kind To make out this in some measure I shall name some such Instances as may withall confirm what I formerly deliver'd in this Essay touching the possibility and usefulness of Correcting either poisonous or otherwise very noxious Simples I never knew Opium so much Corrected by Saffron Cinnamom and other Aromatical and Cordial Drugs wherewith 't is wont to be made up into Laudanum nor by the most tedious tortures of Vulcan as I have known it by being a while Digested in Wine impregnated with nothing but the weight of the Opium of pure Salt of Tartar as we elswhere more fully deâ—lare a much nobler Laudanum may be made by adding to the Opium insteed of the Salt two or three appropriated Simples and by due Fermentations and Digestions of them with it And for that violent Vomiting Medicine by Chymists flatteringly enough call'd Mercurius Vitae a whole Pound of Cordial Conâ—erves or Liquors will not so well moderate its evacuating force as the keeping it continually stirring in a flâ—ttish and well glaz'd earthen Vessel placed over a Châ—fingdish of Coales till it emit no more fumes but grow of a grayish Colour which I am very credibly informed to be the Preparation of Merc-Vitae purgans often mention'd and commended by the famous Practitioner Riverius in his Observations A not unlike but far more sudden Correction of thaâ—â—â—tive Powder I elswhere teach And as for those Operative Minerals Quicksilver and Antimony though long Experience of their churlish and untractable Nâ—ture have made many of the waryer Physitians and Chymists shy to meddle with either of them single Yet these Concretes which seem so Incorrigible may by being barely in the gradual Distillation of Butter of Antimony sublim'd up together into a Cinnaber and then that Cinnaber six or seven times resublim'd per se be united into a Medicine that not only is not wont to work either upwards or downwards but of which I have known safely taken even in substance to the Dose of many Grains and a few Drachmes of which infus'd in a Pound or two of Wine hath made it of that inoffensive Efficacy taken in the quantity of a Spoonful or two daily upon an empty stomach That if it still succeed aswell as we have observ'd it two or three times to do we may think that our having thus acquainted You with the Vertue of this one unlikely Remedie though we have also met with it even in Pâ—inted Books may make you amends for all the rest of this tedâ—ous Discourse I once knew a slight but altogether new and tedious aswell as Philosophical Preparation of Salt of Tartar Correct and Tame such Poisons as ten times the quantity of the highest Vulgar Antidotes or Cordials would I was confident scarce have so much as weakned And I have known by the same Prepar'd Salt dextrously Specificated by Simples the Vertues of some Vegetables so exalted That without any Cathartique or Emetique Operation they have if many Patients of whom I had casual opportunities to enquire of the Effects of those Remedies upon them do not mis-inform me prov'd more effectual in Tameing divers stubborn Diseases then Crocus MetalloruÌ„ Mercurius Vitae as 't is abusively call'd and those other dangerous Remedies which make the Vulgar wont to say of Chymists that they quickly either cure their Patients or kill them And to let You see Pyrophilus by one plain and yet noble instance That the knowledge of the Specifick Qualities of Things skilfully applied to Preparations may perform with ease what neither costly Materials nor elaborate Processes are able to effect Give me leave to inform You That whereas Chymists and Physitians have not been able by infusing the true Glass of Antimony made per se in Spirit of Wine or the richest Cordial Liquoâ—s nor yet by torturing it after several tedious and artificial manners to deprive it of its Emetique quality That Vomitive faculty of Antimonial Glass may be Corrected by so slight a way as that of Digesting it with pure Spirit of Vinegar till the Menstruum be highly ting'd For if you gently abstract all the Liquor and on the remaining yellow or red Powder you Digest well dephlegmated Spirit of Wine You may after a while obtain a Noble and not Emetique Tincture Of which though Basilius Valentinus prescribes but five or six Drops for a Dose yet a Domestick of mine having out of curiosity taken to the quantity of thirty Drops at a Time he found it not at all Vomitive And this Tincture we the rather mention Because not only Basilius Valentinus but other skilful Persons highly extol it for several Diseases And let me adde Pyrophilus and be pleas'd to mark well what I tell you That by bare reiterated Digestions and Fermentations there may be Prepar'd out of many Vegetables Saline and Sulphureous Essences whose Bulk is exceeding small in proportion to the Concrets whence they are Extracted which will keep many Years as I can shew you some above three Years old and contain more of the Crasis if I may so call it of the Simple then the vulgar Vegetable Waters Spirits Extracts or Salts hitherto extant in Laboratories and Shops But there is so great a length of Time required to the Preparâ—tion of these Efficacious Juyces That my ambulatory condition of Life hath not allowed me to furnish my self with many of them And Pyrophilus if You will not dis-believe a Person for whom You have so just an esteem as You have for that Ingenious and Experienc'd Monsieur L. F. who was the French Kings Chymist when You knew him at Paris I can present You with a yet Nobler instance to perswade You That if skill be not wanting a single Herb without any violence of Fire may by other wayes then are in use among Chymists be easily enough brought to afford Medicines endow'd with some Nobler Vertues then any of the most compounded costly and elaborate Medicines whether Minerals or others that are to be met with among Vulgar Chymists This Efficacious part of the Plant whence 't is obtain'd Paracelsus call's the Primum Ens of the Plant that yeilds it But though indeed I have found the way of Preparing it much plainer and better deliver'd then is usual in his Writings at the end of his Book De Renovatione Restauratione Yet I freely acknowledge That I should scarce have thought it worth the Trial if it had not been for what the Experienc'd Chymist above mention'd affirmed to me upon his own Observations concerning it partly because I am not wont to be forward so much as to try long Processes upon Paracelsus's credit and partly because what he call's Sal Solutum seem'd to me somewhat ambiguous since in the same Page teaching to draw the Ens Primum of Gold and Antimony he makes not use of Sea-salt but of a Salt of an incomparably higher Nature his Sal Circulatum and in the Processe immediatly preceeding ours to make the Ens Primum of Emeralds he Prescribes the
its destructive Operation whilst the three resolute Jewes with their Protectour walk'd unharm'd in the mid'st of those flames that destroy'd the Kindlers and as the heavy Iron emerg'd up to the swimming piece of wood miraculously by Elisha made Magneticall And you may also Pyrophilus take notice that when Adam had transgressed immediatly the ground was cursed for his sake And as it is not unusual in Humane Justice to raze the very houses of Regicides and resembling Traitours So when the provocations of Sodom swell'd high enough to reach Heaven God did not only Destroy the Inhabitants from the Face of the Earth but for the Inhabitants Sins destroy'd the very Face of the Earth So when in Noah's time a Deluge of Impiety call'd for a Deluge of Waters God looking upon the living Creatures as made for the Use of Man stuck not to Destroy them with him and for him but involv'd in his Ruine all those Animals that were not necessary to the perpetuation of the Species and the Sacrifice due for Noah's preservation And so when in the Last daies the Earth shall be replenish'd with those Scoffers mention'd by St Peter who will walk after their own Lusts and deride the Expectation of God's foretold coming to Judg and Punish the Ungodly their Impiety shall be as well punisht as silenc't by the unexpected Flames perhaps hastned by that very impiety that shall either Destroy or Transfigure the World For as by the Law of Moses the Leprous Garment which could not be recover'd by being washt in Water was to be burnt in the Fire so the World which the Deluge could not Cleanse a generall Conflagration must Destroy Nor is reason it selfe backward to countenance what we teach For it is no great presumption to conceive that the rest of the Creatures were made for Man since He alone of the Visible World is able to enjoy use and relish mâ—ny of the other Creatures and to discerne the Omniscience Almightinesse and Goodnesse of their Author in them and returne Him praises for them 'T is not for themselves that the Rubies flâ—me other Jewels sparkle the Bezar-stone is Antidotâ—â—l nâ—r is it for their own advantage that fruitfull trees spend â—nd exhaust themselves in Annual profusions The Light which he diffuses through the World is uselesse to the Sun himselfe whose inanimate being makes him incapable of delighting in his own splendor which he receives but to convey it to the Earth and other by him illuminated Globes whence probably the Hebrewes call'd him Shemesh which Grammarians derive from the Roote Shemash signifying in the Chaldean Tongue to serve or minister to the Sun being the great Minister of Nature and Servant general of the Universe And as Animals alone among the Creatures seem to have a proper sense of and complacency in their own Being So Man alone among Animals is endow'd with Reason at least such a pitch of it as by which he can discerne God's Creatures to be the Gifts of God and referre them to their Creator's Glory This truth I find not only embrac'd by Christians but assented to even by Jewes and Heathens Among the Jewes my Learned Acquaintance Manasseh Ben Israel professedly labours to prove it by Scripture and Tradition though in some of his Arguments he might appear more a Philosopher if he would have appear'd lesse a Rabbi and among other passages I remember he alledges that wherein the Wise man saies as our Translators English it That the Righteous is an everlasting Foundation which he renders Justus est columna Mundi The Just Man is the Pillar of the World And indeed if the Context did not somewhat disfavour the Interpretation the Hebrew words tzaddîk yesôd olâm would well enough bear the sense assigned them Congruously whereunto I remember that when Noah who is call'd in Scripture a Righteous man and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Herald or Proclaimer of Righteousnesse offer'd up that noble Sacrifice of all the sorts of clean Beasts and Fowles as a Thank-offering for the Reprieve of the World God is said to have smelled a Savour of Rest and to have resolved in his Heart never to Curse the ground for Man's sake but to continue the vicissitudes of Summer and Winter Day and Night c as long as the Earth shall remain And among the Philosophers themselves the Truth we are now manifesting has not been altogether ignor'd For though Seneca somewhere more wittily then truely saies Non causa mundo sumus hyemem aestatémque referendi suas ista leges habent quibus divina exercentur Nimis nos suspicimus si digni nobis videmur propter quos tanta moveantur Yet Lactantius not to mention other Authors tels us that the Stoicks generally believed the World to have been made for man Vera est saies he sententia Stoicorum qui ajunt nostra causa Mundum fuisse constructum Omnia enim quibus constat quaeque generat ex se Mundus ad utilitatem hominis accommodata sunt And Seneca himselfe speaks elsewhere almost as if he had read and believed the beginning of Genesis Dii saies he non per negligentiam nos genuere quibus tam multa genuerant Cogitavit enim nos ante Natura quam fecit Nor were the Stoicks the only Philosophers to whom the Contemplation of the Universe discover'd this End of it For to instance now in Cicero only Quorum igitur causâ saies that great Orator effectum esse mundum Eorum scilicet Animantium quae ratione utuntur Hi sunt Dii et Homines quibus profecto nihil est melius Having thus premâ—sed Pyrophilus that two of God's principal aimes in the Creation were the manifestation of his own Glorious Attributes and the Welfare of his noblest Visible Creature Man It will not be perhaps difficult for You to discerne that those who labour to deterre men from sedulous Enquiries into Nature do though I grant designelessely take a course which tends to defeat God of both those mention'd Ends. For to speak first to the Last of them that man 's external fruition of the Creatures and the Delight and Accommodation which they may afford him must be highly prejudic'd and impair'd by his ignorance of that Natural Philosophy wherein his Dominion over the Creatures chiefly consists what we shâ—ll say hereafter concerning the usefulnesse of the Knowledg of Nature to humane Life will sufficiently evince But such an Animal fruition if I may so call it of the Works of Nature affords not Man all the good that God design'd him in them For Religion being not only the great Duty of Man but the grand Instrument of his future Happinesse which consists in an Union with and Fruition of God during that endlesse Terme that shall succeed the expiration of his transitory Life on Earth what ever increases or cherishes his Religion deserves to be lookt on as a great contributer to his Happinesse And we may therefore venture to
and very strongly pressed till all the Juice be squeezed out it is afterwards dryed in the Sun and so made into the Meal of which they make their Bread And this very Root though as we said it be poisonous they cause their old and almost toothless Women for the better breaking and macerating it to chew and spit out into Water This Juice will in a few hours work and purge it self of the poysonous quality affording them a Drink which they esteem very wholsome and at the Barbado's call Perino and account it to be the likest in taste to our English Beer of any of those many Drinks that are used in that Island This nasty way of preparing Drink Pyrophilus may seem strange to you as it did to me when I first heard of it but besides the consenting relations both of French and English concerning it it may be confirmed by the strange assertion of Gulielmus Piso in his new and curious Medicina Brasiliensis where having spoken of several of the Brasilian Wines he tells us That they make Liquors of several Plants besides the Root of Mandioca after the same nasty manner Idem fit saith he ex Mandioca Patata Milio Turcico Oryza aliis quae à vetulis masticantur masticataque multa cum salira exspuuntur hic liquor mox vasis reconditur donec ferveat faecesque ejiciat In Muscovia it self notwithstanding the unskilfulness of that rude People Olearius informs us That the Embassadors to whom he was Secretary weâ—e presented at one time with two and twenty several sorts of Drink And at a Country House here in England where I was by a very Ingenious Gentleman that is Master of it presented with divers rare Drinks of his own making I was assur'd that he had lately at one time in his House at least the former mentioned number of various Drinks and might easily have had a greater if he had pleased And on this occasion I am not willing to pretermit what is practised in some of our American Plantations as I am informed by the Practisers themselves where finding it very difficult to make good Mault of Maiz or Indian Corn by reason of hinderances not to be discoursed of in few words they brew very good Drink of it by fiâ—st bringing the Grain to Bread in which operation the Grain being both reduced into small parts and already somewhat fermented is disposed to communicate easily its dissoluble and Spirituous parts to the Water it is boyled in To which I shall adde That I have to think that the Art of Malting may be much improved by new skilfully contriv'd Furnaces and a rational manâ—gement of the Grain Nor are we alone defective in the knowledge of fermenting Drinks but even in that of the Materials of which Drinks may be prepar'd In that vast Region of China which is inriched with so fertil a Soil and comprizeth such variety of Geographical parallels they make not as Semedo informs us their Wine of Grapes but of Barley and in the Northern parts of Rice where they make it also of Apples but in the Southern parts of Rice onely yet not of ordinary Rice but of a certain kinde peculiar to them which serves onely to make this Liquor being used in divers manners And of the Wine there drank even by the vulgar our Author gives us this character The Wine used by the common People although it will make them drunk is not very strong or lasting 't is made at all times of the Year but the best onely in the Winter It hath a colour very pleasing to the sight nor is the smell less pleasing to the sent or the savor thereof to the taste take altogether it is a vehement occasion that there never wants Drunkards c. And of the Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Japan I remember also Pyrophilus that Linschoten in his description of those Islands tells us That they drink Wine of Rice wherewith they drink themselves drunk We have here in England at the House of our experienced Mint-master Dr Gordon tasted a Wine which he made of that sort of Cherrys which are commonly call'd Morellos that was when we drank of it about a Year and a half old but it was somewhat sower and needed Suger And therefore I shall rather take notice to you of my having since drunk Wine made of the Juice of good but not of extraordinary Kentish Cherrys which with the help of a Tantillum of Suger added in the Fermentation kept so well that though it were above a Year old when I tasted it I found it a strong and pleasant Wine not inferior to many Wines that are brought us from foreign parts But this is nothing to what is averr'd upon his own experience by a Learned Divine to whom you Pyrophilus and I am related who affirms himself to have made out of some sort of wilde Apples and Pears by bare Fermentation such Liquors as though at first somewhat harsh will not onely keep divers years but at the end of two or three attain such strength and so pleasingly pungent a taste that they may compare even with choice out-landish Wines and excel those that are not of the very best sorts of them But till we have in another Essay an opportunity of presenting you something out of the Observations of Olearius the newly mention'd Divine and our own concerning Fermented Liquors we shall content our selves to manifest our want of curiosity about the materials of which Drinks may be prepar'd by this That the Drinks of one whole Country are oftentimes unknown to the Inhabitants of another That the Wine made of Rice which we lately mention'd to be of frequent use in the Kingdoms of China and Japan is of little or none in Europe I need not prove to you I have been in divers places where Beer and Ale which are here the common Drinks aâ—e greater rarities then the medicated Liquors sold onely in Apothecaries Shops In divers parts of Muscovie and some other Northern Regions the common Drink is Hydromel made of Water fermented with Honey And indeed if a due proportion betwixt those two be observed and the Fermentation be skilfully ordered there may be that way as experience hath assur'd us prepar'd such a Liquor both for clearness strength and wholsomeness as few that have not tasted such a one would readily believe The French and English Inhabitants of the Canibal Islands make by Fermentation a Wine of the dregs collected in the boiling of Suger A like to which Piso tells us That they make in Brasil and commonly call Garapa which though made by the mixture of Water the Inhabitants are very greedy of and when it is old finde it strong enough to make them drunk And how also in these colder Countrys a good Wine may be made of onely Suger and Water we may elsewhere have occasion to teach you And in Brasil they likewise as the same Author informs us make
a Wine unknown to most other Regions of the World of the Fruit of Acaju which yet upon his experience he much commends telling us That it is strong enough to inebriate and may he doubts not be kept good many Years and that though it be astringent yet both in himself and others he found it diuretical In the Barbada's they have many Drinks unknown to us such as are Perino the Plantane-drink Grippo Punch and the rare Wine of Pines by some commended more then the Poets do their Nectar some of which we therefore make not because the Vegetables whereof they are produc'd grow not in these colder Climats But others also they have which we have not though they are made of Plants to be met with in our Soil as for instance the drink they call Mobbie made of Potato's fermented with Water which being fit to drink in a very few days and easie to make as strong almost as the maker pleaseth would be of excellent use if it were but as wholsome as it is accounted pleasant In the Turkish Dominions where Wine properly so call'd is forbidden by Mahomet's Law the Jews and Christians keep in their Taverns a Vinous Liquor made of fermented Raisons after a manner which when we shall elsewhere acquaint you with it you will easily discern to be capable of much improvement from the knowledge of Fermentation And indeed by the bare fermenting of Raisons and Water in a due proportion without the help of Barm Leaven Tartar or other additament to set them a working we have divers times in a few days prepar'd a good Vinous Liquor which having for tryals sake distilled it afforded us greater store then we expected of inflammable Spirit like that of other Wine But I have sometimes wondered that Men had no more curiosity to try what Drinks may be made of the Juices obtainable by wounding or cutting off the parts of several Trees and some other Vegetables For that in the East Indies their Sura is made of the Liquor dropping from their wounded Coco Trees we have not long since out of Linscoten informed you And sober Eye-witnesses have assured us That in those Countrys they have but too often seen the Seamen drunk by the use or Liquors weeping out of the Incisions of wounded Vegetables and afterwards fermented And that even in Europe the Alimental Liquor drawn by Trees from the Earth may receive great alterations from them before it be quite assimulated by them may be gathered from the practice of the Calabrians and Apulians who betwixt March and November do by Incisions obtain from the common Ash Tree and the Ornus which many Botanists would have to be but a wilde Ash a sweet Juice so like to the Manna adhearing in that Season to the Leaves of those kinde of Trees that the Natives call it in their Language Manna del corpo or Trunk-manna and least we should think they draw all this sweetness from the Soil of that particular part of Italy where they grow you may be satisfied by the Learned Chrysostomus Magnenus in his Treatise De Manna that it is to be met with in several other places And he adds That in the Dukedom of Milane where he professeth Physick there is no other Manna used then that which is as he speaks Vel è trunco expressum which he somewhere calls Manna Truncinum aut in ramis stiriatim concretum and that yet it is safely and prosperously used I had communicated to me as a rarity a secret of the King of Polands which is said to do wonders in many Diseases and consists onely in the use of the Liquor which drops about the beginning of the Spring from the bar'd and wounded Roots of the Walnut-tree but because I have not yet made tryal of it my self I shall pass on to observe to you that in some Northern Countries and even in some parts of England bordering upon Scotland the almost insipid Liquor that weeps in March or the beginning of April out of the transversly wounded Branches not Trunks of the Birch-tree is wont to be used by Persons of Quality as a preservative from the Stone against which cruel Disease Helmont highly extols a Drink made of this Liquor and semen dauci and Beccabunga and I think not without cause For not to mention all the commendations that have been given me of it by some that use it I have seen such strange relief frequently given among others to a Kins-man of mine to whom hardly any other Remedy though he tryed a scarce imaginable variety was able to give ease and in whose dissected Bladder after another Disease had kill'd him a Stone of many Ounces was found that I usually every Spring take care to provide a quantity of this Water with which alone without the other Ingredients mentioned by Helmont my Kins-man used to be relieved as long as he could keep it which you may do the longer by pouring upon the top of it a quantity of Sallet Oyl to defend it from the Air and perhaps also by Distillation By which last named way I know an Ingenious Man that is wont to preserve it for his own use and says he findes it not thereby impair'd in virtue But the most effectual way that ever I yet practiced Pyrophilus to preserve both this and other Liquors and Juices is dexterously and sufficiently to impregnate them with Fume of Sulphur which must be at divers and often times as it were incorporated with the Liquor by due agitation the manual Operation belonging to this Experiment I may hereafter have occasion to describe more fully together with the particular Effects of it in several Bodies And therefore it may here suffice to tell you that if you practice it carefully you will perhaps think your self oblig'd to thank me for the discovery of it though a heedful Reader may finde it not obscurely hinted in Helmont's Writings I might here annex the great commendation which I have found given to this Birch-water by eminent Writers against the hot dâ—stempeâ—s of the Liver and divers other affections and especially how Freitagius commends it very much to dilute Wine with and adds Haec est dulcacida grati saporis sitim sedat viscerum sanguinis fervorem temperat obstructiones reserat calculum pellit But I suppose you will think it high time for me to proceed to another subject and indeed I should not have spent so much time in discoursing of Drinks but that I am apt to think that if there were greater variety of them made and if they were more skilfully ordered they might by refreshing the Spirits and insensibly altering the mass of Blood prevent and cure without weakning or much troubling the Patient almost as many Diseases as the use of our common unwholesome and sophisticated Wines is wont to produce For in Fermentation the Sulphurous as Chymists call them the Active and the Spirituous parts of Vegetables are much better loosened and more intirely separated
for each of these four last are suppos'd by some to have had some notion of the Circulation by all their diligent contemplation of humane Bodies never dream'd for ought appears of so advantagious an use of the Valves of the Heart nor that nimble Circular motion of the Blood of which our modern Circulators think they discern such excellent Use not to say Necessity And though it be true that the greater Works of God do as well declare his great Wisdom as his Power according to that of the Inspired Philosopher The Lord by Wisdom hath founded the Earth by Understanding hath he establish'd the Heavens By his Knowledge the depths are broken up and the Clouds drop down the Dew Yet does not his Wisdom appear less in lesser Creatures for there is none of them so little but it would deserve a great deal of our Wonder did we attentively enough consider it And as Apelles in the Story was discover'd by the skilful Protagoras by so neat and slender a Line that Protagoras by being scarce able to discern it discern'd it to have been drawn by Apelles So God in these little Creatures oftentimes draws traces of Omniscience too delicate to be liable to be ascrib'd to any other Cause I have seen Elephants and admir'd them less then the structure of a dissected Mole which hath better Eyes then those that will not see a designation in the dimness of its Eyes made onely to see the Light not other Objects by the help of it and the unwonted posture of its Feet given it not to run on the Ground but to dig it self a way under Ground And as despicable as their Littleness makes the Vulgar apt to think some Creatures I must confess my wonder dwell not so much on Natures Clocks if I may so speak as on her Watches and is more exercis'd in the coyness of the sensitive Plant and the Magnetical Properties of a small and abject Load-stone then the bulk of the tallest Oakes or those vast Rocks made famous by Shipwracks I have pass'd the Alpes and have seen as much to admire at in an Ant-hill and have so much wondred at the Industry of those little Creatures themselves that inhabited it that I have ceas'd to wonder at their having given a Theme to Solomon's Contemplation Those vast Exotick Animals which the Multitude flocks to see and which Men give Money to be allow'd to gaze on have had many of them lesse of my Admiration then the little Catterpillar as Learned Naturalists esteem it to which we are beholden for Silk For not to mention all the Observables crouded by Nature in that little Worm I thought it very well deserv'd my wonder when not long since I kept some of them purposely to try Experiments how this curious Spinster after he had buryed himself alive in the precious Tomb he had wrought for himself out of his own Bowels did cast off his former Skin and Legs and in shew his former Nature appearing for divers days but an almost movelesse Magot till at length divesting this second Tegument also in which Nest Phenix-like he had been regenerated out of his own Remains he came forth if I may so speak out of this attiring Room under another form with Wings Eyes and Leggs c. to act a new part upon the Stage of the World which having spent some days without feeding that I could observe in providing for the propagation of his Species he forsakes and dies And I the rather mention the Silk-Worm because that there have been of late divers subtle Speculators who would fain perswade us That Animals do nothing out of Instinct or if you please innate or seminal Impressions but Spin build Nests and perform all the other Actions for which they are admir'd barely by Imitation of what they have seen done by others of the same Kinde But in the Silk-Worm at least here in England this plausible Opinion will not hold For the Silk-worms I kept were not hatch'd but in the Spring out of Eggs laid some Days in the Sun and the Worms that laid those Eggs being every one of them dead the Winter before it was impossible these new Silk-Worms when they first began to spin their scarce imaginable fine Web and inclose themselves in Oval Balls of a very Artificial Figure and Texture should have wrought thus by Imitation there not having been for many Moneths before in the place where they were hatch'd nor perhaps in the whole Country any Silk-Worms alive which they might imitate But I must leave these curious Spinsters to their Work and proceed to tell you That Seas and Mountains with the other Hyperboles of Nature if I may so term them proclaim indeed Gods Power but do not perhaps more manifest his Wisdom then the contrivance of some living Engines and if I may so call them Breathing Atoms that are so small that they are almost all Workmanship so that as before in the Psalmists Expression we truly said of Gods Greatnesse That it was unsearchable we may now as truly say of his Wisdom in the Prophets Words and in the same Text where he represents him as the Creator of the ends of the Earth That there is no searching of his Understanding And if I durst Pyrophilus make this part of this Essay of a length too disproportionate to the rest I could easily as well as willingly represent to you divers things which might serve to Illustrate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifold Wisdom of God as St. Paul speaks on another occasion But though I dare not expatiate on this Subject yet neither dare I altogether conceal from you that I have sometimes admired to see what scarce imaginable variety of living Engines his Plastick skill if I may so speak has been able to produce especially in the Waters without scarce any other resemblance betwixt them then that they are each of them excellent in its own Kinde and compleatly furnish'd according to the exigency of its Nature And that which much encreases this Wonder is the disproportion of those living Engines wherein the great Yotzêr hakkôl Former of all things as the Scripture justly calls God has been pleas'd to display an almost equally skilful Contrivance Amongst Terrestrial Animals we have the Elephant of whose stupendious vastness such strange things are related even by eminent Writers that I know not well how either to dis-believe them or give credit to them And therefore we shall content our selves to mention that which is left on Record by the accurate Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius For this matchless Gentleman having caus'd an Elephant in the Year 1631 to be weigh'd in a Scale purposely provided he was found to weigh of the Roman Pounds consisting of twelve Ounces apiece very near Five thousand And yet surely that this Elephant was very far from being one of the largest of that sort of Beasts he that shall consider the bigness and length of some of their
I confess that for the most part it is very true But yet that it is possible for some Medicines to retain their Nature after many alterations and digestions we have elsewhere declared And in our present Case we not onely finde that Turpentine and Asparagus do manifestly affect the Urine as I have often observed in my own and almost any Man may observe it in his But that which is most to our purpose Rubarb tinges the Urine of those that have taken any quantity of it And lastly whereas it may be yet further alledged That not only there hath not been yet a Liquor found capable of dissolving so solid a Body as a Stone but if there were it must necessarily be so corrosive as to destroy the Patient by fretting his Stomach or Guts or Bladder which are parts so much more tender To the first part of this plausible Objection it may be replyed That even good Viniger will dissolve not onely those stony Concretions call'd Lapides Cancrorum which like the Calculi we treat of are formed in the Bodies of Animals but even the more hard and solid Body of Coral which will loose but little of its weight in a Fire that would waste a great part of the Duelech And that the bare Juices of Vegetables such as Lemmons and Barberies will readily dissolve both Pearl and Coral is known even to the Apothecaries Boys Indeed what Paracelsus and Helmont relate of their Alkahest with which they prepare their Specifick against the Stone and with which the later of them if not both pretend to be able to reduce not onely the Stone they call Ludus but all other Stones Vegetables Minerals Animals c. into insipid Water is so strange not to say incredible that their Followers must pardon me if I be not forward to believe such unlikely things till sufficient experience hath convinced me of their truth But yet I must not conceal from you That a Chymist whom you have often seen advised with me several times about the way of preparing this immortal Liquor as Helmont calls it and that when we had agreed that such a way was the most promising he prosecuted it so long and so industriously that at length he obtain'd and shew'd me a Liquor which though it seemed to me far short of the Alkahest I confess I admired and not I alone but our Ingenious Friend Dr. C. who had been imployed into several parts of Europe by a rich and curious Prince to purchase Rarities agreed with this Chymist to give Two hundred Crowns for a Pint of this Menstruum and confessed to me withal That he saw him with this Liquor not onely dissolve common Sulphur and bring it over the Helm but reduce Antimony into sweet Chrystals with a few of which it was that he I mean Dr. C. to the wonder of many did without Purge or Vomit cure our good Friend Sir C. C. of a very radicated and desperate Disease as the restored Patient soon after told me And to the second part of this Objection it may be answered That if we knew and considered well how many of the operations of Natural Bodies depend upon the suitableness and difference of the Figures of their Parts and the Pores intercepted between them the number of impossibilities would not perhaps be thought so great as by many Learned Men it is That it is very possible for a Body to have an effect upon another determinate Body without being able to operate in like manner upon a multitude of other Bodies which may seem more easie to be wrought on by it may appear by the Load-stone which will draw and work onely upon Iron and which is but refined Iron Steel but not upon wood or straws or any of those innumerable Concrets that are lighter and of a more open texture then the heavy and solid Body which it attracts And to give you an instance that comes nearer to our case Quick-silver that will not corrode our skin nor so much as taste sharp upon our tongue will yet readily dissolve that most compact Body of Gold which even Aqua fortis that can insinuate it self into all other Mettals and corrode them will not meddle with though the same Quick-silver will not dissolve Iron which yet Aqua fortis will very nimbly fret asunder So that although I dare not confidently believe all that I have found averr'd even by eminent and learned Chymists of their having made or seen Liquors which without appearing any way sharp to the Tongue would dissolve Gold and Silver and other hard compact Bodies because I have not yet my self seen any severe and satisfactory tryal made to evince the efficacy of insipid Dissolvents yet by reason of divers things I have read and heard and of some things too I have seen I dare not peremptorily deny the possibility of such Menstruums And who knows but that in Nature there may be found or by Art there may be prepared some Liquor whose parts may have such a sutableness to the Pores of a humane Calculus as those of Quick-silver have to the Pores of Gold and yet may as little work upon the rest of the Body as we have observed the same Quick-silver to do upon Iron which yet is a much more porous and open Metal even when it hath been distill'd in Iron Vessels And as to that part of the Objection wherein the strength of it chiefly lies let me tell you Pyrophilus that I have sometimes for curiosity sake taken an Egge and steep'd it in strong Vineger for some days and by taking it out and shewing that the shell was so eaten away that the Egge could be squeez'd into unusual Forms but the thin skin that involves the white continu'd altogether unfretted I convinc'd an Ingenious Man that the operations of Dissolvents are so determin'd by the various textures of the Bodies on which they are imploy'd that a Liquor which is capable to corrode a more hard and solid Body may be unable to fret in the least an other more soft and thin if of a texture indispos'd to admit the small parts of the Menstruum And I must confess to you Pyrophilus That one thing among others which hath made me backward to affirm with many Learned Men that there can be no potent Dissolvent that is not corrosive enough to fret in pieces the parts of a humane Body hath been a Story which I divers years since chanch'd to meet with in the Learned Sennertus's Paralipomena where though he relates it to another purpose yet it is so pertinent to our present design and in it self so singular not to say matchless that I cannot forbear to mention it here on this occasion He tells us then That in the end of the Year 1632. Johannes Nesterus an eminent Physitian and his great Friend inform'd him That there liv'd at that time in the Neighborhood and belonging to a Noble Man of those Parts a certain Lorainer whom he also call'd Claudius
Percolam hanc aquam seruantque dies tres quatuorve donec subsideat potus est limpidissimus c. Aqua eadem cocta convertitur in optimum mel And of the same Plant Petrus de Cieca hath this confirming Passage Ex hujus fructu cum aquâ decocto prâ—coctura modo fit aut vinum sive potio admodum bona aut acetum aut mel And that there is a great affinity betwixt such Vegetable Hony's and Suger especially if the Juices be ordered with a design of turning them rather into Suger then Honey you may easily gather from the next and more memorable instance which we are to mention and which is afforded us by the diligent Describer of the Brasilian Plants who treating of the Caraguata or Erva Babosa or as some would have it Herba innominata caule portulaca hath these words to our present purpose Porro saith he radendo novacula petrosa stolones emanat ex concavitate liquor quidam tantâ copiâ ut ex unâ solummodo plantâ Mirabile dictu interdum 50. aut plures arobae effluant è quo liquore fit vinum acetum mel saccharum liquor quippe per se dulcis coquendo redditur multo suâ—â—â—ior spissior ita ut tandem in saccharum congelascat Since the writing of these last Lines being visited by an ancient Virtuoso Governor to a considerable Colony in the Northern America and inquiring of him among other particularities touching his Country something in relation to the thoughts I had about the making of several kindes of Suger he assur'd me upon his own experience that there is in some parts of New England a kinde of Tree so like our Wallnut-trees that it is there so called whose Juice that weeps out of its Incisions c. if it be permitted slowly to exhale away the superfluous moisture doth congeal into a sweet and saccharine substance and the like was confirmed to me upon his own knowledge by the Agent of the great and populous Colony of the Masathusets And very lately demanding of a very eminent and skilful Planter why living in a part of America too cold to bare Sugar-Canes he did not try to make Sugar of that very sweet Liquor which the Stalks of Maiz by many called Indian Wheat affords when their Juice is expressed he promised me he would make tryal of it Adding That he should do it very hopefully because that though he had never been solicitous to bring this Juice into a saccharine form yet having several times for tryal sake boild it up to Syrup and employed it to sweeten Tarts and other things the Guests could not perceive that they were otherwise sweetned then with Sugar And he farther added That both he and others had in New England made such a Syrrup with the Juice of Water Melons Nor Pyrophilus is it onely by teaching Men to improve the wholesomness and tasts of the Aliments or to keep them long uncorrupted that the Naturalist may contribute to the preservation of Man's health For from the ingenious attempts of Sanctorius in his Medicina Statica we may be invited to hope that there may be ways as yet unthought of to investigate the wholesomness or insalubrity of Aliments as he by the weight of Bodies after having fed on such and such Meats findes that Swines Flesh Melons and some other things that he names in the third Section do much hinder insensible Perspiration and consequently are unwholsome though as I take it it were not amiss that before such Observations be fram'd into general and establish'd Aphorisms they were carefully made in Bodies of differing Ages Sexes and Complexions and with variety of Circumstances But then again presuming these Maximes to be judiciously fram'd the same Statica Medicina makes it hopeful that there may be unthought-of Methods found whereby by ways different from those formerly used by Physitians a Man may be much assisted in the whole manner of ordering himself so as to preserve health and to foresee and prevent the approach of many Distempers And perhaps by such unthought-of ways divers Paradoxes of concernment to Mans health may be made out as the diligent Sanctorius to that Observation proposed in these words Semel aut bis in mense facto excessu in cibo potu die sequenti licet sensibiliter non evacuet minus solito perpendit annexus in the following Aphorism addeth this important Corollary Victus uniformis caret beneficio illorum qui semel vel bis in mense excedunt expultrix enim à copia irritata excitat tantum perspiratus quantum sine statica nemo crederet And indeed experience hath informed us that the promoting or suppressing of insensible transpiration by which in a day the Body may discharge it self of four or five pound of excrementitious Matter hath a much greater power to advantage or prejudice health then is wont to be taken notice of so that we see that the Staticks which though long known were thought useless to Physick may afford several important directions in reference to the preservation of Mans health to which there are likewise other ways whereby the Naturalist may contribute For he may also devise means whereby to judge of the qualities of Aliments especially Drinks in their respective kindes and likewise of the temperature of the Air in this or that place assign'd we shall in one of the following Essays describe to you a small slight Instrument by the help of which one that is acquainted with this or that particular sort of Wine may give a near guess whether it be embased with Water or not And whereas in most hot Countrys where Water being the common Drink 't is of great concernments to Mans health to be able to make a good estimate of the salubrity of it And whereas Physitians are wont to think Water caeteris paribus the better and purer the lighter it is this Instrument presently manifests without any trouble of weighing in Scales what among any Waters propos'd is the heaviest and which the lightest and what difference there is of gravity betwixt them And this disparity may sometimes be so great that I remember some of our English Navigators tell us That upon bringing home a soâ—t of Water out of Africa into England they found by the common way of ponderation the African Water in the same bulk to be about four Ounces in the pound lighter then the English And as the thickness or lightness of Waters may be thus presently discerned by this Hydrostatical way so 't is possible by some Chymical Experiments easily enough to discover some other qualities wherein Waters that are thought to be of the same nature differ from each other as we finde that very many Pump-waters will not bear Soap as Rain-waters and the generality of Spring-waters will do some Water will not well dye Scarlet or some other particular colour because they are secretly imbued with some kinde of saline Substance that hath an operation it should not have
upon the Ingredients imployed by the Dyer And I have sometimes discovered a latent Sea-salt in Water where others suspected no such matter by pouring into it a solution of good Silver made in Aqua fortis For as common Salt as well as the Spirit of it will precipitate the Metal out of such a solution in the form of a white Calx so it seem'd rational to conceive that in case the Water I suspected had been imbued in its passage through the Earth with a saline quality though not conspicuous enough to be taken notice of by the taste these saline Corpuscles diffused through the Water would though faintly act their parts upon the dissolved Silver and accordingly I found that upon the mixtures of such Waters and the Metalline solution there would immediately be produced a kinde of whiteness from some parts of the Metal precipitated by the Salt to avoid which I have often been fain to use in places where I met with such Waters either rain-Rain-water or that which is freed from its common Salt by a slow Distillation And as for the temperature of the Air which is acknowledged to be of exceeding great consequence both as to health and as to the prolongation of life and which is possibly yet of greater moment to both then most Men imagine the skilful Naturalists sagacity if it were employed to that purpose might probably finde divers ways of discovering the qualities and consequently the salubrity and unhealthfulness of the Air in particular places For the diligent Sanctorius in the second Section of his Medicina Statica teacheth us how to estimate the healthfulness and insalubrity of the Air by the weight of those Mens Bodies that live in it And besides this nice way we see that by the late Invention of Weather-Glasses 't is easie to discern which of two Neighboring Houses and which of two rooms in the same House is the colder And I remember I have sometimes bethought my self of a slight way to be mention'd in one of the following Essays by the help of which it is not hard to determine in which of two places proposed the Air is caeteris paribus the dryer or the moister And to give also some guess both how much at the same time the Air of one place exceeds that of the other and how the temperature of the Air changeth in the same place at several times either of those qualities And that the differing operations of several Airs upon certain sorts of Flesh hung in them upon some fading colours upon Bodies subject to gather rust or to be tarnish'd and in a word upon divers other subjects may be more considerable then Men seem yet to have taken notice of I shall think it sufficient to have intimated in this place being desirous to hasten to the following Essay wherewith I am to conclude what I have to offer to you concerning Physick that I may have the more time to employ on it ESSAY V. Proposing some Particulars wherein Natutural Philosophy may be useful to the Therapeutical part of Physick ANd now Pyrophilus the method that we formerly prescrib'd to our selves a little after the beginning of the first Essay requires that we consider awhile the Therapeutical part of Physick which is indeed that whose improvement would be the most beneficial to Mankinde and therefore I cannot here forbear to wish That divers Learned Physitians were more concern'd then they seem to be to advance the Curative part of their Profession without which three at least of the four others may prove indeed delightful and beneficial to the Physitian but will be of very little use to the Patient whose relief is yet the principal end of Physick whereunto the Physiological Pathological and Semiotical parts of that Art ought to be referred There was awhile since a witty Doctor who being asked by an Acquaintance of mine himself an eminent Physitian and who related this unto me why he would not give such a Patient more Generous Remedies seeing he grew so much worse under the use of those common Languid ones to which he had been confin'd that he could not at the last but dye with them in his Mouth briskly answered Let him die if he will so he die secundum artem I hope there are very few of this Man's temper but it were to be wished that there were fewer Learned Men that think a Physitian hath done enough when he hath learnedly discoursed of the seat and nature of the Disease foretold the event of it and methodically imployed a company of safe but languid Remedies which he had often before found almost as unable to cure the Patient as unlikely to kill him For by such an unprofitable way of proceeding to which some lazy or opinionated Practizers of Physick I say some for I mean not all have under pretence of its being safe confined themselves they have rendred their whole Profession too obnoxious to the Cavils of such Empericks as he that as the Lord Verulam reports was wont to say Your European Physitians are indeed Learned Men but they know not the particular Cures of Diseases and unreverendly enough to compare our Physitians to Bishops who had the Keys of binding and loosing and nothing else Which brings into my minde what Monsieur De Balsac relates in his witty French Discourse of the Court of a Physitian of Millain that he knew at Padua who being content with a Possession of his Science and as he said The enjoyment of the Truth did not onely not particularly enquire into the Cure of Diseases but boasted That he had kill'd a Man with the fairest Method in the World E mort◠said he canonicamente è con tutti gli ordini And such Scoffs and Stories are readily enough entertain'd by the major part of Men who send for Physitians not so much to know what ails them as to be eas'd of it and had not rather been methodically kill'd then Empirically cured And it doth indeed a little lessen even my esteem of the great Hippocrates's skill to finde mentioned in his Writings so many of his Patients of whom he concludes that they dyed And I had much rather that the Physitian of any Friend of mine should keep his Patient by powerful Medicines from dying then tell me punctually when he shall die or shew me in the opened Carcase why it may be supposed he lived no longer But Pyrophilus my concern for Mankinde and for the reputation of many excellent Physitians whose Profession suffers much by the want of either Industry or Charity in such as we have been speaking of hath diverted me longer then I thought from telling you That I suppose it will not be very difficult to perswade you that this so useful Therapeutical part of Physick is also capable of being much improved by a knowing Naturalist especially if he be an intelligent and expert Chymist as in this Essay we will suppose him CHAP. I. SOme Paracelsian would perhaps set forth how much more easie
whole heaps of it thrown by as useless by those that make Aqua fortis in quantity to sell it And yet this despised Substance doth in common Water it self yield a Salt which being onely depurated by frequent Solutions and Filtrations is that famous Panacca Duplicata or Arcanum Duplicatum which that great Virtuoso and knowing Chymist The Duke of Holstein whose name it also beareth thought worth purchasing at the rate of Five hundred Dollars and of which the Princes experienced Physitian thus writes to the Industrious Schroder Mille experimentis salis hujus Efficaciam Aula nostra comprobavit in melancholicis affectibus febribus quibuscunque continuis intermittentibus calculo scorbutâ— c. Quin somnuÌ„ conciliasse praesertim in Melancholicis non semel notavimus Dosis à scrup 1. ad scrup 2. Libras aliquod quotannis absumimus And another very skilful Physitian that frequented that Excellent Princes Court confirm'd to me the same Medicin's diuretick and deoppilative Vertues But upon my own Experience I can say little of it having casually lost a great quantity I caus'd to be prepar'd to make tryal with before I had opportunity to employ it But whereas in the Caput Mortuum of Aqua fortis there remains pretty store of easily soluble Salt In the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol when not onely all the Oyl is forc'd away by the Fire but all the fix'd Salt is exactly separated by Water There seems to remain nothing but a worthless Terra Damnata And yet 't is of this thâ—t as I shall teach you ere long I make those Colcotharine Flowers which are possibly a nobler Medicine then either the Oyl the Spirit or the Salt of Vitriol As for the Bezoar-stone which is so often prescrib'd by Physitians and so dearly paid for by Patients the experienc'd Bontius a very competent Witness in this case and whose account of the manner of its generation agrees the best of any I have seen with that I receiv'd from an Intelligent Person that was employ'd into Persia by the late King hath in one place a Passage concerning it and elsewhere writes such things of the Stone cut out of a Mans Bladder though that whil'st crude be despisâ—d as a thing vile and useless in Physick as may be justly applicable to our present purpose Caeterum saith he speaking of the Bezoar-stone quantum ad hyperbolicas hujus lapidis virtutes facultates portentosas non tantos in eo mille experientiis edoctus inveni And elsewhere speaking of those contemptible and excrementitious Stones that are found in humane Bladders Nil pooro saith he de his lapidibus addo ne videar eos elevare lithotomos monere ut vel cum periculo plures mortales secent Hoc certe compertum habeo lapidem in vesica hominis repertum urinam sudores probe ciere quod tempore ingentis illius pestis quae Anno 1624 1625 Leydam patriam meam reliquas Hollandiae Civitates miserandum in modum vastabat in penuriâ— lapidis Besoartici nos exhibuisse memini sudorificum ausiâ—â— dicere melius excellentius invenisse c. Soot is generally look'd upon as so vile a thing that we are fain to hire Men to carry it away and yet as I elsewhere shew that 't is a Body of no ignoble Nature so I must here tell you that 't is no unuseful one in Physick And not to mention that Riverius commends it crude to the quantity of a Drachme in Plurisies I have try'd with the Spirit of it well drawn some things that make me look upon it as a considerable Liquor And I know by their own confessions that some Medicines even of eminent Physitians that pass under other Names have the Spirit of Soot for their principal Ingredient I knew a not unlearned Emperick who was exceedingly cry'd up for the Cures he did especially in difficult Distempers of the Brain by a certain Remedy which he call'd sometimes his Aurum Potabile and sometimes his Panacaea and having obtain'd from this Man in exchange of a Chymical Secret of mine he was greedy of the way of making this so celebrated Medicine I found that the main thing in it was the Spirit of Soot drawn after a somewhat unusual but not excellent manner in which Spirit Flowers of Sulphur were by a certain way brought to be dissolv'd and swim in little drops that look'd of a golden colour You will easily grant Pyrophilus that there are not any Medicines to be taken into the Body more cheap and contemptible then the Excrements of Men and Horses and then Insects And yet that even these want not considerable Medical Vertues we elsewhere shew And not to meddle with such nasty things as the grosser sort of humane Excrements though they outwardly apply'd either in Powder or otherwise do sometimes perform strange things the Juice of Horse-dung especially of Stone-horses being strongly express'd after the Dung hath been awhile steeped in Ale or some other convenient Liquor to facilitate the obtaining the Juice and to afford it a Vehicle doth oftentimes so powerfully relieve those that are troubled with the stoppage of Urine with Winde Stitches and even with Obstructions of the Spleen and Liver that You Pyrophilus and I know a great Lady who though very neat and very curious of her Health and wont to have the attendance of the skilfullest Physitians scruples not upon occasion to use as I have known her do in Silver Vessels this homely Remedy and prefer it to divers rich Cordials and even to what some Chymists are pleas'd to call Essences or Elixirs And with the same Remedy very many poor People were cur'd of the Plague it self when it lately swept away so many thousands in Ireland and the Doctors with the Patients as I was assur'd by a Person who cur'd so many as to invite men to secure themselves that assistance by refusing the Party the liberty to leave the Town But to adde that upon the by this Person in exchange of a Secret of mine confess'd to me That the Arcanum which had cur'd such numbers and to which the Juice of Horse-dung was a Succedaneum was onely a good Dose of the Powder of fully ripe Ivy-berries which did usually as also the Horse-dung work plentifully by Sweat and which I presently remembred to be one of those few things that Helmont commends against the Plague The Medical Vertues of Man's Urine both inwardly given and outwardly apply'd would require rather a whole Book then a part of an Essay to enumerate and insist on But referring you to what an industrious Chymist hath already collected touching that subject I shall now onely adde That I knew ancient Gentlewoman who being almost hopeless to recover of divers Chronical Distempers and some too of these abstruse enough was at length advised instead of more costly Physick to make her Morning-draughts of her own Water by the use of which she strangely recovered and is for ought I know
so much But I consider further that as oftentimes those I am reasoning with make use of Chymical Remedies when much more easily parable ones may suffice so in divers cases where Spagyrical Medicines are proper enough their Preparations of them are more tedious and expensive then is necessary There are more then a few who seldom prescribe and seldomer esteem a Chymical Process that is to be perfected in less then many Weeks as if a Chymical Medicine like an Embryo must needs be an Abortive if it be produc'd in less then so many Moneths And as if in Preparations the Vertue depended less on the skilfulness then the elaboratness they seem to estimate the efficacy of Remedies by the time and pains requisite to prepare them and dare not think that a Medicine can quickly cure that was not long a making as indeed their 's especially those where Cohobations and Digestions till they have such and such effects upon the Matter to be wrought on by them are prescrib'd are many of them far more toilsom and tedious then those that have but read such Processes without working them are apt to suspect And this is the humor of divers not onely as to those stable Medicines that ought always to be found ready in Apothecary's Shops but even as to those that are design'd for particular cases and perhaps acute Diseases in which Emergencies if a Physitian had no other Remedies then those he must make according to such Processes it would â— fear too often happen that before the Medicine could be ready the Patient would either be past the need of it or past the help of it And that which oftentimes encreaseth the tediousness of Chymical Processes is the unskilful Prescriptions of those that devise them 'T is not unusual in Chymists Writings to meet with Processes wherein the Matter to be prepar'd is expos'd to I know not how many several successive Operations But if you should ask why such a thing should be for instance rather precipitated then exhal'd ad siccitatem or why such and such an Operation is to be us'd after such another rather then before it nay perhaps if one should demand why some of those Operations should be used at all the Devisers of those unskilful Processes would possibly assoon be able to finish their Operations as to give a satisfactory answer Nay sometimes they lengthen their Processes by Operations so injudiciously prescrib'd that they cross one another And the Chymist vexeth himself and the Matter he works upon to leave it at last no better if not a worse Medicine then he found it of this we have already given an instance in the common Magisteries But I lately met with another Example of it in the Writings of a Famous Modern Chymist where to purifie the fix'd Salts of Vegetables to the height after I know not how many Solutions Filtrations and Coagulations which alone would abundantly serve the turn he prescribes the dissolving them in Aqua fortis after which he saith they will become very pure and chrystalline and not so easily resoluble in the Air Of which I make no doubt for divers Years before I met with this Process I have with the fix'd Salts of more then one kinde of Vegetable by joyning them with Aqua fortis and after awhile exhaling the superfluous moisture made good inflammable Salt peter by which you may easily guess how judiciously the solution in Aqua fortis is prescrib'd onely as a further depuration and how fit such Authors are to be credited when they ascribe to these Chrystalline Salts the several Vertues those improved too of the respective Vegetables from which the Alcalies were obtain'd And indeed as to those exact Depurations which some Chymists so strictly require in all their Preparations though their Processes be oftentimes hereby made incredibly tedious I will willingly allow nay I assert that in some cases and especially in the making of powerful Menstruums which by their activeness and penetrancy are to unlock other Bodies Chymists do rather erre in making their Depurations less exquisite then they should then on the other hand Yet in many other cases such exact refining and subtiliation of a Remedy is not so necessary as they imagine and sometimes too may do more harm then good by sequestring those parts of a Simple as faeces which concurr'd with the finer parts to that determinate Texture whereon the specifick Vertues of it did principally depend but of this more elsewhere And therefore I shall here present you with two or there Instances to shew you That Remedies at least as noble as such vulgar Chymical ones as are more tedious and costly may be prepar'd in a shorter time and cheap enough to be fit for the use of the Poor And to comply Pyrophilus with your curiosity to know the Preparations of those Chymical Medicines that I do the most familiarly employ the three following Instances shall be of such namely The Flores Colchotaris The Balsamum sulphur is crassum and The Essentia Cornu cervini that you may see what slight and easie Preparations afford the Remedies whose Effects you have so often heard of if not also seen The first of these is the same Powder which passeth under the name of Ens Veneris which appellation we gave it not out of a belief that it equals the Vertues ascrib'd by Helmont to what he calls the true Ignis Veneris but partly to disguise it a little and partly upon the account of the occasion whereon it was first found out which was That an Industrious Chymist whom you know and I chancing to look together upon that Tract of Helmont's which he calls Butler and to compare it somewhat attentively with other Passages of the same Author we both resolv'd to try whether a Medicine somewhat approaching to that he made in imitation of Butlers Stone might not be easily made out of calcin'd Vitriol And though upon tryals we found this Medicine far short of what Helmont ascribes to his yet finding it no ordinary one we did for the Minerals sake 't is made of call it Ens primum Veneris The Preparation in short is this Take good Dantzick Vitriol if you cannot get Hungarian or Goslarian and calcine it till the calx have attain'd a dark red or purplish colour then by the frequent affusion of boyling or at least warm Water dulcifie it exactly and having freed it as well as you can from the saline parts dry it throughly and after mix it exquisitly by grinding or otherwise with an equal weight of pure Sal Armoniack very finely powdered Put this Mixture into a glass Retort that may be but a third part fill'd with it and subliming it in a sand Furnace by degrees of Fire for ten or twelve hours towards the latter end encreasing the Fire till the bottom of the Retort if you can be brought to be red hot That which is sublim'd must be taken out and if it be not of a good yellow
from such Impressions as will make none on a sound body let me put you in mind that those subtile Steâ—mes that wander through the Air before considerable changes of Weather disclose themselves are wont to be painfully felt by many sickly Persons and more constantly by men that have had great Bruises or Wounds in the parts that have been so hurt though neither are healthy men at all incommodated thereby nor do those themselves that have been hurt feel any thing in those sound parts whose Tone or Texture has not been alter'd or enfeebl'd by outward violence I have known several also and the thing is obvious whose body's and Humours are so fram'd and constituted that if as men commonly speak they ride backward in a Coach that Motion will mâ—ke them giddy and force them to Vomit And it is very ordinary for Hysterical Women to fall into such Fits as counterfeit Epilepsies Convulsions and I know not what violent distempers by the bare smell of Musk and Amber and other strong perfumes whose steames are yet so farre from having great much lesse such Effects in other Humane body's that almost all men and the generality ev'n of healthy Women are not affected by them unless with some innocent delight And that even on men Odours how minute and invisible bodies soever may sometimes have very great power may be gathered from the story told us by Zacutus Lucitanus of a Fisherman who having spent all his life at Sea and being grown Old there and coming to gaze upon a solemne reception made in a Maritine Town to Sebastian King of Portugal was by the perfumes plentifully Burnt to welcome the King immediatly cast upon the ground thereby into a Fâ—t which two Physicians judg'd Apoplectical and Physiâ—k'd him accordingly 'till three daies after the Kings chiefe Physician Thomas à Vega guessing at the cause of his disease commanded him to be remov'd to the Sea side and cover'd with Sea Weeds where within four Houres the Maritime Air and steames began to open his Eyes and made him know those that were about him and within not many Dayes restor'd him to health We may also conjecture how much the alteration produced in the Body by sickness mâ—y dispose it to receive strong Impressions from things that would not otherwise much affect it by this That even a man in perfect health and who is wont to Drink cold without the least harme may when he has much heated himself by exercise be cast by a draught of cold Drink into such sudden formidable and dangerous diâ—tempers as did not daily Experience convince us we should scarce think possible to be produc'd in a Body free from Morbid Humours by so familiar a thing as a cup of small bear or water insomuch thâ—t Benivenius relates a Story of one who after too vehement exercise Drinking a Glasse of very cold Water fell into a swoun that was quickly succeeded by Death And yet to adde that on this occasion in Bodies otherwise dispos'd a large draught of cold Water Drunk even without thirst may vâ—ry much relieve the Dâ—incker and prevent great Fitâ— of the Mother and partly of the Spleen especially upon suddâ—in fâ—ights to which purposes I know some Hysteâ—ical Ladies that find in this Remedy as themselves assure me more advantage then one woâ—ld easily imagine And further to shew you that the Engine we are speaking of is altâ—rable as well for the better as for the worse by such Motions of outward Bodies as in themselves consider'd are languid or at least may seem despicable in reference to sickness or recovery Let me call upon you to consider a few not unobvious things which may also serve to confirme some part of what has hitherto been deliver'd The true Mosse growing upon a Humane Skull though I do not find Experience warrant all the strange things some Chymical Writers attribute to it for the stanching of Blood yet I deny not but in some Bodies it does it wonderfull enough And I very well know an Eminent Virtuoso who has assur'd me as his Physitian likewise has done that he finds the Effects of this Moss so considerable upon himself that after having been let Blood his Arm falling to Bleed again and he apprehending the consequences of it his Physitian who chanc'd to be present put a little of the abovemention'd Mosse into his hand which barely held there did to the Patients wonder stanch his Blood and gave him the cuâ—iosity to lay it out of his hand to try whether that Mosse were the cause of the Bloods so oddly stopping its course whereupon his Arm after a little while beginning to Bleed afresh he took the Mosse again into his hand and thereby presently stanch'd his Bleeding the second time and if I misremember not he added that he repeated the Experiment once more with the like successe The smoak of burnt feathers or Tobacco blown upon the face of an Hysterical Woman does oftentimes almost as suddenly recover them out of Fits of the Mother as the odour of perâ—umes did cast them thereinto And now I speak of Cuâ—es performable by fumes it brings into my mind that a friend of yours and mine and a Person of great Veracity professes to have strangly cur'd Dysenteries by a way unusual enough which is to make the Patient sit over a Chair or Stool close on the sides and perforated below so that the Anus and the neighbouring parts may be expos'd to the fumes of Ginger which must be thrown upon a Pan of Embers plac'd just under the Patient who is to continue in that posture and to receive the Fume as long as he can endure it without too much fainting And when I mention'd one of the Cures that was thus perform'd to one that is look'd upon as a Master of Chymical Arcana against Diseases he preferr'd before it as he saies upon experience the shavings of Harts-horn us'd after the same manner and the Remedy seems not irrational But if in this distemper the Actual heat applied to the abovemention'd parts of the Body concurre not to the Effect we may too warrantably enough adde that Cures may be perform'd by far more minute corpuscles then those of smoke insinuating themselves from without into the Body For I know a very dextrous Goldsmith who when he over heats himself as he often unawares does at hammering of Plate is subject to fall into Gripings of the Belly which lead to Fluxes but his usual and ready Cure is assoon as conveniently he can to heat his Anvil and sit upon it for a great while together heating it hot again if there be need But to return to our Medicinal Smoaks 't is known that some find more good against the Fits of the Colick by Glysters of the Smoak of Tobacco then by any other Physick they take so that I know wealthy persons that relying upon the benefit they find by this Remedy have left off sending for their Physitians to ease them of the
I am apt to think the vulgar Method may be shewn to be as to some particular Diseases Of this I may perhaps elsewhere acquaint you more particularly with my suspicions and therefore I shall now only mention the last Observation of this kind I met with which was in a Gentleman You and I very well know who being for some Months much troubled with a difficulty of breathing and having been unsuccesfully treated for it by very Eminent Physitians we at last suspected that 't was not the Lungs but the Nerves that serv'd to move the Diaphragme and other Organs of respiration upon whose distemper this suppos'd Asthma depended and accordingly by a taking or two of a Volatile Salt of ours which is very friendly to the genus Nervosum he vvas quickly freed from his trouble some distemper which afterwards he was fully perswaded did not proceed from any stuffing up of the Lungs To be short how much esteem soever we have for Method yet since that it self and the Theories whereon men ground it are as to divers particular Diseases so hotly disputed of even among Eminent Physitians that in many cases a man may discerne more probability of the successe of the Remedy then of the truth of the received Notion of the Disease In such abstruse cases me-thinks it were not amiss to reflect upon that reasoning of the auncient Empericks though on a somewhat differing occasion which is thus somewhere express'd by Celsus Neque se dicere consilio medicum non egere irrationabile Animal hanc artem posse praestare sed has latentium rerum conjecturas ad rem non pert nere Quia non intersit quid morbum faciat sed quid tollat And as the controverted Method in the abovemention'd Diseases is not yet establish'd or agreed on in the Schools themselves so divers of those that are wholly strangers to those Schools do yet by the help of Experience and good Specificks and the Method their Mother-wit does according to emergencies prompt them to take perform such considerable cures that Piso sticks not to give this Testimony to the utterly Unlearned Brasilian Empericks Interim saies he seniores exercitatiores eximii sunt Botanici facilique negotio omnis generis medicamina ex undiquaque in sylvis conquisitis conficiunt Quae tanta sagacitate internè externè illos adhibere videas praecipuè in morbis à veneno natis ut quis illorum manibus tutius securius se tradat quam medicastris nostris sciolis qui secreta quaedam in umbra nata atque educata crepant perpetuo ob has Rationales dici volunt Secondly There are divers Medicines which though they want not some one quality or other proper to encrease the Disease against which they are administr'd are yet confidently us'd by the most judicious Doctors because that they are also inrich'd with other qualities whereby they may do much more good then their noxious quality can do harm as in a Malignant Feâ—ver tâ—ough the distemper be Hot and though Treacle anâ— sâ—â—e other Antidotal Suâ—or ficks be hot also yâ—t they are usefuâ—â—y adminâ—stred in such Diseâ—sâ—s because the reliefe they bring thâ— pâ—tient by oppugning the Malignity of the peccâ—nt matter anâ— perhaps by easing him of some of it by sweat is more consiâ—erable then the hâ—rm they can do him by encreasing for a while his Heâ—t The very experienced Bontius Chief Physitiâ—n to the Dutch Plantation in the East Indies in his Methodus medendi Indica Treating of the Spasmus which though here unfrequent he reckons among the Endemial Diseases of the Indies commends the Use of Quercetanus's Laudanum of Philonium and principally of an Extract of Opiumâ—nd â—nd Safron which he describes and much Extols and leâ—st hâ—s Readers should scruple at so strange a prescription he aâ—â—s this memorable passage to our present puâ—pose Fortafâ—â—s sues he Sciolus quispiam negabit his remediis propter vim stupefactivam ac narcoticum nervisque inimicam esse utendum Speciosa quidem haec prima fronte videntur sed tamen vana sâ—nt Nam praeterquam quod calidissima hujus Climatis tâ—mpâ—râ—es non requirat certissimum est in tali necessitate sine his aegâ—um evadere non posse Adde quod nos tam rite Opium hic praeparamus ut vel infanti innoxie detur sane ut verbo abâ—â—lvamâ— si Opiata hic nobis deâ—ssent in morbis calidis hic grassâ—ntibus frustra remedia adhiberemus quod etsi imperitis durum ex progrâ—ssu tamen me nihil temâ—re dixâ—sse patâ—bit The drincking freely especially if the Drâ—nk be cold Water is usually and in most câ—ses nor wâ—thout much reason strictly forbidden as very hurtful for the Dropsie and yet those that frequent the Spaa tell us of great cures perform'd by pouring in plenty of Waters â—nto the Patients already distended Belly and I know a Person of great Quality and Vertue who being by an obstinate Dropsy besides a complicâ—tion of other formidable diseases brought to a desperate condition was advis'd to Drink Tunbridg Waters when I happn'd to be there by her very skilful Physitian Who told me that the Doctors having done all their Art could direct them unto in vain she would be cur'd by Death if she were not by these Waters from whence the weather proving very seasonable for that sort of Physick she return'd in so prosperous a condition of recovery as exacted both his and my wonder That the Decoction of so heating a Simple as Guajacum would be lookt upon by the generality of Physitians both Galenists and Chymists as a dangerous Medicine in Pâ—hisical and other consumptions you will easily grant and yet some eminent Physitians and particularly Spaniards tell us of wonderful cures they have perform'd in desperate Ulcers of the Lungs by the long use of this Decoction notwithstanding it s manifestly and troublesomely heating Quality And I know a Physitian eminently learn'd and much more a Methodist then a Chymist who assures me that he has made trial of this unlikely way of curing Consumptions with a successe that has much recommended these Paradoxical Spaniards to him 'T is also believ'd and not without cause by Physitians that Mercury is wont to prove a great enemy to the Genus nervosum and often produces Palseys and other distempers of the Brain and Nerves and yet one of the exactest and happiest Methodists I know has confess'd to me that Mercurial preparations are those which he uses the most succesfully in Paralytical and the like distempers of what Physitians call the Genus nervosum And on this occasion I remember that a Gentlewoman being confin'd to her Bed by a Dead Palsey that had seis'd on onâ— side of her Body a Physitian eminent for his Books and Cures giving her a dose of a certain Preparation of Mercury corrected with a little Gold which I put into his hands for that purpose was pleas'd to bring me word that by the first taking of the
Wine the latter of which may possibly in divers cases rather impair then improve the vertue of the former For Spirit of Harts-horn by reason of its opening and resolving as well as Cordial Vertues is safely and successfully given in Feavers wherein it is not observed to inflame the Blood whereas Spirit of Wine in such cases is counted dangerous And this brings into my thoughts a very questionable Preparation of the Experienc'd and Ingenious Hartman who much extolls for the Worms in the Stomach Spirit of Harts-horn in general but especially that which he is pleased to call Essensificated that is as himself expounds it with which its own fix'd Salt extracted with some convenient Water and its volatile duely depurated have been dissolved and united For first The fix'd Salt of Harts-horn hath been perhaps never yet prepared by any Man and if Harts-horn doth yield a fix'd Salt as I dare not absolutely deny but that out of many Pounds a few Grains may be extracted it may well be doubted whether that Salt be endowed with specifical Vertues And next The Spirit of Harts-horn if it be well dephlegm'd will not for ought I could ever finde dissolve its own Salt unless assisted by the External warmth of the Ambient Air Insomuch that I usually keep the Spirit and Salt in the same Vial where they remain unmix'd and the Spirit that will dissolve any of its owne Salt I account not sufficiently dephlegm'd but to have yet an Aqueous alloy whereby the Salt is imbibed And I remember that having once exquisitely rectified some Spirit of Harts-horne and closed it up in a Viall after divers months it let fall a considerable quantity of Volatile Salt so far was it from being able without the help of some peculiar way to have dissolved more had I cast more into it I deny not that the Spirit of Harts-horn may by the mediation of heat be brought to take in some of the Salt of the same Body but of what use this violent Impregnation of the liquor can be unlesse it be quickly administred I do not yet understand having often seen the Spirit let fall againe in the cold the volatile Salt it had dissolved by the assistance of heat And having thus Pyrophilus laid before you the difficulties we have met with in the above-mentioned waies of making of Spirit of Harts-horne proposed by Authors neither of which we would yet have you altogether reject I must acquaint you with our having attempted a fourth way which when the matter to be distilled is not very much I choose rather to practise then any of the other as hitherto seeming more safe and free from inconveniences Take then for Instance two pounds of Harts horne broken on an Anvill into pieces each of about the bignesse of ones finger for if it be rasped there is danger that it should emit its fumes too plentifully at once and put it into a strong glasse Retort uncoated big enough to containe at least twice as much matter Set this in Sand and fit to it a pretty large and strong either single or double Receiver then give a slow fire for three foure or six houres to send away first the Phlegme and more fugitive parts of the Spirit then encreasing the fire but warily and gradually for divers houres drive over the Spirit which is wont to drop downe somewhat tincted and the more volatile parts of the Salt and at length intend your fire till the bottom of the Retort be glowing hot and heap also at last quick coals upon the sand round about the Retort to give as it were a fire of Suppression and so force over the more sluggish remaining parts of the Salt and with it the Oyl all which are to be afterwards proceeded with according to the Directions given concerning the Spirit Salt and Oyl of Mans Blood which having bin sufficiently insisted on before will not I suppose need to be repeated now Only it may not be impertinent to advertise you 1. That we have more then once had the bottom of the Retort melted yet not broken the melted glasse being supported by the substrated sand 2. That sometimes in Filtration some of the thinner parts of the Oyl have unperceivedly passed through the paper with the Spirit and Salt and have not been discovered but by Rectification wherein I have almost admired to see the Oyl with a gentle heat of a Lamp ascend to the top of a very tall head and body touching which circumstance it may yet be further enquired whether it proceed barely from the volatilnesse of the Oyl it selfe or also from its being carryed up by the Salt and Spirit wherewith it was associated 3. That by this way of distillation we usually have out of a pound of Harts-horne between foure and five ounces seldome or never so little as foure and often nearer five of volatile Salt Spiritâ— Oyl and Flegme of the last of which if the Harts-horne be not recent there will be no great quantity and when we distill'd two pound of the matter at a time we found the operation to succeed altogether as well and to yeeld us a fully proportionable quantity of Liquor The vertues of the Spirit and Salt of Harts-horne which differ not much in Dose or Efficacie are probably very great in divers distempers wherein we have yet made no tryall of them For they are considerable in resisting Putrefaction comforting nature opening Obstructions mortifying the the Acidities it meets with in the blood and by rendring that volatile promoting its Circulation we have knowne considerable effects of it in Feavers Plurisies Obstructions of the Mesentery and Spleen and chiefly which perhaps you will think strange in Coughs and Distempers of the braine and nervous parts in so much that I have by Gods blessing sometimes stopt very violent but not inveterate Coughs with this medicine in a few houres And prescribing it to one who was almost daily assaulted with Epilepticall fits a few Doses of it did in a pretty while at first make his fits come but seldome and after not at all But whether he be perfectly cured not having heard of him of late nor having had oportunity to make further tryall of the medicine in that disease I am not certain Wee prescribed it likewise not long since to a Person who had long lain both distracted and almost bed-rid and was in a short time strangely reliev'd by the use of it though not perfectly cur'd perhaps because the Patient tooke but little of the medicine we being then not well stored with it and on some that have been by Feavers rendred stupid it hath had very eminent Operations but for a further account of its vertues I must referre you to the particular Narratives I may when wee meet give you by word of mouth and till then it may suffice to tell you that it workes chiefly by Sweat and somewhat by Urine without being observed to leave behind it such heat as divers Sudorificks are
Presenting some things relating to the Hygieinal Part of Physick That the Knowledg of Fermentation is useful to make our Drincks wholesome for Aliment 95 How much Simples may be alter'd by Preparation exemplified by the Indians making Cassavy out of the poisonous Plant Mandioca 96. Odd unhandsome wayes of their making Drinck from the same Root ib. Of making Drink from sorts of course Bread 97 The Drinks in use in China 98 Of Cherry-wine ib. Of Excellent Ciders 99 Of Hydromel ib. Of Sugar Wines 100 Of other Brafilian and Barbada VVines 100 The way to make VVine of Raisons 101 Of Wines from the dropping or Weeping of wounded Vegetables ib. Of the Tears of the Walnut-tree 102 The Vse of the Teares of Birch with some other Ingredients for the Stone 102 The wayes to preserve these Liquors 103 The use of the Teares of Birch in hot distempers of the Liver and hot Catarrhs 103 The use of Daucus Ale and proportion of the Seed to the Liquor 104 Of The or Te. ib. Of Animal Drinks 105 The use of Brandy-Wine in hot Climates 105 The use of Natural Philosophy to meliorate Meats 106 Of preserving Bisket from putrefaction 107 Of preserving Fruits ib. Of preserving Meats roasted for long Voyages 108 Of preserving Raw meats 109 Of salting Neats tongues with Salt-peter ib. Of preserving Flesh in spirit of Wine ib. Of conserving by Sugar and making Sugar of other Concretes besides the Cane 110 111 112 That the Naturalist may find out new wayes to investigate the wholsomness or insalubrity of Aliments proved by Instances out of Sanctorius his Medicina Statica 113 The difference in transpiration betwixt the times after ordinary Diet and after Excess tryed by the weighing of Man's body 114 Difference in the weight of Waters ib. That Chymical Experiments may discover other qualities in Waters 115 That the Naturalist may discover the qualities of particular Airs 116 ESSAY V. Proposing some Particulars wherein Natural Philosophy may be useful to the Therapeutical part of Physick The Introduction 117 118 That the Naturalist may invent Medicines Chymically prepared more pleasant then the ordinary Galenical Ones 119 An Instance in Resin of Jalap Mineral waters and the Author's Pil Lunares 120 That the Naturalist may find out inward Medicines able to do Chirurgical Cures proved by divers Instances 121 122 Sr. Rawleigh's Cordial 123 What great use the Indians make of the Juice of Tobacco 124 Chap. II. That the Search of Nature by Chymistry in particular discovers the Qualities of Medicines 124 c. Of the Nitro-tartareous Salt in some Vegetables 126 Difference in Operation between Acid and Alcalizate Salts ib. Of Ink made by the Decoction of divers astringent Plants with a little Vitrol 127 Of some Metalline Precipitations ib. That Sulphureous Salts turn the expressed Juices of Vegetables into a Green colour 1â—8 Of the Destillation of the Calculus Hâ—manus and of the Concretions that are called Lapides Cancrorum 128 The changes in Animal Substances made by Fermentation only in Vrine 129 Of the mixture of Sp. of Salt with digested Urine 129 Chap. III. That this search of Nature adds much to the Materia Medica 130. by employing Bodies hitherto not employed ib. Of Remedies newly prepar'd out of Zinck ib. The Cure of the Dropsy by the Pil Lunares ib. Of the use of divers Medical Earths 131. Instances of Gold and divers Menstruums drawn out of them 132 Of Medicines out of Arsenick 133. and out of Bismutum 134 Of the correction of Poisonous Medicines 134 135 The Preparation of Asarum turns it from being Emetick to be notably Diureticall 136 Instances in some of the secret Menstruums ib. That the Preparation of Asarum is only the Boyling it in common water 137. That the boyling it in Wine alters not its violence ib. That the Emetick and Cathartick properties of Antimony are destroy'd by Calcination with Salt-Peter and Mercury sublimate may be depriv'd of its Corrosivenesse by bare resublimations with fresh Mercury 137 Chap. IV. A strang correction of the Flowers of Antimony 138 That the Naturalist may assist the Physitian to make his Cures lesse chargeable ib. Inconveniencies of stuffing Receipts with a multitude of Ingredients 139 140 141 142 143 144. That Acid and Alcalizate Salts being mixed grow thereby more fixed and yield in Balneo but but a Phlegme â—45 The same is observ'd of the Mixture of Spirit Urin by it self highly Volatile and Spirit of Salt ib. Chap. V. That the Naturalist discovers the Mis-application and Use of Gems and divers other costly Ingredients 145 146. A difference between the fixednesse of a Gem and of Glass of Antimony ib. Concerning Autum Potabile 147 148. Examples of great Medicines drawn from unpromising Bodies 149 The D. of Holstein's Panacea duplicata is made of the vulgarly despised Caput Mortuum of Aqua-fortis ib. Flores Colcotharini are made of the Caput Mortuum of Vitriol 150 A Comparison between the Bezar's Stone and the Stone cut out of Mans Bladder ib. Medicines out of Soot 151 The use of Horse dung 152 An Arcanum of Ivy Berries ib. Medicines out of Mans Vrin. 153 Medicines out of Blood 154 The great Effects of Millepedes in the Stone ib. In Suffusions of the Eyes 155. And real Cataracts 156. In sore Breasts and Fistulas ib. Chap. VI. That the Naturalist discovers how much of the cost and labour in making many Chymical Remedies may be spared 157 A Comparison of Chymical Remedies with Galenical ones in point of Cheapnesse 158 Of the use and commendation of Simples even by the most able Chymists ib. Powder of Pearlmore Operative then Magistery 159. So crude Harts-horn then Magistery 160 An excellent Simple Medicine to stanch Blood ib. Another like Medicine for spitting and vomiting of Blood 161 That many times Chymists by their tedious and injudicious preparations alter the Medicine and make it worse 162 So the dissolving the Salts of Vegetables in Aqua-fortis to make them pure and Chrystalline alters their vertues and makes them inflammable as Salt-Peter 162 163 The Preparation and vertues of Ens Veneris 164 165 The Preparation and vertues of the Balsamum Sulphuris Crassum 166 167 The Preparation and vertues of Essence of Harts-horn 168 169 Chap. VII That Mechanicks and other Experimental Learning may teach how to lessen the charge of Cures by making more convenient furnaces demonstrated in divers particulars 170 171 172 173 174 Glasse-stopples fittest for corrosive Liquors 173 174 That inflammable saline Sulphureous spirits may be drawn from other substances cheaper then Wine 175 Instances in divers particulars how the Naturalist may find cheaper wayes of Heating the Chymists Furnaces 176 Of charring Coles so that while it charres it gives an intense heat fit to melt or calcine Minerals 177 Of Charring Peat ib. Of Digestion and Distillations without Fire 178 179 Wayes of Distilling spirit of Urine 180. Of Distilling it with Lime without Fermentation ib That so distill'd it doth not coagulate spirit of Wine as in
Otio Saâ— c. 32. De Part. Anim. lib. 4. c. 1â— Isaiah 41. â— Iames 11.23 a Pliâ— lib. 25 cap. 8. b Id. lib. 18. cap. 26. c Id lib. 25. cap. 7. Job 8.9 Prov. 16.4 Rom. 11.36 Psal. 19.1 Job 3â— 5 7. Sen. de Otio Sap. Cap. 32. Gen. 1 2â— 29. Gen. 1.14 1â— 16. Is. 45 2â— Psaâ— 5. â— 6. Gâ—n 2.28 26 29. Psâ—â— 8 7. Heb 2 7. Iob 5 3. Ho. 2.28 21 22. Rom. 8 28. 2 Cor 3.22 2 Tim. 4 3. 2 King 6.5 6. 2 Pet. 3.3 5 6 7 8 10. Lev. 13.54 55. Iâ— Pâ—obl de Creat Prov. 10.25 Gen. 6.9 2 Pâ—t 2.15 Gen. 8.21 22. 2 do De Ira cap. 27. De Ira Dei cap. 13. De Bâ—nâ—s cap. 23. 2 do De Nat. Deoâ— Gassend Inst. Astr. lib. 2. c. 13. Gassâ—â—d lib. 3. caâ— 11. Psal. 104.24 Prov. 13.19 â—0 Isa. 40.28 Eph. 3.10 Jer. 10.16 Gassend in Vit. Peâ—reskâ— lib. 4. Jo Fabeâ— Lynceuâ— in hiâ— Expositâ—on of some Passages of p. 568. Psal. â—6 â— Nâ—hem 9.6 Gen. 8.1 Psal. 19.1 Acts 2.11 D. Aug. Hom. 3. 1 Cor. 15.36 37. Psal. 8.3 4. Habb 2.2 Merc. Trism lib. 1. Englished by Dr. Everard Sen. li. 7. cap. â— Philo Jud. de Monarchia Heb. â— 2 5. Heb. 9.24 Prov. 3â— â—3 Ps. 103 Rev. 4.11 Lib. 7. cap. 24. See of the Abyssine or Aethiopian Christians and likewise of the Maronâ—tes in the East in reference to their Celebration of the Saturday Alex Rasse in his view of all Religions and the Authors by him ciâ—ed Rom. 1.20 Job 12.7 8 9. Physiologo qui veritatem contemplatur ultimarum causarum cognitio non finis est sed initiuÌ„ ad primas supremasque causas proficiscendi Plutaâ—ch lib. de primo Frigido 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Ethic. Nicom lib. 3. cap. 8. Acts 15.18 Aristot Metaphys lib. 12. cap. 6. De Nat Deorum lib. 10. Idem ibidem Simpl in India nascenti lib. 1. cap. 47. * Tanta ergo qui videat talia potest existimare nullo affâ—cta esse consilio nulla pâ—ovâ—â—â—ntâ—a nulla ratâ—one divinâ sâ—d 〈◊〉 subtilâ—bus ex 〈…〉 â—ssâ— tanta mâ—racula Nonne pâ—odâ—gâ—o simile est aut natum esse homâ—nem qui haec dâ—ceret ut Lucippum aut extâ—tâ—â—sâ— qui crederâ—t ut Democâ—itum qui audâ—tor ejus fuâ—t vel Epâ—cuâ—â—m in quem vâ—nitaâ— omniâ—â—e Lucippi fonte profluxit lib. 2. cap. 11 Arist de Mundo Cap. 6 Ibidem Eodem Cap. Eodem Cap. Galenus lib. 30. De usu Partium Psal. 139 v. 14 15 16. Galen de plac Hip Plat Libr 7. Lib. 3. De usu Part. Libro de Mundo Cap. 6. Alibi eodem Cap. Psalm C. 3. Judg. V. 20. Cap. 6. Paracâ—l de Mineral Tract 1. Sir Francis Bacon Advan of Learning Lib. 1. Gen. 28. Jam. 11.19 Eccles. 1.13 Eccles. 1.18 2 Kings cap. 2. Seneca Nat Quaest lib. 2. cap. 59. Jam. 1.17 Isa. 28.25 26. Gen. 31. Psal. 47.7 Psa. 150.2 Rom. 12.1 Tim. 1.1 Tit. 2.10 1 Pet. 4.19 Hermes Tresmeg In Asclep cap. 15. Hebr. 13.15 Rom. 11.36 * Hippo. Apho 31. lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commenâ— in Aph 1. lib. 1. Arist. lib. de sensu sensili cap. 1. Arist. Hist. Ani. lâ—b 1. cap. 16. Voyage de Muscovie de Perse pag. 128 Helmont de Lith cap. 3. 4. Voyage de Moscovie de Perse pag. 334 Riverius in Observat Alâ—xand Trajan Petâ—onius lâ—b 5. De Mâ—r Gallâ—co c. 1. apud Ske kium in Observ lib. 1. De Liâ—h c. 7. num 14. Medicus Rochlizensis Helmont in the Treatâ—se which he entitles Butler De Medicina lib. 3. cap. 10. History of the Barbado's pag. 29 30 31 32. Voyage de Muscovie de Perse p. m. 23. History of China par 1. cap. 1. Linschoten's Voyages Book 1. Chap 26 Lib. 4. Cap. 1. Lib. 4. Cap. 6. De Manna cap. 18. In consilio Medicinali in catarrhâ— calido pro Principi quodam Obs Lib. 4. Cap. ultimo Dialogo 3. * Linscotens Voyages chap. 56. When they desire to have no Cocus or Fruit thereof namely of the Palm-trees they cut the Blossoms of the Cocus away and binde a round Pot with a narrow mouth by them called Calao fast to the Tree and then stop the same close round about with Pot-eaâ—th so that neither Wind nor Air can enter in or come forth and in that sort the Pot in short space is full of Water which they call Sura and is very pleasant Dâ—ink like sweet Whay and somewhat better Apud Joh de Lact. descrip Indiae l. 10. c. 3. Apud cuâ—dem â—odem loco Sect. 3. Aphorism 96. Helmont De Febribus c. 14. See also the same Author in Tractat quem vocat Arcana Paracels Lib. de Febr. Cap. 14. Apud Moâ—ard de simplic Medic. pag. 84. Epitome scientia naturalis lib. 2. c. 1. Apud Shâ—odâ—rum in Pharmacop lib. 3. cap. 18. Dr. J. C. Helmont in Pharmac dispens Modern numero 46. Hâ—â—mont Tractat suâ—ra alâ—egato Numero 46.47 Hâ—lmont pag. 466. Helmont de Lithiasi lib. 7. cap. 32. Helmont iâ— Pharmacop dispens Modern N. 46 47. * Of the efficacy of unpromising Medicines Schroder Pharnacop lib. 3. c. 23. Boâ—tius in cap. 45. Garcia ab Orta Idem cap. 46. Gartia ab Orta Helmont Pharma Dispensat Nov. p. 458 See his Currus Triumphalis Antimonii In tractatulo cui titul sequuntur â—uaedam Imperfâ—ctioâ—a Helm de febr cap. 5. num 26. Helm de febâ— caâ— 17. vers fâ—acm Helm de scholar Humoâ—ista pass decept cap. 2. numero 89. Lib. 2. c. 6. In Praefaâ—â—â— Lib. 1. In Commentar Aphoâ—is 2. Paâ—acelsus in his Pâ—eface to his Beâ—theona or Chirurgia Miâ—oâ— Franciscus Bernius Donzellinus Ernestus Burgravius who commend it upon their own experience besides very many that commend in general termes (a) De Lapid Gemm lib 2. cap 11. (b) Nicolaus Monardes de simpli Ind Histor Cap seu Tit 20. (c) De Nephrit lib 1. cap. 24. where he hath nine or ten Observations which he calls Observationes rarae inauditae de Lap Nephritico De Gem Lapidibus lib. 1. cap. 23. Helm de Febr. cap. 2. Paracels in Archidox Magic lib. 5. De Operat Chirurg p. 1. cap. 51. De Lapid Gem. l. 2. cap. 102. In observa Medic. oppido raris pag. 194. Helmont de febr cap. 14. vers finem Cap. 17. in sine Observ Cent. 1 Observ 4â— Hâ—story of China part 1. chap. 12. N B Medicinae faciendae mediocrâ—m habent peritiam Aegris salsa acria plura propoâ—unt dicente Maâ—fâ—o pisces coachylia Phaâ—maca suavia odorata NB Sanguinem nunquam eliciunt Magnam Medicorum dignitatem videâ—e est ex Epistola Almeidae ubi narrat c. Bern Varenius in Descript Regn Japon Cap. 25. Gal in Aphor Hipp. Comment 1. Lib. 2. Dialog 7. Voyages chap. â—4 Preface Lib. 1. Piso de Medic Brâ—si Lib 2. Cap 1. Georg Ent in Epistol praefix Exercit Harvei de Gen Animal
whence at length he was stol'n And though I remember the famous Emperick Fiorouanti in one of his Italian Books mentions his having been prevail'd with by the importunity of a Lady whom he calls Marulla Greca much afflicted with Splenetick distempers to rid her of her Spleen and addes That she out-liv'd the loss of it divers Years Yet he that considers the situation of that part and the considerableness of the Vessels belonging to it in humane Bodies will probably be apt to think that though his relation may be credited his venturousness ought not to be imitated The Experiment also of detaining Frogs under Water for very many hours sometimes amounting to some days without suffocation may to him that knows that Frogs have Lungs and Breath as well as other Terrestrial Animals appear a considerable discovery in order to the determining the Nature of Respiration Besides the scrupulousness of the Parents or Friends of the deceased Persons deprives us oftentimes of the Opportunities of Anatomizing the Bodies of Men and much more those of Women whereas those of Beasts are almost always and every where to be met with And 't was perhaps upon some such account that Aristotle said that the external parts of the Body were best known in Men the internal in Beasts Sunâ— enim says he speaking of the inward parts hominum imprimis incertae atque incognitae quamobrem ad caeterorum animalium partes quarum similes sunt humanae referentes eas contemplari debemus And questionless in many of them the frame of the parts is so like that of those answerable in Men that he that is but moderately skill'd in Andratomy as some of the Moderns call the Dissection of Mans Body to distinguish it from Zootomy as they name the Dissections of the Bodies of other Animals may with due diligence and industry not despicably improve his Anatomical knowledge In confirmation of which truth give me leave to observe to you That though Galen hath left to us so many and by Physitians so much magnified Anatomical Treatises yet not onely divers of those Modern Physitians that would eclipse his Glory deny him to have learn'd the skill he pretends to out of the inspection of the Dissected Bodies of Men or Women or so much as to ever have seen a humane Anatomy But I finde even among his Admirers Physitians that acknowledge that his Knives were much more conversant with the Bodies of Apes and other Bruits then with those of Men which in his time those Authors say 't was thought little less then Irreligious if not Barbarous to mangle which is the less to be wondred at because even in this our Age that great People of the Muscovites though a Christian and European Nation hath deny'd Physitians the use of Anatomy and Skeletons the former as an inhumane thing the latter as fit for little but Witchcraft as we are inform'd by the applauded Writer Olearius Secretary to the Embassy lately send by that Learned Prince the present Duke of Holsteine into Moscovia and Persia. And of this the same Author gives us the instance of one Quirin an excellent German Chyrurgion who for having been found with a Skeleton had much adoe to scape with his Life and was commanded to go out of the Kingdom leaving behinde him his Skeleton which was also dragg'd about and afterwards burnt To these things we may adde Pyrophilus that the diligence of Zootomists may much contribute to illustrate the Doctrine of Andratomy and both inform Physitians of the true use of the parts of a humane Body and help to decide divers Anatomical Controversies For as in general 't is scarce possible to learn the true Nature of any Creature from the consideration of the single Creature it self so particularly of divers parts of humane Body 't is very difficult to learn the true use without consulting the Bodies of other Animals wherein the part inquired after is by Nature either wholly left out as needless or wherein its differing bigness or situation or figure or connection with and relation to other parts may render its use more conspicuous or at least more discernable Thâ—s Truth may be somewhat illustrated by the following Observations which at present offer themselves to my thoughts upon this occasion The Lungs of Vipers and other Creatures whole Hearts and whose Blood even whil'st it circulates we have always found as to sense actually cold may give us just occasion to inquire a little more warily whether the great use of Respiration be to cool the Heart The suddain falling and continuing together which we may observe in that part at least of a Dogs Lungs that is on the same side with the Wound upon making a large Wound in his Chest though the Lungs remain untouched is a considerable Experiment in order to the discovery of the principal Organ of Respiration If you dexterously take out the Hearts of Vipers and of some smaller Fishes whose coldness makes them beat much more unfrequently and leisurely then those of warm Animals the contraction and relaxation of the Fibres of the Heart may be distinctly observed in order to the deciding or reconciling the Controversie about the cause and manner of the Hearts motion betwixt those Learned modern Anatomists that contend some of them for Dr. Harvey's Opinion and others for that of the Cartesians Towards satisfying my self in which difficulty I remember I have sometimes taken the Heart of a Flownder and having cut it transversly into two parts and press'd out and with a Linnen cloth wip'd off the Blood contain'd in each of them I observ'd that for a considerable space of time the sever'd and bloodless parts held on their former contraction and relaxation And once I remember that I observed not without Wonder That the sever'd portions of a Flownders Heart did not onely after their Blood was drain'd move as before but the whole Heart observ'd for a pretty while such a succession of motion in its divided and exsanguious pieces as I had taken notice of in them whil'st they were coherent and as you may with pleasure both see and feel in the intire Heart of the same Fish Some of the other Controversies agitated among Anatomists and Philosophers concerning the use of the Heart and concerning the principal seat of Life and Sense may also receive light from some such Experiments that we made in the Bodies of Bruits as we could not of Men. And the first of these that we shall mention shall be an Experiment that we remember our selves formerly to have made upon Frogs For having open'd one of them alive and carefully cut out his Heart without closing up the Orifice of the Wound which we had made wider then was necessary the Frog notwithstanding leaped up and down the Room as before dragging his Entrals that hung out after him and when he rested would upon a puncture leap again and being put into the Water would swim whil'st I felt his Heart beating betwixt my
Fingers The Hearts of others of them were taken out at an Incision no greater then was requisite for that purpose when we had stitched or pin'd up the Wound we observ'd them to leap more frequently and vigorously then the former They would as before they were hurt close and open their Eye lids upon occasion Being put into a Vessel not full of Water they would as orderly display their fore and hinder Legs in the manner requisite to swimming as if they wanted none of their parts especially not their Hearts they would rest themselves sometimes upon the surface of the Water sometimes at the bottom of it and sometimes also they would nimbly leap first out of the Vessel and then about the Room surviving the exsection of their Hearts some about an hour and some longer And that which was further remarkable in this Expeâ—iment was that we could by gently pressing their Brest and Belly with our Fingers make them almost at pleasure make such a noise as to the By-standers made them seem to croak but how this Experiment will be reconcil'd to the Doctrine ascrib'd to Mr. Hobs or to to that of the Aristotelians who tell us That their Master taught the Heart to be the seat of Sense whence also though erroneously he made it the original of the Nerves let those that are pleas'd to concern themselves to maintain all his Opinions consider And whereas Frogs though they can move thus long without the Heart yet they cannot at all bear the exemption or spoiling of the Brain we will adde what we have observ'd even in hot Animals whose Life is conceived to be much more suddenly dissipable and the motion of each part much more dependent upon the influence of the Brain We open'd then an Egge wherein the Chick was not onely perfectly formed but well furnished with Feathers and having taken him out of the Membrane that involved him and the Liquors he swam in and laid him on his Back on a flat piece of Glass we clip'd away with a pair of Sciffers the Head and the Brest-bone whereby the Heart became exposed to view but remain'd fastned to the Headless Trunk and the Chick lying in this posture the Heart continued to beat above a full hour and the Ears seem'd to retain their motion a pretty while after the Heart it self had lost his the motion of none of the other Parts appearing many moments to survive the loss of the Head and which is most considerable the seemingly dead Heart was divers times excited to new though quickly ceasing motion upon the puncture of a Pin or the point of a Pen-knife And to evince that this was no casual thing the next Day we dealt with the Chick of another Egge taken from the same Hen after the above recited manner and when the motion of the Heart and Ears began to cease we excited it again by placing the Glass over the warm steam of a Vessel full of hot Water bringing still new Water from off the Fire to continue the heat when we perceiv'd the former Water to begin to cool and by this means we kept the Heart beating for an hour and an half by measure And at another time for further satisfaction we did by these and some other little industries keep the Heart of a somewhat elder Chick though exposed to the open Air in motion after we had carefully clipt off the Head and Neck for the space of if our memory do not much mis inform us two hours anâ— an half by measure Upon what conjectures we expected so lasting a motion in the Heart of a Chick after it had lost the Head and consequently the Brain would be more tedious and less fit to be mention'd in this place then the strange vivacity we have sometimes not without wonder observed in Vipers Since not onely their Hearts clearly sever'd from their Bodies may be observ'd to beat for some hours for that is common with them to divers other cold Animals but the Body it self may be sometimes two or three days after the Skin Heart Head and all the Entrals are separated from it seen to move in a twining or wrigling manner Nay what is much more may appear to be manifestly sensible of punctures being put into a fresh and vivid motion when it lay still before upon the being pricked especially on the Spine or Marrow with a Pin or Needle And though Tortoises be in the Indies many of them very large Animals yet that great Traveller Vincent le Blanc in his French Voyages giving a very particular account of those Tortoyses which the East Indian King of Pegâ— who was much delighted with them did with great curiosity cherish in his Ponds adds this memorable Passage as an Eye-witness of what he relates When the King hath a minde to eat of them they cut off their heads and five days after they are prepar'd and yet after those five days they are alive as we have often experienc'd Now although I will not say that these Experiments prove that either 't is in the Membranes that sensation resides though I have sometimes doubted whether the Nerves themselves be not so sensible chiefly as they are invested with Membranes or that the Brain may not be confined to the Head but may reach into the rest of the Body after another manner then is wont to be taught Yet it may be safely affirm'd that such Experiments as these may be of great concernment in reference to the common Doctrine of the necessity of unceasing influence from the Brain being so requisite to Sense and Motion especially if to the lately mention'd Particulars we adde on this occasion what we have observ'd of the Butter-flies into which Silk-worms have been Metamorphosed namely That they may not onely like common Flys and divers other winged Insects survive a pretty while the loss of their Heads but may sometimes be capable of Procreation after having lost them as I not long since tryed though not perhaps without such a Reluctancy as Aristotle would have blam'd in a Naturalist by cutting off the Heads of such Butter-flies of either Sex Quamvis enim Mas cui prius amputatum est caput nequaquam adduci posset quaecunque Insecti illius est salacitas ut Faeminam comprimeret Decollata tamen Faemina marem alacriter admisit Et licet post horas aliquot coitu insumptas it a requierit immota ut mortuam per multas horas cogitarem non solum quia omnem penitus motum perdiderat in Thorace satis magnum apparebat foramen quod à parte aliqua Corporis simul cum capite à trunco disruptâ factum videbatur verum etiam quoniam eodem permansit statu idque per plures horas ultra tempus quo post coitionem cum Mare hujus generis Animalcula solent ordiri prolificationem Tandem vero postquam jam diu de Vita ejus desperatum esset Ova faetare tam confertim coepit ut vel exiguo temporis
still well And the same Remedy is not disdain'd by a Person of great Quality and Beauty that You know and that too after she hath travelled as far as the Spaw for Her healths sake And I remember on this occasion that passing once through one of the remoter Parts of England I was visited by an Emperick a well-wisher to Chymistry but a Novice in it who pressing me to communicate to him some easie and cheap Preparation that he might make use of among the Câ—untrey People I directed him to Distâ—l with a gentle heat a Spirit out of Urine putrified for six or seven Weeks on a Dung-hill or some analogous heat but in well clos'd Glasses or other glaz'd Vessels and having rectified this Spirit once or twice that it might be rich in volatile Salt to give ten twenty or thirty drops of it in any convenient Liquor for the Plurisie for most kinde of Coughs and divers other Distempers as a Succedaneum to the Essence of Harts horn And awhile after this Emperick return'd me great thanks for what I had taught him and I found by him and others that he had cured so many with it especially of Plurisies a Disease frequent and dangerous enough in that Country that this slight and seemingly despicable Remedy had already made him be cry'd up for a Doctor and was like to help him to a comfortable Subsistence Great store of healthy Mens Blood is wont to be thrown away as altogether useless by Chirurgions and Barbers that let Men Blood as is usual in the Spring and Fall for prevention of Diseases and yet from a Man's Blood skilfully prepared though without addition of any thing save Spirit of Wine to keep it at first from putrifying may be easily obtain'd a Spirit and volatile Salt that have much the same Vertues with those of the newly mention'd Spirit of Urine but more noble as far as I can guess then either that or even Spirit of Harts horn as having perform'd in Consumptions Asthma's and other obstinate cases such things as I as well as others could not but admire But in this place mentioning humane Blood onely in transiâ—u I shall pretermit what I have observed about the preparation of it yet leaving you a liberty to call for my Observations upon a Medicine which is perhaps nobler then the most costly and elaborate Chymical Remedies that are wont to be sold in Shops and which hath been almost alone excepted out of the Censure made by a Learned Modern Writer of the Medicines found out by Chymistry I shall adde but one Instance more of the efficacy that may be found in the most obvious and abject Creatures and this Instance is afforded me by those vile Insects commonly called in English Wood-lice or Sows and in Latine Millepedes which I have often both recommended to others and taken my self What their Vertue is against the Stone the World hath been informed by Laurembergius who hath published a Narrative how by the use of them he was cured even of the Stone in the Bladder and he was invited to use them by credible information that others had been cured of that Disease by the same Remedy And of late Years in England an Emperick being much resorted to for the relief he gave in that tormenting Sickness a Physitian famous for his Learned Writings wondering at what was done was very curious as himself afterwards told me to finde out the Emperick's secret and at length was so industrious as to discover That 't was a slight preparation of Millepedes But my having found them in my self very diuretical and apertive is not that which chiefly recommends them to me For I knew and liv'd in the same House with a pious Gentlewoman much better skill'd in Physick then her Sex promised who having lost the use of one Eye by a Cataract and being threatned by the Oculists with the speedy loss of the other especially in regard of her being very aged and corpulent she nevertheless did for some Years to my wonder employ her Eye to read and work with without finding as she told me any decay in it or any encreasing danger of a suffusion And she assured me that her Medicine was to bruise first five Millepedes then ten then fifteen then twenty c. daily encreasing the number by five till it had reach'd if I mistake not fifty or sixty in White-wine or Small-ale and to drink upon an empty Stomack the strongly express'd Liquor And when I desired to know how she came by this Specifick she answered me That having made enquiries among all those both Oculists and others that she thought might assist her against so sad a Distemper she was advised to the use of Millepedes by a Woman that not onely much magnified their vertue in such cases as hers but assured her if I much mis-remember not that she her self had been cured by them of no less then an incipient suffusion in one or both of her Eyes Since the writing of the former part of this Page relating what I newly told you to a very Ingenious Physitian he assures me Thâ—t being some Yeaâ—s since in Holland he there met with a Woman who was cured as her self confessed to him of a real Cataract by the juice of Millepedes beginning with that of three at a time and so encreasing to nine at once and then gradually lessening the Dose by one Insect each day tâ—ll she were come back to three at a time after which she gradually increas'd the Dose as before And he adds That this Woman wâ—s advised to this Medicine by an Emperick that was said to have performed divers Cures with the same Medicine What strange things these same Millepedes have done in the sore and even exulcerated Breasts of Women provided they be not cancrous though they be given without preparation onely to the number of three first and so on to nine at once which number may perhaps be usefully encreased stamp'd with a little White-wine or Beer that the Liquor strain'd out may be drunk in a draught of Beer Morning and Evening during which time Linnen clothes dipp'd in White wine and apply'd warm are to be kept upon the Breast I may elsewhere have a fitter opportunity to relate I shall now onely subjoyn as a further proof of the great Vertue that may be even in vile and costless Insects and that without any elaborate or Chymical Preparation this memorable Story That after all the tryals I had made about these Millepedes I met with a yong Lady who by divers strangely winding and obstinate Fistula's that had made themselves Orifices in many places of her Body was not onely lam'd but so consum'd and weakned that she was scarce able to turn her self in her bed and this notwithstanding the utmost endeavors of the eminentest Chirurgions both English and Foreigners that could be procur'd But when both the hopes of her Friends and those that endeavored to cure her were lost she was in a short time