the Lungs and to Cure Ulcers Take this following for an Example Take of green Coltsfoot eight handfuls Hysop two handfuls bruise them and put them in a Pot with a little water lute it close then set it into the Oven when the Bread is half baked and then take it out with the Bread and put a Funnel into a hole made at the top and so take in the smoak through the mouth at the Lungs and put it out at the Nose and it wonderfully provokes spetting You must also Morning and Evening use a Cooling Liniment to the Breast As Take of Gum Tragacanth and Arabick of each one dram infuse them in Rose water a day and a night put then thereto of Oyl of Violets one ounce and an half Fresh Butter half an ounce Sal. Prunellae two drams Camphire one scruple Breast-milk as much as will serve Mix them in a Mortar to an Oyntment To Repair a Consumption or to Prevent or Hinder it besides Restoring Diets which are principally made of Barley Almonds Pine-nuts Rice Nuts and the like which Authors declare Milk commended at first is very good and a Bath of hot Water of Barley and Almonds bruised but this is not good in a Catarrh nor while there is a putrid Feaver nor when the Lungs are ful of Excrements Let his Drink be Water and Sugar Barley Water and Liquoris an Infusion of Liquoris a thin Hydromel or a weak Decoction of China The End of the Seventh Book THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Heart The PREFACE THE Heart hath many Diseases Similary Organick and Common But because few will submit to the Physitian in regard of the nobleness of the part which will endure long pain but a man is suddenly gone and there is no time for Physick we who intend to bring all our Labors into practice will lay down only three Diseases of the Heart which are usual and require many Medicines and we shall bring them into three Chapters The first shall be of Swooning The second of Palpitation of the Heart And the third of Weakness Chap. 1. Of Syncope or Swooning Syncope is defined by Galen 12. meth c. 5. to be a sudden failing of all the Strength For although the Heart only suffer and the Vital Spirits are only intercepted yet when it fails the rest must suffer because they have a continual and necessary influence from it It is called a sudden failing of all the Strength that it may be distinguished from other Diseases in which the strength goes by degrees till death come nor is the Doctrine of Avicen against it Fen. 1. Lib. 3. Tract 2. Cap. 2. where he propounds the sign of a Syncope that comes by degrees for although the Causes that dissolve the Spirits do somtimes work by degrees yet when they grow great they make a sudden Syncope and therefore Avicen rather propoundeth the signs that go before a Syncope than those that accompany it Moreover This Definition may seem to agree with an Apoplexy in which there is a sudden failing of all the strength but in an Apoplexy there is strength in the Heart and the Pulse is generally great and full And also there is great hinderance of breath with snorting but in a Syncope the breath is no waies stopped The question is Why When the action of the heart ceaseth doth the action of the Brain also cease since the Animal Spirit is made of the Vital by way of Concoction and must therefore stay some time in the Brain although the Vital do not constantly come to it We answer That the Brain as all other parts for the perfecting of its actions doth alwaies stand in need of adventitious heat which is brought to it by the Vital Spirits and therefore when the Vital Spirits come not neither doth heat come for the Brain to perform its functions There are other Diseases very like to Syncope differing only in degrees from it namely Eclusis Leipothumia and Asphuxia Eclusis is a light fainting Leipothumia or Leipopsuchia or Apopsuchia is a very strong and great fainting Syncope is the greatest which if it go so far that the pulse in the whol Body ceaseth to beat it is called Asphyxia which is next unto death The word Synchope was not used by Hippocrates and the Ancient Greeks but they call'd this Disease Leipothymia Lipopsychia and Asphyxia But it was invented a little before Galens time and used for the greatest so Galen 1. ad Glauc cap. 14. saith Leipothymia is an imperfect Syncope and goes before it By what hath been said it appears that the part affected is the Heart where the Vital Spirits are all made by whose influence the Natural heat and Spirits in every part are made to act therefore when that ceaseth by stoppage of the Influx of the Vital Spirits it is necessary that the strength of all parts should fail and their actions cease The immediate Cause of this Disease is the defect of the Vital Spirits not wholly for then sudden death would come but so great that Nature is constrained lest the strength of the Heart should totally fail to fetch the Spirits from the other parts to the Heart by which means the parts lose their functions Now this defect of Spirits comes four waies Either because they are Naturally few or because they are dissipated and spent or because they are preternaturally altered and corrupted or lastly because they are suffocated and destroyed They are few by fault of the faculty making or matter from which they are made The Faculty is hurt either by a disease proper to the Heart or by consent from another part The proper Diseases of the Heart which are the chief are great distempers which overthrow the Natural temper or destroy the substance of the parts or of the Natural heat as swooning Feavers sharp and malignant Syntacticae or Colliquantes or fainting pestilential hectical or Marasmodes which consume to this come organical diseases as too much constriction and dilatation and constant solutions which come to the Ventricles of the Heart The Faculty may be hurt by consent from other parts which have great sympathy with the Heart as the Brain and Liver and somtimes from the mouth of the Stomach by reason of its neerness and exquisite sence from whence a Syncope is divided into a Heart and Stomach Syncope The Cardiaca or Heart Syncope is when the Heart is principally affected but the Stomachia or Stomach Syncope is that which comes by consent from the Stomach Somtimes it comes from the Mother by filthy vapors sent from thence to the Heart from whence comes the Suffocation of the Matrix Apnoea or want of breath and Hysterical Syncopes as those vapors do assault the Lungs Diaphragma or the Heart The fault is in the Matter when the Air or Blood is defective or corrupted from whence the Vital Spirits are generated There is defect of Air when the Respiration and Transpiration is hindered but the defect of
alwaies offended Hence comes weak motion without hurt of the Brain Nerves or Muscles but from the defect of Vital Spirits which are not so sufficiently sent to the Head that they may be made Animal The immediate Cause of Weakness is Defect of the natural heat and spirits from which the life and strength of the parts do depend And this Defect is in every part from the Defect of Vital Spirits and heat flowing from the heart Now the Vital Spirits are Defective either because they are not bred many or because they are dissipated after they are Bred or Corrupted or Suffocated as we said in a Syncope where there is this difference That in a Syncope the Causes of Defect of Spirits do suddenly produce their effect but in Weakness they operate by degrees And therefore in Syncopes and Leipothymia al the Vital Spirits almost do suddenly fail but in this there are fewer then ought to be communicated to every part Moreover When the Natural heat wants not only adventitious heat but also radical moisture to feed upon if this moisture be wanting and diminished the natural heat must be less and the strength abated Now the Causes which hinder the spirits from being Generated or maketh them disperse themselves or Corrupt or Suffocate them are propounded in the Treatise of a Syncope The Diagnosis of this Disease needs no Explication because it is manifest and the Patients do complain of their Weakness But the signs of the Causes were Propounded in the Syncope The Prognostick depends upon the various disposition of Causes for as they are greater or less there is more or less danger The Cure of this Disease is to be directed to two things To the taking away of the Cause and the Restauration of the Heart and vital spirits The Causes are almost al great Diseases in which either Nature yeilds to or resisteth with difficulty therefore the taking away of the Cause belongs to the Cure of almost al Diseases which you must take from their proper Chapters But the strengthning of the Heart and restoring of the vital spirits are to be here declared somtimes to be preferred before the Cure of the Cause when death seems to be at hand but we must alwayes take heed least when we encrease the strength we encrease the Cause of the Disease and therefore in a hot Disease you must use more temperate Cordials but in a Cold Disease those that are more hot First then mix Cordials in his nourishment as Confectio Alkermes or Confectio de Hyacyntho in Broths or with pleasant Wine or Cinnamon Water if there be great weakness Boyl also between two Dishes a piece of a Leg of Mutton after the skin and fat is taken off and after that let the Patient drink the Broth being strained at one daught Or Take the Flesh of a Capon after the skin and fat is taken away cut it in pieces and put it in a glassed Pot well Luted and set it in Balneo Martae to boyl for five hours then let the Patient take two or three spoonfuls of the Liquor in all his Broths Or you may make a distilled Water thus Take a Capon or an Hen after the skin is taken off and the fat cut it in pieces then powr upon it Water of Bugloss Borrage Sorrel Roses and Orange Flowers of each half a pound the Pouder of three Sanders Aromaticum Rosatum and Cinnamen of each half an ounce yellow Sanders one ounce Lemmons sliced three Distill them according to art which must be given every hour by the spoonful The Juyce of Legs of Mutton only is of much use Half roast a Leg of Mutton and slash it upon the Spit take the Juyce and boyl it a little in the dish and give it either alone or with Broth or with Yolks of Eggs. Valeriola doth much commend the Juyce taken out of Sheeps Hearts And Zacutus Lucitanus confirms it by his Experience saying That he with this only Medicine a mouth continued cured a rich man who often swouned through weakness of the Vital Faculty and resolution of the Blood and Spirits when many other Medicines had been used in vain The Juyce is thus taken forth Slit the Heart of a Sheep or Goat in the middle then wash it well and last wash it with Rose Water then cut it in slices and put it in a glassed Vassel with a few Cloves and no other Liquor And after the Pot is well luted put it into the Oven after it is drawn till the Juyce come forth Give this to the Patient to drink The Italians use Caudles of Yolks of Eggs Wine Sugar and Cinnamon which is very restorative Zacutus Lucitanus makes a fine dish of twenty Yolks of Eggs as you may see in the 107. Observation Lib. 2. of his Admirable Practice You may make Cordial Juleps thus Take of the Water of Bugloss Roses and Orange flowers of each one ounce Syrup of Apples and Lemmons of each half an ounce Confectio Alkermes one dram Cinnamon Water two drams Make a Julep Or make this following mixture Take of white Sugar two ounces moisten it well with the best Cinnamon Water then put to it as much Spirit of Vitriol as is sufficient to make it sharp then ad of the Essence of Cinnamon four drops the Essence of Mace Nutmegs and Annis seeds of each three drops the Essence of Cloves two drops Mix them and take it either by it self or in Broth. You may also make a restoring Opiate thus Take of Conserve of Roses Bugloss Borrage and Clove gilli-flowers of each one ounce Citron Barks and Nutmegs candied of each three drams one candied Myrobalan Confectio Alkermes half an ounce the Spirit of Roses and Essence of Citrons of each half a dram the Essence of Cinnamon six drops With the Syrup of Apples make an Opiate take it often This Water following is excellent Take of the Jelly of Harts-horn drawn with white Wine four pints the Blood of a Lamb and a Calf clensed with the hands from all fibres of each two pints Muschadel Canary and Malago Wine of each three pints of Calfs Hearts cut in pieces four Crums of new white Bread dipped in Milk two pound and an half the Juyce of Balm one pint and an half Rose and Orange Flower Water of each one pint great Citrons sliced three Cinnamon four ounces Mace one ounce Put them in a large glass Still and still them in Balneo Mariae You may make a most excellent and precious Cordial Water after this manner Take of Amber-greese two drams Musk two scruples Lignum Aloes one dram and an half the white part of Benjamin three drams after they are bruised and mixed put them into Spirit of Wine and setting them upon a gentle fire draw out the Tincture fully and then filter off the Liquor and draw off half the spirit with an Alembick upon the ashes with a very gentle fire keep the Liquor close stopped in a Glass with a Cork waxed over and a
Blood is when Nutrition is hindered there is a corruption of both when their qualities are changed So when the Air is infected in time of Pestilence it begets Leipothymia and Syncope as also stinking vapors and sweet also do the same with some Women and the blood is corrupted from evil meats Too great Evacuations whether sensible or insensible do disperse the Spirits The sensible are chiefly of Blood from the Mouth Nose Womb Belly Hemorrhoids Phlebotomy and great Wounds and next of other Humors which though they are Excrementitious yet because of their great Evacuation the Spirits are much dispersed and cause a Syncope These Humors are discharged by Vomit Stool Urine Sweat the opening of a great Imposthume especially if it be inward as an Empyema or outward as in a Dropsie when the Navil is tapped The insensible Evacuations are by the Rarifaction of the Skin and by the acrimony and thinness of the Humors immoderate heat hot Baths or Houses great Labors Also long watchings and fasting Lechery great anger and joy long and violent sickness do dissipate the Spirits as also great pain of the Heart Stomach Guts Reins Ears Teeth and of all Nervous parts An evil disposition of the Bowels doth alter and corrupt the Spirits and whatsoever doth procure a malignant quality which is adverse to the Heart as Air Stinks venemous and pestilential taken in by the Breath or bred in the Body from putrifaction of Humors as also poyson taken in or applied outward or sent to the Heart by biting of venemous Creatures Lastly The vehement returning of blood and Spirits to the Heart and an abundance of evil vapors gathered about the Heart and the parts adjacent and too much cold and thick blood gathered about the Heart and its Veins Arteries and parts adjacent do suffocate and destroy the Spirits We lately saw a Noble Lady a Virgin which from her Infancy was subject to this Disease that with every light passion of the mind she was taken therwith taken with a violent Syncope which ushered death in by a sudden return of blood and Spirits to her heart for when she should have been married to a fine yong man which loved her deerly and her Parents Friends and Kindred were solemnly met about it they gave her a Pen to write her hand to the Contract but she having not fully written her name fel down dead upon the ground Hence we easily conjecture that there was a great and sudden retraction of the Blood and Spirits to the Heart by a vehement passion of the mind which choaked the Natural heat and the Spirits therein of which she died suddenly Petrus Salius Diversus saw as he reporteth Lib. de aff part cap. 4. a Girle of fourteen years old fal into a Syncope from abundance of cold and thick blood garhered about her heart and the great vessels for having for a whol day a heaviness of head with giddiness and disturbance she died the next day after suddenly After being opened the blood appeared so congealed in the great Artay and Vena Cava or hollow Vein that taking it by the end you might draw it out like a Sword from a Scabbard Wherefore we judged That the sudden death came from the interception and stopping of the Veins by congealed blood This happeneth seldom for you shal seldom see blood in dead bodies so congealed for the veins have such a property to retain blood that even after death they keep it thin though without them it growth alwayes thick But Salius gives the Reason of this Congealation by comparing it with blood without the Vessels which as soon as it is cold is congealed and the sooner from the coldness thickness and slyminess of the Melanchollick or Phlegmatick humor therein contained Somthing like to this may be-sal blood constrained in the veins which abounding with vicious juyce thick and cold doth â—o sill the greater Veins that it stops the spirits and so extinguisheth them and then the blood grows cold and thick from those humors which otherwise would have been thin The Spagiricks refer this to a congealing Spirit made of a peculiar and extraordinary mixture of Humors which since it seldom happeneth the Disease is very rare And truly a simple Refrigeration cannot cause that concretion for then in dead bodies especially in winter the blood would alwayes be thick in the Veins but we find it alwaies thin but we may suppose that this Congealing Spirit is like that which causeth a Catalepsis or Congealation which makes the parts inflexible The Chymists do acknowledge such kind of Congealing Spirits to be in many Creatures Vegetables and Minerals such as are reported to be raised out of the Earth in some Histories of Men and Beasts who have been Congealed by filthy vapors coming from Earth-quakes or Dens so that their bodies became presently stiffe And Cardanus saith That such spirits are in Thunder-bolts in his History of the Eight Mowers who Supping under an Oak were struck stiffe and remained as at first the one seeming to Eat the other to reach the Pot and the other to Drink The Signs to this Disease by either are from the Subject which is more capable to receive it or from the Fit either coming or present or from the Causes that produce it The Subjects which are most fit to receive a Syncope are men who by some Natural Debility or Weakness from some Disease become faint-hearted Women rather than Men especially in their Terms or with Child As also they who have fine Constitutions subject to the Jaundice Spleen or Melancholly These things signifie that a Syncope is coming to them who are subject to it Anxiety and sudden disturbance of mind heaviness in the head giddiness an apprehension of divers colours green and yellow a sudden and often change of the colour in the face and of the beating of the Pulse When Leipothymy is present the same signs are but greater and there is often a cold sweat as also the sick complain of their faintness But these signs shew a Syncope A sudden failing of al strength a slow pulse low and at length stopping a pale and blewish face coldness of al the body especially externally a cold sweat especially in the temples neck and breast from whence the Disease is named The signs of the Causes are commonly manifest for Feavers malignant acute syncopal or fainting cause a proper Syncope or Swoonding are easily known As also those external Causes which make a sudden Syncope may be plainly seen As Anger extraordinary and Joy a sudden Fright stinking smels great bleeding and other large evacuations long watchings and fasting much lechery and grievous pain These things do signifie that the Humors and the Body are thin a sharp nose hollow eyes temples fallen and the gnawing of the mouth of the stomach trouble of mind pricking heat and great pain do shew abundance of Choller When there is abundance of crude Humors you may know by the enlarging of the body swelling about
when other Medicines did nothing While you give intermitting Purges let the Body at other times be moistened with Baths or half Baths or Fomentations by which both the violence of the Humor is restrained and the Body made moister Also at those times you must use strengtheners which will also open Obstructions and they use to be made often like Opiates or a hard Electuary or Lozenges thus Take of Conserve of Bugloss Roots half an ounce Conserve of Borrage Flowers and Violets of each one ounce Conserve of Roses and candied Citron peels of each half an ounce one candied Myrobalan Confection Alkermes three drams Pouder of Ivory Harts-horn and Bezoar stone of each one dram Loetisicans Galeni and Diarrhodon Abbatis of each two scruples Coral and Pearl prepared of each half a dram Amber-greece half a scruple the best Musk five grains Gold three Leaves with Syrup of Apples and of candied Citrons make an Opiate of which give the quantity of a Chesnut two hours before meat every day drinking after it a little white Wine A plainer and better tasted Opiate is made of one part of Confection Alkermes and four parts of Conserve of Borrage Flowers And to open more powerfully if you fear no hurt by hot things add Conserve of Tamarisk flowers Elicampane Roots Wormwood Maiden-hair and the Salts of Wormwood and Tamarisk c. You may make Lozenges thus Take of Diambra Diamoschi dulce and Loetisicans Galeni of each one scruple Confectio Alkermes three drams Sugar dissolved in Borrage and Rose Water four ounces make Lozenges of two drams in weight gilded Let him take one every day two hours before meat Or you may make them more pleasant thus Take of Confectio Alkermes two drams Amber-greece one scruple Sugar dissolved in Rose Water four ounces Make Lozenges Amber-greece alone given five or six grains at a time every day with Wine or Rose Water doth cheer the Spirits and the Natural Heat and much rejoyce the Heart Some Authors do much commend the use of Bezoar stone against all Melanchollick Disease because it doth much strengthen the Heart and you may give five or six grains in Rose Water or other Liquor After the Body is well purged if it be Spring or Summer you may give Whey for fifteen or twenty daies which will open the Obstructions of the Bowels and amend the hot distemper Make it by boyling and clarifying it and putting into it every night two drams or half an ounce of Epithimum You must proportion the quantity according to the strength of the Stomach For if it can easily pass through the Veins being somwhat open and be sent forth by stool and urine it is good to give it in great quantities as Mineral Waters prescribed in the hot distemper of the Liver with this Caution That you strengthen the Stomach with Baggs and other things hereafter mentioned and give every day at evening a Cordial strengthening Opiate Instead of Epithimum you may mix with the Whey the juyce of Succory Borrage or of any other proper cool Herb thus Take of Goat Whey four or five pints the juyce of fresh Lemmons four ounces the new juyce of sweet Apples six ounces Conserve of Roses or Violets or white Sugar one ounce Clarifie these with whites of Eggs. Let him take every morning three or four more Cups thereof if his Stomach will bear it In Bodies that are very lean after the Obstructions are a little opened you may give Asses Milk with Sugar of Roses and if there be rumbling in the Hypochondria a little Aromaticum Rosatum or Diarrhodon Abbatis wil do very wel But your sharp and Vitriol Mineral Waters are beyond all Medicines which by correcting the distemper of the bowels do powerfully open Obstructions especially the warmest which do make the Humor thin and clense it There is great dispute among Authors concerning drinking those Waters Some with Sennertus do allow it because they receive Vertue from their Minerals and do thereby both clense the passages and send forth the filthy Humors which stick to them by stool and Urine they warm the Stomach and strengthen the Liver and Spleen And we may rather fear that these Waters wil hurt by the use of them external than internal by heating and drying Others with Claudinus do altogether deny them by reason of their drying quality Others with Montanus do neither altogether reject them nor wholly approve of them they say they are good by reason of the coldness of the Stomach which is alwaies in this Disease and by reason of Obstructions But in regard the Liver and Spleen are hot they wil have them defended with the cool Oyntment of Galen And also the Loyns for then saith he the water will not hurt because it staies longer in the Stomach and cold places but only passeth through other parts We suppose that the use of them is convenient if the Stomach being cold have much thick and clammy flegm in it and if the heat of the Liver be not very great Which part is not like to suffer if the aforesaid Oyntment be not only given but also cool Broths after the Waters and after they have been used enough cold and moistening baths for some daies Medicines made of Steel use to be of great Vertue to open these Obstructions such as are mentioned in the Obstruction of the Liver and of the Spleen avoiding those which do heat and dry much In hot bodies you may give Steel prepared with Brimstone or Vinegar with Conserve of Borrage and Succory made in the form of an Opiate For dainty folk the Syrup of Steel afore mentioned in the Obstruction of the Liver and Spleen is excellent or the Froth which remains in the Glass after the Evaporation of the Wine which hath been often steeled mixed with the aforesaid Conserves But Salt or Vitriol of sron goes beyond all Medicines because it opens Obstructions strengthens the Bowels and qualifies their heat The Dose is from twelve to twenty grains with a fit Liquor Syrup or Conserve But because it is displeasing to the taste I use to make it into Pils with the Mucilage of Gum Tragacanth You must use it long and therefore get a great quantity which is not easie to be got after the way that Beguinus and others make it We will shew you the easie way of making it which few men know Take of the Oyl of Vitriol or of Sulphur half a pint the Spirit of Wine one pint Put them in a new Iron Pan that is clean and cover them well within fifteen daies of them there will be a Salt-like gathering which you must set in the Sun to dry it throughly somtimes stirring it with an Iron Spatula In Winter you may dry it upon a gentle fire or in a Hot-house Let the Salt being well dried be kept in a close Glass for if it be exposed to the Air it easily turneth moist Also the Pills that are made thereof of Tragacanth must be hardened with the Pouder
cause and are to be cured by the self same Medicines so that the aforesaid Authors are fain to repeat the same things over and over in several Chapters not without much weariness to the Reader We therefore That we may more briefly and methodically set down the Nature of all these infirmities think it worth our labor first to set down the universal Causes of them all and afterwards to declare how those Diseases arise from the said Causes We have shewed in the beginning of this Chapter that there are two special Causes of all these Symptoms viz. the Womans Seed and the Menstrual Blood being retained beside the intent of Nature and corrupted and possessed of a malignant and venemous quality out of which malignant Vapors do arise and afflict divers parts of the Body Unto which Doctrine generally propounded two other things of greatest moment must be added viz. First That not only the Seed and menstrual Blood do produce Hysterical or Womb-sicknesses but divers Humors also of an excrementitious Nature flowing into the VVomb and by a long abiding growing putrefied and sending out filthy Vapors This is verfied by many Ancient VVomen who being destitute of menstrual Blood and of Seed are yet very much subject to these VVomb-sicknesses or Hysterical passions Secondly that not only vapors arising out of the aforesaid substances are causes of these distempers but the very Humors themselves are a cause which finding no free vent by the Veins of the Womb into which as a Common-shore Nature disburthens superfluous Humors by reason of the stoppage of the Monthly Courses or of the Whites they flow back again into the superior parts of the Body and doe infect the said parts with that vitious quality which they have contracted by their long abiding in the Vessels of the Womb or by their mixture with Seed or Menstrual Blood corrupted These Foundations being thus laid down let us see how Hysterical Symptomes are stirred up by the Causes aforesaid beginning with the Suffocation or strangling fits of the Mother which is the most frequent and principal Sickness of these kind of Women being accompanied with very many and those most grievous Symptomes For besides their breathing impaired and somtimes abolished their whol Body becomes cold their Speech and Pulse is intercepted so that they lie like dead Women and some have been accounted dead and laid out for Burial and yet afterward Revived Now this Sickness comes by fits which makes their returns somtimes sooner somtimes later and endure somtimes a longer somtimes a shorter time according to the quantity of the Humor offending which is somtimes quickly collected and somtimes long in gathering somtimes soon discussed and somtimes long before it can be discust For such like Causes of Diseases in the Body of Man have their times of digestion and exaltation which having arrived unto they do suddenly and as it were in a moment break forth into action Yea and such Humors being already collected in the Body may for a season lie hid until being stirred by some internal or external Cause they shed forth their poysonous blasts and vapors into other parts of the Body Now the most frequent and noted Caused of this Commotion and Agitation of these Humors are sweet smelling things coming neer the Patients Nose or sweet Meats taken in which quickly bring Women subject to this Insirmity into their fits also vehement Anger Terror and other grievous Passions of the Mind Now there are divers Degrees of this Sickness according as the Matter offending differs in Quantity or Malignity For somtimes the Choaking-fits with want of breathing are light and soon go over somtimes it is extream so that the Patient breaths not at all and is attended with other Hysterical or Womb-sicknesses such as Vomitings Ravings Convulsions and Swoonings or Faintings away And for the most part more grievous Symptomes do arise from corrupted Seed than from Menstrual Blood or other corrupted Humors For look how much Seed retaining its Natural Disposition is of a more excellent Nature than Menstrual Blood by so much does it degenerate when corrupted into a greater or worser kind of Venom or Poyson There are likewise other Differences of this Choaking Mother-sickness to be observed viz. That somtimes the Patients have their Breath stopt as it were somtimes they complain that they are choaked as it were with a Rope that strangled them and somtimes their breathing is much abated or abolished without any pain or sence of strangling The Reason of which diversity is this That the simple Suffocation and difficulty of breathing do arise from abundance of Vapors which do somtimes very much abound in Hysterical or Womb-sick Women especially when the Hysterical Passion and Hypochondriacal Melancholly are joyned together Which Vapors or Winds do compress the Midrif and Lungs as it is wont to fall out in the windy Asthma but the sence of choaking in which the Patient feels her self as it were strangled in her Throat depends upon a special property of the venemous Vapor as there are other Poysons in the greater World which have such a property of throatleing and choaking as is known of one sort of Mushroms And that the venemous qualities bred in Hysterical Women are divers Galen does sufficiently hint in his sixt Book of the parts affected Chap. 5. where he compares the malignity of this Vapor to the venom of the Fish Torpedo and to the sting of a Scoâ—pion which Poysons though in quantity they are smal in operation they are mighty and being received into mans Body they do in a short space of time grievously afflict the same and produce therein most vehement Symptomes As for Respiration diminished or abolished it is caused by the said Vapors being endued with a Narcotick or Stupefactive power which being mighty contrary unto the Heart and Vital Spirits their action is thereby hindered whence follows a cooling of the whol Body through defect of that Spirit which should flow from the Heart and a cessation of Respiration because there is now no need thereof For seeing that drawing of Breath is necessary to cool our Hearts when the Heart is extreamly cooled by the venemous Vapors aforesaid it needs none of that cooling which is caused by drawing in the Air and so breathing ceases because there is no use thereof We may also say That the said venemous and stupefying vapor does assault the Brain and hinder the Influx of the Animal Spirits whereby the motion of the Midrif and the Muscles serving for respiration is hindered ad hereunto That the Vital Spirits being destroyed the Animal Spirits which are made of the Vital must needs be destroyed likewise In the place before alleaged Galen resolves a Doubt which is this That seeing it is generally held that a man cannot live without breathing therefore it is impossible that Hysterical persons should in their fits be quite deprived of breathing To which he answers That in an extream cooling of the Heart there is no need of
larger Housleek and Camphire or Vnguentum Populeon or Oyl of Roses Lillies and Poppies or with an Epithem made of Plantane Water Rose Water Vinegar of Roses and Camphire or with a Mixture of Rose Water Oyl of Roses and Vinegar all which are to be applied actually cold in the Summer and a little less than blood-warm at other Seasons of the Yeer Disquietness and tumblings and tossings which are wont to happen in the Feaver Assodes and in the Fits of a Tertian Ague are best cured by purging away the Chollerick Humor which vexes and frets upon the Stomach and other sensible parts and that by Vomit or Stool according as Nature seems more or less to affect the one or other way also it may be drawn downwards by Clysters and presently all Art is to be used to make the Patient rest and cold Drink is given as also cooling Juleps whereunto somtimes Syrup of Poppies or a little Laudanum may profitably be added Swooning Fits are wont to happen in those kind of Feavers which are commonly called Febres Syncopales or Swooning Feavers of which there are two kinds as was said before and the one is called Minuta the other Humorosa The Cure of which Feavers much differing from the Cure of other Putrid Feavers we have reserved unto this place in regard of the said Symptome of Swooning The Minuta Syncopalis which is bred of Chollerick Humors sharp and venemous must be cured after this manner Let the Air be cold and moist and a little astringent that dissipation of the substance of the Body may be thereby prevented Let the Patients Diet be thin cooling and restorative of the Broth of Chickens boyled with Sorrel Purslain c. To which may be added Rose-water Juyce of Pomegranates and a little Sugar Bread steeped in the Juyce of Pomegranates or of Oranges may be given if a more liberal Diet is to be granted as also Cream of Barley or Panada's with Juyce of Lemmons or Pomegranates Also Restorative Broths of pressed Flesh with the foresaid Juyces To the stronger sort are given the Yolks of Eggs with Juyce of sowr Grapes the Stones of Cocks the Flesh of Pullets Hens Partridges qualified with the aforesaid Juyces Let the Patients drink with their Meat if they have no Inflamation of any bowel thin Wine not very old nor yet new and windy or Beer that is indifferent strong not new or very stale When they eat not or otherwise if there be Inflamation let their Drink be Barley Water or Water in which a piece of a Loaf hath been boyled with Syrup of Pomegranates Lemmons Citrons Julep of Roses c. Sleep is good out of the Paroxysm but in the same it hurts And finally special Care must be taken that nothing provoke the Patient to Anger Sadness and the like Passions In the Paroxysm Resolution of the Spirits must be prevented by blowing cool Air with Fans upon the Patients and by sprinkling them with sweet smelling Waters Their Face must be sprinkled with cold Water or Water of Roses and Vinegar minled With which the Stones of Men and the Dugs of Women must be bathed cold If Heat and Spirits will not be revoked from the Heart to the outward Parts of the Body it is to be revelled and forced back by binding of the extream Parts and by nipping and pinching them also pluck the Patients often by the Nose pluck them by their Hair and call upon them often by their Christen Name Give of the Crum of White-bread steeped in the Juyce of Pomegranates of thin fragrant Wine tempered with Rose-Water and when necessity urges some Cinnamon Water mingled with Rose Water In the mean space Restorative Broths are not to be omitted wherewith Confectio Alkermes and such like may be mingled Also Cordial Potions are often to be given out of a Spoon made after this manner Take Water of Roses two ounces Orange flower Water one ounce Cinnamon Water half an ounce Confectio Alkermes one dram Pearls prepared and Coral prepared of each half a scruple Sugar Cakes made with Pearl six drams Mix all and make thereof a Julep or Cordial Potion To these may be added the Electuaries and Conserves and Preserves described in the foregoing Chapter Also the inner side of a Loaf hot out of the Oven sprinkled with Rose water and Vinegar may be applied to the Patients Nostrils and Mouth To the Heart Cooling and strengthening Epithems may be applied To straiten the Pores and prevent the Evaporation of the Patients strength and Spirits wrap them in Linnen sprinkled with Pouder of Roses Balaustians and Sanders or let their shifts be sprinkled with Rose water and a little Vinegar Let their whol Body especially the Back be anointed with this following Liniment Take Oyl made of unripe Olives one ounce and an half Mirtles Quinces and Mucilage of Seeds of Flea-bane of each six drams Gum Arabick dissolved in Rose-Water two drams white Wax as much as shal suffice make all into a Liniment A special regard is to be had of the stomach because the Humor offending is cheifly there collected Now the region there of must be anointed with Oyl of Roses and Quinces and then also may be laid on a Toast of Bread wet in Juyce of Quinces and unripe Pomegranats Or if it be afflicted with great heat soment the stomach blood-warm with a Decoction of Purslain and Roses oâ— with Juyce of Night-shade Purslain Sowr-Grapes adding thereto Oyl of Roses and Quinces The Swooning Fits being removed and the Patient strengthened we must bend our minds to remove the Feaver and its Cause Which may be done by Alteratives and Evacuators proper for turning Feavers which we have described in their proper place viz. Where the Cure of burning Feavers is set down The Cure of the second sort of Swooning Feavers which is called Febris Syncopolis Humorosa which is caused by abundance of Flegmatick and crude Humors is in a manner contrary to the Cure of the Minuta newly described For the Air ought to be temperate inclining to heat light pure and dry Meats of good Juyce easily digested prepard with Hyssop Fennel and such like Herbs Let their drink be thin and not very strong Let their sleep and Watchings be Moderate But Frictions or artificial Rubbings of the Body and by Galen much extolled in this Case In the 12. Method Cap. 3. They must be used from the beginning of the Disease with Course Cloaths beginning above and so Rubbing downwards first on the Thighs and Legs afterwards on the Arms shoulders and Back Let the Cloaths with which the Frictions are performed be first Smoaked with Storax Lignum Aloes Frank-Incense Cloves c. When after friction the Limbs are lustily warm anoint them with Oyl of Dil of Chamomel of Orice of Castus and others of a resolving Faculty Such Frictions as these are highly commended because they call the natural Heat and spirits together with the Humor offending which did Choak the natural strength into the outward
Spacelus a compleat corruption of the Brain because that is uncurable but such as is at hand by reason of the great Inflamation In those which recover who are very few there is no remembrance of things past they can neither remember their Disease nor any thing concerning it We must make great hast for the Cure of this Disease for if we do not apply Remedies in the beginning there is no time for Cure Therefore in the first beginning of this Disease we must let blood in great plenty and very often twice or thrice or four times in the same day as strength will permit for al the hope of the Cure lyeth in this only Remedy for when a great quantity of blood possesseth the substance of the Brain which is large soft and moist we cannot make so great a revulsion from thence except we draw almost all the blood in the veins and here that common saying of Celsus is to be observed Many things are done well in time of sudden danger which at other times may be omitted You must also give sharp Clysters every day that the humors which tend upwards may be brought down At the same time apply those Medicines of Rose Vinegar preâ—cribed in the Chapter of Phrenzy For the greater revulsion and derivation apply Cupping-glasses to the Shoulders and Back with deep scarification use Frictions and Ligatures to the extream parts first open the Ankle Veins then the Forehead and the Arteries in the Temples apply Hors-leeches behind the Ears and to the Hemorrhoids Vesicatories to the Neck and Arms and other Medicines which we prescribed in the cure of the Phrenzy At last if the Disease decline you must apply to the head things that gently resolve among which the best is the hot Lungs of a Sheep newly slain CHAP. XIII Of Mania or Madness MAnia is Delirium without a Feaver with raging and fury It is distinguished from a Phrenzy in that there is in a Phrenzy an acute Feaver coming from the inflamation of the Brain and its Membranes But a Mania hath no Feaver in respect of its Being but a Feaver may be joyned with a Mania coming from some other cause but not from that which produceth a Mania And therefore in a Phrenzy a Feaver is syâ—ptomatical but in a Mania it is essential and original coming from some other cause And â—â— is Galen to be understood Book 3. de loc affect chap. 7. where he saâ—th The 〈…〉 which is made of Choller burnt begets beastial madness somtimes without somtimes 〈◊〉 a Fâ—aver It is distinguished from Melancholly by the symptomes which declare the disease for Mania is with fury and boldness but Melancholly is with fear and sorrow The immediate causes of a Mania according to Galen is a cold and dry distemper coming oâ— black Choller which is urged with many difficulties For if there were such a distemper in the Brain that it would disturb the Mind it should produâ—â— a Feaver when a less heat than will produce a Delirium can produce a Feaver as appears in thâ—â— that are inflamed by the Sun To this Doubt divers Authors answer diversly the Answer of the most solid is That the 〈◊〉 which produceth a Feaver must be â—moaky that the vapors sent to the heart may cause it and this vaporing heat ought to be in a moist matter such as is in putrid Feavers but in a madness the Humors are adust and burnt so that no Vapors can arâ—â—e from them In one word they â—ay That the heat in a Madness or Mania is as â—eat in a live coal but heat in a Feaver is as heat in the flame 〈◊〉 â—nd this answer is urged with a strong instance namely in a Hectick Feaver there is more consumption of moisture than in a Mania yet the Feaver continueth to the absolute consumption of all moisture even Radical also and the death of the Patient Plaâ—erus being perswaded by this and other Reasons supposeth that besides the hot and dry distemper there is a malignant and venemous quality which is the chief cause of a Delirium A great probability for this Opinion is That a raging from the Mother comes from Seed corrupted and poysoned in that part Because Hydrophobia or fear of water which is a kind or Mania coming from the biting of a mad dog is caused in any constitution without the mixture of Melancholly And the disease which comes from the bite of a Tarantula is called a kind of Madness And lastly certain poysons do cause madness as is reported of the Brain of a Weesil and Nightshade Therefore it is probable that some certain poyson bred in the Body may be the chief cause of madness since malignant Feavers which are very mild and so somtimes that the pulse and Urine is like to those that are in health use to produce Deliriums more than burning Feavers without malignity And Experience teacheth us that Madness happens often not only in Melancholly men but also in all Natures and Ages especially if it be haereditary or come from Parents and it is often cured by hot Medicines which have special vertue against it But we must conâ—ess that this disease is oftenest in Melancholly people because that humor is more fit to receive such poyson And Galen seems to acknowledg that malignity to come upon Melancholly in his Comment upon Aphor. 56. Sect. 6. where he saith That the cause of a Mania is a Melancholly humor not alwaies but when it is burnt above measure or when it is putrified and hath received a malignant sharpness There remains yet one dimculty That mad men can endure the coldest weather naked without hurt and to be hot externally which shews an extraordinary heat But we answer That this is not proper to all mad folks for some cannot endure cold but go as warm as they can And the other are not disturbed with the external air by reason of Custom because from custom there is no passion so we see tender women in Winter go with naked Breasts which are hot to the touch albeit according to Hippocrates cold is a great enemy to the Breast The matter producing this Disease is contained in the veins and arteries either of the whol body or those neerest to the Brain or in the vessels of the Brain and in respect of the difference of the place containing greater or lighter symptomes do arise Somtimes the matter causing this disease is in the Vessels of the Matrix as Blood and Seed corrupted hence cometh the raging called Furor Vterinus If the matter offending be in all the Veins or those neer the Brain there is a continual madness but if it be shut up only in one part the disease hath intermission and comes by fits The signs by which it is known sometimes shews the disease to be present sometimes that it is growing For the knowledg of Madness to come first consider the Natural disposition of the Patient which is chollerick or melancholly So in Hippocrates 2. epid 5.
followeth in many Hence Aretaeus reckoneth a wind in the Midriff and belchings without reason among the signs of an Asthma at hand which certainly do come from a crude matter moved in the Midriff That flatulent matter doth of its self somtimes produce another kind of Asthma which is called Asthma flatulentum or Hypochondriacum when many thick vapors rising from the Hypochondria do compress the Diaphragma and hinder its motion whence comes great difficulty of breathing without snorting The Knowledg of this Disease and its kinds may be by what hath been said In a Dispnoea the breath is thick without noise or anhelation and with less trouble In an Asthma the Breast is more heavy the Breath thicker and quicker with anhelation snorting and wheesing But in Orthopnoea the Patient cannot breath but with his neck upright and if they lie down they are ready to be choaked The Signs of the Causes are these If Asthma come from gross humors gathered in the Lungs the difficulty of breathing comes by degrees by little and little and is continual But if Humors come at a distance from other parts into the Lungs the difficulty of breathing is not continual For albeit Asthma which comes from matter contained in the Lungs useth to be encreased by external causes as Anger Southernly winds and the like yet in Asthma which comes from matter flowing from another part the encrease is more manifest If this matter come from the brain there is a manifest Catarrh but if no signs of a Cararrh appear you must conjecture that the matter comes by the Veins to the Lungs and the swelling of the feet and evil habit of body called Cachexia is a sign that the Liver is affected If a thick humor be contained in the Bronchia of the Lungs the Respiration is with noise and cough as also by spitting the disease ceaseth or is diminished If the Humor be in the Veins or substance of the Lungs there is no noise and there is seldom any spitting by Cough As to the Prognostick An Asthma is a Chronical disease and very hard to be cured and often ends in a Cachexia or Dropsie Yong men are somtimes cured and not without great labor but old men never Infants except they be speedily cured die by a Catarrh which followeth They who grow crooked upon an Asthma or Cough die before they come to ripeness of age because the gibbosity hindereth the convenient growth of the breast nevertheless get their due encrease and bigness but having not room enough to dilate themselves from whence the heat of the Heart being not sufficiently fanned the patient dieth A Pleuresie or Peripneumonia commg upon an Asthma is deadly because the Lungs being weakned by a long disease cannot resist so great a disease coming thereupon and expel the matter The Cure of the Asthma is two-fold namely in the Paroxysme and out or it In the fit presently you must open a Vein a Clyster being given if the blood do seem any way to abound for when the Veins are empty of blood the Respiration is more free But if the disease be elder and blood hath been often drawn it is better to abstain from bleeding because by diminishing the natural heat it will encrease flegm It is good to open the Veins in the Ancles in this disease coming by consent from other parts After bleeding or if it be omitted as not thought fit you must purge flegm with the things prescribed in the Cure of the cold distemper of the brain putting to them alwaies things proper for the breast as much as may be Vomits althongh disallowed by some in this disease yet are they most convenient as frequent experience hath taught and somtimes the sit is taken away with a vomit only Among these the chief is Aqua Nicotiana or Tobacco Water given in the quantity of an ounce and it may be made into a Syrup with Sugar In want whereof you may use the Salt of Vitriol Aqua benedicta Rulandi Now the reason is excellent why Vomits do so much good in this disease For while the thin humor falling from the head insinuateth it self into the Aspera Arteria and the Bronchia of the Lungs and the thick falls into the Stomach and is there so fixed that it can scarcely be taken away And while the weak heat of the Stomach doth stir the matter thick vapors are produced which puffing up the Stomach compress the Diaphragma and cause difficulty of breathing Hence it comes that when the Stomach is emptied the fit ceaseth or is much less Moreover An Asthma somtimes nay often according to Sennertus cometh of crude humors about the Liver and in the Veins which are carried by the Vena Arteriosa into the Lungs and compress the Bronchia from whence cometh an Asthma For the evacuating and revelling of these humors from the Lungs a Vomit is very good As also for this cause the Remedies purging humors downward are very excellent The Juyce of our Flowerdeluce doth gently move and purge downward taken to the quantity of half an ounce with one ounce of Hippocras which Placerus in his Observations saith he hath used with good success You may give two ounces of the juyce of Flowerdeluce if the former did work sufficiently Also you may use sharp Clysters often for revulsion But they must be given in smal quantities lest by filling the Bowels the Diaphragma be compressed You must also use Frictions to the inferior parts and apply many Cupping-glasses thereon as also to the Neck Afterwards you must extenuate and dissolve the thick humors and discuss the vapors that come from them For which purpose you may give a spoonful of Cinnamon Water either by its self or with Syrup of Violets as Take of Cinnamon Water two ounces Syrup of Violets one ounce or instead of that mix with the Water one ounce of Oxymel to discuss the humors better It is also profitable to give three four or five drops of Chymical Oyl of Sage Rosemary or Annis feeds with a little Wine or sprinkle therewith the Tablets of Diatragacanth frigid and so let the Patient eat them Others commend one scruple of Saffron given in a spoonful of Wine Also Aqua Clareta thus made is very good Take of Aqua vita four ounces Water of Colts-foot and Scabious of each two ounces Cinnamon six drams strain them through an Hippocras Bag. Let him take two or three ounces Tobacco taken in a pipe hinders the sit so doth the Leaf chewed and also the smoak of Cloves in a pipe In the mean time you must use expectorating Medicines which bring forth the thicker matter upwards As Take of the Syrup of Horehound Liquoris and Coltsfoot of each two ounces Oxymel simple one ounce Mix them and let him lick it by little and little Take of washed Turpentine one ounce Ammoniacum two scruples Flower of Brimstone one scruple mix them into soft pills of which let him take one every second hour with half an ounce
Diseases But the Heart hath a Natural Faculty to contract and dilate it self therefoâ—e a Palpitation cannot be without its motion And they do in vain muster up Galens Reasons so thought by them to prove that the Palpitation of the Heart comes not by Nature but by a Diâ—ease or cause of a Disease For Galen in all those places speaks of no other Palpitation than that which is in the Skin and other external parts and not of the palpitation of the Heart which is of another Nature and Galen 2. de sympt caus cap. 2. saith that the Palpitation of the Heart and Arteries is different from that of the other parts Therefore the Palpitation of the Heart is an immoderate and preternatural shaking of the part with a great Diastole or Dilatation and a vehement Systole or contraction which somtimes is so great that as Fernelius observes it hath often broken the Ribs adjoyning somtimes displaced them which are over the Paps and somtimes it hath so dilated an Artery forth into an Aneurism as big as ones fist in which you might both see and feel the pulsation This immoderate shaking of the Heart comes from the Pulsative Faculty provoked But here may be objected That in Feavers all these things are found for this is an immoderatâ— Systole and Diastole by the provocation of the Faculty through some troublesom matter or by encrease of heat in the Heart To this we answer That the motion of the Heart in Feavers is distinguished from Palpitation only by its degrees and the depraved motion of the Heart when it is vehement is called Palpitation but if it be not vehement it is called a quick great and swift Pulse and is referred to the differenceâ— of Pulses Now the Efficient Causes of this Palpitation may be referred to Three Heads Either it is somwhat which troubleth and pricketh or necessity of Refrigeration or defect of Spirits which two latter may be referred to the encrease of Custom The Molesting Cause is most usual so that many Authors knew no other the other are rare and that is either a vapor or wind which troubleth the Heart either in quantity or quality or both The quality is either manifest or occult A vapor troublesom in a manifest quality is either in the Heart and its parts adjoyning or it is sent from other parts and this suddenly getting to the inmost parts of the Heart doth stir up the Expulâ—ive Faculty which being Naturally very strong ariseth powerfully with all its force to expel the enemy In the Heart and thereabout especially in the Pericardium are gathered somtimes cold and thick Humors which send up vapors to the Ventricles of the Heart which cause Palpitation But from more remote parts vapors and wind are sent to the Ventricles of the Heart as from the Stomach Spleen Mother and the other parts of the lower Belly Many times a Vapor that troubles the Heart by an occult quality ariseth in malignant Feavers Plague and after Poyson and somtimes from Worms putrified and the terms stopped from corrupt feed or other putrid matter which do much stir up the Expulsive Faculty thereof Divers Humors do molest the Heart either with their quantity or quality so too much Blood oppresâ—ing the Veins Arteries and Ventricles of the Heart so that they cannot move freely makes a Palpitation by hindering motion which that the Faculty may oppose it moveth more violently So Water in the Pericardium being in great quantity doth compreâ—s the substance of the Heart and its Ventricle so that they cannot freely dilate themselves The same do Humors flowing in abundance to the Heart as it happens somtimes in Wounds Fear and Terror Humors offending in quality hurt the Heart if they be venemous putrid corrupt sharp or too hot especially burnt Choller coming to the Heart and provoking its Expulsion Also Tumors though seldom cause this Disease as Inflamation of the Heart Imposthumes or Swelling in the Arteries of the Lungs neer the Heart which Galen saith befel Antipater the Physitian 4. de loc aff by which after an unequal Pulse he fell into a Palpitation and an Asthma and so died so Dodonaeus reports that he found a Callus in the great Artery next to the Heart which caused a Palpitation for many yeers Also Tumors in the Pericardium whether they be without humors and scirrhus or with humors in them as the Hydatides or watery Pustles and little stones bones and pieces of flesh are somtimes growing in the Heart which cause Palpitation So Platerus reports that in one who had a long Palpitation and died thereof there was found a bone in his Heart But Schenkius reports that in a Priest who was from his youth to the age of forty two troubled with a Palpitation there was found in the bottom of his Heart an Excrescens of flesh which weighed eight drams and resembled another Heart The Second Cause of Palpitation is necessity of refrigeration which is when there is a pretâ—â—natural heart in the Heart by which the Spirits are inflamed within and therefore the motion of the Heart and Arteries is encreased that what is spent may be restored and the heat cooled and this comes somtimes from an internal cause which is rare but oftener of an external as anger vehement exercise and the like As Platerus observed in a yong man who being hot and angry at Tennis fell into a Palpitation of the Heart and so died The third Cause is the defect of Spirits which comes by hunger watching anger Joy fear shame and great Diâ—eases and other causes which do suddenly dissipate the Spirits which defect the Heart laboring to repair that it may beget more quick and plentiful and send them into the whol Body sooner it doth enlarge its motion and make it quicker You must observe for conclusion that it is more ordinary to see a Palpitation which comes by consent from other parts than from the Heart it self For it hath a consent with all parts by the Veins and Artâ—ries by which Vapors Wind and Humors are sent Which all shall be shewed in the Diagnosis following The Diagnosis or knowledg of this Disease is directed either to the Disease or the Causes which produce it The Disease is subject to sence it may be felt with the hands somtimes seen and heard for the Artery may be seen to leap especially in the Jugular And Forestus saith it may be heard by an Example of a yong man that they who passed by might hear it by laying their Ear to the Window Also the Causes are distinguished by their Signs A hot distemper is known by the greatness of the Pulse and swiftness by a Feaver and heat of the Breast by great and often breathing and desire of cold things If the Palpitation come of wind it quickly comes and goes and is presently raised by little motion and the Breath is difficult with trembling somtimes at the knees mists in the Eyes noise in the Ears and somtimes pain of some
part which quickly is gonâ— but you must gather the Nature and quality of the Vapor by the signs of the Humor which aboundeth in any part because vapors do alwaies arise from Humors If the Palpitation come from Humors in the Heart the Disease doth not come so suddenly and continueth longer and you may know what kind of humor it is by the signs of the Humor which abounds throughout the whol Body And especially if it be from Blood from which it most often proceedeth and this is known by a divers and unequal Pulse somtimes great somtimes smal slow and swift to which the Breathing answereth in proportion the Patients heart seemeth to be bound and oppressed as appears by the exceeding heat distension of the Veins redness of Face the time being Spring the Age Region and Diet causing Blood to abound That which comes by consent from other parts is known by the proper signs of the parts affected so we know that it is from the stomach when there is want of Appetite loathing vomiting of base Humors and gnawing at the Stomach A troublesom breathing about the Pancreas or Spleen or any other disease of the Spleen sheweth that the matter lurketh there from whence the vapors fly to the Heart so suppression of the Terms and Hysterical fits declare that it comes from the Womb. The Water abounding in the Pericardium is harder to be known but we may conjecture if the Pulse be weak and faint and the Patient bemoaneth himself that his heart as it were is somtimes in Water and is suffocated and if it be constant and he incline to an Atrophy or Hectick If malignant humors cause it there will be great change in the Pulse a loss of strength somtimes fainting and other signs of malignity If it come from a Tumor there is remarkable variety in the Pulse and the motion of the Heart is different from the natural very unequal and inordinate and if the humor be hot there will be great inflamation in the Body great thirst difficulty of breathing and fainting will follow with death but if the Tumor be hard and in the Pericardium the disease is constant and the Patient decayes by degrees without any manifest cause if flesh or any more solid thing grow to the heart there will be a continual Palpitation from the beginning of the Disease to the end of Life Lastly You may know when it comes by want of Spirits by the precedent causes which destroyed the Spirits and by the quick and smal pulse and when it comes from the least labor or motion Somtimes the like befals them that are well from walking or other motion with a change of Pulse and a resembling Palpitation The Prognostick is to be taken thus It is dangerous from the hinderance of the motion of the Heart by which Life is preserved and it brings Syncopes and death For it is a true Observation of Galen Com. Aph. 41. Sect. 2. and 5. de loc aff cap. 2. All that in youth or in declining age are troubled with the Palpitation of the Heart very much die before they are old for the often Palpitation is a sign that the Vital faculty was very weak A Palpitation by Propriety is worse than by consent and somtimes deadly And that which is of an internal is worse than that which comes of an external Cause unless it be from poyson or some great wound If it come from a Tumor or solution of Unity it is incurable The Cure is various according to the variety of the Causes and first that which comes from a peculiar distemper of the Heart and Pericardium is incurable therefore we must look only at the Cure of that which is by consent which depends upon the divers diseases of the parts whose Cure must be sought in their proper Chapters But besides those Remedies which take away the Cause you must use those which asswage the Symptomes by refreshing the Heart and strengthening it and which discuss the vapors which arise from melancholly or crude waterish Humors as Cordial Juleps Opiates Epithems Perfumes which are prescribed in weakness and these that follow Take of Conserve of Balm Rosemary-flowers Borrage-flowers and Clove-gilly-flowers of each one ounce Confection of Acorns and old Treacle of each one dram the Pouder of Diamber and Diamoschi dulcis of each one scruple with the Syrup of Citron Barks make an Opiate which let him take often Take of Bugloss Rose and Orenge-flower Water of each two ounces the syrup of Clove-gilly-flowers one ounce and an half Cinnamon Water half an ounce the spirit of Roses two drams Confection of Acorns one dram mix them and give two spoonfuls now and then This following Liquor which immitateth the Juyce of Hearts described in the following Chapter is good Take of Hogs or Sheeps Hearts three Cinnamon and Cloves of each one dram Lettice and Sorrel seeds of each one dram and an half white Wine two ounces Borrage Scabious and Rose Water of each one ounce and an half Confection of Alkermes one dram boyl them all between Two Dishes and let him take two spoonfuls of the Liquor morning and evening Take of Red Roses and Rosemary-flowers of each two drams Lavender flowers one dram Angelica seeds Citron peels Cloves Cinnamon and Mace of each half a dram Saffron one scruple Musk and Amber-greece of each six grains Make a Bag with red Silk and sprinkle it with Rose water and white Wine and apply it warm to the Heart Take of Oyntment of Roses half an ounce Oyl of Cinnamon and Cloves of each six drops Musk and Amber-greece of each four grains Mix it for a Liniment for the heart Purging Clysters and Carminative to expel Wind are often to be given But in the Fit it is best to open a vein And Galen witnesseth 5. de loc aff cap. 2. That he never did it without profit Some apply Cupping Glasses without Scarrification to the Breast which they say are excellent to discuss Wind there contained Others to the Hypochondria when the matter of the Disease is there But Zacutus Lusitanus applied a Cupping Glass with Scarrification to the heart with wonderful success as you may read in prax admir obs 133. lib. 1. Others commend true Rhapontick given to two scruples in Wine or Wine wherein the same hath been steeped Chap. 3. Of WEAKNESSE ALthough Weakness of Strength doth generally comprehend the hinderance of al Actions Animal Vital and Natural yet more particularly it comprehends the Vital which are known by a Weak Pulse yet this Weakness useth to be found in al great Diseases in which Nature doth yeild or resist the Cause Therefore as in Palpitation the Action of the Heart that is Pulsation is depraved so in Weakness it is diminished Which is the same with a Syncope but it differs in this In a Syncope it is so little that it is hardly perceived but in Weakness the Pulse is manifest and not so little In this also the Animal Faculty is
pure and strong Wine drunken plentifully To these you may ad the Heat of the Part adjacent as in strong Feavers the Liver waxeth Hot from the heat of the Heart The Signs of a Hot Distemper of the Liver are Loathing of Meat especially Flesh Thirst binding of the Belly vehement heat in the whol body especially in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet leanness of the whol body the Patient is worse for hot things and better for cold and if there be plenty of hot Humors there wil somtimes be Vomiting and purging of Choller there is a bitterness in the mouth and for the most part a Feaver As to the Prognostick A Hot Distemper of the Liver is not very dangerous because it is not much contrary to the Constitution of the Liver but it useth to be the Cause of many Diseases not only of the Liver but also of other parts It is hard of Cure especially when the Stomach is cold as often it is for those things which are given to Cool the Liver hurt the Stomach and enlarge its Distemper The Cure consists altogether in the correction of the Distemper by cooling Medicines and by the Evacuation of the Chollerick humors which comes from the Liver encreasing the Distemper and that Distemper it and is the Cause of other Diseases And first Opening of a Vein doth much cool the Liver takes away some of the Choller and opens the Obstructions which comes from Choller therefore you must open the Liver Vein of the Right Arm and let such a quantity of blood as is agreeable to the fulness and strength of the Patient either at once or divers times according to the greatness of the Disease and the continuance of it and that after a Clyster or Laxative Medicine hath been administred Then you must give a Medicine which doth gently Purge Choller and Repeat it often at distance or an Apozem for divers Doses or the Magistral Syrup or Syrup of Succory Compound with a four-fold proportion of Rhubarb which is most convenient because it doth innocently purge the Chollerick Humors cooleth the Liver strengthneth it and opens Obstructions The Forms of these Medicines are these that follow Take of clensed Senna and Tamarinds of each half an ounce Annis seeds one dram Succory and Sorrel of each one handful scraped Liquoris three drams the three Cordial Flowers of each half a pugil boyl them to three ounces and dissolve in the straining of Rhubarb infused with a little Lavender Spike in Succory Water one dram and an half double Catholicon three drams syrup of Roses one ounce make a Potion give it in the morning with due custody For the finer sort of People you may make Clarified Potions which are lately invented which are in form of a Julep but somwhat unpleasant to the taste and in them there is prescribed a double quantity of Purging Medicines because the much strength of them is lost in the Clarifying so that they do seldom work upon strong bodies especially in a dry Country where the Humors are less flowing and not so obedient to purges but in moist Countries these kind of Medicines work succesfully This following is an Example of Clarified Potions Take of clean Senna one ounce Annis seeds one dram Succory Leaves and Maiden-Hair of each one handful scraped Liquoris half an ounce boyl them to ten ounces and infuse in the straining two drams of Rhubarb Cassia new drawn and double Catholicon of each one ounce bruised Tamarinds half an ounce Coriander seeds prepared one dram syrup of Roses one ounce strain them and clarifie them according to art make a Potion An Apozeme to Purge Choller is thus made Take of Sorrel Dogs-tooth Succory and Dock Roots of each one ounce Endive Succory Dandelion and Maiden-hair of each one handful of the Four great seeds of each three drams scraped Liquoris one ounce Succory Bugloss and Violet flowers of each one pugil clean Senna two drams Tamarinds one ounce Mace and Cloves of each one dram boyl them to a Pint and a Quarter in the straining dissolve half an ounce of Rhubarb infused in the aforesaid Decoction with a little Cinnamon of compound syrup of Succory and Roses solutive of each two ounces make an Apozeme clarifie it and aromatize it with two drams of yellow Saunders for four mornings draughts A Magistral Syrup may be made of the ingredients of the former Apozeme with a treble quantity of Purgers and adding an equal proportion of Sugar to the Decoction A Syrup made of Juyces is most used amongst us it is of great power in Chronical Diseases which come from a Hot Distemper of the Liver and from yellow and burnt Choller And it is made thus Take of the new made Juyces from their Faeces of Endive Succory Sorrel Fumatory Burrage and Bugloss of each three Pints the Juyce of sweet Apples newly drawn and purified two Pints fresh Polypody of the Oak half a pound clean Senna eight ounces Dodder of Thyme three ounces Agarick newly Trochiscated half an ounce Mace and Cloves of each half a dram infuse them and boyl them according to art while there remains one Pint and an half of the straining in which dissolve of Rhubarb infused with a little Lavender in the aforesaid Juyces and strained one ounce white Sugar one pound and an half make a Syrup well boyled clarified and aromatized with two drams of Triasantalon keep this syrup in a Glass give two ounces at a time or three twice or thrice every month with Chicken Broth wherein Endivs Succory and Sorrel have been boyled or in Whey These things following are excellent to cool the Liver And first for ordinary Drink use the common Ptisan made of Barley Water and Liquoris or with Dog-tooth and Sorrel Roots Or mix such a Decoction with Syrup of Lemmons or Maiden-hair Or they who are more dainty may take only the simple Spring Water mixed with the aforesaid Syrups And if you desire to cool more you may put as much Spirit of Sulphur or of Vitriol as will make it a little sharp And when the heat is very vehement you may give a dram of Lapis Prunellae therewith There is also made a most pleasant Drink of Conserve of Roses mixed with Spring Water and strained to which you may ad some drops of Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol to make it sharp and red like VVine You may also make a Tincture of Roses thus Take of red Roses dried one ounce warm Water three pints Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol one dram and an half Infuse them three or four hours add to it being strained three quarters of a pound of white Sugar Keep it for your use The Alexandrine Julep for this purpose is made thus Take of Spring Water one pint Rose Water Juyce of Lemmons and white Sugar of each four ounces Boyl them with a gentle fire till they are skinned These two last Remedies are used two waies either for ordinary Drink or as a Julep twice
of Tragacanth and after put in a Glass otherwise they will grow moist You may continue this Medicine for a month or two not only without hurt but with great profit Fonseca commends these Pils following which he cals Diatartarum for opening Obstructions by degrees and purging Melancholly gently and for allaying it Take of the Pouder of Senna and Salt of Tartar of each one dram Pouder of Cinnamon half a scruple with Syrup of Lemmons make a Mass of which give three Pills made of half a dram one hour before Supper to give him two or three stools for Salt of Tartar hath great Vertue to allay black melanchollick Humors for it draweth to it self by certain propriety sowr things as you may perceive when it is mixed with Vinegar or Spirit of Vitriol whose sowrness it taketh away For we must know that Fonseca by Salt of Tartar meaneth Crystal of Tartar Yet you may as well infuse your Senna with the Salt of Tartar and some drops of Spirit of Vitriol in some convenient Liquor To open the same Obstructions some commend the Decoction of China as we said in the Obstruction of the Spleen which a wise Physitian may do with good success Some commend the Juyce of VVormwood thickened into the form of a Pill given either by its self or with Gum Ammoniacum and after that presently Oxymel made of the Decoction of Asarum Roots and Liquoris Others say That Hypochondriack Melancholly hath been cured with the Decoction or Wine of Wormwood taken thirty or forty daies together The Juyce of Bugloss is excellent not to open Obstructions as Wormwood but to qualifie the Melanchollick Humor Therefore they give two ounces thereof with two drams of Sugar and as much Wine as of both for ten or twelve daies every morning The principal thing for this Cure is to keep the Body alwaies soluble Therfore the Patient must have some familiar Medicines which he may often use before meat somtimes one somtimes another lest he grow weary of them For this he may take the Magisterial Syrup and the aforesaid Pils and those which were preâ—cribed for a costive Belly To which he may add out of Montanus Venice Turpentine which he orders to be swallowed in the quantity of an Acron three hours before dinner once twice or thrice in a week for besides that it looseneth the belly it also clenseth the Stomach opens Obstructions provokes Urine warms the Stomach and doth not heat the Liver but doth it good by opening and clensing it For his ordinary Drink let him use Water wherein Gold hath been quenched or the infusion of Tamarisk Agrimony Burnet in thin Wine either alone or made Physical in Vintage time with the Roots of Bugloss Borrage with a little white Sanders and Rosemary Flowers The Decoction of the Sweet Bryar Root is commended for ordinary Drink for it openeth and strengtheneth all natural parts The Decoction of Lignum Nephriticum doth open the Obstructions of the Bowels without any manifest alteration But steeled Water is more usual All which Waters and Decoctions you may also mix with Wine While in the internal Medicines mentioned or any of them are used you must apply External as Fomentations and Oyntments to the Hypochondria such as are prescribed for the Obstructions of the Liver and Spleen making Choice of the Coolest You must also apply strengthners to the Stomach because that part doth alwaies suffer in this Disease therefore you may use those Fomentations Oyntments and Emplaisters mentioned in the Diseases of the Stomach Also those Internal which wil not inflame the Liver and especially the Digestive Pouder to be taken after meat in a Fit when the Vapors arising from the Hypochondria do trouble the Heart Brain and other parts and produce great Symptomes as Swoonings Palpitations Tremblings Convulsions Head-ach and the like you may use those things which are given in Swooning or the Mother but among the rest Laudanum used wisely doth wonders Chap. 6. Of the Scurvy THe Scurvy is usual in the North in most places thereof Common but almost unknown in the South so that al Writers that have Practiced in these Parts have never mentioned it and we may wel leave it out because in our Preface to this Book we promised to meddle only with the usual Diseases of the Spleen but Experience hath taught us That our Country is not altogether without it for though it be not in every Symptom the same with that of the North yet it hath enough to confirm it to be the same for the aforesaid Authors say that one Symptome is sufficient to discover it we have seen many Symptomes of it in many people but because it is not familiar here and al our Physitians say we have it not we would not absolutely cal it a Scurvy but we thought it better to cal it a Scorbutical Disease such an one as comes next to it though it be not a true Scurvy For the Scurvy is nothing else but an Hypochondriack Disease having a peculiar degree of Malignity from which more Symptomes arise than in the Hypochondriack Disease this malignity comes from the putrefaction of Melancholly not of every kind of melancholly for it is often corrupted from which other Diseases arise and not the Scurvy as a Quartan Ague â—â— Imposthume in the Mesentery and other parts but of a peculiar and proper Melancholly which is aâ—â—â—â—able to that Malignity This is known by the Infection which is found in this Disease because authorâ— hold it to be infectious And because al the degrees of malignity which lie in the Humors and produce divers Diseases are unknown unto us and 〈◊〉 therefore is this of the Scurvy obscure 〈◊〉 hidden and it is wonderful that so many Diseases should arise from the variety of malignity which is in the Humors as malignant Pestilential Feavers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Measels Cancers and Elephantiasis the Pox and many others And especially Elephantiasis comes from a peculiar malignity in a Melanchollick Humor and so doth the Scurvy and yet these two Diseares differ so much that none can tel their divers degrees of malignity Divers Symptomes common to both do shew a great likeness of the Scurvy and Hypochondriack Melancholly for al they which were mentioned in the former Chapter are found in this Disease as crudities and want of Concoction in the stomach often spitting flegmatick sharp and stinking vomitings noise in the Hypochondria belchings breaking of Wind downwards vomiting of blood and purging of blood pains from wind under the ribs and in the stomach somtimes Costiveness and somtimes Looseness heat in the Hypochondria beating of the Left side Urine now thin than thick heart beating thirst drought of the mouth short breath head-ach noise in the ears dimness of sight giddiness sorrow and sadness and divers dolings convulsions falling-sicknes numbness coma watchings troubled sleep and terrible dreams The Reasons of al which were shewed in the Chapter above and they may agree with this of the Scurvy But if any
begun and an Inflamation bred which proves very troublesom whether the woman be sufficiently purged or not the superior Veins are presently to be opened right against the Part affected because such an Evacuation draws Blood out of the Part Affected But if the inferior Veins should be opened which are neither next the part affected neither can evacuate therefrom both the strength of the Patient will be weakened by the evacuation and that matter which is by Nature driven into a corner and subdued wil not be thereby diminished And so you must either draw all her blood in a manner out of her Veins to revel the matter of the Disease from the part affected or the woman will be killed by the Disease before sufficient Revulsion be made Neither need we fear lest by taking blood from the upper Veins we should draw the Course thereof from the womb because in such Cases the superior parts of the Body do abound with blood And although much blood be taken away yet are not the Veins so emptied that they should be forced to draw new blood from other parts Yet for the greater Caution it will not be unprofitable before blood be taken from the superior Veins to cause the Thighs to be lustily rubbed and presently after to tie them with bands so hard as to pain the woman which must abide so bound til the bleeding be over and a little after they may be loosened and now and then Cupping-Glasses must be fastened to the same parts or at least they must be again wel rubbed So we may procure an evacuation of the Matter offending and yet preserve the Natural course of the blood towards the Womb. The same course is to be taken in vehement and burning Feavers For although the matter offending be dispersed through the Body yet is the burning heat so great about the Heart and Bowels that it cannot be so wel extinguished by the opening of a smal and far distant Vein as by the opening of a neerer and greater such as is the Vein called Basilica This Method of Curing may be observed not only in Child-bed women but in other women who are taken with Acute Diseases and have their monthly Courses upon them If in the end of a Womans Lying-In an acute Disease befal her the same Course must be followed as in the middle the same conditions being observed observing this for a Rule That by how much a woman is further from the beginning of her Lying-In by so much more safely may the uper Veins be opened but the neerer she is to the beginning yea even in the middle we are to open those Veins with the greater premeditation And if the Disease be not importunate nor the sharpness thereof require such a thing and the Natural Purgation be copious we must wholly abstain But if the Purgation be scanty we must open the inferior Veins to supply that which is wanting in the Evacuation But if the contrary shal happen let us follow that Rule which we presceibed to be followed in followed in the urgency of an acute Disease The use of Purging in Childing Women that are held with acute Diseases shal be comprehended in these following Maxims While the Child-bed Purgations do Naturally flow a Purge is never to be administred for it is to be feared lest Nature be diverted from her business But if the Child-bed Purgations are not kindly we must consider whether their consist its Quantity or in Quality If they offend in Quantity so as to be too little so that the woman be purged either not at al or not sufficiently After al Remedies fit to procure these Purgations have been given in vain and the Morbisick matter appears digested eight ten or twelve daies being past since she was brought to Bed according to the more or less urgency of the Disease she may be purged gently wholly abstaining from al stronger Purgatives If other Purgations offend only in Quality so that a white flux or some other unnatural color do proceed from her the Matter being ripe she may in the last part of her Lying-In be safely purged But this must evermore be generally observed That by how much the longer a Childing Woman is distant from the day of her bringing to bed by so much the more safely she may be purged and contrarywise For Experience hath taught us That women wanting their Child-bed Purgations if after the seventh or ninth day they are taken with a loosness they commonly scape But if the Loosness seize upon them upon the first daies viz. on the secoed third or fourth for the most part they die And so have we finished the Cures of Womens Sicknesses all Praise and Honor be given to God therefore The End of the Fifteenth Book THE SIXTEENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of Diseases of the Joynts and Rhewmatick Pain of the whol Body The PREFACE THough all Diseases of the Joynts depend upon the same Causes differing only in respect of the place affected and are wont to be cured with the same Medicines yet is there some difference between the Sciatica or Hip-Gout and the pains of other Joynts by reason of the structure and largeness of those parts of which the Huckle or Hip-bone is articulated and made up in respect of which it requires some diversity in certain Medicines therefore it is that I have resolved to treat of the Sciatica by it self And because the Rhewmatick pain incident to the whol Body hath great Affinity with the running Gout which afflicts only the Joynts I have thought good to annex the Explication thereof in this place so that this Book will consist only of three Chapters Of which The First will treat of the Pains of the Joynts in General The Second of the Pains of the Huckle-bone called Sciatica The Third of those Rhewmatick Pains which seize all Parts of the Body Chap. 1. Of Pain in the Joynts called Arthritis or the Gout ARthritis or the Gout is a pain in the Joynts which comes for the most part by fits stirred up by an Influx of Humors into the said Joynts The parts pained are Membranes Tendons Nerves and al the Nervous parts that are neer the Joynts which are stretched by the Humor which flows into them or by their sharpness are pricked and twitched but the Ligaments which spring out of the Bones are void of sence Now the Humors which cause the Gout do seldom flow into the very Cavities of the Joynts and that only in an old Gout and where the Cavities are wider than ordinary as it happens in an old Sciatica in which somtimes the Thigh-bone fals out of its place the Ligaments and other parts binding the Joynts together being loosened and then the Cavity of the Joynt is filled with a snotty kind of flegm as we see in Hippocrates Apor 59. Sect. 6. It is wont here to be demanded why the Humors flowing into Nervous and Membranous Parts and distending and twitching then they should not cause a
as an Inflamation or Ulcer or putrefaction of some Humor contained therein or finally the corruption of the Member it self which are wont to cause a lingring Feaver and an hectick Of these Infirmities peculiarly possessing some certain Members of the Body and causing an Hectick we have Examples manifest enough For as for what concerns Inslamations Galen saith he saw a woman that by reason of an Inflamation in her Midrif fel into an Hectick Feaver And we dayly observe in the Consumption of the Lungs or Phthisis a complicated Hectick Feaver The putrefaction of Humors contained in some bowel fals out in great obstructions or cold swellings The corruption of some Member is often seen in the Lungs somtimes in the Liver in such men as are given to Wine and who use much hot Spices for a certain filthy corrupt blood is bred in their Liver by which the substance thereof is corupted Fernelius saies he somtimes met with this kind of Feaver and that it is a sign thereof when the Patients extreamly covet Wine but abominate all kind of Flesh A Simple Hectick Feaver is known because it is continual without any â—its allwaies alike neither encreasing nor decreasing save that it is somwhat augmented an hour two or three after Meat The heat under the short Ribs is at first laying on the hand mild afterward sharp biting and dry The Pulse is little frequent and quick the sick perceive not any Feaver they are lazy and loath to stir and when they stir it is with Pain because their strength is in a languishing condition Their arteries are hotter than the Parts circumjacent which may be preceived by the touch after the Patient hath washed in cold Water The Urin is like that of one in health both in point of color and sediment In the progress of the Disease Oyly substance Swims on the top and the sediment is like to Meal which is sign that the substance of the Body doth melt More particularly we may know not only the several degrees of an hectick but foresee it before it comes after this manner An hectick Feaver at hand is known if the causes have preceded viz. if there have been a burning Feaver in a body naturally hot dry and of a thin contexture in an hot season of weather it is to be Feared the Patient wil fal into an hectick and such remedies as may prevent the same are to be used The first degree of an Hectick Feaver if it be Joyned with a putrid Feaver is very hardly known if it be alone not very easily In the first day there are al the signes of Febris Ephemera In the second the dryness is augmented not the heat On the third day it repeats not it is not evidently augmented nor diminished And at length one hour or two after Meat the Heat seems somwhat encreased In the second degree the Patient perceives no Feaverishness only some alterations after Meals There is a manifest dryness a smaller and swifter Pulse with a certain hardness The signs of the third degree are most manifest the Eyes are hollow dry and have dry excrements in them the bones evidently stick out the lively colour of the Face is extinguished the whol Skin is dry the Midrif vehemently contracted so that the Patients seem to have no Guts Their Pulse is perceived under the stomach in all extenuated persons And because a putrid Feaver is many times coupled with an Hectick they are both exactly to be distinguished because it is of great moment in regard of the Cure which in this case is very much differing Now this coupling may be known by Comparing the signs of an Hectick propounded with the signs of a putrid Feaver which shall be hereafter described in their proper place The first degree of an Hectick Feaver is easily Cured the third is incurable the second is of a middle Nature and look how much the nearer it approaches to the first or third by so much is it easier or harder to be Cured An Hectick Feaver happens most commonly from the eighteenth yeer to the thirty five for in that Age the Heat is most intense and soonest consumes the Body But they who before this Age or a little after are taken with an Hectick Feaver do more easily escape and are somtimes Cured perfectly or by a palliative Cure their life is protracted a long time especially if they be Women For the Cure of this Disease we must first consider whether it depend upon any Diseaseof some particular Part or not for then the Cure must be directed to that Disease as also if it be single or combined or complicated with a putrid Feaver And in this case the putrid Feaver is first to be Cured by Bleeding Purging and by Opening Medicaments and such as hinder putrefaction the Hectick Feaver in the mean while not being neglected But if the Hectick Feaver be single and alone the Cure must be effected only with cooling moistening and restaurative things the matter of must be taken from Diet and Medicine Diet here as in all Chronick Diseases can do much nay in this Disease it can do more than all Medicines Therefore the Patients Diet must be by the Physitian exactly ordered viz. That it may be directed so as to cool and moisten the whol Body If therefore the Air where the Patient is be moderately cold or temperate let him use the same if not let it be corrected so as that it may cline to cold and moist For this Reason Galen in the 10. of his Method Chap. 8. in the Summer when the Air is hot orders the sick to abide in a Room under the Ground that is very cold and blown through with the Wind open towards the North. By which Remedy alone we have seen a man extreamely consumed restored within a month Again the heat of the Air in the Patients Chamber must be altered by cold Water being powred out of one vessel into another by the very noise whereof Sleepis caused also by moistening the Pavement often with cold Water Sprinckled thereupon or by cooling Hearbs oftentimes fresh strowed therein and by forbidding any number of people to come in which among other things doth likewise heat the Chamber And Galen gives order that when the Air is coldest it should be received by the sick namly by drawing it in by the mouth because it exceedingly cools the heat of the heart but it is not good for the Body of the sick least it stop the pores of the Skin and hinder the breathing forth of excrements But Galen affirmes that the breathing in of the cool Air doth the Patients more good than they can receive hurt by the stopping of their pores if that should happen but that may be hindered by warm cloathing of the Body Yet it is to be observed that if the Hectick Feaver ariâ—e from an Ulcer in the Lungs that the cold Air is not good in that respect but rather temperate a little inclining to heat and dry For
the Patient not be able to endure the sudden sence of contrary qualities So that our Practitioners do more advisedly and more compendiously whiles they conveigh the Patients into a bath of Water moderately hot in the morning after a stool procured by Nature or by Art and two or three hours after they have eaten some broth or milk or the Yolks of Eggs wherein they abide solong till it grow luke-warm of it self and at last cold For seeing Galen conceives the use of a cold hath after an hot to be so necessary that without it the hot bath doth no good the use of a cold bath is supplied if the Patients stay so long in the bath til of it self it grow luke-warm and cold But this Caution is to be observed That whereas a three-sold quality may be had in the same bath the Patient must abide in the hot a little while in the luke-warm longer in the cold least of al. And although the Ancients were wont to make their baths of simple Water yet is it good to make them more moistening by boyling therein Emollient and moistening Herbs as Mallows Marth-mal-lows Violet Leaves c. or with barley and beaten Almonds especially in the Summer because a bath of Decoction of Herbs is sooner corrupted After bathing the sick is softly to be wiped with hot Cloaths then to be anointed with Oyl of Violets sweet Almonds with fresh Butter and after some time of rest let the Patient eat some broth or other food A bath of Water and Oyl is exceedingly cried up by Zacutus Lusitanus in the 35. Observation of his third Book of wonderful Cures where with he saies a yong woman was cured when a bath of simple Water and Goats Milk could not help The reason of which great good he renders to be this Because bath made of fresh Water with store of Oyl in it doth soften the distended stiff parts doth moisten the dry and withered and by opening the pores obstructed and through dryness contracted it draws the Nourishment to the outmost and most distant parts of the body When the Patient cannot use baths apply an Epithem to the Heart and Liver in this manner compounded Take Waters of Roses Water-lillies and Purslain of each three ounces Juyce of Pome-Granates an ounce Pouder of Diamargaritum frigidum two drams Bones out of the Stags Heart one scruple Camphire four grains Make an Epithem for the Heart Take Waters of Endive Lettice Cichory of each three ounces Vinegar of Roses one ounce the three Sanders of each two scruples Burnt Ivory one scruple Make an Epithem to be applied to the Liver Also the Region of the Liver may be anointed with Oyntment of Roses or Ceratum Santalinum But Oyls and Unguents must be sparingly used because they may somtimes encrease the Feaver Among the Symptomes which are wont to come upon this Disease the chief is a Loosness which is wont to bring the Patients to their death This is to be bridled with a Decoction of French-barley toasted for their ordinary drink Syrup of Quinces dried Roses Chalybeate Milk Rice boyled in Milk and such like SECT II. Of Putrid Feavers The PREFACE PVtrid Feavers are divided into Continual or intermitting The continual Putrid Feavers are generated when a putrid Vapor or a preternatural Heat which ariseth from putrefied Humors doth perpetually afflict the Heart and stirs up therein a continual Heat from whence likewise is perpetually diffused a Feaverish Heat into the whol body But the intermitting Feavers are caused when the said Vapors are carried unto the Heart only at certain distances of time Continual Feavers are again divided into Essential and Primary or Symptomatical Those are called Essential and Primary which spring from a putrefaction inflamed in the common Veins and not in any particular part of the Body Those are Symptomatical that arise from the putrefaction or suppuration of som particular part inflamed out of which part by communion of the Vessels a putrid vapor may continually be carried unto the Heart Such feavers are seen in the Pleurisie Inflamation of the Lungs Inflamation of the Liver and in the Inflamation of other Internal Parts Again the Primary continual Feavers are two-fold for some are without any Exacerbation or Fits and remission but continue alike from the beginning to the end and are called Sunochi or Continentes But others have manifest Exacerbations or fits and remissions and are called Sunecheis or Continuae by the name of the kind And these again from the difference of their Exacerbations or fits and remissions are divided into three sorts For some are called continual Tertians which have their Exacerbations or fits every third day others continual Quotidians that are exasperated every day others continual Quartans that are exasperated every fourth day The intermitting Feavers or Agues are likewise divided into Tertians Quotidians and Quartans according as their Fits are wont to return every third every fourth or every day There are other Differences of Feavers likewise which are either Accidental or arise from the Composition of those aforesaid all which we shall Particularly and briefly Explain Chap. 1. Of Continual Putrid Feavers ALthough there are divers sorts of a continual putrid Feaver yet have I determined to describe the Cure of them all together because in a manner the same Remedies are suitable to all of which some differ only in more or less and are accordingly to be varied which depends more upon the Judgment of a Physitian and his Dexterity attained by Practice than upon particular Precepts Yet shall I as neer as I can observe what is peculiar to every sort of Feaver in its peculiar place Feavers Putrid Continual and Primary or Essential are wont to be bred of the putrefaction of Humors which are contained in the Veins and greater Arteries And according to the various Nature of putrefying Humors several Species do arise Synochus Putrida is distinguished with no fits or exacerbations but its whol time is taken up as it were with one fit which reaches from the beginning to the end of the Disease and of this as of a simple Feaver there are made three differences The first whereof is that which continues all alike during from the beginning to the end The second is that which encreases by degrees The third is that which decreases by little and liâ—tle The first is named Acmastica or Homotonos and it happens when the whol course of the Disease the manner of putrefaction is one and the same The second is called Epacmastica when more putrefies than is dissipated The third is called Paracmastica when less putrefies than is dissipated Yet allthough these kind of Feavers do perpetually increase or decrease or keep the same Tenor yet doth not this hinder but that they have four times if they terminate in health but some have them longer others shorter if they be considered according to the vehemency of the Symptomes So that which is called Homotonos hath a very breif beginning and
by Alteratives and Dier For it somtimes falls out when there is some evil disposition of the Bowels causing a protraction of the Feaver that so long as Medicaments are given so long the Disease continues because that Nature is weakened Which afterwards Purgation being omitted gathers strength concocts the Cause of the Disease and being concocted expels the same But if a lingring Feaver arise from Obstructions as is often seen in Children frequent and very gentle Purging which draws away the Humors by little and little is wont to remove the Disease especially if the Purgation be compounded with Rhubarb which both opens obstructions and strengthens the bowels The Commendations whereof celebrated by Montanus in his tenth Counsel of Feavers is worthy to be set down in this place He setting down the Cure of a Boy that had a lingring Feaver arising from Obstructions Among other things I shall commend saith he one which I have by long Experience found never to fail viz. That he take every day the Infusion of Rhubarb in Endive Water For I never knew Feaver from Obstructions which was not cured by this Medicament provided it were constantly taken without weariness or giving over For I have somtimes seen most gross Humors impacted into the narrow passages of the Body and such Obstructions as by reason of the weakness of Natural heat could hardly be removed cured by Rhubarb My Course therefore hath been to take one pint of Endive Water and therein to infuse a dram of Rhubarb tied in a thin piece of Linnen Of which Infusion having lightly pressed out the Rhubarb I give four ounces in the morning and this is the Dose for Children Neither do I cease giging this Medicament until I see the Feaver and Obstructions wholly gone For they will doubtless be cured if all other things be rightly ordered and suitable to the Cure So far Montanus But we are wont ordinarily to use a Diet Drink made with Rhubarb which to such Children as are troubled with a lingring Feaver and Obstructions I am wont to give for their ordinary Drink with good success It is thus made Half a dram or a dram of Rhubarb according as the Child can endure the tast thereof grosly poudered and tied in a Rag is infused in two or three pints of smal Beer or Ale an whol day cold Of this the Child drinks for a month together or longer if the stubbornness of the Disease require the same Whereunto if the Feaver be very remiss and the Child flegmatick a little Wine or stronger Beer or Ale may somtimes be added to qualifie the unpleasing tast of the Rhubarb After Purgation of the Morbifick Matter Nature is for the most part accustomed in the declination of the Disease to purge away the reliques of the Matter offending by Urine which we may discern because the Urines are then more thick or more plentiful than ordinary which endeavor of Nature must be assisted by Diuretick Medicaments which are most temperate such as are Emulsions and the Openers formerly set down in Juleps or Broths whereunto if the Feaver be very gentle some Roots of Fennel and Parsley or Leaves of Wormwood may be added and that especially in Feavers of Flegm and continual Quotidians But if Nature do expel the Reliques of the Morbifick Matter to the habit of the Body Sudoroficks are to be used not those hot ones which are more properly called Sudoroficks but others more temperate which are the same in a manner with the Diureticks and being of an attenuating faculty do dispose the Humors in such sort as Nature may more easily expel them by what place or way soever she is most enclined Howbeit to these may be added Carduus Water Spirit of Vitriol and other things which shall be more fully described when we shall treat of Malignant Feavers Besides inward Medicaments divers things are also outwardly applied to temperate the Feaverish heat to confirm the strength of the principal parts or to open the Pores of the Skin and draw out the smoaky Vapors and Feaverish Heat viz. Epithems Liniments and other things to be applied unto the Region of the Heart Liver and other parts Which are invented to mitigate the Heat and are not to be applied save in the state or declination of the Disease when the Heat diffuseth it self to the exterior parts not in the beginning or augment while it resides yet about the bowels nor yet when the Crisis is at hand An Epithem to be applied to the Region of the Heart may be thus compounded Take the Waters of Bugloss Sorrel Water-lillies Roses of each three ounces Vinegar of Roses or juyce of Lemmons one ounce the Pouders of Diamargaritum frigidum and Triasantalon of each one dram Camphire and Saffron of each five grains mix all Make hereof an Epithem to applied warm with Scarlet Cloth For the more strengthening and to make it smel the sweeter ad three ounces of Orange flower Water and one dram of Confectio Alkermes Where we desire yet more potently to strengthen solid Epithems are applied unto the Heart made after this or the like manner Take Conserves of Bugloss and Roses of each one ounce Confectio Alkermes two drams Pouder of Diamargaritum frigidum one dram and an half With Juyce of Lemmons or Rose Water make a solid Epithem to be applied after the liquid one aforesaid Or one yet more Cordial may in form of a Liniment be thus made Take Confectio Alkermes and de Hyacintho of each three drams Pouder of Triasantalon and Diamargaritum frigidum of each two drams With Water of Roses make all into the form of a Liniment or Oyntment wherewith smear the Beâ—ion of the Heart Also to strengthen to and drive out the Sooty Vapours and the Feaverish heat young Pidgeons are very good being split through the Back bone and applied to the Region of the Heart which likewise are oftentimes sprinkled with cordial Pouders as Diamargaritum frigidum and Triasantalon Or before they be applied the Region of the Heart is smeared with Confectio Alkermes and the cordial Liniment aforesaid Also to the Liver Epithems are wont to be applied which are made commonly after this manner Take Waters of endive Cichory Sorrel and Roses of each three ounces Lettice Water two ounces Vinegar of Roses half an ounce Pouder of the Electuary Triasantalon one dram and an half Spodium half a dram Camphire ten grains Make of all an Epithem For to cool more powerfully an Epithem may somtimes be made of Juyces after this manner Take Juyce of Cichory and Endive of each half a pound Juyce of Lettice and Vinegar of Roses of each two ounces Pouder Triasantalon two drams Mix all and make thereof an Epithem Now it is very profitable to apply cooling Epithems not only to the Liver but to the whol Region of the Hypochondriaes for they do not only further Coction but also help the distemper of the bowels and hinder the principal Parts from a deadly Consumption The
a sharp Knife in the hand of an Infant or like a Sword in the hand of a Mad-man The first passages of the Body or first Region thereof being purged at least with one Purge a Vein is to be opened in the Wel-Day Yea verily And if the Patient be Plethorick the Urins red and thick the Cure is well begun by Blood-letting for the Purge will afterwards work the better If the Blood appear very Hot Adust or Putrid Bloodletting must be repeated which yet is left to the Judgment of the Physitian according as he finds the Patients constitution After Purgation and Phlebotomie we must endevor to prepare the Humors by Juleps such as were set down in the Cure of Continual Feavers the matter whereof must be varied according as Flegm or Melancholly is mingled with Choller as was observed in the place aforesaid In the mean time whilst the Medicines aforesaid are making the Feaverish heat is to be allaied with cooling Epithems applyed to the heart Liver such as were propounded in Continual Feavers with this Caution that they be never laid on but in the height of the Hot-Fit or rather when it first begins to abate To the Liver also and the Loins Oyntment of Roses or the cooling Oyntment of Galen may be applyed Also Emollient and cooling Clysters will be very good at the end of the Fit as well as in the beginning The matter being prepared certain daies by the use of Juleps Purgation must be again used with Senna Rhubarb Catholicum Syrup of Roses adding thereto Agarick if Flegm abound And And if the Patient be strong we may add Diaprunum Solutivum Electuarium de Succo Rosarum or Diaphaenicon The Body being again purged after the use of Juleps if the Fits return and seem longer than they were before it is a sign that gross Humors and such as stick fast in the Body do nourish the Feaver and breed Obstructions In regard of which clensing opening and cutting things are to be used The Principal of which is Wormwood which is exceedingly commended by Galen In his 1. Book ad Glauconem Chap. 9. and Century which in regard of the rare vertues it has in curing Agues is called Febrifuga that is to say Ague-Queller But because these Herbs are hot they may be qualified by the Commixture of cooling things after this manner Take Roots of Grass Cichory Asparagus of each one ounce Leaves of Agrimony Sorrel Cicbory Endive of each one handful vulgar Wormwood and Centaury of each an handful Boil all to a pint In the strained Liquor dissolve three ounces of Syrup of Lemmons Make all into a Julep for to be taken at three times in the morning The Juleps being finished a Purgation must be again administred or a Vomitory if Nature affect to discharge her self that way For then the signs of Concoction appearing these Feavers are somtimes happily Cured by Vomiting And Galen in his first Book ad Glauconem Chap. 10. Writes that many are Cured of this kind of Ague only by a Vomit yea verily and daily experience shews that Aqua Benedicta doth eradicate these Feavers or Agues for the most Part unless some contumacious obstructions of the Bowels do hinder Many Experiments hereof are propounded by Martinus Rulandus in the Centuries of his Cures But it is as was said before a vehement Medicament and not to be given without extream Caution Some give an ounce of Aqua Benedicta with the Infusion of half an ounce of Senna and so it works more by Stool than by Vomit Others use Cambogia others Mercurius Dulcis with Scammony Which Medicaments seeing they do potently Evacuate do often Pluck these kind of Feavers away by the Roots but they are to be given only to such as are strong of Constitution To these Medicaments exquisite Tertians and Bastard ones too are wont to give place But if the Agues do yet stubbornly resist as it ofttimes fals out Solemn Purgation must be made with an Apozem to be taken three daies made of the Materials of the foresaid Juleps adding thereto Senna Rhubarb Agarick Syrup of Roses of Cichory with Rhubarb and such like Yea verily and although the Ague be gone before the use of this Apozem if a Voluntary Loosness do not befal the Patient For the solution of an Ague by Sweat or insensible Transpiration as not to be trusted unto gives suspition of a Relapse because by them the thinner Part only of the Humor is Evacuated the thicker being left behind which can no other waies be Evacuated save by Stool Before the Apozem aforesaid be used if there be a Distension in the Parts under the short Ribs let this following Emollient attenuating and strengthening fomentation be applied Take Roots of Marsh-Mallows Grass and Asparagus of each one ounce Roots of Enula Campana and the middle Bark of Tamarisk of each half an ounce Leaves of Mallows Violets Agrimony Maiden-Hair and Wormwood of each an handfull Lin-Seed and Faenu-Greek Seed of each one ounce Flowers of Chamomel Melilot Roses of each a pugil Boyl all in three Parts of Water and one of white Wine put in towards the conclusion with two ounces of Vinegar with this Decoction foment the Parts under the short Ribs Morning and Evening for two daies before the use of the Apozem After Fomentation anoint the said Parts with this following Oyntment Take Oyl of Lillies Sweet Almonds and Tamarisk of each one ounce Oyntment of Marsh-Mallows two ounces and a little Wax Make all into a Liniment If after al these remedies the stubborn Ague do yet lengthen the time and keep its ground and the Patients Face appear swoln and palish also their Lege swel towards night they are to be plied with such Medicines as are commonly prescribed for obstructions of the Liver Among the rest Montanus doth very much commend the Decoction of Cichory and Germander in Broath which he saies is admirable in long Feavers that are caused by obstructions Yet it is to be noted that the length of a Tertian Ague is some times caused by an hot and dry distemper of the Liver whith perpetually produces a Chollerick Humor the Cause of new Fits Which is often observed in many which being of a dry and meagre constitution of body and wholly Chollerick have had a Tertian Ague three or four months together especially in the more hot season of the yeer without any tension of their Bowels or any aboundance of Humours To such as these strong purgers and strong aperitives or heaters do hurt But such as these are to be plied with a cooling and moistening diet with Juleps and Broaths of the same Nature And the superfluous Humors are to be Purged away by little and little with Emollient and Refrigerating Clysters with Cassia Tamarinds Catholicon and Syrup of Roses But in this case especially great miracles are performed by a bath of Blood-warm Water which doth extinguish the hot and dry distemper which is imprinted upon the Bowels Let the Patient use these baths
burning Feaver These things being thus premised we shal decribe the order of signs beginning from the actions hindered Because therefore the Heart is cheifly afflicted in these diseases by the malignant and venemous quality thereof therefore its action viz. The Pulse is diversly changed according to the varietie of times and the divers condition of the diseasâ— For somtimes at the first it is in a manner natural and very like the pulse of persons in health as Galen shews in the 3 de presag cap. 4. but in the progress and augmentation of the disease it is little weak and unequall Also the frequentness of the pulse is alwayes more than the increas of heat can require because the Heart being provoked by the malignant qualitie doth in that regard disturb it self more than the necessity of eventilation doth require Likewise the signs of this Feaver are Cardialgia Heart burning or pain of the mouth of the stomach which Hippocrates condemns as a sign of malignity 1. Progn in these words Pam of the mouth of the stomach with distention of the Hypochondria and Head-ach are signs of malignity Somtimes great thirst exceeding the measure of the Patients heat and somtimes want of thirst with a vehement Feaver and dryness of the Tongue for both are signs of malignity Great want of appetite which make many abhor al kinds of meat as much as if they were the most loathsom medicines Now this is wont to arise from malignant vapors which vex the stomach Stomach Sickness and vomiting arising from the same Cause especially when it happens in the beginning of the disease and is so divers that some presently vomit what they eat other vomits as soon as they have taken broath but they vomit not the broath which they took but divers kinds of Humors some keep any kind of meat but vomit their Drinks Iuleps Emulsions and whatever drinking matter is given them presently great thirst notwithstanding remaining with dryness and blacknes of the tongue A frequent and inordinate shivering which comes divers times in a day springing from sharp and biting exhalations of an adverse qualitie to our natures which are carried unto the sensitive parts which kind of shivering does rarely happen in other putred Feavers because the vapors in them have not the like malignitie In malignant intermitting tertians somtimes a sign of malignitie is taken from the shaking and the cold For it somtimes happens that in the beginning of the fit with a light coldness or shivering the heat doth so much retire inwards that the flesh of the patient is very cold and the face is like that of a dead person and the pulse so little as if it did not beat at al. After which follows an Heat which neither in the Augment nor in the state doth to the touch feel great or sharp yea and the flesh of the patient is either lukewarm to feel to or coldish even to the declâ—nation The pulse when the heat comes doth more appear yet it is small unequal frequent and very weak and many other symptomes of a pestilential Feaver are present which may sufficiently prove that there are intermitting malignant Feavers as well as continual as was hinted before Wearyness of the whol bodie Heaviness and a breaking as it were of the members appear in the beginning of the disease by reason of the foresaid vapors dispersed through the whol Body Paines of the Head Watchings and Raveings which al come from the same causes viz. from sharp and venemous vapors which when they lodg themselves in the membranes of the Brain they cause head-ach and in as much as they heat and dry the very substance of the brain if the alteration be but small they cause watchings if great they cause ravings And to these symptomes besides Heat and Dryness the venemous quality contributes much because in the vulgar Feavers such symptoms do not happen unless the distemper be much more than ordinarie And paines in this Feaver have a peculiar property to be very diverse to shift places For somtimes only the fore part of the head otherwhiles the hinder part now the forehead anon the eyebrowes are cuâ—aâ—under as it were with pam and sometimes other parts as the shoulder-blades the sides the back c. Somtimes it is fixed in one part otherwhiles it changeth place and vexes now this now that part of the body In some patients drousie and sleepie dispositions happen viz. In such as have their brains ful of flegmatick excrements which flegmatick excrements are desolved by hot vapors ascending from the inferior parts and doe hinder the functions of the Brain The urin in these pestilential Feavers is sometimes like the urin of sound persons namely when the humors doe more offend through a malignant Qualitie than by putrefaction somtimes it continues so for the first days afterwards it becomes thick troubled Somtimes in the state of the disease it appears concoct though the sick are in a perishing condition sometimes it is thin and crude haveing no sediment or such a sediment as is more like an excrement than a sediment But most commonly it appears thick and troubled and of an high colour and hath a thick red distrubed and scattered sediment And finaly al evil dispositions of urines doe happen in this disease according to the divers alterations of the putresieing and corrupted Humors Chollerick fluxes of the belly which either comes of themselves or through some like occasions by some gentle Clyster or medicament which bring many to their end So Hippocrates relates in 3. Epidem In a pestilential Constitution there described that many died of the loosness and Bloody-flux For the Humors being made more furious by the malignant qualitie which is in them doe exceedingly provoke Nature so that she indeavors to drive them out the neerest way Now in these Stooles there is wont to be a mighty stink by reason of the extream corruption of the humors An abundance of Worms is wont to be avoided in this disease especially at the beginning For the great Putrefaction doth very much dispose the Humors to breed Worms Frequent sweates small short and unprofitable doe break forth in the beginning of the disease The Heat is mild and gentle to feel to so that they searse seem to have a Feaver whereupon Galen 9. Simp. cap. de Bolo Armen Avic fen 4. lib. 1. cap de febre pestilenti Doe teach that pestilential Feavers have ofâ—times a mild and gentle Heat and the reason is because these diseases are rather caused by a malignant and venemous quality than of an ordinarie distemper and Pucrefaction Readness of the eyes isoften seen in pestilential Feavers because the membranes of the Brain are in a sort inflamed by sharp vapors ascending into the head which they easily communicate to the Tunica adnata or skin of the eyes so called which is propagated from the said membranes Finally purple spots like Flea-bitings called by later Physitians Peticulos or Petechiae are the proper
work and puresie it clenses both it self and the Vessel Now this working doth commonly happen to Children howbeit somtimes to those that are elder and have attained Mans estate because it is evermore set on work by some external Cause such as is especially a certain disposition of ayr proportionable to this disease whence it comes to pass that somtimes the smal Pocks somtimes the Measles are rise because the Ayr is somtimes enclined to the one and somtimes to the other Neither can those impurites of the Mothers blood infect her and cause in her the same diseases althought Hippocrates saies in his Book de Natura Pueri that there are three parts of the blood one most pure with which the Child is nourished another impure wherewith the Mother is nourished and another most impurer which is kept in the Veins of the Womb the whol time of Going with Child and after the Birth is purged away in the Child-bed purgations For first seeing the Mother hath parts more hard and solid they do not so soon take impresion as the tender and soft body of the Child Again that most impure part of the blood which is kept in the Veins of the womb and of the After-birth the whol time of belly-bearing doth infect the blood in the passage which is carryed through those parts to Nourish the Child whence the Child contracts and evil quality which in its time is the Cause of that ebullition in the blood of the Child But that impurest part of the blood remaining in the foresaid places doth not infect the body of the Mother Furthermore it s not to be wondered at that the breaking out of the smal Pocks and Measles is somtimes so long deferred as that some have them at Mans estate For those impurites do not substantially remain in the body as many imagine for they would be corrupted by long stay and acquire a most grevious putrefaction But only an evil quality is by them imprinted upon the parts of the Child which in process of time infecting some part of the humors becomes offensive to Nature which then rowsing her self doth drive those infected portions of the humors into the Skin And forasmuch as in the Mass of blood a twosold excrement is found the one thick the other thin of the thick the smal Pocks are bred of the thin the Measles And although the evil and malignant quality be one and the same insecting both excrements yet because the Nature of the excrements is different the Analogy of the external Cause unto them both is Different whence it comes to pass that sometimes the smal Pocks and somtimes the Measles are Epidemically spread abroad And although the smal Pocks are wont to break forth in the whol body yet are they wont to appear in greatest quantity in the face feet and hands which is otherwise in the purple spots of the Purple Feaver for they appear most on the breast and back The Cause of which difference is this that inasmuch as the smal Pocks arise from an ebullition of the blood by help whereof an Excretion is made of the excrements lurking therein unto the Skin and the Liver being the Fountain and original of blood whose Emunctories are the Face Hands and Feet whence it comes that such as have hot Livers have red and rubied faces and feel intense heat in the palmes of their hands and Soals of their feet it follows that the smal Pocks and Measles must come out there more than any where else Contrarywise the purple spotts which appear in malignant Feavers do arise principally from the Misaffection of the Heart and therfore they break out chiefly in parts near the Heart and especially about the Loines because in them the Vena Cava ascendens and the Arteria aorta which are annexed unto the Hair have their Course Also another difference is to be noted between the smal Pocks and Purples because the smal Pocks and Measles appearing on the third or fourth day from the beginning of the Feaver are wont to be critical and for the most part void of danger but the purple spots though they appear on the seventh day are commonly Symptomatical and render the disease worse whenas a man would think it should be otherwise for a disease is more crude on the fourth than the seveuth day But the Cause of this difference consists herein that in the smal Pocks and Measles the Feaver commonly begins at the highest so that not only on the third and fourth day but also on the first or second daies excretions may be in them critical But malignant Feavers proceed more slowly and their beginning is commonly Extended to the seventh day so that Excretions which then happen cannot be critical Now that the Pox and Measles come so soon to their state and not the malignant Feavers is hence because the Pox and Measle-Feaver comes from the lightest putrefaction and rather from an Ebullition of the blood than from any intense putrefaction of the matter and therfore Nature by help of Coction makes it to cease before the seventh day because it was a light Feaver and rose from the slightest Causes But in malignant Feavers so great and fordid is the putrefaction that it cannot be corrected in the fourteenth nor somtimes in the twentieth day And therefore the spotts breaking out before that time the disease is exasperated because Nature was forced to expel them without Concoction and symptomatically The expulsion therefore of smal pox and Measles is caused by an Ebullition of the blood which Ebullition according to Avicennas doctrine is twofold the one perfective the other corruptive The perfective or depurative is that in which only the impurer and excrementitious parts of the blood are by Nature purged forth that the whol mass may afterward remain pure and then the smal Pocks are innocent which are cured without any help of Physick But the corruptive is wherein not onely the excrementitous parts of the blood but the sincere blood it self is putrefied whence arise dangerous and deadly pox and according as there is more or less putrefaction in more in more or fewer parts of the blood so is the danger more or less This corruptive Ebullition doth cheifly happen when those diseases are epidemical being occasioned by a malignant Constitution of the Air by which an ebullition of the humors and a malignant putrefaction is caused whonce many and dangerous smal Pocks are caused which are somtimes according to Rhasis the Forerunners of the Plague Pocks and Measles are reckoned among acute diseases because ordinarily they are terminated within the space of fourteen daies Now som do wittily observe a double order of times in times in this disease viz. the time of ebullition and the time of eruption the time of ebullition is commonly terminated in four daies so that the first day is counted the beginning the second the Augment the third the state and the fourth the declination for then the Feaver and other symptomes