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
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
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
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
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
any water being circulated three moneths with an occult and secret circulation it is wholly turned into a volatile Salt of which elsewhere he saith that it is a noble remedy for the Palsy Epilepsy c. And in another place where he teacheth in defect of the Alchahesticall preparation to sever the Sulphur from Paracelsus Metallus masculus that is Spelter and is the Sulphur Glaure Augurelli and to cohobate it with Oyl of Mace Anise or Therebinth till it all come over the Helm in a fetid Oyl and then to circulate it with an Alcali as it ought to be till it be turned into an Elixir of volatile Salt and after to take away its fetor by rectifying it with good Spirit of Wine this he commends and justly for a cure of very many if not most or all chronicall diseases For explication of which Doctrine let me admonish the Reader that Salt of Tartar or any Alcali may be made severall wayes volatile and each way yeelding noble medicaments yet one way far nobler then other Now of all wayes that is the most inferiour which is done by Oyls as Helmont well notes that of all Salts those are most languid which contain the vita media of Sulphurs which he calls Sulphurum â—rosapiam cap. 3. de Duelech and therefore these Elixirs do follow the name of the Oyl by which they are made and are called Sal volatile or Elixir volatile Cinamoni Macis Nucis Myristicae Therebinthinae c. according as the Oyls are by which the Alcali is made fugitive and though they are noble medicines yet are they Specificks subordinate much to universall Arcana's to which Helmont equalls and that justly the Spirits of Salt of Tartar which are by a far more secret Arâ— preparable Such are the volatile Salts made of Cephalike Herbs as Rosemary Sage c. which are commended by that Philosopher only as particular remedies in Feavers yet such that if given in due time before thâ— fit in intermittents on a fasting stomach or at any time in continuaâ— Feavers and sweat be provoked they will never put a faithfull Physitian to derision Therefore I give all ingenuouâ— Artists to understand that Alcalie are noble Bodies ordained by God for great uses to mankind and may be handled as the artist pleaseth Many simple Mechanists know â—o take Oyl expressed and with the â—ixivium of Alcalies to boyl it into 〈◊〉 Sope which is a Tertium neurum from both the Oyl and the Alcali But when they have done â—his they know not how to proceed further with it nor do our moâ—ern Philosophers although they â—hink themselves wise men This is the lowest and most infeâ—our way of preparing Salts viz. â—ith exprest Oyls which contain â—uch heterogeneity in them and â—re full of fuliginous vapours as â—ay appear by their speedy growing â—ancid especially if once heated yet â—otwithstanding in their union with Alcalies there may be much of â—hilosophy learned if it were but â—uly considered and the effect ponâ—ered with its causes Yet this I must say that though the making of Sope be the utmost of the Sope-boylers work it is but the first step of the Philosophers work and indeed is but an Abortive in Philosophy caused by violent decoction by which the Oyl and the Salt enter each other in some measure but do not radically penetrate each others profundity as I shall by instance make to appear For let the best Sope be distilled with an acute water stinking of an Empyreum will distill of an high coloured fetid Oyl of a greenish ceruleous colour to view in a glasse The Caput mortuum being elixated by warm water will give an Alcali fixed as before though giving an high coloured Lixivium but the quantity both of Salt and Oyl less then what was taken to make the Sope and therefore considerable part of both in this decoction into Sope are turned into an Aqueous Liquor which being redistilled according to Helmont's prescription from a fixt body becomes insipid like to elemen all water leaving the volatile Salt that was in the Spirit coagulated upon the fixt Body By which it is evident that the Oyl and Salt had not ingresse to each others profundity and therefore part of each are separable from the other the Salt in its Alcalizate and the Oyl in its unctuous nature by which may be concluded that a centrall ingression was not made of each into other But as for essentiall or distilled Oyls as of Therebinth Mace Nutmeg c. they by reason of their volatility not abiding decoction are with difficulty made into a Sapo although by Cohobation upon a Lixivium they will yeeld a Collostrum like to Tarre in colour which will have the whole taste and smell of the Concrete and the Oyl that distills over will be of little vertue being thus robbed of its specifick odor and taste this Collostrum will dissolve in part either in water or spirit of Wine leaving part that will not dissolve much like to Shoo-makers waxe of this operation some make a secret but it is only triviall for though by it dissolved in Spirit of Wine a good medicine may be made against wind in the stomack yet it is not the Elixir of volatile Tartar but a certain substance of the Oyl made by the fretting of the Lixivium in decoction and swims upon the Lixivium nor will be made by any industry to mixe with it the Lixivium then is highly tincted and possibly by long cohobation there might be made an union but my patience would never suffer me to persist to see the utmost of that operation especially when I knew a better way For to be ingenuous I tryed severall wayes in pursuance of volatile Alcalies which upon Helmont's commendation and Paracelsus also I highly valued and next to the great Dissolvent made them my search which I assayed to make severall wayes which would be tedious here to tell of 'T is enough for the Reader that he know that it is not sufficient for him to be able to make a Sapo with Salts and Oyls for that is easie in exprest harder in distilled Oyls and at the best but trivial forasmuch as the best Sapo being distilled by a graduall fire will give besides a Spirit smelling of an Empyreum an Oyl of a strong sent and a Salt in the caput mortuum Alcalizate and fixt which shews that this operation is but an abortive birth in Philosophy nor is the spirit thus got by distillation that noble spirit of Tartar of which Helmont and Paracelsus glory but it is a spirit in which is very little of the nature of the Alcali and that but very languid the nobler parts of both Oyl and Salts being for want of union each with other separable in their former nature and qualities There is therefore a way far more secret by which is made not a Sapo but a Salt in form of Sugar-candy liquable in water or Wine and volatile in which are these notable and very remarkable