accurately examined and their uses admirably assign'd The blood the nutricious and nervous juyces have been by Dr. Willis as to their Principles Motions Stagnations Coagulations Dissolutions Exaltations Praecipitations and all Alterations which are incident to Liquors diligently considered and from thence more plainly and mechanically than from the Seminalities and fretting and fuming of the Archaeus according to the Chymists or indeed the indisposition or distemperature of the solid parts according to the Galenists have the causes of Diseases been deduced and excellently explained It is not I think to be question'd that a man is as Mechanically made as a Watch or any other Automaton and that his motions the regularity of which we call Health are perform'd by Springs Wheels and Engines not much differing except as to the curiousness of their Work from those pieces of Clock-work which are to be seen at every Puppet-play He who has heard of Drebels Organ which was set a going by the Sun-beams or Memnon's-Statue or but seen the subtil Workemanship of one Mark an Englishman who as the learned Muffet reports made for a Flea a chain of Gold of a fingers length Muffet Insect Theat c. 28. with a lock and key to it which was so finely and exquisitely wrought that the smal animal with much ease drew it after him and yet with the lock key and chain did not exceed the weight of a grain He I say who considers these works of Art and compares with them the subtil contrivances of Nature will certainly rest better satisfied in the Mechanical account of the operations and diseases of an Animal than in the Ens Pagoicum Sen. de Con. Dissen Chym. cum Galen Cagastricum Illiastrum Archaeus Reâ—lleum Chironeum Evestrum Yleck Trarames Turban Leffas Srannar Perenda Zendâ— and a thousand such conjuring unintelligible words of the Chymists and will plainly see that Anatomy is of no less use in the Curation of diseases than is the understanding of the springs and Wheels of a Watch to the man who undertakes to mend it and probably this speculation will make a considering man think it as possible with a preparation of Antimony or Mercury or any Universal Medicine to mend a Clock when it is at fault as with it to cure all the diseases belonging to the Body of Man That the body ought to be Mechanically considered not onely as to its actions but also in relation to its Diseases is I think the Opinion of every sound Philosopher Des Cartes in his Treatise of the Passions gives an account of what it is wherein a dead Man differs from a living Let us consider Des Cart de paâ—sion pâ—rt 1 Art c. 6. saith he that Death never happens through default of the Soul but onely through the corruption of one or other of the principal parts of our Body And let us judge that the Body of a living man doth differ from that of one dead only as much as a Clock or any other Automaton when it is in good order and has within it the Corporal Principle of its motions for whose use it was framed and all other things which are requisite to its action from the same clock or Engine when it is broken and the principle of its motions ceases to act The truth of this is abundantly evident to every mans Senses The shape and fabrick of the Heart and Valves the water-works of the Kidneys the admirable workman-ship of the Brain and Nerves and the Artificial Structure of all other parts do evidently demonstrate the Mechanism of mans Body and the usefulness and necessity of Knowledge in Anatomy both for the preserving of it in its due frame and likewise for the setting it in good order when it is out of it Fits of the Mother Epilepsies Apoplexies Madness and sundry other diseases of the Brain and Nervous Parts have usually by ignorant People been asctibed to Witch-craft and possession of the Devil And yet the causes of these astonishing distempers may without much difficulty be understood from an Anatomical consideration of the Brain and Nerves The whole structure of which has been examin'd with so much industry and sagacity by the incomparable Dr. Willis in his excellent book De Cerebro in which the wonderful Make of the Brain the turnings and windings of the Vessels and Receptacles the commerce by the Nerves with remote parts the Chymical production of the Animal Spirits and many more rarities of Nature are so clearly deliver'd that now a skilful Anatomist may without vanity undertake to give a rational Account of those very strange Distempers and Affections of mans Body which have formerly not only amazed the Vulgar but caus'd the Roman Senate to break up their Assemblies and adjourn their Consultations Wherefore the Author of Medela should in my opinion have been more wary in discovering his gross Ignorance in this so material a Point which is the Foundation and Corner-stone of Physick and without which nothing solid can be established And as for the Reason why his Touchy-head imagines Anatomy to be of little use in Physick Because forsooth when the Body is out of order by diseases the blood and humors have other Vagaries than in their usual Channels I do freely confess I do as little understand his Vagaries as I believe he does the true Motion of the blood and other juyces As for Chymistrie and his new Medicines and Secrets wrought out of the fire to which M. N. so much pretends though I am a very great friend to that Art and acknowledg that Physick is indebted to it for many neat and effectual Remedies yet I cannot be of that opinion that by it all Philosophy Anatomy and Method are to be justled out of the Schools and the Dispersatories out of the Shops For doubtless the advantages whicâ— came from Chymistry to Medicine were very slender and inconsiderable till it fell into the hands of Rational Learned Men who by adapting it to the Atomical Philosophy have made excellent use of the Analysing oâ— Bodies in giving an account of the Appearances of Nature and by using Chymical Remedies with good Method have found a more speedy and pleasant way oâ—curing Diseases than probably was knowâ— to the Antients But it does not in the leasâ— follow from hence that presently all the Medicines of the Shops are to be flunâ— away which having been known and tried by long experience the Mother of all Knowledg upon which the Materia Medica is wholly grounded are not so lightly to be set-by For that judicious Author Sennert de con dissen Chymic cum Gal Cap. 18. Sennertus tells us in his sober Treatise De Consens dissens Chym. cum Gal. that Chymists do often too curiously waste both their time and their mony in preparing those Medicines which Nature has rightly prepared to our hands as if Conserves of Roses and many other as also Condites and Powders and Compounds made of these were not used in Diseases
Hysterical Fits and some even after so large Haemorrhages that there has been more Reason to believe they had not Blood enough left to maintain the Circulation than to suspect the Lungs and Heart could be oppressed with it Riverius has an Observation of a Maid River Ob cent 1. ob 94. who having her menstruous Flux in so violent a manner that in the space of two hours she voided four or five Pints of Blood fell into so terrible a Fit of the Mother that she lay without speech as one dead and yet had her eyes open and shewed with her hand that she was strangled These and other Reasons seem to argue That the Animal Constitution I use Dr. Glysson's word is primarily affected in this Disease Glisson de Râ—chid p. 19. and the heart and lungs only secondarily and by consent and that the disorders of the vital parts as well as the rest of Hysterical Symptons are meerly convulsive motions Consonant to this Dr. Willis in his most admirable Treatise of the Brain Nerves gives an excellent account how the Lungs come to be affected in Hysterical and Hypochondriacal Paroxysms in these words Si quando nervos pneumonicos à causa morbifica affectiones Spasmodicae afflixerint ita ut motibus inordinatis convulsi arterias venas quas amplectuntur perperam constringant aut huc illuc contrahant propterea Sanguis aut pulmonibus nimis exulans eos flaccescere ac in se concidere facit adeo ut aerem copiose attrahentes ipsum haud facile reddant vel quod crebrius usu venit Sanguis intra pulmones detentus ibidemque stagnans eos infercit ac diu rigidos tenet ut aerem inspirare nequeant Vtriusque generis Symptomata in affectibus Hystericis quibusdam Hypochondriacis passim contingunt Quinimo interdum ipsa Bronchia pari nervorum Spasmo convelluntur ac in motu suo praepediuntur quo minus debito modo aerem inspirent exspirentque prout in paroxysmis Asthmaticis cernitur cujusmodi affectus saepenumero a nervorum vitio sine insita quavis pulmonum dyserasia producuntur Willis Nervorum Descrip c. 24. In the same Chapter he acquaints us how the affections and motions of the Heart are produced by the influence of the Animal Spirits through the intercostal and eighth pare of Nerves and that the tremblings and disorderly vibrations of the Heart which evidently differ from its pulsifick motions are caused from the violent Succussions and Convulsions of the Pericardium To evince the necessity of the influx of the Animal Spirits to maintain the motion of the Heart he tells us That he had often made this Experiment in Dogs when they were alive Having opened the Skin about the Neck he tyed both the Trunks of the Par Vagum with very strict Ligatures upon which the Dog seem'd to be stun'd lost wholly his voyce and fell into Convulsions about the Hypochondria with a great trembling at his heart But these presently ceasing he lay as if he were just a dying without any life or vigor in his countenance scarce being able to move any part and refusing all meat that was offered him Notwithstanding he dyed not in several dayes till he was quite starv'd though the Nerves were both cut asunder The Heart receiving by the recurrent and intercostal Nerves a sufficient though weak supply of Spirits to maintain a faint motion and a Circulation enough to keep the Dog alive Having hitherto prov'd That the Animal Constitution is primarily affected in the Hysterical Passion it will follow that theremay be assigned as many causes of this Distemper as we can imagine able either notably to vellicate the Extremities of the Nervs affect them so strongly as to draw into consent the whole System or else to put the Animal Spirits in the Brain into so great a confusion and disorder as to disturb their constant and regular irradiation and influx into the bowels and other parts of the body Or whatever causes are apt to render the nervous Juyce which is the Vehicle of the Spirits sharp and pungent and apt to irritate and provoke the Fibers in its passage The Ancients reckon the Seed retained in the genital parts in too great a quantity as one of the principal causes of these affections and that we may the better understand how that is able to put the Animal Spirits and Nerves into disorderly motions it will not be impertinent to consider the nature of it The Seed or Geniture seems to consist of Salt Sulphur and a great quantity of Spirit for these active principles are only able to perform that wonderful work of Generation in that secret shop of Nature the Womb. It may be proved by sundry Experiments That a nitro-sulphureous spirit is the Author of all Generations as well in Vegetables as Animals The Account which that eminently learned person D. Ent gives of the production of things in his Apology for the Circulation against Parisanus is very much to this purpose Eat Apol. Terra Aqua sayes he materies sunt rerum naturalium in quibus seu uteris diversa rerum gignendarum semina sive spiritus delitescunt quorum virtutes in salibus potissimum nidulantur Per calorem solis humores tenues variis salibus impraegnati ascendunt aeremque nostratem constituunt denuoque in elementa unde evecta erant relabuntur Quinetiam interdum majore copia roris forma decidunt cujus opera Terra Aqua spontaneos suos foetus producunt Indicium hujus rei est quod si aqua calida terram perfuderis namque eo modo sal omnis educitur nihil postea in ea nascitur neque vermiculi neque lapilli nec gramen imo nec semina quidem ei commissa licet soli haec terra exponatur aqua stillatitia irroretur nihil inquam inde progignitur donec per aliquod temporis spatium sub dio posita novo rore sive sale vivifico impraegnetur Hic ros super arborum frondes incidens varia insectorum genera producit Hic in mediano plantarum cortice potissimum stabulatur per quem plantae vivunt unde debito tempore frondes flores fructus producuntur ac propterea illo ipso in pertinacibus viscerum obstructionibus reserandis utimur In quo si Brosseus recte computum iniit vigecuplo plus hujus salis quam in ulla alia arboris parte reperitur Imo sunt qui affirmant ab ipsis plantarum salibus terrae commissis easdem denuo plantas repullulare Hinc constat idem etiam animalibus contingere hominumque semen de natura salis participare quod probatur his rationibus 1. Semen diutius retentum copia adauctum titillationem excitat id autem sali contingere in prurigine videre est 2. Semen in humido liquescit quod sali proprium est 3. Acidum olet 4. Hinc fit ut nimio coitu capilli qui tali sale abundant defluant Ossa eo
the Guts which mingling with the Bile serves there to ferment the Aliment The faeces in such persons are most commonly very black by reason of the vitriolick acidity which mingled with the Salts of the meat produces that colour as we see Ink is made by the mixture of the Salts of Galls and Vitriol Their Urine is generally very highly coloured like a strong Lie for that much of the Salt being not sufficiently volatilised and breath'd out through the Pores is sent down in the Serum through the urinary Passages When the Urine comes away thin and white it is for the most part the certain forerunner of a Fit for that either the saline parts are carried up to the head and flung upon the Nerves or because the fixed and fluid Salts meeting together encounter and ferment with one another and coagulating together are not dissolved in the Whey of the Blood and so that runs through the Kidneys clear and without any tincture from the Salts As to the Vital Faculty they find often about their breast a great oppression straitness and difficulty of breathing and sometimes fall into Asthmatical Paroxysms Moreover they complain of a trembling and palpitation of the heart of a great weight and oppression at it so that they every minute apprehend they are a dying All which Symptoms proceed partly from the sharpness of the nervous juyce which grates and vellicates the Nerves and is apt to stagnate in them and partly from the Blood which is not well and regularly fired in the heart In relation to the Animal Faculty there are very few Symptoms in this Disease which do not owe their original either to the brain or the nervous parts or else to the nervous juyce From hence proceed acute and wandring pains about the Mediastin and Shoulders and sometimes such as imitate the colick and nephritick Passions From hence are often Apoplexies Epilepsies Palsies Giddiness Watchings unquiet Sleeps and many other Symptoms which are caused from the disorder of the Animal Faculty Now the head and nervous parts are two several ways affected from the distemper of the Spleen 1. From the Blood made sowre andcager by the Spleen a Liquor is distributed to the brain and nervous parts infected with the same harsh and ungrateful quality which perpetually grates and provokes those tender and sensible parts 2. The second way by which the brain is affected from the Spleen is when the extremities of the Nerves which are distributed throughout that part are pricked twitched and vellicated by sharp juyces which are lodged in that Bowel from whence Convulsions are communicated to the brain and nervous System by which means the Spirits are put into disorder and confusion in their very fountain and original and being tumultuously darted into the branches of the Nerves do sometimes in one part sometimes in another cause violent and convulsive motions There is a story in Tulpius of a man whose Spleen was fill'd with so sharp and pungent a Liquor that if the part were only pressed by the hand his Brain and whole nervous System were presently drawn into consent Lien in eo sayes that Author a turgido atrae bilis fermento jam tumidus diffudit illico ex se vapores cerebro tam inimicos ut juvenis protinus concideret in gravissimos morbi comitialis insultus Nam pressa vel solo digito regione lienis contrahebantur illico omnes nervi sequebatur confestim miserabilis totius corporis concussio It is now high time to return to M. N. and to tell him That he very unreasonably vents his Gall upon the Physitians for treating of bilious or cholerick Complexions and Diseases For though according to Helmont and Sylvius Bile may be very useful in some parts of the body yet in respect of others it may be an Excrement and though it may serve for a useful Ferment in the Guts yet too great a quantity of it in the Blood may cause a Disease and indicate an Evacuation Consonant to this is what Dr. Willis sayes in his Book De Feb. Willis de Feb. c. 1. Quando pars Sulphurea evehiâ—â—r ac in cruore nimis luxuriat ejus Crasin a dehito statu pervertit ut exinde Sanguis vel deprâ—â—â—atus seu biliosior factus Succum alibilâ—m non rite coquat vel in tatum accensus aestus atque ardores quales in 〈◊〉 continua oriuntar concepiat And this 〈◊〉 Person in the same Treatise tells us That the reason why Vomits do often cure internâ—rtent Fevers â—oillis â—â— Feb. c. 3 is because they pump up thâ— Choler out of the Bladder and Vessels of Gall and by emplying of them make room for the bilious Humor or the Particles of adust Salt and Sulphur which are too plentifully mingled with the Blood to be separated into those Receptacles And now as to Chymistry to which the Author of Medela so much pretends I must with some Compassion take notice That he has burnt his Fingers as unhappâ—ly in the Furnaces as he before cut them with the Dissecting Knives For after all his bragging of his Secrets of being one of the Adepti and his Sagacity in penetrating Helmont he has poor man most unluckily confessed himself to be grosly ignorant of the very Principles of Chymistry in affirming That the Sulphur is lighter Med. p. 272. and more Aethereal than the Spirit If the Gentleman would have vouchsafed to have consulted Dr. Willis whom he quotes every where when he mistakes him for his advantage would have learnt from him That Spiritus sunt substantia maxime subtilis Willis de Feb. c. 2. aetherea divinioris aurae particula and that Sulphur est principium consistentiae paulo crassioris quam Spiritus post ipsum maxime activum Cum enim soluta mixti compage Spiritus primo erumpunt particulae Sulphureae statim subsequi nituntur Here Dr. Willis tells him That the Spirit is the most light and subtil Substance that the Sulphur is a grosser Principle and I dare challenge him to produce any good Chymical Author who ever affirmed Sulphur to be lighter and more Aethereal than Spirit and if he do I will assure him That I will disbelieve what now by this instance I am confirm'd in and received from a very good hand To wit That after he had published his Medela Medicinae he was discovered by some Physitians into whose Company to see a Course in Chymistry he had slightly crept not to understand so much of that Art as amounted to the making of flower of brimstone A very fit person to undertake the demolishing the old and the laying of new Fundamentals in the profession of Physick CHAP. VIII I Have in the foregoing Chapters prov'd that many of the Methods Medicines and Terms of the Ancients are to be retained and that many of their Notions about Pharmacy will as well suit with the Modern as they did with Ancient suppositions The businesse of this Chapter is to shew that
pag. 40 All the Symptoms of that Disease easily deriv'd from thence pag. 40 41 Men fall into the Scurvy after Fevers by reason of the wasting of the volatil Salt of the blood in them pag. 41 The Vrin of healthy and young men abounds much more with volatil Salt than that of aged and sickly persons pag. 41 The Air in the Northern Countries abounds with fixed Salt and disposes the blood to the Scurvy pag. 41 42 Respiration necessary to life for the drawing in of Nitre to keep afâ—ot the Fermentation of the Heart pag. 42 There is a great difference in Nitres pag. 43 The Specificks for the Scurvy perform their effects by their volatil Salts ib. Why it is increased in the Bills of Mortality pag. 44 The Rickets a new Disease ib. The Reason of its first breaking forth in England pag. 45 Not altered since pag. 45 Not akin to the Pox and Scurvy ib. The Reason of the increase of the Consumption in the Bills of Mortality pag. 45 46 The stopping of the Stomack the same with the Asthma ib. The Rising of the Lights the same with the Suffocatio uterina ib. Men as well as Women subject to the Disease call'd the Hysterical Passion pag. 48 Why Women are more frequently troubled with Fits than Men. pag. 49 The Hysterical Passion described pag. 49 50 The Causes of this Disease and its Symptoms according to the Ancients pag. 51 They are rejected pag. 51 52 The Causes assigned by Dr. Highmore pag. 52 53 Reasons why they are insufficient pag. 53 54 55 56 The animal Constitution is primarily affected in this Disease ib. The motion of the Heart is caused by the animal Spirits pag. 57 An Experiment to prove it pag. 57 58 The Hysterical Symptoms are Convulsive motions pag. 58 The Nature of the Seed pag. 59 A nitrosulphureous Spirit the Author of all Generations pag. 59 60 61 How the Seed is made in Men and other Creatures out of the Blood pag. 61 62 How the Seed may cause the Hysterical Passion pag. 62 63 64 How a defect in the uterine Ferment may cause Hysterical Fits pag. 64 65 A suppression of the Menses often causes them ib. Ill Humors flung upon the Brain and nervous parts will cause them ib. Some other causes of them pag. 66 The Cause of the Rising of the Mother pag. 67 68 CHAP. III. THe Pox and Scurvy cannot alter all Diseases from their ancient state and condition pag. 70 The Pox and Scurvy not infectious at a distance pag. 71 Blood-letting in Agnes and Fevers in the Northern Countries is justified pag. 72 Dr. Harvy 's Opinion of it pag. 72 73 In the Rheumatism Blood must be taken away ten or twelve days together pag. 74 A mad Woman cur'd by being let blood seventy times in one Week ib. The Liver is not the shop where blood is made pag. 75 The use of it is to separate Choler and how that is perform'd pag. 75 76 77 How the Chyle is turn'd into blood pag. 77 78 The Heart the chief shop where the Chyle is turn'd into blood pag. 79 80 The innate Spirits Salts or Ferments of the Heart are the makers of blood pag. 80 The Fermentation of the blood in the Heart compar'd to the Ebullition which is caus'd when Spirit of Nitre is poured upon Butter of Antimony pag. 81 Of Colour pag. 81 82 How Colours are produced ib. New Colours are produced by mingling things which ferment with one another ib. Two wayes of producing a red Colour in Bodies by the action of Heat upon them or by the addition of Salts pag. 83 84 Phlebotomy is very necessary in many Sâ—orbutick Affects pag. 84 85 How purging Medicins perform their effects pag. 85 86 The Pox and Scurvy are not communicable at a distance and without Corporal Contact pag. 87 Whatever infects or poysons by immediate Contact must not necessarily work the same effect at a distance ib. Instances to prove this Assertion pag. 87 88 A Plague in Moravia which only infected those persons who were Cupped and Scarrified pag. 88 A strange Poyson us'd by the Huntsmen in Spain made of the juyce of White Hellebore pag. 89 90 An account of the Original and spreading of the Pox out of Guicciardin pag. 91 92 93 That the Pox infects not at a distance is argued from the Cure of it pag. 94 That the Scurvy infects not at a distance is argued from the Nature and Formality of it pag. 95 96 CHAP. IV. THe Pox and Scurvy are not complicated with all Diseases pag. 98 69 The Pestilence is not from a Complication with the French Ferment more frequent and violent now than in former Ages pag. 99 100 Instances of many depopulating Plagues in former Ages pag. 100 101 CHAP. V. WOrms are not more frequently appearing in Fevers and all manner of Diseases in these days than former pag. 105 As strange Cases of Worms observed by the Ancient as Modern Writers pag. 106 Worms generated in Children in the Womb observed by Hippocrates ib. In the Seed by Plutarch ib. In the Lungs and treated of as one cause of a Cough by Alsaravius pag. 106 107 The Drancucula of the Grecians and Vena Civili◠〈◊〉 Medena of the Arabians what kind â—â—â—â—sease pag. 107 108 Animals generated under the Skin observ'd by Aristotle ib. The Lady Penruddock kill'd by that Disease pag. 109 Worms ingendred in Metals Stones Fire and Snow the Bladder of Gall Vinegar pag. 111 Worms bred in all sorts of Animals not subject to the Pox and Scurvy pag. 112 Worms bred in Mill-stones pag. 113 A live Toad found in the Center of a huge stone ib. The Cause of the Production of Insects in Mans body pag. 114 Why they often accompany putrid Fevers pag. 114 115 Why Children are usually troubled with them at the time of their breeding Teeth ib. Insects produc'd by their seminal Salts pag. 116 A Disease in Germany and Hungary which the Polonians called Stony Robac and the Germans Hauptwurn pag. 117 The Seminalities of Insects may be conveyed into our Blood in our meat drink and air pag. 118 The manner of infection from the Plague is better made out by the figure and motion of Atoms than by Kirchers animated Effluxes pag. 119 120 Kirchers notion not conduciâ—â—e to the practise of Physick pag. 120 An account of the Plague given by Gassendus pag. 122 123 The comparison of Runnets coagulatiâ—â— Milk servâ—â— very well to explain how the Pestiâ—â—â—â— infects tâ— Blood and Air pag. 12â— The spots in the Plague are quar'd flakes of Blood pag. 124 CHAP. VI. MAny Maxims in Physick will remain truth the Worlds end They are grounded upon Experience and were in use long before the notions of Causes were invented pag. 127 Doctor Willis his opinion as to this point pag. 127 128 What Medicins are to be accounted Secrets pag. 129 Medicins the products of Chance not Invention pag. 130 131 132 CHAP. VII VVOrds imposed by the first Inventers of the Art
impraegnata in lue Venerea afficiantur The Sum of what this learned person asserts is That nitro-sulphureous Spirits or Salts are as it were the Soul of the World and the Authors and Causes of all Productions and Generations These Seeds Spirits or vivifick Salts are certainly much more exactly elaborated and exalted in Animals than Vegetables and in those which are more perfect than in the less for that there are Instruments and Organs purposely ordained and contrived by Nature which are to give a perfection to the Seminalities of Men and other Creatures which are endued with a regular shape proportionable to the nobleness and exactness of the Fabrick which they are to design and build when they are employed for the continuance of the kind in the act of Generation Willis Dâ—script Nerv Therefore as Dr. Willis does very well demonstrate The Arteries do after the same manner instill into the Testicles a genital juyce for the making of Seed as they do into the Brain an animal Liquor for the production of Spirits which in the Veins and Arteries contrived for that cause with infinite turnings and windings is made more subtil and volatil and the Parts are in their passages exactly mixed the more gross and terrestrial are separated and at length the refined and exalted Liquor is sent into the inward substance and body of the Stones where being farther elaborated and mingled with the volatil Salt the innate ferment of those parts it becomes Seed It is farther to be considered That when the Ferment implanted in the genital parts comes to be sufficiently ripened and by a long digestion has arrived to its perfection Men and Women attain to that state and maturity which we call in Latin Pubertas At that time the genital parts grow hot and being filled with seminal Spirits discharge themselves continually of some part of them by the veins into the mass of blood from whence the nervous Juyce and Spirits become tinctured and impregnated with the seminal Ferments so that about that time the blood grows high and luxuriant and in Women being hardly contained within its own limits is emptied every Month by a periodical turgescency There is at this time a great alteration wrought in the manners and behaviour and the ranck acid scents vented by the Emunctories of the Nerves do declare That the Juyce which passes in them is inspired with the geniture Now if for want of seasonable Evacuation by Coition this genital spirit does not only too much abound in the blood but also in its frequent Returns by the Arteries to the Testicles is overdigested and too highly elaborated which is called by Physitians contracting a malignant quality it renders the spirits upon all slight occasions especially in Women whose Nerves and Brains are weak liable to sudden and impetuous Fermentations so that upon the Orgasms of these unruly Seminalities and a forcible disunion of the saline part from the sulphureous those Explosions and Convulsions are caused in the Abdomen and other parts This Notion I acknowledg to Dr. Willis which are so violent for the most part and impetuous that they cannot well be imagined to be produced by any other cause than such as must at least equal the force of Gunpowder And we find how apt these spirits are to take fire in the blood and nervous juyce by the causes which in Women liable to the Fits induce a Paroxysm For passions of the mind violent exercise sweet smells or any slight cause whereby the blood and spirits are chafed presently brings on a Fit that the abounding of the seminal spirits in the body may be one cause of the Fits of the Mother and certainly it is the most violent is confirm'd by the observation of Riolan who affirms That upon the Dissection of Hysterical Virgins he has found their Testicles bigger than his Fist filled with seminal matter But certainly as the Seed is one cause of this Disease so is it oftentimes produced from other causes and oftentimes when the genital parts are not in fault Nay it is often obvious to be observed That a defect in the uterine Ferment as in Cachectical Green-sickness Maids has occasioned them to be much afflicted with Hysterical Passions For the blood in such Women for want of the seminal tincture which ought at a due time to enliven and inspire it remains crude slimy and does not as it ought cleanse its self by its menstrual Purgations by which means many Impurities are cast upon the Brain with which the nervous juyce becomes to be much vitiated and to prove an improper Vehicle for the spirits and by exciting preternatural Fermentations in the nervous parts to cause Hysterical Paroxysms which happen for the most part periodically and at set-times when the body expects its lunary benefits for at such times the nervous juice as well as the Blood being saturated with Feculencies indeavours by fermentation to depurate it self by which the Animal Spirits are put into disorder and the nerves drawn into convulsive motions These two The Seed and Menstruous blood retained are the onely causes of Hysterical fits which are assigned by almost all Authours except Riverius who adds that other humours likewise retained in the womb and genital parts have likewise their shares in producing those Symptoms which he concludes from observing That many Old-Women who are neither troubled with Seed or menstruous blood are oft-ten very obnoxious to these distempers To which he adds a Notion of his own which he sayes is of very great moment and seems very agreeable to this Hypothesis That Hysterical Passions are not onely excited by vapours raised from the forementioned substances But the very humours which find no vent by the passages of the womb which is a kind of Sink to the body through a suppression of the Menses Riv. pr. l. 15 c. 6. or the Whites are sent back to the upper parts and infect them with an ill quality which they have contracted by too long a stay in the vessels of the womb by a contagion from the Seed and menstruous blood To these Causes which are delivered by Writers may all such be added as Authours of this Distemper which are apt by vellicating the extremities of the nervs to cause Convulsions Such are sharp juices in the womb spleen and other bowels schirrous tumours not onely in the womb but in the stomach mesentery breast and other parts The same accidents will wounds in the nerves produce and in Women subject to Fits even gentle Vomits which work by causing a convulsive motion in the stomach will put them into Hysterical Paroxysms as I observed lately in a Lady my patient to whom being above fifty years of age upon very urgent indications I gave onely Ê’iii's of infusion of Crocus metallorum and because I knew her to be Hystericall and had formerly observed in others Paroxysmes induced by Vomits before she tooke it I ordered an Hysterical plaister to her Navel The Vomit
wrought very gently with her but as soon as the working was over after her last Vomit she fell into a Fit of the Muther It might be expected that I should now give an account of every particular Symptom which belongs to this disease but not designing to make an exact Treatise of it in this place I must recommend to the Reader the consideration of these causes which I have mentioned or any other which he can imagine powerful enough to make disorders in the animal Spirits and convulsions in the nervous parts and as for the particular consents correspondencies of one part with another how distempers begun in one part manifest themselves in another far remote I referr him to Dr. Willis his most learned Treatise of the Brain and Nerves and to the Schemes wich he will there meet with For without such an Anatomical consideration of those parts it is impossible to receive any tollerable satisfaction concerning the affections of them And I will onely in this place give him an account of the most notorious Symptom the rising of the Muther from which all the rest receive their denomination in Dr. Willis his own words Plerique abdominis plexns praesertim vero insimus affinis ejus mesenterii maximus in passionibus Hystericis vulgò dictis saepenumero afficiuntur Willis Nervor descrip c. 27. Porro illud Symptoma in Paroxismis ejusmodi valde frequens nempe quo velut globus ab imo ventre efferri ac circa umbilicum impetuose exilire percipitur ut perinde uteri ascensus perhibeatur Dico id nihil aliud esse quam immanes horum plexuum spasmos Saepe quidem in foeminis interdum etiam in viris novi cum affectio convulsiva in aderet primo molem in hypogastrio â—ssurgere visam dein circa medium abdomen intumescentiam ita immanem successisse ut viri fortis manibus ut ut validissime intentis haud comprimi aut inhiberi potuerit Proculdubio admirandi hujus affectus causa est quod intra paris intercostalis nervos Spiritus animales influi quoties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive motus Convulsivos ineunt primo uti plerumque assolet circa nervi extremitates nempe in plexu abdominis infimo effervescere ac velet explodi inciptant quae illorum affectio cum sursum perreptans ad plexum Mâ—senterii maximum deferatur adeo ut Spiritus ejus incolae pari inordiatione corripiantur nihil mirum est ista medii abdominis intuumescentia ac velut materiae cujusdam nitrosulphureae explosio cietur In this and the place before quoted out of him we see that Dr. Willis whose sense M. N. that he may honour himself by quoting of him every where either ignorantly or willfully mistakes ascribes Hysterical hypochondoriacal and asthmatical risings and stoppings to Convulsions of the nerves and not to vitious and malignant vapours raised in the lower belly especially about the spleen in the stomach Mâ—d. Mâ—d. p 49. 50. and about the Midriffe and in the cavity of the Omentum Nor to the Playing of the Scorbutick malignant vapours up through the veines and arteries to the lungs and by communication to the heart which accompt may be well enough tollerated in Sennertus but is by no means to be indur'd in M. N. who pretends so much to the new discoveries in Physick and undertakes to demolish and overthrow all the old Writers And yet aggrees with them in their grossest mistakes And now having clearly proved that the Diseases of this present age are not so much changed and of another nature as to render the old way of Physick uselesse I will next proceed to examine whither the causes assigned by M. N. are sufficient to produce that great alteration both in Nature and art which he imagines to be made CHAP. III. THE Causes of the alteration of Diseases from their ancient state and condition the Author of Medela assigns to be the Pox and Scurvey which by carnal contact by ill cures by accidental contagion by haereditary propagation and by lactation he supposes so to have overspread the whole face of Mankind as that by them there is introduced an universal alteration and depravation of Nature from whence he would inferr that the rules Methods and Medicines which were used by the Ancients in the curing of their diseases are become altogether uselesse in ours As to carnal contact haereditary propagation and lactation I very readily grant that the Pox and scurvy may by those ways be communicated from the diseased persons to the sound But as to accidental Contagion as he calls it upon which point lies the main stress of his Arguments for the universality of those diseases by which they like the Plague infect at a distance and by steams emanations taint the whole stock of Mankind it is a meer whim of his own and so far from being a solid truth that it is point blank contrary to the daily experiecne of the world and the authority and observations of the most learned and faithful Writers and the very Nature and Essence of those diseases When M. N. comes to handle the point of the propagation of the Pox and Scurvy by ill cures it is pleasant to observe that he does not onely fling dirt upon the learned Physitians for letting blood and using the purgers of the Shops but that he may ingross all the sinners of the Town he likewise falls foul upon his own Fraternity the men of his own Rank and Ability in Physick the poor Quacks and Mountebanks who pretend to the Cure of the Venereal disease and to make room for his own very injuriously tears down their bills from the Posts On my word he will make no ill trade of it if he can perswade the whole Nation that they have the French-Pox and then that nobody but himself can cure it But passing by his immodest and uncleanly discourse as not designing to make my self acceptable to Stews and Brothel-houses I will fall upon the other more important and less offensive disquisition concerning Phlebotomy And as to that he tells us he could forsooth willingly write a Treatise and a learned one it would be touching the mischiefs done by bleeding in these Northern parts of the world in most Diseases as well as Agues and Fevours because of the mixture of the Scorbut and his main reason is because that if it be true since the liver is turn'd out of the Office of Sanguification Sanguis sanguificat blood makes blood of the chyle and doth it ad modum tincturae c. Now I will grant to him that the liver is very justly discharged of the office of sanguification as I will anon more largely prove and that in some sense the blood may be said to make blood and yet upon this score is it impossible for that great remedy of bloud letting established by the Experience and Authority of the whole learned worlp in the least to grow out of esteem First then
Verses which were made in imitation of the mysterious and aenigmatical expressions of the Chymists Ignis in igne fuit sed non fuit ignis in igne Lux sine luce fuit non sine luce fuit All that any sober man can conceive of the Archaeus or Spirit is That it is the most fine volatil and aethereal part of the blood contained in the Arteries Veins and Nerves and I grant that the Dyscrasie of the blood their Vehicle is the cause of many Diseases But this is a very different thing from the words of M. N. and I suppose too from his Notion of the Archaeus which is either unintelligible by any rational man or else must be the very same which the Ancients had of the Vital Animal or Natural Spirits and therefore upon either account is very vainly offered as a new particular of great moment and weight for the meliorating the Practice of Physick As to his Quotations out of Fernelius and Heurnius those Authors speak no more than what is said by Hippocrates and Galen and all their Followers That the Spirits the impetum facientia are the immediate instruments of the Soul that by them all motions sensations and operations in human bodies are perform'd Wherefore the learned Sennertus though he allow Paracelsus and his Disciples to impose new words upon new things justly blames them For introducing new improper insignificant and barbarous terms upon notions and things anciently receiv'd Sennert de Con. Dissen Chym. cum Gal. c. 5. and rejecting such as by long use and custom had been rendered proper familiar and intelligible And he asks Paracâ—lsus What necessity there was to bring into use the word Archaeus since that upon diligent examination that signifies nothing more than the Faculty and natural Virtue or the natural Spirit the Servant of the natural Faculty do in the Schools of the Philosophers and Physitians And he adds That neither Paracelsus or Severinus are such great persons that we must presently for their fancy or humor reject those familiar terms which have alwayes been us'd by the learned World and in their stead without reason admit of the Paracelsian Gibberish And certainly if we consider the nature of the Spirits aright we shall find that nothing more than what is signified by them can be meant if that term signifie at all by the Archaeus of the Chymists For the vital Spirit is nothing else but the more fine more sublim'd and subtilifed part of tho Blood by which the Fermentation and internal motion of the Particles of that Liquor is maintain'd and that in its circular motion preserv'd from Coagulations and Stagnations and when the body remains in the state of health a separation is continually made of all immiscible and heterogeneous bodies which are either taken in with the Aliment or else come into the blood from the Ambient The animal Spirit is nothing else but the same vital more volatilised and refin'd in the brain and from thence distributed together with the nervous juyce through the Nerves to perform the offices of Sense and Motion The natural I take to be some of the animal Spirits which take up their residence in the extream Fibers of the parts and there remain and are continually refreshed and recruited by an influence from the brain and these the Schools call the innate Spirit Faculty or Virtue of a part Either one of these or all must be meant by the Archaeus of the Chymists or else that term be altogether insignificant Vox praeterea nihil And whether it be considered as an idle word or a new term to express an old Notion it cannot but be absurd to offer it as a particular considerable in order to the Practice of Physick in the place of the old Fundamentals which he pretends to have demolished CHAP. IX IN his Ninth Chapter M. N. proceeds to an examination of divers old Doctrines which more immediately relate to the Practice of Physick and first he cashiers the Doctrine about Critical days which he calls as childish a conceit as ever was owned by any Long-beards called the Children of Men. But I shall plainly prove That this Doctrine is not so easily to be blown away being of so absolute necessity to the true management of Fevers that except a diligent heed be had to the Critical motions of those Diseases the best and most proper Remedies prove as dangerous to the sick as a drawn Sword in the hands of a blind man who lays about him at random and knows not upon whom or where the edge will light For though the Ancients possibly might be ignorant of the true causes of the Critical motions of Diseases that did no more hinder them from making true observations upon them than the disagreement of Philosophers concerning the reasons of the Fluxes and Refluxes of the Sea does cause Mariners to be ignorant of what Tides will carry them into and out of several Harbors And though it must be confessed that in these Northern Countries wherein we live Fevers are neither so constantly nor so orderly terminated by Critical Evacuations as punctually to agree with the descriptions of Hippocrates and Galen by reason that in this colder Climate which is perpetually liable to alterations from the Air the Blood when it is fired into a Fever does not burn with so equal and constant a flame and therefore cannot observe so exactly the times and periods of its burning and consuming the sulphureous or combustible part And for that the Blood of most Persons being tainted with the Scurvy cannot so easily concoct and at once separate the adust Recrements but that they are often instead of being Critically evacuated translated upon the brain and nervous parts Yet is not the Credit of those grave Authors by every impertinent Man to be called into question concerning the truth of the observations which they made upon the motions and burning of Fevers in the Countries wherein they liv'd and practis'd Physick since they have been always reputed by the most Learned of unsuspected Faith and integrity in delivering matters of fact which fell under their own notice And indeed if we consider the true causes of critical Evacuations we cannot question but that in continual putri'd Feavers in those parts of the World in which neither the coldnesse of the Air nor the Scorbutick distemper made the difference Nature was as precise in observing her periods as she uses to be with us in Quotidians Tertians and Quartans For indeed a Crisis in a continual Feaver is the very same with a Paroxysm in an Intermittent as Doctor Willis very well observes Willis de Feb. c. 9. for sayes he as in an Intermittent when the mass of blood is overcharged with the Particles of the deprav'd Alimentary juice which can by no means be subdued and assimilated that falls aworking and by its fermentation depurates its self and sends out by the pores of the skin the heterogenious matter so in a
and contagion of the place with which the Romans being altogether unacquainted knew not what else to assign for the cause of this Distemper except the drinking of the water the impurity of which I confess might possibly concur in corrupting of the Blood and producing the Scurvy That the Scurvy was anciently Endemial to the more Northern parts of the World and consequently of no new upstart Original may be farther argued from the very nature and formality of that Disease and the common general cause which produces it That the Scurvy consists in the Bloods being degenerated from its spirituous Balsamick and volatilized condition into a salt sharp and austere Liquor wherein the volatil Spirits are either evapotated or deprest and the gross Salts either being disjoin'd from the rest of the Principles run together and are said to be in the state of Fluidity or continuing only their Combination with the earthy parts of the Blood render it wholly fixed and unactive in which states it becomes either sharp and eager like Vineger or dead and flat Sâ—nnert 〈◊〉 l. 3 â— 5 Sâ—ct 2. c. 2 like decayed Drinks is the Opinion of Sennertus and Dr. Willis de Feb. c. 1. Willis those Learned Authors And indeed I do not find that any Hypothesis gives so satisfactory an account of the Phaenomena and Symptoms of that Disease as this by them assigned for if we run through the affections of the animal the vital and the natural Faculties from whence Eugalenus and other Writers have drawn all their Diâ—gnosticks we shall find they may be all very naturally derived from the Saline Dyscrasie of the mass of Blood whereby it is rendered unfit to separate the heterogeneous Particles both of the alimentary juyce which is perpetually supplied from the stomack and of the Air drawn in by the Lungs which though it furnish the Blood with a Nitre most necessary to life yet oftentimes it comes impregnated with Atoms very destructive to the Being of Man which if they be not seasonably exterminated and separated by the active and volatil spirits of the Blood in time easily corrupt and destroy the temper and mixture of that Liquor Hence disorderly Fermentations Obstructions Spontaneous Weariness Difficulties of Breathing Varieties of Pains Defects in Motion Palpitations Giddiness Paralytical Affects Spots Scurfs and many more Distempers reckoned up in Eugalenus and other Writers which of necessity must afflict the body of man when the blood is once become unfit to maintain a regular flame in the heart and duly to supply the nervous parts with a soft juyce and well rectified animal spirit Wherefore I make little question but that even in the time when Julius Caesar invaded this Island a man who had been long sick of a Quartan or tedious Feaver especially towards the Sea-Coasts must in time have grown Scorbutical For in long sickness the volatil Salt of the blood is much wasted as appears from Mr. Boyle's Observation in his Essay of the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments That Chymists assure him Mr. Boyle's Ph. Essayes who have occasion to distill it in great quantity that they find a notable Disparity betwixt Vrines that of healthy and young men abounding much more with volatil Salt than that of sickly and aged persons And though in Spain Italy and other warm Countries men do not after tedious Feavers and Quartans notwithstanding the volatil Salt of their blood must be allowed to be confiderably wasted usually fall into the Scurvy yet the Air in these Northern parts of the World Gâ—ssâ—nd Epicur Philos Metcor abounding with fixed Salt to which Gassendus ascribes the freezing and â—ongealing virtue of the Wind is apt to dispose and alter the blood into the same temper if it be not furnished with a sufficient quantity of volatil Salt to maintain its own Liquor from too much fixation and to subdue and volatilize those Salts of the Ambient Air which the Lungs perpetually draws in andmingles with the mass of blood For that Respiration is necessary to life not upon the score of cooling the blood and Heart since then Fishes might live in water which is colder without Air which yet many of them cannot do but for the drawing in of Nitre to keep afoot the fermentation of the Heart Ent. Apol. pro Circ p. 98. is the Opinion of the Learned Doctor Ent and other sound Philosophers And Fernelius is inclinable to that Opinion Fernel de Calore innat p. 4. c. 2. where he sayes Si nulla in nobis esset tenuis spirituosa substantia vix ulla profecto nos ad inspirandum necessitas impelleret Now if this be true as is most probable I suppose the Air in the Countries which are infested with the Scurvy to afford a Nitre to the blood less pure and volatil and more infected with adventitious Salts than that which is breathed in Countries free from that Distemper That there is this difference in Nitres Mr. Boyle observes Mr. Boyle's Phi. Essayes and that the Salt-Peter of East-India is much to be preferred before that of Europe and that Barbary Niter before it is refin'd abounds very much with an adventitious Salt which tastes much like Sea-Salt From which difference of Niters in the Air I conclude That the firing of the blood in the Heart and the fermentation of it afterwards in the Vessels may be so diversified as to cause all the Symptoms observable in the Scurvy It is farther to be Noted That the chief Specificks used in the cure of this Disease are such which perform their effect by the volatil Salt with which they abound and with which they impregnate the flat and languishing blood such are generally all things which strike the Tongue and Nose with a quick smart and brisk taste and smell which though they for the present give relief and change the habit of the body to the better yet do they seldom make so perfect a cure but that upon the intermission of the use of them the Air by its ill Impressions reduces in short time the blood to the Scorbutick or Saline Dyscrasie from which it is no longer able to defend its self than it is inspired with the nimble and volatil Salts of those anti-Scorbutick Remedies The general cause then of this Endemial Disease the Scurvy being the constitution of the Air is peculiar to the Northern parts of the World and there appearing no reason why we should believe that to be altered for the worse in our times from what it was in former I shall be apt to conclude That it alwayes had the same effects upon the bodies of those men who breathed it and that anciently as well as in our times it produced the Scurvy in those Bodies which through Errors in Dyet want of Exercise or antecedent Diseases it found disposed to receive it As to the increase of it of late in the Bills of Mortality as that ingenious person Mr. Grant has observed I suppose since the Scurvy
far greater quantity of fixed Salt than the Bodies And we see that in Dropsies Chachexies Obstructions and the like Diseases which will not yield to vulgar Medicins the learnedst practitioners betake themselves to Medicins of Tartar Steel and Vitriol as a certain Refuge in the greatest Extremities and it cannot be imagin'd how these Medicins should perform such certain and admirable effects but that by fermenting the Blood with their Saline Particles they supply the defect of the natural ferment For as long as this is vigorous and the passages are open from the Spleen into the masse of Blood the Splenick leven by continually maintaining an intestine motion of the small Particles of the Blood preserves that Liquor in its due mixture and consistence so that the grosser and finer Particles being exactly mingled one with another and the Spirits free and at liberty the Blood is rendered fit to circulate through the most streight and narrow passages and not apt to curdle and stagnate in the Vessels And by this means Crudities are concocted Obstructions opened tough and slimy humors attenuated and the Blood defecated of all its Excrements and Impurities by the vents and emunctories of the Body By this means not only the Juyces which run in the Veins and Arteries are rich pure and spirituous but likewise from these a soft subtil and well rectified Spirit and Liquor is communicated to the Brain and distributed into the Nerves for the use of the Animal Function and exercise of Sense and Motion in all the Instruments and Organs designed by Nature for those uses Furthermore it is very probable that the Splenick Ferment does by the Arteries out of the masse of Blood supply the stomach and Bowels which serve for the concoction of Aliment with a Menstruum not unlike those Liquors with which the Chymists dissolve Mettals and other Bodies for the dissolution of meat and reducing it to Chyle For we cannot with Reason assign that work to Heat since the most intense fire cannot by roasting baking boiling or any other way of applying of that Element reduce bread flesh and other meats in many dayes into a substance so fluid and thin as the Stomach can in a very few hours Now as the Spleen whilest it dispenses a sincere and rightly elaborated ferment is a Bowel of great use and importance for the preservation of the blood and Spirits in their due temper and motion so does it often cause very considerable disorders and extravagancies in the Oeconomy of the Body when it degenerates from its natural constitution and infects the Humors and Spirits with an impure and ill digested Leven For that the Blood may duly and orderly ferment and circulate it is most requisite that the intestine motion of the little Particles which constitute it be neither too furious and tumultuous nor too heavy and sluggish And for this reason is it as I suppose that the fixed Salt is separated from the Blood in the Spleen and again returned and mingled with the Masse by the Veins For indeed fixed Salt consisting of parts which are indued with some kind of Acrimony and yet being not too severely acid seem to be Bodies most proper to maintain a leisurely and orderly Ebullition But if the ferment once grow too sharp and acid and acquire parts apt to provoke irritate and prick the sensible parts of the Body and the fixed Salts become to be fluid it presently fects the whole stream of the Blood puts it into violent and disorderly motions vellicates the nervous parts fixes the Spirits puts all the humors into a hurly burly and makes them apt to congeal and stagnate For when this Ferment is rightly made it consists of Salt with the addition of a moderate quantity of earth by the mutual Conjunction of which fixed Salt is produced but if by any means there be a seperation made of the Saline part from the earthy then are the Salts said to be in the state of fluidity because they run together into a Liquor as Spirit of Salt Spirit of Vitriol and the like Thus when the Ferment of the Spleen becomes fluid it acquires the fierce sharpness of Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol This is the fault of it in Hypocondriacal Persons For in men who labour of those Distempers all the fixed Salts of the Blood which circulate through the Spleen are there made fluid till at length they come to prevail over the other principles of the Blood and turn the whole stock of it into a Liquor as sharp as Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol by which means all the Spirits are depressed and kept under The sowre Belches and Vomits of Hypocondriacal Persons which oftentimes are no lesse sharp than Spirit of Vitriol are a very sufficient argument of the sharpness of their Juices which prick and tear their stomachs bowels and nervous parts with continual pains and torments and sometimes with their Corroding acidity flea their Tongues Throats and Lips And the violent and irregular motions and boylings of the blood do very evidendently convince that the Constitution of that Liquor in Hypochondriacal Persons is become sharp and eager For we find it most true from sundry expriments that such tumultuous Ebullitions are caused from the mixture of fluid Salts with fixed and in Liquors which are void of fluid Salts we meet with no such fermentations or where they are but in small quantity mingled the fermentation is lesse and more leisurely and nothing so tumultuous In quick-Lime and Juices which abound with acid Salt as soon as the fluid and fixed meet with one another presently a noise heat and boyling do ensue Thus we see Salt of Wormwood Scurvy-grass or the like Coral Pearl Oyster-shells and other testacious bodies when Spirit of Vitriol Sulphur juyce of Lemons Berberies Oranges or any acid liquor is poured upon them presently fall a boyling and hissing Many more Instances of this kind may be given but because they are obvious to every man who is in the least versed in Chymical operations I will pass them by and farther endeavor to prove from the way of cure of Hypochondriacal Distempers by the Medicins most approved and famed by the best and most learned Authors That the cause of those affections consists in a sharp and eager Distemper of the Blood and Juyces The Remedies which in this case are most commended are such as consist of Steel Tartar Vitriol fixed Salts and all testacious bodies as likewise diuretical Remedies which abounding with fixed Salts do very much precipitate the blood For we find by Experience That these Medicins do sweeten all sharp Liquors and abate their Pungency for the Acrimony of Salts is not blunted by Sulphurious but Saline bodies by reason that fixed Salts by an intimate and close union to the fluid do obtund their points and edges as a thick piece of Steel exactly fitted to the blade of a Knife will abate the cutting or dividing power of the edge Thus the corroding sharpness of Spirit