the same time to contradict himself for if the Cause differs it cannot be the same and that the Cause is not the same is plain because the same Cause would have the same Effects I mean the same formal Cause Page 38. He says in most continued Fevers I have found Alkalies equally as pernicious as in the Small-Pox and Acids equally as Beneficial That Acids are useful in most continued Fevers is not of his finding it being the common Practice of most Physicians And it is as generally known that strong Alkalies except in Malignant Fevers are very hurtful and not at all used except by absurd Practisers but that Alkalies are highly to be preferred before Acids in the Cure of the Small-Pox I think I have given Reason enough to prove except People value Beauty before their Lives and had rather hazard their Children in the Hands of a Fool than commit them to the Care of sober and wise Men. CHAP. III. Of the Scurvey HAving therefore run over what he hath said of the Small-Pox and shewed that it is neither consonant to Reason nor Experience I shall in the next place make it plain that he hath also mistaken in the Scurvey which will yet be a furthor Demonistration that he is not qualified for an Apothecary Page 42. But here I expect the Cry of all Mankind against me What Say there is no Acidity in the Blood in the Scurvey What Is it but an Acidity in the Blood that is the occasion of Breaking out of Scabs c. upon the Skin What! But a Sharpness and Acidity in the Blood occasions those wandring Pains c. And Page 43. Says he My Friends have a little Patience and I will presently make it appear to you that those Symptoms are not occasioned by Acids but from Acrid Lixivious and Alkalious Particles Behold How sharp Witted he is grown of a sudden And it lasteth for a whole Page together what a true Picture of a short Head And what an excessive Rapture of Zeal my Friend Mr. John Colbatch is falen into Truly if I could believe he were of any Religion I should perswade my self he were inclining to Quakerism as well as Quackerism for here he seems to have a mighty glimps of the Spirit and speaks in a very agreeable Form But I wonder why he should expect all Mankind to cry against him he must either have a very ill Opinion of all Mankind or himself if he thought he had Reason for what he did then he spoke very harshly of all Mankind for to say they would cry against was in effect to say they either did not understand Reason or that they were such Enemies to Learning that they could receive nothing but what was suited to their own Heads A very heavy Charge and much becoming such an Ignorant Man to lay upon all the World But I rather think he had a Self-consciousness of his own Falsness and like guilty Persons did not know how to conceal it But the Scurvey he says proceeds from Alkalious Particles and not from Acids to which I answer that it being the Nature of Alkalies to thin and attenuate those Humors that cause Coagulations in the Skin it is unreasonable to say that Alkalies cause those Things which their own Nature inclines them to cure But those Bloches which appear in the Scurvy rather proceed from Acids joyned with Acrimony the Acids cause the Humors to stagnate in the Skin and the Acrimony by causing a Ferment there makes that Matter corrupt and corrode Page 43. He says The Blood of Scorbutick People abounds more with Alkalious Parts than Healthful Peoples when Analized But as I said before what is drawn from Blood Analized proves nothing what was the Temper of that Blood before it was Analized Of which if he would but take Pains to look into the famous Mr. Boyl's Sceptical Chymist he may be fully satisfied For those Acrid Acid Parts of the Blood being Spiritualized by the Fire loose their Pristine State and are carryed along and embody'd with other Alkalious Particles Page 45 and 46. He tells a Story of a parcel of Seamen that landing at Cadiz were cured of the Scurvey by the Use of Lemmons and Oranges The less Reason then hath he to be fond of or value himself where he owns his Knowledge to Seamen but it is no news in Physick that Acids joyn'd with Alkalies cure the Scurvey it being common Practice to mix Acids and Volatile Salts in Scorbutick diet Drinks and a Method long used by the famous Dr. Willis and others so that there was no need for him to have said any thing here of the Scurvey since it is only what others have done before to more advantage and incomparably better Page 47. He says As for Alkalies I don't believe that any was ever cured by them of this Distemper But I am sure that a great many are and though a great many are cured by a Mixture of Alkalies and Acids yet as many are cured by Alkalies alone Page 48 49 and 50. He mentions a Preparation of Antimony and Spirits of Tartar and would have these which Page 51 and 52 he says are Panaceas to be Acids but as they have been generally termed Alkalies and are known to be so by their Effects he must not think to change their Names since he cannot change their Natures For by their Effects we know that they correct Acids because they take away Obstructions and dissolve coagulated Humors which are thickned by Acids But as I took Notice in his Preface we see he will use all the means imaginable to make his Design good and having said enough on this purpose there I shall not need to repeat it again Page 53. He thinks he answers an Objection against him which is That there is a manifest Saltness in the Blood of Scorbutick People But he like a Man as dull as ignorant cunningly would turn it off and says if they will strictly enquire into it they will find it not an Acid but an Alkalious Taste But does he think no Body can taste besides himself People are sensible that for the sake of his own Cause his Reason if he may be said to have any will byass his Taste whereas other People in such Cases have their Reason steady and their Taste too But to conclude this second Specimen of his Ingenuity He must be informed that the Blood of Scorbutick People does not only taste Salt but those that spit much and who know what a Salt Taste is find a manifest Salt Taste in that Saliva CHAP. IV. Of the Gout THe next Thing that this eminent Man undertakes to give an Account of is the Gout And truly this I must needs say in his Praise That though his Merit be extraordinary and cannot place him amongst those Men who are eminent for good Works yet he hath this mighty Chance that it will undoubtedly eternalize him for an eminent vain pretending Impostor and an Emperick extraordinary For Page 54.
with most noble Acids lie silent in the Grave Page the 19th He says The Gout may in general be defined to be a Pain of the Joints and Parts adjacent occasioned from an extravasated Alkaline Humour which irritates the Membranes of the Joints and Parts adjacent A very Learned Definition of the Gout How can it properly be called a Pain of the Joints when it is an Irritation only of the Membranes of the Joints except a Membrane were a Joint but he might as well call an Acron an Axle Tree But the Gout he says is nothing but a Pain he forgets how the Parts adjacent are swelled and that an Obstruction accompanyes it But no wonder when such a short sighted Man turns Definition maker that his Definitions are so defective But further He says The Pain is occasioned from an extravasated Alkaline Humour which irritates the Membranes of the Joints But truly he is to be excused he only contradicts himself either he knows not how or he forgets himself for the Page before he said He laid it down as a positive Assertion that all Pain is caused by a Stagnation of the Juices which causeth a Compression of the Membranes But supposing it were as he here says an Irritation of the Membranes and the first Account he gave were false yet an Alkalizated Humor such as the Serum of the Blood would be incapable of causing Pain if it were not Healthful People would never be without Pain but here I will appeal to those Ingenious Gentlemen that he hath so often made his Appeal to and shall instance another easie Observation whereby they may be satisfied that an Acid Juice is capable of causing very violent Pains whereas Alkalizated Humours are not at all subject to irritate the Membranes and to this end let them take a little Vinegar and wash but a cut Finger with it so that the sensible Membranes may be irritated by it and it will cause a most violent Heat and Pain yet it tastes cool on the Tongue from whence we may gather that an Acid sharp Humour when extravased so as to fall upon the sensible Membranes will cause a violent Heat and Pain in the Gout this is a very plain and obvious Experiment and any Body may be assured of the Truth of it very easily Now as this proves that Acids will cause Pain and Heat and consequently inflame so if those ingenious Gentlemen will but take a little Vinegar and put an Alkaly into it as Chalk or Crabs-Eyes and put that Alkalizated Vinegar upon a cut Finger they will find that it will not cause much Pain but they must be sure to put none of the Powder upon the Wound along with it and this shews not only that an Alkalizated Humour will cause less Pain than an Acid but also that Alkalies will abate the pain of the Gout for if Alkalies take ocff the sharpness of Vinegar why will they not from those Humours that corrode the Membrances in the Gout And here I would desire ingenious Gentlemen to taste Vinegar and then that into which they put Chalk and they will plainly perceive the good Effects of Alkalies in correcting sharp and irritating Humours Page the 20th He says Now Acids being the only things that hinder Fermentations and prevent Fevers it is impossible they should be in the Fault but Alkalies exciting Fermentations and by consequence causing Fevers they are necessarily here to be blamed and were timely Care taken to correct the Luxuriant Alkalious Particles I am sure it would be no difficult Matter to prevent a Fit But what is curing these Luxuriant Particles in Fevers to the Gout he might as well say if Dogs were kept from pulling the Hedges in Pieces on the High-Way there would not be such Wars in the World nor Countries spoiled and plundered for Fevers and Gout ingenious Gentlemen know are two different things and he might as rationally conclude that Killing a Mouse would Kill a Man as that curing a Fever would prevent the Gout The remaining Part of the 20 Page the 21 22 and Part of the 23 are taken up with a Description of the Manner of this Distemper's Invasion transcribed from Dr. Sydenham amongst which some simple Sentences of his own are interspersed which already have been sufficiently answered In the latter Part of that Page He says There are several Things occur in order to this Distemper But what he calls Things he should have called accessory Causes in the delivering of which I shall proceed to observe his Dexterity and then make Remarks upon the whole collectively Page the 24. the first of the Things as he calls them is Too moist a State of Air which hinders free Transpiration by which Means the Excrementitious Alkaline Particles which should be thrown out by the Cutaneous Pores are retained and the Quantity of Excrementitious Alkaly which is thrown out that way those Passages being free is not inconsiderable which Particles being retained in the Blood do greatly contribute towards the Raising of this Unruly Devil which the wisest of Physicians hitherto have not been able to lay which hath been the occasion of that Saying Solvere Nodosam nescit Medicina Podagram But here I must tell him that if the Moistness of the Air only produced such ill Consequences by preventing Transpiration all People would be equally prejudiced by it and we should as soon see poor People troubled with it who labour continually in moist fenny Countries and how dangerous would it be for poor Country Men to encompass their Ground with Ditches if the Dampness and Moisture that affects their Bodies there should throw them into the Gout by stopping Transpiration and hindring Nature from throwing off Excrementitious Alkaline Particles but were stopping Transpiration all the Prejudice moist Air could do that would be easily helped another way for as it is observed by the Famous Dr. Lower that which supplies Transpiration in Bed runs off by Urin when we are out of Bed so although in moist Weather Transpiration should be stopped more then in dry Weather it would do them no harm because the less runs off by Transpiration the more does by Urine and à converso But the Reason why moist Air is so prejudicial is because the Circumference of our Body is so Relaxed by that Moisture as to leave the Pores open which by admitting too much Niter into the Mass of Blood the Natural Heat of our Bodies being depressed Crudities are bred in the second Concoction as the Antients called it which External Accessary Cause concurring with a Natural Predisposition and the Acid Particles of the Air joyned with those Predisposed Humours cause such Coagulations as the Obstructions in the Parts affected in this Distemper are accompanied with so that besides the Moisture of the Air there is a Natural inclination and predisposition in our Bodies which makes that Moister Air prejudicial to Gouty People the Acid Coagulating their Blood and disposing them to Crudities and not because insensible
Transpiration is stop'd But the wonderful Discoveries of this Mr. Colbatch are not a little to be Admired For he is the first Man that ever perceived the Devil to appear in the shape of the Gout I heard indeed when I was a Boy that the Devil was to be distinguished from a Man by a great Cloven Foot but I could never have thought that Mr. Colbatch would have compared his Gouty Patients to so many Devils except he had Dream't he was a Physician to such before he wrote this Page in his Book He says The Wisest Magicians being not able to cure the Gout was the occasion of that Saying Solvere Nodosam nescit Medicina Podagram But why they should say Physicians cannot Cure the Gout because Magicians cannot I see not any Reason except a Physician and a Magician are equally the same Page 23. But this is one of those Devils which are not to be cast out but by Prayer and Fasting that is Nature her self without help is not able to get the Mastery of it to rid her self from it It seems it is a Devil in earnest and truly I believe they are worse than Possest that make Use of such a Physician but he hath too soon concluded that this kind is to be cured by Prayer and Fasting I scarce think he ever cured any by such Prescriptions And I cannot but admire what a pretty sort of a Divine he would have made who hath such an excellent knack at interpreting Scripture who calls Prayer and Fasting Nature Page 24. Nature hath hitherto been rather Oppressed than Assisted this Hydra being not to be overcome but by pouring in of fresh Battallions armed with pointed Spears and Launces upon him viz by giving large Quantities of Medicines whose Particles are pointed O what a strange Metamorphosis The Devil is turned Hydra And what 's more ingenious Gentlemen must swallow whole Battallions of Armed Men with pointed Spears and Launces Truly a hard Task and a very strong Prescription this sure was a Dream in Flanders where he had reason to think of such terrible Medicines but he unriddles this and calls Acids Armed Men and Spears and really not without reason but Gentlemen have reason to fear that such pointed Medicines would rather increase than ease their Pains since I have shewed them what ill effects Vinegar hath when applied to any Sensible part Page 24. Secondly The use of many sorts of Meat and the too great Ingurgitation of them and then he says The Stomach being put out of order a foundation is laid for Distempers and for that reason Page 25. he says As his Predecessors have explained Distempers by Acids so he will by Alkalies A very noble design and upon very good Grounds but it were unreasonable for either him or his Predecessors to ascribe Acids or Alkalies for the Cause of Distempers merely because the Stomach was foul but he ought first to consider whether of these two were predominant in the Stomach when the foundation of such Distempers was laid which is the way to make it appear whether Alkaly or Acid be the cause of that Distemper So that in order to a right knowledge whether of these two are predominant we are to consider how Digestion is carried on naturally and then it will appear what is the reason that two much Meat hinders it I shall not here go about to explain Digestion any further than is necessary to our present Purpose and shall therefore refer the Reader to his own Observation who cannot but take notice that the better his Meat and Drink is the better he digests it if what Mr. Colbatch says were true in his Novum Lumen Chirurgicum viz. The more generous our Drink is the better so that were he to be judged by his own Words which I have shewed how far they are false Indigestion when we eat too much must proceed from the Fermentation in the Stomach being too low and consequently Crudities or raw undigested Chyle must be carried into the Blood to lay the Grounds of a Distemper now in all Crudities it must needs be acknowledged that Acids abound so that according to Mr. Colbatch his own canting Scraps of Philosophy there wants Alkalies to break the Globules and consequently the Gout must proceed from too much Acids Page 25. he says The same Alkaly which being thrown upon the Joints cause the Gout being thrown upon the Membranes of the Brain may cause a Staggering and may occasion an Apoplexy Really since Mr. Colbatch said it it is very much to be wondered at that Alkalies should be so mischievous as to coagulate the Morbifick Matter of the Gout and cause Apoplexies and yet in the Small Pox break Globules and be guilty of a contrary mischief by thining the Blood and throwing it out through Vessels through which it was before too fine to pass but any thing that 's mischievous hath such a kindness for him that it will be black or white as he wou'd have it otherwise one would think to thin and to thicken are widely different Actions for Alkalies to do but I have before shewn the Absurdities of what he said as to these Distempers and shall not now enlarge upon them The remaining part of Page 25. and Page 26. he fills with a Repetition of an Account he formerly gave of the Reason why drinking Wine does Men that are inclined to the Gout so much harm which I having in his Chapter of the Gout published in his Essay of Acids and Alkalies and also in this shew'd to prove that the Gout proceeds from Acids there is no need to repeat what I there said Again Page 27. He says Fourthly The immoderate use of Venereal Exercises every Body experiences that by a few Venereal Embraces his Spirits become more Languid Poor Man one may see what comfort his poor Wife hath if he hath one if he hath not one may learn how he came to be so compassionate to Angelick Faces in the Small-Pox he speaks so sensible in the case but he says every Body experiences it truly then the World is worse than I thought it had been for one might reasonably expect a Boy at Ten had never experienced such things but one may see he begun to enervate himself betimes But to be serious If Alkalies were the cause of the Gout then Venery would cure the Gout because it draws off the Alkalies of the Blood and Spirits by taking away those parts that invigorate the heat of the Blood but since taking away Alkalies makes Men subject to the Gout by leaving the Blood weak and flaggy it follows that the Gout proceeds from Acids which always most abound in Blood that is least Spiritous as more in Old People than Young Page 27. Few or none are ever troubled with the Gout before Marriage or the use of Venery and yet the Roman Priests who abjure Matrimony are frequently troubled with this Distemper O strange What a mighty stickler for the Church of England That only
off into some Part or the Habit of the Body but the coagulated distempered Matter is not only thrown off by this preternatural Ferment seperating it from the purer Mass and leaving it in these Parts but the Serum of the Blood is also by that means more plentifully impregnated with those Spirituous Particles which turn Syrop of Violets green From whence it appears that tho the Viscidity which causes the coagulated Serum to obstruct proceeds from Acids yet the volatile parts of the Blood being thus accidentally exalted by fermenting with more Spirituous Acids accidentally cause the Serum of the Blood of such Persons to turn Syrop of Violets greener than that of healthful People does But perhaps Mr. Colbatch may have it put into his Head That if the Cause of the Distemper should proceed from Acids the Alkalies thus exalted would correct those Acids and cure the Distemper without Medicines To this I should answer that it would and does so which is the reason so many of those Distempers go off without the Assistance of Physick that acid coagulated Humour being at the last digested and by destroying the Acids reduced to a State of Tenuity and as in a Pleurisie c. the Mass of Blood is apparently more clammy than healthful Blood so it is observed that when that acid that causes it thus to coagulate is conquered it again becomes thin and tho alkalious yet healthful that Viscidity being taken off which caused the Distemper as in the Gout Rheumatism c. But if the quantity of acid be so much that the volatile Parts of the Blood thus exalted cannot over-power it then that is never conquered without the assistance of Medicines which correct and carry off the Acidities of the Blood But to proceed Page 36. He says If there were not a Principle of Death within us how is it possible for a Man one Hour to be in a good State of Health and the very next to be expiring What Mr. Colbatch means by a Principle of Death no Body on this side the Grave can well tell for amongst all the Philosophy I have yet read I never heard of such a Principle but Poor Man he writes like one that groped in the Dark and since all along throughout his Books he hath been in it we must not think strange that he is so now From Page 37 to Page 42 He makes a long Speech in which all that is contained is That all the Alkalies in the Blood are Excrement and are in the way to be carried off but being hindred by Obstructions or by taking cold and so preventing these Excrements from being carried off What Excrements are Alkalies according to his Notions and what are not or whether any are I shall not now determine but granting that they all were Alkalies I shall shew that those Distempers are caused by Acids for we must take notice that as long as this alkalizated Serum is carried off so long our Bodies are healthful and free from Distempers but as soon as this Alkaly is hindred from going off then our Bodies are distempered from whence it appears that whatever hinders that Alkaly from going off is the Cause of those Distempers which he says are either Obstructions or taking Cold. As to the first viz. Obstructions Whatever causes Obstructions must hinder the Excrements from going off that way and that Alkalies cannot cause those Obstructions is plain because all that goes off that way in a Natural State according to him is Alkaly and yet does not obstruct so that all Substances if what he says were true being either Alkalies or Acids from the first to the last it appears that Acids must cause those Obstructions which cause the Distemper and that Acids will thicken and coagulate is plain from his own Words and also because taking Cold occasions such Obstructions as prevent the Alkaly from going off which taking Cold can no otherwise do but by the Acid Nitre of the Air coagulating and obstructing those Humours So that granting the Excrements to be Alkalies all Distempers must proceed from Acids coagulating those Alkalies And Mr. John Colbatch hath Vindicated his Hypothesis prettily here we may see what a penetrating Judgment he has and what vast short Foresight And is not this a fit Man to have Peoples Lives intrusted in his Hands How must he give Medicines with any certainty as to the Event who speaks thus without understanding the Consequence of his Words Page 42. He says All Alkalies that I know off will presently cause Rottenness and Putrefaction in Animal Substances as may be seen in making of Glovers Leather an Instance of which I have given in my Tract of the Gout c. This truly is very ingeniously done who would ever have thought he could have kept any thing in his Head so long who throughout his Book hath been so forgetful but to speak the Truth he hath reason to remember his Philosophical Companion who furnish'd him with such a neat Phrase as through-stitch in the beginning of his Book and communicated to him also that Wonderful Observation of the Skins of Animals but why will all Alkalies presently cause Rottenness and we who are so full of Alkalies live a great many Years and are no more Rotten than himself But in his Preface to the Gout he hath observed that when we Die our Flesh presently rots but what advantage is that to him It only shews that in a Natural State our Bodies ought to have more Alkalies in them than Acids and consequently if Alkalies Naturally abound in our Bodies Acids must be most prejudicial which are quite contrary to the Natural Constitution of our Blood From Page 43 to Page 64 all he says being an Attempt to prove that Life is a Flame and also what supplies it I having already in a late Treatise Of the Heat of the Blood and of the Use of the Lungs made it appear in Answer to Dr. Willis his Opinion of which his seems to be but scraps that there is no such Thing as Flame in the Blood I shall not here repeat that but refer him and the Reader to that Book for an Answer and shall here proceed to consider what he further asserts in favour of Acids all that is contained in those Pages being already answered From Page 64 to Page 89 his Book is filled up with nothing but an Answer to some Objections raised by Mr. Tuthil but as there is nothing Material either in the Objections or the Answers to them they being inconsiderable and simple I shall pass them by and leave them two like Children to squabble it out since in such Nonsense it is no great matter which overcomes Page 90 Mr. Colbatch says But supposing Acids to be the most proper Medicines in the World to ease Pain as I believe they are yet it is not improbable but upon giving a small Quantity of Acids in such Cases where there is a large Quantity of Alkaly lodged up in any Part so as to
subtilized and rarified to a certain Degree from whence it appears that tho Water and Air be in Motion yet the Nitre which swims in them being laid down upon the Sensory disposes those Fluids about it to rest by which means there being a lower degree of Motion than is requisite to preserve a Natural Temper we feell a contrary Sensation to Heat and if so the more these Nitrous Parts are forced upon our Body the greater must be the Cold. And as for what he says of the Progressive Motion of the Blood in the Vessels I never heard that any ever affirmed it to be the Cause of Heat so that there he might have spared what he hath said against no Body but tho' Water in a River moved by some accidental Cause in a whole Stream does not grow hot yet if it be set over a Fire where it hath an Agent subtile enough to work upon it's Minute Parts and to put them in Motion it soon changes it's Temper Page 61 He says I am very glad you own Alkalies to abound in Pleurisies and Rheumatisms and other Inflammatory Distempers But Mr. Colbatch must not think that all the World grants it because Mr. Tuthill cannot defend Truth and therefore I having proved that all those Distempers proceed from Acids I expect he should confute what I have said or he gives up his Cause Page 64 He says Now for want of a due Secretion by the Excretory Vessels the Blood is clogged with too great a Quantity of Serum which Serum being admitted into the Lymphatick Vessels and being impregnated with Alkaline Particles cannot freely pass along these Vessels by Reason of it's gelatinous Quality c. And again Page 65 and 66 He says Such are the Excretory Glands of the Skin the Glandulae Renales the Glands of the Liver c. all which seperate an Alkaly from the Blood to be thrown off by Excrement and if by any Accident these Glands are made uncapable of performing their Office so that the Blood cannot be rid of it's Excrements then a Distemper of some kind or other must necessarily follow and Page 69 This damnable Distemper really a very pretty Epithite which although it be rately cured in a confirmed State yet in the beginning nay after it hath made some progress is frequently to be done and that as effectually by Chalybeats and Bitters as by any sort of Medicines But here for want of making Experiments you say that Steel and the Bitter Herbs are Alkalies And again Page 72. He says As for Bitters I will be bound to lay a good Wager with you that if you put a Pound of Centuary or Wormwood into a Retort and distill it with an easie Fire till all be come off that will and afterwards calcine the Caput Mortuum and extract the fixed Alkaly from the Ashes if you don't find a much greater quantity of Acid than Alkaly c. And from hence he would infer that Bitters are Acids But he hath rather taken an effectual way to prove the Insufficiency of Chymistry in discovering the Principles of Bodies for if it will alter Bitter and turn most of it Acid who can be so stupified as to believe that this discovers the Nature of Bitter Can Aloes be turned into Juice of Oranges and Aloes not be destroyed It 's in vain to reason with such Ideots yet this is not all we may throughout these Quotations see how miserably the dull Soul forgets himself having repeated the same things often in other Books and also how blindly he contradicts himself here according to his Custom and how fully he confutes himself For first Page 64. He says The Serum being too much impregnated with Alkaline Particles cannot pass free through the Vessels by reason of its Gelatinous Quality as if the Gelatinous Quality depended on a Mixture of Alkalies whereas it appears from the Experiment he mentions in his Treatise of the Gout that the whole Serum of Healthful People is Alkaline and abounds with Alkalies where there is no such Gelatinous Quality and therefore as I have often taken notice we are to conclude that the Gelatinous Quality depends on a mixture of too much Acid because as I before said that is said to be the Cause of an Effect in whose Absence there is no such Distemper but on the contrary when mixed with it From whence it appears that the Reason why the Excretory Glands cannot perform their Office in evacuating Excrementitious Alkaly as he says Page 65 66 is because Acid is mixed with it and this is certain from his own Words for if the Excrements be Alkalies naturally they would not obstruct were there no Acids to coagulate them But let us see how coherent Mr. Colbatch is in his Thoughts Page 69. He asserts That the Distemper which in a Passion he calls Damnable if curable is to be cured by Chalybeats and Bitters the former of which I have before proved an Alkaly and that Bitter is not Acid any Body knows that can distinguish betwixt Tastes but if Mr. Colbatch can perswade People that Wormwood is Acid he may make any thing go down with them but since Children have too nice Palates to be so deceived I hope those of riper Years have not lost their Taste All that I need further to take notice of Mr. Colbatch his Productions in these Quotations is another Wonderful Confutation of himself For Page 66 He says The bitter Excrement of the Liver to wit Choler is an Alkaly Yet Page 72. Bitters are Acids and consequently Choler as may be seen in the Words I have quoted I might take notice of other Absurdities and Falsities contained in the foregoing Quotations but what I have said being sufficient I shall not extend a Book of this kind to too large a Compass Page 91. He says The Blood cannot super abound with Acids Because the Stomach will not receive or retain more than it hath occasion for The Reason he gives a little before is If at any time People are not sufficiently cautious of that Matter but load the Stomach with more manifest Acids than the Body hath occasion for she won't fail of rejecting them by Vomit That this is false every Body knows that have but lived in the World long enough to take notice of what occurs daily for nothing is more common than for Children to bring Distempers upon themselves by eating of unripe Fruit and not only Children but grown People and these Mr. Calbatch cannot deny to be Acids surely if he remembers what he ascribed long Life in Herefordshire to viz. eating Fruit besides it is too commonly known that many People almost ruin their Constitutions by drinking Vinegar the very same Acid he mentions And thus I have gone through all that he further says concerning the Use of Acids and proved it to be as absurd and ridiculous as the rest of his Incoherences and now shall leave him to consider when he writes again whether it will not be prudent to
overcome by his weakness and misled by him who want Judgment and Knowledg to perceive his Errors and to arm themselves against large Pretences For the greatest Part of Mankind know so little of Physick nay are so Ignorant of it that when a Man is bold and positive they cannot imagin that he can have so much Impudence to pretend to Knowledg if he was really Ignorant that this is the Case of Mr. Colbatch I shall take Pains to shew what he writes being an Inconsiderate piece of confused and incoherent Assertions I shall therefore lay open his Errors so fairly that the World may be no longer imposed upon in a Matter that is of such Consequence as the Health or Destruction of some tho' a small Part of Mankind for if such fatal Absurdities as those which Mr. Colebatch hath broached were not corrected what Mischief might be done Or rather what might not be done By such Methods as he irrationally and injudiciously asserts and practises by his own Hands as well as other Physicians who are too easily credulous and misguided by him But it is not only to undeceive the Vulgar and Unlearned that are thus easily imposed upon that I engage my self in this Cause But to defend and vindicate the Royal Learned and Judicious Society the College of Physicians and all other Learned Men from his ungrounded Impudence his rude assuming Behaviour and the Aspersions he hath boldly cast upon all rational and regular Physicians daring to assert without Reason or Foundation what is repugnant to the most Celebrated Writers whose Writings are backed and confirmed by the daily Experience and Universal Consent of those Members who are not byassed by Interest or that dont value the Cry of the Vulgar above the Approbation of Learned Men and that have not engaged themselves to cry up one another tho' by never so dishonourable Methods or absurd Means And the Consideration of the Greatness of such a Design encourages me to slight and contemn all the Aspersions that may be made by such bold Impertinent Pretenders for I am so far from valuing the displeasure of half a Dozen of such above the meritorious Cause of a whole Body of Learned Men that I profess I had rather deserve the good Opinion of one ingenious Learned Man than oblige a hundred Block-heads And now if a Reason should be asked why I should be so zealously concerned in defending a Body of Men who are much more able to vindicate themselves I must also answer for them that it is below them to take notice of such mean and weak Assaults and to appear in Disputes with such impotent Assailants where so little is contained that the most suitable Answer to such an insolent vain Person from Men placed by eminent Learning and Judgment so far above him would oblige them in Justice to themselves and him as well as the Cause they Defend to reprimand him and correct his Folly with Words and Language more severe perhaps then what their Manners and Civility would permit them to make Use of For if such Men as the greatest Part of that Learned Society is made up of should so far condescend as to use Civil Language to him where he deserves the contrary they would by that means bring Reflections by the Learned upon their own Judgments and too much demean themselves in such sordid Company for should they convince that small Part of Mankind who are so easily captived by Mountebanks and such vain Pretenders that his Methods and Practice were never so distructive the Conquest would be no Advantage to them nor tend to their Honour it being below them to take notice of a Man Unlearned Ignorant and Vain yet Rude Self-conceited and Impertinent And truly had I any great Opinion of my self I should think my self no Gainer by such a Victory which the least Degree of true Sence and Reason can assure any Body of And as the Matter now stands I should think my time ill spent and should blame my self for making no better Use of it if the Reasons I have already given did not prevail with me viz. To undeceive the Vulgar and to Vindicate the Honour of so many Learned Men for what strange Notions must those that admire him frame of the College of Physicians and Him and what hard Thoughts must they beyond Seas have of our English Physicians to see such a poor Patch of a Phylosopher that hath but three Words of any thing that looks like Phylosophy in all his Scribling and those Nonscence set up for a Champion and one that boldly asserts without Reason or any shew of it undertake to be a Reformer of Physick in England a Nation that hath always abounded with the most Sagacious Learned Men and the greatest Improvers of Physick I say what must these think Should not his Vanity be corrected and deservedly exposed so that the Honour of such a Profession will yet be another Addition to my Apology for using him according to his Desert And it will be yet more excusable when by Representing truly his Character and Behaviour to all Learned Men and his Erroneous Absurdities in Contradiction to all Reason and Experience it appears how ill he deserves not only of Physitians but Mankind and how Impudently he is mistaken I shall therefore give a true Account of his Character and Behaviour which I shall do by way of Remarks on his Writings that they may not seem to be without Grounds and I shall unvail his Weakness and Mistakes in what he hath asserted and writ and shall prove that he hath more Reason to be ashamed than boldly fond of such Mistakes in which all I have said of him already or can will be but the same Measure that he hath Measured others and tho' he did not at all deserve it I might have more Reason to take any Liberty in the worst Sence with him and might make a better Apology for it than he can for what he hath said to Men to such his Superiours But this being a public Accusation and the Charge I have laid to him being also Public it is fit the Proof of it should be so too to which End it is necessary to take a View of those things he has wrote wherein the Grounds of this Charge is laid by his own Pen. The First Elaborate Piece of Service this famous Author was bold enough to do the World was to pass away two or three hours time for those that had two much leisure in Reading about six sheets of Paper to which he perfixed a Title and would have the Book to be thought Novum Lumen Chirurgicum a Title that made very fair Promises and might probably raise ones Expectation but when I look'd a little further upon the Title And saw his Name writ in Latin and withal his Book in English I was very impatient to read it over which when I had done I began to think that there was more Sense and Learning in the Title Page
to be made for him That empty and shallow Heads like hungry Dogs who have empty Stomachs so eagerly pursue and are so taken up with what 's before them that they scarce take notice of what they have swallowed Pag. 24. I don 't at all see or understand that she i.e. Nature is assisted by the Medicines they afterwards use Really I don't know how he should for the Methods the Generality of Prudent Chirurgeons use are above his Understanding but because he does not understand them are they ever the worse for that Is that an Objection Having given an Account of Nutrition after a simple and incoherent Manner an Account made up of nothing but Mistakes and Forgetfulness and having made some rude Reflections on a Body of worthy and experienc'd Chirurgeons from Pag. 26 to Pag. 40. He goes on to applaud and cry up a Medicine to that Height and to endeavour to cry down a whole Body of ingenious Men that all the World might think him the only valuable Man in his Trade and would fain make the World believe that he can do more with his Medicines than all of them and this most ridiculous Piece of Insolence he endeavours to confirm by a few pretended Instances of Cures As for his Account of Nutrition I have sufficiently laid it open so that it plainly appears to be nothing but a confused dull Lump of Mistakes and Blunders so that for such a Man that cannot write common Sense in a Matter too where he needed only to follow what was ready to his hand for such an ignorant short-headed Man to pretend to huff and abuse and set himself above Experienced Men in their Business is a Piece of Insolence so unpardonable that I can scarce be blamed for using him no harder than he deserves for had he had Reason to boast of his Medicine might he not have taken a fair and honest Method to make the best Advantage of it without endeavouring to captivate the Common People and to raise in them a great Opinion of him by being saucy and rude to his Betters Ingenious Men are so far from discouraging Improvements in the Arts they profess and have always such an Esteem for them that make them that they give them all the Honour and Applause due to their Merits so that he might though civil and modest towards his Superiours had Justice done him without so much Noise and Impertinence but he himself being conscious of his own Weakness and of the small Value of his Medicine takes all the Pains he can to applaud himself and because he knows it would not answer what he pretended and might of consequence be justly exposed for his vain Pretences he takes care to tell the World the Chirurgeons were all his Enemies when at the same time himself alone was to be blamed for giving them just Reason but this was only done that People might think them so much his Enemies as not to believe what they said But can he think that the World will be long so imposed upon and so easily Perhaps a sort of People that are easily drawn aside by a Parcel of Mountebanks and vain Pretenders may but surely wise People will sooner believe a great Number of honest and sober Men than one silly vain conceited Man that hath Folly enough to contradict them As for his Medicine that he so much boasts of it is but an old Preparation new vampt up whose Effects are so small that Sea Water and Urine have oftentimes done greater Cures and Common Salt or a Solution of Vitriol will as soon cure a fresh Wound where no large Vessels are cut as his Powder And though in some fresh Wounds where Musculous Parts are divided it is of use yet I am assured by a very ingenious Chirurgeon's own as well as the Experience of others that it is of no use or very little where Tendons are divided in which and such like Cases they are furnished with better Medicines of their own than any he can pretend to I need not say any thing to those Experiments he fills up his Book with since they have been sufficiently confuted and the Falsness hath been proved in a Book called Novum Lumen Extinctum c. He would indeed endeavour to defend them by a few more as notoriously false as the former which he has laid together in his Vindication but one Falsity is altogether unable to prove another true and though he pretends they have always succeeded when he had fair Play yet since when he tryed his Experiments before Witnesses they did not succeed the World hath Reason to believe that he used the Joint Assistance of some common Medicine when he used it by himself But I have sufficiently tired my self with such nauseous Stuff as this Book is filled with and when I reflect on 't cannot imagine how much Conceit and Vanity he must have to call such Rubbish and weak Inconsistences a Novum Lumen and I wonder how he could boast so much since the weakest in that Profession might be ashamed that they knew no more As for his Medicine there was no need to write a Book about it since a Gazette was too good for it but if he would needs let the World know that he had found out something of some small Use to Chirurgeons he might have taken the same Method as Daffy hath with his Elixir and People would have made as much Use of it as they do now provided it answered Expectation but there was no need for Impudence except in a bad Cause and he had no Reason to boast of a thing that cures nothing but what was cured by the Use of other Medicines equally as good as his AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS ESSAY OF Alkalies and Acids Wherein his Absurdities and Erroneous Opinions In the Small Pox Scurbey Gout Rheumatism Consumptions c. Are Demonstrated to be very Dangerous and highly Prejudicial and are therefore truly Represented and fully Confuted LONDON Printed in the Year 1699. AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch His ESSAY of ALKALIES and ACIDS c. CHAP. I. Contains Remarks on his Preface to this Essay HAving gone through his Novum Lumen Chirurgicum clouded and stuffed as it is with nothing but incoherent Mistakes and notorious Blunders I should now go on to shew that he not only hath the Impudence to boast of and value himself upon the most unreasonable Grounds in Chirurgery but also finding that the World will not be imposed upon one way he endeavours to do it another but he must expect that Physicians are not to be more easily deceived with Pretences then Chirurgeons He has pretended to such Miracles in Chirurgery as might justly encourage Ingenious Men to make Tryals of his Skill but his Pretences being but Vain and False and all that plentiful stock of Impudence which he made use of in vindicating his Folly being not sufficient to procure him Business amongst Chirurgeons he now is resolved to turn Physician and use
Apothecaries Shops and consequently he hath been very little acquainted with them But as I believe Angels are always imployed in Divine Affairs so they chiefly are concerned in Spiritual Prescriptions and here Mr. John Colbatch hath fetch'd his Metaphor too far Secondly he says The second Qualification for an Apothecary is that he understand the Nature and Operation of Minerals and Mettals To understand the Nature of Minerals is the Business of a Chymist not of an Apothecary and as for their Operations that chiefly belongs to a Physitian whose Business it is to apply them But he would needs have Apothecaries to understand every thing because he hath been one himself Thirdly he says They must understand the Nature of Animal Bodies but I am sure they may be as good Apothecaries tho' they do not for what Business hath an Apothecary with Human Bodies since it only belongs to him to be serviceable to Physicians in preparing his Medicines and obeying his Orders and not in administering He might as well say a Clerk who only writes according to the Directions of his Master and whose Business it is to do nothing else must understand those things that don't belong to him viz. His Masters Business What some Apothecaries know I won't say but I am certified by his Writings and also by the Rules he hath given for the Qualifications of an Apothecary that he is so far from being qualified for a Physitian that he is by no means qualified for an Apothecary But to understand how faintly he is qualified for either I shall pass on to his Book and shew what grand Mistakes he is positively and boldly guilty of CHAP. II. Of the Small-Pox THe first Distemper he there takes upon him to give an Account of is the Small-Pox and here contrary to Truth and all Experience he would suggest that the Small-Pox do not proceed from Acids but Alkalies And Page 4th he says Now I could never hear of any one that by Analizing the Blood of Persons in the Small-Pox could ever find the least Foot-steps of Acidity in it though on the contrary it doth appear after many Tryals that the Blood of such Persons doth more abound with Alkalious Particles than that of sound People That no Acidity can be found by Analizing the Blood of Persons in the Small-Pox is not sufficient to determin whether there be Acids in the Blood before Analized or not for in Analizing Blood as the Chymists call it the Volatile Particles of the Fire which is the Agent in the Operation may soon destroy those Acidities for if when our Stomach abounds with Acids we find by taking of Volatile Alkalies that that Acidity is soon destroyed and if we find that those Effects which are produced in our Blood upon a plentiful Use of crude Acids or Astringents which are Acids in Potentia are taken away on the contrary by the Use of Alkalies we have much Reason to believe that the Particles of Fire being more powerful when in Action than those Alkalies will soon destroy that which is called Acidity in the Blood so that the Fire Volatilizing that Acid Matter and exalting it to a higher Degree of Maturity it quite looses it's pristine Qualities the Fire and it being united into a Quid tertium and that united and again embodied in a Vehicle looses it's old Form and is modified anew But to determin whether there be Acidity in the Blood or not there would be no need to analize it tho' by that means it would not be destroyed for when a Person in the Small-Pox is let Blood we may see a manifest Ropy Viscocity in the Blood which is a certain Sign of Acidity it being the Nature of Acids to coagulate and thicken those Humours with which they are mixed And to understand in what Sense the Blood may be said to have more Alkalies than the Blood of healthful People we must consider what is the Cause of that Distemper but as my Design here is not to give an Account of the Cause of this Distemper any further than tends to shew how far he is mistaken and how little he understands it so I shall only take notice that the first Onset of this Distemper is accompanyed with the Initia of a Feaver where we may observe that the Mass of Blood being naturally impregnated with a great deal of Sulphur and that Sulphur being as if it were depressed or rather inviscated in a Viscous Mucus whose Viscocity proceeds from Acids these Sulphureous Particles are by some accidental Cause whether it be Internal or by the Influence of circumambient Bodies I shall not now determine exalted in some Measure and caused to exert themselves by which Exertion they endeavour to clear themselves of that Mucus Phlegm which being separated from them the whole Mass does as if it were run into two Parts just as we see sweet Milk and Eggs mixed together and heated over a Fire begin to break as it is usually termed I mean just when it begins to break so little that we can scarce discern it with a Microscope and then that Mass in some measure cleared from the Viscocity hath more Sulphur in it and more fierce Volatile Parts in it than the Blood of a healthful Person But as for Alkaly I cannot find any in it except Alkalies are Sweet and Balsamick But yet if the whole Mass of Blood and Serum together be compared with the whole Blood and Serum of a healthful Person there is more Acid in the Blood of a Person in the Small-pox and less Alkaly than in a Person that is healthful But this new Reformer of Physick sets about his Work like one that neither understood common Sense nor Reason all that he says against a truly rational and confirmed Opinion is that it is not so as they say and the Grounds upon which he concludes so are an Observation nothing at all to the purpose but to shew that he neither understands the Works of Nature nor Art so that thus far he wants the Qualifications of an Apothecary But to proceed Page the 5th He says The cause of the Small-pox I suppose to be from a Quantity of such Particles being some way or other admitted into the Blood which being of a quite different Texture from that of the Blood and so not capable of being mixed with it cause a Hurry and Disorder there What a very fine Account this is of the Reason of the Small-pox and who will be the wiser for it by such a Method as this we may answer all the Questions that can be asked in Physick Geometry Mathematicks Astronomy Navigation and Geography without any other Qualification than the Assistance of Nature and a common Plow-man if this be Knowledge might give as good an Account of things as he does For ask a Plow-man what is the Cause of the Small-pox and he will give just such an Account as he hath done viz. That the Small-Pox proceed from something that causes them and disorders
circulate through the Vessels All he says Page 8 9 10 is to enlarge what he here so obscurely delivers to which I need give no other Answer Page 10. He says In like manner the Globules of the Blood being broken by means of Alkalious Medicines together with too great a Quantity of Alkalious Particles being before admitted into it are by that means made capable of being received into the cutaneous Glands which is the only Occasion of those Purple Spots upon the Surface of the Skin What Effects Alkalies have upon the Coagulated Humors I have before shewn viz. They thin them and make them capable of passing through those Pores they would otherwise be too thick for and as for his Globules if he means only that the Mass of Blood is dissolved and attenuated I Answer That the Blood being so dissolved would circulate through it's Vessels only with more ease so that it would be less subject to be coagulated in the Vessels of the Skin but since by taking notice of the Blood in such People it appears to be more clammy than it is usually in healthful People and since that Clamminess depends on a Mixture of Acids we have reason to believe that it would be less apt to run into Vessels that it ought not and it is also Rational to conclude since the Distemper depends on Acids which coagulate the Blood that when the Distemper is more violent it abounds with more Acids and consequently that they don't only cause the Serum to coagulate in the Pores of the Skin but also sometimes the Blood in the Capillary Vessels which coagulated causes those Purple Spots But least I should not seem sufficiently to prove that those Symptoms are caused by Acids I shall further observe that since it is the Nature of Acids to coagulate and of Akalies to prevent and hinder Coagulation and those Symptoms appear to be Coagulated Humors we must needs conclude that they do proceed from Acid and not Alkalizated Humors Page 11th He says But this is not all for by the aforesaid breaking of the Globules of the Blood these small broken Globules getting into the small Meanders of the Brain hinder the Motion of the Animal Spirits through the Nerves But I here ask him hath he ever found any of those Globules in the Brain if he has not there is no reason to believe what is contrary to Reason and Experience For Deliriums are more likely to proceed from Viscid Matter affecting the Brain it being plain that there is not only a great deal of Viscid Matter in the Blood but that there is a Viscid Phlegm observable in all People inclinable to Lethargies and such like Distempers of the Brain From Page the 11th to the 16th He keeps a long Harangue to no purpose and about nothing at all to this Distemper where he begins to preamble about the use of Acids to the 19 Page to which I need not say any more having said enough of the Use of Acids and Alkalies at the beginning of this Chapter But here he tells us that he hath retrieved a great many from the Jaws of Death by Acids but he hath told so many down-right Falsities in the beginning of his Book that we have the same reason to believe he does now what he says being contrary to Reason and Experience and I rather believe so because he mentions not one that Acids cured where he had used Alkalies Page 20. I shall proceed to the Method I take in the Cure of it which being according to Natures Dictates is short and easie Here he would persuade us that Nature is short and easie because there is very little to the Purpose in what he says about her but as easie and short as she is she is too long and too difficult for him to trace but now he begins to give us an Example of his Dexterity in the Cure And Page 21. Tells us that he begins with a Vomit But here he ought to confess what Learned Men's Examples he hath followed For so if the Stomach be soul those Learned and Experienced Men Dr. Sydenham and Dr. Morton begin therefore for this the World is not obliged to him he not being the Author of that Method Page 22. At Night he gives Syr. de Meconio For this still he ought to make an Acknowledgment to Dr. Sydenham it being what he hath learnt from him But sometimes in the beginning Page 25. He lets Blood for this likewise he must make a thankful Acknowledgment to Dr. Sydenham it being nothing of his own Invention Page 23 and 24 26 and part of the 27th he reckons up a Parcel of Acids which he makes use of but he mixes so much simple Waters with the Acids that what he gives is scarce more cooling than Small-beer and truly if they had not worse Effects in the Blood I should commend him for following so good a President as Dr. Sydenham but here he varies from Dr. Sydenham to the Disadvantage of his Patients and the Destruction of their Lives though Preservation of the Beauty of 'em And he so much depresses their weak feeble Spirits that Page 27. He is forced to give them a Cordial again to take off the ill Effects of his bad and absurd Usage Page the 28th He Purges them several times And truly if he abuses them with Acids at this rate he had need to purge them soundly to carry off those Dregs that he hindred from going off before whereas did he manage them as those Learned Men Dr. Sydenham or Dr. Morton do once Purging does as much good and more than his five or six times Page 29 and 30. All he says is to deter People from Using any other Means than his and to tell People that know better how to manage Children than he does that they may safely use his Method if they won't send for him but let him know that it is Experience that is valuable above a Method that hath neither Reason nor Success and surely they had rather depend on those that have their Characters from Judicious Men than one that only commends himself Page 31. He begins with his former Supposition concerning the Cause of the Small-Pox and giving a short Account of what Effects he laid to the charge of Alkalies and continues a Repetition of his Complaint to Page 36. But I having already answered that sufficiently there is no need I should repeat it here again now and indeed all the Reason he has is only to lengthen his Book for he cannot think other People are so forgetful as himself as to need to have it over again so soon and if they had it would have been the same thing to have read the first Account over again for it was altogether as large as this and this is equally void of and without Reason or Proof Page 36 He assigns but one general Cause of Fevers yet owns the Particles causing them may be somewhat different Which is to say and unsay and at
the Distemper To this though what I said in the last Paragraph is a sufficient Answer I shall add that though the Blood should sooner than he can suppose it run through that Part yet the Substance he calls Alkaly when it is once sufficiently impregnated could cause no Alteration in the Acidity of it besides though it had it's full Force active and vigorous so much as makes up the Nodes would no more prevent the Acidity of the Blood than a Grain of Alkaly would prevent a Hogshead of Drink from growing stale Moreover so little Blood could be laid down at once in those Parts that the whole Mass being depraved we must conclude that that little Blood as soon as it was mixed with the Maâ—â— of Blood again would be again depraved and tainted all these Objections I say would occur if we would suppose what he says to be true concerning the Blood circulating through those Parts but he should take notice that the Blood Vessels have no Communication with those Nodes they being as it it were Matter extravasated and out of the way of Circulation but one hath always more Trouble to confute one Blockhead that three ingenuous Men I don't mean convince one for that is a thing not to be expected but the Reason why it is so difficult to confute such a one is because Fools make such Blunders that have neither Sense nor Meaning and are so widely absurd that one must run out of Method and Order to trace them Pag. 59. He says It may not be amiss to take Notice that few People are troubled with the Gout but those who drink large quantities of Wine or some other generous Liquors abounding with Vinous Spirits so that the Blood and other Juices being impregnated with the said Vinous Spirits these Spirits meeting with the Volatile Alkalious Salt of which even the Blood of sound People is never destitute by means of which Salt the Vinous Spirit is Coagulated c. What is the Reason that drinking of Wine is so hurtful I shall not here explain but shall only shew that he is so far from explaining it that he confutes himself and that he is at a loss how to make even trifling Explanations of it And first I ask him if it be caused by drinking of much Wine and that being Coagulated by the Alkalies in the Blood why does not those Alkalies also Coagulate his Acids that he would cure it by and how comes it to pass that they sooner Coagulate Spirituous Acids than more crude ones But this Objection he did not foresee and truly no body can blame a Man to be thus bold that 's so short sighted and inapprehensive of Danger but certainly if an Alkaly in the Blood would cause so Spirituous an Acid as Wine to Coagulate it would much sooner Coagulate a more crude one and consequently his Medicine must do more harm than Wine so that here I leave him to condemn himself A second Question I ask him is whether it is not impossible to cure this Distemper by Acids if Acids cause the Alkalies in the Blood to Coagulate to which the true Answer is that it is impossible for as long as the Blood is so impregnated according to him all the Acids we can take must be Coagulated so that they would increase Coagulations and not cure them But not to ask a Man any more Questions who does not understand common Reason I shall prove from what he says and also from Reason that Acids cause this Distemper and first from what he says it is plain for if he says upon taking of Acids the Alkalies Coagulate them it implies there was no Coagulation in the Blood before those Acids were taken now if our Blood when so full of Alkalies can be without Coagulation and upon the taking of Acids it presently thickens it must needs follow that those Acids cause this Distemper there being no Coagulation before those were taken so that the Acid Coagulates the Alkalizated Blood and not the Alkaly the Acids for that is said to be the cause of a Distemper or a Coagulation whose Mixture with the Blood produces such a Distemper and in whose Absence there is no such Effect so that here he is judged by his own Words For as a Man's head is not the cause of it's being cut off till the Instrument is applyed that separates it from his Body and when Water is thrown in the Fire the Water is properly said to extinguish it so Acids taken into the Body cause the Coagulation and not those Humors that are vitiated by the mixture of it and these Instances I have given that it may be plainer to People that understand not Physick I mean those Gentlemen he so oft makes his Appeal to Besides Acids being of a cold Nature and cool Bodies Naturally Coagulating those Bodies that are subject to Coagulation and it being the Nature of Alkalies to take off Coagulations and to prevent them it would be absurd to say that they cause such Effects as are quite different from their Nature And That it is the Nature of Acids to Coagulate is not only plain from what he hath said but it is also manifest that Phlegmatick Constitutions are injured and that Indisposition increased by them whereas by Alkalies that Phlegm is attenuated and made fit to be carryed off The next Page he would suppose that the Coagulations in the Stone proceed from Alkalious Particles Coagulating Acids but it appearing from-what I have already said that Alkalies are not and that Acids are the Causes of such Effects I need not say any more to this the same being an Answer to both I shall only here take Notice of the Strain and Humour of our Philosopher who when he found it would be necessary for his purpose does not only change the Names of things but also calls those Humours that are Passive Active and on the contrary CHAP. V. Of Rheumatisms THe next Distemper that he gives us an Instance of his weakness in is A Rheumatism where Pag. 74. he says Having by the Fire Analized the Blood of Rheumatic Persons I have found it to abound more with Alkalious Particles than that of sound People But as I said before the Analized Blood is not sufficient to determine what Blood was before it was Analized but if by mixing those Substances together which he draws from Blood by Analizing it they will make just such a Composition as Blood then I will believe he takes the right Method to discover the Causes of Distempers but if they will not then it is evident that the Fire modifies the Parts of the Blood anew and rather destroys than discovers it's Principles Pag. 75 and the 76. he would suggest Acids are not the Cause of the Bloods Viscocity and says those that affirm that they are don't prove it And I say neither does he prove that Acids are not But it appearing from what I have said the Chapter before that Acids cause Viscocity there is
no need I should make a Repetition here Page 77. By what I have said I hope I have freed Acids from occasioning the Viscousness of the Blood in Rheumatisms which Viscocity if it can be once taken of every one knows that the Distemper immediately vanishes but this is not done by Alkalies but by Acids as Tincture of Antimony and Chalybeates What he hath said he hopes is sufficient but truly I don't see that he hath said any thing to the purpose as Grounds of such hopes but if we believe him that Rheumatick Peoples Blood abounds with Alkalies more then healthful Peoples which is false it does not therefore follow that this Distemper is caused by Alkalies because Alkalies according to him cannot Coagulate without Acids so that it thence follows that as Acids differ in quantity more or less so the Blood is accordingly Coagulated and then we must conclude that the Coagulation depends on the Acids and then as I said before Acid Medicines would increase it But here to prove that Acids cure this Distemper he calls two Medicines eminently Alkalious Acids by which Rule he may say with as much Reason that a company of Statues took Barcellona from the Spaniards and if any Body should contradict him and say that they were Men he must Answer but they ought to be called not Men but Statues as I call them and this is just his Case to which I having before said enough I shall here say no more to it but refer the Reader to what hath gone before Pag. 79 80 and 81. He makes an Harangue that Steel is turned into a Vitriol before it can be carried into the Blood and consequently acts as an Acid upon it But granting it so I have already shewn what would be the Effects according to his Supposition viz To encrease the Distemper but as he is not the first that hath supposed it to work upon the Body by that means so he is not the first mistaken in that Point for Chalybeats don't cause such Effects as we see they do by being turned into a Vitriol but by absorbing those Acids in the Stomach and Pancreatick Juice by which means the Ferment of the Liver is more powerful and helps to correct the Acidity of the Chyle and the Blood not being supplyed with Acid Chyle those Acidities in it's Mass are soon altered and digested to a higher Degree of Maturity by a long continued Circulation and Fermentation Pag. 82 83 84 and 85. are filled up with two preparations of Steel which he account Acids and a story to tells us that Cinnaber which he once thought an Alkaly proves to be an Acid. But it only proves so for his Conveniency for there is no Reason that he gives for it and therefore we have Reason to believe that it is what all Learned Men know it to be for it does not only correct Acids in the Stomach but is of very great Use almost always where the Mass of Blood hath a manifest Viscidity And here before I leave this Chapter I shall observe that those Acids in the Stomach which he says Page 80 cannot get into the Blood till vitriolized is a Mistake for we may take notice that some People if not most that are subject to Rheumatick Pains and the Gout feel a manifest Acidity upon their Stomachs sometime before their Paroxysms and when that Acidity is carryed off they feel the dreadful Effects of it in the Mass of Blood But supposing it to be turned into a Vitriol a Vitriol is but a stronger Acid than that in the Stomach and consequently would do more Mischief than if it were not turned into a Vitriol as I have elsewhere shewn CHAP. VI. Of Consumptions THe last Distemper that this Gentleman pretends to give an Account of is Consumptions but if he had consider'd and understood what an Ingenious and Learned Tract Dr. Morton hath writ on this Subject he might have been ashamed to offer such a small Parcel of Nonsense But as there is no Reason in what he says so there is as little he had in Writing Page 89. He says my Reasons in short for the Use of Acids are as follow The Globules of the Blood being broken and confusedly mixed with the Serum by Reason of so many Acrid Alkalious Particles mixed with it and together with the Serum admitted into the small Glandules of the Lungs and not being capable of being discharged cause Inflammations there and by consequence Hectick Fevors What he means by broken Globules thrown into the Glands I profess is such a Peice of Philosophy that I neither see that it hath any Meaning or Sense in it for I have already shewed that those Particles of Blood which he takes Notice of swim in the Serum confusedly must be divided into an innumerable small Particles before they can pass through the capillary Vessels and consequently can do no Prejudice by being broken but suppose they were forced into Vessels which they ought not Acids by Coagulating the Alkaly would rather fix them there than remove them Nay allowing his own way of Assertion which I have before confuted viz. that Alkalies coagulate Acids it would not help him because those Alkalies in the Glands could not be removed according to his own Assertion but by Acids and what a Removal would it be when as his Acid Medicines were laid down in the Glands the Alkaly would coagulate the Acid and so fix it there as much as the Alkaly As for what he says Page 90 and the 91 of the Use of Alkalies I don't believe any rational Physician would ever give any Alkalies in such a Case so that here he might have kept this Advice to himself Page the 92 and 93 he makes a very simple Objection against his foolish Assertion and makes an Answer to it agreeable to so great a Peice of Nonsense but both of them being not worth while to take notice of I shall leave them to the consideration of those that think they deserve any thing else besides a sharp Reprimand Page the 94 He tells us a story that Riverius cured one of a Consumption by Conserve of Roses and Oyl of Sulphur by the Bell but any one may guess what a Consumption it was since the same Remedy will scarce cure an ordinary Cough From Page the 94 to the 100. He tells a long story of an old Man and a Pot of Oyl of Sulphur But that being nothing at all to this Distemper but a Story by the by to fill up his Book and least he should seem to say not only nothing to the purpose but to little for a Chapter of Consumptions I shall take Notice of it no further Page the 100 101 and the 102 he tells another story of a Man who that being bit with a Viper could not be cured by Alkalies and no wonder for no rational Man would depend upon a Medicine he knew not the Effects of in such a Case but would have immediate Recourse to a
strong Poyson Now by the former of these Authors it is asserted to be an Oyly Acid and by the latter who was a profound Judicious Man it is affirmed for the most Part to be a Mineral Sulphur from which two according to Page the 7. of his own Appendix it is proved to be an Acid because he there Classes all Balsams and Sulphurs amongst Acids so that all the Prejudice that a Sublimed Acid can do may be done by Mr. John Colbatch his Acid. From Page the 21 to the 25. He reckons up all the good Effects of Oyl of Vitriol but mentions not the Mischief that might be done with it which is a great deal more for it corrodes and eats away the Flesh causes an intolerable Heat Page the 28 He says As for Balsams if I should take upon me to describe their Excellencies it would be fitter for a Volum than an Appendix but if he had cast out a great deal of his stuff that he hath put in and which was brought in by the Head and Shoulders and hath no Relation to his Discourse only to fill it up he might have had room enough for Balsams which makes me believe he had very little towards a great Volum From Page the 39 to 71. He lays down several Objections to shew that he cannot Answer them and that it may appear he hath not done it I shall take notice of them in that Order he has laid them The first Objection is how comes it to pass those People that live upon nothing almost but highly Salted Meat are more troubled with the Scurvey To this he Answers That it is not because they eat more Salt but because they eat more Flesh than other People which abounds with Alkalious Particles and as for the Sea Salt is most carried off by Urin. But to this I answer that if it were not the Acid Sea Salt then fresh Beef would sooner create the Scurvey than Salt because according to him it being Alkalious altogether and not being tempered with the Sea Salt it would increase the Alkalies of the Blood I think more But for my Part I am sure Beef is nothing like an Alkaly for as much as I and all the World besides can discern it abounding with a sweet Balsamick Juice the Mass of Blood but that Mass of Blood abounds with Alkaly he 'll say but then he must remember what he said the seventh Page of his Appendix viz. that all oleaginous Balsamicks are to be reckoned amongst Acids and then it will follow that the Taste of the Blood being sweet and Balsamic it must be reckoned amongst Acids so that our Quick-sighted Reformer of Physick hath once more contradicted himself But suppose Beef to be Alkaly it will be no more for his purpose because Page 59 of his Essay he says that a Mixture of Acids with Alkaly causes a Coagulation so that Acid and Alkaly thus carried into the Blood together must thicken the Blood but then that this Distemper may by all means proceed from Alkaly he will suppose the Accid to run off by Urin stil he is never the better for in that same Page of his Essay it appears that as long as the Alkaly is not mixed with Acid there is no Coagulation till it is impregnated by drinking Wine from whence it appears that if the Acid were so carryed off there would be no such Coagulation in Scrobutic Serum Having shewn how he contradicts himself backwards and forwards in Answer to this first Objection I shall pass to the second The second Objection is how it comes to pass that when the Stomach abounds with Acids the Blood does not He Answers The meat we eat being dissolved by a Spirituous Acid Juice it is turned into a Substance for the Nutrition of our Bodies and that this in People that live a Sedentary Life lying too long in the Stomach is turned Acid But this is no Answer to the Question it only tells us how the Stomach becomes full of Acids but how comes it to pass then that when the Stomach is emptyed of this Acid stuff part of it is not squeezed through the Lacteals into the Blood Truly he can give no Reason for it so that the Blood must needs according to the course and tendency of Chyle be tainted with that Acidity The third Objection is That this Acid being kept from going into the Blood would according to him prevent Distempers He Answers That People who are troubled with Acidity in their Stomach make great quantities of Water are very lean and costive which he will prove to be because Acids are not carried into the Blood And first when we make Water much the attenuated Chyle runs off by Vessels which carry it from the Stomach to the Kidneys through the Omentum which prevents it from going into the Blood And from Page 39 to the 40 he would suggest that there are such Vessels for it to pass off by Secondly the Reason why People are so lean is because the Acid Chyle so diluted is carried off and the Oyly Particles of the Blood want Acid to thicken them and to turn them into Fat. Thirdly the Reason why they are costive is because so much Moisture turning off by Urin the excrements are hardned and the Guts want Moisture to Lubricate them To this Objection he gives no direct Answer no not so much as a false one for what he offers for an Answer is so far from being one that it has not the least Relation to the Objection as he explains it for the Objection relates to Distempers in the Blood whereas as he explains those three Phaenomena they are not Distempers of the Blood for he makes Acidity in the Stomach the Cause of too much Urin and of Costiveness and as for Leanness the more Oyly and Sulphureous the Blood is the Fatter is the Body and according to him in the beginning of this Appendix Page the 7th the more Acid it is and consequently cannot find any Inconveniency by his new Reason of making too much Water for though the Acids run off by Urin and never come into the Blood yet since the Blood abounds with Fat Particles accoding to him it would not want Acids But as I have often taken notice of him already so I may still that Contradictions and Incoherency are natural to him and we may expect nothing else from him but I shall not only shew how that his Answer is not direct to the Objection but that he explains those Symptoms he mentions very falsely And first the Reason why People who have Acidity on their Stomachs make much Water cannot be because the Acid Chyle is carried off by such Passages as he supposes because there are no such Passages to be discovered for not all the Anatomists nor Glasses could ever as yet discern the least Foot-steps of them and if there were such Vessels as he supposes to convey so much Urin into the Bladder they must be of a considerable size
almost tastes like Mace be of the same Taste with those Oranges the same Method they may take with all the Medicines he uses and if they find Juniper Berries c. taste like Oranges then Mr. John Colbatch is in the right otherwise they know he is mistaken But the last Medicine he mentions is Tartar Vitriolat but there is so little in that Medicin of it and the Effects of it will be so small that it is not much matter whether it be Alkaly or Acid. In his Third Case for Convulsions he gives Vitriolated Tartar Crem Tartar and Costor Ag. Paeon Rorismarin and Puleg all of which are known to be Absorbers of Acids and Correcters of them except the two first for they manifestly abound with a Volatile and Spirituous Oyl and if the two former were Acids yet the latter being of a quite contrary Nature and more in Quantity all that can be said of this Medicine is that it neither did good nor harm the one part of it answering the other and obstructing the Force of it and it was all one as if one should mix hot and cold Water together to cool ones thirst and if that Patient recovered it was not to be ascribed to the Vertue of his Medicine but the Mildness of the Cause of that Distemper which would have gone off as soon without it The remaining Pages of this Book are filled up with a Catalogue of Distempers sent to him by Dr. Jones who because Colbatch hath Imposed upon some part of the Kingdom would needs be seen in so Meritorious a Cause but what will not some Men do when they value a private Design before Truth and Honesty and an Account of the Use of Beverage at Sea but this being not at all to the purpose but to fill up his Book I shall only further take notice That Pag. the 86th He says he could never hear that the Peruvian Bark cured one Consumption neither from Apothecarys nor Phisicians but I can tell him that I knew more than one cured of a very Violent Hectick Fever only by the Use of that Bark and Balsamick Syrup in which it was given and a Composition of Laudanum Pil. de Styrace with Safron which the Learned Dr. Morton hath in this Phythiologia Having hitherto travailed through Clouds Ignorance and Absurdities through Contradictions Mistakes and Forgetfulness through an indigested Mass and a confused Congeries of incoherent Rubbish which though it is nauseous yet I shall not think a little time ill spent to undeceive the World from such a vain pretending Impostor that knows nothing but Nonsense and who and whose sole Support is Impudence and Boldness All that I have now to do is to examin his Treatise of the Gout and to shew what Absurdities and Mistakes he is guilty of there and the ill Consequences of his Erroneous Practice AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS TREATISE OF THE GOUT Wherein his Absurdities and False Opinions in Physick are truly Represented and fully Confuted AS ALSO It is made evident that the EXPERIMENT he there alledges in Vindication of his Hypothesis is strong Proof against himself AND LASTLY That his Practice is very Dangerous though his ill grounded and erroneous Hypothesis were allowed LONDON Printed in the Year 1699. AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS TREATISE Of the GOUT c. CHAP. I. In which are contained Remarks on his Dedication and Preface with an Application to Dr. Cole THE next and last Part of this nauseous Task that I have undertaken is to examin and lay open the Mistakes of his Book concerning the Gout but before I set about that there are two Things which lie in my way and which I must take notice of viz. a Dedication and a Preface The first thing I shall take a View of is his Dedication where he begins and says My Love to Truth and the Good and Welfare of Mankind have ingaged me in Publishing of the following Piece But however specious this Pretence is it appears that it is not for the Good nor Welfare of Mankind but on the contrary will tend to their great Destruction and the Ruin of their Constitutions since it will easily appear that it is made up of the same Materials that the rest of his Books are viz. notorious Mistakes and Blunders and such plain ones too that one can scarce think but that he was either conscious of them or very ignorant But as I would not have him thought to be quite so ignorant so I rather think that he was conscious of the Falsness of what he asserted and only did it with a Design to get a Reputation amongst the Injudicious which he designed to impose upon how much soever he exposed himself to the Ridicule and Contempt of the Judicious and Learned by his weak and inconsistent Falsities And truly thus far he is in the right It wants a much better Champion tho' he 's pleased to call himself a Champion to assert and defend a false Cause against so many Potent Adversaries who have Truth on their side for were he in the right all that could be said of his Book is that he is dully and foolishly in the Right but since it will presently appear that he is so much mistaken he is much less to be valued for daring and endeavouring to impose on the World But the remaining Part of his Dedication being most of it a Compliment to Dr. Cole which were it true would but sorrily recommend Dr. Cole to the Learned World I shall make Remarks on what follows and then make my Apology to Dr. Cole for presuming to shew the Absurdities of a Book which the Author tells the World tho' I believe falsly is agreeable with his Practice The Compliment bestowed on Dr. Cole is I presume to prefix your Name before it knowing that if you but please to espouse it my Business is done and the Conquest gained But I dare venture to say that though Dr. Cole should espouse his Cause which I believe he will not the Victory would not be gained since the Cause hath neither Truth nor Reason on it's side and here I shall for some Reasons make a short Apology to Dr Cole An Apology to Dr. COLE Learned Sir IT is now almost a Year and half ago since I was brought into your Company by a very Ingenious and Experienc'd Chirurgeon Mr. Geeke living in Salisbury-Court And Sir that Civility you were pleased to shew me and the Freedom you took in Conversation with me who was both a Stranger and so much Inferior to your self both in Learning and Judgment as well as Reputation gave me Reason to entertain such Thoughts of you as I believe one of your Years and Character might deserve And truly I had such an Opinion of you that I could not then imagin that you would ever be concerned in Patronizing of a Book that is not only False and Absurd but Weak and Inconsistent and not only so but rudely contradictory to all
Learned Men whose private Designs do not byass their Sentiments and what is more without any shew of Reason or appearance of Truth And I could rather have believed that you would not be concerned in such a Cause for this Reason because it is below any Man of Sense or Learning to appear at the Head of such a Cause which is against both And I fain would have such Thoughts of you still and conclude that you only did it to satisfy the Importunities of one that had been formerly your Apothecary in Worcester This Sir is the Interpretation I would willingly put upon it in Favour of your Reputation which must needs be lessened otherwise especially amongst the Learned by Patronizing any thing which directly and manifestly is repugnant to Learned Men and Truth since the common Interest of the former so far as it is consistent with the latter should incline you rather to defend both than Patronize their Opponents viz. Ignorance and Falsity upon any consideration whatever This I say is the Interpretation I should put upon it though if it were so it would not be blameless to oppose Truth and Learned Men to serve a Friend or your Self were there not something in that Dedication so plain and evident as to suggest some other Reason for your Patronage For Mr. Colbatch says the Doctrin advanced in his Book is not new to you it being what you long ago Practised even before he knew you how he came to know what your Practice was before he knew you looks to me like Contradiction and I am inclined to believe he strained to say so much beyond Truth only that your Name might the better recommend his Book so that it seems if your Name will serve him by adding Authority to his Book he 'll tell an Untruth to serve you so that I am apt yet in Favour of your Reputation to understand that you have permitted him to say it is your Practice to recommend it to the World that his Applause of you might go the farther And the Truth is this either your Practice agrees with what he says or you can make no good Excuse for permitting him to say so And truly Sir if what he says be not true you 'd do your self Justice to tell the World in Vindication of your Judgment and Practice that he hath imposed upon you but if you allow what he hath said I am sorry the Absurdities and Falsness of his Book obliges me to lay open the groundless and unreasonable Assertions there laid down because they are tho' falsely said to be so agreeable with your Practice But in this particular I must beg your Pardon for as I shall never write for the sake of Writing but Truth so I shall always endeavour to detect Falsities and vindicate the latter And though I shall ever have all that Respect for you and all Learned Men that I think due to Learning and Qualities so I must ever shew as little Respect to those that make it their Business to run down Learning Learned Men and Truth and without Reason tho' not some base and private End for tho' I have Learning or Knowledg little enough to make me so zealous in their Defence yet I shall ever think it worth my while to Defend that which I am willing to spend my time in the search of And were I in your Case I should never condescend so far as for Interest to Patronize that which I could give no Reason for But Sir The simplicity and falsness of his other Books I have already shewn and when I have laid open this I hope the World will see the shallowness of Mr. Colbatch and the Falsness of what he says so plainly that it will be no longer misled by him in a Matter that relates to the future Ruin of their Constitutions And Sir it at the best will be but little Credit to profess your self of the same Opinion with Mr. Colbatch an Apothecary and much less is it Honourable to joyn in a Cause with such a one that hath neither Knowledg nor Learning but Arrogancy and Boldness to support his Ignorance and to forsake the Cause of Truth and Learning to make a Party with such For all the Cry and Noise he can make of you will tend less to your Honour than your Reputation amongst Learned Men tho' it may help to captivate those who are easily deceived But Sir as I had formerly a great Opinion of your Merit so I would fain perswade my self still that you only permit him to say what he does in compliance with his too earnest Requests than any Opinion you have of the Truth of what he says and therefore when I have run over his Preface without any other Apologies I shall proceed to detect his Errors and shew the Falsness of what he there asserts without entituling you to so weak and open Errors and profess my self as ever Your very Humble Servant R. Boulton The next thing that comes in view after his Dedication is his Preface where Page the 11th he says The History of the Blood is to be fetched out of the Fire there being not one Page in it that does not cost me near a days Labour and Attendance at home in my Laboratory That he fetches it out of the fire I am afraid is ominous and that it will scarce be fit for any thing else but to return to that Element for there is so little Analogy betwixt Chymical Preparations and the Parts of a Mans Body that he 'll discover little to the purpose there to make the Use of them more intelligible and sorry I am he takes so much Pains to no purpose Page the 12 He says The following Piece is a Composition of Observations and Speculations at Coffee-Houses and such Places A very fit Place for such Compositions for any thing may serve for a News-House for want of better but it would have been better for him to have considered it at home in his Study for I am afraid he drank his Coffee so hot that he was scarce qualified for what my Lord Bacon says viz. That a cool Head is fittest for Consideration But how came he to take Observations of the Gout in Coffee-Houses Those I thought had been only to be made with his Patients but perhaps he had as many Patients there of that Distemper as any where else and consequently it might be as fit a Place to make Observations in But why not rather in his Study I warrant he had taken notice that the Ingenious Sir Richard Blackmore had writ his Heroic Poems in Coffee-Houses and such like Places and because he thought it sounded well to say so he must needs be a Wit too nay in time he may do well but I would have him think of the old Saying Nosce teipsum for if he were sensible of his own Weakness it would be better for him to take a private Thought at it if he knows how to think In the same Page He says
the Expence of his Experiments is so chargable that it would be fitter to be carryed on at the Expence of the Nation Nay and he states the Charge too a Thousand Pound a Year would not be felt by the Nation O! what a mighty Projector He has a Thought as extensive as the Nation 't is a Wonder he is not sent for to Court he 'd put them upon Ways and Means with a Witness if not to raise Money yet to lay it out But O! Vanity of Vanities verily every thing in Mr. John Colbatch is Vanity No less than a Thousand a Year must be spent upon Experiments made by a Man who hath neither Discretion nor Judgment to make them nor Philosophy to direct him how to make and how to apply them Truly it is a Wonder and a great one too that the Nation does not take Notice of him for he would be a mighty Jest were he known to the bottom Pag. xvth He says we do now grope most miserably in the dark and it grieves me to the very Soul when I see People in Distress and know not how to help them Poor Soul But I hope he hath a Cordial and a most noble Acid by him to take a Lick of now and then or else he might pine away for he looks very thin and what must then become of all those Angelic Faces that brought such a mighty Qualm over his Stomach in the Small-Pox Ah! Beauty and Distress are two great Causes of his Grief but I believe Money is the Root of all the Evil. Really if turning his Books would do good poor Man though he does not understand them he 'd never cease to do it but it hath proved in vain and now he confesses himself ignorant and truly I think not without reason for through all his Books I have yet examined he hath groped so miserably in the dark that I had sometimes much ado to find where he was or what Cloud he was lost in he was so far from Truth and the Light which ought to be in his Expressions but God be thanked he 's come to Moon-shine at the last but his Misfortune is that glimmering Light has led him into a Wilderness where he is no better then in the dark having lost his Way in Experiments that he misapplies and makes bad Use of because he does not understand them But why must it be we grope in the dark Is Mr. John Colbatch more then one or does he speak for his Companions As for rational Physicians they are not so miserably in the dark but that they have Reason for what they do and know what to do tho' Distempers are sometimes so violent as not to yeild to proper Medicines But well may Apothecaries grope in the dark when they pretend to things they don't understand since even in the Light they mistake their Way most miserably Pag. xvi He says He hath grounded his Hypothesis upon plain Experiments and he expects an Answer should be backed with Experiments And so far I shall satisfy his Curiosity by and by Pag. xvi He says he remembers he said in his Essay of Alkalies he had not had many Patients and really the Number has not been much increased yet what little Reason then hath he to write upon a Subject where were what he says true as to his Pretensions in the Cure of Distempers general Rules are not to be made by a particular Constitution but since what he says is false he had much less Reason to be so bold and it is but a sorry Recommendation to his Book that he grounded it upon such small Reason Pag. xvii If People are once satisfy'd that the Bloods abounding with Alkalious Particles is the Cause of the Gout and other Distempers it necessarily follows that Acids are only proper to correct the said Alkaline Particles And further Pag. xviii He says I do assert that the Cause of the Gout is not the Bloods abounding with Acids but Alkalies But in Opposition to this Assertion I say I assert that it is not from Alkalies but Acids and this I shall prove from what he hath said of the Gout in his Book of Alkaly and Acids and because he desires that Arguments against this Book should be backed with Experiments I shall bring as substantial Experiments against his Hypothesis as he hath for it to wit the same and shall shew that he hath so overlooked these Experiments and understands them so little that he hath drawn false Conclusions from them and this I shall do when I come to his Book in its proper Place Page xix He asks if Acids abound in the Blood how comes a Dead Body to stink so soon every Body knows that Acids preserve Animal Substances from Stinking and Corruption But this relating to the Cause of the Gout I should answer it when I come to that Cause which he hath laid down in his Book But for once I shall answer this Question where it is asked for that a dead Body stinks so soon only shews that a Body in a Natural State abounds with Alkalies for a Body that is killed by some sudden Accident will stink as soon as one that dyes by a Distemper so that this proves nothing at all in Relation to Distempers Page xxiij He says He hath had wonderful and astonishing Success in the Cure of Fevers And truly It is astonishment to me for I wonder how any Body ever scaped with their Lives considering the Methods he takes in most Distempers but perhaps he used his Acids moderatly so that the Mischeif might be less conspicuous Page xxv He says I must needs confess that I have been the warmer in some of my Expressions that thereby I might exasperate those who are my professed Enemies to convince me of my Errors and if so he did well but he only saith this to suggest to his Friends that they must take all that write against him to be his Enemies lest they should believe what they say but I profess I am so far from being exasperated towards him or being his Enemy that I write only to detect such notorious Errors and for Truth sake and did it lie in my Power to make Interest for him in his own Trade I would do all I could to set him in it as far as he deserves it for I am sorry to see him grope in the Dark so miserably in a way he hath no Understanding to lead him and were I his Friend I should cordially advise him to follow Light rather than Darkness and like an honest Man to fall to his Trade again now he has broke that Impostume in his Head that filled him so much with Vanity and a corrupted Mass of dismal dark Thoughts But I am afraid he is not capable of Advice being so much blown up with Conceit that though a Wise Man would hear Instruction yet a Fool hates Knowledg as the Wise Man says Page xxxij He says If any one will by well grounded and
defends it by calling Roman Priests Whoremasters but it is a Wonder Mr. Colbatch did not quote Hypocrates his Aphorisms for this Observation Page 28. He says Fifthly Overmuch Sleep and to explain how overmuch Sleep does Gouty People so much prejudice he tells us that his Worthy Friend Dr. Cole hath made it appear that the Nervous Fibres during Sleep are relaxed and receive a large quantity of Nutritious Juice the Superfluities of which are thrown off when awake but when we sleep too long so much is heaped up that Nature cannot throw off the Excrementitious Particles Page 30. This is the substance of what fills part of his 28th 29th 30th and most of the 31st Page only repeated in a different Form three or four times over I shall not here dispute what he inserts as Dr. Cole's Opinion but shall shew that granting it were true it would not be of any service to him for as it is remarkable in that Observation of Dr. Lowers that Transpiration is much more plentiful when we sleep than when we are awake and more particularly may be observed by any Ingenious Gentlemen that more of the substance of our Bodies is consumed by lying in Bed three Days than we can recover in six so it evidently from thence appears that Alkalies are not the cause of Distempers because it Alkalies were according to what Mr. Colbatch said a little before Sleeping much would cure the Distemper for he there would have that Juice that is carried off by Sweat to be Alkaly and Page 24. says moist Air does harm by hindring the Evacuation of that Alkaly but if that were true the more we sleep the less subject we should be to the Gout because more of that Alkaline Humour would be carried off by Insensible Transpiration and consequently we must be induced to believe that the Blood is made more dull and gross for want of Moisture and Alkalies to dilute it and it would be more reasonable to say that the reason why People are so sluggish after so much Sleep is because the Humours are more gross and thick and circulate through the parts with less ease so much alkalized Serum being carried off by Sweat in Sleep and the gross parts being left behind in which Acids abound But one may see that not only Alkalies turn Acid and Acids Alkalies to do him a kindness but when he hath a mind Transpiration being stoped promotes the Gout Page 24. But now in contradiction to that Sweating much hath the same effect so that his Alkaly is so mischievous that whether it be in the Body or not it hath the same Effects there Page 31. He says Sixthly Overmuch Watching and Fasting and Study and Sorrow and Care and much Labour occasions the Gout the Nerves and nervous Fibres being kept in a state of Laxity too long by being overcharged with slimy moist Particles Here he hath coupled no less than six words in a Gang with a whole Troop of and 's to link them together perhaps in Imitation of and Compliance with a late Act of Parliament in which it was ordered that not above six Horses should be linked together in Service upon the High Road but whether that was his reason or not I shall here take notice that it being allowed that the Fibres are overcharged with a slimy Moisture proves nothing to his purpose but against him for since I have already so plainly shewn that Acids are the cause of Coagulations and that Alkalies are not it must needs follow that the cause of that slimy Juice is acid and that Acids do cause Coagulations is further plain by applying of Vitriolick Acids to stop Bleeding which presently obstructs a small Orifice by coagulating the Blood Page 32. He says Seventhly Overmuch Rest and Ease do greatly contribute towards the producing this Distemper c. And then he says Eighthly Sudden Rest and exposing the Body to cold or moist Seasons And then Page 33. Ninthly A total bearing off of any accustomed Exercise But his Seventhly and Ninthly being both comprized under what he said Fifthly and what he says Eighthly but the same he said First these are to be carried to their proper Heads to receive the same Answer and I can see no reason why his Tenthly should not be comprized with the First since keeping the Feet too hot or too cold would not influence our Bodies much otherways than moist or dry Weather only a little more violently and he had no need to have proceeded so far as Eleventhly since what he said might be comprized under six Heads answerable to the six Non-naturals But I remember Page 24. the Devil turned Hydra and so he was resolved to give his Hydra as many Heads as he could tho they were all like one another and perhaps he did it to imitate Nature in the forming of that Creature But Eleventhly Since an odd Number is lucky let 's see how Fortunate he is with it Page 34. The stopping of any usual Evacuation as the Monthly Courses in Women and a Flux of the Hemorrhoids in Men. Poor Man Here according to his usual Failings and his laudable Custom of contradicting himself and mistaking his own meaning he is safe but hath the ill Fortune to mistake in another Method and judiciously takes the Cause for the Effect for the stopping of the Courses and Hemorrhoids is not the cause of the Gout but that vicid acid Juice that causes the Gout also causes the obstructions of Courses and Hemorrhoids for as long as the Blood is in a Natural State the Courses never are obstructed but when it is thickned by Acids it obstructs in those parts so that that vicid Matter which causes the Gout also precedes a stoppage of the Courses and causes both Having shewed you how he hath furnished his Hydra with eleven Heads he now comes to another and says Secondly That the Blood and Juices during the time of the Fit abound not with Acid but Alkalious ones I abominate Tautologies c. Truly there is great sign that he abominates Repetitions since this hath been repeated in almost every Page of his Book and I have so often shewed that these Distempers proceed from Acids that should I repeat what I have so often confuted it would be but unnecessary Repetition I shall therefore refer the Reader to what hath gone before Page 35. He says It will raise ones Admiration to see how we have groped in the dark for want of making Experiments I have often found the quantity of Alkaly that is obtained from the Blood of People labouring under a Fit of the Gout to exceed that obtainable from People in a state of Health Now supposing this were true and I only suppose it for he that hath told so many Untruths in his Novum Lumen Chirurgicum may very well be suspected any thing that he says still Mr. Colbatch can by no means leave off his groping in the Dark and shewing People that he 's got out of his way in
Page 60. He says What I have said is not to reproach the Physicians of our own Nation who are many of them as great Men as ever were of the Profession and generally this City abounds with such but my design is to undeceive Young Physicians who are imposed upon by Foreign Authors But our Author Mr. Colbatch must think himself a strange sort of a Wit or the Physicians in London very easily imposed upon to be flattered with such a dull pretence as this for if he did not reproach the Physicians of this City who does he mean When Page 58. He says The Medicines here prescribed are those that are generally used by most Physicians surely most Physicians must needs comprize the generality of this City but if he would pretend only to undeceive Young Physicians why did he in his Preface to this Book call Physick a Scene of Slaughter since Young Physicians scarce kill before they have Practice enough to be Subjects of Slaughter But this is to let us know that he is Conscious that he hath laid that to Physicians Charge which properly belongs to himself and would thus stop their Resentments with this dry Complement But did he not say what he hath done was only to reproach as great Men as ever were of the Profession but those that are imposed upon by Foreign Writers why did he not then direct his Book against those Writers But we must give him leave to contradict himself to say and unsay as odd as it looks for his Head is made up of nothing but short Raptures without thought or foresight Besides were what he here says true it had been his best way to have gone amongst his Adversaries where by a total Conquest he would have got Credit more than he must expect by thus weakly exposing himself amongst Men he hath nothing to say against as he here says Page 61. He goes on If the Blood 's abounding with Alkalious Particles be the Primary or Fundamental Cause of the Gout how can the giving of Alkalies be of any Use Of no other Use than the throwing of a Company of dryed Fagots upon a House that is on fire would be to extinguish the Flame and whoever should attempt such a thing would I suppose be accounted little less than a Mad-man To this I answer that since I have so often made it appear that the Acidity of the Serum from whence its Viscidity proceeds is the cause of this Distemper and it hath been plainly proved by evident Observations and Reasons that giving more Acids is the way to encrease the Distemper He alone is the Mad-man that can give no reason for what he does but what is plainly contradictory to his own Practice but this is a strange sort of a Man to call all Physicians Mad-men Page 61. and Page 58. He says He will be Burn'd if ever they did good yet Page 60 says He does not do it to reproach the Physicians of our own Nation Whether does he talk like a Wise-man or like Mr. Colbatch now But Page 61. further to let the World know that he hath a mighty Insight into a Glover's Trade he tells a Story of a Philosophical Glover from whence he seems to draw his Conclusions and upon which one would guess he had built his Hypothesis He says They first throw their Skins into a Pit filled with a strong Alkalious Lixivium which makes them in a manner rotten afterwards they make a strong Acid Solution into which they throw their almost rotten Skins which again reduces them to their Texture nay makes them firmer than they were at the first Truly Mr. Colbatch was very happy in so Philosophical a Companion for doubtless he received wonderful hints from one that was used to grope Philosophically in Lime-Pits and had he been Seven Years an Apprentice to him without question Mr. Colbatch would have been a very notable Man at the Trade and would have handled Hides very Philosophically nay and for ought I know might have made as Ingenious a Man at it as Mr. Yardly for he would have got wonderful Improvements by such weighty Debates as would have passed betwixt them two but of what advantage soever it might have been to him to have improved his Knowledge in that Trade I am sure Mr. Yardly's Story does him little service here for it directly proves that Acids are most pernicious in the Gout and that Alkalies are the only Remedies to be depended upon for if Alkalies so softned the Skins there is a great reason to hope that they will also dissolve and soften those Humours that swell the Parts affected being hardened and obstructed there but if Acids will harden the Skins when soft consequently they must harden that Alkalious Matter lodged in the Gouty Parts and so do more harm by fixing it there But Page 62. He is happy Quoniam successus ejus sol vidit oneres autem tellus operiret otherwise because those he does not Kill think he Cures them but those he sends packing to another World have not the advantage of telling their Friends the dismal Cause of their Departure and how they were sent to another World by Mr. Colbatch his Acids From Page 62. to Page 67. he tells a long Story of a Man that was troubled with an Iliack Passion but why that comes in this Chapter I cannot tell except he wanted something to fill it up with Page 67. he says The Skin abounds with Receptory as well as Excretory Pores which I have frequently observed in the Skins of many Animals by the means of my Optick Glasses Really he seems to be mighty inquisitive into the Skins of Animals since he hath been acquainted with the Ingenious and Philosophical Glover Mr. Yardly but it seems he is not content with Mr. Yardly's Enquiry into Skins but hath got his Opticks to them as if he had a mind to be the Author of some new Discovery and would help his weak sight by Spectacles But perhaps he remembered that Malpigius and others who had made great Discoveries in Anatomy made use of Microscopes and so he being a great Man in his own Conceit must needs peep through a Glass too But to what purpose Truly he hath discovered Receptory Pores as well as Excretory Pores But I ask him how he knew which were Receptory Pores by looking at them Which is utterly impossible And I am afraid he hath stared so much on the outside that he hath scarce looked enough within or he would have understood things a little better than he does and I am sorry to see one that hath so little Reason pretend to be so saucy with all Learned Men and not only so but Dogmatical and Positive where he ought to be humble and repent of what ill Practice he hath hitherto followed endeavouring to impose upon Mankind CHAP. VI. Contains Remarks on his Fourth Chapter I Come now last of all to his Method of Cure to undeceive these Ingenious Gentlemen that he hath hitherto imposed
of the same Medicines he had given before what I have said sufficiently answers them As to the first He says he had his Patient in a Fit about a Month in which I shall observe that Page 93. He says This was the most dreadful Fit of the Gout I ever saw And had not the Medicines well suited with the Distemper to have abated the Violence of the raging Pain I believe he had certainly never got over it To use the Words of Mr. Colbatch the Champion I believe he had certainly never got over it had not his Distemper been very mild of it self for from what I have already said it most evidently appears the Gout is caused by Acids and consequently that they will be so far from abating the Distemper that they are the Causes of that Pain so that we have strong reason to believe that the Distemper being mild was increased by his Acids for the Reasons which are up and down in this Book and also because notwithstanding the Use of his Acids or rather by reason of them it was the most dreadful Fit that ever he saw and continued for a Month. In the second Case he thinks it not for his Credit to tell how long the Distemper continued but from what hath gone before I am satisfied it would have gone off sooner without his Crem Tartar and Tartar Vitriolat I have now gone through his Treatise of the Gout and have fully laid open the grand Blunders and Absurdities the Unpardonable Mistakes and Falseness of every thing he asserts throughout his Book and have proved by plain Experiments and Observations both that the Foundation of his Practice is false those Experiments that he builds upon being strong Proof against him and also that the Practice he builds upon that Foundation is also Absurd and Dangerous I might now go on to his next and last Book wherein he further asserts his Doctrine of Alkalies and Acids but the latter end of this Book containing a Relation of Fevers I shall first make some brief Remarks upon the same And here all that I need to take notice of is that whatever Credit may be got by the Use of Acids in Fevers is not to be attributed to him it having always been the constant Practice of Physicians to use Acids in Fevers except Malignant in which Experience and Reason pleads against him so that did he lay down any thing as to the Cause or Cure of Malignant Fevers by Acids I should lay open his Ignorance by Reason and back my Reasons with the success of Alkaly used in those Distempers by Physicians for above an hundred Years But since here he only gives the History of five Persons in which he hath the liberty to tell as many Falsities as he did in his Novum Lumen Chirurgicum and since he only tells how he managed those Patients without laying down the Reasons of those Distempers and may say what he will Truth or Falsities as to the success of his Medicines all that I shall say to these is That since all that we have to judge of in these Cases is his own Account of himself which may be very likely false since we have found him notoriously guilty of such Faults before that we have reason to suspect him to give false Account of Distempers now and to make them worse than they were to applaud himself I say all I need to observe is the Absurdities in those Methods he here lays down and how much the Patients might suffer by his irregular Practice and how injudiciously and ignorantly he manages those Acids that have all along been used in Fevers only with more Discretion and Judgment than one of his Dullness can pretend to This I say might be the Subject of my Remarks but as he always affirms that he had good Success and is afraid to tell the Persons least he should be disproved I shall only say that if they recovered it was more to be attributed to the Mildness of the Distemper than his Management since he as an ill Painter who abuses his Colours makes an irregular Use of Medicines which by a prudent Hand might be of more use I shall therefore in the next place proceed to examine and lay open the Mistakes and Injudicious Blunders of his next Book having so truly represented this that Ingenious Gentlemen may very easily be satisfied of the Falseness of his Assertions and how egregiously he hath imposed upon Mankind which since it was writ for their sakes I hope they will so far consider as may prevent them from exposing themselves to his irregular Usage and the dreadful Consequences of it But all that he says in his Attempt to prove what Life is being nothing but as if it were incoherent Scraps and broken Thoughts which seem to be partly stol'n from Dr. Willis I shall refer him for an Answer to my late little Book of the Heat of the Blood and of the Use of the Lungs and shall first examine this Book as far as relates to a further Assertion of the Use of Acids and shall then shew how absurdly he used Esq Turner AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS DOCTRINE of ACIDS IN THE Cure of Diseases Further Asserted c. Wherein his Absurdities and Erroneous Opinions are truly Represented and fully Confuted AS ALSO A VINDICATION of the Proceedings of the Learned Dr. Fry of Oxford in a late Case of Edmund Turner Esq in Opposition to the Irrational Usage of Mr. Colbatch LONDON Printed in the Year 1699. AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS DOCTRINE of ACIDS IN THE Cure of Diseases Further Asserted c. I Come now to the last part of my Task and truly were it not my sole Design to detect such grand Errors and to vindicate Truth established by long Observations of Ingenious and Learned Men and confirmed by daily Experience I should never prevail with my self to spend any more time with such nauseous and abominable Mistakes as his Book abounds with but for Truth 's sake and for the Good of those that are imposed upon by him I shall proceed to an Examination of what is contained in this Book And first I shall take notice that this Book is made up of three Parts First A further Assertion of the Use of Acids Secondly An Attempt to prove what Life is And Lastly An Account of Mr. Turner's Case which I shall therefore examine in three distinct Chapters But before I proceed to an Examination of his Book I shall first take notice of some things which are premised to the Reader where Page iii. He says I am every Day pestered with Objection of one kind or another and therefore to save my self the labour of writing Pacquets of Letters every Post-Day I have thought fit to answer those Objection that are worth taking notice of in this publick manner A very fair Confession upon my word This I hope will satisfie Ingenious Gentlemen nay and all knowing Women what a slippery Hypothesis Mr.
John Colbatch who was late Apothecary in Worcester hath advanced for it seems not only those that write against him are endeavouring to detect his Errors but whole Pacquets of Letters come daily to convince him so that Gentlemen may see that his Hypothesis is not only cryed down by those which he would represent as his Enemies but a vast Number of his Private Friends are satisfied of his Faults and those Letters I hope will be stronger Arguments because since they are private they cannot be thought to be writ out of a design to expose but to convince him But he says He hath thought fit to answer those Objections c. very cautiously done since it was Mr. Colbatch that takes this Method he does well to think it only worth his while to answer those which he thinks he can deal with and to keep those in private that are too hard for him but here I would advise those that write to him to be cautious for if it be Nonsence he 'll expose them if their Objections be sound they lose their labour for he 's resolved not to be convinced by any means knowing that as boldness in a bad Cause hath supported him hitherto so that is all he depends on for the future Page vi and vii He says I never yet pretended to make People Immortal my endeavour having all terminated in this viz. to be serviceable to my fellow Creatures in distress as much as I am able The Wise-Man says That no Man hath Power in the Day of Death and that there is no discharge in that War The Issues of Life and Death being only in the Hands of the Almighty This is the second time he hath thought himself bound to Apologize for the frequent Departures of his Patients and God knows not without need for how serviceable he may be to his Fellow Creatures I have already shew'd viz. in hastening the Number of the Elect and as it is never usual except upon the Death of Persons to fall into such strains of Divinity so I am induced to believe nothing else could bring him to his Bible Page viii After a Confession of his own Deficiency He says I dare almost be confident that even in my own Time the Cudgels will be taken up and the Hypothesis maintain'd and asserted by one who is able to go through-stitch with it better than I can To this I say that let him be who he will that will take up a Cudgel I have taken up one and tho I won't be confident yet I dare promise to engage my self his Opponent in this Cause being here he will have neither Truth nor Reason on his side but before I leave his Preface I cannot but take notice of a very Philosophical Word he here makes use of viz. Through Stitch and here I make bold to ask Mr. Colbatch one Question Whether through would not have expressed as much without stitch Truly it would but we must remember Mr. Colbatch hath had the Honour to be intimately acquainted with the Philosophical Glover Mr. Yardley of whom he makes an Honourable Mention in his Treatise of the Gout and no wonder that amongst the rest of his Improvments in his Critical Enquiry into the Skins he learnt this Learned Phrase Through-Stitch from him it being common for Glovers to Stitch through and through again Having made these brief Remarks to give Ingenious Gentlemen a Light in our Author from his own words I shall now proceed to examine what he says for a further Assertion of the Use of Acids and shall only first briefly take notice of the occasion of it which is this One Dr. Tuthill of Dorchester writ a Letter to Mr. Colbatch this last Winter dated August 9. 97. in which he raised some weak Objections which Mr. Colbatch finding to be of no force writ this Answer to and in his Preface dates it October the 8th 1697. And in Answer to this again Mr. Tuthill hath writ about three Sheets in Vindication of his Objections where he exposes his own Weakness more than in this Letter bringing very weak or false Arguments in proof of what he had ill grounded here but as Mr. Tuthill was brought into Print at the first perhaps without his Consent so he now is forced to say something in Defence of what he might carelesly write to Mr. Colbatch in a private Letter and therefore he is to be a little excused for the Faults of his Letter and consequently what he hath said in this last Answer may be thought only as a Flourish to repair or save his Credit and truly had he not submitted to use mean and servile Flattery to a Man that is so far from deserving such Complements I should have had a little better Opinion of him but to complement a Man that is more Ignorant than himself and to call what Mr. Colbatch hath writ in this Book Ingenious Solutions and to tell one that hath endeavoured to impose upon all the World that all the World is obliged to him looks as if Mr. Tuthill had a Mind to flatter Mr. Colbatch to stop his Mouth least he should spit at him again and I rather believe so because Mr. Tuthill in the beginning of those Sheets says he would not have writ them had he not been pressed and urged to it by some Friends and truly one would think by what he writes that it was with much ado squeez'd out of him and like Drops of Blood almost stuck by the way and he had done better had not it been pressed out of him because it is a very bad Sample of what is in him But as the Dispute betwixt these two Warriours is inconsiderable so I shall pass them by without any other notice than as they afforded me half an Hours Diversion for when I read them I thought indeed they were very hard matched and complemented as prettily as a Pedlar does on a Holiday and could compare them to nothing more properly than to two Drunken Men who fight in the Dark and strike at random without understanding what they are about or giving one another many Blows I shall therefore in favour of Mr. Tuthill who I think was brought into the Scuffle against his Will examine what Mr. Colbatch here says in favour of what I have already shewn to be notoriously false and shall lay open what he here says so fairly that it will instead of Vindicating what he said before prove against him The first thing that offers it self to be taken notice of is this Page 4 5. He says Whilst I was fairly jogging on in the ordinary Method of Practice a certain Gentleman recommended to me a powerful Acid which he told me I might rely upon in the Cure of some sort of Fevers When I considered the Thing as an exalted Acid I could scarce give the least Credit to what he said However considering the fatal Success that frequently attended the Use of Alkalies and Alexipharmicks which however at that time I durst
give against his Book and therefore I shall give him a Philosophical One and shall leave him to consider whether there be fire in a green and growing Tree and if it be how comes it not to shew it self when we are certain most of it's Substance may be turned into Fire Page 31 He says I do still affirm that Fevers in general do proceed from a Constipation of the Emunctories And this Affirmation is very little to his purpose for since he elsewhere says that all the Excrements of our Bodies are Alkalies Alkalies cannot hinder their Evacuations but only Acids which by contracting the Pores of those Emunctories and withal thickning the Serum make it unfit to be carried off Page 34 He says By the way I beg of you that you will not rank the Rad. Serpentariae with the Pulv. è chelis and Spr. CC. for the Rad. Serpentariae belongs to me Truly Mr. Colbatch does well to claim his Priviledges but there is no other Reason why it should not be classed with Pulv. è chelis but this that it corrects Acids abundantly more powerfully and if that which evidently tastes Bitter and destroys Acids can be an Acid then Acid is Bitter and Black is White but till Mr. Colbatch can prove that Rad. Serpentariae will be no Acid. Page 35 He says I do boldly assert that in no Fever that ever I have yet met with let them be either Benign or Malign have I ever yet observed that the Patient hath been in the least Sensible of any Acidity in the Stomach or Mouth But notwithstanding Acidity is not perceivable in the Mouth yet it is probable and true that Acidity is the occasion of the foulness perceived there by making it too thick and clammy to go off by other proper Passages and Mr. Colbatch so far is Block-head-like in the Right of it for sometimes they have a clammy bitter Taste in their Mouths but yet according to his own Confessions Acids are the Cause of that Bitter Taste for he says Acids are Bitter Namely Rad. Serpentariae Again if Acids are Bitter perhaps he will say Choler is an Acid and no doubt but if it were for his purpose he would say so had he not elsewhere called it an Alkaly But that it may be more evident that Acidity is the Cause of all those ill Tastes which Feverish People have we are to remember that he often asserts that all the Excrements of our Body are Alkalies and if so Acidity is the Cause of those ill Tastes in the Mouth because they alone according to the Doctrin of Acids and Alkalies can hinder these Alkalies from going off by their proper Emunctories which I have sufficiently proved before and therefore need not say any more here Page 41. First He says The Life of Man is Flame c. And Page 42 he asks If Fire is not actually existent in Animal Bodies how is it possible it should be extracted from them As for the first of these I have Answered it sufficiently in my Treatise of the Heat of the Blood and therefore I shall refer the Reader to that for an Answer it being not necessary to transcribe all that I have there said in Answer to Dr. Willis his Opinion All that he further says from Page 42 to 54 is to assert that there is Flame in the Blood and that there is no Fermentation But it being only Dr. Willis his Opinion I shall also refer the Reader for an Answer there and I wonder Mr. Colbatch did not think fit to Vindicate Dr. Willis from those Objections but the Reason I believe is because he could not for when I was lately in London he told me he had writ something to this purpose and when I asked whether he had answered my Book he told me he did not love to mix his Notions with other Men's and that he would not read my Book till his was printed which I conceive was only an Excuse because at that time he had writ most of this Book against Tuthill and was willing to print it against him tho' at the same time he knew my Book contained a Confutation of it all that he says coming to no more than that the Blood grows hot by Accension and not by Fermentation the former of which is sufficiently confuted in my Answer to Dr. Willis and tho' I have asserted that the Blood grows hot by Fermentation yet any one that reads my Book and compares it with what he says will see that I don't mean by Fermentation such a Fermentation as he here denies but only such a Degree of Motion of the Minute Particles of Matter as are able to cause a Sensation of Heat upon our Sensory Page 44. To prove that Heat is not produced after the Cartesian Hypothesis He says I can assure you I know several Fluids the more brisk they are moved the colder they are as for Instance a River is always colder in that Place where there is a quick Current than where the Water stands still The Air is always more or less cold according as the Motion of it is greater or lesser and I can assure you I have been almost starved when forced to Travel in the high Winds in the Winter time at which Season the Air is most full of Nitrous Particles And again Page 50 He says If the progressive Motion from the Heart to the Extremities gives it it's Heat by the same Reason I think the Water which runs from our Cocks should be warm also Now from hence we way easily gather what an extraordinary Philosopher Mr. Colbatch is who attributes the Heat or Cold of Fluids to a collective Motion of a whole Mass instead of the Particles which constitute that Mass for he says a River is Coldest where the Current is greatest and to this I Answer that I having given the Reason of Heat in my Treatise of the Reason of the Heat of the Blood I need not repeat it again but least Mr. Colbatch when he finds it there cannot apply it I shall tell him that the Reason why Wind and Water tempestuously moved cause Cold is because those Parts are more forcibly driven upon the Sensory and how they cause a Cold Sensation there is plain from what I have said concerning the Vse of the Lungs in admitting Nitre into the Blood where I have asserted that tho' Nitre be in a gentle Motion it self when Fluid in the Air yet it is Naturally inclinable to rest and disposes those Humors to a rest with which it is mixed for which reason Water freezes in the Winter and tho' the Water and Air in which this Nitre swims be in Motion yet that is not such a Motion as causes Heat for a Sensation of Heat depends on Matter in such a degree of Motion as is a little above Nature which preternaturally affecting us causes Heat and that Motion is not a Motion of a whole Mass collectively but a swift intestin Motion of the Parts of that Matter
Blood violently ferment yet when kept separate in their proper Vessels they do not In the same Page you say I take a great deal of Pains to shew that the Animal Spirits heat the Blood by the Glandules those Emunctories of the Body But here Doctor you have only shewed your Parts so far that you will tell Lies to make your self merry for I am sure I have no such Words in my Book therefore you must be very much out of Order and it is a bad Symptom in all hot Distempers especially Fevers of the Brain to rave so strangely but truly I pity you you not only fancy Things to be in my Book which are only in your own Head but are mightily affected with the Fumes of a Bog-house which you mention Page the 7th which is another Memorandum what use to make of your Remarks Page the 7th you say There is not one Notion in my Book but what is taken either from Dr. Gibson Dr. Willis Mr. Boyle Dr. Mayow Dr. Connor Monsieur le Grand or the Exercitationes Quinque lately Printed at a Private Press in Oxford But Doctor tho' you think fit to tell the World I have read so many good Books except the last I challenge you to shew my Notions were taken out of any of them or any others and had you been in your Senses you might have shewn me where what I have said was to be found in those Books but I question whether you have read them your self except the Exercitationes Quinque which I suppose is the Cause of your Passion because it is not taken notice of by the Learned for which Reason I have taken care to place a Distance betwixt it and those Authors too good to be nam'd with such Company Pag. the 9th you quote two Sentences out of my Book and at the same time dream for surely you are not awake except you rave of Contradictions but since no body can see any Contradiction there I shall in short tell you that those two Sentences differ only in Words not in Signification In the same Page you say I have not fully replyed to Diemerbroek nor Dr. Henshaw and that I am the first Man that ever discovered cold Chyle in the Body of a living Animal As for what I said to Diemerbroek and Dr. Henshaw tho' I might have said a great deal more yet what I have is sufficient and as for my discovering cold Chyle in the Body of a living Animal when your Indisposition is a little abated look into my Book and you will see how wild you were in your Fit for I don't say there is cold Chyle in the Body of a living Animal but only Pag. 66 of my Book He might as well have said that there is so great a Dissimilitude betwixt hot Blood and cold Milk that as soon as c. which is as much as to say it is impossible And which is only spoke in reference to such a Liquor without the Body besides Milk is not Chyle nor is Chyle called Milk in the Body of a living Animal Pag. the 10th you say All the Names in Europe cannot give me the constituent Parts of a Philosopher Strange How peevish crazy Pates are sometimes Truly Doctor you have hit the Nail on the Head Mens Names contribute very little to their Understandings and I suppose Children at Baptism are scarce Philosophers but whether I am one or not I suppose you are not capable of judging but whatever I am now were my Name Charles Leigh I should in vain hope to be one Pag. the 10th you say I assert Attrition to be the Cause of Fermentation and Fermentation the Cause of Nutrition c. This is another Symptom of your Distemper and no Wonder that you who employ your Thoughts on Pigs Mice c. should be so short-sighted in Physick but since Pag. the 5th you let us understand that you are a little acquainted with Cookery you had made a nearer Comparison if you had said that when a Pot boils over the Fire acts on the Water and the Water by that Means being forc'd out of the Pot acts on the Fire by putting it out or to give you a plainer Instance of mutual Action and Passion suppose you in one of your Fits should knock your Head against a Post for writing such Remarks would not your Head act upon the Post and the Post upon your Head Pray think of it when your Fit is a little off and consider that all I say comes to no more than that there is a mutual Action and Passion as I otherwise expressed it Pag. the 12th you pretend to quote some Words of mine where you affirm that I say I have explained an Account of the Heat of the Blood without any manner of Proof But had Dr. Leigh's Morals been as good as his Will was prejudiced you might have us'd my Words and taken notice of what followed for my Words are Having premis'd an Account of the Heat of the Blood c. I shall now proceed to a Proof of what I have propos'd collectively c. But alas no wonder that one under the Influence of the Moon in the Company of Diego should be out of the way In the same Page and Pag. 13. you say I have mistaken an Experiment for instead of Spirit of Wine it should be Spirit of Nitre But Doctor had I said Spirit of Nitre and Oyl of Turpentine would have done so it would be nothing but what was commonly known and the Reason why I said Spirit of Wine would do so was upon very good Grounds it being told me by a Friend whose Sincerity I did not question and I the sooner believ'd it because Dr. Willis in his Book de Fermentatione says thus Spiritus Vini Phialae inclusus nulla Effervescentiae signa prodit sin verò Spirtiui huic parum Olei Terebinthinae adjiciatur Particulae Liquoris adeò exiliunt ut hinc Vitrum hermetice obsignatum effractum viderim which was some Grounds to think so but suppose he that communicated it to me was imposed upon it takes up but two Lines in my Book upon which the Proof of nothing in my Book depends and if it did the common Experiment would supply it and that Doctor you might have easily seen had you not been too intent upon your curious Observations of Diego and his Spanish Geese and hedging in the Cuckow but one that had Roger of Coverly in his Head the Truth is is very unfit to consider any thing that requires more Atention than your Curiosity amongst the Pigs Mice Dogs and Bog-Houses Pag. the 14th you take notice that I have in my Book hinted at the common Indications in Fevers and are angry because I take no further notice of the Method generally us'd in the Cure But as it was not my Business in that Place to give a fuller Account of Fevers than to hint at the curative Indications so it is more sufficient to satisfy the World that I
turn to Dr. Willis de Fermentatione where Chap. 11. Paragraph the 4th you will by the Assistance of your Spectacles at Mid-day see these Words Rei cujusque Temperies quoad Calorem à Sulphure imprimis dependet i. e. The Temper of all hot Bodies in Respect of Heat chiefly depend on Sulphur where you see you are of the same Opinion with Dr. Willis exactly and it is good Luck to agree with such an Author but pray Doctor did you take this Notion of Heat from Dr. Willis or did he take it from you think of it and when you do remember that his Book was writ long before yours but again look back to Page the 32 of your own Book where you quote these Words from Monsieur le Grand Provenit ergò Thermarum calor à Bituminis Sulphuris Misturâ quae dum inter se confunduntur per quandam Fermentationem Calorem concipiunt i. e. The Heat therefore of hot Baths proceeds from a Bitumen and Sulphur which whilst they are mixed acquire Heat by Fermentation now Doctor what does this differ from your Opinion you say Heat depends on a Mixture of sulphureous Particles so does le Grand for a Mixture of Bitumen and Sulphur is but one sulphureous Body with another now it is strange that Dr. Leigh should be so angry at me when he hath so much more Reason to be angry at himself and really he is so for when Dr. Willis says Heat proceeds from Sulphur and le Grand is of the same Opinion Dr. Leigh cannot bear it he contradicts them and keeps the Reasons to himself yet when he himself affirms the same thing as his own he thinks he hath done well phy Doctor I thought you had not been quite so crazy if you go on at this Rate Bethlem will not hold you And now Doctor must not this argue that your Brain is extreamly hot that you cannot discern your self of the same Opinion with these Men but there are further Instances than this nothing will serve you but my Notion of the Heat of the Blood must be taken from Dr. Willis le Grand and the Exercitationes Quinque truly had it been taken from one it had been taken from all because there is no Difference betwixt them but no body that pretends to Knowledge will pretend to say that my Notion of the Reason of the Heat of the Blood is to be compar'd to yours I mean Dr. Willis his for the formal Cause of the Heat of hot Baths is widely different from the formal Cause of the Heat of the Blood for the Heat of Baths according to Dr. Willis depends on a Mixture and Fermentation of sulphureous Parts but the Heat of the Blood I say depends on a Mixture and mutual Fermentation of animal Spirits and Blood which Account in my Treatise is different from all others yet laid down and which I believe I have sufficiently proved and if what I have said will not be sufficient to prove Truth I conceive I am furnished with Reasons which will which I did not lay down in my Book because what is there is enough N. B. That where I have said the Heat is caused so or otherwise I mean a Power to cause such a Sensation upon our Sensory for Fire is not actually hot in it self but as it affects our Sensory as I have proved in my Treatise of the Reason of the Heat of the Blood But how came I to forget I was talking to Dr. Leigh Doctor I beg your Pardon for being so serious and for talking of Reason I did not remember such Talk would disturb your Head come come Doctor let 's divert you a Windmill Diego and his Spanish Geese Roger a Coverly the Elephant Cheesemonger or what you please chuse your Subject and pray talk to your self for it 's usual for one in your Distemper I for my part shall pass my time on Subjects which are more proper Objects of Reason Your next Exercitation Doctor contains an imperfect Account of a Fever in Lancashire which since it only appear'd in a small part of Lancashire it would be as impertinent to trouble the World with a Refutation of what you say as it was useless for you to write it had you done it ingeniously I shall therefore only take notice of the first Page of it which seems to be very ominous Page 54. Vix datur Lunae Circuitus quin Febris quaedam exaestuans populariter grassatur ac si Ignis elementaris sub concavo Lunae hospitans c. i. e. There is scarce a Month but some burning Fever is abroad as if that Fire in the Concave of the Moon continually broil'd Mankind c. But you should rather have said as if Mens Constitutions and Way of living were the Cause of it then Fire in the Concave of the Moon for to say as if Fire in the Concave of the Moon caused it is as much as to say as if there were no Cause for it because there is no such Fire but poor Man Diego and his Spanish Geese and the Moon have influenc'd you the one hath made you a Goose the other a Mad-man In the next Place let us consider the Substance of your fourth Exercitation de Febribus intermittentibus where Page 87 you say Supponimus Febres omnes intermittentes Particulis salinis esse ortis i. e. This is your Opinion of the Cause of intermitting Fevers now pray Doctor turn to Dr. Willis of intermitting Fevers Chap. 4. Paragraph the 4th where you will find these Words Haec Sanguinis Constitutio in hac sita est quod Sulphuris ac Salis plus debito impregnatur And again Chap. the 6th he says Quod in hoc Morbo Sanguinis Liquor à Natura dulci spirituosa balsamica in acidam nonnihil austeram instar Vini acescentis transierit nimirum adest Sanguinis Penuria Sanguinis Pars terrestris seu tartarea quae constat imprimis Sale Terra nimis exaltatur Where you see Dr. Willis and you both agree that there is too much Salt in the Blood in intermitting Fevers now you see how much you are mistaken for in your Remarks you told me that I had taken my Notions from Dr. Willis but it seems you are still under the Influence of the Moon for instead of me it 's your self bless me Who could imagine you so much out of your Senses to take me for Dr. Leigh does not Dr. Leigh know himself No alas Tertius è Coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but tho' you don't know your self Doctor one would think you might know your own Book but how should you when it 's plain you don't know your Name at all times for in your Exercitation de Thermis calidis in a heat you cry experto crede Roberto i. e. believe experienc'd Robert instead of Charles but perhaps you thought no body would believe Charles Leigh and therefore you cry Crede Roberto but perhaps there may be another Reason why
proper Medicine But to conclude this Chapter it will give us no little Light into the strange Insolence of this Man who notwithstanding such ingenious Books as the Learned Dr. Willis Dr. Morton c. have writ concerning Consumptions and what the ingenious and truly Honourable Theod. Mayern and Dr. Willis have wrote of the Gout and also Dr. Lister with a great many more who have largely handled those Subjects this Man can have the Impudence to write not only contrary to them but also common Experience and that too neither with any Method or Reason for whereas those Learned Men have observed a great deal of Variety as to the Cause and Cure of those Distempers and that the Cure is to be varyed according to the different Tempers and Constitutions of Men he boldly and very irregularly says little or nothing to the purpose but that without any regard to the difference of Causes or the several peculiar Constitutions of Men's Bodies but it is not strange that one that hath so much Ignorance should have an equal share of Impudence for vain pretending Quacks and Mountebanks have no other way to cheat the World but by incredible Relations of Cures that were as unlikely as false But I shall not here enlarge on a Subject so copious as his Vanity and Boldness makes this but shall go on to consider the remaining Part of his Book there being Matter enough and too much for me to mispend my time upon CHAP. VII His Conclusion Examined PAGE 103 he says For all sort of Flesh abounding with large Quantities of Volatile Alkalious Salts if the said Alkalious Salts were in some measure locked up and mortified by means of the Sea Salt What then Nothing at all of a Conclusion I here expected some Inference or other would be drawn from it but his profound Phansy being lost and overwhelmed in a Salt Rock in Cheshire no less than twenty yards thick he forgot himself or rather overlooked what he was writing so that this Page and the next is a Speech without applying it to any thing Page 105. There is some Reason to believe that People before the Flood did not eat Flesh but lived altogether upon Vegetables as Fruits Herbs and Roots which I suppose was one great Reason of their Longaevity and it may be observed in Herefordshire and other Countries abounding with Fruit the People are longer lived then in those Countries that want them This truly is a Sign the Man's Thoughts have run a little further then his Wit and then his shallow Head is capable to go with any steadiness and truly by the incoherent Style of his Book one would guess he was no little way out of his Depth But I suppose this Noble Addition to Dr. Burnet's Theory was no otherwise designed but that People might know he had heard of such a Book whose Arguments he says are to him unanswerable but why so Because they are too Noble and Curious for him to understand and much more to answer but however ingeniously that Book is writ which truly I think for the Nobleness of the Thought the Elegancy of his florid Style and the Command which he seems to have of his Thoughts and Expressions with the greatest Ease and without straining for them makes it one of the most valuable Books our English Language is adorned with yet it 's not exempt from that Fate which all Books on that Subject have hitherto had and it is only a sign of Mr. Colbatch his shallowness and not of the reality of what 's contained there that makes the Arguments unanswerable to him though this must needs be said of them that though they are not really true yet they are delivered in such a Method that they would Insensibly wind one into a favourable Thought of 'em if one were not sufficiently Armed with Judgment and Reflection but so Ingenious and so Learned a Man as Dr. Burnet is being too good Company for such Ignorance as he is Eminent in I shall not mix their Names together any further least the Lustre of Dr. Burnet's Name should so dazle Peoples weak Eyes as not to perceive the Obscurity of the others and shall only consider the latter separately that the Light which might be borrowed from the former may not increase the faint Obscureness of his but that he may appear in his proper Colours And how absurd and ridiculous it is for to assert that eating Fruit preserves Peoples Lives and is the Cause of Longaevity whereas the generality of our English People as well as Physicians are certain that Fruit causes more Distempers in Children than any one thing amongst Non-naturals besides From Page 107 to Page 112. He tells a long story of a Child that was cured of a Tympany by being Bathed in Sea Water but what is that to his Credit Or what does this signifie to the Use of Acids in the Small-Pox Scurvey Gout Rheumatisms and Consumptions The common People certainly would laugh at him should they hear him affirm that they all proceed from the same Cause he might as well expect Fire to cool heat moysten and to dry the same Body But as for that Case of the Childs had he had the Luck to have advised that Girl to Bath in Sea-Water it would have been something for him to have talk't of but as it is an old Woman would have told a story that she had heard from another as well if not better than he hath done and now should he cure one by that same means it would be no Credit for him since he would do no more than what had been done in HEREFORD-SHIRE Page 112 He tells us what Helmont hath found by Experience in the Strangury viz. to cure it by cool Diureticks and what Discovery is this pray any rational Physician would have given either that or a Medicine much better in the same case but Helmont's Observations are none of his and he hath no share in the small Credit of it Page 113 He says An eminent Man took off Heart of Urine by Juice of Oranges and what then do not other Physicians give cold Diureticks upon the like occasion neither do they value themselves upon such things at all as are common and every where practised but this it seems induced him to try Tincture of Antimony in the like case which since I have already shewed to be an Alkaly and that he only calls it an Acid to serve his turn I need not enlarge any more now But the Reason why he thinks it Acid I believe in this case may be because he observed that Acids cured this Distemper and could give no other Reason why Tincture of Antimony should except it were an Acid and therefore concluded it was not an Alkaly but to help him over that difficulty I shall tell him that whether that Acrimony which causes Heat of Urin be corrected by Acids or dispersed and carry'd off by Sweat upon the Use of Alkalies it is all one and since a
Decoction of Diaphoretick Wood will cure that Acrimony as well as Diaphoretick Antimony there is the same Reason to be given for both and as Acids correct the Humour and alter it by dulling and taking off the Edges of it so Antimony carrys it off by Sweat and the Acrimony by being so diverted the Symptom ceases Page 125 He says I have only brought my Doctrin of Acids upon the Stage as a general one in Opposition to the general and pernicious Doctrin of Alkalies A very fine Man truly and much to be admired He asserts only for the sake of contradiction and really in this Point he speaks Truth for with what other Design would he change the very Names of Things but to seem to differ from others in trivial Matters for the Names of Things are so indifferent that it matters not what they are called so they have but a Name to distinguish them and when he says Tincture of Antimony will take off such a heat of Urin whether the Name of it be Alkaly or Acid it matters not if it were generally as well as all other things of the same Nature known by that Name but when the Names of things are given them and generally received it is absurd to alter them without Reason From Page 116 to 132 He heaps up a parcel of incoherent Stories of specifick Medicines but to what end except to fill up his Book I cannot imagin for he neither gives Reason for them neither can they any ways confirm the Truth of any thing he hath asserted but if to tell a Parcel of Tales is sufficient to make a Man an Author Old Women are fitter to write Books then he being stocked with a greater Variety of Storys As for what he hath said of the Cortex Peruvianus I shall take another opportunity to give my Thoughts of it when I have time to propose something concerning the Reason of Agues and to examin what his worthy Friend hath said on this Subject But to Apologize for telling us all these Stories he furnishes us with many more which may indeed be grounds for an excuse for him if we would change that old Maxim which is all relating to the Aristotelian Philosophy which he understands Nihil dat quod in se non habet in English what can one expect more in a Calves Head than Brains or as the Proverb usually runs what can one expect more of a Cat than her Skin Page 136 He says that Acton Epsom Dullage or Northall Waters c. are allowed to be Acids and according to the Difference of the Acid contained in them they have different Operations but I must ask him by whom they are allowed to be so By no Body that I know of for Dr. Grew hath extracted that Salt and it appears to be so far from an Acid that it is evidently in Taste a bitter pene trating Salt and I never heard that a bitter Salt could be allowed to be an Acid except Gall differed not in Taste from Sevil-Oranges AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS APPENDIX TO HIS ESSAY Wherein his Absurdities and False Opinions in Physick are truly Represented and fully Confuted LONDON Printed in the Year 1699. AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. John Colbatch HIS APPENDIX TO HIS ESSAY c. THUS far I have shewed the Absurdities of what this Man delivers and what little Reason he hath to be so insolent and saucy with his Superiors infinitely so in Knowledge and Learning as well as Fortune But it is but common for Fools to think themselves Wise Men whereas wise Men are more subject to suspect themselves and not to appear especially in Print with that Impudence which is the only Support of Ignorance I shall now proceed to examin his Appendix to this Essay and all that I shall take Notice of in his Preface to this is that he says I don't at all pretend to arrive at so much certainty as by the Methods I take to make People immortal and that no Body shall die Here methinks he begins to be sensible of his Weakness and is conscious that he wants to make an Apology for the frequent Departures of his Patients which Guess of mine is confirmed by the large strain of Divinity that follows it But to proceed The Pretence of this Appendix is to explain and make his Terms Alkaly and Acid more Intelligible and to answer some Objections made against his Essay As for the Terms they have been explained sufficiently already every Body knowing what is meant by Alkaly and what by Acids and what Medicines are ranked under each though some Ignorant Men have misused those Words But without doubt to serve a Particular Turn we must expect from him a Particular Explanation But before he goes about his Explanation Page the 3 He says I have not published the Doctrin of Acids and Alkalies out of any design of appearing singular or of being the Head of a Faction but out of mere pity and compassion to Mankind my fellow Creatures whose deplorable Circumstances under mistaken Methods I have long bewailed to see Physick made the Scene of Slaughter c. But if he does not write out of a Design of being singular there is no such thing as being singular for does he not cure some Distempers by Medicines that have been all along used in Rheumatisms and the Scurvey and only varies from others by a foolish Method and boast of a New one and only because he hath changed the Names of those Medicines But this is done out of compassion to his Fellow Creatures pray where sies the Compassion Might not Steel and Antimony do as much good when called Alkalies as when called Acids Does changing Names alter the Vertue Or increase the Value of a Thing Is not a Dog as valuable or contemptible equally whether it be called a Dog or a Horse But he said a little before he hath advanced this general Method in Opposition to Alkalies but I 'll assure him he hath not for though in the Small-Pox he hath altered Dr. Sydenhams Practice absurdly enough yet in the Scurvey Rheumatism c. he hath only altered the Names of some Medicines And come short of others by the help of his Ignorance and yet bewails Physick to see it a Scene of Slaughter but if it was it would be so still will Steel or Antimony cure a Distemper nay and the same Distemper better for being called an Acid than if it were an Alkaly and how can this Man with such Boldness reproach Reason and Experience and tell the World that they are sent to their Graves by that which he in some Cases follows as well as he can like a Man that hath lost his way by running into the Dark and only masks it with a new Name Page the 4 and 5 He begins to explain the Term Alkaly and says It derives it's Name from the Herb Kaly from the Ashes of which is extracted a large quantity of Salt and the Ashes of most Herbs