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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33701	The doctrine of acids in the cure of diseases farther asserted being an answer to some objections raised against it by Dr. F. Tuthill ... : in which are contained some things relating to the history of blood : as also an attempt to prove what life by John Colbatch ...	Colbatch, John, Sir, 1670-1729.; Tuthill, Francis. Vindication of some objections lately raised against Dr. John Colbatch.	1698 (1698)	Wing C4994; ESTC R1962	41,949	145

satisfied in a few Points The Grand Argument on which you build your Hypothesis is taken from the green Colour of the Serum which arises from its mixture with Syrup of Violets It must be confest that Alkalies usually give it this Tincture and there may be something of an Alkaly or at least analagous to it in the Serum But notwithstanding this the many Inferences which you are pleased to draw from this Phaenomenon in my Opinion will hardly hold good For 1. If this Alkalizated Serum is the Original of Distempers then it must follow that wheresoever we find this Serum there must be likewise a Distemper Now I appeal to your self if the Blood of a healthy Person will not give Syrup of Violets a green Tincture does not then the Argument labour may we not impute this Phaenomenon to arise rather from a due mixture of the Principles than from any vitiated Habit of Blood But secondly there is another way of discovering an Alkaly besides that of its Appearance and that is by its effects to wit its Fermentation with Spirit of Vitriol Now I aver this green Serum will not ferment with the aforesaid Spirit Wherefore if it be an Alkaly it is an Alkaly of a particular nature It must be granted that we oftentimes find in the Blood some Particles of a very warm nature predominant in which cases I have found Acids to be of great use but whether they are of an Alkaline nature or not I leave the Learned to determine If they are Alkalies then either fixt or Volatile if fixt how comes it to pass that on the Dissolution of the Texture of the Blood they claim the highest Place and nothing will serve their turn but they must needs swim in the Serum If volatile how is it that we many times find this warm Serum to be little better than insipid Volatile Salts you know are aculeated and affect the Palat strongly May they not rather be of a sulphureous Nature since it is the Nature of such Substances to sit uppermost on the Dissolution of Bodies But thirdly if Alkalies are the Original of all Distempers whence is it that in Dropsies Catarrhs some Gouts and other Distempers we find the Texture of the Blood so thin 'T is observable that those Particles you term Alkalies the more the Blood is saturated with them of the more thick consistence it is as we see in Pleurisies Rheumatisms and other inflammatory Cases in which Distempers if in any these Alkalies abound is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion and render it thin Besides if Alkalies did always offend and cause Pain it must follow that Acids must give ease But I assure you I have often experienced the contrary for upon the exhibition of Rhenish White-wine and other Acids I have found the Pains immediately exasperated and many times it has been a long while e're they went off Again if the Gout proceed from an Alkaly what is the reason you use so much Sassafras in its Cure Is Sassafras an Acid and so proper to subdue this Alkaly I have only a word or two to speak concerning the green Colour of Syrup of Violets and so I have done I believe it may be turned green without an Alkaly On the exhibition of it to Infants it comes away green very often and brings away a great deal of green Matter by stool and yet I believe they do not abound with Alkalies You may read in a late Author of undoubted Credit that upon an Infant 's swallowing of a Dose of Testaceous Pouder an extraordinary Ferment was raised in the Stomach of the Child Now how could this Ferment be raised if it had not an Acid to work upon Besides does not Experience shew that nothing is so proper in Infants Distempers as Alkalies I have some more things to offer but I desire you would be pleased to satisfy me as to these I should be glad to close with your Opinion and embrace any thing that is new for I believe Medicine tho it has met with great Improvements of late to be capable of far greater I 'll give you no farther trouble only after Thanks to you for your indefatigable Labour in searching out the Truth of things subscribe Your Humble Servant F. TUTHILL The Doctrine of ACIDS in the Cure of DISEASES farther asserted c. Worthy Sir I Have read your Letter with all the Pleasure and Satisfaction imaginable the Objections you have raised against my Hypothesis being the most solid and substantial I have ever yet met with And you may assure your self that I have so great a Value and Esteem for Truth that I would not dare to contend for any thing which is the Product of my shallow Understanding that in the least stands in opposition to it But as I would not by any means in the World oppose Truth so at the same time I would not be guilty of so much Cowardice as to quit its Interest because I meet with a multitude of Opposers Altho your Objections do carry the fairest shew along with them of any thing I have met with of this kind yet I don 't at all doubt but very easily to clear my self from them the which I shall endeavour to do with as much Candor and Friendship as you propose them Letter I have perused your ingenious Treatise of the Gout in which you seem to accuse Alkalies as the Original of all Distempers Before I subscribe to this Opinion I desire to be satisfied in a few Points The Grand Argument on which you build your Hypothesis is taken from the green Colour of the Serum which arises from its mixture with Syrup of Violets It must be confest that Alkalies usually give it this Tincture and there may be something of an Alkaly or at least analagous to it in the Serum But notwithstanding this the many Inferences which you are pleased to draw from this Phaenomenon in my opinion will hardly hold good Answer As for my accusing Alkalies as the Cause of all or most Distempers I must confess it was a very bold Undertaking especially when by so doing I opposed such Multitudes of Great and Learned Men who by very strenuous and learned Arguments asserted the quite contrary whom I could not suppose but that I should greatly displease by disturbing them in the quiet possession of an Opinion that had long been embraced by all sorts of people I my self as I elsewhere acknowledg was formerly as great a Stickler for the Use of Alkalies in the Cure of Diseases and did as little believe that they were the Causes of them as any one of my hottest Opposers now doth The Methods by which I came to change my Sentiments I shall here faithfully relate to you Whilst I was fairly jogging on in the ordinary Method of Practice a certain Gentleman recommended to me a powerful Acid which he told me I might rely upon

do not immediately appear to the Taste but by taking of the Bodies asunder appear to be such There is an Axiom that Unumquodque in id dissolvitur unde compactum est Every thing is dissolved into that whereof it is made Now if this Axiom be true as I think it is an infallible one a Man may reasonably conclude that those Bodies which upon their Dissolution are reduced into Acid Substances are Acids tho before their Dissolution they did not appear to be so Most Vegetables upon the Dissolution of them or analyzing by the Fire appear principally to be composed of Acid Substances and therefore I think are to be accounted Acids altho they are so differently specificated and have such different Operations upon Human Bodies that a Man who has not nicely examined them would be tempted to believe that the original constituent Parts of them were much more different than they are Now the more perfect and durable any Vegetable is the greater quantity of Acidum and Sulphur it affords and less of excrementitious Alkaly And from the different Combinations of the two Sisters Acidum and Sulphur I believe it possible to give a very probable Account of all the differences in Plants as to Colour Taste c. And as these two perfect if it be lawful to call any natural thing perfect Principles are more or less clogged with excrementitious Allkaly so they are more or less durable as to themselves and more or less friendly to Human Bodies for whose use they were principally created so that here you may see that when I preach up Acids it is not only Vinegar Lemons Oil of Vitriol Oil of Sulphur c. that I recommend but all the perfect Parts of the Creation and decry the use of those things that are the Principles of Death and Destruction in Bodies viz. Alkalies From what I have before said I think I may without Presumption reckon Oak-bark amongst the number of Acids and yet Oak-bark being given in Substance or a Decoction of it is so far from making the Juices over fluid or thin that it will reduce them to a Consistence when they are so the same may be said of Bistort Tormentil and abundance of things of that Tribe the same thing will Comfry Roots do and all the things of that Tribe the same I could say of many more but here I have not room to expatiate Asparagus Parsley c. will make the Juices fluid when they are over thick and viscous and so will a multitude of things more of that Tribe I could range my self out into the mineral Kingdom but the different Operations of them are so well known to every body that I think it needless to take any particular notice of them yet this much I will presume to say altho it be foreign to my present Design that after having made all the Enquiry into the Nature of Metals that Human Industry is capable of I am perfectly satisfied that they differ one from another only in degrees of Purity and therefore for ought I know the Business of Transmutation is not so ridiculous a thing as some People would make it As to those Acids that are manifestly so they greatly differ in their Operations upon Human Bodies I have before observed that there are those which may properly be called Acido-sulphurea and others Sulphureo-Acida but in Nature I don't know a simple Acid or a simple Sulphur there being such an indestructible Bond of Union and Friendship between them that they are never one without the other Now those Acids that have most Sulphur united with them are Aperitives Openers of Obstructions and keep the Blood and Juices in a proper state of Fluidity Those that have little Sulphur mix'd with them are Stipticks and bring the Blood and Juices to a Consistence when they are over fluid What I have said upon this Subject is not the effect of Fancy but of a Series of several Years strict and nice Observations Letter Besides if Alkalies did always offend and cause Pain it must follow that Acids must give ease But I assure you I have often experienced the contrary for upon the exhibition of Rhenish White-Wine and other Acids I have found the Pains immediately exasperated and many times it has been a long while e're they went off Answer If Alkalies cause Pain I do agree with you that Acids of consequence must give ease but I don't suppose that an ill habit of Body that has been perhaps some Months or Years a contracting is to be altered with a few Doses of the most exalted Medicine in the World let it be Acid or what you please But supposing Acids to be the most proper Medicines in the World to ease Pain as I believe they are yet it is not improbable but upon the giving a small quantity of Acid in such cases where there is a large quantity of Alkaly lodged upon any Part so as to cause Pain it may only in part dissolve the Alkaly which was before more fixt and so by accident may exasperate the Pain whereas by continuing the use of the Acid the Alkaly would be perfectly dissolved and extirpated and so the Pain would altogether vanish But Pain being sometimes exasperated upon the first giving of them in too small quantities has I doubt not been one great Cause of deterring people from proceeding in the use of them and also of attributing to them the Cause of Pain But in great Pains it is my constant Practice to apply Acids externally to the Part affected as well as give them inwardly and there are but very few Pains especially Gouty and Rheumatick ones that I am not able to overcome in a small time And for the Pain you say you have often found to be excited upon the giving of Rhenish and White Wine I have assigned a Reason for that if they are drunk in too large quantities both in my Essay of Alkaly and Acid and in my Tract of the Gout and therefore shall not again repeat it but refer you thither Letter Again if the Gout proceed from an Alkaly what is the reason you use so much Sassafras in its Cure Is Sassafras an Acid and so proper to subdue this Alkaly Answer I can cure the Gout if there were no such thing as Sassafras I only use Sassafras in Apozems as a proper Vehicle to dilute other Medicines in the Stomach But however Sassafras is no contemptible Medicine and if you will but give your self the trouble of Distilling a Pound or two of it in a Retort per se if you afterwards reckon Sassafras amongst the number of Alkalies I am mistaken and if I am so I shall willingly own it Letter I have only a word or two to speak concerning the green Colour of Syrup of Violets and so I have done I believe it may be turned green without an Alkaly On the exhibition of it to Infants it comes away green very often and brings away a great deal of green Matter