Peace and Health The Soul being receptive of high pleasure and satisfaction in obeying her Maker's commands Body and Soul meet together in mutual happiness Passions of the Wings of the Soul and Body doth impart a secret joy to the Body rendring it vivid and active to celebrate its natural operations whereupon the Animi Pathemata may be truly said according to received Philosophy highly to influence the Body Nobler Passions relating to the Triade of Love Joy and Hope are so many fine Wings to elevate the Soul and Body by exalting them to vertuous inclinations full of Honesty and Honor but on the other hand Hatred Sorrow and Despair are so many Weights or Bolts and Chains to depress and enslave the sensitive and rational Faculties and their operations often productive of sickness as an entry into the Chambers of Death The cheerful resentment of our duty to God and Man Our duty to God and Man giveth a serenity to the Soul and Body giveth a Heaven to the Soul and a serene temper to the Body in a sweet composure of its disagreeing Humors speaking us free and healthy as we are put into a capacity of enjoying our selves and Friends in a pleasant or amicable converse Good Fellows and Debauchees The Sentiments of Debauches are fond the only wise Men as they fancy have other Sentiments and deem their freedom much confined within the severe bounds of Temperance by giving too great an allay to the swing of their sensual enjoyments in reference to the indulgence of full Cups and variety of Mistresses But with their permission I conceive their apprehensions are very fond by reason Persons of sobriety transcend them in true sensual delight True sensual pleasure consists in Sobriety and have their Appetites more high as eating and drinking with greater gust when hungry and thirsty and enjoy Venereal pleasures with greater and more chaste flames according to our Saviours institution in Marriage rendring themselves immortal by propagation While the coy Appetites of irregular Persons are unduly hightened by high Gouts forced Meats and strange Provocatives which give false fire as it were lighting a Lamp at both ends and speedily exhausting the Oyl which supporteth the vestal flames of Life The fond Sensualists become untimely Fops Sensualists tire themselves in sensual pleasure by tiring themselves in over-acting their parts in the painted scenes of Pleasure and are Pageants in seeming to personate that which they cannot enjoy and antedate themselves bewiched making themselves the scorn of Curtizans before the time prescribed by Nature and by drinking too free Cups of generous Liquor do at once lose their Reason and Taste wherein they are made void of Sense and Pleasure A Good Fellow is called Boracio by the Italian a Hog's Skin filled with Wine as if his Gulet served for no other end but a Tunnel to pour down drink into his Belly as into a Hogshead which being often emptied by an extream part as by a Tap groweth at last closed up in a Dropsy so that the vessel of the Belly remaineth always full wherein the Patient groweth Thirsty when swelled with over-much Liquor Drowning and Burying the noble parts as in a Puddle These high pretenders purchase pleasure at a dear rate Inordinate sensual pleasures are countermanded by pain and are often worsted in Venus Camp and come off with broken Shins and cut Noses as so many scars and marks of dishonour so that the great Judge out of his tender Mercies mixeth Sweets with Bitter to punish stupid offenders by countermanding their vain pleasures as an earnest of future Torments and with horrid pains by banging us as Slaves with blows upon our Shoulders Arms Thighs and Leggs to make us sensible of our great prevarications to preserve our Health and Life Spiritual Aberrations are the more peculiar Diseases of the Mind Pride Spiritual prevarications are the diseases of the Mind by which some setting too great a value upon their parts and perfections do justly lessen themselves in the esteems of others to give a Reprimand to Supercilious persons for their arrogant deportment wherein they grow discontented upon being scorned and neglected as a due punishment for their insolent folly The envious person groweth sick at anothers greater Health The envious person is rendred unhappy by anothers prosperity looketh with an ill Eye upon his prosperous neighbour to whom he ought to wish all happiness in common Humanity as an associate of the same nature with himself and seemeth secretly to quarrel with his Maker in giving another a greater portion of his benefits whereas he ought in all reason to receive the Blessings of the Almighty whether more or less with a cheerful Look and thankful Heart who out of providence disposeth all things in great Wisdom and Justice The Glutton indulgeth his Palate in variety of Delicacies The Glutton killeth himself with kindness wherein he treateth his great Enemy and giveth him advantage to encounter him with the greater force by raising his rebellious Appetite to such a hight that he cannot subdue his inordinate inclinations and nourisheth his Body with dainty Fare to so great a fulness that he killeth himself with kindness in exalting his Blood to a Plethora thereby rendring himself liable to an Hospital of Diseases Inveterate Anger degenerates into Malice ulcering the Mind perverting the fine Oeconomy of Soul and Body taking away the Gaiety of our Nature and Compleasance of our Temper Anger and Malice are the Canker of the Soul putting us upon ill wishes variety of quarrels and revenge whereupon we being highly discomposed in our Minds the Crasis of our Blood is spoiled and we rendred obnoxious to great diseases censures and clamours to the pity of some and scorn of others Ambition putteth us upon a vain expectation of Honour or Fortune Ambition by lifting us up high maketh our fall the greater which is often disappointed by a fruitless success and mounteth us up by irregular motions to a Sphere above our Selves to speak us great in the opinion of the World making us to walk upon Rocks and Precipices from which we tumble and dash our Selves in pieces and Phaeton like lose our fond Selves and empty Designs Thus have I given a prospect of some great Aberrations which speak a high discomposure to the Mind and sickness to the Body whereupon it is my humble Advice to espouse as our good the salutary precepts of Piety Justice and Temperance which being of a Spiritual temper make us akin to the Great Heavenly Mind Virtue maketh us akin to the Heavenly mind in stamping his Image upon us which giveth a Blessing in the Temporals of this life as being a defensative against Sickness and Death Nothing can speak a greater honour and advantage to the Professors of Arts and Sciences Humane Bodies and Societies are advanced by Health and Happiness then to be Lovers of Mankind and to espouse such Principles and Methods as may prove effectual preservatives of Humane Bodies and Societies founded in Health
into the outward surface of the inward skin whereupon the Cuticula was more elevated into greater Swellings then at first and her Face was denuded of all Features by this envious Disease treating most severely the best Faces and greatest Beauties to teach us Humility and Self-denial to make us out of love with our selves and Admire and Adore him in kissing with reverence the gentle correcting Hand of our Great Maker and Redeemer whose Dispensations though they seem severe to the outward Man yet they prove most advantagious to the inward and work for the best to all that Love Fear and Obey him Pray pardon the Digression which I have added to divert the good Reader and if any Person be so unkind to me and himself to receive it as impertinent with scorn I pity and pray for him But to return and visit our sick Patient whose Body was preserved though her Face ruined which was chieflly accomplished by Nature her self under God producing a great Ptyalisme which I advanced by all means possible in advising most powerful opening and cleansing Gargarisms highly assisting Nature in discharging the impurities of the Blood by the Excretory Glands belonging to the Mouth In the Flux Pox complicated with a Spotted Fever we ought always to consult the Honour of our Art when we cannot be happy Ministers of a Cure to fore-arm the Friends and Relations of the Patient Pronosticks give an Honor to Art where Diseases are dangerous or deplorable with a Prognostick of the eminent danger of the Disease which in this Case is deplorable else we shall gain the repute of Unskilful Artists though we satisfie the indications of the Disease with the most proper Remedies and use our utmost Endeavours and Art to recover the Patient yet ill Success shall render us liable to the censure of the Vulgar who are governed more by Sense then Reason unless we give account before-hand what can be said in Humane Probability relating to the event of the Disease which in this case is very dangerous if not fatal to the Patient where the Person is not relieved in the Flux Pox with the large Eruption of the matter of the Disease by the Cutaneous Glands nor by free ejection of the faeculent and serous parts of the Blood and Succus Nutricius by salival Liquor spued out of the Oâ—al Glands and yet notwithstanding these hopeful Evacuations the Disease prevaileth and the blew spots appeared the symptoms of a Pestilential Fever the mournful Heralds proclaiming the approaches of Death Person of great Honour and Virtue being of a timorous disposition was frequently daunted at the apprehension of the Small Pox denying her self the ease and happiness of her Life as being always in pain with the phancy of a Disease which at last surprised her though she often quitted beloved London the Dalilah of Women to preserve her self from this noisome and afflictive Distemper which seised her by the imprudence of her Landlady who lodged her in a bed infected with a Body lately dead of the Sall Pox complicated with a Spotted Fever which made the same impressions in her as receiving the pestilential Steams into her Body as reposed in the infected Bed in which when she found her self discomposed she took free draughts of Strong Waters thinking thereby to calm her Distemper which in truth had a contrary effect and raised the Storm much higher by producing a much greater â—bullition of Blood which taking its progress from the inward to the Ambient parts in which the serous parts of the Vital Liquor and Succus Nutricius discover themselves in most minute Swellings and pustles and Nature in this person of Honour did not make a discharge only of the offenssive matter by the Skin but also by streams of Salival Liquor flowing out of the Excretory Channels relating to the numerous Oral Glands which I promoted by proper Gargarisms In reference to her Pestilential Fever which highly afflicted her Medicines appliable to the Small Pox in case of Malignant Fevers I ordered pearl Cordials and many kinds of moderately cooling Julaps and temperate Diaphoreticks consisting of mild testaceous Powders which brought out the Small Pox very fair and to a laudable Suppuration appearing in the white heads of fruitful Tumours big with a well digested purulent Matter which at last began to dry into Scabs interspersed with large blew spots the sad Emblems of Death which happened in the seventeenth day of her Sickness which highly discomposed me to part with a Friend as well as a Patient a person of so great Honour Kindness and good Humour whose Memory I shall account sacred and for ever revere being now ready upon this sad History which happened many Years since to dapple my Paper with Tears as a due resentment of my great trouble and loss A Salemans Wife fell sick of a dangerous Small Pox as cofaederated with a Spotted Fever which had so unkindly an Eruption that the Livid Spots far exceeded the Pimples in number but upon due applications of gentle Diaphoreticks and Cordial Julaps the Fermentation of the Blood was reduced to a good allay as being not too much exalted nor depressed so that the offensive Matter was brought out and thickned whereupon the Fever disappeared and the Small Pox growing first plump and then the Ulcerous Matter was dried into Scabs whereby the Patient being recovered liveth a Momument of Gods wonderful Mercy I humbly beg the favour of all Mens Lives are not to be trusted in the hands of Empericks which are very unsafe and destructive in reference to the Cure of the Small Pox and all other Diseases that shall so far Honour me as to read this rude Treatise as they have a value for their own Health rather then my Interest not to trust themselves in the hands of Quacks and Empericks in any Distemper and especially in this dangerous Disease in which out of Arrogance to speak themselves an attribute they contradict the safe and wholesome advice of Physitians and contrary to all Reason Art and Experience they confound the Aeconomy of Nature and destroy their Patients with strong Vomits and Purges and hot Faetide Drops and Spirits as knowing no better which too much raise the Fermentation of the Blood and weaken the course of Nature and divert its regular Current of offensive Humours in the Measles and Small Pox from the outward confines of the Body to the inward and tender Recesses of the Bowels where their violent Medicines produce Loosnesses Bloody Fluxes Lypothymies Syncopies and Death speaking a sad Catastrophe of all Worldly Joy and Happiness hastned by impudent new Experiments which they make upon their overcredulous Patients CHAP. VIII Of Freckles Spots Morphew and the like THere are other disaffections which are more superficial and of less importance as lessening the Lustre Freckles Spots and Morphew are Cured by Cosmeticks and Beauty of the outward Skin as Freckles Spots Morphew and the like which are Cured often by Cosmeticks as the
being opened to inspect the cause of her death the Brain was found to be free from any disaffection and the Vena Cava to be filled with concreted Blood which rendred the right Ventricle empty of it which proved satal to this young Virgin Another cause of a Lipothymy or Syncope often attended with a fatal stroke may arise out of so great a torrent of Blood A second cause of a Lypothymy carried into the Ventricles that the Heart is not able to discharge it out of the right into the Pulmonary Artery nor out of the left into the Aorta whereupon a suddain Suffocation the Heart immediately ensueth and the motion of the Blood wholly taken away Sir Robert Fen a worthy Gentleman An instance of this cause and Servant of King Charles the First of most blessed Memory being subject to great Passion was so highly surprized with Fear upon the occasion of a conceived imminent loss that he fell down dead in a moment which was as I humbly conceive caused by a great sourch of Blood suddainly impelled into the right Ventricle and Suffocated the Heart A third cause of a Lipothymy or Syncope A third cause of a Lipothymy may be deduced from a grosness or concretion of Blood proceeding from an over-fibrous disposition that is from numerous Films and Vesicles containing gross Atoms of Blood full of fixed Saline Particles Coagulating the Blood in the Ventricles often producing a Polypus inducing these ill accidents of the Heart These symptoms may also be caused by some fleshy Excrescence filling up either of the Ventricles So that they are not receptive of Vital Liquor These symptoms may proceed from an Excrescence filling up either Ventricle of the Heart whereupon the Heart loseth its use and motion as being designed by Nature to transmit Blood into all parts of the Body A Woman of great Honour and Birth was frequently tortured with a pain of the Heart and great Fainting Fits which could not be taken away by the power of Art and at last the pain and Lipothymies growing more and more afflictive Death became the best remedy And afterward her Body being opened and her Heart inspected a black Flesh substance somewhat resembling a Medlie in figure was discovered in the left Sinus of the Heart Another cause of these ill symptoms of the Heart A Syncope and Lipothymy may come from Purulent Matter or Ulcer of the Heart may be taken from a Purulent Matter flowing from an Ulcer of the Heart tainting and distoning the mass of Blood passing through the Ventricles whereupon the Fibres of the Heart grow faint and at last lose their Contractions proceeding from a vitiated dispirited corrupted Blood received into their inward Compage whence follow Lipothymies Syncopes and Death it self A Citizen long afflicted with a high Hypocondriacal passion and an acute Fever accompanied with Lipothymies and Syncopes determining in a happy departure as the period of pain and misery his Body being Dissected the Cavity of the Thorax was found full of a thin red faetide humor which was also lodged in the left Ventricle of the Heart flown from an Ulcer These severe accidents of the Heart do often arise out of the Ulcers of the neighbouring parts as the Lungs Pleura Mediastine Midriff Liver These symptoms may arise out of Ulcers of the adjacent parts Spleen Pancreas which being oppressed by Ulcerous Matter do transmit it by smaller branches of Veins peculiar to the said Viscera into the ascendent Trunk of the Cava and from thence into the right Ventricle of the Heart whereby its Fibres are highly discomposed by Pus imbibed into them with the Blood These most troublesom accidents of the Heart perverting the Oeconomy of its Motion A Syncope and Lipothymy coming from Malignant steams of the Blood in Pestilential Fevers are often produced in Malignant Fevers by Venenate Steams corrupting the native disposition and distoning and destroying the Spirituous parts of the Blood whereupon it groweth Concreted in the great Vessels and Ventricles of the Heart So that the poysonous steams being received with the Blood into the substance of the fleshy Fibres do weaken if not take away their Contractions whence ensue Lipothymies and Syncopes the forerunners of Death Another cause of these dreadful Symptoms may be derived from the indisposition of the Brain The symptoms may come from the indisposition of the Brain either not generating a sufficient quantity of Nervous Liquor to invigorate the Nerves of the Heart or else if it be generated cannot be transmitted to the Cardiack Nerves caused by some obstruction of them whereupon the Fibres are not able to play their parts in the scene of repeated Motions as not impregnated with Animal Spirits which may be one cause of Lipothymies and Syncopes speaking a conclusion to Life And the motion of the Heart is not only lessened in Lipothymies The Palpitation of the Heart and abolished in Syncopes but depraved also in Palpitations which are sometimes so great that the Cone striketh the left side near the Pap with so great a violence that it may be plainly seen felt and heard too at some distance The Mechanick cause of an erection of the Heart whereby it striketh the Breast The cause of the Heart striking the lest side proceedeth very much from the oblique situation of the Heart and disposition of the Fibres which are obliquely and spirally wreathed and brought round from the right toward the left side of the Heart and this posture of the Fibres is very much assisted by the conformation of the Heart as the left Wall is more short and less Carnous and crooked in the left Ventricle of the Heart than in the right which is encompassed with two Walls as Learned Borellus hath observed Unde ait ille in Systole erigi debet Cordis mucro versus sinistram partem pectoris eamque percutere potest pro gradu violentiae qua erigitur Hoc salvari quoque potest vel adjuvari ab erectione Cordis oblique jacentis vel à situatione dispositione Fibrarum quae oblique spiraliter circumducuntur à parte dextra basis Cordis versus sinistram partem Verticis unde in inflatione Fibrarum anterius versus sinistram partem sic percussio fieri potest The erection of the Heart perverting the Oeconomy of Nature wherein the Mucro of the Heart maketh violent strokes upon the left side is called Palpitation The Palpitation proceeding from too great a quantity of Blood which may be derived from many Causes one may arise from too great a quantity of Blood which the Heart being unable wholly to discharge in every Systole is so oppressed as to make strong and frequent Contractions of its Fibres wherein the Cone of the Heart being elevated maketh strong Appulses upon the left side to discharge the exuberant Blood by most brisk Vibrations A second cause of the Palpitation of the Heart The second cause of the Palpitation may
Fever stiled by the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is when the unnatural heat of the Blood groweth more intense every Fit The Second step or time is commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived from a great quantity of inflamed oily Particles which though they most eminently appear in the Praecordia as parts confining on the Heart in which the Effervescence of the Blood is chiefly seated yet these hot oily Particles of the vital Liquor are also diffused thence through the whole mass to all parts of the Body The increase of this hot Disease continueth for three or four days or thereabouts more or less according to the greater or less degrees of acuteness of the Fever when the first glimmerings of the Concoction begin to dawn in a small secretion of the impure adust Particles from the purer Blood which at this time of the Fever is discovered in the Urine growing more clear toward the Surface as the grosser parts begin to precipitate toward the bottom of the Urinal The third step of a Continued Fever named by that Great Master of our Faculty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the state of the Disease The 3d step of a Continued Fever is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the height of it wherein the Ebullition of the Blood in the Heart arriveth to the highest degree proceeding from a great confederacy of numerous Oyly Particles breaking forth as it were into a flame through all the apartiments of the Body and in the state of this Fever the two great Combatants Nature and the Disease do briskly enter the list making violent thrusts at each other upon the account of life and death whereupon they both highly endeavouring a conquest one of them loseth the day sitting down in a loss of victory while the other triumpheth in the pleasant success of Life happily changing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Disease into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the state into a declination The fourth step of a continued Fever called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The declination of the disease which is the fourth and last stage of this Fever succeeding the state wherein the Vital Spirits the more active and volatil parts of the Blood triumph as conquerors and the Febrile heat is receptive of an allay and the most eminent signs of Concoction appear as the Crisis of the disease is instituted by Nature whereupon the secretions of the recrements of the Blood are made whereof some are oily and others Volatil Saline embodying with the serous parts of the Blood being put into a Fluor which are conveyed from the greater Arterial Branches to the Extremities of the Capillaries terminating into the Skin which being very Porous receiveth the fierce Effluvia The first Crists of a continued Fever when the Matter of the Disease is evacuated by Sweat and ferous Recrements of the Blood freely besprinkling the ambient parts of the Body And this I humbly conceive is the best and most natural Crisis of a Fever when the Morbifick Matter is universally expelled through the habit of the Body But the Crisis I conceive is less perfect and beneficial The second Crisis of a continued Fever discharged by a Haemorrage of Blood through the Nostrils when more particular Evacuations of the peccant Matter are instituted by Nature as when the Pores of the Skin being shut up by ambient cold a Crisis is sometimes ordered by a Haemorrhage through the Nostrils when the inflamed oyly and the exalted saline Particles being in high commotion with the mass of Blood cannot be protruded by plentiful Sweats in a free transpiration are translated into distant parts from the Heart and being hurried by impetuous motions of the Blood through the internal Carotide Arteries into the Membranes and Cortex of the Brain are thence conveyed by the Internal Jugulars into the Nostrils Whence the danger of their Crisis is lest some part of the Morbifick Matter should be conveyed with the Blood into and so fixed in the substance of the Brain as to vitiate the Animal Liquor and thereby produce a Delirium Convulsive Motions as the Subsultus Tendinum and many other Cephalick distempers Again I conceive another Crisis may be made in a continued Fever by another particular Evacuation The third Crisis is made when the Matter of the Continued Fever is discharged by Urine when the gross Adust Particles are severed like a Caput Mortuum from the Blood after its Deflagration and are transmitted by the emulgent Arteries into the substance of the Glands relating to the Kidneys wherein a Secretion is made of the Morbifick Matter with the serous Particles from the more refined Blood and transmitted first through the Urinary Ducts into the Pelvis and thence by the Ureters as Aqueducts into the Cistern of the Bladder which appeareth in a reddish Urine when first made which a little while after groweth thick and turbid and is afterward precipitated So that the Adust Particles the more gross Contents having recourse to the bottom the substance of the Urine groweth clear and transparent CHAP. XXV Of Malignant Fevers THe third kind of Continued Fevers The nature of Malignant Fevers The Symptoms of Malignant Fevers commonly called Malignant differeth in substance from the rest and ariseth from the mass of Blood secretly envenomed with some noysome Miasmes whence immediately ensueth a suddain dejection of strength wherein the temper of the Blood being violently disordered its Compage is perverted and its Mixtion is in a great part dissolved as the Elements the integral parts of the Blood are in a manner separated one from another attended with horrid symptoms vid. Stupor Delirium Convulsive Motions the trembling of the Tendons and the like the same kind of accidents which accompany the drinking of Poyson or the biting of Vipers and other venemous Animals infecting the Blood with subtle venenate Atoms small in quantity but great in power destructive to the constituent principles relating to the mass of Blood which is discovered in the speedy perverting the Crasis of the Vital and Nervous Liquors whereupon the functions of Life Sense and Motion are ill celebrated So that the harmony of temper belonging to the Blood is disordered and the Oeconomy of Nature violated the dismal forerunners of death If a curious search be made for the better understanding of Malignant Fevers into the nature of Poysons what alterations they make in the consistence of the Blood they will be found very different by reason some Poysons making a fusion of the Blood do precipitate its serous parts others do produce Swellings by throwing the malignity of the Blood into the extreme parts and do impel the serous Recrements by the terminations of the Arteries inserted into the Cuticular Glands wherein a separation being instituted by Nature the serous parts do puff up the Cuticula and make Pustles which I saw in a Person of Honour a Patient of mine poysoned with Arsnick in whom the sulphureous and saline
fluid and apt for motion much quickned by the active parts of Air which do not only enter by the Pores of the Bark relating to the Roots of Vegetables but also by the small Meatus of the Rine encircling their Trunks Arms and lesser Branches And herein Plants do hold some analogy with Animals through whose Pores of the Skin the Air insinuates through the Extremities and Channels of the Veins into the more inward Recesses of the Body And somewhat after this manner the Air being conveyed through the minute passages of the Bark into the more inward penetrals of Plants doth not only contribute to the Local but Intestine motion too of several alimentary Liquors as they are receptive of Fermentative dispositions chiefly imparted to them from airy Particles heightened with Celestial Emanations consisting of Heterogeneous Elements which being embodied with the Sap of Vegetables do put it into motion proceeding from contrary principles as so many Combatants endeavouring by various brisk actions to gain a Conquest upon each other for their mutual advantage of greater maturity and perfection ending in a happy reconcilement of their disagreeing Natures Hence the more spirituous and more volatil steams of Air The use of the Air-vessels being espoused to the more gross and fixed parts of Sap do attenuate and refine it and by imparting more active dispositions do render it more fluid generous alimentary and fruitful which are very much propagated from Air not only impregnated with Effluvia transpiring the Pores of the triple Family of Minerals Vegetables and Animals but are also exalted with more noble qualities flowing from Celestial Bodies whose warm and benign influences do make the Air more nimble and spirituous which being embodied with the Sap of Plants do give them nourishment growth and propagation by whose vertue they sprout blossome bear Fruit and Seeds as so many pledges of a farther production and duration in which Nature is Emulous of Eternity by a kind of resurrection from Death to Life CHAP. LI. Of Respiration NAture hath seated the Lungs near the Heart in the sacred and inward Recesses of the middle apartiment as remote from our eyes as understanding and it might be wished that our Breast had been made transparent that we might have a clear prospect of its secret Intrals and understand the nature of Respiration the end and perfection of this noble engine of Air and the great Preservative of Life To give a History of Respiration it supposeth its efficient cause productive of it Secondly the Organs Thirdly the manner how it is celebrated and the Fourth is the Use of it The efficient cause is the motive faculty The efficient cause of Respiration by which this noble operation is accomplished proceeding originally from the Animal Liquor generated in the Cortex of the Brain conveyed by Nerves into the Intercostal Muscles and Diaphragm and into the Lungs too Some hold the operation of Respiration to be Natural others Animal and a third a mixed action Learned Diemerbroeck is of an opinion that the motion of Respiration is merely animal Anatomes lib. 2. de Thorace p. 532. Ait ille de isto Respirationis motu inter Philosophos agitatur quaestio scilicet qualisnam sit actio Quippe alii naturalem The nature of Respiration in reference to its action alii animalem alii mixtam ex naturali animali esse tradunt suasque opiniones singuli plurimis rationibus confirmant quas omnes hoc referre nimis longum foret Ex modo dictis satis liquet respirationem esse actionem mere animalem quia peragitur motui animali inservientibus instrumentis scilicet Musculis pro arbitrio nostro potest accelerari tardari intendi remitti ut videmus in Cantoribus Tubicinibus aliisque quilibet in seipso experitur immo etiam ad mortem usque cohiberi potest in iis qui mori non timent Cujus exemplum habet Galenus lib. 2. de motu Musculor Cap. 6. De Servo barbaro qui respiratione cohibita sibi mortem conscivit The great difficulty that perplexeth this opinion is because this necessary motion made for the preservation of our Life is not merely arbitrary as being celebrated for the most part without the command of the Will by a kind of natural action as it is wholly found in time of repose when we have not the least apprehension of the motion of the Thorax Diaphragm or Lungs which seem to hold great similitude with that of the Heart in the time of rest as all these different Engines of Motion are acted without the least dictate of the Will The Organs of Respiration The Organs of Respiration are first the Intercostal Muscles the arched Ribs Sternon and Diaphragm as antecedent to it and the Lungs are the immediate machine whose different motion doth constitute the various kinds of Respiration The Intercostal Muscles are lodged between the Ribs and do begin and end in their several Tendons implanted into the upper and lower margent of the Ribs these long slender Organs of Motion have many fleshy Fibres decussating each other and being contracted do lift the Ribs upward and outward The Intercostal Muscles do contribute to Respiration It is a received opinion that the outward Intercostal Muscles are ministerial to the Dilatation and the inward to the contraction of the Thorax but as I humbly conceive it is moâ—◠〈…〉 reason that both the outward and inward Intercostal Muscles do assist each other in the dilatation of the Thorax by reason the Ribs elevated in order to Respiration need no Muscles to depress and restore them to their former posture which they obtain of themselves actu quodam resiliendi which is agreeable to any solid body when it is drawn by some outward principle beyond its own natural situation And moreover it is reasonable to affirm The Ribs being moved do dilate the Thorax that the Ribs being moved upward and outward do dilate the Thorax and being pulled downward do narrow the cavity of the Breast And it is very evident to any intelligible Person that hath curiously inspected a Sceleton that the Ribs especially the lower ones are most conducive to the dilatation of the Thorax and are not articulated with the Spine and Sternon according to exact right angles So that if the Ribs be elevated upward and outward by the motion of the Intercostal Muscles that then the Ribs do quit somewhat of their Semicircular Figure and come nearer to right angles in reference to their articulation with the Spine and Sternon Farthermore it may be conceived that the Ribs being lifted up to right angles that the Cavity of the Thorax is enlarged but if we suppose divers arches to be placed upon a Plain the space interceding them cannot be great because they make near approaches to each other in point of situation but if these arches be lifted up somewhat above a Plain a space must necessarily pass between them and the nearer these
Circles of Cells full of Diaphanous Liquor and run horizontally being most commonly graced with an Orbicular Figure and resemble many round bedes set one by another The Bark of Trees having some likeness with the Skin of Animals The Bark of Trees is fastned to the Wood by many Cortical Fibres as the Skin of Man is conjoyned to the Body by the mediation of fruitful Fibres or Ligaments is contiguous to the Wood to which it is fastned by the interposition of many Cortical Fibres as the Skin is conjoyned to the Flesh by the mediation of innumerable thin Membranes and the Vessels appertaining to the Bark do often embrace each other and afterward are inserted into the Cuticula Whereupon I conceive it proceedeth that the Bark of many Trees are laticed with divers Fissures of different Figures and Magnitudes somewhat resembling the manner of Quadrangles of unequal sides And the said Fissures present us with several Postures and windings of the Vessels in their braces which is the cause that the Cuticle of some Trees peel off in a kind of Rings because the Vessels are lodged after the same position in the Bark in which divers braces and parting 's of the Vessels do much resemble the fine Network of the Skin made by the several unions of numerous Segments configuring the Vessels placed in the Cutis of a Humane Body CHAP. V. Of Pathology specified in many Disaffections and Diseases of the Cuticula and Cutis the outward and inward Skin HAving described the rare contexture of the Cuticula and Cutis of the finer and thicker Vestments encircling the Body of Man consisting of various Vessels and Fibres rarely interspersed and interwoven with each other and accompanied with numerous minute Glands discharging the hot steams and watry and saline parts of the Blood in Sweat through the excretory Vessels terminating into the Pores of the outward Skin and the comparate Anatomy of the Skin in Fish Insects and Plants My aim at this time is to Treat of the cutaneous symptomes as shadows attending different distempers and of various Diseases lodged principally in the inward and somewhat affecting the outward Skin which being thin and insensible is less obnoxious to Diseases and more liable to Symptoms This beautiful Vaile is sometime deformed in its surface with a yellow hue in the Jaundies The Skin is tinged with Yellow in the jaundies primarily caused by the obstructions of the cholidoc Duct not discharging the bilious parts of the Blood percolated by the hepatic Glands into the Duodenum whence the Liver being oppressed with too great a proportion of choleric Matter lodged first in the interstices of the Vessels is sollicited to throw it off with the mass of Blood into the extremity of the Cava through whose Trunk it is conveyed into the right Chamber of the Heart and thence impelled by the pulmonary Arteries and Veins into the left Cistern of the Heart and afterwards through the greater Trunks and smaller Branches in the cutaneous Glands as so many colatories of the Blood in which a secretion is made of the thinner part of the bilious Humours and transmitted through the excretory Ducts of the Skin to the surface of the Body defacing its white Robe new died with Yellow derived from bilious Humours severed from the Purple Liquor And sometimes this fine vaile of the outward Skin is bespeckled with various unnatural colours The Skin is discoloured in scorbutick distempers malignant severs and the Plague with Red Purple Livid and Black Spots which are sometimes critical and other times symptomatical imparted to it by scorbutic distempers malignant Fevers and the Plague marking the sick with Red Purple Livid and Black Characters as so many emblems of different Diseases flowing from the less or greater indisposition of the Blood dispersed into the cutaneous Glands by which some thin Particles being severed from the mass of Blood are discharged through the excretory Ducts into the Confines of the Body variegated with different spots Which sometimes prove critical as giving alleviation to Patients and are good omens of Recovery and other times are ill symptomes speaking a desperate sickness and as so many Black Characters in which we may plainly read the fatal stroke of death The Skin is also obnoxious to divers Swellings Ulce Scabs and Scurfes according to variety of Diseases And so I pass from Shadows to Substances from Symptomes to Diseases produced à vitiata conformatione partium affectarum in cute whose elegant texture is highly disordered and its beautiful Figure defaced in unnatural colours Asperities Inflamations Swellings Ulcers incident to the Skin in the Measles Small Pox Scarlet Fevers St. Anthonies Fire or Erysipelus Itch Tetters Leprosies and the like The Measles and Small Pox are somewhat alike in Nature and Cure The description of the Measles and are both called by the Grecians in a general name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Small Pox are stiled more peculiarly by the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon the small Pox are some times complicated with the Measles as having affinity with each other which I saw in a Kentish Gentlewoman in whom the pimples of the Skin were interspersed with various red Asperities the marks of the Measles and blew spots the Shades of a more fatal Disease The Measles are much less then the other in bulk and are asperities or small risings of the Skin accompanied with a continued Fever arising as I conceive from ebullition of Blood which is transmitted by the capillary Arteries into the cutaneous Glands when the impure parts of the Blood are percolated and thrown through the excretory Ducts into the Skin highly tinged with a Red hue and rendred rough by some extravasated particles insinuated into the secret passages of the Skin whereupon it is made unequal by many minute protuberancies which soon grow ripe and disappear The Small Pox is a much greater and more troublesome distempers The description of the Small Pox. The symptomes of the Small Pox are the pain of the Head and Back attended with the pain of the Head and Back the forerunners of this noisome Disease the first arising from the Blood having recourse through the carotide Arteries to the Membranes of the Brain which are highly afflicted with its great effervescence and the pain of the Back proceedeth also from a great ebullition of Blood whose Compage being very much expanded by unnatural heat puffeth up the descendent Trunk of the Aorta whereupon the adjoyning vertebral Nerves are much discomposed and tortured with pain The Throat is very much inwardly swelled in the small Pox which is derived from the Matter of the Disease carried by the carotide Arteries into the tonsillary Glands which being tumefied do discompose the fauces and entrance of the Gulet and lessening its cavity do make a difficulty of swallowing Another symptome a concomitant of this vexatious distemper A sore throat and Cough are attendants of the Small Pox. Great
into the Cutaneous Glands and surface of the Body whereupon some part of the Blood being taken away the remainder obtaineth the greater freedom of motion and gaineth an easier recourse to the outward parts It is my humble Request to my worthy Brethren the learned Professors of our Art not to be over timerous in Bleeding when the Measles and Small Pox are associated with inward Inflammations which may be Cured by bleeding and without it will inevitably determine in a sad Catastrophe of Death Wherefore I humbly conceive it is better to consult Reason and Conscience then popular Air and vain Applause and not to let a Patient die for want of necessary Applications though of ill Fame with the Vulgar and Unlearned to gain the repute of a safe Physitian in great Inflammations wherefore I am very solicitous to make good this Assertion of Bleeding in the Measles and Small Pox as a high preservative of Life of which I can give many happy Instances in my own Practice A Sutlers relation belonging to the Kings Guards An Instance of a Person Cured by bleeding in the Small Pox attended with an Inflammation of the Lungs being of a very Sanguine Constitution laboured some Years since under a high difficulty of Breathing accompanied with a great Redness of her Cheeks the Symptoms of an Inflammation caused by Blood settling in the Lungs whereupon I ordered a Vein immediately to be opened in her Arm and eight or ten Ounces of Blood to be taken away upon which ensued an allevtaion in point of Breathing and the next day the Small Pox appeared and a day or two after she was taken with a new access of ill Breathing whereupon by reason of her suppressed Menstrua I advised the Saphaena to be opened and six or eight Ounces of Blood to flow upon which she found great relief in a more free breathing and the Offensive Matter to be more largely transmitted into the ambient parts of the Body very conspicuous in her prodigiously swelled Face highly disguised in numerous Tumours ending in Ulcers and Scabs And notwithstanding the free evacuation of Blood by opening of divers Veins in the Arm and Foot and the course of her Terms which was the consequent of her bleeding in the Foot she was not wholly discharged of the depraved Humours emitted out of the Capillary Vessels into the Exterior parts because in a short time after she was recovered by God's Mercy of the Small Pox she broke out in a great many Boils which having been Suppurated ran very freely the space of a Month and proceeded as I conceive from the reliques of the Matter that was not sufficiently discharged by the Small Pox so that without Controversie if a Vein had not been twice opened which was attended with a free evacuation of her Menstrua she had sunk under the Inflammation of her Lungs of which she was perfectly Cured by the discharge of much Blood Another time a Butcher's Wife being a gross and Corpulent Woman Another Person Cured by Bleeding in the Small Pox. of a Sanguine Constitution was very much afflicted with a high Fever and a great Colour of her Face whereupon I ordered a Vein to be opened and blood to be freely taken from her upon which account she found great relief in reference to her Fever and Inflammation of her Lungs and the day after she was bled the Small Pox came out very well and the violence of the Fever much abated and she passed the several stages of her Disease very kindly and was in a small time with God's blessing restored to her former Health And in great difficulty of Breathing Bleeding very safe in the Small Pox when the Patient being of a Plethorick Body is afflicted with difficulty of Breathing I have often advised Blood-letting in the Small Pox with good success and have relieved my Patients to my great Joy whereupon the slow motion or stagnancy of Blood being taken off the Small Pox immediately discovered themselves and in good time they kindly Suppurated and afterward determined into Ulcers and Scabs the happy close of the Small Pox. Wherefore I most humbly beg that this Opinion may be entertained with Candor as coming from a love to Mankind and not as if I were over-forward to the great Scandal of Art to advise Blood-letting upon every slight account Fleeding is not to be advised except in internal Inflammations and great cases of the Small Pox. in the Measles and Small Pox whereupon this is my most humble Request to my dear Friends and my learned Brethren of Art to prescribe Bleeding only in some great Cases relating to the Measles and Small Pox as in a Phlogôsis of the Lungs and great difficulty of Breathing and all internal Inflammations in high Plethorick bodies in which great Diseases accompanied with the Measles and Small Pox Blood-letting is necessary as a most safe and generous Remedy in order to sollicite the motion of gross and stagnating Blood which is apt to obstruct the Capillary Arteries near the surface of the Body But on the contrary it is very rational and conscientious to forbear the opening of a Vein as a descecrated and unhallowed thing in ordinary cases of the Measles and Small Pox as fatal to the Patients where bodies are not overcharged with an exuberant Mass of Blood obstructing the small Vessels and especially in a low proportion of Vital Liquor not able to throw out the offensive Matter unless assisted with mild Sudorificks into the Cutaneous Glands and by their Excretory Ducts into the ambient parts of the Body Above all we are to forbear bleeding as some great crime of Murder that will render us obnoxious to a just Censure Bleeding is not to be celebrated in Measles and Small Pox accompanied with a Malignant Fever as guilty of the death of our Patients in Malignant Fevers the frequent and sad concomitants of the Measles and Small Pox whose nature doth not consist in overmuch blood but a poisonous disposition of the blood which must be corrected by Alexipharmaca The Small Pox is to be cured by Alexipharmaca and gentle Sudorificks in a Malignant Fever supporting the Vital Liquor to make a free Transpiration by which the venenate steams of the blood are transmitted through the Pores of the body And if we lessen the Mass of blood in Malignant Fevers which are the chief and essential Diseases and the Measles and Small Pox only Symptomes of the other we render the Patient less able to encounter these great Diseases and sometimes cut off the thread of Life A Gentleman of good Fashion having complicated Diseases of a Fever and Small Pox which did not cease after good Applications having been made the Small Pox appeared very fair and distinct and came to a laudable Suppuration and Scabs scaling off And it might have been thought with good probability that the Patient had been upon Recovery but alas it proved otherwise For though the Small Pox were Cured
some of them as Fellow Members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost which are endearing Arguments to espouse their Wants as our own with this good Memento That by casting our Bread upon the Waters after many days 〈◊〉 shall find it And by providing for the Poor we shall lay up Treasures in Heaven The Itch and Scabs also arise from Critical Evacuations Itch and Scabs derived from critical Evacuations flowing from Acute and Cronick Diseases discharging corrupt Humours and serous Recrements into the Ambient parts of the Body whereby it is freed from more significant inward Diseases oftentimes threatning Death This unclean Disease is often derived from Contagion Itch and Scabs coming from Contagion by reason the Surface of Scabby Bodies is besmeared with a nasty and clammy moisture which being imparted to others by Contact or by Clothes or Converse which make the like Itchy and Scabby impressions into the Blood of others as being received first by the Pores of the Skin into the extreamities of the Veins and afterward into greater and greater Trunks till they land into the right Cistern of the Heart and from thence are transmitted through the â—ungs by various Vessels into the left Chamber of the Heart and from thence are impelled into the Trunk of the Aorta and into smaller and smaller Arterial Branches till they arrive the Exterior parts of the Body which being of acute sense are tortured with sharp and serous faeces of the Blood Now I make bold to offer a great Instance of this Contagious Disease of which I had Forty Patients at once in a School at Padington where the Scholars so infected one another that there could scarce be found one that was not tainted with this fruitful and filthy Disease In order to the Cure of this Disease a wholesome Diet is to be observed and all salt highly Unctuous and Fat Meats forborn as easily degenerating into corrupt and salt Faeculencies of the Blood and some propound good Roasted Meat as the most fit to dry up the serous Excrements of the Blood In reference to Pharmacy Medicines are to be advised that purge by Stool and Urine and then Bleeding is requisite Specifick Purging Medicines attended with Bleeding do evacuate serous Humours and discharge the scabby Ferments lodged in the Blood by Arteries inserted into the Intestines whence the course of nasty Recrements being diverted from the Circumference toward the Center from the Ambient toward the Interior parts is exonerated by the Guts into a more large and free Receptacle In this Distemper Salt and Watry Humours being concerned I deem it very proper to advise Medicines that purge by Urine to hasten the serous Recrements of the Blood down the descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Emulgent Artery into the Glands of the Kidney wherein the grose Saline mixed with watry Particles being secerned from the Blood are carried through the Carunculae Papillares into the Pelvis and from thence by the Ureters into the Bladder I conceive it reasonable to advise Sudorificks Sudorifick Medicines are to be Administred after Purgatives and Diureticks after Purgatives and Diureticks have been largely Administred to free the Mass of Blood from its Saline Excrements by the Cutaneous Glands and their Excretory Ducts into the confines of the Body where it is at last to be Eradicated by drying and cleansing Topicks which do satisfie the indications of these noisome and vexatious Ulcers as fed by serous and viscid Recrements which cleansing and drying outward Medicines turn into Scabs and scale them off whereby the Circumference of the Body is cleared from this foul Disease disgracing the elegant surface of the Skin CHAP. X. Of the Cure of a Cutaneous Disease the Leprosie of the Greeks THe Leprosie of the Grecians is a degree of a true Leprosie not come to a height and is produced by great confaederacy of fixed Saline and fierce Sulphureous Particles highly exalted whereupon the Mass of Blood being very much depraved and uneasie to the Noble parts is transmitted from the greater Arterial branches A Leprosie caused by saline Particles concreted into a scabby Scurf and smaller Capillaries into the substance of the Cutaneous Glands the Interstices of the Vessels where the acide saline Particles are secerned from the Mass of Blood and thrown off by the Excretory Ducts into the confines of the Body to which it concreteth and adhereth as to an outward Wall like concreted Tartar of Wine to the sides of the Hogshead This Disease is generated oftentimes by ill Diet of Flesh A Leprosie proceeding from an ill Diet of salt Meat dried in the Smoak and from eating of great slimy Fish highly salted and dried in the Sun or Smoak or from the free Cups of small and acide Wines which are impraegnated with much Tartar or from the eating of Hogs-flesh ill fed and nastily kept lying in their own Excrements without frequent change of clean Straw which rendreth the Flesh foul and unwholesome This scurfy disaffection of the Skin also taketh its rise from eating much slimy and great Fish which is familiar to them that live upon the Sea-Coast as treating themselves with well grown Fish which being of a viscide nature do spoil the Blood by making it full of gross Recrements and saline Particles as living in Salt Water which necessarily impraegnate their Blood with the same dispositions so that Fish being eaten in too great Proportions do produce gross Chyle in the Stomach and afterwards a foul Mass of Blood which is depurated in the Cutaneous Glands and thence conveyed to the outward parts where the Skin is crusted over with concreted saline Particles streined from the Vital Liquor which being highly rubbed or scratched do fall off like Scabs But this ugly Distemper doth not only proceed from ill Diet The Leprosie proceedeth from Venereal and Scorbutick Distempers but from bad internal Elements of the Blood consisting of depraved Heterogeneous parts often found in Venereal and Scorbutical Diseases which are founded in Malignant Humours of a venenate nature infecting the Blood whereupon this Prognostick may be made though it doth not threaten any eminent danger as speedily cutting off the Thread of Life yet it is hard to be Conquered as being very stubborn when deeply tooted not giving way to the Administration of powerful Medicines so that the Acide Saline and Sulphureous Particles of the Blood being rendred more and more exalted and the Patient being tired out with long Courses of Physick do degenerate into a perfect Leprosie which often proves an incurable Disease As to the Cure of it in reference to the preservative Indication which is satisfied in the removal of the Causes The first is Procatarctick flowing from a gross stagnant Air productive of the Scorby which must be carefully exchanged for a free serene Air The other Cause is an ill Diet in which we must abstain from salt Meats either dried in the Sun or Smoak and gross ill-brewed Ale
contexture of nervous Fibrils faced with Fat in its outward Surface The Membrana Adiposa is accommodated with many minute Cavities as so many repositories of Fat. and to that intent it is furnished with great variety of minute Apartiments within whose little spaces are lodged many small unctuous concreted bodies which are subject to be rendred fluid as melted by immoderate heat produced by violent motion of the Body And therefore Nature hath most wisely contrived these numerous particles of Fat to be confined within several Membranous Cavities as so many safe allodgments in which it is conserved as in so many proper places wherein the Fat is secured in opposition to â—iquation in case of extravagant motion It seemeth to be a great secret in Nature how Fat is generated Heat cannot cause Fat whose efficient cause is consigned by many Anatomists of no mean Rank to the first qualities of Heat and Cold. As to the first It can hardly be conceived how it should be productive of Fat which I guess proceedeth from Sulphureous parts concreted no ways to be effected by Heat rendring them fluid which is effected by a Colliquating power And all unctuous bodies which are rather condensed by Cold are rarefied and melted by hot Particles So that Cold rather Cold is rather productive of Fat then Heat or at least a very gentle Heat which is a kind of comparative Cold in reference to a more intense Heat doth contribute something to the concretion of Fat made of Oily Particles secerned from the Succus Nutricius associated with the Blood in the substance of many Glands besetting the Membrana Adiposa and thence conveyed to the empty spaces of the Vessels to whose sides the unctuous parts of Fat do adhere Whereupon I do humbly conceive that Fat being attenuated by heat and condensed by cold is only altered by them according to different modes of the Matter as being rendred fluid or condensed which are no ways the intrinsick causes of Fat formed out of the Sulphureous parts of the Succus Nutricius which are liquid as long as they move in company with the Chyme and Vital Liquor in the Vessels out of whose Terminations they are transmitted into the substance of many small Glands as so many strainers of the oily Juice which afterward exudeth into the habit of the Body where it being despoiled of motion in Extravasation gaineth a more solid substance and there being concreted is affixed to the Walls of the Vessels And oftentimes concreted Matter doth reassume its primitive nature of a Liquor when colliquated by unnatural heat or extraordinary motion When the Alimentary Liquor is expended in Diseases it is repaired by Colliquated Fat and thereby these resolved Oily Particles are reconveyed into the Veins and reassociate with the Blood and Succus Nutricius to give a supply to the Alimentary Liquor when expended in Acute and Chronick Diseases which hath been often discovered in Humane Bodies when opened after Death and diligently inspected with curious Eyes In great cetaceous Fish as Whales Porpesses and the like great proportions of Oyl are conserved in numerous Vesicles as so many Receptacles seated in a Membrane not far remote from the inward surface of the Skin and may be called Oleosa in the abovesaid Fish these unconcreted Particles are of the same ingeny with the Fat of Men and other Animals as being of an unctuous inflamable nature A most learned Author is of this Sense That Fat being Colliquated and flowing with the Mass of Blood is unnatural which is one reason saith he why Fat cannot be generated out of the Vital but Nervous Liquor I confess in Diseases when Fat is melted by an over intense heat and received into the Vessels it may be truly called an unkindly Liquor and no proper Fat but when it is originally In solutis Principiis as it were the creamy part of the Succus Nutricius it may be well reputed the Materia substrata of Fat as consisting of oily Particles which though in confaederacy with the Blood yet they admit a secretion from it in the glandulous substance of the Adipose Membrane Caul and Interstices of the Muscles which abound with many minute Glands and I believe there are scarce any Membranes or muscular parts in the whole Body which are not furnished in some degree or other with them And although the Glands seated in the Liver Splene Kidneys and the like are not secretories of Fat but of the Recrements of Bile Urine and the like And the Glands lodged in the Membrana Adiposa Caul and empty spaces of the Muscles are fit Organs to secern the oily Particles of the Succus Nutricius Membranes may supply the places of Colatories as endued with many minute Pores through which Liquors may be strained as having Vessels proper for it and I do suppose the many thin Membranes inclosing the minute globules of Fat may supply the places of Colatories seeing it may be not improbable that the Sulphureous Particles of the Alimentary Liquor moving with the Vital may be strained through the secret passages of the Membranes which may hold Analogy with the minute oily Bodies both in shape and size And I most humbly conceive that these Sulphureous Particles circulating with the Blood are no more capable to be evacuated with the serous Recrements through the Urinary Ducts into the pelvis of the Kidney then the Vital Liquor or Succus Nutricius with which the oily parts the matter of Fat are embodied because the extreamities of the Urinary Ducts do not agree with these oily parts in Figure and Magnitude And farther Fat is not generated of Nervous Liquor This most learned Author seemeth to reinforce his Opinion by affirming that Fat is produced out of Nervous Liquor and no ways out of parts associating with the Blood because in the Dissection of a dead Scorbutick Body he discerned many drops of Oyl swimming in the Blood which could not be the cause of Fat because this person was Emaciated To which I take the boldness to reply That these oily Particles floating in the Blood were unnatural being the product of Colliquation hindring the generation of Fat made by Concretion which cannot be accomplished as long as the oily parts are in motion with the Blood whose heat rendreth them thin and fluid Wherefore it is necessary for the Sulphureous Liquor to be severed from the Succus Nutricius accompanying the Blood by proper Organs which putteth the oily parts being Extravasated into a capacity of Concretion whence ariseth the more solid coagulated substance of Fat consisting of many small Globuls encircled with Concave Membranes which are formed one after another by a new afflux of oily parts Concreted and conjoyned to each other by interposition of many thin Coats and are primarily affixed to the Adipose Membrane as to their great support and common parent This Membrane having a double surface The situation of the Membrana Ddiposa is fastened above to the Fat with
wherein ariseth a Fermentation of the Blood as consisting of Heterogeneous Elements founded in different Liquors made up of Acids and Alkalies of several Salts and Sulphurs some Volatil and others more fixed which being of disagreeing dispositions make great contests to perfect each other according to the good contrivance of Nature wisely ordering that the gross parts should confine the more restless and active which else would breath themselves by the Pores of the Body into the Air as akin to them and the more Volatil Saline and Sulphureous do exalt the more gross and fixed in their converse with them Whereupon the different principles of the Blood like disagreeing Lovers The different Principles are the chief ground of Fermentation do tune each other by amicable Disputes ending in a happy Reconcilement whereby they espouse each others Interest and Perfection So that the Homogeneous parts of the Blood do by a near union Assimilate each other and the Heterogeneous Atomes that cannot be reconciled in Assimilation are turned out of Doors as unprofitable for Nutrition by the Excretory Vessels of the Liver Pancreas and Kidneys The Chyle being transmitted by the Thoracic Vessels into the Subclavian Veins associateth with the Blood and is conveyed with it by the descendent Trunk of the Vena Cava into the right Ventricle of the Heart wherein the Chyle is mixed with the Blood and broken into Minute Particles as dashed against the Walls of the right Chamber The Chyle is mixed with the Blood in the Heart caused by a brisk contraction of the Heart whereupon the Chyle being more embodied with the Purple Liquor in the Heart is conveyed from the right Ventricle by the Pulmonary Artery into the substance of the Lungs where it meeteth the inspired Air impraegnated with Elastick and Nitrous Particles The Blood is refined by Air in the Lungs which do much refine the Blood and render it fit for the entertainment of the Vital Flame the preservative of the noble operations of the Body by a due and kindly Fermentation wherein the Blood being exalted the Similar parts being of one nature do intimately associate to preserve themselves and being embodied with the Nervous Liquor distilling out of the Extreamities of the Nerves as a proper instrument of Fermentation to assist the assimilation of Chyle into Blood and a fit Nutriment for the more solid parts and to constitute due Ferments for the Viscera while the Recrements in being troublesome and disserviceable to the Body are secerned from the Blood in the Glandulous parts of the Viscera and Membranes and thrown out of the Body by various Excretory Ducts Thus having given an account how the Fermentation of the Blood is performed by various Liquors consisting of Heterogeneous Elements and by the Comminution of it into small Particles in the Chambers of the Heart and how it is refined as inspired with Air in the body of the Lungs and afterward defaecated in the Glands of the Viscera and Membranes whence it obtaineth a laudable disposition My aim at this time is to give my Sentiments how it degenerates many ways from its due Qualifications thereby producing Hydropick Diseases when any of the requisite conditions constituting a good Mass of Blood is deficient perverting the excellent aeconomy of Nature The first Cause producing an ill Mass of Blood A pituitous Matter is the first cause of an ill Mass of Blood as hindring its due Fermentation is a pituitous Matter which I apprehend is a crude Chyle conveyed to the Mass of Purple Liquor which being of a viscous nature acquired by the faint Heat and ill Ferment of the Stomach not duly opening the compage of the Meat and not Secerning and elaborating the Alimentary Liquor which being transmitted into the Mass of Blood doth vitiate and clog it in being unfit to repair its decays as thick and clammy so that it cannot be perfectly Assimilated Whereupon when the pituitous Humour is extravasated in great exuberance in the Spaces interceding the Vessels caused by a quantity or thickness of an unassimilated Liquor not received into the Extreamities of the Veins whereupon the Muscular parts are swelled called a Leucophlegmatia by reason the pituitous Recrements of the Blood insinuating themselves into the substance of the fleshy parts do sever the numerous Vessels from each other and lift up the Surface of the Body and extend its habit beyond its natural Shape and Size The second Cause of a depraved Mass of Blood The second cause of a vitiated Blood is fixed Salt and Sulphur producing an Anasarca may be taken from its Elements of fixed Salt and Sulphur not exalted by reason of a dispirited Mass of Blood overcharged with great store of Recrements watry mixed with earthy Particles whence the Vital and Animal Functions grow faint loosing the quickness and agility of their Operations because watry Humours mixed with fixed Saline and Sulphureous Atomes do depress the fine and volatil parts of the Blood keeping it low and unapt for a due Fermentation Serous Humours do vitiate the Mass of Blood so that the serous Humours depressing the Purple Juice with which they associate are impelled out of the Terminations of the Arteries into the Interstices seated between the fruitful Vessels wherein it being despoiled of its Motion doth settle in the body of the Muscles because the unprofitable Recrements do abound as extravasated in the empty Spaces by reason the small Orifices of the Veins cannot give them a due reception and make good the Circulation of Liquors in the Muscular parts The third Cause of the ill disposition of the Blood Gross Air depresseth the Vital Liquor proceedeth from the depression of the Vital Flame derived from the thick and gross Air and moist Vapours exhaled by the heat of the Sun out of the Marshes or Fenny Grounds much depressing the Nitrous and Elastick parts of Air the vital heat and spirit grow languid and serous Recrements superabound which are transmitted into the substance of Muscular parts growing soft and tumid as overmuch extended by watry Humours which are so excessive in quantity that they cannot be admitted into the Veins whence ariseth a Leucophlegmatia a swelled habit of Body A fourth Cause is derived from the abscesses of the Viscera Purulent matter flowing out of the abscesses of the Viscera do spoil the Blood vitiating the Mass of Blood which happen sometime in the Heart labouring with a purulent Matter impelled out of the left Chamber into the common Trunk and thence into the descendent Trunk of the Aorta and thenby smaller and smaller Branches into the habit of Body which groweth Tumified as depraved with corrupt Matter producing a Leucophlegmatia primarily flowing from an abscess of the Heart An instance may be given of a Woman long troubled with an Anasarca who being opened after Death many Abscesses were found in the Heart and a purulent matter in the great Artery derived from thence and by the assistance of many great
is sollicited toward the Circumference of the Body as rendred warm and fluid with the saline and hot Particles of the Liniments Learned Doctor Willis hath given an Account of the Cure of a Leucophlegmatia oppressing all the Ambient parts in a Child Oyl of Scorpions very proper as outwardly applied in an Anasarca who was frequently anointed by his indulgent Mother with Oil of Scorpions chafed with a warm hand into the Pores of the Body which being done effectually the space of three days the Child made a prodigious quantity of Urine and so continued for some time whereupon the Universal Tumour of his Body disappearing he was afterward perfectly restored to his Health Vesicatories applied do raise Blisters Blistering Plaisters unsafe in an Anasarca and by taking away a great quantity of the serous Liquor of the Blood do make an expense of Vital Spirits in the running of many Ulcers which sometimes cannot be healed affecting the External parts of the Body with a Gangreen ending often in Mortifications which have such an influence on the inward parts by infecting the Mass of Blood having recourse by the Veins to the Noble parts that these Gangreens and Mortifications produced by Visicatories applied to Hydropick Persons do speak an untimely period to Life A sad Instance may be given in a worthy Person lately an Officer of the Navy who was affected with an Universal Anasarca caused by Grief a Sedentary Life and a Scorbutick habit of Body whereupon in order to a Cure the Muscular parts of the Body being Tumefied a confident Chyrurgeon contrary to my advice did apply Vesicatories to his Thighs which raised great Blisters whereupon I made a Prognostick that the blistered parts would Gangreen and Mortifie which followed in a short space and was attended with a fatal stroak of Death to the great grief of his Friends The deceased being a Gentleman of great Virtue and Civility for whom I had most affectionate esteemes Escharoticks may be more safely applied to Hydropick Swellings Escharoticks are more safe then Vesicatories and have not so ill Consequents as Gangreens and Mortifications to which blistered Limbs are liable Because Escharoticks do not produce so great a flux of Humours in the outward parts and serous Recrements having recourse to the Ambient parts little by little Nature can better endure it as being accustomed to it by degrees Ingenious Doctor Willis maketh mention of Escharoticks applied with good success to Swelled Limbs in an Anasarca which were first bathed Morning and Evening with Decoction of Dwarf Elder Chamomel and other warm discutient Herbs boiled in Ale or Lees of Wine and between the Fomentations were applied Cataplasmes made of the reliques of the Ingredients embodied with Bear and afterward these Applications having been made for three days both Legs were covered with Burgundy Pix except where two holes were made in the Plaisters about the bigness of a Walnut wherein were put Escharoticks made of Ashes relating to Bark of Ash and applied to the Skin for Twelve Hours and then taken off there appeared two thin Escharas out of which first gently and then more freely distilled watry Humours as out of two Fountains when the Escharas fell off until the serous Recrements were wholly discharged and the Legs restored to their natural Dimensions CHAP. XXV Of Tumours Incident to the Muscular parts THe Muscular parts of the Body are not only subject to an Anasarca The Muscles are liable to several sorts of Diseases but many other Tumours Abscesses Ulcers Fistula's Steatomes Atheromes Melicerids Inflammations Oedemas Schirrhus which proceed from many indisposed Humours stagnant in the habit of the Body So that the ill Liquors the antecedent and continent causes of the Swellings lodged in the empty spaces of the Vessels as Chyle Blood which consist of divers Juices Nervous Liquor and Lympha Steatomes The causes of Steatomes Atheromes and Melicerids Atheroms and Melicerids do all arise from gross Pituitous Humours which indeed are divers kinds of indigested Chyle modelled in a less or greater Consistence in which respect they may be called different sorts of Oedematous Tumours and are discriminated from them by reason these are Swellings at large seated in the substance of the Body But Steatomes Atheromes and Melicerids are confined within proper Tunicles as within Boundaries by which they are severed from other parts of the Body Steatomes are Swellings lodged partly immediately under the Skin and partly in the Muscular parts proceeding from a thick Flegmatick Matter or Unassimilated Chyle contained in a particular Membrane encircling it seated in the substance of the Body so that the Tunicle enclosing this thick Matter The matter of a Steatome resembleth Fat in Consistence being opened a Pituitous Humour may be discovered not unlike Lard in colour and consistence but not in nature because commonly it is not Inflammable as being exposed to the Fire wherefore it is very rare to find a Steatome to have Fat for its Matter Of which Learned Bonnetus Lib. 4. Anatom Sect. 2. Obser 4 giveth an account of a Boy affected with a Tumour in his Neck and Arm derived from abundance of Fat and serous Humours inclosed in a peculiar Membrane which taketh its origen from a Mass of Blood which being despoiled of its natural Elements is not able to elaborate Chyle associated with Blood and turn it into its own nature Whence some oily Particles of the Vital Liquor being severed from it do degenerate into an unnatural Fat and serous Humours enwrapped in a proper Membrane whence followed an Atrophy of the whole Body accompanied with a Dropsie expressed by the said most excellent Author Vbi sanguis Sulphuris sui salis legitima proportione orbatur facilis est putredo aut vermibus apta Corruptio succorum benignorum degeneratio quae saepe in generationem copiosae pinguedinis sive Cascum sive Lardum sive aliud quid mentiatur facessere potest Conspectissimum id erat 1670. In Nosodochio Argentinensi ubi exinteravimus puerum Cujus collo supra anillam sinistram ingens Tumor accreverat cujus separato bino involucro Cutaneo proprio substantia Steatoma verum erat pondus librarum quinque civilium brachium ejusdem lateris admodum cum manu totum aequalitur intumuit dissectum copiosissimam intra cutim exhibuit pinguedinem effluente Copiosissima aqua ex Musculorum Interstitiis omne reliquum Corpus macies exederat Ascitis Abdomen A Steatome sometimes is of a prodigious bigness A Steatome proceeding a Pituita Gypsea deduced from thick tough Phlegm confined in a proper Tunicle à pituita gypsea from a gross Matter resembling Plaister Of which an Instance may be given of a Servant Maid who was for a long time highly troubled with a great Swelling of her Thigh which she concealed lest she should seem to betray her Modesty in shewing her Thigh to an Artist but at last the Tumour grew to so strange a greatness that
being Cut presently appeared a number of large Glands besmeared with a fatty stinking corrupt Matter A fifth swelling of the Abdomen A fifth Swelling of the Peritonaeum deduced from a pituitous Humour is a Steatome derived from a pituitous Humour or indigested Chyme resembling Fat in consistence when Concreted impelled out of the Misenteric and Caeliac Arteries into the Cavity of the Belly where it acquireth a greater Consistence as being long Extravasated and is afterward enwrapped in a Coat produced out of the most clammy part of the pituitous Matter A Wife of an ordinary Tradesman was long afflicted with a swelled Belly which robbed all parts of the Body of its due Nourishment and at last was freed from the burden of her great Belly by Death the Exit of all Sickness and Trouble And then her Belly being opened a large Tumour was discerned enclosed in a soft Membrane which being pierced an Unctuous Matter presented it self not unlike Fat whence it may be judged a Steatome lodged between the Peritonoeum and Intestines All these Tumours flowing from different Liquors and Recrements The several seats of a Dropsie distending the Belly obtain the appellative of a Dropsie commonly called Ascitis which most properly denoteth a quantity of Watry Tumours enlarging the Belly sometimes lodged within the Peritonoeum and Muscles of the Abdomen and other times between the Coats of the Peritonoeum A young Woman had her Belly much Swelled proceeding from a quantity of Watry Recrements or rather Serous Liquor A Dropsie causing an Atrophy which more encreasing made an Atrophy of the whole Body and at last cut off the Thread of her Life and the Muscular parts of the Belly being opened a great Tumour offered it self which being Cut a source of Serous Liquor did issue out which was placed between the Muscles of the Abdomen and the Peritonoeum and oftentimes in the Duplicature of it The antecedent cause of an Ascitis The antecedent cause of an Ascitis is a large quantity of Watry or Serous Humours associated with the Blood and was impelled out of the left Cistern of the Heart into the Common and then into the descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Emulgent Artery into the Glands of the Kidneys wherein the watry Recrements being not secerned from the Blood and discharged by the Urinary Ducts and Papillary Caruncles into the Pelvis the petulent Matter accompanying the Purple Liquor returneth again by the Emulgent Vein and Cava into the right Ventricle of the Heart and by the Pulmonary Vessels into the left Chamber of it and from thence into the Trunk of the Aorta and afterward by the Extreamities of the Caeliac and Mesenteric Arteries into empty spaces of the Abdomen Which groweth Tumefied by great proportions of Watry and sometimes Serous Liquor secerned in the Glands of the Caul and Peritonoeum and thence conveyed through the Pores of the Coats relating to the adjoyning parts into the Spaces interceding the Peritonaeum and Abdominal Muscles and between the Rim of the Belly Omentum and Intestines and into the Spaces between the Membranes of the Caul The Extravasation of the Blood depressed with too great a proportion of Watry Liquor is the cause of an Ascitis because the Veins are not able to entertain it Whereupon the Watry Particles are separated from the red Crassament in the Colatories Dr. Lower's Experiment to prove an Ascitis in a wounded Dog belonging to the Membranes adjoyning to the Cavity of the Belly Which Learned and Ingenious Doctor Lower my worthy Friend and Collegue hath Demonstrated by an Experiment made in the Thorax of a Dog wounded between the seventh and eighth Rib and the Cava being tied with a straight Ligature the Serous or Watry parts of the Blood were discovered in a large quantity in the opened Abdomen which I conceive proceeded from the Arteries inserted into the Glands of the Peritonoeum and Caul wherein the watry Particles are secerned from the Purple Liquor and conveyed through the Pores commensurate to the watry Atomes into the empty spaces of the Belly while the parts of the red Crassament being disproportioned in Figure and Size to the Pores of the Membranes are either contained in the Arteries or received into the Extreamities of the Veins Whereupon we may well judge the Continent cause of an Ascitis The continent cause of an Ascitis to be the watry Recrements distilled out of the Terminations of the Arteries and lodged in the Cavity of the Belly from whence it is very difficult for the watry Humours to make a retreat into the Veins when they are Extravasated in the Vacuities running between the Rim of the Belly and Muscles of the Abdomen or between the Peritonaeum Caul and Intestines The antecedent cause of Diseases belonging to the Rim The antecedent cause of a Dropsie and Cavity of the Belly is fetched from the Matter at a distance from the spaces of the Abdomen while the Watry Humours do circulate in the Vessels as being in a perpetual Motion but when the watry Recrements do quit their confinement of the Arteries and Veins and settle themselves in the Cavity of the Belly as a fixed Allodgment they are a Conjunct Cause of a Dropsie The Procatartic causes of an Ascitis The procatarctick cause of an Ascitis are principally the too free eating of great variety of Meats making a crude watry Chyle caused also by depraved Ferments of the Stomach and above all the taking frequent draughts of strong Liquors of divers sorts of Wine and Spirits which confound the heat of the Stomach and Blood and produce a quantity of watry Humours which being associated with the Blood do render it full of serous Recrements and deprave its disposition and by relaxing its Compage doth make the watry parts fit for a separation from the Purple Liquor in the terminations of the Arteries so that the Circulation of the red Crassament being intercepted the Serous Particles are severed by the bond of Mixtion being in some manner dissolved and then most easily transmitted through the Extreamities of the Capillary Arteries into the empty spaces of the Belly The cause of an Ascitis from the suppressed Haemorrhoids Sometimes an Ascitis taketh its Origen from a suppression of the Hemorrhoids by which the Faeces of the Blood being deteined in the Body do vitiate its Constitution and hinder the Elaboration of Chyle and Assimilation of it into Blood and there by filling it full of Serous Particles do render it Crude and Watry whence the Vital Liquor having its union violated tendeth to a Dissolution and then the Watry parts grow fit to part with the Purple and distil through the Terminations of the Capillary Vessels into the Interstices being between the Rim of the Belly the Caul and the Guts A Noble Lady about Five and Forty years of Age made use of Excellent Medicines prescribed in a good Method which were not Crowned with a happy Event
in order to recover her of an Ascitis caused by a suppression of the Haemorrhoids whence the current of the Faeculent Blood being intercepted her Body grew very much Emaciated and full of watry Recrements discharged into the Cavity of the Belly which being inspected after Death it was found overcharged with a quantity of Watry Humours Sometimes this kind of Dropsie ariseth from the stoppage of the Menstrua A Dropsie arising from a suppressing of the Menstrua whose watry Faeculencies do despoile the Body of the bounty of Blood as not being Purged off by the Arteries inserted into the inward Coat relating to the Body Neck and Vagina Uteri whereupon the Blood degenerates into a cold and moist Constitution as growing big with watry Impurities and hath its native heat and Spirituous parts depressed causing an unkindly Fermentation and Assimilation of Chyme into Blood and spoileth the Succus Nutricius so that it cannot be united and turned into the substance of the solid parts whence proceedeth an Atrophy of the whole Body in inveterate Dropsies derived from different Causes all producing a watry Mass of Blood which cannot be intimately conjoyned by Assimilation with the numerous Vessels of several Tribes and Families which integrate the Fleshy parts of the Body An Ascitis may also flow in good Fellows An Ascitis flowing from a Rupture of the Bladder Drinking to a hight from a large quantity of Urine which is commonly immured within the Walls of the Bladder which being overmuch distended and broken giveth a freedom to the Urine to expatiate in the more large Territories of the Belly filled up by this troublesome Liquor which causeth a great distention of the Peritonaeum Abdominal Muscles and the common Integuments of the Body rendring it uneasie and deformed Platerus maketh mention of a good Fellow after he had indulged himself in the too too free Cups of generous Liquor was forced his Legs not being able to support him to lay himself upon the Ground for repose whereupon an ill conditioned Man out of a Frolique leaped upon his Belly and broke his Bladder whence a great quantity of Urine gushed out of its lacerated Receptacle into the Cavity of the Belly which was more and more enlarged upon the unnatural recourse of Urine into the empty spaces of the Belly A Dropsie flowing from watry Recrements lodged in divers Vesicles which gave a period to his Life A kind of Dropsie may borrow its rise from watry Recrements enclosed in divers parts of the Body in proper Membranes as so many Vesicles of divers Magnitudes sometimes lodged in the substance of the Caul and between the Rim of the Belly and Intestines and between the Peritonaeum and Muscles of the Abdomen An Ascitis also may be produced which is very frequent by the Laceration of the Lymphaeducts which being Vessels of a most thin and tender Contexture may easily be broken as being obstructed either by too great a quantity or by the grossness of the Lympha stopping its course toward the common Receptacle whereupon the Lymphaeducts being surchar-charged with too great a quantity of Lympha are cracked and the Lympha doth flow through the breaches into the more free and empty spaces of the Belly A young Gentlewoman being troubled many Years with a Dropsie An instance of a Dropsie proceeding from the broken Lymphae-Ducts was at last freed from it by Death the last remedy of all Diseases and her Body being opened no fault could be found with the Viscera but only a discovery was made of the broken Lymphaeducts through which a great quantity of thin Transparent Liquor was vented into the Vacuities of the Belly which proceeded from her severe usage in her Minority by her Governours As to the Cure of an Ascitis three Indications present themselves Three indications do offer themselves in order to the Cure of Diseases the Preservative Curative and Vital The Preservative Curative and Vital The Preservative is founded in Tuenda sanitate which is accomplished by removing he antecedent Cause while the Disease is at a distance in Potentia solummodo wherein the Body is only in a disposition to a Distemper So that in reference to an Ascitis the watry Humours the remote cause of it is to be Purged off by Hydragognes which do empty the Body of serous Excrements while they are in motion in the Vessels before they are Extravasated in the spaces of the Belly The Curative Indication of a Dropsie is more difficult because it relateth to the Continent cause the watry Faeces stagnant in the Belly which being thrown out of the confines of the Vessels are hard to be Purged off but Nature being ambitious to preserve it self findeth out secret ways which are not obvious to Sense to free her self from Diseases by Purgatives which are very beneficial in an Ascitis though the manner of their Operation is very obscure and hard to understand And the most gentle Catharticks are first to be advised as Dwarf Elder Gentle Purgatives are first to be advised in Dropsies Syrup of Peach Flowers Mechoacan Extract of Elder and afterward Syrup of Buckthorn Jailap Juice of Iris and last of all refine of Scammony Gummi Gotte Elaterium which is a rough Powder and to be given only to strong Bodies in very few Grains to exalt a Medicine which must be given with great Caution because strong Hydragogues do weaken the Body Strong Hydragogues are to be given with great caution because they increase the Tumours of the Belly and aggravate the Disease by rendring the Tumors of the Belly greater derived from a larger proportion of serous Recrements impelled into the spaces of the Abdomen by the agitation of churlish Purgers as finding it more easie to throw the watry Excrements through the wonted passages of the Caeliac and Mesenteric Arteries into the Abdominal Vacuities then by unaccustomed ways the Terminations of the Mesenterick Arteries inserted into the inward Tunicle of the Intestines Diureticks may be also advised with good success Diureticks are very proper in Dropsies as the most proper means to discharge the potulent Matter of the Blood by transmitting it into the Kidneys whose obstructed Glands are opened by Diureticks whereby the Blood is refined by disburdening its Faeces into the Ureters and Bladder whence the Tumour of the Belly is lessened And because the Urine of Hydropick Persons is of a red Colour and of a Lixivial nature produced by over strict union of the fixed and crude Sulphureous parts so highly Confaederated that it is hard to sever the watry Particles in the Glands of the Kidneys and thereupon are reconveyed by the Emulgent Veins into the Cava and Heart and thence recommended by the Extreamities of the Mesenterick and Caeliac Arteries to the Abdominal Spaces whereupon it is well consulted for the advantage of the Patient Diureticks do refine the Blood and the most proper are composed of Volatil Salts labouring with an
it Ulcerous hence the whole Compage of the Caul is subject to Putrefaction which hath been often found upon Dissection of Bodies A Commander of a Man of War An Instance of a putrid Ulcerous Caul often having exposed himself to Wind and Weather and being of a sickly Constitution fell into a great Swelling of his lower Apartiment which was much mitigated by a proper Course of Physick and yet notwithstanding he was troubled with Vomiting and an ill Stomach so that he was not able to digest his Meat and at last was overcome with an Atrophy and after his Departure we found the Caul very much putrified and consumed The Caul is a kind of Sink A Steatome proceedeth from a concreted pituitous matter concreted and enclosed in a Coat like Fat into which Nature transmitteth by various Channels a quantity of gross Humours of different consistences whereof some are indigested Chyle or Serous Liquor whose watry Particles being Evaporated concreted into a whitish Matter somewhat like Lard enclosed in a thick Membrane whence ariseth a Steatome And other Humours also growing more and more Indurated do thicken the substance of the Glands and turne it into a Scirrhus which sometimes is so great that it highly distendeth the whole Abdomen A Tradesman's Wife An Instance of a Steatome labouring with a great Tumor of her Belly which could not be reduced by any Method of Physick but received Day by Day greater addition till it arrived to a prodigious Magnitude which made a high difficulty of Breathing as hindring the free play of the Diaphragme which was greatly compressed by the stupendous Tumor of the Caul which robbed the Body of its due Nutriment causing an Emaciation of all the Muscular parts And after her Death an Apertion of her Belly being celebrated the Intestines appeared thrust toward the right side in an unusual posture and afterward a wondrous Swelling presented it self being encircled with a strong Membrane filling up the Cavity of the Belly and was easily separated from the adjoyning parts and being taken out of the Body weighed many Pound to the admiration of the Spectators This vast Swelling was enwrapped within a thick Coat which being cut first a white Tumor like Lard discovered it self which was accompanied with many smaller Glandulous and Scirrhous Tumors The Caul is furnished with a multitude of Glands which sometimes are swelled to great Dimensions proceeding from a large proportion of gross Chyle extravasated in the substance of the Glands in their passage through the Caul toward the common Receptacle as spued out of the Termination of the Milky Vessels of the first kind into the Interstices of Vessels belonging to the Omental Glands A Disease derived from many Scirrous Glands wherein the gross Chyle is lodged and indurated by reason it cannot be admitted into the small Extreamities of the second kind of Lacteal Vessels in order to be transmitted into the common Receptacle A Country Woman was tortured with great pain in her Belly and was highly opinionated she had divers living Animals in her which gave her a great Discomposure and at last ended in a great Swelling of the Belly speaking a close to her Life And afterward an inspection being made by Incision into the inward recesses of the Abdomen the Caul appeared beset with numerous Scirrhous Glands Sometime the rare Contexture of the Caul An Instance of the Caul very much indurarated is enlarged by a quantity of Recrements flowing into its substance by a great company of Vessels whose more fluid Particles being breathed out by its Pores so that its substance becometh hard and thick resembling a Hide As it hath been seen in a Maid of an ill habit of Body who had the Caul adjoyning to the Navil highly thick and indurated which was discovered upon a Dissection celebrated after her Death And Learned Doctor Wharton giveth an Instance of this Case in his Discourse of the Glands relating to the Caul The choice integument of the Intestines A Dropsie produced by intemperate Drinking so that the watry Particles being severed in the Kidney were conveyed into the Caul is frequently infested with Hydropick Distempers which may arise from an overmuch Indulgence of our selves in strong Liquors and cold and moist Diet overcharging the Blood with watry Recrements which not being secerned in the Glands of the Kidneys and thence transmitted by Urinary Ducts and Papillary Caruncles into the Pilvis they recoil with the Blood by the Emulgent Veins into the Vena Cava and afterward into the Heart and Lungs and Descendent Trunk of the Aorta into the Caeliac and Mesenterick Arteries and thence into the substance of the Caul in so great a quantity that the small Capillary Veins are not able to entertain them whereupon the thin tender Membranes of the Caul being overmuch distended by too great a plenty of watry Humours do break and let loose the confined Liquor which freely streaming out of the Lacerated Caul An Ascitis deduced from an Ulcered Caul ever overcharged with watry Recrements flowing from the broken Lymphaeducts into the Ulcered Glands do make a Lake in the Cavity of the Abdomen which is sometimes swelled like a Barrel in a most prodigious manner so that Fifteen Gallons of watry Faeces have been let out of a Tapped Belly Another kind of Ascitis proceedeth from an Ulcered Caul wherein it is every way encompassed with watry Recrements flowing from the broken Lymphaeducts in the Ulcered Glands of the Caul in which it is so long Macerated till it is fretted and gauled by the Serous Liquor impraegnated with gross Saline Particles discharged out of the Terminations of the overburdened Caeliac and Mesenteric Arteries into the Cavity of the Belly whereupon the tender compage of the Caul is dissolved and rendred Putrid often produced by Sanious and Purulent Matter issuing out of an Ulcered Caul which I have seen in Hydropick Bodies Dissected The inward Membranes of the Caul are often disaffected with a great company of Vesicles big with Transparent Liquor commonly called Hydatides The Hydatides of the Caul are great store of Vesicles arising from watry Recrements distending the Lymphaeducts seated in the Caul which I conceive do flow from the Coats of the Lymphaeducts distended in the Caul not mentioned by any Author whom I have read But I have reason to believe that the Glands of the Caul are attended with Lymphaeducts which are Vessels receiving the Recrements secerned by the Glands which being Tumefied by the grossness of the Liquor or by the substance of the Glands which being much increased in Dimensions do compress the Lymphaeducts whereupon the motion of the Lympha is intercepted in its passage toward the common Receptacle whence arise numerous Swellings of the Lymphaeducts seated in the Caul in manner of Vesicles great with Liquor An Instance may be given of this case in a Hydropick Woman An Instance of the Hydatides in an Hydropic Woman whose Belly being highly
of the Brain in the eighth pair of Nerves and from thence into the Stomacick Nerves whereby they are robbed of their due Tenseness and Tone for want of animal Liquor and Spirits which rendreth the Stomack unable to contract its Fibres and enclose the Aliment whence it is thrown out of the confines of the Ventricle before it receiveth a due Concoction A Third Cause of distoning the Stomach The ill Tone of the Stomach may be derived from a cold and moist distemper proceedeth from a cold and moist distemper derived from a great quantity of watry Humours in Dropsies mixing with the mass of Blood passing by the Celiack Arterie into the Interstices of the Vessels belonging to the Stomach where it chilleth and moisteneth the Nervous Fibres rendring them flaccide and uncapable to retain Meat and Drink in reference to the extraction of Chyle A Fourth Cause of distoning the Stomach Another cause of an ill Tone of the Stomach may come from an ill Conformation may arise from an ill Conformation wherein the Interstices of the Filaments composing the Nerves are taken away or much lessened by a compression of the Fibres in Inflammations and Oedematous Tumours wherein Blood or pituitous Humours being extravasated and stagnant in the empty spaces interceding the nervous Fibrils of the Stomach do swell it beyond its natural Dimensions and thereby compress the Filaments of the Nerves by straightening their Interstices whence the influx of the Nervous Liquor is stopped or much checked at least and the Fibrils lose their plumpness and vigor as being made unapt for Contraction and Retention of Aliment in the bosome of the Stomach And not only the substance of the Ventricle is tumified with extravasated Humours The inward Coat of the Stomach is sometimes affected with Pustles but also the inward Coat is beset with numerous pustles flowing from Serous Liquor in a malignant Fever ousing out of the capillary Arteries and raising the inward Tunicle of the Stomach into many small protuberancies hindring its Contraction in order to Concoction which prove fatal to the Patient Of these Tumors Thomas Bartholine giveth an Instance in his Fourscore and twelfth History of his Third Century where he mentioneth a Polonian who was surprized with a great weakness caused by a pestilential Fever and his Body being opened after Death the inward Coat of his Stomach was found all bespecked with little transparent Swellings big with clear Liquor flowing out of the extreamities of the Vessels The Fifth Cause of the weak Tone of the Stomach An ill Tone of the Stomach proceeding from Emaciation of the Stomach may be deduced from too great a thinness or an emaciated substance of the Ventricle wherein the Filaments shrink up and are closely conjoyned for want of due Aliment as in great Atrophy's and Hectick Fevers wherin the Blood and Animal Liquor and Spirits are exhausted whereupon their Nerves being destitute of due nourishment grow over Dry and Tense and unfit for Motion in reference to a close Confinement of Meat and Drink in order to Chylification A Sixth Cause of a disabled Compage of Stomach Another cause of an ill Tone of the Stomach may arise out of the over-Tenseness of the Fibres may be taken from another kind of over-Tenseness of its Fibres in Hypocondriacal Diseases oppressed with vaporous animal Liquor and Spirits filling up the Interstices of the Filaments which rendereth the Fibres over-stiff and hindreth the Contraction of the Stomach founded in a pliable Frame to retain the Contents till their Virtue is extracted by a due Fermentation The seventh Cause of inducing an infirm Tone into the Stomach Another cause of a weak Tone may proceed from Inflation is produced by a great Inflation proceeding from an ill Concoction of Aliment or transmitted from other parts whereupon the Fibres being distended beyond their due limits lose their Tone Vigor and Motion so that they are rendred uncapable duly to Contract themselves to immure the solid and liquid Aliment within the soft inclosures of the Stomach to draw off the Milky Tincture And the Stomach is not only swelled by a Flatus The Stomach may be swelled by a quantity of serous Liquor lodged in the Cavity of it but with Serous Liquor lodged in it destilling out of the Capillary Arteries terminating into the inward Coat of the Stomach stretching the Fibres of the Stomach beyond the Dimensions assigned by Nature which very much weakneth the Fibres in an over-much Distention so that they cannot reduce themselves by Contraction in order to embrace the Aliment Of this Preternatural swelling Learned Doctor Sturton gave me an account in a Person of Honour related to the Honourable Family of Rutland whose Stomach was distended to so great a bigness that it seemed to be blown up like a Bladder with a prodigious quantity of Serous Liquor weighing Sixteen pound some of which being exposed to the Fire in a small Vessel did Coagulate and resemble the White of an Egg Whereupon I conceive this Transparent Liquor to be the Chrystalline part of the Blood having a power of Concretion when set upon the Fire And the Stomach is not only discomposed by a vitiated Conformation The union of the Stomach is violated in Exulcerations but also by a violated union of the Fibrous parts wherein they are Disjoyned as Corroded by sharp Humours in Exulcerations by reason the Blood being stagnant in the Interstices of the Vessels of the Stomach so that it cannot be returned by Circulation and afterward the Serous Liquor degenerates into a putrid Matter corrupting the Fibres destructive of their Tone in making them unable to Contract themselves in order to Concoction Zacutus Lusitanus Lib. 2. De Praxi Medi. Admirab Giveth an Instance of a Sick Person labouring with a great Pain and Weight of his Stomach and afterward was afflicted with a troublesome Vomiting wherein he threw up a lump of Purulent Matter mixed with Blood resembling the Figure of Cypress Nut arising out of a Tumour in the Stomach Suppurated and turned into an Ulcerous Matter wherein the Concoctive Faculty of the Stomach was made weak in reference to contract its Fibres and digest its Nourishment Having Discoursed Apepsy The weakned Tone may be drawn from the same causes in a lower degree which were recounted in the lost Tone of the Stomach the frustrated Concoctive Faculty of the Stomach proceeding from the Distoned Fibres of it I will speak somewhat of Bradupepsy of an infirm Concoction which may be deduced not from the Tone of the Ventricle enervated but only weakned which may take its rise from many of the same Causes recited in the Conformation of the Stomach but in more remiss degrees and from the ill Temper of it either when the heat is excessive as in Fevers caused by the Ebullition of Blood having recourse to the Stomach by the Caeliack Artery or when the Vital Liquor is over-acted with heat in violent Motion of the Body
turn the Blood into Pus whence issueth an Abscess which being broken is productive of an Ulcer the happy termination of an Aposteme evacuating an exuberant ill affected Blood and thereby giveth Health and ease Another kind of Tumour of the Spleen being soft and oedematous or serous is derived from a quantity of Blood mixed with indigested Chyme or serous Humours spued out of the Extreamities of the Caeliack Capillary Arteries implanted into the Membranous Cells of the Spleen whereby the whole Compage of it is endued with greater Dimensions An ordinary Person long complained of a Swelling and pain in the Left Hypocondre which rendred his Life very troublesome and after a tedious Sickness gave up his Soul into the Hands of his most Gracious God and Merciful Redeemer Not long after his Death The preternatural greatness of the Spleen an Incision being made into his Belly and a recourse being had to the Left Side to see the cause of his Disease his Spleen was discovered to be of an extraordinary greatness as passing down beyond the Ribs into the lower Apartiment and was furnished with a large Splenick Artery which impelled a great quantity of Serous Blood into the Membranous Cavities interwoven with a great number of Fibres in whose Bosome was lodged a large proportion of Watry Liquor distending the whole body of the Spleen This noble part is first Tumefied by a great quantity of Serous Blood An Inflammation of the Spleen degenerating into an Abscess transmitted by the numerous Ramulets of the Caeliack Arteries inserted into the Glands of the Spleen and is afterward inflamed by stagnant Blood lodged in their substance which in a short time loseth its Nature and its serous parts are turned into a corrupt Matter corroding the Vessels and Coats of the Spleen through which it maketh its way into the Cavity of the Belly whereupon Watry Humours have a free access unto it and do generate a great distention of the Rim and Muscles of the Abdomen commonly called an Ascitis A Frier being of a cold and most Constitution was oppressed with a load of Serous Humours which passed out the Left Ventricle of the Heart through the Common and then through the Descendent Trunk of the Aorta into the Caeliack Artery inserted into the Glands of the Spleen highly distending them which produced great pains in his Left Side and a high disaffection of the Spleen which at last concluded in the exit of Life And his Body being opened the Liver appeared to be sound An Instance of a putrefied Spleen and the Spleen half Putrefied and Ulcered whereupon the Putrid Matter and a source of Watry Humours had a recourse to the Cavity of the Belly enlarging it to a great degree A Dropsie also may arise from the broken Lymphaeducts of the Spleen A Dropsie arising from the broken Lymphaeducts of the Spleen which is produced after this manner by rivulets of Watry Recrements associated with the Mass of Blood and carried by the Terminations of the Capillary Splenick Arteries into the substance of the Glands wherein a great quantity of Lymphatick Liquor being secerned from the purer parts of the Vital and Nervous Juice is transmitted into the Lymphaeducts seated between the Coats of the Spleen which being encircled with fine and tender Tunicles are easily broken by the freer streams of the Lympha overflowing their thin Banks into the Lake of the Belly and raising it sometimes to monstrous Dimensions The Spleen also is liable to another Disease The Hydatides of the Spleen which hath some affinity with the former in reference to its Cause Lymphatick Liquor severed from the Blood in the Parenchyma of the Glands and received into the Extreamities of the Lymphaeducts and carried through them to the Ambient parts of the Spleen So that the thin Transparent Liquor having not a free passage doth extend the Coat of the Lymphaeducts whence arise many Vesicles in the surface of the Spleen commonly called Hydatides which are nothing else but the Tunicles of the Lymphaeducts swelled with too large a quantity of Lympha The Spleen is not only Obnoxious to Inflammations Oedematous A Scirrhus Tumour of the Spleen coming from concreted pituitous Matter and Serous Tumours of which we have already Discoursed but Scirrhous too which are indolent hard Tumours proceeding from an earthy gross Mass of Blood dispensed by the numerous Caeliack Capillary Arteries into the substance of the Glands where it stagnates by reason of faeculency rendring it unfit to be received into the Minute Roots of the Splenick Veins so that the Spleen acquireth a hard Tumour by the gross Blood lodged in the Interstices of the Vessels belonging to the Glands and having lost its Motion groweth more and more black and thick and is at last concreted by Acid Particles into a hard substance producing a Scirrhus The subject matter and the efficient cause rendring the Spleen Faeculent and Scirrhous doth only differ in degrees by reason I conceive the Active Principle that maketh the Blood gross and concreted is Acidity which is produced by Saline Particles brought to a Fluor which as it is more or less exalted is the efficient of greater or less alterations in the Blood stagnated in the body of the Glands appertaining to the Spleen whereupon it groweth sometimes more gross and other times more Coagulated as it is acted with higher Saline Particles brought to a greater Fluor The material cause as I apprehend productive of greater or less Induration Divers material causes of the induration of the Spleen and Coagulation of the Blood may proceed from its more or less earthy Clamminess as associated with crude indigested Chyme not assimilated into Purple Liquor whereby it loseth its due Fermentation and groweth gross and dispirited and apt to stagnate in the Membranous Cells and Glands of the Spleen as being unable to be percolated through their substance herein it being stagnated by reason the Lympha being too thick cannot be received into the Lymphaeducts and the Blood being too Faeculent cannot be admitted into the Minute Orifices of the Splenick Veins Whereupon the extravasated Purple Juice debased with Saline Particles put into a Fluor by the loss of its Motion doth gain a greater Acidity as it is more and more stagnant in the Parenchyma of the Glands So that sometimes when they are long acted with this disaffected Blood a Fever ariseth and maketh a great Ebullition A Scirthus proceeding from acid Recrements whence its more moist Particles are consumed and the Spleen becometh Indurated and Scirrhous proceeding chiefly from Blood concreted by its Acid Recrements This Hypothesis hath been made good by the injection of Acid Liquors into the Blood Vessels of Animals which are killed sooner or later as the injected Liquors participate of greater or less Acidity And the bodies of Bruits being opened presently after they were killed to see the cause of their Death the Blood was found concreted in the Ascendent and
the right side of this Fish A Thornback A Thornback hath no Bladder of Urine hath its Kidneys beginning †T. 44. F. 2. a. in small Dimensions and afterward grow larger they are compounded of many broad Lobules set edgewise all along the Spine which is very rare in the Kidneys of Fish and are much larger toward their Terminations †b. and end in short Ureters which are implanted into the Intestinum Rectum which serveth in stead of the Bladder of Urine A Crocodile A Crocodile is destitute of the Bladder of of Urine saith Learned Borichius hath oblong red Glandulous Kidneys which have Ureters inserted into the Intestinum Rectum His words are these Renes oblongi Glandulosi rubicundi ex quibus utrinque Ductus patutus amplus membranaceusque descendere progrediebatur ad ultima usque Intestini Recti ut Liquorem Excrementitium Urinosumque eo amandaret cum Vesicae nullum usquam vestigium repertum fuerit CHAP. XXXII Of the Pathologie of the Bladder of Vrine THe Bladder of Urine is obnoxious to divers Diseases Inflammations The Diseases of the Bladder Apostumes Ulcers Gangraens Scirrhus Cancers Obstructions overmuch Distention and Straightness and to the Stone the most afflictive Disease of all An Inflammation hath for its Diagnostick Tension Hardness An Inflammation of the Bladder great heat and pain in the region of the Bladder about the Share-Bone to which may be added a weakness of Excretion of Urine accompanied with a Tenesmus by consent of parts a Symptomatick Fever Thirst and a Chilness of the outward parts This dangerous Disease is derived sometimes from External Causes The causes of its Inflammation as violent Riding a Fall Stroke c. whereby the Hypogastrick Capillary Arteries being often broken do pour out a quantity of Blood into the substance of the Bladder where it is stagnant as not being admitted into the Roots of the Hypogastrick Veins whereupon the Blood having lost its motion doth lose its bounty too which is preserved by Circulation and acquireth a corruptive Indisposition by turning the Serous part and Indigested Chyle associating it into a putrid Matter the cause of an Aposteme which being of a sharp corrosive nature maketh its way through the Parenchyma of the Bladder to the outward Coat which it perforates and determines into an Ulcer An Inflammation and Ulcer of the Bladder Ulcers of the Bladder is also generated by Stones lodged in its Cavity and grating upon the tender inward Coat and bring a quantity of Blood into it and sometimes by opening the termination of the Vessels do produce a bloody Water An Inflammation of the Bladder The indication of an Inflammation doth indicate in the first place the opening of a Vein after or before which a Clyster may be Administred and Emulsions made of the Cooling Seeds and temperate Diet-Drinks of China Sarsa-parilla and Medicines contemperating the Blood and Urine composed of Barley-water Seeds of Poppy Syrup of Water-Lillies Poppies c. Outwardly may be applied Fomentations of Emollient Herbs without Discutients which do highten the Inflammation divers kinds of Injections are profitable as Milk and Water Barley-water mixed with Honey of Roses streined or Syrup of Red Roses or a Decoction of Barley-water to which may be added the white Trochisces of Rasis a Semicupium prepared with Milk and Water of themselves or Water boiled with Emollient Herbs to which Milk may be added after the boiling Ulcers of the Bladder in reference to gross and serous Recrements do indicate Drying and Detergent Medicines as Diet Drinks of China Sarsaparilla mixed with Sassafrass and Vulnerary Roots and Herbs and gentle Purgatives of Cassia Tamarindes Senna Syrup of Peach Flowers Roses Solutive c. may be added to the Diet Drinks the Injection before mentioned may be mixed with Mouse-Ear the great Fluellin Prunella Cumphrey c. Ratione solutae unitatis which is the last indication in Ulcers Astringent and Drying Powders may be taken made of dried Cumphrey Roots Gum Arabick Red Saunders c. mixed with Sugar Candy A Scirrhus of the Bladder may proceed from a quantity of Pituitous Humours stagnated in the Interstices of the Vessels whose moister parts being evaporated the more gross are Concreted and thereby do indurate the substance of the Bladder A Noble Man having had many signs of a Stone lodged in his Bladder was highly afflicted for many Years with the Strangury And his Body being opened after Death no Stone was found but a hard Swelling which was of so great Dimensions that it almost filled up the Cavity of the Bladder leaving little or no space for the reception of Urine The straightness of the Neck of the Bladder often proceedeth from Obstruction and sometimes from Compression As to the first It is often generated by sabulous Matter Stones Grumous Blood Pus Mucous and clammy Matter Caruncles and Warts stopping the Urinary passage and intercepting the free current of Urine The straightness of the Neck of the Bladder may also be derived from the swelling of the neighbouring parts compressing it as also from the repletion of the Intestinum Rectum with hard Excrements and from the Inflammation of the Penis and Neck of the Bladder straightning the Urinary Channel CHAP. XXXIII Of Vrine THe watry Liquors being the more moist and fluid part of Meat and Drink in its first Rudiment is afterward Concocted with the Oily and Salt parts of Aliments in the Stomach and other Viscera and then associates with the Blood in various Tubes of Arteries and Veins to give it a thin consistence and render it fluid in order to Motion and to put the Vital Liquor into a capacity to insinuate it self into the most straight Capillaries and to pass when extravasated in the narrow Interstices of Vessels from the terminations of Arteries into the Origens of the Veins to prevent the stagnancy of Blood and Inflammations of Fleshy and Membranous parts So that this Potulent Matter being a Vehicle of Blood doth in its converse and motion with it embody with Saline and Sulphureous parts not serviceable to Nature and dischargeth them as mixed with it by Salival Liquor Sweat and Urine Urine borroweth its first Origen from thin Potulent Liquor The origen of Urine as its Materia Substrata and is compounded of Vinous Spirituous Sulphureous Saline Watry and Earthy Particles which may be made clear in Destillation The discovery of the parts of Urine by Destillation First arise the vinous spirit then watry mixed with most saline and some sulphureous Particles The first that rise are some few Vinous Spirits impraegnating Phlegm Next follow the Watry parts in a greater source embodied with most Saline and some Sulphureous parts Thirdly Doth rise the Spirit of Urine impraegnated with Salt of a fixed quality which is rendred Volatil by great degrees of heat exalting its sharp and pungent disposition whereupon divers preparations of Salt and Spirit of Urine are made by Art
Artist immitted into it was Cured by alterative and purging Diet-drinks cleasing and sweetning the Blood and by Emollient Decoctions injected into the Vagina Uteri which abated and by degrees took away the hard Swelling The womb is also obnoxious to a Carnous Swelling The Carnous Tumor of the Womb. mixed with a quantity of ill humours lodged in the body of the Uterus between its Membranes An Instance of this disaffection may be given in a Plump Woman about forty years old who felt a great weight in the Hypogastrick Region wherein after Death a great fleshy Tumor upon a deep Incision made into the Cavity of the Abdomen was discovered in the substance of the womb which was accompanied with thick Membranes Tendons and other different Substances lodged not in the Cavity but in the Interstices of the Membranes encircling the body of the Vterus The Uterus is also liable to Abscesses and Ulcers The Abscesses and Ulcers of the Womb. from a quantity of Blood lodged in the inward Substance upon the laceration of the Vessels in Women over-lifting themselves by taking up some great weight beyond their strength whereupon a great quantity of Blood is setled in the Glandulous parts of the womb first producing an Inflamation and afterward an Abscess terminating into an Ulcer which sometimes Corrodes the womb and neighbouring parts which is easily known by a Purulent Faetide Matter inflicting great pains on the tender Compage of the womb which is afterward Excerned by the Vagina Vteri A Semstress in taking up a great weight found something as it were to crack within her whereupon she was sensible of a high pain about the Loins with a great heat about the Hypogastrick Region and after some time she avoided a quantity of Faetide discoloured Matter through the Vagina Uteri and two or three Months after she discharged the same Matter through the Anus This Disease got a great head as being a sordid inveterate Ulcer before she sent to me for my Advice which I gave to her gratis as being a Woman of a mean Condition and attempted by all probable means to relieve her but without success so that at last she concluded her miserable Life in a comfortable Departure as being a Person of great vertue and patience And afterward she being opened by a good Chyrurgeon the posterior part of her Womb was highly Ulcered and its substance corrupted and the Intestinum Rectum adjoyning to it was rendred Putrid having a great hole in it through which the stinking corrupt Matter was discharged through the Anus which was formerly Excerned through the Vagina Uteri An Ulcer of the womb is sometimes produced by strong Purgatives enraging the Acrimonious humors of the Body An Ulcer of the Womb produced by strong Purgatives which having recourse to the Uterus do produce an Ulcer in it A Gentlewoman my worthy Friend having her Courses suppressed had sharp Medicines given her by a Midwife which highly disaffected the Uterus whereupon she discharged a thick Purulent Sanious Matter which highly tortured her in its evacuation through the tender passage relating to the neck of the womb as composed of many Filaments In order to allay this great Storm in the Uterus caused by improper Medicines advised by an ignorant Person I prescribed Medicines of Sarsa Parilla and Cooling Alteratives which attempered and sweetned the enraged sharp Humors and I also advised Cooling and Restringent Decoctions to be injected into the Vagina Vteri which gave her Ease and perfectly restored her to her Health Laus Deo Sometimes the Womb laboureth with a Gangreen the unhappy consequent of an Inflamation The Gangreen of the Womb. arising from a Contusion Lacerating the small Hypogastrick or Spermatick Vessels whereupon so great a quantity of Blood is lodged in the Glandulous substance of the womb that the natural heat of the womb is Suffocated as being oppressed with too exuberant a proportion of Extravasated Blood which could not be turned into Pus whence ensueth a Gangreen speaking sudden Death to the Patient Learned Thomas Bartholine giveth an Account of this sad Disease Cent. 2. Observ 28. Faemina Veneta an 40 an 1645 ex casu quodam dolores Uteri acerbissimos passa est adeoque graves ut ipsam se tunderet milleque modis affligeret frustra omnibus adhibitis auxiliis causa latente septimo die dolores cum vita cessarunt Cadaver apertum statim dolorum causas prodidit Vterus quippe capitis puerilis magnitudine in tumorem carnosum degeneraverat Gragraenosum sine exulceratione ut discissus Pilam aemularetur Carnosam Cavitas angusta vix aureum numerum â—episset plenum Concreto sanguine Praeterea omentum Ligamenti vicem sustinens firmissime externo Uteri fundo alligatum erat à quo sursum tracto dolores forsan aborti A Cancer sometimes assaults the womb A Cancer of the Womb. derived from a high Scorbutick Indispostion infecting the mass of Blood with a Venenate Nature which being carried by the Uterine Arteries into the Glands of the womb produceth a hard painful Tumor ending sometimes in a fordid Ulcer Corroding the Membranes encompassing the bosom of the womb Sometimes in an ill Constitution of Body abounding with hot and acide Recrements The Cancer in the neck of the Womb proceeding from Corroding Venenate humors degenerating into a corroding poysonous Disposition upon a suppression of the Menstrua an Inflamation first ariseth and afterward a sordid Faetide Carnous Ulcer of the womb attended with a great pain and an evacuation of stinking Matter thrown out by the Vagina Uteri which is rendred Carnous Fabritius Hildanus giveth a memorable Instance of this case in a Person of Honour C. 2. Obs 63. An. 1586 Cum nobilis quaedam Matrona Lausannae suppressione mensium trimestri spatio laborasset tandem exortus est dolor inflammatio partium genitalium Morbo propter verecundiam neglecto abscessus ulcus in collo Matricis sequutum est cui multa absque fructu à variis adhibita fuere Biennio post cum D. D. J. Auberto Vindone ut de curatione instituenda consultaremus vocatus fui Adhibito Matricis speculo ulcus Callosum Faetidum inaequale lividumque ut verbo dicam Cancrosum invenimus quod minime nobis tangendum Judicavimus Vocatus postea Empiricus mira pollicitus est sed adhibitis medicamentis acribus auctus est dolor aucta Febris Inflammatio Vigiliae cibi Fastidium Syncope ut deinde paucos post dies è vita discederet accersitus denuo cum dicto Medico dissecaremus cadaver totum collum Matricis plane Cancrosum exulceratum offendimus The Womb also as well as the Liver Bladder of Gall Stones ledged in the Womb. and other parts of the Body is infested with Stones proceeding from the Serous parts of the Blood ousing out of the secret Pores of the inward Coat of the womb impregnated with Saline and mixed with Earthy parts
thick Vapours free Cups of Wine and immoderate eating do dispose the Blood as rendring it gross and depauperated and fitted for Stagnation in the substance of the Pleura As to the Prognosticks of this Disease The Prognosticks of a Pleurisie the danger appeareth very much in the height of the Fever and the difficulty of Breathing And Hypocrates giveth his opinion in it by Spittle when it hath none or else unconcocted or discoloured and conceiveth a Pleurisie to be sooner determined if the Spittle be excerned in the beginning of the Disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quinetiam per ea quae mox apparent eadem indicantur quale quid in morbo laterali laborantibus Sputum si statim circa initia subappareat morbum brevem si vero posterius videatur longum futurum denunciat And the Pleurisie is most dangerous when there is no excretion of Spittle and less dangerous when some thin Serous Liquor is ejected and more safe when the Spittle groweth thicker and concocted which if it happen about the third or fourth day the Disease will determine about the seventh Yellow Spittle being accompanied with much watry Recrements is not safe especially green or black Spittle seemeth to be fatal as shewing the humor to be of a depraved nature flowing from the great decay of the Vital heat A Flux of Blood by the Nostrils Haemorrhoides or Menstrua doth often presage a good termination of this Disease if the signs of Coction do appear in the Spittle as being thick and not too clammy and expectorated with ease attended with a freedom of breathing But if the Patient hath his body unequally affected in some parts hot in others cold outwardly afflicted with chilness and inwardly with a burning heat associated with great pain anxiety and a high Delirium they speak the approaches of Death This Disease presenteth us with three Indications in reference to its Cure The Indications of this Disease the first relateth to the Disease it self which is an Inflammation of the substance of the Pleura flowing from a quantity of Blood lodged in the Interstices of its Vessels whereupon a Vein is to be opened in the Arm and a free mission of Blood to be celebrated to empty the Vessels and to make good the circulation of the extravasated Blood in the Pleura which lessens the Inflammation and cannot be so well effected by often taking away a small proportion as by letting out a great quantity of Blood at once which hasteneth the motion of the Blood and not permitteth it to grow over lentous and Concreted by its long stay in the spaces of the Vessels which rendereth its motion very difficult or not at all feasible whereupon the Blood putrifieth if long Extravasated producing first an Abscess and afterward an Ulcer attended with an Empyema Whereupon it is requisite at the first time if the Pulse be great in a Plethorick body to take away a large proportion of Blood as most prevalent to obtain a conquest of the Disease So that Bleeding hath been advised in a Pleurisie with the general suffrages of the Grecian Bleeding is very proper in a Pleurisie Arabian Italian and French Physicians in the Hand or Arm of the opposite side to make the greater revulsion But Great Doctor Harvey and the Modern Physicians as better versed in Anatomy have discovered the circulation of Blood and have since found by experience that opening a Vein in the same side where the Pleurisie is seated to be far more beneficial to take off pain and the Inflammation by promoting the current of stagnated Blood in the part affected by solliciting the motion of the Blood out of the ascendent Trunk of the Aorta into the Subclavian Axillary and Brachial Arterial branches and by consequence freeth the affected side of the Pleura from a load of Blood And if the mission of Blood cannot be celebrated by reason of a languid Pulse though the pain of the Side and Fever be high in the Pleurisie it denoteth Cupping Glasses with Scarifying to be applied to the affected Side which hath often spoke great ease by drawing off Blood from the afflicted and inflamed part and by renewing the interrupted course of Blood This Disease doth no way admit strong Purgatives and Vomits often advised by Empyricks which highly exagitate the offensive Recrements of the Blood Strong Purgatives are not proper in a Pleurisie and render the Inflammation greater and weaken the Patient and strengthen the Disease by hurrying the Blood more impetuously into the parts affected and by lessening the strength of the sick Person whereby the Coction of the Morbifick Matter is hindred and Death hastened by the Ignorance and Impudence of unlearned Practisers in Physick who boast much and do little or nothing who aim to make themselves great by lessening others which rendereth them guilty of Injustice Arrogance and Uncharitableness Gentle Purgatives may be advised if the Fever be not high as also Julapes and Apozemes that allay the heat of the Blood mixed with gentle Diureticks and Sudorificks The second Indication relateth to the cause of the Pleurisie The second Incication in the Cure of a Pleurisie which proceedeth from a gross mass of Blood apt to stagnate and doth denote attenuating Medicines made of Apozemes prepared with Dogs Grass Wild Asparagus and mild Pectorals in case of a Cough and in a Peripneumonia which is often a companion of this Disease Testaceous Powders full of Volatil Salt as Crabs Claws Pearl the Mandible of a Pike the Bone of the Heart of a Stag as also Sal Prunellae Salt of Coral Urine and Volatil Salt of Harts Horn the Infusion of Horse Dung made in red Poppy Water and White Wine are very useful In reference to the sensible evacuation of the Matter of the disease by Spittle Thickning Medicines are good in a thin Destillation the Medicines admit great variation In case of thin Recrements which Nature endeavoureth to throw off by Expectoration but cannot well attain to it by reason the humors being of a thin consistence do elude the impulse of the thinner Air thickning Medicines are to be advised made of Jujubes Sebesten Gum of Tragananth Arabick Looeh de Psyllio de Pontulaca and a Pectoral Decoction made with the Flowers of Red Poppy Seeds of Melons Pumpions White Poppy Barley Jujubes Dates c. In a thick Matter Attenuating inciding and detergent Medicines are propâ—r in a gross viscide Ientous Matter which is gross lentous and viscid attenuating inciding and detergent Medicined may be prescribed as all kinds of Oxymels especially that of Squills are very proper and a Linctus made of Linseed Oyl or Oyl of sweet Almonds mixed with White Sugar Candy Apozemes made with Dogs Grass Wild Asparagus Hysope if the Fever be not high Maiden Hair Coltsfoot Scabious Liquorice Shavings of Ivory c. In a gross Matter which cannot be Expectorated without great difficulty an Infusion of Horse dung made with the Leaves
whereas in truth it supposeth more And in like manner the Blood is carried out of the left Ventricle of the Heart into the common Trunk of the Aorta wherein it meeteth with a continued stream of Blood which by degrees is moved by divers Channels into all parts of the Body which cannot be effected any other way than by undulating Motion by pressing one part of the Blood forward after another from the beginning to the Terminations of the Arteries So that these Sanguiducts being propagated in many Flexures by reason of their numerous Divarications must necessarily give such a check to the over-hasty current of the Blood that it cannot be impelled from the Heart at one moment through all the Arteries which are seated at a great distance from the Center Whereupon I conceive that the motion of the Blood out of the left Chamber of the Heart making the Diastole vulgarly thought first in the common Trunk and afterward in the ascendent and descendent Trunk of the Aorta and divers crooked branches of the lesser Arteries is not the cause of the pulsation of the Artery which is performed in a moment in one brisk continued motion and not successively by way of Undulation which supposeth many Instants in which one part of the Artery is elevated after another as it groweth distended by a great stream of Blood The manner of the Pulsation of Arteries So that I imagine the pulsation of the Arteries doth proceed from the vigorous contraction of the right and left Ventricle of the Heart to which the Trunks of the Pulmonary and great Artery are affixed whereupon their Trunks being briskly strook by the pulsation of the Heart their continued Coats being ever distended with Vital Liquor have the Vibration immediately imparted to them in all parts after the manner of an Impulse made upon one part of an extended Musical string the same stroke is immediately transmitted to every part of it as the whole string is made up of one continued substance of a twisted Gut So that I conceive the Diastole of the Artery taken in a strict notion is not made by the successive motion of the Blood first produced in the Heart and then carried out of it into the common Trunk and afterward into the Arteries furnishing all parts of the Body but by the Systole of the Heart first making a Vibration in it which I have seen in a Dog dissected alive in the Colledg Theater imparted in the same moment to all parts of the Arteries which is the Pulse commonly felt in the Wrist and is at the same instant in all parts of the Body The Systole of the Arteries is their proper motion The Systole of the Arteries made by circular fleshy Fibres as made solely in them by their peculiar power without the assistance of the Heart causing the Diastole flowing from the vigorous motion tension and contraction of the numerous strong fleshy Fibres of the Heart but the Systole of the Arteries is a motion distinct from their Diastole formed by the transverse or rather annular fleshy Fibres of the Arteries whereby their cavity is narrowed and the Blood pressed through their Channels with a greater quickness The contraction of these circular Fibres causing the Systole of the Arteries doth very much contribute to the motion of the Blood flowing primarily from the Impulse made in the Ventricles of the Heart by strong contracted fleshy Fibres lessening their Cavities whereupon the Blood is squirted as by a Syringe out of the Right Chamber of the Heart into the Trunk of the Pulmonary Artery and out of the Left into the Aorta The current of the Blood is hastned upward especially in the Capillary Arteries of the Brain and then into all other parts of the Body which is very much promoted by the motion of Carnous Fibres encircling Artery else the Blood would have but a slow current upward through the ascendent Trunk of the Aorta and Carotide Arteries and especially in the small Capillary Arteries of the Brain in which the Blood would become stagnant if its motion were not quickned by the Systole of the Arteries produced by the Contraction of the fleshy circular Fibres CHAP. XXXIII The Pathology of the Arteries THe Arteries The obstruction of Arteries coming from a grosness of Blood being so many Cylinders as oblong round concave Bodies consisting of many Coats are liable to many Diseases some of which relate to their Cavities and others to their Tunicles As to the Cavities of Arteries their disaffections proceed chiefly either from Obstruction or Compression the first may be derived from the grossness of the Blood stagnant in small Branches or capillary Arterys intercepting the current of the vital Liquor in these obstructed Channels The obstruction of greater Arteries may be produced by some carnous substance The obstruction of the Arteries proceeding from a carnous Increscence adhering to some parts of their inward Coats and so clogging their Cavities that they are rendred dis-serviceable in order to the transmission of Blood from part to part Sometimes the course of Blood is wholly hindred by gross concreted Chyme The obstruction of the Arteries derived from concreted Chyme mixed with Blood lodged in the pulmonary Artery which I have often seen in Dissections of the heart and Lungs labouring with a Polypus proceeding from a White gross coagulated Matter stuffing up the Ventricles of the Heart and pulmonary Vessels Dr. Timothy Clark a Fellow of the Colledge of Physicians in London and one of His Majesties Physicians in Ordinary was afflicted with a high continued Fever attended with a great Thirst and difficulty of Breathing and a small quick Pulse the forerunner of a fatal stroke After which his Body being opened the Viscera of the lower Venter were ill affected with great Obstructions and the Ventricles of the Heart being opened were found filled with a thick White concreted Substance which also stuffed up the pulmonary Artery the immediate cause of his death The Cure of these Diseases Bleeding is good in obstruction of the Arteries propagated from obstruction of Arteries caused by gross concreted Blood and Chyme may be effected by Blood-letting and by aperient Diuretick Medicines mixed with well prepared Chalybeats which do correct the gross clammyness of the depauperated Blood and Chyme by rendring it Flud Volatil and Spirituous which hindreth its coagulation by making it thin and apt for Motion as readily complying with the impulse of the Heart made by the fleshy Fibres contracting its Chambers Another Disease to which the Arteries are incident in reference to their Cavities The lessening the Cavity of the Arteries by Compression may be deduced from Compression whereby the bores of the Arteries are so much lessened that they cannot freely or not at all make good the circulation of the Blood through the disaffected vessels so that the neighbouring Arteries sprouting out of the same Branch do supply their defect as having their Cavities free and
scatens repertus fuit erat hic humor colore ex citrino ad pallidum vergens pallida nimirum bilis Ipsa cerebelli substantia flaccida omnino molliorque multo quam cerebri substantia A Phrensy also may come from an inflammatory disposition of the Brain A Phrenitis coming from an inflammation of the substance of the Brain flowing from a quantity of bilious Blood stagnant in the Interstices of the Vessels whereupon the Animal Spirits are rendred obnoxious to a very hot affection making them tumultuary in their motion in their confused progress between the Filaments of the nervous Fibrils constituting the compage of the Brain hence ariseth a Phrenitis from the Animal Spirits enraged with hot steams of the extravasated Blood which often degenerates into an Abscess and Ulcer of the Brain As Nicholaus Fontanus hath observed Analectorum cap. 1. and mentioned by Learned Bonnetus Anatom Pract. lib. 1. Sect. 7. De Phrenit c. Obs 7. Pa. 163. Ad invisendum ait ille puerum duodecennem accersitus arteriam in carpo contemplor duram cum pulsu frequenti exiguo aegrum imaginatione laborare deprehendo Continuo delirantem floccos carpentem inâ—omnem immorigerum Cui lingua exusta fuliginosa nigra excrementa sicca dura pilularum instar Hunc Phrenitide confirmata laborare eaque exitiali mihi persuasi Nam triduo post nullis auxiliis aptis proficientibus migravit e vivis Secto capite contemplatoque cerebro in ejus Medullari substantia repertus est tumor nucis juglandis magnitudine rubidus venis turgentibus sanguine repletus quae hujus noxae fuit causa certissima rupto abscessu emanavit faetidus ichor coclearis quantitate venae jam ante tumidae subsederunt A Phrensy may also take its rise from a quantity of watry Recrements A Phrensy may be derived from an inflamed Plexus Choroides mixed with the mass of Blood in the Plexus Choroides and Ventricles and also from thick Filaments of gross Blood concreted in the Sinus of the Dura mater somewhat resembling Worms A Woman oppressed with great sadness An instance of this case upon an account of some great loss fell into a burning Fever accompanied with a great pain of the Head which degenerated into a Phrensy expressed in extravagant Singing Laughing and odd postures of the Body After death her Skull being taken off a thin pale Blood flowed out of the Pia mater and the Ventricles of the Brain being opened the Blood-vessels of the Plexus Choroides and Chambers in which they are lodged appeared full of a watry Blood and in the Sinus of the Dura mater many gross Filaments were discovered mad up of a gross Blood mixed with crude unassimilated Chyle of a Polypose nature A Phrensy doth not only come from extravasated Blood A Phrensy proceeding from serous Recrements vitiating the nervous Liquor but from serous Recrements too secerned from the vital Liquor in the Cortical Glands which pass through the Cortex into the more inward Processes of the Brain These serous Recrements being hot and sharp as compared with saline and hot steams of the Blood do highly discompose the nervous Liquor and its refined Particles which being aggrieved with an over-elastick temper do make turbulent and confused motions very much puffing up the Filaments of the nervous Fibrils productive of a Phrensy Of this Learned Webster giveth an example Exercitat De Apoplex Historia 4 ta J. An observation relating to the said Case Reutinger aliquot septimanis ante obitum crudelissime cephalalgia afflictus fuit prae dolore quandoque amens erat ut quicquid vel diceret vel faceret non raro nesciret Mortui cranio aperto saucia dura meninge profluxit serum cum impetu maxima ex parte collectum in spacio quod inter duram piam matrem est Imo ipsa substantia cerebri cerebelli plurimum serum imbiberat nam summopere utrumque erat flaccidum molle Having spoke after my manner of the Essence and various conjunct causes of a Phrensy illustrated with the History of diverse Diseases of the Brain I will give you very short evident causes of this raging distemper The evident causes of a Phrensy which raise a Feverish distemper giving a fiery disposition to the Animal Spirits caused by more freely indulging our selves in the large and frequent draughts of great bodied Wines and other strong Liquors as also immoderate passions of the Mind and violent motion of the Body and a suppression of the wonted evacuations of Blood by the Menses or Haemorrhoids bleeding through the Nostrils c. which render the mass of Blood very hot especially in cholerick Constitutions which having a recourse by the internal Carotide Arteries to the Membranes and substance of the Brain do make fiery impressions upon the Animal Liquor and Spirits rendring them over-active and impetuous in motion and over expansive whereby the Filaments of the numurous Fibrils besetting the Compage of the Brain are disordred so that the Organs of Reason and Sense being highly disaffected the Superior and Inferior Faculties cannot perform their duty in regular apprehensions of things and due elections of proper means in order to the preservation of Life and Happiness The Diagnosticks of this Disease are troublesome watchings The Diagnosticks accompanied sometimes with interrupted Sleep and terrible Dreams after which Phrenetick persons make lamentable out-cries biting their Tongues and Lips and tearing their Cloaths and breaking Glass-windows and also do make frequent attempts to destroy themselves by cutting their Throats Drowning Hanging and casting themselves down Precipices and in their fit of Raging their Eyes and Faces are overspread with Redness proceeding from a great quantity of enraged Blood setled in the ambient parts of the Body The Prognosticks of a Phrensy as being an inflammation of the Membranes The Prognosticks or substance of the Brain enraging the Animal Spirits coming from the fiery parts of the Blood or from an Abscess or Ulcer of the Brain doth threaten great danger often ending in death If this Disease afflict a good constitution of Body abounding with a great quantity of Blood or if it have often and long intervals in a young person the hopes of recovery are much greater then in old age But if after moderate sleep the raging Fits do more and more increase it is an argument the Disease groweth more strong and more dangerous in reference to a new access of Morbifick Matter oppressing the Brain and vitiating the nervous Liquor and Spirits If a Fever have a laudable Crisis by a free evacuation of Sweat oftentimes the Phrensy is fairly determined A Phrenitis following an ill Crisis of a Fever but if the Fever have an ill Crisis the Matter of the Disease is transmitted from the lower apartiment of the Body by the Carotide Artery into the Coats and fibrous Compage of the Brain making a Phrenitis which often appears in a pale water
Epilepsy produced by an abscess of the Brain corrupting its substance and the Animal Liquor which being transmitted to the Fibrous Compage of the Brain and afterward to the Nerves branched through the parts of the Body makes unnatural motions the common Heralds of death A Youth labouring of a Fever and Convulsive motions An example of an Epileptick Person dying of an Apostemated Brain which determined his days and afterward his Brain being opened the Dura Menynx was discovered to have its Vessels turgid with black extravasated and concreted Blood and the neighboring parts of the Brain apostemated Sometimes a Falling-sickness may arise from a Polypus caused by a concreted Liquor lodged in the confines of the Brain A Falling-sickness comeing from a Polypus in the Brain flowing from the saline Particles of the Serous Liquor of the Blood highly annoying the tender Nerves of the Brain Of this case Learned Blasius giveth an Instance Observ Med. 2. Part 6. Ait ille in sinu Menyngis durae longitudinali subjecti muliebris publice in Theatro Amstelodamensi dissecti materia continebatur alba tenacissima quae sinum replebat ad omnes sinus rivulus diffundebatur Epilepsin laboraverat Mulier jam ab aliquo tempore qua etiam extincta An Epilepsy may also be derived from a wound of the Brain A Falling-sickness coming from a wound of the Brain cutting the Blood-Vessels whence ensueth a great effusion of Blood into the substance of the Brain producing a Falling-sickness A Student was wounded in the top of the Head An Instance of a Patient dying of a Falling-sickness upon a wound of the Brain An Epilepsy caused by a fleshy Tumor lodged in a Ventricle of the Brain penetrating through both Tables of the Skull into the body of the Brain whereupon afterward he was afflicted with the Falling-sickness which proved fatal to him And his Skull being taken off his Brain was discerned to be black and gangreened A Falling-sickness may be also produced by some fleshy tumor lodged in a Ventricle of the Brain compressing the Fibrils of the Brain whence ensue great agitations to make good the current of Liquor and Animal Spirits passing between the Filaments of Nerves Of this case Learned Rhodius giveth an account Centur. 1. Observ LV. An example of the Falling-sickness Ait ille Nullo ingenio huic malo admodum gravi quandoque medelam reperiri miretur nemo qui communis mali causas ut plurimum inexpugnabiles consideraverit quidam singulari Ich. Praevotii fama excitatus recuperandae valetudinis spe Pataviam venerat Nullo effectu ad suos reversus quum paulo post fato cessisset in cerebri Ventriculo tumor Carnosus fuit inventus qui cerebro compresso inanem huic Morbo Medicinam docuit So that any compression of the Fibrils of the Brain proceeding from a Swelling or from concreted Blood lodged upon the Surface of Brain may produce a Falling-sickness accompanied with Convulsive motions whereby Nature endeavoureth to relieve her self by violent agitations of the Nerves A Child of mine being roughly treated by an imprudent Midwife An example of an Epilepsy proceeding from a Fracture of both Tables of the Skull was pulled into the World by the Head without Throwes whereupon a great Fracture of both Tables of the Skull did arise and a large source of Blood fell down by the laceration of Blood-vessels upon the Dura Menynx compressing the Origens of the Nervous Fibrils seated in the Cortex so that the Brain being aggrieved by a quantity of concreted Blood did attempt to discharge its load by Epileptick Fits attended with Convulsive motions the mournful prologue of Death A Falling-sickness may proceed not only primarily per idiopathiam An Epilepsy per sympathiam coming from a Gangreen of the Lungs from the disaffections of the Brain but per sympathiam too by consent originally flowing from the Maladies of other parts And sometimes from a Gangreen of the Lungs following an inflammation whence some part of the putrefied Blood being communicated by the Carotide Artery to the Cortex of the Brain did highly discompose the Nervous Fibrils and put them upon violent agitations productive of Epileptick Fits A young Man having drunk a great quantity of cold Water and lying long upon the Ground fell into a high Fever and Delirium accompanied with a great pain of his Head and Epileptick concussions of his Body and Limbs which concluded in death And afterward his Thorax being opened the right Lobe of his Lungs were found black and gangreened oppressed with a large quantity of gross concreted Blood A Falling-sickness may be sometimes derived from the Ulcer of the Pancreas A Falling-sickness coming from an Ulcer of the Pancreas tainting the Blood which being transmitted by proper Vessels to the Cortical Glands of the Brain infecteth the Nervous Liquor whereupon it being received into the Origens of the Fibrils putteth them upon irregular motions causing an Epilepsy An example of this may be given in an Hysterick Woman An Instance of an Epilepsy flowing from an Ulcered Pancreas who laboured with violent Convulsive motions the retinue of the Falling-sickness ending in a fatal storm And afterward her Body being opened the Viscera were found very free from any Disease except the Pancreas which was highly Ulcered and the cause of her Death An Epilepsy may be also derived from the Diseases of the Stomach and Intestines An Epilepsy proceeding from the Diseases of the Stomach and Guts labouring of a great Flatus giving a high discomposure which is very familiar to Children often troubled with Gripes proceeding from viscid Humors mixed with yellow or green Choler causing violent Convulsive motions in the Intestines and Stomach which are fine Contextures of Nerves which being first aggrieved by flatulent acrimonious Recrements do afterward draw the Nervous Fibrils of the Brain into consent and produce strong and fatal Epileptick Fits which I have often seen in Children tortured with these severe disaffections and after Death the Abdomen being opened I have discerned the Stomach and Guts to be highly tumefied and full of yellow and green Choler associated with a clammy Matter Children and Persons of riper years are often troubled with Worms An Epilepsy coming from Worms which highly afflict the Stomach and Guts with Convulsive motions which are afterward imparted to the Brain wherein the Origens of the Nerves are seated which very much sympathize with those of the Guts and Stomach in their afflictive Diseases An Epilepsy may be also generated by a hard gangreened Spleen A Falling-sickness is taking its rise from an Ul ered Spleen coming from too great a quantity of first inflamed and afterward extravasated concreted Blood some part of which being transmitted to the Cortex of the Brain vitiateth the Animal Liquor and Spirits making great agitations in the fibrous Compage of the Brain and afterward in the other Nerves of the Limbs and Body Of this case
Learned Tylingius giveth an account in Miscellan An example of this case Curiosis ann 1674 1675 and 1676. p. 280. Ait ille Sereniss ac celsissimi Principis D. Ferdinandi Alberti Ducis Brunswicensis Lunenburgensis filiolus unius anni Convulsionibus Epilepticis admodum erat obnoxius cum his itaque graviter affligeretur ut tandem vitam cum morte commutaret Corpus ejus die 27 Jan. 1673. aperui lienem induratum scirrhosum fere lapidosum inveni A Falling-sickness may be also produced by a quantity of Genital Liquor An Epilepsy proceeding from a Virulent Seminal Liquor long lodged in the Seminal Vessels or Prostates wherein it acquireth a virulent nature communicated to the Blood carried by several Vessels to the Cortex of the Brain where it infecteth the Succus Nervosus giving a great annoyance first to the tender Fibrils of the Brain and then to the Nerves of the Body which are a continuation of them causing Epileptick Fits and Death A Person of Honor having frequently indulged Venereal Embraces An Instance â—f a Gentleman dying of an Epilopsy was sensible of the meanness of this natural act did addict himself to a chaste and abstemious life whereupon he grew Vertiginous and afflicted with Epileptick Distempers attended with a tremulous motion of his Tongue Convulsive agitations of his Head after the manner of a Rotation a paleness of his Face and dimness of his Sight so that after few days his more Noble and Divine Part quitted his Body And afterward the lowest middle and highest Apartiment being opened all the Viscera appeared to be sound only the Vesicular Cells were found full of virulent Seed the cause of his Epileptick Fits The Indications that relate to this Disease are Curatory The Indications of an Epilepsy which have regard to the Fit or Preservatory which have respect to the Cause of the Disease As to the first Purgatives Vomits and Bleeding have no place As to the Curatory Indication Purgatives and Vomitories are not proper in this Disease Cephalicks and Specificks are most laudable in a Falling-sickness as giving too great a trouble and overmuch debilitation to the sick Patient when very weak So that then the most proper Medicines in this condition are good Cephalicks and proper Specificks which compose the enraged and fortifie the weakned Animal Spirits and rectifie the Animal Liquor the subject of them Such are faetide Medicines which are highly efficacious in Epileptick Fits impregnated with Volatil or Armoniack Salt and with Vitriolick Sulphur as Oyl of Amber or with other Volatil Spirits of Harts Horn Spirit of Sal Armoniack either of it self or succinated Spirit of Blood or Soot or Tincture of Castor Compound Spirit of Lavender Compound Briony Water Comp. Paeony Water c. And as to the Preservatory Indication The Preservatory Indicatory is sounded in the rectifying an ill mass of Blood which regardeth the taking away the Cause of this Disease it is principally founded in the rectifying an ill mass of Blood and Nervous Liquor which depend much upon the laudable Constitution of the Viscera and chiefly upon that of the Brain and the good disposition of the Animal Spirits So that the ill Diathesis of the Blood and Viscera is taken away by Vomiting Purging and Bleeding which though they do not perform the Cure alone yet they prepare the Viscera and Blood and Nervous Liquor by taking away their noysom Recrements whereby the Specifick Medicines can more powerfully exert their vertue upon the Viscera being deobstructed and the Blood and Nervous Liquor being depurated whereupon the discomposed Animal Spirits and Convulsive motions are calmed and by degrees the Epileptick Fits are first alleviated and at last wholly conquered and Nature restored to a salutary condition which I have often seen by the Blessing of the Supream Physician upon methodical Prescription and Application of proper Medicines Specificks which highly speak an advantage in the Cure of this Disease are numerous viz. Amber Castor Coral Camphor Ung. Alcis Specificks in order to the Cure of this Disease a Humane Skull Misletowe of the Oak or Apple-tree Roots or Flowers of Paeony Roots of Valerian The Leaves of Rue Lavender the Flowers of Time Lily of the Valley Betony Preparations made of Swallows Daws c. These Medicines work by secret qualities Medicines in this Disease work by secret qualities and it is very difficult to determine the manner of their Operations in taking away the causes of this Disease which I humbly conceive do consist much in over-fermentative Elements in Nitro-sulphureous and sometimes Vitriolick sharp Particles of the Blood vitiating the Succus Nervosus causing the Falling-sickness as it is received into the fibrous Compage of the Brain and Plexes of Nerves whereupon they grow very unquiet and Convulsed and the Medicines adapted by Nature to the Cure of this Disease The Cure of this disaffection is performed by sweetening the Blood do sweeten the Acrimonious Particles of the Cristalline Liquor of the Blood the Materia substrata of Nervous Juice and give an allay to its Nitro-sulphureous parts by reducing it and the Succus Nervosus in some degree to a laudable Constitution whereupon the opposite Elements of these various Liquors are brought to such a Mediocrity as to produce a due Fermentation not offending the system of tender Nerves in the Brain and Plexes in other parts of the Body And Cephalick Medicines have not only a power to dulcifie the sharp parts of the Blood and exalt the gross saline Particles thereby giving a check to the over-fermentative principles of the Blood but have also an astrictive faculty to corroborate the loose Compage of the Nervous Fibrils of which the Brain is chiefly constituted And by reason its fibrous frame being rendred flaccid by serous Recrements is disposed for the reception of a Succus Nervosus depraved with acid and saline Particles highly agitating the system of tender Fibrils Corroborating Cephalicks very proper to strengthen the Brain therefore Astringent Cephalicks must be of great use after sweet Medicines have been advised to sweeten and appease the Vital and Nervous Liquor impregnated with saline and acid parts and over-acted with Nitro-sulphureous Recrements raising the said Liquors to a high Fermentation productive of Epileptick Fits To speak more closely to the Cure of this stubborn Disease Purgatives may be given if the Patient be strong I conceive it very proper to advise Purgatives to the Patient if strong of Senna Agarick Rubarb Mechoacan Jalape Hellebore mixed with Celaphicks as also the greater Faetide Pills or de Succino aut Pilulae Diambrae Hierae cum Agaric mixed with Castor Amber Camphor quickned with some Grains of Resine of Jalape Vomitories or Extract of Rud. or Hellebore Vomits may be also advised made of an Infusion of Crocus Metallorum Salt of Vitriol or Mynsicht's Emetick Tartar in a few Grains and in the working of the Vomits large quantities