Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	disease_n	nature_n	symptom_n	2,067	5	11.8165	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45747	Chymical, medicinal, and chyrurgical addresses made to Samuel Hartlib, Esquire. Viz. 1. Whether the vrim & thummim were given in the mount, or perfected by art. ... 9. The new postilions, pretended prophetical prognostication, of what shall happen to physitians, chyrurgeons, apothecaries, alchymists, and miners.	Hartlib, Samuel, d. 1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing H978; ESTC R209495	57,837	197

unto gold or silver dissolved in aqua fortis or aqua regis or spirit of salt made by any way whatsoever or any dissolution whatsoever which is not done cum congelatione spiritus according to the manner used in the great work 3. Let all men take heed of books that teach any operations in vegetable or animals be they never so gloriously penned for it is as possible for a bird to live in the water or for a fish to live in the air as for any thing that is not radically mettallical to live in the lead upon the test And lastly let all men beware of his own conceit of wisdom for that hath undone many a man in this Art Therefore let every one take notice that though it be a thousand to one odds that any seeker shal not obtain his desire that is because many men being unfit and not quallified sufficiently to take in hand this great business let these remember what Solomon the wisest of men saith into a wicked heart wisdom shall not enter and he saith not great wisdom nor much wisdom but ordinary wisdom then how can any wicked or foolish man hope to find out this great secret which being the most sublime knowledge that God hath given to men requireth the greatest wisdome to accomplish it that God hath bestowed upon men Therefore if any man attempteth this Art which hath not attained to such a perfection in the knowledge of nature especially in minerals that by his own speculation and practice without the help of books he can write a rational discourse of either animals vegetables or minerals in such a solid way that no man can cōtradict it without shame upon fair tryal the questions being rightly stated then his labour and charge is the cause why so many men fall and undo themselves in this Art for if the searcher be quallified sufficiently then it is ten to one odds that he speedeth But to draw to an end What should I say more Oh if any man either in England or beyond the Seas shall trouble himself to write to me he shall be sure to have an answer if he come to me he shall be sure to lose his labour if he think to win me by rewards though never so great he shall be sure to get nothing but a Jeer for I did not write this book with an intent to teach the Art absolutely but onely to preserve men from undoing themselves foolishly which if it be well considered of will be found to be large charity for but that I know where I am to wit in a free State where the subjects know so well their own Liberties and Priviledges that they will never suffer any Tyrannical Government to prevail in this Nation I should have been sure to have lost my liberty by this single action But now I have been a Petitioner to the High and Honourable Court of Parliament that I may demonstrate my ability to do the the Common-wealth of England service which service consisteth in three things principally to wit to shew how the husbandry of this Land may be so improved that it may maintain double the number of people which now it doth and in much more plenty also to shew how the Art of Physick may be improved and lastly to shew the Art of the transmutation of Mettals if I may have a Laboratory like to that in the City of Venice where they are sure of secrecy by reason that no man is suffered to enter in unless he can be contented to remain there being surely provided for till he be brought forth to go to the Church to be buried Geber an Arabian Prince and a famous Philosopher being overjoyed when he had found out the Philosophers Stone breathed out these words in the end of his book Benedictus sit Deus sublimis gloriosus omnipotens benedictum sit ejus nomen in secula seculorum But I having not onely found out the Philosophers stone but also a sure and infallible way to make England and so the world happy by it which is ten thousand times better than it will exalt the praises of God in the superlative degree and conclude thus benedictissimus sit Deus sublimissimus gloriosissimus omnipotentissimus benedictissim●m sit ejus Nomen in secula seculorum A CONFERENCE Concerning this QVESTION Whether or no each several Disease hath a particular and specifical remedy THe first man said that men following the order of nature alwayes seek the neerest way which hath caused them to make Maxims of all things whereas in truth there is no Maxim of any thing for by the most certain of all Rules there is no Rule so General but it hath some exception nay there are so many exceptions that we have often cause to doubt on which hand the Rule is And yet nevertheless men make Axiomes in all Sciences but chiefly in Physick which taking upon it the Government as it were of n●ture wraps up in general Laws all diseases with their Causes Symptoms and Remedies although as in the Law so likewise in Physick there never happen two cases alike And when these Rules come to be applyed to practice every one confesseth that he doth not find that power of those Laws which he had imagined to himself But this is chiefly to be understood of particular and specifical diseases such as the Pleurisie the Cataract and the Gout For general diseases and such as meer distempers may be cured by as general remedies that is by such things as have contrary qualities The second said That specifical is that which is determined to one and hath above it Generical and below it Individual Now the question is Whether there be any remedies so determined to one species or sort of disease that they are fit for none else I do think that seeing there are diseases of the whole form or frame of Man as are pestilent venomous and malignant diseases so there are likewise as general remedies And experience shewes as in divers admirable cures that there are remedies the effects of which do not depend upon their first qualities As in Rheubarbe to be purgative in Mugwort to be good against fits of the mother and in Bezoar to be Cordiall comes not from being cold or hot in such a degree for then every thing of the same temper with them would be purgative good against fits of the Mother or Cordial which is not so But there is no reason why the same Remedy may not be fit for one particular disease by its occult qualities and yet good for others by its manifest qualities as food also is medicinal The third said That this question depends upon another namely Whether mixt bodies work onely by their tempers and first qualities or by their substantial forms and specifical vertues For if the working of every thing do not depend upon its whole form and substance then Medicines cannot cure by their qualities of heat and cold but by a particular

and specifical vertue proceeding from their form and wholly contrary to that of the disease For the understanding whereof it must be observed That as the natural constitution of each Mixt body doth consist in a perfect mixture of the four Elementary qualities and in the fit disposition of the Matter and in the intireness of the form so may it be changed one of these three wayes either in its Temper or in its Matter or in its Form And from thence it comes that each mixt body as all medicinals are can work upon our nature by its first second and third Faculties The first Faculties come onely from the Mixture of the four qualities according to the diversity of which the compound body is either hot as Pepper or cold as Mandrake or moist as Oyle or dry as Bole-Armeniack not immediately but in operation And by this Faculty only which proceeds from the temper of the thing it is that the Medicine works chiefly upon the temper of mans body Their second Faculty comes from the different mingling of these same qualities with the Matter For a hot temper joyned with a matter disposed according to its degree of heat shall be opening or eating in or corrosive or burning or of some other vertue wherof there are many sorts according to the degrees of their mixture from whence they are said to be either Attenuating or Thickning Scouring or Sticking to Rarefying or Condensing Loosning or binding drawing or beating back softning or Hardning and by this second faculty onely do Medicines work upon the Matter The third Faculty of Medicines is that which comes not from their quality nor from their Matter but from their Form and from their specifical and occult vertue and such is in the herb Sina the faculty of purging away melancholy and in Terra Sigillata or Lemnia the fortifying of the heart against poysons as also the Scorpions killing with his tail and thence some poysons do kill without altering the Temper The fourth said That diseases are to be considered either in their genus or in their species or in their individuals For the first When the disease is nothing but a disposition disturbing the workings of nature it may be cured by regaining the natural disposition As for the second If it be a distemper for example cold in the second degree then the specifical Medicine for it is hot in the same degree if it be a disease in some of the members of a mans body as for example an obstruction then the only remedy is to open the Conduits If it be a breach then the remedy is to peice again what is parted asunder But if the disease be considered in the individual whose substantial Form it destroys then must we use particular remedies of the same nature and those are the true spicifical ones The fifth said It is the same thing with the causes of health that it is with the causes of diseases Now we see that the same thing is hurtful to one and not to another and that not onely in different species but also in several individuals of the same species because of several circumstances And therefore some remedies will cure one and will kill another nay and that which was lately good may be now hurtful for the same Individual so that it is impossible to assign any specifical remedies for an Individual and yet it is an Individual man that must be cured and not the whole species of man The sixth said That in nature every thing is determined to one particular Action and this proceeds alone from its Form and Being which hath a neerer relation to that one Action than to any other So a Tree is determined to bring forth one fruit rather than another It is the same case with those remedies which are had from the three Families of Animals Vegetables and Minerals Some are proper to purge one particular humour as choler or melancholy or water or they provoke vomiting or urine or by sweat or they are discussive or cause sneezing or stop coughing Other Medicines strengthen one particular member as the heart the head the liver or the spleen Some again are good against particular poysons So Treacle is specifically good against a bite by a viper So a Scorpion applyed to a place which he hath stung heals it So the Oyle of Pine apple kernels is good against Orpiment So long Hart wort Rue are good against Aconite or Wolf-bane and the rinde of Lemon Tree against Nux Vomica and the seeds of winter-cherry against Cantharides and Mummy against the Ulcers made by wilde spurge and the flower of water-Lilly against Hellebore So the root of wilde Roses and the herbs Gentiane Balme Betonie and Pimpernel are excellent against the biting of a mad dog and so it is with others There are others called Amulets which being worne about the neck or laid to certain parts of the body do preserve from diseases So as Galen himself reports Pionie worne keeps from the falling sickness So Wolfes dung allayes the Cholick and Jasper strengthens the stomack And Trallian assures that the Aetites or Eagle-stone cures the quotidian Agues and snails and green lizards cure quartan Agues and that an Asses forehead and a nail taken out of a broken ship are good against the falling-sickness So the ashes of Tad-poles and Frogs are used against the bloody Flux Lapis Judaicus and Goats blood against the stone in the kidneys and the water of a Stags head and the bone of his heart against the diseases of the heart Now there is no reason why all these marvellous effects should be ascribed to the first qualities and therefore Galen laughs at his Master Pelops who gave that reason for them The seventh said That Physick being first found out by use and experience hath no need of reason in those things which fall clearly under our senses but only in those things which are beyond the preception of our senses the which being confirmed by reason are much the more infallible However when reason seems to thwart experience we ought rather to stick to experience so it be founded upon many observations Seeing then that experience shews us there are many specifical remedies whereof the weak wit of man cannot finde out the cause it is better in this case to rely upon sense without reason than upon reason contradicted by experience Now if there be specifical remedies for some diseases there are also for all but they are so very many that we cannot know them And who is that man that can know the vertues and properties of every thing in the world The Chymists are of this mind for they hold that all Medicines have their signatures or their peculiar marks and figures by which they resemble the parts or diseases of mans body and that they are writings as it were sealed with the hand of God to teach men their faculties Whence it comes that Lung-wort is good for the ●ungs Stags tongue for the spleen