Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	true_a	2,848	5	3.8360	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34728	Praxis catholica, or, The countryman's universal remedy wherein is plainly and briefly laid down the nature, matter, manner, place and cure of most diseases, incident to the body of man, not hitherto discovered, whereby any one of an ordinary capacity may apprehend the true cause of his distempers, wherein his cure consists, and the means to effect it : together with rules how to order children in that most violent disease of vomiting and looseness, &c. : useful likewise for seamen and travellers : also an account of an imcomparable powder for wounds or hurts which cure any ordinary ones at once dressing / written by Robert Couch ... ; now published with divers useful additions (for publick benefit) by Chr. Pack ...	Couch, Robert.; Packe, Christopher, fl. 1670-1711.	1680 (1680)	Wing C6510; ESTC R9840	74,356	218

and continuing life wherefore they gave our Saviour Vinegar and Gaul Vinegar to excite the faculties of the stomach for the Gauls quicker passage into the vital spirits to prolong his life that they might the longer torment him under his pains before death But to stay no longer here it follows in the next place to treat about the great Heat and Cold which happens by Intervals as well in most other Fevers as in this and likewise of that inordinate Thirst Of Heat THough Heat and Fever are counted Synonyma's of one and the same name individual companions c. yet I say this Heat is not of the Quiddity or Essence of the Disease neither is it the cause of any Disease but is caused by the stirring up of that vital aiery spirit the directoress of life which spirit it is that makes the assault Archaeus Paracels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippoc. now this spirit being provoked by the Disease allarms all the Faculties Virtues and Powers both Vital and Natural which it doth unite unto it self and so furiously assault his mortal Enemy as many Coals of Fire raked together and blown up make a great heat so doth this heat proceed from this inflamed Spirit EXAMPLE A Thorn or Splinter being got into the Finger or Hand presently a heat pain and pulsation is felt which this spirit or Archaeus stirreth up for the expelling of that extraneous Body now this heat is not a product of the Thorn but casually from this spirit and occasionally only from the Thorn therefore heat is a latter accident and subsequent upon the essence of a Fever Cold. COld is the Diseases Colours or Banner under which it fights but it is not either the Disease nor Cause but a product and effect of the Disease Calorem frigus non esse morbus ut neque borum causas Hipp. putrefaction brings in coldness the Ferment of Putrefaction is sharp and cold as we have an ocular Demonstration in Gangrenes and Mortifications whilst it is but in fieri a Gangrene what a hard task it is to revive it by the hottest and most penetrating Medicines we can get nay and fain to scarrifie deeply too lest it should hinder their operation or if it fouls a bone no less than a Medicine that is hot in the highest degree can effect it and when a Sphacelus or Mortification is confirmed without natures Second comes in speedily to her rescue A Chyrurgion Chyrurg naturae minister and dismember it it would soon run her to the heart and did not putrefaction work by a cold a Body would be hotter after it was dead than it was before but we see the contrary when putrefaction grows stronger the Body grows colder I could evidence by many demonstrations more that the Heat is not of the essence neither the cause nor occasion of a Fever and likewise that Cold is meerly the effect of the Disease but I think this sufficient Thirst This great Thirst in Fevers doth not proceed from Heat and driness as in a true and natural Thirst for this will not be allayed by drinking as that will but this Thirst is deceitful and is produced by some excrementitious matter which adheres to that sensitive faculty and deludes the Organ Nec sitis est extincta prius quam vita bib●ndo as if a great dryness had suddenly come unto it as I have observed in a very malignant Fever which the Army in Flanders was infected with being always cold and very thirsty as likewise in the cold Fit of an Ague c. and so this is evident that heat in Fevers is not the cause of that inordinate Thirst besides I have extinguished this Thirst by those things which have been virtually hot Contraria contrariis curantur which if heat had been the cause would rather have exasperated Thus you have the matter manner and Concomitants of this Disease The Schools have observed some Heads from whence they have derived many Species of Fevers which I shall not insist on because they depend upon one and the same way and means of Cure without mention of an Hectick or intermitting Fever which differ only in the place they reside which I shall speak to in their proper places It is my chief design to do good unto my Countrymen who I know would rather have something to ease them and be rid of their Diseases than to hear curious and learned Discourses or quaint Distinctions and in pleasing them I care not whom I displease As I have put the knowledge of the cause into your Heads so I shall put a remedy into your Hands Cure You may clearly see what first is to be done and wherein the Cure doth consist which is in removing the cause or matter offending the neglect whereof hath suffered such an infinite Slaughter which gives me reason to think that either the cause is not known or a fit Remedy not yet found for unless there be a proportion between the Remedy and the Disease It will do but little good Diseases which come suddenly if they are rightly understood they are soon gone Extrema non permanent though they may be extreme sharp whilst they continue I know it is the practice here to look more unto the Effect than the Cause in correcting the Symptoms than the matter whereof they are produced Si ta tollantur quae conveniunt aeger melius se habet facile sert Sublata causa tolletur effectus which is a very pernicious course and contrary unto reason and all principles in Healing And that you may the better understand your error I shall recite your practice When first any one is taken with this or the like Distemper either Child or those of full Growth first you run and fetch Mint Water and a little Syrup to stay the Vomiting Secondly then Cinnamon Water and Syrup of Quinces or Myrtle Berries to stay the scouring Then it may be you give a Carmi●tive or Clyster to expel Wind and correct the Griping That done you give some cooling Julep to allay its Heat and to quench in Thirst And when it is cold you give a little Mithridate or Theriack of Andronica o● London Treacle and lay a Plaister of it to his Stomach And then lay a Spell against the Fever to the Wrists c. And so you keep doing till you can do no more just as a man who hath lost himself in a Wood he keeps going but whither he knows not You see all those things do but respect the effect here is nothing hath any regard at all unto the Cause And should things answer the intention for which they were given the party either Child or Man would presently die To hinder the evacuating of this morbifick matter is directly against the intention of nature Quo natura verget ad locum conferentem ●eo ducere oportet Hippoc. for the evacuation of this matter is to be looked at as the Crisis of Nature

Consumptions 'T is not enough to remove the effect or matter produced nor the cause producing but the principal producer must be rectified before health be perfectly restored Thus I have directed you in the best course you can take and be sure you will do nothing that will hurt but rather to strengthen and refresh nature Obj. But you will ask me what shall we do to remove the cause Answ That is the principal Verb indeed I know a more proper and safe Medicine to effect it than I can direct you unto in all the Dispensitory 'T is true there are a great many good Medicines though good for little without it be the Laudanum of Paracelsus and some few Chymical Preparations the rest are hardly worth a man's knowledge That Physician that hath not found out better and more specifical means than what are there is like to make but a sad practice But I shall speak it to your comfort God hath given me the knowledge of such a Medicine as will effect it and not only this but it doth also eradicate and extirpate the cause of most Diseases incident unto our frail Bodies as you will hereafter perceive It is a Powder without either smell or taste and the highest dose or quantity is but five or six Grains to the most robustive or strong Body and so downward to half a Grain which a Child of two days old may safely take its operations are various according to the nature and place where the peccant matter resides How you shall take it and what is to be done and observed in the taking of it I shall give directions in the latter end of this Book And as it is an effectual so it is a safe Medicine for I have given it unto three or fourscore several Children in and about the Town of Boston and indeed I know not of any one that died that ever took it except one the spirits of which were quite spent before I gave it that it was not able to retain it in its stomach but immediately brought it up again There is an eminent person in this Country whose knowledge is great in the most curious and best Arcanums or secret Medicines that are used he could tell you it is as safe as good who was an eye-witness unto a wonderful operation it had in a most contagious and malign Disease which was the Small Pox which struck in among the Passengers in Captain Lord's Ship coming from England two years since that not one died that took it two only died and neither of them took it as the Chyrurgion Mr. Whiting can testifie I gave him some of this Powder and bade him give to every one that was infected with that Disease which he did accordingly though he gave it to some that was blind to others after they appeared twenty four hours and very ready to be suffocated and very soon made them all perfectly well which was well known unto all the Passengers in the Ship as well as unto themselves that took it which are dissipated through this Country and I question not but this Paper will find out some of them who can well witness this truth By this you may judge of its efficacy in any other Disease of a malignant nature I shall tell you what I have observed from it in some other Maladies I have cured all sorts of Fevers with this Arcanum universale in all Ages and Sexes for continual burning Fevers whether putrid or not are frequently taken off by it with one Dose in the beginning or at the most by two so that the Patient may be well before the time of the expected Crisis The same Benefit I have often observed when given in the state of the Disease that it hath been presently taken off although then nature is obliged to take a longer time to renew the strength than she would have needed if she had been assisted with this Medicine in the beginning How common a thing it is to make a Month or six weeks work in curing a Fever although peradventure nature it self hath overcome the Disease in twelve or fourteen days but the diseasie matter formed and some symptoms of effects must entertain the Physician a great while longer For if the Fever were putrid then the Stomach and Lungs remain loaden with much pituitous matter to carry off which the common practice is to follow the Patient close with Expectoraters such are their Pectoral Electuaries Decoctions Syrups Lohochs c. the which are so far from answering that end as really to add to the matter they are designed to expel for they not being Agents impowered to alter or rectifie any Ferment as soon as they come into the Stomach either nauseate it with their Load and so are cast up or if they stay submit to the depraved digestion of the Stomach and there make an increase of the diseasie matter whence an extraordinary spitting continues till nature it self by degrees retrieves the natural Ferment and frees her self from the disease matter and the pretended remedy together But if this seem too long a doing that no piece of Art may be wanting there is another way at hand and that is to exhibit purging Medicines to carry it downwards the which is more pernicious than the former for the Purge drawing a great quantity of sordid matter from the Thorax to the Guts and nature not having yet recovered her right Regiment may admit some of this matter by the Meseraick or Milky Veins again into the Blood whence may succeed again a Fever de novo called a Relapse or if the lately tired spirit take not the present Assault then the occasional cause of a Dropsie Hectick Consumption or some other Cronick Diseases All which is easily prevented by taking a Dose or two of this Arcanum which evacuates the present matter by vomit and rectifies the vitiated Ferment of the Stomach and other parts whence the power of making such matter is quite taken away This I have had very large experience of But a few days before the writing of this I was sent for to a lusty young man who had laboured under a Synochus about a week having for during that time been treated by an Apothecary first with cooling Juleps which were continued all the while then strongly sweat by a Sudorifick and the next day blooded but the Disease notwithstanding increasing as being newly changed from a non putrida to a putrid when I came made the Apothecary it seems weary or doubtful of his work for he desired the Man's Wife to send for a Physician or a Second who was a Friend of his 't is like for the Bills sake but the Woman having formerly had some experience of my Medicines sent to me about five or six that Afternoon I presently ordered him four Grains of this Powder which wrought once only by Vomit and discharged the stomach of that Diseasie matter which before felt to him like a great weight the pain in his Head

experientia difficilis c. though the Age of a man is too short to obtain it It is much against my temper to conceal any thing from any Ingenious and honest Artist but I have been much mistaken and I am sorry to speak it that if I had told less it would have been more for my credit and profit I can say with the Poet Ovid Hos ego versiculos feci tulit alter honores Nevertheless the unworthiness of some shall not detract from the worth of any Civil and Ingenious Brother I shall always be civil to all but especially to those that I find are so Ars praeclarissima Artifex sordissimus I am sorry to see so many shabby and course spirited Fellows that practise in so high and honourable a Calling There is such a vast disproportion between the Art and the Artist that well may the Art be ashamed to own them There are not only ignorant Jack-daws that are intruders upon this worthy Art which square out all things by their crooked and indirect Rules but likewise there are Pompeys and Caesars too who scorn to admit of Equals and be Caesars or no bodies c. who think it much below their Greatness to advise with any If they are at any time petitioned unto it they grant it with this reservation to themselves to deny every thing others say though it be never so undeniable and clear a truth they would rather twenty should die under their hands than part with one to be cured by another that 's a great affront to their Ambition whereunto they sacrifice many a mans life and dissemble their Pride under the cloak of Humility and so blind the poor Country-man that they think such a one to be Aesculapius himself and that his Medicines were extracted from the balm of Gilead when he may be but some Imposter and his Medicines it may be no better than a little Cow-dung or some thing worse and as the Papists are kept in blindness by praying in a Language they understand not to the hazard of their souls so are many amongst us led away by such deceivers in harkning unto the false Doctrine of the Heathens to the hazard of our bodies for they thunder out Art in Quarto and Conscience in Folio and shower down such Heavenly Apologies for their deceit and ignorance with such clashes of Lightning that frights the simple into such a belief as to mistrust were a crime unpardonable whereby they are canoniz'd on Earth and written in the Rubrick in the Calendar of the World I believe there have been many such Saints on Earth that never found any room in Heaven Brethren have a care none of you be ever found akin to any such Homicide though you may with such juggles and indirect means deceive the people you cannot deceive the all-seeing God he will make you smart for it in the end when the popular applause of the World shall but torment you the more The life of man is more worth than all the Creation And as it is pretious to the Creature so it is to the Creator and he will not suffer it to be trampled upon by the pride of any without revenge and yet those sad fellows may be much cried up and in great esteem amongst the vulgar when a far more knowing and worthy Practitioner may not be regarded Let not this be any discouragement to any young Practitioner for if there be anything of worth in him and he acts like an Artist let him expect to be undervalued by the ignorant and let him not admire why it is so for we find that it hath been the unhappiness of all Ages that Falshood hath been preferred before Truth and persons of no worth or value have had the precedency of persons of true worth and esteem Scientia non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem as for the vulgar whom Nature huddl'd up in hast that Act meerly by the prerogative of depraved Nature speak against every thing but what is naught whatsoever is of Worth and Art be sure they will dislike and exclaim against all Persons but such as comply with their ignorance whose Malice and Fury is like the Waves of the Sea driven by the fury of enraged Boreas I have read of Cato that he was forty four times brought by the vulgar sort of people to the Judgment-Seat and every time came off acquitted what a great happiness it is when a man hath many malicious Enemies to find impartial and upright Judges Every Country hath its Diana as well as Ephesus And he that will not sacrifice with the people shall be crucified by them but he that doth keep a pure and undefiled Conscience towards God and acts like an honest and ingenious Artist towards his Neighbour may extract a Cordial from the World's poyson and live above the reach of Envy The most splendent Creature is sometime clouded and the most vertuous Lady suffers an Eclipse in her innocency by some malevolent Neighbour when a Strumpet goes unsuspected It is not every Artist's fortune to arrive at Corinth but I could wish every ingenious Artist could practice what he knows and that he knew more to practise better so I desire to be understood when I say that Practise is the best part of Physick that there must be first a knowledge of the Disease and likewise of the Remedy and so to proportion the Remedy to the Disease and not to try practices on mens bodies * Care at successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat that the Poet cursed but first you must know before you practise and so your practice will confirm your knowledge So I conclude with this advice first let God go before you to counsel and direct you unto the direct means let him go with you to crown it with a good Success and let him follow you to take all the glory unto whom all glory is due Caepta faveat Deus ac vota nostra secundet So wisheth Robert Couch TO MY Candid and Cordial COUNTRYMEN Friends and Countreymen SInce Death and Diseases which are Diametrically opposite unto life are entailed unto us through the Transgression of our first Parents the Creator and sole Authour of life foreseeing the weakness of our Natures to withstand the strength of such mortal Enemies created Medicine from the beginning out of the Earth to correct the fury and tyranny of Diseases whereof Death is the Daughter whereby each should be at his good pleasure and so governs it at his will that he permits and suffers this man to die and that to be sick by secondary Causes which happen as well directly as irregularly And whereas the Nature of Diseases are various so he hath endued the Earth with various and sundry Medicinal Vertues and he hath likewise called and ordained some to administer and apply such suitable and fit means as the nature of Diseases do require But the great difficulties by reason of the invisibility

of all curable Ruptures and maketh all sorts of Trusses fit for the accommodation of any His Wife treateth with Women they give Advice for nothing A TABLE of the several Diseases and Distempers treated of amongst other things in the ensuing TRACT FEvers in general Malignant Fevers in Children Directions Heat in Fevers Cold in Fevers Thirst in Fevers Agues Dropsies Falling-Sickness Griping of the Guts Surfeits Fluxes Stone or Gravel in the Reins or Kidneys Windy-Melancholy Wind in the Small Guts Collick Wind-Dropsie Gouts Pleurisie Yellow Jaundice Stone in the Bladder Consumption without a Cough A Consumption with a Cough The Rickets Apoplexy Vertigo Palsie Convulsion Cramp Worms The breaking of a Vein Coughs Catarrhs Rheums shortness of Breath Strangury Fits of the Mother Praxis Catholica OR THE COUNTRY-MAN'S Universal REMEDY IT was the custom amongst the ancient Greeks that if a sure Cure was found for any Disease the party was bound to write it on a Table and hang it up in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus that every one labouring with that Disease might afterwards repair thither and receive their Remedy Soon after did they digest the Art of Healing into a fatal Method as a Directory to the true knowledge of Curing whereby a further enquiry into Medicines came to be neglected and so this false Doctrine of the Greeks spread it self amongst the Arabians Romans and then amongst the Christians and is still in use amongst us to this day to blind us from the knowledge of true and perfect Remedies for curing our Diseases whereby we see many yearly swept away from us through some accustomed Diseases as well as new ones and especially that amongst Children of a Griping Vomiting and Scouring which gives me great cause to mistrust that either the true cause of this is not understood as well as the rest or a fit Remedy not yet found out Nor is it Children alone that this Fever the Prince of Diseases doth appear unto in those bloody manners but to some of full Growth and Strength It doth assault us in various Shapes and Habits This Disease is a grand Enemy to man for there is hardly a Distemper but is accompanied with a Fever either going before or following after it Wherefore I shall a little anatomize it unto you and shew you its Rise the place where it commonly abides and what it feeds on and so describe it as you may know it at a distance and not only this but most of our Serpentine Enemies I shall observe that method in treating of them as I do in curing of them which is to have respect unto that first which doth most press amonst which I think that peracute Disease of Children is most urgent so my method leads me to begin with a child whom I shall trace unto his old age where I shall leave him to that great Physician whose Servant I am not worthy to be First it will be necessary that I give a preparative to your understanding in unfolding the right use of two or three principal parts whose proper uses have not yet been discovered before you enter upon the main Body viz. The Spleen Liver and Gaul From these three comes Life and Death Health and Diseases as they are disposed either well or ill These are the Pillars that do support the Fabrick of the Microcosm The two first do principally respect the preservation of Health the last is of a more Balsamical Nature which doth as well prevent Diseases as restore health when it is wanting Understand by a Ferment A Specifical Virtue or Power which every part is endued withal that whatsoever is transferred through them is transmuted into their fermental quality Omnis facultas quando praevalet ea est natura ut mutet sibique simile faciat id quod ad ipsam est victum as the Aliment in digesting in the Stomach is sow'r then when the Chyle passeth through the Guts Duodenum and Ileon it is saltish and being more elaborated in the Meseraick and Milky Veins becometh more salt which is a preparation for Sanguification which is perfected in the Liver and so assimilated by every part The whole Body is seasoned and tinctured with the Ferments of those three principal parts viz. sharp from the Spleen Whitmore de Febre anomala Salt from the Liver and bitter from the Gaul To begin with the first The Spleen This part hath been hardly censured by many to be the receptacle of the Faeces of the Blood the mother of black Choler or Melancholy the Sink and Fountain of many stubborn and rebellious Diseases and to be a Bowel of no great use only to elaborate this more feculent Blood and give a small nourishment to some of the natural parts likewise the efficient cause of Madness and Dotage c. Some have not stuck to say that if ever nature made any thing to hurt her self it was this and if she had found out some other way for discharging of this Excrement as she hath done the rest she had eased her self of abundance of trouble c. but I rather think the contrary there is not any part within us nature hath been so liberal unto as to this nor hath bestowed such special favour on Vide Dr. Highmore de affectione Hypochon fol. 132. it is enriched with ten times at least as many Arteries as any other part There is life peculiarly due unto it more than sensitive for it is extant long before quickening Helmont de Author duum virut It hath a double Ferment there is a Vital from the Arteries and the digestive faculty of the Stomach which is made by an acid juice sent from it and for that great concernment which is committed unto its charge it is termed the President of the Stomach I cannot think that any excrementitious matter can reside where it hath so worthy a place for its Emunctory as the Stomach the Arteries fetch from the Stomach of their purest Chyle and sanguifie it for their pleasure and it may be by their too liberal attraction may debilitate their Ferment that so they may require an assistance from the main Body whereby the Stomach may be neglected with a due quantity of this juice whence lack of appetite and crudities do arise and so this Ferment may be exorbitant in the Spleen from whence comes bloody and black spitting into the stomach which some have judged black Choler which is nothing but an expurging and renewing of nourishable blood from the Spleen it self the Humour Melancholy and black Choler was never yet found in nature nor indeed is there any such thing extant wherefore whatsoever distemper may arise from the Spleen it is from a vitiated or debilitated Ferment not from a peccant matter which doth offend only in quality not in quantity Again if the distemper of the Spleen be the cause of Madness then in its right order there is a sound and judicious understanding due to the same place according to

that Maxim of the Ancients Ejusdem partis atque potestatis sit functio sana cujus est vitiata ac vicissim i. e. There is a sound function of the same part and power whereof there is a vicious one and on the contrary I could speak much in defence of the Dignity of this noble part but at present shall conclude with this the great Offices that proceed from it and that rich and noble Retinue that attends it speaks it no less than the pallace where the sensitive soul keeps her Residence Of the Liver I shall but only hint at this because I shall speak more largely of it when I come to treat about Dropsies and other Diseases that are falsely fathered on it what a common complaint is there about a hot Liver and a cold Stomach when as I shall demonstrate that the Liver is never hotter than is necessary nor the Stomach never colder though it may seem so by imperfect or weak digestion And although Sanguification is not begun in it yet it is the perfecter and rectifier of it whereby the Blood is assimilated and conveyed into every part through the Veins In a word the Liver is the Administrator to all the natural parts in man Of the Gaul In the first Disease that I shall speak unto I shall be enforced to anatomize this Bowel only by the way take notice that this Gall is the great Balsom of Nature as well for preventing and destroying of Diseases as the curing our Wounds Understand that whatsoever is done by nature in any thing of this kind is performed by this great Balsom nor hath this as well as the rest been free from the Calumniations of the ignorant in making it guilty of causing several sharp Diseases c. But more of this in the next Of Fevers I Shall speak a word in general then come to particulars all Fevers are of the same essence and name and differ not so much in the matter as place Place The Place it acts in is the Stomach mostly The Cause is from the error and estranging of the Faculties or from things undigested and untransmuted or else from Excrements not being rightly subdued or separated and orderly evacuated Division there are two sorts continual and intermitting From the first there are several Species viz. some very malign others accompanied with less Malignity others with none at all Intermitting ones are of three sorts Legitimate Quotidian Tertian and Quartan Not to trouble you to treat of any contagious and pestilential Fevers none hath yet been amongst us God still keep them from us and remedy them where they are I shall therefore begin with malignant Fevers which are very rife in this Country especially amongst Children A malignant Fever differs from a Synochus or Burning or any other Fever in this that it draws its putrefaction immediately from its own matter for indeed putrefaction is joyned with it A burning Fever and other Fevers do not derive their putrefaction immediately from their matter but gradually and casually either from the peccancy of the matter or debility of the Ferment where it resides those are of a less malignity and bound in a less quantity of the matter offending Ephemera or an one days Fever is more from a disposition or inclination to a Disease for that morbifick matter in the stomach is soon cast up by Vomit or digested I rather call it a Distemper than a Disease But more particularly A Malignant Fever in Children AS I have shewed that a Malignant Fever is from the present putrefaction of its own matter Parvae Febres quandoque valde malignae Hipp. Diagnost so this violent Disease in Children is of that nature which is clearly demonstrated from the Symptoms in the first assault that within forty eight hours putrefaction hath been nigh perfected as is perceived by a coldness in the extreme parts and cold sweats c. Cause It is from some thing received which may contain some vicious quality or abounding in quantity or from an ill disposition of the digestive Ferment for it often happens that when the season is most hot then the digestion is weakest and then crude Fruits and things hard to digest take advantage of the stomach But above all I look at Milk and Sugar to be the greatest cause for Milk is the general Food of Children and there is such a propensity in its own nature to curdle that if it be not quickly digested it obeyeth the acid Ferment of the place which soon is coagulated and a Curd made like new tough Cheese which doth strongly resist digestion especially in a weak and tender stomach and if it be not speedily vomited up it soon begets a putrefactive Ferment and then soon after those terrible Symptoms are produced as Vomiting Scouring Griping c. Natura morborum est medicus medicus naturae minister Now Nature which is the Physician to Diseases unites her force and takes with her a quantity of this Gaul-balsom to rectifie this Malignity and eradicate the Morbifick Matter and whatsoever this Balsom doth incorporate with it hinders its putrefaction as Salt doth in Flesh or Fish and seasons it with its taste and colours it with its tincture as a little Wormwood doth any thing it is commixt with and a little Saffron doth Milk c. and what part of it is separated for its putrefactive Body nature endeavours to cast forth and by reason it still retains its acquired sharpness from the putrefactive Ferment falling down upon the Pylorus or lower mouth of the stomach stirreth up those violent motions and what part of it passeth through the Intestines it abstergeth and scoureth away that mucous or phlegmatick matter which nature hath lined the Guts withal for a twofold end first to hinder Obstructions that the Chyle may have a more speedy and slippery passage Secondly to defend them from any sharp or corrosive quality that may be in the Chyle which is transferred through them Which slimy matter is commonly seen to scour from them in this Disease and this being gone this excrementitious matter doth easily corrode by its sharpness which is the cause of those Tortures and Gripings And in regard that this peccant matter which is cast forth is tinctured by this Balsom it hath deceived many who have taken it to be the Gaul itself 'T is true there are Excrements in Children from eating Milk not perfectly digested which are of this Tincture but of no bitterish Taste it is brownish in the stomach yellow in the Ilion and green in the blind Gut yet they may not be sick And no marvel that there is little or none of this Balsom found in its Receptacle or Bladder in dead Children for if this be spent Death immediately follows according to that Proverb When the Gaul is broken the drowned Carcase riseth to the top of the Water when it can no longer withstand putrefaction Those Sacrilegious Jews knew that this Gaul was a great Cordial for the preserving

and whosoever shall recover all this matter is to be brought out and whoever goes about to stop it in the beginning works against nature What a vain thing therefore is it to think to take away the Gripings before the matter be gone that causes it and to corroborate the stomach or to refresh its Spirits so long as the Enemy beareth sway To give the Child Mithridate or lay a plaister of it to the stomach which is worse becomes another Disease or any thing else that is nauseous whilst Nature the Disease are struggling and to give cooling things to correct the hear is to weaken nature and strengthen the Disease Obj. But you will tell me many have recovered by the use of those means Answ And many more had been had they never been used with submission to providence but quoad homines after the manner of men I admire that any should recover that ever was affected with this Disease for they are ever giving and all to hurt it seeing the best Friends become the worst Enemies which makes good that old Saying When God cuts off man's thread of life His dearest Friends do bring the knife But many things are wrought by accident as we have known many have been recovered from a Fever by drinking cold water Obj. From whence some have asserted that this Heat is of the Essence of the Disease Answ But this Cure is not wrought by the Water as it is cold and moist for Sack or strong Beer would have performed it and a great deal better but it is from the great quantity of it which doth so replete the stomach that some of the peccant matter which doth adhere unto the Fibres thereof the Water hath loosened and so it s brought away with it I suppose whosoever hath been cured by Water it hath been when the Disease hath been on him some considerable time and not in the beginning I have prescribed Water several times in the end of a Fever to this intent and I ever found it very successful but I suppose the parties that have taken it upon their own sensual inclination it was hap-hazard with them for to take Water in the beginning of a Fever either kills them or strikes them into an Ague or some other long Sickness To drink it in a contagious pestilential Fever or any Fever that tends much to putrefaction hastens death I do not speak this as not approving of the use of Water but I declare the contrary for I have found as strange events by drinking Water as ever I saw by any Physick I have known a man cured very soon of an Atrophia or Consumption only by the drinking of pure Rock Watar and in many other cases have I used it but great consideration is to be had in the giving of it But to return by applying a nauseous or foetid Medicine to the Stomach whilst the morbifick matter resides there nature thinking she is assaulted by another Distemper unites all her strength and force and desperately attempts both her Enemies with this resolution to extirpate them or sink her self whereby she may by exasperating of her new Enemy cast forth the old and then this amongst the ignorant is cryed up for a laudable Medicine when as such things are done by chance for where one hath recovered by this means twenty have died Thus you see what a blind course hath been taken for the curing this or any other Disease The meer pity that I bear to poor Infants hath extorted this from me to whom I have often been sent for to see them die when their spirits have been so far spent that I have not dared to give them any thing to take off the Disease to the great grief of my spirit for without the Disease be taken away to small purpose do we use Cordial Means to refresh their Spirits DIRECTIONS I shall now direct you to a better way viz. 1. When you are assured this Disease is on them which is known first by a scouring away of a slimy matter then a discolouring of the Excremenrs as yellow green c. and a griping in the Belly being very hot and cold by Intervals press not any manner of Meat upon them Impura corporae quo plus nutrieris eo majus laeseris as you tender their lives this very thing hath destroyed thousands For to give Meat whilst the Disease is on them when the stomach is not fit to receive it nor hath strength to digest it without it be speedily vomited up again it becomes a Recruit or supply to the Disease 2. Neither administer nor apply any thing external or internal that is any way nauseous or ungrateful to the stomach for nature hates and abhors such things for though it be laid upon the stomach yet the taste of it is in the stomach as though it were contained there especially in young and tender Skins for to have a thing that is nauseous to the stomach and ungrateful to the smell constantly to lie on would be troublesome to one that is in health much more to him that is sick Give not the Child any Milk and if it suck wean it for Milk is the first matter and foundation this Disease is raised on and it bears still an affinity with it and is presently converted into its poisonous nature and likewise let it forbear Water and Beer either cold or warm keep the sick party either Child or otherwise in a breathing sweat which is done by drinking warm Posset-drink the Milk being turn'd with White Wine or Sack or Beer sharpened with Vinegar let the party drink of it as warm as he can take it this is far better than any Cordial or Julip whatsoever in a putrid Disease between whiles the Child may drink a good draught of Sack raw and without Sugar is best and if it tends to coldness either in Face Nose Hands or Feet you may safely give it a liberal draught of Brandy with a little white Sugar though the Child be not two months old and likewise make a Toast of old stale Bread or a piece of Rose-Cake and soak it in warm Brandy wherein a little white Sugar hath been dissolved and put it to the Child's Stomach and let it lie on for twenty four hours and if the coldness is not removed you may reiterate it I have a specifick Water for that end which doth much revive and cherrish nature What though it exasperateth and maketh more hot That is well recompensed for it mightily strengthens and refresheth nature Observe that a hot and feverish temper is the most laudable and best temper the Child can be in whilst the Disease remains When the morbifick matter is gone you may give a little salt of Pearls Corral Amber or Wormwood which are very good in a Cordial Electuary to kill that putrefactive Ferment in the place where the Disease lay that may lie behind lurking which is the cause of most Relapses and long and tedious Sicknesses and