sinistro Hypochondrio sub Diaphragmate ex Ventriculi Omenti Coli viscerum connexu ortâ exitum non habente sed ita conclusâ ut aquam Flatus continere possit And for the beating in the left Hypochondry says he Ad quam rem faciunt Glandulae in Mesenterio plurimae praecipue magna illa quae in centro ejus primae vasorum distributioni addita est But the more difficult part of this Distemper to understand is that it not only affects and distempers the Brain but likewise the Mind it self is a sufferer in it which it chiefly or first afflicts with Fear and Despair and freeing the Passions from the government of Reason makes way to all the extravagant Actings that an abused Imagination can give colour to and every Object receives its weight from the Standard of the ruling Passion The extravagant Dotages of this kind are numerous in History and either are ruled by the Impressions of the last Stage or Age of Life or drown us in the present or which is most common distract between the Sense of both and make us lose the use of our Judgment if not of our Reason Now this Distemper is effectually cured in all its Symptoms by these Light Chalybeat Waters and to inquire into the Nature of this Distemper and on what account they do it may not only be agreeable to enlighten the Disease but teach us the full Scope of the Virtue of the Remedy If we seek into the Cause and Seat of this Distemper we may observe it to be induced by despiriting and may have its Original either in the Mind or the Body and as it naturally is produced in our Bodies I observe 1. That it is a Flatus as gross crude unconcocted and vapid 2. That the Fit usually comes six hours after eating or as soon as the Chyle is digested and the Spirit of it spent 3. It is occasion'd by Diet yielding a thick and plentiful Nourishment and Flatulent and by thick fermented Liquors as Ale 4. A working active Life that preserves the Concoction and duly forceth on the Nourishment and cleanseth the Body joyn'd with a spare and more simple Diet is little affected with this Distemper 5. Sower Belchings not Signs of Acid in the Body as is commonly judg'd erroniously but only the effect of rich Liquors despirited and effete or changed 6. The time of its Accession is remarkable which is at the Turn of Life to its declive or at 27 Years though may be put off longer in some but begins then when the Body begins to be despirited when whereas before we see every thing through the eyes of hope we now are apt to view with despair 7. It joyns hand with the Scurvy 8. Is cured by Acids as Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur in some measure and kept off by drinking common Water which is void of Fermentation or elastick Turgescence All which marks inform us That this Distemper is seated in the Chyle which when effete and tumultuating produceth these effects and as it may be discharg'd and slung may induce more terrible ones in earnest which as it is moving it only represents by lighter touches And as the grand Cardo of our Life at the Climocteric before named gives opportunity for this Insult so the strength of these Turgid parts of our Nourishment is discernable in other States of Life though the Violence is most apparent at the meeting of differing habits For that all these Irregularities are owing to our Nourishment and that we admit our Dispositions to Passion and Vice by our Throat and only then when we take more than is necessary or requir'd by Nature we are taught not only in Men where we see the effects of Ease and Luxury only when it is in an high degree but the power of differing Nourishment and manner of living is most conspicuous in other Animals especially the more tender These Animals that live hard that is use great labour to get their Food and that mild and unfermented are free from three Dispositions that Domestick Animals as those that dwell near Towns or have opportunity of living easie are lyable to The first is change of colour in Coat or Feathers 2. Inconstancy to their Mate and Intemperance in Passions The last is Distemperature of Body and lyableness to Diseases No wild Animal was ever observ'd by Naturalists to have been seiz'd by those Diseases which afflict them when kept â—tame Hens I have seen Epileptic Magpyes are often afflicted by the same Distemper when housed but who ever found them fallen in the Fields The same may be observ'd of other Animals as Bull-finches and many Quadrupids which can scarce bear housing without peril of some Disease or other Which seems to imply that a distemper'd Air can make no impression but upon a vitiated Nourishment And this gives me a rise to add That as the Efforts of our Passions that are owing to our Intemperance are more silent in other seasons of our Life so it is observable they have not been distinguish'd by any Inquirers into Humane Nature through want of well understanding Humane Nature distinctly or in its simplicity And here I find a late excellent Author much wanting to himself in not examining the Fountains of Idea's which would have helped him to have uncompounded them who might by this means have discern'd Practical Idea's a Principle of Justice being as difficultly erased as that of Self-preservation For to wave questioning the Hypothesis of Idea's since Judgment is made of Objects as they lye in the Imagination it must needs be that as on the one hand the undue Examination of things may make a Notion imperfect so the strain of Imagination by our Passions must render our Judgment unjust And this we see in our grosser Passions as Fear Anger Love or Aversion but cannot discern it so well in the lesser Emotions of our Temper which seem more quiet wherein yet it is equally discoverable that the Inequality of our Temper sways our Judgment and is often before-hand in the Cause where it appears only in the sequel and seems to proceed from the Determination Indeed we may usually see in any error the stamp of that Temper that form'd the Argument or of a rapid and unheedy Apprehension that inform'd the Understanding so necessary to right thinking and due Notions of things is a due Temper by how much our Passions have a share in adjusting if not forming our Idea's I might here observe the Mistake of those that refer the illness of their Nature to the necessity of their make and how natural the Account is of Man's first Defection But to keep close to my Subject I shall only mind that the Debility of our Mind as well as the Infirmities of our Bodies is owing to the Irregularity of our Living and Vice of our Nourishment An Instance of this is the Distemper in hand not only in the distracting Fears and tumultuating Passions that attend it and the
in two Quarts was about forty Grains The Water retain'd its power of Tinging with Galls many days in Glass-bottles only cork'd It did not readily raise and bear a Scum in boyling The Virtues and Vse of the Purging Waters THE Original and Genius of the Salt of these Waters being thus arrived at their successful Effects in Distempers and how these are agreeable to the Nature of the Salt comes now under consideration that hence we may be directed to the right and proper use of them Diseases or more truly Symptoms are so various in their Causes that without the Knowledge of these Observation and Experience it self will be uncertain and unserviceable Now the Diseases which are observed to be help'd by Purging Waters as ill Concoction Pain at the Stomach Heart-burning lost Appetite Vomitings Cholical Pain of the Stomach Cholick Iliaca Passio Worms Nephritick Pain Gout Rhumatism Heat of Urine or Suppression of it Scurvy and its Symptoms as Itching Pustles and the like Jaundies Vertigo Headachs Hysteriâ—k and Hypochondriacal Passions are all cured by the Waters only as they fall under this Notion and consideration That they proceed from a vitiated or delinquent Chyle and want of due Ferment of the parts and that the Matter is seated in the first ways or larger Secretory Vessels It is so very material to observe this as not only to improve the use of them in other Cases but may likewise help us to avoid the Misfortune of the Empirical use of them in cases where they are ineffectual Errors of which kind I have observed in the use of the Waters and indeed of all other Medicines as the Jesuits Bark and the like That the Matter ought to be fit for exterminating I might prove in almost all the Distempers these are proper in The Jaundies are often cured by the Waters when they have proceeded from Melancholy or have been otherwise produced by the foulness of the Viscera or are a Symptom of obstructed Menses or a Plethora but when Essential can be as little expected to have a Cure from these Waters as when it is Symptomatical of a Feaver or a Venenate Disease Vertigo again may proceed from Melancholy a flatulent foul Stomach or tough Flegm in the Blood as in the Rhumatism or from the nature of the Salt of the Blood as in Scurvies and in that Crasis which attends Women chiefly at the grand Climacterick of 50 or from a Plethora and so may be subject to the reach of these Waters else in Cephalick Distempers such as Apoplexies Dispositions to Lethargies Palsies and even in Dropsies Purging Waters in a general consideration can never be supposed to be applicable From the same Chylous Recrements Convulsions often take origine and may have place among Cures of this kind and Pains in the Head but ought to be mark'd with the same Proviso Accordingly Cautions against the use of them in a Chlorosis Feavers Cholera morbus and Suppression of Urine from Stone or confirm'd Obstruction our Reason readily suggests which too forbids the use of them in Women with Child The Qualifications that give these Waters an extraordinary capacity for these Cures are their Acidity agreeable to that of the Stomach and which indeed is Vitrioline their abstersive Salt of a middle nature between Vitriol and Nitre quantity of Liquor and not only their Purgin but as it is easie without Sickness or Griping or other flatulent Disturbances raised usually by other Purgers and which hinder those calm Effects that are necessary to the relief of some Distempers to which some would add Coldness and agreeable bitterness but this holds not in all From all which we may reasonably expect success when a preternatural Salt is to be wash'd away the Ferment of the Stomach to be restored Viscera to be cleansed or cooling is necessary Indeed the Purging Waters or their Salts are much the finest Purgers in Nature and in many of the preceding Cases often perform Cures alone They are the best Preparatives to the Chalybeat Waters and the only Purge proper to intervene in the use of them where Purging is expedient because these do it without disorder and are of like nature Of what general use these Qualities make this Purge I need not discourse especially for prevention since so near all Diseases are owing to the Vice of the Stomach or Recrements of the Chyle But besides this general nature of the Salt of these Waters it is found of some Specifick Qualities in many of them which frequently differ from each other and to have distinct Virtues accordingly That besides the Purging Quality and what that can contribute there is so much in the Nature of the Salt as may give the Waters the force of a Medicine may be very easily believ'd by any who will consider of what Energy the Qualities are that these Salts differ in The second part of Sal Marine is known by Sea-men to produce the Scurvy and a Salt nearly affine to Nitre the Itch. It is known that Nitre and Vitrioline or common Salt precipitate each other and must be allow'd to do as much in the Body and may be observed in the reason of the different Cures wrought by these Waters Alkalisate Salts and Nitrous produce a fluor of the Blood and in the present State of the Air which I intimated to be Nitrous or Alkalisate I have found Fluxes frequent I mean Sanguinary and have as certainly found Chalybeats and Vitrioline Salts effectual and observed Sal Prunellae to increase them when used by the less thinking Administrer You may observe in Lambeth Water a common Salt without the severe Coagulum which accounts for the Virtues In Weal a particularly opposite Nitrous one In Kensington near a Saltpetre In Dullwich a Salt related to common Salt but very penetrative and fluxile fit to command a Stubborn Antagonist but mischievous to a tender and over-heat Body and accordingly I have observed it I might go through all the Waters The good Effects of the Chalybeat Purgers in Asthma's a Dropsie make them a Peculiar over and above what their Salt would And in Salts of the same nature as Nitres some we shall here find of a more open nature approaching a calcarious one and so more apt to correct Acidities in the first ways some more lock'd and so fit to reach them when digested and remote In Weal Water I find an Alkaly joyn'd with a severe coagulating Acid the first raising the Floridness of the Blood the last apt to fix the Humour and obstruct and may have a good use to those Complexions that need both these Qualities as those do that are pale and inclinable to be loose body'd And although in passing of right Judgment the Consideration of the Constitution and Complexion of the Patient is necessary and as Tunbridge Water doth in some provoke the Menses in some stop them so this Water might produce the Obstruction before named in a Person of a Sanguine Complexion on that account which
I have been pleas'd with the evidence of Art when I could not readily cure a Disease viz. an Epilepsie that came on at 27 in the true Prediction of its declining and departure at 30 and of the Diseases that assaulted at 14 superceded at 18. The Apoplexy which is cured by the more acid Chalybeats and reliev'd by the light ones transcends the common Notions of the other glandular Diseases as it is an Affection of the very Root of Life it self and requires a particular Consideration in order to inform us how and where this Remedy is proper for although it is evident that it is an Affection of the medullary part of the Brain whence Sense and Life is distributed yet with submission to better Judgment I conceive the Accounts of this Disease are at a loss about the Production of it when they come to the immediate Cause and the long Excursion this Enquiry demands as it is unavoidable so is so seasonable also by reason of the Increase and Frequency of this Disease here especially in the Country where this Year it has insulted more than ever that I question not but the Acceptableness of the Disquisition will excuse it I shall distinctly view the Nature of an Apoplexy and Disposition it consists in The Causes of it The Differences and lastly The suitable Intentions and Indications The general Phaenomenon upon Dissection of those that dye of this Distemper being an Effusion of Blood upon the Brain Authors do generally agree in placing the Production of this Disease in an Obstruction made at the Brain and must be allow'd to be produced in the Cortical part and conceive this to be made by some Congestion in the Blood-Vessels and which the Learned Dr. Cole supposes may be of viscous or serous Matter as it is either in quantity or freshly excited or else Polypous Concretions or any other obstructing Matter to admit which the Brain is pre-dispos'd by its Laxity or Openness in which likewise the bare Distention of the Arteries may suffice to produce it I shall with all Deference to those great Authors and particularly the last humbly offer my Conception though more grosly yet as it appears to me and best explains the Benefit of the Mineral Waters in this Case thus That an Apoplexy is a Disease of the Cortex cerebri not founded in any Obstruction though often attended by them but consisting in the Ruin of its mechanical Crasis and Temper which is such as Steel restores and Niters destroy the Causes and Nature of which is common to other Glands and produceth a Paroxysm by a Hamorrhage or Admission of Flatulent Parts consequential to this which Distemper the Suicus nutritius may arrive at either by Age or Qualities contracted upon Congestion and grossness of the Chyle or receive by Particles communicated from the Air or all joyntly besides violent Causes and so may truly be said to be seated not in the Sanguinary Vessels but Glandular Ducts But as they wrongfully charge the Blood-Vessels with the cause in that an Apoplexy may be produced without any of this as is clear from Dr. Willis's Instance so they seem incumbred in the explaining the Reason of the Abolition of Sense and Motion and in the place and nature of this Congestion the Mistakes in the Nature of this Distemper seem to me to be owing to the ill Notion of Animal Mechanism and use of the Brain wherein they suppose a Circulation or passage of Animal Spirits so necessary to Life as that the Interruption of them sufficeth to abolish it The Difficulties of which way of Solution are taken notice of by all the Writers on this Subject rather than explain'd My Sense in this Matter I shall give by considering first the Inconveniencies the Brain can suffer without this Deprivation 2ly The Vital Mechanism of the Brain And 3ly The necessary Cause or Reason of its Production as appears in the Brain And to be brief first it appears from the Dissections in Wepfer Willis and others that all the passes of the Animal Spirits at once cannot be obstructed nor a Compression of the Brain and Cerebel nor an Inflammation of the Brain or its Meninges produce it there are as just Exceptions lye against plenty of Blood nor is it from Stones generated Abounding Serum may be without it and Water beap'd within the Cranium and Ventricles And Plater's Instance proves that a Carnous Schirrhous and Fungous Tumour on the Corpus Callosum produced Stupidity and Death without an Apoplexy 2ly I shall consider the grand Design of the Brain and its vital Mechanism of which though it be inextricable in its private and more recluse Motions yet thus much appear Although Animal Mechanism is compound and Respiration is necessary to the Motion of the Blood to which the Lungs are accordingly framed and upon which Motion Life depends yet as the Pulse of the Heart is perform'd by the Nerves so the Air Atmospherical upon whose obstructing or fixing so as to hinder its Elasticity Life so suddenly ceaseth in some Animals seems to act only on the Nerves as in those that have membranous Lungs where no more Blood circulates in their Lungs than is necessary for the supply of the part whereby the Air seems to serve the Circulation in other Animals for greater force and greater Heat for those Animals first nam'd are colder and live long without Food and so both Air and the Niter of it is useful with equal Pace and in equal Degree to the Motion necessary at the Lungs to the fury of the Circulation of the Blood and to the Nourishment to be consum'd and it is observable that the Par vagum and intercostal Nerves which are the Instruments of involuntary Motion serve both Lungs and Ventricle The use then of this Heat in the Blood seems to prepare a due Elasticity in the Chyle that is to serve the Brain or parts of it be it the Spirituous part in what sense soever being accommodated to some Disposition of the Brain for in the external Air there is besides all this but answerable to this a due degree of Elasticity or quantity of elastick parts or compressure of them necessary to Life which is proportion'd to the coldness of the Animal perhaps but certainly adapted to the Spring of Life in the Brain as is seen in Fish which live by the Air yet dye in the open Air and is confirm'd in Whitings which swim deep in the Water aâ—d so with us are not liable to be taken by Nets and dye instantly upon being taken out of it The Brains of Animals are accordingly adapted to this use those who use the greatest force of the Air as Birds have the Cortical part vastly larger in proportion than men no doubt to separate the Air and perhaps corroborate the Brain and their Lungs fix'd accordingly and Fish have least Brain and Cortex too The Nature of Life and use of the Brain being thus stated to consist in the justice of a Spring
good Service to this Inquiry as to observe it and makes it a Phaenomenon the Solution of which is no small Direction But as I think the Constipation or Obstruction made by admission of the Nitrous Particles not satisfactory without accounting for the new Capacity they have obtain'd beyond what they have in other Frosts and the Difficulties of admitting them so it seems evident to me that the rise of this Disease or first increase is of a longer date And to offer my sense of this matter the Apoplexy seems to me to be one of the fix'd temporary Diseases which as they result not from the immediate Changes of Season and Weather so are rooted in some more subtile parts of the Air which Weather and Season may assist by giving them a liberty of exerting themselves and likewise a supply And because I never yet observ'd any sudden leaps ordinarily though I nicely observ'd the Air as I could made in the Production of new Diseases I was ready to judge from the rise of this at the declension of the Rickets that the actors of both were parts of equal subtilty and not much differing in Nature And I confess the Experiment of the Marbles seem to favour a Notion that there is differing degrees of Subtilty in our Atmosphere it self and so in the parts lodg'd in it I shall not attempt determining though there is great reason to believe the matter to be Nitrous by its Effect and its Cure The Reason of this Disease and Nature of the Condition of the Air producing it is probably more clearly to be seen in the Observation of the particular times of the grand Efforts of the Air in producing it in which we ought to observe the general Effects of the Air on all Bodies and carry on the Inquiry by the Effects and Power it exerts on Animal ones And because this evidence or detection of the parts affecting is liable to exception that differing Diseases are produced often at once by differing parts or distinct qualities in the operating Body and especially in so mix'd a one And again as the more subtile cause is unknown so if we discover the Particles of the Air or disposition of it that conveighs the paâ—â—ss we have small advantage I must observe that I am of Opinion that the Nature of the Air and the Disposition of it to which Diseases owe their rise are more discoverable than they at first thought give hopes of and that in so great a measure as to make the Knowledge serviceable in the known Diseases And any Man I think will be reconcil'd to my Opinion that will take the trouble of tracing Diseases in conjunction with the Air and Seasons for the Difficulties are in great measure solv'd by barely distinguishing between the Diseases produced by single Seasons and observing the constant tenour of the Humour or diseasy matter and how it receives alterations from variety of Seasons and that as the place of the Disease is partly or chiefly owing to the first so the Nature to the last of these That the present case depends on these evident Causes may reasonably be concluded not only from the increase of it joyntly with these but also that it traced in its containing and procatarctick Causes which require no more to explain than what the common effects of the Air in other Diseases exhibit and the nature of the Air thus consider'd accounts for The first time to be consider'd and which assists us in the discovery of the Cause of this Distemper from the occasion of its Increase extraordinary is the great Frost To avoid prolixness I shall only observe that as that can never determine the matter to the Brain nor account for the increase of this Disease at so great a distance and is contradicted by experience so the incidence of such a Season may give a lift to this Disease on other Considerations than the conveighing of the Frosty and grosser nitrous parts and that may be of more subtile or distinct Parts that may be contain'd or mix'd with them that may better account for this Phaenomenon which must be suppos'd to be vastly supply'd by so great a Frost which may be allow'd either to feed the more subtile or increase them by the Precipitation and Congestion of the Parts they bring and separate and leave Indeed the grand Continuation of the Increase makes this Deduction necessary both of its Subtilty and Nature The last of these must most disclose it self at the time of its abounding in the highest degree and this must be fix'd at this present Year 1698 the reason of which I shall now examine that I rightly fix the Inundation and Exorbitancy of the invading Matter on this or this and the last Year I need not indeavour to evince being so extraordinary as that the like number of Apoplecticks were never yet observ'd in this or past Ages and indeed by the generality of the Vertigo's that have invaded which must be referr'd to the same assault may be said truly to be Epidemical That the matter concern'd in this is nothing obscure or besides what is evident and obvious appears in that first the other Distempers raging at the same time were uniform and differ'd only in place the matter of which is plainly enough Nitrous but particularly because the Nature of that differs its Qualities consist in Acidity such as will not preserve from but promote Putridness Subtilty to penetrate and Liquibility to flow with the Juyces which Qualities appear easily in the Effects in both the Chronical and Acute Diseases of those Years last past It much illustrates this account to observe the steps made in the producing this general Disposition in the Air which I must here but touch at without explaining It is very notable that a Glandular Acidity attended the Diseases in 94 Epilepsies in Children and Nervous Rhumatisms in the Grown advanced with the great Mealdews in 95 both seated in the Membranes and at the Head In 96 remarkable for sudden Changes of Heat and Cold rag'd Epilepsies Vertigo's and lax Tumours and Vlcers of the Throat that came as Colds Through the Subtilty and Increase of this matter which seem'd fitted to weaken the containing parts the unseasonableness of the preceding Year reasonably assisting it obtain'd admittance at the latter end of the Year which was wet and windy to the Interior Glands as I call those that serve Life it self And now appears an odd Distemper that seiz'd with Faintness and Inquietude and Deliquiums and a yellowness of the Skin and dry Cough Vpon Dissection of one of these Bodies I discover'd a recluse Abscess in the Lungs invested with a tough Coat and containing thick Pus without any opening external or into the Bronchiae but was fed by a small Duct from the largest Gland of the Lungs which Gland was grumous and look'd and felt like powder'd Chalk The Pancreas was in the same state which occasion'd the yellâ—â—â—ess as I conceive and the Thymus emaciated
And by this insight I cured others of the same Disease by Emulsions of Alkalys first to remove the Acidity and then by a Sudorifick Decoctum amarum and closing the Course with Chalybeats At the very same time Apoplexies insulted in a strange degree and Colds affecting the Head These all held in 97 which ending in a long and gentle Frost upon this in 98. This Disease became Epidemick in that it seiz'd so frequent and was the issue of other Diseases and from the general invasion of Vertiginous cases Acute Diseases of this Year proved to me the Matter to be an Acid Nitre dispos'd to corrupt and exulcerate by which the Diseases seiz'd usually with a Catarrh and ended with some Abscess Putrid Feavers began with the Spring and Catarrhal yet reigning from the declining Summer great fluor of the Blood appear'd at the same time with Dysenteries Gripes and ill-natured putrid Pains in the sides To all which the Cures happily succeeded that were directed by this reason of them and confirm'd to me that the matter in the Air was advanced to that Nature as to be more dispos'd to Putridness and Corrosiveness which I therefore assert to be the Nature of the Air in the present case in many these Vertigo's and Pains in the Head blinded the sight almost my opinion that in this the Nature of the Niter consisted and that it flow'd together with grosser parts of the Air was favour'd by the Observation of the Retinue of his Excellency the Earl of Manchester in their return from Venice this Spring who upon their passing the Sene suffer'd from the Wind which blew in their face an unusual effect of common Cold which was a Tumor of the whole Face and universal Scabbiness agreeable to the before observ'd Qualities of it I shall only add one Particular more which is that I have observ'd that those places that have been most troubled with Apoplexies have been level and moist so as in one Village so situate these that dy'd went off mostly on a sudden Having thus asserted the containing Cause of this Disease and shewn the Procatarctick to proceed from a Congestion of Chyle in this as in other Glands and to consist in the spoiling of its due Temper and Crasis by inducing a Corrosive and Nitrous Quality The Disposition to this Distemper appears likewise to be contracted by Replentia and Otium and which ruins the Tone and Temper of the Glands the same way but soonest thick Fermented Liquors especially the stalest The dexterous Effect of these in all Diseases of the whole Glandular kind is sufficiently known How much by this Observation we may hope to have this Disease within our power though we cannot mend the Air may be understood by considering that the Air hath no power to change our Bodies but as it hath a Delinquent Chyle to work on as I note afterwards But as this plainly exhibits the best method to prevent so also that the Chalybeat Waters are the best Cure Their power in Diseases of the Glands to remove Obstruction and restore the due Crasis and Temper of them I have shewn and as the Steel is the only proper Body to do this which mechonically serves our Life at least in preserving this Tone and Crasis which Alkalys and Niters destroy So it seems to affect the Glands only since in a Chlorosis it is not easie to conceive the so sudden raising the Blood by so small quantity of even a Tincture of Steel otherwise but to keep to experience as it appears that in these Distempers of the Glands the Chalybeat Waters are the only Remedy and as the light sort deobstruct best so the more Acid sort are peculiar in this Disease more powerfully resisting and correcting the Nature of the Chyle and rendring it more fluxile and suppressing Haemorrhage and to strengthen and make firm the Brain which is observable in their Virtues recited But to remove a Disposition to this Disease the Time or State or cause of it may either make the use of these Waters exceptionable or require a particular regard either before or in Conjunction with them I shall consider the differences thence arising and the distinct regard they claim that these may be distinguish'd with some certainty and may be of use to direct us there is the highest reason to believe that since in all the Cures recited by Authors the Nature of the Disease is ever found answerable Now considering that an Apoplexy consists in the Admission of parts to the Brain that either are Aerial as is what the Blood conveighs or Elastick and Flatulent as is the Matter in the Aged and that the admission of both is owing to the Crasis and Temper of the Brain as of the other Glands destroy'd or degenerated which is perform'd in the Chyle by the Air or degeneracy of the Juyce by other means as may abundantly be prov'd to be the Case of Hemorrhages in general we are hereby help'd to understand the reason of the variety of the Remedies that have been observed to set aside Apoplectick Fits And although in a Case of such danger Applications are justly made of universal Intention yet they usually succeed as they attend the State and Nature of it as well as are commanded by the strength of the part and Intentions are thus best urg'd that respect the Matter as confirm'd when Old 2ly When capable of Revulsion by Bleeding when that confines it as in the Plethorick by Vomits in full Feeders 3ly By promoting the Secretion by Catharticks as in the Phlegmatick Blisters c. 4ly By thinning and lessening the Flatulency of the Matter and driving it forward either into the Secretory Vessels or at worst through the Brain on which strong Apoplectick Waters are observ'd to effect when the Fit is without a Procatarxis or changes into a Hemiplegia being small in quantity Again Bleeding may be the only Remedy which ought to be urg'd from the Nature of the Disease impelling joyning and indicating as a Disposition to Haemorrhages or stopping of one and thus I have more than once by Bleeding chiefly made an Apoplexy remove and change it self into a Gout in the Foot Lastly Some Cures have been perform'd by Medicines that regard only the Nature of the Matter by resisting the Flatulency and Coldness of it and perhaps by strengthning the Brain withal And that is to be further and more nicely considered for beside the general Intentions which the State of the Matter requires to be particularly insisted upon with reference to the Fit either to be remov'd or prevented There are also some Conditions of this Disease particularly to be respected in curing a Disposition to it which it receives from the Constitution of the Part Confirmedness of the Matter Quality of the Matter and lastly the Causes original or concurring of this Distemper For although these Waters are experienced a compleat if not sole Remedy in the two common Cases of Apoplectick Persons a Haemorrhagious Disposition and a
inflicted by the Air this Winter have been Feavers which I shall say nothing more of than that the Heat was gentle that they were Putrid and had putrid Pains in the Sides and Limbs and that they affected the Head or ulcerating Colds so I name them being of two sorts the first violent Fluxes of the Alvus and Catamenia the other Ophthalmys which wore off in three weeks time by Suppuration And lastly The Small Pox which appears here a mixture of the preceding Distempers or Qualities in the Air for the Air here gives these remarkable Dispositions 1. to Corrode 2. to attenuating whereby the parts seem to pierce to the Eyes and Bowels 3. To Flatulency all which include a tendency to flow Which Qualities as with many reasons I concluded to be Nitrous so Vitriols mortified or resisted and even those Fluxes of the Catamenia which in another reason Steel is observ'd to raise and increase submitted only to the force of the same Mineral which I was directed to by some further Observation of the Air which is too long for this Discourse Though the increase of some Fluxes of this kind upon the taking Sal Prunellae which usually gives a present check is enough to advance such a Hint The last Year viz. 1697. entred attended with a particular sort of Colds that induc'd an irregular Feaverishness with milinary Pimples spreading upon some particular places of the Body so close and so small as to resemble a stain of Claret or other Scarlet Liquor which superceded by Tumour of other parts and Sickness in some prov'd Mortal At the same time another Distemper was found invading though Sparsim only which began about the Michaelmas preceding and continued to the middle of the last Year which first invaded the Patient with want of Rest only and unaptness of the Brain for it wherein the Patient that was entirely well up and had no complaint but upon lying down and disposure to slumber was sensible of such Distraction and Uneasiness of the Head as oblig'd him to fly up immediately This Distemper continuing brought a Cough without raising and a sort of an Icteritia with Shortness of Breath and frequent and sudden Apprehensions of a Deliquium The Year 1696 enter'd with the same sort of Colds and with the Spring brought Epileptick Distempers which wore off with Scabbiness and many People Young and Old were surpriz'd with Vertigo's and others with Tumours in the Throats and corroding Ulcers curable by Astringents only that were Vitrioline In 1695 Deliriums were frequent In 1694 Feavers that seem'd to have their Seat in the Glands and were attended with great Acidity of the Saliva or Liquor of the Tonsillae And from three Years before reign'd Nervous Rheumatisms a Distemper very unusual from the acuteness of the Pain the mortal Consequence of them and the puffiness of the Tumours very remarkable This Disease hath continued hitherto but abating I engage not my self to solve or account for all these Changes of Diseases or the reason of them it is sufficient that none of these Cases were attended with any apparent Feaver the Matter was in all seated in the Membranes the part affected in all was puffy the Distempers frequently chang'd one into another affected the Head and Nerves cur'd by the same means which were Vitriolick and were admitted by a wet Constitution of the Air. So without making inquiry into the Origine and Commencement of this Disposition and Reason of it it is sufficient that I illustrate the Seat and Nature of this Distemper and I think I must be allow'd that these Diseases proceeded from the same common Cause and Humour and were transferrible into each other and have liberty to conclude first That this Peccant Humour was seated in the Membranes 2. That it was flatulent and had a flatulent Acidity 3. That the Matter was Nitrous Neither think I my self obligâ—d to account for the Determination of the Seat of this Humour or the reason of taking Cold but shall from the evident Causes Matter and Seat of it inferr That an Apoplexy is a sudden Deprivation of Life by admission of Airy Elastick Parts into the Caudex Cerebri together with Thick and Turgid Chyle and is owing to a Corrosive Nitrosity and Fluor of the Blood and Weakness of the Vessels or containing Parts of the Caudex effected by Cold the way being firs forced in the anterior part of the Cortex I think this a sufficient Notion of it as a Disease but contradict not the difference that must be made of Apoplexies inflicted by Force as Drinking c. or gradual ones Having thus fix'd the Nature of the Distemper the Intentions of Cure are drawn from the Morbid Dispositions which are 1. Nitrosity of the Blood which indeed is the Reason it is so very Florid in Apoplexies and to this is owing its Fluidity 2. The Weakness of the Vessels from Cold received by them and by this I understand a Clog of a disabled Serum considering the Nature of Cold in gross as separating the Juyces and so mortifying them as to put them past Reduction 3. The Exorbitancy of Chyle that maintains and conveighs Elastick Flatulent Parts All which indicate the Astriction and other Qualities I observ'd before to be in Vitrioline Waters and the Requisites that capacitate them for all this are in full Virtue only found in this â—pecies where the Astriction is strongest and the quantity of Steel not so considerable as to increase the Heat or Turgency of the Blood in both which this kind exceed the other two though I cannot but judge that a Premission of the thin light sort may in some cases assist in more effectual preparatory Cleansing the Brain and be very properly directed to precede Indeed the Hypochondriaca Affectio does so often dispose to this Distemper that as it will confirm much this Account so will much recommend this Method It does not belong to this History to deliver an entire Process or Method of Cure nor am I so opinionated of my own Ability as to prescribe it to others of my Faculty yet because this Discourse may come into other Mens hands that may judge this Digression Fruitless without some Improvement of it I shall for the sake of the Fury and Suddenness of this Distemper give some Observations of mine that may help to occurr or prevent it or assist at least in shortning the Process and fit it for an Extemporany Occasion And though as Cases may much differ so a Plethora Sanguinis Colluvies Serosa or Viscous Phlegm Obstruction of the Catamenia and the like is to be consulted when they are in the Cause yet the checking the Fury of the Blood as well as clearing the passages to the Brain is best performsd by Chalybeats and to more good Effect than by Bleeding c. and differ not so much in the Cure as they seem to do in the Cause and my Observations I shall deliver briefly thus 1. That for Prevention besides the removing any
known Cause or Occasion the best Deobstruents are such as joyn and mix with the Matter they are to exterminate of this sort is Sapo venet and Vrines humane or perhaps of other Animals and these to be promoted to the use of Chalybeat Astringents where these Waters claim their place Only I must mind the Reader that if such a Relaxation of the Vessels of the Brain attend it as appears by preceding vertiginous Warnings I must after the use of the Waters dismiss the Patient to Mr. Boyle's Ens which in the preceding Distempers of the Membranes of the Brain I have experienc'd to be most Effectual 2. As the other Method is to prevent and restore so for the present Relief in the Assault Emeticks and Catharticks usually distinguish themselves The other general and particular Evacuations fall not under my Cognizance writing a System being not my design yet Sternutatories must not escape my Reflection which I have ever observed to hasten the approaching Death to which the Nature as well as the Violence of the Motion made by Sneezing dispose them and are fit only to put the Patient past Remedy with speed And as this Monition is necessary here so a due Caution about Diet which forbids eating Pork or Eggs 〈◊〉 Meat of thick high and flatulent Nourishment is necessary to be observ'd with respect to Prevention Other Particulars that regard the Constitution of the Patient or Predisposition to this Distemper that the Physician is to judge of lye not here before me Thus much as to the Apoplexy There are many other Distempers wherein a Water of this kind is peculiarly proper to master and remove flatulent and viscous Matter and to curb the Turgescence of a florid Blood as in the Cephalick Disorders of Elder Women c. and that I may not proceed upon Suggestions of Reason only I shall recite the Virtues of Knaresborow Water from the Observation of Dr. French in his words This Water Cools and Moistens actually Heats and Dries potentially and according to other Qualities second and third it cuts dissolves attenuates abstergeth viscous tartarous Humours in the Stomach Mesentery Hypochondries Reins Bladder c. Penetrates Corroborates Astringeth c. It allays all acid gnawing and hot Humours and Cures all such Symptoms as proceed from thence as Agues Consumptions Quinsies Tumours Imposthumes Ulcers Wounds it stops Bleeding the Over-flowing of Choller the Dissentery and such like Fluxes It Corroborates the Brain Nerves c. and prevents or cures the Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Vertigo Inveterate Headach and Madness and all such Symptoms as proceed from the Weakness Coldness Heat Dryness or Moisture of the same It Corroborates the Stomach and causeth good Digestion consumes Crudities which are the Causes of Obstructions and breed ill Blood and infirm Flesh or an ill habit of Body it maketh the Fat Lean and the Lean Fleshy cureth and preventeth the Cholick and Worms It strengthneth and openeth the Lungs Liver Spleen Mesentery and cureth difficulty of Breathing the Asthma the Dropsie Melancholly and fearful Passions Hypochondriacal Wind and Vapours offending the Head and Heart which most Women and many Men are afflicted withall It doth also upon this account chear the Heart cure and prevent the Palpitations and Passions thereof as also all Faintings It purifieth the Blood cures the Scurvy even in those whose Teeth are ready to drop out of their Heads by reason of the Extremity thereof also the Foul Venereal Disease Leprosie Jaundies Yellow and Black and for the more perfect effecting of these Cures it doth in many open the Haemorrhoids It provoketh Urine and cureth the Suppression and allays the Sharpness thereof it diminisheth the Stone in the Bladder by dissolving the soft Superficial parts thereof and evacuating that mucous slimy Water in which it is involved and by this means also it prepares it for Cutting for sometimes this Stone cannot be felt by reason of that slimy Mucous which Mucous it self doth also sometimes by its Torments counterfeit the Stone where it is collected in a great quantity being of an acid tartarous Nature It forceth out from the Kidneys and Bladder abundance of Sand and small Stones to a great number and sometimes such as are as big and as long as long Pepper And as it cures all Ulcers and Wounds in the Body so especially and much sooner in the Reins and Bladder suppressing also the Pissing of Blood and the Gonorrhaea It cures the Gout Aches Cramp Convulsion in what part of the Body soever and giveth ease therein suddenly It openeth all Obstructions and suppresseth all manner of Over-flowings in Women strengthneth cureth the Mother maketh the Barren Fruitful and is a great Preventative against Miscarryings and rectifies most Infirmities of the Vterus Note That this Water doth not help all parts cure all these Infirmities after one and the same manner some being reliev'd by consent or by removing Obstructions of other parts It is also used by way of Insession in Griefs of the Womb and by way of Injection into that as also into the Bowels and Bladder where all the Qualities act immediately upon those parts allay the sharp and hot Distempers mitigate the Pains thereof Healing and Corroborating the same It may moreover be used by way of Fomentation and Losson in external Wounds Ulcers Itch or Scabs and being drop'd into Sore Eyes wonderfully cooleth dryeth and cleareth the same In a word If any Intentions in a Medicinal way be to be perform'd by allaying Distempers opening Obstructions evacuating superfluous Morbifick Humours and Corroborating all the parts of the Body those are effected in a very good measure if not fully and perfectly by this Water And I my self have seen many of the aforenam'd Diseases cured by the help thereof and for other Cures effected thereby I have been assur'd by them themselves who receiv'd the Benefit or by others who have been Eye-witnesses of the same Thus far Dr. French To the right understanding and due use of all which I shall observe That the Cure of the Foul Disease can be suppos'd to be put partial unless that Distemper be taken in a less strict Sense and passing the Notion of Diminishing the Stone which I had rather express by the preventing the increase of its growth I shall for the fixing Experience right make this Remark which may be usefully apply'd to all the Waters which is That in some Distempers as Dropsie Convulsions Jaundies and Gout constant Success and entire Cure is not to be expected without regard to the State of the Disease the Age and Firmness of it the Cause of it and the Distempers complicated with it Thus a Dropsie may not submit to this Remedy not only from the Firmness of the Obstruction but also from the Constitution and Laxity of the Patient from the nature of the Disease which I have observ'd sometimes to be from a Weakness of the Membranes by Flatulent Matter contain'd in them or from the Disease inducing it Convulsions here
nauseousness of the Stomach Pains of that and the Head to cool to allay Flatulencies and the Cramps and disorderly Motions in the Body and flatness of the Spirits that attends them And this the Nature of the Principles well accounts which are thus far the same for as Water the common Vehicle in both demands Consideration as being most unfermentative and so a great assistant in suppressing Flatulencies from ill Concoction and other Failings of the parts occasion'd by fermented Liquors so the main Principle of the Purging Waters I have detected to be a Chalybeat Juyce These Waters where they can reach and pass and suit by their grossness seem to answer the Specifick Nature of the Chalybeat in some measure On this account these sometimes succeed in the Cure of a Diabetes as my honoured Friend and learned and compleat Physician Dr. Clopton Havers inform'd me upon a Case I consulted him in and as the Learned Dr. Grew hath recommended them which is 〈◊〉 peculiar Province of the light Chalybeat ones as being a Disease of the Glands which else these are unserviceable in The Purging Waters by their grossness have therefore their Effect chiefly on the Viscera and first ways which their Salt qualifies them to cleanse and exterminate Thus they are found to cure Head-achs Vertigo's Cramps Colicks and the Jaundies when their Cause or Fomes is in the Stomach or Bowels or is Hypochondriacal They are suited to the Diseases likewise that attend the grand Climacterick as I call that of 49 by joyning correcting and exterminating the Faeces of the Chyle which then is grosser and more Alkalisate and wants discharge As to differences of the Salts of these Waters as well of the heavy Chalybeats experience made them of weight with me having beside what I mention in its place observed the Jaundies cur'd more generally by those whose Salt was affine to common Salt and that elder Persons receiv'd most Benefit from those that were Chalybeat and that the particular Constitution requir'd a distinct regard to the Salt Of what power unheeded differences of Salts are in our Bodies besides experience I found it so reasonable in that Viâ—rioline and common Salt and Niters precipitate each other that it farther proved it self by the successful use this directed me to make of it in Fluxes of Blood immoderate Flux of the Catamenia and some other Diseases of this Year which by many reasons I judged to be Nitrous wherein I found Chalybeat Preparations to be the only effectual Remedies which were so unlikely as commonly in the Chlorâ—sis promoting such a Flux that I found it pretty hard to perswade some to the use of it And the proper use of the more Acid Chalybeat Waters in Fluxes of Blood make them a peculiar The Virtues of those and the Atramentous appear in their place The last of these are least efficacious and most numerous the Instances of that at Leez Place and at the much honoured Sir Edward Southcot Bar. his Seat are sufficient for Examples The light Chalybeats are the most abstracted of this kind and so fit to the Recesses of Nature which the others cannot reach and to shew the power of the Mineral The Virtues of these in various affects of Body and Mind and Hypochondriacism which produceth them are constant The Diseases are so odd which these and only these do cure that they ought to be specified and shall be done under these Heads The first drawn from the part affected which is the Glands and this Rule is so extensive as to hold in all Diseases of the Kidneys and Glands of the Joynts Their happy use in the first I receiv'd Information of from the before mentioned Dr. Havers which I found confirmed by this surprizing Effect upon their very first taking that instead of passing they stop'd their Vrin which was little to be expected from so powerful a Diuretick as they else are found to be And the perfect Cures of the Gout by these Waters are frequent and have been well attested to me A second Mark or Head The Diseases they are Specifick in is characterised by the Nature of the Waters and Diseases they Cure as the Waters clear depurate and suppress exorbitant Fermentations and as Diseases are produced by the Luxury of the Feculency of the Chyle and effort of fermented Liquors among which are the Diabetes and the Gout which are often produced by the use of fermented Liquors which by how much the staler the Beer is the more sure the Mischief and are incurable without altering the Drink in great measure To which I may add that the Gout is said never to have assaulted any Drinker of Water and many Indispositions are under this Head which are thus pointed at by the Cause A third Consideration that points at the Cases these Waters are proper in is the Occasion and time of the Disease and brings us all the Diseases at the Climactericks A fourth regards the Spring and part of its Origine which is the Brain and Mind and indicates all Diseases of any kind produced by Trouble and Grief The Cure of the Fistula and Feavers may make other Heads and give a rise to greatly improveable Thoughts Now in order to the just and ready use of these Waters that promptuary of Experience can only be certain that nicely digests Observations and specifies the Cases this only can readily point out the Remedy and hinder their improper Administration and discover Cases wherein they are effectual which may be so remote to our sense of them as never would encourage our attempting the Application of the only proper Remedy And this I insist on the more because I have had reason to believe this escape to have been even from the generality of Physicians This may be particularly instanced in a Dropsie wherein the Waters are very improper and often hasten the end of the Patient and yet in the same Disease when it proceeds from grief of Mind they are a reasonably certain and the only Remedy I say in this I have more than once known a Patient dye under the fruitless Application of a regular Course of Physick for a Dropsie when the successful use of the Waters in the same case oblig'd me to conclude the ill Success to be owing to the want of distinguishing the Disease and knowing the proper Remedy next under that Providence that disposed the Concealment Besides Diseases from this Cause are irregular and various and not bear any other method of Discovery or Cure Distempers of the Climactericks are as numerous and their Cure seems to depend as much on the same Discovery and I have often seen Consumptions at 21 and 49 cur'd by the dexterous Application of Chalybeats the Waters chiefly in the Cure of which by common Methods and Intentions their Physicians had labour'd unsuccessfully And as this helps us to the Knowledge and Cure of many Diseases that else lye conceal'd from us so it assists our Judgment in making due and true Prognosticks And
it is easie to conceive that the enlarging of the Elasticity in the Brain as well as without is enough to destroy the Mechanism of Life Now though we know not the work of this within the Brain yet it is difficult to believe and not agreeable to Experience to allow any other cause that deprives Life so suddenly as some elastick parts that can communicate too large a Degree or Scope to it which the Blood conveighing so much Air may easily do which the difficulty of Respiration thereon depending evidences By this alone may we understand to account for the appearances of the disorders of the Brain upon Dissection which now come to be consider'd As this will reach and account for those Apoplexies that shew no Stoppage nor Irruption at the Brain as those of old Age and gives a reason why they attend the Old and not the Young So we shall find those Instances wherein the Brain is forced by the Blood confirm this account It is observable from the Dissections of all that the confirm'd Apoplexy is produced by the Effusion of Blood at the Basis of the Brain out of the Carotid Artery especially the anteriour Branches of it and at which place all that have time complain And though generally the Effusion of Blood is large on this occasion yet it is observable to my purpose that the breaking in of the Blood only on one side should take away Life and which is more that the quantity of two spoonfuls of Blood at the Base of the Brain should as well effect it in both which Instances or cases the Effusion supposing a Stoppage of the Spirits could not so soon have produced it And as the last named Case of Fernelius came upon a stroke on the Eye so the like hath happen'd on a stroke on the Neck by a fall in that History of Wepfer And although this Consideration of the Vital Spring in the Brain doth not exclude other ways by which it may suffer beside the giving it too much Scope which I here assign yet I see no reason to entertain any other since other Causes are either impossible or not constantly produce this Disease and since excepting the Case of old Age which requires a distinct Explication it is ever produced by a Rupture of the Vessels as an imperfect one by admission only of unfit and rapid but small parts Again to proceed further in the Inquiry into the Nature of this Disease by informing our selves how this Rupture comes to pass we are to consider that it appears that the Condition the Blood-vessels receive by the Stoppage of the Canal by the grumous Blood or â—ccidental hardness or clâ—sure of it barely consider'd by nature are render'd ineffectual to be the occasion of this Disorder the reason therefore of it is to be had without as the Vessels may be joyntly respected or affected where they are more minute The Nature of this is to be sought from what the Compages and Affection of the part afford Now how truly the Brain understood as a Gland accounts for this must be prov'd by the Disorders those Bodies suffer and the Analogy they bear to each other That the Affections are common it evident from the Calculi Varicous Knots and Hydatides found in Apoplectick Brains at the Secretions as at 〈◊〉 Plexus Choroides The justness and genuineness of this account appears farther in the part and cause of this Disease in that the Rupture it made principally at the anteriour Branches of the Carotid Arteries nearer the Origin of the Brain where accordingly those that are seiz'd complain and that the ruptur'd Vessels are those that have gone a Compass and descend from the Anfractus of the Brain The reason of this last is to be understood by the Observations of Bellini and Malpighius who inform 〈◊〉 that the Winding of Glandular Vessels and so of the Anfractus of the Brain is to give the Blood time to stop and separate through the Glandular Pores And 〈◊〉 â—his solves the Reason partly why the Rupture is not where the Blood comes with greater force so the Imbecility of the part hath hence a Reason and points at the occasion of it in that it is where the greater part in proportion of the Chyle or nutritious Iuyce must therefore be deposited which when weigh'd together with the Consideration that the Error of the Chyle induceth all Diseases and allows the Effects of the Air and that the Fit so often seizes after full Meals and that this Disease keeps pace with the Affectio Hypochondriaca if not increas'd in time together with it and that it s so often being induced by trouble of Mind evidences the same analogous Cause and Reason are natural and to me convincing Arguments How this Rupture of the Arteries comes upon an Obstruction or heaping of Chylous parts in the Glands comes next to be examin'd It is observ'd by Wepfer in his second Dissection that the Brain there was much intenerated where the Effusion of Blood was made but whether the Laxity of the Brain or Openness of the Pores of the Tabuli or Siphons that receive the Chylous part of the Blood rendred the Brain liable to this Irruption is questionable and not to be answered so provided we know the Nature of the Parts that occasion this is not material I own the Vses of the Blood in joynt-service with the Nervous parts to be another Inquiry The Delatoryness of the Glands when obstructed in producing a Rupture of the Blood-vessels be it in the Iaundies Asthma or Dropsie and the liableness of the Glands to alteration especially upon exclusion of new saline parts from the Blood to preserve as well as supply them induce me to believe much herein to be owing to some Quality they may conceive if not sufficient to corrode the Artery at least to destroy their own Crasis Accordingly I shall now consider the Cause without us that induceth this Disposition to this Disease as sufficient to direct us which is the Air. Though I have some Reasons that draw me to an Opinion that the Particles which compose or are bore in our Atmosphere which variously affect our Bodies are so gross as to allow a Conception of their operating on the score that they are Effluvia either of the constant or new produced Bodies in the Earth but owe their Energy to some Quality depending on the various Figure or Disposition or other alteration they are liable to receive in the Atmosphere Yet not to argue from so questionable Principles I shall rather indeavour to demonstrate the Nature of the parts of it by their effect and as they appear the occasion of this Disease And this Distemper making so extraordinary insults at particular times it is reasonable to examine the Disposition of the Air whereon depended the Increase of the Disease and wherein it consists The grand increase of it upon the great Frost 1683 appearing sufficiently by the Bills of Mortality lead the Learned Dr. Cole to do so
Sanguinary Plethora as likewise in a total Intemperature producing them yet a preparatory Course or Medicines conjunctly applied may be necessary First In old Age by warming Cephalick Medicines or moisture of the Brain in which astringent Chalybeats as Crocus Martis astringens recommended by Dr. Cole or Ens Veneris which I more use Secondly If inveterate or from confirm'd Hypochondriacism where the Brain may be calculous by a previous course of the Light Chalybeat Waters Thirdly The Matter may be Cold and Flatulent as the Case recited by Sennertus in which rotulae of Ol. Carui and nuc moschat succeeded if we consult the genius of the Humour in the advanced degree of it of this present Time it may be proper to take off the Acidity by Alkalys in which Coral ought to have a share joyn'd with Carminatives and Discussers of Flatus and to back these with Astringents and Purgers interpos'd Which I may confirm by an Observation I have made in some that I have cured that upon the first removal of the Fit the Humour remov'd into some other part as the Feet and appear'd in a puffy cold Humour And in others I have found an Apoplexy to proceed from the bare translated Matter of the Rheumatick Pains and thus in most of those that are taken and as this accounts well why Cold should increase them so that the Cause is the same appears in that this Catarrhal Matter when it falls on the Lungs or Bowels hath usually produced Blood as I find daily And this I observe the rather because it clears my proof of the Matter to be Natural and that the increase of this Disease is owing to an increase of the same Matter in the Air it s Subtilly Coldness Flatulency and Corrosiveness which the Coldness and Moisture of this and the preceding Years favour The last regard is to the Causes concurring to the Production of it as the Chlorosis stopping of wonted Flux or Haemorrhages The Course to be applied in all these appears in Authors and need here only to be intimated Where none of these are coincident besides general Evacuation to be premitted only good Detersives may be recommended the most successful of which that I have observ'd I have nam'd afterwards The Affectio Hypochondriaca which I have observ'd to be reliev'd by them all but when confirm'd to be cured by the light Chalybeats and secur'd by the more acid to which the Purging Waters elected according to the requisite Qualities ought to precede needs no Address to shew their place beside the reciting their Symptoms What is necessary to contribute to the Cure or Continuance of it being a change of the Course of Living to a more natural one instead of particularizing I choose to illustrate by shewing the antecedent Causes of it and that it is a Disorder of the Recrements of the Chyle As this is a Cardinal Distemper of them I have enlarg'd the thought not unusefully to the other turns these receive at the several grand Points of Man's Life and the Diseases thereon depending And though I could not be particular in the Explication of this yet the mistakes about Humane Nature are such even of seemingly sound Persons but are very unhappy in the Hypochondriacal I have offer'd somewhat notwithstanding at the general Reason of the Distemperature of Body and Mind and the universal Efficacy of this congested Matter I am of Opinion that by this thought more of a just Notion of our Nature may be retrieved and of the Efficacy of Mineral Acids in contradistinction from others how they confirm our Nature and particularly why Steel and how and on what Account and what the Temper of the Glands and so of the Brain consists in The Nature and Qualities of the Air prov'd by its Effects both ought and might be I fancy better clear'd and the Truth and Excellency of this Method be prov'd in the Acute Diseases likewise wherein I have found it of happy Vse which I hint to encourage the Prosecution of it because I have observ'd Feavers themselves to have enough of their reasons appear to distinguish the Success of the Observer of them but as these either want place or room here so instead I am oblig'd to excuse the whole discoursive part of this Book and particularly the Impertinencies and Imperfections of it being only casual and written raptim and much of it never read over by me till printed and were design'd but as Hints and beside the design of the History so that the great Precipitation with the Impediments made much or all of it so far from being exact as to be thoughtless almost In which part I reckon the Enumeration of the Sentiments of Authors of Apoplexies and the distinction of soms Symptoms And in what I offer to the Learned Dr. Cole of the Seat of the Disease it is Oscitanter and is submitted to his Judgment my Intent being to explain and carry on the Inquiry not to oppose In my examining the Waters I was exact to the best of my Skill and had it perform'd at the Springs trusting only to the procuring Barnet Stretham and Upminster the last of which was sent me by the unquestion'd hand of Mr. Jefferys of Brentwood And least an Objection should lye against the cleanness of my account of the Pyrites found in the Purging Wells in that the common Copperas stone should be found mix'd with them at Harwich at the base of the Loamy Cliff I must observe that they are only found among the gravelly lays that fall from the top and that be it however it sufficeth to my purpose that these Stones are only a common Base of this sort of Earth as well where are no Purging Springs as where there are and so not of a forreign Original Lastly Why I publish any thing so loose and unaccurate I can only say that the Discourses which were written off hand had not the leisure for Thought that the experimental part had which was in good measure done before I left Cambridge and so before I enter'd on Practise neither had I a prospect of an Opportunity to perfect And all my Thoughts I offer no otherwise than with Submission to better Judgment to correct A Supplement to Page 90. FOR particularly besides the Arguments drawn from the Excellency of our own Mineral Waters and their more distinct appositeness to several Cases which recommend the Use of our Waters in their lieu as being more abundantly useful to us so there are some Objections that lye against the use of the German Spa with us which it is not amiss to advise the Reader of For not only the Waters suffer so much by their long passage as at best to retain but a diminish'd Proportion of their Virtue equal to their Tincture of Steel but also that Water which by reason of its long retaining the Tincture is sent abroad and is medicinally drank with us if it did retain its Chalybeat Power which it seldom doth till it is used is
Lime and Mortar shall have the same 10. On the same Reason Animals dye in the exhausted Receiver upon the unbending the Spring by Exhaustion And it is worthy remark that Animals taken out before expiring are not recover'd by admission of the Air which affects not soon enough the lesser or remoter Springyness Acad. del cimento 11. That the Parts and Juyces of Animals are Elastick appears to me asserted in the Experiments of the Honourable Mr. Boyle 12. That Air is admitted to the Blood I need no other Argument but that the Blood continues to follow upon Bleeding 13. That the Air is not admitted to the Brain and Nerves or to any of the Specifick Juyce of the Animal I argue again from the like reason From all which I deduce that an Apoplexy is produced by the admission of Air or Elastick Parts to the Medulla or Corpus Callosum of the Brain And that this Air and Lethiserous parts are admitted by the Mouth and so by the way of the Stomach appears plainly in that the Fits usually seize immediately upon plentiful Feeding For the Glutinous parts of the Chyle are a fit Vehicle as being if ill concocted Flatulent and Elastick as I shall farther demonstrate when I come to the Affectio Hypochondriaca And I must take notice of the Consistency of this Notion which is confirm'd by that Affection so often passing into this Distemper That this sudden Death comes not from the other Causes I named is evident from many Reasons which I have not room here for The most difficult Phoenomenon to be solv'd that appears to me is the Apoplexy seizing Faemellae upon the difficulty of Eruption of the Catamenia at the second Septenary To which we can only say that the Plethora is apparent and the Weakness of the Brain though we see not how the Brain and Genus Nervosum is concern'd in this nor know its Motion for I allow the antecedent Causes of a Turgid Blood and a weak Brain to have place in this Distemper This my Hypothesis I think naturally consequent to the just Notions of the Air and Brain and well accounts for the Spuma at the Nostrils and Mouth and for the Difficulty of Breathing or Cessation of Respiration attended with an entire Pulse which thus may be carried on and the main Design of Respiration cease This gives the reason of the Distention of the Lungs in the Apoplectick that is mention'd by Wepferus if the Elasticity of the Internal parts of the Lungs can but be supposed to do the same that the removing of the Incumbent Atmosphere in an exhausted Receiver did on some Animals in which the Academy del Cimento observ'd the Lungs to swell and to Forth at the Mouth And thus we may solve the Difficulty observ'd by the Ancients why this Distemper affects only the Chest or Breast The only thing that we want to be satisfied of is secondly what that is in the Air that induces this Distemper now to be so rise whence we may come at the Indoles materiae morbisicae And that I may not enter into that vast Field of the Cause of Seasons and the like Effects which are taken into the Hand of God's particular Providence to manage I shall confine my self to be guided by these few Remarks 1. That no Affections of the Air or Qualities in it depend on any Mixture of Mineral Vapours because they precipitate immediately neither do we find the places where are large Eruptions of them any whit Sicklier or affected otherwise than other places And then all Distempers are otherwise Solvable 2. That the Qualities of the Air that affect our Bodies consist not in nor always with those that may be supposed to belong to the grosser Air of our Atmosphere I have known Animals frequent some Years in a hard Frost which would be suppos'd to be pernicious to them and not only my self but that most extraordinary Naturalist and universally great Man and my honoured Friend Mr. Ray hath observed that some Years the hardest Frost hath not hindred the Papilio's from coming out of their Chrysitis which in some mild Springs shall not be found abroad so soon This is the more fit Instance to prove what I say must be acknowledged by any that have observed the necessity of Heat and how much it contributes to the Production of this Change 3. That there are some Qualities in the Air always which are owing to the parts more intimately mix'd with it than is the Nitre that affects us with Cold and which passeth where the grosser is not admitted This is observable in the Effects it has on Liquors which the Managers of them are forced to have recourse to for the reason of the Disposition to ferment or fret or Incapacity of either Acidity and the like All which some Years Liquors especially Cyder is propense to be the Weather what it will 4. That Heat and Cold Wetness or Dryness of Seasons assist in inflicting a Disease as they may help admit these Particles 5. That I have observ'd these Qualities of the Air to be Temporary and the Diseases effected by the Air to be so too and that in their Continuation and Variation they usually observe the Direction of both Causes the Nature of the Humour in succeeding Distempers being usually traceable as the Variation of it is likewise accountable Now although I can by no means maintain that the Hypothesis of that Learned and Ingenious Man agrees with the Rise and Continuance of this Distemper or is sufficient to explicate it nor can answer for the Non-appearance of the Distemper before upon the same occasion Yet that it was a fair offer at the Truth and affords a good hint is remarkably to be taken notice of in that this Winter in which more have died Apoplectick and that in the Country than ever was taken notice in Man's Memory or deliver'd to have been in any Age I say that this Winter should be though not the hardest yet remarkably long does seem to make the Nitrous Air a sharer in the Cause But as I except against the Explication of this Distemper by bare Obstruction or Stagnation from Cold as not sufficient so I come now to inquire what farther knowledge of this the Air will afford us assisted by the preceding Considerations and to see how they answer here and how far the Footsteps and Changes are discoverable And as Truth is not surely to be laid hold on but when pursued by a natural Method so I wave all Hypothesis and only propose this Maxim or Rule to direct me which I take to be too necessary a Deduction to be deem'd a begging of the Principle The Air that is productive of a Distemper must produce some other Effects in differing or less prepar'd Constitutions and not hit only where it can fully execute and the Disposition Particles or Qualities of the Air may reasonably be inquir'd of these Effects as Prints of its footing The Diseases then that have been
have not known these Waters made tryal of But the most common Distemper or rather Symptom of the Stomach diseased is known only by the name of Pain It is necessary to distinguish the kinds of this more nicely than is usual and I shall not inquire here into the particular seats of it but mind the Reader in general that by the name of this Distemper I understand an affection of the Stomach or Ventricle from Matter lodg'd in or near it excepting those Affections of it per consensum from the Head or in acute Diseases and so it includes the primary Distempers of that Region that produce pain in the Ventricle I fansie a Syllabus of all the Affections and Symptoms of this kind would be useful and might be instituted after this manner Though the pit of the Stomach has the greatest sense of the Pain yet this Pain may be all over the Stomach So an obtuse Pain with Faintness and Sickness and an Hemicrania signifies a watry vapid state of the Blood as in a Chlorosis The same with Sickness attends a full Dropsie A rending Pain with weakness follows great Evacuations in weakly Bodies as Suckling Shooting to the Back denote the matter to be windy be it in the Cavity or elsewhere and Cholicks vary To say nothing here of Ulcers Moving a Rheumatism there fix'd and increases immediately upon eating Pain moving and fixing in Spots with most exquisite Pain Coldness and Convulsive Nippings and working off with a Loosness and coming some six or seven hours after eating a nervous Rheumatism or rather Membranous This last again increases or assaults upon Cold taking and is sometimes seated in the Coats of the Stomach and sometimes in the Membranes adjoyning or both so in some I have observ'd it to strike from the Stomach in a Vein as they call it upward side-ways or the like and not to bear a Position of the Body that pents it for the part afflicted always seems pent An obtuse Pain contracting the Stomach such as is usually express'd by knitting attends Hysterick Fits An obtuse Pain without this an Obstruction of the Catamenia or a Plethora sanguinis in hot Weather chiefly The Ventricle may be affected near its upper Orifice at the Pit of the Stomach only with a nipping Pain or a knitting Pain attending the Hypochondriacal and an obtuse Pain with a Sense of weight in Trouble and Melancholly The sense of Pentness accompanies Wind the sense of Fullness Water or Humour So I might proceed to Soreness Coldness and Acuteness Faintness c. There are other Pains near the Stomach as in the Jaundies about the bottom toward the right side so in a distemper'd Spleen or Liver or Pancreas may be known by their Situation Thus Judgment is to be made of the proper use of these Waters from the Cause or Nature of the Disease and of what means may reasonably be used together with them For an Obstruction of the Catamenia may make that Remedy necessary that a Plethora forbids A Chlorosis in a Phlegmatick Constitution is better cured with other Chaiybeats and a Pain from Weakness requires another Intention So that the use of these Waters is to be confin'd chiefly to Pains Convulsive in the Melancholy and Hypochondriacal and to other Collections of Wind or Phlegm from any Obstructions And although these chiefly arise from the Affectio Hypochondriaca and so are curable in the general Intention yet greater Accuracy is necessary both to the Discovery of the Distemper and assigning a Remedy and without which sure Observation can never be made Another Disorder of the Stomach is want or loss of Appetite which though it is restor'd by other Waters and means yet not only is more fully recover'd by these but its cause more perfectly remov'd But there are other Distempers cur'd by these Waters which are less understood and over which these reign alone I shall instance in two The one is a Fistula which though of many Years standing I have known effectually cur'd in six Weeks by the sole drinking of Tunbridge Water The other which appear'd to me as extraordinary was a Periodical Feaver and Cough which I knew a Gentlewoman cur'd of by the same Waters who for many Years had never escaped an Assault about October before she was freed by this Remedy Obstructions of the Pancreas I should have named before The Virtue these have of Chearing the Spirits and relieving a Heart oppress'd with Trouble or tumultuated with any Passions is as extraordinary as any of the former as being indeed the Cause and Producer of the Glandular Obstructions which together with Cephalick Distempers as Giddiness Pain c. come under the Affectio Hypochondriaca which therefore I shall consider now distinctly in all its Symptoms The Affectio Hypochondriaca HAS very numerous Symptoms and counterfeits all Distempers and upon continuance brings almost as many I shall consider the Symptoms and then the reason of them or seat of it The Signs enumerated by Authors are a Flatulent Stomach ill Appetite and Concoction Vomiting glewy petuitose Matter the Stomach Flatulent not well after Food upon which came a rejection of Food by Vomiting Lipothymia Giddiness turbulent Flatus's and Cramps Convulsions Tremors Ructus's Aquositates Flatus inter binas tunicas seu membranos mesenterii Ventriculi dolores vehementes adsunt qui nonnullis ad dorsum usque procedant ab aegris incautisque pro Nephriticis habâ—antur concoctis cibis quiescunt mox aliis ingestis cibis eodem modo revertuntur qui interdum jejunos interdum etiam à caenâ molestant non cessant priusquam aegri evomunt cibos crudos Phlegmata subamara caleda aut acida Alvus adstricta Aestus in Hypochondriis Vrinatenuis Anxietas Ventriculi Pulsus varii Cordis palpitatio Animi deliquium Pulsatio in sinistro Hypochondrio ab intemperie calidâ Palatum lingua os exsiccantur sitis levis excitatur respiratio difficilis dolor quidam constrictio in pectore persentitur Transit quandoque in Melancholiam Epilepsiam aut Apoplexiam abit quandoque caeci evadunt Symptomata Paralysi Convulsioni similia Lassitudo Cerebrum exsiccant vapores vigiliae adsunt Insomnia or vain frightful and Distracting Dreams suddenly and often disturbing the Sleep Night-mare or sense of oppressing weight Tension of the Hypochondries but that is a sign nor constant nor peculiar to their Distemper Obstruction of the Oesophaguâ— or Swallow Periculum suffocationis conqueruâ—â—tir dolor in anteriore parte Pectoris stupor dolor Formicans nunc in dextro nunc in sinistro Caligo Dolor in Brachio vel digito hoc vel illo sudor Frigidus de graviori morbo sibi metuunt And at last the part where the Humour lodges has its Symptoms as Stomach Spleen Liver c. which are then affected most six or seven hours after eating Whence these Flatus's proceed the Sense of Sennertus is Magis consentaneum est istos Flatus contineri in illâ cavitate in
have remedy only adequated to the Cause be it a flatulent putrid Matter which usually gives the Distemper the Denomination of Worms from the effect of it or be it from Melancholy Hypoch and Vapours Hysterical But if seated in the Brain or supervening an Ague or in a cold Constitution I think here can scarce have a proper Remedy So the Jaundies I acknowledge have been often cur'd by these Waters and some of the Purging ones when it ow'd its Rise to an Obstruction of the Catamenia a Clog of Phlegm or uncocted Chyle or Melancholy but I must not allow these or any Waters to cure this Disease de Essentia I think this Caution necessary to the understanding the proper Use of these and all Waters which by the help of this may be distinctly known and is of the greater Importance since upon many accounts Empirical Use of these and all other Remedies is found to be of Fatal Consequence The Virtues of the Atramentous Waters THese Waters though they have the same Virtues with other Chalybeat Waters in some degree and create an Appetite and wash the Viscera yet penetrate not so far open not Obstructions so well but are apt to raise a Heat in the Blood disagreeing to the design'd Effect have not that Acidity nor calm Astringence These inrich the Blood and where that is necessary and Obstructions remote do not contraindicate may happily be us'd and in the Stone are Competitors with others Agricola concludes these Effects as in common with other Vitrioline Waters To cure Corroding Ulcers Ulcers of the Bladder and Kidneys in the Mouth Weakness of the Nerves a weak Stomach they help And they may be used Internally and Externally But in Gout Stone or in Obstruction of the Glands and smaller Vessels are not to be used without Danger or Inconvenience so not in Hypochondriacal Cases These are valuable in proportion as they are rich of Steel keep it long and have little bulk of Salt The Virtues of the Light Chalybeat Waters THE Extraordinary Virtue of this sort consists in that as the Chalybeat Principles are in these most clean so the Spirit most thin and the Water both light and thin And so we have their Virtues not only most full here but somewhat differing They invigorate the Blood without Heating penetrate farther without Inconvenience Volatilize Attenuate more and their Acidity goes off without leaving impression behind it preternatural Thus as the heavy Waters that contain less of the Steel and whose Acidity is of a more fix'd Nature have a peculiarity of Astringing without Heating so this sort are extraordinarily qualify'd for opening Obstructions but seem not to have the same power of Astringing in an equal degree And on this account they do not mortifie a Scorbutick Leprous Humour or Itch so well nor are so powerful to stop Fluxes of Blood I think fit to observe these different Effects which being remark'd I refer the Reader for the reputed Virtues of these Chalybeats to the Virtues of the Knaresborow Water I shall therefore pass on to examine what Obstructions they remove which I shall do by exhibiting only Histories of my own Observation and from thence further to enlighten the use of them Among the Cures of this kind none is more familiar than that of the Stone by removing the Disposition to the Generation of it and restoring a good habit as well to the whole Body as to the parts immediately concern'd And although this Cure is perform'd by a timely Precipitation of the earthy parts out of the Latex and Juyces of the parts and restoring their natures and so is owing to the Qualities that these Chalybeat Waters seem to enjoy in common yet the fineness and penetration of this sort of them must be allow'd an extraordinary Qualification But the Obstructions that I principally intend here are such as yield to no other Remedy so constantly at least and whose fatal Consequence gives these Waters an inestimable value Of this sort I reckon first an Obstruction of the Glands of the Mesentery wherein beside the sign of Chylous Excrements and rejection of Food an hour or two after eating the Patient complains not of want of Appetite discernable Feaver or pain or other disorder till Feaver Cough and want of Rest which last often precedes proceed with the Emaciation upon the continuance of this Disease Of this I have found Tunbridge Water an effectual Remedy and most canstant never failing those that I have known to have try'd it who have been not a few And the small Spring at Felstead I find avail with equal success An Obstruction of the Thymus which discovers it self by pain at the Breast chiefly upon the Foods arrival at the place of its seat which upon the increase of the Tumour of this Gland resists the passing of the Food into the Stomach and makes the Patient reject it at least as soon as the Oesophagus is a little fill'd is a Disease of equal consequence with the other and which I have known these Waters speedily cure Another Disease from Glandular Obstructions cured by these Waters is the Dropsie a Cure of which is taken notice of by Mr. Boyle but the Design of these Observations being to form an Experience that may be distinct clear and not fallacious I must add That the Effects of the Waters in this Distemper fall not under so single a consideration as in the other but that there are so many requisites in the Cases where these are proper as make a good Judgment necessary in the use of them and â—orbid the drinking of them without good Advice For although I have reason to believe them to be constantly effectual timely taken by those whose Constitution was broken by trouble and perhaps to be the only Remedy and likewise in a Phlegmatick Constitution yet not only the seasonable and timely taking of them is to be consulted but a Crasis of Blood that needs not invigorating does sometimes receive damage by them And this I speak not by rote but have known some Quin Faeminae quinquagenariae florid and lively that the drinking of these Waters have affected with a beginning Dropsie the nature of these Waters being to invigorate the Blood and produce the Catamenia was so differing in effect And in a Dropsie that proceeds upon an Asthma in a person of a florid sanguine Complexion either a Chalybeat Water of greater astringency as the Knaresborow and that has least Steel or else a Chalybeat that Purges as Scarborow Water is much more proper I proceed to remark next the like extraordinary effect of these light Waters in Distempers of the Stomach the pain by which they discover themselves is most exquisite A painful Tumour of many Months at the pit of the Stomach and reputed Scirrhous I knew reliev'd and quite remov'd by Tunbridge Waters I might instance in other Flatulent Distentions of the Stomach and question not but they might be used with success in Ulcers of the Stomach though in them I