shew in the Chapter following which produceth a sufficient disposition to receive information from the souls as we said in the Chapter fore-going But that those beams are of parts is clearer than the Sun at noon day for that which proceedeth from diverse and heterogeneous parts conveying also with it self something from all even the smallest parts cannot choose but be of diverse parts for from the bones flesh nerves there do flow continually certain particles of which those beams consist these carry with them the disposition of the body and according to that disposition taken from the body work more powerfully than the body it self Hereupon a wise man will take special heed of living and conversing with sick people the rather if he feel himself disposed to such a disease for a body so disposed doth more greedily draw to it self those beams and is sooner changed And note that bodies in whom there is a likenesse of nature and complexion do sooner sympathize with one another as brothers sisters and do sooner take infectious diseases one of another because of the radical likenesse the infected beams are more drawn and the body more speedily changed Another necessary caution doth by this occasion come into my minde That great care must be taken to avoid these places where the excrements of diseased persons are laid both for the reasons aforesaid and for a more proper and particular cause it shall be exprest in what followeth CONCLUSION IV. The beams sent out of the bodies of wights have and injoy a vitall spirit by which the operations of the soul are dispensed The Proof and Explanation c. EVery compound consisting of matter and form hath its own proper natural heat which is derived and propagated not from the Elements but from Heaven and particularly from the Sun the heat of Heaven seeing that by the departure of it all things grow sad and torpid and by the return of it are cheared and refreshed for it is the fountain and original of life making all things fruitfull by its heat multiplying and preserving them in their own being Whence it followes that nothing can exist without some manner of heat it being the bond whereby the form is tyed to the matter and which lying hid in them in a viscous Mercury a moisture brought with it from Heaven giveth increase of seed to every body It is also the instrument which the form useth to produce actions and it is the immediate cause of the aforesaid beams which beams it never forsaketh but accompanieth them in their journey Blessed and thrice blessed is he which can Multiply it in a fit subject under the favour of the Sun and Heaven This said heat if it decrease the body tends to destruction the beams being fewer and weaker Furthermore though the form be not united to the matter but by a certain mean of this heat which is so required as proper to all things yet it varieth in every spirit of things yet it hath in every spirit some latitude so that you shall finde in the individuals that which is altogether the same because the heat sometimes is more and sometimes lesse which may be the cause of variety of operations not onely in these of the same species but even in the same individual it is after changed till at last by corruption it end in that which is altogether another latitude for the matter is not tenacious enough nor holds the heat fast enough but lets it being volatile wander abroad which according to the impressions of Heaven applyeth it self variously to the matter whence depends the whole oeconomie and every change in sublunary things But it 's now time to retire our selves and descend to the body of man the proper subject of this work And first it shall not be amisse to explicate our selves what we mean by the vital spirit in this Conclusion whether after the manner of other Physicians that which the Schools call by this name or some other thing of far another nature surely although we think that received opinion of the spirits animall vitall and naturall as they call them not altogether consonant to truth yet being besides our purpose we mean not to meddle with it here and therefore of other manner of spirits But what new spirit is this brought in into Physick or by what Authority came it in Truly I am so supercilious as to affirm this done by my Authority Let it not be brought in at all I onely require that I may be spared the use of that name to expresse the natural heat and radicall moisture both together and the reason is because they are never actually separated And to call them spirits because of all Corporall things they come nearest to the nature of spirits both in their originall and power It is called vitall because by mediation of it life flowes and is propagated into the body and therefore wheresoever you finde in this Treatise the name of spirit understand it as is said Now then that this spirit flourisheth in the foresaid beams I think it appeareth from hence This spirit also floweth from the body and this no wise man will deny for if it flow not from the body the body would last for ever Consequently the things that can most fix these spirits have great power to prolong the life of man for it is volatile and every moment some portion of it goeth out with the parts of the body resolved into beams for why it should leave the beams going out and insinuate it self into bodies indisposed there can be no reason given nay it seems utterly impossible and that the beams have a disposition to hold it for with them it goeth out in the plague because the beams as is observed retain the disposition of the body from whence they go yea if the spirit were not there the beams could not do as they do nor work in the power of the soul for of it this spirit is the Instrument Either therefore the bodies of men shall work at no distance at all or if at distance whatsoever this spirit must needs reach and proceed to it and by virtue of a more potent soul in the very beginning and principall of life the body of man as of all other wights is ordinated to natural actions as other natural bodies are by the seminary vertues which are in their forms nay more powerfull than these are this spirit that accompanieth the beams dispenseth their Actions which are far propagated and when they grow faint they are supplied by and from the bodies CONCLUSION V. That the Excrements of the bodies of living Creatures retain a portion of vitall spirits and therefore we must not deny them life and the life is of the same species that the life of the Wight is of and propagated from the same The Proof and Explanation of it c. THat the Excrements of the bodies of Wights retain some portion of the vitall spirit it appears for having lurked long in
V. putting often upon them the oyls for fourteen dayes space Then take them out and presse them and put as much of the new species as thou didst at first doing all things as before after the last expression keep the spirit for thy use The dose is from unc. i. S. to unc. ij I have moreover often used Cariocostinum prepared chymically very happily which do you consider of for I have said enough at this time For vomitings I do use them also but common ones as thou mayest when necessity forceth thee yet I prefer before all others that truly so called Aqua benedicta Ruland described by Hartman in his Chymia practica and is made of Antimony and Vitrio lana and twice or thrice so much salt niter into a Corpus metallorum which being exquisitely sweetned is given by infusion in unc. i. or more of white Wine as the disease requireth The Vomitorium Conradi of Crollius is not to be despised The Coagulum Assari described by Hartman in diseases of the stomach and mesaraicks where there is need of vomiting is very good The cold purger of Angelus Sala in continual burning feavers is an excellent remedy Merc. vitae both vomiting and purging in rebellious diseases whiles the Patient is strong gives no place to any medicine Likewise the extract of white Helebor given in a convenient dose cureth all pains in the head arising from the stomach or lower parts Thy self mayest finde out more these are enough for us that are in hast CHAP. III. Of PHLEBOTOMIE BEfore we go any further something must be said of Phlebotomie and whether it be here to be admitted or no and if so then when and in what cases it may be used And first it is generally to be known That every Medicine that may be used in other Physick may be also used here Briefly then let us enquire into Phlebotomie in general and first to them that contemplate the depth of Nature and behold the uncuest frequent causes of things it may seem strange how so many lettings of blood came into use amongst Physicians especially if the opinion of them be true both in reason and experience for if blood corrupted ceaseth to be blood and degenerateth into unnatural humours which are to be purged not by letting blood but by sweat and purgation as the matter requireth Or will they say They do it to loose the body surely it is scarce agreeable to reason That blood should be the cause of a feaverish or praeternatural heat unlesse peradventure the spirits that have their seat in the blood be stirred up by fermentation which is seldome done nor lasteth it except choler be joyned therewith which being purged away the motion and heat are presently quieted and allayed or may be caused sometimes when too much blood grieveth the body and begetteth feavers But to that perhaps they will answer That such are not to be cured but by Phlebotomie because a Physician must follow Nature and never stray from her Laws but Nature hath shewed another and most natural way that doth not trouble the body like Phlebotomie and that is nourishment for while the body is nourished the blood is consumed if it be not repaired by aliment therefore take away aliment for the time and nature will consume the blood without troubling the humours or the body and therefore Hippocrates prescribes to such a slender dyet But if thou sayest the body cannot now be nourished because of the malignant humours that infect the blood thou sayest nothing for why doest thou not throw them out by purgation Thou wilt peradventure say there is no concoction yet Hippocrates purgeth the turgid and swelling humours in feavers which if I affirm with Paracelsus there can be no feavers at all without the fermentation of humours which is as it were the soul of concoction do not I speak reason for what else but fermentation could brook such a heat and stir such troubles in the body Choler if it be a humour yet it cannot grow hot but either by external heat or fermentation They prattle that speak that putrifaction can stir up heat who ever heard such trifles from so great men let them tell me how putrifaction which is a certain corruption can cause heat and let them tell me if this effect agree to all putrifaction They dare not say so for some would convince them for it agreeth only with moist things whom they putrifie and yet not by reason of putrifaction neither is it the adequat cause for fermentation causeth heat for look how much it putrifieth so much heat decreaseth as it is plainly seen in all moist things putrifying and the reason is because look how much corruption prevaileth so much fermentation evanisheth But let us hear these mens distinctions of putrifaction It is say they the corruption of the proper and naturall heat in every moist thing by a strange heat by the Ancients or according to Galen it is a change of the whole substance of the body putrifying to corruption by externall heat The first supposeth that the proper heat of a thing can be dissipated by an external heat but first let them tell me how heat as heat can work upon heat if it do first dissipate natural heat before it consume radical moisture for the property of heat is not to work upon heat but upon moisture it drieth up drying hinders putrifaction Again if it first work upon that which is moist proportionably with the moisture it consumeth the heat therefore there is so much heat left as the moisture left requireth Therefore it seems that external heat is not the cause of putrifaction Look upon other things that putrifie Doth not heat by drying hinder putrifaction Doth not external cold sometimes advance it But surely it ought to cause it if it consist in the corruption of heat and that in moisture for what can destroy heat in a moist body where there is nothing left but moisture except cold Moreover it seems That putrifaction if it cannot proceed from the corruption of proper heat for if this were so then the more the proper heat should decrease the more putrifaction would prevail and then be perfected when the heat were driven quite away But who seeth not the contrary that putrifaction ceaseth when heat is clean gone do not those things that have the best portion of this heat last longest without putrifaction But that we may come to that heat that takes its original from putrifaction as these men would have it of which is all the controversie let any may tell me how external heat can stir up a greater and more intense heat How do dunghils putrify I speak after their manner in the winter time and have more heat than either the proper heat declining or the Ambient can stir up nay they putrifie sooner in the winter than in the summer if they be laid in great heaps Whence is that great inflamation in feavers not from the internal heat sayes
of the urine cast out Hence it appears That the Urin hath a great communion with most parts of the body for it hath great affinity with the liver reins and bladder for by these parts it passeth and therefore the Physicians judge of the disease of these parts by urine But it hath moreover no obscure consent with the whole body having been once joyned with the blood by it therefore are cured the diseases of the liver reins bladder ureters and passages of the urine besides the bectick feaver a most grievous disease of the whole body is no way better cured than by the urine as shall be shewed in the Chapter of the Hectick Feavers Whatsoever diseases are usually cured by this Art are all cured by the urine though it be better there be other preparations as is to be seen in my Practise Now as in the Chapter of the Excrements by seige here it shall not be amiss to put some Cautions The first whereof is To take heed that children pisse not in the fire for it is the constant opinion of many that by such means they get Nephritick diseases the stone or gravel and other great diseases Then that men never pisse upon sharp venemous herbs and such as by their venemous quality do violently provoke urine for from hence proceeds the ulceration of the reins and bladder nor would I willingly make water in a chamber-pot where any man infected of any stinking disease of these parts had pissed nor give my urine to fermentation with his for it cannot be but to a weak body much evil should come by this means though to the sick man by that means might come good Nay hence with specificals added against the disease might his cure be done with the addition of fermentation which ought to be done in a bladder of a beast of the same kind adding those things that have the signature both of the disease and the member as shall be said more at large in my Practise where you shall have Medicines fetched from urine whose forms if you follow thou mayest invent others of thy self CHAP. XVI Of Sweat and insensible Transpiration SWEAT is not only an Excrement of the third concoction but it may also be as it were the melting of the whole body for no otherwise doth the body come to destruction than by resolution procured by Nature or some adventitious heat for except every part should lose something of his substance and greatnesse the bodies of living wights would grow infinitly if by continual nourishment there were alwayes added something unto them Nay if this resolution were not wights would not desire nourishment at all Sweat therefore and that which is by Physicians called insensible transpiration are not only excrementitious but as it is above proved carries off with them of the resolved particles of the body Hence it is that in Magnetick or Diastatick Physick they are of exceeding great use for by them innumerable wounders are done whilest diseases are as well cured as caused Passions both of the mind and of the body are violently procured and changed By these a wise Physician may do much good and by these a prying Wissard may do much harm and cause death madnesse anger and overthrow all the goods of the mind This is the Devil or familiar spirit by which they are thought to have done wonders Hence it is that they as appears by their own Confessions without these could never hurt the bodies of men for the Devil himself cannot constrain Nature who if he do any miracles doth them only by application of actives to passives as some too vainly credulous scarce believe for these poor wretches defiled with superstition fain many things and mix much follies and lies with the truth which was done by the Ancients whence they took their tradition That because of the opinion of a Deity present their Imaginations might work violently and also all natures conspiring the effect might be produced which I leave to thy consideration whether thou canst get any good from these few words Yet whatsoever they do they do it naturally But let us go to these things that are to our purpose By sweat or insensible transplantation first in a body or in a subject fitting all diseases being in the habit of the body are cured whether they be fixed as the Leprosie Gout French-pox c. or whether they be volatile as the Scab Morphew Scurf or the like skin-deep sicknesses and of the utmost parts yea without these it is scarce possible to do any thing in this Art By the impregnation of these thy Magnets are specified by which all manner of transplantations are done by means of these the Hectick is cured the body is long preserved strong and able and the passions of the mind are stirred up Of all which we will discourse at large in our Practice Now as a wise Physician can by these means do all these and greater matters so there is no doubt but by the abuse of them as much mischief may be done And therefore take these cautions and premonitions It is not unknown That almost all Infusion floweth from the said insensible transpiration and sweat for being impregnate with much spirit and holding it fast according to the disposition thereof they work violently therefore take heed we be not partakers of the sweat or exhalation of an unsound body that we touch not the sheets so impregnate nor put on the shoes or stockings or gloves or the like but in a special manner that we be no bedfellows with them Hence on the otherside was the health and long-life of our first parents who slept upon Herbs wholsom and from them drew no small part of their long-life as we may probably conjecture for it is certainly very wholsom in summer time to sleep upon Chamomile Rosemary washed Sage Betony Balm and the like and of the same Herbs to make beds for sick folks according to their diseases and I would likewise advise thee to sleep without thy garments in the summer time covered over with wholsom herbs and thou shalt draw from thence an excellent Comfortative It is good also for a weak body to use the company and garments of strong and sound men for from thence he may draw such spirits as will fortifie weak nature We hold it a commendable custom for such people to have their garments and linen worn by them that are lusty and healthfull before they put them on but this is safest done by them that are very strong lest evil come to him that first put them on Therefore also we must take heed that we suffer not our garments to be worn by them that are diseased and that we cast not our cloathes impregnate with our sweat and transpiration in stinking and unwholsom places And above all take heed that they come not into the hands of evil men for there is a great deal of invisible mummy lyeth hid in them of which Paracelsus though obscurely makes often
of bodies proceed from the various concoction of waters Aph. 31. The second from the various mixture of the three principles Salt Sulphure and Mercurie Aph. 32. These dispositions flow from the position of the Stars especially of the Sun Aph. 33. Every thing hath so much vitality as is required to produce the natural Actions of that species Aph. 34. Nothing beginneth to be made that doth not receive some vitallity from Heaven by which it can work somewhere Aph. 35. He that knoweth how to infuse the propitious Heavens or Sun into things or into the mixture of things may perform wonders and hereupon depends all magick operations Aph. 36. By how much the dispositions or the subjects are more formal so much more of this life they receive and so much more powerfully they do work Aph. 37. As in the eye the operations are more noble than in the foot although they both proceed from the same soul because of the purity of this Organ apt to receive a greater proportion of life so the Constellate carracters because of their formality receive a great proportion of spirit from Heaven and produce nobler actions Aph. 38. The spirit floweth continually from Heaven and back again to Heaven and in the flowing is found pure and unmixt and therefore may by a skilfull workman by wonderful means be joyned to any thing and increase the virtues of it according to the disposition of the subject Aph. 39. The heart of Heaven is the Sun and by light distributeth all things aswell to the Stars as to the Earth Aph. 40. Opacum is nothing else but a Body either wanting light or having the light asleep in it Aph. 41. He that can by light draw light out of things or multiply light with light he knoweth how to adde the universal spirit of life to the particular spirit of life and by this addition do wonders Aph. 42. So much light as is added so much life and so much of the one as is lost so much is lost of the other Aph. 43. This spirit after the first period of maturation strongly beginneth by little and little to vanish Aph. 44. Maturation is nothing else but the operation of the radicated moisture to the perfection of the Individuum so far forth as it may be perfected proceeding according to the semenary reasons propounded or purposed by Nature or the Soul Or it is an actuation of the internal spirit so far as it may be actuated Or it is the greatest Illumination of the matter that can possibly be done by such light Aph. 45. The spirit is discipated when it stirreth to act upon a matter too rebellious or when the natural mixture or Crasis of a thing is altered by the Stars somtimes too much excited it breaketh forth or being called forth by its brother spirit it goeth away to it Aph. 46. The matter is rebellious when by reason of a contrary Crasis or temperature it cannot be overcome and altered by the spirit Or when it is in the last period beyond which it cannot go nor the spirit convoy it any further for only so much spirit is given as serveth every thing to the due perfection of it Aph. 47. The temperature of a thing is altered by the Stars when the Horiscope of the Nativity cometh to the degree of apposition of the Planets that be contrary to the beginning of the life Aph. 48. The spirit is too much excited by fermentation or immoderate agitation for moderate agitation is necessary to vital operation Aph. 49. The spirit is called out by its brother spirit when it is too much exposed to it Aph. 50. In certain things it cannot be called out by its brother spirit because of its strait-society with the body but it allureth his brother to him and is strongly fortified thereby Aph. 51. Fermentation is the action of heat upon moisture by which the moisture is heated and made subject to the spirit circulating it self in the body which cannot remain in the same estate by means of the fluxibility of the body Aph. 52. He that by means and use of the universal spirit can excite the particular of any to a natural fermentation and then appease and settle Natures tumults by repeating the operation may miraculously increase things in vertue and power the highest secrets of Philosophy Aph. 53. Every man knows that by means of fermentation the spirit is as pure as it possibly may be drawn but almost all of them do want the fruit of multiplication because they know not how to joyn one brother with another Aph. 54. Every thing fermented worketh more strongly because in things fermented the spirits are more free Aph. 55. Things do abide in the same state of nature so long as they possesse so much spirit as is sufficient to perform the due execution thereof Aph. 56. Hence is manifest the cause of natural death and destruction of things Every thing tends to maturation as to the perfection thereof and when it is ripe the spirit begins to shew its forces and so by acting it is discipated and vanisheth which at length is the cause of destruction Aph. 57. He that could lay hold on the vanishing spirit and apply it to the body from whence it slipt or to another of the same species may thereby do wonders Aph. 58. From this fountain all natural Philosophy doth flow For easily may the spirit imbrued with the qualities of another body procreate in bodies of the same kind a similtude which is the violent cause of love Aph. 59. These things are aptest to intercept this particular spirit which have the greater similitude of most natural conjunction with the parts or which being applied to a vegetous body are by such a contract made more flourishing These things are to be understood of the bodies of wights especially of man where Philosophers are of more power Aph. 60. This spirit where it findeth a little matter disposed according to that likeness it makes and seats the compound produced Aph. 61. Where the spirit of one body being married to the qualities of that body is communicated to another body there is generated a certain compassion because of the natural flux and reflux of the spirits to their proper bodies Which compassion or sympathy is not easily dissolved as that which is done by imagination Aph. 62. There can neither love nor compassion be generated without the commixture of spirits Aph. 63. This commixture is sometimes done by natural or material application sometime by imagination and not seldom by the disposition of the stars Aph. 64. By natural application it is done when the spirit of one body is implanted in another by means of those things which are apt to intercept the spirit and to communicate it to another and they are known by their signature and by the Ancients called Amatoria or such things as love one another Aph. 65. By imagination love is produced when the exalted imagination of one doth predominate over the imagination
circumscribed in an Organical body The Proof and Explaination NO true Philosopher will deny this The Platonists place not the soul in the body but the body in the soul And the Peripateticks themselves do with Aristotle confesse That the soul doth execute some action without the body Nay it seems very absurd to shut up so noble an Essence in so narrow and strait a Prison Neither were there wanting some Divines who attributed acerta in ubiquity to the soul affirming it to be there where it worketh for what can be devised more unlikely than to conclude that most noble Essence as bounded and comprehended in this so exceeding small a prison The common dictate of Reason proveth That the thing comprehended so far forth as it is comprehended is more base and ignoble than the thing comprehending And it is manifest to him who considereth the nature of things That the thing comprehending so far forth as it comprehendeth is more excellent in operation and power than the thing comprehended That the Imagination worketh without it and beyond its own body I take it to be manifest and if any man doubt of it he will be convinced by experience for it worketh in the Embrio Neither can fascinations be otherwise performed But is not the Imagination the hand of the soul by which it worketh without the help of the body and yet these operations conduce not to our purpose Therefore we must shew more clearly what we mean by this Conclusion We do then under it and by it mean nothing else but that the soul must necessarily be wheresoever the vital spirit is found for the vital spirit is the bond by which the soul is tyed to the body or rather it is the undivided companion of the soul brought by the soul from heaven by which the soul joyned it self with the body by means and mediation whereof it gives the form of the body and if by the frown of the destinies it be forsaken by the particular soul it returns to its common country but is never extended further than the soul it self without which the spirit cannot subsist Then if a mans body work something without it self surely it worketh as informed by the soul and shall it not then work vitally and produce vital actions But how I pray you shall it produce them without doubt in and by the vertue and power of the form that is the soul But except I be deceived there can nothing work by the power of another and not be partaker of it Therefore the active beams that produce such effects without the body must needs be partaker of the soul by which they work And I think no man can be so senslesse to deny actions extrinsecal or without the body to Man the most noble compound and grant them to Plants and Stones but that operations depend on forms it alwayes seemed true to the most Learned The seed doth as some would have it beget the Embrio in the mother which it could not do were it not upholden and furnished with the presence of the fathers soul But I hear some whisper that this opinion can be no way consonant to truth because that then if the father should dye assoon as he hath begotten the child his soul being free from the bonds of the body goes to its appointed place And how then can it work in the Embrio But to him that considereth the matter well this will appear of no great difficulty whether we say That the soul is not utterly and absolutely free as long as any vital spirit remaineth anywhere safe and untoucht for it there sticks and abides as long and until its subject be quite turned into an other thing but because it wants organs as in an appoplexy it cannot perform any sencelike actions Or whether we will say rather The soul is necessarily present at these operations by a certain presence and yet not hindered but that in another place it may perform other works for seeing that the soul doth by wonderful and strange means produce many things in the body and is after divers manners in divers places Why shall it not when it is free from the body do the same things or the like so it wants not its Instruments of its proper natural heat which only is fit to produce such an effect But of what hath been said the cause is plain why about the Graves of them that die a violent death there are apparitions seen for the vital heat and natural moisture being not quite dissolved the soul sticks and gives sometimes in these exhallations impregnated with the spirit the shape and form of a man And the same may be the reason why sometimes in Church-yards such things appear and from the same head it is that the slain Corps bleedeth at the presence or touch of the Murderer for the soul being yet present doth by the dispensation of Providence work such things But for the better confirmation of this Conclusion there is enough said in this place others from these grounds will invent and finde out things which will be far more sublime and high CONCLUSION II. The Soul worketh without or beyond its proper body commonly so called The Proof and Explanation of this THis Second Conclusion hath nothing which is not manifest in the former and of it self is clear and confessed by all men For if the soul be without the body it can and shall without doubt work there for the soul in its essence includes Act being as one saith and very well an Essentiall Act proceeding temporally It works therefore according to the Organs informed or according to the manner of information seeing it communicates a form to the subject for peradventure it were more agreeable to simple and pure truth to call the soul not the form but rather the giver of the form yet so giving forms that both in their beings and operations they shal depend upon it and whatsoever is is dispensed and given by it Plato seems to have placed in men a three-fold distinct form yet depending on the common soul It is true that to these Inferiour forms the name of form is sometimes given but how truly and properly let them look to it that accustomed to speculations have learned to separate Vitall Actions from the soul which proceed onely from it But we omitting all these difficulties will be content to use the common means which will also peradventure serve our turns Some men will say If the soul be and work without the body or besides it by informing the naturall heat that proceedeth without it and is inherent in his beams they must needs be men consisting of a soul and of a body When I first began this Work I had thought to have passed over such Objections as ridiculous but this being one that may seem of some moment to them that are lesse perspicacious I am content to answer And first I say it is as absurd for ought I said to call the beams men as
it is to call the feet and hands men Secondly Every bare information doth not make man for it is required that a reasonable soul do inform an organical body and thus by means of the form be made fit for organical operations but if the soul inform any Compound onely vegetably or some inferior way unknown to us it cannot be forthwith called a Man for the soul informs according to the merit of the matter say the Platonists or more clearly it informs according to the Portion of the vitall spirit that is present for every proportion of this is not fit for every operation Hence it appears that though the soul do for sometime inform a Corps with a certain form for we see in dead Carcases the vegetative faculty doth for a time exercise its power which cannot be done without the soul yet it cannot be called a Man for being deprived of sense and reason it falls from that dignity But it is most certain that the soul being there present onely according to the vegetable power may work elsewhere for when it was tyed to the body according to all the wayes of vitality it did form many other operations why then when it is altogether free from those bonds or else tyed with them it should not work things proper to it self there can no reason be given nor can any man in judgment understand It may then according to the will of God either injoy pleasure or suffer pain although it be tyed to the dead Corps in that manner seeing that in the vegetative faculty it shall suffer nothing till it be again re-united to an organical body But in what things and how the soul doth suffer when it is loosed from the bonds of the body we leave to Divines as too far from our purpose CONCLUSION III. From every body flow Corporall beams by which the soul worketh by its presence and giveth them energie and power of working and these beams are not onely Corporall but of diverse parts The Proof c. THE first part of this Conclusion will easily be evicted for there is no man that can deny it that considereth the operations of naturall things and the hinderances of those operations For what reason is there why things more hard and solid than the nature of the thing requires work not so freely is it not because the Pores of the body being shut the Corporal beams cannot finde a due egresse Now unlesse they were Corporal no affection that is meerly corporal could hinder them and nothing but the change of the forms could destroy the faculties of things But when we see that the form remains the operations are hindered we wonder then if we be forced to consider and resolve of such beams Moreover unlesse those Active beams were corporal their operation would proceed to any distance and not be hindered by bodies If you say it is but an Accident by which things work at distance yet an Accident must needs be in a subject and must needs work by the virtue of that subject in which it is for I take it to be certain that no Accident barely considered in it self can have any Activity Therefore except such beams be granted nothing can work at distance by any means Therefore these Accidents are displayed in Corporal beams possessing all the manners of the body whence they proceed yet I would not have you take me for a maintainer of Accidents who could never hitherto see any thing in nature but substance unlesse any man could make the positions and manner of things something reall distinct from the bodies but here I speak out of supposition granting peradventure what some man might ask at my hands Besides what hath been said for our beams you may add that adventitious heat doth promote the operations of things but how could it do this but by stirring up more plentifull beams to bring them out We see how Amber being made hot with rubbing drawes the Chaff to it more stronglier and many other will not work unlesse they be hot by which making them hot the Corporal beams are more plentifully drawn out and so work more powerfully Moreover closenesse would not long keep the natural power of things unhurt but that it hinders the dissipations and spending of the beams besides unlesse beams were Corporal things they would penetrate though the most compact bodies the contrary whereof experience bears witnesse unto though it be true that some Compound bodies send out beams so thin and subtill that they can pierce the pores of all bodies as doth appear in the Loadstone But wherefore did Nature ordain Pores in bodies but that they may be doors by which these beams might pass in and out again the sences would never perceive sensible things but that there proceedeth beams from the bodies affecting the senses as appears in smelling for odour perisheth with age and yet for no other cause then that the beams perish which bring the odour to our nostrils so from all bodies there goes subtill thin beams bringing with them the shapes of things which is possible to demonstrate to the eyes in a dark place by mean of a translucide convex glasse but unlesse these beams were Corporal let any man tell me how they could affect the senses rather I have often wondred how being mingled with so great confusion in passing through the glasse they can severally explicate themselves But let us come to another stronger argument and more agreeing to our purposes to prove what we principally intend And namely that such beams do in a continuall motion go out of the bodies of wights which we shall easily do if we first consider the common natures of all wights for every wight that it may live any space must necessarily be nourished with food neither can it live without it because of the continuall going out of the beams the body from its natural disposition can endure no more vacuity and emptinesse than nature hath appointed for such a body That which in food is dry doth restore and refresh the solid parts and that which is moist the humors And why this but because every day nay every moment the beams and those most plenteously do go out from bodies and those corporal yea and from every part of the body for were not this so living wights would grow to monstrous and enormous greatnesse And this is the reason why wights fall to destruction and are not so long-lived as Stones nay not as some of the more compact sort of Trees for the vitall spirit and natural heat being in wights freer and more at liberty work more powerfully and produce more plenteous exhalations whence it comes to passe that they are propagated to the greatest distances the soul all the while knitting them together lest they should be altogether dissipated for they could not else hold the specifical virtue of the body neither could they work except the soul informed them for that hath in it the natural heat as we shall
Disposition of the Body and by its voluntary going out the death of the Body whence it was taken Hence also proceeds that salt of blood which by its colour sheweth the same things that the Lamp did by its light of which more hereafter And hence also arose all natural Philosophy by means whereof the affections are moved and after a manner tyed nearly and only naturally But of this enough CONCLUSION VII The vivallity or liveliness lasts till the excrements blood or separated parts be changed into another thing of a diverse species The Proof and Explanation ' of it ALL things which have their original from the Elements after they are come to perfection do straightway go back again to their principals from whence they took their beginning for so it is established by Providence that what is begun by motion shall never be partaker of state or rest Yet doth not the thing immediately cease to be in that spirit wherein it is untill another form be introduced into the matter which also brings with it new moods and new operations I speak not here of subordinate forms which are known to be common to many spirits the change whereof is not alwayes required in the change or corruptions of the presence or absence of forms we can no way judge but by the moods and faculties of the subject We say therefore that vitality doth so long last in the excrements blood and other separated parts as they are not changed into other things of a divers species which being clear of it self and by that which is abovesaid needs no other proof yet this is to be noted First That things have more vertue and energie in their state than in their declinations and the nearer they are to their absolute change the lesse they work Secondly That every change of the substance doth not change the form for in things where only the superfluities are taken away leaving the essences which work in a sufficient matter well disposed and digested and are full of the vital spirit of things there the form is not only not changed but more free than it was and worketh more powerfully Moreover we see that some corruptions are necessary to the furtherances of some operations though this kind of corruption if we give it the true name is rather to be called fermentation for by it the spirits are stirred up and made more able to shew their power but there is a mean in things and certain bounds beyond which the truth cannot consist therefore we must proceed very warily lest while we strive to stir up the spirits we dissipate them which I have seen happen to many men both in this Art and in Alchymle CONCLUSION VIII One part of the body being affected or ill disposed by hurting the spirits all the other parts do suffer with it The Proof and Explanation c. I Conceive that this so common and received an Opinion by all Phisicians allowed and confessed to be true needs little proof therefore we only say this That the cause of this compassion floweth neither from the body nor from the particular form of the part nor from the likeness nor lesse likeness if it be considered only so far forth as the cause of likenesse is considered which floweth from the same or the like proportion of spirit but from the vital spirit which goeth through the whole body and is resident in every part thereof for a disease terminatively is not of the body but of the spirit for there is no disease of the body however it comes which happeneth not by the weaknesse of the spirit neither can any distemper of the body last long where the spirit by which all evils are amended flowrisheth and is strong This spirit is that nature whereof Phisicians ought to be helpers upon them the Universal Medicine is built whereas unhappy are those Phisicians and unhappily they speed who either neglecting or wronging this spirit destroy all things by their violence while they think so to cure the disease which by opening a vein do exhaust this spirit and by purging the body from hurtful humours by rank poison that kill this spirit thrust with those humours the soul out of the body And these are they which by their villany and ignorance have dimn'd the glory of Physick which being given over to vain contentious and unprofitable disputes have erred from the simplicity of Nature which though they be honoured by the hair-brain'd multitude because of their rich cloathes coaches and the like yet by the sons of Art who with great labour prying into the Centers of things have found that nothing is to be attempted against Natures will they are esteemed no better than as their excrements of Physick and so to be cast into the vaults of perpetual infamy but the World is full of Fools We returning to our purpose do say That not only the other parts do suffer with the part diseased but that if any disease of whatsoever part do last long the whole body will be at last affected or else how could death follow upon a particular disease The vital spirit is but one so continuate through the whole body and propagated through every part of it that if it be hurt in any one part of it it is hurt in the whole as the following Conclusions will more clearly shew CONCLUSION IX If the vital spirit be fortified in any one part it is fortified by that occasion in the whole body The Proof and Explanation of it c. THat which in the fore-going Chapter we said of Diseases we say now of Cures for there is the like reason of both And this Conclusion is put for no other reason than to shew caeteris paribus there is no great odds whether you apply the Medicine to the part affected or to an other part provided that by this Medicine thy intent be to fortifie the vital spirit for if this spirit be fortified in one part the whole spirit is fortified because being of a heavenly and fiery nature that strengthening is quickly found in the whole latitude thereof for it is impossible that so subtil active spiritual clear and aetherial a thing should suffer any thing in any part which it shall not very shortly suffer in the whole The Experiment whereof we see in outward poyson which infecting the nearest the spirit straight-wayes unlesse the spirit be fortified doth infect the whole spirit in the body not that the venom goeth through the whole body for it 's impossible that by the sting of a Scorpion in the foot the substance of the venom should as some dream come to the heart but because one part of the spirit being powerfully infected the infection of the whole must needs speedily follow so by Inflamation there immediately followeth a Feaver though the part that that is inflamed be never so far from the heart As of Diseases so we may conclude of Remedies but that Remedies applied to the parts affected do more and
cure that which most urgeth therefore we principally attend the wound lest syderation should follow or something else bringing assured destruction And for the same reason we apply not to it things good for the other disease yet this I will here adde That it is manifest by experience that many men by wounds have been freed from many other diseases and so that they never relapsed into them afterwards namely when the part affected being wounded the things proper to the disease could also perform the cure of the wound as if the head labouring of a cronical disease should be wounded and the wound could be cured with Betony and Sage there is no doubt but the spirit being naked and now being refreshed and cherished with these remedies would perfectly heal both the head and the whole body Here also is this to be noted That they who dig the body with Cauteries and keep the wounds open a long time for the purulent matter to run are ill advised they do not apply to the wound remedies proper for that disease for which they made the Issue for this being done the Patients would in short time feel very great ease if that wound were made upon the part principally infected especially if all the other things were accordingly done diastatically and the matter also that issueth out used as Art commandeth By these means it is certain and found by experience that the Gout in the hands feet and other parts may most happily and easily be cured But returning again to the excrements blood and separated parts we say That this Art useth those rather and with better successe than the whole body that is hurt because the vital spirit being free and naked easily receiveth impressions especially from things agreeing with it Therefore the Inventers of this Art mingle such things though taken from other bodies with the Medicines as in the common Weapon-salve it is to be seen where they mingle with the Oyntment the flesh blood and fat of men for no other cause that being endued with these Medicaments and qualities of Medicaments they might the more easily help the heart spirits for by their likenesse they do the more easily draw the spirits and being drawn do the more easily change them according to the qualities acquired but it is not alwayes necessary that the Medicines be mingled with those things that are taken from the body for we see that the sympathetical water alone and simple without any mixture will cure all wounds by means of the blood of the wound but especiall care must be taken that you make choise of those things that do cure not by qualities but by their whole substances as they use to speak that is by their signatures from Heaven or else ordained to such affections by the seminary reason of the soul otherwayes they may easily misse the mark for the similitude dispensed from Heaven because it passeth the like spirits doth much advance the effects nay without this thou wilt scarce do any good as by daily experience we may see made manifest CONCLUSION XII The mixture of Spirits maketh Compassion from that Compassion Love takes its Original The Proof and Explanation c. THis 12. Conclusion doth of it self a little or nothing avail to the curing of diseases being rather directed to endure Diseases and procure Love it is also the foundation of all Implantations for where commixtion and compassion is there is that which is sound drawing unto it self that which hurteth another without question that from whence the thing hurtfull was drawn will be helped and cured with the losse and prejudice of that thing that so attracteth and draweth it And this Conclusion besides that it needeth no long proof and explanation being clear of it self it is likewayes not safe to use many words about it because of the danger that may arise probably from hence for from this fountain floweth transplantation of Diseases from one man to another and from the dead to the living it may also do harm in giving cause of much exorbitant lust and the means to satisfie it Nay if this Conclusion were too clearly known Fathers which God forbid could not be safe from their Daughters Husbands from their Wives nay nor Women from one another for they would be turned up-side down with Philosophy and therefore I shall speak no more of them in this place for to them that are curious and diligent searchers of Nature that which hath and shall be said hereafter is sufficient But before I come to handle the Precepts of this Art let me as an Epilogue to these Conclusions and for the better understanding of what follows advance one Proposition more and that is this The vital spirit is more powerfully drawn out of the whole body and partaketh of the whole body by those things that either have the signatures of the whole body or have a substance like the sulpher of man's body so from a part for a particular operation those things do more vehemently draw sooner communicate the spirit to another which have the evident signature of it this I say to the end And by thine own industry thou mayst find Magnets for every particular operation by means of this general rule This further I think good to gratifie thee withall of all things proceeding from the body the blood and the sweat are most stufft with vital spirits for of the seed I will say nothing for without great incivility it cannot be had but of one thing take especiall heed that as soon as they proceed from their bodie they be committed to their proper Magnets for as the common Load-stone is fortified and after a certain manner fed with Iron so are these Magnets which apprehend and keep the Vital spirit untill they commit the care of them to another thing for if thou strive to keep without their proper and due Magnet two inconveniences will follow first they cannot endure any considerable time in their esse because every moment they lose somewhat of their vital spirits secondly that without a Magnet they do not work so mightily because for the most part the Magnets do conduce to transplantation and communication as we know by certain experience for Philosophers they will do little or no good without a Magnet Except peradventure somewhat may be done by the fermentation of the blood and seed and each is to other in stead of a Magnet but in other things though haply thou mayst finde some virtue yet thou wilt never finde so powerfull operations as if in thy works thou use Magnets choose them then convenient and apply them the right way and thou shalt perform wonders Mundus regitur opinionibus The Third BOOK CONTAINING The Method of Curing by SYMPATHIE CHAPTER I. Of the things necessary for a Physician before he under-take the Practice of Magicall Physick THere are many things necessary for him that thinks to understand the practice of this Art and do any good by it First he must know
prepared keep in a vessel very well shut for so thou hast prepared a Magnet the compendium of all mans body gotten without any horrour or cruelty which we altogether detest yet he that will follow other mens devices may let us proceed CHAP. XII Of the use of the Magnet in this Art IF thou hast never so good a Magnet and knowest not the use of it thou bestowest thy labour in vain We shall therefore add the use of it that nothing may be wanting in this Art And about it being most needful and asking little labour there needs but few words yet one thing is to be noted in the way namely That although the aforesaid beams do alwayes flow from the bodie yet there are some parts out of which they flow more copiously in one word they are the Emmunctories by which the body is as it were cleansed and the spirit doth accompany the superfluities because these parts are more porous and spungie it wandreth out more freely finding a larger egresse Now come we to the use of the Magnet Apply the Magnet to the emmunctory of the part grieved and procuring the patient to sweat which is best done by some Cordial Diaphoretick fitting the disease leave there the Magnet until it be impregnate with the vital spirit then remove it and immediatly use it according to the precepts given in the Chapter of Transplantation but take heed it be speedily done for fear the spirit be dissipated by some external more powerful cause for then Transplantation will be in vain attempted if the patient be not cured at the first do it again and thou shalt see the desired effect And not only diseases are cured this way but strange things even all that are done by transplantation are this way effected although transplantation may be done by other means as shall be shewed by and by But if thou desire by this means to transplant diseases read diligently the Chapter of Transplantation and observe well the precepts there given lest if things shall happen not to hit thy desire thy ignorance do return to the reproach of this Art CHAP. XIII Of the means whereby cures may be done in this Art without a Magnet BY other means also are strange and admirable cures wrought in this Art without a Magnet yea and sometimes with better successe than with a Magnet viz. When the thing it self that carrieth the spirit nakedly is applied to another thing disposed to receive it but this must be strictly regulated according to the precept above given and for the most part here is required fermentation that by means thereof the spirit being freed and loosed from the bonds may more easily insinuate it self and be sooner partaker And by this means for the most part particular diseases are more happily cured because active beams do more partake of the part from whence they proceed as also the excrements after the same manner and for the same cause of the parts whence they are excerned Experience confirms it That blood because it is the seat of the vital spirit if it be rightly applied cures the greatest and almost all diseases of the body by the excremenâ—â— of the belly thereby are all diseases of the intestines cured by the vein those of the bladder and the reins and sometimes all diseases because of the affinity it hath with the veins liver and stomach By spittle that is coughed up the diseases of the lungs By sweat the parts are cured whence it proceeded By the nails the diseases of the hands and feet By the hair the diseases of the parts whence they are taken And finally by the blood as is abovesaid all the diseases of the body are cured Here is to be noted That if all things that belong to any part be taken the cure will be the sooner and more easily done We have determined to speak of them severally Yet we shall be so far from condemning any combination or joyning two or more of them together that we rather perswade it as being most beneficial if the Rules of Art be duly observed CHAP. XIV Of the Excrements of the Back-door BY these Excrements as we said even now are cured all the diseases of the Intestines the body is purged and brought into flux the diseases of the fundament are both procured and cured and many things else are done which thou maiest learn by thy own experience if thou be diligent when they are applied they cure old ulcers Carcinomata and Fistulaes yea which some commend as a great secret they supply the place of the Weapon-salve without any further preparation but they must be chosen of a sound man and a strong body lest the preparation hurt them that are weak By the Odour mixt with wholsom Herbs much good may be wrought by transplantation and this I judge among many others to be the cause why Rusticks and such as live in the Country are sound and live longer than Noblemen and Citizens for these suffer their seiges to rot in stools or else to be cast into some unholsom places but the other committing them to the earth nigh wholsom herbs by means of transplantation lead their lives for the most part free from diseases We have above in general bidden to beware of Excrements of the diseased people But here we will give a more particular advice namely That thou never ease thy self where diseased folks have for much mischief hath come of it for we have known some hurt by the smell that doing their easement where one had done it that had a flux themselves got the flux without a procatartick cause preceding The reason of which so strange a matter is to be taken from that which hath been said and shall not be here repeated Furthermore take heed lest at any time you do your easement upon herbs that are either malignant exulcerating or violently purging for hence many times when the cause is unknown proceeds dangerous disenteries which until those herbs be quite putrified will not yeeld to any medicine Finally It is not safe to leave these Excrements in places where thine Enemies can come for it is easie to know what violent pains are procured by a kindled coal with spirit of Wine or Aquavitae put into those Excrements I would have thee to perswade thy self that if these things were ordinarily known they be worse and more dangerous matters than these known to some others therefore look wisely to thy self But of these Excrements enough so far as they pertain to this Art in the general the particular wayes of working with them we will describe in our practice CHAP. XV Of VRINE VRINE is an excrement of the second concoction done in the liver or rather in the reins from whence by the emulgent veins it is sent to the reins mixt with blood out of which it is by the Uriteres as it were percolated or strained and so sent to the bladder where it also abides a while and then it is by the passage
the body they imbibe the spirit and joyn it to themselves intercepting the beams issuing from the noblest parts of the body yea having at the least some digestion they are made like the bodies in which they were concocted and therefore do more greedily attract the beams with the spirits and the spirits do much more willingly insinuate themselves into them than into any other body not partaker of the same or a greater digestion and likenesse It is likewise evinced by common experience for doth not the too much flowing of any excrement produce grievous symptoms weaknesse and in the end death and that not so much by cutting off the nourishment as by exhausting the spirits or else in the Dropsy how could the over-much flowing of the water out of the wound cause death but that the water being impregnant with these spirits carries more of them out with it than the body can bear in so short a time So in all inward Abscesses when great store of purulent matter hath filled the hollow of the breast if by the negligence or ignorance of the Chirurgion it be too much and suddenly emptied it is for the same reason followed with death or dangerous weaknesse for the body unlesse it be every-where according to the proportion requisite stored with these spirits cannot long subsist This spirit as long as the body continues in its due Symetrie is nourished from Heaven by the mediation of the Air and by the vital spirit of the Aliment All things therefore that proceed from the bodies of man or beast after what manner soever whether naturally or by the force of disease are impregnated with the same vital spirit the body hath and therefore because they are liker the bodies whence they came than those things that never were in the body they quickly imprint the qualities drawn from the bodies upon another like body which ought to occasion great care that excrement matter corruption nor any of those things that come from infected persons be left unburied for great mischief may come by them either by Nature or by Art if peradventure they come into the hands of some skilfull but ill-disposed men But if the burning of Dead Carcases after the manner of the Ancients be not permitted the Magistrates ought to take care that they be soon and very deep buried and that in moist places if it may be and far remote from the feeding of Beasts for from shallow superficiall Gravels there arise unspeakable mischiefs And I think this is one of the greatest natural causes why the Plague doth so furiously rage in diverse places for I am afraid that they to whom the charge of burying is committed are still too negligent and carelesse I would here take occasion to commend and that upon good grounds the funeral fires of the Ancients But another custome having now prevailed I am sure my words will not alter it It is known that Witches cannot hurt without the parts of dead bodies and the Excrements of him that they desire to mischieve as therefore Magistrates ought to have a care of burials so every man if he have Enemies ought to have a care of his Excrements But now let us return to the Conclusion which affirmed That these Excrements do also live which though at first do seem a little hard yet indeed to him that will consider it it is so far from being either hard or unreasonable that it is impossible it should be otherwayes nay what if I should say the hair and nails do live a certain life propagated from the soul It may be thou wilt say For they are as certain parts of the body they live with the same soul they did before thou wouldst think that more strange and yet thou canst not give a reason why thou shouldest think so Well this only I will say of Excrements that unlesse they live with the same life that wights do after a manner certainly they would want the vital spirit of which we spake before and which we have above proved and will not all this clearly demonstrate that they have and do plentifully injoy it Moreover who can deny that the nails and hairs have life that have observed in them an augmentative or assimulative faculty at least who can deny it so long as they remain fastened to the body though they want sence as the bones and other necessary parts of the Organical body do Now if they live when they remain joyned to the body these shall likewayes live when they are separated from the body as long as they are nails and hairs having still the same form as they had before Witnesse the Accidents or the substantial moods which abiding still the same depend of the same fountains from whence they flowed but no man can deny that the very form or figure or mood flowed from the soul draweth thence its life which is propagated by the presence of the soul by the mediation of the vital spirit In conclusion a man may thus argue for any Excrement All Excrements of the body by means of some manner of Digestion have changed the form they had before that Digestion and put on another as may be known by their operations and faculties which are altogether changed As for example The Excrements of a Dog healeth the diseases of the Pallet and Throat which flesh and bones howsoever prepared could not do especially if they had been stinking and corrupt and this form by which they work such things they got from the soul of the Dog and therefore being introduced and brought in by it it depends wholly of the soul and consequently cannot want vitality which vitality or livelinesse is obscure and unperceivable to them which know not the centers of things which it shall better become a Philopher to search after than suffer himself to be transported with a desire of contradiction CONCLUSION VI Between the Body and the Excrements proceeding from it there is a certain Concatenation of Spirits or beams though they be never so far asunder The like is also between the blood and any other part of the body separated from the Body at any distance The Proof and Explanation of it c. IF we confirm and demonstrate this Conclusion the greatest part of the businesse is done for this being established here is laid a firm foundation of this Act whereupon all the precepts thereof may be built yet if what we have said already abide unshaken the future difficulty will not be great But first it would be known what concatenation we do here intend when we affirm a concatenation of spirits or beams between the body and the Excrements thereof we understand thereby a perpetual flux of beams proceeding after a peculiar manner from the body and terminated as in a body after a sort in kinne and like unto it as also reciprocally flowing from the Excrements of the body That there is such reciprocall emanations is easily shewed for if you once grant the flux of beams
and Impregnation of the Excrements by the vital spirits it will necessarily follow that both the beams of the Excrements and the body as not differing in nature and qualities are so terminated one upon another by the aforesaid means rather than by any other yea if the form both of the body and of the Excrements do depend in the same soul it will be amisse to call them Excrements untill they have utterly lost their form they got in the body rather a part of the body or something subordinate to the body and therefore the vital spirit being affected in the Excrements is also affected in the body which cannot be done without such a concatenation But this generall rule is to be observed namely That the Excrements of any parts are peculiarly allyed and tyed to the Part whose Excrements they were and that the beams that interchangeably flow from these do by a peculiar love imbrace these that flow from the part whose Excrement it is vice versa for out of that part it hath drawn more plenteous spirits and therefore hath greater affinity with it which may be perceived by manifold experiences for if you put any uscerating thing into the Excrements the Pudding will be affected with great grief and pain For example Put Pease in a firing-Pan till they be very hot and put them into hot odure and how many Pease so many Pustules will be on the fundament So the Aculeus Pastenacae Marinae stuck in the place where one hath lately Pist restrains it till you have pull'd it out again You will finde more Experiments of this kinde in the processe of this Work It is not therefore to be doubted but that the Excrements are by reciprocal beams concatenated with the bodies especially with those parts out of which they last proceeded Thence arise severall considerations whereof we will take notice hereafter onely take notice of this That upon this concatenation depends all Magnetical Physick and therefore mark it well that if any thing in the practice shall seem obscure that thou mayst addresse thy self to this place and better consider that which is already said It is added in the Conclusion that the furthest distance doth not break this concatenation which is so true that the virtue of the soul extends it self so largely that it is scarcely contained in place for the concatenation depending on the soul must needs be extended according to the virtue of the soul besides the other reason which we infinuated above of this extention where we said there do most plentifull spirits flow from wights by reason of the great plenty of vitall spirits which appear to the sences in that they need so great store of Aliment to the end that what was spent in propagating beams might by the conduct of the dispensing spirit be renewed in the body the fountain of them There is therefore no small store of those beams because being thin subtil and easily dissipated they need continual food for the reparation of them They extend themselves likewise very far and work diversly we not knowing of it and as diversly are we affected in the hurting of them when we are fully ignorant of the causes of our diseases And therefore in all sicknesses the said spirit is to be rectified comforted and multiplied and so may all diseases be easily cured which we propound especially for Phisicians to note and consider Now there is no man will deny but that which we have said of the Excrements doth also agree to the parts separated from the body as also to the blood for there is the same reason in all in blood it appeareth most evident because in Holy Writ it is called the seat of the soul or life as having greatest store of vital spirits and hurting more easily by the too much flux of it Amongst all those things confirm this concatenation that most famous Sympathetical Oyntment commonly called the Weapon-salve and our Sympathetical Water do by manifest experience clearly prove it in despite of the vain and obstreperous noise that some ignorant Divines make against it proclaiming it diabolical and superstitious whom many others and especially the learned Helmont hath put to everlasting silence Nor did the wrangling Libavius though he proudly railed after his manner write better against this than he did of and for the Philosophers Stone how ignorantly and audaciously he carried himself in both to the infinite prejudice of the Hermetical Commonwealth is known too well to them that have learned the true knowledge of things from the things themselves but of this enough Of the parts of the body separated from it he that doubteth may find in the same Helmount a strange story I will give you his own words A certain man of Bruxels being at Bolonia did in a fray lose his Nose he went to Tagliacorzo a Chirurgeon living there to consult how he might have a new Nose and fearing the cutting of his own Arm hired a Porter that for a great sum of money was content to let him have a Nose cut out of his Arm as the manner is he did so and the Cure well performed the man of Bruxels returned home into his own Country But about thirteen moneths after his return home he felt his Nose suddenly grow cold and within a few dayes after it rotted and fell quite off And where many wondred of this strange change he inquired into the cause and it was found that just at the same instant when the Nose grew cold the Porter at Bolonia died And saith Helmount there are many yet living in Bruxels that can testifie the truth thereof Thus far he The like I have heard from a Doctor of Phisick a friend of mine who did swear deeply that himself was an eye-witnesse of it Is not all our Doctrine here confirmed clearer than the light Was not the inscitious nose as animated at the first so still informed with the soul of the Porter neither had it any from the man whose Nose now it was made but only nourishment the power of the assimulation which it hath from its proper form it took it not from him but from the Porter of whom it was yet truly a part and who dying the Nose became a dead Nose and did immediatly tend to corruption But who doth not here see most openly and evidently a concatenation otherwise how could the Nose of one that was at Bolonia enform the Nose of one that was at Bruxels but by means of a concatenation Our assertion therefore is confirmed by true and undoubted experience from whence as from a plenteous spring divers fair rivelets do flow Hence arose that glorious Miracle of Nature whereby a man may at distance and in an instant open his mind to his friend though they be ten thousand miles asunder by means of a little blood flesh and spirit a secret not to be revealed to the unworthy multitude Hence that Lamp of life which at any distance sheweth by its light the
more speedily help it is by frequent egression of spirits from the part the cause whereof look for in the following Conclusion It is very necessary therefore that thou choose a part fit for thy purpose for except thou do so thou wilt be deceived and ashamed for thou wilt not work every where alike therefore mark the Conclusion following CONCLUSION X. Where the spirit is most bare and naked there it is soonest affected The Proof and Explanation c. THis Conclusion being most necessary for practice is of it self manifest and followeth upon the premises for doubtlesse the more intimately and nearly any agent is joyned with a Patient the operation is both more speedy and better for what can hinder action but undue approximation which impediment we here study to avoid seeking the vital spirit in its nakednesse that it may be the sooner affected by a due and convenient application and may be the more speedily freed from things hurtful and extraneous and so quickly change and rectifie the body slipt into a distemper for if where it is most naked it being there free from extraneous things because it is not so fettered and cloyed with evils then certainly there if one know the right subject and use the right Instrument it may be made to free the body sooner from diseases for being fortified in one place it will straight-wayes be fortified throughout for as a disease is never truly but when the whole spirit is infected with a sickly disposition for till that time it is but as some speak in fieri which disposition at the beginning affected but one part and that affected not hindered corrupted the whole so must we also philosophize concerning the recovery of health but there are two things here requisit First That thou cease not the application until the disease be fully cured for if thou leave off before that time the part that is yet infected will if the infection be strong again corrupt and infect the part thou hadst made whole and so leave thee to begin the same labour again Secondly That one part answer another for he that will happily cure diseases must begin at the root and if the root of the disease be in the head then cure the vital spirit proper to the head if in the stomack to the stomack for though the vital spirits considered in themselves have no heterogenical parts but be every where and wholly as the light like it self yet as it is in the body by certain adjuncts very considerable And therefore the beams proceeding from the head do in that disposition contain the spirit as the head doth as from the things already said may easily be gathered The naked spirit thereof affected with the dispositions of the head if the root of the disease be in the head is to be taken and remedies applied to that before we proceed to other things It will not be a miss to confirm the truth of this Conclusion by experience There 's no man doubts but that in the blood the spirit is most naked for if it were more naked than for fear of death if it could it would fly and get it gon to its own country Therefore Phisicians know that the naked spirit in the blood is sooner infected with poison than the spirit of any other part for venom being put into a vein doth sooner dissolve and loose the whole form of the body than twice so much taken in meat or drink inwardly although it be taken fasting or without any other vehiculum which confirmeth the truth of our Conclusion I will not encourage thee to ill if out of these or any other Writings of mine thou canst draw any evil consequence If thou beest a good man thou wilt not so read them if otherwayes know assuredly that if thou do any evil God will here even in this life take vengeance of thee So we proceed CONCLUSION XI In the Excrements Blood and separated parts the Spirit is not so deeply drowned as in the Body And therefore in them it is sooner infected The Proof and Explanation c. UPon this Conclusion the whole Art is grounded and this being false all fails therefore muse well in thy mind of what hath been said and what shall be said for he that well understands this Conclusion will finde no difficulty in the whole Art therefore it had need to be confirmed with some Reasons the first whereof is this The spirit is not so deeply drowned in the excrements blood and separated parts as in the body because in them it ranges abroad as more at liberty in that it doth not so much attend Organical operations that do violently snatch the spirit inward that being congregated it may work more powerfully in secesse but all organical operation being far from the Blood and Excrements there is no need the Spirit should drown it self so far and so inwardly Moreover the beams coming from excrements blood without the veins and parts separated stick about the surface and outside and are not allured and drawn internally because that is tending to destruction the spirit retires it self and makes some stay in the superfices where also the beams joyn themselves to their fellow-beams and there rest untill at last the excrements blood and separated parts becoming clean another thing are apt either to receive these beams and the spirit that accompanieth them or to return them when they have received them Again the spirits are more naked in these especially in the blood because that when it was in the body it had the spirits more naked and scarce tyed to the body as appears evidently in blood But some may ask how this reason agrees to parts cut off for what priviledge have they above parts of the same kind I answer It is to be considered That now the door is open by which a more free egresse is granted to the spirits which now having broken the fetters begin to wander abroad more at liberty Again some will object That if this were true then by applying things to a wound we might cure internal diseases To satisfie this objection we must consider these things and first That in every wound there is not only solutio continui but also the part wounded there is in a part exotick and a strange quality introduced by means whereof the vital spirit is hurt Secondly Those things that are applied to the wound have no power to change the vital spirit labouring of another evil disposition yea the Phisician 's expectation is satisfied if one thing do but perform operation and therefore they are content with the cure of the wound Thirdly If a thing good for another disease whereof peradventure the Patient is sick should be applied to the wound it perhaps will hurt this more than it would help that Now reason perswades we should first succour that which most urgeth From these things the Answer to the Objection is manifest for the spirit then labouring of a double distemper Art commandeth to
Galen but from a strange adventitious heat But whence it cometh or what brings the heat into the putrid matter neither he nor any man else knoweth or can tell but from the definition it is clear That putrifaction cannot be the cause of heat because it destroyeth heat and is introduced from an external heat that which is putrid is only the subject of the heat not the cause which heat is only possessed according to the intention and remission of the Introducer neither lasteth it longer than the cause is present and how these things can agree let them look As to Galen's definition I wonder why he so unadvisedly and ridiculously made the body putrifying to be the subject of putrifaction whether in bringing in of all putrifactions is there a putrifying body necessarily prae-required and therefore that which is once sound is for ever free from putrifaction but externall heat is by him called the cause of putrifaction and therefore it shall be the cause of heat in that which putrifieth but putrification it self cannot be called the cause of heat yet I would fain have some of them tell me how moist things can putrifie without fermentation going before and where shall the putrifaction of humors at length stay it self but in corruption and therefore that which is truly putrified is not the same which it was before putrifaction be finished but is changed into another thing of inferiour order because of the heat that is gone Choler putrified is not now Choler but another thing colder than it and therefore cannot cause a Tertian feaver which dependeth of Choler as appears by the excrements Besides putrifaction is alwayes accompanied with stinking by stink I do not understand that Odour which is unpleasant to us but that which agrees not with things in their proper state but who ever saw stinking choler voided in feavers except it were mixt with some things that did truly putrifie whereas the Excrements of the belly though they had an odious smell before yet being putrified they have a most pleasant odour as experience sheweth Therefore the putrifaction of humors is not the cause of Feavers but Fermentation which being the height of concoction doth alwayes other things requisite being present unite to purgation in summer I would ask those supercilious Masters one thing What concoction they accept in a putrid humor can Nature bring back a thing from corruption can it ever be in a better state than now it is if it be putrified It is Nature's duty to perfect the work begun unlesse her Intention be led aside or be hindered The truth is those men are too subtill to see the simplicity of Nature but how if all the strife be onely about the name how if fermentation be by them called putrifaction I will not stand upon this so be they confess that concoction in feavers needs not to be expected and that by a timely purgation they provide for the life of the Patient which is often lost by needlesse letting blood But of Feavers we shall speak more in our Practice now therefore let us return to Phlebotomie from which we degressed Against which some do further urge that considering the whole latitude of Nature they finde no medicine that draws blood But if Blood-letting had been necessary provident Nature would have provided some medicine to that purpose who rather labours to keep that Cataract of life within the body Moreover they ask how any dare be so bold as to draw blood from a Cacochymick body seeing themselves and that truly say that blood is the bridle of the humors They will say that Nature being disburdened will the readier arise up against the humors but foolishly for if one should take away a Souldiers weapons and then bid him set upon the Enemies promising himself by this means the victory would you not think him mad How much lesse is he who robbing Nature of her Arms bids her make head against the Enemy yea but many have mended by letting blood I deny it not but neither was then blood-letting the cause of the recovery but natural heat or the vital heat stirred up by motion set upon and conquer'd the diseases which heat by another motion had been better stirred up especially by Purgation at the beginning whilest there was strength by which means there is not onely endured a motion exciting the spirits but also the cause of the disease being partly taken away the Patient is much relieved Thus you see the boldnesse and madnesse of them that are so forward upon every occasion time and age to let them blood whereupon how many dangers follow I appeal to experience This is the true cause why Feavers are so seldome cured I would such Physicians would one day repent and take Nature for their guide But is Phlebotomie wholly to be condemned Is it in some cases lawfull for a Physician that followes Nature seeing that she in some cases as by bleeding at the Nose avoiding evil blood that is troublesome So it is at sometimes and upon some occasion needfull but these conditions must be observed which are by experience fetched out of the Cabinet of Nature First that it be never done but in a sanguine body not too much filled with preter-naturall humors 2. That it be done whilest the strength is constant under which conditions are comprehended the age sex and times of the disease and of the year which when they weaken forbid it 3. Phlebotomie is never to be done successively viz. two dayes together let Avicen say what he will for a double commotion is too great and doth too violently especially in feavers trouble Nature 4. In particular Irruptions either in their making or already made you may do it more freely 5. If diversion of the disease require it 6. If Feavers when Nature shewes the way by bleeding at the Nose or other passages Provided that she do not evacuate enough of her own accord 7. If the natural flux of women be stopped it is permitted untill nature can by fit medicines be brought to her wonted course for the avoiding of diseases but there must be great care taken to open the passages for nature knowes how better to govern her self than we do And in these cases and with these conditions it is permitted But except in a Case where a particular Irruption urgeth as sometimes in a Plurisie and in a Squinancy I would alwayes prefer Fasting before Phlebotomie yet before this if the Indication command I would free the body from the humors for so Nature would naturally be eased I would have the Physicians the ministers of Nature to follow Nature every-where plain and simple and leave their strife and contentions What have we that should follow simple Nature to do with Sects that one should swear himself a slave to Galen another to Avicen another to Paracelsus these were great men but when these gave themselves to contentious disputes to defend their own opinions they much erred many times from the
froth of a mad dog or one bitten with one for here by the violence of the Disease the humors are thrust out impregnate with the infected vital spirit by which means thou mayest overcome that so rebellious a Disease The rest I leave to thy consideration CHAP. XX Of Blood and Matter OMitting those many Disputes concerning Blood which makes not to our purpose as of the original organ Circulation and the like So far forth as concerns our Art I do briefly say That first the Scriptures say and teach us that blood is the principal Chariot of the spirits by placing the soul in the blood but if the spirit is the bond by which the soul is tyed to the body then where the spirit most resideth there shall the soul most powerfully work The blood then which so plentifully possesseth the spirits and communicates them to the body is surely the fittest Instrument to cure Diseases and do all the other things which the Art requireth and promiseth for here the spirit is free and not bound up as elsewhere Therefore in the blood the spirit is soonest affected because there it is naked as is aforesaid Yet we must not immediatly conclude that it may be taken and used presently without any fermentation or putrifaction for they are both usefull here as in the Practice shall be showen onely take heed that thou corrupt not the blood with too much fermentation for then the spirit is driven away so that peradventure it will do nothing But that thou mayest know the fit time of fermentation I 'le teach thee a secret Let the blood with the most excellent parcell of the whole body be joyned in a true proportion by the best way possible and put them into a natural vessel well shut up and set under a hen to hatch and in the product thou wilt finde a thing performing many miracles coagulated in the shape of a man and the oyl or liquor swimming about it with the proper sweat mixed doth change mans mindes with the touch of it Many things more may be done by blood which are better concealed than spoken But if thou perfectly understand the things aforesaid and canst diligently search Nature thou mayst by thine own industry attain unto them We will in the mean time give thee some cautions After the blood is drawn thou must take heed how thou usest it for thereby may be done both good and hurt There be some that put the blood into the ground which I counsell may be done in a clean place mixed with wholesome herbs for if it should be buried in a stinking or infected place it might hurt the body whence it was taken There are others that give it to dogs and whelps to eat which I like best of all for so it may happen to transplant the disease and so cure it wholly or at least help the Physician but it would do a great deal better if it were given the dog either warm or putrified in a close vessell with a temperate heat But here I cannot but tax the villany of some who with an execrable boldnesse dare give the blood yea Monthly Flours for a Philter not considering the mischief issuing from thence for blood though never so pure is an enemy to the stomach and before it will be digested is corrupted and turned into matter and what effect will it then work Besides here lyes not the loving force which they seek but there must be another manner of preparation before thou come to that for it must be loosed before that the spirit may work more freely and busily to incline minds because of the will ruling there is required a greater force and the conspiring of many causes which because the multitude knowes not it can never attain the truth but calumniates the certainty of these things calling them either false or devilish For although blood of all things in the body contain the loosest spirits yet will it work more mightily being digested as the former Considerations and Experience it self teacheth and therefore they are surely to be punished that work so infernally But I fore-see an Objection for if the power of love rest in the blood then how happens it that ravenous beasts that do so greedily drink blood and so well digest it are not to be brought to be in love with those things that they eat being the reason of the Individualls and the species c I answer first In particular operations of the whole species to the individuum or of one individuum to another there is not the same reason Secondly That they eat unprepared blood which is not so powerfull as to change nature for by it duely fermented one individuum may be reconciled to another though it be a Dog to a Hare Thirdly flesh and blood filled with the Commotion of an angry spirit and retaining still a portion of it doth rather whet ravenous beasts into rage and make them seek the destruction of others the like And hence thou mayest learn that it is impossible by any means or preparations to cause Love by blood violently shed but it is more likely to cause hatred Therefore the Ancients never drank the blood of one anothers fore-head vein before perfect reconciliation Before I go any further I will adde one Parergon The salt of blood if it be dissolved in the menstruum of the World and Philosophers is the excellentest remedy of all others and by this means the salts of Herbs will shew the species of the herbs whence they are taken in a glasse So the salt of blood will by the help of the Beasts heat shew the shape of a man in a glasse And this I believe was Paracelsus his Homuncio But of Medicines taken from blood I will give examples in my Practice therefore here this shall suffice Of Matter which is nothing else but blood putrified without the veins or Flesh loosed with rottennesse a man may philosophize as of blood if he speak of it as a means to cure Diseases saving that it hath lost much of the spirits which are in the sound blood by corruption yet by means of it ulcers and old sores may be cured by the Sympathetick water or ointment whether they be inward or outward There are that an oint the inside of a Nut shell with the Balsom then put the Pus or matter into it and then hang it up in the dry Air or Mundum Coelum and by this Medicine cure all Ulcers Yet this is to be noted that Pus or matter may be two wayes considered according to which consideration it is sound in the body for it either simply ariseth from blood by means of putrifaction corrupting without the veins or it ariseth from some venemous quality in some foul disease as in the French Pox or it is infected with some simple diseased quality as in Pthisis And from the touch of all these experience shewes that much harm may come But if thou wilt by thy sympathetical either water