though oftentimes the gentlest desiccatives are sufficient to cure them in three or four days These Ulcers may indeed happen in all parts of the body because they are all capable of an impure Contact but the more tender and delicate ones are most subject to them by reason that the impure Salts do more easily stick in their susceptible substance whence it comes to pass that the Yards in Men the Privities in Women the Teats in Nurses and the Mouth in Infants are the parts which are most commonly infected with them 3. That which ought to be done towards their Cure while they are in this condition consists principally in drying them up like other Ulcers only regard must be had to the matter that causes them and proper Desiccatives employed for breaking the points of the Salts they contain and to oppose their penetration which is so much the rather to be feared as it is done insensibly The following Liquours will very well answer this first respect if you wash the Ulcers twice a day with them and lay Tents upon them that are dipt in these Liquours observing always to give such a strength to them as is most agreable proper to the particular Temperaments of the bodies and parts on which you shall apply them and this by encreasing the quantity of Pouders to render them the stronger or else that of the Waters to make them the weaker Take of the seventh Water of unslakt Lime one pound Spirit of Vitriol Salt of Saturn and Verdegrease of each half a drachme Or else Rose and Plantain Water of each half a pound Aqua-vitae two ounces Orpiment a drachme and a half Verdegrease two scruples Aloes half a drachm Or again white Wine a pound Rose and Plantain Water of each four ounces Orpin two drachmes Verdegrease one drachm Mirrh and Aloes of each a scruple Make the Liquours according to Art for the use above mentioned To answer the second respect that I remarked you must use both Purgatives and Diureticks if the Ulcers are upon the Yard of a Man the Genitals of a Woman or about the Groin of either of them or else you may use inwardly Sudorisicks that drive from the Center to the Circumference if they are in any other parts 4. It must be especially observed that the Purgatives which you shall make use of for this effect be strong enough to move Nature and help it to drive by Stool any impure matter that might have penetrated a little more inwardly than the Ulcers which appear to you and also that they be not violent enough to attract the Humours from the remoter parts for this attraction would help the matter to make a further penetration then it would otherwise have been able to do of it self and so cause by this means the universal Pox which you do endeavour to avoid And here you may take notice that the greatest part of Men are themselves the causes of the frauds and deceits that are done to them for there are very many who will never think themselves well purged unless they have felt excessive pains and cruel gripes in their guts and unless they go to Stool fiveteen or twenty times at least though to speak the truth Nature can never endure these extraordinary and violent Motions without the diminution or depravation of their Functions which nevertheless are the principal Agents in the separation and expulsion of Impurities If you desire therefore to avoid these excesses you 'll find nothing more safe than an Infusion of Senna with Salt of Tartar in which you may also dissolve the Syrups of Roses or Peachflowers proportionating the doses to the age and strength of the Patient you take in hand 5. The Diuretiks you must make use of to repel by Urine are Crystal Mineral which you may give from half a drachm to two or three and the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur from six to thirty drops in Pellitory Water or an Aperitive Ptisanne you may prepare with the Roots of Strawberries wild Succhory Grass and Dandelion Those of Parsly Fennil Sperage and Rest-harrow are much more aperitive than the former and divers forms of Ptisannes may be prepared with them that are useful indeed to some but may have very ill effect on persons extremely hot and dry as well as Radish-seed bruised and taken in white Wine which is notwithstanding a most powerful Aperitive For the Sudorisicks that are taken inwardly you may successively make use of the Spirit of Harts-horn which you may give in half a Glass of Carduus-water from six to twenty drops or a like number of grains of its volatile Salt dissolved in the same Water But among all you 'll find none to have a greater effect than the Pouder or volatile Salt of Vipers if you give the first from ten to thirty grains and the latter from five to fiveteen in equal parts of Cinnamon and Carduus-waters or in the Water that remains in the distillation of this same Salt 6. It remains to say that these Evils do not long continue under the Name of Ulcers simply for it is well known that the matter which causes them doth sometimes insinuate more deeply and by this means doth make another degree of the Pox but it more often happens that by long continuance in the exulcerated part it makes the Ulcers turn into Chancres after the manner I spoke of before Wherefore it is good to observe that you dress them in this condition with Escaroticks and Suppuratives because you must consume the hardness that is found in them for fear of leaving a ferment in the parts that might produce afterwards a far greater Evil than you are going to destroy They who follow the ordinary Practice in this case are content to apply Red Precipitate which in truth makes a skar when it is good but that a light and superficial one such as is not able to hinder the hardness from encreasing in latitude and profundity and from remaining also after their Cicatrice what time soever is employed towards their consumption Some do make use of sublimate Corrosive but besides that it causes intolerable pains during the Operation it attracts watry fluxions on the parts it is applyed to which are very hard to dissolve and do besides dispose the parts to a Gangrene and this principally in those parts that are near the passages which serve for expulsion of the Excrements The causes of these misfortunes and many others is an Errour of some ancient Authors that every body may easily be convinced of yet hath nevertheless been received by way of Tradition by the greatest part of those who have written ever since or do still write on this subject according to which Errour they represent Quicksilver to be like a Ferret that goes and searches out the Venereal matter in all parts of the body for to expel it thence presently as this little Animal doth the Connies out of their Holes For which Opinion nevertheless they have had no other proof
application of emollient Remedies such as are the Fomentations that I have described for the swelling of the Testicles or else the residence of the Decoction with which you may make Cataplasms for the same effect beating it and boiling it to the consistence of Pap. You may also make Liniments with the Oyl of Lillies Man's Fat or the Neapolitan Oyntment and apply thereupon the Plaster de Vigo or rather that of Mucilage with Mercury Some have found a great deal of help from a Fumigation that is raised from Aqua-vitae or Vinegar cast upon hot stones or bricks When the Carnosity shall have been a little mollified by these or other means you may make use of the Corrosives described before or put twelve grams of Sublimate Corrosive in an ounce of the Plaster of Mucilage which will assuredly prove of great effect if you use it dexterously that is to say if you apply it in a small quantity and this directly upon the excrescence Moreover I shall not speak particularly of those that happen to Women in the same passages by reason that you may also consume them with the Remedies I have already described and this also with much more ease than those which happen in the common passage or the Ureter of Men. 5. You must observe that the particular Poxes of which I have spoken are found to be sometimes accompanied with the universal Pox because it sometimes happens to appear just at the same time or the Venereal Salts are now and then so volatile and penetrant that they force against the opposition of Nature and its Preservatives In this case it is to no purpose to make use of the greatest part of the particular Remedies I have proposed since by taking away the universal Infection of the body by the general Remedies that will be described in the sequel of this Book you 'll destroy the Cause of the Disease wheresoever it may ly and the Accidents will easily vanish almost all of themselves by this means CHAP. III. Of the Natural Crises of the Universal Pox. 1. General division of the Crises of the Pox and why the Evacuations that follow the Application of its Remedies may be so called 2. Of the Natural Crises of the Pox and first of those that terminate it with other Diseases 3. Of those that are produced simply by the Opposition of Nature 4. Of Buboes and Poulains in particular SEeing the universal Pox doth consist in a general Infection of the body it cannot be-terminated but by such Crises as are able to carry away all its Impurities These Crises may be raised either by Motions purely Natural or else by the proper Actions of Mercury and the other Remedies I know well enough that those who stick closely to what the Ancients have taught will not allow of this division because according to them the Crises of Diseases are only the productions of Nature and not the effects of Remedies Whereupon it is necessary to remark that the Evacuations which follow the application of Remedies against the Pox and particularly that of Mercury must not be considered simply like those that are seen to follow when the Vessels are opened or after the use of Vomits and Purges because these last have always determinate Motions whereas those others I speak of are made either by the mouth or by the pores or siege or by urine according as Nature finds the Impurities or passages best disposed whence we may easily conclude that they are properly the works of Nature and that the Remedies which are employed for this effect do principally serve to move and dispose the bodies to their purification by an agitation of all the Humours 2. But to return to those which are caused by Motions purely Natural they may may be distinguished into such as are provoked by the Causes of some other Diseases which do render the Pox sometimes complicated or into such as are made simply by the opposition of Nature The Diseases which may cause the former are for Example the Plague Pleuresie and generally Feavours but principally those that are called Malignant whose Crises may be able to carry off the Pox because they never happen but after their Causes have procured a great ebullition in the blood by which Nature is sometimes so violently moved that she makes an extraordinary effort to separate all the Impurities that are mixed with it But seeing the Pox may be carried off after this manner as different ways as there are different Natural terminations of it and because this matter cannot be treated of here without confusion I shall not speak more amply of it but do believe it will be sufficient to explicate in this Chapter the other sorts of Crises which may be said to be peculiar to the Pox. 3. Seeing the Venereal matter is venomous subtile and penetrant it rarely makes its Attache any considerable time on the superficial parts without entring into the Vessels and mixing with the blood and as there is nothing more ordinary than those sorts of adhesion there would consequently be nothing more familiar than the universal Pox if Nature did not oppose its introduction and make use of all its force to hinder a mixture and insinuation that is so contrary to it Nay we see that she prevents as much as possible the disorder that this poison may be apt to make For when she is not able to escape its Introduction she knows how to act against it another manner of way by separating it from the Humours that are pure and driving it away with the ordinary Excrements through commodious passages These passages may be the same as serve also for Natural Purgations such as the Terms of Women and the regulated Hemorrhoides of certain Men or for extraordinary Evacuations as sordid Ulcers or lastly for the universal purification of the blood and the Emunctories But as the Venereal matter is driven almost insensibly through the former ways that I have mentioned seeing Nature hath no need of assistance in this Operation I shall not give any more precise explications of them and shall be contented to describe the means of making the Crise succeed well that often happens through the latter 4. Whereas the Genital parts do serve oftner than any other for the introduction of Venereal Salts the Groin which is very near them doth suffer the impure Tumours by which they are driven out more commonly than the other Emunctories after the same manner as the Humours that serve for a Crisis to the Pestilence do rather happen to swell under the Arm-pits because they are nearer the Breast which first received by inspiration the infected Air that caused this Disease But though it be easy to remark that those sort of Tumours are always made by some Critical Motion it is known nevertheless that the efforts which Nature makes on this account would often prove to no purpose if she were not seconded by the application action of Remedies that Physick does furnish us with
those Itchings of â—â—â— skin and fall of the Hair from the Head and Beard Wherefore this time may be also considered as another degree of the Pox wherein nevertheless it may be absolutely cured as well as in the former by a good use of ordinary Remedies or else by a Critical Motion of some other Disease supervening But as these means do fail sometimes of the desired effects it were much better in this condition to provoke a light Salivation by which a quick easie and assured Cure may be hoped for When the fermentation encreases or that it is in its height the Venemous serosities do separate from the blood and pass á travers the coats of the Vessels that contain it after which they slide along the Nerves and Membranes and cause those wandring pains that are felt now in one part and now in another sometimes also Nature strives to drive them forth through the pores but as these serosities are heavy and full of Salts they adhere to the skin instead of going forth and there cause Ulcers when they are mixt with some corrupted matter or if on the contrary they are chiefly charged with fixt Salts they there raise pustules that are flat scaly dry and of a red drawing towards an Orange colour or else if they are fill'd with volatil Salts they rise somewhat higher and produce hard Tetters and Warts upon the Yards privities of Women the Groin and other places This degree of the Pox is not the most difficult of all to be cured but it is known very well by experience that there is nothing but Mercury among Remedies that is able to excite the Crisis that can terminate it Oftentimes after these matters have been thus wandring about the body they altogether adhere and absolutely stay in some parts and cause by this means the last and most terrible degree of the Pox. For though their adhesion doth sometimes happen only in the Muscles and Periostium they fail not to cause most lamentable Accidents because by pricking gnawing and continually drying the nervous Fibres of these parts they there produce those fixt and nocturual pains some persons have found insupportable The Cartilages and especially the bones are also other parts that suffer great changes by their penetration for they cause a sort of fermentation in the Marrow or Juyce they contain by the means of which Tumours are seen to happen that are called Nodes and which are nothing else but an elevation of their very substance that is at last rotted and corrupted by the presence and action of these Impurities Nevertheless though the Pox is very hard to cure when its matter is thus stopt and sunk into the parts I named it may be observed that it would be always curable even in this degree if this same matter were not sometimes stuck to parts that are still more considerable But it hath been unhappily proved in some Men that the parts which are called Noble and those that immediately administer to the Noble ones have not been exempt from its activity and cruel effects Wherefore the Prognostick that may be made of it is so sad and lamentable that it always consists in judging the extraordinary difficulty or else impossibility of the Cure But besides the general Considerations that I have marked for making a good Prognostick of the Pox in all its degrees there must be respect had to the particular circumstances of each subject as for example to the Temperament Sex Age Strength and also Employment of him we pretend to cure For I have known by Experience that the inquietudes which important affairs do give some men do heat and inflame the Spirits and thereby cause the Mercury to enter into the Brain where it finally causes most deplorable Accidents SECT 2. In which necessary Observations are made on the means to cure the Pox while it is but Particular on the Natural and Critical Motions which do terminate it when it becomes Vniversal and on the Medicines which commonly serve to raise the Artificial Crisis of it CHAP. I. Of the sorts of Particular Pox that are called Ulcers and Chancres 1. Why the particular Poxes are here treated of in the first place and of the general division that may be made of them 2. Of Venereal Vlcers in general 3. The particular Method of curing them 4. Observation on the Purges that ought to be employed in their Cure 5. Of other Preservatives 6. Divers necessary Observations on the Remedies that serve for curing them when they degenerate into Chancres 7. Of the Phymosis and Paraphymosis 1. AFter having thus remarked all the general things that I have judged necessary for the understanding those that more particularly relate to the Art of curing the Pox It is now time to speak of its Remedies and the circumstances that must be observed for the using them well and without danger And seeing the matter that causes the Pox doth in a manner always adhere to some particular parts before it advances to infect the whole body some Reflections shall here be made in the first place on the means of curing it while it doth continue particular and on the Preservatives that ought to be used for hindring its becoming Universal But to the end we may avoid useless Repetitions I shall say nothing more in general of particular Poxes nor of the Reasons for which I have so named them because these things have been already sufficiently explicated when I spoke of the Differences and Signs which may serve for the Knowledge and Prognostick of all the degrees of this Disease It will suffice to say here that they maay be divided into such as appear only in the parts that may be seen and touched and into such as happen in other parts that our senses cannot discover so that according to this Division different Remedies may be given the more successfully as occasion requires 2. The first are the Ulcers and Chancres which are caused by a light and superficial adhesion of some matter that hath not penetrated more inwardly I add this distinction because I do not now intend to speak of those that are made in the Ureter by the passage of Virulent matter in Claps or Gonorrheas nor of such as are the Symptomes of the universal Pox since the manner of treating them is much different and that they do depend on other degrees This particular Pox is nothing else in the beginning but the ruption or dilaceration of the superficial Fibres of the skin or pellicules that cover the parts to which the matter doth adhere so that no other Name must consequently be given to it than that of Venereal Ulcers especially if we will not do like Ignorants or Impostors who make the smallest Excoriations pass for Chancres of a most difficult cure and they do not indeed cure them but with a great deal of pains and time because they dress them with caustick burning Medicines which make them become very painful hard and apt to suppurate
Menstrual Furthermore I have sufficiently explicated otherwise what I mean by Virulent Claps and after what manner I conceive them to be produced that there is no need of making repetitions here I believe also that all the divisions which I could make of it be altogether useless because I do not intend to speak but only of those that are caused by the entrance and adhesion of some Venereal Salt or else because its Accidents do sufficiently distinguish it from such as happen by violent Exercises by the use of fermented Liquours and by other causes Therefore I believe it will suffice to give you in this Chapter the circumstances it is necessary to observe for the curing successfully all the Accidents that accompany this I am now going to speak of or else for assuredly preventing the universal Pox that might otherwise follow 2. Inflammation may be said to be the most pressing Accident of all that happen in this degree of the Pox for 't is by it that the matter which runs out is rendered the more sharp and corrosive that the Ulcers of the passages become greater and more profound that the pains grow insupportable and lastly that the means of making Urine become so extream difficult nay and sometimes in a manner impossible 'T is therefore requisite to take care betimes of preventing or else curing it by cooling Remedies such as may be those I am now going to propose Some persons whom we must by no means imitate do begin with Blood-letting in the Arm which may be apt to attract or drive the Venereal matter more inwardly into the body and must consequently be suspected as dangerous others are not afraid to let Blood in the Foot which also may have the same effect or else precipitate the Defluxion into the Stones wherefore you should abstain from them both and prefer the use of the following Ptisanne which will serve at the same time to cool the parts drive the matter outwards and diminish its Acrimony Take the Roots of white Lillies and Marsh-Mallows of each a pound Sorrel half a hand full Liquorish a sufficient quantity Barley three hands full Linseed two ounces common Water four and twenty pounds make a Ptisanne the usual way remembring to press the remainder well for to draw out the Mucilage the better Add in every Bottle of this Ptisanne ten or twelve drops of the Spirit of Vitriol and make your Patient drink of it as much as his stomach will bear and this indifferently at any hour day or night Though this Ptisanne be often sufficient to answer the intentions I have named when you begin in good time to make use of it yet it is found every day in some persons that the malignity of the matter and disposition of the body and parts do cause the Inflammation to grow so great as to communicate it self to the Reins and neck of the Bladder so that the Patients do suffer extreme pains when they are in Bed during the erection and in urining but this more particularly in Men for the Convulsion of the Nerves of their Yard which by retiring toward their origine do swell and thereby render this part crooked or bended doth cause the degree of the Pox in which it is said to be corded and stringed and in which also you must add to the fore-named Ingredients for the Ptisanne two ounces of the Cold Seeds half an ounce of white Poppy Seed and the Juyce of two or three Limons for to render it more Anodyne more refreshing and agreable You shall also give from time to time emulsions made of Whey sweet Almonds and the Seeds and Juyce I have now named You may for the same intention rub the Reins and Perineum with the Cerecloth of Galen which you must afterwards cover with Linnen dipt in Oxyerat that is made of one part of Vinegar and six of Rose-water The use of cooling Clysters must be frequent too as well as Injections of this quality which must be made into the Yard by means of a little Syringe and this with luke-warm Milk for Example which is marvellous for this effect and one may make use of it much more successfully than of common Water to dip the Yard in whil'st he urines and so facilitate the passage of the Urine Some of those who do not esteem things that are common chuse rather to make use of the Waters of Night-shade Roses and Plantain to make Injections which are indeed Refrigerant and Anodyne because they hinder the matter from flowing and drive it back by their astriction but it is a dangerous thing to do so and therefore you must have a care of using them unless the matter be grown thick and hath run sufficiently Turpentine of Chios or in defect of it that of Venice hath a marvellous effect for asswaging and qualifying the matter and driving it out because it very easily slides into those parts and is very Diuretick You may give it in Bolus or Pills from two drachms to half an ounce or its Spirit drawn Chymically from five drops to fifteen in Aperitive Waters or Ptisannes Experience will let you know that the Salt which is called Polychrest is a powerful Remedy to drive out the Venereal Salts if you dissolve two drachms of it in two glasses of the former Ptisanne or of Pellitory-water to give it a little after the Inflammation is past and reiterate it after this manner two or three times augmenting the Dose each time with a drachm more After the use of these Remedies you must begin to purge gently with a light Infusion of Senna Crystal Mineral and Cassia and may reiterate this Purge some days afterwards augmenting the Dose or else adding other Medicaments that are most convenient to the present Dispositions When the matter shall come to run more white more thick in less quantity you may then hinder its effluxion for altogether shutting up and closing the Spermatick Vessels by astringent and inward Remedies whil'st you are cleansing and desiccating the Ulcers of the Ureter with detersive and desiccative Injections Some of those that abuse Physick and its Remedies do strive to stop the matter that runs in Claps only with astringent Injections which causes the matter to sink into the more inward parts and so consequently there happens a greater Evil then they pretended to cure or at least the effluxion begins again so soon as they have left off the use of these pretended Remedies in so much that they are compelled sometimes fifteen or twenty times to reassume the use of them without attaining the end they proposed themselves For these Injections cannot go in Men further than the inward extremity of the common passage to the Seed and Urine nor in Women further than the neck of the Womb or the neck of the Bladder but this happens chiefly because by this means they hinder the evacuation of such Impurities as may still remain sometimes after the Operation of the former Medicaments and are too
than he that is able to live like other men by advancement of years Notwithstanding there is no necessity of giving different Methods for all Ages because the many various Intentions Respects and Remedies which I have already mentioned may also serve for the Cure of Infants only observing a due proportion of them to their small condition But it is needful nevertheless to prescribe the particular Method of curing well the smallest of all that so having examples before you of the greatest and least you may the more easily judge of the quality and quantity of things which ought to be employed in the different degrees of mediocrity 3. So soon as you shall have discover'd the Pox in an Infant that sucks you must first of all endeavour to discover the person that did communicate it to the end you may remove such person before you entreprise any thing After which you must choose a good Nurse to contribute towards the purification of his blood by the use of wholsom Milk which you must carefully preserve in all its purity by prescribing her a good Dyet and separating your little Patient from her and you must give him Milk only with a little spoon or else with fine Linnen that he may suck after 't is dipt in it But you must know that the Milk of a Goat well fed is infinitely to be preferred before that of an unsound Woman It will be necessary to purge him in the beginning of all with a little Water of Cassia or the Syrup of Roses and repeat this Purge several times according as he is more or less replete You may prepare a Ptisanne for him with a handful of French-Barley and three or four drachms of China-root which you may boil in three Quarts of common Water to the diminution of the third part adding to it toward the end a little Licorice after you have passed it ten grains of Crystal Mineral for to give him to drink or suck of from time to time day and night After having opened by this means the common passages of the Excrements you may rub the bottom of his Feet every third day with a drachm of the following Ointment Take a drachm or a drachm and a half of Mercury revived from Cynnabre and kill it in two ounces of the Balsom of Arceus adding afterwards six ounces of Hogs-grease well washed and make use of it six or eight times the way I have told you If these first Frictions don't procure a Flux or do cause some other sort of Crisis you must even continue them without other Mystery as long as they shall be thought necessary or else you may make them stronger by the augmentation of the Dose of the fore-said Ointment with half a drachm or more for each Friction and by employing it partly on the Feet and partly on the hands During the time of the Critical Evacuations you may give him every six days two or three grains of the volatil Salt of Vipers dissolved in a little of the Tisanne described before and you may prefer this same Remedy before all the Treacle Philosophical and Sudorifick Waters from whence some Authors do promise such false wonders Now the most important precept I have to give you on the account of little Infants is to treat them as gently as they have but little strength and to spare neither time nor pains to encrease their small strength or at least to preserve it for if you weaken them by the force of your Remedies you 'll miserably drive them into an inevitable death instead of curing them as you designed seeing the Operation of Medicaments is always either dangerous or unuseful if it be not seconded by the efforts of Nature CHAP. VII Of the Misfortunes which may follow the Application of Mercury 1. The Causes of the Death of some that are infected with the Pox and the Causes of the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury 2. What are those Accidents 3. General Remedies that serve to put a stop to their Violence 4. Particular Remedies for the Cure of them 1. THough the Pox be not a Disease mortal of it self and I hold it curable in all its degrees it is true nevertheless that Men may dye of it as I have said before when its matter hath corrupted or destroyed the parts without which there is no living when one infected with it hath fallen into the unhappy practices of Ignorants and Impostors Lastly when careless Physicians do not soon enough remedy the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury Not but the precepts which I have given are almost infallible for curing this Disease suddenly easily and surely and hardly can they fail in one of a thousand when they are regularly observed But there are some dismal Circumstances which it is impossible to remove For besides that Men are necessarily mortal the true Cause of their Death is often unknown the time of it cannot be avoided and the Cacochymie of bodies is now then so very great that it cannot possibly receive Correction to which may be added that there are some inward Dispositions which can no way be known or there is no possibility of taking away Whence it comes to pass that the success of this undertaking is not always so happy as we could wish and Accidents may indeed happen which could in no wise be expected to which nevertheless we ought to adhibite Remedies with all manner of care and exactness which are things greatly necessary in all Occasions where Life and Death are concerned 2. Now though all these Causes are of the same consequence it would be but a vain attempt to deliver the means of destroying them all since that some of them cannot be known and others cannot possibly be removed It may be sufficient to say something of the ill Tempers of Bodies and the too great quantity of Mercury which may be made enter into them because they are the usual Causes of all the Accidents which follow its application and there are none but may happen by reason of them For when all the things that cool and moisten have been used to no purpose for quenching the Fire and correcting the dryness of an extraordinary Melancholick body there is often found to follow a loosness accompanied with unsufferable gripes pains and which soon leaves a constipation behind that causes an Inflammation of the Entrals Brest Throat and Mouth with difficulty of Breathing Swallowing and Speaking which Symptoms soon begin a Fever that in a small time becomes violent enough to sublimate the Mercury up to the Brain and thereby cause Swoonings Phrensies Convulsions and very often Deafness and Blindness Apoplexies and Palsies or lastly Death it self if care be not suddenly taken to prevent it by due applying fit Remedies against this train of misfortunes In like manner if the Dyet drying Decoctions and strong Sudorificks have not been used sufficiently to make a convenient alteration of a very
it is sufficiently known to Physicians and the most part of other Men Again it may be easily remarked that the Venereal Matter is a Venemous Salt only by making some reflections on the effects which do result from its mixture adhaesion or penetration And lastly it may be easily understood that this Salt is partly Fixt having the quality of Acids and partly Volatile as having that of Poisons It should now remain to shew you how it can originarily proceed from the mixture and corruption of the Seeds of divers persons But seeing this matter will be fully explicated in the following Chapter speaking of the causes of this Disease I 'll say nothing more particularly of it here to avoid needless repetitions Let it suffice to tell you by the by that the principles which it contains are as probable as new that they do agree throughout with the following Observations and that they consequently ought to be well understood by those who are desirous to receive profit from them 3. As for the Origine or first begining of the Pox nothing hath been ever canvassed with more heat and differences of opinion by the Authors who have written of it some have maintained that it was an effect of God's Judgment on Men and that the source of it was to be sought only in the punishment that Men had drawn on themselves by the Debaucheries of the last Age Others have drawn it from the Indians Spain Naples and other places from whence they tell us it was not long since brought Some have proposed the carnal copulation of a Leper and a Strumpet or the conjunction of a Man with a mangy Beast and others also have had particular Opinions on this subject which we have reason to believe have as little truth in them as those I have already hinted at because all of them are either Theological or Fabulous and consequently out of the consideration of Physicians who ought to have for their End nothing else but the conservation of the Nature of Man considered simply as a reasonable Creature or else the destruction of what is contrary to it Wherefore it may be said that they ought not to use any other means to attain this end but only such as are purely Natural and that they should not draw their Knowledges and Maximes but from things sensibly known In truth if Natural Philosophy serv's for a Basis and Foundation to Physick ought not Physicians to demonstrate all things that depend on it by the principles of Nature or of Art that imitates Nature And is not it very fit to leave Divines the consideration of whatsoever is Supernatural and also to the Poets by the same reason all things feigned Chimerical and supposed That we may the better observe the Rules now mentioned and satisfy Reason it self by searching into the Origine Causes and Remedies of all Diseases in the true Agents that have produced them or may be able to destroy them that is to say in whatsoever causes the diminution depravation or abolition of Natural Motions or else in the Medicaments that can correct their Defaults for otherwise we must be obliged to acknowledge Cures that are Miraculous Magical or Superstitious for the Effects of Physick Moreover seeing the true Origine of the Pox is the same with that of its Matter that shall not be particularly proved till the following Chapter for the reason before marked it seems the Reader must be sent thither to learn the account of it Nevertheless as there have been at all times debauched Women who have prostituted themselves indifferently to all sorts of Men it may here be observed by way of provision that the Pox is almost as ancient as the World and that its Origine ought to be drawn from the Impurity of the first Ages in which it was but little less common than in the present times we live in since the most ancient Physicians have spoken of all the Accidens that it produces as well as other Indispositions that were then common familiar and that they have known them as well as wee under the Names of Heat of Urine Gonorrheas Virulent Ulcers impure Buboes dry Pustules Tetters Warts and lastly Nodes and rottenness of the Bones We may also conceive that the settled inveterate Leprosie which they speak of as a Disease very rare and incurable was what we now call Leprosie and that the other species of simple Leprosies which they have mentioned as very common were the different impressions that Venereal Salts made upon the skin since they were accompanied with the greatest part of the other Accidents of the Pox and that they were cured by the application of Mercurial Oyntments which we now make use of to anoint and cure those that are infected with the Pox. But it is very likely that the regularity which our Fore-fathers observed in their way of living did render it more rare and less apparent than it is now adayes As also it may be believed by the same reason that the brutality of the Indians hath render'd them the more subject to it and that the extreme heat they suffer in most places they inhabit renders its Accidents more terrible and apparent by making the Blood boil more violently CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Pox. 1. Reflections on the Divisions of some Authors 2. Division of the Causes of the Pox and a Discourse of its Generation 3. A remarkable Observation on the same subject 4. Divers necessary Observations on the cause of its Communication 1. THose who despise common Expressions and affect to use terms extraordinary and unknown to cast as they say dust into the eyes of their Readers divide the Causes of Diseases into Occult and Manifest Sympathick and Antipathick in a word into Agents and Patients to which they also often add by way of subdivision those which they pretend Efficient Material Formal and Final Primitive Antecedent and Conjunctive Near and Remote Internal and External Nay some Authors seem to strain themselves to divide things that appear indivisible Nevertheless it is observed that these sorts of Divisions have no other profit but to plung the minds of Men into confusion into ignorance and obscurity though they are or ought to be taught with the design of instruction An Example of this truth may be seen in the greatest part of young Students who often employ a considerable time to learn things that are either unuseful or of which they are not able to give any reason whether it be that they do not understand them or that they are really inconceiveable and those who write of them have not been able themselves to conceive them 2. But that we may not fall into the like inconvenience and to enlighten the matter I treat of as much as it is capable I shall consider but only two Causes of the Pox to wit that of its Generation which consists in the Mixture and Corruption of the Seeds of divers persons received and retained in the
there is no reason besides for considering what they have proposed on this subject as one of its degrees since it is not at all likely that these Spirits they pretend infected are able to circulate about the body to penetrate the narrowest pores cause Itchings Inquietudes and fall of Hair the consequences of it without mixing with the blood by penetrating the Vessels I now spoke of which are but too porous for this effect and are generally dispersed into all parts of the body 5. Moreover it may be said that the differences which may be drawn from the Accidents the Pox produces are very considerable for it may be said to be Mobile during the ebullition of the blood the dispersion and motion of its matter that is to say when it yet causes those wandring pains or other Accidents that appear and vanish away successively one after another and on the contrary it may be considered as in a fixt condition when this dispersed matter doth adhere more particularly to some parts out of which it is not able to get neither of it self nor by the endeavours that Nature uses unless seconded by proper Remedies which also do become useless in those that have their Internal and Principal parts much injured by the adhesion and action of this matter But as the dispersion of it as well as of all other Humours that are extravasated is caused most commonly in the Extremities the most familiar Example of this degree may be observed in those that suffer in the night fixt pains of these same parts the elevation and corruption of bones and cartilages Lastly it may be seen by what I have said that these differences are able to furnish us with the most important consequences for the better making a good Prognostick of the Pox because we can easily judge that the degree in which its matter continues still in Motion can be carried off with easiness enough without leaving any impression at all of its ill effects and on the contrary we may judge it sometimes incurable where this same matter is absolutely stopt fixt because it hath made us see in some persons all its effects on those parts that are necessary to life and it is also rarely carried off in those I mentioned for the ordinary Example without leaving the sad marks of its activity since it is sometimes impossible to regenerate those parts that have been consumed for Example the bones and among others those of the Palate Nose which are often consumed in this degree and leave after their entire corruption very considerable deformities that can never be repaired CHAP. IV. Of the Judgment of the Pox. 1. It s division and how ignorant Men and Impostors do commit Abuses in this Disease 2. Many notorious Deceits and Impostures on this subject 3. A general division of the Signs that make us know this Disease 4. Particular division of the Symptomes that happen in all its degrees by the means of which the Prognostick of it may be assuredly made 1. THe Judgment of the Pox consists in knowing its Essence or Prognosticating as I have already said the easiness difficulty or impossibility of its Cure The Signs by which these things may be judged of are the Symptomes that accompany this Disease in all its degrees and are of a very great number and do therefore deceive ignorant Men because they do not all happen at a time and Symptomes do often happen that much resemble them though they are indeed produced from other causes This is that which gives occasion to Impostors to make but ill use of the credulity of those that doubt of the condition they are in and therefore find themselves engaged in this uncertainty to ask Counsel and require succour of those from whom they in Justice ought to expect it if they had but Honesty and Charity which are things very necessary for all such as do profess Physick The Reason that I have to speak after this manner â—â— that the greatest part of those who pretend to cure this Disease now-a-days do make the smallest appearances pass for undoubted degrees of the Pox and they do not fear to establish their Reputation at the cost of those who are not wise enough to know their own Folly and yet have a blind confidence on others so mighty ingenious as to run the hazard of losing all their Employments their Estates and Lives for to be cured of an imaginary or supposed Disease Though I have learnt an infinity of Cheats of this nature by the report of those who have come to consult me after others on this subject and by what I have seen my self by feigning my self sick and several other ways yet I will not by relating them encrease the bulk of my Book without profit and I believe it will suffice to relate some of the most remarkable of these Impostures to serve for an Advertisement or Warning to those who may be for the future in the like perplexities 2. The greatest part of those who think they know the World well do believe themselves sufficiently assured if they have escaped from falling iâ—â—o the hands of Empiricks and such as distribute secret Remedies nevertheless it is too true that there are many of those who are contrary to this sort of Men that are not really Honest but only in appearance and do indifferently make profit of all the occasions they meet with This truth is sufficiently known to many curious persons who have feigned themselves to have the Pox have found among those I spoke of persons that love their interest enough to confirm them in this Opinion upon the smallest suppositions and I have seen my self by chance that there are some among them who do not so much as endeavour to hide their Impostures by affected appearances but without any fear make ill use of the ignorance and easiness of those that go to consult them with a very strange piece of confidence The story that I am going to relate may serve so much the better for a proof of what I here affirm as it happened to a man of good credit that is now living and might be able to assert the truth of it This man came to consult me upon the account of several hard Pustules that grew over all his skin Upon this occasion I made all the necessary remarks on his past Life his Temperament the present condition of his person his Wife and Children and by this examination I knew it was nothing else but what Physicians call the Gnawing or Corrosive Herpes and I therefore proposed to him the use of a Bath and other Remedies both general and particular that ordinarily serve for the cure of this Distemper But because he was afraid he had the Pox and people often think they have the misfortunes they are afraid of he still continued in the apprehension he was in before and came to desire me some few days afterwards to conduct him to some famous Practitioner to see
whether he would joyn his Opinion with mine that so he might be better assured what to believe of it To this end I waited on him to a certain person whom a fair show of seeming Honesty store of Riches and a good Reputation of being an Able man have assuredly placed above the common Rank but was guilty nevertheless on this occasion of an action altogether unworthy of those good qualities for without giving leasure to the Patient or my self to relate those things that the sight cannot discover without making any examination at all and only after a precipitate inspection of these Pustules he told him it was a very fine sort of Pox and therefore he had best presently resolve for a retreat of six weeks This new way of judging of Diseases will surely very much surprize all those that shall make some reflections on the difficulty there is of knowing them and chiefly those Diseases whose causes are absconded in the secret internal parts such as is the universal Pox since the difficulty of knowing them is sometimes so great that the most expert profound and most knowing Physicians do happen to be mistaken in taking one for another and they do observe for this purpose the common Rule of Lawyers by which they do never offer to give determinate Judgment upon the presence of one Witness only But besides these considerations it must also be remarked by the by that those words of Fine Pox do show at the same time both the ignorance and quacking of those who make use of them But after all this same Patient was a little afterwards comforted again by one that proved more honest who after an ample knowledge of the circumstances I related gave the same Name to this Disease that I had done before and so advised him to those Remedies that I had proposed to him by the use of which Remedies he was quite cured in a short time Moreover it may be said that Interest was the sole Motive of this treacherous dealing for there is no likelihood that the ambition of appearing a great Doctor should have been the cause since he might have appeared so much more by reasoning on the Disease than pronouncing such fine words Nor is there any reason to believe he did it to render me a good Office since Offices of so high a nature are but seldom done without the hopes of receiving equal ones again and we two were not of Intelligence enough for that Therefore it is much more likely he thought with himself that I desired to put this person under his hands for some particular consideration and so he might have no other thought but of embracing the occasion offered Besides those that engage credulous persons to suffer the Salivation when there is no necessity of it there are also a great many Mountebanks to be found who give a false Judgment of the Pox and perswade men they have it when they are altogether free The easiness they have found in perswading men so hath given them encouragement for another sort of cheating They cause Billets to be distributed in most parts of the Town and clap up papers in the most resorted places nay and sometimes presume to write little Pamphlets filled with nothing but follies and lyes wherein they confidently boast that they are able to cure the Pox without Mercury without garde or keeping their Chamber and they have so much the more easily found persons who will believe them and render their Imposture somewhat likely by their own mistaken Experience as there are many persons who think themselves sick of this Disease when they do really enjoy most perfect Health But that which plainly shows us it had not subsisted hitherto but only by this means is that they are known to give the Salivation to those they think really in the Pox for they do then suppose their Disease in a degree almost desperate and they are not able consequently to cure them but by making use of this Remedy which they make pass for the extreme one of all and do nevertheless very familiarly employ it under this disguise with such a conduct as must always be believed very dangerous in those that have learnt nothing of it but by Receipt Though this Imposture be the more common and ordinary of all yet it must not be esteem'd the only one and there are some among them that do practise another still more remarkable Whatsoever Accidents those that have the Pox do suffer when they address themselves to these men they will always assure them they have no such thing as the Pox and so will promise to cure them with such Remedies as they call pleasant mild and insipid but are always notwithstanding the strongest and most violent Sudorisicks Purgatives and Vomitives that do extremely exhaust and dry up the body to make the Accidents cease by consuming the serosities that are spred abroad and are the Causes of them insomuch that these Patients find themselves cured in all appearance till the next ebullition of the Blood begins again and there happens a new dispersion of the matter that is able to produce other Symptomes which they then make pass for unhappy Relapses or else new Diseases that must undergo a new Cure So that these persons thus affected do furnish them with continual profit as Cows with Milk and a small number of them will be able to provide them Employment enough But among all those that impose on credulous persons there are none that make use of a more abominable Stratagem than these that follow for they do endeavour to perswade all their Patients that apply to them for help that all their bodies are filled with Mercury or else with Venereal matter that must be driven out as fast as may be if they desire to escape death and to convince them of the truth of this supposition they tell them they shall presently see abundance of Impurities come out of their bodies so soon as ever their Remedies begin to be applied In effect as this pretended Remedy is nothing else but an Oyntment applyed on their skin that is compounded of Cantharides this promise of theirs seems true to many men because it raises Blisters full of serosities that seem to come through their pores and because it makes them Urine prodigiously nay often blood it self by causing an inflamation and exulceration of the Bladder which are mortal Accidents 3. But after having sufficiently spoken of the false Judgments of Impostors and the means they make use of for commiting their Abuses it is time to let you see what are the true Signs that candid men must take notice of for to judge aright of this Disease These Signs may be divided into such as are known to the Patient alone and such as are sensible both to Patient and Physician The former are the impure Contacts that have preceded this Disease the pains they feel while they Urine the Inquietudes and universal Itchings the loss of Appetite the indifference
for Coition the Nocturnal pollutions without pleasure the suppression of the Terms in Women or of the regulated Hemorrhoides in some men Lastly the mobile or fixt pains of the Head the Shoulders and Extremities The latter Signs are Gonorrheas Buboes or Poulains Ulcers and Chancres of the Yard and of the Privities of Women or else the hardness that remains after their Cicatrices the fall of Hair from Head and Beard the Wounds and Ulcers that cannot be cured with ordinary Remedies the Tetters Pustules and Warts lastly the Elevation Rotteness and corruption of Bones But we must be sure to observe that all or most of these Signs that I have named are but Accidents of the Pox it self that it produces not all of them at all times nor in all subjects and that they become different according to its divers degrees in so much that they do not happen always in a constant and assured Order For there have been some persons seen whose bones have rotted with the Pox before ever any of those Accidents Authors do call Antecedent have been at all felt which Accidents I had rather call Consequent because they do most commonly follow those that accompany the particular Poxes of which I have spoken Nevertheless as it is impossible to make a good Prognostick of this Disease without being able to distinguish all the degrees it can happen in it will be necessary to reflect on all that hath been already said to the end we may the better find how it passes out of one degree into another and why in each particular one it doth produce very different Symptomes 4. It may with Reason be said that the Ulcers which are caused by impure Contacts do constitute the first degree of the Pox because they are the effect of some matter that very superficially adheres they cannot be distinguished from ordinary Ulcers at their beginning but by the preceding Contact and the parts in which they happen and they may be cured in this condition with common and ordinary Desiccatives But when the Salts that caused them cannot be destroyed by these or other means they then penetrate into the Vessels that contain the blood or else mix with the Natural moisture that remains in the ulcer'd part and fix it in such manner that from Ulcers they degenerate into Chancres and then indeed they are much more dangerous and hard to cure but are known by the elevation of their white sides by their obscure colour and by their hardness You may easily judge that Claps or Virulent Gonorrheas are of a yet higher degree than the Ulcers I now spoke of because the matter that makes them is more deeply driven into the bodies of those who suffer them and the parts that are infected with them are such as are inward and concealed The Bladder for Example and the parts adjacent or dependent on it are the first that suffer the Inflammation which is sufficiently known by the heat and pains that are felt in urining and sometimes by an entire suppression of the Urine the seminal parts and the Seed it self are not more free from an Alteration since the loss thickness corruption of the Seed are undoubted marks of it Lastly the passages through which these Impurities are carried do not long remain free from their ill effects but become exulcerated by the sharp points of the Salts they contain and this exulceration doth cause them to suffer very grievous pains during the passage of their Urine While this particular Pox is but newly contracted it can be cured with a great deal of ease and safety by preventing that which we ought otherwise to fear and taking away whatsoever appears by the use and application of proper Remedies to this effect But when it hath had a considerable duration without necessary succour it must be then believed to be of a much more difficult and dangerous Cure because all its Accidents become greater and the further penetration if its matter that is the universal Pox may be then with just Reason suspected Therefore it must then be treated with more care and precaution and the Prognostick that is made of it must be more doubtful We may now observe that the Venereal Salts do often pass from the parts I spoke of into the orifices of the Veins and Arteries and do sometimes penetrate more directly by the subtilty keenness of their points Nevertheless what way soever they enter it is always true that they cause in some a great ebullition of their blood either by the particular dispositions they find in it or else by their own deleterious quality during which ebullition the Impurities do separate much after the same manner as Lees do in the fermentation of Wine and so are driven out after a while by the force of Nature or if you will so by the Faculty Expultrive into the Glandules of the Groins where it causes a Bubo or Botch that serves for a Crisis of the Pox if it be attracted and brought to perfect Suppuration It may be distinguished from other Tumours that sometimes happen in those parts by the impure Contact that preceeded it by the Claps Gonorrheas Ulcers and Chancres that often happen a little before its discovery but principally by its slow advancement its durity and large Basis But this penetration of the Venereal matter into the mass of the blood is not always attended with so happy success as the extrusion of such a Tumour the Venereal Salts do sometimes participate more of fixt than volatile and the blood is not equally hot and subtile in all sorts of men so that in some it presently coagulates by this means much after the same manner as some curious persons have experimented by syringing Acid Liquours into the Veins of Brutes and this coagulation is often the Cause of those suppressions I took notice of and of their loathing all Meat aâ—â— of their indifference as to Coition because whil'st it continues the Circulation grows very slow and consequently the Natural Functions that depend on it become interrupted Wherefore this time may be observed for another degree of the Pox that can nevertheless be clearly carried off by the inward Sudorisicks which do dissolve and attenuate the blood by new ebullitions provided that Nature be also assisted in her other evacuations At the time that this coagulation of the blood ceases by the separation of the different particles it then contains we may consider the beginning of its fermentation which is performed so much the more gently and by degrees as it met before with Obstacles to hinder it whence it comes to pass that this blood doth but only rise and boil by little and little though indeed this gentle ebullition fails not nevertheless to cause Symptomes very much different from those I have already spoken of and such as I shall remark hereafter For whil'st it lasts light vapours arise from it that are carried all over the body and do cause those inquietudes of mind and body
Providence of God had made them grow only for the Cure of those Countries where this Disease was supposed to have its origine but that they could not be transported so far as us without the loss and alteration of their Vertues These Propositions do not prove nevertheless that the Indians are better cured than we by the use of these Plants since I have proved in another place that the Pox hath still been in all places and at all times And it may be further added that if God had permitted the transportation of this Disease without alteration of its form he would also by the same Reason have permitted the transportation of its Remedies too without diminution of their Vertues Besides there would have been no need but only of augmenting the Doses to render the Compositions that were made of them more strong and active But that which particularly lets us see those people are not cured but only in appearance too by the Decoction of these Simples is that they do desiccate the bodies here as much or little less than they do in the Indies and that this desiccation doth make the Accidents often disappear for the present leave only the appearance of a Cure in so much that they do always cause a new fermentation afterwards and appear some other time more terrible than before Whatsoever you please to think of it it is certain this Opinion was at last found and acknowledged to be true and the greatest part of our Physicians began at last to disabuse themselves so that divers Essays were made to discover some other Remedy for this Evil. Our Apothecaries prepared for this effect divers sorts of Purgative and Vomitive Potions Antidotes and Cordial Confections Plasters Ointments and generally all kinds of Compositions of the Galenical Pharmacie The Chymists did not fail on their part to try their Elixirs their Arcanums Magisteries Quintessences and Extracts both Emetick Cathartick and Diaphoretick Lastly after a great many proofs of the like nature it was happily found out that those who had the Pox could be cured indeed by Frictions with Mercurial Ointments which served heretofore for the pretended Leprosie of which I have spoken before Nevertheless seeing these Sudorifick Decoctions did heretofore take away the appearance of it in some persons they were not neglected altogether and the esteem that had been made of them formerly did still contribute much to the use that hath been made of them since and is continued now a days which is to give them for preparing the Bodies on which Mercury is designed to be applied Moreover it is not hard to understand how the Accidents of the Pox can disappear for some time without destroying its Cause since it is evident enough by what I have already said in the First Section of this Book that it essentially consists in a venomous Salt mixt with the Blood which ferments and sets it a boiling so that during this Ebullition there continually arises out of the Vessels that contain it many vaporous or serous matters which produce different Symptomes according to their Quality or Quantity or Parts where they adhere Now seeing these same Matters can be easily consumed by Sudorificks Diureticks and generally by desiccative Remedies we must not at all wonder if their Effects do not appear for a time after the use of a Decoction of these Plants and if nevertheless the Ferment that raised up those Vapours do still continue mixed with the Blood since it is a Salt dissolved fermented and confounded with it that cannot be sufficiently carried off by matters that pass away so quickly I know very well it may be said that one can hardly believe how the Indians should be cured only in show and should be so long deceived without perceiving their errour But observe how I conceive that may be done Strumpets are there wonderful common and they make use of them with the Brutality that is usual to such as have little Religion in them which makes this disease so familiar among them that they have reason to think they contract it still anew again For indeed it is not at all likely that they should be oblig'd so frequently to reiterate their Cures as Histories and Relations tell us they do if they really had any assured Remedies to destroy this Disease in its Root I do not mean as I have already said that the Universal Pox can never be cured by these Sudorificks or by other Remedies more ordinary and common whilst it is yet but in its first degree that is to say when its Matter hath not been perfectly united with the Blood by a Fermentation But besides that this Degree doth continue but a little while it is not always liable to be rightly distinguished and Mercury doth carry it off with so much promptitude and facility that it were indeed vain to try other Remedies Notwithstanding that these Observations are founded both upon Reason and Experience and do prove by these two means that these Plants are not Specifick against this Disease we must avow nevertheless that there are some Occurrences wherein they may much contribute to the Cure seeing there are some Bodies that must be absolutely desiccated before the application of Mercury Wherefore it is necessary to take notice of the Observations that I have made on each in particular to know more precisely the use that must be made of them 2. The Wood Guaiacum gives a yellowish Tincture more sharp and more distasteful but also more desiccative than that of the other three Simples named before Some Authors pretend that this Effect proceeds from its Sudorifick vertue and others contend to prove that it is much more Diuretick but which soever it is 't is always true that it consumes the Phlegm and Serosities carrying them off either by Sweat or Urine And that these different motions do principally proceed from the internal disposition of those that use them since it is found by Experience that it doth make some sweat and others urine I have often observed that it may be rendred more proper to open the Pores by adding to its Decoction some French Barley which doth also render it sweeter and more agreeable We have reason also to believe that the manner of using it among the greatest part of Americans doth not a little contribute to the rendring of it Sudorifick for they first heat themselves by violent and extraordinary Exercises before they presume to drink of its Decoction and after they have drunk of it they lie in Cotton-beds hung up and so continually swinging which gives a new agitation to the Humours by such continued motions and makes them evaporate more easily by wayes already disposed We must grant indeed that the Volatil and Essential Salt which causes it to produce this Effect doth more abound in that which they employ than this that is brought over to us because they cut it fresh from young Trees and the Sprigs of old ones in which the Universal Spirit
that causes the Vegetation of Plants is doubtless more active and less divided and it is for this reason requisite to make choice of the smallest and yellowest because the greatest blackest is most likely to be taken from old sapless Trunks Such as make the goodness of Remedies to consist in the strength of their activity do rather employ the Bark of this same Wood which is in good truth more drying than all the rest of the Tree but is accompanied with so much Heat and Acrimony that I would not counsel any body to make use of it and it would be much better on an occasion to render the use of the ordinary Decoction longer and more frequent 3. The part of Sassafras which is commonly made choice of and which I esteem also to be the best is its Root of which nevertheless there is little use made at present either because its Vertue is not well known or because the other Sudorifick Roots are dearer and so consequently more esteemed It is true notwithstanding that its Decoction hath a very pleasant and agreeable Smell and Taste and that use may be made of it as well as of Guaiacum to consume the superfluous Humidities in driving them either by Sweat or Urine or else by siege adding some light Catharticks to it I have observed nevertheless that its Root doth not desiccate so powerfully as Guaiacum and that it is consequently good for such as must be more moderately dried But more force may be found in the Bark of its Wood which also gives a Tincture yet more Aromatick more quick and sharp 4. Whereas the Root of China is the dearest of sudorifick Druggs that serve to prepare or cure such as are infected with the Pox the Merchants and Travellers who have brought it hither from the places where 't is found have all endeavoured to boast its good effects very much to its advantage that they might thereby have the better Market of it and its Vertues have been also so much exaggerated by some Authors that such as have preferred their Report before the Experience and Observations which they might have made themselves would have thought they had laboured in vain if they had presumed to cure the Pox without employing it to this intent Nevertheless we must acknowledge that this preoccupation deserves to be blamed and that this Root hath nothing in it proportionable to the esteem that hath been made of it nor to the dearness with wich it hath been sold seeing the Decoctions that are made of all these Drugs do principally and most properly serve to dry the Bodies of such as use them and the Decoctions of the other two I now mentioned may be employed to this effect with more success Not that this may not be very useful to prepare such as should be more gently desiccated Yet it may be also let alone when occasion serves only by diminishing the Doses of those that are stronger or augmenting the quantity of those that are weaker 5. The Root of Sarsaparilla is now-a-days more commonly employed to the abovesaid use because it gives a Tincture very like that of Wine and its Decoction hath nothing disagreeable for Smell or Taste Nevertheless I have observed that it dries something less than the other three Sudorificks of which I have spoken and that it passes more willingly by way of Urine than through the Pores whence it comes to be of great use for the curing Gonorrheas that are caused by virulent Serosities which do sometimes occupy the Testicles and and other parts that serve for the Concoction and Distribution of the Seed CHAP. V. Of the Observations it is necessary to make on Mercury to know whence the different Effects that follow its application do proceed 1. Whence it comes to pass that the Qualities of Mercury have not been yet known and the necessity there is of knowing them 2. That it easily joyns it self with sulphurous and metallick Bodies and that it is by consequence necessary that it be revived from Cinnaber to become pure 3. That it is always in motion and that it never loses its mobility but only to retake it 4. That its Sulphurs do render it volatil and penetrant but its Gravity inclines it to search downwards 5 That Resinous substances do serve for the division of its particles but Acids do dissolve it more perfectly 6. That Heat sublimes it but Alkalis does precipitate it 7. That Acids do diminish its Volatility but that it is so much the more Corrosive as there are Acids mixed with it 8. That the diversity of Bodies with which it joyns makes the diversity of its Actions and Effects 9. That it is no way poysonous in it self and that the divers dispositions of Subjects on which it is applied do cause the different Effects that do result from its application 1. SEing the Ancients have not explicated the Qualities of Medicaments but only by the different degrees of Hot and Dry Cold and Moist and these same degrees have not been at all known or distinguished more precisely than by the Actions and Effects that result from these Qualities we must not at all wonder if they have held Opinions so very different on the subject of Quicksilver since that this Mineral doth act so diversly and doth produce such different Effects not only in the several Bodies that receive it but also at different times when received in the same subject Whence it comes to pass that some have maintained it to be cold by reason of the cold Diseases that it creates and others have esteemed it to be hot because it doth consume Phlegm and desiccates the bodies in which it is made to enter Some also have judged it to be Venomous by reason of the Accidents that ordinarily arrive to such as draw it out of the Mines to Gilders and other Artificers that make use of it and yet some others again have asserted that it is an Antidote of poisons and an Enemy of Corruption because it generally kills all Vermine and is used with success in malignant Feavours the Pestilence and Pox lastly all their Conceits on this subject have been so opposite that they have determined nothing at all yet and modern Authors who have ordained this Remedy against certain Diseases have been contented to say that it acts by unknown occult Properties Though there is nothing less known or understood in all Physick it is true nevertheless that nothing doth really deserve to be known more since the use of it now a-days is acknowledged to be equally familiar profitable and dangerous and the little knowledge that is generally had of its true Motions is perhaps the only cause of all the misfortunes that follow its application This therefore ought to engage you and I good Reader to use our utmost endeavours to render them more sensible that we may by this means avoid the Reproaches Posterity might otherwise make to our Memory much more justly indeed than to that of our Predecessours
it sublimates to the middle of the Vessel so that after having been thus several times sublimated it remains at last alone or mixt with very few Acids without losing nevertheless the form of Salt 6. I do not mean that Mercury cannot be sublimated by Heat without being divided but it is very certain that the Heat must be more or less strong according as the Corpuscules of Mercury are gross or heavy whence it comes to pass that it is divided into very subtil particles in the Troches that are used for Fumigations that it may the easier be carried of and with the less violence But though it loses its weight when so divided and its lightness renders it improper for precipitation we know notwithstanding by experience that Alkalis will precipitate it since by casting Lime-water or the Oyl or Liquour of Tartar on the Dissolution of Sublimate Corrosive in common Water the Mercury is seen to precipitate in a yellow powder by the first and in a green powder by the second 7. Furthermore I am not able to understand why the Red powder of Mercury is now-a-days called Precipitate seeing it is nothing else but its Dissolution with Aqua fortis or the Spirit of Nitre which is afterwards made evaporate to siccity unless it be because the Acids do unite to all parts of it in these sorts of Dissolutions and so by this means render it more fixt heavy and if you will too more penetrant than after the ordinary divisions that are made of it with resinous bodies Whatsoever is the Reason it is always true that this is no Precipitation at all and that the Acids thus incorporated with the Mercury do not hinder it from being sublimated but only from mounting so high as it would do if alone or mixed with resinous Drugs if so be the Mercury be not in too small a quantity or driven by too violent a Heat We may easily conceive that nothing but the different quantity of Acids doth render it more or less Corrosive if we make reflection on the manner of dulcifying Sublimate one part of Sublimate Corrosive is mixed with another part of crude Mercury till the whole Mass appears greyish afterwards it is sublimated again and after this second Sublimation is found to be less Corrosive than it was before because some part of the Acids of its Nitre and Vitriol do fly out of the Sublimatory Vessel and others stick to the neck like mill-dust but are easily separated from the sublimated Mass besides also that those which still remain are more extended by the augmentation of Mercury so that by thus powdring and sublimating it three or four times it becomes at last so ducified that it may be safely given inwardly in a considerable Dose though it were at first the strongest Corrosive and poison 8. From the fore-going Observations may be drawn several Circumstances very useful for knowing the Motions of Mercury but chiefly that it always tends downwards by its own weight when alone and in its Natural form on the contrary that it penetrates indifferently upwards downwards and on every side when it is divided into subtil particles that it is heavy and corrosive when mixed with Acids and on the contrary very benign and volatil when separated and extended by resinous bodies that Alkalis can precipitate it when dissolved and mixed with Liquours lastly that the diversity of bodies to which it joyns doth serve to distinguish its Actions and Effects to which may be added also some following Observations that serve for a proof of this truth as well as the Applications that I intend to make of them when I shall speak of the Crises that it excites The first is that Natural Cinnabre taken inwardly drives the Impurities by Sweat or insensible Transpiration and that there are Sulphurs in our bodies which do mix with it when taken alone and do make it produce this effect The second is that there are a great many Acids with which it may joyn too because all Natural Fermentations are made by their means and the Venereal Salts do change all the Phlegm into this same quality The third is that the effervescences it produces do also shew that there are some Alkalis too which may serve to precipitate it 9. By what I have now said and particularly by the last three Remarks you see that the divers matters which are found to abound in bodies on which Mercury is applyed are the Causes of its different productions seeing you may be also satisfied that it is not poisonous in its own Nature and that all its unhappy effects do principally proceed from the inward dispositions of mind and body for when the Spirits are agitated by violent passions they may then sublimate the Mercury with Impetuosity even into the very Brain and cause by this means the most doleful Accidents that are found to follow its Application So there may happen Accidents very dangerous too for not having well corrected the extream Inanition or Repletion of bodies ill disposed for its Reception Lastly every body knows or every body may know that it is given inwardly without any danger at all against the Disease called the Miserere mei and there 's the less fear when a great quantity of it is given which will then be the easier carried off by its own weight for otherwise it might possibly stop in the Intestins and there become Corrosive by its joyning with the Acid Juyces which there abound SECT 3. In which the true Method of Artificially raising the Crises of the universal Pox is explained CHAP. I. Of the Crises that are provoked by common Remedies and of the Seasons proper for the Application of Mercury 1. That the general Observations which were related in the preceding Sections are absolutely necessary for the right understanding of particular Ones 2. General Division of Artificial Crises and why common Remedies are tryed sometimes to provoke them 3. What are those Remedies and why they are not here treated of to the bottom 4. Of the choice of proper Seasons for the Application of Mercury 5. Means to correct the soulness of the Air and Weather 1. WHen Nature is not able of her self to raise Critical Motions and one infected with the Pox requires the speedy Application of your Art to terminate his Disease by Artificial Crises You must then take into your thoughts those general Ideas I have given you and recal all the Circumstances that may conduce to the particular use you would make of them if you desire to compleat happily the Cure of this Disease For it is certain that they are of so great importance as you cannot expect to succeed well without the Observation of them and by judiciously applying them to the particular Maximes you 'll find in the sequel of this Book you 'll establish for your selves and for others an infallible Practice 2. You must first of all observe that the Crises of the universal Pox which are Artificially made by Remedies may
for Emonctories to the Nobler parts This second Friction is sometimes sufficient but we are often compelled to make a third too with the same Circumstances of the quantity of Ointment and parts whereon it is applyed which doth almost always produce the desired effect when the body is rightly prepared as it ought to be But you must not despair though it should fail to come yet you must then use your best prudence and discretion and have a care of going too fast in your intention lest Nature should chance to surprize you on a sudden For Example you must let it alone for a day or two before you begin a new Friction and you must employ but a small quantity of your Ointment if you perceive any appearance of Commotion Be not obstinate neither in filling a body with Mercury by fifteen or twenty repeated Frictions as some Authors do unadvisedly Counsel because it is a thing of very dangerous a consequence and the Crisis you must desire should rather depend on a good Preparation than such an abundance of this Medicament Howsoever you 'll find by Experience that a Dose of sweet Sublimate will now prove wonderfully beneficial if you give it after a reasonable number of Frictions There remains something still to be said of the time and manner of performing them because there are some very useful Circumstances which depend on them For Example in a Cold Season it is needful to make choice of Noon for the rubbing your Patients because the Air of our Climate is then rendred a little more benign and in hot Weather on the contrary you must prefer the Mornings and Evenings lest the extraordinary Heat that is joyned with the Fire you must make should weaken them too much but in mild Weather you may indifferently make use of any hour of the Day observing only that the distribution of Aliments be then finished that Nature may have no other Employment to take her off from conspiring together with the Mercury to raise the Crisis you desire As for the manner of making this Friction 't is necessary to say it must always be made before the Fire which must be very great but especially in Winter and enclosed with a Skreen or some such like thing to hinder the Wind and serve to reverberate the Heat that the Mercury may the better penetrate through the pores and the Patient may not be molested with any Cold the Friction must be repeated several times on each part to facilitate this penetration 5. Among the three ways of making Mercury enter through the pores I have found by practice that the Fumigation is the worst of all and is so much the more dangerous as it is commonly performed by the Smoke of Artificial Cynabre which may prove a kind of poison in its self but is thought to be corrected by the mixture of Sublimate Corrosive yellow Arsenick and other like Druggs which are indeed poisons much more pernicious Howsoever I grant it may be sometimes preferred before the others when the Pox comes to be in the last degree of all by reason that the Mercury being thus turned into Vapours doth penetrate the bones the better But if you desire to draw the best effect that can be expected from it make use of crude Mercury reduced into Troches with Turpentin Coals made of Willow and Orris powdered and leave all the other Formules to such as Ignorance doth engage to continue in a certain road they dare not stir a step out To conclude there is nothing more common than the way of giving the Fumigation a certain Couch is covered all round with a sheet and a little Stool turned upside downward is put under it upon it a Chaffendish of lighted Coals in which Troches are burnt whose Vapour the Patient receives all naked under the Covering always excepting the Head which is only kept within from time to time when there are Ulcers in the Nose Mouth or other parts of it CHAP. IV. Of the Critical Motions that are wont to be caused by Mercury 1. That no Author hath ever yet explicated the Causes of these different Motions and the necessity there was of doing it 2. Of the ways that serve for the Crises which are excited by Mercury and how that by sweat comes to pass 3. Of the Critical Evacuations that are made by Siege 4. Of those that are made by Urine 5. Of the Salivation 6. Of the signs that do always demonstrate a Salivation 7. Remedies against the Accidents that do commonly happen and general Rules of the time it ought to last 1. THere are some Authors who have maintained that Mercury applied exteriourly on the skin doth act on the body only by an irradiative vertue and that the Dose which was employed to this effect might easily be found again entirely in the Linnen and Plasters after provocation of the Crisis others have endeavoured to prove on the contrary that it penetrates the pores that it acts on all the inward parts and lastly that it goes out so sensibly with the Impurities of the body that a piece of Copper may be whitened only by rubbing it a while in the Phlegm that runs out in the Salivation But no body ever yet took the pains to enquire why its Motions and Actions and the Crises that result from them do appear so very different though it be prepared and given in the same form and manner Those who have made some Reflections on this subject are contented to admire this Mineral and consider it as an Hydra with many Heads or as the Proteus of Physick they have pretended that there was some Analogie between it and the Mercury of Astrologers which produces different effects according to its different Conjunctions with other Planets without taking notice of nevertheless or presuming to teach us what are those matters it usually joyns with for to act so differently They have made indeed many Elogiums of its vertues without offering to give any explication of its effects Lastly they have told us that no Drug in all the Medicinal matter is fit to serve for a Substitute in its place but have never discovered to us any reason of its singular qualities or what 's the matter that those who have employed it have only acted like blind-men in it so that young Students who have turned over all manner of Books for some illustration of this matter have never been able to find any satisfaction but have still been compelled as others have to remain in their former obscurity and Patients who have been surprised with Events contrary to what they were made expect have found no persons capable of building the comfort they give them on sufficient or solid Reasons Nevertheless the explication of these things was not really so difficult Men might have made comparison between the Principles of Art and those of Nature and between things Artificial in Mechanicks and especially in Chymistry with what passes Naturally in the bodies wherein Mercury doth enter