Parts by Transpiration Diseases that have Malignity as Small Pox Measles Malignant and Pestilential Fevers when the Life is seized and oppressed with such venemous suffocating Matter Then sudorific Operation is the chiefest and most secure Help to rely on for that disperseth the infectious Miasm and throws off per poros on every side And when Nature the Life is disentangled and hath prevailed by such means then a true purgative and purifying Medicine comes seasonably afterwards to perform the rest And this is so necessary to be well and sufficiently performed else the Dregs and Impurities remaining behind will produce other Diseases of very ill Consequence as it hath often proved so to many by neglect of sufficient and true Purgation which is Purification But when they have taken two or three Purges of the contaminating reputed Purgatives they think all is then done that ought to be but that 's a great Mistake which will appear so by the ill Effects that follow some time after How oft Purgative Operation may be used And how long to be continued For Satisfaction to these Demands we are to make these two Inquiries First What Ability and Strength the Person is of Secondly What Disease the Complaining labours under or is inclined to and endeavours prevention thereof If the Patient be weak and worn down by Sickness then give Intermission accordingly a Day or two and the Dose less than for others that Nature may be refreshed by Respite not impaired but enabled to proceed in the Operation until the Body be sufficiently cleansed Always supposing this to be done by a wholesom purifying Medicine not the common reputed Purgatives that prey upon and deprave the Body But People vainly think every Evacuation to be Purgation which is a great Mistake Purgation is to be continued until the Symptoms complained of do cease Si qualia oportet purgentur facilè ferant So long as the Patient bears the Operation well Nature alleviated and finds Benefit continue on with due intermissions to evacuate the humoral Cause until the Body be cleansed and freed from the morbific Matter that there be no Remainder to breed and cause Relapse Quae enim à Morbis relinquuntur recidivas facere consueverunt Aphor. But many People when they find themselves something eased and the worst is past they desist from prosecuting and leave Relicts behind that procures a Return of the Disease or something else as bad Thus to their Prejudice the most leave off the purgative Operation too soon before they have finished the Work of Cleansing and Purifying Twice or thrice Purging they think is sufficient and are then weary and unwilling to do more The cause of this Aversness is from hence they have been used to the common virulent Purgatives which are disgustful and irksome and therefore Nature hath Reluctance against them and People take them for meer necessity and with an Ill-will accounting all purging Medicines to be much what alike and displeasing to Nature but that 's a great Mistake For when they shall have the use of a true Purgative that is wholesom and easily performing the Operation they will find so much difference then that Purging will be no more offensive or troublesom than natural Stools And then you can hardly err in repeating it too often or prosecuting to long with that Operation For true Purging which is Purifying does not debilitate but roborate and therefore Nature is well-pleased therewith and receives such a Medicine freely because she finds Relief thereby I have heard some say they are afraid to Purge because they are too weak and Purging will make them weaker and sometime it is the Opinion of their Physician But I say otherwise that none but those who are incapable of Help and not like to live are unfit to Purge Always provided the Medicine be a true Purgative But Horse-Physick such as is commonly used I confess is too rough and raking for weak tender Bodies and that sort of Purging makes them more feeble and worse Therefore in such Cases and wanting true Purgatives Physicians endeavour to raise up their weak Patients by Restauratives Jellies and nourishing Broths Forgetting the Aphorism Corpora impura quo plus nutriveris eo magis laeseris Foul Bodies the more you feed them with high Nourishment the worse you make them According to the Greatness and Obstinacy of a Disease Purgation is to be repeated and continued They that purge for prevention and are in a seeming indifferent state of Body need not continue the Operation so long and so often as others that are actually diseased and such as have foul Bodies Having gone through the several Stages of this Undertaking if you look back and review the whole Matter treated you may plainly perceive the great Mistakes in the designing for and managing of Purgation Whereby much of the Benefit was lost to those that wanted that Help and had great Expectations from it I was for some Years under the same Mistake being led by Tradition and imposed upon by Authorities of the Men of great Name and this Faculty until satisfied otherwise in the Preparation of Medicines and proving their Operations The only way to have a true Account of the Virtues and vitious Properties of the Materia Medica and this gives the truest Light into the Secrets of Curing and leads the safest and nearest ways to arrive at those desired Ends For without such Knowledge all the rest is but a specious vain Pretension to Ability and venturing upon Dangers with bold blind Confidence I hear a great noise of Learning and Learned Men but I had rather meet with a true Learned Medicine without exception which as yet I have not in all the Books I have searched and I have turned over as many Leaves as other Men have done Learning sounds great and indeed true Learning is greatly to be esteemed for it is not so common and easie to be found as many do believe But Errours and fallacious Appearances are more often to be met with both in Men and Books Twenty Years and upwards I spent in wading through the vast extent of Physick-Learning comparing the Sentiments of Aauthors examining their Medicines and proving the Practice And twenty Years more I have laboured to get out of that Labyrinth because I do not like it there 's too much to be good and I should be loth to venture my Life with him that knows no better But if this great Bulk of Learning were reform'd and reduced to a fourth Part the superfluous and the false being cut off it would be more readily intelligible and much more truly serviceable But as it now is it serves Physicians and 'Pothecaries very well the Hazards and the Loss falls upon the Patients The Great and the Rich have their Fate by Physick for they are serv'd no better than the meaner sort but sometimes worse I forbear to Name yet it is commonly said nothing more could be done by Learning and Learned Men But
not suspect any mischief done thereby But they will find the Effects afterwards and must take Physick again for the Disease of Physick Many People esteem their Purging Medicine by the Number of Stools If it works half a score or dozen Times then they have made a good Day 's Work and think their Time and Money well bestowed But a Medicine that operates but four or five times in a Day they make no Account of and have not Patience to prosecute their Diseases with such flow Purgers They must have their Business done speedily and probably that 's the way not to have it done for commonly and in this case especially the more Haste the worse Speed For if Purgation be a fermentative Motion procuring a Secretion Reason and Experience tells that is not a quick hasty Work They don't consider and they have not been well taught that gentle Purging and oftner taking deliberately and gradually collecting depraved Matter and placidly conveying it forth by wholesome good Medicine this is the most hopeful and helpful Operation Eradicativa Evacuatio optimè per plures Evacuationes Minorativas perficitur Therefore when much emptying and many Stools are required to compleat the Work of Purgation let that Operation be gentle and repeated the more often with Intermission and Respite until Purification be perfected In so doing the Life will not be tired and weakened nor the Body exhausted and impaired by such gradual selecting and moderate discharging of unserviceable Matter only After what manner PURGATION is performed in the BODY It was the Opinion of the Ancients and so continued by many at this time that Purgatives operate electivè by attracting this or that Humor peculiarly and that by their different formal Propriety and specific Qualities they do attract Sympatheticè a different Humor or Matter Some Water others Choler some draw out Phlegm others Melancholy Thus Hippocrates and Galen taught from which Judgment diversity of Purging Medicines have been contrived to fit several Constitutions as they suppose Some Bodies abounding with Choler others with Phlegm c. Therefore it was thought reasonable that Purging Medicines should be divers And from hence the reputed Purgatives have been distinguished and distributed into several Classes Phlegmagoga Cholagoga Melanagoga Hydragoga All which will appear but an Accumulation of Errours Dato uno absurdo multa exinde consequuntur Contrary to this Opinion Paracelsus Joubertus and others have asserted Purging Medicines to operate per Antipathiam in a hostile manner that they do prosecute expel and drive out noxious Humors as having Enmity therewith and performing after the manner of Alexipharmacals But neither of these Opinions will stand good upon Examination and strict Enquiry as having no sound Foundation to support either of them but involved with many Difficulties as not rationally to be maintained Notwithstanding upon such supposed Truths pretended Purgative Operations hath been designed and grounded thereon to the Prejudice of Millions of People For if manifest Evacuation were but procured by the common injurious Means it always passed currently for Purgation not being able to discern and distinguish between Evacuating promiscuously and Purging The two former Opinions being set aside I shall produce a third more rational and clearer from Intanglements Purgation being an Operation imitating Nature in her ordinary daily course setting forth the Causes and Order of natural Evacuations illustrates and declares the Manner of Purgation artificially procured by Medicine Food received into the Stomach is there digested by Fermentation into a Chyle or Juice then sent out into the Guts where the Alimentary Part thereof is conveyed by proper Vessels for the use and supply of the Body The excrementitious and unserviceable Part is carried down for expulsion The motion for conveyance out of the Stomach is performed by Fibers contracting and compressing that Bag the lower Orifice of the Stomach then opens and transmits into the Guts where also the Fibers of the Intestines contracting do cause a vermicular motion protruding the Contents from Part to Part until the Faces arrive at the Fundament for excretion Thus much only in short which at large might be set forth if necessary In like manner Purgation is performed but more vigorously and oftner evacuating which is a Repetition of doing Nature's Work to perfect by Medical Assistance what could not be done without such Help A Purgative Medicine being received into the Stomach causeth a Fermentation there raising up indigested Relicts and subsiding depraved Matter cleaving to the corrugated Tunicles of the Ventricle and puts it upon motion to be sent downwards into the Guts there to be distributed as aforesaid But this is not All Purgation extends yet farther For the Stomach being the Center of the Life where the Regimen of the Body is more eminently managed this principle Part or rather the Principle of Human Nature being there affected with the Purgative causeth the whole Body to be drawn into Consent and Co-operation by Vnity and Identity of the ubiquitary vital Principle So that this depurating Fermentation is promoted by the Life in all the Veins and Arteries some Branches whereof having their Insertions into the cavity of the Guts impure and useless Matter is brought from all Parts to be discharged into the Kennel or Sink of the Body and sent forth by that commom Outlet the Fundament Thus the whole Mass of Bloud is defecated and cleared from heterogeneous Admixture by Purgation after this manner performed and not by Attraction as commonly supposed The Regimen of the Life is not always necessitated and obliged to visible Organs but acts sometimes influentially without visible corporeal Mediums and therefore in the Oeconomy of Human Nature many Actions are performed at distance without the connexion of Tubes or Vessels for conveyance But our traditional Learning gives no such Information and therefore extraordinary Enquiries have been made in Anatomy where it is not to be found that they may render an Account of such internal Operations as they can give no Reason for otherwise Thus they would have the World believe that by an exact Knowledge in Anatomy satisfactory Accounts may be given for all the preternatural Phoenomena and Defections of Human Nature And how Medicine is transmitted to operate upon every Part of the Body But herein they are more industrious for enabling themselves to talk finely than to design curing successfully Or give the true Account of Diseases and how curing is performed in the Body Forgetting or neglecting this Axiom Natura est Morborum Medicatrix And sometimes Morborum Factrix which caused a Reproof from an intelligent Observator for their over-Curiosity and expence of Time in Dissections Sufficiebat namque pro Anatome situm colligationem usus Partium Non autem tota vita Cadaverum Laniâ—nam ad minimae venae ductus inveniendos exercuisse Joan. Van Helmont The denominating Principal Part of Human Nature the Regent vital Spirit that makes mends and maintains Bodies hath not been regarded and enquired into as
of former Pains and at present the Patient is better And this is the best of it that can be told Which happens but sometimes As when the diseased Person is strong and able to bear bad Medicines and the cause of Complaint not so considerable as to require much Physick But if the Disease be great radicated and stubborn to yield that there is need of repeated and often Purgations Then and in such Cases the common Purges do shew their Hostility to Human Nature leaving the Characters of their Malignity behind them Such as are so engaged into a Course of Physick change their former Countenance for pale thin Chaps Strength wears away and feeble Legs are the effects of that kind of Purging So it is with the stronger fort that are able to walk about when their Disease makes a Cessation And if you count the Number of those that receive no Benefit but are rather worse you will find them to be many As when the Patient is Sick and weak that wants a true Purgative a Medicine extraordinary good or no good to be done otherwise Then in such cases the common Purges sets the Sick and Feeble forward towards their long Home But such as do recover by good Providence from Sickness and seemingly are well and have escaped the evil of bad Purgatives at present Yet all the mischief is not past there comes an after Reckoning to account for The Relicks and Impressions of your virulent Purges hath laid the Foundation of another Disease which you will hear of in a little time and you cannot imagine how it should come Most People have this Apprehension that Purging Physick is next to Poyson and therefore if it does not work they are dreadfully afraid and well they may But if it does operate then they think all is well enough but not so safe as they think For tho' there be Evacuation sufficient as to the number of Stools yet the Taint impressed upon the Body both continent and contained and also upon the Life to alienate and infect the Regent Spirit There must be a Depravation from thence the effects whereof will not be smothered though the cause you do not imagine when those effects do appear a good while after For although some part of the Purgative Venom comes away by Stool the Day of Purgation yet there is a Remainder that infects the Bloud and will produce various ill effects in divers parts of the Body That it does mix with the Bloud and by that vehicle is carried into all parts of the Body I find a late Author of the same Opinion where he saith Extra dubium ponatur Medicamenti Purgantis corpuscula quaedam in sanguinem admitti perque totum ejus liquorem diffundi D. Willis And soon after these words do follow Quippe necesse erit quasdam Cathartici particulas succo nutricio permistas per vasa lactea obrepere Idem Now since it is so that the Purgative Venom commixeth with the Bloud and therewith runs through the whole Body how careful and fearful ought People to be in the matter of Purgation But when the ill effects of former Purgatives do bud forth they have no other Remedy but to the same and such like Purges again They know not how to get better they are such as the Shop 's are furnish'd with and such as are Prescribed to the Shops upon all occasions What do you think will be the end of such Accumulation of Errours or how soon the end may come Here by the way I must Remark and set down this injurious Repetition for one eminent cause of Man's infirm diseased Nature and consequently hath contributed much to the Abbreviation of Life and the Off-spring in Ages to come will degenerate yet more and be of shorter Duration being descended from such depraved Progenitors Is it reasonable to suppose that one virulent Medicine should rase out the Impressions of another that went before If the Axioms be true Natura est Morborum Medicatrix We cannot in Reason think that Nature will or can work with such bad Tools Purification cannot be effected by depraving and corrupting Medicines And the fore-named Author giving an Account of Purgation yields in a great measure to this censure of Purgatives Nec enim de nihilo est quod vulgus adeo pertimescat si quando Medicemen minus operetur ne virulentia exinde contracta derelicta post quam diu in corpore delituit tandem aliquando affectus malignos produceret a tali namque occasione interdum pathemata quasi leprosa excitantur D. Willis It is not without cause that People are afraid when their Purge works not sufficiently least the virulency thence contracted and remaining in the Body at some time or other tandem aliquando should produce malignant Affects from such an occasion sometimes Leprous Maladies do appear He owns Purgatives to be virulent which virulency if it comes not out but lodgeth in the Body it produceth mischief And I cannot see how it should be otherwise For if it be true as this Author affirms that some part of the Medicine is carried by the Bloud all over the Body it is not like to come out again presently not that Day of Operation The Venom then lies a breeding and will bring forth in time So that when you Purge you must take another to fetch out the virulency of the former But if the second be no better than the first you must then take a third Dose And so you may Purge all the Year long at that rate of Purging and be never the better but much worse hereafter After this manner there will be no end of Purging but there may be an end of the Patient If it be so and I think it is plainly so Then such pretended Purgations is but Tinkerly Doings-Physitians and Pothecaries are very honest Men but Physick cheats all the World It is plain from the Words of the foregoing Author what Opinion he had of the common reputed Purgatives Yet being urged to use them for want of better and more safe he also did comply with what his Judgment had condemned As his Purgative Exemplars following do declare and also his Prescripts in Practice upon several Diseases in his Works extant And other Men of repute in this Faculty are of the same Sentiment in this matter and have acknowledged as much But for à Salvo Judicio to excuse themselves from persisting in known Errour and to render the common Purgatives tolerably useful until wholsomer and safer be found out They tell you of Correctives invented to subdue the Venom to curb and tame the extravagant molesting Qualities of the Purgatives that they shall perform the Office of Purging and not disgust or molest you in the Operation True part of this may be and the Purgatives still what they ought not to be Perhaps the Patient does not find present Inconvenience or Disturbance But that does not prove the Innocency and Wholsomness of the corrected Purgatives and yet
expect the laudable Effects of purgative Operation from such feigned deceitful Medicines For prevention most People commonly chuse the Spring or Autumn to purge and cleanse their Bodies and they do well and wisely therein But if any Alteration should come in the Intervals of those Seasons you may safely purge with a true purifying Medicine at any Time of the Year and with more safety probably than to forbear and deferr it until Spring or Fall For though your Indisposition be but small at first and may pass off yet you know not what it may prove and how it may encrease But let it prove how it will you commit no Errour in taking a wholesom cleanser be it Frost or Dog-Days only order your self as those different Times do require In Winter a warm Room in Summer be moderate in motion that may not cause Sweat and then purgative Operation will be kindly and beneficial at any Time of the Year The Caution that was given by the Ancients to forbear purging in the Dog-Days does not concern us in this Latitude we live in much different from the Heat of that Climate where they lived Canis non mordet in Anglia For the Time of Day most sit for Purging Medicines to be given he Founders of this Art appointed the Morning as most convenient And considering what rough sort of Purges they gave that would not lye long in the Body but fall to working soon that Time was most proper But a Purgative that lyes eight or ten Hours quiet before it operates the Morning is not convenient Because the Medicine will put you by the due Time for Sleep and will be working when you should be at Rest the Night following And therefore the Hour of the Day is to be fixed as best suting with the Nature of the Medicine The Catholic Medicine I appoint to be taken at Night going to Bed because it hinders not but rather procures quiet Sleep being wholesom and amicable to Nature placid and gentle in secret Operation And makes no Evacuation until next Morning perhaps near Noon with some costive Bodies But if your pretended Purge be of the common virulent sort the sooner it comes out the better for such Purgatives ought not to lye in the Body all Night Having shewed how proper and convenient Purging is for prevention of Diseases making signs of their Approach by some Alteration or Indisposition of Body We are next to consider and determine of Purgation how it may be advantagious when Diseases are apparently seated and actually molesting or threatning And now you are to be directed by Indications suggesting and declaring when to Purge Ill Humors indicate and prompt Purgation nemine contradicente so agreed of all sides And such depraved ill Humors by a general Consent also are adjudged the Causes of most Diseases and fomenting or aggravating all the rest But notwithstanding the Rules of Art offers Contraindications to barr the use of Purgation at certain Times and under some disagreeing Circumstances So that Purgation comes in necessarily to all as a Catholic and General Remedy only with this difference That the Times convenient for that Operation in every Disease may duly be distinguished And here I shall not need to speak particularly to every Disease by their Names but will take them in the gross and consider them in their Nature by which they are allied to each other as having their Rise and Dependance upon humoral Causes and do therefore require Purgation For such as have Affinity and Alliance in Causation may have and very fitly the same Means for Curation Since Purgatives do not attract electivè this or that Humor particularly as before proved but by Fermentation which operates generally and comprehensively by separating all peccant Humors in order for their exclusion Names of Diseases are different and various from Parts affected and Functions impeded when humoral Causes are the same and therefore the purgative Indication for Curing will be the same also Diseases being thus akin by their humoral Causes generating and continuing their Cures will not lie so far asunder but may be yoaked together in their going off The People chatter as they are taught by those who want teaching themselves and are wheedled into a Belief that every Disease which hath a particular Name must also have as necessarily requiring peculiar and different Medicines from all the rest This Mistake or Design hath filled the World and confounded the People with Thousands of superfluous dubious and sometimes dangerous Medicines You are not therefore obliged to change your Medicines that perform the general and principal Operations Purgative or Sudorific so oft as Diseases change their Names yet retain their humoral Nature which antecedent Cause fixing here or there infesting this or that part of the Body gives occasion for a new Denomination although arising from the old perambulating peccant Matter I own that Diseases may so differ as to require a different Method but notwithstanding they may have the same Medicines properly and fitly though not in the same Order Purgatives most commonly begins the Cure Sudorifics follow if requisite to be used But when Diseases are malignant peracute and dangerous then a Sudorific leads foremost Foulness of Body and Obstructions are the two general Indications prompting and pointing at Purgation And therefore if you look through the Practice of Physick let the Disease be in any Part of the Body Purging is appointed most commonly as one of the first and chiefest Remedies And is oftner repeated and more relied on than any other Operation Ill Humors beget Obstructions Therefore absterse and evacuate the depraved Humors by Purgation then you open Obstructions and purifie the Body with one Operation Since degenerate humoral Matter injurious and unserviceable is brought forth by purgative Fermentation and most Diseases arise from and have their Dependance upon such Causes by Consent and Judgment of the Learned Then it follows necessarily that a Medicine performing that Operation well and truly is serviceable and helpful in all those Diseases caused by such degenerate Humors and depraved Matter let the Disease be called and distinguished by what Name soever But here I would not be so understood as if I laid the whole Stress of Curing in all Cases upon Purgation but to let you know the Efficacy and Extensive Power of this Operation being seasonably and duly used in all Diseases and that in the most Cases it is mostly and advantagiously used above any other Operation Yet there is a Time to forbear and fit Times when to prosecute with Purging And now we are to say somthing concerning Contraindications that do forbid Purgation at some unfit Times which require another Operation to be then used more properly And this is called Method whereby different Operations may come in seasonably and duly not praeposterously and interfering The grand Question herein to be determined is this Will the peccant Matter conveniently go downwards by Purgation or must it be sent away from all
most commonly it is otherwise and the Operation unpleasant Injurious and unwholsom Diet does not shew its ill effects presently You eat and drink with Pleasure and perceive no Hurt but you will find it afterwards perhaps a good while after And so it is with bad Medicines such as stand in need of Correctives Now this Question ariseth whether the Correction given to virulent Purgatives be due Correction or only a Palliation Whether your Correction does rase out and extinguish the Venom as to make the Concrete purely innocent and wholsom I believe not so You may possibly correct or smother some extravagant Quality more eminent and apparently noxious to Human Bodies but you do not change the whole Nature thereof which is Malign and Hostile If you correct the smell of a T with Musk and Civet that the offensive scent thereof is not perceived yet it is a T still an impure Excrement So you may correct some of the first or second Qualities of the Purgatives that are not sufferable in the Operation But being malign tota substantia in their whole Nature the Correctives are not sufficient security to save harmless from future Damage You may allay and blunt the edge of some fierce Punging or Lancinating Property and make the Operation more placid and painless but there may be other injurious Qualities which are dormant at present and may produce ill effects some Weeks or Months after If you knock out one Tooth there are more left that will bite and do hurt After this manner you may eat a Toad and have a correcting Antidote that it shall not poyson you But I don't like such Food that wants so much Correction Nor such Physick For when you think all the danger is past there may be mischief breeding So that you cannot say you are secure though at present you are seemingly well Some that are dextrous in Poysoning can give that which does not soon discover its venomous Nature to hurt you But after some Time it will operate upon you sensibly and by Degrees continuing to tabefie the Body and so infest the Life that you shall dwindle away and know not what was the cause Some Poysons are Mortal and kill presently others not so Mortal but very hurtful acting slowly and gradually Disguised under the Name of some common Disease producing different effects Some cause Dulness Melancholly and Stupidity others provoke Laughter Lust or Fury and some cause Convulsions Dysenteries Inflammations c. Some Poysons more peculiarly and immediately affect the Heart others seize the Brain some invade the Liver others the Lungs some hurt the Bladder as Cantharides others dart their Venom chiefly upon the Genitals and disable either Sex causing Barrenness All which is confirmed by Authors of Repute I shall not point at the Parts of the Body particularly this or that Purgative shall more especially injure But we may conclude it will fall somewhere and you must take it for your Pains as it falls out Your Correction sometimes is before Composition and then you do something to meliorate at least mitigate yet after you have done all you can 't is but minus malum not so bad as it was and that 's the best that can be said But who is the Supervising Corrector in these weighty Matters that require much Care and Skill The Doctor he referrs all and trusts the Apothecary the Apothecary trusts the Boys Then the Patient he must Trust in God for there is no Trust in Man He that Purgeth with Medicine that requires so much Correction and is not Operator himself He also deserves Correcting Reproof But more often the Correctives are added in composition And such are not properly so called but are only Palliatives For being thrust into the Croud of Ingredients they do not expunge or rase out the Venom of Purgatives but only enable Nature to bear the Assaults to resist and expel downwards for to free her self by Evacuation And such palliating Correctives are the Aromatics and Cardiacs that are associated with the malign Purgatives that the Patient shall not be so sensible of the mischievous Properties of the Medicine in the Operation and for a quick and expeditious Expulsion By this same Art of Sophistication an ingenious Cook will prepare you a Mess of Pottage made with tainted unwholesom Flesh corrected with a high Season of well-savour'd Herbs Onions and Spices and such-like Correctives The Broth may be pleasing enough to the Palate and nothing ill discernable But you may judge they cannot produce wholesom Nourishment And so adulterate Wines are made palatable and pleasant in the drinking but the ill Effects come after And thus it is with virulent Purgative Medicines I think it unreasonable that the Work of Purgation which is cleansing and purifying should be intended and attempted to be wrought by such means as stain vitiate and defile the Body if not expelled and cast out And all this hath arised from a Mistake supposing every thing that causeth Evacuation does perform the Office of Purgation But that 's a grand Error which hath introduced so many virulent Productions of Nature designed for other Uses to be reputed and established in the Classes of Purgatives In the Works extant of our Predecessors that have been Physicians to Emperors Kings and Princes I find their Practice hath been managed by such injurious Purgatives very likely it is so now And we may reasonably conclude that those greatest Men of the World had their Share and their Fate in such mischievous Drugs For had their Physicians known better they would have been more benign to Mankind than to have concealed them and recommend that which is worse to Publick Use If the Topping Men of Government he so served How are their Fleets and Armies provided for Bad enough I know and too bad The Soldiers and the Sea-men they have Physick such as it is and that must serve But how can it be otherwise since the Inspection and Care is committed to them that know no better And therefore all is approved very well I do assert and not without good Reason and Experience that Curing may be managed without virulent Purgatives or loathsom nasty Physick and that much more pleasing to Patients and more hopeful in Effect But Dogs-Tird Horse-Dung Piss and many such sordid Inventions I don't like nor use But they that know no better must make use of such Because some in their necessity have been constrained to use such for Help in their Extremity not knowing what was more wholesom and pleasing to Nature and casual Success hath hapned thereupon This is set down in Receipt-Books and noted for specific Remedies in such Cases as if nothing else could do it at least nothing so well As if there were not Physick sufficient in the wholesom Stores of Nature to perform all necessary Operations in Curing but we must seek among the Venoms and Excrements of Animals to fetch it from thence for internal Medicine tho' unwholesom or loathsom and
That they putrefie the vital Liquors Potestas Medicaminum pag. 383. And another Author whose Writings are well known and esteemed in this Kingdom and abroad saith Porro alia Cathartica uti Jalapium Colocynthis Elaterium quaedam Mercurii praeparatu particulis acrioribus non raro septicis constant quae propterea ab Intestinis suscepta indeque sanguini transmissa Massam ejus insigniter fundunt in serositatem valde praecipitant imo interdum quasi venenant Crasin ejus corumpunt Dr. Willis de Purg. pag. 71. This is muchwhat to the same purpose as the foregoing Author determined of Purgatives And a little after pag. 72. relating how two Children were killed with a Mercurial Pouder by an Empyrick at Oxford Nec tantum à mercurialibus sed ab aliis interdum Catharticis è vegetabilium familia de sumptis Massa sanguinea it a depravatur ut non nisi longo tempore restitui aut renovari possit Not only mercurial but vegetable Purgatives sometimes do so deprave the Mass of Blood that it will be a long time before it can be restored Dr. Willis Then he confirms what Helmont had said of the common Purgatives in these Words Adeo non immeritò prorsus Calumniatur Helmontius dicens Pharmaca Cathartica non semper aut solummodo humores in corpore prius existentes educere sed potentiâ sua corruptiva depravatos efficere Idem ibidem Now what do you think of the common Purges made with half a douzen or half a score of such Ingredients as have been discoursed on Magis à Remedio quam ab ipso Morbo timendum sit If you like 'em much good may do you but I do not and never shall because I know better things You may see now if you have Eyes and Understanding what Effects are to be expected from such Purgatives how apt they are to deprave instead of purifying the vital Juices for reducing an ill habit of Body to a sound state And 't is the Judgment of the Learned but they have a learned way of Correction that they shall not do so much Hurt as otherwise they would There is another Help found out and that is the cause why Physicians send so many to the Waters To rinse out and fetch off the Stains and virulent Impressions of counterfeit Purgatives I should like the Waters well enough if they would operate and perform the Intention in a lesser Quantity But to pour down two or three Quarts in a Forenoon to charge and chill the Body with so much tho' some do bear it pretty well yet others receive Prejudice instead of a Benefit He that is Master of a wholesom Purgative will do better Service than all the Waters in England Purgative is a promising good Name which invites and makes the pretended Purgatives go down the better They are such as the World hath been used to and the People take them because others have taken them before They know no better and therefore these are the best and they must try their Fate with them They are such as Tradition hath handed down from Age to Age to the present Time and Custom hath made them familiar They are recommended sometimes discomended and appointed by the Learned in vogue and therefore they are willingly and readily received as if they were sent by Divine Appointment to heal the Infirmities of human frail Nature But all this is no convincing Argument to prove their sufficiency and fitness for the important Work of Purgation Errour is as old as Time it self but such false Substitutes will wear out of Date and out of Vse when better shall appear manifestly and convincingly as by comparing these pretended and fallacious with what is purifying and truly purgative as followeth Having shewed negatively what true Purgatives are not by examining and setting forth the malign Nature of common reputed Purgatives In their Operations in their Corrections by their Effects by the Judgment and Censure of Ancient and Modern Physicians I come now to assert positively and set down the Qualifications of a true Purgative Medicine that performs the Office of Purgation according to the Intent and Meaning of that Operation in due Manner and also in Effects A Medicine adapted truly Purgative is endowed with these eminent and excellent Properties 1. Balsamic wholesom and harmless in all the Ingredients 2. Fermentative to separate and depurate wherein is comprised Aperitive and Abstersive Faculties 3. Lenitive and Placid in Operation 4. Catholic and Comprehensive as adapt and applicable to all Cases requiring Purgative Energy First A true Purgative wants no Correction as being wholesom and innocent in all the Parts of Composition That 's a Medicine amicable and pleasing to Nature And if no good can be done as in Cases irremediable and past hope it will do no hurt but give you the Satisfaction of a Tryal And in Diseases obstinate and difficult to be removed requiring a Method and Medicines of a different Operation to be assistant then the Purgative performs only a Part but necessarily conducing to the Cure and without this probably no perfect Cure But where there is a capacity to receive Relief you may be bold in the repeated use thereof for obtaining the desired Effect But if it wants this wholesom Qualification it cannot be a true purifying Purgative And that Defect makes a great Abatement in Virtue or Frustration of the Intention Secondly A true Purgative acts by a benign and placid fermentative Operation which is diffusive through the Body opening and searching into all Parts separating that which is bad to be brought down and sent away by the Intestines leaving that which is good to support and maintain the Body Does not contaminate nor drain out the alimentary Juices from whence Alleviation does follow and natural Strength preserved And every Evacuation that is not performed after this manner cannot rightly be called Purgation nor in Reason can you expect the good Effects otherwise For true Purgation is not a promiscuous Evacuation an emptying of the Guts only of a draining of the Body by force without distinction of Matter But separating all useless superfluous and degenerate Humors that the vital Liquors may be preserved pure Thirdly A true Purging Medicine operates gradually and gently takes Time to search out and fetch out the morbific Matter Moderate and gentle Evacuation is one sign of a true Purgative But you do not deserve a good Medicine if you will not allow Time sufficient for the Operation A good wholesom Medicine is working secretly within the Body all the Intervals of Evacuation collecting impure Matter together out of divers Parts and in due time sends it forth calmly without disturbance For if it do not work moderately and deliberately it cannot perform the Office of true Purgation This is an Operation of Time and no hurrying Business Many People are for a Purge that works quick and often and are very impatient if it operates little and slowly They must have a galloping
if such mortal Cases were inquired into the Methods and Medicines examined I wish there were not cause to say that more dies by the Errours in Art than by the Defects of Nature I take my measures of Censure not only from the Misakes and ill Management of Purgation but also from the Deficiencies and Falsities of other considerable Parts of this Learning of very ill consequence in Practice 'T is much easier to blind and cheat the Work than to do a Publick Good For when many Years have been spent in elaborating a Medicine truly purgative and purifying to perform the great Work of Purgation as it ought to be done such as never came out of a Shop They boggle are at a stand and take time to consider but not all that others may try first and make Report And herein they think themselves very wise and wary though perhaps in the mean time they suffer by the delay and want thereof But virulent deceitful Purgatives such Stuff as they have been used to Farriers Physick that they can take with confidence and swallow it down freely when advised and administred in the Recipe-fashion being accounted by undiscerning mean Capacities the Learned way of taking Physick But I account and well know that novel Mode of Practice to be unlearned unsafe and an unreasonable Innovation for Reasons exhibited against it elsewhere The Practice of Physick Reformed c. not yet answered and probably never will there is too much Truth to be opposed and will abide the Attacks of all the Learning or Sophistry that can be brought against the Validity of those Arguments Much good may do you with your Learned way of taking Physick You may venture so as many have done to their loss but I never shall because I know the Vncertainties and Casualties therein And here I might justly upbraid and deride the Paeople as desperately self-will'd praepossessed charm'd and Hag ridden by a Spectrum the Apparition of feigned Learning Then let the Obstinate and Head-strong dote on in a dark and dangerous Way since Information is vilified and null'd by Incredulity and the Vanity of their Imaginations But to wave the extravagant and pernicious Mode of Practice occurring in our Discourse and return to the evil Matter in Practice our present Subject It seems very strange and looks very ill that the Operation of Purging so efficacious in Preventing and also in Curing Diseases so oft repeated in Methods so necessarily required so many hundred Years used by Millions of People the Means designed and appointed by the learned Heads in every Age And yet the Medicines for this Purpose are not to the Purpose do not truly answer the Intention but are fallacious and unfit to perform the Work The disgusting contaminating and tabifying Purges that stand recorded and recommended in Books filed in the Shops advised and purchased at a good rate appointed and falsly appropriated to Constitutions and Diseases What 's all this but Shamming the World and Shameing the Profession when it is rightly understood And will then appear a Blot upon the Learning and a Blemish upon Learned Men They have sought for Purgatives amongst the Venoms where Purifying and healing true Purgers are not to be found deceiving themselves and others But the People deserve no better because they discern no better they don't distinguish Men nor Medicines For virulent Stimulatives is as acceptable to them as Balsamic true Purgatives Any sudden Invention devised upon a bit of Paper cut out for Shop-work from the hands of a conjecturing Praescriber is as good to them or better than a Medicine of deliberate and elaborate Designment established by various Probations and Approbations from many Reforms and gradual Improvements by Artists of great Industry and Ingenuity in Pharmacy This I do know experimentally and successfully that Purgative Operation may be effected as ought to be by Medicine wholly consisting of what is amicable purely wholesom and sanative For such is the Catholic Medicine and like it in Design and Model of Contrivance or equivalent to it in aperitive abstersive purifying Virtues or commodious Properties for ready use portage and duration I never met with in all my reading and search after what is extraordinary and rare The World was never bless'd with any thing so good for the Purposes intended that I can be inform'd of But this Help is hid from their Eyes or barr'd from their Belief that they should wander after mean and hurtful things I was dissatisfied with the common known Medicines extant in Pharmacopoeia's and advised in practical Authors thinking much better might be design'd and wrought Wherein I gave my self more Trouble than Profit which Labour and Expence of Time hath not been recompensed and perhaps never will in my Days But some Person whom I know not as yet such are my unhappy Circumstances may reap what I have sown and probably to their great Advantage For this Product may endure and be most acceptable to the Generations to come and then esteemed the choicest Flower in the Physick Garden The Stress of Curing lies mostly and often wholly upon the Excellency of Medicine and Failure most frequently is in the want therof And were the Professors so fortunately possessed with wholesom true Medicines exquisitely to perform the Operations that Nature requires in order to Curing which are not many they need not then spend so much Time about disputable uncertain Notions and Theorems nor burden their Memory with so great a System of Learning For the greatest Difficulties in Practice are not the want of knowing what is to be done as not having and not truly knowing wherewith to perform those necessary Intentions that lie fair before them If the purging Medicines be not wholesom and purifying but vitiating and evacuating promiscuously as before proved Then they do but palliate and mitigate by taking away some of the old morbific Matter and make new succeeding Matter This is deceitful Purging and causeth great suspicion upon the rest that are set forth to perform other Operations requisite in Curing But it is not my present Business to examine the other Classes of the Materia Medica how properly and truly they are regimented and associated to executed the Offices designed for as by their Titles importing That may require another Undertaking and is a Work needful because the Errours in forming of Medicines are not a few Some of this Matter lay offensively upon my Thoughts and now being discharged thereof I am at ease so fare you well in the way you like best Here 's Caution enough to the Wise and Considerate and for those that are otherwise and undiscerning if much more were said it would be but Labour lost FINIS London 1696. in Grays-Inn-Lane by Kings-Gate ADVERTISEMENT THE Mystery of Curing Comprehensively explained and proved Aâ—â—â—…tatively and Practically Three Parts Approved the most Vseful Commodious and Efficacious Expedient against surprising painful Diseases and secret Decays of Human Nature Monarchia Microcosmi The Origin Vicissitudes and Period of Vital Government in Man Enquiries into the general Catalogue of Diseases Shewing the Errours and Contradictions thereof The Practice of Physick Reformeâ—… c. A Treatise of the Scurvy Another of Consumptions The History and Mystery of the Venereal Lues or Pox. Ignota Febris Fevers mistaken in Notion and Practice c. The dangerous Transition of Pains to Inflammations Tumors Apostems Ulcers Cancers Gangrens and Mortifications Internal The Ancient and Modern Practice of Physick examined and compared The Compleat Physician c. The Method and Means of enjoying Health Vigour and long Life All writ by the Author hereof