ignotum per atque ignotum We must proceed on for better Information atque vitae Principio seu Spiritibus animalibus inimicum Here the Life and animal Spirits are made one and the same or equal at least in vitality for so I must conclude First From the Particle seu connecting those words as Synonimous And likewise He useth seu equivalently and for that purpose in the front of the Definition Venenum seu Toxicum signifying the same Poyson by two words Secondly From the words immediately following Vnde facultas eorum expansiva penitus obruitur flamma vitalis necessario extinguitur The which do declare Febrile Venom to have Antipathy against animal Spirits as to the Principle of Life That the Stress of Poyson aims at and lies upon animal Spirits as upon the Life That the fatal stroak is given there and the ratio formalis of Dying represented by Contracting and Stifling the Expansion of animal Spirits which puts a Period to Vitality And that animal Spirits are the Biolicknium the Lamp of Life What more or greater can be said of Anima the plastic and the Regent Principle than now is attributed to animal Spirits This is Strange Philosophy to me such as I never knew before deeper than my Reason can fathom and above my Faith to believe That animal Spirits so much questioned and doubted whether they have any Being in Humane Nature though so unnecessary and improbable should now be exalted as Supream or made coequal at least in dispensing and managing vital Operations Credat qui volet Let animal Spirits be first proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convincingly that there are such from the necessity of their use we may then more likely be induced to believe the new Hypothesis founded thereon SECT III. The Difference of Fevers And their Division into Classes AVthors concurring in common Doctrine have made this Difference and Division of Fevers à subjecto in quo calor febrilis insidet from their place of Residence in the Spirits Humors and solid Parts which makes this tripple Division of Fevers Ephemeral Humoral and Hectic Famosa Vulgatissima est Febris essentialis differentia qua Febris in Ephimeram Humoralem Hecticam dividitur quae tota à subjecto Febrium petitur Troph Serrier Pyretolog p. 13. Ephemeral Fever is an effervescence of the Spirits only and continues but a day or two Humoral is the esservescence of putrid humors and continues a longer time Hectic is a preternatural Heat in the Solid parts and is most durable and fixed All these Fevers must take their rise in the Heart by the common definition that 's the Center and Seat thereof You have brought all Fevers into a little compass the Heart where we may soon find them if they were there to be found And if all this were true what advantage and what use can we make of it What cunning ways will you invent to make your Practice answer this Doctrine and how will you make this Doctrine serviceable in Practice This Celebrious Division is essential general and comprehensive But quid inde boni what shall we learn thereby If you come to a Patient whose Fever is beginning and the Fever is one of these three Sorts comprised in the general Division you have no help by this Doctrine if it were true no information to determine what or prosecute with what You cannot ask the Patient how are the Spirits of your Heart How the Humors And how the Flesh but you must look off the Heart and cast about somewhere else inquiring here and there How is your Stomach have you good Appetite and digest well are you Costive how is your Head do you urine freely have you pain any where and so forth After all these and such like necessary Questions 't is very probable you may find out the place where the Fever is bred and what is the Cause thereof If so as true it is what then have we to do with the Heart but only to examine by the Pulse how affected or afflicted in the case what consent from thence or condolence what vital Signals by that Pulsation not what Sort of Fever Now after all the subtle and nice distinction of Ephemeral Humoral and Hectic we must examine most Parts of the Body the principle at least to find out the Rise and Seat of the Fever and then it will appear to be not in Corde primò accensa as you say but in Corde per consensum and that some other Part is the original cause of the Fever where the Cure is to be directed If there must be a place or places in the Body assigned for Fevers as the Rise and Seat thereof And since they are all Symptomatical and dependant upon various Diseases in divers Parts of the Body as their causes occasional Sedes Morbi est Sedes Febris then where the Disease is there is the Seat of Fevers So that the difference of Fevers from thence will not be triplex according to this antique approved Division but multiplex I wish you good Success with your Doctrine of Fevers but I should be loth to be a Patient under it least the first tryal of your Skill upon me should be the last Scene of my Life There is another received distinction of Fevers into Essential and Symptomatical And this I must take notice of because it byasseth Practisers from the right Notion of Fevers and causeth errour in the designs of Curing For this Distinction may well be set aside when as there is no Fever essential therefore no Disease but all are Symptomatical arising from and dependant upon some Disease morbific Miasm or Seminary and a Symptom thereof And this appears from the Definition of Fevers Febris est calor preter naturam preternatural Heat being the genus comprising all Fevers under it And this Heat by your Doctrine a Symptomatical Quality only The distinction then of Essential and Symptomatical Fevers is void unless you will hold a contradiction in your own learning But why some Essential others Symptomatical Riverius gives this account essentiales dicuntur quando putredo in venis communibus extra partes privatas accenditur Symptomaticae verò quando in parte peculiari inflammata putredo aut suppuratio fit a qua ob vasorum communionem vapor putridus cordi continuo communicari potest lib. de febr p. 373. They that will take this for good Reason may be so satisfied and probably they may not see the Definition of Fever therein contradicted Calor in Corde accensus ex eo and the Doctrine discordant in it self Another Distinction of Fevers there is which divides them into Continual and Intermitting This difference is apparent to vulgar understandings but the manner how the matter what the place where generated causes occasioning and promoting These are not so well known which hath produced diversity of opinions among the learned and these I shall take notice of in their due places Continual Fevers are distinguished into
this blistering Plaster shall make the same ichorous Water issue from the sound and healthful as from the sick feverish Person So that I am well satisfied this Water thus extracted was not morbific pre-existing but factitious Matter transmuted by the external Medicine and so vented by blistering Medicines are to aim and level at Diseases where they are seated and to discharge their Power there as well and truly designed If so then these Vesicatories must draw away the febrile Matter from the Heart sedes Morbi according to their Definition of Fever But if those corrosive Plasters shall send their virulent virtue to the Heart the Patient then must be very Heart-sick with that Operation And grant it should extend thither quod non est supponendum How shall the peccant Matter find the way out from the Center to the Circumference this being an obscure impassable way at least not to be found unless by the extraordinary secret conduct of Nature who as I said before is not pleased nor complying with this irksom blistering Invention Invitâ Naturâ irrita sunt omnia Ax. Wherefore no good can be expected from them in Curing Fevers In Sickness when Nature does protrude and send forth any ill Matter to the extern Parts appearing upon the Skin it is a good sign she will be victorious having dislodged Morbific Matter from within and safely brought it to the confines of the Body as in the eruption of the Small-Pox And also when Nature does shew any tendency that way by breathing Sweat it behoves the Physician to promote and help forward with wholesom internal Medicine for that Purpose But if you think by blistering to prompt or put Nature upon expulsion that way you rather distract and disturb her good Inclination than put forward that beneficial Operation for the Reasons aforesaid 'T is a great Errour so formally and constantly to appoint Vesicatories as necessary to compleat the Methods for Curing Fevers As if Nature had not sufficiently provided other ways to discharge Morbific Matter and this were the principal way invented and not to be neglected When a Person is Sick oppressed at the Stomach a Fever commonly ariseth from such complaints And this sort of Sickness from Fulness or Foulness is most frequent What have you to do with blistering in such Cases Can you draw this oppressing undigested or depraved Matter out of the Stomach by Vesicatories Or if they had such a power of Attraction as to bring it forth to the Skin is it not very unfit and unreasonable to draw such foul Matter and often very gross Matter directly through the Habit of the Body and leaving Dregs in the Passage when other patent ways are ready to transmit it upwards or downwards by Natures Design and Appointment To avoid this Censure in part perhaps they will say we intend to carry off the vitious Matter by Purging or Vomiting the Vesicatories are to draw out the Fever and keep that under I don 't like your Policy for this erroneous Practice of blistering is but blustering in the dark and proceeds from gross Ignorance having a false Notion of Fever what febrile Heat is and from whence it does arise Take away the Morbific Matter by unloading the Stomach set that right by cleansing and roborating with good internal Medicine and then the whole work is done that you need not trouble your self or the Patient about the Fever that abates and goes away of course as you discharge the Stomach from the offending Cause So likewise a Fit of the Colic or Stone raiseth a Fever and this Fever not to be regarded But proper Medicines to be used only respecting the Stone or Colic An hundred other Diseases and Cases we might name wherewith Fevers are attended but not to be considered otherwise than as signal shewing that the Life is disturb'd and incensed by some Morbific Matter or Cause in this or that part of the Body Find that Cause out what and where the offending Matter is and prosecute there only with good Means The Fever needs no other Cure than the Cure of that Disease which caused the Life to be unquiet to aestuate and grow hot Upon the Appearance of a Fever Physicians are much and over much concern'd straightway fall on upon the Fever with bleeding blistering and Juleps to suppress and keep that under to secure that Bugbear in the first place as chiefly threatning the Life of the Patient The Sick and their Relations being very apprehensive of the Danger how many have died by Fevers as commonly but falsly said resign up freely to the Doctor 's great Skill and Care herein submitting to the Risk of all the male Practice in bleeding blistering c. the ready way to Destruction After this manner slight and trivial Sickness becomes long and sometimes hazardous Sickness many times mortal And I do account it a special Providence that delivers out of such perilous Practice In Sickness we are always to observe the Inclination and Tendency of Nature which way she thinks best and most expeditely to discharge Morbific Matter according to the Precept of Hippocrates Quò Natura vergit conducere oportet And that is sometimes by the Intestines by Vrine by Expectoration by eruption of Blood at the Nose per Vterum and by the Skin Not to thwart and cross her endeavours except she be forced into a wrong course by stimulating Matter and thereby becomes apparently extravagant therein As when a Symptomatical Flux per Alvum is extream then to mitigate and allay it by good internal Means but not by Vesicatories to attract injuriously a contrary way If the cause of Fever be in primis viis in the first Region of the Body as most frequently it is then 't is great Imprudence to attempt drawing outwards by Vesicatories when other Ways and convenient Ductures are open to transmit it When Nature inclines and shews a disposition to free her self by the Guts 't is very injurious to divert her Intentions by attracting outwards and endeavouring to vent by the Skin drawing a contrary way Si Materia turgeat says Hippocrates If the Morbific Matter ferments and swells for vent let it go that way most expedite and inclinable thereto by Stool by Vrine bleeding at the Nose c. Sometimes Nature hath a Tendency and is prompt for evacuation by the Skin which is advantageous and to be promoted by good Means But I do not account blistering in the Number of good Means to promote that Operation except some Matter be collectied in a particular Place under the Skin and wants some Help to bring it forth Then a Vesicatory applied or Cupping is rational and good But when Nature makes a critical effort by the Skin generally per Diaphoresin breathes out effâ—uviums on every side Then Vesicatories are useless and not only so but hurtful by troubling that Operation To apply Vesicatories in the beginning of Fevers is to compel Nature to discharge that way which perhaps she hath no Intention
liquor in vasis effervescens solummodo sanguis ubicunque loci per singulas corporis partes defertur usque idem est sui similis D. Willis de febr p. 99. If the Blood then be in such a state as this Author even now said perfectly mixed and homogeneous in the vessels I see no cause why and cannot understand how this sulphureous part thereof if such there be in living Blood that it should be apt and ready to take fire and produce the effervescency and ebullition of putrid Fevers Nor can I reconcile this learned Man to himself where in another place setting forth putrid Fevers he saith Cum vero cruoris materies sulphurea excandescens supra modum effervet mixtionis vinculum maxima ex parte solvitur ut principia ejus à fermento cordis fere in totum distrahantur particulae activae meaning spirit and sulphur à misto solutae velut in flammam erumpant Ibidem p. 164. In one place he affirms the Blood to be a liquor united in its principles woven together into one uniform nature and in another place he says the parts of the Blood are loosed and in a state of separation Now when the Blood is thus dissolved the Sulphur does not abide to take fire but takes flight Substantia Sulphuris nusquam sincera cernitur imo seorsim ab aliis non consistit quin tenues evanescit in auras D. Willis lib. de ferment p. 7. Observe from hence The Blood in its compage and texture is not capable of firing and deflagration in its retexture and dissolution the inflammable Sulphur abides not for a combustion but disperseth and vanisheth haec tota Doctrina in flammam abit Sic transit gloria ficti Notwithstanding these incongruities He proceeds to make out the deflagration of the Blood in putrid Fevers That the principles of the Blood are separated by the ferment of the Heart and being there rarified and kindled from thence with a most swift motion motu rapidissimo is carried through the vessels and in the deflagration disperseth many effiuviums of Heat Ibidem p. 164. This is soon said but not so easily proved And in answer to all this I will give you the sentiment and determination of a late Physician of great repute reasoning and denying all this as irrational Verum nec in sanguine talem ebullitionem excitari nec in corde hujusmodi fermentum adesse facile erit ostendere quanquam enim inter corpora quae ex salibus contraria prorsus indole praeditis constant ubi commiscentur magna effervescentia atque lucta exoritur multaque effluvia discedant dissimilis tamen omnino magis benignae naturae Sanguinis liquor existit quam ut in corde aut vasis suis tam aestuose subito effervescat quippe novimus quam mitis ejus liquor quam benigno plerumque succo perfusus quam lenis placidus ejus in venis versus cor refluxus D. Lower de corde p. 57. And farther to null this fiction of abounding sulphur and effervescency from thence in putrid Fevers Take the testimony of a learned Chymical Physician demonstrating by fact The pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high Fever doth afford more salt water and Earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that Diseased Blood termed Corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur And being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joined thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the other Dr. Thompson Aimatiasis chap. 6. p. 51. Then he gives you another experiment I procured saith He the purest Blood I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it Then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the Sound and that seeming Corrupt which gives testimony that a Fever doth not principally arise from an excess of Sulphur Idem Ibidem Much more might be alledged against this improbable opinion But I think there is enough said to dispel the fiction of inflammable Sulphur in the Blood which is made the rise of putrid Fevers causing effervescency ebullition and deflagration And now I cannot but admire that the learned of this Nation should receive this phantasm with such applause and what advantage it brought to the Inventor But the handsome latin Dress that this was presented in so captivated their understandings that they could not perceive the errour and vanity of the Doctrine that set it off and so it pass'd without suspicion And frequently since we have had other Physick works come abroad which affords me more matter and Men to oppose but little to inform and be a gainer by yet if it be latin then it is learned with many But I do not judge of learning nor of men learned after that manner I am not to be snared with any language when I expect something else that I seek for Truth is truth in any language errour is so likewise 'T is the matter in writing not the Stile of writing that is useful and praise worthy in Physick But this by the way Now after all this labour and ingenuity of invention by learned Men setting forth how putrid Fevers are generated I find Helmont that great Philosopher and Physician denying there are any such common Fevers Sciant igitur Scholae cruorem in venis putrefieri nunquam quin simul ipsamet vena putreat ut in Gangrena mortificationibus Helm lib. de Febr. cap. 2. He acknowledgeth the putredinous excrements in veins not the Blood to putrifie And he subjoins this reason quippe qui juxta Sacra est Sedes thesaurus vitae si vitanon servet à putridine sanguinem in quo gliscit quomodo preservabuntur ossa Ibidem The meaning of all this I judg is to take away the frequency of putrid Fevers that they are not so common as Authors and Practisers do make them That the putrid matter of Fevers Salutary is not putrefaction of the Blood For when the Blood is putrified the case is mortal A Corrupto sive privato non datur regressus ad vitam If the mass of Blood comes to be corrupt in the great streams of the Veins and Arteries there is no hopes of reducing it but death soon follows Now you must understand the difference and distinguish between putrifying and putrifyed putrefactio incipiens infieri and putrefaction in facto esse finished The first is curable the latter incurable But after all this Dissention and Contention in and about putrid Feavers what certain knowledge have we in this Disease so called but a Name Since the material Cause or Matter offending giving the Denomination is not adjudged and agreed upon And how
then Because the vital spirit is extinct which plainly does shew that preternatural febrile Heat efficienter is seated in the Life And that peccant febrile matter non fervet ex se contains no such heat in it self but produceth excitativè by irritating the vital Heat spiritus impetum faciens beyond moderation and its natural temper Fourthly A wound received and pain arising thence begets a Fever though a great effusion of blood doth happen therewith Now letting out the sulphur if such there were with the blood was more likely to prevent a Fever than to cause it if that Doctrine were true but I find the contrary that pain continuing the Fever continues also Fifthly Persons that are heated by great labour violent exercise or heat of weather if they drink a glass of Sack or other spirituous hot liquor it reduceth them safely to good temper and prevents a Fever But if they drink much small Beer after such heats thinking to cool themselves sooner that cold liquor commonly makes them sick and raiseth a Fever thereby Now observe that Sack and not spirits are more likely to kindle Sulphurous inflamable matter and a Fever from thence as small Beer and cool liquors most likely to prevent Fevers by that Doctrine But the contrary hereof does prove that inflamed sulphur is not the material cause of Fevers but any other offending matter Sixthly Wet and cold taking are oftentimes the causes of sickness and a Fever But such causes are so far from kindling Sulphur that they are more likely to damp and extinguish Sulphur kindled if any such inflaming matter were in Human Bodies All which does plainly shew that Fevers have not their Rise or any dependance from sulphur kindled in the Heart and that Doctrine erroneous founded upon false Principles I must now make this observation not to follow an Author by the cry of the People nor the Vogue of the learned Party who commonly are catcht with a fine dress of good latine not suspecting or not discerning the substance and matter thereof Since my writing I lately met with another Piece de Febribus much differing from the former Author who derived all the causes of Fevers from Sulphur of the Blood this only and wholly from a venemous Ferment infesting the Animal Spirits Dr. Morton Puretologia This novel Doctrine coming in my way I cannot pass it by without regard but must inquire into the verity thereof The common received learning that asserts Humours and Qualities this Author rejects as fictitious and useless to set forth and explain the causes of Diseases and their Symptoms Hoping to give a better account thereof by this new Hypothesis For setting forth and explaining of which he premiseth postulata quaedam Pag. 6. some precarious concessions promising to prove them afterwards which are these following 1. Dari reverà Spiritus animales This Assertion of Animal Spirits was the common received Opinion in former Ages and does yet keep up as a Truth not to be questioned in the Judgment of most for that they perform such necescessary offices in the Body as without their help many Functions they think must cease And in giving an Account of many Diseases especially such as are attributed to the Brain and Nerves they can give no probable Reasons without alledging and accusing the Animal Spirits setting forth their exorbitant Motions or preternatural cessations their interruptions or impetuous Influx their sluggish dull and torpid Fixations And scarce any Passion is named but the Spirits are Actors and by them All that is done or should have been is imputed to the Spirits And Dr. Morton gives a greater Prerogative and ascribes more Power to Animal Spirits in the Government of the Body than others have primum Principium activum totius Machinae p. 6. and bottoms his new Hypothesis upon Animal Spirits quasi fermentum universale totius corporis p. 12. making them universal in the causes of Diseases and as generally necessary in a State of Health to perform all vital Actions If this be so 't is very fit we should all know and assent to it Notwithstanding it is so undoubtedly asserted I question whether there be any such distinct Beings in Human Nature as Animal Spirits or only the Fancies of Mens Invention And my Reason perswades me to deny their Existence First Because their Matter and Manner of Generation their Ways and Motions are so uncertainly and contradictorily set forth by disagreeing Judgments Secondly For that all human Actions internal and external may be performed without their help and a rational and full Account of all Diseases may be given without them Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessitate I shall therefore divide Human Nature into these two grand Principles An Invisible Spirit And a visible organized Body with canals containing liquid alimentary Juices to feed and supply this wonderful Machine The first a Vital Active Regent Principle The latter altogether Passive and Instrumental under the Power and Domination of the former which is the Life More than these two comprehensive Principles I know none nor can admit of as necessary or useful in the composition or oeconomy of Human Nature No Subordinate nor Co-ordinate Agents such as Archeus Helmontii or Anima Sensitiva of the Antients Nor as Dr. Willis understands and holds the Animal Spirits to be the Sensitive Soul That Plastic or formative vital Principle termed Anima that delineated and fabricated the Body in the Womb does also govern and is the sole Efficient cause of vital Actions in the state of Health and also in Sickness Vnicus tantum est vitae Moderator nec plures From hence Vegetation Sensation and Loco-Motion without a Duplicity or Triplicity of Souls which elsewhere is set forth and proved Monarchia Microcosmi that I shall not repeat here True it is that the contained current liquors in the Body are various in colour consistence use and gradual Perfection Some elaborated as finer and more spirituous in the common Sence and Acceptation of artificial rectified Spirits Yet when all this is done by Defaecation and refining they are but liquors still of one continued cohaerent visible expanded Body and not separate Atomical Beings to act conjunctim aut divisim as divers Agents in combination or separation upon Occasions so requiring as the Notion of Animal Spirits does insinuate and are so alledged and taken in that Sence Now if what we have said be true and the Reasons cogent then Animal Spirits have no Residence nor Office in Human Nature and the Basis of that Author 's new Hypothesis is annihilated and all the derived Doctrine and depending Practice thereupon comes to nothing or to naught But in casting off so antique and beloved Opinion so frequently made use on to set forth the causes of many Diseases and that Book de Morbis universal acutis brings in Animal Spirits invenom'd almost into all Diseases as principal Causes That I may not be thought singular and absurd in denying the Existence of these
Putrid and Imputrid Intermitting Fevers are all adjudged Putrid Some have made this general Division of Fevers into Simple Putrid and Pestilential There are also Distinctions of Fevers termed accidental differences and these Fevers are called by their Names which serves only to confound young Practisers and amuse the people thereby making Fevers more perplext and difficult to be understood by additional cognominations from complication of Symptoms As Epiala Lipiria Causus Syncopalis Soporiferae Assodes Elodes Tiphodes Phlegmonòdes c. Fever by Denomination and different Fevers by Cognomination is strange Doctrine Thus compounding of Symptoms is the confounding of Reason in Practice Since all Fevers or febrile intemperature is only the aestuation and disturbance of the vital governing Spirit by provocation from some Disease or Morbific Cause producing various Symptoms in several Parts of the Body Tacking such Symptoms together by Cognomination that have no dependance upon each other in causation or existence is no good fashion nor good reason At this rate of diversifying and denominating of Fevers by coupling them with Symptoms and Diseases you may make five hundred sorts more of Fevers and draw all the practice of Physick upon Fevers Plurisie fevers Stone fevers Colic fevers c. All the Acute and most of the Chronic Diseases have Fevers adjoined The Practice of Fevers after this manner may be as large as the Practice of Physick And by this variation of Fevers in Masquerade from Complication with other Symptoms and Diseases the Doctrine of Fevers will stretch in infinitum not to be comprehended by human understanding They might have put in Camp Fevers and Fleet Fevers for variety among the rest But if you understand Fevers no better than what your Books and Tradition does inform Princes are like to have but a melancholy return of their brave Souldiers and Seamen as too oft it falls out so And here I might give you a sad Account of Men and Money lost after this manner by the formality of Physick and deficiency of the Professors But I troubled my self once before in this matter and I shall trouble my self no more But this obiter If all other Symptoms and Diseases were to have various names affixed to them from the diversity of Symptoms happening contemporary from Complication with other Diseases They might also be varied abundantly to no purpose by differing adjunct Titles as properly as Fevers are thus multifariously distinguished and denominated wherein there is no reason nor advantage for Curing Symptoms supervening and complicating with Fevers are such as these Horror Rigor Pandiculation Oscitation Vomiting Fluxes Watchings Deliriums Hamorrhages c. Hereby shewing the various deportments Passions Agonies and strivings of the vital governing Spirit Spiritus impetum faciens preternaturally affected and provoked according to the diversity of Morbous irritating causes And also shewing the different Parts infested therewith labouring under the impulsions and expulsions of incensed vital power endeavouring by such extraordinary motions to expel and cast out what is offensive and hostile to sedate vital government But Writers have given themselves much trouble to find out and set forth the Causes of such Symptoms assigning them as particular Characters to distinguish Fevers by Herein shewing their Ingenuity Nicity and Exactness in giving a full Account of all things appertaining to Fevers as they would have the World believe But the Insufficiency of the Reasons and unprofitableness of those Endeavours are such that I shall not trouble the Reader with the Inquiry and Examination of the Validity thereof SECT IV. Of Putrid Fevers BEfore I set down the difference and distinctions of putrid Fevers delivered to us by Authors Antient and Modern I think it necessary first to inquire into the word Putrid that we may know what is meant by Putrefaction and putrifying in their sense that first taught and those who now support the Doctrine of putrid Fevers whether they be all of a mind and what confidence we may have in this learning upon their dissent or to whom we may adhere In determining of putrefaction I find there are variety of opinions and from thence several Definitions Galen's definition seems to agree with Aristotle's And for brevity sake I shall only give you the explanation and sense of both these great Men well done by another Author in these words Putrefactio nihil aliud est quam corruptio caloris nativi in humido radicali existentis alicuius mixti corporis facta ab externo peregrino calore Kercherus Herein external peregrine Heat is made the agressor and invader of the Life of every mixt Body That natural Heat is set upon and destroyed and consequently radical moisture is consumed This is the sense and meaning of the celebrated Definitions of Aristotle and Galen wherein there are these great mistakes 1. Calor innatus and Humidum radicale are supposed and made substantial Principles in nature when reverà they are but Qualities assurging from their Principles 2. They are made the support of every Animal and to these they have attributed too great a share in mixt Bodies as if the Being thereof depended essentially thereupon 3. That innate Heat is seated in radical moisture where putrefaction and corruption begins and that the Life of an Animal consists in these two That they are Animae domicilium the which failing Life departs 4. Hence it is that Putrefaction is defined by the alteration and perdition of these two Principles in Nature which Galen often calls totam rei substantiam The Doctrine of Physick fails much from these grand errours which biasseth Practisers in the Cure of many Diseases For Putrefaction is caused not only by external ambient Heat but also by external Cold And particularly in the case of putrid Fevers cohibited transpiration by cold occluding the Pores is one chief cause assigned by most if not all Writers And likewise we find that other Animals and also Plants are mortified by extreme cold which their natures could not bear and from thence you need not doubt but Putrefaction follows Putredo Putrefaction is not rightly defined by alteration of Qualities Heat and Moisture that may or may not be and are accidents not essential to Putrefaction For Dry and Cold Bodies are subject to putrifie as Bones Straw Wood c. wherein is no sensible Heat or Moisture and do putrifie into dry powder Heat and Cold and I may add the other two first Qualities also Wet and Dry though they may be causes of putrefaction sometimes and sometimes the effects thereof yet they are not sufficient to set forth and illustrate Putrefaction as the ratio formalis thereof and a result differing from all other preternatural alterations and transmutations Nor does this Definition make distinction between putrefaction and combustion à calore externo nor sufficiently extinguisheth putrefaction from fermentation And thus much concerning putrefaction in general from the two celebrated Definitions of Aristotle and Galen if you be satisfied therein I am not They sound great in
then shall a proper Method with effectual true Medicines be adapted for their Cures I must confess had I no Knowledge nor Guide to direct me herein but Books I should be at a stand and much puzled what Course to steer and with what Means to do the Business required or aimed at when such Fevers present But how pernicious are the Methods and Medicines for the Cure hereof as appointed by Authors we shall see anon when I come to set forth the Practice SECT V. Of Fevers Continual and Intermittent ACcording to Method and Custom I have not omitted this Difference and Distinction of Fevers but shall say no more in this Place than what distinguisheth one from the other Continual Fevers are such as have no perfect Intermission but only sometimes they have Intensions and Remissions And from the difference of their exacerbations in Distance whether every Day or every third or fourth Day they are called Continual Quotidian Tertian or Quartan But the consideration hereof is not of such Moment in Practice as to require various Methods of Curing and therefore I shall not trouble you with the Niceties and Distinctions of Authors reasoning thereupon Intermitting Fevers are such as in the English are called Agues And these are Quotidian Tertian and Quartan from their Cessations and Intermissions coming and going on such Days In assigning Causes for the periodic Returns of these Fevers on Certain and Several Days and for their Duplication and Triplication Authors do so much differ in their Opinions that an Account of their Conjectures Reasonings and Probabilities would give us more Trouble than Profit I shall therefore wave those Disputes that we may sooner come to the Curative Part which is more Satisfactory and Useful that proves more certainly what is true or false SECT VI. Of Fevers Malignant so called Measels Small-Pox and Pestilential HERE we make Malignant as the Genus comprising several Species under that general Denomination I shall first examine the Import of the word what is meant thereby and then inquire into the particular differences of Malignant Diseases For if we have not a true knowledge of the Sense and Import of the generical word we cannot have a distinct intelligible Account of the Species or kinds thereof I hear great talk of Malignant Fevers sometimes and I Consult Authors upon that Subject But I am not satisfied what they mean and so far as I can gather by the Discourses they do not well know what they mean themselves at least not how to set it forth For they have laboured to explicate the Intention and Scope of the word Malignant and rank it with intellible Doctrine But in fine the Result terminates in occult Qualities And this is acknowledged by a late famous Author treating of malignant and pestilential Fevers Ignotam ducunt originem ut earum Causae essentia sine recursu ad occultas qualitates raro explicentur Dr. Willis de Febr. How comes this word Malignant to be tackt as an Adjunct belonging to Fevers Malignant Fevers so much and often treated I know none such For all febrile Heat in gradu Summo remisso is but the same Heat in specie issuing from the same vital Principle and only differing gradually Furthermore those Fevers which are called Malignant are observed by the best Judgments to have their Heat more mild and moderate than other Fevers that are accounted and termed benign Therefore malignant affixed to Fevers as a distinguishing Character is an improper Compounding and Confounding of words together making the Sense and Meaning thereof intricate and perplext which breeds confusion and mistakes in Practice Clarioris Doctrinae gratiâ nec non verioris we must first understand what that thing is which truly may be called Malignant Then Secondly to what this Malignant Thing bears Enmity or evil against which it would hurt These two Points being rightly stated illustrates and clears the Doctrine from Obscurity Ambiguity and Intanglement Malignant by the Import of the word signifies Evil Malicious and Hurtful And it is used by Physicians to set forth that which is very Evil Pernicious and Dangerous more than ordinary And therefore Diseases arising from such malignant Causes are accounted worse than others That which denominates and makes Diseases Malignant is either some inbred Matter in Human Bodies highly and variously degenerated into a malignant venemous state as producing Cancers Gangrens Leprosie Small-Pox c. And this variously depraved malignant Matter is capable of no other Description and Distinction than what the Symptomatical Products and Effects thereof does manifest the Heterogenity of such causes in Human Bodies Pertinent to our Purpose Van Helmont Speaks tho' about to prove something else Excrementâ—m venenosum in Febribus praecordis includi producens sopores deliria c. ergo virus anodinum est amens In caducis paritur esse venenum insensitivum amens pro spatio affligens in praecordiis stabulatum In Amentiis hypochondriacis venenum furâ—osum vel cum joco delirans In vertigine virus rotans In apoplexia tollens sensum motum p. 268. Hence you may understand that great variety of venemous malignant matter is sometimes generated in Human Body producing many different and dangerous Effects afflicting variously Or else Secondly Malignant Diseases are caused and received from without As when the Air that surrounds and enters the Body is infected with noxious exhalations and vaporous malignant effluviums arising out of the Earth from carrion or dead Bodies expirations of venemous Creatures or by Influx of the Stars producing epidemical Malignant Diseases As the Pestilence or Pestilential and malignant in a lower Degree Or by the Bite of some venemous Creature or by depraved Corrupt Food or virulent Physick And this malignant matter whether inbred or imperceptible Miasms from without they do shew their Pravity Taint and Infection by the direful destructive Symptoms that attend their Operations and Alterations made in Human Body variously Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis Some malignant Matter being more acute deleterious does destroy sooner Others not so fierce and active do take more Time in killing yet are more difficult and obstinate in yielding to means than other Diseases that are not malignant All which does prove that Diseases are rightly called malignant from the material Cause only of which they are bred Secondly We must discern to what more immediately and directly this malignant matter is opposite to and where it makes the first Attack and Impression where the Stress of Malignity aims first and lyes most upon Not to and upon animal Spirits because the Enmity and Contrariety is not founded between them as Antagonists For granting there were no animal Spirits in Human Nature the Repugnancy Discordance and Hostility by malignant venom would be the same and the symptomatical Effects in like manner the same And it is but rational so to determine Because Sympathy and Antipathy Amity and Opposition in the nature of Creatures issue
by the way The same Author appoints the Peruvian Bark to be reduced in alcool into the most minute or finest Pouder quo facilius per habitum corporis trajiciatur p. 179. that it may the more readily pass through the habit of the Body But if I were to use this Pouder I should chuse rather to have it grosly beaten that the vertue may be extracted only and conveyed where and how nature pleaseth But the Substance more fitly to be carried downwards to be voided with Excrement For I cannot think it safe that so much Pouder of a ligneous indissoluble Substance should commix with the Blood and be imported into the smaller vessels but by incrassating that stream it must cause obstructions of very ill consequence tho' the Pouder be genuine und true But since it is so much adulterated and abused as this Author tells us and the Dose therefore to be augmented double or treble I cannot think otherwise but it must then make ill work in the Body and that there will be need of another Antidote or a Course of Physick against the mischief of this famous Febrifuge And this medicine making no manifest Operation we may fear that both the Dregs of the Disease and the Dregs of the Medicine do remain in the Body Therefore I am apt to believe it was not for nothing or no cause that Vopiscus Plempius a learned Physician of Note did charge this American Bark and condemn'd it as guilty of many misdemeanors and Homicide His words are these Plures tertio vel quarto reciderunt plurique cachectici facti nonnulli mortui Item Magnates hujus Aulae nominare possem qui ab usu Pulveris extenuati sunt ad Phthisin pracipites facti in usu longo lactis Asinini restituti fuissent I do not think it necessary that this Pouder or any Medicine of that substance should be conveyed Materialiter into every Part of the Body to discharge its virtue Nature does not operate after that manner with Medicinal Help is not bound to transport by Canals for her Relief but transmits virtualiter and influentially penetrating tatam Partium Compaginem Diaphoretics operate after the same manner Nor do I think it necessary or convenient the best and richest Cordial Pouder should be introduced into the Habit of the Body But let that pass The Jesuits Pouder was cried up and promoted in Italy by Sebastian Badus a Physician of Genoa And there were others that as much decried it as not being steddy and constant in good effects or doing no Hurt but oftentimes as being the cause of much ill and thereby went under an ill Name Which Party we are to credit in this matter I leave every one to Judge This we well know that the Duke of Savoy by several Accounts received about two years since was in a valetudinary State for a long Time caused by an Ague which for many Months continued in going and coming again Very probably this Febrifuge was the chiefest Remedy which put by the Fits for a Time But the minera Morbi the morbific cause not being discharged and sent forth the Fits returned again several Times But Supposing his Physicians did not advise the use of this Medicine or did not continue the use of it we may conclude it was under some disgrace or not in such Repute there as formerly But let us go on The Pouder is appointed to be taken in the Intermissions of Ague Fits every fourth Hour And when there is such a Cessation of the intermitting Fever or Ague as seemingly Cured yet that is no security but you must Continue the use of the Pouder thrice a Day for three Weeks or a Month intervallo octo vel decem Dierum as our Author appoints P. 132. I find hereby that this famous Bark makes but an uncertain and a tedious Cure for when it will be perfected who can tell Our Author gives us the Reason thereof in another Place P. 76 and 77. to this purpose That the febrile venom hath a fixed and determined Time of Duration either for weeks months and sometimes years That although it be subdued and seemingly cured for a Time yet it will revive again until the venemous fomes metam suam ultimam attigerit hath run its Course and spent it self P. 76 and 77. If it be so how does the virtue and great Power of the Antidote appear This is small Hopes for the Patient and little Incouragement to use Means since there is such a determinate Time of Cure and before which it cannot be But to make us Amends for this great Impediment And to keep up the Reputation of the Febrifuge He saith We may be glad that we have such a Remedy as can relieve Nature oppressed and worn down when we please by this Febrifuge and prevent the fatal event P. 77 78. So that we are hereby secured from Death but when we may be rid from the Fever or Ague that 's uncertain tho' we use this great Antidote famed so potent against the febrile venom If this be all that can be expected from this Pouder then I shall not trust to the occult Quality of this Medicine and which makes only an occult Operation in the Patient least the good effects prove occult also But I am for a Medicine that works manifestly and therein more probably to effect a cure more certainly by Operations that we know how and which way a Disease goes off And such is the Catholic Extract that makes a manifest Operation but very gentle which is much more pleasant and easie to take than the Peruvian Bark And we have more Reason to hope and expect the desired effects from this Catholic Purifier because it carries off and frees the Body from offensive depraved impure Matter the minera morborum termed venom by this Author thereby it does perform a radical Cure of Agues not a fallacious Cessation and we shall not fear a Relaps or Return And so much I dare promise upon a Forfeit By such certainty properly and only we may call Curing This Catholic Extract being of my own Elaboration perfected by divers Alterations and gradual Improvements I can presume upon from many Proofs to do more and better service in Fevers therefore in various Diseases whereon they depend than any single Medicine that I can know of Extant in the World And I have examined the best Authors and Pharmacopoeia's for that Purpose As for Prescripts the sudden Inventions pro re nata and suddenly to be made at the Shops I do not inquire for any extraordinary piece of Art in that way nor in Reason can we expect it there I shall not here Discourse the Latitude and Comprehension of this Medicine The excelling Properties in Operation and Performance its Commodiousness for use Durability and Portage for emergent occasions abroad For my own Part and particular private use I had rather be destitute of all other Medicines than to want this For I am more beholden to this
But bleeding debilitates and exhausts the strength which should contend with the Disease how can you then expect a good Crisis when Nature is enfeebled and checkt in her encounters for by the Strength of Nature the Crisis is procured sooner or latter as she is strong or weak Natura Corroborata est Morborum Medicatrix If this Truth were rightly considered in the Practice of Physick there would not be such frequent recourse to enervating Phlebotomy To incourage and countenance Bleeding as a laudable Remedy and to captivate the Understandings of People They endeavour to prove the good effects thereof by ocular Demonstration exhibiting to the view of the Sick and by Standers the Pravity of the Blood taken away as appearing variously discoloured and different in consistence if compared with others The Blood after it hath stood some time thus presenting to the Eye so depraved they straitway undoubtingly conclude it was discreetly and happily taken away for the Patient 's good Thinking hereby so much matter of the Disease is abated and let out And since they find the Blood thus faulty they charge all the mischief or mostly to lye in the vitiousity of the Blood Quid planius This incourageth to proceed on in the same way and to repeat this Operation to draw out some more of the morbific Matter as the most ready way to free the Patient from the Complaints But all this while they are not aware of the Errours they are under in this Prosecution For they do not consider the different State of the Blood under the Power and Protection of the Life in its proper native Place the Veins and Arteries and how apt it is to change and variously to degenerate when extravasated and exposed to the Air The Blood is not the same now 't is exhibited to the View as it was in the Vessels of conservation The Life was in the Blood before but now in the Porringer it is dead Blood Between the Dead and the Living there must needs be great disparity so that the Judgment passed upon the dead Blood does not affect or represent the live Blood for it is not what it was Tho' it is now ill coloured coagulate or in a state of separation and abounding with Serosity Before it was more ruby florid Balsamic and more intire when running in the Veins and Arteries which have a conservative Power I do not deny the Blood of several Persons to differ in Purity and Goodness and the difference thereof in the same Persons as they are in a good or bad state of Health But I do not approve of the severe rash Judgment pronounced upon the Blood extramitted from the dead Aspect thereof concluding from thence it was fit for no other use but to be thrown away and better to be out than in the Body True it is there are some Diseases that the Blood is much in fault as the Cause of such Maladies yet notwithstanding that is not a sufficient Cause to let it out since there are efficacious purifying Remedies to reduce the Blood into a better Condition and not prodigally to waste that vital Stream so necessarily useful and serviceable to the whole Body For the Mass of Blood is not depraved and amended by Phlebotomy let out as much as you will equal Parts of good and bad will remain behind from this promiscuous evacuation Besides A degenerate bad Blood does arise mostly from the insufficiency and depravedness of the previous alimental Juice of which Blood is made And then the fault to be remedied is not in the Blood or office of sanguification but in the preparatory offices and those Parts defective upon which Bleeding hath no Influence nor possibility to rectify And as for Fevers which arise more oft from other Causes than from the Blood there is no Pretence for Bleeding in such Cases if you will be governed by Indications and not go on blindfold Nidus Febrium in primis est officinis extenditur scilicet à Pyloro per Duodenum vasa ibidem multiplicia Intestina item Venas Mesenterii Lienem usque ad Hepar Helm de Febr. According to this great Author the Seat of Fevers both Continual and Intermitting is not in the Veins or Arteries but in the first Region of the Body from whence they take their Rise Then what signifies Bleeding in such cases but to add more mischief Their Cures are performed by Abstersives and Depuratives to cleanse where such morbific matter is bred And those are the true Antifebrific Remedies And not only such but they are also universal Medicines required as necessary in all other Cures I do allow of Bleeding upon some suddain great Inflammation that threatens the Life and when efficacious discussing Means are wanted to prevent Apostomation But otherwise if it come o◠gradually and slowly giving warning and good Medicine ready for use at Hand then bleeding is not required and better to forbear the Lancet Some are so bold at Bleeding that they forbear not in the highest Malignant Fevers Small Pox c. But if the Sick recover 't is wonderful Providence that saves them but more oft Death is procured thereby In the expectance of the Small Pox they will Bleed under Pretence of abating the corrupt Matter that breaks forth thinking thereby the Patient may not be so much disfigured with Pustles and may be a Help to preserve the Face from Deformity which before was beautiful The end proposed was good but the Medium they go by is very dangerous and unlikely to succeed well For saving a Face to hazard the Life is no good designing They begin at the wrong end of such malignant Distempers for by Bleeding they aim at and apply only to the Effects the producted Matter and neglect the producing Cause the Venemous Miasm or fermenting Leven that corrupts the whole Mass of Blood To prevent Impurity and Corruption of the Blood is much better than to lessen and abate the Quantity of the Blood after it is corrupted The main design in such cases is first how to expel the putrefying venom before it spreads and taints the whole at least so to fortify Nature that she may be able to Master it and defend her self The Indications for Cure are these to assist and strengthen the Life that she may be able to resist the Venom And to Mortifie the malign Ferment by proper Alexipharmacals thereby to preserve the vital streams from mortal Putrefaction or Coagulation But bleeding is quite contrary to this Method and Intentions for Cure and is the ready way for killing That which makes a promiscuous evacuation of good and bad together is no true Remedy for Curing Phlebotomy does not distinguish the better Part of the Blood from the worse but le ts both out together the remainder in the Vessels is not amended thereby but equal Proportions continue behind of good and bad Therefore abating the Quantity of naughty Blood in any case by bleeding is an indirect way to amend it and