In the Stone in the Kidneys although Hippocrates order violent Medicines such as Spurge to move the Stone yet I think it safer to use Lenients that may onely dilate the parts then more violent ones which perchance may draw greater plenty of humours to the Parts affected Wherefore as in prevention we must use gentle Medicines Mercatus de Praesi◠l. 1. c. 6. so I think we must use the same in the Cure VI. Crato consil 136. prefers the simple Decoction of Speedwell before all more generous inward Medicines for the Stone The use saith he of a Clyster made of the Decoction onely of Speedwell with Sugar will doe more good than any Medicines taken by the mouth You may put in the Decoction some fat of a Loin of Mutton of a Rabbet or a Capon that so it may make smooth if you can get none of these you may take some fresh Butter Therefore young Physicians may take notice that a great Medly of many Simples is not always necessary to make a Clyster I can safely attest my Patients have often found more benefit and ease in the Colick or Stone from a simple Clyster of Milk and Sugar in which after Crato's example I boiled either Speedwell or Chamaemil-flowers not Roman but the common S. Pauli Quadri◠p. 512. that is more temperate than the Roman than from Clysters of more ample furniture made of Pennyroyal wild Marjoram Rue Calamint c. Because these hot things by discussing do raise Wind whereupon the Pain encreaseth which is mitigated with Anodynes properly so called VII We must take notice that in Nephritick Pains Clysters must be given in less quantity than in other Distempers Zecchius Consult 50. lest the Quantity by distending the Intestines press the affected parts circumjacent and exasperate the Pain VIII Whether is a Vomit proper in this Disease There are many young Physicians who commend it for prevention to expell the tartarous matter before it be derived either to the Reins or Bladder Some admit it in the very fit because Nature seems to shew the way by reaching and vomit Hippocrates saith 6. Epidem that men are better after eruginous Vomit In my Judgment Vomit conduces by straining to the expulsion of the Stone or Gravel as it does to the Delivery of a Woman namely by the violent commotion of the whole Body and compression of the Muscles of the Belly But we must take diligent heed lest a Vomit be given to all persons without distinction of those that cannot bear one Tho. Bartholinus Cent. 1. Epist 55. and so Disease be added to Disease Severinus advised me to this Remedy for a pain in my Bladder but I was very near a Pleurisie upon it Mr. N. by his prescription took the Antimonial Wine with great success and lived very healthy after it IX As Diureticks in the Cure of this Disease are fit and necessary to get the Gravel and Stone out of the Kidneys so for prevention and in time of Health we must abstain from them lest while they provoke Urine they by use open those ways Rubaeus in Celsum l. 4. c. 10. and make a Passage to the Kidneys whereby all the crude and bad humours that are bred in the body may tend thither and afford matter to breed Gravel and the Stone ¶ I warn my Patient that he carefully abstain from diuretick Medicines and such as expell the Stone Crato consil 246. for unless this be done he will be certainly troubled with the Stone ¶ They that in calculous persons use hot Diureticks commit a mistake because such Medicines bring filthy matter with them and open the Passages Secondly they displace the Stone and make it unequal and rough Lest the Reins or Bladder should be hurt by the asperity of the Stone Sagacious and Prudent Nature hath clothed it with a mucous and slippery Phlegm lest it should pinch the live part Diureticks do much harm because they strip the Stone that was covered with viscid Phlegm which by reason of its raggedness doth so prick that in a short time it causes a mortal Ulcer attended with cruel Symptoms A certain Mountebank gave a Wretch troubled with the Stone most violent Diureticks which caused exceeding dreggy Urine the viscid Phlegm being scraped off which was as a bed to the Stone Sanctorius Meth. vit error l. 18. c. 4. He presently felt himself better but in a little time the Stone being naked and sharp ate and pierced through the sides of the Bladder upon which there presently came an Ulcer and that a Gangrenous one and I never saw a man die so violent a Death X. In the Stone both of the Reins and Bladder Diureticks to break the Stone must be given a long time after meat and on an empty Stomach and if it may be done after the body is purged for Diureticks are quickly carried to the Kidneys and they drag along with them the Food crude and inconcocted so they rather load the Reins and Bladder Frid. Hofmannus m. m. l. 1. c. 18. and encrease the matter of the Stone Therefore they doe very ill that boil Parsly-roots or some other Diuretick with their meat and eat it for their Dinner or Supper XI All Stones at least those that I have yet found are dissolved in the acid Spirit of Nitre whence I conclude none can imagine that the coagulation of Stones can proceed from an acid therefore from something contrary to it Now if a man do but consider the various things that promote the concretion of natural things he will find the virtue lie in austere things upon which score they give glutinosity and toughness to Fluids to which if the earthy and saline volatile parts be joined something not unlike the Stone will arise Fr. Sylvius Prax. l. 1. cap. 55. sect 50. Therefore I incline to the opinion that the earthy matter and saline volatile joined with the glutinous do by the help of the austere humour grow into a stone But the virtue of the coagulating Austere is infringed by the sharp Acid such as is found in the Spirit of Nitre ¶ When larger Gravel comes away and sinks to the bottom of the Urine and is laying the Rudiments and Growth of a Stone we must beside volatile oily Salts use things that dissolve the Stone among which we deservedly ascribe the first place to Spirit of Nitre seeing in it Stones are so easily and so manifestly dissolved and broken And the Spirit of Nitre may conveniently be dropt into ones common drink Beer Wine Broths c. Idem sect 91 92. to make them a little sharp and so be used a considerable time whose excellent Effect all will admire ¶ Diureticks to break the Stone must 1. Be apt to turn to Urine to wit as Helmont saith that they may touch the place affected 2. They must have power to dissolve the Stone 3. They must possess it in a specifick Propriety 4. They must be subtile
Sect. 5. he advises if a Fever come upon a Woman in Childbed to raise a Fever which must be understood of a Convulsion from Repletion which is familiar to Women in Childbed so a Fever is not improper as it consumes the Humours and dries the Nerves But seeing a Fever once kindled which the Arabians allow to be an Ephemera cannot be so moderated as not to transgress its Limits for a small one is to no purpose and oppose the disease and not hurt Nature we must think of safer remedies and indeed of bloud-letting in Childbed-Women which may be more safely done because it is without suspicion of Putrefaction which it is the nature of a Fever to cause Besides more strength is required to undergo a Fever than letting of bloud IV. Hippocrates 5 Aphor. 21. and 3 de morbis in a Tetanus without an Ulcer approves of a large profusion of cold water in the heat of Summer which Galen accommodates to other kinds of Convulsions that is by help of the innate heat forced inwards which consumes the matter of the disease or by shaking the Body and so removing the Humour sticking to the Nerves Paul says that this remedy is disapproved by latter ages Yet Valescus de Taranta l. 1. c. 21. used it and cured two of a Tetanus in this manner He caused the Patient to be held upright by four Men and poured 24 Buckets of Water upon his neck and all his lower parts and presently set him before the fire and half an hour after anointed him from his neck to the end of his Back-bone his Loins and Arms with Vnguentum Dialthaeae Martiatum Agrippae and oil of Castor afterwards he gave him some Chicken-broth to drink and so they both recovered V. Hot things are not convenient for a Convulsion caused by an Imposthume nor for one caused by a hardness left in the conclusion of an Imposthume because so the thick Humours turn as hard as Stone nor for that which is caused by a hot Vapour or biting It remains therefore that they are good for one caused by crude and phlegmatick alimental humours not for crude ones and such as are unfit for coction which hot things would make harder Which Galen 2. aphor 29. explains saying that a Fever cures a convulsion caused by glutinous and cold Humours whereby people are nourished For such Humours grow thin by virtue of hot things and partly turn into sweat â—nd vapour and partly into the substance of the thing nourished but crude and vitreous Humours with hot things do turn into knots and Scirrhi They err also who in a convulsion caused by alimental phlegm use hot things because neglecting method they consider not the cause and what is urgent For it often comes to pass that the virtue of the Nerves is so weak that it can doe more in indicating it s own preservation than the phlegmatick cause can in its removal For Galen 5. aphor 2. says Hot things resolve the substance of the Nerves Experience hath often taught me Saâ—ctoriâ—â— Mâ—th V. E. l. 15. c. 8. that people convulse through repletion with cold Humours have been killed by using hot things VI. A Military Man had his whole right Arm shot off with a Cannon-Bullet When it was cured a kind of Convulsion followed in which the Head was drawn to the right-side and his Jaws quivered He advised with several and when I came to him and he related to me all his Ails it came into his mind that some latent Venereal Poison might produce this Evil for he said before he was wounded he had a violent Gonorrhoea which nevertheless was perfectly cured I therefore advis'd him to try the Remedies for the Pox and having first Purged and Sweat him I rubbed him with Mercurial Ointment which raised Salivation Ozias Aâ—mar apud Riverium abs 10. and after the third day of his Salivation those Contractions and Convulsions ceased and the Patient was never troubled more with that disease VII In a Tetanus and other Convulsions of the neck Rondeletius l. 1. meth c. 37. says That a vein should be opened which is seen stand out in the first vertebra of the Neck ¶ Mercatus l. 1. Pract. c. 15. confirms it in a Convulsion arising from thick and viscid humours which being opened he says All the phlegmatick humour that contracted the Muscles is drawn out by derivation from the Neck But that vein is obscure Bartholiâ—us cent 4. hist 33. by reason of its smallness and in dignity gives place to the axillar VIII As to what concerns the way of Cure in general to be used for these strange Convulsions it will not be easie either to assign Remedies equal to these Herculean Diseases or a method of cure that is certain and confirmed by frequent experience for besides that these cases seldom occur we may moreover observe that the self-same Medicines which did this Patient good at this time will doe another or the same at another time no good at all The reason whereof seems to be by reason the cause of the disease consists in the discrasies of the nutritious juice which liquour is not always perverted one and the same way but it gives a different sort of morbid disposition out of the manifold combinations of Salts and Sulphurs and now and then it changes it Wherefore in such most grievous affections not every common Medicine in an Apothecary's Shop must be used but Magistralia and things proper for the occasion must be prescribed according to the appearances of these strange Symptoms A gentle Vomit Purging and Bleeding may first be celebrated and may be repeated several times as there shall seem occasion And as for Specificks and Medicines appropriate to such cases seeing the chief Indication is to amend the crasis of the Nervous Juice we may try several things and search out their Virtues by their effects therefore it is lawfull to try what remedies endued with a Volatile or Armoniack Salt can doe To this purpose Spirit and Salt of Hartshorn Bloud Smoak Flowers and Spirits of Sal Armoniack may be used When these things doe no good we may come to Chalybeates Tinctures and Solutions of Coral and Antimony may be given Which sort of Medicines must be given in such a dose and form and so often as that they may make an alteration in all the bloud and Nervous Juice Moreover if such things have no success we must proceed to Alexipharmacks which are good against the poison and malignity communicated to the humours It is very probable Willis Patholog Cer◠〈◊〉 c. 9. Medicines that are good for people bit by a Viper or mad Dog or such as are taken inwardly against Banes and Poisons may also be of use in the above-said Convulsions See also the method of Gr. Horstius in his Tract de morbo convulsivo epidemio ¶ Add to these things made of Cinnabar whose efficacy Hofman extolls in his Clavis Schraederiana against the Epilepsie and all grievous diseases
But if any one have a mind to use a lixivial Salt that effervescence may be made the less by it let him temper it first by other means that is by some volatile Spirit or Oil Wherefore Venice and common Soap are of great virtue in checking the effervescence Whenever the pituitous humour offends in viscidity then it must be incided and attenuated with acid and gummous things as the humour gives way to the one rather than the other which it is easie to experience or try Yea it is the part of a prudent Physician not to think he knows all things For it is the part of a prudent Man not to begin rashly but when he has observed in dubious cases by what the Patient is chiefly holpen he may proceed couragiously Therefore when by gentle procedure a remedy is found by means whereof especially the Patient is relieved then we may proceed more cheerfully in the use of it And divers Gums occur very convenient in this case Galbanum Sagapenum Ammoniack Opoponax and the like all or each of which may be used according as there shall be occasion and especially in form of Pills Among Acids which may also be given there occur divers Spirits prepared by Art of Salt Nitre Vitriol Sulphur and also Wine-vinegar distilled and sometimes not distilled wherein if the bulb of a Squill be infused it is called Vinegar of Squills and is an excellent Medicine in this and the like diseases arising from viscid Phlegm These things also are good for correcting of viscid Phlegm Mastick Amber and the volatile Salt made of it as also the sublimated Salt of Hartshorn Castor Myrrhe moreover Steel prepared the common way or Vitriol of it with which some Mens opening Pills are prepared Every volatile Salt conduces above all things to correct and amend the viscid Phlegm which has a virtue of reducing that humour insensibly to a mediocrity Wherefore I recommend to all the preparation and use of such Salts whether they be prepared in a dry form or in a moist In the mean time this must be observed that volatile Salts prepared in a dry form when they are very subtile can scarce be kept but do easily turn to Air it is better therefore to prepare them in a moist form or at least to keep them for use dissolved in moist and watry things The bilious humour offends especially by reason of a fixt lixivious Salt which will be amended and tempered most powerfully by Acids But because then at the same time an Effervescence is raised by reason whereof this Hypochondriack disease is produced it seems not so safe or convenient to make use of Acids unless they be tempered with a volatile Spirit by means whereof the violence of the Acid Spirit is not a little infringed so that a less effervescence is caused thereby For the contempering also of lixivial Salts Acids mixt with oily things may be made use of for all sharp things as well Saline as Acid are tempered with fat things In the mean time we must have a care of oily Acids when besides a lixivial Salt Sylvius de le Boë Oil abounds in the bile which especially is evident by a greater heat and febrile burning in the Body V. A Lenitive being premised the first preparative must be Julapium Acetosum about three ounces with half an ounce of Creme of Tartar finely powdered for they may well be mixt together When five days are over again a Lenitive must be repeated drinking upon it two pounds either of clarified Whey or Barley-water Then we must proceed to open obstructions and prepare the humours lodged in the veins To which purpose aperient and mundifying juices clarified may be prescribed since Medicines made with Honey or Sugar are good for few Hypochondriacks Thus the clarified juices of Borage Cichory Endive Mallows Hops and Ceterach may be given the next day after the Physick and the next day after that half a drachm of Rheubarb mixt with two drachms of Flos Cassiae may be given after which a full Glass of Cichory and Agrimony-water may be drunk Then the day after the juices may be repeated Fortis cons 28. cent 3. and so alternately the Rheubarb and the juices may be taken VI. For a successfull and more accurate preparation I am willing to abstain from sweet Syrups made of Sugar and Honey as also from very sower things since they puff up the bowels and increase the heat and these cause a fermentation in the humours Wherefore clarified juices of Borage Endive sweet Apples c. must be given to about three ounces in Broth altered with Mallow Borage Fortis Cichory root of Cinquefoil Cichory c. VII In the use of Preparatives we must consider whether an Acid or a Nidorous crudity be more troublesome to the Patient and conduce to this evil for although it may be bred of either yet as the accidents vary according to the one or the other so also the way of cure varies For in an Acid crudity we may use hot things but in a Nidorous one and where great inflammation is we must use temperate ones Sennertus VIII If the Disease be inveterate gentle Aperients can doe but little good yet they must be given first For experience has taught that these Aperients Creme of Tartar Tartarum vitriolatum Vinum Martiale Pulvis cachecticus have qualified the Disease but could never eradicate it The case is the same in medical Waters For used once a year they open the Inwards a little but do not take away the Disease it self It is necessary therefore that against an inveterate Hypochondriack Disease such things be used as may pluck up the Disease by the root such as Aqua Philosophica or Spiritus Vini Tartarisatus if in some convenient liquour it be so given as to begin with the least and to ascend to the highest drop from one drop to twelve and according to the precedent circumstances we must continue a while in one dose and we must add now a drop Hartmannus and then a drop to it IX Preparation by Syrups and distilled waters while the humours are attenuated and run to the parts obstructed makes the Obstructions daily worse for they tire the Patients and Nature too much Crato they hurt the Stomach grievously and manifestly destroy concoction X. Vinegar may be used but it must be sparingly and onely for relish-sake and reason tells us it must be used in cholerick rather than in pituitous persons lest the exuberant melancholick juice be fermented with the excessive sowreness and the swelling of the Spleen be increased or way be made for sowre Belching Martini XI Creme and Crystals of Tartar and Tartarum vitriolatum are so common now adays that several scarce prescribe any Medicines wherein some one of these is not put yea Tartarum vitriolatum is called by Crollius Vniversale Digestivum And I acknowledge indeed that Medicines made of Tartar have a great virtue in
aperitivi are given on purpose with Stomachicks and Aromaticks So we use to prepare our cachectick Powder of Pulvis stomachicus Quercetani of root of Aron Crocus Martis and Oil of Cinnamon For they correct Mars and help Nature to conquer him But sulphurate especially causes belching as being cruder therefore we use not to give Crocus Martis so much prepared the crude way as we give it first freed from the Atoms of Sulphur by a new calcination which is better more subtile and obedient to the heat of the Stomach a thing which must principally be observed in Hypochondriacks who are delicate and of a rare texture for these belchings swell like rotten eggs Septalius lib. 9. cant 58. commends this made into a Powder and prepared with Vinegar Wedelius XLIX We must have a care that we promote not the fermentation of the humours by Emulsions and consequently lest while we would cure Thirst Weakness c. we doe more harm than good Therefore in general whenever the orgasmus of the humours is in the lower Belly it is adviseable to abstain from them for as Hippocrates says unequal things ferment Wherefore in Hystericks where it concerns us to quiet the Symptoms and also in Hypochondriacks they cannot be proper Idem L. The quieting of the Paroxysms and of the most urgent Symptoms consists especially in checking the effervescence of the humours in discussion of the rising exhalations asswaging of Pain The effervescence will be stopt chiefly with Medicines that correct the acrimony of both humours the Acid pituitous and the Bilious which is owing to fat and spirituous things but variously mixt with other things according to the various manner of effervescence in each person Wherefore that Medicine which does one Man good often does another harm And it must be a temperate Medicine which must consist of much water and little oil but that so mixt with a volatile salt that it may mix with the water For all the skill lies here I repeat it The temperate Medicine must consist of much water as being a thing which by it self and a lixivious salt is fit to dilute an acid spirit and so infringe its strength To this water oil but a little must be added as being apt to temper both the lixivious salt and the acid spirit And because oil cannot be mixt with water but by means of a Lixivial Salt this must be there also but corrected and volatilized with a volatile Spirit because the same and a volatile spirit use to temper a lixivious salt and an acid spirit In such a Medicine therefore so tempered there occurr three things Water Oil and Volatile Spirit tempering the two Sharps Sylvius de le Boë the lixivious Salt and the acid Spirit LI. Among the Symptoms of this Disease I have observed that a sense and fear of Suffocation and Strangling is not onely peculiar to Women though it take them oftner than Men. I think this grievance has its rise from various exhalations and especially austere ones rising from the small gut to the upper mouth of the Stomach and so to the Gullet and causing a sense of Suffocation and Strangling in these parts But whenever part of these exhalations tends by the lacteal Veins to the thoracick Duct penetrates into the right ventricle of the Heart and into the Lungs and sticking there causes shortness of Breath no wonder if then either through want of proper Medicines or abundance of Exhalations the Patients are sometime suffocated and choaked which I remember once happened to one of my Patients abundance of austere Exhalations being translated to the Lungs with a violent hypochondriack Suffocation as the most urgent Symptome then and returning with such violence every Paroxysm that it would give way to no Medicines but caused Death And this Evil had been neglected at the beginning so much does it concern us to cure all things in time Certainly this Ail is often too much neglected not being sufficiently known to several Physicians and therefore the seldomer cured For curing of this volatile Salts are very good and amongst them Spirit of Sal Ammoniack which if it had no other virtues yet in regard to this Ail it ought to be esteemed by all Physicians Except in this case I do not remember any Patient of mine ever died of an hypochondriack Suffocation to whom I use in time to prescribe and inculcate volatile Salts which all persons may easily use even in their ordinary drink Whereas Castor which many use with good success is an ingratefull thing and is loathed by many The Cure of this multifarious Disease is performed first of all by discussion and suppression of all manner of Exhalations Secondly by correction of the humours whence they arise Thirdly And by the diminution of them where they exceed All volatile Salts and Aromaticks and especially oleous ones discuss all manner of Vapours Among which also Castor it self may be reckoned seeing it is part of an Animal or an Excrement which is the same thing seeing all the parts and each of an Animal abound with a volatile Salt And every particular humour as it offends in divers qualities must in a divers manner be corrected and diminished with its Purgatives But as often as a manifest sense of Strangling is urgent upon the Patient besides this Spirit of Sal Ammoniak Castor is also convenient and its Tincture as also distilled Oil of Mace and Amber if one two or three drops thereof be taken When these Exhalations are more glutinous or also more sharp then besides volatile Salts sweet Spirit of Nitre Oil of Orange Pill c. may be used When they are more watry and there is rather a faintness of Spirits than sense of Strangling then to the volatile Salts there may profitably be added aromatick Tinctures of Cinnamon Saffron Nutmeg Mace c. made with rectified Spirit of Wine not neglecting the taking of Hydragogues now and then to abate the watry humours Idem LII And Difficulty of Breathing comes in for its share which is grievous enough to many the chief cause whereof is various Winds and Vapours often produced by humours in the small Gut which being carried by the lacteal Veins and thoracick duct to the right ventricle of the Heart and so to the Lungs and tarrying there awhile so they both distend the Lungs and keep them distended and so hinder the playing of them and consequently respiration and therefore must be discussed with the same Medicines Idem Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Tartarus vitriolatus with extract of Fern and some convenient Water is an excellent deoppilative ¶ Take of Gumm Ammoniack 2 ounces and an half dissolved in Vinegar of Squills to the consistency of Honey Add of Powder of Spleen-wort Dodder each 1 ounce Oil of Capers 2 ounces of Violets 1 ounce of Bricks and Wax what is sufficient Make a Plaster and apply it Agricola 2. Diaspoliticum in hypochondriack melancholy
I. The Cure of a Caries following the Pox is difficult II. The Excellency of Euphorbium to correct a Caries III. Bared Bones do not always contract a Caries IV. The Causes and Cure of a Spina Ventosa V. The Cure of an ulcerous Hypersarcosis VI. The Cure of a Cancer of the Bone VII I. BOnes must exsquammate and be taken out when they are corrupt or after Burning Powders are made of Sarcoticks as Myrrhe All heal Frankincense adding some things which are reckoned to have the property to draw Bones as Root of Reeds which draws out Thorns and Splinters Some also add Pine-bark but without either judgment or reason for this Powder is usefull and effectual sometimes indeed as in Bones which consist of a rare substance or of two Tables such as the Os Cranii the Os Coxendicis and the Os Sacrum for they have Veins within wherefore they draw Flesh out of these Bones But in thicker and solid Bones they are not so commendable because Flesh cannot be bred in the inside of them Therefore drier Medicines must be sought which have an epispastick faculty as Powder made of Agarick Tartar and Bone Ashes for such a Powder because of the Agarick draws out the Humour that lies within and corrupts the Bones because of the Heat it has and the faculty to draw Phlegm Besides Lees of Wine burnt do by their Heat and great Driness sever the sick parts from the sound especially in corruption of the Bones by the Pox. II. A Caries of the Bones an usual Symptome of the Pox is difficult to cure The difficulty arises hence because the Venereal Poison intimately insinuates it self into the Bones whither Medicines that are proper to correct it cannot reach and the Disease cannot easily be conquered with Fire or an actual Cautery It is well known that an Acid and we reckon the Venereal Poison consists in a sharp Acidity and that it is most penetrating does most closely insinuate it self into the Bones and corrupt them even to Death for Bones do truly live and therefore such as are corrupted with a Caries must be reckoned for dead Therefore for the Cure of a Caries it is necessary that all the part affected as being dead be separated from the sound and living with which the Caries can neither close nor long subsist but it will infect the same and by little and little bring it to the like corruption But it is hard either by Fire or by a red hot Iron or by convenient Medicines to separate the carious part of the Bone from the sound when the Venereal Poison had made holes in the Bone and the farther it eats the stronger it grows as it is plain in a Venereal Caries which is the reason that it stops not at a Bone which corrupts but daily grows sharper whereupon at length when it is arrived at the height the Venereal Caries grows incurable And all the difficulty lies here that usually proper Remedies cannot be conveniently used and applied for the parts near the Bone as the Membranes Tendons Nerves c. are often hurt by an actual Cautery And this Malady increases because actual Cauteries which doe little good at once applying must be often applied if they will doe any great matters other Remedies are either too weak or cannot penetrate sufficiently to all the places where the said Poison has insinuated it self which consists in a sharp Acidity and is very penetrating For whatever things yet have been found to take off the Acrimony of an Acid any way are either lixivial Salts both fixt and volatile or volatile Spirits or Oil or Watry things or some things compounded of them But fixt lixivial Salts which are the chief opposites and adversaries of an Acid if they be pure and alone will stay at the superficies and will doe nothing of moment and if they be diluted with water they will lose some of their virtue If they be joined with a volatile Spirit they will penetrate indeed the better but they will operate more weakly If they be made into a Soap with Oil they are weakned and cannot easily penetrate deep in and if Water be added to make them more penetrable they are made more dull No wonder therefore if a Venereal Caries of the Bones be seldom cured Sylvius de le Boë III. In curing of Ulcers a Chirurgeon meets with nothing that creates him more trouble and puzzles him more than when an Ulcer is accompanied with a Caries of the Bones especially if it be deep because of the Moisture in the Bone And for the drying up of this Moisture and for making the â—one to scale Physicians and Chirurgeons both ancient and modern could think of nothing better than an actual Cautery I allow Euphorbium the next place since it not onely dries up the Humours in the Bone because it is sharp and hot in the fourth degree but it seems to be proper here by an occult quality Hildanus IV. I have observed some Physicians and Chirurgeons and those no ordinary ones who were of opinion that Flesh can never grow upon Bones that are made bare in green Wounds unless the surface of the Bones scaled by the benefit of Nature and Medicines Wherefore whenever they meet with a Wound where the Bone was laid bare they scraped it with Scalpra till the bloud come for several days then they applied sharp Medicines as Oil of Sulphur Vitriol Aqua fortis and the like and therefore of a simple Ulcer they often made a malignant one as we may see in rotten Teeth And though the Air be stark naught for bared Bones yet it does not follow that they are always altered and corrupted by it especially if the Chirurgeon be carefull Idem and use no sharp thing ¶ Hippocrates Aph. 6. 46. says that in all annual Ulcers the Bone must of necessity corrupt for because such are malignant therefore the Flesh and the very Bone must of necessity corrupt This is often observed in the Pox Small pox and other putrid Abscesses for when the Bones are made bare by such causes for the most part they are corrupted before the Flesh and the Skin are ulcerated as I have often observed nor will the Wound close up till the Caries of the Bone is removed And that it may very well be if the Lips of the Ulcer be kept open with prepared Sponge and if Powder of Euphorbium be strewed on every day I have several times cured a Caries of the Bone when it has not scaled For Euphorbium rectifies the Bone by degrees and all that is carious runs out with the Pus I found this in a Girl who after the Small-pox had a huge Abscess in her left Arm when it was opened the Bone was found to be carious In one part of the Ulcer where the Caries was deep the Bone scaled by the benefit of Nature and Euphorbium and Nature insensibly corrected the rest Idem so that she perfectly recovered V. I am resolved
Millepedes that is either in form of a dry Pouder or of a distilled Liquor seldom fail of success for such recall the superfluities of the Serum from the Head and Nerves and carry them to the Urinary Passages Gentle Purges are also good as is a decoction of an old Cock and other things appropriate to an Asthma See the Section following Willis XXI Of all the dire Symptoms of Scorbutick Persons difficulty of Breathing and straitness of the Breast coming by Fits are the worst I think they for the most part arise either from a sudden stagnation of the Blood that is just growing grumous in the narrow passages of the Lungs or from a Convulsive irritation of the Nerves which serve the Organs of Respiration In the first case there is an exceeding distention of the Lungs and thence as it were an immobility with a sublivid redness in the Face a dimness of sight swooning a low weak intermitting Pulse accompanied with despair of the Patients recovery But in the later case the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries is not very irregular the Party is troubled with a dry Cough together with an anxious straitness about the Heart and deep sighs stopping the Breath For when the Blood because of its thickness stagnates in its Circulation through the strait passages of the Lungs such things are proper as by powerfully attenuating inciding and moving it do restore it to a requisite fluidity and to a more expedite Circular motion 1. Carminative Clysters for Revulsion 2. Blood-letting where there are signs of a Plethora for so when the Blood is diminished the rest will more easily be attenuated and will pass the straits of the Lungs with a quicker motion 3. Hot Thoracicks mixt with Antiscorbuticks of the same virtue Tincture of Saffron Elecampane Castor Elixir Proprietatis Confectio Alkermes Flowers of Sal Ammoniack Benzoin Volatil Salt of Vipers Horse-dung Spirit of Sal Ammoniack A spoonful either by it self or in some convenient Vehicle in a small but a repeated Dose for these do excellently keep off the Fit by keeping the Blood from Coagulation For it is found by Experience that Coagulated Blood is dissolved by a Volatil Salt diluted with Water and besides Volatil Salts there is not any thing found fit to prevent or dissolve this Coagulation For a Scorbutick Asthma from a Convulsion of the Pneumonick Nerves See the foregoing Section Antispasmodicks promise a Cure which are experienced to have the faculties of dulling suppressing and discussing this irritating acrimony of the Humours or Vapours For this these things are cried up Spirit of Sal Ammoniack Hartshorn Soot Castor Spiritus Lavendulae compositus mixt with appropriate Liquors and taken in repeated draughts while difficulty of Breathing is urgent Castor also Galbanum Asa foetida and their Tinctures drawn with Aqua Raphani compos or Lumbricorum But in such a shortness of Breath which threatens to choak the Patient there is no more present Remedy See Charleton Section XII than a few grains of Laudanum Opiatum dissolved in good Canary Wine and infused till the Tincture is extracted and a spoonful of it given now and then Rheumatismus or a Rheumatism See Febris Rheumatismi comes Book VI. and Lumborum Affectus Book X. The Contents The excellency of Blood-letting I. When Purgations must be prescribed II. The benefit of Diureticks III. Sudorificks are not proper at all times IV. We must take care to strengthen the parts V. Cured in a young Man VI. I. BLood must be let every day at the beginning till the Disease and pains abate Nor is it any matter if you Bleed for ten or twelve days or for more since it is peculiar to this Disease for the Patient not to be weakened by Bleeding Therefore it is my custom when I prescribe Bleeding so often to add this restriction that it be continued every day till the pains be abated or the strength be much wasted and when no decay of strength arises upon it Patients do freely admit it The condition of the Blood causes this Tolerance which comes out always very putrid Experience shews the benefit since by repeated Bleeding the Disease which in its own nature is long is often conquered in a short time Besides a large Haemorrhagy supervening often cures it Riverius II. Purging in the beginning increase and state of this Disease gives no relief yea it does harm As it happens in all Inflammatory Diseases But in the declension it is necessary and must often be prescribed and with gentle Medicins that the Cacochymie restagnating in the Body may be carried off If gentle things be insufficient wholly to eradicate this Disease which is often contumacious we must if there be no Fever have recourse to stronger things I have always cured this Disease when other things could not do the work by giving about twenty grains of Mercurius dulcis six times sublimed with ten grains of Scammony or Resin of Julap Idem ¶ One Clyster made of Emetick Wine cured a Woman of this Disease Idem III. In Rheumatick Diseases when a bad and sharp serous Matter bred by a hot intemperature subservient to Sanguification is discharged into the External habit of the Body with a wandring pain of the Bones and with a sense of heat and heaviness all over the Body and sometimes also into the inner parts Diureticks are very good to dry it up and that by Hippocrates his advice lib. de Humor Do not shut up says he the dissolved Humours within but dry up the superfluous and when you have a mind co carry them off or otherwise it is best to use Attenuants because so you may more easily purge them by Stool or by Vrine than if you had restrained them and kept them in by Astringents And by Galen's consent 15. Simplic 13. By Diureticks says he the Blood is not only attenuated but is melted and separated just as in Milk in which what is serous and thin is separated what is thick is curdled and exactly united Frid. Hofm IV. Sudorificks as well as Purgatives do no good but much harm in the beginning increase and state Ordinary Physicians experience this who mistaking it for a true Catarrh and being tired with the contumacy of this Disease have recourse to these things whereby the Disease is doubled and the pains are increased But in the declension Generals premised and when there is no Fever Riverius they do much good V. After sufficient Evacuation yea at the very time of Evacuation we must endeavour to strengthen the principal Parts and the whole Body And these Strengtheners must be cooling by reason of the hot intemperature of the Liver the original of a Rheumatism There is great store of them I shall propound four that are very effectual and not ungrateful 1. Tincture of Corals two ounces whereof may be taken two hours before Breakfast in the morning those days when no other Medicins are used 2. Conserve of Hips which is grateful to
ferment and grow hot we must have a care that we exasperate not the Evil by over hot Medicines especially in more Southernly Climes where the Melancholick humour is adust and approaching to the nature of black Choler Idem Therefore such Medicines are not improperly given in Whey VII Authors do well caution us about Medicines proper for the Scurvy that there is greater efficacy in Juices then in Decoctions which experience testifies For they have their efficacy from a volatil Salt which is dissipated by boyling and for the most part vanishes in drying But in Juices and Conserves it remains in a manner intire Much less should Extracts be preferred For although no unprofitable ones may be prepared out of some Plants yet since their virtue chiefly consists in a volatil Salt it cannot be but it must be wasted For this Salt unites it self with Spirit of Wine or with whatever other Liquor is used in the Extraction and flies away with it and so the Body is left destitute of this Salt Hofmannus and in a great measure ineffectual VIII The same Cure must be insisted on in this Disease as in Hypochondriack ones seeing it is bred of the same humour but further receding from a natural state Riverius Therefore for the most part it stands in need of more powerful Remedies IX All sugared things are enemies to Scorbutick and Hypochondriack persons and therefore let us abstain from the use of them for not only as they lye in the Hypochondria of Scorbutick Persons Moebius Instit p. 522. they turn into dross near akin to Salts but according to Celsus l. 4. c. 9. they are enemies to the Spleen for they move bile ferment the Humours and breed Obstructions in the Bowels ¶ And by the use of them according to Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Spleen is swelled and made great Wherefore both Dorncrellius praefat Dispensat and Greg. Horstius l. 7. Observat forbids them Scorbutick Persons Hofmannus m. m. p. 348. X. I will tell you freely that although I do not question but the Scurvey is truly found in these Northern Parts yet I am verily perswaded it does not so frequently occurr as is commonly believed And that many not to say most of those Diseases on whose account we blame the Scurvey are the effects of Diseases that are in breeding but not yet bred and which have not as yet put on any certain type or the unhappy reliques of some Disease that is not as yet wholly conquered whereby the Blood and other Humours are tainted for example In what bodies any matter apt to produce the Gout is newly bred but not as yet fallen upon the Joynts divers Symptomes will show themselves which will give suspicion of the Scurvey till a Gout now formed and actually exerting it self leave no room for further doubting What I have said of the Gout I would have understood of the Dropsie concerning which Disease although it be vulgarly said Where the Scurvey ends the Dropsie begins yet this rule must very often be no otherwise taken than that as soon as ever the Dropsie shows it self by manifest signs then the preconceived opinion of the Scurvy immediately falls to the ground The same may be said of very many other chronical Diseases which are but growing and which therefore have not formed themselves any type or of them also which although they be partly got away yet they seem not to be wholly conquered and exterminated And indeed unless we allow this the name of the Scurvy as it now goes will encrease vastly and will serve for almost all Diseases Whereas if we would make it our business to search narrowly into the inwards of every Disease and bring it from behind the Veil of irregular Symptomes it would presently show its nature and might easily be placed in that family to which it belongs And the method whereby such Diseases should be driven away ought not to be accommodated to these counterfeit Symptomes but to the Disease it self whatever it is as perfectly formed Sydenham and then actually existing XI As for the Cure of the Scurvy since not only one simple preternatural affection but a legion of such must be forced away therefore the method of Cure ought to touch upon manifold Indications and those variously complicated and subordinate which yet I have thought good after the vulgar manner to reduce to these three heads namely as they are preservatory which respect and remove the cause of the Disease and Curatory which remove the Disease it self and its Symptomes and lastly vital which maintain and restore the strength and Spirits of the Patient At the beginning of the Cure we ought to aim at the cause of the Disease for when it like the root is cut or pulled up presently the stock boughs and fruit wither away Since therefore we have shown that the cause of the Scurvey is founded upon a Dyscrasie in the Blood to wit either Sulphureo-Saline or Salino-Sulphureous we must do our endeavour that the Dyscrasie of either nature may be amended To this purpose First Impediments must be removed and then the Primary intention must be put in execution for both which ends Remedies are taken from Diet Surgery and Pharmacy As to Diet a special course of it shall be appointed below in the mean time we will proceed to the rest The reduction of the Blood to a due temper by appropriate Medicines is especially hindred for these two reasons that is First because it is continually furnished with a store of bad nutritious Juice Then Secondly the recrements that are bred in it are not sufficiently voided by the proper emunctories There we must take care that the work of Chylification may be performed aright in the first wayes then that the vaporous recrements may be purged away by Transpiration the serous by the Kidneys and Lymphaeducts the bilious by the Gall-bladder the atrabilarious by the Spleen and others of what kind soever they be by their proper emunctories Then when these offices are rightly performed we must endeavour to reduce the Dyscrasie of the Blood by specifick Medicines and especially such as have a volatil Salt in them The Remedies that respect each of these intentions may be complicated together and ought to be used both at once but in what manner and modes of administration we must yet more particularly show 1. We must have a care that Chylification be rightly performed in the first ways that the load of Excrementitious matter gathered there may be cast off that the destroyed or depraved ferments may be restored that the passages and pores that are any ways stopt or obstructed may be opened To these ends Cathartick digestive and aperient Medicines are designed 2. That the excrements gathered in the mass of Blood when they are not sufficiently discharged by their proper emunctories may now and then be carried off by other ways most convenient For this matter Catharticks Diaphoreticks and Diureticks
as by washing of the Head are good for the Cure of this Disease for by Bathing plenty of Sweat is provoked and the antecedent matter of the Fluxion is discharged And by washing of the Head the Brain is strengthned and dried The peculiar way of using them is described by Penotus and is very much commended Nothing does so much good in Deafness even after the use of an Hundred Remedies as for the Patient first to cleanse his Body well and then purge his Head and wet his Head with Sulphureous Bathes in this manner Let him wear upon his Head as it were a Cap of large Sponges sowed together coming down to his Eye brows and below his Ears Let him sit under the current of the Bath and turning a Cock let him receive the water which soaked up by the Sponges will keep the Head warm with its continual heat and opening all the sutures of the Head and commissures of the Ears it will take away the Vapours or will wast by exhalation the matter impacted in the Nerves and auditory Passages or will so displace it that it will quickly go away It is convenient for him to sit thus twice a day for two hours and then presently to sweat in Bed and to use a thin diet of Flesh Brothes Riverius and he must abstain from all Wine unless it be very small If any one insist upon the use of the Bathes I utterly disapprove of putting the whole Body into the Sulphureous water because of the frequent effusion of Blood by the Haemorrhoids but especially because of the Stone for which the heating of the Kidneys and Loyns is very bad I think it sufficient if the Head the Body being first well purged be watred from on high all cautions observed which the Physicians there present shall give My Lord seems to abhor the thick fuliginous Air of the Bath An Embrochation from on high by some proper Instrument will serve instead thereof out of which some Cephalick Decoction may run at a Cock prepared with a Barber's Lixivium adding Malmsey Wine upon the Head shaven and covered with a Cap made of soft Sponges with other things which may keep the Liquor from the Parts below and may deliver it into a bason near it This irrigation also may be received upon the sutures of the Head naked which when the season of the year is heat Th. de Mayerne confilio M. S. pro Comite Denbigh done once or twice a week wiping and drying the Head very well after it will be very good It is used daily by the Italians X. In Deafness from pituitous matter some Topical Medicine must be put into the Ears which at first must have an inciding and detersive and then a drying faculty that the Humour which is in the Ears may be attenuated and cleansed and then the Membrane may be dried Therefore let a Tent dipt in Oxymel of Squills be put especially in the Night time for Medicines must not be poured in Fortis tom 2. Cent. 1. cons 79. lest the auditory passage be hurt as Galen 3. K. T. 1. advises but they must be got in with a Tent or a Probe wrapt in Wool Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. A Decoction of Castor and Laurel-berries mixt with a little Vinegar and dropt into the Ear is admirably good Donatus ab Altomari ¶ Ants Eggs bruised will cure the most inveterate Deafness 2. Praevotius has Saffron and Cloves with juice of Woodbind for a Secret Thom. Bartholinus with which I use to mix Rose-water dip Cotton in it and put it into the Ear. 3. This Tent is a most effectual Remedy Take of Coloquintida white Hellebore each 1 scruple Euphorbium half a scruple Mix them Make a Tent with Honey juice of Onions or Radish and keep it in for some dayes Capivaccius 4. In the diminution of the Sense of Hearing Take of Leaves of Carduus benedictus dried 1 handful sprinkle them with wine then pour some Carduus benedictus water to them and destill them in a Glass Warm a little of this in a Spoon and hold the Head a little on the contrary side then let it run out again Crato and keep the Ear always stopt with Cotton and Musk. 5. Snails with long Ears and an exquisite touch if they be boyled in water and salt and after they are dried be destilled with Oyl of Amber or Fenil or Castor The Oyl that comes off is admirable for the recovery of Hearing Deodatus 6. The Steam of boyled Beans received into the Ears is said to be a present Remedy ¶ Nothing is more certain than spirit of Turpentine if you drop a few drops into the Ear. Grulingius 7. If it come from gross Humours obstructing the Auditory Nerves destilled oyl of Chamomil flowers is a generous Remedy Joel a few drops whereof may be dropt in warm 8. Take the fat of an Eel as she is roasting on a Spit and it drops from her mix it with its own Gall keep it in a Glass when there is occasion drop a drop or two in the Ear. It is a specifick Medicine for Deafness by what means soever it comes Dominicus Leo. 9. After the Tympany is cleansed and some Liquor poured in that discusses wind nothing is better than the Urine of an Hare dropt in warm the frequent use whereof has done several good Tulpius 10. Several who had been long Deaf have been cured with this One gave diaolibanum and he made a steam under the Ear of a Decoction of hot Herbs if it came from a cold matter but of cold Herbs if it came from hot matter and he fomented the Ear with the simple Decoction Afterwards he dropt in this Take of white Hellebore Castor Pellitory of Spain nitre each a like mix them all and boyl them in wine till the wine be almost consumed strain it and drop a little of it hot into the Ear and keep it there an hour afterwards give some sneezing of powder of white Hellebore or Pepper When the Patient begins to sneeze let him hold his Nose violently Villanovanus that he cannot breathe when he sneezes Syncope Leipothymia or Swooning or Fainting The Contents Whether one may be let Blood in a Swoon I. One arising from afright cured by Bleeding II. Some dye for want of Bleeding III. Vinegar of Roses is not good for all IV. How Medicines must be poured in when People cannot swallow V. Swooning caused by the Spleen cured by looking to it VI. By what virtue Medicines act that cure it VII If it come from the Stomach things concentrating the Spirits are proper VIII The efficacy of Aromatick Oyls and Volatil Salts IX Spirit of Roses does not cool X. They that dye away must not be quickly buried XI All Swoonings that proceed from the wasting of the Spirits must not be cured one and the same way XII If it proceed from pain Narcoticks are sometimes
Alexipharmacks after And the Vomits must not be strong and malignant but gentle and made of such things as have a smoothness in them as water with common Oyl of Sesamum Nuts c. that if the Poyson have any Acrimony or Corrosive virtue in it it may be taken off and the internal parts guarded as it were against it such as the said Oyls or fat broth with a Decoction of Broom-flowers Milk Butter Radish and the like Nor is it sufficient to provoke Vomit once but it must be continued so long till no more signs of the strength of the Poyson in the Stomach can be found Sennâ—rtus from taste smell reaching pain and biting X. But Alexipharmacks or Bezoarticks are either 1. Resisters of putrefaction and things that preserve its oyly parts safe that it may not turn flat and that by inflaming and inlivening it and indeed the more volatil such as bitter Aromatick Oyly and Balsamick things are Angelica the Carline thistle Zedoary Myrrhe Opobalsamâ—m Juniper berries c. sharp Volatils Sulphureous and Saline things as Plow-man's treacle Garlick Camphire c. Spirit of Harts-horn Ivory c. and acid by concentrating penetrating together Juice of Citron Vinegar Acetum Bezoarticum And these are especially proper in Epidemick Diseases arising from a thorow putrefaction as the stench of dead Bodies also for Fevers in Lying-in-Women both for prevention and cure also in the biting of a mad Dog and of Spiders XI Or. 2. They hinder Ichorescence resolution and too great rarefaction of the Blood and so respect the tie and as it were the individual copula and conjunction of the Serum and Blood whether they be a little austere Astringents in which respect Tormentil and Bistort are Famous but not so convenient for costive People Or Mucilaginous as Cornu corvi Philosophicum Gelly of it Scorzonera or earthy Absorbents and precipitaters of the resolutive ferment as burnt Hartshorn Vnicornu fossile Bezoar stone Oriental and Occidental and the Bezoarticks of the Chymists which have no peculiar Alexipharmack virtue but only to soak up and disperse wherefore we must not alwayes trust them Or Acids which obtund the Sulphur of the Blood as acid Spirits volatil Spirit of Salt compound Spirit of Salt and Nitre c. Or Opiates which indeed especially joyned with other things deserve to be reckoned among Bezoarticks so they be given as they should and at a due time For if any thing do it certainly Opiates preserve the Bond of the Serum and Blood inviolable wherefore Treacle made without Opium does not cause Sweat nor answer expectation And these are very good especially in the Sweating Sickness a Malignant Epidemical Dysentery and in other Malignant Diseases where there is heat in the Bowels XII Or 3. They promote Serum and its motion and hinder its coagulation and thickning by boyling if I may so say such as besides some of the foresaid things that make it fluid as Salt or Nitrous things or volatil both Urinous and Mercurial ones as native Cinnabar Cinnabar of Antimony Mercurius fixus diaphoreticus For it must be observed as a rule In Malignant Fevers wherever the Serum is as it were coagulated and then no Sweat can be got but all things are burnt up as it were Cinnabarines prudently mixt with other Bezoardicks do mightily promote its fluidity But if the Blood incline to dissolution and ichorescence they must be wholly avoided nor are they safe or to be trusted in the convulsive motions which then follow from which very thing a vast difference in their power of acting arises And things that increase it in substance or quantity and refresh and dilute it as distilled waters Decoctions Infusions and especially Emulsions which in Malignant Diseases are of great advantage to this very end For unless this Serum be restored which it may be by plentiful drinking so it be not too much all endeavours besides are to no purpose and sleep especially cannot be recovered but a violent delirium must of necessity arise from continual waking and then convulsive motions These things are good in general for Poysons either given designedly or taken by mistake by defending the Heart and preserving the tone of the Blood inviolable and for Malignant and Pestilential Fevers Hungarian Spotted Fevers of Lying-in-Women Small Pox and Measles and such contagious and ill natured Diseases XIII No one Alexipharmack does equally resist all Poysons and therefore no more must be attributed to any than what experience can testifie There are indeed three of general use which a good Physician cannot be without The Bezoardick Tincture in a liquid form Treacle and Mithridate in a middle form whither the like Electuaries Orvietan c. may be referred very antient Medicines approved by so many ages and therefore though they be made up of a strange Medly of Ingredients not lightly to be rejected In a solid form Bezoartick powders but great prudence is required in giving them XIV The promiscuous use of Alexipharmacks is not convenient therefore the distinction of them according to their strength is necessary into Volatil Middle and Fixt Therefore Weisselius in Crato's Epistles 248 wisely distinguished such Medicines into a twofold Classis namely Of Absorbents or of Hydroticks and Sudorificks properly so called which except it be done a great deal of ambiguity and controversie must arise yea and by this means the application will be worse than Empirical XV. In the beginning Volatils are most needful for greater penetration and quicker discursion Also where the Malignity is intimate when nature ceases from expulsion of the Fever Spots Small Pox or Measles or these exanthemata seem to go in with difficulty of Breathing oppression at the Heart c. In the progess more fixt ones where namely there is most need of alteration and precipitation especially about the state and declension when the Tumult is laid Watry things are of a middle nature and may be joyned to either XVI The more temperate and mild are most proper for Women with Child Infants and weak Persons and where the Blood enclines most to Ichorescence Wherefore when Treacle is not proper Diascordium Fracastorii as a more temperate one has place Where there is no place for Tinctura Bezoartica though it may be qualified there a Bezoartick powder may be given For if too Volatil things be given to such the rarefaction of the Blood is the more increased and so further mischief may arise XVII Poyson is not removed only by Sweat for the Serum must not be wasted too much Wherefore neither hot things alone nor temperate things alone nor sweating alone with any Medicine whatever is sufficient In which thing both the vulgar are mistaken who think they can do all things with powder of Carduus Benedictus or Harts-horn and the Physicians also who weary their Patients with continual Sweating for all things should be done according to Nature's duct and indication XVIII We must not trust too much to Medicines made of Serpents
Acidulae and pretend that they can do as much by a certain salt powder given to a few grains believing that the Stomach is offended by the great quantity of water which a little powder cannot do But this is a mistake for this is the prerogative of mineral waters that they do not offend the Stomach though taken in a large quantity in the mean time they pass through all the Vessels and whatsoever vitious matter they meet with they wash and cleanse it away which a few grains of any salt powder cannot do if one consider the great number of Mesaraick Vessels to which a few grains bear no proportion so as that the salt should be distributed to them all to say nothing of that singular mixture that is made by Nature which Art cannot imitate and that the vertue is not seated so much in any fixt salt as in a volatile Spirit which easily vanishes Sennertrâ— pract l. 3. part 5. sect 1. cap. 6. Nor must we rashly pass judgment of the qualities of these Waters for if we see that they consist of v. g. Alum Sulphur Iron Nitre c. we must not presently conclude Therefore they have the same vertues with the Minerals they consist of For according to Hippocrates lib. de vet medic In Man and other Mixts there is bitter salt acid insipid which being mixt and contemper'd are neither discerned nor offend But when any one of these shall be separated and exist by it self then it both becomes conspicuous and affects a Man and so obtains another vertue of affecting Hence gather that the qualities of Mineral Waters are to be enquired after by experience rather than by reason and that they are an Empirical Medicine whereby divers and contrary Distempers are cured See an example of artificial Acidul in Platerus's Observations lib. 3. p. 610. where he sayes that some mix Spirit of Vitriol with Acidulae that they may acquire an acidity but I have observed that that has prov'd prejudicial to many Willis sayes that he can make Artificial as effectual and grateful as the Natural XXII It is the opinion of some that it is convenient to boil Victuals in Mineral Waters but I do not approve of it 1. because the use of Medicaments ought not to be continual for by that means they become so familiar to Nature that they will effect little 2. Nature is not perpetually to be tir'd with Medicines but at Dinner and Supper time to be refreshed with mere aliments that she may endure the cure which is sometimes wont to last three four or five Weeks 3. Medicaments do infect aliments and these on the other hand dull the vertue of those 4. Mineral Waters do in no wise pass into the nourishment of the Body and therefore if they should be detained too long by the Food they would be corrupted for through the thinness and purity of their substance they are easily alter'd 5. If Victuals should be boil'd in the Waters it should either be for profit but then they would have but little vertue or for necessity but if they be drank twice aday they are taken in a quantity sufficient either for evacuation or alteration or lastly for pleasure Sebis p. 617. but so by boiling they lose their grateful taste c. XXIII Your Mineral waters commonly called Acidulae for the most part are wont to spring from a mixture of the Spirit of Vitriol sal Nitre and Alum which Minerals are indeed sometimes found simple but more often mixt more or less with other Minerals in the Bowels of the Earth especially with Iron There is great plenty of these Springs in divers Countreys in those especially that abound with Iron Mines Germany alone affords near a thousand as Bernhard Varenus affirms in his Geograph general cap. 17. lib. 1. But in Britain the more Famous are those of Barnet Epsom Tunbridge Astrop Scarburgh and that which springs out of S. Vincent's Rock near Bristol And the excellent vertues of these Acidulae both in reducing the over-fervent Blood to a just temper and also in cleansing it gently from Sulphureo-saline impurities both by Urine and Perspiration yea and in opening obstructions of the Bowels are so well known not to Physicians only but also to the unlearned multitude that they need not be published by me Nor need I stand in prescribing rules in the due use of them for that is done by others But I think good to intimate this in general that the Dose is to be increas'd or lessen'd daily according to the quicker or slower passage of the Waters observing a due regiment in the mean time both in Diet and Exercise and that a longer or shorter time is to be spent in drinking the Acidulae according to the greater or lesser Euphory and emolument of the drinker Gualt Charlton de Scorb p. 184. Adstringents The Contents The same are not convenient in all Cases I. III. How Medicines made of Mars astringe II. Respect is to be had to the Parts and Humors III. We must take heed of binding too much IV. In Diseases of the Breast we must astringe sparingly V. Whether there be astringent Clysters VI. In some Cases that require Astriction Openers c. are of use VII We must not rely much on Crocus Martis for astriction VIII When Tormentil is to be preferred before Bistort IX I. THe Universal and common Indicant for Astriction is the loosness of the solid Parts chiefly and next of the moist or in particular 1. The loosness of the Parietes Walls or Sides of the Parts hence Astringents are convenient in strengthning the Bowels when they are too loose and hence they are called and are Tonicks So Astringents also conduce to the moderating of the consistence of the Blood and resisting of Putrefaction whence many of them are also Alexipharmacks For the essence of malignant Diseases especially the Plague seems to consist in the resolution of the Blood when its consistence is so perverted that it is not sufficient for Vital actions but the Serum and Blood are parted of which sort are both Acids and mucilaginous precipitants and also Balsamick diaphoreticks 2. The rarity of the Pores 3. The mobility of the humors 4. The solution of the unity of the Membranes and Vessels 5. The consequent eruption of the humors sometimes of the Blood and Serum Now astringents that are owing to these Indicants are of divers kinds which although they all agree in uno tertio and intend one and the same end yet as Galen notes 3. de sang miss c. 15. this or that Astringent Medicine besides its astriction has several other qualities and therefore cannot obtain altogether the same effect or Different effects are observed to proceed from different Astringents For that which astringes besides astriction is either Acrimonious or Fat or Sweet or Bitter or Salt or Acid whereby is manifestly intimated what difference there is in the choice of Astringents for this or the other purpose In
Hypochondriacal affection yet they are thick privately and in their retirement and besides the Saline volatile Parts there are also others whence the Symptoms vary widely thus Serum or Lympha so long as it is in its own Sphere and under the dominion of the Natural heat appears thin but when it slides out of the Vessels or out of the Body it waxes thick as is seen in Catarrhs Thus Aperients of this sort especially volatil are good in the Apoplexy when the original of the Nerves is obstructed also in stoppages of the Nostrils in intermitting Fevers or Agues in straitness of breath c. And in this case Purgers also are excellent seeing all of them have a saline melting Spur in them XI Aperients are indicated 4. by somewhat acid acrimonious austere sowr pontick when namely the Blood is fixed as it were by a preternatural acid when the juices are constringed by austere particles so that the Blood circulates not orderly nor its volatile Parts meet and part freely And in this case they are commonly called absorbing saturating and precipitating Medicines Whence also appears their very large use as for instance in vertiginous Distempers of the Head in the Epilepsie Apoplexy Palsie opening and absorbing Cephalick Cinnabarines are good especially those that make the Blood fluxil and for this very vertue are very comprehensive they are also profitable in Diseases of the Joynts Hip Womb also volatil Salts both alone and also when made more oily So in Diseases of the Liver and Spleen yellow and black Jaundice Scirrhus Dropsie ill habit and especially in the Hypochondriacal affection and Scurvy the same Medicines do the business For if it be asked How Medicines of Steel act and open 't is very well answer'd By absorbing just as Spirit of Vitriol Nitre Salt or aqua fortis it self being poured on Steel have their acid particles infringed are saturated grow sweet and turn to Vitriol for thus it is in the Body whence Corals also are commended by Glauber as an excellent Medicine in the Hypochondriacal affection taken to a scruple or half a drachm Thus the same are good not only in these affections but also in the Nephritick XII And these very Aperients consider'd generally act two wayes 1. by altering so that they correct the offending matter it self and re-establish the ducts passages and vessels 2. by evacuating in which regard Purgers also themselves are excellent Aperients for they also are indued with subtilty or thinness Hence is the practical rule In obstructions of the viscera we must not only open or not insist upon Aperients only but must also evacuate that that which is opened may be evacuated And in chronical Distempers these are to be used by turns first we must open then Purge and then again continue Aperients And this also is to be observed that Aperients being added to Purgers encrease their vertue XIII Now Aperients themselves are of divers kinds and as Montanus and experience testifie in general most of them exceed not the second degree of heat and they ought withal to be endued with a thick strengthening earthy substance that their heat be not so soon dissipated XIV In Aperients the active principles are predominant especially a fixed Salt and the Mecurial principles and aeral parts are mixt with the earthy and they are for instance 1. Acrimonious either with an aromatick energy or with the vertue of a volatile Salt as the five opening roots the roots of Burnet Aron Antiscorbutick plants Mustard the Arabian costus c. 2. Aromatick and oleous volatils as Menth Penyroyal Cinamon cubebs costus Mace carminative Oils volatil Salts oleous Antiscorbutick Spirits 3. Bitter as the roots of Cichory and Gentian Worm-wood Agrimony Germander Gum Ammoniack Aloes c. 4. Acid as pickled capers the volatil Spirit of Salt of Nitre of Tartar the Clyssus of Antimony which penetrate notably the juice of Citron the Cream and Crystal of Tartar mineral waters call'd acidulae 5. Watery which dilute temper and yield a vehicle Whey distilled waters 6. Absorbing fixed and lixivial as the Salts of plants the Tincture of Tartar which cleanse notably and purge the filth out of the veins Also earthy whether alkaline as Ceterach Liver-wort Crabs-eyes Corals Tartar vitriolate or vitriolate as vitriol vitriolum Martis crocus Martis aperitive the filings of Steel in substance tinctures of Mars In â—hort the most select Remedies of them are comprehended under a quaternary number and are either Martial Tartareous Vitriolate or Antimoniate XV. So also all Diureticks are aperient which are chiefly profitable when there is obstruction in the upper part of the Liver and when the malady is throughly wedded to the Blood XVI Now Aperients and Resolvents are more proper after Vniversals for otherwise the Humours are rather fixed and driven further in than the coats of the passages and vessels freed hence both purgers are convenient and also Blood-letting which is often very profitable in a great obstruction if there be present also a fault in the Blood XVII We must not insist only and continually on Aperients singly especially volatil but strengthners are to be intermixed otherwise the tone of the parts will be violated and the Body will be precipitated to a bad habit hence the hypochondriacal often use them in vain if they neglect tonicks withal and those mistake far more that by using volatil Spirits continually strive to overcome obstructions by them only XVIII There are to be mixt with Aperients such Medicines also as respect the part affected that the native heat of the parts may be preserved so Cephalicks are to be used for the head c. Thus as by the obstruction of the Kidneys a stone is bred so Aperients are good for it but such as dissolve the coagulum withal XIX Let them be given on an empty Stomach not with meat nor presently after for in general aliments are not to be confounded with Medicines and in particular Aperitives because they precipitate the chyme into the lacteal vessels and so increase the abstructions XX. Before all things we must see that they dry not too much whence moistening or liquid Aperients dilute and temper more and are greatly to be observed in diseases of the Liver Womb and Spleen I have often observed the contumaciously Hypochondriacal when they had been in vain long vexed with the stronger and drier Aperients to become very well upon the use of moistening ones whence Galenical Medicines are fitly mixed with Chymical and hence Mineral Waters have their vertue that they carry the dissolved Salts along with them But Pills are fitter where the viscera do more abound with excrementitious Humours To repeat these things summarily Aqueous and liquid Medicines dilute and temper more earthy absorb more saline drive more by Urine acid incide more G. W. Wedel de s m. f. 43. acrimonious attenuate and resolve more sweet cleanse more bitter do more strengthen withall XXI In all chalybeate Medicines this is alwayes to be
ready to be suffocated through obstructions of their Nostrils as it often happens In which case when neither oil of sweet Almonds dropt into the Nose G. Wolf Wedel Misc cur ann 3. observ 14. nor Majoran Water instilled thereinto had any success this Medicine accomplished my desire Cardiacks or Cordials See Alexipharmacks before The Contents Their nature and differences I. V. When to be used II. The abuse of Volatils III. IV. The abuse of Moschates VI. I. SEeing those are Cordials that succour the labouring Heart we will premise 1. That the Heart and Blood are fellow causes and are not to be severed as some do 2. That the Blood consists of two parts a calidum or Blood so called by way of excellency and an humidum or serum in which two alimentary Humours our Life and Health consists nor is there any other innate heat or radical moisture besides these indued with their vigour and vital ferment 3. We shall call those Cordials that dispense the Blood and heat whereof the Heart is the fountain and do dispose the consistence of the Serum and the motion and vigour of both They are therefore such as either 1. rarifie the Blood when it seems to fail in its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brightness and is weak when its Sulphureous and volatil Mercurial and Spirituous particles are either obtuse or not vigorated in a sufficient degree such as these are good in languishings of the Heart lassitude with malignity old age Paleness Cold Cachexie Ague-fits weakness anxieties when the motion of the Heart fails as it were as it does often in malignant Fevers when there is a recourse of the malignity to the Heart or in driving out the Small Pox or Measles c. Of this sort are 1 Sulphureous volatils and those either Spirituous as the Spirit of Roses the apoplectick water of Roses Brandy c. or oleous indued with a volatil oleous roscid Sulphur which use to be called in one word Balsamicks as Lignum Aloes Camphor Myrrhe all Odoriferous things which have an immediate commerce with the Spirits Spices Cinnamon Cardamom oil of Cinamon Mosch Amber also Treacle Mithridate 2 Saline Lixivials as Salt of Worm-wood of Scordium of Carduus Bened. c. which together with a precipitating vertue do natably also rarefie the Blood and reduce it into order whence they are excellent febrifuges and sudorificks 3 Vrinous Saline Volatils which are almost the most powerful of all as the Spirit of Harts-horn of Sal Armoniack of Soot of Vipers of Hart's or Mans Blood these also being mixt with oleous and so being made oleous volatil Salts have the same vertue Hither belong also fetid Medicines whether Sulphureous chiefly or also Urinous which are good in Fainting and Hysterical Fits and the like Observe that the rarefaction of the Blood denotes two things 1. the restauration of the failing Spirits which is chiefly done by Balsamicks and Sulphureous 2. the vigorating of the motion and fluxility of the Serum chiefly which is especially done by Salines Or 2. Such as hinder rarefaction which as the abovesaid restore the Sulphureous Balsamick and Mercurial volatil Particles in the Heart and Blood so these depress blunt and precipitate them when they are too fierce and high and they are either 1 Aqueous diluting and restoring the Serum the defect whereof renders amongst other things the rarefaction greater as temperate Cordial waters the water of Endive Sorrel aq Herc. Saxon. frigida Whey c. which being dispersed through the Blood do somewhat enervate the volatil Parts Whereby it is clear that Juleps and Small beer also it self ought to be granted in a larger quantity in Fevers and the Patients are not to be so strictly compelled to thirst Or 2. Aci d which are of the chiefest rank among these whence it may be for a rule An acid tameth or dulleth Sulphur as the juice of Citron and Pomegranate acid mineral Spirits the Tinctures of Violets Roses c. Or 3 Nitrous which in like manner infringe and debilitate Sulphur promote its exaltation and notably attemper it and vigorate the Serum restoring it to it self as Lapis Prunellae nitrum antimon perlatum c. Or 4 Earthy absorbing and precipitating as Corals Perles pretious Stones Bezoar c. And these maintain their place in all kinds of Fevers and are excellently good for other bilious ebullitions for Choler doth most of all rarefie the Blood as in Distempers proceeding from anger in Madness deliriums Phrensies burning Fevers c. Or they respect the consistence of the Blood and are 3. such as hinder its resolution and preserve its consistence that is ready to be violated whether by concentrating the Sulphur as acids whence these are most especially convenient outwardly in hindring the resolutions of the Spirits and are good in Swoonings colliquative sweats and when the Blood is turning to Ichor with Mador c. such as are those already mention'd but especially simple Vinegar and Vinegar of Rue c. also things actually cold outwardly cold water the water of Roses Or by attempering the Serum as watery Medicines especially Emulsions which have somewhat Mucilaginous in them whence they are of very great use in Malignant Fevers especially where watching and delirium are urgent Or by strengthning as it were the band of each the Serum and Blood by gently concentrating and collecting of them as Mucilagâ—nous and earthy Astringents also temperate Balsamicks as for example Harts-horn prepared Philosophically Ivory prepared without Fire Gelly of Harts horn Bole-Armene Sealed earth balaustins and amongst hot things Cinnamon vitriolum Martis which enjoy also an earthy quality Hither belong also Opiats themselves for it is found by the experience of Practitioners that Laudanum Opiatum is very conveniently given in the resolution of the vital Spirits and Blood but only in a small quantity that by this means the further dissolution of the Spirits may be hindred We have seen wonderful effects thereof in the Fainting Hysterical and others These may be mixed either with Spirituous analepticks as confectio Alkermes that by this means both the dissolution may be hindred and matter supplied to the Spirits or with earthy absorbents and resolvents that on this manner also the consistence of the Blood may be respected Or 4. They are resolvents that hinder dissolve and dissipate the clodding and as it were curdling of the Blood whereby it is stopt as it were in its motion they hinder the incoction of the Serum and so by removing also some impediments mediately help its rarefaction and they are both the Balsamicks already spoken of and also some resisters of putrefaction as likewise watry diluters but especially terrene Medicines which otherwise are profitable in falls from on high Pleurisie c. viz. Corals Crabs Eyes antimonium diaphoreticum c. Acids also for these are of a middle nature as it were both coagulating the dissolved Blood and dissolving the coagulated For in both cases the Blood does clod as it were
the said spirit of Nitre whether pure and simple or made sweet seeing most of the Medicines vulgarly known are Aromatick and in that respect heighten and increase after a sort at least the acrimony of the Bile whither I refer Volatil Salts themselves of what kind soever all which give place to Nitre Hence our Physicians are so solicitous about prescribing Medicines for discussing of wind being often taught by sad experience that such as have been given have not a little hurt their Patients through the Bile's being made more acrimonious the heat increased in the body by them The reason of which effect all such are ignorant of as know not both the nature and reason of each effervescence the hot and the cold which things being understood Idem Append. Tract X. Sect. 608. the reason of the burning caused by the use of Carminatives is easily perceived and which is the chief thing the way is also perceived how this evil may be prevented IV. Opiats hinder the generation of Flatus better than most other Medicines such as Treacle Idem Tract 9. Sect. 254. Mithridate Philonium Romanum Requies Nicolai c. V. In this respect they are good with diaphoreticks that they discuss and resolve whence there are many diaphoreticks that are also carminatives as the carline-thistle zedoary antimonium diaphoreticum c. which are so much the more excellent that they both resolve and also expell by sweat and perspiration And they are either 1 halituous rarefiers which by their thinness and their subtle and volatil vertue of attenuating heat and correct the Phlegm whether insipid or especially Acid such as are both chiefly volatil oleons things or Medicins endued with a Subtil Balsamick Sulphur married with a volatil Salt which both restore the debilitated heat for an heat comparatively weak is the Father of flatus and the Mother is a watry or Acid cold and viscid Humour or Phlegm actuated into vapours penetrate every where by their habituous vertue and by this their subtil and volatil vaporosity help the explosion of the thicker vapours that are generated as for instance the four carminative Seeds all Aromaticks especially the roots of zedoary galangal and their distilled oils And also volatil Acids as the Spirit of Salt simple and sweet which we have sometimes observed to have removed the Colick like a charm But these same oleous volatils or Medicines indued with a volatil oleous Sulphur are also paregorick nervine and demulcing whence withal they do very well help the pains tensions of the Membranous parts that arise from wind And these are very good both outwardly and inwardly in many distempers as the Colick Vertigo fits of the Mother and in the griping pains after Child-Birth wherein in particular the roots of zedoary and galangal are profitable in the flatus of the Womb the rupture wherein both by mine own and Helmont's experience the four greater carminative hot Seeds are excellent in the noise in the Ears c. VI. Or 2 they are absorbing and temperating such as not only saturate the prevailing Acid dry up the Humours and precipitate the vapours arising thence but likewise if rarefied bile concur also they tame the same and in one word break these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Powers and restrain the Seminal Ferment of the flatus and the wild exhaling gas yea if there be an excessive heat joined and so a Phlogosis or Inflammation of the Viscera accompany as in the Hypochondriacal they respect the same too Such as these are both earthy Precipitaters and Diaphoreticks as especially Antim Diaphoret Shells and Crabs-eyes prepared c. and also chiefly Nitrosalines and Alkalines likewise Tartar vitriolate the tincture of Tartar Arcanum duplicatum c. Refer hither Mineral Waters or Acidulae the Clyssus of Antimony c. These are chiefly good in the bilious Colick Hypochondriacal flatus Tympany Fevers Palpitation of the Heart Vertigo and the like And it is to be noted that these things may also be given mixed where we would withal Precipitate and also stop Pains as chiefly in the Cardialgia or pain at the Stomach in which case I have often with great success given the Oil of Cloves with Shells prepared in a dry form with essentia carminativa and the Essence of Castor in a liquid c. VII Or 3 they are such as strengthen the concoction and heat and corrupted Menstruum of the Stomach whether they be Precipitaters and Inciders as the root of Aron Ginger c. or other Aromaticks and Balsamicks fitted for whatsoever excess For as the Stomach is always to be taken notice of in flatus and as the same do usually arise from the frustrated action thereof so these very Stomachicks also are deservedly reckoned among Carminatives and these are particularly good in Belchings Hiccough Cardialgia Inflations after Meat c. VIII The thinnest and potentially hot volatils are not to be used in all flatulent cases especially in the Hypochondriacal for whom the more temperate are for the most part better which may allay the Inflammation or Phlogosis of the Viscera that is fed by saline and nitro sulphureous Particles whence temperating and refrigerating things themselves seem requisite in this case for the destruction of the flatus in as much as by this means the natural heat will be set to rights IX They are not good if there be a driness in the Intestines and hard Excrements cause Obstruction for in both cases unless there be first an evacuation of the Matter and a sufficient depletion they are all not only in vain but they also precipitate the Patient into a far worse state Crato Cons 177. writes that some in the Colick do very badly hasten presently to discuss the flatus by giving Carminatives which indeed in a lighter Colick do answer desire but in the more vehement generally hurt X. As the productive Causes of flatus vary so does their Cure whether they spring from an internal cause and the faculty hurt as they call it or from an external errour Thus as Pulse Pot-herbs things abounding with excrementitious moisture things sweet fat or crass and slimy feculent c. breed flatus so by obviating crudities that is by precipitating them by Acids Aromaticks c. according as the Case is must we endeavour the Cure G. W. Wedel de s m. p. 174. Cauteries Fontanels Inustions Setons The Contents What humours Fontanels or Issues drain out and from whence I. They are not available in all Diseases II. Where they are to be made for revulsion sake III. Whether there be a set time for keeping of them open And whether there be always fear of danger from closing of them IV. The Efficacy of an Issue V. Cautions about the Issues that are wont to be made in the ordinary places VI. Conditions requisite to make them profitable VII Certain unusual places in which they may be made with benefit VIII The Profitableness of perforating the Ear in many Diseases
fine commending that saying of our Master's That in desperate cases 't is better to let our Patients dye than to kill them XXXVII 'T is a question where there be a Cautery without pain to which it is rightly answer'd if we speak comparatively That there is For those things that are of greater activity and forthwith corrupt the part cause little or no pain Crystals of Silver afford such a Cautery that are made of Silver with aqua fortis Moreover we see such a thing in the Body not only outwardly in a Gangrene and mortification where we may Mechanically and Elegantly as it were conceive such a like caustick Salt but also in a painless dysentery G. W. Wedel de s m. fac p. 64. when so great an Acrimony comes so suddenly on the membranous parts that it forthwith takes away all sense whence it is then absolutely mortal Cephalicks or Medicines for the Head See Book 3. Of the Diseases of the Head in general The Contents The distinction of Cephalicks I. Which are those that are called Volatil II. Which fixed III. Which of a middle nature IV. Cautions in their administration V. The hurt of Cephalick Waters Spirits c. VI. I. CEphalick Remedies respect either 1. the Membranes and Herves and their irritation tension which is very considerable in the Membranes and twitching and these are profitable in pains of the Head Falling-sickness Tremblings and Convulsive motions whether they be discutients or demulcents with a Balsamick Sulphureous vertue such as are paregoricks Germander Ground-pine Vervain Penny-royal Betony Rosemary-flowers Castor Amber c. or inverting and absorbing acrimony as chiefly Cinnabarines whence it appears how these very Medicines are good both in the Falling-sickness and Head-aches and also in pains of the Joynts in Pleuritick pains and so in the pains of any part of the Body The more correct Opiats belong hither also Or 2. they respect the Humours especially the Lympha or Serum and withal the Spirits and Vapours or thin Steams and indeed if these exceed in quantity then Evacuaters and diverters that are endued with a volatil oleous Sulphur such as are good in Catarrhs and repletion in the Vertigo Night-mare for some sort of Epilepsie in weakness of Memory c. as Peony wild Thyme Majoran c. but if they fail in their due quantity then Restorers Moisteners and diluters as inwardly watry Medicines Liquids Potions Decoctions drinking freely which are necessary ia Madness Melancholy too much watching if the Humours be acrimonious thin and salt then fixers and temperaters Or 3. they respect the Spirits which failing require Restorers volatil oleous Balsamicks in particular Ambergriefe Apoplectick Waters distilled Oyls c. which are profitable for prevention of the Apoplexy strengthen the Memory restore the Planet-struck c. But if the Spirits are unruly and too plentiful if they estuate and are enraged they are temperated by moisteners and restorers of the Serum by acids that restrain ratefaction nitrous Medicines that promote evaporation Opiats that tye as in Madness and Phrensie whence they are also good in want of Sleep Or 4. the vapours or halitus which being excessive preternatural and extraneous inasmuch as the Blood being too halituous or infected with a preternatural Sulphur just as we see in People drunk makes the Spirits turbulent are corrected as well by gentle aromaticks and strengtheners such as are vulgarly called Hinderers of Vapours from rising up to the Head and discussers of them as Coriander digesting powders that help concoction and strengthen the Stomach as also by acids which obtund the Sulphureous and Cholerick Humours as in Drunkenness But when these Vapours or halitus fail then roscid vapours all which yet is more rightly attributed to the Serum imbued with these qualities are restored both by moisteners whence in burning Fevers it is advisable to prescribe Epithems either of Rose-water only or Emulsions that notably moisten and cool and also by such things as breed an halituous Blood by gentle Aromaticks whence both Sennertus and Simon Pauli advise and experience her self also bears witness that want of Sleep in old Men is not so well helped by Opiates alone or by refrigerating Medicines as by sweet evaporating ones and such as are endued with an oleous Sulphur such as are species diambrae diamoschi and Wine it self which we have known some use with good success to the end namely that the Serum may be brought to its proper state and prevail by a resoluble Sulphur Or 5. Cephalicks respect the pores of the Brain it self either by opening of them when they are too much shut and obstructed or by shutting of them when they are too wide and gaping The pores of the Brain are opened by volatil Medicines especially Urinous if at any time they are depressed and closed up through the plenty of Humours or by subsidence compression or other causes and grant not a free passage to the Spirits as especially in the Palsie Apoplexy loss of Speech thick Catarrhs in which Distempers such Medicines as open the pores of the Nerves are of the greatest avail also in immoderate Sleep and the like Diseases Lethargy Sleeping Coma and others as for instance the Spirit of Sal Armoniack with which and the Spirit of the Lilies of the Valley I have cured a number of paralytick Persons sometimes also discussers are to be added And when the Pores are too wide they are closed both by Medicines that increase the Serum in substance and that bestow on the Blood a gentle resoluble Sulphur G. W. Wedâ—l de s m. fac p 80. whence they are good and are indicated both in want of Sleep raging deliriums Phrensie and in other intemperatures II. Cephalicks Volatils are 1. such as are endued with an Oleous Aromatick sweet Sulphur in one word Balsamicks as the Leaves and roots of Angelica the leaves of Rosemary Majoran Sage Rue the wood Sassaphras c. aad their Spirits Oyls and Volatil Oleous Salts And these are withal Paregorick and pacifie the irritated membranes and restore the fainting Spirits yea they correct also the hâ—litus or vapours and widen the pores 2. Vrinous Volatils as the most renouned Spirit of sal Armoniack the Spirit of Urine whence the tincture of the Sun and Moon or Gold and Silver do almost wholly borrow their vertue 3. Acid Volatils as the cephalick striated Spirit of Vitriol Aqua Apoplectica Mulicrum c. although these are more fixed as it were Helmont was almost the first that observed that Cephalicks commend themselves by their volatil Salt So also Conserves Condites and other preparations of Vegetables belong hither Idem III. Fixed Cephalicks are either earthy as Perles Corals Cinnabar or Acid or Nitrons or watry diluters and these are of use to absorb and dilute Acrimonious Humours that irritate the membranes to bind doze and pacifie the enraged Spirits and to procure liberty to the pores inasmuch as they absorb the Acrimony of the Humours IV. Cephalicks
are not fitting for all XV. Crudities do not always hinder their use XVI Let the Body be pure before the administration of them XVII Their success is doubtful XVIII They should be often used to make them successful XIX They are not to be mixed with Meats XX. The vertue of the cold Seeds is in the husk XXI Honey and Sugar increase their vertue XXII A safe Preparation of Cantharides XXIII The efficacy of volatil Salts XXIV Tartar requires but small Preparation XXV How the Roots of Asarabacca become Diuretick XXVI Some are gentle some strong XXVII When the stronger are to be used XXVIII I. THe Origins of many Diseases happen for want of a due separation of the Serum but as to this separation seeing there are faults of divers kinds the offence is for the most part either in defect or excess for sometimes the Serum does too pertinaciously adhere to the Blood and on the contrary sometimes it parts too soon from it and in this regard the Blood being not able to contain the Serum doth spue it out of the mouths of the Arteries in many places and almost every where and so depositing it in the viscera or the habit of the Body procures an ascites or anasarca and sometimes sending it off immoderately to the Kidneys it causes a diabetes When the Blood is too tenacious of the serum for the most part it is either over hot through a Fever having its compages too strict and the thicker Particles so incorporated with it that the thinner cannot easily get therefrom or being filled with scorbutick Salt and Sulphur it becomes very clammy and tenacious so that the serosities do difficultly slide out of the embraces of the rest And seeing the departure of the serum from the Blood is hindred or perverted so many ways Diuretick Medicines also are of a different Nature and Operation which yet may be distinguished 1. as to the End according to which they respect the mass of Blood or the Kidneys or both together 2. as to the Matter in which respect they are either Sulphureous or saline And these again are various according as the saline Particles are in a state of fixity fluor or volatility or are moreover nitrous or alkalizate 3. As to the Form these Medicines are of divers kinds Drinks Powders c. II. When the Blood through an incorporation and mutual combination of the fixed Salt with the Sulphur and Earth becomes so thick and tenacious that the watry Particles do not easily part from the rest the Diureticks which may loosen its compages and fuse the serum must be of such a sort as are endued with a volatil or an acid Salt for such Particles do chiefly dissolve the combination that the fixed Salt has entred into And seeing this disposition is common both to the Fever and Scurvy in the former the most proper Diureticks are both the temperate acids of Vegetables and also the Salt of Nitre the spirit of Sea-salt of Vitriol c. likewise those endued with a volatil Salt as the spirit of Hartshorn of Sal Armoniack the Salt of the juice of Vipers In a scorbutical Disposition when the Urine is both little and thick the juices of Herbs and both acrimonious and acid Preparations are of notable use also the salt and spirit of Urine Idem of Sal Armon of Tartar c. III. Sometimes the Blood keeps not its serum long enough within its compages but being subject to fluxions or rather coagulations and depositing the serum here and there in great plenty it raises Catarrhs or Tumours in divers places Or the Blood being habitually weak and withal dyscratick or intemperate namely inclining to sowrness is apt to coagulate as to its thicker Particles so that in the circulation the thinner being thrown off every where and falling upon the weaker Parts cause sometimes Cephalick or Thoracick Distempers sometimes an Ascites or Anasarca and from a like cause we think a Diabetes also springs For many dangerous Diseases which are mistakingly ascribed to the dyscrasies of the Viscera arise from this cause namely inasmuch as the Blood being of an evil temper and liable to coagulations cannot continue the thread of the circulation entire but in divers places deposits the Serum that is too apt to depart from it The Diureticks to be administer'd in this case are such as do not fuse the Blood but take away its coagulations as are those endued with a fixt volatil and also an alkalizate Salt moreover those that strengthen and restore the Ferment of the Kidneys as some sulphureous and spirituous For these purposes are sulphureous and mixt Diureticks the lixivial Salts of Herbs Shell-Powders the Salt and Spirit of Urine c. Hog-lice the roots of Horse Rhadish the seed of Smalledge Nutmeg Turpentine and its Preparations the spirit of Wine the vertue of all which is not to fuse the Blood and to precipitate the Serosities out of its mass these things acids chiefly do and in those cases often hinder making water but to dissolve the coagulations of the Blood so that its compages recovering an intire mixture and being circulated more quickly through the Vessels it resorbs the Serum that was every where extravasated and deposited and at length delivers it to the Kidneys to be sent off We shall shew afterwards how the Diureticks of every kind operate according to these two almost opposite ends of curing IV. As to saline Diureticks we must know that what Salts soever of a different state are mixed together do catch hold of one another and by and by are joined together and while they are so combined that other Particles which are loose from the mixture do retire by themselves or fly away This is seen when a fluid or acid Salt is joyned to a fixed or alkalizate also when a fluid or fixed is put to a volatil or acrimonious From this affection alone of the Salts does all the matter of all Solutions and Precipitations whatsoever depend Wherefore seeing the Blood and Humours of our Body abound with very much Salt which uses to be diversly changed from one state to another and thereupon to acquire a morbid disposition and seeing moreover there are divers kinds of saline Diaphoreticks namely such as are endued with a fixt fluid nitrous volatil and alkalizate Salâ— there will always be need of the great discretion and judgment of the Physician that the saline Particles in the Medicine differ from those in our Body In what manner this should be done we will set forth by running through all the kinds of saline Diureticks 1. Amongst the Diureticks imbued with an acid Salt are the Spirits of Salt or Nitre also the juice of Lemons and Sorrel White Rhenish Wine and Cyder are of greatest note with the vulgar and often perform that intention For these alone fuse the Blood and precipitate it into serosities as when an acid is poured into boiling Milk But this happens not alike to all nor equally to every
yellow or green are brought forth by every Medicine Moreover which is more if you go unto the Apothecaries Shops themselves and there examine the forms prescribed by Physicians you will often see that the most celebrated Physicians have used one and the same Medicine in purging many and divers Patients XCIX Yet from hence it follows not that any Purge may be used indifferently in any Distemper For the Humours that require to be moisten'd must have moistening Purgers as the Syrup of Roses solutive the Syrup of Senna many sorts of infusions of Violets c. Those which are thick and ought to be incided require Jalap white Mechoacan Scammony c. Nor matters it that Rhubarb evacuates yellow bilious Excrements Crocus Martis aperitivus blackish melancholick and also that Flowers of Antimony do tinge with a Saffron colour for it follows not from hence that the said Purgers do electively purge such like Humours for we must know that these colours are not naturally in the Humours but that they proceed from the Medicines as the Flowers of Antimony tinge the Humours by their Sulphur Saffron and Rhubarb heighten the yellowness of the Urine And if some things have this faculty without the Body to bring a certain colour upon things Frid. Hofman m. m. l. 1. c. 7. why may not Purgers themselves being resolved have the same effect C. The Purgative Faculty of Medicines sometimes lies hid in the resinous Part sometimes in the Salt Hence Rhubarb Agarick Jalap Turbith are very well extracted by the Spirit of Wine and their Extract purges very well But if you will extract Coloquintida whose vertue consists in a Salt you labour to no purpose for it operates chiefly in substance Walaeus p. 291. CI. The plenty of Medicines has made us poor If you examine all the Purgers that Authors have collected many of them are to be expelled out of that order so that we shall seem to be reduced to scantiness For there are some of them that either through their sluggishness or their vehemency are not to be used at all or very seldom and with great judgment The sluggish are Hyssop Turpentine Dodder of Tyme Polypody Lapis Armenus lapis Lazuli all which are to be expunged out of the Catalogue of Purgers nor are Turbith Hermodactyls to be admitted though otherwise enough famed and cryed up The juice of Violets does nothing The too violent are black Hellebore for it disturbs the whole Body you may make tryal of it by putting a little of the root of it in an Issue The seed of the American Rieinus Elaterium Gummi Gotte may be used but seldom Walaeus met meâ— p. â—2 May we not therefore at all use strong Purgers I answer that we may in two cases namely in the Dropsie and Melancholy c. CII Purgers as I have known by long Experience if they be mixt with aperient Medicines in a less quantity than may serve for Purging so that the vertue of the Aperients prevail do not at all move the Belly yea their vertue because it is of great activity being turned to the passages of Sweat and Urine by the vertue of the Openers â—rosp Martian comm in v. 214. l. 2. §. 2. de morbis does so increase the vertue of these latter that both together make a most effectual Remedy both to open and also to provoke Sweat or Urine CIII Whether may metallick Purgers be used safely enough for preservation I like very well the desire of Claudius Deodatus in his Panth. Hygiastic l. 3. p. 63. 6. that we would abstain from such as much as may be For though there seem to precede a due and convenient preparation yet it can hardly be says he but that some pernicious and poisonous qualities wherewith the said Metals abound should escape the hand of the most ingenious Chymist that prepares them and so being taken within the Body should if not suddenly yet in progress of time exert their vertue and privily and by stealth prey upon the Nectar of our life For adds he I have known but very few hitherto that having used this sort of Purgers familiarly Doring Epist ad Sennert 32 cent 2. have either come to a due and just old age or have not contracted a Cachectick constitution of Body CIV Vegetables need not always like Minerals a long preparation to open their compages or Body for these often operate more strongly while the mixtion is intire For those whose vertue consists in a subtil and volatil consistence ought not with much labour and Chymical preparation to be reduced into Extracts Magisteries or Quintessences because most of them as Rhubarb Manna Cassia Senna Myrobalans c. being reduced into Pills or Powder or infused or boiled in a fit Liquor do operate better and more easily which being vexed with too much Artifice do either wholly lose their Purgative vertue or exert it slowly and with trouble It is usual for drawing out the tinctures of Vegetables to impregnate the Liquor they are infused in with the Salts of Tartar or Wormwood for so the infusion soon gets a deep colour Though I do not condemn this Custom inasmuch as the fixed Salts of Herbs effervesce with the acid juices of the Stomach and Intestins yet we may detect the deceit that lies hid therein seeing the Salts do not draw forth that deep tincture but only cause it to appear for if you add the salt of Tartar to an infusion of Rhubarb Senna or other Vegetable that is already made and strained its tincture or colour will presently become deeper The reason whereof is that the Salino fixt particles being very obtuse do stuff the pores of the liquor so as that the beams of the light as they pass through are very much refringed and therefore any tincture being made deeper by the salt of Tartar becomes presently clearer and thinner by pouring in some Spirit of vitriol whose particles are sharp-pointed without the precipitation of any matter Yet however some of the Cathartick vegetables are mended by Chymical preparation for such of them out of which being full of Salt and Sulphur the active and benign particles may be separated from the remaining more dull and malignant and may be reduced into resinous or other kind of compendious Extracts I say a dissolution and new composition of these may be undertaken to good purpose Therefore for the due preparation of some Catharticks we extract the Sulphureous and some of the saline part with the Spirit of Wine as in the resinouS Magisteries of Jalap Scammony Mechoacan c. For some we use saline Menstruums Williâ— c. CV Yet I have met with some Instances of such as having taken such Spirit by the direction of a Physician have been very ill upon it undergoing notable gnawings of their Stomach and Intestines trembling of their Limbs weakness of the whole Body and more than a two days want of appetite The reason whereof in my opinion is that the
could never be stanched by any Remedies no not by a Cautery it self but the Patient died of it Idem Obs 66. XI Scarification in general is very much suspected by some whence also Grembs in Arb. ru in t l. 3. c. 1. § 48. disallows of Scarification pretending that a no small hindrance of long life is the bad custom of Venesection and Scarification which hath so prevailed that in some Families they use Scarifications once a Month and Venesection twice a year whereby they lavishly spend the treasure of life But experience says the contrary for some may be found of Sixty yea I have known some of Seventy that even from their Childhood have used this Remedy without hurt Nor is that true That he who has once scarified must necessarily continue it all his life long unless he will precipitate himself into danger of his life I knew one sayes D. Mabius that when he was a Boy of about Eight years old being subject to frequent Ophthalmies and Fluxions upon his Eyes by the advice of a skilful Physician used Scarifications twice a Month till he was Ten years old with good Success And when these Diseases ceased he left off the Scarifications also without falling into any Disease Fr. Hofman m. m. l. 1. c. 18. and is still alive and healthful and sprightly XII There arise a great many Veins from the Loins which you cannot plainly see unless you cut the Skin from that Part wherefore Scarifications of the Loins are very good to revell from the upper Parts and in some Countreys those Veins are opened if they appear to the Phlebotomist Riolan Anthropogr l. 2. c. 6. if we will believe Platerus in his Anatomy XIII We must not make incision with too sharp a Launcet which a Surgeon once doing in a Boy thinking that by that means he should do it with the less Pain caused a great Convulsion for often either the Membranes under the Skin or the Nerves are hurt besides that the thick Blood is not evacuated thereby but only the thin as Hippocrates lib. de Medico teacheth who for that reason bids us use Launcets that are crooked at the end and not very narrow yea sometimes serous and sanious Humours become viscid and thick whence there is danger they should stay in the too narrow gashes That the Scarification should be made by drawing the Knife along and not by stabbing it in Rubeus in Celsum lib. 2. c. 11. Experience shews and Reason perswades XIV 'T is certain that in foul and Cacochymical Bodies there are often raised malignant Defluxions upon several Parts I order'd dry Cupping-glasses to be applied to the Buttocks and Back of one infected with the Pox for a cruel pain in his Head which having done one by the Loins grew into so great a bulk that for the Tumour and great redness he that made the Application was forced without my advice to Scarifie it But he could never heal up the Ulcer yea a virulent Humour flowing out by it and Blisters full of black Blood being raised there arose a Gangrene spreading deep upon the Spine Zacut. Prax. admir l. 3. Obs 67. and thereupon Convulsions all which brought the man to his end Spleneticks The Contents They respect either acid sowr Humours I. Or the acrimonious saline lixivial II. Or the tartareous and viscid Phlegmatick sliminess of the Blood III. How Steel-remedies profit the Hypochondriacal IV. They profit not all alike I. Volatils often hurt V. Acids are often beneficial VI. The Spleen requires strong Aperitives VII How Steel remedies are to be used VIII I. AS the Liver does more dispense the Sulphur of the Blood so does the Spleen its salt and serum Now Spleneticks and Hepaticks are good together and they are commonly one and the same hence likewise Aperitives chiefly belong hither Spleneticks respect either I. acid austere humours that fix the Blood and induce Melancholy Dullness c. such as are 1. all aqueous diluting and mitigating Remedies chiefly Nitrous Medicinal Waters Whey which besides their Salts borrow the greatest part of their vertues from their watry Particles 2. Gentle aromatick and bitter things ranked under Hepaticks 3. Fixt Lixivials and volatâ—l Alkali's thus the Salt of Wormwood of Centaury the tincture of Tartar Spirit of Sal Armoniack Antiscorbutick Plants c. belong hither For as those acid Humours concentrate and fix the Blood so these very volatil Saline and Sulphureous do set at liberty subtilize and volatilize it so that from that Lye that it was reduc'd unto it is again invigorated 4. Earthy Medicines coming towards the nature of Alkali's and Resolvents Thus Helmont extols Crabs Eyes boiled in Wine and that have acquired a lixivial taste Thus also Glauber affirms that the Powder of Corals does profit the Hypochondriacal only because they absorb an acid thus the filings of Steel even taken in substance profit And hence also as good as all and a Panacea of the Hypochondriacal are 5. Steel-remedies the reason of whose action is no other than that by absorbing they invert saturate sweeten and render profitable those acid Humours No otherwise than as aqua fortis and acid Spirits being poured on Steel grow sweet their Particles being blunted and turning to Vitriol These very Remedies are profitable on this account in Hypochrondriack Melancholy in Pains of the Hypochondres Cachexie the beginning of a Dropsie Scurvy palpitation of the Heart Swooning c. Vitriolate Remedies themselves belong hither also both those which are originally such and chiefly those which are regenerated of Steel as Vitriolum Martis c. which after their manner do also absorb strengthen and saturate also acid pontick Humours II. Or 2. Acrimonious saline lixivial humours whether they be more eminent apart or concur in Predominancy with acids And such Remedies indeed besides watry diluents which are common as it were consist of 1. Acids in regard they fix as it were the volatility of the serum and are profitable in the too great Hemorrhagies of the Cachectick and Scorbutick as by these means I have cured some that have been so affected 2. Austere Remedies which do concentrate the same as it were and hinder a too great rarefaction as the anti-phthisical tincture of Grammanus styptick Powders c. and they are good when the Serum is too fluxile in colliquative Fluxes immoderate Sweats in which case there is sometimes place also for Opiats 3. Earthy things inasmuch as these also absorb and precipitate as has been explained elsewhere Among Spleneticks Ceterach or Spleenwort c. are good as in other cases so in inflammations anxieties and pains at the Stomach c. of the Hypochondriacal III. Or 3. the tartareous and viscid Phlegmatick â—â—iminess of the Blood immersed in a greater or lesser quantity of serum such as are chiefly 1. Acids Whence it is not unreasonable to think that even mineral acid Spirits do sometimes much if not all in curing the Hypochondriacal affection for they
a large quantity hurt the same at length By which experiment we plainly see 1. that neither lixivial nor middle Salts are to be used longer or in a larger quantity than is fitting 2. We may gather from hence that the ferment of the Stomach is not acido saline in that sense as if it were of the nature of acid Salts but rather that it is Saline and amongst Salts may be referred to the acid though it be not so in its own Nature in the abstract But acid Salts though they come generally under another notion are as such grateful to the Stomach hence acidum Tartari comforts and strengthens the Stomach and hence also acid Spirits serve the same end very well But when acid Salts are modified by other accessories they do not do so well Idem pharmac p. 184. whence Alum and Vitriol rather hurt than help the Stomach because of the Mineral metallick Parts that are joyned to them Sudorificks See before Alexipharmacks Diaphoreticks The Contents They agree in vertue with Cardiacks I. Their differences as to their matter and faculties II. The efficacy of a Sudorifick Diet and where it has place III. Sudorificks are not profitable for every Humour without distinction IV. Lean Persons indure sweating well V. What Humours may be expelled by sweating VI. Wherein the vertue of some Sudorificks consists VII They are hurtful for some VIII Sweat is not to be provoked before the Humours are disposed IX We must but Sweat once a day and that in the Morning X. We must Sweat several times and not once for all XI Sweat is not to be provoked in acute Diseases XII All are not to be compelled to Sweat XIII Sweating is not to be continued too long XIV Though Sweat burst not forth all of a sudden yet it may come by degrees XV. Abstersion provokes it XVI Their efficacy to restore motion to the flagnating Blood XVII Hot drink taken whilst one is a Sweating promotes the Sweat XVIII Bezoardicum minerale is an effectual Hydrotick XIX Antimonium Diaphoreticum is but a weak Medicine XX. It ought to be newly prepared when used XXI Those that are in the use of a Guaiacum Diet-drink are to be purged every eighth day XXII How Sudorifick Decoctions make People fat XXIII 'T is not good to give a bolus of Turpentine with them XXIV Salts are Hydrotick XXV The vertue of Decoctions depends on the Diet that is ordered in the use of them XXVI How the Decoction of Guaiacum is to be prepared XXVII The first Decoction draws not all its vertue forth XXVIII China and Guaiacum are not to be mixt together XXIX A strict Diet is not necessary in the use of a Decoction of China XXX Sassaphras affects the Head too much XXXI Carduus bened is to be given in substance XXXII The opening Roots are sparingly to be added to Hydroticks XXXIII When an Hydrotick Medicine being taken provokes not Sweat it is not therefore hurtful XXXIV I. HYdrotick Medicines as to their ways of working and Operations have great affinity with most Cardiacks commonly so called insomuch that many of both kinds are of a common or reciprocal use Willis pharmac rat p. m. 194. and seeing they differ chiefly only as to their greater or lesser efficacy when we are bound to pass from one genus to the other generally we need only increase or lessen the dose and chuse the fittest times for administring of them II. As to the various both kind and preparation of the matter of which hydrotick Medicines are made they are generally either the integral or elementary parts of some mixt Body namely either natural Concretes are given in their whole substance either simple or extracted as when the Leaves Roots or Seeds of Carduus Contrayerva Angelica or the like are taken in Powder Decoction Conserve or Magisterie Or Diaphoreticks consist of the Particles of this or that element namely spirituous Sulphureous or Saline either simple or some prevailing over other as if a Salt Spirit or oyl be extracted from Carduus or other vegetable mineral or animal Body and be reduced into the form of a Medicine either by it self or with other Preparations We will briefly run over all or at least the chief species of them 1. Diaphoreticks whose vertue consists in the integral Particles of the whole concrete being unequally mixt seem to be indued with some one element more eminent than the rest viz. a Saline and to owe their vertue chiefly to it Now that Salt upon which the hydrotick vertue depends comes under a double state for in some Concretes it is volatil and acrimonious or bitter and in others Alkalizate and fixt in a sort 1. In the former rank are most Vegetables esteemed Antidotes by the Ancients such as are the leaves of Scordium Carduus Scabious Perwinkle the flowers of Marigold Chamomel the roots of Burdock Zedoary Galangal c. Also the confections of Mithridate Treacle Diascordium the decoctions of Guaiacum Box and the like are reckoned among these which kind of Medicines being taken into and dissolved in the Stomach make a tincture whose particles as being more hot and foreign excite the animal Spirits whence the praecordia being more briskly agitated do drive the Blood more rapidly about yea they enter into ferment the Blood that is in the Stomach-vessels and so whilst they make it to be carried back more hastily by the Veins towards the Heart they make it also to be driven more vehemently even so as to cause sweat by the Arteries into the habit of the Body 2. The other sort of Diaphoreticks which whilst they consist of the Integral parts of the Mixt have an Alkali Salt predominant are Stones and the Bony or Shelly parts of Animals and Vegetables as Bezoar Perls the Eyes and Claws of Crabs and the like whose Diaphoretick vertue proceeds chiefly from an Alkali Salt inasmuch namely as the particles hereof sometimes meeting with an acid Salt both in the viscera and Blood and effervescing therewith thereby cause the mass of Blood to be fused and its serosities to be separated and resolved into sweat 2. Hydrotick Medicines which after a spagirical analysis owe their vertue to these or those elementary particles being framed out of divers subjects and with a different preparation are chiefly either Spirituous or Saline or both together combined one with another or with some Sulphureous particles For such as are wholly or for the greatest part Sulphureous are less accommodate to this intention because such being generally offensive to the viscera do often cause a nausea and sometimes a Vomiting Moreover those which through plenty of Sulphur are oyly and fat do not so readily insinuate their Particles into the mass of Blood After what manner and by what affection of the Blood or Spirits this second sort do move a Diaphoresis we will inquire particularly And 1. to the Spirituous we refer hot waters and all sorts of Liquors endued with a vinous Spirit such as
the Knife or Razor must be thrice repeated The first Cut separates the finger in the last joint from the metacarpus the second and third takes off the Septum Digitorum on either side of the finger In this operation thrice repeated something carnous or membranous may remain untouched by the Knife and may render the operation more difficult and tedious Now I considering these things contrived an Instrument whereby the finger may be cut off in the last joint together with the Septum on either side at one blow and it is a very sharp and winged Knife whose hind part is semicircular and of a bigness proportionable to the finger to be cut off And though before I disapproved of this way of chopping off Limbs yet in this case because it cannot otherwise be well done Idem of two evils we must chuse the less XXVII A Hand affected with a Cancer not exulcerated is cut off in a sound place that is at the heads of the radius and ulna towards the Wrist But we must take notice to the end the bloud yet infected which the adjoining Vessels contain may run out for being retained it might affect the Arm that neither the Arm must be tied with a rowler above the place of Incision nor must the softer parts be cut with a red hot Knife Scultetus which Barbarians call Cauterium cultellare Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. I have often seen this Cataplasm used with desired success in stopping of a Gangrene Take of Meal of Beans Lupines each 4 ounces Juice of Rue 2 ounces or Powder of Rue 3 ounces Oxymel simplex 6 ounces Lie what is sufficient Sometimes he adds powder of Scordium Mix them Crato Make a Cataplasm 2. Spirit of Salt rightly prepared applied to outward Gangrenes and Ulcers is a high Narcotick Remedy without any pain ¶ All the care consists in the efficacy and virtue of Spirit of Salt for the Salt being saturated with this Liquour and dried is reduced to its natural temper which every one may see by experience for every sharp and biting Salt if it be dissolved in Spirit of Salt Faber is reduced to a wonderfull sweetness 3. Vnguentum Aegyptiacum is a most excellent and principal Remedy for a Gangrene Gul. Fabricius it separates the dead flesh from the live and breeds a laudable Eschar 4. In the cure of a Gangrene after the Eschar is removed if not onely Medicines but the very Air cause intolerable pain this following is very familiar with me I take Ointment of Betony made of the juice to which I either add Oil of Sweet Almonds if there be no inflammation or if there be one as there often is I mix Oil of Roses or Yelks of Eggs and I have never yet found any thing better ¶ Scordium bruised or the juice of it is excellent For experience shews Hieron Fabricius that dead bodies are preserved from putrefaction if they either be stuffed with it or wrapt in it 5. Take of Colts-foot 1 handfull and an half Melilot Mullein Dwarf-Elder each half an handfull Frankincense Litharge each 2 drachms and an half Mastick Myrrh each 1 drachm and an half crude Alume 2 drachms Mix them for a Decoction Grombs When a Gangrene is feared in a Dropsie 6. Let the part affected be washed with Spirit of Wine Camphorate than which I think nothing is more proper for hindring the mortification of any part Hartman 7. I remember one was perfectly cured of a Gangrene in his thigh after rotten Apples bruised had been applied in form of a Cataplasm without the liquour S. Pauli once or twice 8. To bring a place to its natural colour again Vnguentum Aegyptiacum dissolved in Aqua vitae is most excellent Ranchinus 9. I order the scarified places to be moistned with Spirit of Sulphur where the flesh was mortified then I order all the Arm to be fomented with Spirit of Wine hot wherein Powder of Aloes and Myrrh were infused then Powder of Aloes and Myrrh were strewed on the Arm in great quantity and upon the Powder linen cloths wet in Spirit of Wine were applied which Remedy being used a few hours the Arm returned to its colour to a miracle the swelling abated and the Gangrene was stopt Riverius 10. Take of Cow's dung 1 pound Oil of Roses 4 ounces Vinegar 3 ounces Saffron half a scruple Mix them Make a Plaster which must be applied hot every three hours J Dav. Rulandu◠I know by experience it certainly cleanses and cures a Gangrene 11. To prevent a Gangrene Sir Theodore de Mayerne of England used this following successfully applied warm with cloths dipt in it Take of the strongest Vinegar red Wine Spring-water each a like quantity Litharge of Gold well beaten 8 ounces Roche Alume Sea Salt each 2 ounces Gum Arabick Myrrh each 1 ounce Olibanum Mastick each two ounces When the Liquours are mixt put in the Litharge let them boil stirring them continually then add the Salt and Alume then the Gum Arabick Phil. Jac. Sachsius and last of all the Powders boil them to a consumption of a fourth part 12. If it will not give way to gentle Medicines we must use strong ones Take of Mercury what you please dissolve it in Aqua fortis when it is dissolved add to it of Sal Saturni and Vnguentum Rosatum Camphoratum what is sufficient Make an Unguent ¶ This Liquour is very good if cloths be dipt in it and applied It was successfully used in a Gangrene of the Scrotum Take of Vitriol 1 ounce tops of Oak 1 handfull Frankincense 1 ounce Camphire two drachms Sennertus Wine 2 pounds and an half Boil about a third away 13. The Juice of the Herb Alexanders in Unguents stops Gangrenes wonderfully Turnheusetus It is a Secret 14. Salt of Soot is made thus Let Soot be powdered as fine as flower dissolve it in Vinegar let it settle to the bottom of the Vessel separate the Vinegar and dissolve it in other Vinegar continuing it so five times and you will find a Salt which if it be put in a moist place will melt and make a most excellent Oil for Gangrenes and malignant Ulcers Joh. Vigierius Ganglion or A glandulous Swelling The Contents We must have a care how we cut a Ganglion or Lupia I. It must not be brought to Suppuration II. The old and new way of Cure III. I. IF a Ganglion will not yield to Medicines it must be cut out with a Knife unless it be in the hands or in the feet or there be danger of Nerves Veins or Arteries wherewith sometimes it is implicated A Lupia also must be cut out as a Gland like as we did a few days agone near the Jugulars Chalmetaeus with good success II. A Ganglion sometimes when it is deeply radicated hinders the motion of some joint therefore some course must be taken with it betimes
them in sixteen pounds of Spring-water half away Idem Keep the Colature for use V. Chalybeate Medicines because they are reckoned among the more efficacious Remedies must seldom be omitted in these Diseases though they are not often given with much success for most Preparations of Steel in which the sulphureous Particles prevail inasmuch as they ferment the Bloud and put it into critical effervescencies do rather increase than diminish the impetiginous eruptions nevertheless the Salt Syrup Tincture and vitriolick Infusions as they fix the Bloud and check a little the efferations of the Salts do suit well enough the Intention now proposed but those that are not so strong can doe little good against so Herculean a Disease Idem VI. Wherefore when these and most other Remedies will doe no good many commend Salivation as the stoutest Champion and the onely one able to cope with so stout an Enemy But the event does not always answer expectation for I do confess I used this Remedy for four persons who were troubled with a grievous Itch which was obstinate to all other Remedies without any benefit One of them by anointing with Quicksilver and the other by Pills of Solar Precipitate bore plentifull Salivation for about twenty days in which time all the Scurf and Wheals vanished nevertheless to confirm the Cure a diuretick Drink of a decoction of Sarsa and often Sweating and convenient Purging between whiles was continued for a month And yet for all this when this course was at an end and when no signs of any Itch appeared within another month the Disease began to bud out again anew and in a short time grew to its wonted maturity Moreover when one of these had repeated this Medicine and another after two Relapses had a mind to try it a third time both of them after they had undergone so much despaired of any Cure Whence it is evident that the Venereal Disease though it be extremely malignant and cause most foul cacoethick Ulcers that eat the Flesh and Bones may more easily and certainly be cured than the Itch. Wherefore not undeservedly did the most famous Physicians of old reckon this Disease when confirmed and brought near to a Leprosie to be very difficultly if at all curable Idem VII And an event no whit better attends this Disease when it comes upon an inveterate Scurvy perhaps indeed the Intentions of cure may be more certainly gathered when the Scurvy is the basis or root of this Disease to wit to take the primary therapeutick Indication from thence and insist chiefly on antispasmodick Medicines But even of this sort those that are sharp and hot as Scurvy-grass Water-cresses Horseradish Pepperwort and other things that incite the Bloud too much as they dissolve the Crasis of it more and force the coagulating Tartar in more abundance to the Skin they are always found to doe more harm than good And for this very reason the use of Baths or Bathing in hot waters which evacuates by abundance of Sweat the Humours of the whole body and cleanses the Pores of the Skin though it may seem very good in this Disease yet it is so far from relieving that the Breaking out is usually increased and exasperated thereby For I have known several who not being very itchy have gon to Bathe and there bathed in the hot water and have returned from thence quite leprous Wherefore whenever this Disease is a supervening Symptome of the Scurvy let all sharp and elastick things be avoided and onely the more temperate ones be given endued with a nitrous or vitriolick or a volatile Salt The nitrous Salt is predominant in Crystallum minerale some Juices of Herbs or Decoctions and in some purging waters Idem VIII The Cucumber is endued with a nitrous virtue and by experience is found good against this Disease wherefore instead of Sallet it may be eaten plentifully and often Moreover let three or four of them be cut into Slices and be infused in four pounds of Spring-water close for a night to the clear liquour poured off add of Sal prunellae two or three drachms The Dose half a pound three times or oftner in a day For the same purpose also Decoctions of the leaves and fruit made in spring water are proper Idem IX Some cathartick mineral waters especially North-hall waters if you make an Analysis of them by evaporation do manifestly shew the nitrous Salt wherewith they are impregnated And I have several times found that the constant drinking of about four pounds of them every day for a pretty while together has done good in a slight Itch. Idem X. But Waters impregnated with a vitriolick Salt such as the Spaw-waters do far excell these nitrous ones and any other Medicines and doe far more good in curing the Itch. To such as have not an opportunity to take them I give common water impregnated with our Steel and so exactly resembling Spaw-waters for this Disease and with good success Because of their mineral Salts or at least some Mercurial Particles in them Tin and Antimony are in Vogue for curing the Itch and several use to prescribe them with other Medicines Raspings of Tin and Powder of crude Antimony may be infused in Beer for the ordinary Drink and they may be put into a Decoction of Sarsa and the Woods for this Disease XI The Viper and its Preparations do sufficiently set out the excellent virtue of a volatile Salt in curing the Itch yea the Leprosie it self Galen reports that this Medicine for this Disease was found out by a casual experiment Hither also may be referred the analogy taken from the nature of the creature whence it is gathered that it does good in this Disease for since the Viper every year casts its scaly slough therefore any one might think that its parts would be good to cast off the crusty skin in the Leprosie But not to attribute much to such things since it is apparent from frequent observation that viperine Medicines are good in the Itch and Leprosie the reason of the Cure must be ascribed to the volatile Salt with which this Animal abounds For the Particles hereof do destroy the fixt and acid Salts which are prevalent in the diseased and dissolve their Combinations Notwithstanding the Salt Spirit and Oil chymically extracted from Vipers by reason of the empyreumatick and exceeding elastick Particles which the Fire produces are not at all proper in this Disease as neither the Spirit nor volatile Salt of Hart's-horn Soot Bloud and the like Ammoniack Spirits because by exagitating the bloud and humours above measure they cause their Crases to be more dissolved and drive the corruption more to the Skin Wherefore the simpler Preparations of Vipers as a Decoction of their Flesh in water Drink impregnated with their Infusion or Decoction their dried Powders and Electuaries made of them may be advantageously prescribed against this Disease Moreover not onely the Flesh of Vipers
be gummatous Tumours or great Ulcers Sarsa is proper Thus according to the constitution of the Patient and the nature of the conjunct Diseases sometimes we must use one Alexipharmack sometimes another and sometimes it is good to put them all in in a greater or smaller quantity Sennertus VII We must not try Evacuation by the Skin before the Body be discharged of the excrements lest there should be an attraction of more than can be evacuated by the Skin Which if it be done the Disease will either not be cured or come again quickly or grow worse I have known several who after Inunction and Diet-drinks have had either Pains or Exostoses because the matter was attenuated melted and drawn to the out parts but not evacuated Wherefore I reckon these bodies must be much or frequently evacuated in the beginning But if we may not evacuate so much certainly a Purge must be given after three times Anointing that what is dissolved may be evacuated Rondeletius VIII Some reckon that Guaiacum best which is white because the younger it is the whiter it is the elder it is the blacker it is and the elder the drier but what is not so old is moister and abounds more with Juice But since there is a twofold moisture in living Creatures one primigenial the subject of the innate heat or spirit and apt to take flame another alimentary watry and not so apt to take flame the Virtues of this Wood are not to be estimated from the alimentary and watry moisture but from the innate heat and primigenial moisture Which in the first age both in Infants and in Plants since it is drowned in much moisture many actions are weak in the first age which afterwards when that moisture is a little wasted and the heat made more lively do in the progress of their age grow stronger and this Heat the principal Instrument of all actions uses to continue in full force till the flower of their age and their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore though in Guaiacum the innate heat and radical moisture be always the same upon which its Virtues do depend yet because in the young Wood the virtue is drowned as it were and checkt with the abundance of moisture the young Wood is not so effectual as that which is well grown and of a confirmed age And therefore for the Cure of this Disease you must not chuse the Wood that is yellowish or of a Box colour and is either not ripe or is cut from the boughs and not so efficacious but the black must rather be chosen as being the most resinous and abounding in that fat and balsamick faculty in which the virtue which is adverse to the venereal Virulence does most reside It is good therefore to distinguish the age of this Wood that the most effectual way be taken For that which is black within but is cloven lengthways as with Lines of a brown colour running round is effectual indeed but it is either cut from boughs of the Trees or it is not come to full maturity and therefore not so efficacious For the reason why such Lines appear is because the fat substance that resides most in the middle of the Trunk of the tree does not yet so abound as to fill all the inner parts of the Wood. But that which is all black in the inside and white onely in the superficies if it be sound ponderous and odoriferous and if it vellicate the Tongue with a small acrimony and be intersected with no Lines or with such as are full of Resin Therefore when it burns beside the gratefull scent it has it gives also a black Resin This at its full maturity is cut from the Trunk of the tree and therefore is very effectual But if it be full of Lines and Holes and be good neither in smell weight nor acrimony nor when it is burnt sweats a Resin it is a sign that it is old and its Virtues are grown dull Sennertus IX L. Septalius lib. 7. Animadv numero 204. reprehends them that deny a Decoction of the Wood may be made in Wine alone because nothing is fitter to extract the virtues of Medicines than Wine it self and its Spirit And therefore he makes a Decoction with Wine which he uses in an inveterate Pox with an ill habit and cold matter predominant But admit Wine be very proper to extract the virtues of Vegetables yet this cannot be denied that the strength of the Wine wasts in boiling and when the Spirit is exhaled a nauseous Phlegm not so good as simple water it self is left I am of opinion therefore that the Wood should be boiled in Water and towards the latter end of the decoction the Wine must be added Or the Wood at least must be infused a long time in the Wine or it must be boiled in a double vessel that nothing waste but by no means to a consumption of the third part Idem X. There is a different proportion of the Wood to the Water observed according to the age constitution of body and time of the year And there are taken to twelve pounds of Water from three to twelve ounces of Wood. For if the season of the year and the body be hot it is the safest to take a less quantity of Wood and to be the longer in performing the Cure with safety rather than to doe injury with a strong Medicine especially the first days of the Cure and before the superfluous humours be abated and the Sweat begin to come with ease and the Patient be used to the Decoction And Eustachius Rhudius lib. de Morbis occultis cap. 13. writes that he has seen Patients who through this errour to wit giving too great a quantity of the Wood the first days have fallen into a Fever that afterwards they have been forced to abstain from the Decoction to their great damage Idem XI Fallopius lib. de Lue cap. 46. reprehends them that reckon a Decoction made in Balneo Mariae is too dilute and weak And that a Decoction in Balneo is better than that which is made in an open fire he endeavours to prove by instancing in distilled Waters which are made very good in Balneo seeing there is no adustion in such but the greater eliquation which is made in heat and moisture makes the decoction more excellent But Experience teaches a quite contrary thing to what Reason proves For though the best Waters may be made in Balneo of some moist Plants as Roses Violets Lily Conval and the like when they are fresh whose virtue consists in a volatile Salt without putting any Water to them yet in hotter Plants especially Roots and Woods whose virtue consists in the oily part their virtue can never be got out by the too gentle heat of a balneum The case is the same in many Seeds But it is necessary to distill by a Copper by which with the vehicle of the waters the more
of Amber eight grains Mix them Let the Patient take a draught of this Apozeme warm early in the morning and being well covered with clothes let her lye to Sweat but if within an hour after it do not come let her promote it by taking broth let her often repeat it and about the usual time of her Terms to the end the bloud also may at last be forced to the Womb. But if the said Phlegm redound not onely in the bloud but in the Head and Guts it will be good and beneficial now and then to abate and evacuate it by Phlegmagogues among which Agarick Turbith Hermodactyls Coloquintida c. are vulgarly commended And among the Chymical ones Sylvius de le Boë all Medicines made of Mercury are chief both praecipitate and sublimate especially Mercurius dulcis Among External Medicines Baths Fomentations and Fumes are deservedly commended from which either the arising Exhalations Vapours Fumes or the Penetrating Liquour do incide and attenuate the Phlegm or other glutinous humours sticking in the Orifices and Vessels of the Womb and causing Obstructions and so make them fluxible and apt to give way to the bloud then or afterwards desiring an exit or to go out with it Baths certainly in which Women use then to sit above the Navel do by their moisture insinuate themselves into the outer Neck of the Womb and then into the inner and do set loose and dissolve every glutinous humour whatever that so frequently sticks in the cavity of the inner Neck and that being within a-while removed thence they penetrate inwards and incide and dissolve and so make fit for efflux the glutinous humour there also that sticks to and in the Orifices of the Vessels of the Womb. But warm Baths are used that so they with more speed ease and efficacy produce their desired effect As to the Liquour of the Bath Water may conveniently be used and at the time of Use a little strong White-wine not Red may be added as also Spirit of Wine and Volatile Salt though this do not augment the Liquour so much as it promotes and intends the virtue of the rest of the things that are decocted As for the things that are to be boiled therein I commend aromatick Plants i. e. strong smelling ones that have a sharp and gratefull taste but especially those they call Hysterick But since drying Baths are observed not always to promote but often to hinder the Flux of the Terms here also Roots of Lilies Seeds of Line and Fenugreek c. will be proper to boil not onely to incide and conveniently to attenuate by the Aromaticks which are often too drying and therefore incrassating but also to mollifie For so the glutinous humours being partly attenuated partly mollified are more easily made fluid nay they are brought to a Flux and Efflux and so the high-way for the stopt bloud is cleared again and laid open But it is good for the Bath not to be over hot lest too much Sweat be caused whereby when the more serous parts of the bloud are exhausted the glutinous humours would be rendred more glutinous Nor must she continue long in the Bath for the same reasons for unless by means of it the Obstruction be removed quickly that benefit will scarce be obtained by tarrying long therein Fomentations are made of the same things with Baths and are applied to the Pudenda and that most fitly with Sponges or woollen Cloths but not with linen for they as well as Sponges soak up more Liquour than linen nor do they so easily let it run away besides they keep the heat of the Liquour longer in them without which Fomentations doe more harm than good Akin to these is the Vapour arising from a Decoction heated and received into the pudenda through an open Chair and so penetrating inwards Thus Exhalations doe good which may commodiously be made of Salt of Tartar or of any other fixt Salt and Sal Ammoniack which because it is most penetrant will doe very much good here and is deservedly preferred before many other things Idem XIV Pessaries and Uterine Clysters ought onely to be prescribed for Women that are married and that lye with Men but for Maids Nascalia Fomentations Insessions and Suffumigations Riverius XV. Suffumigations are approved of above all ways for so the Medicine acts most effectually and a Fume also of Spices brings down Womens Terms Aph. 28. 5. For the virtue of Medicines is abated in their passage when they are given in form of a Powder Potion Pills or Bolus before they get to the Womb which it is not when they are administred in form of a Suffumigation Besides since things that provoke the Terms are hot they often by the way hurt a hot Liver for the Terms are often stopt by the thickness of the bloud which is caused by a hot Liver And this way is preferred before the rest according to Galen because you may meet with some Women who will not endure Clysters or Pessaries who will admit Fumes and they penetrate more The onely hindrance is Weakness of the Head for some Womens Heads are easily disturbed by Aromaticks But in administring of a Suffumigation two things must be observed from Galen 1. That Women be girded 2. That the Fume ascend through a Pipe into the Neck of the Womb Capivaccius for so the Fume does not easily get into the Head XVI In a diminution of the Terms Mercurialis Cons 8. highly commends two Issues below the Knees on the inside And Cons 108. he says that an Issue below the Knees on the inside of each Leg is very effectual XVII I have hitherto observed that we must make no more haste than good speed and that more may be done by gentle Medicines than by strong That therefore the Cure may be safe Sylvius de le Boë we must abstain from all things that have any danger in them XVIII Avicenna orders when Women spit bloud because of a Stoppage of their Terms that they must be provoked by Bleeding Cupping Frictions and other such things yet not by Medicines that move the Terms but near the usual time we may add a spoonfull of distilled Savine Water or five drops of its Oil to a Decoction of white Saunders Guaiacum Box Rhodium root c. And outwardly at this time that is an effectual Remedy Hempen Thread newly boiled and still warm Fortis cent 2. cons 163. applied twice a-day for an hour to the region of the Womb for we may not go higher XIX The lower parts must be kept warm and the upper cold Women offend often herein when they cover the whole body with Bed-clothes and hereupon all the parts draw upwards and downwards Walaeus XX. Medicines must be given at the usual time of their coming For if a Physician should stimulate Nature in the full Moon that was accustomed to her excretion in the new he would then labour in vain unless he used most violent
and straining the Liquor let it be given for thirty days This I give with great success to Phthisical Persons Saxon. prael pract p. 1. c. 25. The Dose is six ounces XVI Tabid People cough importunely and evacuate much purulent Phlegm Therefore some are afraid of Milk because they have persuaded themselves that it breeds and turns to Phlegm But Milk being entire and new and milked from those Animals that are of a good habit is of good Juice and is made of Blood well concocted so little reason is there why it should be reckoned amongst those things that are of bad and Phlegmatick Juice and that because the Butter is mixt with it whence Avicen prescribes Butter-milk because the Butter is apt to be inflamed yea it will take fire so far was he from thinking that it would be turn'd into Phlegm that it rather turns to Choler Therefore Trallianus commends new Cheese because it cools Nor is it then turned into that thick and purulent Phlegm which Consumptive People sometime cough up For Milk consists of Butter Whey and Cheese The Whey is of a Nitrous quality it cleanseth opens obstructions carries Acrimonious and Adust Humours through the Belly which are the effect of heat therefore Galen esteems sowr Milk cold because it has lost the acrimonious quality of the Serum however supposing that it cooled very much yet it could never be turned into thick Phlegm by reason of the thinness of its substance The Butter it self seeing it is inflammable never turns to Phlegm The Cheesy part having the Whey and Butter mixt with it is not viscous so that by the mixture of these three together Milk becomes very temperate it moistens nourishes attemperates nor does it breed that Phlegm which some Phthisical Persons are so troubled with Yet suppose it were Phlegmatick seeing that Phlegm is lodged only in the Stomach and stuffs not the Lungs which are affected there will more benefit accrew by its use Primiros de err vulg l. 3. c. ult than inconvenience from the generation of Phlegm because of the great faculty it has to nourish and temper XVII Milk has the chief place amongst the Remedies of Tabid People yet in the giving of it divers Cautions are to be observed lest it rather do hurt than good for it is apt to corrupt upon the Stomach either being turned into a nidour or waxing sowr and curdling in the Stomach When it waxes sowr a little Honey or Sugar may be boiled in it for thus is the coldness of the Stomach amended which makes the Milk turn sowr It it be turned into a nidour it is corrupted by heat and then it is profitable to mix Water enough with it But the vulgar approve not of this mixture of Water yet the best Physicians have advis'd it for it tempers the heat does no harm to the Milk especially if it be Cows Milk that now adays is by far the most usual Hippocrates 7. Epid. gives Cows Milk with a sixth part of Water both because this sort of Milk is naturally more thick and also because it is apt to turn to a Nidour And 5. Epid. 36. he relates a Story of Pythocles who gave his Patients Milk mixt with a great deal of Water Thus likewise Galen commends Asses Milk because it is the thinnest and has the least Coagulum or Cheesy part In defect whereof 't will be convenient to bring Cows Milk to its temperature and consistence which is best done by mixing Water with it Idem c. 11. XVIII I have sometimes observed in an Asthma and an inveterate Cough when very absterging and inciding things have been used that the Patients have faln into a loosness with great relief But if there be not a moderation in the use of these things the Phâ—hisical and Dropsical are apt to be offended by them and the like whence a mortal Diarrhoea afterwards supervening they go to the common place S. Pauli Quadrip Botan p. 390. to the great reproach of Practitioners Whence Hofman says such things as do so powerfully open obstructions do withal purge in a just dose XIX Modern Physicians have thought that Ros solis or Sun-dew especially the destilled Water of it is singularly good for all Phthisical and Tabid Persons For as the Herb seems most tenacious of moisture and dew so that even the most fervent heat of the Sun cannot consume the moisture so it has been believed that the natural and genital moisture is preserved and cherished by it in the Bodies of Men. But the use of it teaches otherwise and Reason also dictates another thing For seeing it is a very Acrimonious Herb and it s destilled Water is not wholly destitute of this very acrimony it cannot be taken without offence and prejudice Remb. Dodon l. 5. Pemptad 3. hist stirp p. 475. for those who have made use of its destilled Water have died sooner than they would have done if they had abstained from it and followed a right manner of living and diet XX. I have used temperate Acids with very good success contrary to the opinion of perhaps all Writers The reason is clear because the Lympha which is collected in both the Orbicular and Sinuous Bladders of the Lungs is too thick Sweet things not temper'd with Acids I with many others have observed to have been always P. Barbette Pr. lib. 2. c. 2. at least for the most part injurious to the Patients XXI Note that Sulphureous Remedies are not always convenient in this case wherefore Sennertus in Institut admonishes rightly Lac Sulphuris is not to be given alone especially nor in a great quantity yet it may be mixed with Moisteners especially a Decoction of China with Raisins and Lykyrrhize Deckers in not ad prax Barbet p. m. 93. And which is to be observed from the too much using of the Balsam of Sulphur Practitioners testify that many have faln into a Phthisis ¶ Whether is it safe to use the Balsam of Sulphur and other oily Balsamicks prepared of Sulphur with destilled Oils in a Phthisis or Exulceration of the Lungs or other Viscera that has arisen from salt Humours causing a spitting of Blood Schroder with others affirms they may nor perhaps want there Reasons for it because first such Balsamicks increase the Radical moisture or Balsam with the innate heat secondly they refresh the Vital Spirits thirdly they temper the acid salts in the Lympha and Mass of Blood from whence putrefactions proceed as appears by Mechanical Chymistry whilst by such destilled Oils the acid corrosive vertue even of Aqua fortis may be corrected fourthly they are internal Vulneraries resisting Putrefaction in regard that even externally being dropt into the broth of Flesh they hinder the same from putrefying or stinking But if we will not even in this case make slight of that common Curative Rule That Contraries are to be cured by Contraries we shall certainly have no good success if we undertake to cure a Phthisis
with good success amongst which Diacuminum was very familiar with him Rhod. cent 2. obs 13. ¶ If Spitting cannot succeed the Matter is to be evacuated either by Sweat or by Urine or by Externals or a suppuration is to be endeavoured For provoking Urine Turpentine is commended in this case either alone or mixt with the Pouder of Lykyrrhize Give a drachm of it and let it be wash'd in the Water of Maidenhair to which add half a drachm of the Pouder of Lykyrrhize Yet these Diureticks ought not to be administred in every case but only when you see the Spitting does not proceed and that the Patient pisses plentifully For Hippocrates said 4. acut 28. that those Pleuritical and Peripneumonical Persons are treated amiss who spit nothing up unless they void much Urine Therefore when you see the propension of Nature you may come safely to Diureticks to Maiden-hair Saxon. Parsley Fennil to the cold Seeds where the Fever is urgent ¶ Hippocrates 2. de morb makes three differences of a Pleurisy according to the diversity whereof the Cure is to be varied Concerning the first kind he writes thus lib. 1. v. 233. But often if it be turned to the inferior parts it distributes a pain through the Veins to the Bladder and the Patient makes a great deal of Bloody Vrine In this place he sets forth in what Pleurisy the Morbifick Matter is not expelled by Spitting as is usual but by Urine a sign whereof is a pain extending it self by the Groins to the Bladder and the Patients making a Bloody Urine understanding that which is tinctured with a deep red which looks of a Bloody colour Seeing therefore this sort of Pleurisy has its Crisis by Urine not by Spitting he therefore advises the Cure to be performed by those things which provoke Urine for which purpose he gives Oxymel diluted with a good deal of Water Prosp Martian comm in v. 206. l. 2. de morb sect 2. namely Oxymel is Diuretick and by the coldness of the Water whereby it is diluted 't is very sit to temper Choler XXVIII In the Pleurisy and Peripneumony Nature which is the Curer of Diseases does sometimes purge out by Urine the Morbous purulent Matter contained in the Cavity of the Breast as Galen witnesseth 6. de loc 4. Therefore her Motion is diligently to be observed lest it be inverted by her Servant the Physician So that if it happen that Nature endeavours an Excretion by Urine we must make use of Diureticks as Heurnius persuades us cap. 3. de morb pâ—ctoral XXIX Hippocrates 4. acut gave to a Pâ—euritical Person in the beginning Oxymel with Panax or All-heal boil'd in it and strained as also to the Hepatick and such as were pained about the Midriff viz. to such as had Phlegmons or other collections of Humours in the Liver or Midriff namely to digest powerfully and to move Sweat or Urine or both This way of curing Pleuritical Persons by violently discussing Potions is not very much in use with our Physicians who after Bleeding Anointings and Pectorals pass to no other Remedy Yet I know one to whom some ordinary Fellow gave something of this kind in Drink who by having a plentiful Sweat raised was presently relieved his Breast loosened and he spit easily when it was now the seventh day of the Disease and he had begun to Expectorate nothing and was in danger to be strangled almost through difficulty of breathing Ignorant Fellows also who empirically undertake the Cure of some Diseases Valles 4. de ac p. 250. cure Pleurisies often by Sweating Medicins with good success ¶ A Boy of twelve years of Age was ill of a Pleurisy of his right Side he was bled five times and other things were prescribed On the seventh there was given him half a drachm of Chimney Soot in Carduus Water Within two hours after taking this Medicin all the symptoms which were grievous remitted very much and the Patient was much better Lazar. Riv. cent 2. obs 79. and afterwards recovered by degrees ¶ I have seen many and especially Women who for want of fitting Remedies were brought to extremity almost by a Pleurisy cured by taking once or twice of Quercetan's Apple in twenty four hours whereupon beyond expectation there follow'd either a plentiful Sweating or liberal Expectoration Indeed I could name several to whom being almost desperate I have prescribed this Medicin Idem cent 4. obs 88. and I never saw any event of it but good ¶ An obstruction of the Vessels by viscid Phlegm or Blood coagulated in them shall be cured by using inwardly and outwardly such Medicins as dissolve the offending Humour and make it fluxile again Amongst Internals Aromatick salts are the most profitable which are prepared of divers parts of Animals as all and every of them being endued with a notable vertue to dissolve all coagulated and congealed things and to reduce them to their former fluidity and likewise to provoke Sweat which being gently promoted withal a resolution of the coagulated Humours is more easily quickly and happily obtained Hence it is that often upon the seasonable giving of one Sudorifick prepared of the foresaid volatil salts or the like the Pleurisy which is an inflammation of the Side hath been happily cured without the opening of a Vein And hence it is that mixtures made of such things and taken seasonably a spoonful at a time by short intervals have soon safely and pleasantly cured both the Pleurisy and Peripneumony and also the Inflammations of other parts As for instance Take of the Waters of Parsley Hyssop and Fennil of each an ounce of Treacle Water half an ounce of the Spirit of Sal Armoniack half a drachm of Laudanum Opiate four grains of the Syrup of red Poppy an ounce mix them The Spirit of Sal Armoniack the volatil salt of Hartshorn or any other may be used and according to the greater or less acrimony thereof more or less of it may be added to the mixture and a greater or less quantity of the mixture may be taken at each time and the Body may be kept in a warm place to promote the Medicin on every hand and sometimes to facilitate Sweating though it is not needful to provoke Swear seeing that does no good but as the volatil and saline vertue of the Medicin penetrates then the easilier and quicklier to the part affected and obstructed To a Volatil salt may and ought to be referred Crabs Eyes the Jaws of a Pike Hartshorn c. seeing they abound therewith In this case also a l Metallick and Mineral Sulphurs but such as are fixt are profitable wherefore hither is referred also Antimonium Diaphoreticum brought to some fixtness though these things are good in this case on many accounts Nor are only the Volatil salts of Animals profitable here but all which are derived from the various parts of Plants called Scorbutical and Acrimonious and emulate the vertues of the same such as the Juices
Aristolochia rotunda ¶ This is a sure Remedy for Ulcers with worms in them Take of Savin 2 handfuls Camphire half a drachm the middle rind of an Hazle 1 pugil Boyl them in a sufficient quantity of Wine pour it into a Vessel put the Ulcerous Foot into it and immediately little Worms will come out Swimming upon the Liquor Repeat this several times Joh. Agricola and the Ulcers will be cured 2. Black earth Snails which are found creeping among the leaves and grass without Houses in Spring time Enzelius mashed together and applied to Ulcers soften all Ulcers wonderfully 3. To inflamed Ulcers apply the narcotick Spirit of Vitriol which is made of calcined Vitriol and Spirit of Wine mixt together and putrefied in a close Glass for a Month. This Spirit separated is good not only to allay all Inflammation Faber and pains of Ulcers but of the Gout it self 4. I take water Frogs and hang them in a Cucurbit so as they may not touch the bottom and burn and so the water which is drawn off get a strong Smell I put fire under it and draw it off gently in Sand and keep it for use For it is most precious in malignant and cancrous Ulcers also in a Polypus Ozaena and in Ulcers of the pudenda and sedes it extinguishes Inflammation and corrects malignity I put not out the fire till they be perfectly dry and no more water will come over but I keep that which comes last by it self for it smells something strong and is not so grateful in Ulcers of the Mouth and Nose The Frogs thus dried I put into a melting crucible and burn them to white ashes They are good not only to stop Blood Guil. Fabricius but in all malignant and sordid Ulcers for if they be strewed thereon they cleanse and correct malignity 5. This is a most excellent Oyntment Take of Oyl of unripe Roses 6 drachms Myrtle unguentum populeon each 3 ounces leaves of Plantain Nightshade each 1 handful shred them and mix all together let them stand 8 dayes shaking them every day then strain them add to the colature of wax 4 drachms Mix them upon the fire till they melt stirring them with a stick when it is warm add of Litharge of Gold 6 drachms Ceruss 2 drachms prepared tutty 2 drachms Camphire 1 drachm and an half Mix them in a Mortar for 2 hours Eust Rhudius 6. The root of Dragons is excellent for Cacoethick Ulcers 7. The juice of Pimpernel with the purple flower Poterius with the Herb bruised and applied to malignant Ulcers perfectly cures them Rhumelius 8. Mercury precipitate corrected is a singular Remedy against all Ulcers 9. Many in a deplorable condition have been happily freed from their Ulcers by a decoction of Mint wherewith the Ulcers are washed Morning and Evening and afterward some powder of Rue strewed on Mart. Rulandus ¶ Oyl of Sulphur and Emplastram Diasulphuris anoynted and applied does the same 10. Some cure the most desperate Ulcers with this mixture They take of Mercury sublimate 1 drachm they powder it very fine they pour to it the best rectified Spirit of Wine 1 pound They set it in a Glass Body in Sand till the Sand grow hot and the Spirit of Wine burn They boyl also a drachm of Lignum Guaiacum in 3 pints of water half away when the water is cooled and filtred they add the said Spirit of Wine Sacâ—â— which mixture is applied with lint and tents to the Ulcers 11. Take of Salt of Litharge it is prepared as Sal Saturni with destilled Vinegar 1 drachm Spirit of Turpentine 2 drachms macerate them in hot Ashes till the Liquor grow red It is of admirable vertue in inveterate Ulcers Tumours Schroderat and Wounds 12. I have often experienced the following Plaster to be good Take of Vnguentum diapomph diapalma griseum each 1 drachm gum Elemi 2 drachms Saccharum Saturni 1 scruple a little Wax Mix them and make a Plaster ¶ Spirit of Wine especially is excellent in deterging and cleaning putrid Ulcers Sennertus and therefore should be mixt with other Medicines 13. The following unguent is effectual in absterging Ichors and foulness of Ulcers Take of juice of Parsly half a pound Myrrh 2 drachms Turpentine 1 drachm and an half Boyl them all together make an unguent wherewith rags and tents may be smeared and put into the hollow of the Ulcers Valleriola this cleanses well without any harm Vomitus or Vomiting The Contents Bleeding is good for some I. The efficacy of a Cupping-Glass II. It must sometimes be cured by Vomiting III. The efficacy of Clysters in stopping one IV. When nourishing ones must be given V. Cured by Elixir Proprietatis VI. Stopped with Medical Waters VII With a draught of cold Water VIII The way to stop it when caused by corrosive Poysons IX How when caused by a Malignant quality X. In Scorbutick Persons it is better stopt with Milk than with astringents XI How it may be stopt when the meat is cast up because of the depression of the Cartilago Xiphoides XII The stopping of it when a Vomit works too violently XIII A periodical vomiting of black Choler stopt by the use of Lenitives XIV One caused by a great laxity of the Stomach cured by eating of biscoct bread XV. The cure of one caused by the obstruction of the Arteries of the Spleen XVI A pertinacious Vomiting of Meat from the palsie of the Mouth of the Stomach XVII Some is stopt by a Narcotick mixt with a Purge XVIII Cautions about anoynting the Stomach XIX Plasters are better than Oyntments XX. When the Stomach refuses necessary Medicines how they may be kept XXI The cure of one coming from a Malignant Fever XXII When Meat may be given XXIII Some Vomiting is Idiopathick some Sympathick XXIV The cure of it when something is bred in the Stomach XXV When it comes from a sharp and hot matter XXVI From the fault of the Stomach that corrupts what it takes XXVII From the resolution of the Stomach and the nerves being affected XXVIII How Laudanum must be given XXIX Medicines Barbette I. BLeeding must of necessity be celebrated in an Inflammation of the parts otherwise it does harm ¶ A young Man of a good habit upon the breaking in of a hot matter out of the right Hypochondrium fell suddenly into vomiting and could be cured by no means but by Bleeding though the Physicians were very doubtful about it for after it the intemperature of the Liver ceased A Seaman who had a vomiting and an appetite could not stop it by setting a Cupping-glass to the bottom of his Stomach but only by taking away some Blood for when the hot evaporation of the Liver was abated Rhodius which did pierce the upper orifice of the Stomach the Patient recovered II. A Countryman 34 years old fell into frequent vomiting after his Meat which lasted for some dayes so that he
a Cacochymie that is pertinacious and fixed more closely in the Parts in the same manner almost as Antimony rightly prepared whence as Fr. Antenius relates in his Treatise of Aurum Potabile there follows upon the taking of it sometimes a Vomiting sometimes a plentiful Pissing and sometimes Purging by Stool accordingly as the Humour and Nature incline to this or the other place And he shall find this to be true whosoever diligently considers the Histories of those that have been said to have been cared by Aurum Potabile Sennert l. de Galen Chymic cons diss c. 19. X. Concerning the Preparation of Antimonium Diaphoreticum although in Chymists Books it be very well order'd to be with a triple proportion of Nitre nevertheless Artists do in some manner conceal those things which are fittest in each ones Art Hence we have a mind to mention a few Cautions and those light as to appearance 1. The fire is diligently to be heeded which ought to be a mean betwixt fâ—sing and gentle for if it be kindled in too gentle a degree and the matter be put in before the Crucible be hot enough wherein the stress of the whole operation lies the Antimony is not rightly detonated and its vomiting vertue is not quite destroyed or at least it arrives not at the desired whiteness And if the fire be fusory the Saline Particles do too closely receive the Antimâ—nial to within themselves and hence all the matter through too great an ebullition strives with great danger to fly over the edges of the Crucible and afterwards the Medicine becomes none of the best 2. The Nitre ought to be very well dried first and not be moist because otherwise the watery Atoms retard the Detonation and oppose themselves to the fire so that the impure sulphureous part cannot rightly deflagrate 3. Heed must be taken also that it be not too much fixed nor stay too long in the fire for then it remains very light and its Sudorifick vertue is almost abolished the Diuretick remaining whence it is best as soon as the detonation is over to cast it presently by little and little into cold water but if you put in too much at once the bottom of the pot will be in danger of falling out and then let it be rightly elutriated or drained On this manner you have a Diaphoretick Antimony of a good white stained with no yellow and although it be precipitated afterwards in Vinegar there will depart from it little or no Magisterie Those things that are commonly said of it viz. that it returns to its pristin Nature assoon as the fixing Particles of the Nitre are evaporated whence 't is advised that it should only be given when 't is new or to be burnt again with the Spirit of Wine all these things are to be understood only of this Medicine when it is not rightly prepared G. Wolf Wedel Misc Cur. an 1672. Obs 62. for Experience testifies that this fear is wholly groundlâ—ss if the procedure be according to Art XI That I may confess it ingenuously no great trust is to be had to the Bezoar-stone Seeing although those Faculties be granted to the true Bezoar-stone that are ascribed to it yet because its dearness makes many that sell it endeavour to counterfeit it we can hardly have any but what are adulterate The Writers of Indian Affairs themselves witness that it is rare and very dear among the Indians River Pract. lib. 17. cap 1. Vide Valles Meth. Med. lib. 4. cap. 2. Primiros de vulgi error lib. 4. c. 36. Rubeum in Celsum lib 3 c. 7. alios whereas with us it is plentiful and cheap enough XII Some give a great quantity of this Stone seeing it has no hurtful quality viz. to twenty or thirty Grains Zacutus ascends to a Drachm This he confirms with the History of one Eleanor who falling into a very Malignant Fever and taking a very great quantity of Bezoar a Drachm at a draught escaped very well whereas all his Patients that by Contagion were seis'd upon by the same Disease who had a small Dose given them died The most hurtful quality of Poysons seems to evince the necessity of a large Dose in that it proceeds not slowly nor promises a secure Truce If thou encounter the Plague slowly thou shalt be conquer'd and not conquer The middle way is the safest because the extreme on both sides is a fault The small Dose of three Grains hath not that strength as to resist Poysons and the Plague a large Dose burthens the Stomach seeing it ought to be repeated This seems convenient Take ef Oriental Bezoar-stone and of Emerauld prepared of each six Grains The exhibition of Alexipharmacks loves not Unity one Dose takes not away the fountain of the evil that which does not its office at once giving must be given twice or thrice Rolfinc m. m. lib. xi S. 3. c. xi an equal contrariety is to be attended as in the Dose so also in the Repetition XIII Hartshorn is not much worse than the Bezoar-stone or Vnicorn's Horn against Poisons and Poisonous Diseases for it defends the Heart from malignant Vapours it cuts the toughness of Humours it opens the Obstructions of the inward Viscera and by its penetrating quality resists the Putrefaction of the Humours and by a certain Balsamick vertue corrects their malignity whence by Joubertus it is called a great Cordial But it is to be given calcin'd and prepar'd not crude seeing when it is given crude it often passes out by Stool as it was taken without any alteration for its spirituous substance that is the cause of all its action whilst it is bound by the feculent matter which the Hartshorn consists of besides is hindred from exerting its vertue so that in the crude it lies as it were buried yea neither can the Salt exert the vertues of its Balsam unless it be freed from its earthy Bands Seeing therefore the Diaphoretick vertue says Horstius Probl. Med. Dec. 1. q. 4. which is in this Medicine through its fixed Salt together with other qualities is very much set at liberty from its Impediments after Calcination and Preparation we therefore conclude that Hartshorn burnt and prepared is more convenient than crude yea this Medicine is so safe and pleasant even in the greatest Diseases that Necessity urging it may be given very profitably to every age even to Infants new Born Let the same judgment be past upon the Bone of a Stag's Heart Fabr. Hildan l. De Gangraena c. 12. which I think unprofitable unless it be calcin'd and prepar'd XIV The vertue of Hartshorn consists chiefly in a volatile Salt and Sulphur with which the Bones of Animals abounding that which is pure they take for their Nourishment what is superfluous they thrust to the extremities of the Bones this luxuriant matter being long exposed to the Air after a year is fasten'd and vitriolated as it were passing into hard ragged and
great Horns through the volatile and extensile Nature of its Balsam and hence it is believed to be a great Cordial and a true secondary Bezoardick for by its Spirit which is altogether of the same Nature with that of the Blood it recreates the Heart by its sweet Balsam it cherishes the radical moisture by its Armoniack Salt it penetrates and attenuates tartareous Matters provokes Sweat and Urine and therefore opposes a pestiferous Air And by its drying vertue which remains in its Earth it drives away Putrefaction kills Worms helps Fluxes of the Belly whence for divers Indications divers Preparations also of Hartshorn are to be used Thus in an Ethereal Plague and Poisons I use the Spirit and armoniack Salt of Hartshorn as a notable Diaphoretick In malignant Fevers as the small Pox where the whole mass of Blood is not only accended but also putrefied I use secondary Preparations that are derived from its whole substance namely Decoctions of it Sam. Clossaeus ad Gr. Horstium Decad 1 â—robl qu. 4. where there are several Preparations of it Gellies and Extracts for Swooning I use the Water distilled from the typhi or snags of fresh Horns for a Phthisick and retarding old Age I use the sweet Balsam thereof for Worms and Diarrhoea's I use the Horn vitriolated XV. Here the negligence or unskilfulness of some Apothecaries is to be noted that burn Harts-horn not in melting Pots but simply among the Coals this indeed is a compendious Preparation but such as is hurtful to the Patient seeing Coals have a malignant vapour in them Fabr. Hild. l. de Gangraena c. 12. which is manifest in those that draw it in with their Breath in a close place XVI Although those Animals be not known from whom the Horns call'd Vnicorns-horns are taken yet their vertue is not therefore to be denied which is only known by Experience for let any one that would make tryal of a piece of this Horn give some Poison to a Whelp or Pullet and if he find that by giving a little of this Horn in Powder the Animal escape he will find reason to esteem it as a good Medicine If we approve of Hartshorn why should the same Faculty be denied to other Horns Therefore I would not morosely inquire whether they be the Horns of the Unicorn or of some other Animal so long as they are good and effectual for it is certain that both Elephants Teeth and Whale-Bone and the Teeth of the Sea-Horse and common Horns adust and Horns digg'd out of the ground Primiros de vulgi error l. 4. c. 38. and other factitious ones are often sold for the true Unicorn's-Horn XVII If Treacle be taken daily to a Grain it makes the Body Poyson-proof without inflaming as Galen reports it happen'd to King Mithridates I have seen many who have been subject to Swoonings without evident cause cured on this manner and it is an excellent Remedy where we have suspicion of any poisonous matter lurking in our Bodies Panarol fascie 1. Arcan p. 212. XVIII Let Children abstain wholly from Treacle for their Age is too weak to indure so potent a Medicine and it colliquates their Body and wastes their Primigenial heat like as the light of a Lamp is extinguished by pouring too much oil into it I have seen a Boy that died through the unseasonable use of Treacle He had been feverish a long time and his Body being wasted his Strength was gone his Guardian compelled me against my judgement to prescribe him some Treacle which he could not concoct when he had taken it for it was above the strength of the Boy and dissolv'd the habit of his Body c. so that he died that very Night Gal. lib. de Theriaca c. 17. Whether it be altogether to be denied to Children See Galen Tit. de Morbis Infant Lib. 9. XIX As we must guess at the degree of the Poisonous infection of the Blood and Heart so also at the Dose of the Alexipharmack Remedy a little quantity cannot resist the great Malignity in acute Fevers or the Plague as suppose one or two small Doses of Treacle or of a Sudorifick Bezoardick Tincture Such plenty is to be prescribed as may drive out the Poison by large Sweats Thus was a Sanguine Countrey-fellow being of a good habit of Body freed from the Plague by taking a Drachm of Treacle Rolfinc m. m. lib. xi S. 3. c. xi and laying so many Cloaths upon him as made him sweat Yet let not the quantity be too great One being struck with fear in the time of Contagion took a little Treacle whence Sweat followed on the Night the day after he took some more he repeated it the third time believing that some Contagion lay hid so that in all he took at leâ—st four or five Drachms on the Night following he was taken with a most burning Fever and Pustules also arose Treacle seeing it is hot in the second and dry in the third degree by reason of its driness must not be given to above a Drachm though in respect of its heat we may ascend higher Salmuth Cent. 1. Obs 51. XX. Whether is there a Cordial vertue in Precious Stones and their Magisteries Many laugh at their vertues others suspect them hence are many Compositions amongst which Confectio de Hyacintho is famous being noted for many vertues Avenzoar Mindererus and Zacutus attribute great vertues to the Emerauld But the simple Preparation of Stones ought to be more esteemed than their Magisteries seeing 't is doubtful whence these latter have their vertue whether from the proper form or from the Menstrua or Dissolvents if from these latter they will do more harm than good and seeing the weight of the Magisteries is often greater than that of the matter to be extracted was before it breeds a suspicion that therefore part of the Menstruum whether it be vitriolate tartareous or have the Nature of any other Salt insinuates it self into the Magistery and is to be washed out of it by no Art The weight indeed is increased in the simple Preparation of them but that happens from another cause namely because the Air contained in their Pores whil'st they were whole vanishes upon their grinding or because by the long agitation of them upon a Marble something parts from it and mixes with the prepared Medicin but this is less hurtful than the corroding Menstruum added to the Magisteries Laur. Hofman writes That the Bishop of Breslaw often drank the Magistery of Perls and that when he died the coats of his Stomach appear'd black and corrupted Libavius shews by some examples that many have faln into a Consumption by the use of the Magistery of Perls and Corals and that many have died thereby the coats of their Stomach and Guts being plainly eroded by their acrimony XXI One Drachm of Magisteries rightly prepared can do more than an Ounce or more of the vulgar unprofitable and unwholsom precipitated Magisteries
Helmont reckons the frequent use of Thermae or hot Bathes amongst the impediments of life It is certain indeed that by their use the antecedent cause as fluxions or Humours turgid with wild or preternatural Salts is removed whence they have profited some gouty persons whose members were swelled by the preceding distemper and they have found ease for a time but what becomes in the mean time of the minera or fountain of the Disease this being left untoucht especially in Diseases that consist of their ferments how should it not be made more fierce and tyrannize more over the Body Not to mention that being sometimes administred to the hypochondriacal by operating more vehemently on the ferments of the viscera they destroy them without our observing it and change the whole mass of Blood and the nervous juice by their violent action and exalt the heat of the Bowels which is the cause that occasion is given for new ebullitions afterwards and a source of new fluxions springs up the members become slippery and relaxed the Body being softned by them and lurking fluxions especially in less prepared Bodies being dissolved thereby from a little fire there has arisen a great flame the malady growing worse Whence Omichius in Epist 7. l. 5. Timaei speaks very much against their use saying That he had so ill success from the use of Thermae or hot Baths in the Gout that contracting an Hectick heat thereby he was almost become tabid yea and that his fits were more frequent and cruel than they used to be ever before I have known none proceeds he that was freed from fits of the Gout by the use of them but that every one found the fits rather stronger and frequenter as soon as they enter'd into such Baths Hence some attribute to some Thermae a certain arsenical poison that is an enemy to the vital powers F. O. Grembs l. 3. c. of the shortness of Man's Life § 77. p. 472. Perhaps through the arsenical poison of the Sulphur whose halitus affect some mens nostrils Although besides this deleterial quality they want not others also which are like those occult ones that are drawn from the class of Minerals seeing it is clear by experience that they have in process of time produced in the indisposed besides erosions of the viscera cachexies atrophies in some swoonings and other admirable Symptomes So that some are of opinion that the same thing happens to some Thermae especially taken inwardly which Disp contr Paracels p. 3. p. 211. Th. Erastus T. Zwingerus in his preface that he prefixed before Santis Ardoyni's book of poysons and Oporinus in his Epistle concerning Paracelsus's Medicines and their deleterial vertues have left written viz. That many who for a time have found help from these Remedies have died in a short while after The examples are odious but I leave these things to be further examined by others See Moser of the abuse of Thermae and Acidulae Fred. Hofm Meth. Med. lib. 2. c. 6. and the history of the Life and Death of Bacon Lord Verulam XII Dry Baths in an heated air seeing they too much inflame the Body and drive Humours violently toward its surface are not so approved of as moist Yet if such Bath be made of the steam or smoak that arises from the decoction of a moist Bath we may a little heat our Body thereby and so dispose it for its entrance into the moist bath that this latter may operate the better XIII Note that Baths are not so convenient when Epidemical distempers rage especially the plague for by opening the pores they make the entrance for the contagion the easier Wedel de c. m. ext p. 98. XIV Baths are not good when the Serum is much encreased or moved whether in a state that is partly according to Nature or in a preternatural whether as to the whole Body or to some certain parts hence they are wont not to succeed so well in the cacochymical and plethorick whence they do hurt in the cachexie Dropsie as also in the cough coryza catarrhs upon the breast yea there have been some who being troubled with a coryza or defluxion of rheum into the Nose or Ears have upon their entrance into a Bath lost their smell or hearing Nor are they good in Inflammations of the parts In Catarrh deliram p. 360. as in an erysipelas Nor is Helmont's opinion to the contrary to be regarded who says that such Baths are often good in destillations because they are not profitable even to the Gouty themselves for we have observed that the parts being thereby swelled Wedel de c. m. ext p. 101. have occasioned the greater afflux of Humours XV. It is clear by experience that hot and Sulphureous Baths do very much exalt the Saline and other morbid particles in Mans Body that dwell within the viscera or are contained in the Humours and bring them suddenly to the highest pitch namely by exagirating of them they make them more unruly and drive them forward out of the first ways into the Blood and from thence into the Brain and genus nerveâ—um and moreover join together those that were severed and quiet before and excite them into a certain effervescency Wherefore those that are subject to either an hereditary Gout or Stone and as yet have had no fits of those distempers do often perceive that by the use of Baths the fruits of both these Diseases are presently ripen'd in them Willis de morb Convuls cap. 9. XVI Sulphureous Thermae or hot Baths contain four things 1. Water 2. An oiliness 3. An acid Spirit 4. A little lixivial Salt For Chymists know that all Sulphur does chiefly consist of an oil and an acid Spirit and it is manifest 1. from its ready burning whereby it is clear that oil abounds in it for only fat and oily things are the fuel of fire 2. From its long continued burning which depends upon an acid Spirit 3 From the oil that may be drawn from it per campanam which testifieth its acid Spirit Seeing therefore Sulphur consists of an acid Spirit and oil it is manifest that Sulphureous Baths abound with the same Now these are generated of a Water endued with a very acrimonious lixivial Salt concurring with the minera of Sulphur by which Salt and the acid Spirit of Sulphur there is raised an effervescence and with the effervescence an heat and so the Water also and the Oil do join after a sort into one These Baths have a notable penetrating vertue wherefore they reach to the inmost parts of the Body that are affected Now that which penetrates so is the acid Spirit that is intimately mixt with the lixivial Salt and temper'd with the oil by the vertue of which oil it tempers also the acrimonious Humour that sticks to the Membranes and twitches them and gives occasion for convulsions c. I say it both tempers it by its oily substance and also corrects the same by
pain heat and fuga vacui or the avoiding vacuity To pain indeed as it depends upon its causes an hot intemperies and a solution of continuity springing thence this debilitates the part and makes it unable to repell the Humours from it whence the tyed part swells But there is a far other reason of this swelling Ligatures upon the Arms stop the motion of the Blood that is flowing out at the Nose not because they attract upon the score of pain or heat but because they retard the Blood that is received from the Arteries and is a returning to the heart by the Veins from passing so speedily to the right ventricle On this foundation the vertue of Ligatures rests whilst they are made upon a sound part they hinder the Blood from flowing back by the Veins to the affected part in any plenty Rolfinc Meth. Med. p. 442. so the affected part is freed from the influx Narcoticks See Hypnoticks before Nephriticks Cysticks or Medicines for the Stone See Book 3. Calculus Renum or the Stone in the Kidneys and Book 15. Renum affectus or Diseases of the Kidneys The Contents They respect either the resolution of the Coagulum it self I. Or the Saline Acrimony and irritation of the genus membranosum II. Or the opening of the ways III. Nephriticks and Cysticks are the same IV. Nephriticks are not to be confounded V. Resolvers hurt when a Saline Acrimony offends VI. The Reins rejoice in moisture but not excessive VII Where Topicks are to be applied VIII Refrigerating ointments scarce cool because of the oyl IX Hot dissolvers of the Stone many times do hurt X. I. IT being presupposed 1. that the Material cause of the Stone is a dry concretion that in a Natural state is voided with the Urine or a Tartareous Salt consisting of an earthy and Saline matter although a viscous Humour may also concur 2. That the Blood of calculous persons add of Gouty and Hypochondriacal abounds with such Saline and Tartareous Coagulables we say that Nephritick Medicines are both such as resolve and such as mitigate and such as drive forward and so they respect 1. the resolution of the coagulum it self or the sliminess or muddiness of the Blood tending now out of the Vessels separated in the Kidneys and Bladder but not expelled whether it offend by its plenty or Nature her self fail in her expulsion and the earthy parts by the access of the saline fixed volatile turn into a coagulum such as are 1. Abstergers both watry and diluting that afford a more plentiful Serum for the draining out of those excrements and are good against gravel when there is a plentiful sediment in the Urine and the stone is a breeding 2. Sulphureous Resolvers that more intimately hinder coagulation and hinder the matter from stopping there whether they be more temperate oily obtunding and taking away Acrimony of Sperma ceti and other Aperients that are good in any obstructions stoppage of Urine stone c. or more active fusing the Blood as it were and precipitating and liquating the Serum into the Kidneys such as are chiefly Remedies of Turpentine which give the Urine a Violet smell which is a notable testimony that their vertue reaches hither the oyl of Amber c. 3. Saline Resolvers whether Acid inciding and deterging as Acidum Tartari acid mineral Spirits especially Spirit of Salt or soaty and earthy alkali's obsorbing Lyes which are of avail either through their Salt which they keep retir'd or from their notable vertue of absorbing saline Humours as Crabs-eyes the Salts of plants the tincture of Tartar c. whence belong hither most of the more generous Aperient Diureticks and Lithontripticks From hence it appears why Acid and Lixivious Medicines also are good in the stone namely both of them resolve correct glutinosity and destroy a preternatural coagulum likewise other things that take away grumescence or clodding and resolve coagulation which also are good when clods of Blood stop about the Bladder II. Or 2. they respect the saline acrimony and irritation of the genus Membranosum and are temperating moistening cooling absorbing whether the parenchyma and Membranous and Nervous passages be hurt by an acrimonious caustick Salt as it is common upon taking Cantharides to have all the harm accrew to the Kidneys and Bladder alone or from the weight and sharp corners of the coagulated Stone Such are 1. those things that are common as it were to both temperate and demulcing aqueous Remedies not Saline Sweet and Mucilaginous as Gum Tragacanth Gum Arabick the pulp of Cherries and Cassia Raisins Sebestens Conserve of the flowers of Mallows commended by Amatus Fernelius's Syrup of Marsh-Mallows c. 2. Things also that are partly oily and watry as sweet Milk Emulsions of the cold Seeds Which as they ease the Symptoms that are caused by Cantharides so they do in a special manner demulce and ease the ways that are torn by over stretching as it were and by accident they cure nocturnal pollution help the Strangury that springs from a serous acrimony 3. Precipitants whether they be withal Styptick as in pissing of Blood and other laxities or Nervine as Cinnabarines the more temperate specifick powders so also steel Remedies belong hither hence Heurnius upon Hippocrates's aphor 6. 6. where when he had said that the pains and Diseases of the Reins and Bladder-in general are hard to cure he commends experimentally in an Ulcer of the Kidneys the juice of steel that is steel Wine made of the filings of steel macerated in sweet and strong Wine 4. Acids correct a bilious Acrimony if it be present as red Liver-wort whence according to Hippocrates lib. de locis Acids both cause the Strangury and help it And these as we have already intimated are good for Bloody Urine diabetes nocturnal pollution heat of Urine yea in the stone it self and we must also have great regard to the pains which are as it were the tyrants of indication 5. Hither belong even Opiats also which being mixed with resolvers are very useful in the Stone not indeed as if they resolved primarily or as if they cleared the wayes but because they give rest to Nature III. Or 3. They respect the stopping and clearing of the ways not so much by driving forward as loosning that way and leave may be given to the departure of the unwelcom Guest such as are internal and external emollients and paregoricks lubricaters and moisteners especially oily things chiefly Oil of sweet Almonds likewise Chamomel the Decoction whereof resolves withal whence the Flowers thereof in Pottage give present ease in the Cardialgia or Pain at the Stomach the Colick Stone also fat Broths for they give by so much the presenter Ease by how much they resolve the more withal thus the Oil of sweet Almonds with the juice of Lemons is a Secret with some Hither belongs that place of Walaeus m. m. p. 4. In Pains of the Stone says he whether you
Wedel de s m. fac p. 85. demulce defend alter Preparers of the Humours See Aperients and Alteratives The Contents Whether they be always necessary before Purging and what kind of Preparation is requisite I. When Nature is oppressed by Humours offending both in quantity and quality how to be made II. As the Crudity of the Humours depends on their disgregation so their Concoction is to be expected from Temperature and Vnion III. Things that are thick from adustion are otherwise to be prepared than those that are thick from crudity IV. Preparation may and ought to be made by outward Applications V. Whether and what Humours are to be altered VI. They may be given at any time VII How thick Humours are to be prepared VIII Whether thin need Preparation IX When the Alteratives ought to be as strong as the quality to be altered X. Let alterations be made by degrees XI Let there be an Analogy between the alterative and thing to be altered XII Concoction is not to be interrupted by the giving of looseners XIII Whether the bilious Humour be always to be prepared by cold things XIV The abuse and hurt of Apozems XV. Barley water is not to be put in Apozems XVI When Laxatives are hurtful XVI Before Purging let the Body be made soluble rather by a Clyster than Syrups XVII With these Strengthners are to be administred XVIII Infusions are better than Decoctions XIX All distilled Waters are naught for the Stomach XX. Chymrical Openers are to be preferred before Galenick XXI Aliments that one is used to will not supply the place of Medicins XXII Whether the Spirit and Oil of Vitriol be good in Fevers XXIII The Medicins of Tartar are not universal Digestives XXIV When the crystals of Tartar and when the cream to be given XXV The deceit in making of the Crystals XXVI There is often more vertue in crude Tartar than in its Cream XXVII The efficacy of the Salt of Tartar XXVIII The correction of Taâ—tar vitriolate XXIX To whom that and other Preparations of Tartar are hurtful XXX Whence the efficacy of volatil Salts depends XXXI They very well prepare tough Phlegm XXXII The glutinousness of choler is excellently corrected by their means XXXIII and XIV The efficacy and correction of the Salt or Vitriol of Steel XXXIV Steel is diversly to be prepared according to the nature of the obstructing Humour XXXV How to draw out of it its several vertues of binding opening purging and vomiting XXXVI How the action of Chalybeates is to be promoted XXXVII Whether Purgers may be given with them XXXVIII Whether Cordials XXXIX Cautions in the use of Chalybeates XL. How Nitre cools XLI Oxymels and Hydromels are better than Syrups XLII Dryed herbs have other vertues than green XLIII In the correcting of Phlegm Sugar and Medicines prepared with Sugar do hurt XLIV An hurtful abuse of Wormwood XLV When to be used for the concoction of the Humours and the strengthening of the Stomach XLVI Some Preparers are universal others particular XLVII How Choler is to be prepared XLVIII and XIV The correcting of Salt Phlegm and Serum XLIX How a melancholick cacochymie is to be corrected L. How atrabilary Humours LI. The Correction of acrimonious Humours is various according to their difference LII We must take heed lest in altering one Humour the rest be injured thereby LIII How to bridle the too great effervescence in the small guts and heart LIV. The Pancreatick Humour is to be prepared before evacuation LV. How to correct the too great fluidity or the over thick consistence of the Blood LVI I. THe more Ancient Physicians to whom many of the Moderns also assent as they believed an elective Purgation so they ordered a Preparation of the Humours previous and as it were necessary to it on which account in Books of Practice as often as a Cathartick Medicine is prescribed a long series of Preparers destin'd for every particular Humour is proposed in a solemn manner and with a certain pomp as it were whose use although it be very specious seems not at all profitable because such Humours are not truly in being as we have otherwhere clearly shewn Notwithstanding seeing Purging is not convenient at all times nor in every condition of the Body to perform it right both a fit time and some sort of preparation is requisite and both these respect as well the first ways as the mass of Blood As to the former if at any time the Stomach be either buâ—thened with a load of viscous Phlegm or be troubled with the estuation of turgid bile Purging is often undertaken to none or ill purpose unless these contents be either first swept out by giving a Vomit or their burthening and effervescence be corrected by Digestives And as to the latter viz. the Blood Purging is often unseasonable and sometimes also incongruous and in neither of these cases are those which are commonly called Preparers but only Alteratives convenient because those imaginary Humours are not to be disposed towards evacuation but the Blood it self ought to be reduced either from a troubled and confused to a sedate state or from a weakness or dyscrasie to a vigour and equable temperament When the Blood estuating froâ— a Fever is disturbed in its mixture Purging is always found hurtful and therefore it is condemned by Hippocrates and the Ancients and no less when its mass being languid and weak rises not to a due Fermentation Moreover when the Blood is beyond measure cholerick or watry or is too much inclined to coagulations or fusions Purgers are for the most part so far from removing such faults or depravation that they oftener increase them So that in these cases altering Remedies are rather indicated those namely that may destroy the undue separations or combinations of the Salts Sulphur and Serum Willis and take away their oâ—her enormities II. Sometimes Nature is over-whelmed and choaked by the plenty of Humours sometimes she is only pricked and irritated by their quality or both of these happens viz. that both the plenty of Humours and also their hurtful quality oppresses Nature Thus if together with a very great febrile effervescence the Patient feel wandring Pains in divers Parts and also suffer divers changes of heat in his Face and other parts so that one while some part of his face look red and anon pale and lastly be very restless and ill at ease which depends on the serous Humour irritated with a febrile Ferment besides Bleeding and Purging the cure must be begun with specifick antifebriles and temperate Antiarthriticks Diaphoreticks and Diureticks which may like Nature precipitate the matter that infests by its quality And at length when the Symptoms are allayed the occasional cause is to be eradicated by Purging Frid. Hofman m. m. l. 1. c. 7. and a relapse to be prevented III. Every alteration makes not the Humours crude but only that if we consult Hippocrates which is apt to cause a disgregation in them for
is found in it unless some error be committed in Diet or a mans constitution decline more or less from a perfect State of Health Now if any one do attentively consider all the Humours in the Body that are to be confounded with the Blood as also the proper qualities of each he will easily come over to us and will grant that their strictier union with the Blood is owing to an Acid and therefore to the Pancreatick juice or Lympha ill affected On the contrary that their looser Union with the Blood and so the loosning of the stricter is to be hoped and expected from a sal lixivium and especially a Volatil and so from a bitter and therefore from Choler when it is more powerful and has the dominion Daily experience confirms how true these things are which I have now said seeing it may be known to any who observes those things which cast the Healthful into divers Sicknesses and increase the same and on the other hand which restore lost health to sick Persons that the concoction in the Blood is hindred by the Vertue of Acids but such as are excessively so and that the same is promoted and obtain'd by the help of Aromaticks and in particular of bitter things or volatil Salts but such as are more temperate See concerning the signs of crudity from Vrines loc cit § 14. The watry Urine which is a sign of crudity that is of deficient concoction in the Humours of the Blood as often as it continues and a Spontaneous concoction by Nature is expected in vain so often is it to be promoted by Art and that by Medicines that kindly temper all acrimony of the Humours but chiefly the acid whence the too intimate mixture of the Humours in the mass of Blood uses to proceed and such as will loose again their over-strict union The fixed Sulphurs of Minerals and Metals being exalted to their greatest Perfection do above all other things gently temper all acrimony of the Humours even the acid also Next to these are volatil oleous Salts and to these Aromaticks by the vertue of which being prudently used exceeding even imagination in many things there is not only obtained such an effervescence of subcontrary Humours in the small Gut and Heart as is most agreeable to Humane Nature but the preternatural concretion and union of the two acrimonious Humours being first moderated by them is dissolved again in the Blood I declare from Experience that these things are to be esteemed of great moment in Physick Idem § 78. and 79. IV. Trallianus l. 5. cap. concerning a Diary Fever from Obstructions does not grant oxymel for preparing the Humours that are thick through adustion but that are thick through crudity For the things that are thick through adustion are made thin if you dilute them with liquids thus dirt is made thin by mixing it with water and choler made Vitelline or like the yelks of Eggs by assation by a cold and moist Potion becomes thin and liquid but the things that are thick through crudity or the admixture of a thick Humour such as is vitelline choler in a bastard Tertian are made thin by heating things that attenuate the thickness of the substance and incide the clamminess thus we incide and attenuate viscid and thick Phlegm by Oxymel and Honey of Roses V. When the whole mass of Blood offends in quality we may change it also with external Alteratives Wal. m. m. p 94. Epithems and washings of the hands witness this VI. There are some Practitioners that always alter and never Purge That we may know whether Alteration ought to be made we lay down these Rules 1. All alimentary Humours ought to be alter'd when they abound 2. And the excrementitious Humours 1 which are so mixed with the mass of Blood that they cannot be separated 2 In burning Fevers in the greatest heat and motion of the Blood the vicious Particles are so exactly mixed with the good Blood that they admit of no separation whence it is absurd to intend to Purge in the augment or state of these Fevers 3 When excrementitious Humours so abound that they cannot be drawn out without present danger of life 3. Those excrementitious Humours refuse alteration that are severed from the mass of Blood Idem p. 102. VII Let none trouble himself in vain with thinking as many do who are moved more by Reason than Experience that all Medicines can be taken safely only when the Stomach is empty of Meat seeing I have found the contrary true in many especially as to Medicins that alter and correct the Humors For I have observed a thousand times that Alteratives namely the gentle for such only I would have Physicians to use have been used with greater benefit of the Patient a little before or after Meals yea at them than at other times Nor is reason contrary to this experience for so the vertue of the Medicine does kindly mix and insinuate it self not only into the Saliva in the Stomach but also into the Ternary of Humours that flow together in the small Gut yea int◠all the Blood also and all the other Humours in the right ventricle of the Heart and in all the Arteries and Veins whereby the desired amendment and correction of one or all of them is the sooner Franc. Sylv. Pract. l. 1. c. 34. § 102 more easily and happily performed VIII Thick Humours cannot flow and they are either tough or slimy or dense The sliminess of the Humours is known from the Urine when some white stuff sticks closely to the Chamber-Pot The thickness of the Humours is corrected by acid and hot things whence in many Fevers all we give is to no purpose unless we mix hot things therewith Yea it may chance that when a Physician has not been able to cure a long Tertian prescribing to his Patient nothing but tedious cooling Apozems an old Woman coming bids him take a draught of Wine to comfort himself Walaeus m. m. p. 104. and the Patient is recovered IX Preparation is always necessary before purging except in two cases 1. if the matter be turgid 2. if it be thin such as is the cholerick and serous which easily yield to any attracting Remedy But it is questioned whether thin Humors be to be prepared that is incrassated for the Humours cannot be evacuated unless they be concocted but concoction incrassates as Aristotle 4. met teacheth Concoction says Avicen is a certain adequation and reduction to mediocrity if therefore thin Humours be to be concocted they are to be reduced to mediocrity and therefore to be incrassated Besides thin Humours easily elude the vertue of the Medicine which working by compressing the Vessels thin Humours will be apt to escape But on the contrary thinness of the Humours is requisite for evacuation for thin Humours pass out of their own accord and resist not attracting Medicines as Galen teacheth 3. progn 23. and in other places We must say that
Heer 's obs 1. de May. â—â—e Tr. de Aâ—thr with the addition of a spoonful of white Tartar cleansed by washing only and dried XXVIII The Salt of Tartar has a great opening vertue and may profitably be put in opening Apozems Opiats and Pills but its principal use is in a loosening Ptisan which is made of two drachms of Senna infused in eight ounces of cold water with a scruple or half a drachm of Salt of Tartar whereby the Tincture of the Senna is powerfully extracted so that this ptisan purgeth far more strongly than the common and being continued for many days looses all obstructions from which effect I have known stubborn Quartans often thoroughly cured by the use of this ptisan continued for fifteen days If you fear the Acrimony of the Salt of Tartar it may be corrected with the Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur as for half a drachm of the Salt let there be fifteen drops of the Spirit River Pract. XXIX Of the Spirit of Vitriol with the Salt or Spirit of Tartar is made Tartar Vitriolate which incides and attenuates cold and viscous Humours concocts crudities opens obstructions and cleanseth away the sticking matter and does all these things very effectually For if the Tartar of Wine have of it self no small vertue to open and absterge if Vitriol alone do this as natural acid and vitriolate Waters demonstrate which are very profitable in all Diseases that spring from obstructions much more is this to be granted to Tartar vitriolate where prepared and very well purified oyl of Tartar by pouring oyl of Vitriol drop by drop upon it is fixt not without excandescence But it is to be observed that if it be exactly prepared according to Crollius it will creatâ— a nausea G. Horst Dec. 9. probl 5. where is another preparation and in the more delicate often cause a vomiting through the over great quantity of the oyl of Tartar in respect to the Spirit of vitriol Therefore it will have the better operation when equâ—l parts are taken XXX The cream and crystalls of Tartar and Tartar vitriolate are so common at this day that many hardly prescribe any Medicines without putting some of these in them Yea Crollius calls Tartar Vitriolat an universal Digestive And I confess indeed that Medicines made of Tartar have a very great vertue in inciding and attenuating Melancholick and thick Humours and therefore in opening obstructions But whereas it often happens that in Hypochondriack Melancholy there are often found black choler and Salt and sowr Humours and such as are altogether Acrimonious and have the Seeds of fire as it were in them surely Tartar Vitriolate and such Acrimonious Medicines are not proper for such Humours seeing they do not blunt their Acrimony but those are rather to be used which temper the bad qualities of such Humours Sennert pract l. 3. p. 3. c. 3. and contrary qualities are to be opposed to contrary ¶ When sometimes there arise dreadful Symptoms from the use of Tartar vitriolate as Vomiting a pain at the Stomach Frid. Hofm clavis Schrod p. 610. c. it is not to be imputed to the Salt of Tartar but often to the impure Spirit of Vitriol XXXI Seeing volatil Salts may be drawn from all the parts of man with small trouble whereof therefore I conclude they consist none ought to wonder that amongst Alteratives and correctors of the depraved Humours of Men I often praise and commend Volatil Salts but such as are mild whereunto here also I deservedly give the preference in correcting and amending the hurts accrewing from the air any way infected Fr. Sylv. de le Boe p. m. 407. or from bad aliments that stay in the Body c. XXXII Viscid Phlegm is incided both by all Aromaticks and things that abound with a volatil Salt and also by Acids and most effectually by Aromatick Gumms Idem append Tr. 5. §. 571. as Galbanum Sagapenum Ammoniacum Bdellium Opopanax Mastich and the like ¶ Volatil Salts being taken for continuance even together with meat are good to prepare tough Phlem as not only inciding and correcting of it but driving part thereof to the ways of the urine and expelling of it in the form of sediment which yet fails by degrees in the urine and on that account yields an undoubted sign that the phlegm is corrected and overcome for the greatest part Idem pract l. 1. c. 30. ¶ Nothing does so incide and correct a too glutinous tough and clammy Blood as any volatil Salt used for a continuance at any time at dinner and supper with Wine c. Seeing every Chronical and tedious distemper draws its original from a phlegmatick Humour at least has the same joined with its cause which yields to no Remedy more easily or sooner than to volatil Salt used according to art Idem c. 43. §. 17 2◠¶ Phlegm as it is a concrete Serum so it requires attenuaters heaters resolvers or things that make it fluid with moisteners But note that we must not dry too much for so it becomes more concrete whence besides Aromaticks and bitterish Acids as Spirit of Vitriol Wedel â—â—id Phlegmaticks are very good yet not omitting heaters and moisteners XXXIII I have learned by some years experience that the consistence and from hence the glutinousness of the Choler as also of other Humours in the Body are increased by the frequent use of austere or sowr things and on the contrary that the same are lessened by a continued use of volatil Salts Acrimonious Aromaticks Idem c. 44. XXXIV The Salt or Vitriol of Steel gains the preference of all other Remedies because it opens obstructions strengthens the Viscera and corrects an hot intemperies the dose is from twelve grains to twenty with a Syrup or conserve c. The ungratefulness of its taste is amended by making it up into pills with the mucilage of Gum tragacanâ—h Let it be of constant use and therefore prepare a great quantiâ—y We give you here an easie preparaâ—ion that cannot be compared by Beguin and others take of oyl of vitriol or Sulphur half a pound of the Spirit of Wine a pound pour them into a new and clean frying pan or Iron dish and cover it wiâ—h a Board within fifteen days there will be a saline concretion which set in the sun that it may be throughly dryed moving it now and â—hen with an Iron spatula in the winter it may be dryed over a very weak fire or in a stove when the Salt is very well dryed put it up in a glass phial well stopt for if it be expos'd to the air it is apt to grow moist The pills made of it with the mucilage of Gum tragacanth will be made harder by adding a little of the Powder of the Gum it self and when they are made up keep them in a glass that they wax not moist River pr. l. 12. c. 5. This Remedy may be continued for
the more readily be driven down out of the Body being furthered by the slipperiness hereof Which how profitable it is we then come to understand when after a long loosness wherein this Phlegm has been expelled also we come to want the benefit of excretion Do not those therefore offer violence to Nature Simon Pauli Quadrip Botan class 3. tit Centaur min. that are daily scraping this crust from off the Guts with Pills and Clysters LXIII 'T is strange how apt Wine is to penetrate by reason of its volatil Salts how entirely it often conveys the vertues of vegetables into the menstruum or Liquor Hence I remember that D. Joh. Michael did gravely advise as often as Resinous Bodies were added to any Purging potion that they were better extracted if a little Wine were added On the same account 't is better to use Mechoacan in Infusion than in Pouder I. D. Major tract de calc Sperlingian and Schroder l. 4. pharm § 448. declares that the purging Spirit or Infusion of Scammony prepared with the Spirit of Malaga-Wine purges without any trouble or disturbance LXIV Simple Extracts are often better than compound especially when the compound aim not all at one and the same scope Thus the most simple Laudanum made of Opium alone is in my opinion to be prefer'd far before all the Laudanums that are to be had up and down made with the essence of Spec. diambrae c. for these very things are far better added for the present use according to the intention of the thing and the variation of circumstances There is the like reason in the extraction of a mass for Pills whence amongst other things it chiefly comes to pass that Pills made of such a compound Mass have commonly so deceitful an effect The same holds of most other common compositions in which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the decent manner of mixture is seldom observed 'T is better to prepare the things which are to be prepared and then to compound them at pleasure or rather according to necessity G. W. Wedel pharm p. 26. lest being overwhelmed as it were with a hodg-podg of Ingredients we become either doubtful or deceived LXV Purging extracts are a more sluggish kind of Medicin The Rosin of Scammony or Jalap may indeed be dissolved with the Spirit of Wine and reduced into an Essence which is a Medicin convenient enough but yet a little too hot But amongst Purgers Extracts are of more common use than Essences Now that Purging Extracts are more sluggish in Operation is clear by experience For though half a Scruple of the Rosin of Jalap be equal in proportion to two Scruples of Jalap in substance yet it Purges no more than one Scruple of Jalap Yea Pills made of the Rosin of Scammony or Jalap alone have either no effect at all or else an unfaithful one that is they either purge not at all or more strongly than they should If any ask how this comes to pass that there should not be a stronger effect seeing Rosins and Extracts are and are called the quintessence as it were or at least the best part The true reason hereof consists in the manner of resolution Scammony Jalap and Rhubarb purge strongly in substance in regard the Sulphur is more dispersed and therefore they are more easily dissolved and consequently stimulate the Guts to Excretion And this very resolution of the Medicin is chiefly performed by the Serum which as it is the vehicle of Aliments so also of Medicins But when the Resinous Sulphureous particles are more united they are more conglobated and more hardly dissolved yet when they are resolved which they are in Bodies abounding with Salt humours chiefly they then more readily display their Salino-Sulphureous Stimulus and communicate it to the Body Hence Purging Rosins are best given with Emulsions And likewise it is adviseable to mix the extract of Scammony or Jalap with a little of the same in substance which we commonly do with good success For it is to be noted that besides the Resinous there lurk also Gummy parts in Jalap which when precipitation is made come severally into sight by the evaporation of the decanted Liquor which is not very Purgative Hence gather what is to be thought of that opinion of Lavaterus who defens Gal. p. 72. says he has been taught by experience that the taking of a simple Infusion of Purgers does more than Extracts themselves because he thought that the purging vertue of Medicins inheres more in the Salt than in the Sulphur or Mercury for the Salt can never be mixed with Spirit of Wine Idem although in time it may draw something of a tincture from it LXVI Many imprudently enough infuse a great deal of Senna and Rhubarb in a small quantity of Liquor whereby all their vertue is so far from being drawn forth that half or a fourth part of it is not He therefore that is desirous to know both the quantity of the Liquor and also of the Purger to be infused in it 1. Let him have regard to the Liquor it self whether it be pure or imbued with the vertue of some other Purging Medicin that may help or hinder the vertue of that which we are to infuse 2. Let him consider whether the Purger be strong and full of a Purgative vertue or more or less destitute of the same from any cause And seeing the Physician cannot know what such the Purger is which the Apothecary will make use of the more prudent Physicians use to prescribe a little the more of the Purger that if it have not its vertue intire that want may be made up with using the greater quantity of it LXVII But another error is often committed here by Apothecaries whilst some infuse the Purger in the prescribed quantity of Liquor others in a greater and either take only a part thereof or evaporate it too much yea sometimes strain the Purger and sometimes not Whence any one may see how uncertain the efficacy of such an Infusion must needs be In the mean time many Apothecaries think they have Licence to do such things whereby yet both the Physicians and Patients are imposed upon Wherefore seeing it is impossible for a Physician to discover the particular custom of any Apothecary which they often conceal I had rather in my Practice prescribe either Electuaries or Pills than Infusions seeing Potions also may be made of Electuaries dissolved in a convenient Liquor And I have observed that I have prescribed Physick to my Patients with far greater certainty and safety than others Sylv. de le Boe meth med lib. II. c. 7. Salivaters The Contents They Operate by opening and widening the pores of the Fauces palate c. I. By fusing melting and inciding the serous humours II. Whether salivation by Mercury be an universal evacuation III. Salivaters evacuate the conjunct cause and relieve the neighbouring parts IV. They are most proper when humours are
to six Horstius observed that in the adult it may safely be given to an Ounce See his Seventh Book of Observations Obs 30. XXXIV I remember that I have read that white Vitriol was prescribed by Heurnius to two Grains but that does nothing Walaeus it must be taken to half a Scruple twelve or sixteen Grains XXXV If much filth load the Bowels especially the Stomach gentle Vomits with aqua benedicta are to be prescribed for it has this peculiar vertue that it not only throws out the filth bur also instigates the Stomach to Concoction whence after the use of aqua benedicta we always observe the appetite even though buried as it were for a long time Hartman Pr. chym p. 185. to be revoked and increased XXXVI When a Disease yields not to the vertue of Antimony white Hellebore is called in to assist if the Patient be strong Herophilus compared it to a valiant Captain for having mustered all within he said it marches first out Heurn Meth. med lib. 2. c. 21. where he delivers divers Preparations of it amongst which he extols the Electuary and divers cautions in giving it that therefore the Ancients mistook in giving it in too small a Dose seeing the more of it is given the sooner it comes forth But then it must be accurately prepared seeing as Oribasius witnesses heretofore many have been kill'd by it because they knew not how to prepare it XXXVII The same thing almost is to be corrected in Quercetan's Oxymel of Tabaco where also the quantity of the Vinegar is too great and of the Tabaco too little for the intention of raising a Vomit Therefore I think that the weight of the Tabaco ought to be doubled The Dose is two or three Spoonfuls by it felf or with some pectoral Decoction It is approved of by Horstius c. Hoefer XXXVIII In the giving of Vomits with Preparations of Vitriol Beguin tyrocin l. 2. c. 17. we must carefully take heed of an Asthma and other Diseases of the Breast XXXIX Amongst Vomitories I prefer Antimonials before all others as often as Choler chiefly offends where Phlegm abounds I commend Mercurials Sylv. Append tract 8. § 160. either alone or mixt with other things because they do above all other bring forth tough Phlegm and moreover incide it XL. Among the stronger Vomitories we use now adays is the salt of Vitriol rightly prepared of Vitriol rightly calcin'd For if the calcin'd Vitriol acquire not a dull purple colour you shall extract nothing but a Vitriol of the same colour and shall obtain no white Salt But if you exceed and so by calcining the Vitriol too much spoil it of its acid Spirits you shall not get much of that Salt out of it which will vomit Sal Martis rightly prepared of Vitriolum Martis has a better vertue Quercetan in tetradaff capit bestows on it the name of a celestial Manna A. Sala in his ternary of Vomitories commends it to the Skies Yet note from Zwelfer in Append. ad Animadv p. m. 7. that this is improperly called a Salt seeing it is nothing but the substance it self of the Vitriol separated from all impurities and metallick substance seeing 't is commonly prepared without any preceding calcination only by repeated Solutions Filtrations and Coagulations whence it ought to be called Frid. Hofman m. m. p. 112. white Vitriol vomitive and not salt of Vitriol XLI The glass of Antimony is not given safely in substance but 't is more safe to use it in infusion or by correcting it with Nitre only for the amending its noxious Nature For because it is nothing but the meer Marchasite of Lead having in it an Arsenical Mercury and an external auripigmental Sulphur certainly it is not void of all poisonous quality Idem l. 1. c. 9. XLII Dioscorides says that Vitriol causes vomiting which is to be understood of the crude for being badly prepared Chymists call it Gilla it causes a mortal vomiting and death One to empty his Stomach that was overcharged with salt Herrings took a Gilla prepared by himself and died on the same day vomiting His Stomach was found persorated in three places Henr. ab Heer 's de Acid. p. 28. excepting only the thin outmost coat to which the Gilla stuck fast and had eaten into it XLIII Salt of Vitriol is prescribed to be made divers ways viz. of an elixiviate Colcothar of a blue calcin'd and elixiviate Vitriol according to Ang. Sala and of white Vitriol purified by often solutions and coagulations which Medicine is commonly called Gilla Theophrasti and is altogether safe and easie to make Yet the two first Medicines are notably styptick and inasmuch as they have endured the fire are somewhat corrosive but the last being kindly enough does gently pull the Fibres of the Stomach and causes them somewhat to contract themselves so that for the casting off what is troublesom they are at length convuls'd and cause strainings to vomit yet such as soon pass over and the disturbance of the Stomach is allayed in a short time Salt of Vitriol is the more esteemed because it seldom gives any disturbance beyond the Stomach nor like Antimonials brings on Convulsions of the viscera and disorders of the Blood or fainting away yet it is blamed for that it works but dully and sometimes not at all so that after the taking of Vitriol and drinking a great deal of Posset-drink 't is often necessary to provoke vomiting by putting a feather down the Throat Willis Pharm rat p. 60. or by drinking Carduus Posset or oxymel of Squills XLIV Asarum is better in infusion than substance for thereby it becomes milder in Decoction its volatil vertue is more driven away whence it almost ceases to be a vomitive unless it be boiled but gently I have observed the root to be milder than the leaves A strong man died of a superpurgation that had taken a spoonful of the Powder of the leaves Idem Antidotes being given in vain XLV Divers descriptions of Rulandus's aqua benedicta go about some asfirming it to be made of crocus but that of the Author himself is the best Cent. 5. Obs 95. Take of crocus metallorum from the bigness of a Lentil to the quantity of a Pease of Water Wine Beer Mead or other Liquor proper for the Disease Gr. W. Wedel de s m. fac p. 161. as much as suffices Steep it for a Night or in case of urgent necessity boil it strain it and the Dose is from half an Ounce to two Ounces XLVI But note that that crocus metallorum which I would have to be understood also of all other Antimonial Emeticks for so even the glass may be given and that made by it self without Borax is not here to be made use of that is made with the addition of Tartar but that which is made of an equal quantity of Antimony and Nitre alone whether the whole be detonated all at once
use Cupping-glasses thinking by that means they may draw the dislocated Vertebra outwards again which Hippocrates expresly forbids lib. de Articulis But it is great weakness to think to draw out the Verticles slipt inward by applying Cupping Glasses for they rather drive forward than backward nor do those that set them on take notice of this for by how much faster they set them on so much the more crooked are they made to whom they are applied because they shrink the outer skin together XIV When the Patient has bled enough he may be purged the day following Riverius l. 6. c. 7. never waiting for the Coction of the Humours because the Disease gives no Truce Nay if that it be very violent you may Bleed and Purge the same day which Trallianus saith he did l. 4. c. 1. But it must be done with gentle Medicines because of the Inflammation ¶ After the Patient has been let Bloud the next morning if the Fever and Pain be any thing abated I presently give him a gentle Purge which after Bloud-letting is the best thing can be done and by often experience I have found it highly necessary If afterwards which seldom happens Sydenham Observ Sect. 5. c. 7. the Fever and other Symptoms invade him they must be encounter'd with repeated Bloud-letting as before Through the whole course of this Disease I order every morning a Cooling emollient Clyster except the day allotted for Purging XV. There are some that prescribe Gargarisms of some sower and bitter things that are not very ingratefull to the Taste for repelling the Humour Yet I suspect the use of these things in this case because the Parts Inflamed should be quiet but the Throat and Jaws are moved by Gargling Therefore I would either have them not used at all or held in the Mouth without stirring Enchir. Med. Pr. lying on ones back that they may come to the Part affected Then I prescribe the following Gargarism not to be used the common way but to be kept in the Mouth without Gargling till it be hot Sydenham loc supra cit then to be spit out and more taken Take of Water of Plantain Red Roses and Frog Spawn each four ounces three Whites of Eggs beaten to water of White Sugar-Candy three Drachms make a Gargarism XVI Galen and his followers in all sorts of Quinseys from the Beginning use cold and astringent Gargarisms contrary to the Precept of Hippocrates 4. de rat vict in acut vers 72. who prescribes Gargarisms actually hot They mistake not considering how such Medicines cause certain and speedy Suffocation in the Quinsey which depenâ—â— on Phlegmatick Matter seeing it gives not place to Repellents but being thickned and more-setled in the Part it is rendred more unfit for Discussion and readier for Suffocation and in that which comes of sharp and thin Matter although they be not so pernicious yet they may doe more hurt than good for since they cannot repell upwards the Matter descending from the Head when it is forced either to the iâ—ner parts of the Muscles of the Throat or upon the Lungs they may make the Disease more dangerous Hippocrates his Advice is better whom all the Ancients follow'd as you may see 6. de comp Med. while he thinks good in all sorts of Quinseys and at all times to abstain from Repellents and always to use Rarefiers and Discutients that the Matter may more easily be raised by Spittle and be driven outward and discuss'd Nor is there any fear the Flux should increase seeing it may be prevented by Bleeding and Purging and other Remedies respecting the Matter fluent Martâ—anus Câ—m in prâ—eâ—â—ctum lâ—cuni p. 308. And if at any time he would have some Astringents mixt with the foresaid Medicines when the Matter is thin he does it not because he would repell but that by their drying virtue he might avoid too great laxity of the Part and that he might lessen the Swelling Therefore he approves the use of them rather in the Beginning than at another Time as appears from lib. 2. de morb sect 1. vers 24. XVII Humours sticking in the Flesh which are wholly extravasated cannot run because of the thickness Therefore the Physician must make them fluxile with hot Medicines If one taken with a Quinsey do in the beginning of the Disease Gargle himself with Spirit of Wine Walaeus m. p. 11â— all Inflammation of the Throat will cease in three hours time XVIII Whether a Swallow's Nest be of use Some disapprove it as Mercurialis because the Virtue lies not in the Nest but in the Bird But grant the Bird be endowed with such a peculiar Virtue yet it ought not be denied the Nest because the Nest may have it from the Excrements of the young ones which are full of Salt Neither ought it to be rejected for the repellent virtue of the Earth as Pereda doth because all Earth hath not a Repulsive Virtue nor is it desired alone but for the sake of the Dung mixt with it which is sharp and Discutient whose sharpness the Earth qualifies Therefore it is a Remedy most proper to discuss Tumours chiefly of the Jaws and Throat especially if the Bird have a peculiar virtue against the Quinsey If the Quinsey be Phlegmatick Swallow's Dung used inwardly and outwardly is good But a bilious one is exasperated by the use of sharp Medicines It concocts and discusses Phlegmatick Humours and dries up the superfluous Moisture XIX J. Tiengius had a Nun under Cure that had an Imposthume in her Throat which was Twenty days before it broke or she could swallow any Food He ordered now and then a Clyster of sweet Milk boild with Yelks of Eggs. Forestus Obs â—0 in scholio lib. 15. Amatus teaches the same when the Quinsey is upon the Windpipe and Gullet that Broths given by way of Clyster are able to nourish Celsus and others affirm the same We kept a Religious Woman alive in a Quinsey for nine days onely with Clysters and she recovered of her Sickness Brassavolus comm ad aphor 15. Sect. 2. XX. In a Quinsey Symptomatick of a Malignant Fever we must doe nothing before the great Heat be laid the Body evacuated and altered and the Parts be preserved against the Poyson Hen. Petraeus in Nâ—sol Heâ—mon XXI Then Sleep as in all inward Inflammations so in this likewise must be avoided to our utmost power for according to the Prince of Physicians in sleep the Bloud retires inwards therefore the Defluxion of the Humours to the part affected may be increased XXII A Learned Man of a Sanguine Temper inclining to adust was taken with a Bastard Quinsey without a Fever he swallowed difficultly and found some straitness about his Jaws He tried many things to quiet his troublesome Disease supposing it came of a Defluxion from the Brain although there were more signs that that was dry He Purged his Head often with Pills he prescribed to himself for he was a
operate nothing at all which is an ill sign and such persons usually die But because according to Celsus Many things may well be done in a dangerous case which should otherwise be omitted therefore when the foresaid Remedies avail not we may come up to Antimonial Medicines especially those that are less violent such as Aqua Benedicta made of Crocus Metallorum which Purging both upwards and downwards brings away so great a quantity of Phlegm not onely from the Stomach and lower parts but from the Brain that sometime the Patient is cured by this Evacuation For I can truely testifie that I saw a Nobleman cured of an Apoplexy thrice in two years by this onely Remedy And although some condemn the use of Vomits in these cases yet we must rather trust experience which teaches us by daily experiments how comatous Children are with more speed and safety cured by Vomitive Salt of Vitriol Riverius than by any other Remedy XIV Here I must take notice of a frequent Errour in giving the Emetick Wine For timorous Physicians prescribe it in too small a Dose i. e. an ounce or an ounce and half at most and when they are frustrated of the effect expected Francisc Bayle Tract de Apoplexia c. 11. they blame and disparage the Medicine whereas to persons grown and of any strength it should be given to about three ounces in an Infusion of Senna XV. Walaeus saith that in the Apoplexy Clysters may be so strong of Coloquintida that they fetch the very bloud Nothing hinders it for Life must be saved and this Damage may easily be repaired And it may the better be done if the Apoplexy were caused by too much bloud XVI The Belly for Revulsion sake and to excite the dull Faculties may be provoked by administring sharp Clysters and Suppositories whereas otherwise they would scarce go to stool Suppositories because they provoke exceedingly and are quickly made and by reason Clysters cannot be kept for Senselessness are very convenient and should often be repeated Platerus in which some burning hot things since the Patient is without Sense will doe no harm XVII Some rub Hiera and Purging Electuaries on the Palate to no purpose in stead whereof it were better to use Confectio Anacardina Idem which inflames a little XVIII We rub the Palate with things that bring away Phlegm yet in that Quantity and Form that if they should fall on the Aspera Arteria they may not choak Take of Mustard-seed long-Pepper Pellitory of Spain powdered a like quantity mix them with as much Honey juice of Rue and Horseradish as is sufficient to make them into the form of an Ointment We leave out the Vinegar which some put in because it abates the strength of sharp things Idem as we see in Onions and Horseradish if they be eaten with Vinegar XIX Although the humour causing the Apoplexy cannot be cast out by Sneezing because it is not contained in the Ventricles yet in this most grievous and dangerous case we must try every thing that may remove the Matter However before Purging it is suspicious because by the motion of the Head and Breast there is a greater afflux of humours We may anoint the Nostrils with the same we anoint the Palate withall Platerus XX. Some provide Fumigations but they are not at all to be commended for they are dangerous to those that have difficulty of Breathing It is better to hold a little Rue Rondeletius or Castor or Galbanum to the Nostrils Some highly approve a Fume of Amber made immediately how destitute such are of Reason Crato learned Physicians can abundantly shew XXI Things taken inwardly are not to be neglected in the very beginning which encrease the Effervescency of the Bloud refresh the Spirits and raise the deficient Heat in Plethorick persons especially after bloud-letting in others both before and after The most spirituous and which abound with volatile Salt are best Such as are several sorts of Apoplectick Waters Spirit of Wine Tartarisate distilled Oils of Anniseed Rosemary Sage Cloves and the like with some Cephalick Water Volatile Salts especially bring great and present benefit that are separated and cleansed from all concretion of their Body such as are the volatile Salts of Sal Ammoniack Soot Bloud Hartshorn and which exceeds them all the volatile Salt of Vipers These Salts quickly pass through the whole Mass of Bloud Bay Tract de Apoplex and render it more fluid they infringe the force of Acids and dissolve grumous bloud XXII There are some who give Treacle or Mithridate to drink but under a great mistake because all the virtue of the Opium will not be lost though they be never so old To say nothing of the many Astringents are in them the strength whereof although it be qualified may be suspected because the humour that is the cause of the Disease and moistens the body of the brain is more deeply impacted by these Medicines Râ—ndeâ—etius It is better to give a Scruple or two of Castor which because of its unpleasantness less hurts the brain XXIII When a continual Fever for one Intermitting presages Death accompanies the Apoplexy as it should do it needs no other help If it be too low it increases the Disease if too high it spends a Man For a Fever cures no other Apoplexy Crato in Consil than that which comes of cooling the bloud of crude humours and a flatulent spirit But here the Prudence of the Physician present is required XXIV Holleriuâ—â— lib. curaâ— Sect. 29. One taken with an Apoplexy was raised by rubbing and Motion a Fever followed gentle enough but with a Delirium Being negligently cured and not raising what fell upon his Lungs he died the ninth day after his Fever and the tenth after his Apoplexy XXV The question is about the Posture of the Patient namely Whether he must presently be put to bed or be kept up a-while Some very carefully observe the latter nor without reason because certainly there will be a greater propensity to sleep in bed and the bloud by the heat of the Clothes will be in a greater ferment and the more it blazes the more recementitious matter it discharges into the disaffected Brain On the contrary while the Patient is thin clad and set in a Chair the bloud runs slower and while the Vessels subside they seem fitter to receive the humours from the Head than to send more thither Wherefore if the Patient have strength sufficient perhaps it were better to sit up six or eight hours till the flux of the morbifick matter be past and the course of the bloud be made more sedate by letting of bloud and by other remedies carefully administred But such as are weak and of a tender Constitution must as soon as they are seized be laid on a bed either in it or upon it His posture must be not on his back but with his head a little raised
Temples and Nostrils The Arch-Dutchess of Austria had frequent experience of the Virtue of this Medicine 14. Take Oil of Cinnamon Cloves and Lavender Jo. Bap. Van Helm Tract de Febribus c. 15. p. m. 778. if you know how to change them into Volatile Salt you have got as effectual a Remedy as can be expected from these Simples in an inveterate Vertigo Palpitation Apoplexy and such cases 15. The following Aqua Vitae or Quintessence preserves a Man from yea cures him of the Apoplexy if a spoonfull of it be taken every morning Take of Conserve of Rosemary Flowers Lavender each two ounces of Balm Sage each one ounce of Species Diamoschi dulcis Diambrae each two drachms of the Root of Peony the Seed of the same of Cinnamon each half an ounce of Saffron a drachm of Castor Rocket Seed each two drachms Franc. Joel Oper. Med. Tom. 1. l. 1. Sect. 3. p. m. 91. Apoplexiae curatio of Sugar Candy half an ounce of Juniper Water distilled four pounds bruise them and mix them let them stand Infused in the Sun or some warm place for a Month distill it in Ashes let the dry Matter be taken out of the Glass and pounded and let the distilled Water be poured on it again let them stand in a warm Infusion fourteen days and then distill them in Balneo Mariae 16. I gave a Noble Apoplectick Woman who could not speak for three days Spirit of Black Cherries and she presently recovered her Voice Mr. Thomas Kesler tractatu German 200 process chim processu 53. 17. Essence of Amber with Apoplectick Water Conrad Kunrad Medull distill part 1. p.m. 202. 248. is a most excellent Remedy for an Apoplexy 18. Tincture or Essence of the Amaethist is both an excellent Preservative and Cure The Dose is to fifteen drops 19. Take of Flowers of the Linden-tree and Lilly of the Valley as much as you please Bay-berries two ounces beat them all well together till they be in a kind of Mass Then take some juice of Violets mixt with Sugar pour it on the Mass mix them well and strain the juice hard out Take this and half as much Salt of Wormwood dissolved into Liquor Distill it by a Retort rectifie the liquor that comes over drive it through a Retort again and then bring it over an Alembick that there may be no Phlegm and you will have a most excellent Spirit of which you may give half a spoonfull Idem p. 2. p. m. 137. ad Apoplex with a little Cinnamon or Linden-Flower Water to an Apoplectick person It gives present help and preserves a Man his whole Life from the Apoplexy 20. For the Apoplexy Phil. Muller mirac chim lib. 5. p. m. 83. Take of the best Aqua Vitae one Pint of Juniper Berries two handfulls bruise them and Infuse them in the Aqua Vitae for three days strain it out and put into it of Sage Pennyrial Cresses Saffron each one drachm give a little to the Patient and he will presently recover his Speech 20. Felix Platerus tract de function laes cap. 2. saith That Chymists give the Extract of Sage in Apoplexies as a great Secret Joh. Popp. Tract de Febribus malignis c. 3. de Apoplex 21. A sure secret for the Apoplexy and loss of Speech Take of Oil of White Amber seven grains of Ambergrise and Musk each eight grains of the Water of Lavender Betony each half an ounce of the Water of Marjoram one ounce mix them and make a Liquor which when taken the Speech will be restored 22. The following Water is of admirable Virtue in comforting the Brain and Nerves It powerfully helps the Memory sharpens the Wit strengthens the Judgment Whâ—ther it be taken inwardly or the Part affected be chafed with it it doeth much good Guernerus Rolfinkins Ord. Meth. Med. special consultatoriae l. 2. Cons 25. 17. Every Dose may be exalted with some grains of Magistery of Pearl or Specifick of Antimony Take of the Leaves of Sage with the Tops and Flowers of Marjoram Lily Conval Balm Hysop Lavender each two handfulls of Rosemary Vervain each half an handfull of the Root of Leopards-bane one ounce of Nutmeg Galangale Cinnamon each one ounce of Bayberries Juniper-berries each three ounces of Herb Paris one ounce of Caroway-Seeds Cubebs Cardamome each half an ounce of Whitewine as much as is sufficient Let them be well bruised and Infused for some days or let them stand fourteen days in Horsedung Then distill it in Balneo Mariae Dan. Sennert l. 1. par 2. c. 33. p. m. 665. de Apoplexia 23. Confectio Anacardina as it is proper in all cold diseases of the Brain so in this especially given either alone if the Patient come to himself and can take solid Medicines or dissolved in Aqua Vitae Also distilled Oil of Nutmegs if dropt into the Nostrils and Ears and the Palate be rubbed with it is highly commended 24. A Mineral Antapoplectical Water Take of Creme of Tartar one pound of the Mineral of Antimony a pound and an half Let the Acid Spirit be distilled by a Retort with a moderate fire which let be rectified Take of this six ounces add thereto of Spirit of Venus made of Verdigriece three ounces of the burning spirit of Saturn distilled from his Sugar an ounce and half of the volatile sulphureous Vitriol rectified by the acid spirit four ounces Mix them for use It is an excellent tart Water much to be desired in all Apoplectick Epileptick and Soporous cases It may safely be given to Children in Fits from one drachm to two in some gratefull Vehicle Appetentia nimia depravata Or The Appetite too great and depraved The Contents We must not use too much fat things in allaying it I. Narcoticks must be used cautiously II. A depraved Appetite cured by Sweat III. By Volatile Salts IV. By running of the Haemorrhoids V. Medicines I. FAt and clammy things stay too great hunger yet they are more proper in the beginning when we would provoke Vomit but when the Vomit becomes violent they must be omitted We must also have a care lest we use them over much and the Patient be brought into a contrary condition therefore when the Patient begins to mend Sennertus Fat things and which hinder concoction must be omitted II. But Narcoticks are to be used with caution and strong ones avoided as the Infusion of Mad Nightshade made in Wine which immediately destroys all appetite of Food in the most voracious person Yet strong Wine and Brandy may be used which according to Platerus take away hunger not so much by heating as stupifying As Treacle and Mithridate by the same narcotick quality he thinks do take away the dog-like Appetite Idem III. It is good in the depraved Appetite sometimes to cause a gentle Sweat But we must have a care that the Patient be not stifled with Clothes for it were better not to sweat at all
Bloud Hence arises an increase of bad Humours and of the Morbifick Cause hence vapours arise to the Head and obstructions in the Bowels which are succeeded by various Symptomes especially by a decay of the innate Heat Now by Anodynes the parts are mollified and the Humour which lay deep in the Joints is drawn outwards whereupon the pains of the Gout which before were most violent abate as the part swells But the greatest caution imaginable and the advice of a skilfull Physician is requisite who must consider the time of the Disease and its Matter for what things are good in the beginning of the pain and defluxion are not good in the state nor are the same things proper in the declension or conclusion of the Gout and so either through unseasonable use of Remedies or variety of Matter frequently that which hath done one Man good does another Man hurt XXVI Most Physicians condemn Narcoticks and Stupefiers because safer means are not wanting whereby the violence of the pain may be asswaged And in their opinion it were better not to stop mens roaring rather than to weaken them with Medicines of that nature A pretty plausible pretence As if the patient and his parts were so weakned thereby Narcoticks indeed taken inwardly if they be not dextrously administred are not void of hurt for given unseasonably they cause a Congelation if I may so say and immobility of the spirits not by cooling but by fixing which is the product of a luxuriant Sulphur in remedies of that nature and upon the immobility of the Animal spirits their influx is stopt and Death with suffocation doth follow But if sharp pain do rage you need fear no such thing from the outward Application of such Remedies since it is certain that one dayes pain weakens and hurts the Nerves more than six days such outward Application But suppose a little deadness should remain there are a thousand Remedies to take that off as Baths Fomentations Plasters Stoves and other things which quickly doe it Besides a Narcotick mixt with its Antidote becomes harmless All Authours almost in violent Pains of the Gout make use of Henbane Some go as high as Opium If the Spleen be very hard we apply Hemlock without any danger nay it is applied to the eyes so near the Brain with great success And I being backt with good success make no scruple to apply both the said plants with Cassia Camphire Saffron Sperma Ceti and Man's Grease De Mayerne de Artâ—â—itide p. 41. which is a most excellent Anodyne in this Disease XXVII Hippocrates bids men before Universals allay the pain by outward Application which our Age so much dreads before general Evacuation but this is no new thing with Hippocrates who knew how dangerous a purge was if given in the extremity of pain as appears from 4. acutor vers 396. He orders the pain in the running Gout and Gout to be mitigated with things actually cold 1. Because they quench the actual heat of the running Gout and asswage the Acrimony and Fluxibility of the Humour in both Diseases and they dull its activity and violence in acting from which all sense of pain arises 2. Coolers by strengthning the innate heat of the part affected do better qualifie it for Coction and Expulsion of the Humour 3. They hinder the generation of a Callus in the Joints which hot things often promote by evaporating the thin part of the Humour and baking the thick I know the Vulgar believe the contrary who are afraid to use actual coolers in the Gout or any pain of the Limbs But they are deceived Prosp Martianus Com. in vâ—rs 37. Sect. 2. lib de Affectibus for although Cold do harden as well as heat yet the hardness caused by Cold does not in our case harden into tophous knots because it still retains its proper moisture although congealed by Cold which at length by application of heat dissolves and recovers its former softness But whatever is hardened by heat it is deprived of its proper moisture the heat consuming and exhaling it so that a hardness is introduced which is not easily removed such as the hardness of those Tophi which the Joints of Gouty persons contract XXVIII When the Fit is over it is usual to apply Diapalma Plaster which indeed is an innocent thing but of small comfort There are many better things extant such as Emplastrum de Hermodactylis de Minio magistrale they call it Emplastrum Sandicis Gum Curanna and Tacamahaca dissolved in Spirit of Wine are of singular efficacy Emplastrum Betonicae c. For they that have undergone an Assault of the Gout have occasion for the use of some remedy that by its drying virtue may strengthen the nervous parts whose tone and native temperament may be preserved by such things Aegineta a learned Physician rubs the Joints of Gouty persons with an Ointment of Oil and Salt It is good when the pains are over but best of all to prevent them There is an Oil made of Winter-Gilliflowers De Mâ—yerne Tract de Arthr. p. 44. which is much bettered by addition of the Flowers of Mullein By the use of it a Physician belonging to the Duke of Bulloin got such strength in his Joints that after he had been 30 years troubled with the Gout and he had lived as many more 10 years before his death he lived above an hundred he walked as stoutly as if he had never had a Fit of it XXIX Such Discutients are requisite as may not onely open the Pores that the Serum may evaporate and the Bloud be made to circulate as in a Phlegmon and Oedema But such whose Saline parts designed to oppose those Saline ones of the Arthritick Matter may either by mixing with them bring them out or by precipitating them keep them from those painfull Effervescencies Wherefore in this Disease when Fomentations or Cataplasms of Chamaemil Mallows Linseed and Faenugreek doe little or no good nay often a great deal of hurt by relaxing the Nervous parts some Dissolutions or stillatitious Liquors of Sal Ammoniack Sea Salt Nitre Vitriol Quick-Lime and the like which in other Swellings or Pains always doe hurt are usually of great benefit Several such Liquors to be applied to the part grieved in a Fit of the Gout and which have been tried by experience Willis cap. de Arthritide are prescribed by Quercetan Hartman Crollius and others XXX He does but expose himself that engages to dissolve the Knots in the Gout for if they are grown hard it is onely labour lost to try any such thing But while the Matter is but in Gelly I should not think it utterly impossible if we could get a Remedy that would reach it and that bore any proportion to it Such is Sal Ammoniack both natural and artificial yea that which is made of Smoak and Urine But volatile Salt of Urine depurated by many Sublimations exceeds in virtue all other remedies The Pores of
that they may spread every way 5. They must be amicable to nature lest they destroy all 6. They must not be very hot You should rather give such things as consist of an abstersive virtue from a volatile Alkali and an acid and that by their gentle sharpness do incide and cleanse the filth of the urinary passages as also by their sweet fragrancy affecting the Reins do hinder the dregginess of the Ferment and so prevent all occasion of the Stone Such things also are good as asswaging the Pain of the Kidneys do better fit them to expell what is hurtfull Frid. Hofmanus m. m. l. 1. c. 12 such as Saffron and Cassia and Rheubarb deprived of their purgative Faculty ¶ I will relate what I have observed concerning Spirit of Vitriol in the Stone of the Kidney and Bladder Diureticks are of two kinds one aperitive and the other incisive Aperitives draw the matter to the Kidneys and therefore if these be affected are very suspicious because we draw the matter to the part affected But Incisives carry not the matter to the Kidneys but onely by inciding subtilize and so the matter being made subtile passes the Kidneys Hence it is and I ever use it with success that if in the beginning I give Spirit of Vitriol to break the Stone or cut the gross humour I quickly see a happy Issue And the Spirit of Vitriol though it be diuretick yet it onely incides upon which subtiliation while the matter passes out the Urine appears more copious and it is truly a Diuretick by accident not that it carries ought to the Kidneys but because the matter when it hath no impediment finds an easie passage And that is attempted in vain after the third or fourth day which may be done the first without which the Pain is prolonged three or four days to the great damage of the Patient for then we must stay for universal Evacuation Panarolus Pent. c. 3. obs 41. which in this case is not necessary in the beginning but may very conveniently be celebrated when the Pain is over XII Of which Diureticks nevertheless distinction must be made Hofmannu◠ibid. that in the first place the milder be used and the more temperate before we arrive at the sharper which do enflame the Archaeus of the Liver and Reins XIII In the use of Medicines that break and expell the Stone we must take notice that they must not be used once or twice onely but oftner till the obstructed passages be opened And while they are given the Reins and Bladder must be fomented with Baths Fomentations Unctions and Cataplasms that they may work the better And also some liquours that are of thin parts such as vinous White-wine must be given now and then and internal Emollients Riverius Laxatives and Smoothers of the passages must be made use of that the ways may be open and the acrimony of other Medicines may be qualified XIV Medicines that attenuate the Stone without violent heat conduce much to health for the hotter sort of things consume the finer parts and leaving the grosser do harden the Stone and draw new matter to the Reins and Bladder from the whole Body Heurnius Therefore rather let them be of tenuious parts and cold XV. Some in the retention and interception of the Stone in the Ureters do commend the Powder called Pulvis Lithontribos and some stronger things which before purging the whole body do drive many bad humours from above to the Kidneys whereby the Stone is not onely firmer fastened in the Ureters Fabricius Hildanus but internal Inflammations are also bred and Death it self follows which I have tried XVI Gainerius hath taken notice that we must observe first to join piercing Remedies with those for the Stone as Cinnamon Nutmeg 2. To add such a thing as may strengthen the virtues of the Medicine to the end they may play upon the Stone with their whole strength as Mastick and Gum. 3. That they have fineness of parts to pass the better 4. Heurnius Something that takes off acrimony may be added as Roses Liquorish Linseed XVII Whether is Spirit of Turpentine proper for the Stone in the Kidneys It is good for it is a dispersing Medicine penetrates deep and hath an excellent virtue in purifying the Bowels dissolving gathered Tartar and discharging it by Urine yet lenitive Purgers should be made use of before we come to the continual and daily use of it Although in the use of Turpentine it self in substance this is not requisite because it hath it self a purgative virtue especially when it is mixt with powdered Rheubarb according to Crato's description in Scholtzius cons 152. It helps by its temperate heat whereby it befriends the parts destined to concoction for which reason it is good for those that are troubled with the Stone as it helps concoction that so the peccant matter may the better be separated from the Bloud Gr. Horstius Probl. Dec. l. 8. q. 1. You may see in Amalus cent 1. curat 63. the History of a Monk who every morning for several months swallowed a piece of Turpentine as big as a Nut fasting and was so cured of the Stone and Gout when other Medicines would do no good XVIII They are in errour who always use attenuating and inciding Medicines as if there could be no Gravel without a fulness of gross humours and as if there were not some very cholerick persons to be found who have their bloud and other humours very thin and are troubled with the Stone For I am of the opinion that there is no one living but hath so much grosness of humours that if it stay in the Kidneys Sanctorius Meth. l. ◠c. 7. may cause the Stone And that there is so much Phlegm in a man that is not phlegmatick as may make up one Stone XIX When the Stone is voided although all danger be over yet I use for two or three days following to procure a perfect abstersion and cleansing of the Reins Fortis consult 96. cent 3. by giving a Bolus of our Turpentine washed in Mallow-water with Liquorish powder and drinking upon it an Emulsion of Melon-seeds made with Mallow or Barley water but very thin XX. A certain person fell into grievous pain in his left side under the bastard Ribs attended with vomiting much Bloud as often as he stooped it returned upon him so that he grew very weak upon it Dr. Moebius judged there was some large Stone lodged in the left Hypochondrium and that by moving it the Bloud was extravasated in so great quantity powred into the Stomach and then vomited up He durst not prescribe things to force the Stone lest when the Vessels were unstopt they should open wider and by farther vomiting of Bloud his life might be endangered Therefore he gave him calcined Harts horn for several days in some fresh broth He ordered the pained part to be fomented with Mallow leaves Chamaemil flowers
Cataplasm to the Part grieved doeth much good in ease of the Stone or any Tophus in the Reins or Bladder ¶ If the Stone in the Kidneys be hard and not to be broken Idem c. 37. and by reason of obstruction Urine be stopt the herb Paeony drunk with Wine and Honey is very good 24. Sennertus commends Lignum Nephriticum and Lapis Nephriticus taken either inwardly or onely worn about one Calculus Vesicae or the Stone in the Bladder The Contents Whether it can be broken by Medicines I. By what virtue such do operate II. Diureticks are sometimes proper III. Whether Liquours injected by a Catheter be able to break it IV. Signs are doubtfull and we must not hastily fall on cutting V. It sometimes lies hid by reason of a bad conformation of the Bladder VI. Flesh in the neck of the Bladder resembling the Stone VII When a Catheter is put in the Membrane at the Mouth of the Neck of the Bladder must not be hurt VIII When it is inclosed in a Membrane whether it must be pulled away IX The taking of it out is not impossible X. A correction of Errours that precede the Operation XI Of those that follow XII By what place and means it may best be taken out XIII The Operation may not be performed when the Moon is in Scorpio XIV In the Dog-days fatal XV. Whether the Minor Apparatus be allowable XVI A large Incision should be preferred before a small one XVII A caution in Women XVIII A Stone taken out of a Woman by a Hook XIX The way of taking it out when it sticks in the Urethra XX. XXI Whether Incision of the Hypogastrium may be admitted to get it out XXII A mitigation of the Dysury a Concomitant of the Stone in old men XXIII A Caution in cutting cut Stones that stick in the Urethra XXIV Medicines I. WHether can the Stone in the Bladder be broken with Medicines Many utterly deny it many affirm it but coldly I with Galen Hippocrates Dioscorides Rhasis Avicenna and infinite Classick Authours who prescribe many Simples and Compounds acting by their tenuity acidity asperity and by their Diuretick virtue do hold that there are things in Nature which break the Stone What hinders it I do not see since there is a dissolving Salt as well as a coagulating one and that the virtues of things must not be denied in Plants Herbs and Stones We see also how soft Water by continuance doth hollow the Stone that Iron is eroded by virtue of Simples and that there are Simples which soften Stones and why not break them We read in Aetius l. 2. how Philagrius cured the Stone in the Bladder with Goats-bloud and a Hedge-Sparrow mixt together How a Jesuite at Rome cured a Printer's Son with Millepedes rightly prepared Joh. Freâ—tagius apud Gr. Horstiâ—m l. 4. â—bs 4â— How Rhasis lib. 9. cured an old Stone in the Bladder with his Pills with which Horatius Augenius and his Father and other Physicians cured several of the Stone If the fore-cited Authours commended their Medicines and they had no such Virtue What did they in so weighty an affair but put a cheat on Mankind which to say of Hippocrates is Blasphemy who according to Macrobius never deceived others nor himself ¶ Bartholomaeus Turrianus in latrob lib. 4. f. 269. broke a Stone that was then designed to be cut by giving a little powder of Crystal to drink or rather the dissoluble substance thereof which same Liquour Th. Muffetus mentions de jur praestant Chymicorum Now Crystal is made soluble if it be calcined in a Potter's Furnace at least nine times then it becomes of a brittle substance and put in a Cellar it melts like Oil of Tartar Or let the Crystal Stone be heated in the fire and quenched seven times in the water or Spirit of the Lesser Nettle According to Johannes Praevotius the Stone in the Bladder is broken by a Plaster of White Onions boiled and applyed to the bottom of the Belly If therefore Histories be extant of persons troubled with the Stone that have been cured by Medicines the chief Remedies must be tried before the Patient commit himself to the greatest hazard Gul. Laurembergius his History of a person cured of a great Stone by the use of Sows and Horatius Augenius his History of another Patient are well known But such examples establish no rule they onely convince men of the possibility which we do not deny Several circumstances also cannot be known as whether these were onely gravelly coagmentations and not flinty In this therefore or the like case I can approve of no sort of true Diureticks if the Stone be great hard and like a flint for neither thus can we hinder its increase The distance of the place is far and the ways by which the Medicines pass many if they be weak they lose their virtue before they come at the Urinary passages if strong they carry matter from the whole Body to the Bladder nay these doe more hurt for by their acrimony and tenuity they take away and wash off that Lentor and phlegmy matter that like Mucus usually sticks to the Stone and serves it for a bed this gone the Stone is made sharper raises more intense pains and hurts the Bladder more A Patient of mine experienced this who having used Diureticks for two years found no benefit whether he took Chymical or Galenical things nay he rather daily found more pain Crato Rolfinâ—â—iuâ— lâ—b 9. Co. s 9. Physician to three Emperours experienced the same who seriously disswades men in the pain of the Kidneys from those Diureticks that force the Stone His Eminence Cardinal Cornarius when he had a fit of the Stone and was afflicted with difficulty of Urine being unwilling to observe the Disswasion of his Physicians went contrary to Mercurialis his advice to the Bathes that work by Urine when he took the Waters his pain increased and he died ¶ Guarinonius saith Cons 300. That scarce ever any one saw the Stone broken by Medicines Yet I broke the Stone in the Bladder of a Boy twelve years old and brought it away piece meal by this one Medicine Gâ—t Câ—ist Winclerus in Misc â—râ—riâ—s in â—â— chs 102. Take of purple Violet Seeds half an ounce of Water of Strawberry Rest-harrow Alkekengi each what is sufficient make an emulsion according to Aâ—t Add of prepared Sows 1 drachm Goats Bloud 2 pounds Species Lithontriptic 1 Scruple Spirit of Turpentine half a scruple mix them let 2 spoonfulls be given frequently He voided pretty large pieces and inclining to blackness so that one shell seemed to have grown over another II. Mercatus makes four Classes of Medicines that break the Stone and he reckons those in the third that he thinks do improperly break the Stone and he saith they doe good onely by absterging and rubbing the surface of the Stone And he teacheth that all are such which by their asperity absterge and as it were rub
taking a strong Purge to carry off the Remainder of the febrile matter have presently relapsed One would be ready to say that the matter of this Disease before laid asleep was by this means stirred up and brought into act by the Purge Yet if you consider the thing a right one would rather say that the frame of the bloud is much hurt by the violent Purge and whereas before it was prone to a bilious dyscrasie so as it could scarce assimilate the alible Juice it will presently for this evident cause degenerate the more and immediately pervert the nourishment into fermentative matter Willis 〈…〉 and so be susceptive of a feverish disposition XII The hindring an Ague fit is accomplished by Medicines which stop fermentation And although this Remedy be among Physicians accounted immethodical and very uncertain yet it is certain that Agues have been often cured in this manner when Medicines would doe no good at all Onely here we must observe this that the use of such things is most beneficial after Purging and Bleeding if this be necessary Willis ibid. and unless these things be rightly promised the other seldom stop a sit ¶ There are not wanting Men who to abate or stop the fit give Opiates On the other hand also there are some who judge that Agues must not be stopt at the very first but that the fit should be suffered for awhile Hence an Ague once begun if it end in any reasonable time is vulgarly termed rather Physick than a Disease for by this means the impurities of the bloud blaze out the obstructions of the bowels are opened and indeed the whole body receives Vent so that it is wholly freed from all excrementitious matter and from the Seminary of growing Diseases And we grant this in part to wit if it end in a reasonable time but if it be protracted long it is the cause of many Diseases and long Sickness For hereby the mass of bloud is much spoiled of the vital spirit and like over-high fermented Wine it palls In the mean time the saline and earthy parts are too much exalted wherefore the Jaundice Scurvey Dropsie and other Cachexies follow this Fever too late cured For as a House set on fire from without is easilier delivered from danger of Burning than if Vulcan were pulling down the inner Rooms so also it is more easie to drive away Agues from humane bodies in the beginning than after the Agues have invaded the inner oeconomy of the bowels And of a depurative fermentation of the humours if it should exceed measure Fird Hosmannuâ—s mâ—n p. 37â— a corruptive one may easily be made Sylvius his method of Cure XIII Forasmuch as we have made the Cause of Agues as Agues to be the pancreatick Juice by reason of an Obstruction made in its lateral Ducts by Phlegm coagulated therein and then made sharper and Sowrer by stagnation and carried hence by making way through the obstructing Phlegm to the small Guts and there vitiously fermenting with the Bile in its way and the Phlegm in the Guts and then at length creeping along with them under one form or other to the right Ventricle of the Heart and in it not onely by irritating the Heart with its acrimony or flatulency raising a more frequent Pulse but moreover divers ways altering and disturbing the vital effervescency and sanguification it self and producing many symptoms in divers places Their Cure may be performed if first the obstructing Phlegm that is more or less glutinous and coagulated be cut and loosned and then as offending in Place be removed and at least be brought as far as the small Guts if not cleared of the Body it self Secondly if the acidity and acrimony of the pancreatick Juice that is increased be tempered and corrected Thirdly if the vitious effervescency of the Bile in the small Guts be hindered or amended The obstructing Phlegm is cut by Aromaticks and any volatile Salt but especially so used that the whole body may be hot at once to the end the virtue of the Medicine being dispersed every way may reach also to the Pancreas it self and to its Lateral Ducts and so to the place affected and the Source of the Disease Which things are proper especially for phlegmatick and melancholick Persons Let the following Mixture serve for an Instance a spoonfull of it at a time to be taken several times a-day But two or three hours before the coming of a new fit to take three spoonfulls of it at the same time gently increasing the heat of the body either by motion or cloths or fire or a bath till the Sweat come for so it will doe more good and sometimes take the Ague happily away Take of Waters of Parsley 2 ounces Fenil 1 ounce Theriac simpl or Vitae Matthioli 1 ounce and an half Volatile Salt of Amber 1 scruple Syrup of Carduus benedictus 1 ounce Mix them As often as the complexion of the Patient is observed to be cholerick use loosners and sowre cutters Take of Fumitory-water 3 ounces Sal Ammoniac or Tartarum Vitriolatum 1 drachm Antimonium Diaphoreticum half a drachm Syrup of Fenil 1 ounce Mix them As often as both phlegmatick and cholerick humours abound in the same Patient of the two Subcontraries that were now commended these Mixtures may be made Take of the Waters of Cardaus benedictus Cichory each 1 ounce and an half Theriac simpl distilled Vinegar each 6 drachms Crabs-eyes in Powder half a drachm Syrup of the five opening roots 1 ounce Mix them If the obstructing Phlegm be not very glutinous oftentimes at once such Sweating the obstruction is wholly removed and the cause of it is carried into the small Guts and the Ague is cured In a Body that has but little Phlegm in it but more Bile a Vomit may be given three or four hours before the return of the fit by means whereof not onely the redounding Bile but also the obstructing Phlegm is forced to the small Guts hence to the Stomach and at last out at the Throat and Mouth and so the Ague is said to be destroyed To which end I have often with success used a Vomitory Sapa prepared by me of Glass of Antimony and other Medicines may in like manner be prepared of Antimony which is here proper above all other things Things that purge downwards now and then will doe the same thing but ever adding things that at the same time cut and carry off viscid Phlegm for example Take of the mass of Pilul fatid maj half a scruple Trochiscs of Alhandal Mercurius dulcis each 5 grains Oil of Amber 2 drops Mix them Make 5 Pills Let them be taken four or five hours before the next fit and they will purge gently The augmented acidity and acrimony of the pancreatick Juice will be happily allayed with volatile Salts and all Aromaticks not neglecting Opiates Therefore the Mixture above proposed of Waters of Parsley Fenil c. will be proper which will be
more effectual if there be added to it of Laudanum Opiatum 3 grains Oil of Cloves 2 drops The vitious effervescence of the same pancreatick Juice and of the Bile will be hindred at least corrected by the now commended Mixture especially because of the Opium wonderfully allaying and tempering both the Sharps with its Oiliness Sylvius de le Bâ—ë â—rax Mâ—â— l. 1. c. 30. and from these few Receipts any young Practiser may easily invent others as he shall have occasion As well Acids as Aromaticks and volatile Salts do every where dissolve and cut glutinous Phlegm They will dissolve it in the forementioned Ducts if they be carried thither And all Medicines are carried sooner and in greater power if they either be Evacuaters or joined to Evacuaters For this seems peculiar in Evacuaters by Vomit Stool Urine Sweat and Salivation that they make no long stay in the Stomach and Guts but unless they be hindred by the humours and food they pass quickly into the lacteal Veins and Heart and hence every way with the Bloud But in our case that is in Agues it has been observed by long experience that Sudorificks above all other things do most easily conduce to overcome the cause of them by help whereof the very common People cure Agues And Sudorificks seem to be proper above other things because Sweat is not raised till the whole bloud be moved which then also is made more fluid than usual wherefore whatever things are mixt with the bloud are both sooner and more abundantly dispersed every way with it and therefore Medicines designed to loosen Phlegm But as Medicines to loosen Phlegm must especially be mixt with Sudorificks so also Medicines that move the same from its place are preferred whether Purges or Vomits For the way is but short from thence to the small Guts and hence to the Stomach whence the Phlegm may be cast up and oftentimes a Tertian may be killed at one Vomit it owing its original not to very tough or copious Phlegm So there is an ordinary and easie way for the humours downwards to the small Guts especially when they are thrust down thither by Purges And thus I have often observed Agues have been cured quickly and safely especially Tertians by Sweating Vomiting and Purging because they are the easiest cured of all as for the most part they have their rise from small Obstruction that is from less tenaceous Phlegm obstructing the said Ducts Therefore to loosen and make fluid the Phlegm stopping the said passages Sudorificks above all other things made of Aromaticks and volatile Salts as also of subtile Acids and often taken at any time although Sweat do not always come do conduce To remove the same from an improper place when it is loosned 1. The same Sudorificks are proper but taken not long before the coming of the fit the Body being rightly constituted to promote Sweat 2. Vomits and Purges taken about four hours before the coming of the fit that so in the mean time the humour first made more fluid by Sudorificks may be farther prepared for its discharge and so with the fragnant juice may be displaced and thrown out of the body 3. Volatile Salts and other Aromaticks do most effectually mitigate and temper the pancreatick Juice made more acid by its stay and stagnation because they most easily penetrate every way and do not onely break the foresaid augmented Acidity but also cut and loosen the obstructing Phlegm and so are proper upon several accounts Because volatile Salts are pure and not oily they foment or increase no heat a thing very usually arising and troublesome in the increase of the fit which cannot be said of Aromaticks seeing the febrile heat is often not a little encreased by them Wherefore in the choice of proper Medicines for curing Agues we must take especial notice of the natural and preternatural constitution of every Patient and therefore of the humours that are most abundant and peccant and more yet of the Symptoms usually arising with the Ague sit and especially of the Cold and Heat as most troublesome to Patients Truly the efficacy of volatile Salts is very great and moreover their operation is both very safe and innocent which cannot always be said of several parts of Plants and Medicines made thereof because they produce a more manifest and often a troublesome Heat to us to say nothing farther now of the Cold which likewise is frequently raised by Vegetables but not so by the volatile Salt of Animals which are not at all oily such as may easily be prepared From whence the utility of volatile Salts in curing Agues does farther appear for that they alone answer several Indications and 1. To loosen obstructing Phlegm and move it from its place 2. To temper the pancreatick Juice when made more acid which last cannot be done by any Acids how spirituous soever And we said they are requisite for the Cure of Agues 3. That the febrile effervescency may be checked quieted and corrected as well in the small Guts as in the Heart a thing which in particular Anodynes and Narcoticks or Opiates doe as also all other things which incline towards their Nature such as the fixt Sulphurs of Minerals and Metals and therefore sometime called Anodynes sometime Narcoticks Now Anodynes and especially Narcoticks do so far forth check and correct the vitious effervescency and by reason of the encreased Acid too much as they do powerfully though kindly also dull the very sharp Acid as well upon the score of the Oil as of the volatile Salt that is in Opium But the fixt Sulphurs of Minerals and Metals are much better than Opiates because they have a kinder operation and are destitute of a narcotick virtue causing onely a gentle Sleep in no wise a Stupidity be they used in never so large a quantity which cannot truly be said of Opiates but these may be added to other Medicines that are always commended for curing of Agues as such and 10 some for to mitigate or take away the concomitant Symptoms Idem XIV But here a Question seems to arise Whether bloud ought to be let in Agues as such since many have urged it nay and fly to it as to the Sheet-anchor for the right Cure of Fevers and they think that a right method of Cure has not been used if letting-bloud have been neglected But their Assertion is built on a false foundation that is That every Fever consists in Heat in the Heart and thence too much increased the whole body over Which although it be observed to have place in most acute and burning Fevers yet it is not always and universally true since there do not onely occur Seasons in Agues but in continual Fevers also wherein too great Heat is so far from being found in the body that on the contrary Cold does then trouble the Patients not onely a small one but oftentimes a most chilling one tormenting them for several hours To say
Cure is to be varied Therefore we must always have regard to all the Humours that any way offend in the Body seeing they are the cause why the obstructing Phlegm is more or less sharp and therefore why the fit varies in all its circumstances and symptoms For as often as Bile has dominion in the Body so often will Phlegm be less viscous and the Pancreatick juice less sharp and therefore the Ague will upon this account be cured with greater ease and speed if so be it be cured aright But as often as Phlegm shall predominate above the rest of the humours so often will the Pancreatick juice and bile be more dull and so the obstructing Phlegm it self will be more glutinous wherefore the Ague will be cured more slowly though easily enough having all its symptoms commonly more slight And as often as the redundant Acid exceeds the other humours so often will the bile be more broken and dull but then the Phlegm is more glutinous and especially when the acid inclines to austerity Sometimes it is more fluid and serous especially when the Acid is sharp and bile is intimately mixt with the saline part and together with the more fluid Phlegm makes a salt Serum but a briny one wherefore then the Ague will be cured more slowly and difficultly But after what manner he should proceed Sylvius the Reader may gather from what has been said before XVII Specificks for Fevers seem to have place chiefly in Agues some of them fix the morbifick cause not onely by their Narcotick Sulphur or as others will have it by their Salt but also they dissolve and they consist of Opiates Others by precipitating they abound in a fixt Salt and act by stopping fermentation and ebullition Such are Crabs eyes Others act by sweating and when they have raised a sweat they exert their antifebrile virtue Some of them are internal and use to be given an hour or two before the fit and they doe good especially to Bodies that are not very soul for unless the source be exhausted by Universals they may produce abundance of mischief This is commonly known Half a drachm of Carduus Benedictus Leaves powdered taken in a little warm Wine Some antisebrile Specificks act by evacuating Rolfinâ—k 〈◊〉 Febr. c. 1â—3 such is that of Riverius in the Appendix of his Centuries XVIII Empirical Remedies that cure Agues are such as keep off the fit as it is coming without any evacution either taken inwards or applied outwardly especially where the Pulse beats and are chiefly tied to the region of the Heart the Wrists or the Soles of the feet The reason of their effect consists in this that by the use of them the turgescency and fermentation of the Bloud with the febrile matter may be stopt That is some Corpuscles or Effluvia are communicated from the Medicine bound about the Vessels to the Bloud which very much fix and bind the particles of it or by fusing and moving do as it were precipitate it The spontaneous heat of the Bloud is hindred either way just as when cold water is poured into a boiling Pot or as when Vinegar or Alume is poured into new Beer as it is working the working presently ceases and the liquor acquires a new tasie and consistency Things that are taken inward have thas tendency to break off the habit of habitual Paroxysms which if we obtain Nature recollects her self and upon her proper motion easily recovers her former state of health And although such an Intention be sometimes accomplished by giving a Vomit a little before the fit for it often stops the febrile motion of the Bloud by raising another motion contrary to this yet this indication may far more certainly be accomplished by such Medicines as do not at all evacuate from the Bowels but bring a certain fixation or precipitation of the febrile matter for the time upon the Bloud Whom I had in my hands to cure having first given a Vomit or a gentle Purge about three hours before the fit I applied Plasters to the Wrists and at the same time gave them some Febrifuge Powder in generous Wine and ordered my Patients to be kept in a gentle sweat in Bed It seldom so fell out but at the first or second time the Ague was by this means stopt and by repeating the Remedy a few times the Disease was perfectly cured Here something must be said of that famous Febrifuge the Peruvian Bark otherwise called China China or the Jesuits Bark The common way of giving it is to infuse 2 drachms of the Powder in thin or generous Wine in a Vessel close stopt for two hours and then as the fit is coming to give the Liquor and the Powder to the Patient as he lies in his Bed This potion sometimes stops the fit as it is coming yet oftentimes this coming after its usual manner it prevents the next following But however the fit be stopt at the first second or third period and the Disease seem to be cured it usually returns in twenty or thirty days And then the Powder being given again the fit is staved off about the same space of time and in this manner I have known those that have been troubled with Quartans who have had but a very few fits all the Autumn and Winter and so have kept the Enemy at Push of Pike till the Spring coming on by the help of the season of the year and Physick the disposition of the Bloud was altered for the better and so the disease by degrees has vanished Those who in this manner got truce of their Quartans went brisk and chearfull about their business whereas otherwise they grew feeble and pale and were reduced to a languishing and a vitious habit of body Scarce one of an hundred tried this remedy in vain It is not onely given in a Quartan but in other sorts of Agues with success But they that stop Agues with this Medicine onely seem to give cheating Physick But the use of this Medicine will be onely proper when the Patient's strength is too much spent with too great frequency of the fits and a truce is by this means procured Willis de Febr. c. 6. that Nature may recollect her self and thenceforth more powerfully oppose the Enemy XIX Riverius called Water impregnated with the Salt of Tartar his Aqua Febrifuga He infused Salt of Tartar and Spirit of Sulphur with a drachm or two of Senna and sometimes half a drachm of Jalap either in Spring-water onely or in some appropriate decoction so he cured all Agues even Quartans He also called Mercurius dulcis six times sublimed Calomelanos which certainly makes a laudable and never a noxious Purge The dose is to 1 Scruple whether Refin of Jalap or of Scammony half a scruple whose Dose may be diminished or increased And he affirms he never saw any other effect than good from this Medicine in innumerable cases and in all ages XX. Beside these things which
the out parts are either cold or but warm do presently flye to Cordials without distinction applying Epithemes to the Heart and giving other things which may produce much spirituous substance by strengthning the action of the Heart Which indeed in the refrigeration of the extreme parts by reason of the internal heat calling the Bloud and Spirits to the inner parts are so far from doing any good that they doe a great deal of hurt For if we consider the Applications they offend in two things first because they use things actually and potentially hot whereas they should be actually and potentially cold Secondly because by their means the spirits are increased in the inner parts which should be diminished For while the vital spirits that are diffused all the Body over are by the virtue of the heat conveyed inwards they so abound there that there is imminent danger of the suffocation of the heat And this abundance of spirits is made manifest by great and quick Pulses which when the spirits are deficient appear small rare and intermittent Wherefore to endeavour the generation of spirits in these is nothing else but to bring an imminent danger of suffocating the vital spirits in the Heart to a certain extinction of the innate heat Wherefore we must then onely endeavour the generation of vital spirits by the foresaid Medicines when the spirits fail which we may know by the Pulse Therefore the said Cordial Medicines must onely be used in that refrigeration which derives its original from immoderate dissipation Proper Martianus and corruption of the spirits VI. Seeing this Fever the Leipyria of the Arabians comes from one simple humour as from a very gross Phlegm which putrefying cannot warm the extreme parts either upon the occasion of its thickness or small putrefaction we must have recourse to Phlegmatick fevers or Melancholick or Cholerick for the choice of a Diet for it is the opinion of Learned Men that it may have its original from each of these humours aforesaid Wherefore the Arabian said well You ought not says he to look to the Fits for it may so be that it may be a Quotidian Tertian or Quartan Brudus de Victu Febr. or may have its period on the fifth or seventh day Febris Maligna or A Malignant Fever The Contents Wherein the Malignity of an Epidemical one consists I. Remedies must be varied according to the variety of the Causes II. The Condition of the Matter varies the Cure III. Whether Letting of Bloud be convenient IV. Whether a Vein may be breathed when Spots appear V. Bloud must be let immediately because of the deceitfulness of the Disease VI. It is more beneficial to open the lower than the higher Veins VII The benefit of evacuation by the Haemorrhoids VIII Cupping-glasses may be sometimes used without opening a Vein IX Sometimes they are hurtfull X. Where they should be applied XI One sick of a Malignant Fever cured by setting Leeches to the Paps XII For a Delirium and Phrenzy a Vein in the Forehead must be opened XIII The utility of Vesicatories XIV They are not every where nor always proper XV. Whether we may purge in the beginning XVI Clysters must have no Purgatives in them XVII Vomits are better than Purges XVIII They are very good where there is Sleepiness XIX The benefit of Sudorificks and Alexipharmacks XX. The Difference of Alexipharmacks as to their use XXI Whether the use of Pearl Gemms c. should be prescribed XXII Diaphoreticks need not be feared because of their heat XXIII The faultring Circulation of the bloud must be promoted with Medicines that have a Volatile Salt in them XXIV Hydroticks Salts c. by what power they operate XXV How far we may trust Antifebrile Medicines XXVI Alexitericks are required when the Bloud comes out red and destitute of Serum which is a token of malignity XXVII By what virtue Antimonium Diaphoreticum acts XXVIII We must use Oxyrrhodina with caution XXIX Epithems hurtfull XXX Heating of the Feet is sometimes good XXXI The Efficacy of Plasters to the Feet XXXII Wine may sometimes be allowed XXXIII The Cure of a Malignant Fever with the Parotides or Swelling behind the Ears XXXIV The Cure of Vomiting when it supervenes XXXV The Physician must have a care how he feels the Pulse XXXVI I. I Think all that Malignity which is found in epidemick Diseases what such soever the specifick Nature of it is does consist of and is terminated in the hottest and most spirituous Particles of the Humours contained in Man's body that are more or less adverse to Nature because onely such a sort of Particles are able to alter the Humours so suddenly as we see in Malignant Diseases And I think those hot and spirituous Particles do act most by assimilating seeing by the Law of Nature every active Principle makes it its business to procreate its like and to bend and accommodate what things soever resist it to its proper disposition So Fire generates Fire and one infected with a Malignant Disease infects his fellow to wit by emission of Spirits which assimilate to themselves the Humours that are presently infected and lead and draw them to their own nature These things being premised it certainly follows that nothing can be better than to cast out the said Particles by Sweat for by this means the Disease may forthwith be utterly extirpated But here Experience gainsays and teaches that this cannot be done in every sort of Malignity For although in the Plague it self the pestilential particles both because they are very subtile and also because they reside in the most spirituous part of the bloud are dissipable and may be cast out by raising an uninterrupted Sweat yet in other Fevers where the assimilating particles are not exalted to that Subtilty and also are incorporated with the grosser humours the malignant matter is not onely incapable of being thrown off by Sweat but is often increased by Diaphoreticks wherewith Sweat is raised For by how much more these hot and spirituous particles are actuated by the use of heating things by so much the more is that assimilating faculty which they have encreased and by how much the more these Humours are heated upon which they act so much the more willingly they turn to the Assimilants side giving way to their impressions When on the contrary Reason seems to dictate that those Medicines which are of a contrary nature do not onely stay the violence of the hot and sharp Particles but also condense and fortifie the Humours that they may be the better able to sustain the assault of the morbifick Spirits but also break it And here I must appeal to Experience by which I am taught that the Purples in Fevers and the black Pustules in the Small-pox increase the more the hotter the Patient is kept but that they usually decrease and grow less upon a more moderate Regiment which is altogether proper for them Now if any one ask me how
marvellous efficacy given from half a drachm to a whole one in Malignant fevers Small Pox Measles yea and the Plague it self But whence comes its diaphoretick virtue considering its astrictive faculty Simon Pauli Quadrip Botan p. m. 225. affirms it is used to stop the ebullition of the bloud not to raise a sweat for as it is far better to spit on a spark that it may not burn and consume a whole House with the flame which it would rise to so it is most advisable by cold and dry things such as Antimonium diaphoreticum is and also Root of Tormentil Bistort which are astrictive and Diaphoretick Bole Armenick Terra Sigillata burnt Hartshorn Calx Antimonii c. to stop the burning of the bloud or the fermentation following it which if it exceed measure so as the circulation of the bloud being altogether disturbed the bloud be unspeakably corrupt it can neither return again to its natural habit and the contagion which follows that corruption that takes so many off is called the Plague whose fomes seminary or contagion you will never cast out of the Body except by Alexitericks or Sudorificks But this reason does not yet satisfie for if it held good the cure would not be safe while the cause of this burning or ebullition would not by this means be taken away and Opiates were better able to doe this work Nay Whence proceeds the usual eruption of Sweat after the use of the enumerated Medicines which are cold and dry Diaphoreticks Wherefore I judge that Antimonium Diaphoreticum as also the other Medicines are not indeed among the number of those Sudorificks that have the faculty of attenuating and dissolving gross humours but that they are such as imitating Nature do by their fixing and precipitating virtue which depends on a peculiar texture of the parts fix and precipitate the morbifick ferments or the volatile Sulphureous Salts Frid. Hofmannus Clavis Schroderiana p. 303. and also strengthen the Tone which being done the tumultuating faculty of the Archaeus is quieted and throws off what is troublesome by Sweat or Urine from the Lympha or mass of bloud XXIX We must take notice that Oxyrrhodina are not so convenient in Malignant as in Simple Putrid fevers because the dispersing of poisonous vapours must be procured by all means and not hindred therefore gentle repellents must be made use of or if the violence of the Symptoms be urgent we may proceed to strong ones Riverius so they be not kept long on XXX In Malignant fevers we must have a care of Epithemes for they may by no means be used in poisonous Diseases Mercatus and therefore we must avoid them as a pernicious Poison ¶ In Malignant fevers we must utterly avoid cold Epithemes which are proper for the Heart but they must rather be applied warm for otherwise there is fear lest when the Malignity is translated and struck back from the Circumference to the Center more harm than good result from it Therefore cordial Baggs are besprinkled with no liquours Wedellus but what are spirituous for fear of repulsion XXXI If the extreme parts happen to be cold there is great suspicion of Malignity and Languidness of faculty for that Coldness testifies there are both these Causes to wit a Malignant Putrescence of the Humours in the Bowels or Ulcers or great Inflammations or violent pains in the Intestines all these things force the heat to run inwards and to desert the out parts In this case there should be the greatest care imaginable to recall the heat and by all means to keep these parts in an equal temper with the other parts For although this coldness of the Feet be no cause of the Disease but a Symptome yet it is removed by revocation of the Heat that is of the Bloud and Spirits And nothing is more beneficial than to call them back because of the harm of their running to the internals which increases the inflammation and other affections of the Inwards and the heat it self by its being pent in is the cause of its own extinction Therefore we may not apply cold things to the Feet lest the burning heat be repelled inwards for in colliquating Fevers applications are best made to the Body between the Armholes and the Groin it is well if you can keep them from being cold Vallesius XXXII When in Continual yea in Malignant severs where a Delirium is imminent or the Patient cannot sleep we apply Plasters to the Soles of the Feet which are held to be applied for revulsion sake truly here is a notorious fallacy of the Cause committed For they are all hot things which abound with their volatile Salts and are of very thin parts Pigeons cut open alive pickled Herrings split Horseradish Leven with Salt Mustard c. Hence while in the said extreme parts of the Body both the venous and arterious Bloud being burnt up with the febrile heat is made heavy and dull cannot freely circulate these very things applied to the Soles of the Feet do attenuate melt and put in fusion that fixt Bloud and Serum by means of those subtile and volatile Salts wherewith they abound and so by accident while the free circulation of the bloud is procured in the Feet and it cannot restagnate into the Head Simon Pauli natural sleep creeps on XXXIII The use of Wine in this Fever sometimes is very beneficial for it is a great cordial and very opposite to Malignity Yet it often does harm by increasing the feverish heat Wherefore the constitution of the Patient and Nature of the Disease must be well considered If the Fever be small the poisonous quality intense and the Patient Phlegmatick mixt with water it may be given safely and successfully In a violent Fever and a cholerick Body Wine is destructive I have by infinite experiences observed these things especially in the purple Fever which was at Mompelier anno 1623. distinguishable from the true Plague onely by the Bubo For to those Patients whose Pulse was not very frequent but like the Pulse of a healthy man their Tongue moist and no thirst I gave Wine with good success and the relief thence emerging indicated the continuation of it both because the Fever was not heightned by the use of it and there was no thirst nor driness of Tongue raised In what Patients the contraries were I forbad them Wine altogether Yet we must observe never to give Wine in the first days lest the crude matter be too much moved but onely about the State when the signs of Malignity begin more fully to exert themselves Riverius XXXIV In the year 1623. after the Siege of Mompelier a very Malignant fever raged for several months of which half that were sick died and they peculiarly who had the Parotides or swellings of the Kernels behind the Ears which came usually about the ninth or tenth day of the sickness did all die And when I had seen several such but could
and assuaging virtue as Sulphur but fixt therefore such a virtue may well be expected from every such like Sulphur that is either fixed or fixing suppose it either metallick or mineral 2. The Bile that is rendred too sharp and volatile by the pestilential Poison will be fixed and tempered with the same Medicines with which the former was 3. The acid Juice broken and corrupted by the pestilential Poison will be repaired by the use of Acids such as are convenient for every one's particular constitution 4. The Bloud will recover its consistency by the taking of Acids not much at once but at several times and always in a small quantity But since there are so many Indications in the Cure of the Plague it will be the prudent Physician 's part to select and make use of such matter for Remedies as may answer most Intentions that he may kill several Birds with one Stone and that those that are infected with the Plague may be cured with Medicines not at all compounded Sylvius de le Boë LI. If one will compare all things we have taught concerning the matter of the Indicata in the Cure of the Plague he may without much difficulty observe that the primary Cure of the Plague may be performed with a very few Medicines simple enough that is with Vomits but Antimonial ones especially with several sorts of Sudorificks and they in like manner Antimonial ones with things that fix Salt and Bile which are too volatile among which Antimonials are not the last with things that repair the Acid deficient both in the bloud and otherwhere which are not wanting in Antimony so that of one and it may be of Antimony alone Medicines may be prepared which may satisfie all Indications in the Plague Volatile oleous Salts will be good to provoke Sweat and to drive out the pestilential Poison and to temper the over sharp Salt and Bile Acids and especially Spirit of Nitre will serve to correct Salt and Bile offending in too much volatility and acrimony as also to restore a consistency to the Bloud and to repair the Acid that is made dull in the Body So that any one seems to have need but of three Medicines at most happily to perform the internal Cure of the Plague and 1. Vomits when they are proper 2. Sudorificks but consisting especially of Volatile Oleous Salts because they also temper the acrimony of the poison 3. Acids among which Spirit of Nitre should be preferred because it is endued likewise with a fixing quality but most of them must be diluted with convenient aqueous things Idem that they doe no harm LII Nay sometimes Vomits and Sweats may be joined together and Sweats and Acids or at least in the middle of a Sweat some sub-acid mixture may be given by Spoonfulls I say sometimes Vomits may be joined with Sweats for it does no harm to take them together and to have them work together since they are not motions contrary one to the other but different by Vomit and Sweat See Book 19. of Vomits Therefore in the Cure of the Plague when Loathing is urgent and Strength is good a Vomit may safely be given in the beginning made of Antimony but which may also have the faculty to move Sweat that is that which they call Antimonium diaphoreticum but not too much fixt or something better if any man have such a thing or some other Sudorifick may be joined with any other antimonial Vomit either made of the same Antimony or prepared of the same matter Idem LIII It is not difficult to understand from the rules of Physicians that a method must be observed in the Cure of a pestilential Fever different from what they have laid down in other Fevers As we may gather from the drying Meats from the astringent things from the gross Diet and the larger indulgence as to Meat and Drink All which things we carefully prohibit in all other Fevers Brudus de Victu Febr. whence Celsus thought good to cause thirst in this Fever LIV. It sometimes happens that Swellings break out when neither a Fever nor any other grievous Symptome has gone before although I am suspicious that some shivering or shaking has ever gone before but not so perceptible But they to whom this happens it is safe for them to walk abroad in the Streets and to go about their business as healthy people doe Sydenham neglecting all care of Regiment Febris Petechialis or The Spotted-fever The Contents Whether when Spots break out a Vein may be breathed I. Whether we may purge II. Whether a Vomit may be given III. Wine has been wholsome IV. The Spots are an imperfect Crisis V. I. BE gone ye Haemophoboi who as soon as ye see Spots in the Skin superstitiously abhor Bloud-letting For to pass by that Nature when she is eased of part of her burthen does rise with greater courage against the reliques of the matter it is most certain that these cutaneous efflorescencies are symptomatick and the unloadings or things cast over-board by the exestuating bloud which therefore requires Phlebotomy But grant they were critical yet without doubt the Crisis would be but half and as it were a dimidiated abscess unequal to the Disease which it is meet to help going Nature's way carrying what should be carried by proper ways what way they have an inclination But the motion of the Spots and opening a Vein is the same from the centre to the circumference from the inner parts of the body to its superficies so far are the Juices that are drawn to the Skin from retreating or altering their course upon breathing a Vein For when the Veins of the Limbs are emptied does not the Bloud by a certain continuity flow out of the greater and inner Veins thither to fill the empty place Who therefore dare deny that the Bloud is carried by Phlebotomy not from without inwards but from within outwards Wherefore even in internal Inflammations also in Grief and sudden Fear a Vein must immediately be opened to disperse the Bloud and Spirits gathered in the Bowels And although after Bleeding Sleep sometimes oppresses a Man because of the dissipated Spirits which Nature would rally yet it is justly forbid lest the Remedy be frustrated of its end namely Menjotius de Febranaligna the Diffusion of the Bloud from the inner to the out parts II. Evacuation by stool is no way agreeable with Spots in a Burning fever although sometimes it does good I have seen indeed some of them that have been in that condition freed by a Loosness yet they are much better and safer freed by Sweat because the malignant Juices are averted from the Bowels But I have far oftner seen Purging by Art doe such good than a spontaneous Loosness nor undeservedly because in the former Nature endeavours outwards but for the Juices to go inwards spontaneously is a sign of great weakness but to be drawn by Medicine not so for what
scruple leaves of Gold and Silver each N o 3. Make a Powder The Dose in preservation 1 drachm Forestus in the cure 4 Scruples 13. This is an excellent preservative against the Plague Take of Sugar-Candy powdered 4 ounces imbibe it with dulcified Spirit of Salt which is thus made Take Spirit of Salt and Spirit of Wine each equal parts sublime them three or four times by a retort and they will unite inseparably and grow sweet to the form of an Electuary of which take one drachm in the morning fasting Gockelius it will keep off all Putrefaction 14. In a Malignant Fever this is a great secret Nitre steeped in Vinegar of Roses and Juice of Prick-madame applied to the Pulses asswages heat and pain Hayne 15. Heinisius his Pestilential Oil which is made of rectified Oil of Amber Frid. Hof mannus Citron and Camphire the dose from five drops to half a scruple does wonders in Pestilential Fevers 16. I have observed that Bezoardâ—cum minerale is not onely of use in Malignant and Spotted Fevers and the Pleurisie Horstius but is also a present remedy in the Plague Neukrantz 17. Contrayerva-Root is a most excellent Sudorifick in Spotted Fevers 18. Take the Rinds and Seeds of Twelve Lemons Juice of Scordium three pounds Juice of Sorrel Galangal Scabious Carduus benedictus each 1 pound shavings of Hartshorn four ounces old Treacle 6 ounces being cut and bruised mix them together distill them in Balneo The dose 1 ounce by it self or mixt with other Liquours Riverius 19. The Volatile Salt of Hartshorn has an excellent diaphoretick virtue in burning Malignant and Pestilential Fevers Rolfinccius 20. A Liquour against the Plague Take of the burning Spirit of Juniper-berries 8 ounces rectified Spirit of Tartar Spirit of Stag's bloud each four ounces Spirit of Vitriol 20 drops Cinamon Angelica Myrrhe each half an ounce Laudanum opiatum 2 drachms infuse them in Balneo for twenty hours then let the thin be poured off the thick by inclination and keep it This liquour wonderfully resists the Plague and other sorts of Poisons The dose from 15 drops to 20. 21. This Powder is highly commended for cleansing infected houses yea and for preserving them from the Plague if it be used for a fume morning and evening Seâ—nertus Take of Juniper-berries four handfulls Rue Elecampane-root outer rind of Birch Savine Goats-horn rasped each two handfulls leaves of Oak Myrrhe each 1 ounce Mix them Make a powder ¶ I have formerly given this powder in the Plague with good success Take of Bezoar-stone twelve grains Bone of a Stag's heart 1 scruple prepared Emerald prepared Jacinth each 7 grains Make a Powder for two doses in some convenient water Idem 22. They say that Scabious with Nitre and fresh Hog's lard Virdo is a divine remedy to discuss a pestilential Carbuncle 23. The Air must be corrected with a fume of Ram's or Goat's-horn for there is a great and a peculiar safeguard in this and it defends ones clothes ¶ The Place where people sick of the Plague have lain and are taken out is cleansed from the contagion by nothing better than crude Sulphur if it be burnt in the room close shut and the fume be kept in some time and then the Windows set open Weikardus to let it out In Tertian Agues and Quotidians 1. This hath been experienced in Tertian Agues Take of Juice of Gentian condensated 1 drachm or of the liquid 1 drachm and an half Chicken broth 3 ounces Spec. Diarrhodon Abbatis and Aromat Rosat each 1 Scruple Augenius Drink it 2. For Tertians Take a draught of the best White-wine boil it half away and then drink it it will cause one to Vomit much Water I have cured many so Borellus 3. This is experienced for a Bastard-Tertian Take Spiders Webs cleansed mix them with Vnguentum Populeon and make them into six Pills two of which must be applied to the Pulses of the Temples two to the Pulses of the Arms Claudinus and two to the Pulses of the Feet laying Vine-leaves upon them and binding them on three hours before the Fit 4. One may very well purge on the Fit-day I have often tried it and in most the event always answered In Tertians I doe this after the third or fourth Fit in Quotidians later Crato 5. Chamaemil-water drawn off the Juice is an excellent remedy for long and pertinacious Agues if one ounce be given in the morning fasting for two or three days I have often experienced it Rod. à Fonseca 6. I have not found a better remedy as well for preservation as cure of Tertian Agues than Oxysaccharum simplex which resists putrefaction because of the Vinegar and Juice of Pomegranate or Syrup of Lemons For by taking some of it every day I preserved my self from an Ague and others have cured themselves of Agues by it ¶ I have found by long experience that Carduus benedictus is good in a Quotidian Ague Forestus though most use it amiss in all Fevers 7. Juice of Water-Cresses Vinegar Kornthaveruâ— each what is sufficient with a little Salt Give two or three Spoonfulls before the Fit in all Agues 8. The fixt Salt of Wormwood becomes a more generous Medicine if when it is dissolved in Cichory Water as much Sal Prunellae be added and then they be coagulated together according to Art Half a drachm or a drachm-weight given them that are sick of a Tertian in warm Beer sweetned with a little Sugar to make them sweat stoutly is a Medicine much to be preferred before the Antifebrile Crollii made of Shells In Quartane Agues 1. Spirit of Sal Ammoniack is an excellent Secret in a Quartane Ague The dose is from 5 drops to 10 in Cichory-water 2. Agricola The powder of a Man's Skull given in drink to one when he knows not of it has been experienced to cure Quartane Agues 3. Sal Ammoniack seven times sublimed Benedictuâ— and made quite spiritual taken in a draught of Wine or Beer warm let him Sweat 8 days in the morning This is excellent good for Quartans De Bry. 4. This is an experiment against a Quartane Take of Seed of St. John's-wort 2 drachms Ashes of Man's Skull 1 drachm Mix them for 3 doses 3 hours before dinner Crato 5. Some reckon this for a great secret They take 2 drachms of Leaves of Betony powdered in an Egg four hours before the Fit and they repeat it three or four times on other days And certainly it is admirable good in an inveterate Quartane 6. After Universals Rod. à Fonseca I anoint the Chine with Oil of Chamaemil and Dill each alike mixt and hot beginning at the Neck down to the Buttocks and after anointing I wrap him in warm Linen and when I have done this thrice not onely the cold Fit but the Ague ceased Forestus 7. A scruple
Pistachio's do provoke Urine but things that provoke Urine are good for cold Epaticks whereby both the Liver is strengthened and obstructions are opened Salius in ann c. 82. answers Altimarus his reason To the first it is denied for Almonds and Pistachio's are hard of Concoction But things that are hard of Concoction are so of corruption in as much as all Concoction of Aliment is made by means of Corruption considering the Terminus à quo To the second Obstruction need not be much feared from an oleaginous moisture because whatever is oleaginous is in some measure hot To the third Nor doe they any harm in that they are quickly turned into Bile because nothing need be feared from a cooled Liver Horstius Dec. 7. Probl. 1. For it requires heating and abstersive Food and Physick which Almonds yield VII In a certain Maid there was first a hot Intemperature upon which account she was said to be Hepatick There was extenuation which seemed to tend to a Consumption there was also driness of the Solid Parts which hindred the encrease of the Body Which though it could not be remedied yet it was needfull to hinder the Encrease of it Therefore in a complicated Disease we should have respect to the Cause Her Intemperature was hot and dry by reason whereof because much bilious matter was gathered I begin to purge her with no hot Medicine that is with the Waters they call Villicae given her seven times according to Art Alteration followed Purging which I was minded to make by Juices of Cichory and Sow-Thistle Cichory is most gratefull to the part both in refrigeration and abstersion of the Veins of the Liver and also in astriction which it requires Sonchus has the same virtue but it is more cooling I gave the Juice with Sugar for ten days and all signs of heat seemed to abate Her Diet was cooling she used Sorrel Lettuce Purslain Endive Prunes Cherries Water-Melons She avoided all salt sweet and fat things Outwardly Cataplasms of the same virtue of Barley-flower and the foresaid juices were applied She was anointed with Ceratum Santalinum c. Then to cure her extenuation I proceeded to give her Milk These things did her so much good Jacchinus cap. 50. ad 9 lib. Rhasis that she filled well with Flesh and her colour changed for the better more than one could have believed VIII Three ways the Liver full of hot humours uses to swell up the Hypochondrium in acute Diseases 1. When the humours having got out of their proper receptacles are diffused through the Parenchyma of the part and make a swelling both hard and painfull which is properly called an Inflammation 2. When the same humours filling onely the greater Vessels of the Liver make some distenâ—ion which swells the Hypochondrium 3. When all the Veins running up and down the Liver are so full that they cause a manifest Tumour And as in these Cases divers parts are affected so also the condition of the Tumour and consequent Symptoms are various and therefore the Method of Cure must be various For in the first the humours make a hard and painfull swelling usually of an orbicular figure But when the same humours onely fill the greater Vessels it is done several ways because sometimes they stop there grow hot and putrefie and cause acute and malignant Fevers although they make no swelling in the Hypochondrium apparent either to the Eye or touch Sometimes the humours offend onely in abundance and motion when as they are passing from below to the upper parts they run violently into the Liver whereby it is suspended as by ligaments and they fill the greatest and nearest Veins excessively whereby they being made shorter draw the Liver upwards and so swell the Hypochondrium Which sort of swelling Hippocrates calls a revulse Hypochondrium and it is a sign of the tendency of the humours to the Head This swelling is distinguished from others because it appears most in the upper part towards the Ribs and underneath a vacuity may be felt in the place where the end of the Liver is naturally situated yet no hardness nor pain is felt in the swelling because the affection is not in the Liver which hurts it or swells it up yet a kind of tension may be perceived in the tumid part and then this affection lasts but a while because the humours are but passing that way upwards If the vessels dispersed through the whole Viscus be filled with hot humours the third sort of swelling in the Hypochondrium is caused which is also twofold For the Juices do either simply grow hot and do not contract putrefaction or they putrefie in the Veins If the first way it is done also in a twofold manner for either they remain quiet distending the foresaid Vessels onely with abundance whence comes a swelling which Hippocrates calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in manner of distended Veins where a tumour indeed appears both to the Eye and touch but if it be pressed it resists not the Touch not onely because of its softness but also because the matter that makes the tumour being pressed with the hand gives way and recedes to the next place like bloud filling a Vein when it is pressed with the finger which indeed shews that the fault is onely in the repletion of the Veins not in the substance it self because the swelling dissipates quickly and of it self But if these humours filling the said Vessels be in agitation because of admixtion of a flatuous Spirit the same swelling rises soft but with a pulse or Palpitation concerning which Coâ—c Sect. v. 55. A Pulse iâ— the Hypochondrium with Tumult is disturbant of the Mind If finally the same humours filling all the Vessels of the Liver do putrefie farther a swelling arises which causes a soft distension not very painfull usually of a long figure in distinction from an exquisite Inflammation of the Liver which makes a hard and painfull swelling circumscribed with an orbicular figure This swelling comes when putrefaction has siezed all the Veins of the Liver and especially if the Veins themselves be inflamed And the Inflammation is of such a Nature that it will permit no good bloud to be bred which since it is the matter for breeding of vital Spirits of which the animal are made hence a Delirium and Phrensie arise The swelling is soft because the substance of the viscus which first occurs to the touch Prosp Martianus com in v. 34â— lib. 4. Epid. continues as yet in its natural disposition and softness But hardness or tension is felt inwardly when the greater Veins are full and inflamed IX If Bloud be let plentifully the Inflammation ceases in one day so that the Physician may be truly said to have killed the Fever And if the Haemorrhoids be stopt let them be opened If the Menses and the time be near bleed in the foot and afterwards if the Disease continue Saxoniâ— in the arme ¶ A vein must be
exagitates and thins the mass of Bloud and stirs it to excretion of any thing superfluous and also it irritates the mouths of the Arteries opening towards the Guts so that the humour being rejected by the Bloud may find a passage by these outlets Hereby first of all the Water fluctuating among the Bloud is plentifully washed away then the emptied vessels soak up the intercutal Water and they discharge it partly by stool immediately and partly by urine or sweat In the mean time there is no fear lest as in a Tympany because the fibres in the Stomach and Guts are too much irritated by the Purge these Bowels should be incited to tetaneous extumescencies For while the Bowels are firm and well constituted the particles of the Medicine doe them no prejudice but being thence delivered into the mass of Bloud they do not onely draw Water out of it but by exaigitating its mass they raise the active particles before overwhelmed and dispose them towards a fermentative faculty Willis II. But sometimes it requires Letting of bloud when it arises from abundance of cold Bloud Indeed upon the account of its Coldness it does not stand in need of Heating but because the abatement of its quantity eases Nature so as she may the more easily conquer the Disease It is not contrary but very consentaneous to reason to use Bleeding here And we must evacuate after Bleeding which Bleeding must be tried before any thing else if strength will permit for if it be low though there be abundance of Bloud yet we must not let bloud till strength be repaired Trallianus l. 9. c. 1. ¶ It may very well be administred if stopping either of the Menses or Haemorrhoids have caused it or if there be a bilious Cachexy Yet Bloud must be taken much more sparingly than in other Diseases because of the want of Heat Enchirid. Med. Pract. III. We must carefully observe this that in an Anasarca as also in a Dropsie what days evacuaters whether purgative or diuretick are not given always on those days opening Alteratives and Strengthners of the innate heat of the Bowels especially that the altering and concocting faculty may be strengthned must be given Knoblochius for if these things be neglected evacuaters will doe little good IV. For curing an Anasarca Lixivial Diureticks as has ever been evident from my observation do far excell all other Diureticks For now it is a trite and vulgar Remedy after Purging to take 6 or 8 ounces of a Lixivium made of Ashes of Wormwood or Broom with White-wine and to continue the use of it for several days This Medicine as I have observed in several provokes Urine plentifully so that the Patients to a Miracle recover in a short time But why Medicines endued with a fixt and lixivial Salt do force Urine more than those endued with an acid Alkali or a volatile the reason I think is this viz. in persons affected with this Disease upon the failing of the fermentation and sanguifick virtue of the Bloud watry and crude humours gathered both in its mass and within the habit of the Body after they have tarried a while there immoveable then they as it is the nature of all watry Juices when they stagnate a little grow sowre wherefore the Lixivial particles of the Medicine being poured into the Bloud do immediately ferment with the acid particles of the Water and moreover while they exagitate and ferment them they raise a notable excretive fermentation in the whole mass of Bloud so that farther when all the particles are put in motion not onely the watry and recrementitious separated from the rest are discharged by the Kidneys but also the innate and active particles of the Bloud it self do extricate themselves from the grosser with which they are entangled and at length recovering do begin to resume their fermentative virtue Willis and to sanguifie V. Diaphoreticks often doe much good and are usually more agreeable with this Disease confirmed than in other kinds of Dropsies And although at the first they be not able to cause Sweat because the habit of the Body swims with a floud of thick humours however while they exagitate the Bloud they rouze up its inbred active particles that were asleep and half drowned before dispose them to a fermentation and moreover put all the recrementitious and especially the watry particles into motion so that these running immediately out of their receptacles go off with ease and speed But Hydroticks must be given in a little larger doze for their quantity is very small and their active particles are drowned in the Water before they can be diffused in the Bloud and can begin to exert their virtues upon the Bloud Wherefore Spirits whether Armoniack or of Wine Tinctures also and Elixirs yea and Powders are seldom used for this Disease because in a little dose they doe little good and if they be given in a large dose they by their efferation often hurt the Bowels But some such things must rather be made use of which taken in a larger dose and hot may pass into the Bloud not weakned such especially are Decoctions of Wood and Seeds whose particles being pretty congruous to the Bloud and invincible by it do pass through its whole mass and exert their elastick virtue by putting all the humours in motion Idem VI. Among external Administrations whereby the Water gathered within the habit of the Body is stirred Oil of Scorpions so it be genuine applied by it self or added to Liniments made of Sulphur and divers kinds of Salts and of Quick-lime and other Minerals which being powdered and mixt with the mucilaginous extracts of sharp Herbs may be reduced to the form of an Unguent does oftentimes much good I knew a Boy who was much swelled with an universal Anasarca and was cured by this onely Medicine for his Mother I know not by whose Advice did anoint all his Body morning and evening with Oil of Scorpions rubbing all the parts with her hot Hand very hard Upon doing of which within three days he began to make a great deal of Water and when he had continued for some days so to make Water the Swelling fell by degrees Idem and he recovered VII Baths are scarce proper for any Dropsie but an Anasarca and not for this neither unless in the inclination to it or decrease of it Because when the Bloud is heated and incited by the ambient heat of the Bath and moves the Waters stagnating every where and drinking them up into it self transports them by divers ways there is danger lest as it often happens it receiving them out of the habit of the Body into its mass should presently discharge them into the Brain or Praecordia for nothing is more usual than for Diseases of those parts to wit an Asthma or Apoplexy to seize Hydropicks after bathing Notwithstanding when the conjunct cause of the Disease that is the intumescence is either
moderate or not great a Bath of Water impregnated with Salts and Sulphur or also a Stove whereby gentle Sweat may be provoked is often used With success Idem VIII Stoves by heating thinning and colliquating the subcutaneous humours by opening the passages and drawing out Sweat doe good Notwithstanding we must abstain from them if immoderate evacuation of Bloud have given occasion to this Disease for they heat and stir the Bloud Encâ—â—rid Med. Pract. and draw out of the Veins IX In an Anasarca Issues in the Legs are commended but in the beginning of the Disease otherwise if the Disease be old Fluxions and Gangrenes are easily caused You may reckon the same of Blisters and Incisions one of which will be enough for one Leg Epiphaniuâ— Ferdinandus which must be kept lifted up a little for by little and little the Water runs out without any danger ¶ Vesicatories let out the intercutal water plentifully and sometimes too much because such an Epispastick applied to swelled places makes too wide an out-let which being opened the Water that comes first out often draws a floud out of the parts adjoining upon which a great sinking of the Spirits follows Moreover the place suddenly so opened because it is deprived of the Heat and Spirits quickly gangrenes Wherefore this Medicine is seldom applied to the Legs or Feet of hydropick persons when the Heat is weak and the Swelling big but sometimes it is safely applied to the Thighs and Arms. Escharoticks are used with a little more safety than Vesicatories to the swelled places because at this emissary the flux of the water is not so heady and copious at the first but it begins moderately and proceeds by degrees to a great Current which Nature after she has been gradually used to it bears the better Moreover there is less fear of a Gangrene from an Escharotick than from a Vesicatory because in that application the part whose continuity is dissolved is guarded against the dissolution of the Heat by an Eschar Willis X. There remains yet another not inferiour to though less usual than the other way of getting out intercutal Water by Acupuncture which also must be very cautiously and gradually celebrated lest a hasty and excessive flux of Water be raised Take an ordinary Needle such as Tailers use and prick the Skin with it in the most oedematous place so as the Bloud may not come and make at one time 6 or 7 little holes about an inch one from another the Water will burst out drop by drop out of every such little hole and so will drop out continually till the Swelling round the prickt places do vanish Then the next time about 12 hours after let 18 or 24 other such punctures be made in some other part either of the same or the other Leg and so let such emissaries of the intercutal Water be made in this or that one Limb or two or more together once or twice a-day for by this means the hydropick matter may be discharged more plentifully and safely than by any other outward administration A new product whereof in the mean time if it be prevented by internal Pharmacy the Disease will easily be cured Moreover in a deplorable Dropsie Life is the best prolonged by that administration inasmuch that is as the Water being continually discharged by these external emissaries the internal vital inundation is longer kept off Idem XI Chalybeates doe often in this Disease as well as in the Green-sickness a great deal of good so that often the whole or chief scope of Cure depends on this sort of Medicine Yet we must take notice that all such Medicines are not a-like proper in these cases for those that are most used that is Sal Chalybis or Vitriolam Martis and other things prepared with acids and wholly despoiled of their Sulphur doe no good because they do not promote the ferment of the Bloud but rather on the contrary when it is too fierce and elastick they fix it Yet Chalybeates of this Nature may be used for an Anasarca and any oedematous Cachexy in the habit of the Body in which the sulphureous particles are left and are prevalent as especially filings and scalings of Steel reduced to Powder also Steel melted with Sulphur and powdered These Powders being taken are presently dissolved by the acid Salts within our Body whereby the sulphureous metallick particles being set loose and carried into the Bloud do ferment its whole mass and raise the homogeneal particles therein which before were asleep and joining with them do invigorate the Bloud and renew its fermentative or sanguifick virtue before depressed Wherefore we may observe that upon using these Chalybeates but a little time the green colour of the Face is turned into a florid countenance Willis Hydrops Ascites or A Dropsie in the Belly The Contents It may come without any fault in the Liver I. It is often caused by heating things and must be cured with cooling ones II III. Letting of Bloud may be proper IV. Vomits when proper V. The Serum diffused without the Veins must be got out with strong Purging VI. Strengthners must be mixt with strong Purgatives VII It must be conquered by Mercurial Medicines VIII The Succedaneum to Elaterium IX Things applied to the Navel are dangerous X. Diureticks must be given at a time convenient XI Taking of Lixivia not good for all XII If Vrine be stopt Cantharides must be given XIII In a perfect Dropsie Diureticks are useless XIV How they ought to be chosen XV. If it be caused through some fault in the Kidneys they are useless XVI When Diureticks are given Clysters must frequently be administred XVII They carry off the matter contained in the Abdomen XVIII When the Waters are proper XIX Hydroticks must not always be prescribed XX. What Diaphoreticks are able to doe XXI Sweat must not be raised by Decoctions XXII It cannot be cured by Hydroticks alone XXIII Narcoticks mortal to Hydropicks XXIV XXV Whether Tapping may be tried XXVI The manner of operation XXVII XXVIII On what condition it may be administred XXIX Opening must not be made with a Cautery XXX It must not be done unless the Navel swell XXXI In what quantity the Water must be let out XXXII In Hydropicks the Coats of the Peritonaeum grow very thick XXXIII A Gangrene which follows the opening of the Scrotum need not much be feared XXXIV The Tapping of the Scrotum XXXV Section made by cutting of the Nails hurtfull XXXVI Scarifying of the Legs safe XXXVII Of the Ankles dangerous XXXVIII Whether Issues may be made in the Legs XXXIX Whether Scarifications be safe XL. Blisters XLI The use of medicated Wines XLII Clysters must have no Oil in them XLIII The eating of Herrings is good XLIV An Example of a happy Cure XLV The Efficacy of Clysters and Plasters XLVI In applying of Topicks we must have a care of the region of the Liver XLVII The Preparation
occasions an Inflammation and Gangrene which are often increased or produced by fomentations applied amiss and overhot as also by a preposterous and violent rubbing of the swelled part and by the violent forcing back of the swollen Guts Sylvius XV. A young Man twenty four years old of a melancholick constitution fell into the Colick which after many things had been tried in vain degenerated into the Iliack passion with straitness about the Heart he swallowed a leaden Bullet of 2 drachms weight well covered with 1 drachm of Quicksilver and lest it should hurt his Jaws or raise a Ptyalism it was artificially wrapt up After three hours he broke wind and had ease Mâ—lchior Fribe in Misc cur on 1672. obs 96. and the fourth hour there followed two stools in which he voided above six pounds of matter of party colours yet he recovered without any harm XVI A poor Woman after an ill course of Diet fell into an obstruction of the Belly which lasted three weeks so that she brought up the excrements at her mouth as in an Ileus Divers things were used without any benefit At length she often drank the Juice of Bardorffe Apples that were rotten to about six pounds upon which she grew loose and the Woman narrowly escaped Death XVII If the Iliack passion be joined with a Rupture a supervening mortal sign whereof is the vomiting of the Chyle and Excrements when the Gut Ileon is slipt into the Scrotum after the falling down of which Hippocrates never saw any Man recover the onely way of Cure if there be any is as soon as the violent pain of the left side of the Scrotum reaching vomiting and such things have convinced you of the Gut Ileon being slipt Then without delay the very same day the ligament or vinculum inguinis must be cut in sunder with a Razor that is where the peritonaeum is joined with the Groin by a coat Duretus comm in Holletium or the testicle of the same side may be cut out Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. A Decoction of Dill is admirable good though Men do vomit after drinking of it Bread must be put in warm water and immediately warm pieces of it must be give to eat Aegineta 2. This gives great ease Let 4 ounces of Wine of Crete and 16 ounces of Oil be boiled together to the consumption of the Wine this given for a Clyster mitigates pain causes sleep softens the excrements Benedictus and breaks wind 3. The Bloud of a Bat anointed on the hypochondria by admirable experience is reckoned to stop the pains of the Twisting of the Guts Joël 4. They that are held of this Disease are wonderfully relieved although they vomit their ordure if they eat pieces of hot bread dipt in oil They will be saved though they were in a manner dead Oribasius 5. Spirit of Turpentine given inwardly egregiously dissolves the Tartar and causes the Excrements to descend and pass the natural way Petraeus 6. If the Disease come from thick and viscid Phlegm a Decoction or Infusion or Water of Radish is highly approved and also strong Wine in which inciding and attenuating Herbs have been boiled Rhudius Inappetentia or Want of Appetite The Contents Phlegm which is the Cause of it must be heated by little and little I. It requires rather the correcting some fault in the Liver than in the Stomach II. Whether Spirit of Vitriol recovers an Appetite III. See Diseases of the Stomach BOOK XVIII I. BILE and Phlegm especially hinder the sense of Appetite Concerning Phlegm it must be observed that it as it is cold indicates heating things yet it must not be done all at once and on a sudden lest the humours being suddenly dissolved breed wind and be distributed into the whole Body and cause obstructions wherefore here we must act with caution and first of all we must take care that the Patient eat and drink sparingly and use an attenuating Diet. Salt Meats also may be given the first mess because Salt has an inciding and attenuating virtue and afterwards things that have a detersive faculty may be used such as the decoction of Cabbage boiled but a little But first of all to attenuate let Oxymel be given with a fourth part of Honey of Roses afterwards that Medicine which is called Diatrion Pipereon and that the simple which is onely made of the three sorts of Pepper for although Pepper heat violently yet it is of thin substance and parts which are therefore quickly discussed and therefore doe the Liver no harm Sennertus II. Loss of Appetite and loathing of Flesh especially follows the excessive heat of the Liver for Physicians are under a mistake who when their Patients loath Fesh so that they can scarce bear the smell of it think the Stomach is onely ill Flowers of Cichory must be given either preserved with Sugar or fresh and the obstructions of the mesaraick Vessels must be helped For Flowers of Cichory do not onely help a hot Liver but they excite the faculty of the Stomach and free from obstructions ¶ Roots of Cichory especially the wild have as much virtue in them and more Crato III. There are some who perfectly abhor the use of Spirit of Vitriol as appears from Sylvaticus controv 48. and others who infer several inconveniences from the noxious qualities of common Vitriol not prepared and not separated from its impurities but to no purpose for it is one thing to consider what Galen and Diascorides say where they onely speak of crude Vitriol another to consider prepared Vitriol of which there is great variety so that it alone to several Hermeticks may seem sufficient to furnish an Apothecaries shop The question here is concerning Spirit of Vitriol which is now-a-days frequently used That it conduces much to check great putrefaction both Experience and Crato apud Scholtzium do testifie though greater caution must be observed in dry Bodies than in moist We likewise daily experience that it does much good in a dejected Appetite then especially when the internal parts of the Stomach are as it were lined and obstructed with pituitous and mucilaginous excrements so that the Spirits which cause hunger that is the innate heat of the Stomach is oppressed and rendred unfit to perform its operation As it contains in it self a penetrating inciding and cleansing virtue so it attenuates digests and consumes the mucilaginous matter and crudities Wherefore consequently it excites the hungry Spirits that before were buried as it were which produce the usual effects in extimulating the sense of the orifice and breed hunger Horstius Infantium Regimen or The Regiment of Children The Contents The umbilical Vessels must be tied neither too strait nor too loose I. Whether Children new born should be washed in hot or cold Water II. They must not be swathed too strait III. Whether the Mother's milk be always best IV. Whether new
be frequently stirred which is not necessary when the matter is not fixt And he orders burning upon the Joint which has no place in the case preceding except when the Pain fixes pertinaciously in some one place Nor does he reckon it always necessary upon the joint but where the pain fixes and it flies sometimes in one place sometimes in another And he burns with raw Flax and Fungi Idem Ibid. Concerning which see Book XIX Tit. de Cauteriis XI Mr. N. was tormented with a cruel and almost incurable pain of the Sciatica in his right Hip. Divers and very violent Purges were given him Blisters were drawn Opiates given a Vein opened in the Foot but all in vain supposing the pain arose from a cold cause and thick phlegmatick humours But observing that his Stools were very cholerick and that there was a pulsatil pain and inflammation in the Abdomen I altered my method of cure betook my self to coolers and advised drinking of the Waters hereupon the cure went on with great success so that in two days the inflammation was gone though the pain was not quite abated And when I observed the pain was vagrant that it sometimes caused a straitness about the Mesentery and sometimes fell from the Hip into the Leg I supposed the Disease came from abundance of thick and hot bloud which trying to get out and not being able to doe it creates so great trouble therefore I advised and the rather because I understood that he had formerly been subject to the Piles the applying of Leeches My advice was followed five Leeches were set to the haemorrhoid veins which when they were full of bloud being besprinkled with Salt and Ashes they discharged about six ounces of bloud The bloud looked red and very thick Aug. Thonetus void of all Serum After this the great pain invincible by other things vanished XII The Sciatica is sometimes bred of Bile and hot Humours which indeed may be known when the Pain is very sharp and pricking and the fits are sharper every other day the party is lean of a cholerick constitution young the Countrey and season hot the pain is exasperated by hot things and bilious diseases have preceded Then Medicines must be directed for Bile and a hot intemperature Therefore then there will be convenient Phlebotomy Purges for Choler sometimes gentle sometimes strong adding Diagrydiates that the morbifick matter may be carried off cooling Juleps emollient and cooling Clysters Milk Bathing c. Always taking care to avoid aperients Incrassaters should rather be chosen Riverius such as are proposed in a hot and thin Catarrh Narcoticks Laudanum given both at the Mouth and in Clysters XIII Hippocrates lib. de affect mentions a Sciatica from the driness of the Joint By Driness do not understand a dry intemperature of the solid parts constituent of the Joint it self but a consumption of its glutinous humidity whereby it is naturally nourished and made supple for better motion If it happen that this humidity be dried up by any cause then the motion is hindred with pain Hippocrates l. 3. aph 16. tells us that such Diseases come in dry constitutions He that will cure these Diseases every external and preceding cause being removed let him endeavour the restitution of the natural humidity let him prescribe a Diet actually and potentially cooling a Bath of Water with Sheep's Head and Feet Mallow Marshmallow c. boiled in it P. Salius Diversus walking gently and emollient Ointments Let all sorts of evacuation be avoided XIV A Porter in violent cold weather stood with his Legs in Water for several hours upon which a violent pain reaching from his Hip down his Thigh and Leg took him so that he could not go After a Clyster had been given him he was bled in the Arm on the same side the next day he took a strong Purge for three days following he took every morning of Spiritus Theriacalis 8 drops in Carduus Benedictus Water Riverius which Sweat him violently and his pain was taken away Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Aegineta The Herb Sciatica Cresses perfectly cures this Disease 2. One was afflicted with an intolerable Sciatica he applied Nettles boiled in Beer for a Cataplasm Fornanus and he was rid of his pain to a miracle 3. I have not found a better Medicine than a Plaster of Pitch and Brimstone ¶ Rub the place with Juice of Onion then strow on it Powder of Pepper and Nitre and tie on a Sponge Forestuâ— wet in a Decoction of Cumin and Calamint in Wine 4. This is experienced Whip the place with a Nettle till it be red and wash it with Spirit of Wine Hoëâ—erus 5. St. John's-wort drunk for forty days cures the Sciatica admirably and if two drachms of its seed be drunk it Purges the Belly and cures the Pain Marquardus 6. Root of Reed bruised and applied to the pained place is admirable good as also Ashes of Reed Mercurialis 7. Cowes Dung made hot and applied does much good Vatignana Ischuria or Stoppage of Vrine The Contents In a legitimate one which is best to use a Catheter Section or an Escharotick I. One arising from an Inflammation of the Perinaeum does not admit of a Catheter II. Giving of Clysters sometimes cures it III. The Catheter must be dextrously put in IV. It is hurtfull where the Bladder is inflamed V. When it is inflamed we must use coolers and repellents sparingly VI. The cure of one coming from a Tumour of the Bladder caused by a Catarrh VII Cured by pricking the Bladder VIII A Narcotick proved mortal IX Whether the putting in of a Silver Wire with Cotton Wool be to be approved of X. Diureticks are hurtfull XI Sometimes a large Catheter goes in more easily than a less XII Cured by making Incision in the neck of the Bladder XIII The cure of one coming from a Caruncle in the Urethra XIV From a Stone sticking in the end of the Penis XV. In a desperate one the Cure of Cantharides is safe XVI Cured by large Bloud-letting XVII The use of a Wax Candle to get out Vrine XVIII Sometimes it is stopt through some fault in the bloud the Organs being unhurt XIX The removing of a little Stone which stops the mouth of the Bladder XX. How a Stone got into the Orifice of the Vreter may be removed XXI The virtue of Volatile Salts in a bastard Ischury XXII Medicines I. IF a stoppage of Urine can be removed by no safe Remedy but see it be proper that is that the stoppage be not made above the Bladder there arises a Question Whether a Catheter must be forcibly put in or the place must be cut as for the Stone or an Escharotick Medicine must be applied and then a hole made For always in deplorable cases any way though not safe if there be any hopes in it may better be tried than the
Bladder with a thick one which was almost as thick as a Swan's quill than with a small one The reason is because when the Urinary Duct about the neck of the Bladder yea and the Sphincter it self was swelled by reason of the Scirrhus a coarctation and straitness of the Urinary Duct in the Perinaeum must of necessity follow Therefore it is consentaneous to reason that a little small Catheter could not dilate this narrowness Hildanus which a thicker could easily doe XIII Sometimes we can neither prevail by Medicines nor Catheters so as to be able to get out the Urine which has stopt many days because of some fault in the Urinary Duct the Man continually hasting to his end Why therefore should you think it hard by a dextrous incision to make a small hole where they cut for the Stone Arculanus comm ad Rhazen c. 103. laid down this cure Which thing in the extremity of the Patient and in cases when other remedies will doe no good I would advise you not to reject Severinus nor speak ill of XIV Cardan com 43. aph sect 7. testifies he saw a case succeed very well when a Caruncle in a certain Man was perforated with a Catheter though much bloud and corruption ran out of it And I experienced the same in a Barber who had been two days ill of a stoppage of Urine For while I thrust a Catheter against the renitent Caruncle first a little bloud came and then abundance of Urine Idem and he finds himself well to this very day XV. A Boy eight years old was ill of the Small Pox he complained of a stoppage of Urine We were puzzled what should be the cause We saw the Small pox on the end of the Penis and we thought there might be some within We gave inwardly things to provoke Urine We were then hindred from Bathing and Fomentations by the Small Pox. Winclerus Misc cur ann 74. obs 36. When we could doe nothing I look on the Penis I saw something white in the Orifice I took it for a Small pock full of Pus I take a Needle I find it hard I move it and when moved I get it out it proved a Stone and the Urine came It had been forced thither by expelling Emulsions that are used to be given in the Small pox which are also Dâ—uretick XVI An Infusion of Cantharides is a remedy for a stoppage of Urine the happy success whereof I have several times experienced Let a scruple of Cantharides in powder be infused in three or four ounces of Rhenish-wine or of Spirit of wine for some days T. Bartholinus cent 5. hist 82. Ep. 54. cent 4. then let it be filtred through a brown Paper that nothing of the substance of the Cantharides may be mixt with it Let one Spoonfull of this liquour thus strained be mixt with other seven spoonfulls of Wine or Beer And of this mixture let one Spoonfull be given the first day two the next and so on XVII N. A Nobleman Sixty years old sanguine of an athletick habit when he travelled in the heat of Summer quenched his thirst contracted from the Heat with abundance of drink Four days after he came home he fell into a perfect Ischury which was variously opposed by an old Physician yea a Catheter was put into his Bladder I was called I asked him whether he felt any pain in his Loins or Pubes or if he had been troubled with the Stone in the Kidneys He said No. Hence I gathered the Ischury proceeded from no fault in the Kidneys or Bladder but rather from an obstruction of the Emulgents which a multitude of Humours had caused by reason whereof the Vessels being too full and distended could not contract themselves for expulsion Which appears in the Bladder distended beyond measure by too long keeping the Urine which sometimes very difficultly voids the Urine through want of contraction I insisting on this opinion proposed Phlebotomy to be celebrated with a liberal hand to take away the plenitude of the Vessels And one pound of bloud was taken away Scarce an hour was over when the Patient perceived the Urine run by the Ureters from the Kidneys to the Bladder and he foretold he would make some quickly A little after he called for a Pot and when he had filled that Riverius more were brought so that in an hours time he made several pounds of water Thus he was perfectly cured and would not take a Hydragogue which was prescribed him the next morning XVIII For such as by long holding their water or drunkenness cannot make water though they strive to doe it I have found out an easie way and have practised it several times with great success by putting a Wax Candle such as Shoomakers use through the Vrethra into the cavity of the Bladder if it be first made blunt at the end and anointed with Oil. I use this instead of a Catheter which because it cannot be thrust into Males especially but with much difficulty or pain in imitation of it I have tried this Candle and have observed the success to be excellent Which Artifice is so much more to be valued because this is always in readiness and such a Candle may be used by any one whereas a Catheter cannot be put in but by a skilfull hand Sylvius de le B ë. and then indeed with trouble XIX I think sometime the suppression of Urine may be owing to the bloud for its cause that is when this is so affected and so confused and mixt as to its various parts that the Serum cannot be separated in the Kidneys Which perhaps falls out oftner than the Caruncles of the Kidneys are indisposed especially when no fault is observed in the Kidneys though they be most found fault with And certainly that the bloud may be so affected it self that the serous parts which minister matter to Urine are so intimately mixt with the rest that they cannot easily be parted many things seem to perswade me whether a Man consider the Symptoms then urgent or weigh well the method of cure by volatile Salts For to say something of volatile Salt alone and not without good reason because of the manifold experience I have of its virtues it is certain that it has the faculty of dissolving any viscid humour from which the vitious connexion of the Fluid parts as well as the Solid has usually its rise Now when the viscid humour is dissolved the parts of the bloud may more easily separate when they are not so intimately conjoined one to another But if any one think if the suppression of Urine which is so often mortal must be ascribed to a viscid humour in the bloud which hinders the separation of its parts that then the obstruction of the Caruncles in the Kidneys whatever it is may not inconveniently be derived from the same viscidity hindring the secretion or transcolation of Urine and causing a suppression of it
White of an Egg whence also it appeared that they derive their original rather from a cold than a hot matter Then we disputed whether Ranulae use to grow again But this is confirmed by experience Salmuth cent 1. obs 36. I thought it therefore safest to cure by suppuraters because that way the Bladder is taken away also VII If the Ranula or Tumour arising under the Tongue cannot be cured by discutients which rarely falls out we must proceed to opening which must not be small Because the matter contained in the Bladder will gather again and fill the Bladder there being also a great laxity and softness of the part whereby it is fit for reception but Section must be made along the top of the Tumour in each Eminence that all the matter may run out at once ¶ A young Woman Riverius after an Epidemick Fever had a swelling under her Tongue as big as a Pigeon's Egg round hard and red so that with much pain the Tongue was driven back and her speech and swallowing hindred The Chirurgeon wisely avoided opening of it because the abscess was not as yet ripe and if it be opened all red it may indanger either an Inflammation or a Cancer In the mean time the body was prepared in a due method When six weeks were past I saw the Ranula pale and with my fingers on each side I found it was suppurated and that the matter fluctuated in a thick coat wherefore I advised opening of it The Skin was broke with a gentle incision of a Penknife where it was observed to be free from Veins presently as much matter like the White of an Egg came out as a large Spoon would hold The Ranula fell in a few days after a new incision was made on the other side and there came out the like quantity of the same Liquour Bartholinus cent 1. hist 89. and so she recovered her Tongue and Speech and she swallowed as formerly VIII A Minister of God's Word could not Preach any more for the Laxity or half-Palsie of his Tongue Several things were tried in vain At length this Mixture did the business Take of Mithridate one drachm Extract of Acorus one scruple Powder of Root of Aron 2 Scruples Essence of Castor six grains Oil of Cloves four drops Mix them He had this mixture always in readiness and if he haesitated in Preaching he betook himself presently to his Mixture and finished his Discourse At length he died Apoplectick IX By accident many things were found of old and do also come to light at this day It happened that one who had a great piece of his Tongue cut off on a time drank out of a Wooden Dish with the Reapers in the field and when he was tickled by some that stood by him he suddenly broke out into articulate voices who admiring the novelty put the same dish to his head again in the same posture as before and spoke so as he could be understood of all He carried it about him for a while after and used it for an Interpreter of his mind till he got another Wooden Instrument ingeniously made him which he wore about his neck always and expressed his mind by it See the Figure of the Instrument in Paraeus l. 22. c. 5. Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. The White of an Egg with Mucilage of Psyllium and Syrup of Roses or Violets boiled a little with Seed of Purslane and Ivory are very good for a hot and dry tongue Benedictus 2. Take Oil Olive 1 Spoonfull Vitriol the quantity of a Hazle-Nut Mix them Anoint the Tongue it cools exceedingly Wittichius and preserves from putrefaction 3. In the swelling of the Tongue Galen's remedy is excellent Hold Juice of Lettuce in the mouth It has been often tried Rhodius 4. Spirit of Black Cherries restores the lost Speech Grulingius to a Miracle Lues Venerea or The Pox or Venereal Disease The Contents The Physician must be very cautious in his judgment about the infected I. The faculty of a Stove in discovering a latent Pox. II. Prudence must be used in letting of bloud III. Whether it can be conquered by common Alexipharmacks IV. A Cure without either Sweat or Salivation V. According to this or the other Intention this or the other Alexipharmack must be used VI. We must Purge exactly before we Sweat VII The choice of Guajacum Wood. VIII Whether it may be boiled in Wine IX The proportion of it to the Water must not always be the same X. Whether a Decoction may be made in Balneo Mariae XI How the Decoction may be seasoned XII Whether Roots and Herbs may be put in it XIII Whether the Extract or the Decoction of the Wood should be preferred XIV Whether the Distillation or the Decoction be better XV. Cautions about the secondary Decoction XVI Whether Purgatives may be put in the Decoctions XVII Our Country Woods may supply the Defect of Exoticks XVIII The way of taking the Decoctions XIX After taking of the Decoction how we may promote Sweat XX. When Diureticks must be added to Sudorificks XXI The virtue of Sarsa parilla is in the Bark XXII China is not able to conquer the Pox. XXIII The Decoction of it cannot be long kept XXIV Purges are often proper XXV In what respect Coloquintica does good XXVI How it may be used if it cannot be taken for its bitterness XXVII Mercurial Purgatives are of great efficacy XXVIII The use of Mercurius precipitatus for Purging XXIX How long we must persist in the use of Mercurial Purges XXX Vpon what account Mercurial Medicines are suspected XXXI The great usefulness of Mercurius dulcis XXXII A most grievous Pox cured quickly and safely by Mercurial Medicines XXXIII Mercurial Pills must be well covered with gold XXXIV If a Vomit be proper What is best to be given XXXV The usefullness of Lixivial Salts in curing the Pox. XXXVI Sylvius his method of curing the Pox. XXXVII The excellence of Fluxing in curing the Pox. XXXVIII The right administration of Mercurial Medicines XXXIX We must not fall preposterously on Fluxing XL. By what virtue crude Mercury acts in Anointing XLI Mercury Precipitate and Sublimate may be made use of XLII Evacuation of the Body must precede fluxing XLIII When Anointing is used Clysters must be given frequently XLIV Wine while a Flux is raising is dangerous XLV Mercury must not be corrected with hot things XLVI Salivation and Sweat must not be raised both at once XLVII Salivation must rather be promoted than stopt XLVIII Women with Child and Children bear fluxing XLIX When the Spina Dorsi must be anointed L. If the great Gland of the Neck be inflamed we must abstain from anointing LI. Whether they that are diseased in their Nerves may be anointed LII A Quinsie or a sore Mouth hinders it LIII The repairing the mischief done the parts of the Mouth LIV. The way of getting out the Mercury which remains
Bowels but onely from the obstruction of the veins that come to the Womb Frid. Hofmannus according to Minsicthus his advice Vomits must be avoided VII The Terms being near in some Viragoes and restagnating because of the narrowness of the Vessels do create a great deal of trouble to the ferment both of the first and second digestion so that thence there arises loss of colour in the face and other symptoms representing the green-sickness in Maids especially if over and above there be an Astral Influx that hinders the Terms the said Symptoms do not onely grow worse but the Cure also proves very difficult In the mean time at the beginning violent Expellers which onely disturb the morbifick matter and doe no good must be avoided but they must be moderately moving and also they must help the fermentation of the first and second Concoction Of which rank are Extract of the lesser Centaury Juniper Mugwort Species Dialaur Minsicthi Extract Splen Bov. Elixir proprietatis Paracelsi Vterinum Crollii if instead of Spirit of Wine Spirit of Baum and Sage be used adding toward the latter end a sufficient quantity of Salt of Mugwort for these things moderately provoke the Terms strengthen the concoction of the Bowels resist putrefaction and are good against Worms Frid. Hofmannus if there be any VIII Galen 5. Aphor. 46. says that if the Mouth of the Womb be compressed by a swelling the Terms must not be provoked The reason is because the swelling would increase and the Disease would be inraged by giving things to provoke the Terms Thus they are in errour who when the Vessels of the Womb are compressed either by a swelling or too much Fatness they do open the Saphoena and they do not see that the swellings increase Therefore the Basilick vein must be opened Sanctorius IX If the Terms flow not for want of bloud as after long Fevers great Evacuations and in any notable extenuation of the body they must not be provoked before the body be recruited with convenient restorative food before a sufficient quantity of bloud is bred and before the Disease the cause of extenuation be conquered which when done the Terms usually come of themselves But if it do not so fall out to the end Nature may be recalled to her duty bloud may be taken from the lower Veins according to the measure of the strength But we must take notice that every extenuation does not denote want of bloud but onely that which succeeds consuming Causes Riverius X. We must never use Remedies to provoke the Terms unless universal Evacuations were premised lest the humours being moved in great plenty to the Womb should increase the obstruction or being much attenuated should fall on other parts and produce much mischief So Schenckius reports that a Physician of Venice gave a Woman for the suppression of her Terms a Decoction before he had evacuated the Phlegm which was the cause of her Obstruction upon taking of which she fell into a Palsie Fortis XI But they must be given in a great quantity because much of their virtue is abated by the way from the Stomach to the Womb. Riverius XII If they be given at the going in or out of a Bath they exert their virtue the more powerfully because the Medicine gets into an open and warm body and yet much more effectually if they were given before bleeding in the foot Idem Some generous Remedies in a pertinacious Obstruction XIII Seeing the suppression of the Terms is caused for the most part by the obstruction and stuffing of the Vessels that go to the Womb and through the Womb we shall pursue this sort most And whereas we have shewn that this said obstruction is produced either by a viscid and glutinous Phlegm or by such a bloud it easily appears that inciding and detersion are indicated and required by the tenacity of the humour for its cure and the provoking of the Menstrua And both Acids and Aromaticks and things abounding with a lixivial Salt as well fixt as volatile and therefore fixt and volatile Salts themselves But because Acids serve to produce a glutinosity especially when they incline to Austerity therefore in curing of this Disease Aromaticks are deservedly preferred which Experience also it self testifies to be better than Acids Whether things be bitter or not but of various tasts they must be called Aromaticks And whoever is conversant in the Chymical mutations of things Natural he will find both far more powerfull things and more easie to be used than these things that are commonly used As Volatile Salts made of infinite things of all Bones Horns Hoofs Hair Bloud Urine Flesh and all parts of Animals whatever that is all Volatile Salts are good though I should prefer Oleous ones before the rest because they doe their work more kindly and successfully Whence also it is manifest that fixt Salts are less to be valued because since they are purer they operate the more violently And the said Volatile Salts may be conveniently used at any time and especially when all the bloud is glutinous at Dinner and Supper in a draught of Wine Beer Broth or any other liquour the Patient shall chuse But when the whole mass of bloud is not glutinous and pituitous though the said Volatile Salts may be used at meal-times yet they may be used to greater advantage at another time and especially when the Phlegm first dissolved by the motion of the body heat of the Air c. and carried to the Womb is by and by coagulated there again by the subsequent Cold for then it is good to take Volatile Salts upon an empty Stomach and also to dispose the body it self to a Sweat for so the virtue of the Medicines will the easilier penetrate to the farther end of the vessels and passages And above the rest I recommend Spirit of Sal Ammoniack to all when a stoppage of the Menstrua happens suddenly and lately upon heating and cooling of the body by benefit of which alone I have very well cured several in a short time by giving 3 4 5 or six drops as it is stronger or weaker in a spoonfull of Wine twice or thrice a day And not onely a Volatile Salt it self but all things also abounding with it whether Sudorificks or Diureticks are very proper It will be usefull also in a suppression that comes gradually to add such things to the Deobstruents that are used towards the latter end For Example make the following Apozeme Take of Root of Parsly Lovage each half an ounce shavings of Guajacum three drachms Saffafras half an ounce Juniper Berries two ounces Bay-berries half an ounce Scordium Penni-royal each half an handfull tops of lesser Centaury half an handfull Millet-seed two ounces Boil them in fair Water to 25 ounces of the Colature add of Syrup of Mugwort Carduus Benedictus each one ounce and an half Tincture of Cinnamon and Castor each half an ounce Oil
Honey and mixt with Syrups VI. Septalius l. 6. Anim. 74. rejects Sudorificks and prefers things that provoke Urine and he thinks Physicians generally commit a great Error that omitting promoters of Urine they use Hidroticks because thick Matter is also carried off by Urine And when the thinner part is evacuated by Sweat the thicker is rendred more hard obstructive and difficult as to Motion and Evacuation But grant all this to be true in Diseases whose cause lies in the Bowels and Hypochondria or in the Veins yet the reason does not hold in the Palsy For seeing the cause of the Disease sticks about the Nerves I see not how it can easily get from thence to the ways of Urine But Evacuation by the ambit of the Body is easie Nor need we fear that by the use of Sudorificks the Matter will grow too hot because it is cold and so requires heating insomuch that some think a Fever should be raised which may heat and melt it Nor that it will grow thick Sennertus seeing Hydroticks have an Attenuative virtue VII Opiates are much commended by Practitioners which because of the Opium are very much suspected by me in the stupidity and imbecillity of the Nerves And they give Treacle Mithridate Aurea Alexandrina Platerus c. VIII There is not one among the vulgar but may easily observe that Diaphoreticks do much good and sometimes much harm Wherefore it is of much moment to explicate the Reasons of so different an Effect Therefore plentiful Sweating is sometimes good for Paralyticks upon a twofold account especially namely because it plentifully exterminates the Impurities of the Blood and Nervous Juice that are apt to exhale And that the Morbifick Matter may flow no more to the Brain and parts affected and that what is flown already may in part be thrown off And secondly because the effluvia of heat flying from the aestuating Blood do very much open the Nervous Ducts stopt before and open a passage for the Spirits while in Evaporation they pass that way Wherefore this Administration is proper for them especially and in a manner for them only whose Blood not being very full of fixt Salt and Sulphur is diluted with a limpid and insipid serum For on the contrary Paralyticks in whose Blood and Humours there are abundance of wild exotick Particles of enormous Salts and Sulphurs that are fixt and unfit for exhalation do find a great deal of harm from violent Sweating Of which Affection we assign these two Causes namely That the Morbifick Particles through agitation being too much exalted become more outragious 2. That when abundance of them is driven into the Head and Nervous Kind they often increase old Obstructions and not seldom produce new ones Willis IX If Pains about the Arms and Shoulders do accompany it we order Sweating in Bed to be raised with heated Bricks or Bottles full of hot Water that the Matter sticking among the Muscles may be digested and resolved yet above all these things Sweat must rather be raised by the ambient heat than by the internal use of a Medicine or Decoction that melts or thins the Humours which is proper only when in the Stove Sweat does run plentifully all the Matter being put into fusion Whereas otherwise if the antecedent Humours be dissolved in the Veins by a Decoction and when they are dissolved be not discharged but tarry in the Body they will increase Pain Which as Reason it self teaches us so I have found true by Experience so that I can never do enough to extirpate this abuse Therefore when the Matter is but little and therefore the Pain but small when we intend not to move or put into fusion the antecedent Humours residing in the whole Body we only give a Decoction of Groundpine so much commended by Matthiolus upon Dioscorides in these cases Whereto if you add a little China it may not be amiss abstaining nevertheless from Misletoe of the Oak and such melting things Fortis as also from Sanders which hinder Sweat X. The Head also should be dried with a Sudorifick Decoction but that is very much suspected by me for I am afraid lest the Humours of the whole Body and of the Head being melted fly into the Head violently and cause an Apoplexy Wherefore I should more willingly use some Decoction not very colliquating but cherishing the innate heat and dissipating the Matter impacted into the Nerves as well as drying the Head the Matter being rather derived to the Center by Urine than to the Circumference by Sweat The Decoction may be made of Mastiche Wood Rosemary Misletoe of the Oak and a little Sassafras in Pigeon Broth giving first Turpentine with Salt of Iva Arthritica and Sal Theriacalis Idem XI Loosning and alterative Clysters are very convenient having a care of over emollient ones whereby the Spine being more relaxed would be further hurt so that not without reason the Vulgar think Clysters in the Colick occasion the Palsy Platenus Which nevertheless rightly prepared both do good and if the Cause lye about the lower part of the Back may serve for Topical Remedies XII But indeed as generous Medicines if they turn not to Alexitericks often prove Poysons So going into the Bathes has made these Paralyticks much worse whom it did not cure so that when more parts and those that were affected before grew more Paralytick the Lame leave their Crutches there for no other reason but because they cannot use them when they are made more impotent The reason hereof is because Bathing by disturbing the Blood and all the Humours does more exalt all the Morbifick and Heretogeneous Particles and forces them being enraged out of the Bowels into the Mass of Blood whence because they do not easily evaporate entring the Brain and Nervous Kind they increase the Palsy and often cause a Convulsion For this reason Bathing sometimes first actuates the Stone in the Kidney and the Gout and brings a Spitting of Blood Asthma or Consumption upon many when there was no disposition to it Wherefore the Bathes should not be tried without the advice of a Physician and if when they are tried they do not agree Willis they must be quickly left XIII Bituminous Sulphureous Bathes cure a Palsy suceedaneous to the Colick And they do good not only by drying the Humours and strengthning the Parts but I rather think that the adust salt nitrous and tartareous impuritie of the Humours and Vapours in Man which spoâ—â— the virtue of the Nerves are quite dissolved by the virtue of the Bathes and being dissolved are by a peculiar and Mineral Analogy which the qualities of the Bathes have with the divers Humours and Juices in Man drawn to the ambit of the Body and so our Bodies are delivered from the Enemy that besets the Nervous Kind not without corroboration The Efflorescence of the Skin in such as use the Bathes often sometimes coming with a troublesome Itch
the Viscera by the mediation of the Heart For when the Head does destil Rheum upon the Lungs and the Liver supplies an impure Blood to the Heart which the Heart pours out again into the Lungs their Substance is thereby infected but that taint flows not from the Heart but from the Distemper'd and ill Conditition'd Viscera which send impure Blood to the Heart whose â—ault the Heart cannot correct but by many Circulations Now the Lungs cannot receive Humours from the Head without a Cough for if this be wanting they suffer only from the Blood of the Heart for the Lungs alone are supplied with Blood from the Heart receiving Vessels therefrom Riolan eâ—enchir Anatomic l. 3. c. 6. and not from the Cava XXV Medicines that raise a greater fermentation are not to be added to Eclegma's or Lambitives Thus 't is well known that the Flowers of Sulphur and the Milk of Sulphur so called are excellent Pectorals and yet 't is adviseable to give them rather in any other mixâ—ure than that of Lambitives or Electuaries The same may be said of Salts which 't is better to omit also because they are not so friendly to the Breast For 't is certain by Experience that the mixing of Sulphurate Remedies with sweet does in a specâ—al manner cause a fermentation whence a resolution and impetus being made such Lambitives which also of themselves are apt to ferment after the manner of other sweet things mixt with what is Heterogeneous incline to the out-parts of the Vessel so that the Vessel seems always full Wedel de medicin compos 140. though every day something be drained thence ¶ Lambitives are naught for the Stomach for sweet things as Macrobius says rightly are enemies to Concoction for by the continued use of them especially they loosen the sides of the Stomach dull its heat and impair its ferment so that Montanus himself Cons 32. rightly admonishes us not to give them but on an empty Stomach lest Concoction be hindred Hence they destroy the appetite so that where there is a weakness of the Stomach especially a flagginess they are more sparingly or not at all to be used Idem p. 143. but always when we use them we must have regard to the tone of the Stomach XXVI Lambitives do not bind safely for they ferment the Humours and by their proper sweetness do rather smooth lubricate and mollifie than bind so that we must not wholly trust to these in salt acrimonious and thin Catarrhs nor in Spitting of Blood it self whence it may be noted as a Rule That Lambitives are indeed proper only for the Lungs Fr. Sylv. m. m. l. 2. c. 18. but yet not they alone for the Lungs alone and that by altering XXVII The simple Flowers of Sulphur are better than the Compound As entia or several distinct Medicines use almost in every case to be multiplied by Chymists without necessity so is the same observed in the Flowers of Sulphur for some prepare them with Aloes Benzoe Saffron Myrrh the Colcoâ—har of Vitriol Nitre that they may look white with common Salt c. and then give them among their Arcana but generally with light and small success For what does Colcothar communicate but a Corrosive Acrimonious Quality What afford Aloes Saffron or Myrrh but an Empyreuma For these have no quality to fly away or be sublimed and they are burnt up the more by a double Fire as it were And so great a change being made the vertues which we expected cannot but fail also Wedel Pharm p. 137. so that 't is better to join other proper things to the Flowers themselves of Sulphur XXVIII As often as Acids are used to cut Phlegm so often they are not to be given alone but mixt with sweet and Sugared things in a small quantity lest if they should be given more singly they should by their Acrimony too much irritate the Lungs to cough Fr. Sylv. m. m. l. 2. c. 18. and so should do more hurt than good XXIX When the Scrum is too Acrimonious some things are to be used which may temper it because through its Acrimony it does not only by its twitching cause frequent Coughing and wearies the Lungs but also frets the Coat of the Wind-Pipe and by degrees creates an Ulcer in the Lungs It s most frequent Acrimony is a Salt Muriatick more rarely such as is very acid its sowrness uses to cause singular disturbance The Salt Muriatick Acrimony of the Scrum is temper'd and blunted in part by the Incrassaters to be presently mentioned which by their Emplastick vertue do lenifie that Acrimony and this they do more effectually if Opiats be joined with them as the Pills commonly known called Pil. de Cynoglossa and de Styrace do testifie which are very well fitted for this purpose and might be yet more fit if by adding Sugar they were made up into Tablets or Troches and held in the Mouth for so a far greater part of them passes to the Lungs than when they are made up into Pills and swallow'd though even so they are likewise observ'd to be very effectual though every Caviller is not presently satisfied in the way by which the vertue of the Medicine is transmitted to the Lungs We therefore recommend the said Pills de Cynoglossa and de Styrace for Salt Muriatick or briny Humours that are flown into the Wind-Pipe and ought to be expectorated thence in as much as they both temper their salt Acrimony and lessen their too great fluidity and so procure to them a Consistence convenient for Expectoration Sylv. de le Boe prax lib. 1. cap. 19. and for Expulsion by Coughing whatsoever several bawl to the contrary XXX The Serum be it of what taste it will ought all of it in general to be incrassated that it may the more easily be Expectorated for otherwise it escapes the violence of the expired Air and can be expelled but slowly and by much Coughing The Serum is incrassated by Gum Tragacanth Gum Arabick the Roots of Marsh-mallows Comphrey c. of which with Sugar Troches may be made which being held a good while in the Mouth and by little and little dissolved by the Spittle do leisurely tend to the Wind-Pipe and thicken therein the over-fluid Serum making it fit to be the easilier expelled by the help of the Air in Expiration Idem XXXI As to Medicines correcting an Humour offending by a more pure acidity and helping Expectoration they are the same which correct the Salt Muriatick Serum and moreover such as concentrate and infringe Acids such as Crabs Eyes Pearls Corals Chalk all sorts of sealed Earth c. But because the Wind-Pipe uses to be fretted sooner and sorer by an acid Serum 't is necessary not only to use the Remedies that more effectually correct it but they must moreover be so prepared and administred that a good part of them may be carried into the said Wind-Pipe Wherefore the most convenient form will
Thom. Barthol cent 3. obs 74. by which being relieved he recovered LIII A Girl of eight years old began to be ill of a Cough and Fever to which succeeded a pain in her Side so that she was thought to be Pleuritical On the fifth day of her illness she voided four Worms upon taking a Clyster On the days following she voided several both by the help of such things as she took to kill them and also by Purgers Whence it appears that Vapours raised from a putrid Matter of which the Worms are generated produce the pains of the Side and a Cough and other symptoms resembling a Pleurisy River cent 1. obs 75. ¶ I had a Girl to my Patient who had all the symptoms that are usual in a Pleurisy there was a pricking pain in the right side of her Breast a little dry Cough that was raised on every small occasion her Pulse felt hard and was not altogether unlike a Saw and Recurring she broathed short and had a continual Fever Observing that sometimes her Body was cold all over and sometimes hot with one or other Cheek red upon giving her a Medicin to kill and bring forth the Worms she presently voided many and recovered Gabucin c. 13. l. de lumbric See Quercetan pharm dogmat rest cap 7. LIV. Mr. N.'s Maid was troubled with a pricking pain in her Side with a Cough and white Spittle which yet twice or thrice appear'd Bloody She could lie better on the pained Side which was the right She had no Fever which was a sign 't was no true Pleurisy seeing such Inflammation cannot be without an Acute Fever On the seventh day of her ilness seeing the pain had never intermitted she spit Blood plentifully for some hours whereupon there follow'd a Flux of her Terms and thereupon a perfect solution of the Disease I thought the cause of this Distemper to be an Acrimonious Humour translated into her Side by the Veins which caused the pain without inflammation Which Serous Humour being exagitated opened some little Veins on the seventh day whence happened her spitting of Blood but Nature conquering Laz. Riv. cent 1. obs 73. and sending off that Serous Matter to the Veins there was made a solution of the Disease LV. The Wife of Mr. N. was taken with a Pleurisy on her right Side and that very grievous About the later end of the seventh day and beginning of the eighth she was taken suddenly with so great a Palpitation that her ordinary Physician thought it to be the last struglings of Nature and foretold that death would speedily follow I was of opinion that that Palpitation proceeded from some putrid Matter evaporating contained in the lower Belly The event shew'd it to be so for after two hours she had two very stinking Stools upon which she was freed from the Palpitation Her case was suspected to be full of danger because the Disease had not been lessened in seven days time by any Remedies not so much as by repeated Bleeding And now though the symptoms seemed to abate there appeared a Parotis on the eleventh day which the next day disappear'd and she died on the thirteenth Whence it appeared to have been a Malignant Pleurisy Lazar. Riv. cent 1. obs 72. or rather a Malignant Fever accompanied with a Pleurisy LVI The Pleura is not only subject to Inflammation which a Pleurisy Empyema and Vomica or Imposthume follow but also to a certain pain which a salt Humour causeth This may be distinguished from a Pleurisy because though here be a dry Cough yet there is no Fever and also a free Respiration I use to cure it by Bleeding and Sweating if there be fear of a Pleurisy I apply this Plaster outwardly Take of the Marrow in a Cows Leg-Bone and of Ducks Grease of each three ounces of the Mucilage of Marshmallows Linseed Fenugreek Seed of each an ounce of Frankincense Mastich of each half a drachm ol◠nucist by expression two drachms Barbette Anat. Pract. p. m. 130. of yellow Wax as much as is sufficient mix them LVII Fernelius Pathol. l. 5. c. 10. notes that when a pain succeeds an Inflammation of the Lungs an Ulcer or Abscess of the Side the pain being inward firm and permanent it signifies that the affected Lungs do now adhere to the Pleura by the intervention of Phlegm or some clammy Sanio◠that flows out of the Diseased Lungs In that case there is place for no other Remedies but those that are able to loose that Cohesion and melt the clamminess of the Sanies or Phlegm as Fomentations of warm Water Milk c. contained in Bladders Drying hot Fomentations do harm by increasing the clamminess of the Sanies and Phlegm LVIII A young Man having been run in at the Back as far as his Lungs was taken with an Acute Fever with a pricking pain and difficulty of breathing so that he was esteemed Pleuritical The next day the Membranes of his Lungs being inflamed he complained of a pain reaching to the Orifice of the Wound behind Hence J. D. Sala taking it for something else than a Pleurisy felt upon the part where the Wound had been made and consulting with his Reason pronounced the Fever to arise from a Vomica bred in the Lungs through a collection of Pus nor did he guess amiss for by the use of fitting Remedies all the Pus was brought up by coughing and the Patient recovered very well Barth cent 3. hist 95. Medicins especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. A drachm of the Pouder of dried Burdock Roots taken in the Morning in warm Water and sweating upon it presently cases the pain and cures the Patient Al. Bened. 2. An infusion of Horse-Dung in thin White Wine for a Man and of Mares Dung for a Woman being drunk betimes in the morning and the Patient composing himself to sleep after it does excellently discuss the Tumour in a Pleurisy by insensible transpiration For there is a great discussive vertue in Horse-Dung because of its sulphur and the fixt and volatil salt that are found plentifully in it ¶ The Blood drawn out of a Goats Stones is a most certain Remedy for a Bastard Pleurisy both anointed outwardly and taken to a drachm inwardly P. Joh. Fab. 3. Take of Sal Prunellae two drachms the Flowers of red Poppy poudered red Coral of each a drachm of Sugar-Candy half an ounce Make a Pouder The Dose is two drachms drinking after it some red Poppy or Carduus Water It is an excellent Remedy Fr. Osw Gr. 4. It is an excellent Remedy to give on the second day a drachm of the Pouder of the Seeds of Ladies Thistle Fr. Joel 5. This is a very profitable Ointment for asswaging the pain Take of the Ointment of Marsh-mallows an ounce the Oil of Sweet Almonds half an ounce Anoint the pained part herewith warm and while it is moist sprinkle thereon some fine Pouder of Chamomel Flowers and lay
your Hand and the Foetus being caught by the Legs must be pulled out For in this case we must proceed no otherwise than if some House were on fire in which case we break open the Doors if they be shut There is only this way of safety both to the Woman and her Burthen Obstetrix Gallic in obs and the omission of it hath been destructive to many XXIII The Wife of N. thirty years old in the beginning of her ninth Month received a slight blow on her Belly and the next day moving her Arms strongly in making a Bed there began a small flux of Blood from her Womb which continued for two or three days but ceased betwixt whiles But on the twelfth day after there flow'd out so great plenty of Blood that in three or four hours time she was brought very low First Bleeding her in her Arm astringent Clysters were order'd her but the Flux continuing and the Patient perceiving no motion of the Foetus whence we thought it was dead and that the Womb endeavouring to free it self of an unprofitable Burthen contracted it self continually and expelled the Blood but yet that it did not perform that motion so strongly as was necessary for the Birth we judg'd it necessary to use all art for provoking the Birth that the immoderate profusion of Blood might be stanched which otherwise was like to bring the poor Woman to her end Wherefore a Clyster was ordered of the Emollient decoction with Catholiâ—on and Diaphoenicon of each six drachms of the Oil of Lilies three ounces with a drachm of Salt with which she was well purged and presently after she had parted with it the Flux of Blood was much lessened which may seem strange seeing such Clysters are likelier to increase the Flux But I think this happened from hence that the Womb was pressed by Excrements contained in the streight Gut from which oppression so soon as it was freed it begun to collect it self and to restrain that preposterous motion that it might betake it self to a more natural But seeing after the Clyster was parted with the Womb attempted nothing but the Efflux of Blood still continued and it was evident the Foetus was dead to exclude it there was given a drachm of the salt of Vitriol in four ounces of Bugloss Water which seemed proper in two respects First Because by raising a Vomit the Womb was also irritated to exclusion because in Vomiting all the parts of the Abdomen do violently contract themselves Secondly Because the salt of Vitriol is endued with a very great astringent vertue whereby it may conduce to the stanching of Blood She Vomited twice pretty sorely and cast up much Bilious Phlegmatick and Serous Stuff and a little after her Travailing Pains came on which having continued for four or five hours this Potion was given to further the Birth Take of Dittany of Crete both Birthworts and the Troches of Myrrhe of each half a scruple of Saffron and Cinamon of each twelve grains of Confectio Alkermes half a drachm of Cinamon Water half an ounce of Orange Flower Water and Mugwort Water of each an ounce and half Upon the taking of this within a quarter of an hour with very strong and twice or thrice repeated strainings she excluded the Foetus whose Skin beginning to putrefy seem'd torn in divers places A little while after she excluded the Secundines also half-rotten her Lochia flowing moderately after that Riv. cent 3. obs 24. XXIV There is great difficulty about the use of Astringents and on that account the Cure is very difficult for if we retain the Blood by things that astringe then we run into more cruel symptoms because the clodded Blood being retained breeds six hundred times more grievous symptoms according to 6. aph 20. For as much as Blood in the Vessels is friendly to Nature so much injurious does it become afterwards when extravasated for it becomes like Poison How must we proceed therefore I answer That all Internal Remedies ought to be astringent and the External especially about the region of the Belly and Womb by no means astringent for by that means they should be destroyed languishing especially when they void clodded Blood Epiph. Ferdinand hist 3. yet Astringents may be applied to the Reins Pruritus or Itching The Contents A stubborn Itching cured by Issues I. A scabby one cured by Scarification II. I. MR. N. having been ill for some months of a Sciatick pain and a troublesom or rather painful itching almost all over his Body and could hardly go any longer leaning on a Staff I advised him to empty his Body of bad Humours for he was very Cacochymical and to free his Viscera from obstructions But he being averse from Physick I made two Issues one in the left Arm and another in the right Ham by the benefit whereof the Sciatick pain and also that very troublesom itching remitted by degrees And the acrimonious salt and naughty Humour the immediate cause of each Distemper being by the help of Nature plentifully discharged by the Issues it caused for some months pains in the Hams by twitching the Nervous parts Hild. cent 4. obs 75. II. An old Nun being almost for two years troubled with a scabby itching of her Hands which she used almost to tear in pieces with scratching when it could be allayed by neither Internal nor External Medicins Severin med eff p. 76. I cured it by making frequent Scarifications Puerperarum affectus or the Diseases of Childbed Women The Contents When Venesection is to be used I. The manner of Purgation in their Acute Diseases II. Cooling Alteratives are necessary when they fall into a Fever III. The allaying of the After-pains by giving the Pouder of the Secundine IV. When the pains arise from Wind how they may be allayed V. They have ceased by a cold draught VI. Eggs are hurtful VII Wine is to be denied VIII If they be costive how they are to be loosened IX Sleep is not to be granted presently after delivery X. Of the Fevers of Childbed Women see Book 6. The After-pains ought to be allayed XI They cannot be cured unless the cause be known XII I. AUthors disagree much about Venesection in the Acute Diseases of Childbed Women there are scarce two to be found that agree in the same opinion Omitting Circumlocutions I shall in the following Theorems propound here that opinion which comes nearer the mind of the wiser Physicians and succeeds the more happily in practice An Acute Disease invades a Childbed Woman either in the beginning or in the middle or in the end of her lying in If it happen in the beginning and the Woman be plentifully purged no other Evacuation of Blood is to be attempted than that which is directed by Nature working rightly and conveniently But if her Purgations be supprest or diminished let the lower Veins be opened and let Blood freely because then the Evacuation ought to be large according to
Head which was followed by a Catarrh upon the left side and a weakness of the same It is certain this Disease came through the abuse of Mercury Hildanus Cent. 5. Obs 93. which carried the Humours from the lower parts of the Body to the Head ¶ But Petraeus in Nosolog Harmonic tom 1. p. 395. sayes that Mercurial Unguents may be safely and successfully used in a contumacious Itch if Universals be premised and the unprofitable and hurtful juice be exterminated the Body yet such Topicks must not be made up of a mass of infinite Medicines for so they will work with better success and quicker effect These Mercurial Medicines rightly prepared and outwardly applied are so far from hindring Nature's motion that they rather precipitate the verminous putrid salt and briny humours which is the reason why of Mercury Sublimate and live Mercury there comes Mercurius dulcis because it has a virtue of changing the temper of precipitating and also edulcorating corrosive Salts And if any Symptomes arise at any time they do not so much proceed from the Mercury as from the mass of ill Humours and Remedies applied amiss Therefore Th. Bartholinus his Countrey Fellow cured all them with his Girdle that had got their Bodies clear by the frequent use of Medicines but he could not save the Cacochymick from death This Rustick tempered Mercury with distilled Oyl of Juniper and made it into a Mass he spread it on a Girdle and commended it for all Malignant affections Cancers malignant Ulcers and Pains in the Limbs In some places it is a Custome to mix Arcanum Corallinum with Oyntment of Roses in the Pox and they account the same an Arcanum in a contumacious Itch. XII A filthy Itch troubled a young Man with felons frequently breaking out of which Ails he could not be cured by Bleeding and several Purges for Six Months time At length I gave him 1 scruple of Mercurius dulcis with half a scruple of Diagridium Riverius Cent. 1. Obs 62. which purged him very well and within a few dayes he was clear XIII A Reverend Father had contracted a filthy Itch all over his Body for 5 or 6 years for which he had tried infinite Medicines to no purpose I in so contumacious a Disease used only the Flesh of Vipers sometimes he eat them boyled in water with a little Salt and drank the Broth after them sometimes he had them baked and turned to a Powder which Powder he used with his Meat together with Sugar Cinnamon or other things In the whole Summer he eat above 160 Vipers Whereby his Skin was renewed and he became wholly as it were another Man And he that once appeared a very old Man became as it were young again that is stronger then usual and fitter to do any business P. Poterius Cent. 3. Obs 81. The use of Vipers is scarce ever beneficial under a long time XIV There is a sort of Itch which Fallopius calls Volatick because it seems to fly all over the Skin It has been certainly observed that one has over-run the whole Body in one Night It is usually accounted by Physicians for an Efflorescence of the Blood How truly the Cure does show which they are so far from Curing that on the contrary the Evil has grown stronger and stronger to death refusing all Medicines In this case necessary purges and sweats being premised there is a desired Secret in the Blood which comes just after delivery from the Womb together with the after-burthen where all or only some part of it if namely the place affected be washed therewith This Remedy is of so great efficacy that it is seldom necessary to repeat it and presently the volatick Itch falls off dead I have with this cured infinite People J. Hartmannus who have been infected with a dangerous Itch. Unctions are here not at all convenient Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. This is very proper which I experienced in a young man Aetius who had a great inveterate Itch and very rough about his Legs which reached from his Knees to the tip of his Toes Take Linseed beat it with water lay it on thick and use it constantly 2. An excellent Oyntment of Salt of Saturn against the Itch J. Agricola Take of Sal Saturni 1 ounce Mastich half an ounce Allum 1 drachm Oyl Olive what is sufficient Mix them make an Unguent It quickly heals and dries up the Itch. 3. The Itch is easily and pleasantly cured with this Take of Oyl of Ben 3 drachms Spirit of Salt half a drachm Petr. Borellus Musk 2 grains Wax what is sufficient Make an Unguent 4. A wonderful Oyntment for the Itch Take of Turpentine washed in Rose water 3 ounces Oyl of Roses 6 drachms the juice of 3 Oranges the Yolks of 3 Eggs. Make an Unguent Tobias Dorncrelliuâ— it has been experienced in an old and dry Itch It may also be allowed to be admirable because it expells the Itch by Urine and makes a Man piss black Urine every Morning 5. Take of live Sulphur 2 ounces Gum Juniper which Booksellers use root of white Hellebore powdered each 2 drachms juice of Spurge Oyl of Linseed each 1 ounce Beat what should be beaten very fine boyl them over the fire into the form of an Unguent and strain them out cast away the dregs and keep the rest for use After Bathing anoint the Hams the inside of the bending of the Arm Rodera Fonseca the Palms of the Hands and Wrists under the Arm-pits and Soles of the Feet rubbing those places with store of Oyntment and then go into a warm Bed for an hour or two and let him be anoynted 3 times every other day I have experienced this Itch in the worst old Itch that could be 6. This is an excellent Remedy for the Itch Take Salt of Tartar purified with Spirit of wine and dissolved in a Cellar Franc. Oâ—â— wald Grembs joyn it with Sal Ammoniac and it cures the Itch. If it be mixt with the Tartar till it grow red it will become more effectual to cure the Itch. 7. Take of green Elecampane half a pound Hogs-lard 5 ounces Beat them together Boyl them on a gentle fire Make an Unguent Amat Lusiaan with which the Pustules may be anointed This Unguent is of admirable vertue so that it operates like an Inchantment 8. When a certain Matron laboured of a contumacious Itch which she had contracted by Contagion I ordered her to take the small twiggs of Birch in defect of the leaves and cut them into short pieces but to hew the greater boughs into chips and to boyl Bark and all in such a quantity of water as that she might sit in a Tub full of it up to her Neck wherein I mixt 2 parts of crude Tartar and one part of Nitre Simon Pâ—â— with which by God's blessing after her Body had been first well prepared she was wholly delivered from
Medicines is about the quantity of a Nutmeg drinking some appropriate Liquor upon it For Country people and the poorer sort who desire Medicines easie to be had and cheap I prescribe in this manner Take of leaves of Scurvy-grass Brooklime each 4 ounces the whitest Sugar 8 ounces Pound them together in a Mortar adding of powder of Winter's bark half an ounce Tartar calcined with Nitre three drachms With a sufficient quantity of Canary make an Electuary The Dose is the quantity of a Walnut every day twice drinking some appropriate Liquor upon it Take of Leaves of Scurvy-grass 1 pound stoned Raisins the whitest Sugar each half a pound faecula of Horse-rhadish root 2 drachms Pound them together in a Mortar and reduce them into the form of an Electuary The Dose is the quantity of a Walnut twice or thrice a day CONFECTIONS Take of Pulvis Ari Compositus 1 ounce powder of Winter's bark half an ounce Species diatriωn santalωn trochiscs of Capers each 2 drachms salt of Wormwood Scurvy-grass each 1 drachm and an half candied Orange Peel 3 ounces Pound them together in a Mortar Then add of the whitest Sugar dissolved in a sufficient quantity of aqua lumbricorum 3 ounces Make a Confection according to Art Take of candied Eringo and Scorzonera root each 2 drachms preserved Walnuts Myrobalans each No. 2. Electuary of Sassaphras 6 drachms powder of Cubebs Cardamum each 2 drachms powder of root of Zedoary Angelica each 1 drachm and an half Salt of Wormwood 2 drachms With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Walnuts make a Confection Take of the powder of root of China wood of Sassaphras each half an ounce yellow and white Sanders each 2 drachms seed of Rocket Cubebs Cresses Granes of Paradise each 1 drachm and an half Species Dialaccae powder of Cinnamon Orrice lesser Galangale each 1 drachm salt of Wormwood 2 drachms Conserve of the yellow of Orange and Saccharum anthosatum dissolved in a sufficient quantity of Snail-water 3 drachms Make a Confection according to Art The Dose is the quantity of a Nutmeg twice a day drinking some appropriate Liquor upon it In some cases of the Scurvy where the use of steel is indicated either 3 drachms of Steel prepared with Sulphur or 2 drachms of Vitriol of Mars may be added to any of these prescriptions either Confection or Electuary and after taking the Medicine once or twice a day the Body may be exercised according to its strength POWDERS Take of Pulvis Ari Compositus 1 ounce and an half Winter's Bark half an ounce Cubebs Granes of Paradise Cardamome each 2 drachms Salt of Wormwood 3 drachms Lozenges of Oranges 3 ounces Make a powder according to Art The Dose 1 drachm in an appropriate Liquor To the foresaid powder add of the Kernel of the Indian Nut Cacao half a pound Reduce it into a Mass or Paste in a hot Mortar The Dose is about two drachms as you take Chocolate that is boyled in Spring water wherein Rosemary leaves or Scorzonera root or shavings of Ivory or Hartshorn have been boyled PILLS They that like Medicines in a small Dose and in the form of a Pill Take of root of Virginian Snakeweed Contrayerva each 2 drachms Winter's Bark Cubebs Rocket seed each 3 drachms salt of Wormwood Scurvy-grass each 1 drachm and an half extract or Rob of Juniper half an ounce With as much Syrup of Nutmeg as is sufficient make it into Pills The Dose is 4 Pills twice a day with some appropriate Liquor LOZENGES For the more delicate Lozenges or Sweet meats may be prescribed in this manner Take of powder of Winter's Bark Crabs Eyes each 1 drachm and an half powder of Pearl half a drachm whitest Sugar dissolved in a sufficient quantity of aqua lumbricorum and boyled up for Lozenges 6 ounces Spirit of Scurvy-grass 2 drachms Make Lozenges according to Art each of which must weigh half a drachm Let him take about 1 drachm drinking some appropriate Liquor upon it Oraâ—ge Lozenges sold by the Apothecaries in OXFORD Take of Peel of Oranges Lemons Citrons candied each 1 ounce Eringo root candied half an ounce Pine and Pistachio Nuts each No. 20. Sweet Almonds blanched No. 10. Powder of Anniseed half an ounce candied Ginger 2 ounces Species Aromat Rosat Nutmeg each 1 drachm and an half Root of Galangale 1 drachm Cloves No. 10. Ambergrease 4 grains Musk Civet each 2 grains the whitest Sugar dissolved in Rose water and boyled up for Lozenges 1 pound and an half Make Lozenges according to Art Thus much for Medicines that use to be given to Scorbutick Persons in a solid form or a thick substance And that they may do the more good and be carried more easily into the Mass of Blood liquid Medicines for the most part are prescribed to be drunk upon them the most usual forms whereof follow 1. Decoctions Although Decoctions be the most familiar sort of Medicine yet they are rarely used in the Scurvy because Simples which are especially proper for this Disease as Scurvy-grass Brooklime c. lose their virtue which they receive from their volatil Salt by boyling Nevertheless because Medicines are easily and quickly prepared this way they may sometime be admitted And besides experience testifies that some of them have been effectual This easie Medicine is commended by several Authors for Country People and the poor Take of leaves of Water Cresses 3 handfuls the lesser Sorrel 2 handfuls Let them be shred and steeped in 6 pounds of Milk and boyled to the consumption of a third Part. Let 6 or 8 ounces be taken twice a day The Decoction of Wormwood is commended by Eugalenus and others I have often tried the following Remedy with good success Take of tops of Broom 3 handfuls let them be cut small and boyled in three pounds of strong Beer to half Let 2 or 3 ounces be given twice a day 2. Infusions An Infusion added to the Decoction makes a most excellent Medicine Take of root of Scorzonera Chervil each 1 ounce leaves of Agrimony Ground-pine each half an handful burnt Harts-horn 2 drachms Raisins half an handful boyl them in 3 pounds of Spring-water to the consumption of a third part Add of Rhenish Wine half a pound and presently strain it into a Glass Vessel to which put leaves of Scurvy-grass Brooklime bruised each half a handful Orange peel candied and cut small half an ounce Make a close and warm Infusion for 6 hours Let the Colature be kept in Bottles stopt The Dose is 6 ounces twice a day after a solid Medicine Take of Whey made with white Wine or Sider 1 pound and an half let there be boyled in it of Burdock root Eringo root candied each 6 drachms preserved Juniper berries half an ounce Let the Liquor be boyled to the consumption of a third part and strained into a Flagon in which put leaves of Scurvy-grass Brooklime each 1 handful Make a hot and close Infusion for 6 hours The Dose is half a pound twice
man wonder here that Laudanum opiatum is added For I maintain that Opium has an excellent virtue in hindring and restraining the vitious effervescency of sharp Humours both in the small Guts and in the Heart and elsewhere without which effervescence noxious and sharp Vapors could not easily be raised and produce Swooning Fits To this mixture many very efficacious things may be added made of divers parts of Animals Tincture of Castor Spirit of Salt of Sal Ammoniac of Urine the Volatil and Oyly Salt of Blood Bones Horns Hoofs The Oyls must be rectified and not only in part be freed from their Empyreuma Sylvius de le Boë but made more penetrating and potent The rectification must be made with Spirit of Wine tartarisate VIII We must observe that when Swooning proceeds from the offence of the Stomach things that call out the Spirits are not proper but rather things that repel them to the Heart as throwing cold water or Rose water in the Face Fortis IX In fear of Swooning and in small Faintings accompanied with troublesome cold the following Mixture may be prepared of Shop Medicines a spoonful to be given often between whiles Take of water of Mint 2 ounces Aqua vitae Matthioli 1 ounce or Tincture of Cinnamon half an ounce oyl of Cloves 6 drops Scurvy-grass 1 ounce Mix them I do not only commend volatil Salts and Aromatick Oyls from Experience but because reason perswades the same drawn from the analysis of the Salts and Oyls and from the efficient cause of this Hypochondriack suffocation that is viscid and acid Phlegm or viscid and acid or austere Vapors compared together For these Salts and Oyls have a virtue to dissolve and incide every Viscid to temper and correct every thing acid and austere and to discuss and dissipate whatever is balituous and windy X. Spirit of Roses refreshes the Heart and Brain and revives the Spirits one drop or two perfumes a great quantity of Water Therefore in Swooning and Fainting the Dose of it is from 5 drops to half a Scruple or a whole one But some mistake and give it cool when yet it is as hot as other Spirit and is fully separated from the cooling parts of the Roses For we must know that simple Medicines made of Vegetables have for the most part the virtue of the Plants whereof they are made and may be put to the same uses Sylvius de le Boe. unless these Plants have different parts Therefore Rheubarb in substance binds XI We must have a care of such Patients that we think not of burying them presently for several have come to themselves in the Grave Let this one Instance suffice In the year 1582. my Host at Cleves who lives at the Sign of the Eagle told me that 17 years before he was taken with a most grievous acute Disease and at length he fell into such a Swoon that all men thought he had been Dead that Johannes Wierus was called to him and found that his Soul was not then separated from his Body and therefore ordered him to be covered up warm in Bed and Cordials to be given him and while he was busie about the recovery of his Patient the Friends were preparing for the Funeral but the next day he came to himself Hildanus XII All that faint for want of Spirits must not be brought to themselves one and the same way for it is necessary to consider in what manner the cause makes its impression and to oppose that For although all immoderate evacuations dissipate the Spirits yet you must cure one way if it proceed from too much Sweating another way if from a Loosness another if from loss of Blood and another if from Vomiting For they that Faint for Sweating or great heat and have a weak retentive faculty are easily raised by throwing a little cold water or Rose water or Vinegar not all over their Skin but only their Face and Hands and that suddenly both that the Skin being condensed the Spirits may not wast so much and that the Patient by the sudden retrocession of the Spirits may be the sooner raised and for the same reason you must take care to cool the Air by throwing such cooling things on the Floor and by Fanning it that the Skin may be made close and the Spirits be thickned Which Remedies you must not use if a loosness be the cause of Swooning for by throwing cold water the Humours are driven inwards which it is requisite to draw outwards Nor must you do it if one faint for plenitude or obstruction But if it arise from some passion of the mind which may draw the Spirits outwards you may use the same Remedy as if it came from Pain or Evacuation In the same manner also you must raise the Patient by pulling him by the Nose especially if the Humors purge downwards If it proceed from Vomiting you must bind heat and rub the Legs if from a Looseness the Arms. Those that Faint for loss of Blood you may raise by the same revulsions and by applying warm wine to the stones in a Man and to the Breasts in a Woman But you may fetch these and all others again by such things as revive the Spirits as white thin odoriferous Wine diluted with steel water If it be occasioned by Sweat by using Sudorificks or holding new baked Bread besprinkled with them to the Nose But in looseness of the Belly Bread in red Wine is of great moment if there be neither internal Inflammation nor a delirium nor any heat Epithemes and sprinkling of cold water by turns and intervals lest all efflux of Vapors might be stopt The use also of cooling astringent things is good such as the juice of a Pomegranate But let them that Faint for Sweat abstain from frictions and Wine except to smell to To them that Faint for Vomiting you must give a draught of old white or black Wine especially if it arise from crude and viscid juices as a draught of cold or hot water if the Humour be bilious sharp or salt All which things you must do except the revulsions if the Patient Faint through violent heat XIII They that are subject to Swoon because of Pain passion of the Mind and diaphoretick evacuations must use such things as allay pain but that which does most good is a thing that stupefies a little for either by stupefying the Sense or procuring rest it stops the Flux a little till the Spirits are recruited and are able to defend the Patient from the cruelty of the Pain and other accidents But because in these Persons the Spirits are extream low Mercatus I advise to use them sparingly and with caution Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. It is good in all Swoonings to apply a large Cupping-glass with much flame to the left Shoulder J. Caes Claudinus 2. When the Body is purged Spirit of Wine rectified and perfumed with Amber and Musk and
some wonted evacuation of it although its too great Heat may be stopt with things a little acid but especially with things a little austere Let the following Apozeme serve for an example Take of leaves of Plantain 2 handfuls House-leek Sorrel each 1 handful Boyl them in Barley water to 20 ounces adding of Syrup of Jujubes 3 ounces Salt peter purified 1 drachm or Sal prunellae half a drachm or Spirit of Nitre 20 drops Mix them Make an Apozeme Let the Patient take a middling draught of this now and then to stop any other violent motion of the Blood Sylvius de le Boë The same Blood must be stopt in its efflux by conglutination of the open Vessels by proper Remedies XVIII The corruption of the Blood into pus or matter must be prevented by all means and especially by Balsamus Sulphuris anisatus or any other that is not ingrateful seeing that by the help of this not only the turning into pus or corruption and further hurt of the Ulcerated part is prevented but moreover the total cure of it is promoted Idem The Dose is a drop or two in some convenient pectoral mixture XIX And lest the same Blood whence soever it come into the Aspera Arteria should be coagulated there and then corrupted it must immediately be kept dissolved with convenient Medicines or must be dissolved again and voided To which end Crabs Eyes dissolved partly at least in a little destilled Vinegar together with diaphoretick Antimony taken with some grateful things must be preferred to many other things for example let the following prescription be taken a spoonful at once Take of water of Hyssop Fenil each one ounce Aqua vitae Matthioli 2 drachms destilled Vinegar half an ounce Crabs Eyes half a drachm Idem diaphoretick Antimony 1 scruple Syrup of Maiden-hair 1 ounce Mix them XX. But we must have a care in such mixtures as have Crabs Eyes dissolved in Vinegar in them that Syrups made of Mucilaginous things be not added to them such as de Althaea Fernelii of Jujubes Violets and the like because they grow presently thick and unfit for use which would not easily be if Syrups made of Aromatick things be used Idem and especially new enough since several in tract of time grow viscid XXI A dry Cough arising either from cold Air or drink will be cured by often holding the Breath some while that when the heat is encreased in the Throat and Lungs the fault may be amended which arises from external Cold. And I must say that in this case holding ones Breath as long as one can does not a little conduce to restrain and stop any Cough and a dry one especially by which means I have observed often in my self and others that a Cough otherwise troublesome enough has either been wholly removed or abated Idem and I have also seen a Hickup thus cured XXII The Spasmodick Cough in Children is difficultly cured because not only the Blood must be altered as in an ordinary Cough and its recrements should be discharged and derived from the Lungs to the habit of the Body by transpiration but moreover an amendment of the Nervous juice must be procured The method of cure usual in other sort of Coughs seldome does good here wherefore neglecting the rational method most use onely empirical Medicines Among many the two following are usually preferred that is Muscus pyxidatus and its various preparations which as far as we can gather from the Tast is of an astringent virtue and contains in it self something sharp particles savoring of store of volatil Salt whence we may conjecture that its use is to fix the Blood and stop fluxions of the Serum and moreover by volatilizing the Nervous juice to remove the Spasmodick disposition The other Remedy uses to be to put the Children into some sudden fright the reason whereof consists in this because the animal Spirits being put to flight and forced into new distractions do leave their former disorders And moreover the Spasmodick matter is either dispersed by this perturbation or else it is driven into other Nerves where it is not very troublesome Such as are of an hot constitution and while they Cough have an intense red or rather a black Countenance I prescribe them Phlebotomy or Bleeding with Leeches to the loss of 2 or 3 ounces and sometimes with good success Take of live Millepedes cleansed 1 ounce powder of Anniseed 1 drachm Nutmeg half a drachm white Sugar 5 ounces when they are bruised pour to them water of Hysop 6 ounces Limacum magistralis 2 ounces Mix them a little in a Mortar make a strong expression The dose 2 or 3 spoonfuls twice a day In the Winter when Snails cannot be had Sheep's or Calve's Lungs Willis parboyled and minced must be put in their stead c. XXIII There was an universal Cough at Rome and many died A certain Physician cured himself and several others with this Medicine Take of Iujubes N o 25. Figs N o 10. Large plump Raisins 1 ounce and a half scraped Liquorish 3 drachms roots of Coltsfoot 1 handful Boyl them in a sufficient quantity of water till half be consumed away Take a Glass of it every Morning and at the hour of Sleep They abstained from Wine and Flesh they used Bread boyled with Raisins and Butter Solenander or Butter Bread and Sugar or Bread boyled in Milk and Sugar XXIV Celsus l. 4. c. 3. advises to use reading aloud Some question whether this be a proper Remedy since loud reading dries But it may be answered that it certainly does good because it dries up Phlegm from whence an old Cough is reckoned to derive its original Besides Antyllus in Oribasius advises to use it if drought and heat seem to abound beyond measure in our Bodies Much Air entring by respiration into the passages will very much moisten what is dry and because it is of more tenuious parts and more liquid than any water it will soften hardness caused by dryness But we must take notice that the actions of the voice must not be used rashly and unadvisedly and especially by them that are not used to the exercise and are but beginning Rubaeus comm in loc Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. This conduces greatly to mitigate inveterate Coughs arising from cold and gross Humours Take of Pine nuts roasted Starch Liquorish Nettle seed Linseed each 2 ounces Orris Pepper Hyssop Cresses Seed bitter Almonds each half a drachm Mix them with well clarified Honey Donatus ab Altomari and give a small spoonful of it 2. This is an excellent Remedy for great destillations Take of Storax Castor Pepper Cardamome each half a drachm Opium Jujubes Henbane Seed each half a drachm Let the quantity of a Vetch be given to them when they go to Bed ¶ The Medicine of the ancients for an old and dry Cough The common People in a desperate Cough take
the Body it does no harm but if it be resolved into minime Parts especially by the admixtion of Salts and by their means be fastned as it were to the Body and penetrate into it both outwardly and inwardly used it causes most grievous Mischiefs as either sublimate or precipitate doth shew Nor must the corrosive Virtue be attributed to the Salts for in the Fume that exhales in gilding of Silver there is nothing of Salt and yet it is exceeding mischievous Nor can that little Salt that is mixt with sublimate or precipitate do so much damage seeing Salt though given in a great quantity does no such thing As for prepared Mercury many indeed extoll Mercurial Medicines some call the precipitate Powder Angelicus otherwise prepared Mercurius vitae Some judge that Mercurius dulcis rightly prepared is as gentle a Medicine as Manna Tamarinds or Cassia But these praises are too high and their rashness is to be blamed who give Mercury in any Diseases whatever for there are many Examples of such as have perished or been in great danger of their Lives by the use of such Medicines Therefore Fabricius Hildanus calls Mercurius vitae either Mercurius mortis or vitae aeternae It is certain that Mercurius dulcis Sennertus which yet is reckoned the mildest may sometimes do mischief ¶ Although Quicklver as quick and moveable be not Poyson nor have any affinity with Poyson so that it has been experienced it may be taken safely inwardly yet the Physician must be very cautious in this lest it be adulterated or ill prepared and that he give it not to Hypochondriacks Spleneâ—icks and others that have too acid a Ferment in there Stomach or a Blood abounding with strong acid and corrosive volatil Salts which might render Mercury of the Nature of precipitate For that Mercury resolved whether precipitate or sublimate is a Poyson the dire Symptomes common to other Poysons which it immediately causes in the Body Hofmannus as soon as it is taken do evince XXXVIII But Precipitate Arsenick and Metallicks of the like Nature c. as they act plainly by a manifest that is by a corrosive Quality so Treacle which is properly designed for the Venemous bitings of Animals and was invented therefore will scarce alone do these any good but Obtunders and Asswagers fat Things Oyl of sweet Almonds common Oyl c. serve instead of an Antidote Therefore they who on the Stage do commend their Treacles by taking Mercury precipitate or Orpiment do first fore-arm themselves with store of Butter Then Praecipitants of mountain Crystall and other things are given which of themselves in a slight case might do good for though they be given in a large Dose and Nature do not ease her self by spontaneous Vomit they are in vain For neither a proportion between the Agent and Patient can easily be found nor can the Antidote be so well actuated by the Stomach if the Stomach be ruined and a mortal Eschar and a Gangrene be caused therein Saturnines taken inwards as leaden Bullets do turn into a kind of Saccharum and are corroded by degrees Wedelius upon taking Acids XXXIX Mercurialis writes that to drink Water plentifully is admirable good for such as have taken Arsenick He proves it first from the example of Dogs which he put into Caverns where Arsenick was and when they were taken out lifeless he poured Water into them and they revived Secondly from Mice which they say escape if they drink Water But as I do not dislike Water so Forestus lib. 30. obs 5. seems well to disapprove of drinking cold Water because it checks not the Poyson but seems rather by its coldness to retain it in the Body warm Water Senâ—ertus drunk till one vomit seems more convenient XL. It is quaeried whether crude Cinnabar may be given D. J. Michaëlis approved of it but depurated which is to be valued in the most desperate Diseases with a multitude of Symptomes for though directly and of it self it be not a Diaphoretick yet it is an useful Exalter and a most present and safe Alexiterick But Cinnabar of Antimony say some dissolved in warm Water turns to a white Powder of the same Nature with Mercurius vitae The native is easily turned into running Mercury and so that back again into Cinnabar And therefore since both of them retain their pristine Nature they may cause the very same Symptomes as Mercury either crude or prepared But these Arguments do not at all deter me from the use of it for first of all that mechanick one of the transmutation of Cinnabar of Antimony with hot Water into white Mercurius vitae is false Then grant that Mercury may easily be got out of native Cinnabar what then Mercury tied up with the Sulphur of Antimony in the Cinnabar is not at its Liberty but being tied with the Fetters of the other is then wholly free from these grievous Disturbances which either at liberty or entangled with corrosive Salts it uses to raise and it has those illustrious Qualities which resist contagious and epidemical Diseases and the Plague it self by a singular propriety if it be worn outwardly And though this Cinnabar when taken yield not to the digestion of the Stomach nor can be received into the oeconomy of our Body yet as long as it stays in the Stomach Hofmannuâ— it variously and admirably affects our Archeus by alteration XLI Many have taken notice what grievous Symptomes may arise from curdled Milk but the Question is whether a Vomit be convenient to get it out of the Stomach Matthiolus denies it and rejects a Vomit because if one should endeavour to bring it up it might easily stick in the Throat and choak a Man But Sennertus 6. pract p. 8. c. 34. prescribes Vomits but after Things have been given to dissolve Milk as Oxymel Mummy Sperma ceti c. XLII In a certain Village three had eaten of one Thing and they were all Poysoned and were taken with a violent Pain at the Stomach One of them sent his Urine to me which when I looked on it was thin of Substance and of a green Colour which gave some suspicion of Poyson For a green Urine according to Avicenna l. 1. fen 1. s. 2. doct 2. signifies a Convulsion in Children or that Poyson has been taken And if there be an Hypostasis or settling in it there is Hope of Life otherwise there is danger When he that brought me the Urine had told me the Story he increased my suspicion Therefore I prescribe him a Vomit and that he should also take fat Things whereby as I afterwards understood he was presently freed of his Pain and was cured but another before he could take any Advice died suddenly and the third when he understood that I had cured the former did after some delay send his Urine to me I prescribed him a Vomit also of a decoction of Rhadish and Oxymel and after he had taken
perform their other Offices more strongly than the former They are also Balsamick such as preserve the vigour of the Blood intire and avail to long life Hot in the third degree à priori are those wherein volatile or fixt Salt do more eminently predominate with or without an accession of Sulphur whence belong hither for instance 1. all volatil Salts as of Scurvigrass Cresses asarum c. 2. lixivial Salts or the fixed Salts of plants 3 acids which have also an acrimonious virtue 4. acrimonious and biting things as Pepper Burnet 5. stronger Aromaticks as Cloves Mace c. A posteriori those which alter manifestly sensibly and with hurt as it were if there be any excess so that neither the tongue can endure them long without trouble nor the body in any great quantity Whence these rarifie the Body more increase its Sulphur and volatil Salt tame the fixing Humours take away a cachexie discuss wind open the pores of the Nerves and so are good in the Palsie are antiscorbutick powerfully break the Stone refresh the weak Spirits and rouse the Apoplectical and Hysterical Hot in the fourth Degree à priori are those which have a more acrimonious and almost caustick Salt whether volatil as Onions Pepper-wort or fixed as Mercury sublimate which predominates over the Sulphur it self although present whence such are 1. most acrimonious 2. rubifying 3. eroding hence they afford vesicatories and potential Causticks that erode and corrupt more strongly A posteriori those which are of the greatest activity most vehement and as it were instantaneous operation and not without great hurt Yet these also have their certain mansions for Arsenick operates more powerfully and sooner than Onions c. IV. Medicines cold à priori are such wherein there are no volatile hot acrimonious aromatick or aereal particles but the active principles particularly the Sulphur and Mercury are more sparing or subjugated and the Salt in like manner is either absent or has attained a fluor and is remarkable for inverted acid particles or else they are such in which the passive principles water and earth are found more prevailing and the acid Salt as aforesaid Cold Medicines are opposed to hot even in their actions so for example acids fix the bitter and acrimonious obtâ—nd the oily and so forward A posteriori those which being referred to our heat do not encrease it but demulce it when it is un governable and bridle choler For as the hot rarefie the Blood exalt the Sulphur with their sharp darts and acuate the volatil Salt so the cold do concentre the same depress its Sulphur and fix and coagulate its volatile Salt Those chiefly are in this place reckoned for cold that are Vnivocally such which for example either dilute and demulce as 1. watry whence Juleps the whey of Goats milk the decoction of Barly the juice of Birch of Quinces and other acidulous juices which most of them are such in the first degree and others moistning withal do notably cool so also all mucilaginous and purely gummous are cold as the white of an Egg Tragacanth Harts-horn Aloes Mans-Skull Gellies the root of marsh-Mallow Gum Arabick the four greater and four lesser cold Seeds which have a certain oiliness but such as is watry and temperate Or they tame and infringe the Sulphur and volatile Salt as 2. Acid juice of Citron Sorrel Berberries and 3. nitrous Pellitory Mercury Spinach Orach Violet Or they respect ebullition and motion as precipitants as 4. earthy for example plants the flowers of Balaustins parts of this nature of Animals and Minerals also Woods as Sanders Oak and especially those which are properly called earthy as bole Armene terra Lemnia c. Stones as crystal jacinth and those which are of an alkaline Nature Or they constipate and constringe as 5. austere styptick sowr which are examples of the third degree Tormentil snake-weed the rind of Pomegranats acacia or the juice of Sloes hypocystis Or they plainly destroy as 6. poisonous which are endued with an excrementitious earthy and watry and with a stinking and impure Sulphur and so induce a contrary consistence on the Blood as Hemlock Henbane Stramonea or apple of Peru whence they are poisonous As Medicines hot in the fourth degree kill by eroding so those cold in the same degree by suffocating and coagulating Medicines cold Aequivocally and energetically are those which either dissipate and procure the exhalation of Sulphureous soots as prevailing by a volatil Sulphur and being themselves hot as Spirit of Wine camphor or take away the Cause as well the fermentation and ebullition as obstructions as openers Such namely as are Sulphureous are all of them heating unless they serve for dissipation and hot exhalation on which account they cool by accident the Lixivial Saline do more rarefie the Blood and so do also heat it but the Acid do concentrate and refrigerate the same the mean as Tartar vitriolate are of a middle nature but they rather commonly heat cut Phlegm c. especially common Salt So that the cold may be referred to the summa Genera as it were as consisting of watry earthy and non-lixivial Saline particles V. Here the question may be determined whether Acids be cold or hot For there are not wanting some that affirm them to be hot arguing from their acrimony biting and that corrosive vertue that they are endued with Those that maintain them to be cold produce their effects also that are manifestly cold as for example that acid Spirits allay thirst and cool the Body by blunting the bilious Humours Here seems necessary a distinction first between the hot Sulphureous and the hot Saline secondly between the external use and the internal or between that which belongs to the solid parts and that which belongs to the moist and spirituous The hot Sulphureous that is those which have Sulphur predominant chiefly with a volatil Salt do all of them increase our natural heat but those that want Sulphur and possess a fluid Salt as Acids have indeed acrimonious cold biting particles but he would be absurd that should use them for restoring or invigorating the innate heat or the Sulphur and volatile Salt Whence although in their external use they cause an erosion in the solid Parts and through their acrimony cause the Parts to be pained and grow red which very thing we may also observe in a more tender Stomach and from a larger Dose as the Patients do sometimes perceive an aestus and heat from the unwary use of the Spirit of Vitriol yet with relation and respect to the Blood to our heat or to the Heart they are and are deservedly called cold Others determine that they cool by accident inasmuch as being joyned with cold vehicles by their penetrating vertue they make those more apt to cool others otherwise as for instance that they cool by the perspiration of the fiery heat c. There is the like reason also of the nitrous for through the disposition of
the modus of the substance from the various texture of the Parts in the Blood which as was said are nothing else but the products of the Disease or matter whose departures from a natural estate are easily reparable but we admit also occult qualities which are made of ferments that our Soul uses for the performing of its actions which are such accidents as are immediately in the subject whose they are and on which they immediately depend and with which they are transmuted Thus for instance it is impossible that Acid or Bitter or Salt or other qualities contained in the mass of Blood should be changed and not their subjects changed withal on which they depend as on ferments and in which they are as accidents Hence Hippocrates lib. de prisc med uses not so much the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alteration as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mixture and coction by means whereof what is distemper'd is to be restored Whence also it will much concern a Physician to know in the first place from what principles or ferments such qualities are immediately raised and then how one is to be changed into another as for example how from an acid a sweet may be made or of a sweet an acid from a bitter and acid a sowr from an insipid a Salt from a malignant a benign c. For he that knows this shall easily correct the preternatural ferments of these qualities that arise by departing from others in an undue quantity quality and motion or when by their fermentative vertues they either invade those of a contrary Nature that are join'd with them or snatch along with them those that they meet with like themselves or they themselves where they are either overcome by more powerful or draw weaker to themselves do put on divers Natures In a state of health many things are incorporated with us and subdued which if they be not they degenerate into filth they violate the vital principle by changing the ferments of the parts whence the Archeus is disturbed diversly and the vital oeconomy prejudic'd As therefore the said Qualities are not to be defined by the first qualities only as bare accidents of diseases and morbifick causes but are furnished rather with Hippocrates's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or powers so neither do altering Medicines themselves simply partake of an elementary nature but there lie hid in them other noble and occult qualities by which in their whole substance and appropriation they are contrary to this or that disease whence we should not have regard only to hot or cold c. but also to Acid Salt Bitter and other occult and foreign powers resulting from the ferments whereby man is affected and if it may be we should search out Specifick simple Remedies for all diseases Wherefore seeing Hippocrates teaches that distempers happen to a man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the powers and by them understands the efficacies and vertues of the juices let us see how we can invent Remedies that are fitly opposite to them and are furnished also with their powers or Specifick ferments If therefore there be a malignant fever and the Blood do thence too much effervesce through the febrile and poisonous ferment such altering Remedies surely are to be used as not only fix and precipitate the febrile ferment but also withal resist its malignity and are Alexipharmack Hitherto of the formal cause of Alteration its Efficient cause is next to be inquired and we determin it to be the fermental heat of the Viscera that by the help of altering Medicines which also have their ferments subdues the morbifick matter transmutes it and in due manner afterwards expels it for if the vertue of this fermental heat and its Balsamick saltness by chance be altered or suppressed or otherwise become weak being changed increased or restored by the said Alteratives it can easily afterwards subdue and conquer the vitious matter that is make it so fluid that it may afterwards be thrown off without difficulty Therefore we must inquire how alterative Medicines as to their internal vertues and their very Nature and substance are with respect both to the ferments of the Viscera and also to the morbifick causes and Archeus Now we must know that Alteratives perform their Offices by qualities either manifest or occult The manifest operate by means of a certain Precipitation taken largely only as it denotes dissolution and such a disposition as is not procured without a previous destruction of the morbifick ferments the natural ones being restored by the ferments of the Medicines a taming of the Humours produced by fierce ferments a division of the continuous and heterogeneous a segregation of the contiguous and on the contrary a congregation of the homogeneous lastly without a strengthning of the whole Nature For the furious ferments of the Humours being destroyed and extinct and the fierceness of those things produced thereby being mitigated the activity and vertue of the Natural ferments that before was languid being assisted by the ferments of the altering Medicins do emerge again as it were by promoting the subduing of the morbifick matter so that the fierceness of the turgescency being in a due manner plainly depos'd by precipitation the matter can easily afterwards be cast off either sensibly by stool or Urine or sweat or insensibly whence Nature recovers her strength again which before was discomposed and oppressed for the Humours themselves as such are not always the causes of diseases but some malignant ferment in them and naughty disposition of the Humours which even in a very little quantity has great vertue and if this ferment be extinguished and this quality removed the diseases cease Sernert de c. d. c. 25. For we think that all progress almost of diseases is owing to some vitious rise of ferments for these either springing in the viscera appointed for chylification and sanguification or being carried to the whole mass of Blood and other parts under the cover and shew of aliments what tragedies do they raise what Stirs but now the extinguishing of these presently in the bud gives a joyful hope of health Apoplexies Epilepsies want of appetite crudities c. proceed from the corrupt ferments of the digestions and when the mass of Blood is sometimes too much exalted boils in the Vessels and Fevers of divers kinds and natures are kindled thence this sometimes proceeds from febrile ferments but sometimes the febrile ferments themselves are the products of a spontaneous effervescence of the Blood The reason why an acetous and sowr disposition is often induced on the Blood such as is in the Scorbutical Hydropical Cachectical and those that labour of other Chronical diseases is the acid and Saline nature of the ferments and in the destroying of these consists the whole reason of the cure whilst these last the diseases continue and because of these Purgings and Bleeding only are to no purpose for the Patients are
and exterminate from the vital jurisdiction divers inveterate kinds of Fevers and other Diseases that arise from thence The defect of the felleous Ferment is made up by bitter things as Wormwood Centaury Agrimony Card. Ben. Fumitory and the roots of Succory and other Aromatick bitter ones Its excess is corrected by the acids reckoned up above For the Fermentation of the bile unless it be in a right state gives occasion to divers Calamities in the windings of the Guts When the Sulphureous part is sometimes exalted in the mass of Blood from a febrile Ferment and is too luxuriant and the Crasis of the Blood perverted from its due state so that it is all in a flame hot and boiling then that febrile Ferment as the most urgent is first to be destroyed by precipitation which is done in intermitting Fevers by tartareous Medicines by lixivial Martials married to acid Spirits in continual by Bezoardicum s and c. of Gold and Steel which do wonderfully bridle the ebullition of the Blood whose vertue arises not only from the Antimony and Mars and Sol but also from the Spirit of Nitre which is fixt abundantly in these which the increase of the weight teacheth its refrigerating and Anodyne vertue remaining safe which is known to few which yet is made more apparent when all the Nitre is turn'd into a most white Earth by the operation declared by Helmont Poterius's Alexipyreton that springs from the same Fountain is no less powerful Now the cause of that ebullition is a febrile and poisonous Ferment which being removed the Disease is most quickly and safely banished But this is done neither by Purgers nor by Bleeding which two are Impairers of the Faculties but by specifick anti-febrile Remedies that fix the febrile matter by Diaphoreticks and Diureticks to which if specifick Alexeteries be assisting you have a true Alexipharmack not only of all malignant Fevers but also of the very Plague it self In the mean time the febrile aestus or fervour is to be demulced with the acid Spirits of Mars tinctura Bezoardica Gelly of Hartshorn and Ivory with the Juices of Pomegranats Corinths c. the tinctures of Roses Violets and Borage prepared with the Philosophick Spirit of Vitriol and a little of the Spirit of Rasberries c. When the saline Parts in the Blood through bad digestion and fermentation are not spirituous enough nor are rightly exalted but remain crude and fixt are at their own liberty and suffer a fluor the Blood not only becomes thick and unfit for Circulation but acid also austere and acrimonious so that it is thereby corrupted and being coagulated breeds Obstructions in the Viscera and tartareous crudities are every where heaped up from which proceed the Hypochondriacal Distemper the Scurvy running and fixed Gout Stone Dropsie Leprosie and most Chronical Diseases In this vicious disposition those Medicines are good which exalt and volatilize what is fixt and promote an inflation in the whole mass of Blood In this case Evacuators profit nothing at all but by depauperating the Blood more waste the faculties without remedying those Medicines avail more that are fill'd with a temperate and mild volatil Alkali such as Stone-crop Fumitory Germander Centaury Celandine Scurvigrass and the more penetrating as the salt Spirit of Sal Armoniack of Hartshorn Soot Man's Blood Hart's Blood the volatil Salt of Tartar Arcanum tartari with the volatil Salt of Vipers c. respect being had to the circumstances are of notable use Hither also are to be referr'd Decoctions of Roots and Herbs impregnated with a volatil lixivial Salt so that the more excellent these are in this degree the more easily and plentifully also do they correct the preternatural acidities in our Body Preparations of Steel and Tartar give great hope of Health here also for these besides that in the Stomach the Fountain of Digestion and Archive of Life they correct and prepare the said Acidities which otherwise might be hostile in the habit of the Body they also imbibe and precipitate the wild Salts in the Blood and withal unlock the Vessels that are here and there obstructed Precipitating Medicines work after a Positive manner while they are spirituous and have a singular Balsamick vertue by the benefit whereof they so strengthen the power of the Natural Ferments and their innate Balsamick saltness that Nature her self can now again rise up against the Crudities and digest or precipitate or separate them After this manner ought the universal Remedy to operate if any had it Maurit Hofman Meth. Med. lib. 1. c. 19. or for want of it other comforting Spirits reduced to the greatest volatility Anodynes Narcoticks See Hypnoticks The Contents Some Anodynes are external some internal I. The external act either by mollifying II. Or by hindring an afflux of humours III. Or by Digesting IV. Nervine Anodynes V. The same agree not to all Parts VI. Opium is better inwardly than outwardly VII How Narcoticks take away the sense of the Part. VIII How they take away Pains IX Anodynes and Narcoticks differ only in degree X. Some Anodynes are not alike Narcotick XI The vertue of Narcoticks depends on the Sulphur XII Opium is a notable Anodyne XIII How it eases Pains XIV It stops Fluxes of the Serum and Blood XV. It is convenient for thin humours not thick XVI It is not to be given where there wants Serum XVII In Malignant Diseases it is to be joyned with Bezoardicks Ibid. Opium is the best Sudorifick XVIII Let it be given in a due Dose XIX The internal use is often better than the external XX. Let not the Patient be very weak when he takes it XXI Cold things being applied are an effectual Anodyne XXII The Preparation of the Oil of yelks of Eggs and Almonds XXIII I. THat we may the better proceed in rehearsing these it is necessary to premise a distinction betwixt internal and external Anodynes for according to the place of application does their manner of working vary also Both of them indeed loosen the tension and vellication of the Membranous Parts but after a much differing manner II. For outwardly this is perfomed 1. By Emollients that are such as to their operation whether they be Mucilaginous things whence a cheap and familiar Poultess in all Pains is made of the crumb of white Bread Milk Saffron the yelk of an Egg c. So live-Earth worms being applied do notably asswage the Pains both of a Whitlow and also others of the Nervous Parts on which account I have sometimes cured the greatest Pains of the Back only by bruising and applying these Or watery tepids or hot and moist things so Baths Fomentations and the like Topicks do loosen and digest by a kindly warmth and so do egregiously demulce So Hippocrates in a Pleuritick pain applied warm Milk in a Bladder to the aking side for although the vertue of the Liquor cannot throughly reach this Membrane yet neither is there need of it for it suffices that a
in the Urine by little and little and in that very respect yields an undoubted sign that the greatest part of the Phlegm is corrected and overcome Which I would have to be taken notice of here for the sake of the Juniors because there are some Seniors who being less versed in the preparation of the more powerful volatil Salts and therefore also less accustomed to observe their virtues do make slight of them not without some suspicion of envy Franc. Sylvius de le Boë pract lib. 1. cap. 34. Thus many find fault with those things they do not understand nor will be at the pains to learn XXV Let Tartar with its off-spring carry the Bell amongst Diureticks and let it be of the choicer sort and as if it had been crystallized of it self what hinders why it should not be given washed only as we have long and securely used to do even with the shining red without any depuration invented by some Mens too great officiousness which manifestly carries away the most subtil part as the remaining water that serves for the solution of many things teaches but not wholly the arenosities or if any fear some feculency which yet is very full of volatil Salt let him depurate it only once and that warily as it commonly comes under the name of Acidum Tartari without the vain affectations or separate repositions of the white D. Ludovici pharm 386. cream or crystals that are indeed indifferent XXVI The Roots of crude Asarum though they cause Vomit with great anxiety yet being boiled in water and not in Wine they are changed into a deoppilative Diuretick and a Remedy for slow Fevers which shews that there is an aroma hid therein To this as to the only Remedy did D. Oheimius fly in long continued Fevers that depended on inveterate obstructions of the Hypochondres Frid. Hofin m. m. l. 1. cap. 12. XXVII Now amongst Diureticks I observe that two sorts are recommended by Authors some more gentle that bring no force upon the Body and others more violent which finding no noxious Humours in the Body to act or put forth their vertue upon or that may also blunt them do bring harm to the Body yea expel pure Blood and sometimes the Soul with it together with the Urine and therefore these are dangerous and suspected by me and I think we should neither use them rashly nor often Amongst these are first the Scorpion the ashes whereof being burnt are given in Wine even according to the Ancients to provoke Urine Secondly Hog-lice whose juice they give pressed out with Wine Thirdly Cantharides whose use is frequent enough in a virulent Gonorrhoea See their preparation § 23. Fourthly May worms that are black Sylv. de le Boë m. m. l. 2. c. 1â—â— very stinking and powerfully provoke Urine in the Feet-gout XXVIII But we must note that these latter Diureticks are not so proper for bringing out by Urine Humours abiding in the Blood or otherwhere as for expelling the Urine already separated so that the gentle Diureticks are more universal and to be used in all cases these latter more particular and more proper in some certain Distempers These latter inasmuch as they sometimes drive forth pure Blood instead of Humours from the Blood or offend otherwise are deservedly reputed dangerous Medicines and therefore not to be used but with great continual and prudent caution yet they may be sometimes but prudently used where the more gentle have been given in vain and where a great malady urgeth always attending to the effect which as long as 't is good their use may be persisted in Idem but assoon as the least hurt is observed we must cease from their further use Emmenagogues or provokers of the Terms See Mensium suppressio Book XII The Contents They either respect the wayes I. Or the coagulated Blood it self II. Or they promote its rarefaction III. Or they stimulate and do both IV. Or they restore the Blood it self V. They are not to be given to Women with Child VI. They are not to be given to all indifferently VII The order to be observed in the use of Remedies VIII I. MEdicines provoking the Terms respect either the wayes which namely ought to be free in all the microcosmick Common-wealth such as are both all Aperients except the acid and nitrous which namely are contrary to the other intention unless the same be so directed that under the dominion of others they may assist the action of the same Baths also do greatly help here which both by their gentle heat and their notable vertue to moisten do very well open the passages Likewise suffumigations that loosen the Pores and draw away mucus belong hither as for example Timaeus in his Counsels commends the suffumigation of Coloquintida received into the Womb by a Funnel which Remedy takes place after Bathing And therefore by experience your Emmenagoga denote nothing else but specifick uterine Aperients II. Or they respect the Blood it self the state whereof as the Terms do in a special manner shew so do they altogether follow the condition thereof Now those are notable Emmenagogues which promote the motion of the Blood which in specie they do two manner of wayes either first they take away the impediments that fix as it were and coagulate the Blood which are two acid Humours and Phlegmatick or coagulated Serum amongst these are Martial Medicines for instance Crocus aperitivus Sulphuratus with Salts Quercetan's Cachectick powder his Stomachick powder yea some give the infusion of the crude filings of Steel or Gold with the same intention that they may absorb and repress the constringing acidity but those Steel-Remedies are best that have withal a faculty to moisten as the tincture of Steel pomated or cydoniated which are excellent the tartareous tincture of Steel and the like that at the same time both the driness may be respected and the deficient fermentation of the Blood promoted and others that liquate fuse resolve and attenuate the coagulating Serum or Phlegm such as are bitter things and others of thin parts III. Or Secondly they promote its rarefaction and stimulate that upon the excitation and exaltation of its Sulphureous and volatil Saline particles it may become the more active and losing its sluggish lentor or clamminess may take up more room in quality and motion to which belong all Balsamicks volatil and mean as well Sulphureous for instance Saffron Myrrh Bay-berries Savin likewise the distilled oyls of Savin Cinnamon Balm Saffron c. as Saline fixed and volatil Salts the tincture of Tartar Borax salt of Mugwort of Salt and Vitriol c. the Spirit of Sal Armoniack Harts-horn the volatil Salt of Amber Hence is this practick rule appropriated to both intentions Those things that provoke urine do for the most part also provoke the Terms IV. Or they both stimulate and rarefie and hither belong even Purgers themselves inasmuch as they do not only attenuate and bring out the
be emptied I add that whilst they draw from the Hemorrhoidal Arteries 't is very like that the Heart will be wonderfully helped thereby Rolfink de febr p. 274. See §. 3. Hepaticks or Medicines for the Liver See Hepatis affectus or Diseases of the Liver The Contents They respect either its Vessels Ducts and Pores I. Or the Choler which is either to be restored II. Or temper'd III. Or its tone IV. What and how sweet things help V. How Steel-Remedies profit VI. The too much use of Aperients is hurtful VII Astringents have not place always VIII The abuse of Syrups hurteth IX I. HEpatick Remedies respect either its Vessels Ducts and Pores in the concrete respect being likewise had to the Lymphatick Vessels and Gall-Bladder or the Choler which it separates and transcolates or its tone fibres and parietes or Parenchyma Aperients do chiefly respect the Ducts for this Bowel is principally and above all others subject to Obstructions because of the very numerous Vessels that it has so that the chief Hepaticks are Aperients Hither belong also Diureticks which unless there be withal an over dry intemperies or if there be such of them as are more dilute are most agreeable to the Liver Thus to repeat only a few 1. Bitter things are profitable that cleanse cut and attenuate the clamminess of the choler 2. Others of thin Parts whether Aromaticks as calamus Aromaticus Spicknard c. or Acids as red Liverwort Mineral Spirits 3. Absorbents Lixivials and especially Steel Remedies And these have a notable use in Obstructions in a too mucilaginous choler Jaundise Dropsie Cachexie and the like II. Moreover those that respect the Choler do either restore it if it be sluggish and defective or bridle it when it exceeds and is impetuous lessen it when it abounds and mitigate it when it boils and burns as it were Those that restore the Choler are 1. Partly contrary to those that restore the Ferment of the Stomach and are for the most part the same which encrease the heat of the Stomach namely Sulphureous Balsamicks as all Aromata or Spices likewise spirituous as Wine and its Spirit 2. Partly the same being endued with a volatil and simple and with an oleous acrimonious Salt as Mustard Erysimum or Hedge-Mustard Water-cresses which are like a spur to it for Choler consists chiefly 1. of Oleous Sulphureous Bâ—lsamick Parts 2. of volatil Saline both which are immersed in a little watry mucilage and limited with watry Particles Hither belong also sweet things which encrease choler and that by contributing partly mucilaginous clammy parts whence also the same are said to breed Obstructions partly Sulphureous also if they happen upon an hot and dry Body And these are good in an Anasarca as also partly in an Ascites a serous Cachexie loose Tumours and where in other cases there is need of rarefaction of the Blood for such things as then more intimately rarefie the same do exalt choler They likewise profit the Phlegmatick that have no gall as it were III. Having hapned to mention sweet things we must see why Galen 8. de Comp. Med. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writes that Raisins are familiar to the Liver in their whole substance and why the same thing is not equally attributed to sugared things That familiarity of Raisins with the Liver gave foundation to the Electuary of Raisins in Riverius that notably strengthens the Liver The reason may be because they temper the fluxility and sluggishness of the choler and kindly moisten withal which sugared things do not do IV. And the choler is temper'd and bridled when it exceeds both by accident by certain openers as Preparations of Succory where note that some things are called coolers which yet are hot as we may see by these mention'd inasmuch namely as they loosen the stoppages and cleanse gently withal partly evacuating Cholagogues and also per se by 1. Diluters thus when choler offends the Whey of Goats Milk with a little Cinamon c. is good whether the anima of Rhubarb be taken with it or the clyssus of Antimony be dropt into it both which I use with success hither belong mineral Waters Potions c. Now these very Diluters are a vehicle to Aperients whence note that in the Jaundise such Aperients as dilute more and in the Dropsie such as dry more profit most And those very Aperients that are diluters withal do set the lympha at liberty and make its motion free and withal restore the Serum which is and is called the bridle of choler 2. Bitter things which both cleanse and open the Pores of the choler so that it is hastened more to the Guts and evacuated the vertue of Wormwood Aloes and Rhubarb is known 3. Acids hither belong acidum Tartari red Sanders or the red Liverwort of Dresden because these do tame and blunt the Sulphureous part of the choler and fix and enervate the volatile Saline 4. Earthy and absorbing Remedies especially the Nitrous and Alkaline thus also lixivial Salts themselves belong hither likewise Shells Corals Perles species and Pouders c. likewise Nervines themselves or Cinnabarines which I have found profitable in Diseases of the Liver and I have happily cured a stubborn Pain of the right Hypochondre with Tetters breaking out all the Body over with these especially For it is to be noted what Experience testifies that earthy Medicines do precipitate and absorb both choler or cholerick Humours and also acid and even serous Humours whence we cannot absolutely conclude that wheresoever Alkaline Medicines profit there an acid offendeth for Experience witnesses that the earthy profit in many Patients and Diseases where by the consent of all an acid offendeth not but the choler regurgitates and is frothy which they dissociate inhibit and bridle in its preternatural motion V. Lastly The tone and fibres of the Liver are strengthned both by 1. Moderate Astringents whence it is a common opinion among Practitioners that it delights in Astringents 2. Absorbers especially Steel ones and the vitriolated that are made of these 3. Correcters of any excessive temper but chiefly a moist and consequently a loose Hence Mercurials also and Mercurius dulcis in particular is greatly commended by which with a Bezoartick Steel Remedy Sennertus writes that one was cured who was given over in a Dropsie that on no other account than because Mercurius dulcis makes the Serum fluxile whence it opens Obstructions cures Loosness by diverting the Serum another way and thence evacuating it by convenient ways c. Thus Antimonials likewise are good inasmuch as they notably precipitate and dry discussing the superfluous Humours VI. So Steel-Remedies do chiefly perform this whence there is a caution given concerning their use by Gul. Gilbert in his Book of the Load-stone 1. cap. 15. who sayes that Steel is granted in loose Livers and moist Maladies because it dries also in the Green-sickness over-grown Spleens namely where moisture abounds but he denies it greatly in
there is almost but one sort of particles namely saline or earthy the other being driven away for the greatest part of which sort in a special manner are Vitriolum Martis or the Salt of Steel and crocus Martis 5. For making Vitriolum Martis first of all the metal uses to be eaten by some very acid and corrosive liquor and to be dissolved into elementary parts in the dissolution the saline particles of the Menstruum hit upon the saline ones of the Iron and are intimately combined with them the other particles viz. the Sulphureous and saline being in the mâ—an time set aside and excluded from their fellowship then common water being poured on the solution the combined salts of both kinds are imbibed by the liquor and the liquor being filtrated and evapourated the salts run into crystals Such kind of salification succeeds well either with spirit of vitriol oyl of sulphur aqua stygia or other distilled stagma's of Minerals yea sal Armoniack only dissolved per deliquium dissolves Iron in the same manner and disposes it to crystallize Sal Martis or the salt of Steel being thus prepared has a sweetish tast with a certain rough stypticity and so far partakes of a vitriolick nature that it seems not to differ much from green coprose but being taken inwardly it does in some measure ferment the Humours and pretty powerfully constringe the nervous fibres This Medicine is not so proper in cold and phlegmatick cachexies because no particles of the sulphur are exerted but in hot intemperatures of the bowels with the prevailing of a dust sulphur also in the wandring scorbutical and unequal effervescences of the blood and nervous juyce being taken by it self or mixt with other Medicines for a Stimulus it is often used with success yet in more tender constitutions there is danger lest the tone and fibres of the stomach should be hurt by its acrimony and too great constriction 6. Lastly comes Grecus Martis adstringens prepared by a long calcination by the fire namely let the filing Scoria or plates of Iron be so placed in a reverberatory furnace that it may be continually beat upon by an hot flame the filing being thus placed will at first grow red after a sort and run together into hard lumps but after three or four days suddenly swelling into an higher heap it will become very light impalpable and of a curious purple colour In this preparation the sulphureous and saline particles whilst by the force of the fire they begin to be driven from the concrete do catch hold of one another and so being mutually combined grow into lumps yet afterwards these particles both saline and sulphureous being utterly put to flight and the fiery succeeding in their room the whole mass swelling in bulk and being made spungy as it were becomes exceeding light The Medicine thus prepared is in some cases of excellent use and inferior to no chalybeate namely in all extravasation and too great eruption of the serum and blood as in external and internal hemorrhagies in a diarrhaea and diabetes in a violent catarrh also in the beginning of an Ascites or dropsie I know nothing better But some may think that if this Medicine be destitute of saline and sulphureous particles there is nothing lest but a caput mortuum Answ 1. It s efficacy depends upon the fiery particles being included in the most fixed earth that break out within the body 2. The earthy particles being wholly destitute of the saline whereby they were very straitly held do very greedily desire to be reunited to the same or the like wherefore this Crocus Martis being taken into our body does snatch and close with all the salts it meets with and so while like a sponge it sucks up very many saline particles it takes away many enormities that arise chiefly from the fluor of the salts Tho. Willis patholog cerebr c. 11. upon this account burnt Hartshorn Spodium Antimonium Diaphoreticum c. do good XXXVI It is doubtful in what parts of it its astringent vertue and in what its opening and loosening consist and this we ought to know lest whilst we would bind we loosen and open Divers men think diversly I am of opinion that the opening vertue of Steel is not superficial but lies hid within and cannot be drawn forth but by many heatings of it and long preparations which may loose the strait compages of the Iron Hence I determine that the first infusions do bind that the strong and often repeated do open Thus chalybeate milk and wine bind if the extinction be moderate but when it is plentiful the belly is loosened by them through a larger quantity of the substance of the Steel mixed with them inasmuch as the opening vertue consists in its vitriolick part which cannot so easily be drawn out Therefore the oldest Iron that has been often heated is preferred because it may be more easily prepared and dissolved It also uses to be prepared by vinegar and wine and by the sharpest liquors to bring out the opening vertue that lies hid in it But water and milk and other soft liquors can draw nothing out of Iron and therefore they bind unless its vertue be drawn out of the fire in often heating of it Thus mineral waters that spring from Iron and vitriol Primiros l. 2. de febr c. 1. do open very powerfully which have not the substance of the Iron it self but only its more pure and spirituous part mixed with them by the subterraneous fire XXXVII Note that Chalybeate Medicines amongst which Augenius's Electuary of Steel is famous does operate more happily Augen if wine be diluted in Steel water and aliments boyled therein XXXVIII There want not some who make an Electuary of Steel with Agarick Carthamus seed Senna Mechoacan c. which practice is by no means to be admitted of for if the Physician intend to strengthen to open obstructions to unlock stufft parts and provoke sweat by inciding the thick humours and widening the pipes by exercise why will you procure a conâ—rary motion by provoking to stool Besides those that take Steel are wearied with exercise to make them sweat why therefore shall they on the same day be tormented with an evacuation by stool Moreover violence is offered to nature which is very much cast down by this inequality of motions 'T is better therefore by intervals to purge out the thicker part of the humours by stool resting two days from the chalybeate for that purpose whereupon some mild purger may be gâ—ven Nor did Galen l. de ther. cap. 16. Aetius tetrab 3. serm 3. Paulus lib. 7. tit de ferro Rhases and others use to mix Steel with purgers when they used it to waste great Spleens Zacut. Pr. h. p. 485. â—nd to root out stubborn obstructions XXXIX Cordials seem fitting to be mixed with Steel seeing it is an enemy to the parts and causes griping head-ach dryness of the mouth and
Symptoms XLI Very many commend Mercurius Vitae wonderfully for evacuating all vitious humours in the Stomach and all parts of the Body upwards and downwards and therefore they use it not only for the French Pox but also for the Gout Dropsie Agues Melancholy Madness and very many other Diseases Yet it is to be used warily as are also other Mercurial Medicins and not save when the Body abounds with many thick humours But let it not be given in lean cholerick and weak Bodies Sennert Cent. 1. Ep. 33. The Dose is from One Grain to Four or Five ¶ That this Pouder contains no Mercury in it is clear from hence because this being deprived of its Congelative Salts resumes the former species of Quick-silver and is all of it collected in the Retort Willis's Phar. p. m. 66. This Pouder being too fiercely Vomitive if it be ground with Sea-salt calcin'd and sweetned with often washing becomes far milder and safe enough XLII Mountebanks give Mercury Precipitate without choice for the long continued pains of the Pox the Dropsie Quartan Hypochondriack Melancholy and for cold Diseases of that kind and that to four or six Grains in the Yelk of an Egg or Mithridate and Treacle And as soon as any one has taken it all sorts of humours from the whole circuit of the Body burst forth upwards and downwards often with so great violence especially if the Body be weak that the Patients Spirits being exhausted and his faculties enfeebled he either dies suddenly or on the Day he takes it being without strength without Pulse without Voice he lies like one dead His Mouth is sometimes inflam'd by the contagion and his Gums contract putrid and very stinking Ulcers and in the most the throat becomes so swell'd that for many days they can swallow nothing at all Yea and in some the Mind is so alienated that a Fever arising Palmar de morb contag they die at length frantick Therefore let it be rejected out of the List of Catharticks as a most ready Poison and be banished by publick Laws XLIII Myrobalans should never be mixed with any strong Medicin because those violent things staying longer in the Body through the binding Vertue of the Myrobalans do sometimes bring great harm upon the Body Rondelet Cap. 36. l. 1. Wherefore those Medicins ought rather to be mixed with others that purge hastily XLIV Some that think themselves very wise order Myrobalans to be rubbed with Oil of sweet Almonds whether they be to be reduced to Pouder or broken grosly for Decoctions But indeed they do ill that chafe those Myrobalans with Oil that are designed for decoction for the Oil hinders at least the Water that is poured upon the Myrobalans from insinuating it self into them Zwelfer Pharm Class 2. and passing through their substance XLV Pills of Aloes whether those of Frankfort or others that they may operate rightly ought to be taken in three Doses at three times namely the first a little before or a little after a slight supper the second the next Morning the third the same day in the evening Thus as I my self have experienced and * Tom. 2. Obs 12. l. 2. Horstius witnesseth they must needs evacuate plentifully and pleasantly seeing one Dose drives forward another as it were Hoefer Herc. Med. l. 1. c. 5. XLVI Gummi Gotte is a powerful Hydragogue less violent than the root of Esula or Spurge Mesereum and Elaterium it vomits also The Dose is from two Grains to four or six though some imprudently give it to half a scruple The best preparation of it is to dissolve it in rectified Spirit of Wine and then by pouring common or Rose Water upon it it will be precipitated to the bottom Sylv. de le Boe m. m. l. 2. c. 9. The Pouder being of a very fine Yellow is called its Magistery and it becomes a far more excellent Medicin than when taken crude XLVII The chief use of the Salt of Tartar is in a loosning Ptisan which is made of two Drachms of Senna infused in eight Ounces of cold Water with a Scruple or half a Scruple of the Salt of Tartar by which the Tincture of the Senna is powerfully extracted River pract l. 11. c. 4. so that this Ptisan purges far more powerfully than the common XLVIII A. Spigelius relates that the use of the Pouder which Marcus Cornacchinus has recommended in a particular Book was prohibited at Rome under pain of being condemned to the Gallies because a certain Physician had formerly kill'd several with it But because by his own experiments especially in Tertian Agues he had found it not only an innocent but also a very wholsom Medicin he thought that hardly any other cause could be imagin'd than that that Person had not prepared his stibium according to Art Namely whilst he would make it a Diaphoretick by the Addition of Nitre without doubt he unskilfully reduced it into a glass whence proceeded those gripings and subversions of the Stomach with swoonings springing from Convulsion and other lethiferous accidents But the unhappiness of the Mistakers ought to have derogated nothing from the excellency of the Medicin Velschius Obs 98. ¶ Many preparations have been invented even in Purgers particularly in Scammony and Jalap the best amongst which is the Magistery made with six eight or ten pounds of the Spirit of Wine poured upon one Pound of Scammony or Jalap without the Addition of the Spirit of Vitriol or Salt of Tartar which rather hinder than further the extraction of the Rosm Indeed these very Magisteries are almost the same with Extracts save that seeing they are more globous and plentiful besides the extraction which is of the same Nature with Solution by pouring even simple Water upon them they are precipitated to the bottom if so be the Spirit of Wine be very well rectified for when the same is sufficiently drawn off they subside even of themselves So that they are the more depurate part of the Purgative or Alterative it self and so choicer and purer than the rest Hence we may learn what to think of sulphurated Scammony for though 't is to be confest that the Medicin for whose sake it was formerly so prepared viz. the three-headed Cerberus of Scammony Sulphurated Antimonium Diaphoreticum and Cream of Tartar mixed in a different quantity at pleasure is excellent in Fevers and other Diseases and that we have always experienced the use hereof to be safe yet the sulphurated Scammony is it self far better omitted and very profitably exchanged for its Rosin Whereof these are the reasons 1. Because that which is sought for is maimed 2. That which is not desired is retained The purgative Vertue is maimed which consists in a Sulphureous Salt Whence Helmont says truly That as much of acidity as the Scammony receives so much does it lose of its Vertue for every acid is in it self contrary to purging though by accident some especially the very
seeing by this means both the pores of the Skin are unlockt and Nature also is inclined to a Diaphoresis all the day after the recrements of the Blood and nervous juice will evaporate by perspiration continued all along by the use of the same drink By this method not only is the French-Pox safely and for the most part very certainly cured but also some other stubborn Herculean Diseases are sometimes happily Remedied Idem ibid. p. 202. IV. A watry and insipid Humour being easie to move may be expelled by any sudorifick but a glutinous Humour only by those which withal have a vertue to incide and attenuate such an Humour A salt muriatick and acid or sowr Humour yields chiefly to volatil Salts uses to follow their motion to the surface of the Body So that as I said before of Vomits so I ought to say now of Sudorificks also that they are diverse according to the Humour which they carry forth Sylv. de le Boâ— m m l. 1. c. 11. §. 8. c. Which I cannot sufficiently admire that it has been observed by none hitherto ¶ Amongst Sudorificks are commonly reckoned the roots of Smallage Burdock Angelica Fennil Burnet Zedoary Gentian Contrayerva Masterwort c. all which being Aromatick have hitherto been thought to move sweat inasmuch as they incide a Phlegmatick glutinous Humour and make it moveable and withal drive it forward every way and so to the pores of the Skin also moreover the same roots of which some are bitter others otherwise Acrimonious do temper and correct more or less an acid or sowr Humour also as likewise a Salt muriatick and so likewise do promote sweat which in many Diseases is hindred by them Hither ought to be referred the leaves of Card. Bened and its Seed Maiden-hair Scabious the flowers of red Poâ—py of Elder Chamomel Centaury c. as also the wood of Guaiacum Sassafras Juniper Oak Box c. which all help in like manner in regard they either cut tough Phlegm or alter and correct acid sowr Humours and the salt muriatick Hither ought to be referred all the volatil Salts of Harts-horn Vrine sal Armoniack Bones Blood Hoofs Horns as performing the same thing and helping every way Moreover the Bezoar stone both Oriental and Occidental do infringe and concentrate an Acid the same is also reported of the stone found in a mans Gall-Bladder The like is to be said of Crabs-eyes Corals Perls shells and the like which being used when an Acid offends do often provoke sweat This is true in a special manner of Opium which is chiefly in cause that all Opiats provoke sweat Opium namely by its bitterness does incide Phlegm temper acid sowr and Salt Humours and so also causes sweat Terra sigillata contains in it that which tempers all sorts of Acrimony on which account also it seems to promote sweating Antimonium Diaphoreticum and Bezoardicum Minerale in regard it is rendred fixt and indeed by reason of its Sulphur does temper every thing that is acrimonious and reduces it to mediocrity and so also promotes the driving forth of sweat Mercurius praecipitatus Diaphoreticus made of sublimate corrosive Mercury dissolved in water by boyling precipitated and sweetned by pouring thereto the oyl of Tartar per deliquium does also promote sweat by dissolving glutinous Phlegm Idem §. 14. seqq whence it is also good for obstructions ¶ The use of Sudorificks is proper for such Diseases whose cause Nature often thrusts forth to the habit of the Body by a spontaneous motion Otherwise sweat is not to be provoked indifferently both on the account of the Diseases and of the Sudorificks themselves If there be thin watry nitrosulphureous acid salt c. Humours in the Body and they be made apt for excretion by digestives or if others abound which may be easily attenuated by Medicines 't is safe to make use of Sudorificks especially if the Idea of the Disease Frider. Hofman m. m. lib. 1. c. 11. the strength of the Body and the disposition of the inward viscera be answerable V. Fat men are not rashly to be soaked with sweating Vidus vidius l. 11. de cur generat the lean that have a soft and loose skin are most disposed to sweat VI. Not all humours are profitably lessen'd and evacuated by sweat but only some not blood nor choler but all sorts of phlegm and all Serum as well the watry as the salt Muriatick the acid and sowr But glutinous phlegm seeing it is not so fit for motion ought first or at the same time to be incided attenuated and made fluid that it may the more easily be driven forth by or with sweat so an acid sowr humour ought to be prepared for its expulsion by sweat That the mentioned humours are driven and expelled through the Pores of the skin and so by sweat appears from the sweat it self which sometimes comes forth glutinous often watry and insipid sometimes muriatick or brine-like sometimes also somewhat acid or sowr and I think that there sometimes though but very seldom flows forth a sweat that is bitter though it has never been observed by me or others that such a sweat has been procured by art and by the help of Medicines but that it has been spontaneous Sylv. de le Boe m. m. l. 1. c. 11. VII There are but a few true sudorifick Medicines and amongst these Opium is the chief for the reason why Treacle or Mithridate cause sweat is wholly from the Opium that is mixt with them I know by experience that these two Electuaries prepared without Opium Walaeus m. p. 65. do not provoke sweat at all VIII I have often observed that Melancholick persons who have had a very hot Liver Gesner in Epist have become Leprous by the too much use of Guaiacum and I have seen others that have had an hot Liver H. ab Heer 's Obs 22. where is a Story of a young Man that became leprous from a repeated use of the Decoction of Guaiacum to get the Jaundise and other very ill Diseases by a decoction thereof unless it were very small and made of Wood that grew far from the bark IX The Body ought to be prepared two ways that it may be made apt to sweat 1. by lessening the quantity of the Humour 2. by rendring all the Body soft and loose and opening the pores 3. by so attenuating the thick Humours that they may easily penetrate through any passages Yet we must shew which way that can conveniently be done seeing many are miserably tormented in vain with Sudorifick preparations and Bed-cloaths whereby the faculty is rather wearied than any benefit accruing thereby Now the Medicines which prepare the Body for sweating ought to be the same as those which provoke sweat it self such as warm the Humours by their heat and moisture yet there is this difference that upon taking the Medicines which are for preparation the Patients are
and that Galen is to be understood of that which is soft and gentle XVII When the Blood stagnates and stops in its Vessels motion is most happily procured to it by Sudorificks sometimes by Venesection by the help of those the Blood is not only made more fluid and moveable but the same is moreover actually moved and more and more rarefied by the volatil Salt that is in them and by its stay alone does by degrees loose the Blood more or less concreted by its own acid Spirit and therefore agitates it Whence a more frequent and greater pulse uses to be the companion of sweat for whilst the volatil Salt of Sudorificks arrives at the right ventricle of the heart and the Blood there becomes more rare and does not only of its own accord seek an exit for it self but by further widening the ventricle of the Heart it excites the same to both a more frequent and stronger contraction of it self Sylv. de le Boë pract l. 1. c. 34. §. 29. and therefore moves the Blood more that before was somewhat deficient in its motion and promotes its course every way from the Heart XVIII Not only Medicines taken inwardly yea and hot drink drunk freely provoke sweat but many external things also Thus the air alone heated by art and making a dry bath in a stove or sitting by a good fire powerfully draw forth sweat and when a watry humidity is redundant in the Body it is driven forth by sweat this way easily and happily enough but so is not a sowr or acid or Salt Muriatick Humour though a glutinous Humour may thus also be both attenuated and expelled by sweat if so be it be continued long enough lest the same Humour being dissolved by the fire and driven all about be again coagulated in the capillary Vessels and there breed obstructions and many mischiefs that follow thereupon Idem m m. l. 1. c. 11. § 27. XIX Bezoardicum minerale is prepared of the Butter of Antimony by pouring thereon the Spirit of Nitre or aqua Stygia Where it is to be observed that whilst these two liquors are mixed together the Salts meeting by and by with one another are strictly combined and in the mean time the Sulphureous particles which are in great plenty being utterly excluded fly away carrying some saline Bodies with them raise an heat and very stinking smoak these being driven away the saline that are left are more strictly combined with some earthy ones of the Antimony and at length having undergone the fire that the Emetick Sulphur may wholly exhale and the corrosive stings of the Salts may be destroyed they make an excellent Diaphoretick inasmuch namely as the different Salts of the Medicine do meet with the Salts of our Body with which being joined the compages of the Blood and Humours are loosened Willis â—harm rat p. m. 208. so that there lies open a free passage to the serous recrement The dose is from a scruple to a drachm XX. Though a certain preparation of Antimony be called Diaphoretick I know not to what sort of its particles this vertue can be attributed and I have often in vain expected such an effect from this Medicine It is often profitably given to stay fluxions of the Serum or Blood because this earth being deprived of its proper Salts does imbibe strange acid Salts which it meets with by chance in the Body which kind of vertue Crocus Martis prepared by a reverberatory fire seems to obtain from the like cause XXI Antimonium diaphoreticum is rightly given with the species de hyacintho pulvis ruber Pannonicus and others for the promoting of expulsion But we must note that it ought to be rightly and newly prepared for as it grows old it returns to its own Nature and Emetick vertue Wherefore I advise never to mix Antimony with those Powders but at the time when you are about to use them Ign. Franc. Thiermair cons l. 1. c. 7. for till then 't is best to keep them apart XXII Let Physicians be mindful that those who are engaged in a Diet of Guaiacum if they be not Purged every 8th or 10th day and unless they go to stool every day once Heer de Acidulis p. 100. do incur very grievous Symptoms XXIII Most now esteem that Paradox for truth that Decoctions of Guaiacum Sarsa Sassafras China and the like make People fat Which Horat. Guargantius in his resp medic p. 235. thus explains These Decoctions do attenuate indeed and dry up naughty and excrementitious Humours but leave the good and profitable untoucht Therefore they bring no hurt to the wasted and emaciated For seeing leanness and a fleshless habit proceed from bad nutrition and bad nutrition from acrimonious and salt Humours which consume the sweet and profitable Blood and hinder the Fat from being agglutinated therefore it follows that when those vitious juices are consumed by the foresaid Decoctions the Body is of course rightly nourished and fatned Thus far Guargantius Arcaeus's way of curing Phthisical People by a Decoction of the Wood is well known whereby he affirms they are not only hurt but also grow fleshy XXIV There are some who with an hydrotick Decoction give a Bolus of Turpentine and Ground-Ivy c. but I like not the raising of two motions at the same time therefore rather make a Bolus of the powder of Harts-horn Fortis Cent. 1. Cons 65. Vipers and some appropriate Salt XXV Besides Opium Salts promote Sweat namely by their fusory quality but 't is necessary they should be depurated whence common Salt and sal gemmae promote it not at all All Herbs that contain much Salt in them drive forth also much sweat as Wormwood Carduus bened being given in a sufficient Dose XXVI It is an error of the Moderns to use Decoctions with water for fluxions seeing it is clear that whatsoever Remedies are taken under the form of drink though they be of a dry Nature yet they alwayes increase moisture in the Body especially if they be taken at Meals Now I guess that the Physicians our predecessors were deceived by the Diet that uses to be prescribed to them who use hydrotick Decoctions Who having observed that some troubled with long continued destillations were cured thereof by a Decoction of Guaiacum or sarsaparilla or the like which they had taken for the cure of the French Pox brought in Decoctions of drying Woods and Roots which had not at all been used for this purpose before for the cure of Destillations and the cure succeeded happily as long as they observed that exact Diet of thoroughly-baked Bread or Bisket with Raisins limited to a certain quantity and wholly abstain'd from drinking of Wine But after that our Physicians indulging the complaints of their Patients began to allow them Flesh Eggs and Wine it has been seldom observed that Destillations have been cured by these Decoctions which is an evident argument that the Catarrhs were cured
formerly not by the vertue of the Decoction but by the drying Diet. Which yet not observing and referring the difficulty of the cure to the stubbornness of the Disease they will not yet give over such Decoctions nay by repeating them often and adding dry Baâ—hs also whereby they draw the moisture to the Skin with violence they torment the miserable Patients with sweating and which is worse very oft by burning the Humours and perverting the natural temper of the viscera they make those Catarrhs acrimonious and salt which of their own nature were mild and placid Not considering that Hippocrates 1. de morb mul. sect 3. v. 183. Prosp Martian com in dict loc used a clean contrary way for the bringing out of the same moisture XXVII In making the Decoction of Guaiacum we must have special care that the oily acid Spirits that otherwise by reason of their thinness are very apt to exhale in the common boiling of Apothecaries may be preserved as much as they can by art because the Sudorisick vertue of the Guaiacum consists most in these Gr. Horst Decad. 2. q. 9. which vertue is increased if the Salt extracted Chymically from the calcined faeces be mixt therewith XXVIII Those are much mistaken who think to draw out all the vertue of the Wood at the first Decoction Crato apud Scholtz Epist 158. for the second Docoction is sometimes stronger than the first XXIX China and Guaiacum seeing they are of an unlike nature are not to be mixt together which I chiefly gather from the duration of each Decoction Because the Decoction of China continues not good above 24 hours but will presently putrefie but a Decoction of Guaiacum will continue good even for eight days You will say that the making a Decoction of these two in no greater a quantity than may be spent in one day will prevent the danger of Putrefaction I will admit this indeed but this is no reason why the mixture of these two together should not be suspected because the Decoction of China being so apt to putrefie exercises its Operation and if any thing be added which may change the nature of this Decoction its operation will be changed also which is always joyned with the proper nature of the Decoction And I would say moreover that experience teaches that these two Medicines do not endure one onother when to pleasure some Physicians I have admitted of their mixture Hor. Augen tom 2. l. 2. p. 379. truely I never saw them do well XXX A Decoction of China requires not that strictness in Diet as a Decoction of Guaiacum or Sarsa For the Indians and Spaniards follow their business even without doors whilst they drink this Decoction and eat any thing that comes to hand even Fish But we in Italy never grant our Patients so great liberty because we permit them not to go out of doors nor to eat Fish or eat many other things which healthy Persons use though we are much against a very strict order in Diet Idem ibid. which I commend again and again in the use of the Decoction of Guaiacum Bened. Sylvat cons 38. cent 1. and cons 87. cent 3. XXXI Sassafras would be good for many Diseases if it exhaled not too much into the Head XXXII Carduus bened operates more in substance than in Decoction where five ounces of the Decoction were convenient Walaeus m. m. p. 67. give a drachm of the powder XXXIII We must observe concerning the Roots called Aperient that some Practitioners mix them sometimes with provokers of sweat as in the small Pox perhaps that the Humours may be attenuated and more happily and easily resolved into sweat and vapour which truly is to be done but in a small Dose to two or three ounces at most otherwise they will lead the attenuated Humours to the wayes of Urine which diminishes sweat Morellus de form rem c. 1. for which purpose the Arabians mix them with a Decoction of Lentils XXXIV 'T is to be esteemed no small matter that an Humour offending in the Body may be both corrected and expelled by the same Medicine which 't is strange should be denied by any and those daily busied in practice who therefore are willingly ignorant of what they might easily observe For there are not a few who from a very gross prejudice think that not only Purgers but also Sudorificks themselves as often as they do not move the Humours by Stool or Sweat do a great deal of hurt and cast the Patients into great dangers This opinion of theirs as I was heretofore solicitous about it so I now laugh at it as vain since experience has often taught me the contrary Therefore there is nothing more false that I say not more hurtful to the Patients than to think that Sudorificks especially do harm as often as sweat follows not upon the taking of them I confess indeed if upon taking a Sudorifick the Patient be covered with a great many Bed-Cloathes and be kept a long time under them he will be uneasie and ill from the Bed-cloathes more than from the Medicine he has taken but that is not to be ascribed to the Sudorifick Medicine it self but to the preposterous use and ill administration of the same ¶ Therefore Sudorificks prepared of inciders and attenuaters Sylv. de le Boë append tract 3. §. 219. seqq and given at several times do loosen and incide both the Humours themselves that are to be driven forth by sweat when they are viscid and also others that are mixed with them and are likewise viscid as likewise others that are coagulated in the pores and surface of the Body Idem tract 7. §. 320. and dispose them all by degrees to the Sweat that is to follow Suppositories The Contents What such they ought to be I. 'T is unprofitable to make them very long II. I. NEither let Suppositories be too acrimonious nor too frequent Not too acrimonious lest by their irritation they open the hemorrhoidal Veins seeing that part is very sensible Whence though they may be made even of crude Alum 3 yet seeing such are too acrimonious they are to be made use of warily There is the like reason of others Nor ought they to be too frequent for by Nature's being accustom'd to them the Sphincter becomes more dull so that it will promote excretion unless solicited thereto which holds also of Clysters I have sometimes observed this in Infants in whom Suppositories being frequently used in a continued costiveness Wedel pharm p. 145. have as it were by accident the more increased it inasmuch as the sense being hereby made more dull seemed to require ever and anon a new application II. They are made round like Candles nine Inches long whence they call them Candles from the similitude But so great a length is wholly unprofitable seeing Suppositories irritate not the expulsive faculty saving where they touch the podex or extremity
They cause the Humours to return into the Vessels III. How long we must repell IV. By what the use of Resolvents is indicated V. Emplasticks are not to be added to them VI. Astringents being added increase their vertue VII Emplasters ought to consist of a volatil matter VIII Let them be large IX They are not to continue on till they fall off of their own accord X. Vinegar is to be added to Malactick Gumms XI Some fomentations by Bladders are unprofitable XII How Oyntments may be hindred from obstructing XIII Anointing the spine has been the cause of a Fever XIV Powders are never to be sprinkled upon a part unless it be anointed first XV. Topicks being applied to the Skin penetrate to the inner parts XVI Let them not stay too long on the part XVII Let not Refrigeraters be immoderate XVIII How Oils by infusion may be used the most profitably XIX Ointments are not so proper to cool XX. They do not bind much XXI Where there is a laxity of any Part they are not proper XXII In some Diseases they are to be avoided XXIII For what Diseases Epithems are more proper XXIV For what they are unfit XXV Emollients are not good for melancholick Tumours XXVI The use of Powders in the Diseases of the Belly XXVII I. LEt 's not with the vulgar Physicians always begin with evacuation of the Body without any distinction Therefore we must know that there are four sorts of Diseases to which our Bodies are subject and that we ought not either to admit of or require that Providence in them all 1. An intemperature of the habit sometimes happening to a Part does vitiate the Aliment without any access of Humour in which regard the cure is performed by Alteratives only without the administration of Evacuaters yea in the same Distempers it is often found that Purgers do harm as also Bleeding 2. It often happens that the faex and vapour of an Humour setled in a Part does defile and vitiate the Humour that arrives thither this sort of Ail requires not the agitation or purgation of an otherwise healthy Body but the ridding and discussing of the matter that is setled in the Part by evaporating sudorifick and deobstruent Medicines for this kind of Malady occurs frequently in many periodical Diseases and Agues for there is left somewhat feculent whilst the Body is pure and purged in a Gouty Person in his Feet in a Nephritick in his Kidneys in an Asthmatick in his Breast in a Tertian or Quartan Ague in the place of their Origin keeping the Period of a lingring but long-continuing Fever for that which is left when the cause is taken away is not always put to flight by a purely contrary alteration there often remains indeed a portion of the Humour setled in the Part which unless the Physician dissipate by Digestives he shall use Alteratives in vain In which as Purgations do often more harm than good so Topicks bring manifest help 3. It often happens that the affection of the Part is material and depends not on the whole but on some superiour member as a Disease of the Breast on a fault of the Head In which kind of Malady 't is necessary that a Providence precede yet not of the whole Body but of the Part which first sends the fluxion Wherefore neither are those to be hearkened to who that they may seem to have purged the Head the more regularly do first without any need disturb the whole Body with Purgers 4. There remains only a fourth difference of a material Malady depending on the whole which justly requires that the Body be evacuated by Purging or Bleeding before the application of Topical or local Remedies Whence it is clear that Galen 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. said true speaking of an Alopecia Mercat de Ind. Med. l. 2. c. 1. That a particular Disease if it be light is cured by Remedies applied only to the Part affected c. ¶ When we say this is to be done before the other it is not so to be understood as if we should abstain altogether from this till the other be perfected we erre greatly this way in acute Distempers As for instance Local Remedies are not to be applied before we have made Provision for the whole Body nor must we use attemperaters before evacuation what then shall we apply nothing to the Head or Hypochondres in a Phrensie or an Inflammation of the Liver till we have let exactly so much Blood as is necessary Indeed before we have let Blood 't is not good to apply any thing to the Head or Liver yet neither must we tarry for an intire and perfect evacuation of Blood before we apply Repercutients Valles m. m. l. 3. c. 2. percutients but beginning the cure always with those things which according to Art ought to be first we may interpose these other c. ¶ Indeed practical Precepts are never to be taken universally but they are to be moderated by the indication of urgency For Galen affirms this also That the Body is to be evacuated before we come to Topicks yet in any dangerous Inflammation we never abstain therefrom till all the Blood-lettings have preceded but when we have bled once or twice we begin to apply those things which seem fitting So often in the same inward Inflammations when they did not yield enough to revulsion and I was afraid there might be great danger in the greatness of the Phlegmon by using bleeding on the same side and Cupping-glasses upon the Part with Scarification by turns I think I have preserved some from Death to admiratiâ—n when other Physicians were for delaying Idem 6 Epid. and observing a Method that is not always profitable ¶ Galen was so afraid of a Cacochymie that he forbad applying Local Remedies to the Part affected in Cacochymical Bodies unless they were first cleared by Purging and Clysters and Fasting lest the corrupt Humours rushing into a Part though but lightly affected might suffocate the innate heat thereof Fortis consult 99. Cent. 4. and the Disease of the Part that otherwise were not dangerous might become deadly ¶ If the offending matter be in the Part affected in some little quantity then there is no inconvenience in strengthening the Part because when the Part is strengthened that little which is left is easily resolved by Nature Thus Galen 14. Meth. 9. says that in the beginning of a Cancer the Excrement if it be but small is to be repelled to the principal Parts because unless it be suddenly repelled the melancholick Humour presently distends the Veins and by their being extended the Cancer is rendred incurable Likewise cap. 17. speaking of an Herpes he says If some part of the Excrement be repelled to the principal Parts Sanctor de Remed inv c. 15. a little thereof does no hurt because it is resolved by the viscera II. There are Nine cases wherein Repellents are not convenient 1. When the Humour
flows to the Emunctories 2. When the matter is Poisonous 3. In a critical Motion 4. When there is a Plethora or Cacochymie 5. When the Part is so weak that there is danger of extinguishing its heat 6. When the matter flows to a Part that is near to a principal one 8. Whilst the matter is fixed 9. When the Tumour is caused by congestion Two other cases are proposed by Guido which may be rejected the one is when the Disease proceeds only from an external cause the second when there flows only a thick Matter The first case is very vain because in Wounds we forthwith use Repellents The second is opposite to Galen who 14. Meth. 17. says That some Repellents are cold and moist fitted for cholerick Humours and that others are cold and dry which are stronger because they bind and these are proper for Phlegmatick and thick Humours The same is confirmed by Galen 6. de med local c. ult where in yellowish ichors he uses Repellents that are rather cooling Sanctor Meth. l 3. c. 3. but if from Phlegm astringents ¶ Repellents do not only exert their vertue upon Diseases from a fluxion of hot and thin Humours but they also fight against cold Distempers and Fluxions For thus does Galen 2. art cur ad Glauc bid us cure Oedema's or Phlegmatick Humours namely by using Repellents in the beginning though such Maladies proceed not from a thin and hot Humour which kind he proclaims a thousand times requires Repellents Mercat â—â— III. Is the efficacy of Repellents such as to cause that to be resumed into the Veins which was slid out of them into unnatural spaces That this is possible is proved 1. By the breakings out or pimples in Children which are often hid on the sudden by the repercussion of the cold Air 2. By the authority of Galen art med c. 85. But emptied places draw to themselves An inflammation of the Liver or Spleen is cured by letting Blood in the Arm though in the Liver the Blood is forcibly dispersed out of the Porta through the fleshy Pores In those who are anointed for running Sores Scabs and the French Pox 't is wonderful how suddenly those thick Pustules Tumours Nodes are transmitted by Vessels to the Mouth to be spit forth in Salivation The cure also of an Ecchymosis shews the same thing which is performed for the greatest part by Repellents where there is no doubt but the Blood is extravenated and that it does return into the same again by the help of Repellents Idem ibid. IV. Let not the Physician persist so long in repelling as till all the Matter retreat that was flown into the Part but let him either mix other Remedies with Repellents or use some other Remedy for it is dangerous and bad to persist very much in cooling of the Parts for often the Malady is either changed into one of a worse species or the Part perishes Idem ibid. V. Some do so carefully observe the mixing of Resolvents when the beginning of the Disease is over and increase them as the Disease increases till in the state they use them alone that they can be perswaded by no accident nor by any necessity that supervenes that it is fit to do any thing else always taking the indication for their so doing from the time of the Disease By which it appears that they have understood Galen amiss who though he did not only receive but set also much by the indication from the time of the Disease yet he does that only for knowing the nature and state of the Disease but does not reckon this indication amongst the Curative as being quite different therefrom As the preceding cause is not to be taken care of but the present Disease of the Body so neither is the time of the Disease but its condition to be examined for an intention of cure Thus in the beginning of an inflammation because the vehemence of the fluxion is known from that time 't is understood what occasion there is for Repellents not indeed upon the account of the beginning but of the Fluxion for if the Fluxion return in the declension of the Disease Galen perswades us to repeat Repellents To be short He measured the use of Repellents and Resolvents according to the indigence of the Fluxion or the Humour already flow'd Idem ibid. c. VI. We ought to know that those erre very much being deceived with the shadow of a Reason who use a great deal of Wax in discussing Remedies and mix other Emplastick Medicines therewith thinking that by its sticking fast it works the more effectually not knowing that the whole business of resolution is performed through the Pores of the skin which themselves shut up by such Medicines Idem c. 10. VII Astringents being added to Digestives help their penetration but by Astringents the strong are not to be understood as Galls Acacia and the like constipaters of the skin but the most moderate as Mastich Roses c. which by a certain expression help towards the greater penetration This is confirmed by Averroes's Experiment If one take leather and anoint it on one side with common Oil and on the other with Oil of Roses then the Oil of Roses will penetrate sooner than otherwise it would do Sanct. Art parv cap. 95. and yet it hath a moderate astringing vertue VIII Burrhus an Italian Physician makes all his Plasters of volatil matter so that the Ointment that is laid on one day will hardly any of it be found the next and he blames Physicians for making those thick Bodies into Plasters which cannot enter in at the Patient's Pores IX Bath-clays are commended for softening confirmed Tumours but with these Cautions 1. That a great quantity thereof be applied 2. That they stay a good while on the Part at least four hours in the morning and as many at night 3. That they be spread wide so as to cover not only the Part affected but the neighbouring both above and below Let the like Cautions be observed in Plasters with which if we would soften hardened Parts we must not apply them by scraps but spread them large By this artifice I have known some Mountebanks do miracles in the cure of Tumours when yet they used only the common Remedies that every old Woman and Barber knows of only varying the manner of applying Th. Bartholin Cent. 4. Hist 9. for they roll the Arm for instance all over with Plasters and lay not a patch only on a place X. Aristotle 1. Sect. Probl. 46. will have Cataplasms to be changed at certain intervals though they have lost nothing of their vertue because Nature is not affected by any Remedy she is accustom'd to for some while What he says of Cataplasms may be understood of every local and indeed of every Medicine because they all act on the account of their being contrary when therefore they become like through custom they can act no longer
omitted Hence those Physicians err who in the stoppage of the Terms use only volatil oleous things as the Oyl of Juniper the Spirit of Sal Armoniack the oyl of Savin Borax and other things for hence Whores do often use Savin and the like in vain when they are not disposed to Miscarriage namely we must withal have regard to the Serum which is required as much as the Blood to turgescence Whence I have always done more by moisteners as tinctura Martis tartarisata tinctura Martis pomata uterine Infusions and Decoctions than by other things IX In those who are not with Child we must not bind without revulsion and in those who are not without regard to the foetus As for example If any labour under an immoderate flux of the Terms which often springs from an obstruction of the Vessels which obstruction must be remedied astringents are more profitable when you have first Bled But if a Woman with Child have her Terms flow the weakness of the foetus is alwayes to be regarded X. In the use of astringents also the tone of the Womb is always to be respected both as to the Blood and also as to the loosness of the Fibres Hence in the fluor albus or Whites the common Astringents are not so profitable alone as when Aromaticks are mixed therewith as Rosemary Chervil Ivory Castor the magistery of Crabs Eyes with the oyl of Anise and of Amber G. W. Wedel de f. m. fac p. 117. which is excellent for otherwise there will be no good success Vulneraries The Contents Internal Vulneraries are either of an Alkaline nature I. Or of a Balsamick II. They are not good always and in every case III. They are withal Resolvents and dissolve clodded Blood IV. Externals act diversly V. I. TRaumaticks or Vulneraries are either internal or external both are indicated by solution of unity in general whether they be wounds or bruises especially with the hurt of the inner parts or Ulcers or Ruptures and opened Orifices of the Veins falls from on high spitting of Blood Dysenterie c. in all which they are very good But it being supposed that the Blood is the aliment of all the parts 't is necessary when there is solution of unity that this also should be amiss and therefore we must have regard to this that it may the fitlier dispose the injur'd part to consolidation Now they are chiefly of two kinds either 1. of an Alkaline nature which you may find largely discussed by Helmont For he determins not unfitly that in every Ulcer there arises an acidity that is the token and companion of all putrefaction in the flesh and that Alkali's do easily absorb it into themselves and consume it so that all vulnerary potions contain in them an occult Alkali and that volatil if they be to resist the accidents that spring from the corruption of the acidity inasmuch as every alkali kills every acidity it comes near ¶ Let us apply hither that place of Galen 2. aph 17. concerning the acidity of the Blood where he sayes The same thing that happens in Wines which grow sowr does also happen in the alteration of the Blood Seeing therefore in wounds both the tone of the Blood is altered and that it necessarily concurs to their cure hence Vulneraries are such as absorb the acidity and preserve the tone of the Blood and likewise temper both acrimonious and serous Humours and moderately deterge And such are the Alkalines in a special manner which have been already mentioned as Crabs Eyes which do both help in the foresaid wounds and being boiled in Wine acquire a lixivious taste So likewise Antimonium diaphoreticum is with very good advice taken within the Body in outward Ulcers and thus the very Antihectick of Poterius is good in a phthisis for this reason and the Plants called traumatick that is which either have a nitrous detergent faculty or something that is astringent and earthy do respect the tone of the Blood and greatly resist putrefaction and reduce preternatural ichors into order II. Or 2. they are of a Balsamick nature and vigorate the Blood by their volatil oleous Salt that is both strengthening and astringent Thus Fevre in a Chymical tract relates that a certain Surgeon in all wounds did presently give some Nutmeg in a draught that the Blood might be vigorated by its Balsamick vertue and so all things might be the fitlier disposed for consolidation And though these Internals do not hasten in their substance to the wound that is remote yet they dispose the Blood so as that parts divided may be the more apt to close together again III. It is to be noted that vulnerary potions are less convenient 1. in the beginning whilst the flux lasts lest the Humours be further driven into the part affected 2. They are not so good in Wounds of the Head which do rather require driers outwardly and Nervine absorbers inwardly but are better when the Limbs or other viscera are hurt for through their same vertue they dissolve the clodded Blood and strengthen its tone 3. Respect is also to be had to the Stomach that it be not hurt by them Add 4. that the first region ought not to be foul In the year 1679. in December I had under cure an Inn-keepers Wife of Geneva at the sign of the three Kings This woman having an Ulcer in her Womb by the Womens advice without my consent took two vulnerary potions whereupon she fell into a Fever But she was cured by Injections of decoctions indued with the same vertue IV. 'T is observable that these Traumaticks are most of them withal Resolvers or Dissolvers of clodded Blood of both kinds as Crabs-Eyes Sarcocol Myrrhe Yarrow c. V. These same things of both kinds being applied outwardly and immediately are notably beneficial Thus also Balsamick Sulphurs native Cinnabar the fixt Sulphur of Antimony c. Of the same stamp are also external Traumaticks Sarcoticks which are either 1. moderately drying of an earthy and Saline or Alkaline nature as Ceruss Pompholyx Litharge which do both astringe gently and also strengthen and remove impediments and waste and absorb superfluous moisture and strengthen the lips of the Ulcer and Flesh so that it is made like to that which is sound and is not proud Thus such like absorbing powders do often consolidate Ulcers that are stubborn and hard to close through over much moisture and looseness of the Lips of the Ulcer which I have sometimes observed Whence it may serve as a Rule Whensoever ulcers abound with superfluous moisture there moderate driers and especially strengtheners are good far before oily and emplastick things Thus dry lint alone is useful in the wounds of the nails and other fleshless parts Likewise the powder of Crabs-Eyes being sprinkled on fresh wounds heals them for it presently seasons as it were the flesh and injur'd parts so that they remit nothing of their Balsamick vigour nor conceive pus An incurable
that its virtues are unknown to you Before I come to Laudanum Opiatum I endeavour to remove the Headach by the following means Let Ground-Ivy bruised be applied to the Head also Plantain Let this or something like it be applied to the Soles of the Feet and the Palms of the hands Take of leaves of Rue 1 handfull and an half Sowre Leven 2 ounces Pigeon's dung 1 ounce common Salt half an ounce Elder-vinegar what sufficeth Mix them Make a Cataplasm Or Take of Bole-armenick Terra sigillata common white Chalk each 1 ounce and an half Marigold-vinegar what is sufficient Mix them Apply it as before Sometimes also I applied Powder of Cloves wet with Spirit of Wine for I think Barbette Vinegar does harm XLIX A Loosness in the Plague is often a forerunner of instant death Yet I have often known when neither bloud nor bloudy matter has been voided that the things following have done good Let the Patient and the Physician abstain from all acid and salt things of much use otherwise in the Plague As also from plentifull drinking but if he cannot bear his intolerable thirst let the Patient take 2 or 3 spoonfulls of this Mixture Take of the root of Tormentil 1 ounce red Rose flowers 1 pugil shavings of Hartshorn half a drachm seeds of Sorrel Myrtle each 1 ounce Boil them in Steel-water To 9 ounces of the colature add of Confectio Hyacinthi 1 drachm Syrup of Myrtle 1 ounce Mix them Treacle alone has done good to many if a small piece of it has been taken once an hour till a drachm has been taken Binding Clysters drying also and emollient ones are here very necessary yea they should be given twice or thrice every day Lees of White-wine or rather of Red-wine applied hot to the Navel have done much good Idem Sylvius his method of Curing the Plague L. Like as upon examination of all the Symptoms that usually accompany the Plague and upon consideration of the Remedies that serve for prevention of it we have concluded that in most the nature of the deadly poison consists in a volatile and sharp Salt so we think the same will be confirmed from its Cure But that a methodical and rational Cure may be insisted on in the Plague not onely the Functions must be considered which are primarily and chiefly hurt but the parts also as well containing as contained which are affected above others The Functions are they especially that are called Vital and among them those that respect the alteration of the Bloud in the Heart and on which life does proximately depend Among things contained either the whole Bloud or some things concurring to produce the mass of bloud or both are disaffected in the Plague Among the parts containing and the solid we observe both the conglobated Glands to be seized and corrupted by Buboes and the external skin with the parts adjoining by Carbuncles and Spots It is manifest the Bloud it self is very much changed in the Plague when we affirmed that it oftentimes loses its consistency and is more fluid than ordinary And because we believe that all consistency comes to the Bloud from an acid Juice we deservedly conclude that the Acid mixt or to be mixt with the Bloud does most suffer and is corrupted in the Plague Since moreover we have shewn that an Acid can so powerfully be broken and therefore corrupted by nothing as by a Lixivious Salt I think we have deservedly derived the Pestilential poison from it Again when we weighed its quick operation and extreme violence in Reason's balance we concluded this lixivious Salt was volatile and very sharp And seeing among all the Humours hitherto observed in our Bodies onely Bile is found to partake of a volatile Salt we plainly think that we judged according to reason that it is often vitiated by the pestilential poison and is rendred more sharp and volatile than usual So that the pestilential poison joins it self to the Bile as to an humour most homogeneous with it and spoils it But that it exerts its violence upon the Acid as upon a thing opposite and heterogeneous and breaks and corrupts it The pestilential poison I say because at least as far as most Physicians determine is not bred in Man's body but comes to it from abroad and then is afterwards communicated to others by Contagion Therefore the Indications to be observed in the Cure of the Plague must be taken 1. From the Poison it self admitted from abroad into the Body and infecting the Bile both corrupting and infringing the acid Juice and colliquating the Bloud it self and destroying the solid parts by Buboes Carbuncles and Spots 2. From the Bile it self degenerating from its pristine integrity and putting on the nature of a pestilential poison 3. From the acid Juice in our Body broken and corrupted 4. From the Bloud it self melted and destitute of its consistence 5. From the conglobated Glands producing Buboes 6. From any parts seized and corrupted with the virulence of the Carbuncles 7. From the whole Superficies of the Body defaced and sometimes corrupted with many Spots and Tokens First of all the pestilential Poison it self as it is admitted into Man's body beside the Laws of Nature so it indicates its reciprocal expulsion out of it The same as it infects all it meets with in the body and changes it from a laudable state into a noxious it indicates its alteration and correction Secondly Bile as it is made more volatile and sharp by the pestilential Poison does indicate its fixation and contemperation Thirdly the acid Juice of the Body as its acid Acrimony is broken and corrupted by the pestilential Poison indicates the reparation and restitution of the same Acidity Fourthly the Bloud as it hath lost its consistence by the pestilential Poison indicates the recovery of the same The fifth sixth and seventh Indications of Buboes Carbuncles and Spots we shall treat of peculiarly and severally Now we will propound the Indicata of the foresaid Indications 1. The pestilential Poison seeing it frequently penetrates the inner parts by the Pores of the Skin it may most commodiously be expelled by the same and therefore by Sudorificks The same because sometimes perhaps it is inspired in with the Air and doth then also alter and corrupt the Spittle which being continually swallowed down causes loathing in the Stomach it may not inconveniently then be driven again at least in part out of the body And when part is carried off by Vomit the rest that passes with the Air to the Lungs and by and by to the Bloud may most conveniently be thrown off by Sweat with those foresaid Diaphoreticks The same Poison as it is noxious in its quality vitiates and changes for the worse whatever it meets with in the body and that indeed by its salt volatile and sharp quality it may be corrected by a powerfull fixing Medicine and one that takes off the acrimony And because nothing has such a fixing
when diseased Persons are sent hither without any regard had to the Patient or his Disease their end is hastened I have seen it several times especially in a Matron of seventy who had been several years ill of a painful and contumacious Ulcer with a perishing of the Bone about the juncture of her left Foot wherefore she went to Neuhausen Bathes near Berne and found benefit for her pain asswaged and the Ulcer healed up Yet not long after she grew ill again and her Ulcer broke a new The next year she used them again but then she was taken with a dangerous Fever wherefore I advised her for the future to abstain from the Bathes but to no purpose for she went again to the Bathes at Blumenstein which she had no sooner entred but she was so weak that she scarce could recover it Do you ask the Reason The putrid matter that is in the musculous parts about the Ulcer or in the Bone growes hot with the heat of the Bathe becomes sharp acquires a Malignity and makes the Ulcer more painful Wherefore Humours flow continually from the whole to the part affected and with the rest of the foresaid Humours inclosed in the part do corrupt Besides the matter grows hot in the Vessels which the heat of the Bathe turns into Vapors which go to the Liver Heart and Brain whence proceeds an Infection of all the Spirits Hildanus Cent. 5. Obs 90. and other grievous Symptomes II. Beware that you do not take all that Crollius has told of his Lapis Medicamentosus for oracle For sometimes a Theorist writes many things with a feather of Icarus and extols them to the Sky which when they touch the Sun of experience melt and turn to nothing If you examine the ingredients of this Stone you will find it hot and dry with great acrimony Nor can I see how it should possess those innumerable virtues Crollius ascribes to it and how it can be applied in so many Diseases without damage He writes that it cures all Ulcers in the exterior parts quickly But have a care you do not try it in Ulcers of the Nervous parts that are full of pain and Inflammation especially in delicate bilious and cacochymick Bodies for it immediately causes pain inflammation watching disquiet and other Symptomes I saw this formerly in a young Man who I remember upon the application of it after a violent pain fell into a Swoon Have a care also that you do not apply it in cancers or cancrous Ulcers of any part Idem Obs 91. for you will immediately find the aâ—l grow worse III. Aluminous water also is suspected in cancrous Ulcers M. N. was ill of an Ulcer at the root of his Tongue of a cancrous nature It was exasperated by the application of the said water prescribed by a Physician Wherefore I perswaded him to wash his Mouth with water of Frogs Craw-fish and Plantain with Honey of Roses and to strow powder of Frogs and Craw-fish burnt upon the Ulcer Idem after this the Malignity of the Ulcer abated quickly to the admiration of them all IV. Ulcers seeing they have cacochymie and faults in the Humours for their causes do also require purging therefore Hippocrates seeing and well considering the necessity of it in this case mentions it lib. de Vlcer which he uses not to do in other such cases We have two sorts of purges in Ulcers and other external Ails the one Catholick drawing from the whole Body which we seldome use the other contrary to this which draws neither from the whole Body nor all Humours Each of them must be used with great care always The former indeed is more simple because of more frequent use the latter more compound because it is given for compound diseases This is commonly threefold Purging of Phlegm Choler or Melancholy But we propound another both absolutely necessary and especially for our purpose which is properly the purging of the Blood by its repeated use This is not only omitted but seems not so much as to be known by its name The Blood has 4 Hypostases of different natures that is bile phlegm and melancholy and Blood in all mens judgment is the legitimate Humour the fourth substance of the mass the purest part of the nutrient Humours Now every one of these distinctly taken has its peculiar Ichores that is moist superfluities depending on them When Ichores and Humours may corrupt and putrefy contrary to Nature's law both joyntly and severally of which there is a numerous conjugation Therefore either all the Blood and Ichors and Humours are in fault as in the small Pox and Leprosy and with some of these as in lesser Cacochymies Or all the Blood is polluted absolutely as much as it can be as in the small-Pox and Measles Although we ought to restore and correct all these Modes of putrid Blood with Physick yet this Mode of Corruption especially comes under our consideration which is not in a total and perfect corruption Blood therefore receeds from its nature two ways either the most part of it or but a little But the farther the recess is the greater industry and stronger Medicines are required And the measure of the Putrefaction can be no way better known than by observation of the Blood as it is drawn out of the Veins Or if we cannot do that from the discolouring especially of the Eyes Lips Gums Teeth Hair Nails also from their strength especially compared with their feeding or fasting from the quality of the excrements and other affections appearing in the body When you have searched out these things then you must proceed to make up proper Medicines which may purge the Blood several wayes by abstersing opening obstructions ventilating provoking Sweat and Urine by giving a stool by attenuating and qualifiing their second or third qualities But among all things they are chief which act by peculiar property Among purgers the chief is Hellebore either black or white which Hippocrates therefore used so much because he knew it had a singular faculty to purge the Blood Nor need we be so abhorrent from this Medicine nor be so fearfull because the Diseases wherein they are used are more frightfull and proceed from black Choler wherefore Galen lib. de atra bile writes That in Diseases proceeding from a melancholick Humour you must at the very first stop the growth of it by Melanagogues As for the safe preparation of it see Salius l. de Aff. part cap. 19. and others Also Senna Coloquintida and Turpeth are strong weaker than these are dodder of Time root of Fern Fumitory Hops Agrimony Cichory Ground pine Speedwell Strawberry leaves Maiden-hair Asparagus Parsley which according to Montuus Purges the Blood by Urine Among Compounds Treacle is the chief which by reason of the Viper it has in it has the divine faculty of Purging the blood and humors Trochises and Salts of Vipers and infinite things out of Hermes his Elaboratory To which you may reckon
preparations of Antimony whose vertue as it is admirable in separating all Metals so its faculty is observed to be the same in Purging all corrupt humors as Quercetan has observed Among other cathartick forms of it Platerus in several places of his Praxis commends the calcination of it He tells of a certain Empirick who for breakings out of salt Humors filthy Itches and tedious and pertinacious Diseases mixt calcined Stibium in a Decoction of Sarsa parilla and did admirable things Severinus V. The edges of Ulcers difficult to cure must be taken greater care of than the middle for the fault always comes from the upper and higher Parts and there also it begins first to heal Which edges if they be exasperated and cut out according to Hippocrates his rule l. de loc We must first make old Diseases new it is consentaneous to reason that the sore abate forthwith when the virulent and bad blood which fed and made the sore worse is gone And it has in very deed been found that it abates just as Plants when the moisture is withdrawn do wither And so they that have Ulcers and are daily under my Cure do confess to me that they find they are eased of their old pain and are bravely relieved Idem VI. Simple Dysepulotick Ulcers that is such as are difficult to heal up if when you have tried all Medicines if the Ulcers come not from a Rheum you can do no good they must be conquered by fire This is my invention by Spirit of Wine which in tenuity of substance and aptness to take fire is most proper a Linen Tow or Coton dipt in this and set on fire as far as the Ulcer goes will quickly turn and draw out the mischief by its gentle motion If once be not enough you may do it three or four times or as often as you please If you have any delicate Person under Cure you may put a linen cloth underneath spread with killed Mercury the Mercury side to the Ulcer so as to touch it and having applied this lay on another and give fire to it It is certain that those who have great sores will bear this often and with patience Sometimes I have filled pipes of brass or reed with hot Embers and rowled them athwart the ulcerous Parts and so I have burnt and cured those sores which would not give way to any of the strongest Medicines In the same manner also you may treat all intemperate Ulcers and such as run a thin Ichor and sharp Sanies But there is no need of fire for such as are dry and squalid One who had been laid up ten Years of such an Ulcer was burnt by me first with an Iron unknown Idem and sometimes with hot water and was cured in 40 Dayes ¶ M.N. had a carcinomatous Ulcer athwart his Tongue obliquely which much afflicted him on the upper part of it I applied a Silver spoon heated in the Fire to it upon which he was free of his pain and could speak freely as though he had been cut for the Tongue-â—y which before he could not do Wherefore having found out this Remedy I invenâ—ed a particular Instrument to heat the Tongue conveniently And all the help that accrews to Ulcers which would otherwise eat through or off the Parts is because nothing comes nearer to the innate heat which governs the Aeconomy of the Body than this external heat Aph. 5.22 Hippocrates also testifies there that it is good for Diseases coming of hot Causes Idem that is for eating herpetes which proceed from a bilious and hot Humor VII Sometimes a Spontaneous Ulcer arises in the empty spaces between the Muscles and in the cavities of the other Parts which has cured some other more grievous Disease in the Body Therefore an outlet must be left there for some time I indeed advise you to it Idem because I have often found it a thing conducible and reason perswades the same VIII A man of sixty a great drinker whose Face was all Sauce-phlemed had a Pustule arose in the upper part of his Chin covered with a thick Scab at first about the bigness of a large Pea increasing more and more every day and spreading to the middle of his Chin very painful ouzing out in several places at little Pores a very sharp bilious Ichor Because of the great store of cacochymy in this intemperate Man and the sponginess of the part affected some feared lest in tract of time it should turn to a cancrous Ulcer The suspicion encreased because when it was anointed with a Balsame that had done much good in others it grew worse in a moment The cause whereof I thought might be for that all the Ingredients of the Balsame applied were sulphureous and so further exasperated the enraged bilious sharp Ichor Wherefore I thought of checking it with Acids and not without success For Sal prunellae being dissolved in the white of an Egg and linen clothes dipt therein and applied often in the day the Pustule in five days time vanished Thiermair Cons 9. l. 2. leaving no Scar behind it IX I have often with admiration considered the incredible effect of Balsamus sulphuris anisatus terebinthinatus c. in the cleansing and healing of Ulcers if a little of it be dropt into the Ulcer for the generation of new pus is presently so abated that oftentimes by the help of this Balsame alone they have been cured in a few days in the Breasts and in other parts after inflammations and notable imposthumes From this experiment I reckoned that the cleansing and healing of Ulcers which follow Imposthumes consists in the correction of the Acid and Corroding Pus which sticks to the Ulcerated part and corrupts and turns into new pus in some measure at least the Blood designed to nourish that Part And that the Pus is corrected by the Balsame of Sulphur especially upon account of the aromatick Oyl which abounds with an oyly volatil Salt whereby the acid Spirit that abounds in the Pus and corrupts the blood every day into Pus is not only made dull but so sweetned and amended that the affluent blood quickly repairs the Parts formerly consumed Sylvius de lâ— Boë and perfectly heals them up X. A Medico-Chirurgeon had a Matron under Cure who had contracted a Fistula in her Leg after an Imposthume which he had had six Months under Cure At length when M. J. Griffonius had searched it with a Probe and knew the only cause which hindred the healing of it up was the thinness of the Skin covering the Ulcer he quickly put her in heart Therefore when her Body was Purged and prepared he eroded the thin Skin with a caustick and of a Fistula made an oblong Ulcer after the fall of the Eschar and the Ulcer was cleansed with oyntment of juice of Smallage in three Weeks or a Months time he successfully cured it Hildanus cent 5. obs 79. XI I have
general Astringents are cold and dry and according to Cartes their vertue consists in a certain thickness and figure of Parts whereby they constringe the Parts of another Body like a wedge or twine them like Fiddle-strings Therefore the active principles Salt Sulphur and Mercury are less vigorous in them or at least are immersed in earthy Parts and as it were fixed And they are either 1. Earthy drying and absorbing which astringe with biting as bolus Arm. Corals lapis haematites terra sigillata Chalk crocus Martis c. or 2. Sowr and Austere as Bistort Tormentil Alum Vitriol c. which abound with an astringing austere Salt either vegetable or metallick with earthy Parts or 3. Acid as Vinegar the spirit of Vitriol Simple and Martial of which we must note first that acid Astringents are more proper for fluxil Humors both in the Vessels and out of them which they coagulate as it were and fasten but not so proper for the Pores and Parietes whence they are convenient inwardly in Hemorrhagies as suppose of the Nose Thus we have cured Scorbutical Hemorrhagies with Spirit of Vitriol in regard Acids do in this manner coagulate the fluid Blood but Acids are not so convenient for the Pores or Parietes rather for coming thither they incide dilate and exasperate the humors the more Secondly therefore we must not always rely on acid Astringents for they do not so constringe the Pores as do austere sowr and other stypticks but they are withal indued with a thinness of Parts whence those that use to give Acids in dysenteries diarrhaea's spitting of Blood and wheresoever the Pores of the Parts or the Membranes are affected as to their substance can seldom boast of any good effect Or 4. They are Emplastick whether oleous which obstruct the Pores or gummous mucilaginous viscid and emplastick properly so called as Gum Arabick sanguis draconis Mastich and Farinae or Flowers 5. Some also are sweet as Chestnuts some bitter as Aloes c. Or 6. Balsamick withal being endued with a Sulphur immersed in terrene Parts whether implicitly another quality predominating whence Medicins properly called cold are also astringent as galls acacia Pomegranate rinds c. or explicitely as Aloes which used outwardly astringes Myrrhe Nutmeg the rind of Frankinsence Cinamon which latter indeed are hot and joyned with Acrimony yet through their manner of substance in regard it has both an Emplastick vertue and drying earthy Parts they are astringent so the caput mortuum from the distillation of Cinamon-water powerfully astringes but they are commonly improperly called so for they are either not used inwardly for astringing as Aloes or they benefit by strengthning the heat withal and also confirming the Parietes on which account Nutmeg stays vomiting Or 7. They are Escharoticks which do not properly astringe any more than the former but inasmuch as they consume the flowing humor and induce a Crust upon the Parts they come to leave an astriction behind them even as Fire is used to stop the hemorrhagies of the Vessels in the cutting off of Limbs so Lime Spirit of Vitriol and Vinegar have place in some cases Or 8. they are Figents such as are Narcoticks and Opiats II. Medicines made of Mars Steel or Iron are of a middle Nature and are used both for opening and binding But note that such of them as are more vitriolated and have the metallick Salt more explicit open more and such as are more terrene and changed into ochre bind more III. Internal Astringents must be agreeable both to the Parts for which they are designed and also to the humors and cause for some are more proper than others Thus Aromatick astringents are more agreeable to the Stomach as Nutmeg Treacle c. Which if they be not to be used alone are at least to be mixed with others For it is most true that Armatick astringents are better for the Stomach and therefore for diarrhoea's dysenteries and vomitings Acids also are more agreeable to the Stomach for Vinegar is good for the Stomach both to foment it withal and to drink unless there be some erosion in it or in the Intestins yet even then Acids are good outwardly In Diseases of the Lungs Resolvers are to be mixt with them of the Liver penetrating Acids of the Head Balsamicks So if the matter be too Fluxile and Acrimonious Mucilaginous Astringents are more proper if malignant as in an Epidemick dysentery Bezoardicks are to be added or Astringents endued with that quality are to be chosen as Tormentil Terra Lemnia c. So if there be an acrimony of the Humors and a strong irritation of the membranous Parts fixers are to be mixed with astringents for in this Case both these being mixed together perform that more happily which one could expect from either of them alone So for example Opiats do indeed stop Diarrhoea's and dysenteries and Astringents left to themselves stop the same but seeing Opiats do more fix the Humors and Astringents more defend the Parietes of the irritated Parts hence Laudanum Opiatum mixt with a Styptick Powder is of greater efficacy because it attends both and so fulfills the intention the more happily Where the Parts are to be defended the terrene profit more IV. We must never astringe too much lest the Pores subside too much and by that means can hardly be relaxed Hence also in a Dysentery for example from the too great use of Astringents there often arises anxiety dangerous Ulcers c. for Fluxes often require rather to be moderated than stopt and all things are to be done according to natures direction wherefore Aromatick Resolvents or Openers are profitably mixed with Astringents V. In Diseases of the Breast in general we must astringe sparingly both because the tone of the Lungs rejoyces in laxity and also because the viscous hot or bilious Matter may easily be expelled to the heart because of its vicinity hence they are not good in a squeaking small voice straitness of the Breast difficulty of Breathing and Asthma Inflammation of the Lungs or Pleurisie For they incrassate the Humors the more fasten them in the Part and make them unfit for expectoration yea bring on a suffocation VI. There are no astringent Clysters properly so called because all moisture injected into the streight gut as being strange to it irritates it even water it self yet they are called astringent and those are prescribed which by a certain mucilage restore the mucus of the intestines that was fretted off and are made of milk Deer-suet c. such as Minderus chiefly commends yet even this way they dilute and temperate rather than astringe VII In some Cases though the Flux cease and so likewise the mobility and eruption of the Humors yet astringents are so far from benefiting that they rather hurt for instance the immoderate flux of the Terms especially in the hypochâ—ndriacal is often caused from an obstruction of the Vessels whereby the Blood cannot circulate freely whence