Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	cold_a	hot_a	moist_a	1,558	5	9.6254	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31225	The chymical Galenist a treatise, wherein the practise of the ancients is reconcild́ to the new discoveries in the theory of physick, shewing that many of their rules, methods, and medicins, are useful for by George Castle ...	Castle, George, 1635?-1673.	1667 (1667)	Wing C1233; ESTC R21752	90,129	232

simple Medicament not yet known that increase of Art is to be commended and deserves to be called a Secret as he that first found out the Vomiting virtue of Antimony He that invented the compounding and found out the efficacy of Gun-powder he that first brought Jalap into use had Secrets greatly to be commended such as these if any man have he is worthy of commendation and I think no other secrets are to be admitted But I think it is very evident that these Discoveries are not the products of Invention but Chance and upon this score mankind is possibly more indebted to Nature for discreetly concealing the way of making gold than if she had made it as common and easy to the Chymists as she has the Art of making Cheese and Butter to the Countrey Housewives for in the prosecution of that she has casually intiched the world with many accidental Experiments both in Philosophy and Physick much more considerable and beneficial to men than if she had taught us like Midas to turn all things which we touched into Gold If I mistake not Doctor Harvey does somewhere tell us that he never dissected a Body in his life for the examination of some part or tracing some Vessel which he propos'd to himself but in the operation some new thing was unexpectedly offered to him which was usually more considerable than the matter which he designed I am apt to believe that we are not only in a great measure beholding to Chance and Experience for the Knowledge of the Virtues of Simples but that even in Compound Medicines there have often virtues and qualities resulted from the Mixture which were never foreseen nor designed by the Artist who put the ingredients together but discovered by Experience We see that as to those very ancient Medicines Mithridate Treacle and Diascordium which are Compounds esteemed sacred for their Virtues as well by the Chymists as Galenists it is much more easy to prove the truth of their efficacy than to give the true reason of their Composition I would fain know of M. N. how he could have been certain that Antimonium Diaphoreticum should not Vomit or Mercurius Dulcis not have retained in it the corrosive faculty of Sublimate had not Experience cleared their innocencies neither can he promise that the action of fire or a Menstruum upon those Bodies shall not produce Concretes out of Antimony or Mercury as highly venemous as these mentioned preparations are safe and benign We see that Tobacco which by all sorts of men is indifferently taken without almost any sensible mischief affords a Spirit one of the most sudden and potent poisons in the world which possibly was at first discovered at the expence of a mans life by some bold and venturous Chymist It is Experience and not Reason that has taught the West-Indians that they may safely make their Bread of the Root of Casave Bont Med. Indor p. 211. though the expressed juice of it as Bontius tells us be an arrant poyson Therefore though M. N. brag of his invented Medicines and tell us that doubtlesse he is a very wicked man which will administer any Medicine which he knows not whether it be safe or no and a very ignorant one that is not able to judge certainly if he invent a new Medicin whether it be fit or no or who dares not adventure it first upon his own Body yet shall presume to give it to another I must plainly tell him that it is very hard for an ignorant practiser of his own invented Medicines not to be very wicked And for his part if he be not fouly abused by the opinion of the World I think there is no lesse danger in trusting to his Integrity than Skill But indeed he is a Gentleman very worthy upon whose Body as the mortal force of Charous Cane in Italy Sands Trav. is tried upon Malefactors and Doggs dangerous and pernicious Medicins especially his own should be experimented Nec lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire sua And therefore I advise him if he will needs be dabling in Physick to content himself with his Collections from Farriers and Herdsmen and his good Aunt to whom he ows most of his skill the cunning Woman of Burford CHAP. VII I Am not so religiously sworn to the Philosophy of Aristotle and Galen as to take upon me the defence of Elements Qualities Temperaments and Humots Yet since the grave Sennertus gives advice De Con. Dissen Chym. cum Gal. That words and terms imposed by the first Inventers of the Art of Physick and established by the Vse Consent and Approbation of all both Chymists and Galenists ought to be reteined and not unadvisedly laid aside I will endeavour to shew That Heat Cold Moistness Dryness may be most pertinently reckoned amongst the Causes of Diseases and the terms of Temperaments and Humors may be not incommodiously retained even to explicate the most refined Notions in the reformed Theory of Physick For though I do agree with Hippocrates That acid bitter sharp and salt and possibly a Thousand more different Medifications of matter are to be reputed as well as those vulgarly called Sennert de Con. Dissen Chym. cum Gal. c. 16. the four first Qualities amongst morbifick Causes Yet I cannot but assent to the learned Sennertus who tells us That the Chymists do ill wholly to reject the first Qualities from being Causes of Diseases For we find by experience that as soon as a preternatural Distemper either hot cold moist or day is induced upon any part the action of the part is presently hindered neither is it able to perform its duty and office till the natural temper be restor'd which is commonly known to happen every day to the stomack And he quotes Galen for instancing That some by sitting too long upon a cold stone or by staying too long in cold water have had the Muscle of the Anus resolv'd And he makes mention of another Who in a cöld and moist season by wearing too long his wet Coat fell into a Palsie of his hand the Nerves which come from the spinal marrow to the hand being thereby too much cool'd and moistned No body is ignorant how prejudicial it is to a man to drink largely of cold water when he is hot And since according to Hippocrates the Cure indicates the Disease the same mentioned Author bids consult Galen what great things may be done by Baths of water in Hectick Distempers And he farther adds that the advice of Scaliger to Cardan may very well be made use of to them who resist both Sense and Experience who upon Cardan's asserting That Cold was only a Privation to convince him advis'd him to leave off his Cloaths and go Bare-leg'd and Bare-headed in the extremity of Winter Travellers do often to their Cost find of what force Cold is when they lose their Noses Ears Feet and Hands mortified by the violence of its

congealing power Farthermore every days Experience informs us what changes and alterations are made upon our Bodies as to Epidemical diseases by the hot cold moist or dry Constitutions of the Seasons and Years And I cannot but wonder that the Chymists should exclude the four first Qualities from having any causality in diseases when in their own operations they observe a notable disparity between the effects of a dry and moist heat and they employ heat as the common instrument of almost all their operations But whil'st I assert the Essiciency of the first qualities in the causing of diseases in the humane Body I would not be understood to mean by the word Quality a Being or Entity distinct from matter or Body But that I apprehend by hot cold moist and dry the parts of matter or Atoms so figured and moved as to produce those Effects which we call heating cooling moistning and drying For Example We use to have an apprehension or notion of heat from the relation it has to the sense or as it is the efficient cause of that acute passion or sensation which we feel in our skin or any other organ of touch whil'st we are burnt or heated But this being too particular an effect of heat only as it works upon an Animal we ought therefore to consider it from its more general and comprehensive effects upon which this which is more special does depend which is to enter into the Pores of a Body to penetrate through the parts of it and to force or rend them asunder from one another and so to dissolve the union and continuity of the Body This cannot be understood to be done by a bare naked quality but by certain Atoms which are endued with such a motion figure and fize as are fit to penetrate discuss dissolve and perform all those effects which we usually attribute to heat On the other side since we find cold the most opposite thing in the World to heat if it be the property of heat to dissolve discuss and tear asunder it is then the property of cold to congeal fasten and close together and those Atoms which by their shape and figures are fit and proper for those effects may with very good Reason be called Atoms of cold and Bodies made up of such Particles cold Bodies Thus the Air which is the common Receptacle of heat and cold upon the blowing of North-winds is usually filled with such Atoms as bind and congeal the Earth and Water and in the body of man both by mingling with the blood and closing the pores or breathing holes of his body oftentimes produce considerable disorders As for humidity or moistness it seems to be nothing else but a kind of fluidness and Liquors are commonly said to be moist inasmuch as when they are poured upon hard and compact bodies some small parts of them are left behind either sticking in the little Cavities of the Surface and then the body is said to be wet or else have insinuated themselves into the most inward pores and recesses of the hard body which then we commonly say is moistned And on the contrary driness is nothing else but a kind of firmness inasmuch as a dry body is upon that score the more firm for being void of all moisture And now I cannot see why these four first Qualities as they are term'd should be excluded from having a share in the number of the causes of Diseases since they are notably active especially the three first modifications of matter and not only apt to excite various motions and cause as well new Combinations as dissolutions of bodies in the great World but also powerfully to alter the Microcosm and produce fundry different Symptoms in relation to the motions and harmony of the humane Engin. In the next place though it be utterly untrue that there are in the Vessels four distinct humors but whatsoever is contained in the Arteries and Veins is either the stale deflagrated blood or the alimentary juice fresh come into the Vessels or else the Serum or Whey returned by the Lymphaticks or else some Particles of Nitre and other bodies received in by the Lungs and Mouths of the veins from the Ambient And though the blood differ in several persons only as to the abundance or defect of natural heat yet are men not improperly said to be of a melancholick cholerick or some other temperament inasmuch as by how much the more vigorous or remiss the natural heat is in their bowels and entrals by so much the more weakly or powerfully concoctions are perform'd and consequently the blood apt to be overcharged either with stale and adust or else crude and phlegmatick Excrements In which respect the person either way disposed is not improperly said to be of a phlegmatick or cholerick temper and if the adust or raw Excrements be not rightly and duly separated out of the mass by the effervenscy of the blood I see no reason why I may not say that a man abounds with a melancholick cholerick or phlegmatick humor and if so the Notions about Pharmacy aiming at an evacuation or else alteration of these humors are not framed amiss nor whatever M. N. argues to the contrary without very good reason For I suppose it alters not much the case as to practice whether a man suppose that there is too great a redundancy of one of the humors in the blood or whether which is the right Notion he apprehend the blood depraved either with phlegmatick and raw juyces or the bilious Excrement consisting of Salt and Sulphur or the melancholick in which the Caput mortuum or earthy part is most predominant For either of these Notions will direct us when the blood is unable to fine its self to assist it with those alteratives which time and experience has recommended to us as proper in those cases and those Purgers which have been long observed more particularly to make a separation either of the pituitous cholerick or melancholick parts of the blood For though it be irrational to think that Purgers do with a certain knowledge or choice lay hold of one humor rather than another yet is that distinction of Purgers into Chologoga Phlegmagoga Melanagoga and Hydragoga of very good use and founded upon observation and experience inasmuch as these several Purgers by causing very different Fermentations and variously agitating the Particles of the Blood may with very good reason cause different separations and so one Purger to evacuate that sort of Excrement Barm or Lee which another cannot And in this matter I do not find that the Improvements which have been made in the Theory of Physick have much altered the Practice for the indication for Purging was not founded upon the Notion of the four Humors but upon long observation that when Distempers discovered themselves by such and such signs the body was to be emptied and by frequent tryals one Purger as especially Hellebor in Melancholy was found more essectual than

a little a swift and a slow a frequent and a rare a hard and a soft are by M. N. acknowledged to be established upon very good grounds So whosoever is frequent in handling the wrists of sick and dying men will find that there is very good reason to admit the other differences especially such as arise in respect of equality and inequality in respect of order and in respect of Rythm or proportion for the reasons of these as well as the simple motions are not hard to be understood from the true consideration of the motion of the heart and blood and are to be met with accomodated to that Hypothesis in the Writings of the learned Dr. Highmore from whose account it is very clear That the Pulsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deficientes intermittentes High Corp. Human. Disquis l. 1. p. 2. c. 8. intercurrentes caprizantes dicroti undosi vermiculares formicantes tremuli serrati are not as M. N. calls them Quirks and Quillets and hard words but really different motions of the Heart and Blood and he tells us that In morituris semper aut unus aut singuli reperiuntur If any one be pleas'd with Extravagancies and Whimsies concerning the Pulse he may find enough of them in Paracelsus who gives this wild account of the Pulse Pulsus Paracels l. de Pestilent Tract 1. est mensura temperaturae in corpore secundum preprietatem Sex locorum quae Planetae occupant duo in pedibus attribuuntur Saturno Jovi duo in collo veneri Marti duo in temporibus Lunae Mercurio Pulsus Solis est in sinistro latere sub corde Hinc sequitur si Pulsus celerius movetur quam fieri debebat pati septem membra principalia Cor cerebrum hepar fel renes unde Pulsus irritetur sive ad iram concitetur Si vero aliquod principale membrum a morbo vincatur Pulsus debiliter movetur quod aer sive Spiritus vitae eo loci obstructus est And he has farther in another place Tom. 2. p. 743. Pulsum manere usque ad mortem imo aliquando quadrantem horae post mortem Concerning this opinion of Paracelsus the impartial Sennertus delivers his What I pray says he can be more absurd and argue a greater ignorance of humane body Sennert de Con. Dissen Chym. cum Gal. c. 18. than for Paracelsus to write That the Gall the Reins the Liver have peculiar Pulses and to ascri●e to the Pulse the passion of Anger For if we examine the Original of the Arteries and the use and intent of the Pulse we shall find that every alteration in that immediately comes from the Heart As to the Directions which are to be drawn from consideration of the Pulse in Diseases they are of so much importance to a Physitian in a Fever as the Card and Needle to a Pilot in a storm no hand of a Watch or Clock does more exactly signifie the motions of their inward Springs and Wheels than the Pulse does the alterations made in the great Engine of Life the Heart Framb Can. Consult Med. p. 25. The Pulse is says Frambesarius Fidelis nuntius cordis ex quo certissima vitae ac mortis petuntur indicia Pulsus magnus vehemens est virium index in quibus sanitatis restituendae spes ponitur Sed Pulsus parvus languidus facultatis vitalis imbecillitatem indicat unde mortis metus Inaequalitas Pulsus semper damnatur si perseveret intermissio juvenibus periculosissima repentinam quippe ill is mortem minatur nisi ex artertarum obstructione oppressione f●at minus pueris minime senibus The Pulse says Dr. Willis whom M. N. confesses to be no Defender of the unjustifiable Doctrines of the Ancients is consulted like a Weather-glass appointed by Nature to measure the degrees of the Heat which in a Fever is caus'd by the Bloods being set on fire if that be intense and causes a great Ebullition in the Blood the Artery as long as the Spirits continue vigorous beats vehemently and swiftly but when they begin to be spent the strength of the Pulse abates which is supplied by the swiftness and the Pulse becomes small and swift If the Fever be more mild Willis de Feb. c. 10. and the Heat less tumultuous the Pulse does less recede from its natural temper and during the whole course of the Disease a moderation in that does signifie a Truce between Nature and the Distemper Nor does the Pulse only give intelligence of the forces of the Fever as of an Enemy but it acquaints us with the strength of Nature and its ability to make resistance As long as there is a good Pulse all is safe and there is all reason to hope well but an ill condition of this is a very ill Omen and puts the sick person past hopes so that without a frequent and diligent examination of the Pulse the Physitian will neither be able truly to pass his Prognostick nor safely to administer Physick Nay the Pulse is of so great importance in Fevers that if it on a sudden alter for the worse though all other Symptoms promise well it is a dismal forerunner of death and upon the other hand if that continue good though all other Symptoms threaten ill we have reason to hope for a Recovery He goes on and shews that without taking advice of the Pulse neither Purgers nor Vomits nor Sweatters Cardiacks or Narcoticks can be administred without very great hazzard I know very well that what M. N. objects is true that the Passions the presence of the Physitian and many other accidents will make a confiderable alteration in the Pulse but to inferr from hence that no more credit is to be given to them by a Physitian M● Med. p. 33. than by a Wise man to a Gypsie who crosses his hand to tell his Forune is as absurd as to conclude from the variation of the Needle that it is of no use in Navigation or to affirm that Watches are not useful to measure Time because accidental causes as moist weather walking or riding with them in the Pocket or the like may in some sort retard or accelerate their motions The Methodists have been so careful that in their Institutions when they treat of the Pulse they acquaint us with what accidents may make an alteration in them Therefore Sennertus and other writers of Institutions advise that the Physitian do not as soon as he comes to the Patient presently feel his pulse but stay till the motions which the presence of the Physitian has rais'd in his affections be over and that then when he is sedate and quiet and free from passion he examin the pulse and then neither not presently when he has been stirred but after the disturbance which was caus'd in his Body by moving of him be over then that the Hand of the Patient be free from all voluntary motion that the Fingers be not too