Menstrual Furthermore I have sufficiently explicated otherwise what I mean by Virulent Claps and after what manner I conceive them to be produced that there is no need of making repetitions here I believe also that all the divisions which I could make of it be altogether useless because I do not intend to speak but only of those that are caused by the entrance and adhesion of some Venereal Salt or else because its Accidents do sufficiently distinguish it from such as happen by violent Exercises by the use of fermented Liquours and by other causes Therefore I believe it will suffice to give you in this Chapter the circumstances it is necessary to observe for the curing successfully all the Accidents that accompany this I am now going to speak of or else for assuredly preventing the universal Pox that might otherwise follow 2. Inflammation may be said to be the most pressing Accident of all that happen in this degree of the Pox for 't is by it that the matter which runs out is rendered the more sharp and corrosive that the Ulcers of the passages become greater and more profound that the pains grow insupportable and lastly that the means of making Urine become so extream difficult nay and sometimes in a manner impossible 'T is therefore requisite to take care betimes of preventing or else curing it by cooling Remedies such as may be those I am now going to propose Some persons whom we must by no means imitate do begin with Blood-letting in the Arm which may be apt to attract or drive the Venereal matter more inwardly into the body and must consequently be suspected as dangerous others are not afraid to let Blood in the Foot which also may have the same effect or else precipitate the Defluxion into the Stones wherefore you should abstain from them both and prefer the use of the following Ptisanne which will serve at the same time to cool the parts drive the matter outwards and diminish its Acrimony Take the Roots of white Lillies and Marsh-Mallows of each a pound Sorrel half a hand full Liquorish a sufficient quantity Barley three hands full Linseed two ounces common Water four and twenty pounds make a Ptisanne the usual way remembring to press the remainder well for to draw out the Mucilage the better Add in every Bottle of this Ptisanne ten or twelve drops of the Spirit of Vitriol and make your Patient drink of it as much as his stomach will bear and this indifferently at any hour day or night Though this Ptisanne be often sufficient to answer the intentions I have named when you begin in good time to make use of it yet it is found every day in some persons that the malignity of the matter and disposition of the body and parts do cause the Inflammation to grow so great as to communicate it self to the Reins and neck of the Bladder so that the Patients do suffer extreme pains when they are in Bed during the erection and in urining but this more particularly in Men for the Convulsion of the Nerves of their Yard which by retiring toward their origine do swell and thereby render this part crooked or bended doth cause the degree of the Pox in which it is said to be corded and stringed and in which also you must add to the fore-named Ingredients for the Ptisanne two ounces of the Cold Seeds half an ounce of white Poppy Seed and the Juyce of two or three Limons for to render it more Anodyne more refreshing and agreable You shall also give from time to time emulsions made of Whey sweet Almonds and the Seeds and Juyce I have now named You may for the same intention rub the Reins and Perineum with the Cerecloth of Galen which you must afterwards cover with Linnen dipt in Oxyerat that is made of one part of Vinegar and six of Rose-water The use of cooling Clysters must be frequent too as well as Injections of this quality which must be made into the Yard by means of a little Syringe and this with luke-warm Milk for Example which is marvellous for this effect and one may make use of it much more successfully than of common Water to dip the Yard in whil'st he urines and so facilitate the passage of the Urine Some of those who do not esteem things that are common chuse rather to make use of the Waters of Night-shade Roses and Plantain to make Injections which are indeed Refrigerant and Anodyne because they hinder the matter from flowing and drive it back by their astriction but it is a dangerous thing to do so and therefore you must have a care of using them unless the matter be grown thick and hath run sufficiently Turpentine of Chios or in defect of it that of Venice hath a marvellous effect for asswaging and qualifying the matter and driving it out because it very easily slides into those parts and is very Diuretick You may give it in Bolus or Pills from two drachms to half an ounce or its Spirit drawn Chymically from five drops to fifteen in Aperitive Waters or Ptisannes Experience will let you know that the Salt which is called Polychrest is a powerful Remedy to drive out the Venereal Salts if you dissolve two drachms of it in two glasses of the former Ptisanne or of Pellitory-water to give it a little after the Inflammation is past and reiterate it after this manner two or three times augmenting the Dose each time with a drachm more After the use of these Remedies you must begin to purge gently with a light Infusion of Senna Crystal Mineral and Cassia and may reiterate this Purge some days afterwards augmenting the Dose or else adding other Medicaments that are most convenient to the present Dispositions When the matter shall come to run more white more thick in less quantity you may then hinder its effluxion for altogether shutting up and closing the Spermatick Vessels by astringent and inward Remedies whil'st you are cleansing and desiccating the Ulcers of the Ureter with detersive and desiccative Injections Some of those that abuse Physick and its Remedies do strive to stop the matter that runs in Claps only with astringent Injections which causes the matter to sink into the more inward parts and so consequently there happens a greater Evil then they pretended to cure or at least the effluxion begins again so soon as they have left off the use of these pretended Remedies in so much that they are compelled sometimes fifteen or twenty times to reassume the use of them without attaining the end they proposed themselves For these Injections cannot go in Men further than the inward extremity of the common passage to the Seed and Urine nor in Women further than the neck of the Womb or the neck of the Bladder but this happens chiefly because by this means they hinder the evacuation of such Impurities as may still remain sometimes after the Operation of the former Medicaments and are too
same Womb And that of its Communication which consists in the contact of impure Persons It is so much the more necessary to prove the possibility of the former as it is a new Opinion that will consequently be pretended false by those who admit no Novelties at all And I fear also that Reason and Experience do not furnish us with proofs clear enough to discover this truth before the eyes of Opiniators that love rather to follow blindly what they conceive through prejudice than take the pains to examine things to distinguish rightly the true from the false 'T is after this manner I reason on this Subject Philosophers and generally the Learned do acknowledge no considerable change in Nature that is not made by a fermentation of which no cause is found more evident than the motion and action of contrary Bodies An Example of this truth which may particularly serve for a proof of my Opinion is observed in the Generation of perfect Animals and principally in that of Man for the Seeds of which he is generated do contain not only the Idea and Form of all the parts but also the good and ill Qualities the Temperaments and Natural Inclinations of those from whom they are emitted and this is so true that the particles which convey these powers act one upon the other after the Conception and that Infants of the same Family are sometimes Male sometimes Female now like Father another time like the Mother and often partly like one and partly like the other Now if it be true to say that the different qualities which are found in the Seeds of only two persons may be agitated so considerably as to cause one to over-rule the other whilest they are contained in the Womb for Generation that of a third person which is there received a little afterwards may be lookt upon as a matter extraordinary which must hinder Generation or at least render it imperfect by a more unequal mixture and stronger agitation this serves to perswade me that Moles in Women may be as well the effects of Cuckolding or Adultery as the production of Imagination since it is known besides that the best Anatomists do esteem great quantity of Menstrual Blood which is notwithstanding another principle of Generation for one cause of this confusion and disorder To which may be added that it is by reason of this Confusion that common Strumpets never conceive at all though they often do the same with those that have Children perhaps also with more advantageous circumstances because the different Seeds that they receive do cause a more vehement and irregular fermentation as they come from abundance of persons and are filled with a great many contrary and opposite particles from which fermentation there must consequently proceed a very bad change and further from Perfection to which Nature doth always tend On this subject it may further be observed that Corruption is the change which follows fermentations that are absolutely against Nature and it is easily to conceive how those Seeds being mixed together may pass from their fermentation to corruption almost at one and the same time since this mixture doth render them improper for their Natural Use and that the heat and moisture of the part which contains them do quickly dispose them to be corrupted Now the most important thing that remains on this subject is to let you see how they can become Venemous that is to say subtile penetrant and proper to coagulate and corrupt the Blood as other Poisons do But as the Seed is generally acknowledged for the best part of our Blood and every body knows that Corruption is so much the worse as the matters corrupted were more pure and delicate before It seems that this truth is sufficiently proved of it self and that there is no necessity of searching Reasons more strong or convincing to sustain it Nevertheless if we reflect on the great store of Spirits wherewith all the Seed is filled and on the quality of the Part that receives them we shall then see that there is no matter which can remain more Spirituous and consequently more Venomous after its Corruption because there is none better stor'd with Spirits nor any more diligently preserved this change being made in the Womb which is a part Naturally disposed to receive the Seed and conserve all the parts of it And what is still observable is that in passing from its Natural subject into other subjects it becomes so much the more Venemous as it hath passed a greater number of new Fermentations 3. Furthermore we may say of this Opinion that it is one of those that cannot well be proved by any other way but our Reason and that it is almost impossible to find subjects on which Experiments sufficiently sure and undoubted may be made for besides that the Pox doth not always appear and that there are but few persons who may be believed absolutely pure and clear from it there must therefore remain but few indeed who can be esteemed proper for such an Experiment Nevertheless I shall here report an Observation that meer chance was the cause of to one of my Friends and which may also serve to prove my thoughts on this subject A young Girle of between 14 and 15 years of age being pursued by her Mother who would needs beat her throws her self into the arms of one who was a Brother of a certain Community of Workmen established in a part of the Town that it is not necessary to name this Man conducts her to his Chamber and forces her he presently communicates the opportunity to him that usually lay with him who failed not to make use of the occasion and to discover it also to another of his Camerades in so much that in three days she was there six several persons made use of her After this the wisest among them foreseeing that this business was like to draw some dangerous consequence sent her home again by a Woman that feigned to have found her in a Church her Mother presently shuts her up in a Closet wherein no body was suffer'd to enter but her self and six days afterwards she complain'd of great pains that she suffered when she made Urine her Mother caused her to be visited and was told that she had got a Clap nevertheless they neglected to make use of any Cure because they would not believe it and twelve days afterwards there appeared a Bubo in her right Groin then they began to question her about it and she accused the persons she had been with they were all visited by Order of Justice and were all found clean and in good health And the Chirurgeon that imparted to me this story assured me that he had familiarly frequented their Company a long time afterwards and that he had never found any Venereal Distemper among any of them though 't is now twelve years since it hapned Though this Observation seems to be accompanied with all the Accidents that can
whether he would joyn his Opinion with mine that so he might be better assured what to believe of it To this end I waited on him to a certain person whom a fair show of seeming Honesty store of Riches and a good Reputation of being an Able man have assuredly placed above the common Rank but was guilty nevertheless on this occasion of an action altogether unworthy of those good qualities for without giving leasure to the Patient or my self to relate those things that the sight cannot discover without making any examination at all and only after a precipitate inspection of these Pustules he told him it was a very fine sort of Pox and therefore he had best presently resolve for a retreat of six weeks This new way of judging of Diseases will surely very much surprize all those that shall make some reflections on the difficulty there is of knowing them and chiefly those Diseases whose causes are absconded in the secret internal parts such as is the universal Pox since the difficulty of knowing them is sometimes so great that the most expert profound and most knowing Physicians do happen to be mistaken in taking one for another and they do observe for this purpose the common Rule of Lawyers by which they do never offer to give determinate Judgment upon the presence of one Witness only But besides these considerations it must also be remarked by the by that those words of Fine Pox do show at the same time both the ignorance and quacking of those who make use of them But after all this same Patient was a little afterwards comforted again by one that proved more honest who after an ample knowledge of the circumstances I related gave the same Name to this Disease that I had done before and so advised him to those Remedies that I had proposed to him by the use of which Remedies he was quite cured in a short time Moreover it may be said that Interest was the sole Motive of this treacherous dealing for there is no likelihood that the ambition of appearing a great Doctor should have been the cause since he might have appeared so much more by reasoning on the Disease than pronouncing such fine words Nor is there any reason to believe he did it to render me a good Office since Offices of so high a nature are but seldom done without the hopes of receiving equal ones again and we two were not of Intelligence enough for that Therefore it is much more likely he thought with himself that I desired to put this person under his hands for some particular consideration and so he might have no other thought but of embracing the occasion offered Besides those that engage credulous persons to suffer the Salivation when there is no necessity of it there are also a great many Mountebanks to be found who give a false Judgment of the Pox and perswade men they have it when they are altogether free The easiness they have found in perswading men so hath given them encouragement for another sort of cheating They cause Billets to be distributed in most parts of the Town and clap up papers in the most resorted places nay and sometimes presume to write little Pamphlets filled with nothing but follies and lyes wherein they confidently boast that they are able to cure the Pox without Mercury without garde or keeping their Chamber and they have so much the more easily found persons who will believe them and render their Imposture somewhat likely by their own mistaken Experience as there are many persons who think themselves sick of this Disease when they do really enjoy most perfect Health But that which plainly shows us it had not subsisted hitherto but only by this means is that they are known to give the Salivation to those they think really in the Pox for they do then suppose their Disease in a degree almost desperate and they are not able consequently to cure them but by making use of this Remedy which they make pass for the extreme one of all and do nevertheless very familiarly employ it under this disguise with such a conduct as must always be believed very dangerous in those that have learnt nothing of it but by Receipt Though this Imposture be the more common and ordinary of all yet it must not be esteem'd the only one and there are some among them that do practise another still more remarkable Whatsoever Accidents those that have the Pox do suffer when they address themselves to these men they will always assure them they have no such thing as the Pox and so will promise to cure them with such Remedies as they call pleasant mild and insipid but are always notwithstanding the strongest and most violent Sudorisicks Purgatives and Vomitives that do extremely exhaust and dry up the body to make the Accidents cease by consuming the serosities that are spred abroad and are the Causes of them insomuch that these Patients find themselves cured in all appearance till the next ebullition of the Blood begins again and there happens a new dispersion of the matter that is able to produce other Symptomes which they then make pass for unhappy Relapses or else new Diseases that must undergo a new Cure So that these persons thus affected do furnish them with continual profit as Cows with Milk and a small number of them will be able to provide them Employment enough But among all those that impose on credulous persons there are none that make use of a more abominable Stratagem than these that follow for they do endeavour to perswade all their Patients that apply to them for help that all their bodies are filled with Mercury or else with Venereal matter that must be driven out as fast as may be if they desire to escape death and to convince them of the truth of this supposition they tell them they shall presently see abundance of Impurities come out of their bodies so soon as ever their Remedies begin to be applied In effect as this pretended Remedy is nothing else but an Oyntment applyed on their skin that is compounded of Cantharides this promise of theirs seems true to many men because it raises Blisters full of serosities that seem to come through their pores and because it makes them Urine prodigiously nay often blood it self by causing an inflamation and exulceration of the Bladder which are mortal Accidents 3. But after having sufficiently spoken of the false Judgments of Impostors and the means they make use of for commiting their Abuses it is time to let you see what are the true Signs that candid men must take notice of for to judge aright of this Disease These Signs may be divided into such as are known to the Patient alone and such as are sensible both to Patient and Physician The former are the impure Contacts that have preceded this Disease the pains they feel while they Urine the Inquietudes and universal Itchings the loss of Appetite the indifference
for Coition the Nocturnal pollutions without pleasure the suppression of the Terms in Women or of the regulated Hemorrhoides in some men Lastly the mobile or fixt pains of the Head the Shoulders and Extremities The latter Signs are Gonorrheas Buboes or Poulains Ulcers and Chancres of the Yard and of the Privities of Women or else the hardness that remains after their Cicatrices the fall of Hair from Head and Beard the Wounds and Ulcers that cannot be cured with ordinary Remedies the Tetters Pustules and Warts lastly the Elevation Rotteness and corruption of Bones But we must be sure to observe that all or most of these Signs that I have named are but Accidents of the Pox it self that it produces not all of them at all times nor in all subjects and that they become different according to its divers degrees in so much that they do not happen always in a constant and assured Order For there have been some persons seen whose bones have rotted with the Pox before ever any of those Accidents Authors do call Antecedent have been at all felt which Accidents I had rather call Consequent because they do most commonly follow those that accompany the particular Poxes of which I have spoken Nevertheless as it is impossible to make a good Prognostick of this Disease without being able to distinguish all the degrees it can happen in it will be necessary to reflect on all that hath been already said to the end we may the better find how it passes out of one degree into another and why in each particular one it doth produce very different Symptomes 4. It may with Reason be said that the Ulcers which are caused by impure Contacts do constitute the first degree of the Pox because they are the effect of some matter that very superficially adheres they cannot be distinguished from ordinary Ulcers at their beginning but by the preceding Contact and the parts in which they happen and they may be cured in this condition with common and ordinary Desiccatives But when the Salts that caused them cannot be destroyed by these or other means they then penetrate into the Vessels that contain the blood or else mix with the Natural moisture that remains in the ulcer'd part and fix it in such manner that from Ulcers they degenerate into Chancres and then indeed they are much more dangerous and hard to cure but are known by the elevation of their white sides by their obscure colour and by their hardness You may easily judge that Claps or Virulent Gonorrheas are of a yet higher degree than the Ulcers I now spoke of because the matter that makes them is more deeply driven into the bodies of those who suffer them and the parts that are infected with them are such as are inward and concealed The Bladder for Example and the parts adjacent or dependent on it are the first that suffer the Inflammation which is sufficiently known by the heat and pains that are felt in urining and sometimes by an entire suppression of the Urine the seminal parts and the Seed it self are not more free from an Alteration since the loss thickness corruption of the Seed are undoubted marks of it Lastly the passages through which these Impurities are carried do not long remain free from their ill effects but become exulcerated by the sharp points of the Salts they contain and this exulceration doth cause them to suffer very grievous pains during the passage of their Urine While this particular Pox is but newly contracted it can be cured with a great deal of ease and safety by preventing that which we ought otherwise to fear and taking away whatsoever appears by the use and application of proper Remedies to this effect But when it hath had a considerable duration without necessary succour it must be then believed to be of a much more difficult and dangerous Cure because all its Accidents become greater and the further penetration if its matter that is the universal Pox may be then with just Reason suspected Therefore it must then be treated with more care and precaution and the Prognostick that is made of it must be more doubtful We may now observe that the Venereal Salts do often pass from the parts I spoke of into the orifices of the Veins and Arteries and do sometimes penetrate more directly by the subtilty keenness of their points Nevertheless what way soever they enter it is always true that they cause in some a great ebullition of their blood either by the particular dispositions they find in it or else by their own deleterious quality during which ebullition the Impurities do separate much after the same manner as Lees do in the fermentation of Wine and so are driven out after a while by the force of Nature or if you will so by the Faculty Expultrive into the Glandules of the Groins where it causes a Bubo or Botch that serves for a Crisis of the Pox if it be attracted and brought to perfect Suppuration It may be distinguished from other Tumours that sometimes happen in those parts by the impure Contact that preceeded it by the Claps Gonorrheas Ulcers and Chancres that often happen a little before its discovery but principally by its slow advancement its durity and large Basis But this penetration of the Venereal matter into the mass of the blood is not always attended with so happy success as the extrusion of such a Tumour the Venereal Salts do sometimes participate more of fixt than volatile and the blood is not equally hot and subtile in all sorts of men so that in some it presently coagulates by this means much after the same manner as some curious persons have experimented by syringing Acid Liquours into the Veins of Brutes and this coagulation is often the Cause of those suppressions I took notice of and of their loathing all Meat aâ—â— of their indifference as to Coition because whil'st it continues the Circulation grows very slow and consequently the Natural Functions that depend on it become interrupted Wherefore this time may be observed for another degree of the Pox that can nevertheless be clearly carried off by the inward Sudorisicks which do dissolve and attenuate the blood by new ebullitions provided that Nature be also assisted in her other evacuations At the time that this coagulation of the blood ceases by the separation of the different particles it then contains we may consider the beginning of its fermentation which is performed so much the more gently and by degrees as it met before with Obstacles to hinder it whence it comes to pass that this blood doth but only rise and boil by little and little though indeed this gentle ebullition fails not nevertheless to cause Symptomes very much different from those I have already spoken of and such as I shall remark hereafter For whil'st it lasts light vapours arise from it that are carried all over the body and do cause those inquietudes of mind and body
though oftentimes the gentlest desiccatives are sufficient to cure them in three or four days These Ulcers may indeed happen in all parts of the body because they are all capable of an impure Contact but the more tender and delicate ones are most subject to them by reason that the impure Salts do more easily stick in their susceptible substance whence it comes to pass that the Yards in Men the Privities in Women the Teats in Nurses and the Mouth in Infants are the parts which are most commonly infected with them 3. That which ought to be done towards their Cure while they are in this condition consists principally in drying them up like other Ulcers only regard must be had to the matter that causes them and proper Desiccatives employed for breaking the points of the Salts they contain and to oppose their penetration which is so much the rather to be feared as it is done insensibly The following Liquours will very well answer this first respect if you wash the Ulcers twice a day with them and lay Tents upon them that are dipt in these Liquours observing always to give such a strength to them as is most agreable proper to the particular Temperaments of the bodies and parts on which you shall apply them and this by encreasing the quantity of Pouders to render them the stronger or else that of the Waters to make them the weaker Take of the seventh Water of unslakt Lime one pound Spirit of Vitriol Salt of Saturn and Verdegrease of each half a drachme Or else Rose and Plantain Water of each half a pound Aqua-vitae two ounces Orpiment a drachme and a half Verdegrease two scruples Aloes half a drachm Or again white Wine a pound Rose and Plantain Water of each four ounces Orpin two drachmes Verdegrease one drachm Mirrh and Aloes of each a scruple Make the Liquours according to Art for the use above mentioned To answer the second respect that I remarked you must use both Purgatives and Diureticks if the Ulcers are upon the Yard of a Man the Genitals of a Woman or about the Groin of either of them or else you may use inwardly Sudorisicks that drive from the Center to the Circumference if they are in any other parts 4. It must be especially observed that the Purgatives which you shall make use of for this effect be strong enough to move Nature and help it to drive by Stool any impure matter that might have penetrated a little more inwardly than the Ulcers which appear to you and also that they be not violent enough to attract the Humours from the remoter parts for this attraction would help the matter to make a further penetration then it would otherwise have been able to do of it self and so cause by this means the universal Pox which you do endeavour to avoid And here you may take notice that the greatest part of Men are themselves the causes of the frauds and deceits that are done to them for there are very many who will never think themselves well purged unless they have felt excessive pains and cruel gripes in their guts and unless they go to Stool fiveteen or twenty times at least though to speak the truth Nature can never endure these extraordinary and violent Motions without the diminution or depravation of their Functions which nevertheless are the principal Agents in the separation and expulsion of Impurities If you desire therefore to avoid these excesses you 'll find nothing more safe than an Infusion of Senna with Salt of Tartar in which you may also dissolve the Syrups of Roses or Peachflowers proportionating the doses to the age and strength of the Patient you take in hand 5. The Diuretiks you must make use of to repel by Urine are Crystal Mineral which you may give from half a drachm to two or three and the Spirits of Vitriol and Sulphur from six to thirty drops in Pellitory Water or an Aperitive Ptisanne you may prepare with the Roots of Strawberries wild Succhory Grass and Dandelion Those of Parsly Fennil Sperage and Rest-harrow are much more aperitive than the former and divers forms of Ptisannes may be prepared with them that are useful indeed to some but may have very ill effect on persons extremely hot and dry as well as Radish-seed bruised and taken in white Wine which is notwithstanding a most powerful Aperitive For the Sudorisicks that are taken inwardly you may successively make use of the Spirit of Harts-horn which you may give in half a Glass of Carduus-water from six to twenty drops or a like number of grains of its volatile Salt dissolved in the same Water But among all you 'll find none to have a greater effect than the Pouder or volatile Salt of Vipers if you give the first from ten to thirty grains and the latter from five to fiveteen in equal parts of Cinnamon and Carduus-waters or in the Water that remains in the distillation of this same Salt 6. It remains to say that these Evils do not long continue under the Name of Ulcers simply for it is well known that the matter which causes them doth sometimes insinuate more deeply and by this means doth make another degree of the Pox but it more often happens that by long continuance in the exulcerated part it makes the Ulcers turn into Chancres after the manner I spoke of before Wherefore it is good to observe that you dress them in this condition with Escaroticks and Suppuratives because you must consume the hardness that is found in them for fear of leaving a ferment in the parts that might produce afterwards a far greater Evil than you are going to destroy They who follow the ordinary Practice in this case are content to apply Red Precipitate which in truth makes a skar when it is good but that a light and superficial one such as is not able to hinder the hardness from encreasing in latitude and profundity and from remaining also after their Cicatrice what time soever is employed towards their consumption Some do make use of sublimate Corrosive but besides that it causes intolerable pains during the Operation it attracts watry fluxions on the parts it is applyed to which are very hard to dissolve and do besides dispose the parts to a Gangrene and this principally in those parts that are near the passages which serve for expulsion of the Excrements The causes of these misfortunes and many others is an Errour of some ancient Authors that every body may easily be convinced of yet hath nevertheless been received by way of Tradition by the greatest part of those who have written ever since or do still write on this subject according to which Errour they represent Quicksilver to be like a Ferret that goes and searches out the Venereal matter in all parts of the body for to expel it thence presently as this little Animal doth the Connies out of their Holes For which Opinion nevertheless they have had no other proof
application of emollient Remedies such as are the Fomentations that I have described for the swelling of the Testicles or else the residence of the Decoction with which you may make Cataplasms for the same effect beating it and boiling it to the consistence of Pap. You may also make Liniments with the Oyl of Lillies Man's Fat or the Neapolitan Oyntment and apply thereupon the Plaster de Vigo or rather that of Mucilage with Mercury Some have found a great deal of help from a Fumigation that is raised from Aqua-vitae or Vinegar cast upon hot stones or bricks When the Carnosity shall have been a little mollified by these or other means you may make use of the Corrosives described before or put twelve grams of Sublimate Corrosive in an ounce of the Plaster of Mucilage which will assuredly prove of great effect if you use it dexterously that is to say if you apply it in a small quantity and this directly upon the excrescence Moreover I shall not speak particularly of those that happen to Women in the same passages by reason that you may also consume them with the Remedies I have already described and this also with much more ease than those which happen in the common passage or the Ureter of Men. 5. You must observe that the particular Poxes of which I have spoken are found to be sometimes accompanied with the universal Pox because it sometimes happens to appear just at the same time or the Venereal Salts are now and then so volatile and penetrant that they force against the opposition of Nature and its Preservatives In this case it is to no purpose to make use of the greatest part of the particular Remedies I have proposed since by taking away the universal Infection of the body by the general Remedies that will be described in the sequel of this Book you 'll destroy the Cause of the Disease wheresoever it may ly and the Accidents will easily vanish almost all of themselves by this means CHAP. III. Of the Natural Crises of the Universal Pox. 1. General division of the Crises of the Pox and why the Evacuations that follow the Application of its Remedies may be so called 2. Of the Natural Crises of the Pox and first of those that terminate it with other Diseases 3. Of those that are produced simply by the Opposition of Nature 4. Of Buboes and Poulains in particular SEeing the universal Pox doth consist in a general Infection of the body it cannot be-terminated but by such Crises as are able to carry away all its Impurities These Crises may be raised either by Motions purely Natural or else by the proper Actions of Mercury and the other Remedies I know well enough that those who stick closely to what the Ancients have taught will not allow of this division because according to them the Crises of Diseases are only the productions of Nature and not the effects of Remedies Whereupon it is necessary to remark that the Evacuations which follow the application of Remedies against the Pox and particularly that of Mercury must not be considered simply like those that are seen to follow when the Vessels are opened or after the use of Vomits and Purges because these last have always determinate Motions whereas those others I speak of are made either by the mouth or by the pores or siege or by urine according as Nature finds the Impurities or passages best disposed whence we may easily conclude that they are properly the works of Nature and that the Remedies which are employed for this effect do principally serve to move and dispose the bodies to their purification by an agitation of all the Humours 2. But to return to those which are caused by Motions purely Natural they may may be distinguished into such as are provoked by the Causes of some other Diseases which do render the Pox sometimes complicated or into such as are made simply by the opposition of Nature The Diseases which may cause the former are for Example the Plague Pleuresie and generally Feavours but principally those that are called Malignant whose Crises may be able to carry off the Pox because they never happen but after their Causes have procured a great ebullition in the blood by which Nature is sometimes so violently moved that she makes an extraordinary effort to separate all the Impurities that are mixed with it But seeing the Pox may be carried off after this manner as different ways as there are different Natural terminations of it and because this matter cannot be treated of here without confusion I shall not speak more amply of it but do believe it will be sufficient to explicate in this Chapter the other sorts of Crises which may be said to be peculiar to the Pox. 3. Seeing the Venereal matter is venomous subtile and penetrant it rarely makes its Attache any considerable time on the superficial parts without entring into the Vessels and mixing with the blood and as there is nothing more ordinary than those sorts of adhesion there would consequently be nothing more familiar than the universal Pox if Nature did not oppose its introduction and make use of all its force to hinder a mixture and insinuation that is so contrary to it Nay we see that she prevents as much as possible the disorder that this poison may be apt to make For when she is not able to escape its Introduction she knows how to act against it another manner of way by separating it from the Humours that are pure and driving it away with the ordinary Excrements through commodious passages These passages may be the same as serve also for Natural Purgations such as the Terms of Women and the regulated Hemorrhoides of certain Men or for extraordinary Evacuations as sordid Ulcers or lastly for the universal purification of the blood and the Emunctories But as the Venereal matter is driven almost insensibly through the former ways that I have mentioned seeing Nature hath no need of assistance in this Operation I shall not give any more precise explications of them and shall be contented to describe the means of making the Crise succeed well that often happens through the latter 4. Whereas the Genital parts do serve oftner than any other for the introduction of Venereal Salts the Groin which is very near them doth suffer the impure Tumours by which they are driven out more commonly than the other Emunctories after the same manner as the Humours that serve for a Crisis to the Pestilence do rather happen to swell under the Arm-pits because they are nearer the Breast which first received by inspiration the infected Air that caused this Disease But though it be easy to remark that those sort of Tumours are always made by some Critical Motion it is known nevertheless that the efforts which Nature makes on this account would often prove to no purpose if she were not seconded by the application action of Remedies that Physick does furnish us with
Providence of God had made them grow only for the Cure of those Countries where this Disease was supposed to have its origine but that they could not be transported so far as us without the loss and alteration of their Vertues These Propositions do not prove nevertheless that the Indians are better cured than we by the use of these Plants since I have proved in another place that the Pox hath still been in all places and at all times And it may be further added that if God had permitted the transportation of this Disease without alteration of its form he would also by the same Reason have permitted the transportation of its Remedies too without diminution of their Vertues Besides there would have been no need but only of augmenting the Doses to render the Compositions that were made of them more strong and active But that which particularly lets us see those people are not cured but only in appearance too by the Decoction of these Simples is that they do desiccate the bodies here as much or little less than they do in the Indies and that this desiccation doth make the Accidents often disappear for the present leave only the appearance of a Cure in so much that they do always cause a new fermentation afterwards and appear some other time more terrible than before Whatsoever you please to think of it it is certain this Opinion was at last found and acknowledged to be true and the greatest part of our Physicians began at last to disabuse themselves so that divers Essays were made to discover some other Remedy for this Evil. Our Apothecaries prepared for this effect divers sorts of Purgative and Vomitive Potions Antidotes and Cordial Confections Plasters Ointments and generally all kinds of Compositions of the Galenical Pharmacie The Chymists did not fail on their part to try their Elixirs their Arcanums Magisteries Quintessences and Extracts both Emetick Cathartick and Diaphoretick Lastly after a great many proofs of the like nature it was happily found out that those who had the Pox could be cured indeed by Frictions with Mercurial Ointments which served heretofore for the pretended Leprosie of which I have spoken before Nevertheless seeing these Sudorifick Decoctions did heretofore take away the appearance of it in some persons they were not neglected altogether and the esteem that had been made of them formerly did still contribute much to the use that hath been made of them since and is continued now a days which is to give them for preparing the Bodies on which Mercury is designed to be applied Moreover it is not hard to understand how the Accidents of the Pox can disappear for some time without destroying its Cause since it is evident enough by what I have already said in the First Section of this Book that it essentially consists in a venomous Salt mixt with the Blood which ferments and sets it a boiling so that during this Ebullition there continually arises out of the Vessels that contain it many vaporous or serous matters which produce different Symptomes according to their Quality or Quantity or Parts where they adhere Now seeing these same Matters can be easily consumed by Sudorificks Diureticks and generally by desiccative Remedies we must not at all wonder if their Effects do not appear for a time after the use of a Decoction of these Plants and if nevertheless the Ferment that raised up those Vapours do still continue mixed with the Blood since it is a Salt dissolved fermented and confounded with it that cannot be sufficiently carried off by matters that pass away so quickly I know very well it may be said that one can hardly believe how the Indians should be cured only in show and should be so long deceived without perceiving their errour But observe how I conceive that may be done Strumpets are there wonderful common and they make use of them with the Brutality that is usual to such as have little Religion in them which makes this disease so familiar among them that they have reason to think they contract it still anew again For indeed it is not at all likely that they should be oblig'd so frequently to reiterate their Cures as Histories and Relations tell us they do if they really had any assured Remedies to destroy this Disease in its Root I do not mean as I have already said that the Universal Pox can never be cured by these Sudorificks or by other Remedies more ordinary and common whilst it is yet but in its first degree that is to say when its Matter hath not been perfectly united with the Blood by a Fermentation But besides that this Degree doth continue but a little while it is not always liable to be rightly distinguished and Mercury doth carry it off with so much promptitude and facility that it were indeed vain to try other Remedies Notwithstanding that these Observations are founded both upon Reason and Experience and do prove by these two means that these Plants are not Specifick against this Disease we must avow nevertheless that there are some Occurrences wherein they may much contribute to the Cure seeing there are some Bodies that must be absolutely desiccated before the application of Mercury Wherefore it is necessary to take notice of the Observations that I have made on each in particular to know more precisely the use that must be made of them 2. The Wood Guaiacum gives a yellowish Tincture more sharp and more distasteful but also more desiccative than that of the other three Simples named before Some Authors pretend that this Effect proceeds from its Sudorifick vertue and others contend to prove that it is much more Diuretick but which soever it is 't is always true that it consumes the Phlegm and Serosities carrying them off either by Sweat or Urine And that these different motions do principally proceed from the internal disposition of those that use them since it is found by Experience that it doth make some sweat and others urine I have often observed that it may be rendred more proper to open the Pores by adding to its Decoction some French Barley which doth also render it sweeter and more agreeable We have reason also to believe that the manner of using it among the greatest part of Americans doth not a little contribute to the rendring of it Sudorifick for they first heat themselves by violent and extraordinary Exercises before they presume to drink of its Decoction and after they have drunk of it they lie in Cotton-beds hung up and so continually swinging which gives a new agitation to the Humours by such continued motions and makes them evaporate more easily by wayes already disposed We must grant indeed that the Volatil and Essential Salt which causes it to produce this Effect doth more abound in that which they employ than this that is brought over to us because they cut it fresh from young Trees and the Sprigs of old ones in which the Universal Spirit
The Observations which I have made on this subject and which every body might have made as well as I may perhaps prove sufficient for the Evidence of what was hitherto hid being also joyned with the Applications of them persons may make themselves In a word the many Experiments and Events would clearly have discovered the truth if men had been but curious enough to seek it out But whether it be that the knowledge of it was not judged necessary or that no body was willing to take the pains of acquiring it or else that those who possessed the knowledge of it were not willing to communicate what they knew it is very certain that no Author hath yet undertook to teach it and yet I cannot conceive how the Artificial Crises of the Pox can be perfectly explicated without letting see at the same time what it is that renders them so different 2. The ways through which the Venereal matter doth ordinarily pass in these sorts of Crises are either such as serve for Sweat or for passage of the Urine or expulsion of the grosser Excrements or especially those that serve for the Salivation The Crisis that is made through the first of these ways doth happen when the Mercury finds a great many Sulphurous Vapours which do serve for the matter of fat in bodies wherein it enters for as it doth ever mix willingly with Sulphurs and is already disposed to it by the division that hath been made of it with Resinous bodies it doth easily unite with fat and vaporous matters which render it more light more volatil and consequently more fit to follow their Motion from the Center to the Circumference But as this same Motion is in some manner contrary to the penetration which Mercury ought to make for sufficiently purifying the blood it often happens that this Crisis is but imperfect unless Nature her self be that way exceedingly disposed 3. Some bodies are found to be so filled with a Tartarous Salt or other matters of the Nature of Alkalis that the Mercury which enters into them precipitates downwards by their means and the Impurities are carried off by Siege But as these matters do not hinder the Mercury from-penetrating into all the parts this Crisis is much more certain than the former especially when the Physician helps Nature to act by often-repeated Purges and Diureticks 4. That which causes the Mercury and Venereal Salts to be sometimes carried off by Urine is that Acids are found in some bodies near in as great a Number as Alkalis is in others The truth of this Opinion may be easily proved for every body knows that Acids taken inwardly become Diuretick and the Observations upon Mercury do shew that they may be sublimated by Heat when joyned with it and that they can be precipitated by Alkalis even after this Sublimation Now you may perceive by what I have said that the property of Acids is to carry off Phlegm and Serosities by way of Urine but that they are not able to produce this effect when joyned with Mercury and agitated by the Natural Heat unless Alkalis do also sufficiently abound to precipitate it downwards Furthermore seeing impure Salts are easily dissolved in watry substances and this Crisis hath very much affinity with that which is made by Salivation I conceive it must be more perfect than the other two when its Evacuations continue long and large enough 5. As 't is the property of Leaven to extend it self in the things that ferment and render them hereby of a like Nature so the Venereal Salts do dissolve in the blood extend themselves into all parts of the body and render by this means almost all the Humours sharp and Acid. This is the reason why the Salivation is the most ordinary Crisis of the Pox that is provoked by the help of Mercury because it charges it self with these Acid Liquours in so great a measure that nothing is able to carry it off so well by the other ways I mentioned And it is this which may be esteemed the surest of all to cure this Disease for besides that it is very seldom seen to fail when well managed the Circumstances which do accompany it make us judge the better of its goodness It is remarkable in the first place that its Motion is from below upwards and is commonly equal moderate and without any interruption which shews that Nature acts rather of her own accord than by the meer force of the Remedy Moreover all the Acid and impure Humours do ascend so sensiby with the Mercury that this mixture is near of the same quality with the dissolution of this Mineral in the Spirit of Niter or Aqua fortis in so much that being driven up by the Heat there is made a kind of Sublimate Corrosive which exulcerates all the parts of the Throat and Mouth and penetrates them so exceedingly that their Vessels are opened and blood runs out of them for some days until the matter becomes less acrimonious by a smaller quantity of Acids Impostors who give the Salivation to such as have not the Pox make these Ulcers pass for effects of the Malignity of Venereal Salts that they may the better conceal their Villanies by such perswasions But you must observe that they do indeed happen as well to such as have not the Pox as those who really have it because they are produced by the mixture I lately spoke of or by reason that there are Acid Juyces in all Men generally in a word because the Mercury is soon sublimated passes quickly and doth but lightly heat the Mouth in those who have too few Acids to govern its Motion unless the other matters which I have spoken of do train or draw it some other ways So that the Ulcers of the Mouth and Throat ought to be considered as inseparable Accidents of this Crisis whatsoever Indispositions it may be intended for 6. Moreover you may know it in its beginning by the agitation of the Pulse the inquietudes of Mind and Body the diminution or entire loss of appetite by the retiring of the Eyes heat of Mouth swelling of the Gums and Lips thickness of the Tongue stink of Breath pain of Teeth whiteness of the Palate and interruption of sleep When you shall find the Crisis to approach by all these Signs you must forbear your Frictions Fumigations and generally all Mercurial Remedies to avoid Suffocation and other accidents which Mercury doth cause when given in too great a quantity But if its application hath been reasonably well performed in a Body rightly prepared there will succeed to the Signs I named a continual trickling of white phlegm in a long thread which will at first run but gently but will augment by degrees for nine days time so that the more Phlegmatick persons may be able thus to spit up to eight pounds in four and twenty hours and others in proportion In the first days of the sublimation of Mercury the Belly receives some commotion
than he that is able to live like other men by advancement of years Notwithstanding there is no necessity of giving different Methods for all Ages because the many various Intentions Respects and Remedies which I have already mentioned may also serve for the Cure of Infants only observing a due proportion of them to their small condition But it is needful nevertheless to prescribe the particular Method of curing well the smallest of all that so having examples before you of the greatest and least you may the more easily judge of the quality and quantity of things which ought to be employed in the different degrees of mediocrity 3. So soon as you shall have discover'd the Pox in an Infant that sucks you must first of all endeavour to discover the person that did communicate it to the end you may remove such person before you entreprise any thing After which you must choose a good Nurse to contribute towards the purification of his blood by the use of wholsom Milk which you must carefully preserve in all its purity by prescribing her a good Dyet and separating your little Patient from her and you must give him Milk only with a little spoon or else with fine Linnen that he may suck after 't is dipt in it But you must know that the Milk of a Goat well fed is infinitely to be preferred before that of an unsound Woman It will be necessary to purge him in the beginning of all with a little Water of Cassia or the Syrup of Roses and repeat this Purge several times according as he is more or less replete You may prepare a Ptisanne for him with a handful of French-Barley and three or four drachms of China-root which you may boil in three Quarts of common Water to the diminution of the third part adding to it toward the end a little Licorice after you have passed it ten grains of Crystal Mineral for to give him to drink or suck of from time to time day and night After having opened by this means the common passages of the Excrements you may rub the bottom of his Feet every third day with a drachm of the following Ointment Take a drachm or a drachm and a half of Mercury revived from Cynnabre and kill it in two ounces of the Balsom of Arceus adding afterwards six ounces of Hogs-grease well washed and make use of it six or eight times the way I have told you If these first Frictions don't procure a Flux or do cause some other sort of Crisis you must even continue them without other Mystery as long as they shall be thought necessary or else you may make them stronger by the augmentation of the Dose of the fore-said Ointment with half a drachm or more for each Friction and by employing it partly on the Feet and partly on the hands During the time of the Critical Evacuations you may give him every six days two or three grains of the volatil Salt of Vipers dissolved in a little of the Tisanne described before and you may prefer this same Remedy before all the Treacle Philosophical and Sudorifick Waters from whence some Authors do promise such false wonders Now the most important precept I have to give you on the account of little Infants is to treat them as gently as they have but little strength and to spare neither time nor pains to encrease their small strength or at least to preserve it for if you weaken them by the force of your Remedies you 'll miserably drive them into an inevitable death instead of curing them as you designed seeing the Operation of Medicaments is always either dangerous or unuseful if it be not seconded by the efforts of Nature CHAP. VII Of the Misfortunes which may follow the Application of Mercury 1. The Causes of the Death of some that are infected with the Pox and the Causes of the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury 2. What are those Accidents 3. General Remedies that serve to put a stop to their Violence 4. Particular Remedies for the Cure of them 1. THough the Pox be not a Disease mortal of it self and I hold it curable in all its degrees it is true nevertheless that Men may dye of it as I have said before when its matter hath corrupted or destroyed the parts without which there is no living when one infected with it hath fallen into the unhappy practices of Ignorants and Impostors Lastly when careless Physicians do not soon enough remedy the Accidents which sometimes happen after the Application of Mercury Not but the precepts which I have given are almost infallible for curing this Disease suddenly easily and surely and hardly can they fail in one of a thousand when they are regularly observed But there are some dismal Circumstances which it is impossible to remove For besides that Men are necessarily mortal the true Cause of their Death is often unknown the time of it cannot be avoided and the Cacochymie of bodies is now then so very great that it cannot possibly receive Correction to which may be added that there are some inward Dispositions which can no way be known or there is no possibility of taking away Whence it comes to pass that the success of this undertaking is not always so happy as we could wish and Accidents may indeed happen which could in no wise be expected to which nevertheless we ought to adhibite Remedies with all manner of care and exactness which are things greatly necessary in all Occasions where Life and Death are concerned 2. Now though all these Causes are of the same consequence it would be but a vain attempt to deliver the means of destroying them all since that some of them cannot be known and others cannot possibly be removed It may be sufficient to say something of the ill Tempers of Bodies and the too great quantity of Mercury which may be made enter into them because they are the usual Causes of all the Accidents which follow its application and there are none but may happen by reason of them For when all the things that cool and moisten have been used to no purpose for quenching the Fire and correcting the dryness of an extraordinary Melancholick body there is often found to follow a loosness accompanied with unsufferable gripes pains and which soon leaves a constipation behind that causes an Inflammation of the Entrals Brest Throat and Mouth with difficulty of Breathing Swallowing and Speaking which Symptoms soon begin a Fever that in a small time becomes violent enough to sublimate the Mercury up to the Brain and thereby cause Swoonings Phrensies Convulsions and very often Deafness and Blindness Apoplexies and Palsies or lastly Death it self if care be not suddenly taken to prevent it by due applying fit Remedies against this train of misfortunes In like manner if the Dyet drying Decoctions and strong Sudorificks have not been used sufficiently to make a convenient alteration of a very