must needs be livid and very painful But what may hence be inferred Can cold Water profit in a Contusion It seems more likely to do hurt because it incrassates coagulates and stagnizeth the extravasate Bloud Would not Spirit of Wine and other Medicaments that increase the motion of the Bloud be more convenient in this case That you may the more clearly conceive the solution of this difficulty it is behooful to know that in the parts hurt by the Ball so forcibly driven certain very small sanguiferous Vessels were opened which had they before the Water was applied poured out the Bloud into the small passages of the Parts hurt then the cold Water would have done hurt but this cold Water was applied before the Bloud issued out and so not onely by its coldness again closed these very small Vessels but also was the cause that no new Bloud could for a certain space of time enter the same Vessels So we see our Face to be red for no other reason than because through the Cutis of the same very many small Vessels full of Bloud lie dispersed and discern the same to wax pale by the coldness of Water Air and other things because such coldness for a time prohibits the Bloud from entring these very small Vessels of the Face So we see the pleasant redness of the Lips in a beautiful Virgin augmented by the kiss of a young man to be changed into a pallid colour by Acidity restraining the Bloud from entring the small Vessels distributed throughout the Superficies of the Lips But whosoever he be that will attempt such a way of Cure as this here mentioned after the small passages of the parts contused shall be replete with extravasate Bloud seems to me to be not well in his wits for I have not seldom known a Gangrene to arise in a part contused from the unseasonable application of cold and astringent things OBSERVAT. IX Of an hard Tumor of the Abdomen A Girl Five years of Age accustomed to evil Diet was for a long time afflicted with a very great Tumor and hardness of her Abdomen and her face was very pale The following Liniment had before been in vain used â„ž Vnguent Altheae comp Oyl of white Lillies of eachÊ’ss Of TilesÊ’j Mix these Which notwithstanding in a like case is not a little commended by the famous Sylvius in the first Book of his Praxis Chap. 14. under the Title 56. Well considering the matter I judged the Bloud of this sick child to be very viscous and acid and by reason of this that many Glandules of the Omentum were obstructed and augmented to a strange bulk But which way Paleness of the Face is induced by such Bloud I suppose to be known to every man therefore needs not be here explained Perhaps some one will wonder and not believe it possible that the Glandules of the Omentum should increase to so great a Magnitude as to become the cause of so great and hard a Tumor as was in the Abdomen of this Child perceptible by the touch but I would have him peruse Fabritius Hildanus who in the 62 Observation of his Third Century declares that he opened a Carcass the Omentum of which by reason of the tumified Glandules weighed Fifty six pounds Things being thus I judged nothing would be more profitable than Paracelsus his Stiptick Plaister which I commanded to be applied to the Abdomen after it was spread upon a Linnen Cloath and anointed with Oyl of Nutmegs To correct the viscous and acid Bloud I commanded certain drops of oyly Volatile Salt to be given daily twice a day and by this means our little Patient in the space of a few Months was happily restored to her pristine state of health OBSERVAT. X. Of the Scurvey A Man aged Thirty years every day evily accustoming himself to viscous and sowre Aliments according to the bad custom of the Gelders was afflicted with heaviness and dolour of his hands and Feet his Gums in a great measure consumed would bleed with the least touch his Spittle was in taste salt as Brine Having diligently considered these things I judged the Bloud too acid and viscous to be here peccant which by reason of Acidity inferred that dolour of Hands and Feet and corroded the Gum and its sanguiferous Vessels and by its too great Viscosity did so obstruct the small passages of the Hands and Feet that the usually-free transit of the Animal Spirits into the Muscles was somewhat impeded whence arose the aforesaid Heaviness I speak here of the Animal Spirits for seeing the Liquor that is through the Nerves for exciting motion carried into the Muscle is subtile I know not why this Nervous Liquor should less deserve to be insignized with the name of Spirit than that Liquor which in Chymical Distillation is extracted from Hartshorn But omitting vain Disputes about the Name let us set about the Matter it self This Disease is very familiar in these Regions and is generally known by the name of The Scurvey and is most difficultly cured if in process of time it have taken deep root Wherefore I presently applied my self to the Cure of this Disease seriously commanding the Patient for the future to eat no more acid and viscous Aliments and prescribing the following Medicament â„ž Syrup of Scurvy grass â„¥ ss Of Salt Armoniac distilled with Salt of Tartar â„¥ ij Oyl of Tartar per deliquium Tincture of May-worms of eachÊ’j I commanded the Patient to take 16 drops of this Medicine thrice a day in a Decoction of the Tops of Firr and indeed to the end that the Spirits of Scurvey-grass and Sal-Armoniac and the Tincture of May-worms with the aforesaid Decoction might attenuate the viscous Bloud and infringe the Acidity thereof I added Oyl of Tartar per deliquium that by this means the Volatile Salt of the Bloud subdued and bound by the Acidity might again recover its pristine liberty and so render the Bloud more fluid and more agile As we see the Volatile Salt of Hartshorn or any other Volatile Salt coagulated and conjoyned with an Acid Spirit with the help of an Alkali-Salt and Common Water by distillation to be again restored to its pristine liberty and separated from that Acidity As to the Tincture of May-worms it is to be observed that that ought not to be extracted with the acid Spirit of Salt as Artists are wont to do because by this means the Volatile Salt of the May-worms is infringed and enervated By these Remedies our Scorbutick Patient was cured in a short time But before I put an end to this Third Decade a Difficulty not very small remains yet to be removed I here affirm the Cause of this Disease to be Acidity and in the mean while say the Spittle was imbibed with a Saline taste how do these agree Do they not manifestly contradict each other No. I promise to unfold this Riddle in few words No small quantity of Volatile Salt contained in the
Oleaginous Volatile Salt xxv drops Make a Mixture Using this Lavament for one day and finding little benefit by the use thereof I scarrified the parts affected and washed them with Unguentum Egyptiacum mixt with Spirit of Wine I did not at all fear any damage to accrew from the Vinegar which is put into this Unguent because in the boiling that is all evaporated Also I anointed the exteriour Circumferences of the affected parts with Oyl of Tyles called Oyl of Philosophers Lastly I applied a Cataplasm of Rue Wormwood Dittany of Crete Root of Galangal and Calamus Aromaticus Flower of Lupines Metheglin and other things temperating Acidity By use of these aforesaid Remedies good Pus began to be generated which by its gently cutting Particles brake in sunder the remaining intermediate Fibres which as yet had retained the dead and living flesh together and by this means the parts affected with the Gangrene were separated Seeing this I applied Common Turpentine mixt with Basilicon and the White of an Egg by which all the viscous Particles were removed which were otherwise wont to obstruct the Pores of the Arteries and cavities of the Veins By this means several Particles came forth from the Arteries and adhered to the Ulcers by reason of the similitude of their Superficies and soon after all the Ulcers were discerned to be filled with flesh then I applied dry Lint scraped and in a short time induced an Eschar by that onely For that imbibed all the Pus which otherwise would have corroded and wholly closed the Orifices of those tender Vessels Thus our Patient was compleatly restored to her pristine sanity Octob. 21. OBSERVAT. IV. Of a Sphacelus of the Foot A Man of Seventy years of age that had all his life-time devoted himself to Wine and Venery and by frequent intervals was afflicted with a Spasmus of his right Leg in the year 1681 February 22 was invaded with a small Fever not vehement On the 26th day of February his prostrated appetite seemed to return wherefore on that day he twice eat a great quantity of very sowre Butter-milk and the same day about nine at night he began to complain of a very great pain of his right Foot and soon after of a Stupor and great coldness of the same and the same Dolour Stupor and Algor in two hours space ascended above the Knee The 28th of February I was called and by Scarification found that the Sphacelus had ascended an hands breadth above the Knee for so far was present that extream Cold and Rottenness and in Scarification no sign of Dolour appeared nor did any Bloud issue out except a very little very black and coagulated breaking out in one part or other Very attentively considering all these things I concluded that the abuse of Wine and Venery had rendred the Bloud of this Man its more subtile and more volatile part being absumed too viscous and acid and when certain acid and viscous Particles of this Bloud were by Circulation come to the right Foot perhaps they there stagnized and afterward pertinaceously adhered and by their stay there acquired greater sharpness These Particles inferred no Dolour so long as they remained unmoved but when by intervals they were forced from their residence by the Humours circulating and by them excited to motion then they became the cause of the Spasmus of the right Leg irritating and cutting the small Fibres of those parts and so gave occasion to a greater afflux of the animal Spirits But the continued excess of Wine and Venery had left scarce any thing in the Bloud of this man except a Caput-mort as I may call it that is nothing besides Bloud very viscous and acid which could no longer duly exercise its proper effervescency in the Heart nor circulate through the parts yet this Bloud when it had by a small Fever received greater motion and was rarified more than usual did sufficiently open the Pores of the Arteries so that many acid and viscous Particles issued out and stayed without and this hapned rather in the right Foot than elsewhere because there resided the acid and viscous Ferment which caused the Acidity and Viscosity contained in the Bloud to draw nigh to it self in such a way as we explained in the Second Observation and perhaps a great cause was that abundance of acid Butter-milk eaten because this happened the 27th day of February rather than at any other time Those acid and viscous Particles that passed out from the Pores of the Arteries on the 27th of February setled in the Veins of the right Foot and conjoyned themselves with the acid Ferment therein contained and there by the acuteness of their sides impressed on the small Fibres a very vehement motion and so produced that Dolour but the small Fibres being not long able to sustain that violence were soon after wholly cut in sunder and by that means the sense of pain notwithstanding the Scarification then made was totally annihilated and the broken Fibres infolding themselves each within the other had so obstructed the veiny passages of the right Foot that the Bloud and Animal Spirits could not enter this was occasioned by the coagulation of Humours in the Foot produced by the aforesaid Acidity Hence I discerned the Original of the Sphacelus of his right Foot also that it must needs take beginning from Acidity is confirmed by that black and coagulated Bloud which in scarifying had its Exit For every man knows that the Bloud waxeth black and is coagulated by Acidity This Sphacelus had by this time transcended the Knee and soon after a little above the part affected the Patient felt an intolerable pain I considering with my self the fore-passed dessolute Life of the Sick-man his Age his Leg above the Knee infected with this Sphacelus and his whole Mass of Bloud grievously tainted and moreover calling to mind that I never knew any Old men infected with this Disease to escape did boldly predict the inevitable death of the Patient yet in the mean while I promised I would mitigate the dolour as much as I could and if possible prevent the further ascent of the evil In order hereunto I commanded the Patient should every two hours take two spoonfuls of a mixture tempering Acidity consisting of Borrage and Bugloss-water Treacle-water Sugar-perlate Crabs-Eyes Coral Mineral Bezcardic and other things infringing Acidity and attenuating Viscosity Also I caused a Decoction to be made consisting of Water Wine Roots of Calamus Aromaticus and Enula Campane with Rue Dittany of Crete Wormwood Flower of Lupines c. which I applied hot with a double Cloath by which Application some ease of pain was induced For the Acidity inducing dolour by its accuteness was thereby rendred more temperate Therefore when the Cloath was dry I again moistned it in the same Liquor and this reiterated Application I continued for several days Now when the 7th day of March was come I saw that Down or Mossy Lanugo which
of the Leg grating of the Bone dolour and imbecility of morion For one extremity of the Shin-bone by reason of the Fracture tended this way the other that way whence was the inequality of the Leg and when those two extremities hit upon each other the grating of the Bone was heard and when they with their sharpness pressed the Periosteum and adjoyning parts the first cause of dolour discovered it self but the second cause when the extremities of the broken Bone by their pressure compelled die Humours in the small passages of the bordering parts to stagnize wax acid and irritate the small Fibres But when the Fibrils were thus disturbed by the points of the Bones and acid Humours the Animal Spirits could not be determinated rather into this than into that Muscle but without distinction rushed into all disturbed parts and if though but in a small quantity they approached nigh to certain Muscles they could not enter and flow in by reason of the passages of those Muscles obstructed by the stagnizing Humours And although some Spirits had flowed into the same Muscles yet all their tendency was was to move one extremity of the cutting broken Bone to this party the other to another whence proceeded nothing but Vellication Pressure and Renovation of the dolour Hence the cause of the imbicility of motion is sufficiently manifest I being called presently set the Broken Bones and then my principal end was to restore the circulation of the Bloud and Humours for without doubt the Bloud was here and there stagnized Therefore to temperate the peccant Acidity I washed the affected part with Sprit of Wine in which a little Gum Ammoniac was dissolved and for the same end I applied a Plaister composed of Diapalma Bolus Spirit of Wine and Oyl of Camomil Then for retaining the Bones so lately set I used Ligatures and other things fit renewing these by certain intervals and so the Patient in six weeks time could again walk I am not willing in this place to say that a Fracture made transverse may more easily be retained than an oblique Fracture nor that it is for the most part accounted a good sign of restriction if the great Toe of the Foot directly respect the Knee seeing these things are well known Nor shall I endeavour to render a reason why the dolour is mitigated after the Bone is let because it is known that this is effected by removal of the first cause of the Dolour of which I so lately spake But before I conclude I purpose to shew how the Callus is induced which conglutinates the fractured Bones When the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours is again restored as well in the fractured Bone as elsewhere then certain Particles issuing from the Pores of the Arteries pass through the small passages of the Bone and when they come to the extremity thereof they can proceed no further by a right Line because the passages were interrupted by the Fracture therefore they turn to the sides where adhering to die Bone and each to other they constitute a Callus which again conjoyns the Bones This Callus in the aged and weak is difficultly generated by reason of the gross and viscous Bloud which cannot pass through the streight passages of the Bones Therefore in such a case the more gross Particles of the Bloud must be attenuated by Ê’j of the Stone Osteocolla daily taken Yea it will not be injurious if powder of the same stone be mixed with the Plaister that is externally applied But in our Patient the matter was far otherwise For the Callus extended it self to a very unseemly bulk wherefore I applied a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury to the end that this Plaister should so attenuate certain Particles of the Callus that they might fly away and also a good Ligature that it might so compress the Callus as no-nothing new might have access thereunto Thus I put an end to this Observation after I shall have told you that I commanded the Sick-man's Leg always to lie extended and took care that the Sole of the Foot might rest upon a small Pillow in the middle of which was an hole For otherwise as experience testifies a Gangrene might have invaded the bottom of the Foot because the Vessels and small passages of the parts are vehemently compressed by long lying There are some who in a Fracture of the Tibia as this was commend viscous things which I reject as noxious because in a body without exercise Obstructions do not a little augment which on the contrary should rather be diminished OBSERVAT. X. Of a Dislocation of the Shoulder A Man Thirty two years of Age falling from a Coach suffered a Dislocation in his left Shoulder so that the head of the Bone fallen into the inferiour part was the cause of a certain eminency there whilst on the contrary in the superiour part was discerned an unusual Cavity The Patient complained of very great pain and could not move his hand by the anteriour part to his Forehead nor by the posteriour to his Neck For the Bone fallen from its seat compressed the Periosteum and adjoyning parts whence arose pain which was augmented because in the small passages of the parts compressed and distorted the Humours stagnized waxed acid and shook the small Fibres He could not move his Arm as formerly because the head of the Bone thrust from its former Cavity no longer as before enjoyed an hollow and slippery place requisite for its motion also hence was the occasion that the Animal Spirits could not enter through the small passages obstructed by the stagnizing Humours and compressed by the dislocated Bone into the Muscles and excite them hence it happened that no motion could be because the head of the Bone did more and more compress the parts adjoyning whence arose a new excitation of dolour which also induced no small impediment to the due performance of motion I being called to the Sick reposited the dislocated Bone and then the motion presently returned there was indeed some dolour present because the acid Humours stagnizing did as yet in some measure irritate the Fibrils nevertheless the pain was very much diminished because the head of the Bone now contained in its proper Cavity did no longer press upon the sensible parts The Bone being set I endeavoured by things temperating Acidity to dissolve the stagnizing Humours and restore to them their due Circulation wherefore I washed the affected part with Spirit of Wine in which Gum Ammoniac was dissolved and applied a Plaister composed of Spirit of Wine Bolus Diapalma and Oyl of Camomil and then put Lint wrapt up like a Ball under the Arm-pit and by this means the Patient was healed in a short space of time Peter Pigraeus a French Author and Chyrurgeon worthy of praise commends Astringents to a Bone lately reposited but be it spoken with the leave of so famous a man in this he is egregiously deceived For Astringents augment Obstructions
deduceth extream dolour and other Phaenomena's occurring in a Wound of the Nerve from a far other cause than I do For he thinks some of the Fibrils in the Nerve being cut the other as yet intire suffer so much the more by a continued stretching produced by the Animal Spirits and that hence ariseth Dolour Convulsion and other Evils frequently observed in such cases But with the leave of so great a man this Cause pleaseth me not seeing from it I cannot conclude that the pallid and insensible Cutis is frequently separated from the adjacent part This Cause of his is repugnant to Experience which teacheth that the Puncture of a Nerve is more dangerous than if the Nerve were cut to the midst For in a Nerve cut to the midst many more Fibrils are cut than in a Nerve prickt in which often but a few Fibrils onely are hurt But it is certain that Sylvius did himself believe his own reason not sufficient seeing in the same Twenty third Chapter of his Second Book he saith that Phaenomenons exhibiting themselves in the Puncture of a Nerve seem to him more like a Dream than to any observation made by the Senses Therefore that I may put an end to this Observation I say that in the wound of a Nerve Acidity is peccant and that such Medicaments should be applied as infringe Acidity For this Cause is commended Oyl of Wax and Ear-wax but acid things are not fit here to be used which was well observed by Felix Plaiterus who in his Book of Observations page 468 saith Acidity is very inimical to the Nerves OBSERVAT. II. Of Dolour of the Head A Man Forty two years of Age was vexed with a most vehement dolour of his Head and indeed that only about the Temple of one side where it remained fixed which Affect if any one will for this cause insignize with the name of a Clavus let him for me I judged the cause of this Dolour to be an Acido-corrosive Humor there lying hid and stagnizing by reason of Obstruction very pertinaceous There was one studious of Medicine present who perswaded himself that the cure of this Affect would be best performed by Sudorificks which by reason of the pertinacy of the Obstruction in this Disease I judged equally as impossible as in the Panaritium which I never heard to have been healed by Sudorificks though the same Affect derives its original from an Acido-corrosive Humor for it is but a very small portion of the Sudorifick that can arrive to the pained part Therefore I rather applied to the affected part Powder of Cantharides with his own Spittle formed into a Vesicatory about the evening and left it on all night The famous Sylvius to Cantharides addeth Vinegar thinking there would thence arise a certain Fermentation and so the Vesicatory operate the better Yea the most Learned Willis also adjoyns acid things to many forms of Vesicatories which I my self have often imitated but as often observed that after the space of a whole day no Blisters have been raised by the Cantharides when I mixed them with Vinegar viz. for this reason because the Volatile Salt of die Cantharides was enervated by the Vinegar in which Salt the principal Virtue of them consists Coming the next day I beheld a large Blister raised by the Cantharides and understood that the sick-man was wholly eased of his pain But I could not perswade my self that this dolour was removed by the Blister raised and by reason of the Water flowing from the same when opened For the Water that issued out was neither sharp of taste nor could be such because had it been so it must needs have inferred some dolour on the subjected skin before apertion of the Blister which notwithstanding it did not although the Cutis the Epidermis being by this means removed be of it self sufficiently sensible as is apparent because it is often hurt and feels pain by the ambient Air. What was it then that removed that Dolour The Volatile Salt of the Cantharides which by the Vapours passing out through the skin stirred up to a sufficiently swift motion penetrated to the Acido-corrosive humor and temperated and cut the same and took away the obstruction But whence then did the Blister derive its original I say that in the mean time when the more volatile Particles of the Cantharides had penetrated far enough for correcting the peccant Humor other more grose and more acid Particles subsisted about the Cutis in which they brake certain Fibrils which crisping up together did so obstruct the small passages that the Humors in circulation were partly impeded and so gathered together in the Superficies of the Cutis and elevated the Cuticle into the form of a Blister which might easily happen because the Fibrils which joyn die Cutis with the Cuticle were now broken in sunder by the aforesaid more gross and more acid Particles of the Cantharides But some one may perhaps here say that that Water should not have been there congregated but rather have passed out by the Pores of the Cuticle by which we so often see Sweats to issue out To him I answer the most gross Parts of the Cantharides remained and adhered about the Cuticle and very much constringed the Pores thereof which should seem strange to no man who even but once in his life-time hath seen how easily by heat of fire Parchments may be crumpled up and that the common Fire which so crumples them doth also sometimes excite small Blisters wholly like those that are raised by Cantharides but because the Pores of the Cuticle were so closed therefore the Vapours otherwise freely exhaling were accumulated and augmented the abundance of Humor contained in the Blister If any man not as yet plainly convinced by our way of reasoning believes that the long lying on of the Cantharides by reason of the Blisters raised helps until his mind be altered by the Authority of some approved Writer I would have him go to Lazarus Riverius who in his Third Century Observation 4. declares that a Vesicatory left on but a quarter of an hour had in that time wholly removed the dolour of a Bees sting no Blisters being raised by reason of so short delay Francis Redi in a Treatise of Insects affirms that he had seen a white shining Humor undoubtedly Acido-corrosive flowing out from the Stings of Scorpions and it is very probable that such an humor in the Punctures of Bees doth in like manner flow from their Stings which is the cause of dolour Hence it is now manifest that the dolour of which Riverius speaks vanished because the acid Humor which flowed out from the Bees Sting and excited dolour was temperated by the Volatile Salt of the Cantharides But that the Stings of Bees are hollow no man will wonder who hath at any time seen the Glass-Pipes made by Art which are used for examining and beholding the Bloud and other Liquors through a Microscope seeing they though small
as an Hair do notwithstanding enjoy a certain Cavity OBSERVAT. III. Of the Contracture of a Tendon after a Fracture of the Shoulder-Bone A Young man aged Twenty two years after a Fracture of the Shoulder-bone healed could not extend his inbowed and rigid Arm. The more remote cause of this Evil was the Surgeon's negligence who left the Arm inbowed for five or six Weeks whereas he should as often as and every time he bound up the Fracture have frequently extended the same as a thing of special note in Chyrurgick Practice But this is not therefore a wonder seeing we daily see a Bow which hath for some tine remained unbowed not to be easily bowed again Yea who doth not sometimes experience in himself how difficultly he is able to go and extend his feet after he hath sate unmoved in a Coach but for one onely day But forasmuch as this Comparison doth not as yet sufficiently illustrate the matter my purpose is somewhat more narrowly to search out the cause of the same When the Arm was inbowed about the Cubit the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle bowing the Cubit was contracted but what is here spoken of the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle may be understood of other Tendons of Muscles bowing the Cubit and so the Pores of the Fibrils of which the Tendon consists before round are changed into oval so that the greater Diameter of the Pores hath respect to the Latitude of the Fibrils In the mean while the Humors passed out from the Pores of the Arteries which by reason of motion often instituted freely perfected their circulation now by reason of rest did in some sort subsist in the Tendon Yea in a short space of time certain gross Particles of those Humors deeply insinuated themselves into those Oval Pores of the Fibrils and conserved and confirmed them in that oblong Figure and in process of time those recited Particles so pertinaceously adhered in the above-named Pores that they could not by any means be expelled thence Henee the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle was made shorter no otherwise than as we see new Ropes or new Cloath sprinkled with Water to shrink Hence also the said Tendon appeared hard and rigid whence it is as I judge sufficiently manifest why the Arm could not be extended for the Muscles extending the Arm could not perform their wonted action being before contracted these could not be contracted but the Tendon with its two-headed Muscle must needs begin to cease acting This was impossible by reason of the Pores of the Fibrils obstructed by the aforesaid Particles by which the Tendon was tumified The cause of this Phaenomenon by this means found out the method of curing was without difficulty understood viz. that it was behooful to expel the Particles obstructing the Pores wherefore I used a Fomentation of Wine in which were boiled Herbs and other things abounding with much Volatile Salt and then I applied a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury and after I had continued that for several days I often commanded the Patient to hold some weight in his hand that so the Particles inherent in the obstructed Pores and by the aforesaid Medicaments in some measure macerated in the Dutch Idiom los gewyckt might by a certain force be ejected By this means the Patient recovered his pristine Sanity in a short time OBSERVAT. IV. Of a Vein Cut. A Man aged Thirty six years commanded a Vein to be cut in the Flexure of his Arm the next day several Ounces of Limpid Humor flowed out from the Orifice of the Vein cut and that Efflux continued for several days after but the Arm in the mean while was neither affected with dolour nor with redness A rare Phaenomenon indeed which I cannot remember ever to have hapned in all my Practice Perhaps some small Lymphatick-Vessel lay above the Vein to be cut which in cutting the Vein was wounded and by certain Particles stagnizing and waxing acid nigh the Orifice of the small wound made irritated and continually gently convulsed sent forth this abundance of Lympid Humidity I temperated the peccant Acidity nigh the Lymphatick-Vessel with Oyl of Turpentine poured in hot and so compelled the Aperture to close and the Lympid Humor in a short time to subsist or rather again to circulate by a natural way I likewise knew a certain Tyro in Chyrurgy who in Section of the Median-Vein wounded a subjected Tendon whence arose dolour and redness which being removed at length was inferred so great a Contracture of the Tendon of the two-headed Muscle that the Arm having now for a long time been inbowed could not be extended by the Patient whose Cure was effected even after the same manner as I shewed in the foregoing Observation That is to say some Humors stagnizing about the wounded Tendon waxed acid and irritating that Tendon caused the Animal Spirits to flow in greater abundance than usual by which means the Tendon with the Muscle annexed was contracted and the Arm incurvated which afterward remained so inbowed by reason of certain Particles which obstructed the Pores of the Fibrils in the Tendon after the same manner as I in the precedent Observation have largely explained But dolour and redness which often attend the Puncture of a Tendon acknowledge the same Cause and require the same Cure that I proposed in the Puncture of a Nerve Many Chyrurgeons when they would evacuate gross Bloud make a large Orifice of the Vein and when they purpose to let out Bloud more subtile a lesser Orifice but evily For if the gross Particles of the Bloud mixt with the more subtile can accurately enough circulate through the Arteries and Capillary Veins is it not more clear than the Sun that no Orifice in the cutting of a Vein can be made so very small but that with the more subtile part of the Bloud that which is more gross may be expâ—lled by the same Which the most acute Bayle perhaps Boyl did well observe The famous Mr. Leeuwenhoeck by a Microscope discovered Humane Bloud to consist of small red Globes floating in a Chrystalline Humor which when the Bloud after cutting of a Vein received in a Porringer was coagulated their motion being lost descended to the bottom the Chrystalline Humor through which they were before moved floating above Certainly a strange and pleasant Invention but of no use in the Medicinal Practice For they who from this ground endeavour to deduce the Causes and Cures of Fevers and other Diseases seem to me to trifle out the time and lose all their labour whereas rather had they respect to Acidity Salt Bitterness Sweetness and other properties undoubtedly contained in the Bloud they would certainly thence reap far greater understanding in cure of the sick Many Authors prescribe the opening of the Cephalic-Vein rather than of the Median or Basilic but unadvisedly For I have often found by experience that that Vein easily recedes from its proper place and so when it is cutting shuns the wound intended
quantity of white shining Pus but when I would by pressure with my finger in some measure further the efflux of the Pus behold soon after a piece of a Tobacco-pipe equalizing the length of the Middle-finger presented it self to sight which with an Instrument I drew out of the lately-made Orifice The Pus being gradually evacuated I in a short space of time healed this Affect after the manner of other Abscesses so that in this Cure nothing hapned worthy of observation But the piece of Tobacco-pipe unexpectedly issuing out of this Abscess gave occasion to the By-standers not onely of admiring so rare a Phaenomenon but also made them presently to fly to the Devil and his Inchantments The Ignorant and therefore superstitious and miserable vulgar men presently hasten to the Devil the accustomed but impious Asylus of their ignorance when any Effect presents it self to them the like of which they never before saw If they see any thing the cause of which they know not they do not presently ascribe that to the Devil having often before beheld the same so the stupendious actions of that Belching out of Fire which cannot but be known by all the Inhabitants of these Regions are by them accounted natural and not taken for delusions of the Devil viz. because these are such things as they have often seen though they cannot render a reason of them being wholly ignorant of the cause So sometime since there was an Italian at Lugdunum in Batavia who after the drinking a great quantity of clear Water vomited up the same into various Chrystalline Vessels not limpid as before but it was in every of the Vessels of a diverse colour and taste This effect frequently seen excited the people ignorant of the cause to so great admiration that they uttered not so much as one Whisper about the Devil But Mr. Overcamp presently found out the cause of this Phaenomenon as he relates In primogenito Ingenii sui Partu viz. that in the Chrystalline Vessels he both saw and smelt divers subtile Oyls which in one Vessel tinged the Water with one colour in another with another Not without reason did Virgil say Felix qui potuit Rerum cognoscere Causas He was happy that knew the Causes of things For they being known we shall not much wonder at Phaenomenons before seen much less with the decieved Vulgar refer them to a certain imaginary power of the Devil whereas it is well understood that the Common people seldom have any regard to the causes of things But omitting these what was the reason that a piece of a Tobacco-pipe came forth of this Affect whereof we are now writing When I had well examined the Patient I by him understood that about six Months before when he walked in the streets taking Tobacco he fell down and internally hurt his Jaws with the Pipe from which hurt abundance of Bloud did often flow out viz. because a piece of the Pipe broken off deeply forced into his Jaw first produced this Haemorrhagia and afterward the above-recited external Abscess below the Ear out of which when opened the piece of Pipe was taken OBSERVAT. VII Of a small Stone contained in the Vrinary Passage A Little Boy five years old suddenly complained of a pain of his Yard and could not make water I as I then judged with an Iron Probe touched a small stone as big as a Pepper-corn but very rugged contained in the Urinary passage How this Stone should infer so vehement dolour and stop the Urine I purpose not at this time here to explain Fit Instruments by many Authors commended in this case were now by me made use of but in vain What then was to be done I presently gave to the sick Child two spoonfuls of the following Mixture ℞ Antinephretick Water Water of Stone-Parsley Of Fennel of each ℥ j. Fernelius his Syrrup of Althea ℥ ss Crabs-eyes ʒj Salt Prunella ʒ ss Salt of Bean-stalks ℈ j. Mix these Then I commanded the Mother to apply her mouth to her young Son's Yard and suck for some time as much as she could and by this means the Stone was in a short time drawn forward to the extreamity of the Ureter from whence then it was easily drawn out with the Forceps and so this little Boy was quickly safely and pleasantly freed from this so very painful Affect We must speak with the Vulgar but not judge with them according to the common Proverb I said the Mother sucked though in the mean while I am certainly perswaded that Sucking effects little but all Motion is made by Pulsion It is true the Mother applying her Mouth to the Yard and strictly closing it round about with her Lips caused the Belly to swell by contraction of the Diaphragma and so the external Air by its pressure forced the small Stone to the extremity of the Yard contained in the mouth of the Mother which did so much the more easily happen because that little Air contained in the Mothers mouth by the heat there existing rarified and so being more weak than the external Air forced from the swelling Abdomen made the less resistance as rarified Air contained under a Cuppin-glass made hot prevents not the subjected Cutis from being lifted up into a Tumor the pressure of the external Air contributing thereunto This Propulsion of the Stone was also not a little furthered by the almost continual agitation of the Tongue commodiously applied But no man should here wonder that the pressure of the Air hath so great force for this effects many other things much more wonderful and is the cause that two Brass-Hemispheres from which the Air hath been in a great measure removed by a Wind-Instrument do so very firmly adhere each to other that the weight of a Thousand pounds would not be sufficient to separate them again whereas they may very easily be disjoyned when the Air is again intromitted as I with my eyes have beheld at Lugdunum in Batavia in the Laboratory of Burcher de Volder a most acute Professor of solid Philosophy in that place If any man desires to know more of these things let him consult the Magdeburgic Experiments adorned with Brass Figures OBSERVAT. VIII Of a Contusion suddenly healed A Man about Thirty years of age in a Tennis-Court received a Ball with great force struck by a Racket just upon his right Eye whence exceeding great dolour presently arose The Patient remembred that he had seen others after the same manner hurt to be presently healed by cold Water onely applied immediately after the stroak therefore he presently to the contused part applied his Handkercheif moistned with cold Water and when that waxed warm he again dipped it in other fresh cold Water The next day after this hurt his Friends that had heard of his misfortune came to visit him but seeing both eyes very sound and well they were amazed having before firmly perswaded themselves that the eye which had received so vehement a stroak
distorted Much better would be the Vapour ascending from Spirit of Wine set on fire or a Fermentation made of Wine and Herbs abounding with Volatile Salt To prevent this Evil when it is wont to infest the Tip of the Nose some apply Leeches but evily for I have known this Affect to be by them not a little exasperated the reason of which Exasperation I should here add were it not sufficiently manifest by the foregoing Paragraph This Affect is wont leisurely to increase but sometimes it meets with another Evil suddenly proceeding from intense Cold and is called a Gangrene of Cold which beginning is wont to be cured by Immersion into cold Water But is this a rational way of Cure Yes and consentaneous both to Reason and Experience Cast a frozen Apple into cold Water and you shall see that in a short space of time to be thawed within all the Ice adhering to the external Skin of the Apple without loss of its pristine taste or former consistency but set the same frozen Apple near a Fire and it will presently wither and lose the sweetness of its taste Very many Particles contained in the Pores and small Passages of the congealed Apple which before were fluid have now by reason of the Frost put on the form of Ice that is many Particles which before by the subtile matter sufficiently strong were in their motions each from other diverse continually agitated do now rest each with other because they are surrounded with a subtile matter which is too weak to conserve them in their usual motion When such a congealed Apple is cast into cold Water the more strong part of the subtile matter from the Water flies into the Apple and so thaws the same But the more weak part of the subtile matter rusheth out of the Apple into the Water most nearly touching the External Rind or Skin which is therefore covered over with Ice But when such a frozen Apple is set to the Fire the most subtile matter of the World very strong and attended with many gross particles of the burning Wood or Turf endeavours with great violence to enter the Pores of the congealed Apple but cannot because the Pores are very much constringed with Cold therefore it breaks them by force and so the consistency and good taste of the Apple is changed and wholly spoiled Hence it is now sufficiently manifest that this Cure of a Gangrene from Cold is rational though in the mean while it may perhaps seem fit to some to vary one Circumstance and that is as here following expressed A congealed or frozen Apple is cast into cold Water and indeed well because the Liquor in a well-constituted Apple is found cold as to the touch but our Bloud and Humors well constituted are not cold to the touch but warm therefore a Member lightly affected with a Gangrene from cold should rather be put into luke-warm-Water by the Dutch called bloet-laeuw than into cold OBSERVAT. VIII Of an Atrophia Imbecillity of Motion and an Algor of the Arm. A Young man 24 years of age as to all other things very well had now for six Months laboured with an Atrophia of his Left-arm from the Shoulder to the Cubit and he could not lift up or otherwise move his Arm but continually complained of an Algor or extream coldness thereof Some Chyrurgeons had long attempted to cure this Affect according to their vulgar method and applied their Plaisters Unguents Linements and other such Medicaments but in vain The very viscous Humor in the Arm of this Sick man had produced not a few very pertinaceous Obstructions whence the Astrophia of the Arm its Impotency to motion and Algor of the same readily took beginning But this gross Humor lay so very deep that it could indeed be in no wise dissolved by Unguents or other such-like Remedies Had the cure of this Evil been longer procrastinated there would have been great cause of fear that the Ligaments connecting the Shoulder-bone with the Scapula would in a short space of time have been so much extended in length that thence would have followed such a Dislocation of the Shoulder most difficult to heal as we described in the Last Observation of the First Decade Therefore without any delay I set about the Work and ordered seven or eight Cupping-glasses with Flame but without any Scarification to be applied twice or thrice every Week and left on till the Skin waxed red at which time the affected part was washed before a Fire with the following Liquor first made hot and every other day when the Cupping-glasses were not applied the same was also twice used ℞ Root of Sarsaparilla ℥ j. Bark of Lign Guaicum ℥ ss Herb Rosemary Sage of each M.j. ss Flowers of Lavender M. ss Bay-berries ℥ j. Salt of Tartar ʒ j. ss Of Armoniac ℈ ij Boyl these in a double Vessel with two pounds and an half of Spirit of Wine and strain the Liquor from the Simples We also took care sometimes to burn Common Spirit of Wine so that the Vapour thereof ascending might surround the affected part covered above and by this means the Algor vanished in 14 days and the Patient in six Months time could as well move and use his Left-arm as his Right and in the mean while the affected Arm became daily more and more fleshy Which way the Cupping-glasses and aforesaid Medicaments effected the cure of this our Patient I here pass over in silence and that indeed considerately because the same is sufficiently manifest in the Ninth Observation of the Fourth Decade OBSERVAT. IX Of the Vvula and Tonsils evily disposed A Young man aged 30 years walking in a very cold season was afflicted with dolour redness and tumor of the Tonsils and Uvula whence he perceived difficulty in Swallowing though he was in the mean while almost continually forced to swallow The Bloud in its small Vessels and the Humors in the minute passages of the Tonsils and Uvula stagnized by reason of the cold Air admitted by Inspiration were coacervated and waxed acid whence arose the aforesaid tumor dolour redness and difficulty of swallowing But whence did that so great Impulse to swallowing derive its Original I answer The Membrane subject to the Uvula hath Nerves which touched by the relaxed and incumbent Uvula are the cause that the Nervous Juice is in greater abundance carried into the Muscles adapted for swallowing Being called to the sick I prescribed the following Gargarism ℞ Spirit of Wine ℥ iij. Water of Elder-flowers ℥ ij Spirit of Sal. Armoniac drops 20. Mix these according to Art By this means our Patient was cured in a very short time The prescribed Gargarism proved very profitable because it temperated the Acidity dissolved the coagulated Humors and removed the Obstructions I have in my self often restored the Uvula relaxed by reason of viscous and coagulated Humors there stagnizing when I gently touched the same with the tip of my Finger moistned onely with
could that Fume excite such horrid Phoenomena's Answer Thus The Stalk being hollow within and perforated onely with a very small hole and also outwardly compressed on every side by the Boys hand the more volatile and less cohering Particles were forced from within outward but seeing all those could not at once pass out together the one urged the other and so were driven out far more swiftly No otherwise than as we see Water forced out of a Syringe though the Pistil be but gently or very slowly thrust forwards or as we discern by an easie compression of the sides of Bellows the Air through the Pipe or Nose thereof is driven out with very great force But some one may perhaps ask me of what nature those dusty Particles are To him I answer They are Accido-corrosive and sharply cutting That such Acid-Particles are in this Stalk is sufficiently evident by the frequent use thereof in stopping Bloud For when a small part of this Stalk is put into a sanguiferous Vessel wounded the Bloud is stayed partly by reason of the stringy Particles folded one within the other and closing the Orifice of the open Vessel and partly by reason of the Acid-Particles of that hollow Stalk which coagulate the Bloud as Milk is coagulated by an Acididity infused Therefore these Acid-Particles with great force driven through the aforesaid Stalk deeply penetrated into the Pores of the Eyes and interior-Superficies of the Eye-lids and so with their cutting sides excited the Nervous Fibres there dispersed to a motion more vehement by which Vehemency the Mind first perceived the sense of pain which was augmented by that Distention which took beginning thus The Pores being obstructed by the Particles of that Stalk the Vapours wanted their natural Exit and so were collected within the small Pipes of the Membranes in the form of Humour which in a very short time waxed sowre by reason of the Acid-particles of the said Stalk acting as a Ferment no otherwise than as we see any sowre Ferment taken in a small quantity to convert a great mass of Dough into its own Nature These Acid-Particles I say with the acuteness of their sides forcibly striking upon the Nervous-Fibres drew to those parts a more copious influx of Animal Spirits than usual whence arose certain slight Contractions which notwithstanding proved sufficient in some measure to impede the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours circulating through the small Veins of those circulating parts For they were in this case helped by the Vapours within the Veins of those parts converted into Water When the Bloud conteined in the Capillary Vessels and the Humours in the Veins were thus stagnized they likewise in the aforesaid manner waxed sowre and were coagulated and by that means rendred more unapt for Circulation Hence it is sufficiently manifest whence the Redness and Tumour of the Eyes and Eye-lids had their Original But whence proceeded that continual efflux of sharp Tears From the aforesaid the true cause thereof is easily gathered and it is thus Certain Acid-Particles forced from within that hollow Stalk had entred the Pores of the Glandules and Lachrymal Vessels and there by their irritation exciting certain Convulsions did continually force out Tears But whence were they imbibed with a more than usual sharpness There is no mortal Man who by the taste onely finds not Tears to be Saline wherefore these in their passage with the acid Particles there inherent were invaded with a certain sudden Effervescency These things being by me for some small time considered of I soon ceased to admire that that Fume should be the cause of so great Evils thence ensuing and also at that time discerned that the Cure would not be difficult For I knew that hot Milk coagulated by an Acidity if digested with some fit Salt would again be dissolved in the space of one hour Like wise I knew Vinegar was easily deprived of its sharpness by infusing Crabs-Eyes or Lithargyry therein Also I understood the reason of that Effervency which is excited by commixion of the Saline Oyl of Tartar with the Acid Oyl of Vitriol Hence I concluded that the Bloud coagulated by Acidity might again be made fluid and the sowreness temperated by Crabs-Eyes Lithargyry and many other Medicines containing much Salt such are White-Vitriol Gum Ammoniac Sagapenum Galbarum c. Therefore I being called the third day after the Boy was hurt instilled hot into his Eyes some Drops of a certain Collyrium compounded of White-Vitriol and other things mixt with convenient Waters and upon the Eye I applied a Plaister of Gum Ammoniac Galbanum Sagapenum Lithargyry c. spread upon a Linnen-cloth This I changed daily twice and commanded the Boy should be kept in a dark place by which means in the space of two Weeks he recovered his pristine Sanity OBSERVAT. II. Of the use of an Issue and its way of Operating A Young Maid Thirteen years of age had for several years been afflicted with dolour and redness of her Eyes and tumour of her Eye-lids which after sleep were closed together by a viscous Humour concreted into a Rosin-like matter This Ophthalmy for a long tract of time was attempted to be cured by two Surgeons but not overcome I being afterwards sent for judged the cause of the Disease to be the too great Acidity of the Bloud and a Ferment of the same nature produced from that Bloud and firmly inherent in the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids there causing the Bloud in the Capillary Vessels and the Humours in the small Veins to become too acid and be coagulated and stagnized For from these few signs it was not difficult to judge of the aforesaid apparent Symptoms Moreover I firmly perswaded my self that the Maid might soon be cured provided that Acidity could be temperated and expelled by the Pores of the Eyes and Eye-lids and that acid Bloud purged out of the Body wherefore I used a Collyrium consisting of Medicaments containing much Salt and besides that applied to the Eyes a Plaister made of like things But I did little good by this method for so soon as any part of that Ferment was rendred temperate and cast out shortly after a new Ferment arising from the Bloud succeeded in place of the former Seeing this I for several weeks purg'd the maid twice a week but in vain At length I found the Assertion of the famous Silvius which is written in the first Book of his Praxis Chap. 2. in the 26 Section to be most true viz. That there are scarcely any purging Remedies at least known to us which can purge out acid Humours from the Bloud Finding the matter thus I judged it high time to betake my self to the searching out of better Remedies and whilst I was occupied in consideration thereof the following Experiment came seasonably into my mind and it is this When you have a Compound of Water and Oyl mixt and would separate the one from the other proceed thus If you would
the other and sticking in the Superficies of the Ulcers rendred them very sordid Thus far we have explained how certain and acid Particles have passed through the aforesaid Recesses unto the near adjacent Flesh now 't is time to observe that many more acid Particles were from those Recesses forced into the sanguineous Mass circulating with which they entred into the Ulcers rather than into other parts by reason of the acid Ferment lurking there after the same manner as we shewed in the Second Observation Thus was the abundance of acid Humour filling the Ulcers and from them proceeding augmented The Erysipelas which for the most part surrounded the Ulcers derived its Original also from the Acidity there inherent When I had for sometime well weighed all these things in my mind I at length converted my endeavour to the cure of the Varix as the first Original of the Evil which if in things profitable it be lawful to use the Terms of Art may be called the Procatartick or primitive Cause therefore from the Varix opened with a Lancet I drew forth several ounces of stagnized Bloud acid and black Then I proceeded to the sanguineous Mass infected with the acid Ferment which may be called the anticedent Cause according to the subtilty of die Wits of our time which more regards the Pomp of vain Words than things themselves and by a good Diet instituted began to correct that prohibiting all things viscous and acid by a Powder temperating Acidity daily taken consisting of ℈ j. of Crabs-eyes and the same quantity of White Coral After this I set about the Ulcers themselves in the bottoms and Lips whereof lay hid an acid Ferment which if it be the pleasure of some may be called by the Name of a Conjoyned Cause The principal thing that remained for me to do was to temperate and remove that Ferment and gradually and without sense to depress the Lips of the Ulcers to the bottom for from this last business I promised to my self a threefold Utility First I knew that the cavities of the Ulcers being thus removed none of that acid and at least in some part Viscous Humour could be there collected which by reason of its viscous and stringy Particles had before rendred the Ulcers sordid and through its acid and cutting Particles daily more and more excavated them there being always in the Cavities of them a great abundance thereof continually congested But if this Humour have access to the Ulcers it must be cast out presently after its coming there to the sides of the Ulcers their Lips being strongly depressed by some hard and heavy Body superposited Secondly I was certain by this means to restore the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours in which is sited a great part of the cure of Ulcers For the Lips of the Ulcers being not prominent as before over the Superficies of the bottoms I could discern it was possible to be effected that the Humours circulating through the small passages contained in the Lips of the Ulcers which before by reason of those passages obstructed did flow into the Cavities of the Ulcers would now find out their own way through other passages in the bottoms of the Ulcers and so again renew their Circulation which cannot as before be impeded by the ambient Air because that is sufficiently repelled by the same body which depresseth the Lips of the Ulcers that being sufficiently thick solid and hard to answer my purpose Thirdly In cure of Ulcers and Wounds I have often observed that an Eschar to be generated never took beginning from the Center or any adjacent parts of Ulcers or Wounds but always begun from the extremity of the ambient Cutis by reason of the similitude of Superficies which is found between the Cutis and the Eschar Hence I firmly perswaded my self that the Ulcers first freed from their acid Ferments and Filths and rendred plain in the aforesaid manner their pristine Circulation being restored would in a short time be covered with an Eschar Therefore I prepared certain fit Medicaments temperating Acidity to resist the peccant Ferment lying hid in the Ulcers and that as the saying is I might with one Brush whiten too Walls I formed of them two Cakes sufficiently hard and thick and somewhat larger than the Ulcers so that they would also cover a small part of the Lips and those I laid upon the Ulcers and with a sufficiently strict Ligature firmly bound them on and left them so for 12 hours which being elapsed I could soon discern that the hope I had of them conceived failed me not For I found the Ulcers wholly plain freed from all filths and conspicuous with a pleasing redness and little or nothing painful Whereby being almost wrapt into admiration I concluded that the acid Ferment in the Ulcers for the most part was and the remainder would in a short rime be temperated After a few days Circulation being restored certain well-known Particles passing out through the Pores of the ambient Cutis firmly adhered to the extremity thereof having a like Superficies with the Cutis it self Thus we plainly understood the certain Rudiment of that Eschar which had in the space of five Weeks fully closed either Ulcer for it every day increased more and more Afterward I every year once opened the aforesaid Varix and drew from it lib. j. of Bloud by which means those Ulcers never after opened any more In the mean while to the Erysipelas which I had almost forgot I applied a four-doubled Cloath moistned in a mixture prepared with Water of Elder-Flowers Spirit of Wine Camphire and Saccharum Saturni for temperating the peccant Acidity which being effected all Symptoms of the Erysipelas ceased together with the burning before induced by the acid Particles when with the acuteness of their sides they oftner than usual invade the small Fibres But whence was it that these Ulcers could not be healed in so great a space of time by so many Physicians and Chyrurgeons though men well in years I answer Those men by reason of their age contemning the solid Reasonings of others would never approve of any thing but their own experience Experience without true Reason can profit little For as among a thousand humane Faces no one is found exactly in all things like to another so among so many Diseases there is not one which in all things wholly agrees with another Moreover it is very credible that the Bloud and internal Parts of one man do no less differ from the Bloud and internal Parts of another than the External Whence again ariseth the various Temperament of men the variety of which requires various Remedies and besides Experience sound Judgement in the Physician that he may know how to make choice of this or that and other Remedies instead of either Now plainly to shew the Case as it is those Physicians and Chirurgeons directing their Conceptions according to a certain vain and unprofitable Theory and Philosophy could neither
find out the Cause of the Varix nor its Effects much less the Remedy of the same For they deduced almost all Diseases from their Four Humours viz. Choler Phlegm Bloud and Melancholy though in the mean time they understood not what any one of them is or of what Particles it consisted Hence it came to pass that it was impossible for them to find out true Remedies They had much more prudently acted if they had in a special manner had respect to the various Particles of the Bloud which differ each from other in Figure Magnitude and Motion as also to the Acidity and Salt as well as they might have done whether of these holds dominion in the Bloud If it were Acidity then Purgations by the Belly could in no wise be thought convenient In like manner they too much confounded their Conceptions when they thought those Ulcers were first to be cleansed by certain peculiar Medicaments then by others incarnated lastly that again by others the Eschar must necessarily be induced Now that this too anxious distinction is very unprofitable will be plainly evident by this viz. That I with my one onely Placentula in a short time cured both Ulcers Likewise they in the Cure had respect to their own Axiom which saith Contraries must be cured by Contraries and discerning great heat in the Erysipelas surrounding the Ulcers they endeavoured to expel that by cold things which stopped the Bloud and Humours and by that means did in no small measure augment the burning hear of the Erysipelas But these men were abused by their own Axiom which had they endeavoured to make a right use of they should first have considered that burning Heat to be onely the Effect and owned for the Cause certain acid Particles by reason of Obstruction inherent about the Ulcer which with their cutting sides struck the Nervous Fibres with a more than usual trembling and then they had more rightly cured Contraries with Contraries viz. applying such things which they had by experience found fit to resist the corroding Acidity and remove the Viscosity obstructing OBSERVAT. VII Of a Wound of the Eye IN the year 1680 on the 21th day of November I was commanded to be sent for by a young Nobleman leading a Military life who three days before was wounded with a Leaden-Bullet in that part of the left Eye which is between the Iris and Pupil so that the Bullet had penetrated even into the Eye and soon after the Wound made no small quantity of aqueous Humour flowed out I found the Orifice of the Wound closed with a certain fibrous and white Matter The Iris with the Pupil wounded waxed very livid and the remaining part of the Eye thus hurt was intensly red and swoll'n attended with burning Heat and a proflux of sharp Tears The dolour was continual except that it was more remiss when the Patient held his head backward but as oft as he held his head down the pain augmented The Sight of the Eye hurt was wholly lost and the right Eye though it remained untouched was red and much pained A certain Chirurgeon to that matter closing the Wound had applied sharp things and to the remaining part of the Eye cold things This was done three days before I was called It will perhaps seem strange to some that all the aqueous Humour issued not out by the Wound but their wonder will soon cease after they have well weighed and considered the following Reasons First Let them consider that the Bullet in its inferiour part was more strongly forced into the Eye than in its superiour part and so it broke the inferiour part of the Membrane of the Eye the superiour part of that Membrane remaining entire By this means part of the Membrane broken turning inward formed a certain Aperture through which part of the aqueous Humour issued out and in its efflux again turned outward the before turning inward Membrane which then like a Valve turning from without to within not from within outward again closed the Aperture of the Wound and so impeded the out-flowing of the aqueous Humour from die Eye Secondly That fibrous and white shining Matter closing up the Orifice of the Wound falls under our consideration But whence had this Matter its Original Should I now with the Company of vulgarly-learned men fly to the accustomed Asylus of Ignorance I could readily subjoyn a Reply saying onely that Nature was so provident in this case that she in a short time filled up the hole with fit Matter not onely that all the aqueous Humour might not issue out but also that the most cold ambient Air might not penetrate to the parts and endamage them But such an Answer seems to me no less rediculous than if I should ask why in boyling hot Broath exposed to the Air a thin Skin is generated on the Superficies And another should answer The nature of the Broath is so provident that it presently forms a Pellicle on the Superficies of the hot Broath lest the cold Air having access to the internal Particles should hurt them and that the heat in the Broath might be longer preserved and the otherwise flying Vapours retained and constringed within the Broath by the superposited Membrane whereas he should rather have said that many of the more thin parts of the Broath apt for motion having figures fit for the same easily evaporated into the Air and in their flight carried with themselves up to the Superficies of the Broath certain Particles more gross stringy and less fit for motion which their motion being terminated by the ambient Air acquiesced in the Superficies of the Broath where with their small Fibres folded one within another they concreted into that Cuticle which covered the Broath But returning to our purpose we shall by a better right answer in this manner Some Particles passed out from the Pores of the Arteries and circulating in the small passages of the Membranes of the Eye were carried to the end of those passages interrupted by the Wound and so indeed the more thin parts evaporated but certain more stringy Particles prolapsed without the said passages their motion by the extream coldness of the Air at that season being taken away by their stringy Fibres infolded themselves one within the other and so concreted into a certain fibrous and white Matter not unlike to that which is often seen in that Water into which flows the Bloud from a Vein of the Foot or Hand That leaden Bullet could not enter into the Eye but very much contused it and broak certain small sanguiferous Vessels from which the Bloud flowing by reason of the cold was stagnized and infected the Iris and Pupil with a livid colour This Wound could not be made in the Eye but many small Fibres must needs be broken and being broke retire together into Curls and so obstruct many passages in which the circulating Humours accumulated did press the sanguiferous Vessels nigh so that the Bloud in the
Vessels stagnized whence the tumour and redness almost all over the Eye had their beginning The Bloud stagnizing in the Capillary Vessels especially that which lay extravasate in a short time assumed Acidity and then with its cutting Particles sooner than usual and more vehemently shook the small Fibres nigh whence that burning heat and dolour derived their Original Moreover the acid Particles of the same stagnized and coagulated Bloud by their irritation excited certain light Concussions in the Glandules of the Eye whence the Liquors contained in them viz. Tears were expelled almost continually which were more sharp than usual For they being saline in their eflux excited a certain suddain effervescency with the acid Particles of the Bloud stagnized inherent in the passages But the Dolour of which I spake did not onely proceed from the acid and cutting Particles but also from the Leaden-Bullet within the Eye turned now hither and then thither again and this was that Dolour which remitted when the Patient held his head backward because then that Bullet lay unmoved and rested upon the Bony Orbit of the Eye But when the Patient inclined his Head to his Breast then a very acute dolour was perceived because the Bullet was again moved and pressed the wounded part of the Eye A great part of the Pupil was covered with that fibrous and white Matter so that Globuli Coelestes the Coelestial Globes could not enter through the Pupil to excite the small Fibres of the Optick Nerve dispersed through the bottom of the Eye therefore no man hath cause to wonder that the Patient was wholly deprived of the sight of his wounded Eye But it may rather be cause of admiration that the right Eye which was not hurt by the Bullet should in the mean while be vexed with redness and dolour yet I shall endeavour to remove this cause of Wonder There is no man but sometimes experimentally finds in himself that one Eye being moved he can scarcely retain the other unmoved The reason of this is because the Animal Spirits suddenly passing from the Brain through the Nerves into the Muscles of one Eye can scarcely be terminated but some of them will at the same moment of time pass into the Muscles of the other Eye Whence it is manifest that when one Eye is pained that is when in it is present a more vehement agitation of the small Fibres than usual then I say a greater abundance of Animal Spirits by reason of the Pores in the Brain then more open must needs flow not onely into the Eye affected but also into the found Eye in which by this means are produced certain light Contractions which in some measure constringe the small Passages and sanguiferous Vessels and by that means the Circulation of the Bloud and Humours is in some sort obstructed so that they in a short time wax acid and by their cutting Particles infer dolour which is attended with Redness proceeding from the Bloud stagnized in the Capillary Vessels Things standing thus I predicted to the sick Noble-man an impossibility of recovering the sight of his wounded Eye in which he readily acquiesced saying He would give me eternal thanks provided I could preserve the fight of his other Eye This I suddenly promised him Therefore proceeding to the Cure of this Wound I judged my principal work was to restore the Cireulation of the Bloud and Humours impeded and then to repress the external Air and temperate the Acidity In order to this I first for temperating the Acidity instilled hot into both his Eyes some few drops of the following Collyrium twice a day rx Water of Eye-bright Of Celandine of each ℥ ij Of Hysop ℥ j. Crabs eyes prepared Coral prepared of eachʒj Troches alb Rhasis ℈ ij ss Saccarum Saturni ℈ j. ss Tutia prepared ℈ ij Make a Collyrium Then I applied to the Eyes two small Bags filled with Faenugreek Hysop Lavender-flowers and other things abounding with volatile Salt afterward instead of these I applied Plaisters containing much Salt such as is found in Gum Ammoniac Sagapenum c. And at length I so bound both Eyes that they remained unmoved and kept the Patient in an hot and dark place But to take away all occasion of wonder which some one or other may perhaps conceive because I had so much trouble to cure the right Eye which was not wounded I purpose here to subjoyn Reasons which I judge sufficiently valid I did not this that I have done so much in respect of the right Eye as of the left For if the right Eye had remained open the sick man would often have moved it and seen with the same That external motion of the right Eye scarcely ever happened but the left Eye was also moved and hence how much the dolour in the wounded Eye would have been exasperated he can easily conjecture who hath at any time experienced with how great dolour a wounded Hand or Foot is moved from place to place Moreover if the right Eye had not been closed without doubt it would with the sight have touched many Objects at one time or other and that could not have been without the producing of some internal motion de novo by the Celestial Globes in the small Fibres of the Optick Nerve because indeed the least fibre in the opticknerve in the right Eye cannot be moved but at the same time the small Fiber of the same Order in the Optick Nerve of the left Eye must necessarily be moved also This is evidently apparent by the following Figure which the famous Rohaultius also used in his Physical Treatise never to be sufficiently commended but for an end far other than mine He shews the way by which two Images whereof one is described in the right Eye the other in the left when they come to the Brain might give Conception to the Mind of one onely Image In this Figure each Eye hath delineated onely five small Fibres that thereby the matter may be more easily conceived But what is here spoken of five small Fibres may be understood of many more viz. that there is no small Fiber of the Optick Nerve of the right Eye can be moved but the Fiber of the same Order in the left Optick Nerve will presently be moved also The reason is because these Fibres joyn together and are terminated into one point Thus to the right Eye in a short time both pristine Sanity and entireness of sight returned but the left Eye could not be healed before the Month of March in the Year following About that time all Tumour and Redness passed away the livid colour being long before discussed The Bullet stuck fast to one part or other of the Eye and so remained unmoved and to the Bloud and Humours their free Circulation was restored And then the Humours by the Wound interrupted circulating through those small passages continually deposited certain Particles to the sides of the Wound which Particles by reason of the similitude of the
and temperating Acidity Wherefore to the Tumor I applied Paracelsus his Stiptick Plaister but I am willing briefly to note this the Magnet in it seemed to me superfluous in this case that being added onely to attract things hurtful to it self Yet the Magnet cannot draw to it self all bodies without distinction but another Magnet and Iron onely and it wholly loseth this attractive power when reduced to powder as Rohaultus found by experience because then the striate Pores are broken This same Rohaultus reduced a very good Magnet to powder which he put into Lint and rubbed the powder well in to joyn with the same and by Application found the pristine vertues in the Magnet to be totally vanished But to return to our purpose I left the aforesaid Plaister several days upon the Tumor hoping by this means the Acidity would be temperated and the viscosity so attenuated that it might be partly restored to its pristine Circulation and partly evaporated through the Pores of the Skin but the evil was too pertinaceous and frustrated my hope What was to be done then The Acidity with its cutting Particles had broke the small Fibres and several concave passages so that the Liquor in the Tumor contained flowed all into one place then the Tumor was no more hard but soft no otherwise than as the Liquor before expressed out of an hard Apple and received into some Vessel exhibits it self soft to the touch In that I judge the Suppuration made in the Tumor to consist Now I seem to hear our vulgarly-learned men exclaiming against me saying I proceeded not in cure of this diseased Girl according to Art that is according to their false and unprofitable Theory which commands first of all to apply to Tumors repelling Medicines But this clamour is easily silenced by onely saying that the cause of almost all Tumors is Obstruction which according to their proper Axiom viz. that Contraries are cured with Contraries must be removed by Aperients but not multiplied by repelling Medicaments vulgarly so called viz. by cold and astringent Remedies But what if I should beat the Adversaries with their own Weapons and convince them by two Arguments that repelling Medicaments vulgarly so called in the beginning of almost all Tumors very rarely yea never can be profitably useful I will at least attempt it Their will is that repelling Remedies be applied in the beginning of Tumors yet they except two Cases The first is when the Tumor is made by Congestion The second when it is found in an Emunctory As to the first it is known to every man not plainly blinded with prejudice that no Tumor is made by a Fluxion as such provided it be natural but every Tumor is made by Congestion that is when the flowing of Bloud and Humours is impeded by Obstruction by reason of which the Bloud and Humours must be somewhere congested and accumulated hence it most evidently follows that repelling Medicaments can never be available in Tumors As to the other for brevity sake let us take one onely Emunctory by them vulgarly so called They affirm repelling Medicaments not safe in Tumors of the Groin because that is the Emunctory of the Liver that is to say because by it the impurities of the Liver are expelled but this in truth is a most false reason For the Lymphatick Vessels conveigh their contained Liquor upwards from the Groin so that nothing remains but Nerves and Arteries through which the Excrements of the Liver are deposited but though the Nerves eject some Excrements by the Groin yet it doth not follow that that is the Emunctory of the Liver but rather of the Brain and Spinal Marrow For the Nerves of which there are very few found in the Liver receive nothing from it and although by the Arteries which also receive nothing from the Liver certain Recrements are driven into the Groin and by that expelled the Groin doth not therefore deserve to be called the Emunctory of the Liver but rather of the whole Mass of Bloud Therefore if repelling Medicaments be not to be applied to Tumors of the Groin because that is the Emunctory of the Bloud then by consequence it will be unsafe to repel in any other part of the Body because every where many Particles of the Bloud are eevacuated and exhale through the Pores of the Body But it is now time we should return to the purpose from which we have too far digressed Because the Tumor was ripe and the Pus contained therein so deeply sited that it could not break through the superposited Skin and Flesh I therefore made an Apertion in that part of the Tumor which appeared more soft and more eminent this peared more soft and more eminent this being done not a little Pus issued out But behold I then found a black and putrid Subject rendred such by the Acidity contained in the Tumor which had cut in sunder the small Fibres of the Periosteum and after that had corroded the Bone it self and corrupted its volatile Slat which is natural to Bones and is found abounding in them as is evident by the distillation of the Humane Craneum from which is forced out much Spirit and no small quantity of Volatile Salt in a dry form But if any man be not as yet fully satisfied with these my Reasonings let him apply to his Teeth Oyl of Vitriol which is very acid and he will by proper experience find them not onely to rot but also to fall out by piece-meal Yea this was well understood by Fabritius Hildanus that most famous and highly-experienced Chyrurgic-Physician therefore he in rottenness of the Bone condemned nothing more than acid Oyl of Vitriol Oyl of Sulphur Aqua Fortis c. and indeed deservedly I long since knew that Ulcers attended with rottenness of die Bone could not be healed unless by restoring the Bone first to its pristine condition therefore I here first took in hand to cure the perished Bone I also was not ignorant that Fat things were very hurtful to the Bones because they with their stringy Particles do easily obstruct the small Pores and passages of them and indeed pertinaciously enough For which cause I here shunned all Fat things worse than I would a Dog or Snake and upon the putrified Bone I strewed Rowder of Euphorbium which contains much Volatile Salt and that indeed very tart By this means in a short time all the rottenness was gradually removed from the Ulcer in form of an impalpable Powder That the Fatness of Euphorbium is not acid as some perhaps may conjecture but saline is manifest by this viz. because it so vehemently excites Sternutation no otherwise than as Spirit of Sal Armoniack which every man owns to be saline On the contrary apply to your Nostrils the acid Spirits of Nitre Vitriol Salt and Sulphur and you will find them though most sharp yet not to excite Sternutation Now that with External Medicaments I might help the Internal whilst I was using the
I have often observed in fat Boys a Vein presently after the usual Ligature to be sufficiently tumid and manifest but if not quickly opened hath soon disappeared viz. when the Bloud pressed downwards the subjected and readily-yielding Fatness that so notwithstanding the Ligature it might again freely pass through the Vein After the cutting of a Vein when the Vein seemed sufficiently closed I have often beheld the Bloud issuing out thence with great violence and indeed from no other cause than that the Chyrurgeons first applied their Ligature and Lint compressing and afterward inbowed the Arm For by this means the Lips of the Orifice which before in the extension of the Arm were conjoyned again separated each from other when the Arm was inbowed Oftentimes a certain Lividness is found left after the cutting of a Vein the cause of which is too frequently the evil use of Vinegar in which is imbibed the Lint compressing which is put upon the Aperture of the Vein whereas it is indeed sufficiently manifest that the Bloud is coagulated by Acidity and acquires a Livid and black colour Before I put an end to this Observation I think fit to add the counsel of Peter Pigraeus that we may thence if possible reap some further benefit That very famous and most dexterous Chyrurgeon commands that after the cutting of a Vein the Aperture should be anointed with Oyl if it be intended again to extract Bloud the same day from the same Orifice without a new made Aperture But if Oyl can though for a short time applied hinder the closure of the Orifice of a Vein cut how evilly do they act who use Oyl in the cure of Wounds and for no other reason than because they have seen the same thing done by their Masters As for Example Oyl of Saint-Johns-Wort For if Saint-Johns-Wort profits Wounds by reason of its Volatile Salt temperating Acidity why do they not rather extract the Tincture of Saint-Johns-Wort by Spirit of Wine into which it much more easily and more copiously transfers its Volatile Salt than into Oyl which hurts Wounds because that obstructing the Pores and Passages stops the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors whereas that Circulation should rather be excited to which excitation Spirit of Wine is not a little available For it egregiously temperates Acidity which usually coagulates the Bloud and Humors in Wounds and renders them unfit for Circulation But least I should be found too prolix in this matter I here put an end to this Observation OBSERVAT. V. Of the Cracking of a Tendon A Woman aged Forty three years after greater Labour than usual in her right Hand suffered an impotency to motion with Tumor and Dolour and when the Tendon sited in the Hand was pressed with the Finger it gave a sound This is an Affect which often occurs in the Practice of Chyrurgy though it hath hitherto been treated of by no man that I have heard of therefore I shall call it Crepitus Tendinis or the Cracking of a Tendon By this Woman's unaccustomed Labour the Fibrils of the Tendon were so distorted that the Humors impeded in their Circulation there subsisted and were coagulated whence the Impotency of Motion Tumor Dolour and Cracking of the Tendon were most readily induced I feared that the Humors stagnizing in the Tendon would be daily more and more coagulated and thence that Tumor take beginning which is known to many by the name of a Ganglion Yea I suspected that certain Particles of the subsisting Humors would be received within the Pores of the Fibrils compounding the Tendon and obstruct them so as in the Third Observation of this Decade we shewed to be apt to render them too propense to induce both Contracture and rigidness of the Tendon Wherefore judging it high time to set about the Cure I ordered Spirit of Wine to be enkindled in such wise that the Vapour arising thence might surround the hand affected and this being done commanded a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury to be applied By this means the coagulated Humors were dissolved the Obstructions removed and the Patient in a few days restored to her pristine state of health OBSERVAT. VI. Of an Haemorrhagia from a Varicous Vlcer of the Tibia IN the right Tibia of a Woman aged Forty years from an Internal cause an Ulcer was formed upon a sufficiently large Varix which yielded to no Remedies This Evil was also attended with a Tumor and a large Erysipelas very troublesome which in like manner could not be removed by any Medicaments After a few days the Varix was unexpectedly opened by the Acido-corrosive Humor there inherent from which issued out at least lib. ij of black and as the standers by affirmed very stinking Bloud I ordered that Placentula in a form somewhat hard composed of Medicaments temperating Acidity which I commended in the Sixth Observation of the First Decade to be applied by the Chyrurgeon and so not onely closed up the Varix but also temperated that Acidity inherent in the Ulcer which otherwise by its corrosion would easily again have opened the Varix and besides have much impeded the cure of the Ulcer It was wonderful to see that after the Varix unexpectedly opened had cast out so great abundance of Bloud the Erysipelas and other Symptomes soon vanished and the Ulcer daily shewed it self in a state more and more meliorated so that within the space of three Weeks by the onely help of the aforesaid Placentula it wholly closed I now intend not here to treat of the Original and Cure of the Varix Ulcer and Erysipelas having accurately enough discoursed of that in the Sixth Observation of the First Decade because a dish of Crambe twice cocted was always deadly to me if to any other man But my intention here is to confirm what I have spoken by Experience and hath been before by me treated of in the said Sixth Observation of the First Decade viz. to shew that undoubtedly the Erysipelas and Ulcer derived their Original from Acidity and likewise how opportunely I instituted the Section of the Varix in that varicous Ulcer of the Tibia But from the Example before-alleadged these Conclusions may easily be drawn for neither the Erysipelas nor the Ulcer would give place to any Remedies so long as that Varix was replete with so great abundance of black and undoubtedly by its long delay acid Bloud which no sooner issued out but the Erysipelas vanished and the Ulcer closed in a short time after OBSERVAT. VII Of a vast Contusion of the Arm. A Matron aged Fifty six years after a Fall from on high complained of an unaptness to motion and very great dolour of her left Arm which appeared very much swoln although of the same colour with the sound skin I perceived by the Pulse a more than usual swiftness of motion in the Bloud viz. by reason of the Terrour which the Patient had conceived by the Fall After we had very acurately inquired into the
knew a Chirurgeon who to remove the pain of the Teeth was wont with a red-hot-Iron to burn the Ear but this seems to be a ridiculous and vain operation OBSERVAT. IX Of the Cubit displaced by reason of Relaxation of the Ligaments A Youth about 15 years of age one evening putting off his Clothes suddenly and unexpectedly felt Immobility of his arm with a certain sound arising therefrom because the Cubit was dislocated which was easily again reposited but very often afterwards upon the least motion it would slip out of its place This Evil had continued for full three years notwithstanding all the deceits of Aposems made of Guaiacum Sarsaparilla China and other things which the Patient animated by the hopes of health had during this time greedily swallowed in the mean while Plaisters Liniments and other External Remedies were not omitted but the Youths Arm became much more slender than was fit The Patient at length committed himself to a certain Chirurgeon to be cured who certainly promised him the restoration of his Arm which he set about after the following manner To the Arm ill-affected he every week often applied certain Cupping-glasses but without Scarification and then the same days after Cupping under the Arm the upper part of which was covered he burned Spirit of Wine impregnated with the Volatile Salt of many Herbs the Vapour of which surrounded the whole Arm. These were the principal things which in the space of half a year restored to our Young man his pristine state of health so that the Patient at this time without fear of a relapse pleaseth himself with the Art of Fencing and other like Exercise The Ligaments connexing the Gubit with the Shoulder were relaxed how that hapned you may see in the last Observation of the First Decade Besides there were many Obstructions in the Nerves Arteries and small passages of the Muscles whence proceeded the Atrophia and extenuation of the Arm. The Cupping-glasses often applied with Flame removed the Obstructions of the Ligaments Muscles and other parts by their heat opening the Pores and small passages and giving more free passage to the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors through the Arm For the pressure of the Air under Cupping-glasses is much less and weaker than elsewhere as you may more clearly understand by the 7th Observation of the Third Decade The Vapours of the Spirit of Wine kindled into a Flame did without any impediment enter into the Pores and small passages sufficiently opened by the Cupping-glasses and there atenuated and dissolved the viscous and coagulated Humors And so those Particles that had insinuated themselves between the Fibrils of the Ligaments and by that means relaxed them being removed the Ligaments acquired their pristine state which they before enjoyed whilst the Arm remained unhurt and by that means they again retained the Cubit conjoyned with the Shoulder as was fit The remaining Obstructions being also removed the Atrophia of the Arm did likewise begin to vanish OBSERVAT. X. Of a Gonorrhaea contracted from impure Contact A Young man aged Twenty four years a great admirer of Beauties and a true Son of Venus after Coition with an impure Harlot suffered an almost continual Issue of white and viscous matter from his Yard which was not onely without pleasure but also attended with a cutting dolour which was likewise felt when the Patient voided his Urine An Acido-corrosive Ferment lying hid in the Genital-parts of this Whore being more than usually agitated in Coition passed through the Yard of this Young man into the Pores of the Prostates and seminal Vessels by Coition more than usually opened and so by its sharpness infected both the Seed and nutritious Humors and excited small Ulcers in those parts Hence arose that Vellication and almost continual contraction of the Prostates and small Seminal Vessels in the aforesaid manner with dolour frequently pouring out the Seed and nutritious Humors corrupted This Evil is generally called a Gonorrhaea and is sufficiently perillous because it often degenerated into the Venereal Lues if the Cure of the same be deferred For then the Acido-corrosive Ferment is forcibly removed and mixed with the Sanguineous Mass Therefore without delay I set about the Cure and for temperating and evacuating the corrosive Acidity as well as for sanation of the small Ulcers I prescribed the following Pills â„ž Extractum Catholicum granes 24. Mercurius Dulcis granes 6. Salt-prunella Antimoniate gr 5. Make Pills N o vii These Pills the Patient took early in a Morning and for five days following every day once he took this Bolus â„ž Venice Turpentine Ê’iij Rubarb Ê’j Mix these S. A. He again afterward used the above-prescribed Purgation and Bolus as before and by this means recovered this pristine state of health Turpentine is by some so long boiled as until Pills may thereof be made but this is an evil practice for the boyling forceth the Spirituous Oyl into the Air whereas in that Oyl the principal vertues of the Turpentine is known to consist I do again condemn Acid things in this Affect but perhaps my Opinion will seem strange to some viz. that Acidity should be so noxious and inimical to Sanity in a living Animal whereas Vinegar preserves the flesh of a Beast killed for a long space of time without corrupting but to remove this Scruple I Answer The matter is far otherwise in a living Animal than it is in the same when dead In a living Animal for conservation of Life and Health the free Circulation of Bloud and Humors through the Vessels and passages sufficiently opened is absolutely necessary yet this Circulation is not a little impeded by Vinegar and other acid things coagulating the Bloud and Humors But in a dead Animal to preserve the Flesh thereof the aforesaid Circulation is not requisite but there is onely need to take care that the very small Particles of the Flesh killed be not too much agitated fermented and forced from their station by the ambient Air to effect this Vinegar is very fit by reason of its gross and heave Particles That the flesh of a Beast killed will remain uncorrupted if the motion of the very small Particles otherwise like to be be by this or that cause stopped is very manifest by this viz. that Flesh killed in Winter is kept sound for many days whereas the Flesh of a Beast of the same kind killed in the heat of Summer is most speedily corrupted by the Air at that time constituted in very swift motion That Vinegar consists of gross and heavy Particles is manifest by Distillation which teacheth that Spirit of Wine is sooner elevated into the alembeck than Water and Water also sooner than Vinegar Moreover it may be said that the Volatile Salt of Flesh killed is coagulated with Vinegar and so is kept unmoved and impeded from being fermented with the Air losing its Figure and flying away as we see the Volatile Salt of Hartshorn or any other Volatile Salt coagulated
by reason of its rigidness doth not sufficiently give way to the Muscles which are wont sometimes to enter and fill up the place of the Wound when the Patient changeth the posture of his Body but a Wax-candle in Dutch called een wassichie was used which in this case by reason of its flexibility would better serve But before we set about this work we commanded the Patient to stand with his Body in the same posture in which he stood when wounded The Air brake forth impetuously enough from this Wound and sometimes so forcibly as it would blow out a Candle held near But whence did this happen I Answer When the Thorax is streightned in Expiration by the Muscles of the Abdomen as also by its proper Muscles the Air commixt with not a few Vapours is compressed and compelled to seek for it self an Exit and so by reason of the streightness of the place it is with great force driven out from the Wound no otherwise than as we see Air with great impetuousness to issue out of the Nose of Bellows when the sides of the Bellows are only gently compressed For so a great part of the motion which before did diversly agitate the several Particles of the Air is now imployed to move the Air to one part only But why was the Tent tied with a Thred I answer That it might not be forced into the Cavity of the Breast For that such a thing hath sometimes hapned very many Histories testifie yea we have read that Tents have not only been forced into the Cavity of the Thorax but also that the same afterward hath been by the Mouth of the Patient expelled with coughing Therefore whence is it that the Tent sometimes penetrates into the Cavity of the Breast Shall we with the Ancients answer that is done by Suction or indrawing of the Thorax No For we can clearly and evidently enough demonstrate that every motion conspicuous in this Corporeal Universe is made by Pulsion It would be no less absurd and disconsant to Reason if I with many others should in this place have recourse to the Asylus of a Vacuum which is not as is clearer than the Sun at Noon to all those that are not wholly blinded with their own Prejudices and is distinctly enough explained by the famous Cartesius in his Second Part of the Principles of Philosophy But that we may call this what it is and what may most easily be understood we reply in this manner When the time of Inspiration is present the Thorax is rendred more capacious because the Diaphragma is contracted downward Now because the Diaphragma is thus contracted the Belly egregiously swells and so forcibly enough drives out the Air which there being no where any Vacuum at the same moment of time must needs enter the Thorax enlarged as aforesaid and so the Air enters partly through the Cleft of the Larynx partly also through the Orifice of the Wound as being a passage more commodious more short and more free and when the Air so rusheth inward through the open wound of the Thorax in its passing through it forceth the Tent in with it self it be not tyed with a Thred strong enough Some Authors when they suspect that some part of the Bloud or Pus doth lye upon the Diaphragma they endeavour to heal up penetrating wounds of the Breast without the help of any Tents and commend the same to others but in the first days they cannot be sufficiently assured of this matter therefore they seem to act more prudently who with me for some days use Tents and in the mean while as much as they can keep the ambient Air from the Wound But in the interim we must be very careful in due time to abstain from Tents For if their use be protracted longer than is fit an uncurable Fistula may happen continuing to the last moment of life because the continual agitation of the Breast in Respiration which is no small hindrance to the Consolidation of Wounds is not a little conducent to the production of such an Evil. Penetrating wounds of the Thorax are very dangerous and compel many to bid adieu to the Society of the Living and in others excite a Ptisick worse than death it self But in the mean while I remember I have read of one who was happily freed from an Asthma with which he was long before cruelly afflicted by a wound penetrating into the Cavity of the Thorax Yea I at this time know an honest Citizen of Arnhemium to whom a penetrating wound of the Breast proved very salutery For he for a long time before had been afflicted with an Empyema and daily expected death but when by another I know not from what cause provoked he was wounded with a Sword so as the Wound penetrated into the Cavity of the Breast and by this means the Pus flowing freely out through the Orifice of the Wound he was in a short time after freed from his Empyema my Father while he lived being his Physician When in a very small Wound of the Breast Chyrurgeons doubt whether the Wound hath penetrated into the Cavity of the Thorax or not they are wont to hold near to the Wound either burning Tow or the flame of a lighted Candle and thence they judge of the penetration of the wound if there be a Trembling motion in the flame of the Tow or Candle excited by the Air proceeding from the Breast then the Wound is deep otherwise not When it happens that any part contained in the Cavity of the Breast is also hurt then the Wound must be kept open the longer and into it twice a day some Injection be emitted hot without the addition of Carduus Benedictus Aloes Wormwood and other bitter things as some are wont to add For the bitter Particles carried upwards with the Air through the Branches of the Pipe of the Lungs hurt affect the Tongue with bitter and troublesome taste as frequent Experience witnesseth If any great sanguiferous Vessel sited in the Cavity of the Thorax be wounded then much Bloud is wont to be collected together above the Diaphragma and by this means to excite heaviness about the Diaphragma Fevers Watchings bloudy Excretion prostrated Appetite and difficult Respiration This Bloud must be several times every day evacuated through the Orifice of the Wound yea the Pus also which some days after the Wound received usually follows If the Bloud that flows out from a sign the Lungs are wounded and such a Wound often infers on the sick a Tabes but more often death This will not seem strange to any man who with Malpighius and other curious searchers of the Humane Body will not disdain somewhat more piercingly than the Ancients have done to inspect the substance of the Lungs So doing he will discern the Lungs to be no other than a certain conjested heap of membranous small Bladders clothed with a wonderful Net composed of the minute very small Branches of the small
in the Groins which Glandules are no other than a Congesture of very small Vessels much inflexied in the Meanders of which the Humors more easily subsist than elsewhere if Chyrurgeons by cold and astringent things unseasonably applied retard their Circulation All penetrating Wounds of the Abdomen are dangerous but far more perilous when they are large because the Omentum or Bowel at that time easily slips out and if it be not presently after its Egress forced into its proper place it dies and changeth its colour by reason of the ambient Air. But whence is it that the Omentum for some time remaining out of the Belly so suddenly dies The Omentum consists of very many small Bags into which the Grease is conveyed through several fatty Vessels as the most accurate Anatomists of this Age plainly witness Hence it is now easily manifest how readily the Grease in its small Bags and the Matter contained in the very small fatty Vessels may be coagulated by the cold Air. Now when the Omentum issuing out of the Cavity of the Abdomen by reason of some delay is in the aforesaid manner corrupted then must a Thred be tyed between the sound and the corrupted part and least the sound part also be infected what is corrupted must be cut off and if the Wound be found too large that must be sewed up but the aforesaid Thread hanging out of the Abdomen must be a left so until it falls off of it self in process of time Thus I knew one part of whose Omentum by its too long stay out of the Abdomen was corrupted recovered happily of his Wound who was after the same manner handled by my Father In a large wound of the Abdomen the Bowel sometimes issues which must be presently thrust in for otherwise it is so distended with Flatus's as it cannot be thrust into its pristine place But whence is it that the Bowel is so distended with Flatus's remaining out of the Belly for some short time I answer A certain Fermentation is excited not onely in the Chyle Pancreatick Juice and Choler but also in the Feces left of the Chyle and in the Ferment adhering to the sides of the Bowels Hence arise many Vapours not to mention those Vapours which from the Pores of the small Arteries continually enter into the Cavity of the Bowels which must needs be accumulated in the Cavity of that Bowel and distend it if in the Bowel abiding out of the Abdomen the Pores from within looking outwards be closed up by the ambient Air. Now what remains to be done when the Bowel out of the Abdomen is seen distended with Flatus's The closed Pores are to be opened and greater agitation contributed to the Vapours contained within which may well be effected if a Thred newly twisted but not purged by boyling having been first boyled in sweet Milk be applied hot Then the Bowel the Flatus's being absumed must be reposited and if need be the Wound in some part sewed up If the Bowels be also wounded the life of the Patient is in very great danger and indeed the more if the Wound be inflicted in a thin Bowel but not so if in a more gross Bowel because in this the Wound after it is sewed up is more easily conglutinated the Bowel being such as consists of a greater number of small passages through which the nourishing Humors are conveighed So the gross Bowels generally contain onely Feces but Bowels more slender the Chyle Whilst I here treat of the Bowels a certain Dispute which hath been for a long time contraverted among Physicians comes into my mind viz. whether nourishing Clysters injected do obtain the wished Effect or whether as some say they be wholly unprofitable for Nutrition because according to their opinion they come not so far as to the sanguineous Mass But they err who embrace the last opinion if credit may be given to credible men who taught by Experience witness that the same quantity of Spirit of Wine if injected into the Fundament by a Clyster will sooner inebriate than if taken in by the Mouth The Liver consists of certain glandulous Kernels into which the small sanguiferous Vessels conveying their own Humor are terminated and of the Branches of the Bilary-Pores which receive the Choler separated in those glandulous Kernels Moreover great sanguiferous Vessels are seen in the Liver whence it is easily understood how dangerous are those Wounds that are inflicted on the Liver For if the great Vessels be opened an Haemorrhagia yielding to no Remedies follows And though those great Vessels be not hurt yet a wound of the Liver though but small doth in the mean while disturb the separation of Choler which notwithstanding we know to be exceeding necessary in the Oeconomy of an Animal But notwithstanding these Paulus Aegineta speaks of a man that recovered of a Wound that had taken away a piece of his Liver It is wonderful indeed that one man should supervive the loss of a piece of his Liver and another die by the too-too-great increase of his Liver So some years ago to my Fathers care was committed a Sick-man afflicted with a vastly tumified Belly continuing so unto Death His Carkass being opened clearly presented the cause of this Evil to the sight for his Liver was incredibly augmented I remember the same hapned in an Hen which never laid Egg the Liver of which weighed an entire pound The Spleen is a congesture of small Membranes formed into small Cells and Concamerations in which Cells innumerable oval and white Glandules into which the Arteries Veins and Nerves are opened do in a wonderful manner adhere Here it is to be understood as an industrious Anatomist of this Age judgeth that the Humor is carried through the Arteries into the Glandules of the Spleen and by the Glandules being there separated and somewhat acid into the above-named small Cells and from those Cells imbibed with an acid Ferment into the Splenetic-Branch and so to the Liver where in the Bloud it in some sort precipitates the Choler to the end that may so much the more easily be separated in the glandulous Kernels of the Liver Hence it is now manifest what great misery a Wound of the Spleen infers on the sick The Reins consists of Glandules into which the small Arteries Veins and Branches of the Ureters are terminated Through the small Arteries the Humour is deferred into the Glandules of the Reins in which the Urine is separated and taken from the Branches of the Ureters is forced into the Bladder That the matter is thus you will more easily believe when you shall know the following Experiment which a certain Professor communicated to me and is this If you by a Syringe inject warm Milk into an emulgent Artery the more gross part will return by the emulgent Vein and the wheyish Portion be sequestred in the Reins and thence conveyed into the Ureter Hence it is apparent how perilous Wounds of the Reins
thrust out through the Skin the Affect is mortal of greater danger if restored than if not restored For if it be not restored an Inflammation Convulsion or sometimes Death follows Secondly Foulness of that Member will be present And Thirdly an uncurable Ulcer which if it happen to be covered with a Cicatrice that by reason of softness is easily broken If it be restored it infers very great danger of a Convulsion Gangrene and Death But some fear dangers of this kind onely in the great Articles viz. in the Wrist Shoulder Talus and Thigh which by reason of the strength of the Tendons and magnitude of the Ligaments and Vessels prohibit Restitution Then he adds If a Convulsion follows the Joynt must be presently again Dislocated My purpose is no otherwise to answer these words of Scultetus than by an exact and faithful Declaration of the Medicines we applied to this our Patient seeing thereby it will be sufficiently manifest how well or how ill the above-named Author hath written First We washed the Bone of the Tibia forced out of its seat with Spirit of Wine warm for removing the coagulated Bloud and Filths adhering then sufficient Extension being made we set the dislocated Bone in its place applying to the Wound a good Digestive with a fit Plaister superposited not omitting a Lavament temperating Acidity and a Common Ligature The Leg thus bound up was laid upon a soft Cushion and so the Patient was carried to his Bed over which hung a Rope by the help of which he could raise his Body as I said in the precendent Operation and at the Feet of this Sick-man we set up a Board that the Clothes with their Weight might infer no detriment to the wounded Leg. The Leg affected by reason of the abundance of Pus flowing out of the Wound was dressed twice a day But in the mean while most vehement dolour exercised its Tyranny on our sick Patient who was both feverish and had a Delirium passing whole night almost without sleep or if he was between whiles somewhat refreshed with sleep a little after that was excited the aforesaid Terrour of which we spake in the precedent Observation whence the Talus was often of some measure distorted again To remove the Dolour Fever Watchings and Delirium the Patient at time assumed some of the following Mixture ℞ Water of Betony ℥ iv Of Bawm ℥ j. Syrup of Card. Bened. ʒiij Antimony Diaphoretic ʒj Salt prunella antimoniate ʒss White Corals Crabs-Eyes of each ℈ j. Laudanum Opiat Gr. 4. Make a Mixture But the Talus as often as it was found distorted after sleep was reposited By this means the space of three Weeks being scarcely elapsed the Fever and Delirium ceased then also but more slowly the aforesaid Terrour vanished and at length the Dolour and Watchings likewise But here I call to mind one thing which I had almost forgot viz. that two Abscesses arose in the affected Leg one nigh the Wound the other in the External part of the Leg but both these Abscesses after Apertion were healed In process of time very many Fragments were separated from the Bone of the Tibia which we then gently and easily took out of the Wound and upon the fungous flesh which was seen in the Wound we strewed almost every day once the Powder of Burnt Allum and so at length a Cicatrice came in sight which from day to day increased more and more so that about the sixth Month the whole Wound was almost covered Wherefore the Patient began to walk with Crutches but by this motion the Wound was again inlarged so that it closed not in every part which should seem strange to no man For I at this day know two who after Dislocation of the Talus with a Wound had an Ulcer several years But what if after setting the Dislocated Talus the Patient had been afflicted with a Convulsion must we needs have followed the counsel of Scultetus and again have dislocated the Article so lately set in its place I think not seeing I see no cause that should incite us to such an Action In this place I render not a Reason of many Phaenomenons and indeed considerately least I should set before the Readers a Dish of Crambe twice cookt For I think I have here omitted no reason of any Phaenomenon which may not be found in one or other of the foregoing Observations OBSERVAT. VII Of a Nose hurt by Winters-Cold A Young Maiden Sixteen years of age in Mid-Winter in extream cold Weather complained of a Tumor Redness and Dolour in the Tip of her Nose and she had been often before afflicted with this Evil in the Winter-Seasons The coldness of the Air both within and without affecting the Nose the Bloud in its very small Vessels and the Humors in their small passages were in some measure stagnized and in process of time contracted a certain Acor whence the Tumor Redness and Dolour were easily excited But whence was it that this Evil had now several times returned in the Winter This Return proceeded from no other cause than because the small Vessels and Passages were the first time so distorted by the Bloud and Humors stagnizing and waxing acid that afterwards they could never so well return to their pristine state but they would in Winter-time much impede the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors This Affect in Dutch called de Roud is without danger as to life yet in the mean while it is not a little displeasant to young Maids accounting their own Form whatsoever it is as their chiefest good and therefore are often willing rather to lose their Life than their Beauty This Evil I wholly removed in a few days with a Linnen-Cloath onely anointed with Sperma Ceti I shall not now dispute what that is which is known by the Name of Sperma Ceti whether it be the Seed of that great Fish or a certain Substance which is found in the form of thick Oyl in certain small Cells in the Head of the Whale about the largeness of Goose-Eggs or lastly whether it be a certain artificial Composition of the Brain of some Fish dried made up with a Lixivium of Lime In this place I say I will not dispute of this matter it sufficeth me that much Oyly Volatile Salt is contained in the aforesaid Medicament which corrects the Acidity in the bloud and stagnizing Humors This Evil is wont to invade not only the Tip of the Nose but also the Fingers Toes and Soles of the Feet To attempt to render a Reason of this would be superfluous seeing it is manifest that the cold Air doth more affect the Extreamities of the Body than other parts and small Vessels are sooner obstructed than others more capacious To prevent this Evil Cupping-glasses with Scarification are wont to be applied but improperly because the Obstructions are not by this means removed but multiplied and the distorted Vessels are not reverted to their pristine state but more