to the perforation of the Urinary Passage XIII There sometimes happens an odd kind of Distemper to those who are too much addicted to Venery some call it a Node of the Yard though when that is faln and become flaggy there appear nothing amiss yet he that handles the part throughly may perceive a certain small Tumour resembling a Bean or Glandule I have known several that have been ignorant of the Cause apply Emollients hereto thinking to discuss that hardish substance as if it were filled with some Humour But they have been so far from discussing of it Jul. Caesar Arantius l. de Tumor cap. 50. Sennert pract l. 4. part 9. s 1. c. 8. that the Patients have daily grown worse their Yard bending like a Rams Horn to that side where the Tumour was c. Those things therefore are to be used which are prescribed for a Rupture of the Navel or other Ruptures Astringent Fomentations c. XIV If a Phimosis and Paraphimosis proceed from a vehement Corius the Glans remaining still tumefied if it be fomented a good while with very cold Water it will detumefie and then the Prepuce may easily be drawn over the Glans Riolan Enchir Anat. l. 2. c. 31. This is an admirable Secret XV. I knew a Surgeon in Holland that to such as were troubled with a virulent Phimosis and Paraphimosis gave presently at the beginning an infusion of Stibium Hyacinthinum which is not much to be found fault with in the strong and Phlegmatick especially if Crocus Metallorum should be used in stead of Stibium for it not only evâ—cuates the offending Matter but also revels from the part affected but in the wasted and weak Practitioners know it to be no safe Medicin And we must diligently also consider whether the Whore had the Pox for then we must abstain from the Crocus Metallorum because with a certain violence it draws even from the remotest parts to the centre of the Body as also from all Medicins that purge violently by Vomit lest the offending Matter be drawn from the Genitals to the Liver and an universal Disease be made of a particular one which I have observed to happen in some Fabr. Hild. cent 5. obs 57. 'T is better therefore as I have always done with the greatest success to purge the Body gently XVI Some because they see an Inflammation present do forthwith apply Coolers and Repellers to the part affected but they do ill for by that means they repel the viru ent and malignant Matter contracted from impure Embraces and rivet it as it were into the part whence afterwards there arise virulent and malignant Ulcers But in respect of the Pain which is the principal symptom I apply an Anodyne Cataplasm of the Flowr of Beans and Barley the Seeds of Quinces and Fenugreek Red Rose Leaves pouder'd Saffron and Milk with the Yelks of Eggs anointing the whole Yard unless the vehemence of the Inflammation hinder for Oyl is bad for Inflammations as Galen teacheth with this Oyl Take of Oyl of Sweet Almonds newly drawn and of Roses of each an ounce of the Yelks of Eggs half an ounce Mix them Idem ibid. XVII It happens sometimes that from the bad Diet of the Nurse an Acrimonious Humour falls upon the Genitals of the Infant and there causes an itching and upon rubbing of the part there happens a Paraphimosis that is the Prepuce turns back to behind the Glans and cannot be drawn over it again the Humours flowing together betwixt the Glans and Prepuce yea there sometimes happens an Inflammation from the Acrimony of the Urine Some foolish Barbers cruelly handle Infants thus diseased with deep Scarifications and applications of Acrimoniouâ— Medicins Therefore I will here set down the Remedies whereby I have cured many I first prescribe to the Nurse a thin and cooling Diet then I purge her according to the nature of the predominant Humour But if the Child be weaned I give it at several times from one to three drachms of the compound Syrup of Roses Solutive If the Nurse be Plethorick after purging her I bleed her From the beginning if there be Pain and Inflammation I apply this Cataplasm Take of the Crumb of White Bread three ounces the Pouder of Roses and Balaustins of each two drachms of Saffron a scruple of fresh Butter an ounce of Cows Milk as much as suffices with the Yelk of an Egg make a Cataplasm If the Disease be stubborn I use the following Take of Bean-Flowr two ounces the Pouder of the tops of Wormwood Chamomel Flowers Elder Flowers of each three drachms of the Pouder of Fenugreek Seed two drachms of Cummin Seed three drachms boil them in harsh Wine and make a Cataplasm If there be Excoriation in stead of the Wine I use a Decoction of the Flowers of Chamomel Melilot Elder and Roses Idem ibid. obs 58. Peripneumonia or Inflammation of the Lungs The Contents Whether a Vein be to be opened I. Bleed freely II. Blood is to be let till its colour change III. Let the Orifice be large and the Blood suffer'd to run out in one continued Stream IV. Cupping-Glasses ought to be applied first to the Arms and afterwards to the Breast and Back V. Purging is sometimes good in the beginning VI. Sometimes in the progress VII Purging and Vomits generally do harm VIII Clysters ought to be often injected but such as are gentle IX Let Expectoraters be alter'd according to the state or season of the Disease X. Incrassating Eclegâ—â—s are prudently to be administred XI Hot Attenuaters do hurt XII Whether drinking of cold Water be good XIII Whether sweet things be to be given XIV The Patients may be allowed to drink freely XV. Whether Wine be to be granted XVI The application of Repellents does harm XVII How to remedy Vigiliae or want of sleep in this Disease XVIII I. THere is no small dispute concerning Phlebotomy for 't is written that Blood is to be let out by common Veins whereas no Vein that uses to be opened has any communication with the Veins of the Lungs nor are any branches distributed to the Lungs from the Vena Cava as Galen has in several places disputed against Erasistratus Besides the motion of Nature shews this for whereas in Diseases of the Viscera and burning Fevers bleeding at the Nose is Critical it is not so in a Peripneumony because the Veins of the Nose that pour forth the Blood have no communication with the Lungs If it be true that the Blood does naturally pass from the right Ventricle of the Heart to the Lungs and from thence is brought back into the left Ventricle that it may be sent forth by the Aorta and if the Circulation of the Blood be admitted who sees not that in Diseases of the Lungs the Blood flows thither in greater plenty and oppresses the Lungs unless it be first evacuated freely and afterwards often a little at a â—ime to relieve them This
admirably discuss the pain of the Haemorrhoids Riverius 6. Rolfinc Leaves and Flowers of Toad-flax excell in a singular Prerogative to stop pain 7. Ointment of Figwort is good Sennertus ¶ The dropping of a rosted Eel is good For excessive running of the Haemorrhoids 1. Galen's is the most excellent and onely Remedy of Aloes Frankincense and the white of an Egg made as thick as Honey Don. ab Altomari mixt with Hare's Down and applied 2. This Medicine never failed me which is made of Steel old Sugar of Roses Claudinus and Powder of Sea-Wormwood 3. Let the Haemorrhoids be washed with the Patient's Urine for it dries wonderfully and eases pain ¶ This has been tried in several Take of Powder of Bayberries dried in the shade one drachm Cortilio drink it in white Wine every third day in the morning for three times 4. I have known the running of the Haemorroids successfully stopt onely with Housleek-water Hofmannus For the Suppression of the Piles Among things that open the Haemorrhoids I must give the preheminence to the greater Centaury root if the bloudy juice be squeezed out of it and a Syrup made with Sugar The Dose 2 or 3 spoonfulls in a morning ¶ To open the Haemorrhoids let an Onyon be hollowed and some Oil of bitter Almonds be put into it rost it in the Embers Anoint the Haemorrhoids with the juice when squeezed out Crato For the Swelling of the Piles Powder of Mullein given in Milk or in some other Liquour Sennertus is very good to waste the swelled Piles also its Juice or Syrup may be given Hepatis Affectus in genere or Diseases of the Liver The Contents The conditions of Medicines proper for the Liver I. A new way of administring Hepatick Medicines II. When Rheubarb is the Life of the Liver III. Chymical Oils are Enemies to it and the Stomach IV. It is heated by strengthening the Stomach with outward applications V. Atonia Hepatis or Want of Tone in the Liver Whether Almonds and Pistachio's be proper in a cold one VI. The Cure of an Epatick Maid extenuated and dried up VII Hepatis Inflammatio Tumores or Inflammation and Swellings of the Liver The differences of Inflammatory Tumours VIII Plentifull Bloud-letting is proper IX To what places Cupping-glasses must be applied X. When Purgatives are proper XI Whether they should be mixt with meat XII Of Liquids which are most convenient XIII Internal Repellents what such they should be XIV Wind oftentimes deceives us in appearance of a Schirrhus XV. We must have a care how we use Saccharum Saturni XVI Emollients hurt a Schirrous Swelling XVII Emplastrum de Cicuta takes away the Schirrus XVIII Hepatis Intemperies or An Intemperature of the Liver In a hot one we must not abuse cold things XIX What we must doe if it be with Bile XX. Two generous Remedies in a hot one XXI In a hot Intemperature it is good to drink when Concoction is finished XXII Hepatis Obstructiones or Obstructions of the Liver When Bloud must be let XXIII We must purge quickly XXIV How we must purge XXV Whether Rheubarb be always proper and how XXVI We must have a care how we use Diureticks XXVII Things that dissolve Tartar must be added to deobstruents XXVIII The abuse of Aperients does harm XXIX They ought to be given in a large dose XXX Obstructions of the hollow part must be opened before those of the Gibbous XXXI When Rheubarb must be used in Substance and when in Infusion XXXII Cautions in the use of Aperients XXXIII About Sugar XXXIII Hepatis Ulcus or An Vlcer of the Liver Cured by opening the side XXXIV Hepatis Vomica or An Imposthume of the Liver It may safely be opened XXXV I. THESE ought to be the Prerogatives and Conditions of things which cleanse the passages as well in a hot as cold intemperature 1. Because of the narrowness of the ways they must penetrate as Cyperus Schoinanth Saffron Iris. 2. They must open as Horehound Aromatick Wormwood Pistachio's root of Parsley 3. They must concoct and mollifie as Raisins Figs sweet Pomegranate Wine Rhenish small Wine 4. They must be abstersive as Honey Sugar 5. They must strengthen as Agrimony Wormwood Schoinanth Rue Spike 6. They must preserve from Putrefaction as Cassia lignea Calamus Aromaticus Cinnamon Myrrh Amber Lignum Aloes Rhodium and all sorts of Spices 7. They must dry moderately as shavings of Hartshorn Ivory 8. They must be specifick as Rheubarb Wolf's Liver Raisins Mat. Martini de morb mâ—sent Flesh of Snails 9. They must also be astringent correct Malignity and not easily corrupt II. The proper way to take things inwardly is the Mouth The virtue is carried with the chyle to the Heart and after to the Liver The Moderns have an Invention to infuse some hepatick Liquour into some Vein opened in the Arm It is held that by this way the Vein being closed and tied the Medicine communicates its singular strengthening faculty to the Parenchyma of the Liver being carried to the Heart and out of the right Ventricle by the great Artery into the Hepatick Artery Rolfinccius and so to the Liver III. Rheubarb is indeed the life of the Liver but to a hot Liver it is Death Riolanus because it is hot and dry to the third degree IV. Let no man wonder how it comes to pass that many do not onely find no relief but sometimes hurt from Oils Chymically prepared as also from Decoctions But let him take these true Reasons from Hofmanni prefat in Lib. de Medic. Offic. Distilled Oils which they commonly call Essences are so plainly Enemies to the membraneous Stomach indeed by consuming its radical moisture and to the Liver and other Bloud Viscera by heating or to speak more plainly by raising an Inflammation S. Pauli Quadr. Botan p. 225. that some have contracted to themselves a perpetual thirst others a bilious Cachexy and some a hot Dropsie V. The Lobe of the Liver that lies upon the Stomach is heated by hot Ointments before the Stomach it self which I admire indeed how it has always passed unobserved by famous Men in their practice Fortis VI. Altimarus denies that Almonds and Pistachio's are good for cold Epaticks 1. Because things that are easily corrupted cannot be proper for them 2. Because they are oily but a cold constitution of Liver is very much hurt by these things because Obstructions which are usually joined with them are encreased by such a quality 3. Because they are readily converted into Bile On the contrary the affirmative must rather be defended with Savanorola who prescribes Almonds among other convenient Medicines 1. Because Almonds especially bitter have a faculty to extenuate and purge the thick and viscid humours of the Liver Gal. 2. de Alim fac c. 22. and 30. Where the same is affirmed of Pistachio's 2. According to Dioscorides l. 1. c. 136. de Mat. Med. they and
may be made stronger which may be done if less liquour be put to it and if it be boiled a little longer For by long boiling more virtue is got out of Plants and especially out of solid Woods which give their virtues but slowly It is known moreover that a Decoction of any thing is made thin and weak with much water but thick and strong with a little water It conduces also much towards promoting of Sweat if the Decoction be given hot For all sorts of Medicines penetrate far sooner and more powerfully hot than cold or but warm Besides the Heat of a hot Decoction dissolves the viscid Phlegm in the body and tempers the acid Humours which must in this Disease be conquered and expelled But it is good that besides the body be disposed to bear Sweating the better either by composing the body in bed and covering it with clothes or by going into a Stove or by running or any other violent motion of the body For as these alone use to cause Sweat so they cannot chuse but promote it yea when it comes slowly it is good to take hot broth Idem XXI These sudorifick Decoctions work also in many by Urine especially when Diureticks are taken with them Diureticks are more conveniently taken with them if those they call the Opening Roots or other parts of Diuretick Plants Berries Seeds c. be boiled with the Sudorificks For then Sweat and Urine may be promoted at once And I think no man need fear that the operation of the one Medicine will hinder the other since most reckon either Medicine will answer both Indications For Sudorificks do in some measure provoke Urine and Diureticks also promote Sweat Therefore I have no reason to scruple Diureticks in the Cure of the Pox since there is no difficulty in the case The Physician ought carefully to observe whether the Patient upon taking diuretick or sudorifick Decoctions incline more to Sweat or Urine to the end that evacuation may be most promoted which is the easiest to the Patient and from which most benefit may be expected Whenever therefore we observe a Patient sweats with difficulty but does void abundance of thick Urine with a full and laudable Sediment it is not good to force such an one to sweat but to expect the chief Cure from expulsion of Urine onely And it would not be amiss in such a case to increase the quantity of Diureticks in the Decoction or for the Patient now and then to take a Decoction of Diureticks alone For the pituitous humour when it is conveniently severed from the rest of the bloud either in the Kidneys or in the Heart the effervescence in its right ventricle being amended is successfully discharged with the Urine and passes more easily that way than by Sweat Idem XXII Concerning the Decoction of Sarsa parilla we must take notice that they who care not to spare cost and could have the Decoction efficacious do onely take the Bark as being the most efficacious part of the Root and throw away the inner Pith as less effectual yea some reckon it is cold and a little astringent Sennertus XXIII When China Root first came to be known many preferred it before Guaiacum but Experience afterwards abated its fame And Palmarius writes c. 14. that many to their great prejudice preferred this Root before Guaiacum and that he found by Experience that with a very spare Diet it was ineffectual for the Pox. And oftentimes the Stomach grows so moist and the innate Heat is so opprest with the Decoction of it that a grievous Lientery and a great Crudity often follows in whom the innate Heat was but weakly He writes moreover that it causes the pleen to swell and grow hard in them that use it long And he will not also allow it any extraordinary occult quality against the Pox Because after taking of it they frequently relapse who have thought themselves well cured And Fallopius confirms it who writes that he had used this Root three or four times for the Cure of this Disease and could doe no good with it And if perhaps some one who could neither be cured by a Decoction of Guaiacum nor by anointing with Quicksilver recovered his health by a Decoction of China Palmarius thinks this to have been the reason That Nature delights in variety of Medicines and being tired out with strong things was at last relieved by weaker Idem XXIV Some advise not to make more of the Decoction at once than can be taken in one day because when it is cold it easily grows sowre And therefore they order it to be kept on hot Embers But Experience has shewn us that it will last four days Yet whenas it grows sowre that very thing argues the root has something spirituous and alimentarious in it which is the cause of fermentation and thereby of the Sowreness Idem XXV Besides Sudorificks and Diureticks Purgatives also must be used in the kindly Cure of the Pox which must be Phlegmagogues and here Experience does not a little confirm my opinion as well as the consent of all Practitioners which among the common things gives the preheminence to Pulp of Coloquintida and among Chymical things to Mercurial Medicines Now these things are intended chiefly to evacuate a pituitous viscid humour Therefore we did not conclude much amiss that the Venereal Poison was mixt with viscid Phlegm and that Phlegm did both produce and increase it Sylvius de le Boë and is now conveniently evacuated with it but it must first be a little corrected XXVI Coloquintida I say and most Medicines made of Mercury are very proper both for a pituitous viscid humour and for curing the Pox as all experienced and learned Physicians agree To such as like common Medicines best I recommend the taking of Pulp of Coloquintida boiled in part of the Sudorifick Decoction or in some other Apozeme twice or thrice a week to carry off by stool the gross and viscid humours which are not fit to be expelled by Sweat through the Pores of the Body For besides that pituitous humours blended with the mass of Bloud are very difficultly thrown off by Sweat through the Pores of the Body moreover much Phlegm is discharged with the Spittle and the Pancreatick juice to the Guts wherefore it is better to carry it off once or twice a week by stool than by the continual taking of Sudorificks onely to carry it back to the Bloud and so to render the Cure both more tedious and difficult Idem XXVII They that have no mind to take a Decoction of Coloquintida because of its bitterness may take Trochiscs of Alhandal which are made of it in Pills adding things that may incide and carry off the same Phlegm especially Gum Galbanum Sagapenum Opoponax Ammoniack Bdellium Mastick c. I have often prescribed such Pills for those that were sick in the Hospital Idem XXVIII The Phlegmatick humour which
was Hippocrates'â— way who when the Lungs are swoln draws Blood from all the parts of the Body the Head Nose Tongue Arms and Feet that the quantity thereof may be lessened and it may be revelled from the Lungs In Diseases of the Lungs he bids us Bleed as long almost as there is any Blood in the Body The Circulation of the Blood being supposed the Lungs are easily emptied by Venesection if it be denied I see not how the Blood can be revelled thence for if it be to flow back again into the right Ventricle by the Vena Arteriosa the Sigmoides Valves hinder and the three pointed Valves stop its regress into the Cava out of the right Ventricle Thereâ—ore by the Circulation the Blood is exhausted thence by opening the Veins of the Arm and Foot 〈…〉 and the Opinion of Fernelius is withal destroyed viz. That in Diseases of the Lungs Blood is rather to be drawn from the right Arm than the left because the Blood cannot pass back into the Cava but by breaking through two stops and obstacles placed in the Heart II. And if Blood be to be let at several times and not all at once for fear of swooning yet it is to be let pretty freely for the first time for unless there be a plentiful bleeding on the first days suppuration is to be feared But when the Lungs abound with much Blood we ought not to be afraid of opening a Vein three four five or six times Yet if it succeed a Quinsy or Pleurisy Enchir. med pract we must take greater care how we Bleed III. Phlebotomy is requisite in almost every Peripneumony yea sometimes it ought to be repeated often for the Vessels being emptied of Blood do not only withdraw the fomes of the Disease but also resorb the Matter settled in the part affected Now in a Peripneumony as also in a Pleurisy the Blood that is taken away after it is cold has a tough and discolour'd thin skin on its surface Further we may observe that sometimes all the Blood and sometimes only a portion of it undergoes this change for if the Blood be received into three or four Porringers it will appear bad sometimes in all but most commonly in the second and third and pretty good in the first and last Wherefore 't is commonly advised to bleed always so long till that which is so depraved shall begin to run out and if the strength will endure it to let the Blood continue to run till it appear good again Indeed as frequent Experience so likewise Reason does well enough approve of this practice in as much as in this Disease the whole Blood does not presently acquire that lentor or sliminess the portions that are first depraved are mostly gather'd together about the place of obstruction and stick all about in the lesser Vessels Wherefore the Blood that first comes out will often be faultless but then the Vessels being emptied will receive the other Morbifick Blood that stagnated before and restore it to the Circulation And seeing its portions that are placed near march all in a body as it were when they arrive at the Orifice of the Vein they will issue out together and when they are issued forth that which comes after presently appears purer Willis IV. Wherefore in this case let the Orifice be always large and let the Blood not only issue forth in a full but also in a continued Stream for otherwise if in the middle of the bleeding whilst the naughty Blood is running out the Orifice be stopt with ones Finger as some use to do lest the Spirits should fail when it is opened again the Blood that comes out next will be pure enough the bad Blood if there shall be any behind having slid by and will not return presently to the Orifice Idem V. If it be feared lest the strength should be cast down by Venesection one may apply Cupping-Glasses with Scarification to the Arms and Breast which draw the Blood from the depth of the Breast to the Skin and External parts Yet 't is convenient they should be first applied to the Muscles of the Arms that the Blood may in some measure be evacuated and averted from the Lungs and afterwards to the Shoulder-Blades and to the Breast if it be fleshy For though it seem to be a near place yet it is at some distance from the Lungs and the Attraction is made from the inner parts to the outer Sennertus ¶ For Diversion Aretaeus substituted empty Cupping-Glasses in stead of Venesection ordering them to be applied to the Bâ—ck and other parts of the Body and for derivation to the Breast and Sides Paulus proposes Scarified ones Fortis cons 49. cent 1. which yet are not to be applied but to the deplorable ¶ If the Body be fleshy so that the Cupping-Glass when it is set on will not afflict the Skin that invests the Bones there apply one for by that means the Humours will be drawn aside to any part of the Body and the Spirits are called out to the outer parts whereby the Lungs are oppressed Nor do I approve of their Opinion who when there wants sufficient strength for Venesection at the beginning supply it with Scarified Cupping-Glasses applied to the Breast and Back seeing Galen is altogether against it 11. Meth c. 17. and 13. cap. 19. For at that time it will be sufficient to fasten them first to the Muscles of the Arms that the flowing Humour may after some sort be evacuated and diverted and afterwards let them be applied to the Breast Mercatus if as was said before the Body be fleshy VI. Purging is sometimes convenient in a Peripneumony before the seventh day though it be then thought pernicious Mr. N. sixty years of age was ill of a Phlegmatick Peripneumony which was known by a Cough difficulty of breathing a Fever a pain under the left Shoulder and a flushing in his Face And whereas he seem'd to be full of much Phlegm and had vomited up a pretty quantity thereof and had had three or four Stools by a Clyster which had been injected the next day after bleeding which he did but once a Purge was given him of an infusion of Rhubarb with Manna and Syrup of Roses by which he was very well purged on the fourth day of his illness and the next day after was freed from his Fever and the other Symptoms River cent 1. obs 98. ¶ The impetus of the Matter is to be revoked by pretty sharp Clysters and the plenty of Crude Humours to be lessened thereby But we must take heed of disturbing the Belly too much for as Hippocrates tells us a Flux of the Belly is dangerous in a Peripneumony unless that be frothy which is expelled wherefore Avicen does not commend the purging of Humours in this Disease for the Humour being moved is exagitated more furiously and flows more plentifully into the part affected besides that the
pain heat and fuga vacui or the avoiding vacuity To pain indeed as it depends upon its causes an hot intemperies and a solution of continuity springing thence this debilitates the part and makes it unable to repell the Humours from it whence the tyed part swells But there is a far other reason of this swelling Ligatures upon the Arms stop the motion of the Blood that is flowing out at the Nose not because they attract upon the score of pain or heat but because they retard the Blood that is received from the Arteries and is a returning to the heart by the Veins from passing so speedily to the right ventricle On this foundation the vertue of Ligatures rests whilst they are made upon a sound part they hinder the Blood from flowing back by the Veins to the affected part in any plenty Rolfinc Meth. Med. p. 442. so the affected part is freed from the influx Narcoticks See Hypnoticks before Nephriticks Cysticks or Medicines for the Stone See Book 3. Calculus Renum or the Stone in the Kidneys and Book 15. Renum affectus or Diseases of the Kidneys The Contents They respect either the resolution of the Coagulum it self I. Or the Saline Acrimony and irritation of the genus membranosum II. Or the opening of the ways III. Nephriticks and Cysticks are the same IV. Nephriticks are not to be confounded V. Resolvers hurt when a Saline Acrimony offends VI. The Reins rejoice in moisture but not excessive VII Where Topicks are to be applied VIII Refrigerating ointments scarce cool because of the oyl IX Hot dissolvers of the Stone many times do hurt X. I. IT being presupposed 1. that the Material cause of the Stone is a dry concretion that in a Natural state is voided with the Urine or a Tartareous Salt consisting of an earthy and Saline matter although a viscous Humour may also concur 2. That the Blood of calculous persons add of Gouty and Hypochondriacal abounds with such Saline and Tartareous Coagulables we say that Nephritick Medicines are both such as resolve and such as mitigate and such as drive forward and so they respect 1. the resolution of the coagulum it self or the sliminess or muddiness of the Blood tending now out of the Vessels separated in the Kidneys and Bladder but not expelled whether it offend by its plenty or Nature her self fail in her expulsion and the earthy parts by the access of the saline fixed volatile turn into a coagulum such as are 1. Abstergers both watry and diluting that afford a more plentiful Serum for the draining out of those excrements and are good against gravel when there is a plentiful sediment in the Urine and the stone is a breeding 2. Sulphureous Resolvers that more intimately hinder coagulation and hinder the matter from stopping there whether they be more temperate oily obtunding and taking away Acrimony of Sperma ceti and other Aperients that are good in any obstructions stoppage of Urine stone c. or more active fusing the Blood as it were and precipitating and liquating the Serum into the Kidneys such as are chiefly Remedies of Turpentine which give the Urine a Violet smell which is a notable testimony that their vertue reaches hither the oyl of Amber c. 3. Saline Resolvers whether Acid inciding and deterging as Acidum Tartari acid mineral Spirits especially Spirit of Salt or soaty and earthy alkali's obsorbing Lyes which are of avail either through their Salt which they keep retir'd or from their notable vertue of absorbing saline Humours as Crabs-eyes the Salts of plants the tincture of Tartar c. whence belong hither most of the more generous Aperient Diureticks and Lithontripticks From hence it appears why Acid and Lixivious Medicines also are good in the stone namely both of them resolve correct glutinosity and destroy a preternatural coagulum likewise other things that take away grumescence or clodding and resolve coagulation which also are good when clods of Blood stop about the Bladder II. Or 2. they respect the saline acrimony and irritation of the genus Membranosum and are temperating moistening cooling absorbing whether the parenchyma and Membranous and Nervous passages be hurt by an acrimonious caustick Salt as it is common upon taking Cantharides to have all the harm accrew to the Kidneys and Bladder alone or from the weight and sharp corners of the coagulated Stone Such are 1. those things that are common as it were to both temperate and demulcing aqueous Remedies not Saline Sweet and Mucilaginous as Gum Tragacanth Gum Arabick the pulp of Cherries and Cassia Raisins Sebestens Conserve of the flowers of Mallows commended by Amatus Fernelius's Syrup of Marsh-Mallows c. 2. Things also that are partly oily and watry as sweet Milk Emulsions of the cold Seeds Which as they ease the Symptoms that are caused by Cantharides so they do in a special manner demulce and ease the ways that are torn by over stretching as it were and by accident they cure nocturnal pollution help the Strangury that springs from a serous acrimony 3. Precipitants whether they be withal Styptick as in pissing of Blood and other laxities or Nervine as Cinnabarines the more temperate specifick powders so also steel Remedies belong hither hence Heurnius upon Hippocrates's aphor 6. 6. where when he had said that the pains and Diseases of the Reins and Bladder-in general are hard to cure he commends experimentally in an Ulcer of the Kidneys the juice of steel that is steel Wine made of the filings of steel macerated in sweet and strong Wine 4. Acids correct a bilious Acrimony if it be present as red Liver-wort whence according to Hippocrates lib. de locis Acids both cause the Strangury and help it And these as we have already intimated are good for Bloody Urine diabetes nocturnal pollution heat of Urine yea in the stone it self and we must also have great regard to the pains which are as it were the tyrants of indication 5. Hither belong even Opiats also which being mixed with resolvers are very useful in the Stone not indeed as if they resolved primarily or as if they cleared the wayes but because they give rest to Nature III. Or 3. They respect the stopping and clearing of the ways not so much by driving forward as loosning that way and leave may be given to the departure of the unwelcom Guest such as are internal and external emollients and paregoricks lubricaters and moisteners especially oily things chiefly Oil of sweet Almonds likewise Chamomel the Decoction whereof resolves withal whence the Flowers thereof in Pottage give present ease in the Cardialgia or Pain at the Stomach the Colick Stone also fat Broths for they give by so much the presenter Ease by how much they resolve the more withal thus the Oil of sweet Almonds with the juice of Lemons is a Secret with some Hither belongs that place of Walaeus m. m. p. 4. In Pains of the Stone says he whether you
urges Mercat de praesid lib. 1. cap. 2. we must take more the first time notwithstanding Galen's saying who bids us add half the second time XLIV I suspect whether change of the colour should be respected in Bleeding for at what time the Blood is a flowing 't is hard to observe such a change of colour and when it is already run out it is not so profitable to look upon it seeing often when one has been let Blood twice or thrice that which is hid in the deepest minera of the putrefaction is drawn out in the last place yet in but a small quantity so that it can do little good and the Patient cannot without harm sustain further Bleeding though never so necessary So that I think that measure of the quantity to be surer which is chiefly taken from the benefiting and sustaining And though there do not presently appear any benefit yet the sustaining has this excellency that if the remedy be used according to art it promises benefit and endures repetition till the disease be overcome Mercat de Praes l. 1. c. 2. ¶ Physicians use to receive the Blood into three Porringers when they observe a discolouring in the last and see it very impure and dare not continue the Bleeding till it come forth pure for fear of fainting away they declare that the Patient must Bleed again not once but three or four times And they are confirm'd in this opinion when they see a glutinous surface in the Porringer that is clammy and tough Rolfinc meth gen l. 4. sect 2. c. 10. But this measure is deceitful for that is esteemed for discoloured Blood which is Blood mixt with chyle the glutinous surface is chylous XLV One would at first think that the measure of the quantity of Bleeding should be till we have taken away all abundance but we may not do so for there is one thing which I think I have observed viz. That there has been an excess made when so much Blood has been let forth that the left ventricle of the Heart could no longer drive it into the Body Walaeus meth med p. 78. nor the Blood come from thence to the right ventricle of the Heart XLVI There are some cases wherein it is expedient to cause fainting away by evacuation For in very great inflammations in the most burning Fevers and most vehement pains the Ancients as Galen reports used to make evacuation to that degree Not indeed as if Lipothymy were to be the measure of the greatest evacuation as the common opinion is for this measure would have been very deceitful seeing some faint away upon the least occasion and others endure immoderate evacuations without swooning But rather because in the aforesaid cases Lipothymy comes on a proper account for hereby is a retraction made of the Blood and Spirits to the viscera whence there is caused the greatest revulsion from the part affected the habit of the Body likewise is very much cooled and a torpor is induced upon the senses I have observed this benefit in pains so that I cannot sufficiently set forth how notably it takes them away A noble Woman being troubled with very violent pains in her Head and all things that were given her doing her no good the pain at length came to that height that through the greatness of it she fell into a swoon out of which being got in a little time she was freed from all sense of pain and continued in that state till the same pain returning caused a new swooning which proved the cure of the pain Hence I perceived the reason why the Ancients in the greatest pains made evacuations to fainting away For Hippocrates also in the Pleurisie 4. acut v. 241. hath commended it If the pain reach to the Clavicle or Collar-bone c. and it be acute we must Bleed even to swooning Not exclusively as some interpret but inclusively for he says If the pain be acute we must Bleed even to swooning Hence it appears that swooning is procured because of the violence of the pain that it may take the pain away Seeing therefore swooning even without immoderate evacuation happens in all cases in which it is approved of it will not be necessary to administer an evacuation in that manner lest the Patient before a great evacuation be made faint away as Galen observed Yea he is sometimes to be placed so as that even by a moderate evacuation he may fall into a swoon Martian comm in vers 70. l. de humor namely when 't is feared that the sick either through age or some other great cause cannot bear a large one and that we shall obtain if he be Bled either standing or sitting XLVII As I never make those numerous Bleedings which proceed to fifteen or twenty So this I will premise that there is hardly any disease whose cure I do not begin with Venesection because if that be not used in the first place there is scarce place for any remedy For a full Body neither makes the ways permeable for other evacuations nor affords it a passage for any medicins what is cooled is condensed what is heated is inflamed such a Body is fit for no way of cure Therefore it is so far to be evacuated as that it may sustain the remainder of the cure without prejudice Valles m. m. l. 4. c. 2. but not so far as that the faculty may not suffice afterwards or the Body incur the before rehearsed prejudices XLVIII The habit of the Body affords but a deceitful token of the measure of Bleeding wherefore we must be the more attentive to the strength of the faculties and to the Veins themselves from which the strength of the faculties is more manifest than from the habit it self of the Body This indeed Celsus has taught us to examine for if the Veins be large and the habit also fat and loaded such Bodies bear Bleeding more easily But if the Veins be small Mercat de Ind. med l. 1. c. 4. though the Bodies be slender yet they bear this kind of evacuation more difficultly XLIX 'T is certain that Bleeding is profitable against a Plethora whether already compleat or but a beginning for the mischiefs of a Plethora cannot be better taken away or prevented by any other remedy Yet we should avoid the necessity of this evacuation as much as we may namely because the Blood becomes thereby more sulphureous and less salt and therefore almost all persons are apt thereupon to fall into Fevers and to grow fat Moreover Venesection being a great remedy if it be prostituted to every little occasion it will become less effectual when there is need to use it for great diseases To which this may be added that according to the observation of the vulgar the more familiarly any one uses Phlebotomy the oftner he shall need it because Blood being often let to avoid a Plethora the rest of the Mass will the sooner arise again to a
bones You need not fear the acrimony for our Euphorbium does not inflame the adjacent flesh But I would have a Seton first used which is of such moment that I have observed in several persons an inveterate lachrymal Fistula could scarce be cured without the help of this Fabricius Hildanus cent 6. observat 3. Nor would I have any thing attempted before the Seton have run for some time and have drawn to it the Matter which fell upon the Fistula II. There is another Aegylops often bred of a tough humour like gelly inclosed in a bladder which cannot be cured without opening the Tumour with a knife or a potential Cautery and taking away of the skin Enchiridii med pract p. 88. and then lest the Ail return a burning hot Cautery must be applied to cause an Eschar which when it is fallen off some beaten Allum mixt with Turpentine may be applied till it be perfectly healed ¶ Because this Swelling cannot be cured with Medicines alone it must be taken hold on with a pair of Nippers and cut round the bottom with a knife Scultetus tab 31. armament yet so that the whole spungy Caruncle be not cut off which is not unfitly called The Bridle of Tears for upon taking it away a perpetual efflux of them or an incurable Rhyas doth follow III. A Matron about thirty years of age after frequent inflammation of the Eyes and Head-ach had a Lachrymal Fistula arose Hildanus cent 4. oâ—s 19. and was cured by the help of a Seton IV. Sometimes there are cancrous Ulcers in this part which cannot be cured except the part be burnt and the Veins and Arteries especially be burnt thoroughly and to the quick Enchiridion med pract p. 89. For so the cure will be most safe without fear of relapse because when these Vessels are burnt there can be no more new Defluxion V. In the burning an Aegylops I should with the more approved Physicians prefer an actual Cautery before that they call Potential But why do they order it to be of Gold rather than of any other matter For one would think it might commodiously be made of Iron nay perhaps more commodiously seeing there is an astringent Virtue confest to be in Iron a quality very requisite in this case Again Gold if it be violently heated melts if indiffereâ—tly it is to no purpose Yet Johannes Montanus a great Physician chuseth Gold or Brass in his Counsels Plempius Ophi◠〈◊〉 mogr. l. 5. c. 3. by reason the burning is greater and the Scar deepr than the tender particles here exposed can endure VI. All the difficulty in the Cure is about Repressers and Suppuraters for either of them seem to incurr the hazard of a Fistula that indeed by repelling the humour to the Parts within and this by putrifying Nevertheless both must be done sometime of Necessity When the Defluxion first begins and the corner of the Eye ailed nothing before repressers are convenient for if this place never ailed any thing before the Parts underneath are strong therefore Repulsion should be made to the sides rather than directly under But if in the process of the Disease an Inflammation arise in this case Repulsion is no way convenient Sometime we must use Suppuraters when Nature hath already begun the Suppuration and the Humour is Sanguine and in great plenty when Suppuration cannot be avoided Saxonia prael pract part 1. cap. 20. which when made though but imperfectly the Abscess must be opened Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Take of Fine Honey Aloe Hepatica each 2 ounces Myrrhe 1 ounce Saffron half a drachm Water 2 pounds Boyl them over a gentle fire to half Petrus Bayruâ— de med hum corp malis l. 3. c. 26. let a new little Sponge be put in the hot decoction wring it out wrap it in a fine rag bind it to the place and you will see a wonderfull effect as I have often experienced 2. I never found any thing better than what follows Take of Aqua vitae mel Rosatum each 1 drachm Myrrhe 2 drachms Mix them Chalmeâ—â—us enchri â—hirurg l. 3. c. 20. make a Liniment wherewith the part must be anointed morning and night 3. Take Garden Rue which Fullers use beat it very fine and apply it it cures this Ail excellently well It is very biting at the first but it will presently grow easy Alex. Trall l. 1. c. 23. and which must be admired it leaves either no Scar at all or no disfiguring or remarkable one behind it 4. Services bruised and applied are reckoned a singular Remedy Arnold Weâ—kard thesaut pharmacop l. 1. c. 4. Agonia or Pangs of Death How persons at the point of Death are to be Revived WHen Physicians perceive the Hippocratical Signs of Death they bid adieu to their Patients lest they should expoâ—e themselves their Art and their Medicines But they should not be given up but all means rather should be used which have any possibility to prolong life For I have known several at the point of death who have been given over by the Physicians and yet have recovered by inconsiderable means I will give you my opinion freely In the Heart which is the last that dies the vital Spirits are extinguished divers ways I. By the excessive heat of the Bloud Cooling Potions and Epithemes to the Breast relieve such persons II. Others die when there is not a sufficient Affluence to the heart to continue the Circulation 1. If new Chyle pass not to the Heart either by reason of Expulsion of the Food by Dysentery Vomiting or some fault in the vessels of the Mesentery or if it pass not by the proper ways Transfusion of man's or Calf's bloud would do good in this Case 2. If the Bloud which should be carried back by the Veins do clot and congeal and this it does variously in various Diseases in the Phthisick deep Consumption and Fevers the Lympha or usefull Serum is wanting in the bloud A warm bath which dissolves the Coagulation relieves such for a time In Tartarous Diseases as the Scurvy c. the Bloud wanting Spirituous Parts is made tough and thick such Patients begin to die at the extreme parts warm baths also and spirituous Potions which hinder Coagulation do help such In such when they are dead the Arteries are flaccid and the Veins do strut III. The motion of the bloud is choaked by suffocating Catarrhs inasmuch as the Lungs through which the Circulation of the Bloud is made out of one Ventricle of the Heart into the other and the Vessels of Respiration are choaked by a cold Viscidity Let the sick Persons be laid on their side that the Phlegm may run out at the mouth apply a hot Pultess to the Throat and hot sand to the Head and Neck Because Apoplectick persons die of such Phlegm stopping up the Ventricles of the Brain Cupping the head and blistering the neck signify little if
may draw down the humours more powerfully from the Jugular Veins Nor need want of strength be much feared which is here oppressed not wasted As for cooling the body Gr. Nymannus Tract de Apopl p. 217. and thickning the humours for which some reject bloud-letting it is of no moment for in the Apoplexy nothing is more necessary than Revulsion and Turning the Matter away from the Head and we must especially labour to doe it presently which Indication bloud-letting quickly answers Wherefore we may hope for more benefit from translation of the Morbifick Cause than we need fear damage from cooling of the Body II. After the universal Plenitude is abated by letting bloud in the Arm the Parts especially affected are to be relieved for which purpose the best means is opening the Jugular Veins out of which by reason of their bigness the bloud runs freely which by stagnation oppressed the Brain and by this discharge the Lungs are less oppressed and when less bloud comes to them they easilier deliver what they contain to the Arteries and left Ventricle of the Heart and the Current of the bloud being render'd more free Coagulation is hindred Obstructions are opened and the Animal Functions are by degrees restored Concerning opening of them Experience seconds Reason and these Veins may with more ease be opened Fr. Bayle Tract de Apoplexia c. 11. because in this Disease they being swelled there is no need of Ligature which in this case might doe harm and therefore after opening of them must not be too strait but Emplastrum Galeni must be applied to the Orifice III. When there is no Plethora but great store of sharp humours i. e. much sowre Melancholy or its Exaltation hath caused the Apoplexy which foregoing pains do shew Hippocrates bids us use Fomentations before bloud-letting nor without reason for when the Veins are inflamed dried and straitned and the bloud by degrees coagulates if we withstand these things by emollient heating and attenuating fomentations the bloud will run more freely and with its rapid motion will wash what was beginning to coagulate from the Capillary Vessels dilated and softened if presently after the Fomentation or in the very use of it a Vein be opened Otherwise it is to be feared the thinner part of the bloud may come away by bloud-letting while the thicker and what begins to coagulate stays behind which will hinder the effect of the Purge which should then be given The Head especially should be bathed seeing in it there is the greatest danger from Coagulation and next the Hypochondria But both Fomentations and bloud-letting should be used in the beginning of the Disease while the spirits are yet elevated Ideâ— IV. There is scarce a Practical Physician but advises bloud-letting in an Apoplexy caused by bloud But I question whether it be proper in every Apoplexy as the excellent Nymannus thinks For he in favour of his Hypothesis which takes every Apoplexy to be caused by Obstruction of the Sinus's is very large in commendation of bloud-letting which Hypothesis since it does not hold true in every Apoplexy as I have proved the like and perpetual use of bloud-letting may be questioned It 's evident when the Vertebral and Carotid Arteries are filled with fibrous bodies that bloud-letting avails little And those Apoplectick persons are in the same Case who have the Torcular stopt seeing it cannot wholly be obstructed except by some such like body Nor likewise will bloud-letting be convenient when Serum is gathered in the Ventricles and Cavity of the Skull since by it the immediate cause is not removed but the strength otherwise spent is more weakned In an Apoplexy where a Vessel is broke there is no hope both because a quantity of bloud poured into the Ventricles and Basis of the Brain cannot be got back by Art and because while it stays there it is coagulated In that which is caused by Serum gathered in the substance of the Brain what good bloud-letting does it is by accident namely as it abates the Turgescency of the bloud and Serum Therefore this alone will not remove the Apoplexy but we must also use things that spend and evacuate the Serum which moistens the medullous substance But bloud-letting in an Apoplexy caused by a sudden Obstruction of the little Arteries is good in many respects for first the preternatural violent motion of the bloud is stopt which often is the occasion of this Obstruction and it runs in less quantity to the Brain for instance when the bloud is taken out of the Arm no small portion makes to the Arm by the Axillary Veins that so what was taken away may be supplied Then the bloud hastens from the whole body and from the brain towards the Heart to assist it thus depauperated and spoiled by bloud-letting Wepferus Exercitat de Apâ—plexia p. 218. And the heart eased of the burthen wherewith it was loaded both before and in the Paroxysm disperses the bloud as it returns more chearfully in better order and in quantity more usefull to the brain which forceth and washeth out what caused the Obstruction and Trouble in the medullous substance and drives it into the Capillary Veins adjoyning to the extremities of the Arteries V. Bloud abounding in the head cast a full-bodied young man into an Apoplexy with Trembling loss of Speech and Ratling three most dangerous concomitants of this Disease Tulpiâ—â— c. 7. lib. 1. Observâ—â— Wherefore speedily to abate these violent Symptoms he was immediately bled in the right Arm but not bleeding so freely as his extremity required the same Lancet was used to his left Arm and when both had continued bleeding for some time his Ratling evidently abated he took his breath better and quickly was cured VI. Cupping with Scarification should be applied not to the shoulders and back as the Arabians advise because there is no remarkable Vein that reaches the Brain But they should be stuck near the Jugulars and under the chin if possible Rondâ—lâ—â—us For these Topick Remedies should be applied not onely upon the Veins that reach the part diseased but upon the next and largest if the constitution of the Part will permit it VII A large Cupping-glass may well be applied to the top of the Head seeing it draws the bloud out of the Sinus of the Dura Meninx opens Obstructions and raises the subsiding Brain With which opportune Remedy Fracastorius remembred how he had once cured a Nun at that very time when he himself being seised with a small Apoplexy Horstius in Probl. made signs by putting his hand to his Crown that he would have the like remedy applied but they that were by not understanding him and his Disease increasing about night he died VIII A Man of Threescore fell down drunk and contused the hind part of his head but his Skull was whole and he was taken with a true and violent Apoplexy While all despaired I tried to cure him I shake
notice in the Head-ach which is caused by Vapours whether those Vapours be bred of Food or of other Matter For if they be bred of Food Purging will be to no purpose if of other matter he bids us distinguish for if the matter be small and contained onely in the head it must be got out by other Medicines If it be much or gathered in the whole body we must Purge But if it be thick and cold we must first use preparatives and iniciders Which if it can be concocted and the Palegm be sweet he says it needs no Purge if salt putrid or corrupt we must of necessity Purge XXIV A greater Dose of Physick must be given in the Head-ach Rondeletius pr c. 7. both because the humours ascend that revulsion may be made and because the sense of the parts is less exact by reason of the resolution or retraction of the Animal Spirits ¶ While the head glows with pain all the humours because they are inclined upwards will not easily by Physick be persuaded downwards therefore the Purge must have a more lively virtue than ordinary that the working may answer expectation XXV Clysters for the Head-ach will not admit of things that fill the head Aetius Cummin Faenugreek-Seed Nitre and other odoriferous things XXVI In the Head-ach and also in Fevers we must not be too sparing in giving Syrups and Potions Mercatus but we may give to grown persons ten ounces in a Potion mixt of Syrups and distilled Waters because in a less quantity they will not reach easily to all the Parts and to the head XXVII In a Head-ach caused by serous humours Diureticks are of great virtue to carry off those that tend to the head while they derive them with themselves as they are circulated through the mass of bloud Frid. Hofmâ—â—nus m. m. l. 1. c. 12. for Diureticks after they are carried with the chyle to the heart and from thence by the Arteria Aerta with the bloud into the whole habit of the body do lead the noxious tartareous gritty matter and the filthy salt dregs to the urinary passages XXVIII Sweats indeed are not proper in essential Head-aches because the serous morbifick matter is thereby more and more moved upwards towards the head But in a Symptomatick one they are more requisite Idem ibid. especially if the Hypochondria blow the coals or an Itch be driven in And this may very well be done in the cure of a Vertigo XXIX Galen advises those that are drunk to wash with warm water the next day and after washing to lye down to sleep that they may concoct their crudities J Langius Ep st 30. l. 1. Yet he would not advise washing in every Head â—ch but then to doe it when the head is hot without a Fever and after washing to eat Lettuce and sup some Ptisan XXX Plasters are very convenient and often prove very beneficial they must not be very hot and such as draw the humours to the place affected but moderately discâ—tient and strengthening I usually prescribe Empl. de minio or Diasaponis with half as much Empl. Paracelsi to be applied to the head when it is shaven Willis XXXI Liniments of Oils and Unguents though often used doe little good inasmuch I think as they make lax the tone of the fibres if they penetrate deep and so they lay more open to the incursions of morbifick matter Moreover they so stuff the pores of the â—kin Idem that the Effluvia cannot evaporate XXXII For the same reason hot Fomentations of Aromatick Decoctions and other Cephalicks often doe more hurt than good inasmuch as they draw the humours towards the parts and also open the pores and passages that they may more easily be received Therefore it is that bathing the head or Embrocation of it with a Pump in the hot Bathes is used to persons in the Head-ach with no better success When on the contrary it has done several good to wet their Temples and Forehead with cold water morning and evening yea every morning to embrocate the whole head with cold water at a Pump or at least to dip into a deep Vessel Idem or Well XXXIII In the use of local Medicines we must have a care of all that have Euphorbium in them indifferently used by many people for Euphorbium is hot in the fourth degree whence it is that it exulcerates and causes redness and inflammation Wherefore Galen indeed 2. de Med. local used such a Medicine in a Hemicrania coming from a cold Phlegmatick humour But instead of this there is one Medicine to be met with that without any redundant heat doth wonderfully draw out all the humour that causes the pain though it lie never so deep It is made of the fish of Cockles pounded in a Mortar ecchius onsult 56. and reduced to a smoothness with a little Frankincense and Myrrhe in Powder for the fish of Cockles draws all the superfluous humour from the inside outwards XXXIV When the Head-ach is so cruel that the Patient is in danger of his life then there will arise an Indication of taking away sense yet with great caution seeing it cuts not off the morbifick cause However when the Patient grows weak is in much pain cannot sleep and is in danger of a Delirium we may so long resist pain till he recover strength Let the scope of Narcoticks be gaining of strength we must begin with the milder sort and first use them outwardly then inwardly Take this for a caution Never apply Opium to the coronal future for the brain lies much under it and the entrance thither is easie but rather to the Temples Nostrils and Forehead though Rhases put a little into the Ears When the pain is ceased and watching overcome let the place be anointed with oil of Chamaemil Nutmeg Heurnius c. to take off the strength of the Opium XXXV Salivation raised by Mercury if so be it succeed aright sometimes removes difficult and plainly Herculean diseases and such as turn a deaf ear to all other Remedies Inasmuch namely as this operation doth perfectly purge the bloud and nervous juice and the other humours by a long spitting destroy all exotick ferments rectifie all enormities in the Salts and Sulphurs and besides removes and often carries off the morbifick matter settled and overflowing every where Yet this Medicine is not without hazard inasmuch namely as the Mercury becoming unruly and carrying along with it a great quantity of very sharp and in a manner poisonous Serum and so rushing impetuously into the noble parts and especially into the brain with the medullary and nervous appendices or into the Lungs and about the Heart leaves an indelible and sometimes mortal fault upon them Wherefore in an old and grievous Head-ach there is danger lest the fibres being indisposed by the Mercury and much corrosive Serum passing through them should be more irritated and be cast into greater spasms and
which causes a deadly Fever or by reason of abundance of ill humour unfit for nourishment whether it be in the veins or in the flesh Also that which breaks through the Skin is either fastened in the flesh and skin and so causes Pustules and Tumours or it onely defaces the skin with its colour and thinness and raises a very diseased affection in the skin while it prevents a greater in the bowels Which things premised it is resolved that a purge must not be given in any defoedation of the skin as it begins and in the very breaking of it out whether the matter be malignant or not And this should be observed especially in spots of malignant Fevers Small-pox and Measles nor yet after the complete time of apparition of the Small-pox and Measles But sometimes upon the score of some most urgent danger in Malignant-fevers because while they are yet appearing there is abundance of pernicious humour and the Fever encreases after the violence of the eruption and while the motion is continued outward by nature sometimes it may be lawfull to purge by friction and cupping although this must be done but seldom and with premeditation But in other spots of the skin which degenerate into the Small-pox and Measles we must neither purge in the beginning nor after the time of eruption is complete nor at any time because the humours that caused the Fever are they which degenerate into the Small-pox or Measles and for that Reason the Fever presently ceases which is discoloured though there follow another from suppuration In an Erysipelas very slowly because in these Diseases the matter is very moveable But if that which has appeared in the skin whether Erysipelas Measles Small-pox or Malignant-spots do suddenly fall back disappear and turn inwards we must purge forthwith before it fall on any principal part as the manner is in turgent humours But in some scabious eruptions such as Hippocrates observed in Simon and in others of the same stamp because they are settled in the flesh and skin and come of a thick matter and are moved slowly you may give a Purge when you think fit yet not in the beginning and very height of the eruption For we must permit Nature to finish the motion she has begun and afterwards we may purge at any time because what remains within as it breeds dayly more and more so also it desires to be evacuated for the matter is neither all together nor expelled but remains to be expelled without any Inflammation or Fever which can require coction or it must be expelled because of urgency yet by no means in the violence of its motion For it is determined among the Prudent to permit as yet the violence of the irritation and commotion in erring Nature before we stop it in evacuations which we must of necessity stop Nor must we doe it in those evacuations which Nature moves from the principal parts to the ignoble for the better because of the deadly humour In which matter the wiser guided by reason and experience fear to divert Nature from the work of expulsion she has begun by giving a Purge which motion it were a thousand times safer to help by cupping scarifying c. Because Nature would sink very much and be wearied in the contest by the violence which is done her by the Medicine drawing to the Bowels contrary to her own motion outwards Besides upon its turning back we must fear it will settle on some principal part for the turgescency is not more mortal than the foresaid retrocess inwards and from the skin contrary to the motion of Nature from within outwards Nor also is it in the power of Medicine necessarily to force the humour Mercatus when it is moved to the Guts II. A Nun without any precedent Fever or decay of strength or any other usual signs appearing was suddenly seized with Pustules all her body over and she was then sensible of no other ail besides She recovered onely by Diet without the help of Physick I judged because the Disease came in the wane of the Moon that Nature helped by the monthly motion rather drove the excrements which were few to the circumference as if she had endeavoured insensible transpiration Since the Pustules appeared not all red as in others Rumletes but were somewhat black and greenish A GUIDE TO The Practical Physician BOOK VI. Of Diseases beginning with the Letter F. Febris in genere or A Fever in general The Contents The ordinary division comprehends not all sorts of Fevers I. There are Fevers of a doubtfull nature II. In a Disease whereof it is a concomitant Bloud must not always be let III. The cure by Alexipyreticks IV. A Fever raised by Art for the cure of some Diseases V. Epidemick Fevers sometimes seize a man when there are no ill humours in his body VI. They that are sick of a Fever must not always be kept in bed VII It is not requisite that every Fever should end in sweat VIII IX I. I Am of the opinion that old Writers knew not the kinds and differences of all Fevers I will propound a fourth found out by me and hitherto observed by no man And it is an uniform continual Fever without any exacerbation following immoderate heat of the Breast and Lungs without putrefaction And this heat seizes the Lungs for want of breathing in Air through the fault of narrow Lungs Which indeed being immoderately heated cause a Fever for two reasons in the Heart and then in the whole Body Both because they communicate the conceived heat immediately to the Heart and because they so heat the inspired Air how cold soever it be that it is in no wise sufficient to cool the heart according to Nature's appointment Hence arises a continual Fever which can neither be called properly an Ephemera nor a Putrid nor a Hectick Fever If any one will refer it to a Hectick Fever improperly so called as arising from a principal part disaffected he will not be far out so he understand the manner of its generation not as yet observed at all by others I have more than once observed that they who were taken with this fever laboured of an Asthma not at intervalls but continually ¶ Sennertus besides Ephemera's continual primary or symptomatick and intermittent admits also of a certain kind which proceeds from Worms Milk corrupted upon Childrens Stomachs concrete extravasated bloud putrefying such as sometimes attends a Dropsie And I add such a Fever as arises from Phlegm swallowed down and putrefying on the Stomach Such Fevers proceed slowly because while the matter is far distant from the Heart Hoëferus they send slower and fewer fumes to it and counterfeit Hectick Fevers II. Some Fevers as well continual as intermittent are observed in practice to be in a manner doubtfull which we can neither certainly refer to Ephemera's nor to any one kind of putrid Fevers For some run out sometimes beyond the third
continuance of the Fever that as long as Medicines are given so long the Fever will continue for Nature is wearied which gathering strength again concocts the cause of the disease and expells it when concocted ¶ If a right fermentation of the bloud have gone before the despumation of the morbifick matter will be wholly made within the usual time But if cooling Medicines or Clysters have been given too late the Fever will run out a great deal longer especially in elderly Men that have been ill looked after To whom I being sometimes called after they had been sick of a Fever forty days and above have tried every thing that I might bring a despumation on the bloud but the bloud has been so weakned partly by Age partly by Clysters and cooling Medicines that I could never attain my end either by Cordials or any other strengthning things but either the strength of the Fever remained firm or though the Fever seemed to be gone the Patient's strength was very low and well nigh dead And being deprived of success in other Medicines I was glad to turn my counsel another way with no common success namely by applying the lively and brisk heat of young persons to the Sick Nor is there any reason that any one should wonder why the Patient should be so much strengthened by this method though unusual and debilitated Nature-helped so that she may discharge her self of the relicks of the matter to be separated and discharged since one may easily imagine that good store of brisk effluvia is transfused from a sound and lively body into the exhausted body of the Sick Nor could I ever find that the repeated application of warm clothes was in any measureable to doe that which the method now prescribed did perform where the heat applied is more connatural to Man's body and also gentle moist equal and lasting And this way of transmitting Spirits and Vapours it may be Balsamick ones into the Sick Man's Body from the very time when I made use of it although at first it seemed strange has been made use of by others with great success Sydenhâ—m XXIX In the cure of very acute and pernicious Fevers we must take diligent notice of this that they are seldom caused without some inward and peculiar disaffection of some of the Inwards and often with an Inflammation Wherefore the cure of the Hypochondria Head Breast Womb Kidneys and Bladder Riverius must never be omitted that by some means or other we may find out which of these parts is remarkably ill and may help it as much as may be ¶ As soon as I find a great burning in people in a Fever if signs of an inward inflammation which I diligently inquire do not appear yet I think of some such disaffection and I direct the course of my cure thither c. Scarce ever any one of those Fevers appears that burn violently so as to have the tongue burnt or wherein the Belly voids adust stuff but some of the inner Bowels especially suffers an inflammation Eryfipelas or at least some over-heating And they are perceived by some remarkable hardness swelling pain or heat in that region where the inward part is seated Vallesius XXX But if by reason of much loss of bloud which the Patient has sustained in the method of his cure or through often Vomiting or going to Stool or because for the present the Fever is quite off or because of his weakness or of the age of the Fever already declining there now remains no more danger of raising an Ebullition for the future then setting aside all fear instead of a Paregorick draught I give a pretty large dose of Diascordium either without any thing else or mixt with some Cordial-water It is certainly an excellent Medicine Sydenham if it be given in such a quantity as may make up a Medicine rather than an empty title XXXI To the constitution of a Continual Fever we require that its Cause be either in the Vessels that carry the Bloud and so in the Bloud it self and the multifarious parts of it or such other part of the Body as has continual commerce with the Bloud and so with the Heart it self but so as that it cannot be hindred or interrupted unless wholly nor be restored again at certain times which usually happens in Agues by internal causes We add that the Bloud may be so affected sometimes by external sometimes by internal causes that it may produce a continual Fever Among the external causes of this Epidemick Fever I observed the Air was then very hot and it penetrating as well the skin on all hands and therefore the Bloud it self as being drawn into the Lungs and there joined to the Bloud did not kindly temper it again as it was in a ferment according to Nature but by communicating to it its fiery and saline volatile parts it dissolved melted and rarefied it too much and so it greatly vitiated the vital Effervescency in the heart with its additional heat and produced a continual Fever Among internal causes I blamed Bile bred of the same fiery and saline-volatile parts of the Air but made more sharp volatile and abundant by the sharp ones and therefore causing a vitious effervescency as well in the small Guts as the Heart it self and indeed joined with notable heat and therefore without doubt a Fever The various and in many respects vitious humours which must of necessity be produced by the whole mass of Bloud being by little and little corrupted could not so well be called the cause of the Continual Fever that was then so rise as of the various Symptoms which did many ways vex divers Patients The Cure therefore of the Continual Fever as such ought to consist 1. In avoiding or correcting the bad Air. 2. In tempering the sharp Bile fixing the volatile and diminishing the abundance of it 3. In moderating stopping and reducing to its natural temper the vitious effervescency that is indeed joined with a notable and troublesome heat 4. In gently coagulating the Bloud too much dissolved condensating the too much rarefied and cooling it when over-hot or reducing it to a laudable integrity Fr. Sylvius when it is otherwise vitiated ¶ But though in the cure of our Fever we made no mention of Bloud-letting because we could very well want it and several have been happily cured without it yet it is not to be contemned since especially it is usefull to temper the heat of the Bloud and to prevent Suffocation in Plethorick persons Therefore it may be usefull for Plethorick persons for young people for those that are used to it for those that are sensible of much heat for those that desire it and for those who Idem in their imagination conceive great benefit from it XXXII Hippocrates in a Legitimate Burning-fever allows as much Water and Honey boiled there must be store of Water as the Patient shall desire and he carries the Patient with
the fear of a future Fever prevented But yet if the Stool or Urine have no sign of putrefaction a Vein must not be breathed though the Symptoms be urgent But if this Imposthume follow the pestilential fever Phlebotomy will doe hurt Therefore before there is a pestilential fever we may bleed Yet seeing the Plague comes from contagion Heâ—rnius â—â—de jâ—â—ribuâ— because of the poisonous putrefaction already conceived I should think we should abstain from bloud-letting VII Bleeding is very prejudicial to them that are sick of the Plague and it is very dangerous also for them that would be preserved from it The poison often lurks for some days weeks or months in the body out of the Vessels before it shew it self by the use of Medicines that stir the bloud But if by Venaesection you draw it to the heart it behoves you to inquire whether or no the diminution of the bloud spirits and strength through your means be not the cause why the Heart is suffocated and is not able to chase away its enemy Physicians indeed who deserve credit and are well versed in their art do say that cautious bleeding and celebrated at the beginning has ever been the chief of Antipestilential means But they that in these cold Countries imitated them P Barbetâ—e de â—â—ste p. 1â—3 soon left it off yea our Countrey Physicians are now wholly silent as to bleeding VIII The Circulation of the bloud tells us that all poisonous and bad humours which are either thrown off by Nature it self or come from abroad should immediately at the very first moment be drawn out from the Glandules and the Skin it self by means of attractive Medicines lest that in the space of a small time all the bloud be infected and the heart it self be oppressed and suffer violence This may sufficiently shew how dangerous it is to breathe a Vein and Purge the body in a Pestilential and Venereal Bubo yea and in all venemous wounds on the contrary how necessary it is to draw out the peccant matter by the help of sudorifick and attractive Medicines Idem And therefore that the doctrine of the Circulation of the bloud is of great use in the Art of Physick IX Purging in a Pestilential fever is suspected both because of the lowness of strength and because a Loosness and that a colliquating one quickly happens But we must note that it is not always so But when it is whether it be colliquating or because nature attempts to discharge the peccant matter Physicians are not of one opinion For the most indeed think Purgatives may be given but such as leave an astriction behind them Others judge otherwise and aright for since in this case it is either the humours themselves or the solid parts that are colliquated the colliquated matter does not require vacuation by Medicine seeing Nature discharges it of her self nor is it indicated by what is to be colliquated since such evacuation should rather be stopt nor yet as if I thought it should be stopt by Astringents because if it be altogether bad it would doe more harm kept than voided but I should recommend it to Nature while the Physician opposes the causes of colliquation But if the flux be not Colliquative but Nature onely attempts the excretion of the peccant matter by stool then it will either be Symptomatick and the matter crude and bad or critical and the matter concocted If Symptomatical it will either be moderate or too much from whence loss of strength may be feared If moderate it must neither be promoted nor hindred for there is no cure of Symptoms by themselves If too much it must be stopped with such things as respect the peccant matter and the present Disease But in Pestilential fevers wherein the Belly is not loose some would Purge others not Of them that would some presently in the beginning of the Disease others not till the matter is concocted They that doe it in the beginning some doe it in the matter turgid others when it is quiet Again some use gentle Purges others violent They that purge in the beginning when the matter is quiet fear lest it become turgid and seize some principal part They confirm it from Galen 5 method 12. Who writes that they who recovered of the Pestilence which was abroad in his time some of them vomited all of them were loose They add that a crisis must not be tarried for which comes in the state or declension for as Galen 2 Aphor. 13. says Most crises end in a recovery unless the state of the Air be pestilential They produce also the experiments of them who in long Pestilences have recovered Men innumerable by giving strong Purges in the Beginning and Encrease They that think Men ought not to Purge are perswaded thereto because immediately at the very beginning there is a great decay of strength and because Colliquation is joined with it or an internal Inflammation in which a Purge does a great deal of harm Therefore the most famous Physicians Greeks and Arabians do not mention one word of Purging Others add that all the motion of the matter is to the skin and must not be drawn inward In this difficulty we would first of all observe this that there is a manifold difference in these Fevers The first is taken from the form for one Pestilential Fever is simple another mixt The simple one is that which without the Putrefaction of other humours has its rise from some poisonous putrid matter The mixt when other humours also do putrefy The second from the subject for the poisonous quality is either in the spirits whence comes a pestilential Ephemera or in the Humours and it is humoral or in the solid parts and it is Hectick The third is from the matter for the poisonous quality may reside either in choler phlegm melancholy or bloud and they keep the periods of those humours The fourth is from the place of the matter whence some are continual others intermittent The matter of the Continual some is in the Veins other in some determinate part For according to Galen we have Malignant fevers from the Brain being affected And such also as come from the Membranes containing the Brain and from the Lungs and Heart The fifth from the degree of putrefaction and venemous contagion since in most Fevers there is much putrefaction and but little poisonous contagion in some on the contrary In some both are great in some both are little The sixth is from the Symptoms for some are quiet so that they shew not themselves at all others make the Patients very restless especially inwardly Some are colliquating the Belly others abounding in Urine Some are with Spots others without These things granted we say 1. We must not purge in a Pestilential Ephemera and Hectick unless there be a great Cacochymie with fear lest the Infection should spread thither 2. We affirm that all matter is not turâ—id for we see it
breathed immediately and store of bloud must be taken away not all at one time but at several times Nor must we desist from this operation before the present pain of the Hypochondrium cease or in a great measure be abated Otherwise what remains degenerates either into an abscess or an incurable Schirrhus Almost all dye who either bleed sparingly or not till after the fifth day For a third time bleeding though it be plentifull does not cure if it be used after the humour is fast impacted into the Liver or tends to suppuration Therefore if bloud enough be taken the first or second day Enchir. Med. Pract. the Inflammation is prevented thereby if so be other Remedies be not neglected X. If there be no place for Bloud-letting Cupping-glasses must be applied yet not as some would have them to the Shoulders and Back for that were to draw the Inflammation of the Liver to the Lungs and Heart Saxonia Let them therefore be set to the Buttocks and Loins ¶ In this Disease the Ancients set Cupping glasses with Scarification to the right Hypochondrium from which I think we should abstain because they draw nothing from the part Enchir. Med. Praâ—t but on the contrary draw the Humours into it out of the Veins and so encrease the Inflammation XI In purging we must observe what part of the Liver is inflamed If the gibbous part be inflamed no Purge may be given according to Avicenna but Evacuaters by Urine If the simous part we must use things that evacuate by stool otherwise Nature will grow weak and the Inflammation will encrease Wherefore if the Gibbous part be inflamed we must give Lenitives not Purgatives unless perhaps Nature should attempt a little evacuation by stool wherefore when signs of Coction appear Nature may be helped not before for according to 13. Meth. they that Purge in the beginning make the Inflammation pertinacious If the simous part be enflamed Galen c. 14 15 and 16. l. 13. Meth. approves of Carthamus Nettle and root of Polypody We may mix some Epithymum and upon urgent necessity Galen says he gave black Hellebore with Barly Ptisan strained We may give Rheubarb if Bile abound Agarick if the Inflammation be pituitous if melancholick Senna Epithymum Polypodium black Hellebore Wherefore in our Practice we must observe that we may ascend to violent ones not in a bilious Inflammation but especially in a melancholick one Capivaccius because this may degenerate into a Schirrhus an incurable Disease XII Galen approves of Purgatives mixt with meat in the foresaid places In process of time says he when the Inflammation is concocted we may evacuate by the Belly if the hollow part be affected with Bastard-Saffron mixt with Meat and with such things as gently loosen the Belly And in the remission we may use these things more and more boldly than before and then things that are stronger than these partly boiled in Ptisan partly reduced to fine powder and these may be given even in water For I have sometimes boiled a little Polypody and rind of Black Hellebore in Ptisan Massarias l. 3. Pract. c. 13. subscribes to the same when he says Galen's way of giving purging Medicines is very worthy our notice He used to mix them with Meat and that in a twofold manner one way by boiling Food and Physick together Another way was by pounding the Medicines and mixing their very fine powder with Ptisan or other Medicines Both which ways as they are good in other Diseases so especially in an Inflammation of the Liver For when the Meat passes out of the Stomach not onely it but the Physick with it is drawn to the Liver whence very likely Purging will succeed more easily and with far less trouble And perhaps that was the Authour's meaning Lib. de vict acut 4. text 18. when he says That attractory Sorbitions must be given Wherefore in my Judgment it were the best way to revive this way of purging at this time disused Some disapprove of this because if Purgatives be mixt with meat it corrupts and therefore the parts are deprived of their due nourishment 2. Because hot things are prescribed very adverse to an inflamed Liver But 1. This reason might conclude something if Medicines were always and daily given with food But it can doe no great harm if once or twice eating do not nourish because fasting it self is a sort of evacuation 2. Though Medicines prescribed by Galen be never so hot yet they are tempered by mixing them with Ptisan and such things XIII Alteratives may be given Whey of Asses Milk either clarified or distilled Decoctions of Cichory Endive Sow-Thistle Sorrel Liverwort Clarified Juices of Endive Sow-Thistle in the foresaid decoction But I chuse rather to give 1 pound and an half or 2 pounds of water distilled off Juice of Endive Cichory or Sorrel Or Syrup of Juice of Lemons with some diuretick Vehicle For Decoctions and Juices lie long on the Stomach because they stand in need of some concoction and so coolers come to the Liver with their virtues much broken And clarified Whey does not pass so easily and distilled it acquires a fiery quality in distillation which is not communicated to nor kept by Waters which are very cooling But Galen's caution 1. acut 43. must be observed That nothing be given actually cold Fortis Cons 57. cent 3. for cold things condense the part and render the humours crude XIV If internal Repellents be given as they ought we must have regard to the form place time greatness of the Inflammation and to the use of the Part To the form for if the Inflammation be Erysipelaceous or legitimate we may at the veâ—y first use Coolers For although they may cause some Obstruction in the Liver nevertheless the danger is greater which we prevent by drinking cold water than the damage that follows for if these cooling things were not given a Consumption or â—bscess would follow The place is either the simous part then Coolers must by no means be astringent for if they bind the part affected the matter will grow hard and the bile-passage will be stopt and so the Bile retained in the Liver will increase the Inflammation Or the gibbous then Astringents are not condemned for they have a faculty to hinder the fluxion from the gibbous part to the simous and so it will be preserved from Inflammation Upon the score of the use of the part which is common to the whole things must be mixt to preserve strength If the Inflammation be pituitous or melancholick Saxonia we must abstain from astringent and very cooling things XV. Wind gathered in the Cavities of the Body that is in the Stomach and Guts and pent up if it cannot find a passage it makes its way by force through the blind connivent ducts and is diffused into the ambient Membranes of the Liver and the capillary Veins disseminated through the hollow and gibbous part of the Liver and holds
he relieved by Medicines I reckoned he was ill of a Dropsie in his Breast because there was no Cough nor Ratling no viscid and thick Spittle as in a true Asthma his Legs also were oedematous and his Belly began to swell He had not lain down in Bed for two months but sate panting and choaking in his Chair and was ready to draw his last Because I despaired of his Recovery I was unwilling to prescribe him Medicines but being prevailed on by importunity the next day I give him a Bolus of Calomelanos 1 scruple Diagridium half a scruple with Conserve of Roses It purged him seven times and he voided abundance of serous matter upon which he found much ease that day and breathed more freely After two days the same Medicine was repeated with the like success and the night following he lay down in Bed without any oppression of his Breast When the Swelling of his Belly was abated one might handle his Hypochondria and I found his Spleen big and scirrhous therefore I prescribed him Apozemes with Salt of Tartar and Spirit of Sulphur and Fomentations and Liniments to be applied to the Hypochondria with the foresaid Purge repeated every third day Which being continued for 15 days he was brought into a much better condition so that he thought he was perfectly cured but when one month was over all the Symptomes returned his Belly swelled more and in two months more he died Here the great efficacy of Calomelanos may be observed which was able to doe so much good in a mortal Disease Idem III. Sudorificks are very good to discharge the serous matter and I saw a Man of threescore cured by taking a Sudorifick Decoction of Guaiacum and and Sarsa for 15 days by causing Sweat with the vapour of Spirit of Wine Idem IV. It seems the safest way that the matter should be evacuated sensibly by opening the Breast And it should be done betimes according to Hippocrates 6. Epid. s 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cut watry gatherings quickly lest the Lungs be corrupted by the Water V. The ingenious opening of the Breast must not be past by which Hippocrates lib. de nat Mulieb propounds when he orders a Rib to be bored through in the middle for so the Water may by a Tent be more easily kept from running out all at once than by making Section in the intercostal Muscles Wherefore when Water is to be got out it is best to boar a Rib but when Pus is gathered in the Breast P. Martianus it will be best to cut in the Muscles VI. Evacuation of the Serum in the Breast must be attempted by Urine The Emperour Maximilian the Second found great benefit hereby who when he had laboured of a Dropsie in his Breast with a Palpitation of his Heart for twenty years he sometimes made 6 pounds of Water in one day and when that motion of the matter stopt he died Crat◠VII A healthy strong young Man being formerly accustomed to immoderate exercise of Body at length felt a fulness or as it were a puffing up in his Breast in so much that the left side of his Lungs seemed to be swollen and the Heart seemed to be thrust out of its place to the right side Afterwards on a certain day he felt as if some Vessel were broken within the cavity of the Breast and after that for half an hours time in that region not onely he himself felt something fall from aloft into the bottom of his Breast but it might be heard by the By-standers Therefore since it was without doubt that then this Noble person had a Dropsie in his Breast because the Lymphae-ducts a great number of which branch themselves all over the Lungs which run to their left side being broken dropt out their moisture into the cavity of the Breast after some Medicines had been tried without any benefit Tapping his side was unanimously resolved on Therefore after provision had been made for the whole the Chirurgeon applied a Cautery between the sixth and seventh Vertebra and the next day having cut a hole in the cavity of the Breast he put in a Pipe which being done immediately a thick liquour and white like Chyle or Milk ran out About 6 ounces onely of this were taken away at the first time and the next day as much The third day when a little larger quantity was let out he was immediately seized with a great languidness and was feverish and very bad for a day or two after it Wherefore till he had recovered his former temper and strength we thought good to let no more of this matter out But afterwards a little evacuation of the same being made every day the cavity of the Breast was almost all evacuated And yet he carries a Tap with a Spigot in the hole which being opened once in 24 hours a little moisture still runs out In the mean time he has a good Stomach he looks well and is strong and goes about his usual business After Tapping I ordered him Cordials and afterwards a Traumatick Decoction to be taken twice every day But there is a necessity for preventing filth from gathering in the Breast that this hole be left constantly open Willis instead of a Sink Hydrops Anasarca or A Dropsie in the Flesh The Contents In a simple one we may purge violently I. Sometimes Bloud-letting is good II. Opening and strengthning things must be given between Purges III. Whether such Diureticks are proper IV. Diaphoreticks must be given plentifully V. The efficacy of anointing with Oil of Scorpions VI. What Baths are proper and when VII When a Stove does harm VIII We must have a care how we apply Issues and Blisters IX Cured by Acupuncture X. The Efficacy and Choice of Chalybeates XI I. IN a simple Anasarca we may purge violently and it often does abundance of good And indeed from this Disease being sometime cured by Purging Empericks have good opportunity to brag of their Cures and some of their Medicines are indeed highly cried up for curing of Dropsies For forsooth if they chance ever to cure one or two of an Anasarca with specifick Hydragogues or Elatericks they have enough to set out themselves and their skill although they may kill an hundred Asciticks with the same Medicine Wherefore though Preparations of Spurge or Elaterium and other Hydragogues have sometimes done good in certain cases yet if they be given indifferently to all Hydropicks or at all to weak Constitutions and such as have bad Inwards either in tone or conformation they oftner kill than cure And the reason why Catharticks operate more successfully and effectually in this Disease than in other sorts of Dropsies is because in an Anasarca the morbid matter which is the Lympha resides partly in the mass of Bloud partly in the habit of the Body within the pores and vacuities among the ends of the vessels wherefore when a strong Purge is given it presently
thing of the Venous kind the abundance whereof has with it heat and falling down with the recrements signalized the Itchy parts with inflammatory dispositions and redness especially if there be a Fever then indeed we must cure with cupping and scarifying the Armes and Shoulders or for greater revulsion the Thighs to draw to them what is redundant in the body which when done you must give the Child and Nurse attemperating things But if it appear that the Venous kind has besides the heat of bloud something bilious salt or disaffected it will not be amiss to Purge gently This one thing nevertheless observed that you never attempt to apply any thing to the Itchy part since it is certain that seldom any thing does good for oftentimes you may render the part more tender and soft so that if there be any thing in the body the Skin more easily receives it and when it is received makes the Itch worse though the scabs and pustules that were there before be fallen off XCVI But if the pustulous Itch increase so that it will neither give way to change of Age Diet nor Medicine but by an invincible Itching and for fear of a Leprosie force us to these greater remedies especially if the Patient be in danger of a Consumption then we must take care by other Medicines which besides that they Purge radically do substantially moderate and temper the Liver and repair it with new nutrition and which also have the faculty of rarefying purging and cleansing a filthy thick Skin Idem XCVII But let not any Man think that there is no time when we may apply things to the Itchy parts that the Scabs may either ripen or dry and fall off And let a Man consider that it must be done then especially when it appears the Disease is towards the declension and less Scabs and Pustules break out and what is broke out more easily falls off It is a sign indeed of paucity of matter and of the vigour of the faculties because it wastes more insensibly and breeds less or less remains of what is contracted from the Nativity At which time Nature must be helped with things that neither repell nor draw but onely soften the Scabs dry up the fretting running places and absterge the foul Idem Scrophulae or the King's-Evil XCVIII Great Prudence must be used in treating Children in the King's-Evil 1. Gentle things must always be used 2. Violent Medicines must be avoided because there is danger of raising a Fever and lest their tender flesh should be hurt 3. The Swellings must be treated neither with fire nor the knife which are near the Arteries or great Nerves especially about the Neck Mercurialis lest the reversive Nerves be hurt Siriasis or Head-moldshottenness XCIX I am compelled to take notice of Avicenna's mistake concerning Childrens Siriasis He took all that Rhases and Paulus wrote concerning Childrens Siriasis and put it word for word into his Chapter of the Erysipelas of the Brain and defined it to be an Erysipelas of the Brain which Diseases are quite contrary for an Erysipelas is an Abscess with inflammation coming of yellow Choler which if it seize the Brain as Avicenna thinks there will be a Fever and a Sphacelus of tne Brain which usually kills the Patient on the third day Cap. 7.51 Each of which things is not competible with a Siriasis for it is a far milder Disease and heat of the head than an Erysipelas and it usually takes Children in the heat of Summer because of pituitous bloud or phlegm it self putrefying about the membranes of the Brain and inflaming the Spirits in the Arteries with a gentle Fever You will Object That the same remedies with which Dioscorides and Paulus extinguish the Heat of a Siriasis since they are cold and moist will doe an Erysipelas as much good which is a hot and dry Disease But you are mistaken for upon the account of the concoction of the Disease which is an alteration causing the Putrefaction to cease the substance remaining they require the same Medicines If indeed by applying cold things to the Sinciput the Arteries of the Temples and Wrists and Forehead in the conceptacles whereof the Siriasis lies burning you can extinguish or alter the external heat in the membranes of the Brain and Arteries which might kindle putrefaction certainly you have prevented it and concocted the Disease And this very thing you may doe with the same remedies in the cure of an Erysipelas But as for what concerns the cause and substance of the Disease there is need of far different remedies which the substance of the Disease and its cause will indicate to you First A cold and moist Diet was ordered the Nurse and after I had applied Nettles pounded in a Mortar with a little Vnguentum Populeon to the Arteries of the Temples and Wrists and had renewed them every hour the Heat of the Siriasis was extinguished in less than two hours Langius C. Outwardly almost all commend the Yelk of an Egg with Oil of Roses The Juice of Heliotrope is admirably commended by Dioscorides and others Juice also of Nightshade and Lettuce is good but especially the Juice of Citrulls and of Gourds But we must take notice not to surpass in these cooling Medicines lest while we avoid Heat we fall on the Ice that is lest of one bad Disease another far worse should be made Mercurialis CI. There is another thing also to be observed that these Medicines as all Men advise be continually changed and that they be always used warm in Winter time and actually cold in Summer Because if they be kept long on they grow hot and dry and afterwards doe more harm than good â— der Tussis or a Cough CII That a Cough sometimes arises without any great fault in the Lungs because of Morbifick matter falling on the Pneumonick Nerves the History of a Girl who was ill of Convulsion-fits and of a grievous and continual Vertigo does shew To whom when a fomentation of a Cephalick Decoction was applied to her Head presently her Swimming ceased and instead of it there came a dry Cough without any Spitting which troubled her night and day Which without doubt happened because the spasmodick matter was forced out of the Brain into the origination of the Nerves This merely convulsive Cough seldom occurs in adult people in Children it is very frequent and sometimes epidemick which when at first it has been moderate afterwards it grows violent and convulsive So that in Coughing the Diaphragm being drawn upwards and kept in a long Systole or often repeated the Lungs are much straitned and greatly hindred in their motion In the mean time because their Breath is stopt and the bloud is kept about the heart and therefore stagnates in other places the Patients are in danger of choaking and often contract a livid and dead countenance In this case besides spasms raised by straining to Cough
the Viscera by the mediation of the Heart For when the Head does destil Rheum upon the Lungs and the Liver supplies an impure Blood to the Heart which the Heart pours out again into the Lungs their Substance is thereby infected but that taint flows not from the Heart but from the Distemper'd and ill Conditition'd Viscera which send impure Blood to the Heart whose â—ault the Heart cannot correct but by many Circulations Now the Lungs cannot receive Humours from the Head without a Cough for if this be wanting they suffer only from the Blood of the Heart for the Lungs alone are supplied with Blood from the Heart receiving Vessels therefrom Riolan eâ—enchir Anatomic l. 3. c. 6. and not from the Cava XXV Medicines that raise a greater fermentation are not to be added to Eclegma's or Lambitives Thus 't is well known that the Flowers of Sulphur and the Milk of Sulphur so called are excellent Pectorals and yet 't is adviseable to give them rather in any other mixâ—ure than that of Lambitives or Electuaries The same may be said of Salts which 't is better to omit also because they are not so friendly to the Breast For 't is certain by Experience that the mixing of Sulphurate Remedies with sweet does in a specâ—al manner cause a fermentation whence a resolution and impetus being made such Lambitives which also of themselves are apt to ferment after the manner of other sweet things mixt with what is Heterogeneous incline to the out-parts of the Vessel so that the Vessel seems always full Wedel de medicin compos 140. though every day something be drained thence ¶ Lambitives are naught for the Stomach for sweet things as Macrobius says rightly are enemies to Concoction for by the continued use of them especially they loosen the sides of the Stomach dull its heat and impair its ferment so that Montanus himself Cons 32. rightly admonishes us not to give them but on an empty Stomach lest Concoction be hindred Hence they destroy the appetite so that where there is a weakness of the Stomach especially a flagginess they are more sparingly or not at all to be used Idem p. 143. but always when we use them we must have regard to the tone of the Stomach XXVI Lambitives do not bind safely for they ferment the Humours and by their proper sweetness do rather smooth lubricate and mollifie than bind so that we must not wholly trust to these in salt acrimonious and thin Catarrhs nor in Spitting of Blood it self whence it may be noted as a Rule That Lambitives are indeed proper only for the Lungs Fr. Sylv. m. m. l. 2. c. 18. but yet not they alone for the Lungs alone and that by altering XXVII The simple Flowers of Sulphur are better than the Compound As entia or several distinct Medicines use almost in every case to be multiplied by Chymists without necessity so is the same observed in the Flowers of Sulphur for some prepare them with Aloes Benzoe Saffron Myrrh the Colcoâ—har of Vitriol Nitre that they may look white with common Salt c. and then give them among their Arcana but generally with light and small success For what does Colcothar communicate but a Corrosive Acrimonious Quality What afford Aloes Saffron or Myrrh but an Empyreuma For these have no quality to fly away or be sublimed and they are burnt up the more by a double Fire as it were And so great a change being made the vertues which we expected cannot but fail also Wedel Pharm p. 137. so that 't is better to join other proper things to the Flowers themselves of Sulphur XXVIII As often as Acids are used to cut Phlegm so often they are not to be given alone but mixt with sweet and Sugared things in a small quantity lest if they should be given more singly they should by their Acrimony too much irritate the Lungs to cough Fr. Sylv. m. m. l. 2. c. 18. and so should do more hurt than good XXIX When the Scrum is too Acrimonious some things are to be used which may temper it because through its Acrimony it does not only by its twitching cause frequent Coughing and wearies the Lungs but also frets the Coat of the Wind-Pipe and by degrees creates an Ulcer in the Lungs It s most frequent Acrimony is a Salt Muriatick more rarely such as is very acid its sowrness uses to cause singular disturbance The Salt Muriatick Acrimony of the Scrum is temper'd and blunted in part by the Incrassaters to be presently mentioned which by their Emplastick vertue do lenifie that Acrimony and this they do more effectually if Opiats be joined with them as the Pills commonly known called Pil. de Cynoglossa and de Styrace do testifie which are very well fitted for this purpose and might be yet more fit if by adding Sugar they were made up into Tablets or Troches and held in the Mouth for so a far greater part of them passes to the Lungs than when they are made up into Pills and swallow'd though even so they are likewise observ'd to be very effectual though every Caviller is not presently satisfied in the way by which the vertue of the Medicine is transmitted to the Lungs We therefore recommend the said Pills de Cynoglossa and de Styrace for Salt Muriatick or briny Humours that are flown into the Wind-Pipe and ought to be expectorated thence in as much as they both temper their salt Acrimony and lessen their too great fluidity and so procure to them a Consistence convenient for Expectoration Sylv. de le Boe prax lib. 1. cap. 19. and for Expulsion by Coughing whatsoever several bawl to the contrary XXX The Serum be it of what taste it will ought all of it in general to be incrassated that it may the more easily be Expectorated for otherwise it escapes the violence of the expired Air and can be expelled but slowly and by much Coughing The Serum is incrassated by Gum Tragacanth Gum Arabick the Roots of Marsh-mallows Comphrey c. of which with Sugar Troches may be made which being held a good while in the Mouth and by little and little dissolved by the Spittle do leisurely tend to the Wind-Pipe and thicken therein the over-fluid Serum making it fit to be the easilier expelled by the help of the Air in Expiration Idem XXXI As to Medicines correcting an Humour offending by a more pure acidity and helping Expectoration they are the same which correct the Salt Muriatick Serum and moreover such as concentrate and infringe Acids such as Crabs Eyes Pearls Corals Chalk all sorts of sealed Earth c. But because the Wind-Pipe uses to be fretted sooner and sorer by an acid Serum 't is necessary not only to use the Remedies that more effectually correct it but they must moreover be so prepared and administred that a good part of them may be carried into the said Wind-Pipe Wherefore the most convenient form will
Salius notis in Altimar c. 51. Merc. cap. prop. which Distemper seems to indicate moistening which is obtained by much Drink XVI Hippocrates l. 2. de Morb. s 3. makes mention of a Disease of the Lungs not much differing from a Peripneumony which he calls a Lethargy The difference of which Diseases consists only in the Matter For in a Peripneumony the Humour predominantly offending is Choler or Câ—olerick Blood but in this Disease it is Phlegm whence as in a Peripneumony a Delirium happens through heat so in a Lethargy does there follow a drowsiness through moisture see the Title of the Lethargy and from the putrefaction there accompanies it a slight doating But it is not difficult to reconcile the difference of this place and lib. 3. in allowing of Wine if we consider that 't is seldom but Hippocrates allows Wine in Diseases of the Breast if not in respect of Drink yet however for Medicin that Expectoration may be promoted or that the vertue of Medicins may sooner be brought to the Heart On which account indeed he bids us often drink Wine after suppings which is done in this Disease wherein in as much as drinking of Wine is suspected because of the Delirium he therefore forbids the drinking of it lib. 3. P. Martian comm in v. 242. loc cit yet he forbids not the drinking a little quantity of it after suppings as it is a Medicin ¶ With us the drinking of Wine in a Peripneumony yea in almost any hot Diseases of the Breast is very hurtful as daily Experience assures us so that even the very scent of it offends the Patients yea it cannot be allowed even in the invasion of a fainting-fit but it hastens the death of the Patient Whether the Reason be the Condition of the Climate or of the Wine or somewhat else I leave to inquiry Surely the Heart that is seated near to the Lungs soon partakes of the heat that accrews from the drinking of Wine XVII As to Topicks either none or only weak Repellents and Astringents are to be applied in the beginning of the Inflâ—mmation both because of the nearness of the Heart lest the Humour be repelled into a principal part and also because of necessary Respiration lest the use of the Lungs be hindred by constringing the Breast Wherefore the Oyls of Roses Myrtles and Violets will suffice with the Waters of Roses and Violets and the Juice of Plantane Chalmet Enchir. p. 145. XVIII The greatest difficulty is what we shall give against Vigiliae or want of sleep when it is very troublesom in as much as Opiats because they hurt Respiration which is already prejudic'd in this Disease are not saâ—ely taken yea sometimes they become pernicious wherefore Laudanums and the stronger Preparations of Opium ought to be utterly avoided in a Peripneumony Yet in the mean time the milder Anodynes and Hypnoticks as especially the Water and Syrup of red Poppy are not only allowed but esteemed Specifick Remedies in this Disease and the Pleurisy yea we may sometimes use Diacodiates if the Patients strength hold out and the Pulse be strong and laudable enough Willis The Phrensy The Contents In Venesection we must take heed not to make the Orifice too wide I. Opening of the Forehead-Vein is better than of that behind the Ears II. Blood is not to be let till the Patient faint away III. Whether a Clyster ought always to precede Bleeding IV. Sleep it to be procured after Bleeding V. Topicks are to be used warily VI. Whether Elective Purgâ—rs are good in the beginning VII Strong Hypnoticks are hurtful in the beginning VIII Whether Narcoticks be safe IX They are not to be given to all X. The unseasonable use of Refrigeraters is hurtful XI Whether a Decoction of Coriander be profitable XII We must take heed of abusing cold Oxyrrbodines XIII Whether they should be applied warm or cold XIV When we must abstain from Repellents XV. Whether the Head be to be Shaven XVI When young Pigeons c. are to be applied XVII The profitableness of washing the Legs XVIII Great regard is to be had to the strength XIX Some have been cured of Phrensies by being plunged in cold Water XX. Whether the use of Wine may be granted XXI Whether Frantick People are to be kept in the light or in the dark XXII They are to be bound XXIII How Urine is to be provoked when suppressed XXIV I. IN all Venesection that is made in a Delirium we must observe this not to make a large Orifice for so it will close again for which end it is to be accurately bound up that it may not be loosened by the Patient Also for the quicker closing up thereof 't will be profitable to apply a Plaister made of Aloes the White of an Egg and Hares Wooll River II. Among deriving Medicins the opening of the Forehead-Vein has place out of which Blood is to be taken to five or six ounces which has good success when Blood enough has first been taken out of the Veins of the Arm. Let Leeches also be applied behind the Ears which Remedy is profitable indeed but less effectual than the former because by the Leeches the most thin portion of the Blood is only drawn forth whereas by the Forehead-Vein there is sometimes drawn out in a Phrensy a more impure and corrupt Blood than out of the Vein of the Arm. Idem l. 17. c. 1. See an Example in Heurnius aphor 72. 4. III. Though plentiful Bleeding be requisite especially if Blood abound the Inflammation but beginning and the Phrensy proceed from no other Disease yet must we not as some Arabians advise bleed till the Patient faint away lest the Spirits fail which are weak of themselves from want of sleep and continual restlesness and which cannot expect to be recruited by a little fuller Diet so that 't is safer to bleed a little at once several times Sennertus IV. We may administer a Clyster after Bleeding for if one be called in the morning on the first day of the Disease he may presently open a Vein without delay though a Clyster be not first given seeing there is danger lest the Matter be carried plentifully to the Head For as Hippocrates says lib. de rat vict we may open a Vein without premising a Clyster in case of urgent necessity Rondelet pract l. 1. c. 15. But if any truce be granted let a Clyster be first given V. Let great care be taken to procure sleep the next night after Blood-letting for after the Blood is evacuated if the Patients do not sleep they grow more raging Therefore give Diacodium with the Juice or Water of Ptisan Heurnius Riverius for often after sleep they come to themselves again VI. See that Stupefiers be not used continually lest the Phrensy turn to a Lethargy Let Externals also be warily applied to those whose Spirits are low Hartman pract Chymiatr c. 8. sect 9. lest the
be applied XLII Fomentations are to be used prudently XLIII Emplasticks are not to be added to Liniments XLIV Whether we may use a Bath XLV Whether Sleep be to be kept off XLVI How to distinguish a Pleripneumony from either Pleurisy or Peripneumony XLVII A Pleurisy has its Crisis sometimes by Vrine XLVIII All the Reliques are to be exterminated for fear of a Relapse XLIX How to cure the false Pleurisy of Phthisical Persons L. A Pain like to that of a Pleurisy is induced by divers Causes LI. A Pleurisy resembling the Colick LII A Pleuritical pain arising from Worms is to he cured by such things as kill them LIII A Bastard Pleurisy from a Serous Humour LIV. A Malignant Pleurisy having its seat in the lower Belly LV. The knowledge and Cure of a Bastard Pleurisy proceeding from a salt Humour LVI The Cure of the Pain that attends upon a confirmed Peripncumony an Abscess or Vlcer of the Lungs LVII The Cure of a Pain raised from a Vomica of the Lungs LVIII Medicins I. IT is an Opinion commonly received among Physicians That that continued Fever which joins it self as a Companion to the Pleurisy has its rise from a Phlegmon of the Membrane that lines the Ribs on the inside and is near the Heart and so in respect of the Pleurisy comes under the notion of a Symptom Nor does this Opinion altogether displease me In the mean time I think on the other hand that a Pleurisy comes under the notion of a Symptom in regard to that essential Fever with which the Patient was first taken namely before ever the Pleurisy superven'd but when this comes on the former Fever seems to lay down its genius or rather to be changed into a Pleurisy which now from the aforesaid Phlegmon acquires to it self a new Fever and is attended by it and this later Fever springing thus walks hand in hand with the Pleurisy and stands and falls with it Indeed I think it would be very hard for any upon diligent examination to produce an Instance of a Pleuritical Person who was taken with a Pain in his Side which is so full a sign of this Disease before he was sensible of some attack of a Fever at least a more light one For that Pain sometimes indeed invades sooner sometimes later but as far as I could hitherto observe never but after a Fever and hence in compliance with mine own opinion I number a Pleurisy amongst the accidents that follow a Fever Now I suppose a Pleurisy arises from the precipitation of the Febrile Matter into the Pleura or Intercostal Muscles and that this happens indeed in the very beginning almost of a Fever whilst the Matter is as yet crude and unsubdued by a fit ebullition and so unprepared for a due separation by more convenient places And this mischief is very oft introduc'd by the unseasonable use of hot Medicins as the Countess of Kents Pouder c. and with the intent generally to provoke Sweat in the first invasion of the Fever Because Nature being disturbed by this means is compelled to expel the Humours as yet crude by any way that lies open and so the Febrile Matter is sometimes carried with violence into the Membranes of the Brain whence comes a Phrensy sometimes to the Pleura whence a Pleurisy especially where the Age and Temperament and the Season of the year betwixt Spring and Summer do also concur Therefore for the removal of this Symptom I use this method Forthwith I order if the Case permit it Blood to be let liberally out of the Arm on the same side with the pained side and by and by some fitting Ointment to be applied to the Side I also use Pectorals diversly accommodated according to the Circumstances of the Case But Oil of Sweet Almonds newly drawn is the best amongst these For ordinary Drink I enjoin Beer that is small and not at all sharp or a Ptisan of Barley Lykyrrhize and a few Aniseeds Moreover on the following days repeating Venesection I order to Bleed freely as the Case is Truly I seldom give over Bleeding till I have evacuated forty ounces unless somewhat indicate to the contrary And though one may not without some shew of reason be afraid that so great an emission of Blood should be dangerous yet the Blood it self that is taken away after it has stood a while will make these fears vanish seeing it is very corrupt at least after the first time and almost of the same colour with true Pus Add hereto that you will not find the Patient weakned proportionably to the great loss of Blood But we must admonish that there is need of Cautions that Clysters be not injected through the whole course of the method nor that any thing be added to the Pectoral Medicins which has a loosening vertue for the more bound the Belly is the more safely shall we repeat Phlebotomy on the contrary if you take but half that quantity of Blood I have mention'd and use Clysters and Looseners withal you shall bring the Patient in danger of his Life whether it be because Nature cannot bear both Evacuations in so short a space or upon some other account and this holds not only in this Disease but also perhaps in all others wherein the Cure turns upon this hinge Venesection Indeed in treating this Symptom I have often attempted to establish some way of Cure which might not proceed to so great a loss of Blood namely either by resolving the Humour or evacuating it by promoting Expectoration but I have not yet had the fortune to find any practice so available as the forementioned Sydenham II. Venesection is good in the beginning of a Pleurisy because it keeps the Blood that is somewhere hindred in its Circulation from too great an Effervescence but chiefly because seeing the Vessels are much emptied by this means they receive again whatsoever Humours were thrown off and so the Blood that begun to stagnate in the part affected and make it fluxile Likewise the Remedies that help most at the beginning of this Disease are such as hinder the Coagulation of the Blood or dissolve it whilst it is a Coagulating such as those which do very much abound with a Volatil or Alkalizate salt namely the Spirit of Soot Blood Hartshorn also the Spirit and Salt of Urine the Pouder of the Claws and Eyes of Crabs of a Boars Tooth or the Jaw-Bone of a Pike are of notable use Amongst the Vulgar 't is customary to give an infusion of Horsedung which Medicin indeed I have known often to help in almost deplorable Cases In the mean time all Acids because they coagulate the Blood more and hinder Expectoration do very much hurt in this Disease Willis de febr c. 11. ¶ Seeing Bleeding is the most powerful Remedy it is never to be omitted even in Women with Child or when they lie in while their Lochia or Terms are a flowing for Experience has taught that Women
Sudorifick Decoction will be far more effectual Take of Wood of Guajacum Misletoe of the Oak of each two ounces common Water four pounds Mix them Make an Infusion twenty four hours then boil half away Keep the Colature for three Doses It must be given in the Morning an hour before you would sweat first giving this Bolus Take of Extract of Elecampane Root one scruple Flower of Brimstone half a scruple Mix them Make a Bolus Let him sweat in a Stove that the Head may sweat notwithstanding the danger of Suffocation which is usually objected for that holds good only when the Orthopnoea is present But if the Breath grows short in the Stove as it sometimes happens in the first days let the Patient presently go to Bed and sweat and afterwards sweating will be well born a longer time even in a Stove When the sweat is ended that the drying of the Lungs may be compleated Purging Sulphureous Waters must be given for ten or twelve days And they will be very good to pump the Head withal Fortis X. Spirit of Sulphur is given for an Asthma But here we must distinguish between one Idiopathick for which Spirit of Sulphur may not be used and one Sympathick fixt about the Hypochondria for which Spirit of Sulphur may give its assistance This Spirit will be of greater virtue if it be distilled with Gum Ammoniack F. Hofm XI When an Orthopnoea is present we must act with great caution lest the Patients be suddenly killed with unseasonable Remedies Yea seeing the Physician cannot always be present the Patient must be instructed how he may be a Physician to himself Therefore when an Orthopnoea is coming this must especially be observed that at that time the Expectoration of the Matter must not be attempted but by Internal and External Laxatives it must be carried from the Bronchia to the Cavity of the Lungs For while we endeavour to get up the Catarrhal Matter that falls from the Head and rises from the other Cavities we bring the same in more abundance to the Bronchia whereby the passage of the Breath being wholly stopt the Patient is quite strangled I have observed this to have happened twice to Physicians Wherefore first of all Rest must immediately be prescribed using only Frictions to the lower parts to hinder the ascent of the Matter sticking in the Cavity Then let Oil of sweet Almonds new drawn without Fire be in readiness of which he may take about half a spoonful between whiles The Cawl of a Wether c. may be applied to the Breast and to make it more laxative it may be sprinkled with Oil of sweet Almonds Or a great Sponge may be applied to it dipt in a decoction of Mallow Root Marshmallow White Lily Lykyrrhize and Fenugreek Seeds which must not be quite wrung out and it must be often applied pretty warm nor must it be suffered to grow cold But when the Fit is going off some gentle Expectorant must be given to wit when the Matter begins to be concocted and to be discharged out of the narrow Bronchia for then ease will be found by coughing and excretion of the Matter Fortis Asthmatis Therapia or the Cure of an Asthma XII In the Cure of an Asthma there are two primary Indications the Curatory and the Preservatory The first teaches what must be done in the Fit that the Patient may be delivered out of present danger The other shews what must be done out of the Fit for removing of the Morbifick Cause lest this Disease return often or violently Therefore when the Fit is upon one we must endeavour 1. That in respect both of the Air and the Lungs more free breathing may be procured and 2. That the Organs of Respiration may be recalled and checkt in their spasms begun and usually stubbornly persisting As to the former let the Patient be placed with his Body upright in an open and airy place free from Fumes and from the Breath of the by-standers Then we must do our endeavour that the Lungs being made free from all stoppage and Internal Oppression and also from External Compression may fetch the Breath and let it go again freely To these ends that the swelling of the lower Bowels may not press upon or straiten the Praecordia the Belly must be emptied with a Clyster the clothes must be opened And moreover because in this case People are usually oppressed either by the Blood being too Turgescent within the Pneumonick Vessels or by Serum falling from the Arteries and Glands upon the Tracheal Ducts the rage of both Humours must be appeased Therefore if the strength will bear it and if the Pulse be strong enough Bleeding is often proper Moreover things that discharge the Serum and Superfluities of the Aestuating Blood by Urine and Sweat must be carefully used To which end Apozemes c. which they call Pectoral are highly serviceable And Testaceous Pouders Preparations of Millepedes Spirits and Volatil Salts are taken with success And in the mean time beside these things such must be given as open and smooth the passages of the Windpipe and cause Expectoration and which may moreover if there shall be occasion stop the Catarrh that falls down upon them to which end Linctus Pectoral Decoctions and Fumigations are proper As to the other intention of Cure to wit that the Organs of Respiration may quietly return from the Spasms they are fallen into to their ordinary Functions unless this follow spontaneously after the Aestuations of the Blood and Serum in the Lungs are quieted For we have shewn not only by Reasoning but by Observations that a Convulsive Asthma is often caused when the Morbifick Matter falling upon the Pneumonick Nerves sticks somewhere in their passages especially about their Plexus Vpon which when abundance is gathered and begins to disperse and move for that reason the Spirits thereabout and such as are affluent to the Organs of Respiration are disturbed and driven into irregularities and by and by those Spirits affect others that dwell in the Pectoral and Pulmonary Fibres and excite them to irregular and Asthmatical Spasms we must use Antispasmodicks and Anodynes for Medicins that are usually given in Hysterick Fits use to do good in a Convulsive Asthma Spirit of Hartshorn Sooâ— and especially of Sal Ammoniack distilled with Gum Ammoniack also Tinctures of Gum Ammoniack Sulphur Castor Asa foeâ—ida Syrup of Gum Ammoniack Sulphur Oxymel of Squiâ—s and the like which because they are either of an ingrateful smell or taste they do as it were dissipate the Sprits and withdraw them from tumults and sometimes do much good But if the Spirits raging in this manner cannot be quieted we may proceed to Narcoticks that when some are dispersed the rest may be reduced to good order For unless the stoppage of the Lungs with great oppression at the Heart do hinder Opiates sometimes do much good In horrible Fits of this Disease when other Medicins would do
Millepedes that is either in form of a dry Pouder or of a distilled Liquor seldom fail of success for such recall the superfluities of the Serum from the Head and Nerves and carry them to the Urinary Passages Gentle Purges are also good as is a decoction of an old Cock and other things appropriate to an Asthma See the Section following Willis XXI Of all the dire Symptoms of Scorbutick Persons difficulty of Breathing and straitness of the Breast coming by Fits are the worst I think they for the most part arise either from a sudden stagnation of the Blood that is just growing grumous in the narrow passages of the Lungs or from a Convulsive irritation of the Nerves which serve the Organs of Respiration In the first case there is an exceeding distention of the Lungs and thence as it were an immobility with a sublivid redness in the Face a dimness of sight swooning a low weak intermitting Pulse accompanied with despair of the Patients recovery But in the later case the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries is not very irregular the Party is troubled with a dry Cough together with an anxious straitness about the Heart and deep sighs stopping the Breath For when the Blood because of its thickness stagnates in its Circulation through the strait passages of the Lungs such things are proper as by powerfully attenuating inciding and moving it do restore it to a requisite fluidity and to a more expedite Circular motion 1. Carminative Clysters for Revulsion 2. Blood-letting where there are signs of a Plethora for so when the Blood is diminished the rest will more easily be attenuated and will pass the straits of the Lungs with a quicker motion 3. Hot Thoracicks mixt with Antiscorbuticks of the same virtue Tincture of Saffron Elecampane Castor Elixir Proprietatis Confectio Alkermes Flowers of Sal Ammoniack Benzoin Volatil Salt of Vipers Horse-dung Spirit of Sal Ammoniack A spoonful either by it self or in some convenient Vehicle in a small but a repeated Dose for these do excellently keep off the Fit by keeping the Blood from Coagulation For it is found by Experience that Coagulated Blood is dissolved by a Volatil Salt diluted with Water and besides Volatil Salts there is not any thing found fit to prevent or dissolve this Coagulation For a Scorbutick Asthma from a Convulsion of the Pneumonick Nerves See the foregoing Section Antispasmodicks promise a Cure which are experienced to have the faculties of dulling suppressing and discussing this irritating acrimony of the Humours or Vapours For this these things are cried up Spirit of Sal Ammoniack Hartshorn Soot Castor Spiritus Lavendulae compositus mixt with appropriate Liquors and taken in repeated draughts while difficulty of Breathing is urgent Castor also Galbanum Asa foetida and their Tinctures drawn with Aqua Raphani compos or Lumbricorum But in such a shortness of Breath which threatens to choak the Patient there is no more present Remedy See Charleton Section XII than a few grains of Laudanum Opiatum dissolved in good Canary Wine and infused till the Tincture is extracted and a spoonful of it given now and then Rheumatismus or a Rheumatism See Febris Rheumatismi comes Book VI. and Lumborum Affectus Book X. The Contents The excellency of Blood-letting I. When Purgations must be prescribed II. The benefit of Diureticks III. Sudorificks are not proper at all times IV. We must take care to strengthen the parts V. Cured in a young Man VI. I. BLood must be let every day at the beginning till the Disease and pains abate Nor is it any matter if you Bleed for ten or twelve days or for more since it is peculiar to this Disease for the Patient not to be weakened by Bleeding Therefore it is my custom when I prescribe Bleeding so often to add this restriction that it be continued every day till the pains be abated or the strength be much wasted and when no decay of strength arises upon it Patients do freely admit it The condition of the Blood causes this Tolerance which comes out always very putrid Experience shews the benefit since by repeated Bleeding the Disease which in its own nature is long is often conquered in a short time Besides a large Haemorrhagy supervening often cures it Riverius II. Purging in the beginning increase and state of this Disease gives no relief yea it does harm As it happens in all Inflammatory Diseases But in the declension it is necessary and must often be prescribed and with gentle Medicins that the Cacochymie restagnating in the Body may be carried off If gentle things be insufficient wholly to eradicate this Disease which is often contumacious we must if there be no Fever have recourse to stronger things I have always cured this Disease when other things could not do the work by giving about twenty grains of Mercurius dulcis six times sublimed with ten grains of Scammony or Resin of Julap Idem ¶ One Clyster made of Emetick Wine cured a Woman of this Disease Idem III. In Rheumatick Diseases when a bad and sharp serous Matter bred by a hot intemperature subservient to Sanguification is discharged into the External habit of the Body with a wandring pain of the Bones and with a sense of heat and heaviness all over the Body and sometimes also into the inner parts Diureticks are very good to dry it up and that by Hippocrates his advice lib. de Humor Do not shut up says he the dissolved Humours within but dry up the superfluous and when you have a mind co carry them off or otherwise it is best to use Attenuants because so you may more easily purge them by Stool or by Vrine than if you had restrained them and kept them in by Astringents And by Galen's consent 15. Simplic 13. By Diureticks says he the Blood is not only attenuated but is melted and separated just as in Milk in which what is serous and thin is separated what is thick is curdled and exactly united Frid. Hofm IV. Sudorificks as well as Purgatives do no good but much harm in the beginning increase and state Ordinary Physicians experience this who mistaking it for a true Catarrh and being tired with the contumacy of this Disease have recourse to these things whereby the Disease is doubled and the pains are increased But in the declension Generals premised and when there is no Fever Riverius they do much good V. After sufficient Evacuation yea at the very time of Evacuation we must endeavour to strengthen the principal Parts and the whole Body And these Strengtheners must be cooling by reason of the hot intemperature of the Liver the original of a Rheumatism There is great store of them I shall propound four that are very effectual and not ungrateful 1. Tincture of Corals two ounces whereof may be taken two hours before Breakfast in the morning those days when no other Medicins are used 2. Conserve of Hips which is grateful to
general Astringents are cold and dry and according to Cartes their vertue consists in a certain thickness and figure of Parts whereby they constringe the Parts of another Body like a wedge or twine them like Fiddle-strings Therefore the active principles Salt Sulphur and Mercury are less vigorous in them or at least are immersed in earthy Parts and as it were fixed And they are either 1. Earthy drying and absorbing which astringe with biting as bolus Arm. Corals lapis haematites terra sigillata Chalk crocus Martis c. or 2. Sowr and Austere as Bistort Tormentil Alum Vitriol c. which abound with an astringing austere Salt either vegetable or metallick with earthy Parts or 3. Acid as Vinegar the spirit of Vitriol Simple and Martial of which we must note first that acid Astringents are more proper for fluxil Humors both in the Vessels and out of them which they coagulate as it were and fasten but not so proper for the Pores and Parietes whence they are convenient inwardly in Hemorrhagies as suppose of the Nose Thus we have cured Scorbutical Hemorrhagies with Spirit of Vitriol in regard Acids do in this manner coagulate the fluid Blood but Acids are not so convenient for the Pores or Parietes rather for coming thither they incide dilate and exasperate the humors the more Secondly therefore we must not always rely on acid Astringents for they do not so constringe the Pores as do austere sowr and other stypticks but they are withal indued with a thinness of Parts whence those that use to give Acids in dysenteries diarrhaea's spitting of Blood and wheresoever the Pores of the Parts or the Membranes are affected as to their substance can seldom boast of any good effect Or 4. They are Emplastick whether oleous which obstruct the Pores or gummous mucilaginous viscid and emplastick properly so called as Gum Arabick sanguis draconis Mastich and Farinae or Flowers 5. Some also are sweet as Chestnuts some bitter as Aloes c. Or 6. Balsamick withal being endued with a Sulphur immersed in terrene Parts whether implicitly another quality predominating whence Medicins properly called cold are also astringent as galls acacia Pomegranate rinds c. or explicitely as Aloes which used outwardly astringes Myrrhe Nutmeg the rind of Frankinsence Cinamon which latter indeed are hot and joyned with Acrimony yet through their manner of substance in regard it has both an Emplastick vertue and drying earthy Parts they are astringent so the caput mortuum from the distillation of Cinamon-water powerfully astringes but they are commonly improperly called so for they are either not used inwardly for astringing as Aloes or they benefit by strengthning the heat withal and also confirming the Parietes on which account Nutmeg stays vomiting Or 7. They are Escharoticks which do not properly astringe any more than the former but inasmuch as they consume the flowing humor and induce a Crust upon the Parts they come to leave an astriction behind them even as Fire is used to stop the hemorrhagies of the Vessels in the cutting off of Limbs so Lime Spirit of Vitriol and Vinegar have place in some cases Or 8. they are Figents such as are Narcoticks and Opiats II. Medicines made of Mars Steel or Iron are of a middle Nature and are used both for opening and binding But note that such of them as are more vitriolated and have the metallick Salt more explicit open more and such as are more terrene and changed into ochre bind more III. Internal Astringents must be agreeable both to the Parts for which they are designed and also to the humors and cause for some are more proper than others Thus Aromatick astringents are more agreeable to the Stomach as Nutmeg Treacle c. Which if they be not to be used alone are at least to be mixed with others For it is most true that Armatick astringents are better for the Stomach and therefore for diarrhoea's dysenteries and vomitings Acids also are more agreeable to the Stomach for Vinegar is good for the Stomach both to foment it withal and to drink unless there be some erosion in it or in the Intestins yet even then Acids are good outwardly In Diseases of the Lungs Resolvers are to be mixt with them of the Liver penetrating Acids of the Head Balsamicks So if the matter be too Fluxile and Acrimonious Mucilaginous Astringents are more proper if malignant as in an Epidemick dysentery Bezoardicks are to be added or Astringents endued with that quality are to be chosen as Tormentil Terra Lemnia c. So if there be an acrimony of the Humors and a strong irritation of the membranous Parts fixers are to be mixed with astringents for in this Case both these being mixed together perform that more happily which one could expect from either of them alone So for example Opiats do indeed stop Diarrhoea's and dysenteries and Astringents left to themselves stop the same but seeing Opiats do more fix the Humors and Astringents more defend the Parietes of the irritated Parts hence Laudanum Opiatum mixt with a Styptick Powder is of greater efficacy because it attends both and so fulfills the intention the more happily Where the Parts are to be defended the terrene profit more IV. We must never astringe too much lest the Pores subside too much and by that means can hardly be relaxed Hence also in a Dysentery for example from the too great use of Astringents there often arises anxiety dangerous Ulcers c. for Fluxes often require rather to be moderated than stopt and all things are to be done according to natures direction wherefore Aromatick Resolvents or Openers are profitably mixed with Astringents V. In Diseases of the Breast in general we must astringe sparingly both because the tone of the Lungs rejoyces in laxity and also because the viscous hot or bilious Matter may easily be expelled to the heart because of its vicinity hence they are not good in a squeaking small voice straitness of the Breast difficulty of Breathing and Asthma Inflammation of the Lungs or Pleurisie For they incrassate the Humors the more fasten them in the Part and make them unfit for expectoration yea bring on a suffocation VI. There are no astringent Clysters properly so called because all moisture injected into the streight gut as being strange to it irritates it even water it self yet they are called astringent and those are prescribed which by a certain mucilage restore the mucus of the intestines that was fretted off and are made of milk Deer-suet c. such as Minderus chiefly commends yet even this way they dilute and temperate rather than astringe VII In some Cases though the Flux cease and so likewise the mobility and eruption of the Humors yet astringents are so far from benefiting that they rather hurt for instance the immoderate flux of the Terms especially in the hypochâ—ndriacal is often caused from an obstruction of the Vessels whereby the Blood cannot circulate freely whence
altogether on the influx of the animal Spirits by a wonderful consent and co-action betwixt each Portion of the Soul is most exactly proportioned according to the accension of the Blood Wherefore accordingly as the Blood doth intend or remit its effervescency or aestus by the Medicines that are taken presently the animal Spirits that move the Heart exactly obeying its condition cause the Heart to beat more quickly or slowly and also if the animal Spirits be affected by the same Medicine the Pulse is likewise on that account rendred more or less strong or vehement whilst in the mean time the vertue of that Medicine reaches no more to the Heart it self than to the Hands or Feet or any other Muscle Therefore that the first rank of Cordials whereby the Enormities of the Blood are cured may be rightly ordered it will be fitting to consider how many and by what ways its liquor both as to its accension and its Crasis or mixture is wont to be perverted or depraved and moreover what sort of Medicines vulgarly reputed Cordials are required for each of its disorders First therefore the Blood is sometimes not accended enough nor circulated with vigour as we may observe in many languishing People namely such as lie long Sick or have suffer'd great Hemorrhagies or other immoderate Evacuations or are worn out with old Age who namely together with a weak Pulse and decayed Strength have their extreme Parts for the most part cold and pale the reason whereof is because the Blood is become almost vappid and effete through the too great wasting and depression of the Sulphureous Particles and therefore it is accended very sparingly in the Lungs To which is often added that the animal Regiment failing also the Heart being destitute of a plentiful influx of Spirits does not enough exagitate the Blood that it may effervesce and be accended the more briskly The Remedies to be used in this case are generous Wines Strong or Burning Waters or such as are more mild distill'd with Spices or Aromata Aromatick Powders Species and Confections Chymical Oils and Spirits Tinctures Elixirs and other things endued with sulphureous and spirituous Particles to wit such as may exagitate the Blood more and make it more inflammable and turgid and seeing the same do withal exsuscitate and comfort the animal Spirits they therefore make the Heart beat more briskly and strongly Secondly The Blood through its sulphureous Particles being too much loosed and driven into a fervor is often too much accended and disperses an over-intense and very troublesom heat through the whole Body wherefore that it being so much rarefied and flagrant may be kept within the Vessels and also eventilated the Heart beating vehemently and quickly drives the Blood about with great labour and endeavour Therefore in this case cold and attemperating Cordials are to be used which may bridle and allay the fervour of the Blood and also kindly recruit the animal Spirits that they may now perform the more difficult tasks of life For which ends the distilled Waters of Borage c. the juices of Sorrel Citron c. are wont to be used to which Opiats are often added with profit for the impetus of the Heart being a little bridled the Blood does more happily and sooner remit its effervescence But the Blood is not only depraved and perverted as to its too much or too little accension but diversly also through its Crasis or mixture Nor are Cordials presently requisite in all its Dyscrasies but only in those which being excited in Fevers seeing they are sudden and outragious threaten a total Corruption to the mass of Blood The Blood effervescing feverishly is in danger as to its Crasis two ways chiefly namely 1. Either the Band of the mixture is too strait so that all the Particles are so complicated and combin'd with one another that the Excrementitious cannot be extricated from the Profitable and the thin from the thick as it happens in some continual and putrid Fevers which although they be but little or not at all Malignant yet because they can have no Crisis either by Sweat or Perspiration sometimes end in Death Or 2. The Blood in Fevers has its Crasis perverted the contrary way namely by a too great Laxity of its Particles in which case Cordials of another sort viz. Alexipharmacks are required For it often happens that its Compages is too much loosened and pulled asunder as to its Crasis by heterogeneous Particles either bred within it self or pour'd into it from somewhere else so that the common band of its mixture being dissolved its Parts every where fall asunder and then the Portions of the coagulated extravasated or stagnating Blood being fixed here and there putrefie and are corrupted and at length the whole mass is so much vitiated that it is no longer fit for continuing the vital Flame or for extilling the animal Spirits into the Brain wherefore all the Functions must then needs flag by degrees and life perish at last The Cordials requisite in this case must consist of such Particles as being conveyed into the Blood and circulated with it persist still unconquered but yet are withal benign which while they enter into all the Pores and Passages of the mass of Blood do everywhere exagitate the other malignant Particles pull them from their Concretions and at length either subdue them or drive them forth by which means the Blood being freed from its poysonous mixture and withal from all its private Coagulations and being again divided into its smallest and elementary Particles recovers in short time its former salutiferous mixture Moreover that it may appear more plainly in what manner Alexeteries preserve the Blood and Juices of our Body from afflatus or taints or free them from corruption when they are already touched therewith we must consider how other Liquors that are liable to Putrefaction are preserved or when they are seis'd upon thereby may be restored Therefore concerning Beer we may observe that being of its own nature soon apt to grow sowr it is made durable by boiling Hops in it likewise that common Water which otherwise would soon putrefie continues a great while unalter'd by boiling or infusing bitter Vegetables in it of which sort there are also Alexipharmacks Moreover that the juices of Herbs and some other Liquors being already grown musty if they be smoaked by burning of Sulphur recover their former vigour Besides that Wine Beer and other kinds of Drink being grown almost dead and good for nothing do often revive by exciting a fermentation in them anew The reason whereof is that seeing the corruption of any thing consists in the exsolution of the elementary Particles and in their departing from one another whatsoever detains them in motion and perfect mixture while they tend to flight and confusion preserves that Concrete so long safe and sound Moreover if any thing do again bring together the Elements that were loosed and going to depart from one another and
remain so little of Excrements that it may be drawn aside by the Bath it is better to let alone the Diarrhâ—a that is ready to cease of it self than to vitiate the whole Body for a thing that is not at all necessary But neither does he grant a Bath to those who are too Costive and adding and was not loosened before he shews the Cause namely some are costive after a great loosness as men are generally after Purging Physick in which case bathing is not prejudicial but if the Belly be bound and no evacuation went before it then contains a great deal of Excrement and Filth and we said before that we must not bathe when the Belly is full of Meat how much less when it is full of Excrements and in such case therefore one must not bathe unless his Belly be first loosned namely if upon any account we be compelled to bring such to the Bath we must first draw down the Excrements with a Clyster as we are wont to do for letting of Blood Nor must those bathe whose Faculties languish namely this Remedy is a pretty strong evacuator and therefore it requires strength to bear it Now that the evacuation is great that is caused by a Bath is shewn in the next Paragraph Yet we will not on this account keep the Hectick from Baths but according to their strength we will bathe them more or less gentlier or stronglier and some indeed not at all Neither those who are troubled with a Nausea or belch somewhat that is bilious these namely are the signs of a great Cacochymie which we have shewed to be a sufficient hindrance of bathing Nor those who Bleed at the Nose unless they bleed less than they should do for if they bleed less it is good to bathe whether the whole Body receive benefit from the flux of Blood more than by any other Remedy as in those that labour under a Plethory of the whole Body or the Head only be profited as in those who have only a Plethory thereof The cause whereof doubtless is that a Bath promotes the flowing of the Blood liquating of it and loosening the mouths of the Veins But it is clear that this is meant of a Bath of hot or tepid water for immersion into cold water stops fluxes of Blood which Women have learned by daily Experience who therefore when their Terms flow shun cold water We know also that by pouring on of cold water or by dipping any Parts of the Body into it bleeding at the Nose uses to be stopt and so from whencesoever the Blood issue the using of cold water profiteth unless it flow out of some internal Part and especially if out of the Lungs for then the Blood fleeing back toward the Heart it may chance to abound more about the Lungs But an hot Bath increases all evacuations of Blood and therefore it is to be avoided unless when an evacuation is seasonable Idem and the Blood proceeds not accordingly as is requisite VII There is no reason why a Physician should slight that evacuation that is caused by a Bath as small and not worth mentioning for from one long-continued lotion in the water of a Bath that was made with violent pourings on of the water I have seen more filth and tough and thick Phlegm such as might not be seen only but also drawn in length by the fingers or a piece of a stick drawn out this way than is used to be by the most plentiful Blood-letting not unlike to that which is wont to appear in the bason upon bleeding in the Foot Idem VIII Whether must we not forbear bathing till the Disease be wholly cured I answer by distinction If the Patient perceive the Bath to agree with his Strength and Nature and that the Disease lessens daily let him continue the use thereof till it wholly cease If he be little or nothing benefited let him take his leave of the Bath because his Distemper is greater than can be overcome by it But note that although the benefit be not manifest if so be the Patient be not weakened he must not presently desist because as Experience testifies many that have perceived no benefit all the time they bathed have some Weeks or Months after their return home been either wholly cured or at least much helped because Nature the strength being recruited by a good and orderly diet is wont to obliterate all the footsteps of the Disease says Aretaeus IX Those err who make the term of staying in the Bath to be till the Fingers and Toes become wrinkled for all have not the same habit of Body in some it is rare and lax in others hard and dense the Humors that are dispersed through the Flesh are few and thin in some in others many and thick and perhaps such would sooner faint away than their Fingers and Toes wrinkle Others expect sweat upon the Forehead but the same causes will make it to break forth more easily or more difficulty in several Persons They who define a certain space of time are deceived for respect is not to be had so much to the hours as circumstances and the endurance of the strength is the just bound for old Women the cold and moist the robust those that have a dense and compact habit of Body the fat those that are accustomed to bathing do endure it longer especially in the Spring and Autumn than Young men boyes old men the hot dry rare weak lean or People unaccustomed to Baths For the former are less dissolved and are not so subject to fainting as the latter To which add that some Baths are more generous and effectual than others and such require a less stay in them and that some Diseases are more rebellious and fixed than others and such require a longer bathing From all which it is clear that no certain number of hours can be prescribed for bathing in so great variety of circumstances X. I have observed that washing or abiding in sweet and hot water is not without danger A man of Seventy years old lusty for his Age coming out of the Countrey towards Evening and finding himself somewhat weary commanded a Bath of common water to be presently got ready Wherein having hardly stayed an hour and perceiving a fainting Fit a coming he betook himself to bed in which being presently taken with an Apoplexy he died that very Night Another having heated himself in such a Bath a Swooning and a great and long Disease followed with a very great weakness Hence it appears how full of danger washing in water is whether it be Simple or Medicinal by Nature or Art unless the Body be first prepared for by bathing especially in common water the Body is made slippery the Pores and all the ways are widened the Viscera are heated the Blood boils in the Vena cava and hence the Humours are diffused this way and that way c. Fabr. Hild. Cent. 6. Obs 96. XI
and that Galen is to be understood of that which is soft and gentle XVII When the Blood stagnates and stops in its Vessels motion is most happily procured to it by Sudorificks sometimes by Venesection by the help of those the Blood is not only made more fluid and moveable but the same is moreover actually moved and more and more rarefied by the volatil Salt that is in them and by its stay alone does by degrees loose the Blood more or less concreted by its own acid Spirit and therefore agitates it Whence a more frequent and greater pulse uses to be the companion of sweat for whilst the volatil Salt of Sudorificks arrives at the right ventricle of the heart and the Blood there becomes more rare and does not only of its own accord seek an exit for it self but by further widening the ventricle of the Heart it excites the same to both a more frequent and stronger contraction of it self Sylv. de le Boë pract l. 1. c. 34. §. 29. and therefore moves the Blood more that before was somewhat deficient in its motion and promotes its course every way from the Heart XVIII Not only Medicines taken inwardly yea and hot drink drunk freely provoke sweat but many external things also Thus the air alone heated by art and making a dry bath in a stove or sitting by a good fire powerfully draw forth sweat and when a watry humidity is redundant in the Body it is driven forth by sweat this way easily and happily enough but so is not a sowr or acid or Salt Muriatick Humour though a glutinous Humour may thus also be both attenuated and expelled by sweat if so be it be continued long enough lest the same Humour being dissolved by the fire and driven all about be again coagulated in the capillary Vessels and there breed obstructions and many mischiefs that follow thereupon Idem m m. l. 1. c. 11. § 27. XIX Bezoardicum minerale is prepared of the Butter of Antimony by pouring thereon the Spirit of Nitre or aqua Stygia Where it is to be observed that whilst these two liquors are mixed together the Salts meeting by and by with one another are strictly combined and in the mean time the Sulphureous particles which are in great plenty being utterly excluded fly away carrying some saline Bodies with them raise an heat and very stinking smoak these being driven away the saline that are left are more strictly combined with some earthy ones of the Antimony and at length having undergone the fire that the Emetick Sulphur may wholly exhale and the corrosive stings of the Salts may be destroyed they make an excellent Diaphoretick inasmuch namely as the different Salts of the Medicine do meet with the Salts of our Body with which being joined the compages of the Blood and Humours are loosened Willis â—harm rat p. m. 208. so that there lies open a free passage to the serous recrement The dose is from a scruple to a drachm XX. Though a certain preparation of Antimony be called Diaphoretick I know not to what sort of its particles this vertue can be attributed and I have often in vain expected such an effect from this Medicine It is often profitably given to stay fluxions of the Serum or Blood because this earth being deprived of its proper Salts does imbibe strange acid Salts which it meets with by chance in the Body which kind of vertue Crocus Martis prepared by a reverberatory fire seems to obtain from the like cause XXI Antimonium diaphoreticum is rightly given with the species de hyacintho pulvis ruber Pannonicus and others for the promoting of expulsion But we must note that it ought to be rightly and newly prepared for as it grows old it returns to its own Nature and Emetick vertue Wherefore I advise never to mix Antimony with those Powders but at the time when you are about to use them Ign. Franc. Thiermair cons l. 1. c. 7. for till then 't is best to keep them apart XXII Let Physicians be mindful that those who are engaged in a Diet of Guaiacum if they be not Purged every 8th or 10th day and unless they go to stool every day once Heer de Acidulis p. 100. do incur very grievous Symptoms XXIII Most now esteem that Paradox for truth that Decoctions of Guaiacum Sarsa Sassafras China and the like make People fat Which Horat. Guargantius in his resp medic p. 235. thus explains These Decoctions do attenuate indeed and dry up naughty and excrementitious Humours but leave the good and profitable untoucht Therefore they bring no hurt to the wasted and emaciated For seeing leanness and a fleshless habit proceed from bad nutrition and bad nutrition from acrimonious and salt Humours which consume the sweet and profitable Blood and hinder the Fat from being agglutinated therefore it follows that when those vitious juices are consumed by the foresaid Decoctions the Body is of course rightly nourished and fatned Thus far Guargantius Arcaeus's way of curing Phthisical People by a Decoction of the Wood is well known whereby he affirms they are not only hurt but also grow fleshy XXIV There are some who with an hydrotick Decoction give a Bolus of Turpentine and Ground-Ivy c. but I like not the raising of two motions at the same time therefore rather make a Bolus of the powder of Harts-horn Fortis Cent. 1. Cons 65. Vipers and some appropriate Salt XXV Besides Opium Salts promote Sweat namely by their fusory quality but 't is necessary they should be depurated whence common Salt and sal gemmae promote it not at all All Herbs that contain much Salt in them drive forth also much sweat as Wormwood Carduus bened being given in a sufficient Dose XXVI It is an error of the Moderns to use Decoctions with water for fluxions seeing it is clear that whatsoever Remedies are taken under the form of drink though they be of a dry Nature yet they alwayes increase moisture in the Body especially if they be taken at Meals Now I guess that the Physicians our predecessors were deceived by the Diet that uses to be prescribed to them who use hydrotick Decoctions Who having observed that some troubled with long continued destillations were cured thereof by a Decoction of Guaiacum or sarsaparilla or the like which they had taken for the cure of the French Pox brought in Decoctions of drying Woods and Roots which had not at all been used for this purpose before for the cure of Destillations and the cure succeeded happily as long as they observed that exact Diet of thoroughly-baked Bread or Bisket with Raisins limited to a certain quantity and wholly abstain'd from drinking of Wine But after that our Physicians indulging the complaints of their Patients began to allow them Flesh Eggs and Wine it has been seldom observed that Destillations have been cured by these Decoctions which is an evident argument that the Catarrhs were cured
the first Decoction and boil them again in fresh Water Press out the Juice Crato cons 21. apud Scholtzium to which add a little fresh Butter and Sugar Candy XVI Nothing is more difficult in Diseases of the Breast than to bring the Medicines to the place affected for through the length of the way they hardly do any good for the greatest part of them if not all slides down the Gulet into the Stomach and before they reach the Lungs their vertue is either lessen'd or altogether destroyed It seems more advisable therefore that Pectoral Medicines whether Lozenges Linctus or others be held a good while in the Mouth that they may slide down leisurely by the sides of the Larynx yet this is but a slow kind of Remedy That Medicines may be receiv'd plentifully and speedily into the Lungs we must make an artificial use of Respiration A Decoction of Vulnerary Pectoral Herbs and others according to the scope of the Physician is to be prepared the Vapour whereof let the Patient continually receive together with the Air in Inspiration for thus the Steam being carried to the Lungs in its entire vertue and by a short way shall cure the Diseases thereof Let all the Air be thus infected to the benefit of the Patient and you need not with Galen sail to Egypt Tho. Barth cent 4. Hist 88. your Chamber may become an Egypt for you ¶ I think the Diseases of the Breaff Head and Lungs can be helped no way better than by Vapour For as we relieve the thick Guts by Clysters the Stomach by Vomits the Kidneys by Diureticks because these Remedies reach to those parts so it seems are the parts serving for Respiration to be helped by Vapours for nothing else is carried entire into those parts As for my self I often use Vapours for the Diseases of the Breast and Head setting Kettles full of fitting Decoctions by the Patients Bed side or using Suffumigations upon Coals for Concocting and Inciding Vapours may be prepared as the matter shall require Wherefore it will often be convenient whilst Fomentations are applied outwardly for allaying of Pain and discussing of Humours and Wind to receive inwardly the Vapours from Sponges dipt in the Decoction Valles de vict acut p. 49. de evaporat suffumig for concocting or drying Yet this will not be always convenient for if difficulty of breathing happen thereupon we must desist XVII Without doubt Tabaco given in Potion does as much harm to the Stomach and Guts as it does good to a moist and cold Brain But 't is some Question Whether the Smoak of Tabaco offend the Lungs because it is an hot Plant yea acrimonious and twitching either naturally or by art namely from the Pouders of Euphorbium Bastard Pellitory Pepper or other acrimonious Spices which are sprinkled betwixt its Leaves by Cheating Fellows as they are made up into Rolls by the Vapour of all which 't is likely the Lungs are no less offended than the Brain is when a Man is made to sneeze by the Pouder of Horse-Rhadish or Pepper For as its immoderate heat does exhaust the Radical moisture so it s cloudy Smoak obscures the illustrious spirit of our Life yea Nicol. Tulp obs l. 1. c. 6. it suffocates the innate heat so evidently that like Tabid or Consumptive People they are wasted with a continual Cough or shortness of Breath XVIII I believe that a Catarrh does not only come to the Breast by the Lungs but also from the whole Circuit of the Veins witness Galen 2. de fac nat who says that all Superfluities flow upon a weak part Wherefore Diureticks are good in such case Montan. cons 145. See the title of Respiration hurt Book 15. because the Matter descends from the Veins and there is a great consent betwixt the Veins and the Breast Therefore Diureticks are profitable for the Lungs and Diseases of the Breast XIX Those things which bring Matter or Phlegm out of the Breast are prepared divers ways and are used sometimes in the form of a Decoction sometimes of a Mixture sometimes of a Lohoch and sometimes of Lozenges And 't is good to hold them for a while in the Mouth that passing leisurely to the Fauces or Throat a good deal or them may go down by the Weazand and so may be mixed in a greater quantity with the Phlegm that is to be incided Sylv. de le Boe m. m. c. 18. sect 26. But that which we swallow may also by a longer way return with the Blood to the Lungs XX. Hippocrates uses sometimes sweet sometimes harsh Wine in Diseases of the Breast Sweet Wine is not so well allowed of before Expectoration begin because it does not raise a Cough whereby the Purulent Matter is discharged Therefore harsh Wine is then proper because by irritating a Cough it causeth Expectoration but he abstains from it when the Patient Coughs up freely for then sweet Wine is more convenient to make the passages glib Sinibald l 4. Antiph 14. and to expand the Wings of the Lungs XXI I do not well approve of Pectoral Ointmenâ—s for though they help towards expectorating oâ— the Matter which is at present lodged in the Breast yet they make the parts more loose and subject to Fluxions Crato conl 8. XXII I use the Flowers of Brimstone in inveterate Diseases of the Lungs with no bad success but D. Job Crato hath frighted me from the use of them who disallowing of them endeavours to shew That something of a more subtil Arsenical Poison is still contained in them But seeing in strong Distempers strong Remedies also are to be used and I should hope that by often washing of them with the Water of Scabious Speedwell or the like that Poisonous quality may be taken away or at least so corrected as not to hurt I would not in that case be against the use of these Flowers Now half a scruple or a scruple of them may be given in one of the forementioned Waters adding Spec. Diair Simpl. in the same quantity or take half a drachm of each of these Joac Camerar in câ—staÌ„ medic Hornungi Epist 118. and with two ounces and an half of Sugar dissolved in proper Waters make Retulae whereof let one or two melt in your Mouth often XXIII The Head being dried and the Lungs themselves in some sort the drying and strengthening of them may be perfected by Sulphureous Waters drinking them for twelve days with a loosening Vehicle For there can be no Remedy more excellent in art yet it is not proper till the Head be first dried seeing it ascends thither Joh. Raymund Fortis cons 13. cent 2. fills and fuses it and so increases destillations yet when the Head is dried it dries it yet more without any inconvenience attending XXIV The Substance of the Lungs is soft and spongy therefore is it subject to defluxions above other Bowels whether those come from the Brain or from