the edge of them and freeth those Sulphurs not only of their stink but impure recrements Whereby it 's apparent how great an error they are in that under that pretence of quieting the fermentation rail against Treacle-water and Aqua Apotheriacalis because of the acid ingredients But setting aside these discourses though I do not contemn Treacle-water for the reasons newly quoted yet for other causes I look upon it as a medicine of no effect and vertue for the liquor that 's distilled off from the matter digested in the body of the Still doth appear to be nothing but a phlegm impregnated with a small proportion of the vertues of the ingredients and those obtused too by acids Secondly Acids indued with the salin parts of the ingredients it hath attracted being thence rendred more ponderous do not pass the helm or alembick but remain in the bottom so that the Fermenters need not to be stomacht so much at the hurt of these acids since they are left behind at the bottom Wherefore those with whom this reason doth take place make use of Vinegar impregnated only with the vertues of Alexipharms against pestilent and malignant Fevors setting aside the destilling of it they hold it to be strongest by digestion and filtration by means whereof the faculties of both are preserved intire Likewise those that labour to extract the volatil salts of Diaphoreticks and Alexipharmacals by destillation having ordered their infusion in spirit of wine they destil off the liquor by all means avoiding the pouring any acids to it hereof there is an example in the Aqua Theriacalis in the Augustan Dispensatory and in that Treacle-water which is ascribed to Paracelsus mentioned in the mixtura è tribus in peracutis According to this way of reasoning it is inserred that the Aqua Scordii composita described in the London Dispensatory is much weakned in its vertue because the acid juices of Sorrel and Citrons not mounting up to the Helm or Alembick detain the vertues of the other ingredients within them though notwithstanding many railing at Treacle-water because of the Vinegar make a great noise of the praises of Aqua Scordii as being composed of Acids that are not restringent These I would have to be answered out of solution of the Problem to wit whether Vinegar as it is added to Treacle-Water be restringent certainly not for in time its restrictive faculty doth languish away by being united with the alcalized and volatil salts of the rest of the ingredients until at length the nature of Vinegar being quite buried the medicine groweth ecphractick or opening in the same manner as Oyl of Vitriol exceeding all others in restriction and being obtused by the Alcali of Salt of Tartar is now arrived to be a very great opener Secondly That astringents are very active but it is per accidens in removing the obstructions of bodies especially of such as are inclined to Fevors is made evident by this experiment being confirmed by all mens judgements Salt of Steel bred out of the stem of Oyl of Vitriol is not at all different from vitriol it self since it is manifestly known that the foresaid salt is oyl of vitriol coagulated through the hungry matter of Iron and reduced to its old form and body of Vitriol but advanced to a higher degree of purity for Iron growing out of Vitriol condensed by being separated from its mercurial part now its late mercurial part namely Oyl of Vitriol being returned to it again is as it were through a new birth reduced to its primitive body of Vitriol but its impure recrements are rejected So that hence though the Salt of Steel is made visibly to be a most special medicine for astriction nevertheless it is prefer'd for a most potent medicine to remove the obstructions of the Spleen Liver and Womb. This effect it very successfully performs by causing a combate and effervescency in the vessels between the acid and fiery salin parts of the humors whereby the blood coagulated in the veins is at length dissolved and that which is thick is attenuated Steel prepared with Vinegar whereby its vitriolate astringent vertue is increased is esteemed famous against obstructions by all Physicians Hence you may learn that all chalybeate and purely vitriolate medicines are per se restringent and stopping but per accidens they dissolve and open wherefore they ought to be used with a great deal of caution by Dogmatick-spagirical Physicians according as it is illustrated in this following relation A fermentitious Physician of no mean rank having given Crocus Martis three times to one that was troubled with a bilious diarrhoea or looseness and though he had before prescribed him two infusions of Rhubarb and Miroâ—alans yet had occasioned such gripes in the Guts pain and inflammation of the bowels that increasing his stools as much more sent the Patient to Limbo On what this unfortunate practice is grounded you may judge from what hath been premised Now it 's time to look back to the place whence I digressed The opposition of the Fevor is not only committed to an antifebril Cordial medicine but another that 's purely Cordial is also joyned with it for assistance thereby to relieve the Heart and Arteries with a supplement of spirits in the form as followeth R. Aq. melis tot citr lujul. aur ceras nigr ana â„¥ j. Aq. mirabil Ê’ vj. tinct croc or according to others Spir. menth Ê’ ij succ kerm. Ê’ j. or Ê’j ss Syr. garyophyl others write Syr. è suc citr â„¥ j. m. f. Pot. Capiat cochl 1. or 2. altern hor. Hereunto some add Confect Alâ—herm or de Hyacinth Ê’j also spec è chel cancr comp ℈ ij or Ê’j But such as do not so well approve of these kind of prescriptions because those distilled waters are so faint and void of spirits offer their Patients burnt Claret spiced and mixt with cordial waters and syrups Also raw Rhenish Wine as appears by this following prescript R. Aq. Hord. depur lib. j. Aq. bor buglos viol ana â„¥ ij Vin. Rhenan elect â„¥ iij. Syr. è suc citr Garyophyl ana â„¥ j. ss m. f. Iulap E quo sumat Patiens â„¥ iij. tertia quaque hora. This is a Julep of 〈◊〉 his composing as may easily be conjectured by the Wine it contains for he doth not willingly leave it out of any thing either for himself or for another but I imagine he ought to be better versed in that ingredient since he hath for so many years made it his mothers milk than not to know what sort of Rhenish Wine ought to be put in whether Bachrach Rinckhower Hochmer besides a hundred sorts of Rhenish Wines differing infinitely in strength and quality from each other but that 's entrusted to his Apothecaries palate but as for the success hereof let that be buried with those that have made use of it Cooling Cordials according as they are called in the common phrase as the four Cordial-waters Aqua frigida Saxoniae
commended for oppugning this Epidemick venom with all their force ought to be preferred What concerns Spirits of Hartshorn you would stand in a doubt whether they be more prevalent in their pernicious qualities or in their ungrateful tast This latter is taken notice of by all that have had the occasion of tasting them the former is very amply asserted from the complaints of those that have used them for they are no sooner past the throat but have caused a furious burning in the stomach and entrails raised the fermentation to the highest pitch put the whole structure into a fire and destroyed the spirits and strength of nature All these evils do proceed from an impure and venomous sulphur that is latent in the spirits of Harts-born and corroding fiery volatil salt that is united with the foresaid sulphur Notwithstanding though the aforesaid spirits are so virulent and deleterious they are not quite to be rejected for experience and authority do witness that the most mortal venoms namely Antimony Quicksilver Arsenick c. do contain within their bowels an alexipharmacal vertue which is very powerful in expelling of venom and other subtil malignitles Wherefore if the spirits of Hartshorn by a particular preparation are purged of that virulent sulphur and the force of its corrosive salts extinguisht there will be remaining only a pure cordial sulphur and a most subtil volatil salt which by their close union and coalescence do not only contribute strength to the vital spirits but with an united force first extinguish the malignant miasms and afterwards expel them These spirits do not burn and inflame like others but consist of a pure ethereal and most penetrating body and are famed not for intending the fermentation but rendring it apt and easie whereon the efficacy of the cure doth chiefly depend The fame of Lapis Contrajerva against putrid and malignant Fevors is spread among most people but how deservedly let those judge that have made trial of it The Contrajerva roots which are the base of the composition besides dregs and a mealy thickness contain neither volatil not fixt salt that is effectual nor any quality that may be discovered by scent or tast but on the other hand it is inferred from many experiments though the root hath been given in a double dose to those that lay sick in fevors that it scarce did a pins worth of good The Virginian root doth potently heat and kindle the Bitumen of the humours so that it doth not effect so much good by its diaphoretick vertue as it doth harm by its caustick quality Cochenil grains do recreate the sight by its colour but not at all the vital spirits by its cordial vertue Priests do swear on the words of the Gospel but some Physitians swear more religiously on the stupendious vertues of Extractum Cardiacum described above But whence such great vertues should proceed may be lawfully inquired into Certainly in all extracts the most active particles do together with the Menstruum that is evaporated fly away into the air a gross dreg that is without any soul in it remaining in the bottom and constituting the body of the extract pray tell me are there not wonderful faculties for suppressing malignant Fevors hidden in the bowels of such a kind of Extract Moreover since Narcoticks are the chiefest parts of it the vital spirits being now ingaged at the deepest and somewhat giving way are not to be quite cast down and overthrown by such Narcoticks or their strength to be settered by them Wherefore those things are to be given with a great deal of caution and scruple especially to such as lye languishing to avoid the throwing them into a sleeping bottomless pit as most may remember hath happened to many Others endeavour to relieve cast down Nature with pretious fragments Bezoar stone Pearl Coral and shelly medicines as if they would redeem her for a certain price from a deplorable state but to no purpose for these premised stones since they do chiefly consist of a ponderous earth though pure and transparent being taken inwardly through their weight sink to the bottom of the stomach which for that reason they do extreamly burden and oppress and occasion obstructions round about Under what notion they refresh the heart and vital spirits and oppugn the malignity hath not been my luck hitherto to discover it 's true through their splendor and rayes they recreate the optick and likewise sympathetically the other animal spirits but do not in the least strengthen but by dispersing the sight rather weaken them When they are reduced into powder they contain nothing that is volatil nor any fixt salt that may be advantageous for the liquor that floats in the stomach to extract unless they are calcined before If you instance that the acid liquor of the stomach which goeth by the name of a Ferment doth extract the tincture out of them that contains all their energy and entire faculties take for answer that 1. At the time of a Fevor the stomach is quite deprived of that acid humour 2. The tincture of almost all stones are not real tinctures but alterations and concoctions of the Menstruum proceeding from the matter that is to be extracted which notwithstanding doth not communicate the least thing to it since after the extraction is made if it be weighed in a scale there is not a grain of its weight lessened Moreover what concerns the Bezoar stone I have known seventeen grains of it given to a Vintners child that was scarce two years old without the least operation or alteration following upon it Some that were grown up who had taken half a dram of it found no kind of alteration but an oppression and weight at their stomach besides I pass by that the greater part of those stones is fictitious and counterfeit At the conclusion of this chapter there remains something to be said concerning the use of Epispasticks According as they are usually applyed by Physitians now a days their greatest benefit is that a few namely such as lay ill of Fevors having undergone the punishment of Vesicatories had recovered their former health and many that had received the same kind of punishment were dead At present ought to be inquired into the matter of fact whether those few ought rather to bless Vesicatories for their recovery than many others to curse them for being the occasion of their death The case is to be decided by the consequence a few that have used Vesicatories have escaped many that have used Vesicatories have perisht it may then probably be concluded that the use of Vesicatories is pernicious and mortal But let us take the reason of the thing into consideration for the most part that small number that have escaped from a continual Fevor after the concoction was past which through occasion of their lowness of strength was not discovered have had Vesicatories applied which by reason of the concoction and separation have drawn forth a great
namely a Bitumen but not Sulphur being immediately extinguisht by water nor calx viva or lime there being no such fury of heat discoverable in the caverns of the earth as is requisite for its generation Wherefore in Bitumen only may be found a heat that is constant and scarce to be extinguisht for by water it 's apt to be kindled into a higher flame and to be nourisht by oyl and oylie bodies It is then in the heart where nature hath placed an abounding fountain of vital Bitumen on the purity and continuity of whose flame lise it self doth depend Neither must it be asserted that so great a proportion of this doth flow from the heart as to suffice to protract the life of it and of the whole structure for so many years but that it doth daily attract a bituminous nutriment from the streaming blood which being kindled into vital flames is by means of the pulse distributed into the rest of the small chanels of the body It must also be observed that all what we eat or drink the chyle and the blood do contain a certain proportion of Bitumen and as much hereof as there is abounding in them so much they are capable of being serviceable to the heart At present must be explained what and of what quality this Bitumen is namely a body grown out of a sulphureous oyl and a Colophony into a thick liquable and inflamable substance Such by distillation it 's also discovered to be in the analytick parts of the blood of a living creature to wit an oyl swimming a top the phlegm and a colophony with a part of fixed salt setled in the body of the glass-gourd withall a volatil salt passing the Alembick with the oyl which later namely the volatil salt it is that adds to the whole mixt body all its strength and power not unlike Gunpowder whose Nitro-salin particles being rendred volatil through virtue of the fire do assume so great a force that they strike any object whatsoever with the greatest alteration and the smartest blow imaginable when in the mean while the brimstone and the charcoal-dust only supply the place of a soporous matter From what hath been said the manner of the pulses may commodiously be extracted only conceiving that the Bitumen of the heart burning until the period of life and pour'd from the ascending vena cava into the left ventricle doth kindle the blood into a flame by vertue whereof the nitro-salin salt being blown into most volatile forcible particles is like Lightning or Gun-powder discharged out of a Gun propelled as it were by an elastick force into the Great and other Arteries CHAP. II. Concerning the differences of Pulses and their causes TO describe the difference and variety of the Waters of the Sea would prove a task less difficult than that of the pulsations of the Heart and Arteries which are subject to be altered by every passion wind and disease though Galen indeed counted them as if he had blown them out at his fingers ends among which notwithstanding scarce every third difference can be distinguisht by the feeling of a Spider Wherefore I shall only discourse of such which every one may almost discern in Fevors In the Pulse I use to mind first the strength or force next the swiftness of motion and thirdly the equality From the strength a pulse is called strong or weak hereunto are accounted a great pulse to wit full and strong and small namely empty and weak the causes of the strength of the pulse I state to be the abundance of volatil salt being vigorously and smartly discharged through the pulse of the blood and the strength of the fibres being well nourisht with the moisture of the brain On the contrary the defect of salt and emptiness of the fibres cause a weak pulse Here it 's worthy of your observance that the pulse in some sevorish Patients is found much stronger than it was in their state of health and what is more in some who were reduced to so low an ebb of strength that they were scarce able to keep death a day from their door I remember their pulse would beat the tops of ones fingers smartly which notwithstanding in my opinion ought not to be called a strong pulse but violent for the vital faculty being irritated by a corroding and reverberated kind of salt is forced into those violent pulsations whence falling at last into a very in all and most quick pulse is immediately attended with an Asphyxia or ceasing of pulsation It is an easie business to distinguish a violent pulse from a strong the former doth come full to the fingers the later empty Secondly I have oft met with a weak pulse in such as lay sick of Fevors that they seemed not to be able to hold out two days which notwithstanding have for a fortnight or twenty days strove very successfully with the disease This pulse proceeds from a thick and moist blood which by a continuated rarefaction and reiterated circulation being advanced to a higher degree of concoction doth revive the vital faculty whilst in the mean time there hath been sustained no great loss of volatil salt in those weak pulsations I have many times taken notice of this case in women that lay sick of Fevors wherefore it is warily pronounced by Hippocrates Aphor. 19. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The predictions of life and death in acute Fevors are not always certain and without doubt That we may avoid being mistaken we are to distinguish a pulse that 's really weak is empty and small and for the most part inequal in motion and weakness neither did it differ much from that degree since the beginning Under the motion of pulsation I take a slow and swift pulse likewise a thick and rare pulse A slow pulse is known by moving slowly from the systole or a contraction of the pulse to the diastole or a widening or dilatation of the pulse and again from the diastole to the systole A quick pulse is known by its quick pace from the systole to the diastole and so reciprocally A thick pulse to me is which is perceived by the finger by its frequent beatings or retreats a rare pulse contrariwise Here may be noted in my apprehension a pulse can scarce be discovered slow and thick at once when a slow pulse necessarily doth not return frequently or thick because it 's slow but according to the common maxim a thick and slow pulse may happen together because it is called thick in respect of the interval or rest between the systole and diastole namely which returns in a short space of time but a pulse may move slow from the systole to the diastole so that there is but a small interval between before it returns from the diastole to the systole and thence it 's termed thick But taking the matter into farther consideration there is scarce any such pulse as a thick or frequent one according
thence vomiting up into the blood certain tumultuous miasms that force it into a heat As soon as the foresaid matter is thronged out of its lurking places and forcibly rushed into the great vessels the symptoms thereupon raging in heat do forthwith shew a countenance of the augment or increase And when the whole mine of febril matter is quite floated into the channel of blood then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vigour is near at hand At that time there is a close ingagement with the febril enemy and its force being broke Nature by her victorious arms doth expel those rebellious intestine corpuscles and separated humours into several sinks of the body the disease in this manner declining the sick man doth arrive safe and well This expedition doth contain some particulars very worthy of note 1. At the first of the ingagement nature doth encounter with the Fevor at a distance some steems being only scattered abroad before the gross of the preternatural matter lodging in the deep places without the vessels nor at all mixt with the torrent of blood 2. The Fevor increasing the lesser part of the matter is confused with the blood that flows by but the greater part doth as yet remain still and quiet in the spring 3. At the vigour all preternatural bodies are closely intermixt and confused with the natural From hence doth shine a light whereby the bottom of the difficulty wound up in the foregoing discourse may be plainly known and discovered Wherefore since fermentation doth tend to the same end concoction doth namely of subduing the heterogeneous quality of the adventitious minims that are got into the blood and that whilst the disease is yet in the augment only part of the Febril matter is crept into the blood and not throughly insinuated into the depth of the forementioned scarlet juice it will prove a help no ways deceitful if the sick man doth take a Diaphoretick draught well impregnated with volatil salts whereby he may be put into a smart sweat certainly a very proper means through which the vital power may free it self from those hurtful corpuscles since as yet the spirits are numerous and vigorous and are not so much ingaged by the intestine enemy whence consequently they have still a power of expelling the fumes and soot have not yet filled up the passages of the body nor pores of the skin being left open for natures cutaneous evaporation a part only of the Febril matter is here and there loosly intermixt with the blood and may easily be forced out thence From all which it doth plainly appear and is inferred that fermentation fie upon the abuse of the word is in this case to be rendred easie the liquor of the veins being thereby attenuated occasion is given to the spirits to fly together to make an united force to grind off the sting of the Febril matter and thereupon to expel it But though the fermentation is to be rendred easie it is by no means to be increased and intended for that would put the Bitumen of the blood into too high a flame and through the crackling and vibration of the salts would occasion a very dangerous storm in the blood Of this nature are almost all the remedies that are proposed by the Fermenters namely Aqua Epidemica Spirits of Hartshorn and all the other fiery cordials as shall hereafter be resolved more at large Neither do I esteem those reasons I have now produced so much but that the many experiences whereby I have delivered some hundreds after the manner aforesaid of their continual Fevors without suffering them to come to the height do more clearly discover the matter According to the mark spoken of before let us enquire what harbour this Rhomb of giving hot cordials by spoonfuls will bring them to undoubtedly if the Fevor be any thing outragious there is danger of shipwrack For things that are taken by spoonfuls contribute matter to the inflammation and fire increase the matter of the soot and really stop the pores moreover do not concoct the least part of the febril matter neither do they separate or expel it being concocted Wherefore if a Fevor is of its own accord carried on to the height without doing any thing and the febril matter be more closely and intimately knitted with the blood and spirits and the whole mine be disturbed and profused into the great vessels certainly in doing ill they must speed much worse What they have acted in the increment hath just now been shewed at present pray give your judgement are your toothless wifes in the country more dextrous in curing a Fevor or Fermentitious Physitians Neither are the sick themselves so void of sense but that they are sensible they are precipitated by the burning cordials of Fermentators in the state of their disease into their too early Tombs The forementioned Cordials derive their burning nature from an impure Sulphur which doth not only plentifully abound in the spirits of wine the menstruum of all those compounded alexipharmacal liquors but the ingredients themselves especially the aromaticks contain excrementitious Sulphurs and impure salts whence it happens that those that have liberally taken of them arrive sooner to the end of their fatal journey Wherefore it 's plain enough that by these things the fermentation is intended the mass of blood is forced into a fiercer fire and burning and the whole sink of the Febril matter which only partly flows to the blood and partly remains in its hidden station is violently suckt up and drawn in by the circulating juices and is united with them in every particle so that to give the prefaced cordials which increase the fermentation and do not at all render it easie by a most subtil and diaphoretick vertue is with purpose to kindle the body into a flame and rob the sick of his life However that inquiry may not be pretermitted what admirable effects do issue from the fore instanced Aqua Epidemica we are to be resolved from the examination of the context of the simples Tormentil Root is in the front whose power doth reside in a ponderous fixt salt and for that reason no part of it doth ascend the Alembick Liquorish in this place is termed alexipharmacal which was never attributed to it by any Physitian nevertheless it was possibly added to abate the acrimony of the other ingredients but since it doth also obtuse the attractive vertue of the Menstruum and render it incapable of attracting the salts of the simples neither doth the least particle of it climb out of the body to the head of the Still certainly it ought justly to be rejected hence Moreover who but a mad man would commend Mugwort Agrimony Betony and other such like herbs against the Plague according as they are inserted by the former age in this composed medicine These though they use some small force against the venom of the air yet other Alexipharmacals as long as they are far more deservedly