the disease it is good for Infallibly and in all Persons that take it for I confess I never yet met with any such remedy Nor do I by Specifick understand a Medicine that almost like a Charm works only by some latent and unaccountable Property without the assistance of any known Quality as Purgative Diuretick Sudorific c. to be found in other Medicines But by Specifick I mean in this discourse such a medicine as very often if not most commonly does very considerably and better than ordinary Medicines relieve the Patient whether by quite curing or much lessening his disease and which acts principally upon the account of some Property or peculiar vertue so that if it have any manifest Quality that is friendly yet the good it does is greater than can reasonably be ascribed to the degree it has of that manifest Quality as hot cold bitter sudorifick c. There are two grand Questions that may be propos'd about the Specifick vertues ascrib'd to Medicines The first is whether there be really any such and the second whether if there be the Mechanical Hypothesis can be accommodated to them The former of these Questions may admit of a double sense for it may be propos'd with respect either to the present measure of our knowledge or to those further attainments that in future times men may arrive at In the latter of these senses to dispatch first the consideration of that I shall not presume to maintain without restriction either part of the Question For I do not only hope but am apt to think that in time the Industry and Sagacity of men will be able to discover Intelligible causes of most of those Qualities that now pass for Occult and among them of many of the Specifick vertues ascrib'd to Medicines And yet on the other side I much fear that men will not be successful in tracing out the true and immediate causes of those good effects of some remedies that depend upon such fine and uncommon Textures and such latent and odly guided Motions as fall not under our Senses thô perhaps assisted by Instruments Which conjecture will appear the less improbable if we consider those admirable Idiosyncrasiae or Peculiarities of Disposition whereof the Books of eminent Writers afford us many instances to whose number I could upon my own Observation add several if I thought it needful And thô I am not ignorant that some of these may be plausibly accounted for as that of some mens aversion to cheese or to cats yet I do not think that the like explications can be extended to some others that might be nam'd if it were here pertinent to discuss that throughly As to the former sense of the Question lately propounded I confess my self very amiable to the Affirmative as far as I can judge by those writings of Physicians I have had occasion to peruse Which limitation I add because I would not derogate from the knowledge of particular persons who in so learned and inquisitive an Age may be arriv'd at far greater attainments than those Physicians have done that have entertain'd the Publick about the Occult and Specifick Qualities of Medicines I know there have been and still are Dogmatical Physitians that upon the Principles as they pretend of the School-Philosophy reject all Medicinal vertues that they think not reducible to manifest Qualities But of such Galen somewhere justly complains that they either deny matters of fact or assign very incompetent causes o the effects they pretend to explain And for my part I am so far from believing these men capable of giving sufficient reasons of the more hidden Properties of Medicins that I am not apt to think them able by their Principles to give clear and particular explications even of the more easy and familiar vertues of simples I am therefore dispos'd to think that in the sense formerly deliver'd of the Term Specifick Medicines there are some Remedies that deserve that name To this opinion I have been led by several Reasons And first to begin with the least weighty it has the suffrage of many learned Physicians both Ancient and Modern and particularly that of Galen himself in several places of his Works And I remember that treating of a Specifick Remedy against the biting of a mad Dog which vertue he ascribes to an occult Quality or as he speaks to the Propriety of the whole Substance he takes occasion to promise that he would write a Book of things that operate upon that account Which Book if it had scap'd with his other Works for he elsewhere cites it as having written it would probably have furnish'd us with several things to strengthen our opinion And thô in Matters Philosophical I am little sway'd by mere Authority yet the concurrent suffrage of many eminent Physicians may in this controversy be the more considerable because most of them being noted Practitioners had opportunity to observe whether or no any Remedies deserv'd the name of Specificks And their Testimony is in our case the more to be regarded because Physicians especially famous ones are not wont to be willing to acknowledge that there are Effects which fall under the Cognisance of their art whereof they cannot give the causes My next Inducement to admit Specificks is founded upon Parity of Reason For 't is manifest that there are divere formidable Maladies that are produc'd by inconsiderable quantities of Poysons that have not been discover'd to produce such great and dismal Effects by any Manifest Quality whether first second or third as Medical Authors I doubt not over accurately distinguish them On this occasion I shall add a very odd Accident about which I was advis'd with by an expert oculist very soon after it happen'd The Case was this A man lying somewhat long in Bed in the morning and chancing as he lay upon his Back to cast up his Eyes to the Tester saw a great Spider that stood still just over his Face Wherefore having reproach'd his Wife who happen'd to be in the Room with gross negligence she took a Broom and struck it upon the upper part of the Tester to beat down the Spider but the Animal held so fast with his Feet that she miss'd her aim and he whether frighted or irritated by this rude shake let fall upon the Man that was staring at it to see what would happen a drop of Liquor that lighted directly upon one of his open Eyes But finding no heat nor sharpness insue but rather a very sensible coldness he made nothing of it but rose and put on his cloth's But presently after happening to rub with his finger the other Eye he was sadly surpriz'd to find himself suddenly benighted and calling for assistance he found that the Eye which the Spider had let fall something on thô no change were noted in it by the by-standers was totally depriv'd of sight Upon which score he repair'd to the above mention'd Oculists But whether he afterwards recover'd his sight
lusty Animals The aptness then that the Corpuscles of the Specifick may give the Blood or other Liquor that conveys them to act as an appropriated Menstruum upon the peculiarly modified Matter that obstructs or otherwise disaffects the Liver for Instance may enable the Remedy to be very helpful to that Part by preparing the molesting Matter for expulsion But it may also succour the same Part in another way For in the second place it may so work upon the Fibres and stable portion of the Part affected as both to enable it and excite it to free its self from its Enemy For it may give firmness and strength to the Fibres of the part it may also contemperate or correct the immoderate heat coldness c. of it It may mortify the Acid or other incongruous Particles that are lodg'd in the minute Intervals of the stable Parts end perhaps even in the Pores of the Fibres It may appease its Convulsions Cramps or other inordinate motions that hinder it from daily executing its proper Functions it may relax or widen the Pores according to the exigency of the work to be perform'd And having thus by means of its friendly Corpuscles prepar'd the matter to be expell'd and disposed the part to expell it it may then also excite the Part to do its office by irritating the Fibres or motive Organs or stimulating them to disburthen the Part of the Matter that offends it as a very small Dose of Cantharides is known by this way of irritation to be capable of making the Bladder forcibly though not safely discharge it self of Urine and with that oftentimes expel the Sand and Gravel or lesser Stones and the Excrementitious Slime that molested it before And this Instance may be of use to us in answering that which we formerly noted to be so confidently urged by the Rejecters of Specifick Medicines For here we have a Medicine though a dangerous one whose Corpuscles have such a peculiar reference to the Bladder and Urinary Organs that though being gotten into the Mass of Blood they are carried by it indiscriminately to other parts of the Body as well as to these yet oftentimes without manifestly disaffecting the rest they exceedingly irritate the Bladder and determine it to the excretion of what it contains And whereas it may be objected that the first of the three ways by which we noted that a particular Part may be succour'd by a Specifick seems contrary to the second the former tending to corroborate the Part and the later to relax and irritate it I answer two things one that since the Part may be sometimes in a Natural and sometimes in a Preternatural state in the former a Medicine may deserve the name of Friendly or Appropriated because it keeps it sound which is most properly done by strengthening it and in the later it may merit the Title of a Specifick because it helps to restore it to a state of soundness And the other that though to effect this Recovery 't is often very expedient if not necessary that the Medicine procure an Evacuation of some matter that offends it yet that Evacuation itself is often much promoted and facilitated by stengthening the Part so as to enable it to disburthen it self And the same Medicine may contain and communicate to the Blood Corpuscles of such differing shapes sizes motions c. as may at least successively relieve the Part by both these ways as Physicians observe that Rhubarb does not only by its finer and Laxative Parts purge the Liver of Choler but by its more earthy Astringent Corpuscles strengthen the Tone of that Part What farther belongs to the Illustration of this matter will be met with in due place On this occasion 't will not be impertinent to add that in some cases this very Corroboration of a Distempered Part may restore it to soundness there being some Diseases of such a nature that they are if I may so speak almost always in Fieri that is they could not continue to subsist in the affected Part unless through its debility and the consequences of it it were subject to admit from time to time fresh recruits of peccant matter to foment the Malady And in such Distempers if the Structure and Tone of the Part be re-established by the operation of the Specifick Medicine it s acquir'd vigour will enable it to resist the Ingress of new supplies of peccant Matter and to turn them off into the Mass of Blood to be thence discharg'd by the Common Shores of the Body whilst in the mean time Nature will be able by degrees to subdue dissipate or otherwise dispose of that comparatively little Portion of peccant Matter that was lodg'd in the Diseas'd Part. We have not in this Paper given any Example of the peculiar respect of a Specifick Medicine to a determinate disaffected Part that one would think so incredible as that a heavy stony substance being in no great quantity taken in at die Mouth should manifestly contribute to the Cure of a broken Bone in one of the Limbs as the Leg or the Hands And yet not to urge the Testimony of Chymical Writers I remember a German Physician that was Famous for notable Cures related Wonders to me of the efficacy of that Stone growing in his Country which from its effect they call Osteocolla especially if it be improv'd by a Skilful Preparation which he communicated to me but I had not opportunity to make Tryal of it But without Preparation the judicious and long experienc'd Chirurgeon Fabricius Hildanus much commends upon his own Observation a single Dram of it finely Powder'd for the breeding of a Callus to soder together the Parts of a broken Bone Insomuch that he gives a caution to use it but sparingly in young and vigorous Patients lest it breed too great a Callus of which he gives a notable Instance And the like caution was inculcated to me from Experience by the lately mention'd German Doctor because otherwise he said his Preparation would in such Persons make the Medicine generate a Callus too soon and too great PROPOSITION V. Sometimes a Specifick Medicine may do its work by producing in the Mass of Blood such a disposition as may enable Nature by correcting expelling or other fit waies to surmount the morbifick Matter or other Cause of the Disease He that shall heedfully observe the practise of divers Learned and succesful modern Physitians may discern that many if not most of their Prescriptions are founded upon a supposition that a great Part of the Diseases incident to Mans Body and the recovery from them depends mainly upon the vitiated Constitution of the Blood and the restoring it to a sound Condition This advantageous change of the Blood may be effected by a Specifick several waies sometimes separately and sometimes jointly and particularly by those that follow 1. That which I shall first name is by furnishing the Blood with some sort of active Corpuscles that it needs to
and consequently the Heart One may be allowed to suppose that the Corpuscles of a Specifick may either dissolve some Particles they meet with in the Heart by which that Noble Viscus is by Irritation or otherwise disturb'd in the Regularity of its Dilatations and Contractions Or so Corroborate the Fibres or Motive Organs of it as to dispose it to moderate the Circulation of the Blood that passes through it in the most advantageous way And that the Disposition of the Heart even when men have no sense of it in the Part it self may be of moment as to health and sickness will appear credible if we reflect on two thing One that a living Human Body is not a meer Aggregate of Flesh Bones c. But an exquisitely contriv'd and very sensible Engine Whose Parts are easily set a work by proper though very Minute Agents And may by their Action upon one another perform far greater things than could be expected from the bare Energy of the Agents that first put them into Motion The Second which supposes the first that the Disposition of the Heart being though perhaps insensibly chang'd it may produce a notable Alteration in the Motions of the Blood and its passage through the Heart in point of quantity celerity or both How much this change in the Circulation may in many Cases conduce to sickness or recovery may partly appear by the Effects of vehement or durable passions of the mind As 't is observ'd that in a deep sorrow which does in a manner straiten the Passages of the Heart the Blood being too sparingly dispens'd the enlivening Spirits are not generated plentifully enough And besides other bad Effects of this State of the Heart the Blood is so dispirited as in these Parts of Europe to dispose the Body to the Scurvy which does either produce or irritate divers other Maladies We see also that the Passion of shame does oftentimes suddenly alter the Motion of the Blood and make it swell the little Vessels that lye under the Cuticula of the Face and sometimes other Parts as is very manifest in young Maids and other Persons of a Delicate Complexion the white Part of whose Faces in blushing turns Red. The like Effect I have seen produc'd by a great and sudden Joy And though Grief which is the opposite Passion to it has been usually taken notice of as a thing that deads the Appetite to meat Yet so much does depend upon a well moderated Transmission of the Blood that it has been observ'd in divers Persons and I have known an eminent Instance of it that great Joy has very much lessen'd Hunger Of which Effect Mr. Des Cartes ingeniously attempts to derive the cause from the vary'd Dilatation and Motions of the Heart And it seems not absur'd to conceive that such like Motions may be caus'd by the Corpuscles of a Specifick Medicine Which by affecting the Fibres of the Heart after the like manner that Joy is wont to do may produce in it such friendly Dilatations and Contractions as are wont to flow from the agreeable Passions In favour of which conjecture I shall take notice that a Lady of my acquaintance has complain'd to me that the smell of perfum'd Gloves is wont to make the Blood fly to her Face and continue there for a great while giving it such a colour as if shame or joy had cover'd it with blushes And the like she says she has observ'd in others of her Sex But having in another Tract spoken of the power of the Passions of the mind to alter the state of the Body by producing changes in the Blood that is transmitted through the Heart what has been said may now suffice to make it credible that a Specifick Remedy by peculiarly befriending the Heart may contribute much to introduce or re-establish a healthy Crasis in the Blood And this being thus rectified and invigorated it self may both befriend the Body in general and conduce to the removal of some particular Diseases by strengthening and perhaps too exciting the particular part in which the peccant matter resides to subdue or expel that which it already harbours and resist any accession of more And the Blood being it self well constituted as well as the stable Parts corroborated the Specifick Medicine that produces these good effects may be said to cure tho' perhaps but slowly divers particular Diseases such as those elsewhere mention'd in this Paper which to continue must be frequently supplyed with vitious matter by the Circulating Blood EXPERIMENT VI. Sometimes a Specifick Remedy may unite its Particles with those of the Peccant matter and with them constitute a Neutrum quid that may be easily proscrib'd or not necessary to be expell'd This I take to be one of the most proper and genuine ways of doing good that belongs to a Specifick Medicine as such because in this operation an effect is produc'd either without the assistance or beyond the meer power of the manifest qualities as Physicians call them of the remedy and the cure or relief the Patient finds is usually attain'd without violence and without tormenting or much disordering him This way of working of a Specifick Medicine is of near affinity with one or two of those formerly discours'd of but yet these ways differ in some things as may be gather'd by the sequel of § this discourse § sometimes when a certain kind of Acid has impregnated the Blood or lodg'd it self in some stable part as the Liver Spleen Kidneys c. The Corpuscles of a Specifick may without any sensible luctation or conflict which usually happens when Acids are mortify'd by Sapid Alkalies be so qualifi'd as both to make Coalitions with the small Parts of the Peccant Acid and with them to constitute little Concretions which differing from the minute Parts of the Acid either in Bulk Figure Solidity Stifness Motion or in two or more of these may be quite of another nature and of a much innocenter than the Acid was before 't was so corrected Of this we may be furnished with a notable Illustration by what I have elsewhere taken notice of about Aqua Fortis it self for as corrosive a Menstruum as that is yet by digesting it and perhaps distilling it too with an equal or rather double weight of Ardent Spirit I found the highly Acid Liquor would be so chang'd as not to retain any sensible corrosiveness and exchange its piercing Stink and great Acidity for a not only inoffensive but pleasant Scent and a grateful and possitively sweetish Tast Which brings into my mind the practice of a President of the Famous London Colledge who as himself told me was wont to relieve a Patient of very great Quality in Nephritick Torments by giving her a good Dose of an inflammable Spirit But this upon the by I have elsewhere given an account of the effects of Spirit of Wine upon several other Acid Menstruums wherewith I mingl'd and digested it by which it may appear that it