the Disease or Feaver be the object of their designs yet As all wise men consider by what means the ends they propose to themselves may be effected so do they deliberate how they shall effect their designs and that is by removing the Cause of the Malâ—dy But as in other designs it frequently happens so here they often meet with impediments which must be removed before they can prosecute their intentions by direct means Upon this account they are forced upon maâ—◠〈◊〉 which they confess are not immediately 〈…〉 of a Feaver which yet they purâ—â—â— because without doing so the indisposition either could not be cured or not with such safety as becomes prudent persons Few of them ever bleed that I know of meerly for refrigeration and the extirpation of the formal heâ—t without regard to the material cause of it which is to be concocted and ejected by Nature Though Phlebotomy be but one operation yet it produceth sundry effects in the body and in order to each of them is both indicated and practised For it evacuateth that redundancy of blood which frequently occasioneth diseases alwayes is apt to degenerate into a vitious morbifick matter during the Feaver and by an indirect and exorbitant motion to afflict some or other principal parts to the great danger if not destruction of the Patient upon this account we do use Phlebotomy in Feavers sometimes to diminish the Plethora and so to prevent the violence of the succeeding disease and dangerous symptomes that may insue and then the veins are too much distended to facilitate and secure the operation of subsequent Medicines that are used to evacuate the Antecedent Cause and to maturate and expedite the continent morbifick cause Besides it promotes transpiration incredibly gives a new motion to those humours which together with the blood oppress and indanger the internal and principal parts it diverts them from the head and draws them from the heart lungs stomach and bowels into the habit of the body whereby Nature being alleviated prosecutes her recovery by maturation and expulsion of the peccant depraved matter deducing to its proper state that which is semi-putrid and not irrecoverably vitiated and separating first then exterminating what is incorrigible So the Patient recovers Nor is there any thing more true than this which every Practitioner may daily observe in his practise that Of all the Medicaments which are vsed by Physitians there is not any may compare for its efficacy and utility with Phlebotomy so expedite so facile and so universal is it The universality of its use appears herein that it evacuates the redundant it alters the exorbitant Fluxes of the peccant or deviating humours and blood It retaxeth the vessels and pores of the body and refrigerates the habit thereof And therefore is so absolutely necessary in putrid Feavers that though I do not say they are incurable without it yet I pity the languishing condition of such as omit it the violence of the symptomes being increased thereby and the cure procrastinated to the great trouble and hazard of the sick and his great detriment afterwards for you shall ordinarily meet with a slow convalescence and the blood be so depraved by so long and violent an effervescence that it becomes remediless and degenerates into an evil habit of body Scorbute Dropsie c. This being premised which is more clearly proved by Experience than Reason I answer to his Argument that we do not go about only to refrigerate the Patient but to concoct and eject the morbifick matter that we take the most befitting course to exterminate that spinous offensive cause and as upon the prick of a Thorn if part stick in the wound and be buried therein we proceed to maturate and bring to a paculency the vitiated blood and humours inherent in the part affected and with the suppâ—â—â—â—â—d mâ—tter drâ—â— out the fragment of the Thorn so we do in Feavâ—â—s where the depraved humours are not so easily sepâ—â—â—ted and extirpated as in the prick of a Thorn maturate the eject the morbifick câ—â—se and thereby atchieve the Cure And I do profess my self to concurre with the Ancients in their Opinion that there is a great Analogy betwixt the generation of the Hypostasis in the Vrine after a Feaver and the production of purulent matter in an Apostimation and that Feavers are but a kind of Abscesse in the mass of blood for the proof whereof I do remit my Reader to Ballonius de Hypostasi Vrinarum Amongst the Ancients I find two wayes commonly practised to extinguish this Febrile Heat by a course corresponding with the usual wayes of extinguishing a fire which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substracting the fewel from it thus they did Phlebotomise at once till the Patient did swoone the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by quenching it thus they gave them cold Water to drink largely until the sick grew pale and fell into a shivering this last was not practised till there were manifest signs of concoction But 't is observable that upon either of these Medicaments they did expect that happy issue that Nature thereupon should presently discharge it self by sundry evacuations of the morbifick matter so that they did not thereby intend bare resignation but the extermination of the concocted febrile matter And thus much may suffice in answer to this Objection The last Objection he makes is this as I shall form it The great Indications of the Galenists for Phlebotomy are either Evacuation of the redundant blood in a Plethora or the Revulsion and direct pulling back of what is in flux or flowed into any part already But neither of these Indications are valid and oblige them to that practise Therefore the practise of Phlebotomy is not to be continued As to Phlebotomy in a Plethorick body he thus explodes that If by plenitude be meant an excess of pure blood I absolutely deny there is any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or indication for Phlebotomy for during the goodness of this juyce there must needs be perfect Sanity arising from integrity of all the actions of the body so that it may justly be reputed madness to go about to broach this Balsome of life weakning Nature thereby as long as there is health with abundance of strength Imprimis notandum saith Van Helmont in cap. de febr p. 8. ut nunquam vires peccare possint abundantia ne quidam in Methusalem ita nec bonis sanguis peccat minuitate eo quod vires vitales sanguis sint correlativa i. e. We are to take special notice that too much strength can never be offensive to any yea not to Methusalem no more can any one have too much blood for as much as vital strength and blood are correlatives Well then it is plain that whatsoever sickness seems to indicate Phlebotomy upon the account of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanguineous superpletion must needs come from an apostate juyce generated by vitious digestions
improper to admit of our Phlebotomy to be stiled our direct Method oâ— curing because it is but a part of our Method which will include if not some other prescriptions yet at least dyet In many cases we use Phlebotomy as one part of our Method but not as the principal as when we use it antecedently to other remedies Pharmaceutical and dietetical to prepare way for or facilitate their happy operation I am not now to write Institutions in Physick for the documentising of this Disciple of my Lord Bacon 't is enough that he may learn any where almost as in Vallesius Mercatus Claudinus and Plempius that we propose more than one scope to our selves in Blood-letting neither is it ever except in diseases arising from a partial or total Plethora our direct method of healing If it be but a part and necessary or useful part thereof we are sufficiently justified Thus his Major is enervated for if he would have opposed the modern practise he ought to have urged it thus The means used to let out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof is no direct Method of healing nor an useful or necessary part thereof This is manifestly false as I shall shew anon As to his Minor That Phlebotomy lets out bad bloud without removing the efficient cause thereof This would the Ancients deny who bled their Patients in many cases until they swooned or fainted with great success â— and we must say it is not absolutely true there being no Practitioner I believe but hath seen some cases in which sole Phlebotomy hath effected the cure he may see many Instances of this in Botallus and that in diseases where the body was undoubtedly cacochymical I have seen Agues tertian and anomalous perfectly cured with once bleeding in women with child and in children I have seen some Atrophies so cured that the principal cause of their recovery was to be attributed to their Bleeding the like I have observed in several Chronical diseases even in inveterate quartanes as also others have done nor is there any thing more common almost in our Cases than the relation of several diseases absolutely cured by single Phlebotomy which I shall not transcribe here but in my large discourse of Phlebotomy in Latine I intend to represent all such cases at large with their circumstances and the History of Phlâ—botomy with all that variety of success which judicious Practitioners relate of it in several diseases and persons I add now that No man can be an accomplished practitioner who is not versed in the History of Diseases and particular cures for the general rules and directions make no more a Physician than such a knowledge in Law would do a Lawyer the res judicatae import more with us than they do in Lawâ—cases and as Reports of the Iudges in special cases must be known by a compleat Lawyer so must our Book-cases be our presidents and regulate our practise Duobus enim tanquam cruribus innititur Medicina neque solis theoreticis rationibus contenta insuper etiam practicas experientias particularium requirit indefessam ad singulos casus intentionem Thus is his Minor false as was his other Proposition and it should have run thus But Phlebotomy lets out the bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof or conducing thereunto But he proceeds to defend the Minor thus If the Cause of bad blood were removed then would the effect cease but oftentimes we see that notwithstanding such a depletion the disease continues and if it be not mortal yet it becomes more truculent Here he commits the same errour that before expecting a greater effect from Phlebotomy than we propose generally to our selves in it we do it sometimes for revulsion of the matter flowing to any part as in some Pleurisies Squinancies the Colick Bilious and Rheumatismes c. wherein we never rely solely upon bleeding and though oftentimes the effect transcend our expectation yet do we not presume upon it Sometimes we let blood for prevention of future diseases as in great contusions and wounds Sometimes we let blood only to prepare way for future Pharmacy Ita plerumque in febribus mittitur sanguis qui non superat naturalem mensuram neque simpliciter neque in hoc homine sed quia nisi mittatur ob febrilem calorem qui adest succorum putrescentium mistionem corrumperetur ac fortasse malignè cutis rarefactioni ventilationi vasorum relaxationi ad futuram expurgationem necessariâ— impedimento esset Itaque mittitur non quia multa subest copia sed quia ea quae subest tunc est inutilis noxia ac proinde facultate ferente deponenda etsi causa morbi non inclinet ad ideam sanguinis modo non ab ea plurimum evariet i. e. Thus in feavers we usually let blood not that the blood abounds above its due proportion either in general or in reference to this or that individual but because the blood which flows in the veins is infected with a feavourish heat and would be corrupted thereupon and by reason of the intermixed humours now inclined to putrefaction and that perhaps joyned with malignity for the prevention thereof and least that plenitude and depravation of the Blood should hinder that transpiration in the habit of the body ventilation of the blood and laxity in the vessels which is requisite for the subsequent purge do we use Phlebotomy not imagining that there is any superfluous abundance of blood but that there is then in the body some that may well be spared and which if the Patient hath strength to bear it may with prudence be let out to prevent so great dangers as are imminent and to secure unto us the good effect of the subsequent Physick And if the disease do sometimes encrease upon Phlebotomy it behoveth wise persons to distinguish whether those symptomes happen by reason of bleeding or only succeed it in course the disease being in its increment for this makes a great difference in the case as also whether amidst those symptomes which are in due course most violent in the progress and state of the disease whereas we bleed usually in the beginning only there be not some that yield signs of concoction and melioration which if they do as we may justly attribute those hopeful consequences in part to Phlebotomy so we need not be amazed at the present truculency of the disease which affrights none but the ignorant If notwithstanding all our care and due administration of Medicaments according to Art the Patient do dye yet is neither Phlebotomy nor the other Physick to be blamed but we ought rather to reflect upon Physick that 't is a conjectural skill in the most knowing men and that we are not as Gods to inspect into the bowels and secret causes of diseases that besides the special judgment of God upon particular persons all diseases are not curable in all individuals either by reason of the
Physicians ascribe the disease unto be evacuated by vomit sweat or stool yet the distemper continues and becomes worse and more dangerous by reason of such evacuatians As little did they regard the first qualities of heat and cold siccity humidity concluding them to have no immediate effect in producing diseases but as they varied the symmetry of all or any parts of the body the grounds they went upou were such as were deduced from that Philosophy which makes Rarity and Density the principles of all bodies and they placed Health in such a conformation of the body and such a configuration of particles as did best suit with its nature they held that the intertexture of the minute particles of our bodies were such as admitted of an easie alteration the fabrick being so exquisitely interwoven not only in the solid vessels and parts but a commensuration of prorosities every where the alteration of which texture of the body into a great laxity or streightness and this change of the pores did they make the great causes of all Maladies and the restoration of them to be the way to sanity and this they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the variation of the texture and combination of Corpuscles in the symmetry whereof they placed Health and in the asymmetry or improportionate and incongruous state whereof they placed all Sickness It was their Tenet that amongst those Remedies which did most alter the texture of the body from streightness to laxiiy the most powerful were Phlebotomy and Purging and that their principal effects were not meerly to evacuate such or such peccant Humours but in doing so to create a new Texture and configuration of Corpuscles in the whole Body and therefore they held them to be General Medicaments and of use in most great diseases since such distempers were rather occasioned by a streightness than laxity of the pores and even such as were laxe one way as Dysenteries and Diarrhaeas might be accompanied with a streightnâ—ss in the habit of the body This Hypothesis for the furtheâ— explication whereof I remit you unto Prosper â—lpinus having been of great renown and most accommodated to the course of life by which the Romans and since the Turks and others that follow not our Physick did preserve their Health and recover theâ—â— Malâ—dies did merit my regards and I observed the truth of that part of their Opinion which avows that purging and bleeding have further effects than meerly the evacuation of Blood and other Humours that they had such an influence upon the whole body as to restore and promote all the natural evacuations of the body by its several emunctories and pores and that Phlebotomy did particularly incline to sweat promote urine and sometimes instantly allay its sharpness and make the body soluble so that upon Phlebotomy there needs no antecedent Glyster Neiâ—her is it convenient in a great Cacochâ—my to purge before bleeding not so much for fear of irritating the Humours but that the purge operating so as to attenuate and alter the whole mass of blood and promote secondarily all natural evacuations without preceding Phlebotomy it is scarce safe not secure to purge except in bodies the laxity of whose texture is easily restored or with gentle Medicaments for the Humours being powerfully wrought upon by the strong purges and inclined to be expurged by their sevâ—ral emunctories and those being either defective or the veins and arteries too full to admit a greater rarefaction in the mass of blood which is requisite to their separation and transpiration hereupon there happens a dangerour Orgasmus or turgency of humours in the sick which Phlebotomy doth prevent And 't is I conceive in reference to this alteration of texture that Hippocrates saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I observed a great congruity betwixt the Static observations and those of the Methodists and that Sanctorius hath a multitude of Aphorismes which agree with them viz. That such bodies as transpire well in the hottest weather they are lighter and not troubled with any vexatious heat That nothing prevents putrefaction like to a large transpiration In fine I did observe that it was the general sense of Physicians that Phlebotomy did draw the Humours from the Centre to the Circumference and I had taken notice of it alwayes in my self even in the Colick bilious when I was tired out with pains vomiting and want of sleep when I took no Laudanum and reduced to extream debility and emaciation I determined in that forlorn case having used all other means for several weeks to bleed so long yet partitely as that I might be freed from a most troublesome pulsation of the descending Artery below the reins I bled eight ounces at first and found a vextious heat in the whole habit of my body I repeated the Phlebotomy in the afternoon and was very hot all night thus I continued to bleed twice each day for three dayes loosing above sixty ounces and then fell into sweats was eased totally in my back and afterwards recovered with a more facile Paresis in my Armes and no contracture then that disease commonly terminates in there These considerations made me think that there was some more important effect in Phlebotomy than the evacuation derivation and revulsion of the Blood and other Humours and that it must consist in promoting that Statical transpiration and I conceived that the Blood was in perpetual motion and though Motion doth hinder Fermentation yet I had observed that in Pipes at Owburne Abby where the drink runs from the Brew-house to the Cellar to be tunned up the Fermentation continues so especially in the stronger drink that the Pipes frequently break therewith as rapid as the motion is I did not imagine that the nature of the Blood was such as to be exalted into one Vniform liquor resembling Wine for such a liquor would not be liable to such sudden changes and alterations from one extream to another but that it was a miscellary of heterogeneous liquors in a perpetual digestive fermentation and depuration by halituous particles arising from it as in more gross by the emunctories which if the conformation of the pores and passages be such as to give it due vent all continues well if they be obstructed or vitiated then several maladies ensue except timely prevention be used I conceived that in Phlebotomy as the Blood issueth from the vein so as in the pouring out of other liquors the Air comes in by the orifice and mingling with the Blood produceth as great or greater effects than in the Lungs when it mixeth there with the Blood invigorating it in an unexpressible way whence we commonly see that the pulse grows stronger and stronger during the bleeding and upon this account I think it may happen that bleeding with Leeches though equal quantity be taken away oftentimes does harm never alleviates so much as Phlebotomy and such persons as by reason of their
though one of the best of the Chymical practisers did not gain him credit in Switzerland but that his famed extracts proved fatal to many persons of quality there There is not any thing so lying as a Chymist and the Medicines they boast of and the Laboratories they talk of so much are commonly found to be delusory braggs I shall not prove this out of Agyrto-mastix nor insist upon it that Mr. Odorde did pretend to as great Arcana as any of the Fraternity God had been pleased to communicate unto him a Method in the plague to preserve thousands from the grave which he promised to administer publickly and freely to all that should desire it Yet did he and his wife dye thereof in 1665. They will write books of Theories Processes and Medicaments yet never make or try them Thus Faber of Montpelier writ much in Chymistry but most notorious untruths An eminent person told Becherus that being excited with the renown of the man and a curiosity in Chymistry he went from Italy into France on purpose to converse with him but could not find that he had so much as one Furnace or was at all versed in the practice of Chymistry So Agricola who writ upon Poppius was put to publick shame by an Apothecary for writing so many untruths So that it behoveth the people to consider not so much with what impudence a man vaunts himself 't is an usual sign of a proportionable ignorance and imposture but to examine rather as I do the solidity of their aiscourses and efficacy of their Medicaments 't is not a casual cure that makes a man knowing 't is not a sudden alleviation which lasts not long and perhaps throws the Patient into a worse disease or destroyes him in a short time that argues the goodness of his Medicines No the constitutive qualities of a Physician are skill in the real causes or such as are as effectual as if they were so and the signs of diseases the diagnosticks and prognosticks and a Method of curing authenticated by the History of Medicine and Medicaments such as the Experience of Sage practisers recommends unto us to which end he must be well read in the History of the Materia Medica and not set up with two or three praxes these render him accomplish'd He that understands Humane Nature best and the operation of the non-natural and preternatural things upon it is the person to be employed not everry one that can proclaim a catalogue of diseases which oftentimes are of necessity to be cured several wayes and boast of effectual pleasant and universal medicaments is to be regarded 'T is not the most acute experimental Philosopher that is the best practitioner many Theoremes are plausible which practice refutes this was the death of Van Helmont thus Des Cortes died of a pleurisie when through a prejâ—dicate novelty he refused to be let bloud 'T is not great ingenuity and parts employed in florid or different studies that make any man a competent judge of a disease or the operation of a Medicament The Lord Bacon is a great instance of this truth and the instance of the Sweating-Sickness convinceth us of the vanity of him and the Comical wits in their pretences to discourse of or reform what they so little understand I had thought to have prosecuted some other points by him agitated and to have demonstrated the vanity of the courses he takes and Medicines by him recommended and to have vindicated the ancient Physick and Medicaments particularly and given an Historical account of the inconveniences that have befallen this last Century by reason of these Pseudo-physicians but I have not leisure now to do it nor is my Adversary so considerable that I should take so much pains to expose him what I have writ here is enough to shew his intolerable ignorance and folly and represent him as unfit to be entrusted with the life of any man A POSTSCRIPT I Think I cannot better conclude this Treatise than by representing to Thomson that account which he himself gives elsewhere of the Sweating-Sickness for thereby it will appear how out of an ambition to contradict me he opposeth himself yet is even that as little agreeable to truth as 't is to the relation of my Lord Bacon G. T. Of the true way of preserving the Blood pag. 24. Here I cannot but make an animadversion upon that truculent disease which formerly raged in England to the destruction of some thousands It had its original undoubtedly from a degenerate Latex turned into a malignant Ichor which caused a tabefaction or colliquation of the Blood and nutritive juyce which issuing forth in a copious measure symptomatically witbout any Euphoria or alleviation quickly consumed the stock of life The attempt made at first to cure this malady by stopping the sweat by astringents and cooling things proved not only frustraneous but also very mortal for the malignity being thereby more concentrated wanting a Momentaneous vent through the universal membrane it forthwith preyed upon the Archaeus extinguishing the lamp of Life in such sort as a Mephitis or subterraneous damp doth obfuscate and at length put out the flame of a Candle Now the proper adequate remedies that took effect in this feral evil were Eustomachies as likewise counterpoysons that did immediately resist the venome by obliterating the Idaea thereof by corroborating the enormon exterminating the intoxicated Ichor and ill-condition'd Latex through the habit of the body carrying it that way quo natura vergere studebat This Baconical Philosopher here directly contradicts what he would seem to assert against me viz. His Author and he say there that the mass of bloud in the veins was not infected for then there would have ensued spots and botches but only the vital spirits Whereas here he saith that It had its original doubtless from a degenerate Latex turned into a malignant Ichor which caused a tabefaction or colliquation of the blood and nutritive juyce And undoubtedly he is deceived in fixing the original of that disease in the Latex whereas it depended and had its beginning and being from a particular venome and corruption of the Air for notwithstanding that the unseasonableness of the preceding year might have depraved the bodies of men yet did both arise spread and cease so suddenly that 't is evident its original and continuance was derived from another cause Whereas he sayes it was Symptomatical 't is a sign he understands not what he sayes for symptomatical evacuations at best are neither to be promoted nor provoked but only continued whereas such as did not of themselves sweat were to be forced in this case to sweat moderately otherwise they dyed I profess I do not know yet the nature of that disease whereunto to reduce it or how to speak of it in the language of a Physician they that saw it were as much perplexed with the notion of it as with the Cure That any Physician did then
the followers of Erasistratus upon this subject But above all that ever intermedled I will give this character to Thomson that never did any presume more upon so weak grounds Nor ever was Confidence so poorly mounted and so pittifully be-jaded After much trouble and enquiry the sum of all he sayes in this case amounts to this The promiscuous mass of Bloud which flows in the Veins and Arteries he divides into three parts the one is called by him the Latex the second Cruor the third Sanguis or most properly Blood The Latex so called by Helmont by some Lympha by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a diaphanous clear liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabricated in the second digestion by virtue of a ferment there residing It is the inseperable companion of the Bloud and closely pâ—rambulates with it through all the wandring Maeandrous pipes in this Microcosme It is the matter of Vrine and Sweat Spittle c. and renders several other considerable services to the body The goodness or pravity of the Latex depends much upon the bloud as it is constituted for albeit it is no essential part thereof yet is it altered for better or worse according to the channels it passeth through the lodging it taketh up and the condition of its associate notwithstanding that it may be sometimes impaired in its due excellency and the bloud withall remain very pure and sincere The second part is called Cruor from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Crudus concretus It is the more crude impure part of the bloud the purer part of the chyle being digested into a saline juyce is carried into the milky vessels and veins and mingling at last with that ruddy liquor is called Cruor and at last becomes perfect bloud It undergoes manifold guises and is often the subject matter of a multitude of diseases being sometimes changed into an Ichor Tabum or Sanies The third part is properly called Sanguis or Bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a most pure sweet Homogeneous Balsamie Vital juyce for the most part of a bright Red or Reddish colour made by the Archaeus by virtue of ferments implanted in the ventricles of the heart lungs veins and arteries causing a formal transmutation of the Ckyme or milky substance into this sanguineous liquor ordained to be the seat of Life and and the principal matter for sense motion nutrition accretion and generation It is for good reason called Balsamum seu Condimentum totius corporis â—orasmuch as it hath a sanative power sweetly uniting all the parts of the body for the conspiration of the good of the whole It is a great preservative against putrefaction as long as it remains in its integrity for consisting of many saline particles it seasoneth whatsoever it toucheth with a pleasing sapour It is the proper habitation of the vital spirit the immediate instrument of the soul in which it shines displaying its radiant beams every way that sensation motion nutrition and all other functions may be exquisitely performed God and Nature never intended other then that the bloud should be Homogeneous pure plain symbolical with that single principle of the Vniverse Now these Peripatetick Philosophers deliver to the world that the contexture of this vital juyce is made up of Choler Phlegm Melancholy and Blood which united produce this compounded body which we call Sanguis How grosly erroneous and dangerous this Tenet is most Learned Helmont hath made evident Wherefore we conclude with that noble Philosopher that Bloud is an Vnivocal substance divisible only by some external accidental means as the Air or Fire which cause a various texture and different position of its Atomes whereby it seems to consist of parts which are not really inherent in it as is manifest in its degeneration from its native colour sapour consistence and goodness which it had before it became corrupt in the pottinger or underwent the torture of fire Both of which do strangely larvate and disguise the puniceous Balsome giving occasion to the Galenists to frame their four fictitious humours no where really existent This being the foundation of all his declamations against Phlebotomy before I proceed any farther it may seem requisite that I should make some Animadversions thereon I might take much notice of and dislay his errours as to what he sayes that the Latex is by the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the first time I ever read it called so the usual terms being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The notion whatever Helmont say is not new at all an hundred Galenists have mentioned and treated of it as the vehicle of the bloud and nourishment But that cruor should come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crudus concretus is an opinion singular to the Baconical Philosopher That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie cold I know well and that cruor properly signifies the the bloud of dead people or the mortified bloud issuing from putrefied wounds I no less understand though Authors frequently confound it with Sanguis But that his Latex and the Lympha so called by moderns are the same is news for it is not held that the Lympha in its peculiar form was pre-existent in the Arteries and as such did accompany the Blood through the Maeandrous piteâ— but is generated as it is discharged into the Lymphaeducts and from them is re-mixed with the bloud And if it were yet would not the definition of this Latex agree with it for the Lympha is no inseparable companion of the bloud as appears by its peculiar vessels it is seldome a diaphanous clear liquor being commonly tinged with several colours oftentimes whitish sometimes yellow or as it were stained with bloud And whereas this Latex is devoid of all sensible qualities those who have experimented the Lympha do not find any such thing but a variety of tasts Nor is it true that the Serum which accompanies the Bloud is such a Latex as our Helmontian describes it being never to my taste free from a salsuginous sapour though it retain that with a great Latitude nor devoid of colour so as to be clear and diaphanous and 't is very seldome seen that the said Serum will not coagulate unless preternaturally upon a gentle fire so that it is no more to be termed a Latex than the whites of eggs beaten to the like fluidity In like manner that in the Lympâ—aeducts will coagulate as Bartholin observes and others As for the Cruor that there are graduations of the Bloud as to its crudity and impurity is no doubt amongst the Galenists and that it may oftentimes transcend the state of due maturation and so become degenerate is as easily granted as that it should come short of its desired perfection and when this Blood degenerates any way into a Tabum or sanious matter I must tell him
non recipit potest recipere id quod fuâ—urum est The Major being thus false in that sense which was most pertinent to his purpose 't is most ridiculous in the other For who will not immediately laugh at him that should thus determine That which may in some persons and in some circumstances incline unto a Feâ—ver is never the proper remedy of â— Feaver And how can this Bacon-face upbraid us herewith who doth himself prescribe to his Patients in Feavers the most generous liquors of the subtilest smack exhibited largely without insisting upon the nicety of any danger from heating and yet his Sack and other generous liquors may ingender Feavers and other distempers in the healthy In fine Whoever rejected the use of a thing for the abuse or condemned peremptorily any cause for accidental inconveniencies following thereon but such a Dulman as this Helmontian and his brethren the disciples of my Lord Verulam 'To the Minor I reply that for the observations made by this insipid pretender to Pyrotechny I regard them not at all he hath not judgment enough to make one Ego vero sicuti experientiam multi facio dummodo commodum expertorem nacta sit Ita si unicuique qui se expertum dicat temere credidero ridiculus profecto habear ut qui fori circulatores ac loquales vetulas agrestes quoque sacerdotes in pretio habeam Nam si quaeras omnes uno verbo quae proponunt se expertos dicunt It is true I have a great reverence for the name of Experience and the bare mention thereof commands an attention from me But it hath been the peculiar misfortune of my education that I have been taught not rashly to assent nor to believe every thing that is told me since there is nothing but may be spoken by some body I can be so civil and so curious as to give the Relator an hearing how mean soever he be but before I credit him I must consider whether the thing be possible and withall because my knowledge is not the adequate Measure of possibilities in nature Whether it were done If the thing did succeed I inquire Whether it will constantly or most commonly follow upon the like causes and circumstances Or whether it is a rare accident In the two first cases the knowledge thereof makes a Pâ—ysician the better Artist the latter adds to his general Science of natural Phaenomena but not at all to his Art except in cases as rare as the Phaenomenon related In Artibus inquit Galenus duo sunt praeceptorum genera unum eorum quae perpetuam habent veritatem alterum quae utplurimum ita se habent tolerantur quae raro fiunt ibi locum non habent At hodie multi sibi placent in scribendis obtrudendis observationibus raris tanquam novis Artium mysteriis sed rara non sunt Artis I do also consider the quality of the Relator the vain-glorious and ambitious are easily deceived because they passionately desire the thing should be so and 't is for the credit of such Observators if it be so the young are easily imposed upon by the little experience they have of things the credulity that is in them naturally and the good opinion or hopes they have of the integrity of others and because they are conceited of their own knowledge though the prospect of things be narrow they are prone to opiniatrity and vehement in their assertions though too unsetled and impatient as well as ignorant to weigh any thing maturely and with all its requisites I do not weigh the greatness and opulency or Relators but value them as they are Artists for such only can judge in their own Faculties And when controversies arise the Stagirite deluded me into an opinion that the most probable tenet was that which the most or the most intelligent did profess This Pyrotechnist upon many reasons deserves not any credit he writes Books as Mountebanks paste up Bills to invite custom the Medicines he recommends are such as by the sale thereof he would advantage himself all he publisheth is in a subserviency to this end and 't is not his skill but this ignorance that is concealed in his Arcana all that ever sweet William or Andrew related upon a Quack-salvers stage deserves as much of heed and esteem as what G. Thompson talks I do not ask thy pardon Oh! most illiterate and dull disciple of my Lord Verulam for dissenting from Thee But I with submission and deference beg leave for not adhering to Doctor Willis No man of understanding can condemn his practise he hath not altered the Authentick methods but given new and plausible reasons for an Ancient procedure This Character is due unto him that scarce any man surpassed him in his thoughts when awake and 't is his peculiar happiness that his Dreams are pleasant and coherent Amongst all that have written about Phlebotomy and its abuses I never met with one that recounted this for one evil consequence thereof that it inclines men to Feavers I find P. Castellus to reckon up twenty five evil accidents which sometimes ensue thereupon but this is none of them Nor do I see that it is reconcileable to that effect of Phlebotomy whereby it refrigerates the habit of the body and the common distempers which follow the Abuse of it are cold If it be true that it inclineth people to be fat and fat people are neither so hot nor incident to Feavers as the lean and bilious though otherwise more weak there is reason why my doubts should increase upon me It might with some colour have been said that excessive Phlebotomy did dispose to the Rheumatisme and Gout but not to Feavers except by accident that some persons having contracted a grosser and more sanguine habit of body upon Phlebotomy and such complexions being most capable of any malignant or pestilential and contagious infection not by reason of their phlebotomy but from the habit of body which whether natural or adventitious is lyable to those casualties falling upon any excess or other occasional cause into the Small-pox or Sanguine feavers the observation hath been raised into repute It is a thing I have not seen to happen vulgarly nor doth any Author â— that I know take much notice of that other effect how Phlebotomy inclines to fat I have read in Ioannes Fuchsius a Bavarian that such a thing hath fallen once or so under his observation in a Lady and Doctor Primrose denies the matter of fact that Phlebotomy will make those that are inclined to be fat fatter though persons that are extenuated and emaciated with sickness may by bleeding acquire a greater corpulency And certain it is that in those Countreys where Phlebotomy is most used there are fewest fat men and women as Spain France and Italy or Egypt in this last region it is their particular study and a distinct profession to make people fat but 't is by other
relates how many in the Pest at Mymmegen where he was Visitant had the Pest without any signs of a Feaver nor was this to be seen only in such as dyed suddenly but in those that had Botches and Carbuncles yet went up and down and pursued their business without being any way feaverish of which number himself was one And he with the allegations of many Authors and Histories of Plagues justifies his Definition in which he forbears to make the Pest to be a Feaver In like manner Casper Hofman living in Norimberg when the Town was besieged and the Plague raging had the Pest himself with a Carbuncle on his shoulder sed sine alio symptomate and taking due care of himself without consining himself to his bed or chamber he recovered He instances in others that escaped in the same condition With these agreeth Nardius who was chief Director in the Plague at Florence in 1630. And the most learned Massarias who was Physician at Vicenza when the Plague reigned there in 1577. Out of all which it is manifest that the Pest is not a Feaver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since there may be a Pest in which the sick party hath not any Symptome of a Feaver 'T is true that many learned men do desine the Pest by a Feaver and do hold that there is no Plague without one but since they confess that sometimes neither Pulse nor Vrine or any Symptome discover the least characterisme of a Feaver 't is against common sense to assert what they do in such cases It is granted that usually the Pest is accompanied with a putrid malignant Feaver of a very uncertain Tâ—pe which sometimes appears not before the Botch and its suppuration sometimes it begins with the first attacque of the venome If what I have said be true and that the Pest may be without any sign of a Feaver or any sensible indisposition I much doubt the reality of his opinion who talks so much of the affrighted Archaeus and the troubles which essentially and inseparably befal the Duumvirate of the Stomach and Spleen upon this invasion or insurrection of the pestilent venome and I am more confirmed in my jealousie because I have read that some of them that have had the Plague have not felt any symptome about their Stomach not so much as a debility of appetite but sometimes they have complained first of their heads being discomposed and most commonly of anxieties about their Heart But 't is not my intention to write a Treatise of the Plague 't is a disease I never saw though at Fulham-pestâ—house and at Windsor I gave such Prescripts and Medicines in the beginning of the Plague as did equal in effect any of the Arcana of this Helmontian As for the knowledge this talkative person should acquire by dissecting one body it is but little it argues want of reason in him to conclude generally from one case the Glory of the Act is much abated in this that Bontius and Rondeletius in the presence of many Students dissected several and which is more this last denies the Carcasses of such as dye of the Plague are not infectious so doth Fracastorius Iordanus Gregorius Horstius I allow that this last is not a constant truth and that there are some Observations recorded by which it appears that the Carcasses of such as dyed of the Pest before putrefaction have been infectious But to shew with how much injustice he triumphs over the Galenists for his having disâ—ected one single body I shall let the World see that the Galenists without proclaiming the fact or causing a Picture of it to be cut have done as much and that the variety of Pests and the different effects they produce in bodies is demonstrable At Palermo in Sicily in 1647. there was a Plague in which upon the dissection of many bodies by a sort of fellows all whose knowledge did not enable them to cure a cut-finger whose skill is but words and advances nothing these Galenists did Anatomise them Haec visa vasa omnia venae cavae sanguine ita nigro adusto atrabilari turgida ac repleta ut fusi atramenti similitudinem prae se ferret Idem sanguis tum in corde tum in faucibus repertus fuit pulmones atque hepar tumefacti inflammati ventriculus bile turgidus nulla in venis Meseraicis nulla in intestinis laesio Eadem haec uniformiter in singulis â—uerunt observata If it be said that 't was no great attempt because it was no very mortal Pest yet this is certain that it lay in the mass of blood and that the Duumvirate was not so much concerned as G. T. could have wished nor the blood in the vena porta altered according to Circulation Well that last at Naples I am sure was as pernicious as ours at London and there the Colledge of Physicians caused many to be dissected I have not met with the Programme published by them but the Duumvirate gains nothing by what I do read Nam dissecta cadavera hepar pulmonem intestina nigris maculis interstincta cor vero atro sanguine concreto luridum praebuere ut Medici Senatus Neapolitani programmata die secunda Iunii edita promulgarunt Neither doth it appear that what this Pyrotechnist saw in the body after the man was deceased was either the cause or seat of his distemper when he first fell sick the last strugglings for life might express many liquors into the stomach and vitals and they upon their commixture setling and refrigescence create other Phaenomena than were meerly the effects of the Pest. 'T is averred by C. Celsus Neque quicquam est stultius quam quale quid vivo homine est tale existimare esse moriente imo mortâ—o That I may the better decide the subsequent controversies it will be requisite I represent a more exact Definition of the Plague and to do that well I must distinguish upon the word Pest which is either taken in a general sense and so comprehends any Epidemical contagious disease of which many in the same Country do dye be it attended with a Feaver or destitute of one be it occasioned by any speciâ—ick malignity or anomaly of the Air or arise from evil diet or imported by contagion Thus the Epidemical contagious and pernicious Colick recorded in Aegineta was a Pest thus Squinancies Catarrhs Pleurisies Peripneumonies Diarrhaeas Dysenteries the Measils Small-pox have been pestilential nay the Garrotillo or Strangulatory disease in Spain Sicily and Naples though it seized upon and infected scarcely any but Children was a Pest and esteemed so by Aetius Cletus and others Thus it was deemâ—d at Venice to be a Pest of which so many once died though there were not any other Symptomes perceivable in it but a tumor of the testicles accompanied with sudden death Legi superioribus menstibus libellum Veneti â—ujusdam qui exâ—erientiam te stem citat multos ex
opportunity of gratiâ—ying Oppianicus his Mother in law a courtesie the other had oftentimes done for him before I believe there were no Apothecaries at that time in that place but in 1220 or 1221. when Physick was first made an Vniversity-Faculty and Doctors thereof created in imitation of those in Theology then were the Profession of Physick and that of the Apothecary made distinct and that with so mnch caution that it is a question amongst the Imperial Lawyers Whether a Physician may have any manner of Contract with An Apothecary though to drive on other Traffick than that of Pharmacy In the Lombard-Chronicles there are many cases of Princes and no doubt than others by Physicians there was one Sedechias in the dayes of Charles sirnamed the Bald in France and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one Doctor Lopez and Giulio If some mens reading extends not to this knowledge I would have taught D. M. and W. C. this and much more had not the Artifice and interest of some men debarred me from publishing it If any man can shew me any Dispensatory made by any European Physicians since there was so much as a Graduated Doctor that was previous to the distinct Profession of Apothecaries I will own then though it be a certain untruth that the practise I do not say practising of the Apothecary in the Quartane was contrary to the rules of Physick and the case well proposed by D. M. All men are at the mercy of such as write what they will and defame as they please and permit not others to vindicate themselves nor undeceive the World 'T is ungenerous to pinnion a mans hands and then beat him In reference to that Controversie I add that the Statutes of the Colledge command the Physicians to send their Bills to an honest Apothecary And our Laws make the Colledge Judges of all Receipts as well as Methods of Physick which Act as it conforms with the general practise of Europe so it is very prudential for hereby provision is maâ—e not only against noxious Medicaments and the high prizes of Arcana but illegitimate Methods of practise by which last it is as easie to destroy a man as by poyson and more privately How the designs of the Experimentators will consist with our Laws and be accommodated to them I know not I know a Physician may be tryed upon giving his own Medicaments if the Patient miscarry how he shall defend himself I know not I have not seen any reason alledged that is likely to convert the Magistrates throughout Europe to permit it or to gain a repeal of the two last Edicts in Denmark against it 'T is an evil president to dispute against wise Laws 't is worse to act against them and what consequences it will bring upon the Land to see one Profession retrench upon another let the Lawyers judge The beginner of this Novelty the Lord Bacon stopped not at Natural Philosophy but carried on his humour to attempt or project a change of our Laws I do recommend it to the consideration of our Sages in the Law that if Physick Divinity and other Faculties be overthrown by a company of Wits whether it be probable that they shall long continue free from the attempts of the Omniscient But I shall resume the examination of the remaining Arguments of my Adversary Because I often observe many squaring their Therapentic intentions according to the Definition of the Feaver indeavouring to cool those that are in a scorching heat by breathing a vein let them know that a Feaver whose essential nature is to be inquired into for the use of man is very erroneously defined an Accident for a febrile heat is certainly the product of a foregoing Cause which is primarily to be searched after then whatsoever depends thereon will quickly vanish Now this cutting an hole in venal vessels for the removing a bare Quality is all one as if one should lave out of the Pot ready to boil over a spiritous or some precious Liquor therein contained to the intent it may thereby be quailed neglecting to withdraw the fire the impulsive occasion of the violent motion made therein Do not they take the like absurd course who do think to cool the body in a Feaver by throwing away whole Porringers of the Nectar of life never looking after the ablation of the Causo-poietick cause and focular matter sited about the Stomach which makes an estuation and effervescence in all the other parts That way of frigidation which pillageth the vitals increasing the malady only obliquely abating a tedious quality is never to be approved by a Legitimate Physitian He that will bring to a moderation the finger excessively heated from a thorn impacted therein must extract the same otherwise he will take a wrong course by the use of meer frigefactives So he that will positively refrigerate in any preternatural heat must eliminate that spinous aculeate acid acrid matter which goads the Archaeus incensing it that it becomes exorbitant fretting raging Heautontimorumenos gauling it self at the presence of that which it abominates never to be pacified till it be excluded or some extraordinary Sedative given I mean not Opium vulgarly prepared which may for a time asswage its fury till it have leisure to thrust out the unwelcome guest I could wish my Adversary instead of consulting the Novum Organum of the Lord Bacon had been conversant in that more ancient one of Aristotle he hâ—â— not then committed so many errors in point of Ratiocination as he now does which renders his discourse intricate confused and oftentimes impertinent to the great distraction of his Reader and vexation of his Antagonist He perpetually mistakes through an Ignorantio Elenchi he never apprehends what he opposeth That the Galenists do define a Feaver by a preternatural heat diffused through the whole body is true They are contented to call that a Feaver which the vulgar does so and accordingly to define it Not but they distinguish in Feavers the Material and Formal cause thereof as also the several Efficients thereof and in their Method of curing except necessity put them upon another procedure they do alwayes and are obliged to do so by the Rules of their Art to remove the Cause of the Feaver and this is notorious to all that understand the first Elements of Physick They consider the evident occasional procatarctick Causes they consider the Antecedent causes which though they are not the immediate and conjunct Causes of the Feaver yet dispose unto it and are of such importance as that they may often degenerate into immediate and conjunct Causes and which is more in the Cure they do not only regard the Cause which gave birth unto and produced the Disease but that which doth foment and continue it and that which may produce or increase it Censeri debet causa non quae facit aut fecit solum sed quae faciet nisi quis obstet And although the curing of
four pounds of Blood to effect such a matter Neither indeed is it necessary albeit that I believe the most speedy cures but great judgment is requisite in such operations were atchieved thereby for though we do not retract the Humour or Blood unto the place where we Phlâ—botomise we do revell it from the place whither it was flowing and the course of the Blood and Humours being diverted the Arteries leading to the part affected or depleted and the Flux of Humors which was by them is abated their tenseness there which appears by their pulsâ—tion there where they did not beat before is relaxed and so becomes less opportune to extravasate either the Blood or other Humours whereupon Nature it self alone or with a little help of the Physician doth digest and dissipate the impacted matter Whereupon if we add the motion of restitution in the parts affected which is hereby facilitated the great change in the digestive fermentation of the Blood which is manifest by the melioration of the Blood which is seen in repeated Phlebotomies and the relaxation of the whole body in order to the transpiration and other depuration of the Blood by its several Glandules the Kidneys Liver Guts the reason of those prodigious benefits which Patients have had of old and now under our practise is manifest nor do we want a justification for reiterating Phlebotomy or exercising it in different veins and divers manners I designed long ago to set aside some spare hours to a further study of this Hypothâ—sis and in order thereunto to acquaint my self with the Hydraulic Arts as also to examine the truth and solidity of the Static Experiments out of which this texture of the Body the digestive motion of the Blood its change and restitution is demonstrable and to enlarge my prospect by a comparison of the several Methods and Medicaments used by sundry Physicians both Methodists and others in order to the cure of diseases and preservation of health But I must tell you that the malice of my enemies renders my LIFE and Condition so ill-assured And the apprehensions I have least the Projects of Campanella are powerfully and subtly driven on in this Age I am the more confirm'd in my suspicions in that my Adversaries are most intent to ruine me but not to remove those Vmbrages together with the imminent subversion of the Faculty of Physick by the toleration of Divines to practise which is contrary to the Ecclesiastical Canons and makes them irregular the great incouragement of Quack-salvers and Baconical Physicians These reflexions have so discouraged me that I have no mind to pursue those studies or to be much concerned for the present on succeeding generation But could I see Physick regain its lustre the Faculty encouraged by such Acts of Parliament as our Predecessors and Forreign Potentates have made and your Colledge advanced as the Proper and Supreme judicature in reference to Medicine I would willingly imploy all my leiseure in the improving of the present state of Medicine without subverting Learning or disparaging the Ancients without the knowledge of whose writings 't is impossible for any man to be excellent in Physick Poets and Comical Wits owe more to their Birth and need less of industry study and judgment than Physicians The knotty Staffe the Serpent the Pine-apple the Dog the Dragon the Cock with which the pourtraicture of Aesculapius was beautified were not Symbols and Hieroglyphiâ—s of a facile study The first Principle that we are taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But now the reading of two or three Books a Comical Wit a Bacon-face a contempt of Antiquity and a pretence to novel Experiments which are meer excuses for Ignorance and Indiscretion are sufficient Qualifications Notwithstanding the Melancholy and pensiveness into which the present posture of Learning here in England alwayes puts me into when I reflect thereon I will constrain my self to proceed further and examine the cases of Phlebotomy in a Pleurisie the Small-pox and Scurvey concerning all which diseases as I shall debate what an Intelligent Practitioner may do nay is oftentimes obliged to do in conscience and out of discharge of duty to his Patient so I will not justifie any Action of those persons who understand nothing nor can distinguish circumstances in particular cases A thousand things are to be considered by him that would practise Physick exactly the present disease the past condition of the Patient in reference to himself his parenâ—s his dyet preceding distempers the latter the more remote the conjunct causes what hinders what promotes what effects the cure What will what may happen in the disease what will or may ensue upon recovery In all these cases since he hath not a sensible and easie knowledge thereof but must proceed upon Conjecture you understand well How great a comprehension of affairs and how much in each case he must inquire into who will discharge well the duty of a Physician It was prudently said of the incomparable Aristotle the meanest of whose Works deserves to be read above all that the Novel Experimentators have published if it were but for the wise Apothegmes therein for Civil Society is the grand work of this Life and that is more useful which qualifieth us thereunto then what makes us admirable Mouse-trap-makers Physicians saith he do not cure man in general except it be by accident but Cullias or Socrates or some other individual person Hence even a man that is a speculative Artist how much more those that are neither speculative nor Empiriâ—s may be deceived in the application of general rules to singular cases and so may mistake He tells us that it is not for the most dexterous railers or witty Sophisters to judge of State matters nor yet for any man to direct therein who hath not served an Apprenticeship in the Ministry of State for neither in Physick doth the knowledge of a common Praxis accomplish a man thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is it to the purpose if they learn a multitude of Knick-knacks and have an infinite of Conundrums in their Heads if they know not what appertains to Practise These narrow-sighted Verulamians may recommend themselves by success in a few the Grave may conceal or a strong Nature amend their defaults but they are nevertheless ignorant In a calm many can steer a Ship whose imbecillity of judgment sinks it in a storm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already spoken concerning Phlebotomy in the Plague In a Pleurisie 't is no less evident that Physicians are divided in their judgments To begin with the true state of the Question This is more than this Baconical Philosopher did ever think upon for he without any distinction derives the usefulness of Phlebotomy in a Pleurisie If thou beest unsatisfied whether opening a vein as it is indicated from Evacuation or Revulsion be a competent sufficient Remedy for the cure of a Pleurisie or any high Feaver thou shalt find
fuerit nulla insalubris aeris anomalia quae febri occasionem submiâ— nistraret Nihilominus etiam hujusmodi homines praecedente insigni aliqua aeris vel victus caeterarumque rerum non-naturalium ut vocant mutatione identidem febre corripiuntur propterea quod eorum sanguis novum statum conditionem adipisci gestit qualem ejusmodi aer aut victus postulaverint minime vero quod particularum vitiosarum in sanguine stabulantium irritatio febrim procreet 'T is true he did not pen it in Latine but another Mr. G. H. for him and perhaps his skill in that tongue may not be such as to know when his thoughts are rightly worded But it seems strange and irrational to attribute such an understanding to the Blood and to transmute a natural Agent into one that is spontaneous and which is more having represented it as such to make it so capricious as not to know when it is well but to run phantastically upon such dangerous changes as occur in putrid Feavers and the Small Pox for even in this last ariseth from a desire the Blood hath to change its state Since natural Agents demean themselves uniformly and of them 't is most true Idem quatenus idem semper facit idem I was surprised to see these new principles and to see effects of this nature arise without any cause It doth not seem possible for him ever to demonstrate that there is no Plethora or Cacochymy or obstipation of the pores of the body antecedent to a Feaver nay the contrary seems evident to all Physicians nor ever was there any whereunto they did not attribute some procatarctick cause Besides he doth not alledge any Reasons or Experiments to shew that there is any alteration in the blood before and after the Small Pox or a Feaver or any difference betwixt the Blood of such as have had those diseases and of those which have not had them So great a supposition ought not to be made without ground And since it is natural and Nature is constant why is not the Disease more ancient and universal than it appears to be For if there be any grounds to think the Small Pox to be of long continuance 't is certain 't is but seldom spoken of by any old Writer perhaps once by Hippocrates yet so as never to be understood by any that hath not seen the indisposition and never by Galen It may be imagined to have come from Aegypt by contagion and might have been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quia urbi Bubasti Aegyptiae familiaris hic morbus It infesteth some places more than others In Graecia non adeo frequens Ideo antiquiores Medici vix ejus meminerunt In the West-Indies it was not heard of till the Spaniards came thither and they as also the English there seldome have it I believe the Disease to be novel and of no longer date than the Sarracenical revolution I could instance in the nature of such great altâ—rations that they have ever been preceded and accompanied with many peâ—ty changes in other things and if ever I have so much vacant time aâ— to make political reflexions upon the rise of Mahomâ—â— I may declare much to this purpose This is that invidiâ—us subject about which Eâ—â—bolius Glanvili makâ—â— so â—uch noise as if to avow that Mahomet â—ere a Gentleman of noble extraction marrieâ— to one who â—â—r birth riches and beâ—uty might hâ—ve bâ—en a Princâ—ss and accomplished with that sober Uertue Wit â—lâ—quence and Education by much travâ—l â—or he travelled all over Aegypt Africk and â—pain aâ— to â—â—nder himself one of the most considerable of his Age or to say that the Christians were so ignorant and debauched and perfidious and addicted to Legends more than to the sound Doctrine of the Gospel at â—hat time that most of the Fables in the Alcoran were accommodated to the honour of the times more than to truth â—nd so Mahamet told them or to say He pretended to revive Ancient Christianity were to be an Apologist for the Mahometans and an abettor of the Alcoran Whereas none but the Illiterate can deny these things and the Age our Virtuoso speaketh of is the Age of Apostacy according to the Doctrine of our Church Oh Heavens to what an height is Impudence and Ignorance arrived Or what can be safe if so prudential and generous a design as I had must be calumniated by such a R in this manner Bnt to resume my discourse in the behalf of my opinion concerning the novelty of this disease besides what the learned Mercurialis hath said I shall conclude with the words of Rodericus a Fonseca which are these Si ex nativitate esset ab initio mundi fuisset aut saltem ita frequenter tunc ut nunc solet esse et licet antiqui aliquam de his pustulis mentionem fecisse visi sint ea certe exigua est dubia ut câ—rtum sit vix illis temporibus fuisse talem morbum negligentissimi certe habendi essent si tam ingens commune frequens malum illotis manibus silentio involuissent cum morbus sit puerilis Hippocrates eas numerasset inter aetates 3. Aphor. ubi diligentissime puerorum morbos connumerat tamen nullam hujus mali fecitmentionem sed illud satis demonstrat hunc morbum novum esse quod in multis mundi partibus nunquam visus fuit ubi nunquam apparavit nisi postquam Hispani eo pervenere siquidem per contagium Aethiopis cujusdam illuc delati magnam Indorum partem sustulit I might here insist upon the Hypothesis of Doctor Sydenham concerning the Inclination of the Blood to change its state I cannot believe but that the Physicians understood themselves as well before he writ when it was said that there was in every one that was born something of impurity in the body which was naturally to be purged out by an ebullition in the blood and such an effervescence as terminated in those Abscessus called the Small Pox. Quandoque accidit in sanguine ebullitio secundum semitam putredinis cujusdam de genere ebullitionum quae accidunt succis talia quidem accidentia fiunt per eam ita ut partes eorum ab invicem discernantur Et de hoc est cujus causa est res quasi naturalis faciens ebullitionem sanguines ut expellatur ab eo illud quod ad miscetur ei de reliquis nutrimenti sui menstrualis quod erat in hora impraegnationis aut generatur in eo post illud ex cibis faeculentis malis de illis quae rarificant substantiam ejus faciant eam ebullire donec fiat substantia recta fortior prima magis apparens sicut illud quod natura efficit in succo uvae ita quod rectificat ipsum faciendo vinum similis substantiae jam expulsa est ab eo spuma aerea faex terrena He that can English this