The True METHOD Of Curing Consumptions Wherein 1. The Vulgar Method is discovered to be useless and pernicious 2. A New Method by safe pleasant and effectual Remedies is describ'd 3. The Original and Immediate Cause of this Distemper explain'd And 4. Several Remarkable Observations on persons lately Cured by the same Method related Particularly The Case of Mr. Obrian whom the Author undertook by his Majesties Command with an Account of a Cure performed on a Person of Quality at Paris and several others By SAMVEL HAWORTH M. D. LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1683. TO Charles II. KING OF Great BRITAIN FRANCE IRELAND May it please your Majesty AS there is no Science Art or Faculty so much improved of late as that of Physic so I am certain there is no Prince in the World ever gave so great Incouragement to the Promoters of this Faculty as your Sacred Majesty For what greater Reward can a dilligent Enquirer into Natures Mysteries be ambitious of than the Smiles and Candid Aspect of so gracious a Soveraign upon his painful Endeavours Among the many Aspirers after some noble Attainment in the Medic Faculty whom your Majesty hath graciously vouchasafed to take notice of I the unworthiest of your Majesties Subjects do here with all due Submission and Thankfulness to your Majesty reckon my self one For no sooner did the rumour of my success in Curing Consumptive Persons by a new and differing Method arrive to your Majesties Ears but your Majesty resolved to satisfie your Royal Curiosity in the truth of it whereupon your Majesty Ordered me to endeavour the Cure of Mr. Kenedy Obrian which was accordingly performed to your Majesties great satisfaction since which several other Cures have been Effected in Cases of the like Nature The deplorable Condition Mr. Obrian was in when I first undertook him your Majesty well remembers Now the sense of your Majesties Candor and Benevolence toward me in this thing hath incouraged me to prefix your Majesties Name to his small unpolish'd Tract Presuming that I have already tho undeservedly obtained so great a measure of your Majesties Favour as to implore your Royal Patronage Withal I cannot but humbly acquaint your Majesty that altho your Majesties Candor towards me next to that Divine Providence which makes my Endeavours successful hath been my greatest Encouragement yet my Enemies abroad have been almost indefatigable of discourage me Envy and Malevolence have so predominated in the hearts of some that they have made a randevouz of all their Strength and Forces those mischievous Machines and Engines of Malice Hatred Obloquy Prejudice Lies Backbitings and uncharitable Censures to blast and ruin me So that it is easie to conjecture how this Innocent Partus will be received by the hands of those cruel Censurists who so malign its Author It is not hard to phansie how it will be kick'd about and buffeted hiss'd at and derided dam'd and obraided by their desperate Tongues It is impossible such a pitiful helpless Infant should survive the successive Clamours of those whose Interests it is to hate and back-bite me unless so Gracious and Compassionate a Patron as your Majesty will deign to cherish it It is just now going to run the Gantlet and 't will certainly perish and be knock'd down to the ground by the innumerous thumps and blows of those Malevolent Persons that stand prepared to strike it unless it be cloathed and defended by the Coat-Armour of your Royal Favour It is therefore Great Sir with all possible Submission and Reverence that I lay this Treatise at the Feet of your Gracious Majesty humbly assuring your Majesty that altho it be already Printed yet it shall never be published to the Eyes of the World unless your Majesty will first signifie your gracious Acceptance of it The Copies that are now Printed shall either lie dormant till they are eaten by Worms or else be given to the Flames as unworthy of humance Inspection if your Majesty refuse to receive and countenance it But I have already so far Experienced your Royal Candor as that I cannot now despair of your Gracious Clemency That your Majesty may live for ever that your Royal Blood may eternally Circulate in its proper Vessels that every part of your Sacred Body may regularly perform their proper Functions to Perpetuity that your Health and Wealth may be Adequate to your Grace and Goodness and that a Crown of Glory may be your everlasting Portion is the real desire of Great Sir Your Majesties most Submissive and most Devoted Subject Haworth November 13th 1682. The Authors Apology for some Invectives in the ensuing Discourse INvectives are sometimes very opportune especially when against those whose Malevolent Minds cause their extravagant Tongues to utter such uncharitable censuring Expressions as justly deserve them That what sharp Invective Expressions may be let fall in the ensuing Discourse are nothing but what I have been highly provok'd to any judicious person may easily determine for whatsoever Reflections there may be upon any particular persons tho not therein nominated they are only upon those persons who have railed against calumniated back-bited and belied me tho what I have here dicovered of them is the real truth There are some Physicians in London who because some of their Patients have left them and consulted me have been so wickedly censorious as to tell the World I was a meer Pretender and so far from being a Scholar as that I could not write my own Name or speak a Word of Greek or Latin when they themselves never discoursed with me in their lives Others have made it their whole business to pry into my concerns to find fault with my proceedings and if a Patient hapned to die under my hands that perhaps was almost resigning when I was first call'd for this is proclaimed by them as a grand Miscarriage when their Patients do all successively retire into another World and not the least notice taken So that the two grand Arguments that they insist upon in their Endeavours to make me odious and so discourage their Patients from coming to me are to impose upon the Faith of People that I am illiterate and insuccessful in answer to the first it would be impertinence and immodesly for me to tell the World that I am a Scholar but thus much I am urged to declare in my own Defence that my Education and Advantages have not come short of theirs and if I still remain illiterate I am a Fool and a Dunce for not improving them besides he that condemns me for an Illiterate Emperie is impudent in reflecting upon the Honourable Colledg of Physicians in London for I was examined by the President and Electors of that Colledg and by them deemed worthy to be admitted to Practice Physic as appears by the Diploma which they gave me with the Seal of the Colledg In Answer to the second Basis or Foundation on which they build the
Indispositions have their rise and origin sharp pointed pungent crooked and hooky Particles vellicate the Membranes cause Acute Pains and are difficultly removed while the smoother ones glide about with more ease and are sooner exterminated some are bigger in magnitude and apt to create Obstructions especially when their shape is not adaequate to the several pores of the Body destin'd for Secretion and the small Ductus's some sticking and glutinous Particles of the Blood are linck'd in with them and so great Obstructions made while the lesser Corpuscles cannot so much injure the parts likewise those that are violently agitated in the Blood cause greater Ebullitions and consequently do more mischief when those that are more dull and slow in Motion cannot hurry the Juices about with that velocity and consequently not hurt so much For instance There are some Particles which often affect our Bodies which are Tetrahedic or Pyramidal in Figure somewhat large in Magnitude but slow in Motion these we call Frigorific or Cold Particles which when our Bodies are exposed to a great company of them they sometimes enter the Pores of the Body and joyn themselves with the serous or phlegmatic Particles of the Blood and are then secerned by some of the Glandules and thrown off by the Emunctories of the Body either upon the Pallat into the Nostrils or upon the Lungs whence Catarrh's Coryza's and Bronchus's do proceed Sometimes the Particles quite close the Pores hinder Perspiration by not permitting Nature to expel other unwelcome Particles which were before in the Blood and which she continually thrusts out that way which Particles when pent in by their pricking Points corroding Angles or Velocity of Motion forthwith cause Inflammations and end in Quinsies Pleurisies Reumatisms Empyems Feavers or other Acute Maladies That there are such Particles as these and that Cold is no Negative but a Positive Quality is evidently enough demonstrated by Gassendus in his Epicurean Phylosophy and by our own Countreyman Dr. Charleton in his Philosophia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charletoniana and likewise by the Honourable Robert Boyle the Mirrour of this Age for Learning and Sagacity That these Particles do not always injure the Body by Obstructing the Pores and hindring Perspiration but likewise by entring the Body and uniting themselves with the Serum or thinner part of the Blood is manifest because we often experience the Body to be injured by Cold when onely one part hath been exposed thereto and the whole Body besides enjoy a free Perspiration as for instance let a Man put his Foot or any other Member into cold Water where I am sure a good number of these Frigorific Particles float especially in Winter and continue it there for some considerable space and in the mean time let the other parts of his Body perspire being kept as warm or warmer than at other times yet he shall receive apparent prejudice from this Experiment For either a Cough Running at Nose Hoarsness or some other Symptomes shall convince any one that he hath got a Cold as the vulgar express it There are other Particles of a quire differing Nature viz. sphaeric or round in Figure exile or small in Magnitude and swift in Motion these we call Calorific or Hot Particles The chief Seminary of these Particles in Unctious Matter as Oils Grease Fat and Sulphureous Things That Hot and Cold Particles are the Seminaries of several Diseases is to me very demonstrable but besides these there are certainly numerous forts of Particles of different Figures Now this Hypothesis is so far from being a fois ted Fiction of my own that altho it was never yet prosecured with that strict scrutiny and diligence as it might deservedly have been yet it is that which many of our later Authors drive at For what reason can we give why one Distemper is Epidemic at one time another at other Seasons But because the Air at those Seasons is fraught with swarms of such contagious Particles as are the banes of those dire Pestilential Griefs as our Exquisite Dr. Sydenham declares in his Learned Treatise of Acute Distempers Mr. Boyle also seems to be a Strenuous Abettor of the Doctrine of Particles in his Corpusculorian Philosophy and the Famous Dr. Willis is a great Friend to this Hypothesis tho I must confess he favours the Doctrine of the Five Chymic Principles in his Pharm Râ—â— or a Treatise of the Operation of Medicines upon Mans Body Whence have Emetics Diuretics Diaphoretics Cathartics Hypnotics c. their various Effects upon the Body but from their consisting of Particles of various Configurations What occasions those cruciating pains in the Gout but some of the more Austere Particles of Claret or pungent Corpulcles of some other ingested Matter sticking to the Nerves or Tendons and so pricking their tender Fibres The Phaenomena of many more Distempers might be thus solved It is agreed upon by all our Modern and Ingenious Philosophers and Physicians That all Smells are made by the small Effluviums of Bodies and distinguish't by their differing Figures whereby they affect the Olfactory or Smelling Nerves and cause Sensation That Colours arise from nothing but the different Reflection of Light according to the Position and Configuration of the Particles that are visible on the superfice of Bodies affecting the Optic Nerves That Tastes are discriminated by nothing but the differing shapes and figures of Particles in Meats and Drinks and things offered to the Gust and striking the Organs of Taste differing ways Thus an Acid or Sowre Taste proceeds from exceeding sharp Particles pricking upon the Nerves destin'd for Taste as in Vinegar the Austere Taste is when those Acid Particles are blunted and made more obtuse by the union of some grosser Terrestrial Particles with them as in Claret c. It is also granted by some of our best Authors that the Spirits Sulphurs Salts Phlegm and Earth extracted from Bodies and received for Principles of mixed Bodies were never praeoxstent in those Bodies from which they are extracted but are onely the Particles of Bodies artificially reduced to that form and fashion by the force of Fire How do Pearl Coral Crabs Eyes and other Alkali's sweeten the Blood as we commonly tell the Vulgar they do not from any intrinsic dulcifying property in them but by their absorbing and licking up those sowre and unwholesome Particles mixed with the Blood and Juices for we find by common Experiment that an Alkali will unite it self with an Acid and closing in with its hooks it will obtund its sharpness and pungency as may be seen by the mixing of Salt of Tartar with Spirit of Vitriol and likewise if you Distil Coral Pearl Crabs Eyes or almost any Alkali with the sowrest Vinegar it will utterly deprive it of allits sharpness and make it an imsipid Liquor meerly by licking up the Acid Particles that gave it that sour Relish Then if Colours Tastes Smells and other supposed Qualities which daily affect our Senses if the Operation of Medicines on
Humane Bodies and the Cure of Distempers be all performed by Particles of sundry shapes who will deny that the Basis Source Fountain and Minera of whatsoever Diseases at any time insult over the exquisitely fabricated Humane Body is to be attributed solely to the differing Figures Mixtures Motions and Magnitudes of Particles From hence it is evident that since the Fall Man is continually obnoxious to some Distemper or other and his Body never free from some or other of these unwelcome Particles yet the most robust Constitutions and those that are careful to secure their Health by forbearing those Meats that are most fraught with these Particles avoiding that Air that abounds with them and preventing those External Accidents that may put them into violent Motions in the Body I say these persons are less prejudiced by them than others Thus the Distempers which accost the tender Bodies of Infants proceed from some Male-figured Particles affecting them for Infants are no more secured from the Influx of such Corpuscles than Bodies of greater bulk and maturity The very Seed whereof Infants are generated is not exempted from all manner of Heterogeneous Corpuscles neither is that Liquor that nourisheth the Foetus in the Womb abstracted from whatsoever Corruption the Air Food and Body of the Mother imparting several of these contaminating Effluviums and when the Embrio becomes a perfect Foetus and extricates it self from the close confinement of it's Mothers Womb the number of those Particles is augmented and these hereditary ones are soon visited and accompanied with adventitious ones every mouthful of Air and drop of Sustenance contains in it some Seminals of future Maladies unless either Nature by her own natural Evacuations or else some of her Hand-maids Ministers or Auxiliaries I mean Physicians by proper safe and adapted Remedies banish and expel them For tho Nature for the most part doth throw off these troublesome guests thro her proper Emunctories with the Excrementitious Parts unfit for Nourishment and this successively as fast as they enter the Body yet oft times especially in such delicate Bodies Nature cannot but be too impotent to engage with them all being frequently diverted by some external Accidents and Irregularities from performing her expected Functions hence several Heterogeneous Particles throng in upon the poor Babe and affect it according to their Figures Motions c. and if special care be not taken in applying fit Remedies the Disease soon surpasseth the Skill of the ablest Physician to cure it They Seminalities of all Diseases consisting in some kind of Particles Consumptions must proceed from a particular sort or perhaps more than one sort of Inimical Corpuscles affecting the Lungs so that the prime and original Cause which is nevertheless the immediate Cause of a Consumption is here more than probably demonstrated for that a Phthisis or Consumption proceeds from some Particles either Vitiating or Impeding some Functions of the Body is evident from the contagion and spreading Quality of the Disease and from its being Endemic There is no one Distemper belonging to Mans Body the Plague Pox and Leprosie excepted so contagious or catching as a Consumption for we see oftentimes if a healthful lusty vigorous Man marry a Consumptive Woman he shall hardly live with her many years without some Symptomes of the same Distemper in his own Body Nay if we will believe Credible Authors the wearing the Cloaths of Consumptive Bodies drinking after them or sitting near them and so drawing in some of their Breath hath been the occasion of several persons falling into this lingring Malady and which way this can be imagined to be done unless the Doctrine of Particles be admitted I cannot conjecture This therefore by the way may caution us how indiscreetly those persons act who permit young Children to lie with old or consumptive persons and how dangerous and destructive it is to the Bodies of those tender Creatures Those Morbific Particles which swarm in the Diseased Bodies of Consumptive Persons wherewith their very Breath is contaminated and which fly out thro the Pores of the Body in perspiration do enter the Bodies of those who do accompany them and so create the same Effects in their new Tabernacles What other Reason can be alledged why this Distemper should be more frequent and endemic in some Countries than in others but because those Particles which occasion it nfluence some particular Climate more than others being some malign Steams from the Earth or Sea or else some Venomous Effluvia brought by the Wind from some remote parts of the World 'T is by these pernicious Particles that the Noble Ferment of the Stomach is depraved and turned into another spurious Ferment and hereby the Foundation of the Distemper is first laid for no sooner is this unparallelled Ferment of the Stomach vitiated but the Nutritive Juice receives such different Alterations from what it should be as that it is deprived of its Balsamic Nourishing Faculty For the Chyle being vitiated in the Stomach becomes the Seminary of this Disease which being transmitted thus corrupted and depraved into the other Digestions draws them likewise into consent and so vitiates one Digestion after another until the Disease it self appears in its full dimensions and latitude of Symptomes It is by these spurious Particles that the Succus Pancreaticus or Pancreatic Juice is also vitiated which is another step to this Distemper from hence likewise the Chyle becomes Crass and Viscid and cannot pass thro the Glandules of the Mesentery which Glandules are by Nature instituted for Strainers to Seâ—â—â—â— that Liqoor from its Foeces or Excrements Hereby these Glandules become hard and knotty as it is manifest in the Diffection of Bodies defunct of this Malady so that now only the more thin and serous parts of the Chyle are transmitted into the Thoracic Duct and thence to the Heart hence the Blood in time must needs be depauperated for want of a supply of better Chyle and hereby a Marasmus or Consumption must needs ensue 'T is from some of these Mortal Particles that all Rheums and Catarrhs have their origin and that a continued Catarrh doth at last produce a Phthisis and Tabid Consumption is confirmed by the woful Experience of Thousands who at first slighting this small primary Symptome it hath quickly terminated in a Cough difficult enough to Cure That a Catarrh is created from the mixture of Frigorific or Cold Particles which Particles are very destructive to Mans Health is evident because upon the taking of great Cold a Rheum or Catarrh doth most usually ensue as likewise a Cough and Hoarsness this may caution us to endeavour to avoid Cold as very destructive to Humane Sanity for these cold Pyramidal little Bodies mixing themselves with the more thin and serous parts of the Blood are by the endeavours of Nature to free the Blood of what is Heterogeneous or Dissimular to it thrown off upon the Glandules of the Throat this falling upon the Larynx
our Indeavours that we can be discouraged by those base Reflections that he spues forth from his sordid Mind which are the products of nothing but Hatred and Malevolence I shall therefore here present the Reader with some Observations of my own upon Consumptive Persons and by those Observations make it evident that the trite vulgar Method will never reach the bottom of this Disease but that another kind of Method is absolutely necessary 'T is not the Pectoral Decoction so much used by Physicians that will remove the Cause of this spreading Malady What doth it signifie to dawb and plaister the inward Parts with Balsoms Lohoch's or Eclegms and such like nasty sticking Medicines When all their Vertue if they have any is gone before they can attach the part affected what benefit can be expected from greasing the Whistle with Oils And what do the cooling Emulsions the insipid Snail-water and other refrigerating Slops profit None of these things are refined enough to penetrate into the obscure Recesses where the Seeds of the Distemper lurk nor do they consist of Particles any way adapted to relieve distressed Nature Thousands are every day hurried out of this World for want of better Remedies Is it rational to believe that feeble Nature is any way cherish'd by such dull and clogging or cold spiritless stuff Are there no Etherial Spirits nor Eradiating Sulphurs nor rich Mineral Tinctures nor brisk Elixirs to be foud by Art which may prove Restoratives O the idleness of slothful Man Can a Physician who would be esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minister of Nature content himself to go on in a trite beaten road and prescribe for weak emaciated Bodies nothing but fulsome Hodge-podges and loathsome Mixtures Certainly the true genuine Sons of Aesculapius are more diligent and consciencious Is it not a shame to our Profession for a Patient to languish under a Physician 's hands perhaps for a whole year in a deep Consumption and have nothing prescribed but mixtures of Oil of Almonds and clogging Syrups Milk-water Snail-water the nasty Syrup of Garlick Conserve of Roses the Syrup or Juice of Turneps the fulsome indigested Syrup of Brimstone and such like Medicines Perhaps a stinking Issue may be prescribed or a troublesome Seton as if the Distemper would jump out at the Vent sometimes cruel tormenting Blisters and the Head must be shaved forsooth because we would not prescribe out of the Fashion and Plaisters must be applyed which by a Magnetic Influence keep the Rheume from falling upon the Lungs But will this cure a Consumption No sure I do here challenge any Physician that dares to say he ever cured one Patient of a confirmed Phthisis or Consumption by any of the above-mentioned things notwithstanding the are so much applauded and used Now what can the reason be that those Physicians who pretend to be exactly Methodic and Dogmatic in their Practice will still persist in their old thread-bare Method notwithstanding they find no success in it I am apt to fancy the reason is because they know no better Medicines and are very loth to bestow the pains to find them out and perhaps they being so unaccustomed to search into the hidden Mysteries of their Mistriss Nature think it but in vain to begin and so content themselves with the Medicines of honest old Galen and Hippocrates and their followers and so let them go on we know better things I can by my own particular Experience declare that there are such Medicines in the World which by degrees will exterminate and destroy those male-figur'd Particles which are the Tormentors of Man's Body in this Distemper provided the Body be not reduced to so infirm a condition that Nature cannot be supported till such Remedies have affected what they would otherwise undoubtedly do There is a particular Remedy which immediatly abates that Feaver which usually attends this Malady which is no cooling Medicine but is impregnated with a Faculty of stopping the motion of those Particles which create that fervour in the Blood and in time of freeing the Blood of them all This is the Feaver which Physicians improperly call a Hectic Feaver or an Habitual Feaver They will tell you it is a Feaver in the Flesh and Muscular Parts of the Body and not at all in the Blood though I cannot for my life but think that there is no such thing as an Habitual Feaver nor a Feaver of the Flesh a Feaver being an actual Ebullition of the Blood which in a Phâ—hisis is not constant but ariseth at some particular times especially an hour or two after eating or in an evening and this Ebullition of the Blood I should say of the Flesh is caused by the motion and agitation of some incongruous Particles Besides the little Logic that I have obtained tells me that an Habitual Feaver which is an much as an Habitual Motion Ebullition or an Habitual Action is no less than a contradiction There are other safe and most potent Medicines which I frequently exhibit in these difficult Cases that will absorb those tickling and pricking Particles which produce the Cough and hereby great ease to the Patient is immediately procured We have other penetrateing Medicines which reduce the Functions of the Body to their Eutaxy and regular Order and so when the Cause of the Malady is removed and the Functions regulated Nutrition is again augmented and the Body grows fatter and stronger every day the whole Crasis of the Body is meliorated at last all bad Symptoms cease and the wonted and desired sanity doth then ensue Is it not most censentaneous to reason that those Medicines whether Vegital Animal or Mineral wherein the pure balsamic lively Parts are separated by Art from the more impure grossy and dreggy Feculencies are most effectual Medicines to answer the Indications of this Malady Certainly the most refined and depurate Medicines the very Quintessences of Drugs excel those that retain in them their earthy and phlegmatic Parts which are exhibited without any Depuration either by Digestion in which is comprehended Fermentation Solution Extraction and Putrifaction or Distillation which Preparations are not easily perform'd and therefore so much rejected There is required no small Labour and Diligence to the true Preparation of any good Medicine but to find out Remedies which do exactly quadrate with the Symptomes of any one particular Distemper is a work of extraordinary pains study and scrutiny and is to be indeavour'd by none but such as are resolute fix'd and indefatigable in diging in the secret Mines of Nature 'T is reasonable that those who seek Jems and precious Minerals should dig to find them and what Jewel is comparable to a duely prepared Medicine effectual in the Cure of any one Distemper The several Remedies which I exhibit in a Phthisis or Consumption are most refined and purified Medicines which indeed were not obtained without much labour and industry Now in the sequel of this Discourse it cannot be expected I should divulge the
and the puddle Water or thick Pectoral Decoction or clogging stuffing obstructing â—ohoch's and Electuaries I say when they have taken all manner of these kind of Slops that can be invented and be continued a whole year in such a Method without the least benefit or amendment the very same persons have by our Method and Energetic Medicines been restored in less than one quarter of the time to perfect Healthâ— witness the subsequent Observations As to the second grand Intention I dare upon my oath avouch that there is not one Medicine I use but what is so safe that a Child of a month old may take it without any prejudice And tho they are pure refined volatile etherial subtil and penetrating Medicines yet they are as innocent as Mothers Milk and to satisfie the incredulity of any I will at any time take twice the quantity my self of any Medicine that I exhibit to any Patient I likewise challenge the whole World to accuse me of having ever given one Grain of Physic to any particular person whereby there ensued any apparent prejudice But that the trite comun Method is dangerous and destructive to thousands is a matter of no great difficulty to prove As for the third Intention I must needs declare that no Medicines in the World can possibly be pleasanter than those I mentioned And altho in the vulgar Method such sulsom nasty Medicines are prescribed that the Patient loaths the very sight and smell of them and by taking them his Appetite is quite obtunded and a continual nauseating and aversion to all Food and Physic too attends him nay besides vast quantities of filthy Potions which he is compelled to gusle down and the bitter-sweet maukish Electuaries and strong-scented Pills which he is forced to swallow frequently at the very thoughts of which his Stomach riseth yet besides all this he must and that by all means have a foetid Issue running upon his Arm or Leg whereby those Members especially the Arm are much weakned and emaciated the Matter and Steam which reaks from it while dressing is enough to give a Horse a vomit the Arm or Leg in the mean time is galled sore and inflamed all which if it would any way conduce to the Patients recovery might be dispensed with but we never find any success attend these formal Prescription only the Doctor resolves to prescribe something for his Fee hit or miss and thinks the most probable way to hit is to imitate the comun Vogue of Physicians whereby likewise he shall shew himself to be a Methodic and Dogmatic Physician because his Bills forsooth upon the Apothecaries file do exactly agree with the fashion and custom of other Prescribers and so he passeth for an Able Man a Man of excellent Judgment when all this while what he prescribed is nothing but that which any one may read in Sennertus or Riverius's Praxis Thus the Patient is to no purpose tormented and that extensive noble and improvable Faculty of Physic is imagin'd to have arrived at its Ne plus ultra and these rare Doctors have hoarded up every inch and scrap of it in their profound Noddles witness their learned Bills in the Apothecaries Shops But on the contrary our Medicines are so pleasant and grateful to the Stomach that never any Patient complained of them neither do we ever prescribe those unprofitable painful Issues and Setons c. That which the next occurs to our Consideration and Enquiry before we relate our Practic Observations in Consumptions is to examine the Cause of this Distemper which if we a little explain the manner of the Operation or our Medicines will the better be understood The immediate proxim Cause of those Affects which appear in Consumptions tending to Exulceration saith Riverius is a sharp eroding Humour flowing in upon the Lungs or generated in them The Renowned Franciscus De Le Boe Sylvius in his Praxis Medicinae tells us That a Phthisis or Consumption proceeds from some Vitiated Lympha falling down upon the Aspera Arteria and so in time Affecting the Lungs Both which Opâ—nions are much what the same and tho I am unwilling to thwart or oppugn the Sentiments of either of those worthy Authors yet I shall endeavour to search more narrowly and enquire whether the true original Cause of this Distemper may not more probably be somewhat yet unexplain'd by the above-cited Authors I am apt to believe that the cause of the sharpness and eroding Quality of this Humour is yet in the dark and consequently the true Cause of the Distemper as latent as before It is an easie matter to say Pains in the Head Belly Limbs and other Acute Dolours proceed from a Humour as Vulgar Physicians express it but this is only to stop the Mouths of the Inquisitive Patient when he inquireth after the Cause of his Malady That which I have to offer to the perusal of the unbyassed Reader concerning the Cause of the Disease we are discoursing of is this When God first made Man he gave him Temperamentum ad Pondus or such an exact Temperament that his Body would have been perennial and have remain'd as vigorous and spritely to the extensive duration of perpetuity as it was at its first Creation had he continued in that State but when he by his folly had revolted from hâ—s Maker he justly reduced him to a State of Mortality not by immediately altering the Crasis or Constitution of his Body but by mixing a variety of ill figur'd Particles inimical to the texture of a Humane Body with that Air which he must necessarily receive into his Lung and Blood and also with that Food from which he must expect his Sustenance and thus these Particles find shelter in our Bodies some of them being received from our Parents and so hereditary others afterward imbibed from the Air and from our own Nutriment these were some of the Effect of Gods Curse for our wilful Rebellion It is from these Particles that our Juices are vitiated the Vessels of our Bodies obstructed its Organs impaired the whole Crasis of the Microcosm reduced to an Ataxy and the Genuine Functions of Nature diverted and hereby a Thousand Maladies accost a Humane Body For as there are several sorts of these Particles differing in Figure and Magnitude some of which impregnate the Air at some Seasons in some places and also inhabit some kinds of Diet and other shaped Particles either bigger or lesser ones swim about in the fluid Air at other Seasons in other Places and are multiply'd in some other sorts of Food So variety of Diseases are hereby created the Symptomes differing according to the Number Shape and Motion of these several sorts of Particles when they praedominate in the Humane Body Thus from a great quantity of some Particles heterogeneous to the Particles of the Humane Blood or to the several Pores which Nature hath formed in the Body for Secretion several great Disorders arise when from few of the same smaller
Ingredients of which those particular Remedies are compounded and the manner of their Preparations they being Elixirs Tinctures Powders Extracts c. adapted to every particular Symptome of this Malady and not one particular Receipt or Medicine as some have ignorantly conjectur'd Yet thus far I shall gratifie the Reader to acquaint him in what kind of Method I proceed in these cases which Method I esteem most Dogmatic and I am sure it is most effectual and beneficial how methodic soever the dull comun Method may seem to those that dote upon it I do likewise here declare that the following Method hath cured several persons when they have been given over by eminent Physicians after they had used their utmost endeavours for their Recovery I do also aver that by Gods blessing where the Distemper hath not made too great a procedure and so far vitiated the Functions of the Noble Parts as to render the Parts themselves putrid rotten and exulcerated which doth not usually happen till the Patient hath laboured a considerable time under this Malady or perhaps received prejudice from the unprofitable and pernicious Medicines vulgarly exhibited this Method will in a short time perfectly restore them and if they come in the beginning the expected Success will certainly ensue To this purpose as soon as I am sent for to a Patient languishing under this Distemper or labouring under any particular Symptomes of it I first inquire what Physicians he hath made use of and what kind of Medicines he hath taken I comunly find a whole train of Galenic Medicines upon the Table or Cupboards-head I then adjure him by his expected future health to meddle with none of them but to throw away all those stuffing Electuaries Lohoch's Eclegms and Bolus's contained in the Gally-pots and likewise whole Bottles of raw cold phlegmatic distilled Waters also the thick muddy pectoral Decoction and the stupefying Narcotic Pills or Potions and all manner of crude indigested Drenches for these are the only Medicines I ever find where a Galenist had been tampering I likewise forbid him the use of all salt Meats all Food hard of Digestion as Beef Pork Bacon c. and all crude Sallads Herbs and Roots all Beer and Ale unless now and then one small Draught to gratifie him all sorts of Wine unless sometimes a Glass of good old Malago qualified with the Yolk of a raw new laid Egg which I allow but to some in some particular cases The Diet I prescribe him is Capons Chickens Veal Lamb Rabbits Partridge and such like easily concocted Flesh but to be eaten in a smal quantity once a day at other times Water-gruel Milk-pottage Rice-milk diluted with a proportionate quantity of Water and such kind of Spoon-meat which is soon assimulated and to gratifie a Patient we permit him to eat Jellies of Trotters Calfs-feet Harts-horn and Ivory tho they signifie little in reference to strengthen or nourish as is vulgarly credited His common Drink is either Milk and Water boil'd or a Ptisan which we order for him to drink of constantly if there be no looseness a Glass of Mead now and then is safely permitted As for the Therapeutic and Medicinal Part if we find the Vesicles of the Lungs obstructed which causeth difficulty of breathing we then exhibit some Doses of a curious flesh-colour'd Powder dissolved in a fit Vehicle which Powder is so penetrating that it immediately opens those grand Obstructions and soon removes that-straitness of Breast and Astmatic shortness of Breath which very much afflicts the Patient and to qualifie that thin salt corroding Liquor which creates a Catarrh falling upon the Lungs with a kind of tickling upon the Aspera Arteria and Larynx and fretting the Lungs we give a few drops of a Golden Tincture mixed in an apposite and proper Vehicle hereby that Juice or Liquor which is secerned by the Glandules of the Throat and not distilled from the Brain as the stubborn Galenist would have it the contrary being evidently demonstrated by some late ingenuous Writers is qualified and the Catarrh stopp'd But if this hath already proceeded farther and fix'd upon the Lungs an inveterate Cough very troublesome and painful we then give several Doses of our grand Antiphthisic Elixir which being constantly taken according to order methodically with other Medicines ordered for other Symptomes will gradually abate the Cough and give speedy ease to the Patient For the Feaver which usually attends a Phthisis which is one grand and wasting Symptome I prescribe an Antifebrile Essence or Extract which soon quells that spurious Fermentation or Ebullition in the Blood and consequently takes off that heat which afflicts the Body and more especially predominates in the Palms of the Hands and Soles of the Feet But when the Body is by a continued accumulation of vitious Particles in the Blood and Juices rendred lean the Blood being fraught with them becomes depauperate and Nutrition hindred the Members of the whole Body impoverished and emaciated we then exhibit our grand Antiphthisic Elixir with a penetrating white alkalisate Powder and a restorative red transparent Liquor of which we order the Patient to drink freely and frequently By which Method we seldom miss of the expected issue and success for those male-figur'd Corpuseles are abforb'd and lick'd up by our white Powder all manner of Obstructions opened by our brisk sprightly Elixir and Nourishment highly promoted and augmented by our restorative Liquor If a Diarrhaea or looseness attend the other Symptomes which oftentimes proves very dangerous and quickly reduceth the Patient into a weak condition we do not presently bung it up with binding restringent Medicines which are comunly but perniciously given but we order such Medicines as immediatly correct the sharp freting Humor and the looseness ceaseth of it self we use a sweetning or edulcorating Mixture and a corrected red Powder We have several other safe and effectual Medicines appropriated to other smaller Symptomes and lesser Accidents which occasionally happen in this Malady But these being the most remarkable Symptomes and the mentioned Medicines the strongest Hinges on which our Practice in this Distemper hangs it is not now requisite to nominate the lesser Symptomes or our less valuable Remedies We shall therefore refer the Reader to our Observations cited in the sequel of this Tract for a more full Narration of our Method and a Confirmation of the efficacy of our Medicines But this I have in short to premise in vindication of our Method which is that all our Medicines do more exactly answer the three grand Intentions of Physic than any other Medicines in the World ever yet found out The three grand Intentions are to cure cito tuto jucunde quickly safely and pleasantly As to the first I can safely say that whereas consumptive Phthisic and emaciated Men and Women have been kept under Cure a whole year taking the cold mortal Julebs the insipid refrigerating Snail and Milk Waters Medicines devoid of all Life Spirit or Energy
benefit I likewise ordered him a sort of small Ale to be brewed with several Ingredients and a Pectoral Balsamic Mixture By the frequent use of which Remedies I had so far patch'd him in one Month that I might have lawfully challenged the Ten Pound Library I should then have been furnished with Culpeppers English Dispensatory his Midwife his Legacy his Translation of Riverius and perhaps his Translation of Veslmgius's Anatomy I should likewise have had Salmon's English Dispensatory his Synopsis and his Doron Medicum and almost a hundred more English Receipt Books out of which I might have pick'd Recipe's enough to cure all the Horses in England For now the Patient had gain'd such a measure of Strength that he was able to walk about the Town and ride three or four Miles at at time his Cough was much mitigated his Breath lengthned and his Breast eased his Muscles plumped and enlarged his Rest and Sleep composed his Appetite sharpned Himself and Relations not a little transposed with joy and hopes I still ordered him Medicines of the same Nature in which method he persisted a Week or two longer and then found himself so invigorated that he thought it needless to take any thing more and therefore desired me to desist hereupon because he might not suspect that my Design in continuing him in that course and method was to squeez his Pocket as many Patients are apt to mistrust their Physicians of such a design I accordingly desisted and tho I knew there was an absolute necessity of his persisting in this course and method his Lungs being putrified and exulcerated required constant and continual patching yet such was my temper that I hated to expose my self to the censure of such base pecuniary Intentions But in five Weeks after this that which I fore-saw and expected hapned for by his riding upon those Downs and walking out in the cool Evenings such Bodies being very obnoxious to the injury of Cold he relapsed and all the former Symptomes returned I was now again sent for and intreated to use my skill and endeavour to restore him to which purpose I repeated the former Remedies with some small alterations which again so far recovered him as to enable him to walk abroad or ride as before But still the Purse being disgusted grumbled at parting with Fees and paying the Apothecaries Bills so that the Patient being possest that he should do very well without the constant use of those Restoratives which before kept him alive dismist me a second time and instead of living according to prescription nothing would please his Pallat but Salt Beef Pork Red Herrings Neats Tongues Bacon Cabbage and the most unwholsome Food he could invent he always phansied particularly one Night he Invited some of his Relations to Supper with him when sitting up very late he cramm'd his Stomach with a large quantity of Salt Roast Beef where with his Blood was immediately surfeited and the next Morning a high Feaver enflamed his whole Body and now all the cited Symptomes return with impetuous violence I was now a third time sent for but too late for when I came I found him panting upon the Bed unable to stir or speak I ordered him a high Restorative Cordial but all in vain so that in a few hours his Breath being so extream short and his Spirits and Strength quite exhausted he died his Relations were all satisfied that his days were shortned by his own neglect From the time of my coming to him to the time of his Death it was a whole year all which time he was kept alive meerly by Art and he might probably have been alive to this day had not his carelessness I would not willingly mention Covetousness been his ruin If any mistrusts the truth of what is here mentioned his surviving Brother and other Relations novv in the same Tovvn were Eye-witnesses of every thing here related and cannot but attest it Observation the Eleventh THe Case I have last mentioned re-minds me of a Cure since performed upon a Consumptive Body in the same Town which was as follows About Sixteen Months ago a Shop-keeper in Lewis Twenty three years of Age of a brisk sanguine Complexion by inordinate heating his Blood drinking while hot and too suddenly cooling himself got an extraordinary Surfeit which terminated in a very Acute Pleurisie He was then at his Fathers House at New Haven about five Miles from Lewis whither he sent for Dr. White an eminent and ingenious Physician in that Town who ordered a considerable quantity of blood to be detracted from his Arm but his Pleurisie not being quelled by the first Lance he ordered Phlebotomy to be repeated and took away several Ounces more from him he was a third time let blood At last the Inflamation ceased and the Pleurisie left him but by the profuse quantity of Blood which he lost in so short a time he was much debilitated and that Blood which remain'd in his Veins and Arteries was so depauperated that it was altogether unable to free it self from those Heterogeneous Particles it had imbibed in the Surfeit so that the Mass of Blood still remain'd impure the Concoctions depraved and his Appetite obtunded several altering Medicines were judiciously prescribed but nothing help'd him he still grew weaker fainter and leaner and instead of Agility encrease of Strength and Appetite a slow Feaver crept gradually upon him so that three Months were spent in following the Prescriptions of this Physician without any success unless in reference to the Pleurisie at last a Neighbouring Gentleman Uncle to the Patient asked the Doctor his real thoughts of him his answer was That he had no hopes of his Life but did believe that he would die in a little time I mention this not in the least to reflect on the Doctor but only to evidence the apparent danger the Patient was in hereupon by the desire of the Sick Person with the consent and advice of his Friends Neighbours and Relations I was sent for I found him in a very deplorable Condition and was the more discouraged because his Uncle told me that Dr. White whom I knew to be a Person of excellent Skill and Success judged him desperate His Pulse was very quick but languid he had a great Catarrh and a very bad Cough which came upon him by Fits in a most violent and impetuous manner he was emaciated in every part of his Body and that which was the most discouraging Symptome was his Urine was almost as black as Ink But notwithstanding all these discouragements which might have justly deterred me from undertaking him by the prevalence of his own and his Relations Intreaties I was perswaded to endeavour his Cure I ordered him a Mixture of some Drops of our Golden Tincture and our Grand Elixir in a proper Vehicle every Night which soon stopt his Catarrh I likewise prescribed him three or four Doses of our Flesh-coloured Powder every day to be taken in a Mixture