past remedy And it is indeed from no small mixture of this base Allay in the Opinion of some who using the Physicians help altogether uncapable of Privacy to their Escapes by putting so smal value on their Pains Industry that the aspiring Improvement in this Art is likewayes clog'd But indeed this robbing of Art to enlarge and dignifie Natures Empire over and with all effects may be properly both resembled and confuted by takeing a glance of that grosness which possessed the Indians when they took Ships for great Animals here being nothing but the not comprehending the Artificial Intrigue of their structure the chief cause of their Phoenomena that gave rise to that Mistake and Error So likewise there being many products that to a shallow and overly view althô they bear the Resemblance rather of Nature than Art as a Watch appeared to a certain King of the Indians to be a living Creature when he asked what kind of Food it lived on yet such Products to those having the Eyes of the Mind capable by a more diving sagacious and polished Inquiry to make exact and full survey will impress and display their true Nature This Capacity being the absolute condition to get true Knowlege without mixture of Imposture no wonder then through want thereof that the busie active and restless part of Man which is still judging be precipitat unto Mistakes and Errors in the Dark And indeed this Turkish fixing of Fate in spight of all Endeavours did it ever hinder any to pull his drowning Friend out of the water or a Choaking bone out of his Throat the stop put to Death in his full Carrier and the warding of the most potent and direct Thrusts of Fate being here conspicuous and Diseases being as certain thô more private and hardly stopt Leaks to let in Death at which never makes passages but only enters in at these which Nature has left open when Art fails to observe and close them also seing the facultys of the Mind as well as the Organs of the Body by their natural Strength and Exercise by Application or other Artificial Helps may attain to many degrees of Perspicacity Activity and Perfection beyond what they will be without these or in one Man under the Advantages of these more then in any other without them that the difference especially in sensible things is even Stupenduous Why may not then such Improvement upon the ground of Natural Vigour make the Mind Susceptible of many Impressions giving both Light and Knowledge to espy these private Posterns Death makes use of and also to find the means to stop close them here also be had as certain evidences of warding off death as in the other caise thô as proper only to these having such enduements as the seeing the danger and relief of a drowning Man is proper only to these that are not blind And that Conspiracy frequently entered into against our Lives by Deaths Agents second Causes tho through its depth and cunning it s above the Vulgar sight to discover and capacity to prevent and stop yet as it may be reached by the eye of the sagatious circumspect Medical Politician may also be counteracted by his power and Art And it being also very probable that the Body seeming a curious machine motion is the main ingredient if not the very Essence of our Lives the period whereof consists in a total and permanent stop put thereto and the Integrity of that motion depending on the soundness of the first mover the matter moved and the passages through which motion is made it seems this Machine is as well as others subject to many disorders and as other engines have their particular Arts subservient to their Regulation and Redintegration which by picking out the causes thereof may by convenient instruments and means remove their Stops and help their Disorders why may not Art likewise take place in relation to the distempers of the oeconomie of man were it for no more then to save the Irritancy of a great part of the Creation which seem pregnant with these advantages to Mankind but being rejected for Instruments or Means here seem of little or no use at all And further what great difference both in the Advantage and Pleasure may be perceived betwixt Nature going wild at random and liberty and the same subjected to Artificial Culture and Improvement As may be seen in the difference betwixt wild Fields and well cultivat Gardens yet such as neither perceive nor know Arts Influence here would certainly give the honor of these improvements only to Nature And as Nature furnishes Matter in some cases for Art to work on thô in others Nature furnishes only occasion by its stopps disorders into which it may be brought rather from other causes then any thing within it self And so may not Art be usefull as a Confederate and alley to help and rectify Nature in the Straits and Dâ—sorders of the machine of our Bodies And as in the Regulating and Helping of all other Engynes there may be imployed several degrees of Art and Skill as for example in a most Curious and Ingenious clock the disorders especially such as come by misguiding may some oâ— them be restored by the proper Skill of the owner while for others that are more difficult he must borrow the Advice Help and Instruments of a more Expert Artist yet these that does not know or belive there are any more expert must conclude that the Masters proper Skill and Instruments alwayes does the Fait Why may it not be just so about this machine the keeper master whereof Nature making considerable Efforts and Essays for redentigration of it's disorders but when these are frustraneous then the acceâ—sion of the Skill and Tools of the Expert Physician is seasonable unless it fall out here as likewayes in other Machines it often times fals out that the disorder tending to it's dissolution be in the order of Reparation incurable and so requiring the Capacity and Skill of an yet higher Artist contriver and maker of that Engyne import rather the Creation of a New then the Reparation of the Old one Neither does this so much disparage the skil of the lesser Artist as extol the admirable inimitable Art of the first and cheif Architeck in displaying so much Stupenduous Skill in that curious Contrivance of a piece of work which being maimed in it's substantial and Essential parts and motions is nowayes Redintigrable by minor Artists Now the fruitlesness of Physicians endeavours resolves alwayes in some of these viz. Either in the want of dew administration of such promising helps as the Art does really afford and that either by the fault of the Patients or other assistants This is by an unjust Ignorance Pinned on the Physician And nixt it may depend on the Physicians not discovering and curing what through Art and Industry being perceiveable is also cureable And this does indeed taint him with a certain
World their sâ—ntiments in Medicine ours has been so little taken with the Itch of writing on that subject that they have modestly kept their thoughts to themselves And indeed I as one of the least should have been swallowed up with silence in the vast gulf of time with the rest unless the like case that is reported to have befallen the Son of Craesus had befallen me For he having been from his birth dumb seing a Souldier set upon his Father the vehement fervency breaking the bonds that keeped his Tongue fettered cryed out Souldier do not kill Craesus and indeed the like seeming to have hapened to me has had likewayes the same effect For I having been alwayes Tongue-tied as to this manner of speaking that is writting until I perceived the Endeavours of some to attack not only my Name and Fame but which is far more to assault with Calumnies and Reproaches the most genuine and solid Methods of Medicine about the Cure of Continual Fevers invented and delivered by that Expert Dr Thomas Sydenham and very earnestly embraced by me as having found them most succesful by experience In so much that for some time bygone in which Fevers have been very fatal to this place there has been few that died thereof which fame as much tenacious of depraved fictions as a Messenger of Truth has not scattered far and wide to have been destroyed by me or this Method Whence fearing a danger yet more from â—his that by the neglect of this most excellent Method in this manner noted with Infamy many of my Countrey-men and Neighbours may be indangered or lost what wonder is it then if so great evils private and publick excite in me such an ardor as brusting the bonds of my Tongue also make me poure forth these faltering words And further as in some cases evil manners use to beget good Laws so perhaps in this caise Reproaches and Calumnies producing Defences against them may also produce and display more plainly the truth and real improvements Since then my Reputation seems to suffer Martyrdom for the Publick Concerne and Safety all kind of reproaches being liberally bestowed on me for this Cause and seing I despise my Private utility in respect of the publick Commodity And neglect the dictats of Self-interest that whispers to me that it were easier to go in the broad way with the multitude or at least to keep such a notable Improvement to my self then to have left that way and invite all to be partakers with me in that discoverie I hope then what I write will be the more acceptable to all good and ingenuous Men. Having also set before me that mark and more Noble Aim the general good of Mankind I suppose I may reach it the more happily by treading the path of true Vertue and injuring or reproaching no Man Yea not so much as indirectly unless when I am hampered in the difficulty requiring private Reputation or Commodity to be offered up for publick safety As when these offer to start up in the way to barâ— out this or any other Improvement As few in this place are ignorant of the occasion which gave rise to the Calumnies with which I complain this Method and my self to be blundered so there is few that know the real truth and Circumstances of the thing as it was acted Wherefore I presume it will not be unacceptable to ingenious Persons to hear a faithful Relation of the whole matter If by vertue of the advancement with which the writings of the Sagacious Dr. Sydenham had before inriched Medicine the rest of his dictats should vindicate to themselves as their due authority and trust I for my part did alwayes think that these were most deservedly to be bestowed upon them Especially since I had found his former Improvements being subjected to the Touchstone of Experience and Practice so seldom to defeat the expectation and wishes But in the Year 1687 perusing the first Edition of his Schedula Monitoâ—ia where he delivers as confirmed by manifold experience not only a new but a quite contrarie Method to the common of Curing Continual Fevers I did long hesitat thinking that either he or all other Physicians were grosly deceived about the Cure of Fevers if not as their Patients use to be they were in an high Delirium and lest the preconceived opinion that I had of the Mans Ingenuity should so far impose upon my Credulity as to draw me into an error likewayes with him and make me to experiment that method when I knew not but I might run the hazard to sacrifice some to my Temerity nothing could settle my tossed thoughts below the sight and knowledge of the thing it self Presently therefore hastning to London and having met with the Man and exposed the occasion of my coming I found all these tokens concerning him and his Practice that use to beget in warry and prudent People making serious Inquiry Trust and Knowledge Then after some Months spent in this Society returning home as much overjoyed as I had gotten a Treasure I presently set my self to that Practice Which has proved so succesful to me that since that time of the many Fevers that I have treated none were unoured except my Lord Creichton whose case is related here And another Woman whose dangerous circumstances made her condition hopeless And among those that were cured as there were some afflicted with that disproportion of the Symptomes and other â—ircumstances commonly denoting malignity which may extâ—l the efficacy of the Method So there were some of my nearest Relations as my Wife six of my Children taken also with pernicious Fevers thereby likewayes cured which is an evidence of my sufficient proof of the Method But in the mean time what proportion of these that are medicate by the common Method is lost which whither it be by the force of the Disease or by the Method it seems highly the Physicians concern to enquire Coming then to my Lord Creichton the sixteenth day of his Fever when he was given over by all for dead his Grave Cloaths being prepared I did reason with my self if exposing the credit of this Method yet in the Infancy to such an hazard it should receive the foil it would surely be a difficult task to bring it in grace especially with the Vulgar But on the other hand weighing if I could astipulate the Method with one or more of such Instances of success that this would by great steps and more then the ordinary progress of many Years elevate its Authority and Credit And so I should hastning that pace of Improvement to the great benefit of Mankind superate these obstinate difficulties put by humane Infirmitie not to say worse making such always slow in advance For in so far only as they have Authority the best and most salutiferous Methods do only streach their Protection and Safe-guard And further I being seized with a most ardent desire of the safety of that Noble Person there
matter and this seemes a case altogether beyond Art to repair Or its Fault is dependent and that is either when its Energie is augmented as when the Humours or Organs do not yield to its due Impulse then to attaine its end it adds more force Which often making the motion to be propagated beside the designe terminates in Collisions and Reflections As if the Impellent were affected with Fury or Anger As is seen in Convulsions and Histerick Affects and in Fevers Or the Impellent may be vitiated by its Energie diminished as when it is stupified and Inviscat by gross Humores as is seen in many Chronick Affects The Aptitude of the moveable matter in the solid parts is vitiate by their rigidity which depends upon gross Humors that fill up their Fibres or their Junctures or Hinges upon which in their motion they are turned the fault in the liquide parts such as the Humors whither Alimentitious or Excrementitious depends upon there grosness or viscosity also which soon begets slowness Imprinting a blemish upon the functions eluding the end of the oeconomy Notwithstanding the Incitation of the Impellent and its outmost Effort to attain the end of the oeconomy The faults of the Channels Vessells consists either in their straitning obstructing or Scabricity Which alwayes depend unless when they are from an external and compressing Cause upon the same grosness of Humors stuffing their Chanells Coats or Fibres So the fundamental cause of most if not all Diseases seemes to be the grosness of the Humores causing their slowness making soon bad Impressions upon the functions To overcome which providing the Impellent be veget and not Inviscat it stirs up struglings whence comes Orgasimes Reflections other depravations of motion as consequential to the attemps for obtaining the due measures of its motion Now from this Easie Obvious Hypothesis the Nature of Fevers is here clearly enucleat whilst Authors feign many Chimerical Phantasmes to explain the Phaenomena by which they become rather the more Intricat It seemes likewayes not improbable that the moveable fluide Matter being deprived of its due motion acquires various Configurations of its minute parts which make it troublesome to the Fibres or Channels of the Vessels and this seems withal to be the Immediat Material cause of many Depravations of motion such as Refractions Reflections and Collision raised by the incitation of the Impellent and so from the complication of these the varietie of symptoms and the indefinite multitude of Diseases is begotten And even as that motion of the blood commonly called Circulation or Circuit of the blood did strangelie ly in the dark for many Ages and was with difficultie received by many because which was often brought to its reproach that although it seemed to illustrate the Theorie of Medicine yet it made no improvement in the practice thereof so now that noble invention will not only be delivered from that reproach but will be yet further imbellished if we can evince this motion of the blood vitiated viz. its slowness depending upon grosness to be if not of most diseases yet the nearest and continent cause of continual Fevers And moreover if it can be shown of what Concatenation or Complication of causes this nearest cause by order or congress is fomented how many fruitful solid indications altogether formerly in the dark may there be drawn from thence especiallie seing we may be furnished with sufficient means to satisfie these indications that either by the correction intercepting or eradicating of those causes being distinctlie known And so I have expede this method of the famous Sydenham Theoretically and Practically with as much Brevitie and Perspicuitie as I could but with what fruit or fate I know not but if this essay be received with the same Ingenuitie it is offered if it do not reach to the full design it will at least as is hoped be favourablie constructed For many may run at a prize but only one enjoyes it And amongst all that have attempted to make discoveries none has been so happy as to discover all but one has found out one thing and another an other thing And Chance rather than Art hath led many Searchers beyond their Intensions to discover notable things Some whereof may bring light and other some may bring Fruit to medicine out of which the succeeding Ages by a prudent choice may perhaps gather materialls to compile a more solide Systeme especially of Practical medicine then is yet extant To which whither or not this attempt may contribute any thing let others judge but not these that by their precipitant sentences against this method have made themselves parties in this Plea If no other advantage come of this design this at least I hope may be the effect of it that as the barking of the little Dogs raises the courage of the great ones so these aimes may rouse to the more profound diving into the sublime and obscure Nature of Fevers these Quibus ex meliori luto finxit praecordia Titan. But whatsomever benefit or advantage may come to the Publick by this design unto my self praise or advantage I expect none because herein having ingaged against so many who perhaps esteeming themselves obscured and consequence not a little injured will necessarlie therefore become picqued and follow closs the opportunitie and advantages of their resentment It being also very certain that in proportion as this Essay appeares fraught with any benefite to Mankind that the wicked Serpentine brood still big with malice and envious of the good of Men and which was never more Dominant then at this time Will rake all the corners of Hell for Venom to bespatter it with And this may be a Grave marke by which Honest Men that are not so very Penetrating may Judge whither it contains any thing useful or not And as it falls out for the most part in the World that man makes but a sorry bargain who gratifies one to the altho but supposed detriment of another the resentment of the injury often proving more heavy then the result of gratitude for the benefite done can any wayes allay Reveng being a natural is also a rank thriving-weed in the mind of man Whereas gratitude being like an exotick plant requires diligent culture to make it grow there But above all benefits done to the publick meeting with least acknowledgment and recompense having so many concerned have for the most part therefore none concerned do therefore strangly expose the Benefactor to the resentments of thâ—se that suppose themselves injured for private and publick Interest seem to be alwayes at war where the publick receives the foill And indeed therefore I might have consulted my own praise and profit more by treading the broad way and beaten path with the multitude thô with ever so much hurt to Mankind But this is not all for the World is no more Barren of gratitude and acknowledgment than it is fertil and productive of
trice overturnes our Hopes and Comforts doth therefore make the loss of Life more bitter and grievous This Disease seeming to Envie and Prevent other Languishing Distempers or Wrinckled Age in the spoil of Beauty and ruine of Strength triumphs in their Sudden and Unexpected downfall And by the cruell Ravage it makes out-does a leisurely dissolution in dismal effects both upon the Souls and Estates of many Mortals Men being thereby in surprize hail'd out off the arms of seemingly perfect Health Security throw the vale of miserable delirium stupidity or Distraction precipitated into the Shades of the other World life here being taken by furious storme has all the dreadful effects of a Pitiful saccage while a leisurly dissolution gives oportunity for Preparation to make Peace with the great Monarch whose Messenger Death is and for a honourable and happy Surrender And now since all this is done under the Presidence of a Government whose trust makes it the concernment thereof to inquire narrowly whither negligence or mistake may give occasio to the Course of so sudden a Devastation this makes it no less the Credit of Faithful Physicians then the Common interest of Mankind to put the Cure of this disease to appear in the first rank for Tryal Reformation and Improvement And may also shew the reason and necessity of our going so far back and making a Ramble to rally up the whole force of that obligation lying on the Physician to diligence and Improvement and to conjure down negligence and araigne all vulgar errors and mistakes capable to stiffle or deprave Improvement in this particular Subject or any other in that Art Such indeed seeming to stand like Mountains in the way by serious consideration therefore deserve first to be removed and levelled In Pursuing then of this Improvement of the Cure of continuall Fevers it comes to be observed that althô the remote and Antecedent cause of this and most part of other Diseases seems to be a load of Humours often viscide yet scarce do we understand the specifical essence of this or that humor which excites this or that symptome and produces the variety of diseases except in so far as the nature of the place it clogs produces the symptoms and this being a purely Mechanical reason gives but little light to the specifique quality thereof far less can we tame these noxious humours with specifique or appropriate Remedies which were indeed the best expeâ—imental improvement were it known unless in somuch as the cortex pernvianus seeming to be the specifique of intermittents is known And altho some essay to explain the essence of Diseases lodge it in such modification of the figure quantity and motion of the particles of matter in respect of the pores fibers and channels of any Bowel or Organe which make obstruction impression of pain irritation convulsion and the rest of the sâ—mptoms competent to this or that Organe which modifications seing they cannot as yet be determined and pitched on as by their subtilty escaping the Edge of the sharpest Ingine neither can these be reached or subdued by way of Indication Therefore as yet all our certain cure and curative indications are directed not against the continent and nearest cause but only against the antâ—â—edent cause or fewel of the disease to wit to carry off the load of humours and not to attacque its specifique and evil quality that being seldom if ever hit and if at any time but by a very faint blow and althô the specifique cure providing it were known would be both the shortest and surest yet this cure might ly open to the like hazard that sometimes falls out in the Cure of intermittents by the copious use of the bark which as our worthy Author observes are sometimes thereby translated into a scrobutique rhumatisme the morbifique matter being divested of one specification or modification puts on another Seing there is no specifique cure pretended to in continual Fevers their cure must then lean on some indication which false Theory and long custome has made to degress and decline to the satisfying the common indication of attenuation of the Febril matter and expulsion thereof throw the pores of the skine some forceing it by a milder some by a stronger and all urging it by some degree of Diaphoresis but still without any triumphant or solid yea rather with many lamentable and funest experiences This indeed were no unfit Design or Method if the morbifique matter were so thin and little and sticking in the superfice of the Body that it might easily yield to the impulse of Diaphoretiques But on the other hand where the matter or at least the fewel of the Disease is copious viscide and besets the first wayes the Ventricle intestines and mesentery in so far as you attenuate and force that matter by Diaphoretiques in proportion ye shal translate and turn the antecedent cause lurcking there into the continent and nearest cause of the Disease to wit by subliming that viscide and obstructing matter into the mass of Blood and habit of the Body which shall further exasperate the tumult of the Fever and overwhelm the natural efflux and reflux of the Blood and thereafter this matter being carried from the mass of Blood into Head and region of the nerves will likewise excite there symptoms competent to them being so infested till at length nature unable to wrestle under such a load of viscous matter poured in upon the Blood and Nerves wholly despirited and overwhelmed must succumb And that such an viscous slimy and copious Matter is at least the antecedent cause and fuell of many Fevers perchance also of all can be made evident not from any Ratiocination but from Antopsia or Sense it self For in several Fevers especially these accompanied with delirium or raving there has frequently been seen a great quantity of such touch flegm sometimes evacuat by stooll sometimes by Vomit and that only by putting the Finger into the Throat after which evacuation almost an total ease of all the Symptomes but chiefly of the delirum or raving did follow until that after some dayes the matter reâ—ruiting and regurgitating and bringing the same Symptoms required a reiteraâ—ed evacuation which was signalised with the former benefit and so furth as the plenty of the matter required until a perfect Evacuation Cured the Disease What novice in Medicine will judge such plenty of Viscidity and Slime could be with advantage or safety forced into the Mass of Blood to be expelled throw the Pores of the Skin or that it can be so attenuate especially under the languid natural Heat of Persons in Fevers that it be noways hurtful or obstructing when it comes to the small capillar Vessels As to the rest of Medicaments used in Fevers as Refrigerants subservient to the indication of Refrigeration since it can be shown that heat is nothing of the essence of Fevers that their proper effect is to encrease the viscidity
in his Book lately emitted concerning The acute Diseases of Children which containing several remarkable Observations do also contain his Testimony from the page 45. unto the 51. In these words saying after I had used for some years the like Method in Cure of Childrens Fevers I durst not venture on the same in adult Persons until I most happily met with the first edition of the Monitory Schedule of that incomparable Practitioner D. Sydenham and finding that Method approven of in adult Persons by the experience of that most Sagacious Man as much overjoyed as I had gotten a great favour from Heaven I presently set on to try that Method in adult Persons also and found it no less succesful then I had found it before in Children and a little after he proceeds saying For his discovery of the Cure of Fevers and many other his notable Improvements I hope that every Age so long as Medicine shall flourish shall publish his Name for the great Ornament and Light of this Age. Sydenham has with an extraordinary Courage and Ingenuity compleated the Cure of Fevers both by sufficient Reason and by Experience and Practice concerning which others have given nothing but words SECT VI. Containing the Opinion of some Authors concerning the Nature of Continual Fevers and the same from Reason rejected which makes it necessary to inquire for a more probable one in relation to the clearing their nature and this Method of their Cure NOw to make this Method every way compleat it is convenient as was insinuate in the beginning after the manner that a practical Discipline ought to be treated to essay if from this Experiment and Method of Cure of Fevers we can draw any unstrained and probable Theory Which inquiry necessarly presuposes the Nature and Essence of Fevers seeming yet altogether to ly in the dark to be narrowly searched into and exposed Having first weighed and eventilate what the Ancients and Neotericks has delivered concerning the Nature and Essence thereof The first then and which is the Opinion common to most Authors placing the Essence of a Fever in a Preternatural heat kindled in the heart and diffused by the Blood through all the Body indeed seems a very improper Metaphorical Description For the Heart is compared unto a Chimney neither is there a fewel capable of accension determined there being no fewel in the Body proper to foment a Fire but all as liquid and aqueous contrary thereunto And although in a Fever there be a great heat the same can be made clearly to depend upon another Principle then any thing of accension as shall be afterwards shown and also seing intense Heat is only accidental to a Fever and may be absent therefrom or present therewith It can be nothing of its essence more then the rest of the symptoms are for in the cold Paroxisme of Intermittents it is absent for a while with the presence of an Intense cold And in some algid Fevers it is always absent yea in fevers that are esteemed malignant it is very mild and nothing beyond the degree usual in health for it s reckoned commonly a sign of malignity when the heat does not rise proportionably with the other Symptoms And farther if Heat were of the Essence of Fevers in respect there is no distinct Species of Heat but all the difference thereof is gradual by Intention or Remisson it must undoubtedly follow that there can be no distinct Species of Fevers but only that they are gradually different which is against the commonly received Opinion As to that qualification of Heat that it is preternatural It may be obvious to any that seriously perpend the matter that no Heat is preâ—ernatural thô its cause may be said to be so For Heat is nothing else but a natural and genuine Passion imprinted in the â—ense by the presence and energy of a calorifique Efficient Neither can it be any more said to be against Nature then pain can be It being most natural for pain to be raised upon the action of a dolorifique Efficient And so furth necessarly and naturally all the rest of the Passions are made by impressions of the object impressing in the subject receiving But that the speculation of Heat must be more subtile then to be inlightned by the common and dark explications thereof may appear from that common Phoenomenon of the breath which being leisurely blown out imprints upon â—he hand a sense of Heat when this same breath with force blown out gives a sense of coldness thereon this diversification insinuates the Impression of Heat to consist in a modification of the motion of the Particles perhaps in a thwart transverse and tottering motion some thing resembling Refraction or Reflection And that cold on the other hand is Imprinted by a direct motion from which a true Idea of Heat subservient to the true explication of Fevers may be perhaps clearly drawn afterwards Nixt follows the opinion of Willis who reasonably rejecting that of the Ancients placed his in a notable â—ffervescence of the blood humours This ingenious Philosophical Physician doth with great fervor bend both his own Brain and the Subject to establish a certain effervescence in the blood of the Feverish persons proportionable to the Fermentation of Liquors He nowayes taking notice that all the Circumstances and Conditions requisite to the fermentation of Liquors are not only wanting in the generation of Fevers but the contrary are present free eventilation and rest of Liquors to be fermented being necessary conditions But in the blood the eventilation stopped frequently is the cause and condition of Fevers And furder the circuit motion of the blood will hinder its fermentation as it falls out in Liquors which are to be fermented requiring rest Neither did any ever see in the Blood of Persons in Fevers any signes of fermentation but rather tokens of viscosity and grosness Signifying coagulation Neither can the Phaenomena in Fevers be so commodiously explained from that Effervescence as from the contrary Coaleseence of which afterward There is another Opinion of Cartesius affirming a Fever to be the Perturbate mixture of the Blood which description does rather darken the subject unless he should teach us in what the Natural mixture did consist And how the Perturbation thereof should excite a Fever and the manner of the dependence of the Phaenomena upon that Perturbation And seeing he seems to insinuat a determinate Order and Position to be naturally requisite to the Particles of the Blood and the Disturbance of these to make a Fever It is very difficult to understand how the Particles of the Blood should be carried from the Heart so rapidly throw the smal branches of the Artry's and keep that Order or how they should again make up their ranks in their reflux throw the Veins back again to the Heart As for the Opinion of Paracelsus making a Fever to be the accension of Sulphur and Niter or an Vniversal Excandescence
end then it must necessarly double its Force and Stroaks Otherwayes every light Impediment or Obstacle which were equivalent to and of equal moment and Force with the moderate and odinare career of the motion of the Blood would put a stop thereto And indeed there is in a River something of a resemblance of this faculty thô from an other kind of efficient yet for the same or the like end For any Impediments put to barr or dam up a River are soon overpoised by the swelling Force of the Water above them till in proportion it overcome the strength of the stop Now if it were otherwise every Impediment equivalent only to the present current of the River either put by Accident or Designe would interrupt their course to the great hurt of Mankind and the blemish of the Worlds fabrick Seing then the returnes of Reparation to the parts and functions ought to be made both in time and quantity in proportion to the waste by the efflux of the Arterial Blood from the Heart as the vehicle and thorow the arterys as the conduites of these recruites When this is done vegetlie integrally without any stop or delay then redounds felicity ease and integrity of the functions and life But when that efflux is retarded or stopt either by reason of the Blood it self or some stopage in the extremities and small channels of the vessels or by reason of immoderate and unusual waste beyond the proportion of the ordinary supply as falls out in immoderate exercise and motion And so I say when by reason of any these causes the heart cannot convey and lay in the desired suppliment in due proportion and timeously by stroaks repeated at the usual intervals then it does by precipitating the stroaks and straiting the intervals of the pulsations endeavour what in it lyes to overcome the slowness of the motion of the Blood to come so near as it can to the due and proportional distribution of nutriment in respect of the waâ—te But if notwithstanding of these sedulous endeavours of the heart by the redoubling of the pulsations that slowness of the Blood shall by a gradual encrease of the thickness and of obstructions in the capillary vessels prove yet so obstinare as still to be augmented then this leads straight to the porch and gate of Death Death being nothing else but a total and permanent cessaâ—ion and defect of this distribution If there remain yet any difficulty to comprehend this Scheme because this incitation of the pulse being only a natural action and proper to the Animal part thus circumstantiate is made too like an effect of Reason and savours too much the acting for an end or of a voluntary motion to be applicable here To answer this reasonable doubt since it is very plain that Nature in the structure of the outward parts of Animals has acted so much Reason and Design as importing clearly that the Idea of their end has regulate their fabrick has also made the structure of all their parts terminate into such a perfection of the Animal that the most rigide survey can find nothing wanting As is most ingeniously displayed by the Honourable and Learned Boyle in his Treatise of the Final Causes of natural things Why should not the same Architect also have instructed the Function and inward parts with faculties to be exerted less or more according to the particular exigence of the Animal But especially that radical and fundamental one of supplying all the rest with sufficient provision and nouâ—ishment that it should be endued with a faculty to accelerate when the nâ—urishment either by its fault or immoderate waste is more then it ought in its Returns delayed Otherwayes every light cause that did retard the accession of reparation or did waste it much beyond the ordinary recruite would soon precipitate the Animal into inevitable ruine And also seing most Animals are endued with swifness beyond their ordinary pace whereby they flee dangers why should they not be endued with the like inward faculty to escape dangers internal that frequently threaten them And indeed all these efforts which we call from Irritation giving a Resemblance of such a faculty as this argue as much reason and acting for an end as this that 's here laid down does For the Impression made in the place being resented in the Brain the Fountain of Sense and motion the Irritation or endeavour to be rid of the offending cause has its effects in the place first invaded or beset and why should not the starving of the parts as much querelous as the surcharge of them is be as well heard and have also its releif so far at their least as motion can help them And there is yet a clearer resemblance of such a natural Action as this to be seen in the Pupil of the Eye which without consent of the will Contracts and delates it self so much as is needful for the comodity of seeing viz. Dilating where there is too little Light to let in more and convey the Species into the Eye and Contracting when there is too much Light and letting in only so much Light as is necessary to Paint the Species in the Eye And althô there is a Phaenomenon and case in Fevers which seems to oppugne this Hipothesis yet it is hoped that the same being duely considered will rather confirm and clear it and the Casâ— is this in some Fevers the Pulse is not altered as to the frequency or Vigour yet these portend great imminent danger which Phaenomenon or slowness of the Pulse comes from this that althô the final Cause of its motion be here craving enough of the acceleration of the Pulse for reparation in proportion to the waste yet it seems the efficient or Impellent of this motion or the first spring thereof that should answer exactly the exegencies of the final Is either stupified attacqued or befettered and so there is no strugle or essay to overcome the Impediments and Supply proportionably the waste And as this case is of all Fevers the most dangerous commonly giving the name of malignant so it brings the oeconomie for the most part soon to dissolution To unfold yet further this paradoxical Hypothesis if any desire to know upon what nearest and immediate cause this slowness of the motion of the arterial blood or delay of Reparation which excites the pulse to acceleration does depend unto this not impertinent inquiry that an apposite answer may be made it is to be adverted that the blood is made up of innumerable little globules swiming in a limpide watery serum As being observed by Loewenhoek with help of the microscop is also delivered and described by him and as it s very probable that these Globules do naturally require to be of such a bulk figure and number and the serosity wherein these swim doth also require to be of such tenuity and quantity as may best facilitate the motion and course of the Blood throw
Crisis he levelled in these Constitutions as the genius of that Intention would permit So it was only the difference of the Cures by way of a Crisis that did with him intitle different Constitutions of these Years But in the last Constitution of which he treats in his Schedula most happily falling on a method that did sure with that constituon and expending it further he did find it a method that did quite alter all the former measures and conduct of the cure of Fevers and consequently his constitutions and that it was a method which made the practice of the cure to run in an other channel and which did take up different indications passed over the needless dangerous conduct of Nature throw the maze of a crise As that this method did save the strength of Nature from a laborious prodigal and uncertain profusion and was a method that profitably and securely anticipated the crise he did therefore most reasonably judge it as I received it from his own mouth that it would agree with all manner of continual Fevers neither can there be yet any solide experience brought into the field that will weaken this Conclusion while the daily practice of sundry Physicians offers it self to all that will notice it clearly establishing the efficacie of this method SECT XIV The further Helpers in Fevers considered and how they work and confirm the Hypothesis such as fixed and volatile Salts Alcaline and Testaceous Concrets and also Cuppings Leeches and Frictions Wherealso some Phoenomena of Hurters are considered as the continual Sweats in Fevers And the continual lying in bed And lying with the head much Depressed For all which Reasons are given confirming the Hypothesis IT remains in the next place to enquire into other Helpers and Hurters in Fevers how they Operate and if the explication of such Phoenomena can bring any light to the foresaid Hypothesis And first as for helpers volatile and fixed salts are by the consent of all granted to be very effectual which altho in the case of a copious fomes they seem not to be â—afe yet the clearing how they work may shew as that they are effectual so when they are fit then to answer this it would be noticed that as the state or crasis of the blood may be vitiate two wayes so there may be so many wayes stops and bolts put so the motion thereof inducing its slowness and making it need more frequent or greater pulses to drive it on to distribution And first when the serosity of the Blood endued with due tenuity serves for a fit vehicle for the globuls but these globuls are vitiated either by their bulk number or in their figure that is by scabricity all which viâ—es severally much more when they are complicate makes these globuls stick and stop in the small passages and channels of the vessels and so baricade up the course of the Blood that there are raised frequent and violent pulses of the heart and arteries to remove them and carry on the blood The next fault in the crase of the Blood is when the due proportion in the number bulk and figure of these globuls is kept yet the tenuity of the serum is vitiated by viscidity and this fault also makes the Blood slow in its passage throw the small vessels to overcome which the heart does excite great and frequent pulses likewise In the first case where the globuls are only vitiated and the serum intire the sick are infested and weakened with sweats Because the frequent pulses drive away the serosity of the Blood out at the pores which is called the dissolution of the crase of the blood leaving the globuls cruded up together in the small vessels And in this case fixed and Alcaline salts testaceous and marine concrets made in subtile powder seem much to help because all these concrets consisting as is known of particles very rough scabrous and rigide the minutest particles whereof where ever they go carrying that Figure with them so then such being mixed with the blood and carryed along with it must necessarly impinging on the obstructions and scabricities in the small channels not only scoure and clear them but likewise by their continual Attrition of the Globuls of the Blood they must polish and grind these globuls and make them fit for passage thorow these channels As to the other state and crase of the Blood where the Serosity being viscide makes the slowness of the Bloods motion here as there are no sweats so it 's difficult to raise dangerous to attempt them Before any remedie can be justly levelled for the removal of this fault of the Blood it must be first inquired in what this viscosity does consist it seemes then that viscosity being a degree of Solidity and Firmness and the first step from Fluidity thereunto and that Fluidity consisting in the actual and due Motion of minutest parts of the Liquors viscidity then must Import some abatement and diminution as of their due Fluidity so of their Motion And that either from the weakness of the Principle of that Motion or the unaptitude of the matter to receive and obey Impressions of that Principle As having some glewy viscous matter mixed therewith But whatever it proceids from it is certain that the outward or sensible Rest in Liquores that naturally ought to be moved is a concurring Cause to there viscosity so the agitation of Liquors does altogether take off there viscosity As may be seen in the example of Ale which being ropie and viscuous is by tossing and agitating thâ—reof in a Bottle closs stoped soon brought to leave its viscosity So then the viscosity of the serum of the Blood seemes to be the effect of its want of due motion And is further a cause to hinder that due motion of the efflux and reflux And as this viscoâ—ity seems originaly to depend upon the serum not being duely Impregnat and Irradiat by the Spirits which do make it diaphanous and subtile so the want of this irradiation may depend upon its viscosity hindering that irradiation and so as these causes may hinder its due motion that want of due motion also does exceedingly contribute to its viscosity and check the influx of the Spirits And thus every one of these are mutually causes and effects to one another Yet unto these Efâ—ects from whatsomever of these causes they be produced seem much conducible all such things which give copious Matter to the generation of Spirits and also which give them being generated also Spurrs such as are all volatile Salts which for this reason are known to break and attenuate all viscosity But these are indeed to be used with moderation and warriness in Fevers least we should spurr faster than we open and clear the way and so these Spirits too much incited should waken up or exasperat all these Scenes of Confusions and Tumults to which the Blood is very prone under this state It is certain that long experience