the inward Coat then have I found by strict observation that such a gentle Emeto-cathartick which if it excite not this tender membrane neither by vomit nor stool will carry off any Scoria through the eccentrical parts or urinous Pipes in no wise impairing the strength notably This I pass over lightly intending to speak more expresly in some other place 3. Quaery requires a mechanical demonstration or firm experiment i. e. whether the Doctor or any Philosopher ever saw sulphur sequestred in a living body so entire but that the sulphur judged what it seems by colour consistence odour might not by the tryal of Vulcan afford rather more Salt Water and Earth each of them then sulphur Assuredly so far as I can apprehend it is but equity that as these Chymical principles owing their first discovery to the fire gave occasion to some indirectly to improve and apply them too rashly without serious advertency to the erecting a systeme of Physiology so likewise a thorough Pyrotechnical search may very justly excuse those who are versed therein not to accept of them upon these terms I have as I conceive sufficiently made it good that Pyrotechny can only detect them that no Art of man can extract them out of some bodies that they are equivocal mutable transient one into another Now am I ready to discover in reference to the Cure of miserable man that the pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high feaver doth afford more salt water and earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that diseased bloud termed corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joyned thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the rest At another time I procured the purest bloud I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the sound and that seemingly corrupt which gives testimony that a feaver doth not principally arise from an excess of sulphur Reprobate too much advanced or graduate but rather from some other illegitimate matter as Spurious Salts Lancing Goading â—nd Gauling the most exquisitely sensitive Archeus whereby it becomes Active to lay the plat-form of thâ—s specâ—fick Malady CHAP. VII Concerning the Prevention with the Cure of those Diseases that take up their lodging in the Bloud WE are taught by Divine Writ that in the bloud that Spiritus rubens is Life In the same also is contained death as we find experimentally If it be pure in the fountain free from mixture of a strange matter notable defection apostacy or contagion incessantly circulating in those Labyrinthaean Pipes without impedidiments health vivacity strength of body and mind attends that person If on the contrary it be sordid feculent degenerate from its native goodness pestered with any thing of a Texture different from it sickness dullness melancholly and a disorder in the whole frame follows It ought to be the labour and study of every individual if he have acquired any knowledge of himself to be well veâ—sed in the Prophylactick part of Physick by keeping his bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without staining and foulness by preserving the digestions strong lively especially that of the stomach introductory of good or bad to all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation in all things is a most excellent compass to steer by 'T is not the quality of what we assume as the quantity that is injurious to us For I am of Celsus his mind who advises a healthful man to eat any thing that his stomach can well alter If he commit an errour in eating or drinking a little too much at one time let him use abstinence afterward for the correction of the same I have observed of late years a great proneness in the bloud to be soil'd and conspurcated in an extraordinary manner by reason of a great Scorbutical malignity lurking in the body the Procatartick cause of which may very justly be deduced from our prodigious Lusts our enormous Intemperance in compotations I am easily perswaded that the Venereal Lues at first procreated this spurious Brat whose Heteroclite and discrepant existence from other diseases doth plainly testifie that an anomalous seed arising from the conjunction of two evils differing in specie brought forth this horrid Monster to light being since propagated and traduced from one to another spreading like a Leprosie over the whole Nation by reason of a Clandestine miasm or infection that nestles within whose subtil Aporrhaeas or Emanations diffuse themselves in such contagious manner that most of the Nation are thereby infected It seems to me very dissentaneous to truth what Dr. Willis alleges to be the fomenter of this calamitousevil among us condemning the frequent use of Sugar and his reason is that this matter being put to the proof of the fire a spagyrical Analysis made thereof affords a Liquor but little less corrosive than Aqua fortis as if the ferment of the stomach did dissolve in the same manner as the solution made byart or that such a acid matter were really contained in the Concrete which dâ—stillation produced He shall find the best food we take in if put into a glass set in hot sand will send forth a most nasty empyrematical Liquor shall we therefore refuse such wholsome Aliment withall let him be pleased to take notice that the effects of the fire are Aequivocal various and mutable according as the matter distilled receives such or such an Adjunct for I can by vertue of Vulcans Art make the whole body of the better sort of Sugar adding something to it congenerous or of like kind become excellently medicinal for the Cure of the Scurvy above all the Apothecaries preparations the Doctor makes use of This I can demonstrate moreover I know no reason that a substance so pleasant to the taste of most as it were a sweet Alkali so useful for preservation and mundification of what is foul and prone to corrupt should be rejected guilty of so high a Crime as to promote the Scurvy most infamously For satisfaction of those that are wavering in this thing I dare undertake to keep half a score or more persons drinking liberally every day Beer and Sugar yea eating Sugar with meat plentifully as I knew a Galenical Physician of great renown allow of as very wholsom freer from the Scurvy than any Dogmatist in England shall perform with all his Art exercised on the same number debaring them this delicious congeled salt Under favour of better judgments if I may deliver what I have observed without offence I conceive our Sybaritical voluptuousness ebriety
concurrence of two Sulphurs how different soever 5. The most strong impetuous explosive motion is commonly seen to proceed from nitrous matter exceedingly advanced in its Tonitruous eruption by an Alkali 6. Art can far more easily change a sulphureous or pinguedinous matter into salt than this into that as is visible in common sulphur hence we may take notice of a tendency or propensity in every concrete to arrive to this substance 7. It is very considerable what abundance of salt is daily made in the body of man let the Aliment be never so fresh Witness Urine Tears c. 8. All parts of man put to the fire afford a great quantity of salt especially the Bones and Bloud yea the excrements are full fraught therewith 9. The bloud in Dropsies is colliquated into a salsuginous Ichor 10. Most diseases have their material irritating cause from a saline fretting Liquor 11. The better sort of Remedies are Haliptêtica volatile salts which have great affinity with the vital spirit symbolizing with it being quickly identified with it 12. Spirit of Wine with which the vital spirit â—olds much correspondence is by contact thereof transmuâ—ed into a salurinous like condition loosing its igneity and inflammability which it had before in the same manner as when affused to sal Tartari whatsoever was before sulphureous and combustible in it becomes Tartareous 13. 'T is apparent when any part is benummed through compression hindring the free course of the spirits that upon their return here is a pungitive sense as it were of a multitudâ— of Acicles or small needles which can be attributed to nothing more than to saline particles 14. The Chromatism or various colour of bodies is chiefly attributed to salts simple or intermixt wherefore this deeply red tinged liquor may in all likelihood arise from a copious salt in the bloud whence the spirits emerge Lastly I doubt not to prepare such a Halipneumatical spirit of so nigh kin Concordance as it were Cousin German to the Animal that upon the approach of each other they shall forthwith embrace and be marryed together These foresaid experimental effects with their circumstances being duly weighed any but one very obstinate may be induced comparatis comparandis per Analogismum to grant that this tenuicle expiration of the bloud is of a saline Hypostasis In the next place we are to contemplate the Luminosity of the spirits wherein I shall contract what I could deliver at large chiefly aiming at an Hygiastick end that sickly man may be relielieved For confutation of Dr. Betts his opinion that Light is a corporeal substance I shall refer him to that Learned Philosophical Tract of Helmont De Ortu Forma which I dare aver all the Wits of the Galenists were they concentrated in one are not able to disprove 'T is enough â—f I can at this time instruct the Reader for a practical improvement of his knowledge that the Archeus hath in it a formal or vital Light not igneous 1. 'T is certain there is a Light accensed without fire or heat 2. Sith heat is an inseparable property of a fiery Light where e're this is existent that must needs be apparent Now in fishes there is no actual tangible heat yet do they abound with Luminous spirits as well as creatures living in the air For this we may conclude their Light â—s not fiery 3. Let a fiery light be so modified or regulated that it become tepid or gently warm yet cannot it efficiently produce an essential form all it can do is to excite and put the Architectonical spirit in the seed into action If its Luminoâ—s beams be united it torrefies forcibly alters dâ—ssolves and consumes every Concrete so that now it only deserves the name of a Destroyer not a Genitor or Preserver 4. No sooner was the Heavens and Earth created but the spirit the principal Agent of all things living moved upon the waters the material cause of whatsoever was destinaâ—ed for a being This spirit was not only Luminous but the fountain of Light which in a sort brooding upon this Element made a previous disposition in it for future productions Afterward the igneous Light being created then diffused in an ample manner every way was by the command of the omnipotent gathered together and as it were conglomerated into the Globe of the Sun whose fomenting beams being displayed and darted upon this Terrestrial Orb in their just mediocrity do stir up allure and provoke that splendid spirit succedaneous or Vice-gerent to that Protopneuma wâ—th which all the System of this sublunary world is impregnated to prolification and Reception of forms essential vital and substantial 5. We have no Reason to question otherwise but the Light of the Moon is fontally cold as the Sun is hot That having a Blas or Influence upon Water and Fishes living therein This upon the Air and whatsoever breaths therein so that 't is plain the Photism or Illumination of the spirits of all Animals hath no essential dependance upon the fire but upon a vital formal principle specified and individuated which makes the quiddity of the thing 6. Nothing expresses more visible lustre and lucidity than salt or what is seasoned therewith as is evident in the Sea Bones Glass Precious Stones which may by a Technical Process be reduced totally into Salt Sith then the spirits be saline no better subject can be imagined wherein the vital Phosphorus can better reside Neither is there need of any sulphureous particles to feed it for as much as it is not of a nature like the Culinary fire no longer continuing than it is maintained with something pinguedinous 7. The Clarity Diaphaneity and Lucidity of the spirit is most remarkable in the eye consisting of an Aqueous Vitreous and Christalline humour involved in proper Tunicles which parts being moist and cold are a very unfitting subject to entertain any thing of a fiery Nature 8. If the spirits had any Igneous Light in them the eyes of Cats Owls Bats would illuminate the medium It being proper to fire to send forth bright enlightning beams wheresoever it is if not intercepted But no such Radiant lustre is emitted from them therefore igneity cannot be present 9. Nothing more lively represents Lucidity of the spirits than the Gloworm yet is there nothing of perceptible heat to be found in this Insect Lastly Metalline and mineral sulphurs are not without merit said to be full of Light yea some of them carry the denomination of fire yet are we not to understand this otherwise than in a metaphorical sense For if it were meant a meer literal fire it must either be Intense i. e. Light gathered together Centrally which must of necessity according to its property destroy not preserve or it must be Remiss in its degree i. e. Igneum Calidum a moderate heat then would it exert its vertue only by heating not able to reach to a greater excellency It s active energy depending upon heat principally would quickly
ashes or sand because by the Alterative power of Vulcan they have received this peculiar stamp differing from the quiddity of the thing they were before Helmont affirms an Aqua vitae may be drawn out of any Vegetable that hath not lignofity 〈◊〉 iâ— it then to be taken for a Thefis that Aqua vitae was a Principle of the same after this rate we should multiply principles and of five make fifty and perhaps more if when ever we see some notable Product from the fire we should presently conclude that it is Ens primum principians If the Concrete had in it those many things that are made of it Chyle bloud flesh bones and other parts should then be materially contained in the grass to which these substances do owe their first original The same water also that nourisheth sundry Plants of a different kind should harbour in it so many sorts of specifick juices fitting for the nourishment and accretion of each distinct Vegetable But this is ridiculous to conceive sith we cannot but know that the seminal ferments of every thing maketh a transmutation of what it taketh in and by vertue of them alters appropriates and brings into an Identity with it self that which before was remote of another kind and moving in another sphear This formal transmutation is frequently practiced by Nature the Rain first exhaled from infinite number of bodies carryed up into the middle Region where the seed of every thing is mortifyed is there converted into water which being ingravidated with celestial vertues is by their influence forced to descend upon the Earth in whose matrice it acquires a prolifick ferment to which a Plastick-spirit is forthwith invited to take up its lodging being also excited to frame an Idaea of that Vegetable Ens which it intends to produce so falling to work and pourtraying the figure of the whole from an invisible principle it becomes by degrees manifest bringing to perfection at length every part of the Plant that was before limmed in its imagination This being devoured by a Sheep or Ox is altered by the specifick ferment of the stomach changing it into an acid Chyle or creamy juice that passing into the Guts becomes saline by vertue of that viscus vitale the Gaul The purer part of this juice receiving now a previous disposition for separation is sucked up by those vessels they call Milky which convey it into the veins where intermingled with the ruddy Liquor it is called Cruor afterward being circulated some considerable time it 's made by the fermenting efficacy of the bloud and bowels fit for nutrition accretion and generation This Beast feeding constantly upon this vegetable is at lenght impinguated and made food for man who eating thereof transmutes this flesh into Chyle Chyme and Cruor at length having passed through the first Kitchin and five several fermental operations it is identifyed and individuated with the substantial flesh of man This man is devoured by a Shark or the like fish and passes through all that formal Metamorphôsis which this fish makes in those several places of Cookery and digestion at last from mans flesh it attains to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fish It happens afterward that this Water creature is taken and eaten by man so by the Protean force of the instruments of life it retires motu retrogrado into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mans flesh again Behold what a versatile Scene of Alterations is here represented to our eyes arising first from simple water which entering upon the stage of the Earth starts up shewing it self in diverse shapes according as the coercive seminal ferments attire it In this case sure no Philosopher in his right wits will affirm that there is so many principles couched in the Water as there are formal Transmutations of things arising from the same He will rather forthwith understand optically having made some serious Analysis of Bodies and observed a tendency in them to their prme initiation Water that Heterogeneities and distinct Phaenomena of substances in the Plant Brute Man and Fish and Man again are but the fruits of topical and acquired ferments actuated by a seminal Archeus that Water also is the first foundation on which the manifold stories of so many Entia discrepating in form are raised which being ruinated return into the same again I could enlarge my self on this subject according to the various Experiments and Instances I have seen but I must contract studying conciseness in whatsoever I deliver 3. The inconstancy and vicissitude of these supposed principles powerfully refute them to be what he would have them for according to Aristole Initia debent esse stabilia whatsoever are properly denominated principles are to remain constant and no ways alterable one into another now the contrary is found in these forasmuch as they may by Art which I am sure I can perform be mutually converted one into another as Sulphur into Salt salt into spirit spirit into water again spirit into salt salt into sulphur and sulphur into Water and Earth Sith then there is such lubricity such a mâ—mentany existence in them that they are in a short time coincident one into the other how can they lay a solid Basis for any Concrete so as to be principles thereof considering they are so totering unstable â—nd fluxile themselves Besides let Dr. Willis use the best skill he can in extracting by fire any four for Water I except looking upon it as the first last solid real and only material original of all things of his Quinta Initia making either of them as pure as possible his Art will permit then let him deliver any of them into my hands and I shall plainly shew him by means of Vulcan his errour that what he thought was simple is compounded of one or more of the rest If this here delivered be true as I question not to prove it by Reason Authority and Practice then must the Doctor be forced to â—nravel that câ—rioâ—s texture of this specious Qâ—inary Doctrine and to find out a more sure Warpe that will hold out for the making of a more firm Woof of Physiology Did not these Traditions prove noxious and pernicious to mans life in that the ground-work of pathology is laid upon these Quinta prima to which he attributes the Efficient and Material causes of all Diseases I should not be much sollicitous to refell his Opinions in this kind Whereas the Being of man stands continually in jeopardy to be destroyed by these indirect positions I cannot in conscience suffer the ill effects thereof to pass without animadversion 'T is certainly true and subscribed to by the hands of the best Philosophers that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enormon of Hipp. that vital air innate and inflâ—ous the chief and immediate Organ of the soul is the principal corporeal wheel that first moves all that are subordinate to it in this admirable machine of mans body 'T is this that in the beginning laid the
most uncapable of it where great quantity of moisture much abounds or if it be really present as is here asserted that it doth not quickly destroy that body where it harbours for fire being an anomalous Ens neither substance nor an accident created for the special use of man is always of a voracious nature and is never seen but in some fit subject which it either quickly alters or consumes Were there any thing of fire in mans composition it would either be quickly extinguished or the frame of that body soon consumed Neither is it enough to mitigate this Hypothesis to alledge that the purer part of the bloud spirits are of an igneous nature though not formally fire or flame This is but to puzzle wilder our understanding to make us more to seek what the spirits are for if they be fiery they must needs have in them that which agrees with the properties of fire as to burn consume inflame separate otherwise the Epithete is very ill appropriated thereto now according to our Philosopher Non verus censetur ignis qui non summo gradu ferveat connexiis Radiis in Cono Luminis centraliter haereat i. e. that can never be reputed real fire which is not hot in the highest degree inhering centrally in the beams conjoyned in the cone of Light whether there be any such graduated heat in mans body let any judge by his sense of feeling Who ever felt any thing of fire in the healthful bloud of any animal dissected alive Are not the bloud of fishes actually cold yet are they full of spirits as appears by their strength pernicity and extraordinary digestion Certainly were there any fiery heat in our bodies it would be most pespicuous in that place where it might be most requisite the first digestion which our Peripatetick would have performed by it as an efficient cause I wonder any one dare obtrude such absurd Tenents upon this nice circumspect age contrary to all sense and reason Great gobbits of hard substances even stones are dissolved in some mens stomachs bones in dogs Glass Stones Iron in winged creatures whole fishes devoured and digested by others The Shark can bring to a Chale by a specifâ—ck ferment the leg of a Man or Horse sooner than the culinary fire can calcine it yet are not the stomach of any of these tangibly a little more than luke-warm and some actually cold Will any vertuous person experimentous subscribe that a Chimaerical heat of a fiery nature I know not where nor what no way truly discoverable can produce this rare vital Analytical effects Moreover fire can but heat rarefie condense and disgregate sending packing the thinner part the grosser remaining behind but it can never make a seminal formal transmutation of a thing which only belongs to fermental operations excited by an accidental heat but never intrinsecally fabricated thereby as our Peripatetick undertakes to indigitate making light to pass over the mystery of fermentation sicco pede as if it consisted in nothing else but a certain Rarefaction from heat chiefly fire that being a bare quality never subsisting alone in no wise capable of it self to produce a substance that a Heteroclite creature destinated to destroy not to generate for as much as it certainly mortifies all seeds wherefore the Nativity of the vital spirits can never be from heat efficiently subtiliating a pinguedinous matter from which results an unctuous fuliginous spirit for that is the utmost solitary heat can bring forth according to any mechanical trial which our humorist calls a mixt thing of a fiery nature continually maintained by this oleaceous like substance as the flame of a Candle by the attenuated particles of Wax or Tallow Those Allusions Comparisons Analogies and Metaphors which are cited to give Light to the abstruse operations of nature to the end that we may be more edified meliorated in the Therapeutical Science suppose they still keep their distance not invading the priviledge of vital Ergasie whose secret working is not to be every way matched or demonstrated by any sublunary thing whatsoever inanimate I am very well pleased and affected with but when the shadow shall stand in competition with the substance as of equal validity with it the similie or Representation presume an univocal equality in every respect with the thing represented and that to the detriment if not the subversion of the Life and Soul of man in reference to the Curative part of Physick Such metaphorical expressions comparisons c. I justly abominate and detest What truculent mischiefs come upon this and such like erroneous principles of Dr. Betts is sufficiently known to those whose Physical speculations are sincerely regulated by the Canon of solid and Authentick experiments in practice For according to this Doctrine of heat as a principal Agent of all actions in the body and the igneity of the spirits the Galenists curiously insist upon the impertinent and Treacherous qualities of Calidity and Frigidity of Medicines for the Cure of most atrocious diseases neglecting the seminal formal specifick luminous and spirituous vertues of effectual Remedies That the essential structure of the vital spirit may be more clearly understood for the sanative benefit of mankind I shall borrow our Great Philosophers definition pag. 443. de Aura vit Est spiritus vitalis sanguis per vim fermenti motus cordis resolutus in Auram salsam illuminatam vitaliter i. e. the vital spirit is pure bloud relented or broken by the power of a ferment and motion of the heart into a thin airy salt substance endued with vital light The material cause is pure Homogeneous bloud part whereof is changed by the efficient power of a ferment and vigorous motion of the heart into a substance as subtil as the clearest air of a saline nature not pinguedinous where it becomes capable of luminous not igneous vitality which light in man and other Terrestrial creatures effectively is hot but in fishes actually cold I must wave for brevity sake to make a strict comment upon this definition and shall only at this time endeavour to prove that the vital spirits are saline luminous without unctuosity or igneity 1. Whatsoever concrete is disposed to be spiritualized ought according Pyrotomy to contain saline parts 2. That matter which contains parts most salsugâ—nous far beyond any pinguedinous is in all Reason more inclinable to be converted into saline exhalations such is the bloud 3. It is observed the incessant work and grand design of Nature is to produce abundance of salt in the macrocosm as appears by the copious Niter in the Air and the notable brinishness in the Sea being therefore called Salum Wherefore we may very well argue the same to be acted in the microcosm 4. 'T is mechanically demonstrable two saline Liquors of a different kind being mixt with each other doth forthwith raise a spumous ebullition ejaculating a Gas or wild spirit incoercible which like motion is not observed in the tangible
Liquors as Wine the spirit of Mault or any other vegetable than by gross lazie rude blunt provisions of the Kitchin Lastly I have sometimes considered of how great a Deception some Culinary Doctors are guilty in prohibiting their Patients infested with the Stone Gout Scurvy Tissick and other maladies the lawful use of common Salt the most necessary commodious creature next the Sun for the welfare of mans life Now the reason they give for this prohibition is as they often dictate to the sick that it engenders salt humours encreasing the saline matter of diseases I confess I cannot altogether exempt Table salt from some little inconvenience which most things are liable to yet if the great benefit thereof be comparatively weighed with the damage that doth far transcend this For it is a great preserver against corruption most grateful to the stomach which it corroborates exciting an appetite It attenuates cleanses dissolves mucilaginous excrements being a great enemy to worms yea as Helmont notes pag. 20. de Lithi eaten in large quantity it hinders the coagulation of the Stone destroying it while it is in the Egg. Hippocrates commended it in his time as a powerful Antidote against the Plague Let none therefore fear to eat salt freely with their fresh meat nor any food well corned only forbearing if they can ship flesh or fish whose best alible juice is consumed by long excessive Conditure the more volatile parts of the Salt being exhaled or become fixed for some part thereof is made urinous the rest being discharged by the Intestines or Kidneys with profit to the health Sith also sugar is reckoned to be a kind of sweet salt I advise any one according to sound experience Scorbutical or vexed with a long emaciating infirmity notwithstanding Dr. Willis prejudice against it from the delusion of the fire to take if his stomach bear not an innate Odium to it plentifully thereof morning and between meals dissolved in a proper Liquor as stale Beer white wine c. with a small portion of Ale added the worser sort of which is much corrected by Sugar A short Discovery of the Nature of that malignant calamity the Griping of the Guts I Am constrained to pity distressed man when I contemplate how his poor skin is daily sacrificed to the Jaws of death through the transverse method and medicines of those who though they see their endeavours usually frustrated yet like a blind horse in a Mill they will by no perswasions leave their ill wonted Tract of Practice It is obvions to any circumspect observer that our corporal infirmities as well as our mental vices are at this day exceedingly multiplyed and magnified in such sort that Physicians are startled to see them so insulting and raging such innovations of truculent terrible symptoms accompanying them yet for all this very few labour to acquire applicate and appropriate Remedies proportionable to the grandity of our evils Nay rather they who attempt so noble a design are discouraged being looked upon as so many Hereticks in Physick There hath of late among other upstart feral Plagues appeared upon the Stage of this little World a strange Heteroclite Monster called the Scurvy acting its part continually in divers shapes counterfeiting the guise of all or most other diseases Sometimes it consumes by little and little as it were grating and crumbling one into the Grave then again it rends distracts separates the union of body and soul in a very short space suddenly puffing out the Lamp of life Now it seems to be Couchant then Rampant so alternately Acute and Chronick Among multitude of Phaenomena or appearances of this grievous calamity there is none at this day more eminently Atrocious than this termed the Griping of the Guts which although it passeth among the vulgar for a substantial Disease yet is it in reality only a Product Concomitant Accident fruit or effect of a Scorbutical virulent Root which must be struck at if any good be done to a purpose I plainly perceived the Scurvy long before the late most fierce Pest brake forth did gradually get strength spreading it self in an extrordinary contagious form insomuch as it arrived according to my prediction to a high pitch of venenosity making havock of thousands This out-ragious Tragedy being passed over it returned in Statum quo prius as it was before still harbouring an occult poison which works in a Clandestine slow furtive mode to the insensible undermining and depredation of the vitals till upon an extimulating contingent it takes advantage making an assault or irruption unawares upon the principal part the stomach whose ferment was before debilitated as likewise its long Appendix the Intestines which it lancinates convels and cruciates colliquating the nutricious juices turning them into an acid fretting vexatious Ichor bringing a damp upon the spirits and if not timely revoked totally extinguishing them The excretions or evacuations of some are very large to twenty thirty forty fifty yea an hundred stools with wringing Gripes usually yea oftentimes with intollerable racking Convulsive pains One hath only a flux down-ward another throws off both ways by vomit and dejection These Torminous Griping pains have several other signs and symptoms accompanying them as a feaver manifest or hidden Vertigo or Giddiness Cephalalgie great pains of the head a Sopor or drowsiness tedious watching phrensie or alienation from right reason lassitude notable weakness of the limbs difficult breathing a pulse commonly weak inordinate a palpitation or trembling at the heart Lypothimie fainting away oftentimes great drought soarness of the Throat rough dry Tongue pains about the sides Haemorrhagies fluxes of bloud Cardiogmus heart-burning oppression at the stomach a nauseousness or loathing of every thing yexing unsufferable torment in the loins spots lying deep in the flesh hardly to be discerned urine for the most part like one in health sometimes thick and troubled The irritating or provoking cause of these torminous wringing passions is a very sharp fretful Cruor Ichor or Sanies generated by a seminal fermental poison concentrated about the Duumvirate which puts the Archeus into a great indignation whereupon it makes in some places a colliquation or tabefaction in other a coagulation of the wholsome juices The fore-going causes are many as Air Diet Contagion hereditary disposition c. which any one ingenious may according to his own intelligible capacity examine how this calamity is like to terminate or what will be the event thereof a judicious Prognostication grounded upon Philosophical Remedies can best inform for 't is impossible a Galenist should be Critical as he ought If there be a great malignity virulency and extream pravity in the Scorbutick Gripings so that it becomes graduated a feaver with other bad symptoms as Lypothymie great pain in the head yexing convulsion c. joyned thereto such an one must needs miscarry unless the venomous matter be transmitted by vigour of the Archeus to the skin in form of madefying large Sweats or more gentle Breathings with