disease in fieri and in facto the prognostick of hope or fear in the course and motion of this disease dependeth upon the mutation and alteration of these signs and symptomes in the time and manner of their eruption conjunct with the colour of them as followeth The signs of discouragement after their eruption taken from their colour is when they appear black or green the black being worst and most mortal Again they are more dangerous when their eruption is exceeding in quantity than when they are but few in number because the impurity is sooner corrected and exhausted and the spirits lesse exercised in the expulsion of them those also are of more difficulty that are great and large than the small according to Aetius and a contradiction diametrical to Avicen who saith the largest Pox are most void of danger his words are these translated scil The white are best and safest when they are few in number and large in quantity Yet upon consideration the difference may be reconciled between them without much litigation if Avicen be understood in this sense That the greatest in quantity are best in judgment because they educe with them from the centre to the circumference a greater proportion of peccant humour which is a great disoneration or disburthening of Nature and Aelius to judge the largest in quantity to indicate a greater fulnesse of the peccant cause and more dangerous than the least in quantity because the largest are significants of redundancy in the cause and herein they both agree that the plenitude of matter is the cause of danger because not without more expence of spirit to be cast out but if the same internal redundancy of the cause be equal then the larger eruption is the greatest levamen to Nature Besides this redundancy there are many other concurrences of circumstance which are symptoms of as great danger in this disease such as are the strictnesse and loosenesse of the belly for any spontaneous flux of the belly must be of an ill signification though the cause be plenitude and the evacuation be à potentia naturae because it is a retraction of the matter in motion from the circumference to the centre which manifesteth almost an irrecoverable disorder in natural motion and very few upon such accidents do escape death and Physicians cannot behold this accident of spontaneal purging or vomiting in this disease without narrow hope some rare escapes there hath been reported of which I can be no witnesse of any such recovery Thus having fulfilled my own intention in applying my self to the meanest capacity for observation and use of my own Country which hath given me leave once more to breath in it where I find this disease heretofore of no moment to be now of as great consideration therefore as hitherto I have plainly presented to common view the causes both internall and externall with the signs of it in fieri in facto I shall proceed according to my ingagement to the reason of cure and what remedies are most proper and when to be used or applyed In the curing of this disease the principal scope of the Physician is to assist Nature in its regular motion in the beginning with temperate correctives of the cause by dyet and ayre the dyet according to Paulus Aegineta must be moderate in quantity neither too much nor too sparingly adhibited nor too hot nor too cold in quality if the dyet be too thin the spirits will be enfeebled and of no force or power to move the peccant cause to the circumference which is the universal Emunctory of the body and if the ayre of the place be over-hot the feverish distemper is augmented and the spirits in danger of suffocation therefore upon this hinge of moderation turneth the safety of every person affected with this disease and this course being ordered with judgment and care is instar ommum medicamentorum for there will be little use of any other application except externally to preserve the beauty and comlinesse of the face Yet according to my Theme I shall publish the variety of opinions in the curing of this disease and after a little more enlargement of my own sense I shall leave my self and all my Collations to the consideration of our English world as well knowing other Regions to differ as much from us in Practice as Language and set a value upon their own câ—stom as will admit of no precept to the contrary it appearing in a latitude to be an undervaluing of their own nor can any man perswade the major part of strangers but that they can ride any horse in the world with as much â—ase and confidence as they do their owne Hobby-horses and Asses for in truth those that they do so ride are esteemed by the best Caballarist to be no other But to inlarge my self or explain my sense in the regimen of this disease the whole work consisting in moderation of ayre and dyet without any other mixtures of violence or bland impediments which may altogether pervert or in or by a lesse force retard Nature in itâ— motion the motion of Nature in this case being from the beginning of this disease to the eruption of the Pustules Critical and in Critical motions the least application of any medicament is so dangerous that no expert Physician will admit For Nature hath at this time set her self in a Batalia posture to encounter the enemy vi armis and if upon the charge it shall make discovery of assistance it will retard the present encounter which addeth courage to the enemy and giveth him a greater choice of ground but if any of these auxiliaries should put Natnre into a disorder by conjunction with it the enemy will not neglect the opportunity of conquest and in this argument a Simile may become this place though it be not a perfect demonstration because diseases are as mutineers against natural government Nature when it is it self and without disturbance will give no entertainmeut to a resisting rebellious and heterogeneall quality to incorporate it self into the most noble parts but upon disorder and disturbance then false appetites break in and open tâ—e gates to all heterogeneality to the ruine of the whole government therefore when Nature is harmoniously set the course is to preserve it so by winding up any string at the first relax which maintaineth harmony and preserveth that string from contracting it self by rest and grow so stubborâ— that it cannot be wound up again without fear of ruption which at the first slip might have bâ—en effected with much ease and little fear of dismembring the Instrument and disturbing the harmony but if the relaxation by permanency hath over-stiffned and contracted this fiver of the Instrument yet the musician will not use any violent motion to extend it and reduce it to its former posture but gradatim wind it up till it be properly siâ—ed and harmoniously fitteâ—â— to consent with the rest of the members of
Small Pox is not to be adhibited neither in the beginning oâ— the ebulition nor eruption of the pustules neither is any blouâ— to be drawn safely or withouâ— danger insomuch that neitheâ— Riverius nor any other Authoâ— can afford any certain assurancâ— of the practise of phlebotomy iâ— this disease but rather thesâ— contradictory oppositions between the most Learned Antients and Modern Professors of highest judgement and observation do prove this scope of cure by bloud-letting to be an unsafe and doubtfull remedy in the Small Pox and therefore I thought it my duty to publish so much to my own Nation and in their own tongue that they may be instructed and enabled to avoid the danger of unsafe or rash proceeding in the curing of this disease and if these expressions be insignificant to any persons of another sense I shall leave them as couragious and valiant adventurers and wish their returns may be more successful then of late they havebin I have now most plainly expressed my own sense of bloud-letting in this disease of the Small Pox particularly yet it will admit of a more generall extension to all circumferential motions in nature for without dispute the intention in all afflictions is to expell all peccant and peternaturall causes from the Centre to the universal emunctory or to some particular place of reception from a more noble to a less noble part according to its power in resisting the cause for if it cannot effect a universal evacuation circumfercntial nor an extreme impulsion from the most noble to the most ignoble part such as is from head to foot or from the brest to the back then it moveth obliquely to some emunctory which may obtain the term of a perfect diversion to the next vicine part or else to some neutral which hath a vicinity with both As from the head to the Glandules of the throat Glandules of the groyne which are more remote and so proveth neither a proper diversion nor proper revulsion And in these motions phlebotomy may be indicated either â—or diversion or revulsion or universal evacuation which in Art ought to precede a particular evacuation by which remedy some internal oppilations or obstructions in via may be removed and Nature enabled more universally to free it self of a congestion But since I have not consented to phlebotomy in the Small Pox I am obliged to declare an undenyable regimen in this disease with considerable remedys both external and internal to be applyed and although phlebotomy be in the Catalogue of external remedies yet so of no use in this case by reason that it is as difficult in this disease to find a proper indication to sense as a simple intemperies in a veletudinary person that is such a disease as is without any other complication such a disease imaginary there may be but not demonstrative to sense But if any proper indication with a necessity of coaction for drawing of bloud doth present it self to the agent then as I said in my precedent discourse the application of cupping-glasses upon the shoulders arms and thighs with scarification is the safest remedy with this caution that the scarification be superficiall and not deep lest they enter upon a vein or artery and the evacuation be stopped with much difficulty and danger to the patient And this applicatition thus performed nature is assisted in its circumferentiall motion if there be also a great care and circumspection in the contemperation of the ambient aire of the place that it be not so hot as to suffocate the spirits nor so cold as to repell the humour in motion to the Centre or so congregate and condense the intrinsecall causes that in conatu naturae or in the endeavour of nature to dissolve and open the porosities be inflamed and the disease augmented or totally stop the eruption of the pustules and therefore to be advisedly ordered there are other externall remedies which are to be used in the state of this disease unto the declension for the prevention of Escars and these remedies are commonly the complement of every experienced Nurse But I shall first acquaint the Reader with such remedies as are ordained by Learned and antient practitioners viz. when the matter of the pustules doth corrode and make a deep impression in the face Senertus appointeth a sufficient quantity of Mallow roots to be boiled in the Urine of the Patient Some other Physicians and old Nurses have used an astringent wash which in my sense is not to be andibited because it stoppeth or is the cause of retention of the humor in the face and fixeth the cicatrix Riverius ordaineth oyle of sweet Almonds new prest to anoint the face and as an Anodine to contemperate the acrimony of the humour which in some persons as aqua fortis hath penetrated the bone according to the relation of Gartius Fernelius applaudeth this subsequâ—nt oyntment Take sweet Almonds white Lillies of each one ounce Capons grease three drams the powder of the root of paeonie flower de lys Lithargy of Gold of each halfe the scruple Sugar-candy one scrupâ—e mixe all these in a hot Morter and straine them through a linâ—en cloath and anoint the 〈◊〉 morning and night and after this anointing wash the face with water distilled from Calves feet Gartius out of his observation recommended his unguentum citrâ—num to be in curing the cicatrix a probaâ—um and my self shall present the oyle of Eggs to be most incarnative and generating flesh which doth fill up those cavities and prevent circatrising or vulgarly pittings the flesh not 〈…〉 when they come to 〈…〉 to open them with a 〈…〉 instrument least by the perâ—â—nency of the pustulate 〈◊〉 there be a greater impression of the cicatrix Some other Physicians I know not upon what basis dispute against this order of opening the pustules when they come to maturity and I find their reason for it as weak as their opinion for they urge such a diminution of naturall heat in letting out the puruleut matter upon full maturity that nature is so debilitated that it is disabled to incarnate and by want of this incarnation the cicatrix is more profound but upoÌ„ consideration of the opening of an Apostema when it is mature it is a levamen to nature as much as the taking of the burthen from a Porter doth refresh him and doth prevent the tediosity of naturall industry in mellowing or rotting the Coat in which the matter is involved and consequently a proportionable corroborative to naturall heat and motion and more especially when they are supplyed with remedies that are mundificative and carnative as is before directed in the oyle of Eggs. But because I hate prolixity I do passe over a multitude of other Medicaments well knowing the vanity of being over-active when a less motion is more satisfactory frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora And therefore out of my own experience and quotidian practise I have
the disease and for these reasons because the milk is sufficiently nutritive and healing and the Saffron a cordial propellent of the cause in ebullition from the Centre to the circumference and for a common drink in the place of Ptysan to use a small decoction of Sulfur which moveth by sweat to the universal emunctory of the skin and dryeth up superfluous moisture lesseneth the quantity of matter and giveth a levamen to the naturall spirits in their motion and for this practise I must return my acknowledgment and respect to Gartias the Portugal Physician Amatus Lucitanus with other Moderns of the same sense prescribeth for an ordinary drink in this disease the decoction of barley with Sorrel which cannot be so siguificant as the decoction of Salsa because their refrigeration constantly will debilitate natural heat and by reason of such a check the motion of nature is impedted and therefore Fernelius affirmeth that hot diseases are more unsafe in their cure then diseases of cold because cold remedies are altogether used as a contrary remedy to heat by which cold correction of preter-naturall heat natural heat it self is also extinguished for which cause the application of constant Apozems ought to be moderately hot and moist there may be much more argumentation upon the point but very little more I conceive à proprio for it is not argumentation that cureth diseases but the seasonable application of specificall remedies and he that will make more haste then good speed shall have little comfort in his undertakings and much less if his remedy be improper for it is the specifical quantity of the remedy that cureth every disease and cures according to Sanctorius consist not in pluralities of medicaments but the property of them answerable to the disease and this is the reason why an old woman doth often by her experience of an imperical medicament make a cure of some particular affect relinquished by Learned practisers both in medicine and Chyrurgery neither are all diseases cured by a contrary remedy though the rule of contrary be universal because it admitteth exception as burning is sooner cured by the scorching heat of fire then by any other cold remedy so also a 〈◊〉 is a convulsive motion and cured by sternation which is a like convulsive motion so also a lassitude by exercise is cured by the like exercise Thirdly a fever is a hot and dry distemper but this distemper is cured by hot and dry remedies â—rgo the disease is cured by its simile for if a tertian or ardent fever be cured by Rhabarb and Scammonie c. which are hot dry then the remedies convein to the cause and not to the fever as a disease and according to Galen lib. 6. Epid. one pain is cured by another Hippocrates lib. 2. Aph. 46. the greater and most vehement pain obscureth the less pain lib. 2. aphor 26. a fever supervening a convuision is good but not a convulsion upon a fever in his 4th Book aphor 57. in a convulsion or distention of the nerves if a fever shall supervene it absolveth the disease in his 5. Book aphor 21. so also is vomiting cured with vomiting and purging with purging Fourthly a Tetanus is cured by pouring water upon the head lib. 5. aphor 25. but a return is from a cold cause and cured by a cold remedy according to Epiphamus Ferdinandus and Avicen lib. fen 4. cap. 1. saith that all diseases are not to be cured by contraries because some are cured by dyet as is expressed formerly in the Small Pox others by their simile as is before said Fifthly those diseases are onely to be cured by contrary remedies that can obtain their contrary remedies for many diseases want their 〈◊〉 remedy such as are diseases in via numero Sixthly an apoplexia ever endeth in a Paralysis which is a resolution of the nerves with a deprivation of sense and motion in the part Gal. lib. 4 de loc affect So that one disease quantum ad causam is cured by the simile In the 7th place according to Arist. one contrary is corroborated by the other contrary being present therefore cures cannot onely be effected by contraries To conclude curing sometimes is effected by occult qualities acting from the property of the whole substance such as are Bezoarticks therefore not by contraries nor is this last proposition true in all things because Hipp. lib. 5. aphor 19. cold parts are alwaies to be warmed except in a flux of bloud so that by this argumentation all diseases are to be cured by their specifical remedy and not by the multiplication of ingredients In my sense the least variety of medicaments in this disease of the Small Pox is most successful for various and often applications and mixture in remedies doth perturb nature as much if not more then continual eating and drinking in a sane body and by irrecoverable vexation of the patient doth frustrate the expectation of the agent To conclude what I have written is agreeable to Antient and Learned Authority and no fanatick conception to make the world believe that these truths were not established before by Learned Professors though not so far extended to vulgâ—r apprehension I am none of that society that dispute against that old axiome quod nihil dictum quod non dictum prius nor hath it been hitherto my fortune to cast any eye upon any Modern that had not his ante-delineation from some precedent and deduced from a former illumination but the addition to invention is common and frequent in every age there are differences in Writers as much as in painters but none did ever pensil a draught to life by a meer copy nor can they do it without copy So that the difference is in the aptitude of some above other to present the copy more lively that only that is the proceed of meer fancy is to sense nothing but confusion and void of any signification nor will appear in art any thing but a monstrosity and in science some vulgar errors some will have the Philosophy of Ducartus to be a new Philosophy of his own coyning but himself will not deny his illumination was from Aristotle Dr. Harvy his circulation of bloud was by the Antients nominated a motion of bloud by the continuation of parts of which none were ignorant though not expert in dissection of living bodies so also is the nova medicina laboratory infired by the antient luminaries and bellowsed up by operators of several and different fancies and these additions are ordinary to invention and such addition is but the extention of a first invention as one that in his travel maketh a discovery of a land unknown before cannot say that land was not in being before and if by the exact travell of a second person a larger discovery be made this discovery is but an inlargement and extension of the first discovery and so may be a succession of discoveries ad infinitum and so it is generally in
nor themselves their own according to vulgar apprehension for what can silence prove more then a plain acknowledgment of such an error as will not indure the light of reason nor reduce any contrary disputant to an incommodum but leave a censure upon the art it self and all other that professe it as if art were onely a conjecture and healing or curing of Diseases were but an accident as if causes had no relation to their effects nor the sublation of them artificially to any substantial predicament which otherwise hath had an equall reputation of excellency in all Ages and the professors thereof amongst all Nations Witness very many Kings which have esteemed the contemplation and practise of medecine as the one chief Jewel in their Crown as hath been more largely expressed in my former writings But to return from this digression I shall resume my discourse of Phlebotomy and shew how unresolved and unsetled a remedy it is in this Disease All the chief professors of medicine establish it upon the indications either of plenitude of humours or magnitude of Diseases these being most proper and universal indications of phlebotomy and although it be a generall precept according to the Doctrine of Galen yet it is not without exception and more especially excepted in this case of the small Pox. Because in this operation a retraction of the peccant humour from the circumference to the Centre cannot be avoided which remedy must be as dangerous as unreasonable because no person of reason will allow a revulsion from an ignoble part to the most vitall and noble parts and although plenitude of humours be an indication for evacuation yet it doth not solely indicate phlebotomy except it be a fulness and redundance of bloud in predominance for impure plenitude is a contra-indicant of phlebotomy the bloud offending more in quantity then in quality being the most proper indication of bloud-letting and though there be some predominancy of bloud yet bloud-letting in such a case hath never proved a curative remedy nor did I ever see a sanguineous apoplexie cured by bloud-letting and yet the indication of phlebotomy is proper yet not curative because it is not per se the cause of the Disease for where the cause is external as a confusion in such case though there be a predominancy of bloud yet bloud-letting doth prove a remedy of no moment There is also an exception against phlebotomy though there be an apparent magnitude of disease As for example there is magnitudo morbi in a lucuphlegmatia or dropsie so also in a Cacexia and yet in these and such like cases phlebotomy can be no remedy nor is it indicated from the magnitude of these Diseases in the Small Pox also there is magnitude of disease and though it be complicated with plethory of bloud yet the 〈◊〉 of a â—ein is not a proper or safe remedy especially from the beginning to their eruption because the motion of nature is critical therefore those that practise phlebotomy upon the precept of Galen without distinction of cases must consequently incur the censure of inconsiderate and rash practisers or such as will abound in their own sense which is non-sense and such Phanaticks there are in medicine equall to those in Theology as doth appear by voluminous indigestions belched out in this Age some of them meer ebullitions of bitterness and others of heresie fomenting faction and mutiny in the Schools of learning as much as in the Common-weal Some such Sectaries there are in Physick that deny phlebotomy to be a remedy in any case or disease such as are the off-spring of Vanhelmont others that make it the sole-remedy in all cases and their instructions are from the mode of France which mode is of no Antiquity in that Nation nor ever so commonly used by any of their Antient professors which do ordain it as it is in it self a great remedy if properly adhibited viz. where there is magnitude and violence of disease conjunct with plethory of bloud and consisting age yet not without distinction of causes and diseases with other circumstances of time and clime And those that do read the most learned of that Nation can find them no otherwise principled yet I have heard Fernelius which I take to be a glory to that Nation to have had a most sad censure by some of Parisian practisers and that it had been better for their Nation that he had been unborn I have heard this language in discourse but could never conceive from what part of his learning they extracted their bitternesse But to return to my Theme of phlebotomy in the Small Pox in which case the agent standeth onely like Archimedes in expectation of a place to fix his foot to dislodge the earthen Globe for untill such an assurance of certainty to depend upon doth manifest it self there will be no well-grounded assurance of curing this Disease by phlebotomy not denying the practise upon just indications from the cause and disease rightly apprehended to be a most effectual remedy but in this case although conjunct with plenitude of bloud which doth most properly indicate evacuation yet this evacuation by bloud-letting is insufficient because according to Galen in his Books de Multitudine de Element de Morbis vulgaribus saying that bloud is most temperate because it is an equall mixture of all humours ad justitiam and therefore Phlebotomy to be an equal evacuation of all humours conjunct with naturall spirits and by this operation the bloud is left in its predominancy according to proportion only the universall plenitude is equally lessned and the morbificall cause still mixed with the remainder answerable both in quantity and quality to its first impression upon the whole masse so that the disease is not extinguished by this remedy but lessened in the cause And although according to this Doctrine of Galen there is an equall evacuation of humours yet the Spirits do at this orifice unequally transpire for in all bloud-letting there is a passe of fixed and innate spirit with the fluent and these cannot come within the compasse of equality because the fluent spirit is daily repaired but the fixed never otherwise if it came within the compasse of repair man should be eternall upon this earth but every evacuation of this nature doth abreviate humane life and hasten old Age as may be observed in the French Children which by this frequent Phlebotomising are withered in juvenile Age. Therefore Phlebotomy is not a common remedy but in such extremity as the person must lose some part of his subsistance to save the whole Moreover in this universall evacuation there may be an expence of some humours which are necessary to be preserved in the masse because they are not so suddainly repaired again and from this cause nature may want a vehicle of motion and suffer tyranny from the disease as when the Phlegmatick part of humours is drawn from the cholerick the bilious humor is left as fire to
all invention as in medicine the first invention of remedies was from experience deduced from observation and upon further observation of more exacter intellects the reason of such applications and the specificall qualities of the remedy more exactly discovered which is an addition to the first observation Moreover the motion of the bloud was by the continuation of parts as veins and arteries and no farther discovered untill my most learned Predecessor by his exact observation demonstrated the manner of its motion to be circular which is a farther extension of the first observation And thus one Artist differeth from the other in the invention about the first discovery which was the originall copy and compass by which they steered And thus I have steered this discourse to a haven where my intention is to lodge my vessel and if the unlading prove profitable to my Countrey let them take it at their own valuation FINIS QUESTIONS PROBLEMATICAL Concerning the French PEST By Tebias Whitaker M. D. Physician in Ordinary to the King and his Houshold LONDON Printed for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill 1661. Questions Problematical Concerning the FRENCH PEST c. NAtural motion is from imperfection to perfection and according to nature I do now move from the disease of children which is nominated the Small Pox to the grand disease of man-kind which is nominated the French Pest. From whence they contracted it is not now the question but other questions of more subtilty are my present Subject of Discourse as followeth QUEST I. Why this French disease should lodge in humane bodies for many years without signification or discovery and then appear with its proper symptoms of malice and contagion Mercurialis affirmeth that the poyson in a mad dog is so lodged for many years before it appeareth in act but giveth no farther reason why it is so which is my present undertaking As for the reality of it that is obvious to sense and doth visibly appear and how it is for longer or shorter time so lodged will be as apparent to sense as may be argued from the containing subject more or less or in a longer or shorter time disposed to produce this occult quality into act conjunct with activity of motion sooner or impotency of natural power which doth retard it and lodgeth it for a longer time without any symptom of eruption and the malice is more according to the quantity of matter impregnated with a virulent quality And that it doth so lodge without impediment or hinderance to the naturall action of the person in whom it lodgeth is manifest to sense in the menstruosity of women which cast a venene-spot upon the speigle or looking-glasse and yet in health and sine actione laesa in themselves and as it is a venemous quality in their bloud so hath it lodged in them untill their time of puberty without any such discovery And so doth the French disease lodge in the Spermatick matter of humane bodys some years before it appeareth and for such time without sensible offence to them but the time of latency longer or shorter dependeth upon quality of the recipient matter in which it is contained as the putrifying quality in those that are subject to the Stone which disturbeth some tempers sooner and stronger then others according to the quality of the matter in which it is involved as is observable in all poysons which work according to the capacity of the recipient matter more or lesse disposed to receive impression As in minerals sulphur will sooner fire then amber and in vegetals flax will sooner be fired then wood and though these be sensible yet there are occult qualities in poyson imperceptible in their motion and yet sensible in their effects and productions as may be urged from the springing up of hearbs and grass which moveth imperceptibly and yet that it doth move is sensibly discovered by its growth in a short time and would appear in perfection at the first reception of the form were it not impedited and delayed by the indisposition of the matter informed à vi plastica and this is the reason of the latency of this disease so long time invisible QUEST II. Why this French Pest should be generated in men and women free from any venereal act or impure congression That it may be so generated and that it is so common experience doth present to every eye and the Ancients testifie viz. Galen de loc affect 5. in these words translated affirmeth that the retention of seed and suppression of menstrual courses doth terminate in such poyson as will effect any disease according to the disposition and temperament of the body and make impression upon other materials different in nature from animals as before I have urged concerning women with their aspect upon looking-glasses in the time of menstruosity and at the same time pollute all herbs within the sphere of activity or contact and so observable amongst the French people that they will not permit any of the female Sex within the circuit of such years of puberty to descend their Wine-cellars or approach their Vineyards which upon observation hath been so destructive to their Vintage and upon any impure congressioÌ„ with women at such time are received some mortall and in curable diseases as the feprosie odious a curse to mankind and the venereal congression with women at such time was not only prâ—hâ—bited by the Iewes but also the entrance into any bath with theâ— therefore if the bathing such persons be of necessity to effect their health my order should be for every such single person to have a fresh bath to themselves and their own private use And thus I have proved that this disease may be generated in a man out of his own impurity and without any impure congression or venereal act QUEST III. After what manner this Pest is lodged so long time imperceptible This question is not void of difficulty to resolve for if there were any opposition or repulsion from nature then the venene quality upon such opposition must necessarily beget such a conflict as would appear sensible or such a suppression as will very little differ from a total extinction of such venenâ— motion therefore my answer is that viscosity and tenacity of the humours in which the spirits are involved and in which they move or their extreme coldness by which both spirits and humours are so congregated as without the reflection of a hotter beam they cannot effect any motion or by neglect of timely remedies to discharge the mass of bloud of such malignity for diseases not resisted in the beginning do insinuate and enter into the subject matter insensibly untill their eruption be inavoidable Other causes may rise from irregularity of dyet or want of exercise to rarefie the spirits attenuate the humours and mundefie the masse of bloud for the want of such motion the bloud is contaminated as is apparent in water-vesselled up from the motion of ayre without
which motion all waters would be but an Ocean of putrefaction to the ruine of all creatures upon the land as in the Sea Moreover the want of exercise doth incrassate the humours and include the malicious quality in such manner that it cannot so suddainly break out into act but is covered like fiery embers under ashes which send forth neither light nor heat till they be stirred up And after this manner this disease is lodged in the subject matter impreceptibly as is reported by Belocatus that this French disease was lodged in certain noble persons of Verona thirty years before any Pathâ—gnomical symptom did appear QUEST IV. Why this disease doth apprehend some persons most maliciously at the first coâ—tion and leave other persons void of contagion though very frequent in the act of Venery and of impure tempers according to sense most apâ— to receive the impression of such poyson I have in my former discourse expressed the differences of capacities to receive the impression of distinct poyson sooner or later and in that discourse the answer to the first part of this question is included that some tempers are like tinder infired and infected at the first stroke or allision of the ayre between two hard bodies when such sparks will make no impression upon straw or flax which in their own nature are very combustible so also are the different constitutions of humane bodies some shall be by this Pest infected in the first act when other persons of corrupt mixture and in sense most disposed to receive inquination or pollution shall not be apprehended with this disease though very frequent in impure congression for that there must be a more proper aptitude to receive this contagion in the first act by that proper temper so infected then in the other which is a disposition more sensibly disposed to receive such contamination in a higher degree and yet they are not so really disposed as the first which receiveth a sensible pollution And this must be an occult quality more latent then patient in them which will incorporate with any mixture which is not generally observable in mixture as for example oyle will not incorporate with water but will separate each from other and yet they are both humid bodies and though not capable of incorporation together yet capable of distinct impregnation either of â—altnesse or sweetnesse but oyle will not receive these tinctures so suddainly nor completely as water and therefore poysons of the sharpest quality are impedited and resisted in their corrosion by oyly substances And this is the reason why some dispositions receive pollution more fully and speedily then others but where there is an homogeneality and samenesse in the matter of mixture there will be a perfect incorporation although they be specifically distinct as the mixture of wine and water in the plant for there is in the juice of that plant both a vinosâ— and aquose quality so mixt that it is difficult to sense to discover any distinction from samenesse or perfect homogenealities but where there is no disposition capable to receive contagion it self yet it may prove a vehicle of conveyance to a subject that is disposed For many persons that have been in Venereal and impure congression with an infected person though not infected themselves yet upon the first act shall conveigh it to another person well-disposed to receive the contamination for qâ—â—cquid recipitur recipitur secundum modum recipientis and is proved by daily observation that Cats Pigeons and other creatures that have commerce with houses infected with the Pest are not infected themselves with the plague yet do conveigh it to other persons disposed to receive the impression of such contagion And according to the observation of Sanctorius the breath of a Cat in a room will affect a consumptive disposition with difficulty of breathing and fainting sweats though the Cat be unseen by the person affected which he made the rule of discovery of a Consumptive inclination in such persons as come within the sphere of the forenamed creature And although the disposition of the subject be the principal cause of receiving the impression of this French disease and production of it into act yet not the onely cause for the continuance or long-stay in venereal act and over-heating themselves with so long and laborious motion is the cause of infection in that act which otherwise might be avoided when these that Sparrow-like are not infected with many impure congressions nor is any contamination so active as that which proceedeth from lively animals by the association of their intense heat as for cold poyson they are potentiall and according to their potentiality more slow and dull in their motion and production of their effect QUEST V. What power this is which is nominated potential and how it deduâ—eth this venenosity into act This term potential ought to be made clear to sense because any cold poyson potential cannot be active of it self nor can nature as an agent natural produce it into act but rather a contemperation or commoderation Nor is it agreeable with my reason that nature should produce poyson into act because nature is most adverse to poyson and poyson a contrary opposite to nature except Epiphanius Ferdinandus can perswade me to the contrary for he will have something alimentable in all poyson and if there be not something nutriâ—ive in all poyson according to his sense there can be no part of poyson as poyson reduced into alimentable act by nature Therefore it iâ—probable that although every â—art of poyson is poyson and as poyson opposite and contrary to nature as it is simple poyson and cannot be alimentable but as a mixt body something may be extracted that may be reducible into aliment or the whole mixture so contemperated with an alimentable may receive such admission into our natural principles as may impregnate as much as the recipient subject is capable to receive and gradatim produced into an act of the same mixture from whence it was extracted according to the quality of the poyson totally hot or cold yet Galen doth urge another cause of nature its production of poyson into act which 〈◊〉 from the repugnancy of nature with poyson by which contestation poysons aâ—e so rareâ—â—ed and by the repugnancy of nature made more subtile and forcible to enter the principles of nature and by this power produce themselves into act and the principles of nature into such compliance as is not much different from idenâ—ity with themselves and upon sâ—ch forceable â—â—trance though it be poyson in tota 〈◊〉 and void of any alimentable condition yet it receiveth entertainment by nature without any sensible impediment to natural action and then digested and so altered by naturall heat as maketh it alimentable and prepared for assimilation And this reason is consented unto by Galâ—n lib. 3. de simplic medic where he affirmeth cold poysons to be attenuâ—ted made hot and changed by the power of natural
heat by which mutation and alteration I conceive a full change of its own property into another nature otherwise it will sooner or later return to its own natural body again as Gold by the power and â—orce of heat dissolved and seemingly mixed with other metals and mineral substances it s own property being unalterable by heat doth separate from all other mixture and returneth to its own proper and naturall body nor can I conceive how Gold by the force of any fire should lose any atome of it self except St. Anthony his fire which efâ—ected his aurum potabilâ— which challengeth entrance amongst vulgar errors QUEST VI. Why a woman not infected her self should infect another person with this disease This node seemeth difficult to unwedge as being contradictive to reason that any thing should give that to another which it hath not in it self to give or that any person should receive that which is not in being therefore it cannot be understood of a meer non-entity which is neither in act nor in power but of an occult quality latens in massa sanguinea without any sensible discovery till a Masculine agitation shall make it effectuall and visible in those that upon such motion receive the contamination and such inquination or pollution is many times received from women who have no symptom of infection perceptible in themselves and therefore I conceive it to be their own proper venene temper contigent in them as in Scorpions and Aspes and such other venemous creatures or else contracted alâ—unde and from venene aliment the use whereof hath made it a naturall nourishment to themselves and poyson to others as was observed by Avicen in that Puella that fed upon nothing but poysons and was nourished with them as an aliment inoffensive and very nutritive to her so as in common view she appeared to be of a most wholesome constitution and yet her breath poysoned all other within the sphere of it and with whom she had any commerce or conversation Thus every man doth receive the infection of this disease that hath câ—ition with a woman of such venene tempâ—r though not infected her self and this is the reason why some such constituted women do abbreviate the lives of all men that have any congression with them in Wedlock or otherwise and this venene quality is also in many men which infect all they comply with except those of their own venene temper and such tempers are most homogeneally matched together and if I were a professor of the Law I should judge any sound and wholsome temper so conjoyned in Matrimony to such a venene constituon their Matrimony to be unlawful because unnaturall And Sir Francis Bacon in his Vtopia doth very much agree with me in this opinion and judgement where he admitteth of no Matrimoniall conjunction without a strict paternal and materna inquest concerning the temper of each person and homogeneality in nature and the hereditary diseases they are subject unto as the Gout Stone and French Pest that their propagation may be sound strong and comely for the strength and duration of his new common-weal And this may be the reason rather then the Religion of the Haunder who maketh it lawful for the man and woman to make tryal each of other after they be undertrood for some time before they are joyned together in Matrimony and if in that time they have cause of mislike they may abstain from Marriage without any censure of impiety or breach of their Law or imputation of dishonour QUEST VII Whether there be any defensative against infection in the act of Venery with such persons as are maliciously infected with this disease There are not wanting and other Mountebanks upon every Stage and Market-place to quack of various remedies of defence and specifical preparations they have extracted to this purpose though my self hath known many of them and some Physicians that have forfeited their palat and noses in this venereal combat and proved their defensatives to be more fabulous then effectual because necessarily in all coition there must be attrition of the genitals which heateth and forceth open all porosities in the Members and must of necessity give entrance to any venenosity of this disease which doth contaminate the spirits and if they can prepare no condensing remedy to shut up the porosities in the genitals then their defensative is a meer aiery discourse void of demonstration and appear a mist cast before the eyes of the spectators For there is no such condensing medicine or remedy of any effect because the friction of the genitals will relax and open the porosities of the parts and the spirits must inavoidably receive the contamination of the disease in contempt of all opposition to the contrary For this poyson moveth distinctly from other poysons received at the mouth into the body for they descend into the ventricle and are not so suddainly mixed with the spirits because they are dispersed and scattered amongst the Viscera and receive their contamination gradatim but this contagion is conveighed to the spirits in the turn of an eye and communicated to them by the nearest consent which is between the genitals and most noble parts of the body And these are the reasons of my non-consent to any defensative against the pollution of an unclean women and if any medicament be ordered of preservation from this Pest they must be such Antidotes as do cure it and no remedy of cure more specifick then Guiacum and this remedy by daily experience we see will not do it nor will any chymical medicament though it doth seemingly cure the disease yet it will not preservâ— them from reinfection and very many persons that account themselves cured at present and take boldness to make another adventure are infected again before their bodies are cleared of their former medicaments and though I said something of curative remedies let me not be understood of absolute cure for there is no such Cure QUEST VIII Why this French disease of it self killeth no man 'T is doubtlesse and without question that many persons of both Sexes do daily die with this disease upon them because it admitteth of no perfect cure in any that are infected and if any person perswade the contrary I shall give them leave to comfort themselves with a false delight and pleasant dream but that this French Pest is not Necant in it self is the question to be argued to which I answer with Galen lib. de Marasmo that the principle conatus of nature is to defend the heart especially from poyson of any quality and that it doth most strenuously defend it from the contagion and poyson of this disease Another reason is because this disease in it self is void of a febriâ—e distemper and if any symptom of frebricitation doth appear it is accidentall and from the complication of some other cause Thirdly this disease is void of the difficulty of breathing except in the highest extremity Fourthly in this disease the
pulse is never altered neither are there any signs of it to be taken from the pulse and these are demonstrative arguments to prove the heart to defend it self powerfully from the malignity of this disease And this defensive power according to my opinion must principally depend upon the power of the vitall spirits which are more robust then the natural spirits as doth appear by their containing vessels of eacâ— for the arterie that containeth the vital spirits is double coated else the spirits contained in them would make eruption through them because of their inherent force and the veines but single coated because their spirits in activity and strength is so much lesse then is the vital and by the force of this vital spirit the heart is defended against the invasion of this Pest and by this vitall spirit the heart defendeth it self against the assault of choler which is so great an enemy to it according to Arist. 4. de part animal And yet this question is not cleared from the exception of many Physicians who reasonably do affirm the generation of vital spirits to proceed from the naturall and if the naturall spirits have received contamination how shall the vitall spirits which are begotten of them be free from pollution nor could it be otherwise but from the purification they receive from the heart after the same manner as Gold is separated from drosse and other aliene tincture by the activity of â—ire so also doth the heart by its cordial fire inherent in it self purge and clense the natural spirits from all pollution and the heart by its own power desendeth it self from the contamination of this disease which is the cause in chief why this disease of it self doth not kill the person affected with it QUEST IX Whether this disease be the proper disease of one particular Region That every Region hath diseases inherent in themselves and not contracted 〈◊〉 with remedies of their own more specifical then any contracted from alien and different Regions and that there is a much difference as between clime and clime or East and West 〈◊〉 without doubt is the 〈◊〉 Catholica of all Nations but what Region may be the proper womb of this French 〈◊〉 is a present dispute between the French and Neopolitâ—â— the one will have it the proper disâ—ease of the Indians and the French will have it proper to the Neopolitâ—ns but because it hath made so great impression in 〈◊〉 most Modern Writer◠〈◊〉 it the French disease so that they challenge the Right to it from Custom and long prescription and I know no Nation challenge any of their priviledge but as they have spread their tongue very far in Europe and other Continents so this disease hath commerce with the generality of Nations and Religions both Mahumetaâ— Iew 〈◊〉 and Heathen But some particular Regions may be after this manner affected from their vicious ayre anâ— dyet witnesse those painful botches of the Arabâ—â—as affirmed by Galen and Avâ—cen that they are generated from the Locusts which they so greedily feed upon as also in 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 from their delicacy in dyet and frequent use of Venery Insomuch that according to the dyet and ayre severall Regions have their particular diseases But the French disease proceedeth neither from the ayre of the place nor dyet but from meer Venery and impure Congression and therefore it is an Universall disease more common in Venereal and hot Countries where the Women are more salacious thâ—n in cold Regions this Sex being in their temper more cold then men by the heat 〈◊〉 the Region are provâ—â—ed and more hot in pleasure by which themselves and others in conjunction with them are inflamed insomuch that in those places this French disâ—ase proveth Hereditary and is conveyed from Family to Family in the principles of nature as is the Small Pox according to some opinions conveyed in maternall menstruosity And thus I have concluded the discourse of both Great and Small according to my promise FINIS
agree with the curiosity nor reason of a strange Artist shall prove by their custom to be a specifical remedy to those Natives in their own Region as in Holland their butter-milk and apples is their most cordial refershment in all diseases and in all those places and of more esteem then any other remedy and most prescribed by their Native Physicians and if you meet with the prescript of a pickled-herring with an order to prepare it you have then a Probatum in all diseases for there is no full satisfaction given to any of that Nation if these remedies be prohibited And answerably there is a natural adherence in all Nations to their own custom Suum cuique pulchrum the Crow conceiveth her own bird the fairest and so doth the Negro And both man and beast as they have an aliment proper to their own Nature so naturally they elect their own Physick the fowles that feed according to their kind upon corn worms and carrion when they are diseased will seek out stones to cool them and other disgorging remedies they find out as the dog doth grass therefore non omnia omnis fert tellus But of all terrestrial inhabitants the English do most distast the productions of their own Country in Nature and Education which presenteth an invitation to all Nations to supplant and impoverish the Natives and off-spring of our own Country or else inforceth them to stamp a strange name especially upon pieces of Art to make them vendible to the great incouragement of strangers and impoverishing our own Nation amongst whom there may by encouragement be pickt out an equality to the whole Universe the neglect whereof doth as much infeeble the persons as the plants without support answerable to their capacity I have lived a long time amongst divers Nations and according to my time have had as much conversation with all sorts of people and professions and without National indulgence could not apprehend any excellency unmatchable in England especially before these latter Rebellious Ages which was the discouragement of all Artists and suppression of Arts and Sciences and in policy fomented by all neighbouring-Nations for the universall advance of their profit and reputation of their Nation and by their Industry and our own rebellious spirits the Gallantry Honour Education and Antient renown of our own Country hath been sepulted in oblivion And now those Sects of Sadduces that would not entertain the faith of a resurrection are now forced with grief and shame to confesse it and without doubt shall daily see this corruption to put on incorruption and our Nation to return to their former principles more purified by this fiery tryall and to re-erect the Antient Memory and Monuments of all the Antient Professors of Arts and Sciences so odious to the spawn of this last Age some of which were then thankfull they had forgot the Lords Prayer and others that had turned all the Schools of Antient Philosophy into furnaces and luxurious houses for sweating intemperate persons and these are the off-spring of Phacton driving on their fiery Chariot till they have crackt their skulls with their own sublimation of spirits for ayre rarefied must find vent or force it Iohannes Crato is not to be condemned because his Tutor Educated him in Chymistry but to be highly applauded for his non-profession of it upon the uncertainty in the operation quia totum opus constat in regimine ignis and as a Mathematician ought to be a King according to Proverb because of the expence his variety of instruments doth charge him with so ought the operatour to have more money then Learing to fit himself with a furnace for that equall heat which shall without dispute separate his Homogeneals from his Heterogeneals without which Regiment of fire it cannot be effected And this is the reason why every pretender to excellency in Chymistry spendeth his whole industry in the figure of his furnace and though he doth rejoyce and warm himself at his own external furnace yet those infiered spirits of minerals are to the spirits of animals and innate heat as over-powering as the Sun is to all Culine fire which putteth it out and so it hath proved to all operators which have been exact in their office they have been buryed very young in it And this was a great observation of Crato that Paracelsus which proclaimed eternity to himself in this World did not live above 45. years nor the Germane Princess used to those medicall preparations And himself as a Galenist boasteth of living with three Emperours and creating his own Grand-child Doctor of the Chair but all such observations are out of date and superannuated nor can an old man perswade children from playing with fire till they have burnt themselves But more clearly to signifie my own sense in Chymical operations I cannot but approve the employment out of curiosity because it is a great discovery of mixt bodies and their mixture which is a great pleasure to sense but not as medicinal remedies to be acceptable or homogeneal to humane tempers but the preparation of Vegetals without exception exceeding usefull in the composure of medicaments because they are prepared in the womb or furnace of the Earth by a perfect temper of fire and need nothing but a separation from their terra damnata and their tincture very useful And as it is more pleasure to the operator so is it free from danger which cannot be avoided in working upon mineral and metalical bodies as may be observed from Goldsmiths the major part of them being enervated and paralytick before they are of any considerable age of consistency and had they not their remedy always at hand they would be soon ruined and useless in the world The same accidents happen to miners that work in the earth amongst minerals and metals who very often are suffocated or strangled in the place These experiments being undenyable are arguments of sufficient force and demonstration to prove their non-agreement or consent with humane principles but for the advancement of Art and Science adventures must be made and adventures rewarded with respect and applause The Navigator maketh discovery by the light of the Sun in its full splendor but he that searcheth into the bowels of the earth hath no immediate assistance from that planet therefore their discovery is more obscure laborious and dangerous and their reward ought to be more ample And now I return to my proper subject and briefly to the conclusion of this discourse of the specifical internal remedies in this disease of the Small Pox about which there is much litigation and dispute between the Ancient and Modern professors of medicine sufficient to stuff up a Volume of paper therefore I shall upon my own experience and successe recommend to my Country the sole use of Saffron and Milk as a Probatum in this puerile disease and according to the custom of our English Nation without alteration from the beginning to the declension of