the Spirits being torpid dull and inactive do not rarify and circulate the blood as when by motion they are excited and stirred up to their duties and performances by seasonable exercise the digestions are strengthened obstructions opened and evacuations more duly performed and since an idle Life doth procure and promote this Disease you must account it as your enemy to avoid it And like to this is the indulging of sleep unseasonably beyond its limits and due times from whence necessary evacuations are restrained and put by their due accustomed times and superfluous humours accumulated and lodged that otherwise Nature would have sent forth profitably in good time the spirits are made sluggish dull and inactive and all the faculties injured But on the contrary let not watching exceed its just times appointed by Nature for from hence the inconveniencies are as great especially to such bodies as are lean and spare or inclining to be Consumptive and hectical by over-watching the spirits are heated and tyred the bloud degenerates and turns acrid or sharp leaving its balsamick nature and is disposed to a colliquation or separation of parts the vigour of nature is hereby abated and the functions depraved Passions of mind though in the last place accounted are not the least but principally to be regarded and due order to be kept there for preservation from infirmities for the Soul being the better and more noble part from whose command and power bodily actions do proceed of necessity if that be discomposed and disordered the instrumental part must act irregularly and depravedly and of all the Passions melancholly and sadness do most dispose to this Disease and aggravate it the reasons are these The Soul in that Passion suspends and withdraws her influence and emanative vertue which was wont to be enlarged and let forth into all the faculties mediately by the spirits her chief and appropriate Agents and the Soul in this state and condition of sadness being as it were lock'd up and straitned within her self darkened and overspread with a cloud of melancholly does not emittere emanare send forth her wonted quickning power by which suspension the Spirits are disposed to cessation from their duties whereby the faculties are enervated and deficient in their functions The Spleen which is accounted the seat of this Passion is chiefly debilitated and impedited in its office the spirits hereby are fixed and deaded fermentation cohibited and restrained from whence scorbutick effects do ensue for that by the benefit of fermentation our food is decocted deserts its crudity and fixity is raised and promoted to a state of volatility that it may be fit for nutrition and assimilation into the substance of the body but if fermentation be deficient and wanting neither chylification nor sanguification can be good but altogether depraved and vitiated But concerning the several Passions of mind and their various effects wrought in the body is set forth in that book called Tutela Sanitatis to which I refer the Reader for satisfaction Determinations of the Scurvy concerning the difficulty and facility of the Cure BEfore I enter upon discourse of the Cure to lay down fundamental precepts and rules upon which it does depend I shall say something as to the possibility of the Cure in particular persons in whom there is a great difference that by examination every one may give a rational conjecture of their own condition and state in this Disease and be something satisfied of the difficulty or facility of their Cure before they undertake the Course and method to effect it Many there are more curious and inquisitive to know what their Disease is how dangerous and whether curable than they will be industrious afterwards for a Cure If it be the beginning of a Disease and not very troublesome they contemn and slight it if it be of long standing and difficult to deal with they despond and have no hopes to part being so long associated together and then give themselves the liberty of their phancies in the discipline and order of themselves whether it be good or bad for or against their Disease Others more rational in their actions desire a satisfaction concerning the nature and radication of their Diseases and state of their bodies that they may order themselves to the best advantage and to oppose their Disease with that strictness and diligence in the use of good means as is thought requisite for such a cure In satisfaction to such which are scorbutical that you may know in what condition you are and the strength of your Disease and what possibility of Cure whether difficult or more easy Examine your self by these questions 1. What Functions in the body are decayed and irregular more or fewer and whether such faculties so injured be principal or of a lower degree for according to the number of Functions disordered and debilitated is your Disease better or worse and if they be from principal faculties the worse also therefore look to the distinguishing Characters that belong to each faculty which will declare whether they perform regularly or disorderly and dificiently the Characters of rectitude are the common signs when every part performs its Office according to the custom of Nature the characters of declension and a depraved condition are all such as declare the contrary 2. The duration and time how long such symptoms and signs hath appeared and been manifest for by how much the longer this Disease hath been rooted in the body by so much the more difficult it is to be eradicated for that the vital principles have so long deviated from their rectitude and integrity and is more difficult to return by the length of time habituated to the contrary The Scurvy in the beginning is of easy cure and soon yields to gentle medicines properly appointed with due orderly Customs but after it is fixed and radicated firmly by time stamping impressions of its depraved Nature upon all the Parts is then more stubborn and difficult to be removed and will require more time in the prosecution against although with effectual medicines 3. Whether the Scurvy be haereditary that is descended of scorbutick Parents or their Ancestors and here you must know that the Scurvy haereditarily derived is worse than that which is acquired by ill dyet bad air melancholly and unwholsom customs for if the Scurvy be worse and more difficult to be removed in those habituated to it by length of time acquired only by a declension and degeneration then much more when it is radicated in the principles of Nature from the birth and derived from their Parents or Ancestors it being then connatural to them à principio 4. What Sex Male or Female the Sex makes some difference in the facility or difficulty of a Cure it being worse in Women who are more obnoxious to the prejudice of this disease than men First because they are of a weaker nature more apt to degenerate and accumulate ill humors whose constitutions are sooner
away excrementitious Melancholly from the Liver and Veins an inferior Office for so noble a part nor is it fabricated or situate conveniently for such a use having no ample cavity for reception nor a fit passage for emission of such an excrement being intertexed variously with small vessels having insertions into each other and dores of communication argues a place of elaboration and grand affair not a draught or sink for venting an excrementitious humour if it had been destinated for so mean service why was it contrived with so many arteries that no other Part is furnish'd like it but that it was appointed for higher purposes and design and therefore is plentifully stock'd and enriched with vital spirits More might be said to take off this aspertion from the Spleen but let this suffice at present Brunerus in his Tract of the Scurvy describes it thus Proprie hic morbus est affectio lienis in quo acervato leviter putrefacto humore melancholico qui à sanguine separatus ad lienem transmittitur pars tenuior seu effervescens effertur sursum obsidet gingivas tanquam tenerrimas oris partes putredini maximè obnoxias easque inficit erodit imo etiam emollit crassior decumbit ad crura He saith this Disease properly is an effect of the Spleen in which a putrid melancholly humour is accumulated suparated from the blood and transmitted thither He makes the Spleen to be sedes morbi the part primarily affected and yet the peccant humour is only transmitted thither and so it is but a part recipient as other parts of the body are pars infesta not primario affecta from whence it doth arise The thinner part is carried upwards and infects the Gums the grosser settles downwards and affects the Thighs This Distinction of thicker and thinner parts is frivolous for that degenerate scorbutick Disposition of the Stomach whether the depraved matter lodged there be thick or thin it will affect the mouth and gums because the stomack and mouth have one membrane lining both the parts and therfore when the stomack is foul the mouth hath a bad relish and an unsavoury tast which is most perceived in a morning after digestion is past and let any disgustful thing come into the mouth the stomack nauseates presently and is ready to vomit although it be not swallowed down and this is by reason that the mouth and stomack have one membrane investing both the parts that the one cannot be affected but the other immediatly consents and participates by reason of the continuity of the membrane which is more or less manifest according to the greatness of the cause So that thickness or thinness of the matter is not to be taken notice of but the effect's the same be it thick or thin And for that he saith the grosser part affects the thighs the reason is as light as the former though not to be refelled by the same Argument I shall not anticipate my intentions in another place but refer you to a future opportunity in the discourse following where this point is cleared Eugalenus in his book of the Scurvy treats largely of this disease in whose foot-steps most Writers since have trod or digressing but a little from his opinions have relied on him as the best guide in tracing this Disease His observations are many in his own practice upon several persons variously afflicted with this disease and brings in several infirmities complicated with it worth your reading Notwithstanding the basis and foundation that he laies whereon he makes this disease to be founded is not firm and that is Humoris Melancholici exuberantia abounding Melancholy to which something hath been said already that I shall not repeat and more to be said in another place in satisfaction to this error And in his determination of the internal cause and generation of the Scurvy he delivers his judgment in ambiguous wavering terms not positively and resolvedly but with some kind of dissatisfaction and uncertainty his words are these that you may not think I traduce him Interna hujus morbi causa melancholici humoris exuberantia censetur ex jam dicta vitae victusque scilicet inordinati ratione acquisita qui circa lienem hepar vel in intermediis inter haec ventriculum spatiis vel in ipsis etiam venis quod puto coacervatus propriam huic morbo familiarem corruptionis formam subit qua adjacentia vicinaque viscera sua vel substantia contactu vel qualitate fumis depravat naturalem eorum temperiem corrumpendo donec in contagii communionem consentiant Where you may observe by censetur vel puto his determination with haesitation and uncertainty In finding out the Scurvy for his Diagnostick signs the Pulse and Urine are his two great discoverers that in most of his Observations the one or both confirms his opinion and relies upon their signification both which are very uncertain for there is no particular Pulse or Urine peculiar to this Disease but almost all Pulses and Urins may be in Scorbutick persons as most Diseases may be complicated with it and therefore their judgment is very fallible and uncertain that depend on these signs Others there are who have written Tracts of this disease as Ronsseus Wierus Sal. Albertus Martinus whose judgments and opinions are involved and agree in the main with those already recited that what hath been said in castigation of their errors sufficeth for these that I need not spend time ine xamining them apart nor have I recounted their failings intending their dishonour whose names I think worthy of memory for their learning and labours in the medicinal faculty humanum est errare but that it is the duty of every one to examine the principles and tenents of our Predecessors and not subscribe to the authority of any when a clearer light of Reason confirmed by experiments and due observation commands a recession from their opinions and practice Amicus Eugalenus amicus Sennertus Sed magis amica veritas Prolegomena Induction to the knowledge of the SCURVY BEfore I come to define the nature of the Scurvy its matter and manner of generation and germination I must premise somthing concerning the Office of digestions for the clearer apprehension of what shall be thence deductively asserted lest I taking that for granted which others in that action or office deny it will be objected I state my positions upon false suppositions and so denying the basis of my Reasons will think they have satisfied the Argument and evinced I shall therefore survey the digestive offices in the regularity and irregularity of their actions defections and errors assign their causes and draw my conclusions ad punctum to concenter with my intentions and scope aimed at Meat being received into the stomack must suffer a transmutation there in the first laboratory and preparatory Office for nutrition of the body The principal agent in this work is the stomachical ferment this
consider and know that all things which belong and are necessary for the preservation of the body and support of Nature that they also may be the antecedent procuring causes of sickness as also the fomenting and aggravating causes of diseases already generated as when contrary to the law or disposition of our peculiar Natures they are applied or used unseasonably immoderately incongruously or any waies unsutably to our Nature and Condition of Body And therefore both in the time of preservation and curation they are to be regarded And since there is not a moment of time in which we do not stand in need of air and that being constantly drawn into the body must needs make for or against the continuance of health according to the conditions and properties it is pregnant with Wherefore in preservation from the Scurvy it is of no small concernment the air and climate that you live in to dispose or defend you from it the nature of the air is such in some places that few there are not tainted with it and this as a principal cause And therefore in Holland Denmark Sweden and such places this disease is most common and chiefly in the Fenny and Marrish parts for that a moist foggy cold air is apt to ingender this disease or increase it because the spirits thereby are clogged and fixed dull and inactive from whence defects in fermentation humors incrassated and obstructions the pores occluded and transpiration prohibited But a warm drie serene air makes much in the preservation from the Scurvy the spirits thereby are kept more vigorous lively and brisk humors attenuated volatile and freely circulating the pores more open and perspirable giving emission to excrementitious vapours unprofitable and hurtfull to be restrained and all the parts more free in their communications and subserviency one to the other Those that retire themselves voluntarily to a studious sedentary life or are confined to a close chamber airy are thereby disposed to this disease or much aggravated and encreased if already they are scorbutick more specially if melancholy be their companion and where the air is impure not to be avoided as in great Cities correct it somthing by Art in your houses with wholsom fumes especially in moist cold weather They that live in Cities especially some parts thereof more close and noisom than others as in narrow streets lanes and Allies are much prejudiced in their health There is great difference in the place and parts of a City to live in the broader streets and places more open and airy the wholsomer and the outside caeteris paribus near the fresh fields is better than to be crouded in the middle provided no stinking ditches or dunghils be adjacent And here I cannot but take notice of Bloomsbury the Right Honourable Earl of Southampton's propriety and Seat for the best part about London both for health and pleasure exceeding other places It is the best air and finest prospect being the highest ground and overlooking other parts of the City The fields bordering upon this place are very pleasant and drie grounds for walking and improving of health a fit place for Nobility and Gentry to reside in that make their abode about London there being the Country air pleasure and City conveniencies joined together Now lately improved and built upon and still encreasing with fair and well contrived Buildings a good addition and Ornament to this place The next considerable in a regular preservation from the Scurvy is Diet which ought to be duly observed for as by convenient food sutable and agreeable in all the requisite circumstances quantity quality time and order so on the contrary by a disproportionate and unsutable diet the faculties are disordered and debilitated in their several functions inclining to this or that disease according to the nature and quality of the food and other circumstances that attend it And therefore some kind of meats and drinks do dispose and are the antecedent causes of this disease as also do cherish and help to maintain it where it is already generated although procured first by other causes The grosser meats and such as do not easily digest are to be avoided but light meats and such as the stomack does well agree with covet and digest best keep to such Milk and Milk-meats in a foul body do soon alter and degenerate and therefore injurious to Scorbutick Persons but in clean bodies 't is good food Broom buds Capers and Sampire are good sauce to your meate helps the Stomack in digestion and is profitable for the Spleen a part chiefly affected in the Scurvy Also Oranges and Lemmons Berberries and Sorrel helps fermentation and are good But old flesh drie and hard meats long kept Rie-bread and brown especially Crusts fried or broyled meats are to be avoided for these are more stubborn do not soon yield to fermentation nor beget good nutriment as also salt fish and meats smoak-dried as hang'd Bief Bacon dried Tongues and such like are injurious and promote this disease But for variety of meats and their qualities you may see a Catalogue in my Tutela Sanitatis therefore I shall not repeat them here For Drinks take these observations Drink not your Beer new because not yet fully purified by fermentation but rather stale well hop'd clear reasonable strong if your stomack be weak and declining And it is very considerable of what water your drink is made for that there is great variety and difference in the goodness of waters being impregnated with several qualities from the nature of earth through which it passeth and several accidents that happen to change water from its genuine properties and make it impure and unwholsom by carrion filth and such like admixtures that may corrupt it And from these causes many places are more disposed to breed the Scurvy than others from bad water with which their Beer or Ale is made and meats dressed And Plyny relates that Caesars Army by drinking of bad water but a few daies had the symptoms of the Scurvy Ale I do not approve of but white Wine and Rhenish is good for you to drink a glass or two somtimes to open obstructions cleanse and whet the appetite and promote fermentation Sider also is good drink if it be made of the best Apples as Pippins Pearmains and such like and that it be clear having had good time to ferment separate and purifie but withall have respect to your stomack that it be agreeable and desired by it but if you have a cold raw stomack a warmer liquor will be more acceptable as a glass of Canary somtimes to fortifie the stomack and help digestion is agreeable to the most The next considerable for praecaution of the Scurvy is exercise and motion which duly and moderately used is a good preservative from this disease a sedentary sloathful life makes the body to degenerate from its purity and vigour Corrumpunt otia corpus From hence Defects in fermentation humours incrassate and obstruct