Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	find_v	life_n	4,619	5	4.2629	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26305	A letter in answer to certain quæries and objections made by a learned Galenist against the theorie and practice of chymical physick wherein the right method of curing of diseases is demonstrated, the possibility of universal medicine evinced, and chymical physick vindicated / by George Acton ...	Acton, George.	1670 (1670)	Wing A449; ESTC R6585	9,915	18

many greater and more considerable Cures than others equal to himself in all other considerations But you fill me with admiration that you should fear the corrosive quality of Vitriol Tartre Nitre and Bay Salt you may draw a Menstruum out of Bread or Honey that will dissolve Flints and Vlstadius out of Honey makes a dissolvant of Gold would you therefore be affraid of the use of Bread or Honey you know the juice of Limons dissolves Pearl and Coral and yet most grateful and friendly to the Stomach and why should these Spirits temper'd with the allay of other milder Liquors ad gratam aciditatem be more dangerous Indeed common experience shews you the contrary besides you ought to consider the difference between the hard Bodies of Stones and Mettals and the softer Membranes of the Stomach irrigated continually with a Balsamick vital moisture Aqua fortis that corrodes Stones and Mettals whill not penetrate Wax But to leave you no ground of suspition I can shew you how to make them freed from their corrosive aciditie pleasant to Taste and Smell and highly exalted in Virtue But this I confess is a great secret especially that of the Volatile Salt of Tarter of which Paracelsus and Van Helmont affirm that it penetrates into the most inward and remote parts cleansing them from all impurity instar saponis cuncta abstergens omnem è venis amurcam detergens c. But though you have oblig'd me to make this just vindication of Chymical Physick I would not have you think I either despise or neglect the excellent use of Herbs which I acknowledge with Van Helmont to be pentacula Divini amoris Out of Animals and Vegetables I can make Medicines that cure the Gout and Dropsy with that certainty as scarcely to miss two in twenty But indeed as is our Method of Healing so are our ways of preparation very different from yours You in your Decoctions consume commonly a third part sometimes half or more in which consumption a great deal of the Spirit and Volatile Salt of the Ingredients which contains their highest Virtues is evaporated and lost of the certainty of this loss both your Smell and Taste will bear you witness We on the contrary so make our Decoctions that the whole virtue of the Crassis of the Plant is preserv'd without any diminution I leave it now to your self to judge whether you or we may reasonably hope for the better success in this particular the like difference is between your Distillations and ours you for the most part add water or at least draw over but the Flegmatick part of the Plant with some very small part of its Sulphur which gives it something of its natural smell and Taste leaving nevertheless almost all its Sulphur and totally all its Alkalious Salt behind so that your distill'd waters carry only the name little of the virtue of the Plant from which they are drawn We first stamp the Hearb and draw its water then cohobe it so often upon the caput mortuum till we have brought over its Sulphur and lastly calcine the remaining feces and with the waters extract its own Salt and then Circulate them together and thus are the Mercury Sulphur and Salt united which completes the virtue of the whole Plant and compar'd to yours is worthy of the name of an Essence this is indeed laborious and costly but in its effects largely recompenceth both There remains yet an Objection against Chymical Physick to be answered which you offer not as your own but as received by common Report That Chymical Physick though for the present it conquer many Diseases held incurable yet that afterwards it shortens the lives of such as have been so cured There is indeed such a senseless calumny current amongst Women and the weaker sort of Men industriously disseminated amongst them by some hoping perhaps by this art the better to keep up their own Esteem and Reputation which otherwise by their abilities they find themselves not likely to maintain But to avoid contention let common Experience determine this difference between us For my own particular I can faithfully assure you that by Chymical Physick I have cured my self of the Vertigo and Gout both in great extremity it is now 4 years since and I have not I bless God to this day relaps'd again into either nor have I found any harm but on the contrary many benefits to my health by such Medicines tending in all probability to the prolongation of my life and if I had not grounded my esteem of Chymical Physick upon good reason and sufficient experience you might think me mad to make desperate practices upon my own Life My Lungs are naturally so tender and weak that had it not been for Chymical Medicines I cannot think I could have liv'd to see this day But inform your self further and you shall find that those that have been long accustomed to Chymical Physick have preserv'd their Lives and Health much longer and more comfortably than those acquainted only with your Druggs for consider impartially how few escape death in contumacious Diseases by means of Galenical Medicines loathsome tedious and for the most part ineffectual and those that do how slowly do they recover their colour appetite and strength remaining long in continual fear and danger of relapse such large quantities of Physick as your slow Method requires so depauperates the vital Spirit and oppresses Nature that it may be known many times a year after from what Method they receiv'd their Cure whereas we in the same Diseases perfect the Cure quickly with little Physick and in small Doses such as can hardly be nauseous to the nicest and most delicate Stomachs and in our whole scope our Method directs us not to enervate as you do but to erect deficient Nature not to extenuate but reintegrate the languishing Spirit and is it then likely that Chymical Medicines taken from the hands of a skilful Chymical Physician appeasing and strengthening the Archeus restoring the Ferments which alone in their intire vigour are able to overcome all Diseases as being the undoubted Authors of transmutation friendly and comfortable to Nature should nevertheless shorten Life besides the evidence of Reason I can testify out of my own diligent Observation and Experience and that fido animo the contrary But I believe I need not take much pains to satisfie you in this particular I know you are too sharp sighted to be miss-led by such an Ignis Fatuus on the contrary I rather believe you inclinable to acquaint your self fully with the Theory and manual operations of Chymistry which though it cost you as it hath done me much Time Sweat and Money yet if you prove equally successful I dare promise it shall never give you cause to repent you for I speak it without boasting I have by the help of this Art easily and quickly cured Diseases quite desperate in the hands of very able and experienced Galenical Physicians Truly were not Chymical Physick incomparably more powerful and safe than Galenical I do not see how I could excuse my self in leaving at any time the trodden smooth and easie paths of the vulgar or Galenical Method in which I am graduated as well as you to follow those of the Chymical painful costly sublime and so secret that but a few have ever rightly understood pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter hoc potnêre At the worst can be said surely he that understands both Physicks is likely to perform more than he that understands but one but I must not transgress the limits of a Letter let what has been said suffice for the present till I Print my Synopsis Medico-Chymica which is almost finished and I shall be ready at our next meeting to give you further satisfaction in any thing In the mean time I pray do me that right to believe that what I have said in Vindication of Chymical Physick hath been without the least animosity or intention of prejudice to the Person or Practice of any man purely in defence of the Truth and that whatsoever I have undertaken to do my self in my own particular the better to confirm you I will by the Grace of God whensoever you shall offer me the occasion faithfully make good and further that I shall unalterably remain upon all Tryals Sir Your faithful Friend and Servant G.A. Silver-street near Bloomesbury Market London March 4. 1669. FINIS