seldom and rarely cured by Physicians and therefore their shame and scandal as well as the Gout Dropsie Leprosie c. Divels or Witches or I know not what of the like Nature nor do they as the Scholes do generally tell us proceed from their four Humours Phlegm Choler Melancholy and putrefaction of Blood as Quotidian from Phlegm Tertian from Choler and Quartane from Melancholy nor as some particular Physicians do affirm ab effervescentiâ Sanguinis viz. from a Boyling of the Blood ab inflammato Sulphure from an Inflammation of the Sulphur in it in which last they as much mistake the effect for the cause as in the first one cause for another true it is the Blood is inflamed and that sometimes even to an extreme heighth by which the Body in which it runs is as it were almost burned up but yet this effervescentia Sanguinis is not the cause effervescentiae Sanguinis but indeed an effect of the true cause viz. an Obstruction of Nature by the Excrements of Digestion left by the debilitated Bowels and other particular Parts in their several Offices of Digestion accelerated perhaps by a stoppage of the Pores by some excessive Cold or other ways from which ariseth Obstruction of Nature and her Archeus in her Prerogative Royal and free passage and progress through the Body for its preservation and conservation in its due equation of Elements which obstructions and excrements Nature to free her self from after a Concentration or Collection of her Forces according to her abilities doth by a suddain Excursion or Sally from her Fortress the most Inward parts voluntarily and with premeditation may I so say cause this violent effervescentia Sanguinis or Passion or produceth it by her powerfully issuing forth with her Recollected forces to free her self from those incroaching Obstructions which began to diminish her Royal course and consequently to corrupt and putrefie her Mansion and the passage of her Progress Wonder not that Nature by Nature I here mean the Life Spirit Spiritus innatus custos corporis oeconomus wonder or marvail not I say that Nature should be of such power to cause so great an inflammation scorching heat or combustion in the Body for consider she is Life and Life is Fire and Fire the most pure powerful and strong of all the Elements consider seriously her Power and how she can otherways also both cure and cause even the greatest of Diseases and this by the sole power and strength of her own fancy without any previous matter in the Body for the cause or production nor doth here end the extent of her Power for it can perform even Miracles If you believe not me believe yet Christ himself who tells us that if we have Faith but as a Grain of Mustard-seed what we may do by it if you will say that this is not meant of the Spirit but of the Soul which medleth not with the curing of Bodily diseases hear yet our Saviour himself Go saith he thy Faith hath healed or made thee whole and again Be it unto thee according to thy Faith You see here that Faith is no other than the strong power of the Soul or Spirit This the most knowing and as Religious as knowing Paracelsus whatever his ignorant Antagonists report of him branding him with the Name of Atheist from which also as their due reward themselves in the general Opinion scape not free doth most plainly tell us De fide Christus haud frustra tanta nobis inculcat viz. adeo efficacem esse ut nos vel sanos vel aegros facere possit imo quod majus est per eam vel salvi vel damnati fieri possumus prout ea utimur legimus ipsum sanatis omnibus dixisse crede sanus eris aut fiat tibi secundùm fidem c. Paracel lib. Principiorum Cap. 10. c. Thus this most Conscientious and Christian Physitian Yet some of his idle Enemies viz. such as from others reports and mouths only hear but falsly what he was have in my hearing affirmed that in his whole works from one end to the other He never so much as mentioned the name of God or Christ which how false a thing it is who ever shall please to peruse his works must of necessity conclude them either very Envious or very Ignorant of him and what he wrote for there is hardly a Page in some part of his Works in which he doth not and that more than once or twice with a true Christian regard and reverence name and mention both the Name of God and also of our Saviour himself But to return to this most excellent Physician 's delivery in the aforesaid words He tells us thus that Faith is most powerful and can both cause and cure Diseases nay more it will both Save and Damn it was not therefore saith he in vain that Christ spake so much of the power of Faith who when ever he cured any of Diseases said Believe and thou shalt be made whole or Be it unto thee according unto thy Faith c. Wonderful certainly is the secret power of the Spirit But of this enough I could even with the greatest of truth be here Voluminous as to the stupendious effects of Faith or strong persuasion and imagination and what power we have by it not only upon our own Bodies but also on the Bodies and not only the Bodies but also the Spirits of others for it is said of Christ himself that he did no great Miracles there because of their Unbelief at Cynthius aurem vellit neque omnia in vulgus ratio suadet And returning to the power of Nature and to confirm it by some familiar example consider as I said before the hot and cold Fit as we call them in Agues c. Nature finding her power begin to decay by some Obstructing matter or other in her passages of Circulation Perambulation or Progress calls in all her Forces to the Centre Her forces the Spirits being called and with-drawn from their several stations or parts of the Body of which they are the Life and only Preservers those Outward parts are oh a suddain over-taken with a Chilness or as we call it a cold Ague fit the true effect of Nature's calling in her Forces there to Concentrate and Muster them up together that by her suddain Sally or Return with those her united Forces and utmost Strength she may expel and drive out either in part or wholly her Incroaching and Death-threatning opposite the Body is now again by this means viz. Nature's Return with her united Strength to expel her Enemy by degrees overspread with a fiery and flushing heat viz. the hot Fit a most certain effect and sign of the Spirits again re-entring and assuming their former Stations and with all the power and force she is possibly able to make against her powerful Adversary This Contest or Duel lasts as long as Nature is able to maintain and bear it out and having
Passport and this I hope you will do as soon as we have setled the Affairs of our Society or College which we hope in as conspicuous a manner as the Galenists suddenly so to manage as that it may conduce effectually to the end we aim at which is the honour of Physick by Men of sound Chymical principles Labourers and Learned If any Persons among us chance to be Defective in the common Literature we ought not to value them the less as long as they have so much of a better sort of Learning as inableth them to the inventing excellent Remedies such as the vulgar Letter-men never had the honour to be acquainted with by any Endeavour or Operation of their own Forgive me my noble Friend all this tedious Discourse for I could say a thousand times more and think you never the worse of me because I am zealous in this Matter but let me prevail with you to print your Papers as soon as you can for the true Sons of Art will be exceedingly pleased with it and among the meanest of them I that honour you who am SIR Your faithful Friend and Servant Mar. Nedham From my House in Thomas Apostles 10 May 1665. Some Errata's have Slipt the Press which those that are not Malicious will Correct as they Read Licensed 20th April 1665. MEDICINA INSTAVRATA OR A brief Account of the true Grounds and Principles of the Art of PHYSICK FInding by a daily experience the small virtue efficacy and power of the generality of Medicines and the great uncertainty of performing any notable and worthy Cure by their means and operation I resolved upon a more diligent search and inquiry after such Medicines as with confidence of some good effect I might more fully rely upon after a serious consideration therefore of the cause why vulgar Remedies or Medicines so rarely or seldom performed the promised and expected Effects I at last found the true and onely cause to be the great quantity of dross and impurity by Nature in their production and growth strongly united with the Medicinal or Restaurative Essence choaking and over-powering the true Physical part of them so that it cannot as it should perform its Office and produce the desired Effects it was administred for for the body of Man being already clogged and stuffed up with Obstructions and Nature's royal course and prerogative being by that means hindred and opposed the Body by little and little feels the approaching decays of Nature and accordingly calls for a powerful and able assistance to free her if possible from those Enemies of Life that so Nature Spiritus innatus custos corporiâ—oeconomus the enlivening Inhabitant of the Body being by some timely sympathetical and friendly aid and assistance before her too great Debilitation again impowred and re-inforced may be able to eject and cast out her potent and destructive Antagonist and again re-assume her wonted and desired course and so restore the pining pale and decayed Body to its pristine blith healthful and flourishing condition Being by these considerations and other most strong and undeniable Reasons sufficiently confirmed what kind of Medicines Nature required as most absolutely necessary and needful as also that the true cause of the weak effect of common or vulgar Medicines was the Physical parts being so much over-ballanced and debilitated and as it were extinguished by the multiplicity of Dreggs and foeculential Impurities closely joyned and mixed with it in its Creation and progressive Growth I at last of necessity concluded that the freeing of Medicinal Subjects or those things we would use in a Physical way from some part if not all of those their foeculencies drossy and terrene parts must undoubtedly in reason render the Medicine of much more Efficacy and Power of more power because of more purity and consequently more spiritual and penetrating and because more spiritual therefore more fitting to assist the decayed and fainting Spirits of the infirm and languishing Body and so as being of her own condition or quality re-inforce inable and assist Nature the Body's preserver to expel and drive out her prevalent and health-destroying Opposers And this certainly was the intent and meaning of Hippocrates where he tells us Contraria contrariis curari debent Contraries must be driven away and cured by contraries viz. Corruptibilia per incorruptibilia immunda enim per munda non per immunda mundantur purificantur Pure things only are fit to purifie and not dirty and impure Diseases are the beginnings of the corruption of the Body and to remove corruption by corruption or corrupting and corruptible things the way and means rather to promote and hasten it to me seems in reason impossible as doubtless it is and therefore could no ways be imagined to be the meaning of so Learned a Physitian his meaning therefore must consequently follow that the Cure of Diseases the destruction and corruption of the Body must needs be performed by something of a contrary nature viz. Incorruptible and pure If therefore we would either preserve from or drive out Diseases and Corruption it must surely be by something that is of a pure and incorruptible Balsamick nature and property which the generality of Medicines as prepared are so far from that few or none of them except some few Chymical or having some of their Ingredients in some measure purified are able to preserve themselves from a total Corruption or at most a great diminution of their Virtues the space of one poor Year though with much care and vigilancy secured and fortified by a close stoppage from the ingression of Air the Introducer of Corruption into all Porous and corruptible things The more pure the Medicine the more potent its Virtue and consequently the better able to assist and strengthen our continually exhausted and spent Spirits especially when assaulted by a too powerful distemper the effect of some corruption their professed Enemy And this Galen that pretended Oraculum Medicinae did we as we ought as much mind his Precepts as make use of his Name for a cavilling superficial unprofitable Discourse most plainly tells us Lib. undec de simpl med facult cap. undec His words are these Quae tenuium sunt partium medicamenta iis quae sunt crassarum partium plâ—s habent efficaciae etiamsi parem sortita fuerint facultatem nimirum quia melius penetrant All which in brief tells us thus much That those Medicines which are of thin or subtile parts are of greater Efficacy and Virtue than those which are of a gross quality and the Reason he also gives because by their thinness and subtilty they are the more apt and able to penetrate Thus this once great and experienced Physician he also much desired to have the Aethereal and hot pure Substance or Spirit of Wine and also the Secret of Extracting and Separating it from its more gross earthy and watery parts an Artifice not known unto the Physicians of that Age for considering how excellent
strong and violent sort of Physick for them or their Constitutions but rather let them conclude it as justly and truly they may to proceed from some error or other of their own either in the taking or disordering themselves in the time of their Operation or else that their Stomach or other Bowels began to be obstructed or filled with a Slimy Clammy or Viscuous matter or substance which would not easily be Evacuated by the Medicine without that small trouble and inconveniency well to be tolerated or born with in respect of the great benefit they will reap by it viz. the prevention of some greater Mischief or Distemper which might suddenly have assaulted and invaded even Life it self if not by this means dispersed and so prevented of so bad a Consequence and that this is true I have sufficient and large Experience knowing many who have suffered some such small trouble in the first taking of them but their Bodies by a continued and moderately repered taking for some time being fully emptied and free of those Stubborn Gross and Viscuous humors Matter or Obstruction they afterwards felt not any the least trouble disturbance or Griping by them for the more obstructed clogged and foul the Bowels are the more will they Operate and possibly cause in some such small Gripings a profitable inconveniency the more free and clear the Body is the more mildly gently and with less trouble do they perform their Office in Operation Though I well know that no Disease or Distemper whatever is indeed naturally Incurable unless the immediate hand of God for some cause or other do hinder and oppose the Cure and also by Experience have often found that these Medicines come not at all short but far exceed what I have here said of them I yet also as well know that the most pretious of all Medicines are of no force power and validity against the decrees will and pleasure of Almighty God all things both in Heaven and Earth must submit to his call and appointment the most powerful of Medicines when He will call for our Souls out of this Vale of misery and corruption is then no longer able to do us any good or prolong our Life one minute beyond the time and period appointed by himself It being appointed for all Men once to Dye to Live again according to his good will and pleasure to another Life Medicine is indeed a great blessing created and plentifully bestowed upon us by Almighty God but can serve us no further than to preserve and restore Health so long as he in his Goodness shall afford us Life for though without the knowledge and help of good Medicines we may long linger and lie under Diseases and by the help of them being well known and as well prepared quickly expel and quit our selves of them yet ought we not to dote upon or put greater confidence in their Virtue though of greatest excellency and perfection than with and in the use of them to crave his blessing and for the effects wholly to rely and cast our selves into the Arms of his Mercy who if he calls we should as willingly resolve to be dissolved and return unto him if not we cannot but in reason and with his blessing expect and assuredly in time find the desired effect viz. the return and restauration of our Health from the due use of pure powerful and safely efficacious Medicines of which number these are none of the meanest but truly noble Remedies and most safe pleasant and friendly assistants unto human Nature and therefore I shall give a brief Account of the Virtues of the other five in order II. Quintessentia Sali Balsamica c. OR A Most excellent Balsamic Oyl or Quintessence of Salt highly impregnated tinged and Philosophically united with the true and pure Essences of the most Aromatick and Cordial of Vegetables So that the essences of the Vegetables are by the Spirit of Salt improved heightned and exalted to a more than ordinary degree of efficacy and perfection and the Spirit of Salt made Cordial by the essences and power of the Vegetables by which means it as well refresheth the Spirits as opens them a passage through the whole Body c. The Virtue of this Aromatised precious Liquor or essence of Salt are such and so many as no one is able fully to render an account of them I shall therefore give you only some few heads of them according to my own knowledge and experience of it which may lead the Ingenious to a farther consideration of the infinite excellency of it 1. It renews the whole Mass of Blood and so purifieth it that with a continued prescribed moderate use of it for some time it doth in a wonderful manner revive and strengthen the whole Body rendring it vigorous lusty and of a florid and strong Constitution it extremely quickneth the Senses helps the Memory and maketh lightsome the whole Body and this by its cleansing the Stomach and strengthning both the retentive and digestive faculty c. 2. A most excellent and certain Arcanum or secret it is in Curing the Stone either in the Reins Kidney or Bladder or any Tartarous obstruction or degenerate Salt humor in the whole Body it retardeth Old-age keepeth back Grey-hairs and preserves the Body in a healthful and flourishing condition It is a most pleasant and safe extinguisher of all preternatural heats as in Fevers and the like none almost comparable unto it either in preservation or restauration 3. It openeth all Obstructions of the Body killeth all manner of Worms Stomach-worms Maw-worms c. It prevalently advanceth and promoteth fertility or fruitfulness in Women and is exceeding good and profitable for those already with Child with much safety preserving them from many troublesome and dangerous Distempers and Symptoms incident unto them highly restaurative and strengthning to the Consumptive Ptisical Hectical and all this because it preserves nourisheth and increaseth the humidum radicale of the Body It is so excellent a Medicine that it cannot almost in any kind of Malady Distemper or Disease whatever either Inward or Outward without some eminently profitable success and advantage be made use of I shall therefore say no more of it but recommend it to the Ingenious and Discreet as a most high gift of Almighty God freely and in great Plenty bestowed upon us for should we be diligent searchers into Nature and her Treasury the great blessings of a greater and most omnipotent Creator we should clearly see that those things we have most need of and which would do us most good are every where by God in greatest plenty spread before us but we are blind and also hate knowledge and to have our way directed unto us by those whom God hath been pleased out of his Goodness to inable to be a light and guidance unto us c. Salt in its gross Quality and involved or mixed with those Impurities which Nature presents it to us accompanied with is
reviving and cordial a Liquor Wine of it self was he according to his former Opinion also concluded that the hot pure and aethereal Substance of it viz. Its Spirit separated from its foeculential and drossy Impurities must of necessity be a most high efficacious and truly Cordial Medicine If then the more thin subtile and aethereal Medicines are the most effectual and powerful the Subtilisation of thick gross and impure dull Physical Subjects must of necessity render them far more penetrating and noble Medicines And in this doth that most acute Philosopher and Physitian the noble Paracelsus also second and confirm the fore-mentioned Aphorism of Galen onely with a little addition or raising unto the height of it the purity of the supreme of Elements his words are these Tum demum medicamenta corpori accommodanda ad ignis naturam reducta per hoc enim elementum omnis aegritudo consumi debet à quolibet medico Lib. de Vita longa in 4. Page 134. The sence thus Then saith he are Medicines fit to be administred when by a due preparation they are made most pure and exalted to the Nature or Quality of Fire for by this Element or Medicines of the nature and property or condition of this Element ought Physicians to cure Diseases All which is no more than a Physical Precept Aphorism and Instruction sufficiently high for the preparation of Medicines which ought to be of the nature of Fire that is most pure subtile spiritual and penetrating for Fire is the most subtile pure and noble of the Elements in quo Deus omnium rerum Creator sedem Majestatem suam posuit and indeed the Seat and Chariot of the Divine and Incomprehensible Majesty of God c. We have here then the Precept and Opinion of the greatest of the old Physicians harmoniously agreeing that the most subtile and pure Medicines are the most noble and efficacious and therefore most fit and proper for the curing extirpating and rooting out of Diseases c. The means to render Medicine capable of the subtil thin and penetrating Quality of assisting and strengthning our over-oppressed and fainting Spirits I found most certainly to be by purifying as I said before of the Medicinal or Physical Subject designed for the Cure this Purification or Purgation I after much thought and meditation concluded could no way so advantagiously be performed and obtained as by those excellent incomparable and truly Philosophical preparations we usually call Chymical a way of making Medicines as well as a gate to Nature's choicest Secrets of all other the most noble and every way able to answer yea superlatively to exceed the greatest and highest of our desires Consider O Artist the power and excellency of any one thing or subject as Nature hath prepared created and given it us ready into our hands Consider also with the excellency of it as it is what a heightned purgation and purification may exalt it to Consider the virtue and inexpressible power of spiritual and pure things Consider also what they may be and do being after purification fixed Thou hast here a very large Field for contemplation and as large a Gate opened to give thee entrance into the Closet or inmost Recesses of Nature and her infinite Treasures c. But I may not inlarge any further After a firm resolution of the way of improving heightning and exalting the virtue and efficacy of Medicines I also fell to consider after a full knowledge of the true Physical and Essential parts of things what Subject or Species might yield these healing and restaurative Essences in most and greatest abundance and of most power and virtue I perceived at last that some Vegetables did yield them in far greater plenty and quantity than others and of a stronger and speedier operation After these I considered the use of Animals in Physick and learned the great efficacy virtue and strength of them also and that in them the Quintessential and Physical parts were yet in greater plenty than in the most of Vegetables and of a higher and more intense operation and perfection I yet after these considered the third and last Kingdom of Nature viz. the Mineral or Metallin and found by many Arguments after a mature and deliberate Meditation seconded by Experience a most sure guide and teacher the great power excellency and strength bestowed upon and implanted yea concentrated in them by Almighty God their great Creator and Eternal fountain of overflowing and inexhaustible Goodness and have since by a continued Series of experience and that in several more than ordinary Cases and Cures as well as by the very ample and yet deserved testimony of most eminently Learned both antient and modern Physicians the onely true and painful but ingratefully rewarded discoverers of Nature's unvaluable and admirable mysteries and power even to admiration been fully and often satisfied that the virtue of Minerals and Metals if rightly prepared are of all others the most safely Efficacious and far exceeding the power and virtue of Animals or Vegetables yet are these two last named such safe potent and benign assistants and preservers of the present and restorers of the impaired and decayed health of Man as if well ordered or prepared and rightly applied he shall have but little need of Minerals or Metals though the noblest and best of all Physical Subjects c. Having by this continued and diligent Inquisition not only discovered and found out the cause of the too sluggish dull and ineffectual operation and success of the bulk of ordinary and vulgar Medicines but also attained unto the knowledg of the most Physical Subjects both in the Animal Vegetable and Mineral Kingdom together with the way and method of improving advancing and raising their Innate power and Medicinal restaurative faculties to a very sublime degree of purity and perfection I fully resolved with my self to leave the old Galenical road and apply my self in my practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the use of Chymical Medicines some of which I shall in this small Tract give some short account of and their virtues For considering that care being first had of my particular and private concernment there was also as not being Born altogether for my self nor to bury my Talent delivered unto me by Almighty God somewhat of a duty incumbent upon me in relation to my doing somewhat towards a general good I at last thought fit being also by several of my Friends who with much satisfaction and benefit had used and made trial of many of my Medicines especially my Solar Pills daily persuaded and urged thereunto to communicate somewhat in a more publick way as well for others good as my own private benefit which as the Law of Nature commands and allows as most necessary first to provide for so I will not in the least deny or pretend a disowning of I here therefore present my Country with an offer of six most noble purified and efficacious Medicines pleasantly and safely
for that time done her utmost devoir for according to her Strength she will with greatest vigour maintain the Battel with her Antagonist she ceaseth and is for some time and this according to her remaining strength and ability more quiet and calm than in the heat of her past Passion or Spiritus exscandescentia which is not as improperly termed preternatural for it is really natural and the work of Nature or the Archeus her self and is only preternatural quoad gradum non quoad calorem for it is the Archeus irritated or advancing her self beyond her usual course c. If she be strong she will by a Quotidian Fever or contest indeavour to free her self of those Obstructions she feels begin to oppress her If her strength be more slack and remiss by a Tertian if feebler and yet more weak by a Quartane and if not able every second or third Day c. to fight or encounter her Enemy she will yet as often as possibly she can and this perhaps but once in ten or fourteen days but then is she weak indeed That this is truth a daily Observation of these passages in the Sick will sufficiently assure and convince us viz. that the stronger Nature is the more frequent her Encounters and Excursions are against her Opposite Our own vulgar Observations and Rules or Maxims will also testifie and inform us the same for we account a Quotidian Ague or Fever more easie to cure than a Tertian and a Tertian yet more easie and facile than a Quartane for if it vary or alter from a Quotidian to a Tertian we think the worse of it If from a Tertian to a Quartane we account it yet worse and of more dangerous consequence and much more difficult to remedy than the former and why is this but only that we esteem Nature the more weak and the Cause greater and more hardly to be removed and consequently Nature though well assisted will have the harder task to expel it for though Nature may not be yet very much weakned and debilitated yet the Disease viz. Obstructions of Nature's right and privilege being strong and stubborn Nature will the more hardly be put to it in the conquest and extirpation of it and cannot therefore so often draw forth her impaired strength and forces being already in some measure infeebled to expel and force out her yet prevailing Destroyer but what she doth she must do by degrees and as her power and strength will bear allow and admit of and this is Nature's daily course Thus you see that Nature her self stirs up and that voluntary even to the utmost of her power and strength those conflicts and inflammations in her Habitation that so she may free and quit her self of those unwelcome and unpleasing Guests which would otherwise turn her quite out of her Possession This is my Opinion and I think not disagreeable to Reason however I want not to back it the Authority of two great Lights most Eminent Expert and Learned Modern Physicians Van Helmont and the most acute Faber from whom whoso desires more satisfaction may peruse their several Tractates de Febribus c. But to return from this Digression to the two former Assertions of Nature's most willingly and resolvedly Suffering or rather throwing and putting her self into preternatural Motions Consider the violent disturbance in the Epileptical insultus or in the Falling-sickness with the like violent motions perturbations and preternatural and unusual disturbances more or less in all or most Maladies Distempers and Diseases whatever If therefore violent and preternatural unaccustomed Motions were altogether destructive to nature why would she make so constant and certain an irritation of them by her Archew as we daily in most Distempers may perceive and observe she doth If it be answered it is not Nature but the Disease that doth it and is the cause of it and that it is no way pleasing to Nature but altogether opposite to her I answer I well know that the Disease is in some sence or part the cause of it but how the Disease is not the Agent that stirs up those violent and unnatural Motions of it self but is the cause that excites Nature to do it to free her self from the Disease and drive it out before her by those her violent Motions and Passions which she thus willingly and of her own accord stirs up and suffers that she may overcome and conquer the cause corrupting Obstructions and Excrements the opposites of her royal and wonted indisturbed progress and this will appear most evident as well in her conquest or victory over the Disease as in her final overthrow and destruction by Death it self For if Nature either by the strength of her own force and Archeus or by a timely and powerful assistance do extirpate overcome and master the Disease she is then quiet and no longer frets wearies and vexeth her self by such violent Motions but quietly keeps her wonted desired and usual course and progress if by the Distemper she be at last overcome and Death drive her to forsake her Habitation neither doth the Body then suffer under any violent motion or disturbance for the Spiritus innatus custos corporis is departed and there is no Life left and where there is no Life there can be no such Motion though the cause of the motion be still left as copiously in the Body as before I mean the cause that moved Nature to stir up these past violent Motions and Symptoms to have freed her self if possibly from that most violent of motions Death it self which at last she is forced nolens volens to undergo and submit to for it is appointed for all Men once to Dye The virtues of this Solar Pill THe Operation of it is managed sometimes in a sensible sometimes an insensible manner according to the quantity administred but if kept in its usually prescribed and limited Bounds or Dose it is I say rather insensible than any way perceptible unless in its wonderful Effects by which it giveth perfect Cure unto the Head-ach Vertigo Apoplexie Lethargie Epilepsie Convulsion with those many other Distempers that usually afflict the Head as difficulty of Hearing noise in the Head and Ears c. Most effectual also it is in opening all Obstructions of the Stomach Liver Spleen and other the noble Bowels the true original and foundation of many high Distempers and grievous Diseases Excellent are its effects in the Cure of Agues and Fevers of all sorts as Quotidian Tertian Quartane c. but taken in the highest Dose if the Patient's strength and age permit c. Most powerful also and never failing in the Cure of that lothsome and troublesome Disease the French-Pox though of long continuance and gotten even into the Bones Nor doth it thus admirably Operate in these more common and ordinary Distempers and Diseases but also in those desperate and almost accounted incurable Maladies viz. the Leprosie Gout Dropsie c. all which it in
time perfectly Cures and radically takes away the Cause A most noble and effectual Antidote it is in keeping out all ill Airs and that most swift and poysonous Infection the Plague and if taken a most potent Medicine to expel and drive it out again provided it have not wholly seised and over-powred the Vitals To Women a more safe and powerful Medicine cannot be given it being almost an universal Remedy for those many Distempers that usually attend their weak unhealthy cold and moist Bodies all which I out of respect to their modesty do here purposely forbear and omit the reciting A most admirable virtue and faculty hath God given it to render and make fruitful even the most barren of Women provided the cause be in themselves and accidental as in most that is by some remediable indisposition of Body and not natural or by the will of Almighty God and being used after Conception but taken in the small or insensibly Operating proportion it wonderfully availeth in strengthning those that are apt to miscarry and makes them bring a most sound healthful and thriving Child into the World though the Parents be of an infirm and a most sickly constitution and disposition of Body c. And this I have often to my own and others great satisfaction and content Experienced by many of my Friends Acquaintance and Patients to whom I have in this point most successfully administred them In Virgins it speedily eradicates and takes away the cause and fountain of the Green-sickness ill habit and constitution of Body caused by Obstructions of the Bowels and Nature's due and wonted course and causeth in them a lively fresh and chearful countenance with a most sound and healthful condition c. To Children it is a most potent preservative against the Convulsion Falling-sickness Worms Measles Small-pox together with those other too numerous Distempers usually afflicting and snatching them suddenly from their sorrowful Parents This Medicine is so truly safe and excellent that without any the least danger it may be given to the most Aged most Weak and also to Infants though but new Born one half or the fourth part of one of the Pills for Children if weak in a little of the Mother's milk as most fit and proper for it which then taking it shall never after be troubled with Epileptical or Convulsion-fits if they are taken with those Fits it shall being rightly administred to them by degrees gently and safely mitigate and at last quite take them away most excellent things therefore for Women Mothers of Children to have still by them in their Houses And for my own part I seldom either for my Self or any other of my Family or Friends really depending upon my care upon any Distemper which by God's blessing upon a convenient use of this Pill or Medicine doth rarely happen though I have many other excellent ones still in readiness by me do use any other than this one as a true cleanser of the whole Body with two other pleasant refreshing Cordials hereafter mentioned which I once in a quarter of a year with much freedom do give unto the least Child I have and in the highest proportion but suitable to their Strength and Age besides an oftner taking of the Pills in the ordinary insensibly operating Dose and quantity according also to their Age and Disposition and truly I think there is not either in the City or within twenty Miles of it more healthy lusty and thriving Children than they are all which next to God Almighty's providence and blessing I cannot attribute to any thing more than to the Virtues of this Medicine and a due and moderate use of it It exceedingly cleanseth and consequently strengthneth all the principal Bowels and Members and by that means easeth and cureth all afflictions of the Head Stomach Ventricle Liver Spleen c. It extremely promoteth and pleasantly helpeth forward the Cure of all internal and external wounds in short time bringing them to perfect Cure and that by its Balsamic and cleansing Quality and to most outward wounds or hurts with the daily use of these Pills in the insensibly operating Dose you need only defend the hurt or wound from the Air and Dust with a plaister of pure Bees-wax fresh Butter Turpentine and some Mineral or Metallin flowers or calx and so you will see a very quick and sure Cure c. It miraculously accelerateth the Cure of all Ulcers Cancers Fistulaes Noli me tangere Wolf Scrophulous humors or Kings-evil and the like troublesome or filthy Maladies totally consuming and drying up as the Sun doth the Earth's superfluous moisture the very root cause and corrosive fountain from whence they spring In short this most noble Medicine is so potent a purifier of the whole Body of Man and that by its true cleansing and searching Quality that no Distemper God Almighty's determined and appointed time being not yet come is able long to withstand and resist the effect of its power and virtue but time to this as to all others though never so good must be given for the manifestation of its effects and a course and continuance answerable to the Distemper allowed and observed in the taking of it especially in Chronic Diseases or Distempers of deep radication and habit The simple rash and inconsiderate hearing the admirable Virtues of this Medicine will without doubt as much desire it as any but imagine that as soon as they have taken it into their Bodies or at farthest within three or four days that their Infirmity Distemper or Disease of what kind degree and nature soever and of what continuance soever must of necessity presently vanish and be gone without any the least sign symptom or relict of it remaining which no ingenious or discreet person must or will expect but according to the nature radication habit and continuance of the Malady or Distemper Age Strength and Constitution of their Bodies to bear its operation in a greater or smaller Dose expect the desired effects in the restauration of their health which by God's blessing and an orderly use of this Medicine a due time they will most assuredly find I have already exceeded my intentions in this discourse and should be too tedious indeed should I give a relation of the many notable Cures which by my self and others that have had it of me have been performed by it which truly have been such and so great that I though well acquainted with the strangeness of its effects have many times extremely wondred at them that it should in such small Doses as it usually was given in produce so great and extraordinary effects c. If perhaps the Pills do in the time of their Operation or Working cause any small Griping either in the Stomach or other Bowels as possibly in some they may sometimes do let them not therefore presently unadvisedly slight reject and dislike them as supposing them from thence an unsafe dangerous and ill-prepared Medicine and a too harsh