the primary Essence of this Diseas For moistning Medicines although they loosen withal yet they scarce loosen more than they moisten becaus for the most part they loosen by moistning Seing therfore that the common causes of this Diseas do flow into the Tone chiefly by the Mediation of the first Essence of this Diseas And seing that neither the Animal nor the Vital Constitution can here supply the vertue of a caus we may Lawfully infer that the laxity of the Tone doth chiefly depend upon the first Essence of the Diseas This is further confirmed there is of it self a certain proness and tendency of the Body to be through wet so that the fibers of the parts must needs be loosned by it Moreover the defect of the Spirits and the stupefaction of them doth caus a remission of the Tone by diminishing the vigor of the part Therfore we may conclude that the Diseas laxity principally dependeth upon the primary Essence of the Diseas As for the flaccidity because it comprehendeth the laxity it springeth from the same causes as that doth but in as much as it includeth also a subsidence and a certain emptiness it evidently dependeth upon the defect and benummedness of the inherent Spirits the plenty and vigor whereof being augmented the lank and flagging member is easily rendred turgid and swelled In the interim we deny not but that that subsidence doth withal depend upon the extenuation and atrophy of the parts Lastly How the slipperiness doth proceed from these causes is sufficiently manifested by what hath been said above That we may at the length put a period to this matter it may be observed for the higher confirmation of those things already spoken that there is such a strict dependance between the Tone and the first granted Essence that throughout the whol cure of the Diseas they are intended remitted together almost in equal pace For at firstthe Children that are afflictedwith this affect do only go slowly leisurely whilst the Tone of the parts is yet but a little loosned but in the progress they scarce and with much ado trust to their feet then they play only sitting or as thay are carried about Afterwards they can scarce sit upright and at the last when the Diseas hath attained the highest exaltation the feeble neck cannot without much difficulty support the burden of the head all which things as they attest the primary Essence of the Diseas to be gradually augmented so also they make it manifest that the vices of the Tone are intended by an equal pace And so all these things being rightly weighed we refer the viciated Tone to the secondary not the primary Essence of this affect and by consequence we conclude indeed the thing that was in question that that depraved Tone is a secondary part of the Essence of this Diseas CHAP. VIII The Secondary Essence of this Disease in the Vital constitution WE have already propounded that part of the Secondary Essence of this Diseas which is radicated in the natural constitution in as much as it comprehendeth the common qualities it remaineth now that we examin the organical vices and the faults of continuity if any such be found out But seing that no proper faults of continuity do accur in this affect and seing that the organical vices do depend partly upon the Essence above given and partly upon the vital constitution being viciated it seems necessary in the next place to search into these faults of the vital constitution The vital constitution is aptly distinguished into the original or that which maketh an influx and the participative or that which is produced by that influx The subject of the original vital constitution are the Spirits themselvs excited in the blood of the Arteries You will say The heart rather seemeth to be the subject of this constitution But it is not so for the heart it self through the coronary Arteries receiveth the vital Spirits brought down with the Arterious blood from its left Ventricle But it is absurd to suppose the wals of the Heart to be the first subject of the vital heat and in the mean time for those to receiv that heat from the Arteries We must say therfore that the solid substance of the heart is indeed the first principal subject of his natural and inherent constitution but seing that receiveth the Vital Spirits as hath been said it cannot be accounted the first subject of the Vital Constitution which is imprinted in it by those Spirits and continueth no longer than the substance of the Heart is shedded and besprinkled with the Vital Spirits For neither can life subsist in any place without the Vital Spirit Wherfore the substance of the Heart doth so far participat of the Vital constitution as it is wash'd and bedew'd with the Vital Spirits and by Consequence thaâ— Constitution in the substance of the heart is not original or influent but participative or produced by that influx This is also confirmed in that becaus the vital heat of the blood in the hollow Parts or Ventricls of the Heart which heat is at least a part of the Vital Constitution is for greater and more intensiv than that which is within the wals of the Heart as any man may observ by the opening of the Bodyes of living Creatures the Ventricle of the heart being wounded and the Finger presently thrust in For he shall feel a far more augmented heat in the blood than in the very substance of the Ventricle however it be handled Moreover the vital Constitution is a thing transient and consisteth as the Phylosophers Phras is in motu fieri therfore it is rooted In the movable and decaying Spirits such as the Vitals which are contained in the Arterious Blood for som Member being cut off the Life vanisheth almost in a moment and by Consequence the vital constitution but the natural as we have already insinuated continueth though not in such an exaltation as when the Vital remaineth for a while after death And indeed the Life and the Vital constitution is suddenly taken away in the case aforesaid not by any positive contrary Cause But by a meer privation of the Conservant and Continent CAUSE This is most evidently confirmed because the Vital constitution is suddenly intended remitted and altered in al the parts in respect of the model or measure of the Vital Constitution excited in the Ventricles of the Heart so in a Lipothymy the heart fainting the life of the parts presently vanisheth at last languisheth but assoon as the Ventricles of the heart are refreshed with Spirits by some proper cordial applications straight way we behold the vital Constitution to be suddenly in some measure repaired in all the Parts In the suppression of the breath sudden death followeth the torrent of the vital Blood from the right to the left Ventricle being intercepted In the opening of a Vein or in any other immoderate profusion of Blood there happeneth a swouning by the sole
of Christ in all Beleevers 8 The Woman of Canaan 9. A Vindication of Ordinances 10 Grace and Love beyond Gifts 11 The Saints Hiding-place in time of Gods Anger 12 Christs Coming is at our Midnight Six Sermons Preached by Dr. Hill collected into on◠Volumn Dr Sibbs on the Philippians The Best and Worst Magistrate by Obadiah Sedgwick◠The Craft and Cruelty of the Churches Adversaries b◠Matthew Newcomin A sacred Panygrick by Stephen Marshal Barriffs Military Discipline Dr Ponnet's Treatise of Politick Power The Immortality of Mans Soul The Anatomist Anamized Cum multis aliis A Treatise of the RICKETS CHAP. I. The Antiquity and first Origine of this Disease the Name of it and the Derivation of the Name THAT some new Diseases altogether unknown to the Ancients have for some Ages lately past invaded divers parts of Europe is a known undoubted truth whether we attribute it to the vicissitude of things or impute it to the Sins and Impieties of men and their corrupt manners as the French-pox the Scurvy the Plica and the like in which number this very affect we are now about to handle may be justly Registred For if we examin al the diseases of Infants children described either by the Ancients or Modern Writers in their Books of the Diseases of Infants we shall meet with none which with a sufficient exactness doth delineate the condition and Idea of this evil For although it may seem to hold a correspondence or to have some affinity with a chronical Feaver a Consumption the extenuation or leannesse of Infants and the Hydrocephalos yet to speak truth it is an affect evidently different from them in the Species For you may observe many to be vehemently afflicted with this Malady without any Feaverishdistemper or any cause of such suspition in like maner although a Consumption doth frequētly supervene upon this Disease before the dissolution of the Patient yet is it seldome seen to accompany the first invasion thereof as for the meagerness or leanness although some parts are perpetually observed in this affect to be made lean yet this doth not happen in all alike as in a right and true leanness but you may perceave the parts about the head and face to be in a thriving condition as to outward appearance and well complexioned even to the last day of life Finally The Hydrocephalus is very frequently complicated with this affect yet we have dissected some whose Brain hath been sufficiently firme and not over-moistned with this superfluous humour Some have conjectured that this Disease is an imp or fruit of the French-pox or Scurvy descending from the viciated Bodies of the Parents upon the Children For we deny not but the Parents being infected with the Scurvy or the venerous Pox may propagate and bring forth an Issue not only affected with that Pox Scurvy but likewise infected with this evil and this even hath also faln under Observation yet for the most part this Disease in the propriety of its Essence hath neither affinity nor familiarity with those affects and besides it requireth a different progress of cure we have sometimes likewise observed a strumatical and swelling Malady to be complicated with this but we have also many times beheld this to be well distinguished from that and that from this But why do we dwel so long upon this inquisition seing that he who wil accurately contemplate the signs of this affect as in their due places they shal be propounded may most easily perswade himself That this is absolutly a new Disease and never described by any of the Ancient or Modern Writers in their practical Books which are extant at this day of the Diseases of Infants But this Disease became first known as neer as we could gather from the Relation of others after a sedulous enquiry about thirty years since in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset lying in the western part of England since which time the observation of it hath been derived unto other places as London Oxford Cambridge and almost all the Southern and Western parts of the Kingdom in the Nothern Counties this affect is very rarely seen and scarcely yet made known among the Vulgar sort of people The most receaved and ordinary Name of this Disease is The RICKETS But who baptiz'd it and upon what occasion or for what reason or whether by chance or advice it was so named is very uncertain However it obtained that Name yet in so great a variety of places through which it hath ranged it hath not to this day been known by any other Denomination But it is an accident well worth our admiration That this Disease being new and not long ago nameless at least not known by this Name neither spreading so much in remote as in adjacent places yet no man hitherto could be found out who knew or could shew either the first Author of the Name or the Patient to whom the appellation of the Disease was first accommodated or the peculier place where it was don or the maner how it cam to be dispersed among the common people for the inhabitants having gotten a Name for the Disease receave it with acquiescence as a thing done with diligence and deliberation and are not at all further solicitous either about the Name or the Author of the Name But because they which are expert in the Greek Latin tongues may peradventure expect a Name from us wherof some kind of Reason maybe given we have made fit together divers Names to this Disease yet we conceave it somewhat unnecessary to make a particular rehearsal of them in this place Nevertheless it may perhaps be proper and profitable to commemorate the Rules which we propounded to our selves in the designation of the Name The First therefore was That the Name should comprehend some notable condition of the Disease The Second was That it should be sufficiently distinct from the Names of other Diseases and Symptoms The Third was That it should be sufficiently familiar easie of pronounciation accōmodated to the Memory of no undecent length and not studiously and laboriously compounded Whilest we bend our employments to the satisfaction of these Rules One of us by chance fell upon a Name which was complacenceous to himself and afterwards pleasing to the rest now this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that termination is not altogether abhorrent from the common Gender the Spinal Disease also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disease of the Spine of the Back For the Spine of the Back is the first and principal among the parts affected in this evil Then no other Malady or Symptom did by the prerogative of time vindicate this appellation from it besides the Name is familiar and easie And finally The English Name Rickets receaved with so great a consent of the people doth by this Name seem to be excused yea justified from Barbarism For without any wracking or convulsion of
sawed thorow in a circular Figure and the little cover being removed we have observed these things 1 The Dura Mater hath been more firme and adhered to the Skul in more places then is usual in men of ripe years perhaps the same may be observed in other Children not affected with this evil although as we suppose not in so great a manner for certain it is That in new born Infants there are many and straight connexions between the Pericranian and the Dura Mater which are afterwards broken off and are scarce discernable 2 In some Bodies that we have dissected between the Dura and the Pia mater and in the very ventricles of the Brain we have found wheyish and waterish humours from whence it is manifest That this affect is complicated with the Hydrocephalus 3 We have found the Brain in others that we have opened to be firm and inculpable and not overflowed with any waterish congestions 4 Lastly We have observed in some Bodies lately opened That the Carotides have exceeded their just proportion and so also have the jugulary Veins but the Arteries and the Veins which are delated to the outward parts were of an unusual slendernesse But whether or no this be perpetual in this affect we cannot yet witnesse by an occular testimony yet we conjecture That it happeneth so perpetually but it came not sooner into our minds to examine it since the beginning of our Anatomical enquiries into this subject These things being premised our next Disquisition shall be to find out the Essence of the Disease CHAP. III. Certain Suppositions are proposed for the easier finding out of the Essence of the Disease First of the Essence of Health Secondly of the Essence of a Disease Thirdly of a threefold Division of Health and Diseases The Explication of the third Division and the Vse of the same The Description of a natural Constitution and the exaltation of it The Fourth Supposition of the Combination of three Constitutions in the same parts THat we may proceed the more distinctly and clearly in the finding out of the Essense of this Disease we judged it very advantagious to premise these subsequent Suppositions I That the Essence of Health doth consist in some Constitution of the Body according to Nature But seing this is twofold in the kind one Essential and necessary respecting the tò esse simply which during life continueth immoveable and immutable under various affections and is indivisible The other Accidental having reference to the tò bene esse which in respect of the whole Animal is both moveable and mutable and hath a great latitude and can be present or absent without the dissolution of the whole Health consists not in the former but in the latter Constitution II. That the Essence of a Disease in like manner consisteth not in the Essential Constitution For so the dissolution of the whole would by and by follow But in the Accidental Constitution namely such an one as in respect of the whole can be present or absent without its dissolution We have said and not without reason that this Constitution wherein Health and Sicknesse are founded is moveable and accidental in respect of the whole for even this also in respect of some part may be essential as for example a finger being cut off a Disease ariseth in the defective number of the parts which in respect of the whole is founded upon an accidental Constitution for that finger may be present or absent without the dissolution of the whole but in respect of the lost member it is founded upon an Essential Constitution for this Disease being supposed the Essence of that finger perisheth III. That the Constitution wherein the Essence both of Health and Sickness consisteth admits a threefold manner of division or distinction in the method of Discipline The first is somewhat thick and is resolved into parts altogether Concrete namely It proceedeth Kata topous according to the division of the parts from head to heel The second is purely abstracted and searcheth out all the Elements of the moveable Constitution from whence cometh the division of Diseases into similar organical and common and then again those various subdivisions into distempers faults of figure superficies cavities and passages of magnitude number site and continuity The third is as it were a middle manner and although it hath been hitherto neglected yet we dare avouch That it may have its use and that no contemptible one in the handling of Diseases and the finding out of the causes of the Disease and it is divided into a Constitution Natural Vital and Animal The first is proper to and inherent in every part absolutely competible to it and without any dependance upon the other parts according to the Essence of it simply This remaineth a while after death till it be resolved by Putrefaction Ambustion simple Exiccation Mummification Petrification and the like violent Causes This Constitution in respect of its simple Essence doth not depend upon those Members which minister an Influx but it dependeth upon them both in respect of its Conservation and likewise of its Operation For the vital influx ceasing after death which is as it were the salt and condiment of it quickly perisheth and as long as the creature liveth this is variously affected by the influxes and thereupon the actions are either promoved or interupted The Second is the Vital Constitution which is produced by that continual influx from the heart thorow the arteries into the parts of the whole Body This also it admitteth degrees and is often subject to variations more or lesse and sometimes also seemeth to suffer a kind of eclips as in a swouning a syncope c. yet it persevereth from the beginning to the last period of life at least in its fountain and in some other parts The Third is the Animal Constitution which is derived from the Brain thorow the Nerves into the Organs of Sense and Motion This is many times totally wanting in many parts the life notwithstanding remaining yea it might for a long time together be defective in several parts or all the parts did not respiration which is absolute necessary unto life depend upon it These Constitutions therefore keep such a connexion between themselves that the second doth eternally and continually presuppose the existence of the former and the third of the second but there is not back again so absolute a dependance between them because as we have even now said the former can for some time subsist without the second and the second commonly altogether without the third And these three Constitutions may in most bodies be manifestly perceived yet we affirm not that they may be found in all The Natural indeed and the Vital are wanting to no part but the Animal is defective in the Bones though the teeth will admit some doubt gristles perhaps ligaments and some substances as of the Liver Spleen c. we assert therefore this threefold Constitution to be in all those
yet indeed by degrees and little and little For first the influent heat is manifestly an actual heat but the heat of the natural constitution is only potential wherefore we affirm that a cold distemper in respect of a natural and potential heat may consist with a hot distemper in respect of an actual and influent heat For indeed an actual heat is not so directly averse to a cold distemper which is so called by reason of a defect of the potential heat but it may the cause persevering consist for a good while with it As for example there is an actual heat in Simple Water Barly Water diverse Juleps and the like being made hot although at the same time they are potentially cold So that to be actually hot and potentially hot differ not in the Degree but in the Species neither are they so directly contrary to one another that one must presently expel the other out of a subject Moreover Secondly The influent hot distemper doth not so much correct the inherent cold distemper as by accident it augmenteth it namely by a wast and dissipation of the Natural Spirits wherein chiefly the natural and potential heat resides Just after the same manner as the actual heat introduced by the fire diminisheth the potential heat of the Wine Whereupon any kind of Feaver supervening upon this Disease usually brings more damage than advantage to the sick Secondly We affirm a moist distemper to be lodged together in the parts first affected this is manifest from the laxity and softness of the said parts and this sign likewise doth more strongly confirm the same thing because the said parts are extenuated so that unless there were a redundancy of moisture in them a certain rigidity and roughness would assault the touch again a cold distemper doth very rarely continue long without a moist and lastly things helpful and hurtful attest this truth for drying things are helpful and moistning things are hurtful Thirdly we affirm That in the parts first affected there is a penury of natural spirits This is proved by the very same arguments which we produced to evince it to be a cold distemper For first the unequal and imminute nutrition of the parts first affected doth not only argue a coldness of temper but withal a want of natural spirits for otherwise this defect of nutrition might be easily corrected For the cause of that coldness wherewith the defect of the spirit is conjoyned or some peccaut humor is not impacted is easily cashired and sooner then is wont in this disease as may b◠seen in the parts grown extream cold in the winte season for example sake in the handling of snow the parts so extreamly cooled provided that they be rightly handled wil return to their pristine temperamēt in few hours but wher there is a distemper with the matter of it as a case conjoynd or where ther is a defect of the inherent spirits such a distemper indeed is not so soon nor so easily removed But in the present affect we cannot affirm that a conjoyned or impacted matter of any note is at the least alwise caused in the parts first affected because they are observed to be more withered feeble and extreamly extenuated and seeing this affect is very different from Cachexia and the Virgins disease in the which for the most part it is not the want of Spirits but the conjoyned matter that cherisheth the cold distemper wherefore we may rightly infer that the pertinacity of this evil doth chiefly depend upon the defect of the natural Spirits Secondly The same is proved after the same manner by the second argument before alleadged for the cold distemper namly from sloth and aversness to excercise For activity hath not only a dependance upon the temper but chiefly upon the fulness of the Spirits as may be seen in strong and heathful men who in winter time and hardest frost are more prompt and inclinable to violent exercises then in summer when the inherent Spirits are wont to be somwhat dissolved Thirdly Feavers and long extenuating diseases as they often introduce a cold distemper so they evidently diminish and dissipate the inherent Spirits To these we ad that argument which is deduced from the constitution of the Parents the Parents that are more strong and lusty experience witnesseth it and accustomed to labour seldom bring forth children obnoxious to this disease on the contrary such as are weak sickly idle tender delicate very prone to immoderate premature or decriped Venery such as are troubled with a Gonorrhea c. for the most part beget children subject to this affect Namely because the Seminary principles are furnished only with a deficiency of Spirits We should now proceed to the fourth assertion but must first remove a remora that cometh in the way Object For some may object That the natural cold distemper is subordinated to the want of Spirits and not contradistinguished to it as is here supposed For the paucity of the Spirits seemeth to be the very cause of the cold distemper and the natural heat be it more intense or more remiss seemeth respectively to follow the proportion of the natural Spirits as being radicated in them as their first subject We answer First That the inherent heat is indeed first grounded and subjected in the inherent Spirits Moreover as the inward heat is divided into two par s namely the natural and the acquired heat so the inward Spirit must be also conceived to be twofold the primigenial or seminal derived from the Parents in the seed and the acquired Spirit contracted from a perfect assimilation of the aliment the former Spirit is the basis of the engrafted natural heat the latter of the inward acquired heat we mean not that these heats and Spirits are in themselves distinct in the species but only in their origin and degree of perfection which is sufficient to invest them with a various appellation For in nutrition the assimilation of the aliment proceedeth even to a specifical identity and not an individual although sometimes also it attaineth not the degree of original perfection For which cause it seemed sufficient to us to have named the implanted heat and the implanted Spirit without any higher distinction and therefore we grant that the implanted heat is first subjected and rooted in the Spirits and that it is nothing else then a certain modification of the said Spirits whereby they being irradiated by the vital heat do delight to indeavor to diffuse themselves and to enlarge their dominions by attracting retaining assimilating the aliments like unto themselves by severing the excrements and lastly by disposing the things acquired in due places we say likewise that this endeavor wherin we place the essence of heat by reason that it is diffusive doth somwhat dissipate and wast the implanted Spirits which because of this effect are vulgarly called by the name of radical moisture continually devoured and consumed by the heat Thus far we grant the argument
But in the second place we affirm that the implanted heat doth differ frō the hot implanted temperament for the implanted heat is only a part of the hot implanted temperament for not only a Spirit but sulphur also and salt or perhaps choler contribute their heat to the constitution of the whole hot implanted temperament wherof the implanted heat is only a part Wherefore it is fasly suggested in the propounded argument that a plenty of Spirits is the sole cause of a hot distemper and a paucity of a cold distemper for a pound of the flesh of an infant containeth more implanted Spirits then a pound of a yongmans flesh yet it is most evident that the temperament of a yong man is far more hot then that of an infant a hot temperament cannot therefore depend upon the sole plenty of the Spirits nor a cold temperament upon a want of Spirits Moreover in many maladies a hot distemper is consistent with a paucity of Spirits as in a Hectick of the third degree in like manner of a cold distemper with a competent plenty of Spirits as in the Green sickness We say thirdly That a plenty or paucity of Spirits is not perpetually a sufficient cause to determine the temperament either hot or cold as on the contrary neither doth a hot nor a cold temperament certainly and necessarily demonstrate a plenty or paucity of Spirits as is manifest from the instance given So that the temperament is no sure sign of the quantity of the Spirits nor the quantity of the Spirits a sure sign of the temperament and therfore purposeth not without just cause these things come to be considered and examined as contradistinct if we wil procure a certain and inconfused knowledge of them Fourthly we answer That although it were granted that the implanted heat is subjected in the implanted Spirits yet notwithstanding that heat is not intended nor remitted according to the sole plenty or paucity of Spirits for the Spirits howsoever sufficiently copious yet if they be too much fixed torpid and as it were frozen they exhibit not any implanted heat worthy of consideration As for example the white of an egge swelleth with copious Spirits yet are they so benummed and the inward heat is thereupon so small that it obtaineth not the formation of a chicken unless it be first excited by incubation or some such other heat therefore we may lawfully conclude that a consideration from the want of Spirits is sufficiently distinct from the consideration of a cold implanted temperament although the objected argument doth seem to insinuate the contrary Moreover from this fourth article of our answer there resulteth a fourth assertion of the essence propounded Namely That beside the distemper and want of Spirits a certain benumdness of them must be added as a distinct part also of the essence of the disease This benumdness of the engraffed Spirits appeareth chiefly by the defective nutrition and aversation from exercise which proceed not primarily as we have proved above from any defect of the influx of the brain It is also manifest from hence because all those things which drive out that stupefaction of the Spirits although they do not altogether drive it away yet they conduce very much to the cure of this disease as exercises of any kind augmented by degrees frictions anoyntings c. and things inwardly taken of a heating cutting purging and gently opening quality But that this benumdness is sufficiently distinct from the want of Spirits besides that which we have said in the 3. article of our Answer is sufficiently manifest from hence because an excessive excitation contrary to a benummednes is often conjoyned with a penury of Spirits as it commonly falleth out in a Hectick feaver in dissolving fluxes and the like diseases in which howsoever there be a want of Spirits yet no benummedness is consociated but on the contrary that vehement excitation propensity to motion must be restrained On the contrary copious Spirits may consist with a benummedness as in wheat or meal For although it may seem to have but little Spirit because the Spirits of it do yet lurk in their fixation and benummedness yet indeed the Spirits do abound in it and may be summoned out by a simple fermentation and excited to a manifestation of their activity As strong Beer made thereof doth plainly declare In like manner juice newly pressed out of immature grapes is very mild and pleasant containing in the mean time plenty of Spirits which afterwards the due fermentation being finished reveal themselves in generous wine Let us conclude therefore that the benummedness of the Spirits in this affect deserveth a particular and distinct consideration CHAP. VI. Of the Part first affected in this Disease WE have already propounded the first Essence of this Disease it remaineth now that we enquire after the first Subject in which that Essence is radicated The heart and the brain do here seem rightly to be excluded for the reasons before alleadged the repetition whereof for brevity sake we shal omit The liver and the Lungs are not as yet exempted from all suspition of this fault we wil therfore examine these bowels apart and first we demand Whether the Liver be the subject of the first essence of this Disease The principal Argument is for the Affirmative because this Disease may seem to proceed from a vicious sanguification the Shop and Work-house whereof at least in probability the Liver is supposed to be but that a viciated sanguification is the first origine of this disease seems to be made manifest by many signs First because this disease for the most part followeth after many other great diseases either acute or chronical which in great measure have beforehand weakned the sanguifical vertue of the Liver Secondly Because this disease doth not only depend upon outward but inward causes namely the vicious humors And seing the vicious humors are generated in and with the mas of blood in the liver the first essence of this affect seemeth to be referred hither Thirdly The Liver is perpetually observed to be bigger than ordinary in this affect which manifestly witnesseth the Liver to be affected Fourthly those internal Medicines which have a faculty to putrifie the blood are requisite to the cure of this disease and being exhibited are found to be very profitable 5. The missian of blood from the veins of the ears which is not the meanest help to vanquish this affect doth more than sufficiently argue some fault to be in the blood which seemeth to be ascribed to the constitution of the Liver in as much as it doth sanguificate These Arguments have so far prevailed upon some very famous Physitians that thereupon they have attributed the first essence of this disease to the Liver alone But we conceive that these things may be sufficiently answered if we shall first grant what can be further or what hath already been rightly said concerning this matter and then dissolve those things
way from whence we have a little erred seing that the vitiated Tone may hurt as we have said the internal actions it doth not properly belong to that kind of Symptom which is wont to be called by the name of a changed quality Thirdly we say That this vitiated Tone seing it is neither a Morbifical caus nor a Symptom and yet is somthing preternatural must needs be the Diseas it self Moreover the same is clearly proved by the very definition of a Diseas For this vitiated Tone is a preternatural Constitution primarily or immediatly hurting the internal action therfore it is a Diseas For to what the definition is competible to that also the thing defined is competible That it is a preternatural Constitution is manifest by this because it is inherent in the solid parts of the body that it likewise depraveth the Internal actions is manifest from hence because an extream laxity lubricity and flaccidity of the parts being granted presently the agility is weakned no other cause approaching and a certain sluggishness deadeth the irritation of the vital Spirits In agility the matter is plain seing that firm and stretched bodies other things being answerable are more active and so on the contrary that the same thing also happeneth in the dulness of the irritation shal be shewed in its place for the present we labor to prove no other thing then that the vitiated Tone in this affect is a Diseas We say fourthly That this vitiated Tone in this Diseas is not any simple affect having an existence apart by it self but that it is so conjoyned and compounded in those same parts with the primary Essence that the whole Essence of the Diseas wherof we dispute may be said to consist of many Diseases united together in themselvs indeed simple if they be considered asunder and therfore that the vitiated Tone is only a part of the whol Diseas And this needeth no other proof then because the first Essence proposed above and the said vitiated Tone are both found in those same parts For that is properly called a compound Diseas which is produced by many simple Diseases conjoyned in the same Part. Fifthly We affirm that the vitiated Tone is not only a part of the whole Essence but such a part as hath some dependance upon the primary Essence and therfore that it is a secondary part of the Essence Before we proceed to the proof of this Proposition two grants or concessions are to be premised We grant first That the said Tone may be even immediatly vitiated in other causes perhaps and likewise by other causes although that happen not in this present Diseas For the inherent Tone of the Parts may be primarily loosned in the Animal Constitution and that suddenly as may be observed in the dead Palsy For the natural tensity and not the Animal only of the Paralytical member is loosned and indeed suddenly without any conspicuous intervention of any part of the aforesaid primary Essence After the same manner in a Lipothymy or defection of the mind loosness and languishing suddenly attatcheth al the parts Now we cannot in either of these two causes refer the cause of the loosness to the cold and moist distemper of the natural Constitution seeing that cannot be so suddenly and so sensibly changed Which let them consider that we may give warning of it by the way who wil have these common qualities to be always second and dependent upon the first alone yea on the other side let them in that cause observe how a cold and moist distemper doth afterwards by degree follow that loosness suddenly introduced Again as for the flaccidity of the parts that may be immediatly produced by large evacuations as a flux of the belly sweatings and the like immoderate vents the temperament being not yet considerably changed although we deny not but this may easily and doth usually follow Moreover an internal lubricity may be manifestly separated from coldness though very difficultly from moisture Secondly We grant that in the present Diseas the vitiated Tone doth not in any manner depend upon the first admitted Essence nor that in every respect is subordinate unto it For first the qualities of the Tone here vitiated do also ow somwhat to common causes namely to themselves and also to those that are common to the first granted Essence For extream moistening things by one and the same operation are apt to produce both too much moisture and also loosness In like manner from violent evacuations a want of Spirits and withal a witheredness doth arise Also from things too too slippery either outwardly administred or inwardly tataken or both an internal lubricity is augmented together with a moist distemper For there is so great a connexion of the whole Essence hitherto propounded with the common causes that there is scarce any thing which doth augment the first essence of the Diseas but at the same time more or less it hath an influence upon the vitiated Tone These things bring granted We say notwithstanding that in the present affect there is a very great dependance of the vitiated Tone upon the first Essence of this Diseas for which respect alone we have here referred the vitiated Tone to the secondary Essence If any list to contend That the said Tone in another respect may relate more clearly to the Secondary Essence because he may imagine that the primary Essence of every Diseas is necessarily similary and perpetually grounded upon the first qualities alone or because he may conceive that the qualities wherein the Tone consisteth are perpetually secondary and that they follow the first only as the shadow doth the Sun that man may take notice that we purposely decline such questions least we should straggle into an unwarrantable digression It remaineth therefore only that we prove the Dependance of the vitiated Tone upon the first Essence of this Diseas to be very great and that we shal do by parts We wil begin at the laxity We grant indeed that a laxity may be somtimes suddenly produced and in that cause a moyst distemper may often follow upon it Namely when the laxity primarily dependeth upon the fault either of the Animal or Vital Constitution but in this Diseas seing that neither the Animal nor the Vital Constitution are primarily affected there is a necessity that it must flow from other causes Moreover such is the condition of laxity and tensity that they are obnoxious to sudden alterations For the strings of a Lute may almost in a moment be stretched and loosned again the same thing likewise from some causes befalleth the Fibers of the Parts But in this affect the laxity stealeth on by degrees and slowly therfore necessary it is that it must begin be ruled and moderated by some caus leisurely and slowly augmented Although therfore we granted even now that the laxity doth own somwhat to the common causes of the Diseas yet the augmentation therof is chiefly restrained and moderated by
return of the blood to the left Ventricle of the Heart the whol mass of blood in the Arteries would become crude and imperfect and seing that this blood thus abounding with imperfect Vital Spirits should be transmitted from the Aorta to al the Parts it would more or less affect them al which very rarely is observed in this Diseas For the head many bowels however som of them are found to be greater then ordinary yet they seem to be watered with a perfect Vital Spirit But although as we have said the slight indisposition of the Blood may be corrected before its return to the right ventricle yet when the contracted fault is great and more considerable it cannot be altogether overcome wherupon the Lungs in this Diseas are commonly afflicted with the most grievous Evil For when the less Spiritous and therefore the less passable Blood is continually transmitted thorow the Lungs cold and thick or viscous in process of time it must needs more or less infect and obstruct the weaker parts of the Lungs from whence proceed difficulty of drawing breath a stubborn cough hard tumors inflammations impostumes and the Ptysick Feavers also both Erratick and Hectick may from hence dirive their Origen But seing that fault may be suddenly introduced from the first affected parts it is credible although we have said the Lungs are often infected by it that it is for the most part overcome before the Blood can com to the left Ventricle And this may be the reason why the Head and the adjacent parts do look so well and flourishing namely becaus neither the Natural nor the Vital Constitution is hurt in them seing that the perfect Vital Spirits generated in the left Ventricle and distributed from thence do excite that fresh color in the face when on the contrary the Lungs do oftentimes labor under the faults aforesaid the viciousness of the Blood not being corrected before it enter the right Ventricle and the Arterious vein Moreover This imperfect production of Vital Spirits in the right Ventricle of the Heart by reason of the crudeness of the affluent Blood flowing in the Veins totally appertaineth to the secondary Essence of this Diseas and must be accounted a part of it for the Vital Constitution is vitiated wherupon the actions in the Lungs are depraved and it dependeth wholy and in every respect upon the primary granted Essence neither in the mean time doth it reside in the solid Substance of the Heart that it should therfore deserv the name of a a new diseas Here we note by the way That Physitians in the cure of this affect do ever intermingle such things with their remedies as have respect to the benefit of the Lungs and not without reason seing that it is apparent by what hath been said to how much danger that Bowel is continually subject And this may suffice concerning the faults in the Generation of the Vital Spirits Now follow the faults of the distribution of those Spirits CHAP. X. The vitiated Distribution of the Vital Spirits in this Affect and whether it be a Part of the Secondary Essence therof THis vitiated distribution seemeth to consist in three things Namly in the Dimunition Slowness and the Inequality of it The defective and also the slow distribution of the Blood and Spirits may be seen in some one Part and perhaps in all those that are first affected But the inequality cannot be observed in any one seing that it resulteth from a collation of a various swiftness and slowness greatness and smalness of the torrent of the Blood in respect of the other parts The defect and slowness of the distribution seing that they depend almost upon the same causes in the present affect they may be handled together and seing those differences are more simple then the inequality the handling of them seemeth deservedly and justly to be premised But first we must grant that the passages and circulation of the Blood thorow the first affected parts is not very difficult in this affect For although a cold distemper a want and benummedness of Spirits do seem very difficultly to admit a transition of the Blood thorow the parts affected with these qualities yet indeed other conjoyned qualities as moysture loosness laxity flaccidity softness and internal lubricity can at the least contribute as much power to facilitate the passage of it as the qualities aforesaid can oppose to the interruption of it Yea if you valu them by a just estimation perhaps they can do more but we wil not in this place assert it only we flatly deny the difficulty of the circulation to be greater For if we may compare hard bodies with soft low bodies with straight moist with dry slippery with rough we shal easily perceiv that the circulation of the blood is much more quick and expedite in those then in these And this is manifest in young Creatures in whom those qualities abound in such as are new born although the Heart be very tender the Arteries less firm the pulsificative vertu yet feeble and weak yet the passing too and fro of the blood are readily and easily exercised which in those that are older is not accomplished without a stronger pulse and an indeavor or a kind of labor of the Heart and Arteries Again according to the opinion of Galen and Hippocrates the Bodies of children are most passible namly by reason of their humidity laxity and softness Besides if we observ the formation of the chicken in the eg the matter wil be yet more plain Within few days after the incubation the Heart of the chicken is sensibly and evidently seen to beat and to begin the circulation of the Blood but if at the same time we consider the frailty of the Heart it self and how weak a coherence there is between the parts of it til in the interim it finisheth the circulation of the blood according to the manner of it such as it is we must necessarily grant that in that shapeless lump moisture and internal lubricity do expediate and facilitate that motion Some perhaps may object that in these cited cases the liberty and readiness of the circulation of the blood depends not so much upon the moisture softness and slipperiness as upon the plenty of the inherent Natural Spirits For in the Cachexia Green sickness and the dropsy the flesh is very soft moist and perhaps slippery when in the mean time the transition of the Blood is very difficult We answer those Bodies that wax tender and soft by a paucity of inherent Spirits are less indisposed and more apt to admit the circulation of the Blood then the other parts But it is not simply tru that such bodies which most abound with Spirits do perpetually obtain the most expedite and unrestrained circulation of the Blood for the Blood is more easily circulated in Fish then in Creatures of the Land as is manifest by the tender and frail Constitution of their Heart and Arteries yet
parts it be little and slow and in others great and swift that must be reputed unequal and disproportionate And this is the State of the present disquisition It is manifest by what hath been said That the stribution of the Blood thorow the parts first affected is extreamly sparing and slow It remaineth therfore only that we consider whether it be transmitted thorow the other parts with a quicker and more plentifull motion We have already affirmed that the root of this evil is not fixed in the Heart it self and that this Bowel of it self is not primarily il affected in respect of the left Ventricle therof It is credible therefore that the Heart unless perhaps som other Diseas be conjoyned or supervene doth rightly execute his function and expel a sufficient quantity of Blood for our turn by every stroke into the Aorta Seing therfore as hath been already proved that the Blood is niggardly dispensed from the Aorta into the first affected parts a superfluous portion of it must needs be distributed into other parts not so affected for otherwise the Aorta should not sufficiently discharge it self nor disburthen the Blood received from the Heart but it would be obstructed and oppressed with the plenty therof and this repletion upon every slight occasion would fly back even to the left Ventricle of the Heart and there kindle a Feaver And we grant indeed for this very caus among others that in this Diseas a Feaver is easily and frequently produced But seing that the Feaver is another Diseas conjoyned and separable and different from this and seing that this Diseas very often happneth without a Feaver it must needs be granted that by how much more sparingly the Blood is distributed to the first affected parts by so much the more plentifully convâ—â—ed to the other parts at least in the absence of the Feaver For seing that quantity of Blood as we said even now is extruded into the Aorta as may suffice the whole Body and seing al of it must be distributed into several parts it most plainly follows that the less is transmitted into one part the more is dispensed into another And thus it may be perceived that the inequality of the distribution of the Blood is inferred from the sole diminution thereof in the first affected parts above asserted at least probably namly from the smal and slow current of the Blood thorow the parts first affected there may be rightly collected à more quick and plentiful stream of it into the inward parts not so affected Now let us see whether the other appearances relating hither are correspondent to this Discours First It seemeth manifest by what hath been alleadged that the Head the Brain the Liver and the other Bowels are not afflicted with that cold distemper nor that stupefaction and penury of inherent Spirits wherwith the parts primarily affected are opprest For the bowels and the said parts do not receive their Nerves from the Spinal Marrow without the Skul but they are involved in the same condition with the other parts Moreover those parts as far as we can judg by the touch are at least outwardly moderatly hot and as far as we can guess by the sight they retain their native and florishing color besides they are more ful and fleshly then the first affected parts Moreover Children afflicted with this Diseas have an indifferently good appetite they do not il concoct the introsumed aliment and about the Head they retain their senses very acute they see they hear they tast they smel as subtily as others and as for their wit they many times surpass those of equal years with them unless an impediment from some other caus All which things put together do abundantly witness that a cold distemper nor a benummedness or penury of Inherent Spirits hath none or at least a very smal predominancy in those parts These things being granted we must likewise needs grant that a more liberal distribution of the Blood is dispensed to the said parts For as for the heat we have already shewed that that doth both amplify and stir up the Arteries to send forth a stronger pulsation and we have also noted above that the plenty of the Spirits doth not only cherish the pulsificative force of the Arteries and conserv the vigor of the Blood contained in them but that it doth somwhat enliven and excitate both of them and that by so much the more effectually by how much the less the inherent Spirits are affected with a stupefaction Secondly unless those parts were watered with a more liberal circulation of the Blood they would becom more soft loos and feeble then they are even as the parts first affected are observed to be For upon the defect or languishing of the Puls in any part the part presently becoms loos and weak as it happneth to al the Parts in a Lipothymy On the contrary when the Puls beats strongly the Part wherunto it belongeth is seen to be somwhat rigid and swelled For a ful Puls doth presently fil up those parts which were before sunk down by emptiness as the Lypothymy being driven away and the Puls being restored the Parts of the Body which were before loos and languid are not only wel colored but ful of vivacity and turgid seing therfore that those Parts are not affected with that softness loosness and weakness we must conclude that they are actuated with a full Puls Thirdly The very augmented magnitude of thes parts in comparison of the parts primarily affected in this Diseas doth witness that they are more liberally fed with their aliment namly the Blood which is reputed the common and last aliment of the Parts for otherwise scarce any sufficient reason can be imagined why when the first affected Parts are so extenuated these should be especially the Brain and Liver in so good a condition so ful and so plump The same thing is confirmed by the lively color of the same parts For if the Puls languish in any part somwhat of the fresh and amiable color presently retireth from that Part. Fourthly The Arteries called Carotides and the Jugulary Veyn which belong to the Brayn and the parts about the Head are observed to be very broad in this affect but the Vessels tending to the first affected parts to be unduly slender from whence we may clearly infer That the dispensation of the Blood to those Parts is unequal And here we intreat and beseech those who have an opportunity to open such Bodies as this affect hath destroyed that they would accurately contemplate whether the swelling Arteries inserted into the swelling parts of the Bones do more liberally and more commodiously transmit the Blood into those than into the other less nourished parts of the Bones and whether the Arteries of those parts are more broad than of these Although indeed we confess that this enquiry is most difficult both because of the slenderness of those Arteries and in regard of the obscurity of their
unless it be irradiated with light so those inherent faculties of attracting retaining concocting secreving and forming are dead as it were and meerly potential when they are deprived of the vivification and erogation of the Vital afflux This is most clearly conspicuous in a lipothymy for upon the defect of the Vital influx all those faculties suddenly fail decay languish But seing all the faculties are established upon some constitution which is both the cause and subject of them it might be demanded in which Constitution of the parts it is grounded We answer in respect of the potential Nature they are radicated in the Natural Constitution which we have before described but that in reference to the Actuated and Elivened Essence that they depend likewise upon the Vital influx And we declare in general that the participative Vital Constitution which we have already asserted to consist in Three things conjoyned with the Natural Constitution is the total and adequate both cause and subject of all those faculties But it would be a tedious degression and inconsistent with our purpose to make enquiry how those Constitutions can produce this or that faculty determinate in its Species For the present we will only run over those faults of the faculties aforesaid which occur in this affect First The fashioning vertue here erreth by an unequal purging out of the Vital Blood in divers parts as we have discoursed above Hereupon the Head and the Liver grow to an unmeasurable bigness the first affected parts are extenuated the ends of the Bones stick out and somtimes the Bones themselves which are otherwise straight wax crooked Secondly The Concoctive faculty is weak in this Diseas and in the first affected part by reason of the inherent cold distemper the penury and benummedness of the Spirits the brittle and slippery union of the Vital spirits with the Natural Constitution and by reason of the feeble imprinted Vital heat Thirdly The Attractive Retentive and Expulsive Faculties seem not to recede much from their Natural Condition yet the Attractive is somwhat more slow than ought to be the Retentive by reason of the internal lubricity is somwhat weaker and the Expulsive is more vehement for the same Cause And thus at length we have dispatched the faithful examination of the faults of the Vital Constitution in this affect The Animal Constitution should now undergo the next disquisition but that som faults of the Natural Constitution namly the Organical faults therof which have some dependance upon some of the recited faults of the Vital Constitution do challenge this place as most proper to themselvs CHAP. XIII The Organical Faults of the Natural Constitution in this Affect SEing that the Organical faults in this Diseas belong to the Inherent Constitution of the parts thos indeed by the Law of just Method should be immediatly after the similary vices of the same Constitution but as we have noted above the Reason and Caus of them must be derived from the faults of the Vital Constitution lately mentioned and therfore we are constrained to premise the examination of these and to reserv the consideration of the other for another place The Organical faults in this affect are fitly reduced to these Heads First To the extenuation and leanness of certain parts namly the parts first affected Secondly To the unreasonably augmented magnitude of some parts as the Brain the whol Head and the Liver Thirdly To the tumors or lanching out of certain Bones as of the Bones to the Wrests to the Ankles and the ends of the ribs Fourthly To the bowing of certain Bones as it frequently happneth to the Bones of the Cubit and the Shin Bone somtimes to the Bone of the Thigh and Sholder Fifthly To the poynted figure and narrowness of the breast And these faults are reckoned beneath among the Symptoms and signs of the Diseas not because they are indeed meer Symptoms but becaus they are obvious to the Senses and so do fitly supply the place of signs both in respect of the parts of the Essence of the Diseas more deeply retired and also in respect of the hidden causes therof For whatsoever is perceived by the sens and besides it self representeth somwhat els to the understanding that is obscure hath the formality of a sign For indeed these faults are parts of the secondary Essence of the Diseas seing that they are the vitious Constitutions of the Organs depraving the action and have a dependance upon the other parts of the Essence of the Diseas The common caus almost of al these recited affects seems to be an uneven or disproportionate nourishment or Alogotrophy of the parts Now this dependeth chiefly upon two causes in this affect The first is the unequal inherent Constitution of the parts irregularly nourished The disparity between the inherent Constitutions of the first affected parts and the Head and Bowels cannot be so wel collected by what hath been already said but that it may deserve a further inculcation The last ca us which is indeed of equal moment is the very unequal distribution of the Arterious Blood into the parts unevenly nourished That the Blood is unequally distributed in this affect we have already shewed here we only infer that that must needs produce an unequal nutrition of the parts Al Creatures the more liberally they feed the more fat and fleshly they are unless som oother impediment doth intervene but if the du quantity of aliment be substracted they grow lean and are daily more and more extenuated Why should we not suppose that the same thing happeneth in the Parts of Creatures the Blood or at least somwhat contained in the Blood is acknowledged for the last aliment of al the parts wher therfore that is liberally dispensed to one part and sparingly to another certainly it is no wonder if one part be excessively augmented and another extreamly extenuated But these things may suffice in general In particular First We assert that the first affected parts in this Diseas do dayly wax lean and fal away Proof of this assertion cannot be reasonably expected seing that dayly experience yeeldeth an occular demonstration of it But why those parts are so extenuated that may require som reasons and we offer these The first is deduced from the primary essence of the Diseas namly from a cold distemper a penury and inactivity of the inherent Spirits in the parts aforesaid For by this means the attractive retentive and concoctive faculty do execute their functions in those parts unduly and ineffectually The second is brought from the loosness softness and internal slipperiness of the same parts for hereupon the expulsive faculty is too much irritated the breathing is too easy and dissipative the circulation of the Blood is to slippery the retentive faculty through the weaknes of it parteth with the aliment too soon and with too much facility and this very thing almost happneth here in these parts which befalleth the Guts in a Lyentery Howsoever it be
reckoning up of those causes which on the Parents parts may produce this Diseas Som of these faults in the Parents relate to the Generation of the seed wherof the Embryon consisteth others have reference to the Embryon now conceived and yet born about in the Womb. The faults of the Generation of the seed proceed either from the man or the woman or from the whole Body or from those parts onely which are dedicated by nature to Generation The faults of the Parents depending upon the whole Body have the strongest influence into the Child because it transmitteth such matter to the Generation of the Seed as is unapt for those parts dedicated to that office We purpose not here to particularize the several faults of the matter of the Seed but to instance in those alone which conspire to entitle the Progeny to this Diseas These we reduce to four Classes The first Classis containeth a cold and moist distemper of the matter wherof the Seed is Generated This chiefly resulteth from a cold and moist distemper of the Parents unto which we also refer a predominancy of il juice especially that which is Phlegmatick and waterish also a Cachexia and Dropsy and perhaps the Green-Sickness which som cal the white Feaver not sufficiently subdued before conception al which affects manifestly help to constitute a waterish matter both cold and moist in the Genital Parts which is not only in general less apt for the Generation of the Seed but it particularly inclineth to a condition of this Diseas a part of whose primary Essence consisteth in that very cold and moist distemper as we have already proved Moreover we may perhaps hither reduce the Scurvy the French Pox the Jaundice in which affects the Blood also is polluted with filthy excrementitious humors and corrupt exulcerations which cannot easily be changed into laudable and fruitful Seed The second Classis containeth containeth the penury of Natural Spirits wherby the good Seed should be Generated For a Spirituous Seed cannot flow from such a kind of matter The causes which suppeditate that impure matter to the Parts of Generation are the dried and extenuated Bodies of the Parents wasted either by long abstinence or by som vehement evacuation as by vomits lasks Lienteries Dysenteries Hepatical Flures of long continuance by an excessive Hemorrhage from any part by violent sweatings or any Chronical Diseases which wasteth the strength and is not repaired before Coition especially a Consumption a Hectick Feaver an indigestion from any kind of Caus Lastly from a defective and imperfect Concoction of the last aliment or the fault of any part For in such cases the matter which is separated to the parts subservient to Generation is destitute of a competent plenty of Natural Spirits wherupon the Parts preparing and concocting the Seed cannot perfectly correct this defect and ejaculate such Seed as is sufficiently abounding with Spirits Seing therfore that a considerable part of this Diseas consisteth in the paucity of Natural Spirits it cannot otherwise be but that the issue propagated by such a crude and almost Spiritless Seed should be tainted with a certain Natural Propension to this affect even in their first rudiments which afterwards upon the concurrence or other causes is easily deduced into Act. The third Classis containeth the benummedness or stupour of the matter transmitted to the Generative Parts wherof the Seed is produced For not only the solid parts but also the whol Mass of Blood and the humors therin contained are obnoxious to that same stupour And from hence it is that Physitians being to render the causes of Diseases do use to say that the humors and also the Blood are too fluid and moveable and unduly vehement somtimes on the contrary that they are unapt for motion less fluxible and unactive beneath a Mediocrity in respect of this thing also a certain Mene is most wholsom but more things relating hither may be seen above We will here only prosecute those faults of the Parents from whence this defect of vigor and activity in the matter of the Seed doth arise These therfore are first the fost loos and effeminate Constitution of either or both the Parents indisposed to strong and Masculine exercises Secondly an overmoist and full diet and epicurison obnoxious to frequent crudities Thirdly A delicate kind of life abandoned to eas and voluptuousness slothful and rarely accustomed to labor danger and care Hither you may also refer a total defect of manly Exercise immoderate sleep especially soon after mate and any kind of sleepings whatsoever a sedentary speculative life intent upon soft and queint Arts and Sciences as Poetry Musick and the like to these may be further added a dayly frequenting of Comedies and other Plays an assiduous reading of Fables and Romances and instead of manly and laudable Recreations a loos expence of time in Carding and Dicing Hither also belong the neverfailing fruits of a lasting peace and plenty such as security indiligence and the like All these enumerated faults do manifestly contribute a share to introduce a laziness and Effeminateness in the parts Seing therfore that the Blood together with the humors contained in it doth in its circulation wash all those stupified parts it cannot otherwise be but that as it glideth along it must participate some such alteration and seing that some portion of the transient Blood affected with this stupefaction is transmitted to the Generative Parts with the very matter wherof the Seed is Generated it is easie to infer that that Child which springeth from such principals must inwardly contract at least some propension conformable to the sluggishness and stupour of its Native matter and that that propension after-Birth when the preservation is taken away by the equal cherishings of the Womb is by divers causes without difficulty deduced into act wherfore seing that such a dulness is a part of the Primary Essence of this Diseas it followeth that in such vitiated principals there lurketh a propensity to this affect derived from one or both of the Parents The Fourth Classis containeth the vicious Dispositions if any such occur of the Parents who in their Childhood were infected with this Diseas For these would transmit into the Children a continuation of an hereditary Diseas properly so called But because as we have said it is not yet manifest whether the Parent afflicted with this Diseas in their infancy shall beget children therewith affected besides becaus the faults of the Parents may be conveniently referred to any one of these Classes aforesaid or to many or indeed to all of them it will be fruitless to insist longer upon them Therfore having reckoned up the faults of the Parents which depend upon the whol Body in the next place we proceed to their faults which peculiarly reside in the Genital Parts These faults are somtimes a cold distemper somtimes a moist when by reason of too much humidity they are loosned or weakned wherupon they ejaculate
properly relate to the secretive and excretive faculty of some Bowel or some other partt and is destinated to be severed and evacuated from it and therefore though the errors of the first concoction are scarce corrected in the second or third by Alteration yet they may be mended by local motion or excretion made from some part of the Body the unprofitable parts being separated and rejected In like manner the mass of blood being any ways preternaturally altered or infected with some Humor the peccant matter which cannot be otherwise subdued by Alteration is quickly exterminated perhaps by excression made from some part or Bowel unless withal the secretive or expulsive faculty thereof be hindred therefore it must needs be of great moment for a Physitian to know what Humors are particularly predominant in any Diseas and by what determinate ways they may be most properly spied out according to the intent and purpose of Nature For there are as many subordinate species of things spied out as there are distinct substances of the Bowels and other parts destinated to that office in the Body For it is credible that the Liver doth cast out one thing the Kidnies another the Sweet-Bread another the Spleen another the Stomach and Guts another the Lungs another the Brain another the Stones the Matrix the Kidnies the Kernel under the Canel Bone the glandulous parts of the Larynxes the Throat and Jaws another the scarf Skin and the Skin another For it seemeth scarce admittable that Nature should build and prepare for her self Organs of different kinds and yet should make use of divers of them for the performance of one and the same action Therfore when the excretion of any of the said parts hapneth to be restrained a certain peculiar filth will flow out from thence into the mass of Blood and so there wil be so many differences of things preternaturally retained as there are kinds of parts inservient to particular casting out and in like manner there wil be as many kinds of vitious excretion either by excess defect or depravation as there are divers wais thorow which the excretion may be made If any man demand Whether the several kinds of things excerned be sufficiently discovered and understood by us We answer that an exact knowledg is desired of that particular humor which is to be cast out thorow the new Vessel of the Sweet-Bread then in the next place what is cast out by the Kidnies the Kernel under the Canel Bone and the glandulous parts of the Larynx yea perhaps it is yet scare sufficiently known what is rejected by the Spleen For this cause therefore amongst others it seemed good unto us to supersede in this place any high and accurate disquisition of things secerned and retained either in relation to the parts and ways whereunto they belong or in order to the present affect and rather to insist on that fourfold division of Humors made by Galen namely into Choler Phlegm Blood Melancholy adding only undue transpiration and sweating For although we may doubt whether this division can deduce the humors to the subordinate Species as we have noted above more then four parts distinct in the species are evidently dedicated to the casting out of the humors yet seing that this division of the Humors is not only approved by al Classical Phisitians but that it is likewise profitable in it self and at least reduceth the Humors to certain Heads or Kinds however perhaps every kind may comprehend under it several species we are resolved for the present to insist upon it and so much the rather because under a general notion it very fitly conjoyneth and containeth both things altered and preternaturally contained within and also things to be spied out which are not yet excerned and in that respect it will eas our burden and contract our work For whilst we make our proceedings in this manner it will be needless to institute any other peculiar Chapter of the Causes of this Diseas namely of this altered which are preternaturally contained seing that they are comprehended as we have said under this Title We reduce therfore the internal Causes of this Diseas whether they be excrementitious humors retained or viciated by alteration either to Choller or to Melancholly or to Elegm and a Waterish humor or an undue Transpiration and sweating for the Blood properly so called is in this affect scarce observed to be faulty You may object That Practical Physitians do in this Diseas commonly prescribe the opening of a Vein in the hollow of the Ear observing that Evacuation to be very profitable which Reason could hardly admit unless the Blood were in some degree peccant We answer That this Remedy is available not in respect of the universal plenitude of the Blood but by reason of a peculiar plenitude of the Head it self For we have already shewed how that the Blood is uneqally dispensed to the parts of the Body and indeed illiberally to the first affected parts but to the Head superabundantly Therfore although there be not an universal redundancy of the Blood in this Diseas yet in respect of the particular Plenitude of the Head it self such a particular emptiness is perhaps profitably instituted those outward and smal Veins of the Ears being cut You may reply that we by this Answer do indeed decline the universal Plethora but that we grant a particular one of the Head which ought no less to be esteemed a caus of sickness We answer That we have at large explained this fault of the Blood when we discoursed of the unequal distribution of it unto which place it properly belongeth seing that it is a caus of the Secondary not of the Primary Essence of this Diseas and therfore a vain and superfluous repetition therof ought not in this place to be expected We will now therfore proceed to our purposed disquisition of the Humors and likewise the Transpiration aforesaid First Choller whether by this word you understand that excrementitious humor in the little Bladder and the Chollerick pore or a hot dry sharp and bitter part of the Mass of Blood or that unsavory humor that tasteth like stinking Oyl begotten and flowing in the Stomach by some corrupt aliment especially that which is fat addust or salt or certain sharp and corrosive Excrescences produced in the Body by corrupt Blood if it abound and luxuriate in the Body very probably be a caus of this affect For although it may rather seem to impugn that cold and moist distemper which is a part of the first Essence of this Diseas yet in regard that it is apt in some sort to hinder the nourishment of the Parts either by a vehement irritation of the expulsive faculty or by attenuation of the aliment and to extenuate and wast the very inherent constitution of the Parts and by consequence to consume and dissipate the Natural Spirits it may not unjustly be numbred among the causes of this Diseas For every one knows that
Persons of a Chollerick Constitution are lean and of an extenuated habit becaus of the Reasons aforesaid Secondly A Melancholly humor whether you understand the Earthy Portion of the Blood or that saltish or tartar like matter excreted in and with the Urin and when the Urin groweth cold incorporating into little Sands or that sowr humor powred into the Ventricle perhaps by the Spleen though not through that short Veiny Vessel as the Ancients beleeved or those terrene Parts of the assumed Aliment which are evacuated by siege with the other Excrements understand either or any of them if this humor aboundeth and be not purged out after a due manner may be blamed as a caus of this Diseas For first that humor which is the more Earthy part of the Blood if it exceed a just proportion in the Mass of Blood it rendreth it unapt to nourish the Parts especially those that are first affected for the first affected parts are of a more noble texture than the substances of the Bowels or the bony parts and therfore we have already noted how the Parenchymata of the Bowels and the Bones do easily admit nutrition and by a way like unto digestion but those former parts do require a far more exquisite secretion elaborated assimilation And this is the Reason that the fleshy parts of the Bowels are rightly imputed among the impure and grosser aliments namely Becaus they are nourished with a cours Blood and not accurately elaborated before the Union Secondly Any great accumulation of Saltish and Tartar like matter is an Enemy to Nutrition and is rather dissipative and devouring than favoring augmentation Thirdly The sowr Humor of the Ventricle is totally ravenous and as it were hungerstarved and perhaps where it aboundeth it easily communicateth to the Blood such another Depredatory quality Fourthly and lastly The Terrene Dregs of the Belly may if they be inordinately retained taint and infect the Chylus and render it unapt for the nourishment of the part Finally we grant that every propounded kind of Melancholly superfluously coagumented or preternaturally retained doth not primarily properly and directly concur to the production of this evil but nevertheless we are of opinion that indirectly and after rhe manner propounded it may contribute somthing to the generation of it Thirdly Flegm whether it be taken for the moister and colder part of the Mass of Blood or for the wheyish part therof or for the slow humor of the Stomach and Guts or for the Spettle or for the Snot of the Nostrils or Jaws or for that peculiar humor which perhaps the new Vessel of the Sweet-Bread doth use to evacuate however you take it if it be retained or abound in the Body it hath a direct reference to this Diseas and properly deserveth to be called the caus therof For this humor is cold most slow thick benummed little spiritous lost and affected with an internal slipperiness all which things do exactly comply with the primary and secondary Essence of this Diseas as they have been propounded Wherfore upon a superfluous accumulation of this humor seing that there succeedeth a conspiracy to the production of this affect it ought justly to be esteemed a proper caus and a Primary Agent Besides these humors undue Transpiration as also immoderate or defective sweating may be somtimes numbred among the causes of this affect For excessive Sweating as also immoderate Transpiration doth dissipate the Spirits and withal dissolveth the parts especially the external which in this Diseas are the first affected and the inherent Spirits being consumed it easily leaveth a cold distemper behind it For to a just excitation and conservation of the heat of the parts there is required a certain due and regular strife of the exhalations between breathing which if it prove deficient the actual heat also becaus it partly consisteth in this strife becomes very feeble and languid and the parts are easily exposed to a cold distemper But we have already spoken of this matter at large On the contrary Sweat preternaturally restrained as also a very smal or lesned Transpiration doth easily kindle a Feaverish heat and therfore it likewise injureth the Spirits and dissolveth the parts and rendreth them afterwards easily obnoxious to a cold distemper Finally That we may comprehend all in a word Any humor excerned above Reason or Measure doth easily introduce a colliquation of the parts and a dissipation of the inherent Spirits and consequently disposeth the Body to this affect And let this suffice to have been spoken of non-Natural things and the causes of this Diseas thence arising CHAP. XVII Precedent Diseases which may be the Cause of this Disease THese Diseases in respect of their proper Essence ought only to be called by the name of Diseases but in respect of this Diseas they may rightly pass under the notion of causes of Diseases becaus they leave it behind them as one of their Effects Yet although many of them as they relate to the Parents and so imprint a Natural pollution in the Off-spring are rehersed above nevertheless by right they here deserve their consideration yet in a different respect and order These Diseases we reduce to three Kinds or general Heads First To Diseases that have some affinity with this affect Secondly To Diseases that extenuate the Body Thirdly To Diseases inducing a stupor and dulness in the first affected parts Of the First Kind Diseases having an Affinity or holding Congruity with this we call those who at least in part consist in the same with the Essence of this Diseas of this kind are any cold distemper or any moist distemper also any cold and moist distemper For a part of the first Essence of this Diseas includeth a cold and moist distemper and so those distempers do partly agree with this Affect Hither also belong a Phlegmatick Cachocymy a Melancholy and a mixt an obstruction proceeding from such like humors a Cachexia and a Dropsy Yea we may likewise refer hither in regard of their affinity those Diseases wherein the inherent Spirits are somwhat consumed for a part of the Essence of this Diseas consisteth in a scarsity of those Spirits but otherwise they are more aptly referred to the second kind In like manner the Diseases wherin the first affected parts are benummed stupified may likewise in respect of their affinity be hitherto referred although they belong more properly to the third kind of Diseases Moreover those Diseases wherin the Tone of the parts is infeebled and loosned must here be listed for they include a part of this Diseas namely that which consisteth in the loosnesse litherness internal slipperiness and softness of the Tone as they are above described The Philosophers say that the Elements which agree in like qualities are easily changed one into another by the same reason that these Diseases which partly agree in the same Essence do easily admit a reciprocal change from one to the other So we see a quotidian Ague which agreeth
over whom they prevail But which way soever they happen they scarce continue so long as with sufficient efficacy to imprint this benummedness in the Natural Constitution of the parts Yet we grant that these affects may if perhaps they persist longer with life affect the Natural Constitution with that benummedness so that this Diseas may follow thereupon although we can neither justify nor assert it upon the credit of a single observation But the Diseases which do most frequently introduce an astonishment in the Natural Constitution of the first affected parts are those very same which hinder Children any way from ordinary actions and due exercises especially from the use of their feet as the luxation fracture or som wound of a foot or thigh or the leg or the Back-bone also tumors and pains or the like affects whether they afflict the parts aforesaid or others provided that they hinder the Children so that they cannot walk or play standing upon their legs or use any Masculine Exercises For hereupon by degrees the rigor and heat of the external parts waxeth dul which in this evil are the parts first affected and from thence the other parts of the Essence of this affect follow by an uninterrupted and linked succession as whosoever wil may see above We have now run over the Causes of this Affect and should in the next place proceed to the differences therof but that two difficulties do here interpose themselvs which properly result from a higher consideration of the Causes propounded For al those Causes now alleadged seem as wel common to Boys of big growth as to Children whereupon it may very pertinently be enquired How it comes to pass that they which are grown to mans Estate are not infested with this evil as wel as Children Then again Seing that the Causes propounded are al of them almost common both to England and many other Countreys som of them to al Climats of the Earth It may be demanded in the second place Why this diseas is more frequent and rife in England than in other Countreys These Questions we shal examine in order and shal freely deliver our judgment concerning them CHAP. XVIII The Former Question WHy they which are elder in years are not equally obnoxious to this Diseas as Children The terms of the Question seem to insinuate that this Affect may happen though very rarely to those of big age But we reserve the solution of this doubt til the close of the present determination Therfore in the mean time the Constitutions or dispositions both of Children that are chiefly obnoxious to this Diseas and also of bigger Boyes which are rarely subject unto it must be opposed and every way considered and thought on also of Youths Men and Old Men and that in order and relation to this Affect For the Question is not absolute but comparative therfore the first and best way of determining it wil be by a mutual comparison between the different dispositions of the said Subjects how they admit the impressions of the propounded causes either with case or difficulty Then certain accidental and peculiar conditions of Yong Children under such an age must be likewise considered in respect of which they are under one age rendred more under another less obnoxious to this Diseas That we may the more succesfully declare the former comparison we will distinguish the ages of men Here we comprehend Children of six months of age a year old two three four years old there we understand those of five years of age or more Youths Men and old men and those we cal by the general name of Juâ—â—ors and these by the name of Seniors unless pâ—â—â—â—ps the matter may require a subdistinction of the gâ—â—â—â—er sort these things being premised we ad 〈◊〉 our sâ—lvs to the collation First The yonger Children are of a colder temperament than the Elder For the heat of the temperament is augmented from the time of the birth to mans estate at which time it standeth at a stay being far more intensive than that of Children but afterwards it declineth by degrees unto extream old age and a little before that extream age it falleth into the same degree as it held in the time of Child-hood but before the approach of this term of extream old age the temperament of aged men is more hot than that of Children for although yong Children may enjoy a greater plenty of Natural heat and abound with Natural Spirits yet there is no necessity that they therfore must be of a hutter temperament for there is required a concurrence of many things to constitute a hot temperament beside the inherent Spirits and the inherent heat as for example a large portion of Chollerick humors and withal or chiefly a strong endeavor of the Vital faculty namely in the pulses and the Vital Spirits in their circulation Seing therfore that the yonger Children are more cold it is no wonder if they be more subject to cold Diseases than others such as this is As for old men especially such as are inclining to extream old age we grant that they also are more cold and upon every light occasion obnoxious to cold Diseases Wherfore from hence namely from the coldness of the temperament we infer no difference between yonger Children these old men in respect of an aptitude to fall into this affect Secondly The yonger Children are more moist than the elder for to wax old if it be taken in a sound sence is to wax dry For although old men after their manner may be likewise obnoxious to moist affects as Cathars Obstructions a Cachexy a Dropsie a Palsie a Lethargy a loosness and trembling of the Nervs and the like evils yet really there is some difference between a moist distemper which happeneth to Boys and that which befalleth aged Persons For in Children an adventitious humidity constituting the distemper doth not only penetrate the most retired substance of the solid parts but they are totally incorporated with the same But in old Men the solid parts even then when it is endued with a moist distemper doth not seem to part with its earthiness but to be in some sort compounded of that Earthy Nature and a certain adventitious crude and moist Juice or else an excrementitious drunk into the pores or into the substance of the parts yet it is not sufficiently incorporated or united For as sand being drenched in much water retaineth al its Earthy substance however it be somwhat moist So also the Bodies of old Men however they may be moystened with crude and excrementitious humors yet do they not deposite that terrene substance or that part which by the Chymicks is designed by the name of a dead Head which they dayly accumilate unto themselves from their first beginning This distemper therfore of old Persons is spurious not genuine crude and not perfectly digested into the substance of the parts And therefore although we grant that old men may in their way
as it were in a common Hypocaust or hot Hous Seing therfore that the first part of the Essence of this Diseas consisteth in an unequal cold distemper it is no wonder if these Defences and Fortifications of the Body do avert it at least for some short time The Third Reason may perhaps be the wholsomness of the Diet for Breast-Milk is the most solubrious and agreeable nourishment that tender age especially when it is sucked from the Breasts for it is a simple and uniform Meat full of nourishment easie to concoct and friendly and farmiliar to the constitution of Infants Therfore so long as they are conveniently nourished with it they incur the fewer errors of diet and are rendred the less obnoxious to this Diseas Yet it must be noted that if the Nurses milk be not laudable and good in it self or otherwise disagreable to the Constitution of the Infant then this reason is of no force Therefore if the Nurse be big with Child or immoderatly addicted to Venery or any ways sickly or given to drunkenness and inordinate feeding it is safer to hasten the weaning of the Infant unless you are provided of a better Nurse The fourth and last reason is the slowness of the motion of this Diseas in his first invasions For it stealeth on so slowly that it scarce bewrayeth any preparations to an assault til some months are expired unless the progress of it be advanced by some extraordinary and most vehement Causes as by some more violent Affect preceding or coming upon it Seing therefore that this Diseas doth so slowly take Root and seing that Children as we have formerly shewed are commonly born free from it it seldom hapneth to break out evidently into act til the sixth yea indeed til the ninth month And thus we have given the reasons why Infants newly born notwithstanding the weakness of their Constitution are for many months priviledged from this Diseas Secondly The causes why Children from the ninth to the eighteenth Month are every day more frequently infested with this affect are these First Becaus the first Caus even now propounded driving away this Diseas in those that are new born doth daily remit and before the ninth Month doth totally vanish Secondly In like manner the second propulsive Caus before alledged till that age doth every day grow more effectual For the hands of Infants after some Months if not before are usually set at liberty from the prison of their Blankets and perhaps their Feet also before they are six months old although at night they are swadled up again In the day time therfore at the least these outward Members are destitute of that common and comfortable warmth The Nurses likewise do many times er when they cloath the weak and feeble Infants too soon For they idly define the time of cloathing them by the number of the Months seing that they should rather give an estimation of it by the strength and activity of the motion of their Hands and Feet For when the motion and exercise of those parts doth avail more to excite and cherish their heat and to irritate their Pulses than the warmth of their swadling cloaths without all controversie that is the time to devest Infants from their swadling cloaths Moreover thirdly After the ninth Month Children usually are fed with other aliment besides Breast-Milk or other Milk and from that variety in feeding there easily resulteth some errors in point of Diet. Fourthly The slowness of the Motion of this Diseas doth not hinder but that it may break forth into act after the ninth Month. For the motion by reason of the unperceivable slowness of it at the end of certain months doth exhibit some effects and impressions Lastly the evils of breeding teeth do likewise contribute very much to the same purpose For the Teeth begin to breed commonly about the seventh Month and come accompanied with divers Symptoms which easily dispose tender Bodies to this affect Thirdly The Causes why this Diseas most frequently rageth when the Child is eighteen Months old are First Becaus the Causes before cited hastning this Diseas in the yonger Children are upon the approach of this age taken away or at least they operate with weak and ineffectual powers Secondly The evils of breeding Teeth although in respect of the immediate Symptoms which they produce perhaps before this time they nourish yet for the most part they leave behind them in the first affected parts a certain disposition which privily hiding it self within them after the term of some months produceth this Diseas But the breaking out of the Dog-teeth chiefly hath reference to this place seing that these break out a little before the Child is a year and an half old and their coming forth likewise is of al other the most painfull Thirdly Hitherto belong also those accidents which happen by reason of ablactation or weaning of the Child and at that time a great alteration befalleth Children in matter of Diet which they endure not without palpable molestation For herupon they are angry they cry the commotions of their minds makes them forsake the nourishment of their Bodies they are hard to be pleased neither do they sleep quietly All which things do easily imprint in the parts first affected at least a foregoing disposition although perhaps not till a long time after to this affect And so at length we have also run through this second Comparison namely of yong Children among themselves and we have briefly explained the Causes why those Children at one age are more and at another age are less exposed to this evil The Third part of the Question still remaineth which as we said we would reserve to be examined at the close of this Disputation namely Whether those that are of a greater age do somtimes fall though exceeding rarely into this Diseas We say first For so much as concerneth that part of the Essence of this Diseas which consisteth in a moist distemper that some difference must be expected to be between that distemper in yonger Children and those that are bigger in yong Men Men and especially in old Men for the same difference which we put before between the moist distemper of yong Children and old Men may according to quantity as more or less be observed between the middle Ages and therfore the humidity of the yonger Children will be better concocted and more genuine than that of the elder as it is obvious to collect mutatis mutandis from the same reasoning Secondly As for the organical faults we affirm that necessarily there concurreth a vast difference between Diseases of this kind incident to Children and perhaps to those of greater age for the tumors of the Bones in the Wrests and Ankles as also that narrowness of the Breast likewise that disproportionatly augmented bigness of the Head and Liver are either less conspicuous or altogether undescernable especially in those that are grown to full age For as the years encreas the Figure
and proportion of the Parts becomes more compact firm and stable neither doth it easily come to pass that one part doth much grow out more than another by true augmentation Thirdly We say that excepting the two premised conditions and that in that manner as they are propounded this affect according to the other parts of the Essence thereof although indeed very rarely and upon the highest causes only may happen to Boys Young Men Men and old Men. For first a cold distemper without al controversie may befal them though not so easily as Children Secondly A moist distemper may also invade them but yet only by the limitation propounded Thirdly A want of inherent Spirits may also befal them but then it must proceed from the most potent causes For Chronical Diseases and such as consume the habit of the parts or dissipate it into ayr or wast it by long fasting and an Atrophy do necessarily leave behind them a paucity of Natural Spirits We see the outward parts even in those that are grown to ful age when they are extenuated and consumed by such like causes to wax feeble to languish wither and become destitute of al sufficient Spirituosity Yet we grant that in those that are grown to full age the evil which causeth leanness being overcome the wasted Spirits may soon be repaired by the vigor of the Pulses and that the rudiments and impressions of this Diseas may be rooted out within one or two weeks and by consequence that they are seldom affected with it In the interim if it should so fal out that upon that consuming of the Inherent Spirits some impediment should intervene that might retard their reparation it is possible that this diseas may grow from thence in that manner as hath been said But a numbness of the Inherent Spirits must necessarily follow upon a fewness of them Fourthly The parts of the Secondary Essence seing that they have a strong dependance upon the Primary faults where these persevere long the Organical faults being excepted they may supervene in their order So that we do not doubt but this Diseas may happen to any age after childhood the restrictions which we have now propounded being granted and upon the urgency and perseverance of great and weighty causes One amongst us affirmeth that he had a Gentleman in cure about thirty yeers of age who by dayly immoderare use of Wine and Tobacco continued for some whole years having neglected the due receiving of his meat fel into such a weakness of Stomach that continually every morning he vomited and loathed al kind of Meat and if at any time he swallowed any with unwillingness he presently vomited it up again to appease this queziness of Stomach he was at last compelled to a continual use of ordinary Aqua vitae but afterwards his custome was to mingle it with stale Beer and a quantity of Sugar and with this drink alone he preserved himself alive for many months In the mean time all those parts which in this Diseas we cal the first affected were extreamly lean and became soft loose languid and withered so that he could neither turn himself in his bed nor rise nor walk nor stand upright yet he felt no pain neither was there any privation of sens and motion no cough no uneasy respiration his face was well colored and al the parts about his Head were in a good condition and wel habited so that had you judged of him by his countenance only you could scarce have suspected that he was sick As he lay in his bed he would chat with his Companions take Tobacco by turns and drink that mixture of Beer and Aqua vitae aforesaid The event of the Diseas doth not indeed belong to this place yet we shal set it down to gratify them who are desirous to know it The Physitian being sent for he strictly forbad al intemperance and amongst other remedies having given him one grain a half of Laudanum Londinensis he appeased the nauseous infirmity and tumult of his Stomach which part he likewise strengthned with internal and external applications and prescribed him such a diet as was most easy of concoction Instead of exercise he solicited the heat unto the outward parts with rubbing them every morning having first given a smal quantity of strengthning and opening Electuary made up with a little portion of Steel which he drank in two ounces of Wine composed of Wormwood and Mint a little Saffron being hung in it to give it a tincture three ounces of smal Beer being tempered with it and a quantity of Sugar to make the taste of it more pleasant Moreover he purged him by fits with gentle Medicines and in the evening comforted him with cordials Within twenty days he grew to such a degree of amendment that he could walk abroad for the space of an hour and could without any striving or much weariness climb ladders without any help But afterwards by a relaps into the like intemperance he died in the absence of his Physitian But let us return from this degression into the way direct our speech to our intended scope The Affect being now confirmed as it was upon the first coming of the Doctor Besides the faults of the Stomach it seemed to include a great part of the Essence of this Diseas we now treat of For in the parts subservient to motion namely those that are first affected in this Diseas there was a cold distemper either through defect of motion or by reason of the immunite afflux and dispensation of the Vital Blood Again the softness slipperiness laxity and litherness of those parts shewed that there was a moist distemper in them Also the extream leanness of those parts did sufficiently demonstrate a fewness of inherent Spirits and the unfitness to motion and affectation of rest and eas did strongly witness a numbness in those parts The ful and florishing habit of the parts about the Head when the other parts were extenuated was a forcible reason to prove the unequal distribution of the Blood But the peculiar cause of this inequality in this sick man might be his frequent vomiting whereby a more plentiful afflux of the Blood was driven to the parts about the Head the other being almost destitute of it Any man may perceive by what hath been said that at least the greatest part of the Essence of this Diseas was comprehended in this mentioned Affect From whence at length we may probably infer that it is possible for this Diseas to happen to those of ful growth being considered according to the propounded limitations although it very seldom coms to pass because great causes and length of time are required to the production of it And thus at last we have put an end to the search upon the former Question CHAP. XIX The latter Question Why this Diseas happeneth more frequently in England then in other Countreys And whether it be Natural to Englishmen IT is acknowledged by
of the place alone should be feeble and languid and very subject to this Diseas For as much as the very benignity of the Region may in this respect be the occasion of some infirmity in the Issue For as barbarous People in time past by an inhumane experiment upon their new born infants namely by dipping their naked bodies in the coldest water destroyed the weak ones with the extremity of the cold and gave education only to the strong ones whose vigorous Constitutions overcame the injury of their cruel policies purposing by that inhumanity to have an universal race of strong lusty people So on the contrary the very clemency of the place promiscously preserving the languishing and weak Children together with the strong healthful doth minister an occasion of bringing forth a mixt kind of people some strong and some weak and sickly Yet least any should mistake we do not mean that all the Children in this Kingdom which are born of weak and sickly Parents are subject to this Affect For although if one or both of the Parents be infirm the Children will be infirm yet it is often seen that when the Parents have been very strong and healthful yet their Children have been very subject to this Diseas Wherefore neither do we rest in this second cause but another must yet be enquired out from whence we may derive a sufficient reason of the frequency of this evil We affirm therfore in the third place That the rifeness of this Diseas in England hath been much promoted by that long and secure peace which we enjoyed before the first breaking of it For by this the more wealthy families which were first invaded by this evil and which doth stil infest them more than others had addicted themselves to idleness and a loose and effeminate life and therupon they fel into a moister softer and degenerate Constitution and such as was less purged and cleansed from excrementitious humors and by consequence their Children were even procreated obnoxious to this Affect You wil say that Scotland and the Northern parts of England although they enjoyed peace and security yet they are seldome observed to fal under this Affliction We answer True it is that Scotland and the Northern parts of England are less affected with this Diseas than the Southern and the Western In the mean time peradventure the first impressions and rudiments of it are far more frequent in those places yea and in some forraign Countries then is commonly beleeved For although this evil be very familiar in the South and West parts of this Kingdom and very wel known among the Vulgar sort yet we have many times seen Children afflicted with it in a slight manner of whom neither the Parents nor others of the same family did suspect the least evil Yea we have known many whom none of their friends thought to be affected to be healed without any help of Physick by the sole benefit of the increased heat or by the increase of age or exercises How much easier therfore may the first rudiments of this Diseas be concealed from them to whom it is less familiar and among whom it seldom ascendeth to that degree that they need to implore the Physitians help We conjecture therfore that this Diseas is more frequent then is commonly beleeved both in Scotland and the Northern parts of England yea and in some Countries wherin the people are ignorant of it to this day but in those places they are so gently tormented with it that they are seldom condemned to the hands of the Physitian For that is the custome of the Vulgar sort not to send for the Doctor especially to Infants and yong Children unless the vehemency of the Diseas constrain them However the matter is we seem not yet to have given satisfaction to the objection propounded Why the South and West Country men of England are more grievously frequently conflicted with this Diseas then the Northern People and the Scots although both Kingdoms equally shared the blessing of the lasting peace and security Therfore we grant that a higher reason yet must be given for this difference Fourthly therefore and lastly we say That the cause of this difference is the affluence of all good things in these Southern and Western Countries of England For this part of the Kingdom is much the more fruitful rich and florishing and abounding with al manner of allurements to pleasure Therefore it is no marvail if the customs of men do first generate here their Spirits decay and the strength of their Bodies begin to dissolve now that this degenerate and delicate manner of living doth weaken families is a truth so solidly and constantly attested by Historians that it were an impertinence to offer any proof of it For you may observe that the most Noble and Gallant Families have been very much reproached for these very causes yea and sooner or latter somtimes totally extinguished and so much the sooner as they have the more refused to undergo labors and to innure themselvs to masculine exercises Neither are families ever plunged in a greater danger of degeneration then when they abound with al good things and lying open to plenty and security they are most powerfully invited to delicatness idleness and effeminateness without any labor care and solicitude Who was more rich secure and effeminate than Solomon He left Rehoboam a degenerate Son behind him And perhaps the family of Henry the 8th is extinct for the like cause We could heap up almost innumerable examples to prove this if it were needful However it be we see plainly that this Diseas doth more frequently and vehemently invade the families of the wealthy than the cottages of poor men and therfore it ought not to seem strange that it likewise infested the richer and more pleasanter parts of the Kingdom namly the South and West before the North parts But these things shall suffice to have been spoken concerning this matter It remaineth only that we enquire Whether and how far the three last assigned causes relate to the denomination of a Common Diseas and whether in respect of them this Diseas may be ascribed to England as common and Natural You must know then that these three causes in as much as they depend upon the Region are not properly causes neither by their own nature do they produce this affect but that they are only an occasion wherby this Diseas may accidentally arise For in themselves they denote the laudable conditions of a Country at least they infer not what is culpable in it For who can accuse his Country because it favoreth the procreation of Children much less make outcries against it because it enjoyed long and secure peace Finally least of all calumniate the pleasantness fruitfulness and affluence of all good things For all these things are in themselves blessings and conditions to be wished for in a Country Seing therfore as we have shewed above that a Disease properly common doth
Fourthly The Tone being over soft loos flavid and withered indicateth an avoidance of such things as are wont to mollifie loosen and weaken the parts and that such Medicines are to be outwardly applied and inwardly given as may render them more firm and solid The same Tone as it is internally too brittle brings a suspicion upon all such things as abound much with an inward slipperiness and seemeth to desire some roughness or indeed astriction in those things applied or taken Fifthly The corrupted Vital Constitution on the part of the Generation of the Vital Spirits is not so considerable but on the part of the distribution of the Vital Spirits the inequality therof is of great importance and indicateth a caution to be had of those things which promove the flux of the Blood towards the Head as also of such things as retard the passage therof to the first affected parts but that choice must be made of such things as stir the Pulses of the Arteries in the parts first affected and temper those that are in the Head A slow and diminute current of the Blood through the first affected parts indicateth the same things namely an evocation of the Puls to those parts But an over facile and slippery passage of the Blood through the habit of the parts is coincident in its indication with the slipperiness of the Tone lately recited A defect of the Vital Constitution on the part of the union sufficiently vigorous and pleasant between the Vital and the Natural Spirits indicateth an election of such things as can both nourish and cherish the Spirits and also excite them to a greater activity and that their contraries ought to be avoided The Vital heat as deficient indicates almost the same thing as a cold distemper provided that regard be had withal to the strength of the Heart and Arteries and to the vigor of the Vital Spirits Sixthly The unequal Nutrition Indicateth those things which promove the even and impartial distribution of the Aliment and Heat Or indeed that which is too liberal to the parts that are nourished beyond a due measure the extenuation of the parts requireth a fuller Nourishment The irregular magnitude of the Head chiefly things extenuant and such as are of the flux from the Head The Tumors of the Bones indicate the same thing the crookedness of the Bones require such things as attract the Aliment to the hollow side as moderate rubbings but things repressing chiefly on the gibbous and bunched side as strong bindings The bending of the Joynts insinuateth an Artificial erection of them as much as is possible The narrowness of the Breast pointeth to Pectorals and such things as have a faculty to dilate the Breast but the sharpness therof indicateth such things as have a dilative Vertue Sevently The imperfect distribution of Animal Spirits and somwhat defective in the first affected parts indicateth Cephalicals and such things as facilitate the distribution as exercises rubbings and the like A defect of due stretching in the Nerves or Nervous and Fibrous parts indicateth those things as Corroborate the Nerves and strengthen the parts Thus much of Indications Curative the Preservative follow CHAP. XXVI Indications preservative THese Indications are deduced either from the Antecedent or the present causes of a Diseas Those which flow from the former kind of causes concern the Prophylactical Part here we only propound those which proceed from causes that are present and contained in the Body namly from common causes or such as are proper to this Diseas Now although that common causes do not seem immediatly to attain to the production of the Essence of a Diseas yet even in this respect that they are esteemed an impediment and may retard the cure they Indicate their taking away These causes are either impurities or excrementitious humors collected and impacted in the first passages which unless they be taken away do not only infect the nourishment inward but they somwhat dul or otherwise hinder the appropriate Medicines They indicate therfore an evacuation either by a gentle vomit or by a lenitive purgation as occasion shal rather perswade to this or that or they are common causes deeper imbited into the Parts of the Body and these also require an evacuation But seing that according to this kind of common causes it is at the same time driven away and almost with the same Medicaments as are the causes which are proper to this Diseas we shal conjoyn both the kinds of them in this present consideration The causes therfore which are proper to this Diseas as also the Common causes which have a deeper penetration into the Body may be divided into Blood and Cacochymical humors The Blood indeed although it be rather deficient than redundant in the first Affected parts yet in the Head for the most part it requires a particular evacuation which usually is performed by scarification of the Veins in the hollow of the Ear. Hither likewise we may partly refer blisters raised between the first and second turning Joynt of the Neck although these perhaps may relate over and above in part to the Cacochymical humors Cachochymical humors are divided into those which stil flow in the channel of the Veins and into those which are impacted in certain parts of the Body The causes or humors flowing in the Veins do primarily and intentionally Indicate their evacuation But if they be unapt for motion as to the execution then they require som previous preparation But because it happens for the most part that not al the humors are equally unapt but that som are sufficiently flexible and others not so but resist the Medecines in this case they indicate a less evacuation and then a preparation Moreover These humors in the chanel of the Veyns may be subdivided into Feaverish namly if there be a putrid Feaver and not Feaverish The Feaverish humors are either swelling or not swelling The swelling that is those which are unquiet or impetuously agitated do Indicate a sudden evacuation at least a lesser unless perhaps they are carried of their accord to the external and more ignoble parts as it happens in the small Pox the Meazels and the like Affects But if a Feaver be present and that acute and yet the humors are not swelling they chiefly Indicate that peculiar preparation which they cal coction that by this means they may be obedient to the Medecine to be aftergiven and than evacution but if the Feaver not be acute but Chronical although the matter be not irritated and yet som part of it be sufficiently flexible in this case a lesser evacuation is first indicated at any time of the Diseas and afterwards the coction of the relicts that they also in their time may be evacuated The humors contained in the Veins which are not Feaverish if they are fluxible they first indicate evacuation but because in this Affect slow gross and clammy humors are almost perpetually present preparation at least wher a lesser
unaptly be referred Moreover the Spirits also although they prohibit all extream hot things yet they allow of these as mōderat and very congruous to Nature In like manner there is little or no particular repugnance between these causes and the Indicates albeit in respect of time and the order of administration som dissent may be observed as we shall see afterwards in due place Wherfore in what respect and how far these agree together whilst we intend a cure we do at once respect not only the Spirits but in som sort the causes by choosing such curative remedies or by mingling such ingredients with them which are able both to attenuate the thick matter to cut into the viscous to open the obstructed passages and the like In like manner whilst we are chiefly imployed either in preservation or in the rooting out of causes we make choice of such evacuants or els we compound them with such remedies as are also partly contrary to the Diseas And all these things we do to that purpose as that as hath been said we may be subservient to the most intentions we can Now having found out the actions simply requisit in the Species in the next place we shal enquire out their du circumstances 1. In regard that this is a great Diseas it requireth a great quantity of the Remedy in respect of it self For a Remedy unequal to the Diseas cannot extirpate it It is necessary therfore that the dose of the Medicine be equally to the magnitude of the Affect But in this Diseas the Spirits permit not so great a quantity of Remedies to be given at once Wherfore that quantity must be divided given by turns For this is a Chronical Diseas and of slow motion neither doth it necessarily require an hasty Cure and although the Spirits cannot wel endure either vehement Remedies or such as are given in a large dose yet they permit the use of Evacuant Medicins by an Epicrasis Wherfore by turns we must somtimes make use of Remedies Preparatory somtimes Evacuant somtimes Alterant and somtimes strengthing Secondly For so much as belongeth to the place of administration the general Rule is that the remedy ought to arive at the seat and penetrate to the very Cause of the Diseas If therfore it must have a passage into the Vessels it must be taken at the Mouth but if it will suffice to touch only the thick Guts it must be injected by the Fundament If the humors be naturally ready to move upwards expel them by vomit if downwards evacuat them by siege In like manner you must humor the inclination of Nature and root out the causes by spitting by Urin or by sweating Particular evacuations must be instituted in the very affected parts or in the parts adjacent For so the force of the Remedy doth the more surely make way to the seat of the Diseas and the morbifical Caus And for the same reason external and topical Medicines must be applied to the next convenient place Yet you must know that there is a certain Sympathy between som parts in which case the remedies ar frequently administred to the part wherwith that consent intercedeth and neither to the affected nor the adjacent part Thirdly The form of the Medicament doth partly depend upon the Rule last propounded For if the scope be to lenifie the Jaws or the Windpipe we chuse a licking or lapping form that by degrees the remedy may slide over the affected parts and stay the longer upon them In like manner if the Stomach be affected we often prescribe Pils Pouders or Electuaries that they may the longer abide in the Stomach To the Kidnies we rather design liquid things that they may the more easily be carried down to them with the wheyish part of the Blood The forms do also in som part depend upon the very nature of the Diseas as in burning Feavers liquid things are for the most part convenient dry things are scarce admitted on the other side in moist Diseases and when the Belly is oversoluble more solid forms are preferred Finally the forms of the Medicines do also partly depend upon the nature of the Ingredients So Cassia worketh most effectually in the form of a Bolus Hartshorn Coral and the like in the form of a Pouder in like manner bitter things such as beget a vomiting and stinking things are concealed in the form of Pills somtimes also they are guilded or els they are enwrapped in Wafers and exhibited in the form of a Bolus Now it must here be noted that for the most part the form of the Remedy is not so considerable as it gives place to the more easie and commodious administration in respect of the Admission or Reception of the Sick For many cannot swallow Pills others presently reject their Potions by vomit others are perhaps avers from other forms In this Affect in regard that all Children almost are loth to take Physick that form is to be preferred before the rest which shall be observed to be least distastful to them Fourthly As for the time of action you must so endeavor to sit your administrations that they may as little as possible be interupted with times of eating exercise or sleep for at this age the Spirits are scarce preserved sound and perfect without an interposition of those things by just internals Remedies evacuant opening attenuate and incident must be taken early in the morning upon an empty stomach and if they must be repeated the same day four of the Clock in the afternoon upon an empty stomach likewise is the most seasonable hour Strengthning and astringent Medicines and such as provoke sleep are to be taken rather in the evening than in the morning but perhaps som of these are most agreable after meals Medicines that are mingled with the nourishment ought to be gratful to the Palat lest they subvert the stomach and hinder concoction or caus a loathing of the meat or els empair the Spirits As for the order of proceeding there occur two general Rules The former is That that must first be don which being premised makes way for the following Remedies and therfore that ought first to be removed which hath the consideration of an impediment in respect of what must follow The later is That we must ever give our first help to the more urgent and weighty Indicant unless som impediment intervene If the Question therfore be Whether the Diseas or the Caus of the Diseas doth first require the help of Physick The answer wil be obvious according to the first Rule For the causes are reflected upon under the notion of an impediment in respect of the Cure of the Diseas for they cherish it and infringe the vertu of the Medicins Wherfore before that we are intent upon the vanquishing of the Diseas we premise all possible endeavors to root out the Caus or at least to lessen abate and retund it that it may oppose no considerable force to
beat such things as are reducible to pouder make an Electuary according to art with syrup of Succory with Rhubarb a sufficient quantity Let the Sick take half a dram two scruples or a dram every morning either by it self or in a spoonful of Posset-Ale or som appropriated Syrup or else in Wine Take Conserv of Archangel flowers one ounce the flowers of Sage Clove-Gilliflowers Rosemary-flowers Myrobalans candied in India Citron Pills candied of each half an ounce red Sanders Cinnamon Spanish Liquoris of each half a dram Salt of Steel or els Saffron half a scruple with a sufficient quantity of syrup of Wormwood make your Electuary The dose and manner of using it is the same with the former CHAP. XXXIV Remedies that correct the Symptoms SOme Symptoms supervening upon this Affect do somtimes anticipate the legitamat Method of Cure and require a particular manner of proceeding Of this sort are the flux of the Belly the Lask wherwith somwhat of a Lientery is frequently joyned profuse Sweats laborious and painful breeding Teeth and the Toothach The flux of the Belly doth very much follow this Affect which if it persevere for any long time it is either very violent and easily watereth the Spirits consumeth the solid parts manifestly puts on the nature of a caus and as a caus indicates it s own correction A Bloody-flux rarely hapneth with this Diseas But a Lask with exulcerations in the Guts or complicated with a Lientery is very useful For in respect of the debility to the parts subservient to digestion a Lask or a Lyentery may easily supervene but not a Bloudy-flux Yet there is a frequent concurrence of other causes as of the indigested nourishment vicious either in quantity or quality som feaver watchings worms painful breeding Teeth c. al which things do likewise easily occasion a Lask or Lyentery rather than a Bloudy-flux As for the Cure it is partly perfected by Purgations partly by astringent Remedies partly by such as open and partly by such as strengthen the parts These Purgers are most proper which leave behind an evident binding after evacuation as Rhubarb Senna Tamarinds Myrobalans c. out of which for the most part we frame a Bolus or Potions becaus they are most easily swallowed under those forms As Take Conserv of Red Roses half an ounce Rhubarb in Pouder twelve grains with a sufficient quantity of syrup of Coral make a Bolus to be given in the morning Take of the Pulp of Tamarinds one dram Rhubarb in Pouder seven grains Sugar of Roses half a dram with a sufficient quantity of syrup of Quinces make your Bolus Instead of this Syrup you may use syrup of Coral or syrup of Mint or syrup of Myrtles or syrup of Pomgranats Take Senna half a dram Rhubarb one scruple Tamarinds a dram and an half Anniseeds bruised ten grains Infuse them in a sufficient quantity of fountain water boyl them very gently and to an ounce and an half of the Decoction ad syrup of dried Roses half an ounce mingle them together for a Potion Take Plantan or Succory water or Saxifrage water one ounce Rhubarb in pouder ten grains syrup Augustan syrup of dried Roses of each two drams Mingle them and make your Potion It must be observed That a more full evacuation is somtimes requisit namly when the flux hath not been immoderat or of long continuance and in the mean time the matter offending hath bin copiously collected in the Body In which case in lieu of the Syrup of dried Roses you may take som drams of syrup of Roses solutive syr Augustan or of Succory with Rhubarb or Manna But commonly the safest way is to augment the dose of Rhubarb or els of Senna not omitting the syrup of dried Roses In the evening after the Purgation you may administer ten grains of Diascordium boyled in Wine with Cloves and a little Cinnamon and mixed with a third part of Erratick Poppy water and some cordial Syrups as Syrup of Clove-Gilliflowers to strengthen the Spirits and to stay the Flux or if the Flux be stubborn you may mingle two drams of Diacodium for a dose instead of the Syrup aforesaid Or Take of Posset-drink made with white-Wine the Curd being taken off aromatize it with a little Saffron tied up in a rag crushing it gently between your Fingers Confectio Alkermes one scruple Pomgranat Pils in pouder seven grains Diacodium two drams mix them together to be taken when the Child is minded to sleep Or Take Laudanum according to the London Dispensatory half a grain Magister of Coral twelve grains Conserve of Clove-Gilliflowers or Red Roses one scruple with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Quinces make a Bolus to be taken at bed-time If there be obstructions you may prescribe Crocus Mâ—rtis or Salt of Steel to be taken in the morning As Take Conserve of Roses one ounce the Roots of Succory preserved Myrobalans preserved in India of each half an ounce Salt of Steel half a scruple or Crocus Martis one scruple Cinnamon Liquoris red Coral of each eighteen grains Saffron a grain and a half Syrup of Succory without Rhubarb a sufficient quantity make your Electuary according to art wherof let the Child take half a dram each morning Red hot Iron may be quenched to the same purpose in its ordinary drink If the Child be troubled with a violent flux you may give it som binding Conserves imagin Conserve of Sloes and mix it with such things as the Child delights to eat but in so doing be sure you pleas its Palat. Somtimes a profuse and excessive sweating find a peculiar business for the Physitian in this affect for it very much wasts the Spirits and retards the cure of the diseas Yet caution must be used not to restrain it rashly if perhaps there be a Feaver or if any feaverish fit or immoderat heat hath gon before For in these cases it may be upon a critical time or at least it may bring more advantage to the Body by the mitigation of the Feaver than damage by the loss of the Spirits For we know not whether any thing doth more potently or indeed more sweetly expel the feaverish heat thaÌ„ sweating In the interim when it floweth inordinately and causlesly it argueth that the Body is oppressed with obstructions with crude juyces and unprofitable superfluities which whilst Nature striveth to master and to subdu by that very labor the openness of the pores withal concurring it is evaporated by sweat and indeed an unprofitable one very laborious and such as wasteth the Spirits which therfore as soon as possible must be corrected This Hippocrates meant where he adviseth That that sweat which floweth away without cause requireth purgation For what can more commodiously diminish and dissipate these superfluities Again this motion is contrary to sweating wherfore it meriteth the preheminence among the remedies opposed to this Sympton and seing that it clears the way for Medicines aperient and such as strengthen