ferment by its incisive acidity penetrates rarefies volatiseth the food and transmutes it into Chyle or white juce That which before was fixed gross hard or tough is made Volatile rare and fluid which having obtained that praevious digestion and perfection proper for that place the lower orifice of the stomack opens and gives it emission sending it to the next Office of digestion for a new impression Contrary to this doctrine have the ancient Physitians asserted and built upon as a sure foundation that heat is the principal efficient cause of digestion being induced to this opinion from the similitude of artificial concoctions and digestions And finding humane bodies to be actually hot supposed by increasing of natural heat to fortifie the digestions and that the difference of digestions in several persons or the same person at several times did depend and vary from the degrees of heat its debility and fortitude but upon a due examination you will find it otherwise and from the strength of reason be forced to conclude with me thus 1. That heat is a chief agent in the artificial preparation and praevious digestion of meat before it be received into the stomack whether in rosting boyling baking c. but not in the natural digestions of the body For nature in its principal operations works not primarily by the signatures and concomitant effects of life as heat but by vital principles as efficient primitive causes 2. That the changing of food into Chyle is a fermental transmutation from a vital principle not an impression of a subordinate instrument 3. That digestion in humane bodies is accompanied with heat though not the proper effect of heat 4. That internal natural heat by its own power and peculiar efficiency makes not a digestive transmutation but is a concomitant of vital operations contributing instrumentaliter equivocè to various effects and is subservient in the several digestions distinct from each other 5. That extraneous and additional heat does excite the vital principles to operation and is asistant instrumentaliter excitativè in performance propter symbolum qualitatis 6. That heat quatenus heat acts univocè alwaies producing the same effects but as it is the instrument of various efficient causes concurs in the production of various heterogene effects as also in respect of divers objects upon which it acts 7. That the variety of heat in several bodies are but gradual differences but diversity of digestions are from formal distinct proprieties 8. That the gradual difference of heat in divers persons or in the same person at several times do signally testifie the ability of the vital principles in their vigour à priori in their essential causes or à posteriori in their manifested operations Claudicari to be impedited or depraved accidentally 9. That heat acts not as principle instrumentally in the stomachical digestion but subordinately inferior to a superior manifest quality more immediately the organ of the vital principle or primitive cause of digestion For heat may be sufficient yea abound and digestion weak or depraved as in Feavers but the other cannot be in its rectitude and vigorous but the digestive faculty must be strong and unblamable 10. That veriety of appetites suting with and desiring some kind of meats but refusing and rejecting other as dissentaneous and disgustful ariseth from the peculiarity and singular propriety of stomachical ferments and not the gradual diversity of heat For that which is principal in operation is also principal in election of the proper object of that faculty embracing and coveting what is most suteable and agreeing but repugning and shewing aversion from what is discordant and disagreeing by an innate power and prerogative as supreme moderator of that faculty 11. That the digestive faculty in fishes being of another region is not accompanied with heat because their vital principles do differ toto genere from land creatures And therefore heat is not necessarily required as a principal agent or instrument in digestion but shews it self as a distinguishing character of vitality yet not vainly or bare so but usefully where it is Hence it appears from these theses with their connexd reasons that heat is not the primary efficient cause of digestion but an emanative accident or characteristical concomitant of vital principles instrumentally subservient in the digestive faculties and therefore I must rest upon another basis more firm in reason and assign a vital principle the parent of digestive transmutation specifically distinct in every digestion which that you may the better understand what they are I shall divide and distinguish them into these following propositions 1. That the primary efficient cause of digestion is the ferment of that digestive Office which is a vital principle endowed with a transmutative power by way of similitude astral or influential discharging its vertue upon the object matter to be wrought upon or digested 2. That the several digestions have peculiar distinct ferments acting subordinately in their own stations until aliment be brought to its heigth of perfection for nutrition of the body 3. That these ferments are primitive essential causes and therefore à priori indemonstrable but discover themselves à posteriori in their distinct operations and effects 4. That the impressions of the several ferments upon their alimentary objects are so distinct that their productive alterations are alien dissimilar and opposite yet conducing to one ultimate intention the nutrition and conservation of the body 5. That the producted alteration of the precedent digestion if not subdued changed by the subsequent in its passage is hostile injurious and a morbifick cause if it submit not to the power and government of that Office through which it hath transmission by receiving the transmutation and character of the place So the acide cremor of the first digestion is changed into a saline nature in the second else gripes in the bowels and fluxes do ensue 6. That the emanative influential power of the ferments is absconded in their causes because vital principles but detected by assuming similar homogeneous manifest qualities subservient to their intentions and instrumental in their operations do shew the diversity of their natures and what they are 7. That the instrumental qualities of digestion are indisposed and unfit by their intention or remission being vitiated and depraved from their own natures and proprieties by improper discordant food carrying in their natures alienating and hostile qualities or similar qualities in excess advancing the fermental qualities to a luxuriant injurious exaltation As pricking and gripes in the stomack from acide juices as of lemmons c. 8. That errors in digestion may arise from the depravation enervation and decay of the ferments or the indisposition of their instrumental qualities and organs by which they act or the intractability discordancy and unfitness of the object matter to be wrought upon 9. That the vital Principles by provocation from unnatural bad Customs are thrust and enforced from the constancy and
regularity of their operations thence grow disordered debauched and habituated in disobedience to the institutions of Nature do hardly and with difficulty return and be reduced unless coacted by prevalent good means and regular care for their reduction and restoration 10. That the vital principles without violence offered or disturbance ab extra from injurious bad Customs and irregular living do deficere in radice spontaneously fall off and desist sooner or later according to their strength and radication ab ortu in their first plantation and initiation and therefore it is that some in the ordinary course of Nature though irregular in living do out-live and have their faculties perform vigorously of longer duration than some others more regular and conformable to the Laws of Nature because the difference is great in the Principles of their Nature and foundation of their beings 11. That Diaetetick errors as in meat and drink sleeping and watching motion and rest passions of mind c. do so discompose and disorder the vital Principles in the government of their Offices that their strength and vigour is thereby impoverished and abated their duration shortned and hastens them to a period of extinction for as vital Principles are radicated and established by Nature so are they best kept and longest preserved by that course and method which Nature hath enjoined for their tuition and conservation but being transplanted out of their genuine and native regularity by incongruous and unnatural Customs they degenerate decay and are of shorter duration much sooner declining and terminating their beings as more fully is set forth in Tutela Sanitatis therefore I forbear here What the Scurvy is its essential constitutive Causes and manner of Generation HAving determined the use and Office of the digestive ferments their manner of operation and specifick distinction from each other their divers subordinate effects conducing to one ultimate intention their declensions and durations which being premised and rightly understood the Nature of the Scurvy in its Essential causes and manner of Generation will more cleerly be detected and made obvious to reasonable capacities and to facilitate your apprehension and retention to prevent mistakes or cloudiness by a long dependant concatenated discourse I shall aphoristically deliver my opinions and divide them into morsels fit for your reception and more easy digestion which you may take thus First Ngatively 1. It is not one univocal homogeneous preternatural Humour the materia ex quae that generates the Scurvy for as the Symptoms and concomitant Effects are various so is their material cause different various 2. It is not melancholly degenerate and depraved acquiring a specifick malignity as most Physitians I meet with in Print do affirm that is the material cause of the Scurvy for à signis diagnosticis admit there were such a melancholly humour depraved and specifickly malign this specification would determine it to some certainty and confirm it to some distinct diagnostick signs indubitably declaring its peculiarity and separation from others for there must be some specifick distinguishing character which necessarily must accompany such a specifick malignity but there is none such for a man is adjudged to be Scorbutick with looseness of Teeth and without with spots or without spots and so likewise of the other signs in their absence and presence and the Symptoms are so various that they contradict and oppugn one another in their declarative signs that they own distinct causes not one peculiar malignity Secondly The diversity or difference of the scorbutick spots do argue variation of the material cause and not one Specifick malign humour for if you judge of temperaments by colours making them one sort of distinguishing Characters as you do saying this person is Phlegmatick because pale and that sanguine because rosy and this cholerick of palish yellow as also of preternatural tumors saying this is a Phlegmone that Erysipilas or oedema c. from the variation of their colours and external appearance assigning several humours and complication of humours for causes then why not various commaculations and discolourations in parts as well as various extuberations should challenge divers material causes since they differ but ratione quantitatis in the quantity of peccant matter the one hath more the other less and sometimes these spots do germinate and swell into Scorbutick tumors ex abundanti materia from encrease of the same depraved matter and have their variations and denominations as other preternatural tumors have A juvantibus contra If melancholy humour be the foundation of this Disease then Purgatives that attract melancholly as you suppose would prevent this Disease or eradicate it but you may purge and purge Spring and Fall and yet the Scurvy shall come on and prevail but if it be melancholly degenerate malign as you say then sudorificks would be the grand opposers of this Disease but neither Purgatives or Sudorificks nor both are the adequate medicines of this Disease yet both useful à posteriori applied to the Effects and Products of it but that which unhingeth this Disease stops the spring prevents or eradicates it roborates the faculties intentionally and primarily restores them to integrity and pristine vigour in the performance of their Functions and duties A Causis antecedentibus externis Certain Climates Regions and bad Airs are procuring and promoting Causes of this Disease not that we can imagine they ingender melancholly more than other places but because they are infested with noxious fumes and vapours which surrounding and being drawn into the body commix with the Spirits and do labefactare vitae principia debilitate and deprave the faculties in their operations from whence Scorbutick effects do ensue But you may say a sedentary studious and melancholly Life does often breed the Scurvy and therefore it must needs be a melancholly humour the material Cause foundation of this Disease To which I answer that a melancholly inactive Life does breed the Scurvy but how not to conclude from thence that it is a melancholly humour degenerate and malign but because by such a condition of Life the vital Principles do receive much prejudice decay and fall off from their Functions for mirth and an active Life do roborate all the faculties keeps them vigorous the Spirits being chearful lively in the performance of their duties but by the contrary are languid debile and insufficient from whence many inconveniences and prejudices to the body do ensue as you may see enumerated in that Book called Tutela Sanitatis But you may farther say the Spleen being the seat of that passion is chiefly affected and injured thereby and therefore it must needs be a Splenetick luxuriant humour That a melancholly Life does debilitate and frustrate the Spleen in the rectitude of its Office I agree and not the Spleen only but other principal parts and Offices of digestion also for if melancholly seiz and fix the Spirits makes them torpid as it is the property of it so to do
Scurvy when not and because the Symptoms are not peculiar but common and the effects of other Diseases as well as the Scurvy it is no wonder if their Cure be so uncertain difficult and seldome performed since they are equivocal effects obscured in their causes by a dubious complication and alternative causation To resolve the ambiguous and such as stagger in their judgments Take these following Corollaries 1. Many are the Symptoms which accompany and follow this Disease which appear and vanish are greater and lesser as the Disease encreaseth or diminisheth in its essential primitive Causes 2. Many are the Products and off-spring of this Disease which exist afterwards of their own ability and enormity having perverted the parts wherein they reside and drawn them to consent with their vitiosity 3. Many Diseases are complicated with the Scurvy which had not their production and generation from it nor is their dependance of it though probably made worse and exasperated by it 4. That none of the Smpytoms or Signs afore mentioned singly do declare the Scurvy to be present in the Body but may challenge other causes for their Parents and therefore to judge and determine that Person Scorbutick barely from the appearance of any Sign or Symptom that frequently accompanies the Scorbute his judgment is fallible and uncertain and erroneous in the dependance for any Symptom or Sign arising in any part of the Body usually atributed to the Scurvy may be the peculiar defect of that part or effect of some occasional cause without a praevious Scorbutick disposition 5. That the subsequent digestions have their proper errors and degenerations from a spontaneous defection and lassitude in their vital principles without disturbance from an injurious object transmitted by erroneous preceding digestions or improper aliment in sua natura whose effects are consimilar and equivalent to some Products and Symptoms of the Scurvy therefore to distinguish and know aright to whom they belong and whence they had their rise is by examining each faculty in their proper Characters of rectitude and declensions 6. That the Diagnostic Signs of the Disease usually so accounted and most frequent as defects in the mouth pains spots weakness lassitude c. some or more antecedent causes concurring some or more as a close Chamber air and confinement within doors or a Region where the Scurvy is Endemical gross food sedentary inactive retired Life studious melancholly disposition or splenetic indulging sleep and ease In the concurrence of these causes collated with the Signs mentioned a certain determination and judgment of the Disease will result and from thence a certain process in the Cure may ensue Examination of opinions concerning the nature of the Scurvy BEfore I explicate the nature quiddity or essence of this Prothean Disease I shall first recite the judgments and determinations of the most learned and eminent Physitians that have writ upon this Subject to whom the most of our age do adhere and imitate their practice in the Cure Sennertus gives this definition or description of it Scorbutus est prava occulta qualitas seu dispositio toti corpori praecipue vero visceribus nutritioni dicatis impressa ab humore melancholico crasso seroso seu ichoroso peculiari modo corrupto orta cum spontaneae lassitudinis gravitatis in cruribus praecipue sensu pectoris angustia respirationis difficultate gingivarum corruptione oris graveolentia ac maculis purpureis in cruribus inprimi◠aliisque morbis ac symptomatibus plurimis ab eadem causa pendentibus conjuncta He saith It is an evil occult quality or disposition impressed upon the whole body chiefly the Parts destinated for nutrition arising from a gross melancholly or serous ichorous humour after a peculiar manner corrupted with lassitude and heaviness This Definition looks imperfect and unsatisfactory An evil occult Quality Here 's a ne plus ultra to our enquiry if we would sit down here and be contented only to know that we know not what it is an occult quality A Quality Here he makes the Disease to be accidens when as it is ens substantiale habens propriam radicem in vitali principio Arising from a gross melancholy or serous ichorous humour after a peculiar manner corrupted To find out this gross melancholy or serous ichorous humour peculiarly so corrupted is the same task as to find out the occult quality this is ignotum per ignotum to describe one unknown thing by another The Scurvy does not arise from a grosse melancholly that 's a grosse error or a serous ichorous humour but if the Scorbutic depraved humour may go under those denominations they are the effects of the Scurvy and not the cause you must dig deeper to find the radix of the Disease Chiefly the parts destinated for Nutrition Here he saies the Scurvey is an evil disposition impressed upon the Parts for Nutrition but I must say it is chiefly arising from the Parts destinated and appointed for Nutrition which difference is as great as between the terminus à quo and the terminus ad quem Impressed upon the wholo body Here is the Disease in facto esse and its progresse but from whence it sprung as yet is not discovered you must return back and trace it farther if you will see it in fieri in its generation in radice and the womb from whence it springs and that not from a melancholly or serous humour the Disease is not seated in excrementis but in vitalibus principiis for as sanity or health consists in vita integra so the Disease in ipsamet vita oblaesa and therefore health and sickness in eodem hospitio vitali degunt successively dwell in the same Mansion Ecthius in his Epitome of the Scorbute describes it thus Scorbutus est morbus Splenis aliquando obstructi aliquando intemperati aliquando cum incipiente Scirro qui praepedit ejus attractionem ac consuetant atribilariae redundantiae sequestrationem ex hepate venisque eoque humore universum corpus vitiat sed peculiariter crassiore feculentia crura contaminat atque evaporandae acredine gingivas inficit He saith the Scurvy is a Disease of the Spleen obstructed distempered or hardened which hinders the attraction and separation of abounding Melancholly from the Liver and veins by which humour the whole body is vitiated the grosser part affecting the thighs the thinner acrid part the gums A Disease of the Spleen obstructed distempered or hardened Here the essence of the Disease is set forth and defined per effectus separabiles à morbo by effects which may or may not be and the Scorbute in being and it is absurd to define a thing essentially by effects which are but results à posteriori and separable and that which is an effect cannot be constitutive the ratio formalis of the thing from which it doth proceed Which hinders the attraction and separation of abounding Melancholly Here the Spleen is made a place of reception and sink to drain
and the Spirits are principal agents in all the faculties then not the Spleen only is prejudiced and a splenetick humour only that abounds but all parts do participate of the injury idiopathically and all the digestions are vitiated and their ill effects do appear Scorbutical and variously complicated as their several Actions and Offices are various Having shewed you Negatively and determined that the Scurvy is not what some have supposed it to be I shall now positively set down what it is in these following Theorems 1. That the Scurvy is generated by the conjunction or conspiration of divers Causes yet disjunct in their causation subordinately and distinctly contributing to a Scorbutick difformity for although the deficiency of the first digestion lay the foundation yet it is not compleated so as to challenge the denomination of the Scurvy until by addition from the irregularity and depravedness of other parts 2. That the Scurvy is a complication or concatenation of Diseases conspiring to the making up of its difformity and Prothean shapes not arising from a single Disease or any solitary cause for as the variety of symptoms and products do appear in several parts dissimilar and unlike being the effects of several inordinate faculties must of necessity Challenge and own distinct immediate causes as the parts wherein those faculties do reside are distinct and separate in place and Office 3. That the difformity of the Scurvy in the diversity and dissimilarity of symptoms ariseth from the complication of errors in the digestions and variety of parts thereby affected and drawn into consent 4. That the individual variegation of the Scurvy ariseth from the peculiar association of causes and idiosyncratical propriety of particular persons producing such and such symptoms which in no other person you will exactly find the like For as sound bodies in respect of sanity having a parallel equality and proportion in the whole yet particularly and disjunctively collated there is great variety and difference in stature organization complexion inclinations appetitions performance of functions c. If there be such variety of parts proprieties and operations in humane bodies in a state of sanity and integrity which is uniform then much more variety and disproportion in a state of declension and irregularity which is deform and multiform 5. That the Scurvy is generated formaliter essentialiter in the vital principles ut ens invisibile not discerned by sence But the effects and products are distributed have their residence in all the parts and are sensitive objects as spots pains loosness of Teeth putrid Gums Tumors ulcers c. 6. That the Scurvy is planted Seminaliter radicaliter in the digestions or digestive Offices whose ramifications spread throughout the body and are increased extensivè more or less according to the fortitude and debility of parts to resist or consent and be depraved 7. That the Scurvy increaseth or is worse intensivè from the greater frustration of digestions and degeneration of the digestive matter ex causis antecedentibus quibuscunque 8. That the Scurvy is procured occasionaliter by numerous and various diaetetick accidental causes seducing the vital principles to declension and deviation from their rectitude and integrity 9. That the ratio formalis quiddity and essence of the Scurvey is defection and enormity of the vital principles occasionally procured ab extra moved to such a deviation Or spontaneously inclining through an innate deficiency and hereditary propension or natural inability longer to persevere from the fragility of constitutive principles in nature 10. That the Scurvy is not restrained to any certain symptomes either in quantity or quality or univocal material cause But is various and equivocal as to the material products by degeneration and complication as also unlimited in the symptoms 11. That the part affected principaliter cheifly and contributing prae aliis to the pravity and deformity of this disease is the Spleen For that the Spleen is a principal member in chylification and sanguification as to perfection and conservation and by a deficiency in the Spleen both are vitiated there wanting due fermentation and therefore the Spleen is fabricated and contrived with so many arteries having plenty of spirits for this office 12. That Scorbute spots arise from impediment vitiation or extinction of the last digestion or assimilation and that ratione objecti deturpati vel facultatis transmutativae deficientis Either the alimentary object is depraved and unfit or the assimilating faculty is languid deficient or extinct 13. That spots appear chiefly upon the Thighs and Leggs not from the gravity of their material cause ponderous propension of grosser matter downwards as is commonly alledged for the reason but because ignoble parts are more weak debile in their assimilation being more remote from assistance supply of vital spirits have first the tokens of defection And farther not the lower parts only are so affected but the superior parts frequently as Arms and Shoulders from the same cause do bear the same characters not distinguishable by tenuity and grossness of humor 14. That Scorbutick pains are caused from alien qualities arising out of the degenerate matter in the parts so molested or from stomachical acidity transmitted unsubdued from defect or debility of the second digestion or its own luxuriant exorbitancy resisting transmutation and obedience in its passage 15. That pro ratione corporis perspirabilitatis plus minusve scorbutus variatur As the body is perspirable or impervious more or less is the Scurvy varied intended and remitted in the symptoms And therefore the Crassities impenitration of the skin and constipation of the pores prohibiting tranpiration is a partial organical cause of preternatural spots and makes for their continuance and duration For as the body in its natural good state is transpirable giving emission to what is superfluous remaining after the last digestion on the contrary the restraint thereof by congestion begets commaculations and defaedations of the skin tumors and apostumations one or other pro magnitudine causarum 16. That although the Scurvy eo nomine is not of long standing and unknown to the ancient Physitians under that title and the distinguishing characters that we denote it by yet the disease in specie is antique though in individuis not so frequently then nor perhaps characterized altogether alike as we now distinguish it For as humane bodies do decline in these latter daies and degenerate from the pristine vigour of the ancients in all the faculties and abilities of body by reason of intemperance and various manners of abusive living transmitted in semine from generation to generation so likewise and for these causes diseases do not continue alike and certain but have their variations and complications different which occasions new names though the disease be the same in its essential constitutive causes and manner of generation Preservation from the Scurvy and to be observed in the Scurvy IN the due Regiment of Health and protection from Diseases you must
morbifick cause which is the morbifick effect that excrementitious matter which is purged out is but the product or effect of the Disease not the cause except it be occasional not essential and constitutive You must distinguish between the Disease and the product thereof depraved matter and excrements are the products of a Disease and may be the internal occasional causes of another Disease but in respect of the Disease of which they are so a cause they are external that is they are not the constitutive essential causes for Causae constitntivae constitutum sunt simul in esse but occasional causes are antecedent and have priority of exstience so likewise the product matter or effect is distinct and separate from the Disease for that the Disease hath a real existence before such a production and also after this degenerate matter is removed unless otherwise obliterated or that Nature sua sponte returns to her integrity and rectitude The last intention is Roboration which is the perfection of the Cure and praecaution for the future and this is so necessary that although the Disease make a cessation for a time yet there will be a recidivation and recurrence the parts being debilitated by the pravity of this Disease will shew their propension to it until those impressions be totally obliterated and the parts restored to their pristine vigour And this is not performed by dyet-drinks Apozems Syrups and such like heterogene languid medicines but with such as are purely defaecated from terenity volatized spiritallized and graduated to a pitch of energy symphoniacal with vital principles Having briefly discoursed the scope and intentions of the common method in the Cure of this Disease I shall now give you some Theses curative deducted from the Theorical part of this work founded upon the Doctrine delivered 1. That the difficulty in curing the Scurvy does depend upon the principal causes in the digestive and distributive faculties being more or less enervated deficient or irregular not from the contumacy of a melancholly humor as is alleaged for as the vitiosity and difformity of the Scurvy does arise from the complicated defection of the digestive and distributive faculties so the difficulty also or facility of the Cure does depend upon the possibility of restoration to their integrity and rectitude and if the internal constitutive causes of the Scurvy be cut off and subdued the symptoms and effects that from thence do depend will soon die and vanish not being supplyed by their causes of generation and conservation therefore it is not the contumacy of a producted degenerate matter that protracts or makes the Disease incurable but the difficulty of reducing the vital principles to their integrity and rectitude being weakly or depravedly radicated or habituated to enormity and irregularity enforced by diaetetick bad Customs or promoted and continued by some unavoidable occasional cause 2ly That an haereditary scorbutick disposition is not to be changed and altered in the radication but will shew a propension and inclination suiting with the peculiarity of its Nature and principles for Nature depraved à principio in principiis is not to be reduced but will retain her vitiosity being indivisible and inseparable from her self nor is capable of reduction having not had the principles of rectitude to return to 3ly That an haereditary Scorbutick dispofition as to fructification and symptomatical production may be prevented retarded or lessened for that the symptoms and products which usually attend this disease are under the command and must give obedience to a diaetetick and pharmaceutick power and authority 4ly That the various symptomatical appearance of the Scurvy and difference of scorbutick matter by degeneration in divers persons does not alwaies necessarily require variety of Medecines but will admit the same cure for although in the production progression of the disease there is great variety yet there is more certainty and unity in the essential constitutive causes the spring or fountain from whence those issue to which rightly applied the cure will succeed reliquum supplente natura juvata 5ly That the occasional or antecedent internal causes of this disease by way of praecaution or the product matter and effects of this disease in primis viis seated may conveniently be removed by manifest evacuation that is degenerate Chyle which will not be reduced but deprave and infest where it resides passes and is transmitted yet the spirits and ferments are chiefly to be regarded that they be kept in their purity and vigor being the principles in each faculty and this is performed privativè by subducting what is offensive and injurious and also positivè by contributing an additional strength having some equality or proportion suting with their natures 6ly That purgation cannot eradicate or take away the constitutive causes of this disease but only carry off some of the producted scorbutick matter which is not reducible and is remedium à posteriori for the essential constitutive causes of the Scurvy are enormity and deficiency of the vital principles in their duties which are to be reduced to their regularity and fortitude but evacuation per se respects the producted matter and effects not the essential causes but per accidens and therefore that which does apply radically to the internal causes of this disease is symbolical and consimilar with the vital principles uniting with them roborating and confirming them in their functions and therefore they that lay all the stress of the cure upon evacuation whether purging vomiting bleeding or sweating as if that alone must do it are much deceived and frustrated in their expectations 7ly That strong purgations offering violence to the vital principles exasperates and makes them more irregular and defective and thereby promotès rather than abates the strength of this disease But purgation or abstersion rightly instituted not every purge that makes you go to stool is convenient and helpful in the Cure 8ly That Scurvy-grass Watercresses Brooklime most frequently used for the Scurvy in Diet-drinks Syrup and juice is not the specifick remedy against the Scurvy that is challenging a peculiar propriety and singular vertue against this disease before other Medicines but comes far short of other Medicines though good and may be more advantagiously used in their activity and restoration of the digestions to their primitive vigour and rectitude of their office and duties 9ly That Cochlearia c. does not resist this disease by a specifick peculiar antipathy against the occult malignity and products thereof but by restoring and roborating the digestive faculties by their saline volatising vertues natura reliquum perficiente which endowments are not specifick but common 10ly That the diseases complicated with the Scurvy are not cured by their own peculiar Medicines usually effectual unless they have respect to this disease and that which is antiscorbutical added to their specifick vertues or alternatively used and therefore scorbutick Consumptions Fevers Dropsies Gouts Astmaes c. will not be subdued and yield obedience to
and checks unsavory risings in the stomack from frustrated and corrupt digestions prevents and destroys worms bred from such putrid indigested matter This Elixir hath an aperitive and opening power and is profitably used by those molested with hypocondriack Melancholy that have obstructed Livers or Spleens distended and full in the sides under the short ribs or pained there by reason of wind and humors obstructed in motion 'T is a good Medicine in the cure of Dropsies and beneficial for Hydropick persons or inclining thereto and troubled with a watry humor in any part it digests superfluous humidity opens obstructions of the vessels leading to the reins excites the attractive faculty of the Kidneys which before were sluggish imbecile or impedited in the attraction and transmission of urine roborates the parts and confirms them in their duties For intermitting Fevers called Agues quotidian tertian or quartan it is very good they being seated in the fore-named parts to which this Medicine is properly assistant and auxiliary dischargeth its vertue upon the parts so affected alters and subdues their morbifick causes and hastens their diseases to a period by removing their fuel of conservation and continuance and afterwards does strengthen those parts debilitated and weakned by such diseases harbouring there and raseth out the bad impressions left behind them which breed future inconveniencies and are foundations laid for other diseases which will succeed if not prevented after this manner by good Medecine to clense and restore the parts as frequently we do observe in practice In the vital faculties this Elixir is of good use and beneficial for those that are troubled with palpitations of the heart angustness and compression there arising most frequently from vitiated digestions and scorbutick feculency an ill affected spleen or matrix from whence noxious vapours arise and are communicated to the vital Spirits which afflict and irritate the heart to this distempered motion and if the cause be very great and suddain sometimes swooning is caused thereby as in Fits of the Mother and passions of the spleen this medicine dissipates the vapours and prevents their causes of generation by rectifying and roborating the parts from whence they proceed It is good in asthmaes and stoppings of the breast from crude Phlegme opens the pipes of the Lungs and helps difficulty of breathing strengthens the Lungs and is very advantagious for Consumptive Persons and that have a faint short breath or that are molested with a troublesom and dangerous Cough inclining and disposing them to a Consumption 'T is Cordial and restaurative cherisheth and refresheth the Spirits by the aromatick vertue and pleasant transpiration of its odour raising the Spirits and affecting them with delight In the animal faculties and for infirmities of the head as Convulsion falling Sickness Vertigo or giddiness sleepiness lassitude and dulness pains of the head rheumes and superfluous moisture this medicine is very good and beneficial to strengthen the brain and nerves to enervate lessen and abate the antecedent causes of these infirmities generated in other parts although they appear and shew themselves most here And although this medicine is more peculiarly appropriate to supply the natural faculties than the other primo intentionaliter yet consequenter and in effect the vital the animal and generative faculties is improved and made more vigorous in their performance and functions and also freed from many diseases by the rectitude and integrity of the natural faculties both in respect of prevention and cure for that the natural faculties are the basis and foundation of the rest in conservation and are supported from thence as the Tree from radix the Branches from the root and defects impediments and decay of the natural faculties causeth debility disorder and infirmities in the rest by transmission or consent And though the Symptoms appear in one part and disorder one faculty more apparently the cause often lies obscure and is the proper defect of another between which you would think there were no relation nor commerce or incommodation one from the other If the natural faculties be vitiated in their functions all the rest decline from rectitude and abate in their vigour as in the Scurvy first the natural faculties are debilitated and disordered then from hence the vital the animal and genital do degenerate and are discomposed and there is sufficient reason for that these are supplied from thence and when the natural faculties are restored to their vigour and rectitude the other also participate of this change and are restored in a great measure except the particular Organs of those faculties be made incapable Wherefore and for these Causes if I extend the vertues of this Medicine yet farther and shew its power and prevalency against more infirmities I do not ascribe above what it doth justly challenge In the genital parts if I should tell you it were good against deficiency in generation and defects of the seed as crudeness thinness degenerate pravity and infaecundity the causes of barrenness perhaps you would think I go beyond my bounds but I could easily prove and make it a rational assertion deductive from the principles of Physick besides what is said before but my intention here is not so much to improve your knowledge as your health the preservation of the bodily functions in their integrity and restoration of them declining languishing and deviating from their primitive rectitude if your faith will not put you upon the tryal I shall not raise arguments to convince your reason and perswade believe what you please It is very good for Women that have lost their Complexion looking pale yellow and ill coloured by reason of that weakness called the Whites or wanting the due course of nature by reason of obstructions from cold bad dyet ill customs and vitiated digestions or a distempered melancholy mind which disturbs nature in her constant order and due regiment of preservation it is very profitably used during the time of their monthly purgations it procures them effectually For those that have sores or abound with corrupt humours which enforceth them to keep issues open to prevent greater inconvenience danger this Medicine applyes to the springs from whence they issue and where they are bred prevents them in their causes in some persons in all it abates and lessens in the quantity corrects and alters the stinking corrupt quality and makes your body more sweet and wholsome This Elixir as it is properly used in the particular cases mentioned singly so likewise in the same conjunct and variously complicated and graduated amounting to or challenging the denomination and title of the Scurvy against which this medicine is very effectuall and necessarily follows the use of the preceding pills to strengthen the faculties after abstertion and cleansing whereby the like Scorbutick impurity and ill symptoms arising from thence for the future is prevented and a return of the disease prohibited in a regular due course of living for as the disease did grow by errors
and defects in the digestions producing such various symptomes so are they prevented by assisting the digestions and preserving them in their integrity due course of nature from declension For which purpose and intention this medicine is prevalent to roborate the faculties and principal parts ordained for those offices resolveth and volatiseth coagulate and fixed matter attenuates and rarefies gross subsiding humours which cause obstructions tumours and pains resists putrifaction depurates and renovates the blood from a degenerate condition stained with Scorbutick feculency and impurity restoring its balsamick nature and genuine proprieties Of necessary use for aged and weak persons whose faculties fall off from their integrity and abated in their vigour do perform but weakly and deficiently as also for such who are recovering or lately recovered from some great disease which hath enervated and debilitated all the functions leaving the character and impressions of an evil cause behind upon the parts chiefly where they were seated which renders them indisposed and unfit in their duties and layes the foundation of new diseases to ensue from hence In such cases this medicine is a good assistant and requisite auxiliary help to performance and restoration of vigour in a competent measure if there be a capacity of restoration in the parts remaining where such faculties do reside and are exercised And that you may use this medicine to the best advantage take this advice that if your body be foul first cleanse with a dose or two of the Scorbute pills then begin with this Elixir to strengthen the faculties and you will daily perceive a growing benefit incouraging you to continue the use thereof which is done with the least of trouble not incommodating your occasions that amidst affairs in journeys it prevents you not in your lawfull customs or tyes you to inconvenient observance nor of the season but is profitably used at any time of the year Take this caution be not too hasty in your expectations and leave not the use of it too soon your disease came on gradually and was longer in breeding than you imagine though the symptoms or signes of it appear to you suddainly and lately perhaps some years or many years have laid the foundation and but now makes a discovery being arrived at some heigth you must then in reason allow some time for eradication and removall since nature will not admit of violence and suddain changes but is disturbed and injured at such rude dealing therefore take time as nature and the medicine does require nor will you want incouragement to persevere but have daily advantage against your infirmity The full dose for Man or Woman of strength is thirty drops for twelve years old twenty drops for five years old ten drops And observe this rule that at the first taking you begin but with half the dose that is appointed for your age as thus thirty drops is appointed for a Man let him begin with fifteen drops and then augment two or three drops every day after until he ascend to thirty and there continue Take it in bed if you be very weak in a spoonful of good Canary and one spoonful after to wash your mouth every morning fasting an hour and a half after and likewise at five of the clock in the afternoon those dayes only excepted that you take pills but you are not so strictly to observe the afternoon that if your occasions do not well permit as when you must be abroad or the like you may omit Note that this Elixir is never to be taken or tasted alone but mixed in some liquor Of Diseases and Medicines IN the preceding tract of the Scurvy you may remember that in the body there are several digestions and digestive offices for the preparation of food subordinate one to the other whereby aliment is prepared gradually untill it receive the complement and perfection of assimilation for nutrition and conservation of the body These digestive offices as they are the grand laboratories of the body necessary for preservation so occasionally by their errors and defections from their integrity of operation most diseases in the body do arise and are planted radically in some principal member the mansion assigned where these faculties do reside and exercise their power jurisdiction And although Diseases are very numerous and various in their denominations sometimes from the diversity of symptoms that accompany them as if they were the off-spring of divers Parents by their several faces and appearance yet trace them up to their original descent you may find many to spring from one radix and own the same occasional causes notwithstanding their dissimilarity in their growth and progress yet their affinity is such by birth that with a single medicine or perhaps two may be required rightly prepared and fitted for the work you shall eradicate or destroy the root and the branches that grow from thence though spread in divers parts of the body shall whither and fall away It is not necessary therefore to multiply medicines for every particular spmptom that springs from a disease but to level and aim at the root or fountain from whence they spring The discourse is metaphorical and carries illustration with it but to make it more plain and facile to your apprehension and to shew you the verity of it take this example for a Confirmation A Physitian coming to his Patient finds him thus affected feavourish head ach pained at the Stomach grip'd in the belly a looseness all which may proceed from one cause and will be cured with one good medicine The cause producing all these symptomes may be acor indebitus a domestick luxuriant or peregrine acidity in the first digestion hence a febrile temper ariseth from the Spirits tumultuating agitated and troubled at this exorbitant hostile quality the stomach pained by the lancing of its sharpness the head ach by consent from thence the belly grip'd and collick pains by transmission of this peccant acidity with the chyle a flux or looseness procured by the same purging quality stimulating and provoking the expulsive faculty which endeavours to eject and expel it You see that one morbifick cause may produce various symptoms and effects and it is unnecessary yea improper and without success to apply particular medicines to each not respecting the cause and herein a wise Physitian is known from him that is otherwise In the case recited some there are and those thinking they do secundum artem will prescribe a Julip to abate or prevent the feaver increasing apply a frontale to the head or give a specifick medicine for the head ach an emulsion for pain of the stomach and griping of the guts which allayes for the present but soon after it is received into the body turns sour and joynes with the morbifick cause For the loosness perhaps you will give an astringent medicine and lock the Thief up but I will imagine you to be wiser and consult about a Clyster to draw away the cause
operation for the difference of bodies is such in operation especially purging that they require a different quantity oftentimes for their proportion which cannot so exactly be determined and appointed by the praescience of the most skilful Physitian but by rational conjecture until the first experiment and trial of their bodies and after the first Dose your own Reason and ability of body will prompt you in the next whether to keep to the same to augment or abate Taking this caution that 4 or 5 stools in a day is enough and that number I intend you to aim at and no more For example if you have a stubborn body difficult and hard to purge and your Physick works very little the next Dose you may take one Pill more but if you have a lax gentle body and easie to purge then take a lesser Dose and abate a Pill if the former work too nimbly with you and remember this as a necessary Caution That you covet not strong purges to have many stools in a day a common error which offers violence to Nature and forcibly sweeping down both good and bad together but rather choose to draw away the offending cause gently by degrees giving Nature time for separation the pure from the impure and noxious 4 or 5 stools in a day is sufficient and you will find it much more beneficial Nature more kindly assisting and less weakned Some there are brain-sick fools who unless their Physick work a douzen times think they have kept house for nothing and their money cast away accounting the goodness of their Physick by the number of stools but they deceive themselves very much in desiring strong purgations which weaken and impare Nature leaving such impressions behind sometimes worse than the disease they took them for These Pills although purgative yet their chief vertue is not contained in the purgative faculty but in other appropriate qualities opposing the several diseases to which the laxative adjunct property is but a Handmaid and subsidiary nor must you expect alwaies the disease to be brought into the Close-stool there are other Conveyances and ways of emission of Natures providing besides the common back door Concerning preparation before purging muck talked of take this advice That soluble bodies easily yielding obedince to gentle purging Medecines need no other preparation than what Nature hath provided in the disposition of their own bodies for those bodies that are hot and costive it will be advantagious and facilitate their purgation to eat stewed Prunes or drink Whey two or three daies before which will prepare and open your body make it more soluble and easie in purging For the manner of taking whereas these Pills are appointed to be taken one Pill over night the other part in the morning yet if you find any inconvenience thereby you may take the whole Dose in the morning very early but if you have not a just cause of alteration observe the former prescription For going abroad after your Pills if you desire it or your occasions require take this advice if your body be indifferent strong not apt upon small occasions to take cold the weather temperate having ordered the Dose of your Pils to work but three or four times you may then go abroad without prejudice but if otherwise it is better to forbear The Catholick Elixir BEfore I proceed to tell you the vertues and profitable use of this Medecine I must first give you the reason of the Title that none may stumble at it Catholick is universal and this Medicine may be stiled so not that it cures every disease ' but that it is effectual against some disease or infirmity in every faculty as they are thus divided and distinguished into the natural vital animal and genital faculties and being thus endowed with a competent measure of universality it may not improperly be called a Catholick or universal Medicine since its vertue is extended to all the grand faculties But you may ask why an universal Medicine should be composed and appointed for a particular disease it being intended chiefly for the Scurvy In answer to this if you look into the preceding Tract you will find the Scurvy not to be a single disease but a complication of diseases whose root or branches if arrived at some height extend to all the faculties bringing detriment and decay throughout the body For the word Elixir concerning its Etymologie and derivation there are several opinions some will have it from the Arabick others from the Greek but I shall not trouble you with that it is sufficient that you understand it is a Medicine of noble descent and may have the use of it If you expect I should tell you of what it is made and the process how you must pardon me there it does not belong to you If an Artist should view the ingredients of this Medicine before operation upon them would determin them only for the deficiency of the natural faculties and their parts as the Stomack Spleen Gall Mesentery Liver Reins c. but being spiritalized graduated and advanced they do extend further as also for that the other faculties do depend very much upon the integrity of these as well as the compleatness of their own peculiar organs by and in which they execute their several functions for either by transmission or consent the rest suffer if these be injured I shall not demonstrate this truth and explain it further being a Doctrine not so necessary for you to know but proceed to give you an account of the vertues this Medicine is pregnant with and manner of use And first of their essicacy in the natural functions This Elixir is used with good success against most infirmities seated in the Stomack Spleen Guts Pancreas Mesentery Liver and Reins especially if they be languid and weak degenerating and falling off from their duties being obstructed loaded or clogged with crude depraved and indigested matter wanting spirit and vigor and accuteness of ferment fit for their proper works This Medicine does acuate and vigorate giving spirit and activity in the performance of their duties For surfeits oppression and overcharging the Stomack it is a sure Remedy working off the offending matter cherishing and refreshing the stomack It excites and quickens a dull or weak appetite and procures a good digestion which is the main pillar of health being very auxiliary and assistant to the stomacks digestive ferment deficient and decayed or obtunded and overlaid with crudities or depraved matter from intemperance incongruous diet and bad customs By its Balsamick Amaritude is healing and grateful to a waterish crude raw stomack corrects nauseousness and vomiting safely in breeding women suppressing and subduing the offensive causes leaving a good astriction upon the stomack and roborating the retentive faculty Is helpful to those molested with belching and grip'd with wind in the stomack or guts by correcting and digesting crudities and preventing a discordant fermentation the causes thereof Amends a strong offensive breath