disease in fieri and in facto the prognostick of hope or fear in the course and motion of this disease dependeth upon the mutation and alteration of these signs and symptomes in the time and manner of their eruption conjunct with the colour of them as followeth The signs of discouragement after their eruption taken from their colour is when they appear black or green the black being worst and most mortal Again they are more dangerous when their eruption is exceeding in quantity than when they are but few in number because the impurity is sooner corrected and exhausted and the spirits lesse exercised in the expulsion of them those also are of more difficulty that are great and large than the small according to Aetius and a contradiction diametrical to Avicen who saith the largest Pox are most void of danger his words are these translated scil The white are best and safest when they are few in number and large in quantity Yet upon consideration the difference may be reconciled between them without much litigation if Avicen be understood in this sense That the greatest in quantity are best in judgment because they educe with them from the centre to the circumference a greater proportion of peccant humour which is a great disoneration or disburthening of Nature and Aelius to judge the largest in quantity to indicate a greater fulnesse of the peccant cause and more dangerous than the least in quantity because the largest are significants of redundancy in the cause and herein they both agree that the plenitude of matter is the cause of danger because not without more expence of spirit to be cast out but if the same internal redundancy of the cause be equal then the larger eruption is the greatest levamen to Nature Besides this redundancy there are many other concurrences of circumstance which are symptoms of as great danger in this disease such as are the strictnesse and loosenesse of the belly for any spontaneous flux of the belly must be of an ill signification though the cause be plenitude and the evacuation be à potentia naturae because it is a retraction of the matter in motion from the circumference to the centre which manifesteth almost an irrecoverable disorder in natural motion and very few upon such accidents do escape death and Physicians cannot behold this accident of spontaneal purging or vomiting in this disease without narrow hope some rare escapes there hath been reported of which I can be no witnesse of any such recovery Thus having fulfilled my own intention in applying my self to the meanest capacity for observation and use of my own Country which hath given me leave once more to breath in it where I find this disease heretofore of no moment to be now of as great consideration therefore as hitherto I have plainly presented to common view the causes both internall and externall with the signs of it in fieri in facto I shall proceed according to my ingagement to the reason of cure and what remedies are most proper and when to be used or applyed In the curing of this disease the principal scope of the Physician is to assist Nature in its regular motion in the beginning with temperate correctives of the cause by dyet and ayre the dyet according to Paulus Aegineta must be moderate in quantity neither too much nor too sparingly adhibited nor too hot nor too cold in quality if the dyet be too thin the spirits will be enfeebled and of no force or power to move the peccant cause to the circumference which is the universal Emunctory of the body and if the ayre of the place be over-hot the feverish distemper is augmented and the spirits in danger of suffocation therefore upon this hinge of moderation turneth the safety of every person affected with this disease and this course being ordered with judgment and care is instar ommum medicamentorum for there will be little use of any other application except externally to preserve the beauty and comlinesse of the face Yet according to my Theme I shall publish the variety of opinions in the curing of this disease and after a little more enlargement of my own sense I shall leave my self and all my Collations to the consideration of our English world as well knowing other Regions to differ as much from us in Practice as Language and set a value upon their own câ—stom as will admit of no precept to the contrary it appearing in a latitude to be an undervaluing of their own nor can any man perswade the major part of strangers but that they can ride any horse in the world with as much â—ase and confidence as they do their owne Hobby-horses and Asses for in truth those that they do so ride are esteemed by the best Caballarist to be no other But to inlarge my self or explain my sense in the regimen of this disease the whole work consisting in moderation of ayre and dyet without any other mixtures of violence or bland impediments which may altogether pervert or in or by a lesse force retard Nature in itâ— motion the motion of Nature in this case being from the beginning of this disease to the eruption of the Pustules Critical and in Critical motions the least application of any medicament is so dangerous that no expert Physician will admit For Nature hath at this time set her self in a Batalia posture to encounter the enemy vi armis and if upon the charge it shall make discovery of assistance it will retard the present encounter which addeth courage to the enemy and giveth him a greater choice of ground but if any of these auxiliaries should put Natnre into a disorder by conjunction with it the enemy will not neglect the opportunity of conquest and in this argument a Simile may become this place though it be not a perfect demonstration because diseases are as mutineers against natural government Nature when it is it self and without disturbance will give no entertainmeut to a resisting rebellious and heterogeneall quality to incorporate it self into the most noble parts but upon disorder and disturbance then false appetites break in and open tâ—e gates to all heterogeneality to the ruine of the whole government therefore when Nature is harmoniously set the course is to preserve it so by winding up any string at the first relax which maintaineth harmony and preserveth that string from contracting it self by rest and grow so stubborâ— that it cannot be wound up again without fear of ruption which at the first slip might have bâ—en effected with much ease and little fear of dismembring the Instrument and disturbing the harmony but if the relaxation by permanency hath over-stiffned and contracted this fiver of the Instrument yet the musician will not use any violent motion to extend it and reduce it to its former posture but gradatim wind it up till it be properly siâ—ed and harmoniously fitteâ—â— to consent with the rest of the members of
the instrument the same order is to be taken in the curing of this Disease for although this affect by some malignity be exasperated yet the motion being critical will admit of no violence and therefore a moderate dyet and temperate aire is only to be continued the dyeâ—â—eing alimentuÌ„ medicamentosum 〈◊〉 as is milk with Saffron with flowers of Calendula especially before the eruption of the â—ox there being neither art or reason violently to move crudities in the beginning of any Disease without antecedent preparation which preparation in this case is nothing else but the quiet of nature and fomenting of it with seasonable and moderate aliment which is the best refrigerium or comfort to the spirits whose spiritual motion is the unum necessarium in this Disease I am not ignorant of young conceptions in this point nor is it my intention to neglect any objection that may be urged by my self or any other Author either ancient or modern that may give more satisfaction to the Reader who is quatenus medicus ignorant of several Sects of Physitians as there are of Divines in Theology amongst us the Erasistrateans will admit of no remedy in diseases especially of plenitude but fasting and abstinence from dyet Hippocrates commendeth a thin diet in the beginning of all acute distempers and more plenâ—iful in the declination Galeâ— in the beginning of all firmentation universally adviseth Phlebotomy or bloud-letting as a general evacuation of all humours as they are mixt up in the masse of bloud whose opinion wil be the basis of all my future discouse there are many and Physitians are Galenists in this point and more especially and universally the French Nation which make bloud-letting the principal and sole remedy in all Diseases Climes Times Ages and the greatest argument to confirm this practise is the mode of France by the same argument they would prove stinking and putrid flesh both of fish and fowl to be most comfortable to the sense and corroborative to the animal spirits and if their Rhetorick be no better then their Logick to perswade persons of reason and sense to accept of their mode it is most probable it wil prove the Nummismata of Galen which is a quaere that will pass no farther then their own Country and those that are satisfied with such invalid arguments must suffer the successe for one errour in a logical brain being rooted is without satisfaction or extirpated with exceeding great difficulty Therefore I shall not hope to perswade any of those modish persons from such rash practise no more then to cleanse the Negro of his blacknesse I call it rash and inconsiderate practiâ—e in this Disease because it is a doubt indetermined amongsâ— the most Learned Professors 〈◊〉 all Nations both Greeks Arâ—bians and Latins and all otheâ— principled from them beinâ— all of them unresolved of Phlâ—botomy in the small Pox upoâ— any indication to be a safe remedy and if the Disease bâ—â—onjunct with an undeniabâ—â— plethory of bloud which is the proper indication of Phlebotomy yet such bleeding ought to be by scarification and cupping-glasses without the cutting of any major vessel because the Section of such veins do not only evacuate too much spirit 〈◊〉 also retract the peccant cause to the Centre which is intended to the circumference and effected by a shallow scarification upon the arms back and thighs by which course there is a diminution of the cause in its mixture and assistance to nature in its circumâ—erential motion with little expence of sixt or fluent spirit which is a great support to universal nature in its conatus to discharge the most noble parts from danger of ruine Contrarily in the behalf of bloud-letting I have been urged much with the example of the now then their own Country and those that are satisfied with such invalid arguments must suffer the successe for one errour in a logical brain being rooted is without satisfaction or extirpated with exceeding great difficulty Therefore I shall not hope to perswade any of those modish persons from such rash practise no more then to cleanse the Negro of his blacknesse I call it rash and inconsiderate practise in this Disease because it is a doubt indetermined amongsâ— the most Learned Professors 〈◊〉 all Nations both Greeks Arabians and Latins and all other principled from them being all of them unresolved of Phâ—â—botomy in the small Pox upoâ— any indication to be a safe remedy and if the Disease 〈◊〉 conjunct with an undeniabâ—â— plethory of bloud which is the proper indication of Phlebotomy yet such bleeding ought to be by scarification and cupping-glasses without the cutting of any major vessel because the Section of such veins do not only evacuate too much spirit but also retract the peccant cause to the Centre which is intended to the circumference and effected by a shallow scarification upon the arms back and thighs by which course there is a diminution of the cause in its mixture and assistance to nature in its circumferential motion with little expence of â—ixt or fluent spirit which is a great support to universal nature in its coâ—atus to discharge the most noble parts from danger of ruine Contrarily in the behalf of bloud-letting I have been urged much with the example of the now French King who in this case was Phlebotomized about ten or eleven times as I remember my self being at St. Germain the same time and upon this example they will ground a precept for universal practise I do not deny but that such rare escapes have been in all Diseases but for the universal and common successe of such practise I shall leave to the observation and judgement of the Universe regulating my self according to reasonable axioms which are eternal of undeniable validity if they be studiously followed and separated from phanatick ebulitions of an ill-principled brain and if by this argumentation any person of an other sense shall be offended they do most honourably for themselves to publish more certain reasonable and assured grounds of their practise to the great satisfaction of the unsatisfied vulgar which can take no notice of any intervenient cause but censure all practise according to successe it will also be a great instruction to others that are unacquainted with their mystery or solid ground upon which they limited their Doctrine and practise to the glory of their Nation wherein they were educated and born otherwise it will become them to acquiesce in the Doctrine and practise of the most learned antient and modern professors of healing and not like Vanâ—elmont to blaspheme all University and School-education and methodicall proceedings contradicting all principles in Doctrine and practise putting out all light and leaving the world to grope in darkness without any spark of light from them if they be wise their lipâ— preserve it for nothing proceedeth from them of any such tincture as if they did suppose we ought to know their meaning which the Devil doth not know
agree with the curiosity nor reason of a strange Artist shall prove by their custom to be a specifical remedy to those Natives in their own Region as in Holland their butter-milk and apples is their most cordial refershment in all diseases and in all those places and of more esteem then any other remedy and most prescribed by their Native Physicians and if you meet with the prescript of a pickled-herring with an order to prepare it you have then a Probatum in all diseases for there is no full satisfaction given to any of that Nation if these remedies be prohibited And answerably there is a natural adherence in all Nations to their own custom Suum cuique pulchrum the Crow conceiveth her own bird the fairest and so doth the Negro And both man and beast as they have an aliment proper to their own Nature so naturally they elect their own Physick the fowles that feed according to their kind upon corn worms and carrion when they are diseased will seek out stones to cool them and other disgorging remedies they find out as the dog doth grass therefore non omnia omnis fert tellus But of all terrestrial inhabitants the English do most distast the productions of their own Country in Nature and Education which presenteth an invitation to all Nations to supplant and impoverish the Natives and off-spring of our own Country or else inforceth them to stamp a strange name especially upon pieces of Art to make them vendible to the great incouragement of strangers and impoverishing our own Nation amongst whom there may by encouragement be pickt out an equality to the whole Universe the neglect whereof doth as much infeeble the persons as the plants without support answerable to their capacity I have lived a long time amongst divers Nations and according to my time have had as much conversation with all sorts of people and professions and without National indulgence could not apprehend any excellency unmatchable in England especially before these latter Rebellious Ages which was the discouragement of all Artists and suppression of Arts and Sciences and in policy fomented by all neighbouring-Nations for the universall advance of their profit and reputation of their Nation and by their Industry and our own rebellious spirits the Gallantry Honour Education and Antient renown of our own Country hath been sepulted in oblivion And now those Sects of Sadduces that would not entertain the faith of a resurrection are now forced with grief and shame to confesse it and without doubt shall daily see this corruption to put on incorruption and our Nation to return to their former principles more purified by this fiery tryall and to re-erect the Antient Memory and Monuments of all the Antient Professors of Arts and Sciences so odious to the spawn of this last Age some of which were then thankfull they had forgot the Lords Prayer and others that had turned all the Schools of Antient Philosophy into furnaces and luxurious houses for sweating intemperate persons and these are the off-spring of Phacton driving on their fiery Chariot till they have crackt their skulls with their own sublimation of spirits for ayre rarefied must find vent or force it Iohannes Crato is not to be condemned because his Tutor Educated him in Chymistry but to be highly applauded for his non-profession of it upon the uncertainty in the operation quia totum opus constat in regimine ignis and as a Mathematician ought to be a King according to Proverb because of the expence his variety of instruments doth charge him with so ought the operatour to have more money then Learing to fit himself with a furnace for that equall heat which shall without dispute separate his Homogeneals from his Heterogeneals without which Regiment of fire it cannot be effected And this is the reason why every pretender to excellency in Chymistry spendeth his whole industry in the figure of his furnace and though he doth rejoyce and warm himself at his own external furnace yet those infiered spirits of minerals are to the spirits of animals and innate heat as over-powering as the Sun is to all Culine fire which putteth it out and so it hath proved to all operators which have been exact in their office they have been buryed very young in it And this was a great observation of Crato that Paracelsus which proclaimed eternity to himself in this World did not live above 45. years nor the Germane Princess used to those medicall preparations And himself as a Galenist boasteth of living with three Emperours and creating his own Grand-child Doctor of the Chair but all such observations are out of date and superannuated nor can an old man perswade children from playing with fire till they have burnt themselves But more clearly to signifie my own sense in Chymical operations I cannot but approve the employment out of curiosity because it is a great discovery of mixt bodies and their mixture which is a great pleasure to sense but not as medicinal remedies to be acceptable or homogeneal to humane tempers but the preparation of Vegetals without exception exceeding usefull in the composure of medicaments because they are prepared in the womb or furnace of the Earth by a perfect temper of fire and need nothing but a separation from their terra damnata and their tincture very useful And as it is more pleasure to the operator so is it free from danger which cannot be avoided in working upon mineral and metalical bodies as may be observed from Goldsmiths the major part of them being enervated and paralytick before they are of any considerable age of consistency and had they not their remedy always at hand they would be soon ruined and useless in the world The same accidents happen to miners that work in the earth amongst minerals and metals who very often are suffocated or strangled in the place These experiments being undenyable are arguments of sufficient force and demonstration to prove their non-agreement or consent with humane principles but for the advancement of Art and Science adventures must be made and adventures rewarded with respect and applause The Navigator maketh discovery by the light of the Sun in its full splendor but he that searcheth into the bowels of the earth hath no immediate assistance from that planet therefore their discovery is more obscure laborious and dangerous and their reward ought to be more ample And now I return to my proper subject and briefly to the conclusion of this discourse of the specifical internal remedies in this disease of the Small Pox about which there is much litigation and dispute between the Ancient and Modern professors of medicine sufficient to stuff up a Volume of paper therefore I shall upon my own experience and successe recommend to my Country the sole use of Saffron and Milk as a Probatum in this puerile disease and according to the custom of our English Nation without alteration from the beginning to the declension of
pulse is never altered neither are there any signs of it to be taken from the pulse and these are demonstrative arguments to prove the heart to defend it self powerfully from the malignity of this disease And this defensive power according to my opinion must principally depend upon the power of the vitall spirits which are more robust then the natural spirits as doth appear by their containing vessels of eacâ— for the arterie that containeth the vital spirits is double coated else the spirits contained in them would make eruption through them because of their inherent force and the veines but single coated because their spirits in activity and strength is so much lesse then is the vital and by the force of this vital spirit the heart is defended against the invasion of this Pest and by this vitall spirit the heart defendeth it self against the assault of choler which is so great an enemy to it according to Arist. 4. de part animal And yet this question is not cleared from the exception of many Physicians who reasonably do affirm the generation of vital spirits to proceed from the naturall and if the naturall spirits have received contamination how shall the vitall spirits which are begotten of them be free from pollution nor could it be otherwise but from the purification they receive from the heart after the same manner as Gold is separated from drosse and other aliene tincture by the activity of â—ire so also doth the heart by its cordial fire inherent in it self purge and clense the natural spirits from all pollution and the heart by its own power desendeth it self from the contamination of this disease which is the cause in chief why this disease of it self doth not kill the person affected with it QUEST IX Whether this disease be the proper disease of one particular Region That every Region hath diseases inherent in themselves and not contracted 〈◊〉 with remedies of their own more specifical then any contracted from alien and different Regions and that there is a much difference as between clime and clime or East and West 〈◊〉 without doubt is the 〈◊〉 Catholica of all Nations but what Region may be the proper womb of this French 〈◊〉 is a present dispute between the French and Neopolitâ—â— the one will have it the proper disâ—ease of the Indians and the French will have it proper to the Neopolitâ—ns but because it hath made so great impression in 〈◊〉 most Modern Writer◠〈◊〉 it the French disease so that they challenge the Right to it from Custom and long prescription and I know no Nation challenge any of their priviledge but as they have spread their tongue very far in Europe and other Continents so this disease hath commerce with the generality of Nations and Religions both Mahumetaâ— Iew 〈◊〉 and Heathen But some particular Regions may be after this manner affected from their vicious ayre anâ— dyet witnesse those painful botches of the Arabâ—â—as affirmed by Galen and Avâ—cen that they are generated from the Locusts which they so greedily feed upon as also in 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 from their delicacy in dyet and frequent use of Venery Insomuch that according to the dyet and ayre severall Regions have their particular diseases But the French disease proceedeth neither from the ayre of the place nor dyet but from meer Venery and impure Congression and therefore it is an Universall disease more common in Venereal and hot Countries where the Women are more salacious thâ—n in cold Regions this Sex being in their temper more cold then men by the heat 〈◊〉 the Region are provâ—â—ed and more hot in pleasure by which themselves and others in conjunction with them are inflamed insomuch that in those places this French disâ—ase proveth Hereditary and is conveyed from Family to Family in the principles of nature as is the Small Pox according to some opinions conveyed in maternall menstruosity And thus I have concluded the discourse of both Great and Small according to my promise FINIS