and the Excrements are hardened it is another thing that causes the Pain for it is often observed that a man has not gone to stool for several days and that the Excrements have been retained without the Colick but upon the arising of wind afterwards the Colick hath risen If therefore the Colick be caused by some hard Excrements hindring the passage of the rest of them and of the wind emollients must be used Sennertus and afterwards sharp things to irritate the faculty LIX When a man had recovered of a Catarrh he fell sick of a very troublesome Colick which encreased towards night before it came upon him just as he had done eating he vomited up some pounds of clear water without mixture of any thick Chyle The cause of the Colick seemed to me to be the thickness of the Chyle which for want of liquid Serum when it could not pass the Intestines freely raised the Gripes I knew a Minister tormented with the Colick Bartholinus cent 5. obs 58. who by vomiting great store of water was cured Wherefore Hydragogues must frequently be used in the Colick by help whereof I have often cured Patients by purging LX. A Girl about two years old was tormented with periodical pains about her groin so that neither lying sitting standing nor carried in Armes she could find any ease from her pains This pain returned at set times she was well from ten at night till twelve the next day the third fit being ended and no manifest crisis appearing she lived free from it afterwards There was no sign of worms therefore I do not question but it was a flatulent Colick residing rather in the muscles of the Belly than in the Colon for she was loose enough I cured her by anointing her Belly with distilled Oil of Wormwood and Cumminseed Idem â—ist 59. and giving her some Treacle in Hartshorn water LXI Mr. Puri of Newenburgh in Switzerland four score years old but a lusty man of his age being taken with a violent pain in his left side called a neighbouring Chirurgeon who taking him to be sick of a Pleurisie let him bloud whereupon his pain grew worse His Son a worthy Pastor in the City brought his Urine and asked my advice I enquired of him whether his Father had drunk any new wine lately it was in November which in that year 1659. had got no ripeness He told me yes and added that his pain was below his Ribs and not fixt in one place I foretold him that letting-bloud would prove fatal to him and indeed he died in three days past all remedy LXII No Disease almost requires a more speedy aid from Physick than the Colick and Gripes that happen in the Scurvey Against these evils Clysters of divers sorts Fomentations c. are used The use of Opiates is found here very necessary Certainly Riverius his Rule That purging Pills should have Laudanum in them is very proper here for when sleep is caused and the Patient a little purged the Paroxysm is frequently at an end And testaceous powders by which the sowre salts are either imbibed or fixed conduce very much to the driving away of the morbifick cause For example Take of Powder of Crabs eyes Egg shells each I drachm and an half Pearl 1 drachm Make a powder for 4 doses Willis to be given in a decoction of the root and seed of Burdock every sixth hour LXIII In a long Colick when all other remedies did little or no good I have often known this medicine given once or twice to raise a Salivation and give the Patient ease For if at any time the morbifick matter be plentifully gathered and deeply rooted in the nervous folds cannot be removed by other Medicines the Mercurial Particles spreading themselves every way easily dissolve and divide it into minute parts dispell them this way and that and at length wholly dissipate them Wherefore in a long and pertinacious Colick Idem they may sometimes be given with success to raise a Salivation LXIV A horn Cupping instrument is highly esteemed among the Indians dwelling under the torrid Zone who as they were curing a young man sick of the Colick first gave him a Clyster with their mouth and presently applied horn Cupping instruments to his Belly And sucking the Air out at the little hole they stopt it presently with their finger both to make the instrument to stick fast to the skin and to get the wind out of the Bowels which by these means the Barbarians did most successfully from the young man N. Tulpius l. 3. cap. 49. LXV Galen says that the wind Colick is cured as by charm and Crato approves it if a large cupping-glass with much flame be applied to the Belly near the Navel Observe near not upon the Navel lest swooning follow by reason of the commerce between the umbilical vessels and the heart For a man certainly dies if the skin be flayn off the Navel although he may live if he be flayn all over besides a punishment very common among the Egyptians LXVI This mixture is one of the highest specificks which I have often used successfully Take of Spirit of Wine 1 drachm Spirit of Nitre between half a scruple and half a drachm Spring water 3 ounces Let him take it and being well covered let him compose himself to sweat and keep himself quiet For it is the best way to lie still how difficult soever it be Hartman pâ—ax chym This is good especially when the wind is enclosed between the membranes Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. In the Colick especially if it pain a man about his stomach they say the broth of the juice of sweet Almonds is good with some grains of long Pepper in Hippocras Wine I have seen the pain laid with a caustick Plaster that would almost make an Eschar Gallel Balluâ—ius and draw outwards being applied near the Navel 2. They say it is a most effectual remedy which is made of white Pigeons dung boiled in water till half be boiled away adding a little Dill seed to 2 ounces of the liquor strained and so drunk ¶ One man commends 2 ounces of Nitre with an equal quantity of water and oil given by Clyster for it wonderfully draws out thick matter and dry compact Excrements ¶ The Osprey that digests all it devours has one wonderfull Intestine It is evident that the extreme part of it tied to one causes the Colick Alex. Benedictus ¶ The Guts of a Wolf dried and given in drink are a good Remedy Blolkwitzius 3. I know a man who with the Spirit of Elder-Berries as with shewing a Gorgon's Head presently discusses the Colick pain very familiar to him It is of great virtue in this Disease 4. Mercury water given inwardly takes away the Colick radically and it is thus made The Mercury is first reduced to a Water into half of this water put crude Mercury purified which is also
Gentian root and other things boyled in White Wine may be applied to the region of the Stomach with woollen Clothes dipt therein hot and a little wrung out The use of Clysters is convenient Opiates also often do a great deal of good Of the Belly-ache and Scorbutick Colick No Disease almost requires more speedily help from Medicine then the Colick and Gripes which often happen in the Scurvy Against these evils Clysters of divers sorts Fomentations liniments and Cataplasms are used The use of Opiates is found very necessary here Certainly in this case that rule of Riverius to give purging Pills mixt with Laudanum has place especially for after sleep is caused and plentiful purging the Fit is often at an end But testaceous powders by which acid Salts are imbibed or fixt do very much conduce to drive away the Morbifick cause for example Take of powder of Crabs eyes Egg-shels each 1 drachm and an half Pearl 1 ounce Make a powder divide it into 12 Doses of which one sixth part may be taken once an hour with some Scorbutick water or with a Decoction of Root and Seeds of Burdock as is described before or with posset drink wherein Roots and Seeds of Burdock Leaves of sweet Marjoram and Saxifrage have been boyled and Leaves of Scurvy-grass infused In a Scorbutick Colick and in the Diseases of the Stomach but now mentioned the use of purging Spaw-waters such as ours of Epsum and Barnet are excellent good Of a Loosness and Bloody Flux An inveterate Loosness such as frequently happens to Scorbutick Persons must by no means be stopt with astringent Medicines nor is easily cured with Alteratives or any Antiscorbuticks Spaw waters impregnated with Iron or Vitriol are the best Remedy for this Disease next to these are artificial Spaws or Chalybeate Medicines which use to give great relief Crocus Martis rightly prepared may well be preferred before all the rest I have often used the following method with good success First of all give a purge of the powder or infusion of Rhubarb adding astringent Aromaticks and let it be repeated sometimes at the interval of 3 or 4 dayes the other dayes let the quantity of a Nutmeg of the following Electuary be taken in the morning and at 4 of the Clock Take of Conserve of common Wormwood made with an equal quantity of Sugar 6 ounces in a hot Constitution instead hereof Conserve of red Roses may be taken Species diarrhodon Abbatis two drachms Sanders white and red powdered each 1 drachm the best Crocus Martis half an ounce With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Steel make an Electuary In Dysenteries and a Tenesmus we may proceed in the like method Spaw waters if they may be had must especially be used Moreover Clysters of vulnerary Decoctions may be often used I lately cured one of a long and grievous Dysentery who had for a long time voided every day an ounce of Blood by Stool with this Remedy Take of the best Rhubarb in powder 1 ounce red Sanders powdered 2 drachms Cinnamon 1 drachm Crocus Martis 3 drachms Lucatellu's Balsome what is sufficient Make a mass for Pills he took 4 Pills sometimes every day sometimes every other day for a fort-night and he was perfectly cured I also prescribed him a Physick Beer of an Infusion of roots of sharp pointed Dock and Leaves of Brooklime to drink constantly Of the Vertigo Swooning and other Ails usually attending the same in the Scurvy A Vertigo frequently comes upon an inveterate Scurvy which is usually accompanied with frequent Swooning and almost a constant dread of it and moreover with a numbness in the Limbs and a pricking running hither and thither Which sort of Ails proceed from the failure of the Animal Spirits sometimes in the very fountain sometimes among the Nerves both Cardiack and which serve other parts and seeing they depend upon the Brain and Nervous kind being much pestered with a Scorbutick Salt they are not easily cured Cephalick Remedies such as are proper in the Vertigo and Paralytick Diseases caused by themselves must be used mixt with Antiscorbuticks Having therefore first of all made provision for the whole by fitting Catharticks and such as are proper in the Scurvy you may proceed in this manner with appropriate Medicines against the said Ails At the beginning of the Cure apply Leeches to the Haemorrhoid Veins and unless something contra-indicate let the same be often afterwards repeated Take of the powder of the Root of male peony half an ounce red Coral prepared 2 ounces Man's Skull Elk's hoof each 1 drachm Mix them Take of the best Sugar dissolved in compound Peony water or in Horse-radish water boyled up fit for Lozenges 8 ounces oyl of Amber well rectified half a drachm Make Lozenges according to Art Take a drachm and an half or two drachms morning and evening drinking thereupon a draught of the distilled water following Take of Leaves of Scurvy-grass Brooklime Cresses Lilly conval Sage Rosemary Betony each 3 handfuls green Walnuts 1 pound Peels of 6 Oranges and of 4 Lemons fresh Roots of male Peony 1 pound and an half When they are bruised and shred pour to them of Phlegm of Vitriol 1 pound Whey made with Cider 5 pounds Distil them after the common way let all the water be mixt together The Dose is from 3 to 4 ounces Of Haemorrhagies Haemorrhagies in the Scurvy often threaten great danger of the Patients being hastened to his end thereby while Blood bursts out sometimes at the Nose sometimes by the Menses or Haemorrhoids almost to Swooning Besides sometimes it being cast out of the Lungs or Stomach gives suspicion either of an Ulcer or at least of a great debility in the part affected Wherefore Bloody excretions if they either be immoderate or come in an inconvenient place must for the present be stopt and for the future prevented For stopping of Blood when it bursts out immoderately the method is well enough known and there is nothing to be done in this Case more peculiar because of the Scurvy than when it comes upon other occasions Yet to prevent Haemorrhagies Remedies may be used which take off the Acrimony of the Blood and straiten the Mouths of the Vessels which are too lax and gaping Each intention may be well performed by Chalybeate Medicines The use of Vitriolick Spaws is most proper for this business Moreover Infusions Extracts Salts and such preparations of Steel which especially contain the Saline or Vitriolick nature of Iron are ever good against Haemorrhagies Take of Conserve of red Roses of Hips each 3 ounces Species diarrhodon Abbatis Diatriωn each 1 drachm and an half Salt of Steel 1 drachm Crocus Martis well prepared 2 drachms red Coral prepared 1 drachm and an half With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Steel make an Electuary Thrice a day take the quantity of a Nutmeg drinking thereupon a draught of some appropriate Liquor I use to prescribe for the Poor in this manner Take of the tops of Cypress
Stomach and Liver and absterge the humours And this is a good Powder Take filings of Steel sprinkle them with water of Wormwood or Ash wherein their Salts have been dissolved leave them so long till they contract rust Take of this Crocus 3 ounces burnt Harts-horn prepared half an ounce Magistery of Coral of Pearl each 1 drachm and an half Cinnamon Crystalls of Tartar 1 drachm Sugar what is sufficient to sweeten the whole Make a Powder The dose 1 drachm And this Chalybeate Wine is good especially in a pertinaceous obstruction of the Bowells and suppression of the Menses whence a Cachexy ariseth Take of filings of Steel 3 ounces and an half White-wine 4 pounds infuse them in a Glass 8 days in the Sun or some hot place shaking it often every day Let the Patient take 4 or 6 ounces of this Wine two hours before dinner shaking the Glass and when he hath taken it let him walk for two hours if he be able As often as you pour out one glass you must pour in another till half the Steel seem spent Sennertus then you must add no more Calculus Renum or the Stone in the Kidneys The Contents Signs and the Nature of the Stone I. a. What Vein should be breathed I. b. When a Purge should be given II. Whether Cassia be proper III. Diureticks should not be added to Purgers for prevention IV. Whether strong Purgers be convenient V. Of what things Anodyne Clysters should be made VI. Whether their Quantity must be small VII Whether a Vomit may be given VIII When Diureticks may be given IX They must not be mixt with Food X. The Qualities of Lithontripticks XI We must begin with the milder XII The use of them must be continued XIII They must not be too hot XIV Their Abuse must be avoided XV. The way of making them up XVI Whether Spirit of Turpentine be proper XVII Attenuatives are not always proper XVIII What must be done next when the Stone is got out of the Kidneys XIX Stone in the Kidneys accompanied with vomiting of bloud cured XX. If accompanied with pissing of bloud what must be done XXI Lenient and mollient Clysters are very good XXII Wâ—ether Asses milk be good XXIII Whether it may be given one in an actual consumption XXIV Whether Pease-pottage may be given XXV The use of Astringents does good XXVI We should rather cool the Liver than Kidneys XXVII Coolers especially in old men often doe harm XXVIII Outward Coolers are of no use to some XXIX In prevention Bathing suspicious XXX What such Diet should be used XXXI A Draught of warm Water before Meal is good for prevention XXXII The turning of the Stone into the Gout is safe XXXIII Whether Nephrotomy be possible XXXIV Stone in the Kidneys mistaken to be the Colick XXXV Medicines I. a. GRavel not subsiding in the Urine but sticking to the sides of the Chamber-pot signifies not a calculous disposition but exceeding heat of the Liver Spigelius saith he hath sometimes found the bloud in the Veins full of small Gravel Nor does the subsiding Gravel necessarily indicate the Stone but sometimes the material cause onely of the Stone for many that are free from the Stone do make Gravel yet it intimates a disposition to the Stone Plempius in Institut When Gravel that used to appear is afterwards suppressed and pain is felt and the Urine white and thin it is a sign the Gravel is concrete into a Stone and when it is made with pain and strangury Epiphan Ferdinandus it is a sign of the Stone ¶ Gravel that is bred in the Veins is mixt with the Urine and with the Sediment But what is in the Kidneys Ureters and Bladder presently resides as the Urine is made ¶ Gravel frequently proceeds from adustion of the humours which is bred in the Liver and Veins and sticks to the sides of the Glass nor does it sink to the bottom as that which comes from the Kidneys Besides it breaks with rubbing in ones fingers and appears of a Saline Substance whereas the other neither yields to the fingers nor can it any way be dissolved And finally because this Gravel hath a Saline Substance it is dissolved in warm Urine and no way appears in it while it is yet hot but when the Urine is cold it coagulates and sticks to the sides of the Urinal just as Crystals of Tartar which are dissolved in hot Water do when it is cold coagulate and stick to the sides of the Vessel So that the nature of this Gravel and Crystals of Tartar is very like Riverius I. b. Hippocrates 6. Epid. and in his Book Of the nature of Bones orders bleeding in the Ham. Galen on the contrary 6 Aphorism 36. advises bleeding in the Arm if there be a Plethora and violent pain and the Disease be new and he advises well For if the humours flow from the whole body to the Kidneys such a Remedy must be chosen as may make a Revulsion from thence such as Bleeding in the parts above If the Disease be inveterate or bleeding in the Arm have preceded then it is proper to bleed in the Ham. Leeches also applied to the Seat are very good according to Aphorism 6. 10. II. We must diligently take notice that a Purge must not be given till the Pain be something asswaged For even a strong Cathartick given while the Pain is violent often does not purge because at that time all the parts contract themselves Riverius Pract. l. 14. and do not assist the Medicine III. Some commend Cassia for the Stone but I would caution the carefull Physician that some have found themselves exceeding ill upon using it and have encreased their Disease One complained to me that heat of Urine always followed the taking of it ¶ Petrus Pigray l. 7. c. 4. writes that Cassia agrees very ill with those that are troubled with the Stone Fabr. Hildanuâ— l. de Lithot c. ult ¶ Two ounces and a half of Cassia given one in a continual Fever raised such a flux of Urine that for three days together he made his Urine so hot that every time he made it he thought a red hot Wire had been drawn through his yard IV. Nephritick persons should have some familiar Medicine that may help them to a Stool For those who are loose and troubled with Fluxes have not the Stone and Gravel provided notwithstanding the Purges be not made up with Diureticks I speak this because at this present there are several who use Receipts that purge both by Stool and Urine When there is mention made of Medicines to divert the Matter there is no need of a Diuretick Wherefore they doe very ill who in time of Prevention and for Revulsion's sake do use Cassia for Cassia is both purgative and diuretick therefore not to be used in diverting the Matter Saxonia loco cit and I look on Valeriola to be of this opinion 6. Enarrat V.
by Hippocrates lib. de intern affect t. 15. But when it swells and bunches out about this time you may cut upon the Kidney and when you have taken out the Pus you may cure the Gravel with Medicines that provoke Vrine Whence it is manifest that cutting for the Stone in the Kidneys was known to the Ancients Avicenna also makes mention of it but with Bacchanellus I think it impossible because way must be made through the Muscles through the Back through the great Bones through the Nerves and Arteries and great Veins I think this cutting can then onely be administred when according to Hippocrates the Kidney is swollen and elevated or when it is suppurated for in this case Nature prepares a way for her self and those that have been so cut have recovered as Schenckius out of Coelius relates c. And I also observed it in a young man from whom two Stones with matter came out through an Abscess in the Loins that opened of it self but in any other case I believe it altogether impossible It were an excellent thing if it could be done with safety but no man is obliged to Impossibilities But if this be done by Nature Dâ—m Panâ—rol Pent. vlt. observ 42. May it therefore be done by Art I Answer that many things are done aright by Nature which in no wise can be done by Art We have an example in Hydropick persons in whose Legs if Ulcers arise of themselves Health appears but if they be made by Art they corrupt and death follows Ambrosius Paraeus in his Chirurg magn lib. 24. c. 16. relates how a Nobleman of Mante who was troubled with the Stone in the Kidneys was condemned to be beheaded but at the request of the Physicians in Paris with the Magistrate's leave he was cut the Stone taken out the wound healed he cured and this was his punishment But if this operation be performed in the Loins right against the Kidneys it is joyned with great and imminent danger because by that way you must come at it through the Muscles of the back the Nerves Ben. Sylvaticus cent 3. consult 55. the Aorta and Vena cava with hazard of fainting and death Which if it be tried to be done by the flank and by drawing the guts on one side way be made to the Kidney although indeed there be less danger in this as Roussetus de partu caesareo observes yet the conflux of the bloud into the Cavity of the Abdomen is not without some and a Cicatrice in the Kidney is very difficult so that for these causes it is either not to be attempted at all or at least with the prognostick of death premised XXXV I knew a certain Woman whom several Physicians affirmed to be troubled with the Colick But I at the first visit because she was very numb and there were other signs of the Stone judged it to be the Stone which nevertheless they said was false for several reasons So I was discharged and they persevered in the Cure Gerardus Bergensis de artic renum morb curat and continually gave her hot and dry things till she changed life for death When her body was opened a great Stone was found in her Kidney and I regained my credit Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Aetius Totrab The following Medicine speedily brings away the Stone by Urine Take 7 cloves of Garlick 9 grains of Pepper bruise them small give them to drink at once with old Wine in the Bath 2. This Powder breaks the Stone wonderfully Take of the seeds of Marsh-mallow Violets Mallow each 5 grains of Gromel Liquorish-root each half a scruple of Lapis Judaicus and Spongiae each 3 grains of the powder of the stones of Dates Cherries and Medlars each 1 scruple Joh. de Altomari de med hum corp malis c. 54. Melon Seed half a drachm Make a Powder The dose is 1 drachm in 2 ounces of small White-wine or Oxymel or in 3 ounces of a Decoction made of Elecamparte in Water and a little Vinegar 3. I have cured almost 600 of the Stone in the Kidneys by the following Syrup Take of the Roots of Saxifrage Butchers-broom Lovage Eringo Rest-harrow Anise Fenil Parsly Grass each half an ounce Horse-Radish 2 ounces of the Leaves of Betony Burnet Tops of Marsh-mallow Nettles Pennyroyal Rocket Calamint Knotgrass Pellitory of the Wall each half an handfull Winter-Cherries N o XX. Sebesten N o XV. Bark of Baytree-root 3 drachms Seeds of Basil Burdock Parsly Seseli Millet each 3 ounces Raisins Liquorish each 3 drams Let them be boiled in Balneo from 10 pounds till 6 remain Of which with Sugar 4 pounds clarified Honey 2 pounds make a Syrup spice it with Cinnamon 1 ounce Horat. Augenius Epist med l. 12. Ep. 1 2. and Nutmeg half an ounce The dose 3 ounces with 6 ounces of the Decoction of Eringo for 15 days 5 hours before dinner but universals premised 4. I found ease by no diuretick Tho. Bartholinus except Bean-shell-water which brought away Gravel so that more may be attributed to this Medicine in bringing away the Stone than to Millepedes 5. Eggshells when the Chickens are hatched are given with singular success either to break or expell the Stone Idem Several reckon this Lithontriptick among their Secrets 6. Beverovicius de calculo c. 12. It does a great deal of good in loosening the Urinary passages if Chervil chopt very small and fried in a pan with Oil of Scorpions be applied to the part grieved ¶ When the ways are loosened nothing is more effectual to remove the Stone than if 1 drachm of pure Nitre i. e. Sal Prunellae be given in Rhenish-wine warm by which Medicine alone I have often brought away the Stone of the Bladder from Children Id. Ibid. ¶ Crabs-eyes are of tenuious parts and diuretick they break the Stone and force it away by Urine especially the Liquour of them which prepared after this manner is the best To Crabs-eyes finely powdered and put in a Glass pour some Acetum Terebinthinatum stop it and digest it for a night in hot Ashes The next day pour off what is dissolved and pour on more repeating it so often till you see all the Crabs-eyes dissolved What Vinegar you have got filtrate and evaporate it the Salt will remain in the bottom Bruise it and dissolve it in a Cellar into Liquour Eight or ten drops given with Horse-Rhadish-water are far more efficacious than they are in substance Idem p. 17◠¶ Quercetanus his Nephritick Water is very good Take of the juice of Horse-Rhadish Lemons each 1 pound and an half Water of Betony Saxifrage Silver Weed Vervain each 1 pound Hydromel Malmsey-Wine each 2 pounds Let them stand four or five days upon a gentle fire in Balneo In these Liquours mixt together steep of Juniper Berries bruised 3 ounces of the Seeds of Millet greater Burdock Saxifrage Nettles Onions Anise Fenil each
painfull corrugations and farther Willis de cephalalgia lest the brain be invaded by the violent motion of the humours to the head and then which happens too frequently sleepy or convulsive diseases be brought on ¶ Some for inveterate Head-aches after once or twice purging fly to Quicksilver wherewith they rub the head and other aking parts These Men Encheir med pr. though sometime they remove the Pain yet they always increase the Cause and cool and moisten the brain more ¶ There are some that commend Empl. de Vigo cum Mercurio because it has been observed Ibid. that it hath put an end to an inveterate Head-ach having evacuated much phlegmatick humours by spitting ¶ Salivation terrifies several that are imployed in inventing dissuasives against it but experience dispels this vain fear Rolfinc meth spec p. 164. One that was sick of a grievous Head-ach and miserably afflicted with it being salivated recovered under our care and there was no sign of the Pox in him ¶ Willis in the place fore-quoted approves of Salivation in the Head-ach arising from the Venereal Disease In other cases he disapproves of it and produces some examples of ill success XXXVI An Oxyrrhodinum may not be applied in every Head-ach Abstain 1. When a Catarrhe is joined with it for the application of cold things increases the distillation and by its driness strains out the humour down to the Breast yet Trallianus allows it when the Head-ach has its original from the violent heat of the head which draws the humours like a Cupping-glass from the whole body this way it does good by taking away the cause 2. When plenty of gross humours or vapours cause the Head-ach in which case Oxyrrhodina doe more harm by obstructing than good by Repulsion 3. If the Head-ach be critical you may reckon it critical if in a Fever it fall upon a critical day if signs of Coction have preceded yet if the Crisis should be by Vomit they may safely be applied otherwise if Bleeding at the Nose were drawing on by driving back you would cause Death 4. They doe harm if bloud or another humour be firmly settled in the head for then Digesters must be made use of as Galen 13 m. m. 6. adviseth 5. In a Head-ach that is malignant or contracted from the Bite or Sting of a venomous Creature the Venom must rather be drawn outwards by Rarefiers XXXVII In the Head-ach caused by heat the juices of Purslane Housleek Kidney-wort and other things of the like nature Hollerius Perioch 2. but these things must be fresh not parched with heat and without juice Vinegar is good in Liquours but it is forbidden to Children and tender Bodies XXXVIII It is known that some Empiricks rashly undertake that they can cure all sorts of Head-aches with their Cephalick waters whereby many have been brought into perpetual tortures in their head I knew a Nobleman then but young who suffering a violent Head-ach from the ebullition of hot bloud through some bodie 's persuasion washed all his head in very strong Aqua vitae but by this unskilfull advice he was almost cast into Madness Oethaeus XXXIX Castor asswages pains in the Head coming from the Womb saith Hippocrates lib. 7. de Epidem and lib. 6. Great pain about the forepart of the Head and what-ever others arise from the Womb. Now indeed that Diseases by Sympathy are removed by curing what is first in fault and that this is the legitimate way of their Cure is very well known But Castor is commended for all Uterine Diseases I say those that are improperly called Uterine such as Fits of the Mother whether they be caused by suppression of bloud or seed or by wind by the joint consent of all Physicians Hippocrates in lib. de morb mulier makes frequent mention of it for the same purpose lib. 2. he prescribes Castor or Fleabane Therefore Castor taken inwardly cures the Head-ach from the Womb but then it cures Diseases of the Womb that are accompanied with the Head-ach i. e. Suppressions of the Menstrua retention of Seed and of the cold juices and wind Nor does it cure all Diseases of the Womb but onely cold ones for it will rather increase Inflammations and the Erysipelas Wherefore since the head-may ake for Inflammations of the Womb it is clear that Castor cures not all Head-aches from the Womb but such onely as come from its cold Diseases Vallesius Epid. p. 865. such as Galen affirms Fits of the Mother to be XL. It may so happen that a Disease of the head or of any one place may increase or grow better with the Disease of another part or place nor yet for all this be affected by Sympathy from that other part for it may chance that matter may flow from the self same fountain to divers parts at once and there may be no pain in the part that sends it nor any thing amiss known or perceived there As Hippocrates observed it happened to Agesius his Daughter 6. Epid. 3.4 who when she had a pain in her hip was oppressed with an Asthma and when her pain was eased she took her breath well Now seeing there is no communication between the Hip and the Breast it was very reasonable to suspect that the humour ran into each part from the same place and was dispersed at the same time The flux might be from the Brain or it might be from the Womb And therefore when two effects happen together a man must diligently observe whether the communication be from the head or from some other place Although Galen in his Comment upon this place says that an Imposthume was broken in her breast and when she had raised the matter her Asthma seased but upon small ground for it is more reasonable to think that in a Woman newly delivered the pain in her Hip came from the Ligaments of the Womb and her Asthma from the Sympathy of her Breast with the Womb and especially when she did not cleanse well which caused both these Ails and both these Accidents ceased when she did clease For the Womb in Lying-in-women is the occasion and root of all their Evils Casper Cald. lilustr Obs Med. 8. l. 2. and there is a great Sympathy between the Genitals and the Breast XLI That it is requisite the outer substance of the Brain and the Cerebellum should be open to the end the most spirituous part of the Bloud may penetrate it and be as it were percolated through it the cold of the Air Water or Snow vehemently affecting the head seems to prove after which not onely a Rheum but a more spare production of Animal Spirits uses to follow But whoever upon taking such a cold do let bloud or think to take away the cause of this evil by purge or vomit they indanger their Patient's life as I have more than once seen it done by men Sylvius de le Boē p. m. 402. that are
commended for a Catarrh It is made of the Shells of all the Myrabalans with their Kernels first dried each 2 ounces and a half Cinnamon 1 drachm Cloves Galangal Johnstonus Cubebs Cardamome Grains of Paradise Nutmeg each half a scruple dried red Roses a drachm and a half Flowers of Rosemary Lavender each one drachm bruise them and put them in as much Wine as is convenient 14. This is an experienced Medicine in stopping all Destillations Dâ—m Leo. and very good for those that incline to the Phthisick and Consumption and that are troubled with a Cough Take of Cinnamon Galbanum Storax Calamus Pepper black long and white each half an ounce Opium 3 drachms Honey what is sufficient The dose is the quantity of a Bean taken morning and evening in Honey-water Lotichius 15. Nothing better can be devised to digest attenuate and evacuate successively by sweat matter settled in the Lungs than a Decoction of Guaiacum-wood which others as well as I have used with singular success as the Bezoardick of this Disease 16. An easie Medicine is made of water in which unripe Quinces are boiled Simon Pauli against sharp Catarrhs that are most troublesome at night It must be well sweetned with Sugar a spoonfull or two of which must be given to the Patient when he goes to bed 17. This is a very good conserve to stop a cold Catarrh Sennertus Take of red Roses 2 ounces Species Aromatici Rosati 2 scruples Nutmeg 1 scruple white Frankincense 2 scruples with Syrup of dried Roses or of Betony make an Electuary Take the quantity of a Wallnut when you go to bed Arnold Villa novanus 18. Very good Pills to stop any Rheum flowing from the Brain and to comfort the Brain Take of Amber Lignum Aloes Ladanum Frankincense Storax Calamita Myrrh each 1 drachm Wax Opium each 1 scruple Musk 4 Grains with very good wine make small Pills give 7 of them late at night This wonderfully stops a Rheum from a cold cause Chlorosis or the Green-sickness The Contents Whether Bloud may be let I. What Vein must be opened II. Diaphoreticks must be slowly used III. Steel must be differently prepared according to the diversity of the parts affected IV. What Preparation of it most proper V. Whether Tartarum Vitriolatum be proper VI. Openers not to be used before evacuation of the whole VII Sweet things hurtfull VIII Whether Exercise be convenient IX Whether the absurd Appetite may be gratified X. Whether Marriage be proper XI Medicines I. BLoud must be let when the disease is new and when it takes its rise from stoppage of it before it acquire a malignant quality sufficient strength and plenty of bloud being supposed Author Enchir Med. Pract. Otherwise the disease would grow worse if it be throughly radicated if the Body be cool and if phlegmatick crude humours do rather abound than bloud ¶ Though it is clear that Hippocrates Of Maids Diseases Fortis cons 52. cent 2. proposeth bloud letting yet it must be omitted if the bloud be turned into Cacochymy and crude humours predominate if the Stomach be affected and the native heat be not very strong Riverius II. A vein in the arm must be opened in the beginning although the Menstrua be supprest for if bloud should be then taken from the foot the obstructions of the veins in the Womb would be greater when their fulness were encreased III. In reference to the Cachexy Medicines should be administred which depurate the fleshy part and clear it of bad humours i. e. Diaphoreticks insensible evacuaters and insensible digesters To which intention sweat would answer some convenient Decoction premised or the use of Viperine Powder But because our main scope should be to open the veins of the Womb provoke the Menstrua and purge the whole body by ways proper and customary to nature therefore lest the humours should be diverted from the centre to the Circumference laying aside this intention Fortis Cons 52. cent 2. we must first make use of aperient Hystericks and promoters of the Menstrua IV. Because in this Disease Steel is very usefull and necessary we must in this case take notice whether the Veins about the Stomach and Mesentery or the Liver and Spleen be more obstructed for if the proper vessels of the Stomach be most obstructed Steel must be given prepared in a more gross manner and vomiting Medicines may be mixt with it or a vomit may be given before the use of Steel or on the intermediate days for so when the bad humours are cast up by vomit the Bowels do easily recover But if the humours hanging in the places near the Stomach be carried to the more inward parts labouring of obstructions the disease will be made worse But if the Liver be especially obstructed Steel must be given prepared very fine and Epatick Medicines and such as purge downwards but by no means such as purge upwards must be mixt with it And if the Spleen be affected Sennertus splenetick Medicines must be added V. The Physicians School doth profess that Steel obtains the chief place in stubborn obstructions which yet must neither be powdered too fine nor burnt too much For the former degenerates into Quicksilver and then it provokes vomit and purging The latter is deprived of its Sulphur and Mercury by which means it becomes rather an astringent Crocus Martis than opening Fortis Wherefore in this case a Crocus Martis prepared with Spirit of Sulphur will be most convenient VI. Whether is Tartarum vitriolatum good in this disease I hold the affirmative because such Medicines are convenient as incide the cold and viscous humours and attenuate them concoct crudities open obstructions and absterge the sticking matter all which virtues are most efficaciously in Tartarum vitriolatum for if Tartar considered by it self have no small aperient and absterging virtue much more must be allowed to it Vitriolate Yet we must have a care we proceed not inconsiderately to the use of this Medicine nor presently but the first ways must be prepared before by lenitives which done when we have purged twice or thrice gently we may come to the use of it yet according to the difference of its nature a whole scruple or an half may be given twice a day in some proper destilled waters Horstius cent prob 9. Qu. 5. or decoctions in which some convenient herbs and roots have been boiled then the prepared matter may be purged and carried off by an infusion of Rheubarb VII Rondeletius l. 1. c. 31. Before the use of attenuating and opening Syrups the common ways must be purged namely the Stomach and Guts from excrements and crude humours left the same things befall us which befell a certain Physician who when by aperient and attenuating Syrups he would have brought her Menses he threw her into a Palsey ¶ The Stomach must first be emptied by a clarified potion of
pulled out Erasistratus thinks they ought not upon a slight occasion be pulled out and he produces this as a testimony for his opinion Among the Low-Dutch in Apollo's Temple a leaden pair of Pliers to draw teeth was hung up to intimate that a tooth should not be pulled out unless it were loose so as it might be pulled out with a leaden pair of Pincers that is without violence Which if in any part of it be rotten or faulty what is faulty may be scraped off and what is sound may be left Hollerius Perioche 5. And indeed it must not lightly be pulled out unless it be corrupt all rotten and loose if there be an Inflammation of the Nerve under it on which danger may depend for when the tooth is pulled out the Nerve is free and not pressed but transpires and admits convenient Remedies In corruption you must consider how much it is for sometime it is superficial and onely near the end then some part of it may be filed off while the root is sound ¶ Valescus de Taranta doth scarce allow of drawing a tooth first because of chewing secondly because when one is pulled out the defluxion goes to another and so one tooth may be pulled out after another till a man have not a tooth in his head But although he may be allowed his way in the Tooth-ach from a defluxion where the matter flows by vessels common to several teeth yet in corrupt teeth and especially when the matter that runs out of the rotten teeth causes a Swelling or Ulcer in the Jaw there is no other way of cure but to draw the tooth for then there is no fear lest the adjoining tooth should be corrupted because such corrosion comes not from a fresh defluxion Sennertus but from one that is past long ago XVII Hollerius allows of Cauteries Sennertus thinks the use of them scarce safe because of the exquisite sense of the Nerves fearing lest other parts should sympathize Yet I could never observe any harm follow the onely fear is lest the parts adjoining as the Lips c. should be burnt With this Precaution a red hot Iron may be put in the hole safely Let the Patient set his foot upon the Chirurgeon's and let him press it that the Chirurgeon may take away his Iron if perchance it should hurt him XVIII We see multitudes in this Climate tormented with the Tooth-ach because of corroded and hollow teeth I fill the hollow of the teeth with Turpentine Petrus Pachequus Obs 65. and then apply an actual Cautery with very good success XIX An Infirmity and loosness of teeth happens to many from a sharp distillation All vulgar Physicians treat this evil onely with styptick things which scarce doe any good The onely Remedy is Fire indicated by Hippocrates l. de aff n. 5. and by Rhases who burn the roots of the teeth with a hot Iron Gariopontus with a Copper Nail What I see no man else doe I have tried in two hundred both curing the Tooth ach and in Fastning loose teeth I will here shew the fashion of the Iron which is fastned to a long handle and is half an inch broad and two inches long but bent so as it may be fitted exactly to the Convexity of the teeth But it must be observed that this Chirurgery may very opportunely be tried when the parts first begin to languish but when the teeth are loosened from their roots Severinus Med. effic pag. â—â— Burning will scarce doe any good XX. Teeth as the rest of the Bones consist of small Fibres but very hard and compact ones running length-ways By the insensible and extreme small Interstices of these small Fibres the most subtile particles of Aliment run from top to bottom being carried by the Arteries to the roots of the teeth If upon any occasion this alimentary Juice be made thinner and its particles be carried with a greater impetuosity than they ought they do not easily stick but pass their bounds and so when what is abated of the thickness of the tooth by continual effluvium is not made up the tooth must of necessity grow more slender and when the Aliment runs out farther according to the duct of the Fibres the tooth grows in length Therefore to prevent this Slenderness of the tooth the best Remedy is to shorten the tooth with a File so when it is made shorter the Aliment which cannot run beyond the tooth being forced into a shorter space encreases the thickness of the tooth So Husbandmen use to lop the Branches of Trees that the Trunk may become thicker and stronger the nutritious juice being contained within it self which was distributed into the Boughs that were cut off It seems as if this too great excursion of Aliment in the teeth might happen not onely because of its thinness and agitation of parts whereof it consists but also through the laxity of Fibres whereof the tooth consists which may happen if while the Aliment flows too sparingly all the Fibres become more slender or the same Aliment may be corrupted either through the fault of the part or of the affluent humours Franc. Bayle Problem 57. XXI If teeth be loosened by a fall or blow they must not be drawn but restored and tied to those that are fast for in time they will be fastened in their holes As I experienced in Antonius de la Rue a Tailor who had his Jaw broke with the Hilt of a Sword and three of his teeth loosened and well-nigh beaten out of their holes when his Jaw was set his teeth were restored to their places and fastened with a double thred and a plaster to the next I fed him with broths and spoon-meats I made him astringent Gargarisms of Cypress-nuts Myrtles and a little Alume boiled in Vinegar and Water and ordered him to wash his mouth frequently and I so ordered the matter that in a short time he could chew as Well with these teeth as with any of the rest Paraeus l. 23. c. â—7 XXII Two died of drawing a tooth through much Bleeding but one of them was decrepit in the other there was a large Vessel at the root of the tooth and a great Breach Cardan de caus sign mâ—rb p. 155. Forest l. 14. obs 4. ¶ As a Tooth-drawer was drawing a tooth from an old Man in the Market-place at Bononia the man died suddenly XXIII Teeth in Children whether they fall out of themselves or by violence so the roots remain grow again of themselves Therefore we must have a care when Children have broken their teeth by a fall or a blow that we pull not out the part that remains but the root it self must be as carefully preserved as may be for all the hope of the tooth's coming again depends upon it as the seed and when it is pulled out by the root Columbus l. 1. c. 10. teeth seldom or never come again XXIV We must have a care that
be made on a chief critical day with all the signs of a very good Crisis then although it seem imperfect nevertheless it must not be holpen For it can scarce or not at all otherwise be but that Nature with all the signs of a very good Crisis must make a perfect excretion upon a chief decretory day But if it be not a principal decretory day or there be not all the absolute and perfect signs of a Crisis then we must consider whether there be any danger of the Flux of the matter to some principal part which might either cause or increase an Inflammation in which case even on a critical day it is lawfull for us to help Nature The reason is this because when there are all the signs of a perfect Crisis and at what time evacuation is made Symptomes begin to encrease it is a sign that more matter flows to some principal part than to the ways of excretion and therefore Nature must be helped But if nothing urge you may suffer the critical day to be over and Nature may be helped the next Idem according to the advice of Hippocrates and Galen 1. Aphor. 21. IV. Enchir. Med. pract Although Bloudletting may seem formidable in this case yet it is sometime proper when sharp bile is voided by stool which is perpetually bred anew by the hot and dry intemperature of the Liver ¶ If a Loosness happen with signs of abundance of Bloud and strength Bleeding may be celebrated in the beginning but if there be a fever Riverius bloud may be taken away though there appear no Ptethory If there be a Flux when there is a Plenitude or Cacochymie in the common veins here is the difficulty for first of all all Astringents are suspected because the Flux from a noble part to an ignoble one is prohibited for the matter being restrained within the common veins there is imminent danger of a Fever and Putrefaction Secondly Purgers hurt because the Flux is more already than it should be seeing it carries along with it the alimental matter which is contained in the Stomach and intestines Nor Thirdly are Vomits proper First because that matter before it be drawn to the Stomach comes to the Guts which because weaker will sooner receive the Fluxion than the Stomach Secondly it is not lawfull to carry such humours through so sensible a place In this fullness of the veins I should commend letting of Bloud above all other things First because it carries off part of the matter together with the Bloud for all the humours are mixt together Secondly revulsion is made from the Intestines without danger nor is the matter which is evacuated translated to another place as in most revulsions Thirdly this letting of bloud subdues the Cause increasing the humour that flows to the Intestines for in plenitude there is a hot and moist intemperature but bloud-letting cools and dries Therefore Galen 7. Method X. says that in all Fluxes to the Stomach the body must be evacuated that is by bloud-letting which be contradistinguishes from purging or purged And 5 Meth. 3. in Fluxes of the Belly he says for revulsion the humours must be carried to the Womb. Which is the very same thing that he taught 7 meth 11. that sometimes Loosnesses come because of the suppression of the menses or haemorrhoids or loss of a Limb or some excretion suppressed In which case the cure of the Flux is to bring down the menses open the haemorrhoids and quickly to procure the usual evacuation Therefore Avicenna 16. 3. tractat 2. cap. de Diarrhoea ex vitio Lienis says if there be need of bloud-letting in this Diarrhoea we must let it and if it be lawfull in this why not in a cholerick and melancholick one with a plenitude of the whole Saxonia V. Mercurius Diaphoreticus given for several days to 12 grains takes away all impurities of the body which sometimes use to create stubborn Fluxes Riverius VI. Where a melancholick humour abounds which is dry astringents are altogether improper for the noxious humour being thereby increased affords matter for the Flux Therefore we should rather treat it with thickners and coolers Which rule should not onely be observed in this case but in any other Flux where there is suspicion of black Choler Into which opinion my observation forced me which I had of a woman at Vicenza the last year who being sick of a Dysentery and Fever after she had been purged with boiled Whey and the peccant matter had been diminished not a little by washing Clysters when she came to astringents was evidently hurt by them for besides than the Flux abated not at all and the Fever was not a little exasperated she had a sowre taste so constantly in her mouth that she complained more of it than of any other Symptome Now I knew this happened because she was of an atribilarious Complexion Wherefore laying aside astringents altogether and using thickning broths and attemperating Medicines not long after this the troublesome taste went out of her mouth and the Flux and Fever at length left her and the Woman was perfectly cured Prosper Mâ—rtianus con in loc Hippocrates lib. 4. Acut. vers 122. If the belly be moist and wasting and the mind troubled and the Patients scarce give answer to what they are asked c. which he says are melancholick things then prescribes cold and thick sorbitions and stopping potions more vinous than astringent These Potions as they must have no excess in their qualities to the end they may repress the intense qualities of the humours so in deriving the same humours to the urinary passages by their diuretick virtue they stop the Flux it self but astringents by their drying faculty render them sharper And if they partake of black Choler promote the generation of them Now things that provoke urine are most proper to cure Fluxes of the Belly where there is no room for astringents Idem ad vers 128. If vinous potions be proper because they carry the humours to the passages of urine then the use of Quinces especially of their juice seems proper which beside their astringent virtue are so remarkably diuretick that as Pascalius in the 50th chap. of his method testifies Alfonsus King of Naples by the use of them fell into a Diabetes ¶ But this distinction of things that stop a Loosness must be observed Things that stop a Loosness are twofold some doe it with astriction others without astriction by resisting the cause of the Loosness As if the Belly be loose through the acrimony or Saltness of the juices extersive things by taking away what sticks to the Intestines use to stop it and sorbitions that take off the edge from these qualities as thick things without taste Vallesius comm in eum locum such as flower of several sorts If by reason of burning Heat whence come consuming Fluxes Water cooled in Snow may stop it If through multitude
¶ Also a Sponge wet in water wherein the greater Pine-nuts bruised have been boiled Joh. Manardus is very good if the face be washt therewith 6. A piece of white Vitriol dissolved in such a quantity of water as the Eyes may bear may be used with success ¶ This Ointment is accounted singular for an Epiphora Take of Verdigriece 12 grains Camphire 1 drachm prepared Tutty half an ounce fresh Butter which must be melted with Rose-water and boiled a little 6 drachms Mix them make an Unguent put a piece about as big as a Pease into the greater corner of the Eye and let the Eye-lids be slightly anointed Platerus 7. In this Disease especially if it arise from a cold humour Water of Golden-rod wherein burning Frankincense has been extinguished is commended Sennertus 8. This Powder wonderfully restrains Tears Take the Shell of Citrine Myrobalans infuse them in Rose-water for two days dry them and powder them infuse them again three or four times in Rose-water Keep it ¶ Take dried Rue boil it in Honey and Vinegar strain it through a linen Cloth when it is strained anoint the Eyes with it it will most certainly restrain Tears ¶ This is a singular Remedy Burn some Frankincense and extinguish it often in Rose-water Joh Stâ—â—herus Drop it into the Eyes 9. This is a most experienced thing Wash the Eyes three or four times a day with Water wherein Gold smiths quench their Gold and Silver or their Tongs This will be better if a little Frankincense Mastick Aloes and Litharge be first boiled in it ¶ And this is an admirable thing Take of Juice of Fenil Pomegranate Sorrel Celandine purified Honey each 1 ounce Beat them together in a Brass vessel and let them stand in dung for 2 days Lapis Calaminaris and Antimony each half an ounce may be added Make a Collyry Erysipelas or St. Anthony's-Fire The Contents Respect must be had to the malignant quality joined with it I. Bloud must be let II. Purging is convenient onely towards the end III. We must use topical Medicines with caution IV. It refuses Suppuraters in soft parts V. Sleep must be avoided if it seize the face VI. When Coriander is proper VII An experienced Topick VIII Leeches good in an ulcerous one IX An ulcerous one in the Leg cured by anointing it with Spirit of Vitriol X. The Cure of the Pustules by pricking XI One that came often in the Face cured by an Issue in the Arm. XII One anointed with Oil caused a Gangrene XIII The Cure of an exulcerated one XIV How Frog spawn water may be used XV. Medicines I. IT is commonly believed it has its rise from yellow Choler but some of the Moderns rather derive it from thin bloud for 1. The Colour is a token rather of bloud than bile which is red when it ought to be pale or yellow as is manifest in the Jaundice 2. Although the Colour be vehement enough yet it is not so sharp as in Diseases arising from yellow Choler wherefore it is not so frequently exulcerated as Ring-worms and other Tumours caused by bile and when it is exulcerated it is not so much from its own nature as from the alteration of it 3. They are seldom obnoxious to it that are of a hot and dry constitution lean brown or black which is most suitable to breed yellow Choler but they rather that are sanguine fat fleshy and red 4. The fleshy parts the Thighs Legs Face Neck Breasts and the like are oftner affected than others 5. This Disease comes most between thirty and forty years of age about which time there is most bloud in the body But yet the cause must not be ascribed simply to fulness but rather to a depraved and peculiar quality of the bloud which proceeds from the putrefaction and corruption of its thinner part for Nature being stimulated by that malignant quality drives the vitious humour to the outside of the body A sign whereof is that this Disease seizes one like the Pestilence so that they who never had it before think they are taken with the Plague till the Disease shew it self in some part Hence it is the common practice when the Paroxysm comes and the Rose appears to take Medicines which help Nature's motion and drive the matter from the inner parts to the outer as Treacle Mithridate Water or Rob of Elder These Medicines taken in the beginning are approved on where plenty of humours is not urgent Sennertus otherwise it is safer to remove the antecedent cause II. Celsus especially commends Bloud-letting whom Paulus lib. 4. follows Galen 14. meth 2. ad Glauconem seems averse to it But I follow Reason rather than Authority for it is an acute Disease which must quickly be opposed a kind of Inflammation from the thinner Bloud or at least its Ichor and the hottest of it But in such a Heat who dare omit Bleeding or fly to other Remedies and neglect it since it draws from the part where the fluxion is evacuates helps transpiration and readily draws out the bilious bloud as it lies in the Veins If a sincere Erysipelas occur arising from Bile alone such as Galen supposes and if a bilious Cacochymie redound in the habit of body then Bleeding may be let alone for fear of the ebullition of cholerick humours III. Although Galen 13. m. m. seem to approve of Purging yet we must proceed to it with great caution and not till the declension lest the humours being stirred run to the part affected Wherefore after the seventh day Electuary of Juice of Roses with Cassia may be given and after it some pounds of Whey Fortis IV. The Ancients and most Writers of Chirurgery do very much use Coolers even Water it self the coldest of all yea they also mix with them Astringents and Stupefiers as Henbane Mandrake Opium Hemlock But the Modern reprehend this common Cure not without the suffrage of reason and experience for since the sharp matter exciting the Rose is not without malignity if its going out be hindred by these very cooling binding and repellent things it returns inwards and seizes the nobler and inner parts to the hazard of life hence a Phrenzy comes from an Erysipelas in the Head struck in Finally by these things the matter is shut up in the part affected whence putrefaction and suppuration which is often attended by a Gangrene Which thing since it often happens from the cure of the Greeks and Arabians they admonish us that the part may be so far cooled as that the heat may remit and the Patient confess himself not to feel so great a heat with the turning of the red colour into a livid But it may easily fall out that before sufficient caution can be used in this case such dangers may already be at hand Wherefore the case seems not to differ much from that of Burns For if a burnt part be dipt in cold water it does but
the greatest part of these humours will go to the urinary passages Idem VI. There are some that maintain all manner of Womens Whites may be cured by diuretick Medicines but they are in a manifest errour The causes must be distinguished and according to the various nature of them different methods of cure must be insisted on This Disease comes sometimes from the fault of the whole body and sometimes of the womb When the whole body is full of an ill habit or cacochymie or the Liver is obstructed or the Spleen or Stomach is weak or the Head supplies excrements then the womb may be thus troubled We must consider what humours abound hot or cold and how they are affected For it shews they are hot when this excrement is sharp and scalding so as it eats whatever part it touches and sometimes causes itching and Ulcers or chaps with a sense of heat besides when it is stinking and yellow It will doe well to consider here the temperament natural and acquisititious the preceding causes the habit of the body and season of the year Contrary signs will indicate contrary humours When therefore the flux in the womb comes from these causes when hot and bilious humours abound I most suspect this method of cure by Diureticks For who can think that a hot Disease can be removed by very hot and drying Medicines for suppose that evacuation made by Diureticks may doe some good certainly greater damage will ensue from increase of the quality Indeed it is my custome to reduce such bodies to a good state Universals premised with a Ptisan well prepared adding the greater cold Seeds And I do profess I have often cured with Asses and Goats milk uterine fluxes that have been given over by other Physicians in thin bodies with sharp humours This is my peculiar method The first four days I give a quart of Milk that the whole Body may be well purged and 10 two quarts for fifteen days but boiled and the days following to forty one in which time I generally found they were cured I give Milk chalybeate A most certain and rare Remedy But if the humours be cold and there be obstructions in the Bowels if there be a cold intemperature of the whole or of the principal parts who will deny Diureticks given according to art Does any one doubt but they have a deobstruent heating cutting and cleansing faculty Augenius VII Hippocrates 2. de morb Mul. vers 116. among divers sorts of Uterine fluxes propounds the yellow flux in which what is voided is like a rotten Egg when the white and yelk are mixt together from a mixture of which a yellow colour arises which indicates vitelline Bile Hippocrates cures this Flux thus First he purges upwards with Hellebore and then downwards that the whole body may be rid of the Cacochymie Secondly he orders a moistning and temperate Diet which may cool and qualifie the hot and sharp humours Then he gives astringent Medicines which may stop the flux and he changes the Diet into a contrary course If the Disease do not give way to these things he returns to the former Diet which he orders to be continued so long till the acrimony of the humours abate which the heating of he Ulcers the abating of the Inflammation and what is voided will shew for then he finishes the Cure by Exsiccants and Astringents Let the Moderns consider this method of cure who go the contrary way to work for they order a drying Diet first and give a decoction of the same faculty to drink And after they have by this their way of Cure brought the sharp fretting humours to the height of acrimony they betake them to a contrary method and turn their whole intention to cooling and moistning For they do not observe that by giving Medicines in the beginning which are actually moist and potentially dry they commit a double errour because they increase the humours by actual humidity which should rather be diminished by evacuations and by the drying and hot quality the hot and sharp quality of the same humours is intended and the hot intemperature of the Bowels if there be any is increased and by this means they give assistence to the Disease and its Cause And when as afterwards they betake themselves to coolers and moistners they commit other two faults for by coolers they clog the body full of sharp humours and by moistners they dissolve the humours which had formerly been dried by the preceding exsiccation Martianus câ—m in cit loc whereby they make the Patient every day worse VIII Astringents must-never be used till the antecedent matter be well evacuated and derived otherwise those humours retained run to the more noble parts and cause grievous symptoms As Galen writes it befell Boëthius his Wife whose Belly swelled with the preposterous use of Astringents the serous humours being retained which used before to be evacuated This also must be observed that while we use Astringents the antecedent matter may be diverted another way and the breeding of it hindred Riverius IX They do not advise ill who in the Whites order Issues in the Hips and in the inside of the Legs for so they affirm the Whites are amended while the serous matter is averted to the crural Veins They are good especially if the Disease be inveterate From Galen 5. Aph. 56. it is evident that among the causes which hinder monthly purgation this is not the least when the humours incline some other way than to the womb like as he said that some excretions whether natural or made by Art as Ulcers do make revulsion of and derive the bloud from the womb and transfer it to other parts The same judgment may be given of vitious humours falling upon the womb Do not we also know from Hippocrates that making much water in the night signifies that one goes but little to stool Quâ—ius de Quaesitis X. I have observed in Women that were never before troubled with the Whites they have followed the taking of a Purge when Nature by taking one has been excited to other excretions and that many Women when they have been bathing have contracted this Disease not by Contagion but because by the constant use of the Bath as Nature discharges the excrements by Sweat so also the same by this excretion expells especially what is too thick to be carried off by Sweat Platerus XI The Arteries of the Nose and partly also the Veins discharge their excrementitious humidities into the spongy parts about the Nose and Jaws for these Vessels are divaricated in the flesh of the Nostrils and Jaws like Spiders-webs and sweat out a kind of dew just as water sweats through earthen ware before it is glazed But how comes it to pass that many void little or nothing at the Nose I answer that very few are found who are of so happy a temper as to be void of excrements This Driness of the Nose and
had rather prevent all mischief by a frugal Diet Exercise Bleeding and Purging XIII It seems an old Flux should be stopt 1. The Flux is toto genere preternatural 2. Nature is weakned by spending of the spirits 3. The Body is cooled and deprived of its aliment thereby It seems it should not be stopt 1. Upon the Authority of Hippocrates 6. Aphor. 12. 2. For fear of the recourse of the Bloud to the Liver and to the noble parts 3. Divers mischiefs follow the stopping it especially a Quartane-ague and a Jaundice from the Spleen as Joubertus lib. de Quart cap. 9. says For the decision of this case we must observe that this Flux as it is made by the expulsive faculty forced by the superfluous and noxious Bloud in an absolute propriety of speaking is preternatural wherefore in that thing it differs from the menstruous Flux because this is commonly agreeable with sound Constitutions inasmuch as provident Nature hath granted a redundance of good Bloud and will have the same discharged by the Womb that in its proper time it may serve to nourish the Child Therefore the Flux of the Haemorrhoids does not happen to nor should be procured in well and healthy Constitutions as Solenander sect 3. cap. 20. says But to whom it is peculiar and by custome natural in them it must be governed by singular medical prudence that it may neither be suppressed longer than is good for the Body nor void the humour in greater abundance than is consistent with the Rules of Health Therefore Jacchinus in 9. Rhas c. 72. says well Sometimes it must be let alone if it return at periods and be not excessive Sometimes it must be stopt if it hurt the strength so that Concoction is vitiated and a Dropsie may thence follow Yea we must observe here what Salvus Sclanus has Comm. in Art Med. Gal. l. 3. That in many Diseases and Fevers evacuation is made by the haemorrhoid Veins by applying Leeches which must be set not onely to such as use to be opened but to whom this evacuation is not usual if we conjecture that adust Bloud does abound for this evacuation eases the Body of that unprofitable burthen and also drives away all those Diseases to which Melancholy affords matter which Hippocrates lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reckons up To the Arguments we must say that the affirmative do conclude as to a Flux of laudable Bloud in Natures not used to it coming without any periods That the negative do intend those Haemorrhoids that evacuate peccant Bloud in Natures used to them Horstius Dec. 6. probl qâ— 8. and at certain times in such as are endued with a sort of neutral constitution of Body XIV The Flux of the Haemorrhoids is sometimes so pertinaceous that it is impossible to stop it by revulsion or by astringent Medicines I experienced such a pertinacy in a Noble-man at Venice 26 years old of a sanguine Complexion in Spring-time who was first ill for he had never had them before of the external Haemorrhoids running too much When I was called to him when neither Bloud-letting nor dry Cupping-glasses set to his Back nor Ligatures nor astringent Medicines internal and external did any good and the Patient was then in danger of his Life I propounded according to Hippocrates and Aetius contrary to Aquapendent the Burning of the Veins that bled I confirmed my opinion by Aph. 6. sect 1. and Aph. 6. sect 8. And when the Patient found that Death was not far off he admitted of Chirurgery Wherefore making haste home I furnished my self with pointed or oval Instruments and when I came back gave them to a Servant to bring them to me red hot With which being very hot I touched severally all the little mouths of the haemorrhoidal Veins which poured out the Bloud and brought a crust on them beginning with the highest first lest the Bloud falling from them untouched should quench the hot Irons before the operation was finished Thus the Noble-man recovered his former health If Nature had formerly often opened the Haemorrhoids and had been accustomed to transmit the superfluous Bloud to this part onely I had left one untouched to be stopt by Plasters and Astringents so that it might either be opened of it self or very easily by Art and a passage might be made whereby the Bloud which is gathered daily in the Body and uses to be evacuated at set times might be evacuated to prevent those Diseases Scaltetus Arm. Chir. Tab. 44. which Hippocrates mentions 6. Aph. 12. and 6. Epid. sect 3. text 33 34. XV. In the Cure which is performed by Medicines care must be taken of the Liver and Spleen because the mesaraick Vessels are inserted into these parts especially if they be hot or weak Also obstructions of the Bowels and mesaraick Veins must be opened if they give the original to this Disease And I have sometimes cured this contumacious Flux perfectly with steel-Steel-pills At the same time above all things the fault of the Bloud must be amended with the greatest Care which seems to be the primary cause of this Flux Which if it be sharp and bilious must be corrected by an Infusion of Rheubarb often repeated especially with Tamarinds which according to Mercurialis have an admirable faculty to check both in Decoctions and given in substance instead whereof our tart Prunes may be given frequently eaten before Meals If the Bloud be hot and thin it must be cooled and thickned if watry it must be dried if much there must be a thin Diet. For it is vain to think of stopping the Flux Riverius before the original of it be removed XVI The Pain of the Haemorrhoids proceeds from bad humours transmitted to the sedal Veins and not onely from melancholick ones as Galen seems to believe lib. de atra bile 4. Forti cons 97. cent 2. but sometimes from bilious and pituitous ones according to Avicenna XVII For Haemorrhoids to be prickt that are distended with the afflux of much Bloud is no new thing Massaria is of opinion that they should rather be opened with a Knife than have Leeches applied to them Where the Pen-knife seems too cruel especially in Children Women and in a word the effeminate let alone the Knife and take the hamulous Pericarpium of the Teazle fix a piece of a Leaden Bullet to it that you may drive it the more certainly in so you may strike the part and take away as much of the humour as is requisite Many testifie that this small thing may be done with safety Severinus Med. Esâ— p. â—1 XVIII The haemorrhoid Veins are sometimes prominent outwardly but often are latent within Some bleed others not Pain sometimes precedes excretion of Bloud they often bleed without Pain and they are painfull also when no bleeding follows The Pain may be so violent that the Bladder being ill by Sympathy a stoppage of Urine follows A Man was troubled with the blind and internal
negligent and those that look after them put them too soon to their feet it gives great occasion to this mischief in Children and Youths oftentimes the same separation of the head of the Thigh-bone from the neck of the bone happens and it is commonly taken for a disjointing This errour in Diagnosticks often hinders the cure and costs the Patient dear In both cases indeed extension is necessary but it were far better to know the very truth of the matter Rolfinccius and by judgment to comprehend it Convulsio or A Convulsion XL. Let no man wonder that I persuade to Bleeding of young children since Bloud as far as ever I could observe hitherto may as safely be taken out of their Veins as out of old peoples And indeed it is so necessary that without bloud-letting we cannot certainly cure some Symptoms which befall children for example How can we cure childrens Convulsions when they are breeding their Teeth which come upon them in the ninth or tenth month with Swelling and Pain in the Gums when the Nerves are pressed upon and irritated by the Teeth whence these Symptoms arise without letting of bloud which alone is far to be preferred in this case above the most famous Specificks that are yet known Some of which doe harm by their adventitious heat and while they are believed to oppose the Disease by some occult quality they militate against it with their manifest heat Sydenham and kill the Patient XLI It is incumbent on us to prevent Convulsions in children or to cure them as they are beginning For if the former children of the same Parent have been subject to Convulsions that mischief must be prevented in them that are born afterwards by the timely use of Medicines To this end it is usual to give the child some antispasmodick Medicine as soon as it is born some give it a few drops of the purest Honey others a spoonfull of Canary-wine with a little Sugar others a spoonfull of Oil of sweet Almonds others one drop of Oil of Amber or half a spoonfull of Epileptick Water Some within three or four hours after the child is born make an Issue in the Neck then if it be of a fresh colour they draw one ounce and an half or two ounces of bloud from the Jugulars by Leeches having a care that it do not bleed while it is a-sleep Let the Temples and Neck be gently rubbed with such an Ointment Take of Oil of Nutmegs by expression two drachms Ol. Capivii three drachms Amber one scruple Hang a piece of Elk's hoof or Paeony root about the Neck The Nurse must take Antispasmodick Medicines constantly Willis XLII But if an infant be actually taken with a Convulsion because Issues operate but slowly and little it is expedient to make a Blister in the Neck or behind each Ear and unless a cold constitution hinder Bloud must be taken from the jugular Veins by Leeches Liniments must be applied to the Temples Nostrils and Neck and Plasters to the Feet Clysters which may loosen plentifully must be given every day Every sixth or eighth hour specifick Medicines must be taken inwardly Vntzerus highly commends the Gall of a sucking Whelp taken in a little Linden-flower-water A Learned Physician told me that he has known several cured with this Remedy Idem XLIII When Convulsions proceed from difficulty in breeding of Teeth as this Symptome is secondary and not so dangerous so in the Cure our chief and principal aim need not be directed to it but sometimes we may be solicitous for easing of Pain and for removing the febrile intemperature Wherefore both the Patient and his Nurse must use a spare and cooling Diet the Gums where the Teeth are coming out must be rubbed or cut open and when the parts are swelled and pained Anodynes must be applied Clysters and Bleeding are often proper in this case Idem XLIV Sleep must be procured and the raging of the Bloud laid In the mean time Antispasmodick Medicines must be used but temperate ones and such as do not disturb the Bloud and Humours Blisters because they evacuate the Serum that is apt to be poured into the Head often give relief Idem XLV When children are taken with Convulsions neither presently after they are born nor upon their breeding of Teeth but upon other occasions and accidents the cause of such an Ail does usually reside in the Head or somewhere about the parts of Concoction When there is a suspicion of the former as usually it appears from signs which argue that too much serous matter is gathered about the Brain the Remedies beforementioned ought to be given in a little larger Dose Moreover such as bear Purging well may sometimes take a Vomit or a gentle Purge Wine and Oxymel of Squills also Mercurius dulcis Rheubarb and Resin of Jalap are of great use Idem XLVI When the cause of the Convulsion appears to be in the Bowels or when Worms or sharp griping Humours are found to be in fault for the Worms a Purge may be given of Rheubarb or Mercurius dulcis with a little Resin of Jalap Formerly I gave a Boy that was strongly afflicted with Convulsions who was ready to die a Dose of Mercurius dulcis with Resin of Jalap He had four stools and voided twelve Worms and quickly recovered Idem XLVII If we suspect that the Convulsion proceeds from the irritation of the Stomach and Guts by sharp Humours we must either purge or vomit gently or doe both one after the other To this purpose gentle Emeticks must be given of Wine of Squills or Salt of Vitriol if the Patient at any time have an inclination to vomit But if you shall rather think fit to purge an Infusion or Powder of Rheubarb Syrup of Cichory with Rheubarb or of Roses with Agarick must be given And I have often seen the Convulsion cured in children by giving these Medicines in time Moreover in this case Clysters must be given frequently But we must not omit to apply external Medicines Fomentations Liniments and Plasters to the Belly Dentitio or Breeding of Teeth XLVIII Experience testifies that a Hare's Brain is good to breed Teeth for by its coolness it helps to temper the heat of the Gums and by astriction strengthens those parts perhaps it does it by a specifick property but it may be doubted because here a hot attenuating virtue seems rather requisite than a cold astringent one since the coming out of the Teeth would be helped thereby I answer That things temperately cold and moderately astringent do strengthen Nature so that the Heat having thereby got a temper may more commodiously perform its operation Horstius XLIX Strobelbergerus lib. de Dentium Podagra mentions a certain bastard Dentition when some Swellings bunch out in the back part of the Gums when children make a noise and sibilation as they suck the Milk The Physician may be ascertained of this spurious Dentition if he
about the Heart oftentimes the Stomach sympathizes and casts all up that is in it by Vomit Nay I have known in some young Children that this Disease has fallen now and then on other parts and has raised Convulsive motions in the Face Eyes and Limbs and sometimes has proved mortal The Disease is difficult and usually very long in cure The principal indications will be to purge the serous and sharp humours drowning the Lungs out of the bloud and bowels that their tendency to the Brain and sometimes to the Breast may be prevented And to strengthen the Parts that they may not easily admit the superfluities of the estuating Serum To these ends Vomits and gentle Purges are almost always good and sometimes must be repeated Blisters are often usefull yea if the Disease be stubborn an Issue may be made in the Neck or Arm or about the Armpits Drink and liquid Aliment must then be taken in less quantity than usual and instead thereof a Diet-drink of Sarsa China Sanders shavings of Hartshorn and diuretick and antispasmodick ingredients may be used In this case some remedies are cried up as Specificks such as Cup-moss given in Powder or boiled in Milk and so given frequently every day A decoction or Syrup of Castor and Saffron Decoctions of Root of Poeony Misletoe of the Oak and Hyssop have done good to many Water of Black Cherries Saxifrage and Water of Snails distilled with Whey Willis and proper ingredients are often given with success CIII Whether in Childrens Cough may the Breast be anointed The Negative seems probable 1. Because all Anointing stops the Pores of the Skin 2. And the virtue of the Ointment reaches not to the inner parts 3. By rubbing of the Ointment on hot the fluxion to the part affected is greater But I hold the Affirmative because such Liniments have an emollient digesting and dissipating faculty Therefore I answer to the first That Anointing actually cold stops the Pores of the Skin but not that which is actually and potentially hot 2. It is sufficient to help Nature and to promote the discharge of the peccant matter outwardly by occult transpiration 3. It is granted that some attraction is made but it is to the exteriour and sound part Horstius CIV In Childrens Coughs which our Country people call the Hooping Cough Bloud-letting gives great relief Sydenham and far exceeds all pectoral Medicines Varae Tibiae or Crooked Legs CV Oftentimes Children about two years old when they begin to go are crook-legged for which their carefull Mothers take the advice of Chirurgeons and they try to set their Legs and Thighs streight with divers Engines but to no purpose because naturally and of their own accord when they are three or four years old Formius obs 30. the Legs and Muscles grow strong and the Parts return to their natural state Ventris Dolor Tumor Pain or Swelling in the Belly CVI. What remains of the Navel-string after cutting mortifies and in four or five days time falls off of it self And hence unless you put a linen rag three or four times double about the part which contracts great Cold pains in the Belly arise which are ascribed to other causes It is a sign this is the cause for they abate and cease by applying heating things CVII Children are often troubled with inflammation of the Belly from crude Milk which is neither well Purged by Vomit nor Stool It is indeed Crudity proceeding from abundance of Food which exceeds the strength of the Stomach which unless it be quickly prevented degenerates either into tedious fevers or into a loosness reaching and vomiting watching and restlesness There attends this Disease a gentle Fever or celerity of Pulse shortness of Breath a leaden or pale colour of the Face and swelling of the Eyes and Face In which case we must be more solicitous for discharging the abundance than for strengthning the Stomach or alteration I indeed endeavour to diminish the matter by Clysters Suppositories and parsimony of Milk or of other Food If the Disease go not off presently we must not stand dodging but give a gentle purging potion After which I order such things to be applied to the Belly as have a virtue to attenuate incide and make lax what is in the Belly that it may the more easily go off Mercatus CVIII In children yea and in grown people there is often a hardness and inflation of the Belly the cause whereof is the hardness of the Mesaraick Glands and so there is onely passage for the thinner Chyle to the great lacteal Vein upon which the flesh of the Muscles grows limber the Body is rendred heavy and tiresome yea and at length a Fever and Consumption arises I use to remove the Disease by this Liniment without any trouble Take of Vnguent Altb. compos 1 ounce Arthanit Martiat each 2 drachms Oil of white Lilies Chamaemil each 2 drachms Mix them It is good to chew these Trochiscs all the time of the Disease Take of Steel prepared Crabs-eyes prepared each 1 scruple Tartarum vitriolatum half a drachm Lapis Prunellae 16 grains Spec. Aromat Rosat 1 scruple white Sugar 2 ounces Mix them Make Trochiscs Purging in this case must be celebrated onely with Cassia Cream of Tartar and laxative Syrups for the Glands will not bear stronger Purgatives Barbette Vermes or Worms CIX According to Galen's judgment 4. Meth. the principal scope in curing of Worms is to get them out of the Body But because they cannot easily be got out while they are alive therefore it is necessary first to kill them or so to stony them that they cannot resist the Medicines And the things that kill or stony them are all bitter sharp inciding astringent things and sharp and oily ones Mercurialis CX Because these Animals must be cheated and are delighted with sweet things the onely way is always to mix delectable things with such as kill them and therefore they doe very ill who give bitter or sowre things alone for the Worms will not suck plain Poison But if the Poison be mixt with sweet things ludificantur lumbrici as Lucretius says of children and therefore they draw the Poison with Honey and sweet things Wherefore Medicines that are given for the Worms must always be mixt with Sugar Milk Honey or Honey and Water For my children at home I order an Oxymel to be made of the Decoction of Honey the sharpest Vinegar and Wormwood For such an Oxymel admirably preserves children from the Worms Idem CXI In those Medicines that are given by way of Clyster always sweet things must either be given alone or must prevail above the rest The reason is because these Animals being drawn by the sweetness come down to the lower parts On the contrary in Medicines that are taken by the mouth the sharp or bitter things must prevail over the sweet The reason is because if there were more sweet than bitter these Animals might
been dismissed by their Physicians For after pus is made and the Pain and Fever are greatly abated many are thought to have come to an end of their Disease and to security who have pus gathered inwardly in some Imposthume Some of whom by the benefit of a strong Nature are cured by breaking of the Imposthume and voiding the pus Others die consumptive when the pus putrefies malignantly and with it the internal parts or of a constant Fever which putrid Vapours carried from the part to the Heart do cause Or the Imposthume breaks but too late and when the strength is too low to bear a discharge of the pus Therefore it behoves us much to know the signs of an internal Inflammation turning to pus And many do not know them because they are not able to discern internal Inflammations and laying aside all care of latent Ails they consider nothing almost but what they can comprehend by their Senses without any ratiocination how to know the parts affected and to be able to distinguish them from other dolorous Diseases or the great from little ones For whether they will cause an Abscess or Suppuration I know from three things the Place Magnitude and Manner of the Inflammations themselves For Inflammations of hot parts unless prevented by discussion do suppurate more than those of colder parts and therefore as it is said in the Prognosticks Swellings in the Belly do imposthumate less than those in the Hypochondria and they least of all that are below the Navel Moreover small Inflammations most of them are dispersed especially if they be in hot places Great ones in hot places indeed do suppurate in cold ones they remain crude and invincible As to the manner they that are round and eminent circumscribed in a proper place and gathered into one signifie there will be Suppuration But they that are extended and broad and dispersed do not often suppurate If they be small or of thin matter they disperse If great or of thick matter they have a Crisis by bleeding or by some evacuation Vallesius if the event of them be good XII Unguents are not so proper for Inflammations unless to promote Suppuration wherefore Unguents are forbid in an Erysipelas though there be some by name Rondeletius who prescribe Unguents in this Disease It is certain also that Ointments improvidently applied to external Inflammations have often caused a Gangrene And therefore in Quinsies they are not generally so proper as you may find them in Books Welelius See Abscessus BOOK I. Ischiadius Dolor or The Sciatica The Contents Bleeding is proper I. Vomiting is better than Purging II. Sharp Clysters are good III. The Benefit of Issues and Causticks IV. Where they must be applied in a bastard Sciatica V. A pertinacious one cured with a red hot Iron VI. The benefit of Vesicatories VII Of Cupping-glasses VIII The cure of the Sciatica coming from fluid matter according to Hippocrates his mind IX The Cure of the Sciatica coming from fâ—â—t matter according to his mind X. The Cure of one proceeding from a hot cause XI Sometimes it arises from Bile XII A Sciatica from Driness XIII A compendious Cure of one arising from Cold. XIV Medicines I. THough Bloud do not abound if the Disease be inveterate Bloud must be taken out of the Vena poplitis or malleoli of the side affected without all contradiction because by Bleeding in this Vein a great derivation is obtained but because it is very difficult to open the Vena poplitis instead thereof a certain Vein was found by the Chirurgeons of Rome within these few days which a little above the Heel runs towards the Ankle to the outside It is truly a branch of the Vena poplitis if it be opened and eight or nine ounces of Bloud taken thence in the very same hour which is wonderfull the Pain of the Sciatica be it never so inveterate ceases Bleeding also with Leeches in the haemorrhoid Veins is admirable good for the Sciatica for there is a great consent between the Veins of these two places Zecchius cons 43. ¶ Mr. Puri of Newemburg a Man of Sixty sanguine and as he himself said one that took a course to breed much bloud had been confined to his bed six weeks by the violence of the Sciatica in his left Hip. All the time he kept his bed he thought there was no need of a Physician and therefore he sent not for me At length being tired by the diuturnity and violence of the pain he called me I presently order the most turgid Vein of the opposite Foot and they were all very turgid to be opened the Bloud ran full stream black and thick to about a pound with so much relief that the next day he left his Bed and the third day after bleeding his Chamber I can give a fresher instance of the efficacy of bleeding in the Sciatica while this is printing in the Month of April anno 1681. I am called to a lusty Man about 28 years old of a sanguine and bilious complexion well set and a stout Souldier He had been confined 15 days to his Bed by a painfull Sciatica in his left Hip About 18 days before he had by the advice of a Chirurgeon for revulsion as he said opened a Vein in the Arm but to no purpose I reckoning the Disease came from abundance of bloud settling there having first loosned his belly order a good quantity of bloud to be taken out of the opposite foot and likewise out of the foot on the same side with so good success that the next day he went about his business Anointing with Vnguentum dialthaeae Nitre and Oil of Elder which used to doe others good exasperated his pain II. Many prefer Vomits before Purges because they evacuate the humours by a way remote from the part affected Rondeletius prefers Asarum Riverius ¶ Sciatica Pains will not bear purging for thereby the humours fall more on those places ¶ But Sennertus thinks this must be understood of insufficient purging Grato III. Sharp Clysters may be given even to bring bloud for so I have seen them doe some good in the Sciatica Crato IV. Issues are made in three places in the Leg in the inside outside and hind part of the Calf Here Spigelius used to make an Issue in the Sciatica with good success Clandorpiti Zecchius because the Vena Poplitis runs that way ¶ I must greatly commend a Cautery below the Knee on the outside of the same side that is affected for derivation sake V. In the Joint of the Thigh about the cavity of the Os Ischii the Gout is bred which they call the Sciatica If the Humour run into the Acetable and force the head of the thigh-bone out this Disease in sight proves difficult of cure and will at length cause halting if the Humour fall upon the origination of that great Nerve which creeps along the back part of the
is peccant in the Pox may be evacuated indeed by Coloquintida alone but this may be done far more successfully and easily if Mercurial Medicines be joined with it or if they be used alone for Mercurial Medicines use to work far more kindly and powerfully than all common Medicines Therefore Medicines of Mercury made both by sublimation and precipitation are deservedly commended both in purging of viscid Phlegm and especially in curing the Pox. There are two Sublimates one they call corrosivum the other dulce Letting the former alone because of its great acrimony and great danger of future mischief leaving that to rash People I must recommend to every Man Mercurius sublimatus dulcis which is made of the foresaid Corrosive mixt with crude Mercury and so sublimed together after which it arises gentle and sweet and not corrosive any more Idem XXIX Beside the said Mercurius sublimatus as well corrosivus as dulcis many sorts of Mercurii praecipitati are commended which as they differ in colour so they do in virtue and manner of operation whilst some work by stool others by vomit or salivation Therefore we must sometimes use one sometimes another as there shall be occasion All of them may be used most commodiously in form of Pills lest Salivation should be raised before it be required And whereas here we commend Precipitate for Phlegm infected with the Poison of the Pox when we would purge it by stool you must know that the most fixt is the properest for this end For the more fixt Mercurius praecipitatus is the less it vomits or salivates and on the contrary And among all the Precipitates the Corallinus is most commended which has its name from the elegance of its colour and is made by abstraction of the acid spirit several times repeated Such a Mercury therefore variously prepared and made choice of according to the occasion i. e. the different constitution of the Patient and the various humours found in him we must use for eradicating of the Pox. Idem XXX And we must continue so long in taking of Mercurial Medicines till all the primary Symptoms of the Pox be taken away by means thereof But we must have especial care that we give them not in too great a quantity it is best to take them in a small quantity and often lest by stirring the humours too violently they doe more harm than good For Mercurial Medicines have a strange effect beyond all others because others usually doe their business quickly But Mercurials are slow in beginning their operations and long in continuing them and cannot always either easily or safely be stopt Idem XXXI But the great danger Patients are in from Mercurial Medicines is Salivation which they easily cause both in purging and vomiting whereby the Patients are in great danger of suffocation when the Glands about the Throat are swelled with viscid Phlegm Prudence therefore is necessary in administration of Mercurial Medicines which consists especially in a gentle use of them and an accurate observation of the disturbance which they cause in the Body before they strongly purge the humours Mercurial Medicines I say use above all others to make some singular alteration both about the Region of the Loins and about the Gums Cheeks and Throat and to give certain signs of their following operations When therefore the Physician hears his Patients complain after taking Mercurial Medicines of any trouble about the foresaid parts he must then carefully observe whether any evacuation be begun and whether reaching or any other irritation do promise a speedy evacuation Which uses therefore to proceed more slowly because the Mercury is taken up in conquering a pituitous and viscid humour which must be dissolved before it be expelled As long therefore as the agitation of the humours proceeds or increases so long must we abstain from giving any more Mercurial Medicines nor must we give any thing more than a little Broth or some convenient Decoction by means whereof the viscid humour may more easily be dissolved and so the operation of the Mercurial Medicine may be holpen A proper Decoction for this end may be made of Hidroticks and Diureticks whether it be taken weak and onely to alter the humour or stronger to cause Sweat or that be preferred which also evacuates by stool to the end the humours that are disturbed and inclined to evacuation by the Mercury may be carried more downwards and less upwards Idem XXXII Mercurius dulcis is almost a Divine Remedy in regard of its speedy curing and relieving the Sick which when it is well prepared may be given once in two or three days with 8 drachms of Lenitive Electuary for thirty or if need be for forty days together about twelve grains of it purge a strong Man well and without any Pain or Salivation Yet lest any thing malignant might stick to the Guts letting alone other Medicines they must be cleansed every week with Mel rosarum solutivum and a Decoction of Tamarinds in Cichory water with Citron Seeds For so I remember several setting aside the Decoction of the Wood except the second designed for drinking constantly have without long and tedious Sweating perfectly recovered and after that have had very healthy Children In Riverius cent 1. obs 95. a Boy of two years of age when the Decoction of the Wood would doe no good was cured by giving him 8 grains of Mercurius dulcis dextrously of a Pox which he had got from the Nurse Another that was born of an infected Woman by taking two or three grains of Mercurius dulcis with Sugar and Milk Rhodius cent 3. obs 84. the fifteenth day after he was born for a Month as Formius says in Riverius obs 26. XXXIII N. about 21 years old a common Whore was at length pustulous all over her Body and most horribly afflicted with Rhagades and Condylomata which were exulcerated about her obscene parts While therefore I was thinking of a desperate Cure for a desperate Disease Mercurius vitae offered it self with which for Purgings sake she began the twelfth day of November 1625. in this manner Take of Mercurius vitae 8 grains with mucilage of Tragacanth make a Pill after taking of which she had many stools much matter still remaining but without any trouble for which reason the same Dose was given her Novemb. 13. and it onely wrought four times The Dose was increased on the 14th to half a scruple it was made into two Pills and it purged her six times She having in this manner been pretty well purged took a Sudorifick Decoction every day twice with twelve grains of Sulphur auratum diaphoreticum for four days In the last days a caustick Mercurial water was applied Nov. 19. The Purge was repeated with eleven grains of Mercurius vitae which wrought moderately Nov. 20. The sudorifick Decoction with an addition of Sulphur auratum diaphoreticum was repeated Nov. 22. She took twelve grains of Mercurius vitae to
follows afterwards III. It is an errour not onely of the vulgar but also of some Physicians that the Hemorrhoids always benefit the Melancholick There are many Hypochondriacal Melancholists and of other sorts to whom the opening of the Hemorrhoid Veins is prescribed amongst the chief Remedies as if those Veins evacuated a thicker bloud than other Veins which I think to be very absurd The Authority of the Ancients and Moderns and mine own experience persuade me to this opinion Amongst the most ancient Hippocrates 6. Epid. sect 3. thought that the opening of the Hemorrhoids not by Leeches or otherwise which few have consider'd but by Nature her self is very profitable for preventing and curing very many Diseases bred of thin bloud as the Pleurisie Peripneumony Phagedoena or fretting Ulcer Biles Leprosie and other such like Yet it is not to be denied that the same profit those mad Melancholists that labour under black Choler according to Hippocrates's opinion Aphor. 11. sect 6. The Hemorrhoids supervening says he are profitable to those who are troubled with Melancholy and the Stone He speaks not a word of provoking them but onely approves of them if Nature unlock them of her own accord Now they flow not onely from a melancholick bloud but also from any other for Nature oft makes use of this flux to purge the bloud if there be any thing faulty in it or if its quantity exceed as in the too great abundance of bloud in women with child or such whose Terms are stopt and in the maimed whence bloud flows plentifully by them Hence Actuarius m. m. cap. 20. observes that besides from melancholick bloud these Veins are opened in those who intermit their usual exercises that use too full a Diet whose accustomed evacuations from other parts as the Nose or Womb are stopt or who have used to be let bloud Later Anatomists have observed that the Hemorrhoids are twofold some spring from the Vena cava and others from the Vena portae that those evacuate a more thin and pure bloud and these a thicker But this they do not doe always for a bloud that is pretty pure is sometimes evacuated by these latter and a thicker by the former Wherefore unless Nature shew that she attempts that evacuation these Veins are not to be rashly opened and if a pure and sparkling bloud come forth they are to be stopt presently for the Melancholick are worse by their evacuation When any opens them he cannot promise himself for certain that a melancholick bloud onely shall be emptied and not that which is pure and sparkling But if any have been accustom'd to them and be upon the suppression of them become melancholick mad nephritical or epileptical it will not be unprofitable to open them again that the humour which has its reflux towards the upper parts may be more safely poured forth by the accustomed ways whose passages are stopt up But if Nature do not affect this way we ought not to make a custome of it as Galen teaches 4. Aph. 25. That we should not accustome our selves to that evacuation that is made by the Hemorrhoids and Hollerius does rightly deny the opening of them if they do not swell and have never flowed before But if Nature incline that way in imitation of her we may open them otherwise by no means For though Nature do sometimes profitably evacuate bloud by the Hemorrhoids yet we may not always imitate her as in Fevers she sometimes carries off the Disease by Bleeding at the Nose or by Sweat but who will dare to open the Veins of the Nostrils or to provoke Sweat before signs of concoction or before Nature have shewn her inclination The same we must think of the Hemorrhoids Yet these things are not to be understood of particular Diseases for in them particular Veins may be opened thus we profitably procure Bleeding at the Nose in a Phrensie or Head-ach because these Veins communicate with the part affected Thus in the Nephritical and Splenical the Veins of the anus may be opened Primiros de vulg err l. 4. c. 51. but never in other Diseases that are more universal unless Nature follow this motion IV. As to Purgers there is says * Apud Scholtz cons 174. Crato in Hellebore a certain poisonous driness and moisture to be corrected of which correction I might say many things unless I remembred that of Mesue That it is a degree of wisedom not to come to strong Medicines save when weak have not benefited And although I know that almost all Practitioners do advise to give the strongest Medicines yet I am persuaded by Mesue that a weak Medicine often repeated does the same thing and with less danger as a strong does at once and together and I have learnt this to be true by the experience of many years I say nothing of how many and whom I have cured that have been ill of this Disease though I could do this truly but I can truly affirm that I never us'd Lapis Lazuli or Scammoniates I know that Senna is not onely safe but moreover inoffensive to the Stomach and gratefull to the Heart Let the Practitioner use it as I have done in melancholick Diseases Thus far Crato ¶ White Hellebore is celebrated by all Writers in Physick for melancholick and maniack Diseases But 't is better so to prepare it that it may work by stool than that it should work by vomit The manner of its preparation is this Boil it in Balm-water to the consumption of half and in the strained decoction boil some Prunes then with some Cassia newly drawn pass it through a Sieve and with Cinnamon and Sugar make an Electuary Or let its root be infused in the Pulp of Quinces and then taking away the root give the Quince Or infuse it in Mesue's decoction of Epithymum which give with the compound Syrup of Polypody But before the giving of it the humours are to be prepared for three days by Attenuaters and Inciders and the body is to be moistned with Meats of good juice in plenty by sleep rest and anointing the Body all over and the Belly is to be loosned by Clysters of Oil or of Milk and Butter See Sect. 11. of Mania V. Of Pills we must chuse those which evacuate gently and without trouble and not those which evacuate strongly Yet potions are to be preferr'd as drying less than Pills for Pills evacuate much and strongly Rondelet c. de Melan. and dry the body beyond measure by which drying the Patient is made worse VI. Melancholy in this place signifies not an humour but a Disease caused by the melancholick humour because many think this humour alone to be the cause thereof and direct all their Remedies to this alone But many things shew that it is not always caused by this humour and by vapours therefrom For we often see that those who labour under this symptome have no signs of this humour abounding yea that persons of any
reaches to the marrow or middle with the removing of the outer Lamina of the Skull without hurting the Dura mater lest the Brain be too much cooled and this shall be done by making a Cautery near the coronal Suture with a red hot and sharp Iron penetrating even to the marrow or to betwixt the Laminae rather than by true Terebration I say near the Suture to avoid hurting the Membrane which passes out by the Sutures If this be done and be kept open with a pellet it may benefit very much Sylvaticus cent 1. cons 58. See Examples in Rolfinc meth spec p. 413. Rhodius cent 1. obs 43. The Weakness of the Memory and Mind The Contents The Memory is not always to be restored by heating Medicines I. The Abuse of Confectio Anacardina Aqua magnanimitatis II. Where Issues are to be made III. Their Efficacy IV. Treacle and Mithridate ought to be rejected in Weakness of Mind V. I. I Can hardly consent to Galen's opinion that Forgetfulness depends on a cold Intemperature because I know several that have very cold Brains without impairing of their Memory which yet ought to follow if Galen's Arguments from the similitude of efficient Causes and from the similitude of cold Animals were of any strength I have seen the contrary in some forgetfull persons whose Cure I have undertaken in whom there was no manifest sign of Cold In some I discovered a notable Heat of the Brain whom I helped by the application of cooling Remedies about the coronal Suture I deny not but there is in many a notable dry Intemperature but I doubt whether the Memory be either diminished or abolished by this Intemperature alone Some cases observed by me increase the doubting I have known some lose their Memory quite by a great blow on the Head Galen from Thucydides relates that some who recovered of a Pestilence forgat all things that were by-past And what cold Intemperature is to be accused here I have seen a Woman that forgot all things who by a spontaneous loosness by which she evacuated cholerick Petr. Salv. Div. Annot. in Altimar c. 1. bloudy green mucous and the like stuff recover'd her lost Memory without the application of any particular Medicine to the Brain it self II. The pernicious custome both of Physicians and others is to be condemned who being indued with a weak Memory from their first constitution endeavour by violent Medicines to recover that which they have not lost For you may find young Students not a few who being desirous of a good Memory beg both by Intreaty and Money that Confectio anacardina may be given them Whence not a few either unsettle their Judgment or better not their Memory at all or are tormented with great Pains in their Head For who knows not that if we would change the natural temper of the Brain or any part into a better we must act leisurely and by degrees not with vehement and the most effectual Remedies as those are which are made of Anacardum which finding in the Heads and Bodies of young men nothing that is preternaturally thick cold and moist do waste and weaken the natural temper and substance whence proceed a thousand kinds of harms and the Memory perhaps becomes worse Such things help those indeed whose Memories are hurt Mercatus Pract. l. 1. c. 19. if they were good before by their natural constitution ¶ It is called Confectio Sapientum Yet it is to be given warily especially in those that are well for strengthning their Memory whence some give half a drachm or less of it in hot water that it s too much drying may be remitted But those who have their principal members hot are by no means to use it For even Experience has taught this that some have indeed acquired to themselves an admirable Memory by this confection but have not been very lively and have died in the very flower of their age Sennertus pract l. 1. part 2. c. 5. by having their body too much dried ¶ In both confirming and restoring the Memory Aqua magnanimitatis is of wonderfull virtue which see in Schroder's Pharmac lib. 2. cap. 38. and Hofman in clavi p. 50. 'T will be more powerfull if the Species anacardinae be extracted with it from three to six grains of whose essence being given once or twice a week in Wine or Lavender-water is a singular Remedy But note that this Water dries very much and therefore its use in the cholerick and more dry ought to be rare and with caution so that 't is rather good for the phlegmatick and melancholick ¶ See concerning its efficacy and another preparation of it in Miscell curios ann 3. viz. 1672. p. 605. from Wedelius Hartman prax c. 14. sect 2. where there is most excellent Counsel for an impaired Memory III. Issues help in these cases because when humours abound in the Brain it helps if they be evacuated by little and little and turned aside from the Brain But note that as I commend an Issue in the Armes so I condemn it in the Occiput because that place is the Seat of the Memory Mercurialis l. 1. c. 18. and 't is pernicious to evacuate the whole body by the part affected IV. I am wont to make Issues in the Head with very good success when the Memory is lost and Ratiocination impaired especially in case of a cold and moist Intemperature but the body must be first well purged Epiph. Ferdinandus hist 47. They must be made near or upon the Sutures three or four or more as shall seem necessary V. Some commend Treacle and Mithridate which I had rather omit because of the Opium which makes all the Senses stupid or more languishing though it have been a long time made I say 't is better to let them alone seeing there want not other things and no pain or necessity requires them here nor is there any malignity of humour Platerus Mensium fluor nimius or The too large Flux of the Terms The Contents Bleeding is very good I. We must often purge II. When Vomits have place III. Diureticks are unfit to make derivation IV. Astringents and Incrassaters being used long doe harm V. Opiates are profitable VI. Whether Astringents are to be applied VII The Cure of this Flux joined with an hysterical Suffocation VIII Sylvius's Causes and Cure IX I. PHlebotomy for Revulsion is to be celebrated in the Arme ever and anon stopping the orifice a little while with your finger A good quantity of bloud is to be let Riverius l. 15. c. 3. as much as the strength can bear ¶ I have known many who have been cured by being let bloud largely Holler aph 50. 5. when the flux could be stenched by no other Remedies II. Some Lenitive Medicine is not inconvenient which may bring Serosities plentifully out by stool for besides that it may make a Diversion it will cleanse the first ways and prepare them
Rickets The Content The Description Cause ' and Cure I. THE Rickets are a Disease proper to Children and peculiar almost to the English Nation The signs thereof are a swelling of the Belly about the Stomach especially on the right side under the region of the Liver the Epiphyses of the Bones at the Joints are too bulky for their Age or in comparison to the rest of the Body especially those of the Arms and Legs The Bones themselves are flexible almost like Wax so that they cannot sustain the weight of the Body and therefore their Legs and Thighs as also often the Back-Bone become crooked Their Head grows too big in proportion to their Bodies and their Chest is strait and their Breast-Bone at first deprest but afterwards sharp The containing Cause is a too thick clammy viscid obstructive moist and cold alimentary Juice in the Bowelâ— namely in one word the Cheesy part of the Bâ—â—od and the more serous part of the Blood in the Bones and Cartilages in the more notable Cavities and External parts And the Disease it self seems to consist in the position of a thicker Cheesy and obstructive Blood in the Bowels and also in a defect of Nutritious Juice owing to the Bones and External parts and in an afflux of serous Humour in lieu thereof The Antecedent Cause which makes and moves the containing is the weakness of the Pulse or a weak Circulation of the Blood which doth not sufficiently irradiate the mass of Blood with an influent heat for the preservation of its Heterogeneous parts in perfect mixture but they are coagulated and heaped up in divers parts The Procatarctick causes are either in the Parents oâ— Nurses or Infants In the Parents the Causes are a Gonorrhoea the Scurvy Kâ—ngs Evil the Lumbago or other long and especially cold and moist Diseases of the Brain and Genitals In the Nurses all such things may be causes as make their Milk thick viscid and obstructive And to the generation and hastening of this Distemper may contribute the bad custom of hiring Nurses to suckle the new-born Infants whose Milk as being old is oâ—t fibrous and thick whereas the serous Colostra or first Milk of the Mother were far better for the tender Infant who has need of Purging as well as Nutrition For the new-born Infant abounds with Phlegmatick Excrements in its Belly and requires a Medicamentous Miâ—k such as the Mothers is for the first Months which may both purge and nourish The Procatarctick Causes in the Infants are to be â—etched from our thick and moist Air and from the peculiar manner of nourishing and treating our Infants For no where that I know of is Flesh granted to Infants so largely and so soon as in England This Disease is most frequent amongst the Children of Persons of Quality next amongst those of the poorest sort and least amongst those of a middle Condition The cause of the first I reckon to be the intemperance of the Parents and because hired Nurses have the care of their Children and of the second besides bad Diet want of Fire long soaking in their Excrements and the use of cold and not well dried Clouts As to the Prognostick such as are born Ricketry or fall into them presently after they are born die all There are more Girls have them than Boys but the former recover sooner and more surely Those whose Sutures do not close but their Brain feels like a Quagmire generally die Those that can go are more easy to cure When the Neck can hardly bear the Head or where there is a great difficulty of breathing they seldom escape but when the Lungs are suppurated never The whole Cure is performed by satisfying these Indications viz. the thick and clammy Humours which obstruct and retard the Circulation of the Blood are to be prepared and evacuated the serous Humours are to be carried off the Circulation of the Blood or the influent heat is to be increased in the outer parts and lastly the External Symptoms are to be taken away by appropriate Remedies These are reckoned to be Specificks in this Disease the Root of Osmund Royal the Livers of Rooks dried in an Oven after the Bread is drawn and poudered also Frogs Livers Our Women anoint the Spine and all the Limbs every day once with this ointment Take of Salt the Leaves of Chamomel Rosemary Sow-Thistle and Lavender of each two handfuls of Wormwood and Laurel of each one handful of black Snails bruised a pound boil them in May Butter till they are all slabby and then strain them Then they sprinkle some of the Pouder of the Root of Osmund Royal in all that they eat or drink Lastly they give twice a day some of the decoction of the said Root and of Speedwell Yarrow Harts-tongue Raisins Lykyrrhize and Anisâ—eâ—s If you will observe a Methodical Cure Purge with Syrup of Roses Syrup of Succory with Rhubarb the Augustan Syrup the Syrup of Roses with Agarick the infusion of Senna and of Rhubarb the Pouder of Rhubarb But thâ—ir tender Bodies are not at the beginning to be toiled with frequent Purging seeing the Matter is so clammy that it will nor follow them therefore after a gentle clearing of the first ways we must come to appropriate and Experienced Preparers amongst which the following is much commended Take of Rosemary half an handful of Liverwort Scabious Agrimony Maidenhair of each an handful of Speedwel three handfuls of the Root of Osmund Royal four ounces of Corinths an handful of Aniseeds four spoonfuls Boil them in six pints of Spring Water to three pints Add to the strained Liquor of Sugar Candy as much as suffices to sweeten it and let lie in it two drachms of yellow Saunders grosly poudered and tied up in a Rag. Let the Patient drink a draught hereof in the morning at four in the afternoon and in the evening After seven days unless a Purgation fo low of it self add to the former Decoction two drachms of Rhubarb and of the Syrup of Roses with Agarick as muâ—h as suffices of which let him drink for seven days more and then return to the former Decoction D. Whistler in disp Med. inaugural de morbo vocat the Rickeâ—s where you have particular Remedies for all the symptoms See also Dr. Glisson's accurate Tract of the Rickets Then make one Issue or more especâ—â—lly make one in the Neck Let him be kept warm and dry Raucedo or Hoarsness The Contents A Pertinacious one cured by help of a Seton I. The efficacy of the Syrup of Hedge-Mustard II. When caused by Exhalations and Vapours it requires a different way of Cure III. I. ONe was ill of a Hoarsness and Erosion of the Almonds of his Ears by reason of a saâ—t and sharp Catarrh He committed himself to a Physician who advised him to have a Seton made for revulsion and evacuation of the sharp Humours but another Physician withstood it and in the mean time the Disease increased At length he
her Labor was tormented almost to death with violent pains in her Belly an irregular motion of her Womb and with foul Vapors that annoyed and got up into her Brain when she had taken many Medicines to no purpose as soon as she came to me she took Laudanum she slept and all things were well Afterwards every Morning she used this Mass Take of faecula Bryoniae half an ounce Castor 2 drachms Myrrhe 1 drachm Assa foetida and Saffron each half a drachm Laudanum 4 scruples and an half Make a Mass of which let her take 25 grains She used an Hysterick Fomentation twice a day When her Fits were quieted she recovered very well ¶ Madame de la Varenne was troubled with Malignant Vapors and a great pain in her Womb with a great Swelling and very painful about her Guts and Mesentery and she was almost in a Consumption At first for every other day afterwards a little longer space between she took Laudanum for the Symptome and Mercury for the cure of her Disease She recovered Theod. de Mayerne tract m. s de Laudans when she had taken the Laudanum She vomitted viscid matter every day It is good in a flatulent Hypochondriack illness Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. This is an experiment which never fails Take every Night before Supper Pilulae de Artemisia 2 scruples ¶ Take of Siler Madder Penniroyal Calamus Aromaticus the kernel of Peony Seeds each 6 drachms the best Musk 3 scruples Spikenard 1 drachm Make Pills with juice of Mugwort The Dose from 2 scruples to 4. abstaining nevertheless in Summer and hot Seasons and in Cholerick Constitutions It helps in Inveterate Suffocations especially from the stoppage of the Menses and retention of Seed J. Arculanus after the Pills a Decoction of Motherwort and Mint in Wine must be taken 2. This composition does wonderfully help as I have often tried Fits of the Mother and them whose Limbs are contracted from that cause It has in it of Triphera magna dried Chamomil each half a drachm Al. Benedictus It is given fasting in Wine or with Sugar 3. The fume of Wens that grow on Horses Legs is good against Fits of the Mother Theod. de Bry. ¶ Spirit of Vitriolum Veneris is a present Remedy if 3 drops of it be taken in some proper Liquor 4. Give a drachm of Treacle which also may be dissolved in Oyl of Rue and applied to the Part by which you perceive the Vapours ascend by which means only a noble Matron when no other Remedies did her good Rod. à Castro was cured of a dangerous rising of the Mother 5. Some say this is a never failing experiment They take a head of Garlick cut it in two lay it upon the Coals and lay on it a little Aloe hepatica they take the juice and anoint the Navil Corbaeus Wrists Temples and Nostrils of the Hysterick party 6. In Fits of the Mother this is a singular Remedy Take the Catkins of the Walnut-tree dry them and powder them Give 2 scruples thereof with a drop or two of Oyl of Amber dropt on them Joh. Crato I know nothing better 7. Sal Jovis is a precious Remedy and Secret against Fits of the Mother anointed on the Navil Three grains of it also may be given inwardly with Hysterick water 3 or 4 dayes in the Morning 8. Salt of Vitriol which causes Vomiting and promotes the Menstrua Pet. Joh. Faber is an excellent Remedy in Fits 9. A Galbanum Plaster is Montagnana's Secret We dissolve Galbanum with a little Vinegar spread it on Leather and apply it to the Woman's Navil by which Remedy I have cured several and raised them out of Fits ¶ A certain Woman when she perceived the Fit coming held only a piece of root of Masterwort in her Mouth and chewed it a little and she was freed from the Fit but she drank a little good Wine Vinegar upon it which made her belch and she escaped it alwayes ¶ We received this for an admirable Secret to bring away the after-burthen for the stopt Menses to bring away a Mole or dead Child and it is said to have been tried in them that have kept the afterburthen 14 dayes Take green Leaves of Lovage pound them put Rhenish Wine to them strain out the juice and give a Glass of it to drink In the Winter time bruise the Seed of Lovage and let it boyl a little in Wine then strain it or which is better give it in Beer Forestus 10. This is a great Secret Let a Clyster be made of a Decoction of Ground-Ivy of which take 1 pound add 1 ounce of Mithridate and give it It is proper in coldness of the Womb P. Mich. de Heredia and when the Seed is corrupt 11. Hens dung dissolved in White Wine and mixt with some Cordial has helped many Fr. Hofmannus 12. Only the Seed of Garden Parsnep dried and powdered and half a drachm of it given in Wine or in some Hysterick water is a peculiar Specifick for Fits of the Mother Quercetanus 13. Equal parts of Cows and Deers dung given in warm Wine to a Woman when she goes to sleep presently takes away the pain and Fits ¶ Linnen clothes dipt in Cows piss or in a Dunghil and applied warm to the Navil and Womb J. Dan. Ruland quiets it 14. If the hair of the Patient be burnt and the fume of it received it does wonders on a sudden I have often tried it Varignana Surditas or Deafness See Diseases of the Ears Book I. The Contents Whether we must Purge violently I. Cured by Bleeding II. Whether the Head must always be Purged III. Whether it may be Cured by Fluxing IV. In Childbed Women and such as are recovering from Sickness it requires a peculiar way of Cure V. Whether Deafness and noise should be Cured with dry or moist things VI. The Cure by Sweating and Bathing VII We must be cautious in the use of Oyl of bitter Almonds VIII The efficacy of natural Bathes IX Nothing must be dropt in but topical Medicines must be applied by Tents X. Medicines I. WE must give a Purge of some Medicine that purges the peccant Humour violently for seeing the Humours are gross and impacted they are rather disturbed than carried off by a gentle Medicine wherefore I think for this reason Hippocrates said a disturbed Belly that is one very loose cures Deafness But we may not use such things frequently without danger according to Hippocrates his advice Mercatus we must purge such with that which in a small quantity purges a great deal II. I have observed that Deafness in many arises from abundance of Blood passing by the roots of the Ears Therefore the Remedy of a certain Bathe-keeper of Bavaria seems to me not altogether absurd whereby as I have been told by several he has cured many of thickness of Hearing And it is
and have afterwards Idem p. 185. upon the striking in of the Pustules fallen before they were ripe VI. And as it is unadvised and hazardous to advance too high the Ebullition once begun by means either of a hot Regiment or by Cordials so on the contrary there is no less danger to diminish the same by means of Emeticks Catharticks or any such thing seeing by this means the proper secretion of the separable Particles is much hindred Although that vulgar Argument which Men use against Bleeding and other Evacuations namely that we must not move the Humors from the Center to the Circumference since Nature seems to affect the contrary in this Disease be of no force at all because upon using these means a quite contrary effect has often been observed to follow to wit a sudden coming out of the Small Pox yet there are other reasons in readiness which strongly perswade that if by any means it may be voided we meddle not with this Practice For briefly to touch upon the chief of them by these Evacuations not only the Ebullition is too much hindred by means whereof the Particles to be despumated ought in the mean time accurately to be separated but that also is subtracted which should continually as it were afford fewel to the Secretion begun Whence it often happens that the Small Pox coming out at first with a laudable Progress and perhaps so much the better because the said Evacuations preceeded do a little after struck in as it were all on a sudden fall flat and for this reason chiefly because there wants matter to follow that which went before and bring up the Rere Idem p. 187. VII As to the second Indication which concerns the time of Expulsion as it is dangerous if the Patient when there is a Fever and the Pustules scarce yet appear be made over hot in the very time of Secretion so also it is a thing full of no less danger if the same be done at any time of the Disease and especially at that which is towards the beginning of Expulsion while the Pustules are yet Crude For although the Blood now that Separation is done and the matter discharged to the carnous Parts be in a great measure free from intestine Tumult yet it being as yet tender and young and having scarce got induction into a new state and texture it is apt to suffer and easily be affected by virtue of immoderat Heat coming from all places and so being irritated upon the least occasion it takes fire and is inclinable to a new Ebullition Which new Ebullition does not as the former now endeavor a Suppuration for we suppose that already finished but instead thereof it not only raises the above mentioned Symptomes but disturbs the Expulsion begun by the Pustules and does harm by exagitating the contained matter Either therefore the Parts now separated and left in the habit of the Body being hurried by that violent and rapid course of the ebullient Blood are drawn again into its Mass or the carnous Parts being heated beyond the degree due to Separation do not so well perform it or lastly perhaps upon the coming of this new Sickness the oeconomy of the Blood and the tone of the Flesh is perverted so that it cannot overcome the matter expelled Idem p. 188. and concoct it after the usual manner of Abscesses VIII In the mean time we must not be so intent upon preventing too great an Ebullition in the Blood as by exposing the Patient to the injuries of the Cold to hinder the eruption of the Pustules The degree of Heat most proper to promote their Expulsion must be natural and such as is agreeable to the temper of the carnous Parts And whatever exceeds or comes short of this is dangerous on either hand Idem p. 190. IX If the Pustules chance to strike in or the swelling of the Face and Hands fall upon Bleeding unseasonably or getting of Cold we must use Cordials but we must have a care of being too lavish in giving them for though you have taken away Blood yet it may so fall out that while you are afraid of loss of strength thereby and so use Cordials either strong ones or often repeated you cause a new Ebullition on a sudden For the Blood is as yet tender and is easily sensible of the strength of a hot Provocative Whence it comes to pass that often repeated Ebullitions arise in the same to which the Patients death may of better right be attributed Idem p. 191. than to the foregoing Blood-letting X. Moreover the Small Pox must not therefore immediately be forced out as soon as any suspicion of this Disease arises because forsooth the Patient is usually very sick and restless before their coming out when there cannot so much as one Instance be shown that any one died how grievously Sick soever he was because the Small Pox came not presently out or that Nature was wanting in forcing them out sooner or later unless at any time she were hindred by a too hot Regiment and Cordial Remedies given too early For I have more than once observed in young People and of a sanguine Complexion that a hot Regiment and Cordials given on purpose to force out the Small Pox before their due time have so little promoted their coming out that on the contrary they have given a check to it For the Blood being heated by these means and put into a more violent Motion than is fit to perform aright the separation of the Variolous Matter only some certain tokens of the Disease show themselves while the Pustules lie within the Skin and do not raise themselves further by what Cordials soever they were solicited to it till at length the Blood being reduced to its moderate and due Temper that is by allowing small Beer and taking off part of that load of Clothes wherewith he was rosted Idem p. 193. I have made a convenient way for the Pustules to go out and so I have put the Patient out of danger XI Nor also would I advise you to give a Cordial before the said fourth day though a Loosness were urgent and might seem to indicate the giving thereof For although a Loosness sometimes go before the coming out of the Confluent Small Pox which arises from inflammatory Vapors or from the Humors discharged into the Guts out of the mass of Blood that is exagitated and boyls for the first dayes yet here Nature will be no more wanting in driving out the said Vapors of the Variolous Matter into the habit of the Body which being done the Loosness will stop of it self than she uses to be in turning out and eliminating those Vapors which being turned upon the Stomach Idem cause Vomiting at the beginning of this Disease XII As soon as manifest signs of this Disease begin to show themselves I forbid the Patients the open Air and drinking of Wine and eating
in the Shops a Carminative oyl of Coloquintida that is Purgative this oyl he says may be kept long the Dose of it is one ounce or two accordingly as there is need of its stronger or weaker working being mixed with fat broth It would be a Soveraign Remedy against all soporiferous Diseases Apoplexy Lethargy c. Of the aforesaid Coloquintida boiled with lenitive oyls as oyl of Earth-worms Linseed Lilies Misletoe-berries and Chamomel one may make a compound lenitive Purgative oyl after the manner of the aforesaid Carminative Purgative oyl which being mixed with the broth of a Sheeps-Head is an excellent Remedy against all pains for the oyl does wonderfully contemperate the acrimonious and poysonous quality of the Coloquintida so that being thus prepared it is not hurtful or prejudicial at all to the Guts to whose coats otherwise though it be the most finely powdered and made up into Troches a little is alwayes wont to stick which inconvenience we prevent by this preparation and the mixture of oyls with its essence and propriety and thus it becomes a Remedy less dangerous than diaphoenicon it self or benedicta laxativa It will be useful in divers sorts of Clysters and will exert notable effects with good success especially in asswaging the intolerable Colick pains that arise for the most part from glassie Phlegm that sticks to the Intestines in which Purging lenitives given alone are found altogether ineffectual and invalid The description of the first mentioned oyl is this Take of the dryed Herbs of Rue Calamint Organy Penny-royal of each an handful of the Seeds of wild Carrot Cummin Fennil Bayberries of each an ounce of oyl Olive two pounds red wine one pound boil them till the wine be consumed Into the oyl thus prepared put two ounces of the pulp of Coloquintida digest them by the fire in Balneo Mariae hot for twelve hours then let them boil two hours until the oyl have drawn out all the vertue of the Coloquintida then press it and strain it XXI In Clysters there are only two Purgers Scammony and Coloquintida other things are added for the more commodious evacuation Oyl Walaeus Meth. Med. that the way may be slippery sal gemmae for the fusion of the excrements Carminatives for wind XXII That Clysters may be substituted for Purging Medicines is clear from Galen 2. s loc where in the pain of the Head or a stroak or blow upon it and in a fluxion upon the Eyes he proposes a strong Purgation whether it be by giving a Purgative by the Mouth or by strong Clysters If two or three ounces of aqua Benedicta be added they purge very powerfully They will become Purgatory also if one dissolve in them two drachms of some Pills XXIII Strong Purgatives as Troches of Agarick Scammony Coloquintida when they are boil'd in Clysters must be tied in a rag lest the thicker matter of them stick to the Intestins and cause griping Mercurials and Antimonials seeing they easily settle and send not forth their thicker parts in boiling Fr. Hofman m. m. p. 128. may be boiled without being so tied XXIV We must note in all flatulent Distempers that Clysters are not to be given all at once but first of all about a third part Idem l. 1. cap. 10. and a while after give the remainder for so the Patient will retain it the better XXV To mix oyl or any fat thing with Clysters that are to purge the Guts as is common is contrary to all reason seeing the vertue of irritating Medicines and the faculty of feeling are both of them dulled by nothing more than by oleous Medicines Wherefore we must abstain from these while we endeavour to excite the sense only unless when both causes concur to Costiveness for then it is necessary to use both mixt together namely such as may soften the excrements and also others that may irritate the faculty But when the faculty is dulled by any viscid Humour and the clearness of sense is lost so that the Patient is not at all sensible of the weight or acrimony of the Humours it will be expedient at such time to use those Clysters first that absterge or cleanse Mercat de Indicat Med. l. 1. c. 3. and afterwards those that irritate that when the impediment is removed the faculty may be rouzed from Sleep as it were and arise to motion XXVI We must know that fat Clysters which are called common made of Mallows Marsh-Mallows Beet Prunes Linseed Fenugreek are not profitable for all though they are found useful to the most for procuring the usual stools for by their nidour Womens Wombs are wont to be disturbed their ill smell also affects some mens Heads and in others the Mouth of their Stomach in some likewise it corrupts the Spirits and Humours Mercat de Praes Med. lib. 1. c. 3. Auger Ferrer castigat cap. 24. hence it came to pass that the Ancients were content with Wine mingled with Honey and with Oyl only that the stench and unprofitable burthen of Medicins might be avoided for a thicker substance is not so fit to wash out the faeces as what is more liquid XXVII Those things that powerfully discuss often cause pains through the wrong using of them for if the flatuous Spirit be dense and thick and the matter much or more dense than can be conquered by Carminative Medicins rather more flatus are generated by them and those that were there before are made more thin and therefore it comes to pass that the distended and pained part is more stretched by the new propagation and attenuation of the flatus Wherefore I think it more adviseable to mix with Carminatives Idem Moebius in Institut Fr. Hofman in Meth. Med. ex Galeno 14. m. m. c. 7. those things which have a vertue to mollifie the pained parts that they may be the easilier distended so that I like not the use of those things at the beginning which are called duscussory until the Disease be increased the matter being become thinner and the flatus dissolved XXVIII Tears are dangerous in Clysters as Sagapenum Rondelet c. because of their clamminess by reason whereof they stick and cannot be repelled XXIX White Sugar or brown which detergeth more is added to the Clysters called common Victor Trincavel l. 1. Comp. Med. c. 20. But this unless it be boiled a little in the broth or decoction being turn'd into flatus causeth gripes XXX Whether is Salt to be put in Clysters In Fevers the use of Salt mixt with an absterging decoction is more fitly omitted especially when Solvents are added for without Salt they stay longer and are reduced better into act in the Intestins for Salt is only good in those that cannot endure a Clyster should stay long or where we would stimulate and irritate the expulsive faculty Zacut. Pr. Hist p. 546. if it be dulled XXXI I have sometimes observed that although Fenugreek-seed be indifferently commended
divers Portions which Avicen also approved of but that in Winter it was sufficient to eat once or twice a day Gr. Horstius Exerc. 4. de feb qu. 3. because in that Season it is better concocted and the Excrements are generally fewer XXIV Concerning Sleep we must note 1. That Sleep is always hurtful in the beginning of a Fit because then the faculty is strong and the cause of the fit intire and not evacuated as yet nor lessened wherefore it neither needs retraction of the heat nor union nay if the heat be then withdrawn the faculty is more oppressed through the multitude of the Humour and the heat is made more preternatural and is defiled through the commerce of the Humour and vapours and by this means the Fever is prolonged because its cause is not dissolved yea it remains in the Body too fixed and rooted when it does not exhale to the outer parts But in the declination it is always good for the faculties being dissolved and wearied from the foregoing terms viz. the beginning augment and state they desire rest and firmitude moreover the cause of the Fit is now overcome dissolved and turned into vapours which when they are dispersed to the outer parts and are distant from the principal parts are not so easily retracted If sleep therefore come upon the Patient then it refreshes the faculties seeing now that the load is taken off they are not oppressed yea by the Blood and Spirits retiring to the inner parts the faculties being collected and more brisk end the Fever or stoutly shatter the reliques of the Humours Sleep in the state is doubtful for it sometimes does good sometimes hurt which flows from the various disposition of the Body and diversity of the Fever for if the Body be hot and dry and prepared for resolution then sleep is profitable in the state of the Fit for it moistens refresheth the faculties and makes the fit shorter On the contrary if the Body be hot and moist of a dense habit sleep is unprofitable for then there is neither need of refection nor moistening yea if it come the resolution of the morbifick cause is hindred and the state and declination are prolonged In like manner we must think as to the diversity of the Fever for if the Humour do more offend in quantity than in quality such as are the Phlegmatick the Melancholick or the bastard Tertian then sleep profits not but hurts On the contrary if the Humour offend and urge more in quality than quantity as a bilious Ague that springs from sincere choler so that by its thinness heat and Acrimony it presses and wearies the faculty then sleep is profitable The same is to be said of the last part of the augment which 't is certain represents the nature of the beginning We must Note 2. That this doctrine is to be understood not only of the particular termes of every Fit but of the universal for in the beginning because Nature is oppressed Sleep is not so convenient but 't is more convenient in the augment and far more in the state but most of all in the declension for by its help the Spirits are refreshed and the reliques of the Humour are concocted and wasted This is the cause why the longest Sleep is granted in the declination in the beginning very short and in the middle terms indifferent But if sweat be at hand or break forth in the state Zacut. Pr. Hist p. 545. See more there Sleep helpeth greatly if signs of concoction go before for Sleep hinders all evacuations except sweat which it promotes Diaphoreticks See Alexipharmacks and Sudorificks The Contents How they act I. Such as absorb II. Such as make the Serum fluxile III. Such as hinder its coagulation IV. A Diaphoresis is not to be procured by externals alone V. The same are not convenient in all cases VI. The more temperate are sometimes the more availeable VII They are sometimes hurtful VIII They are to be avoided where the Serum is either too little or too much IX What things hinder their use X. Acids help the vertue of Sulphureous IV. I. DIaphoreticks and Sudorificks differ from one another in degrees the former discuss halituous excrements by insensible transpiration and promote the same transpiration and ventilate the Blood the latter do this also but leave a more manifest effect by a dewy sweat And they operate inasmuch as they fuse the Blood and procure a separation of the Serum from it that it may be expelled through the pores of the Skin in the form of Vapours II. Both 1. by absorbing and resolving that which binds the serum and makes it more fixt as the more fixed alkaline and earthy Medicines for instance Antimonium Diaphoreticum Shells Harts horn burnt the Bezoar stone Bole-Armene Bezoardicum minerale c. these do greatly precipitate the fermentation of the Humours and set insensible transpiration free and at liberty III. And also 2. by making it fluxile whether by rarefying of it and inducing a new fermentation on the Blood Thus 1. lixival and nitrous Salts Salt of Wormwood Carduus Bened. Centaury which both absorb and also make the serum fluxile thus 2. Volatils the Spirit of Harts-horn of vipers of Ivory do very powerfully drive forth sweat or by yielding an halituous vehicle and volatility such as are 1. the aqueous as divers distilled waters and especially some decoctions that enjoy also a certain volatility also 2. those that are easily resoluble because of their watry and Gummy substance as the rob of dwarf-Elder Elder c. but chiefly 3. those that are indued with a volatil Salt intimately mixt with a Sulphur the bitter resinous c. so card bened opium Camphor the Wood Guaiacum and amongst compound Remedies Treacle Mithridate and the rest mentioned in the first class these promote the sluggish motion of the Serum and put nature upon discussing superfluities opening the Pores and vigorating the mass of Blood And these have place chiefly in a Rheumatism or any flux whatsoever of the Blood and Serum for instance in the Inflammations of the Pleura fluxions of the Joynts c. whence they are good in the Pleurisie which has often its Throat cut as it were by some eminent Sudorifick in the beginning in the Gout which is helped most of all by the same sweats in Tumours of the Groins Tonsils Armpits and the like in Fainting Swooning both solitary and hysterical and when the Small Pox or Measles come not out well IV. Likewise 3. by inciding the curdled serum and promoting the fermentation of the Blood also by this very means Those Medicines that perform this are chiefly acids and alkalines also after their manner to wit in a different respect hence vinegar as likewise other acids are deservedly reckoned among sudorificks For it is an observation not to be slightly esteemed that Sulphureous Medicines by the accession of acids do far more readily act and procure sweat more than when left to
yield to it those inconveniences must needs follow that are reckoned up in that place The knowledge whereof is derived indeed from many things but chiefly from the Urine which if they be thin and crude indicate that the matter is fixed in the Part and that there are no Humours in the Body that can be drawn out by a Purge in which case we must abstain from Purging but by no means if the Urine be thick or cloudy for when these are present in any Inflammation we must betake our selves to Purging from the beginning The present saying is therefore to be thus interpreted That we must not as some do persist in its universality so as that we should always abstain from Purging in all Inflammations whatever Nor is Hippocrates condemned by receiving this Exposition because he pronounc'd it universally for he tacitly hinted that exception when he added the reason of his Opinion For a Disease that is as yet crude yields not c. As often therefore as the Humour contained in an inflamed Part is of such a Nature as will yield to a Medicine or finds an Humour in the rest of the Body which it may draw and carry forth a Purge being taken colliquates not the sound Parts P. Martian comm in l. c. nor is the Disease increased XIV Some are of opinion that there is no need of such great strength of the Faculty for Purging as for Bleeding but not medling with other mens Judgments I think that a strong evacuation by elective Purgers requires greater strength of the Faculties because when such a Medicine is once given it is no longer in the Power of the Physician because it self also has a vertue that is adverse to the Body and because Purgation is not performed without great commotion of the whole and dissipation of the Spirits And though some * Aph. 23. 1. where Hippocrates says that vacuation may be made even to swooning apply it to Purging yet I believe it has only place in Bleeding For who could adventure to Purge even to swooning without rashness and danger of life seeing none can promise himself thâ—t Purging shall proceed to swooning and yet not tâ—nd to Death â—orâ—t Inst Med. disp 19. q. 4. inasmuch as there can no restraint be laid upon Purgers that can bridle their excess XV. How can Purgation be performed at the beginning as often as the Urine shall be thick and cloudy though there be no Concoction of the Humours which yet is so suspected with thinness of the Urine I answer As often as the Urine is thin it is a sign that nothing of the morbifick matter is expelled with the Urine either because it is thrust into some Part and so closely fixt that no portion thereof can be separated thence which mixing with the Urine might make it thicker or because Nature being intent upon the concoction of it holds it so closely as to let none of it go from her When therefore none of the noxious Humour is spontaneously expelled it is an evident sign that it is so rebellious as by no means to yield to a Purging Medicine But on the contrary when thick Urine is made it is a sign that a portion of the morbifick matter is expelled with it and this indicates that the remainder of it though not at all concocted yet is so disposed that it will obey a Purging Medicine Yet it is to be noted that Purging is not always convenient as often as the Urine is thick because when this crassitude proceeds from Concoction begun 't is by no means lawful to purge lest the concoction begun be disturbed and this we distern because it appears not at the beginning of the Disease but afterwards and of thin becomes thicker by degrees for in this disposition of the Humours we must abstain from Purging But when there is turgency crudity hinders not Purging as Concoction begun does And therefore when the Urine shall be thin at the beginning and afterwards shall become thicker by degrees then it signifies that Concoction is begun wherefore we must abstain from Purging till there appear signs of perfect Concoction Likewise when there ensues thickness of Urine in Fevers either from the colliquation of the Humours or from malignant Putrefaction or the like preternatural cause Martian comm in Aph. 23. 1. neither is Purging good in that case ¶ Hippocrates forbad that Purges should be given where there are no signs of Concoction in the Vrine now he gives the Reasons explaining the harms that arise from unseasonable Purging Namely if you Purge unseasonably the Urine will not be concocted and the crises will not be made in due time but both being taken away I mean Concoction and Crises the Fevers will be lengthened Quite contrary to what vulgar Physicians expect who when crudity of the Vrine lâ—sts longer than they would have it presently Purge thinking that Nature that is not able to concoct so much matter will be better able to overcome it when it is made less and take care to Purge their Patients before the Critical day and therefore most on the sixth day to the end namely that Nature may better perform the Crisis But they are deceived for Nature is then only made more powerful over the remainder by evacuation when evacuation is made rightly and according to Art as when a Plethory is lessened by Bleeding or Purging is performed because of turgency otherwise there is nothing that can more hinder Concoctions and Crises for those things are not evacuated that ought to be but a great deal of good Humours is drawn forth the bad are only stirred by the stirring retention is disturbed which being taken away Concoction must needs be so also and by the taking away of this a fit expulsion and crisis is also taken away because it is the order of the natural Faculties that the retentive should minister to the concoctive and when Concoction is finished that the work of the expulsive should succeed otherwise all things will be done unseasonably and tumultuously and therefore without benefit Hence you will easily understand which not a few admire why seeing the Ancients so much esteemed the Crises of Diseases and writ so many things of them so few occur in our days Certainly this is the reason Valles comm in lib. de vict Acut. p 206. because the most are unseasonably Purged and unseasonable Purging takes away seasonable Crises XVI As to the universal times of Diseases we must know that evacuation is granted in the beginning when the Humour is not as yet confused but in the state and declination seldom and not but by gentle Medicines for if you administer a strong Purge in the declination Walaeus m. m. p. 37. you will confound anew the Humours that have been already separated and will make the sick relapse XVII According to Trallian Vacuation is not to be put off when there are any signs of Concoction for thick Humours are over-concocted and through
on the first day carry forth what is contained in the first ways and before the second Purge come the same excrement will be collected again in the same ways and it will fall out in like manner before the third and the rest whereby it comes to pass that the vertue of the Medicine reaches not to the part affected which we intend to evacuate Wherefore 't is fitting we should purge without intermission that at least the second third or fourth purgation may reach the place affected and may lessen the matter of the Disease by which manner of purging many are more happily cured of the greatest Maladies than by any other Remedy Hence in Diseases of the Head Breast and Lungs in Diseases of the Joynts in inveterate obstructions madness and other distempers purgation per Epicrasin is more safe and profitable than any other in which distempers it is fitting every day for 7. or 8. days together to take some Purge that what is situated and stufft up in the more hidden and inward parts may be exhausted by degrees and that without hurt to the faculty XLVI Hippocrates 1. aph 22. says that crude Humours ought neither to be moved nor Purged Under the word moved he comprehends not every motion for then it would follow that during the crudity of the Humours neither a Vein should be opened nor a Clyster injected which is repugnant to his Doctrine therefore he meant that commotion which is brought upon the Humours by the purging faculty of Medicines whilst they are placidly drained out of the Body as if through the leuity of the draining such evacuation deserved not the name of purging Nor is it a new thing that this word moved should be restrained to purging only for Hippocrates used it in that signification 3. Politic. cap. 2. In Egypt says he after the third day Physicians may move if before they do it at their peril and perhaps he rather used this word than another because they used to purge lightly about the beginning which is customary in our times whence the more modern Physicians distinguishing the Medicines that cause such light purgations from the stronger have called them sometimes Lenients sometimes Minoratives Hippocrates called these same sometimes light Purgers sometimes Subducents sometimes looseners of the Humours as we may gather from his Books of Practice which if most later Physicians had well read they would not have boasted that such Medicines were unknown to him by which pretext perverting the whole Doctrine of purgation they have brought the matter to that pass that no precept nor distinction is observed about the matter of purgation for they presently give their Minoratives to all without distinction Pr. Martian com in dict aphor finding fault with those that by a convenient distinction do sometimes abstain from them XLVII 'T is worth noting that heaviness of the Body whether with a Fever or without does indicate purging as intimating plenty of Choler which hath setled in the Veins and joynts as Hippocrates says lib. de affect yet in such as have no Fever it requires bitterness of the mouth to be joined with it because otherwise it may have another cause Yet this will seem strange to vulgar Physicians who assoon as they find a sense of heaviness in Fevers presently come to Bleeding thinking this to be the certainest sign of a plethory being taught by Galen lib. de plenit c. 2. But they are deceived as appears by the authority of Hippocrates and as daily experience confirms and as we clearly observed in the Fevers that went about in the year 1622. whose chief symptom was gravity of the whole Body and especially in the beginning now Choler was so predominant in these that not only all the excrements appeared bilious viz. their Vomits Stools and Urine but also all the other Symptoms want of sleep Head-ach deliriums bitterness of the mouth yea and breakings out or pustules most of them of a yellowish colour Idem comm in v. 142. loc cit whence we thought their chief Remedy to be purging omitting Bleeding XLVIII Purgers in those Diseases wherein Nature is wont to have no crisis such as are some long continued Fevers some internal Inflammations the French-Pox the falling-sickness Vertigo and other like may be safely given in the augment and state Therefore I adhere not to their opinion that affirm that we must never purge but in the end of the state or beginning of the declination Hor. Augen Epist Cons p. 381. XLIX A young man of a Sanguin complexion after Bleeding and preparing potions took in the morning an easie purge made of Rhubarb Diaphoenicon with the syrup of fumitory and Senna After two hours he was opprest with a great pain in his Belly which was eased by having two stools after an hour he went five times to stool very plentifully but did so burn with an inward heat that he thought his Bowels were burnt up there ensued a very high Fever an unquenchable thirst a cruel pain of the Ilia so fierce that it interrupted his breathing and voice The Physicians are called they apply Anodynes to the pained part prescribe lenient Clysters apply Cupping-glasses and other diversions to the Thighs but all in vain for the pain raged more I am called also and advise Bleeding for the faculties held out pretty well all are against it for two contrary motions are not to be celebrated on the same day But seeing the cruel pain increased Zacut. Prax. adm l. 3. Obs 8. necessity compelling my advice was follow'd being bled the pain was eased and the Fever remitted L. 'T is an unreasonable custom with most Physicians to administer purgers without distinction in all Affections raised from wind as we commonly see in Hypochondriack Melancholy and in those who suffer great pains of their Head or Stomach or nausea's and subversions and such otherlike Symptoms from wind wherein that we may purge without mischief we must distinguish whether the pain or any Symptom arise from wind which a weak faculty may not breed whilst the matter keeps a mediocrity in quantity and substance for whilst it does so and yet flatus are raised which cannot be discussed 't is a sign that the weakness of the faculty is more in fault than the matter at which time 't is a great errour to use purgers and is forbidden by Hippocrates 4. Ac. t. 115. For by them the natural faculty is further weakened and dissipated and so through impotency generates much wind of any matter as we generally observe in Hypochondriack Melancholy where the faculties must needs be weak and the Humours disobedient to weak Medicines and yet they are made ungovernable and more malignant by the more vehement whereby it comes to pass that such Patients are worse by these both because these Medicines neither purge flatus nor take away the Disease and also because they weaken the faculty and make it the apter to breed wind But if wind arise rather
much the rather because in such case there is always some fault in the Blood also 3. If humours differing from Blood be turgent and prohibiters of purgation be wanting as also indications for Bleeding then by no means must we breathe a Vein but only insist upon Purging as that which will afford no small relief and do much more good than harm Claudin Respon 2. XXVIII Though Revulsion be commonly used in the very Paroxysm yet it is also profitable after it that the morbifick reliques may be quite taken away so that a new fit may not come Thus in a suffocation of the Womb proceeding from the retention of Blood as also in other diseases fit help is given by Bleeding as well in the Paroxysm when necessity urgeth and there is danger of extinguishing the natural heat through the abundance of Blood as out of it as whereby the superfluous Blood that is preternaturally retained is evacuated translated from the Womb another way Gr. Horst probl dec 9. q. 3. and the imminent suffocation of the Spirits and heat removed XXIX When critical evacuations appear viz. Exanthemata or Spots Parotides Bubo's c. whether may we Bleed We must first shew what Exanthemata and Abscesses are and from whence they arise Exanthemata are little Prominences in the skin or red pale purple or blackish spots sometimes all over the skin sometimes scattered here and there one while thicker and another thinner sometimes broader sometimes more united and sometimes not raised at all above the surface of the skin That is called an Abscess which from a defluxion of matter transmitted into any part of the Body either inheres in it or raises a tumour as the Parotides under the Ears and Bubo's in the Arm-pits and Groins or Carbuncles and other such like under which name Abscesses and Exanthemata are comprehended For there are also critical evacuations by Stool Vomit Bladder Womb c. but these use to be called Abscesses by emission and the former by deposition from which we will take no indication of either letting or not letting Blood but from the Diseases and Symptoms that follow them The matter of Exanthemata and Bubo's Carbuncles and the like Abscesses is Blood that is unprofitable to the Body either through its quantity or faultiness or on both accounts which Nature by way of Crisis endeavours to thrust out of the Body at some certain time which thing she sometimes performs without any help but sometimes being oppressed she is overcome needing the help of art Therefore Venesection will be unprofitable while Exanthemata and other the said Abscesses are breaking forth or a little after whilst the Fever and other bad accidents if there be any seem to be remedied or evidently to be mitigated for that signifies that the strength of Nature is above the morbifick cause Wherefore the Artist ought in such case to see that he do not imprudently weaken or disturb the endeavours of Nature that are well begun But if the said endeavours be either wholly unprofitable or less effectual then it is a sign that Nature is oppressed by her burthen and overcome by the cause of the disease and unless she be helped she often lies vanquisht in so dangerous a combat Therefore as she was not to be interrupted while she shew'd her self a Conqueror so neither is she to be left destitute of help when she yields the Physician any signification of her weakness and oppression Which is the opinion of Hippocrates and Galen 1. aph 20. What diseases are judged and are judged intirely c. Also 2. aph 12. Those which are left c. If any say It often happens that imperfect crises are prolonged for several days so that it seems nothing is to be moved either on the day the Exanthemata break forth nor also on the day following I Answer That no certain stated and universal rule can be given in these cases but it is the part of a prudent Physician to discern when Nature is to be helped on the first day or on the second or later or when she is to be left without help seeing she wants no help if buckling to the work on the day of the crisis she either remedy or greatly lessen the disease but otherwise if she do not Add that Bleeding may also be profitable when by the eruption of these the maladies are somewhat mitigated So that I do not put off Bleeding though otherwise Blood were let before their eruption if I see the Fever to decline but slowly For even these are sooner cured thus as the other if they do recover both sooner and more safely Let us therefore say with Hippocrates and Galen that Judicatories or Crises which do not terminate the disease are signs of a predominant and perverse humour that stimulates Nature to an overforward excretion Therefore Nature shews that she desires help and that by Bleeding rather than Purging For the reason is at hand and that a very strong one seeing in the cases proposed the cause of the disease is in the Veins not in the Intestins Add hereto that Purging besides that it disturbs all the Body recalls both the impetus and motion of the humours to the principal or internal parts Hence Hippocrates says 4 Acut. Systrophae a sort of Abscess cannot be dissolved by Purging for in these Venesection is to be preferred c. Wherefore Purging is only allowable by art either in the beginning of a Fever or when the humours being concocted are prepared for excretion But Blood if the Nature of the disease require it and the faculties gainsay not may be let at any time Nor is this conceit of ours of evacuating the Body in the Parotides or in Exanthemata that relieve not the Patient new or not confirmed by Galen in his explication of these words of Hippocrates 6. aph 9. Broad Exanthemata itch not very much You will object again that by Venesection that is called inwards which Nature had begun to expell outwards viz. from the circumference to the centre I Answer That that only happens in superfluous effusions of Blood and not in such as are made artificially And by this reason which is brought Venesection is not so strongly disproved in this place as purging which they are not against but sometimes inopportunely propose it But suppose something be pulled back which yet there is not the profit in the mean time that follows upon a convenient evacuation of the burthening Matter is greater than the injury that could happen from a little corrupt matter received into the Vena cava But let us confirm the matter by examples A putrid and notable Synochus or continual Fever invaded a strong young man on the third day he had a Loosness like a Diarrhoca the next day the Fever and Loosness continuing in the same vigour red Exanthemata very thick and somewhat raised above the skin appear all over the skin the following day which was the fifth from the invasion of the
necessary as in order of Nature it deservedly goes before Reason since Physick was not found after Reason but Reason after Physick Though Reason will not yield to Experience in dignity yet in the mean time lest Reason should halt let a Man stand on Experience which is the other Leg and this is often of it self sufficient For what things says Sennertus Inst lib. 5. p. 1. c. 22. fall under our sense leave nothing in doubt nothing in question but since some things are hidden to the senses we must endeavour to bring them under Reason yet so as not to infer confused and infinite things nor fetch the principles of our demonstrations from far And when what is found by Experience can be proved by Reason without doubt it is very certain But when Reason opposes we must rather adhere to Experience yet this must be of a skilful Physician sure and undoubted for if it be uncertain and bad it tends to the destruction of the whole Man Wherefore Hippocrates said 6. Epid. 2. 29. A Physician must experience nothing rashly Hofman LXIII Seeing Hippocrates in reckoning up the Critical Days in Diseases followed the common custom calling all that time from which the Patient began to be sick till Sun-setting the first day and taking the other following to begin at the rising and end at the setting of the Sun we ought not to depart from his way of Computation For though Galen make every day to consist of about twenty four hours he was neither taught it by his Master nor did he it as convinced by Experience but because he could no way else assign a Reason of Critical Days But because this way of Computation taken from Galen is commonly observed that this Abuse in a thing of so great moment may if possible be removed from the Medical Faculty I shall dwell a while upon this subject First therefore I shall shew that this Computation of Galen's is not according to the mind of Hippocrates who used to commence every day expecting the first from the Sun-rising Then I shall try to give the true Reason of Hippocrates his Computation and assign a cause why the first day though it be not a whole one yet ought to be reckoned for one day Let us therefore fall upon the first If Hippocrates had had a mind that the enumeration of each day should have been made by beginning the day always from the hour when the Patient fell sick he must needs have told the hour when the Disease first took the Patient seeing the whole course of the Computation has its original from thence But in reporting the Histories of Patients he no where makes mention of the hour of the invasion of the Disease A most evident Argument that it is not necessary to know this seeing it is sufficient not to be ignorant whether the Disease begun by day or night or evening morning or midday because the computation of Days must be made not beginning at the hour when the Disease came but from the time when the natural day does truly begin And it is plain that this was inviolably observed by him because in reckoning up those things which happened every day to the Sick he reckoned the morning and evening in the same number as one day only not part of the day as the end of the preceding and the other part as the beginning of the subsequent day as the Galenists do You may see this in the History of Philiscus registred 1. Epid. n. 1. where he says that the third day in the Morning he seemed free from his Fever till Noon in the Evening he had an Acute Fever c. We may observe the same in the History of Epicrates his Wife and also of Dromeas his Wife described in the same place As also in the description of the Phrenitick Disease of which 3. Epid. 5. 3. and of the Servant in a Victualling-House lib. 4. v. 126 and yet more clearly in the History of Pithion l. 3. s 3. v. 134. and in several others in lib. Epid. Which Histories if these Men were to describe they would divide every day into two parts joining the former with the preceding day and they would make the Evening the beginning of the day following Which you no where find done by Hippocrates who always ranked the Morning and the Evening in the same number beginning the day always as has been said with the Sun-rising and ending it with the Sun-setting Will any of them say that all Hippocrates his Patients began to be sick at Sun-rising as he has begun the enumeration of his days from thence Certainly this is ridiculous since Experience shews that Diseases do very seldom begin in the morning Since therefore Hippocrates never observed this division of days in his Enumeration it is certain that the way of computing days by twenty four hours which Galen invented and Posterity has followed is a mere Figment and to be rejected from Hippocrates his Doctrine And that that way of computing must be observed which Hippocrates followed calling all that time which is between the first coming of the Disease and the setting of the Sun the first day beginning the second and all the rest from Sun-rising till the night following according to the common custom which usually makes it a day from the rising to the setting of the Sun Nor must we believe that Hippocrates in writing would have been so negligent in a matter of such moment if the Computation must have been made different from the common custom as not to have expressed it Since therefore such was our Master's Enumeration of days in Diseases upon which the whole Reason of Prediction and Cure is founded though the true cause of it be not known yet I will try to give as probable a Reason as I can not departing from Galen's Principles who 3. de dieb decretor endeavouring to give a Reason of Critical Days reduced it to the passing of the Sun through the Signs of the Zodiack in Chronical Diseases but in Acute Diseases to the motion of the Moon Now whether its Action proceeds from the Signs which it runs through by its proper motion Or from the diversity of Light which it receives from the Sun Or from the concurrence of both it is not our business to determine since it is sufficient for us to know that the changes of Acute Diseases do proceed from the motion of the Moon by Quaternaries and Septenaries But though upon account of the foresaid motion of the Moon Crises and other alterations of Diseases ought to be at certain set days and hours when it touches this or that point yet often the Rational time is missed so that sometime it anticipates sometime it postpones and chiefly by reason of the Fits which seldom coincide with the said motion of the Moon For it is certain that Crises are made in the day of the greatest Fit wherefore we see which Hippocrates also observed that those Diseases are judged