Praxis Catholica OR THE COUNTRYMAN' 's Universal Remedy WHEREIN plainly and briefly laid down the Nature Matter Manner Place and Cure of most DISEASES Incident to the Body of Man Not hitherto discovered Whereby any one of an ordinary Capacity may apprehend the true Cause of his Distempers wherein his Cure consists and the Means to effect it together with Rules how to order Children in that most violent Disease of vomiting and Looseness c. useful likewise for Seamen and Travellers â—â—so an Account of an Incomparable Powder for Wounds or Hurts which cure any ordinary ones at once dressing â—ritten by Robert Couch sometimes Practitioner in Physick and Chyrurgery at Boston in New-England â—ow published with divers useful Additions for publick benefit by Chr. Pack Operator in Chymistry â—enim si dare vitam proprius Dei munus est certe datam tueri jamque fugientem retineri Deo proximum fateamur oportet Erasm â—â—â—don Printed for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1680. TO HIS Highly Honoured AND MUCH Esteemed FRIEND COLONEL â—RANCIS WILLIS â—his Little TRACT humbly offers and submits it self Worthy Sir SEing it hath been your generous Care and Love to your Native Country to transplant this Exotick from Transmarine Parts to us I think it highly reasonable that you should have the Oversight of its Culture and Growth That as it hath here received its First Being from your Charity to the Publick it may also under your Name continue to grow and increase Sir your Knowledge in true Medicine and intimate Acquaintance you had with Mr. Couch the Author hath rendred you as able to Judge as fit to Patronize His Judgments of Diseases are sound and accurate and deduced from such Principles as Heathens and their Followers never yet understood or were able to refute as for the Medicines be advises you know Sir they are not Toys or Trifles to gull an unwary World but such whose virtues and power of healing are undeniable both from what they have done and are always ready to perform What I have added is only a farther Confirmation of Matter of Fact the which with the whole I humbly present to you as it is except Errours if any which I reserve to my self desiring your Favourable Acceptance of those small Endeavours of Your most Humble Servant CHR. PACK TO THE READER Reader I Once having the Fortune to see this Little Book of Mr. Couch's in the hand of a Gentleman living in Carolina who did me the favour to lend it me to peruse I was so pleased with his Sentiments of Diseases and manner of describing them that I heartily wished it were here made Publick but the Gentleman 's suddain departure out of England recalled the Book out of my hands before I could half transcribe it Not withstanding at length I attained my desire through the Assistaâ—â—e of the Worthy Colonel Francis Willis a Candid Lover and Promoter of true Medicine who procured me this Book in Manuscript from Virginia where Mr. Couch died from whom also I had long before received the Knowledge of those most Excellent Remedies used by Mr. Couch for curing the Distempers treated of in this Book But seeing that all Medicines now adays of which there are too many published as Arcanums and bearing the names of Universal Remedies come so far short of their specious pretences they being indeed only Engines employed for gain that I could not reasonably expect that those Worthy Medicaments should be beheld with any other Aspect if the curing of Diseases should be here restrained to them only Wherefore I have here added other Medicines for the cure of each Disease such as are good and effectual in which I have candidly dealt with all persons and left every one to his liberty what to use Moreover because many Persons into whose hands this Book may come who live remote in the Country upon suddain occasion cannot have time enough to send to me for the Powder and Pill I have also directed the use of such as they may be served withal nearer home by which I hope I may justly avoid the censure of publishing this Book solely for my own advantage Truly I abhor such private ends which are not to be attained without hypocrisie and the prejudices and ruines of Lives and Families but so fast are most people tied to the Heathens precepts of healing and to the modes and fashions of times and persons that they know not truth when they meet her but obstinately persist in errour for its age sake and so voluntarily come short of the benefits of Gods healing mercies falling short of true knowledge because they think themselves to be already sufficiently informed according to the saying of Seneca Multi ad virtatem pervenire potuissent nisi se putassent pervenisse So that it may be as truly affirmed in relation as well to the body as the soul that many perish through unbelief neither will it be otherwise till the time cometh when the groans of the Creation to be delivered from this vanity shall cease and the Elias of Arts shall appear to restore all things This little Treatise may be useful for every considerate Reader enabling him in divers Maladies to get help at a cheaper and more certain rate than usual Neither will it be unwelcome to the Tyro's in the Helmontian Philosophy and Medicine whom it may accommodate in many cases others no doubt at first sight will not freely receive it because to them the Doctrine may be altogether novel but if they will rightly weigh the discourses of Diseases and compare them with the common precepts and notions of healing out of desire to find out the truth they shall certainly apprehend them to be more agreeable to the frame and simplicity of nature than the other But as for such Subscribers to Heathenism as have taken a Leafe of their Opinions for life I do not question but to them it will be disgustful they will contend about the shell till they lose the Kernel but be it as it will I design nothing but well in it what I have said being only out of love to truth not reflecting upon any man's person or interest To conclude I shall still make it my business to loose the bonds of Animals Vegitables and Minerals endeavouring with Chimical Keys to unlock the choycest Cabinets of Nature and whatever I from time to time by the Divine Bounty shall be able to take from thence shall readily be communicated to the use of the sick more especially into the hands of honest and conscientious Artists who may use them to the honour of God the giver their own credit and the relief of many a miserable person In the mean time I remain Your servant in the fire Chr. Pack From my Laboratory at the Sign of the Globe and Chymical Furnaces in the Postern near Moor-gate To all Ingenious Students and Practitioners in Physick and Chyrurgery Courteous Brethren WE read of Renowned
and continuing life wherefore they gave our Saviour Vinegar and Gaul Vinegar to excite the faculties of the stomach for the Gauls quicker passage into the vital spirits to prolong his life that they might the longer torment him under his pains before death But to stay no longer here it follows in the next place to treat about the great Heat and Cold which happens by Intervals as well in most other Fevers as in this and likewise of that inordinate Thirst Of Heat THough Heat and Fever are counted Synonyma's of one and the same name individual companions c. yet I say this Heat is not of the Quiddity or Essence of the Disease neither is it the cause of any Disease but is caused by the stirring up of that vital aiery spirit the directoress of life which spirit it is that makes the assault Archaeus Paracels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippoc. now this spirit being provoked by the Disease allarms all the Faculties Virtues and Powers both Vital and Natural which it doth unite unto it self and so furiously assault his mortal Enemy as many Coals of Fire raked together and blown up make a great heat so doth this heat proceed from this inflamed Spirit EXAMPLE A Thorn or Splinter being got into the Finger or Hand presently a heat pain and pulsation is felt which this spirit or Archaeus stirreth up for the expelling of that extraneous Body now this heat is not a product of the Thorn but casually from this spirit and occasionally only from the Thorn therefore heat is a latter accident and subsequent upon the essence of a Fever Cold. COld is the Diseases Colours or Banner under which it fights but it is not either the Disease nor Cause but a product and effect of the Disease Calorem frigus non esse morbus ut neque borum causas Hipp. putrefaction brings in coldness the Ferment of Putrefaction is sharp and cold as we have an ocular Demonstration in Gangrenes and Mortifications whilst it is but in fieri a Gangrene what a hard task it is to revive it by the hottest and most penetrating Medicines we can get nay and fain to scarrifie deeply too lest it should hinder their operation or if it fouls a bone no less than a Medicine that is hot in the highest degree can effect it and when a Sphacelus or Mortification is confirmed without natures Second comes in speedily to her rescue A Chyrurgion Chyrurg naturae minister and dismember it it would soon run her to the heart and did not putrefaction work by a cold a Body would be hotter after it was dead than it was before but we see the contrary when putrefaction grows stronger the Body grows colder I could evidence by many demonstrations more that the Heat is not of the essence neither the cause nor occasion of a Fever and likewise that Cold is meerly the effect of the Disease but I think this sufficient Thirst This great Thirst in Fevers doth not proceed from Heat and driness as in a true and natural Thirst for this will not be allayed by drinking as that will but this Thirst is deceitful and is produced by some excrementitious matter which adheres to that sensitive faculty and deludes the Organ Nec sitis est extincta prius quam vita bibâ—ndo as if a great dryness had suddenly come unto it as I have observed in a very malignant Fever which the Army in Flanders was infected with being always cold and very thirsty as likewise in the cold Fit of an Ague c. and so this is evident that heat in Fevers is not the cause of that inordinate Thirst besides I have extinguished this Thirst by those things which have been virtually hot Contraria contrariis curantur which if heat had been the cause would rather have exasperated Thus you have the matter manner and Concomitants of this Disease The Schools have observed some Heads from whence they have derived many Species of Fevers which I shall not insist on because they depend upon one and the same way and means of Cure without mention of an Hectick or intermitting Fever which differ only in the place they reside which I shall speak to in their proper places It is my chief design to do good unto my Countrymen who I know would rather have something to ease them and be rid of their Diseases than to hear curious and learned Discourses or quaint Distinctions and in pleasing them I care not whom I displease As I have put the knowledge of the cause into your Heads so I shall put a remedy into your Hands Cure You may clearly see what first is to be done and wherein the Cure doth consist which is in removing the cause or matter offending the neglect whereof hath suffered such an infinite Slaughter which gives me reason to think that either the cause is not known or a fit Remedy not yet found for unless there be a proportion between the Remedy and the Disease It will do but little good Diseases which come suddenly if they are rightly understood they are soon gone Extrema non permanent though they may be extreme sharp whilst they continue I know it is the practice here to look more unto the Effect than the Cause in correcting the Symptoms than the matter whereof they are produced Si ta tollantur quae conveniunt aeger melius se habet facile sert Sublata causa tolletur effectus which is a very pernicious course and contrary unto reason and all principles in Healing And that you may the better understand your error I shall recite your practice When first any one is taken with this or the like Distemper either Child or those of full Growth first you run and fetch Mint Water and a little Syrup to stay the Vomiting Secondly then Cinnamon Water and Syrup of Quinces or Myrtle Berries to stay the scouring Then it may be you give a Carmiâ—tive or Clyster to expel Wind and correct the Griping That done you give some cooling Julep to allay its Heat and to quench in Thirst And when it is cold you give a little Mithridate or Theriack of Andronica oâ— London Treacle and lay a Plaister of it to his Stomach And then lay a Spell against the Fever to the Wrists c. And so you keep doing till you can do no more just as a man who hath lost himself in a Wood he keeps going but whither he knows not You see all those things do but respect the effect here is nothing hath any regard at all unto the Cause And should things answer the intention for which they were given the party either Child or Man would presently die To hinder the evacuating of this morbifick matter is directly against the intention of nature Quo natura verget ad locum conferentem â—eo ducere oportet Hippoc. for the evacuation of this matter is to be looked at as the Crisis of Nature
experientia difficilis c. though the Age of a man is too short to obtain it It is much against my temper to conceal any thing from any Ingenious and honest Artist but I have been much mistaken and I am sorry to speak it that if I had told less it would have been more for my credit and profit I can say with the Poet Ovid Hos ego versiculos feci tulit alter honores Nevertheless the unworthiness of some shall not detract from the worth of any Civil and Ingenious Brother I shall always be civil to all but especially to those that I find are so Ars praeclarissima Artifex sordissimus I am sorry to see so many shabby and course spirited Fellows that practise in so high and honourable a Calling There is such a vast disproportion between the Art and the Artist that well may the Art be ashamed to own them There are not only ignorant Jack-daws that are intruders upon this worthy Art which square out all things by their crooked and indirect Rules but likewise there are Pompeys and Caesars too who scorn to admit of Equals and be Caesars or no bodies c. who think it much below their Greatness to advise with any If they are at any time petitioned unto it they grant it with this reservation to themselves to deny every thing others say though it be never so undeniable and clear a truth they would rather twenty should die under their hands than part with one to be cured by another that 's a great affront to their Ambition whereunto they sacrifice many a mans life and dissemble their Pride under the cloak of Humility and so blind the poor Country-man that they think such a one to be Aesculapius himself and that his Medicines were extracted from the balm of Gilead when he may be but some Imposter and his Medicines it may be no better than a little Cow-dung or some thing worse and as the Papists are kept in blindness by praying in a Language they understand not to the hazard of their souls so are many amongst us led away by such deceivers in harkning unto the false Doctrine of the Heathens to the hazard of our bodies for they thunder out Art in Quarto and Conscience in Folio and shower down such Heavenly Apologies for their deceit and ignorance with such clashes of Lightning that frights the simple into such a belief as to mistrust were a crime unpardonable whereby they are canoniz'd on Earth and written in the Rubrick in the Calendar of the World I believe there have been many such Saints on Earth that never found any room in Heaven Brethren have a care none of you be ever found akin to any such Homicide though you may with such juggles and indirect means deceive the people you cannot deceive the all-seeing God he will make you smart for it in the end when the popular applause of the World shall but torment you the more The life of man is more worth than all the Creation And as it is pretious to the Creature so it is to the Creator and he will not suffer it to be trampled upon by the pride of any without revenge and yet those sad fellows may be much cried up and in great esteem amongst the vulgar when a far more knowing and worthy Practitioner may not be regarded Let not this be any discouragement to any young Practitioner for if there be anything of worth in him and he acts like an Artist let him expect to be undervalued by the ignorant and let him not admire why it is so for we find that it hath been the unhappiness of all Ages that Falshood hath been preferred before Truth and persons of no worth or value have had the precedency of persons of true worth and esteem Scientia non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem as for the vulgar whom Nature huddl'd up in hast that Act meerly by the prerogative of depraved Nature speak against every thing but what is naught whatsoever is of Worth and Art be sure they will dislike and exclaim against all Persons but such as comply with their ignorance whose Malice and Fury is like the Waves of the Sea driven by the fury of enraged Boreas I have read of Cato that he was forty four times brought by the vulgar sort of people to the Judgment-Seat and every time came off acquitted what a great happiness it is when a man hath many malicious Enemies to find impartial and upright Judges Every Country hath its Diana as well as Ephesus And he that will not sacrifice with the people shall be crucified by them but he that doth keep a pure and undefiled Conscience towards God and acts like an honest and ingenious Artist towards his Neighbour may extract a Cordial from the World's poyson and live above the reach of Envy The most splendent Creature is sometime clouded and the most vertuous Lady suffers an Eclipse in her innocency by some malevolent Neighbour when a Strumpet goes unsuspected It is not every Artist's fortune to arrive at Corinth but I could wish every ingenious Artist could practice what he knows and that he knew more to practise better so I desire to be understood when I say that Practise is the best part of Physick that there must be first a knowledge of the Disease and likewise of the Remedy and so to proportion the Remedy to the Disease and not to try practices on mens bodies * Care at successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat that the Poet cursed but first you must know before you practise and so your practice will confirm your knowledge So I conclude with this advice first let God go before you to counsel and direct you unto the direct means let him go with you to crown it with a good Success and let him follow you to take all the glory unto whom all glory is due Caepta faveat Deus ac vota nostra secundet So wisheth Robert Couch TO MY Candid and Cordial COUNTRYMEN Friends and Countreymen SInce Death and Diseases which are Diametrically opposite unto life are entailed unto us through the Transgression of our first Parents the Creator and sole Authour of life foreseeing the weakness of our Natures to withstand the strength of such mortal Enemies created Medicine from the beginning out of the Earth to correct the fury and tyranny of Diseases whereof Death is the Daughter whereby each should be at his good pleasure and so governs it at his will that he permits and suffers this man to die and that to be sick by secondary Causes which happen as well directly as irregularly And whereas the Nature of Diseases are various so he hath endued the Earth with various and sundry Medicinal Vertues and he hath likewise called and ordained some to administer and apply such suitable and fit means as the nature of Diseases do require But the great difficulties by reason of the invisibility
of all curable Ruptures and maketh all sorts of Trusses fit for the accommodation of any His Wife treateth with Women they give Advice for nothing A TABLE of the several Diseases and Distempers treated of amongst other things in the ensuing TRACT FEvers in general Malignant Fevers in Children Directions Heat in Fevers Cold in Fevers Thirst in Fevers Agues Dropsies Falling-Sickness Griping of the Guts Surfeits Fluxes Stone or Gravel in the Reins or Kidneys Windy-Melancholy Wind in the Small Guts Collick Wind-Dropsie Gouts Pleurisie Yellow Jaundice Stone in the Bladder Consumption without a Cough A Consumption with a Cough The Rickets Apoplexy Vertigo Palsie Convulsion Cramp Worms The breaking of a Vein Coughs Catarrhs Rheums shortness of Breath Strangury Fits of the Mother Praxis Catholica OR THE COUNTRY-MAN'S Universal REMEDY IT was the custom amongst the ancient Greeks that if a sure Cure was found for any Disease the party was bound to write it on a Table and hang it up in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus that every one labouring with that Disease might afterwards repair thither and receive their Remedy Soon after did they digest the Art of Healing into a fatal Method as a Directory to the true knowledge of Curing whereby a further enquiry into Medicines came to be neglected and so this false Doctrine of the Greeks spread it self amongst the Arabians Romans and then amongst the Christians and is still in use amongst us to this day to blind us from the knowledge of true and perfect Remedies for curing our Diseases whereby we see many yearly swept away from us through some accustomed Diseases as well as new ones and especially that amongst Children of a Griping Vomiting and Scouring which gives me great cause to mistrust that either the true cause of this is not understood as well as the rest or a fit Remedy not yet found out Nor is it Children alone that this Fever the Prince of Diseases doth appear unto in those bloody manners but to some of full Growth and Strength It doth assault us in various Shapes and Habits This Disease is a grand Enemy to man for there is hardly a Distemper but is accompanied with a Fever either going before or following after it Wherefore I shall a little anatomize it unto you and shew you its Rise the place where it commonly abides and what it feeds on and so describe it as you may know it at a distance and not only this but most of our Serpentine Enemies I shall observe that method in treating of them as I do in curing of them which is to have respect unto that first which doth most press amonst which I think that peracute Disease of Children is most urgent so my method leads me to begin with a child whom I shall trace unto his old age where I shall leave him to that great Physician whose Servant I am not worthy to be First it will be necessary that I give a preparative to your understanding in unfolding the right use of two or three principal parts whose proper uses have not yet been discovered before you enter upon the main Body viz. The Spleen Liver and Gaul From these three comes Life and Death Health and Diseases as they are disposed either well or ill These are the Pillars that do support the Fabrick of the Microcosm The two first do principally respect the preservation of Health the last is of a more Balsamical Nature which doth as well prevent Diseases as restore health when it is wanting Understand by a Ferment A Specifical Virtue or Power which every part is endued withal that whatsoever is transferred through them is transmuted into their fermental quality Omnis facultas quando praevalet ea est natura ut mutet sibique simile faciat id quod ad ipsam est victum as the Aliment in digesting in the Stomach is sow'r then when the Chyle passeth through the Guts Duodenum and Ileon it is saltish and being more elaborated in the Meseraick and Milky Veins becometh more salt which is a preparation for Sanguification which is perfected in the Liver and so assimilated by every part The whole Body is seasoned and tinctured with the Ferments of those three principal parts viz. sharp from the Spleen Whitmore de Febre anomala Salt from the Liver and bitter from the Gaul To begin with the first The Spleen This part hath been hardly censured by many to be the receptacle of the Faeces of the Blood the mother of black Choler or Melancholy the Sink and Fountain of many stubborn and rebellious Diseases and to be a Bowel of no great use only to elaborate this more feculent Blood and give a small nourishment to some of the natural parts likewise the efficient cause of Madness and Dotage c. Some have not stuck to say that if ever nature made any thing to hurt her self it was this and if she had found out some other way for discharging of this Excrement as she hath done the rest she had eased her self of abundance of trouble c. but I rather think the contrary there is not any part within us nature hath been so liberal unto as to this nor hath bestowed such special favour on Vide Dr. Highmore de affectione Hypochon fol. 132. it is enriched with ten times at least as many Arteries as any other part There is life peculiarly due unto it more than sensitive for it is extant long before quickening Helmont de Author duum virut It hath a double Ferment there is a Vital from the Arteries and the digestive faculty of the Stomach which is made by an acid juice sent from it and for that great concernment which is committed unto its charge it is termed the President of the Stomach I cannot think that any excrementitious matter can reside where it hath so worthy a place for its Emunctory as the Stomach the Arteries fetch from the Stomach of their purest Chyle and sanguifie it for their pleasure and it may be by their too liberal attraction may debilitate their Ferment that so they may require an assistance from the main Body whereby the Stomach may be neglected with a due quantity of this juice whence lack of appetite and crudities do arise and so this Ferment may be exorbitant in the Spleen from whence comes bloody and black spitting into the stomach which some have judged black Choler which is nothing but an expurging and renewing of nourishable blood from the Spleen it self the Humour Melancholy and black Choler was never yet found in nature nor indeed is there any such thing extant wherefore whatsoever distemper may arise from the Spleen it is from a vitiated or debilitated Ferment not from a peccant matter which doth offend only in quality not in quantity Again if the distemper of the Spleen be the cause of Madness then in its right order there is a sound and judicious understanding due to the same place according to
that Maxim of the Ancients Ejusdem partis atque potestatis sit functio sana cujus est vitiata ac vicissim i. e. There is a sound function of the same part and power whereof there is a vicious one and on the contrary I could speak much in defence of the Dignity of this noble part but at present shall conclude with this the great Offices that proceed from it and that rich and noble Retinue that attends it speaks it no less than the pallace where the sensitive soul keeps her Residence Of the Liver I shall but only hint at this because I shall speak more largely of it when I come to treat about Dropsies and other Diseases that are falsely fathered on it what a common complaint is there about a hot Liver and a cold Stomach when as I shall demonstrate that the Liver is never hotter than is necessary nor the Stomach never colder though it may seem so by imperfect or weak digestion And although Sanguification is not begun in it yet it is the perfecter and rectifier of it whereby the Blood is assimilated and conveyed into every part through the Veins In a word the Liver is the Administrator to all the natural parts in man Of the Gaul In the first Disease that I shall speak unto I shall be enforced to anatomize this Bowel only by the way take notice that this Gall is the great Balsom of Nature as well for preventing and destroying of Diseases as the curing our Wounds Understand that whatsoever is done by nature in any thing of this kind is performed by this great Balsom nor hath this as well as the rest been free from the Calumniations of the ignorant in making it guilty of causing several sharp Diseases c. But more of this in the next Of Fevers I Shall speak a word in general then come to particulars all Fevers are of the same essence and name and differ not so much in the matter as place Place The Place it acts in is the Stomach mostly The Cause is from the error and estranging of the Faculties or from things undigested and untransmuted or else from Excrements not being rightly subdued or separated and orderly evacuated Division there are two sorts continual and intermitting From the first there are several Species viz. some very malign others accompanied with less Malignity others with none at all Intermitting ones are of three sorts Legitimate Quotidian Tertian and Quartan Not to trouble you to treat of any contagious and pestilential Fevers none hath yet been amongst us God still keep them from us and remedy them where they are I shall therefore begin with malignant Fevers which are very rife in this Country especially amongst Children A malignant Fever differs from a Synochus or Burning or any other Fever in this that it draws its putrefaction immediately from its own matter for indeed putrefaction is joyned with it A burning Fever and other Fevers do not derive their putrefaction immediately from their matter but gradually and casually either from the peccancy of the matter or debility of the Ferment where it resides those are of a less malignity and bound in a less quantity of the matter offending Ephemera or an one days Fever is more from a disposition or inclination to a Disease for that morbifick matter in the stomach is soon cast up by Vomit or digested I rather call it a Distemper than a Disease But more particularly A Malignant Fever in Children AS I have shewed that a Malignant Fever is from the present putrefaction of its own matter Parvae Febres quandoque valde malignae Hipp. Diagnost so this violent Disease in Children is of that nature which is clearly demonstrated from the Symptoms in the first assault that within forty eight hours putrefaction hath been nigh perfected as is perceived by a coldness in the extreme parts and cold sweats c. Cause It is from some thing received which may contain some vicious quality or abounding in quantity or from an ill disposition of the digestive Ferment for it often happens that when the season is most hot then the digestion is weakest and then crude Fruits and things hard to digest take advantage of the stomach But above all I look at Milk and Sugar to be the greatest cause for Milk is the general Food of Children and there is such a propensity in its own nature to curdle that if it be not quickly digested it obeyeth the acid Ferment of the place which soon is coagulated and a Curd made like new tough Cheese which doth strongly resist digestion especially in a weak and tender stomach and if it be not speedily vomited up it soon begets a putrefactive Ferment and then soon after those terrible Symptoms are produced as Vomiting Scouring Griping c. Natura morborum est medicus medicus naturae minister Now Nature which is the Physician to Diseases unites her force and takes with her a quantity of this Gaul-balsom to rectifie this Malignity and eradicate the Morbifick Matter and whatsoever this Balsom doth incorporate with it hinders its putrefaction as Salt doth in Flesh or Fish and seasons it with its taste and colours it with its tincture as a little Wormwood doth any thing it is commixt with and a little Saffron doth Milk c. and what part of it is separated for its putrefactive Body nature endeavours to cast forth and by reason it still retains its acquired sharpness from the putrefactive Ferment falling down upon the Pylorus or lower mouth of the stomach stirreth up those violent motions and what part of it passeth through the Intestines it abstergeth and scoureth away that mucous or phlegmatick matter which nature hath lined the Guts withal for a twofold end first to hinder Obstructions that the Chyle may have a more speedy and slippery passage Secondly to defend them from any sharp or corrosive quality that may be in the Chyle which is transferred through them Which slimy matter is commonly seen to scour from them in this Disease and this being gone this excrementitious matter doth easily corrode by its sharpness which is the cause of those Tortures and Gripings And in regard that this peccant matter which is cast forth is tinctured by this Balsom it hath deceived many who have taken it to be the Gaul itself 'T is true there are Excrements in Children from eating Milk not perfectly digested which are of this Tincture but of no bitterish Taste it is brownish in the stomach yellow in the Ilion and green in the blind Gut yet they may not be sick And no marvel that there is little or none of this Balsom found in its Receptacle or Bladder in dead Children for if this be spent Death immediately follows according to that Proverb When the Gaul is broken the drowned Carcase riseth to the top of the Water when it can no longer withstand putrefaction Those Sacrilegious Jews knew that this Gaul was a great Cordial for the preserving
Consumptions 'T is not enough to remove the effect or matter produced nor the cause producing but the principal producer must be rectified before health be perfectly restored Thus I have directed you in the best course you can take and be sure you will do nothing that will hurt but rather to strengthen and refresh nature Obj. But you will ask me what shall we do to remove the cause Answ That is the principal Verb indeed I know a more proper and safe Medicine to effect it than I can direct you unto in all the Dispensitory 'T is true there are a great many good Medicines though good for little without it be the Laudanum of Paracelsus and some few Chymical Preparations the rest are hardly worth a man's knowledge That Physician that hath not found out better and more specifical means than what are there is like to make but a sad practice But I shall speak it to your comfort God hath given me the knowledge of such a Medicine as will effect it and not only this but it doth also eradicate and extirpate the cause of most Diseases incident unto our frail Bodies as you will hereafter perceive It is a Powder without either smell or taste and the highest dose or quantity is but five or six Grains to the most robustive or strong Body and so downward to half a Grain which a Child of two days old may safely take its operations are various according to the nature and place where the peccant matter resides How you shall take it and what is to be done and observed in the taking of it I shall give directions in the latter end of this Book And as it is an effectual so it is a safe Medicine for I have given it unto three or fourscore several Children in and about the Town of Boston and indeed I know not of any one that died that ever took it except one the spirits of which were quite spent before I gave it that it was not able to retain it in its stomach but immediately brought it up again There is an eminent person in this Country whose knowledge is great in the most curious and best Arcanums or secret Medicines that are used he could tell you it is as safe as good who was an eye-witness unto a wonderful operation it had in a most contagious and malign Disease which was the Small Pox which struck in among the Passengers in Captain Lord's Ship coming from England two years since that not one died that took it two only died and neither of them took it as the Chyrurgion Mr. Whiting can testifie I gave him some of this Powder and bade him give to every one that was infected with that Disease which he did accordingly though he gave it to some that was blind to others after they appeared twenty four hours and very ready to be suffocated and very soon made them all perfectly well which was well known unto all the Passengers in the Ship as well as unto themselves that took it which are dissipated through this Country and I question not but this Paper will find out some of them who can well witness this truth By this you may judge of its efficacy in any other Disease of a malignant nature I shall tell you what I have observed from it in some other Maladies I have cured all sorts of Fevers with this Arcanum universale in all Ages and Sexes for continual burning Fevers whether putrid or not are frequently taken off by it with one Dose in the beginning or at the most by two so that the Patient may be well before the time of the expected Crisis The same Benefit I have often observed when given in the state of the Disease that it hath been presently taken off although then nature is obliged to take a longer time to renew the strength than she would have needed if she had been assisted with this Medicine in the beginning How common a thing it is to make a Month or six weeks work in curing a Fever although peradventure nature it self hath overcome the Disease in twelve or fourteen days but the diseasie matter formed and some symptoms of effects must entertain the Physician a great while longer For if the Fever were putrid then the Stomach and Lungs remain loaden with much pituitous matter to carry off which the common practice is to follow the Patient close with Expectoraters such are their Pectoral Electuaries Decoctions Syrups Lohochs c. the which are so far from answering that end as really to add to the matter they are designed to expel for they not being Agents impowered to alter or rectifie any Ferment as soon as they come into the Stomach either nauseate it with their Load and so are cast up or if they stay submit to the depraved digestion of the Stomach and there make an increase of the diseasie matter whence an extraordinary spitting continues till nature it self by degrees retrieves the natural Ferment and frees her self from the disease matter and the pretended remedy together But if this seem too long a doing that no piece of Art may be wanting there is another way at hand and that is to exhibit purging Medicines to carry it downwards the which is more pernicious than the former for the Purge drawing a great quantity of sordid matter from the Thorax to the Guts and nature not having yet recovered her right Regiment may admit some of this matter by the Meseraick or Milky Veins again into the Blood whence may succeed again a Fever de novo called a Relapse or if the lately tired spirit take not the present Assault then the occasional cause of a Dropsie Hectick Consumption or some other Cronick Diseases All which is easily prevented by taking a Dose or two of this Arcanum which evacuates the present matter by vomit and rectifies the vitiated Ferment of the Stomach and other parts whence the power of making such matter is quite taken away This I have had very large experience of But a few days before the writing of this I was sent for to a lusty young man who had laboured under a Synochus about a week having for during that time been treated by an Apothecary first with cooling Juleps which were continued all the while then strongly sweat by a Sudorifick and the next day blooded but the Disease notwithstanding increasing as being newly changed from a non putrida to a putrid when I came made the Apothecary it seems weary or doubtful of his work for he desired the Man's Wife to send for a Physician or a Second who was a Friend of his 't is like for the Bills sake but the Woman having formerly had some experience of my Medicines sent to me about five or six that Afternoon I presently ordered him four Grains of this Powder which wrought once only by Vomit and discharged the stomach of that Diseasie matter which before felt to him like a great weight the pain in his Head
presently abated and that night he rested pretty well for he had no sleep worth mention since he was ill the next morning I sent him four Grains more of the Powder which gave him three Vomits and two Stools about six in the Afternoon I went to visit him and found him about his Chamber saying he thought he was as well as ever his Stomach being returned and he very hungry Thus you see a Fever cured in eighteen hours or less which in all probability would have been at the least three or four weeks if recovered at all before nature by such enfeebled helpers or rather hinderers as are the common Medicines could have freed her self from the Disease I could instance many the like cases were it needful This Medicine hath besides its other gifts such a general tendency for the curing of all Fevers that upon the first knowledge of it in practice I called it my Species Febrifuga by which name I published it in my Catalogue of Medicines Printed in the year 1676 although I had then seen this little Book of the Authors I shall here subjoyn a short Discourse of intermitting Fevers or Agues in which Mr. Couch is silent except in the name yet I cannot doubt but he must be well acquainted with the power of this Medicine in curing them Of Agues GReat Diversity hath been and yet is among Authors concerning this Disease some holding one thing and some another concerning its Seat and Causes but I without reciting their differences or contending with any man's opinion either of which is no way profitable shall briefly endeavour to give you my own sentiment It needs no Definition being sufficiently known here neither Division seeing all the sorts thereof proceed from one cause and may be cured by the same Medicines Seat The Place or Seat of Agues is the Pancreas or Sweet-bread for all the parts of Man's Body being considered which only by intervals may transmit the cause of intermitting Fevers to the Heart none is found to which not only the Focus or source of those Fevers but also the causes of all their Symptoms may be ascribed besides the Pancreas or Sweet-bread Cause The Cause is an Obstruction of one or more of the Lateral Ducts or Branches of the Pancreas by reason of Phlegmatick Matter carried thither in too large a quantity and there detained the which being separated from the Blood together with the Pancreatick Juice by the Glandules of the Pancreas and sent to the main Duct or Pipe thereof causeth an Obstruction there and detaineth the juice of the Pancreas contrary to nature which ought continually to flow into the thin Gut called the Duodenum This Juice being thus stagnated quickly grows acrimonious or sharp and acquires a putrefactive Ferment whence at length it makes way through the obstructing Phlegm and is effused into the Duodenum where meeting with the Bile or Gall it stirs up a vicious and preternatural Ferment from whence comes the Ague Fit with all its Symptoms as in the beginning horrour chilness cold shaking c. then presently reachings yawnings and vomiting of bitter or four relish and afterwards burning heat the causes of Heat Cold Thirst c. you have in the foregoing Chapter of Fevers but if any desire further satisfaction concerning the reasons of the differences of Agues and the constant or various access of their Fits with the particular causes of Symptoms they may read it at large in Regnerus de Graaf in his Book intituled de succo Pancreatico published by me in the year 1676 to which I refer the Reader not having room here to be any larger Cure The Cure consists in opening the Obstructions changing the diseasie Ferment and expelling such matter as the Disease hath rendred incapable of being redintegrated and taken into the communion of life All which intentions are truly and radically performed by this Powder for an Ague being removed by the due use of this Medicine returns not again neither leaves any danger of its degeneration into another Disease both of which too frequently happen after the use of some Medicines which take off the Fit only by a kind of soporiferous quieting the present fury of the Archaeus If it be taken before the Ague hath exceeded three Fits one only Dose is usually sufficient to carry it away if fix or seven Fits two Doses or three at the most yea I have cured divers at twice or thrice giving it that have had it six or eight weeks but if it be a year old or more the continuance of its use but a reasonable time with the help of the Balsamick Pill will not fail to cure it I have also known it to cure Agues when it hath had no other sensible operation than Breaking of Wind. A person living in Greenwich who had a Tertian Ague and sometimes a Quotidian all the last Winter was cured this Spring by three Doses of the Powder which never had any sensible operation and two Doses of the Balsamick Pill so that in eight or ten days he was abroad about his Affairs and never had any Fit since although he was before so low brought that he could not sit up any longer than while his Bed was made notwithstanding the constant advice of an eminent Physician of that Town which he had used It is to be taken in a Spoonful of Drink or Posset drink about an hour before the Fit comes for two or three Fits together according as the Ague is in continuance If the Patient be weak or of a tender habit of Body let him take a Dose of the Balsamick Pill the same night after the Powder hath been given when he goes to Bed with a draught of warm Ale or a Glass of good generous Wine which Pill will mightily corroborate and refresh his Spirits and also tends much to the Cure if the Ague have been of a long continuance or be a Quartan or fourth Ague then after the Patient hath taken the Powder three times if the Fit still remain then let him take a full dose of the Balsamick Pill two or three hours before the coming of the next Fit and goe to Bed and dispose himself to sweat before the Fit comes the which if he do it s ten to one but the Fit comes no more but if there should be a failure of sweating timely enough then let him take the powder before one Fit and the Pill before the next till it be gone but not one Ague in twenty will need to be thus treated A general Direction in Fevers TO drink liberally of such Liquor as is most convenient is good I like not Beer of any Liquor in a Fever before the peccant matter wherein the Disease doth subsist be evacuated because it hath a nutriment from the Grain it is made withal which doth add unto the matter of the Disease whereby Thirst is exasperated as is commonly seen I rather advise to drink Wine and Water two parts Water and one Wine sharpened a
after general Evacuation Vomiting Clyster then carminative and fumous Clysters and abundance of other means he found not the least ease there was given him three or four ounces of Quick-silver and that came soon through him yet no ease at last I gave him four of the biggest Musket Bullets I could get about six or eight hours after I came to him and he was discharged of pain and was fallen asleep which he had not before for several nights after he awaked he had a Stool wherein was two of the Bullets and about eight or nine great round pieces of excrement greater than the Bullets and they did seem to be as hard Besides it could not be wind for it is always repleted with wind to hinder such accidents by making the more clearer and more slippery way for the Chyle and when there is a redundancy of it it is easily forced forth behind without any Griping or Torture So you see it is not from Wind or knotting of the Gut but from some excrement that doth adhere unto the same COLLICK THe Collick is commonly from Excrements contained beyond their course which vitiates the Ferment of the place whence cometh those windy Blasts which are not wind but far more subtle and rare than the most rarified air being of an incoagulate nature whereupon those retained excrements adhere so firmly to the Gut that it contracts it which is the cause of that violent dolour I had a man that was shot at the Siege of Iper in Flanders in the lower Belly Hypogastrium which penetrated the Colon all his Excrements came out at his wound for about six days so that the Intestinum Rectum or Arse-gut became useless this wound lay twenty four hours exposed to the wind before he was dressed I made a Suture to the external Orifice and cured him by vulnerary Clysters c. Besides how many wounds have I seen that have penetrated the Breast and Belly and yet never troubled with those windy Pains or Tortures and yet we see there is hardly a Distemper amongst us but we accuse wind troubled with wind c. but the small benefit those discussors of wind have brought is able to convince any that wind is not the cause But indeed this aiery Blast which is made by a bad digestion of things that seems to be wind which is perceived to move between the Muscles of the sides and causeth those Ructations and Belchings hath never been thought on by the Schools and but of very late years treated of To confirm Mr. Couch's opinion concerning the Illiaca Passio I shall here add another experiment which is this About a year ago a certain man was sorely tormented with the excruciating pains of this Disease commonly called the twisting of the Guts his Physician treated him with I suppose all the usual Remedies and some other Devices one of which was I remember to blow wind into the Intestinum Rectum or Arse-gut with a pair of Bellows but nothing taking effect to give the miserable man any ease the last Remedy was instituted which was three pound weight of Quicksilver which the Patient poured down his Throat on Friday about ten or eleven in the Forenoon and presently as advised rode a little way for the better agitating of his Body but yet to no purpose for on the Sunday Morning following I was at his House by accident with another person who was a Physician and then none of the Quicksilver had made any passage he had the very aspect of death and complained of an intollerable cold and weight in his Belly went not to bed in three nights and if he fell into the least sleep nothing but dotage and distraction appeared His Physician was at a ne plus ultra thinking him a dead man as all that saw him Upon enquiry we understood that he was not forbid the taking of any thing nor yet directed to any thing besides Canary wherefore we advised that he should abstain from the use of all acids others that might have any power to coagulate any of the Quicksilver in his Body and to drink sweet Oil plentifully the which he presently put in execution and the next day being Munday the Quicksilver began to come away like Small Shot and the use of the Oil being still continued by Tuesday night he had parted with it all or most for what they had collected wanted but four ounces of the three pounds after which somebody well advised him to swallow Golden Bullets which he did divers times and so to a wonder recovered and is well to this day Now had this Torture been occasioned only by wind such a quantity of Quicksilver could not possibly have been thereby detained in the Body one quarter of an hour or again that it should be the twisting of the Gut as is commonly believed is impossible for it cannot be that the Gut should be so closely twisted up by any accident that may happen either within or without the Body that three pound weight of this active ponderous Mineral should not in three days time find a passage besides which I had almost forgot to tell you his Excrements came away with the Quicksilver in small hard Bits like dried Sheeps Dung which plainly proves that the occasional cause of this Disease is the Excrements grown to a preternatural hardness I will here set down for the sake of the poor a cheap and easie remedy against this cruel Enemy â„ž of the Seeds of Annise Fennel Carraway and Coriander each half an ounce let them be all bruised put them into a quart of Ale or somewhat more boil them gently in a Vessel close covered for about three quarters of an hour then take it from the fire and strain it and let the Patient drink half a pint at a time warm And by God's blessing he shall soon have ease This is also good in the Wind Chollick But the Balsamick Pill is the most immediate Remedy for the Wind Chollick that I ever yet knew but it is not to be given in the Illiaca Passio therefore I will here for the sake of the ignorant shew how they may distinguish those Diseases from one another The pain called the Twisting of the Guts lies about the Navel and higher and is felt only before not extended to the Right and Left Sides that of the Chollick is about the Navel and lower going cross the Belly to both Sides even to the Back the pain generally pressing to the bottom of the Belly with a stoppage of the Urine which never is in the former there are some Symptoms which are common to both as Burning Chilness Reaching Vomiting c. but what I have said before is sufficient for any to know them asunder A Gentlewoman living in Greenwich was lately seised with a pain in all her Bones and a violent Loosness for which she took a Dose of the Balsamick Pill and in two hours time was at perfect ease and the Loosness stopped The next
Physicians Chyrurgions c. shall have them at my Catalogue price I have also some other Medicaments of singular use and efficacy viz. The Oyly Volatile Salt of Sylvius de le Boe. Whose vertue and use is at large described in his new Idea of Physick the first Part in English This was some time since sold in divers places in London I mean somewhat having the same name stamped upon it but nothing of this Famous Sylvian Medicine were to be found in it I had it from a Gentleman who was divers years a Student under Sylvius and was also Brother and Executor to De Graaf from whom Sylvius would hide nothing in whose Study he found it after De Graaf's Death Price 6 s. per ounce Elixir Hystericum This is an Excellent Remedy against thâ— Fits of the Mother the which I never yâ— knew it fail to help it is also very profitable in the Epilepsie Convulsion Vertigo c. It is to be taken three times a day the quantity of twelve fourteen or fifteen drops at a time in a Glass of Sack or Ale where Sack is not to be had as also in the time or rather upon the approach of any Fit it may be taken to thirty or forty drops for there is no danger of exceeding the Dose Price 5 s. per ounce Manna Mercurii This preparation of Mercury is so well divested of its Malignant Volatile Salt that it never causeth Vomiting or Salivation as the best of the Common Preparations especially if they be sometimes repeated whereby it is made so innocent â—hat it may be as safely introsumed as Manâ—a It is a great Specifick in the French â—ox Leprosie Scurvy and Itch against all â—enereal Nocturnal Pains as also Pocky â—lcers and Pustules it causeth the Scabs â—resently to fall off and disposeth the Ulâ—ers to heal I assure you I have known a â—ontumacious Pox cured by this Medicine â—one and which is more a Physician â—ce told me that he had cured one with three Doses of it only with the help of a little Bezoardicum Minerale which he used some time in stead of a Sudorifick Diet drink and which is a hundred times better The Dose is from six Grains to twenty made up into Pills with Rosin of Scammony or Extractum Rudii The best way is to begin with a small Dose at first and increase every time as occasion requires If it should work two or three days together as it may do where it meets with a Plethora of sordid Matter there is no danger but on the contrary the Cure will the sooner succeed Price 12 s. per ounce Aqua Venerea This Water or Liquor cures the most stubborn Venereal Ulcers or Sores in a few days time they being washed with it twice a day and rags three or four times double wetted in the same and lay'd upon them Price 5 s. per pint Moreover all Chymical Preparations iâ— use may be had at my House a Catalogâ— of which with the prizes any may haâ— gratis Or any Person that desires to haâ— any Curious Process wrought may be served faithfully therein by CHR. PACK From my House at the Sign of the Globe and Chymical Furnaces in the Postern near Moorgate 1680. FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange GEll's Remains being sundry Pious and Learned Notes and Observations on the New Testament opening and explaining it wherein Jesus Christ as yesterday to day and the same for ever is Illustrated by that Learned and Judicious man Dr. R. Gell late Rector of St. Mary Aldermary London in two Vollums Folio price 30 s. Christian Religion 's Appeal from the Groundless Prejudice of the Scepticks to the Bar of Common Reason Wherein is proved 1. That the Apostles did not delude the World 2. Nor were themselves deluded 3. Scripture Matters of Faith have the best Evidence 4. The Divinity of Scriptures is as Demonstrable as the Being of a Deity by John Smith Rector of St. Maries in Colchester Folio price 12 s. 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Quarto price 2 s. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions very requisite for Statesmen Quarto The Jesuits Catechism according to St. Ignatius Loyola for the instructing and strengthening of all those which are weak in that Faith wherein the Impiety of their Principles Perniciousness of their Doctrines and Iniquity of their Practices are declared Quarto price 1 s. De succo Pancreatico or a Physical and Anatomical Treatise of the Nature and Office of the Pancreatick Juice shewing its Generation in the Body what Diseases arise by its Visitation from whence in particular by plain and familiar Examples is accuratly demonstrated the Cause and Cures of Agues or Intermitting Fevers hitherto so difficult and uncertain with sundry other things worthy of Note written by that Famous Physician D. Reg. de Graaf of Delph and Translated by Chr. Pack Med. Lond. Illustrated with divers Copper Plates Octavo price 2 s. 6 d. Judiculus Universalis or the Universe in Epitome wherein the Names of almost all the Works of Nature of all Arts and Sciences with their most necessary Terms are in English Latine and French methodically and distinctly digested being of singular use to Persons of all Ages who are desirous to attain to the Knowledge of the said Tongues Composed at first in French and Latin for the use of the Dolphin of France by the Learned T. Pomey and now enlarged with the Addition of the English Language and some other Supplements by A. Loveâ— M. A. Octavo English Military Discipline or the way and method of exercising Horse and Foot according to the Practice of this Present Time with a Treatisâ— of all sorts of Arms and Engines of War of Fire works Ensigns and other Military Instrument both Ancient and Modern Octavo The Count of Gabalis or Conferences about secret Sciences Bendered out of French into Englisâ— with an Advice to the Reader by A. L. M. 〈◊〉 Twelves price 1 s. A Mathematical Compendium or useful Practise in Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Geographâ— and Navigation Embattelling and Quartering 〈◊〉 Armies Fortification and Gunnery Gauging aâ— Dialling explaining the Logarithms with new 〈◊〉 dices Naparâ—s Rods or Bones making of Movâ—ments and application of Pendulums with tâ— Projection of the Sphere for an Universal Dial Collected out of the Notes and Papers of Sir Joâ— More by Nicholas Stephenson the Second Editioâ— with many Additions Twelve FINIS