above Art the other as besides Art But that I refer to this Art which by a natural course doth perform cures whether by Talismans or by Sympathetical remedies or by proper Medicaments either specifical or universal whether simply used as Nature prepares them or else prepared by the Art of the Physician and that either Chymically or vulgarly And yet Chymistry doth also comprehend the most absolute and perfect Medicaments besides which nothing can be desired for any disease or defect either inward or outward except those accidents which necessarily require the work of the hand as Fractures and Dislocations and pulling out of any thing violently thrust into the body of what kinde soever it be So then we need not any Medicaments which Chymistry doth not supply yet the Art requiring the administration as well as the preparation of the noblest Medicaments it followes that Chymistry is too narrow a Genus to comprehend the whole of Medicine which Art doth being equally referred to Theory and Practick And yet Chymistry is larger then to be totally comprehended by the Art of Medicine for by it are prepared Diapasmes which are in a sort medicinal and sundry curiosities some not at all referring to medicine as the making of Jemmes malleable glasse c. others are referred to Medicine and also transcend it as the Elixir of the wise the white respecting only riches the red both riches and health Yea and this supreme Medicine doth transcend the bare Art of restoring defects of nature in as much as it doth lengthen life wonderfully although I know few do believe it So then the Art of Medicine contains these branches first the knowledge of diseases and secondly the way of their cure And this also contains two parts first the choice and preparation of Medicines and secondly their administration Their administration includes a true knowledge of their virtue and so a proportionable and convenienâ— application of them in reference to the cause of the disease and the state of the Patient And this is universally to bâ— noted that the more languid the medicines themselves are the greater sagacity is required in the Theorical part and care joyned with dexterity in the practick I know that according to the received Doctrine of the Schools I should now unfold many very unprofitable questions but intending the reality of things and not respecting the empty bubbles of Aerial notions I shall not meddle with them I mean questions in reference to the definition and division and subdivision of this Art To proceed then to what I intend I said that Medicine is the Art of knowing curing and restoring all diseases and defects to which mankinde is subject to in reference to the body as Theosophy doth the same in reference to the soul so that next to it this Art hath the first place I express knowing curing and restoring not without cause as I shall by and by explain Knowing I say because without the knowledge oâ— diseases a man may be a Mountebank but not a Physician which knowledge of diseases is as it were his line and plummet by which he works By this he judges the facility or improbability of the cure for though no disease in its kinde yeâ— many particular diseases are incurable as in my Preface I touched and explained nor shall I here repeat There also I did clearly discover what knowledge was absolute and what accidental to a Physician the one constituting the other adorning him the one to be required the other to be desired in him I shall also passe that as already spoken fully to Curing is as much as to say taking care of and imploying diligence about them nor any diligence iâ— not enough or any care promiscuously for the nurse and cook c. do carefully attend the sick party but by cure or care which is all one being but the English of the Laâ—ine word Cura of the Physician is that which is intended to the recovery of the Patient and that with as much speed and safety as may be I add restoring as the grand mark of a real and true son of Art it is his diploma by which he appears to be one created of God and not by the Schools for their creatures they adorn with titles God graceth his with real abilities His knowledge is not such as he sucks from the Schools but such as is applicable to action the other being but empty shadowes of which in its place His cure and care is not consisting only in reiterated Visits feeling of Pulses and tossing of urines Stirring of Close-stooles and appointing Purges Vomits Bleeding Fonsinels Blisters Scarifications Leeches and such enfeebling Martyrdoms nor prescribing Syrups distilled Waters of green Herbs Lozenges Electuaries and such fooleries and what is more sordid he doth not oversee the Kitchin to make this Gelly or that Broth or this Glyster or the like but like a valiant Achilles or Hercules he assayles the Disease with powerful and prevailing Medicines and for the Diet he is not so precise provided alwaies meat be not taken immoderately of any sort and that diet he approves for a sick stomack which is of easiest concoction but of this by the way we shall insist larger on it in its place He doth not cowardly sum up a Catalogue of incurable diseases so that as the ignorant Academians of old had their Graecum est nec potesâ— legi so the School Doctors have a very large roll of maladies over which they only put this inscription Incurabilia sunt and so leave them with a sad recommendation to God But as the valiant Hercules fought against Giants and Monsters and overcame them so a true Son of Art makes it appear that all diseases are in their kinde curable And now my Reverend Doctors who perhaps some of you have read Galen at least cursorily and some have read Hippocrates but never understood him some have turned over Fernelius Sennertus Avicen and others both ancient and modern writers to you I speak The Art that you think your selves masters of so that you would perswade your selves to be the very natural Sons of Aesculapius what is your Art let us weigh it in the ballance let us consider it and compare it with this Art which we commend and admire and I doubt not but as a shadow before the Sun so your appearing Art before true Art will pass away Can you cure the Gout some perhaps of you will finde impudence enough to affirm it to whom I shall only object Fiat experimentum The people deny it according to the Adagy Nescit nodosam medicus curare podagram How then You can cure you will say the running Gout speak softly I pray lest some of your patients hear you and object this And why then did you not cure me 'T will be aâ— serious check But I suppose you much mistake the name and nature of the running Gout the Gout properly and truly is an Arthritical pain affecting the joynts immediately and some
true Artists and to incourage them as you are to hearken out all the vagabond and apostate Chymists and Empericks to make use of their ignorant rash adventures to the reproaching of true sons of Art Basilius Valentinus cures are beyond your cavils notorious so that he dared all the Doctors of his time to the field as I may say nor was he so contemptible a man to have exposed his credit so to derision in making such a challenge had not his cures been notorious Suchten a man of no obscure family and Georgius Phaedro did both promise and perform the cure of diseases counted incurable Count Trevisan in his Treatise de Miraculo Chemico reckons up all incurable diseases which by his Medicine he affirmed that he had cured Paracelsus to the admiration of all Germany did both promise and perform the like as is beyond denial testified of him by an honourable Prince of Germany in an honouble Epitaph for that end set upon his Tomb. Quercetan after him did effect most marvellous cures by this true Art whose testimony the quality of the man may make Authentical Yea so far was he from studying parties that his design was to supply the defects of Art in the common Apothecaries shops which he endevoured in his Pharmacopoea Dogmaticorum restituta in which he did ex ungue Leonem by those commoner things of Chymistry yet far surpassing the ordinary drugs do what he could to incite those who were diligent and judicious to a more serious search after secrets which because he would not prostitute he declared covertly yet nevertheless to a son of Aat plain enough And in our Age the noble Helmont did perform the same to admiration and hath so satisfactorily written of the whole Art in his large volume every where extant that though many snarl and bark at him yet hitherto none hath appeared that durst take up the buckler against him What can you say to these men good Mr. Doctors are their testimonies true or no I suppose this question will prove to you as Christs in the like case did to the Pharisees and Scribes concerning the Baptism of John when he asked them if it were of heaven or of men If you confess it to be true then I aske you why you do not follow them why do you not beleeve them why do you reproach the Art so signally testified If you say it is not true the people will condemn you your own Chieftains will convince you Sennertus Fernelius and many others have been forced to confess that of this Art in its commendation which would make your ears glow to hear it in English And to deal in good sadness How come you to know any thing concerning the Art of Medicine Have you it not from testimony Are not Authors authorities your main pillars suppose your selves to be as you were before you had any practise yet you were dub'd Doctors and what was all your skill then but on credit are not the Herbals but so many collections of the Judgements of such Authors as have written on the subject And are the opinions of some men that you fancy to be believed before the absolute testimony of others What partiality is this What had Galen to induce credit more then Paracelsus Helmont Count Trevisan Valentinus Quercetan and those of his Art whose persons were noble whose learning not contemptible and who wrote not their placits but their experiences not what they thought but what they had done and could do Is a negation to be accounted as an oracle before a positive affirmation Away with this madness If you would desire a reason for the curableness of all diseases I answer the effect is to be the proof of the cause I suppose you are so good Logicians as to know that cause and effect do mutually argue each other If then all diseases in kinde have been are and may be cured then they are curable The assumption is proved by testimonies sufficient by experience and no obscure grounds from the Scripture CHAP. II. The insufficiency of vulgar Medicines is the cause why many Diseases are judged incurable BY the Catalogue of incurable Diseases it may appear what and how many diseases there be which the Doctor confesseth are without the reach of his medicines and method We shall take them at their word who grant indeed that they cannot cure them but that they are not therefore cureable that we have upon good ground denied Now let us consider the efficacy of their method and medicines in other cases which they do account curable and examine what they do perform there But first I shall adde a word or two of serious reproof to them in reference to the former number of incurable maladies in that they to me seem not a little culpable If they would candidly wave the cure of such griefs and deal ingenuously with the fick Patient it were commendable in them as honesty although they should much diminish their reputation thereby But yet though they I mean the ablest of the sect do confesse their unsufficiency to cure such and such maladies yet this notwithstanding if any through ignorance of their abilities come to them in any such case they will not turn him away verifying therein the sordid saying of an unworthy Emperor Dulcis door lucri ex re qualibet And yet for this they want not a shift and a poor one too Although say they we know not certainly to cure it yet we know the causes of it what breeds it and what feeds it these we cannot totally remove but we can so diminish bad humors which is as fuel to it that it shall not be so dangerous nor so troublesom as else it would be also we can apply remedies to abate Symptomes and this Art will do These are good words which if they knew not how to give it is pity but they had been turned to plough when they had been first sent to the School But as good words alone will never satisfie a hungry belly so will it less profit in so difficult a case What our Doctors can do in abating the Symptomes of the Gout the Stone the Epilepsie the Palsie I desire to know and learn nay in a less case then those mentioned in the Quartan Feaver I confess that in the time of misery the Patient oft times will admit of any help real or only promised according to that old saying A drowning man will catch at a straw But the Doctors ready affording to them their help and counsel when called in such and other the like cases and performing nothing in lieu of great fees doth make them justly at last ridiculous so that the name of a Doctor is as contemptible to many of the most vulgar as a Puppet-player and justly for who sees not how sordidly in these cases he behaves himself Let a poor man be taken Paralytical or Epileptical or Leprous or with a Cancer Lupus or the like they will very friendly advise them not
to spend their money for it is in vain nay Hospitals are not to entertain such persons as being out of hope of cure and yet if a great Heroe be taken with any of the like cases no Ravens will flie more greedily to carrion then they to him in this acting very impudently and dishonestly It is not my purpose here to descend to the particulars of diseases this being only an Apology I haing elsewhere largely insisted upon many diseases in particular such to wit which are more common and truculent which I did that ingenious men which have not the happiness to attain to the greater arcanaes may yet have a Succedaneum to them which being of a more precise nature are to be used in some cases only not so commonly and universally in all To return therefore to the thing proposed namely to consider and take a view of the Doctors performances in other cases which they count curable namely Feavers Fluxes Pleurisies c. And first to begin with the Feaver is that I pray you certainly by you cured No verily nay the contrary Truth there are very great varieties of Feavers some are diary and of their own accord end in a fit for the most part here perhaps the Doctor is called and prescribes a ridiculous medicine with a severe diet and the party recovers of the disease which of its own accord would have ceased or at most nature being holpen by a Sage or a Carduus posset and sweat provoked thereby The cause of these Feavers being a light error in the first digestion and not affecting the spermatical membrane of the stomack with any malignant impression is easily avoided by one and that oft no tedious fit and not rarely is expelled by vomit and loosness but most often by sweat When the Doctor comes to such a Patient finding him very ill at stomack restless and oft with much pain in the head very thirsty and with a thick pulse he for the time appoints him some cooling Julip and perhaps some simple Cordial and by this means hindering natures indication the party who after a sound sweat would the next day be pretty well is like a sea-sick man though the rigor of the former day be abated yet he is untoward with a dejected appetite and somewhat Feaverish then the Doctor prescribes a purge to carry away as he saith the peccant matter and in a word handles the case so artificially that he will make a fortnights cure of it sometimes twice as long This then he accounts a great cure and to make it the more esteemed he will make it costly enough the Apothecaries Bils oft times in such cases rising to five sometimes to ten pounds and the Doctors Fees to as much when as the disease at the first taking in hand was but a plain Diary though before the Doctors making an end it be by his rules of Art changed into a Synochus Nor may this seem a false imputation for I have known the like done where no Feaver hath been before yet the Doctor by his Art of preventing diseases hath not only caused disease but also promoted it so far that by it all future maladies have been certainly prevented and the grave hath covered his error A Gentleman of my acquaintance in London some three years past in the Autumn was asking me what I would advise him for the purging of his body to prevent diseases malignant Feavers being thâ—n common I demanded of him what moved him to desire Physick he told me indeed he found no disorder in his body but thought it were good to use Physick notwithstanding for â—revention sake I told him that Christs rule therein was not to be â—ontemned viz. That the whole â—eed not a Physician but such who â—re sick and advised him if he were well to keep himself well but he would needs take the advise of a Doctor and some gentle thing to cleanse his body hoping by it to be the less subject to the disease of the time He advised with one without exception of as great fame and note as any in London who hath heaped up riches out of the ruines of several persons and families and for doing it with a grace hath with them gotten a name he adviseth him to a gentle Purge which being taken wrought little or not at all whereupon the next day finding himself little the better the Doctor prescribed him a Purge somewhat stronger for said he the humor is melancholick and so not easily removed this purge wrought throughly so that at night he had little rest and the next day was Feaverish which the Doctor handled so well that iâ— ten daies he rid him both of his Feaver and his life Another Doctor of no less note about two years since came to a Gentlewoman of good quality who had sormerly been his Patient and was at that time in good health only desirous for prevention sake to purge which he directed her to do prescribing a Purge which working not at all he advised another of greater force this wrought about 16 or 20 stools and in the night began to work afresh nor ceased the Doctors skill notwithstanding till in three daies it fully cured her of all infirmities present and to come No marvel then since they are so dextrous in causing diseases where none were and managing them till by them is made an end of all worldly miseries if they being called to a diary can artificially turn it into a Synochus according to the Adagy Facilius inventis additur quà m uova inveniuntur If I were minded here to insist on instances I might spend more time then this Apology will admit I shall therefore pass on to theâ— matter in hand namely that the Doctor with all his medicaments which the Apothecaries shops afford and his so much adored method to boot is not confident of the cure of any one disease nor can be assure his Patient thereof So then if there be any accidentall distemper befallen a strong man or woman there he will tamper like a tinker who seldome mends a hole till he makes it twice or thrice as big that so he may account so many the more nailes so the Doctor will not spare to play booty between Nature and the disease till it be aggravated to what height it is possible for nature to bear and then he withdrawes his hand and expects the Critical day to wit to see what end nature will make in the mean time to the disturbance of her as much as he can he forbids all meat and drink but his cookery every day peeping in the urinal and feeling the pulse and prescribing this or that slop for a Cordial if the Patient die then he takes himself excused for he proceeded according to the Rules of Art if he recover as God in mercy doth recover many though far less then otherwise through the Doctors help then he reckons this for a cure and prides himself herein whose folly we shall discover fully to
Vid ad Vitam BEING A short and sure VVay to a long Life OR HELMONT JUSTIFIED AND THE Excellency of Chymicall Medicaments Vindicated By George Starkey a Philosopher LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Richard Hall at the Signe of the Golden Ball in Westminster-Hall 1661. To the Right Honourable ROBERT TICHBVRNE Lord Maior of the famous City of LONDON George Starkey a Philosopher by the Fire wisheth all temporal and eternal felicity RIGHT HONOURABLE IT may be wondred at by many and censured by some that I to your Lordship so very a stranger should be so bold as to presume this Dedication and your Honour may perhaps account it as strange if not rash that without pre-acquainting your Lordship I should so venturously undertake to do it The wonder and censure of others I shall let pass as not esteeming either the applause or censure of the vulgar which is as uncertain and as changeable as the winde But for your Lordships dissatisfaction which I only imagine may be caused by this Dedication from him who is meerly a stranger to your Honour for removing of that let me only crave your Lordships patience and I doubt not but to give such rational excuses of this presumption as may reconcile your Honours not offended but perhaps somewhat amused thoughts toward your unknown but cordially honouring servant First therefore let me assure your Lordship that it was not my own motion that incited me to present your Honour with this Tractate although the worth thereof may deserve an honourable Patron for I was sensible what boldness it might be esteemed for me so unknown to your Honour to dare to engage as I may say your Lordship in my quarrel by calling on your Honour to patronize a Polemical discourse on which ground and for which reason I intended to let it pass without any Dedication till at length I was perswaded by a good friend one in command at present in the Army to do what here I undertake be convinced by his solid arguments of the conveniency of the same Among which Arguments the most commanding was when he upon his knowledge of your Lordships inclination having been long acquainted with your Honour assured me how great a lover of Ingenuity and Art he had ever known you and by reason of your accomplished parts how competent and able a Judge of the same which was an unanswerable inducement to me to take the boldness of presenting this to your Lordship as to an able person to censure the same according to its worth and deserts Hereby Right honourable Sir I shall give a greater lustre to the truth for which I contend when I submit and prostrate what I have done to yours Honours judgement for censure and at your feet for patronage confiding so to the truth of what I have written as to assure my self and promise your Honour such a foster childe as will never shame its Patron and doubt not but so long as the Art of Medicine shall continue in esteem which will alwaies be so long as it is of use this short discourse will live with credit and where-ever it is preserved or kept there it will make mention of your Honours worth and desert and will prove a more clear and lasting monument then any statue of brass or Marble For My Lord I am past doubt assured that this small Treatise will be in esteem not in England only but in other Nations as being drawn out of the fountain of most undoubted experience in which though I am severe in reproving common abuses yet is it not without cause as if your Lordships most weighty affairs will permit you so much leisure as to look into the Epistle following and the Book it self you will see most evidently 'T is not my Lord all our Doctors but only such as are so qualified according to what I reprove that I tax and seek to reclaim for several among them to my knowledge are Chymically given as namely Doctor Ridgely Dr. Gurdane Dr. Goddard of Oxford Dr. French Dr. Bathursts Dr. Currar and many others who have chosen the Chymical for the true way and would wholly reject the other were they but Arcanorum Adepti Masters of those secrets which are taught and preparable by true Pyrotechny after which they seek seriously and sedulously only some thinking all Art with them already defend their Method against their knowledge and conscience My Lord who can be a fitter person for this Dedication then your self whose office cals upon you and whose power enables you to minde these things here within your Honours Jurisdiction whose vigilancy and care in your place hath been already eminent in reforming several abuses in this City which by being so long undisturbed could almost have claimed prescription were it not that what is unrighteous cannot claim prescription but the subject of my ensuing discourse is a discovery not of an abuse of selling Beer for which if a man give a halfpenny too much he is only so much the poorer and that is all but it concernes the precious life of thousands and their health a thing so much beyond estate that skin for skin nay all the world if a man had it oft times would he give for to save the same This as it is of high concernment to the sick so ought it to be the principal care of the Magistrate to see that nothing be maintained under colour of Law that may really prejudice and indanger the life and health of any In vain are men secured from injury done to their goods estate credit and liberty while the most precious of all their lives are monopolized and by colour of Patent bought and sold Our Doctors I mean the major part of them maintain a method of medicine which I impugn the Controversie concernes the way of restoring diseases safely speedily and certainly in which your Honour as a chief Magistrate is nearly concerned in vain are theeves and enemies provided against if a Method be by authority confirmed and defended which is of more dangerous consequence as to killing of many actually and immediately of more by not restoring such diseases which may easily be restored were but the right way of Medicine allowed and incouraged What their Method performes is obvious to and the by-word of the veriest rusticks in the Nation and the reason why more cannot be expected from that Method is because it is erroneous and defective dangerous and impotent partly lame and ridiculous partly lamentable and desperate To this Method as a remedy of its defects I have opposed the way of curing and restoring diseases by powerful Medicaments which are adaequate remedies to the causes of the same and have hazarded the cause in hand and my reputation on the trial if they dare to take me up But I expect a more churlish answer by club or fist Arguments that they will endevour to suppresse what they cannot overcome against which violence I humbly entreat your Honours interposition in
Fits four at most unlesse that some Hectical addition be and make the disease harder of cure or the extreme debility of the Patient make him not capable of so speedy recovery and yet so in no long time may the Disease be restored That salivation in the Lues or Tubbing is a dotage and that that Disease may be cured though old in few weeks without either That Gonorrhoea's though virulent may be cured by killing the venome by antidotary remedies in few daies without any purgation save by urine and a gentle sweat That all Fluxes though bloudy may be cured in three or four daies without any Clyster or Purge or the like by appeasing the inraged Archeus of the place which is soon done and the peccant occasional matter will be avoided by urine and ordinary siege as also by gentle sweat insensibly That the true preparation of all Vegetals takes away all the purging virulency and the vomitive quality of them except only in Opium whose deleteriall quality is turned into a strong Diaphoretick curing the Cough and all Feavers and Agues except of the highest graduation which require as powerful Arcana's as the Hereditary Gout or inveterate Epilepsie That Salt of Tartar volatized or made into a spiritual Elixir with any essential oyle is an absolute corrector of all vegetal poysons none excepted and is therefore a key to command the specifick excellency that is in any concrete of the whole vegetable family That this Elixir alone is a better remedy for any either acute or chronical disease then any preparable according to the common dispensatories and therefore that way which furnisheth its sons with thousands of other Medicines must needs be the better way That though Opium corrected after large sweat the next day cause vomit with some only yet it is not to be reckoned among the common vomits because first it works certainly by vomit with none and secondly the same Medicine takes away the vomitive quality in all other Medicines or Simples as Elaterium Hellebore black or white Cambogia c. as also the purgative venomes of Scammony Zalap Rhabarb c. and having corrected them loseth its own vomitive quality together with them That by mean of this key specifick remedies may be had among the nobler vegetals imprisoned as they are under the custody of their virulency for all diseases in kinde though not so speedy and as universal as by means of the great Arcana's yet with care diligence and industry the cures may be as certain and safe though in the extremest diseases in a longer time performed This is a short summary of my following Treatise which I shall maintain and defend against the most stout adversary that either by polemical writings or by actual demonstration and he that will confute me let him overthrow those Aphorisms by argument and by experiment Phillida solus habeto 'T is not unlikely but some captious Antagonist may censure my Aphorisms as ostentatory because many of them do lay down what I promise to be the effect of the Art by me commended and many of them describe Medicines unknown to their sect and therefore such which they neither do nor willingly would beleeve to be in Nature and therefore may think to put all off with a laugh that I should challenge any adversary to fight on ground which for ought they know is only imaginary like the ground in the Moon and against weapons which for ought they will believe are as meerly Romantick as the Knights Errant enchanted spears swords or shields To such a merry Antagonist I might as soon as he hath done his laughing reply in the known verse fit for the purpose â—er risum multum facile est cognoscere stultum But I shall forbear any such aggravating proverbs and come soberly to argue the case and to give an account of my so doing such as to a man rational may be satisfactory Go too my friend Is not the controverred question concerning the true Art of curing diseases you say your Art is the right and the Art professed by Paracelsus Helmont c. and commended by me is wrong I maintain the contrary sentence which sentences of ours being contradictory each to other cannot possibly be both true I to make it appear that I am not ignorant of your way and method oppose your Diaeticall prescriptions as foppish your Bloud-letting Scarifications Vesications Fontinels either by cautery or knife to be cruel needlesse dotages so far are they from being the prescriptions of true Art I oppose your Medicaments as dangerous provoking nature by their venomous virulency as we use to say ad restim and forcing it to play one game for all hoping that possibly for it is no necessary consequence in this commotion of the Archeus by being put into such eminent danger it may forget its former anger through the present fear and in labouring to expell so dangerous an enemy may with it dislodge its former troublesome guest this Art sometimes takes effect and often it makes quick dispatch of both disease and life and therefore is no more to be used according to true Reasons dictate then a man or woman in an Ague or fit of the Gout is to be thrown into a river because fear of drowning or a sudden dangerous fright hath been known oft to cure one and ease the other I have rejected your Cordials Coolers c. as ridiculous barely palat-pleasing toyes and your diet-drinks as non-sensical fortuitous prescripts your Locks Tablets Species Conserves of Fox-lungs c. as only mimical jugling feats to multiply your Fees and swell the Apothecaries Bils Had I done no more I know you would have replyed like Oyster-women and sung your Triumphs with contumelies and reproaches without allowance therefore to cut your Combs before you crow I have propounded the true standard of being each of us judged by and that is by our Work the only true way of esteeming each workman For when I have spoken what I can in behalf of my way and Medicaments and you declamed till your lungs be weary in commendation of your Method this at last will be the searching question to both of us What is the end of my Art and your Method and whether of both doth most good The end propounded to and promised by both is curing and restoring diseases this if your Method can do better then my Medicines it will be applauded notwithstanding my contempt of it and if not it will fall notwithstanding your high commendation of the same In the comparison of way with way and art with art which is better it may be true that both may be good but I have proved your Method to be erroneous your Art untrue and your Medicaments to be only nominally such but really poysons and yet if I had done no more you would I doubt not have recriminated a poor way of answering a Charge though without any proof Now because I did expect from you recrimination I have to anticipate
their sufficiency not their profession It is not then the materials used but the preparation of the materials so as to be able to effect what the Physician promiseth and the Patient expects surely safely and speedily that distinguisheth a true Son of Art from pretending bunglers of which some are more crafty and cautious others more ignorant and rashly venturous yet both more distinct from true Artists then from one another If Nature had made true Medicines ready prepared to hand for every disease that it were no more then to pluck them as an Apple from the tree then indeed a distinction might be made of professors of the Art of Medicine according to the materials wrought upon But contrariwise it is sadly evident that very few Simples are endowed with a medicinal virtue without virulency and those also have their excellency obstructed with the gross feculency which growes together with the spiritual â—incture and as a shell doth hiddenly contain the same so that without some previous preparations few things are worthy the name of Medicaments Now what preparation is usual for vegetal Simples only decoction or infusion or conserving with Sugar or Honey whereby the good is not so separated from the bad but that several crudities remain but of this Helmont hath at large treated I shall not repeat It would be a tedious Wild-goose chase to trace their medicines and refute them for that will be but to agere actum and I intend here an Apology not a charge a defensive not an offensive conflect I shall come therefore to state our Case for till that be done it is a vain thing to contend in words First of all we differ from the Goosquil Tribe in the Theoretical discovery of Diseases and secondly in our Practical cure of them Now as to the Theory of Diseases and the Philosophical contemplation of Simples it is not essential to a Physician for a man may know the remedies with which to cure all diseases and yet erre very much in the discovery of Causes for the remedy being to the disease as water to fire which will undoubtedly quench it as a man may know certainly by water to quench fire and yet erre in the Philosophical appre-prehension of the same so may a man by a proper remedy rightly and in due proportion applyed certainly cure the disease and be able to distinguish the same generally though he be not able to finde our and apprehend the manner of its original with its occasional causes progress and variations Nor let this seem a Paradox for it may easily be evinced against the most snarling gainsayer for consider the forementioned example of quenching fire by water and it may be made unquestionable What rustick that doth not know that water is for the quenching of fire and will give a very near guess how much water will quench so much fire and yet how many of our School Philosophers can assign the true cause of that effect it is not water as water for milk whey wine-vinegar c. will do the same nor yet as cold for hot water and other hot liquors will perform it as well as cold nor yet as moist for oyl and oleaginous moistures being thrown on fire in one measure encreaseth it and in another measure will quench it as a week of a candle or lamp may be drowned with too much tallow or oyle So that in very deed the Philosophical speculation doth follow practical knowledge and experience denominates that science which else would be but bare opinion But of this I speak sufficiently in my large Treatise called Organu Philosophiae novum and shall not in this place repeat what there is sufficiently proved and confirmed Therefore the effects of diseases so far as they are obvious to every observer can instruct any who make it their work to be conversant therein that are of capacity so as to be able to judge and distinguish one disease from another and by the Symptomes to discover if or no it do proceed in the ordinary course of the same malady or if by complication it doth alter and how this is as much as is absolutely requisite for a Physician in the knowledge of diseases for this knowledge doth essentially conduce to the cure but to be able to unfold the quiddity of it its efficient and continent causes the material and occasionate with other curiosities which a Philosopher doth contemplate upon and in which the intellect is occupied this adornes but doth not constitute a Physician So then the absolute things requisite in one who would conscionably undertake the lives of the sick are first to know how to unlock those medicines which the Almighty hath created and to prepare them and after how and when and to whom to apply them and how to order and dispose the Patient so as that he may reap that good from them which by careful administration of them is expected Mistake me not I do not deny nay I confidently affirm that he who is endowed with wisdom from above to be so curious and so diligent in his search as to attain the noble medicines which the Lord hath created for mans relief and unspeakable comfort he if he prove but so observant in the administration as he was acute in the preparation cannot but so far be inlightned from Natures light in these observations as to apprehend the causes of the diseases and their whole quiddity or being which may by arguments à posteriori be collected from their effects as likewise he may be able to demonstrate à posteriori the cause and manner of cures wrought by medicines a work most worthily performed by noble Helmont which contemplation will wonderfully delight a true Son of this Art but yet as I said before this doth follow and adorn not precede and constitute a Physician And this I shall adde that the soul which is a I may say ipse in homine homo when once an effect is apparent and so known as to become a mechanism doth no farther any more reap content from it unless it be in reference to some deduction it gathers from it to the finding out of some new hidden truth nor doth the soul ever feed on it more as upon its object originally directly and in an absolute consideration no more then in the knowing how to make a fire or that the fire will burn boyl dry c. Therefore justly saith the wise man that in much knowledge is much vanity and vexation of spirit but this only as a digression To return therefore we conclude that to a true Physician is required to know if a disease be probably curable and if so then how as for instance the plague-tokens appearing are rightly judged mortal and so may any such state be reputed in which nature will admit of no remedy nor death accept of any truce The careful observer of these things will by experience learn to distinguish between dangerous and desperate cases and so may order
himself accordingly but in impossible cases he shall not meddle CHAP. IV. ANd here me thinks I see a Galenist beginning to frame a reply who after a few course complements doth thus out of his wonted gravity seek to defend his own faction Do not we quoth he the like in effect for we by our Art distinguish between easie dangerous and desperate diseases which we therefore undertake or leave accordingly For if there be only a light distemper as foulness of the stomack or bad humours clogging or obstructing the liver or the like we then by an usual purge or vomit and by bloudletting and glysters remove the same but if the distemper be more violent then by our Method we help that for that is our mystery which the prating Chymists not knowing cannot therefore do that by their medicines which we can by our method which is the master-piece of our Art for we are like to skilful workmen amid a number of tools we know our work and so can as cause presents and as Symptomes do move call in for this or that medicine and as occasion requires we can use external artificial helps when Nature is not in fit case to be provoked by a violent process This is the good old way and it is the safe way But these furnace-mongers would perswade the world that by medicines prepared by their Art diseases may be cut down as it were with a sithe which for all their boasting will not be These with several other things are pretended by them to conceal their ignorance in so blinde progresses But as it is an easie thing to lie hid in the dark the mantle of the night hiding that which the Sun discovers it will not be amiss to proceed to the true course of curing diseases and by it our adversaries will be easily quelled Basilius and Suchten both noble and worthy Artists advise as many as have given their name to Art to be doing and not to contend in bare words for it is as impossible to convince the Galenists with words without works as it was for Christ his Apostles to have convinced the Jewes by preaching without miracles therefore I shall first give you the Character of a true Physician and secondly shew you what his work is A true Physician is he whom God hath qualified with a longing desire to know nature in her operations her integrity and desects and how they may be amended For the attainment of which he doth ask seek and knock with diligence patience and constancy till it be given and opened unto him his heart is not set upon gain but out of charity to the distressed he doth persist in this pursuit of knowledge and the merciful God hears him and gives him what he seeks for then having received his talent he doth not bury it in a napkin but doth improve it untill with it he gain two and with them five and with them ten talents He knowes that diseases are all in their kinde curable without exception death only being out of the power of any man or means the definitive sentence being past irrevocably He laments the sad Catalogues of poor mortals the distressed members of Christ Jesus who flying from the Lion of sickness meet with a Bear in stead of a true Physician who in stead of bread gives them a stone and in stead of fish a serpent and yet these are the fathers of the sick so pretended to be but like old Saturn they devour and make a prey of their children He also that is a true Physician doth not seek fame and honour so much as the good of those he undertakes nor doth he startle at the sad catalogue of incurable diseases which the School Doctors have most shamefully compiled which he by his Medicines is able to overcome as the valiant champion is reported to have conquered the dovouring Monster His work is not to spend his time in turning over of leaves but he makes use of Authors so as not to conclude any thing upon bare reading without trial In a word he so behaves himself as if his great content proposed were whether to be more assiduous in discovering nature or sedulous in conquering diseases of which the latter is the main end he aims at in the former Now I shall briefly discover the objections made by Galenists against this way of medicine and shall so fully answer them that there shall be no scruple left First of all they accuse Chymical Medicines as virulent too hot and therefore unfit to be given as oft in stead of curing encreasing the disease they are say they a little too strong for our constitution being for the most part mineral and metalline or else they are saline which are very sharp and corrosive or of a fiery sulphurous nature which therefore in stead of cooling and refreshing do inflame the body inwardly therefore say they such medicines are dangerous and desperate which if they were not they would as they make their patients believe use them themselves In such discourses you shall have them run at random and their aim in all is to make the sick believe that their medicaments only are gentle safe and agreeable to nature the other forcible violent and desperate which no man but a mad man would take This is to speak the truth the only main objection which Galenists usually produce against Chymical medicines and this they varnish over with many specious colours to make the patient believe that to meddle with a Chymical medicament is no other then to cast out the Devil by Belzebub or according to the old proverb to cure a desperate disease by a desperate medicine Therefore I shall briefly yet fully answer this cavil and so answer it that it may appear to the eye of any judicious man to be but a meer Mormo which the Galenists have invented to scare the rude and ignorant with as nurses use to affright children with tales of Robin Good-fellow Raw head and bloudy bones and the like And first as to the point of Virulency which is a very great Bugbear and enough to deter the most confident Patient if once you can perswade him the remedies he is to take to be of an exquisite virulency for so a very smal error in the dose will hazard the life in stead of conquering the distemper poyson I grant is a dangerous nay a desperate thing to deal with nor is it good to admit of it into the body upon any pretence but that Chymical Medicines are such that is the point in controversie Calvin in his Preface to the King of France in which he defends his Religion from the foul aspersions laid on it by Papists hath this most just plea namely to call for his advarsaries Reasons before he be condemned by their Criminations for if it be enough to accuse who may or can expect to be found innocent So say I our Antagonists raise a great dust concerning poyson virulency and malignity which they pretend
the Impartial Reader 'T is a shameful excuse that Doctors usually make when many die under their hands that they proceed according to the Rules of Art if this Art be worse then the Art of a Tinker or a Cobler For let any of these be called to do any job of work that is in their Trade they will tell you straight if or no it be to be done and undertaking will perform it only the Doctor if called to a sick patient will in lieu of a large Fee tell you what the disease is at least what comes into his minde at the time which he thinks will satisfie an ignorant patient and what is this The sick man needs a Physician not a witness of his misery Well aske him concerning the cure he will tell you that he can promise nothing for the blessing is only in Gods hand but he will do his endevour A religious Answer and as he will garnish it to the vulgar specious but it is is but a visard to hide a grievous imposture For as our life so all our actions are in the hand of God 't is he that buildeth the house else in vain is the work of the workman The husband-mans breaking up his ground sowing his seed and managing his ground even this saith the Prophet is of the Lord He teacheth him and helpeth him else he could do nothing So in God we live move and have our being and when we speak of ordinary natural things to be so cautious in speaking as not to promise any thing without mentioning God is not discommendable but the contrary yet as it may be used or rather misused this may seem not only ridiculous but in a manner an affected taking Gods name in vain as for instance if a man being desired to make a garment should promise not absolutely but with proviso if God permit and give life it is Christian-like but if he desire Gods blessing as to the effect the causes being granted that is ridiculous as if he should say I cannot promise to make you a garment but I wil use all the skill I have and my endevours but it is in Gods hand whether it shall become a garment or no. So if a servant should be bidden to kindle a fire should say he could not promise to do that but he would do his endevour but Gods blessing must give the success how ridiculous were this but much more if for fuel he should take stones and for fire something of a different nature and excuse himself as having done what was on his part but Gods blessing not concurring the effect did not succeed according to desire Not unlike is it in this case a Doctor is called to a Patient taken with a Feaver and first orders him to be let bloud then purged either upward or downward or both waies the disease yet encreasing he gives his cooling Julips pectoral Electuaries Conserves and Syrups withall he prescribes Clysters or Suppositers Lotions for the mouth and such fooleries if notwithstanding the disease continue and grow more violent he then expects the crisis of Nature only he will perhaps apply pigeons or the like to the feet or vesicate the external members for revulsion sake and yet if the Patient die he holds himself excused as having followed the rules of Art and done what was to be done only the success as he saith being in Gods hand he therefore could not help it if God did not see good to make the medicines applyed effectual for the mans recovery But as it is a sad thing that the grace of God pretended should be used as a pander unto wantonness so it is no less hateful that the providence of God should be misapplied as a cover-slut of idleness ignorance and unconscionableness for who knowes not that our life is so in Gods hand as it is ordinarily preserved or lost by the use or want of things proper thereto even hunger it self would be certainly mortal if not appeased by meat appropriated thereto by the appointment of God And if stones were used for food no man would doubt to impute death in that case to the want of food as the immediate cause subordinate to the providence of God so is it in this case And in truth God can but rarely doth work miracles a man rarely is starved to death amidst variety of victuals nor pined for thirst where drink is plenty much less where he both may and doth eat and drink at pleasure So then as to the starving of a man is required want of meat drink or either of them so to the perishing of a man under a Feaver is required the defect of a true medicine or want of timely application It is not every ridiculous slop that is a Medicine nor any promiscuous care of the sick that is the true Art of cure that is a Medicine indeed and the Art of cure indeed which hath a power to perform what the Physician promiseth or the Patient expecteth So then the Art and Medicines which are required for cure and not for pretence are to be related unto actual recovery as a sufficient cause to the effect which is certainly effectual 'T is as naturall and certain for a right Medicine to cure a disease as it is for fire to inflame combustible things for the Sun to give light for water to quench fire and the contrary would be supernatural yea I am bold to affirm that it would be as strange for a true Medicine rightly applyed to miss the cure of a natural disease as for the flame not to consume a combustible object So that for Doctors to pretend that they use the means and that according to the rules of Art but Gods blessing not concurring the effect did not answer expectation is as much as if they should say that God to render their labour and care frustrate doth work miracles daily in denying the natural effect to an adequate cause And if so they may justly fear themselves to be highly out of Gods favour if he will cross and pervert the ordinary course of nature and that daily and commonly to frustrate their endevours or else they must confess the truth as it is namely that their method and medicines are not to be esteemed as an adequate cause to the effect of cure of diseases and then what is their Art but a shameful imposture and cheat of the world I would gladly any of the Galenical Tribe would salve this Argument by resolving the world to what diseases their Art Method and Medicaments are adequated causes in respect of cure and reference to recovery if to any then in such diseases they may as confidently warrant the effect as a Gunner to fire a Gun that is charged with good powder and he with a lighted linstock in his hand nor is it presumption in the one more then in the other but alas is it not evident that if a Doctor be called to a sick man though at the beginning of
the disease and in his full strength yet he can promise nothing but to do his endevour as the man doth who according to the Proverb thresheth in his cloak whence it appears that when ever any one recovers he doth it only through Natures benignity and not by any art of the Doctor who could not warrant the cure much less how soon it would be effected Fie on that Art which alone of all Arts in the world can not dare not will not warrant to perform what it undertakes when as the most hazardable Art of all Agriculture and the Mariners Art are usually warranted yet we know that the winds which are the directors and accomplishers under God of the Mariners design blow where they list rarely trade and the crop of the husbandman if the early and latter rains do but fail either impared or else quite frustrated yet both one and the other are warranted by the undertakers on penalty of loss of all their labour and cost at the least and oft times a voyage by Sea is warranted by Merchants for a small inconsiderable gain to be paid to them at adventure in lieu of which they will repay the whole if lost only the Doctor is of another minde for he will be paid at adventure nor will he warrant any thing in lieu of his payment but to do his endevour which is a ridiculous cheat of the sick both of their money and lives If a Taylor when cloath is brought him should demand pay at a venture and yet not promise to perform his work but only to do his endevour even the Doctor himself would think him as well deserving his wages as they in Lubberland deserve twelve pence by the day for sleeping but especially if such a Taylor should spoyl the cloth so brought him by cutting it into shreds in stead of making it into a garment and do thus ten times for once making a garment and yet exact his pay how like a knave would this acting be and yet how like a Doctor who never doth otherwise Contrariwise a Son of Art he confidently undertaketh a disease and as certainly performes what he undertaketh he comes armed with powerful Medicaments and not with a simple impotent method which are as effectual to the person that is sick for his recovery as water would be for the quenching of fire not that he attempts any thing without the blessing of God for he acknowledgeth it a great mercy of him first to have provided such Medicines in Nature for such maladies and secondly in revealing them to him for the help of mankinde and lastly in bringing him to those who finde help by him for otherwise where God intends a disease shall be fatal to any he with-holds the means from him either totally or so long till it be too late to recover him For although the consequent which is drawn from the cause to the effect be certain and undeniable yet the cause may accidentally be frustrated of its effect by accident yet so that the cause doth not cease to be a cause notwithstanding I might instance in all generations which by accident may be hindred the fire may not burn what is combustible if by accident that be made too wet so water will not quench fire if the quantity be too little so a man cannot be cured by a medicine if already death be possest of the principal parts or if the party be not sensible and so will not take it otherwise it cannot be but that a medicine indeed must work its effect else it is no Medicine But here it will not be amiss to answer a cavil I doubt not but some adversaries will object to me as of old was objected to Paracelsus Do you cure all Do none die of your Patients To these I shall answer that indeed all do not recover and yet the truth of what I say nothing infringed for against all diseases there is a remedy but against death none that only is out of the reach of all medicines Now if God hath numbred a mans daies and finished them it is not to be objected to the disgrace of a Medicine that it cannot prevail against the irerecoverable decree If that were all that were to be objected against the Galenists method and practise we should never finde fault with them for it is appointed to all men once to die and all our daies are numbred every man is not to live ad aetatem decreâ—itam But with all this we say that though our Medicines cannot triumph over death yet against the miseries of life They will prevail over the disease even there where recovery of life is impossible and therefore a true febrifuge will refresh abate Symptomes compose and bring to quiet even there where the seat of life is possessed by death which is a levamen though not a restauratio Sometimes the stroke of death deludes with the face of a disease at least shewing some of the common usual symptomes of a Feaver not easily to be discerned and that because it is as we say preter spem Not hoped for and so not so easily beleeved according to the Adagy Facile speramus quae fieri volumus facilius quod speramus credimus And so on the other hand what a man would not have he is not apt to believe Adde to this the commiseration we have to those that are afflicted and in sickness which would make us desire to be instrumental in any thing which is for their recovery And lastly if a man do doubt the worst yet it is not good to affright the Patient with his jealousies which leave a deep impression on his spirit and make the hope if any were oft times desperate To conclude as nothing is without a cause and therefore diseases are curable because Medicines are endowed by God with such a virtue so that some particular diseases are excepted from the rule of the generals there are particular causes of which it is most true Faelix qui poterit rerum dignoscere causas Yet a Son of Art by his Medicines is able to cure what is curable which all diseases are in their kinde though sometimes the disease being heightned almost to its utmost period before he is called so that death having conquered the chief places will not accept of any truce sometimes the party is struck with deaths stroke at first which causing a commotion of the Archeus disdaâ—ning to be so overmastered by its adversary doth appear like unto an ordinary acute disease yet without possibility of cure unless by his power who can raise the dead sometimes the patient hath undergone so much of the Galenical Tribes methodical Butchery that he hath not strength left to help the Physicians Medicines nature having been so exhausted that for want of strength it faints under its load nor hath it strength sufficient left to co-work with the Medicine and sometimes the defect of the highest Arcana which every true son of Art cannot command doth make
is evident where phlebotomy purgatives are very dangerous nay desperate by which it may be strongly concluded that if in the Plague the Smal pox and Pestilential Feavers phlebotomy a loose belly and cooling drinks are of very bad consequence so to wit as to cause death in many to indanger life in all that then the same things can not in reason be of good effect in any Feaver which brings me by the hand to the discovery of my method and Medicines for the cure of this disease the better to compare it with the way commonly practised by which both of them the better may be judged of and censured For Feavers are of sundry sorts either continual or intermittent The continual are various of which the saddest is the Plague next the Smal-pox next the pestilential Feaver next the malignant which is scarlet purple c. to which may be reckoned the Pleurisie which is a real sort of Feaver more violent by reason of an Apostemated matter threatned in the side of which it hath its denomination this accompanied with a cough and spitting of bloud with a tormenting pain is thought incurable without Phlebotomy and so the vulgar are perswaded by Doctors and Chirurgeons though very falsly Intermittent Feavers are of several sorts either Ephemerial or Tertian or Quartan of which the two last sorts are either single or duplicate and lastly there is the Erratick intermittent Feaver called by Paracelsus Febris extranea of all which are so many appearances that it would require a large Treatise to describe all the kinds of this disease But as for the cure or rather the way and means of restoring this kinde of disease therein the Galenical Tribe and I differ very much we only agree in the names and symptomes of the same concerning which let it not be objected that I leave out the names of Feavers Hemitritean c. since it is not my design in this place to make a curious Anatomy of that disease in its kindes according to its various Symptomes performed both learnedly and acurately by many Galenists as Fernelius and others who being professed Methodists were yet honourers of Chymical Medicaments as their writings do testifie which were a work of a peculiar Tractate to perform And to say truth the disease is sufficiently known being so common and so truculent that not only a Doctor but each ordinary Nurse can tell when a man or woman is Feaverish although to know certainly the kinde of each Feaver is a task sometimes too hard for a professed Doctor and yet that may be known and the disease as far from cure as before therefore well said he who sang thus Non opus est morbi testibus at medico To the certain safe and speedy cure of which malady I shall now come and that not perhaps without great expectation which I shall do my endevour to answer to the ingenuous readers satisfaction In order to which task I shall premise some positions by way of Aphorism very true and certain however contrary to the commonly practised way of the Schools 1. That the heat which appears in some nay most Feavers is not originally from the nature of the Feaver This appears first in intermittent Feavers commonly known by the name of Agues among us in which the cold fit in each access is of the most afflictive part of the distemper and torments with a violent thirst yet without any sensible heat But nextly all malignant Feavers some more some less begin with a sensible internal cold and a quivering or shaking withall after which followes burning Thirdly Castrensian or Camp Feavers a kinde of Feaver but lateâ—y known among mankind from â—he beginning of them to the end of â—heir Tragedy are without either thirst or heat and yet as truculent as any malignant Feaver whatever Adde to this that all Feavers when they draw towards a conclusion abate of their heat although the disease be more violent then as drawing nearer to death To which agrees that the Feavers of old persons and such who are of very weak decayed bodies manifest far less heat and burning then far milder Feavers do in strong vigorous bodies and lusty constitutions and that leads me to the second conclusion or Aphorism 2. That the more sensible the party affected is of heat and burning the more strength he may bejudged to have and the better probability of his recovery For it is the Archeus of the life whence this rage proceeds being provoked by some accidental matter whence the first offence doâ—â— arise or from some Ideal characteâ— instamped upon the seat of life or some near adjoyning sympathizing part either by mean of a virulent endemical fume or exhalation or of some passion of the minde which by its tyrannical impression doth disturb the seat of life that is its own original habitation the soul and life being originally seated in one and the same part whence is caused this or that disease according as the passive part doth receive the injury For it is not necessary that a Feaver should finde alway an occasional matter ready prepared since it is evident that grief fear c. have power to give originall being to this disease and so an eminent cold especially after being throughly warm which without controversie only inrage the Archeus by instamping an unusual Character on its place of habitation and so consequently follow febrile excrements which had not being before The vital Archeus is that Vulcan in man which doth stir up and feed that heat of life which from the first hour of life till death goes never out which in health is orderly and regular but being provoked rageth according to the known rule Idem agens laesus edit actiones laesas qui sanus edit actiones sanas Proportionable therefore to the provision for life is the virtue and strength of the Archeus whose rage in burning in Feavers is nothing else but a gathering together its forces to expell its adversary that is to blot out that character which either cold or virulent fumes or passions of the minde have instamped on its place of habitation and so proportionable to the strength of nature is the burning in such cases and this leads me to my third conclusion 3. That bloud-letting and purgations and cooling drinks are unreasonable waies to be used by him that pretends to cure Feavers For Nature only is the immediate helper both of Feavers and all diseases which assail the life primarily and in their first intention now if the provision for life be the subject cause of heat in Feavers what ever is intended primarily against heat must impugn the subject principle of life and this is the master-piece of the Galenists method namely to take part against nature to whose help alone they are called by the sick Patient That the life is in the bloud is most certain and by how much of it is taken away by so much is the vitall Balsam wasted and therefore very unwisely taken
better retentive faculty in his hinder parts I could wish all posterior-fumblers so served to teach them a little more wit while they pretend to so much judgement and skill Purges then and justly we reject as dangerous febrile medicaments at some times or rather desperate alwaies as purges intended to the destruction rather of the man then of his disease of which not without cause said the noble Helmont Reus sim coram Deo nisi prorsus suasero à purgantibus abstinendum And as for Clysters they are the silly Non plus ultra's of our Bumprognosticators a dotage that it is enough to name it when to wit the Doctor by his information findes a distemper in the head stomack spleen or kidneys of the sick or ill affected Patient he by his profound Art findes out this remedy The Apothecary is ordered to make a caudle for the Arse-gut this luke-warm is tyed up in a bladder not without some superstition for fear some wind be tyed up with the liquor and so through a small pipe it is conveyed up at the fundament with promise in some cases of wonderful effects O brave Doctors O sweet Method This O this is one of the main pillars of your adored method and as universal a prescription as any next to diet to which it is is not inferior for its common and general application whence you may worthily be stiled the Glyster-pipe family or tribe In defence of Purgatives I know much may and will be said and that partly from experience and partly from the writing of the Adepti I shall therefore not pass over that because many ingenious men may be concerned in the Resolution of it And first for the Arcanum Corallinum which is Paracelsus Diaceltatesson and is Mercury precipitated by mean of the Liquor Alchahest and corallated by the water of whites of Egges and is purgative by siege and a most certain cure for all Feavers Agues Pleuresies c. yea the Hectique it perfectly restores as also Dropsies with all Ulcers inward and outward and the venereal distemper with the Gout c. and its operation is purgative and that certainly and constantly so long only as the patient is ill and no longer To which I answer that first it cures not qâ—atenus purging by siege for the Horizontal gold which is the same essentially with the Mercury corallated cures all the forementioned distempers yet without purgation by stool and the same doth the Ladanum or sweet oyle of Mercury which is Helmont and Paracelsus true Ladanum without Opium which is only Mercury cohobated so oft and long by that fiery liquor till it be all made volatile and then the sweet oyle or tincture of the Sulphur separated from the central Mercury is the Ladanum of Mercury curing universally all diseases in tono unisono as Helmont speaks yet without purging by siege So then this purgative virtue that is in this Corallatum Mercurii is a specifick power given to it from God by which it looseth the belly not promiscuously but only to sick parties and that only so long as the disease remains but it is not on that score that it cures the Gout Pox c. but by virtue of its resolutive power by which it penetrates all the digestions which are capable of excrements resolves all preternatural Coagulation in what place soever it is as also all extravenated bloud which after by a peculiar priviledge it causeth to be expelled by stool and sometimes by vomit which is accidental to the cure The same may be said of an Antimonial Panacaea which I know and is a certain cure for Agues Feavers and Pleuresie and is only purgative by siege for obtaining which many that I am acquainted with have been long courting Nature in vain the effect of curing such and such diseases is not to be attributed to the purgative quality but that is an acdent following the effect of cure not necessarily as its cause for the purgative virtue may be taken away in this Panacaea and it made an insensible Diaphoretick with no less success rather greater then while it had a solutive virtue Yet here by the way take notice of a true or right Purge it is not like to Scammony Colocynthida Jalap c. which intuitu veneni work promiscuously on all that shall take them diseased or no for a true Purge of which a Son of Art need not be ashamed will never purge ought from a sound body but work only on such as are diseased and that only so long as the disease lasts such is the Diaceltatesson of Paracelsus and such is this Panacaea of Antimony of which I now speak Now as concerning the purging vegetable poysons commonly known by the name of Purges their name contains a meer imposture and their manner of working deceives many and those learned and ingenious men For they by their fermental virulency do infect the bowels which being sensible of their hostility do weep forth their nutritive moisture together with the Latex alwaies at command on such an occasion which receiving the venemous impression are by the heat of the body cadaverated and cast forth in various colours according as the nature of the poyson is This with gripings of the bowels and a nauseous sickness at the stomack is the effect of the commonly named purges or rather poysons for so they are indeed and this is a main pillar of the pompous fabrick of the Galenists so adored Method For it is natural not only to the bowels but to all the exquisitely sensible parts if offended to weep forth a large quantity of moisture to wash away that character or impression made as the eyes by smoke the nose by sternutatories the mouth by Pellitory and so the stomack and bowels by Asarum Colocynthida Jalap c. which moisture is partly the Latex ready at call and partly the alimentary humour of the part offended and the judgement given upon the excrements so rejected is as sottish as if a man should throw pepper or salt into a mans eyes and then bless himself to see how they water which if let alone would have been well enough So that the matter cast forth by excrement is not what was before in the body but what was at the time made by the poyson and if ought chance to be avoided which was before excrementitious it is by meer accident it being the nature of the poyson given to work only on what is vital with which if ought that was offensive be cast out let not the Doctor boast of that for being but accidental and so hazardable so great mischief as is threatned by giving poyson into the body is not to be adventured in hopes of a casual good But moreover I shall give the studious Reader to understand that in many vegetable Simples under the mask of virulency great and noble virtues are hidden which are kept by the poysonous appearance from rash hands as the apples of the Hesperides were feigned to be
Felicem illum Medicum qui novit lethalia ab Opiâ— separare cum retentâ potestate agendi in Duumviratum Happy is that Physitian who knowes how to separate the deadly qualities which are in Opium so as that it may retain its vertue of acting upon the Duumviratus For this Simple thus corrected by its innate specificated quality doth work on the seat of life pacifying the Archeus without the least stupefaction but rather keeping the Patient awake and provoking sweat either moderate or more strong as the strength of the party is and the malignity of the disease Thus it extinguisheth all defluxions called catarhs and on that score is a certain remedy for fluxes either bloudy or not all Coughs not brought to their highest exasperation or most intimate rooting in a word it resolves by sweat and urine the cause of many diseases which are not too deeply fixed and where it will not reach only a great Arcanum will To be brief many diseases carrying the face of an Ague or the like distemper may sometimes be beyond this Medicines cure yet even in such it will give ease and where it will not throughly extinguish the malady there let higher Arcana's be used Of all Vegetable remedies corrected this only that I know works by vomit which with some only it causeth the next day after its taking I usually advising it after a very light supper to bedward last because it is Diaphoretick and the next morning it causeth a spontaneous vomit with little sicknesse or nauseousnesse It binds the body for most part and so not at all times to be administred but with other advise added to supply what is defective in it 't is splenetick in operation and an admirable remedy against wind in the stomack or bowels as also against Hypochondriatick melancholy The same way Hellebore corrected is a noble remedy against lingring Quartans and so I could instance in very many Simples but that time will not permit my enlargement here Only this for a close I shall admonish that this Key being had the noble Energy of all Vegetables will be at command without the least footsteps of virulency and so a man may be his own experience with very much safety trie and satisfie himself of what my experience will not permit me to write nor will my time allotted allow me to mention so far as my experience hath gone And by the way as an admonition to our wise Masters of this science I shall mind them that in the whole Vegetable Family there is not a simple comparably so Diaphoretick as Opium which they account of all Vegetables the most cold in which let them learn from me that the Narcotick virulency may be separarated without altering the specifick vertue in the least and then it is anodynous with much pleasure to the Patient and a help for great maladies giving ease and comfort in most but prejudiciall in none save only an obstinate costivenesse it being the specifick quality of that medicine to bind the belly which it doth in most yet so as to appear like a purge to some but those very rarely In Zalap Rhabarb and all purgative Medicines so called or rather vegetall poysons it takes away the virulency totally without the least remain of the same and is then either Diaphoretick or Diuretick or rather both without any molestation to the Patient and thus a certain remedy for all acute and many Chronicall not too highly graduated maladies If any then demand of me an account of my mystery and method I answer By the Symptomes I judge of the disease and according to the strength of the Patient and the rigor of the distemper I order my medicines accordingly Acute diseases and many Chronicall not too highly graduated I cure by the Elixir of volatile Tartar alone given in Wine or else specificated with some Vegetable as I see occasion And with the blessing of God can promise the Patient cure to teir comfort and perform it to my own credit But where either the disease iâ—â—oo high or Nature too succumbent there I volatize Sulphurs by essentiall Oyls and make them into Elixirs and after give them a specification from restorative aromatick Balsoms And yet beyond this there is a way to make such a spirit of Tartar which is second to none but the great Dissolvent of which I shall not speak here having already transgressed the bounds prefixt to this Treatise and besides in my other Treatise concerning the Art of Pyrotechny it is fully handled and with as much candor as can be expected I shall at present conclude adising the Captious Reader either to mend what I have done or to forbear his censure and the studious Artist I shall advise to go on in â—is begun task with cheerfulnesse aâ—d diligence for true Medicine is a sâ—rious and weighty matter according to the Poet Facillo descensus Averni Sed superas evadere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus est FINIS Lector vive vale si quid scis rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum