Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	great_a	part_n	3,256	5	4.2928	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95393	A vindication of some objections lately raised against Dr. John Colbatch his hipothesis : together with some observations on his essay of alkaly and acid and it's [sic] appendix. / By Dr. Francis Tuthill of Dorchester.	Tuthill, Francis.; Colbatch, John, Sir, 1670-1729. Doctrine of acids in the cure of diseases farther asserted.	1698 (1698)	Wing T3387; ESTC R16857	14,756	43

great Cause of deterring People from proceeding in the Use of them and also of attributing to them the Cause of Pain Reply This I confess is a good sound Solution and would admit of no Reply if it did but hang together with what follows For here Acids cause Pain because they are not taken in Quantity sufficient By and by they produce the same Effect because they are taken in too great Quantity For these are your own Words And for the Pain you say you have often found to be excited upon the giving Rhenish and White-wine I have assign'd a Reason for that if they are drunk in too large Quantities c. 'T is plain then that neither too little or too much Acid must be taken Now I fancy it would be a difficult Matter for you or any Man else to determine the Quantity 'T is enough to employ the Wits of a Virtuoso Besides if you remember what you have laid down in your Hypothesis Acids cannot be taken in too great Quantity For the Alkaline Gouty Particles remain in the Blood Indeed if all these Particles were subdued then to load the Blood with Acids would be superfluous But this I fear you cannot say you ever experienced I should be very glad to hear you could It would be an Improvement of Physick to some purpose Another Object was Again if the Gout proceed from an Alkaly what is the Reason you use so much Sassafras in it's Cure Is Sassafras an Acid and so proper to subdue this Alkaly Answ I can cure the Gout if there were no such thing as Sassafras I only use Sassafras in Apozems as a proper Vehicle to dilute other Medicines in the Stomach But however Sassafras is no contemptible Medicine and if you will but give your self the Trouble of distilling a Pound in Retort per se if you afterwards reckon Sassafras amongst the Number of Alkalies I am mistaken and if I am I shall willingly own it Reply That you should use Sassafras on purpose to diluto other Medicines methinks is no fair way of arguing I did never distill any Sassafras in a Retort and therefore can pronounce nothing positively of it's Nature But I am of Opinion that by it's Effects it may much better be ranged under Alkalies than Acids I fear 't will be a hard task for you to prove it an Acid which yet you ought to do to make your Practice consonant to your Hypothesis unless you will have recourse to it as a Specific Object I have only a Word or two to speak concerning the green Colour of Syrup of Violets and so I have done I believe it may be turned green without an Alkaly On the Exhibition of it to Infants it comes away green very often and brings away a great deal of green Matter by stool and yet I believe they do not abound with Alkalies Answ I own that upon the Exhibition of Syrup of Violets to Infants it will frequently occasion green stools But from whence doth that proceed but from it's Mixture with the Bile in the small Guts And that Bile is an Alkaly I know not any one that doubts Reply Every body knows that Bile is an Alkaly and of a greenish Colour yet 't is much to be questioned whether it occasions these green stools For First The Colour of it is altered in the Duodenum by it's mixture with the Pancreatick Juyde Secondly If this were so whence is it that in adult Persons even of the most Bilious Constitutions we seldom or never find the Excrements green The yellow Colour of the Excrements is usually imputed to Bile Object You may read in a late Author of undoubted Credit that upon an Infant 's swallowing a Dose of Testaceous Powder an extraordinaray Ferment was raised in the Stomach of the Child Now how could this be done if it had not an Acid to work upon Besides does not Experience shew that nothing is so proper in Infants Distempers as Alkalies Answ Acids may abound in the Stomach and cause a Disorder but in no other Parts of the Body Reply This Doctrin seems to me very precarious and if I can but shake it a great Part of your Hypothesis must be in danger First then give me leave to enquire how these Acids come to abound in the Stomack Here you are pleased to deny an innate Ferment This Acid Liquor must by no means proceed from the Vessels or Glands of the Ventricle But is convey'd thither from the salivatory Glands That Saliva is an Acid and does descend to the Stomach is very evident But why you should take no Notice of it's proper Glands I cannot see Nature does seldom bungle in her Operations and dispose things at random Therefore since she has placed such a parcel of excretory Vessels in the Stomach 't is irrational to suppose they are of no Use But to come to the Point I hope to convince you presently that Acids exist in the Blood as well as the Stomach And in order to this I shall have no need to carry them from the Stomach to the Blood as some have done but shall endeavour to prove them preexistent in the Blood even by the Rules of your own Hypothesis We have an old Maxim in Philosophy Nihil dat quod in se non habet How this Acid current of Saliva therefore should spring from a Fountain void of all Acidity for the Serum must be it's Fountain I cannot so easily conceive If any thing was capable of metamorphosing this Alkaline Serum into Acid it must be the Texture of the Parts thro' which it pasles But this the Texture cannot do For the Oral Glands have nothing of an Acid Ferment in them or any alterative Faculty They only separate such Particles as are adopted to their Pores 'T is true these Particles before their Separation are so confused and intermix'd with the other Principles that you cannot make any sensible Discovery of them yet 't is no good Logic to conclude that they are not in the Blood 'T is very seldom that we can perceive any thing of Bile in it when drawn either by Colour or Taste yet surely 't is never without Bile And the Liver does not generate Choler as some ignorantly suppose it only strains it off from the Blood For if it 's Glands are any way impaired either by Schirrus Exulceration c. the Blood is so far from wanting Choler that it immediately abounds with it wherefore since Bile is really preexistent in the Blood till to it's Separation 't is very rational to suppose that Spittle is so too For they are both percolated after the same Manner tho' not thro' the same Glands And indeed I admire that your repeated Analyses of the Blood should produce nothing of an Acid. I had almost said you overlook it If we may believe Mr. Boyl the Blood is not without Acids And give me leave to tell you that you do not deal fairly with Alkalies you derogate from the Dignity of

their Defence before I go any further I am very apt to think that in some Feavors especially Pestilential and Malignant the Spirits are primarily affected according to the Hypothesis of the Ingenious Dr. Morton witness those Symptoms which attend the Genus nervosum immediately upon the first Seizure But you must not admit this Notion the Soyl which you must lodge in the Blood and thence be communicated to the Spirits Well let it be so I will not dispute it The difficulty on your side will be great still For tho' I shall readily grant the Globules to be broken in the aforesaid Feavors yet 't will be a hard Matter to convict Alkalies of those Tragical Disorders For first Experience shews that nothing is more proper in those Cases malignant I shall adventure to use the Term notwithstanding it has been so scouted of late then Pulv. è chel rad Serpentar nay Sp. C. C. it self given in a proper Vehicle But secondly nothing does so readily dissolve the Mass of Bood or separate it's Principles as Acids which I shall prove by and by when I come to speak something of Dropsies But this long Discourse of the Heat of the Blood does naturally lead me to consider somewhat of it's Flame First And here the Life of Man you take to be a Fire or Flame and all we Eat and Drink together with the Air we draw in to be Fuel for this Flame The chief Arguments you bring to confirm this Doctrin are taken from the Excrements of this Flame and it's Fuel The Excrements are Alkalies which are near of kind to Ashes the Relicts of other Flames And for it 's Pabulum 't is Acid and Sulphur the common Pabulum of all Flames Here I must confess you talk very ingeniously and highly improve the Notions of that great Philosopher But let us examin this Hypothesis a little As for Alkalies I confess they are of the same Nature with Ashes and Soot Yet it does not follow that because Alkalies are found in the Blood there must be a Flame too We extract Alkaly out of several Herbs 'T is true the Herbs must be calcined first But certainly the Salt was pre-existent in the Herb before the Calcination or else the Fire produced it de novo which you will by no means admit The Inference then is plain I will not adventure to say any Thing of Crabs-Claws Oyster-Shells c. least you should make them the Recrements of a vital Flame Come we next to the Pabulum and that is Acid and Sulphur That Bodies in which Sulphur is predominant are inflamable no body questions But that such in which Acid is the chief Ingredient should burn looks like a Paradox To instance in a few Acet Spirit of Vitriol Suc. Limon c. are so far from promoting Flame that they immediately quench it And indeed I know but one Acid in Nature which is inflamable and that is Nitre But then this Vital Flame is not of a Nature with Culinary Flames Answer Since the Pabulum is the same methinks the Flame should be so too Again tho' you speak so much of this Vital Flame yet you do not as I remember much care to fix the Place of it's Existence I suppose it must be in the Blood if any where Now 't is very hard to suppose a Flame in that Body of which no Part is inflamable If you open a Vein and the Blood spouts out reeking hot on the Fire it will immediately quench it So that methinks these Notions seem to be a little too finely spun Acid and Sulphur did support human Life Men live upon Coals Brimstone c. in which there is store of Acid and Sulphur that we cannot subsist without Air is evident For tho' there is no Fire in the Blood there is Motion undoubtedly Now the Nitro-acreal Particles give a fresh Fermentation or Motion to it and free it from Coagulation If you are not satisfied with this consult the Ingenious Dr. Mayow But then the Blood has heat and warmth and these are the Properties of Fire Answ May they not be excited by it's Motion No you Reply we are much warmer in Bed when we use no Exercise then when we are up and in Motion Answ The Body indeed is in no Motion there but the Blood is greater then when we are out of our Beds and 't is impossible should be otherwise For do not the Bed-cloaths protect us from the Coldness of the ambient Air And are not a great many of the Volatile Alkalies detained by them which reflecting upon the Body warm it and accelerate the Motion of the Blood But after all if we move violently when out of our Beds we are much warmer than when in them You are pleas'd to Object 't is impossible meer Motion should cause any Heat in fluid Bodies How so Let a Man put Spirit Corn Cerv. and Spirit Vitrioli together and observe their Effects They will soon grow warm 'T is evident they do not stand still but move very briskly before they are warm And what is the Heat of these Bodies occasioned by but their Fermentation or intestine Motion Surely it cannot be by Accension My third Objection was this But Thirdly If Alkalies are the Original of Distempers whence is it that in Dropsies Catarrhs some Gouts and other Diseases we find the Texture of the Blood so thin 'T is observable that those Particles you term Alkalies the more the Blood is saturated with them of the more thick Consistence it is as we see in Pleurisies Rheumatisms and other Inflamatory Cases in which Distempers if in any the Alkalies abound is not then it 's Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion and render it thin Your Answer to this is that 't is not the Thinness of the Blood is the only Cause of these Distempers but a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts Here methinks you do not argue so fairly For you mention little or nothing of the Destruction of the Tone of the Parts in your Etymologies of Distempers till now And why may I not as well say in Inflamatory Cases the Blood is not affected with any Alkaline Particles These Inflamations only arise from a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts Especially if you consider what you asserted in your Notion of Feavors For there the Emunctories are very much out of Order But you Object since Acids will reduce the Blood to it 's due Consistence it is not reasonable to suppose they should be the Cause of it's Fusion Answ Whether Acids will restore the Consistence of the Blood I shall examin by and by I fear they will not But this I am certain of they will put it in a Fusion 'T is well known that your celebrated Oyl of Vitriol taken alone or tho' in a Vehicle if in too great Quantity kills Now how does it kill Does it not by dissolving the Mass of Blood by separating the Grumous