Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	air_n	body_n	element_n	4,001	5	9.7677	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62495	The English remedy, or, Talbor's wonderful secret for cureing of agues and feavers sold by the author Sir Robert Talbor to the Most Christian King, and since his death ordered by His Majesty to be published in French for the benefit of his subjects ; and now translated into English for publick good.	Blégny, Monsieur de (Nicolas), 1652-1722.; Talbor, Robert, Sir, 1642-1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing T111; ESTC R26272	26,144	122

their former agitation they have the means of fastening and uniting together to produce obstructions which are the primitive Causes of all Feavers of the second order and sometimes but seldome of those of the third as I shall now illustrate The Blood cannot be long stopt in a place without being exasperated and growing eager The spirits which are constantly in motion flie away and carry with them first the more volatile parts then the sulphureous which blunted and edge of the Salts and kept them as in fetters which is the cause that these bodies having now nothing to stop their activity break off and diffuse themselves through the mass of Blood to raise and ferment it untill that being dispersed and dissolved in the serosity they are expelled by the ordinary ways or otherways do so adjust and accommodate themselves with the other parts that they disturb their alliance and motion no more There is nothing in Feavers but may be explained by this systeme The obstruction and the ferment which remains in that part which is called the Focus make the Periodick Fits and Paroxysms which are sometimes quicker and sometimes slower according as the exasperated humour is more gross or more subtile the duplicity of Focus's or Magazines make the double intermittent Feavers In a word there happen sometimes so many of these nests that giving no respite they cause continued Feavers which may be called subintrants But it sometimes happens that these acid Salts whether through their their too long continuance in a place or by an excessive heat of the entralls acquire a pretty violent degree of corrosion and are exalted to that height as to become venemous enough for spoiling and wholly ruining all the oeconomy of the blood and causing those Feavers which by a general name are called Malignant but since the more common cause of these Feavers are Vrsenical Salts diffused through the Air which we breath or lurking in the Food we eat and that it is rare that our Natural heat which is mild should produce in our Bodies that which the most violent fire of Chymists can hardly perform in their Vessels I said it was the less ordinary causes of those kinds of Feavers Having laid down these Principles I say that this Remedy is useless for the first and dangerous for the third kind of Feavers useless for the first because they are commonly cured of themselves and dangerous for the third because a venemous Body and such as in no ways can be subdued nor corrected ought never to be fixed on the contrary it ought with all expedition to be driven out by sweats or by other ways of evacuation But I maintain that this Remedy answers all the indications that we can have for the Cure of those of the second order The Explication which I have given of these Feavers which by a general name may be called intermittent furnishes me with four indications for their Cure 1. To stop the Fermentation of the Blood 2. To fix and correct the Acid which is the cause of it 3. To dissolve attenuate and drive out by the ordinary ways of evacuation the gross humours that make obstructions 4. And lastly to repair the loss of the Sulphureous and Vnctuous Corpuscles which sweetened the Blood and which are evaporated by its offervescencie 1. The feaverish ebullition of the Blood is sufficiently stopt by the terrestrial and astringent parts of the Quinquina or Jesuits Powder and by the lesser Centaury and the Opium that enters the composition of the Treacle 2. After so many fair experiments we have no cause to doubt but that the fixed Salt of the Quinquina is the true corrective of the Fermentative Acid of the Feaver 3. Of all the ingredients that enter the composition of Treacle there is none but drives out by sweating and Vrine the impurities of the Blood Lastly we may be easily persuaded that the lesser Centaury is most proper for restoring the Sulphureous parts of the Blood which have been dissipated in the Fermentation if we consider its wonderful virtue in consolidating of wounds and if we observe that the reuniting of separated parts is only performed by a Balsamick and Vnctuous Sulpher wherewith that Plant abounds The wine that is given immediately after contributes much also to that effect especially when the activity of its spirits is checked by the mixture of the Plant in water which on this occasson I should prefer before that of Bugloss I pretend not for all this to exclude the general and common remedies of Physick Nay I maintain that in the beginning once or twice Blood-letting according to the strength and repletion of the Patient are necessary as well for facilitating the circulation of the blood as for remedying the pains of the head and oppressions that Blood swelling in the fermentation may cause in passing through the capillary vessels of the Brain and Lungs This Remedy is not to be given till first by a dissolution of Cassia or Catholicum the excrements of the lower region which may trouble its operation be evacuated And lastly seeing the blood like other Liquors in their ebullition drives always towards the Mesentery a great many impure and foeculent parts like a scum it is necessary in the declension of the evil to purge them out if one would prevent relapses and sometimes more troublesome consequences Seeing it appears by the remarks of the Kings chief Physician and by the foregoing reflexions that Opium may usefully be added to the English Remedy and other Febrifuges of the same Nature I make no doubt but that you will Read with pleasure the Natural History of that excellent Medicine The History of Opium OPium by most of the Eastern people is still named Offium in imitation of the Greeks who commonly change p. into an f. it is the thickned juyce of the Indian Poppy Garrias du Jardin saith that these Heads are big enough to contain four Ounces and a half Our Poppies yield also a juyce which being thickned may pass for a kind of Opium but it hath not the efficacy of that which is brought from hot Countries The Author of the Poor mans Physician proposes a very easie preparation of it he would have us pound the Heads of our Poppies about the end of May then put them in digestion in White Wine for the space of fifteen days and afterwards by evaporation reduce the digested liquor into a due consistency The true Indian Opium comes from the Eastern Countrys according to the testimony of Garrias du Jardin and Cristopher de la Coste The Poppies from which it is taken grow commonly enough in Egypt and therefore Merchands bring much of it from Grand Cairo this is in greatest esteem and is called Thebaick Opium Not to mention the Opium that may be made of the Poppies of Longuedoc and Provence nor of that which is made in Italy we may divide into three kinds that which is brought us from the Indies for there is one

Powder for there are some Droguists that infuse it entire and having by that means extracted the first Tincture out of it for their own advantage sell it afterward at the same rate as if it had not lost his chief virtue Hitherto the price of Quinquina or Jesuits Powder hath been very various and uncertain When it was only in the hands of the Jesuits it was sold at Rome and Paris for Eight or Nine Shillings Sterling the Dose which consisted only of Two Drachms but so soon as Droguists began to Trade in it it began to fall in Price so that Three or Four Years ago the best might have been had for about Forty Shillings the Pound weight but no sooner began the English Remedy to be in vogue but men began every where to make Experiments with the Bark of Peru which much enhansed the value of it yet that was not all which raised it to the highest price for Sir Robert Talbot observing that Febrifuges were prepar'd which came very near his own and fearing least some body at length might discover it resolved to buy up all the Quinquina that he could find at Paris and the other chief Towns of France and of England also The execution of this Design making some noise several Physitians Chirurgeons and Apothecaries thought it concerned them to make all hast to provide themselves and some that they might not be wanting in Precaution caused a considerable quantity of the Bark to be brought from Roan and Bourdeaux so that Mr. Audry and Mr. Vilain the two most famous Droguists in Paris having Sold all they had at the Rate of about Fifteen Pound the pound-weight and not being able to procure any more from any place for above a Fortnight there was not a bit to be had at any Droguist's shop in Paris nevertheless some small quantity came at length but it was held up so dear that it was like to have gone off at the rate of an Hundred Crowns the pound-weight since that time the Merchants having imported much from Spain and Portugal and the English Remedy having lost the Advantages of the Mode the price of that Commodity hath fallen daily in so much that at present it does not yield above Four or Five Pound the pound-weight and I make no doubt but that in a short time a Fleet from the West-Indies will make it much cheaper Amongst the Authors whom I have named there are some who endeavouring to explain the properties of Quinquina or the Jesuits Powder according to the principles of the ancient Medicine think it enough to say that it is hot and dry in the beginning of the Second Degree and some others of the number of those who have introduced bad Principles into the New-Philosophy think to mend the matter by saying That Quinquina as an Alkali stops the motion of the acid which occasions the Feaver but that is to illustrate one obscurity by others that are far more obscure That we may give the World somewhat more satisfactory as to that point we must in the first place with Willis take our measures from Experience and allow with him That all things which are actually bitter have great virtue in sifting preternatural fermentations and upon that account it was that the Root of Gentian was heretofore in so great reputation for curing of Quartan Agues and that the Flowers of the lesser Cantaury the Root of Contrayerva and Serpentaria the leaves of Wormwood and Chervil Scammony and many other bitter Drogues are really Febrifuges though in virtue far inferior to the Jesuits Powder Having laid down this from undoubted Truth we must now enquire into the Natural Causes which produce Bitterness in mixt bodies now supposing as it is reasonable we should that the true Elements of Bodies are acid liquid fiery etherean and terrestrial corpuscles it will be a very easie matter to discover those Causes for seeing all bitter things penetrate the Tongue in such a manner that they leave therein a sense of their action for a long time after and that of all the elements none are so proper as acids to produce that effect we must conclude that they are predominant in mixts which have that tast but also since being mingled with many liquid corpuscles they produce only sharp and corroding liquors as the spirits of Salt Vitriol Alum c. that being joyned to fiery corpuscles they make only Causticks as corrosive sublimat the spirit of Nitre cauteres c. and that being in intimate conjunction with Sulphurous and Oily Particles they only produce sweet mixts as Honey Sugar c. It follows that none but terrestrial corpuscles mingled with them in a proportionable quantity can produce a bitter tast and in effect the more of Earth there is in Salt the bitterer it is and on the contrary the more it is refined and depurated the less bitter it is thus Sea Salt dissolved in a moist Air and afterward filtrated through brown paper has no other tast than of an acid spirit though before that dissolution and filtration it was considerably bitter Now since among the Elements that I have named the acid is heaviest and by consequence the coldest and that though the terrestrial be not so heavy as it nor yet as the liquid yet it is more ponderous than the fiery and ethereal we may say that it is temperat I mean of a quality equally distant from the two extreams and that so being with the acid predominant in a mixt body the mixt must certainly be cooling or at least proper to preserve the just temperament of our body But because there are no bitter things made up solely of acid and terrestrial corpuscles and that there are some wherein either the fiery the ethereal or liquid particles are likewise in a considerable quantity so there are some more or less bitter and even more or less cooling and temperate but if we mind the dryness of Quinquina and yet how unapt it is to take fire it will not be hard to conclude That the three Elements which I have named last enter but in a very small quantity into the composition thereof and that by consequence amongst all bittter mixts none can be of a more temperate quality than it From the Principle which I have now laid down concerning the nature of Quinquina all the other properties thereof may be deduced for seeing its predominant parts are the acids whose property is to coagulate the more substantial liquors such as Blood Milk c. and the terrestrial which by absorbing the humidity and unctuosity that relaxates the solid parts does bind and strengthen them of necessity it must be stiptick and astringent and it is in effect in these two qualities principally that the rarity and wonderfulness of its operation does consist as I have made appear in former observations But it is not to be thought as some have imagined that this property of binding renders it so fixative as to keep within the febrifick