never allowed but a delegated Power to act instrumentaliter not as primum Principium activum and always supported by the Energy and Emanations of the vital Principle the Life Instrumentum non movet nisi motum Ax. For when the Life ceaseth to act where then and what becomes of your Animal Spirits They are inactive and cease from motion shewing their Dependancy if any such were and actuated not primum Principium activum I cannot therefore imagine with Reason how Animal Spirits should be the first or chief active Principle since they are generated daily as commonly said of the arterial Blood then there must be a Principium generans preceding that which is generated and much superior But how will you reconcile these two repugnant Antitheses Pag. 6. affirms Spiritus esse primum principium activum totius Machinae And Pag. 7. he saith Animal Spirits are Animae Organon Here is contradictio in terminis in rebus or else Animal Spirits must be of a Protean Nature both active and passive Agents and Instruments They cannot be termed an active Principle because they can have no Power but what is derivative from their generant Principle Anima and are only Instruments acted and used by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vital Principle So that Animal Spirits when allowed at most are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of a latter production Cerebrum esse officinam quasi Cisternam communem Spirituum ex illius fabricâ peculiari patet Pag. 11. Puretolog This Author tells us the Brain is the office appointed for elaborating Animal Spirits To which I shall give no other Answer at this Time but recite the Sentiment of a most judicious Physician upon this Point If any Man shall seriously and without Prejudice consider the great bulk cold Temperament various Parts Fabrick and Texture of the Brain he will at length find but little Reason to believe that Nature hath framed it chiefly for a Laboraty of Spirits They tell us that these Spirits are made of the most subtile most refined and volatilized parts of the arteriose Blood by way of Sublimation But can a Part so dense so cold so clammy and so like a Bogg as the Brain seems to be be thought an Instrument fit for Sublimation or Rectification of a Spirituous Substance Dr. Charleton Of Human Nature 6th Praelect Pag. 515. Promanare verò hos Spiritus à Cerebro uti radios à Sole in totum Systema corporis influere Dr. Morton Puretolog Page 10. He compares the Motion of Animal Spirits with the Rays of the Sun imperceptible for swiftness And in Page the 9th to Lightning for their instantaneous motions darting through the Body of Man All which is very much doubted by some and flatly denied by others The learned Dr. Charleton finding so many Difficulties and Dissention of Opinions concerning the Matter Generation and Qualities of Animal Spirits saith Equally uncertain it is by what kind of Motion these invisible Emissaries are transmitted from the Brain through the Nerves whether they fly swiftly or creep along slowly For some there are who fond of the Chimaera's of their own Imagination and carried away by Affectation of Glory from the Invention of I know not what new Theories in Physick as if Philosophers were like young Ladies best pleased with Novels have confidently taught that these Spirits are not only moved most rapidly in the Brain and Nerves as Lightning is darted through the Air but as it were Shot out at the command of the Phansie into the Nerves and recall'd again by the same ways in an Instant according to the exigence of these Actions to be performed by them And yet neither of these motions seem consonant to right Reason And goes on to prove Pag. 505 506. In the next Page he brings in another Dissenter herein whom he admires and applauds for his Sagacity and profound Judgment No wonder then if Dr. Glisson plainly discerning the Incongruity of this most rapid and recriprocal Motion attributed to the Animal Spirits not only wholly rejected it but excogitated another plainly contrary thereto For he concludes that the Spirits lodged in the Succus nutritius are carried from the Brain through the Nerves by a Motion not impetuous or rapid but gentle slow and placid As the Juice of Plants is believed to creep up from the Roots along by their Fibres The Notion that Dr. Glisson and Dr. Charleton had of Animal Spirits is far different from what our Author of Puretologia affirms them to be For they do not allow of Subtility Volatility and Velocity of Animal Spirits for many perswasive Reasons shewing the Inconvenience and Improbability thereof And therefore in Page 504. Dr. Charleton saith But these and other Reasons induced our most excellent Dr. Glisson de Ventric and Intestin cap. 8. num 7. to form his Animal Spirits of a constitution exempt from all these inconvenient Qualities He describes them to be mild placid sedate fixt sweet nutritive corroborating and apt to consolidate and in all these respects exactly like the Spirits contrived in the white of an Egg. Concluding that the select part is changed into Animal Spirits not by Sublimation or Meteorization as all others held before but by mitigation Refrigeration and whitening So that in fine if their Nature agree with this character I do not see by what right they can be called Spirits according to the common Notion Men have of all things known by that Name Having given you the Sense of these two great Philosophers and expert Anatomists upon this Point I need add nothing more until Answer be given thereto And thus much briefly by way of Dubitation and Improbability to the Preliminary and positive Assertions in Puretologia whereby that Author endeavours to establish his new Hypothesis Upon the Review of what hath been said concerning Animal Spirits you may plainly see how uncertainly and weakly they are bottomed as unfit to lay the whole Practice of Physick thereupon I proceed now to enquire nearer into the Doctrine of Fevers where this Definition first presents Febris acuta in genere est calor preternaturalis in Sanguine accensus à Spiritu animali miasmate quodam deleterio contaminato ex accidenti quodam irritato atque inde insolito more praeter Naturam suum expanso Dr. Morton Puretolog P. 50. Febris est calor preternaturalis So far I agree from the etymon of the word Febris à ferbee vel ferveo But I cannot assent to what immediately follows In Sanguine accensus à Spiritu animali This begets a Dissertation and I cannot allow febrile Heat to arise from the Animal Spirits For first you must prove the Animal Spirits to be fons caloris the Origine of Heat in Human Nature Or Secondly you must prove febrile Heat to be so distinct and differing from natural Heat as arising from two several different Principles The first is not probable or rational Because Chylification and Sanguification precedes and is performed
upon which the stress of those Cures did lye When those Partners in Curing have each their due share of Praise allotted How much or rather How little Glory will be left for the Jesuits Pouder For we must suppose that such various means was necessarily contributing which I shall not dispute now How then does the Super-Excellency of this Febrifuge appear to deserve the high Titles of Pharmacum divinum in Sanitate in Gentium ex arbore vitae c. And how does this Practice differ from other Physicians that conform to the Doctrine of Humors and Qualities We do know at least every Practiser ought to know that one morbific cause perambulating and irritating or protruded from Part to Part or by consent of Parts does raise various symptoms afflicting several Faculties and perverting their Functions If we apply several Medicines to such various symptomatical Appearances and endeavour to help the Sick after that Manner by a Method and Series of Medicines Then we cannot boast of any particular Medicine as a Catholicon or Polychreston and extol it as an extraordinary Curing Remedy and Salutiferous above all other Besides if true Medicine be rightly exhibited against the morbific cause there is no farther need of Application to symptomatical dependants For my Part I am for promoting a general and generous Medicine extensive and comprehensive that is applicable and efficacious in various Cases and Persons To ease the People especially some sort from variety and multiplicity of Medicines that are both irksom and chargeable And herein I am abundantly satisfied that such Help there is But no Medicine can be so generally useful and successful if it hath not a Manifest Operation by which to discharge impure morbific Matter for cleansing and purifying the Body And no Operation so advantagious and comprehensive against many and the most of Diseases as true Purgative Operation and also is the best preventive Means Not performed by the common virulent reputed Purgatives that have defamed this Operation But by Medicine composed of such wholesome Ingredients to do that most necessary work as it ought to be done When the People are sensible of this and can procure such Medicine they will be the better provided to maintain and to regain lost Health this I am assured of And then they need not have such Recourse to the Waters whereof some do complain afterwards and not a few by pouring in such large hazardous Quantities to force a Passage Mundus vult decipi decipiatur Information and Caution signifies little Custom and Example of others prevails much more and they chuse rather to suffer and Dye with the Multitude than go out of the Road they have been us'd to As for such Medicine whose prime Quality is occult and operateth occultly I cannot believe it to be so generally useful and so certain in Curing as a Medicine working Manifestly Moreover if a Medicine be set up as an insignal Polychrest and to out-do all other Let us see it act its Part singly and alone then we shall plainly see what it is But if the Peruvian Pouder be introduced with a crowd of other Medicines and by much strugling with one and the other a cure at last is gained Who then can say which of those many did the Cure since all bore a Part and it may be hard to tell which did most or best the occult or the manifest Qualities I always thought and do think so still that an Antidote against any venom worthy of that Name was a certain and speedy Remedy to kill the Poyson and needs no more to do at least very little And this Pouder so magnified for a stupendious Febrifuge and an expester of febrile venom I expected some wonderful Performances by its occult vertue but either I cannot see those rare effects or they are invisible Facts hid in the crowd and matter of Faith only If the new Hypothesis be true Doctrine That there is a venenous Ferment seizing the animal Spirits thereby producing various Symptoms in divers Parts of the Body Fevers Fluxes Spasms Vomitings Rigors Erratic Pains c. And also if it is as true that the Jesuits Pouder is a certain Antidote against this venemous Matter or Miasm Then it necessarily follows that all those Symptomatical and dependant Affects must cease and vanish by the use of that Medicine which subdues the morbific cause Sublatâ Causa tollitur effactus But if Curing be not the Result hereof then we may conclude that either the Cause is mistaken or the Medicine is not of such force and virtue as to master and reduce this Venom Failure in Curing we have found and that often as attested by many Therefore the Doctrine or the Medicine or both may be questioned as deficient and faulty This venemous Doctrine I doubt is apt to intoxicate the Brain Seduce Reason and lead out of the way in delirant Contemplation And therefore by comparing I have a more firm opinion of the Doctrine of Humors and Qualities rightly stated to fix the Aetiology of Diseases upon than upon animal Spirits invenom'd And although that Author hath pronounced Damnation against the Doctrine of Humors exulet per me in aternum exulet Philosophia ista Scientia falso sic dicta Pyretol ad Lectorem yet I hope the Execution of that severe sentence may be suspended as long as I shall live and for future Ages But waving the Doctrine let us enquire a little farther into the Medicine about the Dose and Manner of use from the same Author that most oft useth it as the chiefest in Practice The usual Dose for Man or Woman was two drams But that which is sold in the Shops now being counterfeit decayed musty or stinking two ounces is but sufficient says our Author Cortex officinarum adulterinus c. p. 169. The Patient that knows nothing of the Matter is finely brought to Bed when he must take two ounces of bad instead of two drams of good Here is Quantity and Quality offensive where is the Incouragement to venture upon this Remedy And I must remark that since there is so great Abuse in this Drug simply used and alone what security have you for all the compound Medicines where Fraud cannot be detected does it not behove every Physician to take upon him the Charge and Care of Medicines when Physicians who rely upon the Care and Honesty of Apothecaries do thus confess and proclaim Yet some People are so far out of their Wits or Bewitched in their Understanding that think a Physician who takes upon him the Preparation of Medicines according to the Custom of the Antients to be a Degree lower than him that prescribes to the Shops not discerning the Elder from the Younger Brother And do think a Fee is scarce due to him at least not so much cujus contrarium verum est such sort of Fools deserve the Cheat that are so ready to deceive themselves I am sure they are paid off for their Folly But this
then Because the vital spirit is extinct which plainly does shew that preternatural febrile Heat efficienter is seated in the Life And that peccant febrile matter non fervet ex se contains no such heat in it self but produceth excitativè by irritating the vital Heat spiritus impetum faciens beyond moderation and its natural temper Fourthly A wound received and pain arising thence begets a Fever though a great effusion of blood doth happen therewith Now letting out the sulphur if such there were with the blood was more likely to prevent a Fever than to cause it if that Doctrine were true but I find the contrary that pain continuing the Fever continues also Fifthly Persons that are heated by great labour violent exercise or heat of weather if they drink a glass of Sack or other spirituous hot liquor it reduceth them safely to good temper and prevents a Fever But if they drink much small Beer after such heats thinking to cool themselves sooner that cold liquor commonly makes them sick and raiseth a Fever thereby Now observe that Sack and not spirits are more likely to kindle Sulphurous inflamable matter and a Fever from thence as small Beer and cool liquors most likely to prevent Fevers by that Doctrine But the contrary hereof does prove that inflamed sulphur is not the material cause of Fevers but any other offending matter Sixthly Wet and cold taking are oftentimes the causes of sickness and a Fever But such causes are so far from kindling Sulphur that they are more likely to damp and extinguish Sulphur kindled if any such inflaming matter were in Human Bodies All which does plainly shew that Fevers have not their Rise or any dependance from sulphur kindled in the Heart and that Doctrine erroneous founded upon false Principles I must now make this observation not to follow an Author by the cry of the People nor the Vogue of the learned Party who commonly are catcht with a fine dress of good latine not suspecting or not discerning the substance and matter thereof Since my writing I lately met with another Piece de Febribus much differing from the former Author who derived all the causes of Fevers from Sulphur of the Blood this only and wholly from a venemous Ferment infesting the Animal Spirits Dr. Morton Puretologia This novel Doctrine coming in my way I cannot pass it by without regard but must inquire into the verity thereof The common received learning that asserts Humours and Qualities this Author rejects as fictitious and useless to set forth and explain the causes of Diseases and their Symptoms Hoping to give a better account thereof by this new Hypothesis For setting forth and explaining of which he premiseth postulata quaedam Pag. 6. some precarious concessions promising to prove them afterwards which are these following 1. Dari reverà Spiritus animales This Assertion of Animal Spirits was the common received Opinion in former Ages and does yet keep up as a Truth not to be questioned in the Judgment of most for that they perform such necescessary offices in the Body as without their help many Functions they think must cease And in giving an Account of many Diseases especially such as are attributed to the Brain and Nerves they can give no probable Reasons without alledging and accusing the Animal Spirits setting forth their exorbitant Motions or preternatural cessations their interruptions or impetuous Influx their sluggish dull and torpid Fixations And scarce any Passion is named but the Spirits are Actors and by them All that is done or should have been is imputed to the Spirits And Dr. Morton gives a greater Prerogative and ascribes more Power to Animal Spirits in the Government of the Body than others have primum Principium activum totius Machinae p. 6. and bottoms his new Hypothesis upon Animal Spirits quasi fermentum universale totius corporis p. 12. making them universal in the causes of Diseases and as generally necessary in a State of Health to perform all vital Actions If this be so 't is very fit we should all know and assent to it Notwithstanding it is so undoubtedly asserted I question whether there be any such distinct Beings in Human Nature as Animal Spirits or only the Fancies of Mens Invention And my Reason perswades me to deny their Existence First Because their Matter and Manner of Generation their Ways and Motions are so uncertainly and contradictorily set forth by disagreeing Judgments Secondly For that all human Actions internal and external may be performed without their help and a rational and full Account of all Diseases may be given without them Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessitate I shall therefore divide Human Nature into these two grand Principles An Invisible Spirit And a visible organized Body with canals containing liquid alimentary Juices to feed and supply this wonderful Machine The first a Vital Active Regent Principle The latter altogether Passive and Instrumental under the Power and Domination of the former which is the Life More than these two comprehensive Principles I know none nor can admit of as necessary or useful in the composition or oeconomy of Human Nature No Subordinate nor Co-ordinate Agents such as Archeus Helmontii or Anima Sensitiva of the Antients Nor as Dr. Willis understands and holds the Animal Spirits to be the Sensitive Soul That Plastic or formative vital Principle termed Anima that delineated and fabricated the Body in the Womb does also govern and is the sole Efficient cause of vital Actions in the state of Health and also in Sickness Vnicus tantum est vitae Moderator nec plures From hence Vegetation Sensation and Loco-Motion without a Duplicity or Triplicity of Souls which elsewhere is set forth and proved Monarchia Microcosmi that I shall not repeat here True it is that the contained current liquors in the Body are various in colour consistence use and gradual Perfection Some elaborated as finer and more spirituous in the common Sence and Acceptation of artificial rectified Spirits Yet when all this is done by Defaecation and refining they are but liquors still of one continued cohaerent visible expanded Body and not separate Atomical Beings to act conjunctim aut divisim as divers Agents in combination or separation upon Occasions so requiring as the Notion of Animal Spirits does insinuate and are so alledged and taken in that Sence Now if what we have said be true and the Reasons cogent then Animal Spirits have no Residence nor Office in Human Nature and the Basis of that Author 's new Hypothesis is annihilated and all the derived Doctrine and depending Practice thereupon comes to nothing or to naught But in casting off so antique and beloved Opinion so frequently made use on to set forth the causes of many Diseases and that Book de Morbis universal acutis brings in Animal Spirits invenom'd almost into all Diseases as principal Causes That I may not be thought singular and absurd in denying the Existence of these
Animal Spirits so positively asserted so much noted and often quoted I shall therefore call in some other Men eminently learned in this Science and justly so reputed to give their sentiments upon this matter controverted which perhaps may be more perswasive and definitive than what hath been said by me Dr. Charlton in his Enquiries into Human Nature there treating of Motion voluntary and how performed by Animal Spirits according to the Opinion of the Ancients He saith Page 495. But in this our more illuminate Age Fate hath brought forth some Physicians of this Nation and Colledge of most profound Learning and admirable Sagacity of Spirit who laying aside that so antique Hypothesis of Animal Spirits as both improbable and unnecessary hold it to be sufficient to solve all the Phaenomena of voluntary Motion if it be supposed That the dictates of the Soul are transmitted from the Brain to the Nerve and Muscle to be used not by emission of any Substance whatsoever but by a meer contraction of such fibres of the Brain as are continued to that Nerve And Page 501. he saith deridingly We Physicians indeed speak magnifickly of Spirits Animal as of the plenipotent and immediate Instrument of the Soul in all her Operations upon the Body Yea more in a preternatural State also we make them only not omnipotent For what Disease of the Brain can ye Name which hath not been referred to their Vices Afterwards Page 503. And yet notwithstanding after all our specious Discourses of these Emissaries of the Soul Animal Spirits we are distracted by various Opinions concerning them still anxiously inquiring of what Matter in what Place and how they are generated what are their Qualities Motions Ways and Manner of acting and in fine uncertain whether they be real Creatures of Nature or only the Idols of human Imagination And Page 515. he adds Perhaps then we are equally uncertain whether there be in rerum Natura any such things as Animal Spirits of distinct Species from the vital Spirits or not Truly my Opinion is that we are so And no less Man than Dr. Harvey expresly denied their existence De generat Animal exercit 70. Nihil sane in corpore animalium Sanguine prius aut praestantius reperitur neque Spiritus quos à Sanguine distinguunt uspiam ab illo separati inveniuntur So do all the Peripatetics hold against Galen Vnum esse duntaxat spiritum vitalem singulis partium omnium officiis deservientem Joan. Imperial de Ingen. human Page 52. And Sir G. Ent Antidiatribae pag. 141. Ego praeter unum sanguinis calorem nullos in animali spiritus agnosco sed in partibus singulis privum hospitari sensum qui ad Animae imperium excitetur You see now the concurrent Opinions of these great Philosophers and Physicians against Animal Spirits and that they have no Being but only in the Fancies of some Men. Then Dr. Morton's whole Doctrine of various kinds of Fevers is fictitious null and void and the Indications from thence in Practice must needs be false Guides extravagantly leading out of the right way of Curing And now I must make use of this Author 's own words as levelling against himself An enim fas est ut ii qui falsas fictas tantum Morborum causas contemplantur veram eorundem vivam Ideam ratiocinando unquam formarent eventum certum denunciarent vel justas Indicationes at que aequam Medendi Methodum Stabilirent Praefat. ad Lectorem Pag. 11. To establish the verity of Animal Spirits and to perswade a belief thereof This learned Author tells us that the Existence of Animal Spirits may be proved with as much Demonstration and a like Reason as the Soul it self Because they are both known only by their effects and not à priori Hoc modo existentia Spiritus Animalis atque Animae ipsius aequaliter demonstrari potest adeo ut utriusque existentia pari ratione vel agnoscenda vel neganda sit Page 7. I beg his pardon and must deny that equality of Proof for Reasons following First There is a Necessity of allowing and owning the Architectonic Spirit the vital Principle Anima that formed the Machine of Human Body and is Supreme Moderator in the Government The Specific Form is not to be questioned or doubted in every Creature but that there is such which gives the Being and the Distinction from others only the quiddity and quality thereof may be doubted and controverted Secondly None have denied nor so much as doubted of the Souls Existence the Heathen Philosophers not excepted but they have denied Animal Spirits from the difficulty of Admittance Thirdly There is a great Disproportion and Inequality of Proof between a Thing that must be and can by no Reason be denied but assented to by All And a Thing dubious that may not be that by many is denied to be from valid Reasons where there is no Necessity for the use of it and where is great Difficulty and Discord of Opinions in proving the Reality and Certainty thereof Fourthly The Effects of the one are so manifest as altogether undeniable But the reputed and supposed Effects of the other are so dubitable disputable and improbable that many learned Men of the highest Rank do not own such Effects to proceed from Animal Spirits but have assigned other causes to produce those Effects Wherefore Equality of Proof does not and cannot possibly so appear Here we might end as not expecting to gain Information of Fevers by farther Disquisition herein since this first Position being the Basis of the whole work is but an imaginary and erroneous Supposition Yet for Discourse sake and to observe the Novelties dependant upon these Supposed Animal Spirits we will proceed a little farther and take notice of some remarkables Spiritus Animales esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu primum Principium activum quasi fermentum universale totius Corporis à quo Sanguis humores varie agitantur immutantur non dubito Dr. Morton de Puretolog Pag. 12. This is a Note above Ela that passes my understanding This Sounds Metaphysically appertaining to non Entities such as Animal Spirits and above the lower Region of Notions in Physick If this Report be true there is a strange Revolution in the Monarchy of the Microcosm The Supreme regent Principle Anima is dethroned and Animal Spirits have usurp'd the Government Anima which was Forma informans and always Principium Regens must now truckle under the Power of Animal Spirits according to this new Doctrine I never met with any that ascribed such a Domination that gave away the Priority and Supremacy to Animal Spirits That is an Assertion against the Prerogative of the Regent vital Spirit Anima which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first active Principle and the last acting ad terminum vitae and the only acting Principle potestate propriâ in Human Nature This is the Spring movent and all the rest are moved Animal Spirits were
ignotum per atque ignotum We must proceed on for better Information atque vitae Principio seu Spiritibus animalibus inimicum Here the Life and animal Spirits are made one and the same or equal at least in vitality for so I must conclude First From the Particle seu connecting those words as Synonimous And likewise He useth seu equivalently and for that purpose in the front of the Definition Venenum seu Toxicum signifying the same Poyson by two words Secondly From the words immediately following Vnde facultas eorum expansiva penitus obruitur flamma vitalis necessario extinguitur The which do declare Febrile Venom to have Antipathy against animal Spirits as to the Principle of Life That the Stress of Poyson aims at and lies upon animal Spirits as upon the Life That the fatal stroak is given there and the ratio formalis of Dying represented by Contracting and Stifling the Expansion of animal Spirits which puts a Period to Vitality And that animal Spirits are the Biolicknium the Lamp of Life What more or greater can be said of Anima the plastic and the Regent Principle than now is attributed to animal Spirits This is Strange Philosophy to me such as I never knew before deeper than my Reason can fathom and above my Faith to believe That animal Spirits so much questioned and doubted whether they have any Being in Humane Nature though so unnecessary and improbable should now be exalted as Supream or made coequal at least in dispensing and managing vital Operations Credat qui volet Let animal Spirits be first proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convincingly that there are such from the necessity of their use we may then more likely be induced to believe the new Hypothesis founded thereon SECT III. The Difference of Fevers And their Division into Classes AVthors concurring in common Doctrine have made this Difference and Division of Fevers à subjecto in quo calor febrilis insidet from their place of Residence in the Spirits Humors and solid Parts which makes this tripple Division of Fevers Ephemeral Humoral and Hectic Famosa Vulgatissima est Febris essentialis differentia qua Febris in Ephimeram Humoralem Hecticam dividitur quae tota à subjecto Febrium petitur Troph Serrier Pyretolog p. 13. Ephemeral Fever is an effervescence of the Spirits only and continues but a day or two Humoral is the esservescence of putrid humors and continues a longer time Hectic is a preternatural Heat in the Solid parts and is most durable and fixed All these Fevers must take their rise in the Heart by the common definition that 's the Center and Seat thereof You have brought all Fevers into a little compass the Heart where we may soon find them if they were there to be found And if all this were true what advantage and what use can we make of it What cunning ways will you invent to make your Practice answer this Doctrine and how will you make this Doctrine serviceable in Practice This Celebrious Division is essential general and comprehensive But quid inde boni what shall we learn thereby If you come to a Patient whose Fever is beginning and the Fever is one of these three Sorts comprised in the general Division you have no help by this Doctrine if it were true no information to determine what or prosecute with what You cannot ask the Patient how are the Spirits of your Heart How the Humors And how the Flesh but you must look off the Heart and cast about somewhere else inquiring here and there How is your Stomach have you good Appetite and digest well are you Costive how is your Head do you urine freely have you pain any where and so forth After all these and such like necessary Questions 't is very probable you may find out the place where the Fever is bred and what is the Cause thereof If so as true it is what then have we to do with the Heart but only to examine by the Pulse how affected or afflicted in the case what consent from thence or condolence what vital Signals by that Pulsation not what Sort of Fever Now after all the subtle and nice distinction of Ephemeral Humoral and Hectic we must examine most Parts of the Body the principle at least to find out the Rise and Seat of the Fever and then it will appear to be not in Corde primò accensa as you say but in Corde per consensum and that some other Part is the original cause of the Fever where the Cure is to be directed If there must be a place or places in the Body assigned for Fevers as the Rise and Seat thereof And since they are all Symptomatical and dependant upon various Diseases in divers Parts of the Body as their causes occasional Sedes Morbi est Sedes Febris then where the Disease is there is the Seat of Fevers So that the difference of Fevers from thence will not be triplex according to this antique approved Division but multiplex I wish you good Success with your Doctrine of Fevers but I should be loth to be a Patient under it least the first tryal of your Skill upon me should be the last Scene of my Life There is another received distinction of Fevers into Essential and Symptomatical And this I must take notice of because it byasseth Practisers from the right Notion of Fevers and causeth errour in the designs of Curing For this Distinction may well be set aside when as there is no Fever essential therefore no Disease but all are Symptomatical arising from and dependant upon some Disease morbific Miasm or Seminary and a Symptom thereof And this appears from the Definition of Fevers Febris est calor preter naturam preternatural Heat being the genus comprising all Fevers under it And this Heat by your Doctrine a Symptomatical Quality only The distinction then of Essential and Symptomatical Fevers is void unless you will hold a contradiction in your own learning But why some Essential others Symptomatical Riverius gives this account essentiales dicuntur quando putredo in venis communibus extra partes privatas accenditur Symptomaticae verò quando in parte peculiari inflammata putredo aut suppuratio fit a qua ob vasorum communionem vapor putridus cordi continuo communicari potest lib. de febr p. 373. They that will take this for good Reason may be so satisfied and probably they may not see the Definition of Fever therein contradicted Calor in Corde accensus ex eo and the Doctrine discordant in it self Another Distinction of Fevers there is which divides them into Continual and Intermitting This difference is apparent to vulgar understandings but the manner how the matter what the place where generated causes occasioning and promoting These are not so well known which hath produced diversity of opinions among the learned and these I shall take notice of in their due places Continual Fevers are distinguished into
doctrine for they that gave this definition do also determine Qualities preternatural to be Symptoms and Heat being one of the tactil Qualities of the first rank by the same Authors can be but a symptom Now preternatural febrile Heat being only a Symptom and none of the urgent Symptoms there is at least there ought no cure belonging to it but to that Disease on which the febrile Heat is dependant and those Diseases are many and various For methods and medicines are indicated from the Disease not from the Symptom and their adaptation proper and peculiar only to the Disease not to the Symptom to causes not to consequents and dependants Since it is so why do you create such fears in the Sick and make so much bustle at the Shops about this febrile Heat designing multiplicity of Medicines against it and those very injurious since this feverish Heat being only Symptomatical gives warning and is a signal only of some latent Disease the which being found out curing lies there and there only the depending Fever is included therein and falls of course with it In Corde accensus In the Heart you say a Fever is kindled as the place of its rise But I rather think cujus contrarium that a Fever is communicated or transmitted to the Heart from all Parts of the Body at several times by several Diseases For if preternatural Heat Febris be the general and most common Symptom of Diseases caused thereby and depending thereon rising and falling with those various Diseases seated in divers Parts of the Body then all their Symptomatical Fevers must have their rise and seat in the several diseased Parts and the Heart only by consent and transmission per vasa through the vessels of communication The vital Principle or Spirit of Life that presides over and is planted in every Part of the Body to govern each member raiseth a Fever upon any morbific matter there offending and the Heart being a principle Part in office is soon made sensible and raiseth the Pulse as a signal of condolence if any disturbance be in the Body And sometimes the Head also is affected thereby and drawn into consent If the Foot be greatly pained by Gout or otherwise the Heart is grieved and frebile Heat is kindled but this Fever first riseth in and is communicated from the diseased Parts the Foot primarily affected and the Heart disturbed and heated only secundariò by consent And the Fever thus raised requires curing not in the Heart so affected but in the Foot diseased having its rise there and dependance there not in the Heart Therefore Cardiac medicines are not curative in the case nor conducing but such means as are proper for the diseased Part first complaining and the cure of this Gout-fever lies there only which being rightly applied to the Symptomatic febrile Heat abates and vanisheth as the Disease is tamed and subdued The like may be said and holds true in all other Fevers arising from several Parts of the Body diseased But a late famed Author Dr. Willis in his Book of Fevers though he agrees with these Writers that the Heart is the Fire-place where Fevers are kindled yet he differs from them in the manner how and the combustible matter what Sin verò sanguis ob sulphuris evecti copiam aut effluvia cohibita aut victum calfacientem nimis luxurians turgescere aptus evadat ejus in corde sive accensio sive fermentatio plurimum intenditur ita ut exinde calor febrilis effervescentiae solito majores in toto concitentur p. 114. He makes preternatural fermentation to be the ratio formalis of Fevers and prosecutes upon that notion through the several sorts of Fevers and gives this description Febris est motus inordinatus sanguinis ejusque nimia effervescentia cum calore p. 117. using effervescence and fermentation as synonumous and univocal all along True it is febrile Heat sometimes does follow preternatural fermentation from thence occasionally procured yet not always arising out of fermentation as the proper and only effect thereof but issuing from the governing vital Principle or Spirit of Life fons caloris disturbed and aestuating In like manner preternatural fermentation motus inordinatus sanguinis is caused by febrile aestuation They follow one another and often meet together in sickness yet are distinct and different from each other Fever and Fermentation differ in Predicament fermentatio est motus calor febrilis est qualitas Vomiting and Fever meet sometimes and are complicated Also Fluxes of the Belly with Fevers And preternatural fermentation with Fevers But they are all different symptoms and may exist separately So that preternatural fermentation is not inseparable from Fevers and cannot be so essential thereto that posito uno ponitur alterum but an adjunct that may or may not be and a Fever in Being rightly denominated so For Fever ex vi vocis from the etymon of the word importing heat denotes the nature thereof febris à ferveo vel ferbeo to be hot and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 graecè à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis shewing Heat to be the great distinguishing character of a Fever A Sulphure accenso deflagrato Febrile Heat says that great Author is kindled from Sulphurous inflaming matter Sin ultra crasin naturalem sanguinis pars sulphurea seu oleosa incalescat statim effera cum caeteris improportionata evadit ita ut fere tota à cordis fermento velut in flammam acta sanguinis massam immodice effervescere ebullire cogat Dr. Willis Lib. de Febribus p. 158. Several other places I might recite in that Book setting forth the combustible matter of Fevers and how kindled which for Brevity sake I omit and having enough to discourse on But my Reason informs me otherwise and determines First that natural Heat and preternatural is the same in specie in kind arising from one and the same Principle or Fountain and differ gradu tantum only in moderation and gradual state Quicquid in sanis edit actiones sanas id ipsum in morbis edit actiones vitiatas Axiom Therefore that vital Spirit which heats Man naturally in a State of Health The same does preternaturally aestuate and burn in Fevers being disturbed at hostile morbous matter Secondly Febrile Heat does not arise à materia sulphurea oleaginosa combustibili from any sulphurous oleaginous combustible matter kindled as that Author asserts but from any offending matter that 's the fomes Morbi the fuel of Fevers that provokes and stirs up the vital governing Spirit to kindle aestuate and become fiery labouring and endeavouring nisu quodam irato thereby to exterminate and expel it Fevers are not kindled nor continued à materia flammante but à materia peccunte quacunque A stone in the Kidney without the help of Oleagenous Sulphureous combustible matter will readily procure a Fever Thirdly Febrile matter remains after the Patient is dead but febrile Heat is then gone and why
before the Production of Animal Spirits by the Assertors of animal Spirits and those Operations are not performed without vital Heat issuing from the vital Principle and there can be no other rationally assigned The Second as improbable and difficult to be proved For the Heat of animal Spirits is but mutuatitious at best borrowed dependant and supported by vital Heat and not arising from an independant Principle This preternatural Heat ascribed to animal Spirit is the same in Specie with natural Heat and they differ only in gradu Febrile Heat assuring from the same Principle as natural Heat But why in Sanguine accensus and no where else As if the Blood were the first and the only Place where Fevers do begin and have their Residence which Doctrine I cannot comply with and must assert otherwise That Fevers being only the preternatural Heat of the Life incensed and Symptomatical only what ever the Morbifick cause be and wheresoever it be in any Part of the Body there the Fever begins and from thence it is continued until the Morbous Matter be removed or much abated For no Part of the Body is injured but the Life being ubiquitary in the Microcosm is first sensible of the Hurt and is disturb'd thereby grows angry hot and fiery nisu quodam irato endeavouring thereby to extricate and free her self from the mischief Miasmate quodam deleterio contaminate ex accidenti quodam irritato Here 't is said the Animal Spirit is contaminated with some Venom and irritated thereby This being the Definition of acute Fever in general then all sorts of acute Fevers must arise after this manner and from such a cause as venemous Matter Quicquid praedicatur de genere praedicatur etiam de Specie Ax. Let us know first what this learned Author means by venemous miasm of which we have no better Account than this from himself Hujus miasmatis heterogenei descriptionem nemo sane à nobis requirat quandoquidem omnes nostros sensus plane Superat Pa. 50. Here is an imaginary venom seizing and affecting imagined and supposed animal Spirits and upon the Result or conjunction of these two dubious and difficult conceptions to be proved The Doctrine of Fevers is founded and a general Practice conform to these Notions is regulated thereby But I should be loth to venture my Life or the Lives of others upon such Vncertainties and Improbabilities for the Rule of Curing To shew therefore the incomprehensiveness and unfitness thereof to govern and direct the general Practice of Fevers I shall propose some cases of acute Fevers that we may see how these Positions do prompt and indicate proper Means and sutable Methods of Cure And from thence we may rationally conclude the Verity or Errour thereof A Person that hath eat and drank too much the night following is very restless next morning complains of fulness and loathing of any Food is very Fevorish hot and burning A Fever now presents plainly but what is to be done in the case for Remedy By the Doctrine aforesaid the animal Spirits are invenomed and the Patient must be Cured with Alexipharmacal Antidotes to expel the Poison that causeth this Fever Such as the Jesuits Powder that hath no manifest operation but an occult vertue to resist venemous Matter And this is the Febrifuge so much magnified and used by Dr. Morton as excelling all others But my Judgment leads me another way in this case Here is an oppression from Meat and Drink loading the Stomach not being digested and duly sent away Now what does this case indicate but only a discharge of the matter offending either upwards or downwards by Medicine of Such Operation The Fever is plainly perceived and the cause as easily understood But where the venom afflicting the animal Spirits in this Fever will be found I know not nor do I think there is any such Another is afflicted with the Colic by great Torsions and Pain from Obstruction or acrid lancinating humoral Matter in the Colon These Pains being violent and continued prevents sleep and unavoidably raiseth a Fever The vital Regent Principle being molested and provok'd hereby then aestuats with Inquietude and grows hot with Indignation being disturb'd in Government Now what manner of Cure is here required for this Fever But only some good Aperitive and Abstersive Medicine to open cleanse and free the Guts from all degenerate obstructing flatulent Matter that causes these Pains Which being well performed by a true Purgative and not of the common virulent sort the Pains ceaseth and the Fever is gone because the Life is then pacified at Ease and Rest cool and temperate the offending Cause being removed What Occasion or what need was here for a Febrifuge But only what was Curative as aforesaid for removing the Cause aforesaid The Jesuits Powder would contribute nothing to this Cure so much admired and used by some I rather think it might do Hurt in this Fever as the medicine by its nature does Suggest which we shall enquire into anon No Venom I can discover in this case requiring such an Antidote Pains of the Gout or from the Stone raiseth a Fever for the Reasons aforesaid being the common Symptom attendant upon all dolorous Diseases that disquiet and incense the Life Here is no need of a Febrifuge in these Fevers but only such proper Means as these Diseases require The febrile Heat goes off or abates as the Diseases yield to the Power of Medicine Symptoms come and go with their Diseases on which they depend and febrile Heat is only Symptomatical as before proved Here we might enumerate and run over many depending Fevers where no such Poyson is to be found But these may suffice to inform that acute Fevers are not so venomous in their nature generally as the Definition of Fevers recited would have us to believe Genus praedicatur de omnibus Speciebus sub se contentis Ax. But now let us understand if it can be understood what this Venom is that our Author assigns to be the material Cause of Fevers and of most other Diseases that is so frequent and common and requires Curing by Alexipharmacals The Inventor and Assertor of this Novel probably can give us the best Account who defines Poyson thus Venenum seu toxicum est quid deleterium atque vitae principio seu spiritibus animalibus inimicum unde facultas corum expansiva penitus obruitur flamma vitalis necessarie extinguitur p. 147. We must consider this Definition in its several Parts distinctly whereby we may the better apprehend the Result and Comprehension of the whole This is the Standard set to examine and know febrile venemous Ferments by and to shew the manner of their acting destructively For by this Definition of Poyson in general he would have us to understand analogically the Nature of that Poyson which causeth Fevers as he intimates in the same Page Venenum seu Toxicum est quid Deleterium This is idem per idem or
Putrid and Imputrid Intermitting Fevers are all adjudged Putrid Some have made this general Division of Fevers into Simple Putrid and Pestilential There are also Distinctions of Fevers termed accidental differences and these Fevers are called by their Names which serves only to confound young Practisers and amuse the people thereby making Fevers more perplext and difficult to be understood by additional cognominations from complication of Symptoms As Epiala Lipiria Causus Syncopalis Soporiferae Assodes Elodes Tiphodes Phlegmonòdes c. Fever by Denomination and different Fevers by Cognomination is strange Doctrine Thus compounding of Symptoms is the confounding of Reason in Practice Since all Fevers or febrile intemperature is only the aestuation and disturbance of the vital governing Spirit by provocation from some Disease or Morbific Cause producing various Symptoms in several Parts of the Body Tacking such Symptoms together by Cognomination that have no dependance upon each other in causation or existence is no good fashion nor good reason At this rate of diversifying and denominating of Fevers by coupling them with Symptoms and Diseases you may make five hundred sorts more of Fevers and draw all the practice of Physick upon Fevers Plurisie fevers Stone fevers Colic fevers c. All the Acute and most of the Chronic Diseases have Fevers adjoined The Practice of Fevers after this manner may be as large as the Practice of Physick And by this variation of Fevers in Masquerade from Complication with other Symptoms and Diseases the Doctrine of Fevers will stretch in infinitum not to be comprehended by human understanding They might have put in Camp Fevers and Fleet Fevers for variety among the rest But if you understand Fevers no better than what your Books and Tradition does inform Princes are like to have but a melancholy return of their brave Souldiers and Seamen as too oft it falls out so And here I might give you a sad Account of Men and Money lost after this manner by the formality of Physick and deficiency of the Professors But I troubled my self once before in this matter and I shall trouble my self no more But this obiter If all other Symptoms and Diseases were to have various names affixed to them from the diversity of Symptoms happening contemporary from Complication with other Diseases They might also be varied abundantly to no purpose by differing adjunct Titles as properly as Fevers are thus multifariously distinguished and denominated wherein there is no reason nor advantage for Curing Symptoms supervening and complicating with Fevers are such as these Horror Rigor Pandiculation Oscitation Vomiting Fluxes Watchings Deliriums Hamorrhages c. Hereby shewing the various deportments Passions Agonies and strivings of the vital governing Spirit Spiritus impetum faciens preternaturally affected and provoked according to the diversity of Morbous irritating causes And also shewing the different Parts infested therewith labouring under the impulsions and expulsions of incensed vital power endeavouring by such extraordinary motions to expel and cast out what is offensive and hostile to sedate vital government But Writers have given themselves much trouble to find out and set forth the Causes of such Symptoms assigning them as particular Characters to distinguish Fevers by Herein shewing their Ingenuity Nicity and Exactness in giving a full Account of all things appertaining to Fevers as they would have the World believe But the Insufficiency of the Reasons and unprofitableness of those Endeavours are such that I shall not trouble the Reader with the Inquiry and Examination of the Validity thereof SECT IV. Of Putrid Fevers BEfore I set down the difference and distinctions of putrid Fevers delivered to us by Authors Antient and Modern I think it necessary first to inquire into the word Putrid that we may know what is meant by Putrefaction and putrifying in their sense that first taught and those who now support the Doctrine of putrid Fevers whether they be all of a mind and what confidence we may have in this learning upon their dissent or to whom we may adhere In determining of putrefaction I find there are variety of opinions and from thence several Definitions Galen's definition seems to agree with Aristotle's And for brevity sake I shall only give you the explanation and sense of both these great Men well done by another Author in these words Putrefactio nihil aliud est quam corruptio caloris nativi in humido radicali existentis alicuius mixti corporis facta ab externo peregrino calore Kercherus Herein external peregrine Heat is made the agressor and invader of the Life of every mixt Body That natural Heat is set upon and destroyed and consequently radical moisture is consumed This is the sense and meaning of the celebrated Definitions of Aristotle and Galen wherein there are these great mistakes 1. Calor innatus and Humidum radicale are supposed and made substantial Principles in nature when reverà they are but Qualities assurging from their Principles 2. They are made the support of every Animal and to these they have attributed too great a share in mixt Bodies as if the Being thereof depended essentially thereupon 3. That innate Heat is seated in radical moisture where putrefaction and corruption begins and that the Life of an Animal consists in these two That they are Animae domicilium the which failing Life departs 4. Hence it is that Putrefaction is defined by the alteration and perdition of these two Principles in Nature which Galen often calls totam rei substantiam The Doctrine of Physick fails much from these grand errours which biasseth Practisers in the Cure of many Diseases For Putrefaction is caused not only by external ambient Heat but also by external Cold And particularly in the case of putrid Fevers cohibited transpiration by cold occluding the Pores is one chief cause assigned by most if not all Writers And likewise we find that other Animals and also Plants are mortified by extreme cold which their natures could not bear and from thence you need not doubt but Putrefaction follows Putredo Putrefaction is not rightly defined by alteration of Qualities Heat and Moisture that may or may not be and are accidents not essential to Putrefaction For Dry and Cold Bodies are subject to putrifie as Bones Straw Wood c. wherein is no sensible Heat or Moisture and do putrifie into dry powder Heat and Cold and I may add the other two first Qualities also Wet and Dry though they may be causes of putrefaction sometimes and sometimes the effects thereof yet they are not sufficient to set forth and illustrate Putrefaction as the ratio formalis thereof and a result differing from all other preternatural alterations and transmutations Nor does this Definition make distinction between putrefaction and combustion à calore externo nor sufficiently extinguisheth putrefaction from fermentation And thus much concerning putrefaction in general from the two celebrated Definitions of Aristotle and Galen if you be satisfied therein I am not They sound great in
liquor in vasis effervescens solummodo sanguis ubicunque loci per singulas corporis partes defertur usque idem est sui similis D. Willis de febr p. 99. If the Blood then be in such a state as this Author even now said perfectly mixed and homogeneous in the vessels I see no cause why and cannot understand how this sulphureous part thereof if such there be in living Blood that it should be apt and ready to take fire and produce the effervescency and ebullition of putrid Fevers Nor can I reconcile this learned Man to himself where in another place setting forth putrid Fevers he saith Cum vero cruoris materies sulphurea excandescens supra modum effervet mixtionis vinculum maxima ex parte solvitur ut principia ejus à fermento cordis fere in totum distrahantur particulae activae meaning spirit and sulphur à misto solutae velut in flammam erumpant Ibidem p. 164. In one place he affirms the Blood to be a liquor united in its principles woven together into one uniform nature and in another place he says the parts of the Blood are loosed and in a state of separation Now when the Blood is thus dissolved the Sulphur does not abide to take fire but takes flight Substantia Sulphuris nusquam sincera cernitur imo seorsim ab aliis non consistit quin tenues evanescit in auras D. Willis lib. de ferment p. 7. Observe from hence The Blood in its compage and texture is not capable of firing and deflagration in its retexture and dissolution the inflammable Sulphur abides not for a combustion but disperseth and vanisheth haec tota Doctrina in flammam abit Sic transit gloria ficti Notwithstanding these incongruities He proceeds to make out the deflagration of the Blood in putrid Fevers That the principles of the Blood are separated by the ferment of the Heart and being there rarified and kindled from thence with a most swift motion motu rapidissimo is carried through the vessels and in the deflagration disperseth many effiuviums of Heat Ibidem p. 164. This is soon said but not so easily proved And in answer to all this I will give you the sentiment and determination of a late Physician of great repute reasoning and denying all this as irrational Verum nec in sanguine talem ebullitionem excitari nec in corde hujusmodi fermentum adesse facile erit ostendere quanquam enim inter corpora quae ex salibus contraria prorsus indole praeditis constant ubi commiscentur magna effervescentia atque lucta exoritur multaque effluvia discedant dissimilis tamen omnino magis benignae naturae Sanguinis liquor existit quam ut in corde aut vasis suis tam aestuose subito effervescat quippe novimus quam mitis ejus liquor quam benigno plerumque succo perfusus quam lenis placidus ejus in venis versus cor refluxus D. Lower de corde p. 57. And farther to null this fiction of abounding sulphur and effervescency from thence in putrid Fevers Take the testimony of a learned Chymical Physician demonstrating by fact The pretended sanguine sulphur or Cacochymy of any in a high Fever doth afford more salt water and Earth each of them than sulphur I have taken that Diseased Blood termed Corrupt which might seem to some to abound with sulphur And being cleanly conveyed into a Retort with a Receiver joined thereto I have by a gradual fire regulated very strictly brought over what possibly I could In the upshot upon the separation of the several parts I have found very little of sulphur in comparison of each of the other Dr. Thompson Aimatiasis chap. 6. p. 51. Then he gives you another experiment I procured saith He the purest Blood I could get from a healthful person putting it to the same igneous tryal as the former degenerate of equal proportion to it Then after sequestration of the parts I could not perceive any considerable difference in the quantity or quality of the several parts of the Sound and that seeming Corrupt which gives testimony that a Fever doth not principally arise from an excess of Sulphur Idem Ibidem Much more might be alledged against this improbable opinion But I think there is enough said to dispel the fiction of inflammable Sulphur in the Blood which is made the rise of putrid Fevers causing effervescency ebullition and deflagration And now I cannot but admire that the learned of this Nation should receive this phantasm with such applause and what advantage it brought to the Inventor But the handsome latin Dress that this was presented in so captivated their understandings that they could not perceive the errour and vanity of the Doctrine that set it off and so it pass'd without suspicion And frequently since we have had other Physick works come abroad which affords me more matter and Men to oppose but little to inform and be a gainer by yet if it be latin then it is learned with many But I do not judge of learning nor of men learned after that manner I am not to be snared with any language when I expect something else that I seek for Truth is truth in any language errour is so likewise 'T is the matter in writing not the Stile of writing that is useful and praise worthy in Physick But this by the way Now after all this labour and ingenuity of invention by learned Men setting forth how putrid Fevers are generated I find Helmont that great Philosopher and Physician denying there are any such common Fevers Sciant igitur Scholae cruorem in venis putrefieri nunquam quin simul ipsamet vena putreat ut in Gangrena mortificationibus Helm lib. de Febr. cap. 2. He acknowledgeth the putredinous excrements in veins not the Blood to putrifie And he subjoins this reason quippe qui juxta Sacra est Sedes thesaurus vitae si vitanon servet à putridine sanguinem in quo gliscit quomodo preservabuntur ossa Ibidem The meaning of all this I judg is to take away the frequency of putrid Fevers that they are not so common as Authors and Practisers do make them That the putrid matter of Fevers Salutary is not putrefaction of the Blood For when the Blood is putrified the case is mortal A Corrupto sive privato non datur regressus ad vitam If the mass of Blood comes to be corrupt in the great streams of the Veins and Arteries there is no hopes of reducing it but death soon follows Now you must understand the difference and distinguish between putrifying and putrifyed putrefactio incipiens infieri and putrefaction in facto esse finished The first is curable the latter incurable But after all this Dissention and Contention in and about putrid Feavers what certain knowledge have we in this Disease so called but a Name Since the material Cause or Matter offending giving the Denomination is not adjudged and agreed upon And how
then shall a proper Method with effectual true Medicines be adapted for their Cures I must confess had I no Knowledge nor Guide to direct me herein but Books I should be at a stand and much puzled what Course to steer and with what Means to do the Business required or aimed at when such Fevers present But how pernicious are the Methods and Medicines for the Cure hereof as appointed by Authors we shall see anon when I come to set forth the Practice SECT V. Of Fevers Continual and Intermittent ACcording to Method and Custom I have not omitted this Difference and Distinction of Fevers but shall say no more in this Place than what distinguisheth one from the other Continual Fevers are such as have no perfect Intermission but only sometimes they have Intensions and Remissions And from the difference of their exacerbations in Distance whether every Day or every third or fourth Day they are called Continual Quotidian Tertian or Quartan But the consideration hereof is not of such Moment in Practice as to require various Methods of Curing and therefore I shall not trouble you with the Niceties and Distinctions of Authors reasoning thereupon Intermitting Fevers are such as in the English are called Agues And these are Quotidian Tertian and Quartan from their Cessations and Intermissions coming and going on such Days In assigning Causes for the periodic Returns of these Fevers on Certain and Several Days and for their Duplication and Triplication Authors do so much differ in their Opinions that an Account of their Conjectures Reasonings and Probabilities would give us more Trouble than Profit I shall therefore wave those Disputes that we may sooner come to the Curative Part which is more Satisfactory and Useful that proves more certainly what is true or false SECT VI. Of Fevers Malignant so called Measels Small-Pox and Pestilential HERE we make Malignant as the Genus comprising several Species under that general Denomination I shall first examine the Import of the word what is meant thereby and then inquire into the particular differences of Malignant Diseases For if we have not a true knowledge of the Sense and Import of the generical word we cannot have a distinct intelligible Account of the Species or kinds thereof I hear great talk of Malignant Fevers sometimes and I Consult Authors upon that Subject But I am not satisfied what they mean and so far as I can gather by the Discourses they do not well know what they mean themselves at least not how to set it forth For they have laboured to explicate the Intention and Scope of the word Malignant and rank it with intellible Doctrine But in fine the Result terminates in occult Qualities And this is acknowledged by a late famous Author treating of malignant and pestilential Fevers Ignotam ducunt originem ut earum Causae essentia sine recursu ad occultas qualitates raro explicentur Dr. Willis de Febr. How comes this word Malignant to be tackt as an Adjunct belonging to Fevers Malignant Fevers so much and often treated I know none such For all febrile Heat in gradu Summo remisso is but the same Heat in specie issuing from the same vital Principle and only differing gradually Furthermore those Fevers which are called Malignant are observed by the best Judgments to have their Heat more mild and moderate than other Fevers that are accounted and termed benign Therefore malignant affixed to Fevers as a distinguishing Character is an improper Compounding and Confounding of words together making the Sense and Meaning thereof intricate and perplext which breeds confusion and mistakes in Practice Clarioris Doctrinae gratiâ nec non verioris we must first understand what that thing is which truly may be called Malignant Then Secondly to what this Malignant Thing bears Enmity or evil against which it would hurt These two Points being rightly stated illustrates and clears the Doctrine from Obscurity Ambiguity and Intanglement Malignant by the Import of the word signifies Evil Malicious and Hurtful And it is used by Physicians to set forth that which is very Evil Pernicious and Dangerous more than ordinary And therefore Diseases arising from such malignant Causes are accounted worse than others That which denominates and makes Diseases Malignant is either some inbred Matter in Human Bodies highly and variously degenerated into a malignant venemous state as producing Cancers Gangrens Leprosie Small-Pox c. And this variously depraved malignant Matter is capable of no other Description and Distinction than what the Symptomatical Products and Effects thereof does manifest the Heterogenity of such causes in Human Bodies Pertinent to our Purpose Van Helmont Speaks tho' about to prove something else Excrementâ—m venenosum in Febribus praecordis includi producens sopores deliria c. ergo virus anodinum est amens In caducis paritur esse venenum insensitivum amens pro spatio affligens in praecordiis stabulatum In Amentiis hypochondriacis venenum furâ—osum vel cum joco delirans In vertigine virus rotans In apoplexia tollens sensum motum p. 268. Hence you may understand that great variety of venemous malignant matter is sometimes generated in Human Body producing many different and dangerous Effects afflicting variously Or else Secondly Malignant Diseases are caused and received from without As when the Air that surrounds and enters the Body is infected with noxious exhalations and vaporous malignant effluviums arising out of the Earth from carrion or dead Bodies expirations of venemous Creatures or by Influx of the Stars producing epidemical Malignant Diseases As the Pestilence or Pestilential and malignant in a lower Degree Or by the Bite of some venemous Creature or by depraved Corrupt Food or virulent Physick And this malignant matter whether inbred or imperceptible Miasms from without they do shew their Pravity Taint and Infection by the direful destructive Symptoms that attend their Operations and Alterations made in Human Body variously Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis Some malignant Matter being more acute deleterious does destroy sooner Others not so fierce and active do take more Time in killing yet are more difficult and obstinate in yielding to means than other Diseases that are not malignant All which does prove that Diseases are rightly called malignant from the material Cause only of which they are bred Secondly We must discern to what more immediately and directly this malignant matter is opposite to and where it makes the first Attack and Impression where the Stress of Malignity aims first and lyes most upon Not to and upon animal Spirits because the Enmity and Contrariety is not founded between them as Antagonists For granting there were no animal Spirits in Human Nature the Repugnancy Discordance and Hostility by malignant venom would be the same and the symptomatical Effects in like manner the same And it is but rational so to determine Because Sympathy and Antipathy Amity and Opposition in the nature of Creatures issue
immediately from the Life of one and points directly at the Life of the other Inclinations and Aversations arise from thence and the first Impressions are made there for mutual Complacency or Resistance That which is venemous and destructive to one creature is not hurtful to another and serves for Food to some The Dog and other Animals eats Carrion and it 's good Food for them The which would be destructive to Man as Poyson What can make this difference of good and evil among the Creatures but the Specific Formative Principle that fabricated those Bodies and from whence all the distinguishing Properties do flow And not only Creatures of a different Species but also Individuals of the same Species do differ much in their Appetitions and Aversations according to the Proverb one Man's Meat is another Man's Poyson And this Peculiarity and Individual Propriety does arise from the Life and not otherwise from animal Spirits The Discordancy and Reluctance is not founded there The vital Principle the Life or Form is that which distinguisheth all the Creatures essentially in their Being And also gives them their different Inclinations and Dispositions Properties and Qualities From hence we may understand that the first Assault and Injuries offered either from without or within the Body is made upon the Life That what agrees or disagrees is by Approbation or Rejection and Displicency of the Life The animal Spirits if such there be do not receive the first Assault of Malignant and Venemous matter they are not primely concern'd therein But ex falsis suppositis they can only feel the mischief secundario consequenter from the conflict and struglings the irregular and disturb'd Impulses of the Life They being supported and ill governed thereby in the execution of their Functions I must not believe the first Commotion and Disturbance to make a Disease is begun among the animal Spirits or any thing else so inferiour in Human Nature that 's Subservient and instrumental Nor can I think the continuation of Diseases to depend upon them The Life or vital Principle being ubiquitary in its Dominions always guarding and upon the Defence is first sensible of injury offered forthwith endeavours Repulsion and Expulsion and that 's the Disease begun If Helmont says true as I am apt to believe morbem omnem in vita Consistere P. 444. Then doubtless Diseases must there first begin nor does it end until the Life be clear and quit thereof by the Assistance of good Means when greatly assaulted and seized And he confirms this in another place ut Sanitas consistit in vita integra ita morbus in ipsamet vitaoblasa p. 442. All which does suggest and prove that animal Spirits if such there were are not primely concern'd and affected with any discordant malignant Matter that is fomes Morborum but collaterally or consequentionally from the Irritations and Discomposure of the Life by whom they are supported managed and act instrumentally If so as most probably appearing then the new Hypothesis setting forth the Rise and Continuation of Diseases by animal Spirits principally affected is not rightly bottom'd and stated but founded upon unsound Principles and the Practice formed hereby erroneous and unsafe Now I have shewed what malignant Matter is that causeth such a Disease And to what this Matter aims or where it primely affects and seizeth to produce a Disease called Malignant We are next to inquire how properly or improperly and injuriously Fevers are denominated Malignant Fevers upon due examination unfitly are called malignant First Because malignant denotes only and specifies Matter properly distinguishes it from other Matter and Morbifick Causes And Fever imports only febrile prenatural Heat arising from the Life or vital Principle incensed from any disturbing cause whatsoever Malignant can give no distinguishing Character to Fever for febrile Heat in all cases is idem specie the same in kind and only differing in Degree as being more or less Febrile Heat therefore cannot be Malignant because the Spring or Principle of that Heat is the Life Secondly They dissent by Indications in Curing Malignant requiring Alexipharmacal and Bezoardic Medicines And Fever or febrile Heat indicates refrigerating or Cooling means according to the common Practice and Galenic Canon Contraria contrariis Curantur But I say Febrile preternatural Heat being only Symptomatical and dependant upon the Life requires no Curing means directly and peculiarly thereto but is allayed and reduced of course by various Means such as is proper only for that Disease which causeth the Life to aestuate and be discomposed Thirdly They differ widely and are incongruously yoaked because as coupled they do not thereby illustrate and direct but darken and amuse a Practicer in determining the quid agendum and quibus auxiliis You must therefore divide and separate Fever from malignant considering them apart in their single distinct Natures as proceeding from much different Principles that you may rightly level at and oppose the evil and not stifle the innocent Fourthly Malignant is improperly affixed to Fever for that which makes the Fever efficienter and from whence febrile Heat does issue is fons caloris the very Life it self Therefore Fever is not malignant but the Disease may fitly be called malignant from the morbifick malignant matter which is the constituent cause thereof From whence we may understand that many and various Diseases going under the Name of Fevers are very indirectly dealt with by a wrong Information as being falsly denominated and mistaken Fifthly Malignant is injuriously added to Fever as an appellative and distinguishing character because Fever is no Disease but a Symptom or signum commune a signal only that the Life is male affected But how or with what febrile Heat makes no Discovery nor requires any curative Consideration But malignant denominates a Disease properly distinguisheth the Morbific cause from other Matter and thereby indicates the Curing means Therefore Malignant having no Relation to Fever but remotely and occasionally is no distinguishing Title for Fever and joining them together does not inform but amuse by contraindication Sixthly Symptoms arising from morbific Matter as Vomiting Fluxes immoderate Sweating and such like may receive a distinguishing Denomination peculiar and apposite as shewing the Nature thereof and if urgent may require Means for Palliation and Mitigation But febrile Heat a common Symptom of the Life male affected is not capable of Distinction by any Addition because it proceeds always from one and the same Principle tho' the procuring or occasional Causes be ever so different and various And requires no Means peculiar thereto but such as is proper and Curative for the Disease only that occasioned the aestuation By the common Doctrine we are hitherto at a loss in the Notion of Fevers being no Disease and requiring no Curing means adapt thereto giving little Information and is no true Guide in the cure of any Disease that is Couched under that Denomination But they being entituled Fevers hath caused great mistakes and
dictated injurious Methods and Medicines deceiving many Practisers with the Ruine of many Patients The appearance of a Fever hath so long detained them unnecessarily and perniciously in applying to damp and extinguish the febrile vital Heat thereby suppressing the fortitude of Nature and giving Time to the morbifie Cause for prevailing Having gained little satisfaction in the doctrinal Part of Fevers we will now pass on to the next Stage the Curative Practice We shall then see whether Curing comes by Chance and sometimes only or is the Effect of certain true Design and right adapted Means as the most frequent Event SECT VII The Operations and Effects of Cortex Peruvianus the Jesuits Powder BEfore I give my Sentiment of this famed Remedy so much used against Fevers I shall first recite the Opinions of some Authors thereupon And then comparing Judgments with the matters of Fact you may easily know who comes nearest the Truth in determining the virtue or Vitiosity of this Medicine Dr. Willis in his Book de Febribus put forth in the Year 1660 makes mention of this Cortex which he had often used and was then reputed a certain Febrifuge But he does not say it was a Remedy adapt to his Doctrine of Fevers but only an empyrical Medicine and pretends not to know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why and how this should Cure Fevers p. 154. And in another Place he saith That sometimes it did prevent the next Fit to come but if not then the second or third Fit was thereby prevented and the Fever Cured Yet this Cure lasted for a while only for within twenty or thirty Days saepissime redire solet most often it returned again P. 152. Then the Pouder was to be given again and that would make another Cessation And after this manner saith He I have known many afflicted with a quartan a whole Autumn and the Winter following to be thus handled The Fever kept off for a Time and returning again until the Spring came Then by the Help of Physick and the Change of the Season the ill Disposition of Blood was altered and the Fever by Degrees vanished P. 152. What great Cause is here to boast of and proclaim the Jesuits Powder for an excellent Febrifuge many of the common Medicines have done as much And in the Page following He adviseth this Medicine to be given urgente Necessitate When the Patient is worn down by continuance of Fits this Febrifuge makes a Ceslation for a Time that Strength may be recovered to be able to contend with the Disease And if you would have a long Truce you must take larger quantities of the Powder by that means you will be longer free from your Ague P. 153. Thus he commends it for a Palliative only not a compleat Curative Medicine This Physician of great Name and a vast Practice had more opportunities to try the worth of this Bark than any Man in the Kingdom And by his writings you may see that he had made various Tryals thereof whose Judgment in the use of it and the Verity in matters of Fact I do depend upon And therefore shall esteem of it no more than what He saith of it Dubitandum non est quin alia in rerum natura extent Medicamina quae sunt aeque febrifuga P. 156. For my Part I never had such an Opinion of it as to put me upon many Experiments in the use of it Because I had another Medicine which proved more certain in Stopping any Quotidian Tertian or Quartan Ague and also for removing the Morbific Matter out of the Body to prevent any Return And without such Security the Patient is not safe and in a hopeful condition Dr. Morton in his Pyretologia is of another mind and extols this Pouder above all things efficaciae mirabilis sanè ac Stupendae p. 242. and as a universal Remedy appoints it in Fevers and most Diseases This being chosen as adapt to support the new Hypothesis of animal Spirits male affected in all cases by venom in the most requiring Alexipharmacals And this Aetiology of Diseases against the antient Doctrine of Humors he espouseth and labours to maintain by proving the methods of Curing to be governed hereby and the Jesuits Pouder as the chiefest Remedy I am not so much a Humorist as to assert the quaternary of the Galenists deriving all Diseases from thence distinguishing them thereby and adapting peculiar Medicines thereto But in all Diseases as the Cause or the Product there is degenerate Matter so various in divers Persons as not to be reduced to four Heads and we may rationally judge the depravedness thereof by the symptoms arising from thence more or less dangerous as the Faculties are disordered or hurt and Curing results from bridling and discharging such offensive Matter To discourse this farther would draw us more out of the way of our present Purpose therefore I wave it and return to the Peruvian Bark To have a true aestimate of this Remedy we must examine it by the manifest Qualities it is endowed with By the manner of its Operation And from the Effects or Success that usually attends it These are the only ways to discover the genuine Nature and Virtues of this Cortex Herein I shall not be guided or byassed by the Accusations and Invectives of some foreign Writers Men of Note against this Cortex I shall wave their Arguments and the Faults they object that I may not be accounted an Enemy to this Medicine by joyning with the great opposers of it tho' I cannot say I am so much a Friend as to promote and incourage the use of it But I ground my Judgment of this Remedy from those that are the great Applauders of it who give all the Advantages they can in setting it forth by Argument and Fact From their Expressions and Confessions I shall raise some Doubts and make some Exceptions against the validity and worth of this famous Febrifuge The manifest Qualities attributed to it and declared are these Hot and Dry Bitter and Stiptic or restrictive But these do not perform the great work of a Counter-Poyson That is effected by an occult Quality they say And I will grant your occult Quality wherein you place the Efficacy of this Antidote But with this proviso that you make it out clearly and prove it by the Effects For if you cannot make it appear à pricri in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must make it manifest in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 else we must believe against all Reason and Sense The Hypothesis occult as not fairly proved and the Remedy occult in its chief reputed virtue I wish the good effects and success may not be occult also or only to found inter rar◠Comingentia The three foremost Qualities named I like well and the fourth I do not dislike in some Cases But when Nature is upon the Expulsion and makes an Effort to send off the Morbific Matter by Vomit or Stool Then the Astriction
may be injurious and checks Nature in freeing her self from that which is hostile And tho' it may be said the restringent virtue is moderate that seems to mitigate à tanto Notwithstanding this Febrifuge not being indicated in the Case may be blamed and be the occasion or cause of much mischeif in keeping out another Medicine which ought to come in use as more proper and fit at such a time The Cortex Cinnamomum is much more grateful and Stomachical than this Peruvian Drug But to give that innocent and wholesome restringent Cardiac to check a Flux Diarrhaea or Lienteria is not according to the Rules of Art But an abstersive true Purgative is in Reason and by Practice confirm'd most safe and successful I grant you when Malignity and venemous Matter is the Stimulating Cause As in the Small Pox Spotted Fevers or Pestilence the best Alexipharmacals and Diaphoretics are then the greatest and securest Help But whether the Jesuits Pouder be the supreme Antidote and most to be confided in such cases we shall inquire anon But Fluxes per Alvum most commonly are not so malign and the Ferment not venenate and do then require only a true gentle Purgative This most Practisers will freely assent to I do not accuse the Medicine of Evil in the Nature of it but the evil use of it and therein the best of things may do hurt and so may this when used more often than necessary under the Pretence of animal Spirits invenom'd in Fevers and most Diseases according to the new and false Hypothesis For the Manner of Operation those that confide most in this Medicine cannot shew how it operates but tells us negatively Not by Salivation Vomit Stool Urine or Sweat as Dr. Morton saith Pyretol p. 142. And for my Part I should not esteem the Medicine worse or less for the insensible Operation always provided it did perform the work intended and give sufficient Proof thereof But when I see a Failure in the Performance or a seeming and fallacious Performance pro tempore only or commonly so as Dr. Willis observes Then my Faith staggers and begins to fail that I cannot hope or trust any longer in secret and insensible Operation For the morbifio cause being laid asleep only and a Cessation made for a Time yet it will and frequently does resurge again shewing its Pravity in acting as before This Experience does confirm from Authors of Credit and by common Fame If the Jesuits Pouder thus deceive us in the only or chiefest cases wherein we wanted extraordinary Help as for Intermitting Fevers especially the Quartans Then where is the excellency of that Febrifuge For other occasions there are Medicines enough and for those Agues for ought I yet see there are as good and some that are better But notwithstanding the Operation is said to be so secret and charming yet sometimes it plays Tricks openly and unexpectedly By Vomit by Fluxes downward and profuse Sweats And this is acknowledged by a great admirer of this Pouder who tells us that such Evacutions are Symptomatical from the Irritation of the Medicine Dr. Morton Pyretol p. 142. So that it is not so calm still and ineffensive to all People but sometimes it gives Disturbance with such unprofitable evacuations as He accounts them so in the same Page And truly I should be angry with any Medicine that should give me so much Trouble without any Benefit From whence I remark that this Author will not own any Evacuation to be proficuous and conducing to these Cures least the Doctrine of Humors should gain Advantage thereby and the new Hypothesis infringed But in this case it is not reasonable to expect Advantage from such symptomatic Evacuations occasioned and arising meerly from disgust and Disagreement of the Medicine Hoc Pharmacum suâ Naturâ non admodum gratum P. 173. else Evacuations otherwise procured by good Medicine kindly operating have been beneficial and Curative My Reason does not persuade nor Experience urge me to believe that secret and insensible Operation by an occult Quality is so prevalent and wonderful in Curing especially in various cases and causes as to denominate this single and simple Pouder a Polychreston Pharmacum hoc divinum in pluribus alus morbis aeque ac in Febre intermittente proficuum P. 136. as he saith Some Specifics are said to operate after a secret manner and there is no Reason given why or how they do perform such effects But these are limited and restrained to particular Purposes and Diseases and they are the Secrets of Nature which as yet are not revealed to us But the Jesuits Pouder goes beyond all those in Latitude and Comprehension for few cases present that are not within the Virge of its Power as some would have us believe And it must be a Polychrest of large extent in Virtue that makes such Pretensions of Curing all Fevers because Fevers are adjoined and dependant upon most Diseases When Causes are manifestly various also situate variously in the Body and the Operations or Functions of Nature are manifest and different to discharge and free her self from such superfluous excrementitious and useless Matter both in her daily course of Preservation as also in extraordinary Cases and Exigencies And since curing is but in Imitation of Nature to give Help and assist her in her own Methods and by the ways of her own Institution Natura est Morborum medicatrix These being considered I cannot then understand this new way of Conjuring Nature into good Order and restoring her insensibly and occultly into a State of Sanity from various Diseases and Sickness But we will argue no farther about the Qualities and Manner of Operation now that we may come to the decisive and undeniable Proof by Matters of Fact the effects in Practice which determines all the Doubts and Difficulties in Controversy To confirm the new Hypothesis and prove the Excellency of Curing by the Jesuits Pouder Dr. Morton gives us an Account of several Cures that He hath done by this Febrifuge and sets down the Names of the Patients and Places of their Abode The historical verity I question not but how that Practice does answer the Hypothesis of animal Spirits invenom'd and proves the wonderful Alexipharmal power of the Peruvian Antidote as yet is not apparent to my dull understanding wherefore give me leave to doubt and to enquire farther If those Cures had been performed by the Antidote only or chiefly and with a little Help of another Medicine pro re nata I should have as good Opinion of the Pouder and extol it as much as He doth and perhaps thereby might become a Proselite to the new Doctrine But when I see Bleeding and Blistering Pericarpia and Suppedanea Juleps Apozems Purges Vomits Opiats c. as other Physicians use appointed in the Methods of his Cures And if we must believe those several Means to act their Part and nothing appointed but what was necessary and by Indication Who can tell now