prepared keep in a vessel very well shut for so thou hast prepared a Magnet the compendium of all mans body gotten without any horrour or cruelty which we altogether detest yet he that will follow other mens devices may let us proceed CHAP. XII Of the use of the Magnet in this Art IF thou hast never so good a Magnet and knowest not the use of it thou bestowest thy labour in vain We shall therefore add the use of it that nothing may be wanting in this Art And about it being most needful and asking little labour there needs but few words yet one thing is to be noted in the way namely That although the aforesaid beams do alwayes flow from the bodie yet there are some parts out of which they flow more copiously in one word they are the Emmunctories by which the body is as it were cleansed and the spirit doth accompany the superfluities because these parts are more porous and spungie it wandreth out more freely finding a larger egresse Now come we to the use of the Magnet Apply the Magnet to the emmunctory of the part grieved and procuring the patient to sweat which is best done by some Cordial Diaphoretick fitting the disease leave there the Magnet until it be impregnate with the vital spirit then remove it and immediatly use it according to the precepts given in the Chapter of Transplantation but take heed it be speedily done for fear the spirit be dissipated by some external more powerful cause for then Transplantation will be in vain attempted if the patient be not cured at the first do it again and thou shalt see the desired effect And not only diseases are cured this way but strange things even all that are done by transplantation are this way effected although transplantation may be done by other means as shall be shewed by and by But if thou desire by this means to transplant diseases read diligently the Chapter of Transplantation and observe well the precepts there given lest if things shall happen not to hit thy desire thy ignorance do return to the reproach of this Art CHAP. XIII Of the means whereby cures may be done in this Art without a Magnet BY other means also are strange and admirable cures wrought in this Art without a Magnet yea and sometimes with better successe than with a Magnet viz. When the thing it self that carrieth the spirit nakedly is applied to another thing disposed to receive it but this must be strictly regulated according to the precept above given and for the most part here is required fermentation that by means thereof the spirit being freed and loosed from the bonds may more easily insinuate it self and be sooner partaker And by this means for the most part particular diseases are more happily cured because active beams do more partake of the part from whence they proceed as also the excrements after the same manner and for the same cause of the parts whence they are excerned Experience confirms it That blood because it is the seat of the vital spirit if it be rightly applied cures the greatest and almost all diseases of the body by the excremenâ—â— of the belly thereby are all diseases of the intestines cured by the vein those of the bladder and the reins and sometimes all diseases because of the affinity it hath with the veins liver and stomach By spittle that is coughed up the diseases of the lungs By sweat the parts are cured whence it proceeded By the nails the diseases of the hands and feet By the hair the diseases of the parts whence they are taken And finally by the blood as is abovesaid all the diseases of the body are cured Here is to be noted That if all things that belong to any part be taken the cure will be the sooner and more easily done We have determined to speak of them severally Yet we shall be so far from condemning any combination or joyning two or more of them together that we rather perswade it as being most beneficial if the Rules of Art be duly observed CHAP. XIV Of the Excrements of the Back-door BY these Excrements as we said even now are cured all the diseases of the Intestines the body is purged and brought into flux the diseases of the fundament are both procured and cured and many things else are done which thou maiest learn by thy own experience if thou be diligent when they are applied they cure old ulcers Carcinomata and Fistulaes yea which some commend as a great secret they supply the place of the Weapon-salve without any further preparation but they must be chosen of a sound man and a strong body lest the preparation hurt them that are weak By the Odour mixt with wholsom Herbs much good may be wrought by transplantation and this I judge among many others to be the cause why Rusticks and such as live in the Country are sound and live longer than Noblemen and Citizens for these suffer their seiges to rot in stools or else to be cast into some unholsom places but the other committing them to the earth nigh wholsom herbs by means of transplantation lead their lives for the most part free from diseases We have above in general bidden to beware of Excrements of the diseased people But here we will give a more particular advice namely That thou never ease thy self where diseased folks have for much mischief hath come of it for we have known some hurt by the smell that doing their easement where one had done it that had a flux themselves got the flux without a procatartick cause preceding The reason of which so strange a matter is to be taken from that which hath been said and shall not be here repeated Furthermore take heed lest at any time you do your easement upon herbs that are either malignant exulcerating or violently purging for hence many times when the cause is unknown proceeds dangerous disenteries which until those herbs be quite putrified will not yeeld to any medicine Finally It is not safe to leave these Excrements in places where thine Enemies can come for it is easie to know what violent pains are procured by a kindled coal with spirit of Wine or Aquavitae put into those Excrements I would have thee to perswade thy self that if these things were ordinarily known they be worse and more dangerous matters than these known to some others therefore look wisely to thy self But of these Excrements enough so far as they pertain to this Art in the general the particular wayes of working with them we will describe in our practice CHAP. XV Of VRINE VRINE is an excrement of the second concoction done in the liver or rather in the reins from whence by the emulgent veins it is sent to the reins mixt with blood out of which it is by the Uriteres as it were percolated or strained and so sent to the bladder where it also abides a while and then it is by the passage
shew in the Chapter following which produceth a sufficient disposition to receive information from the souls as we said in the Chapter fore-going But that those beams are of parts is clearer than the Sun at noon day for that which proceedeth from diverse and heterogeneous parts conveying also with it self something from all even the smallest parts cannot choose but be of diverse parts for from the bones flesh nerves there do flow continually certain particles of which those beams consist these carry with them the disposition of the body and according to that disposition taken from the body work more powerfully than the body it self Hereupon a wise man will take special heed of living and conversing with sick people the rather if he feel himself disposed to such a disease for a body so disposed doth more greedily draw to it self those beams and is sooner changed And note that bodies in whom there is a likenesse of nature and complexion do sooner sympathize with one another as brothers sisters and do sooner take infectious diseases one of another because of the radical likenesse the infected beams are more drawn and the body more speedily changed Another necessary caution doth by this occasion come into my minde That great care must be taken to avoid these places where the excrements of diseased persons are laid both for the reasons aforesaid and for a more proper and particular cause it shall be exprest in what followeth CONCLUSION IV. The beams sent out of the bodies of wights have and injoy a vitall spirit by which the operations of the soul are dispensed The Proof and Explanation c. EVery compound consisting of matter and form hath its own proper natural heat which is derived and propagated not from the Elements but from Heaven and particularly from the Sun the heat of Heaven seeing that by the departure of it all things grow sad and torpid and by the return of it are cheared and refreshed for it is the fountain and original of life making all things fruitfull by its heat multiplying and preserving them in their own being Whence it followes that nothing can exist without some manner of heat it being the bond whereby the form is tyed to the matter and which lying hid in them in a viscous Mercury a moisture brought with it from Heaven giveth increase of seed to every body It is also the instrument which the form useth to produce actions and it is the immediate cause of the aforesaid beams which beams it never forsaketh but accompanieth them in their journey Blessed and thrice blessed is he which can Multiply it in a fit subject under the favour of the Sun and Heaven This said heat if it decrease the body tends to destruction the beams being fewer and weaker Furthermore though the form be not united to the matter but by a certain mean of this heat which is so required as proper to all things yet it varieth in every spirit of things yet it hath in every spirit some latitude so that you shall finde in the individuals that which is altogether the same because the heat sometimes is more and sometimes lesse which may be the cause of variety of operations not onely in these of the same species but even in the same individual it is after changed till at last by corruption it end in that which is altogether another latitude for the matter is not tenacious enough nor holds the heat fast enough but lets it being volatile wander abroad which according to the impressions of Heaven applyeth it self variously to the matter whence depends the whole oeconomie and every change in sublunary things But it 's now time to retire our selves and descend to the body of man the proper subject of this work And first it shall not be amisse to explicate our selves what we mean by the vital spirit in this Conclusion whether after the manner of other Physicians that which the Schools call by this name or some other thing of far another nature surely although we think that received opinion of the spirits animall vitall and naturall as they call them not altogether consonant to truth yet being besides our purpose we mean not to meddle with it here and therefore of other manner of spirits But what new spirit is this brought in into Physick or by what Authority came it in Truly I am so supercilious as to affirm this done by my Authority Let it not be brought in at all I onely require that I may be spared the use of that name to expresse the natural heat and radicall moisture both together and the reason is because they are never actually separated And to call them spirits because of all Corporall things they come nearest to the nature of spirits both in their originall and power It is called vitall because by mediation of it life flowes and is propagated into the body and therefore wheresoever you finde in this Treatise the name of spirit understand it as is said Now then that this spirit flourisheth in the foresaid beams I think it appeareth from hence This spirit also floweth from the body and this no wise man will deny for if it flow not from the body the body would last for ever Consequently the things that can most fix these spirits have great power to prolong the life of man for it is volatile and every moment some portion of it goeth out with the parts of the body resolved into beams for why it should leave the beams going out and insinuate it self into bodies indisposed there can be no reason given nay it seems utterly impossible and that the beams have a disposition to hold it for with them it goeth out in the plague because the beams as is observed retain the disposition of the body from whence they go yea if the spirit were not there the beams could not do as they do nor work in the power of the soul for of it this spirit is the Instrument Either therefore the bodies of men shall work at no distance at all or if at distance whatsoever this spirit must needs reach and proceed to it and by virtue of a more potent soul in the very beginning and principall of life the body of man as of all other wights is ordinated to natural actions as other natural bodies are by the seminary vertues which are in their forms nay more powerfull than these are this spirit that accompanieth the beams dispenseth their Actions which are far propagated and when they grow faint they are supplied by and from the bodies CONCLUSION V. That the Excrements of the bodies of living Creatures retain a portion of vitall spirits and therefore we must not deny them life and the life is of the same species that the life of the Wight is of and propagated from the same The Proof and Explanation of it c. THat the Excrements of the bodies of Wights retain some portion of the vitall spirit it appears for having lurked long in
the body they imbibe the spirit and joyn it to themselves intercepting the beams issuing from the noblest parts of the body yea having at the least some digestion they are made like the bodies in which they were concocted and therefore do more greedily attract the beams with the spirits and the spirits do much more willingly insinuate themselves into them than into any other body not partaker of the same or a greater digestion and likenesse It is likewise evinced by common experience for doth not the too much flowing of any excrement produce grievous symptoms weaknesse and in the end death and that not so much by cutting off the nourishment as by exhausting the spirits or else in the Dropsy how could the over-much flowing of the water out of the wound cause death but that the water being impregnant with these spirits carries more of them out with it than the body can bear in so short a time So in all inward Abscesses when great store of purulent matter hath filled the hollow of the breast if by the negligence or ignorance of the Chirurgion it be too much and suddenly emptied it is for the same reason followed with death or dangerous weaknesse for the body unlesse it be every-where according to the proportion requisite stored with these spirits cannot long subsist This spirit as long as the body continues in its due Symetrie is nourished from Heaven by the mediation of the Air and by the vital spirit of the Aliment All things therefore that proceed from the bodies of man or beast after what manner soever whether naturally or by the force of disease are impregnated with the same vital spirit the body hath and therefore because they are liker the bodies whence they came than those things that never were in the body they quickly imprint the qualities drawn from the bodies upon another like body which ought to occasion great care that excrement matter corruption nor any of those things that come from infected persons be left unburied for great mischief may come by them either by Nature or by Art if peradventure they come into the hands of some skilfull but ill-disposed men But if the burning of Dead Carcases after the manner of the Ancients be not permitted the Magistrates ought to take care that they be soon and very deep buried and that in moist places if it may be and far remote from the feeding of Beasts for from shallow superficiall Gravels there arise unspeakable mischiefs And I think this is one of the greatest natural causes why the Plague doth so furiously rage in diverse places for I am afraid that they to whom the charge of burying is committed are still too negligent and carelesse I would here take occasion to commend and that upon good grounds the funeral fires of the Ancients But another custome having now prevailed I am sure my words will not alter it It is known that Witches cannot hurt without the parts of dead bodies and the Excrements of him that they desire to mischieve as therefore Magistrates ought to have a care of burials so every man if he have Enemies ought to have a care of his Excrements But now let us return to the Conclusion which affirmed That these Excrements do also live which though at first do seem a little hard yet indeed to him that will consider it it is so far from being either hard or unreasonable that it is impossible it should be otherwayes nay what if I should say the hair and nails do live a certain life propagated from the soul It may be thou wilt say For they are as certain parts of the body they live with the same soul they did before thou wouldst think that more strange and yet thou canst not give a reason why thou shouldest think so Well this only I will say of Excrements that unlesse they live with the same life that wights do after a manner certainly they would want the vital spirit of which we spake before and which we have above proved and will not all this clearly demonstrate that they have and do plentifully injoy it Moreover who can deny that the nails and hairs have life that have observed in them an augmentative or assimulative faculty at least who can deny it so long as they remain fastened to the body though they want sence as the bones and other necessary parts of the Organical body do Now if they live when they remain joyned to the body these shall likewayes live when they are separated from the body as long as they are nails and hairs having still the same form as they had before Witnesse the Accidents or the substantial moods which abiding still the same depend of the same fountains from whence they flowed but no man can deny that the very form or figure or mood flowed from the soul draweth thence its life which is propagated by the presence of the soul by the mediation of the vital spirit In conclusion a man may thus argue for any Excrement All Excrements of the body by means of some manner of Digestion have changed the form they had before that Digestion and put on another as may be known by their operations and faculties which are altogether changed As for example The Excrements of a Dog healeth the diseases of the Pallet and Throat which flesh and bones howsoever prepared could not do especially if they had been stinking and corrupt and this form by which they work such things they got from the soul of the Dog and therefore being introduced and brought in by it it depends wholly of the soul and consequently cannot want vitality which vitality or livelinesse is obscure and unperceivable to them which know not the centers of things which it shall better become a Philopher to search after than suffer himself to be transported with a desire of contradiction CONCLUSION VI Between the Body and the Excrements proceeding from it there is a certain Concatenation of Spirits or beams though they be never so far asunder The like is also between the blood and any other part of the body separated from the Body at any distance The Proof and Explanation of it c. IF we confirm and demonstrate this Conclusion the greatest part of the businesse is done for this being established here is laid a firm foundation of this Act whereupon all the precepts thereof may be built yet if what we have said already abide unshaken the future difficulty will not be great But first it would be known what concatenation we do here intend when we affirm a concatenation of spirits or beams between the body and the Excrements thereof we understand thereby a perpetual flux of beams proceeding after a peculiar manner from the body and terminated as in a body after a sort in kinne and like unto it as also reciprocally flowing from the Excrements of the body That there is such reciprocall emanations is easily shewed for if you once grant the flux of beams
V. putting often upon them the oyls for fourteen dayes space Then take them out and presse them and put as much of the new species as thou didst at first doing all things as before after the last expression keep the spirit for thy use The dose is from unc. i. S. to unc. ij I have moreover often used Cariocostinum prepared chymically very happily which do you consider of for I have said enough at this time For vomitings I do use them also but common ones as thou mayest when necessity forceth thee yet I prefer before all others that truly so called Aqua benedicta Ruland described by Hartman in his Chymia practica and is made of Antimony and Vitrio lana and twice or thrice so much salt niter into a Corpus metallorum which being exquisitely sweetned is given by infusion in unc. i. or more of white Wine as the disease requireth The Vomitorium Conradi of Crollius is not to be despised The Coagulum Assari described by Hartman in diseases of the stomach and mesaraicks where there is need of vomiting is very good The cold purger of Angelus Sala in continual burning feavers is an excellent remedy Merc. vitae both vomiting and purging in rebellious diseases whiles the Patient is strong gives no place to any medicine Likewise the extract of white Helebor given in a convenient dose cureth all pains in the head arising from the stomach or lower parts Thy self mayest finde out more these are enough for us that are in hast CHAP. III. Of PHLEBOTOMIE BEfore we go any further something must be said of Phlebotomie and whether it be here to be admitted or no and if so then when and in what cases it may be used And first it is generally to be known That every Medicine that may be used in other Physick may be also used here Briefly then let us enquire into Phlebotomie in general and first to them that contemplate the depth of Nature and behold the uncuest frequent causes of things it may seem strange how so many lettings of blood came into use amongst Physicians especially if the opinion of them be true both in reason and experience for if blood corrupted ceaseth to be blood and degenerateth into unnatural humours which are to be purged not by letting blood but by sweat and purgation as the matter requireth Or will they say They do it to loose the body surely it is scarce agreeable to reason That blood should be the cause of a feaverish or praeternatural heat unlesse peradventure the spirits that have their seat in the blood be stirred up by fermentation which is seldome done nor lasteth it except choler be joyned therewith which being purged away the motion and heat are presently quieted and allayed or may be caused sometimes when too much blood grieveth the body and begetteth feavers But to that perhaps they will answer That such are not to be cured but by Phlebotomie because a Physician must follow Nature and never stray from her Laws but Nature hath shewed another and most natural way that doth not trouble the body like Phlebotomie and that is nourishment for while the body is nourished the blood is consumed if it be not repaired by aliment therefore take away aliment for the time and nature will consume the blood without troubling the humours or the body and therefore Hippocrates prescribes to such a slender dyet But if thou sayest the body cannot now be nourished because of the malignant humours that infect the blood thou sayest nothing for why doest thou not throw them out by purgation Thou wilt peradventure say there is no concoction yet Hippocrates purgeth the turgid and swelling humours in feavers which if I affirm with Paracelsus there can be no feavers at all without the fermentation of humours which is as it were the soul of concoction do not I speak reason for what else but fermentation could brook such a heat and stir such troubles in the body Choler if it be a humour yet it cannot grow hot but either by external heat or fermentation They prattle that speak that putrifaction can stir up heat who ever heard such trifles from so great men let them tell me how putrifaction which is a certain corruption can cause heat and let them tell me if this effect agree to all putrifaction They dare not say so for some would convince them for it agreeth only with moist things whom they putrifie and yet not by reason of putrifaction neither is it the adequat cause for fermentation causeth heat for look how much it putrifieth so much heat decreaseth as it is plainly seen in all moist things putrifying and the reason is because look how much corruption prevaileth so much fermentation evanisheth But let us hear these mens distinctions of putrifaction It is say they the corruption of the proper and naturall heat in every moist thing by a strange heat by the Ancients or according to Galen it is a change of the whole substance of the body putrifying to corruption by externall heat The first supposeth that the proper heat of a thing can be dissipated by an external heat but first let them tell me how heat as heat can work upon heat if it do first dissipate natural heat before it consume radical moisture for the property of heat is not to work upon heat but upon moisture it drieth up drying hinders putrifaction Again if it first work upon that which is moist proportionably with the moisture it consumeth the heat therefore there is so much heat left as the moisture left requireth Therefore it seems that external heat is not the cause of putrifaction Look upon other things that putrifie Doth not heat by drying hinder putrifaction Doth not external cold sometimes advance it But surely it ought to cause it if it consist in the corruption of heat and that in moisture for what can destroy heat in a moist body where there is nothing left but moisture except cold Moreover it seems That putrifaction if it cannot proceed from the corruption of proper heat for if this were so then the more the proper heat should decrease the more putrifaction would prevail and then be perfected when the heat were driven quite away But who seeth not the contrary that putrifaction ceaseth when heat is clean gone do not those things that have the best portion of this heat last longest without putrifaction But that we may come to that heat that takes its original from putrifaction as these men would have it of which is all the controversie let any may tell me how external heat can stir up a greater and more intense heat How do dunghils putrify I speak after their manner in the winter time and have more heat than either the proper heat declining or the Ambient can stir up nay they putrifie sooner in the winter than in the summer if they be laid in great heaps Whence is that great inflamation in feavers not from the internal heat sayes
circumscribed in an Organical body The Proof and Explaination NO true Philosopher will deny this The Platonists place not the soul in the body but the body in the soul And the Peripateticks themselves do with Aristotle confesse That the soul doth execute some action without the body Nay it seems very absurd to shut up so noble an Essence in so narrow and strait a Prison Neither were there wanting some Divines who attributed acerta in ubiquity to the soul affirming it to be there where it worketh for what can be devised more unlikely than to conclude that most noble Essence as bounded and comprehended in this so exceeding small a prison The common dictate of Reason proveth That the thing comprehended so far forth as it is comprehended is more base and ignoble than the thing comprehending And it is manifest to him who considereth the nature of things That the thing comprehending so far forth as it comprehendeth is more excellent in operation and power than the thing comprehended That the Imagination worketh without it and beyond its own body I take it to be manifest and if any man doubt of it he will be convinced by experience for it worketh in the Embrio Neither can fascinations be otherwise performed But is not the Imagination the hand of the soul by which it worketh without the help of the body and yet these operations conduce not to our purpose Therefore we must shew more clearly what we mean by this Conclusion We do then under it and by it mean nothing else but that the soul must necessarily be wheresoever the vital spirit is found for the vital spirit is the bond by which the soul is tyed to the body or rather it is the undivided companion of the soul brought by the soul from heaven by which the soul joyned it self with the body by means and mediation whereof it gives the form of the body and if by the frown of the destinies it be forsaken by the particular soul it returns to its common country but is never extended further than the soul it self without which the spirit cannot subsist Then if a mans body work something without it self surely it worketh as informed by the soul and shall it not then work vitally and produce vital actions But how I pray you shall it produce them without doubt in and by the vertue and power of the form that is the soul But except I be deceived there can nothing work by the power of another and not be partaker of it Therefore the active beams that produce such effects without the body must needs be partaker of the soul by which they work And I think no man can be so senslesse to deny actions extrinsecal or without the body to Man the most noble compound and grant them to Plants and Stones but that operations depend on forms it alwayes seemed true to the most Learned The seed doth as some would have it beget the Embrio in the mother which it could not do were it not upholden and furnished with the presence of the fathers soul But I hear some whisper that this opinion can be no way consonant to truth because that then if the father should dye assoon as he hath begotten the child his soul being free from the bonds of the body goes to its appointed place And how then can it work in the Embrio But to him that considereth the matter well this will appear of no great difficulty whether we say That the soul is not utterly and absolutely free as long as any vital spirit remaineth anywhere safe and untoucht for it there sticks and abides as long and until its subject be quite turned into an other thing but because it wants organs as in an appoplexy it cannot perform any sencelike actions Or whether we will say rather The soul is necessarily present at these operations by a certain presence and yet not hindered but that in another place it may perform other works for seeing that the soul doth by wonderful and strange means produce many things in the body and is after divers manners in divers places Why shall it not when it is free from the body do the same things or the like so it wants not its Instruments of its proper natural heat which only is fit to produce such an effect But of what hath been said the cause is plain why about the Graves of them that die a violent death there are apparitions seen for the vital heat and natural moisture being not quite dissolved the soul sticks and gives sometimes in these exhallations impregnated with the spirit the shape and form of a man And the same may be the reason why sometimes in Church-yards such things appear and from the same head it is that the slain Corps bleedeth at the presence or touch of the Murderer for the soul being yet present doth by the dispensation of Providence work such things But for the better confirmation of this Conclusion there is enough said in this place others from these grounds will invent and finde out things which will be far more sublime and high CONCLUSION II. The Soul worketh without or beyond its proper body commonly so called The Proof and Explanation of this THis Second Conclusion hath nothing which is not manifest in the former and of it self is clear and confessed by all men For if the soul be without the body it can and shall without doubt work there for the soul in its essence includes Act being as one saith and very well an Essentiall Act proceeding temporally It works therefore according to the Organs informed or according to the manner of information seeing it communicates a form to the subject for peradventure it were more agreeable to simple and pure truth to call the soul not the form but rather the giver of the form yet so giving forms that both in their beings and operations they shal depend upon it and whatsoever is is dispensed and given by it Plato seems to have placed in men a three-fold distinct form yet depending on the common soul It is true that to these Inferiour forms the name of form is sometimes given but how truly and properly let them look to it that accustomed to speculations have learned to separate Vitall Actions from the soul which proceed onely from it But we omitting all these difficulties will be content to use the common means which will also peradventure serve our turns Some men will say If the soul be and work without the body or besides it by informing the naturall heat that proceedeth without it and is inherent in his beams they must needs be men consisting of a soul and of a body When I first began this Work I had thought to have passed over such Objections as ridiculous but this being one that may seem of some moment to them that are lesse perspicacious I am content to answer And first I say it is as absurd for ought I said to call the beams men as
diseases for else how can he cure them It is true that ignorance of the diseases is not here dangerous as in common Physick because here we use external Medicins always comforting the internal and for the most part void of poison but though it be not dangerous to the patient yet it shall be a shame to the Physician as shall hereafter appear He that is now well seen in the knowledge of diseases let him next seek the part first and principally affected for if this be unknown he shall never do any thing to the purpose He must likewayes have absolute knowledge of simples and know as well the internal as external signature of things whereby the simples are signed as well to the parts of the body as to the diseases for we use none but signed things in this Art But signature being double to wit internal and external we will use those things that are externally signed as being most known to us except experience which is alwayes to be obeyed be to the contrary He that knowes the nature of simples cannot be ignorant of the times for the sowing and gathering of them but this Science cannot be thought sufficient without Astrologie our Physician therefore must be skill'd in the Planetary diseases and Plants that so he appease these yet so that to diseases whether strong or remisse he be sure to appose a plant of a superiour degree In a word he must understand the secret natures of both men and simples I do not deny but that this Art one day will be very easie but as yet it is in the Cradle lyes lurking in the secret desks of some few men And therefore he that will attempt it must from the foresaid Conclusions draw some particulars Yet here I would advise by the way all men that in the Interim they would minister things comforting proper for the disease that so the Cure may the more soon more safely more plentifully be performed yea if peradventure in some diseases sometimes there are more violent things to be given which we must ever avoid all we can yet this comfort we have from this Art that by it nature is strengthened and kept from being overthrown by violent things which consider with thy self how much it concerns Moreover I would perswade that untill easier Purgatives be found in this Art thou wouldest be content to use these purges following or the like as the disease requires for those do not much trouble the vital spirit and work without nauceousnesse griping or trouble I have ever kept secret but am now content to communicate them unto thee that nothing may be wanting in this Art CHAP. II. Of Purges and Purging IN as much as the vital spirit being fortified can by its own power free the body from hurtfull humors It may be doubted whether in Cures done by this Art Purgation be to be promised And true it is indeed that the spirit can by its power expell hurtfull things out of the body But if any would quickly safely and pleasantly cure diseases by this Art it is fit to begin with Purgation for so the oppressed spirit is relieved and is made fitter being helpt by our Medicine to do the other things and when it is free it is more easily changed and reduced to its former estate for there are some of the Philosophers before they give a Dose of a great Elixer first think fit that the Cure may be more easily wrought to free the Body by Purgation How much rather then in this Art now whether it is best to do it may be doubted And first it is to be considered That there be very few simples violently purging that do not hurt the vital spirit by their great proportion of venenosity Secondly there is not yet any Medicine purging Magnetically found out except some certain ointments commonly known which utterly wants all venemous qualities And therefore I would have them quite forborn because they may be the cause of more mischief than if they were given inwardly But Magnets and Oyls may be commodiously used if the disease be in the Stomach Intestines or Mesaricks I will give this example of one that doth gently loose the Belly In other Writers thou mayest finde more or mayest make them according to thine own intention R. Aloes hepat lib. 1. Myrrhae unc. 1. pour upon it the Gall of Bull lib. ss. draw of the oyl in a retore which thou mayest use either by it self or in form of an Unguent anointing the Stomach and all about the Navell with it and afterwards cover it with a spunge wet with the oyl or in the ointment thou shalt see the desired effect namely a benigne and harmlesse Purgation which works without all nauceousnesse or griping There are many things spoken of an Hearb in the West parts of Ireland called by the Natives Mackanbuy which if any carry about him it purgeth without griping but that it doth not this by corroborating the spirits it appears for if one carry it about him too long it brings a dangerous flux Some ascribe the like vertue to Tobacco tyed to the Flank So the milky juice of Tithimal mixt with salt and put it into the new Excrements of the belly doth violently loosen but not without pain yet these things must be warily used neither is it safe to apply any medicine that purgeth violently to the vital spirit nakedly either by excrement blood or any other means we will therefore prescribe some things to be taken inwardly which are benigne and agreeable to Nature and which thou mayest use untill by experience there be more healthsome Purges found out examined according to the Precepts of this Art And the first shall be the specifical Purge of Paracelsus which is good almost in every disease whether the operation be after Crollius or no thou mayst in a disease use Mercurius vitae if thou wouldst purge by vomit precipitate by the powder of Tarter and after precipitation wash it very well If afterwards it be sprinkled with the oyl of common salt and so left in digestion three or four dayes and then washed one or two times it purgeth gently and universally which is an high secret in the Dropsie Moreover if Mercur. vitae be well ground with common salt decrepitate and again washed and this work be thrice repeated it leaves much of its violence Also Mercur. specificus purgans of our own Invention is of no small moment for it drawes the humors sweetly out of the whole body without violence and opens obstructions Angelus Sala his Crystallum Lunae freeth the body benignely from all waterish humors and wonderfully helpeth the Dropsie Our Mercurius Coelestis of all Minerals most benignely purgeth the body it is fit for every age it opens obstructions it frees the head from humors it strengthens the stomach neither are there any symptoms to be feared from it as there are exceedingly in all others Mercurials The Precipitation hereof is after this manner Take of
Galen but from a strange adventitious heat But whence it cometh or what brings the heat into the putrid matter neither he nor any man else knoweth or can tell but from the definition it is clear That putrifaction cannot be the cause of heat because it destroyeth heat and is introduced from an external heat that which is putrid is only the subject of the heat not the cause which heat is only possessed according to the intention and remission of the Introducer neither lasteth it longer than the cause is present and how these things can agree let them look As to Galen's definition I wonder why he so unadvisedly and ridiculously made the body putrifying to be the subject of putrifaction whether in bringing in of all putrifactions is there a putrifying body necessarily prae-required and therefore that which is once sound is for ever free from putrifaction but externall heat is by him called the cause of putrifaction and therefore it shall be the cause of heat in that which putrifieth but putrification it self cannot be called the cause of heat yet I would fain have some of them tell me how moist things can putrifie without fermentation going before and where shall the putrifaction of humors at length stay it self but in corruption and therefore that which is truly putrified is not the same which it was before putrifaction be finished but is changed into another thing of inferiour order because of the heat that is gone Choler putrified is not now Choler but another thing colder than it and therefore cannot cause a Tertian feaver which dependeth of Choler as appears by the excrements Besides putrifaction is alwayes accompanied with stinking by stink I do not understand that Odour which is unpleasant to us but that which agrees not with things in their proper state but who ever saw stinking choler voided in feavers except it were mixt with some things that did truly putrifie whereas the Excrements of the belly though they had an odious smell before yet being putrified they have a most pleasant odour as experience sheweth Therefore the putrifaction of humors is not the cause of Feavers but Fermentation which being the height of concoction doth alwayes other things requisite being present unite to purgation in summer I would ask those supercilious Masters one thing What concoction they accept in a putrid humor can Nature bring back a thing from corruption can it ever be in a better state than now it is if it be putrified It is Nature's duty to perfect the work begun unlesse her Intention be led aside or be hindered The truth is those men are too subtill to see the simplicity of Nature but how if all the strife be onely about the name how if fermentation be by them called putrifaction I will not stand upon this so be they confess that concoction in feavers needs not to be expected and that by a timely purgation they provide for the life of the Patient which is often lost by needlesse letting blood But of Feavers we shall speak more in our Practice now therefore let us return to Phlebotomie from which we degressed Against which some do further urge that considering the whole latitude of Nature they finde no medicine that draws blood But if Blood-letting had been necessary provident Nature would have provided some medicine to that purpose who rather labours to keep that Cataract of life within the body Moreover they ask how any dare be so bold as to draw blood from a Cacochymick body seeing themselves and that truly say that blood is the bridle of the humors They will say that Nature being disburdened will the readier arise up against the humors but foolishly for if one should take away a Souldiers weapons and then bid him set upon the Enemies promising himself by this means the victory would you not think him mad How much lesse is he who robbing Nature of her Arms bids her make head against the Enemy yea but many have mended by letting blood I deny it not but neither was then blood-letting the cause of the recovery but natural heat or the vital heat stirred up by motion set upon and conquer'd the diseases which heat by another motion had been better stirred up especially by Purgation at the beginning whilest there was strength by which means there is not onely endured a motion exciting the spirits but also the cause of the disease being partly taken away the Patient is much relieved Thus you see the boldnesse and madnesse of them that are so forward upon every occasion time and age to let them blood whereupon how many dangers follow I appeal to experience This is the true cause why Feavers are so seldome cured I would such Physicians would one day repent and take Nature for their guide But is Phlebotomie wholly to be condemned Is it in some cases lawfull for a Physician that followes Nature seeing that she in some cases as by bleeding at the Nose avoiding evil blood that is troublesome So it is at sometimes and upon some occasion needfull but these conditions must be observed which are by experience fetched out of the Cabinet of Nature First that it be never done but in a sanguine body not too much filled with preter-naturall humors 2. That it be done whilest the strength is constant under which conditions are comprehended the age sex and times of the disease and of the year which when they weaken forbid it 3. Phlebotomie is never to be done successively viz. two dayes together let Avicen say what he will for a double commotion is too great and doth too violently especially in feavers trouble Nature 4. In particular Irruptions either in their making or already made you may do it more freely 5. If diversion of the disease require it 6. If Feavers when Nature shewes the way by bleeding at the Nose or other passages Provided that she do not evacuate enough of her own accord 7. If the natural flux of women be stopped it is permitted untill nature can by fit medicines be brought to her wonted course for the avoiding of diseases but there must be great care taken to open the passages for nature knowes how better to govern her self than we do And in these cases and with these conditions it is permitted But except in a Case where a particular Irruption urgeth as sometimes in a Plurisie and in a Squinancy I would alwayes prefer Fasting before Phlebotomie yet before this if the Indication command I would free the body from the humors for so Nature would naturally be eased I would have the Physicians the ministers of Nature to follow Nature every-where plain and simple and leave their strife and contentions What have we that should follow simple Nature to do with Sects that one should swear himself a slave to Galen another to Avicen another to Paracelsus these were great men but when these gave themselves to contentious disputes to defend their own opinions they much erred many times from the
of the urine cast out Hence it appears That the Urin hath a great communion with most parts of the body for it hath great affinity with the liver reins and bladder for by these parts it passeth and therefore the Physicians judge of the disease of these parts by urine But it hath moreover no obscure consent with the whole body having been once joyned with the blood by it therefore are cured the diseases of the liver reins bladder ureters and passages of the urine besides the bectick feaver a most grievous disease of the whole body is no way better cured than by the urine as shall be shewed in the Chapter of the Hectick Feavers Whatsoever diseases are usually cured by this Art are all cured by the urine though it be better there be other preparations as is to be seen in my Practise Now as in the Chapter of the Excrements by seige here it shall not be amiss to put some Cautions The first whereof is To take heed that children pisse not in the fire for it is the constant opinion of many that by such means they get Nephritick diseases the stone or gravel and other great diseases Then that men never pisse upon sharp venemous herbs and such as by their venemous quality do violently provoke urine for from hence proceeds the ulceration of the reins and bladder nor would I willingly make water in a chamber-pot where any man infected of any stinking disease of these parts had pissed nor give my urine to fermentation with his for it cannot be but to a weak body much evil should come by this means though to the sick man by that means might come good Nay hence with specificals added against the disease might his cure be done with the addition of fermentation which ought to be done in a bladder of a beast of the same kind adding those things that have the signature both of the disease and the member as shall be said more at large in my Practise where you shall have Medicines fetched from urine whose forms if you follow thou mayest invent others of thy self CHAP. XVI Of Sweat and insensible Transpiration SWEAT is not only an Excrement of the third concoction but it may also be as it were the melting of the whole body for no otherwise doth the body come to destruction than by resolution procured by Nature or some adventitious heat for except every part should lose something of his substance and greatnesse the bodies of living wights would grow infinitly if by continual nourishment there were alwayes added something unto them Nay if this resolution were not wights would not desire nourishment at all Sweat therefore and that which is by Physicians called insensible transpiration are not only excrementitious but as it is above proved carries off with them of the resolved particles of the body Hence it is that in Magnetick or Diastatick Physick they are of exceeding great use for by them innumerable wounders are done whilest diseases are as well cured as caused Passions both of the mind and of the body are violently procured and changed By these a wise Physician may do much good and by these a prying Wissard may do much harm and cause death madnesse anger and overthrow all the goods of the mind This is the Devil or familiar spirit by which they are thought to have done wonders Hence it is that they as appears by their own Confessions without these could never hurt the bodies of men for the Devil himself cannot constrain Nature who if he do any miracles doth them only by application of actives to passives as some too vainly credulous scarce believe for these poor wretches defiled with superstition fain many things and mix much follies and lies with the truth which was done by the Ancients whence they took their tradition That because of the opinion of a Deity present their Imaginations might work violently and also all natures conspiring the effect might be produced which I leave to thy consideration whether thou canst get any good from these few words Yet whatsoever they do they do it naturally But let us go to these things that are to our purpose By sweat or insensible transplantation first in a body or in a subject fitting all diseases being in the habit of the body are cured whether they be fixed as the Leprosie Gout French-pox c. or whether they be volatile as the Scab Morphew Scurf or the like skin-deep sicknesses and of the utmost parts yea without these it is scarce possible to do any thing in this Art By the impregnation of these thy Magnets are specified by which all manner of transplantations are done by means of these the Hectick is cured the body is long preserved strong and able and the passions of the mind are stirred up Of all which we will discourse at large in our Practice Now as a wise Physician can by these means do all these and greater matters so there is no doubt but by the abuse of them as much mischief may be done And therefore take these cautions and premonitions It is not unknown That almost all Infusion floweth from the said insensible transpiration and sweat for being impregnate with much spirit and holding it fast according to the disposition thereof they work violently therefore take heed we be not partakers of the sweat or exhalation of an unsound body that we touch not the sheets so impregnate nor put on the shoes or stockings or gloves or the like but in a special manner that we be no bedfellows with them Hence on the otherside was the health and long-life of our first parents who slept upon Herbs wholsom and from them drew no small part of their long-life as we may probably conjecture for it is certainly very wholsom in summer time to sleep upon Chamomile Rosemary washed Sage Betony Balm and the like and of the same Herbs to make beds for sick folks according to their diseases and I would likewise advise thee to sleep without thy garments in the summer time covered over with wholsom herbs and thou shalt draw from thence an excellent Comfortative It is good also for a weak body to use the company and garments of strong and sound men for from thence he may draw such spirits as will fortifie weak nature We hold it a commendable custom for such people to have their garments and linen worn by them that are lusty and healthfull before they put them on but this is safest done by them that are very strong lest evil come to him that first put them on Therefore also we must take heed that we suffer not our garments to be worn by them that are diseased and that we cast not our cloathes impregnate with our sweat and transpiration in stinking and unwholsom places And above all take heed that they come not into the hands of evil men for there is a great deal of invisible mummy lyeth hid in them of which Paracelsus though obscurely makes often
froth of a mad dog or one bitten with one for here by the violence of the Disease the humors are thrust out impregnate with the infected vital spirit by which means thou mayest overcome that so rebellious a Disease The rest I leave to thy consideration CHAP. XX Of Blood and Matter OMitting those many Disputes concerning Blood which makes not to our purpose as of the original organ Circulation and the like So far forth as concerns our Art I do briefly say That first the Scriptures say and teach us that blood is the principal Chariot of the spirits by placing the soul in the blood but if the spirit is the bond by which the soul is tyed to the body then where the spirit most resideth there shall the soul most powerfully work The blood then which so plentifully possesseth the spirits and communicates them to the body is surely the fittest Instrument to cure Diseases and do all the other things which the Art requireth and promiseth for here the spirit is free and not bound up as elsewhere Therefore in the blood the spirit is soonest affected because there it is naked as is aforesaid Yet we must not immediatly conclude that it may be taken and used presently without any fermentation or putrifaction for they are both usefull here as in the Practice shall be showen onely take heed that thou corrupt not the blood with too much fermentation for then the spirit is driven away so that peradventure it will do nothing But that thou mayest know the fit time of fermentation I 'le teach thee a secret Let the blood with the most excellent parcell of the whole body be joyned in a true proportion by the best way possible and put them into a natural vessel well shut up and set under a hen to hatch and in the product thou wilt finde a thing performing many miracles coagulated in the shape of a man and the oyl or liquor swimming about it with the proper sweat mixed doth change mans mindes with the touch of it Many things more may be done by blood which are better concealed than spoken But if thou perfectly understand the things aforesaid and canst diligently search Nature thou mayst by thine own industry attain unto them We will in the mean time give thee some cautions After the blood is drawn thou must take heed how thou usest it for thereby may be done both good and hurt There be some that put the blood into the ground which I counsell may be done in a clean place mixed with wholesome herbs for if it should be buried in a stinking or infected place it might hurt the body whence it was taken There are others that give it to dogs and whelps to eat which I like best of all for so it may happen to transplant the disease and so cure it wholly or at least help the Physician but it would do a great deal better if it were given the dog either warm or putrified in a close vessell with a temperate heat But here I cannot but tax the villany of some who with an execrable boldnesse dare give the blood yea Monthly Flours for a Philter not considering the mischief issuing from thence for blood though never so pure is an enemy to the stomach and before it will be digested is corrupted and turned into matter and what effect will it then work Besides here lyes not the loving force which they seek but there must be another manner of preparation before thou come to that for it must be loosed before that the spirit may work more freely and busily to incline minds because of the will ruling there is required a greater force and the conspiring of many causes which because the multitude knowes not it can never attain the truth but calumniates the certainty of these things calling them either false or devilish For although blood of all things in the body contain the loosest spirits yet will it work more mightily being digested as the former Considerations and Experience it self teacheth and therefore they are surely to be punished that work so infernally But I fore-see an Objection for if the power of love rest in the blood then how happens it that ravenous beasts that do so greedily drink blood and so well digest it are not to be brought to be in love with those things that they eat being the reason of the Individualls and the species c I answer first In particular operations of the whole species to the individuum or of one individuum to another there is not the same reason Secondly That they eat unprepared blood which is not so powerfull as to change nature for by it duely fermented one individuum may be reconciled to another though it be a Dog to a Hare Thirdly flesh and blood filled with the Commotion of an angry spirit and retaining still a portion of it doth rather whet ravenous beasts into rage and make them seek the destruction of others the like And hence thou mayest learn that it is impossible by any means or preparations to cause Love by blood violently shed but it is more likely to cause hatred Therefore the Ancients never drank the blood of one anothers fore-head vein before perfect reconciliation Before I go any further I will adde one Parergon The salt of blood if it be dissolved in the menstruum of the World and Philosophers is the excellentest remedy of all others and by this means the salts of Herbs will shew the species of the herbs whence they are taken in a glasse So the salt of blood will by the help of the Beasts heat shew the shape of a man in a glasse And this I believe was Paracelsus his Homuncio But of Medicines taken from blood I will give examples in my Practice therefore here this shall suffice Of Matter which is nothing else but blood putrified without the veins or Flesh loosed with rottennesse a man may philosophize as of blood if he speak of it as a means to cure Diseases saving that it hath lost much of the spirits which are in the sound blood by corruption yet by means of it ulcers and old sores may be cured by the Sympathetick water or ointment whether they be inward or outward There are that an oint the inside of a Nut shell with the Balsom then put the Pus or matter into it and then hang it up in the dry Air or Mundum Coelum and by this Medicine cure all Ulcers Yet this is to be noted that Pus or matter may be two wayes considered according to which consideration it is sound in the body for it either simply ariseth from blood by means of putrifaction corrupting without the veins or it ariseth from some venemous quality in some foul disease as in the French Pox or it is infected with some simple diseased quality as in Pthisis And from the touch of all these experience shewes that much harm may come But if thou wilt by thy sympathetical either water