far greater quantity of fixed Salt than the Bodies And we see that in Dropsies Chachexies Obstructions and the like Diseases which will not yield to vulgar Medicins the learnedst practitioners betake themselves to Medicins of Tartar Steel and Vitriol as a certain Refuge in the greatest Extremities and it cannot be imagin'd how these Medicins should perform such certain and admirable effects but that by fermenting the Blood with their Saline Particles they supply the defect of the natural ferment For as long as this is vigorous and the passages are open from the Spleen into the masse of Blood the Splenick leven by continually maintaining an intestine motion of the small Particles of the Blood preserves that Liquor in its due mixture and consistence so that the grosser and finer Particles being exactly mingled one with another and the Spirits free and at liberty the Blood is rendered fit to circulate through the most streight and narrow passages and not apt to curdle and stagnate in the Vessels And by this means Crudities are concocted Obstructions opened tough and slimy humors attenuated and the Blood defecated of all its Excrements and Impurities by the vents and emunctories of the Body By this means not only the Juyces which run in the Veins and Arteries are rich pure and spirituous but likewise from these a soft subtil and well rectified Spirit and Liquor is communicated to the Brain and distributed into the Nerves for the use of the Animal Function and exercise of Sense and Motion in all the Instruments and Organs designed by Nature for those uses Furthermore it is very probable that the Splenick Ferment does by the Arteries out of the masse of Blood supply the stomach and Bowels which serve for the concoction of Aliment with a Menstruum not unlike those Liquors with which the Chymists dissolve Mettals and other Bodies for the dissolution of meat and reducing it to Chyle For we cannot with Reason assign that work to Heat since the most intense fire cannot by roasting baking boiling or any other way of applying of that Element reduce bread flesh and other meats in many dayes into a substance so fluid and thin as the Stomach can in a very few hours Now as the Spleen whilest it dispenses a sincere and rightly elaborated ferment is a Bowel of great use and importance for the preservation of the blood and Spirits in their due temper and motion so does it often cause very considerable disorders and extravagancies in the Oeconomy of the Body when it degenerates from its natural constitution and infects the Humors and Spirits with an impure and ill digested Leven For that the Blood may duly and orderly ferment and circulate it is most requisite that the intestine motion of the little Particles which constitute it be neither too furious and tumultuous nor too heavy and sluggish And for this reason is it as I suppose that the fixed Salt is separated from the Blood in the Spleen and again returned and mingled with the Masse by the Veins For indeed fixed Salt consisting of parts which are indued with some kind of Acrimony and yet being not too severely acid seem to be Bodies most proper to maintain a leisurely and orderly Ebullition But if the ferment once grow too sharp and acid and acquire parts apt to provoke irritate and prick the sensible parts of the Body and the fixed Salts become to be fluid it presently fects the whole stream of the Blood puts it into violent and disorderly motions vellicates the nervous parts fixes the Spirits puts all the humors into a hurly burly and makes them apt to congeal and stagnate For when this Ferment is rightly made it consists of Salt with the addition of a moderate quantity of earth by the mutual Conjunction of which fixed Salt is produced but if by any means there be a seperation made of the Saline part from the earthy then are the Salts said to be in the state of fluidity because they run together into a Liquor as Spirit of Salt Spirit of Vitriol and the like Thus when the Ferment of the Spleen becomes fluid it acquires the fierce sharpness of Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol This is the fault of it in Hypocondriacal Persons For in men who labour of those Distempers all the fixed Salts of the Blood which circulate through the Spleen are there made fluid till at length they come to prevail over the other principles of the Blood and turn the whole stock of it into a Liquor as sharp as Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol by which means all the Spirits are depressed and kept under The sowre Belches and Vomits of Hypocondriacal Persons which oftentimes are no lesse sharp than Spirit of Vitriol are a very sufficient argument of the sharpness of their Juices which prick and tear their stomachs bowels and nervous parts with continual pains and torments and sometimes with their Corroding acidity flea their Tongues Throats and Lips And the violent and irregular motions and boylings of the blood do very evidendently convince that the Constitution of that Liquor in Hypochondriacal Persons is become sharp and eager For we find it most true from sundry expriments that such tumultuous Ebullitions are caused from the mixture of fluid Salts with fixed and in Liquors which are void of fluid Salts we meet with no such fermentations or where they are but in small quantity mingled the fermentation is lesse and more leisurely and nothing so tumultuous In quick-Lime and Juices which abound with acid Salt as soon as the fluid and fixed meet with one another presently a noise heat and boyling do ensue Thus we see Salt of Wormwood Scurvy-grass or the like Coral Pearl Oyster-shells and other testacious bodies when Spirit of Vitriol Sulphur juyce of Lemons Berberies Oranges or any acid liquor is poured upon them presently fall a boyling and hissing Many more Instances of this kind may be given but because they are obvious to every man who is in the least versed in Chymical operations I will pass them by and farther endeavor to prove from the way of cure of Hypochondriacal Distempers by the Medicins most approved and famed by the best and most learned Authors That the cause of those affections consists in a sharp and eager Distemper of the Blood and Juyces The Remedies which in this case are most commended are such as consist of Steel Tartar Vitriol fixed Salts and all testacious bodies as likewise diuretical Remedies which abounding with fixed Salts do very much precipitate the blood For we find by Experience That these Medicins do sweeten all sharp Liquors and abate their Pungency for the Acrimony of Salts is not blunted by Sulphurious but Saline bodies by reason that fixed Salts by an intimate and close union to the fluid do obtund their points and edges as a thick piece of Steel exactly fitted to the blade of a Knife will abate the cutting or dividing power of the edge Thus the corroding sharpness of Spirit
congealing power Farthermore every days Experience informs us what changes and alterations are made upon our Bodies as to Epidemical diseases by the hot cold moist or dry Constitutions of the Seasons and Years And I cannot but wonder that the Chymists should exclude the four first Qualities from having any causality in diseases when in their own operations they observe a notable disparity between the effects of a dry and moist heat and they employ heat as the common instrument of almost all their operations But whil'st I assert the Essiciency of the first qualities in the causing of diseases in the humane Body I would not be understood to mean by the word Quality a Being or Entity distinct from matter or Body But that I apprehend by hot cold moist and dry the parts of matter or Atoms so figured and moved as to produce those Effects which we call heating cooling moistning and drying For Example We use to have an apprehension or notion of heat from the relation it has to the sense or as it is the efficient cause of that acute passion or sensation which we feel in our skin or any other organ of touch whil'st we are burnt or heated But this being too particular an effect of heat only as it works upon an Animal we ought therefore to consider it from its more general and comprehensive effects upon which this which is more special does depend which is to enter into the Pores of a Body to penetrate through the parts of it and to force or rend them asunder from one another and so to dissolve the union and continuity of the Body This cannot be understood to be done by a bare naked quality but by certain Atoms which are endued with such a motion figure and fize as are fit to penetrate discuss dissolve and perform all those effects which we usually attribute to heat On the other side since we find cold the most opposite thing in the World to heat if it be the property of heat to dissolve discuss and tear asunder it is then the property of cold to congeal fasten and close together and those Atoms which by their shape and figures are fit and proper for those effects may with very good Reason be called Atoms of cold and Bodies made up of such Particles cold Bodies Thus the Air which is the common Receptacle of heat and cold upon the blowing of North-winds is usually filled with such Atoms as bind and congeal the Earth and Water and in the body of man both by mingling with the blood and closing the pores or breathing holes of his body oftentimes produce considerable disorders As for humidity or moistness it seems to be nothing else but a kind of fluidness and Liquors are commonly said to be moist inasmuch as when they are poured upon hard and compact bodies some small parts of them are left behind either sticking in the little Cavities of the Surface and then the body is said to be wet or else have insinuated themselves into the most inward pores and recesses of the hard body which then we commonly say is moistned And on the contrary driness is nothing else but a kind of firmness inasmuch as a dry body is upon that score the more firm for being void of all moisture And now I cannot see why these four first Qualities as they are term'd should be excluded from having a share in the number of the causes of Diseases since they are notably active especially the three first modifications of matter and not only apt to excite various motions and cause as well new Combinations as dissolutions of bodies in the great World but also powerfully to alter the Microcosm and produce fundry different Symptoms in relation to the motions and harmony of the humane Engin. In the next place though it be utterly untrue that there are in the Vessels four distinct humors but whatsoever is contained in the Arteries and Veins is either the stale deflagrated blood or the alimentary juice fresh come into the Vessels or else the Serum or Whey returned by the Lymphaticks or else some Particles of Nitre and other bodies received in by the Lungs and Mouths of the veins from the Ambient And though the blood differ in several persons only as to the abundance or defect of natural heat yet are men not improperly said to be of a melancholick cholerick or some other temperament inasmuch as by how much the more vigorous or remiss the natural heat is in their bowels and entrals by so much the more weakly or powerfully concoctions are perform'd and consequently the blood apt to be overcharged either with stale and adust or else crude and phlegmatick Excrements In which respect the person either way disposed is not improperly said to be of a phlegmatick or cholerick temper and if the adust or raw Excrements be not rightly and duly separated out of the mass by the effervenscy of the blood I see no reason why I may not say that a man abounds with a melancholick cholerick or phlegmatick humor and if so the Notions about Pharmacy aiming at an evacuation or else alteration of these humors are not framed amiss nor whatever M. N. argues to the contrary without very good reason For I suppose it alters not much the case as to practice whether a man suppose that there is too great a redundancy of one of the humors in the blood or whether which is the right Notion he apprehend the blood depraved either with phlegmatick and raw juyces or the bilious Excrement consisting of Salt and Sulphur or the melancholick in which the Caput mortuum or earthy part is most predominant For either of these Notions will direct us when the blood is unable to fine its self to assist it with those alteratives which time and experience has recommended to us as proper in those cases and those Purgers which have been long observed more particularly to make a separation either of the pituitous cholerick or melancholick parts of the blood For though it be irrational to think that Purgers do with a certain knowledge or choice lay hold of one humor rather than another yet is that distinction of Purgers into Chologoga Phlegmagoga Melanagoga and Hydragoga of very good use and founded upon observation and experience inasmuch as these several Purgers by causing very different Fermentations and variously agitating the Particles of the Blood may with very good reason cause different separations and so one Purger to evacuate that sort of Excrement Barm or Lee which another cannot And in this matter I do not find that the Improvements which have been made in the Theory of Physick have much altered the Practice for the indication for Purging was not founded upon the Notion of the four Humors but upon long observation that when Distempers discovered themselves by such and such signs the body was to be emptied and by frequent tryals one Purger as especially Hellebor in Melancholy was found more essectual than
has been familiarly taken notice of and discoursed by the Physitians which has not been long the name has from them been deriv'd down to the Nurse-keepers and Searchers and is grown so common in their mouths that Diseases which either they understand not or have a mind to conceal are now often given in under the name of the Scurvy The Rickets is I think very rightly supposed by the Learned Doctor Glisson to be a Disease wholly new and to have had for one of its chief its procatactick Causes the Peace Security and Plenty which the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation had long enjoyed immediately before the first breaking forth of it Glisson de Rachid p◠241. From whence they had addicted themselves to a more soft delicate and debauched way of living and by that means contracted a constitution of body more effeminate flabby and unfirm than their Ancestors who by continual Toils Wars Dangers and other Manly Exercises not only preserved their own strength of body and generosity of mind but also deriv'd it entire to their Children But I do not find that it is observed by any able Physitian That the face and appearance of it is in the least altered from that in which it discovered its self at its first eruption neither is it entered into any stricter complication with the Pox and Scurvy than formerly Glisson de Rachid c. 20. These being Diseases as Doctor Glisson himself tells us very little a-kin and only by accident sometimes meeting in the same body For the increase of the Consumption in the Bills of Mortality Mr. Grant himself gives so sufficient a Reason that we need go no farther to enquire the cause of it nor to ascribe it to the alteration in the nature of that Disease since he affirms That almost all who dye of the French Disease are put into the Bills of Mortality under the name of Consumption For upon enquiry he sayes he found That all mentioned to dye of the French Pox were returned by the Clerk of St. Giles 's and St. Martins in the Fields dead of the Consumption from whence he concludes Grant Bills Mortal c. 3. That only hated persons and such whose very Noses were eaten off were reported by the Searchers to have dyed of this Malady The Stopping of the Stomack I can imagine to be nothing else but the Disease which Physitians call Asthma or Dyspnaea because I find not the least mention of this very frequent Malady in the Weekly Bills and that I observe there is nothing more usual with the Vulgar in their complaints to Physitians than to assign those Distempers to their stomacks which properly belong to their Lungs The Rising of the Lights is I think truly enough believed by M. N. to be that frequent Symptom which is vulgarly called Suffocatio uterina or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I am not of Opinion that that Suffocation is only the proper affect of Women and that solely it is caused from the disturbance of the Womb For I have seen some men very much troubled with a rising up in their Throats and especially in Hypocondriacal Distempers no less apprehensive of being choaked than Hysterical Wo It is worth the taking notice of in this place that the Author of Medela who everywhere else inveighs so bitterly against the Aristotelean and Galenick Philosophy when he pretends to give some account of the reasons and causes of these Symptoms for want of truer apprehensions of his own shelters himself under the very weakest and most exploded part of that Philosophy And flies to the pitiful and jejune notions of Vapors raised in the Lower-belly especially about the Spleen in the stomack and about the Midrif and in the Cavity of the Omentum which must needs whilst they continue there hinder the free motion of the Midrif And a little farther that there may be no scruple left of his Ignorance in Anatomy he acquaints us with the playing of the Scorbutick malignant Vapors through the Veins and Arteries to the Lungs and by communication thence to the heart Which Opinion is so contrary to the Doctrine of Circulation that there is scarce a Butcher who is not able better to inform him and he may learn at every Shambles for 't is not fit he should prophane a Theatre that not one drop of blood enters the Lungs before it has passed the right Ventricle of the heart And now by reason this is a Subject very well worthy of a more accurate Disquisition and the Account which M. N. has pretended to give seems very lame and unsatisfactory I will beg leave to digress and offer some apprehensions which I have concerning the Hysterical Passion and other Distempers which seem to come very near it and agree in many of the Symptoms and Accidents A Digression concerning the Hysterical Passion THough the Disease called Hysterica Passio be by almost all Authors treated of as only peculiar to Women and proceeding only from the distemperature of the Womb yet as I have before observed it may upon grounds drawn from Reason and Experience be very truly affirmed That Men also are liable to most of the Symptoms of it and that even in Women they are often caused when the Womb is not in the least concern'd in the guilt And the reason why this Sex is more frequently than that other afflicted with this Malady may very well be ascribed to their more delicate constitution and soft texture of their nervous parts whereby they become more liable to convulsive motions and upon the vellicating and twitching of any one part endued with exquisite sense to have Convulsions communicated to the whole nervous System from whence the whole frame of the Body is put into disorder as we see Clocks and Watches whose Springs and Wheels are contriv'd with too subtil and nice workmanship are oftner in fault than those of more plain work For the better understanding of the Nature of this Disease and of the Causes from whence all the Symptoms do flow it will not be improper to give those Descriptions of it which are delivered by Authors and of the Accidents which in some particular persons have occurr'd to my own observation The Paroxysms or Fits of this Disease in some move regularly and return at certain set-times in others are uncertain and wandring Some persons they invade in an instant in others they give notice and warning by certain signs which forerun the Fit and are a Prologue to the Tragedy As a dulness of Spirits Laziness Faintness Paleness of Face Sadness of Countenance The Parties press their Belly with their hands and perceive something to rise up to their apprehensions as big as a Cannon-Bullet their Legs fail them and tremble they find something rise up to their Throat ready to choke them Then they grow drowsie lose their understanding some laugh others weep some do both Besides they find a gnawing pain at the mouth of their Stomack a loathing of Meat
Hysterical Fits and some even after so large Haemorrhages that there has been more Reason to believe they had not Blood enough left to maintain the Circulation than to suspect the Lungs and Heart could be oppressed with it Riverius has an Observation of a Maid River Ob cent 1. ob 94. who having her menstruous Flux in so violent a manner that in the space of two hours she voided four or five Pints of Blood fell into so terrible a Fit of the Mother that she lay without speech as one dead and yet had her eyes open and shewed with her hand that she was strangled These and other Reasons seem to argue That the Animal Constitution I use Dr. Glysson's word is primarily affected in this Disease Glisson de Râ—chid p. 19. and the heart and lungs only secondarily and by consent and that the disorders of the vital parts as well as the rest of Hysterical Symptons are meerly convulsive motions Consonant to this Dr. Willis in his most admirable Treatise of the Brain Nerves gives an excellent account how the Lungs come to be affected in Hysterical and Hypochondriacal Paroxysms in these words Si quando nervos pneumonicos à causa morbifica affectiones Spasmodicae afflixerint ita ut motibus inordinatis convulsi arterias venas quas amplectuntur perperam constringant aut huc illuc contrahant propterea Sanguis aut pulmonibus nimis exulans eos flaccescere ac in se concidere facit adeo ut aerem copiose attrahentes ipsum haud facile reddant vel quod crebrius usu venit Sanguis intra pulmones detentus ibidemque stagnans eos infercit ac diu rigidos tenet ut aerem inspirare nequeant Vtriusque generis Symptomata in affectibus Hystericis quibusdam Hypochondriacis passim contingunt Quinimo interdum ipsa Bronchia pari nervorum Spasmo convelluntur ac in motu suo praepediuntur quo minus debito modo aerem inspirent exspirentque prout in paroxysmis Asthmaticis cernitur cujusmodi affectus saepenumero a nervorum vitio sine insita quavis pulmonum dyserasia producuntur Willis Nervorum Descrip c. 24. In the same Chapter he acquaints us how the affections and motions of the Heart are produced by the influence of the Animal Spirits through the intercostal and eighth pare of Nerves and that the tremblings and disorderly vibrations of the Heart which evidently differ from its pulsifick motions are caused from the violent Succussions and Convulsions of the Pericardium To evince the necessity of the influx of the Animal Spirits to maintain the motion of the Heart he tells us That he had often made this Experiment in Dogs when they were alive Having opened the Skin about the Neck he tyed both the Trunks of the Par Vagum with very strict Ligatures upon which the Dog seem'd to be stun'd lost wholly his voyce and fell into Convulsions about the Hypochondria with a great trembling at his heart But these presently ceasing he lay as if he were just a dying without any life or vigor in his countenance scarce being able to move any part and refusing all meat that was offered him Notwithstanding he dyed not in several dayes till he was quite starv'd though the Nerves were both cut asunder The Heart receiving by the recurrent and intercostal Nerves a sufficient though weak supply of Spirits to maintain a faint motion and a Circulation enough to keep the Dog alive Having hitherto prov'd That the Animal Constitution is primarily affected in the Hysterical Passion it will follow that theremay be assigned as many causes of this Distemper as we can imagine able either notably to vellicate the Extremities of the Nervs affect them so strongly as to draw into consent the whole System or else to put the Animal Spirits in the Brain into so great a confusion and disorder as to disturb their constant and regular irradiation and influx into the bowels and other parts of the body Or whatever causes are apt to render the nervous Juyce which is the Vehicle of the Spirits sharp and pungent and apt to irritate and provoke the Fibers in its passage The Ancients reckon the Seed retained in the genital parts in too great a quantity as one of the principal causes of these affections and that we may the better understand how that is able to put the Animal Spirits and Nerves into disorderly motions it will not be impertinent to consider the nature of it The Seed or Geniture seems to consist of Salt Sulphur and a great quantity of Spirit for these active principles are only able to perform that wonderful work of Generation in that secret shop of Nature the Womb. It may be proved by sundry Experiments That a nitro-sulphureous spirit is the Author of all Generations as well in Vegetables as Animals The Account which that eminently learned person D. Ent gives of the production of things in his Apology for the Circulation against Parisanus is very much to this purpose Eat Apol. Terra Aqua sayes he materies sunt rerum naturalium in quibus seu uteris diversa rerum gignendarum semina sive spiritus delitescunt quorum virtutes in salibus potissimum nidulantur Per calorem solis humores tenues variis salibus impraegnati ascendunt aeremque nostratem constituunt denuoque in elementa unde evecta erant relabuntur Quinetiam interdum majore copia roris forma decidunt cujus opera Terra Aqua spontaneos suos foetus producunt Indicium hujus rei est quod si aqua calida terram perfuderis namque eo modo sal omnis educitur nihil postea in ea nascitur neque vermiculi neque lapilli nec gramen imo nec semina quidem ei commissa licet soli haec terra exponatur aqua stillatitia irroretur nihil inquam inde progignitur donec per aliquod temporis spatium sub dio posita novo rore sive sale vivifico impraegnetur Hic ros super arborum frondes incidens varia insectorum genera producit Hic in mediano plantarum cortice potissimum stabulatur per quem plantae vivunt unde debito tempore frondes flores fructus producuntur ac propterea illo ipso in pertinacibus viscerum obstructionibus reserandis utimur In quo si Brosseus recte computum iniit vigecuplo plus hujus salis quam in ulla alia arboris parte reperitur Imo sunt qui affirmant ab ipsis plantarum salibus terrae commissis easdem denuo plantas repullulare Hinc constat idem etiam animalibus contingere hominumque semen de natura salis participare quod probatur his rationibus 1. Semen diutius retentum copia adauctum titillationem excitat id autem sali contingere in prurigine videre est 2. Semen in humido liquescit quod sali proprium est 3. Acidum olet 4. Hinc fit ut nimio coitu capilli qui tali sale abundant defluant Ossa eo
impraegnata in lue Venerea afficiantur The Sum of what this learned person asserts is That nitro-sulphureous Spirits or Salts are as it were the Soul of the World and the Authors and Causes of all Productions and Generations These Seeds Spirits or vivifick Salts are certainly much more exactly elaborated and exalted in Animals than Vegetables and in those which are more perfect than in the less for that there are Instruments and Organs purposely ordained and contrived by Nature which are to give a perfection to the Seminalities of Men and other Creatures which are endued with a regular shape proportionable to the nobleness and exactness of the Fabrick which they are to design and build when they are employed for the continuance of the kind in the act of Generation Willis Dâ—script Nerv Therefore as Dr. Willis does very well demonstrate The Arteries do after the same manner instill into the Testicles a genital juyce for the making of Seed as they do into the Brain an animal Liquor for the production of Spirits which in the Veins and Arteries contrived for that cause with infinite turnings and windings is made more subtil and volatil and the Parts are in their passages exactly mixed the more gross and terrestrial are separated and at length the refined and exalted Liquor is sent into the inward substance and body of the Stones where being farther elaborated and mingled with the volatil Salt the innate ferment of those parts it becomes Seed It is farther to be considered That when the Ferment implanted in the genital parts comes to be sufficiently ripened and by a long digestion has arrived to its perfection Men and Women attain to that state and maturity which we call in Latin Pubertas At that time the genital parts grow hot and being filled with seminal Spirits discharge themselves continually of some part of them by the veins into the mass of blood from whence the nervous Juyce and Spirits become tinctured and impregnated with the seminal Ferments so that about that time the blood grows high and luxuriant and in Women being hardly contained within its own limits is emptied every Month by a periodical turgescency There is at this time a great alteration wrought in the manners and behaviour and the ranck acid scents vented by the Emunctories of the Nerves do declare That the Juyce which passes in them is inspired with the geniture Now if for want of seasonable Evacuation by Coition this genital spirit does not only too much abound in the blood but also in its frequent Returns by the Arteries to the Testicles is overdigested and too highly elaborated which is called by Physitians contracting a malignant quality it renders the spirits upon all slight occasions especially in Women whose Nerves and Brains are weak liable to sudden and impetuous Fermentations so that upon the Orgasms of these unruly Seminalities and a forcible disunion of the saline part from the sulphureous those Explosions and Convulsions are caused in the Abdomen and other parts This Notion I acknowledg to Dr. Willis which are so violent for the most part and impetuous that they cannot well be imagined to be produced by any other cause than such as must at least equal the force of Gunpowder And we find how apt these spirits are to take fire in the blood and nervous juyce by the causes which in Women liable to the Fits induce a Paroxysm For passions of the mind violent exercise sweet smells or any slight cause whereby the blood and spirits are chafed presently brings on a Fit that the abounding of the seminal spirits in the body may be one cause of the Fits of the Mother and certainly it is the most violent is confirm'd by the observation of Riolan who affirms That upon the Dissection of Hysterical Virgins he has found their Testicles bigger than his Fist filled with seminal matter But certainly as the Seed is one cause of this Disease so is it oftentimes produced from other causes and oftentimes when the genital parts are not in fault Nay it is often obvious to be observed That a defect in the uterine Ferment as in Cachectical Green-sickness Maids has occasioned them to be much afflicted with Hysterical Passions For the blood in such Women for want of the seminal tincture which ought at a due time to enliven and inspire it remains crude slimy and does not as it ought cleanse its self by its menstrual Purgations by which means many Impurities are cast upon the Brain with which the nervous juyce becomes to be much vitiated and to prove an improper Vehicle for the spirits and by exciting preternatural Fermentations in the nervous parts to cause Hysterical Paroxysms which happen for the most part periodically and at set-times when the body expects its lunary benefits for at such times the nervous juice as well as the Blood being saturated with Feculencies indeavours by fermentation to depurate it self by which the Animal Spirits are put into disorder and the nerves drawn into convulsive motions These two The Seed and Menstruous blood retained are the onely causes of Hysterical fits which are assigned by almost all Authours except Riverius who adds that other humours likewise retained in the womb and genital parts have likewise their shares in producing those Symptoms which he concludes from observing That many Old-Women who are neither troubled with Seed or menstruous blood are oft-ten very obnoxious to these distempers To which he adds a Notion of his own which he sayes is of very great moment and seems very agreeable to this Hypothesis That Hysterical Passions are not onely excited by vapours raised from the forementioned substances But the very humours which find no vent by the passages of the womb which is a kind of Sink to the body through a suppression of the Menses Riv. pr. l. 15 c. 6. or the Whites are sent back to the upper parts and infect them with an ill quality which they have contracted by too long a stay in the vessels of the womb by a contagion from the Seed and menstruous blood To these Causes which are delivered by Writers may all such be added as Authours of this Distemper which are apt by vellicating the extremities of the nervs to cause Convulsions Such are sharp juices in the womb spleen and other bowels schirrous tumours not onely in the womb but in the stomach mesentery breast and other parts The same accidents will wounds in the nerves produce and in Women subject to Fits even gentle Vomits which work by causing a convulsive motion in the stomach will put them into Hysterical Paroxysms as I observed lately in a Lady my patient to whom being above fifty years of age upon very urgent indications I gave onely Ê’iii's of infusion of Crocus metallorum and because I knew her to be Hystericall and had formerly observed in others Paroxysmes induced by Vomits before she tooke it I ordered an Hysterical plaister to her Navel The Vomit
not seem strange to any man that these rare Productions of sundry species of Worms should happen in mens Bodies if we consider That in our Meats Drinks and Air the Salts or Seminalities of sundry Insects may be conveyed into and mingled with our Blood which are kept under by the dominion of the Spirits and never are permitted to exercise their own natural Operations till in Diseases and Disorders of the Body they come to be set at liberty Now the causes and reasons of the generation of Insects as well in humane as other Bodies being as ancient as the Creation it self in which the Seeds of Worms as well as Vegetables received their power of multiplying there appears no reason why Worms should in these times be more frequently appearing in Fevers and other Diseases than in former or that any alteration should by vermination be brought into the nature of Diseases Now as to the Experiments of Kircher though I will not question the faith of that Author in delivering them yet I do not doubt but in former Ages by the help of a good Microscope the same Observations might have been made And though I will allow that in times of Pestilence by the indisposition of the Air and the rambling of pernicious steams flowing from infected Bodies more plentiful swarms and numerous productions of insects in the Air and other Bodies may insue than in other more healthful seasons yet I must beg leave of Kircher to apprehend some difficulties in assenting to his Hypothesis since the manner of infection from the plague may be more easily made out from the figure and motion of Atoms than by those swarms of living creatures perpetually vented from the infected Body which if they poison the sound Body by turning its Blood and Juices into the like pernicious Vermin I see no reason why they should not fill the whole Air with their fatal progeny and impregnating the Winds with their Venemous Colonies permit no man to be safe though removed at a considerable distance from the places which are infected Whereas it is found true by constant Experience except by some common cause which has corrupted the whole aire the plague be produced The pestilence insects not at a far distance but only within a narrow Sphere It is very possible that not only the Blood of men in Feavers but also that of healthy persons may sometimes be observ'd to be full of Mites or Worms as well as Milk and Vinegar and yet no malignant Distemper much lesse the plague be produc'd by them For we find that these Liquors though almost constituted of innumerable little Animals are not in the least adverse to the nature of man and on the contrary the best and sharpest Vinegar which most abounds with Worms to be an excellent Antidote and preservative against the plague Neither will M. N. I must tell him be er'e the nearer as to the curation of Diseases from this Notion of Kirâ—her For even those Remedies which will destroy great Worms in the Stomach and Bowels are perhaps apt to produce little Mites in the Blood as in the Experiments quoted out of Dr. Ent the Spirit of Moscatel produces Flies and Vitriol which is an admirable resister of all putrifaction in Water or Wine produces Worms As to the Cure of malignant Feavers though I know well that in them Worms are often produced in the Bowels and other parts from the putrifaction of the Aliment and corruption of the Ferments of the parts yet they are not seldome free from those accidents and when they happen Nature and Physicians have so ordered the matter that generally most Medicines which are Alexipharmical are likewise proper against the Worms Riverius River Obs 91. in his Observations recommends it as a thing worthy of especial notice That Bezoar is of admirable virtue against VVorms and in another place highly commends Scordium The virtues of Treacle Mithridate Diascordium Harts-horn Coral Pearls Trochisks of Vipers the acid juices of Minerals and Vegetables the Compound waters of the Shops as Aqua Scordii Composita Theriacal frigida Saxon and many other Remedies used both by the Galenists and Chymists are sufficiently known to be of admirable Virtue and Use in both cases So that the very same Remedies which are of force against the malignity of the Disease are also very prevalent in destroying VVorms As to the Plague as I have before intimated the account which the Learned Gassendus gives of it seems to me abundantly more satisfactory than what Kircher pretends to by his animated Effluxes Videtur inprimis sayes that Learned Author halitus pestilens idem posse proportione praestare in aere quod Coagulum in lacte Gassend c. de Calore Subterraneo Ut enim dum Corpuscula coaguli per lactis Substantiam diffusa excurrunt ita situm partium illius commutant ut ex fluido fixum consistensque reddant eo modo quo si confusam fluxamque congeriem tessularum exquisite aequalium perflans Ventus sic emoveret ut facies faciebus exquisite coadunaret Sic Corpuscula halitus pestilentis insinuata in aerem intelligi possunt ea ratione invertere commutareque ejus situm ut ex salubri insaluber evadat qui prius egregie naturae animalis accommodabatur incommodus illi summopere fiat Neque mirum sit si qui prius animalis Corpus fovebat continebatque in suo statu illius partes deinceps conturbet immutare coactet Deinde videri quoque poteâ— halitus idem sive in aere sive in animalis corpore quod flamma ignisve praestare Ut enim dum flamma aeri admota in quem Naphtha halitum pinguem corpusculis-ve igneis turgentem circumfuderit ipsum sui similem facit creatve in eo flammam quatenus corpuscula ignis subeuntia in halitum quae sunt in eo sui similia hoc est ignea Corpuscula ex ipsa halitus textura quam discutiunt extricant iisque similes suos motus reddunt Sic dum halitus pestilens aeri Corporive animalis admonetur intelligi potest subeuntia â—ejus corpuscula ita emovere illa quae in ipsis sui similia reperiunt ut ea in texturam novam segregent motus suis similes exitiales utpote induant Nempe ut nemo diceret esse in illo aere circum Naphtham fuso neque etiam in ligno corpuscula ulla calorifica quatenus propter conditionem ejus naturae ad quam spectant indicium caloris nullum exhibent sic nemo etiam diceret esse in aere viso puro animalive habito sano venenata ulla pestiserave corpuscula quae esse tamen omnino valeant utcunque ob eam Contexturam quam attinent se minime prodant Possemus id uberius ex Gangrenae effectu aliisque multis declarare And indeed the Hypothesis which explains the way of the working of the pestilent Infection upon the Air and Blood of sound persons by the comparison of the Runnet's coagulating and fixing
Milk which is a very fluid Body into Cheese which is a very firm and fixed one agrees very well to solve the Phaenomena of that Disease for it is more than probable that the Plague kills by coagulating the Blood and rendring it unfit for Circulation for the Spots or Tokens seem to be nothing else but quarred flakes of it which being thrust out at the ends of the Arteries there stick can no more enter into the mouths of thâ— Veins than Milk when it is turned 〈◊〉 Cheese can pass through a Streiner The Definition which M. N. gives us iâ— this Chapter of the cause of Diseases me thinks is very pretty where he tells us That the cause of all Diseases Me. Med. p. 199. is a certaâ—â— Putrefaction secretly lurking among the hiddâ—â— Recesses of the Humors This Definition 〈◊〉 dare swear for him is his own though he has the face to fasten it upon the Vnanimous Consent of Physitians For by its being most unintelligible Fustian I know it to be of the same Wofe and Thred with the rest of Medela CHAP. VI. I Have in the foregoing Chapters prov'd at large that the Scurvy was a Disease antiently Endemial to the Northern parts of the World I have allowed a notable disparity to be between the Blood of the Inhabitants of the Regions subject to this Disease and that of those Persons who breathed the Air where the Ancients liv'd and made their Observations upon Diseases Yet is not the difference so considerable but that a rational Physician may make admirable use of much of their Method and Medicines in the curing of Diseases in these Climates and even in such cases where the Scurvy bears a considerable share in the complication And as to Vermination I have demonstrated that Worms are more often the Effects than Causes of Diseases that their productions in humane and other natural Bodies was no less frequent and observable in former times than ours and that from them so great a change in all Diseases as to make void all the Practise and Medicines of the Ancients can by no means be inferr'd It is confessed that the French Pox is of late come in upon us from America but M. N. has not in the least prov'd that it has so tainted and infected the Stock and Nature of mankind as to render all Diseases incident to humane Bodies uncurable by the Wayes Methods and Medicines which the faithful experiences of former Ages have recommended to us as effectual Some Maxims of Physick are by M. N's favor as Eternal as those of the Spanish Monarchy Though by the way he has unluckily quoted Balzac for this expression since it is very obvious to tell him That Maxims of Monarchy and Physick have been equally sacred to him and that there was a time when he treated Monarchs with less civil Language than that is which now he bestows upon the Princes of the Art of Physick and he must give me leave to mind that he might as rationally inferr from that monstrous and new Disease of the late Rebellion which was by his virulent Pamphlets diffus'd amongst the people like the Plaguâ— by the infected raggs of greedy and malicious Nurse-keepers that all Maxims in Policy and Government are become insignificant and unnecessary as to conclude from the breaking out of the American Disease that the old way of Physick in respect of Method and Medicines is insufficient and useless For many Maxims in Medicine are founded upon the long and constant Observations and Experience of the World and so adapted to the very Nature and Constitution of Man that in all places and times they must of necessity be of admirable use For indeed many Rules of this Art are not grounded upon any Hypothesis contriv'd by mans brain but are themselves the very foundations which will though possibly Philosophers have raised upon them an ill contrived and incommodious Structure remain when the Superstructure is demolished stable and unshaken And though it must be confessed that the Physiology and Pathology of the Ancients are very insufficient to satisfie an inquiring man concerning the true causes of Diseases and their Symptoms yet much of the Method certainly is not grounded upon them but was long in use before those notions of Causes were invented The learned Dr. Willis de Feb. Willis speaks much to this purpose in his Preface before his Book de Febribus He tells us that in the cure of Feavers some indications anciently received do in this age stand firm and ought to be observed to the worlds end and that they are not founded upon the precepts of Schools but upon Experience the Mistress and Teacher of the Art of Physick And that though the Hypotheses of the Ancients were erroneous that did not hinder the practise of Physick which was first established by induction from Observations from going on successefully And thence he concludes that much less shall a Theory built upon true grounds be pernicious to the sick or cause practitioners to leave that track which Time and Experience has recommended to them as safe And it cannot be denied continues he that bare Empericism without the assistance of Method and Reason does signifie very little nay that it does most commonly do a world of mischief considering that the very same Diseases are not at all times and in all places to be encountred with the same Remedies but he that has so joyned both together that Reason shall not give Laws to Nature and Experience nor these corrupt Reason seems to be a most absolute and compleat Physician Now if it be true as this excellent Philosopher and Physitian affirms that much of the method and many of the precepts of Physick do and will alwayes continue firm and useful because they are not established upon phantastical Notion's such as are the Author 's of Medela but upon unerring Experience no lesse will those Medicines which the constant trial of the World has recommended as effectual remain serviceable to Physitians before such as are imagined by the touchy head of M. N. or any other whimsical Inventer of Secrets and Remedies For I have already prov'd at large in the first Chapter that the Materia Medica is wholly founded upon Experience That Medicines were at the first found out Crebro singularium tentamine by a frequent Triall of each Medicine upon sundry persons I have there shew'd how dangerous it is for ignorant Quacks to Experiment Medicines especially such as are hazardous upon the Bodies of men I am for my part of the same opinion with Varandaeus who told the ingenious and learned Doctor Primrose Primr Popular Err. l. 1. c. 12. that those Remedies are the best which are no Secrets but best known as being confirmed by more certain Experience I confesse sayes that eminent Physitian that all the virtues of Simples are not yet perfectly known as yet many lie hid If therefore any man hath found out by Experience the virtue of some
simple Medicament not yet known that increase of Art is to be commended and deserves to be called a Secret as he that first found out the Vomiting virtue of Antimony He that invented the compounding and found out the efficacy of Gun-powder he that first brought Jalap into use had Secrets greatly to be commended such as these if any man have he is worthy of commendation and I think no other secrets are to be admitted But I think it is very evident that these Discoveries are not the products of Invention but Chance and upon this score mankind is possibly more indebted to Nature for discreetly concealing the way of making gold than if she had made it as common and easy to the Chymists as she has the Art of making Cheese and Butter to the Countrey Housewives for in the prosecution of that she has casually intiched the world with many accidental Experiments both in Philosophy and Physick much more considerable and beneficial to men than if she had taught us like Midas to turn all things which we touched into Gold If I mistake not Doctor Harvey does somewhere tell us that he never dissected a Body in his life for the examination of some part or tracing some Vessel which he propos'd to himself but in the operation some new thing was unexpectedly offered to him which was usually more considerable than the matter which he designed I am apt to believe that we are not only in a great measure beholding to Chance and Experience for the Knowledge of the Virtues of Simples but that even in Compound Medicines there have often virtues and qualities resulted from the Mixture which were never foreseen nor designed by the Artist who put the ingredients together but discovered by Experience We see that as to those very ancient Medicines Mithridate Treacle and Diascordium which are Compounds esteemed sacred for their Virtues as well by the Chymists as Galenists it is much more easy to prove the truth of their efficacy than to give the true reason of their Composition I would fain know of M. N. how he could have been certain that Antimonium Diaphoreticum should not Vomit or Mercurius Dulcis not have retained in it the corrosive faculty of Sublimate had not Experience cleared their innocencies neither can he promise that the action of fire or a Menstruum upon those Bodies shall not produce Concretes out of Antimony or Mercury as highly venemous as these mentioned preparations are safe and benign We see that Tobacco which by all sorts of men is indifferently taken without almost any sensible mischief affords a Spirit one of the most sudden and potent poisons in the world which possibly was at first discovered at the expence of a mans life by some bold and venturous Chymist It is Experience and not Reason that has taught the West-Indians that they may safely make their Bread of the Root of Casave Bont Med. Indor p. 211. though the expressed juice of it as Bontius tells us be an arrant poyson Therefore though M. N. brag of his invented Medicines and tell us that doubtlesse he is a very wicked man which will administer any Medicine which he knows not whether it be safe or no and a very ignorant one that is not able to judge certainly if he invent a new Medicin whether it be fit or no or who dares not adventure it first upon his own Body yet shall presume to give it to another I must plainly tell him that it is very hard for an ignorant practiser of his own invented Medicines not to be very wicked And for his part if he be not fouly abused by the opinion of the World I think there is no lesse danger in trusting to his Integrity than Skill But indeed he is a Gentleman very worthy upon whose Body as the mortal force of Charous Cane in Italy Sands Trav. is tried upon Malefactors and Doggs dangerous and pernicious Medicins especially his own should be experimented Nec lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire sua And therefore I advise him if he will needs be dabling in Physick to content himself with his Collections from Farriers and Herdsmen and his good Aunt to whom he ows most of his skill the cunning Woman of Burford CHAP. VII I Am not so religiously sworn to the Philosophy of Aristotle and Galen as to take upon me the defence of Elements Qualities Temperaments and Humots Yet since the grave Sennertus gives advice De Con. Dissen Chym. cum Gal. That words and terms imposed by the first Inventers of the Art of Physick and established by the Vse Consent and Approbation of all both Chymists and Galenists ought to be reteined and not unadvisedly laid aside I will endeavour to shew That Heat Cold Moistness Dryness may be most pertinently reckoned amongst the Causes of Diseases and the terms of Temperaments and Humors may be not incommodiously retained even to explicate the most refined Notions in the reformed Theory of Physick For though I do agree with Hippocrates That acid bitter sharp and salt and possibly a Thousand more different Medifications of matter are to be reputed as well as those vulgarly called Sennert de Con. Dissen Chym. cum Gal. c. 16. the four first Qualities amongst morbifick Causes Yet I cannot but assent to the learned Sennertus who tells us That the Chymists do ill wholly to reject the first Qualities from being Causes of Diseases For we find by experience that as soon as a preternatural Distemper either hot cold moist or day is induced upon any part the action of the part is presently hindered neither is it able to perform its duty and office till the natural temper be restor'd which is commonly known to happen every day to the stomack And he quotes Galen for instancing That some by sitting too long upon a cold stone or by staying too long in cold water have had the Muscle of the Anus resolv'd And he makes mention of another Who in a cöld and moist season by wearing too long his wet Coat fell into a Palsie of his hand the Nerves which come from the spinal marrow to the hand being thereby too much cool'd and moistned No body is ignorant how prejudicial it is to a man to drink largely of cold water when he is hot And since according to Hippocrates the Cure indicates the Disease the same mentioned Author bids consult Galen what great things may be done by Baths of water in Hectick Distempers And he farther adds that the advice of Scaliger to Cardan may very well be made use of to them who resist both Sense and Experience who upon Cardan's asserting That Cold was only a Privation to convince him advis'd him to leave off his Cloaths and go Bare-leg'd and Bare-headed in the extremity of Winter Travellers do often to their Cost find of what force Cold is when they lose their Noses Ears Feet and Hands mortified by the violence of its
of Virriol is taken away by Salt of Tartar or Wormwood Habet says Fonseca Sal Tartari magnam vim domandi humores melancholicos atros nam trahit ad se proprietate quadam accetositates si aceti fortissimi lb iiii cum â„¥ i. Tartari vini destilletur per ignem aqua sine ulla aciditate exibit And truly it is very probable that the reason why Melancholy persons find so much benefit from Medicins of Tartar is that by sweetning of the blood and juyces after the same manner as that dulcifies Vineger the Tartar frees the body from those inconveniencies which are caused by their Pungency and Acrimony From this Hypothesis an account may very rationally be given why Medicins of Steel are used with very good success as well in Cachectical and Hydropical Distempers in which usually the Splenick Ferment is deficient as in Hypochondriacal and Scorbutical Diseases in which that Leven is too plentifully abounding and too highly exalted For the vitriolick Salt of Steel in which much of the force and virtue of that Mineral resides is very properly substituted to supply the defect of a Ferment to the blood and likewise the same Salt when the blood is become sharp and eager and overcome by too large a quantity of fluid and acid Salt does as Salt of Tartar works upon Spirit of Vitriol or Vineger abate its Acrimony and sweeten the whole mass It may now be time that I should more particularly explain the manner how the blood and humors of the body by passing through the Spleen do from that soft sweet and balsamick constitution which naturally is in sound and healthy persons degenerate into a Liquor altogether harsh sharp and unpleasant to the nervous parts of the body And for the better understanding of the way how this alteration is effected it is very necessary to look back to that description which I have in the beginning of this Discourse given of the Make and Fabrick of the Spleen To wit That the Spleen consists of a great many Arteries not so many Veins and of a multitude of fibrous Threds upon which the Parenchyma like Clots of blood does everywhere stick fast leaving little spaces or pores here and there interspersed between the parts of it throughout the whole substance of that Bowel I suppose then the little spaces or vacuities in the Parenchyma of the Spleen to be of such a figure and size as is unproportionable to the shape of the saline Particles of the Blood as long as any Sulphur or Phlegm sticks to them and therefore they are not admitted to pass along with the rest of the Blood out of the Arteries into the Veins but deteined so long in the little Cells or Cavities of the Spleen till by the frequent Circulations of the Blood and the Collision and justling of the Salts against the more solid parts of the Parenchyma they become free from the Phlegm and Sulphut which was join'd to them from which other Principles as soon as they are disingag'd they do very readily and easily pass along with the Blood which is circulated through the Spleen as being then very sutable to the figures of the Pores or Passages to which as long as they were united to those other Principles they were not in the least agreeable The fixed Salts thus prepar'd in the Spleen and passing from thence by the veins into the mass of Blood serve to impregnate and ferment the Liquors of the body and to preserve them in their due mixture and motions As long as the small Passages in the Spleen remain free and open and that the substance or Parenchyma of it is not grown so hard and earthy as to alter the natural position and shape of the Pores or little Spaces in it the supply of a well prepar'd Ferment to the Blood is duly and regularly perform'd But if either from a natural melancholy constitution or errors in dyer the substance of the Spleen be rendered too compact solid and earthy and the Pores or Spaces are altered from their natural Figure and Magnitude The saline Particles in their Percolation through the Spleen are so worn and grinded that they are not only separated from the Sulphur and Phlegm which is necessary for the making of a fit Ferment but likewise forcibly disjoin'd from the earthy Principle without which they cannot remain fixed but presently become fluid And then instead of a Ferment which should maintain in the Blood and Humors an orderly and moderate Ebullition asharp eager and pungent Liquor is sent into the Blood which puts it into irregular and tumultuous Fermentations and puts the whole frame of the body into disorder That this is the fault of the Spleen in Hypochondriacal persons seems to me the more probable for that it is observ'd That sar guin and phlegmatick Complexions are very rarely troubled with distempers of this nature and that even they who are naturally of a melancholy temperament fall not into them before they arrive at a ripeness of Age when the Blood begins to be adust and the Spleen to grow earthy and black whereas in those who are very young it is of a lively red colour It is worthy observation That this fault or disease of the Spleen is seldom or never perfectly cur'd and therefore the best Medicins do only by sweetning the Blood so long allay the Symptoms and Disorders of it till the mass becomes again infected with acidities from the Spleen and therefore persons who have been once troubled with Hypochondriacal distempers do usually periodically relapse into them From hence it will be no very hard matter to give an account of the causes of the particular Symptoms and Accidents which accompany the Hypochondriacal distemper They concern either the Natural Vital or Animal Faculties As to the Natural the appetite to meat is often by reason of the sharpness of the Ferment in the stomâ—ck too extravagant and yet the meat is ill digested and much of it turn'd sometimes into a sowre water at other into tough slime by reason that the extraordinary sharpness of the Ferment makes it unproportionable and unfit to dissolve the Aliment for that this may happen upon such a score the observation of the Chymists does sufficiently evince who find Berigard Circ Pisan Menstruum nimis acidum metallum suum non solvere From the same cause they who labour of this distemper are troubled with continual spitting loathing and sometimes vomiting the stomack being provoked and convell'd by the gnawing acidity of its Menstruum They are usually hard-bound in their bodies and seldom go to stool partly by reason that the Passages from the Gall are obstructed one use of Choler being to irritate the Guts and cause them to thrust out their Excrements and partly for that the Pancreas as Riverius observes is usually affected in this distemper and does not furnish the Guts with a Ferment For it is very probable that by Wirsungius his passage a Liquor is sent into