People to Sweat in Under my Pot I made a fire which both warmed the Room and made the Brine to boyl and from the boyling Brine arose such quantities of Steams as filled my Room which when it was warmed and full of steams was fit for use I had beside the large Pipes which supplied the whole Room several others of different lengths by the means of which I more forcibly conveyed the Steams to any particular part By this way of Sweating I have known a Gentlewoman Cured as wa◠also one at Droyt-Wych of an Inveterate Leprosy which had eluded the Efficacy of all other Medicines and Baths It rarely failed taking off the most violent Old Aches and Pains In all Relaxations of the Nerves and Tendons I have never met with any thing comparable to it To be short I found it as good as the Bath in most things and in many out-did it and I believe Mr. Hodges computing the time he has used the way of Sweating at his Brine-Pits and the number of People he has had can produce a greater Catalogue and more considerable Cures wrought than hath been at the Bath I hope by the means of Experimental Philosophy so happily begun and encouraged by that Admirable and never-sufficiently to be valued Mr. Boyle to see the Art of Physick arrive to as great Certainty and Perfection as other Arts and Sciences are arrived to For as I before observed by Chymically Analyzing the Blood and Juices both in their Natural and Morbid state we may arrive to some certainty in the Knowledge of the Cause of Distempers which I am afraid we have hitherto been greatly ignorant of and when once the Causes of Distempers are throughly known the Cure of them will be no difficult matter I shall conclude in the Words of that Industrious Philosopher by the Fire Helmont in his Treatise De Lichiasi In nostris furnis legimus non esse in Natura certius Sciendi genus ad cognoscendum per causas radicales constitutivas rerum quamdum Scitur quid quantumque in re quaque sit contentum Ita quidem ut cognitio connexio causarum non constent clarius quam cum res ipsas ita recluseris ut coram prodeant ac velut tecum loquantur Siquidem entia realia duntaxat stantia in suis primor dialibus succedentibus seminum Principius adeoque in verâ entitate Substantiali dant notitiam proferunt causam cognoscendi Naturam Corporum Mediorum extremitatum Quippe sunt causa generationis existentiae permutationis secundum ipsorum radicem quoniam teste Raimundo utcunque Logicus habeat profundum ingenium Argumentabile aut Naturale de rebus extrinsecis tamen nunquam per aliquam rationem quae venit ad sensum poterit directè cognoscere nec judicari cum quali natura aut virtute per fortitudinem intrinsecus habeat Multiplicatio grani crescere super terram nisi pro similitudinario ab observatione desumpto Nec sciet unquam quomodo semen in terra pullulet crescat coligat fructum Nisi cum doctrina experimentali prius intraverit in nostram Philosophiam Naturalem non Sophisticam sermocinalem illam quae nascitur Logicis per diversas praesumptiones Phantasticas qui cum prognosticationibus sequelarum contra vim Naturae faciunt multos pertinaciter errare in Sophisticatione mentis Quia per nostram Mechanicam Scientiam intellectus est rectificatus vi experientiae respectu Oculi verae notitiae mentalis Imo experientiae nostrae stant supra probationes Phantasticas Conclusionum ideoque nec eas tolerant Sed omnes alias Scientias ostendunt Vivaciter intrare in intellectum Unde deinceps intelligimus per Naturam intus illud quod est quale est Quia per talem Scientiam Intellectus stut denudatus Superfluitatibus erroribus qui ipsum ordinariò removent à veritate propter praesumptiones praejudicata credita in conclusionibus Hinc enim nostri se direxerunt ad intrandum per quamlibet scientiam in omnem experientiam per artem juxta Naturae cursum in suis univocis principiis Spagyria enim sola est speculum veri intellectus Monstratque tangere videre veritates earum in claro lumine Nec fert argumenta logicalia quia nimis remota longuinca de claro lumine Ideoque habet tabula smaragdina Per hoc genus demonstrandi fugiet à te omnis obscuritas acquiritur tibi omnis fortitudinis fortitudo fortis vincens omnia subtilia solida penetrans propterea vocor Hermes Trismegistus habens tres id est omnes Partes Philosophiae atque totius mundi Telesmon Haec ille inter orare ergo pulsare supponitur Medium in Naturalibus quaerendi per ignem FINIS ADVERTISEMENT I Design God Willing in a short time to Publish a Compleat History of Human Blood both in its Natural and Morbid State BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Daniel Brown at the Black-Swan and Bible without Temple-Bar NOVVM Lumen Chirurgicum Or A New Light of Chirurgery Wherein is Discovered a much more Safe and Speedy way of Curing Wounds than hath heretofore been usually Practised Illustrated with several Experiments made this Year in Flanders Novum Lumen Chirurgicum Vindicatum Or The New Light of Chyrurgery Vindicated from the many unjust Aspersions of some unknown Calumniators With the Addition of some few Experiments made this Winter in England Both by Jo. Colbatch Physician
Author at the same time throws himself at the Readers mercy to make him or esteem him what he pleases But of all Authors those who encounter with prejudices ought most infallibly to reckon upon their condemnation Their Works sit too uneasie upon most mens minds and if they escape the passions of their enemies which I have not done they are obliged to the Almighty force of Truth for their protection However time will do every man Justice and Truth which at first appeared a Chymerical and ridiculous Phantasm by degrees grows sensible and manifest Men open their eyes and contemplate her they discover her charms and fall in love with her The Books that encounter with prejudices leading to Truths through unbeaten Paths require much longer time than others to obtain the reputation their Authors expect them And I find it but too true in my self that all those Writers who combate with prejudices are much mistaken if they think by that means to recommend themselves to the favour and esteem of others Possibly some few will speak honourably of them when they are dead But whilst they live they must expect to be neglected I speak experimentally by most people and to be despised reviled and persecuted even by those who go for the wisest and most moderate sort of men There is nothing but Truth contained in my Novum Lumen Chyrurgicum and I did think that I should have been put into a condition this Summer to have made it evidently appear But instead of that I have been abused and delivered up into the hands of my enemies to do with me as they pleased My Novum Lumen is built upon a pair of Medicines the which as yet I think not fit to make publick but here lyes my misfortune common to all those who make new Discoveries A great many believe the Truth of what I have said and that my Medicines are capable of performing what I have promised for them But amongst the number of those who are so ingenuous as to believe matter of fact a great many say this man was not the Author others that they have the same Medicines and some that they imparted them to me As for these Gentlemen I can very easily excuse them I very well knowing that it is the Nature of most Men not to allow any Person the honour of his own Discoveries they thinking that thereby their own Glory is eclipsed But there are another sort of Men whose Interest will not give them leave to embrace the Truth and for the same reason they do what in them lies to keep others from so doing And the greatest part of Mankind not being judges in my cause any further then their eyes direct them and it being altogether impossible that there should be any great number of Spectators by which means I am evil spoken off by many upon no other grounds then because an interested party have told them that I have pretended to what I can't perform I expect the mouths of my enemies will be opened very wide against me but I have already born so much that I can with a great deal of contentedness bear with the greatest indignities that can be offered me My great satisfaction being that I have peace in my own breast having proposed nothing but what tended to the good of Mankind And very well knowing that if my Medicines are faithfully and skilfully used they are capable of performing much more then I have promised for them but the best Medicines unskilfully used or with a design that they should not succeed by prejudiced Persons may be brought into disgrace The following Essay I humbly offer to the candid Readers serious consideration nothing doubting but that it will meet with a favourable reception from some few And I must needs say that I more value the good Opinion and good Word of one candidly ingenuous then all that can be said against me by ten thousand clamarous ill-natured Persons I have endeavoured to act and behave my self so as to deserve no mans ill Word but if I am abused and my Undertakings misrepresented without any just cause I shall never break my heart about it I very well knowing that the justice and integrity of my Undertakings will one time or other be made appear From my House in St. Anns Court in Dean-Street near Soho-Square October the 12th 1695. A Physico Medical ESSAY c. CHAP. I. Of the Small Pox. THE first thing I shall begin with is the disuse of Alkalies in the Small-Pox that fatal Distemper to three Kingdoms and even all Europe In that by the means of it God was pleased to deprive 〈◊〉 of a Princess whose worth was such that a value sufficient can never be set upon it and whose loss sufficiently be lamented It is a common practâ—ce both of Nurses and the generality of Practitioners as soon as they perceive the least Symptoms of this Distemper to give either Gascons Countess of Kents Lapis de Goa or some other Testaceous Powder which are known Alkalies The one Party as they pretend to drive the Malignity from the Heart the other to correct the Acidity which they conjecture for beyond conjecture they can't go to be in the blood In the subsequent Discourse I shall endeavour to shew upon what false suppositions both Parties go For the first sort it will not be worth while to spend much time about them by reason every one will readily grant that they generally act upon wrong and mistaken Notions For for any Malignity to be lodged in the Heart more than any other part is altogether impossible by reason that the Blood moves ten times at least faster through the Heart than any other part the Lungs excepted For the Cavities being large no Stagnation is to be feared and so by consequence no danger If there be any danger of the Malignities setling any where it must be in those parts where the Vessels are very small and the Blood moves but slowly which must be near the extream Parts For the second sort who give the same Medicines but with quite different Intentions I shall endeavour to prove that their suppositions are altogether as false and groundless as the sormer They give their Alkalious Medicines to correct the Acidity they suppose to be in the Blood and which is as they pretend the occasion of all the ill Symptoms that attend People in the Small-Pox Now I could never hear of any one that by Analyzing the Blood of Persons in the Small-Pox that could ever find the least footsteps of Acidity in it though on the contrary it doth appear after many trials that the Blood of such Persons doth more abound with Alkalious Particles then that of sound People So by consequence the giving of Alkalies in this case must be at least superfluous if not highly pernicious and as I have frequently observed and shall instance in some particulars The cause of the Small-Pox common with most other Fevors and acute Distempers I
to what generally do and where life lies at stake people can't be too cautious But if the good old Woman and Nurses in spight of all that can be said will be still tampering I must needs say this that if my Method were exactly followed by every body from the beginning without any variation I verily believe that there would not one in ten die that have formerly done by the use of Alkalies and Diaphoreticks As I have before endeavoured to explode the use of Alkalies and to give my reasons for so doing so I shall now endeavour to give some reasons for the Method I take with the great use of Acids in this case As I have before observed I judge the cause of the Small Pox to be from an intromission of Heterogeneous or Particles of a different Nature and Texture from the blood into it by the means of which Particles the blood is put into a very great hurry and disorder in order to throw off its enemy and that the place that Nature designs the discharge of these Particles by to be the cutaneous Glands Now the inconveniencies that I observed to attend the use of Alkalies were the throwing out of more Pustles than Nature designed the destroying of the Globules of the blood and a waste of too great a quantity of Serum I had before forgotten to mention one dismal effect of Alkalies and Diaphoreticks and that is by destroying or breaking the Globules of the Blood instead of regular Pustles being thrown out to the Surface of the Skin the divided broken Globules are together with the morbifick matter thrown out as in the case of and so causes an Erispelas or St. Anthonies Fire which seldom or never fails of proving fatal Now I almost defie any one to say that he ever observed such Symptoms as these if Acids were from the beginning used For Acids are of that Nature that they confirm the Texture of the Blood which is that red substance wherein is contained the Byolyenium * Nov. Lum Chyr or Lamp of Life by so doing Nature is capable of throwing out the extraneous Particles in a way suitable to it and without the inconveniencies that attend the other method For the Texture of the Blood being confirmed and moving regularly and Naturally in its proper Channels the morbifick Particles are only thrown out and such a quantity of Serum left as is sufficient to supply the Pustles and bring them to maturity without any danger of their flatuing and the acrid Matter being again absorbed into the Blood and causing secondary Fevers Besides the Globules of the Blood being kept together unbroken there is not any danger of their being extravasated and causing those fatal purple Spots Nor of being thrown out together with morbifick Matter and so causing an Erisipelas or St. Anthonies Fire neither are Hemoragies at the the Nose bloody Water c. in the least to be feared nor by being admitted into the small Meanders of the Brain to cause Deliriums and those other Symptoms that attend it I might expatiate upon continued Fevers and some other acute Distempers But that would be to be guilty of Tautology For I assign but one general cause of them though I own that the extraneous Particles causing them may be somewhat different and according to the different size of the extraneous Particles the parts affected may be different as in the Small-Pox the size of the Particles are such as to fit them to be thrown out by the cutaneous Glands to the surface of the Skin in other Fevers they are thrown out sometimes one way sometimes another according to their size For instance sometimes they are thrown out by critical sweating sometimes by Urine sometimes by the Glands of the Mouth in spitting and so on according to the different disposition of the Particles causing the Distemper being fitted to be discharged through the Pores of different Parts And which ever way we find Nature enclined to do her work we must assist her in it but not spur her on unless she be too sluggish but must not upon any account whatsoever hinder or thwart her in her Operations In most continued Fevers I have found Alkalies equally pernicious as in the Small-Pox and Acids equally advantagious the which I shall instance in one or two particulars After I came out of Flanders last year being ninety four having discoursed with a certain Physitian about a Fever that had that Summer raged in London and of which many died he told me that when he found his Patients under such and such circumstances that he as much gave them up for dead as if a Dagger were run through their Hearts I asked him what those Symptoms were that rendred his Patients circumstances to be so very dangerous He replied That when he found them delirious and had Spasmes and Convulsions of the Nerves I enquired of him what Medicines he gave He told me a Composition of Gascons Powder Virginian Snake Root c. which was what he solely relied on and which is the same or of the same Nature with what is generally given in those cases I asked him whether he had never found his Medicine serviceable to him He ingeniously confessed that when his Patients were under the aforesaid circumstances it never did him any service at all I again asked him why he did not vary his Method His reply was It was a most noble Alkaly and Alexipharmick and what was generally used and therefore he did not think fit to vary from an Established Method A few days after I was called into a Gentlewoman exactly under the same Circumstances before related she being delirious to the highest degree had violent Spasmes and Convulsions of the Nerves and all other Symptoms of a Malignant Fever Of her Life I did not despair and by the plentiful use of proper Acids all Symptoms soon vanished and in a weeks time she was fit to go abroad Besides this I could instance a hundred cases of the same nature but I design brevity I must own that other Distempers may be complicated with the Small-Pox and other continued Fevers and acute Distempers or from a different constitution of the Air c. unusual Symptoms may appear in which cases a general method must not be relied on but recourse must be also had to proper Specificks CHAP. II. Of the Scurvy I Am now come to treat upon the disuse of Alkalies in the Scurvy that reigning Distemper which few people are altogether free from and is by most men accounted incurable or at least it for the most part proves so But here I expect the cry of all Mankind against me What! say there is no Acidity in the Blood in the Scurvy What! is it but an Acidity in the Blood that is the occasion of the breaking out of Scabs Pimples Blotches c. upon the Skin What! but a sharpness and Acidity in the Blood occasions those wandring Pains and a thousand other Symptoms that people labouring
which by many experiments I have found to be as much an Alkaly as either Crabs Eyes Corral Pearls c. the which I suppose no man will deny Now it being granted that the matter contained in the aforesaid Nodes to be an Alkaly how is it possible for this Distemper to proceed from Acids when in those very parts where the Distemper most violently rages there should be produced such large quantities of an Alkalious substance For if the Distemper proceeds from Acids as 't is generally agreed upon the Patient need not clog his Stomach with Alkalies as is generally practised there being a Remedy already placed in the part affected And I verily believe that the only reason why this Distemper has been accounted amongst the Opprobria Medicorum has been from the mistaken Notions they have had concerning it But if men will still persist to assert that this Distemper proceeds from Acids and at the same time own the chalky substance before-mentioned which is only the Morbifick Matter indurated to be an Alkaly they must tacitely believe the Doctrine of Transmutation though openly they are ashamed to own it and will laugh at and ridicule those that do But this is not all for suppose the Acid Matter causing this Distemper to be transmuted into a chalky alkalious substance the Distemper must never more pretend to come in or near the part where this substance is lodged it being placed as a Centry to guard it off Nay the Blood at times must all or at least great part of it pass through the Part or Parts where this chalky substance is lodged by which means a man would think it should be sufficiently guarded from any more growing Acid and so by consequence when the chalky Nodes are once setled people have not the least reason for the future to be in fear of the return of their Distemper The contrary of which a great many honest Gentlemen to their sorrows experience So that a man would think that these very Nodes alone were sufficient if there were no other reasons to be given for it to satisfie any man who is master of his reason that Acids are not and that Alkalies are the cause of this Distemper And if the Blood abound with too great a quantity of Alkalious Particles the giving of Alkalies must be preposterous is being to add Fuel to the Flame which instead of quenching or extinguishing makes it so much the greater It may not be amiss to take notice that few people are troubled with the Gout but those who drink large quantities of Wine or some other generous Liquors abounding with vinous Spirits so that the Blood and other Juices being impregnated with the said vinous Spirits these Spirits meeting with the volatile alkalious Salt of which even the Blood of sound People is never destitute By the means of which Salt the vinous Spirit is coagulated and turned into that substance or somewhat like it which Helmont calls his Offa Alba which coagulated substance not being capable of moving with the Blood and Juices through the small Vessels causes obstructions and violent pains and in time by the addition of other gross terrestrious Particles into the beforementioned chalky substance By the foresaid coagulation of vinous Spirits with the volatile Alkaly of the Blood may a very good reason be given for the Generation of the Stone in the Bladder and Kidneys And Mr. Boyle tells us being what Helmont had before done that having obtained some Stones of a certain Lythotomist he put them into a Retort and exposed them to a strong fire and found that the better half consisted of volatile alkalious Salt like unto that obtainable from Humane Blood and a considerable quantity of heavy Oyl so that it is plain that the Generation of the Stone is not from Acids but Alkalies From which may be inferred that it is not from the Acidity of Rhenish Wine that makes the drinking of it pernicious to Gouty People but from its abounding with spirituous Particles more than most other Wines CHAP. IV. Of Rheumatisms THIS is another of the Distempers generally said to proceed from Acids in the Blood but very falsly as I hope fully to make appear I having had to do with multitudes under this Distemper and that thanks to God with very good success I. shall not trouble my self to investigate the original causes of this Distemper which are various that being foreign to my design but shall immediately proceed to the business I have undertaken First of all Having by the fire analyzed the Blood of Rheumatick Persons I have found it to abound more with Alkanious Particles than that of sound Persons but not the least grain of any Acid substance in it from which alone it may readily enough be inferred That it proceeds not from Acids but on the contrary from Alkalies But it may be Objected From whence proceeds that syziness and viscosity of the Serum which is generally observed in the Blood of Rheumatick Persons if not from Acids For we know that Milk which is a sort of Serum of the Blood let it be in never so fluid a state by the addition of any Acid though never so gentle a great part of it will be immediately congulated and turned into Curds To which I Answer That the foresaid Objection is altogether invalid the viscousness that is observed in the Serum of the Blood being quite different from that of the Curds in Milk Though there are those substances contained in Milk that are fit to make both Blood and Serum but Milk is a much more compound liquor than the Serum of the Blood so the comparison being made between subjects so vastly different it is of no validity at all But suppose the comparison between the two Liquors good What agreement is there between Curds and a substance like unto Gelly None at all that I know of But if instead of curdled Milk they had made the comparison between the inviscated Serum and Hartshorn Gelly they had been in the right on 't for indeed I know not any two subjects more fit to be compared together But then this comparison will not in the least prove the inviscation of the Serum to proceed from Acids but on the contrary from Alkalious Particles for every body that knows what Harts-horn is know that the reason of its making a Gelly is from its abounding with volatile alkalious Salts And for the same reason it is that Calves Feet Izing-glass Ivory c. make Gellies By what I have said I hope I have freed Acids from occasioning the viscousness of the Serum of the Blood in Rheumatisms which viscosity if it can be once taken off every one knows that the Distemper immediately vanishes But this is not to be done by Alkalies that ever I could see although I have given them in large quantities But it is expeditiously to be done by proper Acids such as the before-mentioned Tincture of Antimony c. and Calibiats But
here I expect that People will think that I have caught my self in a trap when I bring in Calibiats amongst the number of Acids when they are generally owned by all Mankind to be Alkalies to confirm the truth of which they tell you it is plainly manifest that filings of Iron will make as great an Effervescency with all sorts of Acids as any of the Alkalies I have mentioned therefore it is plain I must be much in the wrong in reckoning Calibiats amongst the number of Acids From this difficulty I shall endeavour to extricate my self and likewise to prove That Iron or Steel until it be converted into a Vitriol and every body will allow Vitriol to be an Acid cannot act upon the Blood or Serum to cause any alteration in it nor so much as any way enter into the Veins or Arteries It is the Custom of Skilful Practitioners before they give Steel Medicines to enquire of their Patients Whether they are sensible of any Acidity in their Stomachs in which part I do allow Acids oftentimes to abound and that exorbitantly If they are sensible of any Acidity there it is then found necessary to give Iron or Steel without any Preparation at all by reason that by the means of the Acids in the Stomach it is turned into a Vitriol and so made capable of being carri'd into the Blood whereas in such cases if it hath been before satiated by a precedent Preparation it hath little or no effect at all On the other hand if there be no sensible Acidity in the Stomach Iron or Steel being given Unprepared are carri'd off by Stool without the least alteration or any part of it being admitted into the Blood All or most of the Preparations of Steel that I know of that are good for any thing are performed by the means of Acids which tend to the dividing of their parts and turning them into a Vitriol Now according to the difference of the Acids used the result is a different sort of Vitriol which hath different operations But on the contrary Alkalies do so lock up the Body of Iron as to make it unfit to be taken as Medicine by reason of its extraordinary hardness and firmness of Texture The Preparations of Steel I generally use are that which goes by the name of Dr. Willis's Preparation of Steel and is now almost every where to be had which altho it be grown common is for all that no despicable Medicine and that which follows Take of filings of Steel or rather Iron very clean and free from dust one pound and half Sal Armoniac two pound make the Sal Armoniac into very fine Powder then mix them well together in an iron or stone Mortar then put the mixture into a moist Cellar and let it stand a week Then put it into a very large Crucible which cover with 〈◊〉 piece of Tile afterwards put the Crucible into a Charcoal Fire which increase by degrees till the Crucible be almost red hot after it has continued in this state about an hour take away the Fire and let your calcined matter cool by degrees when cold take it out of the Crucible and make into fine Powder in a glass or stone Mortar then put it into a Bottle with a wide mouth which stop with a glass Stopple and keep in a warm place These two Preparations properly given and with convenient Vehicles I have known of very great use in Rheumatisms And the last when all other Medicines have proved ineffectual has never once failed me in the most inveterate Obstructions of the Menses in Women Besides the forementioned Preparations of Steel I have frequently found Cinnaber of Antimony or even common Cinnaber mixt with a due proportion of Gum Guaiaci and given in large quantities to be of great use not only in confirmed Rheumatisms but even in Sciatica's of long standing by the means of which alone I have known many cured I did formerly believe Cinnaber of Antimony and common Cinnaber to be Alkalies but since I have more nicely inquired into it I find that by a peculiar management a large quantity of an acid sulphurious Spirit may be obtained from it Before I conclude upon this Head it will not I suppose be amiss to observe one thing more about the Preparation of Steel before-mention'd and that is that whilst it is kept dry and in a Powder it is one of the greatest Deoppilatives or openers of Obstructions imaginable But let it be put into a Cellar and run per deliquium which it will do in a few days fifty or sixty drops of the said Oil per deliquium given twice a day in a strong Decoction of Oak Bark I have of late found never to fail me in stopping a seminal Flux which all People will allow has hitherto been found as difficult a thing to do as any whatsoever Some People having told me that they supposed the Stipticity to proceed from the Decoction of Oak Bark only I have purposely tried it alone and altho I own Oak Bark to be a Noble Stiptic and to do Wonders the Decoction being taken in at the mouth and by way of Clyster in common simple Diarrhea's and even sometimes in bloody Fluxes yet in the case before-mentioned it would do nothing at all but adding some drops of the Oil of Mars to the Decoction it had soon the desired effect CHAP. V. Of Consumptions I Have little to say upon this Subject but that I have seen great numbers of People under this Circumstance to whom have been given large quantities of Alkalies and all sorts of Balsamics and those things called Pectorals without the least advantage in the world tho I have seen others who have had the manifest signs of a confirmed Phtisis or Consumption who by the plentiful use of proper Acids have been reduced from a state of dying to that of perfect health My Reasons in short according to my best Observations for the use of Acids and the disuse of Alkalies are as follow The Globules of the Blood by reason of so great a quantity of Acrid Alkalious Lixivious Particles being mixed with it being broken and confusedly mix'd with the Serum are together with the Serum admitted into the small Glandules of the Lungs and not being capable of being discharg'd cause Inflamations there and by consequence Hectick Fevers which always precede and accompany a Pthisis or Consumption Now by the use of Alkalies and Balsamicks these extravasated Globules are so far from being thrown out and the depraved state of the Blood from being altered that instead of it the state of the Blood is made much worse by Alkalies and by Balsamicks the Pustles occasioned from the extravasated Globules being admitted into the small Glandules are brought to Suppuration the necessary consequence of which is an Ulceration and when so tender a part as the Lungs are is once Ulcerated he must shew himself an Artist indeed that can heal such Ulcers Now proper Acids being given
own that it may be rationally enough Objected That my Doctrine of Acids does mightily thwart with that of Specificks since there are many Specificks that are neither Alkalies nor Acids yet seldom fail of Curing Distempers as rationally to be supposed to proceed from Alkalious Particles abounding as any whatsoever To which I Answer That I have only brought my Doctrine of Acids upon the Stage as a general one in opposition to the general and pernicious Doctrine of Alkalies For should I deny the Doctrine of Specificks I must deny matter of fact which is what I shall never do till I am totally deprived of my Reason There is a little Herb called Paronichia cum foliis Rutaceis or Whitlow Grass with leaves like Rew the which the Honourable Mr. Boyle recommends as a Specifick in the King 's Evil Which Herb I have immerged both in moderately Acid and Alkalious Liquors yet could not perceive any Luctus or Effervescency yet I have known it do wonders in the forementioned Distemper and that without having the least sensible Operation I shall instance in one particular A poor Woman in Worcester having one only Child of about Ten years of Age who by Weaving of Bone-lace maintained both her Mother and her self The Mother of the Child came one day to me making a great complaint that she was undone I asked her the cause of her complaint she told me her Child who kept her in her old Age from Begging had for Two Years had Scrophulous Tumors in and about her Privities and that about Three Months before one of the said Tumors began to Ulcerate and that now the Ulcers were crept into her Body which made her uneapable of Sitting I went immediately with the poor Woman to see her Daughter and found what she said was true the poor Girl being the most miserable spectacle I ever saw I remembring what Mr. Boyle had said concerning Paronychia and being sufficiently satisfied that there was not the least reason of doubting the truth of any thing he had said when he related it as matter of Fact upon his own Knowledge I was resolved to try it upon this Girl I first of all Purged her Three or Four times with Calamelanos Rezin of Jallap and Cremor Tartar I afterwards gave her Two large Handfuls of the said Herb dried ordering her to put it into Two Gallons of small Beer after it had done working and let it stand Six Days and then to drink it for her constant Drink She continued to take it for about Two Months in which time without applying any thing to the Ulcers save Clean Cloths both Ulcers and Tumors vanished and she continued well till I left Worcester which was two years after the Cure was performed and is so still for ought I can hear I having several times enquired after her Another Instance of the Operation of Specificks without their being either Alkalies or Acids is that frequently experimented Decoction of Mercury after having been Boyled for a considerable time in Water has been found not to have lost the least Grain of its former Weight or imparting either Taste or Colour to the Water yet this Water in which the Mercury has been Decocted has not failed of killing and bringing away Worms when other Celebrated Medicines have failed Likewise Crocus Mettalorum and some other Preparations of Antimony being barely infused in Wine without losing the least Grain of their Weight or imparting either Smell Taste or Colour to the Wine in which they are infused yet never fail of giving the Wine a violently Emettick Quality I my self have at several times poured above Twenty Quarts of Canary upon one and the same Ounce of Crocus Mettalorum Powdered and found that the last Quart was as violently Emettick as the first altho after nice trial I could not find that the Powder was diminished one Grain in its Weight or had as is before-observed caused the least sensible Alteration in the Wine The Cortex that Noble Specifick in all Intermitting Fevers I don't apprehend to perform its office as it is either an Alkaly or Acid though being mix'd with Acids it performs its work much better than without them It is a general complaint against that Noble Medicine and is the only occasion of deterring some People from the use of it That being given in never so large quantities especially in Quartans it only puts off the Fit for a time but does not totally eradicate the Distemper it returning after a certain period To obviate which inconvenience I have been advised to give it after the following manner which seldom or never fails of preventing the return of the Distemper Two Hours before the Fit I give a gentle Emettick after that has done Working an Opiate when the Fit is over I give the quantity of a large Nutmeg of the following Electuary with the Decoction and repeat it every Four Hours for Five or Six Days ordering my Patients to eat something of easy Digestion within an Hour after each Dose After the expiration of Five or Six Days I give it only first in the Morning and at Five in the Afternoon for a Week Eating something after each Dose Take of Pick'd Peruvian Bark One Ounce make it into a very fine Powder and with good Syrup of Lemons as much as is sufficient make an Electuary Immediately after each Dose of which I give about a Quarter of a Pint of the following Decoction Take of Pick'd Peruvian Bark Half an Ounce Gentian Roots Two Drams Centaury Two Pugils Spring-Water Two Quarts Boyl to the Consumption of One Half when Cold strain out and keep for use By this Method I have known Three or Four Ounces of the Cortex perfectly Cure Quartans without any Relapse after People have taken a Pound or more after the common Method which has only put by the Fits for a time The Reasons as I apprehend why this method of giving the Cortex should be more prevalent than that commonly taken are the Particles of the Cortex being very firm the Medicine being taken and the Patient Fasting Three or Four Hours after it it slides out of the Stomack into the small Guts and so on the small Guts being empty there is not pressure enough to squeeze but a very small quantity of it into the Lacteal Vessels so that the greatest quantity of it is carried away as Excrement But the Patient eating something of easy Digestion within so small a time as an Hour after it that eaten is turned into Chyle before tho Particles of the Cortex can be carried off and the Chyle being of a Viscous Nature retains the small Particles and carries them along with it into the Blood so that the Blood is more impregnated by one Dose this way given than with Twenty Doses without presently eating after it As a confirmation of the truth of what I have said concerning the firmness of the Texture of the Particles of the Cortex if you boyl it never so well the