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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33709	A physico medical essay concerning alkaly and acid so far as they have relation to the cause or cure of distempers : wherein is endeavoured to be proved that acids are not (as is generally and erroneously supposed) the cause of all or most distempers, but that alkalies are : together with an account of some distempers and the medicines with their preparations proper to be used in the cure of them : as also a short digression concerning specifick remedies / by John Colbatch.	Colbatch, John, Sir, 1670-1729.	1696 (1696)	Wing C5003; ESTC R26032	33,359	174

which by many experiments I have found to be as much an Alkaly as either Crabs Eyes Corral Pearls c. the which I suppose no man will deny Now it being granted that the matter contained in the aforesaid Nodes to be an Alkaly how is it possible for this Distemper to proceed from Acids when in those very parts where the Distemper most violently rages there should be produced such large quantities of an Alkalious substance For if the Distemper proceeds from Acids as 't is generally agreed upon the Patient need not clog his Stomach with Alkalies as is generally practised there being a Remedy already placed in the part affected And I verily believe that the only reason why this Distemper has been accounted amongst the Opprobria Medicorum has been from the mistaken Notions they have had concerning it But if men will still persist to assert that this Distemper proceeds from Acids and at the same time own the chalky substance before-mentioned which is only the Morbifick Matter indurated to be an Alkaly they must tacitely believe the Doctrine of Transmutation though openly they are ashamed to own it and will laugh at and ridicule those that do But this is not all for suppose the Acid Matter causing this Distemper to be transmuted into a chalky alkalious substance the Distemper must never more pretend to come in or near the part where this substance is lodged it being placed as a Centry to guard it off Nay the Blood at times must all or at least great part of it pass through the Part or Parts where this chalky substance is lodged by which means a man would think it should be sufficiently guarded from any more growing Acid and so by consequence when the chalky Nodes are once setled people have not the least reason for the future to be in fear of the return of their Distemper The contrary of which a great many honest Gentlemen to their sorrows experience So that a man would think that these very Nodes alone were sufficient if there were no other reasons to be given for it to satisfie any man who is master of his reason that Acids are not and that Alkalies are the cause of this Distemper And if the Blood abound with too great a quantity of Alkalious Particles the giving of Alkalies must be preposterous is being to add Fuel to the Flame which instead of quenching or extinguishing makes it so much the greater It may not be amiss to take notice that few people are troubled with the Gout but those who drink large quantities of Wine or some other generous Liquors abounding with vinous Spirits so that the Blood and other Juices being impregnated with the said vinous Spirits these Spirits meeting with the volatile alkalious Salt of which even the Blood of sound People is never destitute By the means of which Salt the vinous Spirit is coagulated and turned into that substance or somewhat like it which Helmont calls his Offa Alba which coagulated substance not being capable of moving with the Blood and Juices through the small Vessels causes obstructions and violent pains and in time by the addition of other gross terrestrious Particles into the beforementioned chalky substance By the foresaid coagulation of vinous Spirits with the volatile Alkaly of the Blood may a very good reason be given for the Generation of the Stone in the Bladder and Kidneys And Mr. Boyle tells us being what Helmont had before done that having obtained some Stones of a certain Lythotomist he put them into a Retort and exposed them to a strong fire and found that the better half consisted of volatile alkalious Salt like unto that obtainable from Humane Blood and a considerable quantity of heavy Oyl so that it is plain that the Generation of the Stone is not from Acids but Alkalies From which may be inferred that it is not from the Acidity of Rhenish Wine that makes the drinking of it pernicious to Gouty People but from its abounding with spirituous Particles more than most other Wines CHAP. IV. Of Rheumatisms THIS is another of the Distempers generally said to proceed from Acids in the Blood but very falsly as I hope fully to make appear I having had to do with multitudes under this Distemper and that thanks to God with very good success I. shall not trouble my self to investigate the original causes of this Distemper which are various that being foreign to my design but shall immediately proceed to the business I have undertaken First of all Having by the fire analyzed the Blood of Rheumatick Persons I have found it to abound more with Alkanious Particles than that of sound Persons but not the least grain of any Acid substance in it from which alone it may readily enough be inferred That it proceeds not from Acids but on the contrary from Alkalies But it may be Objected From whence proceeds that syziness and viscosity of the Serum which is generally observed in the Blood of Rheumatick Persons if not from Acids For we know that Milk which is a sort of Serum of the Blood let it be in never so fluid a state by the addition of any Acid though never so gentle a great part of it will be immediately congulated and turned into Curds To which I Answer That the foresaid Objection is altogether invalid the viscousness that is observed in the Serum of the Blood being quite different from that of the Curds in Milk Though there are those substances contained in Milk that are fit to make both Blood and Serum but Milk is a much more compound liquor than the Serum of the Blood so the comparison being made between subjects so vastly different it is of no validity at all But suppose the comparison between the two Liquors good What agreement is there between Curds and a substance like unto Gelly None at all that I know of But if instead of curdled Milk they had made the comparison between the inviscated Serum and Hartshorn Gelly they had been in the right on 't for indeed I know not any two subjects more fit to be compared together But then this comparison will not in the least prove the inviscation of the Serum to proceed from Acids but on the contrary from Alkalious Particles for every body that knows what Harts-horn is know that the reason of its making a Gelly is from its abounding with volatile alkalious Salts And for the same reason it is that Calves Feet Izing-glass Ivory c. make Gellies By what I have said I hope I have freed Acids from occasioning the viscousness of the Serum of the Blood in Rheumatisms which viscosity if it can be once taken off every one knows that the Distemper immediately vanishes But this is not to be done by Alkalies that ever I could see although I have given them in large quantities But it is expeditiously to be done by proper Acids such as the before-mentioned Tincture of Antimony c. and Calibiats But

Author at the same time throws himself at the Readers mercy to make him or esteem him what he pleases But of all Authors those who encounter with prejudices ought most infallibly to reckon upon their condemnation Their Works sit too uneasie upon most mens minds and if they escape the passions of their enemies which I have not done they are obliged to the Almighty force of Truth for their protection However time will do every man Justice and Truth which at first appeared a Chymerical and ridiculous Phantasm by degrees grows sensible and manifest Men open their eyes and contemplate her they discover her charms and fall in love with her The Books that encounter with prejudices leading to Truths through unbeaten Paths require much longer time than others to obtain the reputation their Authors expect them And I find it but too true in my self that all those Writers who combate with prejudices are much mistaken if they think by that means to recommend themselves to the favour and esteem of others Possibly some few will speak honourably of them when they are dead But whilst they live they must expect to be neglected I speak experimentally by most people and to be despised reviled and persecuted even by those who go for the wisest and most moderate sort of men There is nothing but Truth contained in my Novum Lumen Chyrurgicum and I did think that I should have been put into a condition this Summer to have made it evidently appear But instead of that I have been abused and delivered up into the hands of my enemies to do with me as they pleased My Novum Lumen is built upon a pair of Medicines the which as yet I think not fit to make publick but here lyes my misfortune common to all those who make new Discoveries A great many believe the Truth of what I have said and that my Medicines are capable of performing what I have promised for them But amongst the number of those who are so ingenuous as to believe matter of fact a great many say this man was not the Author others that they have the same Medicines and some that they imparted them to me As for these Gentlemen I can very easily excuse them I very well knowing that it is the Nature of most Men not to allow any Person the honour of his own Discoveries they thinking that thereby their own Glory is eclipsed But there are another sort of Men whose Interest will not give them leave to embrace the Truth and for the same reason they do what in them lies to keep others from so doing And the greatest part of Mankind not being judges in my cause any further then their eyes direct them and it being altogether impossible that there should be any great number of Spectators by which means I am evil spoken off by many upon no other grounds then because an interested party have told them that I have pretended to what I can't perform I expect the mouths of my enemies will be opened very wide against me but I have already born so much that I can with a great deal of contentedness bear with the greatest indignities that can be offered me My great satisfaction being that I have peace in my own breast having proposed nothing but what tended to the good of Mankind And very well knowing that if my Medicines are faithfully and skilfully used they are capable of performing much more then I have promised for them but the best Medicines unskilfully used or with a design that they should not succeed by prejudiced Persons may be brought into disgrace The following Essay I humbly offer to the candid Readers serious consideration nothing doubting but that it will meet with a favourable reception from some few And I must needs say that I more value the good Opinion and good Word of one candidly ingenuous then all that can be said against me by ten thousand clamarous ill-natured Persons I have endeavoured to act and behave my self so as to deserve no mans ill Word but if I am abused and my Undertakings misrepresented without any just cause I shall never break my heart about it I very well knowing that the justice and integrity of my Undertakings will one time or other be made appear From my House in St. Anns Court in Dean-Street near Soho-Square October the 12th 1695. A Physico Medical ESSAY c. CHAP. I. Of the Small Pox. THE first thing I shall begin with is the disuse of Alkalies in the Small-Pox that fatal Distemper to three Kingdoms and even all Europe In that by the means of it God was pleased to deprive 〈◊〉 of a Princess whose worth was such that a value sufficient can never be set upon it and whose loss sufficiently be lamented It is a common pract●ce both of Nurses and the generality of Practitioners as soon as they perceive the least Symptoms of this Distemper to give either Gascons Countess of Kents Lapis de Goa or some other Testaceous Powder which are known Alkalies The one Party as they pretend to drive the Malignity from the Heart the other to correct the Acidity which they conjecture for beyond conjecture they can't go to be in the blood In the subsequent Discourse I shall endeavour to shew upon what false suppositions both Parties go For the first sort it will not be worth while to spend much time about them by reason every one will readily grant that they generally act upon wrong and mistaken Notions For for any Malignity to be lodged in the Heart more than any other part is altogether impossible by reason that the Blood moves ten times at least faster through the Heart than any other part the Lungs excepted For the Cavities being large no Stagnation is to be feared and so by consequence no danger If there be any danger of the Malignities setling any where it must be in those parts where the Vessels are very small and the Blood moves but slowly which must be near the extream Parts For the second sort who give the same Medicines but with quite different Intentions I shall endeavour to prove that their suppositions are altogether as false and groundless as the sormer They give their Alkalious Medicines to correct the Acidity they suppose to be in the Blood and which is as they pretend the occasion of all the ill Symptoms that attend People in the Small-Pox Now I could never hear of any one that by Analyzing the Blood of Persons in the Small-Pox that could ever find the least footsteps of Acidity in it though on the contrary it doth appear after many trials that the Blood of such Persons doth more abound with Alkalious Particles then that of sound People So by consequence the giving of Alkalies in this case must be at least superfluous if not highly pernicious and as I have frequently observed and shall instance in some particulars The cause of the Small-Pox common with most other Fevors and acute Distempers I