the whole frame is disordered and all the powers are violently hurryed into an ataxie Briefly all immoderate passions do exceedingly operate upon the bloud spoiling it more or less of its integrity Thus inter spemque metumque timores inter iras is this subject matter wherein the soul delights agitated concussed sometimes as it were charm'd into a coagulum or curdly substance again then colliquated into a virulent corroding fretting Ichor or Serum now a modest apprehension of shame adornes the skin with a lovely rosie blush a sudden fear leaves the superficies of the body exanguious pale and Ghost-like as likewise excessive love perpetrates the same by degrees Pallidus omnis amans Envy consumes this vitae pabulum as a Moth a Garment Jealousie as cruel as the Grave never leaves till it devours its vigour and fibrosity Anger intoxicates it pourtraying the perfect Idaea of madness therein which sometimes is so graduated that no poyson in this part of the world seems to be more active for a few atoms of this venomous gore penetrating the Cutaneous membrane hath infected the whole ruddy mass introducing most truculent symptoms wherefore Ira furor brevis est hanc tu compesce catena Let it be our whole endeavour ut sit mens sana in corpore sano for if we be not Master of our unruly passions 't is impossible there should be an Eutomie an Eucrasie and Eumetry in this solar juice Likewise food is to be considered as powerful to make an Euchymy or Cacochymie for those things whose Vita Media are so tenacious that they cannot be conquered by the stomach do often put Nature to very great stress causing it to frame many strange Images so leading it captive into a morbifick state I have found experimentally that flesh or any thing Dyspepton of difficult digestion in any Feaver putrifies in the stomach contaminates the bloud augments the Feaver which the good old man Hipp. verifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. if you give any thing very highly nutritiotous to one in a Feaver the same will encrease his Disease weakning the Patient which given to an healthful body would strengthen him Again whatsoever superfluity is retained after the six Digestions are performed do either by their quantity or quality incommodate the blood causing it to deviate from its sincerity likewise all profuse excretions do much disturb it Motion Rest Watching and Sleep passing their due limits cause great inconveniences herein The Phaenomena or signs whereby the blood may be judged good or bad are some apparently Visible others more obscurely latitant A skin tinged with a preter-natural Black Citrine Yellow Green Pale colour supposed it be not contracted from the impression of the Air Climate or any outward accident doth certainly indicate that all is not well with the juice within for qualis color cutis talis corporis habitus sanguis spiritus A feaverish state cutaneous eruptions a spontaneous lasitude difficulty of breathing an irregular pulse Arythmus Dicrotus Formicans Serratilis observing no just proportion Degenerate excrements arising from several Digestions of various colours Green Yellow c. of bad consistence as lentous viscous clammy thin sharp fretting cause some suspicion that the blood is impure Likewise if a man be melancholly without any just reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indisposed dull delirious forgetful sleepy or over-watchful he may suspect all is not well within There is no greater sign of notable impurity in this mass than when there appears any excessive Haemorrhagy as from the Nose Piles or Mouth for then we may conclude that some irritating matter is got therein which like a Thorn extimulates the Archeus so that it becomes impatient fretful and furious profusely squandring away the most precious stock of life in a prodigal manner Now if we desire to keep a constant Tenour of health we ought strictly to observe whether any of the six Digestions do at any time titubate or faulter and forth with to seek out for means to correct the same and reduce it to integrity sith it is not possible that the liquor of life should be free from feculencies imperfections and apostasies if the Organ that frames it be irregular and depraved Here I must give a Caution to all intelligent Persons that they do not rashly censure that blood let out in the Porringer necessary to be sent packing because it is disguised in various colours as blackish blew green yellow white c. supposing it to be corrupt and so unfitting to be retained within the verge of life It is no such matter I can maintain for this superficial alteration proceeds from the Air spoiling it of its pristine goodness not that it was really corrupted in the vein For the demonstration of this I will undertake upon forfeiture of a great penalty to open the vein of a Cachochymick body emitting about two or three ounces of the visible foresaid degenerate matter then stopping the Orifice make use of proper Remedies to this Individual whose habit I doubt not so to alter in the space of about a fortnight that no such putrid matter as they improperly call it shall be found in any vein whatsoever opened which may fully satisfie any sober inquirer after truth that the corruption was never really existent in that while it was in the vein which in so short a time is thus red integrated for corruption being an absolute privation of that formal essence of the thing and sith there is no retrogradation in this kind that an Ens losing its form by dissolution should assume it again nam à privatione ad Habitum non datur regressus it infallibly follows that this juice thus restored Techniâ—…s by Art was never truly corrupted as they would have it Hence it follows that the fair pretence of the Galenists that the juice drawn out of the patient forasmuch as it is corrupt in the Porringer is happily discharged appears a meer imposture contrived on purpose to stop the mouth of those who scruple and question Phlebotomy CHAP. V. Concerning the Latex or insipid aqueous Liquor that is concurrent with the Blood TReating of the blood I cannot omit its inseparable companion that closely perambulates with it through all the winding Maeandrous Pipes in this microcosm It is called Latex by Helmont by some Lympha by the Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Diaphanous clear liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fabricated in the second digestion by vertue of a ferment there residing It is the matter of Urine and Sweat It undergoes various alterations partly from sanguine mass and partly from the solid parts of the body whose ferments as they are mis-affected so they infect this limpid liquor It is of very great use first as a vehicle to the bloud to convey and usher it freely into all parts Secondly to hinder the condensation and coagulation thereof that it may not restagnate and so be hindred in its constant circulation Thirdly that it may
It is available against melancholly Imaginations Hypochondriack passions Cachexies Dropsies Atrophies The frequent use thereof strengthens the Brain Sinews Loins invigorating the Memory and all the senses Being outwardly applyed it challenges Noble effects For 't is very healing Balsamical curing green Wounds and Soars being lightly touched therewith often repeated I have found it very commodious in Ambustion scaldings burnings Some drops being frequently distilled thereon forced inwardly by the bottom of a smooth glass I cannot but commend it experimentally as a singular Antiodontalgick one of the best Anodines or asswagers of the pains of the Teeth I have met with hitherto being of great force to perserve them from corruption withall resisting the putrefaction of the Gums Neither is it to be contemned for the mitigation of the pains of any part strengthning or quickning the Archeus or vital spirit thereof With many more laudable properties is this Alexi-stomachon endued which frequent use thereof and a longer strict sedulous practice will bring to light The quantity to be exhibited is of great Latititude from one to ten yea I will undertake to give twenty times as much as the common portion without the least injury to any The ordinary Dose is twenty thirty forty fifty sixty drops in a draught of any strong Liquor as Beer Ale Wine or whatsoever doth best relish with the person There is no need of being precise or curious concerning the time of taking it for when any one is Cacostomachical troubled with indigestion wind pain gripes or any of the foresaid affects let him take liberally thereof He that constantly takes every morning thirty or forty drops shall prevent many mischiefs in reference to his health I am not ignorant the Galenists whose Judgments in these Philosophical Manufactures and the experimental use of this and other Spagyrical Remedies are as much depraved as the tast of any man in a high feaver will not be wanting according to their former Tenour rashly to censure openly or at least privately to sugillate this salutiferous medicine carping at it as too hot burning violent or strong representing to some persons easily to be seduced Mormalocheia Scar-crows of danger they may incur hereby of consuming the Radical moisture putting nature to a stress Of the great inconveniencieâ— may come from the custom of taking this stomach spirit adding that although it seem to do good for the present yet in the future it will shew its mischievous condition by some unhappy event Such like defaming undervaluing Language I expect from some malevolents But blessed be my Stars my sense of Abuses herein is become Callous for I vallue not their obloquies being assured I can easily wipe of any of these Aspersions As to what is objected that this stomach-spirit is too hot burning c. I answer whatsoever is so properly denominated must either harbour some corrosive fretting salt highly exasperating the Archeus Or 2. Abundance of Recrements discrepant burdensome offensive to Nature Or 3. A Clandestine poison whose fermentescent Corpuscles being hostile to the vitals stir up a preternatural ebullition effervescence in the juices so consequently an excessive heat That there is no such evil endowment or property in this medicine I am fully certified by experiment and can make evident 1. That the Textures of its particles are not in the least fretting gauling or burning but are symbolical and amicable to the Animal spirits sweetly closing in with them 2. That it is defaecated rid of any impurity which may give the stomach any trouble in digestion so that it is no sooner admitted but becomes a welcome pleasing Guest having freedom to exspatiate every way no whit fettered with any dross or filth 3. It is so far from any malignity venenosity or virulency that it is Anticacoethes Antiphthora an Antidote or counterpoison mortifying pro modulo contagious Atoms keeping Liquors from Hyperzymôsis super-fermentation a tendency to corruption The terrefying phantasm of consuming the Radical moisture doth not a jot concern this Remedy sith it in no wise acts proportionable to the flame on Oil Tallow or Wax for these the more they are accensed the greater expence is made of them therefore sooner exhausted On the other side the more there is an Eclampsis Effulgescence Radiation of the vital Light by means of this shining spirit the more any defects in the ferments and constitutives of the body are repaired a prevention being made of their future decay and so the life prolonged This vain conceit doth truly square with the Galenical not the Helmontian Doctrine which as I have before explained will not admit of the efficient material cause of spirits to be pinguedâ—nous and fiery It is as far from truth to alledge a stress or force is put upon Nature by the efficacious power of this Remedy as falsly to accuse any one of offering violence who comes into the assistance of an honest Traveller assaulted and over-powered by a Robust thief A thing good of it self is made never the better or worse by custom I know no reason why any one shoâ—ld be afraid to drink a cup of the best Câ—nary at any tâ—me when he is faint because he hath thoughts he may go into a place where no such pure Liquor can be purchased Notwithstanding if it fall out so he may live comfortably without it as many can testifie It is madness to refuse what is innocently vertuous in case of great need when ever it is offered out of a foolish apprehension the same cannot be acquired another time The last is a taunt absurd and malicious in reference to legitimate Spagyrical preparations wherefore I set light by it yet if any Learned Physician declare so much I know how to deal with him as for the contumelies of Idiots I count them not worthy my Pen. Some other Eustomachicks and Haemacatharticks cleansers of the bloud subordinate to greater Arcana I have in store which according as I find a grateful Reception of this I may bring to light Certain useful Instructions pertaining to the Diet of those in a Feaver afflicted with the Scurvy or any long Disease TAking notice of the frequent Errours committed by Learned Doctors in the ordering the Diet of Acute and Chronick diseases I conceive it my duty to reprehend the same as likewise to deliver some Regular Diaetetical Documents grounded upon firm medical tryals tending to the reforming several abuses herein 1. I observe some Physicians to scruple to give their Patients enduring extream Thirst in a feaver a draught of any Liquor for the mitigation of the same least as they unadvisedly fear it should cause a greater accension of the feaver in such sort as water cast upon burning Coals seems almost to quench it for the present but afterward makes it burn more intensly violent Let such know their allusion to an Ens inanimate which upon the difflation or carrying off on a sudden a great part of fuliginous ashes obstructing the pores of the fuel becomes more active making
Cruor a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Crudus Concretus which undergoes manifold Guises and is often the Subject matter of multitude of Diseases being sometimes changed into an Ichor Tabum or Sanies Sanguis called bloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a most pure Sweet Homogeneous Balsamick Vital Juice for the most part of a bright Red or Reddish colour made by the Archeus by virtue of Ferments implanted in the Ventricles of the Heart Lungs Veins and Arteries causing a formal transmutation of the chyme or milky substance into this sanguineous Liquor ordained to be the seat of Life and the principal matter for Sense Motion Nutrition Accretion and Generation It is for good reason called Balsamum seu Condimentum totius Corporis for as much as it hath a Sanative power sweetly uniting all the parts of the Body for the conspiration of the good of the whole It is a great preservative against Putrefaction as long as it remains in its integrity for consisting of many Saline particles it seasoneth whatsoever it toucheth with a pleasing Sapour It is the proper Habitation of the vital spirit the immediate instrument of the Soul in which it shines displaying its Radiant Beams every way that Sensation Motion Nutrition and all other Functions may exquisitely be performed It s colour is various in some White as in Testaceous Creatures In some Black as in the fish Polypus but usually of a Reddish or Crimson Dye in the most perfect Creatures The efficient cause of its Production is the Archeus or Animal spirit making an Essential Alteration of a praevious Lacteous juice into this most highly exalted Liquour of Life through the efficacy of those Operative fermenrs which the great Conditor of all things hath destinated to reside in convenient places principally in the cavities of the heart CHAP. II. Of the different sorts of Bloud THe Air Climate and Food do not a little alter the bloud of all Animals For creatures that live in lofty places more remote from the faeculent exhalations of the Earth for as much as they participate of a more subtile clean magnale have their bloud more rarified volatilized and so consequently Circulation the better performed without those Coagulations or Grumosites which those resting nigh the lower surface of the Globe always sending out some noxious emanations are commonly incident to Hereupon the winged common-wealth that frequently draw breath in a sublimer Region have their juices for the most part better digested mundified and subtilized than those which are constantly contiguous to the earth For it is certain look Coeteris paribus what air you draw in such accordingly is the texture of the vital spirits as these are generated good or bad so likewise is the bloud as this is constituted so are the Carneous Membranous and Osseous parts Laudable or depraved food conduces much to the meliorating or pejorating this animal liquor for as the diet is regulated in Quality or Quantity so Euchymy or Cacochymy follow making several discriminations therein Of all Creatures the bloud of man is graduated to the highest Perfection fitting to be a Receptacle of so divine a Guest the Immortal Soul which as long as it is here incarcerated lying couched in the sensitive being bound to act by Corporeal Organs suffers many Obscurations Defections and Eclipses through variety of Meteors arising in the Horizon of this Microcosm from the bloud degenerate and depraved It would take up too much time strictly to examine this vital juice in several species and in certain Individuals whose Qualities Properties Endowments Inclinations Affections Actions and Passions depend upon the Seed the exquisite essential part of this animal Balsom both of which make up Stamen Subtegmen the Warpe and Woofe of every creature This Liquor is in some animals thick gross and fibrous in others thin serous and more fluid There are those who have it endued with a Medicinal vertue as that of Cats and Goats the last whereof affords us an Arterial Balsom of admirable effect in Pleurisies Others have in it an Intoxicating and Poysonous property as Bulls Dogs c. In certain species it is intensly red in others more remisly There are creatures which have only a Whitish Liquor in the body there are those also which possess it either obscure or of a black colour The bloud of some animals is tangibly hot in others it is sensibly cold as in fishes It is more ponderous in those that continually adhere to the Earth than in volatiles soaring aloft Saturnine persons have usually a more gross and stable juice very fibrous causing deliberate pulse Those who are jovial have by nature a brighter thinner Liquor with a pulse more quick Many other distinctions of this sanguine Balsom might be delivered which for the present I can only lightly touch upon directly aiming at those things of greatest moment in which the welfare of man hath a more peculiar interest CHAP. III. Of the Efficient and Material cause of Bloud THe Galenists have reckoned for this sixteen hundred years four humours analogous to the four Elements in mans body requisite for the essential constitution of this ruddy mass all of which they affirm are separable and demonstrable to the eye Thus they make a division of that which God Nature never intended other than Homogeneous pure plain symbolical with that single principle of the universe for as much as every thing the more it hath of similarity in it self the more capable it is to be altered into multiplicity of divers different specifick bodies by the Magical power of metamorphising ferments Now these Peripatetick Philosophers deliver to the World that the contexture of this vital juice is made up of choler phlegm melancholly and bloud which united produce as they would have it the compounded body we call Sanguis how grosly erroneous and daâ—gerous this Tenet is most Learned Helmont hath made evident Wherefore we conclude with that Noble Phylosopher that bloud is an univocal substance divisible only by some external accidental means as the air or fire which cause a various texture and different position of its atoms whereby it seems to consist of those parts which are not really inherent in it as is manifest in its degeneration from its native colour sapour consistence and goodness which it had before it became corrupt in the Porringer or underwent the torture of the fire Both of which do strangely larvate and disguise this puniteous Balsom giving occasion to the Galenists to frame their four fictitious humours no where really exsistent Hence occasion hath been given of taking wrong indications in the cure of those Diseases easily sanable if a firm foundation were laid a great Catalogue whereof have been reputed incurable Had they but considered how this vital moisture ebbs and flows in goodness and pravity upon flight accidental occasions of any exorbitant passions as Fear Sorrow Anger c. the manifold impressions of the ambient air Ill Diet immoderate exercise divers excessive
ship reduces into the right channel the aberrations of other Kitchins ordained for the formal alteration of nutriment For this purpose our principal study ought to be employed about the search of such Remedies that are amicable and delectable to the Archeus corroborate the tone of the stomach augment regulate and fortifie its ferment scoure away any thing recrementitious in it dulcifie and mitigate what ere is acrimonious preter-naturally austere acid corroding saline or putride therein This being duly performed by a Pyrotechnical Philosopher a sure door is opened for the exemption of Nature much oppressed from sundry grievous Diseases which otherwise would prove incurable banking and eluding all the trivial medicaments of the Galenists CHAP. IV. The manifold Occasions that alter clarifie taint and deprave the Bloud Also the true signs of its purity or impurity integrity or degeneration EXtrinsecal occurrences and intrinsecal occasions cause a goodness depravation and deflection of the bloud from its native sincerity Those inseparable things without which we cannot subsist as air diet retention evacuation exercise sleep watching passions and perturbations of the mind do very much affect this noble jâ—ice Above all it is most altered by the air and the perturbation of the spirits such fixed impressions are sometimes made by these that they become indeleble all our life after Many laborious Chymists have to their miserable experience found that those deletery venemous fumes and poysonous Realgars arising from minerals imbibed by the air and so inspired have so infected this Balsom circulating through the Lungs that all the art of man hath not been able by the greatest medicinal Arcana's to expunge the malignity contracted thereby How insensibly do those virulent pestilential atoms fluctuating in the air cause a miasm contagion in this red mass whereby it becoms coagulated or colliquated which inconveniencies are no more to be avoided in some places than that it is possible for any one to live without air Doubtless that tedious Chronick disease the Scorbute which is so predominant and Grassant in this Nation doth in greatest part diffuse it self by means of the air which insensibly conveys its pernicious Nature from Body to Body So that some few having a high tincture of this evil may in some short space resorting to much Company annoy by a spreading ferment many hundreds who according as their Bodies are disposed and capable for the reception of this infectious Leaven suffer more or less in pollution of this Nectar of life which by degrees falleth off from its pristine goodness If then timely prevention be not made either by potent strength of Body or a prevalent art the man decays in his faculties the Archeus becomes aculeated exstimulated and becomes exorbitant framing variety of Exotick Morbifick Idaeas causing a Syndrom of Heteroclite symptoms Infinite are the exhalations flowing out from all sorts of Bodies greedily sucked up by the magnale or porosities of the air which when where and how it affects the bloud is not easily known to us only this we can assert that we have received injury from this subtil ambient that adheres as close to us as we to place 'T is a common Opinion taken up frequently by the vulgar when they are indisposed or incident to any disease to say they have taken cold thereby mincing and extenuating the magnitude and malignity of many feral Diseases to their final overthrow being so taught by their Oracle like Galenical Doctors as they fancy them whom they observed to insist upon bare Qualities meerly transitory momentany and shadows of true substances for the Cure of most desperate Diseases especially Fevers which I acknowledge is often produced excited and irritated by the ambient but not meerly from the bare quality thereof quatenus cold but as it is stuffed full of atoms Hostile to the Texture of our bloud which rushing in through the more patulous passages of the Body or stealing in through the less visible pores do frequently alter and contaminate this Aetherial Liquor 'T is granted that cold doth sometimes accidentally put the Body much out of order in as much as it stoppeth up the pores of the skin in such wise that many noxious recrements are constringed within to the depravation of the bloud the impediment of its Circulation and so to the great prejudice of the health which otherwise having free vent rid nature of a burdensome clog oftentimes pressing it down either into dangerous or mortal Feavers In this case the principal means to be used is to open the coarctation constriction and constipation of this general membrane by proper Diaphoreticks withal rectifying the air that there may be a free aporrhaea of whatsoever doth infest Nature and bloud The next notable cause that makes great alteration for the worse in this vital juice are the extravagant perturbations storms and tempests that arise in this microcosm raised through mis-apprehensions mis-applications and mis-interpretations of things obvious to our sense contrived by a luxated or dislocated imagination e. g. Some frightful object presented to our eye or a lamentable story related to our ear doth strait disturb the Archeus with its concomitant in such manner that a plain discovery is made what is done within by its sudden flux into and reflux from the face the Index of the souls affections Henquam difficile est says the Poet Crimen non prodere vultu Joy Sorrow Fear Hope Love Anger Envy Jealousie are so conspicuously to be read in the countenance by means of the access or recess of this sanguine matter that the best of Politicians study hath been to conceal those evident Signatures Impressions Stamps and Characters of their Inclinations Motions Dispositions and Affections arising from the bloud but yet could never attain to any perfection therein How florid is the Front when the heart is chearful how sweetly diffused is this spirituous Ruby through all parts in an equal proportion circulating in every vessel with a quiet stream on the contrary how luride discoloured tawney yellow dark pale wan for the most part is the aspect when sorrow hath laid siege to the fountain of life what stagnations coagulations unkindly colliquations exorbitant fermentations dyspepsies apostases defections transmutations allogeneities vapidities malignities austerity acidity acrimony is this juice liable to at first disordered in part at length by degrees quite subverted from those deformed odious Idaeas of Sorrow Grief and Anguish of spirit O triste nomen O diis odibile Melancholia lachrymosa Cocyti filia Tu Tartari specubus opacis edita This feral Brat of Hell melancholly doth so disturb the Oeconomy of the souls residence that the ruddy Balsom of the Body hath become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lutulent faeculent deprived of its primitive excellence so that whereas it was before the fit matter of clear luminous active spirits from whence arose regular sound comformable actions it is now being degraded the Original of a Black Fuliginous Archeus which clouding the soul in such a manner that
Tarantula Mad dog or Rattle snake break the skin touching the vital juice This Archeus forthwith frames Idaeas of indignation fear sorrow c. According as the Nature of that which vulnerates it such such symptoms are evidently contriv'd by this quick sented and tasted spirit which nimbly apprehends what is nocuous and what is harmless to the life This Custos I say is ubiquitary in the body carefully watching for its preservation but it is in an extraordinary manner concentrate where the first preparation of the sanguine mass is made here the Apoplexie Epilepsie Palsie Convulsions Lethargy Scotomie Delirium Melancholly Madness Phrensie Phthysis Quinsie Peripneumonie Incubus Asthma Dyspnaea vexatious Coughs Syncope Lypothymie griping of the Guts Diarrhaea Dysuria Arthritis Gout in several parts Cachexie Dropsies the Scurvy Hypochondriack Passion all sorts of feavers continual or intermitting mild or malignant the small Pox Measils spotted Feaver the Plague Marasmus Erysipelas Phlegmous Haemorrhoides c. In this Mint they are all first coined receiving an Impress Schem or Figure according to which they act uniformly upon the Scene of this microcosm That which makes a difference of Feavers and other Diseases is the first mover extimulated from an extraneous matter Impatient withall of the Local Possession of the same for as it relisheth Excrements so it is affected fashioning in the Hypochondries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pourtraiture of that Ens Mâ—rbosum analogous thereunto and were there not a Discriminating fancy in the vital spirit whereby a disease is determinated to this or that kind and made to be Hoc aliquid Specificum there would necessarily be a great confusion in the Catalogue of infirmities that none could rightly and distinctly understand the Diganôsis the true Knowledge of them but in a preposterous manner should mistake one for another becoming uncapable to applicate and appropriate Remedies according to the Nature of what infests us Sith then it is otherwise that the symptoms of the falling sickness Lethargy Peripneumone Asthma c. do constantly evidently discover the species and essence of the Disease this can never be but from an efficient material cause or Principle above the four humours of the Galenists or the three principles of Paracelsus and his Sectary Dr. Willis who adds to Sal sul and ☿ Water and Earth But how far from solid truth we shall ere long examine As for the former opinion it is at this day exploded by most Scient Philosophers who have rejected that consuming Ens which they would have to make up one of their four Elements and consequently the four humors as a meer fictitious conceit fetched from the Utopian Elemental Region of fire immediately next the Moon This latter opinion borrowed from the Chymists I confess seems to be plausible and very taking as if it contained some verity notwithstanding narrowly searched into and put to the fiery tryal of experimental Philosophy the infallible Lapis Lydius or touch-stone of our Works whetner they be allowed or Reprobate it will appear expresly that those so called five Chymical principles of which all bodies as Dr. Willâ—… asserts have their initiated Synthesis Cuncretion or Composition and into which their Analysis Dissolution is made are not the essential efficient and materil cause of diseases I cannot subscribe to what Dr. Willis positively delivers as a truth in capii de ferment that Corpora quaevis è Spiritu Sulphure Sale Aqua Terra constare i. e. Every body consists of Spirit Salt Sulphur Water and Earth and according as is the different motion and measure of these in Concretes so is the beginning and end of every thing with the diversity of their fermentations to be considered I would willingly know of Dr. Willis as expert an Anatomist as he is in the dissection of Nature when ever he discovered visibly all these five principles in any body whatsoever without the torture and corruption of the whole If these can be otherwise extracted and demonstrated to me by him I shall become more inclinable to his opinion but sith I am sure he cannot I have very good reason to maintain that these parts separated from Bodies by the fire were never actually pre-existent in them but are fabricated by Vulcan and so instead of being Principles or Elements of things they become no other than Products Moreover if ever the Doctor beheld with his eyes shewing to us the same for to putatitious notions of the Brain we give no credit sith being an experimental Philosopher we hope he will not impose any thing upon us barely because he saith it these five supposed fundamental Principles produced in any living body by any heat whatsoever I shall forthwith submit to his judgment and Cure diseases according to this Hypothesis Till then he must excuse me if I tell him that the stately touring structure founded upon this Quinary Doctrine of Principles easily captivating those that look only superficially upon truth will undoubted fall to Ruine 2. These supposed quinta prima cannot be disgregated from some bodies by the fire any Art or sublunary machine of man witness Mercury which being a Homogeneous similar Ens not conspurcated or fouled with any strange matter cannot by any devise of man whatsoever be brought into the foresaid parts It may indeed be disguised several ways by additaments deluding the eye in the form of an Oil Water Salt Sulphur and Earth but they are only momentany dresses which this Proteus hath assumed no whit Real sith it may in a short time be made to retrocede to its primitive Individual Substance and Consistence Our great Philosopher Heimont declares absolutely Ex Arena silicibus saxis non calcariis sul aut ☿ nunquam trahi posse That 't is impossible to fetch out of Sand Flints and all sort of stones except Lime stones Sulphur or Mercury But he could by means of his Liquor Alkahest never to be attained by Dr. Willis or any Galeno-Chymist who dare not believe it hath an existence least it should be expected they should spare time take pains and be at Charges to acquire it he was able I say by means of this great Dissolvent to convert Sand or Stone into salt aequiponderat to its former Bulk which mechanical Probation gives more satisfaction to any intelligent Person concerning this truth than any tedious Argumentation to the contrary contrived never so subtilly and plausibly Again what spagyrical hand did ever Analyse Water not impregnated with a seed that the Quinta Prima might be made manifest The Tria Prima according to our Philosopher may be said to be in it Analogicôs but in no wise really existent therein 'T is true we often use the Etymon of 3 Prima for the distinction of those parts that have a disparity in them created by the fire yet this doth not conclude that they had their integral being in that body out of which they were extorted anamolôs No more than a Charcoal can be said to be revera in Wood Glass in
way proportionable to the Idaeas of Maladies which he would have to come efficiently and materially there-from then were his Chymical principles more plausibly taking But sith I am sure he cannot demonstrate this I contemplate the fermentation exaltation depression of sul the fusion fluidity and coagulation of Sal borrowed from the speculation of Wine and Milk analogically introduced by him to confirm his Quinary Institutions of Pathology to be no immediate essential cause of diseases as I doubt not practically to make evident If Dr. Willis seriously meditate he shall find in Reality a vast difference between the operations of the vital bloud and those proceeding from the Zymôsis of the juice of a vegetable or the separation made by air or any other artificial means in Milk tending to corruption of the same For these dead things are in no wise able to give us adaequate light of those regular and Irregular actions that are performed by a vital beginning whose Type is of a more sublime extract than to be parallel'd by any thing inanimate I confess some small illustration may be made by way of simily between animate and inanimate mechanical artificial and natural which may please the phantasie of those that are not throughly acquainted with the intimate Radical and efficient causes of vital powers and actions the priority of which are not intelligible by any mortal only we are taught à posteriori the effects of this primum movens perpetrating every thing by such a plat-form that is unerring unless impeded by intervening outward accidents according to that Mandate the great Creator hath given it till the dissolution of the universe We believe there was the same principles of all Concretes before the fall as since and that the Archeus of the stomach before the lapse of the Protoplastes did perfectly intirely change whatsoever was taken in for nourishment without any Relique of annoyance of excrements dross or filth those Tribuli Spinae which since the eating of the forbidden fruit the stomach of man being thereby vitiated do continually infest it in such sort that the vita Media of every thing assumed is hardly conquered an injurious impress being oftentimes left behind Hence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first rise of all our calamities for the deviation of the Archeus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives occasional matter to an infinite number of infirmities Not that the sulphur and salt of any Concrete is separated in the first digestion and so according as either is multiplyed or degenerate sickness breaketh forth No such matter for let a strong vigorous stomach take into it any sulphureous fat oily food the ferment makes in some short space such an essential transmutation that the sulphur becomes acid quite another thing to what it was before and afterward in the second digestion by vertue of the vital contact of the Gall it is changed saline Again the Alkali of vegetables is so altered in the stomach and other digestions that use the best skill you have you shall not be able to draw out of the urine bloud or any other part a lixiviate salt although Dr. Willis erroneously attributes to this and an acid Liquor like vitriol the cause why in a Scorbutical Arthritis a worm laid upon the part affected becomes in a short space mortifyed v. p. 292. de Scorbu Moreover pure spirit of Wine upon touch of the vital spirits looses its inflammability and its former saline sulphureous nature being changed into something of an urinous substance And here I am bound justly to taxe some Physicians of great ignorance in that they so scruple in feavers to give their Patients a large quantity of spirit of Wine rectifyed as it ought supposing they should add more fuel to the fire thereby to make a Phlogôsis a greater efferviscence or conflagration in the body not considering that nothing is more congenerous symbolizing with the animal Gas of life then highly exalted spirit of Wine being forthwith imbraced united and identifyed one with another by reason of their affinity and congruity 2. They do not truly understand the energy of Zymôsis what a powerful alterity is made by it and how the sulphureous particles of the vegetable becomes urinous like the spirit of the animal whereby it is enabled to profligate the morbifick matter through all the Emmunctories sluces and secret passages of the body This really is the direct way of curing feavers fundamentally not seeming cooling Julips Barley Water Posset-drink made with small Beer least it should be too hot prone to make the sulphur in the bloud as they alledge incensed already to become more impetuously head-strong no wayes to be reined or governed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enormon whose fate they conclude must needs be sad when such presumptuous Phaeton like Pyrotechnists drive the mettalsome Horses of the Son of this microcosm so furiously For all this let the Dogmatists say what they please if they will vouchsafe to be spectators I can discover to them Autopsiâ that I am able to cure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many feavers more expeditely and effectually by those things they call hot then by all the infrigidating preparatious they can invent or all the farraginous mixture belonging to the Apothecaries shop I wish with all my soul the Galenists would now at length reject those insufficient invalid medicines made by others and recond as a Treasure Arcana's elaborated by their own fingers then would they be truly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the equivocal sense of the word making a unity in that profession which through the Covetousness pride laziness of Physicians hath been divided into a Tripartite station to the great dishonour debasement and total Ruine of a his Noble Science if some Worthy Prudent Magistrates the Heroes of this Nation do not timely prevent This Parergôs I return to Dr. Willis his Quinta prima as the efficient causes of diseases Sith as I have delivered there is no separation of them in a healthful living body It follows that if any at any time a secretion of the five be made then are they Products and Epigenomena from a disorder or defection then cannot they be properly said to be primary precedent causes of the impairment of our health but consequents of the same Wherefore it 's preposterous to take in that for a cause which is but a meer effect whose Posteriority plainly shews a dependency upon something going before For example in a febrile state we see rejected by vomit or any other way excreted a yellow matter which the Doctor may call sulphureous This as he conceives joyned with something saline causes an effervescence boiling or Accension whence arises the feaver First let us examine whence came this excessive ebullition what is the efficient cause thereof in a living body 2. What separates and expels these parts denominated salt and sulphur 3. Whether the Doctor or any other ever saw sul so sequestred from an Animal so
of every pettey invading infirmity witness those multitudes who after sharp conflicts fall either into Relapses or Agues Scorbute Dropsies Consumptions Atrophie Jaundies Asthma's c. which might be easily prevented if a mature regular course were taken to give convenient Emeto-catharticks Analepticks Diaphoreticks which safely and speedily cleanse the stomach keep up the strength and breath the whole body then need we not fear any mischief from this late invention Redundance of Sulphur or Salt in the bloud no more than choller phlegm and melancholly of the ancients I would fain be satisfyed how this sanguimission is the cause of such a congestion of sulphur in this bloudy mass out of which there is no elective subduction of the Salt and a reservation of sulphur behind but both fly out promiscuously not to be discriminated by the eye till the fire which produces these Phaenomena makes a secretion of the homogenous juice into these heterogene parts inconfiderately denominated principles which are never so separated by the Archeus in so much as if one spin oâ—t more than another it is by accident never intended by Nature then a feaver may as well be sometimes prevented as invited according to the Aetâ—ological Hypothesis Neither can I apprehend where and how a greater quantity of sul above salt should be engendred after iterated Phlebotomy unless be meant by sul a spurious matter growing out of kind never intended by the scope of Nature which works regularly and uniformly Indeed so this may very well be after the stock of life is exhausted that the stomach Archeus and ferments becoming flaccid more dregs exotick strangely disguised abortive conceptions do forthwith start up attiring themselves in various shapes appearing afterward upon some stimulating occasions upon the Theater of the microcosm acting various Scenes of diseases according to the pravity and malignity of each excrement dis-junctive or copulative Me thinks 't is more consentaneous to Reason that a degenerate salt should rather abound in the body after this unkindly evacuation sith all the shops of digestions endeavour much about acid or urinous salts as is eminently apparent in the first and second Laboraâ—ories most of the visible excrements urine tears c. even of a hall person being saline Hence we may very well conclude that our Phlebotomist is much to seek in the cause and cure of a feaver sith he makes hat cause thereof which is only a Product of the fire not really existent withall pretends to take it away by that means which brought it for certainly what did mischief in this kind ab Anteriori can hardly do otherwise à Posteriori What gave occasion to admit it at first cannot well be expected to dismiss it once entred unless it be for a while that it may again return to take stronger possession Serius ejicitur quam non admittitur Hospes Experto Crede What the great Philosopher Van Heâ—mont hath set down before-cited I can maintain as certain truth by multiplyed experiments above these two and twenty years having in procincture not a few Patients ready to appear upon meet opportunity to attest how their veins have been acquitted of abundance of corrupt bloud as they thought yet their infirmitâ—es grown more strong and pertinacious and Nature more weak so doubtless must have perished had they noâ— râ—ceived succour at length by this powerful Câ—ymical Art Many medical Histories could I mention apposite for this purpose tending to the subversion of this Phlebotomical method but I conceive it will signifie little with those who are obstinately prejudiced against whatsoever I relate in this kind Wherefore I rather chuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come up close to them earnestly pressing they would either stand to some Aequiâ—able trials as we shall mutually propose for the final decision according to the senâ—ence of our experimentally knowing Philosophers of this Controversie of so great moment wherein Princes Noblemen and the greatâ—st Hero's Lives are concerned otherwise let them desist for the future prodigally to spend this Balsom of life keeping in its proper place for better uses that Lancet which I may safely aver hath been the destruction of more than the Sword At length I am put in mind of the last Quaery What Experiments the Doctor will undertake to testifie unto us that Phlebotomy is a way aequivelent with the best Remedies to amend impure bloud corrupted Here now am I so zealous a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indagator of verity by the Touch-stone of experience that I even blush to deliver any great matter of importance in reference to the health of man unless I have made trial my self or received it from a Learned honest Pyrotechnist Were it not that I should be censured for a stentorian Boaster by those who bear an Odium to this Science I would presume to take to my self a priviledge of knowing more practically than all those Physicians who altogether depend upon the Gregal Pharmacopaean set up principally to foment Laziness as likewise to keep up a meer mercenary Trade for the Reciprocal interest of each other to the injury of thousands Pish why should I be dared by any mortal only speaking physical truth Let Zoili or Momi do their worst I value them not Thus much I can uprightly and boldly deliver I have been both Agent and Patient in the examination of the Galenical and Chymical Dispensatory the former of which after a tedious expectation of some Benefit several years in reference to my sickly condâ—tion gradually filtching away my strength quite tyred me out usque ad nauseam so that I abhorred to look upon a painted Gally-pot or a bright Lancet The last in a short space gave me Relief not long after totally eradicating my infirmity repairing my decayed Constitutives in some measure Although some Philautists may judge me a little too venturous careless of my own safety in taking into my stomach Spagyrical medicines the effect whereof were as yet unknown to me yet I have not in the least repented thereof being perswaded it was but Charity that I my self rather than my Neighbours should run the hazard of virulency if they had any Withall I thereby collected those Documents by frequent sumption of my preparations for their correction and safe exhibition which a vulgar head could never have imparted to me For this end I give not a Remedy effectually Authentick which these hands of mine have not contrived and this stomack approved Neither was there any other Reason why I forsook this old smoothly beaten more profitable Road beâ—aking my self to this seldom trodden rugged poor contemptible way at that time but a plain forcible conviction within my self that one was erroneous unsatisfactory full of doubts and perplexities seldom bringing a man to his intended End The other was veriloquos right scientifical performing for the most part what is promised Herein I acquired after some labour a satisfactory notion of things with a sweet content far surpassing any Pecuniary Reward so that I
dissolution is made of stubborn Concretions obstructing the passages endangering the loss of vital functions I in no wise subscribe For seeing Grumosities or Coagulations are for the most part contracted either in the Capillary vessels seldomer in the greater unless the poison be graduated or out of them procured by an acid or malignant cause I cannot understand how this depromption of the fluid juice should so set in motion what is condensed in either of the foresaid places that thereby a dissolution can be made thereof much less can abolish the Renet-like or venomous cause Certainly were there not a wilful fallacy in mens judgments they would easily perceive how the greater quantity of the spirituous subtil liquid part is deducted the more contumacious to remove must needs be the vapid gross tenacious left behind and the Archeus made more unable to resist the pungitive curdling malignity And although Apoplectical strangulated persons seem to receive benefit by sanguimission from a strange unwelcome alteration suddenly made which rouses up the Archeus to exert its ultimate power to blow up the spark of life Nam Animi Actiones incidente aliqua occasione fortius agunt presertim in Morituris saith Duretus The soul upon a stress acts most vigorously as is observed in those nigh death Notwithstanding this Alarum is but given to the sentinel of life by this puncture to do something if possible upon the apprehension of its loss for the profligation of the enemy now lodging in its Territories All this while not one jot of the specifick venom or acid Latex thickning the bloud and spirits making them Rigid and immoveable is touched to any purpose Where as a single design to relieve this syderated or suffocated Patient were to give him if he can swallow down medicines which have a Leptomerie in them such as Sal. Tart. Volo and other highly exalted sulphureous Alexipharmaca which have an influential faculty can permeate into all parts quicken the Archeus absterge incide and dissolve whatsoever grumous spurious or congealed matter they meet with and to counterpoise any thing virulent If any ingenious man still continue to be after all these weighty Arguments against bleeding of astaggering mind whether he should assent to what I have alledged against it I shall only request such an one to accompany me in the visiting those Patients who are very Plethorick Cacochymick afflicted with a scorching heat the Pleurisie Squinzie c. and to take notice of my Prognosticks and Therapeuticks i. e. how I cure such according to the verity of my predictions without the sharp iron for the confutation of the sanguineous evacuation supposed to be ordained for depuration Refrigeration Revulsion and dissolution of any Grumosity or unkindly Concretions If I do not convince him if he be candidly inclined to know that our Chymical method is the best let my mouth be for ever hereafter stopped from uttering the least syllable in derogation of the Galenical process I hope likewise whosoever takes up Pen to defend the contrary by his conceited Theory will not think much if I justly put him to the trial of practice for the confirmation of what he writes otherwise I suppose he will be censured to do me wrong by all truly vertuous persons as for others I value them not sith I never expect right from such Wherefore dear ingenious Country-men whose Welbeing I exceedingly tender let no cunning Sophister work upon you by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasive terms of Rhetorick that Phlebotomy is Aequivalent with the best Remedies for the Correction of the impurity of the bloud But give ear to my Counsel following observing this method when at any time ye find your health impaired and the juices of the body revolted from their good state have special care to regulate the stomach whose Archeus Ferments and digestion are president over all the rest In this principal part are sowed the seeds of sanity and infirmity here are the Idaea's of valetude and invaletude chiefly pourtraied although all the membranes as the Womb Dura Pia Mater c. have according to Helmont Admirandas Potestates admirable faculties inherent in them yet this surpasses claiming Soveraignty over them all and their Contents insomuch as Catharticks Diaphoreticks Diureticks Apostethicks and whatsoever carrys off by the Haemorrhoidal or uterine vessels must first be approved here if they be properly effectual to bring to pass the end intended Wherefore the direct means to make all excretions of noxious matter in general successful is to begin with this Noble Ventricle to cleanse away whatsoever impurity is already contained in it or is Anarrhopon flows in thither from other parts which is chiefly to be performed Per Emesimvel Ptysim by vomiting or spitting if nature be so pleased to throw it off this way if not let it be such an Emetick which may square with the Genius or inclination of the Archeus to carry the morbifick matter through what sluce it pleases without damnifying or making any ill impression on the stomach Because I see great errours frequently committed by Galeno-Chymists in the oblation of vomitive medicines iâ—somuch as they become scandalous to many not enduring to hear the very name mentioned I am forced to tell them plainly they neither know how to prepare dextrously an Emetick which can humour and comply with nature neither if they had it could they tell how to use it as long as they still tie themselves up so strictly to their obsolete method 'T is not Squils infusion of Crocus-metal or other crude uncorrected Antimonial Mercurial Manufacture of the shops I mean when I commend a vomit In no wise But 1. 'T is as I have elsewhere characterized it So friendly to this tender membrane that if it chance not to purge up-ward or down-ward yet doth it operate other ways profitably without leaving any mark of virulency behind 2. Next it carrys off electively what it finds bad not perverting any thing good 3. It keeps up the vital spirits exciting illuminating corroborating them to exclude whatsoever infests them 4. It profligates excrements every way from the center to circumference as well as in a direct line 5. It resists malignity dulcifies acidities reforms the ferments pro Modulo according to the sphear of its activity The ice being thus far broken the Kitchin being in part made clean a door is set open for the mundifying the other Rooms wherein lodge the vital juices defiled with the mixture of divers alienated Liquors dross and filth Here urinous and acid spirits rightly provided and duly administred carry a great stroak not suffering the Physician to be ashamed of what he undertakes Yet note I intend not the Seplasiarie spirits made more for lucre than Cure these indeed may be put in practice and thought to be sufficient by a formal prescriber but certainly can never satisfie a sincere inquisitive Chymist who knows they can never execute great things unless they be corrected and advanced to a sublime