Living Body from the same cause do virulent Animals Vegetables or Minerals taken inwardly Purge violently for as much as the Sensitive Spirit falls into an indignation at the presence of that it abhors so makes a confusion of the holsome Juices by Colliquating and Putrefying them Hereupon so little benefit arises from things meerly loosening the Body the Principal Agent being exasperated by what is contrary to its Texture and Nature After this rate did I begin my Practice being taught no better than to give many Stools or Vomits without indulging or pleasing this great President which as I have often proved is the Supreme cause of Sanity and Infirmity But afterward instructed by a far more able Tutor than the Schools I began to correct my former Traditional Error following the sure Thread of repeated Experiments so that at length I never gave any Solutive not fitting to Corroborate the Stomach not friendly to the Ferments and Vitals Before I took this course all frequent Laxatives were fruitless because they did anger and enrage the Archeus stirring up Storms and Tempest in the Microcosm instead of a sweet Tranquility By this means the Idea's of the Phantasie ingeneral were rectified and clarified after that the Spirits in particular places were composed aright He that desires to be free from absurd Melancholy thoughts furious passions and perturbations let him take Eustomachical Benign Benevolent Remedies sufficient always to cleanse away Impurities without causing Hatred Frowardness or high Displeasure in Nature whose genuine course is to be observed without putting her to any violent stress or compulsion CHAP. X. The Pharmaceutick or upright Method of Curing Diseases by Medicines in general HOw the Galenists have been mistaken concerning the Four Elements their Mixture for the Composition of Bodies their Contrarieties Qualities Complexions deduced from thence how falsly they have delivered them to be Principles of Natural Existences and the Causes of Sickness and Health hath been perspicuously detected by our Philosophical Pyrotechnist upon this foresaid rotten Foundation have they raised their Stately and Pompous Fabrick of Curing Obstinately endeavouring still to keep it up The Rule of Contraries derived from Imaginary Supposition of the Hostility and Reluctancy of the the Four Elements whence they say all Concretes have their Original by which they chiefly act for the end to debellate Mans Infirmities hath been the bane of many Myriads Where they find any notable heat in a Feaver they presently take Indication to cool the Body in a degree proportionable to its Antagonist in hopes thereby to reduce the Body to an Eucrasie but still with unlucky success For neglecting the Radical Cause and aiming at the Abolitions of Accidents Products or Symptoms how can it be otherwise but that they must needs miss the Mark unless they hit it by casualty A Faithful Knowing Physitian is unconcern'd and indifferent whether the Patient be Hot Cold or Temperate as to the touch in a Feaver whether Thirsty or no. For asmuch as he understands the same Agent that sends forth a hot Blas doth also send sometimes a Cold from the same Matter He also frequently observes a Cold dead Splinter or Thorn doth Vex Gaul Fret the Archeus of the Finger in such a manner that the Pulse becomes above measure Magnified the Colour Rubified the Blood incensed the Heat Exalted All which arise from the Material cause of the Thorn impacted Likewise the Eye waters smarts abhors the Light looks red or inflamed from a mote or a small fragment of Glass c. Cold things by reason of the Passion of the Ingenite Spirit much provoked at the presence of the Guest so unwelcomed to life Moreover a spark of fire Essentially Hot lighting upon the hand or elswhere causes a sudden shivering Coldness all over the Body What is more frequent than to sustain a grievous Rigour or Coldness even to chattering of the Teeth from the abundance of a supposed humor called Choller analogous to Fire as they will have it Hot and Dry. On the other side how Hot and Dry have I known some Phlegmatick Bodies in Feavers even beyond Cholerick In this Case how without contradiction to their Theorems can they without lethiferous Mistakes give cooling things for the encrease of Phlegm and Hot for the advancement of Choller were not this to augment the cause of the Disease Is not this rather the very strait course to relieve the misaffected to exempt the Thorn or Splinter out of the Finger the Mote Fragment of Class out of the Eye by proper Instruments also to attenuate rarifie Phlegm to mitigate Edulcorate Retund and alter Choller by what is adaequated operative for the ablution abstersion and carrying away both Sospite Stomachi ac Naturae robore through all the most requisite Sluces of the Body This done like a true Philosophical Artist a sweet Tranquility appears in the Vitals all evil Symptoms of Heat Cold c. forthwith or in a very short time vanish Neither in this case is it of Moment whether the Remedies bringing this to pass be Hot or Cold sith as substracting the Fuel from the Fire it will quickly be extinguished so removing the occasional Matter of Heat this is soon annihilated Did the Schools rightly comprehend how Fire may be procured by the Rapid Collision of two cold incombustible solid Bodies as Stone and Steel or by the long attrition of an accensible Matter no whit hot to the touch or by the Fermentation Agitation Conglomeration or Compression of Acids and Alkali's also by Concentration of Light into a Cone or Minute Compass they would be better acquainted with the Cause of the Aestuation Effervescence and Accension of the Vital Spirits in Feavers hereby suitable Remedies might be provided When at any time the Genuine Domestick Spirits of the Microcosm and a Wild Exotick Gas meeting together do strike or grate one upon another in a confused whirled manner there strait breaks forth a preternatural heat to be corrected by Pacifying the Vitals enraged and enabling them to profligate or subjugate this hardly tameable both subtil Wild Spirit and the matter from whence it emerges which is never to be accomplished by Cooling Prescriptions but by that which pleases the Archeus indulging it exceedingly If degenerate Salts Acid or Alkali couched in a rotten Matter create Thirst or excessive Heat by framing a Tumult in the Animals whatsoever doth correct the same is to be embraced indifferently whether hot or cold 'T is enough if I can attain my Grand Intention the ablation of the Nocuous Thermopoietick Matter the Substance on which all Qualities Accidents depend If I can compass this Fundamentally why do the Galenists wilfully blind cavil and rail at my Elaborate Preparations as violently Hot Burning Drying Inflaming when they cannot but be informed that I spurning at their Silly Insignificant Qualities of Heat and Cold as to Essential Cures I Extirpate all Feavers by amotion and abandoning the Original Exciter thereof But in this state I renounce
no sooner are they received into the Stomach but part of them are rapt into the Vessels being suddenly carried into the Heart and Brain whereby the whole Body is invigorated the Vital Spirits in a Moment encreased and illuminated hereupon the Peccant Matter disturbed is profligated by Sneezing Expectoration Sweating or Transpiration by some Effloresence or Eruption in the Skin as Pimples Spots Botches c. by Stool or Urine The Truth of this as I said before is confirmed by those who making long and dangerous Voyages recover of grievous Maladies as Calentures Scurvie c. by force of a quickning Drink called Punch made of Rack or Brandy whereas formerly they were turned off as fast as rotten Sheep through that Nonsensical Method of Healing which the Doting Galenists taught the Credulous World by Cooling and Moistning Juleps In such sort hath the Authority of these Dogmatists Domineered over Mankind for many Ages past yea doth yet endeavour to uphold the same amongst us that Millions have perished by this Absurd Doctrine of Heating in Cold Diseases as likewise Cooling in Hot. However many Intelligent Subtil Wits do discover the Falacy of their Corrupt Theorems or Axioms in Physick casting away their Slibbersauces do rather chuse to trust to Holsome Well-made Strong Liquors in Feavers than their Ill-contrived Insalutiferous Weak Drossie Mixtures or Compositions I heard a Learned Gentleman of Note declare that he was Cured of a Malignant Feaver by means of Brandy Wine well construed taken in a large quantity when the Methodical Doctor of the Colledge threatning his Ruine thereby caused him to desist but for one day and take his more Temperate Prescriptions which had like to have cost him his Life if he had not fallen to his former Spirituous Liquor again For my part I am of this Judgment that 't is better for the most part to Cure Feavers after the Maritine Mode than to walk in the Customary Road of Exhibiting Medicines according to the supposed Qualities described in the London Dispensatory I le maintain Hippocr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constant moderate sumption of Strong Liquors omitting Broath Gellies Water-Gruel Spiritless Posâ—et-crink c. shall be more prevalent to rid away Feavers in general than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hodg Podg of Supernumerary Ingredients jumbled together without Discretion or serious consideration of the congruity of each one with another without seperating the precious from the vile by a Pyrotectnical Analysis of every Concrete whereby the violent Ferine powers of some things are mitigated cicurated and made Friendly to our Constitution also the singular Medical Dowrie of other Concretes are explicated exalted graduated the clog of their Terrestrial Impurities discharged hindering their Activity Who that is experimentally Intelligent would not in a sudden Lipothymie or Defection of the Spirits rather confide in the Analeptical or Refocillating Efficacie of good Wine or well Distilled Brandy than in Diascordium Venice Treacle London Treacle or any of their Confections Elect. or divers of their Potions I cannot otherwise believe but that the Benign Creator pitying the sad Condition of Man made worse by the Doctrine of Galen who never saw Aqua Vitae therefore delivered to Posterity this Gross Fulsome Fruitless Means of Curing hath in this later Decrepit Infirm Age of the World detected by the mouth of Mariners and Rusticks the use of those excellently well Distilled Spirits which these Thermologists and Psychrologists a company of Delirous Disputants about Hot and Cold Diseaseases requiring as they say Instruments of a contrary quality thereto to be applyed neglecting the Essential Nature and Radical Cure of Diseases have Suppressed to the Infinite Detriment of Mortals for many Centuries of years Now can the Indigent Sick-man without fear of over-heating his Blood threatned by these Thermologists confidently swallow a due Portion of vegetable Spirit potent to augment sometimes to admiration the paucity of the Animals enabling them to exclude some part of the Spurious Juice offending the Body like a Thorn in the side Now both Country-Men as well as Sea Men take these Spiritouus Liquors withouâ— scruple that they may quench their thirst asswage Burning Feavers keep off a fixeâ— Delirium and procure rest to the confusiâ—on of the rotten Precepts of these Ignorantly Learned Galenists Away then with these idle fopperies of taking directions of curing from Heat and Cold hereby fancying apâ—plications contrary to those Accidents wilâ— prevail seeing it is perspicuous all those endeavours come to nought unless the vital Spirit be animated to exterminate the occasional extimulating cause of Heat and Cold. It being then demonstrable that Spirits are best multiplied vigorously by Spirits with which they symbolize we ought to be solicitous concerning their preparation with a proportion to be allowed to the Archeus I find it frequent among the vulgar Chymists to boast how they can make vinous Spirits that in a considerable quantity will all burn away to the accension of Gunpowder in the bottome Having attained thus far in this process they think there remains nothing more in our Philosophy For all this if any study earnestly to 〈◊〉 as an able Physitian those Spirits made according to the common tract seeming to be reâ—ned contain in them an occult Impurityâ— some clandestine discommodity with some diâ—gustful tang sensible by the tast of our Vitals Although it be hard for the Plebeian to distinguish one from the other yet an expert Distiller knows the difference and happy effect of that which is really mundified above what seems to be so That Spirit of vegetables may be handled knowingly it behoveth the Naturalist to anatomize it pyrotechnicoôs that he may understand of what parts it consists and how useful it is According to our Philosophy an Aqua-vitae may be extracted out of all Herbaccous Plants i. e. Grass Blade Leaf Weed c. which contains an Alkali a Sulphur and some particles of an occult sub-acid Salt easily to be converted into Vineagar when it floats with a Tartareous Matter The vinous Alkali and Sulphur together exalted become a Balsamical Spirit of great force to preserve things from corruption Taken into our Bodies it is immediately changed partly into a vital Spirit suddainly conveighed by the Vessels to the Head and Heart part becomes Acid in the Stomach for the recreation or emendation of the Innate Ferment as likewise for a previous Disposition in order to a future alteration in the Intestines into a volatile Alkali by the eliquating or scouring facultie of the Gaulâ— afterward transmitted to the Kidneys it is turned into a Urinous Salt by a peculiar Ferment there implanted Lastly some portion runs into an Insipid Liquor called Latex or Lympha Thus is Salt and Sulphur of Plants which make up one Spirit pliable subactil or mutable above other ingested things into this or that form according as the Ferments of every shop of digestion please Moreover the Spirit of Plants if dextrously exercised is capable to be assimilated into all parts Continent
οÏθο-μιθοδοσ ιατâ—-χεμικη OR THE DIRECT METHOD OF Curing Chymically Wherein is conteined the Original Matter and Principal Agent of all Natural Bodies ALSO The Efficient and Material Cause of Diseases in General Their Therapeutick Way and Means I. Diaetetical by Rectifying Eating Drinking c. II. Pharmaceutick 1. By Encreasing and supporting the Vital Spirits â— By Pacifying and Indulging them 3. By Defacing or Blotting out the Idea of Diseases by Proper Specificks Lastly By removing the Extimulating or Occasional Cause of Maladies To which is added The ART of MIDWIFERY Chymically Asserted The CHARACTER of an ORTHO-CHYMIST And PSEVDO CHYMIST A Description of the Sanative Virtues of our STOMACH-ESSENCE Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Just Complaint of the METHOD of the GALENISTS By GEORGE THOMSON M. D. Plurimi Morbi cedunt per Simplicia â—st ubi Morbus in Gradum surrexit altiora exiguntur Remedia V. Helm London Printed for B. Billingsley at the Printing-press in Cornhill S. Crouch at the upper end of Popes-Head-Alley 1675. The Epistle Dedicatory To the Most Illustrious PRINCE RUPERT DVKE of Cumberland EARL of Holderness KNIGHT of the most Noble Order of the Garter and one of His MAIESTIE 'S most Honourable Privy Councel c. May it please your Highness IT was once my Happyness in the late Wars to be under the MARTIAL CONDUCT of your Renowned BROTHER PRINCE MAVRICE Beloved by all Loyal Generous Spirits for his Valour and Prudence Now I bless the Heavens that promise me the Benevolent Aspect of your Candid Mercurial Genius upon these Chymical Labours which I humbly present to the View of your Piercing Eye most able to make an In pection into the Verity of Things arising from Pyrotechnie and Manufacture My Thoughts did heretofore seem to be settled never to Dedicate for the future a Writing of mine to any whomsoever yea I had continued in that mind to expose Truth abroad solitary to shift for it self conceiving it best able to maintain her own Propriety but that hearing it frequently discoursed in most Company I met with how ardently your Highness was devoted to serve the Nation for Publick Good What a Philomathes and Philalethes Sincere Lover and Defender you were of Essential Truths and Ingenious Arts in General especially Mechanical Pyrotechnical Operations an Assertor of Experimental Optical and Sensible Effects Fruits and Products of things and that for this Reason you had an extraordinary Kindness for our most Excellent Philosopher Van Helmont your Country-man I fortwith affected with these Rare Endowments altered my former Intentions resolving now to make my Address to such a Mecaenas for the discussion of these our Chymical Problemes by Fact whose Head is known to be endowed with Subtil Inventions Indefatigable Inquiry after Rarities and Arcana's whose Heart is full of Integrity Heroick Designs Magnanimity and Hands most active in contriving Exquisite Works and Daedalean Mechanicks Wherefore Truly Noble SIR be pleased to accept of this Oblation which hath its chief Original from Pyrotechnie And according as you find it bear the Test Entertain or Reject it The Sum of this Physical Tract is a Practical Discovery of the Notable Errours of the Galenists Avouching that their Principles in Physiologie are False that they are Ignorant of the Quiddity Essence or the True Radical Essential Cause of all Diseases That they are grosly to seek in the Direct Method or shortest Way of Curing them That the Indications or Measures they take from Heat and Cold applicating upon that ground according to the Rule of Contraries their Indicata or Remedies are both Fraudulent and Pestilent to Mortals That their Unacquaintance with the Synthâ—sis or Constitution of the Vital Spirit the Cause of its Rage and Perturbation from somthing very offensive to it wherepon the Image of a Disease is delineated is the Reason why they thus neglect to support Nature as they ought to allay its Tempests to deface Morbisick Idea's by Specificks Lastly being altogether Occupied about the Cutting off the Accidents Qualities Epigenomena Symptoms and Products of Evils by Bleeding and Purging they are insufficient to Cure Directly Immediately and Radically any great Malignant Feaver Pleurisie c. The Boon I beg of your Highness is not to suffer the Truth to be abused through the Collusions Sophistical Evasions Equivocations Supplantations Scurrilous Language and Affronts of our Antagonists but that there may be a plain Judicious Determination of these Controversies according to the clear Evidence of Fact and the Reality of Experiments For which the Genuine Professors of this Philosophical Chymical Art will be bound to Celebrate your Praises to all Posterity Your Highness Faithful Servant George Thomson THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Dear Countrey-man IF thou beest a hearty Lover of truth and a Solid Genuine English-man no Phantastical Affecter of the Levity of this Age enter upon the Reading of this Treatise without Prejudice or Partiality Having perused it give the World freely thy Iudgment concerning it Object what thou canst like a Candid Philalethes no Caviller or Wrangler but still let thy most rectified Reason and firm Experience be as inseparable as Hippocrates his Twins always giving place to the Latter If thou censure me harshly not giving me leave to clear my self by the assured Evidence of Action I shall absolutely deny thee to be one called a Virtuosi pretend it never so much or a Friend to the Lord Bacon Here is no Hot Fruitless Disputation about things Indifferent in Religion No subtil Pleading by Covin or Collusion as often happens in the Law Nothing Historical or Traditional to be subscribed to for Antiquity or Authority sake Here is no deceitful Conclusions or Captious Argumentations fitting for the Schools Nor Acribology an exact discussion of Matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little Serviceable or Vseful in the General becoming some Virtuosi at this day No Logomachie an Idle Velitation or Contention about Words the Exercise of Pedanticks But in this Enchiridium is cortained that which will Teach you directly to enjoy Health of Body and Consequently more Integrity and Clarity of Mind For Animi Actiones Spirituum Synthesin Eupathiam vel Dyspathiam Eutoniam vel Atoniam sequuntur By this means you will Learn to be Cautious how you impair Nature either for the present or future by the false Method of Bleeding Caco-stomachick Purging c. If you be capable to receive this Doctrine not onely your self but your Posterity will fare the better By Virtue of this Goddess Sanity thou mayst Atchieve Noble Exploits either keeping off or bearing more Couragiously all the Adverse strokes of Fortune enjoying hereby a far more Happy Life in the Lowest Condition than they in the most Prosperous State Tormented with the Stone Gout c. In this Paper I Counsel thee to keep up thy Spirits the Principal Efficient Cause of Health and Sickness by multiplying them with what is most nigh their Texture by Pacifying their Rage and Fury with pleasing Objects indulging their frowardness
Archeus or Vital Aire takes notice of it and being incensed it frames in it self some Ill-favoured Dark Images agreeable to the Cause Offensive According to this Model or Proportion it Acts never ceasing to follow the Copy or Draught of the Malady made by its own Activity in a certain determinate quantity of it self even to its own great damage and destruction unless the Character of the Disease be blotted out or the Archeus pacified and diverted by some pleasing Object or the External Vexing Occasion removed Those Defunct Excrements or Superfluities separated from Life never to be rconciled to it are most tedious and noisome to the Vital Spirits wherefore becoming impatient they Rage Fret Chafe at the presence of so unwelcome Guests Hereupon they stir upon the Ferments or Instrumental Transfigurators to become disordered sometimes to cause a Confusion Tumult Boiling and Huffing in the Juices whereby a Feaver is kindled sometimes to produce Congelation of the Blood otherwhile to turn it into sharp gauling Liquor causing many long Calamities Now the Filth or Dregs lodging in our Bodies are not Diseases themselves but stir up the Archeus to create those Evils we are liable to These are either Antecedent Causes of our Maladies or they are Products and Consequents stirring up Secondary Calamities accompanied with various Symptoms Accidents Dispositions and Alterations Moreover the Miseries of our Bodies do now and then begin from an Invisible Immaterial Occasion imprinting in our Phansies a lively Character of a Disease which converting the Good Juices into Bad both Foment the present Evil also excite the Vitals to procreate more Mischiefs through the Contagion of a Seed implanted in the Life That the Phansie can out of a Non Ens or Nothing frame Hoc Aliquid or something of this or that Species is evident in Women with Child who upon earnest longing after Fruit c. or some sudden Terrour make the Idea or Figure of what they greatly Covet or are terrified at in their Spirits which conveied to the Womb is absolutely conformed in that part of the Child which answers to the place the Woman at that instant touched when she was so passionately affected Withal this Plant or Living Creature pictured in the Skin shall express all those remarkable Alterations Defections Vigour and Maturation that the Real Type or Example of what is shaped is subject to at certain times of the year Thus 't is plain that the Spirits being exalted excited or put into a vehement Motion through any notable Passion can fashion that bringing it to visible Light on the Superficies of the Skin which before lay hid within Wherefore I doubt not there is as perspicuous a Signaturi of every Disease in the Spirits as the Platform of the Plant to be produced in a Bean divided The Principle Difference being that the one is more Spiritual the other Corporeal The Seminal Figure then of all Diseases made in the Spirit of Life is the only Efficient Active Cause of their Being Likewise some Degenerate Portion of the Spirit wherein the Calamitie is as it were stamped separated from that which remains in its Integrity becomes the Material Subject thereof That 't is the Blast of Life which conceives and brings forth all manner of Evils is most evident seeing no Dead Body is capable of Sickness this being the true only Reason to be given that the Principal Contriveâ— thereof viz. the Archeus or Vital Spirit is wanting For the Forbidden Fruit which Adam took into his Stomach having a Power inserted into it of stirring up Lust or Concupiscence The Omnipotent for that Reason giving Advertisement to Man not to meddle with was appropriated and applicated by means of the Animal Spirits to the Immortal Soul whereby it presently sets up Images of filthy Diseases forthwith entertaining the Sensual Soul common to all Beasts being then so continuing to this day the Fundamental Cause of all Calamities I assert the Irregular Imagination of the Living Spirit of Man in the Stomach chiefly the Brain and every Part besides doth first set on work every Infirmity seizing upon us which at first seems very inconsiderable but in process through the uncessant Motion of the First Mover it arrives to a great Height of Malignity as appears by various sad Symtoms Accidents and Products to be distinguished precisely from the Substantial Being of Diseases For Example A Stone in the Kidneys Bladder or elsewhere likewise any congealed Matter or Cancrous hollowness are not Diseases but the Products Effects or Fruits thereof The Petrifying Imaginary Seed closely seated in the Archeus is that which first laid the Foundation of the Stone carrying the same on as it began to full growth so that although the Stone be removed out of the Kidneys as long as there remains that stonifying Seed or invisible Beginning the Person before rid of this hard Concretion may ere long if the Idea the Principle of the Congealing be not absolutly brought to naught or blotted out be vexed tortured or crucified with the like deformed Matter again That the Archeus should be put into such a disturbance or Passion through any disorders in Diet c. as to frame within its own Bowels such a dreadful unhandsome Substance is to be lamented but that the Seminal Character of the Stone should be contrived fomented born with us taking deep root as we grow up is far more deplorable For Diseased Seminal Ideas derived from the Matrice are hardly to be razed out they are so incorporated with our Constitutes challenging as great priviledge to act their part upon the Stage of this Little World in an uniform Manner and Dress though depraved as Nature in its Integrity directed by wholsome Images performs all things orderly according to just proportion and approved Rules of Sanity At that very time when the chief Author moulds the Seed containing the shadowed Likeness of what is to be made capable of a perfect Form doth the same Workmaster draw the Pourtraiture of those manifold Mischiefs which happen to Body and Mind many years after So fixed are those Hereditary Miseries that although the whole Mass of every Numerical Part of the Body be changed again and again yet the Radical Tincture or dye of the Congenite Disease shall remain ready to put forth it self flourish spread into various Branches and Fruits when the full time is come that it meets with an Outward Cause to stir it up This is demonstrable in the Gout the Stone Consumption Madness Small Pox c. whose Images for some years lie as it were asleep till they be roused up through some Provocative Occasions The Idea's of Evils which the Archeus contrives when we are come out of the Womb abroad in the open Aire are flitting may easily be blurred wiped off by a stronger Figure these often interfeering each other at length clash together and both become annihilated Infinite are the Number of Idea's or Representations made by a Working Phansie some of which are no sooner
is saturated with abundant Exhalations Let him beware to eat unless his Appetite invites him then not till he be glutted Commedat non quidem ad repletionem cavitatis Stomachi nec ad voluptatis sive gustus dictamen 'T is the misery of many to have better Appetites than Nigestions which is the frequent cause that many raw Juices are contracted the Body becoming more clogged ponderous and indisposed to stir for if no more Food be taken in than can be throughly altered Excrementitious Superfluitieâ— being sent packing insensibly one will continue the same weight or little different many mornings togehter if otherwise any Caput Mort or Dreggy substance remain behind indigested the Spirits become Dull Cloudy and Obscure and the whole Mass Lumpish and Heavy Mastication an exact chewing of what we eat doth exceedingly avail to a happy Digestion for he that hastily gobleth in his Food had need to have a Cormorants or an Ostritch's Dissolvent in his Stomach Variety of Dishes is a Lure to make us Eat more than ordinary and a means to pester the Stomach with more than it can Digest to make a confusion in the separation so that which is raw being blended with what is duly changed both are thrown off without Distinction The plainest simple Home-bred Food is generally to be preferred for holsomness before the fine pampering curiously-dressed far-fetched Dainties Beef Mutton rightly prepared before Partridges Pheasants c. Brown Bread Leavened before White That Tyrannical Severe Overbusie Precepts the Galenists enjoyn their Patients is to be rejected for misere vivit qui medice vivit To be rigidly kept from what is Lawful and Useful for want of fitting Remedies is little better than a Turkish Slavery Celsus his Rule Not to be much solicitous or curious in Diet supposed some measure be observed is to be embraced by every man who enjoys a competent Health Yea sith they who are oppressed with any great Sickness Nature becoming prostrate subject to the Dominion of the Enemy can never be cured by the strictest Government in their Food Therefore even those when the Maladie shall meet with Remedies able to over power it ought to take liberty to gratifie their Appetite and sometimes to indulge their Genius more liberally than ordinary with what it is greatly affected For how often hath it been known the thing the Physitian hath sternly forbidden upon pain of Death that the same being either secretly stoln by the Patient or privately offered by the Nurse or some Friends hath proved the unexpected Means to make Nature Mistress of the Disease the Vital Spirits hereby highly exalted at the presence of that which doth so match their Inclination and vehement Longing in so much that they have taken Courage and scattered those black clouds of mischievous Idea's entertaining instead thereof clear bright Images tending to health It is no small prudence in a Physitian to examine to what Diet the sick person hath accustomed bimself for saith Hippo. Quarum rerum inveteravit Consuetudo quamvis deteriores sint illae minus tamen insuetis male afficiunt Aphor. 5. lib. 2. In this case we ought sometimes not so punctually to stand upon what is Holsome as what is Customary nor is this any Argument to allow of Poison Chaulk Tobacco Tiles or Coles which some to Admiration have frequently devoured in great quantity without a mortal Event But the question is what Indifferent Food may be commended dispensed and afforded to the Infirm in relation to custome and a strong desire with a capacity of digesting it for these Considerations laid aside it were by no means to be granted In Conclusion I advise that Curiosity Severity Nicety in Diet be laid aside that the Physitian as well as the Patient insist upon what the Importunity of the Appetite dictâ—tes the Custome of any Food doth urge â—nd the largness of Digestion may permit â—or what is earnestly desired doth conduce to â— better Alteration what is well Altered doth encrease the Vitals otherwise it doth â—ut strengthen the Disease weaken Nature It is as possible that flesh thrown into the â—ennel should not corrupt lying there long â—s that food taken into a stomach deprived in greatest part of its Dissolvent or Ferment â—hould not Cadaverate or Putrifie whereupon the former Calamity is augmented by anoâ—her Not how much we eat but what is accuâ—ately prepared in this Vital Kitchen is chiefâ—y to be considered Veins Arteries Nerves Ligaments Gristles Bones are all beholding â—he Blood and Spirits for their happy subsistâ—nce and those to the Stomach Wherefore 〈◊〉 any aim at a comfortable life ut sit mens saâ—a in corpore sano let him avoid excess in â—oâ—d and liquid Diet but especially the first â—et him endeavour so far to understand himâ—elf or be governed by those who are knowâ—ng her in that no more ought to be put inâ—o this Membranous Body than what it 's able â—o convert into a laudable substance for the â—ood of the whole Neither let any one â—hink to be rightly instructed by the Galenists sith they prescribe a Diet according to false Suppositions of Heat and Cold Recollaeâ— nowhere active of themselves in the producing any vital Ens But let the upright Philosophical Chymist be heard who gives Counsel according as the Spirits and their Instruments shall dictate Hereby no considerable Eerror can be committed in the Superstructure as long as the Foundation is so strong CHAP. V. THe next thing Diaetetical to be considered tending to the bene esse or Wellfare of mans life is Evacuation of what is Superfluous or Excrementitious and the Retention of a Salubrious and Friendly Matter for the Sustentation of a commodious prosperous Health That all Foulness in no wise to be taken into the custody of the Vitals may be discharged Secretion or Separation is to be made of Good from Bad of Pure from Impure by the Active Separator the Archeus for when any thing rejectaneous is thrown off promiscuously with any laudable Sudstance fitting to be conserved many inconveniencies follow as is frequently observed by the more acute Physitians in Haemorrhagies or Fluxes both natural and Artificial for what can be more absurd than â—o cast away the Wheat with Chaff the Spirit of Wine with the stinking dreggy Sulphur Now Superfluities the more they are rarefied and volatilized by kindly Ferments the â—ooner they are difflated or sent packing by Respiration and Transpiration through the habit of the Body without the least remainder of a gross Dregg in which if it fail there forthwith follows a declination from Integriâ—y a brisk sound constitution of body becoming according to Statica Medicina a little more dull and ponderous if then a considerable quantity of this filthy setling be accumuâ—ated the occasional cause of a disease is hatching which if not timely prevented breaks forth actually disturbing the Oeconomy of â—his admirable Frame Wherefore due caution is to be taken that we ingest not any thing not capable to be digested
Enemy shortly withers I grant the Dogmatists own the use of Specificks affirming that they substantially and formally resist the Evils of Life For all that 't is well known to the Faithful Philosopher how little they trust to them being conscious to themselves how ieiune and barren they are therein never profoundly to a purpose examining this Ideal Doctrine or putting it to the Test of Solid Learned repeated Experiments as they ought but rather trusting to what Good-wives have Taught them who Happily deprived of their false Methods slighting their Hodg podg Bolmong Non-sensical jumbling together of multitude of Ingredients looking Ninety nine ways at once but in no wise at the right Mark led by their own Genius put to some difficulties moved to pity their Neighbours Languors simply looked upon by them with a sincere Eye of Healing without that chief Sordid Mercenary End our Galenical Hucksturs or Ingrossers drive at have been by Divine Providence conducted to the knowledge of those Specificks that have beyond expectation made a Metamorphosis of the Infirmity into Sanity To the Rude contingent Essays of the Plain Candid Immethodical People are our Fine-finger'd Disingenuous Methodical Galenists beholding hardly affording a Mantissa of their own Experimental Discoveries to the weight of Direct Immediate Scheme of Curing This is the Reason we have so few Patterns of Antidotes in this kind sufficient to annihilate those Venemous Characters made by multitude of dayly Occurrent Occasional Causes such is the Laziness of these Antichymists that they will neither labour themselves nor encourage Industrious men Their Main study is to disguise themselves that they may rather seem than be truly Philosophical wherefore like the worst of Thieves stealing Pretious Truths out of Van Helm or his Legitimate Disciples they conceal them by dressing them in a strang Habit thus bring them upon the Stage of the world to be Admired as the Off-spring of their own Head and Hand whereas indeed they are but meerly Surreptitious for which they ought severely to be animadvâ—rted especially for Cavilling and Carping at this Noble Philosopher to whom they owe what Orthodox Knowledge they have Of this Crime I know some cryed up by the Ignorant for great Spagyrists who as I can expressly shew hath pillaged our Philosopher of Substantial Physical Verities changed their Name cut out their Mark put on a larg fine Coat of Rhetorick to make them look more gaudy so exposed them to Sale at the Phantastical Fairs of this Foolishly Affecting willingly to be deceived World Now let us find out if possible some Rare Gifts Instilled into the Creatures by the Conditor of all things These are fitly to be divided into three Monarchies or Republicks each one bound to act according to that Power they are subject to viz. Animal Vegetable Mineral to which is added Marine CHAP. XV. AMong the Tribe of Animals with their Parts the Spirit of the blood of Man blots out the Idea of the Falling-sickness which the Spirit of Urine in every respect besides equal with the former cannot effect The Pouder of the Skul of a Man strangled is reputed a Specifick in the Epilepsie The Spirit of the Brain is valued after the same rate To drink his own Urine preserveth from the Image of the Pest. The repeated Potation of Urine cures the Tertian and makes the Seminal Character to fade away The Uterine Blood of a Child-bed Woman drank hath an excellent faculty to stop immoderate Fluxes of the Womb arising from a furious Idea The Blood flowing from the Nose stops excessive Haemorrhagies Menstruum Virginis extinguisheth Erysipelas Blood Extravsated or quitture hath a Sympathetical Sense diffusing Beams at a great Distance towards the Vital Blood causing Idea's Sanative or Corruptive in Wounds or Ulcers according as Moderate or Violent Impresses are made upon the Matter removed from the Body The Gaul of Man correcteth Deafness The Mumy of Mans Body duly prepared acts strangly upon the Innate Spirits Ferments and Idea's for saith our Philosopher Nec etenim tutum est satis Mumiarum ad invicem connexum concordantiam exprimere inde nempe tota dimanavit Necromantia veterum A man may presume to dive too far into this abstruse Philosophy to his own prejudice imitating the Necromancy of the Antients Without Controversie the true Mumy operates notably upon the Morbifick Seal enabling the Spirits to abolish it to make salutiferous Images in place of the former But it is not to be purchased sincere at this day nor a succedaneum thereto for that liquor as it is described was of a thick Mellaginous consistence of good Odour of singular Efficacy proceeding from the Balsome of Myrrhe Aloe Cinamon with which they seasoned Mans Body Ours at this day is of a different form to the right Being only a Cadaverous Liquamen or a piece of Flesh Condited and dryed very little significant for the cure of any great Disease The Fat of Man wants not its worth as a Topick in removing weak troublesome tormenting Marks made on certain parts of the Body The Fat of Man enters into the Weapon Salve for the advancement thereof To what Nefarious Impious uses Witches put the parts of Mans Body for the execution of their horrid Enterprizes is known to those who have enquired into Natural Magical Causes of things The same parts of Man differently handled may destroy their wicked villanous Bewitching Idea's by introducing Good Moral Divine Religious Representations 'T is vulgarly known how Fasting-spittle doth take off some Griefs not so much by power of a volatile Salt in it as by a gift conferred of spoiling the Stigma in the part affected Ear-wax cometh not short thereof in Energie The Spirit of Hair applyed causeth Hair to grow Man's Dung is reported to be an Adaequate Antidote for mortifying the terrible Idea of some Poysons The great Tooth of a Dead Body placed upon an aking Tooth causeth it to fall out by bare contact Van. Hel. affirms Morientium sudor mirificas vires mortificandi Haemorrhoides excrescentias possidet p. 233. The Sweat of a Dying Man destroys the form of the swelling of the outward Piles and other Excrescenscies A Dead-mans hand caused to stroke the same acts in like manner Lice swallowed alive diminisheth as is confirmed by some experimentally the Tincture of the Jaundice and sometimes totally removes the steps thereof Intestinal Worms dried poudered taken inwardly destroy the Figure of living Worms Lice are said to rid away Lice Some declare the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder prudently Ordered by an Expert Pyrosophist marreth the fashion of the Duelech loosening the Compage thereof making it become Retrograde to the Principle of it's first Concretion There are some who have such an Idiosyncrasie or peculiar Constitution of Body that upon Contact Palpation or stroaking another Living Body they change the Texture of the same alter a valetudinary Melancholy stamp to a wholsome Chearful Image And I doubt not but some Infected with the Venereal Poysonous sting
to defaecate throughly the Sulphur of ♠that it may be at the Command and beck of Nature exterminating whatsoever annoys without blemishing the Ferments Let him Marry the well purified Sulphur of ♠to the sweet Sulphur of a Vegetable entertaining both into a delectable Bath He ought also to digest ♠with an Alkali afterward to extract a high Tincture subservient to Nature in cleansing sweeping away filth or dregs in the Body making a Happy alteration in the Texture of degenerate Juices The Red and Citrine Sulphur of ♠made by praecipitation well sweetned with the Alcohol of Wine afterward intimately joyned with a Solar Sulphur fulfills the dictates of Nature in proscribing per loca Commoda without damnifying the stomack whatsoever is Rebellious Conspiring against Life stirring up the Archeus to Indignation Bezoard Mincra Solar Luna Iovial may be so coyned and such a stamp set upon them that they may safely and effectually agitate the Morbifique Matter Hunting Chasing it every way without offering Injury to the Noble parts or leaving an Evil Tang behind The Yellow Sulphur of ♠like the Common likewise it 's Cinnabar worked upon Philosophically will bring to pass the former End powerfully Out of the Flowers Regul Glass of ♠may be extracted harmless gentle Emeticks Cathart Diaphoret Diureti always leaving an Euphorie and Euphrasie behind ☿ Well nigh fixed with ☉ or ☽ doth assist Nature to disturb Ferret profligate vitious lentous stubborn coagulated foulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Relevation Our Emetocathar Emeto Diaphore Powder or Pill our Bezoar Powder as I can fabricate it by the Adjunct of ☉ or ☽ take part with Nature to help it to Conquer great Evils excluding the Nosopoietick Thorns and Bryars those Goads in the sides of the Archeus extimulating it to Extravagant Passions through the Sluce or Out-let most patulous and Convenient Withal they sweeten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any extream Acid mortifie malignant Idea's of the Scurvy c. taming great acute Griefs safely generally affording Solace This they Act whether they Vomit Purge or no keeping in it's Integrity what is sound and meliorating what is depraved Our Emetick Tincture is endued with the same Excellency with the former but Operates more insensibly and with somewhat more Advantage to the Vital strength Our Pil. Polychrest causeth an Eutony in the stomack helps Digestion purifieth the Blood dilates Coarctations or Constrictions opens Passages Obstructed dam'd up with gross congealed stuff which it attenuateth abstergeth It allays Edulcorates sharp fretting Liquors It sweetly dischargeth any thing noxious through the Intestines Kidneys Gullet Wind-pipe and Skin with Augmentation of the strength without impairing the Ferments or Offending the Parts He that possesseth this Pill need very seldom prescribe a Glyster I my self have taken many Thousands and given multitudes of them to others to the diminution of that stubborn Infirmity the Scurvy the Advancement of the Vital Faculty much suppressed thereby Common Sulphur Sublimed with ♂ is no contemptible cleanser away of Impurities Lodged about the Hypochondries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Colocynth Scamon Elateri The Root of Esul Hellebo Alb. digested with a most refined Mineral Sulphur and Salt of Tart Volati so that their Poysons become introverted evade Friendly Catharticks Diaphoret Diureti sufficient to assist the Archeus to subjugate Ferine Refractory Diseases Syrma Ortho Chymicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE ART of MIDWIFERY Chymically Asserted WHat Calamity Exorbitant Passions and dreadful Pains of the Womb succeeded the depravation of the Stomack by Lustful Fruit How at this day each Membranous Body darts Benevolent or Malevolent Aspects one upon another reciprocally according as they are well or ill affected is known to the Theological Physitian These two Membranous Vessels contain the Seminal Cause of those innumerable Infirmities belonging to Woman-kind double to Man sith according to Plato she harbours as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To find out Remedies adequately effectual to amend the Irregularities and Extravagant Motions of this Uterine Animal requires a most expert Philosopher but to appease or tame sometimes it 's furious Raging Commotions will put one upon the search of something Magical He that thinks any Galenist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professing Midwifery Exercising a Function herein to be sufficiently furnished with Abilities for that purpose is meerly led by the Opinion of the World not by solid Reasons and Repeated Experiments For I can prove it in the General Impossible ex Facto if I were put to it that any but the Legitimate Chymist can Relieve or Cure Uterine Calamities safely gratefully effectually and speedily The truth of what I here deliver time will make perspicuous When I was first called to this Science of Physick I was Advised to apply my Studies in especial manner to the Art of Midwifery which I easily listned to being captivated with considerable gain amounting thereby apprehending it principally a Manual Operation not difficultly to be attained But my modesty and second thoughts of aspiring to a more ample Knowledge in Physick took me off And well it so happened according to Divine Providence sith had I insisted upon that Subject I had neither been any whit an Experienced Physitian nor skilful in the Feat of obstetricating For I plainly discovered afterward that to one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Child-bed Labour who justly called for the Hand of any Man with his Chirurgical Instruments upon the Account of a Dead Child or the preposterous indirect Position of the Living Hundreds required the help of a Learned Chymist affording proper Remedies for the Assistance of the Vitals of the Mother and Child to the End that this great Work of Happy partitude or Delivery might be performed as it ought Wherefore the accomplished Chymist who can Vindicate his Analeptica Antipyreta Antihysterica and Anodyna far transcending the Galenical Preparations in all stubborn Maladies whatsoever ought to be especially consulted with when sorrows of bringing forth infest the Miserable Woman Many remarkable Histories to this purpose could I relate the space of Eighteen years wherein I have observed a constant redress of those grievous unprofitable pangs to follow the Oblation of our Pharmacie without the production of preter-natural Heat or any other bad Symptom Moreover most Parturients or Child-bed-Women Miscarry by reason of Irregular Dyet through Malignant Feavers arising from the Scurvy retention of the Lochia rash restriction of Enormontick sweats indiscreet Management of the Milk as happened to my own Wife who after the Pestilential Feaver was Mastred by proper Antidotes was destroyed by the Ignorance of a Midwife applying to the Mamillary Emunctory a Topick which in a dozen hours caused a total Anadrome of the virulent Milk toward the Center whereupon a great Coagulation of the Blood followed Haemoptysis the privation of a commodious Universal Sweat Dyspnaea and other direful Accidents In all these Exigents the Learned Iatrical Chymist not the Noso-Poietick Galenist ought to be sought unto for Advice Had I
specified yea although they seem to be Singular yet may they be severed into diversity of parts E. G. Sulphur which to the eye appears to be all of one Frame may be brought into a sharp corroding Liquor the same also may be brought into liquid Balsome or into an Earthy Pouder Out of Sallad Oyl a Corrosive Liquor may be made besides it may without any difficulty be altered into VVater Salts may be turned into an Oyly Substance then after become Insipid Mercury doth as Van Helmont and Experience testifie consist of a double Sulphur Inward and Outward This being capable to be separated from it by Art CHAP. II. Of the Efficient Cause or Primary Agent of all Sublunary Bodies THe Best Philosophy teaches us that alâ— Constitutes have their Material Beginning from VVater How this Liquor comes to be diversified into innumerable kind of Substances is further to be enquired The first alteration of this fluid Body is made by a Sulphureous Ferment giving a Hogo to it whereby a Seminal Spirit is excited to dispose and mould the Matter into a Form agreeable to that Image or Type iâ— hath laid That which doth chiefly occasion and further the Fermentation of VVater is some secret Acide or Sharpness proceeding from the Aire or elswhere This insinuating closely unites with the Alkali in the VVater whence ariseth an Agitation or VVorking commonly observed when these two meet together consequently the Watery Particles are exceedingly rarified acquiring a certain peculiar scent which they carry along with them infecting the whole Mass wherein they reside hereupon the Archeus or Vital Spirit breaks forth into Act containing in it the true Seminal Idea or Picture of the thing capable to receive its Form and Perfection CHAP. III. Concerning the Aitiologie Efficient Immediate and Material Cause of all Diseases WHat the Antients generally and some at this day call the Conjunct or immediate Cause of Diseases I shall with most knowing Helmont assign to be the Occasional Provoking or Incensing Forasmuch as whosoever desires to enquire into the Nature of things aright ought to be informed concerning the very Being of the same as it relates to that which made it so Now no Disease can have any Subsistence Mansion or Lodging place but in a Body endued with a Vital Spirit albeit in the Dead the Four Humours of the Galenists and the three Principles of the Chymists be not wanting For this Reason the Archeus or Spirit must of Necessity be the nighest Fundamental Beginning of all Maladies whatsoever For as our Health depends upon this Living Spirit when it is in all respects duly constituted without any considerable defect in it so Sickness ariseth when the same Preserver of Strength is depraved or estranged from that Clearness Proportion and Regularity which ought to be in it Those Degenerate or Bastard Juices engendered through manifold Errors in the Helmontion six Digestions especially the First are only means to put the Living Spirit into Perturbation Vexation and Inordinate Motions whereby it frames Images of Evils according to the Condition of the Troublesome Abusive Intruding Guest So that in short the Seed of this or that Disease with an absolute Pattern how it is to be acted is planted in this first Founder of the whole Fabrick the Grief being as inseparable from the Vital Spirit as Life it self yea it is even concentrated or seated in the very middle point thereof and never to be separated therefrom till the Kernel wherein this Diseased Image is drawn be extinct and quite abolished This Doctrine may seem strange to those who are unacquainted with the Writings of our Profound Philosopher however so great is the Truth thereof that 't is impossible any one should either Prevent or Cure Diseases to a purpose unless he be well Disciplined in this Solid Knowledge Hence it is that Opinionative Doctors do so often blunder and mistake in Healing any Rooted Infirmities because they either insist upon their four Aristotelian Elements and Humours Analogous to them as Choler Phlegm Melancholy Blood with the Distemper coming from thence or take their false Measure of Curing from the Principles I mentioned before borrowed of the Chymists which some will have to be the next Cause of Diseases whereas they being present only vex gaul bring into divers Passions the Archeus whereupon that which before did perform all things requisite in the Body decently and in order is now become tumultuous acting in an inconvenient preposterous manner By this means the Ferment or Dissolvent in the Stomach produces many Raw Juices Fretting Liquors which congeal the Blood or melt it into filthy Matter then follows a detention of Excrements or a profuse indiscreet throwing out good and bad also a Specifick Poison is created proportionable to those without hence a Crowd of sad Symptoms appear Wherefore I repeat the great cause why the Galenists have been so unsuccessful in their Curing is because they did not truly distinguish between Prevocative Occasional and the Essential inseparable Cause between the Concomitants Accidents Products and Consequents of Humane Calamities For while they conclude a Feaver to be principally Heat they have thereby taken a false Indication or Instructions to free the Body from that Affliction neglecting to blot out the Image of the Sickness to appease the enraged Vitals and to remove the Vexatious Thorny Degenerate Dead Juices without empairing Nature wronging the Stomach or offering any Violence to any shop ordained for Digestion They may plainly perceive if Sordid Gain did not blind them 't is labour in vain to Purg Bucketfuls of Choler and Melancholy which they suppose to be the Conjunct united Cause of the Evil to let out great quantity of Blood from the Limbs for the Cure of the Scurvie c. sith generally the Patient is more weakened and his Evil oftentimes more confirmed hereby Assuredly did they set Nature upon her Legs when she is either sitting or prostrate under any Calamity she would soon conquer her Enemy which kept her in Subjection Would they but follow Hippocrates who taught them that Naturae sunt Morborum Medicatrices they would speedily renounce Bleeding and Feeble Hurtful Purgatives to be looked upon as Contrivers and Factors of filthy Matter which the Expulsive Power stirred up casts out with the Poison So that in reality the Common Way of Purging is only like Pumping without stopping the Leak For as Hippo. delivers 't is not how much but what is cleansed away doth good the Occasional Exciting Peccant Fermenting Matter being often very small as to its bulk Humane Sickness hath a Spiritual beginning Progress State and Declination arising from a Seed as all other things therefore they have a Real Entity consisting of an Efficient and Material Cause both seated â—n the Spirit of Life Active and Passive in Contriving its own Ruine when at any time it is disturbed through any outward Accident When any thing very injurious to Nature approaches from without or is engendered within our Bodies the