above any except my self infected by the dissection of the Pestilential body to which he was instigated by his allevation and my presagition of what would fall out so that he expresly declared not long before I was undermined nigh the eleventh day that I had foretold him whatsoever came to pass to that time yea withall had been an instrument to save his life A man would think this should be obligation sufficient to keep a sick man from listning to the obloquies of any slander But behold how inconstant one is and malicious the other They falsly now upon his Recovery inveigh against me that I gave him violent hot things urging withall Vesicatories would have done him most good He foolishly gives credit to it whereupon another must be entertained to reap the fruits of my labours to carry away the credit of the Cure Hos ego versiculos feci tulit alter Honorem Sic nos non nobis mellificamus Apes Well what is the issue their cooling dull flat sycophantizing slops their putrefying Vomits Purges their colliquating Epispasticks their uncorrected opiates continued for a months space could in no wise rid him of his Ague which I offered upon the Reputation of the Spagyrical Science valued by me above any temporal thing quickly to eradicate Yea the supinity and blindness in sounding the bottom of the relique of the feaver gave occasion that an acid or acride feculent bloud restagnant about the spleen was afterward in part derivated symptomatically to those tender vessels of the fundament afflicting him by anxious excretion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a dribbling manner superstite causa intrinseca materiali the true cause no whit removed Now Gentlemen de vobis fabula narratur what ye wrongfully cast upon my hot medicines I can make appear not saying only but by doing something experimentally for the future that your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your erroneous practice brought all the succeeding mischiefs upon this infirm subject too tractable and condescending to your Authority 9. How unworthy of a Learned Philosopher was it to let out the bloud of the arm robbing a man of his strength for the pain of the Haemorrhoides whose efficient material cause was in the spleen or the parts circumjacent not to be reached by the Lancet Sith moreover there are some Amulets prevalent Anodines for the mitigation of Haemorrhoidal Dolours witness Van Helmonts factitious metal with which he could by bare application to the skin of the hand asswage their anguish in the space of repeating an Ave Mar. 10. What a dis-repute is at this day brought upon the Honourable Science of Physick through the ignorance of some famous Doctors that a meer Chyrurgeon should be esteemed more able to remove the grief of the Haemorrhoides or piles depending upon an inward cause then they who have made it their continual study and care thirty or forty years to be acquainted with the essential properties of things 11. That indiscreet bleeding palliation and a neglect of the original cause of the vexatious piles brought a feaver upon this merchant the 2d time is as perspicuous to a genuine Artist as light at noon-day which if I had not prevented absit jactantia had he been guided by my directions I would have been liable to a severe mulct 12. Lastly 't is no firm argument at all that the Lancet doth directly solidly or radically cure any great feaver because this Merchant at last through innate vigour accidentally recovered For this will be but Elenchus causae pro non causa unless they will stand to maintain it according to my Lord Bacon's way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 experimentally After this little digression I now return to our Dâ—ctor that we may examine the fourth Quaery 4. Whether the succession of a new supply of bloud for the old corrupt emitted will produce any considerable melioration in it according to our Authors assertion There hath been of late an invention I suppose more ingenius than useful of the transfusion of the bloud of one body into another which according to Report of some knowing men hath caused such an alteration in this balsamick mass that great diseases have been Cured I wish this experiment might so far hold currant that our Phlebotomists might infuse some laudable juice in lieu of the depraved they effuse then should I quickly concur with them in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remotion of evil and reposition of good then should I conclude they were Spagyrists indeed did really perform what they verbally express But sith I see no such matter acted by them their utmost scope they level at being the piercing the vessels and drawing out what is contained in them good or bad without any solicitude to make a vicisitudinary immission of what is better I have very good reason to contradâ—ct this Phlebotomical method of curing which debilitates Nature by emission of bloâ—d termed corrupt the efficient cause thereof remaining untouched For the Confirmation of this truth I shall alledge Reason Authority and Experiment The means used to let out bad bloâ—d without removing the efficient cause thereof is no direct method of healing Now Phlebotomy lets out bad bloud without removing the efficient cause thereof Ergo Phlebotomy is no direct method of healing The major is thus proved whatsoever suffers the cause to remain can never remove the effect for manente causa manet effectus Now Phlebotomy suffers the cause to remain Ergo it can never remove the effect The minor is made good by frequent experiments if the cause of bad bloud were cut off the feaver or Scorbute depending according to Dr. Willis upon the degeneration of sal and sul therein would quickly cease but we plainly see the contrary for after the veins are much depleted the dâ—sease becomes more truculent and oftentimes mortal which could never be if this depraved bloud were any other than a Product or Effect of an essential morbifick cause The same Agent which in sanity sanguâ—fies regularly without any considerable defection In sickness becomes exorbitant sending out a vicious juice into all parts be it good or bad it still springs from a Root which continually feeds the branches so that it cannot be other than great folly and wrong to the Patient to let out that juice though it seem never so corrupt when another of the like condition must needs enter into its place derived from that shop the Duumvirate where it first receives a previous Rudiment which ought in all reason rather to be reformed than to give vent to those easily evanid particles inseparably joyned with this ruddy Liquor how ill soever represented If all contained in the veins supposed to be corrupt were discharged yet as long as the ferments principally of the first and sixth digestion deviate from their right scope there would in short space be a succedaneous repletion of a matter equally contemptible yea worse in respect of an enervation of strength than before But sith a total
foundation of this proud lofty fabrick delineating exactly according to the Copy set it every part continent or contained requisite to the discharge of those various Faculties Uses Offices and Functions which all conspire for the preservation of the whole As it alone began so it proceeds to finish this beautiful structure and to keep it in repair by a continual supply of new spirits instead of those that are daily expended and exhausted by the labour of body and mind 'T is this Archeus let no captious Sermocinal Galenist take exceptions at the word for it is proper enough according to the Etymon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principium vitae being duly constituted and modified makes an Eutonie Excrasie Eumetrie and Eutaxie in this little universe This implanted spirit forthwith emerging apparent so soon as the omnipotent Creator breathed into man the breath of life is really the Architectonical president of Generation Accretion Nutrition Sense Motion and whatsoever belongs to vitality à puncto initiante ad punctum definitum This being granted by any intelligent moderate Person that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sanity or well being depends principally upon the goodness serenity candor peace tranquillity activity and good condition of the vitals It must necessarily follow according to the formerly mentioned received Axiom Quicquid in Sanis edit Actiones Sanas id ipsum in Morbis edit Actiones vitiatas That which is the chief Agent in maintenance of our health the same also principally acts in the production of Diseases that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickness and all diseases whatsoever spring from the same Root the immediate cause of our health the Archeus depraved clouded disturbed hurryed away with divers Passions Anger Fear c. Morose Sullen Dull and Malignant It is not possible that a disease should harbour any where but in this Gas of life for as soon as it is extinct all diseases forthwith cease so that all irritating and exasperating causes which strait disturb these luminous particles in a living body causing them to frame Idaeas of Indignation Fear Hatred whereby many kind of evils easily distinguishable one from the other by certain signs are hatched do not at all cause any inconvenience in that which is defunct And although the Quinary principles of Dr. Willis are as demonstrative by the fire but no other way in the Carkase as they were in the living body yet seeing that great Agent and Patient of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health and sickness is wanting in that no such passions are incident to it as to the other For example apply an Epispastick of Cantharides or any Caustick to what is mortifyed containing the Quinta Prima no vesicle arises nor is any impression made Let it be but laid on where there is vitality the skin in a short space is separated from the flesh by an Acrimonious Ichor which the Archeus fabricated being put into a fretting condition upon the apprehension of this virulent Plaister Observe Cantharides doth equally vesicate healthful and crasie bodies Hence this evidently discovers that the spirit of the part conceiving ire upon the contact of what is odious to it acts upon nutritious juice colliquating the same and turning it into a Liquamen Corrosivum making a solution of those particles before united A thorn or splinter entring unawares without the advertency of the person into any part and there impacted sometime excites the vital spirit to perturbation and discontent hereupon it frames Characters of pain throbbing feaver intumescence and redness in a body where the soul is resident of which a Cadaverous matter being deprived hath not the least fore-going symptom from the puncture and inhaesion of any thing extraneous yet are there not wanting these Quinta Prima made evident only by Vulcan I look upon every degenerate abortive acid acrimonious malignant virulent matter assumed or acquired in the body to be only an exstimulating occasional cause of all sickness and so is but exotick and a meer stranger in comparison of that which essentially makes the Quiddity of a disease What if a depraved sulphur or salt be generated and abound in the bloud are these able per se to generate specifie or determine any sickness that it can properly be said to be hoc aliquid All the excrements that are engendred in mans body through the errours of the digestion are either occasional and irritative causes of this or that infirmity or they are Products and consequents of the disease If any sulphureous saline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Refuse or Dross Acid Austere Bitter Nidorous Acrimonious Fracedinous Dregs any virulent malignant venemous Sanies Ichor or Tabum be in progress of time brought to an egg by the Archeus of the stomach principally other digestions secondarily conspiring Then at length after long brooding this serpentine Mola or Cockatrice-like egg being hatched so hostile sometimes to nature and that efficicient cause that produced it as the almost dead viper was to the Countryman that fomenting it by the fire resuscitated that life in the Creature which at length became prejudicial if not destructive to him after a strong invasion made it gives an Alarum to that sentinel which continually watches for the preservation of this Cittadel The guard I mean the spirits being roused finding an enemy at hand all possible force is raised to repel retard and expel this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this encroaching invading mortiferous matter that instrumentally aims at the cutting of the thread of life Hereupon presently arise Idaeas Characters Images of discontent fury fear inquietude despondency pusillanimity peevishness sottishness prodigal effusion and confusion of all things Thence is the perfect image of this or that disease contrived in this Aethereal exhalation according to the condition nature or property of that provocative exorbitant hateful matter which at first put it into this passion and perturbation Otherwise if this efficient were not lascivious or extravagant in forging a numerous company of different Pictures of diseases how were it possible the sulphur or salt separate or conjunct could cause so many distinct species of feavers or other griefs For take the bloud or urine of five hundred persons afflicted with feavers whose constitutions have a manifest disparity in them put them mechanically to the test of Vulcan Separate their sulphurs and salts by Art it will be found there is no such certain discriminating signs apparent either by odour or sapour inspection or effect in any of each that one may not be taken for the other If so how will Dr. Willis make good his Assertion that sul and salt which according to the tryal of Pyrotechny for I know no other way to make a true discovery of them seeming similar to sense though taken from several bodies can possible produce such a Catalogue of calamitous infirmities differing in symptoms one from another Toto Coelo If he could shew us optically several distinct species of sul or sal any
or diminution of its weight or bulk For the manifestation of thâ—s truth our great Philosopher hath given us a pregnant instance in crude Mercury which if it be steeped in a large quantity of Water doth imbue it with an excellent property to kill all manner of worms yet doth it not loose the least jot of its substance Sic unica uncia saith he Argenti vivi millies poterit mensuram aquae infirere attamen permanere in pondere proprietate pristinis i. e. Thus an ounce of Quicksilver is able to stain virtually a pint and half of fair water a thousand times yet to continue in its integral weight and quality as before Wherefore undoubtedly as he proceeds there are Agents which operate always freely indefatigably without any passion or reaction of the Patient Perstante eodem semper sui pondere Aequipollent and Aequiponderant to what they were at first This and other examples which I could procure are sufficient to convince any one intelligent that if we would patiently put our own hands to the fire such Divine inconsumptible medicines might be procured which would make the Art and Artist flourish again and totally abolish this Truculent effusion of bloud Did we dexterously Anatomize Venus Stibium native Cinnabar c. we should at length enucleate such a Celestial fire out of these Terrestrial undervalued gross bodies which would consume many Truculent contumacious Maladies the Apoplexy Epilepsie Dropsie Consumption Madness Scurvy Venereal Plague c. in some measure actively as the Culinary fire doth any combustible matter then would appear plainly where the Idaea's of all infirmities do first take up their station or mansion not in Putatitions Quinary principles nor in the nerves as the Doctor delivers unless secondarily but in this lofty fair Arched Room where the soul doth fit in Councel for the Regular Oeconomie of the whole Family Had we once obtained this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophical Sulphur we should easily master this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hip. that morbifick malignity or venom a reason whereof because he was not able to render he gave it this Appellation For no sooner are these clear bright Remedies taken into the stomach but it may easily be perceived how they display their beams irradiating and illuminating every dark corner whereby health is accomplished either by altering the vitals or by appeasing them the greatest part of indigested dross remaining still behind which provoked them to passion 'T is certain as our Author attests the foresaid Mercurial water destroys all kind of Worms yet being quickly carryed away by urine comes not corporally to the place where they harbour but Basilisk-like by very Aspect it strangely mortifies them without incurring that danger which I have observed in the sumption of Mercurius dulcis Did I not own some Arcana's whose energie suits with what our Philosopher extols I confess I should a little suspend my belief and eagerly seek after a knowing person whom I apprehend to be able experimentally to demonstrate any thing tending to the satisfaction of this scruple but being convinced by practâ—ce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in great part that there are fixed metalline graduated medicines which according to this great Physiologist operate upon the Archeus abstrusely in an Heteroclite manner differing from the vulgar citra sui dissolutionem aut interitum citra sui Penetrationem Intro admissionem Commisturam Commutationem their vertues being not at all weakned or decayed their substance either not taken in or going no farther than the stomach and intestines not mixt with any thing else or altered I cannot but assert this Superlative way of Cure which Paracelsus Helmont Butler and other Philosophers were acquainted with to be fundamental and infallible according to the capacity of the Patient To conclude if this can be effected as I question not satisfactorily to illustrate the same Then Dr. Willis and all his adhaerents do err toto Coelo egregiously in laying such a sandy foundation of principles the Phlebotomical superstructure being raised thereon which must of necessity come to Ruine For who but one wanting Hellebore would defend a method of Curing so uncertain debilitating nature shortning the life prolonging maladies or inviting them again and oppose a secure means corroborating the vitals lengthning the days and overthrowing the very Basis of all infirmities A brief Animadversion upon some notable Errours committed by Dr. Betts in his Tract de Ortu Natura Sanguinis I Cannot yet Repose my Pen till I make some Correction in short upon a late Treatise de Ortu Natura Sanguinis written by Dr. Betts in which I confess I expected great things for my Medical instructions but having taken a survey thereof I was far from reaping benefit thereby so that I did not a little admire that any professed Philosopher should at this day when the Sun-shine of Truth is so experimentally Emicant bring upon the Theater of this sagacious Age such Antiquated Errours of the Peripateticks justly exploded by all Learned Pyrotechnists Although he taxes not without cause the Chymists for erecting principles extracted by the torture of the fire and so made de Novo for the composition of all bodies yet he endeavours here to revive a Doctrine not only not plausible but very absurd in Physiologie and exceeding noxious in Pathology for which reason I must beg pardon if for my Neighbours sake I plainly detect some remarkable Passive mistakes I will not say Active of which I am certain according to Evidence he is guily to the prejudice of Mankind First touching his Analysis of the Lacteous juice contained in the vessels the immediate matter of bloud into Serous Butyrous and Caseoâ—s parts deduced from the external separation of milk a body ultimately perfected into Whey Butter and Cheese I cannot understand how he can maintain any such real alteration and sequestration to be made by nature for generation of spirits and nutrition 'T is granted a serum Latex or wheyish Liquor arising in the second digestion chiefly from what is potable runs along with the bloud as a vehicle to it keeping it in due fluidity that it may the better pass into all parts and carry off several impurities by sweat and urine and other passages this indeed may have some Analogy with the Whey of Milk yet is this more simple not so capable to be divided into parts as the whey of milk neither doth this concur with that in respect of the manner and means of their disjunction for one arises from corruption caused in the open air the other from a preservative ferment within the bowels the one is brought to its ultimate perfection in facto esse the other in its progress tends to further uses to be changed as the fermentative Corpuscles of every particular place shall require This Liquor is most visible floting superficially in the porringer but for the Butter-like and Cheese-like parts I could never yet behold their separation in any bloud
way proportionable to the Idaeas of Maladies which he would have to come efficiently and materially there-from then were his Chymical principles more plausibly taking But sith I am sure he cannot demonstrate this I contemplate the fermentation exaltation depression of sul the fusion fluidity and coagulation of Sal borrowed from the speculation of Wine and Milk analogically introduced by him to confirm his Quinary Institutions of Pathology to be no immediate essential cause of diseases as I doubt not practically to make evident If Dr. Willis seriously meditate he shall find in Reality a vast difference between the operations of the vital bloud and those proceeding from the Zymôsis of the juice of a vegetable or the separation made by air or any other artificial means in Milk tending to corruption of the same For these dead things are in no wise able to give us adaequate light of those regular and Irregular actions that are performed by a vital beginning whose Type is of a more sublime extract than to be parallel'd by any thing inanimate I confess some small illustration may be made by way of simily between animate and inanimate mechanical artificial and natural which may please the phantasie of those that are not throughly acquainted with the intimate Radical and efficient causes of vital powers and actions the priority of which are not intelligible by any mortal only we are taught à posteriori the effects of this primum movens perpetrating every thing by such a plat-form that is unerring unless impeded by intervening outward accidents according to that Mandate the great Creator hath given it till the dissolution of the universe We believe there was the same principles of all Concretes before the fall as since and that the Archeus of the stomach before the lapse of the Protoplastes did perfectly intirely change whatsoever was taken in for nourishment without any Relique of annoyance of excrements dross or filth those Tribuli Spinae which since the eating of the forbidden fruit the stomach of man being thereby vitiated do continually infest it in such sort that the vita Media of every thing assumed is hardly conquered an injurious impress being oftentimes left behind Hence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first rise of all our calamities for the deviation of the Archeus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives occasional matter to an infinite number of infirmities Not that the sulphur and salt of any Concrete is separated in the first digestion and so according as either is multiplyed or degenerate sickness breaketh forth No such matter for let a strong vigorous stomach take into it any sulphureous fat oily food the ferment makes in some short space such an essential transmutation that the sulphur becomes acid quite another thing to what it was before and afterward in the second digestion by vertue of the vital contact of the Gall it is changed saline Again the Alkali of vegetables is so altered in the stomach and other digestions that use the best skill you have you shall not be able to draw out of the urine bloud or any other part a lixiviate salt although Dr. Willis erroneously attributes to this and an acid Liquor like vitriol the cause why in a Scorbutical Arthritis a worm laid upon the part affected becomes in a short space mortifyed v. p. 292. de Scorbu Moreover pure spirit of Wine upon touch of the vital spirits looses its inflammability and its former saline sulphureous nature being changed into something of an urinous substance And here I am bound justly to taxe some Physicians of great ignorance in that they so scruple in feavers to give their Patients a large quantity of spirit of Wine rectifyed as it ought supposing they should add more fuel to the fire thereby to make a Phlogôsis a greater efferviscence or conflagration in the body not considering that nothing is more congenerous symbolizing with the animal Gas of life then highly exalted spirit of Wine being forthwith imbraced united and identifyed one with another by reason of their affinity and congruity 2. They do not truly understand the energy of Zymôsis what a powerful alterity is made by it and how the sulphureous particles of the vegetable becomes urinous like the spirit of the animal whereby it is enabled to profligate the morbifick matter through all the Emmunctories sluces and secret passages of the body This really is the direct way of curing feavers fundamentally not seeming cooling Julips Barley Water Posset-drink made with small Beer least it should be too hot prone to make the sulphur in the bloud as they alledge incensed already to become more impetuously head-strong no wayes to be reined or governed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormon whose fate they conclude must needs be sad when such presumptuous Phaeton like Pyrotechnists drive the mettalsome Horses of the Son of this microcosm so furiously For all this let the Dogmatists say what they please if they will vouchsafe to be spectators I can discover to them Autopsiâ that I am able to cure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many feavers more expeditely and effectually by those things they call hot then by all the infrigidating preparatious they can invent or all the farraginous mixture belonging to the Apothecaries shop I wish with all my soul the Galenists would now at length reject those insufficient invalid medicines made by others and recond as a Treasure Arcana's elaborated by their own fingers then would they be truly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the equivocal sense of the word making a unity in that profession which through the Covetousness pride laziness of Physicians hath been divided into a Tripartite station to the great dishonour debasement and total Ruine of a his Noble Science if some Worthy Prudent Magistrates the Heroes of this Nation do not timely prevent This Parergôs I return to Dr. Willis his Quinta prima as the efficient causes of diseases Sith as I have delivered there is no separation of them in a healthful living body It follows that if any at any time a secretion of the five be made then are they Products and Epigenomena from a disorder or defection then cannot they be properly said to be primary precedent causes of the impairment of our health but consequents of the same Wherefore it 's preposterous to take in that for a cause which is but a meer effect whose Posteriority plainly shews a dependency upon something going before For example in a febrile state we see rejected by vomit or any other way excreted a yellow matter which the Doctor may call sulphureous This as he conceives joyned with something saline causes an effervescence boiling or Accension whence arises the feaver First let us examine whence came this excessive ebullition what is the efficient cause thereof in a living body 2. What separates and expels these parts denominated salt and sulphur 3. Whether the Doctor or any other ever saw sul so sequestred from an Animal so
mangonical pampering sauces contrived as a shooing horn to the exciting the appetite to the drawing in a greater quantity and variety of food then Nature can well digest is an extraordinary procurer of this grand malady grassant among us Above all I much condemn the common abuse of Tobacco out of which no other sometimes than a Scorbutical venom is accidentally sucked Agreeable to which judgment of mine is that of the Legitimate Artist Dr. Maynwaring who marks where Tobacco is much taken the Scurvy doth most abound I wish those who are too forward to condemn Chymical preparations ordered by true Philosophers would reflect upon themselves and others as yet ignorant of Pyrotomy how that they are too forward in rushing into this Science indirectly making use of a Retort with a receiver I mean a Pipe and the mouth for the reduction of this Plant into salt and sulphur proving not a little injurious to them If they were conscious how subtle an enemy it is how hardly to be dealt withall in a moderate sense how insinuating tempting deluding how disagreeing to Nature as is manifest at first taking it pretending an evacuation only of a superfluous moisture when it also generates the same how it wrongs the Ventricle by reason of a continuity of its membrane with that of the mouth how it taints the nutricious juice how it Dozes the brain impairing its faculties especially the Memory they would quickly commit this herb to the hand of those that know what belongs to the right management and improvement thereof I confess it hath a dowry bestowed upon iâ— which may make it very acceptable to all ingenious Artists for inward and outward uses yet â—s the matter is handled indiscreetly I know nothing introduced into this Nation hath discovered it self more apparently hurtful in aggravating and graduating this Scorbutical evil among us than Tobacco I am not ignorant what some object that there are those who taking an extraordinary quantity of Tobacco have lived to a great age as 60 or 70 years 2. That multitudes not taking this fume are yet notwithstanding overun with the Scurvy 3. That some have protested they have received certain benefit by this Plant when other Remedies prescribed by able Physicians have been invalid to relieve them 4. That there are places where Man Woman and Child take in this smoak none of these sad effects appearing As to the first I answer one Swallow makes no Sommer I reckon this among raro contingentia I have known one very intemperate in Diet live to the fore-mentioned age but doubtless had he regulated himself according to the Rules of Mediocrity he might have doubled that age Innate strength of body doth carry a man sometimes through that without any great dammage which destroys another 2. I do not affirm that this vegetable is the sole coajduvant cause of the Scurvy it being certain there are many promoters thereof Besides yet granted that your great Compotators Ventricolae Gormandizers who have as the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lazy Panches little else to do but to take Tobacco to pass away the time filling pipe after pipe as fast as possibly they can exhaust it are commonly incrdent to this feral malady Hereupon this very same specifick disease may be diffused and communicated to others by eâ—piration or effluvium sent out of a body infected therewith So that it seems rare to me that the Wife should be exempted from this Cacoethick sickness if the Husband be afflicted therewith or the Husband be free if the Wife be vexed Doubtless some Peoples breath doth exceedingly taint the air to the great annoyance of others 3. I condemn not medicinal appropriation and application of this Drug for I know it to be of excellent vertue there is great difference inter dictum secundum quid dictum simpliciter between the censure of any thing as absolutely evil and the indirect practice of it Moreover what is one mans meat may be anothers poison 4. The generality of smoaking it in some places without those ill effects we find doth not at all frustrate my assertion for I have observed a more moderate course of life in Diet the goodness of the air with an Hereditary custom hath in great measure ballanced the nocument or inconveniencies which otherwise they would have contracted by excess thereof neither are these numerous Tobacconists acquitted from this evil as it appears by those frequent eruptions in the skin whereby a greater mischief is prevented within they being only efflorescences of a Scorbutical pravity There are as I apprehend two principal reasons to be given why this Weed hath captivated so many thousands in such sort that they become meer slaves to it One is the seeming delight it affords in the present taking thereof inducing a pleasing bewitching melancholly exceedingly affecting their fancies so that they could wish with him in the Poet Hic furor O Superi fit mihi perpetuus O that I might always thus melanchollize not considering though the Prologue be chearful the Epilogue is often sad though the spirits are as it were titillated and charmed into a sweet complacency for a short space yet afterward a dulness gloominess seizes upon them Indeed how can it be otherwise seeing they are but forcibly lulled into this secure placid condition by that which is as far remote from the vitals as the beams of the Sun are from a black cloud I find in this smoak a stinking retunding condensing Opiate like sulphur and an acrid salt profligating extimulating so that by the bridling much of the one and the excessive spurring of the other the spirits like a free metalsome horse are quite tired out at last It is impossible that the frequent insinuations of this subtil fume making shew of affinity but quite of another tribe with the animals should not at length let a body be never so strong and custom how ever prevalent either pervert or subvert his well constituted frame Another Reason observable only by those that are true Gnosticks of themselves why Tobacco is so highly set by and hath so many followers is its meretricious Kisses given to those that embrace it oftentimes secretly wounding them mortally yet are they not throughly sensible who gave them the stâ—oak I have taken notice of very temperate persons in other things who for diversion have indulged their Genius ad Hilaritatem continuing for urbanity sake in company they liked longer than ordinary have so closely pursued this pernicious Art of sucking in the smoak of this Herb that never any Chymist was more sollicitous in greater haste to fetch his matter over the Helme by distillation Behold what the event was the next morning I have heard complaints come from them that their brains were something stupid dozed their stomach nauseous being thirsty also feaverish The cause of all this they attributed to their transgressing limits of sobriety in drinking or to the sophisticated adulterated Liquors Not finding the least fault with the
riddance of this foul guest can hardly be made by Art in a very Cachochymick body without hazarding the life there being a kind of necessity to leave some behind no sooner is there an accession of any approved every way compleated Chyme but it is forthwith deteriorated and infected by the contact of the relique of that filthy reprobate Gore which still harbours in the vessels wherein is a peccant ferment endangering as long as it continues the faedation of the whole mass a little Leaven leavening the whole lump Wherefore in my judgment with humble submission to better reasons the Doctor is much out of the way in taking this course of mutilating and impoverishing the vitals the preservation of which transcends all other indications whatsoever considering no solid benefit accrues thereby withall weighing how the cause of most calamities as the Scurvy venereal Lues have their rise from a venomous seed ingrafted about the Hypochondries for the abortion or strangulation of which all our best Arcana 's are but little enough efficacious In brief the true method is to scour every way by proper Mediums the filth or feculency gathered together in the first foundation destroying likewise the venom reducing the errour of the parts to their due Eupraxie corroborating them then need we not doubt whatsoever is superstructed will quickly be brought to a handsome conformity whereby this stately structure may be kept Sarta tecta in good reparations many years 2. The Authority I shall cite against this extramission of putrid bloud to the diminution of the strength without any amolition of the cause thereof is Van Helmont who is to me as an hundred testimonies His words are these p. 184. lib. de Febr. Etenim ostendant non contradicere quod febri proprium sit Cruorem ipsum inquinare hanc proprietatem tolli à posteriori à putrefacti scilicet remotione Etenim si primum Imperuor sanguis è vena depromatur iteratò venam pandunt interim vires consternunt turbantque hinc Crisis spem tollunt quid si tum rubicundior effluxerit Certè exclamant Quasi totum mali Agmen ablatum prima vice fuissetque febrium sedes à Corde ad cubitum duntaxat extensa bonus autem circa Hepar resideret i. e. But let them make it appear if this do not imply a contradiction that a feaver hath a property to pollute the bloud and that this properly can be taken away à posteriori by a posterous manner to wit by withdrawing what is putrefyed For if first the fouler bloud be let out they open a vein again all this while they overthrow and confound the strength and so thereby wholly disappoint a Crisis But suppose sometime a fresh ruddy bloud run out they presently cry with open mouth as Cock-sure that a whole Troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash as if the resting place of a feaver did only extend from the heart to the bending of the arm and the good bloud did take up its abode about the Liver In another place of the same page our Author delivers this In confesso est quod Materia Febrilis non consistit in vena supra Cor per consequens neque vena Sectio Materiam Occasionalem ullatenus exhauriat aut directa Medendi intentione effectivè sanet i. e. It is taken for granted that the material cause of a feaver is not seated in the vessels above the heart then it must necessarily follow that breathing a vein doth in no wise discharge the matter which stâ—rs up the feaver neither is this a down-right effectual way of healing Thus far he who is instar Omnium Yea for the countenance of this truth I have something very conducible from Dr. Willis his words are these p. 75. de Feb. Prae caeteris vero observatione constat quod crebra sanguinis missio Homines febri aptiores reddat i. e. Now above all it is certainly known according to observation that o ten bleeding makes men more apt to fall into a feaver Again he follows it close Hinc fit ut qui crebro mutunt sanguinem non tantum in febres sunt proclives verum etiam pinguescere soleant propter Cruorem Succo Sulphureoâ—plus impregnatum i. e. Hence it comes to pass that they who often breath a vein are not only prone to fall into feavers but are also wont to grow fat by reason the bloud is full of sulphur In another place to this purpose he drives it home Qui sanguinem habent sale volatilizato bene saturatum ii sunt minus febribus obnoxii hinc etiam qui saepius sanguinem emittunt ad febres aptiores sunt i. e. They whose bloud abound with volatile Salt are not subject to feavers For this cause they that use Phlebotomy often are more liable to feavers Well then the Doctor and I agree thus far in the main that frequent bleeding procures feavers which is sufficient to back my assertion that Phlebotomy is no good method of healing sith it is plainly a Procatartick cause of feavers For whatsoever means exhausting the strength as I can demonstrate this course doth more or less sensibly or insensibly inviting and making way for feavers instead of preventing them is not to be approved of or allowed in Curing the Scurvy or other diseases unless we act like Tinkers some of whom are reported to mend one hole and make another for how possible can it consist with the Honour and Credit of a Physician quem creavit Altissimus to go about to correct the bloud by often letting it out in a Chronick infirmity likewise withall to usher in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were to be a Pander to the introduction of an Acute feaver which in a short space dissipates that strength which this Phlebotomical harbinger hath in part worsted Certainly then there is a better way if we could hit on it to reform this juice without an elumbation of the vitals by proper Medicines which the good Creator hath ordained able to supply the bloud with a sufficient quantity of volatile Salt and to take away the exuberance of its sulphur if the cause of feavers as this Learned Defendant would have from whom I dissent unless he can convince me by practice or mechannically shew to my eye more sulphur in the Pyrotechnical Analysis of bloud taken from one afflicted with a high feaver than from that extracted from a Scorbutical or venereal body c. The sum of all is this if it be so that striking a vein often in a long tedious disease is a preparatory for a sharp eaver as we both herein jump right in our observation then am I certain that Phlebotomy repeated in an acute sickness is a door set open an in-let for a long infirmity so that this mode of defalcating the vigour of the spirits doth for the most part as I have strictly heeded many years disarm and plunder Nature in such sort that it cannot resist the assaults