be expected That Phlebotomy in the foresaid sense doth cause this inconvenience I can make appear both Logically and Optically for the more good blood the more good Spirits and consequently in Reason all Vital Actions must needs be performed the more successively and a stronger expulsion made of what is offensiue as on the contrary defect of blood and spirits causes all manner of mischief Experimentally also and visibly 't is true For I never saw any deprived of any great quantity of blood 〈◊〉 with that Alacrity stability celerity and safety as he that was cured dextrously à phlebotomos without emission of blood and spirits And through this indirect Course I frequently observe that those that are ordered after the Galenical Method fall from Acute Diseases into Chronick and Tedious Languors meerly because their Physicians either exhaust their Blood consume their Spirits by deletery uncorrected Catharticks torture crucifie and gaul them with Blisterings Cuppings and Scarifyings Or keep them at a low ebb with their sluggish flat and spiritlesse Julips and Potions so that hereby the Archeus becomes weak and feeble the blood must necessarily move slowly and for want of Active Spirits be retarded in its Current and in many places subsist like a standing Pool clottering and causing great obstructions Whosoever therefore that intends to keep the blood sine Remora fluent in its Channels free from Curdling let him studie to the utmost to exhibit those Specificks that may mortifie and annihilate the inspissative Torpedinous poyson and advance the impulsive Spirits by those things that symbolize with and directly match them Observation XII Those variety of several coloured juices coagulated and colliquated apparent in this body were not as the Dogmatists affirm so many distinct Humours as Choller Phlegm c. Analagous to the Elements fallen off from their native Temperament as they would have it but they all arose from the Chile and Blood disguised and masked in divers forms according as the Protean Ferments altered the Texture and position of their parts and so marked them with this or that colour Believe it there is no Real existence of those Humours as Choller Phlegm Melancholly that the Galenists frequently mention in most of their Writings but there is one only primigenious rivulet i. e. Blood that irrigates all parts of this Microcosm which as it meets with different Ferments so it is subject to divers alterations and manifold colours Observation XIII The usual effect of most poysons commonly known to us is to coagulate the blood as I have found evident dissecting divers Bodies destroyed by things deletery which I observed made a stigmatick impression in the Stomack and so condensed the Vital red Balsom in the Vessels that Clodders of four or five Inches in length might be extracted Observation XIV Whensoever there is any great concretion of the blood in the Pest no kindly beneficial sweat is to be expected till such time the constringent venome be overcome the grosse matter attenuated rarified and an apersion made of the pores of the skin And this was manifest in this Youth who could by no means be brought into a breathing sweat durable with allevation the juices of his body being as it were frozen made torpid and indisposed to stir from a Narcotick poyson Observation XV. I finde such an indissoluble league connexion and coherence between the Vital Spirit and Sanguis pure blood in all perfect Animals insomuch that if they be separated from each other they both lose their essence and proper denomination for this most highly defaecated liquor doth maintain the spirit and the spirit doth move agitate and purifie this liquor that it may be fit to be changed into it self I look upon the Chyme or Cruor as upon the sweet juice of Grapes which hath little sensible spirit in it at first till it comes to be fermented depurated and segregated from its lees and foul faeces and then it explicates its activity in an admirable manner Likewise this crude juice rubefied is by long circulation and fermentation of the fourth and fifth digestions so cleansed and rid of all dross and filth that it attains an Homogeneous nature easily convertible into a Gas Vitale capable to receive the bright shining beams of the Soul as highly rectified spirit of wine doth the lucid flame If the blood harbour any thing extraneous acrimonious austere acide malignant venemous matter c. it forthwith titubates and deviates from its integrity and accomplishment Then the Spirit its individual Companion falls into discontent peevishnesse frowardnesse fury and rage and an Ilias of Diseases follow and all is brought into confusion as likewise if the spirits be consumed disturbed suffocated extinguished by reason of perturbations of the mind pernicious fumes and odours great dolours or the occurse of any thing very violent altogether disagreeing with them the blood missing that Archeus that should hold the reins of right Government and carry it about in a direct road where it may receive a just alteration by natural ferments doth become degenerate relapsed colliquated or coagulated as was visible in this Cadaver Observation XVI Sith it is so as it is intuitively conspicuous that the Pestilential poyson doth principally strike at and deprave the Stomack and fistulary Vessels by colliquating the lacteous juice contained in that and by coagulating the blood in these what intollerable non-sensical practice is it to prescribe any thing either Dieterical or Pharmaceutick that is so far from hindring that it furthers these sad effects Observation XVII The extraordinary warmth that was in this body at twelve hours end from the time it expired doth sufficiently testifie what a Phlogôsis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and combustion was about the viscera arising from a fermentation and impetuous collision of exardent Atomes which the fretting and furious Archeus had agitated being exstimulated and at length enraged that it had entertained into its very penetralls such a mortal Enemy and now the Fewell being consumed the spirits exanclated and fire extinct there remains an Empyreuma a relique of heat in the parts defunct as a sufficient testimony of that notable ebullition and fermentation which was precedent in the living Observation XVIII I am commonly Censured by the Galenists presumptuous in venturing to open this Contagious Body for no other Reason as I can conceive but that I escaped so great a danger contrary to their expectation I confess I was a little careless in that I did not before fortifie my self as I might have done being extream eager in the pursuit of knowledge for the publick good I am perswaded had I strengthned the Archeus of my hand with some appropriate Balsamick Spirit and filled up the Pores with an oleaginous odorous matter the Pestilential poyson could never have had so free an ingress and so easily have put to flight the vital Spirit making an inroad into all parts That the intoxicating Atoms did first invade my hand imbrued with that foul Gore I may without
from the Blas Alterativum Motivum of the heavenly bodies doth accordingly produce different Meteors thick or thin hot or cold serene or cloudy constitutions and consequently healthy or sickly Times Diseases malignant or well conditioned acute or long gentle or fierce Now when the ambient Air shall be crowded full of infinite small particles disagreeing to our Nature in their Figure Crasis Power Texture and Proportion making uncessantly a strong impulse upon the vital Aura how is it possible but it must needs be affected altered and at length subjugated to the Dominion of an Exotick Tyrant with which it conspires to the subversion of a goodly frame the obscuration and extinction of this bright and shining light of life which makes us beautiful effulgent and radiant so long as it continues clear and vigorous but once obscured or put out the Body becomes dark deformed lucid and ghastly to behold Now the venemous antecedent matter which occasions the Pest takes its Original immediately either from within the Body or without within the circumference of the Skin an absolute pestiferous Poyson is sometimes engendred which being incubated by the Archeus and fomented by several outward Accidents undergoing manifold Alterations is at last maturated and specified to this Hoc aliquid Pestilentiale this kind of virulent matter that occasions the Pest for without Controversie were a man separated from all Society and lived in never so wholsom Air yet such a pestiferous seed may spring up in the Body that may produce the same effect which an extraneous matter occurring doth frequently introduce Neither ought this to seem strange sith whatsoever within us degenerates from its native goodness becoming stagnant and excommunicated from the Commonwealth of life is either in some short time extruded and banished or rectified reformed and reduced if possible to its pristine goodness and if Nature cannot perform this then is it by little and little insensibly graduated to what it is capable of and disposed unto hence by the power of different Ferments ariseth such a distinct Poyson congruous to that seminal power it was first endued withall Thus the Apoplexy Epilepsie Vertigo Lethargy Madness c. take their Original cause from such a matter that never fails where there is a sutable Agent to mould it to explicate it self in this or that manner and at last to come to this or that determinate individual thing it was at first destinated so certain as a Hen-egg Turky or Goose-egg if not interrupted by some accident do constantly afford what is appropriated inherently to each kind For Diseases in mans body have as certain a Seed as any Mineral Vegetal or Animal and make their Beginning Progress State Declination Period regularly and uniformly whatsoever the Galenists say to the contrary asserting That a Disease is only aliquid privativum non positivum excluding it all the Predicaments when in truth it is contained in all The outward antecedent occasional matter ariseth from some minute venemous Particles Aporrhaeas or Effluviums of several Bodies either taken into our Stomack or immediately entering in through the small pores of the Skin else darted into the ambient Air and there skipping up and down are ready to be admitted through the large patulous passages of the Body where they play more or less a sad Tragedy according to the capacity of the receiver for it falleth out that sometimes a Pestilential matter is taken in and by vertue of a robust innate Archeus is forthwith excluded or tamed and brought under the Laws of Nature so that what would prove great damage and detriment to one mans health doth little impair another Now the usual common broad way through which this Poyson is conveyed is for the most part the Mouth and Nostrils places obvious for the reception of these virulent Atoms and needs must it be so forasmuch as Respiration which consists of Inspiration and Expiration being uncessantly performed for the preservation of life must needs draw in together with the Air whatever is therein intermixt Now there is in some Topical Air a fermenting venom equivalent and every way as active as the Poyson of a Scorpion Phalangium or Viper which though small in quantity yet operates stupendiously This invisible Gas this fracedinous Aura Lethifera that fluctuates here and there once taken into these living houses of Clay bears such a discord and hostility to them that if it be not in a short time extruded a certain ruine of the whole Fabrick must needs follow for there is such an absolute disproportion and disagreement between these Opacons dark and spiss Atoms and the bright luminous beams of life that this must necessarily be extinguished if those once take firm possession in us in the very same manner as Subterranean Damps and Mephitical Exhalations cause the clear flame of a burning Lamp to become dim and dusky and at length to be annihilated Considering that we are thus beset on every side with such an allogeneous pernicions matter that doth frequently infest us it is almost miraculous that the thread of our lives is drawn out to any length considerable sith every thing hath Spinas Tribulos in it somewhat disagreeable to our Nature yea certain things are so deletery that they dispatch us like the Basilisk smiting us down we know not when or how What strangely offensive Particles are in some places is well known to any that have often changed their Region and gone out of one Climate into another It is remarkable what Iosephus Acosta relates of the grievous effects that the Air causes in those that ascend the hill Pariacaca in America what violent vomitings even to blood defection of the spirits and faintings almost to death do continually disturb them till such time they have passed over the Perolede or Valve of the Air about that hill which without doubt conteins in it those Corpuscles which are altogether incongruous with our spirits It is reported that such a noxious breathing arises from a certain Lake in Hungary that Birds that flie over are suddenly surprized with death Notable are the Stories of the Petrification of tender bodies by certain Corpuscles in the Air endued with such a saxifying power Some Tracts of Air offend the Eyes some the Teeth Some places are Scorbutical others Dysenterical these Febriculous those Arthritical and here and there some are Pestilential which are observed to produce the Pest Periodically as in Gran Cairo in Aegypt where the beginning and end of raging Plagues may punctually be foretold the reason of the cause whereof seems very abstruse only in the general we may probably conclude That there arises some eminent alteration in the Air and those infinite Emanations it hath received into the Pores thereof from a Blas or Influence of the heavenly bodies Which although as I have formerly delivered are of themselves innocent free from any malignity venom or pestiferous property yet they cause various alterations and motions in the Air whereby it is
good is exclusively taken from us but are silent concerning that positive real evil that infests us having an absolute Entity in it consisting of a seminal power a fermental transmutation an operative Spirit and a lively Idea All which Endowments make a Disease to be Ens reale verum something in Reality That Maladies have in them a Spermatick power is evidently known by some hereditary Diseases that are propagated and traduced from the Father to the Son and from the Grandfather to the Grandchild which lie a long time unseen unfelt closely couched in the blood and at length break forth into Act upon some irritating occasion How is it possible that the Small Pox should lie above Twenty years in our bodies before it shoot out if it were not contained in a Seed which according to the disposition of each Individual when the fulness of time comes breaks forth sooner or later into Buds and Branches The Gowt and Stone are sometimes so concorporated with our seminal principles that it may be thought as difficult to separate light from fire as to part two such Companions fundamentally conjoined in our Conception Moreover as it is the Nature of every Seed whether Vegetal or Animal in the very moment of breaking forth into Act to ferment that thereby its vertues may be diffused readily into all parts and likewise an equal distribution of Spirits made In like manner morbos seeds have their fermentation which though invisible at first yet at length are plainly apparent by effects So requisite is fermentation for the production of all things that without it the Spirit remains drowned and overwhelmed in untractable and indisposed matter Did not the poyson of the Pest most contemptible for quantity ferment and season the whole mass of blood by altering the position and texture thereof by coagulating and changing it into a tartarous substance it could never cause such a tragical Catastrophe in mans body quite subverting its well composed frame For it is grand Ignorance to think that bare Qualities which are transient and momentany depending upon the influence of substantial Forms which cause a Flux and Reflux of the heat cold moisture and siccity according to the Motion Collision Exaltation Degradation Indigence and Abundance of Spirits in the body should on a sudden cause such a stupendious Metamorphôsis in this little admirable World wherefore nothing but that which causes a Zumôsis an Effervescence and leavens the whole lump of blood by its deletery diffusive property can turn all topsie turvy in this manner and bring a speedy ruine to this magnificent Structure Neither is there wanting in Diseases an Architectonical Spirit which is the Faber and Vulcan that hammers out and forges every kind of malady observing an exact Copy Rule and Canon which was at first imprinted in it by a vigorous Imagination As this Stamp Figure Idea or Character doth direct the Archeus so it begins proceeds and at last concludes according as the impression lasteth This pure restless Spirit that at first moved upon the waters is ordained by the great Creator of all things to be an exact Fabricator of whatsoever hath a being which alwayes at first pourtrayes and delineates the scheam and fashion of whatsoever is afterwards to be done by it And although it was never intended by that Fountain of this universal Spirit that any thing hurtful or destructive to man should be produced yet ever since there was brought an Ataxy irregularity and inconformity upon the spirit of man through the disobedience and rebellion of the Protoplastes it hath minted and coined exorbitant monstrous exotick Images by direction of which it acts to its own calamity and ruine consuming spoiling making havock of that through foolish vain Terrours Inquietudes Anxieties and Fury which ought to be preserved and cherished by regular and peaceable operations Now no sooner is it touched by any thing that is disagreeing and disproportionable to its natural constitution but it is affrighted perplexed fretted raged and disturbed and put quite besides it self if it cannot presently be rid of it yea the very thoughts of an approaching mischief doth sometimes cause the Archeus from a groundless fright to bring that really to an existence which otherwise would never have been as is apparent when a timerous person hearing a relation of the Pest and the terrible symptoms accompanying it doth through the power of strong imagination making somewhat of nothing sowe a pestilential Seed in the blood which fermenting and swelling up doth forthwith entertain the vital spirit that makes in it self a perfect Idea of that Disease which never ceases as long as it continues to diminish and at length to extinguish the bright shining Lamp of life Did not the vital Spirit at first running away afterward entertain treacherously as it were into its privy Chamber shaking hands and hugging in its bosom that which is virulent poysonous and deletery and thereby appropriate the same to it self entering into a firm league with that which is Tristissima mortis Imago the lurid and dismal Picture of lethiferous dissolution conspiring and co-operating with an irreconcilable Enemy to mans health neither the venom of any Mineral Vegetable or Animal nor the Heteroclite poyson of the Pest could injure us or any way damnifie us But as the Case stands Perditio nostra à nobis and that which was in the beginning ordained for a sole preservative to us doth often become our bane and destruction And Spiritus ille vitalis qui Actiones sanas etiam morbosas edit That Archeus which is the instrument of Sanity is likewise the Author of Maladies and that saying is too true to our sad experience Nemo laeditur nisi à se ipsa We are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self destroyers and do exactly patrize daily putting in practice what the First of Men taught us 'T is not the outside that simply defiles us but all our Misery flows from within 't is this domestick Enemy that doth infest us our familiar Friend with whom we continually converse that lies in our own bosom that betrayes us and delivers us up for a spoil to the ambient Air Diet and other necessary things we are forced to make use of for a subsistence to support this brittle and friable clod of earth These poysonous Atoms that lurk in the pores of the Air and are wasted up and down with every blast slighly entering into our bodies unfelt unseen cannot of themselves make the Pest unless our Archeus become an efficient and formal cause of its Quiddity so that it hath its immediate being from our vital Spirit which comes to pass in this manner So soon as these loathsom Particles enter in either through the larger or smaller passages of the skin the Custos or Centinel of that part where it first makes an impulse perceiving that its Territories is invaded by a cruel potent Adversary a destroyer of Nature being surprized with horror and confusion forthwith flies giving advantage to
of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sanguifying power and that material transmuting ferment attending it changed according to the capacity of the Matter by a virulent preternatural ferment into this seeming glandulous flesh 'T was strange to behold instead of candid a black fuiiginous matter fitting only for the infernal stomach of the Dogg Cerberus inclosed in one ventricle that publike shop and treasury of life that ought to be furnished with all manner of utensils requisite for the sustentation of this little world and in another a white innocent lamb-like juice lodged instead of a duskie concreted clot of gore and all this proceeding from the deletery ferment of this Heteroclite poison which that I may give you a further account had so altered the substance texture consistence and colour of that Solar Nectar contained in those curiously contrived Pipes veins and arteries that I may truly say not one spoonfull of that ruddy liquor properly called blood could be obtained in this Pestilential body being partly congealed and partly colliquated into a Tabum or filthy matter Which I have experimentally found to be the usual effects of those poisons I have given to some Creatures whose carcasses I have afterward dissected Having finished the Dissection of this loathsom Body I presently found some little sensible alteration tending to a stiffness and numness in my hand which had been soaking and dabling in the Bowels and Entrals then warm though it was Ten or Twelve hours after the Youth expired whereupon having cleansed away that foulness it was besmeared with I held it for some time over a dish of burning Brimstone and so received the Gas thereof but in vain Seriùs ejicitur quam non admittitur I might better had I foreseen what I do now kept it out than thrust it out for those slie insinuating venemous Atoms excited by the heat of the body opening the pores of my skin had quickly free ingress the Archeus the Porter of my hand that should have better guarded it forthwith tergiversating and taking its flight being extreamly terrified at the Alarum of so fierce and potent an Enemy and afterward in an abject manner conducted it to the principal place of the Souls residence the Stomack where after this lately entered poyson had dressed and habited it self with that spirit that had the perfect Idea and Image of this sickness it was to act a Tragical part the Archeus being obliged to be Executioner to bring to pass its own Ruine and now do I carry about me the very Pest closely spreading like a Gangrene diffusing its malignity into all my members covered over for some short space as it were in the ashes of silence while I in the mean time visited visit others visited administring that help to them which I then more perplexed at my Neighbours Calamity than sollicitous for my own suffer my self to want relating with joy what an Inquest I had made into that Subject which had made a Conquest of me Thus I walked up and down from Patient to Patient Dum hoc virus membra mea depascitur I ate I drank and slept well till about Two of the Clock the next Morning being Saturday at which hour I waked to sleep for ever had not Divine goodness given me an Antidote to rouze and raise me up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no sooner had I recollected myself but I perceived such a kind of stupor in my Thighs and Legs that was at first in my hand then I began to ponder what I had done the day before and still those large and manifold Spots were too lively represented to my eye against my will Without further delay I forthwith called up my Servant a Stripling nigh Fourteen years old whom I commanded having lighted a Candle strictly to observe those Directions I gave him appointing such Remedies to be produced with all speed that I knew were very sufficient and valid by multiplicity of Experiments to resist this feral Disease And when I had delivered to him such Rules I thought necessary for life having taken a large quantity of my best Medicaments I charged him to follow me close doubling and trebling the ordinary Dose I usually gave which he so faithfully and sedulously performed with advantage that I dare assert that Five of my Patients joined altogether never did through my whole practice high these Twenty years take so great a portion of such like Remedies as it appeared by his own and others reports compared with that great expence of those preparations I had in store for I knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Nature was so prostrate and the Disease so strong it was to be supported by extraordinary help which course had it not been vigorously taken I question had there been delay of what was needful for my recovery but two hours whether any Medicine in Nature could have been of any efficacy and validity for my Restauration such was the Magnitude Activity and Celerity pardon my expression good Mr. Captious Logomachus and let not one single term without any true saving knowledge breed a quarrel between us I say properly the Celerity in despight of any self-conceited cavilling Galenist of the Disease that then invaded me that would admit of no Truce or Respite For so soon as I was throughly awakened I felt a grievous oppression about the Midriff especially in the pit of the Stomack and such a sudden defection of the Spirits that I had much ado to hold out to advertise my Servant how he should menage his business My head also began to be much out of order exceedingly dozed and whereas Three or four Ounces of a Cordial liquor I took formerly did commonly put me into a breathing Sweat now ten times so much of the same did hardly cause a heat in the lower parts Perspicuous also was the Coagulation of part of my blood as many small Stigmata Spots scattered about my Breast and Arms did plainly testifie but one above the rest was most remarkable in the bending of my right Arm where there appeared a very large Spot of an obscure colour of the bigness of a single Half-penny which I often took a view of Well after some hours tedious Inquietude and despondency of Spirit with much Reluctancy and many an Agony a gentle Mador at length bedewed my skin with which I was somewhat relieved and persevering in the frequent repetition of Polyacaea and some other noble Remedies I began to be much refreshed sweating liberally cum emphoriâ dysphoriâ by turnes for I frequently sustained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ah Alternate Vicissrtude of desperate and hopefull Symptomes there being sometimes an Eclampfis a seeming serenity and clarity in the Archeus then again nothing but Cloudiness Storms and Tempests Thus I passed over that dolefull morning inter spemque metumque earnestly longing for the presence of that Excellent expert Chymist and legitimate Physician Dr. Starkey whom I sent to being verily perswaded that he if any under God would be a
Comforter to me for I knew certainly that the best Galenist was a miserable one and that Spiritus Antiloimoides was a meer cheat sed heu lachrymabile ambo morbo laboramus eodem he was stricken and had as much need of mine as I of his succour and so we might condole but not conserve each other However this worthy Gentleman came to me whose very Aspect exhilarated and solaced my drooping spirits of whom when I had taken something I was wonderfully composed for some time This brave man that did I dare maintain it more good than all the Galenists in England put together was that night after he had been with me forced to yeeld himself prisoner to that insolent Conqueror which did then make spoil of many Thousands and so I was left destitute of two of my dearest friends in my saddest Condition For Honest and learned Dr. d ee of whom I shall speak further hereafter could not afford me his Assistance being much afflicted and oppressed after a former deliverance with the same venemous Sickness Wherefore I resolved to make use of that reason I was then master of and that outward aid I had then at hand uniting and mustering up all supplies that I conceived were proper for me laying aside all peevishness and foolish averseness to take what was fitting which fault I often found incident to most of my Patients to their own prejudice The Remedies that I took in a Quintuple quantity for what others took was Tinctura Polyacaea and no small portion of Pulvis Pestifugus Touching the Diet I observed it was good spirituous liquors as the best Wine and Strong Beer sweetned with a little sugar also now and then I drank a draught of White-wine Posset as for Galenical Juleps Small beer Barly water muccaginous Decoctions Broths satiated with the crude juice of Ingredients I detested for I knew they would annoy my stomach and so hinder the Archeus from conquering the poyson which upon every irritating occasion was ready to ferment My whole scope was to keep up the strength of the vital spirits without which I am sure no Maladie can be cured Neither was I wanting to make use of Helmonts Xenexton a Toad the powder of which my dear friend Dr. Starkey gave me made up in the form of a Trochisk of his own ordering I likewise hung about my neck a large Toad dried prepared not long before in as exquisite a manner as possibly I could with my own fingers This Toad sowed up in a linnen cloth was placed about the Region of my Stomach where after it had remained some hours became so tumefied distended as it were blown up to that bignesse that it was an object of wonder to those that beheld it Had I not felt and seen this swollen dead body of the Toad I should very much have doubted by relation the Truth thereof forasmuch as that Great Scholar in reality Van Helmont who shines with such a bright lustre in his Orb that the Galenical Bats and Owls are not able to look him in the face delivers these words Nam Buso exsiccatus utut sex horis maceretur semper tamen tumefactionis incapax i. e. A dried Toad though it be steeped in water for six hours together will not for all that be swollen or puffed up This he speaks for the confutation of Paracelsus who tells us That a dried Toad macerated and softened in Rose-water for six hours together doth draw the Pestilential poyson so into its body that five or six Bufo's laid on one after another upon a Botch will all be wonderfully tumefied This saith Van Helmont can never be quod intumescere sit proprietas Archei vitalis quod non nisi occasionaliter tumor à venenis procedat Where the Vital Archeus is wanting there can be no swelling from any poyson quatenus a poyson for every tumour from poyson happens occasionalitèr or excitativè in as much as it excites exasperates and causes an indignation in the Archesus which being thus irritated and quite disordered frets rages storms and in this distracted mad fit produces such or such accidents and symptomes as the natural Idea of the specifick venom shall direct and inform it Again Non tumet sayes the Acute Author Cadaver ictum à serpente Cadaver namque si non senserint nec tumefaciendi energiam retinuit A Carckasse for as much as it is deprived of all sense is uncapable of tumefaction from poyson which doubtlesse is sound Philosophy never read or heard of from a Galenist for medicinal Instruction till this Privy Counsellor of Nature discovered it This rightly understood might serve as a good Argument to convince these Dogmatists that poysonous Vesicatories do but disturb Nature and take it off from performing a Sanative Office if rightly assisted by Art and divert it from that intended scope of profligating the pestilential poyson to spend it self in opposing another contrived by a company of Impostors to delude Ignorant persons under a notion of drawing out the disease by these Blisters which are raised in all living bodies healthfull as well as sick from a colliquating venome that Cantharides have inherent in them vexing and galling the Archeus of the membranous parts that it even changes the harmlesse and mild blood into such a sharp mischievous Ichor that a Dysuria or Ischuria a great pain or stopping of the Urine frequently follows but this obiter I shall hereafter make a larger discovery of this daubing with untempered mortar and those palliating deceitfull courses that are daily imposed upon Credulous weak persons To proceed when I contemplate the foresaid words of this great Philosopher a man of that transcendent Reason and that clear bright Understanding I am not a little puzled to find out the Efficient Material Cause of the vast tumefaction of this Bufo incumbent on my breast That simple water of it self will not puff up a dried Bufo to that bulk ready to burst is plain by the Experiment of the Noble Author and my own knowledge Also a dead Bufo for want of a vital Archeus cannot suffer such an expansion of parts from a venome never so active and pernicious to it as a Spider is reported to be considering meer poysons are little considerable in quanto but in quali neither is Mans pest poysonous to a Bufo no more than it is to a Dogg or Catt to whom it is innocuous Wherefore I suppose till I be better informed that some virulent emanations either expelled by Nature strengthened with the presence of the Bufo or attracted by Magnetism carrying with them a transmutative putrefactive ferment imbibed by the Cadaver might attenuate rarifie and hove up the easily dilatable particles of the Bufo and might the ambient heat of the Bed being coadjuvant cause this kind of flatuous extension which Aporrhaa's being afterwards spent the succeeding application of another Bufo of the same magnitude prepared after the same manner menaged with the like Circumstances suffered no such tumefied alteration
aright for that reason they could never obtain such a favour from Heaven to be protected by Divine Preservatives from the stinking noysom Breath of this mortiferous Basilisk wherefore they maliciously backbite those that perform any thing above themselves calling that a Presumption that tends to the preventing a Consumption and Devastation of a whole Nation CHAP. VI. Some Medicinal Reflexions and useful Observations made upon this Pestilential Dissection STultus est ineptiarum labore to take pains and not to improve it for the benefit of our selves or our Neighbours may I confess be justly termed Presumption Folly Vain-glory and an affection of Singularity But to undertake any dangerous and difficult design that a particular Countrey Nation yea the whole World may be meliorated in its condition and enjoy some comfort therefrom deserves to be encouraged promoted rewarded and to have better appellations given than some spiteful persons commonly fasten upon it I acknowledge that I cannot acquit my self wholly of Philautie Kenodoxie Ostentation c. and I cannot help it for it is inherent and ingenite in me Homo sum nihil humanum à me alienum puto I am as prone as any other sine Gratia Dei anticipante to run into many enormous Crimes yet if I can judge any thing of my self and my Conscience doth not very much delude me I have alwayes set before my Eyes in my Function next Gods Glory chiefly and in the first place the preservation and sanity of my dear distressed Neighbour endeavouring to make my own By respects to follow in the Rear Wherefore I have often abhorred to take those indirect and oblique Courses that would advance my own private Interest but debellate and overthrow the publick prosperity of a people How sollicitous I have been to keep poor afflicted man from falling into the Pit of destruction is only known to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Searcher of all Hearts Duram suscepi provinciam I underwent a very difficult Task these late Contagious Times performing it not perfunctorily by Fits and Girds by halves in a trifling manner expressing as some that I know such a fear in looks and gestures that was enough to bring the Plague into a House free from it but I followed what I took in hand vigorously to a purpose not ready to take my flight as soon as I was entered the doors like the Statue of Mercury on Tiptoe leaving behind a pitiful Recipe of Ellec Diascor Methrid Theria aq Theriar Syr aceto Citri and such like Trash and Trumpery but I continued oftentimes half an hour and sometimes an hour conversing with my Patients and giving them effectual Remedies prepared with my own fingers opening their Bubo's and cutting out Eschars of Carbuncles by the operation of my own hand All this while the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beholding my upright intentions preserved me in health even in the height when the Pest was most grassant till such time being desirous to learn what might instruct me farther in the Nature and Cure of this abstruse Sickness after that I had conversed with the Living about it I entered into more than ordinary familiarity with a dead body Itum est in viscera I searched many dark Corners thereof to be taught something but I bought my Learning at a dear Rate and what the Cadaver could not teach me of it self was infused into me to my sad Experience Experto credite I shall now deliver to you the Physical Observations I made resulting from both dead and my own living Body Observation I. In the first place I observe that the Punctilio's Pulicar-like Spots those Stigmatick marks on the Skin with a Feaver do alwayes signifie a stop more or less put to the Circulation of the blood some Coagulation or Grumosity therein caused through a malignity and Gorgonian Venom that depredates sacks and confunds the Vital Spirits that are the chief instrument of Motion so that when they become Torpid and stupified part of the blood remains like standing pool prone in some short time to contract an evil odour Now if this Tartarous concretion be dissolved discussed or thrown out and lodged in an Emunctory or some by-place ignoble through the strength of Nature assisted by Art then all things succeed well but if this spissitude of the blood increase that the channels are exceedingly clogged and nothing is difflated ventilated and carried off by universal breathing sweats nor any morbifique matter discharged into any glandulous or external carnous diverticle conclamatum est that person may be judged in all likelihood to be lost Observation II. Whensoever these Cutaneous spots appear they always signify an endeavor in the Archeus to extrude that which is noxious but failing in the very act by reason of its own impotence the force of the virulent untameable matter carried out of the Capillary vessels as far as the skin it is there condensed by a preternatural coagulative ferment promoted by the ambient air into this round figure according as the sperical small drop is capable The annitence of Nature to make an expulsion from the Center to the Circumference may instruct the Physician to use all means to imitate her to assist her to keep the blood in continual Motion to weaken the strength of the poison to kill an Exotick ferment to rarifie and attenuate whatsoever is grosse and lentous and to keep the Pores open that there may be free perspiration of the whole body Observation III. When the Natural ferment of the Stomack in the Pest is so far lost that instead of white a black juice is engendered it is a certain sign of the abolition of the vital Spirit and consequently of approaching Death For I never knew any afflicted in this kinde whose strength failed that vomited an Excrement tinged black did escape where this blackness is there must needs be a privation of light with which our spirits symbolize they being luminous if so darkness the shadow of death must needs follow and doubtlesse great is that darknesse that seats it self in the spirit of light and life Observation IV. That which did first occurr most remarkable to my eye in this Dissection was the great alteration I found made principally in the Stomack in respect of the part continent and that which was contained therein In the continent certain Vibices Stigms stroaks of an obscure colour imprinted the inward coat being stained with colours different from the natural and a fluid matter conteined fuliginous pitch-like did sufficiently indicate to me that there the pestilential poyson did take up its chief residence Observation V. When I contemplate what a pure white substance was taken into this Youths stomack not long before he died and how strangely it was transmuted into another hue as black almost as Ink I cannot but smile to think on the vain Conceits of the Galenists that tell us of atra Bilis adusta retorrida black Choller made by a meer torrefaction or violent burning heat and
adustion according to their definition of a Feaver as if there were a fire no whit different from a Culinary in our Bodyes converting that which is white into black and black into white by a strong reverberating heat Suck like fond and foolish opinions have they harboured these Sixteen hundred years and upward for want of the knowledge of the Doctrine of Ferments which can never be so well illustrated as by Chymical Experiments which those Pseudo-Chymists boast they are acquainted with only I am certain in a formal manner sufficient to delude the world otherwise they would not deny the power thereof in their Actions If they did really understand how a little Leaven doth infect the whole Lump they would forthwith leave their bare beggarly Qualities in curing Diseases as Hot Cold c. Relollea as Paracelsus calls them things transient and momentany ebbing and flowing every minute according to the disposition of the Subject and insist more upon substances whose intrinsecal transmutation depends upon powerfull ferments Observation VI. What a Soveraignty and Influence the Stomack hath over the whole body may be proved by multitude of Instances and Examples that I could produce but this was eminently conspicuous that when any thing was taken in that disturbed the innate Archeus and required some difficulty to digest many horrid Symptoms did strait break forth as Vertigo Cephalalgie Delicium Phrensie Inquietude Dyspuoea Sopor defection of the Spirits a cohibition of Sweat and other cutaneous Fxcretions c. This was plainly apparent in this Stripling who having an indiscreet Nurse attending him suffered much damage when she offered him that which was by no means to be admitted as tolerable the natural ferment of the stomack being perverted by the pestilent Poyson And I doubt not but the period of his life was accelerated by the unwitting Dose of Milk which though it be the best Nutriment where it is well altered yet it often proves the worse corrupted Hereby we may learn not to ingest any thing into this noble Vessel but what may agree with the innate Archeus may increase the vital Spirit rectifie the enormous Ferment cherishing that which is genuine may be quickly altered and leave very little Dross and Recrement behind and such are those things that abound with noble Spirits as good Wine and strong Beer or Ale well brewed as for Flesh Broths Gellies Watergruel Ptisans Barley water and such like dull vapid things c. they are all to be abandoned and excluded from entering into this Palace where the sensitive Soul sits so long as such a grand Enemy stands in defiance of it and seeks to destroy it Observation VII In all parts I took notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great coagulation and some small colliquation of juyces except in the Stomack where this Negro liquor did flote without any Concretion or Coaction whereby I gather That the kindly and familiar Ferment of the Stomack made to dissolve and open any hard tough food and to change it into a fluxible white Chile that the nutritive and excrementitious parts may be the better separated being now degenerate and hostile did still retain a property like the former though tending to Ruine tabefying and colliquating what it touched and changing it into a black instead of a white juyce On the other side the Ferments of the Fourth and fifth Digestions ordained lightly to incrassate thicken and to bring one portion of the blood to a moderate fibrous consistence and to subtiliate another becoming exorbitant and losing that primitive gift with which they were endued and acquiring a virulent Nature transcending their former bounds of Mediocrity and Modification of this red Balsom to be afterward assimilated doth now compinge and closely streighten the part thereof depriving it of that continual Circulation which is necessary for the generation of vital Spirits the immediate instrument of the sense and motion of every Animal and turns another small part into a venemous variegated Ichor or Serosity Observation VIII That whereas there is a power inherent in the Veins and Arteries to preserve the blood from Congelation even when the body is dead so great is the concretive force of the pestilential poyson that the blood is suddenly put to a stop and becomes grumified turning into Glotts in a living body with nigh as much expedition as the Spirit of Urine changes Spirit of Wine into a white thick lump Observation IX That a kind of glandulous substance like a Lambs stone should be found in the right Ventricle of the heart instead of an obscure clot of blood doth shew how sollicitous Nature though violently hurried away by a contrary Idea is to save it self from destruction sith that when the Haimopoietick power was lost she carries out of the stomack a small quantity of a rude Chyle passing a short way through some of the Sanguineous Vessels without receiving a rubicund Tincture into this noble Cavity and not able to give it the stamp and signature belonging to this vital Nectar was forced to yield it up to that impression which the exotick Ferment did make upon it Observation X. It being granted that blood doth make blood as I can demonstrate that it is in being before the conformation of the Liver and that when the Sanguis this pure defaecate sublimely graduated crimson juyce stands still and loses its virtue then the milky Chyle cannot receive a vital Character and be tinged as it ought How cautious should we be to exhaust and spend prodigally this treasure of Life as the Galenists who to satisfie their erroneous Documents without any solid Reason or approved Experiments rashly let it out in many trivial Diseases which might easily be Cured by proper Medicaments Observation XI Any Artificial evacuation of Blood except that which is performed by immediate Derivation being degenerate in the Pest Spotted Feaver Small Pox Meazils or any Malignant Disease whatsoever that hath alwayes in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliquid sanguinis congelativum somthing in it that doth condense and fix the blood is absolutely pernicious and brings certain perdition or at least great Calamity if thee be not present extraordinary vigour of Nature whatsoever the perverse Galenists pretend to the contrary that they empty an Athletick full Habit of Body and thereby cause Motion in the blood and so hinder the coagulation of it which opinion if rightly cavassed is notoriously false for they take a meer contrary course that diminish the good blood in this case which cannot be avoided when vent is given to a large vessell for out flies the best as well as the worst together indistinctly and hereby the Archeus must needs be disenabled to resist the poyson to attenuate profligate and tame any pertinacious viscous and noxious matter for I am sure if Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Helmonts Archeus i.e. the Vital spirit the principal Author and efficient Cause of Sanity be wanting nothing benevalent can
yet none but an unwitting mad self-conceited person will deny that the Pest according to its Etimon doth peredere mordere devorare doth bite tear in pieces pierce even to the very marrow with its sharp fangs though some clad like Curassers with Armour of proof from Top to Toe have escaped those wounds that were inflicted upon others One may as well conclude that the Itch or Leprosie is not Contagious contrary to Divine Writ and firm experience because some coming within the same reach of contaminating Emanations with others that were infected have evaded the pollution Observation XXIII I have sometimes found the fermenting venom of the Pest especially furthered by large draughts of Small Beer after aestuation and effervescence of the Spirits so speedily congeal the blood that the best Remedies made use of at the first appearance of the Feaver were bauked and of no effect and being followed close could only indicate by driving out some Stigmata Vibices Spots and a suffusion of red or blew marks in the Skin what great malignity was within and that there was almost a total coagulation of the blood in facto esse as I observed in divers who having surfeited themselves were dispatched in the space of a few hours I have also seen some Remedies made use of for seasonable prevention to keep down and strangle this still pullulating poyson not suffering it to make any condensation of the vital juyce insomuch as though a violent Feaver did break out continuing for the space of Five or six dayes yet the blood being kept in its due motion no Efflorescence or cuticular Eruption did appear no not the least Pimple or Spot but such a Rarefaction and Subtiliation was made by penetrative active and specifick Medicines that if any coagulation was in fieri it was immediately prevented from further progress or if the blood began to be restagnant it was forthwith agitated if any grumous matter present it was sent packing per Diapnaeam Diaphaeresin through the pores of the Skin fine capite mortuo without any faeces or sediment left behind Observation XXIV When I meditate seriously upon the extraordinary occasion that brought this Truculent Disease upon me when I contemplate its Magnitude Malignity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the swiftness of its motion those direful Symptoms and Products that appeared when I consider that Three besides my self were sick at the same time of the same Malady in the same House the Landlady one of the Three being with Child miscarrying and that all of us recovered by the same means blessed from Heaven I cannot but heartily magnifie the good Creator of all things that hath provided such potent Medicines for the Restauration of man fallen from his Sanity and withall be firmly resolved concerning the admirable efficacy of Chymical preparations abhorring the laziness perversness and Ingratitude of those that still resist the Truth obstinately maintaining their own destructive Principles Method and Medicines CHAP. VII Directions Preservative and Curative against the Pest. O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the candid learned Hippocrates Time is pourtrayed not without good reason with a Sithe in his hand as keen as any Razour to signifie to us that it cuts off those opportunities which once offered and neglected can never afterwards be regained Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an able Physician that is present in the nick of time is highly to be prized by the Patient Likewise he that asketh counsell for prevention or sends for an able Chymist as for the Galenist or Pseudo-Chymist it matters not much when they are sent for sith in Truth I am sure I can make it appear some of them are to be avoided as the Pest it self at the very first onset of a Disease is to be attended with all diligence and to be supplied with the best Remedies possible For my part I had rather be altogether absent than be called upon when all that I can do is to discover to the standers by that the Disease is Mortal What good can be expected when Nature is extream feeble and prostrate not able to rise up to make the least conflict with a forcible Disease when the fundamental strength is altogether wanting 't is impossible to make a reparation and redintegration of that which is abolished without a miracle Of all Diseases there is none that finishes its course with more expedition than the Pest nor any insinuates more slily treads more softly flatters more subtilly and kills more treacherously the more cautelous therefore ought we to be how we give any harbour to it and through a careless supinity neglect means fitting to expell it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an undoubted truth delivered by Hippocrates He that desires to live comfortably prolong his dayes and defend himself from the Pest and other grievous infirmities incident to mankinde next to powerfull Medicines let him embrace Temperance in his Diet yet let him rather drink more so it be spirituos than eat let him rather exceed in sleeping than watching in motion rather than a sedentary course of life still discharging any excrementitious superfluity chiefly through the universal Emunctory the skin without any notable debilitation of the vital spirits but above all let him endeavour after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magnanimity brave resolution and an undaunted firmnesse of minde to resist any vain conceits of infection Let the Air the principal vehiculum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a nimble conveyer and translater of the fermental poyson from one to another be defaecated purified and ventilated from thsoe diversity of effluviums and noxious exhalations that conspurcate its Magnale and fill up the pores thereof with soul corrupt hoary Atoms that annoy the Archeus For this purpose nothing is more efficacious not only to segregate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is unclean but also to consume and mortify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing malignant and repugnant to our nature then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sulphur Brimstone which may fitly be so called both from the giver of it and likewise from its Divine effects The use hereof I have in short set down in Loimologia de Elogio Sulphuris For Sulphurs highly mundified made terse and polite are as it were Archei Speculum the looking-glasse wherein the Archeus beholds it self with delectation and complacency being both reflected and illuminated by them for whatsoever is luminous and splendid doth by an emission of socillating beams exhilarate and dilate the vital spirits and dispose them to audacity but that which is dark misty and opacous doth cloud them causing fear and terrour the harbingers of this unwelcome guest For this reason Anima Auri the clear Sulphur of Gold extracted by a friendly Menstruum being of a Solar property doth wonderfully chear up the vital 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from an implanted congruity and a symbolical affinity between each other The same is likewise performed by the defaecated Sulphur of Mars Antimony Vitriol Blood-stone native