Putrid and Imputrid Intermitting Fevers are all adjudged Putrid Some have made this general Division of Fevers into Simple Putrid and Pestilential There are also Distinctions of Fevers termed accidental differences and these Fevers are called by their Names which serves only to confound young Practisers and amuse the people thereby making Fevers more perplext and difficult to be understood by additional cognominations from complication of Symptoms As Epiala Lipiria Causus Syncopalis Soporiferae Assodes Elodes Tiphodes Phlegmonòdes c. Fever by Denomination and different Fevers by Cognomination is strange Doctrine Thus compounding of Symptoms is the confounding of Reason in Practice Since all Fevers or febrile intemperature is only the aestuation and disturbance of the vital governing Spirit by provocation from some Disease or Morbific Cause producing various Symptoms in several Parts of the Body Tacking such Symptoms together by Cognomination that have no dependance upon each other in causation or existence is no good fashion nor good reason At this rate of diversifying and denominating of Fevers by coupling them with Symptoms and Diseases you may make five hundred sorts more of Fevers and draw all the practice of Physick upon Fevers Plurisie fevers Stone fevers Colic fevers c. All the Acute and most of the Chronic Diseases have Fevers adjoined The Practice of Fevers after this manner may be as large as the Practice of Physick And by this variation of Fevers in Masquerade from Complication with other Symptoms and Diseases the Doctrine of Fevers will stretch in infinitum not to be comprehended by human understanding They might have put in Camp Fevers and Fleet Fevers for variety among the rest But if you understand Fevers no better than what your Books and Tradition does inform Princes are like to have but a melancholy return of their brave Souldiers and Seamen as too oft it falls out so And here I might give you a sad Account of Men and Money lost after this manner by the formality of Physick and deficiency of the Professors But I troubled my self once before in this matter and I shall trouble my self no more But this obiter If all other Symptoms and Diseases were to have various names affixed to them from the diversity of Symptoms happening contemporary from Complication with other Diseases They might also be varied abundantly to no purpose by differing adjunct Titles as properly as Fevers are thus multifariously distinguished and denominated wherein there is no reason nor advantage for Curing Symptoms supervening and complicating with Fevers are such as these Horror Rigor Pandiculation Oscitation Vomiting Fluxes Watchings Deliriums Hamorrhages c. Hereby shewing the various deportments Passions Agonies and strivings of the vital governing Spirit Spiritus impetum faciens preternaturally affected and provoked according to the diversity of Morbous irritating causes And also shewing the different Parts infested therewith labouring under the impulsions and expulsions of incensed vital power endeavouring by such extraordinary motions to expel and cast out what is offensive and hostile to sedate vital government But Writers have given themselves much trouble to find out and set forth the Causes of such Symptoms assigning them as particular Characters to distinguish Fevers by Herein shewing their Ingenuity Nicity and Exactness in giving a full Account of all things appertaining to Fevers as they would have the World believe But the Insufficiency of the Reasons and unprofitableness of those Endeavours are such that I shall not trouble the Reader with the Inquiry and Examination of the Validity thereof SECT IV. Of Putrid Fevers BEfore I set down the difference and distinctions of putrid Fevers delivered to us by Authors Antient and Modern I think it necessary first to inquire into the word Putrid that we may know what is meant by Putrefaction and putrifying in their sense that first taught and those who now support the Doctrine of putrid Fevers whether they be all of a mind and what confidence we may have in this learning upon their dissent or to whom we may adhere In determining of putrefaction I find there are variety of opinions and from thence several Definitions Galen's definition seems to agree with Aristotle's And for brevity sake I shall only give you the explanation and sense of both these great Men well done by another Author in these words Putrefactio nihil aliud est quam corruptio caloris nativi in humido radicali existentis alicuius mixti corporis facta ab externo peregrino calore Kercherus Herein external peregrine Heat is made the agressor and invader of the Life of every mixt Body That natural Heat is set upon and destroyed and consequently radical moisture is consumed This is the sense and meaning of the celebrated Definitions of Aristotle and Galen wherein there are these great mistakes 1. Calor innatus and Humidum radicale are supposed and made substantial Principles in nature when reverà they are but Qualities assurging from their Principles 2. They are made the support of every Animal and to these they have attributed too great a share in mixt Bodies as if the Being thereof depended essentially thereupon 3. That innate Heat is seated in radical moisture where putrefaction and corruption begins and that the Life of an Animal consists in these two That they are Animae domicilium the which failing Life departs 4. Hence it is that Putrefaction is defined by the alteration and perdition of these two Principles in Nature which Galen often calls totam rei substantiam The Doctrine of Physick fails much from these grand errours which biasseth Practisers in the Cure of many Diseases For Putrefaction is caused not only by external ambient Heat but also by external Cold And particularly in the case of putrid Fevers cohibited transpiration by cold occluding the Pores is one chief cause assigned by most if not all Writers And likewise we find that other Animals and also Plants are mortified by extreme cold which their natures could not bear and from thence you need not doubt but Putrefaction follows Putredo Putrefaction is not rightly defined by alteration of Qualities Heat and Moisture that may or may not be and are accidents not essential to Putrefaction For Dry and Cold Bodies are subject to putrifie as Bones Straw Wood c. wherein is no sensible Heat or Moisture and do putrifie into dry powder Heat and Cold and I may add the other two first Qualities also Wet and Dry though they may be causes of putrefaction sometimes and sometimes the effects thereof yet they are not sufficient to set forth and illustrate Putrefaction as the ratio formalis thereof and a result differing from all other preternatural alterations and transmutations Nor does this Definition make distinction between putrefaction and combustion à calore externo nor sufficiently extinguisheth putrefaction from fermentation And thus much concerning putrefaction in general from the two celebrated Definitions of Aristotle and Galen if you be satisfied therein I am not They sound great in
Part of the Practice of Physick The consequents whereof must prove fatal Observe what great Helmont saith Infebribus universis est unica Archei accensio sive indignatio unde in essentia nomine febrili conveniunt Solum autem per causam occasionalem distinctae De febr cap. 13. When the Life aestuates and complains it is not without a cause and you must find that cause out and apply proper means there Then you are in the right way of Curing and there is no other safe and hopeful way to allay febrile Heat Farther you need not trouble your self about Fever What Indication have you from Fever or febrile Heat by the Galenic Rule of contraries you will say Cooling is indicated but that is the ready way for killing in some Fevers and in all other frustraneously and injuriously used Because Indication for Cure in all febrile cases is taken for Diseases and their Causes not from febrile Heat a symptom of the Life Fever therefore does but amuse the World and leads the unwary and herein unknowing out of the way for Curing When a Person is wounded fractur'd or dislocated a Fever commonly ariseth as the consequent of Pain But this Fever makes no Curative Indication gives no Direction for Curing the Wound Fracture or Dislocation and forbids nothing that such cases does require The Chirurgical Means are indicated by those several cases and the Surgeon is not to regard the Fever but proceed by the true Indications according to Art So likewise in all other Diseases and Causes Because febrile preternatural Heat is but a Symptom of the Life hurt not a Symptom of the Disease or morbific Cause immediate Whereas I have in this Discourse asserted Fever to be a Symptom dependant upon Diseases my meaning is a dependant remotely concern'd and occasionally procured But properly approximatly and intimately preternatural Heat ariseth from and is dependant upon the Life as its Principle and an Emanation thereof Omnis Morbus indicat Remedium Febris non indicat Ergo non est Morbus The Major Proposition is the Doctrine of the Methodus Medendi generally received nemine contradicente The Minor appears true and fully proved from the preceeding Reasons and needs not Repetition Since Fever being no Disease nor morbific Cause does not indicate a Remedy and is not to be regarded as requiring Curative Means directly pointing and aiming thereto Then why so much noise and so much to do about Fevers 'T is all a great mistake and blustering in the dark giving false Names to Sickness and adapting Curatives where none are indicated or required Thus much in general of male Practice upon Fevers In the next Place we will examine more particularly the Methods and Means Chirurgical and Pharmaceutic commonly appointed and used as Bleeding Blistering Juleping c. how they do properly answer their Intentions as truly indicated by Fevers Or rather how erroneous and wide from what they ought to aim at SECT X. Blood Letting in Fevers Examined UPON the Doctrine delivered we are now to Inquire how fitly Phlebotomy does answer as a proper and sutable Remedy in the Cures of Fevers being so generally used and most commonly appointed in the first place as of right to begin the Method of Curing The Blood may well be accounted the Treasury of Nature for as this Store-House is full or empty with good or bad the Person is chiefly adjudged to be in a good or bad State ut Signum Causa The dependants from hence are so many and so great that much Caution and Circumspection is to be used in the Diminution of it not prodigally to be wasted upon slight and seeming occasions but upon very urgent and necessitous Cases Some there are that appoint Bleeding not considering so much an Indication for it as the Custom and present Fashion of Physicians so to do Thinking their Method of Cure not compleat unless this come in course Causes in Sickness are always to be principally regarded and sought for where the Seat of the Disease is and from whence it ariseth If the cause of febrile Heat does not lye in the Blood as many Times and more often it does not Then Bleeding is vain and gives no Relief in such cases but rather Hurt by debilitating Nature Diseases take their Rise more frequently from the Stomach than any other Part of the Body This being the first and chiefest office of Elaboration for supplying the whole Body And being the Seat of the Life more eminently where the Power of Government is distributed and does virtually or influentially preside over the rest There you may expect to find the Origine of Diseases mostly or more often The Defects and Insufficient Performance of that Office lays the Foundation of most complaints either by Transmission of ill matter by Consent or Debility of Influx to enable the several Parts governed for acting their Duties Curing must begin where Diseases have their Beginning What advantage then will Bleeding afford when the Stomach requires rectifying and corroborating no Benefit but much harm thereby All Remedies are or ought to be adapted to Diseases and their Causes Fever is no Disease as before proved but a dependant upon Diseases therefore bleeding in Fevers for Fevers sake only is erroneously instituted Inquire into some of the Diseases that commonly have Fevers attending them As when a Fever presents from a Surfeit and over-charge of the Stomach from too much received or something disagreeing and not digesting but oppressing Such cases are very frequent for most Sick People complain at the Stomach of Nauseousness Fulness or Heaviness and Oppression Now what can Bleeding do in such like Complaints How shall the Stomach receive any Benefit thereby Bleeding empties the Veins but it does not discharge the Stomach of peccant Matter does not cleanse and roborate that principal Part Therefore is no Curing Means in such Cases A Fit of the Stone produceth a Fever And likewise the Gout with continued Pain hath a Fever attending The Colic also will procure febrile Heat Obstructions of the Spleen causing Pain in that Part raiseth a Fever And all other Pains of the Bowels continuing begets a Fever Now inquire rightly into the true Causes of all these Pains you will not find the Blood so much concern'd as the Cause thereof for to let it out You are to distinguish a Fever arising from the vitiosity of the Blood as the continent Cause of Stagnation in the smaller venal Pipes which is rare And a febrile Distemper Communicated to the Blood which is frequent occasioned from some remote Cause disturbing the vital Stream by Superfermentation When the cause of Fever is in the Blood Vessels you have then some pretence to appoint Phlebotomy But when the cause of Fever is extraneous and not in those Tubes of conveyance the Blood affected by Consent only from the disturbance elsewhere in all such cases and which do commonly present there is no occasion to use the Lancet In all
appears that from what Cause soever a Fever doth arise this Juleping and Cooling Mode of Practice is dangerous more or less as the Disease is in its self whereon the Fever does depend But in no Case advantageous making acute Diseases to Commute and terminate in chronic and lingering chronic Diseases to hold on their Course and become more Contumacious Febrile Heat is much safer and sooner allayed with hot things than with cold for Coolers only are but like the sprinkling of Water upon Fire which burns the fiercer for it afterwards Coolers cast a damp for the present makes a short suppression of Heat and it soon bursts out again But hot Medicines that have Spirit and Life in them do assist Nature in ejecting of the peccant Matter which being cast out Nature then returns to her sedate moderate temper Therefore one good Sudorific Medicine checks a Fever better than ten Juleps Here I shall make some Observations useful in Practice First from the Denominations of Fever and Inflammation what affinity there is and near relation they have to each other for from the Etymon of the words they seem to import a Parity as denoting only an extraordinary Heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 febris from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflammatio from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uro But the difference lyes here Fevers are known and defined by preternatural Heat and effervescency through the whole Body Inflammation is a preternatural Heat of a particular Part. Hence we remark that Fevers are general and dilated Inflammations Inflammations particular Fevers of a Member Thus they differ in Latitude and Extent But withal observe the order of Causation Inflammation commonly precedes and lays the Foundation in this or that Part there is the fomes minera Morbi A Fever follows upon the whole Body caused by consent from thence and condolency Here you may take notice that Fevers are erroneously defined by Authors à calore praeter Naturam in Corde accenso assigning the Heart to be the focus where febrile Heat is first kindled and from whence it is maintained when almost in any other Part of the Body if an Inflammation happen there a Fever will follow taking its Rise from thence not from the Heart So that the Heart then suffers Sympathically by consent not idiopathically and primarily as Sedes Morbi Since most Inflammations cause Fevers and Inflammations so frequent as being the certain Consequents of great Pain then two things are to be noted First that upon the appearance of a high Fever you may suspect an Inflammation couched under it from whence as the Spring this Fever doth arise Secondly that the Cure of many Fevers ought so to be designed and managed as respecting and aiming chiefly at a particular Inflammation of some Part upon which the Fever doth depend And when a Fever ariseth upon this bottom as often it doth then little regard is to be had to the general Fever but the stress of Cure lyes upon removing the occasional and material Causes of Pain and Inflammation in the particular Part the Foundation of all the rest which being removed the depending Fever falls of Course Thus all our endeavours tend to make a true Discovery of Causes that when preternatural Heat does arise in the Body and begets a Fever you may know not only what to call it but also what to do by levelling at the right Mark And I must tell you also how a Fever sometimes does arise and not from Inflammation of a pained Part That is when some depraved discordant Matter or some malign venenate Miasm is mingled or got into the Blood Nature which is the Life raiseth a preternatural Fermentation and febrile effervescency in the Mass of Blood for a Purification and Separation of this exotic Mixture and admits of no sedation or rest until that work be finished From hence you may be warned of the dangerous common Practice in Fevers by Juleps Barley-Water and other such like Coolers to allay the Heat from a great Mistake of Fevers and from whence that Heat doth assurge For whether the Fever does depend upon a particular inflamed Part or a general Fermentation of the Blood for Purification in both Cases of Fevers such Cooling Medicines are pernicious and have killed thousands For by insisting so much upon them and aiming to suppress the Fever by Coolers not possible to be done that way thus mischievously spending Time the opportunity of Curing is lost and the Disease prevails The Error of those Cooling Medicines is apparent from the insuccess thereof for never was the Thirst of a sick Person satisfied by Juleps but a Draught of good Drink such as the Patient's Stomach affects that is refreshing and relieving Julops are but Cold Comfort or rather no Comfort to a Fevorish sick Man for those Cold Medicines imposed upon the sick are no Coolers in effect and are so far from assisting Nature to do the work she is strugling about that they nauseate and flat the Stomach which should vigorate and inforce the other Faculties they damp and check the Power of Nature contending with the Disease and leave her languishing for Refreshment coveted in her natural common Drink Thus cheating the Patient of that desired assistance by Drink which would be Comfortable And thus much may suffice to shew the Vanity and Insufficiency of Juleps and other Cooling Inventions to allay the Heat of Fevers Having now gone through the Common Practice upon Fevers shewing the Errors and Dangers thereof in their Designs for Curing All which ariseth from their Mistakes in the true Notion of Fevers not knowing what they are and from what Principle they proceed It remains now that I set forth the direct Ways and due Means for effecting their Cures which will appear more plainly and probably Succesful being compared with the common irrational Practice grounded upon false Notions of Fevers wholly mistaken SECT XIII The Author 's Compendious Method and Medicines for Curing Fevers compared with the Common Practice IN the first place I shall set before you the Common Prctaice upon Fevers and take the Account thereof from Riverius a French Author of great Repute much consulted with and followed by most Practisers He having Collected from the best Writers what is most remarkable and thought most useful for Curing so that in his Praxis you have the Methods and chief Matter of all the rest And his Book being furnished with variety of Medicines many that are inquisitive after Physick do peruse and esteem that Book I shall here only take notice and cursorily view the great Magazine of Medicines disposed under the several Divisions of Fevers as properly and necessarily assigned to answer all the Indications of those different Fevers variously denominated and distinguished as Diseases requiring different Methods and various Remedies But how unnecessary improper and injurious most of that trouble and charge of Medicines will appear upon inquiry into the Nature and Vanity of them As
ignotum per atque ignotum We must proceed on for better Information atque vitae Principio seu Spiritibus animalibus inimicum Here the Life and animal Spirits are made one and the same or equal at least in vitality for so I must conclude First From the Particle seu connecting those words as Synonimous And likewise He useth seu equivalently and for that purpose in the front of the Definition Venenum seu Toxicum signifying the same Poyson by two words Secondly From the words immediately following Vnde facultas eorum expansiva penitus obruitur flamma vitalis necessario extinguitur The which do declare Febrile Venom to have Antipathy against animal Spirits as to the Principle of Life That the Stress of Poyson aims at and lies upon animal Spirits as upon the Life That the fatal stroak is given there and the ratio formalis of Dying represented by Contracting and Stifling the Expansion of animal Spirits which puts a Period to Vitality And that animal Spirits are the Biolicknium the Lamp of Life What more or greater can be said of Anima the plastic and the Regent Principle than now is attributed to animal Spirits This is Strange Philosophy to me such as I never knew before deeper than my Reason can fathom and above my Faith to believe That animal Spirits so much questioned and doubted whether they have any Being in Humane Nature though so unnecessary and improbable should now be exalted as Supream or made coequal at least in dispensing and managing vital Operations Credat qui volet Let animal Spirits be first proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convincingly that there are such from the necessity of their use we may then more likely be induced to believe the new Hypothesis founded thereon SECT III. The Difference of Fevers And their Division into Classes AVthors concurring in common Doctrine have made this Difference and Division of Fevers à subjecto in quo calor febrilis insidet from their place of Residence in the Spirits Humors and solid Parts which makes this tripple Division of Fevers Ephemeral Humoral and Hectic Famosa Vulgatissima est Febris essentialis differentia qua Febris in Ephimeram Humoralem Hecticam dividitur quae tota à subjecto Febrium petitur Troph Serrier Pyretolog p. 13. Ephemeral Fever is an effervescence of the Spirits only and continues but a day or two Humoral is the esservescence of putrid humors and continues a longer time Hectic is a preternatural Heat in the Solid parts and is most durable and fixed All these Fevers must take their rise in the Heart by the common definition that 's the Center and Seat thereof You have brought all Fevers into a little compass the Heart where we may soon find them if they were there to be found And if all this were true what advantage and what use can we make of it What cunning ways will you invent to make your Practice answer this Doctrine and how will you make this Doctrine serviceable in Practice This Celebrious Division is essential general and comprehensive But quid inde boni what shall we learn thereby If you come to a Patient whose Fever is beginning and the Fever is one of these three Sorts comprised in the general Division you have no help by this Doctrine if it were true no information to determine what or prosecute with what You cannot ask the Patient how are the Spirits of your Heart How the Humors And how the Flesh but you must look off the Heart and cast about somewhere else inquiring here and there How is your Stomach have you good Appetite and digest well are you Costive how is your Head do you urine freely have you pain any where and so forth After all these and such like necessary Questions 't is very probable you may find out the place where the Fever is bred and what is the Cause thereof If so as true it is what then have we to do with the Heart but only to examine by the Pulse how affected or afflicted in the case what consent from thence or condolence what vital Signals by that Pulsation not what Sort of Fever Now after all the subtle and nice distinction of Ephemeral Humoral and Hectic we must examine most Parts of the Body the principle at least to find out the Rise and Seat of the Fever and then it will appear to be not in Corde primò accensa as you say but in Corde per consensum and that some other Part is the original cause of the Fever where the Cure is to be directed If there must be a place or places in the Body assigned for Fevers as the Rise and Seat thereof And since they are all Symptomatical and dependant upon various Diseases in divers Parts of the Body as their causes occasional Sedes Morbi est Sedes Febris then where the Disease is there is the Seat of Fevers So that the difference of Fevers from thence will not be triplex according to this antique approved Division but multiplex I wish you good Success with your Doctrine of Fevers but I should be loth to be a Patient under it least the first tryal of your Skill upon me should be the last Scene of my Life There is another received distinction of Fevers into Essential and Symptomatical And this I must take notice of because it byasseth Practisers from the right Notion of Fevers and causeth errour in the designs of Curing For this Distinction may well be set aside when as there is no Fever essential therefore no Disease but all are Symptomatical arising from and dependant upon some Disease morbific Miasm or Seminary and a Symptom thereof And this appears from the Definition of Fevers Febris est calor preter naturam preternatural Heat being the genus comprising all Fevers under it And this Heat by your Doctrine a Symptomatical Quality only The distinction then of Essential and Symptomatical Fevers is void unless you will hold a contradiction in your own learning But why some Essential others Symptomatical Riverius gives this account essentiales dicuntur quando putredo in venis communibus extra partes privatas accenditur Symptomaticae verò quando in parte peculiari inflammata putredo aut suppuratio fit a qua ob vasorum communionem vapor putridus cordi continuo communicari potest lib. de febr p. 373. They that will take this for good Reason may be so satisfied and probably they may not see the Definition of Fever therein contradicted Calor in Corde accensus ex eo and the Doctrine discordant in it self Another Distinction of Fevers there is which divides them into Continual and Intermitting This difference is apparent to vulgar understandings but the manner how the matter what the place where generated causes occasioning and promoting These are not so well known which hath produced diversity of opinions among the learned and these I shall take notice of in their due places Continual Fevers are distinguished into
this blistering Plaster shall make the same ichorous Water issue from the sound and healthful as from the sick feverish Person So that I am well satisfied this Water thus extracted was not morbific pre-existing but factitious Matter transmuted by the external Medicine and so vented by blistering Medicines are to aim and level at Diseases where they are seated and to discharge their Power there as well and truly designed If so then these Vesicatories must draw away the febrile Matter from the Heart sedes Morbi according to their Definition of Fever But if those corrosive Plasters shall send their virulent virtue to the Heart the Patient then must be very Heart-sick with that Operation And grant it should extend thither quod non est supponendum How shall the peccant Matter find the way out from the Center to the Circumference this being an obscure impassable way at least not to be found unless by the extraordinary secret conduct of Nature who as I said before is not pleased nor complying with this irksom blistering Invention Invitâ Naturâ irrita sunt omnia Ax. Wherefore no good can be expected from them in Curing Fevers In Sickness when Nature does protrude and send forth any ill Matter to the extern Parts appearing upon the Skin it is a good sign she will be victorious having dislodged Morbific Matter from within and safely brought it to the confines of the Body as in the eruption of the Small-Pox And also when Nature does shew any tendency that way by breathing Sweat it behoves the Physician to promote and help forward with wholesom internal Medicine for that Purpose But if you think by blistering to prompt or put Nature upon expulsion that way you rather distract and disturb her good Inclination than put forward that beneficial Operation for the Reasons aforesaid 'T is a great Errour so formally and constantly to appoint Vesicatories as necessary to compleat the Methods for Curing Fevers As if Nature had not sufficiently provided other ways to discharge Morbific Matter and this were the principal way invented and not to be neglected When a Person is Sick oppressed at the Stomach a Fever commonly ariseth from such complaints And this sort of Sickness from Fulness or Foulness is most frequent What have you to do with blistering in such Cases Can you draw this oppressing undigested or depraved Matter out of the Stomach by Vesicatories Or if they had such a power of Attraction as to bring it forth to the Skin is it not very unfit and unreasonable to draw such foul Matter and often very gross Matter directly through the Habit of the Body and leaving Dregs in the Passage when other patent ways are ready to transmit it upwards or downwards by Natures Design and Appointment To avoid this Censure in part perhaps they will say we intend to carry off the vitious Matter by Purging or Vomiting the Vesicatories are to draw out the Fever and keep that under I don 't like your Policy for this erroneous Practice of blistering is but blustering in the dark and proceeds from gross Ignorance having a false Notion of Fever what febrile Heat is and from whence it does arise Take away the Morbific Matter by unloading the Stomach set that right by cleansing and roborating with good internal Medicine and then the whole work is done that you need not trouble your self or the Patient about the Fever that abates and goes away of course as you discharge the Stomach from the offending Cause So likewise a Fit of the Colic or Stone raiseth a Fever and this Fever not to be regarded But proper Medicines to be used only respecting the Stone or Colic An hundred other Diseases and Cases we might name wherewith Fevers are attended but not to be considered otherwise than as signal shewing that the Life is disturb'd and incensed by some Morbific Matter or Cause in this or that part of the Body Find that Cause out what and where the offending Matter is and prosecute there only with good Means The Fever needs no other Cure than the Cure of that Disease which caused the Life to be unquiet to aestuate and grow hot Upon the Appearance of a Fever Physicians are much and over much concern'd straightway fall on upon the Fever with bleeding blistering and Juleps to suppress and keep that under to secure that Bugbear in the first place as chiefly threatning the Life of the Patient The Sick and their Relations being very apprehensive of the Danger how many have died by Fevers as commonly but falsly said resign up freely to the Doctor 's great Skill and Care herein submitting to the Risk of all the male Practice in bleeding blistering c. the ready way to Destruction After this manner slight and trivial Sickness becomes long and sometimes hazardous Sickness many times mortal And I do account it a special Providence that delivers out of such perilous Practice In Sickness we are always to observe the Inclination and Tendency of Nature which way she thinks best and most expeditely to discharge Morbific Matter according to the Precept of Hippocrates Quò Natura vergit conducere oportet And that is sometimes by the Intestines by Vrine by Expectoration by eruption of Blood at the Nose per Vterum and by the Skin Not to thwart and cross her endeavours except she be forced into a wrong course by stimulating Matter and thereby becomes apparently extravagant therein As when a Symptomatical Flux per Alvum is extream then to mitigate and allay it by good internal Means but not by Vesicatories to attract injuriously a contrary way If the cause of Fever be in primis viis in the first Region of the Body as most frequently it is then 't is great Imprudence to attempt drawing outwards by Vesicatories when other Ways and convenient Ductures are open to transmit it When Nature inclines and shews a disposition to free her self by the Guts 't is very injurious to divert her Intentions by attracting outwards and endeavouring to vent by the Skin drawing a contrary way Si Materia turgeat says Hippocrates If the Morbific Matter ferments and swells for vent let it go that way most expedite and inclinable thereto by Stool by Vrine bleeding at the Nose c. Sometimes Nature hath a Tendency and is prompt for evacuation by the Skin which is advantageous and to be promoted by good Means But I do not account blistering in the Number of good Means to promote that Operation except some Matter be collectied in a particular Place under the Skin and wants some Help to bring it forth Then a Vesicatory applied or Cupping is rational and good But when Nature makes a critical effort by the Skin generally per Diaphoresin breathes out effâ—uviums on every side Then Vesicatories are useless and not only so but hurtful by troubling that Operation To apply Vesicatories in the beginning of Fevers is to compel Nature to discharge that way which perhaps she hath no Intention
then Because the vital spirit is extinct which plainly does shew that preternatural febrile Heat efficienter is seated in the Life And that peccant febrile matter non fervet ex se contains no such heat in it self but produceth excitativè by irritating the vital Heat spiritus impetum faciens beyond moderation and its natural temper Fourthly A wound received and pain arising thence begets a Fever though a great effusion of blood doth happen therewith Now letting out the sulphur if such there were with the blood was more likely to prevent a Fever than to cause it if that Doctrine were true but I find the contrary that pain continuing the Fever continues also Fifthly Persons that are heated by great labour violent exercise or heat of weather if they drink a glass of Sack or other spirituous hot liquor it reduceth them safely to good temper and prevents a Fever But if they drink much small Beer after such heats thinking to cool themselves sooner that cold liquor commonly makes them sick and raiseth a Fever thereby Now observe that Sack and not spirits are more likely to kindle Sulphurous inflamable matter and a Fever from thence as small Beer and cool liquors most likely to prevent Fevers by that Doctrine But the contrary hereof does prove that inflamed sulphur is not the material cause of Fevers but any other offending matter Sixthly Wet and cold taking are oftentimes the causes of sickness and a Fever But such causes are so far from kindling Sulphur that they are more likely to damp and extinguish Sulphur kindled if any such inflaming matter were in Human Bodies All which does plainly shew that Fevers have not their Rise or any dependance from sulphur kindled in the Heart and that Doctrine erroneous founded upon false Principles I must now make this observation not to follow an Author by the cry of the People nor the Vogue of the learned Party who commonly are catcht with a fine dress of good latine not suspecting or not discerning the substance and matter thereof Since my writing I lately met with another Piece de Febribus much differing from the former Author who derived all the causes of Fevers from Sulphur of the Blood this only and wholly from a venemous Ferment infesting the Animal Spirits Dr. Morton Puretologia This novel Doctrine coming in my way I cannot pass it by without regard but must inquire into the verity thereof The common received learning that asserts Humours and Qualities this Author rejects as fictitious and useless to set forth and explain the causes of Diseases and their Symptoms Hoping to give a better account thereof by this new Hypothesis For setting forth and explaining of which he premiseth postulata quaedam Pag. 6. some precarious concessions promising to prove them afterwards which are these following 1. Dari reverà Spiritus animales This Assertion of Animal Spirits was the common received Opinion in former Ages and does yet keep up as a Truth not to be questioned in the Judgment of most for that they perform such necescessary offices in the Body as without their help many Functions they think must cease And in giving an Account of many Diseases especially such as are attributed to the Brain and Nerves they can give no probable Reasons without alledging and accusing the Animal Spirits setting forth their exorbitant Motions or preternatural cessations their interruptions or impetuous Influx their sluggish dull and torpid Fixations And scarce any Passion is named but the Spirits are Actors and by them All that is done or should have been is imputed to the Spirits And Dr. Morton gives a greater Prerogative and ascribes more Power to Animal Spirits in the Government of the Body than others have primum Principium activum totius Machinae p. 6. and bottoms his new Hypothesis upon Animal Spirits quasi fermentum universale totius corporis p. 12. making them universal in the causes of Diseases and as generally necessary in a State of Health to perform all vital Actions If this be so 't is very fit we should all know and assent to it Notwithstanding it is so undoubtedly asserted I question whether there be any such distinct Beings in Human Nature as Animal Spirits or only the Fancies of Mens Invention And my Reason perswades me to deny their Existence First Because their Matter and Manner of Generation their Ways and Motions are so uncertainly and contradictorily set forth by disagreeing Judgments Secondly For that all human Actions internal and external may be performed without their help and a rational and full Account of all Diseases may be given without them Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessitate I shall therefore divide Human Nature into these two grand Principles An Invisible Spirit And a visible organized Body with canals containing liquid alimentary Juices to feed and supply this wonderful Machine The first a Vital Active Regent Principle The latter altogether Passive and Instrumental under the Power and Domination of the former which is the Life More than these two comprehensive Principles I know none nor can admit of as necessary or useful in the composition or oeconomy of Human Nature No Subordinate nor Co-ordinate Agents such as Archeus Helmontii or Anima Sensitiva of the Antients Nor as Dr. Willis understands and holds the Animal Spirits to be the Sensitive Soul That Plastic or formative vital Principle termed Anima that delineated and fabricated the Body in the Womb does also govern and is the sole Efficient cause of vital Actions in the state of Health and also in Sickness Vnicus tantum est vitae Moderator nec plures From hence Vegetation Sensation and Loco-Motion without a Duplicity or Triplicity of Souls which elsewhere is set forth and proved Monarchia Microcosmi that I shall not repeat here True it is that the contained current liquors in the Body are various in colour consistence use and gradual Perfection Some elaborated as finer and more spirituous in the common Sence and Acceptation of artificial rectified Spirits Yet when all this is done by Defaecation and refining they are but liquors still of one continued cohaerent visible expanded Body and not separate Atomical Beings to act conjunctim aut divisim as divers Agents in combination or separation upon Occasions so requiring as the Notion of Animal Spirits does insinuate and are so alledged and taken in that Sence Now if what we have said be true and the Reasons cogent then Animal Spirits have no Residence nor Office in Human Nature and the Basis of that Author 's new Hypothesis is annihilated and all the derived Doctrine and depending Practice thereupon comes to nothing or to naught But in casting off so antique and beloved Opinion so frequently made use on to set forth the causes of many Diseases and that Book de Morbis universal acutis brings in Animal Spirits invenom'd almost into all Diseases as principal Causes That I may not be thought singular and absurd in denying the Existence of these
before the Production of Animal Spirits by the Assertors of animal Spirits and those Operations are not performed without vital Heat issuing from the vital Principle and there can be no other rationally assigned The Second as improbable and difficult to be proved For the Heat of animal Spirits is but mutuatitious at best borrowed dependant and supported by vital Heat and not arising from an independant Principle This preternatural Heat ascribed to animal Spirit is the same in Specie with natural Heat and they differ only in gradu Febrile Heat assuring from the same Principle as natural Heat But why in Sanguine accensus and no where else As if the Blood were the first and the only Place where Fevers do begin and have their Residence which Doctrine I cannot comply with and must assert otherwise That Fevers being only the preternatural Heat of the Life incensed and Symptomatical only what ever the Morbifick cause be and wheresoever it be in any Part of the Body there the Fever begins and from thence it is continued until the Morbous Matter be removed or much abated For no Part of the Body is injured but the Life being ubiquitary in the Microcosm is first sensible of the Hurt and is disturb'd thereby grows angry hot and fiery nisu quodam irato endeavouring thereby to extricate and free her self from the mischief Miasmate quodam deleterio contaminate ex accidenti quodam irritato Here 't is said the Animal Spirit is contaminated with some Venom and irritated thereby This being the Definition of acute Fever in general then all sorts of acute Fevers must arise after this manner and from such a cause as venemous Matter Quicquid praedicatur de genere praedicatur etiam de Specie Ax. Let us know first what this learned Author means by venemous miasm of which we have no better Account than this from himself Hujus miasmatis heterogenei descriptionem nemo sane à nobis requirat quandoquidem omnes nostros sensus plane Superat Pa. 50. Here is an imaginary venom seizing and affecting imagined and supposed animal Spirits and upon the Result or conjunction of these two dubious and difficult conceptions to be proved The Doctrine of Fevers is founded and a general Practice conform to these Notions is regulated thereby But I should be loth to venture my Life or the Lives of others upon such Vncertainties and Improbabilities for the Rule of Curing To shew therefore the incomprehensiveness and unfitness thereof to govern and direct the general Practice of Fevers I shall propose some cases of acute Fevers that we may see how these Positions do prompt and indicate proper Means and sutable Methods of Cure And from thence we may rationally conclude the Verity or Errour thereof A Person that hath eat and drank too much the night following is very restless next morning complains of fulness and loathing of any Food is very Fevorish hot and burning A Fever now presents plainly but what is to be done in the case for Remedy By the Doctrine aforesaid the animal Spirits are invenomed and the Patient must be Cured with Alexipharmacal Antidotes to expel the Poison that causeth this Fever Such as the Jesuits Powder that hath no manifest operation but an occult vertue to resist venemous Matter And this is the Febrifuge so much magnified and used by Dr. Morton as excelling all others But my Judgment leads me another way in this case Here is an oppression from Meat and Drink loading the Stomach not being digested and duly sent away Now what does this case indicate but only a discharge of the matter offending either upwards or downwards by Medicine of Such Operation The Fever is plainly perceived and the cause as easily understood But where the venom afflicting the animal Spirits in this Fever will be found I know not nor do I think there is any such Another is afflicted with the Colic by great Torsions and Pain from Obstruction or acrid lancinating humoral Matter in the Colon These Pains being violent and continued prevents sleep and unavoidably raiseth a Fever The vital Regent Principle being molested and provok'd hereby then aestuats with Inquietude and grows hot with Indignation being disturb'd in Government Now what manner of Cure is here required for this Fever But only some good Aperitive and Abstersive Medicine to open cleanse and free the Guts from all degenerate obstructing flatulent Matter that causes these Pains Which being well performed by a true Purgative and not of the common virulent sort the Pains ceaseth and the Fever is gone because the Life is then pacified at Ease and Rest cool and temperate the offending Cause being removed What Occasion or what need was here for a Febrifuge But only what was Curative as aforesaid for removing the Cause aforesaid The Jesuits Powder would contribute nothing to this Cure so much admired and used by some I rather think it might do Hurt in this Fever as the medicine by its nature does Suggest which we shall enquire into anon No Venom I can discover in this case requiring such an Antidote Pains of the Gout or from the Stone raiseth a Fever for the Reasons aforesaid being the common Symptom attendant upon all dolorous Diseases that disquiet and incense the Life Here is no need of a Febrifuge in these Fevers but only such proper Means as these Diseases require The febrile Heat goes off or abates as the Diseases yield to the Power of Medicine Symptoms come and go with their Diseases on which they depend and febrile Heat is only Symptomatical as before proved Here we might enumerate and run over many depending Fevers where no such Poyson is to be found But these may suffice to inform that acute Fevers are not so venomous in their nature generally as the Definition of Fevers recited would have us to believe Genus praedicatur de omnibus Speciebus sub se contentis Ax. But now let us understand if it can be understood what this Venom is that our Author assigns to be the material Cause of Fevers and of most other Diseases that is so frequent and common and requires Curing by Alexipharmacals The Inventor and Assertor of this Novel probably can give us the best Account who defines Poyson thus Venenum seu toxicum est quid deleterium atque vitae principio seu spiritibus animalibus inimicum unde facultas corum expansiva penitus obruitur flamma vitalis necessarie extinguitur p. 147. We must consider this Definition in its several Parts distinctly whereby we may the better apprehend the Result and Comprehension of the whole This is the Standard set to examine and know febrile venemous Ferments by and to shew the manner of their acting destructively For by this Definition of Poyson in general he would have us to understand analogically the Nature of that Poyson which causeth Fevers as he intimates in the same Page Venenum seu Toxicum est quid Deleterium This is idem per idem or
liquor in vasis effervescens solummodo sanguis ubicunque loci per singulas corporis partes defertur usque idem est sui similis D. Willis de febr p. 99. If the Blood then be in such a state as this Author even now said perfectly mixed and homogeneous in the vessels I see no cause why and cannot understand how this sulphureous part thereof if such there be in living Blood that it should be apt and ready to take fire and produce the effervescency and ebullition of putrid Fevers Nor can I reconcile this learned Man to himself where in another place setting forth putrid Fevers he saith Cum vero cruoris materies sulphurea excandescens supra modum effervet mixtionis vinculum maxima ex parte solvitur ut principia ejus à fermento cordis fere in totum distrahantur particulae activae meaning spirit and sulphur à misto solutae velut in flammam erumpant Ibidem p. 164. In one place he affirms the Blood to be a liquor united in its principles woven together into one uniform nature and in another place he says the parts of the Blood are loosed and in a state of separation Now when the Blood is thus dissolved the Sulphur does not abide to take fire but takes flight Substantia Sulphuris nusquam sincera cernitur imo seorsim ab aliis non consistit quin tenues evanescit in auras D. Willis lib. de ferment p. 7. Observe from hence The Blood in its compage and texture is not capable of firing and deflagration in its retexture and dissolution the inflammable Sulphur abides not for a combustion but disperseth and vanisheth haec tota Doctrina in flammam abit Sic transit gloria ficti Notwithstanding these incongruities He proceeds to make out the deflagration of the Blood in putrid Fevers That the principles of the Blood are separated by the ferment of the Heart and being there rarified and kindled from thence with a most swift motion motu rapidissimo is carried through the vessels and in the deflagration disperseth many effiuviums of Heat Ibidem p. 164. This is soon said but not so easily proved And in answer to all this I will give you the sentiment and determination of a late Physician of great repute reasoning and denying all this as irrational Verum nec in sanguine talem ebullitionem excitari nec in corde hujusmodi fermentum adesse facile erit ostendere quanquam enim inter corpora quae ex salibus contraria prorsus indole praeditis constant ubi commiscentur magna effervescentia atque lucta exoritur multaque effluvia discedant dissimilis tamen omnino magis benignae naturae Sanguinis liquor existit quam ut in corde aut vasis suis tam aestuose subito effervescat quippe novimus quam mitis ejus liquor quam benigno plerumque succo perfusus quam lenis placidus ejus in venis versus cor refluxus D. Lower de corde p. 57. And farther to null this fiction of abounding sulphur and effervescency from thence in putrid Fevers Take the testimony of a learned Chymical Physician demonstrating by fact The pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high Fever doth afford more salt water and Earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that Diseased Blood termed Corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur And being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joined thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the other Dr. Thompson Aimatiasis chap. 6. p. 51. Then he gives you another experiment I procured saith He the purest Blood I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it Then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the Sound and that seeming Corrupt which gives testimony that a Fever doth not principally arise from an excess of Sulphur Idem Ibidem Much more might be alledged against this improbable opinion But I think there is enough said to dispel the fiction of inflammable Sulphur in the Blood which is made the rise of putrid Fevers causing effervescency ebullition and deflagration And now I cannot but admire that the learned of this Nation should receive this phantasm with such applause and what advantage it brought to the Inventor But the handsome latin Dress that this was presented in so captivated their understandings that they could not perceive the errour and vanity of the Doctrine that set it off and so it pass'd without suspicion And frequently since we have had other Physick works come abroad which affords me more matter and Men to oppose but little to inform and be a gainer by yet if it be latin then it is learned with many But I do not judge of learning nor of men learned after that manner I am not to be snared with any language when I expect something else that I seek for Truth is truth in any language errour is so likewise 'T is the matter in writing not the Stile of writing that is useful and praise worthy in Physick But this by the way Now after all this labour and ingenuity of invention by learned Men setting forth how putrid Fevers are generated I find Helmont that great Philosopher and Physician denying there are any such common Fevers Sciant igitur Scholae cruorem in venis putrefieri nunquam quin simul ipsamet vena putreat ut in Gangrena mortificationibus Helm lib. de Febr. cap. 2. He acknowledgeth the putredinous excrements in veins not the Blood to putrifie And he subjoins this reason quippe qui juxta Sacra est Sedes thesaurus vitae si vitanon servet à putridine sanguinem in quo gliscit quomodo preservabuntur ossa Ibidem The meaning of all this I judg is to take away the frequency of putrid Fevers that they are not so common as Authors and Practisers do make them That the putrid matter of Fevers Salutary is not putrefaction of the Blood For when the Blood is putrified the case is mortal A Corrupto sive privato non datur regressus ad vitam If the mass of Blood comes to be corrupt in the great streams of the Veins and Arteries there is no hopes of reducing it but death soon follows Now you must understand the difference and distinguish between putrifying and putrifyed putrefactio incipiens infieri and putrefaction in facto esse finished The first is curable the latter incurable But after all this Dissention and Contention in and about putrid Feavers what certain knowledge have we in this Disease so called but a Name Since the material Cause or Matter offending giving the Denomination is not adjudged and agreed upon And how
then shall a proper Method with effectual true Medicines be adapted for their Cures I must confess had I no Knowledge nor Guide to direct me herein but Books I should be at a stand and much puzled what Course to steer and with what Means to do the Business required or aimed at when such Fevers present But how pernicious are the Methods and Medicines for the Cure hereof as appointed by Authors we shall see anon when I come to set forth the Practice SECT V. Of Fevers Continual and Intermittent ACcording to Method and Custom I have not omitted this Difference and Distinction of Fevers but shall say no more in this Place than what distinguisheth one from the other Continual Fevers are such as have no perfect Intermission but only sometimes they have Intensions and Remissions And from the difference of their exacerbations in Distance whether every Day or every third or fourth Day they are called Continual Quotidian Tertian or Quartan But the consideration hereof is not of such Moment in Practice as to require various Methods of Curing and therefore I shall not trouble you with the Niceties and Distinctions of Authors reasoning thereupon Intermitting Fevers are such as in the English are called Agues And these are Quotidian Tertian and Quartan from their Cessations and Intermissions coming and going on such Days In assigning Causes for the periodic Returns of these Fevers on Certain and Several Days and for their Duplication and Triplication Authors do so much differ in their Opinions that an Account of their Conjectures Reasonings and Probabilities would give us more Trouble than Profit I shall therefore wave those Disputes that we may sooner come to the Curative Part which is more Satisfactory and Useful that proves more certainly what is true or false SECT VI. Of Fevers Malignant so called Measels Small-Pox and Pestilential HERE we make Malignant as the Genus comprising several Species under that general Denomination I shall first examine the Import of the word what is meant thereby and then inquire into the particular differences of Malignant Diseases For if we have not a true knowledge of the Sense and Import of the generical word we cannot have a distinct intelligible Account of the Species or kinds thereof I hear great talk of Malignant Fevers sometimes and I Consult Authors upon that Subject But I am not satisfied what they mean and so far as I can gather by the Discourses they do not well know what they mean themselves at least not how to set it forth For they have laboured to explicate the Intention and Scope of the word Malignant and rank it with intellible Doctrine But in fine the Result terminates in occult Qualities And this is acknowledged by a late famous Author treating of malignant and pestilential Fevers Ignotam ducunt originem ut earum Causae essentia sine recursu ad occultas qualitates raro explicentur Dr. Willis de Febr. How comes this word Malignant to be tackt as an Adjunct belonging to Fevers Malignant Fevers so much and often treated I know none such For all febrile Heat in gradu Summo remisso is but the same Heat in specie issuing from the same vital Principle and only differing gradually Furthermore those Fevers which are called Malignant are observed by the best Judgments to have their Heat more mild and moderate than other Fevers that are accounted and termed benign Therefore malignant affixed to Fevers as a distinguishing Character is an improper Compounding and Confounding of words together making the Sense and Meaning thereof intricate and perplext which breeds confusion and mistakes in Practice Clarioris Doctrinae gratiâ nec non verioris we must first understand what that thing is which truly may be called Malignant Then Secondly to what this Malignant Thing bears Enmity or evil against which it would hurt These two Points being rightly stated illustrates and clears the Doctrine from Obscurity Ambiguity and Intanglement Malignant by the Import of the word signifies Evil Malicious and Hurtful And it is used by Physicians to set forth that which is very Evil Pernicious and Dangerous more than ordinary And therefore Diseases arising from such malignant Causes are accounted worse than others That which denominates and makes Diseases Malignant is either some inbred Matter in Human Bodies highly and variously degenerated into a malignant venemous state as producing Cancers Gangrens Leprosie Small-Pox c. And this variously depraved malignant Matter is capable of no other Description and Distinction than what the Symptomatical Products and Effects thereof does manifest the Heterogenity of such causes in Human Bodies Pertinent to our Purpose Van Helmont Speaks tho' about to prove something else Excrementâ—m venenosum in Febribus praecordis includi producens sopores deliria c. ergo virus anodinum est amens In caducis paritur esse venenum insensitivum amens pro spatio affligens in praecordiis stabulatum In Amentiis hypochondriacis venenum furâ—osum vel cum joco delirans In vertigine virus rotans In apoplexia tollens sensum motum p. 268. Hence you may understand that great variety of venemous malignant matter is sometimes generated in Human Body producing many different and dangerous Effects afflicting variously Or else Secondly Malignant Diseases are caused and received from without As when the Air that surrounds and enters the Body is infected with noxious exhalations and vaporous malignant effluviums arising out of the Earth from carrion or dead Bodies expirations of venemous Creatures or by Influx of the Stars producing epidemical Malignant Diseases As the Pestilence or Pestilential and malignant in a lower Degree Or by the Bite of some venemous Creature or by depraved Corrupt Food or virulent Physick And this malignant matter whether inbred or imperceptible Miasms from without they do shew their Pravity Taint and Infection by the direful destructive Symptoms that attend their Operations and Alterations made in Human Body variously Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis Some malignant Matter being more acute deleterious does destroy sooner Others not so fierce and active do take more Time in killing yet are more difficult and obstinate in yielding to means than other Diseases that are not malignant All which does prove that Diseases are rightly called malignant from the material Cause only of which they are bred Secondly We must discern to what more immediately and directly this malignant matter is opposite to and where it makes the first Attack and Impression where the Stress of Malignity aims first and lyes most upon Not to and upon animal Spirits because the Enmity and Contrariety is not founded between them as Antagonists For granting there were no animal Spirits in Human Nature the Repugnancy Discordance and Hostility by malignant venom would be the same and the symptomatical Effects in like manner the same And it is but rational so to determine Because Sympathy and Antipathy Amity and Opposition in the nature of Creatures issue
dictated injurious Methods and Medicines deceiving many Practisers with the Ruine of many Patients The appearance of a Fever hath so long detained them unnecessarily and perniciously in applying to damp and extinguish the febrile vital Heat thereby suppressing the fortitude of Nature and giving Time to the morbifie Cause for prevailing Having gained little satisfaction in the doctrinal Part of Fevers we will now pass on to the next Stage the Curative Practice We shall then see whether Curing comes by Chance and sometimes only or is the Effect of certain true Design and right adapted Means as the most frequent Event SECT VII The Operations and Effects of Cortex Peruvianus the Jesuits Powder BEfore I give my Sentiment of this famed Remedy so much used against Fevers I shall first recite the Opinions of some Authors thereupon And then comparing Judgments with the matters of Fact you may easily know who comes nearest the Truth in determining the virtue or Vitiosity of this Medicine Dr. Willis in his Book de Febribus put forth in the Year 1660 makes mention of this Cortex which he had often used and was then reputed a certain Febrifuge But he does not say it was a Remedy adapt to his Doctrine of Fevers but only an empyrical Medicine and pretends not to know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why and how this should Cure Fevers p. 154. And in another Place he saith That sometimes it did prevent the next Fit to come but if not then the second or third Fit was thereby prevented and the Fever Cured Yet this Cure lasted for a while only for within twenty or thirty Days saepissime redire solet most often it returned again P. 152. Then the Pouder was to be given again and that would make another Cessation And after this manner saith He I have known many afflicted with a quartan a whole Autumn and the Winter following to be thus handled The Fever kept off for a Time and returning again until the Spring came Then by the Help of Physick and the Change of the Season the ill Disposition of Blood was altered and the Fever by Degrees vanished P. 152. What great Cause is here to boast of and proclaim the Jesuits Powder for an excellent Febrifuge many of the common Medicines have done as much And in the Page following He adviseth this Medicine to be given urgente Necessitate When the Patient is worn down by continuance of Fits this Febrifuge makes a Ceslation for a Time that Strength may be recovered to be able to contend with the Disease And if you would have a long Truce you must take larger quantities of the Powder by that means you will be longer free from your Ague P. 153. Thus he commends it for a Palliative only not a compleat Curative Medicine This Physician of great Name and a vast Practice had more opportunities to try the worth of this Bark than any Man in the Kingdom And by his writings you may see that he had made various Tryals thereof whose Judgment in the use of it and the Verity in matters of Fact I do depend upon And therefore shall esteem of it no more than what He saith of it Dubitandum non est quin alia in rerum natura extent Medicamina quae sunt aeque febrifuga P. 156. For my Part I never had such an Opinion of it as to put me upon many Experiments in the use of it Because I had another Medicine which proved more certain in Stopping any Quotidian Tertian or Quartan Ague and also for removing the Morbific Matter out of the Body to prevent any Return And without such Security the Patient is not safe and in a hopeful condition Dr. Morton in his Pyretologia is of another mind and extols this Pouder above all things efficaciae mirabilis sanè ac Stupendae p. 242. and as a universal Remedy appoints it in Fevers and most Diseases This being chosen as adapt to support the new Hypothesis of animal Spirits male affected in all cases by venom in the most requiring Alexipharmacals And this Aetiology of Diseases against the antient Doctrine of Humors he espouseth and labours to maintain by proving the methods of Curing to be governed hereby and the Jesuits Pouder as the chiefest Remedy I am not so much a Humorist as to assert the quaternary of the Galenists deriving all Diseases from thence distinguishing them thereby and adapting peculiar Medicines thereto But in all Diseases as the Cause or the Product there is degenerate Matter so various in divers Persons as not to be reduced to four Heads and we may rationally judge the depravedness thereof by the symptoms arising from thence more or less dangerous as the Faculties are disordered or hurt and Curing results from bridling and discharging such offensive Matter To discourse this farther would draw us more out of the way of our present Purpose therefore I wave it and return to the Peruvian Bark To have a true aestimate of this Remedy we must examine it by the manifest Qualities it is endowed with By the manner of its Operation And from the Effects or Success that usually attends it These are the only ways to discover the genuine Nature and Virtues of this Cortex Herein I shall not be guided or byassed by the Accusations and Invectives of some foreign Writers Men of Note against this Cortex I shall wave their Arguments and the Faults they object that I may not be accounted an Enemy to this Medicine by joyning with the great opposers of it tho' I cannot say I am so much a Friend as to promote and incourage the use of it But I ground my Judgment of this Remedy from those that are the great Applauders of it who give all the Advantages they can in setting it forth by Argument and Fact From their Expressions and Confessions I shall raise some Doubts and make some Exceptions against the validity and worth of this famous Febrifuge The manifest Qualities attributed to it and declared are these Hot and Dry Bitter and Stiptic or restrictive But these do not perform the great work of a Counter-Poyson That is effected by an occult Quality they say And I will grant your occult Quality wherein you place the Efficacy of this Antidote But with this proviso that you make it out clearly and prove it by the Effects For if you cannot make it appear à pricri in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must make it manifest in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 else we must believe against all Reason and Sense The Hypothesis occult as not fairly proved and the Remedy occult in its chief reputed virtue I wish the good effects and success may not be occult also or only to found inter rar◠Comingentia The three foremost Qualities named I like well and the fourth I do not dislike in some Cases But when Nature is upon the Expulsion and makes an Effort to send off the Morbific Matter by Vomit or Stool Then the Astriction
upon which the stress of those Cures did lye When those Partners in Curing have each their due share of Praise allotted How much or rather How little Glory will be left for the Jesuits Pouder For we must suppose that such various means was necessarily contributing which I shall not dispute now How then does the Super-Excellency of this Febrifuge appear to deserve the high Titles of Pharmacum divinum in Sanitate in Gentium ex arbore vitae c. And how does this Practice differ from other Physicians that conform to the Doctrine of Humors and Qualities We do know at least every Practiser ought to know that one morbific cause perambulating and irritating or protruded from Part to Part or by consent of Parts does raise various symptoms afflicting several Faculties and perverting their Functions If we apply several Medicines to such various symptomatical Appearances and endeavour to help the Sick after that Manner by a Method and Series of Medicines Then we cannot boast of any particular Medicine as a Catholicon or Polychreston and extol it as an extraordinary Curing Remedy and Salutiferous above all other Besides if true Medicine be rightly exhibited against the morbific cause there is no farther need of Application to symptomatical dependants For my Part I am for promoting a general and generous Medicine extensive and comprehensive that is applicable and efficacious in various Cases and Persons To ease the People especially some sort from variety and multiplicity of Medicines that are both irksom and chargeable And herein I am abundantly satisfied that such Help there is But no Medicine can be so generally useful and successful if it hath not a Manifest Operation by which to discharge impure morbific Matter for cleansing and purifying the Body And no Operation so advantagious and comprehensive against many and the most of Diseases as true Purgative Operation and also is the best preventive Means Not performed by the common virulent reputed Purgatives that have defamed this Operation But by Medicine composed of such wholesome Ingredients to do that most necessary work as it ought to be done When the People are sensible of this and can procure such Medicine they will be the better provided to maintain and to regain lost Health this I am assured of And then they need not have such Recourse to the Waters whereof some do complain afterwards and not a few by pouring in such large hazardous Quantities to force a Passage Mundus vult decipi decipiatur Information and Caution signifies little Custom and Example of others prevails much more and they chuse rather to suffer and Dye with the Multitude than go out of the Road they have been us'd to As for such Medicine whose prime Quality is occult and operateth occultly I cannot believe it to be so generally useful and so certain in Curing as a Medicine working Manifestly Moreover if a Medicine be set up as an insignal Polychrest and to out-do all other Let us see it act its Part singly and alone then we shall plainly see what it is But if the Peruvian Pouder be introduced with a crowd of other Medicines and by much strugling with one and the other a cure at last is gained Who then can say which of those many did the Cure since all bore a Part and it may be hard to tell which did most or best the occult or the manifest Qualities I always thought and do think so still that an Antidote against any venom worthy of that Name was a certain and speedy Remedy to kill the Poyson and needs no more to do at least very little And this Pouder so magnified for a stupendious Febrifuge and an expester of febrile venom I expected some wonderful Performances by its occult vertue but either I cannot see those rare effects or they are invisible Facts hid in the crowd and matter of Faith only If the new Hypothesis be true Doctrine That there is a venenous Ferment seizing the animal Spirits thereby producing various Symptoms in divers Parts of the Body Fevers Fluxes Spasms Vomitings Rigors Erratic Pains c. And also if it is as true that the Jesuits Pouder is a certain Antidote against this venemous Matter or Miasm Then it necessarily follows that all those Symptomatical and dependant Affects must cease and vanish by the use of that Medicine which subdues the morbific cause Sublatâ Causa tollitur effactus But if Curing be not the Result hereof then we may conclude that either the Cause is mistaken or the Medicine is not of such force and virtue as to master and reduce this Venom Failure in Curing we have found and that often as attested by many Therefore the Doctrine or the Medicine or both may be questioned as deficient and faulty This venemous Doctrine I doubt is apt to intoxicate the Brain Seduce Reason and lead out of the way in delirant Contemplation And therefore by comparing I have a more firm opinion of the Doctrine of Humors and Qualities rightly stated to fix the Aetiology of Diseases upon than upon animal Spirits invenom'd And although that Author hath pronounced Damnation against the Doctrine of Humors exulet per me in aternum exulet Philosophia ista Scientia falso sic dicta Pyretol ad Lectorem yet I hope the Execution of that severe sentence may be suspended as long as I shall live and for future Ages But waving the Doctrine let us enquire a little farther into the Medicine about the Dose and Manner of use from the same Author that most oft useth it as the chiefest in Practice The usual Dose for Man or Woman was two drams But that which is sold in the Shops now being counterfeit decayed musty or stinking two ounces is but sufficient says our Author Cortex officinarum adulterinus c. p. 169. The Patient that knows nothing of the Matter is finely brought to Bed when he must take two ounces of bad instead of two drams of good Here is Quantity and Quality offensive where is the Incouragement to venture upon this Remedy And I must remark that since there is so great Abuse in this Drug simply used and alone what security have you for all the compound Medicines where Fraud cannot be detected does it not behove every Physician to take upon him the Charge and Care of Medicines when Physicians who rely upon the Care and Honesty of Apothecaries do thus confess and proclaim Yet some People are so far out of their Wits or Bewitched in their Understanding that think a Physician who takes upon him the Preparation of Medicines according to the Custom of the Antients to be a Degree lower than him that prescribes to the Shops not discerning the Elder from the Younger Brother And do think a Fee is scarce due to him at least not so much cujus contrarium verum est such sort of Fools deserve the Cheat that are so ready to deceive themselves I am sure they are paid off for their Folly But this
by the way The same Author appoints the Peruvian Bark to be reduced in alcool into the most minute or finest Pouder quo facilius per habitum corporis trajiciatur p. 179. that it may the more readily pass through the habit of the Body But if I were to use this Pouder I should chuse rather to have it grosly beaten that the vertue may be extracted only and conveyed where and how nature pleaseth But the Substance more fitly to be carried downwards to be voided with Excrement For I cannot think it safe that so much Pouder of a ligneous indissoluble Substance should commix with the Blood and be imported into the smaller vessels but by incrassating that stream it must cause obstructions of very ill consequence tho' the Pouder be genuine und true But since it is so much adulterated and abused as this Author tells us and the Dose therefore to be augmented double or treble I cannot think otherwise but it must then make ill work in the Body and that there will be need of another Antidote or a Course of Physick against the mischief of this famous Febrifuge And this medicine making no manifest Operation we may fear that both the Dregs of the Disease and the Dregs of the Medicine do remain in the Body Therefore I am apt to believe it was not for nothing or no cause that Vopiscus Plempius a learned Physician of Note did charge this American Bark and condemn'd it as guilty of many misdemeanors and Homicide His words are these Plures tertio vel quarto reciderunt plurique cachectici facti nonnulli mortui Item Magnates hujus Aulae nominare possem qui ab usu Pulveris extenuati sunt ad Phthisin pracipites facti in usu longo lactis Asinini restituti fuissent I do not think it necessary that this Pouder or any Medicine of that substance should be conveyed Materialiter into every Part of the Body to discharge its virtue Nature does not operate after that manner with Medicinal Help is not bound to transport by Canals for her Relief but transmits virtualiter and influentially penetrating tatam Partium Compaginem Diaphoretics operate after the same manner Nor do I think it necessary or convenient the best and richest Cordial Pouder should be introduced into the Habit of the Body But let that pass The Jesuits Pouder was cried up and promoted in Italy by Sebastian Badus a Physician of Genoa And there were others that as much decried it as not being steddy and constant in good effects or doing no Hurt but oftentimes as being the cause of much ill and thereby went under an ill Name Which Party we are to credit in this matter I leave every one to Judge This we well know that the Duke of Savoy by several Accounts received about two years since was in a valetudinary State for a long Time caused by an Ague which for many Months continued in going and coming again Very probably this Febrifuge was the chiefest Remedy which put by the Fits for a Time But the minera Morbi the morbific cause not being discharged and sent forth the Fits returned again several Times But Supposing his Physicians did not advise the use of this Medicine or did not continue the use of it we may conclude it was under some disgrace or not in such Repute there as formerly But let us go on The Pouder is appointed to be taken in the Intermissions of Ague Fits every fourth Hour And when there is such a Cessation of the intermitting Fever or Ague as seemingly Cured yet that is no security but you must Continue the use of the Pouder thrice a Day for three Weeks or a Month intervallo octo vel decem Dierum as our Author appoints P. 132. I find hereby that this famous Bark makes but an uncertain and a tedious Cure for when it will be perfected who can tell Our Author gives us the Reason thereof in another Place P. 76 and 77. to this purpose That the febrile venom hath a fixed and determined Time of Duration either for weeks months and sometimes years That although it be subdued and seemingly cured for a Time yet it will revive again until the venemous fomes metam suam ultimam attigerit hath run its Course and spent it self P. 76 and 77. If it be so how does the virtue and great Power of the Antidote appear This is small Hopes for the Patient and little Incouragement to use Means since there is such a determinate Time of Cure and before which it cannot be But to make us Amends for this great Impediment And to keep up the Reputation of the Febrifuge He saith We may be glad that we have such a Remedy as can relieve Nature oppressed and worn down when we please by this Febrifuge and prevent the fatal event P. 77 78. So that we are hereby secured from Death but when we may be rid from the Fever or Ague that 's uncertain tho' we use this great Antidote famed so potent against the febrile venom If this be all that can be expected from this Pouder then I shall not trust to the occult Quality of this Medicine and which makes only an occult Operation in the Patient least the good effects prove occult also But I am for a Medicine that works manifestly and therein more probably to effect a cure more certainly by Operations that we know how and which way a Disease goes off And such is the Catholic Extract that makes a manifest Operation but very gentle which is much more pleasant and easie to take than the Peruvian Bark And we have more Reason to hope and expect the desired effects from this Catholic Purifier because it carries off and frees the Body from offensive depraved impure Matter the minera morborum termed venom by this Author thereby it does perform a radical Cure of Agues not a fallacious Cessation and we shall not fear a Relaps or Return And so much I dare promise upon a Forfeit By such certainty properly and only we may call Curing This Catholic Extract being of my own Elaboration perfected by divers Alterations and gradual Improvements I can presume upon from many Proofs to do more and better service in Fevers therefore in various Diseases whereon they depend than any single Medicine that I can know of Extant in the World And I have examined the best Authors and Pharmacopoeia's for that Purpose As for Prescripts the sudden Inventions pro re nata and suddenly to be made at the Shops I do not inquire for any extraordinary piece of Art in that way nor in Reason can we expect it there I shall not here Discourse the Latitude and Comprehension of this Medicine The excelling Properties in Operation and Performance its Commodiousness for use Durability and Portage for emergent occasions abroad For my own Part and particular private use I had rather be destitute of all other Medicines than to want this For I am more beholden to this
But bleeding debilitates and exhausts the strength which should contend with the Disease how can you then expect a good Crisis when Nature is enfeebled and checkt in her encounters for by the Strength of Nature the Crisis is procured sooner or latter as she is strong or weak Natura Corroborata est Morborum Medicatrix If this Truth were rightly considered in the Practice of Physick there would not be such frequent recourse to enervating Phlebotomy To incourage and countenance Bleeding as a laudable Remedy and to captivate the Understandings of People They endeavour to prove the good effects thereof by ocular Demonstration exhibiting to the view of the Sick and by Standers the Pravity of the Blood taken away as appearing variously discoloured and different in consistence if compared with others The Blood after it hath stood some time thus presenting to the Eye so depraved they straitway undoubtingly conclude it was discreetly and happily taken away for the Patient 's good Thinking hereby so much matter of the Disease is abated and let out And since they find the Blood thus faulty they charge all the mischief or mostly to lye in the vitiousity of the Blood Quid planius This incourageth to proceed on in the same way and to repeat this Operation to draw out some more of the morbific Matter as the most ready way to free the Patient from the Complaints But all this while they are not aware of the Errours they are under in this Prosecution For they do not consider the different State of the Blood under the Power and Protection of the Life in its proper native Place the Veins and Arteries and how apt it is to change and variously to degenerate when extravasated and exposed to the Air The Blood is not the same now 't is exhibited to the View as it was in the Vessels of conservation The Life was in the Blood before but now in the Porringer it is dead Blood Between the Dead and the Living there must needs be great disparity so that the Judgment passed upon the dead Blood does not affect or represent the live Blood for it is not what it was Tho' it is now ill coloured coagulate or in a state of separation and abounding with Serosity Before it was more ruby florid Balsamic and more intire when running in the Veins and Arteries which have a conservative Power I do not deny the Blood of several Persons to differ in Purity and Goodness and the difference thereof in the same Persons as they are in a good or bad state of Health But I do not approve of the severe rash Judgment pronounced upon the Blood extramitted from the dead Aspect thereof concluding from thence it was fit for no other use but to be thrown away and better to be out than in the Body True it is there are some Diseases that the Blood is much in fault as the Cause of such Maladies yet notwithstanding that is not a sufficient Cause to let it out since there are efficacious purifying Remedies to reduce the Blood into a better Condition and not prodigally to waste that vital Stream so necessarily useful and serviceable to the whole Body For the Mass of Blood is not depraved and amended by Phlebotomy let out as much as you will equal Parts of good and bad will remain behind from this promiscuous evacuation Besides A degenerate bad Blood does arise mostly from the insufficiency and depravedness of the previous alimental Juice of which Blood is made And then the fault to be remedied is not in the Blood or office of sanguification but in the preparatory offices and those Parts defective upon which Bleeding hath no Influence nor possibility to rectify And as for Fevers which arise more oft from other Causes than from the Blood there is no Pretence for Bleeding in such Cases if you will be governed by Indications and not go on blindfold Nidus Febrium in primis est officinis extenditur scilicet à Pyloro per Duodenum vasa ibidem multiplicia Intestina item Venas Mesenterii Lienem usque ad Hepar Helm de Febr. According to this great Author the Seat of Fevers both Continual and Intermitting is not in the Veins or Arteries but in the first Region of the Body from whence they take their Rise Then what signifies Bleeding in such cases but to add more mischief Their Cures are performed by Abstersives and Depuratives to cleanse where such morbific matter is bred And those are the true Antifebrific Remedies And not only such but they are also universal Medicines required as necessary in all other Cures I do allow of Bleeding upon some suddain great Inflammation that threatens the Life and when efficacious discussing Means are wanted to prevent Apostomation But otherwise if it come o◠gradually and slowly giving warning and good Medicine ready for use at Hand then bleeding is not required and better to forbear the Lancet Some are so bold at Bleeding that they forbear not in the highest Malignant Fevers Small Pox c. But if the Sick recover 't is wonderful Providence that saves them but more oft Death is procured thereby In the expectance of the Small Pox they will Bleed under Pretence of abating the corrupt Matter that breaks forth thinking thereby the Patient may not be so much disfigured with Pustles and may be a Help to preserve the Face from Deformity which before was beautiful The end proposed was good but the Medium they go by is very dangerous and unlikely to succeed well For saving a Face to hazard the Life is no good designing They begin at the wrong end of such malignant Distempers for by Bleeding they aim at and apply only to the Effects the producted Matter and neglect the producing Cause the Venemous Miasm or fermenting Leven that corrupts the whole Mass of Blood To prevent Impurity and Corruption of the Blood is much better than to lessen and abate the Quantity of the Blood after it is corrupted The main design in such cases is first how to expel the putrefying venom before it spreads and taints the whole at least so to fortify Nature that she may be able to Master it and defend her self The Indications for Cure are these to assist and strengthen the Life that she may be able to resist the Venom And to Mortifie the malign Ferment by proper Alexipharmacals thereby to preserve the vital streams from mortal Putrefaction or Coagulation But bleeding is quite contrary to this Method and Intentions for Cure and is the ready way for killing That which makes a promiscuous evacuation of good and bad together is no true Remedy for Curing Phlebotomy does not distinguish the better Part of the Blood from the worse but le ts both out together the remainder in the Vessels is not amended thereby but equal Proportions continue behind of good and bad Therefore abating the Quantity of naughty Blood in any case by bleeding is an indirect way to amend it and
complication of Diseases whatever For tho' there be a great Number of Diseases multiplied by Names whereunto Human Nature is liable and many of them do come and go off again in the course of Life facile curabiles yet most if not all the Contumacious are therein concern'd and such as become Mortal do terminate in this Series as the Catastrophe and last Scene Mortal Diseases I said because when this common Train of Diseases is stopt in its Progress and hath not its full course but taken off and prevented by effectual good Means or great Providence and then Pain may exercise its Power singly and alone for a Time by Intervals Or Pain may contract and associate a Tumor sometimes an Inflammation and yet all this may end well these may go off again or be sent off by Medicine and proceed no further the Patient may recover and return to a good state of Health But too often it proves otherwise by neglect and Delay in the use of good Means by improper Methods and evil Medicines by Juleping and Blistering such male Practice the frequent Train of Diseases goes on gradually to the last and ends with Death How many Fevers depend upon Obstructions by depraved Matter lodged and stopping some Canal or Ductare that ought to be free and open for Transmission Very many and very often this is the generating Cause and this is the continuing Cause You may then give Julep after Julep from Day to Day and never Cure such Fevers after that manner Obstructions most commonly cause Pain this Pain raiseth a Fever and sometimes an Inflammation in the Part pained This Inflammation forms a Tumor internal and not perceived or suspected This Tumor sometimes Apostemates or becomes Schirrous and indurate Or Gangrens and soon kills the Patient not coming to any Suppuration And then the Patient is said to Die of a Fever they could not quench this Fever I readily believe that it was not like to be done by Juleping Blistering c. such nonsensical Practice After this manner so many Thousands have died of Fevers or rather in Fevers by the Ignorance and great Mistakes of the Pretenders to Cure Fevers which they understand not Such Cases of internal Tumors and Inflammations come oftner into the Physicians Practice than taken notice of and Thousands have died upon this Account when the true state of the Case was not discerned But the Patient died of a Fever the Fever was apparent and aimed at the rest was latent and therefore proved mortal The obscurity of this lurking satal Train thus commuting and making Progress unseen and unsought for by Physicians The neglect and oversight thereof does proceed chiefly from the 〈◊〉 general Catalogue of Diseases ranking them all under these three Divisions Similar Organical and Common Which first Division I cashiered for sufficient Reasons in another Tract as not being Diseases but Symptoms only And this first Division of supposed Diseases hath made more Bustle whereof febrile Distemper the chief and so engrossed the Practice of Physick that most endeavours have vainly been spent thereupon much Time and Opportunities lost the considerable and most important Diseases overseen and the frequent Progress of this dangerous Train so seldom under Consideration in Consultation being Mask'd and Covered with the external Appearance and outside Garb of a Symptomatical Fever which mistake and oversight hath lost Myriads of Lives The Proceeding and Advance of this dangerous Commutation being frequent and disguised under Fevers the cooling Inventions of Juleps Barly-water c. against febrile Heat are very pernicious upon the Account of this latent Series of Diseases always to be suspected But at best and in other Fevorish Cases those Coolers are a great delay in Curing of any Fever yet after all this trifling and Hazard if the Patient escapes by good Providence only the Doctor is applauded for bringing them out of a tedious and dangerous Sickness tho' long and hazardous of his own making by a refrigerating Mode of Practice And although the Patient escapes the Fever and wades through that Sickness yet by such male Practice they fall into Dropsies Scurvey Jaundice Cachectic Habits of Body an obstructed tumefied Spleen Liver Mesentery c. or it breaks out upon the Skin afterwards or settles in a Limb and disables the Part. And it is but rational to expect such Effects from such injurious ways of Curing For the morbific Matter which caused the Fever being fixed and retained by checking and cooling the febrile Fermentation and not observing the Aphorism quò Natura vergit this Morbous Impurity must precipitate and settle in some Part Then an after-game is to be played and probably more difficult than that of the Fever But oftentimes the Event and Effect of this Cooling Practice proves fatal and a Discovery with Conviction of such erroneous and dangerous Proceedings is by Dissection after Death and plain Demonstration to the Eye As when the Physician dubiously giving in an Account of the Sickness and the Relations are not therewith satisfied concerning the Death of the Patient Dissection then is appointed which lays open when too late and presents to view an Apostem Vlcer or putrid decay of some internal Part Gangren'd or Mortified which makes evident what before was little thought of But upon this Discovery of Miscarriage by great Mistakes in the gradual Progress of the Sickness and improper Designing of Medicines aiming only or chiefly at the Fever Indemnification is thus contrived and framed with à salvo judicio When the Corps bears any of these Characters the Account is given that the Patient was in such a desperate Condition as it was impossible to retrieve and recover After this manner by such Inventions the Blemish is wip'd off the Physician and he passes nevertheless for an able judicious Practiser as before When indeed this funeral Conclusion was brought about for want of a true Notion and due Consideration of this latent and frequent Progress of Diseases which might have been prevented or timely stopt in their course of Transition and Commutation if the Design of Cure had look'd that way to obviate the Danger secretly coming on But the Fever this ignis fatuus leads all out of the right way of Curing Oh the Fever is very high Sulphur accensum in Corde this Bugbear scares them all not knowing what evil Thing it is deflagratum says Dr. Willis the Sick Patient is set on Fire Then to quenching and cooling as fast as they can for there is no ensuring Office to make good the Damage Now here is Subject enough for Satyr or Ridicule but I shall not prosecute in such Manner The Practice upon Fevers cannot be hopeful and helpful for as much as the Methods and Medicines for Curing are designed by a false Canon of healing by contraries Contrariorum contraria sunt remedia which is the quite contrary way for Curing then the whole proceeding is an Accumulation of Errours Let us examine the Practice in Fevers by
any Part of the Body does breed all the Diseases which produce several Fevers This premised as certain and true The Curing of all Fevers lye fair and open before you for they are performed by promoting the three grand Evacuations named viz. by Stool by Vrine and by Transpiration whereby the Body is cleansed and discharged from all indigested and degenerate Humoral Matter or Miasm that breed those Diseases upon which Symptomatical Fevers do depend The Curing of all Diseases after this Manner is also the Curing of all Fevers which are only Dependants thereon And there is no other and true way but by the Operations aforesaid It remains now that I assign the Means to perform truly and effectually those necessary Curative Operations And they are only these two Comprehensive Medicines universal in their Classes A Catholic purifying Extract and a Sudorific The purifying Extract operates by Stool and Vrine sending forth by these Canals of Emission all morbific vitious Matter that must pass those ways opens Obstructions of the Spleen Liver Pancreas Mesentery Kidneys c. of which more at large in a peculiar Tract upon this great Medicine The Mystery of Curing Comprehensively c. The Sudorific Medicine opens all the Pores to breathe out Impurities that infest the Habit of Body and external Parts Clears and takes away all Cutany Defoedations Spots Scurf Scabs Pustules Tettars Itch c. In all malignant contagious and pestilential Fevers as Small-Pox Measels Plague Spotted Fevers and the like I account this Medicine most Necessary and Powerful These are the safe and surest ways of Curing being the ways of Nature's Institution Let the morbific Matter be as various and different in several Persons as you can find out or form a peculiar Name for Let it be lodged and fixed here and there in any Part of the Body or if it be moving and erratic troubling many Parts at Times one of these two Medicines or both by Turns in a Method and Order will send forth the offending Matter and clear the Body whether the Fever be continual or intermitting malignant c. of what sort soever I have heard of intermitting Fevers called Agues of a Year or two Years continuance under the use of Means but I never yet was so baffled with any Ague I will ingage to Cure more Fevers with these two Medicines only than any of you shall with the two hundred Medicines appointed by Riverius in his Practice upon Fevers And you shall have the Liberty to use as many more pickt out of other Authors Mine are no Book Medicines recommended by Authors and taken up upon Trust as they do from one another I like 'em not But I depend upon my own Labour and Experience what I have formed reformed and proved often Most People are pleased with a Book stuft full of Medicines for this and for that and for hundreds of Diseases And they rove amongst them uncertainly venture upon them unsafely and most commonly unsuccessfully Very probable it should be so for they promise very little to Him that understands the designing and forming of true Serviceable and Safe Medicines Now Judge you if two Extraordinary Medicines thus designed and proved to work through all Parts of the Body by Cleansing and Purifying both the Organs and nutritious Juices are not more hopeful less troublesom or chargeable than two hundred ill-composed uncertain Medicines The two Medicines Proposed Catholic in their Classes Cure manifestly that is by known ways and out-lets such as Nature hath framed for ordinary daily use and for extraordinary occasions in Sickness and Diseases I cannot believe a Disease is gone except I see or know which way and how it went There are Medicines to Charm Agues and other Diseases such as Jesuits Pouder and many more of that kind but I cannot confide in such Cures I call it Charming when a Medicine stops the Course of a Disease suppresseth the Insults or Fits and you know not which way or how the morbific Matter went but you may rather suppose it remains For the Medicine made no manifest Discharge or Evacuation this way or that way so that the Disease is only laid asleep for a Time and will wake again and appear in its former Shape or be transformed into some other Disease that may prove as troublesom a Guest or worse than the Ague For morbous Matter the longer it continues in the Body it grows worse and not better Examples of this Nature we frequently meet with of changing one Disease for another They were Cured of their Ague but the Scurvey Dropsy Tumor in the Bowels or tumified Legs c. was the consequent and the proper effect of a fallacious bad way of Curing The Curing of Fevers is the Curing of all Diseases upon which Fevers do depend for they are only Symptoms thereof And no Disease of what Denomination soever but requires such Operations for Cure as these two Medicines do perform either of the one or of both You regard the Names of Diseases and they deceive the World I consider only the Nature of Diseases in their material Causes and from whence they arise If you multiply Diseases Circumstantially by various Names and make a Thousand more than now are yet in Curing you are confined to the same Operations Whatever the Matter of Diseases is tho' various by Name or Nature the manner of sending it away is not so different a Way but by the Common known ways of Nature's Institution and they are very few as before named Purifying is a Catholic Operation required in the Cure of all Diseases by what various Names soever Circumstantially denominated and distinguished And if that necessary Work will be done by one or two Medicines extraordinarily performing better it is than by two Hundred of the Common Medicines of mean Performance if possible to be effected by such From hence you may understand that the Thousands of Medicines invented and dispers'd abroad in the World do keep the People Doing and sometimes to their undoing venturing upon they know not what proved by they know not whom Curing lies in a little compass if it can be done and by a little of radical true Medicine more likely to be done than by many ill-contrived operating uncertainly at Random wherefore doubting and mistrusting the Ability of a few they muster up many to supply their Insufficiency Si non juvet unum alterum juvaturum sperant If some miss the Disease the other they hope may arrive thither In all Diseases and Sickness the surest and safest Design is to aim and level at the common and general Cause impure depraved and unserviceable Matter that perverts the Faculties infests divers Parts and lay the Foundation of various Infirmities which being removed and sent forth by the ways aforesaid the great Work of Curing is much-what performed The remainder to be done is only roborating and confirming the Faculties for due performance of their Functions afterwards to prevent relapsing into the former ill
desired effects This Medicine will do true service and deserves to be made known and is much esteemed by those that have us'd it in these and many other cases of which more at large else where SECT IX The Practice upon Fevers Perniciously mistaken PRactice grounded upon false Doctrine cannot be hopeful or Safe But there are some and not a few who mistaking Fevers in the true Notion thereof have a common Method of Cure by Bleeding Blistering Juleping and other ways of Cooling to damp and suppress preternatural Heat not knowing what this Heat is from whence it proceeds and the Principle thereof There is nothing duly administred in Practice without Indication to direct what is properly required to be done Fever quatenus Fever barely and solely considered as preternatural Heat and only a Symptom of the Life so affected requires no Remedy adapt thereto but only to that Disease or morbific Matter which is the occasional Cause provoking the Life or vital Principle to aestuate If so as true it is by the Discourse and Reasons preceding then the Practice is governed by every such Disease particularly and Fever not to be regarded in Curing otherwise than as signal shewing the Life to be disturb'd and in a preternatural state But how and with what is not thereby appearing but to be sought for and inquired elsewhere among the Causes and you have no more to do with Fever The Curative means are to be appointed as every Disease doth require Then the Practice upon Fevers is out of Doors and nothing to be done there the Fears and the bustle about Fevers is vain or rather pernicious How absurd it is for any Man to say He is Curing of a Fever when he is Curing something else he is busie to no Purpose or rather he is doing of mischief For he is doing in the dark and what can you expect from thence To institute a Practice for allaying of Fevers to adapt rightly safely and hopefully therein is to appoint and go through almost the whole Practice of Physick For most Diseases have Fevers attending and following after them yet as dependants-remotely related thereto and arising immediately from the Principle of Life But if you will fix your Eye upon Fevers chiefly and Characterize them with the Denomination in all those cases as deeming Fever of greatest Importance and the Disease principally to be Cured Then the Practice upon Fevers is very erroneous and dangerous But the Practice which ought to be in Fevers is as various as the Infirmities of Human Nature are different from each other and by their Cures Fevers are cured consequenter of course Contrary to all this I find a late Writer who tells us of the Protean Nature of Fevers disguised Sub larvâ Algoris funesti vomitionis indefinentis Diarrheae torminosae Colicae Ventriculi Hemicraniae periodicae Apoplexiae Syncopes Rheumatismi Spasmi universalis Pluritidis Peripneumoniae vel alterius morbi securè delitescens Dr. Morton Puretolog p. 189. He would have Fever to act all these tragick Parts and many more as being variously disguised and hid under such several Appearances and their Cures to be included in Curing the Fever Cujus contrarium He draws all the Practice upon Fevers and I take all the Practice off from Fevers and apply it elsewhere Here I demand the Reason why Fever or febrile Heat which is but a Symptom should be exalted above the rest of its fellow Symptoms as most dangerous and be Dux gregis the Master symptom or rather as this Author would have it to be Genitor Symptomatum the Father of a numerous off-spring and the first and chiefest to be aimed at in Curing The contrary whereof does appear for as much as febrile Heat is the consequent occasioned by such various Disorders and preternatural Affects not the Producer or Leader of them And therefore they are of greater Importance and threaten with more Danger than Fever doth Because they are descended from and do participate of Morbific causes Matter or Miasm in their Nature But febrile Heat is vital Heat nearly allied to Human Nature a Symptom of the Life only exceeding natural Temper provok'd thereto by such morbific Causes Now tell me where and to what Curing is to level at when those various Phenomena present The same Author hath given an Answer and directs our Aim at febrile Venom or fermentum febrile But why fermentum febrile and not fermentum emeticum apoplecticum Catharticum Spasmodicum dolorificum c When the fermenting Matter or Miasm produceth such Operations and Effects apparently why should they not bear that Denomination which is most significant and shewing the nature of the ferment the Tendency or motion thereof If the fermenting Matter must have a Name give it a proper Name a distinguishing Name that does indicate But febrile gives no information of the Matter of what condition it is therefore an improper and useless Title as making no distinction At this rate a Stone in the Kidney may be called fermentum febrile because it occasions a Fever but how fitly let every one Judge And all the Morbifick causes in Aetiologia may as unfitly be termed febrile Ferments If causes that have been set forth so various can be reduced under this one Head Fermentum febrile few excepted then the Practice of Physick will be very concise and easie now the Jesuits Pouder is so effectual against febrile venom as some will have it to be But I do not find the virtue of this Febrifuge so great but will require much Assistance from other Means in the performing of Cures And we will go no farther for Proof hereof than the Examplars set forth in Pyretologia of the same Author last named After a long Harangue upon Fevers shewing the Diversity Difficulty and Dangers thereof when we come to the Curing Part there is nothing to be Cured that properly and truly is called Fever but something else They lay all the load upon Fever charging the mischief and Ruine of Sickness and Diseases upon Fever and that is the least Part of the Sickness Then put the Saddle upon the right Horse The variety of Fevers is the Diversity of Diseases under false Denominations and the Umbrage of Fever But by false Accusations Fever is a horrid and terrible Disease being made the Epitome of Diseases Fever bears the Blame for all but is wrongfully charg'd Insons febris Innocent Fever a general signal of complaint to let you know that the Life or vital Principle is uneasie injured or in Danger and calls for Help being impeded in Government and attack'd by Morbific Causes Requiring such Assistance as requisite for the case which may be as Various as Diseases are numerous and different Then let every such Cause and Case bear its proper Name and not be Shrowded and mask'd with a false Denomination of Fever under a Pretence of the Protean Nature thereof which if allowed the Practice upon Fevers will deceitfully be extended and engross the greatest