Sudorific Medicine THe Scurvy is not a particular Disease limited to this or that part of the Body but extends it self throughout the whole as appears by the variety of Symptoms in several parts of the Body and being of this extent Medicine also must have the same Latitude of Operation to prosecute and reach into its utmost and farthest quarters Purgation that cleanseth the Central and more inward parts as the Stomack Guts Mesentery Liver and Spleen Transpiration that respects chiefly the habit of the Body and external parts purifying the Mass of Blood and vital streams These two Operations are necessary for Cure in most Scorbutic cases as the following discourses and observations in Practice recited does manifest Some there are that deceive themselves and lay the whole stress of the Cure upon Purging and that they prosecute very often and it were well if the purgatives be proper but the effects may inform and tell them that there is something else requisite and they find it so The Scurvy is not so easily dislodged and thrown out by a single Operation of Medicine but requires rectifying and strengthning of the Digestive Faculties also and depuration of the Blood The Body of man is perspirable and in his due state of health continually more or less doth transpire and breath out humid vapours and a superfluous moisture by the Pores of the Body hereby the Mass of Blood and habit of the Body is cleansed and discharged of that which is superfluous or impure and unfit to be retained and this insensible Evacuation is so requisite that without transpiration the Mass of Blood cannot be depurated but remains muddy and defiled which forceth Nature to a distempered fermentation and morbific Eruption Proper and amicable Purgation doth well acts a good part and ought to be praemitted in most cases which alone do check a Disease and lessen it by carrying off a I morbific matter in the lower Region of the Body but if the Mass of Blood and habit of the Body be tainted and corrupted the vital stream and those parts irrigated and fed from thence are not purified as they ought but by Exsudation and Transpiration and the Spirits that are clogg'd and infested by impure matter which darkens their light causing Melancholy and indisposed heaviness are hereby relieved and unfettered become brisk aery and lively as before And in promoting this Operation we imitate and assist Nature which continually does Emittere Transpirare per Poros at least ought so to breathe forth superfluous vapours and humidity and when this is cohibited and restrained by occlusion and shutting up the pores by cold or otherwise or Nature unable thus to relieve and discharge her self by reason of debility and insufficiency in separating and protruding it is not long but some Disease or many ariseth from the course of Nature thus impedited either a sudden febril aestuation or erratic pains in this or that part or a slow eruption of grosser matter sticking in the skin discolouring and spotting of it or bringing forth Scurf Pustules or other Extretions By this you may understand the benefit that doth arise by the regular course of Nature in her daily Operations and Excretions and the profitable assistance of Art in promoting them when impeded as also the prejudice and damage by the contrary And here I shall relate to you the Case of a Scorbutick Patient pertinent to the proceeding Discourse A Gentlewoman aged between Forty and Fifty formerly fatt and fleshy but reduced to a lean state being troubled for some years with a lassitude or weariness in her Limbs and Indisposition to Action and with pains at some times afterwards in Autumn a weakness and numbness possessed her Limbs that disabled her in going All this while she was not negligent to seek for help had such Advice as the Country did afford and used many Medicines but her Disease prevailed still each Spring and Autumn being worse than the former it hapned that a Relation of her case was sent to me she living a great distance from London what was wanting in the first Relation I interrogated in my Answer and the next Account I received did fully satisfie me I found the Scurvy disguised to act in several Scenes after a different manner the Medicines she had used were proper for the Symptoms that did appear barely considered but not as they had a Relation and were grounded upon the Scurvy which being undiscerned did frustrate all the Endeavours for Cure Letting of her blood was injurious and she grew worse upon it soon after a Stupor or Paralytic numbness seised her To be short she was committed to my care and management I sent her three Anti-scorbutick Medicines namely my Scorbute-Pills Elixir and Sudorific Extract to be used in that order and method as the Medicines and her Condition required at the months end she gained the use of her Limbs but were something weak yet no pains as formerly and upon the use of the Sudorific Extract some spots were driven forth and the Latent Scurvy did appear and satisfied them more fully what I had determined of her disease The Winter being very sharp did sometimes interrupt her Course and retarded the compleating of a Cure which else might have been finished in a shorter time At the beginning of March I set her into the same Course again which was diligently observed and in April following she was perfectly restored In the Course of these Medicines according to the Account received I observed her pains to lessen and cease upon the use of the Sudorific Extract and not before which Medicine chiefly restored her the use of her Limbs and it was reason to expect the greatest benefit as to that particular in the Case should acrue from a Diaphoretic Medicine that searching and penetrating the habite of the Body by transpiration and breathing Sweats should dissodg and discusse the Scorbutic Matter which infested the Nerves and Muscles impeding and disabling the parts in their Motion and Action By such Examples as this and other different Cases as to the Symptoms yet parallel with it as to the parts affected and Morbisic Cause I was fully satisfiâ—d that a Sudorific Medicine was of necessary use in many Scorbutic Cases and without which a Cure could not be performed I therefore prepared a Medicine that might effectually answer the scope of that intention which might operate by Transpiration and gentle sweating and by a kindly assisting of Nature in that operation might depurate the whole Masse of blood and free the habite of the body from any Scorbutic Impurity and Degenerate Matter which at certain seasons of the year and by accidental promoting Causes ferments and produceth various internal Distempers and Diseases Scorbutic Feavers continual and intermitting Quotidian Tertian and Quartan Head-aches and Pains in several parts Pleurisies Asthma's c. or external and Cutany-Difedations as Spots Scurff Scabs Pustul's Tettars Ringworms Tumors c. And because our blood especially in these Northern
deceive themselves very much in desiring strong Purgations which weaken and impair Nature and thereby you protract your Cure and not hasten it Concerning preparation before Purging much talked of take this Advice that soluble bodies readily yeilding obedience to gentle Purging Medicines need no other preparation than what nature hath provided in the disposition of their own bodies but for those bodies that are more hot dry costive and very stubborn in Operation it will be advantagious to facilitate their Purgation by eating stewed prunes water grewel or barley broth with raisins and currants or by drinking whey or sider two or three daies before which will prepare moisten cool and open your body and make it more soluble and easy in purging The times for taking these Pills generally is thus except good reason in some bodies perswade the contrary Take one Pill over night going to bed having eaten but a light Supper at six of the clock before the next morning early in bed take the remaining part of the Dose and you may sleep an hour after if you be disposed but not longer nor like long in bed after lest you check the Operation of the Medicine and thereby cause you to be sickish at Stomack in your rising when you are up drink a little warm posset-drink made of small bear or small Ale or thin broth for this purpose and forbear eating until noon but although these Pills are appointed to be taken one over night the other in the morning yet if you find any inconvenience thereby you may take the whole Dose in the morning very early and lie two hours after But if you have not a just cause for alteration observe the Prescription These Pills take thus every fourth or fifth day and you will find it best to give such intermission Chronick or old Diseases must have time to be Eradicated and you must reduce nature from an ill habit by degrees * Semper expedit paulatim ducere quà m subitò better than hastily As diseases come on gradually prevailing upon and seducing nature from her Integrity so nature by degrees must be brought off and restored again to her power and regularity Cum natura malè sustinet repentinas mutationes For going abroad after your Pills that day if you desire it or occasions require take this advice if your body be indifferent strong not apt upon small occasions to take cold the season temperate and fair weather having moderated the Dose of your Pills so as to work but three or four times at most you may then go abroad without prejudice but if it fall out to be otherwise then it is better to keep in that day If any ask At what times of the year these Pills are to be taken I answer you may safely and with benefit at any time of the year provided you order your self suitable to the season that is in Winter-weather a warm Chamber and good fire in Summer-hot weather a cool Room free from the Sun be moderate in Cloathing and gentle in Motion not to heat your self For the Mornings in the midst of Summer they are temperate and fit for Physick and the Operation will be done before the heat of the day so that in this temperate Climate you may take Physick with discretion at any season of the year the Dog-daies not excepted although it is an opinion among the vulgar that that time is dangerous but that is a vulgar error easy to be refuted Of Restoring and Rectifying the Digestions necessary in Curing the SCURVY IN the preceding Discourse of that Treatise where the Scurvy is manifested and laid open in the causes and manner of Generation you find it planted and Radicated in the Digestions or Digestive Offices by whose Aberrations from Integrity and frustrations of performing their Duties as they ought this Disease is begotten in the Cure therefore we must have an eye to their Deficiency in Vigour and Deviation from the Rectitude and manner of their performance being Alienated and Depraved The former Medicine viz. the Scorbute-Pills was designed to cleanse and carry off the Producted Scorbutick matter another Medicine also must necessarily be invented to Roborate and strengthen the Faculties to restore and confirm them in the performance of their Functions or else the like Scorbutick matter will be generated again and nature will soon relapse into the Former state In vain it is to pump except you stop the Leak Purging carries off the Degenerate matter and does a necessary work but that does not Vigorate re-inforce and give new strength to the Digestive Faculties that were tyred and alienated in their Principles that must be done by another Medicine whose property is to excite unite and joyn with the Principal agent in each faculty To make this more plain and easie to be apprehended by indifferent Capacities first I shall shew you how nature does perform her daily work Then I shall shew how she declines and falls off and Thirdly I shall manifest how she is to be assisted and restored So soon as food is received into the body nature presently falls about her business to digest to dissolve separate the parts of it to volatise to distribute and transmit from one digestive office to another to sequester and throw aside the unprofitable and excrementitious part to attract and suck in the alimentary to refine and alter it by several elaborations to extract and draw out the pure spirituous part for supply of spirits the rest assimilated into the humoral and solid parts from hence the body is preserved and maintained in strength and vigour and this is Natural Chymistry performed every day in mans body in the regular course of nature but when nature declines and fails in the ordinary and daily work of her own preservation whether by intemperance improper food irregular and injurious customes or accidents or Spontaneosly from an Imbecile Radication of principles and bad Crasis of parts the body then decayes apace when the principle functions are weakly and depravedly exercised necessarily then an Auxiliary means and Assistant must be applyed to restore nature to her strength and regular course again something that must accuate and vigorate nature that must excite and cooperate in Conjunction with the movent principle that as a new Spring will give power and force to the faculties Considering this so necessary and useful in the cure of most Infirmities as also to establish and confirm a Cure wrought from Recidivation and Relapse I thought it a principal work to find out and form such a medicine as may answer the intentions proposed and therefore have by several tryals and improvements effected and wrought such a medicine to that degree and competent power as is very efficacious in the deficienties and enervation of the digestive faculties to Restore and Roborate them in their functions which medicine is called and known by the name of Cathelic Elixir now altered and improved And this was the custom and manner of the
Climates doth abound with a serosa Colluvies a Serosity or Superfluous watery humor a good Sudorisic Medicine is of great use for when this serous matter abounds and increase the ther by the insufficient Attraction Separation of the Reins that should expend and drain it or the Pores shut up and Trauspiration denied that should insensibly exhaust it doth then by Preternatural Retention degenerate and change its Nature and Properties that which was mild turns acid sharp and molesting and variously degenerating doth cause several Diseases and Pains in divers parts of the Body as it Circulates in the Vessels or extravasated and wandring about being expulsed from part to part as hostile and injurious by the strength and fortitude of the Archeus or innate spirit that inhabits as the Life-guard in each part of the body This Sudorisic Medicine prepared for the purposes aforesaid I appoint in all Scorbutic Cases requiring Transpiration or Sweating and I find great success in the use of it especially being now much altered and improved Many Diseases are expulsed by Sudorificks that purgatives cannot prevail against the reason is this First because some Diseases do arise and depend upon a flatulent Spirit or Meteor that is generated in the body and these Diseases are more accute and dangerous than others because their matter is more active subtile and of suddain motions being of the Nature of a Spirit is more penetrative and irresistible in its motion as Apoplexy Epilepsy histerical Passions Pestilential Seminaries suddain Swooning c. Which do not yield Obedience to Purgatives being of a more subtile spirituous nature is not ejected by Vomit or Stool as grosser Morbific Humours are but requires a Medicine equivalent and proportionate to their Nature that is penetrative subtile and acute in Operation proper to discuss evaporate and transpire Secondly many Diseases though arising from grosser and humoral causes that would obey the Power and Virtue of Purgatives yet by reason they are lodged in the habit of the body and more exterior parts are out of distance and beyond the reach and sphere of their activity but a good Sudorific penetrates and searcheth all parts raiseth the Seminaries and enters the secret Dormitories of lurking Diseases and gives them expulsion by its subtil Operation and acute Power and here I remember the condition of a Patient which I will relate to you pertinent to the present discourse A young gentlewoman of a fair Complexion and very clear skin by Melancholy and other causes was much altered and become brown muddy and discoloured in particular places afterwards a Scurf did arise and some Pimples here and there which was troublesome by itching this Gentlewoman was let blood and purged often but still her trouble remained then she was advised to a Wash to clear the skin and to take away the heat and pimples which did take effect in a few daies but upon retiring of this humour inwards she fell desperately sick with violent pains in her head and ready to faint away often Hereupon I was sent for and examined the whole matter and finding the acuteness of her sickness to arise from an imprudent repelling of a humour and forcing it back upon Nature which she had brought forth to the skin I immediately appointed her a Dose of my sudorific Extract to be given her which put her into a breathing Sweat and when the Medicine had done its Operation her pains and sickness were almost gone the next day I appointed another Dose to be given her to sweat gently for two or three hours and before the Operation of the Medicine was spent her pain and sickness quite left her and then appeared some of the former Symptoms again upon the skin but without itching The present danger of her sickness being over I caused her to rest two or three daies and gave her an Elixir to take every day to cherish Nature and recover her strength then she fell to the Sudorific Extract again to cleanse the Blood and to breathe out that impurity which was lodged under the skin with convenient intermssion she repeated this Sudorific Medicine three or four times more and then the former Symptoms quite left her and she regained her former beauty and clearness of skin By this you may understand that a Sudorific Medicin some times is effectual when Purgatives cannot prevail yet 't is injurious to Nature to draw back again what she hath protruded and brought forth to the Circumference of the Body and therfore they that rely and insist too much upon Purging thinking to cleanse the whole Body by that Operation only are much deceived Purging is good but not alwaies other Medicines must come in and take their place according as the case requires Purging cleanseth the Center but Sudorificks purifie the exterior parts That you may know when a Sudorific Medicine is required as necessary and advantagious to the Cure I 'le tell you in what cases I appoint this Sudorific Medicine to be taken In curing the Scurvy I find good success thereby to cleanse and purifie the Blood that is degenerate and vitiated with a Scorbutic taint and impurity or when the Pores are occluded and imperspirable the Body tumified and puft up for want of transpiration and ventilation when pricking pains or itching in the flesh molest and trouble by a saline or acrid Serosity extravasated and erratick when spots tumors pustul's scurfe pimples or such like appear upon any part of the Body This Sudorific Medicine discusseth and discipates the confluence of Humours tesorting to any part opens the Pores transpires and drives out the extrementions matter congested and lodged under the skin also when a Lassitude or weariness possess the Limbs when the spirits are torpid dull heavy as it is the case of many Scorbutic persons being alienated from their purity and wonted vigour by a degenerate and depraved alimentary succus cloging and settering them that should support and maintain them with an addisional supply of a congenerous extraction in this case a good Sudorific is the best relief to depurate the Vital stream and alimentary liquors of the Body from whence the Spirits receive strength and vigour again The Dose and Circumstances that attend the taking of this Sudoific Extract is thus to a man or woman of a weak tender body at first I give a dram and half the next time two drams but stronger bodies give two drams at the first dose then two drams and half almayes beginning with a lesser dose and encrease the quantity as from the quantity of a Nutmeg to a Chestunt according to the condition and strength of the body after tryal First because there is great difference in bodyes some require more as hard dry bodyes and thicker skinns being more difficult to transpire and some less as tender moist bodyes of a rare Texture and open Pores more apt to breath out Secondly Nature is better pleased to receive some Medicines gradually then imposing a full dose at first if Nature