for that time done her utmost devoir for according to her Strength she will with greatest vigour maintain the Battel with her Antagonist she ceaseth and is for some time and this according to her remaining strength and ability more quiet and calm than in the heat of her past Passion or Spiritus exscandescentia which is not as improperly termed preternatural for it is really natural and the work of Nature or the Archeus her self and is only preternatural quoad gradum non quoad calorem for it is the Archeus irritated or advancing her self beyond her usual course c. If she be strong she will by a Quotidian Fever or contest indeavour to free her self of those Obstructions she feels begin to oppress her If her strength be more slack and remiss by a Tertian if feebler and yet more weak by a Quartane and if not able every second or third Day c. to fight or encounter her Enemy she will yet as often as possibly she can and this perhaps but once in ten or fourteen days but then is she weak indeed That this is truth a daily Observation of these passages in the Sick will sufficiently assure and convince us viz. that the stronger Nature is the more frequent her Encounters and Excursions are against her Opposite Our own vulgar Observations and Rules or Maxims will also testifie and inform us the same for we account a Quotidian Ague or Fever more easie to cure than a Tertian and a Tertian yet more easie and facile than a Quartane for if it vary or alter from a Quotidian to a Tertian we think the worse of it If from a Tertian to a Quartane we account it yet worse and of more dangerous consequence and much more difficult to remedy than the former and why is this but only that we esteem Nature the more weak and the Cause greater and more hardly to be removed and consequently Nature though well assisted will have the harder task to expel it for though Nature may not be yet very much weakned and debilitated yet the Disease viz. Obstructions of Nature's right and privilege being strong and stubborn Nature will the more hardly be put to it in the conquest and extirpation of it and cannot therefore so often draw forth her impaired strength and forces being already in some measure infeebled to expel and force out her yet prevailing Destroyer but what she doth she must do by degrees and as her power and strength will bear allow and admit of and this is Nature's daily course Thus you see that Nature her self stirs up and that voluntary even to the utmost of her power and strength those conflicts and inflammations in her Habitation that so she may free and quit her self of those unwelcome and unpleasing Guests which would otherwise turn her quite out of her Possession This is my Opinion and I think not disagreeable to Reason however I want not to back it the Authority of two great Lights most Eminent Expert and Learned Modern Physicians Van Helmont and the most acute Faber from whom whoso desires more satisfaction may peruse their several Tractates de Febribus c. But to return from this Digression to the two former Assertions of Nature's most willingly and resolvedly Suffering or rather throwing and putting her self into preternatural Motions Consider the violent disturbance in the Epileptical insultus or in the Falling-sickness with the like violent motions perturbations and preternatural and unusual disturbances more or less in all or most Maladies Distempers and Diseases whatever If therefore violent and preternatural unaccustomed Motions were altogether destructive to nature why would she make so constant and certain an irritation of them by her Archew as we daily in most Distempers may perceive and observe she doth If it be answered it is not Nature but the Disease that doth it and is the cause of it and that it is no way pleasing to Nature but altogether opposite to her I answer I well know that the Disease is in some sence or part the cause of it but how the Disease is not the Agent that stirs up those violent and unnatural Motions of it self but is the cause that excites Nature to do it to free her self from the Disease and drive it out before her by those her violent Motions and Passions which she thus willingly and of her own accord stirs up and suffers that she may overcome and conquer the cause corrupting Obstructions and Excrements the opposites of her royal and wonted indisturbed progress and this will appear most evident as well in her conquest or victory over the Disease as in her final overthrow and destruction by Death it self For if Nature either by the strength of her own force and Archeus or by a timely and powerful assistance do extirpate overcome and master the Disease she is then quiet and no longer frets wearies and vexeth her self by such violent Motions but quietly keeps her wonted desired and usual course and progress if by the Distemper she be at last overcome and Death drive her to forsake her Habitation neither doth the Body then suffer under any violent motion or disturbance for the Spiritus innatus custos corporis is departed and there is no Life left and where there is no Life there can be no such Motion though the cause of the motion be still left as copiously in the Body as before I mean the cause that moved Nature to stir up these past violent Motions and Symptoms to have freed her self if possibly from that most violent of motions Death it self which at last she is forced nolens volens to undergo and submit to for it is appointed for all Men once to Dye The virtues of this Solar Pill THe Operation of it is managed sometimes in a sensible sometimes an insensible manner according to the quantity administred but if kept in its usually prescribed and limited Bounds or Dose it is I say rather insensible than any way perceptible unless in its wonderful Effects by which it giveth perfect Cure unto the Head-ach Vertigo Apoplexie Lethargie Epilepsie Convulsion with those many other Distempers that usually afflict the Head as difficulty of Hearing noise in the Head and Ears c. Most effectual also it is in opening all Obstructions of the Stomach Liver Spleen and other the noble Bowels the true original and foundation of many high Distempers and grievous Diseases Excellent are its effects in the Cure of Agues and Fevers of all sorts as Quotidian Tertian Quartane c. but taken in the highest Dose if the Patient's strength and age permit c. Most powerful also and never failing in the Cure of that lothsome and troublesome Disease the French-Pox though of long continuance and gotten even into the Bones Nor doth it thus admirably Operate in these more common and ordinary Distempers and Diseases but also in those desperate and almost accounted incurable Maladies viz. the Leprosie Gout Dropsie c. all which it in
Passport and this I hope you will do as soon as we have setled the Affairs of our Society or College which we hope in as conspicuous a manner as the Galenists suddenly so to manage as that it may conduce effectually to the end we aim at which is the honour of Physick by Men of sound Chymical principles Labourers and Learned If any Persons among us chance to be Defective in the common Literature we ought not to value them the less as long as they have so much of a better sort of Learning as inableth them to the inventing excellent Remedies such as the vulgar Letter-men never had the honour to be acquainted with by any Endeavour or Operation of their own Forgive me my noble Friend all this tedious Discourse for I could say a thousand times more and think you never the worse of me because I am zealous in this Matter but let me prevail with you to print your Papers as soon as you can for the true Sons of Art will be exceedingly pleased with it and among the meanest of them I that honour you who am SIR Your faithful Friend and Servant Mar. Nedham From my House in Thomas Apostles 10 May 1665. Some Errata's have Slipt the Press which those that are not Malicious will Correct as they Read Licensed 20th April 1665. MEDICINA INSTAVRATA OR A brief Account of the true Grounds and Principles of the Art of PHYSICK FInding by a daily experience the small virtue efficacy and power of the generality of Medicines and the great uncertainty of performing any notable and worthy Cure by their means and operation I resolved upon a more diligent search and inquiry after such Medicines as with confidence of some good effect I might more fully rely upon after a serious consideration therefore of the cause why vulgar Remedies or Medicines so rarely or seldom performed the promised and expected Effects I at last found the true and onely cause to be the great quantity of dross and impurity by Nature in their production and growth strongly united with the Medicinal or Restaurative Essence choaking and over-powering the true Physical part of them so that it cannot as it should perform its Office and produce the desired Effects it was administred for for the body of Man being already clogged and stuffed up with Obstructions and Nature's royal course and prerogative being by that means hindred and opposed the Body by little and little feels the approaching decays of Nature and accordingly calls for a powerful and able assistance to free her if possible from those Enemies of Life that so Nature Spiritus innatus custos corporiâ—oeconomus the enlivening Inhabitant of the Body being by some timely sympathetical and friendly aid and assistance before her too great Debilitation again impowred and re-inforced may be able to eject and cast out her potent and destructive Antagonist and again re-assume her wonted and desired course and so restore the pining pale and decayed Body to its pristine blith healthful and flourishing condition Being by these considerations and other most strong and undeniable Reasons sufficiently confirmed what kind of Medicines Nature required as most absolutely necessary and needful as also that the true cause of the weak effect of common or vulgar Medicines was the Physical parts being so much over-ballanced and debilitated and as it were extinguished by the multiplicity of Dreggs and foeculential Impurities closely joyned and mixed with it in its Creation and progressive Growth I at last of necessity concluded that the freeing of Medicinal Subjects or those things we would use in a Physical way from some part if not all of those their foeculencies drossy and terrene parts must undoubtedly in reason render the Medicine of much more Efficacy and Power of more power because of more purity and consequently more spiritual and penetrating and because more spiritual therefore more fitting to assist the decayed and fainting Spirits of the infirm and languishing Body and so as being of her own condition or quality re-inforce inable and assist Nature the Body's preserver to expel and drive out her prevalent and health-destroying Opposers And this certainly was the intent and meaning of Hippocrates where he tells us Contraria contrariis curari debent Contraries must be driven away and cured by contraries viz. Corruptibilia per incorruptibilia immunda enim per munda non per immunda mundantur purificantur Pure things only are fit to purifie and not dirty and impure Diseases are the beginnings of the corruption of the Body and to remove corruption by corruption or corrupting and corruptible things the way and means rather to promote and hasten it to me seems in reason impossible as doubtless it is and therefore could no ways be imagined to be the meaning of so Learned a Physitian his meaning therefore must consequently follow that the Cure of Diseases the destruction and corruption of the Body must needs be performed by something of a contrary nature viz. Incorruptible and pure If therefore we would either preserve from or drive out Diseases and Corruption it must surely be by something that is of a pure and incorruptible Balsamick nature and property which the generality of Medicines as prepared are so far from that few or none of them except some few Chymical or having some of their Ingredients in some measure purified are able to preserve themselves from a total Corruption or at most a great diminution of their Virtues the space of one poor Year though with much care and vigilancy secured and fortified by a close stoppage from the ingression of Air the Introducer of Corruption into all Porous and corruptible things The more pure the Medicine the more potent its Virtue and consequently the better able to assist and strengthen our continually exhausted and spent Spirits especially when assaulted by a too powerful distemper the effect of some corruption their professed Enemy And this Galen that pretended Oraculum Medicinae did we as we ought as much mind his Precepts as make use of his Name for a cavilling superficial unprofitable Discourse most plainly tells us Lib. undec de simpl med facult cap. undec His words are these Quae tenuium sunt partium medicamenta iis quae sunt crassarum partium plâ—s habent efficaciae etiamsi parem sortita fuerint facultatem nimirum quia melius penetrant All which in brief tells us thus much That those Medicines which are of thin or subtile parts are of greater Efficacy and Virtue than those which are of a gross quality and the Reason he also gives because by their thinness and subtilty they are the more apt and able to penetrate Thus this once great and experienced Physician he also much desired to have the Aethereal and hot pure Substance or Spirit of Wine and also the Secret of Extracting and Separating it from its more gross earthy and watery parts an Artifice not known unto the Physicians of that Age for considering how excellent
seldom and rarely cured by Physicians and therefore their shame and scandal as well as the Gout Dropsie Leprosie c. Divels or Witches or I know not what of the like Nature nor do they as the Scholes do generally tell us proceed from their four Humours Phlegm Choler Melancholy and putrefaction of Blood as Quotidian from Phlegm Tertian from Choler and Quartane from Melancholy nor as some particular Physicians do affirm ab effervescentiâ Sanguinis viz. from a Boyling of the Blood ab inflammato Sulphure from an Inflammation of the Sulphur in it in which last they as much mistake the effect for the cause as in the first one cause for another true it is the Blood is inflamed and that sometimes even to an extreme heighth by which the Body in which it runs is as it were almost burned up but yet this effervescentia Sanguinis is not the cause effervescentiae Sanguinis but indeed an effect of the true cause viz. an Obstruction of Nature by the Excrements of Digestion left by the debilitated Bowels and other particular Parts in their several Offices of Digestion accelerated perhaps by a stoppage of the Pores by some excessive Cold or other ways from which ariseth Obstruction of Nature and her Archeus in her Prerogative Royal and free passage and progress through the Body for its preservation and conservation in its due equation of Elements which obstructions and excrements Nature to free her self from after a Concentration or Collection of her Forces according to her abilities doth by a suddain Excursion or Sally from her Fortress the most Inward parts voluntarily and with premeditation may I so say cause this violent effervescentia Sanguinis or Passion or produceth it by her powerfully issuing forth with her Recollected forces to free her self from those incroaching Obstructions which began to diminish her Royal course and consequently to corrupt and putrefie her Mansion and the passage of her Progress Wonder not that Nature by Nature I here mean the Life Spirit Spiritus innatus custos corporis oeconomus wonder or marvail not I say that Nature should be of such power to cause so great an inflammation scorching heat or combustion in the Body for consider she is Life and Life is Fire and Fire the most pure powerful and strong of all the Elements consider seriously her Power and how she can otherways also both cure and cause even the greatest of Diseases and this by the sole power and strength of her own fancy without any previous matter in the Body for the cause or production nor doth here end the extent of her Power for it can perform even Miracles If you believe not me believe yet Christ himself who tells us that if we have Faith but as a Grain of Mustard-seed what we may do by it if you will say that this is not meant of the Spirit but of the Soul which medleth not with the curing of Bodily diseases hear yet our Saviour himself Go saith he thy Faith hath healed or made thee whole and again Be it unto thee according to thy Faith You see here that Faith is no other than the strong power of the Soul or Spirit This the most knowing and as Religious as knowing Paracelsus whatever his ignorant Antagonists report of him branding him with the Name of Atheist from which also as their due reward themselves in the general Opinion scape not free doth most plainly tell us De fide Christus haud frustra tanta nobis inculcat viz. adeo efficacem esse ut nos vel sanos vel aegros facere possit imo quod majus est per eam vel salvi vel damnati fieri possumus prout ea utimur legimus ipsum sanatis omnibus dixisse crede sanus eris aut fiat tibi secundùm fidem c. Paracel lib. Principiorum Cap. 10. c. Thus this most Conscientious and Christian Physitian Yet some of his idle Enemies viz. such as from others reports and mouths only hear but falsly what he was have in my hearing affirmed that in his whole works from one end to the other He never so much as mentioned the name of God or Christ which how false a thing it is who ever shall please to peruse his works must of necessity conclude them either very Envious or very Ignorant of him and what he wrote for there is hardly a Page in some part of his Works in which he doth not and that more than once or twice with a true Christian regard and reverence name and mention both the Name of God and also of our Saviour himself But to return to this most excellent Physician 's delivery in the aforesaid words He tells us thus that Faith is most powerful and can both cause and cure Diseases nay more it will both Save and Damn it was not therefore saith he in vain that Christ spake so much of the power of Faith who when ever he cured any of Diseases said Believe and thou shalt be made whole or Be it unto thee according unto thy Faith c. Wonderful certainly is the secret power of the Spirit But of this enough I could even with the greatest of truth be here Voluminous as to the stupendious effects of Faith or strong persuasion and imagination and what power we have by it not only upon our own Bodies but also on the Bodies and not only the Bodies but also the Spirits of others for it is said of Christ himself that he did no great Miracles there because of their Unbelief at Cynthius aurem vellit neque omnia in vulgus ratio suadet And returning to the power of Nature and to confirm it by some familiar example consider as I said before the hot and cold Fit as we call them in Agues c. Nature finding her power begin to decay by some Obstructing matter or other in her passages of Circulation Perambulation or Progress calls in all her Forces to the Centre Her forces the Spirits being called and with-drawn from their several stations or parts of the Body of which they are the Life and only Preservers those Outward parts are oh a suddain over-taken with a Chilness or as we call it a cold Ague fit the true effect of Nature's calling in her Forces there to Concentrate and Muster them up together that by her suddain Sally or Return with those her united Forces and utmost Strength she may expel and drive out either in part or wholly her Incroaching and Death-threatning opposite the Body is now again by this means viz. Nature's Return with her united Strength to expel her Enemy by degrees overspread with a fiery and flushing heat viz. the hot Fit a most certain effect and sign of the Spirits again re-entring and assuming their former Stations and with all the power and force she is possibly able to make against her powerful Adversary This Contest or Duel lasts as long as Nature is able to maintain and bear it out and having
time perfectly Cures and radically takes away the Cause A most noble and effectual Antidote it is in keeping out all ill Airs and that most swift and poysonous Infection the Plague and if taken a most potent Medicine to expel and drive it out again provided it have not wholly seised and over-powred the Vitals To Women a more safe and powerful Medicine cannot be given it being almost an universal Remedy for those many Distempers that usually attend their weak unhealthy cold and moist Bodies all which I out of respect to their modesty do here purposely forbear and omit the reciting A most admirable virtue and faculty hath God given it to render and make fruitful even the most barren of Women provided the cause be in themselves and accidental as in most that is by some remediable indisposition of Body and not natural or by the will of Almighty God and being used after Conception but taken in the small or insensibly Operating proportion it wonderfully availeth in strengthning those that are apt to miscarry and makes them bring a most sound healthful and thriving Child into the World though the Parents be of an infirm and a most sickly constitution and disposition of Body c. And this I have often to my own and others great satisfaction and content Experienced by many of my Friends Acquaintance and Patients to whom I have in this point most successfully administred them In Virgins it speedily eradicates and takes away the cause and fountain of the Green-sickness ill habit and constitution of Body caused by Obstructions of the Bowels and Nature's due and wonted course and causeth in them a lively fresh and chearful countenance with a most sound and healthful condition c. To Children it is a most potent preservative against the Convulsion Falling-sickness Worms Measles Small-pox together with those other too numerous Distempers usually afflicting and snatching them suddenly from their sorrowful Parents This Medicine is so truly safe and excellent that without any the least danger it may be given to the most Aged most Weak and also to Infants though but new Born one half or the fourth part of one of the Pills for Children if weak in a little of the Mother's milk as most fit and proper for it which then taking it shall never after be troubled with Epileptical or Convulsion-fits if they are taken with those Fits it shall being rightly administred to them by degrees gently and safely mitigate and at last quite take them away most excellent things therefore for Women Mothers of Children to have still by them in their Houses And for my own part I seldom either for my Self or any other of my Family or Friends really depending upon my care upon any Distemper which by God's blessing upon a convenient use of this Pill or Medicine doth rarely happen though I have many other excellent ones still in readiness by me do use any other than this one as a true cleanser of the whole Body with two other pleasant refreshing Cordials hereafter mentioned which I once in a quarter of a year with much freedom do give unto the least Child I have and in the highest proportion but suitable to their Strength and Age besides an oftner taking of the Pills in the ordinary insensibly operating Dose and quantity according also to their Age and Disposition and truly I think there is not either in the City or within twenty Miles of it more healthy lusty and thriving Children than they are all which next to God Almighty's providence and blessing I cannot attribute to any thing more than to the Virtues of this Medicine and a due and moderate use of it It exceedingly cleanseth and consequently strengthneth all the principal Bowels and Members and by that means easeth and cureth all afflictions of the Head Stomach Ventricle Liver Spleen c. It extremely promoteth and pleasantly helpeth forward the Cure of all internal and external wounds in short time bringing them to perfect Cure and that by its Balsamic and cleansing Quality and to most outward wounds or hurts with the daily use of these Pills in the insensibly operating Dose you need only defend the hurt or wound from the Air and Dust with a plaister of pure Bees-wax fresh Butter Turpentine and some Mineral or Metallin flowers or calx and so you will see a very quick and sure Cure c. It miraculously accelerateth the Cure of all Ulcers Cancers Fistulaes Noli me tangere Wolf Scrophulous humors or Kings-evil and the like troublesome or filthy Maladies totally consuming and drying up as the Sun doth the Earth's superfluous moisture the very root cause and corrosive fountain from whence they spring In short this most noble Medicine is so potent a purifier of the whole Body of Man and that by its true cleansing and searching Quality that no Distemper God Almighty's determined and appointed time being not yet come is able long to withstand and resist the effect of its power and virtue but time to this as to all others though never so good must be given for the manifestation of its effects and a course and continuance answerable to the Distemper allowed and observed in the taking of it especially in Chronic Diseases or Distempers of deep radication and habit The simple rash and inconsiderate hearing the admirable Virtues of this Medicine will without doubt as much desire it as any but imagine that as soon as they have taken it into their Bodies or at farthest within three or four days that their Infirmity Distemper or Disease of what kind degree and nature soever and of what continuance soever must of necessity presently vanish and be gone without any the least sign symptom or relict of it remaining which no ingenious or discreet person must or will expect but according to the nature radication habit and continuance of the Malady or Distemper Age Strength and Constitution of their Bodies to bear its operation in a greater or smaller Dose expect the desired effects in the restauration of their health which by God's blessing and an orderly use of this Medicine a due time they will most assuredly find I have already exceeded my intentions in this discourse and should be too tedious indeed should I give a relation of the many notable Cures which by my self and others that have had it of me have been performed by it which truly have been such and so great that I though well acquainted with the strangeness of its effects have many times extremely wondred at them that it should in such small Doses as it usually was given in produce so great and extraordinary effects c. If perhaps the Pills do in the time of their Operation or Working cause any small Griping either in the Stomach or other Bowels as possibly in some they may sometimes do let them not therefore presently unadvisedly slight reject and dislike them as supposing them from thence an unsafe dangerous and ill-prepared Medicine and a too harsh
Mankind Therefore before I return the Papers give me leave to kiss some passages of yours as when you profess you have not taken up this way of Physick but after a strict though fruitless search for satisfaction in the other That having found the vulgar Medicines so composed that the nobler part in them being clogg'd with foeculential Impurities is made ineffectual there appears a necessity of freeing Materials Medicinal from them and of exalting those to a more Active and Spirituous nature That after a due consideration of Vegetables and Animals you found greater Virtues are contained in the later yet after these considering the Mineral and Metalline Subjects you found by experience as well as reason that they are indued with far greater Virtues and that if rightly prepared they are of all Medicines the most safe and efficacious And that after long inquiry and diligence into the way or method how to purifie and exalt the restaurative Powers of all the three sorts of Subjects having attained it then at length you fully resolved to leave the old Galenical Road and betake your self for the main in your practice to the use of Chymical Remedies This judicious proceeding of yours is most highly to be commended and he who hath tried or shall try the Excellency of your Medicines shall find you have said the Truth Alas these few that you intend to publish are but a small part of those noble Preparations which I know you to be Master of and of which the World is not worthy and how great a Master of Reason as well as a Work-man you are may be seen by your Philosophising upon the nature of Vomits and the causes of Agues and Fevers as also by your profound Discourse touching the grand Mercurial Liquor or Essence a Menstruum that will dissolve and radically reduce all Metals to their first moist and unctuous form by which wonders may be effected in Physick and otherwise and if ever our Nation come to see those great Things which others but cloudily talk of I that have seen you in your Way and daily Labours have cause to tell Men that I believe you are the Man we must be beholden to for the discovery Thus much to you my dear Friend without Flattery for you know I abhor it and have in my Nature like you too much of a Satyr to be a Flatterer I shall now only add a few words concerning some Intimations that you have given me The first is of a Book in Answer to my Medela Medicinae which the Author very unknown unless it be at some certain Coffee-Houses is pleased to entitle Medela Ignorantiae and in his Title-page he thinks fit to tell the World I am Illiterate but who or what he is scarce any body can tell and so 't is imagined he hath taken this course to provoke me to make him known therefore I suppose the only way to be revenged on him is to spoile his design by not vouchsafing to name him And in Letters at length he stiles himself Doctor of Physick as perhaps he may be for there are too many slight fellows about this Town that bring no credit to Universities yet have the confidence to wear the Title the Generality of the Gang being meer Insects and Imperfect Animals in the Faculty to say nothing of their Idleness I remember in Scaliger's Epistles he having been told that an obscure Fellow had written malepartly against him expresseth himself thus Mihi relatum fuit Scarabeum quendam contra me scribere cui respondere neque dignitatis est nec otii I have been told saith he that a certain Scarabee writes against me to whom I have neither leisure nor doth it become me to give an Answer Indeed the Fellow is as unfortunate in his Attempt as one can be by pretending to answer me yet I perceive he hath not so much as touched any main string of my Book onely he endeavours by railing and with whole Pages of Greek for edification of the English Reader to justifie the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and other things of his and Galen's which I said and still say are grown out of date as most is that they have written which I can and will make good against all the Galenick Societies in Europe and though he hardly allows me more than English yet I can find Greek enough and had at fourteen years of Age to serve him and twenty more of the same Tribe But alas Sir hard words cure no Diseases unless they be Characteristick Charms and without such as these not a man of the old Faction knows how to conjure down a poor Ague whilst the old Women and Mountebanks every where do shame them even quite out of City and Country In the mean time as Illiterate as I am I am content to share in the Imputation with other Brethren of our Society the whole Business of the old Brotherhood is now to brand us with no Letters but they shall find we have and this vir Trium Literarum may in time come to understand it as well as the rest I hear also that there are other small Beagles at the Press ready to open against me but those little Doctoral Fellows are to know neither I nor the Book-buyers shall take notice of them in a Contest which it rather concerns their grave and formal Leaders to clear if they can and the World hath reason to expect it from them But if what I have done will not serve to settle their minds I promise you they shall have enough for as my manifold diversions give leave I am collecting for them As to the Reports sown up and down by some of the Grave Sirs as also by their Pedees of the Faculty as for example That I was chidden rather than countenanced at our Audience at the King's Council-Table you know the contrary and with what Princely Grace an ear was given to every man of us so that things are like to thrive with our Adversaries when their Refuge is in Lies But they go further yet and whisper up and down that I proclaim all people to have the Pox and I know not what whereas 't is plain I maintain in my Book no more than this that since the prevalencie of that disease in the Nations of Europe it hath exceedingly alter'd their Nature and the Nature of all diseases so that the old definitions of the Galenists and their dull Remedies do not reach any considerable Maladies but if you and I and others that I know be Masters of such Specifick Medicines as will do the Work when theirs cannot I suppose 't is easie to conclude from the Nature of our Medicines the Truth of my Position That even those who never were formally infected may yet by Contagion at a distance Inheritance and divers other ways come under a Fermental Change in the Frame and Constitution of their Bodies Others there are of the Faculty that would fain seem to be more wise than their Brethren and
they forsooth do acknowledg There is such an alteration in the State of Diseases as I contend for but they withall tell men that they knew so before and that I needed not have taken so much pains to convince them of it But if they did know so the more They for concealing it and why then do they not alter the State of Medicine exclude the Old unprofitable Remedies and introduce new ones more effectual Agreeable to such Alteration of Maladies Why is it that the Bead-row of Antiquated Remedies invented by Forein Authors and Calculated for other kind of Climates is still held forth as sufficient under the name of Pharmacopeia seeing as I hope shortly to make appear there is not one Medicine in the whole Book that will reach any one radicated or deplorable Distemper But they say That what ever is wanting there in Vertue of Medicine they can supplie in the use of them by strength of Wit which is that they call Method Oh here is the Diana the great Goddess Method or the Round of the Mill-horse which every one can run that hath bought Sennertus or Riverius in English and that is the Reason why other Folk spoil their Trade much more than the Chymists do and for thirty or forty shillings worth of Books soon learn to become as compleat Methodists as themselves Whereas you know Sir that Medicines should alter as Disease alter and should be so made as to command Method and when a Noble Medicine is once found it admits in the usage no Method but what is peculiar to it self and results out of its own Natural power and propriety and thereby inables him that is acquainted with its energie to puzzle and fool him that sails only by the Card and Compass of Books And if Men will not believe words those few Medicines which you mean to publish and more which you and I know of and others of our laborious Associates will abundantly convince them if they please to observe the admirable Operations and effects in little time and small Quantities They say also after they have abused the Apothecaries in publick when they lately endeavored to get a power to inslave them that I chalk out the way to the undoing of their Trade whereas the Truth is I only point out the way they must go to preserve their Trade for I know none of our Society that ever thought of disobliging them but when we have settled our publick place or College with a grand Laboratory suitable to so worthy an Undertaking we purpose God willing to turn the stream of Practice out of the Galenick Channel and furnish the Apothecaries with such Preparations at reasonable rates upon the credit of our Society as may inable us to correspond with that ingenious Company by sending our Bills to them and employing them with a fuller Trade more for the Reputation of the Profession of Physick and of themselves as such of them who will loosen their dependence upon Formalists and come over to us in compliance shall quickly find in the mean while 't is but reason they should practise with their own Medicines seeing the Road and Method of using them is open and plain to every one that can read and more Trust is to be given to the Skill that comes by observation in the present time than by following the Authors of other times and Countries who could not possibly leave directions in Books to fit the present State of Men and Diseases Consider that deplorable disease the Lues Venerea of what Value are all the Rules and Remedies of writers He that in this Age when the Disease is quite another thing than it was twenty or thirty years ago shall attempt the Cure of it with the old Messes or the common Mineral Preparations will be extreamly mistaken and that is the reason of so many Semi-Cures and Relapses What signifie all the tedious Decoctions of Guajac Sarsa c. which you never used and I have long since given over A few of your Solar Pills no bigger than Pepper-corns shall effect far more than Firkins of Diet-Drink to say nothing of other high Arcanaes which no wit can reach that hath not your Skil and Industry in Operation with which I have seen dreadful Diseases Removed as it were by Inchantment The World hath no cause to suspect You or Me to be out of love with Learning and yet I say the common Learning that is in use for gaining Knowledge in Physick serves rather to puzzle and confound than inform a Student especially the single fangle Notions about Anatomy forasmuch as the Investigation of Causes and the Accommodating of Curations Secundùm Ductus Anatomicos and Secundùm Artem have Slain their ten Thousands and will do more if Matters be not amended by Men of other Principles and who labour night and day another way to apprehend the manner of Nature's Operations with the various Phaenomena of Diseases in Man's Body and how Medicines may be made of so comprehensive a Power as to answer all particulars and supply all the defects of Ratiocination or Opinion which is generally the meer product of Phant'sie 'T is not fit my Friend I should quite tire you I shall only add that what I have Written in my Medela I have no Cause to repent of Habent sua fata Libelli Books have their Fates and mine hath had the Luck so great is the force of Truth to find a general acceptation in the Land especially among the Nobler and the Learneder part from many of which I have received Thanks yea and among all Physicians that are not of the Interessed Faction and yet even some of them have been so Ingenious as to confess I have in many things done well only they say I should not have published so much in English But I would ask them Why am I faulted for this Did not the Old reputed Princes of the Profession write all they wrote in their own Country-Languages as Hippocrates and Galen in Greek the Arabian Avicen and his Fellows in Arabick therefore if I have espied faults in the common Doctrines and Practice why should not our Country-men be made acquainted with them seeing they are the Persons that are concerned and most likely to promote that which the splendid Faction oppose Who would fain hold up the old Mystery not the Art but the Craft of Physick One would wonder after all the reason that hath been given against the frequent spilling of precious Blood by Phlebotomie in our Climate some Men should still have the madness to deal with us as if we were in France Italy or Spain For God's sake Sir do you take them a little to task for I am weary and sick of them and I every day see the people begin to be so too Their main shelter now is in some few noble Houses for the generality decline them If you would once more take Pen in hand I dare say you would be able to give them a final
Enemy Some may possibly here object and say that Vomits are too violent a course and that this is the way utterly to destroy and overthrow Nature and her remaining forces For Omne violentum naturae inimicum contrarium est Motus violentos naturam non pati absque laesione manifesta That is What ever is violent is inimical and destructive to Nature and Nature is not able to endure violent motions To which I shall first answer from a consideration of Nature's own course the best of Reasons in a case of this nature seconded and back'd by Experience and next give you for brevity sake the Opinion of one most eminent and experienced Physician only c. Nature we may observe if any way disturbed clogged and annoyed in her fortress the Stomach and her adjacent conveniencies begins though insensibly almost at first to dislike and in some measure reject what is there received or more properly from her impotency and disability to dispose of and as she should and would digest it for the Body's nourishment suffers or rather causeth by her begun dislike desire and resolution to eject and throw out what she perceives she cannot well master by her Digestive heat a kind of small sickness or indisposition in the Stomach and this it may be for an hour or two or thereabouts Time and her not opportune succour and aid to free her from those beginning Obstructions that diminish her Digestive heat and faculty gives gradually an encrease to this first small Indisposition or weak Digestion and by a continued contraction and increase of those Excrements of Digestion falls to a higher and higher dislike disgust and lothing of her usual food or at least the usual proportion of it And from this at length after a receipt of any small quantity of it proceeds not only to the now usual indisposition of Stomach but to a kind of motion to Vomit which now encreaseth daily more and more and from a motion arives to a flat desire and from this desire yet further to the act it self an evacuation by Vomit by which means Nature would unload and disburthen her self of Obstructions in the Stomach and chief Bowels the cause of this indisposition and over-powering of both the retentive and digestive faculty yet cannot well without the assistance of some friendly Medicine or Remedy fully clear her self and attain her desire or return to her wonted indisturbed condition Nature hath here by this Essay and endeavour of her own to free her self by Vomit sufficiently demonstrated and plainly pointed out unto us the means that she her self as being her own both best Judge and Physician in her own case would thus make use of and is consequently most proper for us to follow for her aid and assistance and recovery from this impotency and indisposition she now suffers under Vomits then being her own voluntary and elected way cannot in reason be thought whatever some inconsiderate and self-conceited may affirm to be so destructive and altogether inimical to Nature and her prosperity But indeed especially when directed by her own motion the only agreeable and direct course to succour and relieve her in this her distress and impaired condition and this my Experience hath often confirmed unto me by its happy success to be no way destructive but a truly friendly way of assisting Nature to expel and overcome her Opposites approaching Diseases Vomits then though esteemed and accordingly by many unadvisedly shunned and altogether avoided as Operations too violent and repugnant to Nature's safety and relief being the course and method hinted and shewed unto us by Nature her self and her Archeus for the cure of many Diseases cannot certainly be so offensive or disturbing to her as that we should so contumaciously reject and condemn the use and prescription of them For Nature doubtless would not put her self upon any motion to injure and impair her self and what she by her own attempts endeavoureth to perform by a Vomitive course is certainly the best tract for us to follow to give assistance and relief unto her decayed forces and consequently to restore her to her just and full power and prerogative the effect of which is a sound strong and healthful condition and constitution I argue not nor contend thus strongly for Vomiting Potions as being absolutely needful in all trivial Distempers but as being very much yea absolutely necessary for the full and perfect cure of some Diseases and no way so destructive or weakning to Nature though in strength of Operation somewhat exceeding the more mild and ordinary motion of only downward purging Potions Boles Electuaries or the like good also in their kind as that they being a way we only follow the tacite prescriptions and directions of Nature her self in should to the utter loss of many sick people by this way only recoverable be wholly exploded and altogether excluded out of a Physical course and prescription as too many yet think and practise c. Take also to second these operations of Nature and Experience the Authority of the truly learned and judicious Faber answering the same Objections in his own words Hoc philosopho ridiculum videtur nam natura facili negotio via violentos patitur motus ut mortem ipsam evitet se ab ipsa tueatur mors enim omnium motuum violentissima est natura ut hanc effugiat caeteros quoscunque mavult sequi pati motus si laedatur aliqua ratione facili via à laesione illa sublevatur quocirca non timenda est illa laesio cum plus utilitatis hinc exsurgat quam nocumenti Pet. Johan Fab. Sap. univers lib. 3. p. 300. in Cap. primo de obst Intestinorum c. This saith he meaning the former Objection will to one seriously and truly considering the course of Nature seem most ridiculous for Nature doth very willingly and voluntarily suffer and thrust her self into many violent and passive Motions that she may escape keep off and defend her self from Death Death is the most violent of motions and rather than she will endure that she will suffer any the most violent of disturbances and preternatural motions whatever And if she be by these unnatural irritations somewhat for the present put out of frame debilitated and weakned she will again recover her self and those small disturbances so that she may acquit and discharge her self of Death her grand Antagonist are rather profitable than any way disadvantageous or hurtful unto her c. Post nubila Phoebus And this also the wonted and continued course which we daily may see Nature of her own accord make use of to free her self from her encroaching Enemies Distempers and Diseases the effect of Corruption may strongly and sufficiently demonstrate unto us For example consider those two preternatural motions in a Tertian and Quartane Fever viz. the cold and hot Fit as we call them Which are not as the Vulgar will tell you because they are so
strong and violent sort of Physick for them or their Constitutions but rather let them conclude it as justly and truly they may to proceed from some error or other of their own either in the taking or disordering themselves in the time of their Operation or else that their Stomach or other Bowels began to be obstructed or filled with a Slimy Clammy or Viscuous matter or substance which would not easily be Evacuated by the Medicine without that small trouble and inconveniency well to be tolerated or born with in respect of the great benefit they will reap by it viz. the prevention of some greater Mischief or Distemper which might suddenly have assaulted and invaded even Life it self if not by this means dispersed and so prevented of so bad a Consequence and that this is true I have sufficient and large Experience knowing many who have suffered some such small trouble in the first taking of them but their Bodies by a continued and moderately repered taking for some time being fully emptied and free of those Stubborn Gross and Viscuous humors Matter or Obstruction they afterwards felt not any the least trouble disturbance or Griping by them for the more obstructed clogged and foul the Bowels are the more will they Operate and possibly cause in some such small Gripings a profitable inconveniency the more free and clear the Body is the more mildly gently and with less trouble do they perform their Office in Operation Though I well know that no Disease or Distemper whatever is indeed naturally Incurable unless the immediate hand of God for some cause or other do hinder and oppose the Cure and also by Experience have often found that these Medicines come not at all short but far exceed what I have here said of them I yet also as well know that the most pretious of all Medicines are of no force power and validity against the decrees will and pleasure of Almighty God all things both in Heaven and Earth must submit to his call and appointment the most powerful of Medicines when He will call for our Souls out of this Vale of misery and corruption is then no longer able to do us any good or prolong our Life one minute beyond the time and period appointed by himself It being appointed for all Men once to Dye to Live again according to his good will and pleasure to another Life Medicine is indeed a great blessing created and plentifully bestowed upon us by Almighty God but can serve us no further than to preserve and restore Health so long as he in his Goodness shall afford us Life for though without the knowledge and help of good Medicines we may long linger and lie under Diseases and by the help of them being well known and as well prepared quickly expel and quit our selves of them yet ought we not to dote upon or put greater confidence in their Virtue though of greatest excellency and perfection than with and in the use of them to crave his blessing and for the effects wholly to rely and cast our selves into the Arms of his Mercy who if he calls we should as willingly resolve to be dissolved and return unto him if not we cannot but in reason and with his blessing expect and assuredly in time find the desired effect viz. the return and restauration of our Health from the due use of pure powerful and safely efficacious Medicines of which number these are none of the meanest but truly noble Remedies and most safe pleasant and friendly assistants unto human Nature and therefore I shall give a brief Account of the Virtues of the other five in order II. Quintessentia Sali Balsamica c. OR A Most excellent Balsamic Oyl or Quintessence of Salt highly impregnated tinged and Philosophically united with the true and pure Essences of the most Aromatick and Cordial of Vegetables So that the essences of the Vegetables are by the Spirit of Salt improved heightned and exalted to a more than ordinary degree of efficacy and perfection and the Spirit of Salt made Cordial by the essences and power of the Vegetables by which means it as well refresheth the Spirits as opens them a passage through the whole Body c. The Virtue of this Aromatised precious Liquor or essence of Salt are such and so many as no one is able fully to render an account of them I shall therefore give you only some few heads of them according to my own knowledge and experience of it which may lead the Ingenious to a farther consideration of the infinite excellency of it 1. It renews the whole Mass of Blood and so purifieth it that with a continued prescribed moderate use of it for some time it doth in a wonderful manner revive and strengthen the whole Body rendring it vigorous lusty and of a florid and strong Constitution it extremely quickneth the Senses helps the Memory and maketh lightsome the whole Body and this by its cleansing the Stomach and strengthning both the retentive and digestive faculty c. 2. A most excellent and certain Arcanum or secret it is in Curing the Stone either in the Reins Kidney or Bladder or any Tartarous obstruction or degenerate Salt humor in the whole Body it retardeth Old-age keepeth back Grey-hairs and preserves the Body in a healthful and flourishing condition It is a most pleasant and safe extinguisher of all preternatural heats as in Fevers and the like none almost comparable unto it either in preservation or restauration 3. It openeth all Obstructions of the Body killeth all manner of Worms Stomach-worms Maw-worms c. It prevalently advanceth and promoteth fertility or fruitfulness in Women and is exceeding good and profitable for those already with Child with much safety preserving them from many troublesome and dangerous Distempers and Symptoms incident unto them highly restaurative and strengthning to the Consumptive Ptisical Hectical and all this because it preserves nourisheth and increaseth the humidum radicale of the Body It is so excellent a Medicine that it cannot almost in any kind of Malady Distemper or Disease whatever either Inward or Outward without some eminently profitable success and advantage be made use of I shall therefore say no more of it but recommend it to the Ingenious and Discreet as a most high gift of Almighty God freely and in great Plenty bestowed upon us for should we be diligent searchers into Nature and her Treasury the great blessings of a greater and most omnipotent Creator we should clearly see that those things we have most need of and which would do us most good are every where by God in greatest plenty spread before us but we are blind and also hate knowledge and to have our way directed unto us by those whom God hath been pleased out of his Goodness to inable to be a light and guidance unto us c. Salt in its gross Quality and involved or mixed with those Impurities which Nature presents it to us accompanied with is
firm and solid body as the Galenists tell us only boiled in broth be so restaurative and comfortable what may not these and the like Metalline and Mineral subjects be exalted raised and advanced to for Physick by a true Philosophick knowing Artist Certainly they must needs be and I think I may with confidence affirm that they will then be the true Aurum Argentum Medicum of Philosophers and Physicians or the true Potabile or universal Medicine sought by many but found by few I have now said all I yet will and as I said before much more than I at first intended It is very plain and indeed too plain if I did not know that a Providence attends the Actions of all and that it shall be for their good and light only that are Astrales discipuli and whome God intends and hath fitted for it to whose alseeing Providence guidance and tuition I commend it and under that seal do leave and bequeath it to those prepared for it and a fundamental inspection into the secrets of Nature Let none imagine I know more than I have here delivered and so attempt in vain by subtility of discourse a farther discovery from me I aim not at great matters to know God and the Natures of the Creatures is all I seek and all I desire in this World My intention and highest ambition in the prosecution of a discovery of Natures secrets by Chymical Operations is only Physical and more I will never pretend to nor acknowledge what ever I may be blessed with Let none therefore expect that from me that I own not my self Master of he that doth and fails of his expectations let him not hereafter blame me but himself I wish happiness unto all but more particular unto the industrious and ingenious and while I live will not be wanting in some measure by my mean abilities advice and acquired experience faithfully to admonish and further them in their laborious search and inquiry into Nature's Medicamental and Magical secrets and her ample and indeed infinite treasures and this to render our lives both happy and healthful till God call for our Souls I court not any for their good Opinion of me or what I have done If any traduce me as immethodical I am not displeased with his Censure Such a one throughly knows not either me or my intent by this discourse I shall please those I intend it for for others as I leave to their humour so I desire them freely to allow me my Liberty Velle Suum cuique est nec voto Scribitur uno An Expostulatory Conclusion to my Ingenious Countrymen in behalf of Chymistry and Chymical Medicines WHen I consider how great an opposition truth and knowledge do yet find and that even from those that pretend themselves the only and greatest advancers of her Ends and Interest I am no less amazed at their unworthiness than at the dullness stupidity and folly of others that suffer themselves like Children to be cheated with Pebbles instead of Pearls I freely and from my heart protest I have not any thing of prejudice or envy towards the Persons of any what I now do or hereafter possibly may do is only out of an innate Zeal I have to truth and real knowlege That which we Cordially fancy we are all of us apt to defend and speak well of for my own part I do above all things under the Sun highly and truely esteem and value knowledge nor have I spared either time pains or means according to my ability to improve those small Talents bestowed upon me by Almighty God Nor shall I as long as God shall please to continue me amongst the living think any thing in this world comparable unto it it hath been is and I hope always shall be with King Solomon the summ of my petition unto my Creator that he would vouchafe me Wisdom and a knowing Heart and with the wise Trismegistus in his Pimander Deum cognoscere rerumque causas To know God and the causes of things To know God except by immediate inspiration of his holy spirit I know not nor have the wise hitherto found any better way or Medium than by a diligent search into Nature that so per visibilia invisibilia by the work the workman might in some measure be known unto us Or the great Creator by the many small Creations set before us If this be true and Knowledg the only desirable Jewel for us to seek and search after I hope none can blame me for my good intents nor think other ways of my opposits than Scientiae inimicos Scientia non habet inimicos nisi ignorantes c. Simile simili facile jungitur Natura Natura laetatur gaudet contrarium suum contrarium non minus facile oppugnat As for Chymistry in whose defence without envy unto any I purposely intend these few lines it hath been and still is most deservedly esteemed by the Wise the most excellent of Arts and Queen of Sciences and hath therefore been still kept secret amongst them and such Papers or Manuscripts as treated of it or the excellency of it still delivered from one to another as their chiefest Testimonies of favour and friendship and accordingly with greatest care preserved amongst their choicest Jewels and this because it was the only Gate that led us into the greatest of Natures most admirable secrets and unvaluable Treasures and that not only in relation to external accommodations and the large benefits which might many ways be attained unto as daily experience doth now testifie unto us but also for that it gave us the means to prepare us such most wholsome safe and efficacious Medicines as by their quick safe and pleasant curing both external and internal maladies and distempers might render our lives much more happy than otherwise they could possibly be without them Innumerable certainly are the benefits we receive and still shall receive by Chymistry and Chymical preparations for taken in its true genuine definition and intention it is no other than an Art that doth both teach and inable us for our exceeding good and benefit to separate Purity from Impurity exalt and advance what God and Nature hath given us to a farther and higher perfection than we receive it indowed with in which sence if we shall well and truly consider it what have we in this curious and nice Age either for Back or Belly Pleasure or Necessity that hath not in some measure been obliged to Chymistry and its beneficial Operations for that perfection we receive it in What calling may be said to have attained to the perfection and height it now glories in without her help in some one or other of her more sublime or trivial Operations Consider our daily Viands Consider our Bread our Beer our Wine our sweet Confections consider even what you will that can any way render our lives happy or satisfactory consider it seriously and you will find it in one degree or