Quartan Ague and the Dropsie in both which the peculiar natural ferment of the blood is much vitiated in the first of which the blood losing its native balsamick sweetness becomes acid and pontick even in an high measure thence the great difficulty of its redintegration to its former eucrasia in the latter the blood becomes too much diluted drowning its rubicund balsamick tincture in a watery deluge having the latex regurgitated in too great a proportion into the vessels of the blood or other receptacles from an obstruction in the veins which should if well disposed separate from the blood an urinous latex and by other more abbreviate passages betwixt the stomach and it a great deal of the potulent parts taken in but being obstructed makes both regurgitate the one into the vessels of the blood thereby vitiating its ferment by too great a dilution which in the habit of the body causeth an Anasarcosis and the other in the cavities of the abdomen between the omentum and peritoncum swelling the belly causeth the Hydrops which with a flatus extending the membranous parts begets a Tympany 29. But if this spurious acidity reach the fourth digestion where the animal spirits are fabricated and there afflict the genus nervosum it causeth by vitiating the ferment scorbutick Palsies Apoplexies Spasms Convulsions and Cephalalgia's which prove inveterate and sometimes Epilepsies yet commonly this hostile acidity as solitary is not sufficient to beget these scorbutick Apoplexies Palsies and Epilepsies but also hath quid cadaverosum spirituale and therefore virosum some spirituous putrid and therefore poysonous matter to accompany it By which I mean such a portion of the nutritious juyce as not having received due fermentations in the several digestions but become more and more vitiated and putrid and being circulated from one digestion to another grows more putrid and penetrative and in continuance of time becomes so spirituous as to be able to insinuate into the more retired recesses of the vital principles for being by these rotations volatiz'd hath more easie ingress into the inward retirements of the vital and animal functions so that it becomes gradually exalted to a kind of virulency which joyning issue with this transmitted spurious acidity insidiantur vitae sits upon the skirts of life betrays it into the hands of these truculent Diseases Hence it is that the Palsie or Apoplexie prove suddainly mortal if not at the first yet commonly at the second or third paroxysm and from the same basis ariseth the causes of other kinds of suddain deaths for when this depraved circulated matter hath reached so far and be wheeled so often as to acquire a virulency or cadaverousness it then takes an occasion by the next exorbitancy of the digestions joyns hands with it and conspires the extinction of the vital flame 30. This fourth digestion as I conceive begins in the arteries and is complete in the nerves for when the alimentary juyce being dasht with blood in the vena cava receives a vital ferment in the heart and becomes elaborate in the tunicles thereof into a rubicund balsamick liquor which by the perspiration of the lungs in the bloods passage thorough the vena arteriosa and arteria venosa receives a volatizing ferment from the air conducing much to its circulation is thence by the systole of the left ventricle carryed into the aorta and other arteries where the blood begins to be further elaborated for the producing of spirits which may be subservient for the animal functions of sense and motion where from the continual elixation of the blood in these vessels it begins to sublime or distil into more pure refined spirits which pass directly into their proper Receivers or Conduits the Nerves to complete their digestion and absolve their function of sense and motion for as much as every Arterie hath a vein and a nerve annexed to it the one to carry away these volatile spirits the other to bring back the blood after it hath been exhausted of these spirits and spent its other balsamick parts in nutrition in the habit of the body to recive a fresh impregnation by the vital ferment in the heart again in its return out of the solid parts by capillary veins into larger vessels untill it come to the vena cava it meets with fresh nutritive juyce coming from the jugular and thoracical vessels which thence pass along together into the heart to become freshly replenisht with the vital balsam 31. So that these animal spirits are made in every part of the body while the arterial blood is fraught with a vital ferment out of which the Archeus by a further volatization hews forth these spirits here the hermetical adage is most true id quod inferius est sicut id quod superius vice versâ for the vital agents if not interrupted are alwaies and in every part at work nunquam feriatur uatura therefore sensation and motion are alwaies and in every part except some interrupting cause break the links of this noble chain 32. Now any disturbance in this digestion such as by a conflux of the foresaid spurious hostile acidity cadaverous virulency c. may confound and so blunder the texture of these spirits as thence all the various exorbitances and different anomalous products with all the heteroclite symptomes of the genus nervosum are reducible which I shall not now take the time further to illustrate But pass on 33. This exotick acidity coagulating the blood in the Matrix in women is the author of most of their uterine infirmities for in women who are not with child or give not suck if all be well with them the blood attempts to make a lunar evacuation which it doth by separating a portion thereof at the critical season into the vessels of the Womb which according to the intent of nature is for the nourishing of the Foetus after conception being a precursory provision for that end if no conception be as in Maids Widows c. then nature endevevours to separate and carry away that superfluous blood by vessels fitted for that purpose where it receives a fetid menstrual virulent ferment which gives the uncleaness not to say more to that evacuation 34. Now when the superfluous blood is proscribed into the remote vessels ready to be expel'd is there robb'd of the vital balsam its Crasis perverted and becomes infected with an acid virulent alumenish tincture Nam lintcum menstruo tinctum ut Helmontius loquitur si demergatur in aquam bullientem maculam contrahit inposterum indelibilem quae tertiâ saltem elotione excidit è linteo foraminato non secus ac si spiritu sulphuris acido aut tincturâ aluminosa corrosum foret which depraved virulent acidity is not transmitted from other digestions but is innate and connatural to the place like the stercorary ferment to the cacum and rectum of the Guts 35. If this virulent aerimony with which the separated menstrual blood is vitiated becomes
come in places pregnant with a petrefying seed become congealed into a stone from which lapidifying Juyce all Stones whether Rocks Quarryes Marcasites or what Stones soever within or upon the surface of the earth had their concretion originally Hence is the reason why some Animals are found inclosed in some Stones or other Mineral concretions as for instance that a Toad should be found alive in the midst of a Stone or that a Spider or other Insect should be found in a peice of Amber It is I say because these Animals are there whilst these Stony or other Mineral Concretions are in Succo for Amber is of late found to be a Mineral and no product of the Sea as it was usually suppos'd There is lately a Mine thereof found in Germany which brings in a great profit to the Duke of Brandenburg It consists chiefly of a sulphur and a Salt as we find by the distillation and rectification thereof Now all Minerals are or have been at some time or other in suis Principiis in their first Succulencies in which at the time of Concretion if any other thing happen to be there it 's wrap't up together with it which keeping the inclosed bodies from the air and consequently from any Analytical putridness are as a constant defensive Balsam preserving them perpetually from corruption All Mineral Seed is invisible and to make themselves visible according to the appointment of God in nature having got sutable Matrixes begin by a Subterraneal heat peculiar to the place to work upon the Element of water which it impregnates and transmutes into a Mineral Juice in which Juyce the Seed begins to work it self into a Mineral Mercury and Sulphur and in some places into a Mineral Salt Now according to the purity or impurity Volatility or fixity of the Sulphur so becomes the Mineral more or less pure retaining a Specifical difference from the first Ens of the Seed Amongst which some have their Mercurial parts stained with a malignant Arsenical Sulphur viz. Realgar auripigmentum Antimony c. but if the Sulphur be so strong as in its union with the Mercury it rejects the most Heterogeneities which usually in Mineral productions adhere thereto then doth this combination of the Sulphur and Mercury arise to a Metalline Compages For The first specification of the Mineral Spermatick Mercury is into Quicksilver or Metalline Mercury the next coagulation of Mercury after the rejection of some Heterogeneal Sordes by Sulphur is Saturnine where the Mineral Seed first puts on a Metalline form which is called Saturn or Lead whose Mineral is Antimony when or where this Sulphur becomes more depurated it coagulates the Metalline Mercury into Jupiter or Tinn But if the sulphur attain a Solar tincture and yet retain many permiscible Heterogeneities it coagulates the Metalline Mercury into Mars or Iron If this Sulphur in its Solar tincture receive a depuration of some of the aforesaid Heterogeneities it coagulates into Venus or Copper which comes nigh in tincture but is farr short in Pondus of Sol or Gold for as Basil ius Valentinus saith that in Mars and Venus lodge Solar tinctures which graduated by Nature or Art are deducible into Sol and that because the soul or seed of Sol is found therein and not onely in them but in their Minerals where they are nearer to their Primum ens in which also by the way doth lodge the Sulphur Philosophorum But if this Sulphur be so far graduated as that there is a through-separation of all Heterogeneities and that the Sulphur hath almost inseparably united it Self with the Mercury then they are coagulated into Luna or Silver which though it come short both in Tincture and Pondus of Sol yet because there is a total separation of Heterogeneities it lies in the direct road by further maturation to both and thereby to become Sol it self which is Apex Metallorum the prefectest of Metals whose Sulphur and Mercury are inseperably united and by maturation graduated in tincture and pondus to this unary perfection of the best of Metals Thus we see how Water the primary Element by the spermatick efflorescence of a Mineral Seed becomes wrought into a Mineral Juyce and that by a peculiar fermentation is turned into a Mercury and Sulphur and those again by maturating or ripening each other according to the degrees of the purity of the Sulphur rejection of Heterogeneities and union together become transmuted or rather exalted into metalline Bodies where at length water by the concentration of the metalline Seed puts on the Pondus and tincture of Metals As the Seeds of Minerals are invisible so likewise are the Seeds of Vegetables and Animals as for Vegetables indeed the grain or husk which is improperly called Seed we see but the prolifique part thereof which is truely the Seed cannot be discerned by the most acurate artificially contriv'd Mieroscropes being as the Cosmopolite saith his manner of computation I know not but the 820th part of the visible grain however they are so minute as not to fall under the sense of our Opticks though helped with the best contriv'd glasses and although some plants are propagable otherwise then by Seed I mean then by the husk where usually the Seed works as Rosemary Mint Sage c. whose tops or slips set in the ground take from whence they grow and increase yet in such as also in the Scions Imps and Grafts of fruit Trees the seed or prolifique part is dispersed almost though the whole body of the Plants and Trees whose manner of assuming a body from the leffas terrae and of that from the Element of Water I have already described And as I have shewed the progress of Vegetable and Mineral Seed from Water into all the visible clothings of their bodies so now I would observe to my self how the Animal Seed works upon that which originally is Water and from that doth shape it self according to the appointment of God into a body consisting of Blood Flesh Bones Sinews Nerves Arteryes Head Stomach Heart Spleen c. First then the Sperme it self is nothing else originally but Water altered by the several Ferments of the body and circulated in the Seminal vesels till it becomes impregnate with an efflorescence of the whole body which indeed is the Seed or prolifique part thereof for the Sperm is onely the receptacle or vehicle of that Seed Now when the efflorescence becomes maturated For a Child Chicken c. whilst such are not capable of prapagating their like and that the Spermatick liquor is throughly digested in the vessels adapted for that purpose then begins that Titillatio that sixth sense according to Scaliger or Prurigo Venerea by which being conveighed into a proper capacitated Matrix the efflorescence of the Masculine Seed doth impregnate or breath upon for I know not how better to express it then by a kind of occult breathing the Female passive Seed which is a Juyce preparable from all the Ferments
Earth up to the Clouds and from thence down again to the Earth but that the moysture in the Air should be reputed Air transmuted into Water viz That which falls upon stone-walls in moyst seasons is so absurd as it 's enough to confute it to name it So that we may conclude that the moysture in the Air which settles it self upon the Walls and floors of Stone-buildings neither is nor ever was Air and that the transmutability of Air into Water in the bowels of the Earth is impossible and lastly that Springs viz. the fontes perennes have not their Original from Rain and Snow 36. Thus I have run through the most considerable things which the Doctor offers in order to the confirming his opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Quick-springs and all along I think have probably if not demonstratively overturn'd his Opinion together with the grounds arguments and reasons thereof I might I confess multiply more words in prosecuting at large his whole discourse but studying brevity I have couch'd all he hath to say that is any way pertinent to his purpose saving the story he relates out of Dr. Heylin concerning the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea which without reflection on that worthy Author who as well as other Historians may probably take many things upon trust which I say as to the verity of matter of fact I should very much scruple viz. That a drought should continue so long as thirty six years so as all the Springs Torrents or Rivers were dried up and that in the dayes of Constantine the Great It 's very probable he had it by Tradition which many times to wing Fame makes large plumes That an Island so near the Mediterranean Sea should want rain for 36 years together would certainly put an ordinary credulity upon the Tenter-hooks and stretch a Thomas beyond his ordinary pitch for of all places Islands are the most frequented with Showers And that it should be done designedly by God upon a miraculous divine account I do not well understand because that has its ends and aims for the punishing the Natives where judgements are brought forth which done they frequently cease but here according to the story they were forc'd to forsake the Island and to seek for new habitations so that probably it may pass for a drought in Utopia 37. And lastly the two Rarities he mentions that are to be found upon the Castle-Hill in Scarborough viz. the deep Well which reacheth to the bottom of the rock which hath no water and the spring-Well which is within half a yard of the edge of the rock towards the Sea which never wants water which he saith doth somewhat illustrate the point in hand The first of which seems to me onely to be a Well digg'd within whose compass no Chanels have happened and therefore it is dry for so narrow a compass as a Well is may sometimes happen to miss of subterraneal Chanels And as for the other which is so neer the edge of the Rock towards the Sea which never wants Water I look upon it as supply'd from the same cause that other digg'd restagnant Wells are viz. from Land-springs which are feed from Rain or Snow-Water which yet makes nothing in reality towards the confirming his Thesis for it is no current Spring to the best of my remembrance which yet suppose it were it will not be uneasy to conceive the manner and way of its supply when I have propounded what I have to say in order to the establishing a new Thesis which will be positive to the point in hand 38. And that is as I hinted before from a circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels along the Sabulum bulliens from Sea to Sea yea and from the Sea to the Heads of Springs and from them into Rivulets and those into Rivers and thence into the Ocean and so circulates round which also includes an other circle of Rain and Snow which first arising by exhalation from the Sea and Earth is carryed down again upon the Earth and Sea joyning Issue with rivulets from Springs swell Rivers which again discharge themselves into the Sea 39. So that a Circulation of water is as justly requisite according to the order and appointment of the primitive Cause for the upholding the Symmetry of parts and intirenes of the whole terraqueous Globe as the Cirulation of blood is necessary for the preservation of life and vital functions in the Microcosme or body of man The earth can no more produce Vegetables or Minerals without this connatural circulation of water replenish'd with Celestial influences than the blood in the body of man can produce Vital or Animal Spirits requisite for absolving the functions of life without its inbred circulation which concatenation of parts in the circulation thereof gave cause to some Philosophers of old to call the world a great Animal either because that animarum omnia plena viz. that the Seeds of all things are at hand and at the beck of the primitive Fiat alwayes at work or because of the great Symmetry of parts or coordinate circulations of the constituent Particles of the World whose proportions were so exact and actions upon each other in the circle of nature so uniform as if actuated by some Panspermion or universal operative Spirit Spiritus intus alit totumque infusa per orbem mens agitat molem 40. Not to say how Analogous the Sea and Hydrophylacia those great Cisterns of Water and Springs of the Deep that in Noah's Food joyn'd Issue with the Cataracts of Haven for drowning the World are to the heart of the Microcosme nor how Analogous the Channels of the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens which cary the Waters into the uttermost circle of the Earth for the supply of Mineral Glebes Minerals themselves and Vegetables upon the Green Carpet thereof are to the Arteries in the body of man by which the blood circulates from the Heart for the nourishment of the whole nor yet to determine the analogy of these circulating Waters further drawn up by Solar exhalations which clime up the slender Threds of Aereal Syphons into the Capitol of the Air to be impregnate there with Coelestial influences or Animal spirits if I may so call them which cohobated upon their own body promote vegetation yea and animation too by becoming that cibus occultus in aere of which the Cosmopolite and other Hermetical Philosophers discourse at large I say not to determine the Analogy of these Waters replenish'd in their circuit with Heavenly influences with those Animal spirits in the little World Man which in the Head receive a determination for obsolving the functions of sense and motion 41. Nor lastly to determine thoroughly the Analogy of water whilst circulating in the bowels of the Earth along the Channels of the Sabulum to the blood whilst circulating in the Veins and Arâ—â—ries of the humane body though
attenuating of Ayr by heat in an inverted oval glass the water seems to be drawn up by a kind of Suction as some would have it or to prevent a Vacuum as others think but most probably if not demonstratively it ascends gradually and sensibly for this cause viz That when the Ayr in the glass which before by heat was attenuated is either by cold reduced into its pristine form or having as so thinn'd but a languid pressure is therefore by a more strong Elastick force of Ayr upon the surface of the water forc'd up till it come to such a height as the pressure of Ayr within and that without the glass are brought to an Aequilibrium or equal poysure I mean till the springy power of the Ayr within and without the glass be of an equal force and there it stands till the springy power of the Ayr within the glass by heat becomes dilated and then it forceth down the water in the Tube and makes the water in the Viol rise higher proportionable to the degree of the attenuation of the Ayr. 57. That the Ayr receives a considerable alteration by heat is further confirm'd by the experiment of inverting a glass Cucurbit over a Candle fastened with tallow upon the bottom of a glass or earthen Bason wherein water is first poured to the height of two or three fingers breadths where the heat of the Candle doth so weaken the spring of the Ayr within the Glass that it wanting the help of the circulating Ayr always requisite to the perpetuating the motion of bodyes which is intercepted by the body of water that in stead thereof the Water it self circulates being forc'd thereto by the spring of the Air that presseth upon it from without and therefore it riseth up to a great height of the glass-body as I have sometime seen upon tryal thereof and puts out the Candle which Experiment seems somewhat to contradict the former of a Weather-glass though in reality it doth not for although there heat makes it descend but here it makes it ascend yet if we consider that in that of the Weather-glass the Air in it is first thinn'd by heat before the glass be put into water and therefore when it 's condensed by cold it draws up the water or rather the water is forced by the outward Spring of the Air and follows it to an Aequilibrium but in this last Experiment the glass is inverted into water without any previous alteration of the Air therein which being to supply the motion of a body viz. the burning of the Candle doth it for a while but wanting a fresh supply from other Air without to promote the Circulation thereof always necessary for the motion of bodies the want thereof makes the strong spring of the Air upon the surface of the water to force up the water it self into the glass-body From which Experiments result these following Corollaries viz. First That a Circulation of Air is requisite for the motion of all bodies the Candle in the glass we see extinguisheth for want thereof by forcing up the water in lieu of Air. Secondly That Air may be attenuated by the heat of the Sun whereby the same portion of Air may be made to extend it self over a larger space witness the heating the glass in the first of the two last Experiments Thirdly That this Air thus attenuated and extended by the heat of the Sun is the reason why culinary fire dies or goes out when the Beams of the Sun are cast upon it because they thin the Air and the Air is the natural Bellows of Fire which Fire burns according to the intenseness or remisness of the Air. Fourthly That the Air thus thinn'd makes way for water to ascend up the small veins thereof which are like so many slender Syphons by which it mounts from Earth Waters and Seas up into the Clouds for the supply of Rain and Snow which Syphons in droughty hot weather are mostwhat at work carrying it upward whereas in moist weather the water descends by the same Syphons and moisten the Ground with Dew and Walls or Floors of Stone-buildings in wet Seasons so that the reputed Exhalations of moisture by the Sun for the supply of Rain is no other than this gradual steaming up of slender Syphons whereby water mounts insensibly the uppermost part of the Atmosphere Fifthly That in great heat of weather many Diseases happen through the thinness of the Air for the Air in the Lungs is the Bellows of the vital Fire in the Heart which if it become attenuated either through a general heat in the Air whence ariseth frequently some Epidemical Disease or through the obstructions of the Lungs themselves whereby the Air for want of foundness of Organs becomes thinn'd before it come to volatize the Blood in its current from the right to the left Ventricle of the Heart causeth Faintings Lassitudes Candialgia's Asthma's Deliquiums and in Women Swoonings Palpitations rousing up the Spleen and Mother c. yea in fine makes the Lamp of Life burn dark and dimly whereas the Air by cold being reduc'd to its pristine form and the Lungs freed from obstructions quickens the vital Ferment sharpens the appetite makes the vital Fire burn clearly and makes evident that the Ferments of the several Digestions are vital for in cold weather we find our appetites more acuated our Ferments more vigorous and the Digestions more powerful But I will not though I might here further enlarge to shew how the Air in a due order contributes to the invigorating the Ferments and how much it conduceth in the change thereof towards the curing Diseases But I proceed Sixthly And which chiefly concerns our present purpose assert That the heat of the Sun contributes by thinning the Air towards the circulation of water from Seas to Springs and from water upon the earth to Clouds For the Sun whilst he is suppose in the Northern Signs especially towards the Tropick of Cancer casts his rays pretty powerfully upon those Places which are within the oblique position of the Sphere though not perpendicularly as it happens to those Places situated under the right position of the Sphere where the Aequator cuts the Horizon at right Angles whilst he is I say in the Northern Signs by his heat he thins the Air of those Regions especially as those Places fall under the Meridians as some Places must alwaies do the Sun in his supposed Diurnal Circuit making Twenty four Meridians the Air under these Meridians especially in those places where the Sun is or inclines to be Vertical being attenuated makes the Air circulate the more strongly towards the other Quadrants of the Terraqueous Globe causing there a stronger pressure upon the Surface of the Seas and this must be constantly done because the Sun really or apparently is alwayes in motion about the Earth who in his Circuit thins the Air of those Places which lie most directly under his Beams and so makes the Air as
by a retrograde motion revulsed into the veins or arteries where the vivid balsamick blood circulates which is done sometimes by unseasonable cold contracted at the crisis of evacuation or by too much blood spent in venesection or by symptomatical enragements of that furibund animal the Matrix or by what other cause soever is I say the effectful cause of direful Diseases proper to that soft sex viz. Syncop's Palpitations Convulsions and horrible strangulations 36. For this exotick revuls'd virulency assaulting the blood and vital spirits therein begins to ferment strongly smites the heart or at least those balsamick spirits which received vitality from the heart thence immediately Swoonings whereby for a time happens a suspension of the vital offices the pulse ceaseth or is weak the spirits flag the circulation of the blood is torpid and all the vital powers shaken sometimes it strikes the heart with a palpitation or trembling viz. the vital spirits stand amazed as if imitten with a thunder-clap from the uterine toxicum also it afflicts with Convulsions making the animal spirits run counter whirling them in oblique gyres to the contortion of the musculous parts 37. And further by an influential manner it causeth terrible strangulations by suddainly stopping the pores of the Lungs and that too though the Lungs be never so sound whence all suspicion of any corrupt matter being there to cause the obstructions is taken away as also the same is evident in that after the cessation of the strangulating paroxysm many times no invisible evacuation follows and this it doth I say by contracting the pores of the Lungs whereby all respiration is intercepted and consequently no pulse nor circulation of blood during that time sometimes this acrimonious virulency hath access to the hypochonders and there especially when it is acuated and grows more virulent by circulation it causeth Frenzies and Madness which sort Mania's prove difficult to cure because they are not generally right understood what is the true effective or efficient cause 38. Thus in short of the cause of these terrifying Diseases of the female sex Now there are other more common but less if at all virulent Diseases which happen frequently to women from the redundancy of blood which not having been brought so far as to be proscribed into the vessels where usually it receives the foresaid menstrual virulency but is because superfluous ready to be transported into the common cloaca yet by obstructions in the Matrix is sent back into the mass of blood where it stuffs the vessels restagnates in some parts causeth swellings and coming too plentifully to the Heart so as not being sufficiently volatiz'd by the respiration of air stuffs the Lungs causing short-windedness heaviness of spirits which in young women causeth the Green-Sickness in others indigestion of stomach Pains Gripings Head-aches and other various symptomes all which are curable by removing the foresaid cause of obstructions by aperient Medicines together with the breathing of a vein which in these Diseases of an inferior order from the bare obstructions and recursions of blood as blood is not impertinent but of use which in the other case of the revulsion of the virulent menstrual ferment into the blood is dangerous but especially at that time when the critical evacuation happens for then it becomes one of the chief causes of the retrogradation thereof into the blood and of all the symptomes issuing thereupon 39. Lastly if an exotick acidity be transmitted from the other previous digestions into the fifth or last or become actually ingendred and fostered therein then it becomes the cause of many Diseases found in those parts for in the ultimate digestion all assimilation of the nutritive juyce is made so that every part according to the innate ferment thereof turns the one similar aliment into its own likeness whence then utrition of all though different parts from one and the same nourishment 40. But if this ferment of any part become alienated from an inbred or transmitted acidity or sowrish saltness it forthwith depraves the nourishment thereof and causeth Aposthumations Fistula's Ulcers Tumors the Evil Tetters Inflammations c. and sometimes rouseth up the paroxysms of the Gout or Sciatica for we see that in Fistula's Ulcers or any other running Sores if the Patient prove exorbitant in his Diet either in eating saltish meats or drinking too much strong drink or to petulant in venereal exercises is easily discernable by the flux of the wound which argues that the almentary juyce made from the food taken in retains some footsteps of its primitive nature which it carries through all the digestions and therewith vitiates the very last and according to the degree of the depravation of the ferment and rawness of the nutritive juyce the different sorts of Ulcers c. proceed 41. That the paroxysm of the Gout may be roused up from the exorbitancy of a spurious acid ferment in the ultimate digestion is not uneasie to apprehend if we consider how some sorts of French Wines Goose salt Meats c. easily excite a fit of the Gout to those who are inclinable thereto which they do either by retaining a specifical ferment through all the digestions untill they come to the synovia of the Joynts and there display their hostileness to the parts by proritating the Gout or rather they vitiate the alimentary Juyce provoke a spurious ferment in the Stomack incense the Archeus at whose beck all the digestions and ferments are subservient who presently impresseth a fermental acidity upon tender synovia of the joynts thence the Gout and all its attendants begin to keep court 42. Now the Gout is a seminal or Ideal Disease inserted into the very initials of life and therefore hereditary which can lie long rooted in the very vital principles ere it make it's first assault and between one fit and another is as really present in its morbid character as when cloathed with all its symptomes only wants an acid ferment and a beck of the Archeus to transmit it into the proper Matrix which it no sooner hath but is podagra omnibus numeris absoluta a complete Gout 43. But an objection meets me which is this viz. That seeing this spurious acidity in the alimentary juyce as it passeth along from one digestion to another becomes the material cause of so many Diseases how comes it that the Diseases it causeth are not terminated in the first second or third digestion seeing that in those places by its action on the ferments and their reaction upon it oftentimes it loseth its acrimony and assumes some other property which it carries into the subsequent digestions and consequently if it be carryed into the last digestion to make Diseases there it must first in its passage through the primary digestions cause Diseases belonging to those parts whereas experience evinceth the contrary 44. To which I return first by saying That all acidities in subsequent digestions of the chyliferous juyce are not always transmitted
but specificks will doe such I mean as hath power not only of correcting and preventing the enormous flatus but also of abstersing the subtle cadaverous sordes reposed in the inward chanels of the animal spirits by inclining them to a transpiration sweetning also the concomitant spurious acidities which is particularly done by some noble vitriolin Arcana's The Elixir Propâ—ietatis and volatile tincture of Coral of Paracelsus and Helmont per spiritum sanguinis per lac perlarum per appensa c. 9. The same circulated cadaverous recrement sometimes settles upon the spongy parenchyme of the Lungs at which borret Archcus flatum suffocativum extimulat which suddainly obstructs the porosities thereof and causeth an Asthma which often intercepting the air hinders the ventilation of the vital fire in the Heart if prevalent suddainly puts out lifes taper 10. This is not curable by the Spaw being too languid in its virtue to reach the Lungs especially when it is come on to the ripeness of an Asthma is curable by the former specificks and that because an Asthma Epilepsie Apoplexie and Palsie are identical in their material and efficient causes viz. The same circulated anodynous cadaverous recrement settling in different places cause the foresaid Diseases in the brain the Epilepsie in the membranous and nervous parts the Apoplexie and Palsie If it only vitiate the organs of motion salvo sensu then it 's the Palfie but if both motion and sense be deprav'd and that with a vibration upon one side or through the whole body then it is surely an Apoplexie 11. But if by a transmigration of this peccant matter it become coagulated in the Lungs then an Asthma of which as also of the other syncritical Diseases I may say as formerly hath been of the Quartain That they are ludibria Medicorum and therefore to be found only in the Catalogue of Incurables And what 's the matter Nothing but we want well prepared Medicines which either our idleness or our ignorance or both will not suffer us to attain to 12. These Disease being congenial in their causes are the same in their Cures therefore none of them curable by the solitary assistance of the Spaws but by the power of abstersive and restorative Arcana's such as the aforesaid remedies and the like 13. It is true Dr. Wittie brings in two instances of the virtue of the water in the Palsie but if you observe The Disease in both Patients was at the declining hand and probably nature by degrees might have wrought it forth without the help of the waters It 's very probable the change of air and the exercise of the body by riding might contribute as much to the Patients assistance as the water Besides it may be The paroxysm of this Disease might be hastened by the exorbitancy of the stomach and foulness thereof which being rectified by the abstersive property of the Spaw might be alleviated thereby 14. He gives one and but one instance of help in the Epilepsie by the water He tells us of an excellent success he had seen in that one that was Epileptick but how or after what manner it appeared we must not know though he doth indeed ingenuously confess if the Diseases of the Palsie Epilepsie Vertigo be idiopathick be radically in the head or otherwise though the malady arise from sympathy if it be in the begining of the paroxysm or in its state the morbid humour being fixed in such cases he acknowledgeth the improperness of the water 15. Where by the way take notice that those three Diseases have not always the head for their principal seat for though in the Epilepsie and Virtigo in the one there be a vellication of the membranous and perhaps nervous parts of the brain and in the other a consternation of the animal spirits lodg'd there and that either by a deuteropathy being disturb'd from other parts or by an idiopathy in the very membranous and nervous parts themselves yet notwithstanding the Palsie hath not its original seat in the head but in the genus nervosum and the inhabitants thereof viz. the animal spirits and therefore may be and is in other parts of the body salvo capitis regimine For it is the catastrophe of these spirits that gives being to the paroxysm of these Diseases viz. of the Epilepsie and Palsie c. and when ever they are found smitten with a flatus arising from the antipathy of the putredinous cadaverous recrement and the aura vitalis there to be sure is the Disease in what part soever of the body it is found To confirm which viz. that the head is not the chief seat of the Palsie I shall bring in a considerable instance of a paralytick Patient to whom I had the hap to be called after seven or eight other Physicians and pretenders to Physick had been consulted he lives in Fernedale belonging to the Duke of Buckingham This Patient had lingred most part of two years under his Distemper the occasional cause whereof was as far as I could learn either from the damp of the earth being imployed to over-see and sometimes did work in an Hough as the Country-People call it of Blacomoore for some suppos'd Mine of Plute some treasure deeply lodg'd in the earth but found none or else by going into the water in the Summer time to Fish either of which might occasionally give being to his Disease He was gradually taken of all his joynts and sometimes had neither sense nor motion in most parts of his body but most frequently if not altogether had little or no sense especially from the lower parts of his body downward insomuch as if any weight lay heavy on those parts or any great heat from the fire scorched them he was not sensible nor at all complain'd He could mostwhat move all his joynts as he sate or laid and that pretty nimbly but when he came to stand his knees shaked under him his legs bended and he glad to be held up from falling in ones arms His hands and arms he could move very well but when he came to take up any meat to put in his mouth he always either left it or let it fall so was helped by another both for his meat and drink taking Yet all this while salvoregimine capitis had all his senses in his head for saving a glimmering of his eyes whereby he could not read distinctly which might very probably be from the weakness of the optick nerves together with some alteration of the texture of the vitreous and cristaline humors thereof I say excepting this weakness in his eyes he had his memory as perfect as ever could cast Account as well as before had his hearing taste and smelling in good order could eat his meat pretty well without the least trembling or shaking of his head The Physicians he had consulted had ordered him Vomits and Purges in great plenty Unguents not a few and Baths too many for he was alway the worse after