Plague the Blood of all which I have seen and indeed it has rather deserved the name of Soil than Blood they being such masses of Putrilaginous Substance that no man could without horror behold and by the assistance of Providence two of these persons I recovered by the means of Acids and believe I might have done the same by the third had I been called in time As for what you speak of your Experience as to the efficacy of Pulvis è Chelis and Sp. C. C. it 's a meer trifle and if ever any thing was done after the exhibition of them Nature her self deserved the whole honour nothing in the least being to be attributed to the Medicines as may demonstrably be made appear and to please you I shall endeavour to do But by the way I beg of you that you will not rank the Rad. Serpentariae with the Pul. è Chelis and Sp. C. C. for the Rad. Serpentariae belongs to me it being a most noble sulphureous Acid inveloped and that it is so I will be obliged to maintain But to return I do boldly assert that in no Fever that ever I have yet met with let them be either benign or malign have I ever yet observed that the Patient has been in the least sensible of any Acidity in the Stomach or Mouth but generally those parts have been clog'd up with a Matter that looks so like Alkaly that if it be not the very same I am sure it 's no kin to the Crab-Tree Now suppose it to be Alkaly as it 's plain it is what can the Pul. e Chelis which is a fixt Alkaly or the Sp. C. C. which is a volatile one do to remove the Pul. e Chelis or any Medicines of that Tribe I mean of the Testacea which for want of an Acid to dissolve them must lie upon the Stomach and by clogging of that cannot fail of doing a great deal of mischief to the whole Body As for Sp. C. C. or any Medicines of that kind I cannot see what reason there can be for the exhibition of them because it is most demonstrably manifest that the Blood of feverish People is always overclog'd with Particles of the same Nature viz. volatile Alkalious Salts But instead of the Testacea and volatile Salts if you use any of the following sort of Medicines I am apt to believe that your Practice in Malignant Fevers will be more successful than it has hitherto been viz. such as Aq. Theriacalis in large quantities Mixtura Simplex Elix Vitrioli N r. an Infusion of Virginian Snake Root c. in Vinegar c. but here I have not room to expatiate By the use of these Medicines you may raise the Pulse and fortifie the deprav'd and paul'd Stomach promote due and regular Secretions and change the malignant colliquative symptomatick Sweats into benign and critical ones But this is not a place for me to expatiate upon the method of the Cure of Fevers that being reserved for a particular Tract by it self which with some other things that I have promised the World shall appear abroad as soon as I am able As for what you here say in relation to Acids dissolving the Blood I shall now take no notice of it because you handle that matter more largely in another place Reply And here the Life of Man you take to be a Fire or Flame and all we eat and drink together with the Air we draw in to be Fuel for this Flame The chief Arguments you bring to confirm this Doctrin are taken from the Excrements of this Flame and its Fewel The Excrements are Alkalies which are near of kind to Ashes the Relicts of other Flames And for its Pabulum 't is Acid and Sulphur the common Pabulum of all Flames Here I must confess you talk very ingeniously and highly improve the Notions of that great Philosopher But let us examin this Hypothesis a little As for Alkalies I confess they are of the same nature with Ashes and Soot Yet it does not follow that because Alkalies are found in the Blood there must be a Flame too We extract Alkaly out of several Herbs 'T is true the Herbs must be calcined first But certainly the Salt was pre-existent in the Herb before the Calcination or else the Fire produced it de novo which you will by no means admit The Inference then is plain I will not adventure to say any thing of Crabs-Claws Oyster-Shells c. lest you should make them the Recrements of a vital Flame Come we next to the Pabulum and that is Acid and Sulphur That Bodies in which Sulphur is predominant are inflammable no body questions But that such in which Acid is the chief Ingredient should burn look like a Paradox To instance in a few Acet Spirit of Vitriol Suc. Limon c. are so far from promiting Fame that they immediately quench it and indeed I know but one Acid in Nature which is inflammable and that is Niter But then this Vital Flame is not of a Nature with Culinary Flames Answer Since the Pabulum is the same methinks the Flame should be so too Again tho you speak so much of this Vital Flame yet you do not as I remember much care to fix the Place of its Existence I supposed it must be in the Blood if any where Now 't is very hard to suppose a Flame in that Body of which no part is inflammable If you open a Vein and the Blood spouts out reeking hot on the Fire it will immediately quench it So that methinks these Notions seem to be a little too finely spun Acid and Sulphur did support human Life Men live upon Coals Brimstone c. in which there is store of Acid and Sulphur That we cannot subsist without Air is evident For tho there is no Fire in the Blood there is Motion undoubtedly Now the Nitro-aereal Particles give a fresh Fermentation or Motion to it and free it from Coagulation If you are not satisfied with this consult the Ingenious Dr. Mayow But then the Blood has heat and warmth and these are the Properties of Fire Answ May they not be excited by its Motion No you reply we are much warmer in Bed when we use no Exercise than when we are up and in Motion Answ The Body indeed is in no motion there but the Blood is greater than when we are out of our Beds and 't is impossible should be otherwise For do not the Bed-clothes protect us from the Coldness of the ambient Air And are not a great many of the Volatile Alkalies detained by them which reflecting upon the Body warm it and accelerate the Motion of the Blood But after all if we move violently when out of our Beds we are much warmer than when in them You are pleas'd to Object 't is impossible meer Motion should cause any Heat in fluid Bodies How so Let a Man put Spirit Corn. Cerv. and Spirit Vitrioli together and observe
Disease does not proceed from Acids but overmuch Drinking Answ That large Draughts there being little Evacuation by Urin render the Blood more thin is very obvious But now the Patient had no such desire for Drink till the Distemper was actually upon him So that the Question is what first brought on the Distemper Was it not a weakness of Blood or want of due Consistence I do not see how you can well deny it But then you reply let it be so 't is impossible Acids should occasion this ill Habit of Blood For Hydropical People are Thirsty and 't is ridiculous to imagin that Acids should excite Thirst when they are the only Things in the World that will quench it Answ This I confess at first sight looks like an invincible Argument But I must crave leaver to weigh it a liltle That Acids drank or held in the Mouth usually quench Thirst is an undeniable Truth Tho 't will hardly hold good in all Cases For let a Man drink Brine which is very much impregnated with Acids or eat high-seasoned Meats I believe tho he were a Stoick he would immediately grow thirsty But common Salt is not an Acid of a right Nature Well admit this The most famous Acids that I know for suppressing Thirst are Oyl Vitriol Spirit Vitriol c. Now I hope to make it appear that these or Acids of the same nature abounding in the Blood may provoke Thirst I proved just now that Oyl of Vitriol had an ugly Faculty of coagulating the Blood or separating its Serum That there is a Separation of the Serum in Dropsies is evident If any Man should deny it let him look upon the Abdomen and extream Parts and his Eyes are enough to convince him Well then the Serum being thus separated pray observe and the Mass of Blood not enough diluted the oral Glands must necessarily be defrauded of their due Moisture and consequently Thirst excited But still you harp upon the same string Those Medicines which restore the Consistence of the Blood cannot well be supposed to impair it Now Acids restore it and Steel in particular Answ That Steel is of excellent Use and a very great Restorative is not to be denied But under favour tho you discourse very ingeniously of the Nature of Steel Yet all you have said will not amount to a Proof of its being an Acid. I am still inclined to think it is an Alkaly For tho it does not discover it self to be such by its Colour yet it plainly does by its Effects viz. its Fermentation with Acids If notwithstanding this Phoenomenon you will needs have it to be an Acid why then one Acid will ferment with another and so one Alkaly with another wherefore tho we should subscribe to the Hypothesis that Alkalies are the Original of all Distempers yet 't is hard to exclude the Use of them in general in Distempers For some Alkalies or other might be found out that should dispute it with these offending Alkalies You are pleased to quote Beeker for a Confirmation of the Acidity of Steel The chief Sentence of the Citation seems to be this Hoc tantum hìc loci allegabo omne acidum substantiae martialis esse in quocunque oleo pinguedine fuligine limo silice arenâ immo etiam ipsâ flammâ reperibile ad oculum demonstrari posse quaecunque ergo naturae Acidae martialis sunt illa potestatem habent Alkali tanquam substantiam metallorum mercurialem alterandi transmutandi If I apprehend the Sense of the Author this does not make so much for you But suppose it did Beeker was never reckon'd Infallible And tho Chalybs were an Acid it does not follow because one Acid will renew the State of the Blood that others will do so too But since we have so happily fallen on this Subject viz. the strengthning the Mass of Blood let us see what other Medicines besides Chalybs are subservient to this End And here I suppose your bitter Herbs may not be infimi subsellii 'T is needless to prove it for hardly any Physician but what has experienced it I do not believe you will dare to say there is any thing of an Acid in these since you know very well that Alkaly may be extracted from most if not all of them So that poor Alkaly is effectual in some Cases you see But then you say Oakbark Bistort Tormentile Comfrey-roots and others of that Tribe will reduce the Blood to Consistence Answ That they are astringent I grant whether they will reduce the Blood or invigorate its depauperated Principles I much question 'T is very rare to see them prescribed in Dropsies Cackexies and the like Distempers where the Blood is poor and low They are proper indeed in Fluxes by virtue of their astringent Faculty but then they owe this Astringency to Acids Whether they do or not it matters not much But why may not this Quality be derived as well from the Terrestrious as the Salt Particles of these Vegetables Since Bol. Arm. Terra Lemnia and other plain Earths are very stiptick I do not say these Earths are so simple as to have no manner of Salt in them but surely they have very little Acid. Remark I am very glad you own Alkalies to abound in Plurisies and Rheumatisms and other inflammatory Distempers Upon my work if this be granted I have gained a great point for to have put the World into a true way of Curing but one single Distemper is what deserves no small Honour And for the business of Dropsies I do assure you I have no reason to recede from what I have said upon that Subject but if you or any one else would favour the World with as certain a Method of curing a Confirmed Ascites or Belly-Dropsie as I have done of curing Rheumatisms Gouts c. I may self would spare no pains to trumpet up that Man's Fame let him be who he would But this is a thing I am afraid I shall never live to see effected because the Tone of the Parts principally affected is so destroyed and spoiled that it would be next door to a Miracle to recover them And although you are pleased to charge me with arguing unfairly for attributing the Cause of Dropsies in a great measure to proceed from a destruction of the Tone of the Parts because I had not before in my Etymologies of Distempers taken sufficient notice of that Matter Well suppose I had before been deficient in that point I hope it is no Crime to bring it in late rather than not at all But I do assure you I have frequently taken notice of that Matter and do lay as great a stress upon it as upon any one thing whatsoever and I do still insist upon it that the great Thinness of the Blood in Dropsies dos in great measure proceed from the great quantities of Liquids taken into the Body and the small quantity discharged by reason the Parts of it
of his Life He instead of magnifying the skill of his Physician tells his Friends my Physician tells me I have had a Fever such as my Neighbour such a one had but I believe he is mistaken mine could be no more than a Cold which would have gone off had I done nothing at all and this is frequently the reward that honest men meet with and I doubt not but the same reflections will be made upon Mr. Philipson's Cure viz. that he would have been well in the same time had nothing at all been done to him Several Physicians have publickly said that a prick with a Needle or the point of a Lancet in some Parts would occasion as dreadful sympoms as this man had Supposing this to be true I believe every body will allow that the taking off of such Symptoms in so small a time let the occasion of them be what it will is not ordinarily seen and Dr. G. with the prick of a Lancet only was hurried away into another World who yet was as likely a man to â—ake the forementioned Objection â—o undervalue any thing done either by me or upon the Basis of my Hypothesis as any one now living I will not pretend to justifie Mr. Stringers conduct in a great many things but he being a person greatly concerned in the first and most material part of what was done for Mr. Philipson in order to his Cure I could not in justice but make use of his Name as he deserved But for Mr. Small the Surgeon he is a man of an unblemished Reputation and as hopeful a Young Man as any of his Profession the Testimony of whom only were sufficient upon such an Occasion but the Testimonies of Mr. Philipson the Apothecary and the man himself being joined to his makes the matter of fact unquestionable Remarks upon Dr. Tuthill's Vindication of his Objections against my Hypothesis Worthy Sir YOU are the only fair Antagonist that ever I have had to do with and therefore I ought to treat you with all the tenderness and respect imaginable You cannot but be sensible that I walk in an unbeaten path and therefore if I now and then am out of my way I am the more excusable It 's true some few other Physicians have heretofore used Acids in the Cure of several Distempers and the friendly correspondence I have had with some of them has been of great use to me but the assistance I have had from them as to the establishing of my Principles has been very inconsiderable If I have made any false steps neither of them are obliged to answer for me and if I have made any good ones which I cannot forbear flattering my self that I have I am sure it is owing to my own labour and industry and altho I were not bred up at the University yet I have taken as much true pains to inform my self in all the Parts of Physick as perhaps any man ever did Let an Hypothesis be laid down with all the caution and care in the World and established upon never so certain a Foundation yet there will still be some room left for men to object and he that will spend his time in answering all trifling Objections that may and will be raised against a thing that is new must lead but an uneasie life But Sir I do not mention this in relation to you what Objections you have raised have seeming weight in them and therefore I have given my self the trouble to clear my self of them as well as I can I no where tell you that I have said all that is to be said on the behalf of my New Hypothesis that requiring several years to perform But I have already said so much that I believe I may boldly say it is the best and clearest Hypothesis in Physick now extant and upon the foundation of which a man may with greater certainty attempt the Cure of more Diseases than upon any other that has yet been made publick The present business of my Profession together with another Piece of Work I am ingaged in viz. A General Treatise of Fevers does so take up my time that I cannot make any very large Remarks upon your further Objections and were it not that I am willing to let the World see that I have a greater esteem for you than for those Scoundrels that have heretofore appeared in Print against me for the present I should have been silent For I must assure you that I do not think my Hypothesis at all shaken by what you have now said there being little or nothing more than what was contained in your first Objections However I shall transcribe your fresh Objections in the order I find them and make my Remarks in the same manner Reply If you please to compare the Alkaline Spirit that you extracted from the Consumptive Man's Blood with that which the healthy Blood afforded you 'l find no great disproportion especially if you consider the Caput Mortuum of the sound Blood For you say that it being broken into small Atoms each Atom appeared to be so many little Bodies of Fire in your Microscope That there is not the least spark of Fire in the Blood I shall endeavour to prove anon wherefore 't is not irrational to suppose that those lucid Atoms were of the Family of Salts And if Salts then Alkaline according to the Rules of your own Hypothesis But then you reply the Tabid Blood would have yielded much more Alkaly had not the great quantity of Luxuriant Alkaly been thrown upon the Lungs Methinks this looks a little strange For if you remember the Consumptive Person did sweat prodigiously Now you make Sweat to be nothing but an excrementitious Alkaly If this Alkaly then was carryed off in such quantities it could not well abound so much in the Lungs Remark This Objection or Reply to my Answer is a tolerable good one and not without some seeming weight but is what I am easily able to clear my self from For First I my self have before taken notice of the small disproportion between the two peoples Blood and have assigned one very good reason for it but according to your wonted Candor you have furnished me with a second and that is the profuseness of the Sweats Now if after these two great discharges of Excrementitious Alkaly by sweating and spitting the Blood at last abounds with any quantity of Alkaly more than that of a sound person it is I think very reasonable to suppose that the Blood 's being at first overcharged with Alkaly was the cause of the Distemper and in very many Consumptive Cases it is usual for the Patient to spit up perfect Chalk and that in great quantities Now if the Blood were overcharged with Acids in Consumptions the whole Mass passing so frequently through the Lungs could not fail of being sweetned by this Chalky Alkaly But on the contrary I think it very plain that the Tone of the Lungs being spoiled and the Blood
their Effects they will soon grow warm 'T is evident they do not stand still but move very briskly before they are warm And what is the Heat of these Bodies occasioned by but their Fermentation or intestine Motion Surely it cannot be by Accension Remark That the Life of Man is a Flame I think I have sufficiently demonstrated before and shall here endeavour to make it somewhat more plain The Phosporus is a thing that is to be obtained from all Animal Substances and that the Phosporus is a Fire is past dispute it performing all those things that common Fire will do viz. enkindle inflammable Bodies give heat and warmth to those things that are near it afford Light in the Dark c. and yet in very many things doth differ from common Fire Now if this Fire were not actually existent in Animal Bodies how is it possible that it should be extracted from them Common Brimstone Tallow Pitch c. do abound with Sulphur and so of consequence are inflammable yet from none of these by any Artifice now known is there the least quantity of Phosporus or any thing like it to be obtained The Phosporus won't burn without a free access of Air any more than common Fire But herein is a very great difference between the Phosporus and common Fire Let any inflammable Body be never so well enkindled and afterwards the Flame or enkindled part of it immerged in water and it will instantaneously be extinguished so as not to be able to recover it self tho exposed to never so free an Air without being again applied to some enkindled Body Let a piece of Phosporus in a dark night be placed upon a sheet of Paper it will immediately or its own accord afford a Light will heat your Fingers and burn the Paper this piece of Phosporus being put into water will in all appearance be totally extinguished but tho it has lain in the Water for a whole Year upon being taken out will of it self burn c. in the same manner it did when put into the Water Upon stroking of some Cats in the dark multitudes of small flashes of Fire will follow ones hand as I have frequently experienced Now this gentle stroking can never cause so violent a Motion as you make Fire to be and indeed is unless it were actually existent in the Animal before Altho I confess Fire to be a Substance that is constantly in motion and that this motion is a very brisk one yet all brisk motion is not a Fire which from the Cartesian Hypothesis seems to be a necessary conclusion But I can assure you I know several Fluids that the more briskly they are moved the colder they are as for instance a River is always colder in that part where there is a quick Current than where the Water stands still The Air is always more or less cold according as the Motion of it is greater or less and I can assure you I have been almost starved when forced to travel in high Winds in the Winter-time at which season the Air is most full of Nitrous Particles which you own to be inflammable and behold here your Nitrous Particles in violent motion and yet a Man almost starved by them nay several have actually been so so that you may see it is not all kinds of violent motion tho of Particles inclined to take Fire that will cause a Flame So that you see I have sufficient reason to maintain my assertion that meer Motion tho never so much excited will not occasion Heat in fluid Bodies and that there is a difference in some respects between the Vital Flame and common Culinary Fire tho in many things they agree I shall here again enumerate some things wherein Animal Fire and Common Fire do agree and disagree Animal Fire won't burn without a due access of Air no more won't Common Fire Animal Fire causeth Heat and Warmth so doth Common Fire Animal Fire cannot subsist without a constant supply of sulphurious-Acid Particles neither can Common Fire subsist without a supply of the same Particles c. Animal Fire for so I call the Phosporus being immerged in Water and afterwards taken out again will regain all its properties of Light Heat c. without being applied to other enkindled Bodies This Common Fire will not do for let it be once extinguished by immersion in Water or otherwise and it is never able to recover it self I do still assert that those Bodies which are the proper Pabulum for Fire are those which are composed of Acid and Sulphur but those which abound with most Sulphur burn with the greatest violence those which abound most with Acid more slowly and some Acid Substances which have little Sulphur in them will scarce burn at all especially if much diluted with Phlegm such as Vinegar Juice of Lemons Spirit of Vitriol c. and therefore when the Heat of the Body is too intense I give those Acids which are least impregnated with Sulphur to abate the violence of the Flame when the Heat is too remiss I then give sulphurous Acids to excite the Flame You say you know but one Acid in Nature which is inflammable and that is Niter Now I do assure you it is my opinion nay I am very well able to demonstrate that most if not all the pure Acids in Nature have their origins from the Niter of the Air but pure Niter alone will scarce burn at all unless mixed with some kind of Sulphur As for fixing a particular place for the existence of the Vital Flame I did not think there was any reason for so doing but now I tell you that I suppose it is diffused through all the parts of the Body and if by accident any part is destitute of it a mortification ensues But then again you say it is a hard matter to conceive a Flame in that Body of which no part is inflammable Pray what do you think of the Oily Fat Particles contained not only in the Blood but all other parts are not they inflammable The reason why we are warmer in Bed and after violent exercise is not to be attributed to any unknown Doctrin of Fermentation but because we have a freer Perspiration at these times and so of consequence the Flame must burn more freely The Comparison you make between the Heat of the Blood and that occasioned upon the mixture of the Spirit of Harts-Horn and Spirit of Vitriol will not hold good for in the mixing of those two Liquors or in any kind of Fermentation there is a very sensible commotion and hurry in all the parts of the said Liquors whereas in the Blood of well Persons there is no such thing to be discerned I confess by the impulse of the Heart it is driven progressively from the center to the extremities to supply the necessities of the Parts but besides this progressive Motion I know no other it has all the Secretions being performed by proper
have lost their Tone and therefore the Secretions not rightly to be performed a man that drinks two Quarts in twenty four hours not being able to piss perhaps above four Ounces perspiration also being greatly hindred upon the same account Now for want of a due secretion by the excretory Vessels the Blood is clogged with too great a quantity of Serum which Serum being admitted into the Lumphatick Vessels and being impregnated with Alkaline Particles cannot freely pass along these Vessels by reason of its Gelatinous quality by which means they are distended to a vast Magnitude and sometimes broke and from the broken Lympheducts it is that so great a quantity of Liquor is thrown into the Cavity of the Abdomen which distends it to such a bigness But for all this great quantity that is thrown into the Abdomen the Blood is still loaded with three parts in four more of Serum thatn it ought to be and therefore the Oral Glands cannot want sufficient Moisture But here lies the thing the Matter that in a state of health is separated by the Oral Glands is impregnated with a Noble Volatile Acid as does manifestly appear But in this Case the said Acid is almost if not totally destroyed and the said Lympha impregnated with Alkaly which is the occasion of the great Thirst that attends Hydropical People But since I have attributed an Acidity to the Lympha in a state of Health and yet assert that there is no such thing as a Pure Acid to be obtained from the Blood either in a Morbid State or in a State of Health that being inveloped in the Oily Particles I shall presume to avoid further Objections to make a little excursion concerning the general use of the Glands I shall at present divide the Glands into two kinds or sorts the first of which separate the Excrementitious Particles from the Blood and throw them quite off by some proper Emunctories such are the Excretory Glands of the Skin the Glandulae Renales the Glands of the Liver c. all which do separate an Alkaly from the Blood to be thrown off as Excrement and if by any accident these Glands are made uncapable of performing their office so that the Blood cannot be rid of its Excrements why then a Distemper of some kind or other must necessarily follow The Second Kind do receive a Noble Substance into them to be again mixed with the Blood or for other Uses of universal Advantage to the whole Body The Glands of the Mouth do separate the thin Juice impregnated with a Volatile Acid which Juice was never designed by Nature to be thrown away as some Tobacco-takers lavishly do but to impregnate our Food as it is chewed in the Mouth and afterwards to dissolve it in the Stomach and turn it into a Substance fit for the Nutrition of our Bodies The other Receptory Glands for so I presume to call all those which do not separate Excrements from the Blood do by the extraordinary providence of Nature receive into them that fine Substance which is superfluous in the nourishing of the Parts and by means of the Lympheducts in a gentle and easie course do convey it to the Ductus Thorachicus where it is mixed with the Chyle just before it is admitted into the Blood and that this Lympha is a Mild Acid has already been owned by many So that here you see if there be any Acid in the Body superfluous Nature is very provident in the preservation of it and equally careful in throwing off the superfluous Alkaly by a multitude of Emunctories or Excretory Glands From what has been said concerning the Use of the Glands a great many Phaenomena concerning Dropsies and other Distempers may with ease be solved In Dropsies for instance as is before observed the Excretory Glands not being able to perform their Office the Excrementitious Alkaly together with its Watry Vehicle is detained in the Body by which means altho the Body may increase in bulk yet none of the Parts receive their due Nourishment and the Tone of the whole being relaxed and spoiled the Receptory Glands forget their duty also and instead of receiving into them a pure acidulated Serum only they are forced to let pass some Alkalized Excrementitious Serum which makes the whole of a kind of Gelatinous Consistence which not being able to pass along the Tracts of the Lympheducts distends them to that degree that it causeth swellings in the Belly and Aedematous Tumors in the Legs c. And Belly-Dropsies having for the most part a Jaundice as their Forerunner nay frequently goes along with them through the whole course of the Distemper is no small Argument to prove the Truth of what I have before taken notice of viz. that some of the Excretory Glands have been defective in their duty by which means the whole Body is impregnated with this Yellow Die and the whole Aeconomy put out of order And that the Yellowness of the Body does proceed from a redundancy of Bile no body denies and that Bile is an Alkaly you don't disown But now come we to the Curative part of this Damnable Distemper which altho it be rarely to be performed in a confirmed State yet in the beginning nay after it has made some progress is frequently to be done and that as effectually by Calibiats and Bitters as by any sort of Medicines But here for want of making Experiments by which means only we are capable of arriving to any sort of Certainty in the knowledg of things you say that Steel and the bitter Herbs are Alkalies and the reasons you give for it are because Steel being mixed with Acids will cause an Effervescence and the bitter Herbs after burning do afford a fixt Alkaly Solid Reasons indeed For all Sulphurs being mixt with Acids will cause an Effervescency nay some of them take Fire and that all Metals are full of Sulphur is past dispute and from the Ashes of all Plants even Sorrel it self may be extracted a fixt Alkaly therefore by this way of arguing Sulphur must be an Alkaly and so must Sorrel also But the manner of the Production of Volatile and Fixt Alkalies having been spoken to before I shall say no more to that Matter I shall touch a little upon what I take to be the General Principles of mixt Bodies not that all these Principles are to be separated from all Bodies some containing all some two three or four of them and according to the different mixture of them different Substances are produced Acidum and Sulphur I take to be the Vital Active Principles in Bodies Alkaly the Principle of Death and Corruption Water and Earth the two Passive Principles From these five Principles I think I can more easily account for the Various Phenomena in Natural Bodies than from the old Five of Salt Sulphur and Mercury Water and Earth or from any other Principles that have yet been broacht in the World I have only mentioned this matter
of that sort it matters not whether it will allay Thirst or not I love not repetitions but however for once I shall be guilty of it You may remember that in another place I tell you that those things which by Distillation afford a greater quantity of Acid substances than of Alkalious ones are to be reputed Acids vice versa now common Salt affords nineteen parts in twenty more of Acid than of Alkaly therefore is an Acid but before Distillation the Acid is so inveloped altho it contains so much of it that it is not at all discernable to the Tast I believe no one that has blackt his Fingers will deny Guaiacum to be an Acid but at the same time I believe it was never prescribed to allay Thirst Things tho of the same Tribe are differently to be administred according as they are differently specificated by Nature It is not a certainty of the knowledg whether Acids or Alkalies are the Causes of Diseases will presently make a man a Physician tho it will go a great way towards it but a thorow knowledg of the different specifications of Nature must also concur You charge me with contradicting my self and after that you should have been sure to have avoided any such thing your self but however in one place you say that Oyl of Vitriol dissolves the Blood and in another that it coagulates it but I shall take no advantage of this slip but shall conclude my Remarks upon this Paragraph I having already spun them out to too great a length The next Paragraph is too long to transcribe and there being little material in it I shall only make some general Remarks upon what I find worthy taking notice of You first of all charge me with saying that neither too much nor too little Acid must be given which is the sum of a Page or two viz. 19 and 20. In answer to which I do assure you that no Virtuoso need be ashamed to employ his time in considering the due proportions of things requisite to accomplish the thing he undertakes Now in Physick he that doth not understand the true Rules of Proportion deserves not the Name of a Physician He that will prescribe an Ounce of Jallap instead of a Dram deserves to be hang'd and who but a mad man will give a Pound of Oyl of Vitriol when forty Drops in a Pint of Water is all that is desired But Sir prudent Physicians have a wonderful Director in relation to Manifest Acids and indeed to every thing else that is the Stomach which is a nice judger of things that which is agreeable to her she receiving and retaining with pleasure that which is disagreeable she rejecting and abhorring But however she must not be overloaded with those things in which she taketh the greatest delight Now Manifest Acids are things she as much or more covets and delights in than in any thing besides but when she hath enough to supply her wants she gives sufficient item of it and if the Stomach be rightly consulted it is impossible the Blood should be overcharged with them but if at any time People are not sufficiently cautious of that matter but load the Stomach with more manifest Acids than the Body hath occasion for she won't fail of rejecting them by Vomit this Matter may at any time be safely experimented by an over-large draught of Vinegar in any Case where the Body hath no need of it or at least in so great a quantity at a time for which reason I tell you that the Blood cannot superabound with Acids as it 's plain in fact it doth not neither in a Morbid nor Healthy State because the Stomach will not receive or retain more than it hath occasion for but altho it cannot overdo yet it is very frequently defective in conveying a sufficient quantity into it either through its own fault or the fault of the Physician who forbids the use of them and so the whole Body suffers damage How greedily will the poor Stomach embrace the Juice of an Orange or the like in a Fever and how scornfully will she reject and abhor any thing of a contrary nature nay the usefulness of Acids is so evident and extensive that it is almost a shame they should now want a Champion after there has for so many years together been so great a noise made about Experimental Philosophy and even publick Societies in many Nations erected on purpose to cultivate it But to return from whence we left off I am apt to believe that if you take the following advice you will scarce be guilty of an Error in the giving of manifest Acids viz. always give them in such quantities as the Stomach will receive them with pleasure and delight and never refuse them when the Stomach earnestly craves them this is the method I observe at present and believe I shall never have occasion to recede from I confess it may be lawful sometimes in very extraordinary cases to strain a point beyond what Nature craves but herein if the thing should chance to be overdone all the damage that can ensue is occasioning a puke or two this you may take from my constant experience and believe me I would not willingly impose upon you and the World But in general it is always necessary for us Physicians who are or at least should be only Natures Servants strictly to observe her Necessities and not to outrun her Dictates Without making the least Experiment to convince me of being in an error you go on to range Sassafras amongst the number of Alkalies but when from Experience I do assure you that Sassafras is an inveloped Acid I think you ought not to trouble me and the World with conjectures and were it not that I value and respect you I would not so much as take the least notice of your Conjectures As for the remaining part of this Paragraph I think I have no occasion to take notice of it I having sufficiently answered every thing that looks like an Objection in it in my former Remarks and therefore shall in your own words conclude that if I have any where exprest my self indecently I hope you won't attribute it to rudeness or disrespect for I do assure you I think you a Blessing to the Country wherein you live and don 't doubt but that I shall see you an Honour to our Profession I should have concluded but that you also begin again and that I may not be unmannerly I shall for once keep you company to the end of your Journy but do not design any more to trouble the World with Disputes but if any thing more of that Nature offers it self worth my taking notice of it shall be included in some Practical Discourse And so pass we on to your Reflections upon the First Part of my Essay of Alkaly and Acid. And first OF THE Small Pox. WHAT I think worthy taking notice of at present in your Reflections upon this Matter is
abounding with Alkaly a part of this superabundant Alkaly is thrown upon them and causes all the havock that is made by this Tyrannical Distemper and this being a Distemper that most of my Predecessors have died of and of which I my self am apprehensive has made me not a little inquisitive into its Nature and Cause Secondly That you might load the Blood of the healthy person with more Alkaly than I take notice of you pretend from my own Hypothesis tho without reason to assign the cause of the Lucidness of the Atoms of the Caput Mortuum to proceed from the said Caput Mortuum's abounding with Alkalious Salts Now I can assure you that the whole quantity of Caput Mortuum which that Blood produced would scarce afford one grain of Salt of any kind But supposing it to contain but the fourth part of a grain of Phosporus which is a true Animal Fire that would diffuse it self through the whole and make it lucid The Phosporus is a true Animal Fire and is to be extracted from all Animal Substances and if it did not exist in them how is it possible for it to be extracted from them And that the Phosporus is an Acidosulphureous substance is to be demonstrated without difficulty And I have plainly told you that the Pabulum of Animal Fires is a sulphureous Acid. Your second and third Replies I shall not meddle with because you either grant me what I have said or else proceed upon meer suppositions of which I can take no notice But here you fall upon me again without that order I could wish for first with Answer and then First and Secondly again and so on Of this I shall take no notice but go on from your first Reply to the Second Third and Fourth c. in their order and mark the pages in the Margent Reply You say That in page not 67th of my Answer I know not what to make of your warm Particles And by way of Reply you say you mean Alkalious Particles such as you believe the Blood abounds with in some Fevers and in which you grant Acids are of use But yet say you I cannot agree with your notion of Fevers A Fever say you Pag. 68 proceeds from a Constipation of some of the Emunctories so that the excrementitious Alkaly which should be carried off by them is detained in the Blood which by breaking its Globules c. This Doctrine does not seem at all to correspond with your Practice For Spirit of Vitriol and other Acids which are very stiptick the use of which you applaud in Fevers should methinks constipate the pores more closely And then they being of a very fixing nature should fetter or retain those excrementitious Alkalies Again if Fevers are occasioned only by a detention of these Alkalies then it must follow that when ever they have free vent the Fever must abate But the contrary has been sometimes experienced where the Patient has sweated very liberally and yet died at last If this will not serve the turn I hope to make it appear anon that Alkalies are not capable of breaking the Globules and making such a bustle in the Blood But I cannot but speak one word or two in their defence before I go any further I am very apt to think that in some Fevers especially Pestilential and Malignant the Spirits are primarily affected according to the Hypothesis of the ingenious Dr. Morton witness those symptoms which attend the Nervosum Genus immediately upon the first seizure But you must not admit of this notion from the soil which you must lodg in the Blood and thence be communicated to the Spirits Well let it be so I will not dispute it the difficulty on your side will be great still For tho I shall readily grant the Globules to be broken in the aforesaid Fevers yet 't will be a hard matter to convict Alkalies of those tragical disorders For first experience shews that nothing is more proper in those Cases Malignant I shall adventure to use the term notwithstanding it has been so scouted of late than pul e Chelis Rad. Serpentar nay Sp. C. C. it self given in a proper Vehicle But secondly Nothing does so readily dissolve the mass of Blood or separate its Principles as Acids which I shall prove by and by when I come to speak something of Dropsies But this long discourse of the heat of the Blood does naturally lead me to consider somewhat of its Flame Remark I do still affirm that Fevers in general do proceed from a constipation of the Emunctories Now what I mean by Emunctories are those parts which are only designed and provided by Nature for the separation of the Excrements from the Blood and whenever they are so disordered as not to be able to perform that office why then there must either a Fever or some other great disorder follow And that this Doctrine quadrates with my practice is very plain For whenever these Emunctories are over relaxed they cannot squeeze out the excrementitious Particles in sufficient quantities and so they return back again into the Blood and cause Fevers or some other disorder and so of consequence Spirit of Vitriol or some such kind of Stiptick is the only proper remedy to take off this disorder But to knock this matter on the head you say that in many Fevers the Patient sweats so much that by so doing it has cost him his life This I will readily grant you but the Sweats you mean are certainly such as we call colliquative ones in which cases the Emunctories are so overmuch relaxed that they cannot bear a congestion at all and so there is no such thing as a secretion but the Juices good and bad are all let out together and unless they can be prevented by proper Stipticks which will put Nature into her right course the whole Fabrick must soon be destroyed And it is also to be observed that in such Fevers the heat doth scarce exceed that of the natural temper the Pulse being also exceeding low In the latter part of this Reply you altogether go upon suppositions without the least kind of demonstration and so it is scarce worth my taking notice of but however to manifest my respect I shall go on with it As for what you mean by the Spirits being primarily affected in Pestilential and Malignant Fevers all deference being had to the worthy Dr. Morton it is Heathen Greek to me For by my own experience to use your own terms in such cases I have found the Blood so full of soil that from thence I stick not to acount for all the depression of Spirits and other nervous Symptoms that attend those Fevers And for a Fever of the Spirits purely a very late Author has sufficiently exploded that matter And in my own Practice within the space of a twelve month I have been concerned with three Persons and thanks to God I have seen no more that have had the true Pestilence or
Strainers not from any Fermentation Nay it is a very easie thing for a man to perceive that there is no such thing as a Fermentation in the Blood by the following easie Experiment viz. let a few ounces of Blood run out of the Veins or Arteries of Man or other Animal into a very clear Glass Vessel which vessel you may put into a Sand Furness wherein the heat may be such as to keep the Blood in the same degree of warmth as it came out of the Vessels and if there be any commotion to be seen with the best Light and best Eyes like unto what may be seen in such Liquors which are in a state of Fermentation upon information I shall gladly own my self mistaken There is I confess a Froth to be seen upon the surface of some Blood after it is let out into the Porringer which looks like the surface of Liquors which are fermenting But this Froth is so far from being the effect of Fermentation that it proceeds from nothing else but the different stream that the Blood runs in For in the same Person let one Parcell run out in a rapid stream and it will occasion froth or bubbles let another Parcel run out gently and it will produce no such thing Will not simple Water or any other Liquor do the same but Blood being a Liquor of greater consistence the bubbles when raised will not so soon disappear as in Water or other Liquors that are more fluid from which I hope it is plain that the constant natural heat of the Blood does not proceed from Fermentation And if the progressive Motion from the Heart to the Extremities gives it its heat by the same reason I think the Water that runs from our Cocks should be warm also whereas I dare be bold to say that instead of gaining any heat by its rapid propulsion through the Pipes it is much colder than the Water in the River at the place from whence it was received into the Engine I had like to have forgot to take notice of what you have said concerning the production of Alkalies but it being a very material thing I shall here expatiate a little upon what I have before said upon that Subject and shall take care as much as may be to avoid repetitions I have already own'd that Alkalies do actually exist in several Bodies as the principle of their death and destruction but I never could yet see or hear of any one that has seen any such thing as either a volatile or fixt Alkalizat Salt that was any other ways to be obtained out of Vegetable or Mineral Bodies than from the Bodies after they had been burnt viz. out of the Ashes or Soot of them which are their Excrements or rather the Excrements of Fire or else after the Body had undergone a Putrefaction which is analagous to Fire Now this being so in relation to Vegetables and Minerals I think in may not be amiss to infer that the Alkaly to be found in Animal Substances is the Excrement of their Fire and which mightily confirms me in this Notion all the Excrements of Animals are Alkalious viz. a Matter thrown away either as useless or incommodious and of consequence all the Alkaly to be met with in the Blood or elsewhere is an Excrement in a way of being carried off More upon this Head I shall not say at this time by reason I shall have occasion to enlarge upon this and upon the Heat of the Blood in my Tract of Fevers But what I have now and before said is I think sufficient to satisfie any one who is not a meer Sceptick But for manifest Acids they are to be met with every where almost both in the Mineral and Vegetable Kingdoms even in those Bodies that have never undergone a Putrefaction but are in the greatest state of Perfection and for Vinegar and the like it is so far from being the effects of Putrefaction that it is the last degree of Perfection Nature alone is capable of bringing those Liquors to It is also to be observed that those Fruits of which Wine is made were first Acid before they came to a state fit to make Wine of and that Putrefaction is the Cause of the Acidness of Unripe Fruits I believe none will assert This Subject is also too long to treat fully of in this place and therefore I shall also omit the further prosecution of it for a Practical Discourse Reply If Alkalies are the Original of Distempers whence is it that in Dropsies Catarrhs some Gouts and other Diseases we find the Texture of the Blood so thin 'T is observable that those Particles you term Alkalies the more the Blood is saturated with them of the more thick Consistence it is as we see in Plurisies Rheumatisms and other Inflammatory Cases in which Distempers if in any the Alkalies abound Is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion and render it thin Your Answer to this is that 't is not the Thinness of the Blood is the only Cause of these Distempers but a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts Here methinks you do not argue so fairly For you mention little or nothing of the Destruction of the Tone of the Parts in your Etymologies of Distempers till now And why may not I as well say in Inflammatory Cases the Blood is not affected with any Alkaline Particles These Inflammations only arise from a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts especially if you consider what you asserted in your Notion of Fevers For there the Emunctories are very much out of order But you object since Acids will reduce the Blood to its due Consistence it is not reasonable to suppose they should be the Cause of its Fusion Answ Whether Acids will restore the Consistence of the Blood I shall examin by and by I fear they will not But this I am certain of they will put it in a Fusion 'T is well known that you celebrated Oyl of Vitriol taken alone or tho in a Vehicle if in too great quantity kills Now how does it kill Does it not by dissolving the Mass of Blood by separating the Grumous Parts from the Serous and breaking its Texture after the same Manner as it does that of Milk Sure I am that Blood coagulated by the aforesaid Oyl does much more resemble Whey and Curds than Jelly of Harts-horn Now then what is all this but an Extraordinary Fusion And if a large Dose will make such mad Work and put the Blood into so great a Fusion certainly a less Dose must cause somewhat of a Fusion And 't is rational to believe that Oyl of Vitriol is proper only in those Distempers where the Blood is too thick very pernicious in such as have it too thin And here I am very glad that you so opportunely give us your Sentiments of Dropsies A Dropsie say you or the Thinness of Blood in that
to let you know the Principles I go upon but shall leave the further prosecution of it to another opportunity But to return to the business of Steel and Bitters as for Steel I have said so much already concerening that in several places that I shall not here trouble my self nor you any more about it But if we can cure Distempers with it it is no matter tho one takes it for an Alkaly and the other for an Acid nay I can assure you that if you will but black your Fingers a little with Charcoal you will find it to be a sulphureous Acid. As for Bitters I will be bound to lay a good Wager with you that if you put a pound of Centaury or Wormwood dried into a Retort and distil it with an easie Fire till all be come off that will and afterwards calcine the Caput Mortuum and extract the fixt Alkaly from the Ashes if you don't find a treble or much greater proportion of Acid to that of Alkaly to be produced from these most bitter Plants I will be a loser and I assure you I will lay you or any one else a good sum upon this matter But further if bitterness did proceed from a predominancy of Alkaly in any Body why then a man would suppose the more this Body were impregnated with Alkaly the bitterer it would be but upon my word I have frequently experienced the contrary For when I was a Champion for Alkalious Medicines as I am not ashamed to own I once was I have extracted a Tincture from Mirrh Alloes and Saffron with well rectified Spirit of Sal Armoniack hoping to do great Feats with it Now after I had digested them together for ten or twelve days in a gentle Sand-Heat instead of having the Tincture bitterer than the Mirrh and Alloes themselves were I have always found it almost if not altogether without any bitterness at all in it Nay after a longer digestion it has been almost perfectly sweet However I lay not any great stress upon Tasts the differences in them being one of the specifick differences the Great Creator hath planted in things of which we have as yet but very little knowledg A few degrees of predominancy of any of the Principles cause very great alterations in Bodies both as to Colour Smell and Tast and for ought I know a knowledg of these Minute Circumstances is what we have no possibility of arriving to in this World But one word more concerning Bitters because you will account them Alkalies and lay so great a stress upon them Vitriol of Silver is the most exalted Bitter I know and a Celebrated Medicine in the Cure of Dropsies but yet is no Alkaly and after you have considered it I believe you won't term it so What you say to Acids fusing the Blood it is directly contrary to what our Predecessors have asserted who attributed its coagulation to Acids and to what you your self say a little after But what I attribute to Acids in general is this that they keep the Blood in its due state viz. keep the Fibrous and Globulous Parts in their due Texture and keep the Serum fluid by which means the whole Mass is capable of performing its proper Offices without being liable to Stagnations and also by confirming and strengthning the Tone of the Parts they greatly contribute to the aforesaid end viz. preventing Stagnatitions and promoting the Secretions As for what you say concerning the giving of Oyl of Vitriol alone I readily assent to it that it will make mad work But I hope you cannot charge me with any such mad Practice When People are cold they naturally run to the Fire for warmth but none but mad Persons will put their hands into it and altho Culinary Fire if People are so imprudent as to throw themselves into it will consume and destroy them yet a prudent use of it is a very great comfort to Humane Life and were it not for Fire the Russians and other Northern People would have but a very sad time on 't during the course of their long Winters so it is in relation to Oyl of Vitriol altho given alone it will cause Death and Destruction yet being diluted in proper Vehicles and given in very large quantities will in many cases produce as noble Effects as any one Medicine now known It is the business of a Physician to consider the Nature and Constitution of his Patient in all respects and to proportion the Doses of Medicines according to what their Stomachs and Natures will bear I hope there was never any one so wild because Oyl of Vitriol is recommended in Fevers as to give it alone without a Vehicle But what you charge upon Oyl of Vitriol may be retorted upon most other Medicines of an active Nature Because an ounce of Calamelanos given at once to a Man will scarce fail of killing him I suppose that don 't deter you from giving a few grains of it to a young Child An ounce of Rozin of Jallup will kill a Plow-man and yet a few grains may with safety be given to a very tender constitution I could retort a great many things of this kind upon you were it not altogether needless for that Physician that gives a Medicine without first considering it in all its circumstances deserves to be banished from the society of Mankind and he that knows most is generally most cautious and altho I am so clamour'd at by my Brethren yet I can boldly say that the greatest slips that ever I have made have been from my over-cautiousness and I will rather choose to commit three faults from that than occasion the loss of one Man's Life from rashness and inconsiderateness What you have objected against Oyl of Vitriol taken alone has long since been objected by other People and the Objections fairly answered I shall presume to transcribe what I have met with in an Apologetick Dialogue between Philerastus and Chemista upon the same Subject Theatrum Chymicum pag. 86 87. Vol. I. Ph. Absit tamen Vitriolum Chalcithin atque alia idgenus leprosa impura atque corrodentia mineralia in humanum Corpus ingeri ad perpetuam tui Nominis ipsiusque artis infamiam usurpari Ch. Quid ita Hospes mi Ph. Nam cum Oleum Vitrioli etiam à Gesnero toties laudatum Scutellam Stanneam exedit quit simile periculum in Stomacho nostro membraneo non meritò verebitur Ch. Aspera tu quidem tela elidis sed quae facilè retundi queant à Philosopho excitato Nam si Oleum Vitrioli propter Stannum ex eo exesum humano corpore exulabit quid Vino sublimato Aceti Mellisque Spiritu quid tale Limonum Citrorumque succo fiet Nam eorum unumquodque Stannum absumere vel semestris Medicus agnoscit Ph. At non tarn parvo temporis Curriculo atque Spiritus ille vitriolatus Ch. Imo sanê minori si cum nostro illius exhibendi modo conferatur ratio
nollem enim te aliquem Chemistam tam stupido ingenio praedilum existimare ut Oleum Vitrioli nullis aliis mixtum Liquoribus propinare ausus sit sed potiùs ad aquae Rosaceae vel alterius Liquoris libram Olei Vitriolati guttas totidem adjicere quod ad aciditatem comparandam satis esse queant cui Liquori Oleo Vitreoli accrescenti si tantum Stanni immerseris quantum Aceto nullum non invoco supplicium nisi Stannum multo magis corrosum reperiatur Verum si hoc Oleum Vitrioli vel etiam Sulphuris in usu esse non mereatur propter erosionem quo se conferent cantharides à Galeno inter ea Medicamenta relatae quae ne gustare quidem audeas propter summam putrefactionem atque erosionem tamen veterum ferè omnium atque multorum Neotericorum praxes eas ad Urinam provocandam penisque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suscitandam Venerem usurpant atque commendant Ph. Nequeo diffiteri sed tamen parva quantitate eas prescribunt non nisi aliis convenientibus rebus admixtas quo quidem modo exhibitae non solum innoxiae perhibentur sed etiam persalutares Ch. Vera praedicas atque ego itidem respondeo Olea praedicta debita quantitate mixtura praèparatione exhibita tantum non corrodere corpus humanum sed ejus spiritus reficere Febres extinguere obstructiones aperire putredinem arcere venena exigere sitim sedare Ulcera percurare omnesque illas vires cum laude sua plurima exercere quas illi Gesnerus Epistola ad Cosmam Medicum aut Paracelsus in Libro de Vitriolo ascripserunt I could produce a great deal more of this kind from many of the antient Chymists who were honest men and who to the best of their knowledg did endeavour to reform Physick and to put Practitioners upon a right bottom But they were defective in so many things that their undertakings wanted success tho from some of their Writings honest and inquisitive men may receive great advantage Altho I shall not trouble you with any thing more from the Antient Chymists yet I shall make bold to transcribe a Letter I lately received out of Yorkshire there being something in it that relates to the point in hand Tertio Non. Martii Vir Dignissime TRactatus tuos summis cum deliciis voluptate perlegi tuum in promovendo illo Nobilissimo Medicinae studio institutum maxime demiror in humani generis bonum universale Macte Bone Vir Melioribus Avibus Momas aspernare Te certum faciam me acidis uti 10. annis elapsis summo cum successu Alkalia tantum ut absorbentia Acidi aestimo assiduâ experientiâ videatur quantum valet appetitus digestio quid dubius est hoc in casu quam Alkalia quid melius Acidis Acidum est tantum solum fermentum Ventriculi quid Coward audet dicere nemo advertet Omnibus in seculis praeteritis quot Morbos edomuit Acidum non necessarium est enumerare Virum quendam habui putridâ Febre laborantem quem tantum Sp. Vitrioli in aquâ frigidâ Deo favente restitui in Haemoptoe Hydrope fluxu Muliebri fere omnibus in ventriculi Morbis Scorbuto infinitos fere curavi Acidis eommixtis in vehiculis appropriatis exhibitis Equitem Vicinum meum calculo cum Paralisi Haemorrhodali fluxu decumbentem quodam Acido ad priorem valetudinem reduxi ab Orco detraxi immo quamvis in Hypocondriaca affectione Acidum culpamus tamen quid emolumenti in isto Proteo accidit à quodam Acido non est nunc enarrandi locus hic Acidus meus liquor omnes obstructiones reserat flatum Gas illud Sylvestre compescit omnes istos motus irregulares componit instar fulminis si quicquid in Praxi vel Lectione meâ occurrit summâ cum sedulitate ad te mi bone Vir mittetur Nam tui favoris sum studiosissimus Jo. Watson Postscript Be pleased to direct a Letter to me to be left with Mr. Uster Apothecary in Burnsly in Yorkshire by Doncaster Bag. I beg a Literal Correspondence and shall communicate to you some Acid Arcana for that name they deserve I hope what I have said is sufficient to remove that Mighty Objection about the hazard of giving Oyl of Vitriol alone But I might have spared my self this trouble for I am almost positive that there is not any Physician in Christendom of any business tho never so great an assertor of the usefulness of Alkalies who has not some time or other made use of even Oyl of Vitriol that dangerous Acid but how they can answer for it I cannot tell for if Acids are the cause of Diseases how they dare with a good Conscience give even the most temperate Acids to their Patients I cannot understand and I am sure they themselves can give no reason for it But I believe it is from a conviction of Conscience that nothing is to be done without them Again if Acids were so pernicious to Mankind as some People would make us believe I wonder that the College of Physicians don 't unanimously petition the Parliament to prohibit the Importation of Oranges in such vast quantities as we now have ' em You greatly harp upon that string that Acids held in the Mouth won't quench the violent Thirst of Hydropical People to which I answer that it is impossible when the whole Mass of Blood and Lympha are contaminated with Alkalious Particles that the washing the Mouth only with Acids should take away the Thirst when the parts are continually washed with the contaminated Juices and so of consequence the particles of the Acid must be soon obtunded But however nothing is more grateful or delightful to an Hydropical Person than a slice of Lemon or any such thing Common Salt I allow will excite Thirst but not quatenus Acid for Spirit of Salt will take it off as soon as any thing But Sir I do assure you I have stumbled more at this one thing viz. Common Salt's exciting Thrist than at any thing else besides and therefore have spared no cost in making Experiments to find out the reason of it at last after much labour and sweat I found there was no Salt but what had more or less of a damn'd thing call'd Bittern mixt with it of which you may be perfectly inform'd at any Salt Works now this Bittern is the most corroding fixt Alkaly in Nature and altho it be inconsiderable in quantity in respect of the Acid the Salt contains yet it will fix it self upon the parts after the Acid of the Salt is all dissolved and so excite Thirst Of this Bittern you may expect more in another place for had I not had a design to please and satisfie you I would not at all have taken notice of it here because the allaying of violent Thirsts I only attribute to manifest Acids and common Salt not being one