Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	blood_n	body_n	efficacy_n	860	5	10.4794	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33550	An account of the nature, causes, symptoms, and cure of the distempers that are incident to seafaring people with observations on the diet of the sea-men in His Majesty's navy : illustrated with some remarkable instances of the sickness of the fleet during the last summer, historically related / by W.C.	Cockburn, W. (William), 1669-1739.	1696 (1696)	Wing C4815; ESTC R24229	70,196	195

misfortune of the Patient or if neither of these happen given in the time of a Looseness to be immediately carried off by Stool and never reaching the blood to communicate its efficacy and vertue As to the way how its effect is produced I know not nor ever shall without a revelation from that Being who knows the determined motion size of the parts and the different cohesion of matter that produce the modified bodies we see and yet I think there may be sufficient certainty to assist us pretty exactly in doing such things as the support of our infirm nature may require For considering the nature of intermitting Fevers of which we are as certain as of any thing in Physicks and that we have a Medicin that alters the condition of the blood and makes it more fluxil and this fluxility being acquir'd in a certain way therefore the China China is endu'd with a like power to that which makes the blood fluxil This knowledge we have of the Barks efficacy without the knowledge of its constituent parts is so sure that we can deduce very certain and almost infallible Corollaries from it and this one for instance If this Powder be able to break divide and make fluxil our viscid blood then in a state where the blood is faulty thro its fluxility richness and extraordinary motion this Powder is never to be given so that in a containing Fever where the blood is such the Jesuits Powder must be very noxious and 't is very obvious to every mans Observation that the more the blood is in these circumstances the consequence is always the more fatal I cannot omit what that candid Relater of Medicinal cases Dr. Sydenham says in the 36 p. of of his Letters as they are printed in the Edition of his book in 1685 at London At in Peste atque Epidemicis continuis quae eandem ordine excipient debellandis non alios effectus ex ejus usu expectare licet quam eos quos hodie in Pleuritide Peripneumonia Anguina ac id genus Febribus inflammatoriis videmus quibus non tantum non prodest sed plane obest But in curing the Plague and continual Epidemicks which will orderly follow these no other effects are to be expected from it than these we now find it produces in a Pleurisie Peripneumonia Quinsey and such other inflammatory Fevers in which case 't is not only useless but evidently hurtful But whatever may be thought of my pretended certainty 't is at least as well grounded as a great many maxims in the Hydrostaticks c. which no Ship-Carpenter or Man of sense doubts of but on the contrary finds all his calculations and inferences orderly made to answer his expectation in his practice The Chymists at present are engag'd in an extraordinary bustle and smoak with their fire and menstrua to resolve by their Instruments which they do not understand the constituent parts of this Specifick and at last tell us that 't is a Rosin and that its power in curing Agues is lodg'd in its Rosin which is as much in plain English as the first question and we understand just as much when they tell us of its vertue being in its Rosin as if they had told us that it is in the Bark We know indeed that its tincture made with any spirituous liquor is the strongest and that because 't is the property of Rosins to be best dissolv'd in Spirits 't is plain that this Bark contains a great deal of Rosin which is all that can be concluded from this experiment But to proceed let us suppose that all the vertue is extracted in this Rosin which cannot be pretended because of a like experiment of its yielding its sanative power in common water yet we shall still be as much puzzled about the way of this Rosins working as the working of the Bark in Powder before it was a Rosin And if they think they have answered the question by telling us that it produces these effects as it is a Rosin then all other Rosins will do the same and therefore they may trust to the Rosin of Jalap or any other they 're oblig'd to by their principles and we shall have an opportunity to observe the conclusion The other way that has been taken to account for the vertue of the Bark is by imagining it to be astringent a power quite destructive of the requisits we have clearly laid down for curing an Ague and no less repugnant to common observation as I shall demonstrate What has been the foundation of this assertion I could no where find out so clearly as in a Discourse written by one of the Members of the Royal Society I think in the year 1678 where consuting the power of the Bark in curing Agues he says that if the Patient be troubled with a looseness while he is taking the Jesuits Powder it can have no success therefore says he the Bark has its power in a contrary way and is astringent then he subsumes for his own purpose that because it is astringent it must be very hurtful in a disease that must be cur'd by evacuation To pass by at this time our Author 's neglecting to prove that this disease must be cur'd â—y evacuation which I very much doubt for the reasons intimated before I have said enough already to evince the weakness of his Observation 'T is strange that one should expect that any kind of Medicins which produce not their effect in a minute but require some hours at least to affect the blood should exert their vertue when they never come thither and this being the case of the Jesuits Powder in a Looseness we may easily conclude that the Quinquina will not cure an Ague in that case whether it be astringent or not By the bye since I have had occasion to examine this argument against the Barks power of curing Agues I cannot forbear taking notice of another very good argument this Author brings for the poisonous qualities of the Bark and that is an experiment from its hindering the fermentation of Yest and Wort that because if a due quantity of the Jesuits Powder be cast into Wort before the Yest is added the Wort never ferments and therefore this Powder is poisonous I confess I know not how to answer an argument which I do not comprehend but if every thing that hinders the fermentation of Yest and Wort be poisonous what must become of us poor Mortals in the poisonous times either of a frosty or very hot season for the Brewers find their Ale and Beer ferment but very ill in such seasons and besides Sugar Spirit of Harts horn c. poured into Wort in a due quantity hinder its fermentation yet they were never reckon'd among the number of Poisons But on the contrary if I thought the Hypothesis of Acid and Alkali tolerable I should like the Bark the better for the experiment this Author has helpt me to for in that way the blood

health tho none have approv'd of quantities Omnis Repletio mala panis pessima a surfeit of any thing is bad but one of bread is the worst its substance is tough and tenacious and therefore is not so easily broken and divided by the stomach and if eaten at any time in a greater quantity than is sufficient to give a body to the Chyle it is very apt to make way for obstructions and to breed very thick and gross humours But an entire abstinence from bread deprives the Chyle of that due and necessary body that is requisite to make its passage slow enough thro the Guts that it may be the better thrust into the indiscernible doors of the lacteal vessels and therefore in such a famine and scarcity of bread the body is depriv'd of those juices that are made of our victuals besides gripings most troublesome loosenesses and such other sicknesses as attend them Having spoken thus much of bread in the general I shall neither pretend to determin the sufficient quantities of bread that are to be eaten nor enquire whether the crumb of crust of bread are the most wholsome For these questions are not proper for this place since all that concerns us is the consideration of the effects our Sea-bisket may have upon their bodies who are oblig'd to make it a part of their daily food First then a pound of bread so dry and solid as that must be that it may be the fitter for keeping if it were brought to the consistence of common bread would at least be thrice as big as it is while in Bisket which I 'm apt to believe is a little too much for men generally to eat Besides after it is ground by the teeth and sent into the stomach 't is extremely hard to be digested if it be not very fine and if fine it so imbibes the small quantity of Chyle that is made of the other victuals that the mass of blood receives a very small quantity of it and that mash which passeth the guts where the lacteal vessels are inserted is so hardned and compact that people upon that diet but seldom trouble the Stool which every one knows to be of very ill consequence and especially at Sea From what has been said 't is not only evident that the abovementioned victuals are not fine enough to produce those subtile animal spirits that make people so easily advert to and apprehend at sight whatever is proposed and so not fit to make Wits but by the grossness of their humours the Seamen are dispos'd to most Chronical Diseases so soon as they are in the least overcome with idleness and laziness tho otherwise all the inconveniencies that happen are excessive costiveness that troublesom attendant of our sicknesses So that we may say that a little too much eating of such bread not only thickens the humours too much and so disposes our men to other sicknesses but immediately produces that dangerous costiveness which is apt to produce so many other Maladies and always obstructs the cure of Fevers For when our Intestins are stuff'd with a great many days victuals they are so distended and the blood vessels in them so prest or straitned that the circulation through them is very much interrupted and not only the blood that us'd to flow that way but even that of the neighbouring parts is forced from its channels and equally filling the channels of the rest of the parts of the body that have less resistance in some degree press the Origin of the Nerves in the Brain and blood vessels of the eyes and so produce that Stupor and Thickness of Sight people frequently feel in that case Besides the Chyle must needs be very much interrupted and kept from being convey'd in a sufficient quantity for recruiting the mass of blood by the pressure of the lacteal vessels which are interwoven with the guts for the Chyle is forced along the whole length of the guts with the grosser mash and so the body is not only depriv'd of its necessary nourishment but there 's an eminent hazard of obstructions in the lacteal vessels which very often produces those dangerous Ascites's that are so seldom cur'd Touching their Oatmeal victuals or Burgoo which of it self is very fit to correct that thickness of the humours and costiveness that are the unavoidable consequences of the abovemention'd diet join'd with the least idleness for Oats being of a thin substance and of all the grains we use for victuals that out of which the greatest quantity of oyl may be drawn they not only preserve that motion that 's requisite to make a due perspiration by adding spirits to the blood but preserve it in a convenient degree of fluxility and by their cleansing power and vertue to keep the belly open this Burgoo victualling is highly necessary for our seafaring people Yet 't is the least lik'd of all their victuals because of the small quantity of Butter they pretend is allowed them to sawce iâ— and therefore perhaps 't were worthy the consideration of those to whom it belongs to order this supply and who are every way so careful of the Seamen to see whether an addition in their Butter might be allow'd for I am sure that if that part of the victualling were made more grateful and agreeable to the Sailers 't would infinitely contribute to the preservation of their health What I have said on this subject is in a great measure applicable to their Pease which in their own nature are more temperate than Oatmeal since they are esteem'd by Physicians and the learned Galen I De Aliment Facultat Cap. 21. A sort of medium between things of good and bad nourishment And therefore I shall proceed to the next consideration I proposed which was concerning their Lodging This is as convenient warm and easy as may be at Sea and for such a number of men yet what by the pilfering of Hammocks one from another their lying on Deck or betwixt Decks when they are pretty warm after a Can of Flip and the prest Mens real want of Cloaths they sensibly contract a cold which is the beginning of most of their miseries 'T is not necessary I should demonstrate here the way how that is catcht since 't is evidently so by that heaviness they complain of pain of their breast soreness in their bones and such other symptoms Physicians have determined to be the constant attendants of a Cold. But since I shall have occasion afterwards to treat more particularly of this subject I shall at present content my self with putting you in mind that I have already demonstrated in another place and have put it beyond exception in the judgment of very many that there is no power in the Air different from its weight or gravity able to produce those symptoms that are said to follow upon obstruction or shutting up of the pores when we catch cold and so may disturb and interrupt perspiration and breed so

the next but was troubled with a looseness and the third day he was taken ill again and suffered over all the former symptoms 'T is very plain from what I said in the first part of this Book that that viscid and slimy Lentor which first stagnates in the capillary Arteries and then in these larger Vessels must be broken and divided that it may be made a substance capable of being carried round the body without stopping or stagnating And because this Lentor has its supply from the primae viae the Liver or other viscera that are said to separate liquors by some or all of these liquors being viscid we must endeavour to cut off and intercept that supply and to break and render fluxil the liquors that are thus tough and viscid Now from which of all these this lentor proceeds and is supply'd is not always very evident tho sometimes it may happen to be so Let us first suppose then that this supply comes wholly from the primae viae and upon this supposition we may conclude that those things which empty the stomach and intestines of those impurities will do the business effectually And because a Vomit performs that work with the greatest certainty then a Vomit would be all that 's requisit to compleat that Cure and the more gentle it is 't would be more for the ease of the Patient and satisfaction of the Physician But I have proved before that the other viscera may discharge some of their vitiated liquors into the blood which not being chang'd into the perfect nature of the blood they stagnate in the Capillary Arteries in that quantity and way that are fit to produce the foregoing Phaenomena And they being in such circumstances as make them fit to affect the blood 't is evident that those faulty and vitious humours must be broken and divided that they may be fitted to circulate with the blood without stagnating and that the blood which is thus affected must be reduced to a state of greater fluxility If they had their viscidity from the primae viae that work could be done very easily but 't is certain that the blood may be infinitly chang'd without any fault in these first passages and the viscera that are now affected must have their juices altered or else they will still be in a condition to give a continual supply supposing the blood to be otherwise in a good condition Now the only way that liquors which stagnate in their channels can be propell'd and made fluxil is by some power that may compress break and divide the liquors thus stagnating and because this breaking and dividing must be perform'd by somewhat that contracts or violently compresses the obstructed parts and breaks the stagnating juices and this can only be perform'd by the contraction of the muscles and their compressing the viscera that are near them therefore the moderate exercise of those Muscles will be very agreeable but in our natural or voluntary contractions they have not that violence that is necessary to make a sufficient compression fit to break and divide this lentor And since there are a great many Muscles that are obstructed and could have sufficiently broken the stagnating liquors in the neighbouring viscera that cannot be moved and contracted by the power of our Will some way must be contriv'd to make such a violent contraction of those Muscles especially that are able to compress the neighbouring viscera and if we examine all the consequences that attend the giving of any Medicin we shall find none that exercises more Muscles and that with greater violence than vomiting for not only the Muscles of the Thorax and Abdomen are contracted with a prodigious force and are able by their contraction to compress the Lungs Stomach Liver Spleen or any thing that may be contained in them and in all their capacity but even the whole Muscles of the Body are affected and therefore 't is vomiting only that can produce the required effect Thus we have demonstrated the way of cutting off the supply of this lentor that is made by the primae viae and the viscera that are said to contain liquors so that if there were not such a season of the year in which the viscidity of the blood is much promoted and augmented the blood extreamly weakned and dispirited with repeated paroxysms or otherwise this disease might be conquer'd by these very means But when the Air is foggy moist and cold and the blood weak we must have respect to that if we will cure our Patient and such things must be given that may make the blood richer and maintain its fluxility We have an infinit number of Medicines that are said to produce such effects but the long tedious and unsuccessful practice of former ages convinces us of the contrary We heard indeed a great deal of specifick Medicins of opposit powers but never saw any thing that deserv'd that name before the Indian Bâ—rk We had diaphoâ—etical and warming Medicins that broke and divided the blood and made it more fluxil for some time but were so far from being able to keep it so that on the contrary having destroyed the native spirits and serum of the blood they rendred it more apt to stagnate and to be obstructed The Indian Bark then or Jesuits Powder being by daily experience that Specifick we desir'd we ought not to neglect it tho it was not found in a Matras But not to insist upon experience in a thing where we have so many reasonable proofs tho that of its self is a sufficient proof for we see how the sinking and languishing Pulse is rais'd by the taking of it and that without any burning and extraordinary warmth i. e. we find it has such a power as is able to introduce a freer motion which cannot be done but by freeing the confin'd spirits that they may be separated in due time and proper place And since this â—â—â—â—ing the spirits at liberty can only be â—â—rformed by breaking the viscid blood and this attrition is the thing required therefore the Jesuits Powder Quinquina c. answers our desire and gives us what we require Now tho 't is plain that the Jesuits Powder produces this effect it is not the Jesuits Powder as such or its name alone that is able to charm and lull asleep this intermitting Fever but since we see plainly that it can do so we should give it in a sufficient quantity to produce that effect and when we give it to be sure it may be carried into the blood For if this be not done 't is quite as good if not better to keep it in the Paper and look upon it and from that to expect your Cure than to take it into a foul stomach full of thick impurities there to be clogg'd up in impure matter and perhaps to be carried out of the body with the excrements or else to be carried in this condition into the mass of blood to the

Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Text snippets containing the quad