admirably discuss the pain of the Haemorrhoids Riverius 6. Rolfinc Leaves and Flowers of Toad-flax excell in a singular Prerogative to stop pain 7. Ointment of Figwort is good Sennertus ¶ The dropping of a rosted Eel is good For excessive running of the Haemorrhoids 1. Galen's is the most excellent and onely Remedy of Aloes Frankincense and the white of an Egg made as thick as Honey Don. ab Altomari mixt with Hare's Down and applied 2. This Medicine never failed me which is made of Steel old Sugar of Roses Claudinus and Powder of Sea-Wormwood 3. Let the Haemorrhoids be washed with the Patient's Urine for it dries wonderfully and eases pain ¶ This has been tried in several Take of Powder of Bayberries dried in the shade one drachm Cortilio drink it in white Wine every third day in the morning for three times 4. I have known the running of the Haemorroids successfully stopt onely with Housleek-water Hofmannus For the Suppression of the Piles Among things that open the Haemorrhoids I must give the preheminence to the greater Centaury root if the bloudy juice be squeezed out of it and a Syrup made with Sugar The Dose 2 or 3 spoonfulls in a morning ¶ To open the Haemorrhoids let an Onyon be hollowed and some Oil of bitter Almonds be put into it rost it in the Embers Anoint the Haemorrhoids with the juice when squeezed out Crato For the Swelling of the Piles Powder of Mullein given in Milk or in some other Liquour Sennertus is very good to waste the swelled Piles also its Juice or Syrup may be given Hepatis Affectus in genere or Diseases of the Liver The Contents The conditions of Medicines proper for the Liver I. A new way of administring Hepatick Medicines II. When Rheubarb is the Life of the Liver III. Chymical Oils are Enemies to it and the Stomach IV. It is heated by strengthening the Stomach with outward applications V. Atonia Hepatis or Want of Tone in the Liver Whether Almonds and Pistachio's be proper in a cold one VI. The Cure of an Epatick Maid extenuated and dried up VII Hepatis Inflammatio Tumores or Inflammation and Swellings of the Liver The differences of Inflammatory Tumours VIII Plentifull Bloud-letting is proper IX To what places Cupping-glasses must be applied X. When Purgatives are proper XI Whether they should be mixt with meat XII Of Liquids which are most convenient XIII Internal Repellents what such they should be XIV Wind oftentimes deceives us in appearance of a Schirrhus XV. We must have a care how we use Saccharum Saturni XVI Emollients hurt a Schirrous Swelling XVII Emplastrum de Cicuta takes away the Schirrus XVIII Hepatis Intemperies or An Intemperature of the Liver In a hot one we must not abuse cold things XIX What we must doe if it be with Bile XX. Two generous Remedies in a hot one XXI In a hot Intemperature it is good to drink when Concoction is finished XXII Hepatis Obstructiones or Obstructions of the Liver When Bloud must be let XXIII We must purge quickly XXIV How we must purge XXV Whether Rheubarb be always proper and how XXVI We must have a care how we use Diureticks XXVII Things that dissolve Tartar must be added to deobstruents XXVIII The abuse of Aperients does harm XXIX They ought to be given in a large dose XXX Obstructions of the hollow part must be opened before those of the Gibbous XXXI When Rheubarb must be used in Substance and when in Infusion XXXII Cautions in the use of Aperients XXXIII About Sugar XXXIII Hepatis Ulcus or An Vlcer of the Liver Cured by opening the side XXXIV Hepatis Vomica or An Imposthume of the Liver It may safely be opened XXXV I. THESE ought to be the Prerogatives and Conditions of things which cleanse the passages as well in a hot as cold intemperature 1. Because of the narrowness of the ways they must penetrate as Cyperus Schoinanth Saffron Iris. 2. They must open as Horehound Aromatick Wormwood Pistachio's root of Parsley 3. They must concoct and mollifie as Raisins Figs sweet Pomegranate Wine Rhenish small Wine 4. They must be abstersive as Honey Sugar 5. They must strengthen as Agrimony Wormwood Schoinanth Rue Spike 6. They must preserve from Putrefaction as Cassia lignea Calamus Aromaticus Cinnamon Myrrh Amber Lignum Aloes Rhodium and all sorts of Spices 7. They must dry moderately as shavings of Hartshorn Ivory 8. They must be specifick as Rheubarb Wolf's Liver Raisins Mat. Martini de morb mâ—sent Flesh of Snails 9. They must also be astringent correct Malignity and not easily corrupt II. The proper way to take things inwardly is the Mouth The virtue is carried with the chyle to the Heart and after to the Liver The Moderns have an Invention to infuse some hepatick Liquour into some Vein opened in the Arm It is held that by this way the Vein being closed and tied the Medicine communicates its singular strengthening faculty to the Parenchyma of the Liver being carried to the Heart and out of the right Ventricle by the great Artery into the Hepatick Artery Rolfinccius and so to the Liver III. Rheubarb is indeed the life of the Liver but to a hot Liver it is Death Riolanus because it is hot and dry to the third degree IV. Let no man wonder how it comes to pass that many do not onely find no relief but sometimes hurt from Oils Chymically prepared as also from Decoctions But let him take these true Reasons from Hofmanni prefat in Lib. de Medic. Offic. Distilled Oils which they commonly call Essences are so plainly Enemies to the membraneous Stomach indeed by consuming its radical moisture and to the Liver and other Bloud Viscera by heating or to speak more plainly by raising an Inflammation S. Pauli Quadr. Botan p. 225. that some have contracted to themselves a perpetual thirst others a bilious Cachexy and some a hot Dropsie V. The Lobe of the Liver that lies upon the Stomach is heated by hot Ointments before the Stomach it self which I admire indeed how it has always passed unobserved by famous Men in their practice Fortis VI. Altimarus denies that Almonds and Pistachio's are good for cold Epaticks 1. Because things that are easily corrupted cannot be proper for them 2. Because they are oily but a cold constitution of Liver is very much hurt by these things because Obstructions which are usually joined with them are encreased by such a quality 3. Because they are readily converted into Bile On the contrary the affirmative must rather be defended with Savanorola who prescribes Almonds among other convenient Medicines 1. Because Almonds especially bitter have a faculty to extenuate and purge the thick and viscid humours of the Liver Gal. 2. de Alim fac c. 22. and 30. Where the same is affirmed of Pistachio's 2. According to Dioscorides l. 1. c. 136. de Mat. Med. they and
pain heat and fuga vacui or the avoiding vacuity To pain indeed as it depends upon its causes an hot intemperies and a solution of continuity springing thence this debilitates the part and makes it unable to repell the Humours from it whence the tyed part swells But there is a far other reason of this swelling Ligatures upon the Arms stop the motion of the Blood that is flowing out at the Nose not because they attract upon the score of pain or heat but because they retard the Blood that is received from the Arteries and is a returning to the heart by the Veins from passing so speedily to the right ventricle On this foundation the vertue of Ligatures rests whilst they are made upon a sound part they hinder the Blood from flowing back by the Veins to the affected part in any plenty Rolfinc Meth. Med. p. 442. so the affected part is freed from the influx Narcoticks See Hypnoticks before Nephriticks Cysticks or Medicines for the Stone See Book 3. Calculus Renum or the Stone in the Kidneys and Book 15. Renum affectus or Diseases of the Kidneys The Contents They respect either the resolution of the Coagulum it self I. Or the Saline Acrimony and irritation of the genus membranosum II. Or the opening of the ways III. Nephriticks and Cysticks are the same IV. Nephriticks are not to be confounded V. Resolvers hurt when a Saline Acrimony offends VI. The Reins rejoice in moisture but not excessive VII Where Topicks are to be applied VIII Refrigerating ointments scarce cool because of the oyl IX Hot dissolvers of the Stone many times do hurt X. I. IT being presupposed 1. that the Material cause of the Stone is a dry concretion that in a Natural state is voided with the Urine or a Tartareous Salt consisting of an earthy and Saline matter although a viscous Humour may also concur 2. That the Blood of calculous persons add of Gouty and Hypochondriacal abounds with such Saline and Tartareous Coagulables we say that Nephritick Medicines are both such as resolve and such as mitigate and such as drive forward and so they respect 1. the resolution of the coagulum it self or the sliminess or muddiness of the Blood tending now out of the Vessels separated in the Kidneys and Bladder but not expelled whether it offend by its plenty or Nature her self fail in her expulsion and the earthy parts by the access of the saline fixed volatile turn into a coagulum such as are 1. Abstergers both watry and diluting that afford a more plentiful Serum for the draining out of those excrements and are good against gravel when there is a plentiful sediment in the Urine and the stone is a breeding 2. Sulphureous Resolvers that more intimately hinder coagulation and hinder the matter from stopping there whether they be more temperate oily obtunding and taking away Acrimony of Sperma ceti and other Aperients that are good in any obstructions stoppage of Urine stone c. or more active fusing the Blood as it were and precipitating and liquating the Serum into the Kidneys such as are chiefly Remedies of Turpentine which give the Urine a Violet smell which is a notable testimony that their vertue reaches hither the oyl of Amber c. 3. Saline Resolvers whether Acid inciding and deterging as Acidum Tartari acid mineral Spirits especially Spirit of Salt or soaty and earthy alkali's obsorbing Lyes which are of avail either through their Salt which they keep retir'd or from their notable vertue of absorbing saline Humours as Crabs-eyes the Salts of plants the tincture of Tartar c. whence belong hither most of the more generous Aperient Diureticks and Lithontripticks From hence it appears why Acid and Lixivious Medicines also are good in the stone namely both of them resolve correct glutinosity and destroy a preternatural coagulum likewise other things that take away grumescence or clodding and resolve coagulation which also are good when clods of Blood stop about the Bladder II. Or 2. they respect the saline acrimony and irritation of the genus Membranosum and are temperating moistening cooling absorbing whether the parenchyma and Membranous and Nervous passages be hurt by an acrimonious caustick Salt as it is common upon taking Cantharides to have all the harm accrew to the Kidneys and Bladder alone or from the weight and sharp corners of the coagulated Stone Such are 1. those things that are common as it were to both temperate and demulcing aqueous Remedies not Saline Sweet and Mucilaginous as Gum Tragacanth Gum Arabick the pulp of Cherries and Cassia Raisins Sebestens Conserve of the flowers of Mallows commended by Amatus Fernelius's Syrup of Marsh-Mallows c. 2. Things also that are partly oily and watry as sweet Milk Emulsions of the cold Seeds Which as they ease the Symptoms that are caused by Cantharides so they do in a special manner demulce and ease the ways that are torn by over stretching as it were and by accident they cure nocturnal pollution help the Strangury that springs from a serous acrimony 3. Precipitants whether they be withal Styptick as in pissing of Blood and other laxities or Nervine as Cinnabarines the more temperate specifick powders so also steel Remedies belong hither hence Heurnius upon Hippocrates's aphor 6. 6. where when he had said that the pains and Diseases of the Reins and Bladder-in general are hard to cure he commends experimentally in an Ulcer of the Kidneys the juice of steel that is steel Wine made of the filings of steel macerated in sweet and strong Wine 4. Acids correct a bilious Acrimony if it be present as red Liver-wort whence according to Hippocrates lib. de locis Acids both cause the Strangury and help it And these as we have already intimated are good for Bloody Urine diabetes nocturnal pollution heat of Urine yea in the stone it self and we must also have great regard to the pains which are as it were the tyrants of indication 5. Hither belong even Opiats also which being mixed with resolvers are very useful in the Stone not indeed as if they resolved primarily or as if they cleared the wayes but because they give rest to Nature III. Or 3. They respect the stopping and clearing of the ways not so much by driving forward as loosning that way and leave may be given to the departure of the unwelcom Guest such as are internal and external emollients and paregoricks lubricaters and moisteners especially oily things chiefly Oil of sweet Almonds likewise Chamomel the Decoction whereof resolves withal whence the Flowers thereof in Pottage give present ease in the Cardialgia or Pain at the Stomach the Colick Stone also fat Broths for they give by so much the presenter Ease by how much they resolve the more withal thus the Oil of sweet Almonds with the juice of Lemons is a Secret with some Hither belongs that place of Walaeus m. m. p. 4. In Pains of the Stone says he whether you
may be made stronger which may be done if less liquour be put to it and if it be boiled a little longer For by long boiling more virtue is got out of Plants and especially out of solid Woods which give their virtues but slowly It is known moreover that a Decoction of any thing is made thin and weak with much water but thick and strong with a little water It conduces also much towards promoting of Sweat if the Decoction be given hot For all sorts of Medicines penetrate far sooner and more powerfully hot than cold or but warm Besides the Heat of a hot Decoction dissolves the viscid Phlegm in the body and tempers the acid Humours which must in this Disease be conquered and expelled But it is good that besides the body be disposed to bear Sweating the better either by composing the body in bed and covering it with clothes or by going into a Stove or by running or any other violent motion of the body For as these alone use to cause Sweat so they cannot chuse but promote it yea when it comes slowly it is good to take hot broth Idem XXI These sudorifick Decoctions work also in many by Urine especially when Diureticks are taken with them Diureticks are more conveniently taken with them if those they call the Opening Roots or other parts of Diuretick Plants Berries Seeds c. be boiled with the Sudorificks For then Sweat and Urine may be promoted at once And I think no man need fear that the operation of the one Medicine will hinder the other since most reckon either Medicine will answer both Indications For Sudorificks do in some measure provoke Urine and Diureticks also promote Sweat Therefore I have no reason to scruple Diureticks in the Cure of the Pox since there is no difficulty in the case The Physician ought carefully to observe whether the Patient upon taking diuretick or sudorifick Decoctions incline more to Sweat or Urine to the end that evacuation may be most promoted which is the easiest to the Patient and from which most benefit may be expected Whenever therefore we observe a Patient sweats with difficulty but does void abundance of thick Urine with a full and laudable Sediment it is not good to force such an one to sweat but to expect the chief Cure from expulsion of Urine onely And it would not be amiss in such a case to increase the quantity of Diureticks in the Decoction or for the Patient now and then to take a Decoction of Diureticks alone For the pituitous humour when it is conveniently severed from the rest of the bloud either in the Kidneys or in the Heart the effervescence in its right ventricle being amended is successfully discharged with the Urine and passes more easily that way than by Sweat Idem XXII Concerning the Decoction of Sarsa parilla we must take notice that they who care not to spare cost and could have the Decoction efficacious do onely take the Bark as being the most efficacious part of the Root and throw away the inner Pith as less effectual yea some reckon it is cold and a little astringent Sennertus XXIII When China Root first came to be known many preferred it before Guaiacum but Experience afterwards abated its fame And Palmarius writes c. 14. that many to their great prejudice preferred this Root before Guaiacum and that he found by Experience that with a very spare Diet it was ineffectual for the Pox. And oftentimes the Stomach grows so moist and the innate Heat is so opprest with the Decoction of it that a grievous Lientery and a great Crudity often follows in whom the innate Heat was but weakly He writes moreover that it causes the pleen to swell and grow hard in them that use it long And he will not also allow it any extraordinary occult quality against the Pox Because after taking of it they frequently relapse who have thought themselves well cured And Fallopius confirms it who writes that he had used this Root three or four times for the Cure of this Disease and could doe no good with it And if perhaps some one who could neither be cured by a Decoction of Guaiacum nor by anointing with Quicksilver recovered his health by a Decoction of China Palmarius thinks this to have been the reason That Nature delights in variety of Medicines and being tired out with strong things was at last relieved by weaker Idem XXIV Some advise not to make more of the Decoction at once than can be taken in one day because when it is cold it easily grows sowre And therefore they order it to be kept on hot Embers But Experience has shewn us that it will last four days Yet whenas it grows sowre that very thing argues the root has something spirituous and alimentarious in it which is the cause of fermentation and thereby of the Sowreness Idem XXV Besides Sudorificks and Diureticks Purgatives also must be used in the kindly Cure of the Pox which must be Phlegmagogues and here Experience does not a little confirm my opinion as well as the consent of all Practitioners which among the common things gives the preheminence to Pulp of Coloquintida and among Chymical things to Mercurial Medicines Now these things are intended chiefly to evacuate a pituitous viscid humour Therefore we did not conclude much amiss that the Venereal Poison was mixt with viscid Phlegm and that Phlegm did both produce and increase it Sylvius de le Boë and is now conveniently evacuated with it but it must first be a little corrected XXVI Coloquintida I say and most Medicines made of Mercury are very proper both for a pituitous viscid humour and for curing the Pox as all experienced and learned Physicians agree To such as like common Medicines best I recommend the taking of Pulp of Coloquintida boiled in part of the Sudorifick Decoction or in some other Apozeme twice or thrice a week to carry off by stool the gross and viscid humours which are not fit to be expelled by Sweat through the Pores of the Body For besides that pituitous humours blended with the mass of Bloud are very difficultly thrown off by Sweat through the Pores of the Body moreover much Phlegm is discharged with the Spittle and the Pancreatick juice to the Guts wherefore it is better to carry it off once or twice a week by stool than by the continual taking of Sudorificks onely to carry it back to the Bloud and so to render the Cure both more tedious and difficult Idem XXVII They that have no mind to take a Decoction of Coloquintida because of its bitterness may take Trochiscs of Alhandal which are made of it in Pills adding things that may incide and carry off the same Phlegm especially Gum Galbanum Sagapenum Opoponax Ammoniack Bdellium Mastick c. I have often prescribed such Pills for those that were sick in the Hospital Idem XXVIII The Phlegmatick humour which
urges Mercat de praesid lib. 1. cap. 2. we must take more the first time notwithstanding Galen's saying who bids us add half the second time XLIV I suspect whether change of the colour should be respected in Bleeding for at what time the Blood is a flowing 't is hard to observe such a change of colour and when it is already run out it is not so profitable to look upon it seeing often when one has been let Blood twice or thrice that which is hid in the deepest minera of the putrefaction is drawn out in the last place yet in but a small quantity so that it can do little good and the Patient cannot without harm sustain further Bleeding though never so necessary So that I think that measure of the quantity to be surer which is chiefly taken from the benefiting and sustaining And though there do not presently appear any benefit yet the sustaining has this excellency that if the remedy be used according to art it promises benefit and endures repetition till the disease be overcome Mercat de Praes l. 1. c. 2. ¶ Physicians use to receive the Blood into three Porringers when they observe a discolouring in the last and see it very impure and dare not continue the Bleeding till it come forth pure for fear of fainting away they declare that the Patient must Bleed again not once but three or four times And they are confirm'd in this opinion when they see a glutinous surface in the Porringer that is clammy and tough Rolfinc meth gen l. 4. sect 2. c. 10. But this measure is deceitful for that is esteemed for discoloured Blood which is Blood mixt with chyle the glutinous surface is chylous XLV One would at first think that the measure of the quantity of Bleeding should be till we have taken away all abundance but we may not do so for there is one thing which I think I have observed viz. That there has been an excess made when so much Blood has been let forth that the left ventricle of the Heart could no longer drive it into the Body Walaeus meth med p. 78. nor the Blood come from thence to the right ventricle of the Heart XLVI There are some cases wherein it is expedient to cause fainting away by evacuation For in very great inflammations in the most burning Fevers and most vehement pains the Ancients as Galen reports used to make evacuation to that degree Not indeed as if Lipothymy were to be the measure of the greatest evacuation as the common opinion is for this measure would have been very deceitful seeing some faint away upon the least occasion and others endure immoderate evacuations without swooning But rather because in the aforesaid cases Lipothymy comes on a proper account for hereby is a retraction made of the Blood and Spirits to the viscera whence there is caused the greatest revulsion from the part affected the habit of the Body likewise is very much cooled and a torpor is induced upon the senses I have observed this benefit in pains so that I cannot sufficiently set forth how notably it takes them away A noble Woman being troubled with very violent pains in her Head and all things that were given her doing her no good the pain at length came to that height that through the greatness of it she fell into a swoon out of which being got in a little time she was freed from all sense of pain and continued in that state till the same pain returning caused a new swooning which proved the cure of the pain Hence I perceived the reason why the Ancients in the greatest pains made evacuations to fainting away For Hippocrates also in the Pleurisie 4. acut v. 241. hath commended it If the pain reach to the Clavicle or Collar-bone c. and it be acute we must Bleed even to swooning Not exclusively as some interpret but inclusively for he says If the pain be acute we must Bleed even to swooning Hence it appears that swooning is procured because of the violence of the pain that it may take the pain away Seeing therefore swooning even without immoderate evacuation happens in all cases in which it is approved of it will not be necessary to administer an evacuation in that manner lest the Patient before a great evacuation be made faint away as Galen observed Yea he is sometimes to be placed so as that even by a moderate evacuation he may fall into a swoon Martian comm in vers 70. l. de humor namely when 't is feared that the sick either through age or some other great cause cannot bear a large one and that we shall obtain if he be Bled either standing or sitting XLVII As I never make those numerous Bleedings which proceed to fifteen or twenty So this I will premise that there is hardly any disease whose cure I do not begin with Venesection because if that be not used in the first place there is scarce place for any remedy For a full Body neither makes the ways permeable for other evacuations nor affords it a passage for any medicins what is cooled is condensed what is heated is inflamed such a Body is fit for no way of cure Therefore it is so far to be evacuated as that it may sustain the remainder of the cure without prejudice Valles m. m. l. 4. c. 2. but not so far as that the faculty may not suffice afterwards or the Body incur the before rehearsed prejudices XLVIII The habit of the Body affords but a deceitful token of the measure of Bleeding wherefore we must be the more attentive to the strength of the faculties and to the Veins themselves from which the strength of the faculties is more manifest than from the habit it self of the Body This indeed Celsus has taught us to examine for if the Veins be large and the habit also fat and loaded such Bodies bear Bleeding more easily But if the Veins be small Mercat de Ind. med l. 1. c. 4. though the Bodies be slender yet they bear this kind of evacuation more difficultly XLIX 'T is certain that Bleeding is profitable against a Plethora whether already compleat or but a beginning for the mischiefs of a Plethora cannot be better taken away or prevented by any other remedy Yet we should avoid the necessity of this evacuation as much as we may namely because the Blood becomes thereby more sulphureous and less salt and therefore almost all persons are apt thereupon to fall into Fevers and to grow fat Moreover Venesection being a great remedy if it be prostituted to every little occasion it will become less effectual when there is need to use it for great diseases To which this may be added that according to the observation of the vulgar the more familiarly any one uses Phlebotomy the oftner he shall need it because Blood being often let to avoid a Plethora the rest of the Mass will the sooner arise again to a
bones You need not fear the acrimony for our Euphorbium does not inflame the adjacent flesh But I would have a Seton first used which is of such moment that I have observed in several persons an inveterate lachrymal Fistula could scarce be cured without the help of this Fabricius Hildanus cent 6. observat 3. Nor would I have any thing attempted before the Seton have run for some time and have drawn to it the Matter which fell upon the Fistula II. There is another Aegylops often bred of a tough humour like gelly inclosed in a bladder which cannot be cured without opening the Tumour with a knife or a potential Cautery and taking away of the skin Enchiridii med pract p. 88. and then lest the Ail return a burning hot Cautery must be applied to cause an Eschar which when it is fallen off some beaten Allum mixt with Turpentine may be applied till it be perfectly healed ¶ Because this Swelling cannot be cured with Medicines alone it must be taken hold on with a pair of Nippers and cut round the bottom with a knife Scultetus tab 31. armament yet so that the whole spungy Caruncle be not cut off which is not unfitly called The Bridle of Tears for upon taking it away a perpetual efflux of them or an incurable Rhyas doth follow III. A Matron about thirty years of age after frequent inflammation of the Eyes and Head-ach had a Lachrymal Fistula arose Hildanus cent 4. oâ—s 19. and was cured by the help of a Seton IV. Sometimes there are cancrous Ulcers in this part which cannot be cured except the part be burnt and the Veins and Arteries especially be burnt thoroughly and to the quick Enchiridion med pract p. 89. For so the cure will be most safe without fear of relapse because when these Vessels are burnt there can be no more new Defluxion V. In the burning an Aegylops I should with the more approved Physicians prefer an actual Cautery before that they call Potential But why do they order it to be of Gold rather than of any other matter For one would think it might commodiously be made of Iron nay perhaps more commodiously seeing there is an astringent Virtue confest to be in Iron a quality very requisite in this case Again Gold if it be violently heated melts if indiffereâ—tly it is to no purpose Yet Johannes Montanus a great Physician chuseth Gold or Brass in his Counsels Plempius Ophi◠〈◊〉 mogr. l. 5. c. 3. by reason the burning is greater and the Scar deepr than the tender particles here exposed can endure VI. All the difficulty in the Cure is about Repressers and Suppuraters for either of them seem to incurr the hazard of a Fistula that indeed by repelling the humour to the Parts within and this by putrifying Nevertheless both must be done sometime of Necessity When the Defluxion first begins and the corner of the Eye ailed nothing before repressers are convenient for if this place never ailed any thing before the Parts underneath are strong therefore Repulsion should be made to the sides rather than directly under But if in the process of the Disease an Inflammation arise in this case Repulsion is no way convenient Sometime we must use Suppuraters when Nature hath already begun the Suppuration and the Humour is Sanguine and in great plenty when Suppuration cannot be avoided Saxonia prael pract part 1. cap. 20. which when made though but imperfectly the Abscess must be opened Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Take of Fine Honey Aloe Hepatica each 2 ounces Myrrhe 1 ounce Saffron half a drachm Water 2 pounds Boyl them over a gentle fire to half Petrus Bayruâ— de med hum corp malis l. 3. c. 26. let a new little Sponge be put in the hot decoction wring it out wrap it in a fine rag bind it to the place and you will see a wonderfull effect as I have often experienced 2. I never found any thing better than what follows Take of Aqua vitae mel Rosatum each 1 drachm Myrrhe 2 drachms Mix them Chalmeâ—â—us enchri â—hirurg l. 3. c. 20. make a Liniment wherewith the part must be anointed morning and night 3. Take Garden Rue which Fullers use beat it very fine and apply it it cures this Ail excellently well It is very biting at the first but it will presently grow easy Alex. Trall l. 1. c. 23. and which must be admired it leaves either no Scar at all or no disfiguring or remarkable one behind it 4. Services bruised and applied are reckoned a singular Remedy Arnold Weâ—kard thesaut pharmacop l. 1. c. 4. Agonia or Pangs of Death How persons at the point of Death are to be Revived WHen Physicians perceive the Hippocratical Signs of Death they bid adieu to their Patients lest they should expoâ—e themselves their Art and their Medicines But they should not be given up but all means rather should be used which have any possibility to prolong life For I have known several at the point of death who have been given over by the Physicians and yet have recovered by inconsiderable means I will give you my opinion freely In the Heart which is the last that dies the vital Spirits are extinguished divers ways I. By the excessive heat of the Bloud Cooling Potions and Epithemes to the Breast relieve such persons II. Others die when there is not a sufficient Affluence to the heart to continue the Circulation 1. If new Chyle pass not to the Heart either by reason of Expulsion of the Food by Dysentery Vomiting or some fault in the vessels of the Mesentery or if it pass not by the proper ways Transfusion of man's or Calf's bloud would do good in this Case 2. If the Bloud which should be carried back by the Veins do clot and congeal and this it does variously in various Diseases in the Phthisick deep Consumption and Fevers the Lympha or usefull Serum is wanting in the bloud A warm bath which dissolves the Coagulation relieves such for a time In Tartarous Diseases as the Scurvy c. the Bloud wanting Spirituous Parts is made tough and thick such Patients begin to die at the extreme parts warm baths also and spirituous Potions which hinder Coagulation do help such In such when they are dead the Arteries are flaccid and the Veins do strut III. The motion of the bloud is choaked by suffocating Catarrhs inasmuch as the Lungs through which the Circulation of the Bloud is made out of one Ventricle of the Heart into the other and the Vessels of Respiration are choaked by a cold Viscidity Let the sick Persons be laid on their side that the Phlegm may run out at the mouth apply a hot Pultess to the Throat and hot sand to the Head and Neck Because Apoplectick persons die of such Phlegm stopping up the Ventricles of the Brain Cupping the head and blistering the neck signify little if
may draw down the humours more powerfully from the Jugular Veins Nor need want of strength be much feared which is here oppressed not wasted As for cooling the body Gr. Nymannus Tract de Apopl p. 217. and thickning the humours for which some reject bloud-letting it is of no moment for in the Apoplexy nothing is more necessary than Revulsion and Turning the Matter away from the Head and we must especially labour to doe it presently which Indication bloud-letting quickly answers Wherefore we may hope for more benefit from translation of the Morbifick Cause than we need fear damage from cooling of the Body II. After the universal Plenitude is abated by letting bloud in the Arm the Parts especially affected are to be relieved for which purpose the best means is opening the Jugular Veins out of which by reason of their bigness the bloud runs freely which by stagnation oppressed the Brain and by this discharge the Lungs are less oppressed and when less bloud comes to them they easilier deliver what they contain to the Arteries and left Ventricle of the Heart and the Current of the bloud being render'd more free Coagulation is hindred Obstructions are opened and the Animal Functions are by degrees restored Concerning opening of them Experience seconds Reason and these Veins may with more ease be opened Fr. Bayle Tract de Apoplexia c. 11. because in this Disease they being swelled there is no need of Ligature which in this case might doe harm and therefore after opening of them must not be too strait but Emplastrum Galeni must be applied to the Orifice III. When there is no Plethora but great store of sharp humours i. e. much sowre Melancholy or its Exaltation hath caused the Apoplexy which foregoing pains do shew Hippocrates bids us use Fomentations before bloud-letting nor without reason for when the Veins are inflamed dried and straitned and the bloud by degrees coagulates if we withstand these things by emollient heating and attenuating fomentations the bloud will run more freely and with its rapid motion will wash what was beginning to coagulate from the Capillary Vessels dilated and softened if presently after the Fomentation or in the very use of it a Vein be opened Otherwise it is to be feared the thinner part of the bloud may come away by bloud-letting while the thicker and what begins to coagulate stays behind which will hinder the effect of the Purge which should then be given The Head especially should be bathed seeing in it there is the greatest danger from Coagulation and next the Hypochondria But both Fomentations and bloud-letting should be used in the beginning of the Disease while the spirits are yet elevated Ideâ— IV. There is scarce a Practical Physician but advises bloud-letting in an Apoplexy caused by bloud But I question whether it be proper in every Apoplexy as the excellent Nymannus thinks For he in favour of his Hypothesis which takes every Apoplexy to be caused by Obstruction of the Sinus's is very large in commendation of bloud-letting which Hypothesis since it does not hold true in every Apoplexy as I have proved the like and perpetual use of bloud-letting may be questioned It 's evident when the Vertebral and Carotid Arteries are filled with fibrous bodies that bloud-letting avails little And those Apoplectick persons are in the same Case who have the Torcular stopt seeing it cannot wholly be obstructed except by some such like body Nor likewise will bloud-letting be convenient when Serum is gathered in the Ventricles and Cavity of the Skull since by it the immediate cause is not removed but the strength otherwise spent is more weakned In an Apoplexy where a Vessel is broke there is no hope both because a quantity of bloud poured into the Ventricles and Basis of the Brain cannot be got back by Art and because while it stays there it is coagulated In that which is caused by Serum gathered in the substance of the Brain what good bloud-letting does it is by accident namely as it abates the Turgescency of the bloud and Serum Therefore this alone will not remove the Apoplexy but we must also use things that spend and evacuate the Serum which moistens the medullous substance But bloud-letting in an Apoplexy caused by a sudden Obstruction of the little Arteries is good in many respects for first the preternatural violent motion of the bloud is stopt which often is the occasion of this Obstruction and it runs in less quantity to the Brain for instance when the bloud is taken out of the Arm no small portion makes to the Arm by the Axillary Veins that so what was taken away may be supplied Then the bloud hastens from the whole body and from the brain towards the Heart to assist it thus depauperated and spoiled by bloud-letting Wepferus Exercitat de Apâ—plexia p. 218. And the heart eased of the burthen wherewith it was loaded both before and in the Paroxysm disperses the bloud as it returns more chearfully in better order and in quantity more usefull to the brain which forceth and washeth out what caused the Obstruction and Trouble in the medullous substance and drives it into the Capillary Veins adjoyning to the extremities of the Arteries V. Bloud abounding in the head cast a full-bodied young man into an Apoplexy with Trembling loss of Speech and Ratling three most dangerous concomitants of this Disease Tulpiâ—â— c. 7. lib. 1. Observâ—â— Wherefore speedily to abate these violent Symptoms he was immediately bled in the right Arm but not bleeding so freely as his extremity required the same Lancet was used to his left Arm and when both had continued bleeding for some time his Ratling evidently abated he took his breath better and quickly was cured VI. Cupping with Scarification should be applied not to the shoulders and back as the Arabians advise because there is no remarkable Vein that reaches the Brain But they should be stuck near the Jugulars and under the chin if possible Rondâ—lâ—â—us For these Topick Remedies should be applied not onely upon the Veins that reach the part diseased but upon the next and largest if the constitution of the Part will permit it VII A large Cupping-glass may well be applied to the top of the Head seeing it draws the bloud out of the Sinus of the Dura Meninx opens Obstructions and raises the subsiding Brain With which opportune Remedy Fracastorius remembred how he had once cured a Nun at that very time when he himself being seised with a small Apoplexy Horstius in Probl. made signs by putting his hand to his Crown that he would have the like remedy applied but they that were by not understanding him and his Disease increasing about night he died VIII A Man of Threescore fell down drunk and contused the hind part of his head but his Skull was whole and he was taken with a true and violent Apoplexy While all despaired I tried to cure him I shake
Veins which with Hippocrates is a general name both for them and Arteries when a great quantity of this Moisture is gathered it runs by other passages and when it stops in any part of the Body there a Disease is contracted I therefore conclude with Hippocrates that the Gout arises from filthy diseased steams or from a flatuous Ventosity upon which if any Humour follows it was the Vapour that made way for it And not onely Hippocrates but more modern Physicians have held That the Gout comes from Wind. Guainerius and Matthaeus de Gradibus were of that opinion Also Guido de Cauliaco a stout Voucher of the 4 Humours tells how â—e read in the Pope's Canons that the Gout aroâ—e from Vapours That Royal French Surgeon Paraeus was of the same judgment Several eminent Physicians hold Vapours the cause of the Tooth-ach Bastard-Pleurisie Colick Epilepsie and of Fits in Women so that they are called Vapours in English And I question not but many Diseases differing onely in Name and Place are of the very same nature with the Gout especially all those into which the Gout and they mutually degenerate Furthermore the China Physicians say Our Bodies are governed by 3 things i. e. by the innate Heat the radical Moisture and Spirits which they hold to be the Vehicle of the Heat and the Lungs from which they begin the Circulation of the Bloud to he the Elaboratory of the Spirits Upon the temper or distemper excess or defect conjunction or separation good or bad constitution of these 3 things they reckon life and death do depend And they wholly ascribe the Gout to noxious Spirits or Vapours These Vapours are as different as the several Parts and Humours in the Body that cause them Their material cauâ—es are first Meat and Drink thence come various Humours from each of which a different Vapour ariseth Their efficient causes are chiefly the Stomach which as it is strong or weak hot or cold full or empty breeds a different Vapour and then all parts of the Body where there is any concoction fermentation ebullition or effervescency of Humours may breed different Vapours Administring causes are all the six nonnatural things He that would be better satisfied let him reade Fienus de Flatibus That it is a malignant Vapour the Vehemence and intollerableness of the pain do prove Nor do several Authours deny it especially Galen who assigns good reasons for it Because the Gout never comes to Suppuration Because this Vapour causeth more intense pain than any Humours while they suppurate Because it creates no trouble in any part by which it passes except the Joints Bâ—t which is of greater moment the Cure proves it for whilst in the Gout men are burnt with Moxa sometimes Wind hisseth out of tâ—e Burn. And if it be kept open like an Issue an ichorous filthy malignant matter weeps out of it which stinks most offensively All grant thâ—t the Periâ—steum is a very sensible Membrane Now this Vapour doth not torment it on the out side but it insinuates it self between the Bone and it and so parting the delicate and extreme sensible Membrane from its Bone and distending it causes a raging pain And the Tumour lying so deep no wonder it cannot break prison till way be made by a red hot Iron or by the milder Burning of downy Moxa This Vapour the cause of Diseases extends it self as far as any Periosteum enwraps a Bone And so the Gout may come under as many denominations as it hath Parts to afflict The Learned Languages have Christened onely three the Hand Gout Gout in the Feet and the Sciatica for all which England can afford no more proper name than Gout in general or what it borrows from other Languages As for the antecedent Cause of the Gout I cannot impute it to any particular part But I think whatever Part or Humour therein contained is apt to breed a Vapour from that same part the Vapour may be carried to the Heart by the Veins and so from the Heart communicated to the Limbs and Joints by the Arteries Which is the Reason that several are troubled with Fevers Swoonings Palpitation of the Heart and infinite other diseases when this Vapour is not cast off to the out-parts But with some the Gout is reckoned a good sign of long life This Circulation of the Vapour is a reason also that the Pains remove from the Feet to the Hands and from any one part to another And the Vapour being cast off by the Arteries might be the reason why in Ventosities the Ancients approved of Arteriotomy beyond Phlebotomy and does indicate that the burning with Moxa should be where the Arteries beat most which is not duly observed by the Chinois and Japanois If the Part be so strong as to return the Vapour by the Veins or if any one be so much an Empirick as to repell it to the Heart it proves often Tragical Wherefore I do caution all Practitioners not to use Repellents by any means PART II. The Diagnosticks A Physician can no more direct his Remedies without observing the Symptomes of a Disease than the Master of a Ship can steer his designed Course without observation of the Stars and his Compass and a competent knowledge of the Shelves on a dangerous Coast Therefore we should reckon as much of the knowledge of the Symptomes those especially called Pathognomick which live and die with the Disease as we would of the Cure it self Impediment in Motion and Pain are inseparable signs of the Gout which spring grow up come to a pitch decrease and vanish with it sure tokens of an inward latent Pain that rarely is observable by the eye With which we rank the Swelling of the Veins and the violent beating of the Arteries for Signs and Symptomes always concomitant to the Gout because we find them by experience The Pain of the Gout is a piercing distending throbbing deep continual and bitter Pain each of them a certain sign of the Periosteum's being afflicted It is piercing because a Membrane of a most delicate sense is â—urt Distending because the Blower up of the Gout separates raises and stretches it Throbbing because the Authour of this Disease passes the Arteries and makes the bloud move inordinately while it is forced into the part affected it must be deep because in the Membrane about the Bone Continual because the Vapour pours in continually into the pained part as long as it hath any matter to supply it And then it must be sharp because while it abounds in quantity and malignity the Vapour cruelly and violently molests fills separates and distends a membrane of most exquisite sense nay and sometimes dissolves continuity as the violence of the Pain doth argue The other Symptome is Impediment in Motion of the same nature and degree with the former which happens not through any fault in the Member but onely in the Periosteum And this difficulty of Motion appears and disappears with the Gout And these two
taken away in less quantity if Putrefaction prevail in a larger And so especially if it arise from a morbid apparatus and putrid humours gathered within the Veins and that chiefly if there seem to be or to be imminent an Inflammation of some of the Inwards which often happens But Bloud must be let betimes For if the Disease have made any progress and the Malignity be diffused into the whole mass of Bloud it does not onely doe no good but also greatly weakens Nature so that most Authours think Bloud must not be let when the fourth day is past Yea and seeing at different times they are of a different nature arising from a different degree of Malignity we must observe diligently what emolument Patients receive from Bleeding For some sort of Continents wherein the Putrefaction is more intense and the Malignity more remiss do abate much by Bleeding But others whose Nature consists in Malignity onely in a manner are made more pernicious by breathing a Vein Concerning the time and intervalls for repeating Bloudletting observe that if the Disease proceed slowly Bleeding must not be accelerated for the strength is spent before its time and will not be able to hold out the whole Disease Therefore as the Disease moves so Bleeding must be celebrated sooner or later Riverius V. It is determined by the wise Judgment of Doctors that when Purple-spots appear in the beginning of the Disease and at those days when Bleeding uses to be celebrated if a sufficient quantity of Bloud have not been taken away before even at that time Bloud may be taken away in a moderate quantity without any imminent danger Seeing that Eruption which is in the beginning of the Disease is not Critical but Symptomatick arising from the exceeding Ebullition of the Bloud and the ferment of malignant and putrefying humours And therefore Nature's motion which at that time is not cannot be hindred For if when the Body is plethorick and sends out a thick and red Urine you do not let bloud on the score of Spots appearing Nature will scarce be able to conquer so great a quantity of Humours and there will be danger lest they fall upon some inner part and breed in it a pernicious Inflammation yet at that time Bloud must be taken away with greater caution and in less quantity not that the Veins may be very much emptied whereupon a retraction of the Humours from without inwards might succeed but onely that their too great fullness might be removed which being taken away the Veins do not attract new Bloud but they fall flat and grow a little strait that they may be the better able to contain and rule the Bloud that is left in them and so the motion and expulsion of Nature to the superficies of the Body is helped For Nature being eased of part of her burthen wherewith she was opprest expells the rest more easily Which is well known to us in our practice whilst often on the same day we open a Vein in acute Fevers yea sometimes within a few hours after Bleeding we observe plentifull Sweats and those critical and wholesome to break out Yea and although Nature were strong enough to rule all the redundant Bloud seeing in Plethorick Bodies the Bloud is usually thick and by such efflorescencies onely the thinnest portion of the Bloud exhales the thicker Bloud remaining would onely putrefie more and more and would render the Disease far more dangerous Yet I think it most advisable a little after Bleeding to apply several Cupping-glasses to help the motion of the Bloud outwards In short if this happen in the beginning of the Disease and before the fourth day at which time there can be no critical Eruption if no relief follow upon it but all Symptoms rather grow worse bleeding should in no wise be hindred If after the fourth day a great quantity of Spots break out the Patient be better and Symptoms abate instead of Bleeding several Cupping-glasses with Scarification may be applied that Motion may be promoted outwards And what has been said of Bleeding understand it of bleeding in the Arm which immediately abates the Quantity Sometimes notwithstanding opening the lower Veins is very beneficial if the strength be not able to bear farther bloud-letting It is beneficial especially to Women even beyond the time of their natural Purgation It is good also where a translation of the humours to the Brain is feared Opening of the haemorrhoids also with Leeches does good which is done with little loss of strength revulsion in the mean time being made from the inner bowels Idem it is good especially for Melancholick persons VI. This generous Remedy ought to be administred immediately in the very beginning of this Disease that is while strength is good and before the corruption and poison is got into the Bloud Yea I prefer this one thing that there is no Fever in which relief is deferred with greater damage nor perhaps is there any one Fever which more deceives ignorant Physicians For when Bleeding is deferred the Bloud being already corrupt I have observed that the cure is rendred almost impossible by reason of the great weakness which appears all on a sudden before the height of the Disease Parthermore if any Disease can deceive a Physician this is the principal because this Fever at the beginning appears so mild both in heat and in all its accidents that ignorant men slight it But then afterwards signs of Death appear all on a sudden for which reason it is necessary that the Artist be experienced Augenius carefull and Learned VII I think Bleeding in the lower Veins is far more beneficial than in the upper especially if the Menstrua be stopt or the usual bleeding of the Haemorrhoids suppressed for in these latter cases it has no difficulty But if they be wanting I have observed in these Fevers it is far safer to breathe a Vein in the Leg or Foot For if it be the best way to draw the Poison from the Heart no safer way can be thought on than to draw to the lower and weaker parts But some may say the abundance is not evacuated with that celerity out of the lower Veins as out of the higher I answer 1. I cannot easily admit that because if I be not mistaken the Veins of the Legs and Arms are equally distant fom the Vena Cava 2. Suppose there be a difference it is exceeding small but the utility for the foresaid Causes Rolfinccius is far greater VIII Aquapendent says he will propose a Paradox that evacuation by the Haemorrhoids conduces more to the cure of Malignant fevers than Bleeding in the Arm. He subjoins a reason for the greater branches of the Vena Cava wherein the peccant matter lies may so be emptied And I add that while they draw from the sedal Arteries it is very likely the Heart is wonderfully relieved thereby Idem IX opening of a Vein may be omitted when the strength
over intervening concerning which Spots Practioners doubt whether they come symptomatically or critically I indeed sometimes have observed that by reason of the quantity and quality of the bloud and corrupt Serum which Nature was not able to correct have appeared unhappily and portended Death it self I have also observed them to break out critically as well as the Small Pox and Measles which were kindly But these forementioned Spots in Malignant fevers are the effects of a very bad Cause as it argues so great a corruption of the bloud in the live Body that the Fermentation causes such a diacrisis or apocrisis in the mass of bloud as that the volatile Salt it self appears Simon Pauli D grâ—s de Feb. M â—â—gâ— Sect. 52 5â— which is naturally apt to pass subject to subject and is by consequent a poison which acts in its whole substance and this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or morbid excretion of Hippocrates XXV Lest any one should accuse us as if we were ignorant of the methodus medendi because when they that are sick of a Malignant fever with a hot and dry Intemperature and that notorious enough to the touch indeed gentle and kindly we presently fly to Sudorificks Diureticks and finally to Salts and I add that I willingly allow him this although it be not universally true that all these things are hot as to our last refuge when the Fever requires cooling things I will here introduce Hofmannus his reason namely why Diseases of hot Intemperature are cured with hot Medicine fetched from his de Medicam Officin lib 2. cap. 128. Because it holds good not onely in the Venereal Disease whose cure he treats of in the forecited place but in Malignant fevers and many other Diseases called Occult and in such as wherein the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates which word many understand amiss is said and believed to be In that place after Fallopius he inveighs against them who granting Guaiacum to be bitter and biting and therefore hot and dry yet would have it most temperate and as like our Body as any aliment because they observe that some grow corpulent upon the use of this Wood. By which contradiction some being constrained saith Hofmannus have held that this wood cures the Pox indeed whether it depend on hot humours or cold by propriety of substance or some occult property and other Diseases joined with it by manifest qualities But indeed they are very much deceived For if it be thus when it cures the Pox it self does it lay aside its manifest qualities They will not say so I hope Therefore these Problemes still remain undiscussed Why Hot fights with Hot and Dry with Dry And if it be such in adjunct Diseases why is it not in the root it self But is it hot and moist perfectly and does it nourish more than gelly Broth of a Chicken Then this is sure Guaiacum is hot and dry and how does it drive away a Disease that is hot and dry It is by discussing and wasting the hot and dry humours I add that they appear such or are really hot and dry because of the Salt wherewith the bloud of Persons infected with the Pox does without all controversie most exuberantly abound for certainly this Plague of theirs is contagious which is cooling by accident So Rheubarb cocls by purging such humours but it does it not indifferently and without the Laws of Method without which those who have tried it have been greatly hurt Yet does it noâ—rish For they take the Body of it It nourishes not at all for since aliment is a passive Word that is is a thing which is conquered who can believe that so hot a Medicine can be conquered and turned into the substance of the thing nourished Yet People grow fat upon it You kill me for I said but now it was done by accident the hot humours being discussed and the obstructions of the Bowels being opened which hindred the generation of Bloud But how bad a Logician are you in that you distinguish not what is of it self and what by accident c. But this is the summ of the matter that the Venereal Disease a hot and dry one is cured with a hot and dry Medicine by accident and that indeed by a simple Decoction of Guaiacum Which we must affirm is done likewise in a Malignant and Spotted fever while we use Sudorificks Diureticks and Salts in particular namely that sharp and hot things are good for them by accident why Because while in it no crisis or but an imperfect one intervening the Salt in the mass of bloud being now made fixt in the hands or feet or rather in the Anastomoses of the Veins and Arteries of the said parts far distant from the Heart hinders the free circulation these Salts render it volatile which being either attenuated or made volatile and discharged by the benefit of Circulation by sweat or being more fixt and as it were in fusion by the Urinary passages it does again freely doe its duty which being procured the bloud is truly cleansed and as it were ventilated not onely in the said Fever but in other malignant and contagious Diseases hereupon Health is procured and the Malignity dispatched But when in this acute Disease and in a Malignant fever Nature receives no assistence then at length whatever upon the ceasing of the Fever or fermentation in the mass of bloud is corrupt and remains Idem ibid. breeds divers imposthumes and swellings in divers parts XXVI And as there is extreme danger in purging in Malignant fevers so it is well known that those Medicines which are commended against Fevers and those commended against poisons are diametrically opposite one to another and why Because some Antifebrile Medicines have been found out not by Indications but by Empiricism And since the manner of the corruption of our bloud in Fevers and especially in Malignant and Spotted ones varies and as it were eludes the industry of Physicians hence it usually falls out that both Agues and especially Malignant and Spotted fevers when we come to them we call Antifebrile and Specifick Medicines are so hard to cure that they are cured rather by chance than reason And the Cause besides that I brought from the corruption of the bloud is this for that there is no Fever without fermentation or ebullition Therefore if for example's sake Nutmeg Alume Powder of Tormentill Antefebrilis Crollij prepared of long Oyster shells with Wine Vinegar Pearl Coral Bezoar stone Pretious Stones and the like be given to People in Fevers it sometimes happens that the Fever ceases and Why Because that Ebullition is stopt by them just as we find that the heat of the Stomach is stopt by the alone use of simple Chalk powdered But if you weigh these simples in the Balance of Reason you will find it very likely that they act what they do act by drying and by their earthy parts for they are in an
be free from that infection 5. This powder was used with great success in the Plague and is given by many but erroneously as a common cure for Fevers Take Sugar-Candy 3 drachms Ginger 2 drachms Camphire 1 drachm Mix them The dose 1 drachm in Water and Vinegar in which Tansie has been boiled especially when the season is not hot ¶ I could also prove the efficacy of this Electuary by good witnesses it is made also of Camphire Take of Scordium 3 drachms Tormentil White Dittany Zedoary Gentian Angelica Cloves each 1 drachm Saffron Camphire each 2 scruples Mix them Make a powder sprinkle it with Water of Carduus in which are dissolved of Treacle 2 drachms and with Syrup of Juice of Carduus and of Scordium make an Electuary The dose 1 drachm or more in Carduus-water ¶ Nothing is better to preserve children from the Plague than Bole-Armenick with a little Tormentil and Citron-pill powdered which may be strewed on their Meat ¶ In a Pestilential fever the following Water is a truely royal Medicine and is highly commended Take Spirit of Malmsey-wine eight times distilled 8 Measures put to it of root of Tormentil Serpentaria each 1 ounce Angelica Zedoary each half an ounce Citron-peel Cinamon each 1 drachm let them stand 3 days in a glass stopt and in a warm place then these things being cast away and strained out first pour this Elixir again into a glass and let these things tied up in Linen be put into it Take of fresh Sperma Ceti Ambergrise best Rheubarb each 2 drachms Musk half a drachm let the Vessel be well stopt keep it One drop of it in Summer time is taken with Sugar of Roses for preservation to those that are infected one ounce may be given with Water of Carduus Benedictus Scabious or Scordium adding 1 drachm of this Powder Take of Hartshorn Unicorns-horn each 1 scruple Terra sigillata half a drachm Pearl Emerald each half a scruple Camphire 7 grains 5 grains of Bezoar-stone may be added and every 3 hours 1 scruple of this powder may be given with Water of Water-lily Sorel c. and when the Patient has taken it let him Sweat ¶ I have learned by certain experience that to pour some Spirit of Malmsey-wine upon Amber and keep the Glass close stopt and every morning to take a few drops with Bread Crato is an excellent preservative from the Plague 5. Elixir Alliatum is reckoned a great Preservative from the Plague it is made thus Take twenty heads of Garlick cleansed bruise them put them in an Alembick pour to them rectified Spirit of Wine till it stand four inches above distill it in Balneo by cohobations always putting in new Garlick in the last distillation add of Camphire tied in a rag and hung in the nose of the Alembick 1 drachm distill it as before ¶ There is a most secret virtue against the Plague in the herb Milfoil whole with its Flowers Deodatus with which onely the Buriers use to guard themselves in the greatest Plagues 6. A compound Oil is made of Scorpions and is much celebrated amongst Chymists it is commonly called Oleum Clementis it shews wonderfull effects in Poison and in all Pestilential Diseases reviving them that are half dead which Oil I highly commend in this case if the Arteries Pet. Salius Diversus and the region of the heart be anointed onely with it 7. A Salt is made of the ashes of a burnt Toad with Water of Carduus Benedictus or Meadow-sweet The dose half a drachm in Carduus Benedictus Water for a Sweat in the Plague which it powerfully promotes Faber and it is very good to cast the Plague out thereby 8. I take Earth-Toads and hang them up and dry them in the Air then I lay them on a hot Tile to make them dry I powder them but first I anoint the Pestil and Mortar with Oil of Scorpions that the Powder may not get into my Nose and hurt my brain with its poisonous quality I take of this Powder 1 ounce sowre Leven 4 ounces the best Treacle 1 ounce leaves of green Rue 1 handfull I mix all these things well with Honey and apply it to the Bubo twice or thrice a day This Plaster draws the Poison out of the body wonderfully to it self a whole Toad dried Guilh. Frabricius and applied to a Bubo does the same 9. This is a most noble Bezoardick Tincture Take of Mistura simplex 3 ounces Berries of the herb One berry 3 drachms Scorzonera-Root 4 scruples Make an Infusion and digest them J. Mich. Febr. The Dose 1 scruple to 2 scruples 10. Hier. Fabricius I especially commend Flammula Jovis to be applied to a Bubo because it draws much and raises blisters by which the Poison is purged out 11. This Plaster is commended above all others for Swellings and Pestilential Buboes Take a Frog and a Toad dried powder them add thereto of Gum Opoponax Frankincense each 2 ounces Galbanum 1 ounce Serapinum 4 ounces Bdellium 3 drachms pour to them Rose-vinegar what is sufficient boil and dissolve the Gums add of Camphire Oil of Sulphur each 1 ounce Fry them in a Frying-pan into the form of a Pultess and apply it hot to the Swelling repeating it every six hours ¶ This is very good to anoint Carbuncles Take of Vnguentum Basilicon 1 ounce fat of Vipers 1 ounce extract of Scordium 3 drachms Treacle 2 drachms Juice of Lemons Oil of Scorpions each half an ounce Mix them Make an Unguent Anoint the Carbuncles ¶ Above all other things which by experience are found good to preserve from the Plague Vitriol is the thing To the stronger sort it may be given to 1 drachm dissolved with Honey and Water for the weak it is prepared with Rose-water and ground very fine at least four times and so half a drachm of it may be given with Wine or Honey ¶ In a Malignant Spotted Fever this Cordial-water of mine is most excellent Take of Juice of Goat's Rue Sorrel Scordium Citron each 1 pound Mix them Add 1 ounce of Treacle Infuse them in warm Water then distill them in Balneo The dose half an ounce morning and evening ¶ This is a most excellent Powder which preserves from and cures the Plague Take of White Vitriol it is first powdered and infused in water then it is dried and this is done three or four times adding a little Camphire of White Dittany Tormentil-root each 2 drachms Make a Powder Rod. à Fonseca The Dose is 1 drachm in Water of Plantain or Roses or Sorrel 12. This Powder of mine was very good Take of Root of Dittany Tormentil Bole Armenick prepared Terra sigillata each 3 drachms Roots of Gentian Butter-bur Tunica each 2 drachms red Sanders 1 drachm shavings of Ivory Citron-Pill red Coral Bone of a Stag's heart Root of Zedoary each half a drachm prepared Pearl both the Behens each 2 drachms Amber Unicorn each half a
Hand to keep one open which yet he does not mention lib. de Haemorrhoid wherefore they have Revellents Incrassaters and Astringents in suspicion as if they thought it were an easie matter to stop this evacuation But because I have observed in my Practice that strong Remedies did little good and gentle ones none at all I use all the Apparatus of Medicines to suppress it yet so as it be not moderate periodick of thick and melancholick Bloud nor troublesome to the Patient because from such the Patient rather finds relief than detriment Of which excellent Doctrine not I but Galen is the Teacher who 4. Aph. 25. says that for Bloud to be voided upwards whatsoever it be is bad but to bleed downwards by the Haemorrhoids is good when black stuff is voided that is when the Man's nature gathers abundance of such humour Otherwise we must not rashly accustome our selves to evacuation by the Haemorrhoids For either excess is accounted dangerous Fortis cons 100. cent 2. both when Bloud is voided above measure and when it is totally stopt VIII It ought to be observed that they are in a gross errour who in an excessive Flux of the Haemorrhoids from the Vessels being opened do set Cupping-glasses to the Back-bone and several ways draw from the Hips to the Neck or Shoulders thinking by these means the Bloud will be retracted Whereas by these means granting the circulation of the Bloud more Bloud is drawn to the place affected and the Vessels are opened by increasing the Flux of Bloud in the greater Vessels which being afterwards quickned at the Heart Frid. Hofmannus increases its Flux in the Arteries ¶ Scarifications Cuppings Ligatures Frictions although they be proper for Revulsion in other Haemorrhagies wherein the Bloud comes out of the Branches of the Vena cava yet here since they can neither exhaust the Bloud out of the Vena cava nor derive it from the Mesaraicks to any other place they will doe little good IX Fernelius lib. 6. de Part. morb Symptomat c. 10. has observed which I also have observed that sometimes there comes out of the Podex without Pain or Bloud some mucous or whitish Filth which some mistake for Pus He thinks it is as it were the Slime and Dregs of melancholick Bloud which the sedal Veins do void a long time commonly after tedious melancholick Diseases and hard riding Platerus writes that this comes the same way as Womens Whites That like as in Women Nature rids her self of that white matter by the menstrual Veins so here she does it by the haemorrhoidal of a matter not unlike the white tenaceous Menstrua Sâ—â—nerius X. These Veins are not all of them of one sort as has hitherto been believed by many but some are internal arising from the Porta others external from the Cava to which the haemorrhoidal Arteries are joined by which the humours to be evacuated are carried Onely the internal were known to the Ancients commended as in splenick and melancholick Diseases and as if they might be opened about the Podex or Leeches might be applied to them whereas no Branches of the Porta that lies within do reach the Skin which may be cut They differ 1. In their original for the internal come from the Porta sometimes from the splenick Branch whence comes the Vas breve The external from the hypogastrick Branch of the Cava 2. In insertion for the internal are inserted into the substance of the Intestinum rectum The external into the musculous substance of the Anus 3. In number the internal is one the external three 4. In the qualities of the contained Bloud the Bloud of the internal is thick and black of the external thin and red 5. In their use the internal empty the Porta and help obstructions of the Spleen the external do empty the Cava and Liver by accident but primarily the great Artery and the Heart yea their evacuation cures sanguine Diseases of the Head Breast c. which Hippocrates also mentions in his Aphorisms hence the internal are said to cure a Cacochymie the external a Plethory 6. In profusion of Bloud the Flux of the internal is not so plentifull of the external so great sometimes that Death or grievous Diseases do follow 7. In evacuation of the external there is no pain or griping in the Belly sometimes also no pain in the Anus which in evacuation of the internal do afflict 8. Arteries do not accompany the internal Veins the external Veins descend to the Muscles of the Anus with the Arteries Tho. Bartholinus libello 1. ca. 4. therefore these are more rightly called haemorrhoidal Vessels XI We often see thick and black humours evacuated by the Haemorrhoids that run spontaneously But we must know that this Bloud comes not from the Spleen but from the Plethory of the whole Body into these Veins and is discharged as into the more ignoble parts where if it tarry it may easily fall into corruption and putrefaction so that it looks like a sort of Imposthume Walaeus Met. Med. p. 86. and these Haemorrhoids seem to be a kind of Varices XII Hippocrates lib. de Vict. acut and lib. de Haemorrhoid propounds Tying Cutting and Burning saving one open which operation as being very laborious and exceeding dangerous is grown obsolete in our times Yet Massoria says he once saw this operation the History whereof it may be usefull to describe because from thence the manner of operation and the event will appear Fridericus Corsicus had been ill first of a Pain then of an immoderate Flux of the Haemorrhoids And when he had tried many Remedies in vain he at length betook himself to Padua where the Physicians by common consent resolved that the Bloud must be stopt by manual operation A Neapolitan Chirurgeon who professed that thing was called The Haemorrhoids were cut tied and burnt The sum of the operation is this First they conveniently bind the Man then they excarnate the extreme heads of the Haemorrhoids how many soever they be and gently separate them from the Intestine then with a certain proper strong Needle with a Thread they perforate them all almost to the end and tye them strait and sew them when this is done they clip off the part of the Veins which is above the Suture and fear it with a red hot Iron Truly a very painfull and tiresome Work what with the Ligature Section and the Burning A Fever and great Pain came upon Frederick but the Chirurgeon using some of his own Remedies he in a few days was free from his Fever Pain and Haemorrhoids to the admiration of many But it must not be omitted that he being over confident of himself did not onely omit Bleeding and Purging but kept no good Diet and the next year he died of a pestilential Fever Wherefore Hippocrates his Rule Aphor. 12. 6. must be observed that one Haemorrhoid should be kept open Unless according to Aetius the Patient
and an Oedematous one X. The Physician must labour to know an internal one XI Vnguents are not very proper XII I. AS 1. All the bloud is carried by the Arteries from the Heart to all and each of the containing parts of the body both for their vivification nutrition and increase and for the separation of all the humours or contents usefull and useless some way or other from the rest of the mass So the same after this multifarious benefit multifariously conferred on both bodies being residuous and surviving but deprived of some part of it self or effoete is again carried by the Veins from all and each of the same containing parts to the Heart there to be renewed by the mutual mixture of various concurring parts and by their effervescence and vital rarefaction afterwards 2. And this reciprocal flux and reflux of the bloud is called now the Circulation of the bloud 3. But the Bloud is sometimes hindred in its reflux when it either stagnates and stops in its Vessels and Passages or is poured out of them whether it be into the Substance of the adjoining parts or into the Cavities of the body or whether it happen out of the Body 4. The Bloud stagnates in its Vessels either through an excessive Plethora called ad Vasa or as to the Vessels or by reason of their narrowness caused either by their compression or obstruction 5. The Veins are compressed so as to hinder the reflux of the Bloud sometimes by hard tumours adjoining sometimes by bands about the parts which straiten both the Veins and Arteries 6. The Veins are stopt sometimes by the Bloud it self or Phlegm coagulated and concrete in them sometimes though rarely by a Stone bred in them and increased by degrees 7. By Veins I understand as most do the cavernous substance of each part by which the Bloud for the most of it passes out of the Arteries into the Veins 8. The Bloud is coagulated both by the extreme cold of the Air or Water affecting the Parts very much and by powerfull astringent or austere Medicines communicated to the Bloud either inwardly or outwardly and congealing it 9. Phlegm is coagulated in the said Vessels by the same causes but most frequently by the cold of the Air Water Drink or of other things suddenly seizing the parts that were hot before either inwardly or outwardly thickning and curdling the Phlegm especially the viscid which has by some cause or other been dissolved in the small Gut and carried thence into the Bloud and dispersed every way with it 10. Where note the more causes concur and the more peccant they are so much more easily quickly and plentifully is the said Phlegm dissolved and carried to the Bloud 11. And the Bloud stagnating in the said Vessels and gathered by little and little distends them more and more and so indeed that sometimes they burst or afford a passage for it some way or other upon which there happens then an effusion of the bloud out of its vessels whether it stick in the substance of the adjacent parts or be gathered in some adjoining cavity of the Body or be all poured out of the body 12. The Bloud as yet inclosed and remaining in the capillary vessels and it may be also in the sinuous substance of any part intermediate to them or poured out of its said usual passages but open and patent into the porous substance whatever it is of the parts themselves and especially the carnous or membranous or into their interstices and gathered in a moderate quantity at least does of it self presently grow hot and produces a troublesome sense of Heat in the sensible part and being by degrees corrupted it uses to turn into pus or sanies Wherefore the first mutation is called an Inflammation as the latter is called an Abscess or Imposthume 13. And I think the Bloud grows hot or breeds an Inflammation inasmuch as its spirituous and more volatile and subtile parts which used to temper the acid and saline ones presently begin to vanish when it stops in its distinct vessels or in any other place that is stagnates Upon which both of them being made more sharp do fight one with the other and raise a hot effervescence by reason of the oily parts of the bloud and by little and little so corrupt the bloud that it turns to pus which varies according to the variety of the corrupt bloud Sylvius de le Bâ—◠¶ For the Cure therefore of the Inflammation and of the Abscess that would then follow it is requisite 1. That the Compression or Obstruction of the vessels be removed 2. That the motion of the stagnating or stopping bloud be restored 3. That the Bloud poured out of its vessels may if possible be removed thence before its suppuration 4. If it cannot be removed and so suppuration cannot be hindred that it may be maturated and promoted 5. That discharging the pus when bred may be hastned 6. That cleansing and consolidation of the Ulcer may quickly be finished As to the first Indication and Obstruction see Tit. de Pleuritide BOOK XIV where one thing should be added concerning Externals that volatile Salts may be here used outwardly with great success if at the time of using they be mixt in a small quantity with Fomentations Cataplasms Unguents c. For the second Indication Sudorificks are good as by their help the bloud is not onely made more fluid but moreover it is actually put in motion being more and more rarefied by the volatile Salt that is in Sudorificks And Venaesection inasmuch as the next bloud comes into the room of that which is let out and so more room being made for all the bloud it moves both quicker and stronger wherefore that which stagnated and stopt first in the Vessels now that the Plethora is removed stops no more but renews its interrupted motion For the third Indication these things given inwardly hinder the coagulation of the bloud Crabs-eyes Antimonium Diaphoreticum Mummy Sperma Ceti Galbanum Sagapenum Opium c. The Part affected may be anointed with Vnguentum Martiatum de Althaea compositum or any other Aromatick May Butter and Butter prepared with the Juice of aromatick Plants adding sometimes aromatick Oils distilled Among Plasters this de Spermate Ceti is highly commended Take of white Wax four ounces Sperma Ceti two ounces Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar one ounce Mix them Make a Plaster or Sparadrap Which not onely preserves the Bloud in all external parts of the Body but Milk also in the Breasts from Coagulation yea it dissolves and discusses it if but gently coagulated The fourth Indication is satisfied by emollient and maturating Medicines But when pituitous and viscous Humours are mixt with the Bloud sometimes the Bulbs of Onions Squills c. must be added to them sometimes Bdellium Galbanum Ammoniack and the like liquid Stirax Wax Turpentine and Honey Where a great Heat is in the inflamed part and the Patients cannot
Septalius lib. 6. animad 117. forbids Diureticks in the Palpitation of the Heart if thick Blood offend because they exhaust the Serum of the Blood and make it thicker But when it arises from a warry and serous Humour there is nothing that can more easily conquer the violence of this Disease VII Although we must presently relieve the Heart as a principal part by such things as have a singular virtue to encrease its strength and to discuss the malignity of the Vapours such as are most sweet sented and Aromatick things which by their Balsamick virtue defend the innate heat of the Heart and by their heat discuss and waste the Vaporous Matter Yet if the Womb be the cause of the Palpitation we must abstain from them the Diseased Constitution of the Womb forbidding it For such things presently cause Fits and then the Palpitation is greater For when the Brain is refreshed with sweet sents by the sympathy which is between it and the Womb if this be morbid the latent Vapours are raised which fly to the principal parts especially to the Heart Therefore we should rather fly to those things which have the faculty of discussing that vapid Substance such as some fetid and strong smelling things which by their inimicous quality excite the expulsive faculty to cast out what is noxious Besides they have a virtue to attenuate and violently to dissipate as appears in Castor Galbanum Asa faetida and the like Sennertus VIII If the Palpitation come from Wind Electuaries and other Compositions must have no Syrupus de Pomis in them Rondeletius for Apples keep their windiness to the third concoction as Avicenna writes IX A certain Valetudinary Prince when he had been a long time most grievously troubled with Palpitations of the Heart could find relief by no Medicines A young Physician coming in tells how he found in some Writings of the former Age that a certain kind of Worm sometime breeds in the Heart which by taking a Clove of Garlick Evening and Morning may be killed which Remedy was neglected and accounted despicable But at length when the Disease had killed the Prince his Body was opened a white Worm with a very sharp horny snout was found sticking to the Heart which the Physicians took and put alive into a Circle drawn on the Table with juice of Garlick J. Hebenstrein l. de Peste it crept about and about and was wonderfully tormented but would not touch the Circle At length being overcome with the sent of the Garlick it died within the Circle X. A Noble Matron of Newemburgh 35 years old had been troubled with the Hypochondriack Disease for ten years She was taken with so violent a Palpitation that one would have thought her Heart would have broke her Ribs and leaped out of her Breast When I was called I presently ordered an Emollient Glyster to be given her because she never went to Stool but upon meer necessity This was succeeded by a Carminative one Afterwards an Epitheme was applied of Treacle Confectio hyacynthina and Alkermes without Amber or Musk. Then the following Potion was given her Take of Water of Balm Carduus Benedictus each 1 Ounce Orange-flower-Water half an Ounce Cinnamon Water 2 Drachms Syrupus corticis Citri made according to Zwelfer's Correction and of Betony Flowers each half an Ounce Oyl of Citron rind 2 Drops prepared Pearl 5 Grains Saffron 1 Grain In two hours time it left her and never returned again XI This must be reckoned in the Palpitation which comes from heat and abundance of Blood we must neither use hot things lest the effervescence be increased nor cold ones lest when the efflux of Vapours is stopt the Palpitation grow more violent For it is sufficient to use temperate Mercatus strengthning and odoriferous things XII Issues are very good in the Palpitation of the Heart as I have happily experienced Which since they may be made in divers parts of the Body if the matter falling from the Head cause the Palpitation as Hippocrates says it is best to make Issues in the upper parts and in this case I use to advise an Issue in the right Arm. Mercurialis But if it be essentially in the Heart or come by consent with the lower parts it is much better to make an Issue a little above or below the Knee XIII In this sort of Disease we must insist long on Medicines Ferdinandus Hist 12. for after six months or a whole year the Disease uses to return as I have known several Wherefore we must always be doubtful of it and not be overjoyed because it ceases for a month or two XIV Joh. Praevotius in a years time cured Baron K. of a Palpitation of the Heart Rhodius Cent. 2. Obs 40. and of all the Arteries in manner of an Aneurism from retorrid Bile with drinking of Whey and bathing in fresh Water Fernelius mentions this Pulsation Path. lib. 5. cap. 12. XV. Since the Causes are various the Cure must also variously be insisted on For what some hold that these Remedies which are vulgarly called Cordials do refresh the Heart and are thought to help it as it is laboring this is repugnant to Reason and to ordinary Experience Since therefore we have declared how the Palpitation of the Heart proceeds from some fault in the Blood or in the Arteries that are joyned to the Heart and have shewn the divers ways of affecting both of these an apt method of Cure must be accommodated to every sort of that Disease 1. Therefore if the Disease proceed from some fault in the Blood the primary Therapeutick intention must be to exalt the Blood that is too watry and unfit for Accension and Fermentation to a better crasis and to exalt and increase its active Principles that are depressed or diminished For which purpose Spirituous Medicines also Saline of all sorts Sulphureous and especially Chalybeates are proper Here also we may prescribe such things as are used in a Leucophlegmatia Pica and a cold Scurvy 2. The Palpitation of the Heart which is more frequent and much more violent comes from the Cardiack Arteries and then their fault is either an Obstruction or a Spasmodick Affection The first Disease is usually continual and often incurable especially if it comes from Consumptive Lungs or from a Tubercle at the Roots of the Arteries or some bony Excrescence whereby they are half stopt up or compressed Which causes if at any time they be there and can perfectly be known it would be in vain to endeavour to remove them But rather this only must be done we must give the Patient some ease by an Hypnotick to prolong a miserable Life a little further Nor is it also improbable that the Arteries are in a great measure filled by Polypous Concretions that are used to breed there and sometimes within the Ventricles of the Heart and therefore the free and total exilition of the Blood is hindred As the
Diagnostick of this is very difficult so I think the Cure of it is no less rare When there is suspicion of it Saline Medicines especially seem to be of use and such of them must be given as are endued with a Volatil or Acid Salt And the same things must not be given together but these for some space of time and when they will do no good others may be tried 1. Spirit of Sal Ammoniack compound with Millepedes or distilled with other Antasthmaticks 3 Ounces The Dose from 15 Drops to 20 thrice a day in some Julep or appropriate Water 2. Spirit of Sea-Salt or Vitriol impregnated distilled and often cohobated with Spirit of Wine and Pneumonick Herbs 3 Drachms The Dose from 15 Drops to 20 in the same manner 3. The Palpitation of the Heart is often a Convulsive Affection and is usually produced by the like cause and way of efficiency whereby other Hypochondriack and Asthmatick Diseases are usually produced The Cure whereof must in like manner be attempted by Antispasmodick Remedies c. Willis Saxonia mentions this last sort Praelect Pract. parte 2. cap. 1. It must be observed says he that it is caused by some fault in the Nerves alone nothing appearing amiss in the Brain Breast or Muscles Which I observed in my Brother whom I perfectly restored by the use of Treacle only applied to the beginning of the Spinal Marrow XVI The Trembling of the Heart which they commonly call the Passion of the Heart is a Disease distinct yea quite another from the Palpitation of it For in the Trembling the Carnous or Motive Fibres seem to be affected by themselves and the Morbifick cause does not in this as in the other Disease consist in the Blood or in the Arteries of the Heart The trembling of the Heart may be described to be a Spasmodick Convulsion or rather a Trepidation of it wherein the Motive Fibres do very quickly make only semicontracted and very speedy Systoles and Diastoles but abrupt and as it were half strokes so that the Blood can be brought into the Ventricles of the Heart and carried out only by small portions The formal reason seems to consist in this that the Animal Spirits belonging to some certain Muscles do start restless out of the Tendons continually into the Flesh and return and so in a perpetual vicissitude they repeat their Excursions and Recursions in the mean time when they are only exalted with small Forces so that they do not fill up the Carnous Fibres and they stay in these Fibres only a short time and although they make sometimes frequent efforts yet they are weak insomuch that the Members and Limbs are not moved out of their places by the Muscles so perpetually agitated and the Heart during its trembling how quickly soever shaken yet it is scarce able to drive the Blood about as is plainly manifest from the little and as it were tremulous pulse and a decay of all strength As to the Conjunct and Procartarctick Causes whereby namely the Muscular Spirits are made so instable or acquire this Desultory Faculty it seems that some Heterogeneous and Elastick Matter having past the Brain and Nervous Ducts then is carried into the Muscles and the Tendinous ends of them where mixing now and then with the Spirits it irritates them so that they can be quiet no where but run hither and thither continually and in the mean time they either omit or do not strenuously perform their proper Offices The cause of the trembling of the Heart is commonly laid upon the Spleen for it is vulgarly supposed that foul Vapours are by this parts being obstructed or otherwise amiss sent to the Heart which seising of it make it so shake and tremble yea as if it were in a cold fit This Opinion has gained some credit because Hypochondriacks or Spleneticks are found to be very subject to the Cardiack Passion But the reason why they that are reckoned Splenetick and Hysterick are so commonly troubled with the Passion of the Heart is the great affinity and intimate communication between the Splenetick and Cardiack Nerves so that not only the affection of one Part does draw another easily into consent but if at any time Spasmodick Matter falls upon the Branches of the Nerves belonging to the Spleen or Bowels in the lower Belly it seldom misses but the same in like manner scises those that belong to the Heart As for the method of Cure to be followed in the Cure of the Passion of the Heart because it is a Disease meerly Spasmodick therefore not Cardick but rather Cephalick and Nervous Medicines are indicated which yet according to the Temperament and Complexion of the Patient must be hot or moderate and sometimes of this sometimes of the other nature That I may comprehend the business in short three sorts of Medicines use to do the most good in this Disease Testaceous Chalybeates and things endued with a volatil salt Therefore first of all provision being made by evacuating the whole Medicines may be prescribed Idem which shall seem to be most useful Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Let a Man take this Potion inwardly which I have seen do good to a miracle Take of Water of Boragè 5 ounces Syrup of Borage 1 ounce Julep of Roses Cinnamon Water each half an ounce dissolved Pearl 2 drachm◠dissolved Gold 1 drachm Crato Mix them 2. Spirit of Balm alone cures the Palpitation of the Heart when the Body is purged Take of Regulus of Antimony 2 ounces the best Gold 2 drachms Melt them in a Crucible then reduce them to Powder add of red Coral Pearl each 2 drachms Mix them through a Sive Add the like weight of the best Nitre Burn them in a hot Fire for three hours Powder them very fine Wash it in sweet Water Put it into a Glass retort with the best Spirit of Wine and distil the Spirit cohobating it three or four times upon the Powder So it is prepared for an excellent Bezoardick Powder which in virtue excels the Bezoar-Stone The Dose half a drachm with Water of Carduus Benedictus Fabe◠Meadow-sweet or Balm It is given to drive out in Palpitation of the Heart Malignant Fevers and the Small Pox. 3. For the Palpitation of the Heart I ordered the following Bag to be applied to the Heart Take of dry Balm 4 handfuls the Cordial Flowers 1 pugil shred them grossly Make a Bag. When it was applied to the Heart the Palpitation ceased to a miracle There is an admirable virtue in Balm both taken inwardly and applied outwardly I took green Balm and Borage bruised them a little laid them upon a hot Tile sprinkled them with a little Rose Water and Vinegar and applied them to the Heart Forestus and the Palpitation of it ceased to the admiration of all Men. 4. The Juice extracted out of Weather's Hearts strengthens the Heart wonderfully Take the Heart of a Weather or a
affectus or Distempers of the Feet The Contents A cruel Pain cured by a Cautery I. The Sweat and Stinking of the Feet is to be cautiously stopt II. I. A Woman for five years together was taken two or three times a day with a very cruel Pain in the Soal of her left Foot it rose from a thick Flatus mixt with tough Phlegm a weakness of the part accompanying with heat redness hardness Many Remedies being used in vain at last an actual Cautery is affixed to the Pained Part after the falling off of the Eschar there flow'd for fifteen days a virulent Matter in great plenty Zacut. prax adm p. 2. obs â—â—t and the Patient was freed of her Pain II. Seeing Excrements are collected about the Extremities of our Bodies the Hands and Feet as the most remote from the Heart more naturally or plentifully than in any other parts of the Limbs so that our Hands grow dirty and our Feet are almost crusted over with virulent and stinking Sordes we must be very careful not to hinder the usual defecation there Wherefore such as pull not off their Boots or Shoes when they go to sleep do great injury to their Feet And those consult ill for their health who to hinder the stinking of their Feet put in their Shoes Myrtle Leaves Filings of Iron c. For as the Arteries endeavour to discharge themselves of their Excrements in these parts so when the Defecation as I may call it is hindred any way the Veins are made to absorb the same together with the Arterial Blood which is carried back to the Heart by means of the Circulation and wants still to be defecated Simon Paull quadr bot Penis affectus or Diseases of the Tard The Contents A Caution in cutting off part of the Tard when it is gangren'd I. We must not after Section use an actual Cautery to stanch the Blood II. The abuse of Cathereticks in rooting out of Caruncles III. Cautions about taking away a Caruncle IV. The Penetration by Rushes is dangerous V. A Caution in putting up a Catheter VI. How a Caruncle may be consumed without injuring the Urethra VII Quick-Silver and Precipitate safely cure a Caries of the Yard VIII The Cure of a Crystalline Bladder of the Glans IX The Vlcers of the Glans are to be handled gently X. The Cure of a Phimosis XI When the Prepuce grows to the Glans they are to be very warily parted the one from the other XII How a Node of the Yard is to be cured XIII The Cure of a Phimosis and Paraphimosis when caused by a wholsom Coitus XIV The Cure thereof when gotten by a Clap. XV. Coolers and Repellers are not to be used in the beginning XVI The Cure of a Paraphimosis in Infants XVII I. IF any Portion be to be cut off from a Gangren'd Yard we ought presently to put into the Vrethra some Pipe or a Wax Candle for Pissing otherwise all that which remains of the substance of the Yard retires within the Body so that thereby the Urine cannot pass forth The Erection of the Yard perishes by the Incision Walaeus meth mod p. 157. for the Spirits can no longer be retained in the Nervous Bodies II. When the Yard is cut off an actual Cautery for stanching the Blood is very dangerous both because it obstructs the Urinary Passage and also is apt to cause an Inflammation in the Bladder and Circumjacent parts I order my Servants to take care of stanching the Blood by holding continually one after another Stupes to the part wet in Water and Vinegar Hildan cent 3. obs 88. and besprinkled with an astringent Pouder III. To root out Caruncles in the Vrethra many do too boldly put up Wax Candles besmeared with Corroding Medicines by the over great biting whereof I have not only seen loss of substance in the Vrethra H. a Moinichen obs 17. but also a Gangrene which infected not only the Perinaeum but also the inside of each Thigh and consumed these parts with a foul Mortification to the destruction of the Patient ¶ A Noble Person being troubled with a Caruncle from a virulent Gonorrhoea when the Surgeon had injected with a Syringe a sharp Liquor into the Urinary passage there presently arose a great Pain whereupon followed an Inflammation and a Fever his Urine was quite suppress'd Hildan cent 4. obs 54. and he died in a few days IV. The original of a Caruncle in the Yard is sometimes to be attributed to a Gonorrhoea in the inflammatory stiffness whereof the Chord as the Vulgar call it being broken in Copulation or to speak more artificially the Membrane of the Vrethra being torn which is contracted and mâ—de shorter by force of the Inflammation and Tumour after a large Hemorrhage such as is usual upon those strainings and violent tearings there remains an Ulcer out of which by degrees there arises a Fungus namely a Preternatural Tumour and Disease in the Urinary Passage that cannot be safely and certainly rooted out any other way than by such Medicins as consume it by immediate contact Those Spongy Thymus's use to run with a Purulent Matter which has generally been taken for a Gonorrhoea by such as have less accurately consider'd the source of this Malady Hence there appear Threeds of Pus floating in the Urine part of which Matter I think also to flow from the Prostates which have been afflicted a long time by an Intemperies not wanting Malignity destructive of the Natural Heat and injurious to all the Functions I cured a Nobleman that had been afflicted fifteen years with such a Caruncle Considering diligently all the difficulties but especially his delicate Nature the most exquisite sense whereof reputed even the easiest Chirurgical Remedies for the cruellest Torments I put mine hand to the work and having premised Universals I consumed the whole Caruncle with little pain by an often repeated application of a Catheretick by a Wax-Candle it was pretty hard and three Fingers breadth long possessing almost half the length of the Vrethra The nearness of the neck of the Bladder gave me no small trouble when I came to the end but especially that small Tubercle which by a gaping mouth gives passage to the Seed into the Vrethra whose bulk being increased by an afflux of Humours would have impos'd upon an unskilful Artist and persuaded the further use of eating Medicines But take this as a Secret from me in the Cure of a Caruncle That 't is better cured by delay than haste As often as the lips of the Ulcer swell being irritated by Medicines Theodor. de Mayerne tract de Arthrit p. 145. they fall again by the application of Lenients and which is strange the most pertinacious obstacles vanish of themselves in a few days V. Because it happens sometimes in a suppression of Urine that there are found a great many Caruncles that hinder its passage and the application of Medicines if neither Baths nor Anointings
to the perforation of the Urinary Passage XIII There sometimes happens an odd kind of Distemper to those who are too much addicted to Venery some call it a Node of the Yard though when that is faln and become flaggy there appear nothing amiss yet he that handles the part throughly may perceive a certain small Tumour resembling a Bean or Glandule I have known several that have been ignorant of the Cause apply Emollients hereto thinking to discuss that hardish substance as if it were filled with some Humour But they have been so far from discussing of it Jul. Caesar Arantius l. de Tumor cap. 50. Sennert pract l. 4. part 9. s 1. c. 8. that the Patients have daily grown worse their Yard bending like a Rams Horn to that side where the Tumour was c. Those things therefore are to be used which are prescribed for a Rupture of the Navel or other Ruptures Astringent Fomentations c. XIV If a Phimosis and Paraphimosis proceed from a vehement Corius the Glans remaining still tumefied if it be fomented a good while with very cold Water it will detumefie and then the Prepuce may easily be drawn over the Glans Riolan Enchir Anat. l. 2. c. 31. This is an admirable Secret XV. I knew a Surgeon in Holland that to such as were troubled with a virulent Phimosis and Paraphimosis gave presently at the beginning an infusion of Stibium Hyacinthinum which is not much to be found fault with in the strong and Phlegmatick especially if Crocus Metallorum should be used in stead of Stibium for it not only evâ—cuates the offending Matter but also revels from the part affected but in the wasted and weak Practitioners know it to be no safe Medicin And we must diligently also consider whether the Whore had the Pox for then we must abstain from the Crocus Metallorum because with a certain violence it draws even from the remotest parts to the centre of the Body as also from all Medicins that purge violently by Vomit lest the offending Matter be drawn from the Genitals to the Liver and an universal Disease be made of a particular one which I have observed to happen in some Fabr. Hild. cent 5. obs 57. 'T is better therefore as I have always done with the greatest success to purge the Body gently XVI Some because they see an Inflammation present do forthwith apply Coolers and Repellers to the part affected but they do ill for by that means they repel the viru ent and malignant Matter contracted from impure Embraces and rivet it as it were into the part whence afterwards there arise virulent and malignant Ulcers But in respect of the Pain which is the principal symptom I apply an Anodyne Cataplasm of the Flowr of Beans and Barley the Seeds of Quinces and Fenugreek Red Rose Leaves pouder'd Saffron and Milk with the Yelks of Eggs anointing the whole Yard unless the vehemence of the Inflammation hinder for Oyl is bad for Inflammations as Galen teacheth with this Oyl Take of Oyl of Sweet Almonds newly drawn and of Roses of each an ounce of the Yelks of Eggs half an ounce Mix them Idem ibid. XVII It happens sometimes that from the bad Diet of the Nurse an Acrimonious Humour falls upon the Genitals of the Infant and there causes an itching and upon rubbing of the part there happens a Paraphimosis that is the Prepuce turns back to behind the Glans and cannot be drawn over it again the Humours flowing together betwixt the Glans and Prepuce yea there sometimes happens an Inflammation from the Acrimony of the Urine Some foolish Barbers cruelly handle Infants thus diseased with deep Scarifications and applications of Acrimoniouâ— Medicins Therefore I will here set down the Remedies whereby I have cured many I first prescribe to the Nurse a thin and cooling Diet then I purge her according to the nature of the predominant Humour But if the Child be weaned I give it at several times from one to three drachms of the compound Syrup of Roses Solutive If the Nurse be Plethorick after purging her I bleed her From the beginning if there be Pain and Inflammation I apply this Cataplasm Take of the Crumb of White Bread three ounces the Pouder of Roses and Balaustins of each two drachms of Saffron a scruple of fresh Butter an ounce of Cows Milk as much as suffices with the Yelk of an Egg make a Cataplasm If the Disease be stubborn I use the following Take of Bean-Flowr two ounces the Pouder of the tops of Wormwood Chamomel Flowers Elder Flowers of each three drachms of the Pouder of Fenugreek Seed two drachms of Cummin Seed three drachms boil them in harsh Wine and make a Cataplasm If there be Excoriation in stead of the Wine I use a Decoction of the Flowers of Chamomel Melilot Elder and Roses Idem ibid. obs 58. Peripneumonia or Inflammation of the Lungs The Contents Whether a Vein be to be opened I. Bleed freely II. Blood is to be let till its colour change III. Let the Orifice be large and the Blood suffer'd to run out in one continued Stream IV. Cupping-Glasses ought to be applied first to the Arms and afterwards to the Breast and Back V. Purging is sometimes good in the beginning VI. Sometimes in the progress VII Purging and Vomits generally do harm VIII Clysters ought to be often injected but such as are gentle IX Let Expectoraters be alter'd according to the state or season of the Disease X. Incrassating Eclegâ—â—s are prudently to be administred XI Hot Attenuaters do hurt XII Whether drinking of cold Water be good XIII Whether sweet things be to be given XIV The Patients may be allowed to drink freely XV. Whether Wine be to be granted XVI The application of Repellents does harm XVII How to remedy Vigiliae or want of sleep in this Disease XVIII I. THere is no small dispute concerning Phlebotomy for 't is written that Blood is to be let out by common Veins whereas no Vein that uses to be opened has any communication with the Veins of the Lungs nor are any branches distributed to the Lungs from the Vena Cava as Galen has in several places disputed against Erasistratus Besides the motion of Nature shews this for whereas in Diseases of the Viscera and burning Fevers bleeding at the Nose is Critical it is not so in a Peripneumony because the Veins of the Nose that pour forth the Blood have no communication with the Lungs If it be true that the Blood does naturally pass from the right Ventricle of the Heart to the Lungs and from thence is brought back into the left Ventricle that it may be sent forth by the Aorta and if the Circulation of the Blood be admitted who sees not that in Diseases of the Lungs the Blood flows thither in greater plenty and oppresses the Lungs unless it be first evacuated freely and afterwards often a little at a â—ime to relieve them This
Millepedes that is either in form of a dry Pouder or of a distilled Liquor seldom fail of success for such recall the superfluities of the Serum from the Head and Nerves and carry them to the Urinary Passages Gentle Purges are also good as is a decoction of an old Cock and other things appropriate to an Asthma See the Section following Willis XXI Of all the dire Symptoms of Scorbutick Persons difficulty of Breathing and straitness of the Breast coming by Fits are the worst I think they for the most part arise either from a sudden stagnation of the Blood that is just growing grumous in the narrow passages of the Lungs or from a Convulsive irritation of the Nerves which serve the Organs of Respiration In the first case there is an exceeding distention of the Lungs and thence as it were an immobility with a sublivid redness in the Face a dimness of sight swooning a low weak intermitting Pulse accompanied with despair of the Patients recovery But in the later case the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries is not very irregular the Party is troubled with a dry Cough together with an anxious straitness about the Heart and deep sighs stopping the Breath For when the Blood because of its thickness stagnates in its Circulation through the strait passages of the Lungs such things are proper as by powerfully attenuating inciding and moving it do restore it to a requisite fluidity and to a more expedite Circular motion 1. Carminative Clysters for Revulsion 2. Blood-letting where there are signs of a Plethora for so when the Blood is diminished the rest will more easily be attenuated and will pass the straits of the Lungs with a quicker motion 3. Hot Thoracicks mixt with Antiscorbuticks of the same virtue Tincture of Saffron Elecampane Castor Elixir Proprietatis Confectio Alkermes Flowers of Sal Ammoniack Benzoin Volatil Salt of Vipers Horse-dung Spirit of Sal Ammoniack A spoonful either by it self or in some convenient Vehicle in a small but a repeated Dose for these do excellently keep off the Fit by keeping the Blood from Coagulation For it is found by Experience that Coagulated Blood is dissolved by a Volatil Salt diluted with Water and besides Volatil Salts there is not any thing found fit to prevent or dissolve this Coagulation For a Scorbutick Asthma from a Convulsion of the Pneumonick Nerves See the foregoing Section Antispasmodicks promise a Cure which are experienced to have the faculties of dulling suppressing and discussing this irritating acrimony of the Humours or Vapours For this these things are cried up Spirit of Sal Ammoniack Hartshorn Soot Castor Spiritus Lavendulae compositus mixt with appropriate Liquors and taken in repeated draughts while difficulty of Breathing is urgent Castor also Galbanum Asa foetida and their Tinctures drawn with Aqua Raphani compos or Lumbricorum But in such a shortness of Breath which threatens to choak the Patient there is no more present Remedy See Charleton Section XII than a few grains of Laudanum Opiatum dissolved in good Canary Wine and infused till the Tincture is extracted and a spoonful of it given now and then Rheumatismus or a Rheumatism See Febris Rheumatismi comes Book VI. and Lumborum Affectus Book X. The Contents The excellency of Blood-letting I. When Purgations must be prescribed II. The benefit of Diureticks III. Sudorificks are not proper at all times IV. We must take care to strengthen the parts V. Cured in a young Man VI. I. BLood must be let every day at the beginning till the Disease and pains abate Nor is it any matter if you Bleed for ten or twelve days or for more since it is peculiar to this Disease for the Patient not to be weakened by Bleeding Therefore it is my custom when I prescribe Bleeding so often to add this restriction that it be continued every day till the pains be abated or the strength be much wasted and when no decay of strength arises upon it Patients do freely admit it The condition of the Blood causes this Tolerance which comes out always very putrid Experience shews the benefit since by repeated Bleeding the Disease which in its own nature is long is often conquered in a short time Besides a large Haemorrhagy supervening often cures it Riverius II. Purging in the beginning increase and state of this Disease gives no relief yea it does harm As it happens in all Inflammatory Diseases But in the declension it is necessary and must often be prescribed and with gentle Medicins that the Cacochymie restagnating in the Body may be carried off If gentle things be insufficient wholly to eradicate this Disease which is often contumacious we must if there be no Fever have recourse to stronger things I have always cured this Disease when other things could not do the work by giving about twenty grains of Mercurius dulcis six times sublimed with ten grains of Scammony or Resin of Julap Idem ¶ One Clyster made of Emetick Wine cured a Woman of this Disease Idem III. In Rheumatick Diseases when a bad and sharp serous Matter bred by a hot intemperature subservient to Sanguification is discharged into the External habit of the Body with a wandring pain of the Bones and with a sense of heat and heaviness all over the Body and sometimes also into the inner parts Diureticks are very good to dry it up and that by Hippocrates his advice lib. de Humor Do not shut up says he the dissolved Humours within but dry up the superfluous and when you have a mind co carry them off or otherwise it is best to use Attenuants because so you may more easily purge them by Stool or by Vrine than if you had restrained them and kept them in by Astringents And by Galen's consent 15. Simplic 13. By Diureticks says he the Blood is not only attenuated but is melted and separated just as in Milk in which what is serous and thin is separated what is thick is curdled and exactly united Frid. Hofm IV. Sudorificks as well as Purgatives do no good but much harm in the beginning increase and state Ordinary Physicians experience this who mistaking it for a true Catarrh and being tired with the contumacy of this Disease have recourse to these things whereby the Disease is doubled and the pains are increased But in the declension Generals premised and when there is no Fever Riverius they do much good V. After sufficient Evacuation yea at the very time of Evacuation we must endeavour to strengthen the principal Parts and the whole Body And these Strengtheners must be cooling by reason of the hot intemperature of the Liver the original of a Rheumatism There is great store of them I shall propound four that are very effectual and not ungrateful 1. Tincture of Corals two ounces whereof may be taken two hours before Breakfast in the morning those days when no other Medicins are used 2. Conserve of Hips which is grateful to
be opened III. IV. Whether it may be done even to swooning IV. It is to be done where there is a Bone under the Artery V. Before an Artery be opened in the Head we must see whether the fluxion be not by the subcutaneous vessels VI. Whether it be more effectual than opening of a Vein VII If an Artery be cut with an hot Iron let the falling of the Eschar be retarded VIII I. ALthough this kind of Remedy is almost obsolete in these times of ours yet it is a very powerful and profitable one and void of all danger for only by ligature the efflux of the Arterial Blood is hindred in the lesser Arteries nor is the Plaster proposed by Galen necessary viz. of bole Armene Frankincense Mastich and hares wool made up with the white of an Egg which yet those may make use of for the greater safety that are fearfull of this opening The Temporal Artery is opened as in Phlebotomy and six ounces of Blood may be taken that spurt◠out with violence after which lay on presently your plagets and let them remain tyed on for four days By the use of this we have cured the fiercest hemicrania or Head-ach and never found any danger in this opening of Arteries ¶ In vain sayes Paraeus Laza◠River Pract. lib. 1 cap. 16. has arteriotomie been suspected as if there were danger that the Blood could not be stopt or the orifice heated up again because of the hardness of the Artery and the continualness of the pulse and for fear of an aneurism but this is the opinion of men that fear all things safe For we must distinguish between the larger Arteries which are to be shunn'd by the Physician for the aforesaid dangers and the smaller in the cutting whereof there is no fear of danger Yea of a larger Artery Galen lib. de s m. cap. 23 sayes that if it be quite cut through it may be closed with a cicatrix without an aneurisma and that doing so has often taken away the danger imminent from a flux of Blood for it is clear that when it is wholly cut asunder both ends being pull'd back on each side one retires upwards and the other downwards and this happens indeed to the veins also but moderately but to the Arteries more than to the Veins And of the difficulty of the coalition he saith thus in the same place The Nature of an Artery does indeed plainly shew the difficulty of its hard coat 's conglutination yet the difficulty is not such as is altogether invincible for it is not so dry and hard as a bone or gristle yea it is far softer and more carnous than these and therefore there is less reason to despair of uniting it after it is cut especially where it self is small and the Body of the man whose it is soft by nature II. The manner of Arteriotomy deliver'd by the Ancients is so severe and dangerous that there is none of the Moderns but is displeased with it yea it had been wholly cast out of the number of Remedies if the pity and diligence of latter Physicians had not invented other wayes Surgeons were wont to tye a string about the Neck but seeing the straiter binding thereof is very troublesome it is better to make this ligature under the Arm-holes Let this be so strait that the jugular Veins and Carotid Arteries may manifest themselves the one by its swelling and the other by its beating then press the arterie with your finger a little lower down than you intend to open it and having open'd it which must be done with a slow but steady and strong hand let it bleed as much as you desire When the operation is over sprinkle an adstringent powder upon the wound then lay a folded linnen cloth upon it and upon that a plate of Lead Barbette Anat. Pract. c. 10. tye both these on with a fit stay and it will be healed up in five or six dayes III. What Arteries may be cut The first is the Frontal that runs along the middle of the fore-head and is commonly divided into two above but in the middle has one single notable trunk this is frequently cut by the Aegyptians in an inveterate Head-ach The second is the Occipital or the Artery of the puppis opposite to the former by the Lambdoidal suture and is opened in the same distempers with the former Thirdly the Temporal Arteries are very safely cut in most diseases of the Head By my advice an implacable pain in the left side of the head was taken away by cutting of these Fourthly Galen mentions the opening of the Arteries behind the Ears lib. de cur rat per s m. c. 22. and Paulus lib. 6. c. 4. commends it in the vertiginous and such as have a fluxion upon their eyes But sayes Galen 3. de loc aff c. 8. it is manifest that all have not been cured by the benefit of this Remedy for some Arteries that are larger than these ascend to the Brain from its basis through the plexus retiformis by which 't is probable such distemper has been caused a vaporous and hot Spirit being carried through them and filling the Brain And it may be also that an unequal intemperies of the Brain may produce such a Spirit Fifthly the opening of that Artery that runs betwixt the thumb and fore-finger that is famous for Galen's praises is good in the pain of the hypochondres there where the Liver is joyned to the diaphragm Septalius lib. 6. animadv 171. and 172 calls it a most wholsom help in palpitation of the heart Alpinus lib. de medic Aegyptior 2. cap. 12. testifies that the Aegyptians cured all the pains of the internal viscera by opening this Artery Sixthly the cutting of the Artery that is near the Ankle is believed to help in the Sciatica None dare on purpose cut an Artery near the Cubit for although an Artery cut by chance by a Surgeon that should have open'd a Vein was healed up again by * Gal. 5. Meth. Med. cap. 7. Galen's advice yet the same Physician lib. de cur rat per s m. cap. 23. judges such apertion to be dangerous for fear of a gangrene or an Aneurisma Rolsinc Met. Med. lib. 4. sect 3. c. 2. IV. Whether may we Bleed by an Artery even to swooning We have Aëtius an asserter of the affirmative Tetrabib 2. serm 3. cap. 9. de arter sect We must cut the Artery sayes he not aslant but a cross even to the bone and most exactly scrape the Membrane that cloaths the Skull and let it bleed even to swooning in such namely as are robust and in whom the pain is vehement for thus you shall destroy the Symptome c. Galen favours it also l. de cur rat per s m cap. ult where he relates how upon the cutting of the Artery betwixt the thumb and fore-finger the Blood issued out so abundantly that it came to near a pound which evacuation was followed by a
be emptied I add that whilst they draw from the Hemorrhoidal Arteries 't is very like that the Heart will be wonderfully helped thereby Rolfink de febr p. 274. See §. 3. Hepaticks or Medicines for the Liver See Hepatis affectus or Diseases of the Liver The Contents They respect either its Vessels Ducts and Pores I. Or the Choler which is either to be restored II. Or temper'd III. Or its tone IV. What and how sweet things help V. How Steel-Remedies profit VI. The too much use of Aperients is hurtful VII Astringents have not place always VIII The abuse of Syrups hurteth IX I. HEpatick Remedies respect either its Vessels Ducts and Pores in the concrete respect being likewise had to the Lymphatick Vessels and Gall-Bladder or the Choler which it separates and transcolates or its tone fibres and parietes or Parenchyma Aperients do chiefly respect the Ducts for this Bowel is principally and above all others subject to Obstructions because of the very numerous Vessels that it has so that the chief Hepaticks are Aperients Hither belong also Diureticks which unless there be withal an over dry intemperies or if there be such of them as are more dilute are most agreeable to the Liver Thus to repeat only a few 1. Bitter things are profitable that cleanse cut and attenuate the clamminess of the choler 2. Others of thin Parts whether Aromaticks as calamus Aromaticus Spicknard c. or Acids as red Liverwort Mineral Spirits 3. Absorbents Lixivials and especially Steel Remedies And these have a notable use in Obstructions in a too mucilaginous choler Jaundise Dropsie Cachexie and the like II. Moreover those that respect the Choler do either restore it if it be sluggish and defective or bridle it when it exceeds and is impetuous lessen it when it abounds and mitigate it when it boils and burns as it were Those that restore the Choler are 1. Partly contrary to those that restore the Ferment of the Stomach and are for the most part the same which encrease the heat of the Stomach namely Sulphureous Balsamicks as all Aromata or Spices likewise spirituous as Wine and its Spirit 2. Partly the same being endued with a volatil and simple and with an oleous acrimonious Salt as Mustard Erysimum or Hedge-Mustard Water-cresses which are like a spur to it for Choler consists chiefly 1. of Oleous Sulphureous Bâ—lsamick Parts 2. of volatil Saline both which are immersed in a little watry mucilage and limited with watry Particles Hither belong also sweet things which encrease choler and that by contributing partly mucilaginous clammy parts whence also the same are said to breed Obstructions partly Sulphureous also if they happen upon an hot and dry Body And these are good in an Anasarca as also partly in an Ascites a serous Cachexie loose Tumours and where in other cases there is need of rarefaction of the Blood for such things as then more intimately rarefie the same do exalt choler They likewise profit the Phlegmatick that have no gall as it were III. Having hapned to mention sweet things we must see why Galen 8. de Comp. Med. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writes that Raisins are familiar to the Liver in their whole substance and why the same thing is not equally attributed to sugared things That familiarity of Raisins with the Liver gave foundation to the Electuary of Raisins in Riverius that notably strengthens the Liver The reason may be because they temper the fluxility and sluggishness of the choler and kindly moisten withal which sugared things do not do IV. And the choler is temper'd and bridled when it exceeds both by accident by certain openers as Preparations of Succory where note that some things are called coolers which yet are hot as we may see by these mention'd inasmuch namely as they loosen the stoppages and cleanse gently withal partly evacuating Cholagogues and also per se by 1. Diluters thus when choler offends the Whey of Goats Milk with a little Cinamon c. is good whether the anima of Rhubarb be taken with it or the clyssus of Antimony be dropt into it both which I use with success hither belong mineral Waters Potions c. Now these very Diluters are a vehicle to Aperients whence note that in the Jaundise such Aperients as dilute more and in the Dropsie such as dry more profit most And those very Aperients that are diluters withal do set the lympha at liberty and make its motion free and withal restore the Serum which is and is called the bridle of choler 2. Bitter things which both cleanse and open the Pores of the choler so that it is hastened more to the Guts and evacuated the vertue of Wormwood Aloes and Rhubarb is known 3. Acids hither belong acidum Tartari red Sanders or the red Liverwort of Dresden because these do tame and blunt the Sulphureous part of the choler and fix and enervate the volatile Saline 4. Earthy and absorbing Remedies especially the Nitrous and Alkaline thus also lixivial Salts themselves belong hither likewise Shells Corals Perles species and Pouders c. likewise Nervines themselves or Cinnabarines which I have found profitable in Diseases of the Liver and I have happily cured a stubborn Pain of the right Hypochondre with Tetters breaking out all the Body over with these especially For it is to be noted what Experience testifies that earthy Medicines do precipitate and absorb both choler or cholerick Humours and also acid and even serous Humours whence we cannot absolutely conclude that wheresoever Alkaline Medicines profit there an acid offendeth for Experience witnesses that the earthy profit in many Patients and Diseases where by the consent of all an acid offendeth not but the choler regurgitates and is frothy which they dissociate inhibit and bridle in its preternatural motion V. Lastly The tone and fibres of the Liver are strengthned both by 1. Moderate Astringents whence it is a common opinion among Practitioners that it delights in Astringents 2. Absorbers especially Steel ones and the vitriolated that are made of these 3. Correcters of any excessive temper but chiefly a moist and consequently a loose Hence Mercurials also and Mercurius dulcis in particular is greatly commended by which with a Bezoartick Steel Remedy Sennertus writes that one was cured who was given over in a Dropsie that on no other account than because Mercurius dulcis makes the Serum fluxile whence it opens Obstructions cures Loosness by diverting the Serum another way and thence evacuating it by convenient ways c. Thus Antimonials likewise are good inasmuch as they notably precipitate and dry discussing the superfluous Humours VI. So Steel-Remedies do chiefly perform this whence there is a caution given concerning their use by Gul. Gilbert in his Book of the Load-stone 1. cap. 15. who sayes that Steel is granted in loose Livers and moist Maladies because it dries also in the Green-sickness over-grown Spleens namely where moisture abounds but he denies it greatly in
violence But being taken with an Apoplexy a few hours after she died Her Body being opened there were hardly to be seen four ounces of Blood remaining So that it is hardly consonant to reason that from so small a quantity of Blood so strong and frequent impressions should be made upon the inner Nervous coats of the Heart and Arteries as to put these Vessels upon driving the Blood about so rapidly And therefore it is very likely that the Heart and Vessels themselves impelled the Blood the Blood it self not concurring thereto We may likewise infer that from the vehemence of some passions of the mind joy anger c. the Channels of the Blood do of themselves promote its motion because the lucid and sense-causing Spirits being moved more than usual do rush more vehemently out of the Brain into the Nervous Channels those perhaps especially that send branches into the Heart and the Vessels that spring from that Bowel whereby it comes to pass that the constrictions of the heart become more frequent and vehement Gautier medic Nivortensis in Merc. am an 1681. In such a case as this it were rashness and imprudence to fly to Venesection and to order it as often as we would do in inflammatory diseases XIII Because the Blood that is poured out at the Nose appears florid and saturated with a splendid redness it is commonly believed to be more pure and sincere than the rest The reason given is because it is poured forth by very slender Vessels which 't is said admit not the thicker Blood But the whole Mass of Blood together with all the humours it consists of is percolated at least in the Liver as all agree which the Physicians that defend the old Hypothesis ought to have noted who likewise teach that the thicker Blood is evacuated by the Hemorrhoids and issues out of the Capillary Vessels If they say that those small Vessels are widened by the turgent and more vehemently fermenting Blood why say they not the same of the Vessels of the Nostrils Besides that Blood which flows out of the Hemorrhoids is sometimes no less bright and red than that which runs out of the Nose Therefore neither the saturate redness of the Blood nor the smalness of the Vessels out of which it issues evince that that Blood is purer than the rest We shall easily find a reason of its deep redness if we observe what happens to the Blood as to its colour as it flows out in this or that manner out of these or those Vessels The Blood that flows out of an Artery being cut is caeteris paribus more bright and red than that which flows out of a Vein Likewise the Blood from whencesoever it flow that destils out by drops is redder than that which issues forth in a full stream by a large Orifice Blood let forth into a broad Bason looks very red If the same be received out of the same Vein into a narrow and deep Vessel it inclines more to black Lastly If the Blood that is let out of its Vessels be received in a cold place it becomes more ruddy if in an hot one more black Thus the Blood that flows out of the internal Hemorrhoids if it be retained in the streight Gut looks more black but more red if it issue forth presently unless some special cause hinder From these things it is evidently gathered that the Blood when it is suddenly cooled becomes more red when it cools by degrees or leisurely it is more black Now it cools the sooner when it issues out but in a small quantity because a little is less able to resist the ambient air than much is It is sooner cooled when it is received in a large or wide Vessel than when in a narrow and deep From these the rest appear Therefore the reason why the Blood that flows out of the Nose looks more red is not because it is purer but because it is suddenly cooled What the quickness or slowness of cooling can do towards variety of colours we may observe in Steel when it is temper'd for if a bar of Steel that is red hot be moved very swiftly through the cold Air it puts on a reddish colour if not so swiftly a colour that inclines to yellow if yet less swiftly it looks blue if very slowly it receives the natural colour of Steel For like as Bodies that are very hot are cooled quicker or slower are the insensible particles of which they consist disposed on this or that manner and they diversly modifie the light which they reflect in which modification does their colour consist Not only the quickness of cooling makes the Blood of a more saturate colour but also the motion of the particles of the Air which by licking as it were the surface of the Blood and depressing the particles that jet out make it more smooth dense and slick and so makes its redness more bright through the greater reflexion of the light Thus Red wood looks redder when it is smoothed and polished by some convenient instrument From the same cause the Blood that was blackish in the top of the Vessel if it be exposed to the Air acquires a more saturate and splendid colour namely because it s dispersed and eminent particles are depressed and compressed into a dense skin which reflects more light than the same Blood when its particles were loose and less cohering because then a great deal of the light did penetrate into the interstices of the parts Fr. Bayle probl med 2. and was not reflected at all and the rest falling upon soft parts was reflected but weakly XIV From the precedent problem it is easily understood that a sudden mutation from heat to cold and the appulse of the Air are the cause of the redness where the Blood that is poured forth shineth Hence it follows that as often as the Blood is red it has undergone the greater and more sudden change which happens two ways either because the Blood is hotter or because the ambient Air is colder Wherefore in an equal temper of the ambient Air other things being also alike a notable redness of the Blood is a sign of its notable heat therefore a florid redness of the Blood is not a certain token of malignity Yet if horrible Symptoms accompany a Fever such as none but a notable putrefaction can produce and yet a putrefaction of the Blood cannot be deduced from its colour those grievous Symptoms are to be referred to some malignity Idem XV. To prove that the Elements of the Blood are the four vulgar humours to wit Blood so called in specie Choler Melancholy and Phlegm some take an argument from the variety of colours in the different parts of the Blood when it is cold in a Poringer for they affirm that that which is florid in the uppermost part is choler which because it is fiery gets a top through its lightness that which is next under this is Blood
and that Galen is to be understood of that which is soft and gentle XVII When the Blood stagnates and stops in its Vessels motion is most happily procured to it by Sudorificks sometimes by Venesection by the help of those the Blood is not only made more fluid and moveable but the same is moreover actually moved and more and more rarefied by the volatil Salt that is in them and by its stay alone does by degrees loose the Blood more or less concreted by its own acid Spirit and therefore agitates it Whence a more frequent and greater pulse uses to be the companion of sweat for whilst the volatil Salt of Sudorificks arrives at the right ventricle of the heart and the Blood there becomes more rare and does not only of its own accord seek an exit for it self but by further widening the ventricle of the Heart it excites the same to both a more frequent and stronger contraction of it self Sylv. de le Boë pract l. 1. c. 34. §. 29. and therefore moves the Blood more that before was somewhat deficient in its motion and promotes its course every way from the Heart XVIII Not only Medicines taken inwardly yea and hot drink drunk freely provoke sweat but many external things also Thus the air alone heated by art and making a dry bath in a stove or sitting by a good fire powerfully draw forth sweat and when a watry humidity is redundant in the Body it is driven forth by sweat this way easily and happily enough but so is not a sowr or acid or Salt Muriatick Humour though a glutinous Humour may thus also be both attenuated and expelled by sweat if so be it be continued long enough lest the same Humour being dissolved by the fire and driven all about be again coagulated in the capillary Vessels and there breed obstructions and many mischiefs that follow thereupon Idem m m. l. 1. c. 11. § 27. XIX Bezoardicum minerale is prepared of the Butter of Antimony by pouring thereon the Spirit of Nitre or aqua Stygia Where it is to be observed that whilst these two liquors are mixed together the Salts meeting by and by with one another are strictly combined and in the mean time the Sulphureous particles which are in great plenty being utterly excluded fly away carrying some saline Bodies with them raise an heat and very stinking smoak these being driven away the saline that are left are more strictly combined with some earthy ones of the Antimony and at length having undergone the fire that the Emetick Sulphur may wholly exhale and the corrosive stings of the Salts may be destroyed they make an excellent Diaphoretick inasmuch namely as the different Salts of the Medicine do meet with the Salts of our Body with which being joined the compages of the Blood and Humours are loosened Willis â—harm rat p. m. 208. so that there lies open a free passage to the serous recrement The dose is from a scruple to a drachm XX. Though a certain preparation of Antimony be called Diaphoretick I know not to what sort of its particles this vertue can be attributed and I have often in vain expected such an effect from this Medicine It is often profitably given to stay fluxions of the Serum or Blood because this earth being deprived of its proper Salts does imbibe strange acid Salts which it meets with by chance in the Body which kind of vertue Crocus Martis prepared by a reverberatory fire seems to obtain from the like cause XXI Antimonium diaphoreticum is rightly given with the species de hyacintho pulvis ruber Pannonicus and others for the promoting of expulsion But we must note that it ought to be rightly and newly prepared for as it grows old it returns to its own Nature and Emetick vertue Wherefore I advise never to mix Antimony with those Powders but at the time when you are about to use them Ign. Franc. Thiermair cons l. 1. c. 7. for till then 't is best to keep them apart XXII Let Physicians be mindful that those who are engaged in a Diet of Guaiacum if they be not Purged every 8th or 10th day and unless they go to stool every day once Heer de Acidulis p. 100. do incur very grievous Symptoms XXIII Most now esteem that Paradox for truth that Decoctions of Guaiacum Sarsa Sassafras China and the like make People fat Which Horat. Guargantius in his resp medic p. 235. thus explains These Decoctions do attenuate indeed and dry up naughty and excrementitious Humours but leave the good and profitable untoucht Therefore they bring no hurt to the wasted and emaciated For seeing leanness and a fleshless habit proceed from bad nutrition and bad nutrition from acrimonious and salt Humours which consume the sweet and profitable Blood and hinder the Fat from being agglutinated therefore it follows that when those vitious juices are consumed by the foresaid Decoctions the Body is of course rightly nourished and fatned Thus far Guargantius Arcaeus's way of curing Phthisical People by a Decoction of the Wood is well known whereby he affirms they are not only hurt but also grow fleshy XXIV There are some who with an hydrotick Decoction give a Bolus of Turpentine and Ground-Ivy c. but I like not the raising of two motions at the same time therefore rather make a Bolus of the powder of Harts-horn Fortis Cent. 1. Cons 65. Vipers and some appropriate Salt XXV Besides Opium Salts promote Sweat namely by their fusory quality but 't is necessary they should be depurated whence common Salt and sal gemmae promote it not at all All Herbs that contain much Salt in them drive forth also much sweat as Wormwood Carduus bened being given in a sufficient Dose XXVI It is an error of the Moderns to use Decoctions with water for fluxions seeing it is clear that whatsoever Remedies are taken under the form of drink though they be of a dry Nature yet they alwayes increase moisture in the Body especially if they be taken at Meals Now I guess that the Physicians our predecessors were deceived by the Diet that uses to be prescribed to them who use hydrotick Decoctions Who having observed that some troubled with long continued destillations were cured thereof by a Decoction of Guaiacum or sarsaparilla or the like which they had taken for the cure of the French Pox brought in Decoctions of drying Woods and Roots which had not at all been used for this purpose before for the cure of Destillations and the cure succeeded happily as long as they observed that exact Diet of thoroughly-baked Bread or Bisket with Raisins limited to a certain quantity and wholly abstain'd from drinking of Wine But after that our Physicians indulging the complaints of their Patients began to allow them Flesh Eggs and Wine it has been seldom observed that Destillations have been cured by these Decoctions which is an evident argument that the Catarrhs were cured