with the Juice irrigating the Brain is wont to arise after various manners and for divers causes but for the most part that affect as we have observed in Melancholy begins either from the Spirits themselves or from the Blood 1. A madness beginning from the Spirits sometimes arises from a solemn evident cause as from a violent Passion sometimes also it proceeds from a Procatarxis laid in the Brain as when it happens upon Melancholy or a Frensy Let us confer a little the Cases Reasons and the various wayes of the coming to pass of both 1. As to the former when a vehement Passion turns any one from his right mind that so happens to be done either because the Animal Spirits are too much cast down and driven into confusion or because they are raised above measure and endeavour to expand themselves beyond their Sphere 1. The Spirits are wont to be cast down by a violent and terrible Passion so it many times happens that some upon areal or imaginary seeing of a Ghost presently being struch with a pannick terour fall into a perpetual madness Moreover some by reason of some great disgrace or reproach others by reason of the hope of an excessive Love being frustrated on a sudden and unexpectedly and others by reason of Vows rashly broken and their Conscience being violated first being mightily disturbed in Mind become shortly after mad the reason whereof is that the animal spirits being driven out of their ranks and usual Passages and put in a Confusion frame new and bye wayes for themselves which entring they presently form delirous Phantasms mean while the sline Partcles of the nervous Juice fall from their volatility the spirituous being depress'd and coming to flow take to them the sulphureous Corpuscles sent from the Blood into the Brain being then weak and open whence this Liquour presently becomes most sharp like Aqua fortis and the animal Spirits exorbitant and very much troubled Secondly the animal Spirits sometimes whilst they are raised too much almost after the like manner bring both to themselves and the nervous Juice a Disposition to Madness hence Ambition Pride and Emulation have made some run and the reason whereof is that whilst the coproreal Soul swelling through the Opinion and Pride of its own excellency raises and endeavours to expand it self every way as far as may be beyond the limits of the Body the animal Spirits tumultuarily call'd into the Brian are not able to be contain'd within their wonted Treacts but being there refracted and diversly reflected by reason of their too great exertion are forc'd into new and wholly devious Tracts wherefore both themselves being disturbed from the course of their proper Emanation and the nervous Liquour soon acquire a sharp and irritating disposition and consequently a madness ensues So far of Madness raised by reason of a solemn evident cause alone but this disease also arises often by reason of a Procatarxis praeexisting in the Brain and chiefly by reason of a preceding Melancholy or Phrensy in that the animal Spirits being exalted a little too much with the nervous Juice and in this being a little too much depress'd acquire the Disposition to madness 2. The Disposition to madness no less frequently has its roots in the mass of Blood and at length is produc'd into act to wit when the Blood being mightily depraved and nitrosulphureous either perverts the nervous Liquour together with the animal Spirits or furnishes such as are evil which kind of taint of the Blood is eiter hereditary or acquir'd First it s a common observation that men born of Parents that are sometimes wont to be mad will be obnoxious to the same disease and tho often they have lived prudently and soberly above thirty or forty years yet afterward without any occasion or evident cause will fall mad The reason whereof is that the Blood at that time being fallen from its due crasis by degrees to be nitrosulphureous furnishes the Brain with animal Spirits and a nervous Juice of a most sharp Nature We heave formerly shewn that the Elementary Particles in our Body persist during Life separately from those that are scondary supplyed by Nutrition and that they have times of their Crudity Maturity and Decay wherefore we judge also that the morbid Seminia come to a ripeness also according to the periods of ages Moreover we observe that often these mobid Fruits being ripend continue a good while or during Life and that sometimes they wither away again as it were of their own accord and then that afterward after some tract of time new Fruits spring forth again from the miasm left behind and rises by degrees to their height wherefore an hereditary Madness sometimes is continual sometimes interrmittent and its Fits sometimes are wont to return after shorter intervals sometimes after longer 2. As the Procatarxis of the Mania sticking in the Blood is often innate or originally in it so the same sometimes is engendred by degrees either by an ill form of dyet or by a suppression of solemn Evacuations by reason of a precedent Feaver or for other causes and at length being brought to a maturity breaks forth into a madness It 's usual in a great dearth for certain poor People who are forc'd to love only on disagreeing Food or such as is of an ill digestion at first to become sad with a staring and wan aspect and in a short time after to turn mad the Flux of the Hemorrhoids or Menses being restrained or malignant Ulcers supprest dispose towards this Disease Moreover those who originally or acquiredly are of an eager Temperament an extravagant Behaviour and an earnest Countenance because of being nigh to a nitrosulphureous Disposition of the Blood are in danger of falling mad upon some strong evident cause 3. Venemous Ferments insinuated into the Blood and nervous Juice as especially from the biting of Animals that are mad or by the taking of some venemous things are wont to cause Madness Concerning the reason of the former we have elsewhere proposed our Conjectures Of late a noble Lady and worthy of Credit related to me of her own Knowledge that a certain Gentleman after having eaten at Dinner the tender Leaves of Wolf-bane in a Sallet with other Herbs found himself ill in the Evening and complaining of a great agitation and restlessness of his Blood and Spirits entreated his Friends that a Chirurgeon might be called to open a Vein and said that otherwise he should presently run mad which indeed happned as he said for before he could be let blood falling mad he dyed within the space of twenty four hours which deadly affect hapned so on a sudden in as much as the Poyson did not only pervert both the Blood and animal Spirits as to their Crasis but by its malign Ferment presently subverted them utterly The reason why mad Persons are bold and very confident so that they flye no dangers and set upon the most difficult of things is that
their Bodies which are very tender and by reason of the Labours of Child-birth and the Exclusion of the Foetus are all full of open Pores are too unwarily expos'd to the open Air for most being impatient of their Bed put on their Cloaths and rise from it within a day or two or sooner than they ought thereby presently the Pores of the Skin being presently stopt and the Air getting into the Uterine Parts tanspiration is check'd and often the Lochia are suddenly stop'd either of which suffices to raise a feverish effervescence The conjunct Cause or formal Reason of this Distemper comprehends chiefly these three things to wit there are present first a mighty Dyscrasie of the Blood that growing very hot from a Fever occasionally rais'd it does not burn evenly nor does is subdue by degreeds the adust Recrements and purge them forth critically moreover the boyling Blood is presently loos'ned in its Mixture and its Texture being loos'ned it declines toward Corruption hence when it has a little abated of its Heat the Spirits being cast from their Governance are driv'n into Confusion mean while the sulphureous Particles become masterless and exorbitant wherefore the Strength fails without a manifest Cause the Pulse becomes weak and disorderly Tho from the Deflagration of the Blood a great many adust Recrements are heap'd together yet nothing is duely concocted or separated but Nature being greatlyopprest altho the Diseased continually sweat they often receive no ease thereby but the Febrile Matter which ought to be purged forth being conveyed into the Head and Genus Nervosum causes there very sore Perturbations of the animal oeconomy Secondly The Tragedy of this Disease for a good part of it is ascribed to the nervous Juyce forthwith turning sharp and therefore rendred disproportionate to the Brain and its Appendix for this being defiled with a Taint contracted from the Blood does not gently irrigate and mildly inspire its Subjects but as when an Infusion of Vitriol is pour'd on a Worm mightily vellicates and irrtates into Contrqactions and as it were into Motions of Trepidatons and Leapings those tender Parts and sometimes wholly overthrows their Functions hence Contractions severe Convulsions a Delirium Watchings sometimes a Stupor and sleepy Affects happen to Women after Delivery Ihirdly whilst these things are done often a third Troop of Symptoms infest the Diseased to wit for that the Womb being some way hurt moves it self disorderly and is struck with a Contraction in these or those Parts thence presently by the Membranes nad nervous Ductus's convulsive Motions pervade the whole Region of the Abdomen wherefore the Viscera and Hypochondres are blowen up Belchings and violent Vomitings are raised afterward the Affect creeping upward and possessing the nervous Parts of the Thorax a difficult and uneven Breathing a Palpitation of the Heart a sense of Choaking in the Throat by reaon of the Muscles there drawn together and other Symptoms are raised throughout the whole upon the same Injuries being communicated to the Brain The Fevers of Women afte Delivery are scarce ever free from danger tho sometimes it happens for them to be cur'd about the first beginnings by a thin Diet and upon restoring the flowing of the Lochia but if the feverish Distemper has laid deep Roots that the Blood be wholly kindled and boyls immoderately we can give but an ill Prognostick and there will be a greater Cause of Danger if besides a Heat diffus'd through the whole the Diseased are seised with a frequent Shivering if they are affected with a great Restlessness and Watchings with sudden Concussions of their Bodies or Contractions of the Tendons if on the third or fourth Day they complain of a ringing of the Ears with a great Repletion of the Head you may presently gather that a great Evil is at hand to wit a Mertastasis of the febrile and offensive Matter into the Brain nor is less to be feared if there lyes an Oppression and Load on the Praecordia that the Diseased cannot freely breath nor draw their Breath deep nor form the bottom of the Thorax but only from the upper part of it and that short and with a Blowing so that in the mean while the Diseased are forc'd to fit upright and to move themselves this way and that after a restless manner for this argues the Blood to stagnate about the Heart and Lungs also that it is apt to grow clotty and to be coagulated and if worse yet Affects of the Brain and Genus Nervosum ensue and the Pulse becomes weak and uneven you may declare the Case to be desperate but if as if sometimes falls out tho rarely after a Fever is kindled and threatens severely either a flowing of the Lochia or a Diarrhoea happens with Relief some Hope may be admitted Concerning the Cures of these kinds of Fevers a Physician has a very hard Task because among the Vulgar all Medicines to Women in Child-bed are accounted not only useless but likewise very hurtful wherefore Physicians are selfom called but when there is no place left for Medicines and the occasion for a useful Assitstance is wholly past and if they are present about the first beginnings of the Disease it will not be an easie thing to procure Health to the Diseased by vulgar Remedies and whatsoever they try unless it gives Help is affirmed by old Women and those that are about them as pernicious and the only Cause of their Death that in reality there is wont to accrue to us about the Cure of no Disease less benefit and more Disgrace than of this Now the method of Cure even as in contagious Diseases is twofold to wit Prophylactick and Therapeutick the former of these delivers Precepts and Cautions with which Women in Child-bed are preserved from the Incursion of Fevers the other suggests curative Intentions with which the Diseased if it may be recover again their Health 1. Tho this Fever however malignant it be is not accus'd of Contagion and there be no fear in those that lye in of a venemous Miasm being received from without nevertheless all Women in Child-bed have an innate Minera of Virulency and ought to have a care of the mischief of this as a Fomes of a mighty Malignity wherefore they have need of an exact Governance that after Child-birth the Impurities of the Blood and Humours may be duely purg'd without the danger of a Fever and that the evil Affects of the Womb be healed and that the Strength broken and debilitated by Child-birth may be duely restored For these ends these three things are to be chiefly inculcated in the Praescripts of Physicians First I think it necessary that a most exact form of Diet be ordered Women in Child-bed to wit that at least for a Week they wholly feed on Oat Broths sometimes prepar'd with Ale sometimes of Water mixed with White-wine because they are much emptied therefore they may sup often of them but let nothing of a solid or strong Food
he fell at length into a confirm'd Diabetes as it seem'd and almost past hope of recovery For besides that in the space of twenty four hours he voided near a Gallon and a half of clear water and wonderfully sweet as though Honey were mixt in it He was moreover affected with a cruel Thirst and a Fever seemingly a Hectick with a mighty Languor of the Spirits a fall of strength and a Consumption of the whole Body I then prescrib'd him the following Remedies by the use of which he seem'd in a short time to recover Take Cypress Tops eight handfuls Whites of Eggs beaten two pounds Cinnamon half an Ounce being cut small pour to them of new Milk eight pounds distill it in an ordinary Still taking care of an Empyreuma Let him take six Ounces thrice a day Take Gum Arabick and Gum Tragacanth of each six Drams Penids an Ounce Make a Powder let him take about a Dram or a Dram and a half twice a day with three or four Ounces of the distill'd water Take Rhuba-b powdred fifteen Grains Cinnamon six Grains Make a Powder let him take it in the Morning and renow the Dose within six or seven days Take Cowslip water three Ounces Cinnamon water hordeated two Drams Syrup of Meconium half an Ounce Make a draught to be taken every Evening His Diet was only Milk which he took pretty often in a day sometimes crude or diluted with the distill'd water or with Barly water sowetimes boil'd with White-bread or with Barly Growing daily better by the use of these things within a Month he seem'd to be almost Cur'd As he began to grow a little well his Urine which was Insipid did not much exceed the quantity of Liquids he took and afterwards turning a little Salt it became less in quantity than what he drank and so by degrees recovering the wonted tone of his Spirits and a good strength he took to his former Diet. Nevertheless the disposition to this Disease did not so throughly cease but afterwards being apt frequently to Relapses upon disorders in Living and haply upon changes according to the seasons of the year he first made Water in a greater measure than ordinary which by degrees grew clear and sweetish a Thirst and Fever with a Languor of the Spirits accompanying it But by the use of the same Medicines he us'd in a short time to recover again Not long since after a large interval of health a little before he fell into a Flux of Urine he found great irregularities and failings in the Genus Nervosum viz. He was seiz'd with a dull numbness of his Brain and a Vertigo and was taken with sudden Cramps in his Limbs and felt little Leapings of the Tendons and various runnings about him as though it were of a wind creeping here and there And when by the use of fit Remedies the aforesaid Symptoms seem'd to be Cur'd the Diabetes after its wounted manner burst forth afresh viz. the matter flowing forth in abundance from the Fibres and solid parts into the Blood and thence to the Reins and the Urinary Passages In this Juncture the same Remedies were prescrib'd again by the use of which when within a few days he began to grow bettr he was ordered to take thrice a day Water of quick Lime to five or six Ounces Having continued this Remedy four days he made water in a moderate quantity well ting'd and somewhat salt and as to other things he seem'd well as he was before By the same method and chiefly with the Water of quick Lime I Cur'd another of a Diabetes who was look'd upon as past recovery The Kinds and Prescripts of Medicines that stop Vrine flowing in excess A Stringent Medicines properly so call'd to wit such as are austere acerb and stiptick do little or nothing in stopping a Diuresis for the vertue of those things has no effect on the Mass of Blood nor does it reach to the Reins and Bladder But the Remedies that chiefly do good in the Diabetes are of two kinds as we have hinted before viz. First those that hinder the combinations of the Salts and consequently the fusion of the Blood such as the Incrassatives before mentioned Secondly Those that dissolve the Concretions of the Salts and consequently restore the mixture of the Blood of which kind are Saline Remedies of a contrary nature which are apt to cleave to the Acid Salt and so withdraw it from the combinations it has entred into within the Blood as chiefly Medicines endow'd with a fixt volatile or alchalisate Salt Besides these two Primary kinds of Medicines that restrain Urine there rests a Secondary kind to wit Hypnoticks which putting some stop to the Animal Aeconomy cause the vital function to be perform'd with more calmness and consequently with less fusion of the Blood or precipitation of the serous and nutricious humours It remains now to set down some Select Forms of each kind of these Medicines I. The first Scope of Curing to wit by which we endeavour by thickning the Blood to prevent its fusion or to take it away is effected by the Medicines following Take Gumm Arabick and Tragacanth powder'd of each an Ounce Sugar Penids half an Ounce Make a Powder divide it into sixteen parts Take one part thrice a day dissolving it in the distill'd water or in the docoction of the Roots of Comphry in fountain water or Milk Take of the Resumptive Electuary three Ounces Species Diatragacanthi frigidi an Ounce Red Coral prepar'd two Drams Confection of Hyacinth a Dram and a half Gelly of the cast Skins of Vipers what will suffice Make an Electuary of which let the Patient take twice a day the quantity of a Wallnut Take white Amber Mastick Olibanum powdred of each an Ounce Pulvis Haly two Ounces Balsam of Tolu half an Ounce Make a Subtle Powder the Dose is half a Dram twice or thrice a day Take Roots of great Comphry and Water Lillies of each three Ounces Dates slic'd two Ounces Seeds of Maliows Cotton-plant Plantain Fleawort of each half an Ounce Boil them in four pounds of fountain water till half be consum'd to the straining add Syrup of Water Lillies two Ounces The Dose is four Ounces thrice a day Take of the decoction of Barly with Water Lilly-roots a pound and a half Sweet Almonds prepar'd an Ounce and a half Seeds of white Poppies Purslain Lettice of each half an Ounce Make an Emulsion according to art the Dose is four Ounces thrice a day Take Cypress Tops six handfuls Clary Leaves four handfuls Flowers of blind Nettles Comphry Water Lillies of each four handfuls Roots of Water Lillies and Comphry of each half a pound Mace an Ounce all being small slic'd together pour to them of new Milk eight pounds distil them in an ordinary Still The Dose is four Ounces thrice a day with the Powder of Electuary above written II. In the second place though Saline Medicines of every kind and condition are accounted Diuretick
for being given in a good large quantity they seldom cause Sleep and render the affected more faint and weak It often succeeds better if going to bed they take some gentle and pleasant drink as especially our Ale being clear and mild or also posset drink with Cowslip Flowers boyled in it or an emulsion of the Seeds of Melons and Almonds in a great quantity viz. to two or three pounds I was advis'd with some time since for an old hypochondriacal man who besides other symptoms usual in that case had liv'd for many years obnoxious to a frequent loud and very troublesome belching He was wont every day to fall a belching twice or thrice for about two hours together and with so great a noise that he was heard to a great distance But sometimes for a week or two and sometimes for a month that belching was chang'd into a watching for the former affect becoming much more remiss the worthy man past often whole nights without sleep and when sometimes he had been constantly waking for three or more days not yet seeming to want sleep he complain'd of no drowsiness dulness or failing of the Spirits Narcoticks having seldome or never given him relief he took sometimes in the evening Posset-drink made with Ale or Canary at the beginning of the night he drank sometimes Ale sometimes Distill'd Waters by the use of which a little sleep often followed then afterward the Watching-evil vanishing by degrees the belching return'd Whence it may appear that the cause of both was the same viz. adust and irritating Particles sent from the mass of Blood sometimes into the Coats of the Stomach sometimes into the cortical part of the Brain 2. Besides these distinct affects or exorbitancies of sleep and waking there remain other conjunct or complicated irregularities of them in which the acts of both functions are perverted together which we may observe in the affect vulgarly call'd the VVatching Coma concerning which we shall now speak in short Those that are troubled with the VVatching Coma tho they are always inclin'd to sleep yet they can scarce sleep at all but seem like Tantalus to stand always up to the Lips in the River Lethe for sipping of which whenever they sink themselves deeper the yielding Waters always subside lower They feel a very great heaviness of the Head with a drowsiness of the senses and all the faculties so that they are troubled to move themselves any way in their Bed or to be disturb'd by the speech of standers by that speak to them still expecting to fall presently into a quiet sleep to which nevertheless when they wholly yield up themselves and endeavour straitly to embrace it various phantasms presenting themselves to their mind keep them still waking nor permit them at all to enjoy that Sleep which seems always to be ready for them To this often is added a Delirium so that whilst the Diseased lye with their Eyes clos'd they talk always absurdly and at random and throw their Arms and Legs this way and that in a disorderly manner and being awak'd look gastly It 's a usual thing for such as are in Fevers to continue all night overwhelm'd with a sleepiness as it were but so that in the mean while they are scarce silent for a quarter of an hour but mutter various things with themselves nay sometimes cry out howl and leap out of Bed If the reason of this be enquir'd into it seems that we ought to say that the Pores and Passages in the Brain which are the avenues of the Spirits are very much possest by a gross and soporiferous matter sent from the mass of the Blood so that the Spirits being very much letted from their wonted expansion and mutual commerce a great and invincible Sleep seems presently to be at hand but in as much as certain sharp and very active Particles stick to those Spirits as so many stings they are incessantly incited to motion and therefore some of them forcibly pass the wayes however stopt and beset with fence and meet against each other directly or obliquely according as they can find a way and such their motion tho it be not able to procure a compleat exercise of the animal function yet it easily hinders its rest and cessation so that those that are troubled with this Disease keep betwixt Sleep and wake The VVatching-coma is seldom a Disease of it self but for the most part is a symptom and happens upon other affects as a Fever the Frensy Lethargy and the like wherefore it does not require a peculiar method of Cure but it seems only to be needful that to the Remedies primarily indicated other Cephalicks be joyn'd which may disperse these meteors as it were like Clouds and Lightning or if both of them cannot be exterminated together let the Medicine joyn it self to the aid of one affect by which that being becom superior let it presently overcome the other so in a sleepy Watching it is proper to procure either a perfect Sleep or a perfect Watching and in this case I have often given Narcoticks with good success CHAP. V. Instructions and Prescripts for curing the Incubus or Night-mare SO far of the irregularities or morbid Exorbitancies of Sleep and Watching which being proper to and as it were peculiarly attending the Brain affect the Cerebellum but rarely and only secondarily but there remains an affect vulgarly call'd the Incubus or Nightmare which being peculiar to this Region and in some sort analogous to the soporiferous Diseases in as much as its Fits arise in a manner from hence that by reason of the Animal Spirits being bound or supprest in the Cerebellum an Eclipse or interruption of them tho short is caus'd in the exercise of the vital Function That the nature of this Disease may be the better known in the first place let us consider its Phoenomena A Fit of the Incubus most commonly and in a manner only seizing us whilst we are asleep is wont to be rais'd for the most part after the Stomach 's being loaded with food of ill digestion and a lying on the back in bed those that are troubled with it seem to perceive themselves chiefly offended with it in the Breast and about the Praecordia for respiration being supprest or very much hindred they think themselves opprest with a certain weight lying heavily on the Thorax which weight cheats their imaginations sometimes with one Apparition sometimes with another and when they think to shake it off or put it from them by the motion of their Body or Limbs they are not able to stir either their Body or any Limb any way but after a long struggling in the Praecordia and sometimes almost to the loss of Life at length they awake and being fully come to themselves from their sleep the imaginary weight vanishes on a sudden and the moving force of the Body is restored there remaining nevertheless for the most part a trembling of the Heart and
whence all things seem to run round sometimes to be raised on high sometimes to be depress'd low so that nothing is seen fix'd and settl'd in its due site and position In a Brain rightly disposed the motion of the Animal Spirits is perform'd in certain numbers and measures as it were in a Dance while certain Spirits are moved in these tracts others lye still in those afterward these maintain those with a supply in motion and the several Acts of each Faculty become as so many distinct undulations of Waters in a River but in a Delirium all the Spirits skip about together and meeting each other in a tumultuous manner or taking several ways dance about like People distracted Moreover even as these being struck with such a Rage within the frame of the Brain raise manifold and very troubled thoughts so while they are carried beyond the confines of it into the Nervous Origine they produce an Idle talking absur'd Gestures of the Body and Members and often Convulsive motions yet since such a wild motion of the Spirits otherwise than in the Frensy or Mania soon ceases and after that that tumult is over no deviating tracts are made in the Brain the Delirium soon passes off and the affected in a little time come to themselves again no foot-steps of the distraction remaining If it be ask'd whence this short Fury is given the Spirits residing in the Brain that shaking off the Reins of the Mind they are so all in confusion in their Oeconomy we say that they enter upon this disorder for a double reason viz. this Rage is either immediately communicated to them from the Blood irrigating the compages of the Brain or certain animal Spirits residing in some outward part within the Genus Nervosum first begin a certain disorderly Motion and afterward the same disorder being communicated to the Brain by the Nervous Ductus's and affecting in like manner the Spirits there residing causes the Delirium There are various kinds and causes of both these wherefore we shall here briefly touch the cheif and first it shall be shewn how and on what occasions the Blood either swelling with too great an effervescency or being full of a venemous matter becomes the Parent of the Delirium in as much as it insinuates into the Pores and Passages of the Brain either exorbitant and masterless Particles or such as are malignant and subverting the animal oeconomy 1. As to the former in the Fits of intermittent Fevers and the height of such as are continual the Blood being troubled with an immoderate burning sometimes raises a Delirium by the meer Impetus of its Ebullition viz. in as much as being very turgid while it passes the small Branches of the Arteries spread all over the outward circumference of the Brain it greatly puffs them up and stretches them and therefore compressing the substance of the Brain it drives the Spirits several wayes and forces them into very confused crowds as it were Moreover from the Blood 's growing thus turpid through a frothy Rarefaction Effluvia of heat and Heterogeneous Particles with them entring the Pores and Passages of the Brain exagitate the Spirits and carry them violently hither and thither in a tumultuous manner 2. For a like reason in a manner to this Drunkenness causes a deep Sleep or a Delirium viz. In as much as the mass of Blood insinuates into the Pores and Passages of the Brain the spirituous Particles of the Wine which causes it to boyl and by which the Spirits residing in them are either overwhelmed or put into disorderly or confused Motions 3. Nor does the Blood only ministring febrile and turgid or vinous and masterless Particles but sometimes such as are malign and venemous as it were cause a Delirium with or without a Fever As to the former in the Plague small-Pox malignant Fevers tho the heat be moderate the malignant matter conveyed to the Head produces abrupt incoherent and at length distracted Notions in as much as it dissipates the stores of the Spirits rather than by driving them into a tumult 4. For a like reason to this some Poysons and venemous things inwardly taken and as some say outwardly applyed soon bring a Delirium this is vulgarly said of Solunum furiosum Mandrake and certain other Plants the thing is most notorious concerning the Roots of the wild Parsnip An intimate Friend of mine and a Man worthy of credit and also very learned told me once that he went into the House of a certain Gentleman where the Lady her Daughters and all the maid Servants one only excepted being all delirous at the same time ran about the House leaping and talking incongruous and absurd things he thinking them plainly distracted was given to understand by the Maid who was well in her Wits that all this hapned from eating Parsnip Roots which she alone had not touched and the event also confirmed it for after being tired they had slept all of them awak'd sober 5. But moreover we observe that a Delirium is sometimes raised by a scarcity of the animal Spirits and their great dissipation for when their Orders are broken and discomposed they minister confused and incongruous Notions as well as when tumultuarily hudled together Hence we observe that some have grown delirous after great Hemorrhagies or long Watchings and a long Fasting for this Reason many dying Persons speak light-headed and incongruously There remains the other kind of Delirium in which the Blood being without fault the animal Spirits residing somewhere in the Genus Nervosum first begin to fall in disorder and afterward the same affect creeping to the Brain by the Ductus's of the Nerves moves the Spirits residing in its Meditullium to a Delirium this is obvious in the Passions called Hysterical to wit that after a rising of the Belly and an Oppression of the Heart at length sometimes a privation of Sense sometimes a talking idly with a Weeping and a Laughter ensues In like manner I have observed in a violent Colick that sometimes extream Tortures about the Viscera or Loins have presently past into a Delirium then a little after this ceasing that the Tortures returned I knew a Girl who after taking an Emetick Medicine was wont constantly to be delirous till it wrought for this also makes what I often observe that a Delirium is raised by a Gangreen beginning in some outward Member and this is generally accounted for a mortal sign in a Wound or Vlcer because it denotes the animal Spirits to be generally a killing in the part affected Nor does that Symptom afford a better Prognostick to such as have been long valetudinary and are almost worn away in the Fits of intermittent Fevers it s in a manner alwayes safe but in continual Fevers it 's of a doubtful and somewhat a suspected event in malignant Fevers it commonly threatens ill in Convulsive Diseases the first invasions of a Delirium for the most part are without danger but a
affect is wont commonly to be described after this manner to wit that whereas they ought to be transparent subtle and light in Melancholy they become obscure opake and darkish so that they represent the Images of things covered as it were with a Shadow or obscurity But I conceive the state of the animal Spirits in raving is most aptly explicated according to the Analogy they bear with certain chymical Spirits as it will appear from what follows 1. Liquours chymically distilled are of divers kinds according as the active Elements are combin'd in them after various manners the most excellent of these by the consent of all is said to be in which the Spirit united to the Salâ—â—olatizes it and is again acuated and recieves somewhat of a firmness from it of this nature are conceived to be the great Elixir and the Liquour Alkahest and in truth in some sort are the Spirits of Blood of Harts-horn of Soot and the like they being very subtle volatile and penetrating and yet not inflamable or apt to be soon dissipated And indeed the animal Spirits enjoying a sound and meet disposition seem in some sort to be as the spirituous Liquour filled with a volatile Salt which is distilled from the Blood unless it be that to this a mighty Acrimony and Empyeuma are caus'd by the Fire of which the Liquour which is in the Brain and Nerves is wholly free 2. Other Chymical Liquours are too sulphureous and burning as Spirit of Wine and of Turpentine which consisting of Spirit and Sulphur combin'd together are easily inflamed and readily separate from others and take this way and that as they find a Passage of which kind of nature the animal Spirits in some sort participate in the Phrensy 3. Some Liquours or Spirits are produc'd by Chymistry in which the fixt salt being raised to a flowing has the Dominion of which kind are those which are distilled from Vinegar ponderous Woods and certain Minerals by a gentle Fire whose particles are very movable and restless but of a shorter activity so that the effluvia do not flow far from them and if they are distilled in Baleno nothing but an insipid Phlegm is raised into the Alembick And indeed we conjecture that the animal Spirits have such a kind of acetous Nature with the dominion of the fluid Salt in melancholy Affects as we shall by and by shew more at large 4. Some Liquours spagyrically drawn are sometimes extreamly sharp in which the wild Particles of a fluid Salt and of an arsenical Sulphur combin'd together are exalted as are the Stygian Waters distilled from Nitre Vitriol Antimony Arsenick Verdigrease and the like all which are of a wild very penetrative and invincible Nature so that their diffuse themselves to a great wideness and these kinds of Liquours aptly enough resemble the Disposition of the animal Spirits acquir'd in a Mania as we shall declare beneath But at present that we may deliver the formal nature and Causes of Melancholy we may opine that the Liquour distilled from the Blood into the Brain which filling and irrigating all the Pores and Passages of the Brain and its nervous appendix is both the Vehicle and Vinculum of the animal Spirits has degenerated from its mild benign and subtle Nature into an acetous and corrosive Disposition such as that of the Liquours drawn from Vinegar Box and Vitriol and that the animal Spirits which dispersing their Rayes from the Meditullium of the Brain both into its globous Substance and into the Systema Nervosum produce all the Functions of Sense and Motion both inward and outward are disposed in like manner as the Effluvia passing from those acetous Chymical Liquours Concerning which we may observe these three things viz. First that they are in perpetual Motion secondly that they do not flow far thirdly that they are not only carryed by open Passages but make new prosities in neighbouring Bodies and insinuate themselves into them From the Analogy of these Conditions concerning the animal Spirits it happens that melancholy Persons are always thoughtful that they comprehend only a few things that they form their Notions concerning them amiss you may find this fuller explained in Dr. Willis at large So much of the primary melancholy Affect viz. a Delirium raised through the faults of the Spirits residing in the Brain whose beginnings tho cheifly and often in a manner only proceed from the acetous Disposition of the Spirits yet afterward the conformation of the Brain it self is frequently taken in as a part of the cause viz. In as much as the Recrements of the melancholy Blood continually sent into it renders its substance more gross and opake and the primary Tracts or Paths of the animal Spirits being almost defac'd new oblique and devious Tracts are made so that tho there be a supply of the better sort of Spirits they cannot easily irradiate the Brain or presently recover their former Passages Melancholy is not only an affect of the Brain and Spirits residing in it but likewise of the Praecordia and of the Blood there kindled and thence sent forth into the whole Body and as it produces in the former a Delirium so here a Fear and Sadness but after what manner let us now see In Sadness in the first place the flamy or vital part of the Soul is straitned as to its circuit and is restrained within a less space and then consequently the animalor lucid part of the Soul contracts its Sphere and has less vigour but in Fear both are suddenly represt and made to stagger as it were and to contain themselves within very small spaces in both affects the Blood does not circulate and burn lively and with a full flame but being apt to be heapt together and to stagnate about the Precordia it causes there an oppression or fainting and in the mean while the Head and Members being destitute of its plentiful efflux languish Now that those Passions become habitual in melancholy Persons the cause is partly in the Blood and partly in the animal Action of the Heart for the Blood by reason of saline Particles exalted becomes less inflamable whence it is neither sufficiently kindled in the Lungs nor does it burn within the Ductus's of the Heart and Vessels with a flame sufficiently clear and plentiful but such as is apt to be represt and almost blown out by any puff of Wind hence in regard the vital Flame is so slender and languishing that it staggers and trembles at all Motion it is no wonder if a melancholy Person the Soul as it were subfiding and being half overwhelmed is always sad and tlmorous By reason of this saline discrasie of the Blood melancholy Persons are seldom troubled with a Fever but being seised with it they are more dangerously ill by reason of the irregular burning of the Blood Nor does it happen less through the fault of the Heart that melancholy Persons by reason of the course of the Blood being retarded or
often drawn back become sad and timorous for since that Muscle is not actuated but by the influence of weak and irregular Spirits it is not able to perform its Contractions with Strength and Constancy enough whereby the Blood may be driven forward throughout the whole Body without stop or flying back Therefore the Blood and animal Spirits mutually affect each other with a reciprocal injury and bring dammage on each other the melancholy blood that is consisting of saline Particles exalted together with such as are sulphureous engenders animal Spirits of an acetous nature as we have shewn and these Spirits performing the vital Function amiss cause such a dyscrasy of the Blood to be encreas'd So far of Melancholy in genera viz. of its Essence conjunct Causes and chief Symptoms before we proceed to the kinds and differences of this Disease we ought to explicate from what causes both procatarctick and evident it is wont to arise and be fomented and first whence both parts of the Soul viz. both animal and vital acquire their morbid Dispositions Of these we have shewn the former to be acetous resembling Spirit of Vitriol or of Vinegar and the other to be Salino-Sulphureous or Atrabilarious moreover and that as they both soment each other so that they first engender each other for sometimes melancholy beginning from the animal Spirits being troubled and put in a certain confusion and persisting some time brings a melancholy habit to the Blood sometimes also the Blood contracting first that discrasy perverts the Nature of the Spirits That Melancholy oftentimes begins from the animal oeconomy it s easily seen in excessive Love extream Sadness pannick Terrours Envy Cares and immoderate Studies for on these occasions the animal Spirits being driven out of the wonted Paths of their Expansions and persisting in their errour through the assiduity of their Passion at length fall into devious Tracts which afterward keeping to they are with difficulty reduced into the ancient and right again Moreover since thereupon the Motion and Vigour of the Heart are diminish'd therefore the Blood falls from its due Crasis and Pneumatosis and thereby being rendred more fixt and salino-sulphureous furnishes only animal spirits degenerated to a sourness and so the Blood being depraved a posteriori gives a Fuel to the melancholy disposition begun by the Spirits Nor does it happen less frequently that the seeds of melancholy first laid in the Blood give at length that taint to the Spirits for this reason some hereditarily become obnoxious to that Disease Moreover a disorderly dyet the intermission of an exercise long us'd solemn Evacuations as of the Menses or Hemmorhoids also of the Seed or serous Ichor suddenly supprest and many other occasions easily defile the Blood and render it melancholick whose evil Disposition will afterward of necessity be communicated to the Spirits As to what a great many Physicians think that melancholy rises from a melancholick Humour engendred somewhere primarily and per se and assign particular Places for its Generation viz the Brain Spleen Womb and the whole Habit of the Body we do not easily grant all this for besides that no secret Stores of such a humour lying any where appear unless haply in the Spleen it is indeed the Blood it self which first conceives per se the melancholick Distemper or any other and afterward deposes recrements of that Nature in proper Emunctories or Receptacles nor would the yellow Choler be stor'd up in the Gall-Bladder or the black so call'd in the Spleen unless the mass of Blood first engendred those Humours If at any time these or other recrementitious humours some where depos'd be receiv'd by the mass of Blood they produce its effervescence but not presently or easily its distemperature 1. As to that therefore that the origine of Melancholy is sometimes ascrib'd to the Head and the distemperature of the Brain is accus'd by some as too hot and by others as cold I think we ought rather to say that the affect sometimes first begins from the Brain and from the Soul residing in it 2. As for the Origine of this affect being sometimes drawn from the Womb it must not be thought that the melancholy Humour is there first engendred but that the occasion of melancholy proceeds thence either because by reason of the Menses supprest the whole Blood being defil'd and become degenerate afterwards falls into a melancholy discrasy or for that by reason of the Stimuli of Venery restrain'd with a great reluctation of the corporeal Soul the animal Spirits being long contained and kept in at length become fixt and melancholick 3. That melancholy is sometimes either primarily raised or very much fomented by the Spleen being ill affected and thereupon by a peculiar word called Hypocondriacal it is both the common and our own Opinion but the Blood being first in the fault engendring in it self filthy melancholy Dregs at the beginning deposes them in the Spleen which afterward receiving again being exalted into the nature of an evil ferment it is vitiated more in its Crasis by their defilement 4. As to that that besides another species of melancholy distinct from the Hypocondriacal and the former is said to be engendred together in the whole Body it is nothing else than that the whole mass of Blood becoming degenerate from its right Nature by reason of errours in the six non-natural things and on many other occasions acquires a melancholick Discrasy that is where the Spirit being depress'd the sulphureous Particles together with the saline and some also that are terrene are exalted this melancholy disposition of the Blood being very much allyed to that sulphureo-saline Habit which we have shewn to be often prevalent in a certain kind of Scurvy The Prognostick of Melancholy tho as to Life or Death it be for the most part safe yet in reference to the event it is very uncertain for some recover soon others are not cur'd but after a long time and others not at all This affect rais'd on a sudden from some solemn evident cause as from a vehement passion is much safer than invading by degrees after a long Procatarixs for if the evident cause be presently remov'd that often ceases of its own accord or is cur'd with little ado but in this in regard both the mass of Blood and the whole troop of Animal Spirits have fallen from their due crasis and often the conformation of the Brain as to the tracts of the Spirits is altered a Cure does not happen but with great difficulty and not but after a long time Melancholy long protracted often passes into a Fatuity and sometimes also into a Mania or Madness Moreover sometimes it brings Convulsive affects or a Palsey or Apoplexy nay sometimes a violent Death There is little or no hope of a Cure if the affected being very stubborn and refractory refuse all Medicines and any method of management Moreover scarce any thing better may be expected from those who
the animal Spirits being very exorbitant and vehemently moved both fortifie the Imagination that no Object seems greater or more terrible to it than usual and actuate the Praecordia with Vigour so that they strongly and swiftly convery the Blood and briskly drive it into the outmost bounds of the Body In this affect the Soul strives to outgoe and to springit self as it were beyond the circumference of the Body and so making an effort every way it bears it self undaunted against any incursions of exteriour things 2. The Reason why mad Persons are strong to a miracle is that Particles as it were nitrosulphureous or otherwise very sharp or as it were Stygian ar contained in their Blood and nervous Juice whence the animal Spirits excell in a stupendous and incredible elastick or explosive force far above the natural 3. It is to be observed that mad Persons are hardly ever wearied for tho by raging and striving they strongly exercise their Limbs for many dayes and Nights and in the mean while live without eating and sleeping they scarce at all faulter nor desist from their strugling through a failure of Strength which doubless so happens for as much as the animal Spirits tho very movable and elastick yet are not volatile and easily dissipable but by reason of the saline Particles depress'd from their volatility into a flowing state and being combin'd with the sulphureous ones become firm and fixt and therefore hold out veryling in their Activity 4. Almost for the same reason many Persons how much soever they suffer or are afflicted are not hurt but endure Cold Heat Watchings Fastings Stripes and Wounds without any sensible dammage because the Spirits being strong and fixt do not faulter nor flye away Moreover the Blood having got a nitrosulphureous dyscrasy is incapable of any other change wherefore tho insensible transpiration be stopt and other solemn evacuations are supprest or supplyes of te nutritive Juice are deny'd neither a Catarrh nor Feaver nor an Atrophia or Cacochymia lightly ensue upon Madness for in this affect tho the Particles of the Blood are grown very turgid yet by reason of the store of Salt they do not take to a feverish Flame As to the prognostick of Madness since the affected are never obnoxious to a Fever nor to oter Diseases besides nor are easily hurt by outward Accidents it is not a mortal Disease of it self but is very of Cure because a great alteration is to be made in the Blood and Spirits and the Diseased are refractory to any method of Cure being Enemies both to the Physicians and themselves If the Madness be inveterate or hereditary or be caus'd by the bite of a mad Dog it admits of a perfect Cure with difficulty or not at all that which is rais'd through some occasion whether it be from an evident cause alone or comes upon a Fever also on which the Itch Small Pox Hemorrhoids or Varix's happen is more easily Cured Those that are obnoxious to this Disease at times are very much in danger about the Summer Solstice or in the Dog days also in great changes of the Air as when long colds or heats are changed into opposite constitutions of the Heavens Since there are two kinds of Madness to with a continual and intermittent one the method of Curing also ought to be twofold 1. The Therapeutick method to be used in a continual Mania suggests to us the three primary Indications so vulgarly known viz. the first Curatory which regarding the Disease if self endeavours to correct or appease the furies and exorbitancies of the Aniaml Spirits The second preservatory which levelling at the causes of the Disease undertakes to remove or amend the sharp and nitrosulphureous Dyserasies of the Blood and the Nervous juice and the Stygian disposition as it were of the Spirit The third Vital which directs such a way of Dyet and resumptive nourishment that both the nutritive and vital functions may be able to be carried on and maintain'd as is barely necessary in this Disease The first Indication viz. Curatory requires Discipline viz. threats bindings or stripes as well as Physick and therefore the mad Person being put into a House fit for that purpose let him be so managed both by the Physician and prudent attendants that he be kept in a manner always in his due behaviour and in meet gestures and motions either by advice chiding or by punishments now and then inflicted on him and indeed there is nothing more efficacious or necessary for curing mad Persons than that they always dread and stand in awe of certain Tortures as it were for by this means the Corporeal Soul being somewhat deprest and restrained is forced to remit of its haughtiness and exorbitancy and therefore afterward grows mild by degrees and is reduced to order Wherefore mad men are sometimes sooner and more certainly cured by punishments and tortures in a pent up room than by Physick or Medicines But withal such a course of Physick also ought to be us'd which may restrain and bring down the haughtiness of the Corporeal Soul Wherefore in this Disease Blooding Vomitories and Catharticks how strong soever they are and given at rovers and boldly very often do good Which indeed manisestly apperars because Empyricks only with this kind of Physick together with governanace and a severe discipline often successfully cure Mad-men Tho this rough way of handling does not so well agree with all mad persons but chiefly with such as are raving mad oters being more remissly mad are often cured by fair usage and gentle Medicines But in most mad persons it is both the common voice and general practice to bleed plentifully about the beginning of the Disease and indeed it will be good now and then to repeat it as far as the strength will bear and sometimes to perform the operation in the Arm sometimes in the Jugular Vein Forehead or Foot and sometimes to open the Hemorrhoid Vessels by Leeches For these evacuations being seasonably made both the exorbitancies of the Spirits and te haughtiness of the Soul are excellently supprest and likewise the Dyscrasies of the Blood are corrected in regard that a new and more mild springs up in the place of that which was taken away being sharp and corrosive That Vomits also do great good in curing mad persons it is past even into a Proverb so that all Hellebore nay all Anticyra is assign'd to them After what manner Emeticks often do good in Cephalick Diseases we have shewn before Quacks in this case giving a large dose of Stibium tho it be rashly and dangerously yet have often success In truth Chymical things best agree here both because they move more powerfull and because the Disased may be deceived more easily by them Take sulphur of Antimony from eight grains to ten Cream of Tartar half a scruple mix them by grinding them together make a Powder let it be given in a spoonful of Panada or if it must be
often begin the same on occasion or encrease them being begun 2. As to the Principles of which the mass of Blood consists in its mixture and what Proportion they have in it We do not allow of the Opinion of the Ancients That the Mass of Blood consists of the four Humours viz Blood Flegm Choler and Melancholy and that according to the Eminency of this or that Humour the divers Temperaments are form'd and that by reason of their fermentings or Exorbitances in a manner all Diseases arise nor has this Opinion been so generally used for solving the Phenomena of Diseases since the Circulation of the Blood and its other Affects before unknown came to light and since those Humours consist of other Principles viz. Choler of Salt and Sulphur with a mixture of Spirit and Water and Melancholy of the same with an addition of Earth and since the Blood is immediately composed of these kind of Principles and is wont to be sensibly resolved into them I have rather chosen omitting the vulgar Acceptation of the Humours to make use of these known Principles of the Chymists for explicating the nature and affects of the Blood therefore there are in the Blood as in all other Liquors apt to ferments a great deal of Water and Spirit a small Proportion of Salt and Sulphur and somewhat of Earth I shall briefly run over these Principles and endeavour to shew after what manner they constitute the Consistency Properties and Affects of the Blood 1. The Spirits which without Dispute have the first place are the subtle and most volatile part of the Blood their Particles being always expanded and endeavouring to fly away exagitate the grosser Corpuscles of the rest in which they are involv'd and keep them always in a motion of Fermentation by the Effervescence and even Expansion of these in the Vessels the liquor of the Blood continually boyls and the rest of the Principles are kept in an orderly Motion and in an exact Mixture if any thing that is heterogeneous or unapt for mixture comes into the Mass of Blood presently the Spirits being troubled in their Motion make an Effort exagitate the Blood and make it boyl vehemently till that which is extraneous and immiscible with it be either subdued or reduced or driven forth 2. From the Dissolution of Sulphur in the Blood it is likely that the ruddy Tincture of the Blood arises For sulphureous Bodies above all others give the highest saturated redness to a solving Menstruum and if at any time by reason of too much Crudity the Sulphur is not dissolv'd the Blood becomes pale and Watery that it scarce gives a redness to Linnen The mass of Blood impregnated with Sulphur together with Spirits is very fermentative and when the sulphureous part is raised and abounds too much in the Blood it perverts its Crasis from its due state that thereby the Blood being deprav'd or rendred bilous does not rightly concoct the nutritive Juice or being wholly inflamed falls into heats and burnings such as arise in a continual Fever For the Sulphur being too much exalted and growing more turgid than it ought raises mighty Effervescensies in the Blood and those whose Blood is plentifully impregnated with Sulphur are very obnoxious to Fevers by reason of the Particles of this incocted in the Nutritive Juice and thence applyed to the solid parts Fatness Softness and Tenderness happen to our Body 3. We discover Salt in the Blood by the Taste which is there highly volatiz'd by circulation and if at any time in the Blood by reason of an ill digestion the saline Particles are not duely exalted but continue crude and for the greatest part fixt thereby the Blood becomes thick and unapt for circulation so that obstructions are engendred in the Viscera and solid parts and serous Crudities are every where heapt together but if the Spirit being depress'd or fainting the Salt is exalted too much and comes to a flowing an acetous and austere disposition is brought on the Blood such as is observ'd in scorbutical Persons and in such as are troubled with a quartan Ague also from the Salt by this means variously coagulated the Gout Kings-evil the Nephritis the Leprosie and a great many Cronick Diseases arise When the Salt is exalted in a due measure the saline Particles restrain the wild efforts of the Spirits and especially of the Sulphur wherefore those who have the Blood well saturated with a volatile Salt are least subject to Fevers and so also those who are often let Blood are more apt to Fevers 4. By the earthy Particles in the Blood it s too great volatilisation is stay'd and it s over quick accension is hindred Moreover from the terrestrial Particles of the Blood and nutritive Juice the balk and increase happens to the Body 5. On the watery part of the Blood its fluidity depends for hereby its stagnation is hindred and the Blood is circulated in the Veins without growing thick also it s too great conflagration and adustion is qualified and its heat is allayed What we have said even now concerning the Principles of the Blood and the Affects to be drawn from thence will appear more clear if we consider a little the Blood according to its sensible Particles and compare it with the Liquours which are frequently in use among us Now those Liquours which have the greatest Analogy with the Blood are Wine and Milk as to its wayes of Fermentation and Effervescence it is most aptly compar'd to Wine as to its Consistency Coagulation and Separation of the parts from each other it is compar'd to Milk First therefore we may observe concerning Wine that as long as it is included in a Vessel its subtle and spirituous Parts continually exagitate and refringe the more gross and render them apt for an exact mixture that which is heterogeneous and unapt to be subdued is sever'd by effervescence mean while the depurated Liquour gently fermenting is in perpetual motion whereby all the parts expand themselves every way and pass by a constant circumgiration from the top to the bottom and again from the bottom to the top by the particular fretting and refraction a great many effluvia's of Attoms part from the Liquour which if they are kept in by a Vessel close stopt the Liquour ferments too much and often makes the Vessel flye in pieces So the Blood within the Veins is prest on by a constant circulation the vital Spirit subtilises refringes and presently subdues the grosser Particles drives forth that which is heterogeneous and immiscible mean while from the refraction and working of the Parts and Corpuscles the Effluvia of heat constantly flow forth and evaporate by the Pores upon the closing of which if transpiration be hindred presently by reason of the too great effervescence of the Blood a Fever is kindled Secondly we observe concerning Wines that they grow turgid if any thing that is extraneous and of a fermentative Nature be mixt with them nay that
is brought as it were to flame and therefore from its likeness to humid things putrifying which contract a fervour this kind of ebullition of the Blood because it causes an immoderate Heat is called a Putrid Fever Which name it ought properly enough to retain because in this Fever the Composition of the Blood as it usually happens in Liquors putrifying is very much dissolv'd and so that its Principles are in a manner wholly severed from each other by the ferment of the Heart and the active Particles being loosened from the mixture break forth as it were into a flame Wherefore the Liquor of the Blood being after this manner rarified and as it were kindled in the Heart is carried thence with a most rapid motion through the Vessels and with its deflagration sends a great many effluvia's of heat from it hence the whole mass of Blood like water set on the fire continually boyling stretches the Vessels vellicates the Brain and nervous Parts raises Cramps and Pains in them very much consumes the Vital Spirits by its effervescency destroys the ferments of the Viscera hinders the functions of concoction and distribution often depraves the nutritive Juice sent into the Genus Nervosum that thereby very great disorders of the animal Spirits ensue nay it perverts in a manner the whole oeconomy of Nature The Procatarctick Causes which dispose to this Disease are a hot and moist temperament an Athletick habit of Body Youth the Spring or Summer season a plenteous and rich Feeding moreover an assiduous drinking of rich Wines a sedentary and idle Life a Body cacochymical and filled with evil Juyces but above the rest it is observed that a frequent letting blood renders men apt to a Fever wherefore it is commonly said that those who have been let blood once unless the same be done yearly are prone to a Fever The reason is that by a frequent letting blood the Sulphur is more copiously heapt together within the mass of Blood the Salt in the mean while which ought to moderate and keep it from growing exorbitant being by this means withdrawn The Evident Causes which draw the latent disposition of this Fever into act are of the same kind as those which bring an Ephemera Fever and a Synochus Simplex in this rank we place chiefly perspiration letted and surfeiting By reason of the effluvia being restrain'd the mass of Blood being increas'd in its bulk grows turgid and being inspir'd anew with a certain ferment as it were falls a burning and boyls violently thereupon presently the Pores are more obstructed by the stuffing of the effluvia and the texture of the Liquour being dissolved the particles of the abounding Sulphur in the Blood get free from the mixture and are inflam'd by the fermentation of the Heart as tho Fire were applied to them and so they kindle a very intense Fever And by surfeiting both an immoderate fermentation is caused in the Blood and also a nitro-sulphureous matter fit for burning and being enkindled is conveyed as a fuel into the inflam'd Blood In this Fever four states of time are to be observed by which as by so many Stages its course is performed and they are these the beginning the Increase the height and the declining state these are wont to be pass'd over in some sooner in some slower and in a longer time The beginning ought to be computed from the time that the Blood begins to grow hot and its Sulphur to fall a burning till the burning Heats and inflammations are diffus'd throughout the whole mass of Blood The increase is from the time that the Blood being heated and kindled throughout has burnt for some space and its mass is loaded with Recrements or adust Particles which also increase the Fermentation The height of the Disease is when after the Blood has burnt enough and its inflammation is remitted the long troubled Blood as a noble Champion its adversary somewhat giving ground recollecting all its Forces endeavours a subduing and separation of that adust matter wherewith it is saturated to a fulness and a driving of it forth a Crisis being attempted once or oftener The declining state follows after the Crisis in which the Blood the inflammation growing weak becomes less hot and either the vital Spirit still prevailing it subdues and purges forth by degrees what there is remaining of that adust and extraneous matter till it be restored to its ancient vigour or the same Spirit being too much deprest the Liquour of the Blood is still tainted with adust Recrements and therefore becomes troubled and depauperated that it neither assimilates the nutritive Juyce nor continues fit for Circulation nor for accension in the Heart for sustaining the lamp of Life When therefore any one is seized with a Putrid Fever for the most part a cold stiffness or a shivering accompanies the first invasion which is followed by a Heat which is unequal and not as yet intense because the Blood being yet full of crude Juyces is kindled only by parts and therefore it burns a little and then ceases and then begins again like a flame burning wet straw in this state the Disease continues for some dayes the Urine becomes more ruddy than usual by reason of the Salt and Sulphur more dissolved and incocted with the Serum it retains still its Hypostasis because the coction and assimilation are not altogether depraved it has a sediment greater than it ought which nevertheless is easily separated and subsides of its own accord at this time you may let Blood and give a Vomit or a Purge so it be done without any great Perturbation of the Blood It often happens upon the seasonable administrations of these kinds of Evacuations that the greater increases of the Disease are prevented and that the Fever is killed as it were in ovo the limits of this stage are variously determined according to the temperament of the Diseased and other accidents of the Disease Sometimes within a day or two the first Rudiments of this Disease are laid sometimes the beginning of the Disease is extended to more if it happens in a Body well in Flesh full of Spirit and of a hot Blood and Juyce in the time of Youth and in a very hot Season in case the Disposition to a Fever be great and a strong evident cause supervenes the severish Effervescence once begun soon pervades the whole Blood and on the second or third day the root being laid the Disease arises to its increase but if the feverish Indisposition begins in a body that is not hot a Phlegmatick or melancholy temperament in old age or in a cold Season it has a longer Proaemium and scarce passes the limits of this first stage before the sixth or seventh day The increase of this Disease is computed from the time that the burning of the Fever has got possession of the whole mass of Blood that is the Sulphur or the oily part of the Blood being long heated and boyling
various Coagulations and Corruptions in which not only the Spirit and the Sulphur as in a Putrid Fever make an exorbitant Effort and force the Blood to boyl immoderately but withal the mixture of the Blood is forthwith dissolved and its Liquor runs into parts and so that horrible Symptoms with a manifest danger of Life are caused in this kind of Affect Under this Rank we comprehend Malignant and Pestilential Fevers the Plague the Small Pox and Measles concerning which it remains for us to treat at present By the unanimous Consent of all the Force and Power of these Diseases are plac'd in a venemous Matter because upon a Pestilential Affect even as upon drinking Poyson we find that the Strength is suddenly cast down and that Life is soon destroyed and therefore for explicating the nature of the Pestilence it will not be amiss first to enquire concerning Poyson in general and after what manner it affects our Bodies and then to shew what sort of Venom is disperst in the Plague and contagious Diseases which being premitted we shall speak in particular of the Affects even now mentioned We may justly give the name of Poyson to whatsoever sticking in our Body violently and after a secret manner injures the Temper and Actions of any part or of the whole destroys the Spirits or perverts their Motions dissolves the mixture of the Liquors causes Coagulations and Corruptions subverts the Ferments and Functions of the Viscera and so on a sudden and privily endanger Life There is a vast store of these in Nature which are often engendred within our Bodies and abundantly supply'd outwardly from the Earth Air and Water and from the distinct Families of Minerals Vegetables and Animals As there is a great variety of Poysons so there is no less a diversity of them as to the Subjects and the ways of their hurting for tho a great many poysonous things are said to be contrary to us as to the whole Substance so that they set upon any thing and like a Funeral Flame with a caustick Force reduce it as it were into Ashes yet some of these being endowed with a peculiar Force of offending rather hurt one Part or Substance than another The Subjects on which the Taint of the Venom fixes it self first of all and most immediately are two-fold to wit the Animal Spirits or the spirituous and subtle Liquor passiing in the Brain and ' Genus Nervosum and the Blood flowing in the Heart and Vessels When a disproportionate Object presents it self to one of them alone or to both together so that thereupon the Crasis of the Liquors or of the containing Parts is subverted whereby Functions necessary for performing the Offices of Life and Sense are letted and this is done after a secret manner and as it were on a sudden these kinds of Effects we ascribe to Poyson The nervous Bodies with the animal Spirit are not set upon wholly after the same manner by all sorts of Poysons for sometimes they are assail'd with a Stupor sometimes with Cramps and convulsive motions and those of divers Kinds and Conditions The Bite of the Tarantula causes a Dancing the force transmitted from a Tortoise by a Spear or the Cords of a Net stupifies the hand of the Fisher the Roots of Wild Parsnips or the Seeds of Dranel eaten make Men tun mad Opium Mandrake Henbane and the like cause a deep and sometimes a mortal Sleep These and a great many other things without any mighty Perturbation of the Blood or Injury brought on the Heart fast'n chiefly their Venom on the Animal Faculty or Spirit There are also some Poysons which chiefly insinuate their Malignity into the mass of Blood wherefore after using some Medicines a yellow or black Jaundice sometimes a Leprosie leprous Affects or Swellings of the whole Body are produc'd Vapours rising from subterraneous Vaults also from Charcoals newly kindled often suffocating the Vital Spirits congeal the Blood withall and stop its Motion so that the Flame of Life cannot be continued in the Heart Every Man may see how great a Corruption is communicated to the Mass of Blood from the pestilential Miasm by the Spots and Pushes which are the infamous Marks as it were of the blasted Blood If the Injury first inflicted on either viz. the ceconomy of the Heart or Brain be light for the most part it is brought to an end without any great Offence of either wherefore Convulsive Motions a Stupor Lethargy Melancholy Paralytick Affects often begin with a landable Pulse and without an immoderate Effervescence of the Blood and afterward if the Affect does not wax strong they come to an end and cease by little and little There are other Poysons which often deprave the Blood and corrupt its Mixture by dissolving it the animal Functions in the mean time continuing whole and sound but if the Ferment of the Poyson be stronger and lays deeper Roots presently the Venom is disperst from the one into the Province of the other for when the nervous Parts are fill'd with a virulent Juice a Portion of the Venom brought back with the nervous Latex by the lymphatick Vessels into the Veins is readily conveyed into the Mass of Blood and defiles it with the Corruption prevailing in it also from the Blood greatly infected with Venom the Juice wherewith the Nerves are irrigated in a short time becomes tained Hence Persons that are mad are feverish and such as are seiz'd with a pestilential Fever very often are assailed with a Delirium or Frenzy Concerning these things we must consider what kind of Alteration or Impression of Injury it is which is inflicted by Poyson on the Animal Spirits with the Brain and nervous Appendix also what on the Blood with the Heart and the Vessels annex'd to it As to the first we observe that that subtle Liquor or the Animal Spirits with which the nervous Bodies are influenced and by the Expansion of which Sense and Motion perform reciprocal Actions are easily perverted from their Continuity and even Expansion for the Nerves being of a sost Texture and the Spirits wherewith they are fill'd being of a very subtle Substance they are not able to endure any sorts of Objects that are strong or vehement wherefore when any violent or disproportionate Thing assails them by Surprise they are often forc'd from their Expansion and Excursion to a Flight and a Retreat and often into Irregularities of motions wherefore sudden Passions of the Mind distract them and stir them to Twitching and Convulsions when the nutritive Juice wherewith they are supply'd is sent to them too sharp acid or austere they undergo sometimes Resolutions sometimes Shrinkings and if some Object more contrary such as we affirm Poyson to be presents it self whose Particles are of such a fierce Nature or of such a Configuration that they violently ferment with the nervous Liquor they strongly drive the subtle or spirituous Part of it this way and that or wholly drive it away and either
infected with it whatsoever House it entred presently it set upon the whole that there were scarce enough remaining in Health to attend those that were ill such as came to them from elsewhere or Hirelings called to attend the Diseased were presently seised with the same Infection that at length for fear of the Contagion such as lay sick of this Fever were shunn'd by those that were in Health in a manner as Persons troubled with the Plague Nor did a small Mortality or Destruction of Mankind attend this Disease for a great many old Men Cachectical Ptysical or otherwise unhealthy Persons fell under this Fate also not a few Children Youths and such as were full grown I remember that in certain Villages all the elderly People in a manner were carried off this Year that there scarce remained alive any for unpholding the Customs and Priviledges of the Parish by the Traditions rcceiv'd from their Ancestors When this Fever first began it carried somewhat the Type of a putrid Synochus but it came with difficalty to a Crisis and when it seemed to be solv'd by a Swear or a Loosness it was wont presently to wax worse again but for the most part after a Deflagration of the Blood continued for six or seven days this remitting and instead of a Crisis the adust Matter being convey'd to the Brain the Diseased lying a long time sometimes raving mad oftner with a Drowsiness and a great Weakness and sometimes with convulsive Motions scarce escaped at length with Life About the middle of the Summer beside the Contagion and the frequent Mortality this Disease discovered its malignant and pestilential Force by open Signs viz. by the Eruption of Pushes and Spots for about this time without any great burning of a Fever the Pulse in many grew uneven weak and very disorderly also without a manifest spending of the Spirits the Strength presently became languid and very much dejected in others lying ill after the like manner Pimples sometimes small and red sometimes large and livid appear'd in many Buboes as in the Plgaue about the glandulous Parts some of these without any great Conflict of the Spirits or feverish Excandescence raised in the Blood died without noise and on a sudden mean while others growing presently raving mad as long as they continued in Life underwent horrible Distractions of the Animal Spirits Such as escap'd from this Disease recovered not but after a long time and that without a laudable Crisis unless by a Sweat procured by Art the Brain at length and the Genus Nervosum being affected and they being seized with a Dullness of the Senses Tremblings a Vertigo a Weakness of the Members and-convulsive motions During the Dog-days this Disease still infesting began to be handled not as a Fever but as a milder sort of Plague and to be overcome only by Alexipharmick Remedies Bleeding was always thought fatal to it Vomitories and Purges were used now and then tho not so frequently but the chiefest method of Cure was placed in Alexipharmicks and a Sweant seasonably procured For this purpose besides the Prescripts of Physicians taken from Apothecaries Shops certain Empirical Remedies deserv'd no small Praise then first in this Country the Countess of Kent 's Powder began to be of great Fame and another ash-coloured Powder was not of the least note which a certain Courtier coming by chance to this City gave to many with good Success and sold it others who approved of its use at a great rate The Diseased were wont upon drinking half a Dram of this in any Liquor to fall into a most copious Sweat and so to be freed from the Virulency of the Disease that Diaphortick the Preparation whereof I learnt afterward from the Authors Sisters Son was only the Powder of Toads cleansed with Salt and afterward washed with good Wine and lightly calcin'd in an earthen Pot. Autumn coming on this Disease remitted by Degrees of its wonted Fierceness that fewer fell sick and a great many of them recovered till upon the access of Winter a state of Health was again entirely setled in this City and in the adjacent Country Let us here consider the Rise Progress and lastly the End of this Fever which at first was only belonging to the Army and at length became pestilential and epidemick that the Disease first began in the Souldiers Camp it seems that it ought not only to be imputed to their Nastiness and stinking Smells but in some measure to the common Fault of the Air for since these Fevers do not happen yearly their Origine will be somewhat ascribed to the peculiar Constitution of the Year for a light Distemperature of the Air being thereby contracted tho it does not ill affect such as use a wholsome way of living yet in an Atmy where to the general Procatarxis evident Causes viz. a great many Errors in the six non-natural things are joyn'd those kinds of Sicknesses must of necessity be more easily rais'd Now the Vernal Constitution of this Year was very moist being almost continually attended with wet Showers to which afterward a hot Summer succeeding both rendred still more depraved the Miasms of the feverish Contagion reigning here before and more disposed all Bodies to receive them wherefore that this Distemper became in a manner peculiar to this Country and epidemick at this time it was long of its Seminary arising in the first place from the Army lying round about but in as much as becoming afterward pestilential and very epidemick it infected the greatest part of Mankind here living and killed not a few the cause was the ill Affect of the Air which being unwholsome through the Distemperature of the year became moreover so vicious at length by the continual breathing forth of stinking Vapors from the Souldiers Camps and the Cohabitation of the Diseased that the Miasms of this Fever disperst in it were greatly exalted and rise almost to the Virulency of a Pestilence Diemerbrochius relates That from such a kind of Camp-Fever rais'd in the Summer in the Town of Aquitane afterward another malignant and pestilential and at length the Plague it self grew and that this our Fever at last stood in competition with the Plague it self besides the great force of the Contagion and the great Mortality the very ill Affects of the Blood and nervous Liquor presently caused in all from the same did declare for the Strength dejected on a sudden the weak intermittent and formication Pulse the Eruption of Pushes and Buboes argued the Coagulation and corruptive Disposition of the Blood Moreover a Delirium Mania Frenzy Deadness Sleepyness Vertigo Tremblings convulsive Motions and other Affects of the Head of divers kinds shew'd a mighty Annoyance of the Head and Genus Nervosum For setting forth the Type or Idea of the Malignant Fever to the Life there are a great many Observations or Stories of Sick Persons ready at hand Of many Examples of this Disease I shall here insert only a few which some
or thrice a day in a spoonful of the following distill'd Water drinking seven or eight spoonfuls of the same after it Take Cypress Tops six handfuls Clary Leaves four handfuls the outward Coats of twelve Oranges Cinnamon Mace of each an Ounce the Roots of Cyperus and the lesser Galingal of each half an Ounce being slic'd and bruis'd let them be put into eight pounds of Brunswich Beer and distill'd in an ordinary Still Take Tincture of the Balsam of Tolu extracted with the Tincture of Salt of Tartar an Ounce the Dose is twenty Grains with the same Vehicle the Tincture of Wormwood prepar'd with the same Menstruum may also be try'd Take Powder of the Leaves of Wormwood and Myrtle dri'd in the Sun in the Summer time of each two Drams Cinnamon Flowers of red Roses of each a Dram Cubebs Roots of the lesser Galingal of each half a Dram red Coral prepar'd a Dram make of all a subtle Powder then with six Ounces of double refin'd Sugar dissolv'd in Cinnamon-water and boil'd up to a consistency make it up in little Cakes weighing half a Dram let one or two of these be eaten often in a day as the person pleases Take Conserve of red Roses vitriolated four Ounces Myrobalans condited six Drams Ginger condited in the Indies half an Ounce Species of Hyacinth two Drams the reddest Crocus Martis one Dram Syrup of Corals what will suffice make of all an Electuary the Dose is a Dram twice a day drinking after it a little draught of the distill'd water In the debility or resolution of the Ventricle by reason of the Nerves being somewhere else abstructed Paralytick Remedies joyn'd with Stomachicks must chiefly be insisted on Take Elixir Proprietatis Tartariz'd an Ounce the Dose is a Scruple twice a day with the water above prescrib'd The Tinctures of Salt of Tartar of Coral of Antimony may be us'd after the same manner In this case also the sweet spirit of Salt tht spirit of Sal Armoniack or its Flowers are of great effect Moreover Vomits Purges and even Diaphoreticks are often successively administred I have known this Distemter sometimes happily Cur'd by Bathing in our hot Baths at Bathe CHAP. III. Instructions concerning Purging with prescripts of Purges AS Nature often Purges it self according to three Degrees so there are three Degrees of Purging by Medicine The first is soft and easie gently expelling any loose matter contain'd in the Ventricle and the Intestines The second reaches not only that but Purges likewise other humours from the Bilous and Pancreatick Passages and from the Mouths of the Vessels The third performs all this and that in a more full manner and going yet farther strongly Purges from the Blood and consequently from the Nervous Juice and other parts an Excrementitious matter which is brought by the Arteries into the Intestines As for what concerns the choice to be us'd in Purging Medicines though we do not approve of those cry'd up Classes of Medicines appropriated to this or that Juice or Humour yet we do not think that all Purges are indifferently to be us'd in all cases but that there is need of a strong Judgment and a wary circumspection in a Physician that according to the strength of his Patients their temperament the state and ability of the Viscera their bearing custome and fancy and so according to the nature of the Disease its time and quality he prescribe a Purge more gentle or strong and that of hot things or temperate gentle or more smart and in a solid substance or a liquid or something of some other certain kind and form as he shall see good A Purge therefore being not convenient at all times nor in every state of Body to proceed as we ought we must take a fit season and use a certain preparation and both these have regard to the first passages and to the Mass of Blood As to the first if at any time the Stomach be loaded with a Mass of viscous Phlegm or troubled with the boiling of Turgid Choler a Purge most commonly either becomes of no effect or does hurt unless those contents are first of all cleans'd forth by a Vomit or unless their oppression and effervescency be corrected by digestives As to what regards the Blood a Purge is often unseasonable sometimes also inconvenient and in neither of these cases Preparatives commonly so call'd but only Alteratives are proper for the business is not to dispose those imaginary humours for evacution but the Blood it self ought to be reduc'd from its troubled and confused state to a calm condition or from its debility and fall'n Crasis to its vigour and ev'n temperament Whilst the Blood Feaverishly boiling is disturb'd in its mixture Purging is always found hurtful and so whilst its Mass being become languid and weak does not arise to its due fermentation that sort of Evacuation is no less forbidden Moreover when the Blood is too bilous or watry or too much inclin'd to Coagulations or Fusions Purges for the most part do not take away those its defaults or depravations but most commonly encrease them Wherefore in those cases altering Remedies are rather Indicated which may destroy the undue Separations and Combinations of the Salts Sulphur and Serum and take away other their enormities Of these Digestives and Alteratives which supply the place of common Preparatives we shall speak particularly hereafter The chiefest Compositions of Purging Medicines being Potions Powders Bolus's Electuaries Morsels or Tablets and Physick-Ales or Wines we shall here set down certain of the more Select Forms of each of them and those of a threefold kind according as the operation of the Medicine ought to be gentle mean or strong to which in the fourth place we shall add Prescripts of easily prepar'd Purges for poor People 1. Gentle Potions Take Rhubarb slic'd three Drams yellow Saunders half a Dram Salt of Tartar a Scruple make a cold Infusion all Night in Cichory water and White-wine of each two Ounces and a half to three Ounces of Cleer straining add Syrup of Cichory with Rhubarb half an Ounce Cinnamon water two Drams make a Potion 2. Mean Potions Take of the best Senna three Drams Rhubarb Troches of Agarick of each a Dram and a half yellow Saunders two Scruples Salt of Tartar half a Dram Coriander-seeds a Dram let them have a close Infusion all Night in Spring-water and White-wine made warm of each three Ounces to four Ounces of it strain'd add of the Purging Syrup of Apples an Ounce Aqua Mirabilis two Drams make a Potion Or Take the decoction of Senna Gerionis four Ounces Syrrup of Roses Solutive an Ounce Cream of Tartar half a Dram Cinnamon water two Drams make a Potion Take the best Senna Cassia Fistula Tamarinds of each half an Ounce Coriander-seeds two Drams boil all in ten Ounces of Spring-water till a third part be consum'd strain it and Clarifie it with the White of an Egg add to it the Syrup of Apples
Ounces Turbith Mechoacan of each an Ounce and a half Epithymum yellow Saunders of each an Ounce Coriander-seeds an Ounce and a half let them be slic'd and bruis'd and put in a Bag according to Art for four Gallons of Ale the Dose is from twelve Ounces to a Pound either every Morning or twice or thrice a Week CHAP. IV. A Cure for Over-purging or of Medicines that stay too much Purging or a Looseness Also the Cure of the London-Flux with Instructions in each Case TO prevent over-purging upon giving any Purging Medicine we must proceed thus Before we give a Purge we must first consider well the Constitution Strength and Custome of the Body to be Purg'd as also the Nature Dose manner of Working and ordinary effects of the Medicine to be given and then by comparing the one with the other we must proportionate the vertue of the Agent according to the bearing of the Patient Secondly whilst the Medicine is working let the Viscera where digestion is perform'd the Blood and the Animal Spirits be kept free from any other perturbation Wherefore during that time let not the Patient eat gross or viscous food or too great a plenty of any food which may offend the Stomach let him carefully avoid the admittance of any outward cold by which the Pores of the Body are shut up also let the mind be kept calm and undisturb'd free from all Cares and toilsome Studies Thirdly The Operation of the Medicine being ended we must appease the angry rage of the Animal Spirits and allay the effervescence of the Blood and Humours for which ends let an Anodine Medicine or a gentle Hypnotick be given according to the following forms Take Water of Cowslip Flowers two Ounces Cinnamon-water hordeated Syrup of Maeconium of each half an Ounce Pearls half a Scruple make a draught to be taken going to rest Or Take Conserve of red Roses vitriolated two Scruples Diascordium half a Dram Pearls half a Scruple Diacodium what suffices make a Bolus to be taken going to sleep In case this Provision be either omitted or does not hinder a Purging Medicine from working to excess let the Patient presently be put into a warm Bed and be ordered as follows First Let either a Plaister of Mithridate be apply'd to his Stomach and to the whole upper Region of the Belly or let those parts be fomented with warm Linnen Cloaths dip'd in a decoction of Wormwood Mints and Spïces in red Wine and so wiung forth presently upon it let him take inwardly either a Bolus of Venice Treacle or a Solution of it in Cinnamon-water Moreover let him drink every now and then a spoonful or two of Burnt-wine diluted with a little Mint-water if he be troubled with Gripes give him a Glister of warm Milk with Treacle dissolv'd in it and warm frictions must be us'd to the remote parts and sometimes Ligatures to draw the Blood outwards and so keep it from too great a Colliquation and from discharging it self into the Cavities of the Viscera then in the Evening if there be strength and a pretty good Pulse let him take a Dose either of Diacodium or of Liquid Laudanum with some fit Vehicle As to other kinds of excessive Purging which are wont to happen without the Administration of a Purging Medicine for the most part they are meerly Symptomatical depending on other Diseases and their method of Cure is wholly the same as of those Diseases whose off-spring they are Nevertheless sometimes a Looseness or Flux seems to be a Disease of it self and because this kind of Distemper Raging almost yearly in the City of London is commonly accounted Endemious or a Disease peculiarly attending Inhabitants I shall here set down its method of Cure I have often and long observ'd that there are two and that very different kinds of that Flux usually call'd the Griping of the Guts which happens here almost yearly about Autumn In one of them the Stools are watry and in a manner cleer with a sudden failing of the strength in the other they are bloody but tolerable withal In the Year 1670. about the Autumnal Equinox a World of People here were seized with a most dangerous Flux though without Blood and joyn'd with a cruel Vomiting which presently caus'd great faintings and a total decay of strength For the Cure of this Disease no Evacuation did good nay Bleeding Vomiting and Purging always did hurt only Cordials and those of the hottest nature to wit such as abounded with Spirit and Sulphur or a Volatile Salt prov'd commonly of good effect insomuch that Brandy burnt a little with Sugar was a Popular and as it were Epidemick Remedy and in that sort of Flux was seldome given without success though in the other sort of Flux which carry'd Blood with it having been us'd without due regard it has often been found to be hurtful The method of Cure which I then took successfully enough with many and am wont still to take in the like case is after the following manner Take Venice Treacle from a Dram to a Dram and a half let the Patient take it in Bed and drink after it seven or eight spoonfuls of the following Julap and let him repeat this Dose every third fourth or fifth hour Take Mint-water Cinnamon-water hordeated of each three Ounces strong Cinnamon-water Plague-water Treacle-water of each two Ounces Powder of Pearls a Dram Sacchari Crystalin half an Ounce mingle them and make a Julap At the same time take a piece of Bread spread some Treacle on it and dip it in Sack or Red-wine warm'd and let it be apply'd to the Stomach as hot as it may be suffered and change it every now and then In the Evening if the Pulse and Breathing seem strong enough to bear it let the Patient take of Liquid Laudanum Cydoniated twenty Grains in a draught of Plague-water Take Diascordium a Dram Liquid Laudanum half a Scruple Compound Powder of Crabs Claws a Scruple Cinnamon-water what suffices make a Bolus to be taken going to sleep To those to whom Treacle or Mithridate prove nauseous or disagreeing give a Dose of the following Powder or Spirit of Treacle every third hour with the Julap Take Compound Powder of Crabs Claws Roots of Contrayerva or Serpentaria Virgin of each a Dram Cinnamon Roots of Tormentil of each half a Dram Saffron Cochinele of each a Scruple make a Powder the Dose is from half a Dram to two Scruples Take Spiritus Theriacalis Armoniacus three Drams the Dose is a Scruple with the Julap every fourth hour or give that and the Doses of the Powder interchangeably one one time and the other the other After the same manner the Spirits of Harts-horne or of Soot may be given let the persons Drink be Ale or Beer with a Crust of Bread Mace add Cinnamon boil'd in it and sweeten'd or let it be Burnt-wine diluted with Mint-water let his Food be Chicken-broth Gruel or Panada with the shavings of Ivory Hartshorn
began to nauseate him I prescrib'd after the following manner Take Powders of Tormentil Roots of Contrayerva Bole Armenick Alexiteriated of each a Dram Pearl Red Coral prepar'd White Amber of each half a Dram make a Powder the Dose is half a Dram in the following distill'd water Take Tops of Cypress and Myrtle of each four handfuls Leaves of Meadow-sweet Burnet St. Johns-wort Avens of each four handfuls Roots of Tormentil Bistort of each six Drams Red Rose-flowers four handfuls Kermes Berries four Ounces Cinnamon Mace of each one Ounce Being all slic'd and bruis'd together pour to them Red Florence Wine and Red Rose water of each four pounds distil all in a common Still let the whole Liquor be mingled and sweetned with Syrup of Coral He took also three or four times a day of the following decoction three or four Ounces Take Roots of Avens and Scorzonera of each an Ounce of Tormentil two Drams Hartshorn burnt and powdred six Drams shavings of Ivory and Hartshorn of each two Drams Tops of St. Johns-wort a handful Flowers of Red Roses and Balaustiae of each a pugil Boil all in three pounds of fountain water till it comes to two adding towards the end of the boiling of Red Lisbon wine four Ounces let it boil close cover'd for an hour then let it be strain'd through Hippocrates Sleeve Every night he took a Scruple of Liquid Laudanum in three Ounces of the Bloody Flux water ev'n now describ'd with three Drams of Syrup of Clove Gilly-flowers in it His common drink was a decoction of burnt Hartshorn with Barley a Crust of Bread Mace and Cinnamon to a Pint and a half of which a Pint of new Milk was added He took the Purging Infusion a second time by the use of which and the things before mentioned within ten days the Feaver left him and the Flux became much more gentle which though without Gripes or much Blood yet still continued with the little pieces of Flesh the fragments of Membranes and a bloody Phlegm or Gelly which daily came from him Therefore to strengthen and heat the intestines the following things were given Take Tops of St. Johns wort Leaves of Perwincle and Mousear of each a handful Red Rose Flowers two pugils Boil them in the Broath of a Sheeps Guts To a pound of the Liquor strain'd add Oyl of St. Johns-wort two Ounces Honey of Roses an Ounce and a half mingle them for two Glysters whereof one was given him in the Morning the other at five a Clock in the Afternoon He wore Emplast de minio Paracelsi upon him Belly He took moreover twice a day three Ounces of Juice of Plantain wrung forth with water of Scordium and Plague water He eat also every day a Quince made hollow and fill'd with the Powders of Olibanum Mastick and Balsam of Tolu and so rosted in the Embers By the constant use of these Remedies he grew perfectly well within a Month. About the same time another robust young man fell into a dreadful Bloody Flux from the first day he was seiz'd frequent stools and very bloody presently brake forth with violence being accompanied with a Pain and Gripes Moreover a strong Feaver with a cruel Vomiting Thirst and Wakings molested him These Symptoms being a little mitigated with Opiats a Delirium and a Vertigo with an intermittent Pulse and horrible extensions and contractions of his Limbs presently seiz'd him this hapning because the malignant matter which was inwardly restrain'd presently flow'd into the Brain and Nerves Nevertheless as often as the Looseness and Vomiting return'd these affects were presently appeas'd On the fifth day Vomiting up a bloody matter he complain'd of a great torture in his Stomach and of a Pain as though it were Ulcerated and in truth I suspected that there might be a beginning of some Inflam'd Blisters or Ulcers in it as it usually happens in the Intestines but by giving him Emollient Broths with Milk in them his Vomiting and the tortures of his Stomach soon ceased his Flux in the mean time encreasing He took that night of Diacodium an Ounce Cowslip water and small Cinnamon water of each an Ounce and a half by which Medicine he was so much reliev'd that in twenty four hours space his Vomiting and Pains left him and he was only troubled with a few Stools and having a good indifferent Pulse and frequent Sleeps he was pretty well yet the following night though he took again the same Opiate his Flux return'd and that with very frequent Stools and bloody as before The next day after he took an Infusion of Rhubarb with Mirobalans Red Saunders and Cinnamon He often voided Bilous and very sharp Excrements but without the least of Blood then in the Evening he took Liquid Laudanum Cydoniated twenty five Grains in a good spoonful of Cinnamon water hordeated he had moderate and quiet Sleeps Afterwards loathing any more Medicines he took only an Opiate every Evening sometimes of one sort and sometimes of another and in a short time grew very well CHAP. V. Instructions concerning Diuretick Medicines or such as work by Vrine with Diuretick Prescripts THe chief Scopes or ends of Diuretick Medicines are as follows First If at any time the Blood becomes so compact and tenacious from a fixt Salt Sulphur and Earth fermented together and mutually combin'd in it that the Watery Particles do not easily separate from the rest Diureticks fit to loosen its Texture and to fuse the Serum must be such as excel in a volatile or acid Salt for such Particles chiefly dissolve any coalitions caus'd by a fixt Salt But in regard this disposition is common both to a Feaver and the Scurvy in the former affect the most proper Diureticks are the temperate Acids of Vegetables also Sal Nitre the Spirits of Sea-Salt of Vitriol c. And likewise such as have a Volatile Salt as the Spirits of Hartshorn of Sal Armoniack Salt of Amber of Vipers and others of this kind which we have also rang'd amongst Diaphoreticks In a Scorbutick disposition when the Urine is but in a small quantity and thick the Juices of Herbs and preparations both of a sharp or tart and acid nature are of excellent use also Salt and Spirit of Vrine of Sal Armoniack of Tartar c. Secondly Sometimes the Blood does not retain the Serum long enough within its Body but either being obnoxious to Fluxions or rather Coagulations it deposes it here and there in a great abundance even more than enough whence it breeds Catarrhs or Tumours in many places Or the Blood being become of a weak habit and withal of a depraved constitution to wit inclining to a sourness its apt to coagulate as to its more gross Particles so that the more subtle Particles being every where thrown off in circulating and falling on the weaker parts cause sometimes distempers of the Head or Breast sometimes an Ascites or Anasarca And we shall hereafter shew how a Diabetes happens from
meet the Acido-Saline Particles of the humours and are combin'd with them they loosen the Texture of the Blood and at the same strongly agitate its Mass by reason of their Heterogenous mixture Hence for a ready separation and driving forth of the Serosities through the Pores of the Skin those things are prescrib'd in the form of a Powder Bolus and Liquor Take Flowers of Sal Armoniack half a Scruple Cristal Mineral fifteen Grains Bezoartick Powder a Scruple mix them Let it be given in a spoonful of Sudorifick water Take Salt of Tartar a Scruple Ceruse of Antimony twenty five Grains Make a Powder let it be given after the same manner Take Powder of Bezoartick Mineral from a Scruple to half a Dram Gascoins Powder a Scruple Make a Powder let it he given in like manner Take Ceruse of Antimony from a Scruple to half a Dram Flowers of Sal Armoniack half a Scruple Make a Powder 2. Those things may be given in the form of a Bolus by mixing the aforesaid Doses with Treacle Mithridate or Diascordium or with the extract of Carduus Gentian or the like Take Bezoartick Mineral a Scruple Flowers of Sal Armonicak six Grains Mithridate half a Dram Make a Bolus Take Salt of Hartshorn eight Grains Bezoartick Powder fifteen Grains Extractum Theriacale a Scruple Make a Bolus or three Pills If a Liquid Form be more proper Take Spirit of Hartshorn or of Soot or of Sal Armoniack from fifteen Grains to twently Sudorifick water from an Ounce to three Ounces Make a draught let it be taken with governance Take Flowers of Sal Armoniack half a Scruple Salt of Tartar fifteen Grains Sudorifick water three Ounces Mix them make a draught 3. Diaphoreticks which have a Nitrous Salt for their Basis are wont to give relief generally in the same cases as those above made of a fixt and a volatile Salt because they destroy the predominancy of the Acid Salt and dispose the mixture of the Blood after such a manner that as it boils its Serum and Recrements are readily separated and discharged from it Take Cristal Mineral three Drams Salt of Hartshorn or of Soot or of Vipers a Dram Mix them the Dose is from a Scruple to half a Dram in a fit Vehicle Take Sal Prunella two Drams Bezoartick Mineral or Ceruse of Antimony a Dram Make a Powder the Dose is from two Scruples to a Dram. 4. Diaphoreticks whose ground is an Acid Salt have a peculiar efficacy against the predominancy of a fixt Salt and Sulphur viz. if at any time the Mass of Blood by reason of Salino-fixt Particles combin'd with Sulphureous or Terrene Particles in it comes to be too much lock'd up and close bound that it does not easily let go its Serosities to be expell'd by Sweat as it sometimes happens in continual Fevers and in Scorbutick affects the Acid Salt after the Medicine is given meeting the fixt Salt in the Body and laying fast hold on it makes void its undue combinations and so opens the boiling Blood and disposes it for a Sweat Take Spirit of Tartar from half a Dram to a Dram Sudorifick water three Ounces Flowers of Sal Armoniack half a Scruple Mix them Take of the simple mixture from half a Dram to two Scruples Give it in a spoonful of Treacle water or Bezoartick water Take Bezoartick Vinegar from half an Ounce to an Ounce Carduus water two Ounces Plague water six Drams Mix them make a draught Take Spirit of Guaiacum a Dram Sudorifick water three Ounces Mix them make a draught Some things meerly or for the greatest part Sulphureous are commonly plac'd in the rank of Diaphoreticks As for instance some Natural and other Artificial Balsams also Chymical Oyls as chiefly of Guaiacum Box Camphire Hartshorn and Soot So likewise the Resinous Extracts of Ponderous Woods with many others which though by themselves they do little for raising Sweat yet being join'd with the other Saline Medicines I do not think them altogether unprofitable because in a cold and Over-phlegmatick Constitution Sulphureo-Saline Medicines Rarify the Blood which is then become too watry and dispose it to a free evaporation no less than such as are Spirituous Take of Opobalsamum from Six Drops to twelve Water of Baum or of Ground Ivy three Ounces Sudorifick water half an Ounce Let it be taken every Morning to provoke Sweat for many days together It is proper for Phthisical Persons and such as have Vlcers in the Reins And so but in a greater Dose may be given the Balsam of Peru also the Tincture of the Balsam of Tolu and likewise compounded Balsams gotten by distillation Take Rosin of Guaiacum powdred two Drams Chymical Oyl of the same a Scruple Bezoartick Mineral Gumm Guaiacum of each a Dram and a half Balsam of Peru what suffices Make a Mass for Pills the Dose is from half a Dram to two Scruples drinking after it a Dose of the Sudorifick water or of the Decoction of Woods CHAP. VIII Instructions and Prescripts for Curing an Excessive or Depraved Sweating FRequent and immoderate Sweating is sometimes the Symptom of some other Disease then affecting the Person for in the Phthisick and Scurvy this is a common thing The reason of it is that the Blood tainted with some filthy infection or become of an ill habit is not able duly to concoct and assimilate the nutritive Juice still passing into its Mass and therefore always degenerating and coming now and then to be full charg'd by the addition of other Excrements it separates them and expells them by Sweat The Cure of this Sweating depends wholly on the Cure of the Diseass whose Symptom it is In the mean time those copious Night-sweats happening in those Diseases plainly shew that the Persons Diet ought to be altogether of light food viz. Milk Grnel Cream of Barly and the like whose gentle and mild Particles the Blood can bear and not of Flesh or strong substances Sometimes an excessive Sweating is the effect of some foregoing Disease which is brought to an end and this is so common a thing after long Agues that scarce any recover of them but this Indisposition still sticks upon them more or less I knew a young man who as he grew well of a Quartan Ague which had held him ten Months and began to lose its fits daily melted into such profuse Sweats that he was fain to change his Shift and Sheets thrice a Night being as wet as though they had been dipt in water This Evacuation continuing so for many Weeks his Flesh so fell away and his strength was so exhausted that he look'd like a Skeleton This Person when he had us'd many Medicines a long time without much benefit at length by drinking Asses Milk Mornings and Evenings and his other Diet being ordered of Cows Milk he grew very well in a short time The chief cause of frequent and copious Sweats seems to consist in the ill habit and weakness of the Blood in that it
is apt continually to be fus'd and precipitated into Serosities The Pores of the Body in the mean time being open and free for an Evacuation by Sweat Now the Blood is so apt to fusions and flowings for the most part from a predominancy of a Fluid or Acid Salt in it and sometimes the Nervous Juice growing sharp empties its Acid superfluities into the Blood and so precipitates its Mass into Serosities This excessive Sweating does not only arise from the vitiated Crasis and Fermentation of the Blood but sometimes from its depraved Accension and through an excess of Sulphur in it as sometimes through a deficiency of it In order to the Cure of this Over-Sweating the Therapeutick intentions must be chiefly these three First To take away or correct the ill habit or weakness of the humours Secondly gently to close the Pores of the Skin which are too open Thirdly To derive the Serum of the Blood and the watry superfluities to the Reins 1. The first of these is perform'd by those Remedies which destroy the predominancy of the Acid Salt in the Blood or Nervous Juice and which promote the Exaltation of the Sulphur if haply it grows weak for which ends Anti-scorbuticks Chalybeats Also medicines endow'd with a Volatile Nitrous or Alchalisate Salt most commonly prove effectual I shall set down certain forms of each of these Take Conserve of the Flowers of Cichory and Fumitory of each two Ounces Powder of Ivory Hartshorn Coral prepar'd of each a Dram Pearl half a Dram Species of Diarrhodon Abbatis a Dram Lignum Aloes Saunders both red and yellow of each half a Dram Sal Prunella four Scruples with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Fumitory make an Electuary Give the quantity of a Wallnut in the Evening and the next Morning drinking after it either of the following Julap or distill'd water three Ounces Take the Waters of Fumitory and Wallnuts simple of each six Ounces the Waters of Snails and Earth-worms of each an Ounce Sugar six Drams Mix them make a Julap Take tops of Firr Tamarisk Cypres of each four handfuls of Myrtle two handfuls Leaves of Watercresses Brooklimes Agrimony St. Johnswort Harts-Tongue Fluellen or Speedwel of each three handfuls the outward Coats of twelve Oranges Being slic'd and bruis'd pour to them of Brumswick Beer eight pounds distill it in common Organs Let the whole Liquor be mixt and sweeten it at pleasure the Dose three Ounces twice a day Take Leaves of Dandelion Watercresses Plantain Brooklimes of each three handfuls being bruis'd pour to them of the distill'd water above written a pound wring it forth hard The Dose is from three to four Ounces in the Morning at Nine of the Clock and at Five in the Afternoon According to this method I use to prescribe in a failing of strength and Night-sweats after long Agues and if these remedies do no good we must come to Chalybeates Take Syrup of Steel six Ounces let a spoonful be taken in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon with three Ounces of the Water above prescrib'd Take Powder of Ivory of Coral prepar'd of each two Drams Crocus Martis Salt of Steel of each a Dram and a half Make a Powder the Dose is half a Dram twice a day with three Ounces of the same distill'd water Take Tincture of Salt of Tartar an Ounce The Dose is from twenty to thirty Drops twice a day with the distill'd water After the same manner may be given the Tincture of Coral and Tinctures prepar'd out of Gums and Balsams Moreover in these cases the Spirits of Hartshorn Vrine and Se et are given given with success The second intention for the Cure of excessive Sweating consisting in a due state of the Pores is perform'd in a manner only by outward Administrations For which end let the whole Body be anointed with Oyl of Date-kernels with an Oyntment of Orange Flowers and the like and let Linnen done over a little with the same be worn sometimes Bathing in cold Water or in a River sometimes change of Air may do well It seems here proper to speak a little of a certain troublesome Distemper relating to Sweating or at least to an excessive perspiration I often observe that some Persons have their Bodies so disposed that if upon any occasion the least Breath of Wind or Air comes upon them their Spirits are presently in a mighty trouble all their Powers are in a Consternation and their whole Body is discompos'd This extream tenderness in some Persons more than in others to take cold or to be offended with it happens either through the fault of the Animal Spirits or of the Blood or of the Pores of the Body to wit of one of them or of more of them together 1. First The Animal Spirits are sometimes in fault because being very weak they are not able to endure any thing harsh or rough outwardly pressing upon them but presently upon the appulse of the bare Air are put to flights and distractions And sometimes this Indisposition happens through their fault for that being degenerated and become of an eager restless and uneasie disposition they are put into disorder upon every such pressure of Air. Wherefore those who by reason of the Spirits so dispos'd become Hypochondriacal being also subject to the Affect before mention'd on every little occasion are troubled with Cold. 2. The Blood disposes to a habit of depraved Perspiration in a two-fold manner viz. both in respect of its temperament and of its mixture As to this latter oftentimes the Texture of the Blood is so loose and open that upon every light accident and espccially upon the appulse of a cold moist Air it 's presently stirr'd to fluxions and precipitations of Serosities insomuch that Persons who have such Blood dare not step forth of doors nay scarce look forth Again the Mass of Blood being often hot in its temper and very full of vapours Breaths forth Effluvia's very sharp and penetrative by which the Pores of the Skin being too much loosned and laid wide open the Spirits and the Vital Flame are expos'd to the injuries of the naked Air and the Winds more than they ought 3. The ill constitution of the Pores gotten either by sickness or other ways or being natural from our Birth very much inclines to that habit of depraved Sweating For in regard those passages being too wide do always in a manner gape the Blood and Spirits in the whole Body or in certain parts of it are not sufficiently guarded against the encounter of the outward Air. The Intentions for Curing this Distemper are chiefly these three ' viz. first to help the weaknesses or dejections or depauperations of the Blood and Spirits Secondly To take away their Dyscrasies if they have any Thirdly To procure a due Confirmation of the Pores The chief stress of this business consists in the first intention which regards the strengthning of the Animal Spirits and the inlargement of the whole sensitive Soul for
unless the Patients resolve to take courage so as to attempt to go abroad to set forth their strength to their utmost and accustome nature daily to inure it self to hardship all medicines prove useless Wherefore a plentiful and cheerful way of living are no less necessary than Physick that thereby the stock of Animal Spirits may be daily renew'd and increas'd and so confirm'd in strength by greater practices now and then insisted on for which ends strong Wines with good Dishes of meat are very proper Moreover all Studies and Cares with which the Soul is deprest being laid aside let the time be past in idleness and recreatious or in moderare exercises As by such a kind of living duly ordered the Animal Spirits are greatly refresh'd so it repairs the decay and depauperations of the Blood For the same ends also the following Medicines may be given with good effect Take Spirit of Amber Armonicacated what suffices fifteen or twenty drops be taken in the Evening and the next Morning in aspoonful of the following distill a water drinking after it nine spoonfuls of the same Take Leaves of Sage Rosemary Time Savory Marjoram Costmary of each four handfuls Roots of Angelica and Master-wort of each six Ounces of Zedoary the lesser Galingal Calamus Aromaticus Florence Orris of each an Ounce and a half Cubebs anOunce and a half Nutmegs Cloves Cinnamon of each an Ounce the outward Coats of twelve Oranges and of six Limmons being slic'd and bruis'd pour to them of Whitewine and Canary of each four pounds Distil it in common Organs let the whole liquor be mixt and sweetn'd with Sugar perlated In the distilling hang in the head of the Alembick a Nodulus with a Scruple of Amber-greece in it and half a Scruple of Musk. Take Tincture of Antimony or of the Balsam of Tolu an Ounce let fifteen or twenty drops be taken in the Morning at Nine a Clock and at Five in the Afternoon in a spoonful of the water before prescrib'd drinking after it three Ounces of the same or rather in the Morning drink after it a Dish of Tea or Cofee or Chocholate prepar'd of a Decoction of Sage A little before Dinner drink a Glass of Sherry Sack When these things have been used some time and you think good to intermit them take the following things in their place Instead of the Spirit take a Dose of the following Electuary in the Evening and early in the Morning with the distill'd water or Viper Wine Take of wet preserv'd Citron Pills an Ounce and a half Mirobalans Condited an Ounce Nutmegs Ginger Candied of each half an Ounce Confection of Hyacinth Alchermes of each three Drams Pearl prepar'd red Coral prepar'd of each a Dram and a half with the Syrup of the Juice of Kermes make an Electuary Let the ordinary drink be a Physick Ale made after the following manner viz. into a vessel of four Gallons put the following bag Take an Old Cock half boil'd and mash'd Leaves of Sage and Harts-Tongue dry'd of each two handfuls six Dates slic'd Raspings of Sassafras two Ounces being slic'd and bruis'd mix them put them in a little bag and hang it in a Vessel after it had done working The second intention which undertakes to correct the Dyscrasies or depraved dispositions of the Blood and Spirits is perform'd by the same Remedies as in the Hypochondriacal distemper and Melancholy Wherefore the prescripts which I formerly gave for the Cure of those affects may serve here As to the third intention which for keeping the Pores in a due State ordains a meet way of Government as to cloathing the Air the Fire c. there is little left for a Physician to do for commonly every Patient will be his own Councellour as to these things There is only one kind of advice which they are apt to receive and is wont to do them good viz. that they change their habitation by which often the Mind is also chang'd for those that are never so much addicted to keep themselves pen'd up in a Chamber or in Bed when they travel into foreign Countries where they breath a warmer and more serene Air It 's almost incredible in how short a time they recover So much concerning this depraved Perspiration which has not been touch'd by others There remains yet a third kind of this immoderate Sweating which is not as the first the Symptom or effect of another present or past Disease but it self first beginning is either a Disease of it self or the parent of some Morbid affect To the first sort chiefly belongs the Pestilential Sweat which was heretofore call'd Sudor Anglicus But I shall not now go about to prescribe Medicines for a Disease which I hope will never return CHAP. IX Instructions concerning Cordial Medicines and Alexipharmicks or Preservatives against Venome with Prescripts of them IF the thing be duly considered the notion of Cordial Medicines was not well introduc'd but is a meer vulgar errour for since it is not the Heart which is the Subject of Life but chiefly and in a manner only the Blood and in regard the Soul it self on whose existence and act in the Body Life depends is founded partly in the Blood and partly in the united stock of Animal Spirits it plainly sollows that Medicines which preserve Life entire or restore it when in danger do rather and more immediately regard these parts of the Soul to wit the Blood and Animal Spirits than the Heart which is a meer Muscle serving for the Circulation of the Blood and as often as it slackens in performing this duty or gives it off This does not happen through its own fault but through that of the Blood and Animal Spirits by which it is actuated Therefore to know the ways and manners of working of those Medicines which are call'd Cordials we must consider these two things viz. First how many and particularly what ways the Blood being ill dispos'd and often endangered either as to its accension or mixture requires Physical helps which may preserve or correct it Secondly after what manner by reason of a defect or delinquency in the Animal Oeconomy the Heart is hindred or perverted from its due motion so that Medicines are Indicated which encrease the stores of the Spirits and better compose them To be well instructed concerning these things read Dr. Willis at large The Kinds and Prescripts of Cordials A Ccording to what is said before we distinguish Cordial Medicines commonly so call'd into two kinds some of them chiefly and more immediately affect the Blood others the Animal Spirits In the first rank of those that are design'd for regulating the accension of the Blood we place those which by encreasing or exalting its Sulphureous Particles cause its over-cold and slow moving Liquor to boil more to be more freely kindled and to burn with more life of which kind are good Wines Compound Strong-waters distill'd the Spirit and Tincture of Saffron Quercitans Elixir of Life
the Tincture of Salt of Tartar of Steel and other things that chiefly abound with Spirit and havd a plenty of Sulphur of which sometimes these sometimes those may be taken as every patient lists When by reason of the Bloods being not kindled and consequently of its too greatcorwding and stagnation as it were within the Praecordia a languishing and failing of the Spirits with a great oppression of the Heart happens then Aqua Mirabilis the waters of Cinnamon Cloves Wormwood Compound also of the Rines of Oranges distill'd with Wine are proper to which sometimes a Dose of some Spirit Elixir or Tincture may be added But here great caution is needful that a person do no indulge himself too much to these kind of Cordials for many by often sipping of them get an ill habit continuing their daily use and encreasing the Dose which at length proves fatal to them for the Liver chiefly and other entrails are so dry'd and scorch'd thereby that the stock of Blood being diminish'd and its Crasis perverted an unhealthy Cacochymia follows or an abbreviation of Life In the second Rank of Cordials we put those Medicines which somewhat appease the too great boiling of the Blood and put a little stop to and allay its immoderate deflagration of this kind are distill'd Waters Acids and Nitrous things Take the waters of Wood-sorrel of whole Citrons of Straw-berrys of each four Ounces Syrup of the Juice of Citrons an Ounce Pearl Powdred a Dram Make a Julape the Dose is two Ounces three or four times a day Take the waters of Pippins or Garden Apples of Rasberrys of each four Ounces Syrup of Violets an Ounce Spirit of Vitriol twelve Drops Make a Julape Take fountain water a Pound and a half Juice of Limmons two Ounces Sugar an Ounce and a half Make a drink of which let three Ounces be taken at pleasure Take Grass Roots three Ounces Candied Eringos six Ounces two Apples slic'd or Corinths two Ounces Shavings of Ivory and of Harts-horn of each two Drams Leaves of Wood-sorrel a handful boil them in three pounds of fountain water to two pounds to the clear straining add of Sal Prunella a Dram and a half Syrup of Violets an Ounce and a half Make an Apozem the Dose is three or four Ounces thrice a day Take Conserve of red Roses vitriolated four Ounces fountain water two pounds dissolve it close cover'd and warm then strain it the Dose is three Ounces at pleasure Take Conserve of Barberrys Rob of Rasberrys of each an Ounce and a half Pearl prepar'd half a Dram Confection of Hyacinth a Dram Syrup of the Juice of Citrons what suffices Make a Confection the Dose is half a Dram thrice a day The third rank of Cordials furnishes those sorts of Medicines which being destinated against the exorbitancies of the boiling Blood loosen and open its close texture for the separation and discharge of its drossy superfluities These being chiefly and in a manner only of a saline nature are also of divers kinds according to the manifold state of the saline Particles of which they consist but for the most part their Basis is either a Volatile Alchalisate Acid Fixt or Nitrous Salt we shall set down certain forms of each of these In the First place Cordials endow'd with a volatile Salt are wont to be given with good effect according to the following prescripts both in Feavers in respect of the Blood and also in swoonings and sudden faintings in respect of the Animal Spirits Take Spirit of Hartshorn from fifteen Grains to twenty Treacle water two Drams give it with a spoon drinking after it a draught of some appropriated Liquor After the same manner may be given the Spirits of Blood of Mans Scull of Soot of Sal Armoniack Compound Take Salt of Vipers a Dram Sal Prunella two Drams Powder of Crabs Claws Compound a Dram and a half Mix them make a Powder the Dose is from half a Dram to two Scruples in a spoonful of Cordial Julape drinking after it a little draught of the same Take Flowers of Sal Armoniack half a Scruple Bezoartick Mineral a Scruple Make a Powder give it in a spoonful of some proper Liquor Secondly Those are chiefly call'd by the name of Cordials by the Vulgar whose Basis is an Alchalisate or Petrifying Salt as particularly Oriental Bezoar Pearl Coral and other Powders of Shells and Stones Take Gascoins Powder or Powder of Crabs Claws Compound from a Scruple to half a Dram give it in a spoonful of Cordial Julape drinking after it two Ounces of the same Take Oriental Bezoar from six Grains to twenty give it after the same manner Take Powders of Crabs Claws and Crabs Eyes of each a Dram Pearl both sorts of Coral prepar'd of each four Scruples both sorts of Bezoar half a Dram the best Bole-Armoniack Aurum Diaphoreticum of each two Scruples Bezoartick Mineral a Dram Mix them make a Cordial Powder the Dose is from a Scruple to two Scruples or a Dram with a fit Vehicle In Persons seiz'd with a Plurisie the following things are accounted the most proper Cordials for as much as by destroying the predominancy of the acid Salt they take away or prevent the Coagulations and Extravasatings of the Blood Take the Powder of a Wild Bores Tusk from half a Dram to a Dram Cristal Mineral a Scruple Powder of red Poppy Flowers half a Scruple Make a Powder to be taken in any Liquor After the same manner may be given the Powders of Crabs Eyes and of the Jaw-bone of the Pike-fish To this place belong also preparations of Nitre which are often given with good effect in Fevers according to the following Forms Take Cristal Mineral a Scruple Volatile Salt of Hartshorn from three Grains to six mix them Make a Powder give it in a spoonful of Cordial Julape Take Cristal Mineral Antimony Diaphoretick of each a Scruple Bezoartick Powder half a Scruple Make a Powder give it after the same manner Medicines whose Basis is a fluid or acid Salt are prescrib'd in Fevers after the following Forms to loosen the Texture of the Blood Take Spirit of Vitriol from four Drops to six Carduus water three Ounces Treacle water two Drams Syrup of the Juice of Citrons three Drams Pearl half a Scruple Make a draught to be taken twice or thrice a day Spirit of Salt or of Nitre may be taken after the same manner For the same the drink Cherbet called also the Divine drink of Palmarius are proper Take Powder of Hartshorn Calcin'd or of Antimony Diaphoretick three Drams Spirit of Vitriol or of Salt a Dram bray them together in a Glass Mortar and let them dry The Dose is from a Scruple to half a Dram in a spoonful of Cordial Julape Fixt or lixivial Salts of Herbs often enter the Compositions of Alexipharmicks Moreover Medicines which have these for their Basis as they are accounted very famous Febrifuges so they ought to be numbred amongst Cordials for instance we
Crystal Mineral two Drams Salt of Amber a Dram Salt of Hartshorn a Scruple Mix them the Dose is from fifteen Grains to twenty twice a day with the distill'd water Of the intermitting Pulse and its Cure AMong the Passions of the Heart the intermitting Pulse may justly be numbred because in this affect or at least in some kind of it the Heart it self labours though in somewhat a different manner than in its panting or trembling for in these it is ill dispos'd and irregular as to its motion but in that as to its rest this being sometimes twice longer than it uses to be in its ordinary course This intermitting Pulse or over-long Cessation of Motion in the Heart does not proceed from the mixture or Crasis of the Blood but only from the irregular dispensation of the Animal Spirits from the Cerebellum into the Nerves that pass to the Heart and thence into its Tendons which irregularity happens because those Nerves are somewhat obstructed Although this Affect being very often without present hurt or danger does not require an over-hasty Cure yet for preservation sake lest some great Diseases follow it Remedies and a method of Cure ought to be used at least for the whole remainder of the Persons Life let him keep to a Diet well ordered in all respects Moreover let some gentle Course of Physick be prescrib'd him to be constantly observ'd Spring and Fall viz. That all the Seminal Roots of Diseases founded in the Brain or apt to be there engendred may be taken away as much as may be for this end we here direct you to the Prophylactick method with the Medicines prescrib'd by us elsewhere against the Fits of the Apoplexy CHAP. XI Instructions concerning Opiats or Medicines that cause Sleep with their good and ill Effects together with Prescripts of them OPiats exert their Force not by raising vapours to the Head nor by opening the Pores of the Brain for any vapours or other Soporiferous matter to be admitted into it but only by destroying some of the Animal Spirits so that the residue being in a consternation or forc'd inward or at least called back from their wonted Emanation into the nervous parts quit their office or in some measure remit of it The Narcotick force of Opiats consists in this that as the Animal Spirits are most subtile Corpuscles compos'd of Spirit and a volatile Salt united together and exalted to a very high pitch so Opiats on the contrary consist of a fetid Sulphur that is of a Sulphur together combin'd with a fixt Salt and an Earthy matter and carried up to a most high degree in like manner Which sort of Concrets are well known to be so contrary to the subtile Texture of the Animal Spirits that sometimes they put them to flights or subvert them at a distance by meer Effluvia's which are very hardly or indeed not at all perceivable by the smell Opiats given in a small quantity chiefly and in a manner only regard those Spirits to which the particular charge of natural and ordinary sleep is committed the rest being either untouch'd or little letted by them Wherefore after a Dose of Laudanum is taken both the inward and outward senses are bound but the Pulse Respiration also the functions of Concoction and Separation are continued after their usual manner and after some time the Spirits of the first employ return to their wonted Post But if an Opiat be stronger than it ought it extends its Force father into the Province of the Animal government so that an over-great Dose of it being taken the Appetite for the most part is dull'd Respiration is much streightn'd and rendred not only difficult but likewise uneven or interrupted and sometimes also the motion of the Heart is so far debilitated that the Pulse presently grows weaker with a cold Sweat a deadness and an Eclipse as it were of all the faculties so that a perpetual sleep sometimes follows this Medicine The good Effects of Opiats FIrst then Opiats are most properly and necessarily Indicated in case of want of sleep for then being seasonably and duly Administred they give a refreshing repose Secondly In Delirous affects Opiats are given with good effect though sometimes they rather do hurt than good as we shall shew hereafter because the Spirits being then mov'd with too much eagerness within the Brain and as it were struck with a rage and passing their wonted bounds the Opiats repress them and make them quietly retreat into their former stations Thirdly Opium is accounted of most excellent use for appeasing all sorts of Pains For since Pain cannot be caus'd or continued but a great plenty of Spirits must always abound in the part affected in case the Nerves are so clos'd that the passing of the Spirits to the place griev'd be hindred or much diminish'd which Opium effects it follows of necessity that the Pain must cease For the Particles of this Medicine besetting the extream parts of the Brain do not only quell the forlorn Spirits in its outmost part but likewise strongly suppress them in their Original source within the Brain and in the midst of the Cerebellum and consequently hinder their Emanations from thence into the Genus Nervosum so that during the Energy of the Opium they are sent more sparingly and thinly into the Precordia and Viscera nay and into all other parts Hence the Pulse and Breathing remit of their vehemency and frequency many times also all the Members and Limbs are seiz'd with a Languor and Lassitude Moreover hence the Viscera before irritated into Convulsions either tending to Excretions as by Vomit or seige or causing Pain as in the Colick or Stone depose their disorders Again the good effect of Narcoticks is notoriously known in the Cure of the Scorbutick Colick In Pains of the Gout they also do excellently well and so in the Pain of the Stone in the Bladder which Disease when it cruelly torments Old Men and cannot be Cur'd by Cutting admits no ease from any other Remedy but from Narcoticks Wherefore in this case I have advis'd some to the constant and daily use of Laudanum and Diacodium which they have put in practice to the great comfort of their life receiving no hurt thereby though sometimes augmenting its Dose they have taken to a great quantity Fourthly Opiats are seasonably given if at any time the Pulse or Breathing are more quick or vehement than they ought for when in Feavers the Motion of the Heart and Lungs being made more intense give a most rapid Circulation to the Blood so that it is greatly perverted both as to its Accension and as to its Crasis and is not able to separate its drossy Excrements which are so throughly mixt with it After a Narcotick is given presently the Impetus of those parts is somewhat broken so that the Blood coming then to a gentle and moderate Circulation diffuses a less intense heat and being loosen'd in its Texture it purges its Serum
and impurities by Sweat and Urine Respiration not only as it is urgent but moreover as the same is interrupted Convulsive or otherwise variously irregular often requires a Narcotick Medicine In a violent or very frequent Coughing always troubling us this uses to give relief before all other Remedies Again in fits of the Asthma when the Organs of Respiration are so laboriously exercis'd that the Person affected seems to be brought to the Agony of Death a Dose of some proper Opiat makes all things presently serene and calm Moreover in horrible Vomiting in excessive or violent Purging this usually gives great ease Fluxes can scarce be Cur'd without Opium not that this Medicine fixes the boiling and raging Juices and Humours but stops the Excretory Convulsions of the Fibres and that partly within the Cavities of the Viscera themselves it stupifying by its meer contact the Spirits there Implanted and partly by suppressing the Spirits within the Cerebellum which continually flow to those parts whereby the others being destitute of supplys from them readily remit of their Convulsive rage Fifthly In Catarrhs and Defluxions of all kinds we often fly to Opiats as to our last refuge they powerfully stay excretions of Blood and moderate and restrain serous Evacuations when at any time they are excessive and tend to a Colliquation They repress the Immoderate Ebullition of the Blood in a burning Feaver and lessen its excessive Accension Briefly they most readily appease all turbulent commotions in our Body from what cause soever they arise and let the Blood be never so much disturb'd they most commonly reduce it to a calm and quiet state Opiats where they agree most commonly fuse the Blood and after the manner of Alexipharmicks powerfully provoke Sweat and move Urine as Dr. Willis gives us here an Instance of a Person troubled with the Dropsy and severely tormented with Night-pains caus'd by the Pox who by the constant use of Laudanum fell at length into great Sweats and Evacuations of Urine every Night and so was Cured A Lady who for many years was subject at times to cruel pains of the Colick as often as she fell ill of that Disease and found the pains grow intolerable could get no ease from any Remedy but from Opium Wherefore she took a Dose of this each Night till the Morbifick matter being consum'd by degrees she became at length free from all grief and pain Of the evil Effects of Opium with cautions concerning its Vse WE have found by sad experience in many the Use of Opium to be sometime hurtful and destructive for that some presently after taking it have fallen into a perpetual sleep and others by taking a Dose of it too great or unseasonably have either shortn'd their Lives or by injuring their principal faculties have rendered it afterwards uneasie and burthensome I have known some who upon taking a Pill of Laudanum have fallen presently into so profound a sleep that they could never be rais'd from it they liv'd indeed for three or four days and as to their Pulse Respiration and Heat were pretty well but could never be brought again to sense and waking by any Remedies or tortures I have observ'd others who after taking Opium have slept but moderately nay sometimes little or scarce at all but as to their Pulse Respiration and Heat presently grew worse so that incontinently after the Medicine they began to have a failing of strength and then growing short and thick Breath'd to decay more and more nor could their vigour be renew'd by any Cordials but fainting by degrees they died I have elsewhere related a story of a robust man kill'd by Opium who had no sleep at all after it till his last and mortal sleep viz. Death it self following it this Man presently after he had taken the Medicine complained of a great heaviness upon his Stomack and of Cold then he was taken with a great Languor and a Consternation of all his Spirits with a coldness of his extream parts and within some hours complaining that his Eyes grew dim and at length that he was quite blind he died I shall now relate what evils from the improper or unseasonable use of Opium sometimes happen in the Head what in the Brest and what in the Belly As to the first it 's well known that the principal functions of the Soul viz. the Memory the Reason and the Acuteness of the understanding are very often extreamly injur'd by Narcoticks A frequent use of them weakens the Memory in many persons I knew a person who by taking a great Dose of it in a Feaver wholly lost the use of that faculty and after some weeks when the use of it began to return he remembred only things done within a peculiar tract of time and nothing of those that were done before or after I have known some that have grown dull and stupid by this Medicine and others that have grown mad And it 's observ'd that those Turks that eat much Opium though they seem to be well and not injur'd by it yet they are rendred more cold and their functions become worse they appear always as though they were drunk and besotted and are affected with a Coma or a continual inclination to sleep being stupid and unconstant sometimes affirming a thing and sometimes denying it so that they are unfit to deal or converse with men Secondly We find that Opiats are sometimes hurtful to the Precordia and Brest because they depress and lessen the Pulse and Breathing sometimes also as we have said before they make them faulter and by degrees wholly to cease Wherefore in Feavers when the Blood being mightily deprav'd seems to admit of no Crisis or not a good one and that at the same time it furnishes but very few and weak Spirits to the Animal Oeconomy Narcoticks are in a manner always destructive and as it were poysons For though in the Plague and Malign Feavers whilst the Pulse and Respiration are strong Treacle Mithridate and Diascordium nay and Laudanum are often given with good effect yet if at any time in those Diseases and in other Feavers that do not carry so much malignity the vital faculty languishes those famous Antidotes must be us'd but very sparingly and the stronger Opiats not at all Moreover in a violent Cough the Phthisick Plurisy Empyema and other Diseases of the Brest viz. in what ills soever nature is stirr'd up to discharge it self on a sudden of that which is offensive and oppresses the Brest and lifts at it with its greatest effort and at the same time the Organs of Respiration being destitute of a sufficient plenty of Spirits faulter and perform their work with great pain and difficulty we must in such a case forbear Opium no less than poyson for then Narcoticks increase and fix the weight to be remov'd and lessen the strength of the parts that labour to throw it off Thirdly As to the parts within the Belly we find that Narcoticks often taken
enlightens each part of the Soul and disperses all the Clouds of every function But on the contrary those who being thin and of a Bilious or Melancholick temperament have a sharp or burnt Blood a hot Brain and the Animal Spirits too much stirr'd and restless ought to forbear this Drink altogether as being apt to pervert both the Spirits and humours in a greater measure and to render them wholly unfit and unable to perform any functions For I have observ'd many not having a sufficient plenty of Spirits and being also subject to the Head-ach Vertigo Palpitation of the Heart and a trembling or numbness of the Limbs who presently after drinking Coffee became worse as to those Affects and suddenly found an unusual Languor in their whole Body THE LONDON PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Contained in the Second Part of the Pharmaceutice Rationalis of Dr. WILLIS THis Second Part of the Pharmaceutice Rationalis is divided into three Sections whereof the First treats of Medicines that regard the Thorax the Second of Medicines that regard the Viscera of the Belly the third of outward Medicines viz. Phlebotomy Vesicatories Issues Cutaneous Affects c. SECT I. Of Medicines that regard the Thorax CHAP. I. Instructions and Prescripts for the Cure of the Phthisick and Consumption of the Lungs WE must observe the divers states of this Disease or the distinctive Marks which belong to it As First when it is meerly a Cough Secondly when it begins to degenerate into a Phthisick or Consumption Thirdly when the Phthisick is consummated or past recovery 1. And First as to a new Cough from what Cause soever it arises it is never free from suspicion of danger if it happens in a Body predispos'd to a Phthisick though in other robust Persons it be not presently to be fear'd For if at any time it be rais'd from some great evident cause and being without a Fever and an indisposition of the whole Body it proves not very troublesome then it is said to be only a cold taken and is either wholly neglected or soon Cur'd without much ado Again if it be accompanied with a small Feaver Thirst and loss of Appetite there is hope that the Blood being restor'd to its due temper the Cough will also cease of its own accord but if drawing in length and not easily submitting to vulgar Remedies it produces much Spitting and that discoloured it ought no longer to be neglected but must be dealt withal with a method of Cure and fit Remedies and an exact Form of Diet For then it may be suspected that the Lungs having receiv'd some prejudice in their Conformation do not transmit the Blood entirely but with a deposition of the Serum or Lympha and often the nutritive Juice and likewise that those humours there deposed do putrify and consequently that by a reciprocal injury they taint the Blood whereby it still offends the Lungs the more 2. But if to a Cough daily growing worse and worse with much and thick Spitting there be added a Languor and falling away of the whole Body a loss of Appetite difficult breathing thirst and a boiling of the Blood there is great cause to suspect that a Phthisick is at least begun if not well advanced Wherefore we must then use all our endeavours both to free the Lungs from the offensive load of matter already gather'd together in them and to fortifie them against the continual Incursion of the same and at the same time to cleanse the Mass of Blood of its dregs and to restore it to a good Crasis whereby it may duly contain its Serosities and other humours within its own texture or convey them to some other place than the Lungs 3. But if beyond the state ev'n now describ'd of this Disease the Spittle daily increases and becomes more discolour'd and all other things still growing worse and worse there be join'd to it a total decay of strength and a Hectick Feaver with a continual thirst Night Sweats a dying Countenance with a falling away of flesh ev'n to the drought of a Skeleton then there is no room left for Physick but only for a sad Prognostick or at least all hope of Cure being laid aside we have nothing left to insist on but Anodines which may help towards an easie death Wherefore according to the said three states of this Disease its method of Cure must be in a threefold manner viz. First we must prescribe what is to be done for Curing a Cough whilst being not entred the limits of a Phthisick it has only the name of a Cold taken Secondly what is proper in a beginning Phthisick Thirdly what is to be done when it is consummated and desperate 1. Men of a tender constitution or such as are inclin'd to a Consumption from their birth or have sometimes formerly been us'd to be endanger'd by a Cough ought immediately as soon as they find it coming to stand on their guard and betake themselves to the Rules of Physick according to which to proceed methodically in a way of Cure the Therapeutick Indications must chiefly be these three 1. To appease or take away the disorder of the Blood whence the Fluxions of the Serum proceed 2. To derive from the Lungs to the Pores of the Skin or Urinary passages and other Emunctories the dreggy Excrements of the Blood and all superfluities apt to depart from it 3. To corroborate the Lungs themselves against the reception of the Serum and other humours and likewise to fortify them against the invasion of outward Cold from which they are wont to receive a farther prejudice We shall speak of each of these a little more at large 1. The first Indication regards both the Effervescency of the Blood in that it grows over hot and boils in its Vessels by reason of the Effluvia's being restrain'd within it as also its dissolution in that being loosen'd in its Texture it lets fall too much the Serum and other Humours from its embraces to remove both a thin form of Dyet must be ordered and the person being careful to avoid all injury from outward Cold a pretty free transpiration must be procur'd or at least the wonted transpiration must be restor'd For these ends let the Patient presently be thicker cloath'd and let him keep himself in Bed or within his Chamber at least let him not go forth of Doors Evenings and Mornings let a gentle Sweat be rais'd by giving him Posset-drink with Rosemary or Sage boil'd in it If notwithstanding the Cough grows worse Bleeding proves often of good effect so his strength and constitution bear it after which Hypnoticks generally do well inasmuch as they retard the motion of the Heart and consequently the overhasty Course of the Blood Moreover they cause it to pass the Vessels of the Lungs gently and with moderation without casting off any great quantity of Serosities and to send forth what is superfluous either by Sweat or by Urine For this purpose also Pectoral Decoctions must be given
beginning Phthisick In desperate Cases I have sometimes very successfully prescrib'd the following Decoction to be taken twice or thrice a day and also instead of ordinary drink Take Guaiacum four Ounces China Sassafras of each two Ounces all the Saunders of each an Ounce shavings of Ivory and Hartshorn of each three Drams Let them infuse and boil them in twelve pounds of fountain water to half adding Licorice an Ounce Raisins ston'd four Ounces strain it 11. Distill'd Waters such as before prescrib'd are also proper here to which may be added the Water of Solenander drawn from Hogs Blood with Turpentine also Balsamick Waters distill'd from Turpentine with Pectoral Ingredients Take Leaves of ground Ivy white Horehound Hyssop and Penny-royal of each three handfuls Roots of Elecampane and Florentine Orice of each two Ounces Turpentine dissolv'd with Oyl of Tartar four Ounces Hyssop-water four pounds Malaga-wine two pounds distil them in Sand let all the Liquor be mixt the Oyl being separated The Dose is two or three spoonfuls twice a day with a spoonful of the Syrup of the Juice of Ivy. 12. In the last place We must here prescribe Forms of Vapours and Fumes the use of which sometimes does more good in a Phthisick not past recovery than any other Remedies and this because they go to the Lungs it self and so by an immediate operation Purge it dry it free it from Putrefaction strengthen it and open its Ductus's First Therefore let a moist steam be made after this manner Take Leaves of Hyssop ground Ivy whit Hore-hound of each two handfuls Elecampane Roots two Ounces Calamus Aromaticus half an Ounce Anniseeds Caraway-seeds of each an Ounce being slic'd and bruis d boil them in a sufficient quantity of fountain water Let the Vapour of the hot strain'd Liquor be drawn into the Lungs through the hole of a Paper roul'd up Conically or in the Jhape of a Funnel use it Mornings and Evenings for a quarter of an hour 2. A fumigation or dry Vapour is usually made one while more gentle of meer Balsamicks another while more strong of Sulphureous and sometimes Arsenical substances Take Olibanum white Amber Benzoin of each two Drams Gum Guaiacum Balsam of Tolu of each a Dram and a half Powder of red Roses red Saunders of each a Dram Make a Powder to be strew'd on burning Coals Take Gum of Ivy Frankincense of each two Drams Flowers of Sulphur a Dram and a half Mastick a Dram with a Solution of Gum Tragacanth make Trothes Take white Amber Olibanum of each two Drams Auripigment prepar'd half an Ounce Storax Calamita Laudanum of each a Dram and a half with a sufficient quantity of the Solution of Gum Tragacanth Make Troches for fumigation Empiricks ordinarily prescribe the smoak of Auripigment to be taken in a Pipe lighted like Tobacco and that sometimes with good success Moreover it s a practise with the vulgar to take bits of Cloth Painted with Auripigment such as serves for Hangings in Taverns and shredding them very small to kindle them in a Pipe like Tobacco and so to draw the smoak into the Consumptive Lungs for a Cure Now in the last place it remains for us to speak of the great confirm'd Phthisick which is commonly past Cure and to advise what is to be done when the Lungs being very much vitiated and affected with one or more filthy Ulcers do not convey the Air and Blood according to their due Course but defile or corrupt the Mass of the latter by Ministring to it continually a stook of Putrified matter so that a Hectick Feaver and an Atrophia through want of nourishment seize the Diseas'd with a great decay of all their faculties and daily impairing their strength precipitate them to the Grave The most certain sign generally acknowledged of this Disease growing so desperate is a very troublesome pain with an Inflammation in the Throat for this affect argues a great Putrefaction of the Lungs whence the corrupted Effluvia's exhaling stick against the narrow passage of the Throat and there pierce and vehemently irritate the tender Fibres in that part In this case its in vain to attempt to Mundify the Lungs and to cleanse the Ulcer and dry it for all hot Medicines designed for those ends and proper enough in a beginning Phthisick are not to be endur'd when it s confirm'd because augmenting the Inflammation of the Lungs they increase the Hectick Feaver the Thirst Watchings and other very troublesome Symptoms or stir them up a fresh And indeed in such a state of this Disease when we only propose to our selves to protract Life by helping towards a well-bearing of the Distemper and to an easie death those Remedies are of chiefest use that moderate the fervour of the Blood allay the heat of the Praecordia restore the Spirits and gently cherish them Hence for Food Asses Milk also Water-gruel Barly-Broaths Cream of Barley and for Drink Ptisans Emulsions Milk Water distill'd with Snails and temperate Pectorals are usually of greatest success Let Syrups and Linctus's which lenify the Inflammation of the Throat and Lungs and facilitate expectoration be often or daily given but especially gentle Hypnoticks to procure a moderate rest I shall now give you some of the more Select Forms of each kind Take Barly half an Ounce Candied Eringo Roots six Drams parings of Apples a handful Raisins ston'd two Ounces Licorice three Drams boil them in three Pounds of fountain water or two Make a Ptisan to quench thirst let it be taken three or four times a day and if it agrees let it be used instead of ordinary drink Take twenty Caudae Gammorum Candied Eringo Roots an Ounce a Crust of White-bread Raisins ston'd two Ounces Licorice three Drams boil them in three pounds of running Water to two pounds Strain it take three or four Ounces thrice a day after the same manner you may make a Decoction of Snails Take Snails half boil'd and slic'd three pounds Leaves of ground Ivy six handfuls Nutmegs slic'd in number six Pith of White-bread two pounds Milk from the Cow eight pounds distil it in an ordinary still After the same manner you may distil a Water è Caudis Gammorum The Dose is three or four Ounces thrice a day sweetning it with Saccharum Perlatum or Sugar of Roses Take Ears of green Wheat what suffices distil them in a Rose Still Let the Person drink three or four Ounces thrice a day sweetning it with Saccharum Perlatum Take Syrup of Meconium three Ounces Water of green Wheat six Ounces Mix them let two or three spoonfuls be taken going to Bed every Night or every other Night Take Conserve of the Flowers of Wild or Garden Mallows three Ounces Lohoch de Pino two Ounces Syrup of Jujubes two Ounces Make a Lohoch of which let a Dram and a half or two Drams be often taken I shall now give Instances of some Patients which I have had in Cure in the foregoing Distempers And
First of one troubled with a simple Cough which begins of it self and is free from the suspicion of a Phthisick Some years since I took care of the Health of a Student who from his Childhood had been subject to a Cough and was wont often to undergo severe fits of it and of long continuance he seem'd to be of a pretty strong Constitution only that his lungs being originally weak suffer'd much whenever his blood began to run into serosities in summer as long as a free perspiration lasted he was sound enough but spring and fall when the blood changing its temper either of its own accord or upon some slight occasion offer'd falls into serous fluxions he fell lightly into a Cough accompanied with abundance of thick spittle yet this affect very often vanisht by degrees within six or seven days without any great adoe with Medicines assoon as the mass of blood was purg'd by the lungs But if to the said slight occasion of this Disease other greater Causes were added as chiefly the stoppage of the Pores and errours in Diet sometimes a most violent and obstinate Cough came upon him not soon nor easily yielding to Remedies and threatning nothing less than a Phthisick Then growing ill indeed for the first days he had light shiverings in his whole Body and perceiv'd a Catarrh in his Larynx Afterwards he was troubled with a frequent Coughing accompanied with a thin spittle together with a giddiness deadness of the senses and a dropping at the Nose In this state his best Remedy and often try'd with good success was to drink Sack somewhat freely and as little of any other Liquor as might be for by this means the Acidity and flowing of his Blood being supprest and a more free perspiration rais'd he sound himself very much eas'd and sometimes in a very short space grew well Moreover going to Bed and first in the Morning he us'd to take seven or eight drops of Tincture of Sulphur in a spoonful of Syrup of Violets or of the Juice of ground Ivy Or Take Conserve of red Roses four Ounces Spirit of Turpentine two Drams Mix them the Dose is the quantity of a Chesnut Evenings and Mornings But if these Remedies together with the Canary Antidote and a thin Diet do not do the Disease not being Cur'd by such means runs then to a great length and following him sharply for some Weeks and sometimes Months brings the Diseas'd to a mighty leanness and even to the brink of the Grave For the Cough growing daily worse and very troublesome hinders sleep mightily and interrupts it his strength languishes his appetite is dejected heat and drought press hard upon him In the mean time the Spittle is daily increas'd and cast forth in a vast quantity so that afterwards not only the Serum and dreggy Excrements of the Blood but even the nutritive Juice and the wastings of the solid parts being continually pour'd on the Lungs turn into corruption which is Cough'd forth in abundance but respiration grows difficult the Limbs very weak and the Flesh consumes very much When our Patient was lately ill in this manner we prescrib'd the following Method and Remedies by the continued use of which he at length recovered In the first place a thin Diet being ordered him and Ale or Beer wholly forbidden he took of the following Apozeme about four Ounces twice a day warm and a little of it at other times cold to quench his thirst Take China Roots two Ounces Sarzaparilla three Ounces white and yellow Saunders of each an Ounce shavings of Ivory and Hartshorn of each three Drams Infuse them according to Art and let them boil in eight pounds of fountain water to half adding Raisins of the Sun three Ounces Licorice three Drams Strain it and let it be us'd for ordinary drink Take Tincture of Sulphur three Drams Let him take from seven drops to ten going to rest and early in the Morning in a spoonful of Syrup of Violets or of Syrup of the Juice of ground Ivy. When by a long use of this Medicine he began to loath it the following Eclegma was ordered in its stead Take Conserve of red Roses four Ounces Spirit of Turpentine two Ounces Mix them by bruising them together the Dose is about a Dram at the same hours Afterwards instead of this the following Powder was sometimes taken Take Powder of the Leaves of ground Ivy prepar'd in the Summer Sun three Ounces Sugar Candy half an Ounce Mix them the Dose is half a spoonful twice a day with three Ounces of the following distill'd water Take Leaves of ground Ivy six handfuls Hyssop white Hore-hound of each four handfuls the Lungs of a Lamb half boil'd and slic'd small pour to them of Posset-drink made with small Ale eight pounds distil it in common Organs Let the whole Liquor be mingled and when it is us'd sweeten it at pleasure with Sugar Candy or Syrup of Violets To appease the almost continual toyl of Coughing he swallowed now and then the following Troches or a little extract of Licorice Take Species Diatragacanthi frigidi three Drams Powder of the Seeds of Annise Caraway and sweet Fennel of each half a Dram Flowers of Sulphur two Scruples Flowers of Benzoin a Scruple extract of Licorice diluted with Hyssop water what suffices Make a Paste and form it into Troches Or Take Species Diaireos è Pulmone Vulpis of each two Drams Flowers of Sulphur Roots of Elecampane of each half a Dram Oyl of Anniseeds half a Scruple Sugar dissolv'd in a sufficient quantity of Pennyroyal water and boil'd to a consistency for Tablets six Ounces Make Tablets according to art weighing half a Dram let him take one as often as he pleases swallowing it by little and little In the midst of this Course though he had a weak Pulse and was of a cold temperament he was let Blood in the Arm Besides these Remedies a great benefit accrued to him from the fresh Air which he took daily either on Horseback or in a Chariot For by this he first began to recover his Appetite Digestion and Sleep which afterwards were followed by degrees with an abatement of the other Symptoms so that at length he perfectly recover'd He has us'd a method like to this and with the like success as often as till this time he has been troubled with a tedious and stubborn Cough and now though he be wholly free from that distemper yet he is forc'd carefully to avoid all occasions by which the Pores are stop'd or by which a Fusion or Precipitation of the Blood into Serosities is rais'd such are chiefly his going by Water on the Thames and his drinking Acid Liquors as Cider French or Rhenish Wines The foregoing Relation gives you a Type and way of Curing a Cough caus'd through the fault of the Blood and not reaching the limits of a Phthisick Now follows another which Illustrates the nature of the same affect when it proceeds chiefly from the
of the following Electuary drinking after it seven spoonfuls of the Julape Take Conserve of red Roses three Ounces Conserve of Hipps and Comphrey of each an Ounce and a half Dragons Blood a Dram Species of Hyacinth two Scruples red Coral a Dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of red Poppies Mix them and make a soft Electuary take at Night and early in the Morning a Dram and a half drinking after it a draught of the following Julape at other times let him take it with a stick of Licorice Take of the Waters of Plantain and of the Spawn of Forgs of each six Drams Syrup of Coral and of dry'd Roses of each an Ounce Dragons Blood two Scruples Mix them made a Julape CHAP. III. Instructions and Prescripts for Curing a Peripneumonia THe Peripneumonia is an Inflammation of the Lungs with an Acute Feaver a Cough and a difficulty of Breathing it is caus'd by a rushing of the Blood into the Ductus's of the Lungs and its being there inflam'd and obstructed The Primary Indication in order to the Cure of a Peripneumonia is that the Blood forc'd into the Vessels of the Lungs and causing there an Obstruction with an Inflammation be thence discust and restor'd to its former Circulation which if it may not be done the Second Indication will be that that matter be duly Concocted or Suppurated and with all expedition voided by Spittle 1. Whilst the former Indication holds good the Intentions of Curing will be these following In the First place That the excessive current of the Blood to the part affected be cut off or some way hindred Secondly We must endeavour that the matter stagnating in the Lungs or extravasated be suck'd up again by the Veins into the rest of the Mass and restor'd to its Circulation Which the better to effect Thirdly The Blood must be freed of its clamminess or viscous nature whereby its fluidity is hindred And Fourthly We must obviate by fit Remedies those Symptoms that are very pressing viz. the Feaver Cough Watchings and difficulty of Breathing But if notwithstanding all this the other Indication must be pursued we must add to the Remedies before mentioned such as they commonly call Maturating and Expectorating Medicines 1. To satisfy the First and Second Intentions together Blooding is requisite almost in every Peripneumonia nay sometimes it ought to be often repeated For the Vessels being emptied of Blood they do not only withdraw the matter which maintains the Disease but likewise drink up again what was forc'd into the part affected Wherefore if the strength holds and the Pulse be of a sufficient vigour its good to bleed freely at the very beginning but otherwise you must do it in a moderate quantity and repeat it now and then as occasion requires In this Distemper the Vein should always be open'd with a large Orifice and the Blood should not only Issue forth in a full stream but its running should be continued for otherwise if in the midst of bleeding whilst the vitiated Blood flows forth the Orifice be stop'd with the Finger as some are wont to do to prevent fainting when it s open'd again a pretty good Blood will Issue forth next the vitiated Blood if any such be remaining being fallen back and not presently returning to the Orifice Besides Bleeding many other Remedies are here to be us'd viz. such as repress the turgid motion of the Blood and empty its Ductus's whereby the Morbifick matter may be drank up again Wherefore a very thin Diet is prescrib'd consisting almost meerly of Barley and Oat-meats And though Catharticks are wholly forbidden because they strongly exagitate the Blood and force it more violently into the part affected Nevertheless Glysters ought to be daily Administred which gently ease the Belly and draw the dreggy Excrements of the Blood downwards Moreover qualifying Julapes and Apozemes which allay the fervour of the Blood and pleasantly lead off its superfluous Serosities and likewise gently open the passages of the Brest are taken with good effect The Third Intention of Curing which has regard to the takeing away of the obstructing clamminess or viscous nature of the Blood it perform'd wholly by those Remedies which loosen its over-close Texture and dissolve the Combinations of its Salts And truly those Remedies which Reason and Analogy might dictate in this respect are us'd even at this time after a long expeperience For Powders of Shells the Tusk of a Boar the Jaw-bone or a Pike and other things endow'd with an Alkalisate Salt also Sal Prunella are prescrib'd by all Practitioners both Ancient and modern I have known Spirit of Sal Armoniack and of Hartshorn to have done great good in this Disease And for the same Reason it is viz. Because of the good effect of the Volatile Salt that an Infusion of Horse-dung though a vulgar Remedy has often given great relief Fourthly As to the Symptoms and their Cures a great many Remedies appropriated to these are Coincident with the former For the same Julapes and Apozemes which appease the fervour of the Blood and also restore the Animal Spirits are in most common use against the Feaver To which also in respect of the Cough and the diffculty of Breathing temperate Pectorals are joyn'd The greatest difficulty is what must be given against want of sleep it at any time the Person be very much molested by it For Opiats adding to the prejudice of Respiration which is under some stress from the beginning of this Disease may scarce be taken with safety nay sometimes they become pernicious Wherefore Laudanum's and the stronger preparatious of Opium must be utterly avoided in a Peripneumonia though in the mean time Anodines and the more gentle Hypnoticks as especially the Water and Syrup of red Poppies are not only allow'd but accounted Specificks in this Disease and in the Pleurisy Moreover we may sometimes use Diacodiats so the strength holds and the Pulse be strong and in a good temper For the pain of the Brest if at any time it proves troublesome its proper to use sometimes Oyntments Fomentations and Cataplasms The Secondary Therapeutick Indication whereof the Intentions are to Concoct and to discharge by Spittle the matter sticking in the Lungs since it cannot be discust or drank up again requires Medicines commonly call'd Maturatives and Expectoratives but they must both be temperate to wit such as rather appease than exasperate the Thirst and Feaverish heat We have given you before in the Chapter of the Cough the kinds of these Medicines which are properly call'd Pectorals We shall now set down the choicest Prescripts and most proper for this affect Prescripts of Medicines 1.2 Medicines Conducing to the First and Second Intention are prescrib'd according to the Forms following TAke Water of Ladies Thistle ten Ounces of red Poppies three Ounces Syrup of the same an Ounce Pearl prepar'd a Dram Make a Julape the Dose is six spoonfuls every fourth hour Take the Waters of Black-Cherries Carduus Benedictus
Preservatory The First teaches what is to be done in the Fit to free the Patient from present danger the other what out of the Fit to take away the Cause of the Disease 1. In the Fit there are two chief Intentions of Curing viz. First That care being taken as well of the Air as of the Lungs a more free Breathing be procur'd at least as much as may suffice to support Life And Secondly That the Organs of Respiration be reclaim'd and made to cease from the Convulsions they are fallen into and which are wont to be continued with obstinacy As to the former in the First place let the Patient be set in an upright Posture of Body in a pretty open place somewhat Airy and free from Smoak and the Breath of By-standers then endeavour that the Lungs being freed of all inward stuffing and oppression as well as outward compression may be able to draw and return the Breath deeper For these ends lest the weight of the inferiour Viscera press down and straiten the Praecordia let the Belly be loosen'd by a Glister and let the Garments and all other things covering or binding the Thorax be slacken'd Moreover since in this case the Lungs are usually opprest either from the Blood growing too turgid within the Pneumonick Vessels or from the Serum distilling forth of the Arteries and Glands into the Ductus's of the Trachea the Sallies and Impetuosities of both humours ought to be restrain'd and appeas'd Hence if the strength will bear it and the Pulse be strong enough Bleeding is often proper Again let those things be carefully given which discharge the Serum and the superfluities of the inflamed Blood by Urine and Sweat For which end Julapes Apozems and Pectorals commonly so call'd are of excellent use Moreover Powders of shells preparations of Millepedes Volatile Spirits and Salts are taken with good effect In the mean time let there be likewise given things that open the Ductus's of the Trachea and make them slippery and provoke expectoration and such also if need be as stop the Catarrh distilling on them for which ends Linctus's Lohoch's Pectoral Decoctions and Suffumigations are proper As to the other intent of Curing in Fits of the Asthma viz. That the Organs of Respiration being reclaim'd from the Convulsions they are fallen into return calmly to their ordinary Functions unless this follows of its own accord after that the turbulent boiling of the Blood and Serum within the Lungs is appeas'd We must use Anti-Convulsive and Anodine Remedies for Medicines wont to be given in Hysterick passions are also proper in a Convulsive Asthma The Spirit of Hartshorn of Soot and especially Spirit of Sal Armoniack distill'd with Gum Ammoniacum also the Tincture of Gum Ammoniacum of Sulphur Castoreum Assa-foetida the Syrup of Ammoniacum of Sulphur Oxymel of Squills and the like which being of an ungrateful tast or smell dissipate the Spirits as it were and withdraw them from tumultuary Efforts prove sometimes of notable use But if the raging Spirits cannot be appeas'd by this means we must come to Narcoticks that some of them being destroyed the rest may return into order For Opiats sometimes are mighty beneficial unless a stopping of the Lungs and a great oppression of the Praecordia forbid their use In horrible sits of this Disease when other Medicines have availed nothing I have often given Diacodium nay Laudanum Tartariz'd with good success Nevertheless these may not be taken without great caution for Respiration which is difficult and clogg'd before being hindred more and that very much by them they often put the Patient in danger of Life Moreover to reclaim the Pnenmonick Spirits from their Convulsions its good sometimes to put the Spirits to torture in some other part for when some of them are any where tormented all the rest for the most part being in a concern at it quit their disorderly motions Wherefore Vesicatories Cupping-glasses Ligatures and Painful Frictions give relief Nay for this reason Vomits taken in the midst of the fit do good I shall now set down certain Select Forms of Remedies appropriated to each of those ends First therefore to restrain the Fluxions of the Blood and Serum and to discharge their superfluities deriv'd from the Lungs by Sweat and Urine let the following things be prescrib'd Take Leaves of ground Ivy eight Ounces Rue Penny-royal and Dragons of each two Ounces Sal Prunella a Dram and a half Srrupus Byzantinus Syrup of red Poppies of each an Ounce Mix them make a Julape let three or four Ounces be taken thrice or oftner in a day Take Grass Roots three Ounces Roots of Butchers-Broom two Ounces Candied Elecampane an Ounce and a half Barley half an Ounce Raisins of the Sun an Ounce Boil them in three pounds of fountain water to two pounds to the straining add of Sal Prunella a Dram and a half sweeten it if it be needful with a sufficient quantity of Syrupus Byzantinus or of Syrup of Violets Take Tincture of Sulphur three Drams The Dose is from six drops to ten at Night and early in the Morning in a spoonful of the Syrup of the Juice of Ivy or of Violets Take Feculae of Aron and Briony of each a Dram and a half Flowers of Sulphur a Dram Flowers of Benzoin half a Dram Sugar Candy half an Ounce Licorice two Drams Make a Powder to be taken to half a Dram or two Scruples twice a day with the foregoing Julape or Apozeme Or Take of the foresaid Powder two Ounces Honey or Oxymel what suffices Make a Linctus take at Night and early in the Morning about half a spoonful at other times take it with a stick of Licorice Take Syrup of Hore-hound and of Garlick of each an Ounce and a half Tincture of Saffron and of Castoreum of each two Drams Mix them take about a small spoonful in the fits Take Spirit of Sal Armoniack with Gum Ammoniacum three Drams the Waters of Snails and of Earth-worms of each three Ounces Syrup of Horehound two Ounces Mix them take a spoonful once in four or five hours Take Powder of Hedg-mustard or of ground Ivy gathered in the Summer Sun an Ounce Oxymel simple what suffices Make a Linctus So much concerning the Medicines and method requisite in a fit of the Asthma The other Indication which is for preservation undertaking to remove the Morbifick cause and the whole Morbid Root has two parts or distinct Intents of Curing which for the most part are both set upon together one of these endeavours to amend the Conformation of the Lungs if it be any way prejudiced or faulty and the other to take away the Irregularities of the parts for motion and of the Spirits appointed for them Both these Intents will very well be answered if Pectoral Remedies commonly so call'd are joyn'd with Anti-Convulsives and are us'd interchangeably with other Medicines which have regard to the preparation of the whole Body and to Emergent Symptoms for which
prescrib'd as follows Take Spirit of Gum Ammoniacum distill'd with Sal Armoniack three Drams Let him take from fifteen drops to twenty in a spoonful of the following Julape drinking after it five spoonfuls let it be repeated every sixth hour Take the waters of Elder Flowers Cammomil and Penny-royal of each four Ounces Snail water two Ounces Sugar an Ounce mix them Between whiles he took a Dose of the following Powder with the same Julape or Pectoral Decoction Take Powder of Crabs Eyes two Drams Sal Prunella a Dram and a half Salt of Amber half a Dram max them Divide it into eight parts for as many Doses Large Vesicatories were apply'd in the inside of his Arms near his Armpits Glisters were daily administred and frequent Frictions By the use of these things he received a sudden and unexpected ease and within a few days got wholly free of that Fit and afterwards as often as he perceiv'd a little touch of the said Distemper coming he presently took a large Dose of that Spirit with the same Julape thrice or four times a day By which Remedy being frequently taken sometimes for preservation and sometimes for Cure he has now past above two years without any great and terrible fit of his Asthma which before was habitual though he has now and then undergone some light touches of it but easily blown off An Honourable old Gentleman upon taking cold as 't is judged found himself ill for he complain'd of a pain in the middle of his Brest by his Sternum which at Night as soon as he was warm in his Bed growing worse disturb'd his sleep and was very troublesome to him for the most part of the Night Nevertheless without any straintness of Breath or evident sign of an Asthma To take away this pain he was both Purg'd and Blooded Pectorals and Antiscorbuticks were daily given him Oyntments and Fomentations were apply'd to the place pain'd yet without any great good or ease For the change that happen'd after was rather for the worse for the pain being a little abated he was seiz'd with a laborious and troubled Respiration so that after his first sleep or as he began to slumber he was taken with a fit of the Asthma and being out of Breath and opprest about the Praecordia was forc'd to sit upright in his Bed Moreover this painful Breathing and Convulsive agitation of the parts for Respiration did not only return every Night but daily grew more violent and continued longer upon him Insomuch that one Night awaking from his first sleep he was seiz'd with a most violent fit of the Asthma which lasted for many hours and brought him as near death as a Man might be and live No Physician being present a Barber then let him Blood which gave him some relief in the Morning upon a consultation of Physicians he was ordered for that day a thin Diet and a loosning Glister At Night and the Morning following he took twelve drops of Spirit of Gum Ammoniacum distill'd with Sal Armoniack in a Vehicle proper in that case and continued its use afterwards for many days Vesicatories were apply'd to the insides of his Arms near his Arm-pits Moreover Julapes and Pectoral Decoctions Lohoch's Glisters nay and sometimes gentle Purges had their truns Bleeding also was repeated after two days Whereas before he was wont to drink for his Mornings draught about a pint of Beer with Wormwood and Scruvygrass Instead of this he took about eight of the Clock fifteen drops of Elixir Proprietatis tartariz'd in a draught of Coffee prepar'd with a Decoction of Sage By these Remedies the Asthmatick Fits presently abated of their wonted fierceness insomuch that the beginning and end of every Night were quiet enough though about the middle of it some uneasiness about the Praecordia kept him waking and made him sit upright in his Bed for an hour or two at length growing weary of Physick he took only now and then some of the Medicines above mentioned But in the mean time though his Asthmatick Fits troubled him little or not at all by Night as before yet by reason of his Lungs being very much stuffed and a Serous humour falling into his Feet he could not walk fast or go up any steep Ascent without a great difficulty of Breathing and danger of being choak'd and at present an Asthma or Phthisick is not so much fear'd as a Dropsie CHAP. VIII Instructions and Prescripts for Curing the Dropsie of the Breast IF at any time the affect of the Dropsie or Anasarca being general has taken possession every where or in most places of the Flesh and Cavities of the Viscera It s no wonder if that filthy Mass of Waters gets possession also of the Breast but besides this it sometimes happens that the Region of the Thorax is either originally or alone overwhelm'd with waters the other parts in the mean time being every where sound enough or injur'd only Secondarily That Serous humour causing the Dropsie of the Breast arises there either in the Form of a Vapour which exhaling from the Praecordia and Sides of the Thorax is readily condens'd into Water or Secondly the Serum is there depos'd in its proper Form as it distils into that Cavity from the Mouths of the Vessels viz. of the Arteries there open'd Or Thirdly the Lymphaeducts or sometimes though rarely the Chyle Vessels somewhere opening themselves or being broken may produce that affect A young Man of a healthy and strong constitution who had long us'd himself to violent exercises both by riding and other ways perceiv'd at length a fulness or as it were a certain windy rising in his Thorax insomuch that the left side of his Lungs seem'd to swell and his Heart to be thrust forth of its place towards the right side for in that part it was perceiv'd to beat most After he had continued in this condition some time he perciv'd on a certain day a Rupture as it were of some Vessel within the Cavity of his Thorax and after it for half an hours space he could not only perceive in that Region a dropping of humour as it were from the top to the bottom of his Brest but it could also be head by the standers by Notwithstanding this finding himself otherwise well dispos'd he slighted Physick but afterward upon motion stooping or any stirring of his Body he perceiv'd in his left side a floating of waters inwardly gathered together Nay and the motion and sound of it was most manifestly perceiv'd of others both by handling and by the ear Hence as it was plain that this Person had a Dropsie of the Breast so it seemed most probable that this Disease took its rise from this that the Lymphaeducts appertaining to the left side of the Lungs being first obstructed near their Insertions into the Ductus Chyliferus had swollen up to a vast bigness and afterwards being broken distill'd forth their humour into the Cavity of the Thorax This Gentleman not perceiving
Empirical Remedy with our Country men to take Nine Lice alive in the Morning for five or six days by which Remedy I have heard that many have been Cur'd when other things did no good which certainly can give relief no other way but by restoring the Volatile Salt which was depress'd in the Blood On the account of the same way of Curing the Flowers of Sal Armoniack the Volatile Salts of Amber Hartshorn and Soot and likewise their Spirits are often given with great success in this Disease Take Powder of Earth-worms prepar'd two Drams Species Diacurcumae a Dram Flowers of Sal Armoniack half a Dram Salt of Amber a Scruple Extract of Gentian a Dram Saffron a Scruple Gum Ammoniacum dissolv'd in water of Earth-worms what suffices Make a Mass Form it into small Pills the Dose is three or four Morning and Evening drinking after it of the Julape before written three Ounces Take Spirit of Hartshorn ting'd with Saffron three Drams The Dose is from fifteen drops to twenty with the distill'd water above mention'd In this rank of Medicines with which the Blood distemper'd with the Jaundise is intended to be corrected Chalybeats also justly claim a place for these give a considerable relief in the Jaundise as well as in other Cachectical Distempers not so much by opening the obstructions of the Viscera as by depressing the exaltations of the Sulphur and fixt Salt and by volatilizing the Blood Therefore to the Decoction Tincture or Infusion above written the Filings of Iron or its Powder prepar'd its Mineral Texture being some way loosen'd or its Vitriolick Salt extracted may be properly added for hence it is that our Mineral waters sometimes cure even to a Miracle such as are quite given over in the Jaundise Though these waters when drank in a very large quantity passing through all the Vessels open also all the Ductus's of the Liver be they never so much shut up Therefore also to the Electuaries Pills and Powders before exprest preparations of Steel sometimes of one sort and sometimes of another may likewise be added in a fit proportion Moreover you may give to the quantity of a spoonful of its Syrup twice a day in three Ounces of the Anti-icterick Apozeme or distill'd water also the Tincture of Steel to twelve or fifteen drops may be given after the same manner with good effect Lastly in this rank of altering Medicines we ought to place those which are said to Cure this Disease not as inwardly taken but outwardly apply'd either by the touch or being put into the Urine of persons troubled with the Jaundise As to the First it s a common Remedy with the vulgar to take a Tench and apply it to the right Hypochondre or to the Ventricle as some will have it or according to others to the Soles of the Feet of the Person that has the Jaundise whence they expect the Disease to vanish in a short time though many promise a certain Cure by this means yet it did not succeed with me having sometimes try'd it The other Cure of the Jaundise at a distance is said to be done by I know not what Sympathy or secret manner of working Take the fresh Vrine of the Patient made at one time ashes of the Ash-tree searced what suffices Mix them and make it into a Paste and form it into three Balls of an equal bigness and put them in a close place near the Fire or a Stove when these Balls grow dry and hard the Jaundise vanishes After this manner I have known this Disease successfully Cur'd when it was grown inveterate and would not yield to other Remedies this is a familiar practice with the vulgar The reason of this Operation is that when the Lixivial Salt in the ashes is mixt in the Urine it presently sets free the Volatile Salt which before was kept under in it or entangled with other Particles and at the same time that this is done in the Icterical Urine it happens by Sympathy that the Volatile Salt also in the Blood of the Patient gets free from the Dominion of the fixt Salt and Sulphur and consequently the Icterical Dyscrasy of the Blood vanishes And thus Phil. Grulingius and Felix Platerus tell us that Making Water on warm Horsedung has Cur'd many Persons troubled with the Jaundise viz. inasmuch as the fixt Salt of the Urine and consequently of the Blood of the Patient is altered by the Volatile Salt of the fresh Horsedung and is reduc'd to its due temperature The Third and Vital Indication orders a fit Dyet and likewise prescribes Cordials and Anodines both which are often wanted As to what concerns the First the Diet in this Disease is wont to be more Physical than in any other whatsoever For Vegetables and their parts vulgarly call'd Hepatick Remedies are boil'd in the Broaths of persons troubled with the Jaundise their Broaths also are usually made of Worms and Snails being accounted the Antidotes of the Jaundise instead of other Flesh Moreover their Ale and other ordinary Drinks are Impregnated with an Infusion of Physical things Take Roots of the greater Nettle and of Strawberries of each an Ounce and a half Candied Eringo Roots an Ounce shavings of Ivory and Hartshorn of each two Drams Earth-worms cleans'd in number twenty a Crust of White-bread Mace two Drams boil all in two pounds of fountain water to a pound Strain it through Hippocrates Sleeve add to it Species of Diatrion Santalon half a Dram Make a Broath of which take from four Ounces to six twice a Day For ordinary drink fill a little Vessel of four Gallons with Ale into which after it has wrought put the following bag Take Tops of Sea Wormwood and white Horehound dry'd of each two handfuls Roots of sharp pointed Dock dry'd six Ounces Bark of the Ash-tree and of the Barbery-tree of each three Ounces the outward Rinds of eight Oranges and of four Limons being slic'd and bruis'd let them be prepar'd according to art Many Persons in the Jaundise being troubled with a great weakness and frequent faintings stand in need also of Cordial Remedies Take small Aqua Mirabilis eight Ounces Earth-worms four Ounces Syrup of Orange Pills two Ounces Mix them the Dose is two or three Ounces Moreover there are some who in this Disease are found subject now and then to very troublesome pains chiefly tormenting them by Night and who are often molested with want of sleep wherefore Anodines also must here come in use Take Aqua Mirabilis water of Earth-worms of each an Ounce Diacodium six Ounces Tincture of Saffron half an Ounce Mix them the Dose is a spoonful or two late at Night when there is want of sleep Take Laudanum tartariz'd two Drams Aqua Mirabilis two Ounces Syrup of Clove Gilly-flowers an Ounce Mix them the Dose is a spoonful after the same manner CHAP. II. Instructions and Prescripts for other Distempers of the Liver THe Liver often uses to be faulty especially in one of
Though there are various kinds of the Spurges and all of them work violently by Vomit or Siege by reason of their mighty Irritation of the Viscera and consequently evacuate Serous humours in a plentiful manner yet because of the excessive strength of most of them The lesser or wild Spurge is now in a manner only in use And it s most approved preparations are the Powder of the Rinds of its Roots and its Extract We also add its Tincture which is not Inferiour to the rest Take the lesser Spurge with the Roots cleans'd four handfuls Lignum Aloes Cloves of each a Dram being bruis'd boil them in four pounds of fountain water till half be consum'd ' let the straining Clarifie by settling in an oblong Glass then let the clear Liquor Evaporate by a Bath-heat to the consistency of an Extract The Dose is a Scruple Take of this Extract half an Ounce pour to it in a Matras six Ounces of the Tincture of Salt of Tartar digest them in a Sand Bath till the Tincture be Extracted The Dose is from twenty to thirty Drops with a fit Vehicle Take Powder of the Roots of the lesser Spurge from seven Grains to ten Cinnamon half a Scruple Salt of Tartar eight Grains bruise them together in a Glass Mortar give it by it self or with the Addition of some fit Conserve or Syrup Make a Bolus or Pills 3. Praecipitatum Mercurii cum Sole or Hercules Bovii For as much as by its Acrimony it mightily irritates the Fibres of the Stomack and fuses the Blood by reason of its Mercurial and Saline Particles it raises a violent Vomiting and so forces a discharge of the Serous humours which are violently drawn into the Cavities of the Viscera Pilulae Lunares in like manner by reason of the Vitriolick Particles of the Silver being sharpen'd with other Saline Menstruums produce the like effect viz. by much corrugating the Fibres of the Viscera they strongly force the Serous humours into their Ductus's and causes them to be evacuated A Solution of Silver being made in Aqua Stygia and well purified is redud'd by a gentle evaporation into clear Crystals which by themselves or with the addition of Sal Nitre to repress the force of the Lunar Vitriol are made into Pills with the Crum of Bread The Dose is sometimes a single Pill sometimes two or three according as they work and as the strength will bear these sorts of Medicines are sometimes given with success in a strong Constitution and where the Viscera are sound and of a good habit but scarce ever have a good effect in tender and Cachectical Bodies and are seldom taken by such persons without doing them hurt Hydragogue Medicines which work meerly or chiefly by Seige are either mild as Elder Dwarfe Elder Sea Bindweed and the Juice of English Orris which are rarely given by themselves but want to be quicken'd by such as are smarter and for return they qualify the vehemency of the other or they are strong as Hedg-Hyssop Jalap and Elaterium The Seeds of Elder and Dwarfe Elder being dry'd and powdred and taken to a Dram gently evacuate Serous humours by Seige a Water and Spirit are distill'd from the Juice of both their Berries fermented and Robs and Syrups are made of it which with many other preparations of those Vegetables are highly extoll'd for all Hydropical Distemper Sea Bindweed and Hedg-Hyssop are now rarely us'd by themselves but often enter the Compositions of other Hydragogues and chiefly in Apozemes The Juice of English Orris is a good Medicine and the more to be esteem'd because easie to be had for poor people It s given from six Drams to an Ounce and a half or two Ounces either by it self in a fit Vehicle or with other proper ingredients Jalap is a well known and vulgar Medicine against all sorts of Dropsies Every ordinary Man that has that Disease presently takes a Pennyworth of the Powder of Jalap with a little Ginger in Whitewine and this Medicine taken a pretty many times seldom fails of success Elaterium is justly accounted a most powerful Hydragogue in regard that most powerfully irritating the Fibres of the Viscera and at the same time fusing the Blood and humours by a sort of corrosive vertue as it were it forces whatsoever Serosities the Tunicles of the Viscera Membranes and Vessels also those that the Glands and Fleth contain within them to discharge themselves into the Cavities of the Stomack and Intestines Which Medicine working well sometimes the swelling of the Belly fall This indeed is the chief Instrument of the Empyricks Arsenal against an Ascites though using it in all cases they oftner give if to the prejudice of the Patient than to his advantage The Dose is from three Grains to ten or fifteen It s taken either by it self only with the Addition of Aromatical Correctives or it s given with other Hydragogues in the Form of a Powder Pills or of an Electuary Its Tincture and Essence are Extracted with Spirit of Wine or with Tiacture of Salt of Tartar These are the chief simple Hydragogues of which being duly prepar'd with the Addition of other things divers sorts of Compounds are made some common in Shops others Magisterially prescrib'd and are every where in use and a great many more may be ordered ex tempore on occasion We shall here set down some few Select Forms of them and especially such as are taken in the Form of a Potion Powder Electuary and pills Take Roots of Dwarfe Elder and English Orris of each an Ounced and a half Leaves of Sea Bindweed and Hedge Hyssop of each a handful Roots of Asarabacca and wild Cucumbers of each two Ounces Roots of the lesser Galingal six Drams choice Jalap half an Ounce Elaterium three Drams Cubebs two Drams being slie'd and bruis d pour to them of small Spirit of Wine Tartariz'd three pounds let them digest close luted in a sand Furnace for two days strain off the clear which being purified by settling give from two spoonfuls to three with a fit Vehicle Take Elaterium Sea Bindweed Ginger of each a Scruple Galingal Cloves Cinnamon of each half a Scruple Salt of Tartar fifteen Grains Make a Powder for two Doses Take Powder of the Roots of the best Jalap a Dram Giner a Scruple Cream of Tartar fifteen Granins Make a Powder give it in a draught of Whitewine Take Rhubarb powdred a Scruple Elaterium five Grains Tartar vitriolated half a Scruple Spike three Grains with Syrup of Buckthorn Make four Pills Take Pilulae Aloephanginae half a Dram Elaterium half a Scruple Oyl of Cloves three drops Make four Pills Let the Hydropick Pills of Bontius be given from half a Scruple to half a Dram They are made after this manner Take of the best Aloes two Drams and a half Gummi Gutta prepar'd a Dram and a half Diagredium corrected a Dram Gum. Ammoniacum dissolv'd a Dram and a half Tartar vitriolated half a Dram
injur ' Moreover when a Sweat is thus unduly rais'd the Blood being forc'd to a fusion and precipitation of Serum discharges more yet into the watery Mass of the Ascites therefore when some prescribe Fomentations and Liniments to be apply'd to the swollen Paunch and order Bathing for the most part it falls out for the worse to the Patients for besides Feverishness a Head-ach Vertigo faintings of the Spirits and other ill Symptoms of the Heart and Brain most frequently caus'd by such means the Belly also swells the more by it because the Blood being agitated and dissolv'd deposes the Serum there in a larger measure Nay and the Mouths of the Vessels are thereby made more loose and open so that they distil forth waters faster they being now dispos'd to part from the Mass of Blood The Remedies which are wont to be Administred with most success when we will not proceed to an Incision are Glisters and Plaisters The former draw the Serum out of the Vessels and Glands of the Intestines and Mesentery without fusing the whole Mass of Blood which strong Catharticks will do which being so emptyed receive into them some of the extravasted Lympha For this end the following Glister usually prescrib'd by us in the like case is mighty proper in regard at the same time it irritates the Fibres of the Intestines and draws the Serum imbib'd by the Blood or before contain'd in it to the Reins Take Vrine of a sound Man that drinks Wine one pound Venice Turpentine dissolv'd with the Yolk of an Egg an Ounce and a half Sal Prunella a Dram and a half Make a Glister repeat it daily Plaisters sometimes do good in an Ascites but let them be such as strengthen the Viscera by some restringent and comforting vertue and help to close the Mouths of the Vessels that they do not dicharge the Serosities in too great a plenty For this end I usually apply Emplastrum Diasaponis to the swollen Belly with good success Or Take Emplastrum de minio and Paracelsi of each what suffices Make a Plaister to be apply'd to the Belly If at any time this Disease be complicated with a Tympany other sorts of Epithems are proper as we shall decalre hereafter The great and most present Remedy for an Ascites is to make an Inision and draw forth the water tho this practice as often Kills the Patient as Cures the Disease wherefore there is need of great caution in what Persons and in what time of the Disease this ought to be attempted In Cachectical Persons and such as have been long ill in whom the Conformation and temperament of the Viscera are generally vitiated it cannot prove of any good effect to let forth the waters by piercing of the Belly for presently upon it the Spirits faint the strength is dissolv'd nay and a fresh inundation of the Morbifick humour soon succeeds it But those who before having a good constitution of the Viscera and being sound enough as to all other parts fall into an Ascites upon some great evident cause as they need not presently at first attenmpt an Incision so they ought not to defer it long if it be judg'd requisite For upon a long delay the Viscera which are immerg'd in the waters and as it were sodden in them become incorrigibly vitiated It s besides my purpose to describe here the Administration of this Incision whether it be perform'd the ordinary way or according to the way of Sylvius with a Perforated Needle As physicians seldom prescribe this operation they looking upon it as dangerous so Quacks and Empiricks never consulting them attempt it very often inconsierately and uprosperously For conclusion I shall here give you a relation of a true and terrible Ascites lately Cur'd without an Incision A young Woman tall and slender an Merchants Wife giving Suck to her Child drank both by day and by night to increase her Mild an immoderate quantity of Ale sometimes plain and sometimes made into Posset-drink after having us'd this ill way of Diet for six Weeks she feel suddenly into a cruel Ascites the beginnings of which she never had minded for her Abdomen being full of waters floatig within it swell'd mightily and its Bulk when she turn'd her self from one side to the other fell without the Ilia and the borders of the rest of her Body in the mean time the Flesh of all her Members was mightily consum'd and she seem'd not less Consumptive than Hydropical The Child being wean'd and better Diet ordered she entred upon Physick and in the first place took gently Hydragogues both Purging by Siege and Urine but without any benefit nay after all Purging she was worse Afterwards being Committed to our care and almost in a desperate condition I proceeded with her after the following method Having wholly forbidden her the use of Ale and all other drinks but what were Physical I prescrib'd these things Take Leaves of Plantain Brooklimes Clivers of each four handfuls being bruis'd together pour to them water of Earth-worms and Radish-water Compound of each three Ounces wring ti forth she took it twice a day viz. at eight of the Clock in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon she continued the use of this Medicine a long time but altered now and then the Composition changing sometimes the Herbs sometimes the Liquor to be poured to them Take of the reddest Tincture of Salt of Tartar an Ounce and a half she took twenty Drops going to Bed and early in the Morning in two spoonfuls of the following Julape drinking after it seven spoonfuls Take of the reddest Tincture of Salt of Tartar an Ounce an da half she took twenty Drops going to Bed and early in the Morning in two spoonfuls of the following Julape drinking after it seven spoonfuls Take water of the Flowers of Elder and of Saxifrage of each six Ounces the waters of Snails Earth-worms and Radish Compound of each two Ounces On her Belly she wore a Plaister made of Empl. de Minio Oxycroceo The following Glyster was given her first every day afterward every other or third day Take Vrine of a sound Man a pound Turpentine dissolv'd with the Yolk of an Egg an Ounce and a half Sugar an Ounce Sal Prunella a Dram Make a Glister By the constant use of these things in six Weeks time the swelling of her Belly came down but her flesh daily falling away a Consumption was fear'd Wherefore to prevent it she went into the Country and drank Asses Milk and by the benefit of this nourishment and of the fresh Air taking continually the above mention'd Medicines she recover'd perfectly within three Weeks or a Month and lives still and is in good health CHAP. IV. Instructions and Prescripts for Curing the Tympany A Tympany may be thus defin'd or at least describ'd viz. that it is a fixt and continued tumour of the Abdomen equal hard stiff yielding a sound upon striking taking its rise from a sort of
Convulsive Inflation of the Membranous Parts and Viscera by reason of the Animal Spirits being driven into those Fibres in too great a plenty and there hindred from a Recess through the fault of the Nervous Juice obstructing it To which affect a gathering of Winds in the empty places is consequently added for compleating it That we may have timely notice of its beginning we must understand that there are some previous affects which dispose to it as especially a Hypochondriack Colick Hysterick and sometimes an Asthmatick disposition And if after frequent returns of Fits in any of these Distempers a tumour of the Abdomen follows though never so small at first a Tympany is presently to be fear'd A Tympany seldom kills of it self but after it has continued a long time to make more sure work it joyns to it self at length an Ascites as a forerunner of death In order to the Cure of a Tympany as in most other Diseases there are three primary Indications whereof the first and always the most pressing being Curatory endeavours to remove the tumour of the Abdomen by recalling the Animal Spirits from that Convulsive extention and reducing them to order The Second being preservatory keeps those Spirits or others from inordinate excursions into the Nervous Fibres of the Belly and at the same time corrects the faults of the Nervous Liquor accompanying them as to its Crasis or Motion The Third is Vital and by removing the Symptoms that are most pressing relives and upholds as much as may be all the functions that are opprest or weakned The First Indication is always of chiefest moment the whole stress of the Cure consisting in it but it s very difficult to be perform'd For it does not readily occur to us with what remedies or ways of Administration it ought to be attempted Bleeding has no place here but in a manner always is shun'd as hurtful also Catharticks for as much as they irritate the affected Fibres and trouble the Spirits and drive them more violently into those Fibres do rather increase than diminish or Cure the tumour of the Belly So likewise Diaphoreticks force the Spirits together with the Morbifick Particles deeper into those Fibres from which they ought to be summon'd forth and withdrawn The chief means of Cure seems to be plac'd in the use of Diureticks and Glisters and great things are likewise expected from Topicks because they are apply'd more immediately and by contact to the Disease it self and because we see they excellently dissolve or discuss tumours in other places but all dissolvents are not proper here even though in other tumours they are very Medicinable For those that are hot being accounted discussors most commonly rather do hurt than good in a Tympany whether they are us'd as a Fomentation or Liniment or apply'd in the Form of a Cataplasme or Plaister For they both open and dilate the Ductus's of the Fibres so that they lye more open to the Inroads of the Spirits and at the same time rarify the Particles sticking in them so that they coming to occupy a greater space the Inflation and Swelling of the Belly is augmented Lastly as to Alteratives even of those which do good against other affects of the Genus Nervosum only some few are proper in a Tympany for where the Morbifick matter sticking within the strait Ductus's cannot be driven forwards or quite through Elastick Medicines by fastning the matter deeper render the obstruction still greater or more fixt Wherefore the Spirits of Harts-horn Soot Sal Armoniack and so Tinctures Elixirs and other Medicines endowed with a Volatile Salt or Particles otherwise active do not only cause a very troublesome heat and drought in persons troubled with a Tympany but also make the Abdomen swell more because they trouble the Spirits and fuse the Blood and Nervous Juice so that the Particles deposed by each of these are forc'd into the parts affected Nowwithstanding Physick can do so little against this Disease we must not cease to move every stone in order to Cure or give ease to the Patient Therefore in the First place because it is the Custom to begin with Evacuatives though strong Catharticks always do hurt and the more gentle are scarce ever able to carry off the Conjunct Cause yet these latter for as much as they withdraw somewhat of that which feeds the Disease and prepare the way for other Medicines to exert their Energies more freely ought to have their turns in the Practice of Physick viz. once in six or seven days and at other times let Glisters the use of which is much better he frequently Administred Hydroticks being forbidden let moderate Diureticks be diligently plyed to which at the same time let such things be joyn'd which regard the altering and reducing of the Spirits and Humours which truly make up the chiefest part of Pharmacy for a Tympany Moreover in the mean time let not the use of Topicks be neglected We shall set down certain Select Forms of Medicines appropriated to each of these ends For a Medicine gently loosening use the Laxative Wine prescrib'd for a Tympany by the famous Greg. Horstius in the Fourth Book of his Observations Chap. 30. or instread of it let the following be prescrib'd in a shorter Form Take Flowers of Peaches and of Damask Roses of each two Pugils of Broom Elder and the lesser Centory of each a Pugil Leaves of Agrimony and Sea Wormwood of each a handful of the best Sena an Ounce Rhubarb six Drams Carthamus-seeds half an Ounce of Dwarf-elder two Drams yellow Saunders three Drams Galingal Roots two Drams being slic'd and bruis'd sew them up in a Silken Bag and put it in a Glass with two pounds of Whitewine Saxifrage water a pound Salt of Tartar a Dram and a half let them stand for forty eight hours then let the Patient begin to drink it taking about four or six Ounces every third or fourth day In a hotter constitution let the following Form be given which I have sometimes try'd with good success Take of Purging Mineral waters eight pounds Salt of Wormwood two Drams let it evaporate with a gentle Bath-heat to two pounds To this I use to add of water distill'd from Purgers with Wine four Ounces The Dose is from four Ounces to six Or to that Liquor evaporated to two pounds add of the Roots of Mechoacan and Turbith of each half an Ounce Rhubarb six Drams yellow Saunders two Drams Cloves a Dram Let there be a close and warm digestion for two hours filter it warm through lawn paper the Dose is three or four Ounces Glisters are of frequent use in this Disease because they loosen the Belly without any great irritation of the Fibres Take water of the Infusion of Stone-Horse-dung with Cammomile Flowers a pound Honey of Herb Mercury two Ounces After the same manner also let Decoctions or Infusions be prepar'd of Dogs-turd with Carminatives Take of the Emollient Decoction a pound Sal
Prunella or Sal Armoniack from a Dram to a Dram and a half Make a Glister Take of the Vrine of a sound Man a pound Sal Prunella a Dram Venice Turpentine dissov'd with the Yolk of an Egg an Ounce and a half Make a Glister 2. Dinreticks If any other Remedies premise help in this Disease Take live Millepedes cleans'd three Ounces one Nutmeg slic'd being bruis'd together pour to them of the following Diuretick water a pound express it strongly The Dose is from three Ounces to four twice a day Take of the green Berries of Juniper and Elder of each six pounds Firr tops four pounds green Wallnuts two pounds Winters Bark four Ounces the outward Rinds of six Oranges and four Limons the Seeds of Ameos Rocket and Water-cresses of each an Ounce and a half Dill-seeds two Ounces being slic'd and bruis'd pour to them of Whey made with Whitewine eight pounds distil it with common Organs Let all the Liquor be mixt Take Crystal Mineral half an Ounce Volatile Salt of Amber two Drams Powder of wild Carrot-seeds a Dram Venice Turpentine what suffices Take small Pills take three at Night and in the Morning drinking after it of the foresaid water three Ounces Take sweet Spirit of Salt half an Ounce give from eight drops to twelve twice a day with a Draught of the same water adding Syrup of Violets a spoonfull Take Spirit of Salt of Tartar an Ounce give from a Scruple to half a Dram twice a day after the same manner So also Spirit of Nitre and Tincture of Salt of Tartar may be given Take Leaves of Plantain Chervil and Clivers of each four handfuls being bruis'd together pour to them of the former distill'd water a pound express it strongly The Dose is three Ounces twice or thrice a day with some other Medicine Take Grass Roots three Ounces Roots of Butchers-broom two Ounces Chervil and Candied Eringo's of each an Ounce shavings of Hartshorn and Ivory of each two Drams burnt Hartshorn two Drams and a half Burdock-seeds three Drams boil them in three pounds of fountain water to two pounds In the warm straining put Leaves of Clivers and Watercresses bruis'd of each a handful adding of Rhenish Wine six Ounces let there be a close and warm Infusion for two hours then strain it again and add of the Magisterial water of Earth-worms two Ounces Syrup of the five Roots an Ounce and a half make an Apozeme the Dose is four Ounces twice a day with some other Medicine Whilst these things are taken inwardly let Topicks also and outward applications be carefully Administred not such as are hot and discussing but such as are endow'd with Particles of a Volatile and Nitrous Salt which destroy the combinations of the other Salts and make void the efforts of the Spirits for which ends we propose the following things If Fomentations ought to be us'd at all let them not be apply'd too hot and let them not be prepar'd of the vulgarly call'd Carminatives but chiefly of Salts and Minerals Cabrotius quoted by Helmont says he Cur'd a Person eighty years of Age whose Belly he somented twice a day with a Lixivium in which he boil'd Salt Allum and Sulphur and after apply'd Cow-dung for a Cataplasm I use to prescribe as follows Take Flowers of Sal Armoniack an Ounce Crystal Mineral two Ounces small Spirit of Wine containing much Phlegm in it two pounds Mix them and dissolve them in a Glass Let a Woolen Cloath dipp'd in this warm be apply'd on the whole Abdomen and be chang'd now and then dipping it afresh Let it be done twice a day for half an hours space afterwards let there be apply'd either a Cataplasm of Cow-dung with the Powder of Dogs-turd or the Plaister following Take Emplastrum Diasaponis that is of Minium with Venice Soap what suffices Let it be thin spread on thin Leather and apply'd to the whole Belly renewing it within ten or twelve days The Second Indication requires chiefly altering Medicines viz. such as put a stop to the Fermentations of the humours in the Viscera of the Belly and to the wild Efforts and irregular excursions of the Spirits and which likewise procure the even mixtures and due motions of the Chyle and Nervous Juice For which ends Chalybeats are principally us'd and truly not only for this Disease but for many others belonging to the Viscera of the Belly it 's usual to have recourse to Steel Medicines though in the mean time many Empyricks confidently prescribing them do not consider after what manner such Medicines work or what alterations for the better may be expected from them And indeed it very often falls out that nature her self is destroyed and not the Disease when Chalybeats of which there is a great variety and of diversified Operations are given without any distinction or choice or without respect to the Temperament Constitution and state of the Disease in Patients We have treated elsewhere ex professo concerning Medicines prepar'd of Iron and Steel and of their vertues and manners of working so that it 's needless to repeat the same here As to this Disease if any of them are proper for it certainly they are not all For those in which the Sulphur still remains and being free predominates over the other principles after that the texture of the mixt Body is open'd must be wholly excluded from this number for by their powerful fermentation they greatly ferment the Juices of the Viscera and put the Blood and Spirits in such a Commotion that the whole Region of the Belly is puft up in a greater Bulk as though some Spirit rush'd violently into it Nor are those more proper here from which the Sulphureous Particles are wholly driven away with the Saline as in Crocus Martis prepar'd by a very strong and long Calcination for as this Medicine is good to stay all fluxions so it sixes more any Impactions of Spirits and humours and renders them more obstinate But there remains a Martial Remedy of a middle kind in which the Sulphur being wholly or for the greatest part expell'd the Vitriolick Salt remains and has for the greatest part the Predominancy as it has in a Solution of the Filings of Iron or in its Infusion either simple or in Mineral waters in Salt or Vitriol of Mars in our preparation of Steel with many others preparations and compositions of which have been often found by experience to have done great good in some cases for these destroy the Exotick and restore the Genuine Ferments of the Viscera open their Obstructions fix the Blood and keep its Texture from much dissolution Wherefore Chalybeate Medicines as also some other Alteratives have haply some effect against the Procatarctick and more remote Causes of a Tympany but do little or no good at all against its Conjunct Cause Take of our Steel ground very fine two Drams of the Distill'd water above written two Pounds Syrup of the five Roots two Ounces mix them in a Glass
and let it Clarifie by setling the Dose is three or four Ounces in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon Take Powder of Aron Roots and of Crabbs Eyes of each three Drams Chrystal Mineral two Drams Vitriol of Mars a Dram and a half Sugar of Rosemary Flowers two Drams Mix them the Dose is half a Dram twice a Day with a fit Vehicle Hartman highly extolls the Liquor of the Flowers of the Herb Mullein as a Specifick Remedy in this Disease Put those Flowers fresh gather'd into an Alembick and press them in hard then the Vessell being carefully stopt that nothing can breath forth let it stand in an Oven whilst bread is bak't and afterwards the Flowers being taken forth press forth the Liquor very hard and let it be Distill'd in Balneo The Dose is a Scruple in Decoction of the Seeds and Roots of Fennel Certainly if this Medicine can do any thing it ought to be given in a greater Dose Johannes Anglicus Commends the Electuary Rosata Novella with Diatrion Santalon and Ants Eggs which Medicine truly being probable enough seems to promise something In Imitation of these I shall here propose the following Take Conserve of the Flowers of Cichory and Indian Cress of each three Ounces Powder of Aron Roots Lignum Aloes yellow Saunders of each a Dram Crabbs Eyes a Dram and a half Salt of Wormwood an Ounce Ants Eggs an Ounce Liguor of male Mullein half a Dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Citron Pills make an Electuary the Dose is two Drams twice a Day Drinking after it of the former Distill'd water or of the following Julape three Ounces Take water of the Leaves of Aron of the Juice of Elderberryes water of Juniper and of Elder Flowers of each six Ounces Magisteriall waters of Snails and of Earth-worms of each two Ounces Syrup of the Juice of Elderberryes two Ounces mix them make a Julape The third Indication being vital Prescribes Remedies chiefly against Faintings of the Spirits and difficulty of Breathing and against Watching and Thirst I shall briefly set down certain Forms of both kinds 1. Cordials TAke water of Navews of Marigold and Cammomill Flowers of each three Ounces Dr. Stevens's water two Ounces Tincture of Saffron two Drams Sugar an Ounce Pearl a Dram make a Julape the Dose is four or five Spoonfuls thrice or oftener in a Day in Faintings Take Conserve of Marigold Flowers two Ounces Confection of Alkermes and of Hyacinth of each two Drams Pearl Powdred an Ounces of the Juice of Citrons what suffices make a Confection take the quantity of a Nutmeg Evening and Morning drinking after it a Draught of the Julape 2. Hypnoticks TAke Aqua Hysterica six Drams Syrup de Meconio half an Ounce mix them take it late at Night Or Take small Cinnamon water an Ounce Diacodium three Ounces Tincture of Saffron two Drams mix them take to the quantity of a Spoonfull late at Night if Sleep be wanting Or Take Syrup of Cowslip Flowers three Spoonfulls Compound Peony water one Spoonfull Laudanum Tartarizd a Dram take a Spoonfull late at Night if you cannot Sleep Quenchers of Thirst must be frequently given in this most Thirsty Disease but it must be in a very small quantity that we may allay that most troublesom Symptom without much Drink which is always pernicious For which end Take Conserve of Wood-Sorrel passed through a Sieve three Ounces Pulp of Tamarinds two Ounces Sal Prunella a Dram Syrup of the Juice of Wood-Sorrel what suffices make a soft Lohoch of which let him lick often CHAP. V. Instructions and Prescripts for Curing the Anasarca AN Anasarca is describ'd after this manner that it is a white and soft Tumour of the whole outward part of the Body or of some parts of it yielding to the Touch and leaving a Pit uppon Compression proceeding from an Aqueous Homour extravasated and heapt together both within the Interstices of the Muscles and within the Pores of the Flesh and Skin and even of the Glands and Membranes That watery Humour proceeds wholly or for the greatest part from the Blood for being continually produc't within the Mass of Blood through the defect and fault of Sanguification it is pour'd forth of the Mouths of the Arteries in a greater quantity than that it can be receiv'd and carried back by the Veins and Limphaeducts and be sent forth by the Reins and Pores of the Skin and other Emissaries of the Serous Latex And Anasarca whilst it is simple is the least dangerous amongst all the species of Dropsies And a particular Anasarca occupying only the Inferior Members so the Belly do not swell withal is much safer than an Universal one In order to a right proceeding towards a Cure two chief scopes of Curing here present themselves viz. First we must take Care that the water betwixt the Skin and the Flesh be some way Evacuated and Consum'd and Secondly that a new supply be not continually engendred and heapt together For which end we must use what means we may both that the Viscera of Concoction being cleans'd from Excrements and free from Obstructions prepare always a good Chyle and supply the Mass of Blood with it in a due quantity and likewise that the Blood its Principles being restor'd to their fermenting Power may duly ferment and convert into its own Nature the Juice of the Chyle continually sent into it The Vital Indication seems not necessary in this Disease as in many others because Faintings of the Spirits or Watchings for which Cardiacks and Hypnoticks are required seldom happen here And there is little need of restoring Diets because Fasting and Abstinence do more good and most commonly are the greatest part of the Cure the reason is that the Vessels being drain'd by Fasting drink up the waters Stagnating betwixt the Skin and the Flesh or elsewhere and send them forth partly by the Reins the Pores of the Skin and other Emissaries and partly employ them most Advantageously for nourishing the Body they being yet full of a Nutritive Juice First to perform the first Indication which is for the Evacuation of the Morbifick matter all Hydragogue Medicines both Simple and Compound and likewise the Forms of Medicines set down before in the Chapter of the Ascites ought to be apply'd to use Moreover not only Catharticks and Diureticks but likewise Diaphoreticks have often place in the Cure of the Anasarca though for the most part they are forbidden in other kinds of the Dropsie In a simple Anasarca you may Purge Strongly and it often does much good I have given you before Forms of Hydragogue Catharticks of both kinds viz. of such as exert their force both upwards and downwards and both of a gentle and strong Operation from whence you may take them and apply them to the present Method of Curing If you ask how Catharticks work in this Disease and wherefore they carry forth waters better and more efficaciously than in other kinds of the
succinated or of Soot from twenty to twenty five Drops Or Tincture of Salt of Tartar from half a Dram to a Dram. So much of Hydragogue Medicines to be taken inwardly which cause waters to be evacuated either by drawing them inwardly towards the Intestines or by driving them out to the Reins or to the Pores of the Skin Moreover there are certain outward Administrations us'd by which waters gather'd together within the habit of the Body are put in motion and so dispos'd either generally to pass off by Sweat or Urine or particularly are presently let forth a Vent being made in some peculiar places In the first rank we place Frictions Liniments Fomentations Baths both dry and moist And particular things to evacuate waters are Vesicatories Escharoticks and prickings by a Needle I shall speak of each of these or at least of the chief of them as far as they regard this Disease Frictions prove often of good effect in a Leucophlegmatia and an Anasarca For as the habit of the Body is not only so charg'd with a Glut of filthy waters there heapt together that nothing can breath through them but even the outward parts grow cold upon the Blood 's being hindred of an access to them frequent and strong Frictions give a motion to the stagnating waters and in some measure dissipate them from thence and by opening the passages call again the Blood into those parts whence it was banisht wherefore it is good not only to rubb the swollen Member but even the whole Body once or twice a Day with a course Cloath or with a little brush now commonly made for that purpose In rubbing or after it Liniments and Fomentations are somtimes proper They are prepar'd either of Salts and other Minerals dissolv'd or of hot and discussing Vegetables boil'd with Lees of Wine in water and being apply'd hot open the Pores give a farther motion to the accumulated Waters and discuss them and enlarge the compass of the Blood 's circuit the watery Mass being in some measure dissipated The Liniments consist of Sulphur and Salts of divers kinds or of Quick-lime and other Minerals which being powdred and mixt with the Mucilaginous extracts of Smart Herbs are made into an Ointment To which for their better consistency let a fit quantity of Oyl of Scorpions be added Nay this Oyl apply'd by it self so it be right gives often great relief I knew a Boy swollen very much with an Universal Anasarca who was Cur'd by this only Remedy For his Mother I know not how advis'd anointed his whole Body Mornings and Evenings with Oyl of Scorpions chafing well the parts with her warm hand Upon which within three Days he began to make a vast quantity of water and having continued to make water so for some Days the swelling vanishing by degrees he grew well Baths are scarce proper for any Dropsie but an Anasarca nor for this but in the first Disposition to it or as it goes off For since by the heat of Baths encompassing the whole Body the Blood being made very hot and instigated puts the waters every where in motion which were stagnating before and drinking them into it self conveys them sundry ways there is danger lest as it frequently happens receiving them from the habit of the Body into its Mass it presently deposes them in the Praecordia or the Brain for there is nothing more usual than that the affects of those parts viz. an Asthma or Apoplexy happen to Hydropical persons after bathing But when the conjunct cause of the Disease viz. the swelling is moderate or not very great a Bath of water impregnated with Salts and Sulphur or also a hot-house promoting a gentle Sweat are often us'd with good effect Instead of a hot-house it 's better that the Patients be plac't in some convenient Cells in a Salt-house near the Furnaces in which the Mineral water is boil'd into Salt which often proves of mighty benefit to them Vesicatories let forth the waters betwixt the Flesh and the Skin in a plentiful manner and somtimes too profusely these are to be apply'd to Hydropical persons with very great caution for such an Epispastick apply'd to swollen places makes a vent too wide upon the opening of which the water first breaking forth often draws after it from the whole Neighbourhood a great Glut of it whence presently follows a great Consternation of the Spirits Moreover somtimes the place so drain'd on a sudden being depriv'd of Heat and Spirits in a short time becomes mortifyed Wherefore this Medicine is seldom apply'd to the Leggs or Feet of hydropical persons where the neat is weak and the swelling very great but somtimes to the Thighs and Arms with security when need requires Escharoticks are apply'd somwhat more safely to the swollen Places than Vesicatories because the Flux of waters out of this Vent is not so violent and in such Abundance presently at first But beginning moderately it grows after by little and little to a great Current which nature after being accustom'd to it by degrees bears better Moreover there is less danger of a Gangrene after an Escharotick than after a Vesicatory because in that Application the part whose Union is dissolv'd is fortify'd by the Eschar against the loss of heat I knew an illiterate Empyrick who often by an Echarotick successfully evacuated the Members of Hydropical peasons though never so much swollen after the following manner viz. First he fomented their Leggs Morning and Evening with a Decoction of Dwarfe-elder Wormwood Camomill and other hot Herbs the Lees of Wine or Ale being added to them and betwixt the times of fomenting he apply'd a Cataplasm made of the Faeces of that Decoction with Bran After these things had been us'd three Days he covered both Leggs and Feet with a Plaister of Burgundy-Pitch leaving only a small hole on each Calf to the bigness of a small Nut in which places he put an Escharotick of the Ashes of Ashen Bark to the naked Skin which being remov'd after twelve hours a small Eschar was left out of whose Pores the Matter first Sweated gently then daily distill'd forth somwhat more freely and at length the Eschar falling off it flow'd forth in a plentifull Stream as from an open Source till it was drawn from the whose Legg both above and beneath There remains yet another way of drawing forth waters from betwixt the Flesh and the Skin not inferior to the former though less in use viz. by the pricking of a Needle Which also much be done very cautiously and by little and little lest a head-strong and excessive Flux of waters be rais'd by it Take an ordinary Needle such as Taylors use and prick the Skin over with it in the place most swell'd but let it not enter so far as to draw Blood and so make six or seven little holes at a time about an inch distant the one from the other The water will Issue by drops forth of each little hole
and so will continually Distill forth till all the swelling be gone from the place prickt Then the next time after somtimes twelve somtimes eighteen somtimes twenty four hours prick again in some other part either of the same Leg or of the other and so continue to make such Vents for the waters once or twice a Day in this Member or that one alone or two or at the same time in many For after this manner the Hydropical Corruption may be drayn'd more freely and safely than by any other exteriour operation whatsoever and if in the mean time its flesh supply be provided against by inward Physick Physick the Disease will be the more easily Cur'd Moreover in a desperate Dropsie that Administration serves very well to prolong Life because the waters being continually emptied forth by those outward Vents the inward and vital Inundation is the longer delay'd A Man of late seventy years of Age plung'd in a Dropsie over his whole Body has continued in Life and kept his head above the waters for these many Months beyond the expectation of all Men by the means of this only Remedy So far of the kinds and forms of Remedies prompted to us by the first that is the Curative Indication As for the Preservative Indication which takes care to restore the Crasis and fermenting or Sanguifying Vertue of the Blood it suggests to us those Medicines with being endowed with hot and elastick Particles raise up the active or deprest Principles of the Mass of Blood or repair them being wasted for which ends the vulgarly call'd Altering Remedies are wont to be prescrib'd in the Form of an Electuary Powder Pills Distill'd waters Julapes Apozemes and Dyets to which also Spirits Tinctures Elixirs are somtimes added for the greater Efficacy I shall give you an example or two of each of these 1. Take Conserves of Sea-Wormood Scurvy-grass and the yellow Coats of Oranges of each two Ounces Winters-Bark two Drams Species Diacurcumae a Dram and a half Steel prepared with Sulphur three Drams Salt of Wormwood two Drams Syrup of Citron Pills what suffices make an Electuary The Dose is two Drams in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking after it a Draught of Julape or of the Distill'd water to three or four Ounces Chalybeats very often do great good in this Disease as in the Green-sickness Insomuch that the whole or at the least the chief scope of Curing Falls frequently on this Remedy But we must note that these kinds of Medicines do not all equally agree in these cases For those that are chiefly in use viz. Salt of Steel or Vitriol of Mars and others prepar'd with Acids and wholly depriv'd of Sulphur do no good at all because they do not promote the Fermentation of the Blood but on the contrary rather fix it when too Exorbitant or Elastick But for an Anasarca and any other oedematous Cachexia in the habit of the Body let those Chalybeats be given in which the Sulphury Particles are left and are Praedominant as especially in the Filings of Iron and in its Scales reduc't into a fine Powder and in-Steel melted with Sulphur and Powdred these Powders being taken are presently dissolv'd by the Acid Salts within our Body upon which the Sulphureous Metallick Particles being set free and convey'd into the Blood ferment its whole Mass raise up the Symbolous Particles there before lying dormant and being joyn'd with them give a vigour to the Blood and renew its fermenting or sanguifying power before deprest Wherefore we find after a little use of these Chalybeats the pallid colour in the Green-sickness goes off and turns to a Florid Aspect 2. Take compound Powder of Aron Roots and Winters-bark of each three Drams Roots of the lesser Galingal Cubebs of each a Dram and a half Steel prepar'd with Sulphur half an Ounce Sugar of Rosemary Flowers six Drams make a Powder divide it into twenty parts the Dose is one part every Morning and at five in the Afternoon with a Draught of the Sudorifick Decoction prescrib'd before 3. Take of the Gummous extract remaining after the Distillation of the Elixir Vitae of Quercetan half an Ounce powder of Earth-worms prepar'd two Drams Roots of the lesser Galingal Winters-bark of each a Dram and a half Salt of Wormwood two Drams Iron Rust two Drams and a half Balsam of Peru a Dram Tincture of Salt of Tartar two Drams Balsamum Capivii what suffices make a Mass form it into little Pills the Dose is half a Dram at Night and early in the Morning Drinking after it of the Julape or distill'd water following three Ounces 4. Take Elder Flower water and the Fermented Juice of its Berryes of each a Pound Magisteriall water of Earth-worms Raddish water compound Aqua Mirabilis of each two Ounces Syrup of the Juice of Elderberryes two Ounces mix them make a Julape 5. Take Leaves of Garden Scurvygrass Rochet Pepperwort of each six handfulls Roots of Calamus Armaticus the lesser Galingal Zedoary Florentine Orris Elder Aron of each six Ounces Wintersbarke Jamaica Pepper of each three Ounces Juniper Berryes four Ounces Cloves Ginger Nutmeggs of each an Ounce Being slic'd and bruis'd pour to them of old Rhenish-wine eight Pounds distill it in common Organs let the whole Liquor be mixt 6. 7. An Antihydropick Decoction is Prescrib'd before amongst Diaphoreticks A Dyet-drink to be taken instead of Beer may be made according to the Form following Take Raspings of Guaiacum and Sassafras of each four Ounces Roots of Florentine Orris Calamus Aromaticus the lesser Galingal Elecampane of each an Ounce and a half Juniper and Lawrell berryes of each two Ounces Seeds of Anise Caraway sweet Fennell Coriander Dill of each an Ounce long Pepper Cubebs of each an Ounce and a half Cloves Nutmeggs Ginger of each half an Ounce Jamainca Pepper two Ounces dry'd Leaves of Salvia Acuta Wood-sage Calamint Agrimony of each a handful Licorice four Ounces being slic'd and bruis'd Let them boyl in four Gallons of fountain water to half when the straining is cold let it be put up in Glass-bottles for use I have known many persons almost given over in an Anasarce who by the constant use of this Drink have perfectly recover'd Of many examples of persons Cur'd of Dropsies I shall now give you one A certain Robust Man of a middle Age after having gotten an Epidemical Quartan Ague and being ill manag'd at first had lain under it above a year and in the mean time had us'd an ill Dyet fell into an Anasarca which afterward upon his indulging himself to Drink very freely for quenching his Thirst which was exceeding great grew in a short time to a vast height so that all his Members from the Head to the Foot and his Belly likewise being swollen he was not able to turn himself from on t side to the other in his Bed without the assistance of Servants As I first visited him and despairing of Cure I plainly
happens that the Vessells having this ill Conformation are likewise affected with Convulsions so that the Muscular Fibres of the Vessels being disorderly contracted cause sudden and violent Sallyes of the Blood somtimes upwards and somtimes downwards and consequently Eruptions For I have observ'd in some when the Current of the Blood has been slender enough with a low and weak Pulse that the Convulsions of the Vessells beginning in some place and carried forward as a Wind running here and there in the Body have driven the Blood vehemently though never so low of it self and forc't it into violent Eruptions And in these cases when opening a Vein and Medicines cooling and qualifying the Blood have done no good we have found the greatest relief from Narcotick's Anticonvulsives and Ligatures To speak now of Bleeding by Art we generally observe that Physick in some cases imitates nature in others exceeds it and often regulates it and reduces it when it acts amiss though there are some cases in which nature far exceeds the efficacy of Art in Excretions of Blood I shall speak briefly of each of these First therefore in whatever affects Spontaneous Eruptions of Blood use to do good if at any time these fail Physick the Handmaid of nature aptly suplys its place by Phlebotomy therefore if haply the Blood by reason of its Sulphur being too much at liberty and exalted is kindled too much upon opening a Vein the superfluity of that Inflammable fuel will issue forth So likewise immoderate Turgescencies of the Blood by Reason of some unsubduable substance gotten into it are allay'd by this means Wherefore Bleeding is presently ordered both against continual Fevers which proceed from the former cause and against such as intermit whose fits are from the latter And so as often as an accustomed Evacuation at set times which is stopt or a humour struck back from the outward parts or a sudden stoppage of the Pores or if a Surfeit Drinking of Wine and other Accidents of this nature by crowding the Blood with Heterogeneous Particles cause a Turgescency in it Phlebotomy is usually a most present Remedy Secondly Physick does not only imitate nature in letting forth of Blood but often exceeds it nay and frequently aids it and reduces it when it labours and acts amiss For if at any time the Blood taking a Head rushes in a Body to one part and there either presently breaks forth in a disorderly manner or being gather'd together in a large quantity causes an Inflammation a Vein being open'd in some remote part stops that Praeternatural Salley of the Blood and often puts an end to the Eruption or Inflammation Wherefore in the Plurisie Sqinancy Perpneumonia in Spitting or Vomiting Blood when nature either yields it self overcome or bing sturck as it were wiht a Rage seems to lay violent hands on it self Chirurgery withdrawing the Blood to some other place and letting it forth restores all things when almost in a loft Condition Moreover Physick often moderates or reduces nature when too profuse or extravagant in the Effusion of Blood for in Truth all immoderate Eruptions of Blood must be stay'd rather than promoted Again in regard in the Plague Small-Pox and Meazles broken forth and in Malignant Fevers a Spontaneous Eruption of Blood always foreboads ill Therefore in those affects Stiptick Medicines restraining the Eruption of Blood are more proper than breathing a Vein Nevertheless there are some cases of an Effusion of Blood by nature which Physick can no way imitate nor supply by Phlebotomy if haply they fail In Fevers about the Crisis of the Disease viz. after the Digestion of the matter that is its preparation for Separation a Spontaneous Eruption of Blood in regard it comes in a due nick of time is far better than any Bleeding by Art the due season for which is unknown And so a flowing of the Menses and Haemorrhoides hapening by the Instinct of nature is much more Advantageous than if Blood be caus'd to flow thence by Art There is this notable difference betwixt Blceding by opening a Vein and a Spontaneous Eruption of Blood that in this the Blood flows in a manner wholly out of the Arteries and in the other Evacuation it 's drawn only out of the Veins So far of Phlebotomy compar'd with a Spontaneous Eruption of Blood I shall now shew its use and effects both good and evil in the Practice of Physick Therefore in the first place let us shew in general what sort of alteration this Evacuation causes in the Mass of Blood and then to what Diseases either of the whole Body or of particular parts it most immediately has respect to Concerning the first it 's obvious that the Blood after Breathing a Vein is altered both as to its quantity and as to its Temper and Crafis and as to its Motion The first and most common Indication for Breathing a Vein is that by this Administration the Mass of the Blood be lessen'd Hence even the vulgar growing to an overful habit of Body cause themselves to be let Blood to remove that Plethorick Disposition but though the evils of that affect are remov'd or prevented by nothing better yet the necessity or this Evacuation ought to be avoided as much as may be Because the Blood is rendred by it more Sulphureous and less Salt and consequently it disposes Men to a Feverish habit and to grow Fat Moreover the great Remedy Bleeding if made common on every slight occasion will become of no effect in grand Distempers when it is needed To which we may add that according to the observation of the vulgar the more familiarly any one uses Bleeding the oftner he will want it For the Blood being let forth to avoid an overgreat fullness the rest of the Mass soon rises again to a Plenitude though it 's worse in its Crasis For by this means being much berest of its Balsamick Salt which preserves it from Putrefaction Instead of it it 's more fill'd with a Fatning and Inflammable Sulphur 2. Phlebotomy amends the Mixture and Temperament of the Blood in sundry respects First if any Heterogeneous thing be gotten into its Mass which can neither be mastered nor easily separated and sent forth upon opening a Vein the Blood flowing forth carries with it often a great Portion of that matter So again the Blood declining from its Temperament is often restor'd by Phlebotomy for when its Mass upon the exaltation of the Sulphur or fixt Salt of both of them together is degenerated into a sharp Salt or Salino-Sulpureous nature a Portion of the Blood being drawn out presently it ferments anew and often there is such a change made of all those kinds of Particles that thence forwards the Spirits with the Volatile Salt begin to rise again and recover their Dominion keeping he Sulphur and fixt Salt under as they ought to be Hence Bleeding gives often great relief not only in Fevers but likewise in the Scurvy Jaundise and even in a beginning
Juice of things taken into the Body be past into the Blood for the Vessels being emptyed will draw hastily into them the Chymus not only crude but often disagreeing with or disproportionate to the Blood whence not only its Motion is disturb'd but also the Vital flame is sometimes in danger of being overwhelm'd I have known some who upon Bleeding shortly after large Drinking or pouring in of Vinous Liquors have fell into dreadful swounding Fits which continued a very long time till the Vital Spirit half overwhelm'd happen'd at length to recover 5. As to the quantity of Blood to be taken besrdes the manifest errour of those who are sparing or profuse of it in the greatest extreams there is likewise an errour of no small moment committed within the moderate Limits whilst in some cases the Blood is taken too sparingly and in others in a greater quantity than is fitting In a burning Fever the Pleurisie Peripueumonia Squinancy Frenzy Apoplexy and other great Diseases rising from the Turgescency or Inflammatory Incursion of the Blood a spare Bleeding always does more hurt than good For besides that it does not remove the Antecedent cause of the Disease viz. the Plethora it moreover encreases its Conjunct causes viz. the Inflammation or Irruption of the Blood For it 's a constant observation that after a spare Emission of Blood it s whole Mass presently boyls in a high measure and makes new Sallyes into the part affected The reason of which is that in a great Plethora many Portions both of the Blood and Serum being driven into strait and by receptacles are forc't to reside there which upon the Vessels being a little emptied rush back hastily into the Mass of Blood and trouble it mightily driving it here and there in a violent manner As a spare Bleeding in some cases is not only useless but hurtful so in others a too large Effusion of Blood is seldom without danger and sometimes proves mighty prejudicial to Health For if at any time there be a failing of strength or the Body labours under a great Cachexia we must be spare of Bleeding and it is either forbidden or being indicated by reason of some accident it must be allow'd but in a small quantity Wherefore in Men of a tender weak or cold Constitution and in Consumptive Persons and such as are affected with a long or Malignant Fever also in those that the Hydropical or very Cacochymical we must not lightly open a Vein at least being open'd we must not let forth much Blood The quntity of Blood to be drawn being agreed upon the next care must be that a large Orifices being made it flows forth equally mixt in as short a space as may be For otherwise if it issue forth at a slender Orifices either by Drops or in a small stream the Mass of Blood fermenting will separate into parts and what is most Subtle and Spirituous will spring forth the thicker and more dreggy Portion remaining behind Hence it is to be observ'd that if at any time the Blood being let out of a large Orifice with a full stream be stopt a little by putting the Finger on it and in a short while after be let run again the Blood issuing forth the Second time will be much purer and brighter than the former because in the interval of its running the more subtle Particles having got free of the thicker and gatered themselves together in a Body prepar'd themselves for flying forth CHAP. II. Instructions and Prescripts for stopping an Eruption of Blood There being various and manifold kinds of Haemorrhagies or Eruptions of Blood Physick is not needful to all of them If a great Effusion of Blood happens through a Wound c. Chirurgery undertakes to stop it Moreover an Eruption of Blood if it be Critical ought not to be disturb'd by any Medicine but to be left wholly to the governance of nature so she be free and enjoys her power nay in Symptomatick Bleeding so long as it is but small or not very prejudicial Physick is not required But then chiefly and in a manner only it is needsul if at any time the Flux of Blood be either immoderate or breaks forth in improper places Bloody Eruptions of the latter kind require help chiefly if haply the Blood be cast forth upwards by coughing or vomiting or be voided downwards by the Fundament or the Urinary passages for in these cases though the quantity of Blood voided be not commonly much fear'd yet because a dangerous or pernicious Ulcer often follows the Solution of Unity so made in the Lungs or in the Stomack or Intestines or in a Vein therefore we must diligently take care of those Haemorrhagies from their very first appearance and therefore such Bloody Excretions are ranged amongst the Diseases of those parts and we have already delivered elsewhere the Theories and Cures of Blood-spitting and the Bloody Flux so that there is no need for us to repeat them here no more than that of Pissing Blood which belongs to the Pathology of Nephritick affects wherefore I shall pass to those Passions in which there being an immoderete Fffulx of Blood there is a particular necessity for Medicines to stop it The chiefest kinds of those sorts of affects are these three viz. an Eruption of Blood from the Nostrils and of the Menses and immoderate Fluxes of the Haemorrhoides The Cure of this latter belongs rather to Chirurgery than Physick and we have thought fitting to refer the consideration of the other to the Pathology of the Womb An Effusion of Blood by the Nostrills is the most general kind of those sorts of Passions and what I shall here deliver for the Cure of this Eruprion of Blood may be apply'd to all other Haemorrhagies whatsoever Therefore concerning the Cure of an excessive Bleeding at the Nose there are three primary Indications viz. Curatory Vital and Preservatory The two former have regard to the immediate sptopping of the Symptom as often as it presses and the later undertakes to remove the cause of the Disease that the returns of the Eruption of Blood may abate of their violence or wholly cease Again this Eruption of Blood must be manag'd one way if without a Fever and somewhat after a different manner if joyn'd with it If at any time therefore without a Fever much Blood flows from the Nostrils presently as there will be need of Remedies to stop the Blood there will be three chief intents of Curing all of them to be put in Practice together viz. the Turgescency of the Blood must be so allay'd that it be not prone to make disorderly Sallyes We must farther take care that its Fluxion being withdrawn from the Nostrils be diverted eisewhere and that the gaping Mouths of the Vessels within the Nostrils be clos'd For which ends a great many Remedies both External and Interna and of divers kinds are wont to be administred we shall speak of the former in order and briefly First therefore
Persons both Men and Women Diseas'd after this manner who being ill of a Head-ach an oppression of the hinder part of the Head or a Vertigo perceiv'd in their sleep presently Convulsive motions in the Praecordia or Bowels or in both of them together Which happens from the Salley of the tumultuary Spirits reflected from the Brain into the Origines of the Nerves And as an Opiate gave the Patient before mention'd a quiet sleep without the wonted Sequel of Convulsions so I have often successfully Cur'd terrible Convulsive Fits both Asthmatical and as it were Hysterical by giving Opiats 1. A Woman sixty seven years of Age having still a florid Countenance and being of a gross habit of Body and who first had liv'd long subject to a Swelling of the Face and great Fits of the Head-ach upon the Weathers growing very cold in the Winter fell into a very grievous Vertigo with a Trembling of the Heart a Fainting of the Spirits and a frequent striving to Vomit Being put to Bed if she open'd her Eyes or was turn'd from one side on the other she was presently seiz'd with a mighty Scotomia a danger of Swooning and moreover with a cruel Vomiting As I was to see her I did not doubt but the cause of the Disease was the Convulsive Matter convey'd from the outward Region of the Head to the inmost Recesses of the Brain by the ill Breath or Heterogeneous Combination of which the Animal Spirits being struck they rais'd the Vertiginous affects as they made their disorderly sallyes towards the Brain and when they tumultuarily rusht into the Roots of the Nerves they caus'd the Scotomia the disorders of the Praecordia and the striving to Vomit The Cure of this was perform'd within a few days by the application of large Vesicatories to the Nucha and behind the Ears the dayly injection of Clysters and by a frequent use of Spirit of Harts-horn and a Cephalick Julape Dr. Willis gives Instances of Persons in whom some portion of the Morbifick Matter which besets the Origine of the Nerves descending from the Head often enters deeper into the Ductus's of the Nerves and so about their middle and extream Processes and Plexus's makes a fomes of an explosive matter as it were of Gun-powder But for brevity sake I omit them It is observ'd that when a Convulsive Fit begins within the Brain at the Origine of the Nerves presently the remotest Spirits residing in the extremities of the Nerves as many as are predispos'd for that Symptom fall upon Explosions and so convey upwards the Convulsive affect there more strongly begun which happens for this reason that when some whole Series of Spirits is disturb'd those which are in the extream parts are first destitute of their Original Influx wherefore those before others begin to grow in a tumult and to be irregularly dispos'd as when a Nerve of the Arm or Thigh is constring'd by lying on it so that it is hindred of its wonted influence of the Spirits a stupor with a sense of pricking is first perceiv'd in the Fingers or Toes of the hands or Feet whence it creeps upwards by degrees towards the places affected And hence it is we find that if whilst the outmost Spirits are exploded a strong Ligature or Compression intercepts the succession of others into the same space or their progress towards the parts the Convulsion is usually hindred from ascending upward Wherefore as Physical Histories testify when a stupor beginning at the top of a Finger or Toe of a hand or Foot creeps to the upper parts with a sense of Formication or like a cold wind and at length taking to the Brain causes terrible Convulsions If presently at the first seizure the Arm or Leg be strongly bound about the Convulsion being not able to pass that place is hindred from getting to the Head Nay and it s an usual thing for Hysterick Women assoon as a Swelling of their Belly or an ascent of a heavy lump is first perceiv'd in their Abdomen to bind about hard the Trunk of their Body with Swathes and so commonly the Praecordia and the Region of the Head are kept from being affected with the Convulsive Fit It 's likewise observable that if Blood be let forth of a Vein in the midst of a Covulsive or Apoplectical Fit it presently seems to be congeal'd so that being receiv'd in a Bason it does not keep an even and plain Surface like Liquids but accumulating it self drop upon drop it rises in a heap like Tallow melted and distill'd into a cold Vessel Yet as to what some conclude hence viz. that Convulsions depend wholly on the thickness obstructed motion and stagnation of the Blood we must not allow of it For Blood drawn from Persons that are subject to Convulsions a little before the Fit is diluted with Serum and fluid enough Wherefore we may opine that that Congelation is caus'd by the Fit it self To wit because in Convulsive motions from the excessive Contractions of the Muscles and Viscera the Blood passing bet wixt them its Spirit and Serum exhaling is a little solv'd in its mixture and therefore is somewhat coagulated just as when Milk by reason of its too great agitation and Separation of parts one from another hardens into butlter wherefore this kind of Coagulation of the Blood seems rather to be the effect of Convulsions than their cause The Therapeutick Method AS to the Cure of these kinds of Convulsive affects which in Men or Women proceed from a Morbifick cause besetting the Origines of the Nerves The first Indication will be to withdraw the fuel of the Disease viz. to hinder the Blood from discharging on the Head the Heterogeneous Particles either engendred in it self or receiv'd from elsewhere from the Bowels For this purpose an Evacuation ordered both by Purging and Bleeding unless somewhat indicates the contrary is wont to be administred with good success Vomiting very often gives relief wherefore let Vomits of the Infusion of Crocus Metallorum or of Salt of Vitriol or of Wine of Squills be given in the first place Then in a few days let Blood be drawn either by opening a Vein in the Arm or by Leeches applyed to the haemorrhoid Veins then afterwards let a gentle Purge be ordered either of Pills or of a Purging Apozeme and let it be repeated in due and convenient time Take Crato's Pills of Amber or Bontius's Pills of Tartar two Drams Rosm of Jalap sixteen Grains Castoreum a Scruple Oyl of Rosemary or of Amber half a Scruple Gum Ammoniacum dissolo'd in a sufficient quantity of Hysterick-water make sixteen Pills let four be taken every sixth or seventh day Take Roots of Polypody of the Oak sharp pointed Dock prepar'd and of Chervil of each six Drams of Male Peony three Drams Leaves of Betony Germander Ground-pine Vervain Male Fluellin of each a handful Seeds of Carthamus and Burr-dock of each three Drams let them boil in four Pounds of Fountain-water
their wills or thinking of other things to actions emulating the Tune heard so that a Piper no sooner begins his Lesson but the standers by begin to move their Hands and Feet We need not wonder therefore in Men bitten by a Tarantula where the Animal Spirits being stimulated to motion as it were are forc't to skip and wander from one place to anothe of themselves if upon playing on a Harp they are put upon Dancing and observing of regular motions To this is a kin the Evil which is call'd the Dance of S. Vitus concerning which Horstius relates that he spake with certain Women who visit yearly the Chappel of S. Vitus which is within the Precincts of Vlmes and there exercise themselves so long in Dancing day and night with a Perturbation of mind till they fall on the Ground like Persons in an extasy By which means they seem to be restor'd to themselves so that they feel little or nothing for a whole year till the time of May following and then they declare themselves tormented with such a restlessness of their Members that they are forc't to betake themselves again about the Feast of S. Vitus to the foresaid place to renew their Dancing Indeed it is a usual thing as I have often observ'd both for Men and Women to be infested with such a restlessness and certain rage as it were of the Members that they are forc't to walk till they are a weary and also to dance and run up and down by this means to avoid greater Disturbances and Swoonings which would otherwise seize them The reason of which seems to be that the Animal Spirits because stimulated in the whole Genus Nervosum from a Heterogeneous Combination become wholly in a rage and ungovernable which therefore ought to be so exercis'd and wearied both that they themselves may be mastered and that the Heterogeneous Combination may be shaken off That Convulsive affects are sometimes caus'd by Witchcraft it is both vulgarly believ'd and every where affirm'd by many Authors that deserve Credit And to grant that wonderful affects are often produc't in the Body of Men by tricks of the Devil viz. in as much as by the wonderful subtlety in operating in which he excels he insinuates Atoms or Heterogeneous Corpuscles into the sensitive Soul or the Texture of the Animal Spirits and so sometimes stimulates its Functions sometimes binds them sometimes violently perverts them Nay and farther in some manner he enters the Body of Man himself and being as another Soul of a more powerful Nature is co-extended to it actuats all the parts and members inspires them with an unwonted Vigour and governs them at his pleasure and stirs them up to the performance of wonderful and supernatural actions Grant this I say yet all kinds of Convulsions which appear prodigious as being besides the common course of this Disease ought not presently to be imputed to inchantments of Witches or tricks of the Devil for often though appearing strange they proceed from meer natural causes and stand in need of no other Exorcisms for a Cure than Remedies which are wont to be prescrib'd against Convulsive affects In truth the Animal Spirits when indued with a very great explosive Combination and discharg'd together by it exert so much of strength and vigour above their proper and wonted force as a flash of Gun-powder above the burning of a common flame so that such who being obnoxious to this Disease may when they are out of the Fit be govern'd carryed and led at pleasure by the guidance of one Man when the Fit comes upon them are not to be manag'd by the greatest strength and endeavours of four or more robust Persons But if when any Person is distempered there be a suspicion of Witchcraft or Fascination there are chiefly two kinds of motion which are wont to create and maintain it viz. First If the Patient uses such Contorsions and Gesticulations of the Members or of the whole Body which no sound Man even a Mimick or any Tumbler is wont to imitate And secondly if he exerts a strength which exceeds all humane force to which if there be joyn'd excretions of monstrous things as when heaps of Pins are cast up by Vomit or living Animals are voided by seige it comes to be without dispute that the Devil has and acts his part in this Tragedy CHAP. VI. Of General Convulsions which are wont to be rais'd in Malignant Ill-determin'd and some Anomalous Fevers EVery Man knows that Convulsions sometimes happen to Persons in Fevers and that from thence a great Prognostick is taken of death or danger For as in Malignant Fevers and sometimes in ordinary Fevers of an Ill-determination a Vertigo or Delirium arise from the Morbifick Matter 's being depos'd from the Blood in the Brain so from the same fall'n into the Genus Nervosum Contractions and Twitchings of the Muscles and Tendons and also sudden shakings of the Members and Limbs and sometimes horrible stiff extensions in the whole Body ensue which forts of Convulsive affects happen for the most part about the height of Fevers when the Morbifick Matter first heap't together in the Blood is convey'd thence into the Brain and that being either presently past through or infected together with it is carryed into the Systema Nervosum and thence Convulsive affects with or without a Delirium are rais'd Nevertheless besides these kinds of Convulsive affects which ensue upon Fevers and are secondarily rais'd we may observe sometimes in a Malignant Constitution of the Air and after a breath of a pestilential Contagion that the Nervous Liquour is infected before the Blood or apart by it self from it and that then a Delirium and Convulsions precede the Feverish Distemper Moreover I have often observ'd that some Anomalous Fevers have been rife in which the Blood being scarce seen to boil or to be extraordinary hot the beginnings of a slow and very dangerous Fever have been first laid in the Nervous Humour which being rais'd by degrees to a Maturity caus'd Convulsive affects with a Delirium or Mania and other failings or exorbitancies of the Animal Spirits For the Diseas'd not complaining of heat or drought on a sudden becoming weak and as it were enervated were presently rendred obnoxious to a frequent Giddiness also to Tremblings and Leapings as it were of the Limbs and likewise to Twitchings and Contractions of the Muscles and Tendons and to pains moving from one place to another This kind of Sickness in regard it seems to consist in the solid parts rather than in the Blood is call'd by some Physicians a Malignant Hectick Fever when in truth the same being chiefly rooted in the Nervous Humour is better said to be a Convulsive Disease of the Nerves Horstius mentions a Convulsive and Malignant Disease which heretofore was Epidemical in Hassia Westphalia and the Neighbouring parts those that were seiz'd with it without any Feverish heat or immoderate effervescency of the Blood as they were
about the declining of the Disease viz. when the Confines of the Brain obtain'd a calm the Clouds as it were being discharg'd thence on the Brest a mighty Catarrh presently fell on the Lungs But in some especially who suffered little from the Disease in the Head presently from the beginning of the Fever a violent Cough and a Spitting of filthy Matter accompanied with a Consumptive Disposition as it were seiz'd them and precipitated them suddenly and unawares into a Consumption from which nevertheless by a seasonable use of Remedies they often unexpectedly recover'd I observ'd in some after a long failure of the sensitive faculty and an oppression of the Brain from the Morbifick Matter that at length Tumours ensued in the Glands about the Neck from which assoon as ripen'd and broken a thin and stinking Ichor flowed for a long time and gave ease I have seen also Watery Wheals sais'd in other parts of the Body which have past into bollow Ulcers with difficulty to be Cur'd Sometimes small Spots and as it were Flea-bites appear'd here and there Though I have not heard that broad and livid Spots ever were to be seen in Persons sick of this Disease However notwithstanding this Fever had not any very Malignant breakings forth yet it was not free from Contagion For in the same Family it seiz'd almost all the Children and younger People one after the other and often Persons stricken in years who attending the sick familiarly us'd about their Beds and Bed-cloaths were infected with the same Disease Yet I must say there was not so great a suspicion of infection that for that reason the Friends of the Sick should be wholly forbidden to visit them or converse with them Though all along the course of this Disease unless when the Brain was greatly assail'd it appern'd only mild and past without any dreadful Symptom nevertheless its Cure was always difficult and was not perform'd but after a long time For the Diseas'd seldom recover'd within three or four Weeks nay for the most part scarce within so many Months But if this Disease fell on Men of a decayed Age or Strength especially on such as were before subject to Cephalick Diseases as the Lethargy Apoplexy or Convulsions it often kill'd them in a shorter space Or if there were any hope of recovery it could be carryed on very slowly scarce any Remedies affording a sensible relief so that the Diseas'd were no sooner gotten without the Sphere of this Fever but they found themselves within the Confines of a Consumption If the formal reason and causes of the foresaid sickness be enquir'd into it plainly here appears that the Liquour which lies in the Brain and Genus Nervosum for the most part together with the Blood was in fault and was the immediate cause of the Symptoms that seem'd chiefly pressing viz. in as much as the Latex presently from the first invasion of the Disease was become more impoverisht than its wont and effaete as it were and therefore a Languor and Enervation with a Spontaneous Lassitude and a Disability to motion together with a sudden Consumption of the Body happen'd to the Diseas'd Though still the default of this Latex necessarily depends on the Dyscrasy of the Blood and of the ill Constiution of the Brain but here as in other places I refer you to Dr. Willis himself for a fall Aetrology of Symptoms I have often observ'd in this Fever after Oat Broath a Decoction of Barley and other thin Dyet that no less Ebullition of the Blood has been rais'd than by a full Meat Broath For indeed on one side as well as the other the Nutritive Juice sent from the Chyle into the Blood in regard it was not imploy'd in the work of Nutrition troubled the Blood as some Heterogeneous thing that would not duely mix with it And by reason of the Particles of this superfluous Juice sent off in a plentiful manner with the Serum the Urine was very thick and red and mightily fill'd with Contents And for this reason the Belly for the most part was loose in as much as the Blood being full of a Nutritious Juice suck't a less Portion of Chyle from the Lowels and discharg'd again into the Intestines a part of that which was brought into it moreover the Feverish Distemper stuck for so long time in the Blood because till upon the Restitution of the Animal Governance Nutrition was rightly perform'd that superfluous Matter was heap't together in the Mass of Blood I shall now give an instance or two of Persons affected with this Disease A Robust and Florid young Man about the beginning of the Spring An. 1661. falling sick without any evident cause soon became weak and as it were enervated with a loss of Appetite and a languishing of the Spirits Cathartick Remedies Antipyreticks Digestives nay and Antiscorbuticks and others of eivers kinds being given him according to the prescripts of famous Physicians did not the least good But the Diseas'd still continuing in a languishing condition lay by it for six weeks with a slow Fever of uncertain returns a quick and weak Pulse and a deep red Urine Moreover being mightily pined away he complain'd of a ringing in his Fars and an Undulation of sound as it were in his head Though he was affected with a great Stupor yet his Sleeps were very much troubled and interrupted with a talking Light-headed After forty days the Fever not yet declining it was thought good to draw about four or five Ounces of Blood from the Vessels of the Fundament by Leeches Hereupon presently the Fever began to be very much exasperated for the heat became more intense with a Thirst Watchings and an almost continual tossing of the Body the Tongue also growing dry and rough shortly after a troublesome Cough with much and discolour'd Spittle ensued There were carefully given him Almond and Barley Drinks with temperate things against the Cough boil'd in them Water of Milk distill'd with Snails and Herbs appropriated to the Thorax Powder of Shells Niter prepar'd and likewise Cordial Opiats which nevertheless scarce giving any relief the Diseas'd still became weaker And when after this manner having been sick above two Months the Feverish Distemper and the Cough also daily growing worse he seem'd to be at Death's Door at length a Sweat hapening of its own accord which sometimes came upon him every night sometimes every other night he grew better by degrees thereby and using afterwards the foresaid Medicines he became perfectly well within six weeks Whilst this Person lay ill I went to see another about Twelve years of Age affected after the like manner but this when I was first call'd having lain ill above a Month was reduc't to a Skeleton Moreover he was affected with a Giddiness a ringing in the Dars and a Deafness and likewise with a violent Cough thâ— accompanied with a yellow and as it were Consumptive Spittle His Pulse was quick and weak his Urine red and thick his
to be taken on occasion when the Spirits faultered He also Drank Oat-bear Alter'd with temperate and Diuretick Herbs By the use of these things he past at least seven years without any great alteration for the worse At length Old Age pressing opon him and the Disease together the Convulsive fits growing more violent seis'd him not as before when his sleep was over but as soon as he was warm in his Bed so that he was forc't wholly to forbear going to Bed and he put off his Cloaths but seldom unless it were to change Linnen Hence transpiration being hindred the Serous and other Filthy Dregs which were wont to evaporate were fixt on the Lungs which first brought a thick Breathing afterward an Asthmatick affect and lastly a Mortla Consumption If the reasons of the foresaid affects be enquired into it will appear that all these Evils proceeded from the ill Constitution of the Brain and Genus Nervosum and more immediatly from the Dyscrasy and Default of the Juice that lies in these parts The reason is plain why this Disease first increasing by degrees was soon rais'd to a far worse state by the use of hot Baths for it is manifest by experience that hot and sulphureous Baths very much exalt the Saline and other Morbid Particles that abound within the Viscera or Humours of Human Body and soon carry them to the highest pitch viz. by exagitaing them they render them more wildly exorbitant and froce them from the first passages into the Blood and thence into the Brain and Genus Nervosum nay and joyn them together being first sever'd and lying idle and stir them up to a certain Fermentation Wherefore such as being hereditarily obnoxious to the Gout or or Stone have not yet felt any Fits of those affects after the use of hot Baths very often find that both those diseases are presently brought to a maturity in them You may find the reasons of the other Symptoms in Dr. Willis at large So much for universal Convulsions which for the most part being joyn'd to the Paralytick affect are raised at once in many places separately there remain others which we call continual viz. because being conveyed on a sudden from these parts to others they mutually succeed each other and force the Members sometimes these sometimes others and often the whole Body to be mov'd involuntarily and to be bent and agitated divers ways I shall give you an instance or two of this affect A Beautiful Virgin tall and thin grown begotten of a Father obnoxious to very great distempers of the Genus Nervosum about the twentieth year of her Age was afflicted for many days with a very violent and Periodical Head ach at length the Winter Solstice being near at hand the pain of her head remitted but in its stead a mighty Catarrh succeeded with thin and much Spittle and with an Ulcerous affect of the Nostrils Mouth and Throat having undergone the tediousness of this for some time at length by the advice of some old Women she drew into her Mouth the smoke of Amber through a Tube and was presently Cur'd viz. the Catarrh was suddenly stopt but presently upon it she complain'd of a mighty giddiness with a Pain of the Head and a Ringing in the Ears on the third day the Tendons of the Neck were Convuls't that her head was bent sometimes forward sometimes backward sometimes sideways and sometimes it stood stiff and immovable in a short time after this such a Convulsive affect seiz'd the ontward parts of the whole Body and the Limbs the Arms and Hands were so wonderfully twisted that no Jugler of Mountibank was able to imitate their Flections and Convolutions Her Legs qand Feet were forc't awry this way and that and were made to beat aginst each other and to cross each other alternatively after this manner she was perpetually affected with Convulsive Motions either sitting in a Chair or lying in Bed unless when she was overwhelm'd with sleep and when she contained her members a little by much forcing her self presently she was seized with a difficult and short Breating and with a danger of being Choakt yet in the mean time the Eyes Jaws Mouth and inferiour Viscera continued free from any Convulsion Nor was she troubled with a Vomiting Rumbling nor Inflation of the Hypochondres Moreover her mind held always sound and she duly performed the functions of Memory Understanding and Imagination she neither spake nor did any thing shewing want of Reason or Indiscreetly but amongst all these stupendious evils always using Pious and Vertuous expressions she gave an admirable specimen of Christian Patience and Piety her appetite was soon dejected so that she was averse from all food unless very much press'd to it but thirst continually prest upon her she was so very weak she could neither stand nor go Her Urine was of an Orange Colour very much Impreguated with a Saltness on the Surface of which a thin Tartareous Film grew Being call'd to this Lady the sixth day after her being ill I proceeded in order to her Cure as follows In the first place having made a gentie preparation of the Body I gave her a Loosning Potion of an Infusion of Sena and Rhubarb with the addition of Yellow Saunders and Salt of Wormwood whereby she had twelve stools which gave her great ease the day following I drew eight Ounces of blood from her left Arm every evening I gave her an Opiate of the Water and Syrup of Cowslip flowers with the Powder of Pearl Moreover once within six hours I ordered her a Dose of Spirit of Harts Horn to be taken with a little draught of the following Jalape Take Water of black Cherries Wall-Nuts and Peony Flowers of each three Ounces the Antiepileptical Water of Langius two Ounces Syrupe of Male Peony Flowers two Ounces Pearl powdred a Scruple mix them make a Julape Because she could not bear much Purging Glysters of Milk and Sugar were frequently us'd Besides Anticonvulsive Liniments apply'd to the Neck and Spine we ordered Frictions of the Members affected with Woollen Cloths moistned in an appropriated Oyl and warm'd By the use of these things within six days the diseased seem'd to be very much relieved for the Convulsive Motions in a manner wholly ceast she could keep her Members in their due Site and without Motion only she was forc't sometimes by a slight Contraction to bow her head gently this way and that Moreover she was able to arise from her Chair and Walk a little but as she Walk't she did not go upright but inclining to one side 's Parting from her at that time I left her in a manifest state of Recovery she seeming to be much better But somewhat more then a week after a boistrous North Wind arising in the night time and blowing strongly on the diseas'd as she lay in her Bed the window being not well shut presently upon taking Cold she fell into such a relapse that she became not
Rising from her Bed at ten a Clock in the Morning she was well and carryed her self so well in her countenance walking and discourse that no man would have suspected that any thing ail'd her At eleven a Clock she began to complain of a Plenitude and as it were Inflation in the Brain and a Deadness of the Spirits with a light Scotomia by and by she felt in the left Hypocondre a mighty beating and Springing as it were of a live Animal I plainly felt this Motion by applying my hand to her side then a Retching and great Crying followed whereupon she was presently led to Bed and given to be held by a maid servant sitting on the Bolster This person clapping her Arms about the middle of the diseas'd held her very hard in her Lap during the Fit Moreover servants were at hand and relations standing about her who sometimes held her Hands and Arms sometimes prest down her Belly and Hypocondres which rise to a mighty Bulk still forcing upwards The chief Symptoms of the disease which being rais'd by turns divided in a manner the whole Fit were these two viz. Sometimes violent Convulsions of the Viscera infested her so that the Abdomen rising to a mighty Bulk withstood the hands of standers by prest against it that it could not be kept down and withal the Praecordia being drawn upward the Motion of the Heart and Blood was in a manner stop't For which space of time the Virgin hanging down her head with a weaken'd and no Pulse as it were lay Speechless and almost insensible After two or three minutes of an hour these Fits ceast And then the Sick raising her self look't round her chearfully and for some time converted the Impetus of the disease into Discourses and Songs both which she uttered most Pleasantly and Elegantly above her Natural disposition she past such Sayings and Scoffs on all persons about her that there is nothing in any Comedy to be met with more facetious then she would Sing most Sweet and Pleasant Tunes of Harmony such as neither any person else could Sing or herself at another time After the she had thus past about six or seven Minutes of an hour in Jesting and Singing she fell again into the Convulsions of the Viscera and Hypochondres and the loss of Speech as before And these remitting in a short time and the Impetus of the Spirits flying back from the inferiour Nerves to the Brain she gave her self again to the pleasantryes of Talking and Singing When at any time she discourst with the standers by if any thing that was Sharp or Ignominious were replyed by them she fell into more Violent and Lasting Convulsions of the Bowels After this manner she uses to be troubled with an alternate affect of the Viscera and Brain for about the space of an hour Then the Fit drawing toward an end the Convulsions of the Bowels becoming more gentle return'd three or four times with very little intermission Afterward these wholly ceasing the Impetus of the disease passes into the outward Members whence presently it wholly vanishes For the Arms and Legs undergo contractions and twitchings for a minute of an hour and presently after the diseased rising up comes off from her Bed and is free from all Convulsion till a new Fit returns nay and having an indifferent good strength walks up and down the house and during the interval of the affect cheerfully performs the usual Offices of Life still excepting that her Stomach being weak loaths food during the day time in the evening after the second Fit of the disease she eats a little supper About the beginning of this sickness of the Convulsions of the Bowels were much more violent and she lay Senseless with them and during their intervals she would talk absurdly Sing Songs out of tune and fall out a Laughing or Crying without any ground of reason But at length the Animal Spirits being forc't into lasting explosions perform'd them so regularly sometimes this way sometimes that as it was most proper that they seem'd to be done in some sort by the moderation and command of the will After I had been again to see this Lady having lain under these periodical Fits for many weeks I ordered that three hours before the second Fit ten Ounces of Blood should be drawn from the Vein of her foot whereupon the Fit expected in the Evening wholly left her nor did it ever return afterward But the other Fit obsrving its ancient course return'd daily till upon Bleeding a little before its coming the Patient was free of it that day which nevertheless returning the next day after followed her for many months according to the same form In the mean while because the winter cold was very fevere she delai'd for some time the use of Remedies But as the Spring came on the noble Lady being brought to Oxford was cur'd by the following Method In the first place I gave her this Purge and took care for it to be repeated every sixth or seventh day Take Sulphur of Antimony six Grains Mercurius Dulcis a Scruple Rosin of Jalap four Grains Ginger six Grains Let them be bruis'd together on a Marble then adding Conserve of Violets a Dram make a Bolus It was wont to make her Womit twice or thrice and to give her three or four Stools Her Menses constantly flowed from her at set time in a plentiful manner Wherefore her Blood seeming to be in great plenty and hot in the middle time betwixt the monthly periods I ordered Bleeding twice or thrice Moreover on all those days that she did not Purge she took four Pills of the following Mass Drinking after it a little Draught of the Julap beneath prescribed Take Roots of Male Peony half an Ounce of Virginia Serpentary Contrayerva and Bastard Dittany of each two Drams Mans Scult prepar'd a Dram and a half Elks Hoof a Dram red Coral prepar'd Pearl Powdred of each a Dram Salt of Wormwood two Drams Salt of Coral a Dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrupe of Male Peony flowers make a Mass Take the Waters of Male Peony Flowers Black Cherries and Wallnuts of each four Ounces the Antiepileptical Water of Langius two Ounces Syrup of Peony Flowers an Ounce and a half Castoreum tyed in a knot and hung in hte Glass a Dram mix them make a Julap When she began to loath the Pills omitting them she took twice a day viz. early in the morning and late at night about a Scruple of the following Powder in a spoonful of the Julap Drinking after it four or five spoonfuls of the same Take Bezoar Stone of both kinds White Amber Pearl prepar'd Red Coral of each a Scruple Mans Scull two Scruples Roots of Virginia Serpentary Seeds of Rue of each half a Dram mix them make a Powder let her take a Scruple Morning and Evening with a Dose of the Julap above prescribed Afterward when this also began to nauseate her she us'd Pills or
Nerves to with those that particularly regard the Viscera and Precordia and their appendixes and chiefly troubles the Spirits lying in them Sometimes also though rarely the Spirits that presides in the Exteriour Nerves and likewise those in the Brain and Cerebellum are involv'd in the same affect As to the Morbifick Matter or Explosive Combination which accruing to the Spirits within the Brain and deriv'd with them into the Processes of the Nerves often is the cause of the affects which are vulgarly call'd Uterine or of the Mother We say this to be Heterogeneous Particles sent from the Blood as in other kinds of Convulsions and which are wont to be made to cleave to the Spirits that pass into the Origines of the Nerves on two chief occasions viz. either through the fault of the Spirits themselves or through the great force of the Matter instances of both kinds every where occur Through the fault of the Spirits themselves as when through a sudden Passion suppose of Fear Anger Sadness they are very much Troubled and forc't into Irregularities through the Exorbitant force of the Matter as in the evil Crises of Fevers also in any Malignant and Scorbutical and other Chronical affects of an ill Determination these causes are much upheld and promoted by an ill or weak Constitution of the Brain and Genus Nervosum whether it be hereditary or acquir'd by an ill dyet hence Women are more obnoxious to Convulsive affects than Men and those one more then another Tho' these they call Hysterical affects very often arise from the Brain yet sometimes they are rais'd by a cause beginning either in the Womb or in other of the Viscera and this either by reason of a solution of continuity through a Tumor or Ulcer or Stimulation of the part or by reason of the obstruction of the Nervous Juice in its Circulation thus when some accustomed evacuation whereby the superfluities of the Nervous Liquour were wont to be discharged is stop'd as upon the sudden stopping of Issues or drying up of old Ulcers without Purging many have fallen into Convulsive affects which sometimes also happen to Virgins and widows through a retention of the Semianl homour which ought to be Voided its proper way And sometimes the Nervous Juice regurgitates toward its Origine because its passage is somewhere stop't by a Cancrous or Scirrhous Tumour To illustrate our doctrine of the vulgarly call'd Passions of the Womb I shall now give an instance of a person troubled with them A Renowned Lady extreamly beautiful and endowed with an excellent temper of mind and manners lately lived in these parts who for many years was obnoxius to Convulsive affects she having contracted this valetudinary disposition fro her Birth or Hereditarily and having found in herself these fruits of the morbid root almost every fourth year of her Age but especially as often as she conceived with Child as she often had and undergone frequent Abortions she was wont to be extraordinarily troubled with Convulsive passions in a manner Hysterical For presently upon the stopping of the Menses the Heterogeneous Particles being convey'd to the Brain and Genus Nevosum brought violent Fits of the distemper After that she had last conceived in the first Months according to her ancient wont she was often troubled with Convulsive affects about the uinth week of her being with Child upon taking Cold she fell into a dangerous Fever in which very acute Pains sorely infesting her in the Loins and about the lower part of the Belly seem'd to threaten an Abortion But those Pains as it appear'd at last being rather to be judg'd of the Colick proceeded from a Sharp humor falling from the Brain into those parts by the Ductus's of the Nerves for about the declining of the Fever that matter being convey'd elsewhere a Diarrhaea Pains of the Feet and a Blistering as it were ensued As soon as this Lady grew well of her Fever and Pains the Convulsive affects returned for every morning as she awaked from her sleep she was wont to undergo violent Contractions and Convulsions about the parts of the Mouth and Face and also in the Arms and Legs which Syptoms doubtless arose from the Serous filth heap'd together in the Head about the Origines of the Nerves and deeply Imbib'd by them during the sleep together with the Juice that passes in them and when afterward the same matter was caryed again by the conveyance of the Interiour Nerves into the Plexus's of the Mesentery and the Loins most violent Pains of those parts and likewise Fits as it were Hysterical sorely infested her For those Convulsive Motions of the Face and Members ceast in a short time yet she continued still Weak and Infirm with a Pale Countenance Trembling as she went and having a mind to no Food but such as was improper and to hot Liquors about the end of the third Month at which time she used constantly to Abort her Menses broke forth which passing from her for two or three days together with pieces of broken Membranes she expected the Abortion But the Flu ceasing Pains like those of a person in Labour arose in the Abdomen and Loins as before and miserably tormented her day and night for a week At length having us'd a Bath of Emollient Herbs and then being put to bed to sweat she was delivered of the burthen of her Womb the Conception thus passing from her with a mighty torture was as a Pea-hens Egg in bigness and figure the outward coat of this was ragged and broken the inward coat remaining whole contained about half a pound of clear Water and nothing else And no rudiments of a Faetus that was form'd or about ot be form'd did appear Afterward for four or five days the Lochia flowed from her with some pieces of Membranes Mean while Pains troubled her with their wonted violence And in regard that after a week was past they did not cease of their own accord at length remedies were desir'd for appeasing them For this end in the first place Liniments Fomentations Baths and Glysters were freuently administred And Medicines cleansing the filth of the Womb on which the cause of the whole distemper was charg'd were inwardly taken Upon the use of the former short intermissions of the Pains followed But now and then the affect returned and was mighty tedious Nay and within three weeks the disease growing much worse brought many other horrible Symptoms along with it For besides the Pains in the Abdomen and Loins which grew daily more violent she was now troubled likewise with a great torture in her Back Neck Shoulder Blades also in the Arms and Leggs and that more severely as often as she grew warm in her Bed Moreover she was afflicted with a frequent Giddiness a Vomiting and Nauseousness and often in a day with vehement Convulsive Fits viz. First a great heavy thing seeming to Ascend in the lower parts of the Belly presently raised up the
Belly with violence By and by respiration being stopt she became senceless with a Cadaverous aspect After that she had lain thus dead as it were for three or four minutes of an hour she was wont to start up on a sudden that she could scarce be kept down or held by persons present Then followed violent contractions and distortions in all the parts of the Mouth and Face and in all the Members of the Body These Symptoms were judg'd really Hysterical because the noble Lady had so lately Aborted But considering all these things I was at length of this opinion That the cause of both Fits viz. the Paining and Convulsive depended wholly on the evil affects of the Brain and Genus Nervosum without any fault in the Womb to wit that the sharp humour heapt together within the Brain descended thence by the passages of the Nerves into parts very remote and lying in the Membranes and Fibres and fermenting with the humour coming to it from the Mass of Blood irritated them very much and caus'd violent pains then afterwards when the heterogeneous and explosive Particles admitted into the Brain with that Humour and entring the Ductus's of the Nerves joyn'd with the Spirits thereupon the Convulsive disposition now and then breaking forth into violent Fits was caus'd as it will by and by appear more at large Directing my curative intents according to this Aetiology I ordered the sick Lady at the time she was extreamly ill that Blood should be drawn from the Saphaena Vein That a gentle Purge should be given her within two days and that it should be repeated once or twice a Week Also on other days I gave her Morning and Evening Spirit of Harts-horn and at other hours twice or thrice in a day Powder of Pearl and Crabs-eyes with a Dose of the following Julape Take Water of Snails Magisterial Water of Earth-Worms of each three Ounces Water of Saxifrage and of Black-Cherries of each four Ounces Hysterick Water an Ounce Syrup of Coral an Ounce and a half Tincture of Castoreum a Dram mix them She us'd frequently a Bath of fresh Herbs when necessity required it she took Opiats always with good success Vesicatories were applied to the inward part of each Thigh and to her Neck Moreover Fomentations Liniments Glysters Cupping-glasses Sneezing-powders and many other ways of Administration were prescrib'd according to the exigency of Symptoms After this method of Curing used about fourteen days the noble Lady being very much relieved was wholly without the Convulsive Fits nay and the pains of the Bowels and Members and other Symptoms being very much mitigated gave us a very fair hope of a speedy Recovery but after this partly by reason of an ill Dyet to which the Diseased upon never so little an amendment always indulg'd herself but especially by reason of a sudden passion of terriour or sadness which a severe accident happening within her own House had rais'd falling into a Relapse the Disease was presently brought to a much worse condition for both the Convulsions and Pains troubled her in a more violent manner nay and the Stomach being stirr'd up in a manner with a continual Vomiting neither admitted Food nor Medicines she took Asses Milk for some days with some Benefit yet in regard it turn'd to Choler in her Stomack and gave her some offence it was soon left off At length in despite of all Remedies prescrib'd with all diligence by the advice of many Physitians the noble Patient languish't daily more and more and by degrees drew near to Death Two days before her Decease the pains of her Belly and Loyns remitted very much and becoming more chearful than her wont she had some hope of her Recovery but in the mean while she complain'd of a pain and a mighty oppression of her Head and falling into a profound Sleep about the beginning of the Night upon her awaking she fell into a very horrible Convulsive Fit which presently past into a mortal Apoplexy for becoming insensible and speechless she departed this Life within twelve hours The Body of this person being open'd after her Decease the Womb was found wholly without fault tho' many of the Viscera were preternaturally dispos'd in the Mesentery about the midst of it where it is fixt to the Back and contains great Plexus's of the Nerves a lax substance and blown up as it were with many Bladders was seen it equalling a hands breadth in extent opening this place I found no Humour in it but only that the Membranes were separated from each other and that nothing was included in the spaces betwixt them but a Wind which Separations doubtless were caused by the Convulsions and Explosions of the Spirits sent from the Head into those Plexus's and as to those pains in the Belly and the ascent of the great heavy thing as it were and the Inflation of the Abdomen in the Convulsive Affects it is not to be doubted but the Seat of the morbifick Cause lay hid in that part of the Mesentery As to the method of Curing to be us'd in the Passions vulgarly call'd Hysterical since the greatest part of the Symptoms of this Disease are Convulsive it is thence plain that anticonvulsive Remedies such as above written are chiefly indicated Nevertheless since these Affects very often happen to the Female Sex in which the Menses and other accidents of the Womb are most commonly taken in as a part of the Morbifick Cause therefore Medicines having regard to various dispositions of the Womb ought to be added to the former and be sundry ways complicated with them The Therapeutick Indications are either Curatory to be us'd in the Fit or Preservatory which being prosecuted out of the Fit remove the cause of the Disease and prevent its Accesses As to the former if the Fit be but small let it pass off of its own accord without any farther perturbation of the Spirits but if it so forely presses that it is needful to give aid to Nature as being greatly opprest let this one thing be endeavoured That the Spirits being made free from the Embraces of their Heterogeneous Combination remit of their Disorders and Explosions For this end it is very usual in the first place to apply to the Nostrils stinking and strong-smelling things the effluvia's of which repress and reduce to order the Spirits which are grown too wild and apt to make exorbitant efforts nay and discuss their Heterogeneous Combination and often wholly exterminate it Assa Foetida Castoreum Galbanum tyed in a fine Linnen Cloth and held to the Nostrils are proper also the Feathers of Partridges or old Shoes burnt or Sulphur kindled moreover the Spirit and Oyl of Soot or of Harts-horn often give help tho' I have known that these kinds of Suffurnigations have prov'd very offensive to some Women and have encreas'd the Fit it 's probable that sometimes they irritate the Spirits too much and force them into greater disorders As stinking things held to
of the Oak of each a handful Seeds of both the Wild Carrots of each three Drams Raisins a handful let them Boyl in four Pounds of Fountain Water till half be Consum'd add of Whitewine two Pound and a half Strain it Let it be kept in Vessels close stopt The Dose is three or four Ounces twice a day Take Seeds of Wild Carrots bruis'd two Ounces Castoreum an Ounce put them in a Glass with two Pounds of White-wine The Dose is two Ounces twice a day 3. As to the third intent which putting a stop to the disorders of the Womb advances the Cure of the Hysterick affect I say in the first place that what was formerly believ'd concerning the Cause of the Disease and the Scope of Curing it viz. That the Womb did Ascend and therefore that it ought to be restor'd to its due place is altogether Fictitious as we have shewn elsewhere The descent or falling forth of the Womb often happens but this seldom or never produces Hysterical affects Moreover a Dislocation of the Womb sometimes happens to Child-bearing Women presently after Child-birth viz. When the body of the Womb being enlarged and newly emptied does not settle in a right place within its Cavity but leans high sometimes to the right side of it sometimes to the left and there being Constring'd like a Purse is folded up in a great Lump which Lump lying a long time in the side of the Inguen is wont to Cause suspicion of another Foetus or of the after Birth being left behind or also of a Scirrhous Tumour there Growing but afterward when upon the Lochia's passing away freely the Womb is reduc't to its due magnitude that Tumour vanishes by degrees And whilst it continues there unless haply the Lochia are thereby stop't it does not cause Hysterick Passions For the quick reducing of this part to its due position Fomentations Liniments and Plaisters contribute much But very often that Symptom passes away of its own accord without any further offence We have shewn elsewhere ex professo to what affects else the Womb is obnoxious after Child-birth and with what methods of Physick we must obviate them As to the other Distempers of this part which happen to other Women viz. to such as do not Bear Children we observe those chiefly to be either a Disease of the Womb caus'd by a Solution of continuity which is either a Tumour or an Ulcer or to be a Stoppage of some usual Excretion viz. either of the Sanguis Menstruus or of the Fluor albus or of the Seminal Humour by reason of the Menses retain'd the Heterogeneous particles being often discharged on the Head Cause Convulsive Passions In like manner when the White Humour is stop't the Excrementitious Matter being drank in again by the Blood is delivered to the Brain and Genus Nervosum Moreover when a wonted evacuation of the Seed is stop't the superfluities of the Nervous Humour Regurgitate into the Brain and infect the Spirits in it with a Morbifick and Explosive Tincture It will not be necessary for us to discourse particularly and at large on these particular affects of the Womb but to Complicate Medicines and Physical Administrations appropriated to Womens Diseases with Anticonvulsive Remedies CHAP. IX Of Affects vulgarly call'd Hypochondriacal which are shewn to be for the greatest part Convulsive and by the by of Chalybeate Medicines AS we have shewn before that the Passions vulgarly call'd Hysterical do not always proceed from the Womb but oftner from the Head 's being affected So though it has been vulgarly held that the affects call'd Hypochondriacal are caus'd for the most part by Vapours arising from the Spleen and running hither and thither yet in truth those distempers are for the greatest part Convulsions and Contractions of the Nervous parts which may better appear after we have considered the Symptoms As to the affects therefore which are vulgarly call'd Hypochondriacal it is to be observed that they chiefly happen to persons of a Melancholick Constitution with a wan aspect and a thin habit of body It is seldom that Disease troubles persons who are well in flesh and have a florid or also an over Phlegmatick countenance About the time that persons come to a set age it discovers itself with manifest signs Men are found to be more frequently obnoxious to this than Women in both being become habitual it is cur'd with great difficulty or searce at all in Women by reason of their weaker Constitution it is attended with far more Convulsive affects Wherefore it is commonly said in this Sex that the Hysterick affect is joyn'd to the Hypochondriacal The Symptoms which are accounted as belonging to this Disease are commonly very many and of a differing Nature nor have they in all a like Origine or the same mutual dependance on each other For we see that in these the Viscera of the Belly in those the Praecordia in others the Confines of the Brain are most affected in a great many but not in all the Stomach much Labours as to appetite it has often too much of it but is presently opprest by what is taken into it and when the food through slowness of Concoction tarries a long time in it the Saline particles of it being rais'd to a state of flowing pervert the whole mass of the Chyle into a Pap sometimes Acid or Austere sometimes Salt or Tart Hence a Cardialgia a mighty store of Flatus's a Rumbling and a frequent Vomiting ensue and because through a defect of a Pneumatosis the Chyme is not volatilis'd throughout and carryed forth but a Mass of Viscous Matter sticking to the Coats of the Stomach is left behind an almost continual Spitting molests them a distention in the left Hypochondre and often there and under the Ventricle a violent beating is felt and there pains every where arise which shoot here and there at random and miserably torture the person with a certain pungent Pain for many hours Mean while from the Contractions of the Membranes and the Fluctuation of the Flatus's thence rais'd Croakings and Rumblings are produc't So in the Thorax there is often a great Straitness and Constriction so that the Breathing becomes difficult and painful upon any motion nay farther in some very terrible Astmatick Fits supervene Moreover the diseas'd are wont to complain of a Trembling and palpitation of the heart with a mighty oppression of the same also frequent Failings of the Spirits and danger of Swooning come upon them that the diseased always think Death at hand In this Region about the Membranes and especially the Mediastinum an acute Pain which one while is determin'd in one part another while is extended to the Shoulder is a familiar Symptom of this Disease But in the Head an Iliad of Evils for the most part troubles Hypochondriacal persons to wit most violent Pains Periodically returning arise also Scotomia's frequent Giddiness Obstinate Watchings a Fervency and a most troublesome Fluctuation of thoughts
inconstancy of mind a disturb'd fancy a dread and suspicion of every thing an Imaginary being Affected with Diseases of which they are free and many other distractions of the Spirits nay sometimes Melancholy and a Mania accompany this Sickness Besides these interiour Regions of the Body being beset with this Disease wandring Pains also Cramps and Numbnesses with a sense of Formication seise likewise almost all the outward parts Night Sweats Flushings of Blood in the Face and Palms of the Hands Fevers of uncertain returns and many other Symptoms of an incertain Origine on all hands arise of which in regard it has not been easy to assign the Genuine causes and ways of their coming to pass Physicians have charg'd though unjustly all the blame on the Spleen In the mean while it is to be observ'd that the chief Symptoms of this distemper are convulsive and depend immediatly upon the Irregularities of the Animal Spirits and Nervous Juice rather than on the Dyscrasies of the Viscera that serve for Concoction As a great many have ascribed this valetudinary disposition to the only fault of the Spleen So others making all the confines of this Entral a party in the fault will have the Blood lying in any part soever of the Vessels of the Spleen and Epigastrick Region to give the Origine to this evil But the renowned Highmore has charg'd the chief cause of this Disease wholly on the faulty Constitution of the Stomach Concerning this opinion though I so far agree with this famous Author that I may grant the Ventricle to be often greatly distemper'd in this affect Yet I cannot be brought to think that all the Symptoms of the Hypochondriacal Disease depend only on the Ill constitution of the Ventricle for I have known many sorely afflicted with that Distemper whose Stomachs were well enough and I have known others who through an ill dyet have brought their Stomachs to be greatly Distempered yet as to the Precordia and Animal Faculties being sound enough they were not at all accounted Hypochondriacal As to what the Spleen contributes to this Disease Dr. Willis first curiously observing the use of this part to wit that from the Blood brought to it from the Arteries a certain Dreggy Portion viz. consisting of an Earthly matter and a Fixt Salt is depos'd in this Entral which being there exalted as it were by Digestion and rais'd to the nature of a Ferment is again committed to the Blood as it passes back by the Veins which inspires it with a certain Fermentation and performs the same thing as to its Pneumatosis as our common Leaven does when mixt in a Mass of Meal so that as the Leaven inables the sluggish parts in the Bread for Motion so the Ferment of this Entral raises the sluggish Particles of the Blood to a state of activity And secondly considering the intimate communication betwixt the Brain and the Slpeen by the means of the Nerves of which there are a world of Plexus's and Fibres arising from them in this part he says that the ways of affecting with which the Spleen being evil dispos'd produces or at leastwise contributes to the rise of the Symptoms of the Hypochondriacal Distemper are chiefly these following Viz. First it sometimes happens that the spongy substance of the Spleen is very much stuff't and obstructed by the Faeces of the Blood sticking too much in its Pores and there Stagnating so that afterward it does not admit into it the Dreggs of the Mass of Blood as much as it ought but the same being brought thither but not receiv'd Regurgitate into the neighbouring Branches of the Caeliack Artery whence presently they are convey'd into the Membranes of the Ventricle the Caul and Mesentery and other neighbouring parts and are wont to stick in them hence the Tone of those Viscera is so much perverted that they cannot rightly execue their due Functions in order to the Concoction of the Chyle and the Circumjacent Membranes being very much fill'd with Heterogeneous and Irritative Particles become mightily obnoxious to Convulsions arising here and there to running Pains Contractions Distentions and a multitude of Flatus's 2. Though the Slpeen should receive freely enough the Melancholy Juice brought by it from the Blood to the Arteries yet often it does not duly Concoct the same but the salt being very much exalted perverts it into a humour too Sharp or Austere or faulty some other way wherewith when the whole Mass of Blood and the stock of Nutritive Juice contained in it are infected the fruits of a Hypochondriacal seed display themselves throughout the whole body the Blood boiling more then it ought is driven violently into certain parts and at the same time in others it is apt to stagnate Hence some presently upon eating have Flushings in the Face the palms of their hands burn c. In some again running pains with a Pricking happen in many parts of the Body 3. From the Blood thus deprav'd through the fault of the Spleen a prejudice also is often brought on the Animal function the Heterogeneous and Convulsive particles being often discharged on the Brain and Genus Nervosum hence persons are troubled with fancies and thoughts with Giddiness Scotomia's Head-aches and often Paralitick affects Then as the Morbifick matter passes from the Brain into the Genus Nervosum Convulsive affects are raised in many parts of the Body but chiefly about the Precordia and Viscera of the Belly the Spirits that are in the Nerves which regard those parts being greatly troubled by the passions of the mind 4. It is also very probable that the Nervous Fibres whereof there are a world disperst through the Spleen sometimes receive into them its most Sharp Juice which creeping up the Passages of the Nerves often is the cause of Convulsive Motions And there being an intimate commerce betwixt the Spleen and the Brain we judge that besides the long way of the Blood they have a nearer way of communication by the Nerves of the Par Vagum and Intercostale by which they mutually affect each other so that sometimes the Melancholy being disturb'd in the Spleen conveys thence the passion to the Brain whence disorderly and Hypochondriacal fancies happen And on the contrary when a violent Passion of the mind occasionally rais'd within the Brain troubles the Spirits residing in it the impression given the fancy is convey'd to the spleen by the course and successive affect of the Spirits lying within the Nerves of the Per Vagum and Intercostale whence many disturbances are caused in that Entral and in the parts adjacent I shall now give an instance of a person troubled with the Hypochondriacal affect An honourable person of a Melancholick temperament and always accounted to be troubled with the Spleen complained very much of a Pain and Inflation of the left Hypochondre with a frequent Rumbling and a Sour Belching also a Trembling of the Heart a continual Giddiness a want of Sleep and a Troubled Fancy
beget Catarrhs the Dropsie the Jaundise Melancholy and many other Affects Now if that extraneous thing be seasonably removed the Blood even as the Wine being free from that Extraneous Mixture soon recovers its former Constitution But each of those Liquors being for some time infected with Heterogeneous Contents at length degenerates from its due Crasis and consequently is not easily restor'd Again both Wine and the Blood fall from their due Temper for many other causes 1. Concerning Wines we may observe that sometimes the same do not come to a ripeness but for want of a Pneumatosis because the Spirits and other active principles of Salt and Sulphur being involv'd in such as are more Gross cannot clear themselves remain wholly Crude Wherefore they do not become Spirituous but being of a Gross consistency and of an ingrateful savour degenerate into a Flat Wine without strength Even so the Blood sometimes the Spirit and Sulphur being deprest remains Crude and Watry also without vigour and unapt for a sprightly accension in the Heart such a disposition causes the longing Disease and an Hydropical Diathesis 2. The Sulphureous part of the Wine being exalted above the rest causes an Immoderate Effervescency or an ebullition in the Liquor we call it a Fretting of Wines In like manner the Sulphureous part of the Blood being too much exalted and consequently apt to Boyl and be kindled in the Heart too much brings a Feverish distemper and is really the cause of many continual Fevers 3. Often in Wine the Spirit becoming faint and the Sulphur being bound the Saline part is rais'd to a State of flowing and praedominates over the rest wherefore the Liquor passes into Vinegar from such an Acetous disposition of the Blood Melancholy is caus'd 4 It 's a vulgar observation in Wines that besides that they degenerate into a Flat Wine or into Vinegar the same sometimes upon the Spirits being deprest and the Salt and Sulphur's being together exalted become either Rank or Pendulous or Mucilaginous we call it Wines become over Fretted or become Ropy In both changes the Spirit being brought under the Sulphureous and Saline Particles are joyn'd together and are above the other Elements and bring the Crasis of the Liquor to their nature But the thing is not done in both wholly after the same manner for in the former dyscrasie of the Wine the Sulphur is a little above the Salt and in the latter the Salt is above the Sulphur Nay and either of them being in power and having thrown off the Dominion of the Spirit takes the other to it and raises it above its due state Now it 's probable that the Blood is altered after the like manner in the Scorbutick affect as Wines when upon being overheated become over Fretted or become Ropy and we may conclude the Dyscrasy of the Blood which is the Parent of the Scurvy to be two fold as that of Wine viz. Sulphureo-Saline and Salino-Sulphureous For there being a very great variety of affects which are accounted of as belonging to the Scurvy all of them may be aptly enough reduc't to these two as it were chief heads or as the two fountains of the evil viz. First that the Blood being touch't with a Scorbutick taint either is very hot as in which the Sulphur having gotten the Dominion takes the Salt to it wherefore being become rank it Boyls disorderly in the Vessels and discharges continually from it self adust Recrements viz. the concretions of the Salt and Sulphur and disperses them every way which being outwardly spread produce Spots Wheals Pushes or Ulcers But being inwardly depos'd cause Vomitings Cardialgias Diarrhaeas or Dysenteries and also violent pains In this kind of Scorbutick rankness of the Blood only temperate remedies and frequent Bleedings agree and not Scurvygrass horse Raddish and other things of a smart and instigating Nature After the same manner as overfretted Wines are Cur'd by Racking them from the Lees and likewise by pouring Milk Amylum Ichthiocolla and other Lenifying things to them Or Secondly in the Blood which Foments the Scurvy the Salt having got the Dominion takes to it self the Sulphur wherefore it is not so hot but like Ropy Wine becomes thick and Mucilaginous as it were is Circulated slowly in the Vessels and is apt to stuff the Vessels as it passes through them Furring them with a Muddy Filth Such as are so affected for the most part being without Pushes or Cutaneous Eruptions become Dull Pursy and enervated are troubled with a Spontaneous Lassitude a Straitness of the Breast nay and are found obnoxious to Passions of the heart Faintings of the Spirits to a Giddiness and Convulsions And in this kind of Scorbutick disposition Hot remedies and such as are endued with a Volatile Salt nay and Galybeates which Fuse and exagitate the Blood are wont to be most of use after the like manner as Ropy Wines are dealt with to wit they ought to be very much stirr'd and agitated and also quicklime burnt Allom Lime Plaister Sea Salt Calcin'd and other things of a very smart nature are put into them I shall now shew after what manner the seeds of that Disease are laid in the other general humour viz. the Nervous Juice About the beginnings of a Scurvy till the Crasis of the Blood and the Tone of the Brain are wholly vitiated that Subtle Liquor which passes in the Brain and Nerves and is distill'd from the Blood coming to the Brain both as the Matter and Vehicle of the Animal Spirits is yet Spirituous and Sweet and not very unapt for any offices it ought to perform but afterwards from the Mass of Blood become depauperated and very much Effaete a much thinner Latex and inclining to a Sourness is distill'd Moreover from the Dreggy and as it were Rank or Muddy Blood Heterogeneous Particles and such as are very injurious to the Animal Oeconomy are sent and are admitted without difficulty into the Brain which is become weak and thence are diffus'd into its appendix both Medullary and Nervous with the Juice which passes in them Hence follow the Fallings and Eclipses sometimes Distractions and Painful and Convulsive Explosions of the Animal Spirits that happen in each of the Regions Wherefore the Palsey Convulsions a Giddiness Pains Tremblings and other Praeternatural affects of the Brain and Genus Nervosum are wont to ensue upon a Scurvy when deeply rooted Mean while we may observe in general that the Scorbutick Taint fixt in the Nervous Juice Consists in these three things viz. In some one of them or in all of them together viz. that the Liquor lying in the Brain and Nerves becomes much more thin or poorer that it degenerates from its Spirituo-Saline Crasis towards a Sourness that it is stuff't with Heterogeneous and Morbifick Particles As to the Prognostick of the Scurvy let your judgment in this case be wary long suspended and not rash for many as it has occurr'd to our observation accounted for desperate have recovered
when green Herbs are scarce we may prescribe after this manner Take Leaves of Scurvy-grass four handfuls tops of Broom of the Pine-tree and of Juniper of each three handfuls the Middle-bark of Elder and Ash of each four Ounces Roots of Horse-raddish and of Polipody of the Oak of each three Ounces the Rinds of four Oranges and of as many Limons Winters-bark four Ounces being slic't and bruis'd pour to them of White-wine or of Cider or of Whey made with either of them eight Pounds let them be distil'd The simple Water of the Leaves of Aron distil'd in the Spring time is an efficacious Remedy against the Scurvy if three or four Ounces are given twice a day with another Medicine The simple Water of Scurvy-grass pour'd again on fresh Leaves bruis'd and distil'd and so iterated by frequent Cohobations becomes an efficacious Remedy Moreover a hot Spirit of Scurvy-grass is prepar'd after this manner Take Leaves of Scurvy-grass what suffices being bruis'd let it be made into Balls such as are made of Woad for Dying Then let those Balls be kept in a Glaz'd Pot for three or four days very close stopt in a cold place either Water of Scurvy-grass or Wine of the same being pour'd to them and covering them over above four fingers deep Then an Alembick being put on let the whole matter be distill'd Let the distill'd Water being put into a Cucurbit be rectified the hot Spirit will come off first whereof let fifteen or twenty drops be taken in a fit Vehicle 6. Antiscorbutick Wines and Beers I Use to prepare a simple Antiscorbutick Wine of excellent use after this manner In the Spring or Summer-season Take Leaves of Scurvy-Grass gathered in clear and dry Weather what you think good being bruised let the Juice be prest forth and let a Vessel containing three or four Gallons be fill'd a spoonful or two of Yest being put to it let it ferment for two Days then the Vessel being close stopt let it be plac't in a Wine-Cellar for six Months and then let the clear Liquor which will be of an Amber colour like Spanish Wine be drawn out into Bottles and be kept for use it continues good many years The Dose is three or four Ounces twice a Day Physick Wines whereof a Glass or two may be daily taken at Physical Hours or also at Dinner may be prepar'd after this manner Take Leaves of Scurvy-Grass four handfuls Raspings of Horse-radish four Ounces Winters-bark bruised half an Ounce the outward Coats of four Oranges and of so many Limons Let them be put in a Glass with twelve Pounds of White Wine or Rhenish or small Spanish Wine The Vessel being stopt let it be kept in a cold place Let the Wine be pour'd off clear as often as you use it It 's more usual to prescribe a Physick Ale or Beer to Scorbutical persons to be drank constantly for their ordinary Drink Let Beer be prepar'd to fill a Vessel of four Gallons instead of Hops let three Handfuls of Pine or Fir-tops be boiled in it After it has wrought in the Vessel put into it Leaves of Scurvy Grass three Handfuls Roots of sharp pointed Dock prepared four Ounces the Rinds of four Oranges After it has stood a Week to clear let it be expos'd to Drink These kinds of Physick Drinks with other Ingredients may be variously prepar'd according to the Temperament and Affect of the Patient by which kind of Remedy in regard the Physical Particles altering the Dyscrasy of the Blood are forthwith convey'd into its Mass together with those of the Food often much good is done in removing the Cause of the Scurvy But since we have shewn the cause of this as also the Nature of the Disease to be twofold and since the Medicines hitherto proposed regard in a manner only the Salino-sulphureous Distemper of the Blood we must next direct Medicines which are proper in the other viz. the Sulphureo-saline Dyscrasy of the Blood CHAP. III. Of Medicines of each kind of the foregoing forms which have regard to the Scurvy raised in a hot Constitution and in a Sulphureo-Saline Dyscrasy of the Blood IN certain Scorbutical persons the use of Scurvy-grass Horse-Radish Winters-bark and of other smart things and such as are greatly endow'd with a volatile Salt is found to be very offensive wherefore in those kinds of cases where the Morbifick Cause consists in a hot Dyscrasy of the Blood resembling over-fretted Wine temperate Medicines and such as do not exagitate the Particles of the Humours which are apt to boil too much of them selves are indicated Wherefore we shall set down Forms after the same order and running as it were parallel with those before and in the first place we shall give you solid Medicines Electuaries Take Conserve of Brooklimes and Cuckow-Flower made with an equal part of Sugar of each three Ounces Species Diatrion Santalon Diarrhodon Abbatis of each a Dram and a half Ivory powdered a Dram Pearl half a Dram Salt of Wormwood and of Tamarisk of each a Dram with a sufficient quantity of syrup of Coral make an Electuary Take Conserve of Wood-sorrel and of Hips of each three Ounces or Conserve of the Roots of sharp pointed Dock and of the Roots of Cichory of each three Ounces Troches of Rhubarb two Drams Species Diamargariti Frigidi a Dram and a half Bark of Tamerisk a Dram Sal Prunella a Dram and a half Myrobalanes condited in number two with a sufficient quantity of the syrup of the Confiture of Mirobalanes make an Electuary For poor people I use to prescribe this easy prepar'd Electuary Take Leaves of Brooklimes six Ounces of Wood-sorrel two Ounces double refined Sugar eight Ounces let them be pounded adding Powder of sweet Fennel-seeds half an Ounce Ivory powdered two Drams Sal Prunella a Dram and a half with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of the Juice of Brooklimes make an Electuary Confections TAke Powder of the Roots of China and of the Male Peony of each a Dram white and yellow Saunders of each three Drams Ivory a Dram and a half Pearl half a Dram Crabs-eyes a Dram Coral moistened with Juice of Oranges and ground on a Marble two Drams white Tartar a Dram and a half double refined Sugar dissolved in a sufficient quantity of compound Scordium Water six Ounces Make a Confection Take Roots of Eringo and Scorzonera preserv'd of each three Ounces Powder of Aron-roots compound half an Ounce Species Diatrion Santalon two Drams Sal Prunella a Dram and a half with a sufficient quantity of syrup of Clove-Gilli-flowers Make a Confection Powders TAke Powder of the Leaves of Ground-Pine of Aron-roots Compound of each an Ounce and a half Ivory powdered red Coral prepared with Juice of Oranges of each two Drams Tablets of Oranges two Ounces mix them Make a Powder The Dose is a Spoonful twice a day Pills TAke Species Diatrion Santalon and Diamargariti Frigidi of each two Drams Seeds of Citrons and of Carduus
Flowers of Tamarisk also shavings of Harts-horn or of Ivory which sweeten the Liquour and preserve it from turning four viz. in as much as the Particles of the fluid Salt which abound in the Cider and are apt to make it sharp are taken up in dissolving the foresaid Ingredients Temperate Physick Drinks may be prescrib'd after this manner viz. let a small Ale be prepar'd to fill a Vessel of five or six Gallons into which instead of Hops let tops of the Pine-tree of Firr or Tamarisk or the Raspings of either of their Woods be put them after it has wrought let the Roots of sharp pointed Dock dryed be put into the Vessel than which certainly there is no Remedy more excellent in the Scurvy To these sometimes let the Leaves of Brook-limes Water-cresses Winter-cresses c. be added Also Pomecitrons or Oranges cut in slices Leaves of Harts-tongue put into a little Vessel of midling Ale after it has wrought gives it a grateful savour and odour CHAP. IV. Of the Curatory Indication of the Scurvy whereby we obviate the Disease it self and the Symptoms that are most pressing HItherto we have shewn concerning the Cure of the Scurvy what regards the Preservatory Indication to wit the removal of the Morbifick Cause viz. both the intentions of Curing and the Remedies indicated Which kind of method being seasonably begun and duly prosecuted often does the whole work viz. in as much as the Cause of the Disease or the Root of it being cut off the affects depending of it dye of their own accord Nevertheless we must not go on with this course of Physick always directly but turning aside several ways For sometimes severe Accidents and Symptoms happen which require a peculiar and as it were extraordinary Physical help to which we must Immediately attend and often interrupting the general Cure Concerning these we must observe that as affects which happen upon the Scurvy require Appropriated Remedies according to the Nature of each of them and to the disposition of the Patient yet Antiscorbuticks ought always to be mixt with them I will not be needful to order a Method of Cure against all diseases and affects with which the Scurvy is wont to be attended for so the whole Practice of Pyhsick would be here transcrib'd but we shall have regard only to the Symptoms that are chiefly pressing by which either the life of the Patient is endanger'd or the principal Cure Obstructed after what manner and by what Medicines such are Cur'd I shall now shew Of Curing a difficult Breathing and Asthmatick Fits A Difficult Breathing with a straitness of the Brest and Asthmatick Fits ought presently to be removed by appropriated Remedies to be prescrib'd besides the general Method for other wise the diseased is soon brought in danger of life Since these sorts of evils arise in Scorbutical persons for the most part either through the fault of the Blood stagnating in the Heart or by reason of the Nerves of the Lungs being hindred in their Function therefore they are Gur'd either by Cordial or Anticonvulsive Medicines Spirit of Harts-horn of Soot of Blood of Mans Scull also the Tincture of Castoreum of Antimony or of Sulphur Flowers of Sal Armoniack Flowers of Benzoin also Elixir Proprietatis are often of excellent use in these Cases which kind of Medicines may be frequently given with a Dose of some Antiscorbutick Liquors appropriated also against the foresaid afects For the appeasing of a sudden difficulty of Breathing which is meerly Convulsive if at any time it very sorely presses I have found no more present remedy then our Tincture of Laudanum with Opium given to ten or twelve drops in a convenient Liquour For Sleep Stealing on the Spirits remit of their disorders and in the mean while being refresh't they resume afterwards their accustom'd offices after a due manner Take Roots of the great Bur Dock of Butter-Burr and Chervil of each an Ounce Leaves of Maiden-hair and Germander of each a handful Seeds of the Great Bur Dock of Bastard Saffron of each three Drams Raisins two Ounces being slic't and bruis'd let them Boyl in three pounds of Fountain water till the third part be Consum'd add of White-wine four Ounces strain it into a Flagon into which put leaves of Scurvy-grass slic't a handful Roots of Elecampane preserv'd and small slic't half an Ounce make a close and warm Infusion for three hours the Dose is six Ounces twice or thrice a day Of Affects of the Stomach which are wont to happen in the Scurvy SCorbutical persons are wont sometimes to be troubled with a great Oppletion and Pain of the Stomach also with a Nauseousness and Belching and sometimes also with a frequent and violent Vomiting which kind of distempers sometimes arise from the Chyle there degenerated into a Mass of Corruption but oftner from the Morbifick Matter brought thither either by the conveyance of the Blood or also of the nervous Juice and either depos'd within the Cavity of the Stomach or fixt in the Plexus's of the Nerves and in the Membranes In these kinds of Cases if a Viscous Stinking or otherwise Offensive Matter be cast up by Vomit and there be a suspicion that the cause lyes within the Cavity of the Stomach its proper to give a gentle Vomit of Wine of Squills or of Salt of Vitriol Or let the offending Humours be Purg'd off by Stool either by Extract of Rhubarb or by its infusion with the addition of Salt or Cream of Tartar But if the Matter sticks deeply within the Membranes or the Plexus's of the Nerves Diaphoreticks or things that moderate the effervescencies of the Salts do better Let Elixir Proprietatis or Flowers of Sal Armoniack or Spirit of Soot be frequently taken with Raddish Water Compound water of Earthworms or some other Antiscorbutick Liquour Mean while once or twice a day let Fomentations of Wormwood Centory Flowers of Cammomil Roots of Gentian and other things Boyl'd in White-wine be applyed to the Region of the Stomach with Wollen Cloths dip't into it warm and wrung forth The use of Glysters is proper and Opiats often give great help Of the Belly Ach and the Scorbutick Collick SCarce any affect requires a more speedy Physical help than the Colick and gripes in the Belly which frequently happen in the Scurvy Against these evils Glysters of various kinds Fomentations Liniments and Cataplasms are administred The use of Opiates is found to be very necessary here Certainly in this Case that Praescript of Riverius chiefly has place viz. that Purging Pills be given with Landanum mixt with them for a plentiful Evacuation by seige and Sleep being caus'd the Fit often is taken away Moreover Powders of Shells by which the sharp Salts are Imbib'd or fixt conduce very much to the removal of the Morbifick cause for example Take Crabs Eyes and Egge Shells of each a Dram and a half Pearl a Dram make a Powder divide it into twelve Doses whereof let one be taken
Spirit of Blood Tincture of Antimony of Coral Decoctions of the Roots and Seeds of the great Burdock Ground-pine and Germander do excellently well and let those kinds of Remedies be taken twice or thrice a day with Antiscorbutick distill'd Waters A Water distill'd from Horse-dung with the addition of Scurvy-grass Brook-limes Ground-pine and the like is sometimes very profitable mean while let Fomentations Liniments Cataplasms or applications of other kinds which appease Pains be outwardly Administred Of the Scorbutick Gout moving from one place to another OF this Affect Eugalenus Wierus Medicus Campensis and Georgius Horstius have written peculiar Tracts If is said to be very Common in the Northern Parts of Belgia a certain token of which appears by putting a live Earth-worm to the place affected for its presently wont to spring bend and knit it self and to faint and dye which indeed I have found pretty often to happen in this Disease even amongst us which effect seems to proceed from the very sharp and as it were Corrosive Effluvia that plentifully flow from the place Pain'd and Swoll'n By Reason of the effect of that Experiment the Cure of the Disease is wont to be undertaken by Worms viz. by Remedies prepar'd of them though I know not whether being inwardly taken they will as certainly destroy the Disease as being outwardly applied they are dispatcht by it However Earth-worms as also Snailes Millepedes and other exanguious little Animals in as much as they abound with a volatile Salt often prove a pretty efficacious Remedy Henricus Petraeus tells us of two Remedies very much us'd in Westphalia against this Disease Take nine Earth-worms bruis'd with two Spoonfuls of Wine in a Mortar and strain'd through a Cloth to these let half a Measure of Wine be added let three Spoonfuls be taken at Morning Noon and Night for many days 2. Take two or three Branches of Savine Virgin Hony two spoonfuls boyl them with a Measure of Wine till it pitches two Fingers Let the straining be taken to four or five spoonfuls thrice a day To the former Medicine a certain vulger potion mentioned by Horstius called Monasteriensis is allied Take Sage Betony Rue of each five Leaves Earthworms with Circles about their Necks in number five a little Savine and Roots of Devils-bit in number two let them be bruis'd with Water of Elder Flowers and let the exprest Juice be given for raising a Sweat A like prescript also is propos'd in Forestus à Medico Campensi Certainly in this affect the Magistral Water of Earth-worms prescrib'd in the London Dispensatory is of excellent use And I have often given with good success the Spirit and Salt of Harts-horn Spirit of Blood and Flowers of Sal Armoniack Moreover teslaceous Powders viz. Crabs Eyes Coral Pearl and Vegetables which are accounted Antidotes against the Gout as Roots of round Broth-wort Leaves of Ground-pine Germander and the like being joyn'd with Antiscorbuticks conduce to the Cure of this Disease outwardly for appeasing Pains besides Anodynes which are us'd under the form of a Liniment Fomentation or Cataplesm Oyl of Earth-worms of Frogs and Toads are often very availing I have been told by a worthy Person who was very obnoxious to this Disease that Water drawn by Destillation from the Contents taken out of the Stomach of a Beefnewly kill'd and Cloaths being dipp'd into it when Warm and applied as a Fomentation would most certainly give ease Of Convulsive and Paralytick Affects that are wont to ensue upon the Scurvy IF at any time the Scrobutick taint passing into the Brain and Genus Nervosum greatly corrupts the Liquor residing in each Province thereupon divers kind of Affects and especially Paralytical or Convulsive are wont to arise viz. according as the Morbisick Matter brought in to be Animal Aeconomy is either Narcotick or Explosive Which kind of Affects though in this case they are Symptomatical yet when they are grown to a hight they challenge both the name and the better part of the Cure before the Scurvy their parent so that the diseased are said to be troubled with the Palsy or Convulsions rather than with the Scurvy also Medicines design'd against those Affects have the preference to any others at the same time required by reason of other intents For Curing these kinds of Affects hapning upon the Scurvy let this chiefly be observ'd that Remedies appropriated to those same be duly Complicated with Antiscorbuticks As to Convulsive Diseases the Remedies that are in the foregoing Tract may easily be Transfer'd hither And as to the Palsey Lethargy and many other Affects of the Brain and Genus Nervosum we shall discourse of them particulary in some other Tract Of the Atrophia also of the Scorbutick Fever which is often the Cause of the other or its Effect THere are three kinds of Causes having some orderly dependance on each other from one or more of which a Scorbutical Atrophia is wont to be produc'd without a Consumption of the Lungs viz. either the Chyle is perverted through the fault of the first passages so that a laudable or sufficient Store or it is not convey'd to the Blood Secondly or being brought into it yet through the fault of the Blood it is not duly chang'd into Blood and a nutritive Juice Thirdly and lastly the nutritive Juice prepar'd in the Mass of Blood is not duly assimilated to the solid parts through the fault of the nervous Liquor The Remedies appropriated to this Symptom regard either the amendment of the first Passages or the correction of the foresaid Humours As to the former it sometimes happens by reason of the Tone of the Stomach being broken or its Ferment being vitiated that the Food taken into it is not duly concocted but passes into an unprofitable Mass of Corruption For these sorts of evils let gentle Catharticks Digestives and Corroboratives be us'd But the work of Chylification is oftner hindred by reason of a Schirrous Tumour rais'd sometimes in the Ventricle sometimes in the Mesentery or in other adjacent parts In this Case Deobstruents and Dissolvents are proper the use of Spaw-waters has the preferance to any other Rinds of Medicines Moreover Fomentations Liniments or Plaisters ought to be outwardly applyed Again it sometimes happens that without any Tumour rais'd in the Viscera the Lacteal Vessels are so much obstructed by a gross and viscous matter sticking in them that a sufficient store of the Chyle though it be laudable enough and plentifully prepar'd is not convey'd into the Blood In this affect the Belly for the most part discharges Excrements plentifully but they are White like coagulated Milk and not as other Excrements ting'd with Choler or Stinking The reason of which is that the Blood being depauperated more sparingly engenders Choler from the eflusion of which into the Intestines the Colour and Stink of the Excrements proceed In this case Spaw-waters are chiefly proper also Deobstruents being inwarldly given let Liniments Fomentations and Baths be outwardly us'd
above prescrib'd Let Decoctions and Physick-Beers be prepar'd such as above written Antihydropick Ingredients being added to them Of the Crackling of the Bones THere remains yet a symptom which happens sometimes upon the Scurvey though rarely viz. the crackling of the Bones into the Nature and Cure of which it seems to concern us to enquire I have known some though scarce above three or four who being long Sick of the Scurvy found themselves afflicted by it not only in the Humours and the Carneous Parts but at length in the very Bones For as often as they mov'd any Member any way the ends of the Bones as though they were bare rubbing against each other made a mighty noise Moreover when they lay in their Bed and there turned themselves from one side to the other a mighty Crackling was heard as it were of a Scelleton forcibly shaken terrifying even the persons affected The conjunct cause of this haply may seem to be That the soft Interstice of the Bones viz. the Fat Membranes and Ligaments being greatly consumed their Joints as Mill-stones when bare without any Corn by reason of their mutual rubbing against each other make a noise But the thing appears to be otherwise because neither persons mightily consumed have this Cracking of the Bones nor do persons troubled with this Affect always waste away wherefore we say rather that the immediate Cause of this Symptom is the driness of the Bones or the defect of the Marrow properly so called which ought to be contain'd within the Cavities of the Bones and especially within their Joynts for since all Bones include a Marrow or unctuous Humour either in the great Cavities or in the Pores and small Passages every where made in them we conclude the use of this to be both that the Bones irrigated with the same may become less brittle and likewise that that Humour distilling from the Joynts of the Bones may make slippery all the Joints as the Joynts of a Machine besmear'd with Grease and may so facilitate the motions of them wherefore the ends of the Bones destitute of this Marrow make a noise just as the Wheels of a Cart seldom greased If you ask why that unctuous substance of the Joints fails I say this seems chiefly to happen because the Pores and Passages of the Bones are so much obstructed by a certain extraneous Matter haply of a Slimy or Tartarous Nature brought to them from the Blood that they do not sufficiently receive the Balsam design'd for them nor distil it forth for moistning their Joints but it will not be easie the thing being wholly in the dark to search out the particular Reasons of this Affect Nor are we less at a loss when we proceed to the Cure of this Disease for though the Primary Indication viz. the moistning of the Bones or of the Joints be obvious enough yet it does not so plainly appear after what Manner and by what Remedies it is perform'd For in this case I have known a great many kinds of Medicines and various ways of Administrations tryed wholly in vain A certain Ingenious Man extreamly troubled with this Disease for many years tryed the Advice of many and those Famous Physicians Besides the usual Remedies against the Scurvy together with frequent Bleedings and Purgings from which he found not the least Relief he try'd moreover various and great Courses of Physick without any success For after a method us'd by one Physician for some Months without Effect he presently betook himself to another and so afterwards to many mean while by each always a new way of Curing untryed by the former is prescribed Fomentations Liniments and Frictions are applied daily to each of his Joints he us'd for some time the hot Baths of Bathe afterward Spaw-waters of various kinds sometimes these sometimes others are drank Which giving no help a Chalybeat course at another time a Decoction of temperate Woods sometimes a Milk Diet and at all time Electuaries distil'd Waters Apozems and other Remedies prepar'd of Antiscorbuticks are taken And when he had liv'd after this manner above three years almost constantly Medicè miserè there was not made the least progress towards the Cure of the fore-mentioned Affect yet in the mean time he was pretty well as to his Strength and Stomach married a Wife and as to the other more common Symptoms of the Scurvy he was better So that it hence appears how stubborn a Disease and unconquerable by almost any Medicines the crackling of the Bones is which I have known confirmed also in others troubled with this Affect and wholly cluding the endeavours of a Physician CHAP. V. Of the Vital Indication in which are included Cordial Medicines Opiats and the Diet requisit in the Scurvy HItherto we have set forth at large the Indications both Preservatory and Curatory which belong to the Method of Curing the Scurvy there remains yet to speak of the Vital Indication to wit that it may be declar'd by what Method and with what Remedies the powers of the Diseas'd which either being too apt to faint may be upheld or being weakn'd or dejected may be restor'd For these ends Cordials and Opiats according to the Exigencies of the Diseas'd are prescrib'd to be taken and moreover let a right Form of Diet if at any time it be needful Resumptive and always Antiscorbutick be prescrib'd As to Cordial Medicines viz. such a exagitate the Blood stagnating in the Heart renew its flame half extinct restore the opprest or distracted Animal Spirits to their liberty and due irradiation it is obvious that many Remedies which are properly call'd Antiscorbuticks perform these intents of which kind are Raddish-water compound the Magistral Water of Snails and of Earth-worms Spirit of Harts-horn of Soot Powders of Shells with many other things which may be taken with good effect not only at certain hours and according to a set Method but likewise as occasion presents as often as a Swooning or any failings of the Spirits happen But besides those who are found to be very obnoxious to Passions of the Hearts frequent Faintings a Nauseousness Vomiting Trembling Vertigo and other terrible Symptoms may also have in a readiness Medicines of another kind more properly Cordial with hich all failings of the Spirits are immediately reliev'd In this case Quercetan's great Elixir of Life does excellently well the second Water in the distillation of the same Elixir being sweetned may be given to a spoonfull also Aqua Mirabilis Aqua Bezoartica Gilberts temperate Water Treacle-water Cinnamon-water to each of which or to a Composition of them let the Confection of Alkermes the Confection of Hyacinth Powder of Pearl or Magistery of Coral Syrup of Clove-gilliflowers or of Coral of Citron-pills of Cinnamon be added Of these and others of this kind various forms of Medicines are wont to be prescrib'd For example Take Treacle-water and Aqua Mirabilis of each three Ounces Bawm-water four Ounces Syrup of Clove-gilliflowers an Ounce
of Physick she took only Empirical Remedies with which sometimes the Fits of the Ague were driven away but often presently return'd mean while the Diseas'd being pale unable for motion and wanting Breath continued swol'n and blown up about the Ventricle and Hypochondres About the third Month of her being sick she began to have Gripes and bitter Tortures in her Belly with which shooting sometimes to the Back sometimes to the Stomach she was afflicted almost continually day and night Moreover she was affected with a frequent Vertigo and sometimes with Fits as it were Hysterical Also being troubled with a frequent Vomiting she daily threw up a viscous and froathy Phlegm Within a Months space this Disease passing to its highest pitch rais'd pains in the Back and Loins and so afterward in all the parts of the Body Besides at this time she complain'd of a mighty straitness of her Brest and a great contraction of the Viscera Mean while the habit of the Body fell away to a mighty Leanness so that the Bones being destitute of Flesh scarce stuck to the Skin the Urine was little and very ruddy on the surface of which grew a little thin Film garnish'd with various colours like the Tail of a Peacock A short while after this a Numness and Formication was perceiv'd sometimes in the Belly sometimes in the Limbs and afterward the Gripes and Pains began to remit nevertheless in their stead a Palsey succeeded which within a weeks space so pervaded all the Members of the whole Body that she was not able to bend or any way to stir from its place either Hand or Foot or any other part It is obvious that those severe Symptoms proceeded from a Scorbutick Root for by reason of the taint principally fixt on the Blood the Spontaneous Latssiude the difficult Breathing nay and the intermitting Fever hapning at random and often returning and the Bickerings of other Symptoms previous as it were and light were caus'd Again the Lixivial Urine and that diversified colour of it plainly shew'd the Blood to be seis'd with a Sulphureo-saline Discrasie which kind of Urine I have observ'd to be so mark't in many others affected with the like Disease Moreover when in this sick Lady the Morbid Seminal Root being increast in its store and flowing into the Mass of Blood came to spread it self on the Confines of the Brain and Genus Nervosum the other more violent affects arose This Lady living far hence by the advice of a Neighbouring Physitian took Medicines usual against the Collick which doing no good and the Disease growing worse the Patient being brought to Oxford tryed a great many Remedies both Antiscorbutick and Antiparalyticks almost of every kind and form though without any benefit Since therefore any ordinary Method of healing seem'd not sufficient for this Disease it was thought good to proceed to great Remedies and truly such as were not wholly void of danger Wherefore we gave this sick person as weak and worn away as she was a Mercurial Medicine for raising a Salivation which effect ensued according to our desire for a Flux arising within two days and gently continuing for many days without any ill Symptom gave a very great relief to the noble Lady For the Pains being mitigated she began in some measure to move her Limbs to have a better Stomach and to digest here Food better and to enjoy a quiet Sleep The Salivation being over she took a Decoction of Sarza and China with Antiparalytick Ingredients for a few days Afterward being carried to Bathe and having there us'd the temperate hot Baths for some time she recover'd an indifferent state of Health The whole Winter she constantly took Medicines against the Scurvy and the Palsey And upon her renewing the use of the hot Baths the year following she grew perfectly well and since is become the joyful Mother of many Children A Man forty years of Age of a Melancholick Temperament troubled with the Scurvy for many years is wont to find at various times of the year manifold and diversified Symptoms of it About his Legs spots and large black marks like those caus'd by a stroke appear Belly-achs and a Looseness frequently trouble him his Urine for the most part appears Lixivial a Spontaneous Lassitude a languishing of the Strength a want of Appetite almost constantly attend him besides these ordinary as it were accustomed evils he lives moreover obnoxious to violent Fits of sickness and those of various kinds Above two years since when I first went to see him he sorely complain'd of a difficult Breathing as though he were in danger of being choak't with a Trembling of the Heart failings of the Spirits and a frequent danger of Swooning Moreover of any thing of these passions in the Praecordia a little remitted for the most part he was assail'd with a cruel Scotomia and a Vertigo he seem'd to have perfectly recover'd of these affects after that he had taken for sometime Anticonvulsive Remedies complicated with Antiscorbuticks Butafterwrad within a few weeks he was affected with a Nauseousness and a Heart-burning and with an Inflation of the Hypochondres His Urine was little and very lixivial his Belly swel'd in a short time moreover his Feet and Legs growing mighty oedematous shew'd the marks of an invading Dropsie Afterward the like kind of Tumour seis'd the Thighs also the Flesh of the Back and Arms which affect nevertheless though it seem'd without hope was easily cur'd with Antiscorbutick Remedies Catharticks and Diureticks being join'd with them Notwithstanding this worthy Man though restor'd to his Health did not continue so long For half a year being scarce over he began to complain of a violent Head-ach with a Vertigo and an obstinate Watching afterward without any evident cause he was seis'd with a horrible Vomiting In a short time after the Asthmatick Fits return'd with a trembling of the Heart and failings of the Spirits At this time also when he seem'd almost past hope he recover'd again in a short while by the use of Antiscorbutick Remedies From this case it clearly appears how great evils the Scorbutick Miasm lying hid like a ferment both in the Blood and in the Nervous Juice and displaying its Venom according to occasion may cause Which kinds of affects nevertheless how dreadful and terrible soever they seem so they depend only of the Humours being vitiated in their Crasis and not on the Viscera injur'd in the whole or in their conformation for the most part they are wont to be Cur'd with little ado viz. by an Antiscorbutick Method aptly ordered according to the condition of the Patient as well as of the Disease A Renowned Lady about Twenty five years of Age of a Sanguine Temperament and a thin habit of Body fresh colour'd and handsome had been ill of a Scorbutick Affect of a long time For besides broad Spots and red Pushes breaking forth in divers parts of the Body she had been wont to undergo for a long time
to set forth here cases of the Head-ach whose Fits being erring and uncertain proceed from the Blood or Serum rushing into the places affected in regard that these are very frequent and vulgarly known I shall now set before you certain choice Observations of this Disease being either periodical or seeming to arise from some one of the Viscera per Consensum As to the Former the periodâ—â—â— invasions of the Head-ach are produced either from the nutritive Humour or from the nervous Juice I shall now give you example of both A venerable Matron in the forty fifth year of her age being of a thin habit of Body and a bilous temperament after having liv'd for a long time obnoxious to Head-achs wont to be occasionally rais'd about the beginning of Autumn she began to be troubled with a periodical Head-ach This affect seizing her about four a clock in the Afternoon was wont to hold her almost till midnight till the diseased being tired with watchings and tortures was forced to fall asleep then after a pretty prosound sleep upon her awaking in the morning she was well The Diseased having undergone daily Fits of this Disease for three weeks after this manner delay'd the use of Physick which she very much abhorr'd but at length her appetite being dejected and her strength worn away she was forc'd to desire a method of Cure and after a gentle Purge and blooding she took twice a day for a week or a fortnight the quantity of a Chestnut of the following Electuary and grew perfectly well Take Conserve of the Flowers of Cichory and Fumitory of each three ounces compound powder of Aron Roots two drams and a half Ivory a dram and a half yellow Saunders Lignum aloes of each half a dram Salt of Wormwood a dram and a half Vitriol of Mars a dram Syrup of the five Roots what suffices make an Electuary The cause of this periodical Head-ach doubtless was that the assimilation of the Chyme or nutritive Humour into Blood was hindred For when its store received into the mass of Blood could not be overcome it was wont after a little stay to fall at odds and ferment with its particles Therefore presently the Blood falling into a turgescency that it might shake off that incongruous mixture depos'd its recrements as on other Parts so chiefly and with a greater sence of offence on the Fibres of the Meninges being before weak or injur'd in their conformation so that the pain lasted till the heterogeneous particles boyling by their mutual congress either were subdued or did exhale A handsome tall and slender Woman long and sorely obnoxious to cephalick affects was wont to be infested sometimes for many days nay weeks with a violent Head-ach which seiz'd her daily at her awake early in the morning and afflicted her for three or four hours In the mean space she was also affected with a heaviness of the whole Head a deadness of the Senses and a stupidity of Mind which affects vanishing together with the pain before Noon like Clouds disperst left all things calm and serene Till the next morning they possest again the Brain like a sogg and dark mist For curing these distempers I prescribed parging Pills a spare Bleeding Vesicatories also and the use of Spirit of Harts-horn or of Soot with Cephalick Juleps or Waters In this Gentlewoman the pains of the Head rather followed sleep than was cur'd by it because in this morning Head-ach the morbifick matter resided in the nervous Juice whose greatest curdity and aggravation about the Head happen presently after sleep but the other evening fit of this disease in regard it depended on the plenitude and turgescency of the nutritive liquor within the mass of Blood therefore hapned so many hours after dinner and was not mittigated but after sleep which appeases the disorders of the Blood Tho the Experience and Complaints of sick Persons manifestly shew that Fits of the Head-ach sometimes arise by consent from the other Parts viz. the Womb Spleen Stomach c. Nevertheless it as clearly appears from the accounts of them and the Phoenomena being duely considered that this is done by another means than by Vapours rais'd from the Viscera affected to the Head And first as to the pains of the Head seeming to be rais'd from a Womb nothing occurs more frequently than for violent Head-achs to ensue upon the suppression of the menses or lochia moreover tho the menses observe their due course yet some Women are wont to be afflicted with a violent pain of the Head just as they are coming others as soon as they are past But yet tho at the same time that the Head is affected the Womb is also yet it does not follow that the Injury is convey'd immediately from this to that but it is the Blood it self which fixes the morbifick matter on the Head viz. it sometimes perversly conveys it being engendred within its own bosom and design'd for the Womb into the Meninges of the Brain and sometimes withdrawing it from the Parts of the Womb it delivers it to the Head with a greater mischief This Aetiology agrees also with the Head-ach vulgarly imputed to the Stomach Spleen and other Parts A beautiful young Woman of a thin habit of Body and a hot Blood having been obnoxious to an hereditary Head-ach was wont to undergo frequent Fits of it and those coming at random to wit some happening on a light occasion and others arising of their own accord that is without any evident cause On the day before the spontaneous access of the Disease being very hungry in the Evening she greedily eat a plentiful Supper with a hunger-starv'd not to say Canine appetite most certainly fore-knowing by this sign that a pain of the Head would seize her next morning which sign never fail'd of Event for as soon as she awak'd being afflicted with a most cruel torture throughout the Sinciput she was affected likewise with a vomiting of a humour sometimes acid and as it were vitriolick sometimes bilous and extremely bitter it hence seeming to appear that that Head-ach had its rise from the fault of the Stomach To undertake to give the reason of this in the first place it is known that a vomiting ensues upon the Head's being injur'd viz. after a stroak Wound or a fall from an high place nevertheless a pain of the Head seldom or never follows a vomiting Cardialgia or the Stomachs being otherwise troubled unless an effervescency of the Blood happens Wherefore in the foresaid case of the Person diseas'd since it plainly appear'd that the Meninges of the Brain were predispos'd for Head-aches and that its Fits had raised an agitation of the Blood hence it will be obvious to conceive when the heterogeneous Particles by reason of the fault of Chylification were heap'd together in the mass of Blood to a fulness presently upon its beginning to flow in order to the expulsion of that which was offensive they being severed
manner only the surface of the Brain or the meer cortical substances of the Anfractus the medullary part within being as it were untouched in which regard it differs not only from the Lethargy but also from the Coma for in the affect which we describe tho Sleep be continually pressing yet it is easily broken off and moreover being perfectly awak'd the diseased remember a great many things discourse with the Friends being presently ready to fall again into their sleepiness whence it appears that the cause of the Disease sticks only in the outward border of the Brain nor does it enter deeply its substance as in other sleepy affects This affect as I have observed in many is not very dangerous for either as it is often done it is perfectly cured or at leastwise continuing for many years without a Carus or Apoplexy which are wont to be feared it does not presently become mortal or terrible the release of this affect often happens upon the change of the seat of the Disease to wit the Brain becoming clear the morbifick matter is conveyed to the Cerebellum where lying it produces Tremblings of the Heart the Asthma Faintings of the Spirits and other troublesome Symptoms accounted for Hypochondriacal The Therapeutick method suggests chiefly these intentions viz. that after a provision being made for the whole by bleeding if it be proper and by purging these Remedies may be afterward carefully given with which the Blood and Brain may be freed from their watery filth and the later may be corroborated that it may not for the future receive and retain serous Superfluities For these ends let the Pilulae de Succino or Cochiae be given with Rosin of Jalap once or twice a Week at other times going to bed and early in the Morning let a dose of a Cephalick Electuary or of the Spirit or Tincture of Sal Armoniack Amber Soot be daily taken with a Cephalick Julep The Forms of which may be chosen from those before written At eight a Clock in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon let a draught of Coffee be taken first boyling in the Liquour of which it is prepar'd Leaves of Sage or Rosemary till it acquires a green Tincture for ordinary Drink let a Decoction of Guaiacum be taken adding about the end Leaves of Sage Betony and other Cephalicks Moreover it will be profitable to make two large Issues betwixt the Shoulder blades and likewise frequently to apply Vesicatories about the Neck the Hair of the Head being cut off let a little Cap of Cephalicks and Armoaticks be worn Let a Vessel filled with Salt of Vrine or Spirit of Sal Armoniack be now and then held to the Nostrils Moreover an exact form of dyet being ordered let some Servants attending the Diseased not only stir him up now and then as he falls asleep but keep him waking daily for some set Hours A certain Gentleman of a sanguine temperament and whilst he was young of an acute and subtle understanding afterward in his declining age being given to Idleness and Drunkenness became dull and torpid and likewise Hydropical with a great Paunch and swellings of the Thighs and Leggs but from these Diseases into which he frequently fell if at any time he abstained for some while from his drinking and applyed himself to Physick he both often and soon recovered but at length tho free from his Dropsy he was opprest with so great and almost perpetual Sleep that he would be sleeping in all places and doing any thing moreover being awak'd by his Servants or Friends he was wont to be present enough to himself and to discourse well enough for some Minutes of an Hour of things proposed falling presently again into his Sleep To this Person after many Medicines tryed almost to no purpose I prescribed at length that he should take every Morning and Evening a Spoonful of the Powder of the Leaves of Betony dried in the Summer Sun and kept in a Glass in a little Draught of Water distilled from the Flowers of Lavender by which Remedy receiving ease within a few days he was perfectly cured within a Months space and enjoyed an entire Health for four years from that time Afterward when by reason of an ill course of Diet the same evils returned he repeated the same Remedy tho not with so great success But besides there being need also of other Medicines he took sometimes Spirit of Harts-horn or of Soot with an appropriate Julep sometimes Electuaries of Cephalick Conserves and Powders adding sometimes steel As often as he would indulge himself to his wonted genius of drinking instead of Wine or Beer he drank Coffee moreover for his ordinary drink he had sometimes Ale with the Leaves of Scurvy-grass Sage and Aromaticks infused in it sometimes a Decoction made physical with Woods Spices and Cephalick Herbs for many years Afterward being in a Manner always intemperate and cacochymical yet he lived free from the Lethargy at length a Cachexia seizing his Breast being cast down by degrees by a Cough with an Asthma he dyed The next sleepy affect viz. somewhat greater than the former and less than the Lethargy is that which is vulgarly called the sleepy Coma those that are obnoxious to this for the most part are opprest with a great sleepiness to which in a manner always giving themselves over they lye with the mouth open and the lower Jaw fallen more like to Persons dead than living being stirr'd up by hard pinching or pricking they look about them speak to the standers by answer to things askt but presently sleeping again they seem very much troubled to be hindred or disturbed from Sleep thus pleasingly stealing upon them and being indispos'd after this manner they continue in a sleepiness for many dayes nay and sometimes Months without a Fever accompanying it or following it or an injur'd respiration and being easie to be awak'd and not very forgetful in which things they differ from Lethargical Persons mean while they differ no less from others troubled with the affect even now described for as much as those that have the Coma keeping for the most part to their Bed or a Chair do not walk abroad or take care of domestical Concerns as the others They answer appositely to some short Questions but are not able to hold a Discourse or deliberate of things to be done The cause of this doubtless is of the same kind as of the former Diseases but of a middle degree betwixt both before described For we may conjecture that in this affect the morbifick matter penetrates the Brain a little farther than in the continual Sleepiness viz. that it invades the outward parts of the Anfractus or Gyri together with the lesser Branches of the Medulla inclosed but that it does not reach to the greater Sinus's of the Medulla joyning to the Corpus Callosum and which are wont to be possest in the Lethargy The Coma sometimes beginning primarily and of it self as the Lethargy
In this case tho declaring a sad Prognostick however I did not forbear to use Physical means abstaining from Phlebotomy by reason of his strength being much spent and his Blood depauperated I presently ordered a large Vesicatory to be applied to his Neck and a smart Clyster to be given him of a decoction of Briony Roots with Carminative Flowers and Seeds adding likewise two drams of the species of Hiera His Temples and Nostrils were anointed with Balsams Cataplasms of Rue and Briony Roots were applied all over his Feet Moreover every other or third hour I gave him a dose of Spirit of Harts-horn with a Cephalick Julep and many other administrations usual in this case were carefully put in practice To which nevertheless the Disease not at all yielding the day following I prescrib'd him a Purge of Scammony prepar'd to be taken in a spoonful of Broth After which when he had frequently and freely Purg'd he began to open his Eyes to speak and to know standers by and a little after coming to himself he fully awaked This Disease as I ghess was therefore cur'd more easily and sooner than was hop'd because that cloud sent haply into the Brain by a Medicine could the better be drawn thence by the help of another Medicine A renowned man fifty years of age of a gross Body and formerly abnoxious to a Vertigo and asthmatick affects had lived very sound for two years having used Physick Spring and Fall and having a large Issue near both Shoulder-blades At the beginning of Summer he living in the Country and his Issues being neglected for many weeks the filth which was wont to be purg'd forth ran much less from them yet he was still in good health till about the Solstice when as he was sitting one morning in a Porch and talk'd cheerfully with his friends arising on a sudden he complained that he was ill going in a doors and setting himself down in a Chair he vomited very much then presently leaning to one side he fell into a profound sleep and lay so overwhelmed with it that he could scarce be raised from it all that day Coming in the Evening I ordered Blooding a Clyster Vesicatories and many other Remedies proper in such a case carefully to be administred The next day after his Brain began to grow a little clear so that he looked about and spake distinctly a few words Seeming to know his Friends he could tell no ones name but by reason of this matter sinking deep in the Brain a Palsey of the whole right side seized him Moreover a mighty sleepiness yet persisting on that day Blood was taken from the other Arm Other Remedies also being continued as before on the third day becoming less drowsie he began to know many and to call some by their names to perceive his illness and to be sollicitous for Remedies But whilst the Brain grew better the injury communicated to the Cerebellum and Genus Nervosum discovered it self for on the fourth day his breathing became uneven and difficult and his Pulse weaker Moreover he was often affected with a shivering and a Convulsive concussion of the whole Body On the fifth day the Cramps and Convulsions becoming more violent oftner infested him then the Pulse growing weaker by degrees on the sixth day tho more free from sleepiness he dyed In this and other the like cases it 's probable that the morbifick matter invades the Brain and Cerebellum together but whilst it sticks in the Cortex of this contrary to what happens in the Brain it causes no very sensible injury because here the parts offended are neither the seats of sleep nor memory but afterward haply about the fourth or fifth day the matter sinking further to the Medulla of the Cerebellum whilst as to other things the Diseased was better the Vital function by reason of the Spirits appointed for it being opprest in their very source began to fail and afterward declining on a sudden unexpectedly cut off all hope of recovery which before was great CHAP. IV. Instructions and Prescripts for curing the Watching Evil and the Watching Coma. AS Light and Darkness so Sleep and Watching being set together excellently illustrate each others natures Concerning a continual waking or the Watching-Evil we must in the first place here distinguish that either it is a symptom which happens upon some other Disease as a Fever Frensy Mania or Colick Gout and the like and then its consideration and cure belong to that affect whose offspring it is or else immoderate Watchings arising alone with out any other known cause seems to be a Disease as it were of it self as I have known it in some Persons and some of these Watchers tho destitute of Sleep seem scarce to want it For the Spirits appear not thereby either torpid or wearied or exhausted but others bearing ill watching soon become thereupon languid and lose their Stomacks and are forc'd to have recourse to Opiats which sometimes they use daily and in a large dose without hurt We have intimated before that the cause of natural waking which has Sleep interlaced with it consists in these two things viz. in one of them or both together To wit first that the animal Spirits being sufficiently refresht and freed from the fetters of the Nervous Liquor vigorously exert themselves and are expanded every way and especially from the middle part of the Brain to its circumference then secondly tho they enjoy a clear space every where and especially in the outmost part of the Brain being then free from the incursions of the Nervous Juice yet lest this expansion of the Spirits which is being awake be any where protracted longer than is fitting to their too great loss both the Spirits being now and then weary flagg and as it were repose themselves of their own accord and withall the Nervous Liquor coming to overspread the Cortex of the Brain stuffs and closes their Passages Hence it follows that preternatural and immoderate watching depends also on one or both of those two for either the Spirits being two exhorbitant and struck as it were with a rage do not retreat of their own accord and withall the Nervous Liquor does not so fill and stop the Pores of the outward part of the Brain that the Spirits may be forc'd thence inward to a repose Types of both these every where present themselves to be observed And first we may observe that the Animal Spirits becoming sometimes exhorbitant and so elastick or otherwise irregular cannot only be appeased and repose themselves but are scarce able to be contained within the proper Sphere of their emanation Wherefore being expanded in a continual watching they so fill the Brain and keep it extended that the nervous Juice tho heapt together in a great plenty at the entrance cannot be admitted and if the Spirits are recall'd inward from the Cortex of the Brain for that to enter presently being there restained or making a tumult within the midst
of the Brain they raise a thousand and often horrible Fantasms with which Sleep is kept off or directing farther their Tendency into the Genus Nervosum they raise there great disorders which continually drive away and break off Sleep tho seeming never so much to be stealing on or to be at hand As for the former of these I have often observed some troubled with watching who dreaded to begin Sleep tho it came on according to desire for as soon as being about to sleep they closed their Eyes presently starting up again they cryed out that a confused multitude of Fantasms made them mad so that they found themselves necessitated to abstain from Sleep Secondly when the Spirits being become exhorbitant are called from the circumference of the Brain towards the inward parts in order to Sleep sometimes they convert their Sallies into the Genus Nervosum and then either rushing in a tumultuous manner into the Nerves that go to the Precordia or Viscera they cause disorders in the respective Parts hence to such as are so affected as often as closing their Eyes they invite Sleep either Tremblings Leapings and Constrictions of the Heart with Failings of the Spirits and a letted Respiration happen or inflations and Swellings of the Viscera a Sense of Suffocation and other Symptoms vulgarly accounted for hysterical or secondly the Spirits being called from their Watchings and converted to the Genus Nervosum sometimes transfer their Sallies into the spinal Marrow and thence into the Nerves that pass into all the outward Members wherefore to some when being a Bed they betake themselves to sleep presently in the Arms and Leggs Leapings and Contractions of the Tendons and so great a Restlessness and Tossings of their Members ensue that the diseased are no more able to sleep than if they were in a Place of the greatest Torture Sometime since I was advised with for a Lady of Quality who in the day time was wont to be afflicted with a Cardialgia and a Vomiting and in the Night was hindred from Sleep by reason of those spasmodick affects which came upon her as now and then she was upon the point of rest nor indeed was she able to sleep all Night unless she took first a pretty good dose of Laudanum Wherefore of this Medicine which at first was allowed her only twice a Week she took afterward daily for about three Months receiving no injury thereby either in the Brain or about any other function and when in the mean while by the use of other Remedies the discrasies of the Blood and Nervous Juice being corrected the animal Spirits became more benign and mild she afterward leaving off wholly the Opium was able to sleep indifferently well As to the cure of the VVatching-evil which we even now describ'd because it cannot be long endured therefore those things are chiefly to be given which give a present relief for this end those things are proper which sooth the Spirits and gently appease their Disorders as the vulgarly called Anodines viz. distilled waters Decoctons Syrups and Conserves of Flowers of Nymphea Cowslips Mallows Violets Knapweed the Leaves of Lettice Purslan the Willow also Emalsions or juicy Expressions And if the restles Spirits will not be mitigated by fair means we must force them to be quiet by imposing Fetters as it were and using Severity their stores ought to be diminish'd and withall the spaces in which they may freely and without tumult expand themselves ought to be dilated and cleared from the stuffings of other humours viz. of Blood and Serum for which ends opening a Vein sometimes is proper Vesicatories in a manner always have place moreover let Diacodium and Laudanum in case they agree well be frequently taken and mean while that the Opats give truce from the violence of the Disease let the cause of it be eradicated by the use of other Remedies as much as may be Wherefore day after day at Physical hours let things be given that take away the sharpness of the Blood and Nervous Juice and restore them to sweetness In which rank we account Testaceous Powders Apozemes and altering distilled Waters of temperate Antiscorbuticks gentle preparations of Steel spirit of Harts-horn of Soot and above all things tincture of Antimony There remains another kind of Watching-evil whose cause consists for some part if not mostly in the almost continual opening or too great gaping of the Pores or Passages in the cortical part of the Brain for besides that the animal Spirits being sharp and somewhat exhorbitant refuse to lye down of their own accord and to yeild to rest and that they are not kept down or subjugated by the Nervous Liquor entring the Pores of the Brain but being free and exempt from all imposed Burthen they are expanded also within the outward spaces of the Brain which are every where open for them for which cause those that have the watching evil perceive no drowsiness or heaviness of the Sinciput no appulse or desire of Sleep I have known some affected after this manner who when they had past many Nights one after the other wholly without Sleep yet being still chearful and brisk having a good Stomack and ready at business seemed not as yet to have wanted Sleep The cause of this doubtless is a burnt and melancholy Blood which supplies the outward part of the Brain with a Nervous Juice not mild and benign but too much scorcht and filled with adust Particles which consequently is neither apt to flay long within the Pores of the Brain nor kindly to receive and contain the Animal Spirits Moreover the Spirits themselves ingendred from it become too elastick and restless in their Nature so that they are neither easily appeased nor inclin'd for Sleep of their own accord Nevertheless being of a fixt Nature they do not readily fly away nor are soon tired so as to flag but last a long time and continue vigorous without any great refreshment Concerning this sleepless Disposition of the animal Spirits since it is the same as in Persons troubled with melancholy we shall have a fit place of speaking somewhat more largely of it in the sequele We may observe that Coffee also on the same account keeps Persons from Sleep for that Drink insinuates its adust Particles with which we find it to abound both by the tast and smell first into the Blood and then into the Nervous Juice which thereupon by their Agility and Restlessness both keep the Pores of the Brain still open and add spurs and a certain rage to the Spirits all other Combination and Stupefaction being deposed by which they are stirred up to a longer execution of their Functions Again as to what regards the prophylactick cure of this Watching-evil or the removal of the morbifick cause we shall give it you in the Sequel where we shall treat of Melancholy mean while for the immediate removal of that Symptome as often as it sorely presses we observe that Opiats will not do
often a very quick and violent vibration of the Diaphragm afterwards the Fit being ended the deception of the Fancy apprehending the dreadful species of an Incubus comes also to be known Now tho we allow the monstrous Species which is conceiv'd of the Incubus to be a meer Dream yet it is manifest that the Praecordia are really affected and that the motions of the Pulse and Respiration are in a manner supprest or letted viz. in as much as that oppression of the Breast is plainly perceiv'd by many whilst they are awake nay as they are freshly stirr'd from sleep and when that is remov'd tremblings and disorderly motions of the Heart and Diaphragm ensue whence it follows that these Parts are cumbred and undergo a real damage Wherefore whatsoever others may think I judge that a Fit of the Incubus is caus'd insomuch as in sleeping a certain incongruous matter is distilled into the Cerebellum together with the nervous juyce which causing a heaviness or certain stupefaction to the Spirits in their first source forces them presently to forbear a little from the performance of their Functions so that by a second Lethargy as it were raised within the Cerebellum the vital actions suffer a short Eclipse during which partly from the striving of the overcharg'd Praecordia and partly from the Blood being very much heapt together and stagnating within them that oppression and sense of an incumbent weight as it were is caused moreover because all the other faculties of the whole Body depend on the motion of the Heart therefore this being hindred and supprest those presently fall into faintings and disorders Tho it be seldom that any Person dyes of this Disease alone yet those that are frequently obnoxious to it if at any time they are seis'd with other cephalick affects as the Lethargy Carus Apoplexy or Lethargy they are in a very dangerous Condition because the morbifick matter sent from the Blood into the Brain easily invades the Cerebellum also being so predispos'd so that the Diseased suffering an Eclipse of the vital function together with the animal are brought into a greater danger of Life hence it s a common observation that those that are wont to be frequently troubled with the Incubus often dye Apoplectical Another Issue of the Incubus is wont to be less pernicious that it often leads to the passion of the Heart and other Affects commonly accounted for Hypochondriacal I have known many troubled with the Incubus in their Youth who as they grew farther in years being free from that were affected with a Trembling and Panting of the Heart and with other Griefs about the Precordia and Hyphochondres and very sorely with Convulsions we judge the cause of this morbid change to be that the morbifick Matter after having been often wont to beset the circumference of the Brain at length making a violent assault penetrates deeper into some private Place and passing its texture rushes into the Nerves appointed for the Precordia As to the Cure of this Disease for as to its Fits because they soon pass away of their own accord there is no need of it the therapeutick Method after a provision to be made for the whole by blooding where it is proper and a gentle Purge suggests to us the chief use of those Remedies which are vulgarly accounted Cephalicks therefore the Powders of Amber Coral Pearl Roots of male Peony bastard Dittany Contrayerva also Electuaries Tablets distill'd waters Tinctures Elixirs and other things wont to be prescrib'd in the Lethargy and Apoplexy have place here but in the first place a due form of Diet being ordered let food that is gross and of an ill concoction Pulse and horary Fruits be avoided nor must the Person indulge himself to sleep studying or reading presently after eating let large and late Suppers and lying on the back be forbidden Because Infants and Children are often troubled with this Disease a sign of which is that they are shaken in their Sleep and upon their awake cry out terribly and having undergone frequent fits of it often fall into convulsive affects therefore as soon as they seem affected with it let a due method of cure be used to them let it be enquired concerning the Milk they suck whether of it self being without fault and landable it agrees well with their Stomack let them not be permitted to Sleep presently after having suckt their fill Let the Nurse using a good form of Dyet take also Morning and Evening a Dose of a Cephalick Powder or Electuary drinking after it a draught of Posset-drink with the Leaves of Sage or Betony or the Roots or Seeds of Peony boyled in it Let the Infant take twice a day a Spoonful of an appropriate distilled Water Let it have an Issue in the nape of the Neck let it lye sometimes on one side sometimes on the other but seldom or never on the back It will not be wholly without benefit for it to wear about the neck or on the pit of the Stomack Coral or Bracelets made of the Seeds or Roots of male Peony If at any time in sleeping being often and sorely shaken they seem to be dangerously affected with this Distemper let Vesicatories be applyed to the Neck or behind the Ears Moreover Evening and Morning let a Dose of the Pulvis de Gutteta or some other that is appropriate be daily given in a Spoonful of distilled Water or in Juleps CHAP. VI. Instructions and Prescripts for curing the Vertigo AFter having viewed the outward circumference of both Brains and discovered the Diseases that beset the sensitive Soul about the first beginnings and the first sources of the Animal Spirits now descending to the middle of the brain where the Fancy and common Sense reside let us see to what affects these Parts are obnoxious Concerning this let it be observ'd in the first place that of the Spirits residing in those places sometimes Troops or rather mighty Armies sometimes also small handfuls are affected and then that the same whether many of them together or a few only are affected either from their heterogeneous combination are made elastick and consequently are forced into disorderly or rather explosive motions as in a Fit of the Epilepsie or undergoing an Eclipse as in the Apoplexy are depriv'd of all motion We have discours'd amply enough before of the former spasmodick affect of the Spitits and concerning the Apoplexy we shall treat in the sequel At present we shall speak of a certain Passion belonging to these Parts viz. the Vertigo in which some Files of the Spirits are affected and their motions seem partly to be perverted and partly to be suppress'd The Vertigo is thus described viz. that it is an Affect in which visible Objects seem to turn round and those that are affected with it find a great trouble or confusion of the Animal Spirits in the Brain so that they do not duly influence the Nerves wherefore the seeing and locomotive Faculties often
somewhat waver so that the Diseased fall down and are often offuscated with Darkness In a fit of this it is to be observed that the Imagination and common Sense are in some sort deceived whilst they think the Objects that stand still do move but the rational judgment holds good for we know our Errour That the morbifick cause of the Vertigo and the preternatural way of its hapning may be known we must enquire after what manner the same affect how suddenly soever it comes upon us is wont to be raised by non-natural things for by a long turning round of the Body by looking from an high place passing over a Bridge by sailing in a Ship or going in a Coach by Drunkenness or taking Tobacco and certain other ways Persons every where become Vertiginous or contract a Giddiness which Affect those occasions produce in as much as the animal Spirits being greatly disturbed in their set Series and orders are both moved loosely and in a disorderly manner this way and that within the Passages of the Brain and break off certain Lines or Threads as it were of their wonted irradiation into the genus Nervosum for those two things being in a manner always reciprocal mutually succeed and depend on each other viz. the Perturbation of the Spirits within the middle of the Brain and their letted emanation into the genus Nervosum On whatever cause either affect is produc'd presently the other follows A turning round of the Body being carried in a Coach or Ship also Drunkenness an unusual taking of Tobacco force the Spirits to fluctuate or to reel disorderly in the Brain which thereupon are presently hindred from their due emanation into the Nerves so that the Persons affected are scarce able to stand or go In like manner a looking from an high place passing over a Bridge a Fainting or Swoon seizing us recall the Spirits from their wonted emanation into the genus Nervosum which therefore falling in a tumult or being disorderly mov'd within the Brain cause a Scotomia or a running round of Objects these things being thus premitted concerning the Vertigo rais'd by reason of some accident or by some evident solemn and non-natural cause we must now enquire how and after how many ways it is wont to be produc'd by an intrinsecal and preternatural cause Concerning this you may observe that the Vertigo is sometimes a symptom depending on some other affect seated sometimes within the Brain sometimes without it but that sometimes it is a Disease by it self which being raised within the middle of the Brain is very troublesome and often terrible and difficult to be cured As to the former many Diseases of the Head viz. an acute Pain the Lethargy Epilepsy Carus Apoplexy with many others have often a Vertigo joyned with them viz. inasmuch as an even expansion of the Spirits in the Brain and their irradication thence into the Genus Nervosum is lightly disturbed from those various morbifick causes Moreover this symptom is wont sometimes to be produced by reason of other affects seated far from the Brain and that chiefly after two manners For first it is usual for a Scotomia to arise by reason of the afflux of Blood call'd on a sudden from the Brain as in a swoon and great fainting in great hunger hard labour a very great hemorrhagy long fastings violent passions of fear or sadness nay through other occasions if at any time the motion of the Blood fails or faulters in the Heart so that the affected are ready to fall into a fainting of the Spirits presently because the supply of the Vital Liquor is withdrawn the Animal Spirits also failing in the Brain withdraw their irradiation from the Genus Nervosum For their Head-spring being cut off those that remain flying back from their emanation run to and fro confusedly in the Brain and raise vertiginous and often delirous affects Secondly a disorderly retreat of the Animal Spirits from some one of the Viscera or some outward member into the Brain often causes a Vertigo viz. inasmuch as the Spirits being troubled in a long series from the Part affected by the Ductus's of the Nerves at length trouble others inhabiting the middle part of the Brain and force them into the like disorders for this cause it is that sharp humours twitching the Fibres of the Stomach and that often an offensive and irritative matter stirr'd in the Spleen Pancreas or Intestines and an acute pain Ulcers c. in the Foot or Arm often cause light Scotomias in the Brain But the Vertigo is not only a symptom but sometimes is a disease primarily and of it self for the through understanding of the nature of which we must enquire into its subject formal state and causes The Immediate Subject of the Vertigo are doubtless the Animal Spirits which every person troubled with this affect perceives to be very much troubled and to move about in a confused manner but the mediate subject are those parts of the Brain in which Imagination and common sense reside and whence the next way leads into the Genus Nervosum Now these are the Corpora Callosa and Striata For the Animal Spirits love to expatiate themselves within these medullous Bodies and when they smoothly flow in one series from the two extremes attending the Corpus Callosum viz. from the Corpora Striata and Gyri of the Brain towards its middle part they represent pleasant imaginations and fancies and when in another series and haply by other Pores they flow from the midst of the Corpus Callosum into the Gyri of the Brain they carry thither the signatures of notions for the memory and when they direct themselves thence into the Corpora striata and origines of the Nerves they actuate all the moving parts and as often as there is occasion convey to them the Instincts of setting upon motions Now in a Vertigo those even emanations of the Spirits seem to be intercepted in various places and to be diversly perverted for some files of the Spirits are rendred obscure others are wrested another way and are driven this way and that into Gyri and Vortex's and often are forcibly drawn cross-wise wherefore by reason of the Spirits being so troubled in the Brain confus'd fancies erring and unconstant species of sensible things or turnings round of them are represented And then according as the Irradiation into the Genus Nervosum is lessen'd or stopt a Scotomia and sailings and faulterings of the locomotive function ensue It seems probable that such disorders of the Spirits depend on two causes viz first that some exorbitant and extraneous particles being entred the Brain deeply together with the Nervous Juice cleave to the Spirits and force them into irregular motions it being manifest to vulgar experience that this happens to some persons after immoderate drinking of Wine or Strong Waters unusual smoaking Tobacco the eating of certain Vegetables an anointing with Mercury c. Secondly we may imagine that sometimes
things being thus premitted concerning the Vertigo in general it seems likewise proper for us to delineate a therapeutick method more particularly and to give an orderly process of it And first it shall be shewn what is to be done in the Fit for curing it and then what out of the Fit for preservation 1. As to the former tho an invasion of the Vertigo how violent soever it may seem for the most part is free from danger and often passes off easily of its own accord yet because those that are affected with it fearing themselves a dying desire Physical Aid in such a case if the Pulse indicates it a Clyster being premitted let bleeding be ordered then a Vesicatory being applied to the Neck let strong-smelling things as Castoreum Spirit or volatile Salt of Harts-horn Vrine or Sal Armoniack be presently held to the Nostrils moreover let those Spirits be given twice or thrice a day with a convenient dose of a Cephalick Julep going to bed let a bolus of Mithridate with powder of Castoreum be taken the day following if the affect be not yet gone let a gentle Purge be given or if the Diseas'd be inclined or easie to vomit let an Emetick be taken than which there is scarce any Remedy more excellent Take Pillulae de Succino twenty five grains Rosm of Jalap six grains Tartar vitriolat seven grains Balsam of Peru what suffices make four Pills to be taken going to bed or early in the morning or Take Sulphur of Antimony five grains Cream of Tartar half a scruple Castoreum two grains make a powder to be taken with governance expecting a vomiting That Vomits often do good in the Vertigo besides the testimony of Authors it sufficiently appears also by common observation and since vertiginous Persons vomit often of their own accord hence an opinion has grown amongst many that the cause of this Disease lies hid in a manner alwayes in the Stomach but we have shewn elsewhere that this is otherwise and that the vomiting frequently happens by reason of the Spirits being troubled in the Brain Now the reason why Emeticks do good in this Disease is that by this kind of Medicine both a very great Revulsion is made of Humours from the Brain and that the Spirits there being in a tumult are presently restrain'd When the Membranes and Fibres of the Ventricle and the Viscera placed near it are twitcht various Humours viz. the nervous serous lymphick pancreatick and bilous are drawn into those Parts and so dreined that the Brain continues free from their Incursions nay and easily throws off a great many then sticking in it Then as to the animal Spirits we have shewn elsewhere that there is alwayes a very great communication and intimate accord betwixt those that reside in the Stomach and those of the Brain so that a grateful or ingrateful affect of the Stomach from things taken causes erections or dejections of the Spirits residing in the Brain Opiats whilst remaining in the Stomach bring a sleepiness so in the Vertigo and other Cephalick Diseases it will not conduce a little to the redressing and regulating of the Spirits in the Brain when all in confusion and mightily agitated if their consociates or relations be put in a consternation within the Ventricle by an irritating Medicine for whilst for the aid of these a great many are call'd from the Brain the others remaining remit of their disorders and resume their ancient Offices doubtless it is chiefly for this reason that Emeticks often give great Relief in affects of the Mania insomuch that certain Empiricks use in a manner those alone 2. But returning from this small digression let us consider what is to be done for curing an inveterate and almost continual Vertigo out of the Fit therefore in the first place a method being ordered concerning blooding and purging to be us'd and repeated at fit intervals of time according to the Constitution and strength of the Patient I also use to advise that a Vomit if nothing indicates the contrary be taken once a Month for which end to weak Persons after the Stomack 's being fill'd with light food let Wine and Oximel of Squills be given to two or three ounces and afterwards let posset-drink with Carduus leaves boyl'd in it be drank in a great quantity and let it presently be thrown up again with a spontaneous or forced vomiting To others let an Emetick be given of Salt of Vitriol or of the Infusion of crocus Metallorum Concerning Issues Vesicatories the opening of the hemorrhades also of a Plaister or Cap to be worn on the Head and of topicks to be apply'd to the soles of the Feet or to the Wrists for revulsion or derivation let a Physician deliberate Take Conserve of the Flowers of male Peony six ounces powder of its Roots an ounce Peony seeds powdered two drams Amber Coral Pearl powdered of each two drams and a half Salt of Coral a dram Syrup of coral what suffices make an Electuary The Dose is a dram and a half or two drams in the evening and early in the morning drinking after it three ounces of the following distilled Water Take fresh leaves of Mistletow six handfuls roots of male Peony Angelica of each a pound and half the white dung of Peacocks two pounds Cardamum bruised two ounces Castoreum three Drams all being slic'd small and mixt together pour to them of White wine or of Whey prepar'd of it eight pounds distill it with common Organs let the whole Liquor be mix'd Take powder of the root of male Peony half an ounce red Coral prepar'd Species Diambroe of each a dram and half powder of male Peony flowers fresh bruised and dried in the Sun a dram make a powder to which add of double resin'd Sugar dissolved in Peony water and boyled to a consistency for Tablets ten ounces make Tablets according to Art weighing half a dram let one or two be taken often in a day Because all things do not agree with all Persons but a Physician ought to assay divers Medicaments and insisting on a various Method at one time to try these Medicines another those therefore I shall here set down certain forms of another kind Take our Syrup of Steel six ounces let a spoonful be taken in the Morning and at five of the Clock with three ounces either of the distilled Water even now described or of some other Cephalick Water or take from fifteen to twenty drops of our Syrup of Steel with a draught of the same distilled Water twice a day I have known these things to have given great Relief to many Sometimes let doses of the Spirits of Soot Harts-horn or Sal Armoniack impregnated with Amber Coral or Mans Scull or let tincture of Amber Antimony or Coral be daily given after the same manner Take Powder of the Roots of male Peony an ounce and a half Peony Seeds Coral prepared white Amber of each three Drams Pearl prepared Powder of male Peony
to be within the same inward portion of the Brain viz. The Corpus Callosum as that of the Vertigo to wit in as much as in both affects the Imagination common Sense tho in a far differing degree are affected viz. in the former the irradiation of the Spirits is wont to be obscur'd in some places and to be inetrrupted with little Clouds as it were scattered here and there but in the latter the same is forthwith wholly darkned and undergoes a total Eclips The Apoplexy according to the import of the Word denotes a striking and by reason of the stupendous Nature of the affect as tho it contain'd somewhat Divine it is called a sideration for those that are seized with it as tho they were Planet-struck or smitten by an invisible Deity fall on the Ground on a sudden and being deprived of Sense and Motion and the whole animal function unless that they breath ceasing they lye dead as it were for some time and sometimes dye out-right and if they revive again they are oftentimes affected with a general Palsie or an Hemiplegia Tho it may seem a Paradox it is not disagreeing with Reason to say that the Apoplexy is two-fold and that one of them belongs to the Cerebellum and that the other has its seat in the midst of the Brain the former happens by reason of the animal Spirits design'd for the vital function being supprest in their very source viz. within the Cerebellum the motion of the Heart being often thereby letted or supprest as we have intimated before that this happens in some sort in the Incubus and doubtless to this cause ought to be attributed what I have observed in some that after a great heaviness in the Occiput a Swooning with a sudden privation of all the animal function ensues in which the diseased lye without Motion or Sense with a Pulse and Respiration greatly diminish'd and scarce perceivable and being all over cold for many Hours nay often a Day or two more resembling Persons dead than living We have sometimes known Persons so affected who have grown cold and stiff their Pulse and Respiration seeming wholly to be ceased and who have been really taken for dead and put in their Coffins yet after two or three dayes to have come to life again To enquire into the causes of the other and the wayes of its coming to pass we must first distinguish concerning the various Invasion of this Disease to wit how sometimes being raised from a sudden solemn and invincible cause without any previous Disposition or Procatarxis it is for the most part mortal against this no Procatarctick or preservatory Method can be ordered and the method of curing it which is ordinarily entred upon for the most part becomes ineffications or secondly an Apoplectick Fit having an antecedent Cause or a previous Procatarxis is brought into act through various Occasions or evident Causes As to the seisure of the former kind viz. being sudden and unawares its conjunct and immediate cause is either a great Solution of Continuity hapning some where within or near the middle of the Brain through which its Pores and Passages being obstructed or comprest all emanation of the Spirits is supprest or it is a great and sudden putting to flight or extinction of the Spirits residing in the Brain The things which are wont to cause a great solution of Continuity within the Brain are Blood extravasated an Abscess suppurated and broken and an inundation of a serous humour and tho this latter seldom or never happens of it self yet sometimes by reason of strong evident causes such a glut of serous filth rushes into the Brain that presently filling and stuffing all its medullary Pores it renders the Person speechless which I have known to have hapned to some upon sleeping presently after having drank too largely of small Wine and Spaw Waters I have observed the like affect upon a total and long continued suppression of Urine And in malignant Fevers the serous recrements by a critical Metastasis being conveyed to the Brain have often caused a loss of Speech with Death Of the evident Causes by which an extemporary Apoplexy is wont to be procured the other kind consists in a sudden profligation or extinction of the Spirits which strong Narcoticks and an immoderate drinking of hot-Waters often effect Thus much concerning the Causes of the accidental and extemporary Apoplexy which bring a fit of it on all Persons indifferently tho not predispos'd and wherefore there can be no Prophylaxis ordered and it is seldom that a Cure succeeds But we observe besides that this Disease sometimes is habitual viz. That there remains in certain men a constant Disposition by reason of which first slight Bickerings trouble them afterward by short intervals greater accesses come upon them of which for the most part they dye at last As to the conjunct cause of this Disease it consists in the sudden filling of the Pores of the Corpus Callosum and the destroying of the Spirits by the approach of a malignant matter It s procatarctick Causes are the like as in most other affects of the Brain viz. both the Blood is in fault that either engendring of it self or taking from elsewhere extraneous Particles and such as are very adverse to the texture or constitution of the animal Spirits and as it were extinctory of them it sends them to the Brain and moreover the fault of the Brain is that being weak in its Crasis and too lax and loosned in its Pores and Passages it always admits so easily and without resistance the morbifick matter obtruded from the Blood The Subject of this Disease being the Brain or the Cerebellum or both together the Brain is shewn to be most obnoxious to it by previous and frequent Scotomias and vertiginous Affects the Cerebellum is argued to be ill-disposed by a frequent Incubus an intermitting Pulse a Swooning and frequent Fainting The Prognostick of this Disease is never declar'd but fatal and dubious for an Apoplexy is never without danger either present or to come but the worst is in which besides all the spontaneous Functions being abolish'd the Pulse also and Respiration either fail or are carried on with much adoe and then for the most part it happens with a foaming at Mouth and a Swooning to which at length a sweat which most commonly is colliquative supervening foreshews that Death will happen very suddenly Those who being seized with the Apoplexy are deprived of Pulse and Respiration and a little after growing cold seem to be dead ought not presently to be taken forth of Bed or to be left without Physical Administrations moreover tho no hope of Life appears let them not be buried till after three or four dayes for such either of their own accord or by the use of Remedies sometimes revive which happens not by reason of the vital heat being raised up again in the Heart for it was not wholly destroyed here but for that the
straitned than in the Corpus Striatum What before we said in the Apoplexy we affirm now in the Palsey that the morbid Particles are not only opilative but sometimes narcotick and extinguish the Spirits thus the steams of Antimony Mercury and Auripigment cause weaknesses tremblings and often resolutions of the Members to some using amongst furnaces of Metals In like manner we may imagine that in certain scorbutical and very cacochymical Persons heterogeneous Particles and seemingly of a vitriolick nature enter the Ductus's of the Nerves and subvert certain files of the Spirits or suppress their motion hence stupors or resolutions suddenly arise in the Members or Muscles sometimes in these and sometimes in those they often removing from place to place and sometimes a fixt Palsey is settled And in every Palsey caused by obstruction the morbifick matter is not a gross and viscous phlegm as Galen and many Physicians affirm for such does not pervade the Brain much less the Ductus's of the Nerves but seems to consist of subtle and very active particles tho injurious to the animal oeconomy for the Palsey happens to men as a blight or rust does to Plants for some Winds endued with Vapours more than cold viz. of a vitious or vitriolick Spirit when they blow upon young tender Plants presently cause them to wither viz. in as much as the tender stamina interwoven every where like Nerves in the Leaves and Branches are so throughly constring'd by the blast of the malignant Air that they no longer admit the Juice sent from the Trunk and Root through defect of which they wither after the like manner extraneous and as it were vitriolick Particles admitted within the Organs of Sense and Motion in as much as at the same time they stop the Pores and deject the animal Spirits or restrain them from Motion bring as it were a blast on the respective Parts As to the evident causes of an habitual Palsey viz. through what occasions those that are disposed to this Disease contract it sooner or being already seized with it are more severely troubled with it I say all such things make for this which add to the vitiating of the Blood also which fill the Brain and its nervous Appendix or raise suffusions of a morbifick matter in it those things likewise wich affect the Spirits with a Stupefaction or diminish their Stores in the number of these first occur disorders in the six non natural things an ill form of Dyer a drinking of strong Wines or hot Waters too much or unseasonable Sleep Idleness and a sedentary Life immoderate Venery too great losses of Blood a moist and marshy Air houses fresh plaistred metallick Fumes and Vapours frequent use of Narcoticks or Tobacco an excess of Cold Heat or Moisture vehement and long continued Passions of Sadness and Fear with many other things which I shall not here stand to relate There is another kind of this Disease depending on the scarcity and fewness of the Spirits in which tho motion fails wholly in no Part or Member yet it is performed but weakly only or depravedly by any to wit the affected tho not become without Motion yet they are not able to move their Members or to sustain any Burthen with strength moreover in any moving effort they are troubled with a trembling of the Limbs which is only the effect of Weakness or a broken strength in the moving Faculty Persons become subject to this affect by reason of an extream or valetudinary old age also through immoderate losses of Blood or Seed and likewise by reason of being very scorbutical or cacochymical and many recovering with difficulty and slowly from a chronick distemper are troubled with a languishing of the Limbs and a great resolution of the Members from their due Vigour and Strength so that tho their Stomack holds good and their Pulse and Urine be well disposed yet being enervated as it were and without Strength they scarce dare to set upon any local motion and if they begin it they cannot hold it long nay some without any considerable sickness keep their Beds for a long time as Persons ready to dye whilst they lye undisturbed they discourse with their Friends and are chearful but they neither will nor dare be raised up or walk about nay they abhor all motion as some dreadful thing Doubtless in these tho the animal spirits in some sort actuate and irradiate the whole Genus Nervosum yet their Stores are so slender and loosly set together that when many Spirits ought to be gathered together somewhere in it for motion there is great danger lest presently in the Neighbourhood their Continuity be broken off and consequently the tension in the Nervous Parts ber esolv'd Wherefore in regard the Spirits residing in the Brain are conscious of the Weakness of the others plac'd in the Members they refuse to impose local motion on their Companions as being a task too difficult for them for which cause the affected are scarce led by any perswasion to try whether they are able to go or not but those who being troubled with a scarcity of Spirits will force them as much as they may to local Motions are able at their first rising in the Morning to walk move their Arms this way and that or to lift up a weight with strength but before Noon the store of the Spirits which influenc'd the Muscles being almost spent they are scarce able to move Hand or Foot I have now a prudent and honest Woman in cure who for many years has been obnoxious to this kind of bastard Palsey not only in the Limbs but likewise in her Tongue This Person for some time speaks freely and readily enough but after long hasty or laborous speaking presently she becomes as mute as a fish and cannot bring forth a word nay and does not recover the use of her Voice till after an hour or two In a certain species of the Palsey the sensitive faculty is hurt by it self motion being still entire this is obvious enough concerning the Organs whose Nerves are only relating to Sense as of the Sight Hearing Tast and Smell and the Reason is plain enough But that in the uttermost habit of the Body or the Members sometimes the touch perishes the locomotive Power being without hurt as it is every where seen in Persons affected with the Leprosie Elephantiasis and in some troubled with the Mania who are wont to go naked and to lye on the Ground and who are become so insensible in the Skin and the Flesh of the Muscles that they do not feel the cuts of a Pen-knife or Needles any where thrust into them This I say is very difficult to be explained But concerning this it must be said that the same Nerves haply convey forward and backward the instincts of Motions and the Impressions of sensible things but that the same Fibres which are locomotive are not alway or chiefly sensible We have shewn elsewhere that the muscular and
is either in fieri or in its disposition or in facto or in its habit both require a peculiar way of Cure Of the former there are two chief cases in both of which the Therapeutick method regarding only the Procatarctick causes is ordered after the like manner to wit whether any Person be in danger of being seiz'd with the Palsey or recovering from it be in hazard of a relapse we must insist in a manner on the same Medicines Therefore the Intentious of Curing must be first that the functions of Chylification and Sanguification being duly perform'd a laudable matter for the generation of Animal Spirits be sent to the Brain in a sufficient plenty and then secondly that the Brain being still firm and of a due conformation admits into it and duly exalts into Animal Spirits all apt particles excluding such as are heterogeneous for these ends we have thought good to propose the following method which ought to be varied according to the various constitutions of the Diseased Spring and Fall let solemn courses of Physick be entred upon nay and the whole year besides let some Remedies be constantly used Bleeding is not generally proper for all Persons and if we forbid this it is not for the same reason with the Ancients supposing the Palsey to be a cold Disease but because the Animal Spirits are both engendred from the Blood and become elastick within the moving Fibres by reason of a sanguineous combination therefore if the store of this be lessened too much they will fail and flag Which truly I have observed in many and that for the most part in the Arm from which the Blood was drawn languishings and tremblings have begun Nevertheless a spare and moderate Bleeding sometimes agrees with some that are endued with a Blood that is hot and sharp and apt to too great effervescencies tho they are disposed to the Palsey About the Equinoxes purging ought to be ordered and to be repeated by due Intervals three or four times but in the first place let a Vomit if nothing indicates the contrary be given of Salt of Vitriol Sulphur of Antimony or an Infusion of crocus metallorum or Mercurius vitae afterward let Pillulae de succino or Aloephanginae be taken by themselves or with Rosm of Jalap every seventh or eighth day At other times let Cephalick Remedies such as we have prescribed for the sleepy affects viz Electuaries Powders Spirits and volatile Salts Tinctures Elixirs with distill'd Waters or Apozemes viz. sometimes these sometimes those or others be frequently used Let Issues be burnt in the Arm or Leg nay in gross and cachectical Persons together in both or near the Shoulder-blades Let a Physick-drink of Sage Betony Stoechas the wood Sassafras Winters bark c. be drank the whole year Wine and Venus ought either to be forbidden or to be allowed only sparingly But if the Palsey after a previous disposition in the whole or in one side or in certain members throughly seises and notwithstanding the first encounter of Physick comes on again for its cure a long and complicated method which is alwayes requisite often times does not suffice for not only the Disease or its conjunct or procatarctick Cause severally but all together must be assaulted for which ends blooding for the most part being forbidden only a gentle purge and that but now and then is proper Again and indeed chiefly against the Procatarxis of the Disease Cephaliâ—â— and Antiscorbutick Medicines are wont to do good but not all of these kinds agree with all Persons but as we have observed in the Scurvey according to the various Constitutions of the Diseas'd the Remedies also must be of a differing kind and vertue for with bilous paralyticks in whose sharp and hot blood there is much Salt and Sulphur and very little Serum hot Medicines and such as are endowed with very active Particles do not agree nay often prove offensive to them which nevertheless prove greatly beneficial to phlegmatick persons whose blood is colder and contains a great deal of Serum and a few active Elements Wherefore according to this two-fold state of the Diseased it seems fit for us to propose here a double method of Cure and two Classes of Medicines whereof this will do well to be given to cold paralyticks and the other to such as are hot In the former case for the removal of the procatarctick Cause after a Vomit and a Purge duely ordered I advise to be prescribed according to the following forms Take Conserve of the leaves of Garden Scurvy-grass and of Rochet made with an equal part of Sugar of each three ounces Ginger condited in the Indies an ounce the yellow coats of Oranges and Limons preserv'd of each six drams powder of the Claws and Eyes of Crabs of each four Scruples species diambroe two drams winters-bark a dram and a half roots of Zedoary the lesser Galingal Cubebs the seeds of Garden-cresses rochet of each a dram Spirit of Scurvy-grass and of Lavender of each two drams Syrup of the conditure of Ginger what suffices make an Electuary Let the quantity of a Walnut be taken at eight a clock in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking after it a pound of the following decoction or six ounces of the Tincture of Coffee with the Leaves of Sage boyled in it or three ounces of Viper-wine Take Raspings of Guaiacum six ounces Sarzaparilla Sassafras of each four ounces red and yellow Saunders shavings of Ivory and Harts-horn of each half an ounce infuse them according to art and boyle them in sixteen pounds of fountain-Water to a half adding Crude Antimony powdred and tyed in a Nodulus four ounces roots of Calamus Aromaticus the lesser Galingal of each half an ounce Florentine Orris an ounce Cardamum six drams Coriander seeds half an ounce six Dates make a Decoction and let it be used for ordinary drink Going to Bed and early in the Morning let a dose be taken either of the Spirit of Soot or of Harts-horn of Sal Armoniack succinated of Blood c. with three ounces of the following distilled Water Take of the Leaves or Roots of Aron a pound Leaves of Garden Scurvy-grass the greater Rochet Rosemary Sage Savory Time four handfuls Flowers of Lavender three handfuls the outward rinds of ten Oranges and six Limons Winters bark three Ounces Roots of the lesser Galingal Calamus Aromaticus Florentine Orris of each two ounces Cubebs Cloves Nutmegs of each an ounce all being slic'd and bridsed pour to them of White-wine and Brunswick Beer of each four pounds let them be distilled with common Organs and let the whole Liquour be mixt Sometimes instead of the Electuary for fifteen or twenty dayes let a dose of the Tincture of Sulphur terebinthinated or the Tincture of Antimony or of Amber sometimes also let the Elixir Proprietatis or of Peony be taken in a spoonful of the distilled Water drinking after it three ounces of the same Sometimes also let the
others but withall dangerous not deliberating long concerning this they resolve rather to try a doubtful Medicine than none or which is the same one wholly ineffectual Therefore we gave her Precipitatum ex Mercurio cum sole in a small Dose and repeated it the next day after on the third day an easy and gentle Salivation beginning went on fairly for a Week without any malign Symptome but then the Diseased complaining of a great Head-ach and Vertigo begun to be affected with Convulsive Motions so that we were forced presently to let fall the Salivation and to break off this Course as soon as we could withdrawing the fluxion of the serous latex from the head towards the other parts which frequent Clysters Epispastick and Revulsive Plaisters applyed in various places together with Cordials and Opiats inwardly given soon effected and presently upon it the noble Lady being somewhat better begun to stretch forth and bend the Joints of her Hands and Feet and to move sometimes those members or these from their place the Spitting ceasing being gently purged she took for many days a decoction of China Sarsa red Sannders Ivory c. with the addition of the dryed leaves of Sage Betony Speedwell c. with which she was wont to interlace the use of Spirit of Harts-horn or of Soot of a Cephalick and Cordiack confection also of an appropriate Powder and Julep within a Months space she was able to stand on her Feet and to walk a little in her Chamber being supported by Servants moreover getting Sleep and taking Food indifferently the bulk of her Flesh and her strength daily increas'd and at length using the temperate hot Baths at Bath she grew well But that hot Baths do not do good to all Paralyticks nay as we have intimated before that they do great hurt to some the following relation will plainly shew A London Merchant after a Luxation of a Joynt of the Foot became lame in that part being otherwise sound enough and robust when Topick Remedies of various kinds tryed for some time did not do at length by the advice of a Physician going to Bathe he began to try the temperate hot Baths from the farther use of which becoming forthwith worse upon it the Palsey presently beginning in other Members he had abstained but the Physician being then present assuring him that he would be better afterward advised him to persist wherefore he took the hot Baths again for about thirty dayes till all the lower Members to wit from the Os sacrum to the Feet being wholly resolv'd were withered and that in the Thorax a very great and as it were Asthmatical dyspnaea was raised for the Muscles imployed in Respiration being as it seem'd affected also with the Palsey the brest was not able to be dilated for drawing the Breath deep enough wherefore being always out of Breath he labour'd under continual affects of those Parts and an Agitation of the whole Thorax In this state departing from Bathe he is commanded by his Physician to abstain for a whole Month from any Remedies taken from Pharmacy which when he had religiously observed through hope as it were of a Resurrection that time being past all deliberation was now late concerning the use of Medicines for besides the Paralytick and withered Members his Belly swelled his Respiration was yet more difficult and letted that the diseased was scarce able to draw his Breath his Pulse being very weak with frequent Swoonings and Faintings hapning upon any Motion of his Body so that hereby scarce any place at all being left for Catharticks he must insist only on Cardiack and Paralytick Remedies notwithstanding the use of which the diseased within six weeks labouring under a very great dyspnaea for many hours at length dyed the immediate cause of whose decease I conceive to be Polypous Concretions of Blood in the Heart for in regard the Motion of the Praecordia was greatly letted for a long time nothing seems more probable than that those kinds of carneous lumps as it were were concreted within the Ventricles of the Heart For illustrating a little farther the Theories of the Palsey and also of the Lethargy and Carus I shall here give you another Example with Anatomical Observations which hapned whilst the precedent things were printing A child little more than three years of Age of a moist Brain as it appear'd by sore Inflammations of his Eyes and watery pushes of his Face to which he had been sometimes obnoxious at the beginning of Autumn being ill with a slow Fever and a dejected Appetite became very drowsie and sleepy so that he slept almost continually day and night but being awak'd he knew the standers by and answer'd aptly enough to things ask'd meet Remedies viz. Clysters Vesicatories Catharticks also Juleps Spirit of Harts-horn Powders with many other things usual in this case being forthwith and carefully given him did so much good that within six or seven dayes the diseased being free from his Feaver waking sufficiently and desiring Food seem'd to recover and scarce to have any more need of Physical help But in a short while after I know not on what occasion undergoing a relaps and being drowsie again he was presently affected with a great Stupefaction so that being with difficulty to be awak'd he scarce knew any thing or did any thing with Knowledge the next day after being utterly stupid tho being pinch'd hard he would open his Eyes and roul them this way and that he saw nothing and within a day or two a Palsey of the whole right side followed The former Remedies repeated to him and likewise Sneezers Apophlegmatisms drawing of Blood Cataplasms to be applyed to the Feet and Epispasticks to the whole Head shaved with other Medicines and wayes of Administrations prescribed in order did nothing but the diseased after he had lai so for three or four dayes insensible the Pulse and Respiration at length failing he dyed The Scull being opened the formost Region of the Brain almost as far as the Insertion of the fourth Sinus was swollen being covered with a limpid Water shining through the Membranes which upon the dissection of the Meninges presently flowed forth Moreover at that place the portions of the Brain cut off by piece-meal appear'd too moist and almost without red or bloody specks but in the hindmost part of the Brain the Vessels were red with Blood and the cortical Substance appeared more low and firm without a Tumour or being floated with Water from these things as we have concluded before it will manifestly appear that the Cause of the Lethargy depends on a watery glut of filth in the outward part of the Brain The Brain being cut off piece-meal and a hole being made into the foremost cavity strouting with a lympha the limped water sprung forth as tho it had been pent up in too narrow a space before whose mighty store had filled all the Ventricles to the top and as it seem'd by compressing the
frequent access of it often begets a disposition to a Carus Apoplexy or Palsey This affect as often as it seems safe does not require a Cure for the Fit soon and easily passes off but because some whose Brain is weak and lax and whose animal Spirits being too dissipable are apt to a flight and confusion being troubled on any light occasion are wont presently to act or speak delirously therefore there is need of Physick for these tho not of Hellebore but of Cephalick Remedies for corroborating the Brain and fortifying it against the incursions of the morbifick Matter also for strengthning the animal Spirits and rendring them more fixt and stronger to resist We have given the Forms and wayes of Administration of these Medicines before they being profitable for removing the Procatarxis of any other Cephalick Disease A Delirium hapning upon continual and malignant Fevers requires a peculiar way of cure for it particularly indicates that the morbifick matter dangerously convey'd toward the Head ought to be revuls'd thence some way or other for which end let Vesicatories be applied to the Neck Plaisters or Cataplasms or the Flesh or warm Viscera of Animals to the Feet Inwardly let Temperate Cephalicks be given as Powders of Coral and Pearl the Waters of Black Cherries of the flowers of Cowslips and Poppies and other things refreshing and soothing the Spirits These things being thus premitted concerning the first and lightest manner of Raving let us ascend to a higher degree of it viz. the Frenzy which is far greater and more durable than the former affect In a Delirium the perturbation rais'd in the Spirits residing in the Brain seems like an undulation of Waters in a River upon throwing in a stone but in a Phrensy their commotion seems as the troublous motion of the Sea-waves raging upon a tempest The Phrensy is defin'd That it is a continual raving or a depravation of the chief faculties of the Brain arising from an inflammation of the Meninges with a continual Fever With this Disease another allied to it is rank'd viz. the Paraphrenesis and its cause is said to be not the Inflammation of the Membranes that cover the Brain but of the Diaphragm moreover in both affects the Fever as tho it were only symptomatical is said as also in the Pleurisie tho falsely to arise from the same Conjunct Cause viz. a Phlegmon of some Part but that the Phrensy rather succeeds the Fever both Hippocrates heretofore and now every Vulgar Person observes and that it is produc'd because the boyling Blood conveys its adust recrements to the Head viz. forasmuch as the Urine of a Feverish Person being changed from being troubled and thick to be thin and watery indicates an imminent Phrensy of which affect therefore the cause is gathered to be the removal of the febrile matter into the Brain But as to the Conjunct Causes of the Phrensy and Paraphrenitis it will be easie to shew that the former does not alwayes proceed from the inflammation of the Meninges and the latter never from that of the Septum in Anatomical Diffections I have commonly seen the Meninges nay sometimes also the outward circumference of the Brain beset with a Phlegmonous tumour but the diseas'd being not affected with a Phrensy but on the contrary with a drowsiness dyed of a Carus or other sleepy diseases And indeed Reason plainly dictates the thing to be thus for inflam'd Meninges and much more swollen greatly compress the Brain and stop the passages of the Spirits which causes a Lethargy whereas in a Phrensy the Spirits are dilated above measure the Pores of the Brain being all open'd tho it may happen by a long continuance of that Disease that the Blood being heaped together too much within the Veslels of the Meninges and there stagnating at length begets a Phlegmon in them but then we suspect for that cause by reason it frequently falls out so that the Phrensy passes into a Carus or Lethargy of which such as have the Phrensy often dye Nor do we less reject the inflammation of the Diaphragm which Galen with others have assign'd for the cause of the Paraphrenitis Anatomical observations plainly make out the contrary some time since opening the Body of a Girl dying of a sudden Leipothymia we found in the fleshy part of the Diaphragm a great Abscess with a bagg full of a gore and little bladders of Water yet she was never wont to be troubled with a delirium or phrensy And heretofore when we dissected the Body of a Renowned Person of the University who dyed of a bastard and long continued Pleurisie it manifestly appear'd that a great Abscess in the Pleura and intercostal Muscles being suppurated and broken inwardly had pour'd a mighty quantity of Pus into the cavity of the Thorax which corroding the subjacent Diaphragm had made a mighty hole in it and yet this Person in all his sickness had neither the Phrensy nor was delirous wherefore I judge that this affect is scarce ever produced by such a Cause but that opinion seems to have risen thence that oftentimes in a true Phrensy together with a continual Raving the motion of the Diaphragm is wont to be hindred or perverted as may be gathered from the uneven and difficult Respiration viz. sometimes being painful and suspended as it were sometimes thick and swiftly repeated with an Inspiration sometimes doubled which kind of symptoms and withall the alienation of the mind are said to proceed from the Septum being inflamed and therefore convuls'd wherefore the Ancients called the Diaphragm Phrenas tho they need not have done it if they had considered that all the action of the Diaphragm depends on the efflux of the animal Spirits from the Cerebellum and therefore if when the Phrenetick matter invades the Brain some part of it withall rushes into the Cerebellum besides the raving the motion also of the Septum tho in it self being without fault will be altered Therefore the formal nature of the Phrensy seems to consist in this that the animal Spirits being very much irritated chiefly in the whole brain are driven into disorderly very confused and withall impetuous Motions so that the acts of every animal Function are depraved and variously perverted the Ideas of things are confounded c. Moreover the Spirits not only in the Brain but likewise in the Cerebellum and every where in the Genus Nervosum being struck as it were with a rage fall in a tumult wherefore such as have the Phrensy do not only speak ravingly but breath unevenly cry out beat their Fists throw their Hands and Feet and exert all their Members with a mighty strength and force that really the whole Soul seems furiously to fret and rage in the whole Body or rather being set on fire as it were to be all in a flame and indeed the Phrensy cannot be more aptly defin'd than that it is a Phlogosis or inflammation of the whole sensitive Soul or of the animal
must have regard both to the Fever and to the fury The feverish burning or immoderate effervescence of the Blood which for the most part is the antecedent cause of the other affect ought in the first place to be restrained and appeased and withall the Animal Spirits ought to be pacified and freed from any violent excandescence If a Frensy happens about the beginning or middle of a Fever in a manner the same remedies and method of Curing conduce for both ends But if that affect happens upon this whilst it is in its greatest force or height the ways of curing often are contrary to each other and there is need of great caution lest while we give help to one disease we increase the other in this case the vital indication concerning the preservation of the strength has the first place and let not Blooding or Purging be used rashly and in a large measure In the former case when the Fever and Frensy are almost of the same standing let Phlebotomy which is seldom or never to be omitted presently be used and if the strength bears it let it be sometimes repeated for nothing depresses and diminishes the immoderate flame of the Blood as much as this Remedy and nothing more removes or withdraws its burning flame from the Animal oeconomy Wherefore if the case requires it let a Vein be opened sometimes in the Arm or Hand sometimes in the Leg or Foot sometimes in the Neck or Forehead sometimes haply it may be expedient to open the Artery of the Temples and sometimes also to draw Blood from other places by Leeches or Cupping-glasses for this is the chiefest relief And according to Galen this being the first and greatest of all Remedies is wont to satisfie a great many indications in the Frensy Moreover to prevent the violent recourse of the febrile matter from the Viscera to the Head Clysters will be of chief use with which if need be let the Belly always be kept soluble Vemits and Purges unless only such as are lenitive have seldome place here Let Cataplasms of Rue Cammomil Vervain Briony Roots Red Poppy-flowers with Soap be applied all over the Feet or in their place let Pidgeons slit in two be applied whilst they are warm Mean while Juleps Apozemes Powders Confections by which both the boylings of the Blood and the excandescence of the Spirits are appeased ought to be prescribed according to occasion Take the waters of Apples Black Cherries Cowslips of each four ounces of whole Citrons two ounces Pearl powdred a dram Syrup of the juice of Citrons an ounce mix them make a Julep let three ounces be taken three or four times a day Take Roots of Grass Leaves of Wood-Sorrel Burnet of each a handful Barley half an ounce Apples slic'd Corinths or Strawberries or Rasberries a handful let them boyl in four pounds of Fountain-water to the consumption of a third part to the clear straining add Syrup of Violets an ounce Sal Prunella a dram and a half Take fresh and tender leaves of Borage four handfuls Wood-Sorrel two handfuls two Apples pounded to a mash Sal Prunella two drams the pulp of one Orange double refin'd Sugar an ounce being bruis'd together pour to them of Fountain-water two or three pounds make a strong expression keep it in a glass to be clarified by setling Let six or seven ounces be taken at pleasure often in a day For quenching thirst drink at pleasure the divine drink of Palmarius viz. Fountain Water with Sugar and the Juice of a Limon or Water or Whey with the leaves of Meadow-sweet or Burnet infus'd or boyl'd in them emulsions of a decoction of the roots and flowers of Nymphaea with the seeds of Melons or fountain or distill'd Water with the pulp of boyled Apples dissolved in them Hypnoticks are often necessary in this Disease but such as are strong are not proper presently at the beginning nor may they be frequently used because sleep caused by opiats brings the matter more to the Brain and fixes it there more deeply Take Water of Cowslip flowers four ounces Syrup of Maeconium half an ounce Pearl a scruple make a draught to be taken late at night Take white Poppy-seeds two drams Sugar-candy a dram and a half being bruis'd together pour to them of white Poppy-water six ounces wring it forth and take it after the same manner Let Narcoticks consisting of meer cold things be given with caution because they do not agree with some whose Stomachs have their fibres very tender and sensible I have often observ'd that these kinds of Hypnoticks have caus'd a great oppression in the Ventricle and that then presently its inflation and a little afterward distractions and disorderings of the Spirits in the Brain nay in the whole Body followed So that not only a frustration of sleep but a mighty restlesness was caus'd Let a dose of liuqid Laudanum prepared with Salt of Tartar or the Juice of Quinces be given in a convenient liquor Epithemes also which provoke Sleep are often applied to the Temples Forehead and Sinciput with success of which kind are Oxyrrhodinum an Embrocation of Water or Milk liniments of the Oyl of Nutmegs by expression and unguentum populneum to which sometimes let five or six grains of Opium be added or a cake of Roses or of Poppy-flowers with Vinegar and Nutmeg c. Again on this account rather than for removing the inflammation of the meninx the warm lungs of a Lamb or Weather also Pidgeons or Chickens cut in two often give an excellent relief For this use the great Burr-dock bruised and mixt with Womans Milk and applied to the Sinciput shaved is greatly commended Also Penotus's Epitheme of twelve grains of Musk half a scruple of Camphire and twenty ounces of Rose-water impregnated with the Tincture of Red Saunders is commended by some Moreover not only to the Head but likewise to the Heart Liver and other parts Epithemes are wont to be applied Let a Sacculus of fine Linnen with lays of cordial Species and Cotton stuck in it and irrigated with the distilled Water or Vinegar of Roses be applied to the Praecordia also let Linnen Cloaths dipt in Vinegar of Roses be laid on the Testles Let the Feet be bathed with a decoction of the leaves of Willow Lettice and the heads of the white Poppy But let these kinds of cooling and mitigating topicks be us'd only about the beginning of the Disease in its greatest height let Resolvents and Emollients as the flowers of Cammomil Melilot Elder c. also the leaves of Mallows Arach Marjoram Hyssop and the like be added In the declination of the Disease let Resolvents only and those sparingly be used In the mean while a very great regard ought to be had of the Strength for this being too much broken all hope of Cure is lost Now the strength is wont to be soon consumed by reason of great watchings perpetual agitations of the body and mind a thin dyet and Blooding
for her sake mean while he does not only neglect the care of Domestick or Publick Concerns and even of his own Salvation but being frustrated of his Desire often layes violent hands on himself or if he be content to live and survive pining away both in Body and Mind he almost deposes man for the use of right Reason being lost omitting Meat Drink and Sleep and the other necessary offices of Life he yields up himself wholly to sighing and sobbing and to a mournful habit and gesture of Body If we enquire into the reason of this affect we easily find that the Corporeal Soul of Man being obnxious to violent Passions when it is wholly carried forth into an Object most dear to it viz. a Woman belov'd and is not able to get and embrace her it is delighted or contents it self with nought besides also paying no obedience to the Rational Soul it wholly grows deaf and does not hear its Dictates and crowding the Imagination only with Tragical Notions it dulls the edge of the Understanding Moreover in as much as the Praecordia a plentiful afflux of Spirits be ing denied to them fail as to their Motions the Blood heap'd together in the Sinus's of the Heart and apt to stagnate causes there a great heaviness and oppression and consequently Sighs and Groans mean while the Face and outward Members by reason of the afflux of Blood and Spirits withdrawn from them grow pale and languish hence it is commonly said of Desperate Lovers that their Heart is broken to wit in as much as this Muscle being not vigorously enough actuated with the Animal Spirit vibrates slowly and weakly and does no longer send forth the Blood with vigour into all the Parts Such disorder of the animal Function as an excessive Love brings concerning the Acquisition of its Object the like in a manner is brought by Jealousy concerning the keeping of the same when gotten so that always viz. both in the Fruition and in the Desire Res est solliciti plena Timoris Amor. That Soul if it be not secure of its most dear prey presently growing troubled casts a Cloud and Darkness on its own sereness and afterward being infected with a bilous Tincture every Object seems to it ting'd of a yellow colour for as a ferment of the Stomack grown sharp perverts all things taken into it into its own Nature so the affect of jealousy once risen turns all Accidents and Circumstances to a food for its own venom and since in this affect the sensitive Soul being bent awry as it were does not become conformable to its Body therefore the oeconomy of the Animal Vital and vegetative Functions being depraved the jealous Man raves and pines away Superstition and despair of eternal Salvation are wont to imprint almost the like affects of Melancholy on the sensitive Soul the Blood and the Body as Love and Jealousie but somewhat after a differing way of affecting for in those the Object whose acquisition or loss is in danger is wholly immaterial and its affect being first conceiv'd by the Rational Soul is imprinted on the other Corporeal Soul in the prosecution of which if this readily obeys then no disturbance of the mind of Man arises but if the Corporeal Soul shewing a reluctancy as it often falls out the Rational still presses with advice and threats presently that growing troubled stirs the Blood and Spirits in a disorderly manner opposes the Corporeal goods and delights to the Spiritual presented by the Understanding and endeavours to draw the man to its side And as thus there is a continual bickering between the two souls and sometimes the Will is superiour sometimes the Sensitive appetite prevails at length a Court of Conscience is set up by the Mind where every act is narrowly examined By reason of these frequent variances of the Souls the Animnal Spirits as being too much and almost continually exercis'd being often commanded and as it were distracted now this way and now that way at length fall somewhat from their vigour and good disposition and at last being become fixt and melancholick in as much as they are with-held from their wonted Expansion they form bye and unusual Tracts in the Brain and so bring a Delirium with a mighty Fear and Sadness in those kinds of affects the corporeal Soul being violently drawn away as it were both separates from the Body and being modified according to the character of the Idaea imprinted is wont to assume a new Species either Angelical or Diabolical mean while the Understanding for as much as the Imagination suggests to it only disorderly and monstrous Notions is wholly perverted from the use of right Reason After a like manner of affecting as this it happens that some melancholy Persons undergo imaginary Metamorphoses either as to their Fortunes or their Bodies viz. Whilst one imagines himself and acts a Prince another a Beggar another believes himself to have a Body of Glass and another thinks himself a Dog or a Wolfe or some other Monster for after that the corporeal Soul being affected with a long continued melancholy the Mind being blinded is wholly fallen both from it self and the Body she affects a new species or Condition and as much as in her lyes really assumes it CHAP. XI Instructions and Prescripts for curing Madness or the Mania AFter Melancholy it remains for us to treat of Mdness which is so far ally'd to the other that these affect often change turns and each passes into the other for A melancholy disposition growing worse brings a Fury adn a Fury coming to abate often ends in a melancholy disposition Since Madness raised withot a Fever and with â—â—â—ighty annoyance of the animal Function is wont to be continual and long-lasting its next and immediate subject must be the animal Spirits which being affected not per consensum nor by another thing forcibly moving them but per se and habitually fall from their proper and genuine Dissposition viz. salino-spirituous into a salino-sulphureous nature resembling Aqua Stygia as we have hinted before and consequently they exert none but disorderly Actions and continue so acting amiss for a long time to this their Fault haply the Brain the Blood or other parts contribute something but the Spirits themselves are first and chiefly in the fault Concerning Maniacal Persons we must observe that thefe three things are in a manner common to them all viz. First that their Fancies or Imaginations are perpetually occupied with the raging of impetuous Thoughts so that mumbling to themselves or crying out and yelling they talk aloud various things both Day and Night Secondly that their Motions or Conceptions are either incongruous or are represented under a false or erroneous Species to them Thirdly that with their raving a Boldness and Fury are most commonly joyned contrary to what it is in melancholy Persons who are always astected with a Fear and Sadness The Depravation or maniacal Disposition of the animal Spirits together
is not needful to illustrate the nature of this Disease with Histories and Examples and to set forth many Types of it but rather address your selves to the Hospitals of mad People where not withour a great admiration you may behold as it were a new and monstrous Generation of Men viz. contrary to such as are rational and as it were our Antipodes who if they could all be gathered together into one place and all the Fools and senseless Persons be joyned with them I know not whether they would not make an equal division of the whole Earth with the sober and prudent So far of the cure of a continual Madness But the intermittent has perfectly lucid intervals in which the diseased return to a sound Mind or the Fury only ceases the Delirium still remaining so that the affected become gentle and tractable yet continuing still to err as to their Imagination and Judgment they speak and do a great many absurd or incongruous things and afterward become mad again at times The remedy of both these affects as to the curatory Indication is the same as in a continual Madness that it will not be needful to fet down here any other Method or Medicines but as to what regards the Prophylaxis or preservatory Indicatin to wit whereby the way of curing to be used out of the Fits for preventing or lessenging them is order'd in which the Fury only intermits the Delirium remaining the very same physical Method and Remedies which we have prescribed for removing the Procatarxis of Melancholy are proper pa In a madness which intermits perfectly as to all smptoms at the most fit seasons to wit Spring and Fall solemn courses of Physick ought to be entred upon and also there is always need of a care and governance of the Diseased both that as to his diet and way of Life lie be kept always in an even and moderate Temper and that as soon as the signs of an imminent Fit appear blooding and purging being presently used its access be kept off Therefore at the approach of the Equinoxes let Blood be drawn from the Arm and then after seven or eight dayes from the Hemorrhoid Veins by Leeches Let Purges and Vomits by due intervals be given twice or thrice moreover on intermitting dayes let altering Remedies be orderly taken at physical Hours forms of these are deliver'd both in this Chapter and in the foregoing for the cure of Melancholy let the diet be thin and of good digestion as to Sleep Motion and other non-natural things let all be maderate If at any time aperson seems to be threatned with an access of Madness constantly before the Summer solstice let blooding with vomiting and a thin diet be used CHAP. IX Instructions and Prescripts for the cure of Stupidity or Folly STuidity or Folly tho it chiefly belongs to the rational Soul and signifies the defect of the Undertanding and Judgment nevertheless it is not improperly placed among the Diseases of the Head or of the Brain to wit in as much as that Eclips of the superiour Soul proceeds from the Imagination and Memory injured and the failings of thofe depend on the saults of the animal Spirits and of the Brain it self 1. As to the Animal Spirits how they ought to be qualified of their proper and genuine Nature and what they are by reason of a preternatural dispositio in the Frensy Melancholy and Madness we have sufficiently declared but besides sometimes the animal Spirits being in a manner destitute of active Particles become as it were dead and essaete to wit whereas the spirituous Particles ought to predominate and gather to them the saline volatiz'd in a Stupidity as well both these as the sulphureous being too much depress'd are almost drown'd and overwhelm'd in such as are watery and earthy 2. As to the fault of the Brain first it s a vulgar Observation that the Wit and towardly Disposition depends somewhat on the greatness and figure of the Head and consequently of its Brain for as to its bulk it is a Proverb that too little or too much Brain argues Folly And tho this does not always happen so yet it does frequently the reason of which is that in a little Brain only a few Spirits are engendred and exercised and a great Brain consisting for the most part of a course texture is not fit for any acuteness of Wit Secondly the genuine and best figure of the Brain ought to be globous to wit for this end that the Spirits may be diffus'd with an even efflux from the midst of it on every side to its circumference and may be thence retorted every where with equal Agles of Reflexions but those who have a flat Head or too copped or otherwise disproportionate for the most part have some notable failing in the animal Faculty 3. The Substance of the Brain ought to be well tempered and of a laudable texture nor only as to the qualities of Heat and cold drought and moisture but ist Constitution should be sublte and aereal consistig of a plenty of volatile Salt and Spirit with a moderate proportion of the other things that the Spirits may readily pass the whole and frame Tracts for themsnlves and withall it should be indifferently firm and compact that the Tracts and Passages may remain when made nor presently be defac'd by the subsiding of Parts too tender But in Persons that are stupid we may imagine sometimes an excess of some manifest quality in the Brain as cheifly of moisture and cold for which reason Children and aged Persons are often wont to be affected with a Dulness of the Senses sometimes a Texture too gross and earthy so that the Spirits cannot easily irradiate it or make Tracts for themselves To this gross Texture of the Brain some born of Rusticks are frequently obnoxious so that in some Families looking back upon many Generations you will scarce find one wise or witty Man 4. Sometimes the evil conformation of the Brain as to its Pores and Passages acquired by reason of some Disorders is the cause that the animal Function is not duely performed for sometimes these Pores are either wanting or perverted that the animal Spirits cannot duely operate So far of the conjunct Causes of Folly as to the procatarctick and evident Causes there are many Occasions by reason of which the foresaid blemishes are brought on the Brain or Spirits or both of them For first Stupidity is sometimes originary or born with a man and so either it is hereditary as when Fools beget Fools the same effaete Particles concurring to frame the Animal Organs in the Son which were in the Father or the Connate Stupidity is accidental as it were to wit it frequently happens that wise and mighty ingenious men beget meer Sots which sometimes so falls out for these reasons either that the Parents spend their Spirits in Study and too much thinking or weaken and enervate the Body through intemperance luxury and ill
let a gentle purge sometimes and letting blood in a small quantity if the strength will bear it frequently be used for the same pursose and likewise for deriving Faeculencies from the Brain Issues are proper in the Arm or in the Leg or together in both in gross Bodies and such as have a moist Brain it is good sometimes to cut two by the Shoulder blades Moreover it is on this account that some mightily extoll trepanning to wit whereby the Brain may transpire and evaporate the more freely let the diet belight and attenuating the Habitation in a free and dry Air the Sleep moderate After that these things have been used for some time and in a solemn manner if there be found no change it will be in vain to waste any more physical Oyle and Labour but if after the use of those things signs of benefit or some hope appear sometimes it seems proper to add altering Remedies to be taken daily at Physical hours for a long time Forms of these may be taken from our curatory part of Physick before delivered for removing the Procatarxes of most Cephalick Diseases Moreover I have thought good to add here besides some Magistral Receipts which particularly regard this case Take Spirit of Armoniack succinated six drams give from fifteen drops to twenty in the Evening and early in the Morning in three spoonfuls of the following distilled water drinking after it seven spoonfuls of the same Take fresh leaves of mistletoe growing on Apple-trees six handfuls Sage Rosemary Savory Wild-time Calamint Penny-royal Marjoyam the greater Rochet of each four handfuls roots of Angelica Master-wort of each six ounces Zedoary the lesser Galingal Calamus Aromaticus Winters bark of each two ounces Cloves Nutinegs Mace Cinnamon Ginger of each an ounce Cubebs Cardamums Grains of Paradise of each six drams all being slic'd small and bruised pour to them of the best Canary wine twelve pounds let them digest cold and in a close Vessel for three dayes then distill them according to Art let the whole Liquor be mixt and sweeten it with Sugar as you use it the Dose is two or three ounces After the use of Spirit of Armoniack for fifteen or twenty dayes let other Medicines have their turns for about the same space of time such as are the Spirits of Soot Harts-horn mans skull the tincture of Coral Antimony Castoreum Amber Quercitan's Elixir of Life Elixir Proprietatis Spirit of Lavender c. Or Take Conserve of the flowers of Lillies of the Valley six ounces roots of Aromatick-reed preserv'd six drams Ginger condited in the Indies Nutmegs condited of each half an ounce Species Diambrae two drams Lignum Aloes yellow Saunders roots of choice Zedoary Cubebs Jamaica Pepper of each a dram and half Coral prepar'd two drams Syrup of the Preserve of Ginger what suffices make an Electuary the Dose is two drams morning and evening drinking after it three ounces of the distill'd Water Let those whose Brains abound with too much moisture drink every morning a draught of Coffee with the leaves of Sage first boyled in it to those whose animal Spirits are effaete and depauperated the drink of Chocolate such as before describ'd seems profitable For ordinary drink prepare small Ale or Beer and in a Vessel of three or four Gallons let the following Bag be put after it has wrought Take leaves of Salvia acuta dried four handfuls Cubebs an ounce Cloves Nutmegs being slic'd and bruis'd mix them according to art Outward Applications have place here or which kind are a Cucupha or Cap Plaisters and Liniments and sometimes let these sometimes those or the others be us'd Take Flowers of Lillies of the Valley Rofemary and Staechas of each a handful Celtick spike two drams Roots of Cyperus the lesser Galingal Florentine orris of each three drams Labdanum Benzoin Balsam of Tolu Amber of each two drams Nutmegs Colves Mace Cinnamon of each a dram and a half make of all a jubtle powder and sew it into a cap interlacing it with Cotton Take of the Plaister call'd Flos Vnguentorum two ounces Tachamahacha Ceranna Balsam of Tolu of each three drams powder of Amber and Myrrhe of each two drams Cloves Nutmegs Mace of each a dram being melted together let them be made into a mass of which let a Plaister be made to be spread on Leather and to be apply'd to the Head shav'd Take Oyle of Palm half an ounce oleum Capivii three drams Balsam of Peru a dram oyl of Nutmegs by expression two drams oyl of Amber half a dram make a liniment for the Head I could add here many other Medicines and wayes of Administrations but let these suffice in a Case almost desperate where most commonly no Remedies do good and the Cure is never perfected CHAP. XIII Instructions and Prescripts for curing the Gout AMong the Diseases of the Head and Genus nervosum we justly rank also certain Affects which are wont chiefly to infest the Feet and Belly to wit the Gout and Colick For we may conclude from the primary symptom viz. Pain that the Seats of both are in the nervous parts I shall speak in the first place of the for mer. The Gout most commonly is wont to arise about the Internodia of the Bones of the Feet tho often it happens in the Joynts of the Hip Knee Elbow Shoulder Wrist Ancle and of other Parts The Fits of this Affect which in a manner is always intermittent either seize at random or periodically which ending sometimes sooner sometimes later good lucid Intervals ensue presently upon the first invasion Pains for the most part arise without any swelling tho afterward about the height of the Disease the Part affected often swells the Pains about the beinning scarce yield to any Remedies but are wont to be very much exasperated by Catharticks and not presently to be driven away or asswag'd by Topicks the Fits most commonly seize on a sudden and without a precious affect tho sometimes it has a fore-running effervescence in the Blood or a little Fever The Disposition to this Disease sometimes is Hereditary sometimes acquir'd through an ill Diet the Occasions or Causes which being wont to actuate the Disposition raise the Arthritick Pains are some violent alterations or Passions inflicted on the Humours and Spirits Hence Surfeiting immoderate drinking especially of acid and thin Wines Transpiration letted Anger immoderate Venery Sadness also the Revolutions and great changes of the Year and Air every where bring Fits of this Disease those that are obnoxious to this are also in danger of being sometimes troubled with the Stone or Gravel in the Kidneys and on the contrary moreover the Gout increasing gathers together every where about its chief Seats to wit the Joynts a calculous matter and there raises a tophous mass The Parts affected upon the twitching of whose Fibres the Pains are raised for the most part are the Periostia or the Membranes covering the heads of the Bones also the Tendons and
Remedies all these things are to be done methodically we shall deliver The cure of the Pain of the Colick is begun most commonly and proper enough by a Clyster let this in the first place be only lenifying and emollient by which as by an inward Fomentation the corrugations of the Fibres may be mitigated and the raging of the Spirits be appeased for this end warm Milk with Sugar or Molossus or Syrup of Violets also emollient Decoctions of Mallows Marsh-mallows Herb Mercury and the Flowers of Melilot Elder with Oyle of Almonds or of Olives also a Decoction of a Sheeps-head or Calves Feet are proper sometimes a Clyster of meer Oyle of Olives or of Linseeds are wont to give help before all others But in case mild Clysters do not easily come away or not loosen the Belly let such be used as irritate more and press and draw out by force as it were the Humours from the little Mouths of the Arteries for this end let carminative or better Decoctions be prepared in which let the Electuary Diaphaenicon Diacatholicon or e baccis Lauri or Species Hierae be dissolved Also to those Liquors it is usual to add three or four ounces of the infusion of Crocus Metallorum or to a pound of an emollient Decoction add of Venice Turpentine dissolved with the yolk of an Egg an ounce or an ounce and a half or take Vrine of a sound man a pound Venice Turpentine dissolved an ounce and a half Molossus an ounce mix them make a Clyster I have known this often to have given a great relief the reason of which seems to be that the balsamick Particles of the Turpentine comfort the intestines and like wise being received by the Venous Blood and circulated with it through the whole Body they move Urine so that a copious making of water often follows such a Clyster and it always carries a smell of Violets haply also the Particles of the Turpentine diftus'd every where move the morbifick or stagnating matter or incline that which is acetous or otherwise degenerate to a better Crasis Whilst the Intestines are so washt with Clysters and fomented as it were inwardly let outward Epithems also be applyed to the Abdomen Take leaves of both Mallows herb Mercury Wallwort of each four handfuls flowers of Elder Camomill Melilot of each two handfuls a Calves-head cloven Let them boyl in a sufficient quantity of Fountain-water Let the straining be used for a fomentation with linnen Cloaths dipt into it as warm as may be suffered and wrung forth and applied by turns repeating it as often as the pains press violently In the Intervals of the fomentation let a Cataplasm or Liniment be used To the magma of the Herbs bruised add Outmeal what suffices make a Cataplasm and let it be sewn in rows in two bags of a square figure for covering the Abdomen Let one of these be warmed at a time in a Platter on hot Coals with Oyl of Earth-worms or of Froggs let it be put on warm changing it assoon as it begins to grow cold Or Take Oyl of Earth-worms or of Froggs what suffices let the Part paining be anointed after the fomentation and let cap Paper moistened be applied and worn The Cawl of a Lamb or the Lungs or other warm Viscera of Brutes laid on the Belly and often changed sometimes wonderfully appease pains I have observed in some constitutions and temperaments that Epithems of hot thins or applied hot have rather encreast pains than mittigated them Wherefore in these cases it seems necessary to order fomentations of the Solutions of Nitre or Sal Armoniack or of other Chymical Liquors as in pains of the Gout sometimes as Septalius relates of meet cold Water But if the Gripes of the Belly do not remit by the use of these things we must use hypnoticks viz. which being given in a set dose often give great truce Mean while for refreshing the strength and failing Spirits and to order yet a greater Apparatus against the Disease Take liquid Laudanum tartarized from sixteen drops to twenty give it going to rest in a spoonful of the water of Camomil-flowers drinking after it of the same six spoonfuls let it be repeated every other or third night if the pains are very pressing In a hot constitution Take water of Camomil-flowers three ounces Syrup of Meconium half an ounce Aqua Mirabilis two drams make a draught to be taken going to rest Mean while that these things are done for appeasing pains and either for discussing or at leastwise loosning this matter sticking in the morbid fears let evacuating Remedies have their turns to wit both for wholly extirpating the Minera of the Colick and for cutting off the supplies or fuel of it that it grow no further For these ends a Vomit where it agrees and a gentle Purge and also in a hot temperament where a Fever presses or is feared Blooding ought to be used Take Sulphur of Antimony from five Grains to seven or eight conserve of Borage a dram give it in the Morning with Governance In this case according to the Judgment of a Physician present either an infusion of Crocus Metallorum or of Mercurius Vitae the Emetick Tartar of Mynsicht an expression of the Leaves of asarum and in tender Constitutions Salt of Vitriol and Wine and Oximel of Squills may be given Let Purges lest they nauseate the Stomack which is distempered be given only in a very small Dose and in a meet Form Take Rosin of Jalap and of Scammony of each five grains Cream of Tartar a Scruple Cinnamon powdred four Grains make a Powder or let it be made into Pills or a Bolus with conserve of the Flowers of Borrage or of Damask Roses Take Scammony sulphured half a Scruple Cream of Tartar fifteen Grains Diaphoretick Antimony a Scruple make a Powder let it be given after the same manner If a Fever does not press give a dose of Stomak Pills with Gums or of Amber either by themselves or with Rosin of Jalap Take Pilulae Rudii from twenty Grains to half a dram Laudanum one Grain make four Pills let them be taken going to rest these first bring sleep and purge in the morning Or. Take Calomelanos a Scruple Rosin of Jalap six Grains Scammony four Grains Ammoniacum what suffises make four Pills let them be taken going to rest In a long continued Colick when all other Remedies have done little or no good I have often known this Medicine given once or twice to have raised a Salivation to the great relief of the Diseased for if at any time the morbifick Matter plentifully gathered together in the Nervous Plexus's and other places about the Abdomen and there firmly sticking is not able to be moved by other Medicines the Mercurial Particles displaying themselves every way easily dissolve it and divide it into minute parts and drive them variously this way and that and at length wholly dissipate them Wherefore in a long continued and obstinate
Colick they may sometimes be given with success in order to agentle Salivation Baths and Sudorificks are generally wont to be prescribed in Pains of the Colick tho as far as it has appear'd to our Observation seldom with good success for these by exagitating the Blood and nervous Humour make them depose more yet of Matter into the Minera of the Colick nay and make the Matter there deposed serment more and be more unruly and very seldom perfectly discuss it Diureticks are wont to be given much more advantageously by which in regard the Blood it fus'd and its Serosities are copiously precipitated thereby the Fuel of the Disease is cut off and the mass of Blood being emptied receives into it a part of the morbifick Matter so that the remainder of it is easily discust For this end Take Spirit of Tartar excellently rectified half an ounce let half a dram be given twice or thrice a day in a Spoonful of two of the following Julep drinking after it of the fame four or five Spoonfuls Take Water of the Leaves of the great Bur-dock or of Aron or Arsinart a pound Water of the flowers of Elder and Cammomil of each four ounces compound water of Gentian and compound Raddish water of each two ounces Sugar six drams mix them After the same manner as Spirit of Tartar you may give in a meet dose sometimes Tincture of Salt of Tartar sometimes Mixtura Simplex or Spirit of Sal Armoniack succinated Take Millepedes prepar'd two drams flowers of Sal Armoniack tartariz'd a dram Oyl of Nutmeggs half a scruple Turpentine what suffises make a mass let it be form'd into Pills let three or four be taken once or twice a day drinking after it a dose of the Julep or five or six spoonfuls of the following distilled Water Take fresh Millepedes cleansed a pound and a half the yellow Coats of six Oranges and of four Limons Nutmeggs in number six being slic'd small add to them Crum of stale white Bread a pound all being bruised together and well mix'd pour to them of fresh Milk four pounds Sack two pounds distill them according to Art let the whole Liquour be mixt and sweetned with Sugar or Syrup of Violets at pleasure In a long continued and obstinate Colick where there are a hot Temperament and Viscera purging Spaw-waters or Whey with Syrup of Viclets is often wont to be drank with great relief for both Liquours where they agree being drank in a plentiful manner cool the Stomack and hot Intestines and presently ease and relax them being contracted with Cramps and painful Corrugations or being convulsively extended with Flatus's Moreover whence I conceive they chiefly give help insinuating saline Particles of another Nature into the morbifick Minera they conquer and subdue the Saline and Irritative Particles residing in it and often carry them forth by purging In this Disease since all things do not agree with all Persons nay nor the same alwayes or a long while with the same Person there is need of the careful observation and daily advice of a prudent Physician that by coindications taken from things that do good good or hurt the method of Cure may be rightly ordered and now and then chang'd The Vital Indication ought to be joyn'd to the Curatory and be now and then interchangeably us'd with it for since the Diseased being almost continually affected with tortures watchings vomiting and abstinence often fall into faintings and are sometimes in danger of Life let Remedies which support the strength refresh the Spirits and procure certain times of truce against the Fits of the Disease viz. Cordials and Hypnoticks have their turns Take water of the Flowers of Camomil and Elder of each four ounces of Cinnamon hordeated of the whole Citron of each two ounces Pearl powdred a dram Sugar four drams make a Julep let five of six spoonfuls be taken now and then Take powder of Pearl Crabs-eyes of each a dram divide it into four parts let one part be given twice or thrice a day with the Julep or with the Decoction of the roots of Contrayerva Take Conserve of Clove-gilliflowers an ounce Confection of Hiacinth Alkermes of each two drams Pearl powdred a dram and a half Syrup of the Juyce of Citrons what suffices make a Confection let the quantity of a Nutmeg be given twice or thrice a day with a Julep In Constitutions that are not hot Spirit of Harts-horn of Soot of Sal Armoniack succinated also Tincture of Antimony or of Coral often do excellently well Opiats in the Cholick are of necessary Use without which the Diseased can neither live nor the Physicians be at any rest or quiet Take water of Cowslip-flowers three ounces Syrup of Meconium half a dram Aqua mirabilis two drams mix them make a draught to be taken going to rest If the pain being very intense will not yield to such a Remedy you must give Preparations and Compositions of Opium Paracelsus's or the London Laudanum Pillul de Styrace or Cynoglosso are proper a Solution of Odium tartariz'd to sixteen or twenty drops is wont to be of chief use with me Which Medicine I have truely given to some Persons long and miserably troubled with this Disease sometimes for a long time one while every night another while every other night with good success 3. The Preservatory Indication having place only in the Intervals of the Fits endeavours the removal of the present Procatarxis of the Disease and the hindring of a future so that the Invasions of Pains may return seldom or never afterwards In order to these things the Blood and nervous Liquour ought to be purified and kept in a due Crasis that they do not engender a morbifick Matter and the Brain and nervous Plexus's of the Abdomen to be strengthned that they do not receive it too readily For these ends a way of dyer being ordered Spring and Fall let solemn Courses of Physick such as we have prescribed for the Prophylaxis of the Gout be entred upon Let Vomiting if it agrees never be omitted in this Case as by which the Emunctories of the Viscera being emptied they may more plentifully receive the Recrements of the Blood and nervous Liquour which would otherwise encrease the morbifick Matter And likewise that the nervous Plexus's and all the parts may be so shaken that nothing which would turn to a Minera of the Disease may be permitted to stagnate or be heap'd together there Let purging for three or four times by due Intervals also in a hot Constitution let blooding be used Moreover let altering Remedies and chiefly Chalybeats when the Person rests from purging be daily taken at physical Hours But above all other Medicines whatsoever Spaw-waters coming from Iron drank in the Summer time for a Month are wont to give most relief but when they are drank diligent care must be taken that they pass off well and quick by Urine or Seige least happily if they stay long in the Body by taking
to the Head or Feet they cause the Vertigo or Gout as it frequently comes to pass Take our Tincture of Steel an ounce give from fifteen drops to twenty twice a day in seven spoonfuls of the following Julep Take water of the Leaves of Aron of the great bur-dock each half a pound of magistral Water of Earth-worms of Gentian compound and of Paeony compound os each two ounces Sugar half an ounce mix them After the same manner Tincture of Antimony and of Amber nay and many other altering Remedies above prescribed for Cephalick Affects also in the Preservation from the Colick in regard its Procatarxis proceeds from the Brain have justly place here Being sometime since entreated to take care of the Health of a Reverend Old Man who had been very sorely obnoxious to the Colick for many years I used the Method and Remedies which are now described by the careful use of which after a Month or two he was better and within a Year and a half he seemed perfectly cured that afterward he lived wholly free from fits of Pains But the Colick Disposition had not long ceas'd and he omitted the usual course of Physick but about the Throat in the Muscles serving for Deglutition he had a Resolution which frequently troubled him that oftentimes by Aliments and especially Liquids there sticking he incurr'd the Danger of Suffocation Receiving help against this evil by Antiparalitick Remedies for the six or seven Years following he enjoyed an indifferent health and at last as was travelling being then first seized with an Apoplexy he died It is obvious enough in this case that the Recrements of the Nervous Liquor wont to be depos'd about the Nervous Plexus's of the Abdomen first raised the Colick afterward that the same being excluded from that part and betaking themselves to another seat about the Nervous Plexus's Ganglioformes of the Throat brought the Resolution or short Palsey of the Aesophagus and at last by reason of the same matter restagnating in too great a plenty in the Meditullia of the Brain the mortal Speechlessness ensued A certain cunning and subtle Lawyer fifty years of Age having been wont to be troubled for many years with a periodical Head-ach a deadness of his Senses and a mighty heaviness of his Head About the midst of the Summer being mighty ill of the foresaid Affects upon the Application of Topick Remedies on a sudden found ease but a little after he had a first seizure of a violent Colick the Invasion whereof was so fierce that his strength failing on a sudden he fell into frequent Faintings with a cold Seat which Fit nevertheless within twenty four Hours vanisht by degrees without any eruption of Flatus's or Purging But from thence forward being obnoxious to this Disease he had frequent accesses of it all which as I carefully observed were preceded by a Pain of the Head with a Vertigo and a Stupor fo that he was wont to foretell hence that the Pains of the Colick were to follow soon after in a certain Fit which continued for twelve dayes with a mighty fierceness the diseased himself observed and told me that the affect of the Abdomen coming upon him he had found no illness in his Head but that as the colick Passion remitted presently the Vertigo with the Head-ach returned from which reciprocal Metastasis of those Symptoms from the Head to the Belly and on the contrary we may argue that the same morbifick matter abounding in the Ductus's of the Nerves sometimes falling downward brought the Colick Passion sometimes restagnating above caused those Cephalick Affects Not long since a renowned young Man studious and using a sedentary Life began to complain of a great deadness and dulness of his Senses also of a heaviness of his Head and almost a continual Sleepiness Moreover his Stomack was become so slow and dulled that it was wholly destitute of all appetite whilst a cure is ordered against this evil Disposition by Remedies which rouse up the Spirits and shake off the burthen lying on them the Person falls into a most violent Colick to which he had never before been obnoxious by which a violent and as it were piercing Pain possest the middle of the Abdomen the Navel being drawn inwards and notwithstanding the daily use of Remedies of all kinds it continued with a mighty Violence for three Weeks so that during that while he could neither sleep but by taking Narcoticks nor receive any ease from his Pain but by a very hot Fomentation Certainly in this case it is obvious to any man to observe that these Impurities of the nervous Liquor gathered together to a certain fulness were the immediate or conjunct cause of all the illness which matter first subsisting in the Head caused the mighty dulness of the Brain and the oppression of the animal Function and afterward being fallen by the conveyance of the Nerves into the Nervous Plexus's of the Abdomen caused the violent and long continued Colick THE PRACTISE OF PHYSICK CONTAINED In Dr. Willis 's Tract of Fevers CHAP. I. The Anatomy of the Blood its Resolution into five Principles its Comparison with VVine and Milk A Fever is only a fermentation or an immoderate effervescence brought on the Blood and Spirits now that this feverish effervescence may be explicated as it ought these three things are to be considered First what that Liquor is which Ferments whether it be only the Blood or other Humours besides Secondly of what principles and of what proportion of the same that Liquor consists in its mixture Thirdly and lastly with what kind of motion and turgescency of these Parts or Particles of which the Blood is compos'd the Feverish effervescence is raised 1. That the Blood boyles violently and makes an effort in a Fever it is evident enough and we may Conjecture that that Juice with which the Brain and Nervous Parts are irrigated is often also in the sault for since this Liquor is carried by a constant motion and a certain circulation from the Blood into the Genus Nervosum and thence by the Lymphick Vessels into the Blood it s probable if by reason of a Taint contracted by the Blood that Humour is deprav'd in its Crasis or is perverted from its regular motion that thence the shivering and the pain the convulsions delirium frenzy and many other symptoms of the Genus nervosum usual in Fevers arise After the Blood and Nervous juyce there are two other Liquors which are to be considered as being apt to ferment viz. the Chime or Nutritive juyce alwayes coming to the Blood and the Serous Latex perpetually parting from it which tho first and last are Liquors sever'd from the Blood and distinct from it yet whilst mixt with it they ought to be lookt upon as Parts received into it or belonging to its Accomplishment and as long as both these are circulated with the Blood in the Vessels they participate of the Effervescencies of the primogenious Cruor and
sent forth and the confused and troubled Particles of the Blood are clear'd again and take to their former position and site in mixture Or secondly the Blood is troubled above measure because some Principle or Element which composesit viz. the Spirit or Sulphur is rais'd beyond the natural Temper and becomes exorbitant whereby the Particles of this or that not agreeing with the rest are loosned from their mixture being loos'd make an effort more then they ought exagitate the Liquour of the Blood and cause an effervescence which is not appeas'd till the Blood being inflam'd as it were has burnt a long time with a feverish blast But there is this difference betwixt these two boylings of the Blood that the Effervescence which depends on the mixture of an extraneous thing with the Blood is for the most part short or comming by Fits which when the heterogeneous thing is separated or subdued ceases of its own accord and the troubled and disordered parts of the Blood readily return to their natural Site or Crasis but the Ebullition which arises from the disordering of the exorbitant Spirit or Sulphur is continual to wit here the whole mass of Blood is so open'd and loosn'd from the strict bond of mixture that taking a fire like an oily Lpquour it does not cease to rage and flame till the Particles of the Spirit or Sulphur or of the combustible matter are for the greatest part consum'd There remains yet a third preternatural way of effervescency in which the Blood undergoes an alteration which does not happen to Wine but very frequently to Milk viz. sometimes a coagulation of that liquor is induc'd by a morbifick cause so that it substance is sus'd and separates into parts and there is a secretion made of that which is thick and earthy from the thin by reason of which the Blood is not meetly circulated in the Vessels but its congeal'd portions being apt to be fix'd in the extreme Parts or to stagnate in the Heart interrupt its even motion and greatly hinder it For restoring of which effervescencies greater than usual are rais'd in the Blood to wit such as every where occur in the Pleurisie Plague Small Pox and malignant Diseases CHAP. III. Of Intermitting Fevers AFever may be describ'd after this manner That it is a disorderly motion of the Blood and it s over great boyling with a heat and thirst and other symptoms besides with which the natural oeconomy is variously troubled As we observ'd before concerning the effervescence of the Blood so we may now concerning the Fever that its access is either short and coming by sits which therefore is called intermittent or great and drawn in length which is call'd a continual Fever We shall speak first of the intermittent Concerning this Fever we shall first enquire in general what kind of effervescence of the Blood it is which causes its Fit and whence it is rais'd Secondly Wherefore the Fit consists of a coldness with a shivering and a sweat ensuing Thirdly What is the cause of the intermission and of the set times of return Fourthly and lastly we shall subjoyn certain irregularities of Intermittent Fevers As to the first We must suppose that for an Intermittent Fever some heterogeneous thing is mix'd with the Blood whose Particles in regard they are not assimilated make so long an ebullition of the same till either being subdued they are rendred miscible or being subtilis'd they are sent forth wherefore such matter being subdued or sent forth the fit ceases and when this matter springs a fresh it causes a new Ebullition and consequently a new Fit happens Now that which causes an exactly periodical Effervescence of the Blood must of necessity be some thing which against each of the set returns or accesses of the Fever is engendred in our Body in a set measure and alwayes in an even proportion and is communicated to the mass of Blood wherewith when the Blood is saturated to a fulness presently it grows turgid and falls into an Effervescence now whatsoever others may think I judge this thing to be the nutritive Juice supplyed from the matter of things eaten and convey'd to the Blood in weight and measure which in regard it is not assimilated through defect of Sanguification being heap'd together to a fulness in the Vessels it causes a Turgescency in the Blood for its expulsion I have observed before a three-fold State concerning the Particles of the Blood viz. of Crudity Maturity and Decay that is to say the nutritive Juice supplyed from the daily Food comes crude being mixt with the Blood and circulated for some time it is assimilated and maturated into a perfect humour afterward waxing stale it runs into parts and is separated while the Blood is continually renewed after this even manner and its losses are repair'd it ferments quietly and is circulated within the Vessels without tumult or immoderate Effervescence but if the supply of the nutritive Juice be not maturated as before nor turns into Blood by a perfect digestion its Particles mixt with the Blood continue in its mass as some heterogeneous thing and not exactly agreeing with which when it is saturated to a fulness presently the Blood grows turgid and falls into a feverish Effervescence whereby the fresh supply of this depraved Juice is either subdued or sent forth If it be askt for what cause the nutritive Juice being mixt with the Blood is not assimilated but degenerates into a heterogeneous and fermentative matter I judge that this is done for the most part not through the fault of the Aliments or of the Viscera but of the Blood it self For the Blood even as Wines sometimes falls from its native and genuine Disposition into a sharp acid or austere nature and because the Blood sanguifies it happens that when that is fallen from its due temper it easily perverts the store of nutritive Juice wherewith it ought to be repaired Secondly as to the shivering and cold preceding the heat in this affect doubtless the true and genuine cause of those is the flowing and turgescencie of the nervous Juice degenerated into a nitrous Matter wherewith the Spirits and heat being charged are obunded and the nervous Bodies being irritated are put into a Trembling but afterward when these nitrous Particles being in part protruded to the Superficies of the Body the Blood is somewhat freed from their cumbrance and oppression the animal spirits recollect and begin to display themselves and then a most intense heat ensues because both the mass of Blood being opened by reason of its Effervescence with the febrile matter and its mixture being loosned the sulphureous Particles are freely kindled in the Heart and because the Pores of the Skin being possest by the same matter protruded toward the circumference of the Body the vapory Effluvia are inwardly restrained which much exagitate and heat the Blood and which heat continues still in it till the fermentative Matter being wholly burnt and fully
perfectly well But if a Tertian Fever by reason of the evil constitution of the diseased or by reason of errours committed in diet or Physick has laid its roots deep that after a long continued affect the fits still grow worse and worse and the diseased mightily languish their strength being dejected with a thirst and burning almost continual a loss of Appetite Watchins a weak Pulse a ruddy Urine and very full of contents somewhat a differing method of Cure ought to be ordered in this case first it must be endeavour'd that the Discrasy of the Blood be removed wherefore let the diseased feed only on thin diet as Barly or Oat Meats with the opening Roots boyled in them wholly forbearing Meat Broaths let the Belly be kept soluble if it be needful by the use of emollient Clysters Moreover Catharticks being omitted it seems that we ought only to insist on digestive Medicines which fuse the Blood and gently lead forth the serous Impurities by Urine and comforting Remedies which strengthen the Viscera and refresh the Spirits for this end apozemes of diuretick Herbs and Roots neatly prepared also Opiats of temperate Conserves with Sal Nitre or the fixt Salt of Herbs and with testateous Powders and Spirit of Vitriol mixt with them excellently conduce when the Crasis of the Blood is somewhat amended that the Urine is clearer and less colured also the sleep quieter with an abatement of Thirst and Heat then Remedies may be profitably given for stopping the fit of the Fever Wherefore let febrifuge Epithems be applyed to the Wirsts and to the Soles of the Feet also let the Powder of the Peruvian Bark or of its Succedaneum or also of the Bark of an Ash of Tamarisk or of Gentian be given in White-wine with the mixture of Salts After that the accesses are taken away and the diseased begin to gather Strength to have a Stomack and in some measure to concoct what they take gentle Purges will be of use but let the diseased still abstain from seeding on Flesh or rich fare and it is not to be doubted but he will soon recover his perfect Health without violent purging or blooding CHAP. V. Of the Intermittent Quotidian Fever or Ague NExt after a tertian Fever by reason of their Affinity and the likeness of the Fit follows a Quotidian viz. whose access is wont to return every day It is the Opinion of some that this Fever is only a double Tertian and that it arises from the matter being disperst and getting possession of a two-fold focus to which nevertheless I do not agree and I judge that its rise is to be attributed to a peculiar Discrasy of the Blood in this the symptoms of Heat and Cold are more remiss but the access holds longer and is often wont to continue eighteen or twenty hours this Fever for the most part follows upon a Tertian for when the vital Spirit is much spent by a frequent Deflagration of the Blood and the feverish Disposition still remaining the Blood is become weaker it less concocts or brings to perfection the nutritive Juice and perverts it in a manner wholly into a fermentative matter wherefore it is sooner brought to an increase and is heapt together to a plenitude of Turgescency in half the time as before but because the matter heapt together partakes as well of crudity as adustion therefore the heat of the fermentation is more remiss and more uneven and like green Wood laid on the fire it burns more flowly wherefore the fit is of a longer continuance Sometimes it happens that a Qutidian Fever arises first without a foregoing Tertian viz. when a feverish affect seises a Body that is cacochimical and filled with evil Juices for then the Blood being poor in Spirits perverts the nutritive Juice in a greater store and heaps it together in a shorter time to a plenitude of Turgescency and that which at first is a Quotidian often changes its Type and becomes a Tertian even as a Tertian often passes into a Quotidian there being a great vicinity betwixt these Fevers and their Causes and a little change of the Constitution of the Blood makes a transition of the one into the other An intermittent Quotidian Fever is not so easily cur'd as a Tertian for whether that comes first simply or follows upon another intermittent however it is raised drom a stronger cause and argues a greater Discrasy of the Blood which does not presently yield to Remedies Moreover this Fever if it be of Long eontinuance or comes upon another Cronick Disease besides the vice of the Blood it has most commonly joyned with it infirmities of the Viscera to wit the Blood being vitiated easily fastens its Impurities heapt together by degrees on the Viscera as it passes through their Involutions Hence in a quotidian Fever a loading of the Ventricle a tension of the Hypochondres obstructions or Tumours sometimes of the Liver sometimes of the Spleen or of the Mesentery are joyn'd tho these kinds of Affects are not the cause of the Fever as is vulgarly thought but only its products Wherefore in this Fever besides the simple Method of Cure which is indicated in a Tertian many other Intents or Coindicants come in consideration viz. We must use all our Endeavours that the Ventricle be purged of its load of Humours that the stuffings of the Viscera be clear'd that their Infirmities be strengthned and together with these that the Discrasy of the Blood be amended and the feverish accesses stopt so that by reason of these various kinds of Intentions we must proceed by a longer way to the Cure In this case Vomits if the Strength will bear them will be of use above the rest also Purges with which the assiduous increase of the excrementitious Matter may be sent forth must be often repeated besides these digestive Remedies and deobstruents which restore the Ferments of the Viscera and of the Blood and correct their Discrasies are frequently to be used Wherefore fixt Salts of Herbs their extracts the acid Spirits of Minerals and sometimes Preparations of Steel do excellently well Concerning these means there is a difficult task since because of the manifold evils many things are to be done together whereas by reason of the assiduity of the feverish fit the Diseased can use only a few In affects thus complicated tho the way of Method requires first a removal of Impediments and then to cure the Disease yet I have known this kind of Fever cured often without method and empirically in a cacochymical Body attended with many other affects to wit after a light provision for the whole febrifuge Remedies outwardly apply'd have first taken away the feverish access that afterward time and occasions of curing might be the better afforded for the other affects I lately went to see a Lady of Quality who having long had a cachectical habit of Body and being weak and feeble a month after Child-birth was seized with an intermittent Quotidian after fix
that taint contracted but if the strength of the Remedie given in too small a quantity be first spent presently the Povson springs forth anew and the ancient venom which seemed to be driven away is again brought into act after the like manner when the Blood having gotten a vitious habit perverts the nutritive Juvce and for the better expelling it when heapt together to a fulness falls into feverish Turgesencies that Peruvian Bark reduc'd to a Powder and given by the commerce of its Particles so exagitates and alters the Blood tho affected with a Discrasy by stirring a new fermentation that it in some measure concocts the nutritive Juice and continually evaporates its recrements so that they are not heapt together for a matter of the fit as before but when the Particles of this Remedy are wholly exhal'd from the community with the Blood and all the vertue is spent the evil Disposition of the Blood before contracted breaks forth again and therefore the fits of the Fever return after their wonted manner haply sometimes it falls only that whilst by the use of that Powder the accesses are supprest that Discrasy of the Blood by reason of the change of the Season of the Year or by help of some other Remedy or of nature her self is amended by degrees and so at length the Fever disappears of its own accord tho I have known this to have hapned but seldom that you may expect the feverish fits to return in a manner with the like certainty as they are supprest by that Powder As to the sensible qualities with which this Bark is endowed it is manifest that it excells in a bitterness with a certain stipticity that by the taste it is discovered to carry in a manner the like savour as is usually found in most Alexipharmicks such as the root of Gentian Serpentary Contrayerva c. For things which are actually bitter are mighty powerful in suppressing the sorces of preternatural Ferments nay and the Root of Gentian which excellently resembles this Bark was formerly of famous use for curing quartan Fevers and now tho this Peruvian Powder be the only Alexiterion yet found for the quartan Fever which stops the fits of it and of others tho only for a time yet it is not to be doubted but there are other Medicines in nature equally febrisuges and it may be hop'd that being led by the example of this new invention we may be stirred up to search into the Vertues of Herbs yet unknown to us thus while we insist on the tryal of Fparticulars and joyn Empirical Physick with the Rational it is not to be doubted but the Cures of the quartan and of other Herculean Diseases will go on more prosperously which I the more freely ensure for in this age or at leastwise in the succeeding because being guided by the Analogy of that Bark I my self not long since running through many things lighted on a Medicine of no contemptible use for subduing Fevers which also I give to all poor People as a Succedaneum with good success CHAP. VII Of continual Fevers AContinual Fever is that whereof the access is prolonged to many dayes without any cessation it has its times of remission and exacerbation but none of intermission the burning sometimes is more remiss sometimes more intense but the Diseased are still in a Fever till the Disease be wholly solv'd by a Crisis or an insensible recovery Now there are three degrees or manners of Effervescency by which the Species of continual Fevers are determined from the subtle portion of the boyling Blood or from the Ebullition of the Spirits arises the Ephemera also the Synocus of one or many dayes from the sulphureous or oily part of the Blood too much heated and kindled is raised the putrid Fever thirdly on a venemous Miasm infecting the Blood and congealing its Liquour malignant Fevers depend in each of these from the depravation or rather corruption of the nutritive Juice fresh heapt together in the Blood various Paroxisms Inequalities and critical Motions arise If it be askt after what manner the Effervescency of the Blood in a continual Fever differs from that other which makes intermittents I say that the Effervescence of the Blood in the latter depends only on the mingling of some fermentative Matter with the Blood which will not duely mix with it and on its heaping together to a plenitude of Turgescency by reason of the Effervescency of this with the Blood in the Vessels and its deflagration in the Heart the fit is caused its difflation is followed by an Apyrexia so that in the intervals of the fits neither the Spirits nor the Sulphur make an effort but the Liquour circulates evenly and without tumult in the Vessels the bond of mixture being entirely preserved on the contrary in a continual Fever the Disorders of the Spirit or Sulphur or of both of them together cause the ebullition of the Blood by their proper Effervescence without the mixture of another thing Wherefore for a cessation of the hurning heat besides the difflation of the excrementitious matter a deflagration of the kindled Blood and its reduction to a due Crasis are required The Constitution of the Blood in a continual Fever is as that of Wines when they ferment by too rich Lees that is to say they are strong with Spirit and grow turgid with an exalted Sulphur and therefore of their own accord without the mixture of another thing they fall into a heat and boyl violently In an intermittent Fever the Blood is stirr'd after such a Manner as Wines when they fall a fermenting by reason of something which is not missible being put into them Moreover in this Fever the Disposition of the Blood is like that of Wines when in their declining state they become over fretted ropy or also sour in which the Spirit is deprest while the Salt or Sulphur or both together are above the rest and affect the whole Liquour with their disorder an intermittent Fever for the most part is without danger because the parts that compose the Blood tho they have changed a little their Crasis however keep their bond of mixture and whilst they are at liberty circulate evenly in the Vessels and pervert the nutritive Juice into a matter not altogether preternatural but rather infesting with its Plenitude and Turgescency In a continual Fever besides the distemperature the mixture of the Blood and the texture of the Liquor are somewhat dissolv'd that its corruption easily follows wherefore this Disease is often terminated in death and the nutritive Juyce is depraved to a matter wholly vitious and altogether offensive to Nature CHAP. VIII Of the Ephemera Fever I Have said that the least degree of Effervescence which brings a continual Fever is placed in the subtle and spirituous Portion of the Blood being too much agitated and heated for this like Spirit of wine boyls on any light occasion and gets a heat being irritated either by too much
Motion of the Body or Perturbation of Mind from an ambient heat as that of the Sun or of a Stove by hot things inwardly taken as drinking of Wine eating of peppered Meats and the like for the Spirits of the Blood easily wax very hot of their own accord and being violently moved are not presently appeased but exagitate variously confound and force to a rapid and disorderly Motion other Particles of the Blood also by this Motion of the Spirits the Sulphur or the oily part of the Blood is more boyled a little more dissolved and somewhat more freely kindled in the Heart whence an intense heat is raised in the whole Body but for as much as the Sulphur is heated and inflamed only by minute Parts and not throughout the whole that fervour of the Spirits is soon allayed and ceases Wherefore the Fever which is raised after this manner is terminated for the most part within twenty four hours and therefore is called an Ephemera And if by reason of a greater heat of the spirituous Blood it be prorogued longer it seldom exceeds three dayes and it is called an Ephemera of many dayes or a Synochus not putrid but if it happens to be extended beyond this time this Fever readily passes into a putrid to wit from the long continued ebullition of the spirituous Blood at length the grosser Particles of the Sulphur fall a burning and involve the whole mass of Blood in this Effervescence An Ephemera Fever and a simple Synochus seldom begin without an evident Cause besides the things before-mentioned immoderate Labour Watchings a sudden Passion of the Mind a constriction of the Pores Surfeiting also a Bubo or Wound in Child-bearing Women an increase of milk are wont to bring these the procatarctick causes which dispose to them are a hot temper of Body an Athletick habit a Sedentary Life and a Disuse of Exercise The first beginnings of this Disease depend on the presence of an Evident Cause for either the Corpuscles of an extraneous heat mixt with Blood make it boyl like Water on the Fire or a Fever is brought by motion or by reason of Transpiration being letted even as when Wines being heated or stopt close in a Vessel are set in a strong working after what manner soever the inflammation be first rais'd presently the Spirits make an effort and moving hither and thither force the Blood to boyl and to inlarge it self in a greater space with a frothy rarefaction wherefore the Vessels are stretcht and the membranous Parts are vellicated hence a Pain especially in the Head and Loyns a spontaneous lassitude and an inflation as it were of the whole Body ensue But if with the Spirit of the Blood some sulphury Part withall be somewhat kindled a smart heat is diffus'd through the whole the Pulse becomes high and quick the Urine ruddy also Thirst Watchings and many other offensive Symptoms arise Concerning the Solution or Crisis of an Ephemera Fever and of a Synochus not putrid there are three things chiefly requisite viz. a removal of the evident Cause secondly a severing or difflation of the depraved or excrementitious matter from the Mass of Blood thirdly an appeasing of the parts of the Blood and their restitution to a natural and even motion and site According as these things happen sometimes sooner sometimes slower and with more difficulty this Disease is ended in a shorter or longer time 1. The Evident Cause which for the most part is extrinsecal is easily remov'd and Diseased Persons as soon as ever they perceive themselves injur'd by any thing are wont to avoid the presence of or continuance with that thing no Person being in a Fever upon drinking Wine continues still to drink it when any Person grows more hot than usual by the heat of a Bath or of the Sun it is irksome to him to continue in it longer 2. As to the excrementitious matter which ought to be separated and blown off from the Blood this is either brought from without as when by surfeiting drinking of Wine standing in the Sun or bathing in hot Water the Blood is infected with hot and fermentative effluvia's or Corpuscles or that matter is ingendred inwardly as when upon the deflagration of the Blood its Liquor is stuff't with adust Recrements or Particles both these Matters must be separated and blown off from the Blood and be sent forth either by Sweat or insensible Transpiration before the Fever is appeas'd wherefore when the Pores are clos'd and Transpiration is hindred the Ephemera Fever continues a longer time and passes from a simple Synochus into a putrid Fever 3. The Evident Cause being remov'd and this degenerated Matter blown off for a cessation of the burning heat there is required an appeasing of the Parts of the Blood and a reducement of them to order for a rapid and disorderly motion begun in the Blood is not presently stopt but ought to be allay'd by degrees also the divers Particles of the Blood disorder'd after this manner and being driven this way and that by reason of the feverish effervescence do not presently take to their former order of site and position but it is necessary that they be extricated by degrees and restored to their due mixture by little and little Tho this Disease after the removal of the Evident Cause ceases for the most part of its own accord yet some Physical Remedies are advantageously applied to Use especially where there is danger lest the Ephemera Fever passes into a putrid The chief Intentions must be to allay the fervour of the Blood and to procure a free Transpiration to which chiefly conduce blooding a very thin Diet or rather abstinence cooling Drinks a withdrawing the excrements of the Belly by Clysters but above the rest Sleep and Rest do most good which if wanting they must be seasonably procur'd by Opiats and Anodines A renowned young man about twenty years of age of an athletick habit of Body by an immoderate drinking of strong Wine fell into a feverish distemper with a drought heat and a mighty trouble of the Praecordia being blooded he drank a vast quantity of fountain-water and thereupon a copious sweat presently ensuing he soon recovered An ingenious young man of a sedentary Life and withall very much addicted to the study of Learning when of late he had exercis'd himself above measure in the Summer Sun began to complain of a Head-ach a want of Appetite a trouble of the Praecordia and a feverish distemperature over the whole Body To whom in regard he loathed all Physick I ordered a total Abstinence unless it were from small Beer and Barley-meats On the second day and again more on the third the Symptoms remitted by little and little at length on the fourth he became free from his Fever without any Medicine CHAP. IX Of the Putrid Fever A Putrid Fever is when the oily or sulphureous part of the Blood being too much heated grows turgid above measure and
vehemently by parts at length like Hay laid together wet after a long incalescence bursts forth all together into a flame through the violent boyling of the Blood at this time the Diseased complain of an intollerable thirst Moreover a head-ach obstinate watchings often also Deliriums a Phrensy and convulsive Motions molest them they loath all Food or cast it forth by Vomit or if happily it be retain'd being parcht by the too much heat it turns to a febrile matter there is also a bitterness in the Mouth an ungrateful savour a roughness of the Tongue a vehement and quick Pulse a Urine very ruddy for the most part troubled filled with contents without an Hypostasis or laudable sediment the Blood at this time being in a manner wholly kindled it engenders by its deflagration a mighty quantity of adust matter like the ashes remaining after a Fire whereby both the Serum being mightily fill'd yields a Urine that is thick and full of Contents and the Blood being loaded with it to a Turgescency is irritated into critical Motions wherewith that febrile mater if it may be being subdued and separated may be sent forth and this brings the height of the Fever in which judgment is given betwixt Nature and the Disease the contest being brought as it were to a tryal and therefore the evacuation which thereupon ensues is called a Crisis Therefore the height of a putrid Fever is that time of the Disease in which Nature attempts the expulsion of the adust matter remaining after the deflagration of the Blood to this are requir'd first that the Blood for the greatest part has past burning for in the midst of it Nature is not at leisure for a Crisis nor ever attempted it prosperously nor is it procur'd by Art with good success Secondly that the Spirit first in some manner subdue this adust matter of the Blood and separate it from that which is good and render it fit for expulsion Thirdly that this matter be heapt together in so great a plenty that by its Turgescency it irritates Nature to a critical Expulsion when either of those things is wanting the Crisis for the most part is of no effect and not to be relied on and seldom puts an end to the Disease A Crisis in a continual Fever is in a manner the same as the fit of intermittents for as in these when the mass of Blood is saturated to a fulness of Turgescency with the Particles of the nutritive Juice depraved and unfit for Maturation there happens a flowing secretion and expulsion of that matter so in a continual Fever after the deflagration of the Blood and nutritive Juice a great many Corpuseles of adust matter are heapt together with which the Blood being opprest when it is a little free from burning it subdues and separates them by degrees and then a flowing being raised endeavours to send them forth Wherefore as the fits of intermittents do not happen but at a set time and after so many hours so also critical Motions happen from the fourth day to the fourth or haply from the seventh to the seventh for in such a kind of space the Blood burns off and by its burning makes a heap of adust matter as it were of Ashes which being offensive to Nature causes critical Motions by its irritation Therefore as to what some say that the Crises depend altogether on the Influences of the Moon and Stars and that they follow their Quartile or opposite Aspects or their Conjunctions it is not true because critical Evacuations are determined only by the heaping together and Turgescency of the adust matter whose Particles if they can easily be separated from the Blood and the Pores of the Skin are open enough being involved in the Serum they are sent forth by sweat and this is the best way of a Crisis which if it succeeds well it often at one bout puts a perfect end to the Disease without fear of a relaps to this next succeeds that crisis which is attempted by an haemorrhagie for this matter as an Efflorescence arising with the Blood if by reason of an unfree perspiration it be not sent forth by sweat it is conveyed into some part remote from the Heart and is frequently sent into the Head by an impetuous sally of the Blood where if there be an open passage from the Sinus's spreading into the Nostrils the morbifick matter springs forth together with a portion of the Blood but otherwise often sticking in the Brain it brings a Delirium Frensy or other sore and lasting Diseases of the Head and it is to be observed that in almost any continual Fevers if at any time they come to an imperfect or difficult crisis so that the Blood is corrupted for a long time with a feverish matter or adust Recrements thereby the nervous Juyce as it seems comming to be tainted obstinate Affects viz. Watchings also Deliriums Tremblings Conlvulsive Motions and long sticking Weaknesses of the nervous Parts follow There are other wayes of Crisis's in which Nature endeavours to expell the febrile matter not at once and entirely but by little and little and by parts sometimes by Urine sometimes by Vomit or Seige sometimes by Pushes or Buboes which way soever it be done that it may be with good success it is requir'd that the deflagration of the Blood preceeds it and that the adust matter be concocted and rendred apt for separation Therefore the Height of the Disease is not one and simple nor always happens after the same manner but with a various diversity of Symptoms and with a tendency to events far differing now a prudent Physician must give his Prognostick in what space of time the Disease will come to its height and what event it will have If the Fever from the beginning be vehement and on a sudden pervades the whole mass of Blood with a burning if with the fierceness of Symptoms it presses in a constant and even manner without remission for the most part the Blood will so much burn off within four dayes that the adust matter which is to make a Crisis rises by that time to a plenitude of Turgescency but if the beginnings are slow and the accension of the Blood be often interrupted the Fever will come to its height about the seventh day if it begins yet more remisly the height of the Disease is wont to be protracted to the eleventh or fourteenth mean while it is to be noted that as the fits of intermittent Fevers return at set times so do critical Motions in such as are continual and for the most part they observe the fourth day for tho a perfect Crisis be prorogued to the fourteenth or seventeenth or haply to the twentieth day because all things requir'd to a full determination of the Disease do not concur yet in the middle space light motions happen with which the febrile matter rising by degrees to an increase is a little emptied and cut off as it were by parts till
it 's probable that that matter by long Coction is so parch'd and grown thikc almost like Glew wherefore it is neither to be blown off by Sweat nor insensible Transpiration nor is fit to be separated by the urinary Passages but at length distills forth by degrees from the little Arteries and other Ductus's of the Saliva which open themselves into the Mouth as being the usual way of Excretion and presently by reason of its thickness it settles into that clammy Humour The same Reason holds concerning Infants whose Blood being rendred impure from the Filth contracted in the Womb presently by making an outward Efflorescence it endeavours to purge it self which if by reason of the Thickness of the Matter it does not succeed well presently the viscous Impurities are exterminated this way as the more open I knew a certain Person in the Declination of a Fever who had not only an Incrustation of this kind of a clammy Humour in the Parts of the Mouth but a copious Salivation as tho he had taken Mercury was raised in him for many Days with a stinking Breath and a swelling of the Tongue and Gums 7. A Head-ach is raised in Fevers by reason of the Meninges of the Brain being twitcht by Vapours and by a sharp and boyling Blood for the Blood being violently moved it is carryed in a greater Plenry to the Head by reason of the streight Direction of the great Artery than to the inferiour Parts to which it is carryed obliquely And sometimes Head-achs arise by reason of the nervous Juice which is supplyed from the boyling Blood being too sharp and pungent wherefore when the Membranes and nervous Parts are irrigated with the same being twitcht by its Acrimony they are cast into Pains and Contractions 8. In like manner also the other Affects of the Head as Watchings a Delirium a Frenzy Conyulsions c. sometime arise from the Blood making an Fffort and so raising disorderly Motions in the Brain sometimes also from the nervous Juice degenerated and therefore become disproportionate for the Governance of the animal Spirits but most commonly these kinds of Symptoms are rife in Fcvers by reason of a Metastasis of the febrile Matter from the stock of Blood into these Parts for the Blood being full of adust Recrements remaining after Deflagration endeavours like working Wine wholly to subdue them and to exclude them from its Society which when a flowing hapning it is not able to expell by Sweat Urine or an Hoemorrhagie it often conveys them into the substance of the Brain and there fixes them and hence chiefly the foresaid Affects when they are fixt and firmly rooted take their Rise but when they are light and easily moveable they often proceed from the Causes before mentioned 9. Convulsive Motions happen in Fevers for divers Causes sometimes by reason of a Matter heapt together in the first Passages which by reason of its mighty Pravity twitches there the membranous Parts and afterward by the Consent of the Genus nervosum presently a Convulsion is communicated to the Origine of the Nerves in the Brain and thence is retorted sometimes into these Parts sometimes into others after which manner Worms gnawing in the Entrails sharp Humours moved and venemous Medicines cause Convulsions or secondly when a Fever partakes of some Malignity so Convulsions srequently happen in the Small Pox Meazles or Plague to wit because the Blood is altered from its benign and natural temper to a venemous Nature whereby the Nerves and their Origines are put upon Motions and Contractions often also without a suspicion of Malignity in a Putrid Fever convulsive Motions are caused by reason of a Metastasis of the febrile Matter to the Brain as it was hinted even now so I have often observ'd when a Disease is not presently solv'd by a Crisis the Diseased lye ill of a long Sickness and become obnoxious to convulsive and trembling Motlons Thirdly for the most part in every Fever convulsive Motions are the sad Fore-warners of Death which I think to happen not only through the malignity of the matter whereby the Genus Nervosum is twitcht and troubled but because the Spirits being very much exhausted and weakned do not sufficiently influence and extend the Bodies of the Nerves wherefore being relaxt from their wonted Tension and tonick Motion through the weaker effort of the Spirits they are still put upon a disorderly motion 10. Swooning is wont to be caused many ways in Fevers but chiefly for three Causes viz. Either throught the Mouth of the Stomach being affected which part being interwoven with sundry Plexus's of Nerves is very sensible and because from the same branch of the sixth Pair branches of Nerves are derived to the Heart and Ventricle if the Orifice of the Ventricle so beset with Nerves be affected with great Pain the offence also is communicated to the heart and in this the Motion is either stopt or at leastwise a disorderly one is raised whereby the even afflux of the Blood and Spirits is interrupted for a time I knew a certain Person in an acute Fever seiz'd with a srequent swooning which Affect nevertheless wholly ceased after that he had cast up by Vomit a long and round Worm Secondly a swooning also is sometime caused because a venemous Matter is circulated culated with the Blood which fixes and extinguishes the vital Spirits on a sudden and congeals the Blood it self that it is apt to stagnate in the Heart as it is usual in the Plague Small Pox c. of which we shall speak particularly beneath Thirdly A Swooning is wont to happen by reason of the fine Texture of the Spirits which being very thin and subtle easily yield to a Fainting upon any immoderate Motion or Pain so I have known some who lying still in their bed were well enough but being moved to any side presently fainted 11. A Cardialgia happens in Fevers when the Ventricle and especially its Orifices being very sensible by reason of the manifold Insertions of Nerves are beset with a sharp and betterish or also with an acid and corrosive Humour for hence a Pain arises from the Acrimony of the Humour after the like manner as when the Sphincter of the Anus is affected with a tedious Pain in bilous Dejections 12. For the like Cause a Vomiting and a Nauseousness are wont to be raised to wit the Ventricle being beset and irritated to a Contraction by a matter which is extraneous and not agreeing with it self Such an excrementitious matter is heapt together in the Ventricle after three manners for either the Aliments partly through defect of an acid Ferment wherewith they ought to be duely concocted partly by reason of the burning Heat of the Ventricle are parcht into such a Mass of Corruption or secondly this kind of Matter is deposed into the cavity of the Ventricle from Arteries terminated in it as it usually happens in the Small Pox Plague and malignant Fevers or thirdly meer Choler
exprest from the Meatus Choledochus into the Intestinum jejunum by reason of an inverted and as it were convulsive Motion of the Intestine is cast up into the Stomach The loss of Appetite also happens by reason of the Ventricle being filled with vitious Juices and because the acid Ferment is wholly perverted by the scorching Heat These kinds of Affects of the Ventricle and Viscera sometimes arise from an excrementitious matter viz. the Alimentary degenerated whilst it was concocting heapt together in the first Passages a long time before the Fever which often is the occasional Cause of the Fever it self but sometimes the Nauseousness Loss of Appetite Vomiting Cardialgia c. are the immediate Products of the Fever for when the day before the falling sick the Affected had a Stomach good enough assoon as the immoderate Effervescence is brought on the Blood whilst that boyls above measure both the Effluvia and Recrements wont to be evaporated outwardly and the bilous Humour flowing from the Vasa Choledocha are pour'd into the Stomach with which its Crasis is perverted and the Relicks of the Chyle and other Contents in the Viscera are mightily depraved whence the foresaid Affects draw their Origine 13. Nor is a Loosness a less frequent symptom in Fevers which sometimes happens about the beginning of the Disease and arises for the most part either from the Choler flowing from the Vasa Choledoca into the Duodennm or from the Recrements of the Blood and Nervous Juyce pour'd from the Arteries and Ductus of the Pancreas into the Intestines Sometimes also about the height of the Disease and in its declining state a loosness is raised and so either Nature being conqueress the grosser off scourings of the Blood are this way Critically voided or the same being overcome the loosness is an effect and sign of the Viscera being wholly dissolv'd in their strength and firm tone Sometimes it happens in a Fever that the Belly is alwayes bound and unless irritated by a Medicine it discharges nothing and tho the Diseased have taken only liquid things for many dayes the stools are alwayes of a solid and hardish consistency and this seems for the most part to be done when the Blood burning greatly with a smart heat consumes the moisture lying in any part like Fire and by a copious emission of stems draws the watery matter from the Viscera into it self and presently causes it to evaporate outwardly wherefore the grosser part left in the Intestines is thickned by the parching heat as the Caput Mortuum remaining after distillation 14. The bloody Flux is an affect so frequent in continual Fevers that in certain years it becomes Epidemious and being as bad as a Plague it kills many the cause useally is not a humour produ'd inwardly in the Viscera which corrodes the Intestines with its Acrimony as some assert but some Miasm past into the Blood and so in wardly mixt with it that it cannot be forc'd from the Blood under the form of a Vapour or sincere Humour wherefore being driven toward the Intestines it opens the Mouths of the Arteries and causes little Ulcers and Distillations of Blood there as when from a feverish Blood taking toward the Skin Pushes and inflamed Swellings break forth outwardly and it is likely that those affects of the bloody Flux which accompany malignant or epidemious Fevers may airse from a certain coaulation of the Blood The pulse and Urine bring up the rear of the Symptoms and Signs in a putrid Fever which are chiefly to be minded for knowing both the state of the Disease and the strength of the Diseased for there being two things by which our Life is supported viz. Heat kindled in the heart and Coction to be perform'd in the Viscera and Vessels because the Pulse and Urine excellently shew the alterations caused in both by the Fever therefore hence a most certain Judgment is taken of the affect whether it will terminate in Death or a Recovery First we consult the Pulse as a Thermometer constituted by Nature for measuring the heat kindled in a Fever which if it be intense and raises a great ebullition of the Blood the Artery has a vehement and quick beat as long as the Spirits hold a good Vigour afterward the same being somewhat exhausted the strong Pulse remits which nevertheless is recompens'd by quickness and becomes quick and small If the Fever be mild and be attended by a less burning the Pulse also declines less from its natural state and in the whole course of the Disease the moderation of this denotes a truce of Nature nor does the Pulse only discover the strength of the Fever as it were of the Enemy but plainly shews also the sktrength of Nature and its ability of resisting as long as the Pulse is laudable things are in safety and it gives very good hope but from the evil state of this a very ill omen is given and a despair of doing well So that without a srequent and diligent examining of the Pulse the Physician can neither make a due prognostick nor safely order a Medicine 1. As to the first he ought to know as far as he may what sort of Pulse a Person has according to his natural Constitution for in some it is strong in others weak again in each change of Fevers he must weigh by what degrees it differs from its natural state for one while it is more vehement than it ought and argues the Fever to be intended another while it 's deprest lower than usual and denotes the Spirits and Strength to be dejected Those whose Artery has a weak and languid beat in their state of Health when they are taken with a Fever it is not so very ill with them to have a small and weak Pulse that we must presently despair of their well doing those who have naturally a strong and vehement Pulse if after the Crisis of the Disease it scarce holds a mean Vigour tho it be not altogether weak it argures the state of the diseased to be suspected and not safe If at the beginning of a Fever before the Blood has much burnt or if after a Crisis when part of the burthen is diminisht or if at another time the Pulse becomes weak without an evident cause it fore-bodes ill but if after long Watchings or after a great Evacuation the Pulse becomes somewhat weaker we may not therefore despair of a Recovery because Strength dejected or impair'd by these means may be again restor'd and the Spirits may be refresht When the Pulse on a sudden is altered for the worse tho the Diseased as to the rest of the Symptoms seems to himself to be better you may give a sad prognostick of Death and on the contary tho horrid Symptoms are pressing if notwithstanding the Pulse be laudable we may still hope for a Recovery If in a robust man being in a Fever the Pulse becomes very small and formicating Death is near at hand 2. In giving Medicines
Cautions and Rules of no small moment are taken from the Pulse Purging and Vomiting are prohibited by an over quick and violent Pulse also by a low and deprest one for when the Blood boyles too much an evacuation does little good both because that which is offensive is not separated and also for that by that Perturbation the strength is more debilitated And when the Spirits are broken and the Strength dejected a Purge casts them do wn more and sometimes wholly resosves them Wherefore when a Physician thinks of an evacuation upward or downward first let him try the Pulse and let him set upon this work only when Nature is strong and in a calm that it may both be at leisure for the Operation of the Medicine and have Strength enough to bear it Nor is there need of less Circumspection in Diaphoreticks and Cardiacks which if they are given in the feverish fit they too much intend the motion of the Heart which before was violent and very often break its strength and when the Pulse is very faint if hot and strong Cordials are given Life is easily extinguisht as when a small Flame is prest with a strong blast of Wind wherefore it s a vulgar observation that Cordials often accelerate Death for that by too much exagitating the Blood they sooner consume the Strength There is yet need of the greatest Caution and Direction of the Pulse in giving Narcoticks for those because they perform their Operation by exstinguishing and fixing the over fierce vital Spirits if they are used in a weak or wavering Pulse either by diminishing the vital Spirits they render them wholly insufficient for the Disease or by suffocating them too much they bring a perpetual sleep wherefore in a languid unequal or formicating Pulse let Opiates be shun'd of all things The uneven and intermittent Pulse have an ill name in the writings of Physicians yet tho they are lookt upon as ill they do not so certainly portend Death as a weake Pulse for I have known many with those kinds of signs to have escapt who were condemn'd to the Grave for the disorder of the Blood and Spirits may much more certainly and easily be restrain'd or appeas'd than their dejection be restored 2. The inspection of Urines in Fevers has more of certainty than in any other Diseases and is of very great use for hence the states of the sick Person and of the Disease are excellently known and the physical Intentions concerning things to be done are hence best directed some of the chief Observations and Rules concerning this matter are as follows Concerning the Urines of Persons in Fevers the things chiefly to be observed are the Colour Consistency Contents and setling the colour of the urine shews the degree or excess of heat in the Blood which as it is increast or is more remiss the Urine also is more or less ruddy Nevertheless the Urines of some are mighty ruddy when they are but lightly feverish and on the contrary the Urines of others troubled with the burning heat of a Fever are less coloured Those who abound with a vigorous heat and a very hot Blood or are obnoxious to the Scurvy Ptysick or the Hypocondriack affect when upon taking cold or through a Fulness Surfeiting or drinking Wine they are set upon by any small Fever they make an intensly ruddy Urine because the Particles of the Salt and Sulphur are exalted and half dissolved in their Blood before wherefore of necessity when the Fever presses they are more incocted in the Serum on the contrary those who having a cold Temperament and a weak Pulse are taken with a Fever tho they have a greater Effervescence of the Blood void a Urine less coloured The Consistency Contents and Setling of Vrines being places as it were in the same Rank depend altogether on the adust and recrementitions Matter which remains in the Blood after the burning of the Fever if there be a plenty of this the Consistency of the Urine becomes somewhat thick and after it has stood it is troubled by the Cold if either the quantity of this be less or it be derived elsewhere than to the Reins to wit if it be withdrawn by Sweat or by a critical Metastasis into this or that part the Consistency becomes more thin and the Liquor remains clear And the Particles of this matter furnish the Contents of the Urine which are diversly disposed according as the nutritive Juyce is one while somewhat concocted and assimilated by the Blood another while is wholly perverted and turns to a mass of Corruption Some signs of Coction and Assimilatiturns to a mass of Corruption Some signs of Coction and Assimilation are given in the Urines of Persons in Fevers sometimes by a laudable Hypostasis sometimes by certain Rudiments and Foot-steps of the same A Privation of an Hypostasis and a confusion and troubled state of the Parts of the Urine denote Coction to be vitiated and as this matter is more or less parched in the Blood the Contents are sometimes pale sometimes of a yellowish Colour like oker According as the Recrements mixt with the Blood either the Spirit prevailing begin to be subdued and separated or the same being too much deprest are less able to be separated also the Contents of the Urine are wont more or less sooner or later to be separated from the rest of the Urine and to subside towards the bottom As to the Prognosticks to be taken from the Urine we observe That somewhat a remiss Colour of the Urine a mean Consistency a sew Contents subsiding of their own accord or readily gathering together into a little Cloud portend Good on the contrary an intense Redness a thick and troubled Consistency gross and opake Contents which slowly or scarce at all subside towards the bottom denote a great Effervescency a plenty of adust Matter and its subduing and separation to be difficult or frustrated As to Physical Directions the thing consists in this that by a frequent Inspection of Urines we attend to the Motion of Nature and readily follow it nor must we move by Purging or Sweat but when some Hypostasis shews signs of Coction and Separation in the Urine CHAP. X. Of the Signs and Cure of the putrid Synochus or continual Fever BEsides what is said before of the putrid Synochus in general there are moreover certain Varieties or Irregularities not to say Species of this Disease by which this Fever somewhat declines from this common Rule and by reason of certain accidental Affects gets new Names and Distinctions First therefore a putrid Synochus is wont to be divided into a symptomatick and an essential one That is said to be symptomatick which draws its Origine from some other Affect or Disease first raised in the Body so that the Fever is only the symptome coming upon that other Affect as that is accounted which depends on a Squinancy Plurisie Wound Vlcer c. in or near some principal Part of which
another Man seiz'd with the Plague gets the same Disease or mediately and at a distance as if it happens that the Contagion be convey'd from one House to others at a distance and so if the Plague assails any Person handling a Garment or Houshold-stuff of an infected House after some Days or Months or haply Years tgherefore that the nature of a Contagion and the divers manners of it may be plainly known let us examine first What that things is which flows from an infected Body secondly How it is fisposed in the medium through which it passes thirdly After what manner it engenders an Affect like it self in another Body 1. That from every Body though of a fixt Nature Effluvia's of Atoms constantly flow which make as it were a mist or cloudy Circle about them and invest them as it were like the Down of a Peach it is so receiv'd a thing among the soundest Philosophers that there is nothing more and the more active Particles any thing consists of by so much it sends from it Corpuscles of a more notable Vertue and Energy hence the Effluvia which part from Electrick Bodies are albe to move other Bodies from their Places from Sulphurs Emanations pass which fill the whole Neighbourhood with Odours since therefore the pestilential Venom as is said before tho in a small Bulk is of a mighty Efficacy and Operation wheresoever it is fixt certain Emanations necessarily proceed from the Bodies imbued with it which carry the nature of the same Poyson and Malignity and diffuse it on every side according to its Sphere of Activity but since these Corpuscles which retain the Contagion of the Pestilence when they flow from one body are not presently received by another let us inquire how they are disposed in respect of their passing through the Medium Where presently occurrs the difference of them from most others in regard that the Effluvia which generally evaporate do not long retain the Nature of the body whence they flow but either vanish in the tenuated Air or closing with other bodies are assimilated with them but those Particles which part from a pestilential Miasm are not easily absorb'd by the Air or other Body so that they wholly perish but among various Consusions of Atomes and Dashings against other bodies they preserve themselves entire for this Poyson being ina manner masterless and insuperable by others continues still the same and tho it consists of a very small heap of Atomes it does not presently vanish but taints with its Ferment the next Corpuscles to it and so acquires to it self new Stores and gets Strength as it goes whence it lies long hid in every Fomes and after a long time when it has lighted on a fit Subject it exerts it self and communicating the Infection of its Venom to the other it resuscitates a-new the Disease of the Plague which before seemed to be driv'n away and tho from a very small Seminary it disperses its mortal Povson far and near For the Plague discloses such most certain Signs of its Contagion that some Authors affirm it to subsist among Mortals only by this means and that it not where arises a-new but is preserv'd only by a Fomes and that it is now and then conveyed from one Region into another Histories tell us that the Seeds of it have lain dormant for many Years in a Garment or Bed-Cloaths that upon the same afterward being stirr'd they have shewn themselves and have brought the Disease of the Pestilence arising a-fresh with a mighty Destruction of Mankind when by reason of a Fomes the Pestilence is propagated to a distance after this manner the venemous Corpuscles which remain in the Miasm being stirred presently spring forth and display their Venom on every side as it were by a certain Irradiation if they any where light on a humane Body they presently seise the Spirits and are conveyed inward by their Vehicle and then easily enough infect the Blood and all other Homours flowing in the Vessels with their Ferment and in a short time cause Coagulations and a Putrefaction in them And after this manner by most subtle Effiuvia there is made a certain Transmigration as it were of the pestilential Disease ev'n as when a graft cut from some Tree and laid aside for some time and afterward inserted in another Trunk is able though from a very small Bud to produce a Tree of the same Kind and Nature CHAP. XII Of the Plague THE Plague may be described after this manner That it is an Epidemious Disease contagious very destructive to Mankind taking its Rise from a venemous Miasm first received by the Air afterward propagated by Contagion which setting upon Men after a hidden and secret manner causes Extinctions of the Spirits Coagulations of the Blood Syderations and Mortifications of it and of the solid Parts and brings the Diseased in danger of Life with an Appearance of Pushes Bubo's or Carbuncles and with the addition of other horrible Symptoms There are a great many Signs occurring to us which fore-shew that the Pestilence will happen in a short time to wit if the Year does not keep its Temperament but has immoderate and very unseasonable excesses of Heat or Cold Drought or Moisture if the Measles or Small Pox are every where very rise if Phlegmons or Bubo's accompany reigning Fevers from a preceeding Famines a most certain Presage is taken of an ensuing Plague for the like Constitution of the Year which for the most part brings a Dearth of Provisions by reason of the Corn being blighted is apt also to produce a Plague also the evil sort of Dyet which such as are prest with Hunger make use of eating all kinds of unwholsome things without choice disposes their Bodies more readily to receive the Contagion Moreover Earth-quakes and fresh-opened Grotto's and Caverns upon the cleaving of the Earth by reason of the Eruptions of a malignant and venemous Air have often given Beginnings to Plagues Again as there is need of great Diligence in taking a fore-view as it were from a Watch-Tower of an imminent Plague so we ought to be no less sagacious in observing the same as if first arises and cast its first Darts for often being too sollicitous we dread even vulgar Fevers if haply they end in Death for this Contagion and sometimes being too secure contemning the Pestilence by reason of its Symptoms resembling those of a common Fever we find our Dangers but too late wherefore for the fuller knowledge of this Disease we shall set down its Signs and Symptoms both common and pathognomick Besides the Signs above delivered which by a certain Demonstration a Priori give a Suspicion of an ensuing Plague there are others whose concurrence with it plainly shew its Presence in a Body diseas'd of these some are common to a Plague with a putrid Fever some are more proper to this Affect for the Impression of the Plague oftentimes stirs up an Effervescence of the Blood and
look upon Simple Sinochi as free yet we assert them to be seldom touch'd with this Taint but most commonly the Fever which gives marks of a pestilent Nature or Malignity is such as imitates the Type of that we call a Putrid Fever for since in these Fevers besides the Phoenomena of a Virulency we observe a continued Effervescence of the Blood which as in Putrids passes through the Stages of a Beginning Increase Height and Declination we justly conclude that the sulphureous part of the Blood here is heated and kindled and by its burning brings the Fever wherefore in these kinds of Fevers two things are chiefly to be noted to wit the Effervescence of the Blood and a Malignity joyn'd with it of which sometimes this sometimes that excells and in both there is a great Latitude and there are many Degrees of Intension according as the Fever becomes more or less acute or malignant The Effervescence happens after the same manner as it is said before of putrid Fevers to wit the sulphureous part of the Blood growing hot above measure by its fervour takes to a Flame as it were whilst it burns it heaps together a vast Store of adust Matter in the Blood on the subduing and exclusion of which after the wonted manner of Fevers the height and Crisis depend but besides the Blood being infected with a certain venemous Miasm begins in burning by reason of the malignant Ferment to be coagulated and to putrifie by Parts wherefore besides the usual Symptoms of a vulgar Fever by Reason of certain Portions of the Blood being congealed or mortified a Fainting and Dejection of the Spirits also Appearances of Spots and Marks ensue Moreover the Venemous Effluvia which part from the Diseas'd by the force of the Contagion are able to stir up the like Affect in others wherefore by reason of the Destruction and Contagion and the various Degrees of the same it is call'd a Pestilential or Malignant Fever When the Blood boyling over vehemently is infected also with a malignant and venemous Ferment not only Coagulations of its own Mass with a Disposition to a Putrefaction are caus'd but the nervous Liquor also readily contracts this Taint whence being rendred disproportionate to the Brain and for the oeconomy of the animal Spirits it stirs up great Irregularities in them wherefore not only Spots and Pushes but oftentimes a Delirium Frenzy drowsie Affects Tremblings of the Limbs Cramps and convulsive Motions happen upon these Fevers We often observe that in certain Years malignant Fevers are rife which without an appearance of Marks shew their Virulency chiefly about the Genus Nervosum for in some presently from the Beginning a Sleepiness with a mighty Drowsiness of the Head in others obstinate Watchings a Disturbance of Mind with a Trembling and convulsive Motions but in most either no Crisis or a deceitful one and instead of it a Translation of the sebrile matter to the Brain has followed It has been farther observ'd that these Fevers have past by Contagion into others and that many have died of them so that they deserve to be call'd Malignant Now these kinds of Fevers sometimes are first begun by a venemous Miasm and the Blood being blasted with the Particles of the Poyson naturally falls into an over-vehement boyling and is inflamed as when any one by a Contagion or by breathing a malignant Air falls into a malignant Fever without an evident Cause or Praedisposition and sometimes a feverish Distemper arises from its own cause and afterward the Seeds of the Malignity either lying hid within the Body exert themselves in the Blood boyling over vehemently or come from elsewhere from a contaminated Air as a Fewel to a Flame first kindled for it is manifest by frequent Observation that during the time an Epidemick Fever reigns others after what manner soever they arise pass into it Malignant Fevers as also Pestilential for the most part are Popular and seise many together but sometimes they are peculiar and sporadical that haply they seise only one or two in a whole Country In such a case we may imagine that they proceed not from an Infected Air or Epidemick Cause but from a morbid Disposition of the Body for I have often observ'd that when Spring or Fall a pretty common Fever has reign'd in some City or Village of which a great many Sick escap'd haply some one on whom an evil Praedisposition and a strong evident Cause brought the Fever lay seis'd with more dreadful Symytoms and great Notes of Malignity in which Case that Malignity is not to be said a common Fever but only a sporadical and accidental one Tho the greatest Difference whereby these kinds of Fevers are distinguished betwixt themselves and from others consists in their Mortality and Contagion yet sometimes they are mark'd by some peculiar Symptom from which both the note of Malignity and the name they are called by are taken for that time hence in some Years an epidemick Fever reighs which causes in most that are affected with it a Quinsey at another time a Peripneumonia Plurisie Dysentery or some other Affect and that often dangerous and contagious so that not only the Seeds of Diseases deriv'd from Parents ex traduce disclose their Fruits by a certain Destiny as it were in the same Part or Member but also such as are received from a venemous Miasm generally reigning produce in all Persons Affects of the same manner and form which nevertheless I judge to happen not because the Seeds of the venemous Miasm regard this or that Region of the Body by some peculiar Vertue but they affect thus the Mass of Blood after the same manner in all forasmuch as for washing off that taint a Crisis must of necessity be attempted after the same manner in all for when without Malignity the Blood is apt to be extravasated by reason of Coagulation or haply for other Causes the usual Places in which the Portions of the same extravagated are wont to be fix'd are the Throat Pleura Lungs and Intestines wherefore it 's no Wonder when a Congelation and therefore an Extravasation of the Blood is procur'd from a malignant Cause if the Disease lodges it self in the usual seat of Nature As to the Signs of these kinds of Fevers besides by the Contagion and Mortality the Malignity of the Fever is shewn by a sudden Dejection of the Strength a weak and uneven Pulse an evil Affect of the Brain and nervous Parts caus'd on a sudden violent Vomitings a blackness of the Tongue an over-spreding of Blackness over the whole Body but especially by an appearance of Spots Buboes and other Marks For the Cure of Fevers both Pestilential and Malignant there is need of a greater Judgment and Circumspection than in any others whatsoever for there being two primary Indicants to wit the Malignity and the Feverish Distemperature and since we can scarce provide for the one without the Detriment of the other it will not be
easie to judge which we must obviate first and chiefly take care off in respect of the Fever Purging Bleeding and cooling things chiefly conduce but whilst these things are used the Malignity for the most part is increased and they being neglected it diffuses it self farther Against the Malignity Alexipharmicks and Diaphoreticks are required but these greatly intend the Fever exagitate as by a blowing of Bellows the Blood and Spirits kindled before and put them in a manner all in a Flame wherefore there is need here of a great Quickness of Understanding that these things be duely compared betwixt each other and that the curative Intentions be there directed where most danger shews it self tho so that while one is taken care of the other be not neglected but in these Cases besides the private Judgment of each Physician Experience furnishes us with the chief method of healing for when these Fevers first grow rise almost every particular Person trys particular Remedies and from their Successes compar'd together it is easily learnt what kind of Method we must insist on till at last by a frequent Tryal as it were by the Foot-steps of Passengers a common and Road-way as it were is made to the Cure of these kinds of Affects being fortified with various Observations and Precepts Besides these kinds of Fevers which assail many together and by reason of their Contagion Mortality and conspicuous Marks of Virulency deserve to be called Pestilential or Malignant there are found some other Epidemick or Popular Fevers which almost every Year either Spring or Fall grow very rise in certain Countries of which a great many of the Inhabitants are wont to fall sick and not a few especially of the more elderly People to dye in which nevertheless no Signs of a pestilent or malignant Nature appear nor does the Disease seem so much by Contagion to pass from some incontinently to others as to seise many together by reason of a Predisposition communicated almost to all Now these kinds of Affects depend chiefly on a foregoing Constitution of the Year for if a Season very intemperate by reason of excesses of Cold or Heat Drought or Moisture has preceded and has so continued a long time it changes our Blood for the most part from its due Temper whereby it is apt afterward to fall into severish Effervescencies and hence a Fever sometimes of this sometimes of that Type and Idea is produced which presently becomes epidemical because it draws its Origine from a common Cause whereby the Bodies in a manner of all Men are affected together Now such Fevers in as much as they depend on the Blood getting a Disposition sometimes sharp sometimes austere or of another kind according to the Temper of the Year for the most part they are of the number of Intermittents tho they are wont to be mark'd with a peculiar Apparatus of Symptoms according to the peculiar Constitution of each Year We cannot comprehend these under a certain common Rule or formal Consideration which aptly answers to each of the Particulars of this Nature because they vary yearly according to a great many Accidents tho however of these kinds of Fevers reigning of late Years in this Country we shall give the Descriptions taken at that time and shall set them down as a Conclusion at the end of this Work It remains for us still to add to the number of Malignant Fevers certain other private Fevers partaking of no Contagion as are those especially which are wont to happen to Women in Child-bed by reason of their difficult Labour or for that the Lochia are detain'd for it is manifest enough by common Observation that these are very dangerous and often mortal for if the Parts of the Womb being injured or upon the admission of Cold or haply for some other Cause the Lochia are stopt and the Humour which ought to have been voided forth comes to be mingled with the Mass of Blood it fouly defiles it with a certain venemous mixture as it were that thereby presently a Fever is raised which for the most part is attended with an ill Company of Symptoms viz. a Heat and violent Drought a Vomiting a Cardialgia and Watchings and generally comes either to no Crisis or a very difficult one because unless the flowing of the Lochia after their wonted way be again restor'd after the Blood has undergone an Effervescence for some Days the Taint is wont to be communicated to the Brain and the Genus Nervosum whence presently a Delirium Frenzy Convulsions and other very ill Affects for the most part are caused which often terminate in Death But these kinds of Fevers deserve a peculiar Consideration which we resolve to have more fully beneath in a Discourse appropriated to this purpose mean while we must give some Instances or Examples of the Fevers above treated of viz. of the Pestilential and Malignant The pestilential Fever of late Years has reign'd more rarely in these Parts than the Plague it self I shall give you briefly the Description of the only one of this kind which has occur'd to our Observation Anno 1643. when in the beginning of the Spring the Earl of Essex besieg'd Reading kept by the King's Garrison in both Armies a very Epidemick Disease began to arise tho however he pursuing his work till the Besieged were forced to a Surrender The Affect so prevail'd that in a short while afterward there was a Cessation on both sides and thenceforward for many Months there was a Conflict not with the Enemy but with the Disease Essex withdrawing his Forces seated himself at and the adjacent Places where in a short time he lost a great Part of his Men and the King returned to Oxford where the Souldiers first keeping themselves in the open Field and afterward being disposed off in Towns and Villages he underwent a loss not much inferiour for his Foot whom it chiefly seised being lodg'd a great many of them together in streightned Lodgings when they had filled all Places with Nastiness and Filth and stinking Odours that they seem'd to have defil'd even the Air it self fell sick many of them together and as it were in Files at length the Fever reaching farther than the Souldiery assailed every where the weak Multitude to wit the Persons of the Houses where the Souldiers lodged and others tho many of them at first the Contagion being yet but mild upon them escaped yet lying a long time in a very languishing Condition About the Summer Solstice this Fever began to psread it self with a worse Attendance of Symptoms and to seise a great many Husband-men and others living in the Country and afterward it reigned in this our City and the whole Neighbourhood for at least ten Miles round about mean while those who liv'd in other Countries far from hence as tho they were beyond the Sphere of the Contagion continued free from harm But here that Disease grew so general that the greatest part of Mankind was
Ebullition and Coagulation of the Blood produces a great many more Pushes and those greater in bulk and not dissolvabe without Suppuration When the Small Pox precede there follows not only an Immunity afterward from the same Affect but for the most part from the Measles also The Measles because they consume only a few Particles of the Ferment leave still a Disposition to the Small Pox wherefore old Persons or such as are grown in years are not so readily infected with the Measles because having been before infected with the Small Pox they are freed from the Contagion or their Spirits being robust easily resist the light Miasm of this Affect Of the great number of Stories and Observations relating to Persons troubled with the Small Pox I shall in this place propose only a few Cases and those remarkable for certain Irregularities It is usuall thing to treat all Persons affected with the Small Pox with the like or wholly the same method of Healing and form of Diet wherefore a Physician is seldom call'd to the Vulgar but the Business is wholly committed to certain Women-Tenders who boast that they know this Practice beyound all others and those are wont to boyl Marygold Flowers and Shavings of Harts-horn and sometimes Figs in the Broaths and any other Liquors to be taken by the Diseas'd and to give at Night a Bolus of Diascordium such as do not recover by such a Management are declared not to be neglected but that they are incurable through the Violence of the Disease But that this kind of Practise does not equally agree to all nor is to be us'd to all indifferently the two following Relations plainly shew A Young-man about twenty Years of Age of a thin Body and hot Temperament began to be severish in the beginning of the Spring in the first days violent Vomitings an Oppression of the Heart frequent Changes of a burning and cold Shivering a Pain in the Loins a Perturbation of the Fancy and Watchings infested him On the third day the Small Pox appearing those Symptoms remitted tho the Fever still continued with a Thirst and Heat To this Person not only the Decoctions usual in this Disease but Juleps also neatly prepar'd not so much as sip of them without great loathing as often as he took at Night Diascordium or any other temperate Cordial tho in a small quantity for continuing a Transpiration he passed the Night following without Sleep and with a great tossing of the Body and in the Morning he had an Haemorrhagie which hapning once and then a second time through this occasion after that the Small Pox were fully broken forth the well-doing of the Diseas'd was mightily endanger'd wherefore when I had found by Experience that the Blood of this Person was apt to boyl immoderately upon a light Irritation I ordered this Method according as the Occasion required All Physick whatsoever being laid aside for quenching Thirst he took small Ale and a simple Almond Drink at Pleasure His Food because he refus'd all Oat and Barley Broaths was only Apples boyl'd to a Tenderness and then season'd with Sugar and Rose-water which he ate at some certain times in the Day Nature content with this thin Dyet and seeming to be disturbed by any other whatsoever perform'd her work successfully that the Diseased recovered without any sore Symptom afterward the Small Pox ripening by Degress and then falling off of their own accord In the midst of Autumn of the last Year a noble Youth having a sharp Blood and being obnoxious to a frequent Bleeding at the Nose fell sick of the Small Pox his Blood naturally boyled immoderately that the Pushes brake forth extream thick all over his Body in this Person Whey with Marygold Flowers and other things usually boyl'd in it also Juleps or nay Cordials tho temperate gently promoting a Transpiration did most certainly raise a Flux of Blood wherefore I ordered him a like way of Diet as to the Diseased before mention'd by which indeed he was better however in the very height of the Disease when the Small Pox being fully broke forth the Fever is wont to be renewed in all Persons by reason of a difficult Transpiration this sick Person fell into a copious Haemorrhagie that after a large Profusion of Blood the Small Pox began to be flaccid after that a great many Remedies for stopping Blood were tryed in vain at length upon hanging a Bag about his Neck in which was a Toad dryed in the Sun and pounded he first of all and immediately found ease for the Haemorrhagie being hereby presently appeased and not returning afterward he constantly wearing thenceforward this Epitheme in his Bosom our sick Person using always a most thin and cooling Dyet grew perfectly well that it may really seem to be manifest hence that tho the Blood in this Affect be mighty apt to coagulate yet as long as the Vital Spirits are strong and robust enough and have a governing Power relying on their own Strengty by a certain prudent Discretion as it were they excellently separate and send forth the congealed Portions of the Blood and this Work is mightily disturbed when the same Spirits are to much irritated and forc'd into a Confusion by hot Cordials or a hot Dyet But in the Plague it happens otherwise for in this if delay be granted the Spirits themselves are presently destroyed by the Venom wherefore here we must presently fight with open War whereas in the Small Pox a Physician rather restores things by protracting time Concerning letting Blood just upon the coming forth of the Small Pox it is greatly doubted Formerly among our Country-men this thing was stil'd sacred nor was Blooding wont to be admitted under any pretext of Necessity but of late it is proved by Experience that it is altogether useful and necessary to let Blood in some Cases which Evacuation nevertheless if it be used indifferently in any Constitution or be done in too large a quantity when there is need of it great Damages often ensue thereby Some years since I went to see a Young-woman of Quality of a florid Countenance and a hot Temperament who was fall'n very feverish after the fourth Month of her being with Child she was press'd with a violent Vomiting a fierce Pain in the Loins and also with a most intense Heat and Drought her Pulse was very quick with a strong and vehement Vibration tho the Small Pox no where reign'd in that place nevertheless those Symptoms of that Affect gave us no small suspicion of them Be it how it would the very immoderate Effervescence of the Blood indicated that some ought to be taken away wherefore I presently took about six Ounces thereupon the Heat somewhat remitted tho the Vomiting still continued with the violent Pain in the Loins At the time of her going to rest I gave her a Cordial Bolus with half a Grain of our Laudanum whence a quiet Sleep with a mild Sweat and an appeasing of all Symptoms
wholly excluded or be driven away from the breasts too much in a croud presently restagnating into the Blood it causes a disorder of the same as a forerunner of a putrid or malignant Fever of which we must speak next The Putrid Fevers of Women in Child-bed WOmen in Child-bed throught the taint of their ill affected Body as tho they were struck with the Contagion of a pestilential Air are found to be extreamly obnoxious to a putrid or rather malignant Fever tho all do not equally receive tha taint of this Disease for poor Women Hirelings Rusticks and others us'd to hard Labours also Viragoes and Whores who are clandestinely delivered bring forth without great difficulty and in a short time after rising from their Bed return to their wonted Labours but Women that are rich tender and beautiful and many living a sedentary Life asa tho they partak'd of the Divine Curse after a more severe manner bring forth in Pain and presently after their delivery lye in an uneasie and dangerous condition the reason of which seems to lye in this that those that use much exercise continually exagitate and eventilate the Blood and therefore after the Menses are stopt heap together fewer Miasms for the matter of the Disease Moreover labouring and active Women having the nervous Parts more firm are less subject to convulsive Mothions and the affects vulgarly called hysterical on the contrary in nice Women and such as live idly during the time of their being with Child the mass of Blood becomes impure and fermentative moreover because they have the Brain and the System of the Nerves thender and weak upon any light occasion they undergoe Distractions of the animal Spirits and disorderly Motions of the nervous Parts and here it is to be noted by the by that Women before Men and some of that Sex before others are troubled with the Affects called hysterical not so much by reason of the fault of the Womb it self but by reason of the weaker Constitutions of the Brain and Genus Nervosum for in Perons so affected Passions of Anger Fear Sadnes also all vehement or strong Objects easily pervert the Crases or Functions of those parts which when they have been once injur'd day afterward in a manner always accustom them selves to the same Irregularities But to return whence we made a digression the Fever even now mentioned is wont to infest Women in Child-bed at various thimes and for diver Occasions sometimes it arises presently after delivery especially if it has been difficult and laborious sometimes the second third or fourth Week tho the later it begins the safer it it is wont to be the Type of that effect passes after this manner after a previous indisposition an open feverishness for the most part with a cold and a shivering makes the first invasion which presently is followed by a heat afterward a sweat ensues for a day haply or two there are various reciprocations of Fits of heat and cold afterward the Blood being kindled throughtout the Lochia unlefs supprest before either flow a little or wholly stop If the Disease be acute and of a quick motion on the third or fouth day it comes to its height then there is an intense heat with a very troublesome drought a vehement and quick Pulse there are obstinate Watchings a great restlessness of the whole Body so that the Diseased continually toss themselves this way and that in their Bed the Urine is thick and ruddy and other severe symptoms are rife whilst the Fever is thus in its height a Crisis is not to be expected for I have never seen this Disease resoled by a critical sweat nay the case is very dangerous so that after the Blood has boyl'd for some time the adust matter presently being convey'd into the Brain dangerous and very sore Irregularities of it and of the Genus Nervosum straitway ensue for convulsive Motions of the Tendons wonderful distentions about the Viscera and puffings up resembling hysterick Passions oftentimes are raised Moreover sometimes a Phrensy a Delirium often a Stupor and a Speechlessness also follow almost in all the strength is suddenly cast down without a manifest Cause tyhe Pusse becomes weak and uneven and the Diseased are often precipitated into Death if any haply escape either the flowing of the Lochia being restor'd or a Diarrhoea superventing they recover with much adoe after a long lying ill I have known purple Spots to have appear'd in some indeed in most the symptoms which regard either the Blood or the nervous Juyce argue no small malignity The Procatarctick Causes of this Fever on which the malignity and mighty danger of this Disease depend are chiefly two viz. first an evil dispostion of the Blood after a long suppression of the Menses secondly after delivery the evil affects of the Womb from the dangerous labours of Women which make out the Divine malediction after the Menses being long supprest the Blood does not only grow turgid and its sulphureous parts being rais'd too much are rendred more apt for Inflammation but moreover the mass of Blood is imbued with very fermentaive Particles so that as is hinted before being struck as it were with a venemous Miasm as it ferments it forthwith is dispos'd toward a putrefaction and corruptive irregularities and besides it may presently poyson the nervous Liquour and render it offensive to the Brain and the whole Genus Nervosum this kind of taint communicated to the blood ought to be purg'd forth by a copious flowing of the Lochia but if after delivery the Womb be out of order their is not only a stoppage of the Lochia and so the Reparation of the whole blood is hindred but besides stinking Ichors are thence transmitted to the blood and greatly infect it Also by reason of convulfive motions begun about the Womb and thence continued to the other Parts Irregularities are rais'd in the Blood and Juyces whcih often conspire to the production or exasperation of a Fever The evident Causes which either cause an actual effervescence in the Blood having gotten a Dyscrasy or trouble the whole Body with the Distempers of the Womb are divers for these make a painful delivery a solution of unity about the Womb a contusion a retention of preternatural things an ulcerous disposition and a great many other Accidents which are caus'd throught some necessity but the occasions in the power of Patients and easie to be avoided which are wont to raise this Fever are chiefly two viz. an ill form of Dyet and a taking Cold. It 's a usual thing to give to weak Women after Child-birth on the first and second day the Flesh of Animals or their Gelly-broths and other Food very disproportionate to their Constitutions whence presently an indigestion and great disquietings arise in the Viscera and feverish turgescencies in the Blood by reason of a nutritive Juyced richer than it ought Befides Errours committed in Dyet often an Injury is Caus'd for that
That the Air or Flatus's first heap'd together there are the Cause of the Distension In our Sick Person the Blood growing hot and soon being full of an adust and malignant matter presently it being incapable of being subdued and separated by Sweat endeavoured to fix it in the Brain the first discharge of that Matter on the Head by reason of the Animal Spirits being half overwhelmed brought the Sense of the Heads being very much increast in bulk which happens after the like manner as when the Foot being seised with a Stupor seems to be felt much greater than it self now that after some ease by slumbering and closing the Eyes the Affect return'd anew the Reason is because Watching and the stirring of the Senses in some sort shake off and remove from them the Matter besetting the Brain and Nerves which nevertheless being seated near and in a Readiness Sleep stealing on is as it were imbib'd by them and throughly enters their Bodies together with the nutritive Juice Now the Blood tho it had copiously discharged the Recrements on the Brain yet it became not free it self but being still full of an impure Load fell as it were upon a critical Efflorescence and with a Shivering followed by a Heat and a Sweat as is usual in a great Excretion it tryed again and again to shake off its Burthen tho all it could do by that Effort was that the Matter sticking to the Brain got deeper Root in it and fixing it self in certain Sprouts of the Nerves it took away Speech and Swallowing and then afterward Sensation and the Mass of the Blood being deprav'd more and more by degrees at length it became unable for supporting Life A Renowned Woman Married a little under Twenty being with Child and during the time of her Ingravidation having used but little Diet and almost no Exercise underwent in her Travail Pains and Throws but with Intermission and a frequent Respite for twelve Hours and brought forth a Son the Foetus came away with the Secundine and all things were well about the Womb. On the first and second days she was indifferently well but on the third after a light Shivering she began to complain of a Thirst and a Heat which a Loosness followed so that she had four Stools that day the Night passed in a manner without Sleep the feverish Distemper continued afterward for two days after the same manner she daily had three or four Stools the Lochia as yet flowing moderately On the sixth day when by the Perswasion of Women she had taken somewhat for moderating her Loosness the Purgings of the Womb were in a manner wholly stopt at which time the Fever became more intense and Symptoms resembling Hysterical arose for in the Praecordia she had great and frequent Oppressions and had a sense of Choaking in the Throat On the seventh day there was a more intense Heat and a difficult and more painful Breathing and then by a Physician 's Order at that time first call'd three ounces of Blood were drawn from the Foor after which for four Hours she was better for a quiet Sleep with a copious Sweat ensued the Lochia tho in a small quantity appear'd again in the Evening all things grew worse the Strength being very much resolv'd the Pulse became weaker and uneven she complain'd also of a Noise and a ringing of the Ears with a Plenitude of the Head moreover she had Leapings of the Tendons in her Wrists also sudden Convulsions of the whole Body and still the Loosness troubled her To this Person Cordials and other Remedies and kinds of Administrations diligently used by the Prescripts of many Physicians did not the least good the pulse growing weaker and the Strength decreasing by degrees on the ninth day after Delivery she died This Fever depended very much on the vicious Disposition of the Body as on the procatarctick Cause for I have often observed that it falls out ill with Women in Child-bed who when they are with Child unwholsomly seed on fruits and any sorts of food and living without Motion and Exercise indulge themselves only to Idleness and Rest the Blood by reason of the previous Cachexia without any evident Occasion fell a burning as it were of its own accord now whilst it boyled deposing its Recrements and Impurities still inward it brought the Loosness nor did its Mass become more pure from that almost continued Excretion but its Mixture or Crasis being still more depraved at length the Blood fell wholly from its genuine Nature and became uncapable of fermenting in the Heart the Loosness naturally hap'ning was ill stopt especially by the use of AsTringents for I have often observed that these things are not attempted without danger for a Loosness has cured some that were ill and in that Lady and in many others as we have sufficiently found by Experience tho it did not take away the Fever yet it freed them from the more severe Afects of the Brain and Genus Nervosum whence this Diseased was wholly without a Delirium nor was she seised with convulsive Motions till she was brought almost to the last A worthy Matron about thirty six Years of Age going with Child the seventeenth time was very sad and perplex'd with Thoughts that she should dye in Child-bed upon her Delivery but as it pleased God she was very well delivered of a Son and was chearful for three days after On the fourth day having eaten more of a Chicken than she ought a little before Night she fell into a feverish Distemper with a Vomiting and the Lochia were stop'd all the night she lay without Sleep and restless the next Morning within an Hours space she had four Stools and seem'd to be reliev'd about Noon at which time I came she complained again of a Heat and a Drought also of a Palpitation of the Heart and of the Ascent of a certain heavy thing in her Throat the Pulse was quick and small the Urine was ruddy the Lochia scarce appeared I ordered that Cordial Juleps and things moving a Uterine Purgation should be given to this Person moreover That Fomentations should be applyed to the lower part of the Belly also that the Legs and Feet should be often rubbed with warm Cloaths at the time for Sleep I gave her a Grain of Laudanum with half a Scruple of Saffron powdred in a Spoonful of Treacle Water She slept quietly and the Lochia flowed plentifully afterward using a thin Diet and things gently promoting a uterine Flux for a few days she perfectly recovered A Noble Woman Young and Handsome had a good easie Deliverance of a second Daughter and for six days being well as to the Lochia and other Accidents she was wholly free from the Suspicion of any Distemper she daily are Flesh and being taken forth of Bed she lived chearfully in her chamber On the seventh day without a manifest Cause she had a Shivering with a Fever and the Lochia were lessened tho not
parching that it was very tedious to be in the open Field By reason of those Excesses of Heat and Cold the Temperature of this Year was very uneven wherefore of Necessity our Blood must be sometimes fixed and as it were congealed sometimes too much parcht and therefore preverted from its natural Crasis to be burnt or atrabilarious also the Pores of the Skin were very much altered from their due Constitution that thereby insensible Transpiration was not performed after its wonted manner From the time the foregoing Fever ceased there was a healthy state and free from any popular Disease almost to the end of the Dog-dayes but afterward a few first in Country Houses and Villages fell sick here and there but afterward about the end of the Month of August a new Fever rising on a sudden began to be rife throughout whole Countries on every side in our Neighbourhood this also the other which reigned the Autumn before chiefly raged in Country Villages and Boroughs fewer of the Inhabitants of Cities and the greater Towns in the mean while falling ill of it At the same time in other Countries far remote from hence nay almost throughout all England an Epidemick Fever was said to reign and in certain other Places a far greater mortality was talked of than here with us Haply the Idea of this Fever now reigning and its Apparatus of Symptoms is not in all Places alike in all things or is it markt wholly with the same Phaenomena and Accidents I shall set down succinctly and briefly whatsoever I have learned by my own Observation or by the Communication of others concerning its Nature as it was in our Neighbourhood About the first beginnings of this Disease its Type was erring and very uncertain for in some there was a continual Effervescence in others it was intermittent and renewed with set Fits but in a great many of the Diseased it happen'd as a pathognomick Symptom at this time to be ill in the Brain and Genus Nervosim that presently from the beginnings of this Fever almost all complain'd of their Head being very bad for some were infested with a violent Head-ach others with a hardness of Hearing and a ringing in the Ears but to most either a Drowsiness and a great Sleepiness with a vertiginous Affect or obstinate Watchings with a Delirium and Distractions of the Animal Spirits were wont to happen I have observed in some that on the first or second Days of being sick broad and red Spots like the Measles broke forth by little and little in the whole Body which vanishing in a short time after presently the Fever became more intense and especially the Affects of the Head far more severe thenceforward a Drowsiness of the Senses and a Sleepiness seised some for many days that they lay a long time without Speech or Knowledge of their Friends like Persons ready to dye I have known some to have been cast hence into a Lethargy others into an Apoplexy some to have fall'n into Deliriums and a Frenzy Many of the younger and stronger of these Men escaped tho not without a long continued Weakness and a doubtful Recovery mean while the old Persons and those who were otherwise weak and sickly dyed in all Parts as for such who lay ill of a continual Fever as it were with these Marks of Malignity they were but few and only in some Houses sporadically but the Sickness which most generally reigning in our Neighbourhood assail'd most and still severely rages seems to imitate the Type of an intermittent Fever viz. of a Tertian or of a Quotidian for either each Day or which I have more frequently observed every other day the Diseased have Fits which with a Cold a Heat and a Sweat succeeding in order infest them a long time and severely and these kinds of Accesses and the whole course of the Disease are wont to be mark'd with a various Concourse of Symptoms and Accidents according to the different Age and Temperament of the Diseased and this is common to most I had almost said to all that fall sick to be troubled with Cephalick Affects together with this Fever When therefore any one is affected with this Disease whether the Sickness be raised from an evident Cause or from Contagion or without a manifest Occasion a Pain in the Head and often in the Loins with a Drought a want of Appetite a spontaneous Lassitude and a Heat tho not intense discover its coming if it happens in a young Body of a florid Blood and hot Temperament about its Beginnings the Fits are without a Cold or a Shivering but they prove very troublesome with a long and sharp Burning The Sick are often troubled with a Vomiting and for the most part they have a violent Pain in the Head a Sweat happens with difficulty which often being partial and soon interrupted seldom ends the Fit but when they cease to sweat they burn again that the Access is scarce ended in some within eighteen or thirty four Hours Mean while by the Bloods very much boyling the Fancy is troubled that often a Delirium a talking light-headed Watchings and a great Restlessness are raised during the Fit and the same being ended during the time of the Interval still a troublesome Drought a remiss Heat a failing of the Strength and a great Weakness of the Spirits with a Head-ach and a vertiginous Affect molest them they are scarce to be found who as in a common Tertian are indifferently well in the Intervals of the Accesses About the Beginnings of the Disease the sharp Fits of the Fever are somewhat more mild which afterward grow worse every time by little and little and at length begin with a Cold or a Shivering to which nevertheless after a long and very troublesome Burning a Sweat with difficulty succeeds in most so that the Fit is seldom ended in a due Temperature Within six or seven Returns the Strength of the Diseased is very much consumed that being become languishing and weak they have a hard Task to strive with the Disease for unless Nature be aided by Art the Fever still prevails and seldom or never within a short time is either solv'd by a Crisis or remits by little and little but brings the affected by a long Siege to the greatest straits to wit persisting so long till the Blood being become very effaete or rendred watery by its frequent Deflagration is altogether unmeet to boyl too much of its own accord in its Vessels or to be freely kindled in the Heart and then it becomes often so vapid and poor of Spirits that being insufficient for continuing the Lamp of Life it brings Death But sometimes the mass of Blood depraved and depaupered by this Disease is able to continue tho with difficulty the Vital fire hlaf extinct and to refresh it again by little and little and in a long time with Spirit and Vigour tho in the mean while after the height of this Disease
when the Blood being rendred weak and withall impure is not able to expell forth the febrile Matter or the adust Recrements by a critical Motion it conveys the same to the Brain and therefore abut the increase of this Fever a Drowsiness and a Stupidity of the Spirits a Sleepiness a Vertigo a ringing of the Ears Tremblings and Convulsive Motions with a great Suppression of the whole animal Faculty are oftentimes caused Those who being of a cold Temperament or grown in Years are seized with this Disease tho they have not so acute a Fever yet are wont to lye in a greater danger of Life for in these besides the Disposition of the Blood not easily reducible also in the Fits what is heaped together extraneous and not miscible is hardly subdued and with difficulty separated from the mass of Bood wherefore both the Blood is still more notably depraved in its Crasis and in every of the Fits is more infected with an impure mixture Moreover the Nervous Liquour is greatly perverted from its due Temper and is exceedingly defiled with adust Recrements continually poured on the Brain when therefore old melancholy or otherwise unhealthy Persons fall into this Fever from the first Invasion they presently become torpid and for the most Part Vertiginous in the Fits tho the heat be not vehement and sharp yet they lye restless and tossing very much often talk absurdly and idlely after a long Incalescence either no Sweat or only a partial one and often interrupted ensues whereby the fit is not fully solved but all during the Intervals the Diseased being very dry continue to be ill disposed with a drought of the Mouth a roughness of the Tongue and an overspreading of a viscous Lee after some fits their Strength being mightily dejected either they are confined to their Bed altogether or rising a little in the day time they are scarce able to stand or to creep about from Place to Place mean while they are troubled with a Fainting a difficult Breathing a Deadness of the Senses and a great Weakness of the whole Genus Nervosum The Urine is intensly red in a great many of a more saturated Colour and a thicker Consistency than in a common Tertian the Pulse as long as the Strength is not wholly cast down for the most part is strong and even afterward when the Diseased grow very faint it is weak uneven and often intermittent to which also Contractions of the Tendons and convulsive Motions in the Wrists being iovn'd for the most part give an occasion for a Prognostick of Dearth Those who being weak'ned by degrees decline toward Death for some time before they dye lye for the most part without speech or the Knowledge of the Standers by as Persons stupid it seldom happens in this Fever that any one about to dye being of a good Memory and Understanding disposes things of his Family or bids his Friends farewell and those who happen to escape from a mighty Weakness and almost from a desperate Condition do not recover by a sudden and manifest Crisis but wavering a long time lye torpid and enervated that not without a doubrful and difficult Contest Nature at length with much adoe prevails over the Disease and then they recover their Strength by Degrees by a slow and long-continued Convalescence If the nature and formal reason of the Epidemick Fever even now described be inquired into we say that this as that of the foregoing Year is properly an Intermittent for that which generally reigns carries this kind of Type tho some continual Fevers here and there are scattered with them of which also we shall presently give a short Touch. It will not be needful for us to derive the Seminary of this from the Air infected with some Miasm but rather to fetch the antecedent Cause of it from the undue Constitution of the Year and the Indisposition of our Blood acquir'd thereby for Spring and Fall intermittent Fevers yearly reign to wit because our Blood as the Juyce of Vegetables is wont to be moved and to display it self at these times more sprightly than ordinary wherefore if the Mass of Blood by reason of the foregoing Season of the Winter or Summer be altered from its â—ue Temper and has contracted a sharp or atrabilarious Diathesis of another kind it s Dyscrasies began before are chiefly maturated about the Equinoxes to wit when the Blood more freely fermenting in case it falls from its natural Crasis does not so readily sanguifie but will be apt to pervert the nutritive Juyce mix'd with it into an extraneous and febrile Matter Since therefore this Year very much declined from its due Constitution that not only the preceding Dog days but the two Solstices and Equinoxes before were altogether intemperate is no Wonder if intermittent Fevers more frequent than usual and those attended with some unusual Symptoms reign in Autumn That therefore an Epidemick intermittent Fever reigns at this Time I think it ought not to be attributed to the Fault of the present Air but to the Irregularities of the foregoing Season but on what Causes and Occasions certain peculiar Symptoms and distinct from the common Rule of Intermittents arise in this Fever it is worthy to be inquired into I have said above that the Apparatus whereby this Fever became destructive to Mankind consisted chiefly in two things to wit the Temper of the Year one while mighty cold afterward happening to be very hot both variously perverted the Crasis of our Blood and affected the Pores of the Skin with an undue Constitution According to the Reasons taken from both I shall briefly explicate the Accidents of this Disease and assign the Causes of its Phoenomina 1. First we observe that the Type of this Fever was various to wit in some with a continual Effervescence in others with an Eruption of Spots but in most intermitting and like a Tertian and sometimes tho rarely like a Quotidian renewing its Fits either each or every other day we assign the Cause of this Diversity because in this Year the morbid Procatarxis was greater and stronger than only to produce an intermittent Fever generally usual in Autumn wherefore in some haply of a more deprav'd Habit of Body it raised Fevers somewhat malignant and in those to whom it brought Intermittents according to the wonted Custom of the Season it distinguished them by some peculiar Appearance of Symptoms 2. Persons after being seis'd with the Epidemick Fever at this time whether it be continual or intermittent forthwith undergo ill Affects of the Head to wit they are wont to be infested sometimes with a violent Head-ach sometimes with a Stupor or a too great Distraction of the Animal Spirits the Reason of this is that the nervous Juyce as well as the Blood through the Distemperature of the Year is very much altered from its due Crisis to wit from its sweet and spirituous Nature and has become sometimes dull and almost vapid sometimes too sharp and
viz. such as are prepared of Tartar Sulphur the fixt Salts of Herbs of burnt Harts-horn also of the Claws or Eyes of Crabs For Example Take Cream of Tartar three drams Salt of Wormwood a dram and half the Dose is half a dram in an aperient Decoction twice a day out of the Fit Or Take Cream of Tartar two drams Powder of Crabs-eyes a dram Nitre purified half a dram mix them let it be giv'n after the same manner Or Take burnt Harts-horn two drams Spirit of Vitriol as much as the Powder will receive by imbibing the dose is a Scruple It is of excellent use when those that are in the Fever are troubled with Worms These kinds of Remedies promote the Secretion of the febrile Matter and restore the almost lost Ferments of the Blood and Viscera The second Intent to wit the due Management of the Diseas'd in the Fits comprehends many things first a neat Form of Dyet ought to be ordered that a large heaping together of the degenerate Juyce for a Matter for the Fit may be hindred wherefore let the Diseased feed only on a thin Food let them wholly abstain from Flesh or Broth made of it from Eggs generous Wine and all rich Fare being content only with Barley or Oat Broths Panada Whey and small Ale in regard a more plentiful Dyet is not concocted or assimilated but it oppresses the Stomach and being mixt with the Blood it troubles its Liquour and forces it to boyl vehemently as the Fit comes on and during the while it lasts unless it be for quenching Thirst let no Food be taken but for qualifying the Heat and Drought cooling Juleps and Decoctions and especially small Ale and Whey ought to be allowed Secondly a little before the feverish Access is expected let a gentle Medicine be given which either may keep off the Fit by preventing it or may render it easie by procuring an easie Sweat For this Use the febrifuge Potion of the Learned Riverius does well made of Carduus Water with Oyl of Sulphur and Salt of Wormwood Or take Cream of Tartar Salt of Wormwood Nettle Seeds of each a Scruple let it be given in a Decoction of the Roots of Sorrel When the Fever begins to decline and the Fits are a little more remiss Febrifuge Epithemes outwardly apply'd often stop the febrile Accesses tho in the mean while as long as the Fits return let the Diseased be so managed that every Access the feverish Matter heap'd together in the Blood may be wholly blown off wherefore when a Sweat happens with difficulty let it be a little raised with temperate Medicines also let the Diseas'd be kept in Bed with a gentle Sweat for many hours nor let them be permitted to rise too soon for I have often observ'd that the Diseased have still grown worse because being impatient of lying in Bed they put on their Cloaths before the watery Effluvia were exhal'd enough Thirdly as to the Symptoms and particular Accidents with which the Diseased are wont to be troubled in this Fever a great many of them are sufficiently provided against with the Remedies and Method of Cure hitherto deliver'd against the Thirst Burning the Roughness of the Mouth and Tongue Vomitings the Loosness a Swooning or danger of Fainting the Prescripts commonly used in other Fevers may aptly enough be transferr'd hither But the Things which in this Disease seem to require a peculiar Method of Healing are chiefly the Affects of the Head and Brain with the Genus Nervosum by which unless seasonably obviated the Diseased are soon brought into a great danger of Life Concerning these kinds of Evils of the Head the Indications are of two kinds If it appears by a Drowsiness a Sleepiness a Vertigo or a Head-ach that the nervous Juyce is too dull and as it were vapid and therefore that it does not vigorously enough actuate the Brain and nervous Bodies besides the Remedies above deliver'd and especially the Vesicatories Medicines full of a volatile Salt excellently conduce in this Case wherefore Spirit of Harts-horn of Blood also the Salts of the same are of excellent Use but if the nervous Liquor be too sharp or the Effluvia sent from the boyling Blood drive the Animal Spirits into Distractions those kinds of Remedies of volatile Salt are given with benefit in somewhat a less quantity Moreover a frequent Letting Blood and Medicines allaying its fervour do good as Emulsions Whey pure Water plentifully drank let Opiates be used in this Fever with great Caution for the Frenzy appeas'd by them is oftentimes chang'd into a Lethargy or a deep Stupor FINIS THE TABLE A. AChes in the Head see Headach Ach in the Belly see Belly Aches or Pains in the Limbs hapning by Night their cure p. 361. Ague see Fever Alexipharmicks see Cordials Anasarca its Description p. 167. Whence it proceeds ibid. The least dangerous of Dropsies ibid. The two chief Scopes of curing it ibid. Hydragogue Medicines of good use in curing it p. 168. How Catharticks work in this Disease ibid. Lixivial Medicines the best Diureticks in this Disease p. 169. Some Praescripts of them ib. Diaphoreticks of use when the swelling begins to abate p. 170. A Praescript of them ib. p. 171. Outward Administrations to be used in this Disease ib. p. 172 173. Medicines for Preservation against this Disease p. 174 175. An Instance of a Person falling into this Disease and recover'd of it p. 176. Antidotes see Cordials Apoplexy where seated p. 420. What the Word Apoplexy imports p. 421. Two kinds of it ib. The various Invasions of the Apoplexy and the causes of them ib. p. 422. The Subject of this Disease ib. Its Prognosticks ib. p. 423. The Therapeutick Method for removing the Fit ib. p. 424. The prophylactick or preservatory method with Praescripts of Medicines p. 425 426. Instances of Persons seis'd with the Apoplexy ib. p. 427. Ascites its Description and whence it proceeds p. 150. what to be considered in order to its Cure ib. Catharticks often do well in it p. 151. An Enumeration of hydragogue Emeticks and Purgers and Prescripts of them ib. p. 152 153 154 155. Diureticks when proper in an Ascites ib. p. 156. What Diureticks proper ib. Diaphoreticks of little or no use in an Ascites p. 157. The best Remedies when we will not proceed to an Incision are Clysters and Plaisters ib. An Incision in whom to be admitted p. 158. An Instance of a Woman cur'd of an Ascites ib. p. 159. Asthma or difficulty of Breathing its description p. 126. Two primary Indications in the method of Cure ib. What to be done in the Fit ib. p. 127 128. What to be done out of the Fit for Preservation ib. p. 129 130 131. Two Instances of Persons troubled with the Asthma and the Methods used with them ib. p. 232. Asthma Convulsive see Cough Asthmatick Fits hapning in the Scurvey their Cure p. 353 354. Atrophia Scorbutick its Cure p. 363 364. B. BElly-ach in the
Heterogeneous Particles mixt with the Latex and deriving them from the Brain convey them forth whence they are found of excellent use in Convulsive affects From these things we may gather for the Cure of what Diseases this kind of Remedy is chiefly conducing for in order to an Evacuation from the Pores and Glands of the Skin as often as a Serous sharpe or otherwise offensive Humour is gathered together in or near them and being excluded from Circulating with the Blood obstinately sticks there certainly there is no readier or easier way of clearing the same forth than by applying a Vesicatory on or beneath the place affected wherefore it is not only indicated in an Anasarca and all Cutaneous foulnesses and breaking forth but a Vesicatory is likewise requir'd in Pains either of the Gout or Scurvy any where sixt in the outward habit of the Body or in some Member Secondly Vesicatories are always us'd in Malignant Fevers in respect of the Blood both to Purge it by degrees from all Heterogeneous and Morbifick matter and to alter it from its two Acid or Salt or otherwise vitiated Disposition into a due Temperament Nay they are of most excellent use in all Putrid Fevers threatning ill and of a difficult Determination Therefore also in the Scurvy Leucophlegmatia the Longing Disease of Maids and in any other Cacochimia that kind of Remedy does often great good Again Vesicatories are generally apply'd with good success not only for correcting the Blood it self but likewise as often as being deprav'd it pours its Corruptions on the other parts and so gives a beginning to Diseases and cause Fits of them in the Head Thorax Belly or Members Wherefore in Head-aches Vertigo's and Sleepy affects this is a known and vulgar Remedy and so in a Catharrh and any Defluxion either into the Eyes Nose Palate or Lungs every ordinary Man Prescribs Cantharides for a Revulsory without advising with a Physitian I must own that my self having been often seiz'd with a violent Cough accompanied with much and thick Spittle to which I am Originally inclin'd have not found more good from any Medicine than from Vesicatories therefore I am wont when that Distemper presses first to apply Blistering-plaisters on the Vertebrae of the Neck then those little Ulcers being heal'd I apply them behind the Ears and afterwards if need requires on the Shoulder-blades for so the Serous Filth breaking forth in abundance from the dissolv'd Texture of the Blood is deriv'd from the Lungs nay and the mixture of the Blood sooner recovers its Crasis its irregular Salts being by this means destroyed 3. In respect of the Humour to be evacuated or deriv'd from the Genus Nervosum and the Brain it self Epispasticks as they are of most common use in Sleepy Convulsive and Pain-causing affects so they often prove mighty beneficial Was ever any one seiz'd with a Lethargy Apoplexy or Falling-sickness but presently his Freinds or Attendants though never so ignorant flead his Skin with Cantharides In strange Convulsive Motions usually ascrib'd to no less than Witchcraft I have apply'd Vesicatories with great success to many parts of the Body together and by renewing them now and then in fresh places I have continued them above a Month Again fixt and cruelly tormenting Pains in the Membranous parts are seldom Cur'd without this AdminiAstration For sometimes Humours and Morbifick Particles which being throughly radicated yield not at all to Catharticks or Medicines working by Sweat or Urine seem to be utterly rooted out by Vesicatories laying hands as it were on the Disease Yet this Remedy though very general does not work so readily and successfully in some Diseases and Constitutions wherefore we must not use it inconsiderately or indifferently to all persons for those that have the Stone and are subject to frequent and great Fits of the Strangury scarce ever undergoe its application without prejudice Wherefore in persons so affected we must not use Vesicatories but in Malignant Fevers or in Acute Diseases of the Head to prevent a greater Mischeif As to the various Temperaments and Constitutions of Men in respect of which Vesicatories agree or dissagree more or less Concerning these things this threefold notable difference presents it self fiirst some in a manner always bear the use of this Medicine well and the little Sores made in the Skin by it distill forth the Excrementitious Humidities plentifully enough without any Disury or great Inflammation of the place Blistered and then heal of their own accord Which effect happens only in a Blood of a good Temperament where the Salt and Sulphur being in a moderate quantity and in a due state there is a good plenty of Serum whos 's Latex receding readily and in a copious manner from the rest of the Blood takes with it the smart Particles of the Medicine imbib'd and partly distills them forth by the place Blistered and partly conveys them out by the Urinary passages without offending them On this account also those good effects before mention'd are puoduc't in the Mass of Blood But Secondly this Medicine does neither agree nor work well with others for it makes the place on which it is apply'd mighty red or rather excoriats it with a violent Pain and a great Inflamation And yet the little Sores there made though they torment the Patient a good while cast forth but a very little Ichor or scarce any at all Moreover in those to whom Blistering always proves so torturing a cruel Stangury for the most part succeeds it This troublesome and withal unprofitable use of Vesicatories happens very frequently to Men of a hot and cholerick Temperament whose Blood contains Salt and Sulphur in a great plenty and but a little Serum which is wholly tainted with the others Wherefore when its Latex which ought to carry off the smart Particles of the Medicine does not part readily nor in a plentiful manner from the rest of the Blood to wà sh them away presently those Particles still sticking in the Skin Taint and Poyson as it were the Blood in its passage and being thereby hindred in its Circulation they cause it to gather together and stagnate within the extremities of the Vessels whereby they are inflam'd Moreover the Serous Latex at length separated by the Reins being but in a small quantity and sharpe of it self and made more sharpe by the Particles of the Medicine irritate the Neck of the Bladder and often corrode it with its Acrimony There remains a Third though more rare case of persons Blistered in whom the little Sores rais'd in the Skin presently pour forth the Serous Humour in such abundance that there is streight way need of repelling Medicines and such as close the Mouths of the Vessels otherwise upon the too great Efflux of waters a Dissolution of the strength and a failing of the Spirits are endanger'd to ensue I have known this to have happen'd so constantly in some that they were forc't for the time to come to abstain from
the use of Cantharides how great soever the need were of them The reason of which seems to be that the Blood being endowed with an Over-salt and sharpe Serum had its Texture too easy to be dissolv'd Besides this great Efflux of Serum rais'd upon the first application of a Vesicatory it hapning sometimes late in Malignant Fevers and in others of an ill or no Cirsis and continuing for some time wholly drains the Morbifick matter and often frees the Patient from the very Jaws of Death In such a case after that the little Sores have voided little or an indifferent quantity of Ichor the first Days at length nature attempting a Crisis this way a vast quantity of Serous-filth flows from the same and so continues to flow forth for many Days nay sometimes Weeks till the Patient lookt upon before as given over recovers his perfect Health As it is not easy to heal the little Sores so flowing in abundance so it is not safe to do it before the whole Seminal Root of the Disease be spent Not long since a famous Dr. of Physick of London recovering with much adoe of a Malignant Fever had in many parts of his Body places Blistered daily distilling forth a plenty of Ichor after some time they being troublesome and tedious to him he apply'd strong Repercussives to them all and so presently stopt all Issue of Matter Those Sources had been scarce stopt two Days but falling into a Relapse of his Disease on a sudden he was seiz'd with a Languor of the Spirits and frequent Fainting Fits with a cold Sweat and a low and weak Pulse and not being able to be reliev'd by any Remedies however cordial they were he died within three Days The cause of which seems to be that the Malignant matter suddenly struck back into the Nervs of the Heart whose action being thereby hindred the Vital Function soon fail'd CHAP. IV. Of Issues VEsicatories differ from Issues in this that these are ordered for longer continuance Moreover the former for the most part being requisite in Acute Diseases and others whose Morbid matter requires a speedy removal regard chiefly the taking away of the Conjunct cause of the Disease and therefore are made of a good breadth but superficial withal that such running Sores being large may evacuate much Matter and then be easily Cur'd But on the contrary Issurs being chielfy indicated for Preservation are design'd for removing or overcoming the Procatarctick cause of the Distemper Wherefore they consist of a narrower but deeper Orifice made through the whole thickness of the Skin so that letting forth the Morbifick matter still in less quantity they derive it farther and continue longer to empty it forth Concerning Issurs there are these three chief heads of enquirie viz. First what Humours chiefly those Emissaries evacuate and whence they derive them Secondly in what Diseases and Constitutions they agree better or worse And Thirdly in what places after what Form and with what Instruments they ought to be made 1. As to the former Issues in like manner as Vesicatories Purge forth all Humours within the Skin though lying in a less compass or such as are convey'd through it both from the Sangui-ferous and Nervous Vessels nor do they only like Vesicatories irritate and draw from the outward Superficies of the Skin but perforating the whole Skin convey forth whatsoever flows from the sides of the Orifice through the broken Vessels and whatever comes from elsewhere under the hole Wherefore not only the Humours gather'd together within the Pores and Glands of the Skin or convey'd thither by the Arteries and Nerves flow to Issues but moreover the Serous Excrements under the Skin which are wont to be convey'd or to pass from place to place through the Interstices of the Muscles and Membranes tend to them from all parts and there find their way forth Again an Issue made in a fit place anticipates Mothisick Humours which are wont to be convey'd to parts that are weak and long afflicted and so frees sometimes this part sometimes that from their Incursion Hence the Gouty or Nephritick or Colick nay sometimes the Paralitick or Scorbutick matter is intercepted by Issues in its passages from its Sources to the Weakned places or Receptacles and so the usual Fits of the Disease being evaded is convey'd forth And this Emissary even as Trenches cut for draining Fenny moistures empties forth by defrees Humours sticking in any part or region of the Body and there doing hurt and so it prevents or cures a Morbid Disposition 2. From these various ways of giving relief with which Issues are wont to do good in general its easily gathered for what affects chiefly they are required for though there be in a manner no Disease in which this Remedy either does hurt or proves useless yet it seems more necessary in some cases than in others it 's prescrib'd even by the vulgar for almost every Distemper of the Head both outward and inward Every ordinary person advises an Issue above all things for the Convulsions of Infants and Children for the Inflammation of their Eyes their Swellings of the Kings-evil and so for Head-aches Sleepy Vertigious or Convulsive affects of Adult or Aged persons Nor is this Remedy less extol'd against Diseases of the Brest is there any one subject to a Cough Bloody or Consumptive-spitting or to an Orthopnaea who has not an Issue made him In like manner also Issues are commended for affects of the Belly there is scarce any Hypochondriacal person or Hysterical Woman and no Gouty or Cahecttical person but have their Skin pierc't in more places than a Lamprey It would be a tedious thing to recount here particulary all the Distempers for which Issues are good 3. Nevertheless this Remedy however good and useful of it self does not agree with all persons nor therefore must it be indifferently prescrib'd to all For there are two sorts of Men who thongh they happen to be sick may be excus'd from Issues because this Emissary evacuates too much in some and in others little or less thanit ought and in the mean time is mighty painful and intolerable An Issue sometimes does not agree well because it evacuates or spends too much the Humour or Spirits For I have observ'd in some that an Issue made in any part of the Body voids forth an Ichor in quantity immoderate and in quantity vitious for out of it at frequent times if not continually a Watery thin and faetid Latex often making the Pea and coverings black flows in a great abundance so that from its too great Efflux the Strength and Fiesh are consum'd An Issue sometimes vioding forth no very great quantity of Ichor spends the Spirits and Strength more than it ought which is known by the effect and sometimes not till afterward to wit because some upon keeping one or more Issues open grow weak and lean and upon their being stopt become presently more Vigorous and of a full habit Moreover
the Juice of nettles make an Electuary The Dose is the quantity of a Wallnut twice a day Take of Distill'd Water or of a temperate Antiscorbutick Decoction two Pounds our Steel prepar'd two Drams mix them in a Glass The Dose is three or four Ounces Take tops of stinging Nettles Leaves of Brooklimes of each Four Handfuls being bruised let the Juice be prest sorth keep it in a Glass The Dose is two or three Ounces twice a day with an Antiscorbutick distill'd Water Of the Distempers of the Mouth happening by reason of the Scurvy ASsoon as the Scorbutick Taint seizes the parts of the Mouth that the Gums swell and their flesh becomes Spongy presently let Remedies be carefully administred which may keep them from Putresaction Amongst these washings of the Mouth and Liniments are of chiefest use both when the Disease is beginning about those parts and when it is come to a greater height there though as they regard various intents so they ought to be diversly prepar'd viz. the flesh of the Gums when first it swells ought to be freed from the incursions of the Blood or of the salt and corrupted Serum and to be dried afterward the flesh of the same grown flaccid and faln from the Teeth ought to be freed from Putrefaction and also to be constring'd that it might hold the Teeth the faster For these and haply other intents let Gargarisms or Washings of the Mouth be ordered of divers kinds of all which in a manner the chief ingredients are Vegetables boiled and Minerals infused The Herbs or Roots which are boiled in a fit Liquor viz. in Water or Wine for the most part are smart or bitter or stiptick and then those Decoctions are impregnated either with a volatile lixivial vitriolate Chalybeate or aluminous Salt I shall here set down certain forms of each kind 1. When therefore the flesh of the Gums first swells and becomes spongy by reason of the Influx of the salt and corrupted Blood and Serum Take the middle Bark of Elder and of Elm of each half a Handful Leaves of Savory Sage wild Mustard Garden-cresses of each a Handful Roots of Pelitory of Spain two Drams being sliced and bruised let them boyl in three Pounds of Water of Lime till a third part be consumed if sweetning be required add Honey of Roses two Ounces make a Gargarism Or take Vitriol Camphorated an Ounce vulgarly with us it 's called by the name of Captain Green's Power Fountain-water two Pounds mix them in a Glass shake it and then when the Liquor is grown clear by setling let it be used Or prepare a Lixivium of the Ashes of Broom or of Rosemary or of Tartar and Nitre Calcin'd In three Pounds of this boyl Leaves of Savory Time Sage and Rosemary of each a Handful let the straining be poured on two Handfuls of Scurvy-grass make a warm and close Infusion for three hours Let it be strained again and kept for Washing the Mouth several times in a day For the same Intent let Liniments also be applied betwixt whiles and espectally in the Night that their Virtue may be conveyed to the Diseased even when they are asleep Amongst Authors a common famous and long tryed Medicine is found Take the Powder of the Leaves of Columbines the Curl'd Mint Sage Nutmegs Myrrh which last nevertheless may be sometimes omitted of each two Drams Burnt Allom half an Ounce Virgin-Honey four Ounces or what suffices make a Liniment according to Art 2. If at any time the Flesh of the Gums growing Flaccid falls from the Roots of the Teeth let a Gentle Scarrification be often us'd and also let the mouth be wash't with this Decoction Take tops of Brambles and Cypress Leaves of Sanicle and Cuckow Flowers of each a handful Boyl them in three pounds of Water in which Iron has been quencht till a third part be consum'd to the straining ad Hony of Roses two Ounces mix them Let a Liniment of this kind be applyed Take Powder of the Roots of Florentine Orris Leaves of Sage and St. Johns Wort of each two Drams Bole Armeniack Sal Prunella of each a Dram warm Virgin Honey what suffices let them be incorporated by stirring them 3. When the Gums Putrifie and are Corrupted and withal the Teeth being Rotten grow loose and emit a Stinking Smell let stronger Medicines and such as greatly resist putrefaction be used an infusion of Vitriol Camphorated also of the Lapis Medicamentosus have chiefly place here Or Take Roots of Gentian and of Round Birth-wort slic't of each half an Ounce Leaves of the Lesser Centory Pontick Wormwood Savory Columbines of each a handful let them boyl in three pounds of Lime Water or of a Lixivial Water also sometimes in Water in which Iron has been quencht sometimes in Alum Water till a third part be consum'd to the straining add Crude Hony two or three Ounces mix them 4. If the falling out of the Teeth be chiefly fear'd Take Barks of the Roots of the Sloe Tree an Ounce Tormentil and whole Bistort of each a handful Pomgranate Rinds and Balaustia of each half an Ounce Boyl them in three pounds of Fountain Water to the Straining ad Alum two or three Drams of the best Hony two Ounces mix them Take Vitriol Complorated Burnt Harts-horn of each a Dram Nutmegs half a Dram of the best Hony what suffices make a Liniment Or Take Powder of the Roots of Bistort Pomgranate-rinds Bole Armoniack Burnt Allum of each a Dram Hony of Roses what suffices add Spirst of Vitriol a Scruple make a Liniment 5. If at any time putrid and profoun'd Ulcers as it sometimes happens infests the Gums or other parts of the Mouth let the forementioned stronger Medicines be often administred Moreover let a Cloth dipt in Vnguentum Egyptiacum dissolv'd in Spirit of Wine or in an infusion of the Lapis Medicamentosus or of Sublimate be now and then applyed to the place affected In these Cases let the Cure be committed to to a skilful Chirurgeon Of Pains that are wont to trouble the Legs and sometimes the other Limbs and that chiefly by Night AGainst these Pains in regard that sometimes they are very vehement besides the general method of Curing the Scurvy special Remedies and such as obviate that symptom are Indicated therefore in such a case a course of purging being well ordered also the Person being Blooded if need be we ought to set upon the Disease both with inward Physick and outward Topicks As to the former such things as promote Sweat and also an evacuation by Urine often give help in as much as they draw another way the lixivial and sharpish Recrements of the Blood and nervous Juice that are wont to be gather'd together in the Part affected but especially let those things be given which free both Humours from their evil Disposition viz. both saline and sharpish Powders of Shells Crabs Eyes the Jaw-bone of a Pike also the Spirit and Flowers of Sal Armoniack
living Whereas we see in other Animals as in a good breed of Horses and Cocks that their young ones do certainly patrizare so that presently they are sold at a great rate their Vertues in regard they are not broken by a disorderly and preternatural way of living descending in a long series to their posterity Secondly there are many evident causes by which Stupidity is brought on such as are originally sound Some at first being witty and ingenious in their declining years grow dull and doltish on the contrary some at first being dull and incapable of Learning as they grow further in years become very witty Thirdly sometimes a great wound or concussion of the Head especially which happens by falling headlong from an high place brings a prejudice and weakness to the animal faculty dulling the understanding Fourthly frequent drunkenness and surfeiting especially if men sleep presently on eating and drinking very much weaken the understandings of some and impair the use of Reason as a frequent use of opiats has shrewdly blunted the edge of the understanding of others Fifthly violent and sudden Passions such chiefly as an exceeding great terrour coming unawares or an extream sadness have rendred some doltish Sixthly We may observe that some Men by reason of great Diseases of the Brain have turn'd Fools this frequently happens in a severe and long continued Epilepsie in as much as this affect possessing the Meditullia of the Brain perverts and so stuffs with Feculencies and fills all the Pores and Passages by reason of the Spirits there frequently and vehemently exploded that the Tracts of the Spirits being close shut the Acts of the inward Senses and Motions are hindred Moreover I have observed Stupidity to accompany and precede the Palsey in many to wit the same matter which in the Corpus Striatum brings a Resolution being gathered together in the Corpus Callosum if it does not bring an Apoplexy or Carus often causes Folly There are many differences of this Disease and first we use to destinguish betwixt Folly and Stupidity that those who are affected with the former apprehend simple things well and quick enough and keep them fast in Memory but for want of Judgment ill compound or divie Notions and far worse inferr one thing from another Moreover by fooling and doing and speaking a great many things unhappily or ridiculously they move Laughter in the Standers by on the contrary those that are stupid by reason of the defects of the Imagination Memory and Judgment neither apprehend well nor nimbly nor argue well moreover they do not behave themselves as the former in making Sports and Gestures but blockishly and unfeatly and as it were like Apes and consequently the simplicity of these is more who so carry their Disease in their Countenance and Gesture In Folly it seems that the animal Spirits being somewhat nimble but unstedfast and having only short and oblique Tracts do not pass the Brain with an even and constant irradiation but making excursions this way and that after a desultory manner kexercise only slight or ridiculous Acts of animal Functions but in Stupidity the Spirits of their own nature being dull and obtuse and residing in a gross and unpervious Brain are not able to exert themselves for duly performing the Offices of the animal oeconomy There are many degrees of stupidity for some Persons are accounted unfit as to the comprehension of all things others only as to some some being wholly unfit for Learning and the liberal Sciences are apt enough to mechanical Arts others tho incapable of both these yet readily comprehend Apriculture and Country Affairs others being incapable in a manner of all business can be taught only those things that regard eating and drinking and the common way of living others being meer Dolts scarce understand any thing as all or do any thing with Knowledge As to the Prognostick Stupidity contracted by birth or hereditary or hapning through some unknown causes if it continues to the time of Puberty is scarce ever cured tho sometimes it happens that little Children at first dull and almost senseless when the Crases of the Brain and Spirits come afterward to a maturation become ingenious and apt enough to Iearn The Disease raised through some sole evident Cause as by a hurt of the Head or a violent Passion also hapning upon an inveterate Epilepsy if it persevers some time is afterward incurable That which ensuing upon other sleepy Affects depends chiefly on the hurt of the Memory sometimes those affects being cured vanishes of its own accord if at any time therefore in these Cases the cure of Stupidity is ordered in a manner the same method of healing and Remedies which we have prescribed for the preservatory indication of the Lethargy will be proper here whereof the chief intents must be that the animal Spirits being free from any Deadness and Stupefaction make Pores and Passages within the translucid Brain and duely expand themselves in them Sometimes a Fever has cur'd some Fools and stupid Persons and has rendred them more acute Huartus relates that a certain Fool in the Court of Corduba being affected with a malignant Fever arriv'd in the height of the Disease to so great an acuteness of Judgment and Discretion that he put the whole Court in Admiration and for the whole remainder of his Life continued a very prudent Person and we have known a certain Person of a dull and indeed Boeotian Understanding who raving in a Fever was very quick at breaking smart Jests and season'd with much Salt the Reason of which things seems to be that the Febrile heat sometimes rarefies and disperses the mist investing the Brain Therefore as to the cure of this Disease Stupidity whether innate or acquir'd if it be not a plain senselesness and doltishness incapable of all Erudition tho it be not usually cur'd yet it is wont to be amended Wherefore the cares both of a Physician and Tutor must be us'd for polishing somewhat the Understanding of such as are so affected and that being brought to the use of at least some little Reason they may be exempted from the rank of Brutes For this end because Bards or such as are very blockish learn not the Notions of things more readily than Children their A. B. C. therefore they are to be instructed in all things by an assiduous and very diligent Master and the same things are to be incultated again and again For by this means the Spirits tho dull and torpid will in some measure be actuated by perpetual Exercise and being continually stirred up will make at length for their Expansion some Tracts or Passages tho imperfect in the Brain how gross soever For the better and more easie effecting of these things physical Remedies also ought to be given for purifying and volatizing the Blood and nervous Liquour together with the animal Spirits and also for clarifying the Brain and rendering it as it were diaphanous For purifying the Blood
Nature is able to set upon a more full discussion of it and since upon the Blood 's burning a mighty store of adust matter is heapt together in the Vessels within four dayes Nature unless it be otherwise disturbed every fourth day being provok'd with the store of matter endeavours to shake off a part of its burthen with a certain Turgescency wherefore for the most part on the fourth seventh eleventh and fourteenth dayes critical Motions happen not through a direction of the Planets but through a necessity of Nature As to the event whether the Crisis will be good or no certain fore-knowledges are taken from the Strength of the Diseased the Pulse Urine and other signs and the concourse of Symptoms if the burning of the Fever pressing the diseased holds his strength in some measure has a strong and even Pulse if the Urine be of a middle Consistency with some Hypostasis a Separation of Contents and an easie subsiding if the Disease makes its progress without violent Vomiting Watchings a Phrensy convulsive Motions and the Suspiscion of Malignity the height of it may be expected to be laudable with a good Crisis if the contrary to these things happen viz. that the strength be presently cast down and the Diseased be subject to a frequent Fainting Convulsions or a Delirium with a weak intermittent or uneven Pulse if obstinate Watchings an intolerable Thirst and a Vomiting continually molest the Diseased if the Urine be thick and troubled without an Hypostasis or a subsiding of the parts if whilst the burning still presses Nature be stimilated to critical evacuations the extremity or height of the Disease will be dangerous nor is any good to be hop'd of the Crisis Concerning the Crisis of a putrid Fever I shall here subjoyn a particular prognostick in which tho the things that appear at the begining promise a wished for event a very sad one is at hand I have oftentimes observed in a putrid Fever which begins slowly and with a small burning if the Urine be ruddy and when it is made be presently troubled and opake which is neither precipitated by the cold nor deposes a sediment of its own accord and if at the same time the Diseased lye for many Nights without Sleep tho they are quiet and without tossing their state is very dangerous and there will be a greater suspicion if in the mean time they are not prest with an intense Fever nor with a Thirst and a Heat very troublesome for those that are affected after this manner about the height of the Disease for the most part fall into Deliriums convulsive Motions and often into a Mania from which they are in a short time precipitated into Death and when these Symptoms appear the Urine is altered from being thick and ruddy to be thin and pale Melancholy Persons are most obnoxious to these kinds of Fevers to wit in which the Exorbitancies of the Sulphur are little restrained by the Salt and earthy Dregs troubled together with it and all which being raised by little and little break forth afterward with a greater destruction When the Disease is come to the height either the thing is brought to a stress at one conflict and thence forward there is a manifest tendency to Health with a Declination or to Death or there are frequent Bickerings betwixt Nature and the Disease and critical Motions are often attempted before the Victory falls to either fide As to the first if with a good fore-running of Signs and Symptoms after that the Blood has burnt enough and its burning has remitted the adust matter being evenly subdued and subtiliz'd rises with a full increase to a Motion of Turgescency and Nature being free from any impediment or depression is of strength sufficient for a conflict the feverish matter is exterminated for the most part at one motion of Efflorescence and the Blood being become free from its Contagion and Fellowship recovers in a short time its ancient Vigour 2. But if Nature be irritated to a critical Motion before the Blood has perfectly burnt off or that adust matter be prepar'd for excretion tho as to the rest affaires are in an indifferent state yet none but an imperfect Crisis follows hence whereby somewhat of the Burthen or Load wherewith the Blood is opprest is diminisht but in its stead presently another springs afresh from a new burning and at set times afterward haply in the space of four or seven dayes as the fits of intermittents critical Motions return haply the second or third time before that the conflict being divided the advantage plainly inclines to this or that side 3. But when an ill apparatus of Signs and Symptoms preceeding the burning of the Blood still pressing without any concoction or subduing of the feverish Matter a critical Motion is stirred up Nature is sometimes overthrown at the first conflict nor does she recover her self again but yielding her self conquered by the Disease is precipitated into Death nor are things in much a better state when a Crisis at first being imperfect and of no effect comes without any relief of the Diseased and afterward the next to this happens to be worse and then by another or haply another conflict the Disease prevails till the strength being wholly broken and prostrated there is no hope left of recovery So much of the height or Crisis of the Disease By the Word Declination I understand the Condition of the Diseased and of the Disease which follows the height of it whether it tends to a Recovery or to Death whether the Fever or the Life it self of the Diseased at this time declines As to the times of the declining state it will be necessary for us to enquire what the temper of the Blood is and what alterations it undergoes as often as a progress is made from a good Crisis or an evil to a Recovery or Death The vice or depauperation which the Blood contracts from a feverish effervescence consists in these things the Spirit very much evaporates and is lost the sulphureous Part is too much scorcht and is much spent by the deflagration and after its burning an adust matter is left as a caput mortuum with whose Particles the mass of Blood is loaded and weak'ned mean while the Saline and Earthy Parts are too much exalted even as it is wont to happen in Wine or Beer too much fermented The Blood being tainted after this manner ill assimilates the stock of nutritive Juyce nay and not duely fermenting or being inflam'd in the Heart by reason of the scorching or defect of the Sulphur it ill distributes the Vital Spirit mean while by reason of the adust Matter and the Salt too much exalted it boyls more than it ought and destroys it self more 1. After a good Crisis the Spirit tho become weak still bears the sway wherefore it subdues by degrees and expells what there is remaining of feverish matter and concocts and assimilates the nutritive Juyce so a
thin juyce be administred whence the mass of Blood is refresh'd with a genuine Spirit and Sulphur 2. After an evil Crisis the thing is otherwise the Liquour of the Blood like Wine too much fermented wholly loses its strength its Spirit is greatly diminisht what there is remaining of it for the most part is involv'd and as it were overwhelm'd with Particles of adust matter whence a continual Effervescence remains still in the Blood tho without coction or assimilation of the nutritive Juyce or a separation of that which is useless from what is good the benign Sulphur and Food of the vital Flame is much consum'd so that the Blood is kindled in the Heart less than it ought mean while through adust Recrements and raised to too great a height with Salt and Earth it continually boyles in the Vessels with a Drought and a Heat and because it is daily depauperated upon the continual spending of the benign Spirit and Sulphur and is more tainted with the Salt and earthy Faeculencies too much exalted its Liquour in a short time grows vapid and becomes unfit for circulation and accension in the Heart for upholding the vital Fire wherefore Life must necessarily fail 3. After an imperfect and doubtful Crisis when the Diseased being broken by a long continued Weakness recover not but after a long time the case stands thus the Spirituous and Sulphureous parts of the Blood are very much consum'd by their long burning the remaining Liquour being not purg'd from the adust Recrements and Feculencies is rendred very impure and there remaining still somewhat of Oyle for the vital Flame and the Spirits not ceasing wholly from working upon the febrile Matter the Blood is still circulated and tho in a small measure is kindled in the Heart nay and the Spirits recover themselves by little and little and begin to set upon the matter remaining after the Fever and at length wholly subdue it and restore a sprightly Fermentation de Novo in the Heart CHAP. IX Of the most observable Symptoms and Signs in a Putrid Fever THE accidents which a Physician ought chiefly to consider in giving a true Diagnostick and Prognostick of this Disease may be reduced to three Classes as it were or common Places that is to say they have regard to the Viscera of Concoction viz. the Ventricle and Intestines with their Appendixes or secondly to the Humours flowing in the Vessels to wit the Blood in the Arteries and Veins and the thin Liquor in the nervous Parts together with the first sources of both viz. the Heart and Brain or lastly those Symptoms regard the habit of the Body with the various constitution of the Pores and the firmness or pining away of the solid Parts those who will exactly observe the course of the Disease and aptly draw the Curative Intentions must mind these three heads of Symptoms and diligently observe what alterations happen in these distinct Regions as it were according to the differing times of the Fever 1. Concerning the Ventricle and first Passages in the whole course of this Fever tedious affects and Disorders as a Nauseousness a Vomiting loss of Appetite Indegestion a Diarrhoea a roughness of the Tongue and Mouth a bitter savour are wont to molest them these things for the most part are attributed to the Humours first heap'd together in the Stomach and there putrifying but besides that the Recrements of the Chyle being burnt with too much heat degenerate into an offensive matter often those kinds of accidents happen because the off-scourings and filth of the Blood and nervous Juyce whilst they ferment are carried inwards and being depos'd within the Membranes of the Viscera cause Contractions and make a filthy heap of a vitious and very infesting Humour I have often observ'd that about the beginnings of Fevers the Blood vehemently boyling still depos'd its recrments in wardly to the benefit of the Diseas'd where tho some tedious affects hapned about the first Passages yet the effervescence was thereby more mild the Pulse moderate and the Urine laudable and after this manner those that were ill of a Fever with a thin Diet and the use of gentle carriers forth of Excrements recovered in a short time but if in this case I gave a violent Cathartick for extirpating the Humours that natural purging of the Blood being letted presently the Fever became intense with a ruddy and troubled Urine a high Pulse Watchings and other horrid Symptoms also often after the height of the Disease the adust and excrementitious matter is sever'd from the Blood by this kind of inward lustration hence sometimes a loosness sometimes crusty breakings forth of the Mouth and Throat happen wherefore concerning the accidents which happen in the first passages there is need of caution lest while we obviate those we pervert the Motion of Nature and lest whilst we fortifie these Parts against the incursion of the morbific Matter we perversly keep the same shut up in the mass of Blood The Symptoms chiefly to be considered in reference to the Mass of Blood are a heat diffus'd through the whole a great trouble of the Praecordia a ruddy Urine a spontaneous Lassitude a Swooning from which being duely considered these following things may become known viz. what the degree of heat is or according to what tenor the inflamed Blood burns what times of remission or exacerbation its effervescence observes whilst it burns whether it retains its Crasis or its mixture entire what strength of the Heart suffises and what space the Vessels afford for its burning and the circulation of it being kindled in what store the Blood whilst it boyles heaps together adust Recrements after what manner it subdues and severs them or at leastwise endeavours to sever them in fine what way of Crisis it endeavours and with what success The Accidents which regard the thin Liquour with the Brain and the nervous Appendix are disorders about Sleep and Watching a Weakness of the whole Body a Trembling a Tetanus Pains convulsive Motions Contractions of the Viscera a Stupor a Phrensy and the Observation of which will suggest to us what is the Temper and Constitution of that thin Liquour after what manner it irrigates and influences the Nervous parts and circulates through them how the animal Spirits perform the Functions of the Viscera what is the state of the Brain whether it continues free from the incursion of the feverish matter whether it be not in danger of being overwhelm'd by reason of its critical Metastasis Concerning the Habit of the Body we must consider the manner of its Perspiration and the degree of it whether it be only by vapory Effluvia or by Sweat or also by Pushes whether the flesh falls on a sudden from its wonted bulk or whether it retains it a long time what is the colour of the Face and the Vigour or dulness of the Eyes from these things being duly compared together we excellently measure the Course of the Fever at what