the Knife or Razor must be thrice repeated The first Cut separates the finger in the last joint from the metacarpus the second and third takes off the Septum Digitorum on either side of the finger In this operation thrice repeated something carnous or membranous may remain untouched by the Knife and may render the operation more difficult and tedious Now I considering these things contrived an Instrument whereby the finger may be cut off in the last joint together with the Septum on either side at one blow and it is a very sharp and winged Knife whose hind part is semicircular and of a bigness proportionable to the finger to be cut off And though before I disapproved of this way of chopping off Limbs yet in this case because it cannot otherwise be well done Idem of two evils we must chuse the less XXVII A Hand affected with a Cancer not exulcerated is cut off in a sound place that is at the heads of the radius and ulna towards the Wrist But we must take notice to the end the bloud yet infected which the adjoining Vessels contain may run out for being retained it might affect the Arm that neither the Arm must be tied with a rowler above the place of Incision nor must the softer parts be cut with a red hot Knife Scultetus which Barbarians call Cauterium cultellare Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. I have often seen this Cataplasm used with desired success in stopping of a Gangrene Take of Meal of Beans Lupines each 4 ounces Juice of Rue 2 ounces or Powder of Rue 3 ounces Oxymel simplex 6 ounces Lie what is sufficient Sometimes he adds powder of Scordium Mix them Crato Make a Cataplasm 2. Spirit of Salt rightly prepared applied to outward Gangrenes and Ulcers is a high Narcotick Remedy without any pain ¶ All the care consists in the efficacy and virtue of Spirit of Salt for the Salt being saturated with this Liquour and dried is reduced to its natural temper which every one may see by experience for every sharp and biting Salt if it be dissolved in Spirit of Salt Faber is reduced to a wonderfull sweetness 3. Vnguentum Aegyptiacum is a most excellent and principal Remedy for a Gangrene Gul. Fabricius it separates the dead flesh from the live and breeds a laudable Eschar 4. In the cure of a Gangrene after the Eschar is removed if not onely Medicines but the very Air cause intolerable pain this following is very familiar with me I take Ointment of Betony made of the juice to which I either add Oil of Sweet Almonds if there be no inflammation or if there be one as there often is I mix Oil of Roses or Yelks of Eggs and I have never yet found any thing better ¶ Scordium bruised or the juice of it is excellent For experience shews Hieron Fabricius that dead bodies are preserved from putrefaction if they either be stuffed with it or wrapt in it 5. Take of Colts-foot 1 handfull and an half Melilot Mullein Dwarf-Elder each half an handfull Frankincense Litharge each 2 drachms and an half Mastick Myrrh each 1 drachm and an half crude Alume 2 drachms Mix them for a Decoction Grombs When a Gangrene is feared in a Dropsie 6. Let the part affected be washed with Spirit of Wine Camphorate than which I think nothing is more proper for hindring the mortification of any part Hartman 7. I remember one was perfectly cured of a Gangrene in his thigh after rotten Apples bruised had been applied in form of a Cataplasm without the liquour S. Pauli once or twice 8. To bring a place to its natural colour again Vnguentum Aegyptiacum dissolved in Aqua vitae is most excellent Ranchinus 9. I order the scarified places to be moistned with Spirit of Sulphur where the flesh was mortified then I order all the Arm to be fomented with Spirit of Wine hot wherein Powder of Aloes and Myrrh were infused then Powder of Aloes and Myrrh were strewed on the Arm in great quantity and upon the Powder linen cloths wet in Spirit of Wine were applied which Remedy being used a few hours the Arm returned to its colour to a miracle the swelling abated and the Gangrene was stopt Riverius 10. Take of Cow's dung 1 pound Oil of Roses 4 ounces Vinegar 3 ounces Saffron half a scruple Mix them Make a Plaster which must be applied hot every three hours J Dav. Rulandu◠I know by experience it certainly cleanses and cures a Gangrene 11. To prevent a Gangrene Sir Theodore de Mayerne of England used this following successfully applied warm with cloths dipt in it Take of the strongest Vinegar red Wine Spring-water each a like quantity Litharge of Gold well beaten 8 ounces Roche Alume Sea Salt each 2 ounces Gum Arabick Myrrh each 1 ounce Olibanum Mastick each two ounces When the Liquours are mixt put in the Litharge let them boil stirring them continually then add the Salt and Alume then the Gum Arabick Phil. Jac. Sachsius and last of all the Powders boil them to a consumption of a fourth part 12. If it will not give way to gentle Medicines we must use strong ones Take of Mercury what you please dissolve it in Aqua fortis when it is dissolved add to it of Sal Saturni and Vnguentum Rosatum Camphoratum what is sufficient Make an Unguent ¶ This Liquour is very good if cloths be dipt in it and applied It was successfully used in a Gangrene of the Scrotum Take of Vitriol 1 ounce tops of Oak 1 handfull Frankincense 1 ounce Camphire two drachms Sennertus Wine 2 pounds and an half Boil about a third away 13. The Juice of the Herb Alexanders in Unguents stops Gangrenes wonderfully Turnheusetus It is a Secret 14. Salt of Soot is made thus Let Soot be powdered as fine as flower dissolve it in Vinegar let it settle to the bottom of the Vessel separate the Vinegar and dissolve it in other Vinegar continuing it so five times and you will find a Salt which if it be put in a moist place will melt and make a most excellent Oil for Gangrenes and malignant Ulcers Joh. Vigierius Ganglion or A glandulous Swelling The Contents We must have a care how we cut a Ganglion or Lupia I. It must not be brought to Suppuration II. The old and new way of Cure III. I. IF a Ganglion will not yield to Medicines it must be cut out with a Knife unless it be in the hands or in the feet or there be danger of Nerves Veins or Arteries wherewith sometimes it is implicated A Lupia also must be cut out as a Gland like as we did a few days agone near the Jugulars Chalmetaeus with good success II. A Ganglion sometimes when it is deeply radicated hinders the motion of some joint therefore some course must be taken with it betimes
by stool their drinking it did them no good But they that kept it three hours and then voided it not by stool but by urine it did them much good Whence I gather that unless the Water pass by the Veins it does no good for Spitting of bloud nor preserves from a Consumption And that it may pass by the Veins it is required that it pass not presently Fallopius XVI That the aperture of the Vessel may be closed Astringent and agglutinant Medicines are very proper The chief of these is usually given in form of a Linctus so that in swallowing them some particles of them may fall upon the aspera-Arteria and more immediately communicate their virtue to the part affected But this way of energy seems not to be of much moment because the efficacy of these Medicines does especially and in a manner onely reach the seat of the Disease by the communication of the bloud Wherefore not onely Eclegmata but also Decoctions Powders and Pills of Traumaticks and Balsamicks are beneficially prescribed Willis XVII In Spitting of bloud and in those Diseases where we want astriction and strengthning spirituous attenuant aperient and sharp things are suspected But incrassating and earthy things which do not consist in the spirituous part but in the very matter and corporeal substance seem necessary Wherefore if Corals doe any good in such cases they doe it by their earthy corporeity whereby they moderately cool and astringe and perhaps moreover by some occult quality which yet without doubt adheres to the whole substance Entire and substantial Medicines if you separate them from their proper body do often put on an aliene and far different body and so what before did good Fr. Ign. Theirmuir cons 4. lib. 2. do now cease to doe good or even begin to doe harm XVIII Hence we may give a judgment of Tincture of Corals in which Artists in Chymistry think that virtue is eâ—â—inently vigorous which is attributed to the whole Coral that is while the pure being separated from the impure and its dregs does far more easily exert its virtues Now Dioscorides l. 5. c. 97. assigns to it a virtue moderately astringent cooling and of great efficacy against Bleedings But concerning its Tincture hear Ph. Grulingius his opinion in suo Florileg Hipp. c. par 19. c. 3. In the preparation of Coral Pearl and pretious Stones let every one have a care he be not deceived and reckon he has the true Tincture when he has onely a false and aliene one or that he has obtained the menstruum For there are some Tinctures as of lapis Lazuli which in redness may vye with Tincture of Corals And there are some menstrua that grow red of themselves Thus some do not blush to give Spirit of Vitriol tinged with red Roses for the coralline Tincture Although therefore the Tincture of Corals so called often have a colour red enough and the Coral be left in the bottom white yet it acquires this colour either from the Salt of the Vinegar as Sennertus will have it or from the sulphureous part of this Salt which easily joins it self with the Spirit of Wine by reason of its cognation as appears in the Tincture of Salt of Tartar or by long Digestion by benefit whereof many menstrua grow red and the Corals which after extraction appear white do in a little while after receive their red colour nor had they lost their inner colour yea the same Tincture may be made of white Coral and Crabs-eyes with the like menstrua It must be observed besides that in the common solutions of Corals Spirit of Honey is taken for the menstruum which by its acrimony dissolves Gold a little Therefore I cannot see how this coralline Liquour whatever it be or any other like it consisting of Spirit of Wine Salt of Tartar Vinegar and the like can doe good For for the most part they answer not the intentions they do not contemper nor astringe nor consolidate nor stop bloud but they make thin the humours sharpen open and now and then taken largely and inconsiderately they inflame cause thirst and by their acrimony do not a little offend the parts which they immediately touch You may add to all the mischievous avarice of the Apothecaries who to increase their Tincture of Corals mix the Corals with Sugar in a Frying-pan and rost them to redness then by digestion they dissolve them in some menstruum and draw not so much a Tincture of Corals as of rosted Sugar Idem ibid. XIX Bloud is stopt by Scaliger and Heurnius their Powder the Ingredients whereof are Seed of white Popy white Henbane and Bloud-stone But the use of it must not be long continued Frid. Hofmannus m. m. l. 1. c. 21. because of the Henbane-seed which is very hurtfull XX. Some as on experience do recommend Nettle-juice in the morning for several days But there are not a few things which render the truth of this suspected by me and though the kind of which there are several be not determined I believe it is the common stinging Nettle that is meant But 1. This is of very subtile parts and of a digesting nature wherefore according to Dioscorides it opens moves Urine and egregiously forces Women's obstructed menses 2. Taken inwardly it is of a sharp abstersive titillating quality 3. The Seed is in frequent use for raising of thick and viscid humours yea even of Pus in an Empyema of the Breast 4. It and its Seed according to Galen has some flatulency in it and is said to stimulate Venus If the Nettle therefore be of such subtile parts as to open force the menses and urine by titillation to give a stool by its sharp flatulency to provoke lust and if the Seed for its excessive heat be reckoned among eroding things how can the drinking of 4 ounces of the Juice for several days one after another doe good in this case But I think it is good for haemoptoïck and empyematick persons namely that the extravasated bloud coagulated in the Breast of them that have been long ill or turned into pus may be timely deterged and expectorated Wherefore I cannot say it is probable that the Juice of Stinging-nettle does good in the beginning for Spitting of bloud Tâ—iermair ubi supra as a peculiar Remedy that stops bloud XXI In other cases Linseed-oil is commended to be of great virtue as in a Peripneumony Phthisick Colick but especially in a Pleurisie according to Gesner 1. Ep. 49. I saith he have several times experienced that there is nothing better in these pleuritick Pains than to drink Linseed-oil and this presently eased respiration and promoted spitting Therefore it is carefully saved among us clarified in the Sun which clarifying is better than that which is made by lixivium or a rosted Onyon By anointing their Belly therewith or by covering it with a linen cloth wet in it they make the Belly loose but I
acid Humour appears from this If the Ail be alleviated by taking Acids Melancholick persons who have a good stomach after the use of Acids seldom recover We amend the loss of Appetite that depends upon some fault in the acid Humour with Acids and we see that Acids are good almost for all Diseases but those of the Breast Spirit of Vitriol is qualified by a mixture of Sulphur Vineger is good and Oranges and Lemons but people often take too much and then they fall into gnawing of the Stomach and much spitting a little Sugar qualifies them The season for giving them is in the state of Declination before Dinner not before Supper lest when their Appetite is raised they eat over-much and so be not able to bear the Assault of the Disease which is always more violent toward night nor to digest your Food the Seeds of Citrons and Oranges may both be eaten because of their Cordial Virtue The loss of Appetite which arises from decay of strength is seldom cured unless that Decay come of a cold Cause then hot and Aromatick things are proper In old Men that through weakness have lost their Appetite Valaeus m. m. p. 145. hot things are not so good inwardly as outwardly For taken inwardly in dry Bodies they create greater dryness Outwardly Oil of Mace is good and a Tost of Bread dipt in Malmsey Wine II. Rondeletius Pract. lib. 2. cap. 14. In all Loss of Appetite let the Food be given actually cold and if possible let it be set before the Patient when he is not aware of it Let such use bread well baked or a good while dried in the Air or dry Cakes well fermented and not too close III. When any one complains he never comes to his Meat with an Appetite it is advisable to make him fast till he have a stomach Vallesius 6. Epid. s 4. for starving breeds Appetite So when a Man cannot get sleep if he be forced to wake and nod standing before he be suffered to ly down he usually falls into a long and profound sleep IV. Want of Appetite in Women not with Child is cured better by Purging than Letting of Bloud for it arises of bad humours abounding in the Stomach and the whole Body In Women with Child bloud-letting is the better Cure Riverius for it is caused by retention of bloud while they are first breeding V. Because Choler dejects the Appetite by its heat to cleanse the stomach a Decoction of Tamarinds soure Prunes and Sebesten with syrup of Roses and Rheubarb should be given The morrow following this Medicine two hours before Meal let them drink a draught of cold water Rondeletius l. c. unless weakness of the stomach or something else do hinder Let them use soure Sauces and they may take a Tast of Salt things VI. But if Phlegm be the Cause after Evacuation it is best to give Acids but with detersive and salt things for what sweet things are detersive they satiate and are flatulent wherefore they are not good in this case unless a great deal of Vineger be added Idem so as they may scarce be perceived to be sweet VII For raising the Appetite Sylv. de le Boe Prax. Med. Append Tract 3. Sect. 210. which is often dejected in Consumptive Persons I think there is no better Remedy known as yet than Elixir Proprietatis if 4 or 5 drops of it be taken in Wine or some other convenient Liquor about half an hour before Meal VIII Sometimes I have known the Appetite recover of its own accord But that falls out for the most part either because of an exact Diet which sometime is rightly observed even by chance or of some notable Evacuations or Alterations that are spontaneous For when the noxious humours are conquered and amended or evacuated Idem Prax Med. Appen Tract 10. Sect. 739. the usefull and necessary ones by degrees recover their lost strength and then exert it Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians Petr. Fotest l. 18. Obs 8. 1. I steeped for a night some Leaves of Roman Wormwood and a Root or two of Dandelion a little bruised in Rhenish-Wine In the morning I strained out the Wine and gave it my Patient and which is wonderfull he voided a dead Worm and a living one and his stomach increased to a wonder 2. Peaches eaten before Meals get a stomach if it be lost through a hot cause Syrup of Peaches may be thus made Take of the Juice of Peaches scarce ripe 4 Pounds boil half away let the dregs settle then add of Pomegranate juice 6 ounces Sugar and a little red Sanders as much as sufficeth make a Syrup Idem Obs 9. The Dose 2 ounces morning and evening two hours before Meal If you want Peaches you may use Juice of foure Apples Fred. Hofman Meth. Med. p. 319. 3. In the loss of Appetite through weakness of stomach in the declination of a Disease Amber from 1 grain to 5 mixt with Faecula Ari is a specifick Also Ivory calcined without fire is very good 4. The best thing and which raises an Appetite above all others is Antidotus Thespesiana thus described by Galen Take of Smallage-seed 1 ounce and an half Myrrh Anniseed Opium each 6 drachms white Pepper 5 drachms Parsly Spikenard long Pepper each half an ounce Eusta Rud. Art Med. l. 2. c. 12. Castor Flowers of Juncus Odoratus Saffron each 3 drachms Cinnamon 2 drachms Cassia lignea half an ounce Mix them with boiled Honey make an Electuary Take about the quantity of an Hazle nut when you go to bed with 4 ounces of Water River prax Med. l. 9. c. 1. 5. Balsam of Peru is an excellent Remedy for this if some drops of it be given in Hippocras-Wine or some other an hour or two before Meal Diseases of the Anus The Contents The Way of putting it up when fallen I. We must abstain from too much Astringents II. We must spare the Sphincter in Curing the Fistula III. The Cure of the Condylomata by pricking IV. The Cure of the crested Haemorrhoids by Excision V. Medicines I. I Will propose a Way of Cure which at first sight will look ridiculous but what is of great use in the falling out of the Arse-gut Slap the Buttocks of your Patient with your flat hand five or six times or oftner that the Muscles Ani Levatores may immediately draw up the Intestinum rectum into its place Barbette Chirurgiae cap. 9. But before you thus beat your Patient it is requisite you anoint the Intestinum rectum with oil of Roses and Myrtle II. In curing the falling out of the Arse-gut you must abstain from too much Astringents lest by making the Body Costive and therefore causing greater straining Platerus you rather promote than hinder the falling of it out III. Riolanus Anthropogr lib. 2. reprehends almost all modern Surgeons in curing Fistula's which are very often bred in Ano
for when two rough bodies rub one against the other they wear Hither belong the Lapis Spongiae Lyncis powder of burnt Eggshells c. Some do reject the use of such things because it is scarce likely they should break the Stone in the Bladder and not hurt the intermediate parts But we must observe that such things are not given whole but reduced into subtile powder yea dissolved and reduced into Magisteries where their efficacy does as much depend upon their Saline Spirit which gets into the Stone and dissolves it into Atomes just as Metals and Minerals are dissolved in Aqua sortis and Coral Pearl and the like in Vinegar For which reason the use of such Medicines should not be neglected Sennertus III. All things premised that should be premised we must of necessity come to some effectual Diuretick that may be able not onely to cleanse and wash the Reins but to run to the Bladder also that it may make the Stone to move and swim as it were in the hollow thereof that so it may more easily come to the neck and either be forced out or taken out with an Instrument by a skilfull Chirurgeon Neither let Avicenna nor the advice of almost all Physicians deter you from this work because forsooth the use of Diureticks must wholly be avoided in the Stone of the Bladder by reason they deprive it of its mucilaginous coat and therefore may cause more cruel and bitter Pains Indeed the Objection might have place if the Debate were about prevention which requires diversion from the Bladder but while we are treating of the Cure that is of discharging a Stone that is as yet but small Diureticks Fortis consult 13. centur 4. yea the stronger sort are requisite before it be so large that it can get no more into the Neck of the Bladder much less pass the Vrethra IV. Some are of opinion and that not without reason that the Stone may be broken with liquours injected by a Catheter into the Bladder For seeing these liquours are nothing altered nor lose any thing of their virtue in their passage as Medicines which are taken at the mouth do but that they reach the Stone in the Bladder they may exert their whole virtue upon it You may try the virtue of such liquours without the Body of Man upon some Stone that hath been cut out or voided from the Bladder Cardan requires these Conditions in such Waters that they break the Stone and doe no harm to the Bladder And he commends a Water made of the Ashes of Scorpions Parsly Roots of Butchers-broom Crabs-eyes Pigeons-dung Pellitory of the Wall and he had rather have it made of many things mixt together than of one Simple Sennertus ¶ Rolfinccius cons 3. l. 9. intimates that they are Cheats who boast of any thing they have done by injection with a Siphon ¶ Zecchius judges such Injections are to no purpose V. I knew a person that was for a whole year and a half treated by his Physicians as one that had the Stone because he had the Pathognomick signs a Weight or Load about the Pubes Strangury Disury Falling out of the Arse-gut Itching of the Glans c. He takes a Journey into France intending to commit himself to a Lithotomist Ph. Salmuth cent 1. observ 25. When he had been at Paris two months and drunk strong Wine in the third month and for forty weeks he voided by Urine a great deal of clayish matter And from that time he was very well nor felt he the least of it any more onely he ever after used a Diuretick drink i. e. small Wines Riolanus Anthropogr lib. 2. c. 24. VI. A bad conformation of the Bladder is very rare yet it may be and you must carefully observe in searching for the Stone if when all the Pathognomick signs are there you cannot find it with your Catheter For in some a double Bladder hath been found in others it hath been divided by a Membranous Partition VII We are often deceived by the Likeness of the Stone Scholiagr od l. 1. c. 50. Holler as in a Nobleman who after he had been tormented with his Urine eight months the Physicians and Chirurgeons doubting whether there was not a Stone having used Medicines to no purpose was cut for the Stone as Lithotomists use to doe He was eased of his pain yet they found no Stone but Flesh in the Neck of his Bladder which by degrees was consumed with convenient Medicines VIII Within the Vrethra upon the Caruncle that closes the Extremities of the Vasa ejacuiantia you will find a thin Membrane circumtended like a Valve at the orifice of the Neck of the Bladder which hinders the reflux of the seminal humour into the Bladder and that no drops of Seed hang about those places You must have a care when you put in your Probe that this Membrane be not torn for it is easily broke by putting a Catheter into the Bladder Riolanus Anthrâ—poâ—r lib. 2. cap. 28. or a Wax-candle for the cure of a Carnosity IX When a Stone grows to the Bladder it is very hurtfull for whether you take it away or leave it you either way kill the Patient I saw an example of such a dangerous Accretion in a dead body whose bladder contained a Stone wrapped in a Membrane and so close knit with Fibres to the coat of the bladder that I could scarce pull it thence without tearing of it ¶ As a Lithotomist was taking the Stone from a poor Wretch he pulled out bladder and all for it was so grown to the Stone by so many and so strong bands that no skill was able to separate it Let Lithotomists here consider how easily the Wax-candle may deceive them and how little they ought to trust to the putting in of an Iron Probe for a resisting Hardness is an infallible token to them that there is a Stone But the Stone wrapt in its coat neither resists the touch nor struck upon gives any sound wherefore they must not trust to these experiments alone but should call other Signs to their assistence But what shall the Lithotomist doe when he hath found such a Stone cut the Vrethra and laid the neck of the bladder open as it should be Shall he take it out or leave it there He must take it if it will come he must leave it if there be reluctancy Nor indeed do all that are inclosed in a coat grow to the bladder but some of them fluctuate freely hither and thither and come out as easily as if they had not been covered with any Membrane at all which I saw in two Women But if the bladder be ill conformed whether for a membranous partition that divides it which C. Bauhinus observed or an Ecphysis sticking to it as in the famous Casaubon or for it s complicated Membranes growing closer to the os pubis than that Section can be made without evident hurt to
with the Yelk of an Egg and cured his Patient Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. I have often used this Unguent for the Canker with good success Take of Vnguent Diapompholyg 3 ounces Venice-Treacle 1 ounce Saturn calcined with Nitre and washed in Plantain-Water 2 ounces G. Fabricius cent 6. obs 7. Juice of Herb Robert as much as sufficeth to the just consistency of an Unguent Keep it for use 2. Hier. Fabricius Chirurg l. 1 p. 1. c. 27. An Unguent of green Frogs is very good for a Canker see the preparation in Sennertus ¶ Also the Broth of Craw-fish boiled in Asses-Milk drunk five days successively and this course repeated seven times composes the pain of a Canker in the Breast 3. There is a Salt made out of the Caput mortuum of the preparation of Spirit of Soot that is a most excellent thing in an Ulcerated Canker This Salt is drawn off with Vinegar and in some cool place is dissolved into a Liquour again and with this Cankrous Ulcers are several times anointed Joh. Hartmannus prax chym p. 18. The poison is drawn out visibly like a steam Then the Oil of Soot gently sprinkled upon it and frequently brings a crust over it like a skin which falling off in five or six days time shews that the Ulcer is healed 4. Fabricius asserts from certain Experience that the following Water is admirable in curing Ulcerous Cankers It is made thus Take sucking Puppies put them in Wine and distill it half off in Balneo then take the Puppies out and boil them in a sufficient quantity of Golden-Rod-Water or in common Water with Golden-Rod in it when the Decoction is made add the Water that was distilled off the young Dogs and boil them together till the flesh come from the bones De Heredia de morb mul. p. 229. Then distill them all in Balneo Keep the Water for use Wet dry clothes or rags in this and apply it to the Ulcerous Carcinoma For upon certain experience it heals the sore by cleansing and drying I should add in the Decoction Leaves of Burnet Carduus Benedictus and Ash which are commended by all Men for the Canker ¶ This is one Man's Secret Take of Quick-Lime wrought up thick with Honey and burnt to powder in an Earthen Pot and powdered 3 drachms Vitriol Alum Orpiment Verdigrease Sal-Gem each half a drachm Idem p. 240. Make a Powder strow it on and it cures the Canker Peccettus Chirurg l. 1. c. 30. 5. The powder of a Milstone or the Clayey stuff that comes from a Grindstone when you grind Tools upon it applied either by it self or mixt with Oil of Myrtle and with the Juice of Nightshade or Plantain anointed upon the place is good to strengthen it after the cure of the Canker ¶ The Oil of Eggs rubbed in a Leaden Mortar till it grow thick doth operate powerfully in easing the pain Idem ibid. palliating a cure in an Ulcerous Canker 6. The Head of a Puppy a month old cut off and dried and powdered Praevotius med pauper p. 182. Id. p. 100. mixt with Honey and laid on an Ulcerous Canker is said to kill it or wash it with Ivy-water and then lay Ivy-Leaves upon it ¶ Oil of Olives with the Flowers of Wheat gathered in the Spring set in the Sun for several days is good to anoint an Ulcerous Canker A Country fellow did stupendous things with this Phil. Salmuthus obs cent 2. p. 71. 7. Mother of Time black Hellebore Fumitory and things compounded of them as Pilulae de Fumaria Confectio Hamech c. are especially commended for evacuating black Choler ¶ The Fish of boiled Cockles and Crawfish is good to ease the pain But there is an Oil distilled from green Frogs per descensum Idem p. 109. which is excellent both to give ease and cure the Canker ¶ Lead is highly commended by all men Therefore all Medicines for this Disease are most conveniently prepared in a Leaden Mortar with a Leaden Pestil An Ointment of Lead may be made thus if two thick Plates of Lead have Oil of Roses poured on them and rubbed so long one against the other till it acquire the form of a Liniment 8. In a Canker that was not Ulcerous I have often used this Repelling and digesting Medicine Take of old Treacle 1 ounce Vigerius oper chirurg l. 1. c. 25. Juice of Crawfish Lettuce and Oil of Roses each 1 ounce Yelks of Eggs rosted in Embers N o 2. Camphire half a drachm Mix them together in a Leaden Mortar Make an Unguent Capitis affectus in genere Intemperies Or The Diseases of the Head in general its Intemperature The Contents In Diseases of the Head What Vein should be opened I. Of letting Bloud according to the Laws of Circulation II. Whether a Vomit be proper III. Phlegmagogues must be added in every intemperature IV. What time Pills should be given V. They do not purge the Head better than other forms of Medicines VI. In a hot Intemperature we must Purge cautiously VII What Purges must be given in an Intemperature with Melancholy VIII How Sneezers and Apophlegmatisms do work IX Violent Sneezers doe hurt in small diseases X. They are very good in Defluxions XI A powerfull Apophlegmatism XII A cold Intemperature whether from an outward or inward cause how cured XIII Aquae Vitae are not always safe XIV Whether an Issue be proper in the Coronal Suture XV. Patients must not be tired with a multitude of Cauteries XVI In a hot Intemperature whether application of hot things doe good XVII With what cautions the Head must be washed XVIII They are not proper for all men XIX The benefit of Plasters applied to the Nape of the Neck XX. The Benefit and manner of Rubbing XXI Topicks applied to the Heart doe good XXII The Benefit of Plasters to the Feet XXIII Costiveness bad for the Head XXIV Coriander good for the Head XXV Spiced Caps often doe harm XXVI Too hot too cold or too astringent things must not be put in them XXVII They are most proper in essential diseases of the Head XXVIII Medicines I. PHysicians do not all agree what Vein should be opened in diseases of the Head yet it is altogether necessary a distinction should be made and we must take good notice what the Laws of Evacuation from the whole what those of Revulsion and Evacuation from the part affected do require For in the beginning of the Disease we must not have respect onely to the Head but to the whole Body also and to the part whence the flux of Bloud comes and we must so order Bloud-letting that it may doe good and not hurt that is that we may hinder the bloud from running to the Head Therefore in the beginning such a Vein should be opened as may both evacuate the abounding bloud and draw it from the Head but we must by no means in the beginning
of them Anodynes must be used though the green and ill colour of the matter Vomited seem to indicate the contrary For the speculation of Colours is too subtile and minute to be able to give any authority to evacuations which ipso facto we find hurtfull And I do not at all question but this disease which though it cause much pain yet never death oftentimes becomes mortal through errours committed upon this account Besides if one should give a very strong Vomit to day that he may as he thinks get out the matter of the disease the Patient will the next day Vomit matter as green and ill coloured as she did before Yet we must take notice that sometimes such store of bloud and humours is found that it so far hinders the operation of the Narcotick that be it never so often repeated it will never stop their fury except the Patient be first let bloud or purged which I have observed in Women of a more sanguine complexion and in Viragoes If the case stand thus way must be made for the Anodyne by letting bloud or purging or it may be by both For after either of these is done the Narcotick which given in the highest dose before would doe no good will now in a very moderate dose obtain the effect for which it was designed But this thing seldom happens and when it does these remedies must not be repeated Which things being premised we must proceed in giving Anodynes if there be occasion for them in that method which we proposed in the bilious Colick and they must be given more frequently or sparingly according as the pain returns Which method indeed onely respects the present and instant Symptome of most violent pain Sydenham l. c. p. 304. for in this place I have not undertaken to treat of that which opposes the Cause of the Disease Coma Vigil or the waking Lethargy The Contents Narcoticks are given with benefit I. An Idiopathick one must have one cure a Sympathick one must have another II. I. A Waking Lethargy is seldom a Disease of it self but is for the most part a Symptome and follows other Diseases as a Fever Phrensie proper Lethargy and such like Wherefore it requires not a peculiar method of cure onely there seems to be a necessity that other Cephalicks be joined to the remedies primarily indicated which may dispell these Meteors of the Brain like Clouds and Lightning or if both of them together Waking or Sleepiness cannot be removed let the Medicine take part with one of them that being made stronger it may conquer the other so that in a sleepy watchfulness it is convenient to cause either perfect sleep or perfect watchfulness For in this case I have often given Narcoticks with good success Willis II. The Cure of a waking Lethargy that is Idiopathick is performed by the same means whereby a Phrensie and a Lethargy useth to be cured and if it incline more to a Phrensie the remedies for a Phrensie must be most used but if it incline more to a Lethargy then things proper for a Lethargy must be most used But the cure of a Sympathick Coma depends on the cure of the malignant Fever whence it had its original Yet Remedies that make revulsion of those Vapours from the Brain must peculiarly be used in the beginning And if any thing appear to be fixt in the Brain Derivation by opening a Vein in the forehead Riverâ—us or by setting Leeches behind the Ears c. must be endeavoured Combustiones or Burns The Contents Whether the Cure should be performed by Coolers I. A Remedy that heals without any footstep of a Scar. II. Whether the Blisters should be opened presently III. The heat must be extinguished with Internal things IV. Medicines I. SOme according to the thread-bare Axiome of Physicians That Contraries are Remedies of their Contraries think that Burns should be cooled and therefore that Coolers should presently be applied to the burnt-parts but this opinion hath its rise from a false ground namely that Burning is onely Alteration and an Induction of a hot quality when yet the very fire and its Atoms are communicated to the burnt-parts and an Empyreuma as all must confess is brought upon it For what is this Empyreuma but the small particles of the fire which have insinuated themselves into the burnt-part And Experience it self teaches that Burns are not cured with cold things but that by them the fiery particles being repelled inwards the Pain is increased inflammations yea and Gangrene and Mortification is caused whereas hot things that take out the Empyreuma doe good For even the Vulgar know that the burnt places must not be put in cold water but rather held a while to the fire Now Likeness causes attraction and the external fire draws out the internal and what is burnt into the part Sennertus pract l. 5. as Paraeus speaks ¶ If contraction arise from a Burn it will be cured by drawing out and tempering the heat communicated to the part and by altering as well the containing as contained parts vitiated by the fire Fat things draw out the fiery heat as being the true fewel for fire And Oil of Wallnuts and Rapeseed are commended above all other things Acids allayed with a lixivious Salt such as a solution of red or white Lead made in distilled Vinegar For the sharpness of the Vinegar is taken off by the Lead changed into Ceruss or Minium whereupon the Vinegar grows sweet this Vinegar impregnated and edulcorated with the Lead if it be shaked together with some Oil will become a Mixture like an Ointment for the Oil grows thick with the acid Spirit of Vinegar dulcified by the Lead And while this Liniment is applied and the relicks of the fire penetrate the Oil its force is more broken by the Acidity joyned with it And the vitiated parts are corrected and amended of the burning especially by the acid Spirit joyned with the Fat. For seeing the external fire does first of all seize the fatness and oiliness of the parts of the body when that is consumed their Lixivious Salt that used to be tempered with it growssharper the acid Spirit vanishing together with the fat Whence it is manifest both the Oil and acid Spirit must be repaired and restored that the acrimony of the Lixivious Salt may be tempered Now both concur in the said mixture wherein is store of Oil and that tempered with an acid Spirit but refract Whence it is that the retorted Salt does not make any effervescency upon meeting with the acid Spirit because broken but is gently corrected by it and reduced to its former temper And these same things are not onely proper in Burns that cause shrinking Sylvius de le Boë prax Med. l. 2. c. 23. but in all For by these and the like Remedies I have several times cured Burns II. Take Whites of Eggs N o ij Oil of Roses 2 ounces Mix them well then let a
Heaters are requisite And for this reason Cordial Medicines though they be hot must never be neglected in Diseases of the heart II. Without doubt Worms are bred in the heart and in its Caul This Disease is very familiar to Virgins and is known by prickings and pains of the heart and by Worms voided and not voided Convulsion is the Diagnostick Common Cordials whether hot or cold can doe little or nothing in the Cure In the beginning before there be Convulsions Bezoar-Stone may doe something if it be given with Salt of Tansie or of Dittany of Crete or the common from 4 grains to 8. The Specifick Cure is such Let the Worms be first purged away with this Take of Quicksilver purified and then mortified with fasting-spittle or juice of a Lemon about a Scruple Conserve of Roses half an ounce powder of Benzoin 2 grains But if any Man be afraid to take this let him onely infuse 1 drachm or 2 in cold water over night and pour it off next morning and drink it or let him take 2 or 3 ounces of distilled-water of Onions or Garlick for these things if they expell not the Worms kill them at least And when the Worms are voided if the Convulsion-fits return which is a most certain sign of a Worm in the heart let Specifick Extracts be given as of Garlick Horse-radish Water-Cresses of each 1 Scruple in some Broth or Pottage wherein Horse-radish has been steeped before By this method they are quickly cured If extracts be not at hand Hartmannus P. Chrâ—â—iâ—â— c. 111. let a like quantity of all the Juices be mixt together and 2 or 3 spoonfulls be taken every morning And their Salts rightly prepared doe the same thing A Medicine especially made use of by an eminent Physician Take some Juice of Garlick Horse-radish and Water-Cresses give it and the Patient will presently be cured Believe one that has experienced it it is true A GUIDE TO The Practical Physician BOOK IV. Of Diseases beginning with the Letter D. Deglutitio laesa or The Swallowing hurt The Contents The cure of strange things swallowed either sticking in the Oesophagus or got into the Stomach I. The Oesophagus freed from obstruction II. One that could not swallow sustained by Injections in at the Mouth III. The Cure of it hurt by the ulcerated Jaws IV. When a Pipe may be used to get down Food that cannot otherwise pass V. I. WHAT things contrary to nature are swallowed either come into the Stomach or stick in the Oesophagus This is an Instance of the former A Maid eighteen years old as she was eating swallowed a brass Pin with the Point downwards which sticking in the Oesophagus created cruel Pain When she had tried several things and continued a whole year in this Condition the Pin was by my advice thrust into her Stomach with a Shoomaker 's Wax candle thrusting it gently twice or thrice a-day and anointing it first with Oil of sweet Almonds which was done without pain and quickly after it got into the Stomach It has given no more trouble as yet A Woman as she was cheapning goods held a Farthing in her mouth and having forgot it as she was eating a peice of Cake that was offered her she swallowed it before she was aware Then she had a dull pain and Copperish taste in her stomach I being consulted because for some reasons I would not give her a Vomit ordered her constantly to use slippery and fat things and gave her from six to nine drops of rectified Spirit of Salt twice a-day so that by little and little the ill taste was abated and in a while the sad sensation ceased Here it happened as Theophrastus in his Book of Fire speaks pag. 142. That the Stomach melts money And acid Spirits are not so hurtfull to the Stomach but they lessen the weight of Brass and Silver by getting out their Vitriol so that afterwards they may pass the Guts more easily A Boy of twelve years of age swallowed an Imperial Spanish Half-crown that he had in his mouth which stuck in his throat the Chirurgeon tried as much as he could to get it out but all in vain so that he was forced to drive it into his Stomach which being done not without much trouble care was taken of the Oesophagus which was pained and almost wounded by giving Traumaticks and Paregoricks The Patient in the mean time as soon as the money was received into his Stomach was very well onely he had a pain in his throat and swallowed with difficulty nor has he found any trouble to this day the Silver having remained now nine years fixt in its place A Boy three years old when he had put two Links of a brass Chain an inch long in his mouth swallowed them unawares and as they stuck in his throat he roared out for pain but as soon as they were got into his stomach he seemed to all nothing but ate and drank heartily His carefull Parents searched the excrements every day for several weeks but in vain for they found nothing so they certainly concluded they were by little and little wasted in the stomach But the excrements were never observed to recede from their natural state The Boy lives now very well in health A Boy five years old when he had swallowed a leaden Seal that uses to be fastned to Cloth was troubled with grievous pain till it got into his stomach and was cured by giving him distilled Vinegar G. Wolfg. Wedelius Misc cur an 1672. obs 141. whereas at first his Parents were afraid of his life yet nothing of so broad and thick a piece could be observed to be voided but he is now very well And it was the best advice to give him distilled Vinegar because by dissolving the body of Saturn it turned it into Sugar II. One being very hungry was eating a boiled Hog's-foot and a piece of it with the bone stuck in his throat for two days A Chirurgeon turned a long piece of iron Wire like a Hook at the end put it down his throat by the Hook whereof the piece of the foot was caught Riverius cent 3. obs 71. and with main strength drawn out of his throat III. A man being taken with a true Quinsey had the upper orifice of his stomach so close shut with the Inflammation that he could swallow nothing at all While Remedies were using that he might be able to bear plentifull Bloud-letting and other Remedies for reparation of strength a Catheter was put into the Oesophagus and a Syringe fitted to it by which Broths were got into his stomach and Medicines also Idem cent 3. Obs 72. by help whereof he was cured of his Disease IV. One asked my advice saying he was troubled with Wolves in his Nose Flanderkins calls Snot concrete in the Nostrils Wolves which Nurses take out of Children with Pins heads and moreover that he had some pain in his Jaws which reached to the middle
callous However Caution must be used in giving Brine and Causticks with the observation namely of three conditions 1. In full strength Fortis consult 83. cent 2. 2. Not without Narcoticks mixt therewith after Galen's manner 3. That the Clysters be not kept above an hour as Aetius advises XX. Concerning the use of all Clysters we are wont to observe the abundance of their matter in detersive and washing ones the smallness in drying ones mediocrity in tempering ones and shortness of time in Causticks Idem ibid. And then the successive use of them so that a drier may always follow a detersive one and then an Anodyne if pains be urgent XXI This one thing and that of great moment must not be omitted that sometimes dysenterick persons retain their excrements several days both because Pain and Watching Symptomes familiar to this Disease dry extremely and because astringent Medicines which we make use of to stop the Flux render the Belly so costive that the Excrements are retained a long time to the great damage of the Patient although the Belly void bloudy matter often flowing from the Ulcer Zecchius consult 37. which indeed has been observed by no man as yet Wherefore in this case at certain intervals of time we must evacuate downwards either by loosning Clysters or by some gentle Purging Medicine XXII D. Pilonus never cured a Dysentery by Astringents because he observed that all who had it so stopped either relapsed or fell into a Fever or Pleurisie Nor did he use Sudorificks because he thought they increased the heat of the part transmitting and therefore he cured this Disease onely by Lenitives and Bloud-letting Velschius XXIII In a Dysentery from salt phlegm falling from the head we must act cautiously about astringent remedies for when these Dysenteries are protracted beyond fourteen days and more there are not wanting Physicians who think astringent remedies may be safely administred beyond the fourteenth day But they are in a great errour for a Dysentery from salt phlegm may remain as long as the intemperature of the head which breeds the salt phlegm and sends it to the Guts For a year ago I cured two Patients who fell into blear-eyedness and intolerable pains of their joints upon the unseasonable use of an astringent remedy administred in a Dysentery from salt phlegm Therefore in this case revulsion of the humour should be made to the nostrils and the head before or behind by Cauteries Sinapisms or Cupping-glasses The intemperature of the brain must be altered Saxonia and then Astringents may be used XXIV I do not disallow of astringent Powders whether of Roses Acacia or Pomegranate-flowers But if any one fear their sharpness he may take Terra Lemnia Samia or burnt Hartshorn they dry without any sharpness and bind moderately I put more confidence in these powders than in Pills or Bolus's which sometimes in a Bloudy-flux I have seen voided with the Excrements whole and unaltered Idem XXV Chalybeate-water Milk and Wine are not plainly to be rejected since either some coagulating Spirit or some astringent scalings of the Metal that stop the fluid humours are communicated to the liquour Yet I would with Platerus have this extinction moderate and not too often made since it is certain if much of the substance of the Iron be taken it loosens the Belly nay if it be taken plentifully it causes Vomit also And Steel must be given much more sparingly in a Dysentery than in a chachexy or obstruction of the Bowels because there is need onely of some small astriction and of no other effects of the Steel in this case Nor is there any difference between fresh Steel and that which has been often quenched The parts indeed of Iron that are communicated to the liquour at its first heating have a power to Purge But because Steel is of an homogeneous nature all its parts have the same virtue and the more of its substance is communicated to the liquour the more it Purges or Vomits Nor also is there any necessity to cast away the first water unless perhaps the Steel be not clean but have got some rust on the out-side for seeing this in the extinction may be communicated to the water it may not be improper to throw it away And I have thought good to advertise this that these chalybeate liquours must be used when they are fresh prepared especially if heated Steel have been often quenched in them For the substance of the Steel in the beginning and presently after extinction retains the nature of the Scalings but if it remain long in the liquour it is turned as it were into rust and then its faculty is rather to Purge Vomit and put the humours in motion than to stop them An instance whereof chalybeate Wines do give that are given for obstructions of the Liver and Spleen which if they be taken in any quantity Vomit and Purge For they are not given presently after the Steel is put in the Wine but they are set in the Sun or some hot place for some days and shaken together that the Steel may the better be dissolved But if the question be about giving Crocus Martis or prepared Steel in a Dysentery I should rather use a Crocus Martis made by the benefit of the fire onely and reverberation For it has not as yet got so vitriolate a Nature but to acquire it there is required another resolution and therefore it excells in an astringent virtue beyond any other All other preparations of Steel whether they be infusions of prepared Steel in Wine or in any other liquour or solutions with Aqua fortis Spirit of Vitriol Sulphur or distilled Vinegar all of them favour more of a Vitriolick nature and the Croci this way prepared do participate something of the dissolving liquour and have united the salt of the Vinegar or the Aquae fortes to themselves And therefore although they have some astriction and strengthen the tone of the lax Bowels in cachectick persons yet because the faculties of opening fusing and melting the humours and if they be taken in any quantity of Purging and Vomiting prevail in them they have no place in a Dysentery but rather in obstructions of the bowels and in cachexies For seeing all the parts in these preparations into which Vitriol may otherwise be dissolved are not separated but are like Vitriol separated from the gross earth and a little calcined and therefore the Spirit of Vitriol is as yet mixt with the Salt in them it is no wonder if they open and sometimes Vomit and Purge since it is the property of Salt of Vitriol to doe so And if we may give crocus Martis thus prepared at all the dose must be very small lest it gripe the Guts by its Acrimony or Vomit or Purge Sennertus de Dysenteria as it happened to an Empirick in Forestus l. 4. obs 4. in Scholio XXVI After evacuation presently alteration and contemperation of the
stop and check the vitious Effervescency by contempering the effervescent sharp things Anodynes and Narcoticks that abound with Sulphur and Oil are good as also are spirituous and watry things They indeed while they mitigate both the Sharps the alkaline and the acid These while they dilute and weaken them both which I have demonstrated to be true by many experiments more than once Hence it is that Spirit of Wine it self and divers waters made with Spirit of Wine as Juniper-Water Treacle-Water c. are often given to sick persons before they are taken with the Ague with good success But it must be observed that here is need of circumspection since it is not alike convenient to give any Spirit of Wine to all sorts of People nor can it well be given to any but to them who are infected with troublesome and grievous Cold. As distilled Vinegar or other acids use properly to be given to them who are troubled with grievous heat And both of them mixt together Sylvius de le Boë to whom both Cold and Heat use to be troublesome XXI Curative Intentions for Agues seem as I think to be these 1. The restitution of the Bloud to its natural temper 2. The preventing the depravation of the nutritious juice 3. The stopping of the febrile fermentation that a fit do not arise As to the first Vomits Bleeding and Purging are of great use especialiy if they be celebrated in the beginning of the Disease The second Intention is accomplished by an exact course of Diet. The third by remedies which stop the fermentation of the bloud And although this Remedy be accounted among Physicians Empirical immethodical and incertain yet I have often found that Agues have been cured in this manner when Physick would doe no good Willis de Febr. cap. 4. if so be they were used after Physick and Bleeding XXII Whether at the very time of a cold fit in an Ague or at any other time when the Body is all over cold the Bloud be also very cold I am not able to determine for I never durst prescribe bleeding at that time and so could never touch the Bloud as it came out which they might tell who make no scruple to let bloud at that time If this should be done and the bloud should then be observed to be cold I think no prudent Physician would easily proceed to Bloud-letting seeing by it both the heat of the Bloud is diministied and therefore the Cold increased in it than which nothing is more hurtfull more ready and able to take away Life Sylvius de le Bâ—ë for Life consists in Heat as Death does in Cold. XXIII If in any Ague whatever when any concoction though not perfect appears in the Urine you give a Purge on the Ague-day so as it may have done working before the fit comes that is four or five hours before you think the fit will come you will find the Ague will never return any more after that fit but will be quite removed as by Inchantment I have often tried it and in most persons the event always answered Petrus Monarius in Consiliis Scholizii In Tertians I doe this after the third or fourth fit in Quotidians I tarry longer and in Quartans longest of all scarce before the thirtieth day XXIV All Physicians take the signs of Crudity and Coction from the Urine but certainly it is a very fallacious conjecture that is taken from thence for the cause of Agues is not in the greater Veins in which as also in the Reins and Bladder Urines get their Concoction but in the first Region of the Body for bad Urines in Agues signifie that much excrements creep out of the first Region of the Body into the greater Veins in the fit which corrupt the Bloud whence a change of the Ague into a Continual fever may be feared upon the removal of the Humour out of the first Region of the Body into the greater Veins But they do not at all shew how crude or concocted the humour is which is lodged in the Mesentery Gall Bladder Liver and Spleen Now oftentimes at the second or third fit the Urine seems very much tinged when a bilious corruption creeps out of the first Seats into the Veins upon which many contend that bleeding in that case is very necessary as if the fired Bloud required to be quenched with this Remedy when notwithstanding it rather points out the purging of bile by stool and the opening of Obstructions For neither when Bloud is taken away is the fource of the Disease purged nor is the heat of the raging bile therein quenched But on the contrary unless there be a Plethora which it is best to cure by emptying the larger vessels there will be an attraction of the cholerick excrementitious humour into them out of the first Region upon which there is a change of an Ague into a Continual Fever Therefore croceous and red or crude or otherwise bad Urines in Agues shew that there is so much excrementitious humour in the first ways that a great share of it is poured into the Veins and the rest of the Body Enchir. Med. pract which unless it be evacuated by repeated Purging there is fear that an Ague may become a Continual fever or last a long time XXV It is a received opinion among some of the Arabians that bleeding in Agues should either be wholly omitted or celebrated in the process of the Disease But we know from innumerable instances that this opinion is not so proper for curing Agues for we have experienced by many years practice that all they who let Bloud before the third fit in Tertians were soon freed from their Ague-fits but that they who used the Remedy after this time found benefit more slowly by it Nor is there reason wanting for if there be a Plethora which is seldom wanting in the Bodies of our Country-Men all things are made worse by delay and neglect of Evacuation Jac. Oc. â—â—aeus apud Schenckium But because in Agues all the vitious matter resides without the greater Veins as some will have it truly I doubt whether it agree with all things which evidently appear in Agues XXVI It is to be observed that we may flie to Antimonial and Mercurial Medicines in all Agues of long continuance for as the matter lies in several places so especially in the Mesentery whence unless it be fetched by one of the said Medicines you will scarce ever rightly expell it Hartman except in a long time XXVII It were incredible to tell how great a power of Diseases follows for want of purging after autumnal Agues Therefore when the Disease is cured the Patient must be carefully purged For whenever I found an elderly person had had a Tertian or a Quartan and neglected Purging I could certainly foretell that some dangerous Disease Would afterwards sieze them of which notwithstanding they did not at all dream Sydenham as if
follows and continues till the particles of the inflamed bloud be discharged to the Emunctories and be there turned into Pus like common Inflammations Now if the Inflammation be yet more remiss it usually produces Fevers which they call Pestilential as it often happens in the end of a Pestilential constitution till that sort of Fevers wholly disappear But not onely the presence of a Fever but the colour of the bloud that is let which is like pleuritick and rheumatick persons does favour this opinion and the adust appearance of Carbuncles not unlike the impression of an actual Pyrotick as also the Buboes themselves which as constantly follow the Inflammation as any sort of Tumours use to follow it and as most Inflammations terminate in an Abscess Moreover the season of the year in which an epidemick Plague for the most part arises seems to contribute its share toward this thing for at the same time Pleurisies Quinseys and other affections of an inflamed bloud are usually abroad But here some may inquire If the Plague consist in a certain Inflammation How comes it to pass that Medicines of a hotter rank such as almost all Alexipharmacks are are used with so great success both in the cure and prevention of it To this I answer that they onely give relief by accident namely by benefit of the Sweat which they raise whereby the inflamed particles of the Bloud are dispersed and cast out But if it happen that when they are given they be not able to move Sweat as it often happens presently the burning of the bloud more enraged by the additional heat openly proclaims their mischief I know also that hot Antidotes are every where cried up for Preservatives but with what advantage remains yet to be proved Yea Wine drank liberally and other stronger preservatives taken at set hours every day have cast several into this disease who otherwise Sydenham in all likelihood had remained safe and untouched II. All the Symptoms observable in the Plague do either confirm or prove that a lixivial Salt and that a sharp and volatile one does offend Now this must be shewn from Medicines that are used with good success both for its prevention and cure And whoever would gather any thing for certain from the Medicines that are used it is necessary for him onely to consider Simples or those that are least compounded About nine years ago when I every day visited many that were sick of the Plague I took nothing but a spoonfull of Vinegar soaked up in the crumb of bread for prevention sake and in the morning before I visited my Patients I used this sort of remedy for eight whole months and I never after perceived any harm from the Infection for the whole time But when this malady was by degrees removed and I had left off taking of Vinegar any longer I found afterwards a little Head-ach come upon me whenever I entred an Infected house although I knew it not and feared nothing I know indeed that very few can use Vinegar for some weeks as I did while some by reason of their peculiar melancholick constitution cannot persist in the use of it for many days Others use to commend a draught of Rhenish-wine or of old stale Beer in the morning I know there are not wanting some who commend simple Spirit of Wine or Treacle-water but I know it has done many harm which cannot be said of Acids at least in reference to the Plague Elixir proprietatis Spirit of Salt Sulphur or Vitriol taken in a little Beer or Wine is commended Acid fruits are also commended as Citrons Oranges Pomegranates Corinths c. the smell also of Vinegar in a Sponge is refreshing whether it be simple Vinegar or impregnated with some Spice or Aromatick Plant. So that if a Man compare the most effectual things for prevention of the Plague he will find that either all of them are Acids or made up with Acids Whence I think it is evident that an Acid is not onely desired against the Poison of the Plague but that the Poison is especially hit and resisted by it But for them to whom mere Acids are troublesome and grievous they may be mixt with Spirit of Wine So by means thereof Spirit of Salt is so allayed that almost all its acidity is taken off if one of them be often cohobated with the other and yet it ceases not to doe good in the Plague It is requisite therefore that in this case Medicines should be so accommodated to every ones peculiar temperament and constitution that no harm but a great deal of good may accrew to them To this purpose Medicines may be made up in divers ways and forms To this purpose also hot crude Tartar and the cream of it as also Sal Tartari vitriolatum may be used any way in Broth Wine Beer a Julep c. In one word Acids do conduce above all other things to the prevention of the Plague taken in a way most accommodate to every ones particular nature Since experience teaches that these things are very true my Opinion is by this very thing confirmed That our Acid is resisted by the Pestilential Poison to which since nothing is observed more contrary than lixivial Salt the Poison may deservedly be reckoned to consist in a lixivial Salt But because it is a swift and very efficacious Poison Fr. Sylvius de le Boë therefore I judge the same consists in a volatile and sharp Salt III. whether the method of curing a Pestilential putrid Fever require both Evacuations before or after the use of an Alexipharmack and whether Evacuations should be first Since these two questions have that coherence that one of them cannot well be parted from the other let them be decided together It is evident that not onely a Plethory and a Cacochymie but rather the very greatness of the Disease does indicate and require both Bleeding and Purging But every Disease is said to be great or small on a threefold account either because of the excellence of the part afflicted or of the violence of the Disease which the violence of the Symptoms doth shew or of its malignity or virulence But since a Pestilential fever first annoys the heart it partaking of a Poisonous Contagion and rages with horrible Symptoms a delirium Bubo and Carbuncle it ought not onely to be called great but the greatest of great Diseases and seems to require both Evacuations But this precept of sacred Hippocrates and Galen holds not perpetually in the cure of all great Sicknesses For if one be intoxicated with a poisonous Animal or outwardly with a poisoned weapon then Galen and Democrates judge there is a two-fold indication either by evacuating the poison or by altering But they determine that the evacuation must not be by Purging or Bleeding but by help of such Medicines as by their heating faculty may draw and get out the poison as Cupping-glasses Cauteries c. And the other indication for the
does not therefore follow that they come from infection Although when the season is truly pestilential and there are Seminaries in the Air all Diseases contract malignity Crato XVII I observed in the Pest at Berne which was abroad anno 1629. that Essences Waters Elixirs and very hot Medicines of false Chymists did harm to many if not all that it was my fortune to see and did but very few good For by them the bodies of our People who feed on flesh fare high and live idly and therefore are either plethorick or cacochymick were rendred very fit to receive the poison Fabr. Hildanus XVIII I have several times experienced Bezoar stone to be most excellent both in my self and other sick people It is two fold Oriental and Occidental That is preferred if it were genuine for it is usually so artificially adulterated that the cheat can scarce be known Wherefore I am more willing to use the Occidental because it cannot so easily be adulterated as the Oriental For seeing it consists of many shells or scales I cannot see how Art can easily imitate Nature When I and my Wife were last Summer taken with the Plague I used the Occidental with good success Idem XIX It is questioned whether Bole Armenick be good for the Plague If we had Galen's Bole which he so highly commends for drying without astriction I should count nothing better But this of ours which all Learned men do now agree is red Ochre dries with Astriction Wherefore lest a dangerous Errour should be committed I think it best to abstain Montanus consult 116. We may instead of it use burnt Hart's-horn c. XX. I say Treacle is very convenient with this distinction The Pestilential fever either offends more in a manifest quality I mean in Heat than in an occult that is a poisonous one It is indicated by great Thirst a dry rough and black Tongue Heat sometimes apparent to the Touch for these Fevers are often gentle to the Touch then I use to deny Treacle Or it afflicts the sick more with a poisonous than a hot vapour which may be discerned by the absence of the foresaid Symptoms and the presence of some Symptoms which savour of Poison Then I give Treacle with great success Or thirdly the poisonous and hot qualities are equally joined which I know when the accidents savour of Heat and Poison alike and then I prescribe Treacle but corrected with Conserve of Roses Violets the acid of Citron c. What I have said of Treacle Claudinus Respons 4. I would have the same understood of Mithridate ¶ In that many mix Treacle with Frankincense I cannot commend them because the Head is often oppressed therefore the matter must be diverted from that part Crato XXI The use of Spirit of Vitriol is rejected by Johannes Baptista Sylvaticus first because Vitriol according to Galen and Dioscorides is of a corroding and sceptick quality but such a Medicine is not safe in a pernicious Disease I answer That all things are not competible to the Spirit which are so to the Vitriol All that is drawn from a thing does not retain the nature of the primigenial substance therefore it cannot possess the same qualities Many parts of the Vitriol are separated from the spirit in preparation The Spirit alone has a corroding quality but not when mixt with other things this is common to it with Vinegar Juice of Lemons c. Mineral Waters have their virtue from Vitriol yet they are beneficially drunk Secondly The frequent use of them is suspected which is otherwise necessary to conquer so great a Disease I answer There is no danger if it be mixt with convenient liquours Thirdly It will create Nature a Trouble and divert her from her work because it is an efficacious Medicine in a small quantity I answer It will hinder no more than the Physician while he resists the Cacochymie with Medicines Fourthly Physicians say It is exceeding hot I answer The Heat is corrected when its Atoms are separated by the mixture with another liquour in such a proportion that an hundred Atoms of Water are intermixt with ten or twelve of Spirit Fifthly Galen 10. Method suspects the use of Vitriolate waters in Putrid fevers because applied to the Skin they cause an Astriction of the Pores and impart Heat to the Body I answer he rejects their external use because Transpiration is hindred by them Sixthly There are other safer Medicines which resist Putrefaction I answer it is a safe Medicine taken in a just measure and with judgment There are infinite Witnesses of its benefit few say it does harm It is not yet made appear that there are safer Medicines Seventhly The excessive Astriction which is found in the Vitriol is found also in the Oil but Astringents are hurtfull in Fevers I answer It is not so great as to doe â—urt there seems rather none to be in it But all Acids do not bind but attenuate deterge and open obstructions However grant it do bind there is no danger from thence because the attenuating cutting and deobstructive parts prevail Eighthly although it resist Putrefaction open Obstructions and cause plentifull Sweat yet it is not proper in Pestilential fevers because it acts not safely seeing by its Acrimony it increases the Fever and does violence to Nature I answer I deny a noxious sudorifick virtue joined with its heat and attenuative virtue it is not used as an Hydrotick but as a Resister of Putrefaction nor does it hurt in heat if it be well diluted Ninthly the Mine is uncertain from whence the Spirit should be drawn and Chymists do not agree which they ought to chuse I answer They do agree that the Goslarian is proper but that the factitious which is made of Mars or Venus is more noble and that the Hungarian is most noble Tenthly there is a disagreement among them about its form some call it Oil others Spirit and others Water or Phlegm I answer This distinction is known to skilfull Spagyrists The Oil is for the most part thicker nor need any danger here be feared Eleventhly the preparation renders it a dubious Medicine for it is either drawn without addition or it has something mixt with it so that we know not whence the effect comes I answer Rolfinâ—â—ius l. de Sebr c. ult It makes no matter whether it be subjected to Vulcan's trial with other things or alone XXII He that contends there is no Alexiterium for a pestilential poison overthrows the Principles of natural Philosophy from which it is evident that all things are made of contraries by contraries and that the vicissitude and instability of humane matters does depend on the repugnance and disagreement of principles Since therefore the peculiar Remedy for the Plague and the proper Alexiterick of the poisonous Bane does yet lye hid in Nature's Womb we must of necessity flye to the common Alexitericks for Poisons and to Cordials Palmarius XXIII Although
Vomiting was over he ordered them immediately to be cast into a Sweat by Diaphoreticks and afterwards the Sweat to be continued till the declension of the Disease allowing some intervals for gathering of strength But if the Tokens appeared before he was called to his Patients he let Vomiting alone 〈…〉 and insisted onely on Sudorificks XXXIV If in any Disease certainly in the Plague a most acute and very deceitfull Disease and a malignant one we ought to have an exact care of the sick and not think as soon as the more troublesome and sensible symptoms seem a little abated that the Disease likewise is cured for if it be left to it self and so neglected it undermines and surprizes the Patient unawares Therefore I would seriously advise all Physicians not easily to trust the Plague however some Symptome that was formerly troublesome to the Patient seem to be removed for there is always a Snake in the grass Syâ—vius de le Boë which daily kills the unwary before they think of it XXXV Cauteries doe excellently well for prevention and many Clinicks by benefit of them remain untouched and handle them that are infected with the Plague without harm But in the Cure we reject them because before they give any relief which is after the tenth day the Patients are carried off by the violence of the Plague Heu nius ¶ I commend after the customary Purging of the whole body to them that are very cacochymick the burning of the Legs or Arms with a red hot Iron that the bad humours may constantly be diverted from the Bowels And practice has taught us that they are rendred the safest from the Plague whose scrotum has been run through with a Seton Joâ—bertu◠¶ Galen 5. meth cap. 12. writes that in a certain pestilence of his time all they escaped whose bodies were full of Sores Mercurialis testifies that he never saw a man dye of the Plague who had a Cautery They are therefore reckoned usefull by Massarias Mercurialis Nicolaus Florentinus and Fabritius Hildanus made either in the Arms or Legs that the ichor may continually run out by them But the application must by no means be deferred so long till the Plague increase and gain strength for otherwise there were fear lest the Ulcer should conceive Malignity and Inflammation Therefore it is advisable to apply them in the beginning of the Plague But to what place Some will have them made in the Calf of the Leg for so they think the humours are evacuated downwards and a greater revulsion is made Others will have them made in the Arms because then they are nearer the Heart to which the Pestilence is an open enemy and therefore a better derivation of the humours Paraeus l. 21. c. 2. decides the Controversie Men must at the very first moment take away by the purging and bleeding the humours that are apt to conceive the seeds of Putrefaction and the Plague They must suffer two Ulcers to be made in themselves as outlets of the excrementitious humours which are dayly bread One in the right Arm a little below the Epomis muscle The other three inches below the Knee on the outside of the left Leg. XXXVI Herculanus is reckoned the first of all men who thought fit to apply Cauteries in time of the Plague Yet this Remedy seems to be taken from the veterinary Art For Columella to keep the Murrain and Contagion from Cows orders their Ears to be boared with a piece of Consiligo-root a sort of Hellebore Which is observed by Cattle-keepers to this very day But as to the time they must not be deferred till the Plague increase and get strength for then the Chirurgeon might fear lest the Ulcer might become malignant and inflamed which many Learned Physicians do attest oft-times to be true Therefore it were more adviseable to apply them when the Plague begins to appear Glandorpius and while its pernicious fruit is in the bud XXXVII That Salt has the principal place its Use shews whereby it preserves bodies a long time uncorrupt We find in it exsiccation penetration and astriction All sowre things have the second place among which Vinegar first offers it self then Juice of Orange and Juice of sowre Pomegranates After them are bitter things but because they are hot they are not so proper New Eggs are of most easie concoction and yield matter for the generation of Spirits Lest therefore they be converted into pestilential matter it will be proper to give them in this manner Put a new Egg whole into cold water mixt with vinegar and there let it be three hours then break the Egg and pour out the White and fill up the empty space with Juice of Orange or White-wine-vinegar add as much Salt as will make it indifferently salt rost it on hot ashes and stir it till it grow thick Also draw a young Partridge Pheasant or Pigeon and season it moderately with Salt Let it remain so one day in Summer and two in Winter afterwards put in pieces of Citron and Parsley-leaves to fill up the hollow of the Fowl and rost it at a gentle Fire and when the moisture comes from within outwards and the Fowl begins to be moist all over strew Salt all over it and when it is indifferently rosted take a little of the moisture that drops from it on your finger and try whether it be salt and if not strew Salt on it again till at length the gravy be pretty Salt Let the Fowl be at the fire till the moisture be dried then take it from the fire and cut it into small pieces and put it into a linen cloth and let all the Juice be wrung out between two people straining as hard as they can and give it to the Patient Indeed it nourishes much increases the substance of the Spirits strengthens the Stomach and very much resists the pestilential infection You may doe the same with a Capon or Pullet Nor let any one wonder why we make an Egg and the Juice of Meat salt on purpose For when the Objectour considers with himself that a pestilential Fever does particularly corrupt the natural Actions namely of the Heart Liver and Stomach as is demonstrated by Vomiting Loosness red troubled Urine and by a disorderly Pulse and that the pestilential Infection is soonest communicated to those parts that are moistest for moisture is the maintainance of the pestilential Contagion he will think what we have said is not without reason For we know that those parts that are infected with the pestilential Contagion are preternaturally moist and that for that reason their actions are lost Wherefore the food ought either of its own nature to be dry or if such for its hard concoction be not proper such things as may dry must at least be mixt with it But Salt as we have said is the most effectual of all things against all corruption and most familiar to mankind Wherefore a rational method
that its virtues are unknown to you Before I come to Laudanum Opiatum I endeavour to remove the Headach by the following means Let Ground-Ivy bruised be applied to the Head also Plantain Let this or something like it be applied to the Soles of the Feet and the Palms of the hands Take of leaves of Rue 1 handfull and an half Sowre Leven 2 ounces Pigeon's dung 1 ounce common Salt half an ounce Elder-vinegar what sufficeth Mix them Make a Cataplasm Or Take of Bole-armenick Terra sigillata common white Chalk each 1 ounce and an half Marigold-vinegar what is sufficient Mix them Apply it as before Sometimes also I applied Powder of Cloves wet with Spirit of Wine for I think Barbette Vinegar does harm XLIX A Loosness in the Plague is often a forerunner of instant death Yet I have often known when neither bloud nor bloudy matter has been voided that the things following have done good Let the Patient and the Physician abstain from all acid and salt things of much use otherwise in the Plague As also from plentifull drinking but if he cannot bear his intolerable thirst let the Patient take 2 or 3 spoonfulls of this Mixture Take of the root of Tormentil 1 ounce red Rose flowers 1 pugil shavings of Hartshorn half a drachm seeds of Sorrel Myrtle each 1 ounce Boil them in Steel-water To 9 ounces of the colature add of Confectio Hyacinthi 1 drachm Syrup of Myrtle 1 ounce Mix them Treacle alone has done good to many if a small piece of it has been taken once an hour till a drachm has been taken Binding Clysters drying also and emollient ones are here very necessary yea they should be given twice or thrice every day Lees of White-wine or rather of Red-wine applied hot to the Navel have done much good Idem Sylvius his method of Curing the Plague L. Like as upon examination of all the Symptoms that usually accompany the Plague and upon consideration of the Remedies that serve for prevention of it we have concluded that in most the nature of the deadly poison consists in a volatile and sharp Salt so we think the same will be confirmed from its Cure But that a methodical and rational Cure may be insisted on in the Plague not onely the Functions must be considered which are primarily and chiefly hurt but the parts also as well containing as contained which are affected above others The Functions are they especially that are called Vital and among them those that respect the alteration of the Bloud in the Heart and on which life does proximately depend Among things contained either the whole Bloud or some things concurring to produce the mass of bloud or both are disaffected in the Plague Among the parts containing and the solid we observe both the conglobated Glands to be seized and corrupted by Buboes and the external skin with the parts adjoining by Carbuncles and Spots It is manifest the Bloud it self is very much changed in the Plague when we affirmed that it oftentimes loses its consistency and is more fluid than ordinary And because we believe that all consistency comes to the Bloud from an acid Juice we deservedly conclude that the Acid mixt or to be mixt with the Bloud does most suffer and is corrupted in the Plague Since moreover we have shewn that an Acid can so powerfully be broken and therefore corrupted by nothing as by a Lixivious Salt I think we have deservedly derived the Pestilential poison from it Again when we weighed its quick operation and extreme violence in Reason's balance we concluded this lixivious Salt was volatile and very sharp And seeing among all the Humours hitherto observed in our Bodies onely Bile is found to partake of a volatile Salt we plainly think that we judged according to reason that it is often vitiated by the pestilential poison and is rendred more sharp and volatile than usual So that the pestilential poison joins it self to the Bile as to an humour most homogeneous with it and spoils it But that it exerts its violence upon the Acid as upon a thing opposite and heterogeneous and breaks and corrupts it The pestilential poison I say because at least as far as most Physicians determine is not bred in Man's body but comes to it from abroad and then is afterwards communicated to others by Contagion Therefore the Indications to be observed in the Cure of the Plague must be taken 1. From the Poison it self admitted from abroad into the Body and infecting the Bile both corrupting and infringing the acid Juice and colliquating the Bloud it self and destroying the solid parts by Buboes Carbuncles and Spots 2. From the Bile it self degenerating from its pristine integrity and putting on the nature of a pestilential poison 3. From the acid Juice in our Body broken and corrupted 4. From the Bloud it self melted and destitute of its consistence 5. From the conglobated Glands producing Buboes 6. From any parts seized and corrupted with the virulence of the Carbuncles 7. From the whole Superficies of the Body defaced and sometimes corrupted with many Spots and Tokens First of all the pestilential Poison it self as it is admitted into Man's body beside the Laws of Nature so it indicates its reciprocal expulsion out of it The same as it infects all it meets with in the body and changes it from a laudable state into a noxious it indicates its alteration and correction Secondly Bile as it is made more volatile and sharp by the pestilential Poison does indicate its fixation and contemperation Thirdly the acid Juice of the Body as its acid Acrimony is broken and corrupted by the pestilential Poison indicates the reparation and restitution of the same Acidity Fourthly the Bloud as it hath lost its consistence by the pestilential Poison indicates the recovery of the same The fifth sixth and seventh Indications of Buboes Carbuncles and Spots we shall treat of peculiarly and severally Now we will propound the Indicata of the foresaid Indications 1. The pestilential Poison seeing it frequently penetrates the inner parts by the Pores of the Skin it may most commodiously be expelled by the same and therefore by Sudorificks The same because sometimes perhaps it is inspired in with the Air and doth then also alter and corrupt the Spittle which being continually swallowed down causes loathing in the Stomach it may not inconveniently then be driven again at least in part out of the body And when part is carried off by Vomit the rest that passes with the Air to the Lungs and by and by to the Bloud may most conveniently be thrown off by Sweat with those foresaid Diaphoreticks The same Poison as it is noxious in its quality vitiates and changes for the worse whatever it meets with in the body and that indeed by its salt volatile and sharp quality it may be corrected by a powerfull fixing Medicine and one that takes off the acrimony And because nothing has such a fixing
or half a drachm of crude Alume in the water or decoction of lesser Centaury if it be given 5 hours before the Fit and Sweat if possible provoked Grulingius I cannot sufficiently commend it in a Quartane 8. I use to drive away Quartane Agues with a Plaster of a few dissolving and abstersive things Van Helmont and it never failed me 9. In a Quartane Ague the following Plaster was the Secret of the Prince of Anhalt which sometimes so extracts the febrile Infection that now and then it raises blisters Take of Pepper Salt Saffron Garlick which is covered with earth of each alike what is sufficient Beat them in a Mortar to the form of a Cataplasm put a little in a Rag and apply it to the out-side of the Ring-finger of the left hand take it off the same hour it is applied and repeat it before the Fit Hertod 10. Flowers of Sal Ammoniack are excellent in a Quartane ¶ Roots of crude Asarum though crude they provoke Vomit with great perturbation yet boiled in Water and not in Wine they are changed into a deoppilative Diuretick which the Spiciness that lies in it does shew D. Oheimius fled to this as to his last refuge in tedious Fevers depending on inveterate Obstructions of the Hypochondria Hofmannus 11. Against a Quartane as a famous thing I recommend distilled Oil of Pepper 4 drops given with extract of Gentian Also Flowers of Sal Ammoniack or the Salt thrice sublimed with extract of Spleenwort or lesser Centaury Also Spirit of Nitre prepared with Sulphur Also Spirit of Vitriol of Mars and Venus given in Gentian or Treacle-water And outwardly I must highly commend Sage Christ Langius Rue and Shepherds-purse with Vinegar applied to the Pulses 12. I was in fear of the Fourth Fit of a Quartane and before it came I drank a little Spirit of Wine or Aqua vitae sweetned with Sugar and I saw no Fit but had an end of my Ague to my great joy Lotichius 13. One that was ill of a double Quartane was cured with 3 doses of an infusion of Senna in Aqua Riverii febrifuga which is nothing else but Spring-water with Salt of Tartar whose wonderfull effects we experience continually in all long Fevers and in diseases coming from Obstructions ¶ Extract of Germander with Salt of Tamarisk made into Pills Riverius is commended as a most excellent Medicine for a Quartane 14. I have often tried the following Medicine with success Take of Leaves of Elder Sage Dovesfoot Rue each half an handfull Marigold 2 handfulls Salt and Wine alike a third part Beat them together Rondeletius apply it to the Wrists before the Fit Remove them when there is occasion 15. I can say from my own experience that if Seed of St. John's wort be bruised Varignana and given in Wine before the Fit it does much good Fistula or A narrow and long Vlcer The Contents The cause of its pertinacy I. A palliative Cure sometimes lawfull II. The cure of them must not always be undertaken III. All do not admit of a Cure IV. The force of a hot and dry Air in curing of them V. Vnder the Armpit cured with actual fire VI. One in the Breast with a decay of the Os sternum must not be cured by burning this bone VII One with an erosion of the Collar-bone cured VIII One cured by eating things IX Fallopius his Syrup efficacious in the cure X. It must not be filled with Hellebore XI One in the nether Jaw cured by drawing of a Tooth XII One in the right Pap eaten out XIII When one in Ano requires a palliative cure XIV Whether the cure by a Thread be safe XV. Fistulae of long standing in old Men must not be cured XVI The consumption of the callus by Medicines without actual fire XVII Medicines I. THe Daughter of N. after a grievous pain in her Loins fell into a troublesome Fistula in her Groin which by continual running wasted her body so that in a short time she departed this life The cutting of her up shewed an evident Caries in a bastard-rib which continually sent out a sharp ichor into the flesh below which being eroded there came a long and anfractuous Fistula which was beyond the Skill of Medicine You may see the defect of the same Art in Fistula's of the Anus whose beginning sometimes runs very high either to the Loins or the Vertebrae of the Breast or sometimes to the Shoulders whose inaccessible Caries the tortuous winding of the fistula does hinder from being searched with a probe which also hinders injections designed to cleanse the Ulcer and does exclude the Hand which might take out the vitiated Bone Which nevertheless not being timely taken away the Patient dies before his time and the fistula deriving its original from a remote Caries does obstinately resist the Physicians cure Whose lips though you clip open and ampliate which yet is very good in cutaneous fistula's nevertheless you will lose your labour and you can never come to the farthest end of these sinuous windings from whence so many branches and so frequent rivulets descend by muscles and tendons which lie deep that though a Probe be never so dextrously put into such a tortuous fistula Tulpius obs 28. l. 3. yet it can never reach or remove the Caries that is the cause of a continual fistula II. The cure of fistula's is two-fold one fictitious false and palliative the other true Of the Palliative Galen makes mention lib. de Tum p. n. c. 4. and Avicenna 4. 4. tr 4. c. 2. When the fistula is dried up within and healed on the outside a sinus or hollow place remaining within which is performed by putting drying Medicines into it by keeping a good Diet and by purging of the superfluous humours By this means the Sinus is closed for a time the orifice healing up But afterwards when any moisture is gathered in it an Abscess is formed again and the fistula returns I do not deny I sometimes use this false cure for the Patient's consolation For having purged the body and ordered a spare diet I leave off Tents which I had a long time put in such incurable fistula's and apply a new Sponge wet in some Mineral water and wrung-out or in some lixivium or Lime-water By this means the whole was closed outwardly so that the fistula seemed to be cured the Patients being dismissed This sort of cure sometimes wanted success sometimes not for the integrity and soundness of the Skin conduces much to the cure of external Diseases because the natural Heat expires by the Aperture and the natural functions of the part are not performed But when the orifice is stopt the natural heat is kept in then it performs aright the work of concoction it digests and discusses excrements Aquapeâ—dens so that sometimes the sinus fills up which it would not have done if the fistula had
of Cure by the edge of a Syringotomus and a thread which joins the opinions of Celsus and of the later Chirurgeons XVI Yet Fistulae in ano in old Men deriving their original from some old Fluxion as from the Haemorrhoids of long continuance cannot safely be cured unless before the Wound be healed an Issue be made in the Thigh three or four inches above the Knee for evacuation of the matter daily gathered which used to be evacuated by the old Fistula Sâ—ultetus XVII Penetrating Fistulae are very easily and safely cured without an actual Cautery which some commend to consume the Callus in Fistulae if when the Syringotomus is passed through the Bloud be stopt and Haemorrhagie prevented and the Callus wasted with this Medicine Take of Mercury precipitate half a drachm Honey of Roses half an ounce For the sphincter according to Hippocrates lib. de Haemorrh may safely be cut any way without prejudicing its office if but an eighth part of it be left untouched otherwise an involuntary excretion of the faeces would follow and then most certain Death Idem Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. I have seen Fistulae of the Feet often cured with this Remedy First wash them with a Lye of Vine-ashes then use an Unguent made of Sugar Oil-olive Mercury and Wine each equal parts Borelâ—us 2. This wonderfully cures Fistulae if they be often washed and the hollow of them filled with an Arcanum mixt with Tincture of Aristolochia rotunda drawn with Spirit of Wine Faber 3. The Bulb of Cornflag mixt with Starch Vinegar and Foxes grease cures Fistulae and running Sores most effectually Laurembergius 4. This is highly commended by many Authours especially for drying up and healing a Fistula Take of Water of the Vine 2 ounces Malmsey wine 1 ounce Honey of Roses 10 drachms Myrrh root of Peucedanum each 2 drachms Sarcocolla Aloe Epatica each 1 ounce and an half Mix them Let them boil up onely once moderately and let it be injected by a Syringe into the Fistula Pâ—câ—ettius 5. A wonderfull Water for Fistulae Take of green Shells of Wall-nuts let them stand in the shade distill them Take of the distilled Water 7 pounds distill it again add of Honey 2 pounds distill it again and keep it for use Praevotius 6. After Universals are used some commend this Potion Take of Sanicle Mugwort Speedwell Saracene's Consound Winter-green each 1 ounce Savine 1 ounce and an half Horse-tail half a drachm Boil them in White-wine Make a Potion which if you would have more effectual in every Dose mix of prepared Crabs-eyes half a scruple For Savine and Crabs-eyes are very good to expell Bones Pus broken Veins and the like Senner 7. This is a most secret Medicine Take of Tops of lesser Centaury 3 handfulls Roots of greater Plantain fresh 1 pugil Leaves of Germander Scabious each 1 handfull New-wine 3 pounds and an half Boil them to half Let the Herbs and Roots be well pounded and strained out hard then boil them on a gentle Fire to the consistency of Honey and keep it Stokkerus 8. This is an approved Medicine for a Fistula Take of Leaves of red Cabbage and the Seeds of the same Roots of Madder each equal parts Bruise them in some Wine and boil them to a third strain out the Liquour and boil them to the consistency of Honey Give two spoonfulls morning and evening every day ¶ Filipendula and the Grains found at the end of its Root are good for the same Tulpius Fluor Muliebris or Womens Whites The Contents How it may be known from a Gonorrhoea I. The blame must not always be laid upon the Womb. II. Bleeding is sometimes good III. Cured within a month by taking a loosning Ptisan IV. Whether Diureticks be proper V. Whether they be always good VI. Every one must not be cured by a Sudorifick Diet. VII Astringents and Strengthners must be seasonably used VIII Issues in the Legs are good IX Sometimes it is caused by the use of Catharticks and Baths X. Those Women that have a dry Nose are usually subject to it XI The Womb must be strengthned XII A Malignant one imposes upon the Physician XIII Medicines I. SOme Women that are ill of a virulent Gonorrhoea hiding their fault under an innocent name pretend they are ill of the Whites because in both cases abundance of filth is voided But the Chirurgeon may easily distinguish the Whites from a Gonorrhoea and he may satisfie himself a Gonorrhoea will never be cured without Salivation Paraeus II. The cause which continually breeds the corrupt humour is sometimes in the Womb sometimes in other principal parts They are therefore grievously mistaken who ascribe the cause of all that comes from the Womb and of the suppression of the Menses to the Womb alone For in what Women cold Bowels or obstructed or scirrhous have caused Crudities an ill Habit or Dropsie the corrupted humour being poured into several parts of the body often falls upon the Womb and tending that way purges the Body which is done in some others by urine or stool Fernelius III. Seeing the Whites depend upon a Cacochymie and it being drawn to the Veins by Phlebotomy may infect the mass of Bloud there seems no room for Phlebotomy Besides since in this chronical Disease strength decays much and the Body is often brought to a consumption it appears it ought not to be farther wasted by Bleeding and be deprived of its Aliment Yet it is thus determined that if this Flux be not solitary and pure but be mixt with a little bloud and look red then bloud may be let As also if there be any great heat in the Liver or acrimony of the bilious juice joined with this Flux But in other cases especially when the case is grown inveterate it is better to abstain from Bleeding Rivâ—rius IV. A Woman of forty had been long troubled with the Whites after many Medicines tried in vain she was perfectly cured with taking a laxative Ptisan every day for a month The Composition was this Take of cleansed Senna 1 drachm Coriander-seed prepared and scraped Liquorice each 1 drachm and an half Spring-water wherein three drachms of Tamarinds and 1 drachm of Mastich-wood have been boiled one glass Infuse them cold for one night and let her take the colature two hours in the morning before she eat Idem V. There is no small difficulty to tell whether Diureticks be proper for they do not onely provoke urine but the menstrua by heating and attenuating the humours contained in the Veins Yet they are approved by all Authours and by Galen himself who used them in Boëthius his Wife The reason is because Diureticks provoke urine primarily and the menses secondarily and as it were by accident then the Kidneys draw the serous matter continually the Womb onely receives it Wherefore it is likely that
drink are unfit for Generation And earthy things which precipitate and abate the motion of the Bloud and consequently of the Seed so among Vegetables Strawberry and Agrimony c. Terra sigillata Coral Bole Armenick Os Sepiae which and its Magistery is not amiss made use of for curing a Gonorrhoea all the Saunders c. And acids which obtund the vivid Sulphur of the Bloud and are also apt to hinder the glutinous consistency of the Seed Therefore all acids are commended So I have observed that Hepaticum rubrum or Crystalli tartari vitriolati and Santulati have done much good in abating nocturnal pollutions One by the constant use of Spirit of Vitriol whereby he endeavoured to correct the weakness of his Stomach had his pudendum and testes shrunk up and extenuated And Nitrous and Mercurial things in as much as they make the Seed fluid so nitrous things in general which also invert the Sulphur Thus one in Timaeus who was extreme libidinous at length by taking a large dose of Nitre ceased to be such But beside this Mercurials intimately possess an acid Salt rendring the Serum and Seed fluid exhaust the Nerves for business and are apt to weaken the musculous and nervous parts therefore Mercurius dulcis is highly commended in a Gonorrhoea simple and virulent Or finally Middling things which are apt to correct the motion of the Serum and Fluxions and so they moderate the Afflux mitigate the Acrimony by their balsamick virtue keep the consistence entire and strengthen the seminal Vessels cleanse them when ulcerate lax and virose and divert them another way such indeed as are proper for Catarrhs in general or for any known Fluxions of the Serum to wit Succinates wherefore I have observed that such diverting things for Example Essence of Amber joined with the Bezoardick Anodyne has very happily cured a Gonorrhoea Whither pertain also Sudorificks of the Woods c. For we must take notice that the class of such things as abate Seed has a great latitude they cause chastity they are proper for the Faults Fluxions and Ichorescency of the Seed wherefore they are convenient Wedelius de s m. fac p. 225. chosen with judgment in all Gonorrhoea's nocturnal Pollution simple and virulent in rampant Lust yea and for Women troubled with the Whites XIV Of the aforesaid things many applied outwardly conduce to temper the heat so leaves of Vine Willows Agnus Castus use to be applied outwardly leaves of Water-Lily which yet are of the lowest rank Saturnines deserve to be remembred here before all others which as inwardly they are adverse to Venus so outwardly they contribute much to the same end hence plates of Lead are usual not onely by reason of their native Coldness whereby they repell and allay but also because they extract the saline Acrimony as it were magnetically which we may gather from hence because every part affected under this leaden cover uses to be moist in which sweat the sharp Salt increasing the heat goes out continually and by its Acrimony endeavouring to dissolve the Saturn it visibly sticks thereto which plentifull attraction of Salt is made by benefit of the Mercury wherewith Saturn abounds Now Mercury does entirely love the company of the Salt and so it procures Exhalation and having first made an actual refrigeration Idem it causes a potential one XV. A certain Doctor of this City cures a virulent Gonorrhoea successfully with Cantharides which he steeps in Rhenish Wine giving the infusion tempered with some other Liquour but because in the beginning he could not go on with the cure without great torment and exulceration of the Bladder M. J. Matthial ad T. Barth Cent. 4. Ep. 55. at length he mixt it with Oil of sweet Almonds Syrupus Fernelii and juice of Mullein and so in three days sweetly removes the Disease by plentifull Urine ¶ I have in another place commended an Infusion of Cantharides for a virulent Gonorrhoea and difficulty of Urine the happy success whereof I have tried more than once But we must observe that the Cantharides lest they doe hurt must be used whole And when we make a Vesicatory the extremities may be taken off wherein there is a more gentle faculty which may be kept for this infusion to purge by Urine If this infusion be ordered in due manner T. Barth Ep. 54. it provokes Urine as far as I could ever observe without exulceration or torment so that there is no need of fat things XVI The virtue of things that diminish Seed varies according to the different Constitutions for as every Agent in general acts according to the manner of its reception so when Contraries occur in Authours for example that Agnus Castus Rue Mint do diminish Venus and provoke it do abate Seed and produce it these Effects must be ascribed to the difference of Bodies Wedeliuâ— So green Mint increases Venus dry abates it XVII This same virtue of theirs is different according to the state of the Seed and as simple wasting of it or astriction is indicated for all things are not convenient for all Persons Thus in nocturnal Pollutions cooling acids watry and gentle styptick things are proper In a simple Genorrhoea acid and nitrous things for lixivials whatever Practitioners deliver to the contrary must rather be avoided In a virulent one Merculiar ones in the beginning but acids and nitrous things are not so good Nitrous things are potent in abating Lust but they must not be made use of in the Flux The middling things are better for the Flux Idem than when it is stopt XVIII In diminishing of Seed we must have a care we run not into the other extreme or contrary Therefore in general Absynthiacks Saturâ—â—nes and other things which we have reckoned up are not so proper for new married Persons that is in a large quantity and in young People we must have a care how we meddle with them especially for such as are troubled with nocturnal Pollutions Nocturnal Pollution is a Disease of that age wherefore the Seed and its Orgasm should be checkt and its acrimony may be abated but it ought not to be extinguished I knew an old Man of Seventy of a hot Constitution who had been troubled with nocturnal Pollutions from his Youth to his extreme Old-age Idem and nevertheless he was blest with a numerous Issue XIX Mercurials rather increase the Flux of Seed than check it that is of themselves they make the Seed more fluid wherefore we observe that after the use of them and giving of Purges the flux of Seed is always as it were increased How proper therefore however it be in the beginning for a Gonorrhoea either virulent or simple given with a Purgative that is Mercurius dulcis yet this is done for the sake of abstersion mundification and diversion rather than for astriction Wherefore it is conveniently given in such a manner as that the Ulcer of the vesicae
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
But if any one have a mind to use a lixivial Salt that effervescence may be made the less by it let him temper it first by other means that is by some volatile Spirit or Oil Wherefore Venice and common Soap are of great virtue in checking the effervescence Whenever the pituitous humour offends in viscidity then it must be incided and attenuated with acid and gummous things as the humour gives way to the one rather than the other which it is easie to experience or try Yea it is the part of a prudent Physician not to think he knows all things For it is the part of a prudent Man not to begin rashly but when he has observed in dubious cases by what the Patient is chiefly holpen he may proceed couragiously Therefore when by gentle procedure a remedy is found by means whereof especially the Patient is relieved then we may proceed more cheerfully in the use of it And divers Gums occur very convenient in this case Galbanum Sagapenum Ammoniack Opoponax and the like all or each of which may be used according as there shall be occasion and especially in form of Pills Among Acids which may also be given there occur divers Spirits prepared by Art of Salt Nitre Vitriol Sulphur and also wine-Wine-vinegar distilled and sometimes not distilled wherein if the bulb of a Squill be infused it is called Vinegar of Squills and is an excellent Medicine in this and the like diseases arising from viscid Phlegm These things also are good for correcting of viscid Phlegm Mastick Amber and the volatile Salt made of it as also the sublimated Salt of Hartshorn Castor Myrrhe moreover Steel prepared the common way or Vitriol of it with which some Mens opening Pills are prepared Every volatile Salt conduces above all things to correct and amend the viscid Phlegm which has a virtue of reducing that humour insensibly to a mediocrity Wherefore I recommend to all the preparation and use of such Salts whether they be prepared in a dry form or in a moist In the mean time this must be observed that volatile Salts prepared in a dry form when they are very subtile can scarce be kept but do easily turn to Air it is better therefore to prepare them in a moist form or at least to keep them for use dissolved in moist and watry things The bilious humour offends especially by reason of a fixt lixivious Salt which will be amended and tempered most powerfully by Acids But because then at the same time an Effervescence is raised by reason whereof this Hypochondriack disease is produced it seems not so safe or convenient to make use of Acids unless they be tempered with a volatile Spirit by means whereof the violence of the Acid Spirit is not a little infringed so that a less effervescence is caused thereby For the contempering also of lixivial Salts Acids mixt with oily things may be made use of for all sharp things as well Saline as Acid are tempered with fat things In the mean time we must have a care of oily Acids when besides a lixivial Salt Sylvius de le Boë Oil abounds in the bile which especially is evident by a greater heat and febrile burning in the Body V. A Lenitive being premised the first preparative must be Julapium Acetosum about three ounces with half an ounce of Creme of Tartar finely powdered for they may well be mixt together When five days are over again a Lenitive must be repeated drinking upon it two pounds either of clarified Whey or Barley-water Then we must proceed to open obstructions and prepare the humours lodged in the veins To which purpose aperient and mundifying juices clarified may be prescribed since Medicines made with Honey or Sugar are good for few Hypochondriacks Thus the clarified juices of Borage Cichory Endive Mallows Hops and Ceterach may be given the next day after the Physick and the next day after that half a drachm of Rheubarb mixt with two drachms of Flos Cassiae may be given after which a full Glass of Cichory and Agrimony-water may be drunk Then the day after the juices may be repeated Fortis cons 28. cent 3. and so alternately the Rheubarb and the juices may be taken VI. For a successfull and more accurate preparation I am willing to abstain from sweet Syrups made of Sugar and Honey as also from very sower things since they puff up the bowels and increase the heat and these cause a fermentation in the humours Wherefore clarified juices of Borage Endive sweet Apples c. must be given to about three ounces in Broth altered with Mallow Borage Fortis Cichory root of Cinquefoil Cichory c. VII In the use of Preparatives we must consider whether an Acid or a Nidorous crudity be more troublesome to the Patient and conduce to this evil for although it may be bred of either yet as the accidents vary according to the one or the other so also the way of cure varies For in an Acid crudity we may use hot things but in a Nidorous one and where great inflammation is we must use temperate ones Sennertus VIII If the Disease be inveterate gentle Aperients can doe but little good yet they must be given first For experience has taught that these Aperients Creme of Tartar Tartarum vitriolatum Vinum Martiale Pulvis cachecticus have qualified the Disease but could never eradicate it The case is the same in medical Waters For used once a year they open the Inwards a little but do not take away the Disease it self It is necessary therefore that against an inveterate Hypochondriack Disease such things be used as may pluck up the Disease by the root such as Aqua Philosophica or Spiritus Vini Tartarisatus if in some convenient liquour it be so given as to begin with the least and to ascend to the highest drop from one drop to twelve and according to the precedent circumstances we must continue a while in one dose and we must add now a drop Hartmannus and then a drop to it IX Preparation by Syrups and distilled waters while the humours are attenuated and run to the parts obstructed makes the Obstructions daily worse for they tire the Patients and Nature too much Crato they hurt the Stomach grievously and manifestly destroy concoction X. Vinegar may be used but it must be sparingly and onely for relish-sake and reason tells us it must be used in cholerick rather than in pituitous persons lest the exuberant melancholick juice be fermented with the excessive sowreness and the swelling of the Spleen be increased or way be made for sowre Belching Martini XI Creme and Crystals of Tartar and Tartarum vitriolatum are so common now adays that several scarce prescribe any Medicines wherein some one of these is not put yea Tartarum vitriolatum is called by Crollius Vniversale Digestivum And I acknowledge indeed that Medicines made of Tartar have a great virtue in
Patient can hardly be awaked the use of Sternutations is very proper yet we must not persist continually in them lest they thin and move the Humours too much At the beginning of the Disease especially we must abstain from them They are bad also when the Fever is high They may be used when the Lethargy begins of it self or when it takes one lying in bed and in the declension Sennertus VII I have known the most good from a Blister above all other Applications when it has run well all over the Head I saw two Lethargick persons cured chiefly by this Remedy after the Disease had continued a long time and had not onely destroyed the memory but much impared the understanding For because the excoriated places in both of them would not easily heal they ran a great deal of thin Ichor namely Willis every day about half a pound VIII Fumes which some use to raise the lethargick are not proper in this case because they fill the Brain much It is better to make a Decoction of Pennyroyal Rue Mother of Time Hyssop wild Majoran boiled in Vinegar adding a little Castor and to receive the Steam of it at the Nostrils Sennertus IX The Ancients held the Cause to be Phlegm gathered in the Head which by its Moisture and Cold caused the Stupefaction and by its putredinal heat waking But this is impossible The Cause is rather a narcotick Vapour elevated in the concomitant Fevers whether a quotidian continual bastard-tertian or semi-tertian Or if it came without a Fever it is phlegmatick Bloud that causes the Inflammation For as Forestus observes there is often such an Inflammation as turns to a Gangrene And so the Cause of the Lethargy is twofold Hippocrates l. de Morb. sect 3. places the seat of the Lethargy in the Lungs and he judges that it does not much differ from a Peripneumony affirming that the Cause of a Peripneumony is bilious bloud of a Lethargy pituitous X. The Ancients used strong and hot Preparatives as well as Purgatives so that it appears they little regarded the concomitant Fever and it was on this ground because they thought the Fever was onely symptomatick and followed the Putrefaction of Phlegm in the Brain which being removed the Fever ceases But seeing the Fever is not onely symptomatick but narcotick Vapours ascend from the febrile matter into the Head and the Heat puts the Phlegm in the Head into fusion or Phlegm runs out of the whole Body into the Head the Fever ought not to be neglected And according as it is more intense or remiss so Medicines which are otherwise good in a Carus must be so tempered because of the Fever that the danger which otherwise is imminent be not doubled when the Fever is increased with such Medicines Idem XI Because of the cruel nature of this Disease I propound a new sort of Remedy i. e. an Issue or Seton in the Neck in those Lethargies that is which are of long continuance or come by Fits because such are the Forerunners either of an Apoplexy or an Epilepsie Therefore in a Carus or Catalepsis I reckon an Issue in the Arm a good Remedy both for Prevention and Cure But in a Lethargy because it is an Inflammation and short Disease certainly it can doe little good as neither in such comatous Diseases as have a concomitant Fever or are caused by Sympathy Mercatus Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Savory often infused in Vinegar and applied to the Head or drunk with Wine raises the most Lethargick persons Altomari 2. Give Spirit of Citron and it will afford present Remedy Hoeferus 3. Castor in the Cure of a Lethargy is preferred above most other Medicines Sennertus 4. A Squill sometimes alone or Mustard bruised with Vinegar laid in manner of a Cataplasm to the Hips is able to raise any Man from a dead sleep Trallianus 5. One ordered a Hog to be hung by the Heels before the Patient who hearing the continual noise and crying of the Hog that hung by him was so terrified that he could not sleep Villanoranus ¶ Another ordered the Patient's Head to be shaven and to be anointed with Honey and the Flies so troubled him that he was not able to sleep And so he was cured Lienis Affectus or Diseases of the Spleen The Contents Whether Bleeding in the left or in the right Vein be more proper I. Whether opening of the Haemorrhoids be beneficial II. Opening of the Veins upon the Region of the Liver III. Issues Setons and Blisters whether they may be properly made there IV. The benefit of a Vomit V. Purging useless VI. Clysters sometimes doe good VII It requires strong Medicines VIII The benefit of Diureticks IX Hidroticks are good X. It needs Astringents and Strengthners XI Exercise is good XII In what form Topicks are most effectual XIII When it is inflamed we must repell with caution XIV When Purging is good XV. How the Cure of an inflamed Spleen differs from the Cure of an inflamed Liver according to the Laws of Circulation XVI When the Inflammation is asswaged we must proceed in the use of Remedies XVII Crocus Martis aperitivus is hurtfull to the Stomach XVIII Astringents must be mixt with Aperients XIX Issues in the Leg are good XX. A great Spleen not morbid XXI It does not swell with Melancholy but with Wind. XXII Dry Cupping-glasses good in a hard one XXIII Whether a Vein may be opened in a Scirrhus XXIV In scirrhous Tumours Cock-broth ineffectual XXV A Swelling of the left Hypochondrium ascribed to the Spleen did arise from the Colon. XXVI Whether cutting out of the Spleen be possible XXVII Whether a scirrhous Spleen may be cloven XXVIII When it is displaced it deceives under divers forms XXIX What such the Vnguents for a hardned one ought to be XXX Medicines I. IN an Inflammation and other Diseases of the Spleen which a gathering or preternatural motion of Bloud to that place does cause Bloud-letting is therefore prescribed that the abundance of Bloud gathered in the Spleen may be diminished and that what still runs to the same part may be retracted to the opposite parts and as far distant as may be For so a Cure is used for the said Diseases according to Hippocrates his rule by Contraries But this Contrariety whether you evacuate or especially if you make revulsion of the bloud which runs in abundance to some part must not be reckoned by the rectitude as they talk or rather to speak more properly and truly by the continuity of the fibres of the vessels common to those parts This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates for revulsion can scarce be made by an absolutely streight way because the Bloud must of necessity pass through the windings and turnings of the vessels The rectitude therefore or continuity of fibres and community of Vessels must be regarded for without the
of a spoonful or a spoonful and an half Take of Salt of Tartar 1 ounce small spirit of Wine 1 pound and an half Let them be digested till it grow yellow Then when it is poured off the dreggs infuse therein of leaves of black Hellebore steeped in Vinegar 1 ounce yellow Sanders 1 drachm the yellow rind of Oranges 1 drachm and an half Make a hot and close digestion for 3 dayes Let the clear colature be distilled in Balneo to half and let the remaining Liquor be kept for use Or Take of the root of sharp pointed Dock Polypody of the Oak Nettle Chervil each 6 drachms leaves of Eupatory Speedwell each 1 handful Sanders white and yellow each 1 drachm and an half Carthamus 1 ounce Tartar of white Wine half an ounce boyl them in 2 pounds and an half of Spring-water to half Add of Rhenish wine 1 pound and let it be presently strained To which put of the best Senna half an ounce Rheubarb 6 drachms leaves of black Hellebore half an ounce the yellow of Oranges two drachms Make a close and warm infusion for 12 hours Let the Colature be kept in a Glass stopt The Dose from 5 drachms to 6. Within 4 or 5 dayes they may be repeated as occasion shall require Too often and violent purging destroys the strength spoils the Bowels and in the mean time removes not the Disease After once or twice purging if bleeding be indicated let it be done in the Arm or in the Haemorrhoid Veins by Leeches It is not much matter which Vein is opened for the opening of the Salvatella is not of such moment as is commonly believed All the tedious controversies among Authors about bleeding the Jecorary or Cephalick or any other which should be best are at an end since the Circulation of the Blood is known Phlebotomy is indicated by the plenty and badness of Blood which it is better to take away in small quantities at several times than to take a great deal at once For when the Sanguineous Liquor becomes very impure it is more certainly amended by no sort of Remedy than by letting of it often and in a small quantity because as often as the old corrupt Blood is taken away new which is better and more pure succeeds In the interim care must be had that it be not taken away in too great a quantity at once for when its store is hastily diminished sanguification fails so that a Dropsie or Cachexy follows Therefore since the greatest pains in Physick should be bestowed upon eradicating the cause of the Scurvy especially and upon its own account for this end moreover Digestives and Specifick Remedies or Antiscorbuticks as we intimated but now must be used at all times except the purging dayes to which if there be need Diaphoreticks or Diureticks may be added There are in Authors many sorts of Receipts of Medicines that perform these Intentions I have a mind here to recite some of the choicest which I have thought good to distinguish into two Classes according to the twofold nature of the Scorbutick cause namely the Sulphureo-Saline and the Salino Sulphureous Dyscrasie and first of all I shall treat of those that are proper for the latter sort of Distemper that is where need is of Medicines endued with a certain incitation and very full of volatil Salt Digestive Remedies which restore the ferment of the Stomach and help the functions of it and other parts serving for chylification and Antiscorbuticks or Specificks which remove the Dyscrasie of the Blood are either joyned in the same composition or at least are taken successively on the same day Among Digestive Medicines there are justly reckoned Cream of Tartar salt and tincture of Crystal Tartarus Vitriolatus Chalybeatus Elixir proprietatis Mixtura simplex The use of any of these twice aday does much good Moreover you may easily mix magisterial Tinctures and Elixirs of divers sorts both digestive and appropriate to the Scurvy with the two following Menstrua Take of rectified Spirit of Vitriol 6 ounces alkalisate Spirit of Wine 16 ounces Mix them and distill them in a Glass retort with 3 Cohobations Keep it for use in a Glass well stopped Elixir proprietatis is better made and more easily with the said Menstruum than the common way Take of Winter Bark Lignum Aloes lesser Galangal root each 2 drachms Cinnamon Cloves Cubebs each 1 drachm Seed of Bishopsweed Cresses each half a drachm When they are bruised pour on them the foresaid Menstruum till it stand 3 Inches above Digest them in a body in a sand Furnace 6 dayes Keep the Colature in a Glass well stopt The Dose is 20 drops in Canary or some proper Liquor twice a day Take of the whitest Amber Gum Ivie Carannae Tacamahacae each 1 drachm Saffron half a drachm Cloves Nutmeg each 2 scruples When they are bruised pour on them the foresaid Menstruum and draw the Tincture according to art The Dose is 20 drops as before Take of blew Salt of Tartar 4 ounces digest it in a body with 1 pound of Alkalisate Spirit of Wine to the extraction of the Tincture This may be another Menstruum with which you may make Elixirs out of Gums Spices c. in the same manner as you did with the former Menstruum While these sort of Medicines are given Evening and Morning another sort of Medicines that are Antiscorbutick must be given at medical hours that is at eight before noon and four after which for the most part we give in a solid and liquid form together taking the solid first and drinking the liquid upon it There are several forms and compositions of both sorts ELECTVARIES Take of conserve of Scurvy-grass Roman Wormwood Fumitory each 2 ounces powder of Winter's Bark root of Angelica Wake Robin each 2 drachms Species diatriωn Santalωn 1 drachm and an half powder of Crabs Eyes 1 drachm salt of Wormwood 2 drachms With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Citron rind make an Electuary Take of the Conserve of Scurvy-grass leaves Brooklime made with an equal quantity of Sugar each 3 ounces Troches of Capers of Rhubarb each 2 drachms salt of Wormwood Scurvy-grass each 1 drachm With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Juice of Scurvy grass make an Electuary I usually prescribe Conserves of the outer Peels of Lemons and Oranges of the purple flowers of the Ash-Tree of the flowers and leaves of Lady-smock of the root of sharp pointed Dock and English Rhubarb made with an equal quantity of Sugar which being mixt either among themselves or with other Conserves and Powders may go to the making up of such Electuaries as these Take of the Conserve of the yellow of Oranges of Lemons of flowers of Ash each 2 ounces root of Contrayerva 1 drachm and an half lesser Galangal half a drachm root of Aron 2 drachms Species Aromat Rosat 1 drachm salt of Wormwood 2 drachms With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Nutmegs make an Electuary The Dose of these
proper XIII Medicines I. WHether may Blood be let when People are in a swoon In a spurious Syncope which the stopping of the Blood in the Veins breeds which according to Hippocrates and Galen l. 4. acut must be esteemed twofold one from store of Blood in the greater Vessels another only from the Carotides and jugulars Blood must immediately be taken away ere it being deprived of its Spirits become concrete and the Disease be incurable as much as convenient considering the strength and fulness of the Body Which when done and a spare course of diet is followed we must divert what is contained in the Body to the lower parts and afterwards what concrete Blood there is we must make it fluid with drinking hot things and by gently rubbing the whole Body But in this case it is very rare that one can make the Blood fluid unless the Spirits be much stronger than before for if not or if the Pulse be bad it is a sign that the Blood is then concrete in which case we must wholly abstain from Blood-letting and make use of such Remedies as may make the concrete Blood fluid as Hares-rennet in water and Honey or water and Honey with Marjoram boyled in it with the addition of a little Oxymel or half a drachm of Treacle or Mithridate dissolved in the said water But if you be certain that the Blood is not concrete you can no way sooner bring the Patient to life again than by letting him Blood Which when you have done once if the Patient bear it well and if the Blood run high you may try the Remedy again till you find the Patient relieved but if no Blood will come you may reckon it is concrete and you need try no more II. A Woman as she saw her Husband fighting with his Neighbour fell into a Swoon I was called and by my order she was cured by Bleeding In this sick Woman the Blood had for fear and grief retired to the Heart as to a tower by which when the Heart is suffocated I have observed several have died both because the vital faculty is extinguished by too great abundance and because the Spirits cannot pass through the Vessels for want of which the extream parts grow dead In so great decay of Spirits let the Physician never omit Bleeding But â—f by reason of extream loss of strength and the abolition of the pulse in a manner the Physician be doubtful let Cupping-glasses be set to his Hips and Thighs with scarifications instead of Bleeding Fontanus III. It often counterfeits an Apoplexy but without ratling nor does it leave a Palsie behind it If it return often violently at length it oppresses and suffocates the Heart not only because the excursion of the Blood is intercepted by the plenitude of the Vessels but because some thick substance of the Blood being forced within the Ventricles of the Heart oppresses it which causes an Asphyxy in the motion of the Heart and Arteries This Disease is as frequent among the Germans as the Apoplexy from their athletick habit of Body which is contracted from their continual good fellow-ship and drinking Yet they take no care to take down that plethorick habit by Bleeding liberally And so no wonder if through such abundance of Blood Riolanus they fall into an Apoplexy or a Cardiack Syncope IV. Vinegar of Roses is not good for every Syncope for seeing contrary causes must needs be removed by contrary Remedies therefore it is manifest that the dissolution of the Spirits must be cured one way and their suffocation or infection another Wherefore we conclude with Capivaccius 2. pract cap. 9. that a Syncope coming from a dissolution of the Spirits may be very well taken off by the use of cooling things applied especially to the Forehead Face region of the Heart and Wrists in which case Vinegar of Roses is proper for Vinegar penetrates and Roses cool and concentre the Spirits But if suffocation be the cause attenuation and dissolution of the Morbifick matter is of necessity required which cannot at all be done by cooling things wherefore here we must have recourse to Cresses Nigella Mithridate Cinnamon water rubbing the extream parts c. If there be Malignity we must provide for the Heart by Bezoarticks No wonder then if in the absence of Physicians Patients often dye in a Swoon For it may so happen that the Spirits which are otherwise suffocated may by applying some common cooling Remedy be further conglobated about their principle and by this means the vital faculty may be utterly suppressed Horstius V. When a Patient is liker to one dead than alive so that he can neither open nor shut his Mouth much less swallow any thing as he should then it will be the best way to take some Aromatick Oyls either simple or compound mingled only and stirred together a little with rectified Spirit of Wine or more nearly joyned together by a greater artifice and long circulation and pour 3 or 4 drops into the Patient's Mouth and sometimes more and especially by a Silver or Golden pipe into the Throat to the end they may penetrate both into the Stomach and Guts from whence the cause of so grievous an evil is often dispersed to all parts and into the Pipes of the Lungs to the very Blood that sticks in the Pulmonary Vessels Sylvius de le â—oë and so correct and amend this urgent harm VI. A Noble-man complained to me that he immediately fell into a Swoon as he turned himself on his left Side and his Spirits were so far gone that he was got out of it with much difficulty When I inquired into the cause I reckoned some Melancholick Humour having some ill quality in it sent a poysonous Vapor from the Spleen to the Heart which must be the cause of this Malignant Symptome nor was I deceived in my conjecture For when he was put in a right course of Diet after his Body had universally been purged of Melancholy and particularly his Spleen by giving Medicines to open the Obstructions thereof and his Heart strengthened Riverius he was cured of it VII In a Swooning Fit sometimes such things must be given as powerfully concentrate the Spirits and acid Vapors and sometimes such as discuss glutinous ones Subtil things to the end they may penetrate to all parts may be mixt with them such are Spirituous things and volatil and Oyly Salts especially such as are prepared by art of divers parts of Animals or of certain Plants These are good Aromatick Tinctures drawn by means of rectified spirit of Wine from divers Spices or from any Aromatick parts of Plants or Animals either by infusion alone or also by destillation for example Take of water of Mint Fenel each 1 ounce Scurvy-grass Aqua vitae Matthioli each half an ounce Laudanum opiatum 2 grains Syrup of Mint 1 ounce oyl of Cloves Nutmeg destilled each 2 drops Mix them Give it by spoonfuls Let no
Alexipharmacks after And the Vomits must not be strong and malignant but gentle and made of such things as have a smoothness in them as water with common Oyl of Sesamum Nuts c. that if the Poyson have any Acrimony or Corrosive virtue in it it may be taken off and the internal parts guarded as it were against it such as the said Oyls or fat broth with a Decoction of Broom-flowers Milk Butter Radish and the like Nor is it sufficient to provoke Vomit once but it must be continued so long till no more signs of the strength of the Poyson in the Stomach can be found Sennâ—rtus from taste smell reaching pain and biting X. But Alexipharmacks or Bezoarticks are either 1. Resisters of putrefaction and things that preserve its oyly parts safe that it may not turn flat and that by inflaming and inlivening it and indeed the more volatil such as bitter Aromatick Oyly and Balsamick things are Angelica the Carline thistle Zedoary Myrrhe Opobalsamâ—m Juniper berries c. sharp Volatils Sulphureous and Saline things as Plow-man's treacle Garlick Camphire c. Spirit of Harts-horn Ivory c. and acid by concentrating penetrating together Juice of Citron Vinegar Acetum Bezoarticum And these are especially proper in Epidemick Diseases arising from a thorow putrefaction as the stench of dead Bodies also for Fevers in Lying-in-Women both for prevention and cure also in the biting of a mad Dog and of Spiders XI Or. 2. They hinder Ichorescence resolution and too great rarefaction of the Blood and so respect the tie and as it were the individual copula and conjunction of the Serum and Blood whether they be a little austere Astringents in which respect Tormentil and Bistort are Famous but not so convenient for costive People Or Mucilaginous as Cornu corvi Philosophicum Gelly of it Scorzonera or earthy Absorbents and precipitaters of the resolutive ferment as burnt Hartshorn Vnicornu fossile Bezoar stone Oriental and Occidental and the Bezoarticks of the Chymists which have no peculiar Alexipharmack virtue but only to soak up and disperse wherefore we must not alwayes trust them Or Acids which obtund the Sulphur of the Blood as acid Spirits volatil Spirit of Salt compound Spirit of Salt and Nitre c. Or Opiates which indeed especially joyned with other things deserve to be reckoned among Bezoarticks so they be given as they should and at a due time For if any thing do it certainly Opiates preserve the Bond of the Serum and Blood inviolable wherefore Treacle made without Opium does not cause Sweat nor answer expectation And these are very good especially in the Sweating Sickness a Malignant Epidemical Dysentery and in other Malignant Diseases where there is heat in the Bowels XII Or 3. They promote Serum and its motion and hinder its coagulation and thickning by boyling if I may so say such as besides some of the foresaid things that make it fluid as Salt or Nitrous things or volatil both Urinous and Mercurial ones as native Cinnabar Cinnabar of Antimony Mercurius fixus diaphoreticus For it must be observed as a rule In Malignant Fevers wherever the Serum is as it were coagulated and then no Sweat can be got but all things are burnt up as it were Cinnabarines prudently mixt with other Bezoardicks do mightily promote its fluidity But if the Blood incline to dissolution and ichorescence they must be wholly avoided nor are they safe or to be trusted in the convulsive motions which then follow from which very thing a vast difference in their power of acting arises And things that increase it in substance or quantity and refresh and dilute it as distilled waters Decoctions Infusions and especially Emulsions which in Malignant Diseases are of great advantage to this very end For unless this Serum be restored which it may be by plentiful drinking so it be not too much all endeavours besides are to no purpose and sleep especially cannot be recovered but a violent delirium must of necessity arise from continual waking and then convulsive motions These things are good in general for Poysons either given designedly or taken by mistake by defending the Heart and preserving the tone of the Blood inviolable and for Malignant and Pestilential Fevers Hungarian Spotted Fevers of Lying-in-Women Small Pox and Measles and such contagious and ill natured Diseases XIII No one Alexipharmack does equally resist all Poysons and therefore no more must be attributed to any than what experience can testifie There are indeed three of general use which a good Physician cannot be without The Bezoardick Tincture in a liquid form Treacle and Mithridate in a middle form whither the like Electuaries Orvietan c. may be referred very antient Medicines approved by so many ages and therefore though they be made up of a strange Medly of Ingredients not lightly to be rejected In a solid form Bezoartick powders but great prudence is required in giving them XIV The promiscuous use of Alexipharmacks is not convenient therefore the distinction of them according to their strength is necessary into Volatil Middle and Fixt Therefore Weisselius in Crato's Epistles 248 wisely distinguished such Medicines into a twofold Classis namely Of Absorbents or of Hydroticks and Sudorificks properly so called which except it be done a great deal of ambiguity and controversie must arise yea and by this means the application will be worse than Empirical XV. In the beginning Volatils are most needful for greater penetration and quicker discursion Also where the Malignity is intimate when nature ceases from expulsion of the Fever Spots Small Pox or Measles or these exanthemata seem to go in with difficulty of Breathing oppression at the Heart c. In the progess more fixt ones where namely there is most need of alteration and precipitation especially about the state and declension when the Tumult is laid Watry things are of a middle nature and may be joyned to either XVI The more temperate and mild are most proper for Women with Child Infants and weak Persons and where the Blood enclines most to Ichorescence Wherefore when Treacle is not proper Diascordium Fracastorii as a more temperate one has place Where there is no place for Tinctura Bezoartica though it may be qualified there a Bezoartick powder may be given For if too Volatil things be given to such the rarefaction of the Blood is the more increased and so further mischief may arise XVII Poyson is not removed only by Sweat for the Serum must not be wasted too much Wherefore neither hot things alone nor temperate things alone nor sweating alone with any Medicine whatever is sufficient In which thing both the vulgar are mistaken who think they can do all things with powder of Carduus Benedictus or Harts-horn and the Physicians also who weary their Patients with continual Sweating for all things should be done according to Nature's duct and indication XVIII We must not trust too much to Medicines made of Serpents
c. 5. when the Stomach will not retain the Meat sayes it is best either to drink Wine cold or else very hot Which yet must so be understood as when the stomach is either empty or full of Phlegm we must abstain from cold Things which according to Hippocrates are enemies to the Nerves and then hot drink nourishes the innate heat and concocts crude Phlegm but when one is full Rubaeus comm in loc cum then he must use cold Things wherewith by antiparistasis the heat is gathered and made stronger XXI I have known some who have endeavoured to consume and dry up the matter with Oyl of Vitriol because it most violently dries and cleanses and indeed at first the Patients find benefit for they perceive by using of it that the Stomach is astringed their appetite encreased and the matter of the Fluxion abated but I know at length they have become Cachectick to say nothing of other Diseases Truly I have ever suspected the caustick Virtue which remains in that Oyl prepared even according to the Doctrine of Paracelsus I have indeed used it sometimes in Diseases proceeding from very crass Phlegm but I would perswade no man by the continued use of a few drops to spoil the moderate heat of the Stomach which is designed for Concoction and corrupt the goodness of the Blood For if we may make our conjecture of internals from externals what is it that boyls in the Chimney but heat And that Acids corrugate the Mouth of the Stomach and excite Appetite we know from the use of Vinegar Such therefore as constantly use this Oyl although they may flatter themselves for a time in the goodness of their Appetite and drying up of Defluxions yet at length and in process of time they are forced to acknowledge Gr. Hofmâ—nus to their sorrow the harm done to their Stomach and other Parts XXII For strengthning of the Stomach Chymists likewise commend Spirit of Vitriol of Venus which they call the Hungry Acetosity of Venus or Spirit of Hungarian Vitriol And they write of it that it is of such Virtue that it consumes all the Impurities that are in the Stomach whether Tartareous or Sulphureous and strengthens the Stomach so much that it is able to concoct all things But all this is hyperbolical And though it be often given with advantage yet Caution is necessary for it must not be used in every weakness and Disease of the Stomach but where there are gross and tartareous Humors which it consumes and afterwards by Astriction strengthens the Stomach But we must have a care that we do not over do it and that the radical moisture of the Stomach be not dissipated and wasted by it which often happens upon the unseasonable and excessive use of Spirit of Vitriol Sennertus XXIII All strong destilled Things must be avoided which seem indeed to do good but they shorten life because they far exceed the degree of innate heat and all Remedies ought to consist in Mediocrity For the gentlest Medicines in a diseased and languishing Stomach want not danger Crato cons. 106. especially in old People XXXIV It is the Custome of some that if at any time they eat any thing hard of Digestion or that will surfeit presently to drink some generous destilled Water as aqua vitae or the like to help Concoction but this is done not without hazard of Health for seeing the said Meats use not to be digested but by a long stay in the Stomach such Waters as these do by their penetrating and permeable Virtue carry these Meats not yet well concocted into the Veins whence proceed crudities and obstructions Thus Physicians do aright forbid the giving of Diureticks with Meat or immediately after Meat lest they carry the crudities of the Stomach to the urinary Passages And the reason is the same in Waters that are taken to promote Concoction because of the great aperient Virtue they are indued withal Therefore Rondeletius cap. de palpitatione We may saith he give such things inwardly as heat the Stomach and discuss Wind which thing must be observed for 3 or 4 hours before Meal we may give things that heat much and discuss Wind so the Liver be not very hot such as diatrion pip dianis aromat rosat diagalanga and the like These things should not be given immediately before Meal because by their heat and tenuity they would presently hurry with them the Aliment half crude to the first wayes Hence it is evident that they are in error who give very hot Powders after Meal which should be moderately hot Aetius l. 3. serm 1. c. 24. says neither this nor any other Medicine which penetrates much must be taken after Meal for some crude Meat is distributed and digested with it and causes Obstructions The use of it is convenient after rubbing in the Morning two hours before Exercise and Bathing What we said of things difficult of Digestion is applicable to things easily corruptible such as horary Fruits They are likewise in an Error who when they find Wind and Crudities upon their Stomachs drink these Waters to heat and strengthen the Stomach for by the tenuity of their substance they easily penetrate into the Bowels and increase their Intemperature whereupon their Disease afterwards encreases You will object Physicians prescribe Pepper bruised grossly and that Aetius used Wormwood for hypochondriack Winds but Pepper doe good this way because it reaches not to the Bowels but only strengthens the Stomach and therefore heats not the Liver Then its heat is extinguished and quickly dissipated in the first wayes and it cleanses and carries off sharp Humors Wormwood is good because it binds the Stomach and helps bilious not phlegmatick Humors which afford matter for this Disease by its detersion Primirosius and carries them off by stool and Urine XXV This must be observed concerning those they call digestive Powders that too strong things are not convenient in Diseases of the Head caused by Fumes It is best therefore to make them of things that are not much scented and to abstain from such things as have Musk Amber Saffron and other Things that fly to the Head in them But I blame such as put Liquorish in them for although it quench Thirst and have a little Astriction in it yet sweet Things make lax the Mouth of the Stomach and breed Wind. I also blame them that add Nutmeg and Mace because they are oyly Things and all such subvert the Stomach It is not amiss also to add Faenil and Seseli seed to Powders that discuss Wind and to digestives ones as also to other Powders because they attenuate the visory Spirits but we must be sparing in the use of Cummin Carroway and Rue seeds because of the too ingrateful taste of Cummin and the too great acrimony Let them be steeped in Vinegar Rondeleâ—â—â— if Powders be made for digestion of Meat XXXVI The breeding of much Matter in the Stomach
Aristolochia rotunda ¶ This is a sure Remedy for Ulcers with worms in them Take of Savin 2 handfuls Camphire half a drachm the middle rind of an Hazle 1 pugil Boyl them in a sufficient quantity of Wine pour it into a Vessel put the Ulcerous Foot into it and immediately little Worms will come out Swimming upon the Liquor Repeat this several times Joh. Agricola and the Ulcers will be cured 2. Black earth Snails which are found creeping among the leaves and grass without Houses in Spring time Enzelius mashed together and applied to Ulcers soften all Ulcers wonderfully 3. To inflamed Ulcers apply the narcotick Spirit of Vitriol which is made of calcined Vitriol and Spirit of Wine mixt together and putrefied in a close Glass for a Month. This Spirit separated is good not only to allay all Inflammation Faber and pains of Ulcers but of the Gout it self 4. I take water Frogs and hang them in a Cucurbit so as they may not touch the bottom and burn and so the water which is drawn off get a strong Smell I put fire under it and draw it off gently in Sand and keep it for use For it is most precious in malignant and cancrous Ulcers also in a Polypus Ozaena and in Ulcers of the pudenda and sedes it extinguishes Inflammation and corrects malignity I put not out the fire till they be perfectly dry and no more water will come over but I keep that which comes last by it self for it smells something strong and is not so grateful in Ulcers of the Mouth and Nose The Frogs thus dried I put into a melting crucible and burn them to white ashes They are good not only to stop Blood Guil. Fabricius but in all malignant and sordid Ulcers for if they be strewed thereon they cleanse and correct malignity 5. This is a most excellent Oyntment Take of Oyl of unripe Roses 6 drachms Myrtle unguentum populeon each 3 ounces leaves of Plantain Nightshade each 1 handful shred them and mix all together let them stand 8 dayes shaking them every day then strain them add to the colature of wax 4 drachms Mix them upon the fire till they melt stirring them with a stick when it is warm add of Litharge of Gold 6 drachms Ceruss 2 drachms prepared tutty 2 drachms Camphire 1 drachm and an half Mix them in a Mortar for 2 hours Eust Rhudius 6. The root of Dragons is excellent for Cacoethick Ulcers 7. The juice of Pimpernel with the purple flower Poterius with the Herb bruised and applied to malignant Ulcers perfectly cures them Rhumelius 8. Mercury precipitate corrected is a singular Remedy against all Ulcers 9. Many in a deplorable condition have been happily freed from their Ulcers by a decoction of Mint wherewith the Ulcers are washed Morning and Evening and afterward some powder of Rue strewed on Mart. Rulandus ¶ Oyl of Sulphur and Emplastram Diasulphuris anoynted and applied does the same 10. Some cure the most desperate Ulcers with this mixture They take of Mercury sublimate 1 drachm they powder it very fine they pour to it the best rectified Spirit of Wine 1 pound They set it in a Glass Body in Sand till the Sand grow hot and the Spirit of Wine burn They boyl also a drachm of Lignum Guaiacum in 3 pints of water half away when the water is cooled and filtred they add the said Spirit of Wine Sacâ—â— which mixture is applied with lint and tents to the Ulcers 11. Take of Salt of Litharge it is prepared as Sal Saturni with destilled Vinegar 1 drachm Spirit of Turpentine 2 drachms macerate them in hot Ashes till the Liquor grow red It is of admirable vertue in inveterate Ulcers Tumours Schroderat and Wounds 12. I have often experienced the following Plaster to be good Take of Vnguentum diapomph diapalma griseum each 1 drachm gum Elemi 2 drachms Saccharum Saturni 1 scruple a little Wax Mix them and make a Plaster ¶ Spirit of Wine especially is excellent in deterging and cleaning putrid Ulcers Sennertus and therefore should be mixt with other Medicines 13. The following unguent is effectual in absterging Ichors and foulness of Ulcers Take of juice of Parsly half a pound Myrrh 2 drachms Turpentine 1 drachm and an half Boyl them all together make an unguent wherewith rags and tents may be smeared and put into the hollow of the Ulcers Valleriola this cleanses well without any harm Vomitus or Vomiting The Contents Bleeding is good for some I. The efficacy of a Cupping-Glass II. It must sometimes be cured by Vomiting III. The efficacy of Clysters in stopping one IV. When nourishing ones must be given V. Cured by Elixir Proprietatis VI. Stopped with Medical Waters VII With a draught of cold Water VIII The way to stop it when caused by corrosive Poysons IX How when caused by a Malignant quality X. In Scorbutick Persons it is better stopt with Milk than with astringents XI How it may be stopt when the meat is cast up because of the depression of the Cartilago Xiphoides XII The stopping of it when a Vomit works too violently XIII A periodical vomiting of black Choler stopt by the use of Lenitives XIV One caused by a great laxity of the Stomach cured by eating of biscoct bread XV. The cure of one caused by the obstruction of the Arteries of the Spleen XVI A pertinacious Vomiting of Meat from the palsie of the Mouth of the Stomach XVII Some is stopt by a Narcotick mixt with a Purge XVIII Cautions about anoynting the Stomach XIX Plasters are better than Oyntments XX. When the Stomach refuses necessary Medicines how they may be kept XXI The cure of one coming from a Malignant Fever XXII When Meat may be given XXIII Some Vomiting is Idiopathick some Sympathick XXIV The cure of it when something is bred in the Stomach XXV When it comes from a sharp and hot matter XXVI From the fault of the Stomach that corrupts what it takes XXVII From the resolution of the Stomach and the nerves being affected XXVIII How Laudanum must be given XXIX Medicines Barbette I. BLeeding must of necessity be celebrated in an Inflammation of the parts otherwise it does harm ¶ A young Man of a good habit upon the breaking in of a hot matter out of the right Hypochondrium fell suddenly into vomiting and could be cured by no means but by Bleeding though the Physicians were very doubtful about it for after it the intemperature of the Liver ceased A Seaman who had a vomiting and an appetite could not stop it by setting a Cupping-glass to the bottom of his Stomach but only by taking away some Blood for when the hot evaporation of the Liver was abated Rhodius which did pierce the upper orifice of the Stomach the Patient recovered II. A Countryman 34 years old fell into frequent vomiting after his Meat which lasted for some dayes so that he
effectual ¶ In whatever cause Bread tosted dipt in Vinegar of Roses and bestrewed with powder of Mint Cloves and Roses is good ¶ This is a certain experiment and reckoned as a secret by some After the takeing of Antimonial Medicines which vomit too much to give a spoonful or two of Spirit of Wine Sennertus and it gives present help 9. Dried Coriander infused in Vinegar does admirably in a hot cause Stokkerus 10. Sower Leven soaked in strong Vinegar and juice of Mint applied and renewed twice or thrice most certainly stops Vomiting by Purging and due Revulsion Varendaeu◠11. A few Coriander Seeds in Vomiting after the taking of a violent Medicine Welkardus have an admirable property to stop it if they be chewed Vomitus Sanguinis Puris or Vomiting of Blood or Corruption The Contents Purging is good I. It must not be stopt in all II. Things that are hot and of subtil parts must be put into the Applications III. Oyly things are hurtful IV. Vinegar must not be given alone V. Caused by swallowing a Leech VI. From the Spleen VII The Cure and Prevention of Vomiting of Pus VIII Medicines I. GEntle and frequent Purging must be celebrated whereby the Blood is purged from those serous and bilious Humours which produce this Disease Which kind of Purges celebrated by a prudent Physician do wonders as I have learned by experience And they must be made of Rheubarb Myrobolans Tamarinds and triphera Persica which Medicines purge and bind and no way disturb the Humours so that you need not fear any vomiting of Blood will be caused thereby Riverius II. There were two Women at Padua who the day before their Menses came Vomited Blood they perceived the Vomit before it came which if the Physician tried to stop Rhodius divers Symptomes would arise and go away with vomiting III. In Oyntments Epithemes and other applications we must take care that they have some heat with their astriction for though the flux be stopt with cold and astringent things yet this is done upon taking the indication from the function of the part that is the Stomach and from the time Cyperus Spike Cassia and Cinnamon are the best among other Astringents For besides that they preserve the nature of the part they help also the penetration of the astringent and cold things which are of gross parts IV. In vomiting of Blood the use of Oyls is suspected because they open the orifices of the Veins rather than close them Therefore Aloysius Mundella denies Oyl of Sweet Almonds to all that vomit Blood Bartholinus V. The use also of Vinegar alone is suspected because it exasperates the parts and raises a Cough whereby it promotes a new fluxion Therefore it must be sweetned with Honey or Sugar VI. A Country-Man was ill of Vomiting of Blood that would give way to no Remedies for several dayes The Physician being desirous to carry off the Blood that was gathered in the Stomach by vomit prescribed him 2 ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds which made him vomit and he brought up clotted Blood and a Leech also that moved upon the ground Riverius Obs 26. Cent. 4. This was an unknown and rare cause of vomiting of Blood The Patient said afterward that he drank of a rivulet where he had swallowed a Leech with the water VII In the year 1662. I saw in the Town Boudri within the Territory of Newenburgh a Notary fifty years old who vomited at one time a pound of clotted black Blood and as he said he had vomited as much the day before His Stomach was then squeamish with a sense of a load wherefore I gave him a little warm Oxycrate for there was nothing else at hand which brought up no less quantity Because the strength was good I prescribed him a bolus of Conserve of Roses with I drachm of the powder of Rheubarb which brought away a great deal of clotted Blood mixt with the Stools Then I proceeded to strengthners For Preservation I ordered him to Bleed at the Haemorrhoids twice a year for the flux came from his Spleen as the swelling of it returning at times did testifie giving him Chalybeates and openers of Obstructions He followed this wholesome advice for 2 years which being neglected the third year his vomiting returned with greater violence which deprived him of Life I have known many sayes Dodonaeus cap. de Absynthio l. hist stirpium who have brought up Blood by vomiting I remember I saved one or two by my advice after once vomiting and indeed by the frequent use of Worm-wood all manner of wayes VIII The excretion of Pus by Vomit and Stool must not be stopt but gently promoted seeing it is an Humour toto genere preternatural and every way hurtful to Man But the new growth of it must be hindred as much as can be since it is bred of Blood the fewel of our vital flame and the food of all the parts of the Body as well containing as contained Among all things which move or promote excretion of Pus I prefer and commend Antimonial Medicines for I have often observed that they have not only a virtue of correcting the mischief which comes from Pus but also of hindring the breeding of new Pus for rightly prepared and administred it serves no less for the purifying of Man's Body than for purifying of Gold Also Balsamus Sulphuris Anisatus and any other stops the continual generation of Pus out of corrupt Blood if 2 or 3 drops be taken several times a day from which also the cleansing and certain healing of the Ulcer may be expected and perhaps more certainly than from any other Medicine To this end also Antimonium Diaphoreticum will conduce Sylvius de le Boe. and any other altering Medicine made of Antimony and a Balsame artificially made of its flowers Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. To stop vomiting of Blood I gave these with success Take of Mummy 1 drachm juice of Horse-tail 1 ounce water of Plantain Horse-tail each 1 ounce and an half After the Patient had drank this cold his Bleeding and Vomiting stopt ¶ To a Woman who brought up her Menses by vomit I gave this Clyster for diversion Take of Chicken broth wherein a few Prunes Raisins and Aniseeds were boyled Cassia for Clysters 1 ounce oyl Olive of sweet Almonds Chamomil each 1 ounce common salt 1 drachm Sal Gem. half a drachm the yolk of an Egg. Mix them Make a Clyster She recovered beyond expectation with this one Remedy But every Month before her vomiting came Forestus she was bled in the Foot 2. Practitioners use to apply Remedies to the Spleen as I have observed from experience when the Patients have vomited great quantities of black Blood the vomiting has been presently stopt by this Plaster Take of Barley flower A corns root of Comfrey each 1 ounce and an half blood-Dock 2 drachms Plantain water and red
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
ready to be suffocated through obstructions of their Nostrils as it often happens In which case when neither oil of sweet Almonds dropt into the Nose G. Wolf Wedel Misc cur ann 3. observ 14. nor Majoran Water instilled thereinto had any success this Medicine accomplished my desire Cardiacks or Cordials See Alexipharmacks before The Contents Their nature and differences I. V. When to be used II. The abuse of Volatils III. IV. The abuse of Moschates VI. I. SEeing those are Cordials that succour the labouring Heart we will premise 1. That the Heart and Blood are fellow causes and are not to be severed as some do 2. That the Blood consists of two parts a calidum or Blood so called by way of excellency and an humidum or serum in which two alimentary Humours our Life and Health consists nor is there any other innate heat or radical moisture besides these indued with their vigour and vital ferment 3. We shall call those Cordials that dispense the Blood and heat whereof the Heart is the fountain and do dispose the consistence of the Serum and the motion and vigour of both They are therefore such as either 1. rarifie the Blood when it seems to fail in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brightness and is weak when its Sulphureous and volatil Mercurial and Spirituous particles are either obtuse or not vigorated in a sufficient degree such as these are good in languishings of the Heart lassitude with malignity old age Paleness Cold Cachexie Ague-fits weakness anxieties when the motion of the Heart fails as it were as it does often in malignant Fevers when there is a recourse of the malignity to the Heart or in driving out the Small Pox or Measles c. Of this sort are 1 Sulphureous volatils and those either Spirituous as the Spirit of Roses the apoplectick water of Roses Brandy c. or oleous indued with a volatil oleous roscid Sulphur which use to be called in one word Balsamicks as Lignum Aloes Camphor Myrrhe all Odoriferous things which have an immediate commerce with the Spirits Spices Cinnamon Cardamom oil of Cinamon Mosch Amber also Treacle Mithridate 2 Saline Lixivials as Salt of Worm-wood of Scordium of Carduus Bened. c. which together with a precipitating vertue do natably also rarefie the Blood and reduce it into order whence they are excellent febrifuges and sudorificks 3 Vrinous Saline Volatils which are almost the most powerful of all as the Spirit of Harts-horn of Sal Armoniack of Soot of Vipers of Hart's or Mans Blood these also being mixt with oleous and so being made oleous volatil Salts have the same vertue Hither belong also fetid Medicines whether Sulphureous chiefly or also Urinous which are good in Fainting and Hysterical Fits and the like Observe that the rarefaction of the Blood denotes two things 1. the restauration of the failing Spirits which is chiefly done by Balsamicks and Sulphureous 2. the vigorating of the motion and fluxility of the Serum chiefly which is especially done by Salines Or 2. Such as hinder rarefaction which as the abovesaid restore the Sulphureous Balsamick and Mercurial volatil Particles in the Heart and Blood so these depress blunt and precipitate them when they are too fierce and high and they are either 1 Aqueous diluting and restoring the Serum the defect whereof renders amongst other things the rarefaction greater as temperate Cordial waters the water of Endive Sorrel aq Herc. Saxon. frigida Whey c. which being dispersed through the Blood do somewhat enervate the volatil Parts Whereby it is clear that Juleps and Small beer also it self ought to be granted in a larger quantity in Fevers and the Patients are not to be so strictly compelled to thirst Or 2. Aci d which are of the chiefest rank among these whence it may be for a rule An acid tameth or dulleth Sulphur as the juice of Citron and Pomegranate acid mineral Spirits the Tinctures of Violets Roses c. Or 3 Nitrous which in like manner infringe and debilitate Sulphur promote its exaltation and notably attemper it and vigorate the Serum restoring it to it self as Lapis Prunellae nitrum antimon perlatum c. Or 4 Earthy absorbing and precipitating as Corals Perles pretious Stones Bezoar c. And these maintain their place in all kinds of Fevers and are excellently good for other bilious ebullitions for Choler doth most of all rarefie the Blood as in Distempers proceeding from anger in Madness deliriums Phrensies burning Fevers c. Or they respect the consistence of the Blood and are 3. such as hinder its resolution and preserve its consistence that is ready to be violated whether by concentrating the Sulphur as acids whence these are most especially convenient outwardly in hindring the resolutions of the Spirits and are good in Swoonings colliquative sweats and when the Blood is turning to Ichor with Mador c. such as are those already mention'd but especially simple Vinegar and Vinegar of Rue c. also things actually cold outwardly cold water the water of Roses Or by attempering the Serum as watery Medicines especially Emulsions which have somewhat Mucilaginous in them whence they are of very great use in Malignant Fevers especially where watching and delirium are urgent Or by strengthning as it were the band of each the Serum and Blood by gently concentrating and collecting of them as Mucilagâ—nous and earthy Astringents also temperate Balsamicks as for example Harts-horn prepared Philosophically Ivory prepared without Fire Gelly of Harts horn Bole-Armene Sealed earth balaustins and amongst hot things Cinnamon vitriolum Martis which enjoy also an earthy quality Hither belong also Opiats themselves for it is found by the experience of Practitioners that Laudanum Opiatum is very conveniently given in the resolution of the vital Spirits and Blood but only in a small quantity that by this means the further dissolution of the Spirits may be hindred We have seen wonderful effects thereof in the Fainting Hysterical and others These may be mixed either with Spirituous analepticks as confectio Alkermes that by this means both the dissolution may be hindred and matter supplied to the Spirits or with earthy absorbents and resolvents that on this manner also the consistence of the Blood may be respected Or 4. They are resolvents that hinder dissolve and dissipate the clodding and as it were curdling of the Blood whereby it is stopt as it were in its motion they hinder the incoction of the Serum and so by removing also some impediments mediately help its rarefaction and they are both the Balsamicks already spoken of and also some resisters of putrefaction as likewise watry diluters but especially terrene Medicines which otherwise are profitable in falls from on high Pleurisie c. viz. Corals Crabs Eyes antimonium diaphoreticum c. Acids also for these are of a middle nature as it were both coagulating the dissolved Blood and dissolving the coagulated For in both cases the Blood does clod as it were
happens commonly in six or seven days time and then they draw a tincture from it with distilled Vinegar And they chuse Acids as Vinegar juice of Citron or Lemons on this account because as Acids dull the Acrimony of the Humours so also the vertue of Narcoticks and fix and suppress the stupefying Spirits whence in soporiferous Diseases or soporiferous poisons the use of Vinegar is profitable and Vinegar and Acids are the Remedy of drunkenness it self I will speak here what I think First as to that drying and slight roasting as it were of the Opium if which yet we ought to be sure of first there be some heterogeneous parts in Opium some whereof are more hurtful than others I will not indeed be against the toasting of it if it be done so as that the Narcotick Sulphur whose vertue is desired be not dissipated and an ineffectual Body be left behind The correction that is made by Acids is suspected for although I should grant this that acids infringe the vertue of Narcoticks and are good in soporous Diseases yet that is not desired here but the soporiferous vertue which if no harm lie hid under it is to be left altogether entire and therefore not to be infringed by Vinegar Therefore as yet I see no reason for rejecting that preparation which is made with Spirit of Wine impregnated with aromata because the Malignity of the Narcoticks is sufficiently corrected thereby Nor let the Narcotick vertue of the Spirit of Wine offend any one for the Spirit is all separated and we use it to separate the Sulphur or Narcotick part of the Opium from the faeces and impurities and when it is separated the vertue of the Aromatick Species wherewith the Spirit of Wine is imbued remains joyned with the Opium Sennert Pract. l. 1. p. 2. c. 1. and corrects the malignity that is therein and strengthens the Heart and other Viscera ¶ Horstius tom 2. p. 561. makes his Laudanum Opiatum of Opium extracted with distilled Vinegar adding the extract of Saffron and Magistery of Perles with the oyl of Vitriol which he gives under the title of Laudanum Opiatum cum Magisteriis to eight grains for the highest dose From the time sayes he that I begun to practise I have alwayes used to fly to Opium rightly corrected as to the only refuge in the greatest and most dangerous Diseases in continual Fevers with a total want of sleep with restlesness and when the strength was almost spent obs 22. l. 1. de febr in the most vi lent Colick pains in a stubborn Bleeding at the Nose obs l. 1. de febr in the overflowing of the Terms Dysentery pains of the Joints Tooch-ach Hysterical convulsions an hidden Cancer Phrensie Melancholy Madness great wounds and great Chirurgical Operations yea also outwardly in stanching the Blood of wounded Arteries See obs 3. l. 10. Barthol Ep. 46. cent 3. XXVIII The famous Remedy of Opium bears away the bell from all in driving away watchings and in stopping too great evacuations both of Natural and unprofitable Humours No errour can be omitted therein if the just dose and fit time be observed but if people doat perhaps the latest weakness will be imputed to it sometimes some things that deserve it not are reputed for the causes of a mans death though they rather fall in with the time of death than are themselves the causers of it Thus in continual and malignant Fevers we have observed that the death of the Patient has been ascribed to the malignity of this generous and heroick Medicine although given in a just dose yet at a wrong time Rolfink lib. de febr c. 106. namely in the agony so that he whom Fate slew was thought to be kill'd by this Remedy XXIX Though as Galen shews 5. simpl 18. there be divers kinds of Narcoticks some whereof act by a manifest quality as Hemlock Mandrake others by an occult or by their whole substance as somniferous Night-shade which are rarely used by Physicians yet Opium is the principal Narcotick as being least hurtful if corrected I use it more securely being thus prepared seeing according to the opinion of some Physicians the crude hath an exulcerating vertue it is first to be dried and to be freed from its excrementitious moisture under which its exulcerating vertue lies hid Where yet we must note the fire is to be administred warily lest it contract an Empyreuma or be quite calcined and so the anodyne Sulphur which it has hid in in its Bowels be lost afterwards let it be extracted with distilled Vinegar which draws forth the Salt and Sulphur of the Opium for the Spirit of Wine only extracts the Sulphur and leaves the Salt untoucht whereas its vital strength is in the Salt Frid. Hofm m. m. p. 439. and by means of the vinegar the tyranny of its malignity is fitly tamed withal XXX Seeing it would be tedious to reckon up all the species of lesser hurts that Narcoticks ever use to do we will only rehearse here those mischiefs which by their improper unseasonable use happen sometimes in the Head or in the Breast or in the lowest Belly As to the first it is commonly enough known that the principal functions of the Soul viz. memory discourse and sharpness of wit are often notably hurt by Narcoticks the frequent use of them weakens the memory in many I knew a man that lost that faculty quite by taking too large a dose of Laudanum in a Fever I know that some have by this Medicine contracted a dulness or stupidity of wit and others madness And the reason why Opium is devoured by the Turks in great quantity without any harm or however without any danger of life is because its particles though at first inimicous and poisonous to the Spirits yet by frequent use become at length more agreeable and familiar as we observe concerning the smoak of Tabaco taken in a pipe for whereas at the first it uses to causes giddiness and often Vomiting or Purging yea cold sweat with trembling and often faintings yet after a while we take it without disturbance yea with great delight And the reason why a larger dose of Opium adds courage and notable boldness to them so that they can enter upon a fight without fear I say the reason seems to be Willis Pharmac Rat. sect 7. c. 2. because this Medicine by somewhat stupefying the Spirits makes them amazed so that they can undauntedly endure the approaches offensible things howsoever terrible XXXI That Opiats are sometimes inimicous to the praecordia and Breast is clear enough from hence that they depress and diminish the pulse and respiration and sometimes cause them to faulter and by degrees to cease utterly Wherefore in Fevers where the Blood being â—o ably depraved promises either no crisis or not a good one and withal affords only few and weak Spirits to the Animal government Narcoticks are almost always hurtful and poisons as it were For though in
to a due purgation three things are required 1. An effectual Medicine given in a due dose time and manner 2. The ways ought to be open otherwise there is either no purgation or such as is troublesome 3. The Humour ought to be disposed and it is so if it make no resistance against the Medicine as if it be not tough thick clammy or mixt with the Blood or other Humours whereby its motion may be hindred Therefore thin Humours are in their own Nature most easily purged out but they are mixt either with the Blood or other Humours or the ways may be shut and obstructed wherefore these are to be opened and then the Humours to be evacuated are to be separated from the rest Now concoction is twofold one wherein the Humours are reduced to benignity that they may nourish the other wherein they are made apt for expulsion If we speak of the first we must concoct thin Humours that they may return to mediocrity therefore they are to be incrassated If of the second thick Humours are rather to be attenuated because they resist that which would move them but not the thin because they are easily moveable as Galen in the fore-cited place teacheth But if thin Humours be mixed with the Blood they ought first to be prepared and whether they be so is known 1. by the Blood that is let if much ichor separate from it 2. When these Humours are separated there ensue Itchings Blains and Scabs 3. If the Urine be ruddy and thick it is a sign that thin Humours are mixt with the Blood but if it be plentiful Primiros l. 2. de Feb. c. 9. thin and clear it is a sign they are separated and prepared X. Whether ought an altering Medicine in one dose be so strong as the quality that it should change in the Body I answer if it can reach the part affected and that without the hurt or prejudice of the adjoyning parts then it is altogether lawful so a beginning Erysipelas that has seised but upon one part may be presently expelled by a strong cooler and the heat of the Stomach likewise But if it cannot conveniently reach to the part affected without having its vertue weakned and without the hurting also of the neighbouring parts we must alter by giving the Medicine at several times J. Walaeus m. m. p. 93. XI Let Alterations be made leisurely so as not to begin at the highest degree that is the third sometimes we alter in the fourth But let us begin at the first and proceed from the first to the second from the second to the third if the two first will not doe otherwise the highest degree would easily become familiar to Nature and afterwards she would not be helped by weaker things Idem p. 95. XII We cannot alter every thing with every Alterative for alteration is made by conjunction and perfection hence if Medicines be to alter 't is necessary that they be mixed with the Humours to be altered if they require to be mixed they ought to be like to the Humours not in respect of qualities for so they ought to be contrary but in respect of the constitution Therefore let those things that are oily in our Bodies be altered with oleous things the watry with watry the Salt with Salt Nor need we add hot things to hot if we say that Salt things are to be added to Salt for there are Salt things which are cold Idem ibid. such as Nitre and Borax XIII During concoction retentions of the excrements are profitable and evacuations hurtful as being contrary to concoctions Wherefore we must shun their practice who by continually soliciting evacuations by Clysters and other Remedies Valles m. m. l. 2. c. ult give no leave for concoction XIV The bilious Humour requires cold preparers yet these do so hinder purgation that we must sometimes abstain from them especially just before it is time to purge On which account even in cholerick and acute Diseases we must seek for an opportunity to give hot Medicines as the decoction of wild Majâ—ran Penniroyal c. We shall therefore use cold syrups for the Acrimony of the Humours but things that attenuate and incide when we would only make the Bodies fluid Mere. de praesid med to wit just before purging ¶ Choler both the natural excrementitious and also the preternatural and the excessive Sulphureous oleous parts of the Blood in a word a bilious cacochymie as it offends by its heat is digested by watry diluters sharpish and other temperate things but if it be too tough also by inciders G. W. Wedel des m. fac p. 12 and bitter things as in the Jaundise if too thin by sharpish and earthy mucilaginous things ¶ Choler is to be temper'd both on the account of its Acrimony and on the account of its volatility increased The Saline lixivial Acrimony of the Choler is most powerfully temper'd by acid and sowr things more gently by oily and spirituous which yet often it is not safe to use seeing they are apt to increase and cherish the burning of the Bile and Blood unless the oyls be first fixed Therefore the only safe temperers of the Acrimony of Choler will be acid and sowr things such as are amongst vulgar Remedies Sorrel Wool-Sorrel Plantain c. amongst Chymical I commend Alum and its Spirit as also the Spirits of Vitriol common Salt Nitre Sulphur c. distilled Vinegar as well simple as prepared with other things The too great volatility of the Choler may be diminished by fixers Sylv. de lâ— Boe Append. tract ◠§. 711. and especially by the even now mentioned acid and sowr things amongst which the Spirit of Nitre is perhaps the principal excelling all other acid Spirits in fixing XV. We must see that the unpleasantness of Apozems be not troublesome to Nature for it often happens that the Remedy is ungrateful to Nature and does more hurt by spoiling the appetite and overturning the Stomach than good by the impression of its vertues which neither does it bestow intire seeing through its ungratefulness it suffers a repulse from Nature and cannot be brought thither whither it was directed by the vehicle Therefore the Ancients out of so great a multitude of Remedies chose and brought into use a few that might allure Nature by their sweetness and by their pleasantness might imprint their vertues more deeply whilst they should be received into the more familiar embraces of Nature for Nature refuses unpleasant things as we may see in aliments Moreover they are to be disallowed when they are prepared besides the purpose for opening obstructions of the viscera to which the cause of the Disease is not referred but to the stoppage and constipation of the pores of the Skin whence there is a retenâ—ion of fuliginous excrements which is followed by putrefaction Add hereto that whereas they chiefly provoke Urine for of this vertue are the opening roots therefore called
answer In the preparation many parts of the Vitriol are separated from the Spirit whence we cannot observe all the effects in the Spirit that are seen in the Vitriol intire and some may be seen in the first that are not taken notice of in the latter Vitriol vomits the Spirit stays vomiting So Sulphur is inflammable its Spirit not so yea it rather resisteth a flame The Spirit of Vitriol hath an eroding faculty if given alone but that is common to it with other Liquors as Vinegar the juice of Citron c. Your Acidulae or Mineral Waters are drunk with profit that have their vertue from Vitriolick Spirits It is safely given in convenient Liquors It s hotness is corrected while its particles are severed by a mixture with Water or other Liquors in that proportion that an hundred particles or atoms of Water are mixed with ten or twelve of the Spirit 2. The Medicine was not known to Antiquity yea * x. m. c. 2. 11. c. 9. Galen suspects the use of Vitriolate waters in putrid Fevers because being applied to the Skin they both cause an astriction of its pores and too much heat the Body Answ We must not therefore reject it because it was not known to Antiquity Galen disallows of the external use of Vitriolate Waters because they constringe the Skin 3. He says there are safer Medicines Answ The Spirit of Vitriol is safer if it be taken in a due quantity That it has done good in Fevers there are innumerable witnesses few say that it has done â—urt It does not as yet appear that there are safer Medicines 4. The too great astriction that was in the Vitriol is also in the oyl now astringents do harm in putrid Fevers Answ The astriction in the Spirit is not so great as to do harm there rather seems to be none in it all acids do not astringe yea they attenuate deterge take away obstructions loosen the Belly it cures the flux of the Belly not by binding but by strengthning and condensating there proceed indeed effects from densation that are like to astriction but are not astringents and acids are different But suppose it astringe there is no danger from thence for the inciding attenuating and opening parts are by far the more powerful 5. Viâ—riol is poyson according to Dioscorides Answ It is Poyson in a large sense in which all things that kill by their quantity are called deleteries c. Rolfinc Ep. de febr c. 136. where more objections are made ¶ Spirit of Vitriol being given indecently and too long puts on the nature rather of a Poyson than a Medicine Being added to Humours that boil already enough of themselves just as if you mix this Spirit with the Gall of some Animal Rolfinc cons 2. l. 4. p. 405. it causes greater disturbance and procures a quicker ascent of vapours XXIV Chymists make Universal and general Digestives of Tartar as 1. It s cream and Crystals 2. The magistery of Tartar vitriolate 3. Misiura simplex But these are not truly such it is safer to rank them in the number of particular Digestives They are not good in a bilious Cacochymie and for salt sowr and acrimonious humours In those they may increase the ebullition and do harm They are more profitable for a simple cacochymical melancholy but not so good for a Pontick and Acrimonious which has the seeds of fire in it As much as they avail to incide thickness so much they irritate fervid and adust humours and hurt by inflaming Rolfinc meth gener c. p. 477. They are in some sort good for phlegmatick humors XXV The Cream and Crystal of Tartar absterge incide thick and tartareous Humours open obstructions and loosen the Belly and either of them is a pleasant Medicine if a drachm thereof be given in the broth of flesh or in boyled water with a little butter in it with three four or five grains of Diagridium or extract of Scammony it will give the liquor a somewhat acid taste The Crystals are not so acid nor so diuretick as the Cream and therefore they are safelier given when the body is not purged Sennert Epist 28. cent 1. the dose is from a scruple to a drachm XXVI As to the Crystal of Tartar let the younger Physicians note that it is of greater efficacy than is commonly believed seeing we seldome make use of it in our practice through the carelesness of Apothecaries and deceit of Pseudochymists or those common distillers that sell chymical Medicines to Apothecaries none whereof almost is sincere but all adulterate The carelesness of Apothecaries is for the most part so great that they chuse rather to buy the Crystal of Tartar of those distillers than make it themselves though no preparation of Medicines in the whole art be easier because it is sold them at a low price whereas it would stand them dearer to make it Now the cheat lies in this that those Impostors put in their decoctions but a little Tartar and a great deal of Alum not that Tartar is dearer than Alum but because Tartar yields but a little quantity of Crystals whereas Alum will all of it run into them Hereby are Physicians disappointed of their end seeing Alum is indued with an astringent vertue that is contrary to the opening faculty that is desired by them And another hurt is done this Medicine that this sort of Crystals is drawn out by decoctions made in Brass pots whereby the malignant quality of the Brass is imprinted upon the Medicine For it is a very well known and vulgar precept of pharmacy that acids be not boyled in brass vessels because they easily penetrate and draw a certain tincture from the brass that is very hurtful But the Crystals of Tartar are very acid and by some are named Acidum Tartari And yet this errour is very commonly committed even by the Apothecaries themselves for almost all that make these Crystals with their own hands use brass vessels so that I have seen some Apothecaries have Crystals of Tartar of a Sea-green colour from the Verdegriese that had been drawn from the Vessel wherein they had been made Therefore Physicians will consult for their own conscience for their esteem and the health of their Patients if they make Apothecaries make the crystal of Tartar with their own hand and in Glass Iron or earthen Vessels River pract l. 11. c. 4. XXVII Though I leave every one to his own judgment and experience in the use of Tartar yet by long use I have found that there is more of an opening and loosening faculty in Tartar it self than in its cream or crystals drawn by the solicitous hands and thoughts of Chymists seeing in boiling and by so many washings its purgative vertue that rests chiefly in its earthy and saline parts does most of it vanish inâ—o the thin air I prescribe opening herbs that are defin'd for the Spleen or Liver to be boiled in pottage
Purgative parts of the Spirit have returned by way of precipitation in the Stomach or Intestins to the former habit of their rosm especially if any thing was drunk cold upon it and the precipitated Particles sticking in the coats of the Guts cause griping and a weakning of the Faculties whence they often create Swoonings Convulsions and Tremblings and unless they be absterged in due time and their fierceness be dulled superpurgations Idem CVI. There must needs be some salino-sulphureous stimulus in Purgers that may solicit Nature to excretion for we observe that the vertue of Purgers is obtunded by Acids which is a manifest sign that by this means their saline and sulphureous stimuli are infringed Thus Hellebore Coloquintida yea Antimony it self or rather its crocus and glass are corrected and mitigated by the Spirit of Vitriol or distilled Vinegar CVII There are not a few even Practitioners who think that purging Medicines as often as they operate not when they are taken hurt very much which Opinion I now laugh at because Experience hath taught me the contrary c. For Purgers if they be given duly that is in convenient quantity time and measure will always benefit never hurt the Sick though they do not presently purge out any of the offending Humours Sylv. Append tract ◠§ 234. See the title of Sudorificks for in such case they alter and correct them and prepare them for a kindly evacuation afterwards CVIII If Choler abound in the Body in the Spring-time seeing it is to be feared lest by the following heat of the Sun it be poured too plentifully out of the Gall-bladder and many Diseases arise hence a Prudent Physician will lessen the choler and that chiefly by Stool as a more accustomed way and a more easie manner but not by Vomit unless in those that use to vomit and do it easily who are commonly made to vomit even by Catharticks themselves Idem m. m. l. 1. c. 15. CIX That Antimonium Diaphoreticum hath a Faculty to open Obstructions is true but it does not this of it self but when it is mixed with Purgers For it is certain that Antimonium Diaphoreticum being joined to other Purgers does increase their Purgative vertue so that a less dose of them may serve without any griping of the Belly As for instance If to half a scruple of the root of Jalap you add three or four Grains of Antimonium Diaphoreticum Frider. Hof man Clav. Schrod p. 306. it will work as much as if you gave a Scruple of the Root alone Purgers The Contents The fermentation of Purgers varies their Dose and Vertues I. Whether Aloes open the mouths of the Vessels II. Whether it purge the whole Body III. Whether it hurt the Liver IV. Whether to be given presently after Meat V. Whether it need correcting VI. Whether to be washed VII It is hurtful in a dry intemperature VIII The correction of Agarick IX The Seed of Carthamus hardly purges X. Cassia is a Purger and not a Lenitive XI Cautions in the giving of it XII Whether it be diuretick XIII To whom it is hurtful XIV Catholick or general Purgers XV. How to correct Coloquintida XVI Dwarf Elder Elder and Flower-de-Luce hardly purge XVII Hellebore needs a stimulus XVIII It is commmly given in too small a dose XIX Purging Ointments to anoint the Belly with are not safe XX. Whether Extracts be to be preferred before the Substance XXI The vertue and manner of giving Crystals of Luna XXII The great Hierae are not safe XXIII Hydragogues are for the most part hurtful XXIV How Jalap is to be given XXV It should not be given when the humours are in motion XXVI It is safer to use it than Scammony XXVII How its Rofin is to be used XXVIII Whether it operate in Infusion and Decoction XXIX Whether Lapis Lazuli be of the Number of Purgers XXX To whom Manna is hurtful XXXI At what hour to be given XXXII Whether it evacuate only thin humours XXXIII Cautions to be observed in its use XXXIV Mechoacan is an Excellent purger XXXV Wine hinders its operation Ibid. How Merc. dulcis mixt with Merc. vitae becomes a Cathartik XXXVI 'T is safe to use Mercurius dulcis XXXVII Mercurials are the best Chymical Hydragogues XXXVIII The vertues of Merc. dulcis XXXIX Other Purgers are to be joined with Mercurials XL. Mercurials are not proper for all XLI The Virulence of precipitated Mercury XLII Myrobalans are not to be mixed with strong purgers XLIII Whether to be chafed with the Oil of sweet Almonds XLIV How gentle Pills of Aloes are to be taken XLV A neat preparation and correction of Gummi Gotte XLVI The efficacy of a Laxative Ptisan XLVII Pulvis Cornachini is a safe medicin XLVIII The temperature and correction of Rhubarb XLIX It s substance purges more than its infusion L. Its purging Vertue is not taken away by roasting of it LI. It affects the head LII Scammony when diluted with Broth is very hurtful LIII It is the best Purger being rightly corrected LIV. How it is to be given XXV When Senna gripes LV. What Dose is sufficient LVI It is not offensive to the Stomach LVII The correction of Turbith Vid. Sect. IX In what time the Infusion Syrup and Honey of Roses are to be finished LVIII Whether the Syrup of Roses be a Lenitive or a Purger LIX The Syrup of Roses made of several Infusions does not cool LX. Syrup of Violets made of repeated infusions is to be preferred before that made of their juice LXI The abuse of Wormwood-wine Where is treated also of the abuse of Purges and Clysters LXII Wine is fittest for preparing potions of Resinous things LXIII Simple Extracts are better than compound LXIV Extracts are somewhat sluggish in their Operation LXV A Caution about infusing Senna and Rhubarb LXVI Potions made of Electuaries are more certain and safe than those that are made of Infusions LXVII 1. IF purging Medicins be given alone they ought not to exceed the highest Dose if they be given with others if there be no fermentation neither then is the Purger to be given beyond its highest Dose But if there be a fermentation we may exceed the highest Dose because the Vertue of the Purgers is refringed by fermentation Thus the highest Dose of pilulae foetidae is a Drachm and an half wherein Euphorbium is given to fifteen Grains whereas the highest Dose of it self alone ought not to exceed twelve Grains But these Pills unless they be fermented are not to be given in this Dose The Hiera of Alexander is compounded of Aloes Agarick Polypody Opopanax Sagapenum Hellebore Coloquintida Scammony But some make a doubt of Scammony For Alexander adviseth when we give a Purge to mix nothing with it for a Stimulus such as is Scammony for the Purge is rendred unprofitable by the Scammony or Stimulus For when we would purge Phlegm or Melancholy which matters are purged with difficulty 't is not beneficial
incide and attenuate mucilaginousness especially the Spirit of Salt these also free the first ways from that notable mucilage that lines the Stomach which they carry either to the passages of Urine or dispose to go out by stool 2. Alkalines and Enixa which on this account are called Saponaries these do notably carry away and absterge the Lees of the Blood as Helmont speaks the tincture of Tartar the arcanum of the same Tartar vitriolate c. 3. Aromaticks as others so especially carminative which use to profit both inwardly and outwardly in those cases yea both the now mentioned things do so conspire as it were in this third vertue that they procure a free course to the Blood and that the Serum be not hindred in its office whence also bitter things and other belong hither these also correct that dullness and deficient spirituascencâ— and aerescence of the Stomach or rather of the chyle and do especially avert Scirrhus's of the Spleen and are of principal efficacy in Quartan Agues and its Symptoms that arise from hence For it cannot be but when either the Blood is too much fixed by acids or the oily Balsamick particles of the Chyle are not separated slimy thick tartareous excrements must be bred and be fasten'd here and there but especially in the Spleen 4. Hither belong also Abstergers Diureticks and Nephriticks likewise for it is certain both that in the Hypochondriacal a gravelly sandy matter that proceeds from the tartareous muddiness of the Blood is separated with the Urine and also that most who are troubled with the stone are Hypochondriacal withal and that antihypochondriacks are proper for these also IV. From these things it is clear both that any specificks in general and in particular spleneticks and Antihypochondriacks are not all of them proper for all Persons for like as either austere and acid Humours or Lixivial Volatil and middle such as chiefly cause colliquative sweats or the muddiness of the Blood offend more so likewise doth the application of these vary so as that if a man proceed in order and apply them promiscuously he shall rather load the Patient with Symptoms than relieve him V. Volatils as well others as Antiscorbutick do often hurt the Splenetick and even the Scorbutick themselves This is clear from what has been just now alledged for if the Hypochondriack person have a Blood that is full of Saline Lixivious and Alkaline atoms if he be troubled or abound with an over fluxil and volatil Serum those thing indeed are not good whence 't is an errour to administer Antiscorbuticks indifferently Hence I have often seen all the Symptoms that were hardly allayed as preternatural heat watchings c. raised anew by the Spirit of Scurvigrass which had also been used hand over head for the extracting of other Aperitives for instance of Steel VI. Acids are often good and so it cannot be said simply He is hypochondriacal therefore no acids are to be given him Hither belongs Lipsius's Encomium of the Spirit of Vitriol Cent. 1. Epist 81. for when through a sedentary life he had contracted a great sliminess of Blood whence also he voided by Stool glassie Phlegm he used the Vinegar of Vitriol with no bad success Likewise temperate and absorbing and diluting Remedies are profitably administred to these Hence Servius Inst Med. c. 3. I have sometimes benefited the Hypochondriacal rather by cooling than healing Medicines by Whey Mineral Waters and other things whereby the heat of the Hypochondres might be temper'd and so neither are these things to be administred without the active nor those without these temperate Remedies The Serum is to be attended to in all cases that it be neither defective nor abound too much with saline Particles VII But the Spleen requires stronger Aperitives than the Liver This is the affirmation of Galen which though Mercatus oppugn and grant it only of the external use yet it is true where either the Spirits and Blood are fixed or sliminess is Predominant in the Blood hence for instance the Spirit of Sal Armoniack is very profitably given to the melancholick even in drink VIII Those must use motion that take Steel-Remedies and the Excrements of the Belly are to be considered Motion I say must be used that the sluggish Humours may be excited and the Medicine may be better actuated and descend but this is principally to be meant when they are taken in a dry or solid form for then unless motion be used they do not work well And the Excrements must be consider'd because they are tinged by Steel-Medicines so that they are voided black because of the Vitriol that is drawn out of the Medicins which is a manifest token that there has been a resolution thereof made And it is to be noted that they are not to be given in substance and a dry form except the Stomach be strong G. W. Wedel de s m. sac p. 107. so that if I may so say it can bear and concoct them Sâ—illicidium or Pumping The Contents It is a very effectual Tâ—pick I. We must have regard to such Indications as forbid it II. To whom hot Baths are hurtful III. How cold Stillicidia are to be used IV. To what Parts they are chiefly beneficial V. What Part of the Head is to be exposed to them VI. The manner of administring them VII The Patient must not sleep the whilst VIII What things are to be applied afterwards IX I. STillitidium or Pumping commonly called Daccia and Gutta and improperly by some Embroche which signifies Perfusion from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wet is that form of Medicine whereby there is made a destillation of a liquid Humour from on high like a showr upon some part It is agreed by all that this Stillicidium excells any other form of external Medicine as to its activity and that indeed justly because through the motion of the matter falling from on high the Skin waxes hot and the Pores are opened whereby is made the greater impression The occasion of inventing this Remedy was twofold the one the resistance of the Distemper as to other forms and manners of acting through the stubbornness of the matter or it s too deep situation the other the disposition of the Part it self to which the Remedy was to be applied when through the obstacle of the Bones it suffers not the vertue of a Medicine to reach to the part affected unless it be administred with motion on which account Galen 13. Claudin Append c. ult Meth. c. 22. commends this manner of administration chiefly in the Head II. The Prohibents are many and 1. a Plethora and Cacochymie 2. An Ulcer and all solution of unity yea and sometimes an evil composition of the Parts But it is particularly forbid for the Head by a vertiginous Distemper by a suffocating Catarrh or an hot Catarrh because seeing upon the account of this it ought to be cooling it might do a great deal of harm to the Brain