Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	see_v	think_v	3,978	5	3.8757	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57952	A physical treatise grounded, not upon tradition, nor phancy, but experience, consisting of three parts. The first, a manuduction, discovering the true foundation of the art of medicine. Second, an explanation of the general natures of diseases. Third, a proof of the former positions by practice. By William Russell, chymist in ordinary to His Majesty.	Russell, William, 1634-1696?	1684 (1684)	Wing R2357; ESTC R218554	58,632	208

Digestion submitteth to it as an admitted Guest and ceasing to strive against it sends Superfluities as Nourishment thereunto This is apparent in every true Gout Before the Paroxysm begins Loathing at the Stomach and a restless Disposition is perceived for a Day or two and the Pain never approacheth till the Burthen be thence removed thô indeed the Torture which happens afterward doth many times cause as it were a Loathing Yet that is rather the Effect of Anguish than of Matter For whereas at the first these Universal Remedies work upon the Matter by Vomits Sweats Stools or Urine and when the Pains exist in the Joynts have no action at all yet when the Dolours are removed then they operate the same way again And this is a sufficient proof of the possibility of keeping even Hereditary Diseases from growing or increasing to any great height by General Medicines if seasonably applyed These General Dispositions of Medicines here treated of are singularly useful to keep Physicians from Error because Medicines of an Universal Tendency do manifest the Distempers of particular Parts and as with the Finger point at the Seats of Diseases beyond the Imagination of Any that have not proved them for they most sensibly act on the diseased Part. And where such Medicines are first administred there particular Remedies that are specifick to Parts have afterwards the greater efficacy because Nature being assisted in General doth readily dispose of the Particular according to its Gift also For althô they cannot cure every Disease yet their clearing the first Digestion by strengthening and removing the Evil thereof cause the particular Medicine to act without any stop upon the affected part And by this method it is that Distempers accounted uncurable have often been cured But the great Occasions of Errors committed in the Medicinal Faculty are 1. Ignorance of Nature what she is able to do 2. Want of Knowledg of the possibility of Remedies to be so universal in their nature as to do or leave undone as it most conduceth to Nature's help 3. The grand mistake of Practitioners touching the Causes of Diseases judging all Distempers to have their Original from Humorous filths and in the mean while never thinking of Venoms arising through Ferments much less of the Spirit that makes the Assault For althô they hourly see the Effects of Anger Sorrow Envy Fear c. yet when they apply Remedies the first obvious Cause that turns the whole frame of Man is not consider'd by them and only what they produce is the Subject against which their Medicines are directed As for Example When Rage kindleth Choler they seek to allay Choler that is only the product of Rage Choler maketh not Men angry but Anger conceived maketh that sensible For Nothing liveth but hath enough of that Juice so called to be in Rage sufficiently yet unless the Spirit be defiled by a wrathful Image there is no sense of it apparent So also when our thoughts are greatly exercised with a strong desire to attain what is unknown the Constringing Fiat presently ferments the Chyle with so great a sharpness through the Contraction of the Spirit in that Exercise that it is manifest in the Gust or sensible Tast and is in Nature the Cause of what is called Melancholy but if persevered in so long till Separation happen without great helps a certain distraction is produced or some violence that is worse Envy and Malice have not much different Effects for the former cause when they are conjoyned with a strong desire except that Madness hence does more rarely happen yet in that Cold dark harsh fire they impregnate the Chyle and induce great Leaness on the Body harshness and darkness in the Skin and Hair and are not curable any more than the other by any Means applied to the Humour For althô that be altered by the force of Physick to day and wholly separated yet if the Spirit strenuously persist in the same Design the Disease in the twinkling of an Eye is generated again because what is once done may be done a second time and needs not any intervening Agent Althô 't is true that Matter once generated augments the Evil and increaseth the Darkness so largely that the Spirit is thereby more materiated more exasperated and in greater Anguish Fear stagnizes the Blood brings Coldness Sighing intermittent Pulses Convulsions and if strongly persisted in sudden Death or great Stupidity Now it is true that in case the occasion of Fear be removed it is no hard matter to conquer the Effects And so it is consequently true in other Idea's but if continued in thô but in a mere dejection or sinking of the Life they are rendred more difficult to cure than the more evil and active Passions Sorrow is accompanied with debility of Faculties a pining away of the Body and a wasting of the Spirits and is a Causer of Pains in peculiar Vessels through the alteration of Chyle the Parent of manifold Evils yet if once overcome the Effects are not long in expelling thô they have altered almost all the Constitution Now in as much as 't is evident that Disturbance of the Spirit is the Generator of defects in the Body can it be thought that real Venomes whether Epidemical Endemical or Artificial shall less distast then the aforementioned Conceptions since they absolutely assault the Spirit and endeavour the Extirpation of Vital Light the former arise as well from feigned as real Objects the later only from real active and after a sort living Essences therefore in reason more perceptible and causes of greater Wrath Fear Stupor Sorrow or irregular Action in our Nature unless we think every thing is agitated by Necessity as Sparks fly upward and that there is no living Understanding and Election in Us. But if we bring these things to a sensible Test it cannot be denyed but that we feel the force of Anger Fear c. in our Bodies which if the Spirit in Us were not the Ruler could never be so Yet to come nearer to our Selves Do not trivial Errors even of Meats and Drinks Heats and Colds primarily affect the Spirit Who is there whom fulness of Meats and Drinks doth not affect with Dulness and Heaviness Do not Heats when overmuch cause Faintings and Languishments and doth not the Supplement of Cordials actual or potential supply that defect Likewise is it not apparent that Cold when offensive stagnizeth the Bloud giveth Cause for dolour in the external Parts to Imposthumous Humors or stirs up Disorders internally through the let of vital Separations and is usually the Begetter if the Spirit be not helped to perform its natural Separations of Vomitings Fluxes Feavers Coughs and what not through the obstructing of the vital Spirit Yet however this can be no more than the Occasional Cause the Efficient must be the Spirit erring in its own Acts that must constitute this formal part of distemperature and bring it to a Disease And doth any thing sooner restore Nature

Precedents Who taught Hippocrates so many Ages since to distinguish something Divine in certain Diseases and to have a Cure for a popular Plague never known or heard of before Whence was it that the same Man in that Age of the World wherein Diseases and their Remedies were neither known nor distinguished in any measure did obtain a most clear Light not only to distinguish but also to cure Diseases with proper Medicines How was Basilius a Monk instructed who in his days became a most knowing Physician Did not Paracelsus and Helmont neglecting the Traditions of their Predecessors obtain Medicines of greater Efficacy than all that went before them Paracelsus thô bred up in Schools chosen Professor of Physick in Basil raised not his Knowledg from what he had read but from the Light of Nature operating in him as sufficiently appears by his dissenting from every known Rule and by his effectual Cures as also by his own declaration That he had not read any Book of Philosophy or Physick in Ten Years time together And Helmont acknowledged That he found out more certainty when Discourse and Phansy or Imagination was subdued than by all his Readings or Conceptions To the Truth of which some now in being can bear their testimony And is it not daily manifest that the Indians which have no Books by Natural Instinct only find out the Virtues of Plants so that they rarely want a Medicine for their Common Distempers Do we not our selves often see Sick Persons given over by Physicians to be cured by their own natural Impulse One Person is cured after one sort Another after another altogetehr contrary to a known Method which we ignorantly call Chance but it is so only to Us For without doubt this is Nature that naturally excites Man to his Cure as the Dog to Quitchgrass the Cat to Nep the Swallow to Celandine c. If Nature be as indeed she is the Exciter of these Animals to their proper Remedies without any Conception Fore-thought or Reasoning of their own how much more is she of Man in whom is latent a Capacity of knowing things in their Roots so that some Men void of much discourse or Reasoning when the internal Man in them is touched or excited utter wonderful things yet are uncapable of Reasoning how or why they utter them Even so Arts appear more polite where Nature bringeth them forth in Man without the Consult of his Reason For as the Strength of the Lion and Fierceness of the Tiger the Courage of an Horse in time of Battel and the Fearfulness of the Hare are not the Consults of their Strengths or Weaknesses or the Effect of Education but ingenited Properties so we see some apted to Musick to Poetry to Limning to Arithmetick the Mathematick Science and Mechanick Arts in so high a measure that they evidently outstrip all others that have been educated therein Who did ever exceed Appelles When did ever Art make a Poet come near Homer for exactness of Phansy Nay 't is generally taken for granted that Poets are born not made Our own days produced a Child capable of solving most solvable Questions in Arithmetick without a Teacher or known Rule The Merchants that Trade to the Gold-Coasts have told me that the Negroes upon their Fingers sooner account the value of Commodities thô in broken Numbers than our acutest Merchants can with their Pen. How many have we seen excellent Artists in Mechanick Works that never learned them of Masters by Education skilled therein But to conclude all of whom did Archimedes learn his admirable and as yet unparallell'd Inventions of Mechanick Engins by which he so long withstood the Roman Army both by Sea and Land using his single Artifice only without the help of other Weapons insomuch that Marcellus General of that Army speaking in Mockery to the Engineers of his own Camp as Plutarch writeth said What shall we never cease to make War with this Briarean Engineer and Geometrician here who sitting still at his Ease in sporting manner hath with shame overthrown our Navy and exceeded all the fabulous hundred Hands of the Giants discharging at one instant so many Shot amongst us Whence I say had these Men their Instruction while we who have had their Books and Experiments or at least an indubitate Relation of them yet attain not to their Perfection thô so many hundred Years be past and so many Hands and Heads have been imployed since their time Surely Nothing hath been a greater Cause of this deficiency in Us than our supposing Things declared to be a better Rule to be gone by than the Principles they began upon who declared them And were it not for that I cannot but think that we had been long ago so enlarged in our Understandings as these Lines need not have been written at this time But then I would also be understood to suppose that the Foundation in and by which these famous Men attained to the Perfection of their Arts be not neglected by Us For they not regarding perhaps not having or not using the frail and uncertain help of Books not trusting to the written Experiments of others suffered themselves in great Simplicity as the Child above mentioned to be taught by Nature This way they obtained a more certain knowledg than wa● possible to be attained by any other way Wherefore to be unlearned in the Art of Physick is not to want the benefit of Languages for a due Observation of and living up to the Rules of Nature in that Case provided are the chief Things necessary to that Science which is more easily attain'd by a sound Judgment than by reading the most Book-Learned Wits For since Nature is the Guide of the Universe and of each thing therein it is not to be doubted but that as she brings forth Medicine so she doth the Physician also to administer the same whether it be considered generally or particularly as to those Remedies the Gifts of which in all Ages Times and Seasons to all Persons and all Diseases are alwayes the same or to such Remedies as are more specifick or particular which are produced by her in one place only at one time and for some Persons as Medicines fit for fome certain personal or local Diseases and in another Place and Time for other Persons and Diseases And it is clearly manifest that the knowledg of the Virtues of Roots Herbs or Plants hath been nothing advanced since the Days of Theophra●tus a Man naturally experienced ●herein and the Divulger thereof ●xcept what hath been discovered by Observation from Beasts Birds Old Women Clowns Indians or some such way unexpectedly Not that Nature hath been all this time ignorant or uncapable of succouring her own Off-spring especially since Diseases have multiplyed but those that pretend themselves Physicians have not been gifted by her but have opposed and hindred her proper Endeavours they being bent and resolved to be wiser than she and to compel her by Remedies a Practice

is clear in the Light of Nature That Remedies of an Universal Disposition are essential to true healing Not that I judge Specificks altogether useless because I certainly know that the great Art of Physicians consisteth in finding out and fitly applying the same yet with this Proviso Viz. That thay suit to Parts and the Operations thereof and be universalized as to Persons so that the sad the merry the cold and hot Constitutions may thence reap a like Benefit which is no such hard matter to accomplish For if a Specifick be fermented with an Vniversal by this means it is made more general and mindeth not Constitutions but the offended Part in the Operations thereof Yet these Remedies must be used with great Judgment because all Specificks have a direct Action whether they be Acidums or Alkalies Aperitives Diureticks Diaphoreticks Vomiting Purging Resolving Separating Contracting or Coagulating Medicines and if unduly or unseasonably applyed are direct Evils For whosoever giveth a Diaphoretick in the begining of a Feaver before any Digestion happens in the Febrile Matter doth by the same indeed produce Sweats but to the great disadvantage of the Sick because that Action of the Medicine contrary to the disposition of Nature carrieth the more subtile parts of the occasional Cause into the Blood And besides the Sweating Remedy because not gifted to strengthen Nature and incline her to her own Acts leaves the more gross and oft-times uncoctable diseasy Matter in the Stomach which proves fatal to the Patient or at least renders the Disease difficult to be healed Therefore Specificks thô never so pure or certain and having an universal Ferment but not having thereby universal Gifts cannot be used generally without apparent danger thô in defects of Parts and Faculties where Nature indicates her own Wants they act more swiftly and certainly than Remedies more general Yet it hath been obvious to me by manifold Observations that direct working Medicines given in the beginning of Diseases have generally injured the Persons afflicted by removing the offensive Matter to places where Nature without that force would never have done Let any One but observe the Progress of Malignant Feavers Small Pox Plague c. and he must necessarily discern that any Purging Remedy thô but a Clyster because Nature endeavours to make separation another way by the Skin doth notably hinder the then needful and necessary Expulsion and by attracting inward brings Death or a very great danger thereof Now althô in these Acute Diseases by reason of their swift Motion and sudden determination Errors are more obvious yet are they as certainly committed in the Chronical and more slow Distempers and attended with the same Consequences thô longer before they be manifested For whensoever by direct Remedies the Diseasy-Matter is transmitted from one Digestion to another must it not unavoidably be rendred worse and what was Originally an Evil in the Stomach or Spleen if carried to the Gaul or Liver and there hurting the Actions and Parts of the same shall it not be more difficult to cure seing those Bowels are remote from the Stomach and have a different Digestion and are not so easily reached by Physick For as Mustiness in a Barrel affects Wine Beer or Vinegar with the same Odour so doth it in like manner affect any urinous Liquor How much more shall diseasy Ferments if by separation without being overcome which no Purgative Remedy can do they be carried to the Duodenum necessarily infect the adjacent Parts Also if I understand any thing in Nature the original of all Chronical Diseases that are not seminal proceeds rather from the Errors of Physicians or the unruliness of Patients than from the Weakness of Nature or strength of increasing Diseases For it is almost daily seen that one Disease is changed into another not as progressing naturally thereto but through irregular Practice by Purging Bleeding Sweating and other direct Actions whereby acute Diseases become Chronical and Chronical Acute by the one making the Life miserable and by the other inferring sudden Death Which may easily be demonstrated and I intend something thereof when I shall treat of the Progress of Diseases Moreover it is very manifest that particular Medicines how prevalent soever to any particular Part and the Disease thereof where a Complication of Diseases is present act rather against than with Nature because they cannot be imployed by Her against the Complication or the Original of the defective Part for such Remedies acting particularly and not generally by cleansing the Part render it more fit for Reception of the Complicating Evil. So that by such irregular Practices Diseases of the first Digestion consequently become Distempers of the second or third c. And this is because Diseases of the first Digestion not being there subdued but carried thence to the second or third put on another Nature and sometimes become complicated thô simple before through a natural disposedness to receive all depending Evils of the Place the diseased live in or of the time or season of the Year or of the Parts they possess For when Diseases once degenerate they are excited Nature growing weaker by every adjacent Evil whereas in their first assault one Digestion alone being concerned Nature can much more easily overcome them If I thought what is here expressed were not sufficient to prove the Truth of this Matter I could easily demonstrate the same by the Practice either of Patients not timely using Remedies or of Physicians using things improper For I do not find Chronical Diseases in their beginnings to have took Root in Us except from the above specified Errors And althô some seminal Dispositions derived from Parents labouring under the same Affects may beget diseasy Inclinations yet they not being able to act without Matter may well be subdued or at least kept from further Increase if General Means be timely used unless some principal Vessel be naturally deficient Every seminal Disposition is incorporeal till Matter through debility of Nature be conjoyned with it for then it becomes active and a Disease but if the Matter which is the occasional Evil be removed the Action ceaseth Now this Matter at the first is easily expelled in a short time because every such occasional Matter is first manifested in the Stomach But when the seminal Disposition and that Matter have moved each with other any time strange F●rments are begotten and the Actions of divers Parts injured thereby Then indeed Medicines thô never so speedy in the beginning cannot do much but require length of time by reason of the Complication which happens through the many Digestions damnified For in the first Motion thereof the first Digestion is but begun to be defiled therewith and strives against it then Universal Medicines can easily contest with the Matter and in small time overcome because the Disease is yet undeterminate and floating no Disease of any denomination having Existence in the Body except where some Vessel or Part is hurt till the first

deplorable Cases above mentioned Example 1. Of an Imposthume in the Womb of a Woman with Child A Woman about seven Months gon with Child was afflicted with great Pain and Torture in her Womb which manifested the proper Signs of a contra-natural Cause existent by Issue of Bloud not Flouding-like but by Driblings at last of Quitter Upon these apparent Signs of a suppurated Imposthume I was sought for and hearing what had hap'ned could not but give Judgment of an Imposthume present Yet having read Hipocrates of whose Sincerity and deep Skill in curing Diseases of his time no Prudent Man unto this day doubts and finding him to proclaim Imposthumes and Vlcers of the Womb not curable in Women with Child I was very loath to be concern'd in this Case but Importunity and Necessity overweighing I adventur'd to apply my self to the Cure In order to which I first gave my Pouder once in 8 hours and my Arcanum Veneris at Night going into Bed This Method was continued every Day without other Medicines except some small Cordials for Support unto the time of her Delivery During which space of Time after the taking these Medicines Matter flowed each Day more than other for a great part of that time in which time her Pains nevertheless vanished and she grew more lively than before but when the time of her Delivery drew near the Matter that came forth was less and less each day After Delivery I viewing the Bag in which the Child had been contained did plainly discern the Compass of the Imposthume and some part of the Matter unresolved upon the Out-side of the Bag. But afterwards to this same Woman so well delivered of a Sound and well proportioned Child I gave my Medicines all the time of her lying in in the same Method as is above prescribed and she recovered Strength and after this had several other Children and is now alive tho this hap'ned fourteen years since Example 2. Of a Dropsy in the Womb of a Woman with Child A Woman with Child before quickning being swelled to outward appearance like one ready to be delivered sent for me I seeing the Woman and hearing how it was with her could not but be amazed and doubt of the reality of her Conception Nevertheless because I well knew the certainty and effecacious Power of my Medicines above specified in Cases no less deplorable I rejected all thoughts of particular Remedies and applyed my self to that general Method I had formerly used Accordingly I gave my Pouder Night and Morning for three days yet no separation hap'ned during that time but the Woman found her self somewhat more lively than before The fourth Day I gave my Arcanum Metallorum and the following Morning my Pouder That Day came forth a Dribbling of Water and the next Day more This Method I continued and in three Days time after more than too Gallons of Water was voided and the Dropsy separated Then I ordered the Pouder to be taken Night and Morning until Quickning and all the time after of her being with Child I prescribed to her the same Pouder to be taken a Day or two at a time whensoever any Appearance of a Return of the Dropsy was and by this means she went out her full time had a sound Child and several Children after and hath continued Well and in Health for about these seven Years since Example 3. Of an Vlcer in the Womb. In this sad Case the Neck of the Womb was tumified uneven hard in one place tender in another and raw in a third as was clearly testified by divers Midwifes then present The Sanies that flowed from thence was Red Yellow and greenish White In Cure of this Woman I gave my Pouder every Day once and at Night my Arcanum of Metals and perhaps the next Night my Arcanum Veneris changing them as I saw occasion but my Pouder I always gave once a Day During this Cure many Changes and Accidents hap'ned to which I applied particular Remedies too long to be here incerted After some Series of time all these Accidents vanished and the suppurated Matter by little and little abated and at length perfect Health followed This Woman after her Recovery Conceived and hath had several Children since and is alive at this day This Cure was performed about seven Years ago Example 4. Of a Tumified Womb. A young Woman labouring under a natural Deficiency propagated to her striving to extrude it self by Hemeroids and Piles being also at the same time afflicted with a Tumified Womb hard and sore so that she could not possibly bear the Congress of her Husband and having long sustained this Calamity and finding the Remedies of other Physicians useless applied her self to me I streight in order to her Cure gave her my Pouder every Morning and my Arcanum Veneris every Night appointing my Scerbutick Tincture to be taken in Drink by twenty Drops at a time as often as she drank And this Method was continued for full four Months after which time she quickly Conceived with Child and hath ever since remained well though she were cured of this Malady divers Years ago Example 5. Of a Mola Being called to a Woman labouring under great Floudings who conceited her self to be with Child when I had observed the great quantity of Bloud that came from her the Midwife then present gave me an account of the closure of the Womb and so an Impossibility of distinguishing the Concern I finding her Case such caused the Pouder to be given twice in one hour in which time the Flux of Bloud began to stop and the Womb to open a little yet no more than sufficed to admit the Midwifes finger to distinguish somewhat unusual Whereupon I desired her to give me some more plain Testimony of what she felt and by her words I judged it to be no Child And as I judged so it proved for when the Midwife could somewhat better reach what she had before touched she brought forth a Gleuy Matter white and clear I seeing this ordered her to bring it away as fast as she could but she having no more place open than for one Finger to enter brought it away by piece-meal I giving some Cordial for support to the afflicted Woman in the mean time This Matter I caused when as much was brought away as possibly could be by the Midwifes Finger to be put into a Bason of Water where it joyned all together and seemed in quantity to be no less than a Quart would contain Now because without force the Womb could be no further opened the Remainder was left to the power of Medicine Therefore I gave my Pouder every hour for twenty four hours at the end of which this sadly distressed Woman began to be pretty sedate and quiet and no Bloud appeared for I think she had before evacuated all or the greatest part of all she had Then I gave my Pouder twice or thrice a Day for several Dayes after and sometimes my