Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	body_n	motion_n	nerve_n	1,652	5	10.7938	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62495	The English remedy, or, Talbor's wonderful secret for cureing of agues and feavers sold by the author Sir Robert Talbor to the Most Christian King, and since his death ordered by His Majesty to be published in French for the benefit of his subjects ; and now translated into English for publick good.	Blégny, Monsieur de (Nicolas), 1652-1722.; Talbor, Robert, Sir, 1642-1681.	1682 (1682)	Wing T111; ESTC R26272	26,144	122

I would have it observed in the first place that the continual emission of Animal Spirits into all the Nerves and by consequence into those that constitute the organs of the senses producing that state of Body which we call being awake and wherein the Body is capable of all the Functions that depend on the Will the dissipation of the same Spirits and every thing that hinders their passage are the causes or sleep which may be defined a disposition wherein the external senses are so dulled that they are incapable of the perceptions which they give to the mind and wherein all the other parts of the Body are weakned relaxated and improper for those voluntary actions to which Nature hath destin'd them 〈◊〉 for such never sleep sound who have their eyes open speak walk or perform those functions asleep which seem to depend on the Will since they suppose the swelling strength and in a word the motion of the Nerves which can only be referred to the motion of the Spirits wherewith they are then possessed This being supposed it will not be hard to conceive why one falls naturally asleep after Labour and Travel and after long Watching for seeing those things dissipate many Spirits they are at length too few to fill all the Nerves to support the Body and to render it fit for sansation and motion insomuch that it necessarily remains as without motion and sense until the Blood being depurated and subtilized by its continual circulation discharges into the Brain a sufficient quantity of Spirits to make up the loss of the former dissipation With the same facility may be given the reason of dullness which is so common during the digestion of Victuals for seeing that cannot be performed without the elevation of Vapours into the Brain which entangle the Spirits and make a kind of obstruction in the Orifices of the Nerves it is no wonder if the extremities of the Body droop and be weak and dull since they cannot be strong and proper for action unless they have a continual and abundant supply of Spirits This last Observation will be very useful to confirm the explication that I have given of sleep which is procured by Opium seeing its Volatile and Vaporous parts are much more powerful than those that proceed from the digestion of Victuals whether for fixing of the humours and spirits or for obstructing the Nerves by which they are distributed through all the parts of the Body Since then Opium procures sleep by the power that it hath to stop the Spirits in the Brain it necessarily follows that it must asswage pain suspend preternatural evacuations and stop all kinds of Vapours seeing these indispositions depend naturally upon the Fermentation of the Juyce and that the Spirits flowing no more towards the part where it happens it must of necessity diminish as the Spirits that are contained in the fermented matter are dissipated and wholly cease when the same Spirits are entirely dispersed because there comes no new supplies and the substances that are destitute of the same ferment no more as experience confirms in the matters of cold abscesses and painless tumors Though this explanation of the effects of Opium be very plain yet it makes it evidently enough appear why it is so great a relief in watchings frensie inveterate and contumacious pains of the Head Gonvulsions Asthma's Coughs loss of Blood Dissenteries Colicks Fluxes and Loosness Gonorheas and generally in all Diseases which are caused and continued by sharp corrupt and fermentative Juyces Furthermore when Opium is prepared with Aromatick and Cordial Medicines it is called Laudanum this Preparation is made with design to correct its imaginary coldness and is therefore needless It may be given then in substance without any scruple or ceremony unless one had rather prepare it according to the advice of the Poor Mans Physician which consists in drying of it well that the impure Sulphers may exhale and then dissolving it in rose Vinegar to Cure it of its bad smell and lessen its Volatility but it s best Preparation is barely to dissolve it in the spirit of Wine that it may be given by way of a Tincture as the English Physitian used to do and is very convenient Opiats have drawn their general Name from Opium and I cannot tell why they have given the Name of Confection to Orvietan Treacle and Mithridate whereof it is an Ingredient and on the contrary have given that of Opium to many Compositions into which it enters not for it is certainly the most efficacious of all Antidotes and I have observed by experience that Venice Treacle is only more excellent than others because it contains Opium in a greater quantity It is said that if it were pure and without all falsification it would cause blindness but to prevent that there is no more required than only to give it in the necessary Dose for the effect which we expect from it besides the Dose wherein we give that which is brought to us being always proportionable to that I have been speaking of it would follow that that accident should happen to those to whom it is given if it were true that it is capable to cause it To conclude they who pretend that it ought to be ranked among Poysons should confess that it kills not but when a bad use is made of it and that so there is no more Poyson in it than in the best Medicines and I dare be bold to say that our very Food of which Bread is he most innocent being taken without measure may cause a Surfeit and Mortal Suffocation FINIS

Powder for there are some Droguists that infuse it entire and having by that means extracted the first Tincture out of it for their own advantage sell it afterward at the same rate as if it had not lost his chief virtue Hitherto the price of Quinquina or Jesuits Powder hath been very various and uncertain When it was only in the hands of the Jesuits it was sold at Rome and Paris for Eight or Nine Shillings Sterling the Dose which consisted only of Two Drachms but so soon as Droguists began to Trade in it it began to fall in Price so that Three or Four Years ago the best might have been had for about Forty Shillings the Pound weight but no sooner began the English Remedy to be in vogue but men began every where to make Experiments with the Bark of Peru which much enhansed the value of it yet that was not all which raised it to the highest price for Sir Robert Talbot observing that Febrifuges were prepar'd which came very near his own and fearing least some body at length might discover it resolved to buy up all the Quinquina that he could find at Paris and the other chief Towns of France and of England also The execution of this Design making some noise several Physitians Chirurgeons and Apothecaries thought it concerned them to make all hast to provide themselves and some that they might not be wanting in Precaution caused a considerable quantity of the Bark to be brought from Roan and Bourdeaux so that Mr. Audry and Mr. Vilain the two most famous Droguists in Paris having Sold all they had at the Rate of about Fifteen Pound the pound-weight and not being able to procure any more from any place for above a Fortnight there was not a bit to be had at any Droguist's shop in Paris nevertheless some small quantity came at length but it was held up so dear that it was like to have gone off at the rate of an Hundred Crowns the pound-weight since that time the Merchants having imported much from Spain and Portugal and the English Remedy having lost the Advantages of the Mode the price of that Commodity hath fallen daily in so much that at present it does not yield above Four or Five Pound the pound-weight and I make no doubt but that in a short time a Fleet from the West-Indies will make it much cheaper Amongst the Authors whom I have named there are some who endeavouring to explain the properties of Quinquina or the Jesuits Powder according to the principles of the ancient Medicine think it enough to say that it is hot and dry in the beginning of the Second Degree and some others of the number of those who have introduced bad Principles into the New-Philosophy think to mend the matter by saying That Quinquina as an Alkali stops the motion of the acid which occasions the Feaver but that is to illustrate one obscurity by others that are far more obscure That we may give the World somewhat more satisfactory as to that point we must in the first place with Willis take our measures from Experience and allow with him That all things which are actually bitter have great virtue in sifting preternatural fermentations and upon that account it was that the Root of Gentian was heretofore in so great reputation for curing of Quartan Agues and that the Flowers of the lesser Cantaury the Root of Contrayerva and Serpentaria the leaves of Wormwood and Chervil Scammony and many other bitter Drogues are really Febrifuges though in virtue far inferior to the Jesuits Powder Having laid down this from undoubted Truth we must now enquire into the Natural Causes which produce Bitterness in mixt bodies now supposing as it is reasonable we should that the true Elements of Bodies are acid liquid fiery etherean and terrestrial corpuscles it will be a very easie matter to discover those Causes for seeing all bitter things penetrate the Tongue in such a manner that they leave therein a sense of their action for a long time after and that of all the elements none are so proper as acids to produce that effect we must conclude that they are predominant in mixts which have that tast but also since being mingled with many liquid corpuscles they produce only sharp and corroding liquors as the spirits of Salt Vitriol Alum c. that being joyned to fiery corpuscles they make only Causticks as corrosive sublimat the spirit of Nitre cauteres c. and that being in intimate conjunction with Sulphurous and Oily Particles they only produce sweet mixts as Honey Sugar c. It follows that none but terrestrial corpuscles mingled with them in a proportionable quantity can produce a bitter tast and in effect the more of Earth there is in Salt the bitterer it is and on the contrary the more it is refined and depurated the less bitter it is thus Sea Salt dissolved in a moist Air and afterward filtrated through brown paper has no other tast than of an acid spirit though before that dissolution and filtration it was considerably bitter Now since among the Elements that I have named the acid is heaviest and by consequence the coldest and that though the terrestrial be not so heavy as it nor yet as the liquid yet it is more ponderous than the fiery and ethereal we may say that it is temperat I mean of a quality equally distant from the two extreams and that so being with the acid predominant in a mixt body the mixt must certainly be cooling or at least proper to preserve the just temperament of our body But because there are no bitter things made up solely of acid and terrestrial corpuscles and that there are some wherein either the fiery the ethereal or liquid particles are likewise in a considerable quantity so there are some more or less bitter and even more or less cooling and temperate but if we mind the dryness of Quinquina and yet how unapt it is to take fire it will not be hard to conclude That the three Elements which I have named last enter but in a very small quantity into the composition thereof and that by consequence amongst all bittter mixts none can be of a more temperate quality than it From the Principle which I have now laid down concerning the nature of Quinquina all the other properties thereof may be deduced for seeing its predominant parts are the acids whose property is to coagulate the more substantial liquors such as Blood Milk c. and the terrestrial which by absorbing the humidity and unctuosity that relaxates the solid parts does bind and strengthen them of necessity it must be stiptick and astringent and it is in effect in these two qualities principally that the rarity and wonderfulness of its operation does consist as I have made appear in former observations But it is not to be thought as some have imagined that this property of binding renders it so fixative as to keep within the febrifick