of every pettey invading infirmity witness those multitudes who after sharp conflicts fall either into Relapses or Agues Scorbute Dropsies Consumptions Atrophie Jaundies Asthma's c. which might be easily prevented if a mature regular course were taken to give convenient Emeto-catharticks Analepticks Diaphoreticks which safely and speedily cleanse the stomach keep up the strength and breath the whole body then need we not fear any mischief from this late invention Redundance of Sulphur or Salt in the bloud no more than choller phlegm and melancholly of the ancients I would fain be satisfyed how this sanguimission is the cause of such a congestion of sulphur in this bloudy mass out of which there is no elective subduction of the Salt and a reservation of sulphur behind but both fly out promiscuously not to be discriminated by the eye till the fire which produces these Phaenomena makes a secretion of the homogenous juice into these heterogene parts inconfiderately denominated principles which are never so separated by the Archeus in so much as if one spin oâ—t more than another it is by accident never intended by Nature then a feaver may as well be sometimes prevented as invited according to the Aetâ—ological Hypothesis Neither can I apprehend where and how a greater quantity of sul above salt should be engendred after iterated Phlebotomy unless be meant by sul a spurious matter growing out of kind never intended by the scope of Nature which works regularly and uniformly Indeed so this may very well be after the stock of life is exhausted that the stomach Archeus and ferments becoming flaccid more dregs exotick strangely disguised abortive conceptions do forthwith start up attiring themselves in various shapes appearing afterward upon some stimulating occasions upon the Theater of the microcosm acting various Scenes of diseases according to the pravity and malignity of each excrement dis-junctive or copulative Me thinks 't is more consentaneous to Reason that a degenerate salt should rather abound in the body after this unkindly evacuation sith all the shops of digestions endeavour much about acid or urinous salts as is eminently apparent in the first and second Laboraâ—ories most of the visible excrements urine tears c. even of a hall person being saline Hence we may very well conclude that our Phlebotomist is much to seek in the cause and cure of a feaver sith he makes hat cause thereof which is only a Product of the fire not really existent withall pretends to take it away by that means which brought it for certainly what did mischief in this kind ab Anteriori can hardly do otherwise à Posteriori What gave occasion to admit it at first cannot well be expected to dismiss it once entred unless it be for a while that it may again return to take stronger possession Serius ejicitur quam non admittitur Hospes Experto Crede What the great Philosopher Van Heâ—mont hath set down before-cited I can maintain as certain truth by multiplyed experiments above these two and twenty years having in procincture not a few Patients ready to appear upon meet opportunity to attest how their veins have been acquitted of abundance of corrupt bloud as they thought yet their infirmitâ—es grown more strong and pertinacious and Nature more weak so doubtless must have perished had they noâ— râ—ceived succour at length by this powerful Câ—ymical Art Many medical Histories could I mention apposite for this purpose tending to the subversion of this Phlebotomical method but I conceive it will signifie little with those who are obstinately prejudiced against whatsoever I relate in this kind Wherefore I rather chuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come up close to them earnestly pressing they would either stand to some Aequiâ—able trials as we shall mutually propose for the final decision according to the senâ—ence of our experimentally knowing Philosophers of this Controversie of so great moment wherein Princes Noblemen and the greatâ—st Hero's Lives are concerned otherwise let them desist for the future prodigally to spend this Balsom of life keeping in its proper place for better uses that Lancet which I may safely aver hath been the destruction of more than the Sword At length I am put in mind of the last Quaery What Experiments the Doctor will undertake to testifie unto us that Phlebotomy is a way aequivelent with the best Remedies to amend impure bloud corrupted Here now am I so zealous a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indagator of verity by the Touch-stone of experience that I even blush to deliver any great matter of importance in reference to the health of man unless I have made trial my self or received it from a Learned honest Pyrotechnist Were it not that I should be censured for a stentorian Boaster by those who bear an Odium to this Science I would presume to take to my self a priviledge of knowing more practically than all those Physicians who altogether depend upon the Gregal Pharmacopaean set up principally to foment Laziness as likewise to keep up a meer mercenary Trade for the Reciprocal interest of each other to the injury of thousands Pish why should I be dared by any mortal only speaking physical truth Let Zoili or Momi do their worst I value them not Thus much I can uprightly and boldly deliver I have been both Agent and Patient in the examination of the Galenical and Chymical Dispensatory the former of which after a tedious expectation of some Benefit several years in reference to my sickly condâ—tion gradually filtching away my strength quite tyred me out usque ad nauseam so that I abhorred to look upon a painted Gally-pot or a bright Lancet The last in a short space gave me Relief not long after totally eradicating my infirmity repairing my decayed Constitutives in some measure Although some Philautists may judge me a little too venturous careless of my own safety in taking into my stomach Spagyrical medicines the effect whereof were as yet unknown to me yet I have not in the least repented thereof being perswaded it was but Charity that I my self rather than my Neighbours should run the hazard of virulency if they had any Withall I thereby collected those Documents by frequent sumption of my preparations for their correction and safe exhibition which a vulgar head could never have imparted to me For this end I give not a Remedy effectually Authentick which these hands of mine have not contrived and this stomack approved Neither was there any other Reason why I forsook this old smoothly beaten more profitable Road beâ—aking my self to this seldom trodden rugged poor contemptible way at that time but a plain forcible conviction within my self that one was erroneous unsatisfactory full of doubts and perplexities seldom bringing a man to his intended End The other was veriloquos right scientifical performing for the most part what is promised Herein I acquired after some labour a satisfactory notion of things with a sweet content far surpassing any Pecuniary Reward so that I
foundation of this proud lofty fabrick delineating exactly according to the Copy set it every part continent or contained requisite to the discharge of those various Faculties Uses Offices and Functions which all conspire for the preservation of the whole As it alone began so it proceeds to finish this beautiful structure and to keep it in repair by a continual supply of new spirits instead of those that are daily expended and exhausted by the labour of body and mind 'T is this Archeus let no captious Sermocinal Galenist take exceptions at the word for it is proper enough according to the Etymon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principium vitae being duly constituted and modified makes an Eutonie Excrasie Eumetrie and Eutaxie in this little universe This implanted spirit forthwith emerging apparent so soon as the omnipotent Creator breathed into man the breath of life is really the Architectonical president of Generation Accretion Nutrition Sense Motion and whatsoever belongs to vitality à puncto initiante ad punctum definitum This being granted by any intelligent moderate Person that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sanity or well being depends principally upon the goodness serenity candor peace tranquillity activity and good condition of the vitals It must necessarily follow according to the formerly mentioned received Axiom Quicquid in Sanis edit Actiones Sanas id ipsum in Morbis edit Actiones vitiatas That which is the chief Agent in maintenance of our health the same also principally acts in the production of Diseases that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickness and all diseases whatsoever spring from the same Root the immediate cause of our health the Archeus depraved clouded disturbed hurryed away with divers Passions Anger Fear c. Morose Sullen Dull and Malignant It is not possible that a disease should harbour any where but in this Gas of life for as soon as it is extinct all diseases forthwith cease so that all irritating and exasperating causes which strait disturb these luminous particles in a living body causing them to frame Idaeas of Indignation Fear Hatred whereby many kind of evils easily distinguishable one from the other by certain signs are hatched do not at all cause any inconvenience in that which is defunct And although the Quinary principles of Dr. Willis are as demonstrative by the fire but no other way in the Carkase as they were in the living body yet seeing that great Agent and Patient of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health and sickness is wanting in that no such passions are incident to it as to the other For example apply an Epispastick of Cantharides or any Caustick to what is mortifyed containing the Quinta Prima no vesicle arises nor is any impression made Let it be but laid on where there is vitality the skin in a short space is separated from the flesh by an Acrimonious Ichor which the Archeus fabricated being put into a fretting condition upon the apprehension of this virulent Plaister Observe Cantharides doth equally vesicate healthful and crasie bodies Hence this evidently discovers that the spirit of the part conceiving ire upon the contact of what is odious to it acts upon nutritious juice colliquating the same and turning it into a Liquamen Corrosivum making a solution of those particles before united A thorn or splinter entring unawares without the advertency of the person into any part and there impacted sometime excites the vital spirit to perturbation and discontent hereupon it frames Characters of pain throbbing feaver intumescence and redness in a body where the soul is resident of which a Cadaverous matter being deprived hath not the least fore-going symptom from the puncture and inhaesion of any thing extraneous yet are there not wanting these Quinta Prima made evident only by Vulcan I look upon every degenerate abortive acid acrimonious malignant virulent matter assumed or acquired in the body to be only an exstimulating occasional cause of all sickness and so is but exotick and a meer stranger in comparison of that which essentially makes the Quiddity of a disease What if a depraved sulphur or salt be generated and abound in the bloud are these able per se to generate specifie or determine any sickness that it can properly be said to be hoc aliquid All the excrements that are engendred in mans body through the errours of the digestion are either occasional and irritative causes of this or that infirmity or they are Products and consequents of the disease If any sulphureous saline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refuse or Dross Acid Austere Bitter Nidorous Acrimonious Fracedinous Dregs any virulent malignant venemous Sanies Ichor or Tabum be in progress of time brought to an egg by the Archeus of the stomach principally other digestions secondarily conspiring Then at length after long brooding this serpentine Mola or Cockatrice-like egg being hatched so hostile sometimes to nature and that efficicient cause that produced it as the almost dead viper was to the Countryman that fomenting it by the fire resuscitated that life in the Creature which at length became prejudicial if not destructive to him after a strong invasion made it gives an Alarum to that sentinel which continually watches for the preservation of this Cittadel The guard I mean the spirits being roused finding an enemy at hand all possible force is raised to repel retard and expel this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this encroaching invading mortiferous matter that instrumentally aims at the cutting of the thread of life Hereupon presently arise Idaeas Characters Images of discontent fury fear inquietude despondency pusillanimity peevishness sottishness prodigal effusion and confusion of all things Thence is the perfect image of this or that disease contrived in this Aethereal exhalation according to the condition nature or property of that provocative exorbitant hateful matter which at first put it into this passion and perturbation Otherwise if this efficient were not lascivious or extravagant in forging a numerous company of different Pictures of diseases how were it possible the sulphur or salt separate or conjunct could cause so many distinct species of feavers or other griefs For take the bloud or urine of five hundred persons afflicted with feavers whose constitutions have a manifest disparity in them put them mechanically to the test of Vulcan Separate their sulphurs and salts by Art it will be found there is no such certain discriminating signs apparent either by odour or sapour inspection or effect in any of each that one may not be taken for the other If so how will Dr. Willis make good his Assertion that sul and salt which according to the tryal of Pyrotechny for I know no other way to make a true discovery of them seeming similar to sense though taken from several bodies can possible produce such a Catalogue of calamitous infirmities differing in symptoms one from another Toto Coelo If he could shew us optically several distinct species of sul or sal any
way proportionable to the Idaeas of Maladies which he would have to come efficiently and materially there-from then were his Chymical principles more plausibly taking But sith I am sure he cannot demonstrate this I contemplate the fermentation exaltation depression of sul the fusion fluidity and coagulation of Sal borrowed from the speculation of Wine and Milk analogically introduced by him to confirm his Quinary Institutions of Pathology to be no immediate essential cause of diseases as I doubt not practically to make evident If Dr. Willis seriously meditate he shall find in Reality a vast difference between the operations of the vital bloud and those proceeding from the Zymôsis of the juice of a vegetable or the separation made by air or any other artificial means in Milk tending to corruption of the same For these dead things are in no wise able to give us adaequate light of those regular and Irregular actions that are performed by a vital beginning whose Type is of a more sublime extract than to be parallel'd by any thing inanimate I confess some small illustration may be made by way of simily between animate and inanimate mechanical artificial and natural which may please the phantasie of those that are not throughly acquainted with the intimate Radical and efficient causes of vital powers and actions the priority of which are not intelligible by any mortal only we are taught à posteriori the effects of this primum movens perpetrating every thing by such a plat-form that is unerring unless impeded by intervening outward accidents according to that Mandate the great Creator hath given it till the dissolution of the universe We believe there was the same principles of all Concretes before the fall as since and that the Archeus of the stomach before the lapse of the Protoplastes did perfectly intirely change whatsoever was taken in for nourishment without any Relique of annoyance of excrements dross or filth those Tribuli Spinae which since the eating of the forbidden fruit the stomach of man being thereby vitiated do continually infest it in such sort that the vita Media of every thing assumed is hardly conquered an injurious impress being oftentimes left behind Hence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first rise of all our calamities for the deviation of the Archeus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives occasional matter to an infinite number of infirmities Not that the sulphur and salt of any Concrete is separated in the first digestion and so according as either is multiplyed or degenerate sickness breaketh forth No such matter for let a strong vigorous stomach take into it any sulphureous fat oily food the ferment makes in some short space such an essential transmutation that the sulphur becomes acid quite another thing to what it was before and afterward in the second digestion by vertue of the vital contact of the Gall it is changed saline Again the Alkali of vegetables is so altered in the stomach and other digestions that use the best skill you have you shall not be able to draw out of the urine bloud or any other part a lixiviate salt although Dr. Willis erroneously attributes to this and an acid Liquor like vitriol the cause why in a Scorbutical Arthritis a worm laid upon the part affected becomes in a short space mortifyed v. p. 292. de Scorbu Moreover pure spirit of Wine upon touch of the vital spirits looses its inflammability and its former saline sulphureous nature being changed into something of an urinous substance And here I am bound justly to taxe some Physicians of great ignorance in that they so scruple in feavers to give their Patients a large quantity of spirit of Wine rectifyed as it ought supposing they should add more fuel to the fire thereby to make a Phlogôsis a greater efferviscence or conflagration in the body not considering that nothing is more congenerous symbolizing with the animal Gas of life then highly exalted spirit of Wine being forthwith imbraced united and identifyed one with another by reason of their affinity and congruity 2. They do not truly understand the energy of Zymôsis what a powerful alterity is made by it and how the sulphureous particles of the vegetable becomes urinous like the spirit of the animal whereby it is enabled to profligate the morbifick matter through all the Emmunctories sluces and secret passages of the body This really is the direct way of curing feavers fundamentally not seeming cooling Julips Barley Water Posset-drink made with small Beer least it should be too hot prone to make the sulphur in the bloud as they alledge incensed already to become more impetuously head-strong no wayes to be reined or governed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormon whose fate they conclude must needs be sad when such presumptuous Phaeton like Pyrotechnists drive the mettalsome Horses of the Son of this microcosm so furiously For all this let the Dogmatists say what they please if they will vouchsafe to be spectators I can discover to them Autopsiâ that I am able to cure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many feavers more expeditely and effectually by those things they call hot then by all the infrigidating preparatious they can invent or all the farraginous mixture belonging to the Apothecaries shop I wish with all my soul the Galenists would now at length reject those insufficient invalid medicines made by others and recond as a Treasure Arcana's elaborated by their own fingers then would they be truly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the equivocal sense of the word making a unity in that profession which through the Covetousness pride laziness of Physicians hath been divided into a Tripartite station to the great dishonour debasement and total Ruine of a his Noble Science if some Worthy Prudent Magistrates the Heroes of this Nation do not timely prevent This Parergôs I return to Dr. Willis his Quinta prima as the efficient causes of diseases Sith as I have delivered there is no separation of them in a healthful living body It follows that if any at any time a secretion of the five be made then are they Products and Epigenomena from a disorder or defection then cannot they be properly said to be primary precedent causes of the impairment of our health but consequents of the same Wherefore it 's preposterous to take in that for a cause which is but a meer effect whose Posteriority plainly shews a dependency upon something going before For example in a febrile state we see rejected by vomit or any other way excreted a yellow matter which the Doctor may call sulphureous This as he conceives joyned with something saline causes an effervescence boiling or Accension whence arises the feaver First let us examine whence came this excessive ebullition what is the efficient cause thereof in a living body 2. What separates and expels these parts denominated salt and sulphur 3. Whether the Doctor or any other ever saw sul so sequestred from an Animal so
riddance of this foul guest can hardly be made by Art in a very Cachochymick body without hazarding the life there being a kind of necessity to leave some behind no sooner is there an accession of any approved every way compleated Chyme but it is forthwith deteriorated and infected by the contact of the relique of that filthy reprobate Gore which still harbours in the vessels wherein is a peccant ferment endangering as long as it continues the faedation of the whole mass a little Leaven leavening the whole lump Wherefore in my judgment with humble submission to better reasons the Doctor is much out of the way in taking this course of mutilating and impoverishing the vitals the preservation of which transcends all other indications whatsoever considering no solid benefit accrues thereby withall weighing how the cause of most calamities as the Scurvy venereal Lues have their rise from a venomous seed ingrafted about the Hypochondries for the abortion or strangulation of which all our best Arcana 's are but little enough efficacious In brief the true method is to scour every way by proper Mediums the filth or feculency gathered together in the first foundation destroying likewise the venom reducing the errour of the parts to their due Eupraxie corroborating them then need we not doubt whatsoever is superstructed will quickly be brought to a handsome conformity whereby this stately structure may be kept Sarta tecta in good reparations many years 2. The Authority I shall cite against this extramission of putrid bloud to the diminution of the strength without any amolition of the cause thereof is Van Helmont who is to me as an hundred testimonies His words are these p. 184. lib. de Febr. Etenim ostendant non contradicere quod febri proprium sit Cruorem ipsum inquinare hanc proprietatem tolli à posteriori à putrefacti scilicet remotione Etenim si primum Imperuor sanguis è vena depromatur iteratò venam pandunt interim vires consternunt turbantque hinc Crisis spem tollunt quid si tum rubicundior effluxerit Certè exclamant Quasi totum mali Agmen ablatum prima vice fuissetque febrium sedes à Corde ad cubitum duntaxat extensa bonus autem circa Hepar resideret i. e. But let them make it appear if this do not imply a contradiction that a feaver hath a property to pollute the bloud and that this properly can be taken away à posteriori by a posterous manner to wit by withdrawing what is putrefyed For if first the fouler bloud be let out they open a vein again all this while they overthrow and confound the strength and so thereby wholly disappoint a Crisis But suppose sometime a fresh ruddy bloud run out they presently cry with open mouth as Cock-sure that a whole Troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash as if the resting place of a feaver did only extend from the heart to the bending of the arm and the good bloud did take up its abode about the Liver In another place of the same page our Author delivers this In confesso est quod Materia Febrilis non consistit in vena supra Cor per consequens neque vena Sectio Materiam Occasionalem ullatenus exhauriat aut directa Medendi intentione effectivè sanet i. e. It is taken for granted that the material cause of a feaver is not seated in the vessels above the heart then it must necessarily follow that breathing a vein doth in no wise discharge the matter which stâ—rs up the feaver neither is this a down-right effectual way of healing Thus far he who is instar Omnium Yea for the countenance of this truth I have something very conducible from Dr. Willis his words are these p. 75. de Feb. Prae caeteris vero observatione constat quod crebra sanguinis missio Homines febri aptiores reddat i. e. Now above all it is certainly known according to observation that o ten bleeding makes men more apt to fall into a feaver Again he follows it close Hinc fit ut qui crebro mutunt sanguinem non tantum in febres sunt proclives verum etiam pinguescere soleant propter Cruorem Succo Sulphureoâ—plus impregnatum i. e. Hence it comes to pass that they who often breath a vein are not only prone to fall into feavers but are also wont to grow fat by reason the bloud is full of sulphur In another place to this purpose he drives it home Qui sanguinem habent sale volatilizato bene saturatum ii sunt minus febribus obnoxii hinc etiam qui saepius sanguinem emittunt ad febres aptiores sunt i. e. They whose bloud abound with volatile Salt are not subject to feavers For this cause they that use Phlebotomy often are more liable to feavers Well then the Doctor and I agree thus far in the main that frequent bleeding procures feavers which is sufficient to back my assertion that Phlebotomy is no good method of healing sith it is plainly a Procatartick cause of feavers For whatsoever means exhausting the strength as I can demonstrate this course doth more or less sensibly or insensibly inviting and making way for feavers instead of preventing them is not to be approved of or allowed in Curing the Scurvy or other diseases unless we act like Tinkers some of whom are reported to mend one hole and make another for how possible can it consist with the Honour and Credit of a Physician quem creavit Altissimus to go about to correct the bloud by often letting it out in a Chronick infirmity likewise withall to usher in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were to be a Pander to the introduction of an Acute feaver which in a short space dissipates that strength which this Phlebotomical harbinger hath in part worsted Certainly then there is a better way if we could hit on it to reform this juice without an elumbation of the vitals by proper Medicines which the good Creator hath ordained able to supply the bloud with a sufficient quantity of volatile Salt and to take away the exuberance of its sulphur if the cause of feavers as this Learned Defendant would have from whom I dissent unless he can convince me by practice or mechannically shew to my eye more sulphur in the Pyrotechnical Analysis of bloud taken from one afflicted with a high feaver than from that extracted from a Scorbutical or venereal body c. The sum of all is this if it be so that striking a vein often in a long tedious disease is a preparatory for a sharp eaver as we both herein jump right in our observation then am I certain that Phlebotomy repeated in an acute sickness is a door set open an in-let for a long infirmity so that this mode of defalcating the vigour of the spirits doth for the most part as I have strictly heeded many years disarm and plunder Nature in such sort that it cannot resist the assaults
Cruor a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Crudus Concretus which undergoes manifold Guises and is often the Subject matter of multitude of Diseases being sometimes changed into an Ichor Tabum or Sanies Sanguis called bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a most pure Sweet Homogeneous Balsamick Vital Juice for the most part of a bright Red or Reddish colour made by the Archeus by virtue of Ferments implanted in the Ventricles of the Heart Lungs Veins and Arteries causing a formal transmutation of the chyme or milky substance into this sanguineous Liquor ordained to be the seat of Life and the principal matter for Sense Motion Nutrition Accretion and Generation It is for good reason called Balsamum seu Condimentum totius Corporis for as much as it hath a Sanative power sweetly uniting all the parts of the Body for the conspiration of the good of the whole It is a great preservative against Putrefaction as long as it remains in its integrity for consisting of many Saline particles it seasoneth whatsoever it toucheth with a pleasing Sapour It is the proper Habitation of the vital spirit the immediate instrument of the Soul in which it shines displaying its Radiant Beams every way that Sensation Motion Nutrition and all other Functions may exquisitely be performed It s colour is various in some White as in Testaceous Creatures In some Black as in the fish Polypus but usually of a Reddish or Crimson Dye in the most perfect Creatures The efficient cause of its Production is the Archeus or Animal spirit making an Essential Alteration of a praevious Lacteous juice into this most highly exalted Liquour of Life through the efficacy of those Operative fermenrs which the great Conditor of all things hath destinated to reside in convenient places principally in the cavities of the heart CHAP. II. Of the different sorts of Bloud THe Air Climate and Food do not a little alter the bloud of all Animals For creatures that live in lofty places more remote from the faeculent exhalations of the Earth for as much as they participate of a more subtile clean magnale have their bloud more rarified volatilized and so consequently Circulation the better performed without those Coagulations or Grumosites which those resting nigh the lower surface of the Globe always sending out some noxious emanations are commonly incident to Hereupon the winged common-wealth that frequently draw breath in a sublimer Region have their juices for the most part better digested mundified and subtilized than those which are constantly contiguous to the earth For it is certain look Coeteris paribus what air you draw in such accordingly is the texture of the vital spirits as these are generated good or bad so likewise is the bloud as this is constituted so are the Carneous Membranous and Osseous parts Laudable or depraved food conduces much to the meliorating or pejorating this animal liquor for as the diet is regulated in Quality or Quantity so Euchymy or Cacochymy follow making several discriminations therein Of all Creatures the bloud of man is graduated to the highest Perfection fitting to be a Receptacle of so divine a Guest the Immortal Soul which as long as it is here incarcerated lying couched in the sensitive being bound to act by Corporeal Organs suffers many Obscurations Defections and Eclipses through variety of Meteors arising in the Horizon of this Microcosm from the bloud degenerate and depraved It would take up too much time strictly to examine this vital juice in several species and in certain Individuals whose Qualities Properties Endowments Inclinations Affections Actions and Passions depend upon the Seed the exquisite essential part of this animal Balsom both of which make up Stamen Subtegmen the Warpe and Woofe of every creature This Liquor is in some animals thick gross and fibrous in others thin serous and more fluid There are those who have it endued with a Medicinal vertue as that of Cats and Goats the last whereof affords us an Arterial Balsom of admirable effect in Pleurisies Others have in it an Intoxicating and Poysonous property as Bulls Dogs c. In certain species it is intensly red in others more remisly There are creatures which have only a Whitish Liquor in the body there are those also which possess it either obscure or of a black colour The bloud of some animals is tangibly hot in others it is sensibly cold as in fishes It is more ponderous in those that continually adhere to the Earth than in volatiles soaring aloft Saturnine persons have usually a more gross and stable juice very fibrous causing deliberate pulse Those who are jovial have by nature a brighter thinner Liquor with a pulse more quick Many other distinctions of this sanguine Balsom might be delivered which for the present I can only lightly touch upon directly aiming at those things of greatest moment in which the welfare of man hath a more peculiar interest CHAP. III. Of the Efficient and Material cause of Bloud THe Galenists have reckoned for this sixteen hundred years four humours analogous to the four Elements in mans body requisite for the essential constitution of this ruddy mass all of which they affirm are separable and demonstrable to the eye Thus they make a division of that which God Nature never intended other than Homogeneous pure plain symbolical with that single principle of the universe for as much as every thing the more it hath of similarity in it self the more capable it is to be altered into multiplicity of divers different specifick bodies by the Magical power of metamorphising ferments Now these Peripatetick Philosophers deliver to the World that the contexture of this vital juice is made up of choler phlegm melancholly and bloud which united produce as they would have it the compounded body we call Sanguis how grosly erroneous and daâ—gerous this Tenet is most Learned Helmont hath made evident Wherefore we conclude with that Noble Phylosopher that bloud is an univocal substance divisible only by some external accidental means as the air or fire which cause a various texture and different position of its atoms whereby it seems to consist of those parts which are not really inherent in it as is manifest in its degeneration from its native colour sapour consistence and goodness which it had before it became corrupt in the Porringer or underwent the torture of the fire Both of which do strangely larvate and disguise this puniteous Balsom giving occasion to the Galenists to frame their four fictitious humours no where really exsistent Hence occasion hath been given of taking wrong indications in the cure of those Diseases easily sanable if a firm foundation were laid a great Catalogue whereof have been reputed incurable Had they but considered how this vital moisture ebbs and flows in goodness and pravity upon flight accidental occasions of any exorbitant passions as Fear Sorrow Anger c. the manifold impressions of the ambient air Ill Diet immoderate exercise divers excessive
the whole frame is disordered and all the powers are violently hurryed into an ataxie Briefly all immoderate passions do exceedingly operate upon the bloud spoiling it more or less of its integrity Thus inter spemque metumque timores inter iras is this subject matter wherein the soul delights agitated concussed sometimes as it were charm'd into a coagulum or curdly substance again then colliquated into a virulent corroding fretting Ichor or Serum now a modest apprehension of shame adornes the skin with a lovely rosie blush a sudden fear leaves the superficies of the body exanguious pale and Ghost-like as likewise excessive love perpetrates the same by degrees Pallidus omnis amans Envy consumes this vitae pabulum as a Moth a Garment Jealousie as cruel as the Grave never leaves till it devours its vigour and fibrosity Anger intoxicates it pourtraying the perfect Idaea of madness therein which sometimes is so graduated that no poyson in this part of the world seems to be more active for a few atoms of this venomous gore penetrating the Cutaneous membrane hath infected the whole ruddy mass introducing most truculent symptoms wherefore Ira furor brevis est hanc tu compesce catena Let it be our whole endeavour ut sit mens sana in corpore sano for if we be not Master of our unruly passions 't is impossible there should be an Eutomie an Eucrasie and Eumetry in this solar juice Likewise food is to be considered as powerful to make an Euchymy or Cacochymie for those things whose Vita Media are so tenacious that they cannot be conquered by the stomach do often put Nature to very great stress causing it to frame many strange Images so leading it captive into a morbifick state I have found experimentally that flesh or any thing Dyspepton of difficult digestion in any Feaver putrifies in the stomach contaminates the bloud augments the Feaver which the good old man Hipp. verifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. if you give any thing very highly nutritiotous to one in a Feaver the same will encrease his Disease weakning the Patient which given to an healthful body would strengthen him Again whatsoever superfluity is retained after the six Digestions are performed do either by their quantity or quality incommodate the blood causing it to deviate from its sincerity likewise all profuse excretions do much disturb it Motion Rest Watching and Sleep passing their due limits cause great inconveniences herein The Phaenomena or signs whereby the blood may be judged good or bad are some apparently Visible others more obscurely latitant A skin tinged with a preter-natural Black Citrine Yellow Green Pale colour supposed it be not contracted from the impression of the Air Climate or any outward accident doth certainly indicate that all is not well with the juice within for qualis color cutis talis corporis habitus sanguis spiritus A feaverish state cutaneous eruptions a spontaneous lasitude difficulty of breathing an irregular pulse Arythmus Dicrotus Formicans Serratilis observing no just proportion Degenerate excrements arising from several Digestions of various colours Green Yellow c. of bad consistence as lentous viscous clammy thin sharp fretting cause some suspicion that the blood is impure Likewise if a man be melancholly without any just reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indisposed dull delirious forgetful sleepy or over-watchful he may suspect all is not well within There is no greater sign of notable impurity in this mass than when there appears any excessive Haemorrhagy as from the Nose Piles or Mouth for then we may conclude that some irritating matter is got therein which like a Thorn extimulates the Archeus so that it becomes impatient fretful and furious profusely squandring away the most precious stock of life in a prodigal manner Now if we desire to keep a constant Tenour of health we ought strictly to observe whether any of the six Digestions do at any time titubate or faulter and forth with to seek out for means to correct the same and reduce it to integrity sith it is not possible that the liquor of life should be free from feculencies imperfections and apostasies if the Organ that frames it be irregular and depraved Here I must give a Caution to all intelligent Persons that they do not rashly censure that blood let out in the Porringer necessary to be sent packing because it is disguised in various colours as blackish blew green yellow white c. supposing it to be corrupt and so unfitting to be retained within the verge of life It is no such matter I can maintain for this superficial alteration proceeds from the Air spoiling it of its pristine goodness not that it was really corrupted in the vein For the demonstration of this I will undertake upon forfeiture of a great penalty to open the vein of a Cachochymick body emitting about two or three ounces of the visible foresaid degenerate matter then stopping the Orifice make use of proper Remedies to this Individual whose habit I doubt not so to alter in the space of about a fortnight that no such putrid matter as they improperly call it shall be found in any vein whatsoever opened which may fully satisfie any sober inquirer after truth that the corruption was never really existent in that while it was in the vein which in so short a time is thus red integrated for corruption being an absolute privation of that formal essence of the thing and sith there is no retrogradation in this kind that an Ens losing its form by dissolution should assume it again nam à privatione ad Habitum non datur regressus it infallibly follows that this juice thus restored Techniâ—…s by Art was never truly corrupted as they would have it Hence it follows that the fair pretence of the Galenists that the juice drawn out of the patient forasmuch as it is corrupt in the Porringer is happily discharged appears a meer imposture contrived on purpose to stop the mouth of those who scruple and question Phlebotomy CHAP. V. Concerning the Latex or insipid aqueous Liquor that is concurrent with the Blood TReating of the blood I cannot omit its inseparable companion that closely perambulates with it through all the winding Maeandrous Pipes in this microcosm It is called Latex by Helmont by some Lympha by the Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Diaphanous clear liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabricated in the second digestion by vertue of a ferment there residing It is the matter of Urine and Sweat It undergoes various alterations partly from sanguine mass and partly from the solid parts of the body whose ferments as they are mis-affected so they infect this limpid liquor It is of very great use first as a vehicle to the bloud to convey and usher it freely into all parts Secondly to hinder the condensation and coagulation thereof that it may not restagnate and so be hindred in its constant circulation Thirdly that it may
carry off several impurities and dross that the parts contained and containing are obnoxious to mundifying and as it were rincing away their contracted foulness by Urine and Spitting reposing the same either in certain Glandulous Emunctories or diffusing what is saline acid acrimonious pontick or bitter c. through the porous skin Fourthly it serves for the humectation of those parts otherwise prone to Aridity as the bones and Cartilages hence that Synonia or albuminous substance that intervenes the extremity of each bone is maintained Fifthly it is the matter of tears spittle sweat and urine all which are rightly fabricated as long as the ferments perform their office as they should but becomming exorbitant this Latex degenerates causing great offence and injury to the life of man Hence feavers of all sorts the Scurvy Squinzy Pleurisie Cephalalgy grievous Gripes Fluxes Dropsies Haemorrhoids Oedematous Tumours Erysipelas Phlegmons Cacoethes and Fistulous Ulcers and cutaneous Eruptions of multifarious shapes wherein for the most part great malignity and venomous nature is included This depraved Latex is the cause of intollerable thirst in a Causos or a high feaver which is indirectly attempted to be allaied by Julips of the Galenists who intend cooling and moistning as taking their Indication erroneously from heat and dryness which then would easiâ—y â—e corrected by a draught of cold water or small Beer Whereas the true way if rightly taken is to dulcifie the salfuginous or Briny Latex by appropriate Remedies to destroy the malignity that harbours therein and to carry off by urine and skin sensibly or insensibly that Ichorous matter which annoys the whole mass endangering the total coagulation of it whereby the Archeus is put into extream displacency being exceedingly heightned in its perturbation at the presence of so tedious vexatious virulent and mortiferous a sociate It is not amiss sometimes to exantlate or pump up this sharp Serum and to send it packing per Ptyelismum by salivation supposed it be done by those things that are free from a noxious property leaving no impression behind which cannot be performed by ☿ dulce Turbith mine Praecipie and such like imperfect preparations of Quick-silver commonly sold in Apothecaries shops and frequently used by the Galeno-Chymists who for that reason assume the name of Chymists to the infamy of this Noble Science By their leave I must tell them and I can assert it as a real truth that no Legitimate Spagyrist if he be throughly grounded in his Art will exhibite any of the foresaid preparations of ☿ yea moreover nor oil of vitriol corrosive nor the spirit only a sower Phlegm the best thing they have of an Adipson on which they depend for the abating of extraordinary Thirsts Bartholinus a very laborious Anatomist hath made a discovery of certain Lymphaducts Receptacles of this clear water which taking their Original from the Liver and Spleen tend upward to the subclavian vessel and downward to the Renal cavities so that Nature hath been very solicitous to lay up as it were in store this most necessary water that it may upon all occasions be in readiness to be brought forth for the Emergent use of the fluid and solid parts If this Latex offend in Quantity or Quality perfect sanity cannot be enjoyed If it be deficient Atrophy Consumption Marasmus follows if not timely prevented as appears in those whose pericardium being diffected hath been destitute of any considerable moisture if it abound Cachexie a very ill habit of body and Dropsies ensue If it be fretting salt or acid many Idaeas of Diseases arise to be specifyed according to the part affected Now Omne Acidum est Venis Arteriis Nervis membranis hostile stomacho vero gratum according to our Philosopher Whatsoever is sharp is pleasing to the stomach but very offensive to the veins arteries nerves and membranes which are thereby vellicated curled convulsed and corrugated at the presence of that whose Atomycal parts are like so many thorns In Infants the tone of this Latex being subverted causes an Hydrocephalus a head very much tumefied In a declining age it deviates from its integrity and much infests the Lungs The goodness or pravity of the Latex depends much upon the bloud as it is constituted for although it is no essential part thereof yet is it altered for better or worse according to the channels it passes through the lodging it taketh up and the condition of its associate notwithstanding I will not deny but that it may be sometimes impaired in its due excellency and this withall remain very pure and sincere It is prone to be often damnifyed by outward accidents as the ambient air any thing that impetuously rushes upon it making a contusion or solution of continuity whatsoever doth terrifie colliquate and gall the skin or intoxicate it putting the Archeus into a violent passion thereby turning the placid innocent Liquor into an unpleasing hurtful corrosive menstruum Urine and sweat are by some reputed to be the same however they are mistaken for urine comes from a putrefactive principle whereby the Latex is turned into an urinous Nature by vertue of a ferment proper to the Kidneys which if it be perverted many Diseases emerge Dysuria Ischuria Stranguria if totally destroyed there happens that rare affect called Diabetes The sweat comes from the Latex drawn thither by the Magnes of the membrana Carnosa Cutis whose attraction is more powerful when promoted by exercise heat frication and attrition c. which are great means that that undulating moisture in the inward part hath its recourse to the Periphaeria or circumference of the body and so passes through the pores thereof in form of a dewy Mador This water as it is tinged or impregnated by divers occurrent matter it finds in the passages where it is transient so it retains an odour or sapour colour consistence for the sweat of some is very stinking and noisome in sent sharp in taste yellow greenish darkish in colour glutinous clammy waterish and sometimes so fretting that the Linnen is even corroded thereby as if it were imbrued with a weaker sort of oile of vitriol which expulsion is always laudable if it be performed by strength of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an Ephidrosis particular sweats always portends debility of the Archeus an unequal strength a defection of the attractive faculty stubborn obstructions and abundance of lentous clammy tough matter not easily capable to be tamed by the vital spirit Here I cannot but make an animadversion on that truculent Disease which formerly raged in England to the destruction of some thousands It had its original doubtless from a degenerate Latex turned into a malignant Ichor which caused a tabefaction or colliquation of the bloud and Nutritive juice which issuing forth in a copious measure symptomatically without any Euphoria alleviation quickly consumed the stock of life The attempt made at first to cure this malady by stopping the sweat by
Tarantula Mad dog or Rattle snake break the skin touching the vital juice This Archeus forthwith frames Idaeas of indignation fear sorrow c. According as the Nature of that which vulnerates it such such symptoms are evidently contriv'd by this quick sented and tasted spirit which nimbly apprehends what is nocuous and what is harmless to the life This Custos I say is ubiquitary in the body carefully watching for its preservation but it is in an extraordinary manner concentrate where the first preparation of the sanguine mass is made here the Apoplexie Epilepsie Palsie Convulsions Lethargy Scotomie Delirium Melancholly Madness Phrensie Phthysis Quinsie Peripneumonie Incubus Asthma Dyspnaea vexatious Coughs Syncope Lypothymie griping of the Guts Diarrhaea Dysuria Arthritis Gout in several parts Cachexie Dropsies the Scurvy Hypochondriack Passion all sorts of feavers continual or intermitting mild or malignant the small Pox Measils spotted Feaver the Plague Marasmus Erysipelas Phlegmous Haemorrhoides c. In this Mint they are all first coined receiving an Impress Schem or Figure according to which they act uniformly upon the Scene of this microcosm That which makes a difference of Feavers and other Diseases is the first mover extimulated from an extraneous matter Impatient withall of the Local Possession of the same for as it relisheth Excrements so it is affected fashioning in the Hypochondries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pourtraiture of that Ens Mâ—rbosum analogous thereunto and were there not a Discriminating fancy in the vital spirit whereby a disease is determinated to this or that kind and made to be Hoc aliquid Specificum there would necessarily be a great confusion in the Catalogue of infirmities that none could rightly and distinctly understand the Diganôsis the true Knowledge of them but in a preposterous manner should mistake one for another becoming uncapable to applicate and appropriate Remedies according to the Nature of what infests us Sith then it is otherwise that the symptoms of the falling sickness Lethargy Peripneumone Asthma c. do constantly evidently discover the species and essence of the Disease this can never be but from an efficient material cause or Principle above the four humours of the Galenists or the three principles of Paracelsus and his Sectary Dr. Willis who adds to Sal sul and ☿ Water and Earth But how far from solid truth we shall ere long examine As for the former opinion it is at this day exploded by most Scient Philosophers who have rejected that consuming Ens which they would have to make up one of their four Elements and consequently the four humors as a meer fictitious conceit fetched from the Utopian Elemental Region of fire immediately next the Moon This latter opinion borrowed from the Chymists I confess seems to be plausible and very taking as if it contained some verity notwithstanding narrowly searched into and put to the fiery tryal of experimental Philosophy the infallible Lapis Lydius or touch-stone of our Works whetner they be allowed or Reprobate it will appear expresly that those so called five Chymical principles of which all bodies as Dr. Willâ—… asserts have their initiated Synthesis Cuncretion or Composition and into which their Analysis Dissolution is made are not the essential efficient and materil cause of diseases I cannot subscribe to what Dr. Willis positively delivers as a truth in capii de ferment that Corpora quaevis è Spiritu Sulphure Sale Aqua Terra constare i. e. Every body consists of Spirit Salt Sulphur Water and Earth and according as is the different motion and measure of these in Concretes so is the beginning and end of every thing with the diversity of their fermentations to be considered I would willingly know of Dr. Willis as expert an Anatomist as he is in the dissection of Nature when ever he discovered visibly all these five principles in any body whatsoever without the torture and corruption of the whole If these can be otherwise extracted and demonstrated to me by him I shall become more inclinable to his opinion but sith I am sure he cannot I have very good reason to maintain that these parts separated from Bodies by the fire were never actually pre-existent in them but are fabricated by Vulcan and so instead of being Principles or Elements of things they become no other than Products Moreover if ever the Doctor beheld with his eyes shewing to us the same for to putatitious notions of the Brain we give no credit sith being an experimental Philosopher we hope he will not impose any thing upon us barely because he saith it these five supposed fundamental Principles produced in any living body by any heat whatsoever I shall forthwith submit to his judgment and Cure diseases according to this Hypothesis Till then he must excuse me if I tell him that the stately touring structure founded upon this Quinary Doctrine of Principles easily captivating those that look only superficially upon truth will undoubted fall to Ruine 2. These supposed quinta prima cannot be disgregated from some bodies by the fire any Art or sublunary machine of man witness Mercury which being a Homogeneous similar Ens not conspurcated or fouled with any strange matter cannot by any devise of man whatsoever be brought into the foresaid parts It may indeed be disguised several ways by additaments deluding the eye in the form of an Oil Water Salt Sulphur and Earth but they are only momentany dresses which this Proteus hath assumed no whit Real sith it may in a short time be made to retrocede to its primitive Individual Substance and Consistence Our great Philosopher Heimont declares absolutely Ex Arena silicibus saxis non calcariis sul aut ☿ nunquam trahi posse That 't is impossible to fetch out of Sand Flints and all sort of stones except Lime stones Sulphur or Mercury But he could by means of his Liquor Alkahest never to be attained by Dr. Willis or any Galeno-Chymist who dare not believe it hath an existence least it should be expected they should spare time take pains and be at Charges to acquire it he was able I say by means of this great Dissolvent to convert Sand or Stone into salt aequiponderat to its former Bulk which mechanical Probation gives more satisfaction to any intelligent Person concerning this truth than any tedious Argumentation to the contrary contrived never so subtilly and plausibly Again what spagyrical hand did ever Analyse Water not impregnated with a seed that the Quinta Prima might be made manifest The Tria Prima according to our Philosopher may be said to be in it Analogicôs but in no wise really existent therein 'T is true we often use the Etymon of 3 Prima for the distinction of those parts that have a disparity in them created by the fire yet this doth not conclude that they had their integral being in that body out of which they were extorted anamolôs No more than a Charcoal can be said to be revera in Wood Glass in
entire but that the same judged to be what it seems by colour consistence odour c. might not by the tryal of Pyrotechny afford rather more sal than supposed sul 1. 'T is demonstrative the spirit implanted in the seed gave a Being to the bloud which still continuing in it doth durante vita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanguifie making it good or bad according as all the digestive culinary Rooms are well or ill modifyed and constituted If the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having a chief Prerogative above all the rest perform what is requisite compleatly toward nutrition then all the other fare the better seldom erring in their intended ends For 't is a general received truth A defect in the first digestion can never be perfectly rectifyed afterward wherefore the Primum Mobile of sanguification is the stomach able if any thing be out of order successively to reform the same by an influential Aspect upon all parts if it fall out the chief Organ be depraved all the succeeding shops of transfiguration cannot restore it to former integrity especially if it be much impaired For this respect they take a wrong course who let out the strength of the Limbs when the mischief is concentrated within Well then 't is sure the Archeus acting regularly a sound pure juice is fabricated if otherwise an unwholsome faeculent 〈◊〉 made consisting of such Particles altogether discordant with Nature yet not presently to be determined sulphureous or saline Aqueous or Terrestrial however being illegitimate incongruous virulent and malignant it becomes tedious and odious Whereupon there arises a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Confusion within at the presence of so loathsome a Guest Hence the Figure of this or that disease is strait contrived The perfect Type being drawn according to the property and native force of the poison or graduated malignity contained in the Abortive juice The stomachical Archeus being exasperated a Thymôsis an Excandescence Effervescence and great inquietude seizes upon the spirits of all the digestions For according to Hip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is an undissoluble League Commerce Correspondence Fellow-feeling of all parts by means of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being in its full strength thus inraged fretting disturbed brings all belonging to it into the like condition agitating ransaking and rifling every place chasing what is injurious to it hurrying here and there breaking it into small parts labouring with all might to separate light and darkness that which is defunct from that which is living This is the beginning and progress of a feaver This is the Prologue before the variety of Scenes belonging to every distinct Malady whether Acute or Chronick only in this the Archeus acts obtusely in a more Clandestine manner in that more furiously evidently being exceedingly extimulated This pre-meditated the Efficient and Principal Agent which makes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effervescence and ebullition in this nutritious juice is the Archeus or vital spirits not a supposed Salt Sulphur Mercury Water or Earth separate or blended together transgressing the bounds of their due Crasis or Mediocrity They might I allow if they had a true being in the body be excitative extraneous occasional and fomenting not real intrinsecal radical essential causes of sickness for Nihil agit ultra Sphaeram Activitatis as soon as the vitals have forsaken the body they operate nothing in reference to any disease although they cannot be denyed to be equally perfect after death as before 2. It is to be enquired how salt and sulphur c. considered as they are alienated from the primitive scope intended are at length sequestred exterminated out of the Body through all its obscure or patulous passages in the manner of a White Black Yellow Green Blew Red Thick Thin Acid Acrimonious Bitter Sweet Austere Substance Certainly they are insufficient of themselves to make such a Chymical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secretion of such seculencies that eclipse the solar light of the microcosm and would totally extinguish it If this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not bestir it self to maturate subdue manure secerne and excern that of which it is so impatient never resting contented till it hath conquer'd the same by expulsion or it self become annihilated I contemplate sal and sulphur Water and Earth as a Thorn Splinter or the like fastned in living flesh which of themselves are no way Energetick or operative to produce a Malady or exempt Nature from the same by a retrocession that way it came in But as it was an outward exotick provocative occasional cause that the spirit is put into a high displeasure chasing and fâ—ming at the presence of that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite of a differing kind being inanimate so this living thing is altogether actively busie in the extrusion of that which is dead after manifold vexatious symptons introduced neither will it ever be at rest unless pacifyed or this hostile matter only passive in this case be removed by its own strength assisted by Art This morbifick salt sulphur water and earth are only Spurs and Goads in the sides of Nature to make it sometime run on full speed to oppose repel and eject such a hateful intruding Guest intending to cut off the thread of life like a sword Wherefore being incensed by the Idaea of anger it quickly culls out whatsoever incroached or invaded its Territories separating any thing Hostile from that which is under its own Regiment throws it out of doors if it be able of it self which is seldom or calls for assistance from without This revera makes an acute disease The out-lets or places of egress for these disguised supposed principles are as the matter is disposed the passage convenient and Nature inclined Certainly that good old candid Physician Hipp. gave us excellently useful instructions which I wish his pretended modern Sectaries would more observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to carry off any thing vitious that way it and Nature do most encline supposed the place be proper I have found experimentally there are two eminent Emissaries or sluces above the rest through which the heavy clog of impurities is discharged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gullet the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the skin the intestines urinous and the other pectoral passage not neglected In feavers I have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Orgasmus a propensity in the stomach to vomit by reason of an acid acrimonious salsuginous nidorous matter which irritates the expulsive faculty In this state an appropriated Emetick I mean not the common vomits is of great force to break the ice for a future Cure This I advise to be repeated two or three times if the patient be in a capable condition to receive any benefit yea when the stomach is sometimes dull besmeared or imbrued with viscous tenacious phlegm wanting something to extimulate attenuate and subtiliate this gross substance incrustating as it were
the inward Coat then have I found by strict observation that such a gentle Emeto-cathartick which if it excite not this tender membrane neither by vomit nor stool will carry off any Scoria through the eccentrical parts or urinous Pipes in no wise impairing the strength notably This I pass over lightly intending to speak more expresly in some other place 3. Quaery requires a mechanical demonstration or firm experiment i. e. whether the Doctor or any Philosopher ever saw sulphur sequestred in a living body so entire but that the sulphur judged what it seems by colour consistence odour might not by the tryal of Vulcan afford rather more Salt Water and Earth each of them then sulphur Assuredly so far as I can apprehend it is but equity that as these Chymical principles owing their first discovery to the fire gave occasion to some indirectly to improve and apply them too rashly without serious advertency to the erecting a systeme of Physiology so likewise a thorough Pyrotechnical search may very justly excuse those who are versed therein not to accept of them upon these terms I have as I conceive sufficiently made it good that Pyrotechny can only detect them that no Art of man can extract them out of some bodies that they are equivocal mutable transient one into another Now am I ready to discover in reference to the Cure of miserable man that the pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high feaver doth afford more salt water and earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that diseased bloud termed corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joyned thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the rest At another time I procured the purest bloud I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the sound and that seemingly corrupt which gives testimony that a feaver doth not principally arise from an excess of sulphur Reprobate too much advanced or graduate but rather from some other illegitimate matter as Spurious Salts Lancing Goading â—nd Gauling the most exquisitely sensitive Archeus whereby it becomes Active to lay the plat-form of thâ—s specâ—fick Malady CHAP. VII Concerning the Prevention with the Cure of those Diseases that take up their lodging in the Bloud WE are taught by Divine Writ that in the bloud that Spiritus rubens is Life In the same also is contained death as we find experimentally If it be pure in the fountain free from mixture of a strange matter notable defection apostacy or contagion incessantly circulating in those Labyrinthaean Pipes without impedidiments health vivacity strength of body and mind attends that person If on the contrary it be sordid feculent degenerate from its native goodness pestered with any thing of a Texture different from it sickness dullness melancholly and a disorder in the whole frame follows It ought to be the labour and study of every individual if he have acquired any knowledge of himself to be well veâ—sed in the Prophylactick part of Physick by keeping his bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without staining and foulness by preserving the digestions strong lively especially that of the stomach introductory of good or bad to all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation in all things is a most excellent compass to steer by 'T is not the quality of what we assume as the quantity that is injurious to us For I am of Celsus his mind who advises a healthful man to eat any thing that his stomach can well alter If he commit an errour in eating or drinking a little too much at one time let him use abstinence afterward for the correction of the same I have observed of late years a great proneness in the bloud to be soil'd and conspurcated in an extraordinary manner by reason of a great Scorbutical malignity lurking in the body the Procatartick cause of which may very justly be deduced from our prodigious Lusts our enormous Intemperance in compotations I am easily perswaded that the Venereal Lues at first procreated this spurious Brat whose Heteroclite and discrepant existence from other diseases doth plainly testifie that an anomalous seed arising from the conjunction of two evils differing in specie brought forth this horrid Monster to light being since propagated and traduced from one to another spreading like a Leprosie over the whole Nation by reason of a Clandestine miasm or infection that nestles within whose subtil Aporrhaeas or Emanations diffuse themselves in such contagious manner that most of the Nation are thereby infected It seems to me very dissentaneous to truth what Dr. Willis alleges to be the fomenter of this calamitousevil among us condemning the frequent use of Sugar and his reason is that this matter being put to the proof of the fire a spagyrical Analysis made thereof affords a Liquor but little less corrosive than Aqua fortis as if the ferment of the stomach did dissolve in the same manner as the solution made byart or that such a acid matter were really contained in the Concrete which dâ—stillation produced He shall find the best food we take in if put into a glass set in hot sand will send forth a most nasty empyrematical Liquor shall we therefore refuse such wholsome Aliment withall let him be pleased to take notice that the effects of the fire are Aequivocal various and mutable according as the matter distilled receives such or such an Adjunct for I can by vertue of Vulcans Art make the whole body of the better sort of Sugar adding something to it congenerous or of like kind become excellently medicinal for the Cure of the Scurvy above all the Apothecaries preparations the Doctor makes use of This I can demonstrate moreover I know no reason that a substance so pleasant to the taste of most as it were a sweet Alkali so useful for preservation and mundification of what is foul and prone to corrupt should be rejected guilty of so high a Crime as to promote the Scurvy most infamously For satisfaction of those that are wavering in this thing I dare undertake to keep half a score or more persons drinking liberally every day Beer and Sugar yea eating Sugar with meat plentifully as I knew a Galenical Physician of great renown allow of as very wholsom freer from the Scurvy than any Dogmatist in England shall perform with all his Art exercised on the same number debaring them this delicious congeled salt Under favour of better judgments if I may deliver what I have observed without offence I conceive our Sybaritical voluptuousness ebriety
mangonical pampering sauces contrived as a shooing horn to the exciting the appetite to the drawing in a greater quantity and variety of food then Nature can well digest is an extraordinary procurer of this grand malady grassant among us Above all I much condemn the common abuse of Tobacco out of which no other sometimes than a Scorbutical venom is accidentally sucked Agreeable to which judgment of mine is that of the Legitimate Artist Dr. Maynwaring who marks where Tobacco is much taken the Scurvy doth most abound I wish those who are too forward to condemn Chymical preparations ordered by true Philosophers would reflect upon themselves and others as yet ignorant of Pyrotomy how that they are too forward in rushing into this Science indirectly making use of a Retort with a receiver I mean a Pipe and the mouth for the reduction of this Plant into salt and sulphur proving not a little injurious to them If they were conscious how subtle an enemy it is how hardly to be dealt withall in a moderate sense how insinuating tempting deluding how disagreeing to Nature as is manifest at first taking it pretending an evacuation only of a superfluous moisture when it also generates the same how it wrongs the Ventricle by reason of a continuity of its membrane with that of the mouth how it taints the nutricious juice how it Dozes the brain impairing its faculties especially the Memory they would quickly commit this herb to the hand of those that know what belongs to the right management and improvement thereof I confess it hath a dowry bestowed upon iâ— which may make it very acceptable to all ingenious Artists for inward and outward uses yet â—s the matter is handled indiscreetly I know nothing introduced into this Nation hath discovered it self more apparently hurtful in aggravating and graduating this Scorbutical evil among us than Tobacco I am not ignorant what some object that there are those who taking an extraordinary quantity of Tobacco have lived to a great age as 60 or 70 years 2. That multitudes not taking this fume are yet notwithstanding overun with the Scurvy 3. That some have protested they have received certain benefit by this Plant when other Remedies prescribed by able Physicians have been invalid to relieve them 4. That there are places where Man Woman and Child take in this smoak none of these sad effects appearing As to the first I answer one Swallow makes no Sommer I reckon this among raro contingentia I have known one very intemperate in Diet live to the fore-mentioned age but doubtless had he regulated himself according to the Rules of Mediocrity he might have doubled that age Innate strength of body doth carry a man sometimes through that without any great dammage which destroys another 2. I do not affirm that this vegetable is the sole coajduvant cause of the Scurvy it being certain there are many promoters thereof Besides yet granted that your great Compotators Ventricolae Gormandizers who have as the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lazy Panches little else to do but to take Tobacco to pass away the time filling pipe after pipe as fast as possibly they can exhaust it are commonly incrdent to this feral malady Hereupon this very same specifick disease may be diffused and communicated to others by eâ—piration or effluvium sent out of a body infected therewith So that it seems rare to me that the Wife should be exempted from this Cacoethick sickness if the Husband be afflicted therewith or the Husband be free if the Wife be vexed Doubtless some Peoples breath doth exceedingly taint the air to the great annoyance of others 3. I condemn not medicinal appropriation and application of this Drug for I know it to be of excellent vertue there is great difference inter dictum secundum quid dictum simpliciter between the censure of any thing as absolutely evil and the indirect practice of it Moreover what is one mans meat may be anothers poison 4. The generality of smoaking it in some places without those ill effects we find doth not at all frustrate my assertion for I have observed a more moderate course of life in Diet the goodness of the air with an Hereditary custom hath in great measure ballanced the nocument or inconveniencies which otherwise they would have contracted by excess thereof neither are these numerous Tobacconists acquitted from this evil as it appears by those frequent eruptions in the skin whereby a greater mischief is prevented within they being only efflorescences of a Scorbutical pravity There are as I apprehend two principal reasons to be given why this Weed hath captivated so many thousands in such sort that they become meer slaves to it One is the seeming delight it affords in the present taking thereof inducing a pleasing bewitching melancholly exceedingly affecting their fancies so that they could wish with him in the Poet Hic furor O Superi fit mihi perpetuus O that I might always thus melanchollize not considering though the Prologue be chearful the Epilogue is often sad though the spirits are as it were titillated and charmed into a sweet complacency for a short space yet afterward a dulness gloominess seizes upon them Indeed how can it be otherwise seeing they are but forcibly lulled into this secure placid condition by that which is as far remote from the vitals as the beams of the Sun are from a black cloud I find in this smoak a stinking retunding condensing Opiate like sulphur and an acrid salt profligating extimulating so that by the bridling much of the one and the excessive spurring of the other the spirits like a free metalsome horse are quite tired out at last It is impossible that the frequent insinuations of this subtil fume making shew of affinity but quite of another tribe with the animals should not at length let a body be never so strong and custom how ever prevalent either pervert or subvert his well constituted frame Another Reason observable only by those that are true Gnosticks of themselves why Tobacco is so highly set by and hath so many followers is its meretricious Kisses given to those that embrace it oftentimes secretly wounding them mortally yet are they not throughly sensible who gave them the stâ—oak I have taken notice of very temperate persons in other things who for diversion have indulged their Genius ad Hilaritatem continuing for urbanity sake in company they liked longer than ordinary have so closely pursued this pernicious Art of sucking in the smoak of this Herb that never any Chymist was more sollicitous in greater haste to fetch his matter over the Helme by distillation Behold what the event was the next morning I have heard complaints come from them that their brains were something stupid dozed their stomach nauseous being thirsty also feaverish The cause of all this they attributed to their transgressing limits of sobriety in drinking or to the sophisticated adulterated Liquors Not finding the least fault with the
extravagant use of Tobacco which above all did them the most hurt privately Something I can speak experimentally to this purpose for having been wedded to it many years past supposing I had got an Antidote against Hypochondriack melancholly with an Apophlegmatism to discharge crude matter I applauded it in all Company without advertency at that time how false and treacherous it was which afterward perceiving I withdrew my self from the use thereof by degrees at length was altogether divorced from it Praevisa Spicula leviùs feriunt could we see the poisoned arrows that are shot from this Plant questionless we would endeavour to avoid them that they might less intoxicate us Latet anguis in Herba we are suddenly surprised by this Serpentine Plant before we are aware thus that which we take for an Antidote becomes meer poison to us supplanting and clancularly confounding the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good Government of this Republick consisting in the strength and goodness of a seminal Archeus vigorous ferments the just constitution and harmony of every part Needs must then indigestions crudities degeneration and illegitimation of the nutricious juice follow promoting causes and Products of the great poison of the Scurvy My advice therefore to any immoderate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fume-succker is that he would as he tenders the preservation of Body and Soul wean himself by degrees from excess herein If so doubtless he will find if the Scurvy infest him much an abatement of the tedious symptoms thereof For the removing other Adjuvant causes of this Scorbutical malignity let him regulate Assumpta Inspirata Excreta Imaginata what he receives into his stomach and Lungs what is fitting to be excreted or thrown out Lastly what he harbours amiss in his thoughts He ought to be very careful above all in the Election of what is potable as Beer Ale c. which must be strictly looked after that it be well brewed kept and spirituous For I am no friend to those poor small Liquors which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have nothing of a spirit symbolical with ours for in these Northern parts of the World whatsoever hath a Leptomery a Tenuity of parts in it Coeteris paribus doth best concord with us not only in respect our Archeus is elevated embracing it more willingly by reason of a consanguinity with it but likewise for this that the stomach which is often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Genitor of many raw superfluous gross lent viscous tenacious matter adhering close to its Tunicles is excited being corroberated to attenuation subtiliation and abstersion of such sordid dross In former time the English Ale hath been reputed a most excellent wholsome drink but this as many other things through Avarice and Idleness is much depraved For a great deficiency is often observable in the materials or preparation of this Liquor Touching materials I find the Menstruum or Solvent i. e. Water not seldom unfit for the reception of the vertue of that which is dissolved therein For being clogged yea almost satiated with multitude of divers foul particles which the Thames of the City in particular swallows up greedily by conveyances of common shoars Jakes Sinks c. besides Offal and stinking Carkases thrown into it never perfectly to be cleansed by Tides I say this water cannot be approved by any true Chymist for the making of the best English Ale unless we had the Art to purifie it as the Sea and certain Climates perform by a peculiar separation Next I discover sometimes though not very often the dissolutum our mault not altogether so good as it should be proceeding partly from the Barley being in some unseasonable years vitiated partly for want of due ordering it so that it gives the Liquor an odd Empyreumatical musty uncouth fracedinous tang very unpleasing to the vitals Concerning the just preparation of this old Liquor of England the fame whereof invited that honestable Philosopher Benedictus Valentnius to come into this Island that thereby he might be throughly acquainted with the right Manufacture thereof we are too careless in boiling it as it ought and afterward in exciting it to fermentation that thereby several impurities might be sequestred which flote in it to the contamination of our bloud Moreover as I am informed additions of saeculent fulsome loathsome things are put into it enough to make it abhorred by us if we knew them Well this I am sure a great part of the Ale of this City as they contrive the matter is very unwholsome and Scorbutical so that I advise all living in this Metropolis who love Ale being perswaded for good Reason that it is available against some infirmities to mix it with the best stale Beer they can procure which is of great force to rectifie the imperfections thereof The solid food of this Nation is generally very gross for few people in the world are greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flesh-eaters than we at this day likewise such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread-eaters withall I suppose we commit no small errours therein for repletio panis est pessima especially of bread that commonly is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer clung dense sometimes half-baked pondrous past no whit subtiliated by a proper Leaven such as commonly is our White-bread this cannot easily be subacted by the stomach Hence crudities viscosities obstructions acidities the founder and fomenter of the Scurvy and many other diseases He therefore that covets to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 healthful and long-lived let him be sollicitous that his Liquor and Bread be well ordered for these two much conduce for the well or ill being of a mans life according to their goodness or pravity As for variety of Edibles The Poet tells us Nam variae res ut noceant homini Scito 'T is impossible that the vita media the various specifick formal properties of several esculents should not puzzle the chief form president in a humane living body before they can be reduced to do homage to it as principal and to other subordinate belonging to every particular part yea when each seems to be tamed or totally subjugated to the Laws of specifick Nature having passed through divers alterations of Culinary fermentations yet still remains some Hogo tang or insensible odorous relick of what they were before so that often repeated impressions made hereby cannot but put the Archeus and ferments of the whole with every part in particular into an Ataxie Atonie Dyscrasie and Dyspathie hereupon follows an Apostate juice a coacervation of recrements excommunicated from the Government of life afterward upon an irritating occurrence the perfect shape of such or such a kind of disease is drawn in the life 2. Care is to be taken that inspirata what we breath in be not injurious to our Lungs through which most part of the bloud of our whole body passes in a few hours In the air lyeth occult sometimes a mortal enemy which glides into this
too violent and hot affrighted at every intense motion of the Archeus invigorated by active medicines to profligate whatsoever is hostle were very busie in prompting to the sick man the worse representing every thing in the most deformed dress enough to make him despond to the postergation of the Cure Whereupon another Physician a Kinsman of the Merchants formerly a great Philo-chymist before he entred into the colledge was by my consent admitted to consultation who approved of all I had done hitherto neither could he deny but that my Remedies were sufficient yet being ignorant of the right use of them advised me to give not above the tenth part of what I exhibited however least he should visit for nought an Apothecary one Mr. Battesbee was forthwith sent for who I knew would soon disturb my method Now must Pottle glasses of Julips to cool him forsooth into his grave I am certain had they not been counterchecked be obtruded which for quietness sake I confess I connived at for the present knowing all was in Vado secure and that the vertues of my Remedies were able to correct the vitiosities of the other Now a subtil Trade is carryed on they aim at the lopping off the branches I at the pulling up of the root So at length we begin to jar after a former harmony for as soon as another opportunity was offered to me on the fifth day I gave him the third Emeto-Cathartick for more security which he willingly accepted still finding it beneficial much confiding in me for my pre-monitions although he was encompassed with those that were very diffidently adverse to my Remedies Now exception is taken by the coadjutor in that I should presume to give a vomit before I consulted with him I answered his remoteness a mile and half of and the fear of loss of the nick of time sith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might very well excuse me And sith we were both concerned in one principal End the safety of the sick man which I did then asseverate might be attained otherwise it should lie at my door supposed he would be ruled no petty difference should arise between us For all this the Galeno-chymist was troubled with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a heart-burning and attempted to allay it by proposing and urging upon the sixth day when nature was victorious the most non-sensical application of Epispasticks or Vesicatories which I utterly refused having declaimed against them by my Pen withall certainly knowing the main Cure being already performed I should both wrong my Conscience and my Reason if I should condescend to such an absâ—rd act Then finding he could not corrupt me by all his glozing Rhetorick and Paralogistical discourse of the rare effects of Cantharides c. he flung away in discontent saying he would now leave the sick man to my Custody my reply was and I to yours if the Patient be so pleased which would by no means be granted by him being very sensible and thankful that I took a direct means to save his life I then proceed asserting upon good grounds that the danger of the disease was passed over besides I would ingage my self perfectly to cure him without relapses and long vexatious Ague or any Chronick infirmity whatsoever This I would make good or I would have no reward for all my pains and medicine hereupon the patient gratefully resenting every thing fully resolved to resign himself over to my solitary care In the mean time there were not wanting instruments any one may easily guess at the prime agent to supplant me and to introduce even upon the eleventh day when all the blustring storms of various symptoms were passed over the said Galeno-chymist who was represented to this convalescent person as able to do great matters for the removing his Ague by his cooling or more temperate preparations mine being looked upon after I had helped him out of the mire as too strong burning now the reason of this my dismission must be coloured over with a fair pretence that the Patient would betake himself to Kitchin Physick Through this door was the Galeno-Chymist with his Apothecary entertained once again into the sick mans Chamber to attend him who kept him fast in their clutches for the space of a Lunary revolution how and with what they plyed him all this while any that hath the least inspection into our Phisosophy may conjecture Blisters are raised without controulment for what reason I cannot tell unless in opposition to my judgment or least he should recover too soon This I am certain they exceedingly wronged the ferments of the stomach and spleen thereby encreasing the acidity of the bloud as appeared by extream dolour he suffered from the Haemorroides the cause whereof they attributed to my hot spirits the continuation of his Ague at the months end for the cure of which he applyed himself to me after that he protested they had done what they could Pretermitting what errours were past for which he might thank himself I told him I doubted not to cure his Ague and take away the Haemorroidal anguish radically if he would be obliged now at length to take what ere I gave without scruple he consented in great part thereto excepting vomits i. e. Galenical with which he affirm'd he was tir'd It was dispensed with his Ague in a short time cured with certain Pills I call Polychrest with other slight things yet still the Haemorroides torment him I offer if he will give me leave to act freely a fundamental abolition of them without further prejudice I my self having been miserably cruciated with the same wound many years before I knew Pyrotechny so having suffered in this kind Miseris succurrere disco I could the better help others Here he ties my hands behind me I leave him to another Galeno-chymist who both ignorantly and injuriously inveighing against my Pills forthwith opens a vein in the arm to his detriment increase of the present pain of the piles with introduction to a future relapse at length finding no comfort by thiâ— Learned man he commits himself to a Chyrurgion who by topical means asswages the grief palliates and cicatriseth without searching out the intrinsecal cause which lying dormant some weeks produces another feaver of which by accident he recover'd nature being benevolent notwithstanding it was retarded by Phlebotomy prescribed by a third Galeno-chymist who I am certain cannot maintain the solid truth of this practice if he and I come to an equal experimental determination in the presence of vertuous explorators I have been a little punctual and somewhat prolâ—x in setting down this instance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Therapeutical deportment of the Galeno-chymists and my self in reference to this sick person to the end the world may plainly understand if they please by this Narrative how one dares promâ—se and effect having a firm foundation what the other will by no means ingage himself upon being conscious of his rotten principles I conceive
above any except my self infected by the dissection of the Pestilential body to which he was instigated by his allevation and my presagition of what would fall out so that he expresly declared not long before I was undermined nigh the eleventh day that I had foretold him whatsoever came to pass to that time yea withall had been an instrument to save his life A man would think this should be obligation sufficient to keep a sick man from listning to the obloquies of any slander But behold how inconstant one is and malicious the other They falsly now upon his Recovery inveigh against me that I gave him violent hot things urging withall Vesicatories would have done him most good He foolishly gives credit to it whereupon another must be entertained to reap the fruits of my labours to carry away the credit of the Cure Hos ego versiculos feci tulit alter Honorem Sic nos non nobis mellificamus Apes Well what is the issue their cooling dull flat sycophantizing slops their putrefying Vomits Purges their colliquating Epispasticks their uncorrected opiates continued for a months space could in no wise rid him of his Ague which I offered upon the Reputation of the Spagyrical Science valued by me above any temporal thing quickly to eradicate Yea the supinity and blindness in sounding the bottom of the relique of the feaver gave occasion that an acid or acride feculent bloud restagnant about the spleen was afterward in part derivated symptomatically to those tender vessels of the fundament afflicting him by anxious excretion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a dribbling manner superstite causa intrinseca materiali the true cause no whit removed Now Gentlemen de vobis fabula narratur what ye wrongfully cast upon my hot medicines I can make appear not saying only but by doing something experimentally for the future that your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your erroneous practice brought all the succeeding mischiefs upon this infirm subject too tractable and condescending to your Authority 9. How unworthy of a Learned Philosopher was it to let out the bloud of the arm robbing a man of his strength for the pain of the Haemorrhoides whose efficient material cause was in the spleen or the parts circumjacent not to be reached by the Lancet Sith moreover there are some Amulets prevalent Anodines for the mitigation of Haemorrhoidal Dolours witness Van Helmonts factitious metal with which he could by bare application to the skin of the hand asswage their anguish in the space of repeating an Ave Mar. 10. What a dis-repute is at this day brought upon the Honourable Science of Physick through the ignorance of some famous Doctors that a meer Chyrurgeon should be esteemed more able to remove the grief of the Haemorrhoides or piles depending upon an inward cause then they who have made it their continual study and care thirty or forty years to be acquainted with the essential properties of things 11. That indiscreet bleeding palliation and a neglect of the original cause of the vexatious piles brought a feaver upon this merchant the 2d time is as perspicuous to a genuine Artist as light at noon-day which if I had not prevented absit jactantia had he been guided by my directions I would have been liable to a severe mulct 12. Lastly 't is no firm argument at all that the Lancet doth directly solidly or radically cure any great feaver because this Merchant at last through innate vigour accidentally recovered For this will be but Elenchus causae pro non causa unless they will stand to maintain it according to my Lord Bacon's way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 experimentally After this little digression I now return to our Dâ—ctor that we may examine the fourth Quaery 4. Whether the succession of a new supply of bloud for the old corrupt emitted will produce any considerable melioration in it according to our Authors assertion There hath been of late an invention I suppose more ingenius than useful of the transfusion of the bloud of one body into another which according to Report of some knowing men hath caused such an alteration in this balsamick mass that great diseases have been Cured I wish this experiment might so far hold currant that our Phlebotomists might infuse some laudable juice in lieu of the depraved they effuse then should I quickly concur with them in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remotion of evil and reposition of good then should I conclude they were Spagyrists indeed did really perform what they verbally express But sith I see no such matter acted by them their utmost scope they level at being the piercing the vessels and drawing out what is contained in them good or bad without any solicitude to make a vicisitudinary immission of what is better I have very good reason to contradâ—ct this Phlebotomical method of curing which debilitates Nature by emission of bloâ—d termed corrupt the efficient cause thereof remaining untouched For the Confirmation of this truth I shall alledge Reason Authority and Experiment The means used to let out bad bloâ—d without removing the efficient cause thereof is no direct method of healing Now Phlebotomy lets out bad bloud without removing the efficient cause thereof Ergo Phlebotomy is no direct method of healing The major is thus proved whatsoever suffers the cause to remain can never remove the effect for manente causa manet effectus Now Phlebotomy suffers the cause to remain Ergo it can never remove the effect The minor is made good by frequent experiments if the cause of bad bloud were cut off the feaver or Scorbute depending according to Dr. Willis upon the degeneration of sal and sul therein would quickly cease but we plainly see the contrary for after the veins are much depleted the dâ—sease becomes more truculent and oftentimes mortal which could never be if this depraved bloud were any other than a Product or Effect of an essential morbifick cause The same Agent which in sanity sanguâ—fies regularly without any considerable defection In sickness becomes exorbitant sending out a vicious juice into all parts be it good or bad it still springs from a Root which continually feeds the branches so that it cannot be other than great folly and wrong to the Patient to let out that juice though it seem never so corrupt when another of the like condition must needs enter into its place derived from that shop the Duumvirate where it first receives a previous Rudiment which ought in all reason rather to be reformed than to give vent to those easily evanid particles inseparably joyned with this ruddy Liquor how ill soever represented If all contained in the veins supposed to be corrupt were discharged yet as long as the ferments principally of the first and sixth digestion deviate from their right scope there would in short space be a succedaneous repletion of a matter equally contemptible yea worse in respect of an enervation of strength than before But sith a total
it out indistinctly what comes next at random to the furtive castration depredation confasion of the Eutome Lustiness Liveliness and strength of the Patient which is to be preferred before all motives whatsoever 'T is certainly known to those who are throughly versed in the Analysis and Synthesis of the parts of bodies that ebullition estuation effervescence of febrile liquors arising from a pleonasm of degenerate sul and sal c. as they would have it may be appeased and allayed by Remedies assisting the vitals to make separation and afterward an exclusion every way of what is reprobate reserving that which is acceptable This being performed there is no fear that a plenitude simply of it self can do any harm for hereby so expedite a course is taken that the over-plus is in a short time sent packing by vomit stool urine expectoration and sweat for this reason considering what strict abstinence the Patient is put upon in a feaver 't is very unlikely a plenitude should be of any duration Is it not then greater prudence in a Physician to minorate what is superfluous by safe profitable ways of secretion and excretion still advancing the principal Agent then for that end to give vent indiscreetly to what comes next without any election incommodating if not hazarding the loss of the vital principles For believe it whosoever hath any great quantity of bloud taken from him either rues it for the present or hereafter Let him that is Hetorodox prate what he will alledging examples of those sturdy lusty bodies which have hereby received immediate succour I can make good by practice and challenge any one who opposes me to to come to that otherwise let him forbear his Garrulity whosoever is cured of a great malady by the Lancet in this sort is either prone to relapses or to live more crasie in his younger or elder years although for some short time he may not by reason of an engrafted Robust constitution be sensible of these inconveniencies Moreover 't is to be noted what redress is by this means in this manner received comes not from mastering and subjugating the disease but from an impoverishment and debellation of the Archeus which being brought to a low condition becomes more remiss and impotent to contest with its enemy whereupon some symptoms very terrible to the standers by are remitted which a wise Physician knows are often fore-runners of a happy expulsion if furthered by congruous volatiles setting forward the Elastick motion of the spirits For the establishment of what I have before delivered let us chuse ten the fullest bodies we can meet with labouring under feavers or other griefs Dr. Willis shall have his choice of five whom he conceives do most require bleeding leaving the other five to me to be ordered by my method It shall be put to reference who cures soonest surest and soundest Because I often observe many squaring their Therapeutick intentions according to the definition of the feaver endeavouring to cool those who are in a great scorching heat by breathing a vein let them know that a feaver whose essential nature is to be enquired into for the use of man is very erroneously defined an accident for a febrile heat is certainly the product of a foregoing cause which is primarily to be searched after than whatsoever depends thereon will quickly vanish Now this cutting a hole in venal vessels for the removing a bare Quality is all one as if one should lave out of the Pot ready to boil over a spirituous or some precious Liquor therein contained to the intent it may thereby be quailed neglecting to withdraw the fire the impulsive occasion of the violent motion made therein Do not they take the like absurd course who think to cool the body in a feaver by throwing away whole Porringers of Nectar of life never looking after the ablation of the Causopoietick cause and focular matter sited about the stomach which makes an estuation and effervescence in all the other parts That way of frigidation which pillages the vitals encreasing the malady only abating obliquely a tedious quality is never to be approved of by a Legitimate Physician He that will bring to a moderation the finger excessively heated from a Thorn impacted therein must extract the same otherwise he will take a wrong course by the use of meer frigafactives So he that will positively refrigerate in any preter-natural heat must eliminate that spinous aculeate acid acrid matter which goads the Archeus incensing it that it becomes exorbitant fretting raging Heautontimorumenos gauling it self at the presence of that which it abominates never to be pacifyed till it be excluded or some extraordinary sedative given I mean not Opium vulgarly prepared which may for a time asswage its fury till it can have leisure to thrust out the â—nwelcome guest Another pretended indication for sanguimission is Revulsion by which they say a violent flux of morbifick Liquor into any noble parts is intercepted for this end they use the Lancet in a Pleurisie Peripneumomie or any inward inflammation but how far they erre herein is well known to the best Practicioners for although I confess they do sometimes in the beginning suppress and as it were crush the foresaid diseases yet is it done accidentally very uncertainly rather by way of distraction of nature for the loss of its substantial Treasure than from any true Revulsion or direct pulling back of what is in flux or already flowed in 'T is true when the vessels are depleted a repletion is forthwith made ob fugam vacui to avoid vacuity but the supply is from what comes next Foras intrô as well as intro foras however there is no streight immediate Revulsion intended from the part affected to the Orifice In the up-shot this is but a contingent Cure not at all Rizotomous which ought to be performed by those things which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dulcifying the acid Latex carrying it off through all its Emunctories rectifying the stomach and mortifying the malignity not by attracting into the fistulary Receptacles that which will undoubtedly do mischief for the future For 't is verifyed by observation they who recover by this Apospastick means do for the most part find a great Debility succeeding are incident to Empyema's Consumptions and prone to relapse into the like condition again On the other side those who rise from their sick beds restored by vertue of adaequate Remedies are secured from the fore-mentioned discommodities Assuredly of all those Pleuriticks I have handled above these half score years I have not known one after their evasion procured by a legitimate form of Physick either live Crasie fall into secondary calamities or recidivate into a Languor of the like Idaea As to that the party of the adverse opinion urges in behalf of Phlebotomy that when ever there is any notable stagnation or coagulation in the bloud it is hereby set in free circulation which liberal current being acquired a subtiliation and
most uncapable of it where great quantity of moisture much abounds or if it be really present as is here asserted that it doth not quickly destroy that body where it harbours for fire being an anomalous Ens neither substance nor an accident created for the special use of man is always of a voracious nature and is never seen but in some fit subject which it either quickly alters or consumes Were there any thing of fire in mans composition it would either be quickly extinguished or the frame of that body soon consumed Neither is it enough to mitigate this Hypothesis to alledge that the purer part of the bloud spirits are of an igneous nature though not formally fire or flame This is but to puzzle wilder our understanding to make us more to seek what the spirits are for if they be fiery they must needs have in them that which agrees with the properties of fire as to burn consume inflame separate otherwise the Epithete is very ill appropriated thereto now according to our Philosopher Non verus censetur ignis qui non summo gradu ferveat connexiis Radiis in Cono Luminis centraliter haereat i. e. that can never be reputed real fire which is not hot in the highest degree inhering centrally in the beams conjoyned in the cone of Light whether there be any such graduated heat in mans body let any judge by his sense of feeling Who ever felt any thing of fire in the healthful bloud of any animal dissected alive Are not the bloud of fishes actually cold yet are they full of spirits as appears by their strength pernicity and extraordinary digestion Certainly were there any fiery heat in our bodies it would be most pespicuous in that place where it might be most requisite the first digestion which our Peripatetick would have performed by it as an efficient cause I wonder any one dare obtrude such absurd Tenents upon this nice circumspect age contrary to all sense and reason Great gobbits of hard substances even stones are dissolved in some mens stomachs bones in dogs Glass Stones Iron in winged creatures whole fishes devoured and digested by others The Shark can bring to a Chale by a specifâ—ck ferment the leg of a Man or Horse sooner than the culinary fire can calcine it yet are not the stomach of any of these tangibly a little more than luke-warm and some actually cold Will any vertuous person experimentous subscribe that a Chimaerical heat of a fiery nature I know not where nor what no way truly discoverable can produce this rare vital Analytical effects Moreover fire can but heat rarefie condense and disgregate sending packing the thinner part the grosser remaining behind but it can never make a seminal formal transmutation of a thing which only belongs to fermental operations excited by an accidental heat but never intrinsecally fabricated thereby as our Peripatetick undertakes to indigitate making light to pass over the mystery of fermentation sicco pede as if it consisted in nothing else but a certain Rarefaction from heat chiefly fire that being a bare quality never subsisting alone in no wise capable of it self to produce a substance that a Heteroclite creature destinated to destroy not to generate for as much as it certainly mortifies all seeds wherefore the Nativity of the vital spirits can never be from heat efficiently subtiliating a pinguedinous matter from which results an unctuous fuliginous spirit for that is the utmost solitary heat can bring forth according to any mechanical trial which our humorist calls a mixt thing of a fiery nature continually maintained by this oleaceous like substance as the flame of a Candle by the attenuated particles of Wax or Tallow Those Allusions Comparisons Analogies and Metaphors which are cited to give Light to the abstruse operations of nature to the end that we may be more edified meliorated in the Therapeutical Science suppose they still keep their distance not invading the priviledge of vital Ergasie whose secret working is not to be every way matched or demonstrated by any sublunary thing whatsoever inanimate I am very well pleased and affected with but when the shadow shall stand in competition with the substance as of equal validity with it the similie or Representation presume an univocal equality in every respect with the thing represented and that to the detriment if not the subversion of the Life and Soul of man in reference to the Curative part of Physick Such metaphorical expressions comparisons c. I justly abominate and detest What truculent mischiefs come upon this and such like erroneous principles of Dr. Betts is sufficiently known to those whose Physical speculations are sincerely regulated by the Canon of solid and Authentick experiments in practice For according to this Doctrine of heat as a principal Agent of all actions in the body and the igneity of the spirits the Galenists curiously insist upon the impertinent and Treacherous qualities of Calidity and Frigidity of Medicines for the Cure of most atrocious diseases neglecting the seminal formal specifick luminous and spirituous vertues of effectual Remedies That the essential structure of the vital spirit may be more clearly understood for the sanative benefit of mankind I shall borrow our Great Philosophers definition pag. 443. de Aura vit Est spiritus vitalis sanguis per vim fermenti motus cordis resolutus in Auram salsam illuminatam vitaliter i. e. the vital spirit is pure bloud relented or broken by the power of a ferment and motion of the heart into a thin airy salt substance endued with vital light The material cause is pure Homogeneous bloud part whereof is changed by the efficient power of a ferment and vigorous motion of the heart into a substance as subtil as the clearest air of a saline nature not pinguedinous where it becomes capable of luminous not igneous vitality which light in man and other Terrestrial creatures effectively is hot but in fishes actually cold I must wave for brevity sake to make a strict comment upon this definition and shall only at this time endeavour to prove that the vital spirits are saline luminous without unctuosity or igneity 1. Whatsoever concrete is disposed to be spiritualized ought according Pyrotomy to contain saline parts 2. That matter which contains parts most salsugâ—nous far beyond any pinguedinous is in all Reason more inclinable to be converted into saline exhalations such is the bloud 3. It is observed the incessant work and grand design of Nature is to produce abundance of salt in the macrocosm as appears by the copious Niter in the Air and the notable brinishness in the Sea being therefore called Salum Wherefore we may very well argue the same to be acted in the microcosm 4. 'T is mechanically demonstrable two saline Liquors of a different kind being mixt with each other doth forthwith raise a spumous ebullition ejaculating a Gas or wild spirit incoercible which like motion is not observed in the tangible
It is available against melancholly Imaginations Hypochondriack passions Cachexies Dropsies Atrophies The frequent use thereof strengthens the Brain Sinews Loins invigorating the Memory and all the senses Being outwardly applyed it challenges Noble effects For 't is very healing Balsamical curing green Wounds and Soars being lightly touched therewith often repeated I have found it very commodious in Ambustion scaldings burnings Some drops being frequently distilled thereon forced inwardly by the bottom of a smooth glass I cannot but commend it experimentally as a singular Antiodontalgick one of the best Anodines or asswagers of the pains of the Teeth I have met with hitherto being of great force to perserve them from corruption withall resisting the putrefaction of the Gums Neither is it to be contemned for the mitigation of the pains of any part strengthning or quickning the Archeus or vital spirit thereof With many more laudable properties is this Alexi-stomachon endued which frequent use thereof and a longer strict sedulous practice will bring to light The quantity to be exhibited is of great Latititude from one to ten yea I will undertake to give twenty times as much as the common portion without the least injury to any The ordinary Dose is twenty thirty forty fifty sixty drops in a draught of any strong Liquor as Beer Ale Wine or whatsoever doth best relish with the person There is no need of being precise or curious concerning the time of taking it for when any one is Cacostomachical troubled with indigestion wind pain gripes or any of the foresaid affects let him take liberally thereof He that constantly takes every morning thirty or forty drops shall prevent many mischiefs in reference to his health I am not ignorant the Galenists whose Judgments in these Philosophical Manufactures and the experimental use of this and other Spagyrical Remedies are as much depraved as the tast of any man in a high feaver will not be wanting according to their former Tenour rashly to censure openly or at least privately to sugillate this salutiferous medicine carping at it as too hot burning violent or strong representing to some persons easily to be seduced Mormalocheia Scar-crows of danger they may incur hereby of consuming the Radical moisture putting nature to a stress Of the great inconveniencieâ— may come from the custom of taking this stomach spirit adding that although it seem to do good for the present yet in the future it will shew its mischievous condition by some unhappy event Such like defaming undervaluing Language I expect from some malevolents But blessed be my Stars my sense of Abuses herein is become Callous for I vallue not their obloquies being assured I can easily wipe of any of these Aspersions As to what is objected that this stomach-spirit is too hot burning c. I answer whatsoever is so properly denominated must either harbour some corrosive fretting salt highly exasperating the Archeus Or 2. Abundance of Recrements discrepant burdensome offensive to Nature Or 3. A Clandestine poison whose fermentescent Corpuscles being hostile to the vitals stir up a preternatural ebullition effervescence in the juices so consequently an excessive heat That there is no such evil endowment or property in this medicine I am fully certified by experiment and can make evident 1. That the Textures of its particles are not in the least fretting gauling or burning but are symbolical and amicable to the Animal spirits sweetly closing in with them 2. That it is defaecated rid of any impurity which may give the stomach any trouble in digestion so that it is no sooner admitted but becomes a welcome pleasing Guest having freedom to exspatiate every way no whit fettered with any dross or filth 3. It is so far from any malignity venenosity or virulency that it is Anticacoethes Antiphthora an Antidote or counterpoison mortifying pro modulo contagious Atoms keeping Liquors from Hyperzymôsis super-fermentation a tendency to corruption The terrefying phantasm of consuming the Radical moisture doth not a jot concern this Remedy sith it in no wise acts proportionable to the flame on Oil Tallow or Wax for these the more they are accensed the greater expence is made of them therefore sooner exhausted On the other side the more there is an Eclampsis Effulgescence Radiation of the vital Light by means of this shining spirit the more any defects in the ferments and constitutives of the body are repaired a prevention being made of their future decay and so the life prolonged This vain conceit doth truly square with the Galenical not the Helmontian Doctrine which as I have before explained will not admit of the efficient material cause of spirits to be pinguedâ—nous and fiery It is as far from truth to alledge a stress or force is put upon Nature by the efficacious power of this Remedy as falsly to accuse any one of offering violence who comes into the assistance of an honest Traveller assaulted and over-powered by a Robust thief A thing good of it self is made never the better or worse by custom I know no reason why any one shoâ—ld be afraid to drink a cup of the best Câ—nary at any tâ—me when he is faint because he hath thoughts he may go into a place where no such pure Liquor can be purchased Notwithstanding if it fall out so he may live comfortably without it as many can testifie It is madness to refuse what is innocently vertuous in case of great need when ever it is offered out of a foolish apprehension the same cannot be acquired another time The last is a taunt absurd and malicious in reference to legitimate Spagyrical preparations wherefore I set light by it yet if any Learned Physician declare so much I know how to deal with him as for the contumelies of Idiots I count them not worthy my Pen. Some other Eustomachicks and Haemacatharticks cleansers of the bloud subordinate to greater Arcana I have in store which according as I find a grateful Reception of this I may bring to light Certain useful Instructions pertaining to the Diet of those in a Feaver afflicted with the Scurvy or any long Disease TAking notice of the frequent Errours committed by Learned Doctors in the ordering the Diet of Acute and Chronick diseases I conceive it my duty to reprehend the same as likewise to deliver some Regular Diaetetical Documents grounded upon firm medical tryals tending to the reforming several abuses herein 1. I observe some Physicians to scruple to give their Patients enduring extream Thirst in a feaver a draught of any Liquor for the mitigation of the same least as they unadvisedly fear it should cause a greater accension of the feaver in such sort as water cast upon burning Coals seems almost to quench it for the present but afterward makes it burn more intensly violent Let such know their allusion to an Ens inanimate which upon the difflation or carrying off on a sudden a great part of fuliginous ashes obstructing the pores of the fuel becomes more active making
extirpate what is noxious indulging and animating the Archeus that it may be enabled to profligate its enemy not startled in a vulgar manner at some seemingly frightful appearances as extraordinary heat an inquietude a little raving a swerving from right reason being satisfyed that these are but the effects or fruits of an Hormetick motion in the spirits excited and increased by good Liquors easily united with them for the routing and putting to flight every way whatsoever doth disturb its vital Government Were these Dogmatists as good Interpreters of Hippocrates as the Learned Chymists still having in readiness at their fingers ends some of his Aphorisms they would never be terrefied at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any accident afflicting or troubling the Patient no evil cause or event attending For my part I always look upon an intense heat following a draught of strong Liquor rightly ordered as fore-runner of a succeeding sweat the most kindly strait way to Cure a feaver which not doubting to bring to pass I value not the discommodity of heat a rush sith the Branches will quickly wither when the Root is plucked up Moreover most or all vehement feavers have at this day notable malignity in them Certainly then according to the best Reason and soundest experiments confirmed by the late Plague the most generous Liquors of the subtilest smack are in this case to be exhibited largely without insisting upon the nicety of any danger from heating which though it be a terriculament to them yet to me it is great incouragement of a happy evasion For I look upon those ill conditioned seavers as most mortal where there is but the mildest heat manifested by pulse urine and contact of the skin For oftentimes madness deviation from right understanding a Lethargical or sleepy disposition suddenly break forth Nihil est quod tam magnificè prodest quod non aliquo ex modo obest What matters it if the heat be magnified besides the main purpose to some smal trouble if ten times greater benefit accrue to the sick It is impossible any Physician should perform his duty as he ought if he boggle at the foppery of heat and cold meerly momentany and transient often deluding our senses Forbear then ye jejune miserable cold comforters any longer to wash this most exquisitely sensible membrane with any infrigidating fruitless sluggish dead decoction or infusion in hopes thereby to allay the feaver in this preposterous manner but take this course which I have known effectual many years Permit the febrile Patient to drink at any time when he is very thirsty but let the potulent or what is drinkable be well impregnated or filled with a sufficient quantity of spirits Spanish or French Wine are to be given either of themselves or diluted with Beer or Ale The best strong Ale well brued discreetly kept of a just age is to be approved if that cannot be obtained I advise strong Beer somewhat stale with a convenient quantity of white powder Sugar therein dissolved or some addition of Ale according as the palate relisheth also a little Ginger grated therein and juice of Orange For variety I deny not Posser-drink prepared with a pint of the most Aedifying Ale half a pint of white Wine a pint of milk make it clear tinging it with a little English Saffron squeeze the juice of Orange into it spurting the Balsamical effluviums of the Pill pared very thin into it If the infirm desire mace Ale I shall not deny him suppose it be well Aromarised the Liquor being but very little boiled least the more subtil virtuous part fly away of which over-sight some incogitant Physicians are frequently guilty for want of insight into distillation this is the Diet which I injoyn my Patients always pleasing their appetites with what is tolerable excluding Broths Water-gruel or whatsoever is not lively If any Doctor contradict this way I question not to make such an one to appear grosly blind in Materia Medica and very destitute of prevalent Remedies In Chronick calamities as the Scurvy c. I give any one leave to gratifie his stomach with that which it can best digest and to which it is most accustomed though perhaps none of the most commendable food yet I generally condemn meer Milk which I find our Learned Colleagues when they are gravelled knowing not what to do more by their feculent compositions of the shops prescribe with a great deal of Ceremony to their poor debilitated Patient brought into an Atrophie I dare maintain sometimes by their uncorrected drossie Medicines or a Consumption as they will make them believe sending them into the Country to feed upon the plain simple white juice of a red Cow and why not black as well I could never understand By this means they hope yet still come short unless by accident they recover from some other cause to redintegrate the health of one emaciated never taking care to rectifie the ferments of the Duumvirate which as long as they continue so depraved it is impossible milk should digest for nutrition if so it must needs precipitate them the sooner as it often doth into their Graves whereas I am confident upon good fundamental notions were some Pneumatical lively potions given often to these thus usually extenuated from a Scorbutical seed they would ten to one find greater benefit than by a juice prone to coagulate or degenerate in a depraved stomach for according to our Hippoc. Lac Cephalicis exhibere malum malum est etiam febricitantibus quibus suspensa quasique Pendula Hypocondria murmurant etiam siticulosis i. e. Milk is naught for them that are troubled with the Head-ach a feaver and who are Hypochondriacal and thirsty Find me one Tabid Atrophon fallen away who is not disquieted with any of these symptoms which is very rare then shall I subscribe that the use of Milk is laudable in such a case Till then I must publickly declare that it causeth far more mischief than good Were I not stinted intending brevity I could have inlarged my self upon this subject discovering what notable damage innocent Infants suffer from this Galacto trophia nourishment by a Lacteous juice the tractation of this I shall reserve for a more opportune time Not only Milk but likewise several preparations from it is to be rejected especially Cheese the frequent much feeding on which doth not a little promote the Scurvy and other long infirmities To eat plentifully any thing made of Ceres Heavy Lumpish clung as bread not well leavened not throughly baked or that which is no better than paste is very unwholsome Although I have no great kindness for Milk yet in protracted diseases I admonish all labouring under them to be more sollicitous for their fluid than sollid food for Hippocrates Aphorism dictates Facilius est refici potu quam cibo i. e. according to our exposition suitable to Chymical Observations Any one feeble may sooner be revived recovering his strength by thin lusty hearty daring