Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	life_n	nature_n	5,551	5	5.2232	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42906	Various injuries & abuses in chymical and Galenical physick, committed both by physicians & apothecaries, detected for the benefit of such, who being conscientious and studious in physick, aim chiefly at the welfare of the sick, and of those patients, whether rich or poor, who are willing to preserve their lives & healths / by Robert Godfrey, Med. Londinensis.	Godfrey, Robert, Med. Londinensis.	1674 (1674)	Wing G927; ESTC R21846	100,532	224

not then been a Tabler with him in the House and heard it there I should not easily have believed that any Physician had been so stupid or so unphilosophically bred as to ascribe the cure of Diseases to the Devil I must confess 't is something like the trick of the Pharisees who abused the Prince of Physicians our Lord and Master Christ for casting out Devils and curing Diseases which they could not saying he did it through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Wherefore if the Master was defam'd well may his Servants However let not such Reproaches deter you ye noble and true-hearted Chymical Physicians from pursuing after more refined Medicines being assured as Helmont sayes That none shall ever be forsaken of God who with a pious Affection and firm Faith performs the Office of a Physician Nor be ye startled at their crying out against the Heat of Chymical Medicines seeing through a defect in the Natural Heat of the Body Diseases are commonly bred especially Fevers For if Heat which is the Exciter though not the Efficient of Digestion did not fail as well as the Ferment it self and thereby disinable the Stomach so many Fevers and other Distempers as are would scarce be But when the Natural and Vital Heat fails a preternatural one either is caused in the whole Body soon after through the Archeus being angry or the whole does gradually decline Besides we ought to consider that Death is cold and that Diseases are the Harbinger of Death therefore to be withstood by Vital Remedies if we intend not to labour in vain But how a Remedy that is Vital can be Cold Dead and Spiritless I shall leave them to prove seeing Life and Heat in Man are so much akin that where the first is there 's the last and that where the last is wholly absent the first is not present But here by Vital Remedies I do not mean such as will inflame to wit Vinous Ones though such if mild when the diseasie cause is removed are good for nourishment But I by Vital Medicines do mean such as are friendly to the Life and the Stomach the Prime Seat thereof such as are benign and in their heat not exceeding the Vital Heat of the Body Such Heaters I say as shall certainly by their lively and abstersive Properties assist and reinforce Nature to the expelling what hurts and thereby undoubtedly cool Provided Death and an extinction of the Candle of L●fe is not at hand Yet then which is worthy of note such shall keep the Tongue smooth as also the Mouth unfur'd shall give Ease when vulgar Remedies can't And commonly preserve the Senses intire to the last as much as then can be expected For Contra vim mortis non est Medicamen in hortis Yet am I not so much wedded to the Chymical Science as to exclude all things from Physick which have not been Spagyrically handled or to go to perswade the World that in the absence of Pyrotechny no Remedies may be produced for some particular Maladies whilst experience tells me the contrary For doubtless the Art of Healing amongst the Antients was first founded on a Proper application of Simples which they found good against many remote and less dangerous Diseases whilst daily experience dictated Nor can I be perswaded otherwise than that they had Remedies with which many violent Affects and such that beset the Vitals in their chief Inns were not unfortunately remov'd could we be so happy as to know them in their naked simplicity unmasked and singled from their hotch-potchly Adjuncts Which we have reason to believe Posterity added more from a desire of hiding the Art of Healing to make the People believe 't is most mysterious and to beget admiration in them than in the least to advance it or that they might safelyer Cure Diseases Seeing the multiplying of Ingredients in a Medicine is so common at this day that scarce a wholsome one which is simple and innocent can be invented by any Sober Physician Motherly Gentlewoman or expert Nurse which two last have been doubtless the finders out of a great many Remedies but if it come into the hands of some half-witted and Ambitious Doctors presently their aims are to Monopolize the same and render it far more intricate To which end therefore one he adds to the already vertuous Simple or Medicine made of two or three ingredients this thing another he adds a second as they think analogous a third perhaps two or three more ingredients And thus they add more and more till the Vertues of the Simple are Confounded whilst the Medicine is Compounded Besides think they who are in the interim ignorant that Nature rejoyceth in Simplicity if we mix a multitude of Ingredients together 't is much if one don 't cure but an other will And that if a Medicine hath thirty or fourty several Ingredients in it 't will not be difficult to perswade the weak-sighted People that 't will Cure half as many Diseases at leastwise knock down one as dead as a H●rring For thirty to one is odds at the foot-ball and that Reader thou knowest as well as I. But truly herein they mistake for we are not to go to foot-Ball but to heal Besides let us suppose that that Simple or perhaps two or three which were originally the true Medicine had any considerable Vertues Yet they may well believe and according to the Rules of Nature too that the other adjuncts though they make the Medicine m●sterious do weaken and E●lipse its Vertues and render it disgustful and oppressive to the Stomach when otherwise it might allevia●e Nature Hence is it that the Sick frequen●ly complain against vulgar Remedies that are given for relief Saith one I no sooner see a Gally-pot or Pill-box but it presently inclines me to lo●●h●ng and vomiting Others there are who having been soundly paid ●ff will by no means hear of a Physician till they are right-down Sick and almost at Deaths door Yea will rather venture their lives under the hand of a Nurse with some Home spun simple Decoction than in the least adhere to such confused Prescripts So that till he is much spent and he find his strength daily to fail no Physician or Physick as they unprope●ly call poysonous Purges Vomites or Spiritless ho●ch-potches must p●ss over the threshold of the door And when he is consulted the Patient is apt to ●ry out and that not causl●sly Good Doctor give me nothing to Clog Vomit or Disturb me And why is it Perhaps Experience told him that last time he fell under the Doctors hands he had weln●gh as much trouble and felt as much oppression from the Medicine he took as from the Disease it self Whilst poor Nature under two Aegyptian Task masters was even forc'd to make Brick without Straw and had a double trouble instead of ease to cast forth the Disease and Medicine Thus many times by clogging lifeless Medicines as also by poysonous and churlish Purges and Vomits Nature

this manner whilst many were seeking for the Lapis were most if not all those pernicious Mercurial and Antimonial Remedies invented that currently pass in the Shops and are taught by the Writers of the Beginnings of Chymistry For there is scarce any name given by Hermetick writers to their science but the same by some or other has been given to some ill-contriv'd Medicine which is founded on Mercury or Antimony This I thought meet to hint for the good of such who are so extreamly Lapified that meerly upon the account of getting the Lapis Philosophorum though they oftner get the stone in the Kidneys attempt the study of Chymistry thereby losing much Silver in catching of Gold in unfortunately plundering the Golden fleece Whereas if they did but consider the sayings of those very Authors That it requires the whole-man which how can he that is incumbered with Physick allow also that many that sought if ever they got it obtain'd it not under nigh thirty years study and Labour And that several Nobles and Knights in pursuit thereof spent great part of their Estates before they obtained i● and some such never did get it but spent vast sums of money in vain I say if they did but consider this it might put some stop to their procedure and teach them so much wit as to keep their monies and not venture it upon they know not what as also to be better satisfied and inform'd about what they would have before they set to operate Besides many are dubious whether or no there is such a thing as the Lapis in Nature And truly for my own part were it not that noble Helmont confesseth that he had some of the Gold-making powder given him by a Friend of one Evenings acquaintance and that he was Constrain'd to believe there was such a thing because he had made projection therewith several times and confirms the same in diverse places of his writings Were it not for this the lovers of the Hermetick Science must pardon me if I should desire my own liberty in thinking However I can assure you I am so little an admirer of their prescrib'd processes because some of them seemingly contradict other some that I should count my self worthy of blame if I should spend five pounds on five the most plausible receipts in their whole works being better admonisht by the Dogs mishap in the Fable that catching at the shadow lost the Substance But to return to our Physical affairs Let those who read Helmonts works diligently observe and they shall soon find he speaks but sparingly and Aenigmatically of his Medicine the Alkahest which as he saith was the Menstruum whereby he reduced things into their first being and without which he denies that his Horizontal Gold Fire of Venus and other his most potent Remedies may be made Also they shall find that without it he denies the destruction of Vulgar Mercury and saith that Paracelsus in speaking about his Arcana doth commonly hide the Operation of his Alkahest Of which though I am not a Possessor yet have I seen so much as to confirm me that Helmont wrote not like a Novice and that such a thing is in Nature However in the absence thereof 't is admirable that our Mercury-mongers and pretended Helm●n●ians will offer to meddle with that Proteus who derides their endeavours and make such a talking about rendering Gold volatile and potable as also about extracting its Tincture when Helmont plainly declare that he profited more by the Decoction of a Simple than by its Potest Med. potable juice For saith he after P. 480. that I knew how to unloose bodies by things agreeing with their radical Principles I then first began with a pleasant weariness to laugh at my foolish credulities which caus'd me in times past to dissolve Gold yet I profited less by its potable juice than by the Decoction of a simple But after that I could dissolve Gold and make it look like Butter Rosin and Vitriol I no where found the Vertues attributed to Gold because it was reluctant to our Ferments I perceived therefore that Gold without its own proper corrosive is dead Dead I say unless it be radidically pierced by its own Corrosive Elsewhere he saith 't is impossible to alter Gold radically without the aid of one only Liquor which I dare warrant you is not Aqua Regis or any such pitiful Corrosive Besides if the Almighty who is the God of the Poor as well as Rich hath made all Nations of the Earth curable as saith the Holy Scriptures it need not be doubted but in the absence of Gold Salutiferous Medicines may be found Yet seeing all the harm Gold in a Medicine can do in regard 't is not corrosive is the encreasing an Apothecaries or Doctor 's bill and making the Patients purse lighter I shal let it here alone speak of Mercury Against which I can't say enough so long a 't is not kill'd and its malignity wholly destroy'd Which I believe all the Vizards of Salts and other adjuncts will be in no wise able to do it being a Body more strong than to suffer Death through such Of which I can speak partly from experience having not only operated on it with my own hands to make it confess its vertues But morover seen two others variously attempt to fix open and subdue it whilst it apparently derided their endeavours and made us conclude with Helmot Nec mori potest per machinamenta sublunaria hujus seculi to wit that it can't die through the sublunary engins of this World He confesseth indeed it may be radically pierced and divided by the Alkahest but he deems not that a sublunary Engin seeing 't is an immortal Menstruum in resolving all bodies into their first being burns up their hurtsul qualities and sets their Vertues at Liberty For saith he the Common People burn with fire we with Water But doth not Helmont in his Ignotus Hydrops highly commend Mercurius Diaphoreticus and say that it being once obtain'd is sufficient for many 100 sick people as also for him that is a Physician and his Son Yes he does but adds moreover That that thing may succeed according to thy desire the Mercury ought to die without any association of external salts or fellowship of Forreign Spirits Yet 't is meet that it so die that in the Chariot a living being may remain which may be able in the middle life of the Mercury to carry it to its appointed places A little before he also declares that in the Dropsy Paracelsus commends his Praecipiolum or Mercury drawn dead out of its mine where the word his plainly shews it was not the common praecipitate neither is that dead And he more fully manifests that his was not the common by quoting Paracelsus saying that he reverenceth and admires the endowments of simples as they arose from God but not as they are a kin to Mineral Mercury Which Praecipiolum saith

next and of the safety of curing it without Blood-letting by the assistance of vertuous Remedies as also of the needlesness of opening a Vein provided Remedies that will cure are at hand Though in their absence to prevent a greater mischief the use of the Lancet may prove advantageous we being admonisht by the vulgar proverb To choose the least of Evils Concerning a Pleurisy and thē curing of it without Blood-letting And first it will not be amiss to take notice that as Salt is the Savourer and preserver of all things so is it next to the life the preserver of integ●ety in the Humane Fabrick and that no otherwise than from a pricking and stimulating Sharpness entred into the Blood and laid aside in the Pleura has a Pleurisy its rise For as the Blood the most livelyliquor in the body is Saline and consequently an enemy to Acidity and Acidity to it if through an error in any of the preceding Digestions to wit the Stomach Duodenum c. or through a contagion in the inbreath'd Air a hostile Sharpness is admitted into the Blood and it proving like a Thorn to the part it fixeth in doth take-up its residence in the Membrane which cloaths the Ribs called the Pleura whilst the circulating Blood would dismiss it Then doth the life in the part muster up the neighbouring Blood in endeavouring to cast forth this forreigner which whilst it runneth thither to assist the life of that part and by the stimulating Sharpness the life being incensed that membrane is torn from the Ribs the new-made cavity is filled by the Blood running thither Whereas had there not been that hostil Acidity Thorn-like in the Blood and Pleura that Crimson juice would of its own accord have been quiet and contained it self in its limits But it being the property of the Blood to flow where pain is according to that ●● the Antients Vbi dolor et calor èo ●ffluit cru●r Where Pain and Heat is to that place Blood flows what profit may Revulsion bring seeing that when part is let out the remaining Blood will in short time be equalliz'd in the veins and that if Nature is not too much debilitated by her loss she will give the other onset so long as the Enemy is conversant in her Territories I say what can be expected from Phlebotomy unless an enervation and weakening of Nature though some respit from Death be granted and a laying the foundation of some Chronick disease so long as the acidity is not remov'd from the Blood and Pleura by suitable Medicines or by Nature For by a loss of Blood a desisting is only caused from the combate between the Metaphorical Thorn and Nature no otherwise then as shee has scarce strength left to defend her self But what in the mean time will become of the acidity if any is in the Blood as well as Pleura how shall that be taken away for good and bad will be left behind as well as emitted after the Lancet has done its best what must that be left to be overcome by the strength and vigour of Nature who after the Blood is let out and she weaken'd hath enough and sometimes too much to do to preserve her self and dispose of the begun Apostem Yes that 's the way For striking at the cause and omitting Phlebotomy is somewhat a strange Doctrine yet though not half so Heretical as formerly since Experience has prov'd it Safe and Usefull But for all the poor relief of Phlebotomy does diminish the Blood and consequently hinders the Growth and increase of the Pleurisy through forbidding the Bloods flowing too fast by the Vein Azugos c. Yet it withdraws none or very little that is out-hunted nor hinders it in the least from Apostemizing Which thing ought chiefly to be look after by the Physician though that whole burthen is commonly left on Natures shoulders who failing through want of good Remedies and proper assistants the Patient dies at last Nor is this all for if she struggling out-wears both the loss of Blood and the Acidity whereby some recover after long lying by it whilst others lose their lives through want of Medicines yet by reason of so great weakening of the Vitals by the Lancet the functions and ferments of the body being impair'd 't is not many of those that prove not Scorbutical or consumptive if they do not next year relapse into the same 'T is a miserable thing that so many should yearly perish of this Disease whilst the Venal Blood is emitted by lavishing the strength through taking away its magazine and neglecting the cause in the Blood and Plenta seeing that the bountiful Father of Lights has afforded Medicines for its Safe and Perfect cure without exhausting the Vitals in the least As Van Helmont testifies who cured Ple●risies safely without Blood-letting nor have a few of our Moderns frequently done the same As I also can testifie who am owner of such and that have known of many safely cured of Pleurisies without the loss of one ounce of Blood But as long as sloth dictates and Paganish Doctrines are doted on by Christians as long as Physicians shall refuse to be wise beyond their Ancestors who were Men Humanum est errare So long must we expect an impoverishing of Nature under pretence of aiding and assisting her besides could a Pleurisie be cured safely by breathing a Vein which it cannot yet curing it by the sole aid of stout and innocent Remedies must needs be the excellenter way seeing that Nature by not diminishing her strength which is the Blood may be much sooner enabled after her enemy is Vanquisht to recover the loss she sustain'd Whereas if the Blood be let out though the Patient escape choaking and is perhaps delivered from the jaws of death yet is he so shattered and shaken in his Vitals by the loss of that Vital juice that if he recover 't is very long First But if the Patient Die than the blame is impos'd on the too vehementness of the Disease when the Doctor is often more in fault in that he let out the Blood which is the strength of Nature and neglected that sharpish cause which from an error in digestion was let slip into the Blood and furiously assaulted the Pleura For though sharpness is grateful in the Stomach if it exceeds not its Ferment yet out of it 't is as a Thorn to the part it fixeth in 't is the causer of gripes the Parent of a Consumption and of all other Diseases almost To which Hippocrates testifieth and saith Non calidum frigidum humidum siccumve sed quod acre amarum acidum austerum morbi sunt But omitting narratives concerning such who have miscarried in this Disease under the Lancet it being a thing too too frequent I shall only relate what was accidentally told me by the Brother of a Person not many years since Pleuritical it being extorted from him by hearing another declare

and down to Mean-peoples houses without sending for the People should be so wise as to thank them for it but give them no Money for coming Now whether or no the woman was sentenced to dye by the Doctor I cannot tell but I remember I heard she recover'd by better Medicines But what an unchristian trick was this to rob the Spittle-house and how contrary to what the good Samaritane did Surely if such Physicians should have no more mercy shewn them from the Father of Lights than they shew to their fellow-creatures they would soon descend the Infernal Lake However I perswade myself there are not a few Learned Physicians that are tender-hearted industrious Conscientious and Merciful and many more that would do better did they know better But such should be diligent and inquisitive for as the Poet tells us God sells Arts to sweats and not content themselves with barely tumbling over a few volumes and such that were the very Authors themselves living they would not know what to say to the stubborn Diseases of this Age. But though there are many such honest Physicians yet there are many more 't is to be feared otherwise which thing is very lamentable For though Botchery and Deceit in any Art is unpleasing yet in Physick 't is most dangerous and prejudicial whilst men by them sometimes lose their lives and oftentimes the●r healths Therefore for an example to such as are not as they ought to be I will by and by declare what I saw and was an Eye-witness to after that I have detected one abuse more that too frequently is put on the Gentry To do which take this following example A Wealthy Knight and Baronet not many years since fell sick At first he was but slightly affected but under welnigh half a dozen Physicians which did their endeavour off and on instead of being better he declin'd and at last itterminated in a Paralytick Gout or the Gout Palsy together because the disease lying much in the Genus Nervosum contemned their feeble succours or was rather strengthened by them But before it came to this pass and though he was weak had as yet the use of his Legs and Arms he was visited by his Brother an Esquire that intreated him to make use of his Chymical Doctor adding that he cured him safely and soundly when the ablest Galenists thereabouts could do no good and had since cured his Wife of a Paralytick Lethargy when two or three Physicians had after three daies endeavour left her insensible and sleeping as they found her At length the Esquire prevail'd so much that his Doctor was sent for and retain'd not doubting but to recover him with lively and good Remedies Therefore he sent such But before he to wit the sick-man had taken one spoonful of any of them the Galenists with their Agents of which they have too many subtilly Workt him out under the Notion of wishing the sick-man well Buzzing into his head that the Chymical Doctor gave hot Medicines that were Dangerous And why dangerous Because the Medicines being vital and penetrative which are properties in a medicine that must su●● in with and assist the Life if the Sick-man should have taken them he might doubtless have recovered and is not ●at dangerous Now when they take their Coo●ng Medicines which carry Deaths property ● Death is cold enough there is little danger ● fear unless Nature be stubborn and vigorous ●●t that they 'l die according to Art But to go on One of the first Doctors ●hough before he could do no good after he had workt out the Chymical Doctor that he might ●ot be re-admitted to keep the Sick-man in play told him he had found out something ●hat would doubtless Cure him safely in a Month or Six weeks The words Cure him safely were mighty pleasing and so they went on But after this he daily declin'd whilst they fed him up with Fancies and told him 'T was all for the better But in short he that before had the use of his Limbs in the space of six weeks could neither move Legs nor Arms and was three times worse than before So that the Promis'd Cure no where appear'd When the Sick Knight and Baronet complained of this the Apothecary would tell him that they aim'd at preserving his Life within and were loath to set upon the Disease in his Limbs lest they should drive it in upon his life and so kill him as if there had been no other way to cure him but by driving the Disease upon his Life Reader canst forbear smiling at or rather pittying a Sick-man under such unfaithful helpers However this quieted him for the present But daily growing worse and worse he still complain'd how that now he was in great pain in this joynt and part of his Body The Doctor told him ' t was all for the better At another time telling him he was much disturb'd in another part and in almost half his body The Doctor would still reply ' t is all for the Better And thus he grew better and better till he was almost Dead Whereupon when this languishing Person after many months trial of this Doctor was nothing mended but was worser by many Degrees at last than he was when he took him in hand the second time notwithstanding 't was all for the better Yet he imploys another Galenick Physician and in about six weeks after fairly dies Secundum Artem. But whether or no that was all for the better I 'le leave you to determine Thus are the Gentry liable to be impos'd upon for their money as well as the Poor slighted for want on 't Neither have Nobles themselv's because they are Rich been freed from Casualties Nor will they ever be free as long as Poysons must pass for Medicines and so long as Nature must be weakned instead of helpt and so long as Words are more studied than Things Witness the sudden and untimely death of Marquess Charles Spinelli some years since General of the Genoans by white Hellebore ●hich was given him by a Company of Phy●cians As also the Death of that Emperour to ●mit narratives nigher home on whose Tomb History tells us was Engraven He perished through a Rout of Physicians Nor may I pass by the death of a very Lusty ●nd stout young Gentleman and an eldest ●rother through extract of Black Hellebore given him by an eminent and Learned Doctor ●o Purge away an Ague For he after he had ●een walking abroad in the City wherin he ●v'd came home and took it at eight at night and was dead about three hours after Purging and Vomiting most cruelly having preceded Death The which when I heard it from ●he mouth of the Brother of that Party that was ●ill'd and the manner how made me no little ●dmire and more admire that such can have the face to cry out against Chymistry as a ha●rdous Art and exclaim against its Medicines ●s Venomous When their very Dispensatory