the Vitals of which an undeniable Proof is the depression of the Spirits and sick Qualms of dangerous consequence if immediate relief be not given Nor is this all for the Blood as I said before being the very Mansion of the Spirit of Life as the Scripture it self bears Witness you part with your dearest Friend under pretence of expelling an Enemy which yet you can never do this way tho' you should draw it half out no more than you can fine thick muddy Liquors by such unlikely Experiments For what 's left is as bad still But we daily see when by a lively Principle within they have work't out and thrown off all that is of a contrary Nature they fine and grow clear without any more adoe and then are at rest as all Agents are when they have attained their end Another common Practice is Blistering and Sweating which tho' not quite so bad are yet without use but not without danger For as it is impossible to draw out inward fiery Venoms unless they were beforehand mounted near the Skin by an outward Application which only attracts Watry Substances So considering this Distemper as such a fiery Venom 't is hereby depriv'd of the Moisture necessary for its Latitude and Allay in both which respects 'tis of vast concern to keep it within that joining with the heat or unnatural fire they may between them from an Air and so rise with ease and safety to the Patient And being thus temper'd and allay'd they are generally of a large sort that don't leave deep Marks Whereas were the the Moisture drawn off as the Heat wou'd grow violently intense so neither would it without great force breath out But circulate and prey on all it finds within to the utter extinction of the Lamp of Life I know the general Incentive both to Blood-letting and Blistering is that the Fever is high and they fear it may get into the Head and these are of great use to prevent it as also to hinder such a number of Small-Pox from coming out I grant indeed there is a likelyhood of these Sulphureous Fumes in their rising to get into the Head nay of making the Patient talk Idly too for they are of an intoxicating Nature but of no more Danger than the Fumes of Wine provided no Errour be committed to make them strike back For when they come to the Superfices of the Skin the Watry and more Aerial Part which as a Vehicle helpt it thither easily passing through the Pores Wings away and the other being Sulphureous and gross receiving a check from the Air settles there in its own Fiery from and then the Head is clear and settled the Spirits brisk and lively the Appetite pretty good and the Fever abated As for the other Advantage pretended of preserving a good Face I have more than once observ'd this That when Physitians by Drawing-Blood or giving cooling things c. have sunk the Spirits and hinder'd the kindly coming out which is never so well as at Natures first attempt the Patient on the return of the Venom growing Heart-sick and opprest almost to Death to gain the Point they have lost they have been forc't to double their Files and heap Cordial upon Cordial which being Common Preparations and so not divested of their own unnatural heat as they ought to be have increased the Fever and drove out more than can well be maintained And these Pit most are a very smal sort and of great virulency and danger Because Nature now having done her utmost if she be baffled once more a thousand to one resigns But that I may comprize all in few words whatever rebates drives back stupifies dejects overcools makes great discharges of any kind or on the other hand whatever over-heats drives out too forcibly and fires the Spirits is directly contrary to these Distempers which ought so to be manag'd that the Natural not Unnatural Heat be assisted the former being the very Agent that must do the Work which if allow'd A Medicine rightly qualifi'd ought to have these properties That it be stript of all false fire which would assist and heighten the Distemper That instead thereof it be plentifully furnisht with the Salubrious Principles of Life and Sanity readily joyning in this extremity with that Vital Spark within us That it be of Ability to clear the first passages insensibly in the Operation yet most sensibly in the Effect For this is no time for Violent Means That it likewise be endow'd with a Power to compose and quiet the Spirits by bringing to equality and unity the Principles which are at Variance And not as Opiats which stupifying the Senses for a while detain and tye down not only the Spirits but the Distemper hindring its going off in its proper season and Nature from assisting so that when its Somniferous Virtue is spent you find you have lost time the Patient only growing sensibly weaker but the Distemper remaining in its full Vigor and more Fatal And that in a word by its innate Virtue with God's blessing it can bring you safe thro' this dangerous Disease to your desir'd Health and a more than ordinary Strength and such a Medicine is the Panacea of which the following Discourse Treats Some Account of a Universal Remedy THE Contemplation of Man's Body tho' Dead in its wonderful Structure by Anatomical Display is a curious View But the consideration of him alive in his vital Form and Spring of Action enlivening the whole is a more Elegant Review 'T is to my purpose at present to behold him inform'd with the principle of Coelestial Fire enkindling vital Airs and stretching 'em thro' the whole Circumference promoting thereby an animal Nourishing Heat to every Organ of the Body and by a Magnetick Love panting after the Universal Breath of the World and sucking thro' the Medium of the Air a continued Reparation of Enlivening Beams to his Central Spirit from the Fountain of Life and Form the Sun Having thus United the Lesser to the greater World by joyning breath to breath my design is to shew how this inbred Fire is maintain'd may be enlarg'd and when perverted and wrought into a destructive Heat and Fire against Nature by Art may be reclaim'd to an Oleose Soft Nourishing Heat from its harsh inrag'd consuming Fire But before I proceed I must take care to keep under the warm influences of the Sun and regard him as the common Parent of us all and the Soul of the World a Globe of Central Sulphur Gloriously Illuminating dark and shady Bodies I had almost aid Understandings too whose Masculine Principle endow'd with an hidden Fecundity bestows quickening Virtues on all the scatter'd Natures of the Earth whereby numberless Efficacies and vital Breathings are convey'd thro' Spiritual Channels for the avoiding Corruption and replenishing them with Light Adequate to that Tincture of Light which powerfully informs mixt Bodies So that He may truly be call'd the Heart of the Universe deriving Life to
all parts and impregnating decaying Nature with new Vitality This Magazeen of the Empyrean Heaven where the Light first seiz'd upon matter fills with Light and Life the soft and yeilding Natures of the Air which cannot be suppos'd a nothing or an empty space but an Essential Body of its own admitting of great Powers and Virtues where the matter is swallow'd up by its Form and Translated into a Nature almost Spiritual For where Form and Matter meet in equal poise or just Equality the matter 's rescu'd from all Blemishes and Accidents and freed in a wonderful manner from Infection and Corruption The Air thus richly stor'd with beams of Life and Universal Sperm supplies the various kinds of being on the Earth according to the strength of their Specifick Magnets And it does so superabound in Principles they cannot take em off her hands and she so lusts to be Imbodied that where there 's an aptness to Congelation she 'll strike the form of her Spiritual Essence As I have strictly observ'd the Rime in an Hoar-Frosty Morn exactly shot into Stiria which are the Signatures of abounding Volatiles And now 't is time to derive this flowing Bounty to the Sons of Men who lift up their Heads to Heaven for Life and Breath and all things and well they may for I know not where else they 'l feed their vital Flame Since nothing more humours the Tincture of Life in Man or his animal Fire than the Nutritive beams from the Sun For that Spark of Original Sulphur which transmutes into Redness the Mass of Blood is the Spring of Natural Fire and radical Moisture and the Sun in the little World Man discenter'd from the great Luminary But held in Life by the intercourse of large Breathings whereby he repairs his Store from that inexhausted Fountain In vain then shall I look for a fit Remedy amidst the Domestick or Exotick Drugs for Man By Food he may and must supply a Faecunda Terra but this is but dunging the Ground by Respiration he must support his Vital Air. Having thus pointed out the Noblest Principle of Life in Man I wou'd give a little aim at a suitable Medicine adequate thereto as the most apt to repair and set him right when decay'd or over-power'd and of such a Nature are the undetermin'd Sulphureous Sparks of the Universe collected at certain Seasons of the year when the Air is richly impregnated but the manner of attracting and further knowledg of what is taken together with the Artful handling of the matter are too curious and troublesome Niceties For who wou'd take the pains to reunite Atoms and consult the Poise so strictly in the cotempering of Principles as just to give the Dominion to a living Sulphur but such a temperament obtain'd becomes a Medicine Spiritually fixt and a noble Preservative against the Spirit of Diseases and its consequent Materiation by contact with material Thus our internal Air maintain'd by Art upon Nature free from disturbance or Venoms is always salubrious and pleasant It plain enough appears that the truest Medicine for the Life of Man is a well exalted Sulphur whereby it becomes Spiritualiz'd not Volatiliz'd But betwixt these two words lies seven years labour with brains too 'T is sufficient then to suggest the Nature of it that it may appear at least harmless Since I assum'd this Notion of Sulphur as the most Essential Principle of Life I have revolv'd again and again the most powerful Specifick Sulphurs especially those of the Mineral Nature which are difficulty enough obtain'd in Purity and notwithstanding Art they will retain some Portion of their Specifick Venoms which are not to be destroy'd but by the Death of the Species So strongly is Nature determin'd to the preservation of her Kind I could Instance in many of 'em that retain very Churlish Qualities after all the pretended Art about them such as Vomiting Purging Sweating c. meerly as Venemous to our Bodies tho they are banter'd off as having a Contest only with Offending Humours I have us'd 'em in my Practice and know as well what they are and can do as another After abundance of Experiments and Tryals for the attaining of Noble Pleasant Medicines I must confess I think my self not a little Fortunate in my Art of drawing down from the Sun and Air plenty of illuminated Sulphurs and in my Skill of ordering 'em so as to result in the most effectual and pleasant Remedy which is Preservative Curative and Restorative able at once to season the whole Fountain so as to cleanse it self and all its streams Far unlike to other Medicines which are reputed Good for some One Disease and that mistaken kill instead of cure But this Medicine dilated in an appropriate Vehicle is render'd dispensable to all Persons under any Circumstances and as salubrious as the most refin'd Air. And this I call my Panacea which I think abundantly more difficult to make than to make it appear to be of such General Use as the Nature of the Thing imports and the Experience of it can attest But I 'le not much concern my self to gain Proselytes I would have it valu'd only at the Rate of its Real worth and my self not too much undervalu'd for being the Author of it Universal Matter once obtain'd may be Reasonably thought productive of a Universal Remedy Now no passive actuated matter is undetermin'd and I have already declar'd against Specificks and Dead Matter is not for my turn The Living Permanent Active Matter of the World is my Subject which after 't is render'd fusible by Art penetrates the very Center of Life bringing with it the Riches of Superiour Orbs Generously enriching Nature's Store with Beams of Life and Balmy Fire enlarging her Magnetick Virtue whereby she Vigorously attracts both Air and Common Food assimilating them to her wholsom Nature Hereby tender Stamina Vitae become Robust the body haile and strong quick and bright able to dispel diseasie Forms and resist their first Attempts For the due Feeding and Maintaining the Animal fire in its Resplendent Lustre at once forbids all Jars Discords False Fire c. and gives a Free Enjoyment of the body in all its necessary and pleasant Actions Truly to sweeten unite and strengthen the Mass of Blood is of huge Advantage And 't is not Vomiting Purging nor Steel nor Alkalisate Powders nor washing with Waters will do the Business A Course of pure Air with Temperance bids fairer and many are relieved thereby But to restore Essential Sulphur the Origin of the Tincture of the Blood and subdue fixt Salts inferring Corrosive Fires and renew and increase a sweet Vital Air is the Work rather of a Philosopher than a Phisician For the doing of all which this Panacea is a Compleat Medicine altogether Philosophical and an entire Dispensatory Having now Regal'd the Spirits with this lively Mellow Remedy from so good a stock we may derive fresh Vigour to the branches Plumpness to the whole and
cause every part to rejoyce with 'em for their Nourishment depends so much on a wholesome Fountain that Health or Diseases are communicated to 'em according to the decay or strength Purity or Impurity of it And what a Catalogue of Distempers is assign'd to the sundry Organs of the Body and Elaborate Methods and Medicines for their Cure When as a well inform'd Principle of Life benignly darts at once kind Rays throughout the whole assisting with proper Vigour the Faculties duely to separate what ought to be discharg'd through the cleansing Ducts and refine and purifie what should be retain'd What need then is there to run out the Ordure by Violent Purgatives and the wholesome Juices too sharpened and envenom'd first by Physick even to the Excoriation of Bowels and damage of the adjacent parts Many are mistaken in this Point and many take the Advantage of it The blood is not at all purified thereby nor sweetened but often exasperated and fretted by such Contraries Besides the bowels well fill'd keep out Wind Cholicks Gripes Twistings and many more Disorders And what Hurt in the Congestion of wholesome Food It seems to be the design of Nature by the Length Windings and Position of the Guts in such order that there should be due Retentions Digestion in Dung we that experiment by Heats know to be the Truest and most Natural The Scituation then of the Great Gut call'd Colon the last but one and the Amassment of the Feces in it lying under the Great Organs of Digestion and Separation shew that Nature had a design from that warm bed to comfort and assist the Neighbouring Viscera For such as are always flurting and jerking their bowels with purging Physick less than one yard of a strait Gut from the Pylorus to the Anus had been better for them Nevertheless I don't say but discreet Evacuations at some times are truely Necessary for some and the Drinking of Cleansing Waters in their Seasons as Epsom North-hall c. The Danger of Vomits Diaphoreticks Blisters Salivations improper Bleedings Opiates internal Stiptick Medicines c. ought to be discover'd but I 'le pass 'em by at present for the very thoughts of 'em Jar my Nerves Since I can with this Remedy keep the stomach and bowels clean from Choler Flegm and Wind and make a quick and clean Digestion what needs Vomiting and Purging 'T will cause a Generous Transpiration No occasion then to melt and waste the Nourishing Iuices with Provokers of Sweats sometimes to a Colliquation Faintness and Death 'T will cleanse and strengthen the Glands first separate flowing and unclean Serosities then keep 'em Tite from an Overflowing forbear to swell inflame and corrupt 'em by Salivation with Mercury or to distort Nature by forcing a little water through the Skin with Blisters And if this proves an Antiferment 't will often save the Hazard of Bleeding in many Diseases It helps to sound and undisturbed sleep No Use then of Opium It reconciles great disorders and always is on Nature's side No need then of Iron Chains to bind an Enemy in your breast While some lay on with Vomit Purge Blister Clyster Helter Skelter blowing up pulling down like the Insurancers from Fire I can deal with Life so subtily as to touch her to the quick yet so kindly that instead of crying Oh! I sweetly feed her Vital Flame and give fresh Vigour to her Languishing or Fretted Spirits And from a Rich Store-House derive 'em strong and mellow to all the withering and enfeebled branches Reconciling Feuds and Quarrels by giving satisfaction to every disturb'd Member of the Body All the Juices thus enrich'd are Supple Generous and Quick All the parts supply'd with both are Agil Plump and Strong I have been more than Twenty Years a Great Seeker of Medicines and have been at Great Expence every way about 'em and have at any Rate possess'd my self of the Reputed Best And I sincerely profess I slight 'em all for this knowing it to be a Truth in Nature and Art and as great a Truth in Practice The Height of common Chymistry is to mount a Volatile Salt that is quick pungent and fugitive This Medicine is no such thing But being greatly enricht with spiritual Sulphurs and retain'd by its own Magnet is permanent and fusible yet innocent and efficacious But that the design'd Benefit of this Discourse may not be lost I must for the sake of some persons descend to particulars To Declining Age when the Fire abates and Moisture Clouds and Cold Diseases prevail with the Decay of Organs by the Impoverishment of Spirits through their often Eclips'd and declining Sun Nothing more aptly repairs the Central Fire and Radical Moisture whereby not only Diseases are dispers'd but the whole body is replenish'd with proper Nourishing Juices So as to recover in some measure Quickness and Strength of Parts at least to furnish 'em with Good Appetite strong Digestion liberal Expulsion of Wind Large and Clean Breathings free from Clammy Tough Humours Clarity of Brain and Senses and an entire dissipation of the Winter Diseases So that Prolongation of Life and pleasant Enjoyment of it need not to be doubted since God gives means thereto Therefore to be perswaded at Seventy to sit quietly down with the Common Wear and Tare of Nature is more than needs For such hail Principles as could reach thither may with timely good Repair pass on I know not whither To such as are coming into the World as well as those that are going out and bring with them hereditary Diseases or an unthriving Nature 't is of singular Advantage For next to the benefit of being deriv'd from Parents of a sound and strong Constitution there is nothing more beneficial than to convey by their first Food Fundamental Principles of Health which may prove as lasting as their Lives To be drank by the Nurses while the Children suck 'T is a Compleat Medicine to such as have a general disorder or decay of body and spirits and know not where to lay the blame For Consumptive Persons and those endangered by it aptly suits all their Complaints and needs no Second provided there be a proper Regimen and careful avoiding of injurious things For in a Hectick the blood having suffered a great dissolution and separation the Spirits of it are turned into a kind of Wildfire which flies about and wanting allay burns and consumes a person almost to Nothing Now this excellent Medicine here becomes a Peace-maker sweetly attracting back again by Vertue of its Magnetick Quality the dispersed Spirits and by reason of its likeness to the most constituent parts of the blood joyns it again and determines its Action within its own proper Sphere And then all things go well and Symptoms disappear Thus this Distemper commonly accounted incurable is forc'd to yeild the Victory to this salutiferous Remedy In every Scorbutick Distemper 't is very available and acts as variously as the Scorbutick Form is various for being a Medicine truly Natural Nature can use it any way to her own benefit And it is so Fortunate that it cannot be taken to amend the blood but 't will into the bargain communicate Health and Vigour to all the parts of the body For Fevers of all sorts especially malignant 't is incomparable Whereas in the use of other Medicines these Distempers hold a considerable time with imminent danger and often end in Death I have many a time with great pleasure beheld this Noble Medicine surprising us with its admirable Effects taking off common Fevers in a few Days sometimes in 24 Hours totally And as for malignant Fevers it secures the Vitals from being overcome by their Venom and keeps 'em up through the whole Course of their sickness from running very low Here I omit to account for the Small-Pox because of the Preceeding Discourse Yet I may say thus much That I have had five Patients at one time sick of the Small-Pox and through the blessing of God on this Medicine not one miscarried altho I did not visit after they were out having never had 'em my self but only gave directions to those who attended ' em I might mention the several Concerns of Women and Virgins to whom I abundantly dispense it But here I 'le only particularize that restless and uneasie distemper of Vapours for which 't is valuable by removing the Cause in reducing the parts distended and expelling those Fumes that fly upwards I might add how it obliges Women in Labour and Lying-in assisting in all their Circumstances and is the most Natural Cordial The bare Experience of ir for Cholicks Cholical Dispositions and tender Bowels how it recovers the strength of Fibers gives a Liberal Expulsion of Wind and makes the Belly always easie were a sufficient Character For melancholy people such as are Dropsical short-breath'd Asthmatical Paralytick Lethargical Apoplectick and many others as tho I had nam'd them all 't is abundantly qualify'd But I chuse rather to nullisie than enumerate Diseases 'T is as easie and pleasant to take as Canary and may be us'd as Entertainment all the while receiving health and pleasure No one can injure himself with it And 't is so loose and free from Physical Rules and Hours that it ought not to be rank't with the unpleasant Crew of Medicines But reposited with the most Delicious Wines From my House in Great Carter-Lane
A Short DISCOURSE Of the Rise Nature and Management OF THE Small-POX And all Putrid FEVERS Occasioned by the Death of our Late Incomparable QUEEN Together with a Philosophical Account of an Excellent REMEDY for these and many other Diseases By T. Byfield M. D. and Fellow of the Colledge of Physitians in Dublin LONDON Printed for Iohn Harris at the Harrow in the Poultry MDCXCV Price Six Pence A DISCOURSE Of the Small-Pox c. OUR late Universal Loss as it has given opportunity to many Reverend Learned and Ingenious Persons to oblige the World with the just Character of this Great and Good PRINCESS than whom these Nations in many Ages have not afforded a Nobler Subject So for the sake of all those who are yet to run the Risque of this Distemper for their Lives that the lesser Barks may happily avoid those Rocks on which the Royal Soveraign was lost I shall with all plainness and brevity give an account of the Rise and Nature of the Small-Pox and all Putrid Feavers for if that be not throughly understood persons are liable to innumerable Errours and Mistakes which too oft God knows prove fatal to those they are concern'd about I very well know what I have to say is unusual but since it is most true for I take not these Notions on Trust but Tryal I confess I can't but deeply regret the World was not better acquainted with what I now offer to their serious Consideration before the Glory of our Age was past receiving any Advantage by it But to proceed The very Hypothesis of my Discourse is this That the Venom of these Distempers is of a Sulphureous and Viscous Nature and being so there is but one way to Expel or overcome it all other Experiments being not only altogether useless but highly injurious Those that have taken the pains to enquire into the Causes of things have found that Sulphurs are both the Life and Venom of Bodies The first of the Nature of Light so rarified that 't is not perceptible but by its Effects some of which are these it Tinctures the Blood in which is its chief Residence it Irradiates and enlivens the whole Body every part of which is animated by it If it be supprest Diseases prevail if assisted it has power sufficient to work them off if extinguisht Death necessarily and inevitably follows for 't is the Animal Soul The other Sulphureity is of a far different nature the Matter out of which all Fiery Diseases are shap't 't is Crude Viscous Corrosive and Malign yet Nature deals well enough with it throwing it off continually by her proper Passages till by some accident or other they are obstructed being pent up it returns and being a more materiated Fire feeds on the gross indigested humours assimilating to its likeness whatever it lays hold on and thus it grows more Corporeal Dense and a potent Venom insinuating its Contra-natural Heat into the whole Mass of Blood which is thereby immediately inflam'd and corrupted And according to the quantity and Venemous quality of this unnatural Fire the Distemper terminates in a Fever less or more Malignant or in Small-Pox Measles c. The Spirit of Life not able to keep House with this Guest there arises a terrible Contention and since on the decision of this Quarrel no less than Life depends a Fundamental Knowlege is here most necessary not only of the Cause but of the Nature of the Cause since it produces a clear Judgment and a certainty in Practice Whereas when People Act in the dark they are always at a loss and know not to what they owe the success or misfortune that befals 'em But trying many Experiments the poor Patients oftimes as their last Refuge are forc't into the cold Arms of Death the only shelter from so many Calamities To my Purpose this Venom being as I said before Sulphureous and Viscous 't is further requisite to know the Nature of this Sulphureous Viscosity since 't is easie to deal with what we understand Now in few Words the Nature of such Bodies is at first to ascend in the form of a light and thin Vapour which unduly detain'd grows more ponderous gross and corporal and then most difficult to be expel'd till by some inward Agent it be again rarified into the form of a Vapour And this Task the Spirit of Life only is able to perform Tho' at present being overpower'd by these Sulphureous Mists and Fogs it likes lie the Sun behind a thick Cloud unable to expand its Beams But when it receives auxilliary Force by proper Cordials of a temperate and lively Nature with ease it drives out this Intruder and restores the Body to its former Vigour and strength For do not mistake and think that Cordials alone do this 't is impossible And this is the reason why compassionate Ladies Nurses and old Women whom Experience only makes Wise often serve the Intention of Nature by promoting her Design tho' by plain and Ordinary Means which refresh the Animal Spirits and enable them to go through their Task Yet there is a vast difference in Cordials and things of that Nature given in this case for that only is a true Medicine which is so qualified that it chears the Spirits expels the Distemper and at the same time abates the Fever nay carries off a great part of the Malignity insensibly through the Pores which would have turn'd to Small-Pox and tho' not an Opiate gives an Enjoyment not to be understood but by those that feel it And as Opiates always make dull stupid and Stomach sick so this makes brisk lively and cheerful and yet when the time of rest comes causes the Sleep to be sound and sweet And now I 'm oblig'd to show the uselessness and danger of other Methods And since Bleeding is the first thing commonly prescrib'd I shall begin with that and do solemnly protest it is my Opinion that in this Distemper there is no more occasion for a Chyrurgion than there is for a Bone-setter nor is it only useless but highly dangerous for when the Blood is in a great Ferment in order to throw off what ever is obnoxious at that time to let any of it out is as if we should do so to Liquors in Fermentation which every Body knows would hinder their Working over to which there is required a fullness To fat People 't is more pernicious their Natures are not so fiery but more apt to receive a check and have the Venom congeal'd before it reaches the Superficies To lean hotter Constitutions 't is less dangerous tho' safe for neither No fear People should burst or dye for want of outlets every Pore will prove a Portal wide enough when the Matter is sufficiently rarified from within But when the Blood is let out the empty space is immediatly fill'd for Nature admits no vacuum with a cool thin Air which causes this Vapour that is of a heavier Nature to flat sink and fall back on