the heat and pains that are felt in urining and sometimes by an entire suppression of the Urine the seminal parts and the Seed it self are not more free from an Alteration since the loss thickness corruption of the Seed are undoubted marks of it Lastly the passages through which these Impurities are carried do not long remain free from their ill effects but become exulcerated by the sharp points of the Salts they contain and this exulceration doth cause them to suffer very grievous pains during the passage of their Urine While this particular Pox is but newly contracted it can be cured with a great deal of ease and safety by preventing that which we ought otherwise to fear and taking away whatsoever appears by the use and application of proper Remedies to this effect But when it hath had a considerable duration without necessary succour it must be then believed to be of a much more difficult and dangerous Cure because all its Accidents become greater and the further penetration if its matter that is the universal Pox may be then with just Reason suspected Therefore it must then be treated with more care and precaution and the Prognostick that is made of it must be more doubtful We may now observe that the Venereal Salts do often pass from the parts I spoke of into the orifices of the Veins and Arteries and do sometimes penetrate more directly by the subtilty keenness of their points Nevertheless what way soever they enter it is always true that they cause in some a great ebullition of their blood either by the particular dispositions they find in it or else by their own deleterious quality during which ebullition the Impurities do separate much after the same manner as Lees do in the fermentation of Wine and so are driven out after a while by the force of Nature or if you will so by the Faculty Expultrive into the Glandules of the Groins where it causes a Bubo or Botch that serves for a Crisis of the Pox if it be attracted and brought to perfect Suppuration It may be distinguished from other Tumours that sometimes happen in those parts by the impure Contact that preceeded it by the Claps Gonorrheas Ulcers and Chancres that often happen a little before its discovery but principally by its slow advancement its durity and large Basis But this penetration of the Venereal matter into the mass of the blood is not always attended with so happy success as the extrusion of such a Tumour the Venereal Salts do sometimes participate more of fixt than volatile and the blood is not equally hot and subtile in all sorts of men so that in some it presently coagulates by this means much after the same manner as some curious persons have experimented by syringing Acid Liquours into the Veins of Brutes and this coagulation is often the Cause of those suppressions I took notice of and of their loathing all Meat aâ—â— of their indifference as to Coition because whil'st it continues the Circulation grows very slow and consequently the Natural Functions that depend on it become interrupted Wherefore this time may be observed for another degree of the Pox that can nevertheless be clearly carried off by the inward Sudorisicks which do dissolve and attenuate the blood by new ebullitions provided that Nature be also assisted in her other evacuations At the time that this coagulation of the blood ceases by the separation of the different particles it then contains we may consider the beginning of its fermentation which is performed so much the more gently and by degrees as it met before with Obstacles to hinder it whence it comes to pass that this blood doth but only rise and boil by little and little though indeed this gentle ebullition fails not nevertheless to cause Symptomes very much different from those I have already spoken of and such as I shall remark hereafter For whil'st it lasts light vapours arise from it that are carried all over the body and do cause those inquietudes of mind and body
application of emollient Remedies such as are the Fomentations that I have described for the swelling of the Testicles or else the residence of the Decoction with which you may make Cataplasms for the same effect beating it and boiling it to the consistence of Pap. You may also make Liniments with the Oyl of Lillies Man's Fat or the Neapolitan Oyntment and apply thereupon the Plaster de Vigo or rather that of Mucilage with Mercury Some have found a great deal of help from a Fumigation that is raised from Aqua-vitae or Vinegar cast upon hot stones or bricks When the Carnosity shall have been a little mollified by these or other means you may make use of the Corrosives described before or put twelve grams of Sublimate Corrosive in an ounce of the Plaster of Mucilage which will assuredly prove of great effect if you use it dexterously that is to say if you apply it in a small quantity and this directly upon the excrescence Moreover I shall not speak particularly of those that happen to Women in the same passages by reason that you may also consume them with the Remedies I have already described and this also with much more ease than those which happen in the common passage or the Ureter of Men. 5. You must observe that the particular Poxes of which I have spoken are found to be sometimes accompanied with the universal Pox because it sometimes happens to appear just at the same time or the Venereal Salts are now and then so volatile and penetrant that they force against the opposition of Nature and its Preservatives In this case it is to no purpose to make use of the greatest part of the particular Remedies I have proposed since by taking away the universal Infection of the body by the general Remedies that will be described in the sequel of this Book you 'll destroy the Cause of the Disease wheresoever it may ly and the Accidents will easily vanish almost all of themselves by this means CHAP. III. Of the Natural Crises of the Universal Pox. 1. General division of the Crises of the Pox and why the Evacuations that follow the Application of its Remedies may be so called 2. Of the Natural Crises of the Pox and first of those that terminate it with other Diseases 3. Of those that are produced simply by the Opposition of Nature 4. Of Buboes and Poulains in particular SEeing the universal Pox doth consist in a general Infection of the body it cannot be-terminated but by such Crises as are able to carry away all its Impurities These Crises may be raised either by Motions purely Natural or else by the proper Actions of Mercury and the other Remedies I know well enough that those who stick closely to what the Ancients have taught will not allow of this division because according to them the Crises of Diseases are only the productions of Nature and not the effects of Remedies Whereupon it is necessary to remark that the Evacuations which follow the application of Remedies against the Pox and particularly that of Mercury must not be considered simply like those that are seen to follow when the Vessels are opened or after the use of Vomits and Purges because these last have always determinate Motions whereas those others I speak of are made either by the mouth or by the pores or siege or by urine according as Nature finds the Impurities or passages best disposed whence we may easily conclude that they are properly the works of Nature and that the Remedies which are employed for this effect do principally serve to move and dispose the bodies to their purification by an agitation of all the Humours 2. But to return to those which are caused by Motions purely Natural they may may be distinguished into such as are provoked by the Causes of some other Diseases which do render the Pox sometimes complicated or into such as are made simply by the opposition of Nature The Diseases which may cause the former are for Example the Plague Pleuresie and generally Feavours but principally those that are called Malignant whose Crises may be able to carry off the Pox because they never happen but after their Causes have procured a great ebullition in the blood by which Nature is sometimes so violently moved that she makes an extraordinary effort to separate all the Impurities that are mixed with it But seeing the Pox may be carried off after this manner as different ways as there are different Natural terminations of it and because this matter cannot be treated of here without confusion I shall not speak more amply of it but do believe it will be sufficient to explicate in this Chapter the other sorts of Crises which may be said to be peculiar to the Pox. 3. Seeing the Venereal matter is venomous subtile and penetrant it rarely makes its Attache any considerable time on the superficial parts without entring into the Vessels and mixing with the blood and as there is nothing more ordinary than those sorts of adhesion there would consequently be nothing more familiar than the universal Pox if Nature did not oppose its introduction and make use of all its force to hinder a mixture and insinuation that is so contrary to it Nay we see that she prevents as much as possible the disorder that this poison may be apt to make For when she is not able to escape its Introduction she knows how to act against it another manner of way by separating it from the Humours that are pure and driving it away with the ordinary Excrements through commodious passages These passages may be the same as serve also for Natural Purgations such as the Terms of Women and the regulated Hemorrhoides of certain Men or for extraordinary Evacuations as sordid Ulcers or lastly for the universal purification of the blood and the Emunctories But as the Venereal matter is driven almost insensibly through the former ways that I have mentioned seeing Nature hath no need of assistance in this Operation I shall not give any more precise explications of them and shall be contented to describe the means of making the Crise succeed well that often happens through the latter 4. Whereas the Genital parts do serve oftner than any other for the introduction of Venereal Salts the Groin which is very near them doth suffer the impure Tumours by which they are driven out more commonly than the other Emunctories after the same manner as the Humours that serve for a Crisis to the Pestilence do rather happen to swell under the Arm-pits because they are nearer the Breast which first received by inspiration the infected Air that caused this Disease But though it be easy to remark that those sort of Tumours are always made by some Critical Motion it is known nevertheless that the efforts which Nature makes on this account would often prove to no purpose if she were not seconded by the application action of Remedies that Physick does furnish us with
to make an encrease I am very confident nothing in all the World hath ever put so considerable a stop to the successive career true Science would daily make as a blind Suffrage and mean submission to the dictates of persons we have a good opinion of And for this reason I cannot but commend and admire the declared designs of some Worthy men among us who though they do not transact Wonders every Month and shew themselves Chosen Sons of Nature yet sure they deserve good words at least and that Petulancy with which some do daily nibble at them might methinks be well spared But to return again as I do not profess my self a Disciple of this Gentleman in all things he is pleased to utter so I cannot but give him his due and commend him much for his ingenious Attempts For whether Mercury be of such absolute importance to the cure of this Disease when Fermented a while in the Blood and grown a little inveterate as this Author would have it or whether the Ceremony of omission of a Flux in some persons of Quality and especially Women be not the True and Latent Cause of their continual Indispositions I leave to every man to judge by his own Discretion and Experience For my part as I do not assent to those who violently maintain that nothing at all can be done without Mercury so I much pity the poor Spirit of those who think of it as a Hobgoblin and are as apprehensive of giving or receiving the administration of it as they would be of meeting a hungry Lyon Men ought indeed to be Wonderful Cautious how they presume to make use of so suspected a Medicine yet he hath seen but little into the Nature of things or is wholly involved in a popular prejudice who knows not that Quicksilver as quick as it is may be tamed by Art and may sometimes by Discreet Masters be very seasonably employed to good purpose I know 't is very hard to speak of this subject without being mistaken on without being thought to have too great a kindness for it if one doth not utterly Declare War against all who magnifie its effects Nevertheless I am sure all knowing men will interpret what I have now said favourably enough There 's a famous Doctor in Paris one of the King's Professors of Physick but one who can never hear speak of Mercury without presently reckoning up twenty Mortal Diseases it must needs be apt to produce This person hath told me when I took occasion to speak of the Salivation that he hath performed a Flux before some Doctors of his Faculty without the assistance or use of Mercury and that he mixed the Ingredients and gave them the Patient faithfully before their faces The truth of it is I had so little Faith in the possibility of raising a Flux or at least a sufficient one without Mercury and had so much condescention as rather to submit with a complacent nod than offer to dispute so considerable and perhaps beloved an asseveration that I had not curiosity enough to enquire the manner how it could be done though I know the person to be the greatest enemy in the World to such things as Secrets But I am apt to believe that those Mortal Diseases he so zealously Fathers upon Mercury do rather arise from the indiscreet use of it and gross abuse that is easily made of so Active a Medicine when Quacks or Ignorants boldly take it into their hands Whatsoever is the Nature and how dangerous or beneficial soever are the effects of Mercury certainly the Author of these Observations hath made a fair progrese towards the clear Explication of its various Activities and deserves to be commended for so considerable a Design If the French are able to begin well lead the way with Courage our English I am sure can not only do the same but be very useful to them in a brave prosecution of what they undertake Let the French with their nimble Fansies start and Invent things sometimes the solid Judgment of an English man is required to bring them to a due Perfection As particular persons so particular Kingdoms have their peculiar Genius Abilities we must and ought to assist one another with our Communications One man's head is not big enough to comprehend or sufficiently contain the vast extent of the Great or Infinite Curiosities of the Little World And the necessity of this mutual correspondence and free intelligence among men especially of different Countreys whereby Envy and Jealousie are not able to breed the Poyson they usually do upon the same spot puts me in mind of those Advantages a Traveller may therefore meet with in Forreign Countreys more than the Natives themselves are capacitated to enjoy For if he be not too raw and young he shall easily gain admittance into the Closets of their most Ingenious men all the Rarities they pretend to and Observations they have made will be discovered by them 't is doubtful whether with more Ambition of Delight Lastly all their Arcanums and close Reserves of Knowledge shall with a slight Promise of silence while among them be submitted to his open view The truth of what I now say I have indeed experimented more than I could any way pretend to from several Ingenious persons abroad and particularly from the Worthy Author of this present Treatise into whose House I had a long time free access there to see the several Degrees of the POX treated not Speculatively but Practically according to the different Progress it usually makes The Approbations of the Chief Physicians of the Royal Family I Vnderwritten Counsellor of the King in his Counsels Chief Physician of his Majesty do Certifie that I have read and examined the Book of Monsieur de Blegny treating of Venereal Diseases in which I have found his Principles well established his Therapeutick part very Methodical and his Observations Good Curious and such as must needs be very useful to the Publick At Versailles this 15th of March 1674. Signed Daquin I Vnderwritten Chief Physician of the Queen of Sueden and the Prince of Condè do Certifie that I have read and examined the Book of Monsieur de Blegny containing many exact and useful Observations from which he draws good consequences for the Knowledge and Cure of the Venereal Disease his Reasonings are very clear the whole Work is very solid and Experience does confirm it So that I cannot but testifie my Approbation of this Book At Paris this 20th day of May 1674. Signed Bourdelot I Vnder-written Doctor of Physick Counsellor of the King Physician in Ordinary to his Majesty and chief Physician of Madam do certifie unto all to whom it may appertain that the New and Curious Observations made by Monsieur de Blegny the Queen's Chirurgeon on The Art of curing Venereal Diseases are very advantageous for all such as are afflicted with them and do contain the most assured means of curing them At Paris the 16th of
be desired to maintain my Opinion yet I do not pretend to make it pass for a thing altogether unquestionable both for that it is possible to be false and because there might have been some unknown Abuses under equal and as good appearances I therefore leave all curious persons the liberty of making what other Experiments they please and to every one in particular that of judging the other circumstances of this Opinion according to their own Ideas or particular Observations as things Problematical and no way absolutely necessary to the Art of curing the Pox. 4. After having sufficiently explicated what I mean by the Original Cause or Generative of the Pox it is now necessary to observe the several sorts of Contact that can conduce to its Communication which are here considered as Causes of this Disease because it is by them principally gained But we must not imagine that this second Cause is always found in Coition as the first it matters not after what manner the Contact is made provided that it permits an adhesion or entrance to some part of the Venereal matter it may be made either directly or indirectly and here 's an Example of it A Woman with Child who in the Company of one that hath the Pox shall attract into her Womb the corrupted Seed that shall be there ejaculated will catch the Pox immediatly by reason of the Coition and Contact that preceded and the Infant that shall be in her Womb will be also infected with it by reason of the same Coition but not by reason of the Contact because the remoteness of the Infant hinder'd the Infection from being direct in respect of it The same thing may be said of Infants that are engendered of divers like Seeds according to the ordinary course of Nature or by way of Superfetation Besides the Example that I just now gave many other sorts of Contacts may be found which are made by other ways and yet fail not to cause the Pox For Example if one should happen to drink after him that hath the Pox and by chance put the Lips to the same place of the Glass where some little Poison of the Ulcers of his mouth or else some of his spittle fill'd with Venereal Salts shall have stuck it often happens that this either causes other Ulcers by superficially adhering to the parts or else without delay the universal Pox when the Salt that they contain is volatil and penetrant enough to enter into the Veins and Arteries without leaving any marks of its passage for let ever so little of it be once mixt with the Blood it will work like Leaven in a great deal of Dough or rather it ferments and corrupts as other Poisons do which are always more pernicious by their quality than by their quantity Another Example of this nature may be drawn from those who are infected with this Disease for having unfortunately lain in the sheets wherein one in the Pox had sweated or in which there might remain some of the matter that run from his Ulcers Besides these sorts of Contact all others may be said to be immediate because they are made by the application of one part against another Among them all the most ordinary is Coition because this Disease doth for the most part begin in the parts that serve for Generation and its matter is not always dispersed universally through the Body In this action if a Man hath Venereal Ulcers on his Yard some part of the Poison that nourishes them and which is nothing else but a dissolution of the Salts that constitute the Pox doth almost always stick in some part of the Womb or else in the wrinkles of the neck of her Womb that he lies with wherein he often causes other Ulcers by adhering to the skin or pellicules that cover those parts on which matter it may be observed that I have just reason to add this last circumstance by reason that this matter doth not always necessarily adhere in Women either because the Membrane that covers the Vagina is very smooth polished and cover'd with a slimy Humour or because the Seed that is therein ejaculated doth often slide out at the same time and carries away with it this Virulent matter so much the more easily as it hath not had time to adhere and as the scituation and form of this part do much contribute to its easier sliding out it is also for this reason that common Strumpets do sometimes give hurt to others though they have none at all themselves because the approaching them a little after they have enjoyed the Company of other men that are impure doth give some part of the impurity they received though themselves may be exempt from any adhesion or effect of the remaining matter by the means that I have mentioned It is observable that a virulent Clap and the universal Pox are able equally to render the Seed impure in so much that if that of a Man who is infected with it be attracted and retained in the Womb of a Woman it may cause in her either a Virulent Clap by adhering particularly to the spermatick Vessels or else the universal Pox by passing through the Oririfices of the Arteries and Veins that terminate in this part In a word a Woman that shall suffer such Indispositions may in like manner communicate them to a sound Man that shall converse with her by the adhesion or entrance of the matter that can cause them It is also observeable that the Impurities of the Mouth of a little Infant that hath the Pox are able to infect the Nurse by adhering to her Teats or else the air of his Respiration that can easily penetrate them through the pores that give passage to the Milk In like manner an infected Nurse can impart her Disease to the little One by an adhesion of the matter of her Ulcers or by the use of the corrupted Milk that is suckt from her Teats To ly with one that hath the Pox and touch him naked while he sweats or when he hath Ulcers and Pustules on his skin is a thing that may well be believed very dangerous and chiefly for those that have their pores very open and therefore do easily receive the impression of any thing that touches them The custom of Kissing with open Mouth is another very dangerous business for the reasons I have spoken of Lastly there are so many different Contacts which are capable of giving the Pox to those who have it not that when you shall once know it assuredly by its Signs you need not trouble your self but little about the manner how it was communicated since you cannot always find it out and since it is often unknown even to the persons sick themselves CHAP. III. Of the Differences of the Pox which may serve to make a Prognostick 1. An Advertisement on this Subject and general Division of the Degrees from whence may be drawn some Differences 2. Explication of the
Differences that the first Degree furnishes us with and general division of those that may be observed in the second 3. What may be understood by Particular Poxes 4. What the Vniversal Pox is 5. Explication of the differences that may be drawn from the third Degree 1. BEfore I come to speak of the Differences of the Pox it is good to acquaint you that I do not conceive any different Species of it nor own any Sanguine Cholerick Phlegmatick and Melancholick ones as some Men have inconsiderately done but on the contrary do always esteem it as the same in what degree and whatsoever subject it may be found since it is always produced by one and the same cause that always acts after the same manner and produces different Effects according to the various disposition of the parts that receive its action This being once presupposed you will easily grant that the differences of this disease can only be drawn from the diversity of its degrees that is to say from the time that its matter hath been received from the progress that it hath made and from the Accidents that it produces 2. Though I consider the time that the Venereal matter hath been received for one degree from whence some differences of the Pox may be drawn and that some Authors do think to ascertain the Prognostick of it by the consequences they thence draw yet it must be acknowledged that they are of no great consideration For though it may be said that this Disease is either New or Inveterate according to the more or less time it hath been contracted yet one cannot judge for all that of the easiness difficulty or impossibility of its Cure because this same matter is more or less active according to its quality or quantity or else according to the particular dispositions of the Bodies in which it enters For 't is certain as I have already observed that it becomes more Venemous consequently more penetrant subtile when it hath had duration in the change that may be made of it from different subjects and the great quantity of it doth very much advance the disorder it is able to make in every particular person To which may be added that it acts the more suddenly when it is excited by the heat that is found in the Temperaments of Cholerick or Sanguine Bodies which are so much the more disposed to suffer its insinuation as their pores and other passages are naturally more open but on the contrary it is sometimes so fixt and shut up in the cold or gross Humours of Phlegmatick or Melancholick persons that it can lye there a long time like fire under ashes and experience lets us see that it can lurk 10 or 12 years before any effects of its Motions will be felt whence it follows that the Judgment of the three Circumstances I related do chiefly depend on the examination that ought to be made on the progress it hath already made and the accidents it hath produced For by the consideration of the first circumstance the Particular or Universal Pox may be judged of and this distinction is of such importance to the right prognostick of the easiness or difficulty of its Cure that it lets us see in what degrees particular or common remedies may suffice or whether the stronger and more general are also necessary 3. Before we pass further it seems very proper to explicate what I mean by this Difference that I may let you see how it doth not serve only to distinguish the degrees of this Disease and that it is not any way contrary to what I said of it at the beginning of this Chapter I do call then a particular Pox when its matter doth continue fixt to some parts which suffer it to be dressed and cured with particular Remedies external or topical and for which those are employed chiefly that are called General or Internal as well as to hinder the progress it might make by the penetration of its Salts such are for example the Venereal Ulcers and Chancres or else Claps and Virulent Gonorrheas and which I call the Pox as well as the others named before because they are all of them productions of an impure Contact and of some Venereal matter received of which all the effects may be observed though it doth still adhere to some particular parts as well as when it is dispersed over all the Body for the coagulation and corruption that I have said doth happen by it in the liquid substances may be observed in the Seed that runs in Virulent Gonorrheas or else in the fixation of the Juyce that nourishes the parts in which the Venereal Ulcers are that do by this means degenerate into Chancres or Carnosities The pricking gnawing or drying up of the Flesh may be also observed in the beginning augmentation and changes of these same Ulcers in a word the elevation rottenness and corruption of solid parts are sometimes the consequents of these first Evils when they happen upon Bones or Cartilaginous parts in so much that you may hence see with how much reason I do reckon them for degrees of the Pox since it is commonly by then that it is found to begin and they are almost never seen to advance into a higher degree when they arâ— drest as they ought to be I do acknowledge nevertheless that this name of the Pox was at first given to this Disease only by reason of the resemblance that was thought to be between it and the Small Pox through their spots and pustules and it seems consequently that this Name should then only belong to it when it is in the degree that produces them But we must observe that it often passes from one degree to another almost insensibly so that sometimes it cannot properly deserve that Name if we stick close to this Circumstance besides it may be said that Names do not establish the essence of Diseases and it matters not how this Disease is called provided that it be considered as always of one Species according to my opinion 4. When the Venereal Salts are subtile enough to penetrate through the pores without staying in the places through which they pass as hath been seen in some persons or rather when they there stop and cause the particular Poxes of which I have spoken without the persons taking care notwithstanding to oppose its insinuation by the means of fit Remedies that drive or attract from within outwardly they then cause what I call the universal Pox by insinuating into the Vessels that contain the Blood and spreading universally over all the Body by the Circulation They who have read the Authors that write on this subject will wonder doubtless that I make the Venereal Salts pass from the superficial parts into the Veins and Arteries without speaking of that Species of the Pox they make consist only in subtile Vapours and Spirits but as I have already told you I cannot acknowledge any different Species of it and
though oftentimes the gentlest desiccatives are sufficient to cure them in three or four days These Ulcers may indeed happen in all parts of the body because they are all capable of an impure Contact but the more tender and delicate ones are most subject to them by reason that the impure Salts do more easily stick in their susceptible substance whence it comes to pass that the Yards in Men the Privities in Women the Teats in Nurses and the Mouth in Infants are the parts which are most commonly infected with them 3. That which ought to be done towards their Cure while they are in this condition consists principally in drying them up like other Ulcers only regard must be had to the matter that causes them and proper Desiccatives employed for breaking the points of the Salts they contain and to oppose their penetration which is so much the rather to be feared as it is done insensibly The following Liquours will very well answer this first respect if you wash the Ulcers twice a day with them and lay Tents upon them that are dipt in these Liquours observing always to give such a strength to them as is most agreable proper to the particular Temperaments of the bodies and parts on which you shall apply them and this by encreasing the quantity of Pouders to render them the stronger or else that of the Waters to make them the weaker Take of the seventh Water of unslakt Lime one pound Spirit of Vitriol Salt of Saturn and Verdegrease of each half a drachme Or else Rose and Plantain Water of each half a pound Aqua-vitae two ounces Orpiment a drachme and a half Verdegrease two scruples Aloes half a drachm Or again white Wine a pound Rose and Plantain Water of each four ounces Orpin two drachmes Verdegrease one drachm Mirrh and Aloes of each a scruple Make the Liquours according to Art for the use above mentioned To answer the second respect that I remarked you must use both Purgatives and Diureticks if the Ulcers are upon the Yard of a Man the Genitals of a Woman or about the Groin of either of them or else you may use inwardly Sudorisicks that drive from the Center to the Circumference if they are in any other parts 4. It must be especially observed that the Purgatives which you shall make use of for this effect be strong enough to move Nature and help it to drive by Stool any impure matter that might have penetrated a little more inwardly than the Ulcers which appear to you and also that they be not violent enough to attract the Humours from the remoter parts for this attraction would help the matter to make a further penetration then it would otherwise have been able to do of it self and so cause by this means the universal Pox which you do endeavour to avoid And here you may take notice that the greatest part of Men are themselves the causes of the frauds and deceits that are done to them for there are very many who will never think themselves well purged unless they have felt excessive pains and cruel gripes in their guts and unless they go to Stool fiveteen or twenty times at least though to speak the truth Nature can never endure these extraordinary and violent Motions without the diminution or depravation of their Functions which nevertheless are the principal Agents in the separation and expulsion of Impurities If you desire therefore to avoid these excesses you 'll find nothing more safe than an Infusion of Senna with Salt of Tartar in which you may also dissolve the Syrups of Roses or Peachflowers proportionating the doses to the age and strength of the Patient you take in hand 5. The Diuretiks you must make use of to repel by Urine are Crystal Mineral which you may give from half a drachm to two or three and the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur from six to thirty drops in Pellitory Water or an Aperitive Ptisanne you may prepare with the Roots of Strawberries wild Succhory Grass and Dandelion Those of Parsly Fennil Sperage and Rest-harrow are much more aperitive than the former and divers forms of Ptisannes may be prepared with them that are useful indeed to some but may have very ill effect on persons extremely hot and dry as well as Radish-seed bruised and taken in white Wine which is notwithstanding a most powerful Aperitive For the Sudorisicks that are taken inwardly you may successively make use of the Spirit of Harts-horn which you may give in half a Glass of Carduus-water from six to twenty drops or a like number of grains of its volatile Salt dissolved in the same Water But among all you 'll find none to have a greater effect than the Pouder or volatile Salt of Vipers if you give the first from ten to thirty grains and the latter from five to fiveteen in equal parts of Cinnamon and Carduus-waters or in the Water that remains in the distillation of this same Salt 6. It remains to say that these Evils do not long continue under the Name of Ulcers simply for it is well known that the matter which causes them doth sometimes insinuate more deeply and by this means doth make another degree of the Pox but it more often happens that by long continuance in the exulcerated part it makes the Ulcers turn into Chancres after the manner I spoke of before Wherefore it is good to observe that you dress them in this condition with Escaroticks and Suppuratives because you must consume the hardness that is found in them for fear of leaving a ferment in the parts that might produce afterwards a far greater Evil than you are going to destroy They who follow the ordinary Practice in this case are content to apply Red Precipitate which in truth makes a skar when it is good but that a light and superficial one such as is not able to hinder the hardness from encreasing in latitude and profundity and from remaining also after their Cicatrice what time soever is employed towards their consumption Some do make use of sublimate Corrosive but besides that it causes intolerable pains during the Operation it attracts watry fluxions on the parts it is applyed to which are very hard to dissolve and do besides dispose the parts to a Gangrene and this principally in those parts that are near the passages which serve for expulsion of the Excrements The causes of these misfortunes and many others is an Errour of some ancient Authors that every body may easily be convinced of yet hath nevertheless been received by way of Tradition by the greatest part of those who have written ever since or do still write on this subject according to which Errour they represent Quicksilver to be like a Ferret that goes and searches out the Venereal matter in all parts of the body for to expel it thence presently as this little Animal doth the Connies out of their Holes For which Opinion nevertheless they have had no other proof
Menstrual Furthermore I have sufficiently explicated otherwise what I mean by Virulent Claps and after what manner I conceive them to be produced that there is no need of making repetitions here I believe also that all the divisions which I could make of it be altogether useless because I do not intend to speak but only of those that are caused by the entrance and adhesion of some Venereal Salt or else because its Accidents do sufficiently distinguish it from such as happen by violent Exercises by the use of fermented Liquours and by other causes Therefore I believe it will suffice to give you in this Chapter the circumstances it is necessary to observe for the curing successfully all the Accidents that accompany this I am now going to speak of or else for assuredly preventing the universal Pox that might otherwise follow 2. Inflammation may be said to be the most pressing Accident of all that happen in this degree of the Pox for 't is by it that the matter which runs out is rendered the more sharp and corrosive that the Ulcers of the passages become greater and more profound that the pains grow insupportable and lastly that the means of making Urine become so extream difficult nay and sometimes in a manner impossible 'T is therefore requisite to take care betimes of preventing or else curing it by cooling Remedies such as may be those I am now going to propose Some persons whom we must by no means imitate do begin with Blood-letting in the Arm which may be apt to attract or drive the Venereal matter more inwardly into the body and must consequently be suspected as dangerous others are not afraid to let Blood in the Foot which also may have the same effect or else precipitate the Defluxion into the Stones wherefore you should abstain from them both and prefer the use of the following Ptisanne which will serve at the same time to cool the parts drive the matter outwards and diminish its Acrimony Take the Roots of white Lillies and Marsh-Mallows of each a pound Sorrel half a hand full Liquorish a sufficient quantity Barley three hands full Linseed two ounces common Water four and twenty pounds make a Ptisanne the usual way remembring to press the remainder well for to draw out the Mucilage the better Add in every Bottle of this Ptisanne ten or twelve drops of the Spirit of Vitriol and make your Patient drink of it as much as his stomach will bear and this indifferently at any hour day or night Though this Ptisanne be often sufficient to answer the intentions I have named when you begin in good time to make use of it yet it is found every day in some persons that the malignity of the matter and disposition of the body and parts do cause the Inflammation to grow so great as to communicate it self to the Reins and neck of the Bladder so that the Patients do suffer extreme pains when they are in Bed during the erection and in urining but this more particularly in Men for the Convulsion of the Nerves of their Yard which by retiring toward their origine do swell and thereby render this part crooked or bended doth cause the degree of the Pox in which it is said to be corded and stringed and in which also you must add to the fore-named Ingredients for the Ptisanne two ounces of the Cold Seeds half an ounce of white Poppy Seed and the Juyce of two or three Limons for to render it more Anodyne more refreshing and agreable You shall also give from time to time emulsions made of Whey sweet Almonds and the Seeds and Juyce I have now named You may for the same intention rub the Reins and Perineum with the Cerecloth of Galen which you must afterwards cover with Linnen dipt in Oxyerat that is made of one part of Vinegar and six of Rose-water The use of cooling Clysters must be frequent too as well as Injections of this quality which must be made into the Yard by means of a little Syringe and this with luke-warm Milk for Example which is marvellous for this effect and one may make use of it much more successfully than of common Water to dip the Yard in whil'st he urines and so facilitate the passage of the Urine Some of those who do not esteem things that are common chuse rather to make use of the Waters of Night-shade Roses and Plantain to make Injections which are indeed Refrigerant and Anodyne because they hinder the matter from flowing and drive it back by their astriction but it is a dangerous thing to do so and therefore you must have a care of using them unless the matter be grown thick and hath run sufficiently Turpentine of Chios or in defect of it that of Venice hath a marvellous effect for asswaging and qualifying the matter and driving it out because it very easily slides into those parts and is very Diuretick You may give it in Bolus or Pills from two drachms to half an ounce or its Spirit drawn Chymically from five drops to fifteen in Aperitive Waters or Ptisannes Experience will let you know that the Salt which is called Polychrest is a powerful Remedy to drive out the Venereal Salts if you dissolve two drachms of it in two glasses of the former Ptisanne or of Pellitory-water to give it a little after the Inflammation is past and reiterate it after this manner two or three times augmenting the Dose each time with a drachm more After the use of these Remedies you must begin to purge gently with a light Infusion of Senna Crystal Mineral and Cassia and may reiterate this Purge some days afterwards augmenting the Dose or else adding other Medicaments that are most convenient to the present Dispositions When the matter shall come to run more white more thick in less quantity you may then hinder its effluxion for altogether shutting up and closing the Spermatick Vessels by astringent and inward Remedies whil'st you are cleansing and desiccating the Ulcers of the Ureter with detersive and desiccative Injections Some of those that abuse Physick and its Remedies do strive to stop the matter that runs in Claps only with astringent Injections which causes the matter to sink into the more inward parts and so consequently there happens a greater Evil then they pretended to cure or at least the effluxion begins again so soon as they have left off the use of these pretended Remedies in so much that they are compelled sometimes fifteen or twenty times to reassume the use of them without attaining the end they proposed themselves For these Injections cannot go in Men further than the inward extremity of the common passage to the Seed and Urine nor in Women further than the neck of the Womb or the neck of the Bladder but this happens chiefly because by this means they hinder the evacuation of such Impurities as may still remain sometimes after the Operation of the former Medicaments and are too
Providence of God had made them grow only for the Cure of those Countries where this Disease was supposed to have its origine but that they could not be transported so far as us without the loss and alteration of their Vertues These Propositions do not prove nevertheless that the Indians are better cured than we by the use of these Plants since I have proved in another place that the Pox hath still been in all places and at all times And it may be further added that if God had permitted the transportation of this Disease without alteration of its form he would also by the same Reason have permitted the transportation of its Remedies too without diminution of their Vertues Besides there would have been no need but only of augmenting the Doses to render the Compositions that were made of them more strong and active But that which particularly lets us see those people are not cured but only in appearance too by the Decoction of these Simples is that they do desiccate the bodies here as much or little less than they do in the Indies and that this desiccation doth make the Accidents often disappear for the present leave only the appearance of a Cure in so much that they do always cause a new fermentation afterwards and appear some other time more terrible than before Whatsoever you please to think of it it is certain this Opinion was at last found and acknowledged to be true and the greatest part of our Physicians began at last to disabuse themselves so that divers Essays were made to discover some other Remedy for this Evil. Our Apothecaries prepared for this effect divers sorts of Purgative and Vomitive Potions Antidotes and Cordial Confections Plasters Ointments and generally all kinds of Compositions of the Galenical Pharmacie The Chymists did not fail on their part to try their Elixirs their Arcanums Magisteries Quintessences and Extracts both Emetick Cathartick and Diaphoretick Lastly after a great many proofs of the like nature it was happily found out that those who had the Pox could be cured indeed by Frictions with Mercurial Ointments which served heretofore for the pretended Leprosie of which I have spoken before Nevertheless seeing these Sudorifick Decoctions did heretofore take away the appearance of it in some persons they were not neglected altogether and the esteem that had been made of them formerly did still contribute much to the use that hath been made of them since and is continued now a days which is to give them for preparing the Bodies on which Mercury is designed to be applied Moreover it is not hard to understand how the Accidents of the Pox can disappear for some time without destroying its Cause since it is evident enough by what I have already said in the First Section of this Book that it essentially consists in a venomous Salt mixt with the Blood which ferments and sets it a boiling so that during this Ebullition there continually arises out of the Vessels that contain it many vaporous or serous matters which produce different Symptomes according to their Quality or Quantity or Parts where they adhere Now seeing these same Matters can be easily consumed by Sudorificks Diureticks and generally by desiccative Remedies we must not at all wonder if their Effects do not appear for a time after the use of a Decoction of these Plants and if nevertheless the Ferment that raised up those Vapours do still continue mixed with the Blood since it is a Salt dissolved fermented and confounded with it that cannot be sufficiently carried off by matters that pass away so quickly I know very well it may be said that one can hardly believe how the Indians should be cured only in show and should be so long deceived without perceiving their errour But observe how I conceive that may be done Strumpets are there wonderful common and they make use of them with the Brutality that is usual to such as have little Religion in them which makes this disease so familiar among them that they have reason to think they contract it still anew again For indeed it is not at all likely that they should be oblig'd so frequently to reiterate their Cures as Histories and Relations tell us they do if they really had any assured Remedies to destroy this Disease in its Root I do not mean as I have already said that the Universal Pox can never be cured by these Sudorificks or by other Remedies more ordinary and common whilst it is yet but in its first degree that is to say when its Matter hath not been perfectly united with the Blood by a Fermentation But besides that this Degree doth continue but a little while it is not always liable to be rightly distinguished and Mercury doth carry it off with so much promptitude and facility that it were indeed vain to try other Remedies Notwithstanding that these Observations are founded both upon Reason and Experience and do prove by these two means that these Plants are not Specifick against this Disease we must avow nevertheless that there are some Occurrences wherein they may much contribute to the Cure seeing there are some Bodies that must be absolutely desiccated before the application of Mercury Wherefore it is necessary to take notice of the Observations that I have made on each in particular to know more precisely the use that must be made of them 2. The Wood Guaiacum gives a yellowish Tincture more sharp and more distasteful but also more desiccative than that of the other three Simples named before Some Authors pretend that this Effect proceeds from its Sudorifick vertue and others contend to prove that it is much more Diuretick but which soever it is 't is always true that it consumes the Phlegm and Serosities carrying them off either by Sweat or Urine And that these different motions do principally proceed from the internal disposition of those that use them since it is found by Experience that it doth make some sweat and others urine I have often observed that it may be rendred more proper to open the Pores by adding to its Decoction some French Barley which doth also render it sweeter and more agreeable We have reason also to believe that the manner of using it among the greatest part of Americans doth not a little contribute to the rendring of it Sudorifick for they first heat themselves by violent and extraordinary Exercises before they presume to drink of its Decoction and after they have drunk of it they lie in Cotton-beds hung up and so continually swinging which gives a new agitation to the Humours by such continued motions and makes them evaporate more easily by wayes already disposed We must grant indeed that the Volatil and Essential Salt which causes it to produce this Effect doth more abound in that which they employ than this that is brought over to us because they cut it fresh from young Trees and the Sprigs of old ones in which the Universal Spirit
that causes the Vegetation of Plants is doubtless more active and less divided and it is for this reason requisite to make choice of the smallest and yellowest because the greatest blackest is most likely to be taken from old sapless Trunks Such as make the goodness of Remedies to consist in the strength of their activity do rather employ the Bark of this same Wood which is in good truth more drying than all the rest of the Tree but is accompanied with so much Heat and Acrimony that I would not counsel any body to make use of it and it would be much better on an occasion to render the use of the ordinary Decoction longer and more frequent 3. The part of Sassafras which is commonly made choice of and which I esteem also to be the best is its Root of which nevertheless there is little use made at present either because its Vertue is not well known or because the other Sudorifick Roots are dearer and so consequently more esteemed It is true notwithstanding that its Decoction hath a very pleasant and agreeable Smell and Taste and that use may be made of it as well as of Guaiacum to consume the superfluous Humidities in driving them either by Sweat or Urine or else by siege adding some light Catharticks to it I have observed nevertheless that its Root doth not desiccate so powerfully as Guaiacum and that it is consequently good for such as must be more moderately dried But more force may be found in the Bark of its Wood which also gives a Tincture yet more Aromatick more quick and sharp 4. Whereas the Root of China is the dearest of sudorifick Druggs that serve to prepare or cure such as are infected with the Pox the Merchants and Travellers who have brought it hither from the places where 't is found have all endeavoured to boast its good effects very much to its advantage that they might thereby have the better Market of it and its Vertues have been also so much exaggerated by some Authors that such as have preferred their Report before the Experience and Observations which they might have made themselves would have thought they had laboured in vain if they had presumed to cure the Pox without employing it to this intent Nevertheless we must acknowledge that this preoccupation deserves to be blamed and that this Root hath nothing in it proportionable to the esteem that hath been made of it nor to the dearness with wich it hath been sold seeing the Decoctions that are made of all these Drugs do principally and most properly serve to dry the Bodies of such as use them and the Decoctions of the other two I now mentioned may be employed to this effect with more success Not that this may not be very useful to prepare such as should be more gently desiccated Yet it may be also let alone when occasion serves only by diminishing the Doses of those that are stronger or augmenting the quantity of those that are weaker 5. The Root of Sarsaparilla is now-a-days more commonly employed to the abovesaid use because it gives a Tincture very like that of Wine and its Decoction hath nothing disagreeable for Smell or Taste Nevertheless I have observed that it dries something less than the other three Sudorificks of which I have spoken and that it passes more willingly by way of Urine than through the Pores whence it comes to be of great use for the curing Gonorrheas that are caused by virulent Serosities which do sometimes occupy the Testicles and and other parts that serve for the Concoction and Distribution of the Seed CHAP. V. Of the Observations it is necessary to make on Mercury to know whence the different Effects that follow its application do proceed 1. Whence it comes to pass that the Qualities of Mercury have not been yet known and the necessity there is of knowing them 2. That it easily joyns it self with sulphurous and metallick Bodies and that it is by consequence necessary that it be revived from Cinnaber to become pure 3. That it is always in motion and that it never loses its mobility but only to retake it 4. That its Sulphurs do render it volatil and penetrant but its Gravity inclines it to search downwards 5 That Resinous substances do serve for the division of its particles but Acids do dissolve it more perfectly 6. That Heat sublimes it but Alkalis does precipitate it 7. That Acids do diminish its Volatility but that it is so much the more Corrosive as there are Acids mixed with it 8. That the diversity of Bodies with which it joyns makes the diversity of its Actions and Effects 9. That it is no way poysonous in it self and that the divers dispositions of Subjects on which it is applied do cause the different Effects that do result from its application 1. SEing the Ancients have not explicated the Qualities of Medicaments but only by the different degrees of Hot and Dry Cold and Moist and these same degrees have not been at all known or distinguished more precisely than by the Actions and Effects that result from these Qualities we must not at all wonder if they have held Opinions so very different on the subject of Quicksilver since that this Mineral doth act so diversly and doth produce such different Effects not only in the several Bodies that receive it but also at different times when received in the same subject Whence it comes to pass that some have maintained it to be cold by reason of the cold Diseases that it creates and others have esteemed it to be hot because it doth consume Phlegm and desiccates the bodies in which it is made to enter Some also have judged it to be Venomous by reason of the Accidents that ordinarily arrive to such as draw it out of the Mines to Gilders and other Artificers that make use of it and yet some others again have asserted that it is an Antidote of poisons and an Enemy of Corruption because it generally kills all Vermine and is used with success in malignant Feavours the Pestilence and Pox lastly all their Conceits on this subject have been so opposite that they have determined nothing at all yet and modern Authors who have ordained this Remedy against certain Diseases have been contented to say that it acts by unknown occult Properties Though there is nothing less known or understood in all Physick it is true nevertheless that nothing doth really deserve to be known more since the use of it now a-days is acknowledged to be equally familiar profitable and dangerous and the little knowledge that is generally had of its true Motions is perhaps the only cause of all the misfortunes that follow its application This therefore ought to engage you and I good Reader to use our utmost endeavours to render them more sensible that we may by this means avoid the Reproaches Posterity might otherwise make to our Memory much more justly indeed than to that of our Predecessours
it sublimates to the middle of the Vessel so that after having been thus several times sublimated it remains at last alone or mixt with very few Acids without losing nevertheless the form of Salt 6. I do not mean that Mercury cannot be sublimated by Heat without being divided but it is very certain that the Heat must be more or less strong according as the Corpuscules of Mercury are gross or heavy whence it comes to pass that it is divided into very subtil particles in the Troches that are used for Fumigations that it may the easier be carried of and with the less violence But though it loses its weight when so divided and its lightness renders it improper for precipitation we know notwithstanding by experience that Alkalis will precipitate it since by casting Lime-water or the Oyl or Liquour of Tartar on the Dissolution of Sublimate Corrosive in common Water the Mercury is seen to precipitate in a yellow powder by the first and in a green powder by the second 7. Furthermore I am not able to understand why the Red powder of Mercury is now-a-days called Precipitate seeing it is nothing else but its Dissolution with Aqua fortis or the Spirit of Nitre which is afterwards made evaporate to siccity unless it be because the Acids do unite to all parts of it in these sorts of Dissolutions and so by this means render it more fixt heavy and if you will too more penetrant than after the ordinary divisions that are made of it with resinous bodies Whatsoever is the Reason it is always true that this is no Precipitation at all and that the Acids thus incorporated with the Mercury do not hinder it from being sublimated but only from mounting so high as it would do if alone or mixed with resinous Drugs if so be the Mercury be not in too small a quantity or driven by too violent a Heat We may easily conceive that nothing but the different quantity of Acids doth render it more or less Corrosive if we make reflection on the manner of dulcifying Sublimate one part of Sublimate Corrosive is mixed with another part of crude Mercury till the whole Mass appears greyish afterwards it is sublimated again and after this second Sublimation is found to be less Corrosive than it was before because some part of the Acids of its Nitre and Vitriol do fly out of the Sublimatory Vessel and others stick to the neck like mill-dust but are easily separated from the sublimated Mass besides also that those which still remain are more extended by the augmentation of Mercury so that by thus powdring and sublimating it three or four times it becomes at last so ducified that it may be safely given inwardly in a considerable Dose though it were at first the strongest Corrosive and poison 8. From the fore-going Observations may be drawn several Circumstances very useful for knowing the Motions of Mercury but chiefly that it always tends downwards by its own weight when alone and in its Natural form on the contrary that it penetrates indifferently upwards downwards and on every side when it is divided into subtil particles that it is heavy and corrosive when mixed with Acids and on the contrary very benign and volatil when separated and extended by resinous bodies that Alkalis can precipitate it when dissolved and mixed with Liquours lastly that the diversity of bodies to which it joyns doth serve to distinguish its Actions and Effects to which may be added also some following Observations that serve for a proof of this truth as well as the Applications that I intend to make of them when I shall speak of the Crises that it excites The first is that Natural Cinnabre taken inwardly drives the Impurities by Sweat or insensible Transpiration and that there are Sulphurs in our bodies which do mix with it when taken alone and do make it produce this effect The second is that there are a great many Acids with which it may joyn too because all Natural Fermentations are made by their means and the Venereal Salts do change all the Phlegm into this same quality The third is that the effervescences it produces do also shew that there are some Alkalis too which may serve to precipitate it 9. By what I have now said and particularly by the last three Remarks you see that the divers matters which are found to abound in bodies on which Mercury is applyed are the Causes of its different productions seeing you may be also satisfied that it is not poisonous in its own Nature and that all its unhappy effects do principally proceed from the inward dispositions of mind and body for when the Spirits are agitated by violent passions they may then sublimate the Mercury with Impetuosity even into the very Brain and cause by this means the most doleful Accidents that are found to follow its Application So there may happen Accidents very dangerous too for not having well corrected the extream Inanition or Repletion of bodies ill disposed for its Reception Lastly every body knows or every body may know that it is given inwardly without any danger at all against the Disease called the Miserere mei and there 's the less fear when a great quantity of it is given which will then be the easier carried off by its own weight for otherwise it might possibly stop in the Intestins and there become Corrosive by its joyning with the Acid Juyces which there abound SECT 3. In which the true Method of Artificially raising the Crises of the universal Pox is explained CHAP. I. Of the Crises that are provoked by common Remedies and of the Seasons proper for the Application of Mercury 1. That the general Observations which were related in the preceding Sections are absolutely necessary for the right understanding of particular Ones 2. General Division of Artificial Crises and why common Remedies are tryed sometimes to provoke them 3. What are those Remedies and why they are not here treated of to the bottom 4. Of the choice of proper Seasons for the Application of Mercury 5. Means to correct the soulness of the Air and Weather 1. WHen Nature is not able of her self to raise Critical Motions and one infected with the Pox requires the speedy Application of your Art to terminate his Disease by Artificial Crises You must then take into your thoughts those general Ideas I have given you and recal all the Circumstances that may conduce to the particular use you would make of them if you desire to compleat happily the Cure of this Disease For it is certain that they are of so great importance as you cannot expect to succeed well without the Observation of them and by judiciously applying them to the particular Maximes you 'll find in the sequel of this Book you 'll establish for your selves and for others an infallible Practice 2. You must first of all observe that the Crises of the universal Pox which are Artificially made by Remedies may
have been perfectly purified by receiving through the rough Artery some part of the Mercury that is sublimated from the Stomach up to the Mouth and might by that means be carried to the Heart from whence it becomes universally spread through the Vessels by the Circulation or else by attracting through the Lacteal Veines some particles of that which is precipitated downwards by the conjunction of Purgatives out of which Veins it may be also carried to the Heart and thence dispersed by the Motion of the blood after the manner I now spoke of 2. Nevertheless if you will be desirous of trying to raise the Crisis of the Pox after this manner you had best cause a loosness with it by mixing crude Mercury or sweet Sublimate with purging powders such as Aloes Colocynth and prepared Scammony which you may reduce into the consistance of Pills of which you may give every day a Dose proportionable to the present condition of your Patient You may also provoke the Salivation with these two sorts of Mercury by incorporating as much as you can of the first with Turpentine and the Crust of Bread dryed and powdred to reduce it afterwards into the form of Pills of which you may give from half a drachm to one drachm or else by mixing the second from fifteen to thirty grains for each Dose in a little Conserve of Roses remembring always that this last ought to be preferred and that the former is much more suspicious because it may reunite it self in the Stomach or in the Guts after the Turpentine is dissolved Besides sweet Sublimate there are several other Chymical Preparations of Mercury that are pretended to be Purgative too and do really Purge both by Vomit and Stool Such as are red and white Precipitate which are given from four to eight grains and Turbith Mineral from three to six But you must observe that this effect doth principally proceed from the Corrosion and Acuteness of corrosive Salts that hold Mercury under these several forms and so the inward use that is made of them is always to be accounted dangerous unless you break the points of these Acids before-hand by burning more then once these powders in the Spirit of Wine Almost all the Receipts and pretended Secrets of Empyricks and generally of such as promise to Cure the Pox without obliging their Patients to quit their Employments for some time or any way changing their usual way of Living do consist in the use of the Powder of Algarot and some other Preparations of Antimony which have no considerable effect besides that of spoiling the Stomach and disordering all the Natural Functions or else in the several ways of giving Turbith Mineral and the two Precipitates I now spake of For some of them give these things simply and without any other Preparation in the Conserve of Roses and pretend to make them pass quickly into all parts of the body by giving presently afterwards to their Patients as much Wine as they are able to drink on which subject you must observe that Wine taken in good quantity is mighty Diuretick and that Mercury thus impregnated with Salts is easily dissolved and carried off by Urine which for that reason then becomes very Salt and Acid and is therefore the cause that there is but a very small part of them that can enter or continue in the sanguiferous Vessels and so very small help can be expected from them Others again give these powders mixed with Gumme Gutta the Resine of Jalap and other Purgatives alike violent which truly do preserve it in Motion and do hinder it from adhering to the Stomach and Guts but do often cause most terrible Accidents by the fire that they enkindle in the body and by the violence of theâ—â— activity 3. It remains then to make Mercury enter through the pores of the body bâ— applying Mercurial Plasters or Ointments upon it and by reducing it into a Fumigation when mixed with resinous Drugs Mercurial Plasters and Ointments are applyed to the same places and have very near the same effect the manner of using them doth not differ neither only the first must be spread upon Leather before they are applyed whereas the latter are applyed directly upon the skin which is afterwards only covered with some Linnen That which is particular in this matter is that the Mercury which enters into Plasters requires a longer time to penetrate the Mass than that which is put into Ointments because it is more closely confounded in the solidness of the matter and therefore you must not change them but seldom or not at all and cover from the beginning all the parts that ought to be covered The Plaster which is ordinarily made use of is that which is described by and called de Vigo and is found prepared in all Shops simple double or treble with Mercury But for as much as it is of too hard a consistence and doth not easily adhere to the skin you may to better purpose prepare another with eight ounces of Mercury four ounces of Turpentine and two pounds of the Plaster of Mucilages 4. That which is commonly called Emorbo or the Grey Ointment and by the Physicians Neapolitan is found prepared in Apothecaries Shops and some make the friction with it But because the Dose of Mercury is very small in it and because it is of an unsavoury smell you may prepare another more effectual Oyntment with four ounces of Mercury two ounces of Turpentine one ounce of the Oyl of Bays two drachms of Saffron and a pound and a half of the Ointment of Roses You may employ about two ounces of this Ointment for the first friction which you must make from the Ankles till above the Knees and from the Wrists to the end of the Shoulder-blades Though this quantity of Mercury be seldom sufficient to bring Nature to a Critical Motion nevertheless some persons have been found so tender and delicate or easy to put into this Motion that they have received a Salivation even from the very first Friction and in which persons a second would have proved very dangerous so that you must observe narrowly the Patient you undertake so soon as you have thus given him Mercury and you must diligently examine whatsoever happens to him anew to the end you may presently leave of your Frictions so soon as the signs of a Salivation do appear and this to avoid Suffocation which doth always happen when the Humours are carried up to the Throat in too great an abundance In the second Friction which must be made four and twenty hours after the first you may employ up to four ounces of your Ointment and rub the Legs and Thighs with it from the middle of the Foot to the upper part of the Hips the Chine or Back-bone from the end of the Os Sacrum to the middle of the Neck and the Arms from the Wrists again to the Shoulder-blades not forgetting the places where the Glandules are seated which serve
than he that is able to live like other men by advancement of years Notwithstanding there is no necessity of giving different Methods for all Ages because the many various Intentions Respects and Remedies which I have already mentioned may also serve for the Cure of Infants only observing a due proportion of them to their small condition But it is needful nevertheless to prescribe the particular Method of curing well the smallest of all that so having examples before you of the greatest and least you may the more easily judge of the quality and quantity of things which ought to be employed in the different degrees of mediocrity 3. So soon as you shall have discover'd the Pox in an Infant that sucks you must first of all endeavour to discover the person that did communicate it to the end you may remove such person before you entreprise any thing After which you must choose a good Nurse to contribute towards the purification of his blood by the use of wholsom Milk which you must carefully preserve in all its purity by prescribing her a good Dyet and separating your little Patient from her and you must give him Milk only with a little spoon or else with fine Linnen that he may suck after 't is dipt in it But you must know that the Milk of a Goat well fed is infinitely to be preferred before that of an unsound Woman It will be necessary to purge him in the beginning of all with a little Water of Cassia or the Syrup of Roses and repeat this Purge several times according as he is more or less replete You may prepare a Ptisanne for him with a handful of French-Barley and three or four drachms of China-root which you may boil in three Quarts of common Water to the diminution of the third part adding to it toward the end a little Licorice after you have passed it ten grains of Crystal Mineral for to give him to drink or suck of from time to time day and night After having opened by this means the common passages of the Excrements you may rub the bottom of his Feet every third day with a drachm of the following Ointment Take a drachm or a drachm and a half of Mercury revived from Cynnabre and kill it in two ounces of the Balsom of Arceus adding afterwards six ounces of Hogs-grease well washed and make use of it six or eight times the way I have told you If these first Frictions don't procure a Flux or do cause some other sort of Crisis you must even continue them without other Mystery as long as they shall be thought necessary or else you may make them stronger by the augmentation of the Dose of the fore-said Ointment with half a drachm or more for each Friction and by employing it partly on the Feet and partly on the hands During the time of the Critical Evacuations you may give him every six days two or three grains of the volatil Salt of Vipers dissolved in a little of the Tisanne described before and you may prefer this same Remedy before all the Treacle Philosophical and Sudorifick Waters from whence some Authors do promise such false wonders Now the most important precept I have to give you on the account of little Infants is to treat them as gently as they have but little strength and to spare neither time nor pains to encrease their small strength or at least to preserve it for if you weaken them by the force of your Remedies you 'll miserably drive them into an inevitable death instead of curing them as you designed seeing the Operation of Medicaments is always either dangerous or unuseful if it be not seconded by the efforts of Nature CHAP. VII Of the Misfortunes which may follow the Application of Mercury 1. The Causes of the Death of some that are infected with the Pox and the Causes of the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury 2. What are those Accidents 3. General Remedies that serve to put a stop to their Violence 4. Particular Remedies for the Cure of them 1. THough the Pox be not a Disease mortal of it self and I hold it curable in all its degrees it is true nevertheless that Men may dye of it as I have said before when its matter hath corrupted or destroyed the parts without which there is no living when one infected with it hath fallen into the unhappy practices of Ignorants and Impostors Lastly when careless Physicians do not soon enough remedy the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury Not but the precepts which I have given are almost infallible for curing this Disease suddenly easily and surely and hardly can they fail in one of a thousand when they are regularly observed But there are some dismal Circumstances which it is impossible to remove For besides that Men are necessarily mortal the true Cause of their Death is often unknown the time of it cannot be avoided and the Cacochymie of bodies is now then so very great that it cannot possibly receive Correction to which may be added that there are some inward Dispositions which can no way be known or there is no possibility of taking away Whence it comes to pass that the success of this undertaking is not always so happy as we could wish and Accidents may indeed happen which could in no wise be expected to which nevertheless we ought to adhibite Remedies with all manner of care and exactness which are things greatly necessary in all Occasions where Life and Death are concerned 2. Now though all these Causes are of the same consequence it would be but a vain attempt to deliver the means of destroying them all since that some of them cannot be known and others cannot possibly be removed It may be sufficient to say something of the ill Tempers of Bodies and the too great quantity of Mercury which may be made enter into them because they are the usual Causes of all the Accidents which follow its application and there are none but may happen by reason of them For when all the things that cool and moisten have been used to no purpose for quenching the Fire and correcting the dryness of an extraordinary Melancholick body there is often found to follow a loosness accompanied with unsufferable gripes pains and which soon leaves a constipation behind that causes an Inflammation of the Entrals Brest Throat and Mouth with difficulty of Breathing Swallowing and Speaking which Symptoms soon begin a Fever that in a small time becomes violent enough to sublimate the Mercury up to the Brain and thereby cause Swoonings Phrensies Convulsions and very often Deafness and Blindness Apoplexies and Palsies or lastly Death it self if care be not suddenly taken to prevent it by due applying fit Remedies against this train of misfortunes In like manner if the Dyet drying Decoctions and strong Sudorificks have not been used sufficiently to make a convenient alteration of a very