make Incisien in all promiscuously has been the ruine of many and the one cutting which the Patient was told would be sufficient for Cure has occasioned more Sinus's by the Inflamation and Pain and the fâ—uxion of Humours thereby upon those depending Parts so that cutting again and again has been done to the utter spoiling of the Patient causing the Fistula to be inveterate to run much to the extenuating the Body decaying the Strength whence loss or debilitation of Stomach ensues and at length Faintness cold Sweats c. which brings the Fistula and whole Body into such a State as that all hopes of Cure are past especially if the Fistula was deep or penetrated beyond the Musculi Ani for by cutting such if they are cur'd the Patients will scarcely ever retain their Excrements but with great difficulty if no worse accidents happen and if they reach beyond the Sphincter the retention of the excrements will be impossible so that great care ought to be taken and a Skilful Surgeon advis'd with before the Patient submits to be cut at all It is allow'd by all that Fistula's that are very Sinous and have been of long standing are dangerous and of difficult Cure especially if they discharge a large quantity of Pus and lie so far distant as that there is no coming at the bottom but the nearer they are to the Anus the more easie they are of Cure The Anus or Fundament is more subject to Fistula's than any other part in the whole Body because the great quantity of Fat with which the Intestinum Rectum is loaded and the Evacuation of the Excrements this being the common Sink where all the filth of the Body is brought down to be carried off from its continual Humidity and numerous Vessels as Branches of the Hypogastrick Arteries and Veins a Branch of the Aorta another of the Inferior or Mesenterick Artery the Hemoirrhoidal Veins the vast number of Lymphaticks the Glands also seperating a white Glairy Viscous Liquor I say those meeting there and Humours from internal Causes whether Obstructions Inflammations Ascesses Ulcers Piles or external as Blows Contusions impure Embraces Falls Leeches ill applied c. which happening more or less to meet there as being a Part more dispos'd it is no wonder to find Fistula's so soon form'd and so frequent as we observe them to be There are some Fistula's that are not noisome nor very troublesome or painful and that sometimes are open and run at other times close and the Patient is dry and thus they do for many Years without any great inconveniency and is what is found expedient for the Health of the Patient for thereby the Body is discharg'd of superfluous Humours which otherwise might breed great disorders and endanger the Patient's Life I have known many People have such Fistula's which have contributed greatly to their Health and continued on them to the end of their Lives But enough has been said as to the Nature Cause and Consequence of this troublesome and oftentimes dangerous Indisposition I shall now come to speakof its Cure which is what was chiefly at first aim'd at and what I presume is by the Patient expected I have said already that cutting is not necessary in all and shew'd wherein it is and is not for the Patients safety and where it is not I shall recommend a Method which if follow'd according to directions will be found more beneficial than many Physicians and Surgeons will be ready or willing to believe In the first place the Patient is gently to purge with the English Pills herein recommended and to repeat them oncein a Week oftner or seldomer as the Body is gross or Humours abound but not to take too large a Dose for gentle Purging is best and he is also at the same time to make the following Dyet-drink which he is constantly to drink of till he is perfectly well and is this Take Burdock Roots 8 Ounces Elecampane Roots 3 Ounces Tormentil and Bistort Roots of each an Ounce Sanicle 2 handfuls Germander Ground-Ivy and Agrimony of each 2 handfuls Sarsaparilla 6 Ounces China Roots 3 Ounces Sassaphras 3 Ounces Guaiacum 4 Ounces Raisons of the Sun and Figs of each 4 Ounces Liquorish 3 Ounces boil all in 12 Pints of Lime Water till 2 Pints are boil'd away then strain it and drink half a Pint every Morning and 4 or 5 in the Evening and at Night going to Bed a little warm'd Upon the use of this Dyet-drink and now and then but not too often purging with the aforesaid Pills and using at the same time the Injection into the Fistula the Patient will find the Cure will come on for the Purging gently carries off the Humonrs the Dyet-drink dries up the superfluous Moisture and nourishes and strengthens the Body and the Injection which I am now going to mention will cleanse and cicatrize the Fistula that the Patient if he continues the Course long enough which he must be sure to do if he expects to be well for those things will take up time in some more in some less according as is the Indisposition will find it to answer his expectation without the pain and danger of cutting which has ruin'd many The Injection for this purpose is neither corrosive or will cause pain it is to be injected into the Fistula every Night and Morning warm with a Syringe two Syringes full each time which upon casting in he will find if the Fistula goes into the Fundament to come some of it out at the Fundament but he is not to put the point of the Syringe into the Fistula too far but just so much in as that the Liquor will be forc'd into the Orifice By this means I have cur'd several and most if not all that use the method will have the same success for the Injection takes away all Callosity and yet I say without pain cleanses astringes dries up and cicatrizes the Part that by degrees the Fistula will close and heal up from end to end to the great pleasure and satisfaction of the before terrify'd Patient who cou'd hear nothing from his Surgeon but Cutting Cutting which News is receiv'd by some as unwelcome as an Old-Baily Sentence to a Criminal The Price of the Injection is 5s the Bottle To be had only at the Place before-mentioned Tinctura Cephalica OR HEAD-TINCTURE THE most incomparable and appropriated Medicine that can possibly be made use of for preventing and curing all Distempers of the Head and Brain as Head-achs Megrim Vertigo Epilepsies Palsies Apoplexies Lethargies Convulsions Phrensies Carus Coma trembling of the Nerves Numbness loss of Memory dulness and heaviness of the Senses Drowsiness tasting and smelling hurt weakness glimmering or dulness of the Sight thickness of Hearing noises in the Head beating or shooting Pains c. which numbers of Persons are sorely afflicted with and which very often seizes such as are over thoughtful and studious c. those Diseases amongst the numbers that
An Account of the CAUSES Of some Particular Rebellious DISTEMPERS VIZ. The Scurvy Cancers in Women's Breasts c. Vapours and Melancholy c. Weaknesses in Women c. Gout Fistula in Ano Dropsy Agues c. TOGETHER With the Vertues and Uses of a Select Number of Chymical Medicines Studiously prepar'd for their Cure and adapted to the Constitutions and Temperaments of all Ages and both Sexes By an Eminent Practitioner in Physick Surgery and Chymistry THEY BEING His Choice Secrets Experienc'd for many Years in his Practice to be of wonderful Efficacy as the Cures performed by them Manifest and now by the Importunities of many judicious Persons set forth and recommended for the universal Good and Benefit of all People And are to be had only at _____ THE PREFACE THERE needs no Apology for publishing the following Account of Diseases and the Medicines for their Cure the Title Page telling the World 'T is done for the universal Good and Benefit of all People which indeed was the Motive but that the excellent Remedies recommended for their Cure may not be branded with the infamous Appellation of Quack Medicines so detestable to all wise People and indeed not without Reason if it be rightly consider'd what Riff raff Stuff is set Abroad and vended under the Specious Name of Medicine I shall take leave to say only thus much in their behalf that they have all of them been really experienc'd for many Years to be of most excellent Uses for the Distempers to which they are appropriated and 't is presum'd will be found upon Tryal more Efficacious than some may be willing to believe upon only the bare hearing of them or by reading the following Account given of their Vertues which have been lagely known or else had not been recommended Therefore 't is hoped as the intent by publishing them was to serve and not deceive the People as is too notoriosluy known many of the Quack Medicines vended Abroad have done to the bringing disrepute on the most excellent ones none will condemn them till they have tryed them which is the true Test and by which the Author is content to Stand or Fall have Credit or Disgrace The Histories of Cures perform'd by them might have been enumerated had not design'd Brevity forbid The few inserted 't is hop'd will be sufficient to convince all People till they have tryed them that they are Medicines effectual and for further Confirmation should have mentioned the Names of the Persons on whom the Cures were wrought but that the Author is obliged to conceal himself for the sake of his constant Business besides the World is now so Censorious that if the best Physician recommends but a Medicine for Publick Good which he has experienc'd to be Excellent he shall presently have the scandalous Epithet of Quack put upon him tho' it s no more than what the greatest Physicians in all Ages have done without thinking it digressive because they did it as the Author here does his for the common good of his Country-men but now I say it cannot be done publickly with any tollerable Reputation For which Reason does the Author conceal himself and oblig'd the Seller of them never to let his Name be known to any without which solemn Promise they had never been made publick and consequently the People never been benefitted by them But because of this none need to doubt their Efficacy neither will any want proper Directions how to take and use them every thing in that kind being sufficiently provided for in the Book so that none will be at a loss or have any need at any time upon any pretence to speak with the Author concerning 'em besides for their Efficacy the People that sell them can give some Account being well assur'd both of their Vertues and the Authors Skill or else had not undertaken the task of selling them And as they are Medicines effectual so are they lasting for they will retain their Vertues many Years and may be carried beyond the Seas For that no Climate Season of the Year or Age will in the least altet or diminish them provided they be kept from the Air and the Wet A Catalogue of the Names and Prices of the Medicines mentioned in this Book which are to be had only at the Place directed in the Title Page viz. At the _____ Page 1. THE English Pills for the Scurvy c. each Box Price 3 s. 6 d. Page 19. The Liniment for Women's Swell'd or Cancerated Breasts each Gallipot price 5 s. Page 33. The Suffumigating Powder for Vapours Hypocondriack Melancholly and Diseases of the Nerves each Parcel 3 s. 6 d. Page 42. The Ingredients to make the Poultice for the Gout price 5 s. Page 50. The Balsamick Electuary for Weaknesses in Women c. each Gallypot price 3 s. 6 d. Page 55. The Injection for the Cure of Fistula's each Bottle price 5 s. Page 61. The Cephalick or Head Tincture each Bottle price 3 s. 6 d. Page 67. The Balsamick Restorative Elixir for all Diseases of the Lungs each Bottle price 3 s. 6 d. Page 70. The English Vegetable and Plaisters for the Cure of all sorts of Agues both together price 6 s. Page 76. The Hydragogue Tincture for the Dropsy each Bottle price 3 s. 6 d. Page 79. The fam'd Eye Powder and Water both together price 6 s. Page 81. The Carminative or Wind expelling Lozenges each Box price 2 s. 6 d Page 83. The Balsam to make Issues run c each Box price 2 s. 6 d. English PILLS FOR THE SCURVY And all other Cutaneous Diseases or Breakin gs out of the Body Sores c. from that or any other Causes AMONGST all the Diseases incident to Humane Bodies there is none more predominant tho' least regarded than the Scurvy a Disease that seems incident to this Climate and which spares none of any Age Sex or Constitution being a general Malady scarcely taken Notice of because it seldom kills tho at the same time it introduces many direful Distempers and proves the principal and efficient Occasion thereof The cause of the Scurvy is from an acid corrosive Humour tainting the Blood and Juices of the Body incumbred with Earthy Sulphurs of a Nature rebellious and stubborn and attended sometimes especially when inveterate with a very strong Smell or Stench which Volatile Saline Acid irritates the Nerves and Membranes sharpens the Lymph debauches the innate Spirits of the Parts and perverts the equal Temperature of the Blood this is the immediate cause of the Scurvy But the remote Causes are the Sea-Air and the Specifick Malignity of the Stagnated Waters and the Earth affecting by their corrosive Effluvium's also by infection an hereditary conveyance from the Parent and from gross faeculent and obstructive Dyet especially if over-charged with Salt or render'd hard and compact with Smoke as dry'd Neats Tongues Bacon Sawcages red Herrings dry'd Salmon hung Beef c. do not only contribute Matter but obtain also a
livid or black Colour having great Veins every way round it which the Blood extends and makes turgid and visible resembling the Feet of a Crab from whence it took its Name and is full of Pain and very hot and of a cruel and horrid Aspect and sometimes rises to such a hight of Malignity that the Matter it contains when it is broke is as sharp and as corrosive as Aqua Fortis They are as said at first Whole or Ulcerous in the beginning growing or increasing they are generally whole but when come to ripeness they break run or gleet and are then called Cancer Ulceratus or Ulcus Canceratum This Humour being fixt upon some one or more of the Glands of the Breast from either of the Causes mentioned and being sharp and corrosive is apt to convert whatever comes to it of Blood into the same Acrimony with it self and so increases apace while the Skin is whole but much more when upon the breaking of the Skin for then the accession of the Airs adds to the vigour of the Ferment when it grows fierce or enraged and so shoots forth it self in the nature of a Fungus or Excrescences or Tubercles c. This part being deprav'd and a vitious Ferment therein the Humours that flow thither are still farther changed till at length they partake of a malign and poisonous Nature vehemently deleterious consisting of a stinking Arsenical Sulphur and a Catheretick or highly corrosive Salt extreamly subtle and penetrating This malign Humour when so from whatever Causes chiefly take up its seat in parts that are Glandulous beginning in the Glandule of a Part and most often affects Womens Breasts by reason of their looseness great Humidities and strong Ferment they contain and at first is very difficult to be known for it at first exceeds not the bigness of a Pea or a Bean which in time increases slowly to the bigness of an Egg or a Melon or as sometimes it has been known as big as a Pompion tho again in some according as is the Cause it grows big of a sudden and discovers its evil Nature by the grievous Symptoms that appear and a◠it increases in bigness it increases in malignity In the Cure of Cancers various Successes have happen'd which have divided the Opinions of Practitioners concerning the Causes of them The Ancients observ'd that Women were most troubled with Cancers upon the stopping of their Monthly Visits and that when at any time they had swellings in their Breasts upon the provocation of that Evacuation the swellings either sunk or left thin from whence they concluded that the stopping of that Course in Women was the only Cause thereof and this they endeavour'd to explain by saying that the Blood by such stoppages being not purify'd from the Atribilious Humour or Acids which separate themselves from it by the regular flowing of the Courses discharge themselves upon some one of the Glandulous Parts and those of the Breast more generally from the Communication there is between them and the Womb which Communication Experience confirms because we see that just upon or a little before the coming down of the Courses the Breasts of Women are tender that is the Glandules or Kernels of them so as not to be handled or press'd with ease which upon the flowing of the Courses that tenderness leaves them and they may be felt and handled without any manner of uneasiness so that it is plain that upon the stoppage of the Courses in Women Cancers are oftentimes occasion'd especially where the Blood abounds with Atrabilious Humours or Acids I say sometimes it is so for it must not be said to be always so because we have instances without number of Women that have had them by Blows Bruises c. as before we have made mention of and as was the case of a Gentlewoman whose Husband after a Drunken Bout was thrown into a Fever and being delirious upon her giving him something to drink he hit her Left Breast with his Hand which caus'd it to Cancerate of which she soon after dy'd We are assur'd by many observations that Cancers sometimes have proceeded from the stopping of the Monthly Visits by Frights violent Grief and by letting of Blood unseasonably at the times of the Courses actually running which are dangerous stopping them and care should be forthwith taken to bring them to flow again or else the Breasts may be affected especially if the Blood abounds with Atrabilious Humours or Acids as before-mentioned The hardness of Cancers is from the thickness of the Humour the pain of them is from the conjoyn'd Cause it being sharp and corrosive the Heat of them proceeds from the extremity of Pain the livid or blacksh colour is from the Malignity and Poison which even discolours the purest Metals if touch'd with it the roundness of the Cancers is from the thickness of the Matter which cannot spread it self abroad as Humours do that are more fluid the inequality of shape of the Cancerous Tumour as sometimes 3 or 4 square or longish proceeds from the Ferment of the Humour and because sometimes it is contain'd in several little Glands and its turgid Veins like to Crab's Claws is caused from the Recrements of the Blood filling those Parts which by reason of Matter obstructing or pressing upon them hinders its getting forth Cancers are known in part by the Places they fix on which are the Glands tho' they may breed in almost all parts of the Body and this Aegineta confirms who says a Cancer may happen to sundry Places as the Lips Tongue Cheeks Womb and other loose Glandulous Parts but were One has a Cancer in any part besides Twenty have them in their Breasts and so says Galen That Cancerous Tumours are chiefly in Women's Breasts which have not their Purgations according to Nature and the reason seems to be from the consent of the Parts as before observed for that the Mammariae Veins or Veins of the Breasts meet with the Uterinae or Veins of the Womb under the Musculi recti of the Belly by which means there is a translation of the Matter from the Womb to the Breasts Where Cancers in the Breasts are painful there is also attending a Pulsation or beating like a Pulse together with a Heat more than ordinary and where the Pains are very sharp so as if the Part was struck with a Dart 〈◊〉 the Matter is very corrosive and will certainly in a little time break forth in a Gleeting or some dangerous stinking Ulcer and when they are Ulcerated as frequently they are from the breaking of some of the Tubercls lying under the Skin whether the Matter that runs be much or little the Ulcer is painful and very stinking and not only discharge a stinking Gleety Humour but also there thrusts forth hard and painful Lips which in time if not rightly managed fixes to the Ribs that is if the Cancer be in the Breast or side of it becoming by the quick progress it
makes of a horrible and frightful appearance Such Cancers sometimes bleed either through the eruption of some Vessels or from the sharp corrosive Nature of the Humour which gnaws the Vessels asunder tho' I have known them to bleed while they have been whole the Blood issuing through the Nipple or some small Pin-hole Some Cancers again that are Ulcerated send forth a Fungus or fleshy Excrescencies other consume and eat away all the Flesh about them after a wonderful and indeed dreadful manner and both these often bleed and that in great quanties sometime because the Capillary Vessels are by the corroding quality of a Cancer eaten asunder whence the flux of Blood is so great that the strength of the Patient is quickly spent and the Spirits being exhausted and consumed they soon dye as a poor Woman did that I knew after labouring under a Cancerated Breast very painful for near two Years and could all that while have no Remedy for indeed such are very rarely to be cur'd and if at all it is by Surgery that is by cutting off the Breast in time which the Woman I mention was by many Surgeons advis'd to but would not submit to the Operation Those inveterate and dangerous Cancers but seldom happen and is frequently more from want of timely and proper Applications than the Nature of them for they are oftentimes aggravated and enraged and the Humour by wrong Applications inwardly and outwardly made corrosive and sharp as we frequently find it to be and the Humour is 〈◊〉 corrosive it is as subtle quick and penetrating as Poison it self as will appear from the following Relation which a Surgeon tells us happened upon himself who was by Name Mr. Samuel Smith one of the Surgeons of St Thomas's Hospital in Southwark who at the cutting off of a large Cancerated Breast had after the Breast was off a Curiosity to taste the Juice or Matter contain'd in one of the little Cystis's or Glands of the same which he did by touching it with one of his Fingers and then tasting it from the same with his Tongue the Taste of which he protested did immediately like a Gass pierce through the whole substance of his Tongue and passed down his Throat not less sharp or biting than Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Nitre or Aquae Fortis or some vehement Catheretick or Caustick Salt and altho ' he presently spit out and wash'd his Mouth with Water and that oftentimes and also with Wine and drank presently very freely of Wine after it yet could not get rid of the Taste thereof but it continued with him and brought him who was a very strong Man into a Consumption or wasting pining Condition attended with several other ill Symptoms which in a few Months after killed him the Taste thereof never going off from his Tongue to his dying Hour and that the Taste of the Juice or Matter of that Cancerated Breast he declared upon his Death-bed and near the last Moments of his Life to be the true and only Cause of his languishing Condition and Death Galen tells us and the same is confirmed by daily Experience that Cancers in the outward Parts as in the Breast may in the beginning be cur'd but when they are come to a considerable bigness oftentimes will yield to no Remedy but extirpation indeed a palliative Cure may be prescrib'd which if the Cancer be not Ulcerated may make the Patient easy and prolong Life so as not to dye the sooner because of that Cancer but when it is Ulcerated it can never be cicatrised but as long as it so remains the Patient will live in continual Pain and Filthiness and at last dye miserably unless it is cur'd by Ustion Cautry or Extirpation and then may prove but a doubtful Cure If a Cancer in the Breast proceeds from malignant Humours or corrosive Salts in the Blood it is generally incurable by reason of its malignant and poysonous Ferment which seldom yields to any internal and external Remedies whether Vomiting Purging Bleeding Sweating Dyet-drink nay Salivations or application of Annodines Suppuratives or any other kind of Medicine or if in some it should seem to yield or indeed seem to be cur'd while it proceeds from those corrosive Humours they many times breed again and break forth afresh either in the same place or in some other parts of the Body But if a Cancer proceeds from external Causes as Bruises Blows c. and be taken in time and the hurt lies not very deep a Cure with good Success may be undertaken yea oftentimes tho' they lie deep but then must be with proper Applications for wrong Medicines apply'd tho' the Injury be but small is increas'd to what of it self it might never have came to therefore is a caution worthy to be taken notice of many Women by undue tampering and ill advice and Medicines having been ruin'd and lost their Lives which otherwise in all likelihood might have been preserv'd Therefore before external Applications be made to a Cancerated Breast or supposed Cancerated Breasts it ought to be consider'd whether it be recent and small or inveterate and great if the first it will by proper Applications admit of Cure I say proper Applications because by and by I shall come to relate what is the most proper to apply to a true Cancer or an imagin'd Cancer of the Breast if the second it never will admit of Cure without cutting A pallative Cure may be had if it be not ulcerated as said before where by proper Remedies Ease may be had and Life prolong'd and that done by divers Medicines at least every Nurse or good Woman has a Medicine and that if you will believe them they say will cure but those hap-hazzard Remedies I have known fatal and therefore advise none to give Ear to them But I would not have it understood that I design here to direct to the Cure of Cancerated Breasts of all sorts I mean those that are running and ulcerate which require a skilful Surgeon's attendance and care but only those that are Swell'd and Tumefy'd as well such as are continually or only intermittingly painful and whether proceeding from Blows Falls Strokes ill Habits of Body Tumours from Milk hardnesses of the Breasts by Imposthumes after Lyings-in c. which oftentimes by ill management and pressing and handling turn to Cancers I say from what ever cause they proceed from so they be whole and taken in time may be cur'd by proper Applications and if they be broken or ulcerated to prevent its increase and remove the hardness and swelling about it a Medicine or two may be directed that will if any thing will not fail of proving successful But as I said before every swell'd Breast being not always Cancerous it may be necessary in two or three Words more to explain which hard or painful Breasts can justly be said to be Cancerous and which not so A Cancer in the Breast at its first appearance looks like
the Chair bare will receive it up the Fundament which must be so done every Night going to Bed or once in 2 or 3 Nights according as there is occasion whereby in Fits Vapours c. there is instant Relief The Price of this Powder is 3 s. 6 d. the four Papers To be had at the Place aforementioned THE CATAPLASM OR POULTICE FOR THE GOUT THO' I shall say something concerning the Gout before I speak so particularly of the Poultice for its ease yet the Reader is not to expect any learned account of it that being sufficiently Done by divers Authors but only just so much as to inform those that are afflicted with that Distemper how far they may preserve themselves from its fury by a regular mode of living and how thereby those that ever had any touch of it may certainly nip it in its Bud so as never after to be afflicted with it But the Publishing a Medicine tho' the most celebrated one and crying up its virtues without giving a Rationale of the Disease looks so rank Quackish that every Man of Sense will and with very good reason account it all bombast and splutter and for that very reason decry it as coming from some illeterate Pretender for the sake only of getting a little Money for which reason to convince the World that the Author of this Medicine is not altogether unacquainted with the Nature and Cause of the Gout 〈◊〉 as the way to Remedy its excruciating Pains 〈◊〉 not recommend this Medicine but from a well gâ—â—â—â—â—ed Experience he here offers to every ones conâ—â—â—â—ration a short hint of the Blood its changes A nalitically prov'd and the Rationale of the Gout its Nature and Causes from thence explicately deduc'd The Blood of Man is made up of a mixture of divers Principles to wit a Bitter a Sweet a Salt an Acid c. the mixture and temperaments of which while mutual preserves the Body in a state of Health and consequently creates no trouble or uneasiness But when any one of these Principles is divided or seperated from the rest and exists by it self then the effects plainly shew what great Trouble Perplexity and Pain it creates in the Body Now nothing more conduces to the separation of those Homogene Principles of of the Blood than a fault in either some or all of the six Non-naturals as Air Meat and Drink Sleep and want of Sleep the Motion and Rest of the Body the retaining and discharging of the Excrements and the Passions of the Mind but the chief error is in Meat and Drink in pampering the Body with more plenty than is needful by which means the Particles of the Blood are not so exactly mix'd with the rest of the Mass but are blended and confounded so as to become Heterogeneous the Principles jarring one with another occasioning such a perturbation and preternatural Fermentation as evidently shew Sanguification to be vitiated and the whose Mass corrupted thereby forcing the Sharp and Foreign Juices together with part of the Serum by what way it finds as for instance if they get into the Guts they are evacuated by a watery Looseness if into the Kidneys by plenty of Urine if into the habit of the Body by the Pores of the Skin but if they fall upon the Joynts they pierce into the innermost recesles and interstices of the Nervous Parts and cause the Gout and as the Salt in the Serum is the thicker or thinner it much alters its Nature so that when the Extremities of the Muscles Tendons Ligaments Fibres and other Nervous parts of the Joynts are twitched by them more or less Pain Heat and Violence are occasion'd and it proves to be a Fit of a longer or shorter duration This Serum tho' it be thin and sharp is at first but very small occasioning but little Pain but that little Pain if the Cause of it be timely remov'd grows greater at every Fit and the more violent the Pain is greater store of Serum abounds and very often a flood of other Humours is carried along with it which causes that Swelling Heat Throbbing and Uneasiness every one afflicted with it feels which leaves not the Patient till the Humour is spent at which time that Fit of the Gout is at end I said before that a fault in some of the six Non-Naturals nam'd was the cause of the Gout and that pampering the Body with plenty was the Chief I mean thereby Gluttony and Drunkenness especially upon eating such Meats as are stor'd with sharp Matter not to be sufficiently separated or discharg'd or that can be easily mix'd or temper'd with the other Juices of our Bodies as also drinking too plentifully of Wines which have much Tartar in them For not only that Tartar but the Spiritous part breeds the Gout which Spirit consists of an Oil an Acid and a Volatile Salt in which the strength of Wine consists Yet as Excess therein hurts so Temperance preserves the Health For those Wines which most abound with Tartar are much more homogene to our Bodies than other Wines that have little Tartar in them and should be made choice of and are the best with Moderation for all Constitutions and Temperaments and the Red of all sorts is far more preferrable than the White And not only is it manifest that the Gout is bred by Gluttony and Drunkenness but also other innumerable inconveniencies are caus'd thereby for by that means the Appetite is destroy'd the Digestions vitiated c. the consequences of which every one may easily consider and time if not prevented will most certainly and fatally determine For a good Appetite and perfect Digestions are so indispensably necessary to the support and preservation of Humane Life that we can no more well subsist without the one than we can long without the other the one indicates Diseases present the other threatens Diseases to come and frequently brings the whole Humane Oeconomy into disorder and confusion For when there is a depravitty of the Primae Viae the Chyle into which the Food is converted in the Stomach is deprav'd also and according as is the Chyle so must the Blood of necessity be whether it be good or whether it be bad and according to which the Body suffers more or less And as some forts of Meats and Drinks and Intemperance therein are hurtful so also the Eating of Suppers are more than ordinary pernicious for they pervert the functions of the Body and injure the mind and then at those Seasons to eat too plentifully contributes much more to the spoiling of the Blood as every one that has for any time followed the Practice has observ'd few things being more detrimental and ruinous to the Health as all Physicians allow and as in Schola Salerni it is well noted where it is said Ex magna Coena Stomacho fit maxima Paena Ut sis nocte levis sit tibi Coena brevis Great Suppers put the Stomach to great pain Sup lightly if good
Rest you mean to gain Also over hard Study especially in the Night time which in this Case is the worst and afflicting Cares hinders Sanguification and breed the Gout so that the sharp part in the Aliment receiv'd is either not well mix'd or not well separated and therefore cannot be well discharged Likewise Anger and Passion very much injure For Exhiler at Tristres iratos placat amantes Ne fuit amentes mens laeta requires c. 'T is Mirth that Nurseth Life and Blood Far more than Wine or Rest or Food Also immoderate and unseasonable Venery conduces not a little for it weakens the Strength hurts the Brain extinguishes Radical Moisture and hastens old Age and Death the Sperm or Seed of Generation being the only Comfort of Nature which willfully shed or lost injures a Man more than the loss of forty times that quanty of Blood wherefore Virgil well says Nulla Magis animi vires Industria firmat Quam Venerem caeci stimulos avertere amoris Much Venery cause great Ills to Mind and Blood Exhausts the Stock unfits Man for 's Wife's good When moderately us'd holds long and helps as Food Levinus Lemnius likewise says if a Man intends to Live Long and happy during the Life he leads he should Vesci citra saturitatem non refugere laborem vitale semen conservare That is make light Meals use Exercise and preserve his Seed which is the vital and principal Part of Life and certainly nothing more assuredly breeds the Gout than immmoderate Venery Thus the Causes of the Gout being sufficiently explicated I shall next give a definition of it its Nature and Remedy The Gout then is a most intense sensible Pain of the Tendonous Membranous Parts about the Joints caused by a Serous Pungent and exceeding sharp Humour forced suddenly out of the Vessels from an inward dispesition and led thither by the interstices of the Nervous Parts The sign of its coming or being present are sometimes wandring Pains especially in the Joynts of the Feet or Hands That it is at hand is shewn by a stretching yawning painful weariness Catarrhs Pains in the Limbs and Joints and sometimes a heaviness in the Head a kind of Feverish heat a pricking Pain in the Joints causing starting with inability to move and after that comes a Swelling usually red attended with Watching loss of Strength stiffness of the Parts and several other complaints not alike to all at all times yet is what Gouty People well know and are more acquainted with than is consistent with their Ease The way to remedy this untoward Evil is first to remove the Cause that is that which aggravates the Paroxism and secondly to preserve the Patient from the return of a Fit or at leastwise to render it when it comes more easy and not so intollerable as we frequently find it to be for when it has once feiz'd a Man it will if not prevented by proper Medicines return again at certain seasons and distances of Time as the Gouty Matter in the Blood is a fresh increas'd gather'd and led down to the Joints which distances are longer or shorter and the Paroxisms greater or lesser according as the Patient live Regular or Irregular and according as is the strength or weakness of his Constitution for if it be weak or broke or the Patient in Mala Stamina Vitae it occasions its coming oftener pains him worser and holds him longer than if the same Constitution was stronger and the Patient in Bona Stamina Vitae and also acccording as he takes proper Medicines to evacuate that Humour by leading it away by the proper Passages I know some Physician 's Doctrine is to let Nature take her free Course advising their Patients to bear under the burden of that intolerable Misery as well as they can Indeed in the Knotted Gout the Advice may hold good for there no Cure can be expected according to that known ancient but true Axiom Solvere nodosam nescit Medicina Podagram Against the knotted Gout no Medicine can prevail But even there a Cure as to the Fit may be obtain'd as well as in other Fits of the Gout for the longer a Patient lies under its severity the more the Humours of the Body flow down which keeps the Part more lax and weaker and the Patient longer confin'd which may be prevented and when a Remedy to Ease by carrying those Humours away by Urine and Perspiration which would crowd down upon those weakned Joints may so easily be had for a Patient to reject it and not to hearken to such a Remedy shews his willingness to retain his Misery and is like suffering an Ague to shake him for a Year or some certain time before he 'll prevail'd with to take Medicines to cure it But the common saying among all being That there 's no Cure for the Gout makes every one's Proposals look Preposterous even where there is but the bare mentioning of doing it But if any thing I say be found out that manifestly carries off the Gouty Cause by Urine and Perspiration which would otherwise flow down to the Joints so that the Patient is sav'd from the Pain I fee not why any should be offended or that a Gouty Patient would rather bear his Pain than be so incredulous as not to make experiment of it when the Nature of the Medicine is such and the Operation so safe that every one that has any knowledge of things must allow that it cannot possible be hurtful for that no Evacuation is more to advantage than by Urine and Peripiration and that with such a Medicine as makes a regular separation by the strainers by first carrying them away smoothly and freely throughly the Uteters which always of necessity would have been thrown upon the Joints and consequently cause a Fit proper Dieureticks being what all Physicians allow to be the most effectual Evacuations to divest the Blood of those peccant Salts which if not remov'd would prove injurious to the Patient And to do this nothing is more prevalent than the English Pills aforemention'd whose admirable Virtues are such that those who never try'd them will scarce believe who yet after taking them will to every one of their Friends recommend them Therefore to say more would be needless nothing being so like to convince a Man of their Efficacy as making tryal which is the trust Test and by whose Success the Reputation both of the Medicine and the Author desires to depend and by which he is content either to stand or to fall The Pills are taken as directed in the Account before given of them and that oftener or seldomer as there may be occasion And to give present Ease and remove wholly the Pain the Cataplasm is to be apply'd warm to the Part every Night and Morning till the Pain is quite gone which will soon be The Price of the Ingredients is Five Shillings the Gallipot which are to be boiled with fix Ounces of Crumbs of White Bread
of in time before Nature is too much depress'd by the severity of the Disease and yet even in People that were Young and not Old they have effected the Cure which before had baffled Jesuits Powder the Bitters Alteratives c. And in those Agues of late standing the Vegetable alone has cured without the Plaister and in some the Plaister without the Vegetable but where the Case is severe to expedite the Cure I generally use both but some especially Children cannot be gotten to take any inward Medicine at all and there the applying the Plaisters most commonly does only must be renewed more times than there would be occasion if the Vegetable was taken also at the same time Directions for taking the Vegetable Powder and applying the Plaisters A Man or Woman may take a whole Paper at a time which must always be taken in a Glass of hot Wine an Hour or two before the Fit and be cover'd up warm whereupon it will cause in some gentle Vomiting and Sweat in others only Sweat in others will only work by Urine but which way soever it operates it never falls short of expectation curing almost all Agues without using any thing else but where the Case is inveterate and has been of long standing we are forc'd to apply the Plaisters also which I shall by and by give Directions about One of 12 or 15 Years of Age may take two thirds of a Paper those of younger Years in proportion always giving it in Wine as before directed and is to be repeated to every one for 5 or 6 times more or less as the Ague is severe or has been of longer or shorter continuance tho' not one Ague in twenty requires its being taken above three times Note There is no occasion to drink any thing with it more than the few Spoonfuls of Wine just to mix it and make it drinkable which may be White Wine or any other Wine proportioning the quantity as the Patient is either a grown Person or Child A grown Person taking it in 6 or 8 Spoonfuls and always as hot as it can be well drank The Plaisters to the Wrists must be prepared and applyed thus To all the Powder in the Box and the whole Yolk of a new laid Egg which mix and beat up well together in a Mortar or Porringer â—â—â—â—â—â— rating them well together adding so much 〈…〉 and strongest Vineger as will be sufficient to make it into such a consistency as Venice Treacle is then spread it pretty thick upon a Linnen Cloth of 2 or 3 Inches broad for a grown Person but narrower for Children which apply upon the Pulses of both Wrists tying them on so as not to come off where they must remain without changing them for nine Days because this Remedy exerts its vertues but by degrees And it ought to be applyed an Hour or half an Hour before the Fit comes and if the Ague be not cur'd in nine Days to be laid on afresh The Price of the Vegetable Powder is 2s 6d a Paper and the Box of Powder for Plaisters is 3 s. 6d both to be had at the Place afore-mentioned Note These Plaisters to the Wrists frequently I may say generally Cure all forts of Agues unless they be of very long standing indeed and attended with other Indispositions without any inward Medicine at all but where there is a complication of Infirmities besides the Ague that the Stomach is foul and Blood injur'd there is a necessity for an inward Medicine than which nothing can exceed the Vegetable Powder before-mentioned and will do a hundred times more Service and is a thousand times more safer than Jesuits Bark or any other Medicine whatsoever Hydragogue Tincture OR DROPS Purging away Water thereby curing Dropsies of all sorts BEFORE I speak of the excellent Vertues of these Drops I shall say something of the several species of Dropsies which as they affect diversly so go under divers appellations as the Ascites Tympanites and Anasarca The Ascites or Hydrops Abdominis is in English the Watery Dropsy in the Belly and is always attended with a stretching of the Belly by reason of the superabounding of ferous watery and salt Humours cast forth into the capacity of the Abdomen through fault of the Liver Spleen and Reins causing also the Feet Thighâ— and in Men sometimes the Cods to swell and is known by the swelling of the Belly a difficulty of Breathing and the hoarse sound of the Belly if struck like as if a Bladder half full was struck upon also upon compressing the Belly with the Fingers it pits and leaves the print of them thereon and if the Patient turns from side to side a Noise like the murmuring or waving of Water is heard and the Water by continuance there will in time putrify and corrupt the Bowele cause a Fever and Thirst and waste the Patients Strength and Spirits Therefore all imaginable care ought to be taken to evacuate the Water in time both by Stool and Urine or else the Patient will dye and if let alone so long as that the Patient's Strength be spent not being able to bear Purging Medicines then Tapping must be used as the only present way to secure the Patient if that Method will do it The Tympanites or Windy Dropsy shews it self also by a distention or stretching of the Belly but as the other contains Water within the capacity of the Abdomen this contains only Wind which so distends the Belly that it being struck upon with the Hand sounds like a Drum and is rather more swell'd than the watery Dropsies and the Navel hangs out but will not leave any impression upon pressing it with the Fingers the Patient is most afflicted with Pain about the Navel and Loins in Windy Dropsies like a Cholick when there is no such Pain in a watery one and is easier to be cured and of less danger The Anasarca or Leucophlegmatia is a Dropsy of the whole Habit of the Body the Water being dispersed so that all the Flesh appears moist swoln and wet wherein not only the Hands Arms Breast Face Thighs Legs and Feet swell but the whole Body also whereby if you make a pressure with your Finger into the Flesh in any part it will pit and leave an impression The cause of this Disease is chiefly Cold or by very plentifully drinking cold Water or Small Beer or else proceeds from a defect of the Liver or defect of Natural Heat Obstructions and imbicility of the Stomach from whence a collection of pituitous and watery Humours is produced and universal Cachexy If this Disease be recent and in a young Person it is not difficult to cure In Persons aged it is very doubtful if not desperate and indeed such as are much in Years seldom find a Cure for it But yet the Vertues of the Hydragogue Tincture are such as that it has cured several Elderly People by being follow'd for some continuance which they must tho' it is