here I expect that People will think that I have caught my self in a trap when I bring in Calibiats amongst the number of Acids when they are generally owned by all Mankind to be Alkalies to confirm the truth of which they tell you it is plainly manifest that filings of Iron will make as great an Effervescency with all sorts of Acids as any of the Alkalies I have mentioned therefore it is plain I must be much in the wrong in reckoning Calibiats amongst the number of Acids From this difficulty I shall endeavour to extricate my self and likewise to prove That Iron or Steel until it be converted into a Vitriol and every body will allow Vitriol to be an Acid cannot act upon the Blood or Serum to cause any alteration in it nor so much as any way enter into the Veins or Arteries It is the Custom of Skilful Practitioners before they give Steel Medicines to enquire of their Patients Whether they are sensible of any Acidity in their Stomachs in which part I do allow Acids oftentimes to abound and that exorbitantly If they are sensible of any Acidity there it is then found necessary to give Iron or Steel without any Preparation at all by reason that by the means of the Acids in the Stomach it is turned into a Vitriol and so made capable of being carri'd into the Blood whereas in such cases if it hath been before satiated by a precedent Preparation it hath little or no effect at all On the other hand if there be no sensible Acidity in the Stomach Iron or Steel being given Unprepared are carri'd off by Stool without the least alteration or any part of it being admitted into the Blood All or most of the Preparations of Steel that I know of that are good for any thing are performed by the means of Acids which tend to the dividing of their parts and turning them into a Vitriol Now according to the difference of the Acids used the result is a different sort of Vitriol which hath different operations But on the contrary Alkalies do so lock up the Body of Iron as to make it unfit to be taken as Medicine by reason of its extraordinary hardness and firmness of Texture The Preparations of Steel I generally use are that which goes by the name of Dr. Willis's Preparation of Steel and is now almost every where to be had which altho it be grown common is for all that no despicable Medicine and that which follows Take of filings of Steel or rather Iron very clean and free from dust one pound and half Sal Armoniac two pound make the Sal Armoniac into very fine Powder then mix them well together in an iron or stone Mortar then put the mixture into a moist Cellar and let it stand a week Then put it into a very large Crucible which cover with 〈◊〉 piece of Tile afterwards put the Crucible into a Charcoal Fire which increase by degrees till the Crucible be almost red hot after it has continued in this state about an hour take away the Fire and let your calcined matter cool by degrees when cold take it out of the Crucible and make into fine Powder in a glass or stone Mortar then put it into a Bottle with a wide mouth which stop with a glass Stopple and keep in a warm place These two Preparations properly given and with convenient Vehicles I have known of very great use in Rheumatisms And the last when all other Medicines have proved ineffectual has never once failed me in the most inveterate Obstructions of the Menses in Women Besides the forementioned Preparations of Steel I have frequently found Cinnaber of Antimony or even common Cinnaber mixt with a due proportion of Gum Guaiaci and given in large quantities to be of great use not only in confirmed Rheumatisms but even in Sciatica's of long standing by the means of which alone I have known many cured I did formerly believe Cinnaber of Antimony and common Cinnaber to be Alkalies but since I have more nicely inquired into it I find that by a peculiar management a large quantity of an acid sulphurious Spirit may be obtained from it Before I conclude upon this Head it will not I suppose be amiss to observe one thing more about the Preparation of Steel before-mention'd and that is that whilst it is kept dry and in a Powder it is one of the greatest Deoppilatives or openers of Obstructions imaginable But let it be put into a Cellar and run per deliquium which it will do in a few days fifty or sixty drops of the said Oil per deliquium given twice a day in a strong Decoction of Oak Bark I have of late found never to fail me in stopping a seminal Flux which all People will allow has hitherto been found as difficult a thing to do as any whatsoever Some People having told me that they supposed the Stipticity to proceed from the Decoction of Oak Bark only I have purposely tried it alone and altho I own Oak Bark to be a Noble Stiptic and to do Wonders the Decoction being taken in at the mouth and by way of Clyster in common simple Diarrhea's and even sometimes in bloody Fluxes yet in the case before-mentioned it would do nothing at all but adding some drops of the Oil of Mars to the Decoction it had soon the desired effect CHAP. V. Of Consumptions I Have little to say upon this Subject but that I have seen great numbers of People under this Circumstance to whom have been given large quantities of Alkalies and all sorts of Balsamics and those things called Pectorals without the least advantage in the world tho I have seen others who have had the manifest signs of a confirmed Phtisis or Consumption who by the plentiful use of proper Acids have been reduced from a state of dying to that of perfect health My Reasons in short according to my best Observations for the use of Acids and the disuse of Alkalies are as follow The Globules of the Blood by reason of so great a quantity of Acrid Alkalious Lixivious Particles being mixed with it being broken and confusedly mix'd with the Serum are together with the Serum admitted into the small Glandules of the Lungs and not being capable of being discharg'd cause Inflamations there and by consequence Hectick Fevers which always precede and accompany a Pthisis or Consumption Now by the use of Alkalies and Balsamicks these extravasated Globules are so far from being thrown out and the depraved state of the Blood from being altered that instead of it the state of the Blood is made much worse by Alkalies and by Balsamicks the Pustles occasioned from the extravasated Globules being admitted into the small Glandules are brought to Suppuration the necessary consequence of which is an Ulceration and when so tender a part as the Lungs are is once Ulcerated he must shew himself an Artist indeed that can heal such Ulcers Now proper Acids being given
Author at the same time throws himself at the Readers mercy to make him or esteem him what he pleases But of all Authors those who encounter with prejudices ought most infallibly to reckon upon their condemnation Their Works sit too uneasie upon most mens minds and if they escape the passions of their enemies which I have not done they are obliged to the Almighty force of Truth for their protection However time will do every man Justice and Truth which at first appeared a Chymerical and ridiculous Phantasm by degrees grows sensible and manifest Men open their eyes and contemplate her they discover her charms and fall in love with her The Books that encounter with prejudices leading to Truths through unbeaten Paths require much longer time than others to obtain the reputation their Authors expect them And I find it but too true in my self that all those Writers who combate with prejudices are much mistaken if they think by that means to recommend themselves to the favour and esteem of others Possibly some few will speak honourably of them when they are dead But whilst they live they must expect to be neglected I speak experimentally by most people and to be despised reviled and persecuted even by those who go for the wisest and most moderate sort of men There is nothing but Truth contained in my Novum Lumen Chyrurgicum and I did think that I should have been put into a condition this Summer to have made it evidently appear But instead of that I have been abused and delivered up into the hands of my enemies to do with me as they pleased My Novum Lumen is built upon a pair of Medicines the which as yet I think not fit to make publick but here lyes my misfortune common to all those who make new Discoveries A great many believe the Truth of what I have said and that my Medicines are capable of performing what I have promised for them But amongst the number of those who are so ingenuous as to believe matter of fact a great many say this man was not the Author others that they have the same Medicines and some that they imparted them to me As for these Gentlemen I can very easily excuse them I very well knowing that it is the Nature of most Men not to allow any Person the honour of his own Discoveries they thinking that thereby their own Glory is eclipsed But there are another sort of Men whose Interest will not give them leave to embrace the Truth and for the same reason they do what in them lies to keep others from so doing And the greatest part of Mankind not being judges in my cause any further then their eyes direct them and it being altogether impossible that there should be any great number of Spectators by which means I am evil spoken off by many upon no other grounds then because an interested party have told them that I have pretended to what I can't perform I expect the mouths of my enemies will be opened very wide against me but I have already born so much that I can with a great deal of contentedness bear with the greatest indignities that can be offered me My great satisfaction being that I have peace in my own breast having proposed nothing but what tended to the good of Mankind And very well knowing that if my Medicines are faithfully and skilfully used they are capable of performing much more then I have promised for them but the best Medicines unskilfully used or with a design that they should not succeed by prejudiced Persons may be brought into disgrace The following Essay I humbly offer to the candid Readers serious consideration nothing doubting but that it will meet with a favourable reception from some few And I must needs say that I more value the good Opinion and good Word of one candidly ingenuous then all that can be said against me by ten thousand clamarous ill-natured Persons I have endeavoured to act and behave my self so as to deserve no mans ill Word but if I am abused and my Undertakings misrepresented without any just cause I shall never break my heart about it I very well knowing that the justice and integrity of my Undertakings will one time or other be made appear From my House in St. Anns Court in Dean-Street near Soho-Square October the 12th 1695. A Physico Medical ESSAY c. CHAP. I. Of the Small Pox. THE first thing I shall begin with is the disuse of Alkalies in the Small-Pox that fatal Distemper to three Kingdoms and even all Europe In that by the means of it God was pleased to deprive 〈◊〉 of a Princess whose worth was such that a value sufficient can never be set upon it and whose loss sufficiently be lamented It is a common practâ—ce both of Nurses and the generality of Practitioners as soon as they perceive the least Symptoms of this Distemper to give either Gascons Countess of Kents Lapis de Goa or some other Testaceous Powder which are known Alkalies The one Party as they pretend to drive the Malignity from the Heart the other to correct the Acidity which they conjecture for beyond conjecture they can't go to be in the blood In the subsequent Discourse I shall endeavour to shew upon what false suppositions both Parties go For the first sort it will not be worth while to spend much time about them by reason every one will readily grant that they generally act upon wrong and mistaken Notions For for any Malignity to be lodged in the Heart more than any other part is altogether impossible by reason that the Blood moves ten times at least faster through the Heart than any other part the Lungs excepted For the Cavities being large no Stagnation is to be feared and so by consequence no danger If there be any danger of the Malignities setling any where it must be in those parts where the Vessels are very small and the Blood moves but slowly which must be near the extream Parts For the second sort who give the same Medicines but with quite different Intentions I shall endeavour to prove that their suppositions are altogether as false and groundless as the sormer They give their Alkalious Medicines to correct the Acidity they suppose to be in the Blood and which is as they pretend the occasion of all the ill Symptoms that attend People in the Small-Pox Now I could never hear of any one that by Analyzing the Blood of Persons in the Small-Pox that could ever find the least footsteps of Acidity in it though on the contrary it doth appear after many trials that the Blood of such Persons doth more abound with Alkalious Particles then that of sound People So by consequence the giving of Alkalies in this case must be at least superfluous if not highly pernicious and as I have frequently observed and shall instance in some particulars The cause of the Small-Pox common with most other Fevors and acute Distempers I
suppose to be from a quantity of such Particles being some way or other admitted into the Blood which being of a quite different Texture from that of the Blood and so not capable of being mixt with it causes a hurry and disorder there which is what I * Nov. Lum Chyr elsewhere observe to be the occasion of both continued and Symptomatick Fevers Now it is well known that a Fever always precedes the Eruption of the Pustles in the Small-Pox And when the Pustles are well come out that is when the Heterogeneous or Particles of a different Texture from those of the Blood are thrown out to the Surface of the Body then the Fever ceases Now to assist Nature in throwing those Heterogeneous Particles out of the Blood to the extream Parts which they pretend to be mightily hindred by a great quantity of Acids in the Blood they give repeated and large quanties of Testatious Alkalious Powders and other Diaphoreticks Which indeed seldom fail of answering their Intentions in throwing out large quantities of Pustles even more than Nature is able to supply or bring to maturity and if she doth chance to cope with them is the only occasion of spoyling so many angelick Faces as we every day observe But the spoyling of Faces is not all for besides the throwing out of so great a quantity of Pustles by breaking off the Globules of the Blood when it is brought to the Cataneous Glands instead of those Glands separating the Excrementitious Serum which in a State of Health is all or most part of it to be carried off by sweat or insensible transpiration but at this time to supply the Pustles till they are brought to maturity I say by breaking off the Globules of the Blood when it is in its confused State Serum and all together the Excrementitious Serum only according to the Rules of Nature ought to be separated those Glands being so many strainers adapted to receive into them the Serum only and not the least drop of Blood when it is in its natural State and its Globules unbroken I can liken the separation of the Serum from the Blood by the mediation of the cutaneous Glands to nothing better then to a mixture of oyl and water made by continued agitation when that compound mixture seems to be one intire white liquor tho' with good eyes or a good glass the oyl may be seen floating in the Water in small Globules as the Blood doth in the Serum as I elsewhere * Nov. Lum Chyr observe Yet this mixture of Oyl and Water let it be done never so exactly if it be poured into a funnil lined with brown Paper wet before hand the Pores will be so disposed as to let all the Water run through though not the least Particle of the Oyl yet if there be some Alkalious Salts boyled with this mixture of Oyl and Water the Globules of the Oyl will be so broken as to pass readily with the Water through the forementioned brown Paper which before it would not in the least do In like manner the Globules of the Blood being broken by the means of Alkalious Medicines together with too great a quantity of Alkalious Particles being before admitted into it is by that means made capable of being received into the Cutaneous Glands which is the only occasion of those purple spots upon the surface of the skin not only in the Small-Pox but other Fevers which spots seldom or never fail of being the certain Prognosticators of future Death But this is not all for by the foresaid breaking of the Globules of the Blood by Alkalious Medicines these small broken Globules getting into the small Meanders of the Brain hinder the Motion of the Animal Spirits through the Nerves and so cause Deliriums and all those fatal disorders of the Brain that are but too frequently seen Likewise the Blood not being capable of being contained in its proper Channels is the occasion of violent Bleeding at the Nose bloody Urine c. which are none of the best Symptoms but what too frequently happen by the aforesaid means Besides breaking of the Globules of the Blood and causing the ill Symptoms before-mentioned with many others I don't think fit here to enumerate By their Diaphoretick quality there is so vast a waste made of the Serum of the blood that there is not a sufficient quantity left to supply and bring to maturity those many Pustles even more than Nature designed that those Medicines alone had thrown out So that about the ninth eleventh or thirteenth day for want of a sufficient quantity of Serum to supply them the Pustles fall and the Acrid corrosive matter being absorbed into the Blood causes secondary Fevers which oftentimes prove of very dangerous consequence I might expatiate a great deal more but I design brevity It may be said you have gone far enough in condemning the ordinary Practice as to the use of Alkalies and Diaphoreticks not having substituted a better and safer Method and Medicines in their room but not too fast that follows in its proper place The Small-Pox is a Distemper that requires the giving of as few Medicines as in any Distemper whatsoever unless in some extraordinary cases But yet I think it the most unreasonable thing in the World that People as is the common practice in this case should be left to the sole management of old Women and Nurses which thing alone I verily believe has been the destruction of more people than the Sword it self And although but very few Medicines as I said before are generally necessary yet the eye of a careful skilful Physitian and that from the beginning is as convenient as in any Distemper whatsoever that he seeing Natures operations may also see the fit time when to give the Medicines requisite I confess I have heard some people complain that such a Physitian has had so many Fees and never wrote one Bill for them for such people let me tell them that they complain without cause for in many cases especially in this the Physitian deserves his Fees better for not writing at all then for so doing I own my self to be a profest Chymist and in many things though not all a Disciple of Helmont and know nothing in this World so delightful to me as Chymical Operations Yet in this case nor indeed in scarce any acute Distemper do I judge Chymical Medicines to be absolutely necessary though many of them may do well and are sometimes to be used But I don't know any reason we have to flye to elaborate Preparations when Nature has provided Medicines ready to our hands Acids are the things skilfully and timely given which I have seen not only by my own but by other Great mens Practice to be the only safe effectual and seldom or never erring Medicines in this Distemper so that they are rightly timed and given with discretion and why should we flye to Acids Chymically prepared when as I