of and belonging to the animal and rational faculty And therefore I conclude Not the Genitals not the Liver not the Head but the Humours and Spirits are the true and proper subjects of this disease of which I had not so much enlarged but for that it is importantly necessary to be known to direct how the Cure is to be specified and determined CHAP. V. What the Affect is which is seated in the Humours c. IF you enquire what that Affect is which is seated in the Humours and Spirits I say it is no other than a distemper If What distemper a hot cold moist or dry I say it may accompany any one every one of them and yet be another thing different from them For the character of this disease is a certain degree and manner of distemper which we have not words to expresse Neither therefore must we flye to a fourth kind or species of diseases amongst whom to place this to the Antients unknown who have left us the acknowledgment but of three kinds though they knew a kind of diseases that offend after a secret manner for they knew the biting of a mad Dog of which they could give no sufficient reason and yet they did not constitute another kind besides the three usually received for Modus aut gradus non variat speciem That there is in this Disease a degree and manner of distemper above that which is Elementary appears in this that there are certain effects and impressions of it that cannot be reduced to any manifest Distemper The operations arise from the Temper and they are injured or offended by Distemper As therefore perfect operations proceed from a like degree of Temper so also operations eminently offended are thus offended by a like degree of Distemper Also we find that this Disease is cured by remedies that do not cure manifest Distempers yet if they restore the operations it is necessary that they restore the Temper But seeing they do not as curing this Disease restore the manifest Temper it followes that they restore a degree of Temper that we cannot expresse and that they take away a like degree of Distemper superinduced by this Disease This also is to be considered that this Disease may lodge in every Distemper for in practice we find that men of cold Distemper as well as hot and some of dry and marasmodicall bodies as well as the moist and succulent are taken with this Disease So that this Distemper may joyne with any with every Distemper It is evident therefore that the Character of this Disease is another degree and manner of Distemper super-induced besides that of their owne formerly introduced And this consideration also in of great moment that in receiving this disease by Contact as in the next Chapter at large this degree and manner of distemper wherein it consisteth is introduced after the manifest distemper is induced yet so as that there is no great space of time rather a priority of nature then time between the degree impressed and the distemper which though at the beginning it may be disjunct from all proper matter yet most commonly it is joyned to and conveyed with and in matter And if not alwayes so yet while it corrupts the humours and spirits bowels and members it becomes the cause of begetting this corrupt and depraved matter tough and viscous sanies which is by degrees propagated in the humors and spirits throughout all the bowels and members And this is the manner of producing and deriving the Venereous disease which the next Chapter will more fully clear CHAP. VI. Of the Causes of the Venereous Disease NOw we shall enquire into the Causes producing this Disease which are either Externall or Internall The Externall are all comprehended under Contagion and that is either Immediate or Mediate Immediate contagion is when there is an immediate Contact between the bodies infecting and infected Mediate when some other body cometh between which receiveth the infective vapour and conveyeth it to the body that is to be infected as the aire Either the common aire or that portion of it that by the infector is breathed out and by the infected is received in Now that this disease cannot be contracted by the medium of common or outward air is evident for then multitudes that dwell in places and neighbourhoods of venereous persons as it falls out in times of pestilent contagion would daily be infected especially they that domesticaly cohabit and kindreds mostly would be much endangered which experience doth not confirm So that this good hath the Venereous plague beyond the other that it keeps more at home and doth not cast forth so strong a seminary of contagion though Fracastorus an Author of no mean rank thinketh otherwise Neither is it conveyed by aire breathed out and received in for then they that talk mouth to mouth with the Venereous and especially such as apply remedies to the ulcers of their mouth must needs be infected which is not found It is true the Tabes of the lungs communicateth a seminary of to the aire breathed out so that they which are apt to receive that disease drawing it in are endangered But not for it self but as accompanied with an Hectick Feaver But of this disease it is not observed So that all mediate contact being rejected it followes that onely by immediate and corporeall contact this disease is conveyed And hereby I understand carnall use of a venereous person sucking venereous milk or herditary disposition from the seed of venereous parents which Plautus in Amphiter calls Contagio The true manner then how this disease is contracted is no other but this as hath even now bin shewed either by generation lactation or mutuall attrition of bodies whereby defiled spirits mixed with the pure communicate a degree and manner of distemper together with a prava proluvies induced or produced which running up and down the body infecteth the bowells onely in some and in others the members also but in some not being resisted as in Answer to the Questions shall be made appear The Internall cause of this disease is no other but Ichor sanies quaedam prava having their proper leaven in them communicated and tenaciously adhering to the humours and spirits Why this Sanies is propagated sometimes and in some sooner in others later many causes may be alledged 1. The latitude or straitnesse of the seminall passages for in wider pores and passages this Illuvies is more easily drunk in Where the way is strair the disease doth seldomer and more hardly propagate it self 2. A greater or lesse plenty of humours as in bodies more or lesse moist-3 Greater or lesse disposednesse of the bowells and members to receive or resist the contagion And hence is it that they which have loose flesh and abounding with humours their vessells being large and open-mouth'd are soonest tainted first the humours then the genitalls next the mouth for these causes and other reasons before expressed You
Names WEE commonly knowing whence we had it call it the French Pox. They for the same reason for none take pleasure to owne it intitle it the Neapolitan Italian or Spanish They again whip the vagarant give it a passe-port and send it to the place of its birth calling it the Indian disease Some again observing how ill it is taken by each Nation that it should take the name of its Sire from their Country have found or made a name for it from its first quarters commonly and will have it called Pudendagra But what word bearing no modest English Translation we without slurring any other Nation as making them reputed fathers of the common Bastard and knowing our selves do choose rather to call it the Venereous disease or in contradistinction to the Variolae the Greaâ— Pox. And there is no lesse dissent and clashing amongst Authors of the first note in defining its nature than in assigning its name which comes to passe by the deep silence and darkness of the Antients in that they had no light from the Fathers of Physick to slay and be a Basis to their thoughts And therefore I shall take my liberty also and give you its nature and beeing thus CHAP. III. The Definition THe Venereous disease is A praeternaturall Affect or Disposition of man's body primarily and of it self hurting or offending the Naturall Operations and thence the Vital and Animal from a cause or reason occult or unknown I call it an Affect or Disposition not in a strict sense as opposed to Habit as if I thought it easily removed but in a large and genrall sense such as may imply Habit as well as Disposition For this Disease in weaker and more depravable constitutions becomes so rooted and hath committed such waste in the Vital and Animal spirits and induced such an Atony on the whole Microcosm as may admit Palliation but not Cure I call it Praeternaturall in opposition to naturall ordinate and preserving dispositions And Of man's body for there is no disease of man's body this excepted but is common to them with beasts but this befalls mankind onely more lustfully insatiate than the beasts themselves I say farther That it hurts and offends the naturall operations it being proper to such as labour under this disease that some naturall operation be offended And I call them Naturall retaining the old received distinction in opposition to Vital and Animal as arising from the Vegetable faculty which the Stoicks called Nature amongst whom Nutrition Augmentation and Generation are contained and such other operations as arise from and are subservient to them Now there is a three-fold hurt or offence done to any operation viz. Abolition Diminution and Depravation And in this disease the operations are evidently depraved I do not say they are not diminished but they are alwaies depraved and as far as they are diminished it comes on them by depravation Then I say Primarily and of it self because though the Vital and Animal operations be also and speedily offended yet it is Secondarily and by reason that the naturall operations were first offended and so not as Animals and Vitals but as Natural bodies have they their first injury Lastly I say For or from a cause or reason occult and unknown To distinguish this from other diseases concerning whom it appears whence how and when the operations are iujured either by dissolution or corruption or some other manifest way But how this disease wounds the operations is very obscure and we hardly find words to expresse what we conceive of it And though in the disease ulcers and gummy tumors do appear and other loathsome symptoms as in the Chapter of Signs more at large yet these are not the disease it self much lesse the causes but the effects I deny not that the effects do appear and oft do where the true nature reason and causes thereof lie in the dark If I should call these ulcers and tumors the disease by a Metonymy yet even in them is found that which reason but imperfectly much lesse sense can know For we do not find them cured by such remedies as give the effect by their first or manifest qualities or by any remedies taught by the Antients but by other remedies and such as are new and were unknown unto them Neither let this seem strange to affirm that there are diseases whose nature cause and formall reasons lye obscure for the evidence of this is prepared and plainly made out to our hands by learned Fernelius De abditis rerum causts from the Monuments of the Antients And thus much for the description of the Disease Venereal If any object that I have penned a Treatise to make a disease better known to my Countrymen labouring under it or in danger of it and that I do in the issue resolve all in rationes incognitas occult operations which are ignorantiae asyla I answer That of many things we know the quod sit not the cur sit When the Objectors can give me the reason of the strength of the Neather-jaw of the Load-stone's work and impotency of the Compasse its variation and stupor of the motion of the Sea and Winds of the production of the Stone and Worms of the forms and their transmutations in bodies mixt of the causes and reasons of operations in pestilent diseases By that time I shall further satisfie them Qui nil dubitat nil didicit maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus Shall the learned'st Lights of the Apollinaean Art called to set forth the causes and reasons of the Stone and Worms in the severall parts ventricles and cavities of the body and being urged by stresse of argument fly to defend their opinions to Spiritus lapidescens lumbrificans as the Essicient cause and Materia lapidescibilis lumbrisicabilis as the Materiall Shall those Heroes in shewing the reason of pestilent and malignant cacoethicall diseases fly to a cause quae agit tota substantia the Asylum ignorantiae Then what excuse or plea could my ignorance and madnesse have if in so learned an age I should tell the world in print that I knew any thing so comprehensively as that I were ignorant of it in nothing Whereas there are more depths of nature in a little Gnat then the learning of the World shall ever attain in this mortall state And he hath gone far in knowledge that knowes his owne ignorance And hee 's unworthy to know more that is ashamed to consesse it And so much by digression From the Definition I shall come to the Subject of this disease and then more distinctly to the Effect it self which though they have been touched in the Definition yet being most considerable parts require a particular hand CHAP. IIII. The Subject of the Venereous Disease AND that I take to be the humors and spirits primarily and by their circulationâ— and dispersing themselves throughout the body there is no part secure from being
may observe that men of dryer harder and colder bodies are lesse subject to this disease as labouring men poor men old men I have read it observed that the Turks are not easily infected herewith though they have alwaies amongst them venereous captives of both sexes and the reason suggested is for that their bodies are more hard and drie and consequently their genitalls And thus much for the causes whereby you may perceive how this disease deriveth insinuateth and propagateth it self Now forasmuch as no Argument can be set forth so clearly as to leave no darknesse or doubts in the mind of the Reader especially in this branch of it touching the Causes I shall therefore farther endeavour his satisfaction by solving such Questions and Doubts as may yet beclowd him CHAP. VII Doubts and Questions Resolved touching the Causes especially 1. QUest Why may not Venereous contagion be conveyed mediately by the aire since we find asserted before touching the Tabes of the lungs and by venerable Authors of the Ophthalmia that it sends out spirits infecting the air which the same air retaining for a certain time and distance communicateth by contagion to the eyes of others And if it be so in these cases why may not from the ulcers in the mouths of the Venereous infecting-vapours be sent out into the aire and that again infect others as well as in the Opthalmia and Tabes Answ This disease lyeth primarily in the humours and naturall spirits for so I may call them and they are more grosse and lesse moveable cannot be emitted or darted out of the body or if they should would take weak impression upon the aire The vitall spirits indeed are more subtile and may passe further and therefore diseases primarily in them have a more flagrant seminary to impoison the air Yet if this disease be accompanied with a feavour as in time and grouth it will that may put stings into it and render it mediately contagious Quest 2. May not the contagion be conveyed by Garments as some have thought Answ No for if the aire cannot receive it so as to convey it from person to person much lesse other externall bodies which should receive it from the air For qualities communicated to the aire are altered and changed by further mixture and change of fleeting aire and so lose their morbifick force Quest 3. May not kissing the Venerous pledging them out of the same cup sitting next after them on the same stool close-stool lying after them on the same bed bed-cloaths convey the infection Answ The contrary hath been proved that no mediate contact can of it self convey it for if the air or garments cannot for reasons expressed much lesse solider bodies as close-stools and cups leight contact of lips c. And if they should then would this disease be much more spreading and cohabitants with the Venereous unavoidably be infected so that Pest-houses were as necessary for these as for the Leprous antiently and of late for the visited with the plague of Pestilence And although this diseased usually be a gentleman yet common safety were preponderous to any man's private quality Quest 4. May a woman bring this Disease upon her selfe by prostituting her body to many clean and uninfected men Ans To affirm this doth suppose brothelry debauched brothelry to be of late edition in the World or at least in those places or regions where not withstanding the Venereous Disease never had a footing Quest 5. May sperm oft injected by coition with the same or severall clean Persons clogging the expulsive faculty of the Womb cause such a putrefaction as that her Humors become venereously corrupted and so the disease be produced Ans No for if clean seed extravasate by not being expelled the Womb should cause such a putrefaction as to render the person Venereous then seed long detained and kept in the seminary vessels and there corrupting and putrifying the cause of the most leonine Histericall fits as is commonly asserted should have much more causality to produce this disease But this cannot be granted and therefore not the former Quest 6. What is the reason that this Disease which in some persons for some years lurketh in the body so as no signe of it appears yet that at length it should discover it selfe and break forth in great rage Ans The venome of the biting of a mad Dog lieth for some years in the body of some man without any signe discovering it which all Physitians after Hippocraâ—â—s acknowledge and yet neither he nor any of the Ancients understood the disease So may this Lues But the manner How and reason Why is most worthy to come under Consideration I said before that this proluvies is viscous and therefore tenaciously adheres to the bowels and is mingled with the humors and spirits but because evidence of its presence cannot clearly and by manisest effects be shewed but on solid bodies which this venereous Illuvies doth find bowels so strongly spirited as that they make great resistance and refuse it and obtrude it into the bycavities of the body where it lies fermenting the disease resideth especially in this Venereous Illuvies and is not communicated to the outwards parts So that when how and where this disease begins acts and creeps on is not perceived There are workings and alterations and morbifick sensations in the body which are not at all in strong constitutions and in others not perceived by their proper causes and are of tentimes attributed to other than their owne So that if you put together the time wherein the bowels resist the Venereous poison and the time wherein it worketh insensibly together with the time of the bodies state neutral it may amount to a year many years before the effects symptoms and evidences undoubtedly discover the disease present Quest 7. How comes it to passe that sometimes and to some at one coition with the Venereous this disease is contracted yet others can scarce be infected at many Ans This must be ascribed to many causes 1. To the various dispositions of bodies for some are more prone to this or that disease and therefore take it sooner for nature makes lesse resistance Which also is the reason that they which have any weak part of their bodies do receive a disease sooner in that part For example let a man that hath the gowt be taken Venereously and he shall find it more to prevaile and afflict him in his feet So on him that hath weak eyes if this disease supervene his eyes are sooner and more afflicted than other parts 2. Carelesnesse sordidness in neglecting their own bodies is another cause For they that rightly and rationally cleanse themselves after coition are scarcely and seldomer taken of this disease But they that having no care of themselves do suffer the Illuvies to cleave unto them are sooner and more fiercely taken of it 3. Long stay in carnall coition makes much to infection for they that welter in unclean bodies and
choice 4. I observed also that all pretenders to Physick gave out a more than ordinary skill in the Venereous Cure yet scarce one patient of ten went off from them sound as by relapse it too ordinarily appears I was therefore led to believe that either the ignorance of the disease or shamefac'dnesse to discover it made them carry it about them too long or the ignorance of such as they applyed unto or the impatience of Patients to bear a cure gave the disease this advantage For though by palliation the dolorous symptoms wâ—re baffled yet the virulent cause was left in the dark deep in their spirits and bones and made future work for the Physitian Hereby their Patients are deceived who not being able to judge think better of their recovery than is meet and safe and find by sad experience that the next evoking season the disease getting strength by lying in trenches breaks forth more dangerously than was its first onset 2. My scope therefore in publishing this little Treatise is to present a good office to my Nation by entring the lists with this Champion who by trampling on such eminent members of it abates its grandure and bids defiance to all the boast of Remedies in the Common-wealth of Physick Therefore since publicos in hostes quilibet homo miles I sent out my Scouts that I might acquaint my selfe with the enemy in all his motions I enquired after an Army that would not run untill they had broken his pride I considered how I might cut off provisions supplies râ—cruits and finally how I might engage the Enemie's whole body untill I had cleared him of all the coasis and quarters of the Microcosm Whereby I conceived I should deserve well of my suffering Country-men by not suffering the grandure of the Nation to lie trodden under the foot of a proud stranger and I stand by as an idle spectator And since this Enemy plaies small game also and is come down so low as on the Spinster I have therefore made him speak plain english not without due respect to modesty and better understandings that ordinary capacities may be able to judge of their owne condition by their owne light and in season look out for reliefe before captivity and the further enervation of a valiant Nation 3. The advantagious use of these papers either respects all that having been in unknown Hypocausts have any reason from perusing this Treatise to suspect their bodily condition to deal prudently for themselves by seeking reliefe in season Or especially such as intend marriage and the blessings of it that they get them bodies made fit for marriage For though they know their owne personall integrity yet what lurks in their humors from parent's seed or nurses milkâ— they are ignorant of And however no present symptoms thereof discover it to themselves much lesse to others yet the fomes of it oft and long lying obscure doth traduce a present defilement in generation to posterity And by marriage-duty that latent disposition is urged to break forth the sooner and will without such stimulation make it self known in time And though the pursuance of this Advice may question their Honour yet it provides for their owne and posteritie's safety which all wise men highly value I have read many Authors on this argument and found satisfaction in none or this Treatise had been silenc'd I perceive that on this as on other Subjects they too much tread in the steps of their Ancestors and rest in their dictates without further enquiry swelling their volumes with transscriptions into their owne methods which serves to fill Libraries with much paper yet few Bòcks But every man's breath will smell somewhat of his diet and after-ages can but inventis addere which hath been my endeavour throughout And though I write in English that all may know their condition of body as is fit yet have I not set bogglers at work on the Therapeutick part of which they are uncapable If in this service I am accepted then maist thou ere long expect another Treatise Of the Scurvy if an abler Pen which were very acceptable or want of leisure prevent mâ— not Wherein the Presse hath failed thou maist excuse but wherein I have erred or come short if the more learned shall candidly correct or supply it tending to the advancement of health and of the Common-wealth of Learning shall be friendly taken by Thine health-Servant J. W. LUES VENEREA Wherein its Names Nature Subject Causes Signs and Cure are handled The mistakes in these discover'd rectified and many Doubts and Questions succinctly resolved CHAP. I. The Praeface THat Africk is never without some new Monster nor England without some new Disease as strange monstrous is a truth that needs no proof But the proper reasons hereof are hard to find and doe lesse appeare Some send as far as the Starrs and accuse the inclemency of their influences Others go no farther then the Kitchen and accuse our diet of too much variety and change from the plainenesse of the Antient healthier times our new inventions of Spermfiring Cookery But a Christian looks yet higher to the displeasure of God at the new and horrid sins of man acted by the body chastised and marked out by new and unheard-of diseases of which this is one Before the yeare 1493. this disease never gave a visit to Europe kept its own region in the then unknown Western world where it was Endemical Thence as 't is storied the followers of Chr. Columbus returning brought it and gave it to the Italâ—an women and they to the French Souldiers at the siege of Naples Sua simul pudenda et pudendum morbum communicà runt After that siege the French returning brought it to those â—hat were or should be their wives from whom they received a malevolent benevolence And when it was come so near us we that delight to imitate the French tooke their faults and their fashions together And this disease liking this fertile Soyle amongst us brought forth a dreadfull encrease Brassavolus observed long since 234 severall differences accidental he meanes and amongst us scarce in two severall bodies hath it the same face and phaenoms so strangely in the effects and symptoms did it soon appear and therein the wrath of God And that this is to be looked on as the most considerable cause of its grouth in France and Italy and plentifull spreading amongst us we shall easider that when first this Pest began to break out there and became more spreading of late here the wickednesse of man encreased Great warrs and of long continuance were moved by mighty Nimrods heat of blood brought forth heat of lust the insatiability whereof was punished by this new Pest But not to stay the reader on the provoking cause or the avenging hand I shall next lead him to the best Definition of this disease that I can finde that it may appear by its Essence after I have given it its name CHAP. II. The
open that way may be made for the speciall cure A method is to be taken from this distemper and all complications for it rarely goes alone and all other indications The fix things called not-naturall must be rightly ordered Venery for a season banished that so the Vires may be kept strong to expell a disease of long cure and short diet and lest by inflaming-motion of the body in coition the disease entred in one part be diffused Phlebotomy is in case of Plethory or fierce accidents to be used and not as is the manner of some in all venereous cures to breathe a vein presently Diaphoreticks in growen diseases are of great moment and require due management CHAP. XII Of the Cure in Speciall AS there are many methods of Speciall Cures so they may all be reduced to these two heads Reproved or Approved Methods Reproved are 1. By remedies common and not Specificall which find no obedience here or not without a greater mischief than benefit to Nature 2. The good cheap poor whore cure by Fontanels taken up from the practice of the poorer Spaniards amongst whom it is in common use whereby Nature findeth some ease disburthening part of the purulent matter but the fomes is left within to render their condition deplorate I am no friend to continued Issues which prevailed not in practise untill this disease brake into to Europe 3. By Mercuriall Unguent which may serve for Carriers and Porters robustious bodies and yet even in them the consequents render it perilous if not pernitious I know some are so ignorant and audacious that they make it their ordinary Champion setting upon every venereous patient with this dreadfull remedy as if no cure could be dispatched without it the effects of whose boldnesse many have mournfully carried to their graves What this Unguent is I need not expresse its composition is well known better than trusted to or delighted in by Artists For this Unguent rubb'd on the palms and plants of hands and feet is speedily carried to the head as appears by the floods of salivation that follow the use of it For its Mercury being an aerial spirituous body compacted as appeareth by its orbicular trembling motion as soon as it is attenuated and resolved by naturall heat breaks out of its compacture as fired powder out of a gun and naturally flying upwards is carried through veins and arteries to the brain with many vapours accompanying it which Vapours and Mercury there condensing are attenuated eliquated as a cloud for rain and through the palate are cast down to the mouth or stomack in salivation The truth of this appears to them who in salivation hold a piece of gold in their mouthes who find the spirits and vapours of the Mercury concreating hang about it as it doth about other solid bodies for its subtile flying spirits passe through the whole body and fix about the bones also who receive on themselves the substance and colour of the Mercury as in the mouth about the gold 4. By Mercuriall Cinnaber-fume which is yet more formidable and to such as have pectorall diseases short breath ill affected lungs are troubled with distillations weak bowells chollick pains dysenteries pernicious use what care you can Mercuriall aire will get in There being safe methods of cure let these be laid aside for scarce to any person are they used without the manifest offence and detriment of some bowell And though great pretenders may promise security in its use yet it is no wisdome to adventure your person upon every one's bold rash and ignorant confidence Melius est non prodesse quà m obesse Fierce accidents will all in Bold Empericks will promise much and perform little and will adventure upon what they cannot govern and therefore must needs abuse themselves and their patients I do not decry the right use of Mercury for take away Mercury Antimony and Vitriol you leave the Armory of Physick reproachfully weak The Methods of cure approved are 1. That by Treacles and Indian Alexipharmaca which in time and right use will take effect but this way is long and tedious 2. That by Antivenereall Magnets which is noble and to be rested in sure potent and effectuall to draw out the venereous matter which let none despise because they do not understand by such hints Dii laboribus omnia vendunt The Last is that by Sympatheticall application which saveth the patients much trouble and useth nature in her most sublime and noblest activities These two last Methods of cure let the weaker sex especially take notice of whose more tender bodies and feeble spirits render them more unable to bea the more rough and difficult wayes of cure These are methods which many men of great attainments otherwise through pride and unthankfullnesse have rendred themselves uncapable of What the Magneticks are how applied and by what causality they operate what the Sympatheticks to be chosen are and by what symmetry oneness and community of spirit they have their effect or whereby their causality is hindred or set on motion longa dies docuit every one is not fit to receive it nor would understand if they were told nor could apply if they understood The learned unprejudiced may inform themselves If any one find a new spring issuing out of Parnassus reason will that he first drink the waters thereof The effect will best commend the work and the patients Euge's the cure and that 's enough to secure against the mad tooth of detraction and silence the charge of Novelty the strength whereof others famous in their generation have broken to my hands For who knowes not that the opinion of the Circulation of the blood is new and thereupon the doctrine of Feavers fundamentally new the way of the Chyle new the sanguification of the heart veins masse of blood it selfe new the proper work of the Liver new the Chymicall anatomy of all mixt bodies new the whole frame and face of naturall Philosophy new and yet the Assertors of these not despised by any but proud Stoicks whom no reason can perswade that they are men Physick came in at first Empirically though it stood not so and by induction of manifold experience it was brought into Precepts and Principles And had the way of improving experience been longer stood on and Physick too soon not taught to systematize it had better improved and fewer breaches been made on its doctrine to the greater honour of the Art and its Professors and benefit of Patients But this practicall Art must be like speculative Sciences and take a body of generall Principles before they be found side digna sufficient causes of Conclusion But had they been such the Fabrick had been firmer It is true and cannot be denyed that naked Experience not supported by weighty Reason is but a dwarf and can do little nay is often mischievous but they that joyne both together will find them a fortresse strong enough to abide the battery of calumny If in these methods of cure I walk in paths lesse trodden yet since my foundation is purest Philosophy I shall say for my selfe Salve amicum lumen I will not with some others contra rationem insanire All the satisfaction I shall in conclusion give the Reader and that will satisfie the sober and modest is to remit him to that of Seueca Multi ad sapientiam pervenire potuissent nisi putassent se pervenisse Multum egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt sed non peregerunt Multum adhuc restat operae multumque restabit neque ulli nato post mille secula praecidetur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendi THE CONTENTS Chap I. THE Preface Pag. 1 Chap II. The Names Pag. 2 Chap III. The Definition Pag. 6 Chap IV. The Subject Pag. 12 Chap V. The Affect it self Pag. 22 Chap VI. The Causes Pag. 26 Chap VII Doubts and Questions resolved touching the Causes viz. Pag. 31 1. Whether the disease may be conveyed by the air ibid. 2. Whether by garments Pag. 32 3. Whether by drinking after the Venereous of the same cup sitting after on the same stool lying next af er on the same bed Pag. 33 4. Whether a woman by much prostitution to clean men may contract it Pag. 34 5. Whether by extinguishing the expulsive faculty of the womb ibid. 6. Why the disease oft lurks in the body c Pag. 35 7. Whence it is that some are infected sooner than others Pag. 37 8. Whether a woman having coition with a venereous man may remain uninfected and yet she infect others Pag. 39 9. Whence it is that this disease at first enentrance into Europe was so formidable but now is more milde Pag. 40 10 Whence it is that though the disease be generally milder yet it is cruel on some Pag. 43 11. Why the disease falls mostly in some on the Hairs in others on the Nerves Bones c Pag. 44 12. Whether this disease be proper to any Country and to what c Pag. 45 Chap VIII The Signes Diagnostick Pag. 47 Chap IX The signes Prognostick Pag. 55 Chap X. Questions leading to the cure viz. Pag. 57 1. Why this disease kills so slowly ib. 2. Whether this disease be curable Pag. 59 3. Whether as time was when the disease was not it will in time cease to be Pag. 60 4. Whether the supervention of this disease doth cure the Falling-sicknesse c. or other mortall diseases Pag. 61 5. Whether the Pox keep out the Plague Pag. 62 6. Whether there be any Antidote to keep a man using a venereous wonan from being infected Pag. 63 7. Whether Cure be to be endeavoured at first entrance of the disease Pag. 66 Chap. XI Of the Cure in Common Pag. 68 Chap. XII Of the Cure in Speciall Pag. 69 Some Methods Approved others Reproved Pag. 70 FINIS