that Maxim of the Ancients Ejusdem partis atque potestatis sit functio sana cujus est vitiata ac vicissim i. e. There is a sound function of the same part and power whereof there is a vicious one and on the contrary I could speak much in defence of the Dignity of this noble part but at present shall conclude with this the great Offices that proceed from it and that rich and noble Retinue that attends it speaks it no less than the pallace where the sensitive soul keeps her Residence Of the Liver I shall but only hint at this because I shall speak more largely of it when I come to treat about Dropsies and other Diseases that are falsely fathered on it what a common complaint is there about a hot Liver and a cold Stomach when as I shall demonstrate that the Liver is never hotter than is necessary nor the Stomach never colder though it may seem so by imperfect or weak digestion And although Sanguification is not begun in it yet it is the perfecter and rectifier of it whereby the Blood is assimilated and conveyed into every part through the Veins In a word the Liver is the Administrator to all the natural parts in man Of the Gaul In the first Disease that I shall speak unto I shall be enforced to anatomize this Bowel only by the way take notice that this Gall is the great Balsom of Nature as well for preventing and destroying of Diseases as the curing our Wounds Understand that whatsoever is done by nature in any thing of this kind is performed by this great Balsom nor hath this as well as the rest been free from the Calumniations of the ignorant in making it guilty of causing several sharp Diseases c. But more of this in the next Of Fevers I Shall speak a word in general then come to particulars all Fevers are of the same essence and name and differ not so much in the matter as place Place The Place it acts in is the Stomach mostly The Cause is from the error and estranging of the Faculties or from things undigested and untransmuted or else from Excrements not being rightly subdued or separated and orderly evacuated Division there are two sorts continual and intermitting From the first there are several Species viz. some very malign others accompanied with less Malignity others with none at all Intermitting ones are of three sorts Legitimate Quotidian Tertian and Quartan Not to trouble you to treat of any contagious and pestilential Fevers none hath yet been amongst us God still keep them from us and remedy them where they are I shall therefore begin with malignant Fevers which are very rife in this Country especially amongst Children A malignant Fever differs from a Synochus or Burning or any other Fever in this that it draws its putrefaction immediately from its own matter for indeed putrefaction is joyned with it A burning Fever and other Fevers do not derive their putrefaction immediately from their matter but gradually and casually either from the peccancy of the matter or debility of the Ferment where it resides those are of a less malignity and bound in a less quantity of the matter offending Ephemera or an one days Fever is more from a disposition or inclination to a Disease for that morbifick matter in the stomach is soon cast up by Vomit or digested I rather call it a Distemper than a Disease But more particularly A Malignant Fever in Children AS I have shewed that a Malignant Fever is from the present putrefaction of its own matter Parvae Febres quandoque valde malignae Hipp. Diagnost so this violent Disease in Children is of that nature which is clearly demonstrated from the Symptoms in the first assault that within forty eight hours putrefaction hath been nigh perfected as is perceived by a coldness in the extreme parts and cold sweats c. Cause It is from some thing received which may contain some vicious quality or abounding in quantity or from an ill disposition of the digestive Ferment for it often happens that when the season is most hot then the digestion is weakest and then crude Fruits and things hard to digest take advantage of the stomach But above all I look at Milk and Sugar to be the greatest cause for Milk is the general Food of Children and there is such a propensity in its own nature to curdle that if it be not quickly digested it obeyeth the acid Ferment of the place which soon is coagulated and a Curd made like new tough Cheese which doth strongly resist digestion especially in a weak and tender stomach and if it be not speedily vomited up it soon begets a putrefactive Ferment and then soon after those terrible Symptoms are produced as Vomiting Scouring Griping c. Natura morborum est medicus medicus naturae minister Now Nature which is the Physician to Diseases unites her force and takes with her a quantity of this Gaul-balsom to rectifie this Malignity and eradicate the Morbifick Matter and whatsoever this Balsom doth incorporate with it hinders its putrefaction as Salt doth in Flesh or Fish and seasons it with its taste and colours it with its tincture as a little Wormwood doth any thing it is commixt with and a little Saffron doth Milk c. and what part of it is separated for its putrefactive Body nature endeavours to cast forth and by reason it still retains its acquired sharpness from the putrefactive Ferment falling down upon the Pylorus or lower mouth of the stomach stirreth up those violent motions and what part of it passeth through the Intestines it abstergeth and scoureth away that mucous or phlegmatick matter which nature hath lined the Guts withal for a twofold end first to hinder Obstructions that the Chyle may have a more speedy and slippery passage Secondly to defend them from any sharp or corrosive quality that may be in the Chyle which is transferred through them Which slimy matter is commonly seen to scour from them in this Disease and this being gone this excrementitious matter doth easily corrode by its sharpness which is the cause of those Tortures and Gripings And in regard that this peccant matter which is cast forth is tinctured by this Balsom it hath deceived many who have taken it to be the Gaul itself 'T is true there are Excrements in Children from eating Milk not perfectly digested which are of this Tincture but of no bitterish Taste it is brownish in the stomach yellow in the Ilion and green in the blind Gut yet they may not be sick And no marvel that there is little or none of this Balsom found in its Receptacle or Bladder in dead Children for if this be spent Death immediately follows according to that Proverb When the Gaul is broken the drowned Carcase riseth to the top of the Water when it can no longer withstand putrefaction Those Sacrilegious Jews knew that this Gaul was a great Cordial for the preserving
Praxis Catholica OR THE COUNTRYMAN' 's Universal Remedy WHEREIN plainly and briefly laid down the Nature Matter Manner Place and Cure of most DISEASES Incident to the Body of Man Not hitherto discovered Whereby any one of an ordinary Capacity may apprehend the true Cause of his Distempers wherein his Cure consists and the Means to effect it together with Rules how to order Children in that most violent Disease of vomiting and Looseness c. useful likewise for Seamen and Travellers â—â—so an Account of an Incomparable Powder for Wounds or Hurts which cure any ordinary ones at once dressing â—ritten by Robert Couch sometimes Practitioner in Physick and Chyrurgery at Boston in New-England â—ow published with divers useful Additions for publick benefit by Chr. Pack Operator in Chymistry â—enim si dare vitam proprius Dei munus est certe datam tueri jamque fugientem retineri Deo proximum fateamur oportet Erasm â—â—â—don Printed for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1680. TO HIS Highly Honoured AND MUCH Esteemed FRIEND COLONEL â—RANCIS WILLIS â—his Little TRACT humbly offers and submits it self Worthy Sir SEing it hath been your generous Care and Love to your Native Country to transplant this Exotick from Transmarine Parts to us I think it highly reasonable that you should have the Oversight of its Culture and Growth That as it hath here received its First Being from your Charity to the Publick it may also under your Name continue to grow and increase Sir your Knowledge in true Medicine and intimate Acquaintance you had with Mr. Couch the Author hath rendred you as able to Judge as fit to Patronize His Judgments of Diseases are sound and accurate and deduced from such Principles as Heathens and their Followers never yet understood or were able to refute as for the Medicines be advises you know Sir they are not Toys or Trifles to gull an unwary World but such whose virtues and power of healing are undeniable both from what they have done and are always ready to perform What I have added is only a farther Confirmation of Matter of Fact the which with the whole I humbly present to you as it is except Errours if any which I reserve to my self desiring your Favourable Acceptance of those small Endeavours of Your most Humble Servant CHR. PACK TO THE READER Reader I Once having the Fortune to see this Little Book of Mr. Couch's in the hand of a Gentleman living in Carolina who did me the favour to lend it me to peruse I was so pleased with his Sentiments of Diseases and manner of describing them that I heartily wished it were here made Publick but the Gentleman 's suddain departure out of England recalled the Book out of my hands before I could half transcribe it Not withstanding at length I attained my desire through the Assistaâ—â—e of the Worthy Colonel Francis Willis a Candid Lover and Promoter of true Medicine who procured me this Book in Manuscript from Virginia where Mr. Couch died from whom also I had long before received the Knowledge of those most Excellent Remedies used by Mr. Couch for curing the Distempers treated of in this Book But seeing that all Medicines now adays of which there are too many published as Arcanums and bearing the names of Universal Remedies come so far short of their specious pretences they being indeed only Engines employed for gain that I could not reasonably expect that those Worthy Medicaments should be beheld with any other Aspect if the curing of Diseases should be here restrained to them only Wherefore I have here added other Medicines for the cure of each Disease such as are good and effectual in which I have candidly dealt with all persons and left every one to his liberty what to use Moreover because many Persons into whose hands this Book may come who live remote in the Country upon suddain occasion cannot have time enough to send to me for the Powder and Pill I have also directed the use of such as they may be served withal nearer home by which I hope I may justly avoid the censure of publishing this Book solely for my own advantage Truly I abhor such private ends which are not to be attained without hypocrisie and the prejudices and ruines of Lives and Families but so fast are most people tied to the Heathens precepts of healing and to the modes and fashions of times and persons that they know not truth when they meet her but obstinately persist in errour for its age sake and so voluntarily come short of the benefits of Gods healing mercies falling short of true knowledge because they think themselves to be already sufficiently informed according to the saying of Seneca Multi ad virtatem pervenire potuissent nisi se putassent pervenisse So that it may be as truly affirmed in relation as well to the body as the soul that many perish through unbelief neither will it be otherwise till the time cometh when the groans of the Creation to be delivered from this vanity shall cease and the Elias of Arts shall appear to restore all things This little Treatise may be useful for every considerate Reader enabling him in divers Maladies to get help at a cheaper and more certain rate than usual Neither will it be unwelcome to the Tyro's in the Helmontian Philosophy and Medicine whom it may accommodate in many cases others no doubt at first sight will not freely receive it because to them the Doctrine may be altogether novel but if they will rightly weigh the discourses of Diseases and compare them with the common precepts and notions of healing out of desire to find out the truth they shall certainly apprehend them to be more agreeable to the frame and simplicity of nature than the other But as for such Subscribers to Heathenism as have taken a Leafe of their Opinions for life I do not question but to them it will be disgustful they will contend about the shell till they lose the Kernel but be it as it will I design nothing but well in it what I have said being only out of love to truth not reflecting upon any man's person or interest To conclude I shall still make it my business to loose the bonds of Animals Vegitables and Minerals endeavouring with Chimical Keys to unlock the choycest Cabinets of Nature and whatever I from time to time by the Divine Bounty shall be able to take from thence shall readily be communicated to the use of the sick more especially into the hands of honest and conscientious Artists who may use them to the honour of God the giver their own credit and the relief of many a miserable person In the mean time I remain Your servant in the fire Chr. Pack From my Laboratory at the Sign of the Globe and Chymical Furnaces in the Postern near Moor-gate To all Ingenious Students and Practitioners in Physick and Chyrurgery Courteous Brethren WE read of Renowned
experientia difficilis c. though the Age of a man is too short to obtain it It is much against my temper to conceal any thing from any Ingenious and honest Artist but I have been much mistaken and I am sorry to speak it that if I had told less it would have been more for my credit and profit I can say with the Poet Ovid Hos ego versiculos feci tulit alter honores Nevertheless the unworthiness of some shall not detract from the worth of any Civil and Ingenious Brother I shall always be civil to all but especially to those that I find are so Ars praeclarissima Artifex sordissimus I am sorry to see so many shabby and course spirited Fellows that practise in so high and honourable a Calling There is such a vast disproportion between the Art and the Artist that well may the Art be ashamed to own them There are not only ignorant Jack-daws that are intruders upon this worthy Art which square out all things by their crooked and indirect Rules but likewise there are Pompeys and Caesars too who scorn to admit of Equals and be Caesars or no bodies c. who think it much below their Greatness to advise with any If they are at any time petitioned unto it they grant it with this reservation to themselves to deny every thing others say though it be never so undeniable and clear a truth they would rather twenty should die under their hands than part with one to be cured by another that 's a great affront to their Ambition whereunto they sacrifice many a mans life and dissemble their Pride under the cloak of Humility and so blind the poor Country-man that they think such a one to be Aesculapius himself and that his Medicines were extracted from the balm of Gilead when he may be but some Imposter and his Medicines it may be no better than a little Cow-dung or some thing worse and as the Papists are kept in blindness by praying in a Language they understand not to the hazard of their souls so are many amongst us led away by such deceivers in harkning unto the false Doctrine of the Heathens to the hazard of our bodies for they thunder out Art in Quarto and Conscience in Folio and shower down such Heavenly Apologies for their deceit and ignorance with such clashes of Lightning that frights the simple into such a belief as to mistrust were a crime unpardonable whereby they are canoniz'd on Earth and written in the Rubrick in the Calendar of the World I believe there have been many such Saints on Earth that never found any room in Heaven Brethren have a care none of you be ever found akin to any such Homicide though you may with such juggles and indirect means deceive the people you cannot deceive the all-seeing God he will make you smart for it in the end when the popular applause of the World shall but torment you the more The life of man is more worth than all the Creation And as it is pretious to the Creature so it is to the Creator and he will not suffer it to be trampled upon by the pride of any without revenge and yet those sad fellows may be much cried up and in great esteem amongst the vulgar when a far more knowing and worthy Practitioner may not be regarded Let not this be any discouragement to any young Practitioner for if there be anything of worth in him and he acts like an Artist let him expect to be undervalued by the ignorant and let him not admire why it is so for we find that it hath been the unhappiness of all Ages that Falshood hath been preferred before Truth and persons of no worth or value have had the precedency of persons of true worth and esteem Scientia non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem as for the vulgar whom Nature huddl'd up in hast that Act meerly by the prerogative of depraved Nature speak against every thing but what is naught whatsoever is of Worth and Art be sure they will dislike and exclaim against all Persons but such as comply with their ignorance whose Malice and Fury is like the Waves of the Sea driven by the fury of enraged Boreas I have read of Cato that he was forty four times brought by the vulgar sort of people to the Judgment-Seat and every time came off acquitted what a great happiness it is when a man hath many malicious Enemies to find impartial and upright Judges Every Country hath its Diana as well as Ephesus And he that will not sacrifice with the people shall be crucified by them but he that doth keep a pure and undefiled Conscience towards God and acts like an honest and ingenious Artist towards his Neighbour may extract a Cordial from the World's poyson and live above the reach of Envy The most splendent Creature is sometime clouded and the most vertuous Lady suffers an Eclipse in her innocency by some malevolent Neighbour when a Strumpet goes unsuspected It is not every Artist's fortune to arrive at Corinth but I could wish every ingenious Artist could practice what he knows and that he knew more to practise better so I desire to be understood when I say that Practise is the best part of Physick that there must be first a knowledge of the Disease and likewise of the Remedy and so to proportion the Remedy to the Disease and not to try practices on mens bodies * Care at successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat that the Poet cursed but first you must know before you practise and so your practice will confirm your knowledge So I conclude with this advice first let God go before you to counsel and direct you unto the direct means let him go with you to crown it with a good Success and let him follow you to take all the glory unto whom all glory is due Caepta faveat Deus ac vota nostra secundet So wisheth Robert Couch TO MY Candid and Cordial COUNTRYMEN Friends and Countreymen SInce Death and Diseases which are Diametrically opposite unto life are entailed unto us through the Transgression of our first Parents the Creator and sole Authour of life foreseeing the weakness of our Natures to withstand the strength of such mortal Enemies created Medicine from the beginning out of the Earth to correct the fury and tyranny of Diseases whereof Death is the Daughter whereby each should be at his good pleasure and so governs it at his will that he permits and suffers this man to die and that to be sick by secondary Causes which happen as well directly as irregularly And whereas the Nature of Diseases are various so he hath endued the Earth with various and sundry Medicinal Vertues and he hath likewise called and ordained some to administer and apply such suitable and fit means as the nature of Diseases do require But the great difficulties by reason of the invisibility
of the Disease and the great obscurity in the knowledge of Medicine have frustrated many in their expectation All Arts and Sciences except Physick have grown to some pitch but that hath rather gone backward till within some late years famous Helmont to whom the Art it self stands much obliged and some Renowned Physicians of our Native Countrey have begun to cast off that black vail of deceit with which it was cloathed by the Theorems of the Heathens Indeed the gate of healing hath remained shut from the Cradle of the World and the Schooles of the Greeks instead of opening it shut it closer and made it more mysterious than ever was intended by the first Creator The natures causes and places of Diseases were not rightly understood by them whereby they failed in their Remedies they had so much regard unto the effects that they neglected the causes which pernicious and destructive course is practised still by such who are wholly led by their Rules Wherefore the whole intent of this small Tract is to undeceive you that you be not deceived of your lives by such erroneous preservers and that you give not your money for what 's not bread nor buy a Snake instead of an Eele I know it is not Artist-like to build so great a Porch to so small a Fabrick but if it tend to the Owners more conveniency it is to be dispensed withall Indulge me therefore Reader to give thee some cautions it may be for thy Good First touching the Disease Secondly touching the Physician Inasmuch as we were poysoned from the Tree of Knowledge so no other Tree could we fetch an Antidote from but the Tree of Life which was for healing of the Nations So Diseases are only cured by fit and suitable means for thou mayst be kill'd by a bad means as well as restored by a good Wherefore be an earnest Suiter to Heaven that thou mayst have the right means from Earth and a benediction with it which will make it operate the better And as it must be a true and proper means that must cure thy Disease so have a special care the Remedy come not too late How many have been robbed of their lives upon that score Opportunity is the soul and perfection of Physick you may lose that opportunity to day Post est occasio calva that the price of the World cannot procure thee to morrow take time by the fore top lest it be bald behind There are two great Obstacles which commonly make many disadvantages the first is from the perswasion of Friends the second from the flattery of Diseases First when any one is taken sick one Friend adviseth him to such a thing another perswades another and a third another telling him if it does him no good it will do him no hurt But there is no such Medium will stand for if it do not exasperate the Disease yet it doth retard the Cure and so by trying uncertain means you loose the advantage of a sure Remedy Secondly The Deceit and Flattery of the Disease when Diseases assault you very strongly in the * Quanmvis non nunquam morbi in eorum principiis absque periculo tibi videntur vires in mores tamen sensim dejicientur corrampentur ut postea nulla salutis spes super fit at morbus qui primo curabiis fuerat malignitam neglecta incurabili◠〈◊〉 beginning they may have such Intervals and Respites that you apprehend your selves better to day than you was yesterday and that while the Disease doth insensibly undermine your lives and then assaults with greater fury than he did at first Others are very mild and gentle in the beginning yet they may be very malign parvae febres quando qui valde malignae whereby you do not so much mistrust them much less understand their danger And sometimes those that labour under sharp Diseases the Symptoms have been so remiss and dark that it hath been a very difficult thing for an able Physician to presage either life or death and when he hath passed his Judgment within few hours there hath been such a change that he hath been fool'd in his Prognostick In others again Diseases have layen so hid and obscure that they have died before they were perceived to be sick of which we have had many sad Examples of some that have died suddenly who have carried those Diseases undiscovered about them that wanted nothing but the word immediately to run them to the heart Now I have shewed you the Deceit and Flattery of Diseases which have couzened thousands of their lives of whom you will do well to learn to beware and act prudently to prevent by mistrust what you would not have come suddenly and unexpected And as I have told you the deceit of Diseases so I shall tell you the deceit of Physicians I mean such who have built more upon the sandy Foundation of the * As if it were for their sake God created Medicine and Christians should be beholden to them for it Pagans and Heathens then upon a sure and rocky Foundation who have studieâ— more to get money than to cure their Diseases It hath pitied me many a time 〈◊〉 see that Old Saying too often verified viz. Saepe plus mali à Medico quam à Morbo That many times there is more danger from the Physician than from the Disease such a Physician as practiseth by Old Authors And that yoâ— may the better know them and understand some of their juggles I shalâ— recite some of their Practises First when such a Deceiver is called unto a Patient if his Diseasâ— should be grown to a great height which hath made him dangerously â—ill which was the end God ordained Physick and Physicians for to relieve such distressed Natures he stands at a distance fearing to come near like a low spirited fellow lest he receive such a kick from the Disease in his rotten reputation as he may not easily recover but he resolves rather to hazard the loss of a poor Patient then venture the loss of his small credit wherefore he is resolved to look on and see which will get the Victory in the mean while he excuses his juggle telling the Disease is not yet come to an height and by such a time he hopes to find a Crisis and then he may safely take something in the interim adviseth an Ale-brew or Herb-Candle many more such juggles they have to send people to their Graves Just as if your house were on fire And one comes and counsels you to let it alone till it burn to the top of the House and then is the surest quenching it you take his counsel Now 't is possible that the Heavens may pour down such a shower of rain as may extinguish it but whether they do or not doth not this man well advise you think you or as if an Enemy hath entered a Garrison it is not safe to resist him till he come to the heart
of the Town But good Souldiers will tell you otherwise that what their Enemy gets they shall get it by Inches c. And this Crisis they so much talk of is nothing but an effect of Nature * As Helmont hath well observed Nature hath opposite Virtues and Faculties which hold a great harmony with the Moon 's Motion whereby there is it may be some small change a little while through her Motions but they are not caused by the Moon but by Nature harmoning with her Motion But what of this what is it to the taking away thy Disease indeed it may help a little a bad Medicine but a good Medicine will make a Laudable Crisis let the Moon be where she will in staying thus for the Moon many have lost the Sun Now this Deceiver finding Nature to have cast the Disease runs in and congratulates her Victory with a dram of his Bottle and instead of helping her up many times keeps her the longer down But if the Disease hath cast Nature then he gives his Relation this Cordial That all the men in the World could do no more and that he did consult with forty Learned Authors c. But if this will not operate then he gives them this * A Medicine to cause Rest or Sleep Opiate in a dram of Aqua Coelestis viz. It was the will of God it should be so and that his time was come c. and so his decets are buried with his poor Patient But how doth he make you believe it was the will of God and that his time was come we all know God doth permit that which he doth not will God may permit this Impostor to give a destructive means or not to use the right for it is almost all one If thou hast not something to take off the poyson of the Disease the poyson of the Disease will take off thee In vain had the Creatour created Medicines out of the Earth from the beginning unless the natural terms and bounds of things might be prolonged by healing and Medicines And likewise the Tree of Life had been in vain in Paradise if he that hath bounded the life of man had not together by the same endeavour appointed all means requisite for the bounds of life then if I use no means or not the right means my bound is set which I shall not pass over according to that saying woe is me that my Pilgrimage is prolonged thy Youth shall be renewed like the Eagle c. There 's a second sort of such Juglers and they are altogether ignorant of any Knowledge either from Ancients or Moderns only know how to let blood give a Purge or Clyster when any such is called to a Patient he never stands to enquire into the Disease but presently determines this to be done and that to be taken upon pain of life and if it succeed well then he is a very skilful man but if ill then there was no other course to save his life and plead the former excuses These I do as much pity for their ignorance as blame for their too rash confidence 't is probable if they knew better they would act wiser There 's another sort much akin with the former but carry things more modestly and bring this fetch to excuse their ignorance they tell the sick they saw the same Disease cured in some remarkable place and by some eminent persons 't is like they tell them and they have the means wherewithal it was effected and several times since have tried it c. I shall say by these and the former as Diogenes did when he saw some Rodians gorgeously apparel'd Tush said he that 's nothing but pride and seeing some poor Spartans stand by in their thread bare Caps said that 's but another sort of pride There are many other such Jugglers that thousands have been decoy'd by which are palliated with heavenly excuses to blind your eyes I shall speak but of one more which is the greatest and most dangerous of all and that is in procrastinating and retarding Cures They will undertake any thing though they know nothing as to a Cure yet in keeping them in hand so long by their delusions in promising this time and that time and tell them of Spring and Fall so long till the Patient is fallen if any such Hocus be asked either by the Patient or some other Friend what he thinks of his Disease or Ulcer he tells them there is no danger and that by such a time he may be well and when that fails then puts it to another time c. Now if any ingenious Patient begins to smell this Juggler and apply himself to some able and honest Artist to mend what he marr'd but whether it may be accomplished by Art or not This Quack-salver hath this fetch to excuse his deceitful ignorance if the Patient be recovered then saith this Impostor why I knew and told him so that there was no danger at all and that he would be well c. but if it cannot be restored by Art then saith this deceiver if he had continu'd with me I could have cured him I should not question it long before this time and there was no danger in it when he went from me c. This is the Devil's Hocust Pocust that he teaches such Artists to perswade people the nearest way to Heaven is by way of Hell that gross Impiety and grand Hypocrisie that such Juglers are guilty of they commonly lay on the shoulders of the Innocent I am sorry to speak it that I have seen too many such deluding souls in this Country I shall forbear to speak any more lest some should think I speak in prejudice I protest the contrary but wish them really such as they would have the World understand them to be I expect such as I have touched the guilty conscience of to snarle against me who will endeavour to corrupt your Judgment and perswade you into an ill opinion of this small Piece for whose good it was designed by the Author raising it may be curious and malitious Questions amongst you as the Rabbies and Doctors did amongst the Jews viz. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth and that he eats and drinks with the Publicans c. But I tell such 't is better be a Publican amongst the Pharisees than a Judas amongst the Apostles My last advice unto you is this whatsoever good this or any other may bring unto you return all your praises unto that God from whom you receive all your Mercies Foelix quicunque dolore Alterius discet posse carere suo R C. From my House at the Sign of the Globe and Chymical Furnaces in the Postern near Moorgate Febr. 4 1679 80. Chr. Pack Advertisement JAmes Pemberton Son in law to Mr. Rowland Pippin so famous for curing of all curable Ruptures or Broken Bellies liveth at the Sign of the three Naked Boys on Ludgate-Hill where he undertaketh the Cure
and continuing life wherefore they gave our Saviour Vinegar and Gaul Vinegar to excite the faculties of the stomach for the Gauls quicker passage into the vital spirits to prolong his life that they might the longer torment him under his pains before death But to stay no longer here it follows in the next place to treat about the great Heat and Cold which happens by Intervals as well in most other Fevers as in this and likewise of that inordinate Thirst Of Heat THough Heat and Fever are counted Synonyma's of one and the same name individual companions c. yet I say this Heat is not of the Quiddity or Essence of the Disease neither is it the cause of any Disease but is caused by the stirring up of that vital aiery spirit the directoress of life which spirit it is that makes the assault Archaeus Paracels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippoc. now this spirit being provoked by the Disease allarms all the Faculties Virtues and Powers both Vital and Natural which it doth unite unto it self and so furiously assault his mortal Enemy as many Coals of Fire raked together and blown up make a great heat so doth this heat proceed from this inflamed Spirit EXAMPLE A Thorn or Splinter being got into the Finger or Hand presently a heat pain and pulsation is felt which this spirit or Archaeus stirreth up for the expelling of that extraneous Body now this heat is not a product of the Thorn but casually from this spirit and occasionally only from the Thorn therefore heat is a latter accident and subsequent upon the essence of a Fever Cold. COld is the Diseases Colours or Banner under which it fights but it is not either the Disease nor Cause but a product and effect of the Disease Calorem frigus non esse morbus ut neque borum causas Hipp. putrefaction brings in coldness the Ferment of Putrefaction is sharp and cold as we have an ocular Demonstration in Gangrenes and Mortifications whilst it is but in fieri a Gangrene what a hard task it is to revive it by the hottest and most penetrating Medicines we can get nay and fain to scarrifie deeply too lest it should hinder their operation or if it fouls a bone no less than a Medicine that is hot in the highest degree can effect it and when a Sphacelus or Mortification is confirmed without natures Second comes in speedily to her rescue A Chyrurgion Chyrurg naturae minister and dismember it it would soon run her to the heart and did not putrefaction work by a cold a Body would be hotter after it was dead than it was before but we see the contrary when putrefaction grows stronger the Body grows colder I could evidence by many demonstrations more that the Heat is not of the essence neither the cause nor occasion of a Fever and likewise that Cold is meerly the effect of the Disease but I think this sufficient Thirst This great Thirst in Fevers doth not proceed from Heat and driness as in a true and natural Thirst for this will not be allayed by drinking as that will but this Thirst is deceitful and is produced by some excrementitious matter which adheres to that sensitive faculty and deludes the Organ Nec sitis est extincta prius quam vita bibâ—ndo as if a great dryness had suddenly come unto it as I have observed in a very malignant Fever which the Army in Flanders was infected with being always cold and very thirsty as likewise in the cold Fit of an Ague c. and so this is evident that heat in Fevers is not the cause of that inordinate Thirst besides I have extinguished this Thirst by those things which have been virtually hot Contraria contrariis curantur which if heat had been the cause would rather have exasperated Thus you have the matter manner and Concomitants of this Disease The Schools have observed some Heads from whence they have derived many Species of Fevers which I shall not insist on because they depend upon one and the same way and means of Cure without mention of an Hectick or intermitting Fever which differ only in the place they reside which I shall speak to in their proper places It is my chief design to do good unto my Countrymen who I know would rather have something to ease them and be rid of their Diseases than to hear curious and learned Discourses or quaint Distinctions and in pleasing them I care not whom I displease As I have put the knowledge of the cause into your Heads so I shall put a remedy into your Hands Cure You may clearly see what first is to be done and wherein the Cure doth consist which is in removing the cause or matter offending the neglect whereof hath suffered such an infinite Slaughter which gives me reason to think that either the cause is not known or a fit Remedy not yet found for unless there be a proportion between the Remedy and the Disease It will do but little good Diseases which come suddenly if they are rightly understood they are soon gone Extrema non permanent though they may be extreme sharp whilst they continue I know it is the practice here to look more unto the Effect than the Cause in correcting the Symptoms than the matter whereof they are produced Si ta tollantur quae conveniunt aeger melius se habet facile sert Sublata causa tolletur effectus which is a very pernicious course and contrary unto reason and all principles in Healing And that you may the better understand your error I shall recite your practice When first any one is taken with this or the like Distemper either Child or those of full Growth first you run and fetch Mint Water and a little Syrup to stay the Vomiting Secondly then Cinnamon Water and Syrup of Quinces or Myrtle Berries to stay the scouring Then it may be you give a Carmiâ—tive or Clyster to expel Wind and correct the Griping That done you give some cooling Julep to allay its Heat and to quench in Thirst And when it is cold you give a little Mithridate or Theriack of Andronica oâ— London Treacle and lay a Plaister of it to his Stomach And then lay a Spell against the Fever to the Wrists c. And so you keep doing till you can do no more just as a man who hath lost himself in a Wood he keeps going but whither he knows not You see all those things do but respect the effect here is nothing hath any regard at all unto the Cause And should things answer the intention for which they were given the party either Child or Man would presently die To hinder the evacuating of this morbifick matter is directly against the intention of nature Quo natura verget ad locum conferentem â—eo ducere oportet Hippoc. for the evacuation of this matter is to be looked at as the Crisis of Nature
presently abated and that night he rested pretty well for he had no sleep worth mention since he was ill the next morning I sent him four Grains more of the Powder which gave him three Vomits and two Stools about six in the Afternoon I went to visit him and found him about his Chamber saying he thought he was as well as ever his Stomach being returned and he very hungry Thus you see a Fever cured in eighteen hours or less which in all probability would have been at the least three or four weeks if recovered at all before nature by such enfeebled helpers or rather hinderers as are the common Medicines could have freed her self from the Disease I could instance many the like cases were it needful This Medicine hath besides its other gifts such a general tendency for the curing of all Fevers that upon the first knowledge of it in practice I called it my Species Febrifuga by which name I published it in my Catalogue of Medicines Printed in the year 1676 although I had then seen this little Book of the Authors I shall here subjoyn a short Discourse of intermitting Fevers or Agues in which Mr. Couch is silent except in the name yet I cannot doubt but he must be well acquainted with the power of this Medicine in curing them Of Agues GReat Diversity hath been and yet is among Authors concerning this Disease some holding one thing and some another concerning its Seat and Causes but I without reciting their differences or contending with any man's opinion either of which is no way profitable shall briefly endeavour to give you my own sentiment It needs no Definition being sufficiently known here neither Division seeing all the sorts thereof proceed from one cause and may be cured by the same Medicines Seat The Place or Seat of Agues is the Pancreas or Sweet-bread for all the parts of Man's Body being considered which only by intervals may transmit the cause of intermitting Fevers to the Heart none is found to which not only the Focus or source of those Fevers but also the causes of all their Symptoms may be ascribed besides the Pancreas or Sweet-bread Cause The Cause is an Obstruction of one or more of the Lateral Ducts or Branches of the Pancreas by reason of Phlegmatick Matter carried thither in too large a quantity and there detained the which being separated from the Blood together with the Pancreatick Juice by the Glandules of the Pancreas and sent to the main Duct or Pipe thereof causeth an Obstruction there and detaineth the juice of the Pancreas contrary to nature which ought continually to flow into the thin Gut called the Duodenum This Juice being thus stagnated quickly grows acrimonious or sharp and acquires a putrefactive Ferment whence at length it makes way through the obstructing Phlegm and is effused into the Duodenum where meeting with the Bile or Gall it stirs up a vicious and preternatural Ferment from whence comes the Ague Fit with all its Symptoms as in the beginning horrour chilness cold shaking c. then presently reachings yawnings and vomiting of bitter or four relish and afterwards burning heat the causes of Heat Cold Thirst c. you have in the foregoing Chapter of Fevers but if any desire further satisfaction concerning the reasons of the differences of Agues and the constant or various access of their Fits with the particular causes of Symptoms they may read it at large in Regnerus de Graaf in his Book intituled de succo Pancreatico published by me in the year 1676 to which I refer the Reader not having room here to be any larger Cure The Cure consists in opening the Obstructions changing the diseasie Ferment and expelling such matter as the Disease hath rendred incapable of being redintegrated and taken into the communion of life All which intentions are truly and radically performed by this Powder for an Ague being removed by the due use of this Medicine returns not again neither leaves any danger of its degeneration into another Disease both of which too frequently happen after the use of some Medicines which take off the Fit only by a kind of soporiferous quieting the present fury of the Archaeus If it be taken before the Ague hath exceeded three Fits one only Dose is usually sufficient to carry it away if fix or seven Fits two Doses or three at the most yea I have cured divers at twice or thrice giving it that have had it six or eight weeks but if it be a year old or more the continuance of its use but a reasonable time with the help of the Balsamick Pill will not fail to cure it I have also known it to cure Agues when it hath had no other sensible operation than Breaking of Wind. A person living in Greenwich who had a Tertian Ague and sometimes a Quotidian all the last Winter was cured this Spring by three Doses of the Powder which never had any sensible operation and two Doses of the Balsamick Pill so that in eight or ten days he was abroad about his Affairs and never had any Fit since although he was before so low brought that he could not sit up any longer than while his Bed was made notwithstanding the constant advice of an eminent Physician of that Town which he had used It is to be taken in a Spoonful of Drink or Posset drink about an hour before the Fit comes for two or three Fits together according as the Ague is in continuance If the Patient be weak or of a tender habit of Body let him take a Dose of the Balsamick Pill the same night after the Powder hath been given when he goes to Bed with a draught of warm Ale or a Glass of good generous Wine which Pill will mightily corroborate and refresh his Spirits and also tends much to the Cure if the Ague have been of a long continuance or be a Quartan or fourth Ague then after the Patient hath taken the Powder three times if the Fit still remain then let him take a full dose of the Balsamick Pill two or three hours before the coming of the next Fit and goe to Bed and dispose himself to sweat before the Fit comes the which if he do it s ten to one but the Fit comes no more but if there should be a failure of sweating timely enough then let him take the powder before one Fit and the Pill before the next till it be gone but not one Ague in twenty will need to be thus treated A general Direction in Fevers TO drink liberally of such Liquor as is most convenient is good I like not Beer of any Liquor in a Fever before the peccant matter wherein the Disease doth subsist be evacuated because it hath a nutriment from the Grain it is made withal which doth add unto the matter of the Disease whereby Thirst is exasperated as is commonly seen I rather advise to drink Wine and Water two parts Water and one Wine sharpened a
cure it for it will strongly repel from the place The Sciatica and Knee-Gout I never yet failed to cure with a water I make to embrocate or wash the part withal though I have had some that one Leg was a great deal shorter than the other so that they went with Crutches having an Atrophia or Consumption in that Leg and Thigh There is another Disease much like which is the Rhumatismus or Running Gout but this possesseth the musculous part as well as the Joynts and exulcerateth or breaketh out wherefore some have thought it to be that Disease they call †Scrophula the King 's Evil I have seen several that have laboured with it in this Country and without they have a Cure for it in the beginning it brings them into a Consumption yet I have cured one that had it twelve or fourteen years Place The Place that this Disease doth commonly possess are the Legs Thighs and Hip-bones sometimes the lower Region of the Belly and then it is very dangerous for it is of a very sharp and malign nature and fouls a Bone presently if not prevented Cause From some excrementitious matter that the Mesaraick Veins have attracted of a faetid savour not fit to be transferred with the Blood therefore the Liver dischargeth it into the emulgent Veins to be carried to the Reins and so to be evacuated through the Bladder but the Archeus or vital spirit of the Reins raised up with indignation against such a fordid matter passing through them forceth it to the Legs and Thighs as in an Anasarca and seating it self by its vitious quality corrupteth the place Cure If this Powder be given before it hath too much defiled the place either by fouling the Bone or becoming exulcerate it bringeth it away by the Root if not at once taking in twice or thrice be sure but if it hath had too firm a footing then it requires the assistance of some other things This Disease being so intimately joyned to the very Archeus it self hath its Inn in the most private Recesses or innermost Chambers of Life into which admittance is denyed to all common Remedies and allowed to none but the most powerful Arcanums which none but the Adeptists have known Therefore since I know not what internal Remedy to direct you that may be had in all places that hath power to obliterate the Character of this Enemy out of the spirit of life I shall be content to set down an outward application the which respecting the effect only doth frequently give ease to the pained part â„ž Common Oil of Roses two ounces Oil of Guaicum and Bricks of each one ounce mix them and put them into a clean Pipkin and set them over the fire into which cut in thin slices four ounces of Castile Soap stir it well till it all dissolve in the Oils then have in readiness half an ounce of Opium dissolved in spirit of Sal Armoniack which add to the other taking it presently from the fire and keep it stirring till it be cold Which use as an Ointment but if you would have it for a Plaister you may add so much Virgins Wax when it is hot as will give it a sufficient consistency The bathing or fomenting the pained part with hot Urine wherein Castile Soap is dissolved doth often give ease that Urine is best that is kept till it putrefieth and stinketh But the Arcanum and Pill doth certainly resolve and expel the occasional matter although I do not know them to be able to cure this Disease radically but some I have cured therewith having it in the beginning In the Month of December 1676 a Gentleman desired my assistance who was sorely afflicted with the Gout great pain and tumor in both Knees insomuch that he could not stir from his Bed to the fire side without Crutches for some weeks before during which time he had been under the dispensation of a Physician but in no part thereof ever found any comfort except in his promises but he being dismissed I first gave him a dose of the Arcanum or Powder and at night after a dose of the â—alsamick Pill after which he could go cross the Room without his Crutches I continued the use of the Pill five or six tiâ—â— and repeated the Arcanum once and he was freed both from the pain and tumour notwithstanding the extremity of the Weather being a severe Frost and Snow But about ten days after he having urgent business abroad the Weather then breaking being wet yet cold got a Relapse the Disease then returning with great pain and tumour in one foot by the repetition of the Arcanum once and the Pill three or four times was perfectly restored and hath so remained to this day without any other Remedy except two Doses of the Arcanum which he took the Spring following to prevent a return Pluritis or Plurisie THis Disease is accompanied with a Fever it derives its name from the place where it is seated which is the inner skin of the Ribs which we call Pleura The matter hath been generally received to be blood but it is vâ—â—â— doubtful unto me There are two reasons from whence some have concluded it is blood First By derivation in opening a Vein on the same side which hath immediately brought ease I have done it several times Secondly that intention not being timely performed then an Empyema or Imposthume ariseth through the blood there suppurated But on the contrary 1. If it be from the pecculancy of the Blood that hath made an Eruption in the Veins and extend the Pleura whether this Blood doth re-enter the Veins and is evacuated by Phlebotomy which is contrary to that principle What once nature hath cast forth never more is received into favour 2. If not out of the Veins how comes an Empyema or Imposthume which is never caused in the Veins 3. How comes this Sanies or bloody matter which is often seen in a Plurisie though not yet come to an Empyema 4. If it be blood how comes it to be cured by a Diaphoretick or Medicine causing Sweat which hath been often done To treat accurately upon this Disease would make a bigger Tract than I intend this In a word I have cured this Disease both ways There is an aiery Blas contained in the Blood which doth stir up and actuate it and makes it more fluid and so likewise there is incorporated with the Blood a Serum or watery matter to contemper its Ebullition and Inflammation But when there is a redundancy or too much of it or else when it may be too sharp or salt then this aiery spirit conveys it to the Pleura to be evacuated by transpiration thorow it whereby those Veins are so repleted with this Water that it extorts and dilates the Pleura which causeth the pain in the place and unless it be repelled by bleeding or dissipated by a sweat it maketh an eruption of the Veins and the Blood issuing forth with it
for my timerosity because I then thought I might have saved life by the Balsamick Pill and on the other hand was confident that she would be certainly lost by that usage she had which accordingly came to pass the next day at the fifth or sixth bloody Bout dying under the Lancet But I never failed to cure any Pleurisie with the Pill by repeating it if need be in ten or twelve hours I have sometimes wholly removed the pain in two hours time although they have been twice let blood before without ease although I do not deny but blood-letting may sometimes cure it without injury in such as are lusty and strong or those that have a Plethora of Blood But for a common easie Remedy there is none exceeds the infusion of Horse-dung in Ale for it is rich in Volatile Salt whereby it hath power to slay any acidity in the blood as also to transpire any other peccant matter Ictoritia or Yellow Jaundice THe Schools have told us That this Disease proceedeth from an obstruction of the Gaul-Bladder whereby Choler is diffused through the whole Body Helmont judgeth it to be a poysonous Ferment besides nature which so badly affecteth the Pylorus or lower Mouth of the Stomach that the digestive and distributive faculty is alienated and the Seat of this poison to be either in the Duodenum or Ileon And he proves it to be poisonous from the instance of one that was bit by a Serpent who presently turned yellow But my judgment doth not sute with either Helmont is very near it only I think it not to be of so poysonous a nature as he takes it to be This Distemper is often the sequel of some antecedent sickness and therefore is not any primary Disease but rather the effect or relique of some foregoing one If you look back into that Disease of Children there I tell you how the peccant matter comes to be tinctured with Choler some of this matter which was morbifical in some precedent Disease did adhere unto the Duodenum or Pylorus which tinctures the Chyle and so the body becomes yellow and a bitterness perceived in the mouth I say it is from the morbifick matter of some precedent Disease that this Balsome of the Gaul hath coloured and seasoned with its bitterness to prevent its putrefaction and adhering to the Pylorus or Duodenum stains and imbitters the Chyle which is transferred through the whole Body whereby the superficial parts are discoloured As to the biting of the Serpent this yellowness is not essential from the poyson of the Serpent but from this Balsom that is sent thither to antidote it and so the Body becomes yellow as I have instanced in a little Wormwood and Saffron CVRE I have often cured it with a little Turmerick roasted in an Apple with a little Saffron Likewise the middle Rind of a Barbary Tree steeped in a little White-Wine and a little Saffron Flowers of Marygold Rhubarb c. The yellowness of those means shew their ordination to be for the scouring of this Relique Vide Helmont for Signatures bewray the internal Crasis or temperature of a thing but the Crasis it self doth not discover the thing Things of this nature have happily cured several but if those should chance to fail my Powder doth it presently Calculus Vesicae or the Stone in the Bladder THe Stone in the Bladder that Monster in nature which well may be reckoned with those Diseases that are the shame of Physicians The cause and manner of its generation hath not rightly been understood by the Ancients and our Modern Physicians having made no latter search into it there is yet no Remedy found out for the Cure but the poor miserable creature is left to the tyranny of this Monster or delivered up unto the tortorous way of cutting which is such a Remedy as was never instituted by God or nature All men are liable to this Disease though some more than others but especially Children You may observe that in most Mens water there is this stonyfying matter though it may not be discerned when it is hot and new but after it hath stood some while exposed to the cold it is separated from the Urine and remains in the bottom of the Pot or cleaves unto its sides CAVSE Men of ripe years are not so inclinable unto it as Children because they have a better digestion and have not so much of that crude matter out of which it is made Old men are not incident unto it though their Digestion be weak because they want quantity of the matter but when the Ferment of the Bladder is weak in them they are liable to the Strangury which I shall speak a word unto presently But Children are most inclinable unto it because they have weak Digestions which breedeth abundance of Crudities the Mother of this Disease It is more from the weakness of the Ferment of the Bladder where it is produced than from the matter producing neither is this matter coagulated and hardened as Clay is by the heat of the Sun but condensed as Ice is by the frigidity of the Air And what inordinate heat is perceived it is only accidental as by that example before of a Thorn in the hand I could produce several instances to illustrate this truth but I shall omit them at present The intention curative will shew it according to that Maxim the truest Indication is from the benefit or hurt of things formerly used and that hot and warm things do mitigate and correct the pain and cold things do exasperate it PROGNOST If it hath been of a long growth and confirmed I am sorry to tell you I know not what will dissolve it Such a Remedy hath been if we will credit Paracelsus which I believe to be true and I hope God will discover it to some of us for the comfort of those miserable creatures which are affected with it and keep them from that torturing course of cutting which very often proves a Remedy worse than the Disease But when it is in doing and of no long continuance it may easily be prevented and reduced CVRE Now the Cure consists principally in those three things viz. Evacuation Alteration and Corroboration 1. In evacuating the matter contained 2. In altering the Ferment of the Bladder if it be vicious or 3. In corroborating of it if it be weak which is commonly the cause And you can hardly evacuate the matter before you corroborate the parts which is done by this course Victûs Ratio Let most of his Liquor that he drinks be Sack let most of his Meat be roasted well whereof let him eat but little at a time though he eat the oftener let his Bread be Bisket or the Crust of Bread well baked let him eat Salt with his Meat Salt Beef boiled is good for him if he loves it and doth well digest with him Let him avoid Milk Cheese let little Butter serve him and fruits an Apple he may eat if
Physicians Chyrurgions c. shall have them at my Catalogue price I have also some other Medicaments of singular use and efficacy viz. The Oyly Volatile Salt of Sylvius de le Boe. Whose vertue and use is at large described in his new Idea of Physick the first Part in English This was some time since sold in divers places in London I mean somewhat having the same name stamped upon it but nothing of this Famous Sylvian Medicine were to be found in it I had it from a Gentleman who was divers years a Student under Sylvius and was also Brother and Executor to De Graaf from whom Sylvius would hide nothing in whose Study he found it after De Graaf's Death Price 6 s. per ounce Elixir Hystericum This is an Excellent Remedy against thâ— Fits of the Mother the which I never yâ— knew it fail to help it is also very profitable in the Epilepsie Convulsion Vertigo c. It is to be taken three times a day the quantity of twelve fourteen or fifteen drops at a time in a Glass of Sack or Ale where Sack is not to be had as also in the time or rather upon the approach of any Fit it may be taken to thirty or forty drops for there is no danger of exceeding the Dose Price 5 s. per ounce Manna Mercurii This preparation of Mercury is so well divested of its Malignant Volatile Salt that it never causeth Vomiting or Salivation as the best of the Common Preparations especially if they be sometimes repeated whereby it is made so innocent â—hat it may be as safely introsumed as Manâ—a It is a great Specifick in the French â—ox Leprosie Scurvy and Itch against all â—enereal Nocturnal Pains as also Pocky â—lcers and Pustules it causeth the Scabs â—resently to fall off and disposeth the Ulâ—ers to heal I assure you I have known a â—ontumacious Pox cured by this Medicine â—one and which is more a Physician â—ce told me that he had cured one with three Doses of it only with the help of a little Bezoardicum Minerale which he used some time in stead of a Sudorifick Diet drink and which is a hundred times better The Dose is from six Grains to twenty made up into Pills with Rosin of Scammony or Extractum Rudii The best way is to begin with a small Dose at first and increase every time as occasion requires If it should work two or three days together as it may do where it meets with a Plethora of sordid Matter there is no danger but on the contrary the Cure will the sooner succeed Price 12 s. per ounce Aqua Venerea This Water or Liquor cures the most stubborn Venereal Ulcers or Sores in a few days time they being washed with it twice a day and rags three or four times double wetted in the same and lay'd upon them Price 5 s. per pint Moreover all Chymical Preparations iâ— use may be had at my House a Catalogâ— of which with the prizes any may haâ— gratis Or any Person that desires to haâ— any Curious Process wrought may be served faithfully therein by CHR. PACK From my House at the Sign of the Globe and Chymical Furnaces in the Postern near Moorgate 1680. FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange GEll's Remains being sundry Pious and Learned Notes and Observations on the New Testament opening and explaining it wherein Jesus Christ as yesterday to day and the same for ever is Illustrated by that Learned and Judicious man Dr. R. Gell late Rector of St. Mary Aldermary London in two Vollums Folio price 30 s. Christian Religion 's Appeal from the Groundless Prejudice of the Scepticks to the Bar of Common Reason Wherein is proved 1. That the Apostles did not delude the World 2. Nor were themselves deluded 3. Scripture Matters of Faith have the best Evidence 4. The Divinity of Scriptures is as Demonstrable as the Being of a Deity by John Smith Rector of St. Maries in Colchester Folio price 12 s. The Admired Piece of Physiognomy and Chyromancy Metoposcopy the Symmetrical Proportions and Signal Moles of the Body fully explained with their Natural Predictive Significations being delightful and profitable with the Subject of Dreams made plain whereunto is added the Art of Memory by Rich. Saunders Illustrated with Cuts and Figures Folio price bound 12 s. The New World of Words or a general English Dictionary containingâ— the Proper Significations and Etymologies of all Words derived from other Languages the Fourth Edition containing besides an Addition of several Thousand Words A brief View of the most Eminent Persons of the Ancients in each Art or Science Collected and Published by E. P. Folio The Longitude not found or an Answer to a Treatise written by Henry Bond Senior shewing a way to find the Longitude by the Magnetical inclinatous Needle wherein is proved that the Longitude is not nor cannot be found by the Magnetical inclinatous Needle by Peter Blackborrow Gent. Quarto price 2 s. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions very requisite for Statesmen Quarto The Jesuits Catechism according to St. Ignatius Loyola for the instructing and strengthening of all those which are weak in that Faith wherein the Impiety of their Principles Perniciousness of their Doctrines and Iniquity of their Practices are declared Quarto price 1 s. De succo Pancreatico or a Physical and Anatomical Treatise of the Nature and Office of the Pancreatick Juice shewing its Generation in the Body what Diseases arise by its Visitation from whence in particular by plain and familiar Examples is accuratly demonstrated the Cause and Cures of Agues or Intermitting Fevers hitherto so difficult and uncertain with sundry other things worthy of Note written by that Famous Physician D. Reg. de Graaf of Delph and Translated by Chr. Pack Med. Lond. Illustrated with divers Copper Plates Octavo price 2 s. 6 d. Judiculus Universalis or the Universe in Epitome wherein the Names of almost all the Works of Nature of all Arts and Sciences with their most necessary Terms are in English Latine and French methodically and distinctly digested being of singular use to Persons of all Ages who are desirous to attain to the Knowledge of the said Tongues Composed at first in French and Latin for the use of the Dolphin of France by the Learned T. Pomey and now enlarged with the Addition of the English Language and some other Supplements by A. Loveâ— M. A. Octavo English Military Discipline or the way and method of exercising Horse and Foot according to the Practice of this Present Time with a Treatisâ— of all sorts of Arms and Engines of War of Fire works Ensigns and other Military Instrument both Ancient and Modern Octavo The Count of Gabalis or Conferences about secret Sciences Bendered out of French into Englisâ— with an Advice to the Reader by A. L. M. 〈◊〉 Twelves price 1 s. A Mathematical Compendium or useful Practise in Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Geographâ— and Navigation Embattelling and Quartering 〈◊〉 Armies Fortification and Gunnery Gauging aâ— Dialling explaining the Logarithms with new 〈◊〉 dices Naparâ—s Rods or Bones making of Movâ—ments and application of Pendulums with tâ— Projection of the Sphere for an Universal Dial Collected out of the Notes and Papers of Sir Joâ— More by Nicholas Stephenson the Second Editioâ— with many Additions Twelve FINIS
Dr. Harvey our Countryman who tells us he opened an Imposthume in a Gentleman 's left side where he beheld the Dyastole and Systole of the heart and he touched it and found it insensible though it gives life unto every part 'T is an Argument he is of eminent and publick conducement useful to derive good to others who it least sensible of private Injuries offered himself As for Injuries I have had a double share and I have not only forgiven them but forgotten them I should gladly do them good that did me hurt There is a saving in Germany poor Luther made many a Rich man I could be contented to be poor so I might be instrumental to enrich Artists in the Knowledge of Healing whereby it might tend to the peoples greater good and God's greater Glory The Laws of Charity oblige a man that hath gone in a dangerous way to preadmonish him that intends the same Satis Eloquentiae Sapientiae parum abunde fabularum audivintus So that I stand bound to advise you that you consult not so much with that learned Theory of the Schools which is good for nothing but to dispute and contend Learned Dr. Charlton in the end of his Epistle to his Translation of Helmont upon the Magnetick Cure of Wounds I remember hath a saying to this effect There are many things faith be that have been disputed in the Schools and Colledges that have been received for truths among them and they have seemed to have Reason for their Foundation and Learning for their Defence or Walls but when they have come to be experienced they have fallen to the ground and nothing of truth hath appeared in them c. They can inform you nothing of truth neither in the knowledge of a Disease nor a good method in curing nor a laudable Medicine to effect a Cure Practice is the best part of Physick Observation the surest and the Theory of the Ancients the uncertainest and emptiest This we are taught by the example of many Eminent Physicians both Chymical and Gallenical * Paracelsus Helmont Crollius who could with their Arcanum's cure those Diseases that were termed opprobria Medicorum And we see likewise those * Riverius Forestus Johnstonus and many more Modern Physicians Renowned Physicians that were trained up in the Doctrine of the Schooles yet when they were to encounter any stubborn Disease they would not trust to their Weapons having often been foiled with them but ran to their Arcanum's as their Observations witness Not that I think all their Secrets were Chymical Preparations for I have abundance of reason to believe that there are singular specifical virtues in Sensitive and Vegitive Simples and of a far greater power than some of our large Compositions I am not so credulous as to believe all to be true that the Chymists boast of neither am I so diffident as to think all the Schools have treated of to be false * Comede dactylos projice foras duritiem Read them as our Modern Divines read the Schoolmen Let not any one think qui forsan Latinè aut Graecè intelligere potest that because he is a good Scholar he can presently be a good Physician if he doth Non quaerit aeger Medicum eloquentem sed Sanitatem Seneca be sure he will be mistaken for he will find the Art of healing to consist in another kind of Learning Novi nuper quendam saith Dr. Primrose qui cum se Medicum profiteretur quamvis levissimè eâ disciplinâ tinctus foret talis tamen habitus est ob quandam Latinae Linguae cognitionem but there is a great difference betwixt such men and sound Physicians Garrulosum Medicum alterum morbum aegro esse 't is one thing to give a Patient a long and learned discourse of his Disease but it 's another thing to give him a present remedy I have but only hinted at Diseases because I intended this but for an Enchyridion yet you may perceive by it that we have been blinded in the true knowledge of the Causes Places and Cures of Diseases I must confess I owe much of it unto * Vir magno judicio praestante doctrina clarissimus Helmont the Standard-bearer of Physick yet I speak not his Judgment but mine own having enforced a belief from experience I have not written any thing in this Tract but what I am perswaded of the truth of though it may in most places seem to some at the first view to be Paradoxes yet upon a more accurate inspection i◠may become received Truths And if this crude labour of mine finds acceptance with young Practitioners I shal◠spend some time to enlarge upon it to their satisfaction As for my Arcanums you 'l all conclude it is not fit to put them to publick view if any of you should desire the knowledge of them malè docuit And to cast them at the feet of all Pretenders to Physick they may be abused by their ignorance i◠the preparing dose time or manner c. for one may have as good Medicine◠for a Disease as can be by the Art of ma◠invented Morborum remedia si ab indoctis usurpentur venena si vero à doctis exercitatis deorum auxilia sunt yet if he know◠not the time when no◠the form in what manner nor the dose how much he may instead of curing kill the Patient Besides there are some idle and careless Artists who may not deserve it that never inquire into Diseases nor yet Medicine but expect every thing to be popt into their mouths Dii laboribus omnia vendunt the Gods sold all by sweats night unto night sheweth knowledge c. the gift of healing is a great gift which comes from above from which you are to fetch the knowledge of Medicine And I doubt whether it be safe to divulge Secrets we have no such precedent from any Author we see Riverius in all the four Centuries of his observations there was hardly a Disease but he cured with his Febrifugium and Calomanenas and who knows what they were I have a very strong faith that my Powder which I call my Arcanum Universale was his Febrifugium for the dose and operation is alike and if mine were not the same I am confident it is not inferiour to it nor any extant they bid us seek and we may find for they have told us nothing but a Story how Actaeon was Metamorphos'd for presenting Diana naked to the People c. All their Secrets died with them or at least communicated to such Friends as kept them from a publick view then let us do as they did and we may attain unto that they had we must not content our selves in the knowledge of a little Mithridate or Diascordium or to give a Purge or a Clyster but let every day repent us of yesterdays Ignorance Let us drive to perfection * Ars longa vita brevis
of all curable Ruptures and maketh all sorts of Trusses fit for the accommodation of any His Wife treateth with Women they give Advice for nothing A TABLE of the several Diseases and Distempers treated of amongst other things in the ensuing TRACT FEvers in general Malignant Fevers in Children Directions Heat in Fevers Cold in Fevers Thirst in Fevers Agues Dropsies Falling-Sickness Griping of the Guts Surfeits Fluxes Stone or Gravel in the Reins or Kidneys Windy-Melancholy Wind in the Small Guts Collick Wind-Dropsie Gouts Pleurisie Yellow Jaundice Stone in the Bladder Consumption without a Cough A Consumption with a Cough The Rickets Apoplexy Vertigo Palsie Convulsion Cramp Worms The breaking of a Vein Coughs Catarrhs Rheums shortness of Breath Strangury Fits of the Mother Praxis Catholica OR THE COUNTRY-MAN'S Universal REMEDY IT was the custom amongst the ancient Greeks that if a sure Cure was found for any Disease the party was bound to write it on a Table and hang it up in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus that every one labouring with that Disease might afterwards repair thither and receive their Remedy Soon after did they digest the Art of Healing into a fatal Method as a Directory to the true knowledge of Curing whereby a further enquiry into Medicines came to be neglected and so this false Doctrine of the Greeks spread it self amongst the Arabians Romans and then amongst the Christians and is still in use amongst us to this day to blind us from the knowledge of true and perfect Remedies for curing our Diseases whereby we see many yearly swept away from us through some accustomed Diseases as well as new ones and especially that amongst Children of a Griping Vomiting and Scouring which gives me great cause to mistrust that either the true cause of this is not understood as well as the rest or a fit Remedy not yet found out Nor is it Children alone that this Fever the Prince of Diseases doth appear unto in those bloody manners but to some of full Growth and Strength It doth assault us in various Shapes and Habits This Disease is a grand Enemy to man for there is hardly a Distemper but is accompanied with a Fever either going before or following after it Wherefore I shall a little anatomize it unto you and shew you its Rise the place where it commonly abides and what it feeds on and so describe it as you may know it at a distance and not only this but most of our Serpentine Enemies I shall observe that method in treating of them as I do in curing of them which is to have respect unto that first which doth most press amonst which I think that peracute Disease of Children is most urgent so my method leads me to begin with a child whom I shall trace unto his old age where I shall leave him to that great Physician whose Servant I am not worthy to be First it will be necessary that I give a preparative to your understanding in unfolding the right use of two or three principal parts whose proper uses have not yet been discovered before you enter upon the main Body viz. The Spleen Liver and Gaul From these three comes Life and Death Health and Diseases as they are disposed either well or ill These are the Pillars that do support the Fabrick of the Microcosm The two first do principally respect the preservation of Health the last is of a more Balsamical Nature which doth as well prevent Diseases as restore health when it is wanting Understand by a Ferment A Specifical Virtue or Power which every part is endued withal that whatsoever is transferred through them is transmuted into their fermental quality Omnis facultas quando praevalet ea est natura ut mutet sibique simile faciat id quod ad ipsam est victum as the Aliment in digesting in the Stomach is sow'r then when the Chyle passeth through the Guts Duodenum and Ileon it is saltish and being more elaborated in the Meseraick and Milky Veins becometh more salt which is a preparation for Sanguification which is perfected in the Liver and so assimilated by every part The whole Body is seasoned and tinctured with the Ferments of those three principal parts viz. sharp from the Spleen Whitmore de Febre anomala Salt from the Liver and bitter from the Gaul To begin with the first The Spleen This part hath been hardly censured by many to be the receptacle of the Faeces of the Blood the mother of black Choler or Melancholy the Sink and Fountain of many stubborn and rebellious Diseases and to be a Bowel of no great use only to elaborate this more feculent Blood and give a small nourishment to some of the natural parts likewise the efficient cause of Madness and Dotage c. Some have not stuck to say that if ever nature made any thing to hurt her self it was this and if she had found out some other way for discharging of this Excrement as she hath done the rest she had eased her self of abundance of trouble c. but I rather think the contrary there is not any part within us nature hath been so liberal unto as to this nor hath bestowed such special favour on Vide Dr. Highmore de affectione Hypochon fol. 132. it is enriched with ten times at least as many Arteries as any other part There is life peculiarly due unto it more than sensitive for it is extant long before quickening Helmont de Author duum virut It hath a double Ferment there is a Vital from the Arteries and the digestive faculty of the Stomach which is made by an acid juice sent from it and for that great concernment which is committed unto its charge it is termed the President of the Stomach I cannot think that any excrementitious matter can reside where it hath so worthy a place for its Emunctory as the Stomach the Arteries fetch from the Stomach of their purest Chyle and sanguifie it for their pleasure and it may be by their too liberal attraction may debilitate their Ferment that so they may require an assistance from the main Body whereby the Stomach may be neglected with a due quantity of this juice whence lack of appetite and crudities do arise and so this Ferment may be exorbitant in the Spleen from whence comes bloody and black spitting into the stomach which some have judged black Choler which is nothing but an expurging and renewing of nourishable blood from the Spleen it self the Humour Melancholy and black Choler was never yet found in nature nor indeed is there any such thing extant wherefore whatsoever distemper may arise from the Spleen it is from a vitiated or debilitated Ferment not from a peccant matter which doth offend only in quality not in quantity Again if the distemper of the Spleen be the cause of Madness then in its right order there is a sound and judicious understanding due to the same place according to
and whosoever shall recover all this matter is to be brought out and whoever goes about to stop it in the beginning works against nature What a vain thing therefore is it to think to take away the Gripings before the matter be gone that causes it and to corroborate the stomach or to refresh its Spirits so long as the Enemy beareth sway To give the Child Mithridate or lay a plaister of it to the stomach which is worse becomes another Disease or any thing else that is nauseous whilst Nature the Disease are struggling and to give cooling things to correct the hear is to weaken nature and strengthen the Disease Obj. But you will tell me many have recovered by the use of those means Answ And many more had been had they never been used with submission to providence but quoad homines after the manner of men I admire that any should recover that ever was affected with this Disease for they are ever giving and all to hurt it seeing the best Friends become the worst Enemies which makes good that old Saying When God cuts off man's thread of life His dearest Friends do bring the knife But many things are wrought by accident as we have known many have been recovered from a Fever by drinking cold water Obj. From whence some have asserted that this Heat is of the Essence of the Disease Answ But this Cure is not wrought by the Water as it is cold and moist for Sack or strong Beer would have performed it and a great deal better but it is from the great quantity of it which doth so replete the stomach that some of the peccant matter which doth adhere unto the Fibres thereof the Water hath loosened and so it s brought away with it I suppose whosoever hath been cured by Water it hath been when the Disease hath been on him some considerable time and not in the beginning I have prescribed Water several times in the end of a Fever to this intent and I ever found it very successful but I suppose the parties that have taken it upon their own sensual inclination it was hap-hazard with them for to take Water in the beginning of a Fever either kills them or strikes them into an Ague or some other long Sickness To drink it in a contagious pestilential Fever or any Fever that tends much to putrefaction hastens death I do not speak this as not approving of the use of Water but I declare the contrary for I have found as strange events by drinking Water as ever I saw by any Physick I have known a man cured very soon of an Atrophia or Consumption only by the drinking of pure Rock Watar and in many other cases have I used it but great consideration is to be had in the giving of it But to return by applying a nauseous or foetid Medicine to the Stomach whilst the morbifick matter resides there nature thinking she is assaulted by another Distemper unites all her strength and force and desperately attempts both her Enemies with this resolution to extirpate them or sink her self whereby she may by exasperating of her new Enemy cast forth the old and then this amongst the ignorant is cryed up for a laudable Medicine when as such things are done by chance for where one hath recovered by this means twenty have died Thus you see what a blind course hath been taken for the curing this or any other Disease The meer pity that I bear to poor Infants hath extorted this from me to whom I have often been sent for to see them die when their spirits have been so far spent that I have not dared to give them any thing to take off the Disease to the great grief of my spirit for without the Disease be taken away to small purpose do we use Cordial Means to refresh their Spirits DIRECTIONS I shall now direct you to a better way viz. 1. When you are assured this Disease is on them which is known first by a scouring away of a slimy matter then a discolouring of the Excremenrs as yellow green c. and a griping in the Belly being very hot and cold by Intervals press not any manner of Meat upon them Impura corporae quo plus nutrieris eo majus laeseris as you tender their lives this very thing hath destroyed thousands For to give Meat whilst the Disease is on them when the stomach is not fit to receive it nor hath strength to digest it without it be speedily vomited up again it becomes a Recruit or supply to the Disease 2. Neither administer nor apply any thing external or internal that is any way nauseous or ungrateful to the stomach for nature hates and abhors such things for though it be laid upon the stomach yet the taste of it is in the stomach as though it were contained there especially in young and tender Skins for to have a thing that is nauseous to the stomach and ungrateful to the smell constantly to lie on would be troublesome to one that is in health much more to him that is sick Give not the Child any Milk and if it suck wean it for Milk is the first matter and foundation this Disease is raised on and it bears still an affinity with it and is presently converted into its poisonous nature and likewise let it forbear Water and Beer either cold or warm keep the sick party either Child or otherwise in a breathing sweat which is done by drinking warm Posset-drink the Milk being turn'd with White Wine or Sack or Beer sharpened with Vinegar let the party drink of it as warm as he can take it this is far better than any Cordial or Julip whatsoever in a putrid Disease between whiles the Child may drink a good draught of Sack raw and without Sugar is best and if it tends to coldness either in Face Nose Hands or Feet you may safely give it a liberal draught of Brandy with a little white Sugar though the Child be not two months old and likewise make a Toast of old stale Bread or a piece of Rose-Cake and soak it in warm Brandy wherein a little white Sugar hath been dissolved and put it to the Child's Stomach and let it lie on for twenty four hours and if the coldness is not removed you may reiterate it I have a specifick Water for that end which doth much revive and cherrish nature What though it exasperateth and maketh more hot That is well recompensed for it mightily strengthens and refresheth nature Observe that a hot and feverish temper is the most laudable and best temper the Child can be in whilst the Disease remains When the morbifick matter is gone you may give a little salt of Pearls Corral Amber or Wormwood which are very good in a Cordial Electuary to kill that putrefactive Ferment in the place where the Disease lay that may lie behind lurking which is the cause of most Relapses and long and tedious Sicknesses and
little with the Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur if it be per campanam which is drawn from a Bell Still it is the better which is a singular Medicine to allay and correct the inordinate Thirst and Heat in Fevers Medera Fial French or Sherry Wines you may use Malaga or any Sweet Wine is not so good neither Syrups or any Sugared or Honeyed Meat or Drink And when they begin to recover 〈◊〉 plainest Broths and Gruels are the best till then a little is too much and if you did use Salt and Vinegar instead of Spices and Sugar the sick would like it the better and it would be better for them a few Prunes and Currants if the sick like them may be used But some may say How shall we do that live far up the Country where we have no Wines nor can get neither of those Spirits the best that I can advise you to is Milk boiled and turned with some Vinegar or Verjuice the Curd being taken away whereof he may drink freely but he is to take it alway hot and the hotter the better This course is to be taken after the cause is removed by my powder or something else but I know not what otherwise this or any other is like to do but little good Bleeding Purging Clysters Cordials Juleps c. are but Trifles in curing a Fever they do at best but correct the Symptoms or Effects I will do more good with one dose of my Powder and one of my Pills than they with all those in a Month. If the Fever be continual and come by a Surfeit or otherwise so that the Patient feel a Load or Weight at his Stomach or hath a propensity to vomit the first thing to be done is to give a Vomit whereby the Stomach and first passages may be freed of the grossest of the Diseasie Matter wherein the Fever sits or hath taken up its Inn to which purpose you may give half an ounce of the Infusion of Crocus Metallorum or six Drams or a whole Ounce according to the age and strength of the Patient in a small Draught of warm Posset-drink but if you know any better Antimonial Preparation then give it That being done ℞ Tartar Vitriolat six Grains Volatile Salt of Amber and Harts-horn each seven or eight Grains mix them and give the mixture twice a day in a little thin Broth or Water Gruel This is abstersive and Diuretick and will cleanse the Stomach and Intestines of the remaining Sordes and expel them by Urine For the Feverish Thirst give the dulcified Spirit of Nitre or of Salt in Posset drink and all the Liquids they take from five or six to ten or twelve drops at a time Keep the Patient in a small breathing Sweat either with the Posset-drink before-mentioned by Mr. Couch or with Treacle-water and Powder or rather the Tincture of Virginia Snake-root or which is most excellent if you can get it the Aqua Prophylactica of Sylvius de le Boe of which Take three Ounces Water of Carduus and Borrage each one Ounce Syrrup of Citron Peels an ounce and an half mix them and take it often by a spoonful or two at a time But instead of this if the Fever be malignant give Bezoardicum minerale to eight or ten Grains every third or fourth hour in a spoonful or two of good Canary But because the Aqua Prophylactica mentioned is rarely to be had at any shop I will here describe the making thereof for the sakes of those who are willing to make it ℞ Roots of Angelica Zedoary of each an ounce Butterbur two ounces the leaves of Rue four ounces of Balm Scabious and Marygold Flowers each two ounces unripe Walnuts cut two pounds fresh Citrons cut one pound Let them be all beaten together and pour upon them six quarts of the best distilled Wine-Vinegar let them stand in digestion all night and then distil them by a very easie fire without burning till they be dry and keep the distilled liquor for use It is very profitable in all Fevers especially in those which are malignant and the Plague In the declining of the Fever if sleep be wanting this following mixture will much avail both to cause rest and refresh the Spirits ℞ of Treacle water an ounce the thin Syrup of Corn Poppies an ounce or an ounce and a half Laudanum Londinens or rather that of Paracelsus two grains mix them and let the Patient drink it at the hour of Sleep But give nothing wherein there is Opium or Poppies in the beginning of a Fever because they tie up the Archaeus of the Stomach and first passages thereby hindering him from separating and expelling the occasional cause of the Disease For Agues or intermitting Fevers whether they be Quotidians Tertians or Quartans proceed as followeth ℞ Of Salt of Amber twenty grains Tartarum Vitriolatum six grains Diagridium seven eight nine or ten grains according to the strength of the Patient mix them into a Powder and give it in a little Posset-drink or thin Broth four or five hours before the time of the Fit Repeat it two or three times if need be but if the Ague be not then gone give the following mixture about an hour or an hour and an half before the Fit comes the Patient being in Bed and disposing himself to sweat ℞ of Carduus Water two ounces Treacle Water two drams Salt of Wormwood half a dram Spirit of Salt Armoniac ten grains Syrup of Corn Poppies half on ounce mix This if the Patient sweat well with it frequently removes the Ague This following also hath cured many without any other Medicine ℞ of the Salt of Wormwood and Carduus each fifteen grains Tartar Vitriolat six grains Sugar of Pearls half a dram powder and mix them and give it half an hour or an hour before the Fits access The Juice of Featherfew being drank about half an ounce in a glass of Wormwood Wine is profitable against the Quartan or fourth Ague These Remedies I have used with good success but never found any thing so certain and effectual in Fevers as my Species Febrifuga and Pillula Balsamica A Dropsie There are three sorts of Dropsies viz. Anasarca Ascites and Timpanites the two first are most from Water The last Timpany is more from Wind. Anasarca is when the extreme parts swell but when the Belly then it is Ascites The Cause I do not believe as hath generally been received that it proceeds from a Distemper of the Liver and that to be the principal part affected but I have more reason to think it to proceed from an obstruction or impediment in one of the Kidneys for commonly they that are troubled with Gravel and Stone in the Kidneys are Hydropical and seldom any that have been affected with either Anasarca or Ascites but they have observed a Dolor in their Reins to precede it and so that Water which should be transferred through the Kidneys to be evacuated by the Bladder is forced out
believe there is not another such Medicine found for it in any place that ever I was in this is a Disease that old age is liable unto and for old persons that have had it long 't is folly for them to think to receive a perfect Cure from it or from any thing else but I know not any thing will ease them more than this There is another Disease that follows old age which I shall likewise hint at and so end viz. Stranguria or the Strangury THe Strangury is from the defect and weakness of nature in the second Digestion CVRE Let him forbear all sharp meats and drinks and observe the same course I have directed for the Stone in which he will find great comfort For any Venereal Distemper or French Disease there is not a better Medicine that ever was prepared for it than this Arcanum for it cures any of what nature soever that is curable without Salivation or Fluxing There are some Distempers belonging to the Female Sex that are not here necessary to express for which this Arcanum is singular Hystericus or Fits of the Mother IN Hysterical Fits or Fits of the Mother there hath been a great mistake as to the true cause a well as of the rest With one dose of my Arcanum universale and one of my Balsamical Pills I have cured some in twenty four hours The Seeds of White Nettles bruised and drank in White Wine are a very good remedy against these Fits So is also the Tincture of Castor Spirit of Sal Armoniack and Elixir Proprietatis being given in Rhenish Wine But I have a Medicine which I call Elixir Hystericum with Which I never yet failed to cure those Fits I have also that Remedy mentioned by Mr. Couch for the speedy delivering Women with Child And likewise in barrenness in all the Authors that ever I read I never met but with one that ever came near the Bush and it is very unlike that any of those should start the Hare I am confident there are many that are married who are childless that should they be divorced the Husband would beget Children by another Woman and his Wife conceive by another man Now if one should demand the reason why could they not procreate when they were together I doubt it would puzzle an old Physician to resolve it It may be he might tell them of Antipathies in their Natures as the Stomach doth abhor some kind of Meats c. but I suppose those Meats had first injured the Stomach It may be if the Mother love not Cheese she may cry pah unto it to her little Daughter and thereby the Child may loath it as much as the Mother But I never knew a Pica in the Mother to beget a Crapula in the Daughter though she may labour cum furore matricis But no more of this This Discourse deserves more to be whispered in a private Room than to be treated of here And no marvel that there are so many incurable Diseases in regard their true causes were never hitherto found out Thus you may perceive what a Lethargy and blind ignorance hath benighted Medicine obscured the Inquiry into the right Remedies for Diseases by a sad Theory and miserable method of the Heathens which is still in force amongst Christians as if Medicine was made only for them and the true knowledge God should discover unto them and Christians were to receive it from them And well may healing fail us who make no further inquiry after it than the tradition of such Teachers I have some other Arcanums or Secrets for some Distempers of the Female Sex especially for Women in Travel which commonly delivers them in a very short time I have known several within half an hour after the taking of it and without the tenth part of that pain which they would have without it There are some weak or aged persons that digest very badly whereby they are troubled with crudities lack of appetite pains in the Head c. my Arcanum universale may be a little too quick for them wherefore I make up a Pill which I call my Stomach Pill There is a Dispensatory called by that name which most Apothecaries sell but alas one Pill of mine is worth twenty of them for goodness and whosoever shall try them shall say so I give but one at a time and that is at night going to Bed though you have supped freely before in the morning it gives two or three Stools without the least griping or pain at all it doth not only digest those Crudities and take away the pain of the Head but it doth likewise strengthen both the Head and the Stomach I am confident whosoever shall once try them will never take any other Pills As I have recommended two principal Medicines for the curing of your Diseases which proceed from within so I shall commend another unto you for the healing the Wounds and Hurts from without I have seen Cuts or Hurts or Bruises that have been very inconsiderable in the beginning which afterwards for want of some proper Remedies became matter of great moment and danger Therefore to prevent the like I will accommodate you with such a Remedy as the world doth not yield a better It is of far more worth than all the Balsoms Oyls Oyntments and Plaisters that ever was yet made for that intent There hath been a great talk about the weapon-Salve and Sympathetical Powder they are not worthy to be her Chamber-maids Any wound if it can but reach the botâ—om of it it cures at the first dressing and within half an hour after you have â—ppli'd it it takes away the pain and â—welling and draws out any Thorn or â—plinter got into it let it lie on till it be â—eady to come off of it self I verily believe it will cure an ampuâ—tion that is a Leg or Arm cut off 〈◊〉 one dressing you need not fear though â—e Bone appear there shall not be any exfoliation nor discolouration which I have well experienced several times I want words to praise it to its merit only this I shall tell you that whosoever shall use it will bless God for it and admire it with me As for an Ulcer it is not proper because a Wound and an Ulcer are of different Natures and this is specifical to a wound or Laceration or Rending or tearing the flesh and skin But whosoever shall desire it for an Ulcer I shall but change an Ingredient or two and make it as effectual in any curable Ulcer as in a Wound but then you must not expect to have so speedy a cure aâ— in a wound I have recommended three or four Arcanums or secret Medicines unto you 〈◊〉 protest unto you I would rather lose thâ— knowledge of all things in the dispensatory than the worst of those And as they are the best Medicines they are the cheapest My Arcanum universale or Powder tâ— dose or quantity taken at a time is froâ— half a grain
in a thousand that you will use it twice without it be a deep thrust or shot in the Thigh where it may not reach the bottom but for any ordinary hurt though it be never so broad or torn it cures it at the first dressing and takes away all pain and swelling in half an hour and immediately stops the bleeding Remember the sooner you apply it the better But if you are at Sea where the white of an Egg is not to be had then take the powder and cast it upon the hurt or wound and take a fine linnen cloth or ragg dip it in salt water and then wring out the water well and lay the cloth several times double upon the place hurt and bind it on gently as before and it will prove as effectual as the other way If any shall desire it for an Ulcer I shall so make it that it shall cure any cureable Ulcer in a very short time This is to be kept in some dry place or carried about one for against moist and rainy weather it will be a little moist wherefore keep it near the fire and if it should be moist at any time dry it at the fire and it will be as good as at the first It will not decay you may keep all the Powder twenty years and be as good as at first The Stomachical Pills you may keep seven years I am fully perswaded and I have reason to think that there is not any Disease either in the West or East-Indies nor any where in the World but this Powder will take off I should not question to cure the Plague with my Arcanum Vniversale and my Aurum Vitae If any Practitioner shall desire any of those Arcanums I shall accommodate him with them upon reasonable terms I will engage that any Chyrurgion that hath once found the worth of them he would rather have one Dragme than a Chest of ten pounds worth of the laudablest Cathartical Medicines he can chuse My Pillula Balsamica or Balsamick Pill is to settle the Body and to restore it into a good temper for a House that hath been fired though the fire be out yet there may be a great heat and smoke which I give the next Night after my Powder If you take the Powder in the Morning take the Pill at Night if there be occasion that is if he find his Body much disordered or out of temper or feels any pain then it is good to take one of those Pills otherwise not If you please you may drink after it In the Summer give after it a Glass of White Wine Cider or Ale in the Winter a draught of warm Posset-Drink or warm Ale or a Glass of Sack My Aurum Vitae is when the Malignity of the Disease hath tainted the Spirits and that is known by this though the Cause be gone and the Effect removed yet the Party doth not become well but continues in a lingring condition then give him a Dose of this in the Morning in his Bed let him drink it in a glass of Sack or warm Posset-Drink and it will drive it out by sweating and let him continue sweating for three or four hours never fear it it will not weaken but make stronger My Pill Stomachica or Stomack Pill is to be taken at Night as any other Pill without taking any thing after it Thus I have directed you as plain as I could And a good success shall be ever prayed for unto that God that alone can give it by Thy Friend R. C. POSTSCRIPT THe Dose of the Balsamick Pill for one of full years is twelve fourteen or fifteen grains yea sometimes twenty in robust bodies and extream pains a Child new born may take a grain of it dissolved in breast milk or other A Child of my own being born with the gripes began to take it the next day it was likely to die all the Moneth and very weakly for the first quarter so that if the Pill were omitted but one Night it were even at deaths door so that the use thereof was continued with happy success till it was a year and a quarter old for the Teeth sake at which time it was weaned from the Breast and Pill both together without the least inconveniency or alteration when it left it and blessed be God of a poor weakly Child became lusty strong and forward as any Child of its Age whatsoever and so remains being now in its third year of Age. The Powder for Old Sores or Ulcers mentioned by Mr. Couch I also prepare and sell by the name of Species Phagadenica at the same price with that for wounds and blood-stopping and is to be used thus Take a full pint or better of fair water set it over the fire in an Earthen Pipkin till it be scalding hot then put in an ounce of this Powder by degrees stirring it with a wooden Spatula then cover the pipkin and let it stand half a quarter of an hour over the fire without boyling then take it off and let it stand till the water be clear the which keep in a Glass or Earthen bottle when you use it to any Old Ulcer or Fistula put a little into an Earthen Sawcer warm it as hot as it may be endured then wash the Sore by dipping a fine rag in it and at length double the rag three or four times and let it be well wet with the warm Liquor and apply it to the Sore if the Ulcer be hollow or fistulous so that you cannot come at it to wash it then inject the Liquor warm with a Syringe let it be dressed twice a day and I dare assure you that there is no curable Ulcer whatsoever that this will not cure if you desire to have the water yet stronger in stead of fair water infuse the Powder in Lime-water This water is not only a Cure for Old Sores but for Ring-worms Tetters Manginess Itch Scabs and such like Curaneous Distempers they being washed therewith and linnen clothes wet therein laid upon the place The way of using the Powder or Balsom for Wounds and Blood-stopping is sufficiently taught by Mr. Couch that I call by the name of Species Vidneraria The Dose of the Aurum Vitae for one of full years is ten or twelve grains and sometimes more it may be taken in a little Sack Ale or Posset drink or made into a Rolus with a little Conserve of Roses or any Cordial Syrup it may as well be taken at Night going to Bed as in the Morning provided the Patient hath eat but a light Supper and that two or three hours before This is a powerful Remedy in any Malignant Fever Small-Pox or Measels Surfeit Scurvy French-Pox c. It mightily purifies the Blood and refresheth the Spirits All those Medicines mentioned in this Book may be had at my House except the Water mentioned for Embrocation in the Gout which I know not at the same prices that Mr. Couch sold them but