with their coming between and amplifie and enlarge the lineaments of the Body otherwise too short and contracted 4. Water is the chiefest Vehicle of Spirit and Sulphur by whose intervention they consociate one with another and with Salt for the other Principles being dissolved by a watery humor or at least diluted continue in motion without which they grow stiff as congealed things When Water is wanting the active Principles meet together too strictly and mutually rub against and consume themselves and when for this reason the suppliment of food is cut off the Body grows withered If humidity abounds too much these Elements are estranged or dissociated too much one from the other wherefore the subject becomes sluggish and slow and of less efficacy and unapt for motion Besides Bodies too moist are lyable very much to rottenness and Corruption because from too much Humidity the Combination of Spirit and Sulphur and Salt is too loosely effected that they do not mutually embrace one another nor are retained with their embracement in the subject Indeed Water abounding easily evaporates and then the frame of the mixture being loosened and the doors set open Spirit and Sulphur easily break forth the way being made and leave the subject as it were vapid or made sharp with Salt for from hence the infusions of Vegitables Decoctions Juices of Herbs and all Liquid preparations if the quantity of Water be greater than the rest of the Principles and improportionate quickly Corrupt Water is most easily drawn forth out of every thing by Distillation for when Spirit and Sulphur are often intangled with nets of Salt or Earth they hardly let go-their embraces and are not obedient but to a more intense heat and often times require a previous Putrefaction Water most easily and often with no labour is driven out of every Body But most often it snatches in its flying away some more loose Particles of Spirit and Sulphur and carries them with itself forth of doors 5. As the interjection of Water in Liquids so of Earth in Solids fills the empty little Spaces and Vacuities left by the other Principles For these hinder the active Principles from a too streight embrace whereby they should rub against themselves and cleave one to another also by its thickness it retains too Volatile things besides it inlarges the due substance and magnitude in Bodies The more that Earth abounds in any thing it is so much the less active but of longer duration hence Minerals endure a long while then next the greater Trees in the mean time Animals and the more slender Plants are but of short age In Distillations Earth ascends the Alembic almost not at all or but in a very little quantity for the most part it is left with a portion of Salt for a Caput Mortuum or Dead Head therefore it is called Terra Damnata or damned Earth because when the other Principles are freed the Prison being as it were broken this is still detained besides Earth being deprived of the Company of the rest is of no Use nor capable of change or exaltation Thus much for the Elements or Principles of Natural things considered apart and by themselves It follows that some of their Affinities and Conjugations be unfolded because these very strictly cohere with those and very hardly or not at all are joyned with others Out of the mutual Combination of some and disagreement of others various Affections arise the knowledg of which gives no little Light to the Doctrine of Fermentation There is a certain Kindred and Similitude of parts between Spirit and Sulphur which are agil or light and easily to be dissipated in both wherefore Spirit being driven forth of the Body draws abundantly with it Sulphureous Particles as is discerned in Spirituous Liquors Distilled out of any thing to some of which if you mingle Water the Liquor appears as it were troubled with precipitated Sulphur but the Spirit without the Sulphur is undiscernably mixed with the Water which however by reason of is Volatility may be also easily drawn away and separated by Distillation Altho Spirit and Sulphur are Principles very resembling and because of a ready motion either are inflameable yet they are not one and the same as is asserted by some For Sulphur Copiously subsists in Bodies almost destitute of Spirit to wit in common Sulphur Antimony and other Minerals in which its Particles are very fixed and of their own nature almost immoveable which is very far from the Nature of Spirits For they abounding in any mixture never lye idle and always in motion bring various alterations to the Subject where they dwell then if they abound in strength they easily and without tumult carry themselves forth of doors of their own accord But Sulphur altho it abound doth not easily evaporate but hath need of a strong heat or an actual fire that may make a way for it and lastly it breaks forth not without a stink or burning yea if you endeavour to Distil Oyly and Fat things although very Sulphureous with a moderate Fire they are wont to yield a Liquor only Waterish and not inflameable but if we provoke generous Wine which swells with Spirit by the gentle heat of a Bath a most burning Water will Still forth and apt wholly to be inflamed Spirit is not presently joyned with Salt For Sugar and Salts are scarcely dissolved by the rectified Spirit of Wine but are after a manner associated by a long digestion and circulation as is perceived in the Volatile Salt of Animals or Tincture drawn forth from the Salts of Herbs or of Minerals by the Spirit of Wine If that Spirits excel in plenty and virtue they assume to themselves and Volatilise the Saline Particles And therefore the Salt contained in the Juice or Blood of Animals being associated with Spirit is volatilised also the Spirit of Wine being Distilled by many Cohalations with the fixed Salt of Herbs renders it Volatile and makes it pass through the Alembic but if the power of the Salt be greater it tames the Spirit and fixes it Hence the blood being become Salt by means of an ill dyet becomes less Spirituous Fixed Salts and the Oyl of Vitriol fix the Spirits grown too volatile and unbridled and Coagulate the Spirit of Wine it self But Sulphur is a more fit subject of the Spirit by the coming between of which it easily is united with Salt and the other Principles and as Spirit best agrees with Sulphur and Water so Sulphur intimately cleaves to Earth and Salt As to Sulphur besides its affinity with Spirit it hath a great relation with Salt it self to the volatilisation of which it doth not a little help wherefore in Bodies which abound with a volatile Salt there is found plenty of Sulphur as in Amber Soot Hornes and Bones as also in the excrements of living Creatures where Salt and Sulphur are in motion and evaporate from the subject a very stinking smell is sent forth for Sulphur being
shops or dispensatory are to be prescribed but magistralls as cause arises according to the appearances of the admirable Symptoms A gentle vomit Purge blood-letting ought in the first place to be ordained and to be repeated as often as shall seem fit As to specisick medicines also and appropriate in these cases when the chief Indication shall be to mend the temper of the Nervous juice you may try many and by their effect judge of their virtues Therefore it may be lawfull to try what the Remedies indued with a volatile or armoniac salt may effect For this end the spirits and salts of Harts-horn Blood soot and the flowers and spirits of Sal-armoniac are taken These helping nothing you must come to Chalybiats or Steel medicines the tinctures and solutions of Corall and Antimony are given which kinde of medicines are exhibited in such a dose and form and so often that some alteration may be made by them on the whole blood or nervous juce Further If successe shall fail in such like you must then proceed to Alexipharmaca which help against poysons and the malignancy impressed on the humours to wit to institute from these decoctions and distilled waters of vegitables powders Conserves and other preparations and to compound variously some with others and to administer them diversly It is likely that those kinde of medicines which are wont to be helpfull to such as are bitten by a viper or a mad Dog or that have taken woulfs-bane or poyson may be usefull also in the aforesaid Convulsions It may be lawfull here according to the example of Gregory Horstius in his tract of the malignant Convulsive disease and also of wonderfull Convulsions to prescribe magisterial Remedies in the form of a purging Electuary and also of a powder and Convulsive Antidote and to compound them variously partly of simple Alexipharmacks or poyson resisters and partly of Antiepilepticks or things good against the falling Evil. CHAPTER X. Of the Passions Commonly called Hystericall THE hysterical passion is of so ill fame among the Diseases belonging to women that like one half damn'd it bears the faults of many other Distempers For when at any time a sicknbss happens in a womans body of an unusual manner or more occult original so that its Cause lyes hid and the Curatory Indication is altogether uncertain presently we accuse the evill influence of the womb which for the most part is innocent and in every unusual Symptom we declare it to be something hysterical and so to this Scope which oftentimes is only the subterfuge of Ignorance the medical Intentions and use of Remedies are directed A description of the hysterical passion The Passions which are wont to be referred to this cense or order are found to be various and manifold which rarely happen in diverse women or which come wholly after the same manner The most Common and which commonly are said to constitute the formal Reason of the hysterical distemper are these viz. A motion in the bottom of the belly and an ascention of the same as it were a certain round thing then a belching or a striving to vomit a distention and murmur of the hypoehondria with a breaking forth of blasts of winde an unequall breathing and very much hindred a choaking in the throat a vertigo an inversion or rolling about of the eyes oftentimes laughing or weeping absurd talking sometimes want of speech and motionless with an obscure or no pulse and deadish aspect sometimes Convulsive motions in the face and Limbs and sometimes in the whole body are excited But universal Convulsions rarely happen and not unless this disease be in the very worst state Because for the most part the Tragedy of the Fit is acted without Contraction of the members only in the inferior belly Thorax and head to wit in some of them or successively in all women of every age and Condition are obnoxious to these kinde of Distempers to wit Rich and poor Virgins wives and widdows I have observed those Symptoms in maids before ripe age also in old women after their flowers have left them yea sometimes the same kinde of Passions infest men as plainly appeared by the example already shewed As to the causes of those symptoms most ancient The causes of the Symptoms inquired into and indeed Modern Physitians refer them to the ascent of the womb and vapours elevated from it The former opinion although it plead antiquity seems the less probable for that the body of the womb is of so small bulk in virgins and widdows and is so strictly tyed by the neighbouring parts round about that it cannot of it self be moved or asccnd from its place nor could its motion be felt if there were any as to that vulgar opinion or Reason taken from the vapours we have often rejected it as wholly vain and light for just reasons elsewhere But we judge the passions but now described do neither always nor at all proceed from the ascent or the vapours of the womb and that indeed other very famous Physitians have already determined For in times past Charles Piso and of late the most learned Highmore have vindicated the womb from all fault and the passions which are commonly call'd hystericall are thought by this latter to arise from the blood most impetuously rushing on the Lungs and by the other from a serous colluives heaped together neer the origin of the Nerves How probable this latter opinion doth seem shall appear from what follows But as to the opinion deliver'd by Doctor Highmore concerning this thing tho it be far from our Custom to contradict any ones opinion and that it is almost unlawfull for me to diffent from this famous man yet because our Pathologie standing on a contrary basis viz. the cause of the hystericall distemper being imputed more immediately to the nervous stock than to the blood will seem to be only asserted unless we shew the Reasons which combat against that hypothesis and forours therefore taking leave here we will try more exactly either opinion put as it were in a ballance In the fit therefore commonly called hysterical this famous man supposes Doctor Highmores Opinion Examined the blood for that it is thin flatulent and with a certain effervescency to rush too much in heaps into the pneumonick vessells and the vessells of the heart and in them to broyl up impetuously and so to stuff up the lungs and very much to aggravate them that neither they can exercise their motion nor that the blood can be drained from the bosom of the heart Hence from the blood stagnating in the Praeoordia a great oppression difficult breathing and often none with a melting of the vital Spirits were wont to be inferred then the diaphragma that it might give place to the Lungs more and more distended and that breathing at least might be some way made is carried downward with a mighty and long continued Diastole and so by pressing down the Intestines it
are almost without Spirits or at least are contented with a few For the birth and growth of Vegetables they are required in a more moderate quantity In the Constitution of a living Creature where there is greater Use of Spirits for Sense and Motion a far more plentiful quantity is found In the works of Art and chiefly in those which ascend to perfection by Digestion and Fermentation there are found to be a sufficiently great proportion of Spirits but in all subjects whatsoever whilst the immersed Spirits are mingled with the other Principles their condition or state comes under a threefold consideration for they are either depressed and scattered and so involved with more thick Particles that they are very little seen or shew forth their powers as in things undigested crude and unripe may be perceived in which the Spirits can hardly extricate themselves into motion and from which they can hardly be drawn by Distillation Or secondly the Spirits flying forth from the thick substance of the rest are full of vigor shake and rightly dispose the more gross Particles subtilize the thick digest the crude and bring things to the steme or height of maturity and perfection or lastly Spirits having obtained the height of things do luxuriate and make excursions out of the Body hence those that remain are by degrees lessened of their plenty and strength until being less in power than the Particles of the Salts and Sulphur they are put under their yoak and by little and little are destroyed and driven away out of the Subject on this threefold state depends the beginnings or rudiments the maturity and exaltation and the defect and end of things It is observed when the Spiritous Latex is drawn forth of any Liquor by Distillation that the vapor or steam is not elevated into dew that is comes together in little drops or dew every where poured forth as it is wont to do in watery things but it is divided into streaks and many little rivulets and renders the Alembic mark'd in every part with straight lines only not meridional leading from the Centre of the top to the brim of the Circumference The cause of which seems to be this to wit since that the spirituous substance is very subtil it is not easily Collected into Liquor neither is it fixed every where about the sides of the Vessel in its ascent as watery Liquors but always stretches 〈◊〉 and unless when it comes to the top it self of the liâ—… head doth in no wise 〈◊〉 but there the spirituous breath being restrained as it were in a punct and being brought backward it begins to gather into dew wherefore from that top as it were the Fountain the Spirits flowing forth on every side by streams descend in streaks towards the mouth or brim of the Alembic And when those lines wholly disappear it is a sign that the spirituous substance is quite still'd forth and that the watery breath only ascends 2 Sulphur is a Principle of a little thicker consistency than Spirit after that the most active for when the Spirits first break forth from the loosned subâ—â—â—nce of the mixture presently the Sulphureous Particles endeavour to â—…low The Temperament of every thing as to Heat Consistency and amiable frame or contexture depends chiefly on Sulphur from hence also for the most part arise variety of Colours and Odors the fairness and deformity of the Body also the divâ—â—sâ—â—y of tastes In the Bosom of this the Spirits immediately in which as in a Copula they are united by the more hard embraces of the rest The substance of Sulphur though less subtil is yet of more firceness and unruliness than the Spirits are for this unless it be restrained by the embrace of the others as it were in bonds and its Particles be detained one from another by the interjection or coming between of the rest not only leaves the subject but destroys it self with too impetuous an eruption Indeed the little bodies of this being gently moved do cause digestion and maturation sweetness and many perfective qualities in things being a little more strongly moved they induce heat and an excess of qualities inordinations and chiefly a stinking favour but being more impetuously moved or stirred up they bring in the dissolution of Bodies yea a flame and Burning The substance of Sulphur is never seen sincere yea it consists not of it self from others but vanishes away into Air its Particles being concreted and chained together with Salt and Earth are fixed as it were immoveable as is seen in Metals and some Stones or being Diluted with Spirit and Water and temper'd together with the rest exist in motion by which means as was before said of Spirit they are in a threefold state within the substance of the mixture for either first of all its little bodies being involved with Salt and Earth or too much drenched with a watery humidity are obscured so that they exercise but little of virtue from whence the humid and cold temper of things exists their qualities are Obtuse Dull and of small virtue or force and the Bodies less apt to be inflamed as is discerned in unripe Fruit raw Juices and green Wood. Or secondly The Particles of Sulphur begin to shine forth with Spirit to be more thickly heaped or rolled together and to appear eminent above the rest of the Principles And so by its motion they evaporate the superfluous moisture digest Crudities and induce a warm temper in things active qualities a lively force and maturation or ripeness which kind of exaltation of Sulphur may be observed in Wine and Liquors long Fermented in ripe Fruits in the Youth and florid Constitution of living Creatures Or thirdly The Sulphureous Particles being gathered into vigor grow too hot loose the bonds of mixture and desire to fly away and from their diverse manner of departure and separation the dissolution of Bodies variously happens For either they evaporate with Water and Spirit by degrees and without tumult and leave their subjects lean and dry which when the Sulphur is wholy gon fall into Ashes Or secondly in Bodis which abound with Sulphur when the mixture is loosned and the Spirits begin to fly away the remaining Particles of Sulphur are wont to be very much moved and to grow exceeding hot and being shut up in a thick substance are gathered together more nearly as in Dung and Hay growing hot and conceive heat and somtimes Burning breaking forth after this manner by heaps and impetuously they breath out a stinking smell and bring on a rottenness to the subject There is a third manner of eruption whereby the Sulphureous Particles go forth of Bodies when they withdraw themselves as it were with violence and being gathered together break forth into fire and flame whereby indeed becoming unbridled and untamed they break all bars or lets and wholly destroy the substance or frame of the Subject By this means by their own and proper effervescency they procure a Burning as
Faeces or Lees settling in the bottom enjoys it as it were its food and is kept by its inspiration in strength from which if it chance to be drawn forth it quickly grows sowr for indeed this kind of Drink is in great danger to be destroyed by the Flux or sowrness of the Salt against this ill to preserve it some are wont to cast into the Cask Mustard Seed bruised or Mustard Balls for that the Volatile Salt of this hinders the Flux of the acetous Salt so that the Liquor thereby presently grows clear and keeps the longer another kind of remedy against the sowrness of Cider is that as soon as it begins to grow sowr it be drawn off from its Lees and kept in close stopped Bottles with a little Sugar for by this means it ferments anew and because together with the Flux of the Salt the Spirits being carried forth are deteined from flight a very grateful sharpness is caused to the whole Liquor Also almost by the same preparation and the like process of Fermentation a potable Liquor is made out of Pears which is however above measure sweet and if plentifully drunk renders the Belly loose as if they had taken Physick So much for Fermenting Liquors whose virtue consists in the Spirit being carried forth and obtaining the height of perfection there remains other preparations whose vigor is placed in the Saline part being exalted and having gotten a Flux among these Vinegar is of chiefest note the way of making of which being wholly unlike the aforementioned requires a method of Fermentation very different from those before described for example small Wines or more generous or strong Beer being put up into the Cask are exposed in the Summer time for a long while to the Suns Beams or else in the Winter they are kept near a Stove in some hot place after this manner whilst some Spirits evaporate the rest being put under the yoak the Saline parts are exalted and infect the whole Mass of the Liquor with their sharpness but not only Wines long kept or Stale Beer out of which the Spirits of their own accord begin to go away but fresh Must or new Beer pass after this manner into Vinegar for the Country-women are wont to place without doors all the Summer strong Ale and highly impregnated with Mault in a Cask by which means they make an exceeding biting and most penetrating Vinegar Yea after the same manner almost our kind of Hydromels Honnied Drink or Meath are wont to be prepared to wit they boyl sixteen parts of Water with one part of Hony to the consumption of a third part adding then some Spices togegether with a sharp Ferment they place the Cask and Liquor for many days in the Sun and afterwards in a Wine-Cellar It seems the Sunning of it is used that thereby the Saline parts being brought towards a Flux might somwhat restrain the nauseous sweetness of the Hony and by that means the sweet being tempered with sharpness a most pleasing tast is afforded to this Drink By reason of the sharpness arising from the Flux of the Salt also very many eatable things are wont to be prepared after various manners hence the flesh of living Creatures and especially of Fishes when they swell with too much Sulphur are pickled with Salt Brine or sharp Liquors that the Salt being brought forth they may become more grateful to the Stomach It would be a tedious business to insist here on particulars but I will in this place describe a certain noted kind of Oaten Broth Grewel or Flumery which profitably nourishes Feverish also Consumptive and Hectick people This kind of Drink that it may become gratefully sowrish the Meal of Oats is put into common water for about three days till it acquire a somwhat sowr tast then this infusion is placed upon the fire and with a Ladle is stirred about until it boyls and when it rises up ready to flow over the Vessel it must then be poured forth into a platter and presently cooled it will appear like Gelly and may be cut into bits which if heated soon melts In this preparation may be observed that by a long infusion of the Grain the Saline parts being brought forth do get a Flux then these so impregnate the Liquor that the more thick Particles being by the heat brought into its pores and passages they are so strictly shut up that they cannot easily sink down but that the whole mixture becomes like Gelly It would also be too great labour to heap together here the various Condites and kinds of Pickles for it would be to describe under that rank the whole Art of Cooking and Diet. For in both the only aim is that for healths sake and for pleasure the active Particles in our food may be placed in their vigor and exaltation for so they greatly please the Palate and by a more easie digestion go into nourishment for this reason not only Drinks and Confections of Corn and Herbs of a diverse nature and kind are thought on but also we variously prepare flesh both boyled and rosted and add to them sauces that the Particles now the Spiritous now the Saline being carried forth to a Flux might please the tast with a certain sharpness Those which are of a more fixed nature are brought to exaltation by Sauces made of Sugar Salt or Pepper They are wont to keep some flesh almost to putrefaction that by that means the active Particles being placed in their strength and motion may become of a more grateful tast Here might be interwoven a long discourse concerning Medicinal Compositions but because this subject deserves a peculiar consideration I will say nothing more of it here Let us next see by what motion of Fermentation and Habitude of Principles Natural Bodies tend towards dissolution or what is the progress of every thing to Putrefaction and Corruption CHAP. VIII Of the motion of Fermentation which is observed in the Death also in the Putrefaction and Corruption of Bodies NAtural Bodies in which Spirit Salt and Sulphur are found in but a mean quantity do not stay long in the same state for these active Principles are employed perpetually in motion As soon as they come together they tend from Crudity and Confusion towards Perfection for the sake of which when they have reach'd the height they are able to come to they are not quiet in this point but from thence they make hast towards the dissolution of that thing Those which are more volatile do first of all break forth from the loosened bond of the mixture then the rest separate into parts until the form of the mixture wholly perishes The Spirit being carried forth to the top flies away first with the water and the more pure Sulphur and by its expiration diffuses a very grateful odor afterwards the more thick Sulphur with the Salt being loosened from the band wherewith they were tyed and having gotten a Flux by degrees evaporate and
the action of this Salt and Sulphur with which eatable things very much abound are broken in the Ventricle and are reduced into very small parts The Chyle being after this manner Fermented acquires a Milky colour by reason that the Sulphureous Particles are dissolved together with the Saline and mixed with the Acid Ferment For if you pour an Acetous humour to any Liquor impregnated with Sulphur and volatile Salt it presently grows white like Milk as may be discerned in the preparing the Milk of Sulphur or the Resinous extracts of Vegetables Yea the Spirits of Harts Horn or Soot being very full of Volatile Salt if they be poured to any Acid Liquor or simple Water acquire a Milky colour Concerning this Ferment hid in the folds of the Ventricle it is observed that it is after various manners and changes the Aliments by a diverse means for tho in a sound Constitution it is indifferently Acid and chiefly owes its force and energie to the Salt being brought to a Flux yet it often declines from this laudable condition and conteins in it self either too much of sowrness or less than it ought to have In the former Case where the Salt hath got too sowr a Dominion all things taken in the Saline Particles being carried forth to a Flux and the rest unduly brought under presently grow sour as most often happens in Hypochondriack Distempers on the other side where the Volatile Principles obtain the first place Fermentation being too hastily made the Sulphureous parts of the Chyle are suddenly and as it were forceably exalted and the unconcocted of the Saline pass into Choler which ordinarily happens to those abounding with bitter Choler They therefore who have the Ventricle affected after this latter manner Sweet and Fat meats being eaten they are troubled with a bitter and bilious Taste Again they who suffer the contrary disposition altho they eat the most simple Food send forth plentifully Acid and Stinking belchings and indeed this seems to come to pass even after the same manner as when a little too much Yest is put to the Batch of Dough it becomes bitter or when too great a Portion of sour Ferment or Leven is put to the same Dough the Bread from thence contracts a mighty sowrness As the Blood in the Heart and appending Vessels the Chyle in the Ventricle so the Animal Spirit is wrought in the Brain whose Original and Motions are very much in the dark Neither doth it plainly appear as to the Animal Spirit by what workman it is prepared nor by what Channels it is carried at a distance quicker than the twinkling of an Eye But it seems to me that the Brain with Scull over it and the appending Nerves represent the little Head or Glassie Alembic with a Spunge laid upon it as we use to do for the highly rectifying of the Spirit of Wine for truly the Blood when Rarified by Heat is carried from the Chimny of the Heart to the Head even as the Spirit of Wine boyling in the Cucurbit and being resolved into Vapour is elevated into the Alembick where the Spunge covering all the opening of the Hole only transmits or suffers to pass through the more penetrating and very subtil Spirits and carries them to the snout of the Alembick in the mean time the more thick Particles are stayed and hindred from passing Not unlike this manner the blood being delated into the Head its spirituous volatil and subtil Particles being restrained within by the Skull and its menynges as by an Alembick are drunk up by the spungy substance of the Brain and there being made more noble or excellent are derived into the Nerves as so many snouts hanging to it In the mean time the more crass or thick Particles of the blood being hindred from entring are carried back by Circulation But the highly agil and subtil Spirits enter the smallest and scarcely at all open pores of the Brain and Nerves and run through them with a wonderful swiftness For there is need only of such Receptacles and Channels for the Animal Spirit in which there are none or at least very small cavities or holes otherwise the blood or excrementitious humours their Followers and Companions would not be excluded Also besides if these Spirits should run about through too open and loose spaces being easily dissipated they would fly away wherefore when there is need of a Pipe for the transmitting of blood or serous water the Spirit of Wine runs rapidly through the secret passages of the Instrument or Leather Neither doth the more strict frame of the Brain and Nerves serve only for the straining of the subtil from the thick and the pure from the impure but also that spirituous and most subtil Liquor being as it were distilled from the blood gets yet a farther perfection in the Brain for there being inspired by a certain Ferment whereby it is yet more volatilised it is made more fit for the performing the offices of motion and sense Because the substance of the Brain is exceeding full of a Volatile Salt which is of great Virtue for the sharpning and subtilising the Spirits therefore the Spirits of Harts Horn or of Soot are far more penetrating than Spirits of Wine The Seminal Vessels and Genital Parts do so swell up with Fermentative Particles that there is nothing more here Spirit Salt and Sulphur being together compacted and highly exalted seem in the Seed to be reduced as it were into a most noble Elixir These kind of active Principles do not only Ferment in the Womb for the forming of the Child or Young ones but also as it were with a living Ferment they inspire through all the Body the whole Mass of blood that it may be more Volatile and more sharply Hot wherefore in women who have the Ferment of the Womb in good order their Face is furnished with a curious and flourishing colour their heat is more lively and copious moreover the Mass of Blood growing too rank there is need of emptying it every Month by the Flux of their Courses but when this Fermentation from the Womb is wanting both Virgins and Women become Pale and as it were without blood short winded and unfit for any motion Also in men from the Seminal Ferment happen abundance of heat great strength a sounding Voice and a manly eruption of Beard and Hair by reason of the defect of this men grow womanish to wit a small Voice weak Heat and want of Beard are caused Since we Treat of Ferments which are found in the Animal Body we may here opportunely inquire what is the use of the Spleen concerning which all good things are said by some that it is as it were another Liver and serves for the making of blood for the Viscera of the lower Belly It is by others reputed to be of a most vile use that it is only the Sink or Jakes into which the Feculencies of the blood are cast By reason of its structure we
united and dilated by the Liquor are hidden in the pores and passages of the Menstruum and together with these stick and are also supped up by the Menstruum the more pure and minutely divided bodies of Earth or Sulphur which were in the mixture in the mean time the more thick and more stuffed with Earthiness are praecipitated to the bottom of the dissolving Liquor wherefore Gold and Silver are wholly devoured by the Menstruum but Iron Lead c. and also Metallick recrements send forth from themselves in the dissolving Heterogeneous Particles as so many offscourings when Minerals are broke into parts by this means the divided Particles and most minutely broken so long as they equally cohaere with the Parti-of the fluid Salt which are in the Menstruum being dispersed through the Liquor of the Menstruum and hidden in its pores and passages are supped up and rendred invisible Yea also the humor of the Menstruum being taken away the remaining Calx which consists of the Particles of a mixt and fluid Salt combined together is dissolved in any other Liquor but if after a Metallic solution the fluid Salt be drawn off from the Particles of the thing soluted or by Calcination it neither poyses any Liquor it is put to with a new adjection of fixed Salt nor do the little bodies of the thing soluted fall through the pores of the Menstruum nor are they lastly supped up by any Liquor added to them But that among Metals some are corraded by any acetous Liquor in the mean time others as Silver and Gold require a peculiar solvent as it were to be unlocked by an appropriat Key and what is more wonderful common Aqua fortis which eats Silver leaves Gold altogether untouch'd then the same Liquor by an addition of Sal Armoniac is made a proper dissolvent of Gold and has no power upon Silver The reason of those may be thus understood Gold and Silver are more compact Metals very much cleansed from earthy matter wherefore they are not broken into parts by any solvent but only by those kind of Menstruas which consist of a Salt homogeneous or agreeable with them But as the frame or substance of Silver depends upon a Vitriolic Salt and that of Gold on an Armoniac Salt or of a more perfect kind to wit such as is wont to be most strictly complicated with Sulphur hence Aqua fortis so long as it is strong with a Vitriolic Virtue combines with the Salt of the Silver and therefore unlocks its frame or substance but doth not loosen the concretion of Gold which depends upon an Heterogeneous bond If that to this Menstruum Sal Armoniac be added the power of the Vitriolic Salt is blotted forth and the Saline darts of the solvent are made fit only for the Gold the Silver being untouched When Minerals are corroded by acetous Menstrua's we are not therefore to think the same always to be resolved into Elementary parts that the Salt and Sulphur of them may be had sincere or unmixt by this means altho some boast that they are easily able to shew such Analyses of Mettals for that it appears to our observation and frequent experience that many of these are of so compact and solid a Concretion that they cannot be broken but into integral parts as for example Gold and Quicksilver after what manner almost soever handled when they are reduced into manifold Calxes will at last by a strong fire acquire their proper forms viz. the Saline Particles of the Menstruum loosen the bond of Concretion whereby the most minute integral parts of the mixture stick one to another but the same solvent is not able in all things to break assunder the Copula of the first mixture whereby the Elements are mutually bound together so that for the most part Metallic Calxes are only little bodies of the Concrete broken into most small little Globes being involved by the Saline Particles of the Menstruum Wherefore fire being applyed those corrosive Salts being pulled away from their Embrace are wholly driven away then the Metallic little bits or dust as so many little particular Globes being fused by the intense heat coming together into one Mass by melting resume the Species of the Metall wherefore they who commonly affirm that the Salts of Minerals for the most part are only the Saline Particles of the solvent conjoyned with the Metall reduced as it were into fine flower without doubt speak truth in the preparations of Sol and Mercury or of Gold and Quicksilver also the Salt or Sugar of Saturn or Lead is nothing else But that sweetness comes only from the Vinegar for if in the distillation of Vinegar the joynings of the Vessels are closed with Clay and Salt Chaulk and Horse-Dung on the Superficies of this grows together a most white Salt wonderfully sweet in every thing like to that Sugar but from some viz. from Iron Copper and Silver are prepared fictitious Vitriols which are for the most part Saline For that the same by distillation may be forced into acetous Liquors as the Metallic recrements Besides the solvence hitherto recited which by means of the Particles which are strong in them act upon a peculiar and determinate matter I know that Chymists do boast wonderful things of a certain universal Menstruum by whose inspiration every body what ever may be easily reduced to its Principles or first Elements And tho Helmont have bragged that he had attained to this Secret by his own Labour and now dayly the Adepti of Chymistry do aspire to this end yet the hopes and endeavours of most have failed them in this work even as in the Philosophers Stone There are also some other famous Menstrua's viz. The Aqua vitae Tartarisated of Quercitan and his Philosophic Vinegar which are of noted use in the preparing of Medicines but since I know nothing or any strange thing they have done in the dissolution of Bodies we will pass them over So much concerning solvent Menstrua about bodies to be dissolved a certain provision should be instituted whereby indeed their complections may more easily be unlocked and cut into most minute parts Wherefore the Concrete is now pounded into powder now cut into little bits that the way might lye open for the solvent to its most inward recesses If that the frame of the subject be harder and more strict that it will not give place but of a long time to the Menstruum before the dissolution is begun there ought to be administred some aperitives or openers whereby the concretion may be first loosened and somwhat opened wherefore the tincture of Steel is more easily extracted if its filings be sprinkled with the juice of Limons or the Spirit of Vitriol in like manner Harts-Horn or the shavings of Ivory are handled when we would have the decoctions of them quickly made when formerly I have been very solicitous about this thing viz. that I might render the more hard bodies easily soluble in
First in the making or crudity which has relation to the Chyme new made in the Viscera and freshly poured to the blood the Particles of which like to unripe Fruit are crude and undigested Secondly In the perfect state or maturation which belongs to the blood being sufficiently wrought and made Volatile according to all its Particles after it is inspired by Ferments and its inkindling in the heart exalted Thirdly in its defection which respects the blood after it hath burned forth and its Spirituous parts are very much flown away and the rest growing old and poor have need to be removed and so they are either the Reliques of Salt which are with the Serum strained forth continually by the Urine or they are Particles of Salt and Sulphur boyled and baked together which are strained forth by the virtue of the Liver into the choleduct Vessels or lastly they are dregs and earthy recrements of the blood it self which are carried into the Spleen and there as it were a Caput Mortuum exalted by a new digestion go into a Ferment at length to be transmitted to the blood Whilst after this manner the generation of the blood and its due maturation are truly dispatched it is pleasingly circulated within the Vessels neither wanting in motion or heat nor inordinately troubled with them But if either the supplement of the nourishing Juice be not made agreeable with the rest of the blood nor assimilated with it but that either by reason of the defect of Concoction it is washed into a very crude humor or because of its excess it is rosted into a burnt matter or if the blood growing old does not lay aside what it casts off and give way to a new Nutritious humor I say by reason of these kind of Vices concerning Sanguification or the making of blood the blood is variously perverted from its due temper and equal motion and now becomes Watery and Cold now Sharp or Salt now Acid Austere or by some other way degenerate and somtimes obnoxious to stagnations and somimes also to immoderate heats We may observe these kind of degrees of crudity coction and defection in the blood both of the sound and of the sick in healthful persons after a more plentiful repast Surfeit or hard drinking when too much of Serum or of Juice is poured to the blood its whole mass being too much diluted with a crude humor becomes more watery and less spirituous wherefore men are rendered sluggish and unfit for motion or exercise In sick persons the Phlegmatic Constitution of the Body induces such a crudity of the bloody mass as is discerned in the White Dropsie the Dropsie Pica or longing Disease and the Chlorosis or Green-sickness Also the state of this kind of crudity comes in an intermitting Feaver and in truth is the cause of the Feaverish accession viz. by reason of the dyscrasie of the blood the nourishing Juice being heaped up is not assimilated to it but for the most part goes into a crude or otherwise degenerate matter with which when the mass of the blood is filled to a plenitude swelling up it brings on the fit The state of Maturation Concoction being finished happens in healthful persons some hours after Eating especially in the morning to wit when the supplement of the Chyme is spiritualised and as it were enkindled in the whole by reiterated Circulations for then men are made more nimble and lively and more ready for studies or any business The state of Defection is in the blood of sound men after fasting long hard labor and want of Food for then the Vital Spirit being very much evaporated the mass of the blood begins to become as it were lifeless wherefore they presently languish and are made weak Moreover the blood by a too long Coction is burned and grows bilous from whence those accustomed to want Food or fasting for the most part become sad and melancholic Some Diseases habitually induce such a disposition of the blood such are the Scurvy the Yellow Jaundies the Cachexia or evil state of the Body when the nourishing Juice turns to ill humours long Feavers and most Chronical Diseases in which the whole mass of blood passes from from a Spirituous into either a sowr sharp or austere Nature So much for the comparing of Blood with rich Wine what follows being a similitude of it with Milk consists in the diversity of the parts and their setling apart which is chiefly seen in its being let forth from the Veins and grown cold in the dish For when the heat and vital Spirit which conserve all things in the mixture are flown away the remaining parts depart from one another of themselves and a separation of the thin from the thick and of the Serum from the Fibrous blood is made This sort of separation of the parts succeeds almost after the same manner as in the coagulation of Milk There are in Milk Buttery Cheesie parts and Whey The like is in Blood so long as it doth not much recede from its Natural temper for it is good when being let forth of the Veins it grows cold in the Porringer its parts do settle after the same manner to wit the more pure portion and Sulphureous like Cream comes together on the Superficies which in healthful people looks brightly red and this answers to the flowring or head of the Milk under this lies a Purple thick substance which cosists of little Thrids and Fibres joined together and as it were concreted into a clotty substance or parenchyma such as the Liver For the heat being consumed and the bond of the mixture losened the Fibrous parts lay hold on one another and by their weight settle into a more thick Coagulum which answers to the Cheesie part of the Milk In the mean time the Serous or Wheyey parts being thrust forth from the rest get their own Nature and constitute a clear Liquor like water which as it is thinner ascends to the top and swims upon the rest Further as the Whey of Milk is wont to be further coagulated and doth yet contain in it self some parts both Buttery and Cheesie so this Liquor swiming on the blood if it be exposed either to the fire grows thick like the White of an Egg a little rosted or if an Acid Liquor be poured to it will be precipitated into a white Coagulum This being seen some have thought this watery Latex to be the nourishing juice which imparts nourishment to the whole Body from the mass of the blood in the time of its Circulation and that the rest of the blood is only the Vehicle of Heat and Spirits and serves for no other use But to me it seems more likely that in this watery Liquor is contained the nourishing juice which is imployed on the Nerves and the commonly termed Spermatic parts for nourishment is supplyed to the Musculous stock from the Fibrous blood of the Parenchyma or the Liver Lights and Milt After this manner blood being
where there is a predominancy of adust Sulphur and in wandring effervescencies in scorbutical and unequall heats both of the blood and nervous stock by it self or mixed with other medicines as an enforcement but yet in more tender Constitutions 't is dangerous lest the tone and fibres of the ventricle should be hurt by its acrimony and too great constriction or astringency 6. In the last place follows the astringent Crocus Martis or the Crocus of Steel prepared by fire through a long Calcination viz. The filings the off-scourings or thin plates of Iron should be so placed in a reverberating fornace that they may be continually heated by a most strong flame The filing being thus exposed to the naked fire first of all it grows reddish and runs together into little hard round balls but after 3. or 4. days swelling up suddenly into an higher heap it becomes extream light impalpable and of a most curious purple Colour In this preparation the Sulphureous and saline particles whilst by the force of the fire they begin to come away from the concreet do mutually take hold one of another and so being combined together grow into little balls but afterwards those particles both Saline and Sulphureous being wholly profligated and fiery particles succeeding in their place the whole mass swelling up into a bulk and made as it were spungie becomes most light A Medicine thus prepared in some Cases is of most excellent use and second to none of the Chalybeats to wit almost in all extravasations or too great eruptions of the Serum and blood as in outward haemorrhages or in inward bleedings in the Diarrhaea the Diabatis and in a vehement Catarrh also I have known no remedy better than this in the Ascitis or in the beginning of a Dropsie and this also I have heard to be highly approved of lately by a most famous and expert Physitian of our own Country Concerning which medicine notwithstanding since it is wholly destitute both of Saline and sulphureous Particles and consists almost only of earthly and fiery particles it is very ambiguous by what faculty it operates and produces so praise-worthy an effect in man's body for there seems to be in this left no more Caput mortuum or dead head or terra damnata then in vitriol or in any of the other mettalls distilled be a most intense fire As to this if I may Conjecture it seems first that to this preparation some Activity is due whereby it exerts it self and unfolds its virtues either by shutting up obstructions or by binding together the Vessells or nervous fibres of the Viscera from the fiery particles shut up in the most fixed earth and from them breaking forth within the body But the chiefest reason of helping consists in this that the earthy particles the Saline by which they were strickly held being wholly gone desire greedily to be reunited to them or such like Wherefore this Crocus martis being immersed in our Bodies snatches to it self whatsoever Salts it meets with and intimately binds them and so while it sucks up like a sponge very many saline particles it takes away many enormities arising chiefly from the flux of the Salts By this means Burnt harts-horn Spodium and Antimony Diaphoretic when they bring help exert or put forth their virtues CHAPTER XII Of the Convulsive Cough and Asthma An example of a Cough meerly Convulsive THe history before related doth clearly manifest that sometimes a Cough may be caused without any great fault of the Lungs by reason of the sliding down of the morbific matter upon the pneumonick nerves or those belonging to respiration to wit where it was shown in the Case of the noble Virgin labouring with Convulsive fits and also with a grievous and continual giddiness that when by the prescript of the Physitian a fomentation of Cephalic Decoction was applyed to her head presently the Giddiness ceas'd and in its place follow'd a great Cough without any Spitting but night and day almost perpetually troubling her which without doubt hapned by reason of the Convulsive matter being driven from the brain into the beginnings of the nerves This kinde of example of a Cough meerly Convulsive more rarely happens in persons of ripe years as the like distemper I have not often seen But in children 't is usual This distemper frequent enough in children also sometimes I have known it in Men for a cough to arise from a serous Colluvies overflowing the Lungs which when at first it was Simple and moderate afterwards it became vehement and Convulsive so that in Coughing the Diaphragma being drawn upwards and held in a long Systole or frequently repeated the Lungs being greatly straitned were much hindred in their motion In the mean time by reason of the breathing being hindred and the blood being restrained within the Praecordia and for that cause stagnating in other places the sick were in danger of being choaked and often acquired a livid or dead countenance But in this Case besides the Convulsions raised up about the Praecordia by the force of Coughing the Ventricle also being often brought Into a consent cast forth by vomit whatever it contained in its bosom yea and I know in some tender ones after this manner affected the Disease wandring from thence into other parts did raise up Convulsive motions in the Face eyes and limbs and at length became deadly This kinde of Convulsive Cough is very frequent among children and some years lays hold on so many that it seems to be plainly Epidemical when it roots it self it is very difficult to be cured by Remedies yea often being long protracted it is hardly otherwise to be cured but by the state of the year being changed If the causes of the aforesaid Case be inquired into it will be so plain The reason of it to refer the procatartic or more remote cause to the redundancy of the Serous humour in the bloody mass and in some sort in the whole body a portion of which matter dropping forth from the little mouths of the Arteries on the Lungs creates the ordinary Cough afterwards when the serous Colluvies or heap of waters yet exuberateing in the Blood and stuffed with Convulsive particles is also heaped up within the head the same entring the pneumonic nerves increases the simple into a Convulsive Cough For when those nerves being irritated first about their extremities are exercised above measure for that reason they more easily imbibe the Convulsive matter laid up nigh their beginnings and so when at length they are driven into irregular motions in two places to wit in the head and at the tale and that for two distinct causes viz. from the irritation of the Spirits and from their explosion it is no wonder if the Cough at first Common being afterwards brought into this evill state becomes so cruel and Convulsive Moreover when it sometimes happens that the same matter heaped up in the head does enter some other nerve