Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	dram_n	half_a	ounce_n	2,026	5	9.7827	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47218	A brief treatise of the nature, causes, signes, preservation from, and cure of the pestilence collected by W. Kemp ...	Kemp, W. (William)	1665 (1665)	Wing K260; ESTC R6407	54,200	102

may be bred in the body which may prove offensive to Nature it will be convenient to have recourse to issues one in the left arm and the other in the right leg or thigh and by how much the greater is your danger the more issues you ought to make the benefit will recompence the trouble for they evacuate excrementitious humours which might become a receptacle for the Sickness for the prevention whereof they have been found a sovereign and useful remedy Mercurialis in the 23. Chapter of his Book of the Plague saith That he did not onely find these Issues to be much commended by Nicholaus Florentinus a Physitian of great authority but hath also proved them to be excellent by his own experience and that he can testifie that amongst almost an innumerable company which he saw dead of the Plague he never saw but one that had an issue and desirous to be further satisfied he made inquiry among other Physitians who testified the same that they likewise never saw one dead that had an Issue Which may be an argument that they are very helpful and there is good reason for it because like sinks they continually drain the body of superfluous humours And Skenkius in his Sixth Book of his Observations concerning Epidemical Diseases relates that many make Issues and raise Blisters with prosperous and good successe of health and safety although they do converse with thousands of them that die And for this purpose Physitians forbid the drying up of running sores the healing of filthy ulcers or striking in the itch And though some may say It is good sleeping in a whole skin yet it is not good dying in one and you were better to have your skin broken with a Launce or Cautery than with a Botch or Blain and you will find it lesse cost pain or trouble to go to a Chyrurgeon to make an Issue than to have him come to you to dress a Carbuncle Or else you may make one your self for to handle a Launcet is as soon learn'd as to sew with a Needle and you may sooner grow expert to cut your skin than to work Cut-work and though it may seem irksome to keep them alwayes running yet there is no more danger of drying them up when the Cause for which they were made is removed than there would be to heal a cut in the arm or broken shin that hath been sore or run a quarter of a year and though some have died that have had Issues and neglected other helps 't is no more disparagement to the Medicine than that a Town having good ditches should be taken by an Enemy that entred in at the Gates that lay open and secure and which ought to have been defended by other helps and forces The Third Cause of the Pestilence against which for our preservation we must defend our selves is Contagion and Infection Seeing it is almost impossible to avoid the occasions of Infection which may either assault you against your will or invade you against your knowledge or set upon you on a sudden to the end that you may break the force of it that it may have lesse power to enter in and you more strength to keep it out you must make use not onely of Purges Vomits and Issues which are not helps directly and of themselves contrary to the Plague but also you must have recourse to appropriate Medicines both external and internal Amulets and Antidotes Of Amulets Amulets are certain outward medicines most commonly made of poysonous things hung about the Neck and worn upon the Breast supposed to have a hidden power and secret vertue to defend the heart from the venom of the Pestilence They are worn upon the breast because the heart is the place principally affected in this Disease but whence and how they have their operation the learned differ and vary in opinion Some think that the heart becomes thereby somewhat more familiar and accustomed to poyson and will not so easily be hurt and overcome by it Others are of opinion That Arsnick and such like hot things whereof Amulets are made do dry up noxious humours and disperse offensive vapours as we see the heat of fire drieth moisture and hinders Putrefaction Others think that these Amulets being plac't neer the Heart the Vital Spirits do thereupon by a certain aversenesse and antipathy unite themselves together and become the stronger as we see Springs and Fountains by reason of the coldness of the ambient Air in Winter time do keep in all their heat and even smoke with warmth Others say it is done by Atraction as it is commonly said That hot Bread and Onions will draw unto them all the Infection in the Room And these Amulets by a kind of sympathy do intercept the pestilential vapours before they can be receiv'd into the body or else presently draw them out before they can settle there to do any mischief to the Heart it being in this case as with one that is stricken of a Viper or Scorpion who is best cured by applying and binding to the place the bruised body of the beast that stung him and if they cannot get that they apply some other venemous creature and the party will presently be relieved as if the venome had been drawn out by a Cupping-Glasse for one poyson having a conformity with another doth move and joyn it self unto it and affecteth union with it even as we see that holding a burnt hand to the fire draws out the heat and bathing a frozen member in Spring-water helps it of the cold and numbness But whatsoever the cause be they are much commended and Mercurialis that prescribes this saith that Pope Adrian the Sixth did wear one Take of white Arsenick two ounces white Dittany and English Saffron of each two drams of Camphire and Euphorbium of each one dram beat them into Powder and with Gum Arabick dissolv'd in Rose-water make them into little Cakes about the breadth of a Shilling and the thickness of two half Crowns and dry them in the Sun or in an Oven after the Bread is taken out Skenkius commends this Take white Arsenick two ounces yellow Arsenick one ounce powder them and with the white of an Egge or Gum Dragon dissolv'd in water make them into Cakes as aforesaid Some there be that would have onely a piece of Arsenick sewed in Silk and worn in the bosome and have little or nothing mixt with it least it should hinder its vertue and efficacy of operation others put in many things that some of them might meet with and resist the pestilential venom which oftentimes is not of the same but of a different and various Nature Sennertus directs this Take of white Arsenick two ounces Zedoary two drams Saffron one scruple Camphire half a dram beat all into powder and with Gum Arabick dissolv'd in Rose-water as aforesaid make it into Cakes Rhenanus commends this as the most perfect Amulet which hath this property to be moist and

perswade them to the submitting thereto and have not in my Practise been unfortunate therein but have seen Diseases that have been exasperated by other Medicines beyond expectation cured thereby and do think it most commonly so excellent a remedy that many Patients admitting thereof would much shorten the time and lessen the cost and trouble of their Sickness and not stand-in need of one quarter of those Medicines and Antidotes those Preparatives and Corroboratives those Infusions and Decoctions those Pills and Potions Purges and Vomits Cordials and Bolus Juleps and Emulsions Extracts and Juices Waters and Spirits Salts and Oils Syrups and Conserves Electuaries and Powders Plaisters and Ointments Blisters and Glisters they are made to take and though there be many Medicines that will purge Flegme Choler and Melancholy yet none are yet known that will safely purge bloud or lessen it yet I cannot in this case of Preservation from the Pestilence advise any one to open a Vein but rather disswade them from it And because it may take better from another of more authority than my self I have gotten Iacob Sylvius in his Book of the Blague to deliver his opinion in plain English As for Blood-letting saith he it is no way profitable for the preventing of this Disease because the bloud being diminished the body is made more open and lyable to external injuries and the strength decayes by the loss of blood the food and treasure of life Of the same mind also is the most excellent Physitian Sennertus who though in the cure of most other Diseases he begins with Phlebotomy yet in this forbids it and the most learned Riverius is of opinion that bleeding causeth one to be infected the more easily as also to escape the more hardly it being in this venemous Disease as in those that have taken poyson who by bleeding draw the poyson inward and very difficulty are recovered and therefore upon the very suspition of being poyson'd most skilful Physitians abstain from letting blood Nevertheless they conclude that if there be any notable fulness of blood or necessary evacuation suppressed a vein may be opened upon 〈◊〉 account and then very sparingly but not in reference to the Pestilence And as to the present time of the year Galen forbids to let bloud in a hot and dry season of the Air. Of Purging and Vomiting Although as Hyppocrates saith in his Aphorismes That Those which are of sound and perfect health do quickly faint and grievously endure a purging 〈…〉 nor superfluous humor to draw out and work upon doth first dissipate the Spirits and then dissolves those parts of the body which are humid and moist and afterwards corrupts those which are solid and although as Crato saith there be no purging or vomiting Medicines which are primarily and directly opposite to the venom of the Plague yet because foul bodies are more subject to Infection than those which are pure and clean and the humours they abound with may disturb Nature and interpose themselves and take off and dull the Operation of any Cordials or Antidotes and being agitated by the Disease might flow and settle to some noble part and bring the party into a most grievous Fever Frenzy or some other Inflamation whereby he may be endangered as much as by the Plague There have been several purging medicines directed by Physitians and I shall prescribe these The Pills of Ruffus otherwise called the Common or Pestilential Pills are very excellent you may take of them once or twice a week when you go to bed the dose of them is half a dram for an ordinary constitution or a whole dram for a strong man You may have them at any Apothecaries or else make such like yourself Take fine Aloes two ounces fine Myrrhe one ounce English Saffron half an ounce make them into powder and with Venice Turpentine make them into pills and take half a dram or a whole dram as aforesaid The Aloes clears the Stomach from bad humors and the belly from worms the Myrrhe preserves the body from Putrefaction the Saffron cheers the Spirits and the Turpentine is good against the Pestilence Or else take this Dissolve an ounce and a half of Manna in six ounces or a little draught of spring water and one spoonful of vinegar warmed together on the fire then strain it and take an ounce of Venice Turpentine and put to it the yolke of a new laid egge and stir it about and mixe it and it will look like cream then by little and little put to it the liquor being first quite cold wherein the Manna was dissolved and stir it about and drink it up and keep warm ordering your self as is usual in other purges or vomits when it works upwards you may take posset drink and downwards broth If it had a pleasant taste those that know the vertue of it would never take any other medicine It is strong enough for any of the strongest constitution and for those that are weaker six drams or half an ounce of Turpentine is dose enough Women with child may use this Infuse a dram of Rubarb slieed six hours in six ounces or a little draught of Endive or Succory-water or Spring-water then strain it and put to the liquor one ounce or else two ounces of Manna and dissolve it over the fire and strain it and drink it up Children may take an ounce or two ounces or half an ounce of Manna dissolved in Succory of Endive-water or in Spring-water or Barly-water or Broth or Posset-drink But beware of strong purges and vomits which will sooner bring the Plague upon you than preserve you against it especially at this time when it is more probable that the Sickness is occasioned by the Corruption of the air than by the putrefaction of humors there having been no scarcity of provision whereby the poorer sort might have been necessitated to feed on unwholsome diet and therefore no necessity of taking any purging Physick I remember about four years since many were sick of a malignant Fever and the discontented party did attribute the cause to the keeping of Lent and eating of Fish what would they have said now if Lent had been strictly observed Of Sweating As purging vomiting and bleeding do draw in the humors and vapours from the circumference and outside of the body to the center and inside of the heart so medicines that cause Sweat expel them from the heart to the outside of the body and rarifie those humours into light and thin vapours which turn into a watery sweat as soon as they come out of the skin into the air and thereby drive out those humors and vapours which breed the Pestilence For which purpose it would not be inconvenient to take one or two drams of London or Venice-Treacle or of Mithridate or Diascordium or Confection of Iacynth according to the age or strength of the party or one dram of Electuary de Ov● in White-wine Vinegar or a draught of Posset-drink made of