and subdue Diseases if they stand not right in the general Catalogue there to be found and truly distinguished inquiries after them and means intended against them will be disappointed Setting forth Diseases in their due Classes is the Basis of Practice if the first general divisions be false the subdivisions contained under them must needs be wrong and such Errors runs through and perverts the whole Practice of this Art as will appear when we examine the Diseases of the several Regions of the Body and in them the Diseases of particular Parts Nor is it barely an Error of denomination but a fundamental Error making that a Disease which is not and the whole Prosecution Erroneous Morbus Similaris there is no such thing in Nature nor praeter naturam This first division therefore of the General Catalogue containing Similar Difeases I must strike quite out as not being capable to stand amongst the number of Diseases being not of that Tribe but appertaining elsewhere and otherwise denominated more truly and thus one third of Diseases have injuriously been added But to sentence the Judgments and Approbations of former Ages and the concurrence of the Learned of this present time without sufficient Reasons and good Proof would incur a censure Res praeter naturam sunt tres Morbus morbi causa Symptoma There are three things preternatural most considerable and rightly to be distinguished else great Errors in Practice will arise from thence viz. The Morbific Cause the Disease and the Symptom The Morbific Cause generates a Disease the Disease beg ets Symptoms All Preternaturals are comprised under these three Heads or reduceable thereto Then Qualities Preternatural must fall into one of these Classes but to which of them they belong to is the question in hand If Qualities preternatural do affurge from Morbific Causes and Diseases as the Effects thereof then Qualities cannot be Diseases But Qualities preternatural are so produced ergo the Major Proposition needs no Proof the Minor appears plainly thus Qualities being Accidents have no existence of themselves separately but are dependant upon Substantial Causes both in their Natural and Preternatural State So that Qualities act not but by the vertue and power of their Substances on which they depend and issue from Therefore when they are unduely exalted preternaturally they are instrumental subsequent and attendant upon Diseases and Morbific Causes as the product thereof Secondly That which is but a Symptom of a Disease is no Disease But Qualities preternatural are Symptoms Ergo the Minor Proposition I prove from the definition of a Symptom Symptoma est Accidens praeternaturam Morbum sequens velut umbra Corpus In this definition are qualities preternatural comprised Cui convenit definitio ei convenit definitum as properly belonging to the Tribe of Symptoms and that they are so I shall single out one of your Principal Similar Diseases Intemperies calida a hot Distemper and shew you that this Quality in excess is plainly a Symptom assurging from and depending upon a Substantial cause Natural Heat is a signal of humane Life and quite cold is one sign of a dead Body So that Heat appears and disappears as the Life is present or absent and shewing the State thereof If that be temperate the vital Principle which is the Life is placid and quiet but when intemperate Heat appears the vital governing Principle is disturb'd in its oeconomy aestuates and grows hot as offended by some Morbous cause So that Heat riseth and falls with the state and condition of the vital Principle and is a Symptom and effect thereof signally declaring Intemperies calida this hot Intemperature is not cannot be called a Disease but is the Symptom dependant upon and the Effect of a Disease or Morbific Cause irritating the vital Principle which is the Fountain of Heat for so soon as the life is extinct the Heat vanisheth totally 'T is daily obvious to those who are conversant with the Sick that most Diseases have Preternatural Heat attending them and this as a Symptom giving notice that the Governour Spiritus impetum faciens and the oeconomy or government is disordered and disturbed by some Morbous cause requiring the Physicians help which heat not to be regarded otherwise than as signal but the Morbific cause to be inquired after and the Disease planted thereby and to them Medicines must level at So that Heat and Cold Moist and Dry these Symptomatical Qualities are cured of course when the Diseases are cured on which they depend But if you begin with curing these qualities abstractly from their dependencies you begin at the wrong end and such ways of curing are like to have no end at least not by such your endeavours If this be not allowed for truth the Doctrine of Symptoms is destroyed which is rational and useful in Practice and the preternatural triplicity Morbus morbi causa Symptoma is made void and fictitious To spare farther arguments in this matter if I prove qualities preternatural to be Symptoms by the same Authors that before made them Similar Diseases then I need no farther Proof but their own contradiction and I find it so in that part of Pathologia called Symptomatica where Symptoms are generally divided into these three parts Actio laesa excretorum retentorum vitium qualitates mutatae In this third Branch of the Division I find Qualities preternatural and in their due place But why Authors that made them leading the Van amongst Similar Diseases should now make them bring up the Reer of Symptoms how comes this about Qualities are not of that Protean nature to appear Diseases in one place and Symptoms in another that cannot be especially without respect to some particular and extraordinary case I wonder this false Doctrine of Similar Diseases should pass through so many Centuries of years and through the Hands and Heads of so many Learned Writers without a reform and why the intemperature of Qualities should be so confined to the Similar Parts only to make Diseases there and thereby denominated and not in Dissimilar Parts also I know no reason and they can give none but on the contrary I know that such intemperate preternatural Qualities does spread and affect Dissimilar Organical Parts also both the first and second Qualities which latter are peculiar to the Organs of Sense You see plainly that Similar Diseases are improperly so denominated and to be expunged out of the number of Diseases and thus the first division of the Catalogue is set aside as injuriously put forth which mischiefs more evidently will appear in Practice when I come to treat of particular Diseases and Symptomatical affects As for the Occult Qualities also accounted Similar Diseases if I knew where to find them I shou'd put them into their right place But since we know not what they are nor where they are let them pass at this time until you give me a better account of them I must remark from hence that whereas this first Division
a Natural Sense these Passions are evil and are Diseases of the Vital governing Spirit and produce bad effects and preternatural alterations proportionate as these Passions are in degree more or less turbulent violent and durable And that these you call Passions are Diseases as truly and properly as Corporal Diseases I might prove from their Causes preternatural by their Diagnostic Signs declaring them so and by the Symptoms that attend and follow as the Products thereof but I must not enlarge now upon them Spirital Diseases ab intra are occasioned by morbific Causes generated within the Body and from hence the vital Spirit suffers is put by and forced out of its sedateness and regularity of Government or else spontaneously makes a defection and deviation in Government by Natural debility and proneness to swerve from lapsed Nature the Vital Principle Spiritus impetum faciens not being so strong vigorous and stable in some Persons as in others naturally so from their Progenitors or by their different vitae genus Education and Manner of Living Spirital Diseases thus caused are such as these Debility Ebriety Aestuation Lassation Perturbation Syncope Epilepsy Apoplexy Palsy Rigor Sopor Algor Agues Procellae spiritus impetum facientis Pains à causa quacunque complaints of the Vital Principle grieved Hysteric Fits Hypochondriac Melancholy c. But some may say what hath a Physician to do with Passions since there is no Physick to cure a diseased mind I answer there is advice to be given for avoiding them and the Physician ought to know if his Patient labours and suffers under or by them and there is Physick against the Impressions and Effects wrought from thence For what causes soever alienates the Vital Principle from rectitude in Government and makes an alteration in the Body a Physician ought to take cognizance of them and his measures thereby in the design of Curing especially if such Causes continue in being The Vital Spirit also labours and suffers under the like Passions from Molesting Irritating and Seducing morbific Causes generated within the Body as it doth by external provoking and procuring Causes so that the Passions are much what the same and produce the same ill effects be the Causes outward or inward Hence we may learn and know what it is that acts the chiefest part in these preternatural morbous alterations and what is to be aimed at for reduction to a natural good State Vt sanitas consist it in vita integra ita Morbus in ipsamet vita oblaesa Helmont Corporal Diseases are such as result from preternatural undue Conformation and Constitution of the visible Corporeal Parts Such Diseases are either in Magnitude in Figure in Number in Scituation in Conjunction or Disjunction in Discontinuity And these being general Heads admit of various Subdivisions which I must pass by at this time The urgency and importance of the following Postscript forceth me to cease prosecution at present expecting opportunity hereafter to proceed and explain what now seems dubious and difficult to admit of The Vital Spirit being thus variously provoked and afflicted begets or forms various Diseases from the diversity of Organs used and Functions to be performed thereby We may hence learn that Diseases in their multiplicity and variation by denomination from Parts affected and Functions impedited do not lye so wide asunder and differing as the world does imagine since the chief moving Principle or obstructed in motion is one and the same in all the Faculties but irritated to disorder or impedited in Vital Government Ab unitate Animae defluunt variae dotes ad organa singula I have shewed you herein some part of the Learning in this Faculty the World hath much confided in and ventured their Lives with which Learning I well know and can stand it and do understand it so well that I have declined much of it many years ago as unserviceable in the true Methods of Curing I have not troubled my self about bare empty Notions impracticable and unprofitable but what are necessary and advantageous in Practice that you may see the Life in Rectitude Vigour and Sedateness as also in Declension Enormity and Perturbation that knowing how Diseases are formed what contributes to their Generation Efficiently and Materially what is Active and Passive in Morbous Alterations we may the better level at them with more Security and Certainty I should now proceed to give you a farther Prospect and clearer light into this Novel Doctrine and resolve some Questions and Doubts therein but at this time I am prevented by the following Matter LONDON Old Southampton Buildings over against Grays-Inn 1691. ADVERTISEMENT A Treatise of the Scurvey Another of Consumptions Of the Venereal Lues Gonorrhoea's c. Of Pains Inflammations Tumours Apostems Ulcers Cancers Gangrens and Mortifications Internal The Rise and Progress of Physick Of Health Vigour and long Life The Practice of Physick duly Regulated All writ by EVERARD MAYNWARINGE M. D. 'T Is a crime to be silent and conceal when Information may contribute to Publick Safety and the Rules of Prudence and Policy give free admittance for examining the validity of such Offers Great Ministers of State sometimes borrow Light from Inferiours of all sorts as the Nature of the Affair requires Army and Navy the Bulwarks and Defence of these Kingdoms are primely to be provided for but when I consider the fatality by Sickness to be greater than that of the Sword to the shame of Physick and Physicians I cannot but reflect upon the methods and provision of Medicines the meanness of that help but not so understood the formality thereof look'd great and the Stores answerable in Bulk and Weight but not in Virtue the performance prov'd small and little good came of it How this comes about I might set forth and the way to obviate the like Calamity ensuing but it is not adviseable now 't is a fit time when the Question is put by whom it belongs to inquire into this matter then I shall give the account which will give light to Counsel for taking other measures in this weighty affair I question not the earnest Care and Sincerity of those Superiours in appointing and charging the most exquisite performance of that great Undertaking nor the plenary allowance for carrying on that important Work but I may well doubt of the Praevision Pharmaceutic Skill and Expertness of those subordinate to whom more immediately the designing of Medicines was committed in trust as their proper business to answer comprehensively and accurately all the requisite intentions and commodious ends more than imagined to compleat such a designment for viewing the Catalogue of Medicines and Drugs for the last years Expedition wherein I expected more than ordinary contrivance by the time spent in Consultation and Preparation for that grand Work yet it answered not my expectation in the Prospect nor others in Effect whose lives depended thereon notwithstanding I must judge it was the greatest effort they could make in this Undertaking
of the Catalogue containing many supposed Diseases which are but Symptoms appearing more frequently in Practice than all the rest we may reasonanbly conclude that erroneous and false prosecutions have engrossed the Major part of the business in this Art And then if contrary Methods and improper adapted Medicines will kill How many Thousands do you think have been sent into the other World by such Proceedings I 'le leave the number to your thoughts this Account is too great for my Arithmetick But when I come to examine the false Doctrine of Fevers and the Practice thereupon you may better compute the total of the Slain I am amazed to think and sorry to declare that the Art of curing should so frequently be the occasion of Killing But much of this ariseth from want of true knowledge in distinguishing Diseases from other preternaturals for let us look back and see what Practisers have been doing I find they have been very busie in curing of Symptoms when they should endeavour the eradicating of Diseases they catcht at the shadow but could not see the Body Symptoma sequitur Morbum ut umbra Corpus 'T is commonly and well said a Disease found out is half the cure but if the notion of a Disease in general be not truly stated and rightly understood we cannot easily imagine that the knowledge of particular Diseases can be attained but by this necessary introduction For if you mistake in the general conception and notion of a Disease you err fundamentally and then cures will be performed but accidentally and that there is a failure in the general notion does appear from the definition of a Disease in general by consent of Authors thus defined Morbus est affectus corporis viventis praeter naturam a quo functio laeditur primum The general definition should give light into the knowledge of particular Diseases but this is a dark Lanthorn I should be loth to venture my life upon the mean knowledge contained in this definition Morbus est affectus that 's ignotum per aeque ignotum The first part of this definition distinguisheth not a Disease from a Symptom for Symptoma est affectus corporis viventis praeter naturam The latter part à quo functio laeditur primum this distinguisheth not the Disease from the morbific Cause for causae morbificae sunt res omnes aptae corpora nostra quomodo cunque alterando immutare a salubri statu deturbare Here is something of a disease described a posteriori in it's effects but we should have it a priori in its causes This definition setting forth and stating the notion and ratio formalis of a Disease in general is the Standard whereby we are to take our measures of all Diseases in particular and this ought to be clear from all ambiguities to stand distinct and separate from all other Preternaturals Scire est per causas cognoscere This definition ought to shew what a Disease is in its essential causes non per genus differentiam efficient and material but upon this neglect and oversight supposed Diseases have been foisted into the general Catalogue which ought not to stand there but belongs to another Tribe of Preternaturals The misapprehension of a Disease in the notion of it must needs make a false Catalogue and a false Catalogue must necessarily beget male practice your definition of a Disease not being true Consequenter then your knowledge of a Disease is not true also the mischiefs from thence in the designs of curing may easily be imagined But to pull down and not to build up is but half the work incumbent upon me it remains therefore I should set forth the nature of a Disease in terms more intelligible and useful in Practice A Disease in the true notion of it is best known by comparing it with Health that being a deviation from this Sanity or Health is a perfect state of the invisible life or vital governing Principle acting in a visible organized Body and duly constituted to perform vital Actions Econtra Disease generatim is the pravity deviation or Defection of the vital Principle in it self or impedited by unfitness of the Body to act vital functions From hence you may take notice that man being composed of two parts the one Active governing by vital irradiating power The other Passive governed by reception of that influx So that hereby there are Diseases arising from the imbecility enormity and defection of the vital Agent as also from the fragility decay and ineptitude of the Passive Body And that some Diseases do arise from the Spirit of Life Spiritus impetum faciens and others by the frailty and indisposition of the Body But Phisicians wrongfully have charged all the declensions and Morbous alterations upon bodily imbecility and decay witness the Catalogue of Diseases they being unacquainted with and not discerning the Diseases of male administration arising meerly from the instability perturbation defections and irregularities of the vital governing Power So that in the established Catalogue I find many Diseases more than should be and some left out that ought to be in Our learned men have taken great pains to search the Frame and fabrick of man's Body to anatomise and view the visible Parts but the governing ruling power which moves all in this Machine that hath been slighted over and overlook'd as if not concern'd in Bodily Diseases when as this commonly bears the chiefest part in all Morbous alterations Does any part suffer as diseased but the Spirit of Life is concern'd either as the first irregular mover or else is drawn into consent and complies to the continuance and fixing of the Disease by enormity thereof Quicquid in sanis edit actiones sanas id ipsum in Morbis edit actiones vitiatas Having noted the errors and defects of the old Catalogue of Diseases and cashered the first general division thereof I shall now draw out a new Scheme and turn that general Triplicity of Simliar Organical and Common into a duality Comprising all under these two Heads Diseases are either Spirital or Corporal But by this general division I do not mean such a perfect separation in forming Diseases as if the one did make a Disease so distinct from the other as not to participate and be unconcern'd in partnership but to shew that one side is more eminently concern'd to bear the Character of Disease and to have the Denomination and where the stress of the Cure does chiefly lye and to be aimed at Spirital Diseases are distinguished by their causes from whence they arise and are procured and such Causes are twofold External and Internal Spirital Diseases that are raised or produced ab extra from outward Causes are commonly called Passions as Anger Grief Fear Melancholy Despair Love Jealousie Madness Extasie c. and these I consider not in relation to Divinity or Morality but as aberrations and deviations from the rectitude and steddiness of Government in Humane Bodies And thus in