however lest the Disease should return which was one of the foresaid inconveniences on the seventh day after the Patient had taken his last Dose I certainly give him the same quantity of the said Powder that is one ounce divided into four parts in the same method that I gave the former But though the cure once in this manner repeated often make an end of the Disease yet the Patient is not wholly out of harms way unless he vouchsafe to observe his Physician when he prescribes him the same Method at the same distance of time a third or a fourth time especially when the Bloud has been weakned with some preceding Evacuation or the Patient has unadvisedly exposed himself to the cold Air. But though this Medicine have no purgative virtue in it yet through the peculiar temper and Idiosyncrasie of some Bodies it sometime happens that the Patient is violently purged ofter the taking of it as if he had taken a strong Cathartick In this case it is altogether necessary to give Laudanum with it that it may not be able to perform this operation so plainly contrary both to its own Nature and to the Disease I take the same method in other Agues whether Tertians or Quotidians for upon the ending of the fit I immediately fall upon both and I follow and press them as much that is as their Nature will bear by the repetition of the Medicine in the but now mentioned interstices of the fit yet with this difference that whereas a Quartane can very rarely be got off under an ounce divided into Doses the others may be so subdued with six drachms that they will give some truce at least But Tertians and Quotidians though after a fit or two they may seem to intermit yet oftentimes they afterwards turn into a kind of Continual Fevers and come onely to a Remission even on those days they promised an Intermission especially when the Patient has been kept too hot in Bed or has been punished with Medicines to carry off his Ague by Sweat In this case taking an opportunity from the remission be it never so little for that is all I have left me to doe I give the Powder just after the fit as near as I can guess giving a drachm and a half every sixth hour for four times making no matter of the fit because otherwise in too short an interval the Alexiterick virtue of the Bark cannot be communicated to the Bloud And though the Agues which are now rise among us after one or two fits incline to Continual Fevers yet since they must be referred to the Intermittent or Agues I make no scruple to give the Bark even in those that are most Continual of this kind which being repeated in the manner aforesaid will certainly bring the Patient to an Apyrexy if the constant heat of the Bed and the unseasonable use of Cordials have not made it a Continual Fever in which case I have more than once observed the Bark would doe no good Nor was it ever yet my hap to observe that Wine in which the Bark is given which one might well suspect did any harm to one in an Ague but on the contrary Heat Thirst and other Symptoms of the Ague did presently vanish after taking 6 drachms or to the value of them in another form notwithstanding the Wine And whereas there are some that cannot bear this Bark in form neither of a Powder nor of an Electuary nor yet of Pills I give them an Infusion made in the cold that is I infuse for some while two ounces of the Bark grosly powdered in a quart of Rhenish Wine This Liquour being several times passed through Hippocrates his Sleeve and of a clear colour is not so offensive but that it may please the most delicate Palate four ounces of the said Infusion having stood several days seem to contain the virtue of one drachm of the Bark given in Powder Which because it is neither ingratefull nor burthens the Stomach it may be taken twice as often as any other forms of that Medicine namely till the fits are gone For Children whose tender age might he endangered by such a quantity either of the Powder or of the Infusion as will conquer the Disease I order 2 or 3 drachms of the Bark to be boiled in a pint of French Claret to a consumption of a third part and one spoonfull or two of the Colature to be given twice or thrice a day according to their age till the Fits come no more It must be observed moreover that because the short interstices between the Fits in Tertians and Quotidians do not allow time sufficient fully for to saturate the Bloud with the febrifuge virtue of the Bark it cannot be expected that the Patient should certainly miss the next fit after his taking it as it usually happens in a Quartane for in those the Medicine often will not perform the promised cure under two days And we must take notice that if the Patient notwithstanding the abundant caution given before do nevertheless fall into a relapse which seldomer happens in a Quartane than in Tertians or Quotidians yet it will be the part of a prudent Physician not to insist too pertinaciously upon the method of giving the Bark at the said Intervals but according to his judgment to attempt the cure by some other means to which above all other things the Decoctum Amarum as they call it is generally held greatly to conduce As to Diet and Regiment the Patient must neither be kept from meat nor drink which gratifie his Stomach Horary Fruits notwithstanding and cold Liquours as very much helping to weaken the bloud and to bring the Ague again afterwards ever excepted Let him eat therefore Flesh easie of Concoction and of good juice and let him use a little Wine for his ordinary drink by which thing alone I have sometimes restored sick persons even them whose bodies being weakned with the frequent recourse of the Ague have eluded the virtue of the Bark which was salutiferous to others Nor ought the Patient unadvisedly to commit himself to the cold Air till the Bloud have obtained its pristine vigour anew But above all things all manner of Evacuations whatever must be avoided since even the most gentle purge nay a Clyster of Milk and Sugar does most certainly bring the Patient into danger of the Disease and perhaps into the Disease it self again This is what I had in brief to say concerning the use of the Peruvian Bark Nor had I a mind to indulge the pomp of Medicines Since indeed they that add any thing to the Bark besides a Vehicle necessary to transmit it to the Stomach do offend either out of Ignorance in my opinion or out of Knavery which a good man abhors from his Soul Sydenham Epist Responsor 1. pag. 22. who as being part of the same common Nature can never be induced by any private profit of his own to put a Cheat upon
is on Fire But Opiates and Anodynes that fix and thicken the bloud and spirits must rather be used Also Juleps and Decoctions which cool the raging Bowels temper the Bloud and refresh the Spirits must be made use of frequently Acetous Liquours of Vegetables or Minerals and purified Nitre because they restrain the raging of the Bloud and quench thirst are very proper Let hot and spirituous Waters cordial and bezoartick Powders as long as the Disease has no malignity be avoided If the bloud circulate unevenly and be carried more impetuously towards the head than the feet Epithems of the warm flesh or bowels of Animals applied to the Soles of the feet are good Idem III. When the Fever is in the State Nature's motion must be carefully attended whether she will make a Crisis or no. Wherefore nothing must be attempted rashly by the Physician Bleeding and Purging must be avoided but when the febrile heat is somewhat abated after the deflagration of the bloud and signs of coction appear in the urine if then Nature's motion be too slow a Sweat or a gentle Purge may be given But if all be crude and disturbed if the urine be still turbid without a sediment or secretion of parts if the Spirits be languid the Pulse low if no Crisis or onely what was provoked precede no evacuation whatever either by Sweat or Purge can be attempted without manifest danger to life But we must tarry longer that the spirits of the bloud may recover themselves may in some measure concoct the excrementitious and crude humours and then separate them a little Then let the Spirits be refreshed with moderate Cordials let the immoderate effervescence of the bloud if there be any be hindred and its due fermentation sustained which truly is best performed by Coral Pearl and such Powders for indeed they are dissolved by the ferments of the Bowels and then ferment with the Bloud and very much restore its weak and wavering motion In the mean while Nature labouring let all obstacles and impediments be removed and especially the increase of excrements gathered in the first ways must be abated with the frequent use of Clysters Idâ—m IV. In what manner or method the most urgent Symptoms ought to be treated it will not be easie to prescribe by certain rules because the self same must sometime be immediately stopt and quieted sometime more hastily promoted and which is more than all it may be at another time they must wholly be left to nature We must oppose some of them with asswaging and lenient Remedies and others with rougher and irritative Physick Yet in the mean time this Rule must be observed in all of them that we religiously insist in Nature's footsteps who if she doe amiss her disorders must be reduced If she go right but too violently she must be restrained but if she go right and operate slower or weaker than she ought it would doe well to promote and aid her endeavours by the help of Physick Idem V. In the declension of the Fever when after the Crisis is over Nature is above the Disease all is safe and there is not much for the Physician to doe it onely remains for him to propound an exact course of Diet that the Patient may quickly recover his strength without any fear of a Relapse It is also good to carry off the reliques of the febrile matter by a gentle Purge In Diet Men oftnest split upon the Rock of a Relapse that is the Sick after preposterous eating of Flesh or strong Meat relapse into a Fever for when the Bowels are weak and they do not easily concoct aliment unless it be very thin and when the Crasis of the bloud is so weak that it cannot assimilate a strong nutritious Juice if any thing disproportionate be offered to either of them the oeconomy of Nature is perverted and all goes to wrack Wherefore Convalescents must long abstain from Flesh and must not eat it till after their Urine be like healthy persons and does no more grow turbid in the Cold and then indeed it is best to begin with a dilute Meat-broth and after gradually to ascend to stronger things Idem VI. When after an imperfect Crisis the case is doubtfull and the controversie under decision then a difficult task is incumbent on the Physician Let Nature's motion and strength be diligently attended whether she begins to prevail upon the Disease or to yield to it If there be signs of Concoction and strength be good a gentle evacuation may be made In the mean time we must help the most urgent Symptoms with proper Remedies all impediments must be removed and strength must be restored as much as may be by Cordials and a right course of Diet. VII When after a bad Crisis or none at all all things grow worse and when the Physician almost despairs of the Cure of the Disease let him give the prognostick that the event is doubtfull and much to be feared Yet he must not so far rely on the prognostick as to let his fears too much possess him but still let him provide as much as lies in Physick's skill for the health of his Patient though despaired of let Remedies be used for the most troublesome Symptoms and let the Spirits of the bloud almost extinct be recruited by Cordials When we despair of Recovery let life be prolonged as long as we can and an Euthanasia at least procured Idem VIII In Continent Fevers because they are always accompanied with great strength we may give a thin Diet But after Putrefaction is begun we must feed the Patient higher because the Corruption of the humours requires it according to Galen's opinion lib. 8. Meth. and 1. Aphor. 17. Mercatus Febris Tertiana or A Tertian Ague The Contents Whether Bloud may be let I. The time to let bloud II. Whether a Purge may be given onely after the third Fit III IV. At what hour a Purge must be given in a double Tertian V. Syrup of Damask roses not fit to purge withall VI. An exquisite Tertian curable by alteration alone without purging VII Sometimes it onely gives way to a Vomit VIII Whether it may not be cured without one IX A Vomit is seldom proper for a legitimate one X. The efficacy of Spirit of Sulphur XI A bastard Tertian cured by the use of Spaw-waters XII Made longer by the abuse of cooling Juleps XIII The excessive use of Aperients hurtfull XIV Drinking of Water good for an exquisite one XV. The remaining ferment must be extinguished by Specificks XVI We must have regard to the indisposition of the Bowels XVII What way a Decoction of Wormwood does good XVIII Cured by a Diaphoretick XIX By applying Bottles XX. A caution in the application of Epithemes XXI Applications to the Wrists not to be rejected XXII The Diet must be thin and spare XXIII The Patient sometimes killed with a multitude of clothes XXIV The Cure of a
it is not satiated with too many of them Moreover let that fresh Juice consist of such Particles as being mild and thin may be tamed by the Blood and assimilated without Effervescence Wherefore Asses or Goats Milk the Cream of Barley Water-gruel c. will be more agreeable and nourish better than Flesh Eggs Gellies c. 2. The second thing to be produced is that the Acidities that are either bred in the Blood or poured into it from some other where may be so destroyed that the Blood retaining still its mixture or crasis may not be so prone to fluxions or fusions Wherefore 't is necessary that both its own Acidities and those of other Humours mixed with it be destroyed which intention will be the best performed by Medicins prepared of Sulphur which should be taken freely if there be no Fever Vulnerary Decoctions are also good for the same purpose and Decoctions of Pectoral Herbs as also of the Woods taken for ordinary Drink Likewise the Pouder of Crabs Eyes Hog-Lice and of other things endued with an Alkali or Volatil salt 3. And lastly That all the Recrements produced in the Blood be derived from the Lungs to other Emunctories and places of Evacuation which intention respecting the first indication suggests that very many ways of Evacuations are to be made use of Phlebotomy Purging by Urine slight Purgation by Stool Baths Frictions of the Extream Parts Dropaces or Shaving off the Hair Issues Apophlegmatisms c. The second indication in a beginning Phthisis viz. that the Tabifick Matter deposited in the Lungs may be easily and throughly expelled daily is performed by Expectorating Medicins whose vertue is carried two ways to the Lungs either as their active Particles are immediately let down by the Wind-Pipe and procure Expectoration partly by lubricating the ways and withal loosening the Matter that is fixt therein and partly by irritating the Excretory Fibres into Spasms whither belong Lambitives and Suffumigations or as they exert their vertue in coming along with the Blood which are the more powerful for seeing they consist of such Particles as cannot be tamed and assimilated by the Mass of Blood these being poured into the Blood and because they cannot be mixed therewith being thrown out of it again presently penetrate out of the Arteries of the Lungs into the Ducts of the Wind-Pipe where lighting upon the Matter they divide attenuate and so exagitate it that the Fibres being thereby irritated and successively contracted in Coughing the contents of the Wind-Pipe and its little Bladders are cast up into the Mouth Things fit for this purpose besides Sulphur and its Preparations are artificial Balsamicks distilled with the Oyl of Turpentine the Tinctures and Syrups of Gumm Ammoniacum Galbanum Asa foetida Garlick Onions and such like that smell strong of which Lohochs are also made And these operate both ways for partly by sliding into the Wind-Pipe and partly by entring into the Lungs by the Circulation of the Blood they set upon the Morbifick Matter both before and behind and so drive it forth with the greater violence As to the third Indication that the injur'd Conformation of the Lungs or their vitiated Constitution may be restored or amended let those things be used which resist Putrefaction cleanse consolidate dry and strengthen for which purpose the Remedies prepared of Sulphur Balsamicks and Traumaticks are useful Willis II. Galen 1. Epid. comm 17. speaking of a Phthisis says that it proceeds not always from a Fluxion from the Head but that Excrements flow into the Lungs sometimes from other parts Wherefore their ignorance is not to be endured who think that the Recrements which are in the Lungs proceed only from the Head For it may so happen that a Phthisis may be caused by an Humour transmitted from other parts of the Body the Brain being sound In which case whether Stillicidia or droppings upon the Coronal Suture Sanctor l. de remed invent c. 14. or Sinapisms Errhines and Masticatories do any good let others judge III. Those Remedies which respect the whole Body are very necessary at this day they are not rightly administred wherefore few are cured I was lately at Venice and prescribed to a Patient an ounce of the Honey of Roses and another of Oxymel that the Phlegm that was in his Stomach and was the cause of much mischief might be cleansed away The Apothecary by mistake sent ten ounces and the Patient took eight and an half of the Medicin The same acting violently upon the Phlegm was somewhat disturbing to him but afterwards the Phlegm descended so into the Guts and was so expelled Capivace Pc. l. 2. c. 7. that all the symptoms were mitigated wherefore Physicians must be bold sometimes IV. Whether is it fit and strictly necessary upon any occasion to give a Purge to Consumptive People or to let them Blood We have seldom need of Bleeding in a Tabes or Consumption especially when there is an Ulcer already made unless a new Fluxion supervene or unless there be a fresh opening of some Vein or where the defluxion is very fervent and the Liver hot or the Lungs burst on some occasion V. Avicen in a Phthisis gives Pi. Cochiae for the sake of the whole Body Our commâ—n Practitioners give them not but they do ill for we ought to succour the Fluxion presently for we may hope well when the Ulcer is not deep bit it becomes so when the Disease is prolonged which comes to pass through the Matter flowing nto the Lungs wherefore that Matter is to be evacuated Therefore after one loosening of the Belly after two or three Syrups Pil. Cochiae are to be given presently according to Avicen that the whole may be purged and the Head evacuated and so the Fluxion may be remedied What I say of â—il Cochiae the same is to be understood of other strong Looseners for the fault of the offending Humour is vehement and is of the nature of a Causa fine qua non therefore a strong Purge shall be given especially because the strength permitteth which forbiddeth it in the progress of the Malady For at the beginning though it be an Hectick Fever it is in the habitude not in the habit and whilst it is in the habitude the strength in an Hectick Fever hath suffered no mischief as yet Idem VI. In those who have a Fluxion of acrimonious biting and corroding Humours especially if there be also an ebullition and effervescence of the Humours not altogether neglecting the indication of the Consumption for an exquisite or confirm'd Tabes admits not of Evacuaters even in those in whom the Fluxion still remains but only of Diverters 't is certain that it will be very safe and necessary to purge especially with those Medicins which may profit both the Breast and the Ulcer and avert and lessen or bridle the Fluxion Of this nature is Rhubarb believed to be sometimes the roasted mixt with Spikenard and diluted
which Bonetus and Waltherus quoted ever were or are ever like to be in the English Tongue So that for this very Reason the Translation may deserve a higher Esteem among mere English than the Original among the Learned since these can understand the Principal Authours without an Interpreter the other cannot and so for want of one were it not for this Book might live in Ignorance of many Excellent things The Authour Bonetus is an ancient Dr. of Physick in Geneva a Man of great and succesfull Practice and of infinite Learning as other of his Works but this especially do shew He dedicated this to a Noble Personage of this Land as you may see before And how can we more gratefully acknowledge his kindness than by letting our Countrey-men understand how generous it is to all Men in his publishing so usefull a Work in Latine and in particular to our Countreymen in his dedicating it to a Noble Earl of our Nation Now because the Alphabetical Disposition of the Diseases according to the Latin Tongue will not be serviceable to the English Reader we have made an English Index whereby you may find the Disease which you want in the Book and then run but over the Contents and you will meet with your Case And after all I appeal to the Learned Whether these two Books both of which are valued by such when they are made One be not a Book of the greatest use in Physick that has ever been published in any Tongue and much more in English Farewell A GUIDE TO The Practical Physician BOOK I. Of Diseases beginning with the Letter A. Abortus or Miscarriage The Contents It ought not to be procured for the remedying of any diseases the woman with child is troubled withall I. How a simple voiding of bloud may be distinguish'd from it II. The distinction of its causes according to the times that the woman is gone with child III. The symptoms that use to accompany it require the providence of the Physician IV. How the concomitant Symptoms may be cured V. A prevention of it by frequent bloud-letting VI VII Plasters apâ—ly'd are not to be kept on long VIII When there is occasion for Adstringents and when for Looseners IX An instant Abortion is not always to be hasten'd from the example of one that was prevented X. When it is imminent medicines that are hot must be mixed with Adstringents XI Sometimes Adstringents are onely to be applied to the Loins XII Remedies applied below are safer than those taken in at the mouth XIII Wine to be abstain'd from XIV Medicines I. DAILY Observation shews that Women with child are subject to many and great distempers both Chronical and Acute which are made more dangerous and are harder to cure from their being in that condition especially Acute diseases as Fevers Aphor. 30. lib. 5. Pleurisies c. Hippocrates says that it is deadly for a woman with child to be seiz'd upon by any acute disease And according to Galen there is a double danger one from the Fever 's killing the Child another from the thin diet that is requisite for acute Diseases but is injurious to Women with Child as also from the necessity of the greater remedies such as bleeding and purging But some rash men if they see their Patient in great danger advise the procuring of Abortion Now Abortion is more painfull and dangerous than a natural birth from the violent divulsion of the unripe Foetus whence very many die some escape but not without grievous symptoms And the danger is the greater if the Foetus be pretty big as if the Woman be gone seven or eight months or if the Woman her self be feeble and weak or if she labour under dangerous acute Distempers Even healthfull Women never miscarry without danger some retain the Foetus so pertinaciously that no medicines will make them miscarry Wherefore their advice is pernicious that counsel the procuring of Abortion in acute Diseases 1. Because in many it is not easily done 2. It cannot be done but by dangerous Remedies and those often repeated which aggravate and heighten acute Diseases 3. Nor is it safe seeing Abortion it self is a dangerous and deadly affection as experience shews for by the aphorism above cited it is deadly to a Woman with Child to be taken with an acute Disease from the Fever the thin diet and the danger of Abortion now 't is bad to add affliction to the afflicted the Mother often perishes by destroying the Foetus with such Remedies 4. Even a natural Birth seldom gives any relief to several Diseases much less will Abortion cure any Disease especially such as is acute no it will rather make it worse unless the Foetus be already dead for then indeed 't is necessary to exclude it Yet we must not abstain from necessary helps as bleeding and purging which often prevent Miscarriage and if it sometimes follow upon the use of them 't is not to be imputed to the Remedies being duly administred but to the sharpness of the Distemper that is too hard for all Remedies or to the weakness of the Mother or lastly to the death or debility of the Foetus Hippocrates in his oath promises Primâ—os de vulg err l. 4. c. 53. that he will give no Woman any Medicine to procure Abortion 'T is the part of a Physician not to destroy but to preserve as much as he can II. Midwives ought to be very heedfull for it sometimes happens that a Woman with Child voids by her Womb much bloud and imprudent Midwives think that she has miscarried which yet is not so but onely a Miscarriage is imminent which whilst it is it ought to be prevented by Adstringents but if it be actually made then we must help by Looseners Wherefore Midwives ought to examine diligently the matter that comes forth whether it be bloud or flesh or geniture or the Foetus for by washing what comes forth in water one may easily discern whether there have been truly an Abortion or not Câ—â—ivace â—ract l. 4. c. 8. III. Serapio's opinion is to be noted He thinks if a Miscarriage happen in the first or second month that it is caused by wind or a preposterous agitation of the Mother breaking the slender fibres if it happen in the middle months that slimy humours which loosen the acetabula or saucers of the Womb are the cause of it and lastly if it happen in the last months that it is commonly caused either from want of nourishment or straitness of the Womb. IV. The Wife of N. miscarrying she first voided the Secondines with much bloud which brought her very low and weak the flux of bloud abating the next day she excluded the Foetus that was four months old after this she seem'd to grow better and cleans'd indifferently well onely what came away was very stinking and cadaverous On the seventh day she was taken with a high Fever and voided the placenta or womb liver
which stunk extremely and was full of black-bloud whence she recovered by degrees The Lady N. being four months gone with Child miscarried excluding the Foetus with the membranes whence she was thought to be clear of all But afterwards she fell into a high Fever with frequent horrours and swoonings then she voided most fetid matter with clods of bloud and pieces of flesh On the seventh day she excluded the placenta which stunk very much whereupon she grew to be better and recovered These two Histories teach that the purgations of the Womb when they have a cadaverous smell for the most part signifie that some portion of the Secondines is staid behind in the Womb. River obs cent 1. obs 61. V. When after Miscarriage part of the Placenta hath remain'd in the Womb and a continual flux of Bloud for some months hath accompanied it I have observed it successfully expelled and the Patient restored by three ounces of the following Dâ—coction taken twice or thrice a day Take of the Root of Bâ—stort two Drachms Franc. de le Boe Sylv. Prax. Med. l. â— c. 6. sect 119. of the leaves of Marjoram Penniroyal each one Handfull Boyl them in Water and White Wine of each alike as much as is sufficient In twenty ounces of the Decoction clarified dissolve of Syrup of Mugwort two ounces of Cinamon Water half an ounce For by virtue of this a piece of the Placenta as big as ones Fist was voided and all further Flux of Bloud was stopt and cured VI. A Woman having suffered three Miscarriages one after another at different times of her gestation or going with Child being now gone but two months had great pains about her Navel and Loins which threatned an Abortion Two plasters being applied one to her Loins and another to her Navel made of the Plaster for fractures and dislocations she was somewhat helped for a while but afterwards her pains returned I being called observing the Woman to be young and sanguine order her to be let bloud whereupon in a few hours she was freed from her pains and fear of Miscarriage Her bloud was very serous For prevention I give her a drachm of Rhubarb in powder with Broth to be repeated once a week for a month These symptoms had happened just at the time when she us'd to have her Menstrues when she was not with Child Again in her third month the same symptoms return'd and were presently removed by bleeding In like manner in the fourth fifth sixth seventh and eighth months the same symptoms returning we opened a vein each time whereby she was forthwith freed of them The last time she was let bloud was eight days before the beginning of the ninth month with the same effect Idem centur 1. obs 53. and at the end of the ninth month she brought forth a live Son in good plight but a little paâ—eâ— VII That which Hippocrates writes is not every way true That a Woman with Child miscarries if she be let bloud unless perhaps he understand it of such as have but little bloud or are weakly Many plethorick Women that used often to miscarry have come to retain the Foetus even to the ninth month by breathing a Vein If the superfluous bloud be not taken from such Women they either miscarry the mouths of the Vessels being unlocked by the too great abundance of bloud or else the Child grows so big that the Mother cannot be safely deliver'd of it To such repeated bloud-letting is very profitable after the second month or rather from the fourth to the seventh Idem ¶ It is very necessary to examine those things that have happen'd formerly For when one Medicine sometime yields no relief it will be the best way to try others When I once saw a Woman very like to miscarry that was five months gone with Child and had five times miscarried before considering first that adstringent Remedies both internal and topical that had been administred at other times by other Physicians had done her no good and secondly that she was very full of bloud I order'd her to be let bloud in the Arm and not in the Foot D. Panarol Pentec 1. obs 10. lest Abortion should have been caused and in the ninth month she was safely brought to bed of a living and lively Son VIII Concerning the Plasters that use to be apply'd this is to be noted that they must not lie long on at a time but must now and then be removed for otherwise by lying too long on the Loins they heat the Kidneys so that a Dysury or heat of Urine is caused River pract l. 15. c. 17. or Stones and Gravel are bred therein or sometimes piffing of bloud follows IX In a Miscarriage it is chiefly to be observed whether the Foetus be actually expell'd or there is onely fear that it will be For when it is actually excluded we must with Avicen abstain from Adstringents and use Looseners lest which often happens the Membranes or naughty excrements be left and staid in the Womb whence the Woman will certainly perish For this reason Avicen dislikes Adstringents and propounds a fuffumigation of bdellium hyssop origanum and mustard whereby both the exclusion of the foetus is help'd and the excrements are happily purged If the child be not dead nor as yet expell'd but an abortion is imminent and the foetus retreats Capivacc l. 4. c. 8. Heurn dem m. c. 7. then it is very convenient to use adstringents by the help whereof it comes to pass that abortion is prevented and the child preserved X. A woman in the thirteenth week after conception helping to brew and unwarily taking up a full pail had almost miscarried the membranes being broken and the embryo making its way forth A Mountebank being by chance present and casting about how to help this disaster advised to put the foetus up again forthwith into its place by the hand Laying the woman therefore with her thighs high and her head low the midwife very nimbly with her hand thrust in the Embryo that was coming forth and presently after the operation laid the mother in her bed that the foetus being put up again might fix in its former seat yet her lochia flow'd for three days The same Mountebank perswaded the woman to have her husband lie with her that the broken membrane might be generated anew Thom. Barthol cerâ—â— 4. hist 57. Hence the foetus being retain'd was born at its full time and is still alive XI When there is not so very imminent danger of miscarriage binding plasters ought not to be apply'd to the belly lest they intercept the passion of the womb Heurn l. 2. but let them be laid on the loins and Os sacrum XII Have a care to mix some hot things with adstringents and strengtheners Idem lest the womb be enervated add mastick mint wormwood XIII It is observable that those remedies are safer which are administred
Therefore you must not wait for a head before you lance them XII A young man going down Mont Cenis and slipping on a sudden fell upon his back the hilt of his sword lighting under his short ribs and left kidney and bruising his Loins very much In which place a little after there began a great pain with various symptomes but without any sensible fever The part affected was not black and blue nor swelled but very smooth and plain A great quantity of humours from the whole body had flowed to the left muscle called Psoas and being there pent in made an Abscess A certain Physician thinking him Nephritical gave him many things against the Stone But being brought to a Surgeon who not long before had cured one in the same condition he was told by him that there was matter shut up in the part which must have vent given to it otherwise he would be in great danger if the Abscess should break inwards and the pus should be poured forth into the Abdomen The young man committed himself to this Surgeon whose first care was that the matter which was all over the Loins should be drawn to such a place by applying powerfull drawers as where there were few large vessels and the instruments of motion might be least hurt in the operation Which after he thought he had obtained from the Patient's sense of pain upon pressing a fit place he forthwith made a wound on the left side of the fourth Vertebra of the Loins with a red hot knife as deep as the length of ones forefinger from the palm as one might guess by the tent that was afterward put in Then notwithstanding its depth he put his two fingers into the same wound to make it the wider that the matter might flow the more plentifully out of it But a little moderating the evacuation the Surgeon put in it a silver pipe which being besmeared with purging and deterging ointments he used for some months and at length the wound was skinn'd over without any fistula or sinus in it Fab. Hildan cent 1 observ 63. The same person advises in such deep wounds and ulcers as are near some internal cavity as the Chest or lower belly to abstain wholly from injections that are made with a Syringe lest some part of the injection go into the cavity where it might be the cause of grievous symptomes with the danger of the Patient XIII I saw an unmarried Woman forty years old labouring under an Imposthume behind her left ear About the fourteenth day of the Disease when it was grown to the bigness of ones Fist and the Matter was fully ripe but retain'd too long through the toughness of the skin it made its way downwards When I was called I found the Imposthume broke of it self some hours before which run little or nothing but a few days after the Woman died when she had a Fever Fainting and other Symptomes Hence it appears that in Imposthumes of this kind whether they be in the Emunctories or near them we must not stay till they break of themselves which this History confirms ¶ There was a Boy three years old who had an Imposthume about his right shoulder the matter whereof when it was more than enough digested and the lancing of it denied the swelling sunk by little and little Fab. Hild. cent hist 39. 81. and fell by degrees into the lower belly and Genitals where having extinguished the innate heat it produced a Gangrene ¶ I saw almost the like case Anno 1660 in the Village Coussise in the Canton of Bern near Grandison The Reverend Mr. Bourgeois Pastor of the Church a full bodied man who fared well and omitted one Autumn his accustomed bloud-letting whereby he used to abate his Plethory In the Winter following a huge Boyl ariseth in the upper part of his back for which he was not so much as let bloud I and a Surgeon were called and found the Abscess exceeding ripe and pressing it with my fingers found it hollow I bid the Surgeon use his Lancet which he did but the Patient felt it not And he took great pieces of Flesh away It cast out good and plentifull Matter yet without Fever Fainting or any other grievous Symptome his strength was perfect and his stomach good For I found him on his leggs not dreaming in the least of his death which I signified to his Wife who took me for mad I took leave of my Patient intending to return to Newenburg in Switzerland where I then practised Physick But within three hours I was recalled to the assistance of the dying man who a few hours after departed this life XIV A Girl eight years old had a small Swelling sanguine and phlegmatick on the out side of the right under jaw I fearing lest the scar should spoil her face did before the Abscess came to break resolve to try to disperse it according to Guido who saith that sometimes suppurated Imposthumes are cured by discussion After whose example Paraeus cured such another Abscess with crude Mercury mixt with Diapalma I in imitation of him mixed one drachm of the said Mercury with an ounce of Diapalma and applied it to the suppurated Tumour Dionysius Iomeret apud Riverium obs 1. Vid. Hollerium de mat ch rurg lib. 2. cap. 1. which within four days was wholly dispersed The following qualifications are requisite to the dispersing of suppurated Matter 1. That the quantity be but small 2. That it be thin and serous 3. That it be near the skin and surface of the Body 4. That it be in a strong and young Body and soft fleshed 5. That it be Summer time XV. The Site of the Fibres is to be taken special heed of for I observed an ignorant Barber once opened an Imposthumâ— on the forehead cross-ways The Imposthume indeed was successfully cured but the Patient was ever after deprived the benefit of his Eyes except when he pasted up his eye-brows with Plasters It were more advisable to leave such Imposthumes to Nature Rolsâ—â—ceius disserâ— Anaâ— lib. 3. cap. 10. than to commit the Incision of them to unskilfull hands See Galen 4. de administr Anatom c. 1. XVI There lies a Nerve under the Buttocks which if it be cut in Suppuration or when it is laid bare be hurt by cold it leaves the Thigh under it benummed A certain man had an Imposthume in the bending of his Buttock where it ends in the Thigh Hollerius inst châ—r l 2. c. 1. l. 3. c. 1. when the Matter was cleansed the Nerve was made bare which being hurt by the cold left the whole Thigh benummed XVII If there be but little Matter there is no harm if all run out which is fit and ready for running without any violent or long pressing of it a thing usual with many Surgeons from which I could never yet observe any benefit to accrue to the Patient but oft times much hurt Indeed when the Matter resides in
the Part being sufficiently opened by a Bath or Stove or over the steam of a Lixivium made of the yellow dross of Regulus of Antimony whose Sulphur draws most powerfully nor is it less potent in its dissolving virtue Take Salt of Urine mix it with the best Spirit of Wine Th. de Mayerne Tract de Arthritide â— 47. of this mixture make a Fomentation Oil of Arsenick digests and draws outward nor is there for this purpose a Remedy to be compared with it if a little of it be mixt with May Butter or some other Fat anoint the Part gently Sometime such swellings are dispersed by the sweating out of a certain viscid matter like Fat and Blisters often arise weeping watry drops not unlike Eggs when they are rosting The main point in the use of this Remedy is not to make too much haste for often the effect shows not it self till the twelfth or fifteenth day or longer XXXI There are great Physicians who singularly commend Cabbage and advise those that are sick of the Gout while their Pain is upon them onely to eat Cabbage This indeed is certain that Food the less nourishment it affords the wholsomer it is Therefore they that are troubled with the Gout must abstain from Hens and Capons Crato which breed much nourishment and bloud XXXII A Man should without doubt abstain from Wine and all things that supply such a Tartar and sharp humours For when I was once troubled with the Gout and had read several Authours upon that subject Sennertus Epist 1. Cent. 4. I observed they all agreed in this that all hope depends more on a good Diet than on Medicines XXXIII Let the Gouty person take a turn at least in his Chamber although stirring want not pain for heat of the Part and attenuation and resolution of the matter follows Motion So exercise will be good for prevention but it must be moderate Fortiâ— Consulâ— 73. Cent. 4. For Paul l. 3. c. 75. saith that abating of ones Diet and as much exercise as is sufficient prevents the Gout XXXIV First of all Bloud-letting what great things soever it promise either in evacuating the humours that stand ready and upon the point to descend or those that are already got into the Joints yet it is manifestly repugnant to that Indication that the antecedent cause which is Indigestion arising from depravation or defect of spirits whom taking away of bloud farther diminishes and oppresses doth challenge Bloud-letting therefore may not be used either to prevent the Fit that is feared or to mitigate it when come upon a man that is in the elderly sort For though the bloud that is taken away be like theirs that are sick of a Pleurisie or Rheumatism for the most part yet it is observed that Bloud-letting does harm as remarkably in this case as it does good in those other two For if bloud be taken away in the Intermission though never so long after the Fit there is danger lest a new one should come on by the agitation of the Bloud and Humours that may prove longer than the former and be attended with more enormous symptomes the strength and vigour of the bloud by help whereof it might stoutly cast off the matter of the Disease being thereby abated And this Inconvenience befalls a Man if he let Bloud in the beginning of a Fit If a Vein be opened presently after the Fit there is great danger lest nature while the bloud is yet languid and has not recovered its strength wasted by the Disease be so weakened and sink by this wound unseasonably inflicted Sydenham de Pâ—â—â—â—gra p. 33. that way be made for a Dropsie Nevertheless if the Patient be young and heated with hard drinking Bloud may be taken away in the beginning of the Fit but if he use constant Bloud-letting in the following Fit the Gout will grow inveterate even in a young Man and will increase its Empire or rather its Tyranny farther in a few years than otherwise it could have done in a great many XXXV Then as to Purging whether upwards or downwards we must take notice that since it is the inviolable law of Nature interwoven and joyned with the very essence of this Disease that the matter of the Disease should always be cast upon the Joints all that Emetick or Cathartick Remedies can doe will be onely to recall the Peccant Matter Nature had thrust out to the extremities of the body into the Mass of Bloud whence it comes to pass that what ought to have been thrown upon the Joints falls perhaps on some of the Inwards and so he who was in no danger is like to lose his life Which is frequently observed fatal to them that accustom themselves to Purging Medicines either to prevent the Gout or which is worse to ease the Paroxysm For when Nature is put out of her own way whereby as the best and most secure she sends the Morbifick Matter to the Limbs while the Humours are invited inwards to the Intestines Patients instead of pains in the Joints of which they have either none or but a very little are almost killed with sickness at the Stomach Griping in the Guts Fainting and a long train of anomalous Symptomes Indeed I am fully perswaded being so convinced by constant and often repeated experience that all Purging as well by Lenitives as by stronger Medicines such as are usually designed to purge the Joints is exceeding hurtfull whether we Purge in the Paroxysm to diminish the peccant matter or in the end to dissipate the relicks of the Disease or in a perfect intermission and good health to prevent the coming of a Fit For I have experienced it both in my self and others that a Purge given at any of these times is so far from answering our ends that it brings the very mischief upon us which it should keep off For first a Purge given while the Fit rages interrupting Nature as she is busie in separating the morbifick matter and discharging it upon the Joints hath sometimes raised a great disorder in the spirits whereupon the Fit not onely grew stronger but the Patient was brought into manifest hazard of his life Again Catharticks used in the end of a Paroxysm when they should have carried off the relicks of the Disease onely did this they brought a new Fit as severe as the former and so the Patient flattering himself with vain hopes brings upon himself those evils which he had never suffered had he not again put the humours on a fret Which Inconvenience I my self have found preposterously imploring Physick Art's aid to throw off as I thought the relicks of my Disease Last of all as to Purging repeated at certain Intervals and in perfect health that we may obviate the Paroxysm and stop its entrance although it must be confessed there is not so present danger of inviting a new Fit as was in the former case when the Patient was not quite out of Gunshot yet
vitious bloud by reason the less Arteries are cut away from the part affected must contain more bloud than before and therefore when they are open will discharge that bloud upon some other part whence comes a new Canker 3. Because there is so much malignity latent in the Body that a Canker will always grow afresh A Canker is easily cut out of the flesh difficultly but it may be done out of a Membrane and Tendon so that these parts be such as may be taken all away For this reason a Canker that possesses the intercostal Muscles cannot be cut because of the Pleura that is joined to all the ribs Walaeus meth med p. 128. A Canker in the bone is most difficultly of all cut Therefore this disease requires a Cautery The dissection of the Canker must not be made at a great distance as is the custome in a Gangrene yea if it may be done we must cut off no good flesh Amatus cent 3. curat 32. XVI I have known some Women who had Cankers in their breasts that by a good order of life without any trouble of Topical Medicines lived a long time as well as if they had been troubled with no Disease XVII Although no peculiar Operation be owing to a Lip which is troubled with a Canker other than what is due to a Canker in any other part namely the extirpation of the Disease with the part it is in yet let me caution young Operatours that the way described by Aquapendent to wit to doe it with a sharp piece of Money or hard Wood dipt now and then in Aquafortis Van Horne Michrot p. 120. is by no means to be approved of because the Carcinoma will be enraged by such a Liquour XVIII I will add the observation of the excellent Scultetus that a pair of Scissers is very incommodious to cut away part of the Lip troubled with a Canker The reason is because something of the Ill is always left whence it comes to pass that it breaks out again Bartholinus cent 1. Hist 7. which he saith he observed twice in the same Subject XIX I cured an old Man of 84 of an exulcerate Canker in his nether Lip I cut it out by the roots with a sharp Incision Knife the bloud ran violently out which when I had let it run on purpose about ten ounces I staunched without any Searing onely with a little burnt Cotton and Astringent Powders After the use of Digesters good Matter ran out a token that the whole substance of the Canker was taken away Afterwards with a Camphorate Ointment of Ceruss made in a Leaden Mortar I brought a Cicatrice in twenty days time But three years after a new Canker arose in his Jaws of which he shortly died contrary to my own and all mens expectation when it was not likely at these years that an adust Melancholick Humour should breed again and cause a new Canker in another place I was confirmed in this opinion because I had seen a Woman of 70 that had an Ulcerous Canker in her Nose to whom I prescribed the same Ointment rather to ease her pain than to cure her who yet beyond all hope in a month's time was perfectly cured I also cured a Man of 40 of an Ulcerated Canker as big as a Pigeon's Egg in his nether Lip after the same manner i. e. by cutting with the addition of preparation and purging of the Melancholick Humours and yet there arose no Canker in any other part of the body P. Marchetti obs 29 30. So therefore sometimes we need not cast away all hope of curing those diseases XX. A Canker in the Breast is sometime occult sometime Ulcerous and manifest besides the disease is sometime in one part sometime the whole Breast is affected yea sometime it creeps farther and gets into the Glands under the Arm-pits Keep your hands off such for the cure is in vain as also experience shews that to be which promises a recovery by Medicines Truly there is no cure here but what is heteroclite as Aquapendent saith that with the Disease taketh away also the part affected which is the most usual operation But Hieronymus is too scrupulous Van. Horne Michrot 135. in that he would first take away the pain and hinder the profusion of bloud for the pain is but momentany and onely small Arteries are cut XXI In the operation first of all two Needles or a double Thread are drawn across through the Breast Yet the Patient is not always to be tormented with the double pain of crossing the Needles sometimes the Carcinoma is onely taken hold on with the left hand viz. when it is pretty moveable After the same manner you may conveniently take away remarkable Wens or Cankers Idem p. 1â—â— that grow in any other part of the body XXII Idem ibid. And the vessels that are cut must not be seared but Medicines which stop bloud must be applied XXIII In Cankers of the Breast it seems as if we should prescribe Repellers to intercept the greater flux of humours if we observe the part affected to swell daily this being a token of a continual afflux that should be repelled another way and the part affected must be strengthened with moderate astringents that it may not be so liable to receive the flux of humours On the other hand we have Hippocrates his Rule It is better not to cure occult Cankers Nay if according to Galen evacuaters be more convenient than repellents in the Parotides lest the matter should be driven into the Brain how much rather should we abstain from Repellers in a Cankrous Breast that is so near the Heart Wherefore it is my opinion that if we were in the beginning of a Disease that is but coming then we need not abstain from some of the weaker Repellents mixt with weaker Digesters For which purpose it is my custome to make use of Oil of Roses complete beaten up in a leaden Mortar with a leaden Pestil to a moderate consistence for by the benefit of this Liniment I have more than once conquered Cankers as they were beginning But we may not proceed to the stronger Repellers neither in the beginning because if the Spongy substance of the Breasts be condensed the bloud has recourse to the Womb where it breeds a Canker nor in the progress of the disease because they hasten exulceration XXIV Magius being called to a certain Nobleman that had a Swelling in his right Breast which they took for a Canker judged it rather to be a Phlegmone because it was of no long standing First of all therefore he ripened this Swelling with Wheat-flower boiled as Galen teaches in Water and Oil and when signs of its ripening appeared he opened it with a Knife which being done good matter ran out But before opening he felt some palpitations within it which also argued the Tumour to be no Canker Then he used Digesters Schenckius as Turpentine mixt
those about him And although I had taken seven or eight ounces of bloud away by cupping yet the next day I order him to bleed again and so in a few days he recovered V. Whether should Wounds of the head be healed by sowing or by regeneration of flesh The best Chirurgeons neglect sowing lest the matter kept in under the sowing corrupt the Pericranium and the skull and so pain and other symptomes follow also for fear of hurting the Pericranium in sowing which in all likelyhood cannot be without hurt when the whole skin is cut And sowing of the Flesh is not properly opposed to generation of Flesh nor is the cure by agglutination and future the same thing for the agglutination of the skin of the head which requires a long time can never be without generation of flesh which generation of Pus doth precede wherefore it is necessary that new flesh should grow in the room of that which turned into Pus Sennertus Let the Chirurgeon therefore make it his business first to close the lips of the wound by binding applying necessary medicines and let him leave the rest to nature VI. Whether when the Skull is fractured under the whole skin should this be cut Vidus Vidius reports that Perusinus a famous Chirurgeon did by long practice observe that more of those are saved who are cured without cutting by lenient and drying Medicines than of those whole skin is cut and their bone laid open and herein he shews that there is a vast difference between a fractured skull bare and one covered with the skin For if the skull be uncovered if it be left without cutting the humour that falls upon the Membrane of the Brain cannot be discussed by the heat which expires and therefore putrefying it kills a man But when the skin is whole the heat expires not therefore it can digest the Sanies and solidate the Bones which we daily see in other fractures that are covered with flesh and skin This opinion may be allowed of if onely a small quantity of bloud be poured under the Cranium if no broken bone prick the membranes and if the broken skull compress not the Brain But if there be store of bloud if the corruption of the parts underneath by the Pus be feared if a membrane be prickt or compressed by a broken bone according to Paulus Celsus and most Chirurgeons minds the skin must be cut that the fracture may lie open and other things may conveniently be done as they ought Idem For Nature is not able to rectifie such faults and granting that the Sanies could be drawn through the skin yet the small bones and skales that stick within are not easily drawn out VII A certain person fell backwards from on high and remained as if he had been quite dead Wherefore by the Advice of D. Pimpernelle and D. le Juif after his head was shaved a cataplasm of Bean-flower was applied all over it And because the case required haste for the Patient had lost his speech that the Cataplasm might sooner drie they got hot cloths applied to the cataplasm for the space of six hours when it was dried and taken off the figure of the latent fissures of the skull was found plainly delineated on it P. Borellus cent 2. obs 20. for the cataplasm will not grow dry in the places of fissures or fractures And a great fissure appeared in the middle of the Crotaphitus Muscle VIII A little Girl fell down a pair of Stairs and knockt the hind part of her head against a stone step so that it made a great depression of the bone with contusion onely And when her Parents would not yield to cutting nor the necessary operations but would onely have Medicines applied proper for the inflammation and contusion she was beyond expectation cured by Nature yet there remained a notable depression of the bone We need not therefore be much afraid for Children bruised after this manner by reason of the softness of their skull Marchetti obs 5. IX Aquapendent Chirurg l. 2. c. 8. shews when Trepanning the skull may be used Trepanning sath he may be used in these two Cases 1. If a descent of the matter be feared 2. If there be not a sufficient outlet for the matter On the contrary if the Fissure be open or the fracture reach not through the whole bone and if there be no contusion so that there is no fear of Sanies contained within the skull must not be opened nor the dura meninx exposed to the air to no purpose We must observe that if the Fissure or seat of the Instrument descend to the middle part of the skull scraping will not be sufficient but we must proceed to trepanning although no other â—ymptome appear upon this account because the purulent matter running from the lips of the wound to the middle part of the skull doth also by its vessels penetrate to the membrane also betwixt which and the skull it being gathered causeth death I have observed this in several Marchetti obs 15. who for this reason were trepanned that they all recovered X. We put the Trepan to the broken or contused skull that partly we may raise the depressed bone partly that matter or bloud stagâ—â—ating in the dura meninx may when the hole is made be evacuated Yet Peter Marchetti saw matter evacuated without the Trepan ¶ A young man falling from a window contused his skull which caused Convulsions and other symptomes The skin after incision made sweated out Pus by the Pores of the Skull as sweat useth to come through the skin ¶ A Boy having contused his Skull voided bloud at his Nose Mouth and Ears his Mother refused the Trepan The Boy being neglected thirty days an abscess and inflammation arising in his head Pus ran out at his Nose in great plenty Marchetti being called at last performed the opening of his Skull with a Trepan excellently well indeed but because thirty days had past the Boy at length died for according to Hippocrates in wounds of the Skull of this nature we must not tarry four days The nature of our Soil and Clime is otherwise and doth not exactly agree with the seasons of Hippocrates his Air nor will admit of such generous operations Our colder air retards the quickness of the inflammation and stronger bodies if a little time be allowed them do with Natures assistence raise the bones of the Skull of themselves T. Bartholinus cent 2. hist 41. For I have seen profound contusions of the Skull cured in our City without a Trepan onely by applying Emplastrum magneticum de Betonica ¶ A Walker in his sleep at his full growth and of no small bulk of body in the Summer 1673. fell from the second story upon a flint pavement he fell not with his whole weight upon his head but the trunk of his body first bore the chiefest force of the fall otherwise he had hardly escaped
the abolition of all his animal actions and immediate death yet in the mean time he had grievously knockt his head for his Skull was cleft not without effusion of bloud within it which is the perpetual concomitant of Fissures The Italians and other hotter Countries would immediately have taken the Trepan in this case and so would the excellent Mr. Burgowerus have done but that the Patient and by-standers were absolutely against a Remedy not usual in these parts and which to most men carries terrour in its very name and so hindered his Intention He endeavoured therefore to stop any farther profusion of bloud within the Skull and to consume what was already extravasated He diminished the bloud by repeated letting of it He rubbed all his back with discutient Oil He wrapped his Body in Lamb-skins just flain He applied Cephalick bags boiled in Wine to his head He denied him Wine He gave him a decoction of Harts-horn to drink He restrained the motion of the bloud disturbed by the fall and grumous bloud that was beginning to be inflamed here and there all over the body and so made very impetuous By taking away some quantity of bloud he made the veins as it were hungry that they might suck back what was effused more greedily to which purpose also pertained his thin and cooling diet By giving a Traumatick tincture and outwardly applying bags stuffed with Cephalick herbs and boiled in Wine he so disposed the extravasated bloud which would have become grumous and might have caused much damage by its putrefaction that it could enter either the bloud-vessels or the pores of the Glands And he did all this not without good success nor without a precedent for the same course without trepanning the Skull has often succeeded as well as one could wish I cannot believe the extravasated bloud passed into thin air and vanished like a vapour for the thickness of the Skull and denseness of the Dura meninx would hinder that which is the reason that it pertinaciously detains even mere water in the Dropsie of the head so that the wit of Man cannot get it out without opening Wepfâ—rus de Apâ—plexia p. 340. and that is very dangerous We see daily how Swellings half as big as a Hens egg arising in the foreheads of little children from violent falls and growing black and blew with suffused bloud do presently sink by applying cold Iron or if this repercussion at first be neglected by applying a piece of warm flesh how in a few hours space they vanish without any manifest evacuation XI Although Instruments are often applied to the Skull in fractures or fissures yet sometimes they may properly be applied to it whole Tulpius lib. 1. obs 2. especially if there be fear that any veins are broken For by this means not onely the effused bloud is got out but moreover inflammation putrefaction delirium a fever and other Symptomes are prevented XII One had got a wound in the fore-part of his head wâ—ich the Chirurgeon by reason there were no Symptomes cured in fourteen days time according to the first intention Anno 1629. in the month September Thus cured he came to Vlm Anno 1639. in March and complained of a great pain all over his head of a Vertigo dimness of sight and a Palsie in his right Arm. Now by reason of the great suspicion I had of a fissure in his Skull twenty weeks after he had received the hurt I made a triangular Incision into the skin and Pericranium upon the Sinciput and I sufficiently dilated the wound separating the Pericranium from the bone and applying Lint dipt in a Stegnotick On the 13th day of March when the bloud was stopt I found the Skull cleft and I bored it twice with a trepan upon the edge of narrowest part of the fissure and took away the interstice between both holes with a turning Saw The matter being evacuated that fell by the fissure upon the dura mater of the brain Scultetus Armam obs 1â— the said Symptomes ceased and the Patient in a months time recovered XIII A Man of Threescore had a blow on the left bregma with fracture and depression of the Skull I was called to him on the 10th day in the evening I found him in a Fever delirous and speechless having given the prognostick Fab. Hildanus cent 4. obs 4. I undertook the cure I made a Cruciate and laid open the Skull the next day having taken out a few bones that were separated from the first table I trepanned him And so he that was given up for lost happily escaped XIV One was wounded on the right-side of his head the wound reached all over the Cranium and Membranes themselves so that a piece of the Lamina vitrea where the wound did almost end did so prick the Membranes and Brain that besides other Symptomes there was this peculiar a Palsie in the opposite Arm and the Tongue Beside common Medicines the next day I trepanned the Skull in the midst of the wound but with no relief and therefore I resolved to try a new trepanning but in vain Then I tried two more being fully assured that the Membranes were hurt and the brain vellicated by some piece of bone which I found true for in the very operation I hit my Trepan against a piece of bone which I took hold of and drew out with a pair of plyers Marchetti obs 5. to which a portion of the Membrana pia and the brain were annext Upon which within half an hour he recovered his Speech and the use of his Arm and lived long in good health XV. We must observe that the Trepan and the Elevatory must never be applied to a bone that is totally broken off lest by compression of it the Membranes under it be hurt Therefore they may be applied to the firm bone but as near as may be to the fracture that less of the Skull may be taken out lest the brain deprived of its bony cover get some hurt Nor may you follow fractures or fissures if they reach any thing far to their very end you must be content to procure a passage for the Sanies and with the taking out of so much bone as pricks the Membranes for when a Callus is bred and grown under Nature will make up the fractures of the Skull as she uses to make up those of other bones For which purpose she by a singular providence hath filled the two tables of the Skull with a certain alimentary and sanguineous matter that herewith as with Marrow she might repair the hurts of this bone The truth of this appeared lately in Mr. Grolo's Servant who suffered a grievous fracture upon his coronal bone by the kick of a Mule When I understood this I made a triangular section that so I might apply the Trepan The day after I had bored the bone I thought to take it out but as I was trying to get it out after I had separated it
preternatural motion Riverius Prict cap. propr the ordinary passages being obstructed by which they use to be purged And then the Catarrh is opportunely cured by opening the passages together with gentle and continual Purging by Broths or some Decoctions celebrated for several days ¶ From Cauteries actual or potential upon the coronal Suture a Physician can expect nothing but great harm for though they be commended by Aetius Avicenna Aegineta Rolfinccius Cons 1. l. 1. yet I cannot approve of them This Commendation is founded upon the old Hypothesis That the Brain is the fountain of Catarrhs which however is now expired ¶ A Catarrh is not bred in the Brain because either private or publick excrements are gathered there Private excrements the Brain hath but few The publick invented by Argenterius that are confluent thither from the whole Body are none neither moist nor vaporous It is a Figment that the Brain is like a Cupping-glass or an Alembick or like the Roof of a House that receives the Vapours from below or like the Middle region of the Air in which the Vapours ascending from the Earth are condensed and fall like Rain or Snow upon the Microcosm The whole Body gives occasion to these Catarrhs This doth by the Arteries put away the impure Atomes of the Bloud before it comes to the Head either upon the Membranes of the Nose or Jaws These Membranes do imbibe and sweat out these Atomes after this manner The Arteries and partly the Veins also are divaricated like Spiders-webs into the spongy flesh of the Nose and Jaws and sweat through like dew after the same manner that Aliment does or Liquour in a new earthen vessel Idem ibid. The Catarrh penetrating after this manner while it is not altered by the Membrane runs down thin c. Crato II. Crudities are the cause of all Catarrhs ¶ And there are Impurities not onely through the fault of the first and second Concoction but of the third also which is onely made for the due nutrition of every part of which depravation also the Archaeus provoked by external causes and therefore neglecting the office of appropriate digestion is the cause For it is a certain Axiome where there is aliment there is excrement and Where there is nutrition there is also segregation of excrements or if the expulsive faculty languish collection of them Frid. Hofmannus m. m. l. 1. c. 11. Therefore there is no necessity that we should so industriously fly to Catarrhs and Distillations of humours when every part if it labour of any Infirmity may manifestly gather its own proper preternatural excrements the same way as Helmont hath explained it III. There is need of much caution and distinction in the Cures of Catarrhs For an old Man destitute of native heat and labouring of perpetual Crudity must be cured one way A hot young Man who abounds with a bilious and easily fermenting Serum another way They whose distempered Bowels and very moist Head create this Floud one way They that create themselves this trouble by Surfeiting and Crudities Franc. Ignatius Shiarmair lib. 2. cons 1. another A Catarrh in the beginning while the humours grow hot ferment and are in motion must be treated one way When the Ebullition is ceased another And we must proceed differently with respect to the quality quantity and motion of the matter IV. The concoction and maturation of Defluxions is the moderation or adequation of their substance and qualities which especially cures and ripens Fluxions Therefore Hippocrates de vet Medic. Fluxions saith he which I think are all caused by the acrimony and intemperature of humours are recovered and cured when they are temperate and concocted that is made thicker as in an Ophthalmia the heat and inflammations of the Eyes cease when the Fluxions are concocted and made thicker and the weeping matter of the Eyes stop And concoction is made by thorough mixture and mutual tempering And he subjoins Moreover Fluxions falling upon the Throat from which Hoarseness Quinseys Erisypelas Peripneumonies all these first of all come down moist and sharp wherein the Diseases are confirmed But when being made thicker they are grown more ripe and free from all acrimony then both the Fevers and whatever things offended by reason of the Defluxion of the Catarrh are at an end ¶ Nor yet are they to be irritated by Medicines as Plutarch saith in his Book to Apollonius Neither saith he do the best Physicians presently draw out their Auxiliaries of Medicines against copious Defluxion of humours but they let the gravity of the Phlegm by outward anointings ripen of it self because time uses to ripen all things And that this does not onely hold good in Diseases of the Body but in Passions also of the Mind Oceanus also hath left us it in Aeschylus who persuades Prometheus that Jove was not to be prayed to nor addressed in the first heat of his Fury J. Langius Epist 160. lib. 2. but after he had concocted his anger V. Sometime the Brain is temperate yet fruitfull in Catarrhs because of the narrowness of the passages either natural or ascititious by which it purges the excrements into the nostrils therefore when its excrements do not run by their due chanels being increased in the Brain they cause distillations by other ways Zecchius which appears in those that snore and keep the nostrils open in their sleep VI. Sometimes the humours offend neither in quantity nor quality but are suddenly squeezed out onely upon occasion of the Cold that shrinks the part in good strength whereas they would otherwise have been expelled in a longer tract of time He that would treat the mittent part in this manner disposed with Medicines might cast his Patient into a Fit of sickness I have sometime seen persons well in health that have been tormented some days with a Distillation of the Brain by reason of the cold Air who within a short time after the matter being consumed which could not be contained because the parts were contracted by the external Cold remained well in health because the mittent part was every way sound Empiricks while they prescribe Washings Embrocations Cupping and things of the like nature Sanctorius meth vit err l. 10. c. 2. to these men for the cure of the part mittent do fall into a manifest errour VII Sometimes in a cold Distillation we must begin with Bloud-letting Saxonia pract prael when a plenitude is annexed common or determinate and that mixt And this must be done when the matter that falls upon the Lungs and Breast gives some fear of a Peripneumony bastard Pleurisie or Quinsey Joubertus ¶ Bloud-letting is not convenient because it renders the humours more fluid therefore unless the Lungs or Sides or Breasts be disaffected we must onely use Purgation ¶ One of these five conditions do best shew it 1. The Nature and Quality of the fluent matter if the Fluxion be hot sharp and
a scruple tie them in a Rag infuse them two or three hours in very sharp Vinegar and apply them to the tooth Or Take of Henbane-seed Staves-acre Pellitory of Spain each 1 scruple Powder them very fine Take one scruple of this Powder and with the strongest Vinegar make it into a Pill which may be held to the tooth an hours time It wonderfully lays the pain indeed and breeds no Intemperature to speak on though it were more desirable to take away the pain onely by Discutients Fienus Physâ—graâ—hiae c. 14. if it could be done V. In the upper Jaw an Artery creeps along the Antitragus of the Ear where it may be burnt and an astringent Plaster may be applied to this place and to the Temples to intercept the flux of humours to the Veins An Artery creeps nigh the Angle in the lower Jaw Riolanus Enchirid. l. 4. c. 8. and it must be burnt where it beats or Topicks must be applied when the Teeth ake in the lower Jaw VI. To cure and prevent a periodick Tooth-ach Spigelius burnt that part of the Anthelix which immediately touches the upper part of the Tragus with good success and then healed the wound again By this new Chirurgery that branch of the Carotid Artery that reaches from the Anthelix of the Ear to the Teeth is cut athwart so that the afflux of humours being intercepted Scultetus Arm. Châ—r obs 28. the pain returns no more The Authour tried the effect of this Remedy first in himself and then in others VII Those are the Genuine Teeth which first appear before Pubescency and use of Venery in People sometimes with cruel torture A thing which the less-observing Physicians neglect and either pull out some other Teeth or persuading themselves that they are troubled with some fault in their humours choak their Patients with Pills and such sort of Medicines whenas no more present Remedy could be given the pained Parties than a light scarification of the Gums upon the last tooth and sometimes a piercing of the bone This very thing I now find true in my self who in the six and twentieth year of my age while I write these words have my two and thirtieth tooth coming And several Skuls which we meet with in Church yards argue the same Vesâ—lius de 〈…〉 br l. 1. c. 2. in which the latter teeth yet lye hid as in a Cave and in some they are just piercing the most tender bone with their tops VIII There is need of Caution in Reâ—ellents especially if they be applied to the Jaws for though if the matter fly back into the tooth onely repellent Mouth-washes may be used without danger yet if the matter be more plentifull so that it possesses the Jaws also Repellents cannot be applied safely to the Jaws especially seeing they may drive the matter inward to the Throat and so choak the Patient So Valesc de Taranta relates how one that was troubled with the Tooth-ach in his Grinders and with a Swelling in his Jaw had Oil of Roses and Vinegar applied to it Sennertus and fell into a Quinsey and died IX A Senatour of Venice because of the violence of his Tooth-ach would cast himself a-sleep by putting in some Opiate Oil to the tooth Alex Benedictus l. 5. c. 13. but instead of Sleep he committed himself to his brother Death X. Some have made mention of opening the outer Veins of the Palate in Diseases of the Head and Face Jaws Throat Teeth and Mouth J. à Retham in Tascic Med. wrote a History of a Woman who had endured a bitter Tooth-ach and she could find no ease in Repellents and other Medicines she was wonderfully relieved by this Phlebotomy And saith he these Veins are apparent which yet must be opened after being bled in the Cephalick Severiâ—us Mâ—â— Eâ—â—iâ— p. 5â— and when the matter is digested and not crude XI Small Arteries go from the Carotides into the Auricle the greatest of which creeps by the Antitragus and Anthelix and ascending the upper Jaw supplies every tooth with vital bloud with which sharp humours flowing thither are often the cause of a most violent Tooth-ach which I have often seen cured to a Wonder by artificial cutting that branch in the Anthelix Which is well observed also by Baubinus And Riolanus tells Diemerbreck An. l. 5. c. 13. how he saw a Man in Paris who got a great deal of money by curing that way And I saw such an one in Gelderland XII Onely the Cartilage which is extended athwart the Ear being cauterized Laâ—francus is wont to remove the Tooth-ach XIII The Wife of N. of a sanguine complexion and ruddy countenance being troubled with a violent Tooth-ach by the advice of a Physician of Vlm got her self let bloud in the foot August Thonerus obs 5. l. 2. as she sate in hot water suffering the bloud to run till she fainted and she found ease XIV Among all things which preserve the Teeth from Rottenness Oil of Vitriol whitens the most and is commended if it be mixt with Water because it hurts not the pure and sound flesh but takes away onely the putrefied Yet they find fault with it who are ignorant of the true use of it but they that know how to use it give it succesfully in great Diseases though not in all for a drop or two mixt with Sugar or Honey of Roses cleanses the teeth admirably and helps putrid Gums Crato cons 75. with Ulcers in the mouth XV. A piece of meat especially if it be sweet if it be kept in a hollow tooth putrefies and so causes pain or encreases the stink and erosion Wherefore you will find it best both from reason and experience to fill a hollow tooth lest ought get in which may touch that sensible part It may be filled with Mastick chewed till it be soft for if hard things be put in they will cause pain Some fill their teeth with Wax but in my judgment they doe ill because it hath an emollient faculty especially if it be new But if we would use it we must mix Salt or Alume or something else that dries and binds especially if the Tooth water or white Wax rather because it is drier and hath an adstringent quality from its preparation or red Wax which by reason of the Cinnaber prepares the teeth so that they may be either more easily pulled out or broken Rondeletius l. 1. c. 83. yet green Wax is more laudable which dries vehemently because of the Verdigrease Afterwards you must use other driers lest such things as cleanse the teeth do at length fret them with their acrimony If there be Putrefaction add Myrrh if Stink Musk or Cotton wherein Musk is kept except in such as are subject to the Head-ach or Vertigo because they are hurt by Smells XVI Ancient Physicians do not well agree about pulling out a tooth although the most think a faulty and corrupt one should be
our body certainly its cure will consist in the contemperation of the foresaid more sharp volatile Salt both by oily things as Emulsions of Barley sweet Almonds Seeds of white Poppy Melon Cucumber c. by sweet Milk of the Cow Sheep Goat Woman Ass c. And by Acids but contempered with a volatile Salt sweet Spirit of Salt c. mixing them with convenient Drink Broths c. but not with the aforesaid Emulsions or Milk Sylvius Append because all sowre things make them curdle XI I believe the chief and most frequent cause of a Diabetes consists in the too much dissolved and lax mixture of the bloud and likewise scarcity and less than ought of urine in a too strict consistency of bloud If the cause of this lax and dissolute consistency which makes it apt to dissolve into Serum be inquired we say the fusion of it as also of Milk proceeds from hence because since in the mass of it Salts of divers natures meet and are associated the rest of the particles being freed from the Salt ones which keep them one from another and contain them in mixtion make a Separation And it is plainly evident that Salino fixt and volatile particles are always in the bloud naturally among which if at any time an acid Salt or one that has obtain'd a fluidity do come in a sufficient quantity it will easily produce the aforesaid Disease Hence it is that Rhenish-wine c. and acid Liquours when they are drunk provoke urine plentifully for this reason also Medicines having a fixt or volatile Salt use to move urine in some sickly People whose bloud abounds with an acid Salt Astringent Medicines properly so called namely harsh bitter and styptick ones which by corrugating the fibres of the bowels and by contracting them into a shorter space do stop their expulsive and excretory faculty and therefore hinder Purging upwards and downwards although they use to be vulgarly prescribed to hinder pissing they doe little or no good because their virtue is able to doe nothing in the mass of bloud and it reaches not the Kidneys or Bladder Wherefore that it is to no purpose in a Diabetes to prescribe the rind and flowers of Pomegranates Medlars Tormentil-roots and the like as Reason dictates so Experience confirms But the things that are found to doe most good and square exactly enough with our Hypothesis some of them are such as hinder the combinations of Salts and consequently the fusion of Bloud such as those that are vulgarly called thickning Medicines and have viscous and glutinous Particles which being admitted into the mass of bloud pertinaciously adhere to its active Particles and sever them and so hinder them from combining mutually among themselves or with the Saline ones any other way in fusion Other things dissolve the accretions of Salts and therefore restore the mixture of the bloud such as Saline things of another nature which naturally stick to an acid Salt and so recall it from the combinations it has entered into within the bloud such Medicines are they especially that are indued with a fixt Salt and with a volatile and alkalizate one Besides these two primary sorts of Ischureticks there is another secondary one namely an Hypnotick which by putting a stop to the animal Oeconomy makes the vital Regiment to be performed more sedately and therefore with less fusion of the bloud or precipitation of the serous and nutritious humour Willis XII It sometimes proceeds from too much cooling of the Liver And observe this for no man to my knowledge has taken notice of it Reason persuades it for if a Dropsie be caused why may not a Diabetes When the Liver breeds Water why may it not as well send it to the Kidneys as into the capacity of the Belly Saxonia XIII I first cured my self of abundance of Urine and then my young Daughter and as many as came into my hands when all died that fell into other hands though they were reckoned famous men And when in the presence of some of them I had almost cured one man in a day who had been a month under cure and had found no benefit but was well nigh dead they admired I abstained from Purgatives they gave them I abstained from fat things they advised the use of them I gave them Raisins they consented but they would not admit Lentils but against their will I used hot things they cold I applied Astringents to the Kidneys they feared lest the Water violently stopt would flow back to the principal Bowels I took away the Feather-bed they forgot it I often washed the Feet and they neglected it I gave White-wine they said of right it was not proper I forbad exercise after meat Cardanus I injoined Sleep they agreed with me onely in these two rules Capivaccius XIV In a spurious one by transmission we must have a care of Coolers XV. It is worth remembrance concerning Quinces which have a cooling and astringent faculty how Pascalius in his Praxis c. 50. writes that Alfonsus King of Naples upon the use of them fell into a Diabetes Saxonia XVI A Bath of Sweet-water may be convenient for it moistens the body that is then dried especially if it be indued with a cooling virtue but a mineral one and of a drying faculty by no means for it would quickly bring the Patient into a Consumption Idem especially if he be of a hot constitution XVII A man thirty years of age after plentifull Drinking of Wine fell into a Diabetes with most violent heat extreme thirst and so great a flux of urine that he made thrice as much water as he drank by day as well as night But after Bloud letting and the frequent use of Tincture of Corals Decoction of Plantain and especially that mixture Fr. Sylvius Prax. l. 1. c. 30. § 183. hath to temper the volatility of the pancreatick Juice within fifteen days the Disease abated This is the Mixture Take of Water of Plantain 3 ounces Cinnamon distilled Vinegar each half an ounce Syrup of Purslane 1 ounce Powder of red Coral 1 drachm Mix them This Mixture may be given by spoonfulls A. Hermannus commisc curâ—an 1672. obs 183. If any one would have it stronger he may add to it half a scruple or a whole one of Acacia or Juice of Hypocistis XVIII Medicines must be given presently because it brings Men often into a Consumption through the exceeding Heat of the whole Body especially of the Liver Kidneys and Venous kind I cured a Countrey fellow who was taken with it after a burning Fever with Coolers and Moistners adding Astringents and Strengthners Knobl oâ—hiuâ— in Apâ—â— p. 40â— among other things his whole Body was wrapt in a Plaster Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. These are most effectual Trochiscs which contain of the mucilage of Fleawort-seed Coriander-seed prepared burnt Ivory Coral Amber Dragon's-bloud Red-saunders Flower each two drachms
Inflammations 6. Sanctorius in his Commentary upon Avicenna for easing the most violent pains when digesting Anodynes have been applied to no purpose before touches the part pained with a Bladder full of cold water quickly and removes it again without any delay and repeats this three or four times and so he writes the pains are eased Dysenteria or The Bloudy Flux The Contents Letting of bloud sometimes necessary I. A Vomit is often proper II. One cured by a Vomit III. Whether we may purge IV. What must be done if a man cannot take a purge when it is necessary V. When Rheubarb may be given VI. Sometimes it is hurtfull VII The manner of giving it VIII The benefit of Tamarinds and their correction IX Whether Cassia be proper to purge withall X. Sylvius his cure of an epidemick cholerick one XI Clysters are very proper XII The abuse of fat ones hurtfull XIII Astringent ones must be used with caution XIV Cooling ones must not be given rashly XV. With what cautions Astringents should be used XVI The use of dry things and powders suspected in Clysters XVII Opiates in them must be avoided XVIII The degrees of Detersives XIX Cautions about the use of them XX. How the remaining Costiveness may be removed XXI The use of Astringents suspected XXII If it come of salt Phlegm we must use Astringents with caution XXIII The use of Astringent and glutinous powders is to be preferred before Pills or Bolus's XXIV Whether Chalybeates be proper XXV Cured by drinking cold Water XXVI The damages of one stopt unseasonably XXVII The efficacy of Balsam of Peru in a desperate one XXVIII Whether the use of Milk be wholsome XXIX Narcoticks must be used with prudence XXX The hurt of Laudanum XXXI When Diureticks are seasonable XXXII Natural Waters how usefull XXXIII The internal use of Wax is beneficial XXXIV The excellency and correction of a Nutmeg XXXV The use of Oils hurtfull XXXVI The benefit of outward Medicines XXXVII The cure of a Dysentery without bloud XXXVIII The description and cure of an epidemick one XXXIX What such the Diet should be XL. What the Meat XLI What the Drink XLII Medicines I. LEtting of bloud is called into question by many 1. Because no mention is made of it either by Galen or the Arabians 2. Because when the Belly is loose bloud must not be taken away 3. Lest Choler should grow fierce But Trallianus and Aetius let bloud whom others follow and deservedly because when it is indicated and permitted bloud should be let The Indicant is Bloud offending either in substance quantity or motion The Permittent is strength to bear it As to the Arguments 1. The first concludes nothing 2. Vallesius says that Galen's Maxime When the Belly is loose c. has killed more than it has cured For when one evacuation is the cure of another evacuation it should by all means be permitted but not when it is critical Fortis Câ—ns â—6 cent 2. 3. Sharp and bilious humours forbid indeed a great quantity of bloud but not bleeding at all ¶ Others reject Bloud-letting because bile rather offends than bloud 2. Because it conduces nothing to the cure of an Ulcer 3. Because by watchings and fevers it farther casts down strength which is already weak by often going to stool 4. Because when the Belly is loose it is not lawfull to let bloud according to Galen But it is the opinion of the skilfull when there is a Fever and an inflammation of the Intestines accompanying the Ulcer for the most part that bloud should be let in the beginning of the disease before the strength be any more wasted with the Flux for by means of Phlebotomy the sharp humours and bloud that run violently to the Intestines are drawn back and by it fear of an inflammation is removed pain is eased the Fever extinguished the heat of the Liver abated and the evil disposition removed As to the contrary reasons 1. Bloud does not always offend as a principal cause but ever as an assisting cause and without which the Flux could not be which faults Bloud-letting helps 2. Bloud-letting draws away the humours that run to the ulcerated place 3. It must be celebrated in the beginning before the strength be much wasted 4. Bloud-letting hurts some Fluxes and any that has much spent a man but this not at all if performed in the beginning ¶ Valescus de Taranta says thus A very old man had been miserably tormented with a Bloudy flux for three months and when I was called into consultation I contrary to to the opinion of all the other Physicians ordered him to be let bloud and he presently recovered ¶ I. C. Claudinus says he can safely swear that in an epidemick Dysentery in his time he saved several mens lives by this kind of remedy and hastened their recovery II. They that suspect a Vomit rely upon Hippocrates his opinion in Coacis where he says that in dysenterick persons cholerick vomiting in the beginning is a grievous evil But there he speaks of a spontaneous vomiting which is bad indeed because it is symptomatick and denotes the disposition of a fierce humour the notorious disorder of the Bowels the weakness of the retentive faculty and some hurt in the Stomach which is co-affected But a vomiting caused by art may be convenient if the Patient have an inclination to vomit and the humours stagnate in the Stomach for revulsion is made from the part affected Hippocrates himself l. de affect n. 2. advises vomiting When says he you have purged the head give a medicine in drink which purges Phlegm upwards ¶ Amatus follows him centur 2. curat 44. in Scholio where he says If a Physician could retract upwards the bilious and sharp humour that runs to the Intestines and breeds the Bloudy-Flux and could evacuate it by vomit doubtless it were a foolish thing and contrary to Galen 's rules to carry the matter through the Intestines which are full of Vlcers But when the Physician is not able to attain this yet he ought to endeavour it to his power and consequently effect it by purging Medicines ¶ Mercatus confirms this in these words You must translate the humours to another place by bloud-letting purging and vomiting especially in salt phlegm for by this way I have seen long Dysenteries cured III. A young man twenty years of age about the end of August 1643. had been sick of a Bloudy-flux for twenty days which he had taken no care of by any Medicine till being brought to an Hospital he took by the prescription of the Physician a drachm of Salt of Vitriol dissolved in water He vomited much phlegmatick and cholerick stuff and so revulsion was made of the humour flowing to the Intestines and he was cured by this onely remedy Riverius IV. Why should any man purge in a Dysentery Will he not draw excrements to the part affected Certainly he must In the mean time therefore does he not doe harm
Make a Powder The dose is 1 drachm with a due quantity of Water of Hartshorn Flowers of the Linden-tree and Lily-Conval ¶ An Amulet for the Epilepsie There is a branch of Elder that grows on an old Willow pieces whereof hung about the Neck have very happy success in either abating or quire curing an Epilepsie They must be gathered in the Months of September and October before the Full-Moon ¶ One of the second sprigs of a Willow cut into small pieces and nine of them tied in a Linen or Silken-rag hung about the neck to the Mouth of the Stomach either before or after a Fit and worn so long till it breaks or falls off of it self is an Amulet The rag when it is fallen must not be touched with ones hands but taken in a pair of Tongs Tâ—om Bartholinus and buried in some remote place lest it should be touched by the sick or any other and so infect them with the Falling-sickness 7. A Medicine diminishing the Epilepsie I have observed that by taking 1 drachm of the Powder of Soapwort-seed once a Month for three New-Moons the Fits have abated much either in number or violence ¶ I have known many perfectly cured by eating a Wolf's Liver ¶ A drachm of Peacock's-dung in Powder drunk in Wine when the Moon is New is a most excellent remedy Pet. Borellus if it be taken once a month for some months together 8. I have known these two Powders very effectual Take of prepared Coriander 2 drachms Seeds of Poeony Purslane each 1 ounce Hoof of an Ass burnt half an ounce Mix them make Powder The dose 2 drachms in 2 ounces of Rue-water Take of Man's bloud taken away by Cupping of Man's Skull each 2 drachms prepared Pearl Galangale Zedoary each 1 drachm Mastick red Amber red Coral Dittany each 1 drachm and an half flesh of a Kite fat Raisins each half an ounce Mix them make a Powder Add 2 ounces of Sugar The dose is 1 drachm in Poeony-water every morning ¶ Some account this a Secret Take juice of Carduus Benedictus purified and boiled up thick 4 ounces juice of Yarrow purified 3 ounces Sugar 4 ounces Mix them boil them into the form of an Electuary The dose 1 spoonfull 9. The Skin of a Wolf taken off that part which sticks to the Spine must be cut into the form of a Girdle about 2 inches broad it must be girt about the Belly and the Loins and worn always that the inside of the Skin may touch the Flesh the hairy side being put outwards ¶ As soon as a Mare 's Foal is foaled it vomits up some matter which unless one take up hastily the Mare immediately devours it This matter dried and Powdered cures the Falling-Sickness by certain experience it seems a wonderfull thing Oil of Vitriol rightly prepared and 5 drops of it taken with Broth in the morning for several days has cured many of this disease ¶ I approve of nothing better Joh. Crato than Peacock's dung given in distilled-water of Carduus or Yarrow than which I have found nothing more effectual 10. Cinnabar of Antimony in equal weight with Magistery of Corals is a Specifick even in inveterate Epilepsies Claud. Deodatus it takes away the disease onely by Sweat at repeated turns and necessary evacuations premised The dose is from 10 to 16 grains in some proper liquour 11. Oil of Box is admirable Rod. à Fonseca for it is Narcotick and Narcoticks by stupefying the Sense use to hinder the Fit 12. In a Fit of the Falling-Sickness I give order to rub Rue between ones hands and to hold it to the Nose or to put a little of it up the Nostrils for by this means I have brought innumerable out of their Fits Forestus ¶ Let the following Amulet be hung on childrens necks Take of green Poeony-root half an ounce of Male Poeony-seeds namely the black 1 drachm and an half when the Root is cut and the Seed bruised put them in a bag and hang them on By this Suspensory I have seen the Fits cease to a wonder and have often experienced the great and excellent virtue of it 13. Dissolve the scrapings of the Whitest Amber in Spirit of Wine that it may be tinged filtrate it Phil. Grulingius and evaporate it to half It is a great Secret in the Falling-sickness It may be given to 15 grains in some appropriate Water 14. This is admirable Take Ears of Barley when they begin to grow ripe burn them to Powder Franc. Hildesheim of which give a little to an Epileptick person every morning in Poeony-water and he will presently be cured 15. A certain illustrious Lady testifies that upon the most sure experiment of a certain Widow the Falling-sickness is cured by a Powder made of Quails-Eggs The Eggs are dried a little Wolf Hâ—eÌ„ferus so as they may be powdered Half a drachm of it to 2 Scruples is given for a dose 16. The Fat of a Rabbet killed by a violent death melted and 4 or 5 drops of it given in Water of Magpies or Swallows certainly gives help ¶ This also is accounted a singular secret The Gall of a black Whelp that sucks they take for a Boy a Dog-whelp for a Girl a Bitch and is strangled Frid. Hofmannus given in some convenient liquour By benefit of this a Son of the Duke of Buckingham's was cured This is much in use in England 17. The famous Spiritus Vitrioli Antepilepticus Hartmanni Take of the finest Hungarian Vitriol 4 pounds add thereto of Urine of healthy Boys new made 8 pounds Digest them for some time in a close Vessel in Balneo Mariae Afterwards in the same distill a two-fold Phlegm the first of which is an excellent Paregorick for Gout-Pains and others to asswage them the other is an excellent Ophthalmick good for all diseases in the Eyes Put the Caput mortuum powdered into a strong earthen Retort in an open fire yet at first but very gentle and drive it over into a large Receiver while the Spirits come over thick there flows out a most pretious Liquour of a Sulphureous smell and something austere tast which being rectified once and again by retort and kept in a Glass well stopt perfectly cures all Fits in Children A Scruple of this may be mixt with Water of Poeony and Linden-tree-flowers of each 1 ounce and kept for use Give half a spoonfull of this said mixture in the Fit the contracted and convulse parts being first reduced and a little after their senses being recollected they will come to themselves which as soon as you observe give them a little more and so a third time But if the Fit should come again as it often does repeat the same process thrice and never fear but at the second time this disease so familiar to Children and Infants may be utterly and radically taken away especially if some comforters of the brain be used afterwards
safety suffer him to keep his bed always than either in the beginning or in the State yea at this time it will conduce much to digest the febrile matter which if the sick should be laid up in his bed sooner would be more enraged and inflamed For it is certain the heat is increased by what is circumambient and it must of necessity so be if the sick keep himself continually in bed VIII If any one do here object that such a Method is not so expedient in that it hinders evacuation by sweat whereby the febrile matter then concocted should wholly be thrown off I answer that he who is of the contrary opinion says nothing unless he can first make it out by arguments that this sort of evacuation is due to every Fever which is not so easie to doe For Experience and not Reason shews what sort of Fever should be cast out by Sweat what by Purge c. Nay we have reason to believe that there are some sort of Fevers which Nature throws off in a method peculiar to it self without any visible evacuation that is by reducing the morbifick matter into the mass of bloud and by assimilating that to the bloud which before was not so agreeable to it Which reason I relying upon have often in this sort of Fevers as well as others presently upon the first coming and while all the Bloud was not as yet infected reduced the same into order onely by ordering Milk and Water for drink and forbidding the eating of Flesh or broth made of the same allowing them in the mean time the use of their constant exercise and the open Air without making so much as once any evacuation at all IX But if we grant that Nature cannot conquer the Disease by any other method than by sweat must we not understand such sweats as break out when the Disease grows weak and as flow from previous digestion and not such as being cast off in the first days of the Disease proceed from the interrupted Oeconomy of Nature in a rage Such sweats I think are not to be promoted but the tumult rather should be appeased to which they owe their Original and such sweats usually attend many sorts of Fevers though not all For neither am I ignorant that some sorts of Fevers are of that nature that in their declension they require this critical sweat Such are the particular Paroxysms in intermittent Fevers and also the great and most frequent Fever in Nature depending upon that constitution which especially conduces towards the production of Agues Epidemically For in these if any method be insisted on which does not tend to this purpose that the morbifick matter may first be digested and then cast out by sweat the Disease will be increased Wherefore here no evacuations ought to have place unless as they may be able to stop the violence of the Disease in the first days when it seizes a man lest the Patient sink under the Physicians care Besides the cause of a Pestilential Fever since it is very thin and subtile it may be carried off by sweat in the beginning of the Disease experience every where concurring But in these Fevers in which by the ordinary duct of the symptomes although they be left to their own discretion we no where observe Nature usually to evacuate the morbifick matter already prepared in the determinate time I know not whether he be not over rash who thinks to doe any good on the Disease by provoking sweat and restore the sick by that method alone seeing as the old man teaches Where Nature is repugnant all things are in vain And I think this usually happens in this particular Fever whereof we treat which I am taught by manifold experience may to my knowledge be driven away without sweat And I know also the Patient is brought into manifest danger of his Life oftentimes while we without any urgent necessity importunately solicite sweat by the morbifick matter being carried up into the Head Yet neither in this Fever nor in any other even of those which use not to end in a critical sweat if by chance such a sweat come of it self when the Disease is now diminished which from the remission of all Symptomes we reckon the effect of due concoction will the most prudent Physician contemn it But when it comes not out of it self how can we certainly know whether we kill not a man when by regiment and hot cordials we endeavour to dispose the humours to such sweats But however the case be here I am abundantly satisfied the Fever onely brings heat enough with it which may suffice to prepare the febrile humour for coction and that a more intense one than that need not be caused from without by a hot regiment Sydenham Febris putrida in genere or A putrid Fever in general The Contents We must consider the different seasons of the year rather than the various constitutions of the Sick where the nature of Autumnal Fevers is treated on I. We must have respect to the differences of one Year from another II. We must distinguish between the Infection and the Matter III. I. THe diversity in the cure of Fevers that arises from the different seasons of the same year and also from the difference of one year from another deserves no less consideration than what arises from the different temperaments of the sick And truly among the principal reasons why the cure of Fevers is so uncertain and the endeavours even of learned men succeed so ill I think this should be reckoned for one that Practitioners use to accommodate their observations which they have made from the successfull cure of one or more Fevers in this or that season of the year to the cure of all Fevers in any season or any year a thing which I look on altogether as dangerous as if a Physician should not have respect to the different tempers of the sick peculiar to each but should give the same Medicine promiscuously to all in the same Disease First that I may discourse of the varying methods of cure which are accommodated to Fevers in the different seasons of the year it must be considered although other differences may be granted among Fevers upon other accounts yet that they principally differ according to the subject matter in which the febrile commotion is made and that that matter has its difference according to the different disposition of the bloud as it is produced by this or that season of the year for the febrile commotion which happens in the Spring time arises in the bloud when all the Spirits are brisk but the Autumnal one in the bloud depauperated by the heat of the foregoing Summer and by the virtue and effects of it And as a Fever happens to invade the bloud in reference to the nearness or distance of these two seasons so the Disease participates more or less of the nature of the fermentation that belongs to this or that season
into the parts regurgitates into the Veins and is usefully drawn out by letting Bloud repeated I apprehend Bloud-letting should be repeated if the Bloud that was first taken away be very foul and plenty of it seem to remain in the Veins Yea and though the Bloud appear pure and not at all corrupt at first yet we must not stop it but rather continue it till it appear corrupt And here Hippocrates his Rule l. de vict Acut. concerning the cure of a Pleurisie has place namely that taking away bloud must be continued to the change of colour So that if corrupt Bloud come at first evacuation must be continued till it appear more pure and on the contrary if laudable Bloud come at first it must be so long drawn out till the impure and corrupt come Yet in each case some difference must be used for if laudable Bloud come first repetition must be made in the same Vein that the putrid Bloud residing deep in the Body may sooner be drawn out But if putrid Bloud come at the first Bloud must be taken from the other Arm Riverius and consequently either Arm must be bled alternately III. Some after Autumnal-agues fall into continual-fevers for want of purging in the end of the former Disease If you let them Bloud there is great danger lest the sediment which the foregoing fermentation had let fall should be drawn back into the mass of Bloud and raise new trouble Then instead of Bloud-letting I use Clysters till the twelfth day if the Patient be young Sydenham and the fermentation over high IV. They that undertake the cure of an Acute fever do at first either bleed immediately and purge the next day Or they first give a Purge and after let Bloud But they doe injury to Hippocrates Galen and others with whom it is frequent to cure Diseases quietly with onely one of these Remedies So Hippocrates 2. acut in a Pleurisie ascending onely lets Bloud in one descending he onely gives a Purge And lib. 4. In the first Burning fever he breaths not a Vein but is content either with a Vomit or Clyster or a gentle Purge In another he bleeds if the Disease be high and the strength good Galen in Method cures Continent and Continual fevers onely by bleeding nor does he use a Purge unless a great Cacochymy be joined with it Which Learned Posterity hath carefully observed Yea it often happens that a Purge which would be otherwise necessary is omitted after bleeding because of the wasting of strength which we fear both from bleeding and the future agitation of the Physick and instead thereof a Clyster may be given every other day according to the advice of Hippocrates and Galen Sometimes for fear of strength we do not bleed but onely purge although in respect of the Disease bleeding were proper Therefore purging must not always be joined with bleeding as if one were useless or ineffectual without the other Fasting has been sufficient for many Bleeding for others Purging alone not for a few onely Clysters for others Aug. Feretius All which used jointly would wast a Man's strength V. I saw a Woman of a full and fat body who falling into a Burning fever took the advice of a certain unskilfull Physician who let her Bloud plentifully immediately upon which she grew grievous ill and was in a far worse condition for as Bloud abounds in thin bodies so flesh abounds in the full Therefore when I was called to the Woman and found her in extreme danger I thought all observations should be made use of that is those to which the care of him that cures ought to be directed Wherefore I recruit her strength by all sort of means which was long before wasted till when her strength was returned I thought fit to carry off the matter by a Purge which I knew abounded in her Which when I had given my Patient of cold things Beâ—ivenâ—us the Fever was presently extinguished and the Woman whose Funeral was providing being rightly cured recovered VI. To let Bloud in the very height of an acute Fever Celsus said is to kill the Patient but it is a particular Counsel not an universal Precept In the very height of a Fever when Permittents are present and there is danger of the Brain as to watching pain or a delirium sometimes it is not unnecessary to take away Bloud for the sanning and cooling of the Bloud as it often passes to and fro through the perspirable Veins Burning fevers raging with implacable fury and threatning heavier things are then lawless and admit it even in the State Rolfinccius The danger from unbridled plenitude surpasses that which attends unseasonable evacuation VII We must remember that in Continual Fevers where there is suspicion of obstruction of the pores whatever things open and incide are improper before Evacuation of the whole Brudus de viâ—â—u VIII It is much controverted among Authours whether Purges may be given in the beginning of Continual Putrid fevers Which difference setting aside the turnings and windings of Disputations may be thus composed Upon the account of the matter that immediately produces a Continual Putrid fever which is contained in the greater Veins Purging is not convenient in the beginning unless it be turgent that is unless it be so stirred by Nature who is irritated by its ill quality and endeavours to expell it that it be thereby much disposed for excretion Which notwithstanding because it seldom happens its concoction for the most part must be expected before evacuation of it by Purging Medicines be undertaken But upon account of the matter contained in the first region if there be much of it which may increase the Fever burthen Nature and divert her from the coction of the matter in the Veins a Purge may be given within a day or two after Bleeding but it must be gentle and such as onely evacuates the first region And we know bad and excrementitious humours abound in the first region that is in the Stomach Guts Mesentery or about the Heart by Thirst pain of the Stomach or of some other part contained in the lower Belly Loosness and other Symptoms Riverius upon account whereof Purging sometimes must be premised to Bleeding IX Vulgar Physicians imitating Hippocrates who Purged Cydes his Son on the sixth day Purge all their Patients that are sick of Continual Fevers on the sixth day that a great part of the noxious humour may be withdrawn before the battel which the seventh day produces come on But this must not be done without caution nor rashly for it is material what the constitution of the disease is For the seventh day is not critical in all acute diseases but in some the eleventh in some the fourteenth and in others the seven and twentieth We must know whether the matter be turgent whether there be a great quantity whether there be any concoction and whether the fluxions of the beginning are
till both of them be extinguished with proper Remedies And there is another sort of this Disease though more rarely occurring This invades a Man at any time of the year and that usually for this reason to wit because the Patient has given himself to drink subtile and attenuating Wines a little too freely or some such spirituous liquour The Fever which leads the Van is attended by the breaking out of Pustules almost all the body over which resemble the stinging of Nettles and sometimes rise in Blisters and then striking in again hide themselves like little knots under the Skin with a most biting and intolerable Itch. Here I judge the peccant matter mixt with the bloud should by right be evacuated and the ebullition of the same bloud should be stopt with Remedies that temper it and lastly that the matter which is now setled in the parts should be got out and discussed That these things may be done as soon as I come I order a large quantity of bloud to be taken from the Arm which indeed almost ever resembles the bloud of pleuritick persons The day following I give the gentle Purging Potion familiar to me in my practice and at the hour of sleep if perhaps the Patient have Purged too much some Paregorick Draught as Syrupus de Meconio in Cowslip-flower-water or some such thing When the Purge has done working I order the part grieved to be fomented with the following Decoction Take of the Roots of Marshmallow and Lily each 2 ounces Leaves of Mallows Elder Mullein each 2 handfulls Flowers of Melilot Tops of St. John's-wort and Lesser Centaury each 1 handfull Linseed and Faenugreek-seed each half an ounce Boil them in a sufficient quantity of Water to 3 pounds Let the Liquour be strained and at the time of use add to every pound of the Decoction Spirit of Wine 2 ounces Let some folds of thin Flannel be dipt in this decoction and strained out and then applied warm to the part twice a day which after fomentation may daily be anointed with this following Mixture Take of Spirit of Wine half a pound Venice-Treacle 2 ounces Powder of Long Pepper Cloves each 2 drachms Mix them Let a brown Paper wet in this Mixture be wrapt about the part Moreover I advise the Patient to feed onely on Barley and Oatmeal-Grewel and rosted Apples and also to drink very small Beer and to keep up for some hours every day from his Bed By this Method both the Fever and other Symptoms are for the most part quickly put to flight But if not I again breathe a Vein which now and then must be done a third time a day always passing between to wit if there be a bad disposition in the bloud and a violent Fever The days he does not bleed I prescribe a Clyster of Milk and Syrup of Violets and cooling Juleps of Water of Water-Lily c. already mentioned in the cure of the Rheumatism to be used any hour of the day But for the most part once Bleeding and a Purge following if they be used in time doe the business That sort which resembles the stinging of Nettles with an Itch must be got away by the like means but that this stands in less need of outward applications II. Certainly in my judgment we may see no obscure resemblance of the Plague with that Inflammation which the Latins call Ignis sacer and we in our own Language St. Anthony's Fire For this Disease is with sound Physicians a continual Fever deriving its original from the thinner part of the bloud being corrupted and inflamed from which that Nature may free her self she expells it to some external part of the body in which a Tumour or rather seeing oftentimes no such remarkable Tumour appears a red broad spreading spot which they call the Rose appears And this Fever after it has afflicted the Patient a day or two ends critically in this Swelling and farthermore there is sometimes a pain in the Glands under the Arm-pits or in the Groin And this Disease commonly seises a Man as the Pestilence with a chillness and a Feverish Heat following so that they who have never had it before think they are taken with the Plague till at last the Disease shew it self in the Leg or in some other part Besides some Authours suspect that there is something of Malignity in this Disease and therefore they determine the cure to be in the use of Sudorificks and Alexipharmacks This flame indeed when it has stirred up an Ebullition by means whereof the particles of the bloud being slightly singed and as it were blasted are in a short time cast out is extinguished of its own accord without attempting any farther mischief Febris Haemorrhagica Haemoptoïca or The Bleeding and Bloud-spitting Fever It s Description and Cure SOme Fevers may deservedly be reckoned among the Intercurrent which because some way or other they immediately make way for themselves and end in this or that Symptome are vulgarly not accounted Fevers although originally they were truely such and that affection from which the Disease borrowed its name is onely a Symptome of the Fever which is at last terminated therein At present I shall onely take notice of two Bleeding at the Nose and Spitting of Bloud Bleeding at the Nose annoys a Man at every season of the year especially them that have a hot bloud and are of a weakly Constitution and that more in Age than Youth Usually at its first approach it makes some shew of a Fever in that while it makes its way where it confined it pain and heat in the Forehead do yet torment Men the Bloud runs for some hours then it stops a while by and by it bursts out again and so by turns till at length being stopt either by the use of Medicines or of its own accord because of the abatement and loss of a great quantity it wholly ceases yet so as that the Patient may fear a Relapse every year if he should happen to heat himself either with Spirituous Liquours or on any other occasion whatever This is the end I propose to my self that the too great heat and ebullition of the bloud whence the said extravasation arises contrary to the usage of Nature may be by all means restrained and its violence turned another way Therefore I frequently open a Vein in the Arm and take bloud liberally away in colour ever answering the bloud of pleuritick persons I injoyn a cooling and thickning course of Diet as of Spring-water 8 parts and one of Milk boiled together to be drunk cold baked Apples Barley-Grewel and the like things abstaining from Flesh I order them to sit up from Bed a little while every day and to take a lenient cooling Clyster every day and not to omit it for one day Moreover the fury of the bloud is restrained as if it were bound with a Chain by a paregorick draught of Diacodium at the hour of sleep But when a sharp Lympha
them that are of a gross habit of Body and this affrighted me as much from the repetition of it I used frequent purging instead of bloudletting which is well enough substituted in them that have an abhorrence of large and repeated bleeding Therefore I proceeded thus I ordered him to be bled in the Arm as he lay in Bed and I would not suffer him to rise for two or three hours seeing all taking away of bloud which in some measure spoils and destroys the whole compages of the Body may by this means more easily be endured so that a Patient can bear it better if ten ounces be taken from him in Bed than if he lost but six or seven after he is risen The next day in the morning I give him the following Potion Take of Cassia extracted 1 ounce Liquorish 2 drachms fat figs No. 3. Leaves of Senna 2 drachms and an half trochiscated Agarick 1 drachm Boil them in a sufficient quantity of water In 4 ounces of the Colature dissolve of Manna 1 ounce Syrup of Roses solutive half an ounce The day after I use to let Bloud a second time and one day intermitted I order the Cathartick Potion now prescribed to be given again and so to be repeated by-turns till the Patient perfectly recover Those days he does not purge I advise him to use the pectoral Decoction Oil of sweet Almonds and such things In the mean time I keep my Patient from Flesh and Broth thereof and especially from all Spirituous Liquours whatever instead whereof I allow him Ptisane of Barley and Liquorish and small Beer also if he desire it for his ordinary drink And this indeed was the way to conquer this bastard Pleurisie which arose from a pituitous matter gathered in the Bloud through Analogy with Winter and discharged into the Lungs wherein not onely repeated Bleeding but Purging also was indicated otherwise than in a true Peripneumony which I judge is clearly of the same nature with the Pleurisie and differs from it onely in this that a Peripneumony affects the Lungs more generally Moreover we cure both Diseases by a Method perfectly alike that is by Bleeding above all other things and by cooling Medicines This bastard Peripneumony though it be a little like a dry Asthma both as to difficulty of breathing and other Symptoms also yet it may well enough be known from an Asthma because in the Peripneumony manifest signs of a Fever and Inflammation shew themselves which never appear in an Asthma although they be less by much Sydenham and more obscure in this sort than in a true Peripneumony Febris Pestilens Pestis or A Pestilential Fever the Plague The Contents Wherein the Essence of the Plague consists I II. Whether the Plague ought to be methodically cured by Bleeding Purging c III. Whether Bleeding be proper in the cure IV. Whether Bleeding be good for preservation from the Plague V. What Vein must be opened in the cure VI. It must be cautiously used in hot Countries and omitted in cold ones VII When there is a Bubo a Vein must not be opened VIII Whether we may Purge IX X. We may purge in a Bubo XI Purges in the Plague must be gentle XII When they that are sick of the Plague must be Purged XIII Whether a Vomit be proper XIV The benefit and condition of Evacuaters XV. In private Pestilential fevers violent hot expulsive Medicines are hurtfull XVI For whom hot Chimical Medicines are hurtfull XVII The Western Bezoar-Stone should be preferred before the Eastern XVIII Whether Bole Armenick be good in the Plague XIX When Treacle may be given XX. Whether the use of Spirit of Vitriol be safe XXI A true and proper Antidote is not yet found XXII We must not trust to one Alexipharmack XXIII Hidroticks must be added to cooling Juleps XXIV The way of wiping off the Sweat and the Regiment when a Hidrotick is given XXV Hidroticks must be given frequently XXVI Cordials which ought to be Acid must be varied XXVII The efficacy of Acids in its prevention and cure XXVIII Whether Garlick may be admitted for prevention XXIX Camphire must be used with caution XXX Spices are pernicious in the preservation XXXI The efficacy of Narcoticks and the way of giving them XXXII A preservatory method for a Physician that visits people infected with the Plague XXXIII Although the Symptoms abate the Patient is not out of danger XXXIV The benefit of Cauteries in preservation XXXV At what time they must be put in use XXXVI The excellent use of Salt and Salt things in the preservation and cure XXXVII Salt fish is good XXXVIII The Diet. XXXIX XL. Whether Wine may be given in a Pestilential fever XLI A Suppository is to be preferred before a Clyster if the body be costive XLII The restitution of the lost appetite with what and when it must be procured XLIII We must provide for our safety by flying cautiously XLIV The habit of a Physician in the Plague-time XLV What such the lodging of the infected person should be XLVI Sydcnham's way of curing the Plague XLVII Whether Narcoticks be good for watching and Head-ach XLVIII In a Loosness we must abstain from Acids XLIX Sylvius his method of curing the Plague L. The cure of the Plague is performed with very few remedies LI. Vomits may be mixt with Hidroticks and these with Acids LII A pestilential fever requires a cure contrary to other Fevers LIII They that have Swellings arise without any other Symptome no Physick is requisite for them LIV. I. AS for what concerns the Essence of the Disease I do not undertake exactly to define it But because the rise of all similar Diseases is usually derived from some fault of either the first or second qualities which is as far as we can go in this obscurity of things I almost think that the Plague is a peculiar kind of Fever which has its original from the Inflammation of the more spirituous particles of the Bloud because in their tenuity they seem most proportionate and adequate to its most subtile nature Which if it be in the highest subtilty whereof it is capable as in the beginning and state of the Epidemick constitution it suddenly and before one is aware dissipates the innate heat and destroys the Patient The dead Bodies in the mean time of those that die so suddenly of the violence of this disease are all over beset with purple spots because the fibres of the Bloud are broken by the violence of the intestine conflict and its frame wholly dissolved And this Tragedy is acted by the extreme subtilty of this flame even without any febrile ebullition of the bloud or any precedent sense of other sickness Otherwise than for the most part it happens where the morbifick cause is not so subtile and does as it were strike at life with a blunter weapon But such sudden death seldom occurs For as in other Fevers cold and shaking for the most part invades Men and heat
him to use moderate Exercise and to take the open Air He drank now and then some cooling pectoral Ptisan These little things were sufficient both to conquer the Cough and the Fever and to prevent other Symptoms For as by abstaining from flesh and spirituous Liquours and also by the use of cooling things the bloud was so contempered as to be less apt for a febrile Impression so also by the help of Exercise the hot Effluvia of the Bloud which when the Pores of the Body were stopt by sudden Cold being driven inwards raised a Cough did more opportunely exhale and were dispersed to the Patient 's great benefit As for stopping of the Cough danger was not wanting in attempting it by Narcoticks and Anodynes Nor was there less danger if one attempted the same by spirituous Liquours and hot Medicines because when the matter of the Cough was inviscated and hardned both these ways those Exhalations which leaving the Bloud quietly and insensibly by Coughing vanished into Air now when a passage was denied them being shut up in the mass of bloud caused a Fever there And this oftentimes succeeded very ill with many who while they endeavoured to put a stop to the Cough by burnt Brandy and other hot Liquours did invite Pleuritick and Peripneumonick Affections Nor were they in a less errour who would by provoking Sweat exterminate the Cause of the Disease For though Sweat bursting out spontaneously does often expell the morbifick Cause above all other Remedies whatever yet it is clear that while we extort it we inflame the bloud and may kill him whom we would cure The Fever and its worst Symptoms were best opposed by bleeding in the Arm and a Blister applied to the Neck for a pain in the Head Back and Limbs followed the Cough and by giving a Clyster every day In the mean time I advised my Patient every day to keep up from his Bed for some hours to abstain from flesh and to sup some Ptisan or cooling lenient Broth c. When two or three days were over if the Pain in his side were not abated but troubled him still violently I took away some bloud a second time and I persuaded him to continue yet the use of Clysters While in this manner we allowed the Disease time that the Bloud might by degrees get off those hot particles that were fixt on the Pleura and Lungs all the Symptoms used quietly to vanish Whereas they that set upon the Disease in a hostile manner making as it were War with a huge force of Remedies either lost their Patients or at least were forced to redeem their Life by bleeding oftner repeated than the nature of the Disease did require or indeed did safely admit For whereas in the true Pleurisie repeated Venaesection does the whole business and is alone sufficient for cure if so be that over hot Medicines and a regiment which fight against it do not hinder On the contrary in this Symptome it was sufficient to open a Vein once or at least twice if so be the Patient were allowed to rise from his Bed and use a cooling drink But there was no necessity to take bloud away oftner unless where the said Symptome was very much increased by the accession of heat from without Nor even in this case was it without danger altogether Sydenham Febres Puerperarum or Fevers of Women in Childbed The Contents The Description and Cure of a Milk fever I. Of a Putrid fever II. Of a Symptomatical fever III. Whence we must take the beginning of the Fever from the day of bringing to Bed or of the coming of the Fever IV. I. FEvers of lying-in Women are reckoned as it were of three sorts a Milky a Putrid and a Symptomatick fever The Milk fever arises because when the Breasts are filled and much distended with Milk the bloud-vessels are compressed so that they cannot easily transmit the bloud that flows that way Whereupon the bloud being stopt in its Circuit begins to be tumultuous in the whole mass and when the Spirits are inordinately moved and wholly confused it conceives an effervescence and makes a simple Synochus Or because the matter of the Milk traverses the bloud a great share whereof is in the Mass of bloud and having left the Womb that Liquour is translated to the Breasts Which if it exceed the due store of the nutritious juice and so all of it cannot be assimilated but moreover abounds with heterogeneous parts it does as some extraneous thing and not miscible create trouble to the bloud and a febrile effervescence of three days continuance is spent in throwing of it out This Fever is wholly committed to Nature and as long as the Lochia go right proceeds for the most part successfully enough without the help of Physick for after the effervescence of the bloud which is finished in three or four days either plentifull sweat or free transpiration ends this affection Yet in the mean time above admission of Milk we must observe that it is usual for them that will not give suck within two or three days after they are brought to Bed to cover all their Paps with some astringent Plasters as Emplastrum de Minio c. for so the glandulous substance of the Paps is a little contracted so that they do not so readily receive the milky humour that way scaturient Yet this sort of remedy must be cautiously used lest if milk be wholly excluded or forced too violently out of the Breasts as it restagnates suddenly into the bloud it cause a disorder of the same a forerunner of a Putrid or a Malignant fever II. It proves a very difficult task to Physicians to cure the Putrid fevers because all manner of Physick is accounted by the Vulgar not onely useless but hurtfull for lying-in Women wherefore Physicians are rarely called but when there is no place left for Remedies and all opportunity of doing good is over But a twofold Methodus Medendi ought to be gone upon as in contagious Diseases a Prophylactick and a Therapeutick Although this Fever how Malignant soever it be is never got by contagion and those that are by need not fear the taking of any poisonous infection from without yet all Child-bed Women have an inbred Mine of Virulence Wherefore they have need of an exact Regiment to the end that after their Delivery the impurities of the bloud and humours may be rightly purged without the danger of a Fever Therefore these three things must be inculcated to Physicians First that they prescribe an exact course of Diet namely to feed of Oat-meal Caudle sometimes of Beer sometimes of white Wine and Water mixt together sometimes of Panada and other light things for a Week at least Because they are much emptied they may sup something the oftner but no solid or strong food must be given them For I diligently observed that the over hasty eating of flesh and dainty food has brought these Fevers For lying-in Women
should be treated not onely as grievously wounded men but as having got a febrile indisposition from the disturbed frame and temper of the bloud Because the bloud in them has long since been too much exalted and being as it were touched with an impure Infection upon the accession of any sulphureous fewel it quickly takes fire After Diet the second care is lest the pores be closed or the Lochia stopt by carelesly admitting the outward Cold For upon a very small occasion when the order of transpiration is altered the bloud which was before effervescent is disordered And the Womb also at the approach of the Air contracts it self and the mouths of the Vessels so that the Lochia are stopt from running wherefore I would have Women kept at least five days in Bed The third intention remains that the flux of the Lochia may be continued by a gentle proritation of the bloud The cure departs far from the method used in Putrid fevers For in this we must not expect that the bloud touched with a febrile burning should cool gradually and then that it should conquer the adust recrements gathered in its mass and separate them by crisis But rather as is done in a Malignant fever assoon as the bloud begins to be in an immoderate ferment it is convenient that it be gently stirred by Diaphoretick Medicines and that its heterogeneous and impure mixture be cast out Wherefore among the vulgar and that not amiss it is the custome presently to give Sudorificks By this means the Bloud being eventilated its Effervescence is stopt and the Lochia that are apt to be stopt by the agitation of the bloud are provoked to run When therefore a Lying-in Woman is first taken with this Fever we must forthwith doe our endeavour that the fewel may plentifully be subtracted from the burning bloud by a prescribed Diet and forbidding of flesh and broth thereof In the mean time all cold and styptick things must be equally avoided for they fix and thicken the bloud too much and hinder its purging which is very requisite both by the Lochia and by cutaneous transpiration But rather although the Fever be urgent let moderate hot things be given Decoctions or distilled waters of Marigold flowers leaves of Pennyroyal Mugwort roots of Scorzonera and Bezoartick powders Spirit of Hartshorn fixed Salts of herbs c. If the Lochia be stopt we must doe all our endeavour that their flux may be again promoted If the Belly be bound it must be loosned with an emollient Clyster We must have a care of too violent provocation for it is manifest that in Child-bed as well as in a Malignant fever by much going to stool the strength is spent together with a fainting of the Spirits If at any time with a suppression of the Lochia there be a disturbance in the bloud vomiting thirst and watching I have known Laudanum mixt with Saffron often given with good success 2. If notwithstanding the use of these Remedies the Fever still grow worse and be sensibly encreased with a worse apparatus of Symptoms as if besides Disorders in the Bloud the Brain and Nervous parts begin to be affected Medicines though many of several sorts be tried are oftentimes able to doe but little good yea in this case the Indications do co-incide with those that are to be used in the Plague it self since the Lochia when they have been some time stopt cannot easily or scarce at all be brought again in a great confusion of bloud and humours Therefore it is good to quicken the motion by Diaphoreticks namely that the corruption impressed on the bloud and nervous juice and restagnating from the Womb may in some measure be cast off by sweat and insensible transpiration Wherefore here Bezoartick Powders and Confections Spirit of Hartshorn or Soot Tincture of Corals or Pearl are good I have seen sometimes a little hope appear by the help of these Medicines with the Pulse and other Symptoms growing better for a little while yet the cure seldom succeeded but when the use of these Cordials was left off the Patients forthwith died with a weak Pulse as soon as ever a Loosness came 3. While the condition of the Patient does still grow worse as when wich the encrease of the Fever the Pulse is weak and unequal and there are frequent shakings and convulsive Motions in the whole Body with a Delirium and Stupidity then the Physician having first given the prognostick of Death must insist on a few remedies and those generally onely cordial and let him abstain from Bleeding Scarifying Blisters and Cupping-glasses for such administrations onely beget hatred and calumny so that for that reason they are accounted as Executioners and hard hearted among the Women III. The acute Diseases of Lying in Women are sometimes attended with some notorious Symptome that is Quinsey Pleurisie Peripneumony Dysentery Small-pox and the like and then they carry the names of these affections I judge that all these Symptoms proceed from a certain Coagulation of the bloud and from an Extravasation of it But while the Bloud is extravasated in one part all its natural and critical Efflux is stopt in another wherefore there is danger lest while the bloud begins to be coagulated either in a particular and usual focus of congelation or universally in its whole mass the running of the Lochia be forthwith stopt which truly usually happens and therefore these Diseases are usually mortal to Lying-in Women Among these the Quinsey Pleurisie and Peripneumony because of the Analogy of their Cause and Cure may be considered together When a Lying-in Woman is affected with any of these at the very first we must endeavour that the Bloud which is fixt any where and begun to be extravasated may be restored to circulation and not cause an Imposthume because Lying-in Women are very seldom when they are taken with these Symptomatical Fevers cured either by abscess of the matter or spitting Wherefore internal Remedies which melt the bloud and free it from Coagulation must be used such as are especially Diaphoreticks full of a volatile Salt as Spirit of Harts-horn Soot Urine and also the Salts themselves also testaceous and bezoatick powders Lapis prunellae Decoctions and Juleps of Vegetables that provoke the Menses or Urine among which things appropriate to the Womb may be mixt not neglecting things externally discutient In the mean time let the impetuous motion and immoderate effervescence of the bloud be put far away and the recrements thereof be still carried downward by all means possible frictions c. By bleeding if the plethory be great in the whole and the inflammation very acute in any part And if necessity be urgent in the Arme after this another bleeding in the Legs if it can be admitted may follow But I must caution you that you must be very carefull how you practise bleeding in these cases for unless it give ease which I know seldom so happens presently the Pulse grows weak
had every day a Fit of an Ague and Vomited Phlegm salt things and the Fish pickled which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also Brine and Leek-pottage and he grew wonderfull well In which case above all other salt meats I should give a pickled Herring because it is easie of concoction Paulus Neucrantz de Hâ—rango and not grievous to a weak Stomach and in goodness of juice and gratefullness comes behind none Febris Rheumatismi comes or A Fever attending a Rheumatism See Rheumatismus BOOK XV. The Description and Cure THis Disease came most in Autumn usually upon this occasion scil When the Patient had over-heated himself by exercise or any other way and immediately took cold upon it It begins the tragedy with a chilness and shaking then immediately follow heat restlessness thirst and all the other unhappy symptoms which attend Fevers After one or two days and sometimes sooner the Patient is taken with a grievous pain in this or that Limb especially in the Wrists Shoulders and Knees which often shifts places and takes them by turns a little redness and swelling still remaining in the part which it last seised For a few of the first days the Fever and the recited Symptoms rarely concur But the Fever insensibly vanishes while the pain remains yea and is sometimes more raging because the febrile matter is translated to the limbs which the Fever it self sufficiently argues because it often returns upon the repelling of the morbifick matter by unseasonable application of externals This Disease when it is without a Fever is often reckoned the Gout though it be essentially distinguished therefrom as will easily appear to any Man who perfectly knows both diseases If it be unskilfully handled it often torments the wretched Man not onely months but several years yea all his life-time though iâ— this case it does not always seise him with the same vigour but in certain paroxysms periodically repeated and now and then like the Gout Yea it may so happen that when the said pains have a long time grievously tormented a Man they at length cease of themselves and the Patient in the mean time may be deprived of all motion in his limbs till his dying day the joints of his fingers being as it were turned in and knotty protuberances as in the Gout shewing themselves in the in side rather than the out-side of the fingers and nevertheless he may have a good stomach and in all other respects be well in health There is also another sort of this Disease belonging to this place which may very aptly be called a Rheumatick Lumbago of which BOOK X. tit Lumbago because both these sorts of Diseases seem to arise from Inflammation which both the foresaid Phaenomena do argue and especially the colour of the bloud when it is let which is as like the bloud of Pleuritick persons as an Egg is like an Egg nor can any Man doubt but these people labour of an Inflammation The case standing thus I think the cure can be begun no other way but by bleeding the bloud in the mean time being tempered and its excessive heat abated as well by cooling and incrassating Medicines as by a convenient regiment And therefore I immediately order 10 ounces of bloud to be taken from the Arm of the side affected and I prescribe a cooling incrassating Julep to drink of it at pleasure For his pain a Cataplasm of the crum of Houshold-bread and Milk tinged with Saffron to be often renewed But I forbid him Flesh and all broth of it And I would have him rise out of his Bed a few hours every day because the heat that comes from continual lying in bed increases the Disease The day following I take away as much bloud and two or three days after according to the Patient's strength I take as much a third time and then within four or five days as the strength age c. of the Patient require I bleed again the fourth and usually the last time for it seldom happens that we open a Vein above four times except either a regiment hotter than it should be have preceded or hot Medicines have been given without any necessity Nay even Anodynes require plentifull bloud-letting Wherefore let the pain be never so cruel through the whole course I religiously abstain from Anodynes because by using them the Disease is fixt and does not so easily give way to bleeding which must for that very reason be the oftner celebrated because these Medicines have been too officiously given And what if in the state of the Disease they are not able to give that ease which they pretend to In the mean time on those days he does not bleed I order a Clyster now and then to be given him and I earnestly exhort them to take care he have one given him every day for eight days at least after his last bleeding after which time I order him to take a gentle Purging Potion of Lenitives and the evening following a pretty large dose of Syrupuc de Meconio in Cowslip-flower-water to the end the commotion of the bloud which might endanger a relapse may wholly be repressed We must take notice it is not so advisable when the Rheumatism has been settled for some years to let bloud at as short intervals as at the beginning of it but it is better to determine these repeated venaesections at the distance of some weeks which at length will either carry off the whole matter or will doe it so far as that by making an Issue in each Leg and taking some of Dr. Goddard's drops in Canary-wine morning and evening Sylenâ—â—â—â— the remainders of it will be extirpated Febris Scarlatina or A Scarlet Fever It s Description and Cure ALthough a Scarlet Fever may come at any time yet it usually comes towards the latter end of Summer at which time indeed it takes whole Families but Children especially They are at first chill and shake as in other Fevers but they that are taken with this are not very sick afterwards their Skin all over is be-studded with little red spots much thicker and broader and far redder than in the Measles but not so uniform These Spots remain for two or three days which at length vanishing and the Cuticle underneath parting there remains a branny Scurf as if Meal had been strewed on the Body which comes and goes off again twice or thrice Because this Disease seems to me nothing but a little effervescence of the bloud caused by the heat of the preceding Summer or some such way I doe nothing at all to hinder the bloud from despumating and discharging the peccant matter by the Pores of the Skin which is ready at hand Wherefore both on the one hand abstaining from Bleeding and Blisters by which sort of Remedies Revulsion being made I suppose the Particles annoying the Bloud would be more intimately mixt with it and the motion most congruous to Nature would be checkt and on the other
observed But if in the declension of the Fit the Swooning cease as it most frequently happens the Stomach being first strengthned some minoration of the crude matter must be procured first by Clysters and then by Vomiting if the Patient be inclined to vomit In the mean time Attenuants and Concocters may be given that a gentle Purge may be given afterwards if not on the fourth day at least a little after But such Fevers as these require an experienced or at least a very cautious Physician Fortiâ— IV. Sometimes Swooning Fevers occur which have their name from Swooning which seizes the Patient together with the Fever They are owing to the pancreatick Juice but such as by its stagnation has acquired a volatile rather than a sharp Acidity there being in the mean time but little Bile or very sluggish wherefore without delay it penetrating the Heart by the lacteal Veins does not onely break out every way and cause a cold Sweat but it also immediately so coagulates the Bloud that sensibly for a time it does not pass and therefore no Pulse can be observed till the accession of this exceeding nocent Juice ceasing the Bile begins by degrees to prevail and the Patient seems as if he were risen from the dead That the Swooning may be prevented I commend this Mixture to be taken by one spoonfull at short intervals Take of Mint-water 2 ounces Aqua vitae Matthioli 1 ounce or Take of Tincture of Cinnamon half an ounce Oil of Cloves 6 drops Sylvius de l. Bâ—ë Syrup of Scurvy-grass 1 ounce Let it be given a few hours before the Fit Febris Symptomatica or A Symptomatical Fever The Contents Many Fevers that are reckoned Symptomatical are essential I. A vernal Symptomatical from an occult Inflammation of the Thoracick parts II. I. WE must take good notice which is of great moment in practice and is observed but by few that all Fevers are not perpetually Symptomatical which are joined with Inflammation of the parts but some of them are essential to which the foresaid Inflammations use to succeed For it usually happens that after the Bloud corrupt or full of bad humours has caused a Fever it is disturbed by Nature and as hurtfull to it self is expelled to the weaker parts or such as are fit to receive the humour whereby an Inflammation is produced in them which does not cause the Fever but is rather succedaneous to it Thus we may frequently observe in our practice that in the beginning People are sick for a day or two before a Pain of the side and other signs of a Pleurisie appear Thus many on the third or fourth day fall into a Phrenzy thus all Arthriticks almost before they are taken with a pain swelling and inflammation in their Limbs use to be ill for a day or two of a continual Fever Thus they that are taken with an Erisipelas have a Fever for some while before it appears The disposition of the Urine shews as much which in such Inflammations manifestly bewrays marks of putrefaction contained in the Veins for at the beginning it appears crude but in process of time it shews signs of Coction daily increasing Very corrupt Bloud also is taken out of the Veins which things would not be if such Fevers were onely Symptomatical Riverius or simply depending on those Inflammations II. In the Spring-time especially towards the latter end of Spring and the beginning of Summer a sort of Fever uses to invade at that time which although it want the pathognomick signs of a Pleurisie or a Peripneumony yet it is as a Symptome in respect of some Inflammation lurking about the spiritual parts for there is no pain of the side no great difficulty of breathing wherefore suspecting it to be a bare Fever I sometimes inclined to treat my Patients in the same method as I used to doe in curing Fevers Nevertheless afterwards I reckoned with my self that this season of the year was unfit for producing Fevers which run into continuity for of themselves they do as it were part into pieces and place themselves among the intermittent kind or they turn to Pleurisies and such sort of Inflammations moreover also I took diligent notice of the Bloud that was let in this sort of Fevers and it looked just like the Bloud of Pleuriticks I also observed a redness in the Cheeks and a certain propensity to bleed at the Nose though a Vein had been opened before besides I found a little cough and some obscure pains in the vital parts sometimes These things therefore well considered I was at length persuaded that I must proceed in the same method in this case as I had often used in the Pleurisie with singular success and it happily succeeded as I desired Febris Synochus Putris or A Putrid Continent Fever The Contents The Fever must presently be suppressed I. The heating of the Bloud must be prevented II. Nature's motion about the Crisis must be attended III. How we must prevent the Symptoms IV. What Diet in the Declension of the Fever V. When the Crisis is imperfect what must be done VI. When the case is desperate the Patient must not be given over VII The Diet must not be too thin VIII I. WE must endeavour to suppress the Fever immediately at the first coming and to stop the Inflammation of the heated Sulphur to which Venaesection especially conduces for by this means the Bloud is eventilated and the hot particles overmuch agglomerated and then next to burning are dissipated one from another just as Hay that is apt to take fire if it be exposed to the open Air its burning is hindred Moreover a spare Diet must be insisted on in which nothing spirituous or sulphureous must be used Let the Bowels and first ways be rid of the load of excrementitious matter wherefore Clysters will be of use and sometimes Vomits and gentle Purges by which sometimes seasonably used and with judgment the Fever is extinguished at the very beginning Wâ—lâ—iâ— de Fâ—br c. 11. when the Fewel is withdrawn But if notwithstanding this method the burning spread farther and take the sulphureous particles of the bloud more and more every day let care be taken as much as can be that the deflagration proceed without much disturbance II. Wherefore when the Fever is in the increase if the bloud be too effervescent and distend the Vessels much with a strong and vehement Pulse if Want of sleep Phrenzy or the Head-ach be very violent let Bleeding be repeated again and free transpiration as much as may be procured Wherefore let the Patient keep himself for the most part in bed let his Diet be spare of very thin aliment Also let his Drink be small and plentifull that the boiling bloud may be diluted with a more copious Serum Clysters are safe and convenient enough But let Purgatives and Diaphoreticks and things that disturb the bloud much be as industriously avoided as the blowing of the Wind when a House
cast out to the external habit of the body by the strength of Nature neither stand in need of Purging nor Bleeding unless some portion of the Matter or disposition contrary to Nature do still remain in the body Wherefore Hippocrates 1. aph 20. advised well Things that have had a Crisis and that have had a good Crisis we must neither meddle nor make with them either by Purges or by irritating them any other way but we must let them alone And we find these entire excretions of the noxious humour do for the most part happen in such Diseases as arise with an ebullition of the bloud such as a Fever with Buboes an Ephemera the Sweating Sickness St. Anthony's Fire and children's Exanthemata And it is manifest that this ebullition is made in the bloud as in Juices and new Wine by reason of watry and crude or putrid Excrements For since three kinds of Excrements are contained in the Juices of all natural things one Earthy which in Wine is the Lees another Aerial which answers to the flower or top of the Wine the third Watry and crude which fermenting by time and heat causes an ebullition in the humours and juices Thus since Children's bowels are nourished by and concrete of the Mothers bloud which because of Womens idle living and the weakness of their heat is more watry and less concocted than it should Who is there that does not think the tender body of the Child must be infected with the contagion and filth of it and that it must abound with superfluities Which things when they grow hot in the mass of bloud or in the heart with a febrile heat then Nature like working Must throws off these dregs to the external parts of the body where they become Exanthemata Thus also the bloud in the Liver or Veins fermenting with the Putrefaction of either Choler expells its filth to the ambit of the body whence come Buboes in the Groin and Erysipelata Serpigines Carbuncles and Inflammations in other parts And when the Body by a Crisis is perfectly purged of noxious humours which the Urine the Serum of the bloud being made like to healthy peoples urine does indicate then it were needless for us to purge the bloud either by bleeding or a purgative Medicine but the said exanthemata relicks and symptoms might then rather be easily cured by outward remedies or fomentations Like as in that long Plague which raged at Rome in Galen's time In those saith he lib. 5. Meth. who were to escape death black Pustules which they call exanthemata broke out thick all over the body And it was clear to any one that saw it that this was the relicks of the bloud which had putrefied in the Fever which Nature had cast out to the skin like ashes But saith he there was no need of Medicines for such exanthemata because they went away of themselves Thus also I have above an hundred times seen an Itch and oedemata in the Legs that have risen after a Crisis of other Fevers but especially of Quartane-Agues go away of themselves without any help of Medicines But if then either bloud had been let or a Purge given there had been great danger lest by those veins whereby the matter of the disease had been driven out it might have been drawn back again to the inner bowels For a hungry Stomach can fetch back the Aliment trasmitted to the bowels and limbs by the same ways and can draw other humours out of the bowels into its cavity But since this foul asperity of the Skin vulgarly called the Itch does arise of impure cholerick bloud or adust or faeculent mixt with the liquour of salt Phlegm such as the Liver produces through its dyscrafie or often of meats and drinks of a bad juice which Nature does not throw off all at once but by degrees with the Aliment of the body without any ebullition of the bloud to the parts of the body and infects and alters them with its contagion whence it comes to pass that the successive regeneration of it depends not onely upon the dyscrasie of the Liver as upon an internal antecedent cause but oftentimes upon an obstruction of the Spleen whose office it is to purge the bloud and upon the contagion of the Parts Therefore here it is necessary not onely that the bloud be purged by opening a Vein and giving purging Physick frequently but also that the intemperature of the Liver and obstruction of the Spleen be corrected and opened And then after the Body has thus been well purged it will be worth the while to dry the habit of the Body also with Sudorifick Potions of Treacle or Sulphureous Baths or with Ointments made of Mercury and so you may rid the outer parts of the Plague of this infection which they had taken And seeing the Pustules and Itch of a new Pox have commonly a great affinity with other Exanthemata which the remedies common to them both do argue and since beside the external causes of contagion both of them depend upon the internal infection and filth of the corrupt bloud and humours Who I pray even after the Pustules are driven out to the Superficies of the body will deny Langius Ep. 15 16. lib. 1. that evacuation of bloud by Phlebotomy and Purging is of great moment in the cure of either of them XII Angelica N. had been several years troubled with blackness in her fingers with a little corruption and parting of the Nails She was of a cold constitution heavy and dull The blackness was taken away by Tobacco smoak and Ointment thereof Severinus Med. eff p. 159. for that year But when it returned the next it was quite taken away with a fume of Cinnabor so that it never came again XIII Sometimes Sweating of the Feet does miserably torment Women which they endeavour to stop For which Disease I can easily tell them a speedy remedy D. Panarolus Pent. 3. Oâ—s 16. namely if they put some powder of Myrtle in their Linen Socks But let them have a care they do not fall into worse diseases as I have often seen This excretion preserves from many Diseases and should rather be promoted than checked ¶ A Noble German following the Count of the most Serene Prince advised with a Physician about the sweating and stinking of his Feet The Physician orders him to wear Socks dipt in Red-wine wherein Alume was dissolved and prescribes him Pills of Aloes and other things and an Electuary of drying and diaphoretick Medicines which might keep the body safe from putrefaction and superfluous humidity The Socks gave great and present help for the Soles of his Feet were so thick that no sweat could get out afterwards But the Pills and Electuary did not answer the Physician 's end In a few Months some small faintings and unusual giddiness followed The Count of the most Serene Prince came to Geneva in the year 1674 and he desired a remedy of
by stool their drinking it did them no good But they that kept it three hours and then voided it not by stool but by urine it did them much good Whence I gather that unless the Water pass by the Veins it does no good for Spitting of bloud nor preserves from a Consumption And that it may pass by the Veins it is required that it pass not presently Fallopius XVI That the aperture of the Vessel may be closed Astringent and agglutinant Medicines are very proper The chief of these is usually given in form of a Linctus so that in swallowing them some particles of them may fall upon the aspera-Arteria and more immediately communicate their virtue to the part affected But this way of energy seems not to be of much moment because the efficacy of these Medicines does especially and in a manner onely reach the seat of the Disease by the communication of the bloud Wherefore not onely Eclegmata but also Decoctions Powders and Pills of Traumaticks and Balsamicks are beneficially prescribed Willis XVII In Spitting of bloud and in those Diseases where we want astriction and strengthning spirituous attenuant aperient and sharp things are suspected But incrassating and earthy things which do not consist in the spirituous part but in the very matter and corporeal substance seem necessary Wherefore if Corals doe any good in such cases they doe it by their earthy corporeity whereby they moderately cool and astringe and perhaps moreover by some occult quality which yet without doubt adheres to the whole substance Entire and substantial Medicines if you separate them from their proper body do often put on an aliene and far different body and so what before did good Fr. Ign. Theirmuir cons 4. lib. 2. do now cease to doe good or even begin to doe harm XVIII Hence we may give a judgment of Tincture of Corals in which Artists in Chymistry think that virtue is eâ—â—inently vigorous which is attributed to the whole Coral that is while the pure being separated from the impure and its dregs does far more easily exert its virtues Now Dioscorides l. 5. c. 97. assigns to it a virtue moderately astringent cooling and of great efficacy against Bleedings But concerning its Tincture hear Ph. Grulingius his opinion in suo Florileg Hipp. c. par 19. c. 3. In the preparation of Coral Pearl and pretious Stones let every one have a care he be not deceived and reckon he has the true Tincture when he has onely a false and aliene one or that he has obtained the menstruum For there are some Tinctures as of lapis Lazuli which in redness may vye with Tincture of Corals And there are some menstrua that grow red of themselves Thus some do not blush to give Spirit of Vitriol tinged with red Roses for the coralline Tincture Although therefore the Tincture of Corals so called often have a colour red enough and the Coral be left in the bottom white yet it acquires this colour either from the Salt of the Vinegar as Sennertus will have it or from the sulphureous part of this Salt which easily joins it self with the Spirit of Wine by reason of its cognation as appears in the Tincture of Salt of Tartar or by long Digestion by benefit whereof many menstrua grow red and the Corals which after extraction appear white do in a little while after receive their red colour nor had they lost their inner colour yea the same Tincture may be made of white Coral and Crabs-eyes with the like menstrua It must be observed besides that in the common solutions of Corals Spirit of Honey is taken for the menstruum which by its acrimony dissolves Gold a little Therefore I cannot see how this coralline Liquour whatever it be or any other like it consisting of Spirit of Wine Salt of Tartar Vinegar and the like can doe good For for the most part they answer not the intentions they do not contemper nor astringe nor consolidate nor stop bloud but they make thin the humours sharpen open and now and then taken largely and inconsiderately they inflame cause thirst and by their acrimony do not a little offend the parts which they immediately touch You may add to all the mischievous avarice of the Apothecaries who to increase their Tincture of Corals mix the Corals with Sugar in a Frying-pan and rost them to redness then by digestion they dissolve them in some menstruum and draw not so much a Tincture of Corals as of rosted Sugar Idem ibid. XIX Bloud is stopt by Scaliger and Heurnius their Powder the Ingredients whereof are Seed of white Popy white Henbane and Bloud-stone But the use of it must not be long continued Frid. Hofmannus m. m. l. 1. c. 21. because of the Henbane-seed which is very hurtfull XX. Some as on experience do recommend Nettle-juice in the morning for several days But there are not a few things which render the truth of this suspected by me and though the kind of which there are several be not determined I believe it is the common stinging Nettle that is meant But 1. This is of very subtile parts and of a digesting nature wherefore according to Dioscorides it opens moves Urine and egregiously forces Women's obstructed menses 2. Taken inwardly it is of a sharp abstersive titillating quality 3. The Seed is in frequent use for raising of thick and viscid humours yea even of Pus in an Empyema of the Breast 4. It and its Seed according to Galen has some flatulency in it and is said to stimulate Venus If the Nettle therefore be of such subtile parts as to open force the menses and urine by titillation to give a stool by its sharp flatulency to provoke lust and if the Seed for its excessive heat be reckoned among eroding things how can the drinking of 4 ounces of the Juice for several days one after another doe good in this case But I think it is good for haemoptoïck and empyematick persons namely that the extravasated bloud coagulated in the Breast of them that have been long ill or turned into pus may be timely deterged and expectorated Wherefore I cannot say it is probable that the Juice of Stinging-nettle does good in the beginning for Spitting of bloud Tâ—iermair ubi supra as a peculiar Remedy that stops bloud XXI In other cases Linseed-oil is commended to be of great virtue as in a Peripneumony Phthisick Colick but especially in a Pleurisie according to Gesner 1. Ep. 49. I saith he have several times experienced that there is nothing better in these pleuritick Pains than to drink Linseed-oil and this presently eased respiration and promoted spitting Therefore it is carefully saved among us clarified in the Sun which clarifying is better than that which is made by lixivium or a rosted Onyon By anointing their Belly therewith or by covering it with a linen cloth wet in it they make the Belly loose but I
no where observe that it does good for Spitting of bloud Yet in the beginning of the year 1675. I often visited a Woman fifty years old who had her menstrua a long time not largely but continually and then she was troubled with a grievous catarrh of which by my advice she was cured with a Decoction of Ground-ivy Chervil Lungwort Wood-bine Liquorice c. Once early in the morning I was called to her I found to my amazement she had voided above a Pint of florid bloud such as usually comes from the Lungs she had spate it up between 4 and 5 in the morning I immediately ordered a Vein to be opened in the Arm and I gave her some drops of the Tincture of Bloud-stone in Syrupus de Symphyto Fernelii But her Spitting of bloud returned again towards night the Patient refusing to take any thing Linseed-oil came into my mind which pleased her she took one spoonfull and by continuing the use of it for several days she recovered I believe the Spitting of bloud arose from some Vein broken in her Lungs which was healed by the balsamick and emplastick virtue of the Linseed-oil I tried it in others afterwards not without success Car. Rayer m. c. an 76. obs 209. giving first the Tincture of Bloud-stone XXII Starch is good because emplastick because it stops the gaping vessels and thickens the humours for it is the Juice of Wheat first steeped in Water and then strained out But we must abstain from that which is made of Bran steeped in Water and strained out for such is rather opening and abstersive The worst is that which to make it white has Lime mixt with it because it is inflaming and opens rather than shuts the mouths of the vessels Riverius XXIII I have cured several of Spitting of bloud before they fell into a Consumption The Cure was such as is described by Galen l. 5. Meth. this one thing added I applied linen clothes wet in Juice of Plantain to the Kidneys by which means I cured a Man almost seventy years old who had voided above ten pounds of bloud Cardanus XXIV If the Bloud be very watry and serous as it usually is in all Haemorrhagies when the Spitting of bloud is stopt 1 scruple of Powder of Rheubarb is convenient every day in the morning an hour before break-fast For thus the bloud when the serous humours of it are purged by degrees may recover its pristine thickness Caesalpians in Caâ—oâ—â—ro Art Med. l. â—â— Or one drachm of Rheubarb may be taken once a week Otherwise all Purgatives in this case must be avoided ¶ When all things are done as to revulsion and interception we must proceed to evacuation of excrements And though Galen gave strong Purges yet it becomes us to be content with immature Rheubarb and shells of citrin Mirobalans and Cassia Yea onely with Cassia and Pulp of Tamarinds till the Ulcer be perfectly healed For otherwise there would be danger lest by the agitation of the humours the bloud might burst out again Fortis cons 15. cent â—2 and the Ulcer might contract an Inflammation from hotter Medicines XXV Stopping of the bloud must not be attempted with very astringent things when it is voided in abundance by the Throat For by the use of them and coagulating things it congeals out of the Veins sticks by the way and so uses to choak a Man out of hand Idem cons 25. cent 2. XXVI Bloud whencesoever it comes into the aspera Arteria that it may not coagulate there and then corrupt must immediately be kept dissolved with convenient Medicines or must be dissolved again and voided To which purpose Crabs-eyes with Antimonium diaphoreticum must be preferred above many other Medicines dissolved in part at least in a little distilled Vinegar and taken with the addition of gratefull things for in this case they perfectly doe the work for example Take of Water of Hyssop Fenil each 1 ounce Aqua vitae Matthioli 2 drachms distilled Vinegar half an ounce Crabs-eyes half a drachm Antimonium diaphoreticum 1 scruple Syrup of Maiden-hair 1 ounce Mix them But in such mixtures that have Crabs-eyes dissolved in Vinegar in them we must have a care we add not Syrups made of mucilages such as de Althaea Fernelii Jujubinus of Violets and the like because either immediately or in a little time they grow thick as mucilage and unfit for use which they will not so easily doe if Syrups made of aromatick things be made use of especially new for several in tract of time grow viscid Sylvius de le Bâ—ë XXVII When from the proper affection of the Lungs either pure bloud or corrupted and turned into pus is voided there is great danger wherefore we must make the more haste to cure it lest the opportunity be lost by procrastination For the singular substance of the Lungs is easily infected and corrupted but is difficultly restored We must not desist therefore from the use of Medicines that cure the flux of bloud out of the broken vessels of the Lungs and the corruption of it till the Disease be perfectly cured Nay I should advise that for some time after the Disease were cured as to appearance the Patient should continue in the moderate use of gentle Medicines to the end that the part once affected and therefore again easie to be affected may be strengthned against the coming of the Disease anew Idem XXVIII But like as always in other cases so here also we must take diligent notice of Medicines that are most agreeable to every individual that such may be preferred before all others and the use of them may be continued as long as they doe good But as soon as they are observed not to doe much good others must be substituted in their room and the Patients health must be promoted by all means Idem XXIX Spitting of bloud with a Cough imposes on good Physicians They are deceived by all the Signs and think it comes from the Lungs when it falls from the Head or comes from the vena azugos by reason of some evacuation being intercepted Heurnius com in Aph. 15. 7. and is expectorated ¶ One had been troubled with much Spitting of bloud for a long time and could be cured by no Remedies And he complained onely of something like a Lump of flesh that stuck in his Throat At length when the Patient had mounted a mettlesome Horse he was taken with so violent a Cough Borellus cent 1. obs 24. that he voided a Leech by the violence of it upon which he was quickly well ¶ Many Physicians ask their Patients Whether they find any salt or sharp taste in their Catarrh If they say No they immediately pronounce that the Bloud cannot be spit out of the Breast and Lungs But Galen 4. loc affect 8. refutes them saying that many become consumptive when the Spittle does not taste salt at all Therefore it may so be
them is suspected XXIV Styptick water put into the Nostril not so effectual as Powders XXV How far the virtue of it reaches XXVI A Medicine put into the Nostrils that stops it in a moment XXVII Stopt by immersion of the whole body in cold water XXVIII By constant drinking of Wine XXIX After Swooning XXX By a Fright XXXI By compressing the interstice of the Nostrils XXXII By antispasmodicks XXXIII Stopt by Colcothar XXXIV By pressing it with the Finger XXXV By a Causâ—â—ck XXXVI A Secret to stop Bloud XXXVII Remedies confirmed by Experience XXXVIII The use of chalybeate Waters XXXIX A scorbutick Bleeding stopt with Spirit of Vitriol XL. Comfrey root mixt with some other things loses its glutinous virtue XLI The virtue of Laudanum Opiatum XLII Narcoticks are dangerous XLIII For what sort Ischaimous Medicines are most proper XLIV Whether stopping of the Nose be commendable XLV The way to stop Bloud when it comes from the Arteries XLVI XLVII What way Bloud following the amputation of a Limb may be stopt XLVIII Not always stopt then with a red hot Iron XLIX Prevention by letting of bloud and purging L. Whether the Patient must be kept in bed or up LI. Medicines I. THERE is a twofold Consultation first Whether Bloud ought to be stopt which is the most difficult The second How For all Bleeding ought not to be stopt but some must be stopt and some must be helped some must onely be let alone because some is very wholsome some pernicious Certainly if one bleed after a blow or a fall there is no danger in stopping the bloud Wherefore we may use Astringents and moderate Coolers Unless it happen that a Man is full for then bloud must be let or we must suffer it to run in some measure When the bloud runs onely by reason of abundance you have no reason to stop it for by letting it run the abundance is abated when that is abated the Bleeding stops of it self unless in the mean time some great Vein be broken for then there will be need of an Emplastick and Astringent such as Galen's Medicine which is one of the best When the Bleeding is because of some malignant quality either alone or with abundance then the Physician is at a stand because the case is either way dangerous for if it be not stopt by reason of the impotency of the retentive faculty which the Irritation causes it runs to faintness especially seeing he that is very cacochymick cannot bear any large evacuation and quickly faints If it be stopt because the malignant bloud cannot rest quiet in any place it falls violently upon some inner part which happens to be weakest as it fared with an old Man who after he had bled abundance of thin bloud for he looked very greenish in the face and the bloud was stopt by proper means died of a Pleurisie Therefore what must be done in so doubtfull a case Surely what Hippocrates 6. Epidem sect 3. advises When you have let it alone a little you must incrassate drily and about the part you must use a white and dry thing it may be Galls and Alume in Powder He says you must let it alone a little that is we must not presently stop it but let it run a little Certainly for what cause soever even an external one the Bleeding begins it must be permitted a little before you stop it For Bloud-letting is good not onely for a Plethory but a little for a Cacochymie a Blow and a Fall and we are willing to have the bloud run a little in any green Wound But as in Cacochymies bloud must be let sparingly because they have not wherewithall to support it so also spontaneous Bleeding must be let alone a little If therefore you see one bleed where signs of a Plethora are let him alone till the Bleeding stop of it self though the Man should faint But if a Man bleed who looks pale and green or pale or pale and black have a care you let him not bleed much or till he faint for it is very dangerous for such Men to faint But if you suffer it not to run much how will you hinder it from falling upon some part Surely by Incrassating drily Which I explain thus It happens that People are in danger two ways by abundant Bleeding and by a slow and small Bleeding For I knew a Woman who continually bled drops of bloud for above six months and while she tarried so long a time for help but sound no benefit by all the Physicians did she died We must therefore cure them both in the same method those that bleed much and that bleed little except what the different indications do require And one difference of indications here is that which is common to all other Diseases that quick Diseases must be quickly cured and others more slowly Beside this there is another difference in the manner of Cure For where the bloud comes by little and little I can by no means think it must be let alone to run by little and little but rather that that bloud should be taken from the Arm or Leg as other things do indicate by opening a Vein which would have come away had you let it alone because if you let it bleed slowly and let it alone a long time the Man will be more hurt by his custome of Bleeding than he will receive good by Evacuation of what is redundant And in this first Rule Hippocrates seems to treat of Bleeding fast But what follows But in others you must not incrassate so much but you must use a dry white Medicine such as Galls and Alume may be understood of both Bleedings For in both cases whether I say it bleed slow or fast when it is caused by a corrupt and thin bloud it is good to use things that thicken and make slow the motion of the bloud And because besides these things it is necessary to make application of things that stop we must reckon that Hippocrates in these last words understood local Medicines in the former things to be taken by the mouth Therefore he says you must incrassate drily that is use Medicines and Meats that dry and thicken And there are two sorts of things that doe this one by thickness of parts and astriction as Pap made of Starch and Lentils Syrup of Myrtles c. others make flow the motion of the bloud without thickness and astriction by giving it a certain thickness by accident by cooling or by cooling and drying the first we use for slow Bleeding the latter for sudden For in Bleeding fast it is too long to tarry for relief from eating Starch or Pears But then drinking of cold Water or a Decoction of Cinquefoil which I use very cold may do good Yet the taking of thick and astringent things does by little and little thicken the bloud and so may doe good in slow Bleeding But the use of such things seems hurtfull because it either causes
Warm bloud of Animals is given to People in Dysenteries for a Clyster Or things that violently cause a Crust whether actual or potential Willis saw a most violent Haemorrhage stopt with the Vapour of the bloud falling upon a red hot Iron So Cauterization by rosting the Bloud and crisping and closing the Vessels is the last Remedy You may refer hither the Sympathetick Powder the bloud dropping upon which causes this astriction but it is onely in a slight case Or they respect the free passages of the bloud Wherefore Aperients do improperly and mediately stop bloud because they restore the Circulation of the bloud when hindred as we often find them very beneficial in a too violent flux of the menses and in other Haemorrhagies Idem VI. To divert the tendency of the bloud from the Nostrils it is sometimes convenient to open a Vein in the Arm or Foot For the more bloud is carried by the Arteries to the place of Venaesection the afflux to the Nose will be the less Yet this administration does not always so much good but that a quite contrary effect sometime falls out the reason is because the Vessels being suddenly but not sufficiently emptyed do take back again the incongrous humours before thrown out stagnating within the Pores whereby the bloud is immediately put into a greater eruptive turgescence Willis That Venaesection in the Foot is more effectual than in the Arm for stopping an Haemorrhagie at the Nose I have learned from a late Example and that repeated Last March in the year 1681. A Man about thirty years old cholerick and lean had had a Quartane-ague from the preceding autumnal to the vernal Aequinox A double Tertian followed this with tension of the hypochondria and of the whole abdomen and a pertinacious Bleeding rebellious to all Remedies Bloud was let in the Arm and other things done and nevertheless he bled still after application of glutinous things it ran into the Mouth which he spate up concrete in abundance His strength seemed to fail what with the foregoing Fever and the loss of Bloud his Face fell and grew pale But because the heat about his Heart was troublesome his Pulse full and strong and the Bloud came out with violence I ordered the most tumid Vein in his Foot to be bled out of which the bloud came full stream a little after he fell into a sweet Sleep which he wanted before because his Ague-fits came in the evening and he continued in it till night afterwards his Bleeding and Ague both left him he being rid of both by means of Bleeding in the Foot I had prescribed him some opening Pills for his remaining obstructions which he did not take because within a few days by the use of a good Diet there appeared no signs of any so that in four days after his Bleeding he was perfectly well Another Instance offered it self at that same time in a young Man whose name was Frederick Servant to the Family of the Illustrious Counts of Waldeck he was hypochondriack and he had been sore handled by a Quartane-ague all the Winter When the cold season abated which lasted till the latter end of April he bled at the right Nostril I ordered his right Salvatella to be opened out of which the bloud came full stream his Bleeding at the Nose not abating The bloud being received in linen clothes appeared florid not like to washing of flesh and ichorous I also ordered a Vein to be opened in his right Foot and about seven ounces of bloud were taken from thence in Pottingers which gave evident signs of corruption Store of bloud also ran into the Vessel wherein the water was which the Chirurgeon could scarce stop after he had untied the fillet The event was the same as in the former case for both his Bleeding and Ague were stopt Hence you may gather what the nature of the humour is that causes a Quartane-ague which onely the power of the returning Sun is able to conquer The febrile Fire does lye as it were raked up in the Ashes which by the accession of such a blast breaks out into a flame but an innocent yea a salutary one which feeds on and consumes onely its own fewel leaving the solid parts and the other humours untouched It was my hap to observe this in the foresaid Frederick's Lord the young Count Waldeck who had patiently and obstinately endured a Quartane-ague from the preceding August He had a wonderfull Antipathy to all sort of Physick At length as the Spring came on when signs of a Cachexy and Leucophlegmatia appeared in his countenance when he made little Urine which had a large tartareous settling in the bottom of the Chamber-pot I told him he was going into a Dropsie He being affrighted admits of Pills from which he was less abhorrent than from other Medicines made of massa Pilul de Sagapeno Camilli Mercurius dulcis and Tartareae Bontii and a laxative Ptisan to drink after them which brought abundance of filthy stuff away and the Ague which of a simple one was become a treble one at length was a single one again and within a few days quite ceased Yet the third day after his Ague went quite off he was taken with a Diary which ended in a Crisis by stool urine and sweat together which was followed by perfect health That is by this last and gentle Burning all the febrile matter blazed out But this by the way VII Letting of bloud is the chief among revulsory Remedies but it ought to be drawn with a large hand and a broad hole All Men in a manner bleed at a small hole and in a small quantity reckoning that Revulsion is better made so But that a contrary motion may be communicated to the bloud it must be acted by a more violent motion because the more violent draws the weaker Therefore at the larger hole and the faster the bloud runs so much the sooner is the profluent bloud drawn from the Nostrils So that oftentimes a violent Bleeding at the Nose without a Plethora Riverius has been instantly stopt by Venaesection celebrated in this manner ¶ Whether must bloud be let all at once or at several times I think if it be let all at once it will doe the Patient more good for Rolsinccius cens 2. lib. 3. when the bloud gushes out of the open Vein all at once quicke◠Revulsion is made of the bloud that would run out at the Nose VIII Galen 5. Meth. and many who follow him apply Cupping-glasses to the region of the Liver which that it cannot be done without danger the following History does prove A certain Courtier labouring under a violent Bleeding at the Nose made use of a Chirurgeon who among other Remedies set large Cupping-glasses to the region of his Liver The bloud indeed stopt but an Inflammation of the Liver followed I think cold Medicines should rather be applied to the Liver and Spleen according to Hippocrates
Eschar when some of the serous humour had run out a great pain but momentany arises suddenly in the bottom of his Belly especially about the right Groin the part affected The night following the Scrotum swelled a little and there was a very hard Swelling more plainly found in the upper part of the Sheath round about the Spermatick Vessels Then the violent and exceeding dangerous Symptoms which I have sometimes known proceed from such openings came into my mind The same thing happened to Griffonius a most excellent Medico-Chirurgeon who when he had opened the Scrotum of a Savoyard besides a Hydrocele there was also found fleshy-matter growing to these vessels which turned into a Malignant Cancer Hildanus cent 4. obs 65. whereto he applied Medicines the Knife and Fire to no purpose XXIV Sometimes a Pneumatocele or Wind-rupture is caused in the four Vessels which nourish the Testicles or in the intercurrent Arteries of the Dartos The former tumour is harder and gives not way to the finger when touched and admits of a cure This latter goes in again and vanishes if pressed with the finger Geiger Chelegr cap. 3. and is scarce curable because of the danger of incessant bleeding ¶ Wind may also be taken away by Chirurgery or Section Yet that which comes from the Arteries we reject as desperate The other before-mentioned we cure like varicous ruptures Idem c. 13. See Sect. XXX XXV Aquapendent goes a safe way to work Pentateuch Chir. lib. 1. cap. 29. if an aqueous rupture be joined with a carnous But if there be no Water you must let alone the operation because whether you cut or no the case is dangerous and perforation onely may cause a Gangrene Silvaticus cent 3. cons 74. You may see before what Hildanus says XXVI The Noble N. complained of a great Sarcocele of his left Testicle which universals premised and a good course of Diet I insensibly dissolved with the following Plaster and Powder of Rest-harrow which Matthiolus l. 2. c. 18. commends Take of Gum Ammoniack Galbanum Bdellium dissolved in Vinegar each half an ounce add of Ducks-grease melted and strained half an ounce yellow wax two ounces Oil of White Lilies the Marrow of a Beef marrow-bone each 10 drachms Make a Plaster Spread it on a Linen-cloth apply it to the Scrotum and renew it every fourth day He took a drachm of the Powder of Rest-harrow in a draught of Wormwood-wine every morning He had an Issue made in his Thigh four inches above his Knee and continued the use of the foresaid Medicines so that in four Months time he was perfectly well Several others have Scultetus by degrees recovered with the use of this Powder alone XXVII Impure bloud is not the cause of a carnous Rupture since even the best may produce it Nor simply abundant since it shews it self even in lean bodies although in these it never arrives at that bigness which it does in others But indeed I believe the true cause of the Rupture consists in this when the Membranes which use to shut the mouths of the Capillary vessels and hinder the nutritious bloud running too suddenly into the part are either eroded broken or dilated whereby it then comes to pass that more bloud runs into the part than is required for its nutrition Nature in the mean time turns the bloud which would otherwise putrefie into flesh It must be observed also that this flesh grows sometimes to the second of the common coats of the Scrotum and not to the Testicles in which it may be taken out without hurting or excision of them In the beginning when the little membranes of the vessels being eroded broken or dilated do permit too great plenty of bloud to pass we doe much with the use of repellent and astringent things But if it begin to grow big these remedies suffice not to root out the evil yet it must be attempted by the means following Make a little hole in the Scrotum rather in the upper than in the lower part through it by help of a rag apply suppurating Medicines that by this means if it be possible that flesh may be taken away But every visit all the Pus must not be let out that the relicks of the flesh may so much the better be consumed But if these things succeed not The Testicle must be taken out with the Rupture Barbette XXVIII Yet the cause ought to be searched diligently before the Chirurgeon set himself to the operation for sometimes the Parastatae are so swelled especially when the Testicles are scirrhous that they might easily deceive you with the shew of a carnous rupture 2. The Spermatick vessels being kept in the Scrotum do often by a lusus naturae exceed the Stones themselves in bigness and cause no other inconvenience but fear which I have found true in more than one Idem XXIX We must observe in a Ligature which is made when the Testicle must be taken away together with the Rupture that it must be made as near as may be to the Tumour for the higher the process of the Peritonaeum is perforated so much the thicker it is observed to be which thing will hinder suppuration Idem and the falling off of the thread XXX A Varicous Rupture is easily known because a multitude of Veins and Arteries appears on the superficies of the Scrotum involving the whole Scrotum with their vast extension as a Vine twists round a Tree The cure of it as also of a carnous one Avicenna says is the cure of hard Imposthumes and oftentimes indeed anointing with asswaging Fat 's and Marrows is sufficient in a varicous Rupture But if those things which are good for a varicous Rupture will doe no good we must proceed to Chirurgery and the cure must be insisted on either by incision or a potential Caustick Incision is performed in this manner When the Patient is fixt in a proper posture handling the Scrotum we drive down the Nerve whereby the Testicle hangs into the lower part which indeed may easily be distinguished because it being firm and strong feels smaller and more solid and renitent than the veins and if it be prest causes greater pain and besides it lies near the virile member which being depressed we take hold of them with our own and our assistants fingers and draw them this way and that and violently extend them then we cut the skin over against the Veins drawing the Knife gently and obliquely then with hooks fixt in we cut the parts underneath and separate them from the Skin and when the Veins are bare we run a Needle with a double thread underneath them and then we tie them with the thread cutting a Sinus in two places where the varication begins and where it ends yet having first made incision lengthway and let out the bloud afterwards we cure it with things that breed Pus till the thread and the veins also fall off
is more easie to be had than Broom and it is well accounted of in this Disease I usually order 1 pound of its Ashes to be infused in 4 pounds of Rhenish-wine cold adding a pugil or two of Leaves of common Wormwood I order 4 ounces of the Liquour strained by filtration to be constantly drunk by the Patient in the morning at five in the afternoon and at night By which Remedy alone I have seen Dropsies cured which have been reckoned desperate in such whose Constitution has been too weak to bear purging But when the water that we may hasten to the second Intention which is the proximate cause of the Disease is now wholly evacuated we are come for the most part but half way of the Cure unless the weakned bloud which was the first original of the Disease be helped by long and constant taking of heating and strengthning Medicines whereby a new product of water may be prevented For though it may so happen to young People oftentimes that when the water is well purged out they recover without any other Remedy because their natural heat being then rid of the load and pressure of the water may supply the place of the said Remedies yet in elder People or them that have no very sound habit of body it is altogether necessary that presently when the evacuation of the water is finished they have recourse to the use of those Simples that heat and invigorate the bloud Among which those things I have formerly recommended in the Cure of the Gout whether they respect the Remedies themselves or the six non-natural things besides those which shall afterwards be spoken of are proper unless that Wine from which we must wholly abstain in the Gout does not onely no harm in the Dropsie but a great deal of good if it be used for Mens ordinary drink seeing these two Diseases agree in this that the same strengthning Medicines oppose the original cause of either of them Moreover to satisfie this intention of which we are now treating namely the strengthning of the bloud whether the evacuation of the water be procured as before by a Diuretick a Purge or a Vomit it is altogether necessary that the Patient as much as the case requires be obliged to drink Wine while he is under Cure so he begin not to drink Wine before the passages be a little opened and way made for the water or at least strong Beer instead of Wine seeing all thin and cooling Liquours how pleasant soever they be to the Palate which is ever in a manner thirsty in this Disease do make the Patient more phlegmatick and augment the water these therefore must seldom or never be allowed And on the contrary generous Liquours so they be not distilled spirits promote health so far that sometimes they alone restore it when lost as in the beginning of the Disease before the Belly be much stretched with water especially if they be impregnated with heating and strengthning Herbs For the poorer sort whose Purse will not afford better Medicines strong Beer in which a sufficient quantity of root of Horse-radish Leaves of common Wormwood garden Scurvigrass lesser Centaury and tops of Broom have been steeped is by my Advice used for their ordinary drink and may serve instead of all For the richer sort Canary Wine may be impregnated with the same bitter Herbs a draught of which may be taken twice or thrice a-day among the forementioned Medicines Or if this please not the Palate so well Wormwood-wine may be drunk in its stead of which the Patient may take nine spoonfulls after taking two drachms of the digestive Electuary described Tit. de Arthritide Book I. at Medicinal hours that is morning four in the afternoon and night This Electuary far surpasses any other strengthning Medicine in satisfying this Intention But here it is of great moment that the Patient drink sparingly of any small Liquours seeing all of them whatever they be give increase to the water so that wholly abstaining from drink has cured some And therefore if the Patient must sometimes be indulged these Liquours he must drink them very sparingly Notwithstanding because this Disease is accompanied with great thirst which abstaining from small drink does increase it will be proper for the Patient to wash his mouth often with cold water sharpned with spirit of Vitriol or let him keep some Tamarinds in his mouth or chew Lemon but swallow neither of them because of their Coldness which is not so proper for the Disease But among strengthners Steel in the Cure of a Dropsie beginning deserves not the last place for it invigorates and heats the bloud Which is the reason why Garlick is so good in this case for I have known a Dropsie cured with it onely omitting Evacuaters by other Mens Prescription not mine For it must be observed that the Dropsie which has onely swelled the Feet or the Belly also but moderately does not presently require a Cure by Emeticks and Catharticks but often gives way to these said heating and strengthning Liquours But above all things it must be seriously observed that whenever we set upon this Disease onely with strengthners or Lixivials also the Patient must by no means be purged either with a gentle or strong Purge so long as we are endeavouring to strengthen the Bloud For a Purge will pull down what a strengthner has built up which every one must be forced to acknowledge who has observed that the Swelling which by the use of strengthners began to abate does presently increase after Purging For although when we desire to satisfie the intention of getting out the Water it would not be amiss also now and then to give strengthners yet when our whole business is to strengthen the bloud it is altogether necessary to abstain from Catharticks It is to be observed also that the Patient is not always cured though we satisfie both Indications that is though the water gathered in the Belly be wholly got out and Heaters and Strengthners also be given afterwards to prevent a new product of Water For it often happens that an Ascites which has lasted many years by the long incubation of the Water upon the Inwards has perverted and as it were perboiled their substance And has utterly corrupted both the Bowels themselves and the neighbouring parts breeding preternatural Glands and Bladders turgid with Sanies and turning all things contained within the cavity of the Abdomen into a kind of putrilage as Dissection of Bodies of such as have died of an inveterate Dropsie has made manifest When the Disease is arrived at this height it contemns all the helps of Art as far as I see Nevertheless it is the Physicians duty since he cannot certainly know what harm is done to the Inwards as yet to endeavour the cure by all means by Evacuating as well as Strengthning Medicines And he must neither be discouraged nor must he discourage his Patient We must endeavour to doe this
them in sixteen pounds of Spring-water half away Idem Keep the Colature for use V. Chalybeate Medicines because they are reckoned among the more efficacious Remedies must seldom be omitted in these Diseases though they are not often given with much success for most Preparations of Steel in which the sulphureous Particles prevail inasmuch as they ferment the Bloud and put it into critical effervescencies do rather increase than diminish the impetiginous eruptions nevertheless the Salt Syrup Tincture and vitriolick Infusions as they fix the Bloud and check a little the efferations of the Salts do suit well enough the Intention now proposed but those that are not so strong can doe little good against so Herculean a Disease Idem VI. Wherefore when these and most other Remedies will doe no good many commend Salivation as the stoutest Champion and the onely one able to cope with so stout an Enemy But the event does not always answer expectation for I do confess I used this Remedy for four persons who were troubled with a grievous Itch which was obstinate to all other Remedies without any benefit One of them by anointing with Quicksilver and the other by Pills of Solar Precipitate bore plentifull Salivation for about twenty days in which time all the Scurf and Wheals vanished nevertheless to confirm the Cure a diuretick Drink of a decoction of Sarsa and often Sweating and convenient Purging between whiles was continued for a month And yet for all this when this course was at an end and when no signs of any Itch appeared within another month the Disease began to bud out again anew and in a short time grew to its wonted maturity Moreover when one of these had repeated this Medicine and another after two Relapses had a mind to try it a third time both of them after they had undergone so much despaired of any Cure Whence it is evident that the Venereal Disease though it be extremely malignant and cause most foul cacoethick Ulcers that eat the Flesh and Bones may more easily and certainly be cured than the Itch. Wherefore not undeservedly did the most famous Physicians of old reckon this Disease when confirmed and brought near to a Leprosie to be very difficultly if at all curable Idem VII And an event no whit better attends this Disease when it comes upon an inveterate Scurvy perhaps indeed the Intentions of cure may be more certainly gathered when the Scurvy is the basis or root of this Disease to wit to take the primary therapeutick Indication from thence and insist chiefly on antispasmodick Medicines But even of this sort those that are sharp and hot as Scurvy-grass Water-cresses Horseradish Pepperwort and other things that incite the Bloud too much as they dissolve the Crasis of it more and force the coagulating Tartar in more abundance to the Skin they are always found to doe more harm than good And for this very reason the use of Baths or Bathing in hot waters which evacuates by abundance of Sweat the Humours of the whole body and cleanses the Pores of the Skin though it may seem very good in this Disease yet it is so far from relieving that the Breaking out is usually increased and exasperated thereby For I have known several who not being very itchy have gon to Bathe and there bathed in the hot water and have returned from thence quite leprous Wherefore whenever this Disease is a supervening Symptome of the Scurvy let all sharp and elastick things be avoided and onely the more temperate ones be given endued with a nitrous or vitriolick or a volatile Salt The nitrous Salt is predominant in Crystallum minerale some Juices of Herbs or Decoctions and in some purging waters Idem VIII The Cucumber is endued with a nitrous virtue and by experience is found good against this Disease wherefore instead of Sallet it may be eaten plentifully and often Moreover let three or four of them be cut into Slices and be infused in four pounds of Spring-water close for a night to the clear liquour poured off add of Sal prunellae two or three drachms The Dose half a pound three times or oftner in a day For the same purpose also Decoctions of the leaves and fruit made in spring water are proper Idem IX Some cathartick mineral waters especially North-hall waters if you make an Analysis of them by evaporation do manifestly shew the nitrous Salt wherewith they are impregnated And I have several times found that the constant drinking of about four pounds of them every day for a pretty while together has done good in a slight Itch. Idem X. But Waters impregnated with a vitriolick Salt such as the Spaw-waters do far excell these nitrous ones and any other Medicines and doe far more good in curing the Itch. To such as have not an opportunity to take them I give common water impregnated with our Steel and so exactly resembling Spaw-waters for this Disease and with good success Because of their mineral Salts or at least some Mercurial Particles in them Tin and Antimony are in Vogue for curing the Itch and several use to prescribe them with other Medicines Raspings of Tin and Powder of crude Antimony may be infused in Beer for the ordinary Drink and they may be put into a Decoction of Sarsa and the Woods for this Disease XI The Viper and its Preparations do sufficiently set out the excellent virtue of a volatile Salt in curing the Itch yea the Leprosie it self Galen reports that this Medicine for this Disease was found out by a casual experiment Hither also may be referred the analogy taken from the nature of the creature whence it is gathered that it does good in this Disease for since the Viper every year casts its scaly slough therefore any one might think that its parts would be good to cast off the crusty skin in the Leprosie But not to attribute much to such things since it is apparent from frequent observation that viperine Medicines are good in the Itch and Leprosie the reason of the Cure must be ascribed to the volatile Salt with which this Animal abounds For the Particles hereof do destroy the fixt and acid Salts which are prevalent in the diseased and dissolve their Combinations Notwithstanding the Salt Spirit and Oil chymically extracted from Vipers by reason of the empyreumatick and exceeding elastick Particles which the Fire produces are not at all proper in this Disease as neither the Spirit nor volatile Salt of Hart's-horn Soot Bloud and the like Ammoniack Spirits because by exagitating the bloud and humours above measure they cause their Crases to be more dissolved and drive the corruption more to the Skin Wherefore the simpler Preparations of Vipers as a Decoction of their Flesh in water Drink impregnated with their Infusion or Decoction their dried Powders and Electuaries made of them may be advantageously prescribed against this Disease Moreover not onely the Flesh of Vipers
fixt parts are elevated Since therefore all the virtue of Guaiacum consists in that oily and resinous part and since strong boiling is required to get it out the gentle heat of a balneum dannot doe it but boiling in an open fire is requisite which nevertheless if there be a convenient quantity of water put to it causes no adustion Idem XII A. Minodaus lib. de Lue c. 4. judges the Decoction must be sweetned especially with Honey for he thinks that a small quantity of Honey if it be boiled with it and scummed does take away the bitterness and that the Decoction acquires a greater virtue in absterging attenuating opening and melting the humours and strengthning the parts Which as we allow to have place in phlegmatick bodies So since Honey easily turns to choler in cholerick bodies we reckon it cannot safely be used in hot and dry ones but we reckon Raisins Liquorice or Sugar may more conveniently and safely be added for the tast 's sake and that the bitterness and acrimony may be taken off we may put them in towards the latter end of the Decoction Idem XIII Some for such as have a hot and dry Liver do towards the latter end of the Decoction add a root or two or a handfull or two of Cichory Endive or Sow-thistle But since such Decoctions must be continued a long time we must have a care lest by addition of such things they be rendred ingratefull and loathsome to the Patient Again seeing enough Decoction is made at one time to serve for several days and because the putting in of such Herbs makes it worse to keep to prevent this we must not put these Herbs to all the Decoction but onely to about one pound at a time Idem XIV The Extract of the Wood in Saxonia's judgment is not strong enough to cure an old and strong Disease but the Decoction is deservedly preferred before it However if any one have a mind to use it it is necessary to take some liquour after it by which vehicle the Extract may be distributed all over the body Idem XV. Chymists fearing lest by a long Decoction which is made to half or to a third part the spirituous and subtile parts should exhale and be dissipated and so the virtue of the Medicine should be diminished they put some dust of Guaiacum in a retort they pour to it a sufficient quantity of Water and set the retort in ashes they fit a receiver then they put fire under it first digest it and then they distill it to a consumption of half of the Water Four ounces of the distilled Water are given But it is the best way to put the distilled Water again to the rest of the Decoction in the retort For so all the virtue may be got out Upon the Decoction remaining in the retort new Water may be poured and digested for twelve hours and afterwards may be distilled and the distilled liquour may be given instead of drink And because sometimes it happens that Children are born with the Pox or infected by the Nurses this Distillation sweetned with Sugar may be given them for a Julep Idem XVI If any Herbs have been added to the first Decoction the secondary Decoction must not be made of its Remainders because it would be loathsome but it must be made more dilute and fresh Some also towards the latter end of the Decoction add a fifth part Wine And Fallopius thinks this should not be done onely when the Patient goes abroad or his Stomach is weak especially if the Decoction be made of Sarsa But though some make a second Decoction of China yet Palmarius thinks it gives its virtue at the first Decoction yea some give the first Decoction at Dinner and Supper because it is not ingratefull to the Palate Idem XVII Some utterly reject Purgatives in the Decoctions and maintain that they should neither be put in a Decoction nor used separately from it because Peoples Bodies use to be well purged before they come to the taking of the Decoction 2. Because Purgatives and Sudorificks cause contrary motions Others would have them mixt that the Belly may be conveniently kept loose and the Bloud be cleansed Others will not have them mixt but will have a Purge to be given once in eight or ten days which is best For although the body be purged before the taking these things yet something may easily remain and now and then be gathered anew And Sweat onely carries off the thinner matter but leaves the thick Nor this way are contrary motions made for that day a Purge is taken no Sudorifick is given Sennertus XVIII Though all we Practitioners use the Quaternion of exotick Medicines China Sarsa parilla Guaiacum and Saffafras yet there are not wanting with us both Roots Woods and Barks which are able to perform the same as powerfully easily safely and pleasantly as these Exoticks which are now and then deprived partly of their virtues and exolete And our Country Drugs are such as these Roots of Prickly Bindweed Roots of Butter-bur Bark and Wood of Juniper together with its Berries Oak-wood and several such things Certainly Exoticks are not to be despised nor home-bred things to be neglected because as they are bred in our Soil so they have the greater affinity with our bodies and are observed to operate more kindly Sylvius de le Boë yea and more effectually upon the same than Exoticks XIX The best way of taking aromatick Decoctions and other Medicines that temper the acid Spirit is to take them often in a day and in a small quantity that they may introduce a gradual and therefore a more laudable change and amendment into the bloud For every sudden alteration especially if it be great is dangerous Nay we may and with advantage mix the same Alteratives with their Food and give the said Decoctions both at Dinner and Supper instead of other Drink to the end that being mixt with the Food they may together with the Chyle which they make much better be more easily kindly and profitably mixt with the Bloud and amend it insensibly As I have often found it to the Patient 's great benefit when I have done this in the Pox Idâ—m and in other Diseases XX. That we may sweat with more success we must take notice that the same Decoctions which were given before onely for the alteration of the humours if Sweat must be procured must either be given in a larger quantity or they must be made stronger Let them be taken therefore in a double or treble quantity and either at once or at several times but at short intervals i. e. within half an hour For so when not onely the strength of the Sudorificks is increased but the liquour it self also is augmented the eruption of Sweat will be promoted But if it be irksome to the Patient to take a great quantity and often the same Decoction
advise every practiser of Physick to abstain therefrom 3. When the bloud is too fluid and serous and the vessels also too strait for otherwise if the ways were open enough the bloud would flow forth more abundantly and therefore also in less time the flux of the Terms continuing too long shall be cured by using Medicines that both restore a due consistence to the bloud and also open the passages slowly and gently Those things by degrees increase the consistence of the bloud which lessen the superfluous moisture in it and which do more incrassate it Hydragogues Sudorificks and Diureticks do lessen its superfluous moisture and the same is prevented by using more solid aliment diluted but with a little drink and moderate exercise of body Things a little sowr being taken oft and in a little quantity do incrassate the bloud better than any thing else As to things that gently and leisurely open the passages of the Womb Externals are more convenient than Internals for these latter would be apt to increase the fluidity of the bloud Externals shall be both Inciders and Emollients which shall be used in the form of a fomentation and bath I said that Inciders may be joined with Emollients because most Inciders are also Aromaticks and therefore strengthners of the Womb which Emollients do in some sort weaken Therefore lest while we cure one disease we cause another 't is good to use Medicines that may prevent new mischiefs I added that the foresaid things may be conveniently used in the form of a fomentation or bath and that Emollients may be joined with Inciders because so they will go directly to the Womb the other parts being untoucht at least unhurt and open its vessels leisurely and gently 4. When the vessels of the womb are too open and do not contract themselves again soon enough and so are the cause of a too long continued menstrual flux then are such things to be used as leisurely and gently strengthen and astringe the womb and its vessels especially Externals 5. When the affections of the mind are a great cause then is the mind to be reduced to tranquillity If the bloud be become too acrimonious and fluid through vehement anger it will be temper'd especially by sowr things used oft a little at a time Lastly The womb being much weakened and loosened by some great affection of mind it shall be strengthened by Astringents both such as are somewhat sowr and also Aromatick especially mixt together 6. VVhen the great heat of the Air joined with moisture is the cause of a too long flux then it is cured by changing the Air. 7. VVhen much or over-great motion of the body have preceded Rest is to be prescribed and observed in which case kindly sleep is to be procured both by Emulsions and also Opiates not taking too much at once but often Lastly If the bloud be made too sharp and fluid by Aromatical Sauces or Medicines let it be gently corrected temper'd and thickned especially by sowr and tart things but such as are more mild taking them now and then in a small quantity for these will not onely take away that too great fluidity of the bloud but also gently strengthen and constringe the womb that is too open and gaping To these I would have Aromaticks joined but those that are less Acrimonious as Nutmeg and the like that sowr things may be better temper'd Sylvius de le Boë prax l. 3. c. 3. and the bloud not curdled too much or the womb straitned above measure Mensium suppressio or Suppression of the Terms See Menses moventia BOOK XIX The Contents Whether Bloud must always be let in the Foot I. Some lean Women may be bled II. Whether Bleeding be proper for every Suppression III. When Opening of the Haemorrhoids may be tried IV. Opening of the veins in the Neck of the Womb by Leeches V. Vomits are not good for every one VI. When they stop for the straitness of the Vessels how they may be moved VII Aperient Medicines hurtfull when they are stopt by compression VIII They must not be provoked where there is want of bloud IX Emmenagogues must follow Vniversals X. They must be given in a large Dose XI When they are given in a Bath they operate most successfully XII Some generous Remedies in a pertinacious obstruction XIII For whom Pessaries and Vterine Clysters are proper XIV The excellency of Suffumigations XV. Issues are good XVI We must not make haste in the Cure XVII The cure of their stoppage accompanied with Spitting of Bloud XVIII Sylvius his cure of it from Obstruction XIII The lower parts must be kept hot XIX The Physician must follow Nature's Guidance XX. A provident care must be taken of them in whom they are stopt by reason of their Age. XXI The cure of a Suppression by reason the bloud is translated to the Haemorrhoids XXII How Specificks must be made use of XXIII I. IF the Suppression arise from too great a quantity of Bloud the quantity must be abated by bleeding liberally in the Arm For if the lower veins were first opened the bloud would be drawn more towards the Womb where it would cause a greater obstruction and distension of the vessels with danger of their breaking or of an Inflammation of the Womb. Riverius ¶ A certain Woman a foreigner of a Sanguine Complexion had divers Ails arising chiefly from the suppression of her Menses for which when the Physicians there present had used divers remedies and they appeared contumacious the Advice of the Physicians of Mountpelier was desired And in the relation the ordinary Physicians took especial notice of this which they wondred at and craved a reason for it namely That when a vein was opened in her foot her Terms stopt but when she was let bloud in the Arm they ran more freely Which events seemed contrary to Reason and to the common Tenets of Physicians which hold that the Terms are provoked by opening the Lower veins but that they are stopt by opening the upper To this Query it was answered That these Events were agreeable both to Reason and to Galen's Doctrine For seeing this Woman was Plethorick and that the suppression of her Terms arose from excess of bloud so distending the vessels that they could not well contract themselves when the bloud was drawn to those places by opening of the lower veins the obstruction was increased But when retraction of the Bloud was made by the upper veins from the vessels of the womb and their plenitude and distension was abated then they could with ease contract themselves for natural and ordinary expulsion which is made by the Womb. And this reason is backt by Galen's opinion 10. Method 2. That Obstruction i◠caused not onely by the thickness of Humours but by their abundance Therefore the Physicians there present were advised to abate the Plethora by bleeding plentifully in the Arm and that afterwards they should draw the
Bowels but onely from the obstruction of the veins that come to the Womb Frid. Hofmannus according to Minsicthus his advice Vomits must be avoided VII The Terms being near in some Viragoes and restagnating because of the narrowness of the Vessels do create a great deal of trouble to the ferment both of the first and second digestion so that thence there arises loss of colour in the face and other symptoms representing the green-sickness in Maids especially if over and above there be an Astral Influx that hinders the Terms the said Symptoms do not onely grow worse but the Cure also proves very difficult In the mean time at the beginning violent Expellers which onely disturb the morbifick matter and doe no good must be avoided but they must be moderately moving and also they must help the fermentation of the first and second Concoction Of which rank are Extract of the lesser Centaury Juniper Mugwort Species Dialaur Minsicthi Extract Splen Bov. Elixir proprietatis Paracelsi Vterinum Crollii if instead of Spirit of Wine Spirit of Baum and Sage be used adding toward the latter end a sufficient quantity of Salt of Mugwort for these things moderately provoke the Terms strengthen the concoction of the Bowels resist putrefaction and are good against Worms Frid. Hofmannus if there be any VIII Galen 5. Aphor. 46. says that if the Mouth of the Womb be compressed by a swelling the Terms must not be provoked The reason is because the swelling would increase and the Disease would be inraged by giving things to provoke the Terms Thus they are in errour who when the Vessels of the Womb are compressed either by a swelling or too much Fatness they do open the Saphoena and they do not see that the swellings increase Therefore the Basilick vein must be opened Sanctorius IX If the Terms flow not for want of bloud as after long Fevers great Evacuations and in any notable extenuation of the body they must not be provoked before the body be recruited with convenient restorative food before a sufficient quantity of bloud is bred and before the Disease the cause of extenuation be conquered which when done the Terms usually come of themselves But if it do not so fall out to the end Nature may be recalled to her duty bloud may be taken from the lower Veins according to the measure of the strength But we must take notice that every extenuation does not denote want of bloud but onely that which succeeds consuming Causes Riverius X. We must never use Remedies to provoke the Terms unless universal Evacuations were premised lest the humours being moved in great plenty to the Womb should increase the obstruction or being much attenuated should fall on other parts and produce much mischief So Schenckius reports that a Physician of Venice gave a Woman for the suppression of her Terms a Decoction before he had evacuated the Phlegm which was the cause of her Obstruction upon taking of which she fell into a Palsie Fortis XI But they must be given in a great quantity because much of their virtue is abated by the way from the Stomach to the Womb. Riverius XII If they be given at the going in or out of a Bath they exert their virtue the more powerfully because the Medicine gets into an open and warm body and yet much more effectually if they were given before bleeding in the foot Idem Some generous Remedies in a pertinacious Obstruction XIII Seeing the suppression of the Terms is caused for the most part by the obstruction and stuffing of the Vessels that go to the Womb and through the Womb we shall pursue this sort most And whereas we have shewn that this said obstruction is produced either by a viscid and glutinous Phlegm or by such a bloud it easily appears that inciding and detersion are indicated and required by the tenacity of the humour for its cure and the provoking of the Menstrua And both Acids and Aromaticks and things abounding with a lixivial Salt as well fixt as volatile and therefore fixt and volatile Salts themselves But because Acids serve to produce a glutinosity especially when they incline to Austerity therefore in curing of this Disease Aromaticks are deservedly preferred which Experience also it self testifies to be better than Acids Whether things be bitter or not but of various tasts they must be called Aromaticks And whoever is conversant in the Chymical mutations of things Natural he will find both far more powerfull things and more easie to be used than these things that are commonly used As Volatile Salts made of infinite things of all Bones Horns Hoofs Hair Bloud Urine Flesh and all parts of Animals whatever that is all Volatile Salts are good though I should prefer Oleous ones before the rest because they doe their work more kindly and successfully Whence also it is manifest that fixt Salts are less to be valued because since they are purer they operate the more violently And the said Volatile Salts may be conveniently used at any time and especially when all the bloud is glutinous at Dinner and Supper in a draught of Wine Beer Broth or any other liquour the Patient shall chuse But when the whole mass of bloud is not glutinous and pituitous though the said Volatile Salts may be used at meal-times yet they may be used to greater advantage at another time and especially when the Phlegm first dissolved by the motion of the body heat of the Air c. and carried to the Womb is by and by coagulated there again by the subsequent Cold for then it is good to take Volatile Salts upon an empty Stomach and also to dispose the body it self to a Sweat for so the virtue of the Medicines will the easilier penetrate to the farther end of the vessels and passages And above the rest I recommend Spirit of Sal Ammoniack to all when a stoppage of the Menstrua happens suddenly and lately upon heating and cooling of the body by benefit of which alone I have very well cured several in a short time by giving 3 4 5 or six drops as it is stronger or weaker in a spoonfull of Wine twice or thrice a day And not onely a Volatile Salt it self but all things also abounding with it whether Sudorificks or Diureticks are very proper It will be usefull also in a suppression that comes gradually to add such things to the Deobstruents that are used towards the latter end For Example make the following Apozeme Take of Root of Parsly Lovage each half an ounce shavings of Guajacum three drachms Saffafras half an ounce Juniper Berries two ounces Bay-berries half an ounce Scordium Penni-royal each half an handfull tops of lesser Centaury half an handfull Millet-seed two ounces Boil them in fair Water to 25 ounces of the Colature add of Syrup of Mugwort Carduus Benedictus each one ounce and an half Tincture of Cinnamon and Castor each half an ounce Oil
Cough Heaviness of Head and Eyes and a perpetual Drowsiness for the most part an humour runs out at his Nose and Eyes the Patient sneezes as if he had taken Cold his Eye-lids swell that is a little before they come out he vomits he has often a Loosness with green stools The Symptoms usually grow worse till the fourth day at which time usually little red Spots like Flea-bites begin to break out about the Fore-head and rest of the Face They go away usually on the eighth day at which time the Vulgar being deceived by the time the Small-pox use to continue hold they strike in though indeed they have finished their course designed them by Nature and the Symptoms that supervene when they go away they think they come therefore because the Measles struck in too soon for then one may observe the Fever and Difficulty of Breathing is increased and the Cough is more troublesome Children especially that are kept over hot or they who have taken Medicines to bring the Measles out are subject to this mischief which shews it self when the Measles are going away upon which they are thrown into a Peripneumony which kills more than either the Small-pox themselves or any Symptome whatever which belongs to that Disease though the Measles if they be skilfully treated have no danger at all in them A Loosness also follows such not without extreme hazard to the Patient Sometimes also after a very hot regiment the Spots are livid and then black but this onely happens in grown persons who may be given up for dead as soon as that Blackness appears except they be presently relieved with Phlebotomy and the refreshment of a more temperate regiment Sydenham II. As the Measles do in their Nature agree with the Small Pox so also in their method of cure hot Medicines and a hot regiment are very full of danger how frequently soever they be made use of by ignorant Nurses to this end that they may keep the Measles from the heart I have had the best success in this method above any In which the Patient was kept in his Bed three or four days after their coming out to the end the bloud might gently according to the Nature of the Disease discharge by the pores of the skin the inflamed particles easily separable by which it was hurt adding neither more clothes nor more fire than what he used when he was well I kept him from all flesh I allowed him Oatmeal and Barley Grewel and sometimes a roasted Apple His drink was small Beer or Milk boiled with thrice as much Water I would ease the Cough which is almost constant to this Disease with a draught now and then of some pectoral Decoction He that takes this course seldom dies nor is he afflicted with any new Ails besides the necessary and inevitable symptoms of the Disease Idem III. The Cough is the most tiresome of all in which notwithstanding there is no danger till the Disease is gone and when it still continues for a week or two it may easily be removed by a good Air a Pectoral Decoction Syrup of Violets Maiden-hair with Oil of Sweet Almonds and other things good for the Breast yea it decreases by degrees of it self and at length goes away Idem IV. But if the Patient after taking of Cordials or too hot a Regiment or while the Measles are still high or after they are gone which is most usual be brought into hazard of his life by a violent Fever shortness of breath and other accidents such as use to afflict Peripneumonicks I always breathe a Vein with very good success even in the Arms of tender Infants taking away such a quantity of Bloud as the Age and Strength require Sometimes also when the disease is urgent I have not been afraid to bleed again Truely through GOD's blessing I have saved several Childrens lives by letting of bloud when they have been just ready to be killed by this Symptome And this befalls Children after the Measles are gone it is so destructive to them that it may well be reckoned one of Death's prime Instruments which kills more than the very small Pox and I have not yet met with that Man who could help it by any other certain method Idem V. Moreover a Loosness which often follows the Small Pox is in like manner cured by bleeding for seeing it owes its rise to exhalations of the inflamed bloud getting into the Guts which is usual also in a Pleurisie Peripneumony and other Diseases created by an Inflammation whereby they are stimulated to excretion onely letting of bloud will give relief whereby both revulsion is made of these sharp humours and the Bloud also is reduced to a due temper Idem VI. What I have said of the cure of these Symptoms which come when the Measles are going away may sometimes agree with them when they are at the height if to wit they owe them to an artificial if I may so say and ascititious heat This year 1670. I visited a servant Maid who lay ill of the Measles with a Fever shortness of breath and Purple Spots all over her body and other very dangerous Symptoms and because I attributed all of them to over-hot keeping and Medicines abundance of which she had taken I ordered her to be let bloud in the Arm and I prescribed her a pectoral and cooling Ptisan to be taken often by means whereof and of a more temperate regiment both the Spots and all the other Symptoms vanished by degrees Idem For the Medicines See Variolae BOOK XVIII A GUIDE TO The Practical Physician BOOK XII Of Diseases beginning with the Letter N. Narium Affectus or Diseases of the Nostrils The Contents A Polypus scarce gives way to Medicines I. The Cure by Pricking II. Not onely a livid one but a white one endangers a Carcinoma III. We must take care of the Inwards rather than of the Brain IV. The Cure of one by Medicines V. The Restitution of the Nose when cut off VI VII A safe Remedy for the Haemorrhoids Polypus and any Excrescence in the Nostrils VIII Vlcers are best cured by Fumigations IX The Cure of a Red Nose X. I. CELSVS says that a Polypus sometimes withers away which perhaps is true in a little one in one beginning and in a soft Polypus Otherwise Experience shews that such Medicines doe no good both because they cannot stick long on by reason of their moisture and because if they have a burning faculty they inflame and put to pain the inside of the Nostrils Rubaeus in Celsum and therefore it is evident it can onely be happily cured by Excision ¶ Applying of Medicines does more harm than good therefore a Polypus must be taken away by Chyrurgery by means of an Instrument in Scultetus tab 12. fig. 1 2. To which this may be superadded namely that two or three square and sharp teeth must be made in the concave
Diagnostick of this is very difficult so I think the Cure of it is no less rare When there is suspicion of it Saline Medicines especially seem to be of use and such of them must be given as are endued with a Volatil or Acid Salt And the same things must not be given together but these for some space of time and when they will do no good others may be tried 1. Spirit of Sal Ammoniack compound with Millepedes or distilled with other Antasthmaticks 3 Ounces The Dose from 15 Drops to 20 thrice a day in some Julep or appropriate Water 2. Spirit of Sea-Salt or Vitriol impregnated distilled and often cohobated with Spirit of Wine and Pneumonick Herbs 3 Drachms The Dose from 15 Drops to 20 in the same manner 3. The Palpitation of the Heart is often a Convulsive Affection and is usually produced by the like cause and way of efficiency whereby other Hypochondriack and Asthmatick Diseases are usually produced The Cure whereof must in like manner be attempted by Antispasmodick Remedies c. Willis Saxonia mentions this last sort Praelect Pract. parte 2. cap. 1. It must be observed says he that it is caused by some fault in the Nerves alone nothing appearing amiss in the Brain Breast or Muscles Which I observed in my Brother whom I perfectly restored by the use of Treacle only applied to the beginning of the Spinal Marrow XVI The Trembling of the Heart which they commonly call the Passion of the Heart is a Disease distinct yea quite another from the Palpitation of it For in the Trembling the Carnous or Motive Fibres seem to be affected by themselves and the Morbifick cause does not in this as in the other Disease consist in the Blood or in the Arteries of the Heart The trembling of the Heart may be described to be a Spasmodick Convulsion or rather a Trepidation of it wherein the Motive Fibres do very quickly make only semicontracted and very speedy Systoles and Diastoles but abrupt and as it were half strokes so that the Blood can be brought into the Ventricles of the Heart and carried out only by small portions The formal reason seems to consist in this that the Animal Spirits belonging to some certain Muscles do start restless out of the Tendons continually into the Flesh and return and so in a perpetual vicissitude they repeat their Excursions and Recursions in the mean time when they are only exalted with small Forces so that they do not fill up the Carnous Fibres and they stay in these Fibres only a short time and although they make sometimes frequent efforts yet they are weak insomuch that the Members and Limbs are not moved out of their places by the Muscles so perpetually agitated and the Heart during its trembling how quickly soever shaken yet it is scarce able to drive the Blood about as is plainly manifest from the little and as it were tremulous pulse and a decay of all strength As to the Conjunct and Procartarctick Causes whereby namely the Muscular Spirits are made so instable or acquire this Desultory Faculty it seems that some Heterogeneous and Elastick Matter having past the Brain and Nervous Ducts then is carried into the Muscles and the Tendinous ends of them where mixing now and then with the Spirits it irritates them so that they can be quiet no where but run hither and thither continually and in the mean time they either omit or do not strenuously perform their proper Offices The cause of the trembling of the Heart is commonly laid upon the Spleen for it is vulgarly supposed that foul Vapours are by this parts being obstructed or otherwise amiss sent to the Heart which seising of it make it so shake and tremble yea as if it were in a cold fit This Opinion has gained some credit because Hypochondriacks or Spleneticks are found to be very subject to the Cardiack Passion But the reason why they that are reckoned Splenetick and Hysterick are so commonly troubled with the Passion of the Heart is the great affinity and intimate communication between the Splenetick and Cardiack Nerves so that not only the affection of one Part does draw another easily into consent but if at any time Spasmodick Matter falls upon the Branches of the Nerves belonging to the Spleen or Bowels in the lower Belly it seldom misses but the same in like manner scises those that belong to the Heart As for the method of Cure to be followed in the Cure of the Passion of the Heart because it is a Disease meerly Spasmodick therefore not Cardick but rather Cephalick and Nervous Medicines are indicated which yet according to the Temperament and Complexion of the Patient must be hot or moderate and sometimes of this sometimes of the other nature That I may comprehend the business in short three sorts of Medicines use to do the most good in this Disease Testaceous Chalybeates and things endued with a volatil salt Therefore first of all provision being made by evacuating the whole Medicines may be prescribed Idem which shall seem to be most useful Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. Let a Man take this Potion inwardly which I have seen do good to a miracle Take of Water of Boragè 5 ounces Syrup of Borage 1 ounce Julep of Roses Cinnamon Water each half an ounce dissolved Pearl 2 drachm◠dissolved Gold 1 drachm Crato Mix them 2. Spirit of Balm alone cures the Palpitation of the Heart when the Body is purged Take of Regulus of Antimony 2 ounces the best Gold 2 drachms Melt them in a Crucible then reduce them to Powder add of red Coral Pearl each 2 drachms Mix them through a Sive Add the like weight of the best Nitre Burn them in a hot Fire for three hours Powder them very fine Wash it in sweet Water Put it into a Glass retort with the best Spirit of Wine and distil the Spirit cohobating it three or four times upon the Powder So it is prepared for an excellent Bezoardick Powder which in virtue excels the Bezoar-Stone The Dose half a drachm with Water of Carduus Benedictus Fabe◠Meadow-sweet or Balm It is given to drive out in Palpitation of the Heart Malignant Fevers and the Small Pox. 3. For the Palpitation of the Heart I ordered the following Bag to be applied to the Heart Take of dry Balm 4 handfuls the Cordial Flowers 1 pugil shred them grossly Make a Bag. When it was applied to the Heart the Palpitation ceased to a miracle There is an admirable virtue in Balm both taken inwardly and applied outwardly I took green Balm and Borage bruised them a little laid them upon a hot Tile sprinkled them with a little Rose Water and Vinegar and applied them to the Heart Forestus and the Palpitation of it ceased to the admiration of all Men. 4. The Juice extracted out of Weather's Hearts strengthens the Heart wonderfully Take the Heart of a Weather or a
when weak in a dark For there is some diversity of Natures in this case the dark disturbing some more and the light others And some when they are in a somewhat lightsom place imagin they see many things which they do not see take one thing for another and conceive various Images from Objects wherefore such a Patient is to be kept in the dark On the contrary if he be afraid in the dark let him be kept in the light Idem XXIII When the Frantick are raging mad order them to be bound and look you come not near them because they have sometimes killed their Physicians And at Venice I knew a Mad Man that kilâ—'d two Priests Add hereto That by such Ligaments there is made a diversion of Matter from the Head Saxon. prael pract c. 3. and the Frantick hardly ever rave when they have their Bands upon them c. XXIV In a Phrensy there sometimes happens a suppression of Vrine on the sixth day a continual Fever being present which suppression if the Physician endeavour to remedy he mistakes for this suppression does oft indicate a Crisis by sweat Therefore it is not to be cured Hippocr 6. Epidem 1. but to be committed to Nature acting well lest she being disturbed by unseasonable Diureticks the Patient be brought to his end an Instance whereof is given by H. ab Heer obs 5. But if the Diureticks be of such a nature as to be withal Diaphoretick opening inciding and moving of Tartar such as the Antepileptick Pouder of Hartman the admirable effects whereof I have many times experienc'd in an Epilepsy and other Diseases of the Head and in Madness it self especially if the said Diseases arise from the Juice of the Nerves being too dull acid and vapid as it were in this case Medâ—cins full of a volatil Alkali salt are the most available such as the Spirit of Hartshorn of Mans Blool rectified of Soot But if the Nervous Liquâ—r be too acrimonious and salt or the Effluvia steming from the estuating Blood drive the Animal Sprits into distractions such Remedies which consist of a Volatil acid are given with success Frid. Hofm m. m. l. 1. c. 12. as the Voatil Spirit of Vitriol the opening Striated Spirit of Penotus the Philosophical Spirit of Vitriol Phthisis or Consumption The Contents The Curative Indications I. The cause of the Malady is not to be derived always from the Head II. We must provide for the whole Body by effectual Remedies III. Whether Bleeding be sometimes profitable IV. We must Purge with strong things at the beginning V. In the progress with such as are more mild VI. At what season Vomiting is sometimes convenient VII Diureticks are hurtful VIII The fluxion upon the Lungs is first of all to be stopt IX Whether the Waters call'd Acidulae and Baths be hurtful X. The Lungs are to be cleansed before the consolidating of the Vlcer XI We must use driers in respect of the Vlcer notwithstanding the Fever XII Whether the Sugar and Conserve of Roses be profitable XIII The excellency of Suffumigations XIV We must provide at the same time for both Fever and Vlcer XV. Milk is not to be denied because it breeds Phlegm XVI How it may be hindred from becoming either nidorous or sowr upon the Stomach XVII Things that absterge strongly are hurtful XVIII Whether Ros solis be profitable XIX Temperate Acids are profitable XX. Sulphureous Remedies do not always relieve XXI The Excellency of Balsam of Sulphur XXII Lac Sulphuris is but of small efficacy XXIII Vlcers of the Lungs cured by Vulnerary Injections XXIV The profitableness of Vesicatories XXV The profitableness of Fontanels XXVI When and where Causticks are to be applied XXVII A Phthisis cured in the beginning by Issues under the Arm-holes XXVIII A Phthisis cured by a Seton in the Neck XXIX A Bath is not profitable to all XXX Antimonial Medicins free the Blood from Pus XXXI The efficacy of a dry Air. XXXII Changing of Air is not profitable to all XXXIII Whether Snails be profitable XXXIV The cure of a Phthisis from a Native Disposition XXXV A peculiar Cause of a Phthisis XXXVI The cure of a Pulmonary Phthisis XXXVII Leanness cured by repeated Bleeding XXXVIII The danger of a Tabes avoided by a flux of the Hemorrhoids XXXIX The lost Appetite how to be recalled XL. What Wine to he chosen for drink XLI Medicins I. THough the Matter that causes the Cough destil not from the Head upon the Lungs by the Wind-Pipe yet drilling sometimes out of the sides of the Wind-Pipe and falling down into the Cavities of the Lungs it produces that Disease which is commonly known by the name of a Catarrh For the Wind-Pipe besides a Nervous and Musculous Coat has also a Vasculous and Glandulous one into this last are deposited superfluous Humidities from the Blood which bedew the whole Wind-Pipe Now if at any time the mass of Blood be too much fused and precipitated into Serosities as upon catching cold drinking acid things c. hereupon presently a great deal of watry Matter sweats out of the Glands of the Wind-Pipe and the mouths of the Arteries into its Cavities which soon causes Coughing and Spitting Whilst these things are moderate and only the superfluities of the Blood are expelled they often turn rather to profit than benefit because thus the mass of Blood and the Lungs themselves are cleansed But if these Affections being prolonged the Serous Humour being every where deposited in the Ducts of the Wind-Pipe shall at length begin to be alter'd towards Putrefaction then the motion and crasis of the Blood are perverted and the Humour is plentifully deposited out of the mass of Blood which first of all enters the little Bladders annexed to the small Branches of the Wind-Pipe and at length fills and somewhat distends them and by and by the sides of one two or more of them being burst there is made an Vlcer The Curative Intentions are chiefly these three 1. To hinder the dissolution of the Blood which is the root of all the mischief 2. Presently and sufficiently to evacuate the corrupt Matter gathered in the Lungs by Expectoration 3. To strengthen and dry the Lungs that have their unity dissolved or are too lax and moist that they may not be still more and more corrupted and receive more and more the Morbifick Matter As to the first indication let these three things be procured 1. That the Mass of Blood may contain and assimilate all the Nutritious Juice that is afforded to it and may be so proportioned therewith as that it offend neither in quantity nor quality Wherefore above all things let it be order'd that People that Cough and are Phthisical abstain very much from Drink and take Liquids or Spoon-meat but in small quantity so that the Blood being weak in its Crasis may the more easily subdue the Minute Portions of the fresh Juice and retain them within its Compages whilst
and straining the Liquor let it be given for thirty days This I give with great success to Phthisical Persons Saxon. prael pract p. 1. c. 25. The Dose is six ounces XVI Tabid People cough importunely and evacuate much purulent Phlegm Therefore some are afraid of Milk because they have persuaded themselves that it breeds and turns to Phlegm But Milk being entire and new and milked from those Animals that are of a good habit is of good Juice and is made of Blood well concocted so little reason is there why it should be reckoned amongst those things that are of bad and Phlegmatick Juice and that because the Butter is mixt with it whence Avicen prescribes Butter-milk because the Butter is apt to be inflamed yea it will take fire so far was he from thinking that it would be turn'd into Phlegm that it rather turns to Choler Therefore Trallianus commends new Cheese because it cools Nor is it then turned into that thick and purulent Phlegm which Consumptive People sometime cough up For Milk consists of Butter Whey and Cheese The Whey is of a Nitrous quality it cleanseth opens obstructions carries Acrimonious and Adust Humours through the Belly which are the effect of heat therefore Galen esteems sowr Milk cold because it has lost the acrimonious quality of the Serum however supposing that it cooled very much yet it could never be turned into thick Phlegm by reason of the thinness of its substance The Butter it self seeing it is inflammable never turns to Phlegm The Cheesy part having the Whey and Butter mixt with it is not viscous so that by the mixture of these three together Milk becomes very temperate it moistens nourishes attemperates nor does it breed that Phlegm which some Phthisical Persons are so troubled with Yet suppose it were Phlegmatick seeing that Phlegm is lodged only in the Stomach and stuffs not the Lungs which are affected there will more benefit accrew by its use Primiros de err vulg l. 3. c. ult than inconvenience from the generation of Phlegm because of the great faculty it has to nourish and temper XVII Milk has the chief place amongst the Remedies of Tabid People yet in the giving of it divers Cautions are to be observed lest it rather do hurt than good for it is apt to corrupt upon the Stomach either being turned into a nidour or waxing sowr and curdling in the Stomach When it waxes sowr a little Honey or Sugar may be boiled in it for thus is the coldness of the Stomach amended which makes the Milk turn sowr It it be turned into a nidour it is corrupted by heat and then it is profitable to mix Water enough with it But the vulgar approve not of this mixture of Water yet the best Physicians have advis'd it for it tempers the heat does no harm to the Milk especially if it be Cows Milk that now adays is by far the most usual Hippocrates 7. Epid. gives Cows Milk with a sixth part of Water both because this sort of Milk is naturally more thick and also because it is apt to turn to a Nidour And 5. Epid. 36. he relates a Story of Pythocles who gave his Patients Milk mixt with a great deal of Water Thus likewise Galen commends Asses Milk because it is the thinnest and has the least Coagulum or Cheesy part In defect whereof 't will be convenient to bring Cows Milk to its temperature and consistence which is best done by mixing Water with it Idem c. 11. XVIII I have sometimes observed in an Asthma and an inveterate Cough when very absterging and inciding things have been used that the Patients have faln into a loosness with great relief But if there be not a moderation in the use of these things the Phâ—hisical and Dropsical are apt to be offended by them and the like whence a mortal Diarrhoea afterwards supervening they go to the common place S. Pauli Quadrip Botan p. 390. to the great reproach of Practitioners Whence Hofman says such things as do so powerfully open obstructions do withal purge in a just dose XIX Modern Physicians have thought that Ros solis or Sun-dew especially the destilled Water of it is singularly good for all Phthisical and Tabid Persons For as the Herb seems most tenacious of moisture and dew so that even the most fervent heat of the Sun cannot consume the moisture so it has been believed that the natural and genital moisture is preserved and cherished by it in the Bodies of Men. But the use of it teaches otherwise and Reason also dictates another thing For seeing it is a very Acrimonious Herb and it s destilled Water is not wholly destitute of this very acrimony it cannot be taken without offence and prejudice Remb. Dodon l. 5. Pemptad 3. hist stirp p. 475. for those who have made use of its destilled Water have died sooner than they would have done if they had abstained from it and followed a right manner of living and diet XX. I have used temperate Acids with very good success contrary to the opinion of perhaps all Writers The reason is clear because the Lympha which is collected in both the Orbicular and Sinuous Bladders of the Lungs is too thick Sweet things not temper'd with Acids I with many others have observed to have been always P. Barbette Pr. lib. 2. c. 2. at least for the most part injurious to the Patients XXI Note that Sulphureous Remedies are not always convenient in this case wherefore Sennertus in Institut admonishes rightly Lac Sulphuris is not to be given alone especially nor in a great quantity yet it may be mixed with Moisteners especially a Decoction of China with Raisins and Lykyrrhize Deckers in not ad prax Barbet p. m. 93. And which is to be observed from the too much using of the Balsam of Sulphur Practitioners testify that many have faln into a Phthisis ¶ Whether is it safe to use the Balsam of Sulphur and other oily Balsamicks prepared of Sulphur with destilled Oils in a Phthisis or Exulceration of the Lungs or other Viscera that has arisen from salt Humours causing a spitting of Blood Schroder with others affirms they may nor perhaps want there Reasons for it because first such Balsamicks increase the Radical moisture or Balsam with the innate heat secondly they refresh the Vital Spirits thirdly they temper the acid salts in the Lympha and Mass of Blood from whence putrefactions proceed as appears by Mechanical Chymistry whilst by such destilled Oils the acid corrosive vertue even of Aqua fortis may be corrected fourthly they are internal Vulneraries resisting Putrefaction in regard that even externally being dropt into the broth of Flesh they hinder the same from putrefying or stinking But if we will not even in this case make slight of that common Curative Rule That Contraries are to be cured by Contraries we shall certainly have no good success if we undertake to cure a Phthisis
Suppurated and Tabid Lungs one is the languor and weakness of the part the other the badness of the nourishment which two Causes concurring the Lungs are easily suppurated and wax tabid without a destillation or an Ulcer or any other particular Affection preceding This weakness is contracted from the Parents and conceives Corruption and Putrefaction not through any Intemperture but through the vitiated Substance which is made too flaggy by Nature yet such do not grow Tabid before they come towards Maturity because till that Age they are nourished with a mild and sweet Blood because the innate hear that is much in quantity and sweet in quality abounds whence an equal nutrition is performed But when they are arrived at their Juventus or ripe Age their innate heat beginning to become somewhat Acrimonious and less kindly they breed a like Blood which the further their Age proceeds becomes also the more Acrimonious and unsweet as does also their innate heat and at length their Blood acquires a saltish or acrimonious quality whereof an undue aliment being made the Lungs are disposed to corruption Whence in these Persons a naughty Excrement accrewing from this bad Nutrition there begins a little short Cough with spitting of various Matter which is a sign of the Corruption beginning in the Bowel Now I have attempted and performed the Cure hereof by such things as might correct the Blood and make it mild and might abate of its acrimony and saltness as Baths of sweet Water drinking of Milk Meats of like nature temperate and moistening Anointings the decoction of the Root of China and other things of this quality with which I have used also such things as might resist the Putrefaction Corruption and Flagginess of the Bowel and might chiefly respect the Lungs But I have principally made use of this as a most singular and powerful Medicin by the help whereof I have performed wonderful and almost incredible things not only in the cure of a Tabes whether imminent or beginning but also in salt Destillations especially the thin in long continued Fluxions of the Blood caused by its ardour or heat and in many other rebellious Diseases The Medicin is a decoction of Saunders made almost in the same manner as the decoction of Guaiacum sometimes in simple distilled Waters sometimes with the addition of a little Wine either white or red P Salius comm in text 5. sect 3. l. 1. de morb See Fernel de part morb l. 5. c. 10. with respect to the Disease and sometimes other ways the manner of taking it is the same with that of Guaiacum I advised the Patients to leave their Country Soil and change their Native Air for a purer at least to alter it XXXVI Many Students become Tabid by over much Study as is supposed but rather from the Candle smoak which they draw in with the Air in their close Studies P. Borellus cent 2. obs 59. as has been very profitably observed by Placaeus a Professor at Saumur XXXVII A Woman after spitting of Blood fell into a Phthisis with an Hectick she cough'd up purulent Matter tinctur'd with Blood was troubled with Colliquating Sweats and difficulty of breathing yet was cured by this only Medicin Take of the Roots of Comphrey Foalfoot and Elecampane of each six-ounces boil them in as much Water as suffices till they are foft then pound them and pass them through a Sieve Take of Raisins and Corinths of each half a pound boil them in the Liquor wherein the Roots were boiled and extract their Pulp in the same manner Take of Sage Betony Hyssop Speedwel Ground-Ivy and Lungwort of each an hand ul boil them in the Liquor that remains from the Raisins and Corinths Take of this Decoction strained and of Sugar-Candy of each one pound boil them to a consistence and then strain them and add of the Pulp of the Roots Raisins and Corinths of Sweet Almonds blanched and fresh Pine-Apples well pounded of each three ounces of Cinamon two drachms of Saffron a scruple mix them and make an Electuary By the same Medicin very little changed I cured my Son of three years old who after he had escaped from the Petechiae had Imposthumes gather and break in his Lungs four times so that he expectorated Pus in great plenty and was wasted to Skin and Bone Otherwise a Phthisis is a dangerous Disease not only because the Medicins cannot come in their entire strength to the part affected but also because of the substance it self of the Lungs which according to Maipighius is not fleshy but consists of Membranous Bladders Now a Membrane is a Spermatick part which being consumed is not regenerated Gott Christs Winclerus misc Cur. an 76. obs 95. ¶ I know a Maid of about twenty years of Age that is strong and juicy who in her seventh year was Phthisical and Hectick and given over by her Physicians to whom her Sagacious Mother gave daily for six weeks together half a pint of the decoction of Foalfoot-Flowers with a little Sugar whereby she recovered XXXVIII A certain Man was grown Tabid and wasted and received no nourishment from the Food he took he was nothing benefited by any of the Medicins he took whether purging upward or downward But being bled several times in each Arm till almost all his Blood was taken from him he was then at length relieved and cured of his Malady Hippocr 5. Epid. The Disease arose from a great dissipation of the Aliment all his Body over and from an hot and dry Intemperies which was either in the Flesh it self without an Humour or was fed by a very hot Blood in which Affection Purgers are so far from relieving that they even increase the Disease though a Melancholick Blood nourish'd the whole Body and Melanagogues were given because as Hippocrates hath written in his Book of Purgers when the Flesh is hot it distracts or draws aside the very Medicin how much more necessary was it that it should be distracted in this Person in whom it was suckt immediately from the Stomach Seeing therefore Purgers are hot and dry they increased the Intemperies and therefore all the Symptoms Whence therefore could he rather expect help than from cooling of the Body Valles com in loc See Lindanus in select Exerc. 13 14. Beniven c. 44. de abditis Dodonaeus annot in id cap. that upon extinguishing the heat the dissipation might cease and this ceasing the sucking might cease And for cooling the Body no greater Remedy was invented by the Ancients than bleeding till the Patient swooned or became almost without Blood XXXIX A certain Lord being subject a long time to a salt Destillation fear'd a Consumption Namely the Hemorrhoids being stopt especially the External there returns by the Vena Cava and great Artery a Bilious and Phlegmatick salt Blood which in tract of time acquiring an acrimony erodes the Vessels whence comes a Tabes But this Person was rid of all fear by
a Nobleman sick of this Fever He complained of a pain in his Side and of other symptoms of which the rest did that were taken with the same Disease I Bled him no more than once I applied a Blistering Plaster to his Neck I gave him Clysters every day sometimes order'd him cooling Ptisans and Emulsions sometimes Milk and Water sometimes small Beer I advis'd him to rise out of his Bed and sit up every day for some hours by which method he was recovered in a few days and after Purging was quite well Syden obs circa morb acut p. 362. See the sixth Book of a Pleuritical Fever VII 'T is a doubt whether the Blood flowing from the Womb either in Childbed or out of it hinder Venesection when a Pleurisy happens Before the solution of the doubt I suppose that Bleeding is used upon a twofold account in all Inflammations first to revel the violence of the flowing Blood secondly for derivation that is that by one and the same track we may both evacuate and revel If a Woman thereâ—ore be taken with a Pleurisy whilst her Womb flows we must consider whether the original of the Fluxion be from the Womb it self or the Humours flow thither from some other place Moreover we must have regard to the manner of the Fluxion for it is either large and sudden or slow A sudden Evacuation made out of the Womb answering in proportion to the Fluxion upon the Membrane that invests the Ribs indicates that the business is to be committed to Nature and nothing to be innovated But we ought to help a slow Fluxion that by two Evacuations the one Natural the other Artificial we may obtain our desires For if we shall hesiâ—ate in a great and precipitant Dissease we run great dangers In this case we shall let Blood in the Ham or Ankle or we may scarify the Thighs or Legs if we know there is but little Blood remaining and the Woman look white have soft Flesh and slender Veins But whether one or other kind of Remedy be to be used the nature of the Matter will teach especially the greatness of the Disease and the Constitution of the Patient c. But if the original of the Fluxion shall not be in the Womb the Case will not be so easie I use to clear it by distinguishing thus The Womb at that time does either make plentiful and sudden Expurgations or such as are lingring and slow If the first we shall not let Blood but be content with the spontaneous Evacuation for seeing the Womb has great Veins and Arteries which communicate with the whole Body and a very great consent with the Breast we may hope that there will be made a good Revulsion hereby in what part soever the original of the Fluxion be But the case is not the same when from custom or from any other Preternatural Cause the Womb evacuates Blood very slowly For seeing we need some speedy Remedy that the violence of the Fluxion may be restrained whereas this is very sluggish and slow so that we ought by no means to commit the task to it we ought therefore in such case to Bleed What Vein therefore you will say shall we open Truly I would open some one of the upper 1. because the lower are too far distant from the original of the Fluxion nor can they remove the Fluxion but in a long time which will not do our business 2. seeing we ought to attend that which is more urgent and seeing the Pleurisy is more yea most urgent therefore we must endeavour with might and main that the Phlegmon may not be increased which may be done by opening a Vein in the Arm which we judge to be convenient for Revulsion And though there follow that inconvenience hereby as that the Terms come to be stopt which they may chance to be yet that inconvenience is but small and may be amended at some more fitting time even with ease But if we desire a derivation when there has preceded a Revulsion made either by Nature or Art or also when the Disease has not required it I declare this one thing that whether the Womb have flown or no or also whether it have been plentifully purged or not the inner Vein of that Arm which is nearest to the part affected is always then to be opened and Blood to be let till there appear change of colour for nothing ought to hinder us from relieving the Pleurisy presently which is a doubtful and dangerous Disease For if we must have respect to that which is more urgent there is no doubt but we ought to be far more concerned about the Pleurisy than about the Purgations of the Womb especially seeing these may be provoked afterwards Hor. Augen tom 1 l. 11. Epist 3. whereas the prejudice that arises from the omission of Bleeding can by no means be redrest VIII A lean and very Cholerick Woman salling into a Pleurisy desired earnestly to be let Blood but though a Vein was opened timely enough yet the Blood was drawn so strongly towards the Breast through the very violent pain thereof that hardly any would spurt out of the opened Vein But she being bid to endeavour to drive the Blood from the Breast again towards the Arm by strong coughing I observed it to spurt forth freely and the Woman was shortly eased of her pain Wherefore let any one in the same case fly to the same succour let him presently raise a Cough and by that means the Blood will be repelled to the Arm. Tulpius l. 2. c. 3. This invention I have seen to succeed happily with several since that time IX A true Pleurisy will not invade the Phlegmatick and such as are troubled with Acid Belchings yet there often happens a Pleurisy in these Countreys Holland from a watry and thin Phlegm but that is not true and exquisite For in these cold and Phlegmatick Bodies there often arise grievous pains of the Sides from Flatus which may be mitigated by fomentations if you bleed you will kill I once saw a very beautiful Woman who being subject to Flatus and having supt liberally fell into a bitter pain of her Side in the night and died presently upon opening a Vein Heurn com in aph 33. 6. X. It is observable that there sometimes arises a difficulty of breathing from an ill ordered Diet Idem in which case Physicians do ill to Bleed ¶ Their confidence seems pernicious to me who so long as the Patient complains of pain give not over bleeding without any regard to the suppuration which has not only made some progress but is often also perfected within the first seven days by which importune Bleedings repeated even ten times or oftner they cruelly weaken their Patients by exhausting their Vital Spirits with the Blood though their strength be altogether necessary for a perfect Expectoration of the Pus Car. Piso de colluv seros p. 3 4. which oft cannot
be obtained but in several months space XI Let us take heed not to bleed those who are emaciated by a long Tabes when they fall into a pain of their Side For I have seen many such Bodies dissected and observed their Lungs to be preternaturally close grown to the Membrane that covers the Ribs so that when a windy Vapour gets in betwixt this Connexion Heurn lib. de morb pect it pulls off the continuity and so causes the Pain ¶ This Pain is taken away and cured by heating things as by a fomentation of the Flowers of Chamomel and Cummin which hath benefited many They must be put up in a Bag which being dipt in White Wine is applied hot to the pained part Those who are so rashly bold as to Bleed take away so much of their Patients Life as they do of his Blood Dodon obs cap. 22. XII Experience sometimes shews that the saying of Hippocrates apb 31. sect 5. is not always true viz. If a Woman with Child be taken with an Acute Disease it is extream dangerous for sometimes both the Mother and Child escape danger While I was a Printing these things I was called June 27. 1681. to a Woman about Thirty years old the Wife of one Bardot a Tanner that was nine Months gone with Child She was faln into a very grievous Pleurisy on her left Side by travelling in the Sun and drinking of Wine She was Plethorick and her Face was much flusht Premising a lenient and cooling Clyster I order ten ounces of Blood to be taken out of the Arm on the Side affected which came forth putrid with some relief The next day because she was vexed with an Acute Pain and spit Blood I bled her again to seven ounces which looked more corrupt than the former and therefore though her Husband was against it I prescribe a third Phlebotomy on the day following upon which the Pain not yet ceasing and the redness of her Face with signs of a Plethora continuing I advise a fourth Bleeding though both her Husband and the Women were against it upon which fourth Venesection the Blood looking still worse the Pain quite ceased and she coughed up easily On the fifth day of July she had an easie labour of a Girl that was plump and of a good Constitution and her Lochia flowing orderly she not only lived but was freed of both her Pleurisy and Fever c. The Disease was the more grievous because besides that the faculty of breathing was intercepted by the greatness of the Phlegmon and the vehemence of the Fever the foetus kicked and sprawled strongly against her Diaphragm XIII 'T is not necessary to let those Blood who have Fluxions often fail from their Heads through abundance of Crudities presently upon the invasion of the Disease especially if they cough up easily and what they cough up be white or bloody and the Pain light for a Flatuous Substance uses so to distend the Veins of the Pleura that the Pores being rarefied the Blood issues out with pain and is expelled by coughing imitating a Pleurisy wherein if you let Blood you will do as much hurt as if you did so in the weak and Catarrhous who are ill of a light Fever Mercatus ¶ In a Pleurisy that is caused by a defluxion from the Head Venesection has no power to draw back the Rheum that is in motion nor to withdraw that which is setled and therefore it does much harm in increasing the Catarrh by the generation of cold Duretus comm in Coacas and in exciting the same by weakening the retentive faculty XIV Seeing the first indication is by all means to take away as soon as may be the Phlegmon or Obstruction of the Blood in the Pleura for this purpose Bleeding has used to be prescribed as the chief Remedy by all Physicians in all Ages except some Fanaticks and Pseudochymists The reason whereof is altogether the same as in a Peripneumony and many other Diseases that are caused by the stay and collection of the Blood in some place namely that the Blood-Vessels being much emptied may not only cut off the fomes of the Disease but also resorb and carry to another place the Matter which is the Conjunct Cause Wherefore bleed very freely in a Pleurisy if the Patient be strong and his Pulse big And truly 't is far better to bleed largely at first and so every time afterwards so often as 't is necessary to repeat Venesection than to bleed often a little at a time In as much as very many portions of the slimy and viscous Blood are collected about the part affected which unless they be called away from thence by emptying the Vessels very much by a plentiful Bleeding and be suffer'd to flow out the greatest part of them the desired effect will not succeed So that when some Physicians prescribe Blood to be let in a Pleurisy even to fainting away it seems not to be incongruous to Reason though that practice is not to be rashly undertaken because every Evacuation ought to be proportion'd to the tenour and tolerance of the strength which Rule such Phlebotomy exceeds Willis XV. In the year 1679. May 9. I was called to one Vilars a Baker a Man of about forty lean melancholick and who had used to be troubled with a pain in his Spleen This Person had been ill of a Quartan Ague for seven Months having got rid of it a Month before he was taken with a violent Pleurisy of his right Side with a very Acute Fever On the second day of the Disease he had gotten himself let Blood which was very putrid without any remission of his Pain His Water was very high colour'd shining whilst it was hot and depositing a red tartar when it was grown cold Wherefore I order him to be bled again and his Blood was putrid as it was before without any easing of the Pain his Spittle crude which he could hardly bring up and without any remission of the Fever On the sixth day of the Disease he is bled again a corrupt Blood still coming forth and all things abiding in the same state On the seventh day there came a plentiful Sweat which continued to flow to the end of the eighth whereupon the Fever grows more mild the Urine is not so high colour'd and Expectoration proceeds better On the ninth day the Fever grows worse wherefore I order Bleeding again always out of the right Side because his strength held up still and his Pulse was full and strong the Blood was still corrupt On the tenth day the Fever is much milder the Pain in his Side ceases his Urine is concocted and with a laudable sediment On the eleventh day his Fever was quite gone On the twelfth I gave him a Purge upon which he recover'd The first three days he was troubled with a Vomiting which ceased after the second Bleeding whence I thought there had been a Peripneumony for such whose Lungs are
Funnel whose straiter end was to reach to the Genital parts At the same moment of time she also received the same smâ—ak in at her Nose and Mouth from another Pot which having penetrated the Woman presently cries out I must needs go to Stool which she had hardly spoken but there was heard such a hâ—zzing as when Gun-Poud r contained in some narrow Case or Squib is set on â—irâ—â— which Wind having thus burst forth forthwith in the vâ—ry moment the Woman was freed from her pain Being thus informed by Experience I have sometimes since then in the like case found the same Remedy profitable and beneficial Sâ—â—ander 〈◊〉 â— cons 1â— sect 29. VI. My dear Wife Johanna Spanhemia being always cruelly griped after her delivery which Gripes no art could allay although all things which use to be propounded were tried at length in the month of May 1675. being happily brought to Bâ—d of a Boy and but just laid down in her Bed being very thirsty after the pains of her Travail she extorâ—ed from her Nurse a draught oâ— very â—old Pâ—â—sâ—n whâ—n her Gripes were just a coming which were wholly repressed by this Remedy without any prejudice I had lately the opportunity to try the same with good success in a Cholerick Woman the Wife of a Clock-maker whose name was Morellus her Purgations flowing very well afterward Whether was the Orgasm of the Blood by this means appeased which was making an hasty exit and distending the Vesselâ— being turgent in them or irrâ—tating them by its acrimony Such a Drink may be very profitable in the Cholerick by tempering the heat of the Blood VII Those do amiss who give Child-bed Women potch'd Eggs betimes in the morning and before Meals for seeing Hippocrates 1. de morb mul. sect 2. vers 156. approves of them when the Purgations flow immoderately it is an evident argument that they have a vertue to stop them so that by their use the Purgations may be stopt when they flow as they should do than which nothing can be imagined more hurtful Martianus VIII Old and racy Wine is not safe for Child-bed Women at the beginning because the Pains of Travail are follow'd by a great Perturbation of the Humours in the Body which might be carried up into the Head by the drinking of Wine 'T is also suspected lest some harm might accrew from it to the parts which belong to the Womb or are adjoining from whence an inward Inflammation might arise Idem IX From the weakness of the Muscles of the Abdomen which contribute much to the expulsion of the Excrements Childbed Women are very subject to be Costive and not only from their continual keeping their Bed as is vulgarly supposed For from the preceding Travail the Muscles of the Abdomen are as yet weak In which case Looseners are given in vain from the too great use whereof the Coats of the Stomach become too slippery whence concoction is injur'd Something oâ— Turpentine or Aloes or Rhubarb are more convenient for these Hoefer Herc. med l. 3. c. 5. which both stimulate the Belly and have a friendly stypticity X. Cautious Women that attend upon Women in Travail will not permit them to sleep presently after they are deliver'd lest whilst they sleep too much Blood should flow out without notice Idem l. 7. c. 5. XI Those Physicians are deceived that following the Opinion of some Women think that Womens After-pains are therefore profitable because the flowing of the Lochia is promoted thereby the contrary whereto often happens seeing sometimes they do not flow though these pains be never so violent Add hereto that many Women have no such pains and yet nevertheless their Lochia flow and that indeed far better than when those pains are urgent Those are likewise deceived that follow Women in an Opinion that these pains do seldom or never follow upon a Womans delivery of her first Child but only upon the second and that they become greater and greater every time a Woman lies in For daily Experience shews the falsity hereof at least in these Countreys where yet many are possest with this opinion which is not only erroneouâ— but also hurtful especially the former because by this means the Cure of these pains is neglected and hindred by many esteeming them to be profitable though the neglect of them have so often been the cause of death to many Childbed Women Sylv. prax l. 3. c 9. sect 2 4. XII Wherefore it is of concern to know the true cause of the said Pains Seeing they follow upon the delivery the most frequent cause thereof is deservedly to be derived from those things which use to happen to Child-bearing Women in he time of their Travail Now there are two things which are the most observable the exclusion of the Foetus and the separating of the Secundines from the Womb and their exit out of it In the exclusion of the Foetus that is in the very delivery 't is sufficiently known that pains are caused but such as grow less afterwards and vanish by little and little But the After-pains we are speaking of are quite of another nature beginning a ter the delivery is over As to the separation of the Secundines from the Womb as also their exit out of it Women are sometimes wont to be pained anew thereby because they are often knit pretty straitly and firmly to the Womb and grow so to it that they can hardly or not at all be separated therefrom without the tearing either of themselves or of the Womb. Now none is ignorant how acute pains are felt in excoriated and torn parts especially as oft as any Liquor and chiefly that which is acrimonious and biting approaches them Whence it is no wonder if after the strait connexion of the Secundines with the Womb and the violent pulling off of the same and so Excoriation of the Womb and the afflux and efflux of the Lochia great pains be caused there But it is to be noted that those pains chiefly afflict Women both that are delicate and of an exquisite sense and have their Secundines also straitly knit to the Womb not to be separated therefrom without violence We must observe moreover if the Cure of these pains be neglected that every time a Woman is brought to Bed they are sorer and sorer which perhaps has given rise to that Erroneous Opinion concerning these Pains which was mention'd above Lastly we must observe that Women with Child do either hasten or are hastened too much to their delivery so that before the Foetus is come to its full maturity and the Secundines prepared for an easie separation from the Womb the Birth is precipitated whence both the Foetus is expelled with difficulty and the Secundines separate from the Womb and pass out of it with the like difficulty Add hereto that in these Countreys many Women with Child do too much indulge themselves in the use of Aliments that
Nettle each 2 ounces Brooklime 2 ounces bruise them in a Mortar with 10 ounces of the whitest Sugar then add of Scales of Iron very finely powdered 1 ounce powder of white and red Sanders each 2 drachms With a sufficient quantity of juice of Nettle make an Electuary The Dose is the quantity of a Nutmeg twice a day Take of the destilled water or Decoction of some temperate Anti-scorbutick two pounds of our preparation of Steel 2 drachms Mix them in a glass The Dose is 3 or 4 ounces Take of Nettle tops Leaves of Brooklime each 4 handfuls When they are bruised strain out the juice keep it in a Glass The Dose is 2 or 3 ounces twice a day with some distilled Antiscorbutick water Of faults in the Mouth arising from the Scurvy Whenever the Scorbutick Infection has seized the Mouth so as the Gums swell and the flesh of them become fungous immediately Remedies which drive away putrefaction from them must be diligently used Among these Washes for the Mouth and Liniments are of especial use both when the Disease begins about these Parts and when it grows worse which nevertheless as they respect divers intentions so they use to be diversly prepared to wit the flesh of the Gums when it first swells must be freed from the Incursions of a Salt and corrupt Blood and Serum afterwards the Flesh grown flaccid and shrunk from the Teeth must be defended from putrefaction and that it may stick closer to the Teeth there must be astriction for these and other intentions Gargarisms or Mouth-washes of divers sorts may be used Of all which the chief ingredients are Vegetables boyled and Minerals infused The Herbs and Roots that are boyled in some proper Liquor either Water or Wine are for the most part either sharp or bitter or styptick and then such Decoctions are impregnated either with a Volatil Lixivial Vitriolate Chalybeate or Aluminous Salt 1. When therefore the Flesh of the Gums by reason of a defluxion of Salt and corrupt Blood and Serum first begins to swell and grow fungous Take of the middle rind of Elder Elm each half an handful Leaves of Savory Sage Rocket Cresses each 1 handful Roots of Pellitory of Spain 2 drachms being shred and bruised boyl them in 3 pounds of Lime-water to the consumption of a third part If edulcoration be required add of Honey of Roses 2 ounces Make a Gargarism Or take of tried Vitriol 1 ounce our Country People call it Captain Green's powder Spring-water 2 pounds mix them in a Glass shake it and when the Liquor is settled and clear use it Or Make a Ly of ashes of Broom or Rosemary or of calcined Tartar or Nitre in 3 pounds of this boyl of the Leaves of Savory Time Rosemary Sage each 1 handful Let the colature be poured upon 2 handfuls of Scurvy-grass Leaves Make a hot and close Infusion for 3 hours strain it again and keep it to wash the Mouth often in a day For the same intention also Liniments at times and especially at Night may be applied that their virtue may be communicated to the Patients even while they sleep There is exstant a Famous prescription frequent among Authors and approved by long experience Take of Leaves of Columbine crisp Mint Sage Nutmeg Myrrh which yet sometimes is omitted each 2 drachms burnt Allum half an ounce Virgin Honey 4 ounces or what is sufficient make a Liniment according to Art 2. If at any time the flaccid Flesh of the Gums part from the roots of the Teeth a gentle scarification is often used moreover let the Mouth be washed with this Decoction Take of tops of Bramble Cypress Leaves of Sanicle Ladies smock each 1 handful boyl them in water wherein Iron has been quenched 3 pounds to the consumption of a third add to the colature of Honey of Roses 2 ounces Mix them Such a Liniment as this may be applied Take of the powder of Florentine Orrice Leaves of Sage St. John's-wort each 2 drachms bole Armonick Sal prunellae each 1 drachms Virgin Honey hot what is sufficient incorporate them well by stirring 3. When the Gums are putrid and corrupt and the Teeth are rotten and loose and send out a nasty stink stronger Medicines and such as exceedingly resist putrefaction may be used an Infusion of Camphorate vitriol or lapis Medicamentosus are especially proper in this Case Or Take of root of Gentian round Birthwort cut each half an ounce Leaves of lesser Centaury Sea Wormwood Savory Columbine each 1 handful boyl them in some lime or lixivial water and sometimes wherein Iron has been quenched or Allum dissolved 3 pounds to the consumption of a third part To the Colature add 2 or 3 ounces of crude Honey Mix them 4. If the falling of the Teeth be chiefly feared Take of the bark of the root of the wild Sloe-Tree 1 ounce Tormentil and of Bistort whole each an handful Pomegranate rind and flowers each half an ounce boyl them in 3 pounds of Spring water the best Honey 2 ounces Mix them Take of Camphorate Vitriol burnt Harts-horn each 1 drachm Nutmeg half a drachm the best Honey what is sufficient Make a Liniment Or Take of the Powder of root of Bistort Pomegranate rind Bole-Armonick burnt Allum each 1 drachm Honey of Roses what is sufficient add of Spirit of Vitriol 1 scruple Make an oyntment 5. If at any time as is sometimes usual putrid and deep Ulcers seize the Gums or other Parts of the Mouth the foresaid stronger Medicines must be often used Moreover a rag dipt in Vnguentum Aegyptiacum dissolved in Spirit of Wine or in an Infusion of lapis medicamentosus or Sublimate may sometimes be applied In these cases the Cure must be left to a skilful Surgeon Of Pains that usually infest the Legs and other Limbs sometimes at Night especially Against these Pains because sometimes they are very bitter beside the general method of curing the Scurvy specifick Remedies and such as oppose this Symptom are indicated therefore in such a case when a man has been well purged and bled if need be it is convenient to set upon the Disease both by Medicines inwardly and applications outwardly As to the former things that move Sweat and Urine often give relief inasmuch as they carry another way the lixivial and acid recrements of the Blood and Nervous juice which used to meet in the part affected especially if such things be used as vindicate both these Humors from that bad disposition as well saline as acid Testaceous powders of Crabs Eyes mandible of a Pike also Spirit and Flowers of Sal Ammoniack Spirit of Blood Tincture of Antimony Coral Decoctions of root and seed of Burdock Groundpine Germander are very good Which sort of Remedies may be taken with distilled Antiscorbutick waters twice or thrice a day Distilled water of Horse-dung adding Scurvy-grass Brooklime Iva arthritica and the like does sometimes a great deal of good In the mean time Fomentations Liniments Cataplasms or
In the performance of these tasks necessary to Sleep the order is not alwayes one and the same for sometimes the Animal Spirits do first and of their own accord forsake these spaces the Nervous juice running immediately into the vacant places And sometimes the Nervous juice mixt plentifully with the Serum first invades these passages driving thence the Spirits though against their will and forcing them inwards But the operation of Coffee seems contrary to both these effects for immediately upon drinking of it its adust Particles that are very nimble and restless being carried into the Blood do put its Liquor a little in fusion and force the serous Liquor to the Kidneys and habit of the Body Moreover when they arrive at the Brain they easily open its Pores which by their mobility they keep very open whilest they joyning with the Spirits despoyl them of all their other Particles as well Sleepy as Nutritious and so being light and fleet do put them every where into motion and cause them to be expanded through the whole compass of the Brain when it is free from all gravative oppletion and obstruction Yet in the mean time while the Spirits are in this manner constantly and unweariedly exercised the Nervous juices are deprived of access and assimilation their stores are not sufficiently and after their wonted manner recruited indeed the old Spirits are rendred more nimble and unwearied but the recruits of new ones are diminished Hence it may most easily appear that this drink though in common use and in some cases very useful and medical perhaps in others is hurtful and not so wholesome And that the matter is so not only reason but vulgar observation does commonly shew in as much as excessive Coffee-drinkers oftentimes grow lean and subject to the Palsie and impotency to Venus The first effect is so frequent and every where known that we only therefore forbid them the drinking of Coffee because it inclines to leanness Because when the Blood by continual and too frequent use becomes sharp and retorrid it is therefore less fit for to nourish As to the Diseases of the Brain and Nervous kind I reckon that when I am sometime called to cure them no man prescribes it to be drunk so frequently as I for it is my custome to send them more to the Coffee-Houses than to Apothecaries Shops Truly in most Cephalick Sicknesses that is Head-ache Vertigo Lethargy Catarrhe and the like where there is a moist Brain but a slowness and torpidness of the Animal Spirits with a cold constitution or not very hot and a watry Blood Coffee is often drunk with advantage for drunk every day it clarifies and illustrates both parts of the Soul and dispels all mists of the Functions whatever But on the contrary they that are lean and of a Cholerick Constitution or Melancholick who have a sharp and retorrid Blood a hot Brain and too eagre and restless animal Spirits ought altogether to abstain from that drink because it further perverts the Spirits and Humours and renders them altogether unapt and unable to undergo any Functions For I have observed many who have not had sufficient plenty of Spirits and besides troubled with the Vertigo palpitation of the Heart trembling of the Limbs or numbness have been worse as to those Diseases upon drinking of Coffee and have presently perceived an unusual languidness in their whole Body Willis V. A Maid about 20 years old was about the beginning of Autumn held with a double Tertian for 12 dayes and was cured of it by Remedies Her Fits returned again but some new Symptomes came in the Fit namely much Sleep redness of Face prominence of Eyes a pricking pain in the left side and a great difficulty in swallowing I suspected an hysterick affection was complicated with the Ague fit and I prescribed her hysterick Remedies notwithstanding which the Disease continued After a few dayes the Symptomes returned without the Ague which confirmed my opinion for the pain of her left side went to her right sometimes pricking pains appeared in divers parts of the Abdomen with a pain in the Stomach and loathing and sometimes a Fit of the Mother Before the Fit came she took by my advice 4 little Pills of Laudanum and a little after the Fit came but within 2 hours when the Laudanum began to work all things abated she was well the whole Night whereas the foregoing she had been tormented Riverius Cent. 2. Obs 20. Hence this Paradox may be gathered that a Sleepy Disease may be Cured by the use of Laudanum VI. In a Coma our chief endeavour must be to prevent the efflux of new morbifick matter into the Brain and to discuss and get out what is got thither already Moreover the animal Spirits must be awakened and all torpidness and sleepyness taken from them To this end we must Purge Bleed Cup Blister make application of revulsives and discutients give Cephalick Medicines and such especially as are indued with a volatil Salt and use several other wayes of Administration But if this Disease follow some other Sickness or come upon any Man whose Body is already much wasted his Blood vitiated or much depauperated we must first consider well of Bleeding and Purging before we do either nay for the most part we must abstain from them yet sometimes that the conjunct cause of the Disease or the matter fixt in the Brain may be put in Motion it may be convenient to take away a small quantity of Blood either by setting Leeches to the Fore Head or Temples or by Cupping and Scarifying the Shoulders Willis VII I saw a lusty young Priest taken with a Coma after a relapse into a Fever with a tremor in one side without sense for want of Strength in the Parts When he had taken a very sharp Clyster with 3 drachms of Coloquintida and 2 ounces of Honey of Roses and Salt in it without any effect Praevotius ordered him 7 Blisters which doing little good J. Rhodius Câ—nt 1. Obs 36. they proceeded to make a cautery in his Head behind upon which he amended VIII The strong scented stillatitious Liquor of Lavender rubbed on the Forehead and temples revives those that are taken with a small Catalepsis a Hemiplexia and now and then with the falling Sickness and oftentimes with Swooning But where there is plenty of Humours especially if they be mixt with the Blood the use of this is not safe nor of any composition drawn off Wine in which such Herbs Flowers or Seeds and certain Spices have been macerated which most People give indifferently For by the use of these hot things which fill the Head the Disease is increased and the Patient indangered especially when Bleeding and Purging go not before I thought fit to give this caution because commonly some unlearned Physicians and over bold Apothecaries do immediately give such Compositions and things of the like nature not only to Apoplectick Persons but also to those
third to the Stones Therefore upon the plenitude or compression of that which feeds the Thigh a Numbness follows as when the other which comes to the Stones swells and is therefore made shorter a Stone is contracted Jacotius Sudor nimius or too much Swaeting The Contents Vnseasonable Sweating stopt by cooling inwardly I. A Nocturnal one cured by Purging II. The way of stopping it in Fevers III. The stopping of a salt bitter and acid One IV. When the outward use of Allum may be allowed V. The way of stopping too great a Sweat VI. A Pertinacious one cured in an old Man VII I. THe Wife of N. after she had been cured of a Fever sweat every Night I prescribed her a cooling Julep of Cichory and Bugloss Waters with Syrup of Apples and she Sweat no more after that Whence I gather that Sweating in ones Sleep is not alwayes a sign of luxuriant Humors but sometimes of Heat for healthy People that are of an hot Constitution often sweat in the Night P. Pachequus in Obs River 27. Besides the foresaid Woman was cured without any evacuation Natural or Artificial II. A Man 40 years old of a melancholick Complexion had been troubled with Night Sweats a long time which lasted 4 or 5 dayes and then gave over returning twice or thrice in a Month. They proceeded from a quantity of Serum gathered at intervalls and discharged to the Skin He took twice a Month Powder of Jalap and Creme of Tartar each half a drachm which being continued for 3 Months he was rid of his tedious Ail III. Sweat either excessive or hurtful in it self which weakens a Man still more and more will abate and at length cease 1. By keeping the Body moderately covered yet not Naked 2. By having a care of any volatil Salt and spirituous Acid such as Vinegar 3. By using such things as fix the Acid as Chalk Corall c. On this Ground I often in the Year 1670 gave to several that were Sick of an Epidemick Feaver and fell into sweating Night and Day which every day decayed their strength the following Electuary upon taking of which twice or thrice a day to the quantity of a Nutmeg they were cured by degrees of their Sweat and their quartane Ague or of any other if it remained and they got strength Take of Conserve of red Roses 2 ounces confectio hyacinthi 1 drachm Diascordium 2 drachms red Corall prepared 2 scruples Sylvius de le Boe. Prax. l. 1. c. 25. Syrup of Myrtles what is sufficient Mix them Make an Electuary IV. A salt Muriatick Sweat will be amended with Medicines that correct a Muriatick Saltness and sometimes by Purgatives A bitter Sweat indicates that Bile must be diminished by Cholagogues The matter of an Acid Sweat will be concentrated with Corall Chalk Crabs-eyes and the like and then diminished by Hydragogues Idem V. In a Diaphoretick Sweat the external use of Allum with great circumspection ought not to be rejected if a Shirt dipt in a solution of Allum and dried again be put on Hofmannus but I commend it only in the declension of the Disease VI. It is evident that there is often too great a Sweating for nothing is more common than for some that are Sick of a Consumption or Scurvy and others who difficultly recover of Feavers yea for some without any Disease or evident Occasion to run with Sweat The Consumptive and Scorbutick are obnoxious because when the Blood is infected with some impure Corruption or is disordered and therefore cannot rightly concoct and assimulate the alible Juice that is continually poured into its Mass it severs and casts out by sweat this Juice so degenerate and now and then with other Recrements heaped up to Plenitude The Cure depends altogether on the cure of the Disease whereof it is a Symptome In the mean time in this Cure as to what concerns a course of Diet an useful and necessary Indication is taken from this Symptome namely that when Nightly and plenteous Sweats attend these Diseases a Diet may be kept of aliments that are very small as Milk Oat-Meal grewel Barly-creme and the like whose smooth and soft Particles the Blood may be able to bear and not of Flesh and strong Meats 2. Too much Sweating is the effect sometimes of another Disease that went before and is extinct I knew a young Man who when a quartan Ague left him fell into such profuse and long Sweats that he was in a Consumption this Man after he had tried several Remedies in vain recovered by using Asses and Cows Milk In such Cases as these the Blood perpetually rejecting and as it were vomiting out its contents by the Mouths of the Arteries does not only cast out the Chyle immediately as it is poured out of the Bowels but moreover taking both the Nervous juice and the sustenance of the solid Parts to feed its self it by and by loathing them all expells them together with the nutritious Juice by the Pores of the Skin The cheif Cause of this affection seems to consist in the dyscrasie and debility of the Blood in as much namely as its liquor like Milk growing sowr is apt to melt and be precipitated into serosities wherefore both its own separations and the Humors also which are added elsewhere when they cannot be assimulated are immediately separated And when the Pores of the Skin are very wide they are cast out rather by Sweat than by any other way of excretion Such excessive Sweating uses to arise not only from the depraved Temper and Fermentation of the Blood but sometimes from its depraved Flame Both when the Blood fermenting Feverishly through excess of Sulphur does now and then break out into Sweat And when through the defect of it the Blood being depauperated and made Waterish is not so much kindled therefore as often as it is hurried into a rapid Motion by some ascititious heat or the motion of the Body its serosities are dissolved into Sweat Sulphur is wanting in the Blood either because it is wasted as after long Fevers or because enough is not bred for want of Food this latter may be observed in scarcity of Provision or after keeping of Lent for immediately upon Running or Walking fast the sweat bursts out Yea Cattle when they are fed with new Hay upon the least Labor sweat much and are soon tired The Indications of Cure are especially these three 1. To remove or correct the dyscrasies or debilities of the Humors 2. To contract a little the Pores that are too open 3. To derive the Serum and Watrish recrements of the Blood to the Kidneys The first of these is performed by such things as destroy the prepollency of an acid Salt in the Blood also such as promote the exaltation of the Sulphur if perhaps it should be deficient To which ends Antiscorbuticks Chalybeates and Medicines endued with a Volatil Nitrous and Alkalizate Salt often do good The second
Ganglium and so are affraid to cut it But nevertheless we must know that this hardness comes from a distension of some copious Humor like the white of an Egg or rather like white Honey You must not therefore handle this every way moveable Tumor too confidently if you will hear me you must open it with a Lancet or a prick of the Sea Parsnep which the timorous are less afraid of This observation was made good in my self for I cut one of these that grew on my Metacarpus One had a Swelling began to rise in his left Hand which although some took for a sort of Ganglium yet when I prickt it a pellucid Phlegm that came out showed it to be a Meliceris A Meliceris that grows above the Wrist has no Bladder about it as far I could observe in several wherefore you need make no large Section for it nor when it is cut need you be sollicitous to get out any Bladder which Cure some through mistake have insisted on Idem XVI When you have cut out a Steatoma remember to take care of some Intemperature especially if it be a large one left in the Part. And it must be the Care of him that cures to cherish the same with Medicines amicable to Nature And when you find some Fibres remaining behind it is the best way to apply a Caustick or a little Fire to it And this indeed is the Cure if the Steatoma have a broad basis for if it hang by one little foot stalk it is sufficient to cut it out by the Root Fallopius is content with Corrosives And we must not neglect that of Aetius which is observed in the Kings-Evil if the Steatoma be fastned above it must be cut round with a Pen-knife and parted underneath with the Fingers if it be inserted in the Ambit Idem it must be cut underneath XVII But in all kinds of Atheromata this among other things must especially be taken notice of which has been observed only by me as I often handle them that when the Coat of the Abscess is amply laid open it must not always be all parted from the Skin intire with the Stuff inclosed in it for the pulling of it out would be painfull and scarce tolerable by all People It is sufficient to lay open the Skin a good way especially cross-wise and to cut as much of the Membrane away as you can with a pair of Scissers or a Knife But then you must take away some of it with Medicines I do not say Causticks but Digestives and Eroders I first found this in a young Man who had had an Atheroma upon the cartilago ensiformis for above six Months in which no cutting away was made but the Bladder when it was opened wide rotted and was got out partly by Abstersives partly by Cathereticks But then the Bladder must not be thick and cartilagineous Therefore he must be a prudent and an experienced Physician who can perspicaciously distinguish in all There was another thing I observed in this Young Man that this Tubercle cut out about his Breast caused some distention in the Muscles of the Breast Wherefore you must be careful to make lax the Muscles continually by applying Medicines to them and to the Armpits and Groin Another thing must be observed from Aetius that when the Pellicle is taken away if the Lips be over lax the redundant Skin must be cut off and then the Lips must be sowed together And this moreover is worth notice from the same that if such a Swelling be in the Head we must after the Pellicle is taken away cut the Bone about it Idem and carefully scrape the Skull XVIII Whether when the Bladder is taken exactly out a Suture should be made since a bleeding Wound requires conglutination The determination is not so easie for if you look upon the greatness and would have a Suture in regard of it the small gaping of the Wound is content only with conglutinating Things If the Sinus be great as much indeed as the largeness of the Wound requires the help of conglutination so much also of difficulty and an Ambiguity it creates lest some hole should be left under the old habit of the Skin and a false Abscess grow from the former substrate Matter and so the coälition be in vain Therefore it is requisite to cut away the proud Flesh and the Skin first and then sow it But often when Men are thus treated they will not being tired out with Pain allow this but Suture might be used would they allow it Aetius has left it to our choice whether we will sow or no who sayes When the Operation is finished the Lips may be sowed that they may the better be glutinated or Liniments may be put deep in and the Cure may be used for generation of Pus Idem XIX The true generation of a Sarcoma in my Opinion is this the Mouths of the Arteries that serve for nutrition of the Muscles are sometimes opener than they should be either by some fall or blow or by some internal Cause especially in plethorick Bodies and in Parts unduly moved The innate Heat converts the extravasated Blood into Flesh and when the Part also stands not in need of so much nutriment hence it is that it grows to a preternatural bigness here if the Blood be impure Bile produces pain phlegm viscidity melancholy a cartilaginous Hardness and it is by reason of these Humors that this preternatual Flesh is Yellow White or Livid It is seldome inclosed in a Coat of its own unless it consist for the most part of Phlegm and such a Tumor comes most in the Neck The Veins also encrease according to the encrease of the Tumor so that they may be felt under the Skin as thick as ones Thumb It is not malignant in it self but sometimes a bad Cure makes it so Here the Air does a great deal of harm when the Swelling is exposed to it It commonly refuses the best Medicines and in spite of them the Swelling increases more and more And you will rarely Cure it except you take it away with a Thread or a Knife or with both In the beginning the Cure must be tried with strong Astringent and repellent Medicines gentle bindings are also used after the application of a Plate of Lead or Empl. Diachalciteos de ranis cum Mercurio or the following Take of rinde of Pomegranate root of Bistort each 1 drachm dross of Iron Quick-silver burnt Lead each 2 drachms Bole Armenick Bloodstone each 1 drachm and an half Turpentine and Wax what is sufficient Mix them make a Plaister according to Art In the mean time Purging Bleeding Scarification applying of Leeches must not be neglected in their places Sweating also Watching and Fasting are very good But if the Swelling refuse all these Medicines and grow bigger every day Suppurators may be applied If these Medicines for several dayes do no good and the Swelling continue
so that a great part of the crassa meninx and the motion of the Brain might very well be seen yet the Patient recovered but after the Ulcer was cured and cicatrized the motion of the Brain might then be observed Nevertheless I would advise no Surgeon to undertake the Cure of so great Corruption at his own peril But if the corruption be little the Bone must be taken out with a Trepan or scraped the Ulcer cleansed and the Body fluxed as in the Pox yet there must be a less quantity of Quick-silver Chalmetaeus Enchir. p. 85. For a Talpa with the corruption of the Bone must be cured as the corruption of the Bone in the Pox. XXV A Nobleman had a Ganglium grew in his right Groin by little and little as big as a Child's head He advised with Physicians and Surgeons who tell him of the danger of Bleeding of a Gangrene and Lameness He chose rather to dye than endure it any longer unfit for Arms or Wedlock The Lump was cut about in an Oval line from the Groin to the Scrotum then at the Membrane a little of the Tumor was cut off and by degrees the Skin which was under the Swelling was separated towards the root the Veins and Arteries as they were laid bare were tied for fear of an Haemorrhage The Lump was pulled out with its Coat glandulous white without any Blood or Flesh within easily separable from its root As the Wound was healing he had a Fever bitterness in his Mouth filthy Matter pain in the other Groin Hollerius but he was cured by a Purge XXVI Fungi very often grow from the Membranes of the Brain yet they grow also in divers other parts of the Body because of the vast conflux of Humors from the whole Body and that through Natures great Providence as Hildanus cent 2. Obs 19. sayes For since nothing is a greater Enemy to the Nerves than the injury of the Air especially if it be cold Nature which is ever intent upon the conservation of the individual covers the nervous and membranous Parts when wounded and laid bare with this sort of Excrescence lest the Nerves should be hurt by the Air while the Wound is in curing And their Cure must be begun by drying and finished by Erosion or Excision Drying Medicines in the beginning are safer than Eroding or Septick ones For these in Wounds of the head hasten death and in Wounds of the Limbs cause Pain Inflammations and other most grievous Symptomes And seeing out of Nature's great beneficence this Excrescencie is produced for the Patient 's good it must not be consumed at the very beginning till the Nerves and membranous Parts be sufficiently covered with Flesh that they can no more be hurt by external injuries When the Pain Inflammation and other Symptomes are abated if the fungous Excrescence fall not it must be depressed by Dryers of which rank are root of round Birthwort Florentine Orrice Angelica leaves of Savine Rosemary c. When these things have been applied for some dayes if the Fungus abate not but grow up in the Flesh it must be cured by eating things as burnt Allum burnt Vitriol Mercury precipitate strewing on the Powder and then applying a Cataplasm Or a Ligature may be made and it may be cut off either with a corrosive Thread or with a Knife Which when done Hofmannus the Powders of the said drying things may be strewed on XXVII One had for some Months a Swelling rising upon the right side of his Forehead with a broad basis as big as a Hazle-Nut of the same colour with the Skin soft and as it were puft up it grew of it self when it was pressed with the Finger it gave way and suddenly rose into the same shape again without Pain yet it was not observed to be moveable this way or the other nor did it increase And because I thought it was one of those Tumors which are more easily extirpated with the Knife than dissolved by Medicines I order the Skin to be cut obliquely with a sharp Penknife As soon as it was done no Blood but a very little limpid Humor like the vittreous one of the Eye ran out It fell upon the Patients right hand and he affirmed it was very hot Praecipitate was immediately put into the Wound and other things put after to hinder Inflammation and when it was opened the next day the Bladder was taken out and the Wound was within a few dayes so dextrously healed that there was not the least sign of a Scar left behind Thus we may easily prevent things in the beginning which if neglected till they grow old will scarce give way at all to any Remedies And no question but this Tumor J. Rhodius Cent. 1. Obs 29. if it had been let alone would have turn'd at length into a Meliceris or Steatoma when the Mucus had grown thick by delay XXVIII If there be a swelling in the Cheek let the Physician have a care that it break not for so that Seat of Beauty might be deformed by a Scar However because oftentimes dissipaters ripen and ripeners dissipate by reason of their likeness in qualities it may so happen that Suppuration may come contrary to the intention of the Physician When therefore it is made let him draw the peccant Matter by proper Medicines to the inside of the Mouth or to the commissure of the Jaws which is by the Chin. Hofmannus For Women will sooner endure their Lips to be cut than to have a Scar in their Cheeks XXIX Dioscorides writes that the swelling of the Paps is abated by applying Hemlock which experience testifies to be true Although Dodoneus disapproves of such a Remedy because of the malignant and poysonous nature of this Herb Riolanus which being applied to the Paps may hurt the Heart XXX Steatomata and several Abscesses are often bred in the Omentum because great store of Fat and Glands is found here So the Mesentery both of it self and because of plenty of Glands is very subject to Inflammation Tumors and Corruption Because these Diseases are difficultly distinguished one from another they require an experienced Physician We may say the same of the Pancreas and Spleen In the mean time I shall communicate this Plaster the efficacy whereof in curing the Tumors of the said Part I have often experienced Take of Gum Carranna Barbette Ammoniac each 1 drachm Mercury killed with Turpentine half an ounce Mix them Make a Plaster XXXI We must proceed gently and gradually in cutting or pulling out axillary Tumors for while we draw and separate the Tumor with Pincers or any other way the Muscles that serve for respiration are contracted also hence an interception of Breathing As soon as ever this is observed we must desist a little from the Operation till they have gathered strength also Cold and very repercutient things must by no means be applied to these Parts Fabr. Hildanus lest
and have afterwards Idem p. 185. upon the striking in of the Pustules fallen before they were ripe VI. And as it is unadvised and hazardous to advance too high the Ebullition once begun by means either of a hot Regiment or by Cordials so on the contrary there is no less danger to diminish the same by means of Emeticks Catharticks or any such thing seeing by this means the proper secretion of the separable Particles is much hindred Although that vulgar Argument which Men use against Bleeding and other Evacuations namely that we must not move the Humors from the Center to the Circumference since Nature seems to affect the contrary in this Disease be of no force at all because upon using these means a quite contrary effect has often been observed to follow to wit a sudden coming out of the Small Pox yet there are other reasons in readiness which strongly perswade that if by any means it may be voided we meddle not with this Practice For briefly to touch upon the chief of them by these Evacuations not only the Ebullition is too much hindred by means whereof the Particles to be despumated ought in the mean time accurately to be separated but that also is subtracted which should continually as it were afford fewel to the Secretion begun Whence it often happens that the Small Pox coming out at first with a laudable Progress and perhaps so much the better because the said Evacuations preceeded do a little after struck in as it were all on a sudden fall flat and for this reason chiefly because there wants matter to follow that which went before and bring up the Rere Idem p. 187. VII As to the second Indication which concerns the time of Expulsion as it is dangerous if the Patient when there is a Fever and the Pustules scarce yet appear be made over hot in the very time of Secretion so also it is a thing full of no less danger if the same be done at any time of the Disease and especially at that which is towards the beginning of Expulsion while the Pustules are yet Crude For although the Blood now that Separation is done and the matter discharged to the carnous Parts be in a great measure free from intestine Tumult yet it being as yet tender and young and having scarce got induction into a new state and texture it is apt to suffer and easily be affected by virtue of immoderat Heat coming from all places and so being irritated upon the least occasion it takes fire and is inclinable to a new Ebullition Which new Ebullition does not as the former now endeavor a Suppuration for we suppose that already finished but instead thereof it not only raises the above mentioned Symptomes but disturbs the Expulsion begun by the Pustules and does harm by exagitating the contained matter Either therefore the Parts now separated and left in the habit of the Body being hurried by that violent and rapid course of the ebullient Blood are drawn again into its Mass or the carnous Parts being heated beyond the degree due to Separation do not so well perform it or lastly perhaps upon the coming of this new Sickness the oeconomy of the Blood and the tone of the Flesh is perverted so that it cannot overcome the matter expelled Idem p. 188. and concoct it after the usual manner of Abscesses VIII In the mean time we must not be so intent upon preventing too great an Ebullition in the Blood as by exposing the Patient to the injuries of the Cold to hinder the eruption of the Pustules The degree of Heat most proper to promote their Expulsion must be natural and such as is agreeable to the temper of the carnous Parts And whatever exceeds or comes short of this is dangerous on either hand Idem p. 190. IX If the Pustules chance to strike in or the swelling of the Face and Hands fall upon Bleeding unseasonably or getting of Cold we must use Cordials but we must have a care of being too lavish in giving them for though you have taken away Blood yet it may so fall out that while you are afraid of loss of strength thereby and so use Cordials either strong ones or often repeated you cause a new Ebullition on a sudden For the Blood is as yet tender and is easily sensible of the strength of a hot Provocative Whence it comes to pass that often repeated Ebullitions arise in the same to which the Patients death may of better right be attributed Idem p. 191. than to the foregoing Blood-letting X. Moreover the Small Pox must not therefore immediately be forced out as soon as any suspicion of this Disease arises because forsooth the Patient is usually very sick and restless before their coming out when there cannot so much as one Instance be shown that any one died how grievously Sick soever he was because the Small Pox came not presently out or that Nature was wanting in forcing them out sooner or later unless at any time she were hindred by a too hot Regiment and Cordial Remedies given too early For I have more than once observed in young People and of a sanguine Complexion that a hot Regiment and Cordials given on purpose to force out the Small Pox before their due time have so little promoted their coming out that on the contrary they have given a check to it For the Blood being heated by these means and put into a more violent Motion than is fit to perform aright the separation of the Variolous Matter only some certain tokens of the Disease show themselves while the Pustules lie within the Skin and do not raise themselves further by what Cordials soever they were solicited to it till at length the Blood being reduced to its moderate and due Temper that is by allowing small Beer and taking off part of that load of Clothes wherewith he was rosted Idem p. 193. I have made a convenient way for the Pustules to go out and so I have put the Patient out of danger XI Nor also would I advise you to give a Cordial before the said fourth day though a Loosness were urgent and might seem to indicate the giving thereof For although a Loosness sometimes go before the coming out of the Confluent Small Pox which arises from inflammatory Vapors or from the Humors discharged into the Guts out of the mass of Blood that is exagitated and boyls for the first dayes yet here Nature will be no more wanting in driving out the said Vapors of the Variolous Matter into the habit of the Body which being done the Loosness will stop of it self than she uses to be in turning out and eliminating those Vapors which being turned upon the Stomach Idem cause Vomiting at the beginning of this Disease XII As soon as manifest signs of this Disease begin to show themselves I forbid the Patients the open Air and drinking of Wine and eating
of Flesh but I allow them a little small Beer warm with a Tost and sometimes as much as they have a mind to drink And I order them for their Victuals Oat-meal and Barly grewel rosted Apples and other things which have neither excessive Cold nor excessive Heat in them nor give any trouble to the Stomach I keep them from a hot Regiment and from the use of any Cordials whatever whereby some indeavour rashly to force the Small Pox to the Skin before the fourth day which is the proper and natural time for coming out Whereas I am certain that the separation of the Variolous Matter will be so much the more universal by how much the longer they are in coming out and we may therefore be the more secure that they will not strike in again and that they will ripen the better But if they be forced out before the time the Matter as yet crude and inconcocted is precipitated which like Fruits too soon ripe feeds us with vain hopes Moreover there is danger from this over hasty diligence especially in hot and brisk Constitutions whose active Principles do more than enough supply the use of Cordials lest Nature being irritated and forced too much do melt almost all the substance of the Body into Small Pox so that now they will flux which Idem p. 1â—2 but that you made too much haste would have rested in the order of the Distinct with far greater hopes XIII Nor have they any more reason on their side who so pertinaciously confine the Patient to his Bed before the fourth day than they who so over early and unseasonably pour down Cordials For bloody Urine purple Spots and other Mortal Symptomes do come upon People in the flower of their Age especially because they are over soon confined to their Beds But on the fourth day I order my Patient to his Bed and then if they come not out as one could wish Idem p. 194. some gentle Cordial may well be given at least for once to drive out the Pustules XIV Among the Medicines that make for this purpose those they call Paregoricks such as Laudanum liquidum Diascordium c. if they be mixt in a small quantity with some proper Cordial Waters excell the rest Idem p. 105. For when these things give a check to the aestuating Blood Nature more seâ—sonably and freely casts out the morbifick Matter XV. If I am called to a strong young Man who has besides given occasion to the Disease by liberal drinking of Wine or any spirituous Liquor whatever I reckon it not sufficient for restraining the Ebullition of the Blood that he abstain from his Bed and Cordials unless moreover he be let Blood in the Arm. But if this cannot be granted through the prevailing prejudice of the Vulgar I beg that I may bleed him For when that Inflammation which the Heat of the spirituous Liquors impressed on the Blood is added to the intense Heat that attends this Disease the Blood so rages that sometimes by the duct of the Vessels it breaks into the Bladder or causes purple Spots and other such Symptomes as through the whole cause of the Disease stand in the Physician 's way Idem p. 196. and carry the Patient off XVI When the Pustules first come out I then diligently consider whether they be of the Distinct sort or of the Confluent because they differ exceedingly one from the other though they agree as to some Symptomes If therefore from the bigness and smallness of the Pustules and the slowness in coming out and from the vanishing of Sickness and other Symptomes which tire a Man after the coming out of the Confluent it appear to me that they are of the Distinct sort I order my Patient to be kept with small Beer Oat-meal and Barly grewel c. And if the Small Pox be but few in Summer time and that very hot I see no reason why the Patient should be kept stifled up in Bed And why he may not rather rise a few hours every day provided the inconveniencies of too much Cold or too much Heat may be prevented by the Place and Clothing For when the Patient keeps up sometimes from his Bed the Disease runs its course with less trouble and in a shorter time than if he had continually been fastned to it which not only makes the Sickness more tedious but increases the febrile Heat and when the Blisters arise cause a painful Inflammation But if either the cold Season of the Year or a large eruption of exanthemata lay the Patient under a necessity of keeping his Bed always I take care that he lie not hotter nor with more Clothes on him than when he was in Health and to have a fire kindled only Morning and Evening unless the Winter be hard Idem p. 197. XVII I would not have the Arms always kept covered with Clothes or that the Patient should lie alwayes in one place lest he sweat too much which upon confidence of my experience I boldly affirm can never happen especially in young Men without extreme hazard I would therefore have him lie free in his Bed and now and then change places Idem XVIII When the Disease is determining because the free eruption of exhalations that proceed from the Matter now converted into Pus is hindred by the Pustles which are at length grown crusty and hard it would not be amiss to give 3 or 4 spoonfuls of Canary Wine hot or some other temperate Cordial Medicine lest these putrid Vapors return again into the Mass of Blood and truly now and not sooner is the time for Cordials At the same time also a little hotter Diet and more Cordials may be given that is Panada's made with Beer and Sugar and Oat-meal Caudle Nor is there need of any other things at all that is in the Distinct and gentle fort if the Patient will but suffer himself to be treated in this Method and with this Diet both moderate Idem XIX This indeed though Men's ill grounded prejudice cry out upon it is the true Method of curing this fort of Small Pox. And although I do not deny but they that have been treated with a quite contrary Regiment have recovered yet we must acknowledge though this distinct kind have no danger at all in them from their own Nature that nevertheless many dy And many more also would yield to Fate but that they are saved either by the cold Season wherein the Disease happens or by Blood-letting otherwise unnecessary and useless lately celebrated Upon which account if either the obstinacie of Friends or diffidence of the Patient hinder the aforesaid Regiment I reckon it safest to let Blood Which indeed though of it self it do hurt inasmuch that is as it disturbs and confounds Separation and moreover substracts the sustenance designed to keep up the Pustules and Swelling yet it makes compensation for the hot Regiment which will follow within a
to revive And these were so much the more irregular and showed so much the more intense putrefaction by how much the matter of which they were bred was more thick and faeculent As to the Cure I have admired at the quite contrary Indications which this Disease seems to intimate to me For on the one hand it was clear that the Symptomes which depend upon too great Inflammation were immediately produced by a hot regiment as a Fever Phrensy Purple Spots c. to which this Disease above all other is subject And on the other hand an over cold regiment did hinder the Swelling of the Hands and Face which is here very necessary and render the Pustules more flat After I had much and often revolved these things anxiously with my self I at length understood that it was possible to help both these inconveniences together at the same time for by allowing the liberal use of water boyled with Milk of small Beer or of some such other Liquor it was in my power to check the internal rage of the blood and on the other hand by keeping the Patient constantly in bed not putting out so much as an Arm I could by the gentle heat thereof promote the elevation of the Pustules and the swelling of the face and hands Nor is this Method inconsistent with it self for the blood when the eruption is at an end is reckoned to have discharged the inflamed Particles into the habit of the Body and not then to want provocatives to a further secretion of the matter so that since then the whole stress of the business lies in the habit of the Body and in ripening the Abscesses we must only take care on the score of the blood that it may be preserved from hot Vapours struck in from the flesh beset with Pustles and on the score of the Pustles that they may be brought to maturity by the gentle heat of the external parts But then how happily soever this Method of mine had succeeded in other Confluent small Pox yet in these of this Constitution my Method failed me so that most of these that were very ill of them died whether they used the Method now recommended by me or a hotter Regiment and Cordials Therefore I fully understood that something was yet wanting beside these things which might conduce either to the checking of ebullition of the Blood or to raise the Pustules and the Swelling of the Face and Hands that is that something was wanting which might be sufficient to conquer an intense Putrefaction which was observed to be higher in these than in any other At last Spirit of Vitriol came into my mind which I thought might satisfie both intentions both the resisting of putrefaction and stilling the rage of the Blood Wherefore leaving the Patient to himself till both his pain and inclination to Vomit which use to go before eruption were ceased and all the Small Pox were come out at length on the 5th or 6th day I ordered Spirit of Vitriol to be dropt into small Beer to a moderate acidity for his ordinary drink to drink his pleasure but more freely when the Fever of maturation was at hand which drink I ordered him to take every day till he was perfectly recovered This Spirit as if it had been Specifick for this Disease did check all Symptomes to a miracle The Face swelled sooner and far higher The interstices of the Small Pox inclined more to a red colour like a Damask Rose The small Pustules grew great at least as big as that sort would bear The Pustules also which otherwise had appeared to be black did here discharge a certain yellow matter resembling an Honey-comb Then the Face was instead of black tinged with a deep brown colour They ripened sooner and run through all the other times sooner by a day or two And all these things came to pass if they drank freely of the foresaid Liquor Wherefore whenever I observed that the Patient refused to take a quantity sufficient to conquer his Symptomes I gave him now and then this Spirit mixt either with some Syrup in a spoon or with Syrup and distilled water added to it that the more sparing use of this Liquor might be compensated I have reckoned up the divers conveniences of this Medicine Inconvenience indeed I could never yet observe any the least arise from it for although Salivation be usually stopt on the 11th or 15th day by it instead whereof some stools about that time do serve yet the Patient will be less endangered by these than by it because they that are sick of the Confluent Small Pox are chiefly in danger because in these dayes the Spittle being made viscid choaks a Man which indeed a loosness in this case helps which will either cease of self or at least when there is no danger from the small Pox it may be stopt by drinking Milk and Water and by taking of Narcoticks In the mean time the Patient being laid in his Bed and his Arms covered I would not suffer him to have more Clothes on him than ordinary I allowed him also to move himself from one part of the Bed to the other as he pleased to prevent Sweats to which he was much inclined notwithstanding this Remedy in the mean time he lived upon Oat-meal and Barly grewel and sometimes a roasted Apple Towards the latter end if either the Patient were faint or sick at his Stomach I indulged him 3 or 4 spoonfuls of Canary Wine And after the 5th or 6th day I ordered him being a grown Person for Children had no need of it a Paregorick draught to be taken every Evening betimes that is 14 drops of liquid Laudanum in Cowslip water On the 14th day I suffered the Patient to rise from his Bed on the 21th I got him let Blood and then I purged him twice or thrice which being done the Patient's Face looked better and of a more lively colour than theirs used to do whom this Disease had handled ill Besides the method here recommended does not suffer the Face to be disfigured with Scars Sydenham which proceed from hot and enraged Humours eroding the Skin XXXV The Small Pox must not be neglected but an exact account must be taken of them and a sollicitous cure must be insisted on First when they are Epidemical and one or more Children are taken with them in the same House and there are more yet that have not had them and indeed for prevention sake from so grievous and difficult a Disease 2. Upon the account of them in whom while the Fever is urgent the Humour that produces the Small Pox is moved up and down the Body with the Blood 3. When Spots and Pustules are come out all the Body over and they begin to be inflamed and to hasten to suppuration 4. When the same Small Pox are in suppuration or cease to suppurate 5. When signs remain of a Humour that produces the Small Pox not sufficiently expelled
more than once seen upon the Plasters of fistulous Ulcers little Animals like waxen Mites whereof not only the figure but the motion might be seen Thus we are held of many Diseases which come from invisible Animals such as are those called Cyrones the Itch Ring-worm c. as may be perceived by Microscopes But to cure Diseases coming from Animals Borellus which always are attended with an Itch Aloes and Mercury mixt with Butter must be used ¶ The Famous Dr. de Mayerne observed in the cancrous Bâ—east of a Woman that was cut thousands of Worms Thence perhaps it is That the progress of the corrosion in a Cancer is stopt by applying the flesh of a Chicken to which these Animals stick leaving that which is worse and not so sweet XII When the coat that covers the Glands is either corroded or cut the skin cannot be healed Barbette till the Gland and Skin with all be consumed with the Ulcer XIII If eating Medicines cure not the Ulcers in the Glands in a few Weeks time we must know that there is no hope remaining of a good Cure because of the continual afflux of humors And this is the reason Idem why we are often forced to cut them out XIV In the cure of an eating and Malignant Ulcer we must observe 1. That Medicines must be changed every 3 or 4 days for Nature uses to refuse the best things if they be often applied 2. You must not open it above once or twice a day at most unless the matter be too sharp for otherwise the Medicines will not sufficiently perform their operation 3. Repellent and Mercurial Medicines must not be used in this case unless you keep the body continually Purging 4. These Sores can seldom be cured perfectly without taking Purges and drying decoctions of China Idem Guaiacum and the like XV. A Woman of sixty had an Ulcer in her leg as broad as the Palm of ones hand livid and foul having hard flesh deprived of all sense so that it might be cut without pain which proceeded from an Atrabilarious humour burning the substance of the Part. Having put her in a cooling and moistning course of Diet for several days she took once a Week a loosning Ptisan she had a Semicupe to correct the Intemperature of her Bowels Red Mercury Prceipitate was applyed to the Part to eat away the dead flesh and having made a pretty deep eschar Emplastrum Sticticum Crollii was applied to the Ulcer by the benefit whereof in a Month it was filled with Flesh and brought to a Cicatrice Riverius Cent. 1. Obs 21â—â— XVI It often happens that when much humors run to the Gout the Veins in the Legs are distended not without redness and swelling all about Platerus pr. med p. 717. approves of cutting them out in the same manner as is most usual in varices For by the same means it may come to pass that when much blood is intercepted which used to run to the Part it ceases Only this is required that the Veins appear high because of the quantity of Humors and not lie hid and obscure so as the Flesh must be cut out with them And know Reader That this cutting out of the Veins has ever been found by me to be good for drying up and putting an end to old spreding Ulcers Only have a care that a gathering and swelling do not rise therefore the end of the lower Vessel must first be well squeezed out and then it must be treated with driers and such things as strengthen the nature of the Part. And it will not be amiss to use restringents Severinus till the humor leave off flowing thither XVII Cutting out is due to putrid Ulcers as a thing necessary above all things that the sore may not spread infinitely For as the rottenness in an Apple if as soon as it is known it be carefully cut away goes no farther but if it be let alone it rots all So an Ulcer if what is putrified be cut away it heals and is at an end but if that remain Idem it eats and dissolves whatever is whole XVIII Some Ulcers though they do not appear such outwardly nevertheless you may know them 1. In that they have changed their natural colour into a very strange one they are generally black or livid 2. They have a great number of Pustules upon them like Caruncles with little holes in them and you cannot tell whether to call them Tumors or Ulcers 3. Many and the most efficacious Medicines do no good 4. There is a certain pricking pain here and there in them and the effect shews the sore to be abundantly worse than it any way appears to be I remember I once cured such an Ulcer which I could never have conquered with the best Medicines had I not cut it out When it was opened putrid and pallid Caruncles appeared Idem the skin lying false upon them XIX A Girl above five years old had white hard swellings prominent up and down the Body They continued for a month or two Divers Medicines are made use of by which at length they are softned and turn into Imposthumes foâ— curing of which several Medicines were used but in vain for the Ulcers not only grew greater but increased in number A Physician being called first Purged her and then gave her a decoction of the Woods for above two Months Proper externals were also applied whereby it was effected that one or or two of the Imposthumes promised a Cure yet a new swelling arose somewhere else which turned also into an Ulcer This Cure was so long continued till the Eyes first swelled and ran and then and afterwards threatned blindness Hagendâ—rniuâ— misc cur an 1672. Obs 18. When the Eyes were cured the Ulcers that before were healed opened again and when the Ulcers were healed the Eyes began to be ill At length they left off all Physick and the making of an Issue in the left Shoulder did so much good in process of time that the Maid recovered perfectly of her Ulcers and sore Eyes the Issue running store of serous humors XX. If the lips of the Ulcer be hard and callous and the hardness will not give way to emollient and discutient Medicines Galen 4. meth cap. 2. Shows in what manner such an Ulcer must be cured When only the lips of an Vlcer are discoloured and over hard they must be cut away as far as the hard flesh goes But when such a sore is gone far the question is whether all that appears preternatural must be cut off or time must be allowed to cure it Without doubt the Patients pleasure must be followed in this for some had rather have the sore a long time in curing than be cut others are ready to undergo any thing so they may but be quickly cured For such Ulcers are the soonest yea the safest cured if the hard and livid flesh be cut out with a convenient
helps a sick man more than seasonable Abstinence Here I will tell you mine own observation which I have made by long experience When I had a great number of Ulcerous persons under my care in the Hospitals at Naples It is very pleasant to hear how I used to find those out that offended in their Diet not only being able to distinguish the men and the time but even the manner and how far they had offended Because Ulcers are so quickly and easily altered according to what is taken inwardly Therefore he that will may observe this with me The flesh of a Delinquent's Ulcer will look like the flesh of a Beast that has been soaked in water answerable that is to the common cause of the affection for the Ulcer is diluted by the fluxion of what is taken as flesh is when steeped in water It fares otherwise with him who is content with a little food For his Ulcer will look red and clear like Coral or the lean of a Gammon of Bacon contracted and low Idem to say nothing of Pus which will be laudable XLIX Whether may a large but not a moist Diet be allowed in Ulcers Moisture is twofold in general Evident and extended in a fluid substance this they call Actual another only contemplable by reason which they call Potential Now though we avoid formal moisture in right curing of Ulcers this certainly must be very inconvenient which makes it up in quantity and so much the rather because there are not wanting things which have a potential humidity in them Nevertheless we could not blame only the liquid moisture we reckon that the other which is latent in a great quantity of matter and equivalent to the forsaid moisture must equally be avoided Truly the matter of the Blood is proportionable to the meat dissolved in the Stomach and the Superfluities are correspondent in quantity to the Store of Blood that is bred For even in meats that are thought not to be moist there is some portion of moisture mixt with them by Nature's workmanship Wherefore there is no reason why we should only decline an apparent humidity in Diet and allow any other both of them in their forms and modes are noxious Idem Wherefore in curing of Ulcers the Diet must always be as spare as it can be L. Let no man deny Wine in Ulcers if they be old and not joyned with some hot disease which we ought to fear either present or imminent In new Ulcers indeed Wine must be avoided because of Inflammation and those consequent mischiefs which Hoppocrates mentions initio lib. de Vlcer As much therefore as Wine is approved of in curing old Ulcers Idem so much is it condemned in new ones LI. Hippocrates lib. de Vlcer appoints Ulcerous Persons no other Diet than bread and water But he speaks of new ones and immediately explains himself to prevent Inflammation and a Gangrene and Convulsion of the Limbs But he has not declared what sort of Diet is good for old ones I think for such as have gentle Ulcers unless they have some great plenitude or some Disease depending thereon or some eminent danger perswade the contrary the eating of Flesh is not discommendable especially of Animals which use swift motion and yield least superfluity for they are of a good juice as Birds of the Mountain and four Footed Beasts except Swine's Flesh which is all bad but the Feet Perhaps Hippocrates his opinion of Eggs and new Cheese is no other which is better verified when Ulcers as they mostly are are hollow and sinuous For what sooner fills the vacuities of the Flesh than a congeneous substance which by affording plenty of Blood fills the empty spaces of Flesh and repairs them for healing up Yet this is hindred because from Flesh a food of much nourishment there is a great product of excrement which is immediately carried to the Ulcer as is said before For Answer we say that there is a twofold moisture in any thing either concocted and well conquered by the heat so as it contains little excrementitious and superfluous in it Or there is much excrementitious and superfluous and little concocted but corruptive The moisture that is in Flesh and Eggs is rather nutritious than excrementitious Therefore rosted Flesh though it have more moisture in it than boyled is more proper for Ulcers than boyled as experience makes out So that which is inconvenient for Ulcers it contains alwayes much moisture either in the whole Aliment or in part Such are Broths Candles Grewel Pot-Herbs Sallets juicy horary fruits for such as are dried in the Sun or in an Oven are not condemned Cucumbers Fishes not Saxatil Milk and all things made of Milk that are new All these things are bad for Ulcers and sharp things especially when they should fill up and heal But of fruits you must except them that are of an astringent virtue as Quinces Medlars Idem c. LII I must in this place take notice of a common abuse practised by Physicians in ulcerous Persons and others for whom because they are of a good juice and temper the heat of the Blood and the Liver they make messes of Cichory Endive Bugloss Parsley Gourd boyled with Flesh or Sippets and Sops of Bread in them and they think they are proper but they are very inconvenient For all these preparations since they have drunk up much moisture do when it is digested in the work-house of the Body remit it to the Ulcer Wherefore while these things are used it will be perpetually moist and will never heal up Therefore I cannot chuse but laugh at or rather pity those who hoping to be cured in a Month are not cured in a whole year for how can Ulcers be healed Idem which are continually moistened with the humidity of Victuals Medicines especially made use of by eminent Physicians 1. To cure all old Ulcers perfectly Take quick Lime 2 pounds pour to it 5 quarts of hot water Let it stand till it cool strain it through a brown paper in which dissolve Mercury after this manner Take of this water 1 quart add 3 drachms of Mercurius dulcis let it stand in digestion You will have an inestimable Liquor ¶ For spreading Ulcers Take the water distilled off rotten Apples dissolve therein a little Mercurius dulcis and Saccharum Saturni filtre them It is a secret which cures Ulcers and Fistulaes perfectly if they be washed there with ¶ The Arcanum of Aristolochia rotunda is also of great efficacy here Take Aristolochia rotunda pour to it some Spirit of Wine let them stand in digestion and the Spirit of Wine will be coloured repeat this till no more will be extracted then draw off the Spirit of Wine till an essence remain as thick as Honey pour to it some water distilled off rotten Apples extract the pure Salt from the Caput mortuum and add the rest and so you will have the true essence of
Wine each what is sufficient Mix them Grembs ¶ Pomegranates also are very good to allay the fury in this case 3. Trochisci de Carabe de Terra Sigillata each 1 drachm Water of Shepherds purse Purslain Plantain each one ounce Mix them Grulingius This immediately does good 4. An Amulet of a Plate of lead or a flat pot of lead with Quick-silver in it Kozak if it be hung to the back is very good in this case 5. This is certainly true I remember a certain young Noble-Man who voided such abundance of pure Blood at his Mouth sometimes without sometimes with Coughing that you would have sworn he would have vomited up his purple Soul This Person at the time of his Fit held fast in his Hand some Shepherds-purse and out of his Fit put some Shepherds-purse to the soles of his Feet and both his Vomiting and Spitting of Blood stopt But I recommended to him as to other Phthisical Persons the fume of the best native Sulphur which he was ordered to receive with his open Mouth by which means he was not only cured of his Vomiting of Blood but he married a Wife Simon Pauli 6. That the Blood may not congeal upon the Stomach two ounces of Simple Oxymel should be given But if it be congealed the best Remedy is 1 ounce of Hares Rennet Rhudius with 3 ounces of Vinegar given in drink 7. This applied to the Breast and Stomach quickly suppresses vomiting of Blood Mart. Rulandus Take of Rye-Bread 3 handfuls Salt 1 handful Vinegar what is sufficient Mix them Make a Plaster Urinae Incontinentia or Incontinence of Vrine The Contents When Blood may be let I. The Cure of it when caused by tearing the Bladder II. I. IF the Menses or Haemorrhoids be stopt then indeed if you can easily bring them down you must bleed in the Foot sparingly and at times as much as may suffice to abate the abundance but if the stopt Blood be crude as it often is you must bleed more sparingly and then Purge and afterwards proceed to things that strengthen the part But if it come from a defluxion of fluid Phlegm which is ever running or of thick Phlegm which having gathered there caused that mischief we must have a care of letting Blood Mercatus unless the Body in like manner abound in Blood II. In the year 1608. I was called to a young Woman of her first Child whose Bladder a foolish Midwife had torn so that she could not keep her Urine one moment Whereupon her Skin of the Labia Pudendi was first excoriated with the continual running then there grew so many Warts but soft ones as I believe no man's two hands could hold them both her Buttocks also were almost eaten away with her Urine I ordered her to be carried to Liege being desirous to cure her As soon as I fell upon the cure I anointed thick that ugly great lump of Warts with the Magma of crude Antimony and Sublimate out of which they distil the Butter of Antimony which being often scraped off the Labia Pudoris did at length on the third day show themselves deep buried and the putrid eaten flesh of her Buttocks gave some hopes of Cure As soon as I could part the Labia and observe the Sphincter of the Bladder I fitted a Silver Pipe to it the shorter end whereof I put into her Bladder and to the longer which stood out four inches I fastned a Pot The Urine in this manner being carried another way and the Ulcers cicatrized she seemed well and the Nineteenth day after she came to Liege she called her Husband to her with whom she had not lain for two years by whom when I had taught her to put off and on her Silver Pipe which was necessary in their embraces she was with Child and was safely delivered But after I had used several things in vain for the stopping of that dropping of her Urine I left her glad of this one thing that though she was troubled with the Pot yet she lived without Pain Afterwards I met her very well and she offered me the Silver Pipe again if I had any occasion for it I was amazed how she could be rid of her incontinence of Urine and she shewed me a Bag hung about her Neck wherein there was the Powder of a Toad which had been burnt alive in a new Pot. A Cingar had taught her this and that she would hold her Water as well as before her Bladder was torn Heer 's Oâ—s 14. Urinae Suppressio or Stoppage of Vrine See Ischuria Book IX Uteri Affectus or Diseases of the Womb. The Contents Vinegar does not alwayes hurt I. It delights in sweet things II. The Haemorrhoids must not be opened III. It throws off its impurities to the Groin IV. Sugar is an Enemy V. In an Abscess of the Womb after the Suppression of the Lochia what Vein must be opened VI. What Vein must be opened in its Inflammation VII Whether we may use Vomits VIII When Flesh may be allowed IX An uterine Fungus taken away by Section X. Whether there be any such thing as the falling out of the Womb XI A Vomit must not be given XII A Semicupe must be used with Caution XIII When Astringents are proper XIV One resembling the Sciatica XV. What such the Candle or Obturamentum should be XVI In an Inflammation Clysters must frequently be given XVII Sudorificks and Narcoticks are proper in it XVIII The Efficacy of Fomentations and the way of applying them XIX A Caution about Fumes XX. The Cure of an abscess upon the alae Pudendi XXI The Cure of Warts of the Vulva XXII A huge swelling in the Pudendum taken away XXIII An easie Cure of inflation of the Womb. XXIV Narcoticks may be given in a Cancer of the Womb. XXV Medicines I. ALthough Hippocrates 4 Acut. says that Vinegar is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or painful to the Womb and affirms that Women are more hurt by it than Men yet he often uses it in their Diseases which arise from some fault in the Womb for he used it not only applied outwardly and gave it by the Mouth but he also injected it into the Womb in Collutions and Fomentations made of Vinegar as is manifest from Lib. de Morb. Mul. to wit because of the remarkable faculties which Vinegar has of cutting attenuating drying and cooling with tenuity of parts which are not found equal in another Medicine we are often forced to use it though it may do some harm that is when the benefit which results from its foresaid Virtues is greater than the inconvenience that comes from its smell ¶ Riverius orders Clysters of Oxycrate in Fits yea he gives a glass of it by which he says the Fit is presently stopt Martianus Com. in loc the vapors which cause it being repressed and coagulated II. There must always be this caution in things of the Womb the serous Remedies must
vertebra A barber-Surgeon would cure it with Emplastrum Sticticum but quickly of a very broad wound it became a narrow fistula deep and exceeding painfull Idem IV. Some admit of vulnerary Potions only in those wounded parts to which they can reach as in the Gullet Stomach Guts where in a manner they serve instead of Applications but in external parts they reject them First because there is no mention of them in the Writings of the Ancients Secondly because of their distance they can never come to the Limbs and Head Thirdly because among the Medicines whereof they are made there are both hot and opening things as Betony Speed-well Carduus Benedictus c. and astringent things as Comfrey Wintergreen Horsetail Tormentil c. so that it is not evident of what faculty they ought to consist Fourthly because most of them are astringent they will do more harm by obstructing the Bowels than they can do good Indeed it must not be denied that little mâ—ntion is made of these Medicines among the ancient Physicians but this is not sufficient to reject them for the Moderns have found out many usefull Medicines which were unknown to the Ancients And though they do not touch the wound as topical medicines do yet they may reach to the wound by the Veins Neither because of the astringent virtue that some of them have need we fear that therefore we cannot reach to the out parts or that they will breed obstructions in the inwards for this inconvenience may be avoided by the mixture of other things with them which have an opening vertue Nor then are the vertues of all Medicines to be esteemed from the first qualities or those that depend upon them but from their specifick qualities which Experience alone suggests These Potions sayes Paraeus lib. 18. c. 28. though they do not purge noxious Humours by stool yet they are very effectual in cleansing of Ulcers and preserving them from the filth of excrementitious Humours in purifying the Blood and in cleansing it from all Ichores and impurities in knitting broken bones and restoring the Nerves to unity And by and by These Medicines by their admirable and almost Divine vertue so purge the Blood that by it as by a fit and laudable matter flesh or any other substance that is lost may readily be restored and the part recover its pristine unity And the thing that these Medicines do is to wast the exceeding moisture of the Blood which is not so fit for glutination to afford good matter for the generation of flesh and by moderate astriction to hinder any fluxion to the wounded part Sennertus V. But although such Potions do wonders yet great Symptomes and especially Dropsies of the Limbs do follow the unseasonable use of a traumatick decoction For since from some plants it has a great vertue of drying binding and agglutinating and from others and from the wine which is its vehicle of heating It is evident that it is then improper when we should attend suppuration and digestion which is thereby hindred and kept back moreover the Blood and Humours are heated and pains and Inflammations arise But when the wound is digested and suppurated sufficiently and free from all Symptomes when there is place for abstersion mundification and consolidation then they become a good Medicine It must also be observed that because they greatly bind and dry they are very bad for such as are ill of obstructions of the Bowels for by the same virtue they retain the excrementitious Humours in the Bowels hence Gripes hypochondriack winds and a thousand other inconveniences arise Wherefore the Body must be prepared before the use of them VI. Caesar Magatus l. 1. de vulner c. 38. and Septalius following him l. 8. Animad Med. disapprove of the old way of curing wounds used hitherto by all Physicians and Surgeons who every day at least once do cleanse and wipe them and when they have applied new Medicines bind them up again And they blame Galen that passing by the indication of most moment he was only intent upon the lesser that is abstersion of the excrements and filth the cause that breeds them being neglected and all care of conserving the temperament and innate heat of the part Which and the strength of the part if they be taken care of they think there will be a far less increase of excrements And they think the heat of it will be cherisht and strength will be added to it if it be hindred from expiring and its quality be preserved Which they think they are able to obtain by making up the defect of a natural covering with a Medicine analogous and familiar to the temper of the part by means whereof the heat may be cherished and its quality may be helped by its like Whence they gather that for to defend this heat wounds must be seldom opened lest the ambient Air do hurt them But since the same Persons confess that most grievous wounds have been cured by the old way of cure and they cannot deny but this new one has only place in simple wounds and where the wounded party is of a good habit of Body where great Vessels are not hurt and the Nerves are whole Besides there are many wounds by their own confession which Nature is not able to cure unless the impediments be removed by a Surgeon as if the Body be Cacochymick whence comes great store of excrements which cause Pain Corruption of the Part Inflammation Worms proud flesh and the like Finally since the exceptions exceed the rule which very rarely allow the use of this new way we must insist upon the old one approved for many ages VII Some reject the use of Tents in wounds 1. Because they need not be used to keep open the orifice of the wound when it is always open whether the Physician will or no nor to make the Medicines stick to the sides of the wound seeing they may be so melted as conveniently to be dropt in 2. They are troublesome to the part therefore Nature alwayes endeavours to expell them 3. They cause pains whence come new fluxions 4. when they are full with bad Humours they hurt the wounded part And they hinder evacuation of the Pus which being kept in grows worse 5. Hippocrates and Galen are silent concerning them On the contrary they seem necessary 1. That the orifice of the Wound may be kept open and that there may be a passage for the Pus 2. That the Medicines may touch the wound every way and reach to the bottom 3. That the upper part may be hindred from closing before the bottom of the wound be filled For a decision we must know that in wounds which are superficiary streight and that breed little pus they are not necessary nor should the cure of the wound be retarded by putting them in But if the wound be deep oblique and if much pus be bred they are altogether necessary that a passage
Ponyard and observed concrete Blood and considered that the wound had reached the Cavity of the Breast he pitched upon Incision between the third and fourth Rib and learnedly indeed Amatus Lusâ—tanus Cent. 2. Cur. 25. for Blood very much concrete was contained in the Cavity of the Breast which by making a new Incision in the Breast was got out thereby and the Patient was cured in 40 days XXVI We know and Experience also testifies that Blood and Sanies run from the wounds of the Abdomen into the Cavity of it and often fall into the Groin wherefore we use to rub the Groin and apply Plasters to it that the Matter gathered there may be dissolved discussed and so be insensibly evacuated For one wounded in his left Hypochondâ—ium was cured by a Barber-Surgeon internally only no outward things being applied but in the beginning The Wound indeed healed but Matter gathered in his left Groin The Shaver neglects this and sends the wounded man away as if he had been perfectly cured But after he had undergone a great deal of trouble the wound opened of it self and it run variety of Matter which being healed greater store of Matter was again gathered about the Groin and swelling pain and tension was caused there with difficulty of Breathing straitness of Breast and sometimes a small Swooning I give a Decoction of the Wood and vulnerary Herbs and then I apply emollient dissolving and discutient Oyls and Plasters Ph. Salmuth Cent. 3. Obs 84. by the diligent use whereof he was at length restored to perfect health XXVII A Tailor gave his Wife a wound with a Knife in the right Hypochondrium above the Os Ileon in the Night The wound was bound up in the Morning when the Surgeon took off the Plaster her ordure followed the wound being dilated the Gut Ileum appeared hurt I had a mind to make trial in a desperate case I order the Gut to be carefully sowed to the Skin and a slice of fresh fat Pork being put between so as there might be passage for the Excrements I order the Skin to be closed I prescribe vulnerary Potions D. Maiquanquez misc cu. ann 72. Obs 176. by which she was cured to a Miracle and within a few years she was brought to bed of two Children XXVIII I know many think the coalescence of fibres is fabulous who yet are either ignorant of Surgery or have never made trial of a thing which it is not difficult to do Gab. Ferrara Observ Chirurg l. 1. cap. 17. shews the way how to sow great Nerves perhaps he means Tendons Mr. Galthier Surgeon to the Count de Rabatta General of the Imperial Army 1667. told me that two Persons had the Tendons which bend the wrist and one of those which bend the Leg cut in sunder who when the Tendons were artificially sowed did recover their perfect Motion and the way may be easily learned in Dogs Not long since some Students in Surgery in this place tried it they took a Dog and cut the great Tendon asunder which moved his left Leg they took hold of it with a pair of Pincers and in the Method delivered by Ferrara they accurately joyned the ends of the Tendon that were cut with a single thread which grew together again without any Balsames or Plasters only by the Dog 's licking of it and he runs without any Impediment Wepferus de Cicuta Aquat. only in the place where it was cut one may feel a knot like a Ganglion XXIX A Gentleman of about 35 years of Age was wounded with a Rapier on the right side of the Aspera Arteria into the internal Jugular through his Neck it passing out below the last Vertebra The Wound was small yet bled with a full stream A Servant stopt it with his Fingers whil'st I made Dressings ready of our common Astringent Powders with the White of an Egg and a little Vinegar spred upon a Pledgit of Lint and an Emplaster of the same with Compress and such Bandage as it would bear The Wound behind bled when that before was dress'd I applied the said Medicaments to that and caused them to be held close till they were dried on Then we put him to Bed and kept him cool quiet I used all my endeavors for the contemperating his Blood as is usual in such cases and drest him but once in 4 or 5 days unless I were necessitated by the bursting out of the Blood yet he bled at times about 16 or 17 days His Wound by the Vertebra of the Neck healed in few dayes Wiseman's Surgery p. 354. and the other near the Aspera Arteria was cured by this way of Agglutination the 19th or 20th day For Wounds of the Arteries see Aneurisma BOOK I. XXX N. 17 years of Age of a cholerick Complexion was shot with a single Bullet in the right Thigh eight inches from the Groin and reaching to the opposite side The Parts were much torn especially the greater Artery whence followed an Haemorrhage of Arterious Blood Signior John Trullus being called found the Wound taken care of by a Barber-Surgeon and therefore meddled not with it till the next day when coming and loosing the Bandage the bleeding was stopt he finds the Parts very much red and swelled so that the Pulsation lifted up both the hands when laid on the swelling wherefore he presently suspected some Artery was wounded Cooling and Astringent things were applied he was kept quiet the Wound was not touched for several dayes though sometimes 3 or 4 Ounces of Blood would start out of it self and presently stop again Yet in dressing there were still the same Swelling and Pulsation the Fever as well as the Pulsation encreasing daily Many were called to his assistance but the greater part left the business to Time and Nature except Signior Trullus who advised the laying of the Wound open for to find the Artery which opinion the rest rejected Therefore applying the same Medicines again the Wound was bound up and they deferred the dressing it till the Seventeenth day and then we declared with unanimous consent that the course must not be altered Thus the Blood stopt for 13 dayes after which it bled as it used and stopt again of it self On the 30th day the Wound was dressed and we found the Swelling softned which we were in hopes would suppurate and when suppuration was made that flesh would be regenerated and that the wounded Vessel would as it usually is be closed up by it but our Expectation failed us And when his strength decayed daily when his Fever grew higher and his Body wasted we then placed all our hopes in dilatation of the Wound that the Artery might either be sowed or tied or cauterized and the Blood might some way or other be stopt All things being in readiness for a work of so difficult a Nature we go about it The Artery about the Groin being found with the touch of the Finger we follow it below
holding their Breath they kept the smoke longer in their Mouth and did not so quickly puff it out For none can doubt but the fiery smoke of Tabaco when there is no other passage granted it by descending into the Stomach must heat the Waters Idem p. 120. and so hasten the pissing or exit of them XII I have seen some go to bed about two hours after they have drunk the Waters covering themselves warm and thereby to have procured a very quick passage for them yea very many have found this means more available than any other exercise Idem p. 121. XIII After drinking the Water the Body is to be exercised some way or one must return home which it will be better to do on Horse-back or in a Coach than on Foot as certain experience teaches For besides that such as travel on Foot are apt to sweat and so the Serum being diverted another way will flow more sparingly by Urine sitting upon an Horse or in a Coach compresses the Muscles of the Belly and the Intestines yea and the Stomach it self and agitates the Body more strongly whence the Waters being sooner heated are readilier pist out Idem p. 120. as will be most clear to any one that shall try it XIV He that will provide well for his Health must take a Purge once in eight ten or twelve dayes drinking no water for that day for thus the waters will pass more freely and the whole puddle of Humours being washt away Idem p. 100. the Body will be left most sound Let Physicians therefore give this direction to their Patients XV. Socrates said that the hour for rich men to dine is when they will and for the poor when they have wherewith Here we must dine when all or the greatest part of the water is emptied either inttohe Close-stool or Chamber-pot But because some especially on the first days evacuate but little or it may be but half the water that they may not hurt themselves by deferring dinner too long let them take this for a sign when they may conveniently dine If any one upon drinking the waters make some white Urine as all use to do and after that which is coloured let him dine securely for it is certain that the remainder of the water that is contained in his Body is retained for some other use by Nature which is the dispenser of what is taken or however when for about two hours he has ceased to piss or to go to stool if the water work that way he need not fear but he may dine safely Let him sup when his Appetite or his reason judges that his dinner is concocted Idem p. 150. XVI There is nothing worse for those that drink the waters than sleeping at Noon for it hinders their Operation seeing it dulls their nature whose office it is after a good digestion is made to expell superfluities and also shuts up the humours that ought to be thrown out of the Body in some part where they putrefie Besides this sleep ought rather to be ascribed to mineral vapors than to Nature so that it dulls the head heats the body and hence causes fluxions Moreover seeing it is short and therefore presently ceases to promote the concoction of the Stomach when they are awaked the meat comes to float through the Belly and the bile which is wont to be moved outward at that time is revoked inward by this fleep where being collected it may cause a Fever or if it stay long be excocted into a Melancholick juice Lastly there must needs be caused by this sleep contrary motions of the juices in the Body viz. by the day-light which calls them out and by the sleep that recalls them inwards But if any as many of the Italians have much used himself to Noon-sleep because there is little or no passion from things that one is accustom'd to let him attribute something to his custom and sitting upright in a Chair but not lying along on a Bed let him rather slumber than sleep Idem p. 132. XVII Towards Evening before Supper many say that the Waters are to be drunk again but only in half the quantity that was taken in the Morning but I have seldom seen that drinking them at this time has done any one good Therefore unless one have an extraordinary strong Stomach let him drink little or none before Supper Idem p. 133. unless perhaps it be to quench his thirst XVIII It often happens that while Women are drinking the Waters their Terms supervene and yet they think they ought to persist But we think they ought rather to forbear 1. Because the waters provoke the Terms whence there is fear that the flux should become immoderate and not to be stopt especially in those who have large Vessels and much and thin Blood and 2. Because no necessity presses that two evacuations should be attempted at the same time and your acidulae for the most part evacuate either by stool or Urine XIX Although your Acidulae dry yet there is no reason for the debarring of emaciated People from the use of them for fear their Soul which is seated in heat and moisture should be expelled for we have seen the driest persons and such as have seem'd to be almost without Blood rather living Carcases than men to become fleshy and in good plight by the use of these Waters namely the obstruction of the Mesaraicks and Liver being removed and the Stomach strengthened better chyle has been transmittd to the Veins whereby they have been replenished with good Blood Heer de acid Sâ—adar p. m. 66 which soon filled the Muscles with flesh XX. They whose Stomach has wholly lost its oeconomy They who cannot warm the Waters either by their natural heat or by such as is acquired by Medicines They whose vital Parts are almost extinguisht who have a long time labour'd under shortness of Breath whose Breast is distended with a dropsie of the Lungs who if they be adult cannot bear about eighty ounces of Water let none such come to the Spaw waters unless they would go worse away than they came or be buried there Such as come having invoked God and consulted the Physician having left cares at home and with a serene mind being intent only upon their health let them betimes in the Morning but the Sun being first up when they have clear'd their Body of its excrements through all the passages drink as much water as they can so their Stomach be not opprest let them evacuate by Urine or Stool what they have drunk when they have evacuated the greatest part let them dine after dinner let them drive away sleep by play walking c. let them Sup sparingly taking a short walk after Supper let them go betimes to Bed and let them follow this course of Life Heeâ— Spadacr p. 150. till the Physician shall advise them to depart XXI Some Chymists promise a certain compendium of your
red through the Blood that was drawn thither After the use of these her pains presently seem'd more mild the following night they decreased by degrees Scult Ch. Obs 85. and the next morning her Courses flowing they vanished wholly VIII When the Blood is not fibrous enough 't is very dangerous to draw it out by Cupping-glasses with scarification Prevotius saw a Girl who upon the fastning of Cupping-glasses in that case died of a pertinacious flux of Blood which could not be Remedied by Art Rhod. Cent. 3. Obs 69. IX That the thick Blood may also flow out according to Avicen's direction c. de ventosis we must bathe and stay an hour Wherefore in Practice this is to be observed that the part where the Cupping glass is to be applied be fomented with a Sponge dipt in sweet warm water Capivac pract l. 6. c. 16. that the Blood may be attenuated and fused X. Cupping-glasses attract for the avoidance of a vacuum on this manner A piece of Tow of Flax or Hemp is kindled in the cavity of the Cupping-glass then the Mouth of the glass is fasten'd upon the Body and so the flame is smother'd and goes out by and by the contained air that was much rarefied by the flame grows more dense and takes up lesser room therefore lest there should be a vacuum the Skin must needs be lifted up to fill up that space that before was possest by the rarefied air whence Cupping-glasses draw by so much the more by how much the ambient air is the colder And those mistake who cover them with Linen Clothes c. for the colder the ambient air is the more is the included air condensed and the more it is condensed the less space it possesses and so the Skin that is comprehended by the mouth of the glass is raised the higher Plemp in Instit This reason is ingenious indeed but experience refutes it Those that have stood by when Surgeons have applied Cupping-glasses do testifie that if the ambient air be cold they draw nothing forth yea scarce raise the Skin at all but on the contrary if the Patient sit by an hot fire or be diligently covered with hot cloaths they draw effectually speedily XI Of Cupping-glasses drawing by the sucking of the Mouth see Book I. under the title of the Atrophy XII Reason perswades and daily experience demonstrates that Cupping glasses not only with scarification but the dry also supply the place of Venesection for derivation and revulsion when the weakness of the strength or faculties do not permit this latter Dry Cupping-glasses perform this without any loss of Spirits for the Blood that is revelled or derived by them from any part is only drawn for a little while into the dilated Vessels under the Cupping-glass and assoon as the Glass is removed it will return again by and by into the larger Veins now in this case the Glass chiefly benefits if it be removed after the part which is a receiving the fluxion or has already receiv'd it being freed from the influx of Humours has restored it self to a better state this I say is manifest But it is not so certain that any thing can be called out by the application of dry Cupping-glasses For whether you place the Patient in a warm Bed covering him well or give him a strong Diaphoretick you shall thereby procure sweat but by such Remedies you shall not presently draw the Morbifick matter from the Patient along with the sweat however not considerably unless it be concocted and separated from the Blood or be nearly disposed for separation Although those things which being taken inwardly provoke sweat have a faculty also to separate those things that are foreign from the Blood yet they produce not such an effect being given at any time or after any manner but only when given in convenient circumstances without which they hurt more than benefit That the like happens about Cupping-glasses I think can hardly be doubted when flatus afflict dry Cupping glasses being applied bring sudden benefit for seeing flatus are freed from the mixture of other Humours they are not hindred from passing out through the open pores of the parts that lie under the Cupping-glasses but such things as are mixt with the Blood although together with it they fill the Blood-vessels expanded under the Cupping-glasses yet they forsake not their companion in whose embraces they are straitly detained but assoon as the Glasses are removed they return with the Blood into the larger vessels unless through the vehemence of the attraction the capillary vessels being opened and the very substance of the Flesh gaping they stick with the Blood in the rimulae of the Flesh or Skin their return into the vessels being stopt after that those upon taking off the glasses have restored themselves to their former situation and then the extravasated Humour concreting it stains the Skin with black or livid spots of which in the following section If therefore the malignant particles be exactly mixed with the Blood and be not easily separable from it dry Cupping-glasses are applied in vain If they be separated or be nearly disposed to separation in my opinion 't is better to administer diaphoreticks inwardly and outwardly to use gentle frictions By the former Remedy the poisonous infection is not cleared from any particular portion of the Blood but from its whole mass and by the latter not any particle of the Skin but the whole habit of the Body is prepared to yield a ready exit to the poison both of them benefit without any trouble to the Patient or loss of his strength But with a portion of the Blood to call out a small part of the poisonous infection to certain places that it may return back again with the Blood into the Vessels I see not what benefit can accrew from hence with respect to the Malignity whose expulsion is here chiefly sought But I am only certain that the Patient is vexed with an incommodious situation of his body and a distraction of his flesh and skin especially when many Cupping-glasses are applied at once But when the matter that partakes of Malignity is a separating from the Blood or already separated the ways by which it is cast forth are very rightly loosened whether such relaxation be by Cupping-glasses or by anointings c. The Serum in which the poison is chiefly lodged is always fitly cast forth by Vesicatories not only because these open the pores of the Skin and of the glands that lie next under it but because by their volatile Salt they attempt a separation of the Serum from the Blood Some will object That in malignant Fevers the Patient has presently manifest relief upon the application of dry Cupping-glasses I answer that that often happens not in respect of the Malignity that is called out but by reason of the revulsion of the Humours from the inner parts the oppression whereof is suspended for a time
are not fitting for all XV. Crudities do not always hinder their use XVI Let the Body be pure before the administration of them XVII Their success is doubtful XVIII They should be often used to make them successful XIX They are not to be mixed with Meats XX. The vertue of the cold Seeds is in the husk XXI Honey and Sugar increase their vertue XXII A safe Preparation of Cantharides XXIII The efficacy of volatil Salts XXIV Tartar requires but small Preparation XXV How the Roots of Asarabacca become Diuretick XXVI Some are gentle some strong XXVII When the stronger are to be used XXVIII I. THe Origins of many Diseases happen for want of a due separation of the Serum but as to this separation seeing there are faults of divers kinds the offence is for the most part either in defect or excess for sometimes the Serum does too pertinaciously adhere to the Blood and on the contrary sometimes it parts too soon from it and in this regard the Blood being not able to contain the Serum doth spue it out of the mouths of the Arteries in many places and almost every where and so depositing it in the viscera or the habit of the Body procures an ascites or anasarca and sometimes sending it off immoderately to the Kidneys it causes a diabetes When the Blood is too tenacious of the serum for the most part it is either over hot through a Fever having its compages too strict and the thicker Particles so incorporated with it that the thinner cannot easily get therefrom or being filled with scorbutick Salt and Sulphur it becomes very clammy and tenacious so that the serosities do difficultly slide out of the embraces of the rest And seeing the departure of the serum from the Blood is hindred or perverted so many ways Diuretick Medicines also are of a different Nature and Operation which yet may be distinguished 1. as to the End according to which they respect the mass of Blood or the Kidneys or both together 2. as to the Matter in which respect they are either Sulphureous or saline And these again are various according as the saline Particles are in a state of fixity fluor or volatility or are moreover nitrous or alkalizate 3. As to the Form these Medicines are of divers kinds Drinks Powders c. II. When the Blood through an incorporation and mutual combination of the fixed Salt with the Sulphur and Earth becomes so thick and tenacious that the watry Particles do not easily part from the rest the Diureticks which may loosen its compages and fuse the serum must be of such a sort as are endued with a volatil or an acid Salt for such Particles do chiefly dissolve the combination that the fixed Salt has entred into And seeing this disposition is common both to the Fever and Scurvy in the former the most proper Diureticks are both the temperate acids of Vegetables and also the Salt of Nitre the spirit of Sea-salt of Vitriol c. likewise those endued with a volatil Salt as the spirit of Hartshorn of Sal Armoniack the Salt of the juice of Vipers In a scorbutical Disposition when the Urine is both little and thick the juices of Herbs and both acrimonious and acid Preparations are of notable use also the salt and spirit of Urine Idem of Sal Armon of Tartar c. III. Sometimes the Blood keeps not its serum long enough within its compages but being subject to fluxions or rather coagulations and depositing the serum here and there in great plenty it raises Catarrhs or Tumours in divers places Or the Blood being habitually weak and withal dyscratick or intemperate namely inclining to sowrness is apt to coagulate as to its thicker Particles so that in the circulation the thinner being thrown off every where and falling upon the weaker Parts cause sometimes Cephalick or Thoracick Distempers sometimes an Ascites or Anasarca and from a like cause we think a Diabetes also springs For many dangerous Diseases which are mistakingly ascribed to the dyscrasies of the Viscera arise from this cause namely inasmuch as the Blood being of an evil temper and liable to coagulations cannot continue the thread of the circulation entire but in divers places deposits the Serum that is too apt to depart from it The Diureticks to be administer'd in this case are such as do not fuse the Blood but take away its coagulations as are those endued with a fixt volatil and also an alkalizate Salt moreover those that strengthen and restore the Ferment of the Kidneys as some sulphureous and spirituous For these purposes are sulphureous and mixt Diureticks the lixivial Salts of Herbs Shell-Powders the Salt and Spirit of Urine c. Hog-lice the roots of Horse Rhadish the seed of Smalledge Nutmeg Turpentine and its Preparations the spirit of Wine the vertue of all which is not to fuse the Blood and to precipitate the Serosities out of its mass these things acids chiefly do and in those cases often hinder making water but to dissolve the coagulations of the Blood so that its compages recovering an intire mixture and being circulated more quickly through the Vessels it resorbs the Serum that was every where extravasated and deposited and at length delivers it to the Kidneys to be sent off We shall shew afterwards how the Diureticks of every kind operate according to these two almost opposite ends of curing IV. As to saline Diureticks we must know that what Salts soever of a different state are mixed together do catch hold of one another and by and by are joined together and while they are so combined that other Particles which are loose from the mixture do retire by themselves or fly away This is seen when a fluid or acid Salt is joyned to a fixed or alkalizate also when a fluid or fixed is put to a volatil or acrimonious From this affection alone of the Salts does all the matter of all Solutions and Precipitations whatsoever depend Wherefore seeing the Blood and Humours of our Body abound with very much Salt which uses to be diversly changed from one state to another and thereupon to acquire a morbid disposition and seeing moreover there are divers kinds of saline Diaphoreticks namely such as are endued with a fixt fluid nitrous volatil and alkalizate Salâ— there will always be need of the great discretion and judgment of the Physician that the saline Particles in the Medicine differ from those in our Body In what manner this should be done we will set forth by running through all the kinds of saline Diureticks 1. Amongst the Diureticks imbued with an acid Salt are the Spirits of Salt or Nitre also the juice of Lemons and Sorrel White Rhenish Wine and Cyder are of greatest note with the vulgar and often perform that intention For these alone fuse the Blood and precipitate it into serosities as when an acid is poured into boiling Milk But this happens not alike to all nor equally to every
to eat little Ulcers in the Skin for Issues Where note that both the lixivial Salt and acid Spirit obtain their notable acrimony from the fire seeing both are prepared from a saline matter by the force of a sharp fire Now seeing no such or so great fire can be kindled in our Body as is needful for the making of an acid Spirit it is not to be supposed that any acid Spirit is properly prepared in the Body but only principally separated and freed from the temperating Impediments viz. Oil and volatil Spirit A pretty pure acid Spirit has often been observed in the Body even without the use or abuse of any thing that has been manifestly acid Thus diverse-coloured stools are observed in Infants yet commonly of a various green and smelling acid whence doubtless Epileptick Fits have their origine from an acid Spirit fermenting in the small Guts with the choler Thus torturing Pains in any part of the Body that sometimes arise like lightening on a sudden or otherwise rack cruelly yield a certain Argument that there is an acid Spirit separately in the Body that is very moveable and gnaws the sensible Parts So rottenness of the Bones shews that there is a too pure acid Spirit in the Body which is clear from the intolerable Pains that often go before and which can only be deduced from acidity Namely the acrimony arising from a lixivial Salt abides more fixt in the same place and seems to burn the Part affected while an acid Spirit is judged to hit or tear or perforate by repeated gnawings the Part that is seised upon by it This conjecture of mine has been confirmed by spittle that has sometimes been so acid as to set the Teeth on edge like other acids taken into the Mouth The matter of acid Humours is supplied to the Glands from the arterial Blood wherein that there are acid Spirits is evinced both by its coagulation into clods when it is let out of the Vessels and also by the corrosion and consumption of the Bones that is made by the arterial Blood in an Aneorism The acrimony of an acid Spirit is temper'd chiefly by a volatil Spirit that sweetens the same being easily united to it Thus Spirit of Wine being cohobated with Spirit of Salt does so lenifie the same that it is then called sweet by Artists The same is temper'd by all sweet things but these do more difficultly unite with it if it were not for the lixivial Salt that is mixt with the fat For as an acid and volatil Spirit are easily joined throughly with one another and an Oil is easily mixed with a lixivial Salt so on the contrary a volatil Spirit and lixivial Salt do more difficultly combine together Idem Disput Medic. vij § 43. seqq and the most difficultly of all an acid Spirit and Oil. ¶ Though all acrimony seem to produce a sense of heat in sensible Parts yet from the cure there appears to be a different acrimony one indeed joined with heat and another destitute of it And seeing we have not only discover'd two sorts of acrimony that are found in our Body but besides from their conflux because of other things that are joined with them a double effervescence is observed to be produced both an hot and also a cold which are not only manifest to sense and therefore distinct from one another but yielding to different Remedies and so also differing from one another It may deservedly be queried what sort of heat that is which uses to accompany now and then for instance the flux of the Terms whether that which has its rise only from an hot effervescence or also from a cold or whether from each acrimony offending without such an effervescence By neglecting this question and the clearing and determination hereof we should undertake an Empirical rash and often a pernicious cure For seeing the heat may be produced from divers causes it is also to be cured diversly according to the diversity of the cause And if any object that I have taught that both sorts of acrimony may be allay'd and temper'd by the same Medicines both spirituous and oily and watry and that therefore it matters little what acrimony offend seeing the same Medicines are profitable in both cases I answer that both sorts of acrimony are indeed temper'd by the same Medicines but not alike quickly and powerfully seeing oily Medicines do both more easily and quickly and powerfully temper a lixivial Salt as on the contrary spirituous volatils an acid Spirit so that though all things that temper either sort of acrimony are always administred with Profit and especially when there want signs that may demonstrate sufficiently whether of them do primarily and chiefly offend yet as often as it can be known which offends it is better to use chiefly those Remedies that are especially conducible to the tempering of it which as it is sometimes known from concurring signs and symptoms so it is frequently concluded from the different operâ—tion of the Medicine that is given that is à juvantibus vel nocentibus from helpers or hurters according to the golden axiom of Practitioners The heat therefore that is produced for instance from the menstruous Blood in the ways through which it is poured forth has sometimes yea indeed often its rise from an acid Humour that is in the Womb and which comes forth with the Blood whether it make none or an hot effervescence therewith If the acid Humour that is found preternaturally in the substance of the Womb cause no effervescence with the menstruous Blood there will rather be felt a troublesom gnawing than a true heat in the Parts affected But if the same acid juice do cause an hot effervescence with the menstruous Blood then there will be raised an heat and often a redness also even in the extreme Parts and both will be observed when the acid does either notably gnaw only or also burns withal but as often as the offending matter is more gentle or more broken then we cannot so distinctly conclude in what regard the acrimony offends I am therefore of opinion that in the heat that accompanies the flux of the Terms an acid always offends Idem Prax. l. 3. c. 3. § 416. seqq whereto is sometimes joined a more or less cholerick Blood whence the said heat uses to be diversly changed and felt ¶ An acid acrimony is temper'd by several oleous things by Oil it self any sort of Milk Broth of flesh especially such as is fat Emulsions prepared of divers sorts of Seeds especially of sweet Almonds Moreover by sweet things Sugar Honey Raisins and sometimes by spirituous things or others that concentrate an acid such as Corals Perles A lixivial and aromatick acrimony such as is in Pepper Cloves Rocket and the like is temper'd by both the aforesaid oily and sweet things yet 't is safer to abstain wholly or in a great measure from them A Salt acrimony such as is in
that which otherwhiles she does of her own accord And if she can profitably evacuate without help she may evacuate more profitably when assisted by the help of Art for nothing can hinder Purging before Concoction that does not also and far more oppose symptomatical evacuation But when besides want of Concoction or turgescence there are present all other conditions that may disswade from Purging then abstaining wholly from it if I may not let Blood I will however provide for the faculty and use only Clysters and Suppositories But if though there be neither Concoction nor turgescence yet other conditions do not wholly deterr me I will venture to Purge for urgency and that by so much the more confidently by how much the conditions that invite shall be the more numerous for this is indicated if the evacuation may profit and not hurt which it is the part of an Artist to find out Now by what conditions one may know whether this or that Person are to be Purged at this time I shall endeavour from Reason and Experience to shew A special condition that permits Purgation is if the Hypochondres be quite free of a Phlegmon for if any one shall endeavour to remedy an inflamed Part by Purging he shall take nothing of that away which is inflamed but shall increase the Phlegmon cause a colliquation and so procure Death Moreover a moderate Fever permits it but if a Purge be given in a very high burning Fever the hot flesh attracts it and so nothing is evacuated but the Fever and Cacochymie is increased But a principal thing that hinders is the heat of the Head and spiritual Parts because these Parts when they are hot are apt to draw all things to themselves and to absorb what the Medicine stirs Driness of the Belly or costiveness also hinder because this indicates that the Humours incline some other way and 't is to be feared that when they are moved and not evacuated but snatcht some other way they prove a cause of greater mischief 'T is also of very great moment to consider the nature of a man for some are easie to Purge and that without any Symptoms or Mischief Purge them when you will Some are so hard that though they be Purged in the fittest Season they are seised upon by horrible Symptoms and are manifestly worse afterwards When these conditions that hinder are two or more of them present we must rather put it to the hazard than Purge But if the Patient be one of those that are easie to Purge and be sick of a Putrid Fever with some suspicion of Malignity if he have been let Blood sufficiently and the Humours be not turgent indeed and wandring up and down nor yet altogether quiet but fused as it were and tending towards the Belly which is shewn by a rumbling in the Hypochondres or loose Stools two or three in a day for this is no small invitation to Purge if the Hypochondres themselves be loose and not hot to any considerable degree nor the flesh burn through the whole habit of the Body if there be felt no great heat in the Head or Breast when one lays his hand thereon but the Fever that is is dispersed equally all over the Body or incline to the lower Parts in these cases though there be no concoction as yet I will give a Purging Medicine because that which is present does not very much hinder and that which is feared is urgent and the indication of urgency is the first of all But if there seem to be any Inflammation or Phlegmon lying hid in the Belly though I fear a Cacochymie I will not give a Purge I will rather venture even though the faculty be doubtful to let more Blood than I had thought for I will do the like if the Breast or Head or all the flesh burn vehemently unless there be great despair of the faculty for if there be I will moisten the Head with Vinegar of Roses the Breast or even all the Body over with Water and Oyl and will give cold things to drink So if he I am a speaking of be very costive I will refrain Purging though I fear the nature of the Humours till I have first a little softened the Belly with mollifying Clysters for acrimonious ones are not good for this purpose because they have the hurt of Purgers in them and rather dry the Belly and the use of light Meats as stew'd Prunes c. But it is manifest that if two or more of the aforesaid things hinder we must take a course with them before we Purge and that together if we can as if both the Head burn and the Belly be dry the Belly must be softened and the Head cooled by irrigation at the same time But if the Disease do not at all yield to these Remedies but the concourse of Symptoms continue and there be no urgent cause we must not Purge for if we do the Patient will on the same day be taken with light-headedness and convulsion and it may be die to the great infamy of the Physician We must therefore do any thing rather There are many things in this Art Valles m. m. l. 4. c. 2. wherein for urgencies sake it is an art to depart from Art c. II. Many keep a great pother about expounding Aphor. 22. 1. and 29. 2. Things concocted are to be purged forth and not crude c. But in my opinion the matter is not so abstruse for I think that Hippocrates understood nothing else by things concocted but such things as may be separated from the mass of Blood And in the other aphorism by the words If any thing be to be moved move it in the beginning of the Diseases I think he means that we should purge presently after the beginning of the Disease before the vitious Humours by means of the perpetual motion of the Heart be confused and mixt with the whole mass of Blood For if we please to consider this matter further we see that Humours may then be separated 1. when they are overcome by Nature 2. when some vitious matter sticking somewhere in the Body is not as yet consounded with the Blood Walaeus Meth. Med. p. 35. as I have said 3. when by due helps we assist Nature that is endeavouring to attenuate and conquer the Humours III. A concoction of the Humours is not always to be tarried for nor is their preparation always to be premised before we will purge the Body for when the matter is moveable prepared for excretion ebullient or turgent what need is there of digestives and one Purge does generally less offend the Stomach than so often repeated digestive potions that dissolve and taint the Stomach so that crudities being thereupon increased there is a greater afflux to the joints he is speaking of the Gout Add hereto that while we are busied with digestives the pains increases Sennert l. de Arthrit See Zacut. Pr. hist l. 4. c.
that the Purge should presently be carried down into the Guts but it is expedient that it stay a good whil◠in the Stomach that it may work more effectually and its Vertue be the better distributed I answer If there be a fermentation Scammony may be mixed with other Purgers and so Alexander hath mixt it here But if there be no fermentation of the Medicin if it be given to purge a cold matter then according to Alexander nothing is to be mixed with it under the notion of a Stimulus But if an unfermented Medicin be given to purge an Hot and Cholerick matter we may mix something with it for a Stimulus Capivacc 1. Pract. l. 1. c. 24. for when a Purge is hot it is not good for it to stay long in the Stomach but to descend presently II. Most of the Arabians affirm that Aloes opens the Orifices of the Veins But Dioscorides says it has an astringent Vertue and being drunk with cold Water restrains fluxes of Blood Galen 6. simpl says that it glutinates I say that Aloes applied outwardly shuts the Orifices of the Veins and so stops the Blood from issuing forth But being taken inwardly so as to penetrate into the Veins it promotes the fluxion of the Blood For being applied outwardly it has a condensing astringing and glutinating Vertue but the same taken inwardly because it attenuates very much makes the Blood hotter and fuses it as it were Dioscorides and Pliny say indeed that being taken inwardly in drink it stops a flux of Blood but they speak of spitting of Blood caused by the opening of some Vein Fr. de la Boe Sylvius Pract. l. 1. c. 34. Sennert Pract. l. 3. p. 252. c. 13. for then it is instead of an external remedy for being drunk it flows to the open Orifice of the Vein and shuts it just as it does when applied outwardly to some wound I omit Aloes on purpose in most of the Pills I prescribe because it is wont to open the Hemorrhoids in many with trouble and sometimes with hurt III. Whether does Aloes purge the whole Body Galen 6. simpl places it among the Medicins that evacuate the faeces or dung The same Person Lib. de Theriaca ad Pison Cap. 4. says it purges the whole Body I say First Being taken in a small quantity it evacuates out of the Stomach and guts but in a greater it draws from the whole Body Secondly Seeing the Distempers of the Head and upper parts commonly arise by consent from the lower these latter being purged Zacut. Pharmac C. 5. the Head and whole Body become freed from excrements IV. Whether is Aloes an enemy to the Liver Pliny L. 17. C. 4. Paulus L. 7. C. 4. and Mesue say that it helps the Liver Avicen 14. 3. tr 4. affirms that it hurts it I say Aloes hurts an hot Liver Galen 3. χ. τ. c. 2. says that even washed it is very bad for those that labour under an hot and dry intemperature without vitious humours Idem V. Whether may Aloes be taken presently after Meat The Author of the Book de simpl med ascribed to Galen writes thus Some after supper swallow two or three Gr. of Aloes about the bigness of a small Pease because it helps concoction and corrupts not the Victuals Pliny L. 27. C. 4. If the Victuals be hard to concoct Aloes is taken a little space after Supper On the contrary Paulus L. 7. C. 4. 6. forbids Aloes after Meat because purgation is hindred by the Victuals and these are moreover corrupted by it I say Pliny gives it in a very small quantity to strengthen and help concoction and the Author of the Book de simpl med orders only two or three Grains which quantity may strengthen the Stomach Idem but cannot purge If it be taken in a large quantity it will offend the Stomach and corrupt the Meat VI. Whether does it need correction According to Paulus L. 7. C. 4. it needs no other Medicin to be mixed with it to retund its ill quality for it is a safe Medicin and strengthens the parts Yet Galen 8. χ. τ. C. 2. bids us add Mastich and Cinamon I say there is a double quality in Aloes as bitter and an astringent this latter is grateful to the Stomach the former offensive and overturns it and this Galen tames with Mastich and Cinamon ¶ Wedelius notes concerning it Idem 1. That it is better extracted for lenifying by watry Liquors than by Spirituous 2. That it operates better in a lesser Dose 3. That it is better for drinkers of Beer or Ale than for Wine-drinkers VII Dioscorides and Serapio teach that Aloes is to be washed 1. For separating the earthy and gravelly part for curing Distempers of the Eyes 2. To take away its purgative Vertue and increase its astringent 3. To intend its Purgative But washing is improperly spoken of pure Aloes and to what end is the washing it with Water and the drying of it by the heat of the Sun to be repeated For what Vertue can accrew to it from the Water by which it ought to be so often dissolved and dried again if otherwise it be pure and pellucid If it be defiled with Sordes or dross I grant it is to be dissolved and strained that it may become clearer and purer but that is more conveniently done by the Spirit of Wine which withal extracts its resinous and Balsamick part than by Water that leaves that untoucht and then it will suffice to dissolve it only once and to thicken it after it has been dissolv'd For by those repeated solutions and inspissations the Aloes is not made better but is rather destroyed after the manner of all purging Vegetables I like that way best of all when the Aloes Socotrina being pouder'd there is pour'd on it by repeated turns either the Juice of Violets inspissated with the Juice of Peach flowers or the Juice of Roses and the Juice is permitted to be dried away by a gentle heat Those offend more that cast away the Liquor wherein the purest part of the Aloes is dissolved and call that feculent part which they keep washt Aloes 'T is true indeed that this purges less than that which is not washt namely Sennert in paralip ad instit C. 13. because the best part is separated from it the faeces only being left with a small quantity of Aloes ¶ This is that residence which Helmont rejects when he says that that which remains from the washing by its sticking to the Intestins causes Griping and the Hemorrhoids Aloes consists of a resinous part and a watry The former is unfit for purging but this fit Wherefore if you desire a purging Aloes Schroderus letting alone the resinous part gather the watry that will dissolve in the Water and is separated from the faeces VIII Aloes is friendly to the Stomachs of old Men not only because old Men are cold for it has a drying and
waste of the Roses for a far less quantity will serve to make it Purgative And if any being not so desirous of the Purgative vertue of the Roses do rather by repeating so many infusions as are requisite to spend so large a quantity of Roses endeavour to increase the cooling vertue such an one certainly is much mistaken for the oftner the Roses are infused so much the bitterer will the infusion be and bitterness is not the offspring of cold but of heat therefore this infusion will not cool so much Not to mention that it has been observed more than once that by giving this Syrup that has been prepared of so frequent infusions Zwelf pharm classe 2. Febrile-heats have not only not been diminished and allayed but even encreased and a double Tertian made of a simple one This happens chiefly from a large exclusion of the Serum for this Syrup is an Hydragogue which is a bridle to the Choler LXI Mesue cap. xi simpl notes that Violets cannot endure much boiling as if he had said that they are of thin and volatil parts For this is to be observed that the more fragrant any flowers or fruits are by so much the apter generally is their fragrancy to vanish because of the great volatility of their Sulphurs and Salts Nor is there any reason but this why the Syrup of Violets made by many infusions being given from one Ounce to three does more irritate the Belly than the juice given from two Ounces to five and is far more fragrant than that made of the juice S. Pauli Quadr. Botan class 2. than which Syrup no Medicin can be devised more convenient for the Pleuritical LXII I will admonish all Practitioners in Physick that they do not like the Vulgar too highly commend Worm-wood-Wine indifferently to all persons but only to those who labour not of a bare intemperies of the bowels alone but in whom these are full of slimy and cold humours Therefore let us cease to wonder how it comes to pass that the greatest part of great drinkers who guzle freely every day either Wormwood or Burnt-wine die before their time Consumptive melting away as it were by degrees Wherefore let Wormwood-Wine only gently move the belly prepared with or without Aloes and Centaury and other Abstergers yet you will not upon tryal find these and the like infusions made of such things to be so very safe especially for Old men and in a dry constitution of body Take these elegant reasons of Hofman and Galen himself We must be much more careful of Cautions having spoken before of the corrections of Aloes lib. 1. de med offic c. 3. The greatest of these is the same that is delivered by Galen 7. m. m. XI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Let it not be given to those who labour under a bare intemperature without matter such need not evacuation much less so strongly drying a Medicine and which instead of evacuation causes a tabes on the contrary it is given with great benefit to the cold and moist The Second is from the same fountain 1. de sanit tuend c. 11. Give it not to Old men nor to such as are dried from any cause unless in case of necessity Which necessity says Helidaeus is when humours abound To which I object That Old men are all of them excrementous Therefore it is better to use others especially such as moisten concerning which consult Galen himself The Third is from 3. aph 15. Let not the use thereof be too frequent nor so daily as some make it for those are Golden words of Galen The evacuation of superfluities says he that is made by purgers is profitable to those that need it much and have done so for some time but the evacuation of those superfluities that are generated every day deserves not so effectual a remedy And if any will use that evacuation twice a Month for fear there should be heaped up a multitude of excrements besides that it will do harm it will also bring the Body to an ill custom Let those hear this that use long decoctions or purging Infusions for months together For supposing that the Body is throughly Purged thereby yet the Viscera are miserably tormented And such as value and have a care of health will take these things as spoken to themselves for it often happens that the unwary destroy the causes of Life for Lifes sake that is by the unseasonable and preposterous use of Purging and drying Medicins do imperceptibly hasten on Old Age For unless we grew dry we might promise our selves a long Life It is therefore a true saying It is often the best remedy to use no remedies Nature her self being the best Physician And indeed those are the most diseased that are ever and anon depending on the Box and Coffer of the Apothecaries Who ever saw a Water-man unless he were a fool stuffing his Boat with Pitch and Tow when it gaped not Yet we industriously continue to corrupt our Body whilst we are in perfect health with many Medicins divers Pills c. Whereas we should not follow this custom but for the aforesaid weighty reasons follow the course of skilful Surgeons who know that in the curing of wounds endeavour is to be used that they be not cleansed too much if we would heal and skin them for if any do otherwise together with the purulent filth he deterges the thick clammy glutinous Blood of the wounds which is nearest the being converted into Flesh and so the closing up of the wound is unwarily hindred Those therefore who by swallowing Pills especially those of Aloes do every or every other day excite the small Guts above to excretion or dilute the thick Guts below by Clysters these verily through their unskilfulness in Anatomy do by many harms kill many For seeing the most perfect concoction of the natural bowels either cannot be finished without a previous and decent fermentation and fermentation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or windy or the Chyle by means of it is said to grow spirituous or seeing the things to be concocted in the Stomach and Guts by secretion are resolved also either into Spirit or Flatus yea and skilful nature hath for this purpose annexed to the other Guts an empty sack as it were called the blind Gut that it might be a natural receptacle of Flatus as the Gall bladder is of the Gall I say seeing things are thus a Clyster is not presently required as soon as the Belly rumbles which it often does without any trouble or we perceive our Guts to be moved gently with a motion that is most natural to them but hitherto taken for preternatural Flatus c. lest to speak with Celsus we consume in our health the remedies of sickness It is known also that Doctors of Anatomy teach us that besides the proper whether coats or membranes the Guts are naturally lined also with a crusty fungous and mucous substance that the excrements may
which being hot and moist hath an analogy with the Air below this is Melancholy which being of an Earthy nature descends to the lowest place by its weight Phlegm which resembles the nature of water they say is mixed with Melancholy as Water is easily mixed with Earth Besides they say that the said humours do yet more betray themselves by their colour especially Blood and Melancholy The manifest token of the former is a splendid redness and of the latter a blackish colour Indeed those who think thus do notably accommodate these phaenomena to their Hypotheses But from what has been said it is evident that the uppermost part of the Blood is red because it is very quickly cooled and is more immediately affected by the pulse of the Air and that the lowest is blackish because it is cooled by degrees and the Air acts only remotely upon it Wherefore it depends on the pleasure of the Surgeon whether all the Blood that is poured forth of any Vein shall look intensely red or no for so it will look if it be received in a wide Bason but blackish if in a narrow and deep Vessel or if it be set to coagulate in a warm place Thus Blood may be accounted almost all of it Melancholy or all of it Blood in specie so called as it cools on this or that manner Therefore it is a weak argument that is taken from the colour of the different parts of the Blood cooled in a Vessel Idem See below §. 21. to prove that its elements are the four vulgar humours XVI Nor may we always from the colour being changed infer that the substance is changed or corrupted for we see many Bodies change colour without any sensible detriment to their chief faculties seeing they put forth the same actions as before and with the same strength But in Heterogeneous Liquors there can hardly be induced a colour much different from what they use to have but they must undergo a great change especially if they be of the kind of those that are very easily alter'd through the mutual action of the parts that constitute them whether those parts be determin'd to act upon their fellows by external agents or be stirred up to divorce by the mixture of extraneous Bodies by which ways both Blood and Milk are very easily changed suffering on this side divers Secretions and on that Concretions of their constituent parts Hither does that retire that is thin and more fluid and there does that coagulate which is more thick All which things can hardly happen but there must be some change in colour and hardly can Blood undergo such a change but these things preceded Wherefore one would think that the colour of the Blood might shew whether and how great its putrefaction is Moreover a livid or black colour both in the Blood and in the Flesh signifies that there is a putrefaction a growing or already grown therein as we may observe in a Gangrene and Mortification And though Pus or Matter be the offspring of the Blood or Flesh putrefying in a certain manner yet they are not changed into Pus till they have past into a sublivid Sanies Putrefaction consists in the dissolution of the parts from one another so as that they fall asunder or be very ready so to do Putrefaction I mean properly so called which is in the Bodies of Animals Such dissolution of the parts is necessarily accompanied with blackness the parts being dissipated that reflect the light more strongly and plentifully or being however become softer Therefore when the Blood looks black not only in the bottom of the Vessel for the reasons given in the preceding Paragraphs but also in the very surface where through its proper constitution from the sudden cooling and appulse of the Air it ought to be red 't is a certain sign that there is some putrefaction in it If the Blood be not only black but also do not coagulate it signifies that the putrefaction is diffused through the whole Mass the Fibres being corrupted by which the Blood should curdle If the Blood look red in its surface in one place and in another incline to livid if here it look palish and there yellowish c. it is a sign there is a great disposition to putrefaction For that variety of colours cannot happen unless many and Foreign and diverse things be mixed with the Mass of Blood which whilst they act upon one another corrupt the Mass of Blood There are innumerable things to be inquired concerning the colour and consistence of the Blood the knowledge whereof is greatly necessary for the knowing of diseases and Morbifick causes Idem probl 6. XVII When in Venesection the Blood that runs forth is received into Water that part that gives redness to the whole Mass is separated from the rest and mixt with the Water and the remainder or a great part of it for the most part grows together into whitish Fibres Some think that what is Phlegmatick in the Blood or Phlegm it self passes into such Fibres It cannot be denied but Phlegm is always mixed with the Blood seeing even in the healthful something of Phlegm does continually destil from the Brain upon the Fauces and from thence into the Stomach But I can hardly be brought to believe that the Filaments that grow together in the Water are mere Phlegm but I should rather think that it is that part of the Blood which was ready to pass into the substance of the solid parts for both of these are white And it is an argument hereof that such as have more and more firm Flesh and a more robust Body in the same is the Fibrous part of the Blood the more plentiful And in the lean whose Blood is more acrimonious or corrupted there are fewer of those Fibres Therefore from those whitish Fibres it cannot be inferred that the Blood is Phlegmatick but that it has a greater or lesser consistence accordingly as these Fibres abound more or less Besides from the colour of the Fibres it may be inferred whether the Blood incline to a Cholerick Phlegmatick or Melancholick constitution Thus heretofore Hippocrates knew by the rags of a menstruous Woman having first wiped away the red part of the Blood whether the Blood were bilious Idem probl 7. c. XVIII I do not think that snivel which sometimes swims a top of the Red Blood is always excrementitious Phlegm but rather the crude part of the Blood elaborated from the chyle but not as yet concocted enough nor brought to that perfection it ought to have but wants to be perfected by the repeated circulation of the Blood Aristotle himself calls that Muccago or Snivel the crude and unconcocted part of the Blood Harvey lib. de generat animal p. 319. says that that part is found in the more hot and robust Animals as Horses Oxen and Men also of a vivid constitution and swims a top like Hartshorn gelly or the white of an
cold as if for example any labour under a cold intemperies he must use hot things only and abstain from Bleeding which is a cooling remedy But if the disease be hot and Refrigeration be only as an antecedent cause while we extinguish the Fever by Bleeding we shall do no harm for the procatarctick cause has no indication belonging to it Yet when refrigeration hurteth even the Viscera Valles contr l. 7. c. 6. Bleeding is most of all to be shunn'd ¶ Those things which are alledged against Bleeding are only to be understood of that which is made for evacuations sake and make us take heed that by letting Blood there follow not a crudity of cold humours and intimate that the quantity is to be moderated Add hereto that the Authors of approved medicin have often practis'd Venesection in diseases meerly cold as in a Dropsie from the retention of some usual evacuation Hippocr 4. acut 11. For when the heat is suffocated by Blood that is too cold through its plenty Bleeding is a present remedy Likewise in palpitation a cold disease lib. de rigore c. c. 5. In a Priapism 14. meth c. 7. In a suffocation by cold Water Dioscor l. 6. c. 4. Paul lib. 5. cap. 66. Zacut. princ med hist 8. l. 2. In stubborn diseases proceeding from a cold cause to abstain altogether or more than is meet from Bleeding is not the part of a prudent Physician seeing 't is certain that every part of the Body is nourished by that matter which is in the Veins Which the colder and thicker it is by so much the more grievous and stubborn does it make the distemper that is raised from the like matter L. Botal de s m. cap. 12. Which matter we say is to be diminished partly by Bleeding partly by Purging and an attenuating diet that the Mass of Blood being cleansed and renewed the disease may be cured XLI Others proceed further who in all Fevers let forth the harmless Blood excepting neither the spotted Fever nor the Plague nor Poison Thus freeing themselves of much labour and trouble which otherwise the many sorts of Fevers would create them But because the nature of poison and malignant humours chiefly consists in this that they forthwith set upon the heart and quickly deject the strength of the most robust and seeing Bleeding does both likewise not only diminish the strength but also draw the malignity to the Heart and impells that back again to the oppression of Nature which she had driven forth for her own easement I cannot but pray and admonish all Artists that they will not proceed to Venesection either in the Plague or other malignant Fevers or also in all those accidents whereby men are Poison'd inwardly or outwardly especially if they love and seriously aim at tranquillity of mind and the health of the Patient that desires their help The French Italian Spaniards and Portugueze those fierce contenders for Venesection will reply to me that Nature by Venesection draws Air as it were and is unloaded in some manner that she may so much the more easily cast forth the remaining malignity And this seems true for the Blood draws the Air that its Spirits may the more readily fly away and it may be eased of those faculties that it necessarily wants When these things are finished the Patient changes life for death and very well knows how to draw tears from the Eyes of the by-standers Giving no other reasons they do moreover rely upon their experience but I wish they relied well upon it for I have found such Patients who in the morning were in no danger after Bleeding five or six ounces taken away in the evening by cold and rigid death Hence therefore we may rightly gather what it is they name Experience namely If the Patient by chance escape the honour is given to Venesection but if he die as he does commonly there was malignity in the case Therefore I oppose experience to experience thanking God greatly that he hath exhibited and demonstrated a far certainer and better remedy to all those who rightly consider diseases without envy passion or being inslaved to anothers opinion Others that they might seem more moderate in this matter admit of Venesection in the beginning of the disease before the malignity manifest it self externally and herein I will readily assent to them if it be done 1. In hot Countries 2. In a full Body 3. When the humours ascending to the head cause grievous accidents there In such a case I think Bleeding in the Arm or Foot will do a great deal of good But those who will prescribe Venesection in all Bodies and without difference in these cold and moist Countries such shall certainly find no good success thereof Yea they can hardly give a reason which will be received by art as genuine especially seeing themselves do freely and ingenuously confess that they sometimes meet with such cases wherein they dare not order Bleeding which they cry up so much Barbette Chirurg part 1. cap. XI performing the cure to their desire by Sudoriferous and cooling potions XLII Avicen Fen. 4. l. 1. c. 29. Bleeding often causes a Fever and many times putrefaction Venesection through the ebullition of the Spirits causes diary Fevers and if it be too large by debilitating Nature causes putrefaction the innate heat being weakned it generates an Hectick if it be done in Bodies wanting Blood the lean hot dry A weakly man being in no disease caused himself to be Bled in the midst of Summer being lean and weak he begun to be Feverish thereupon and complaining of an inflammation in his Liver the Physician not considering his weakness nor thinking upon Coolers and Purgers that were then necessary Zacut. prax admir lib. 3. obs 53. Bleeds him more than once Whereupon the Blood wherein heat has its perseverance being evacuated his flesh wasted and he died of a tabid Fever XLIII When there is occasion for repeated Bleeding whether ought the second to be larger than the first Galen l. 4. de sanit tuend seems to make the second larger But l. de venae sectione he bids us add half the quantity the second time Which many understand so as that only half as much is to be let forth as was before but I think he means as much and half as much more Namely if six ounces were taken the first time then nine are to be taken the second Though there is a contrary place lib. de venae sectione c. 17. where Galen took three pound the first time and after an hour one pound But there as I suppose the case was so urgent as to compel him to take more the first time Yet the matter is thus to be weighed namely That where nothing hinders and necessity is not very urgent it is better to begin with a small quantity especially when we have not experienced the strength of the Patient But when we have and find it consenting when necessity
remained open Therefore the palliative cure of fistula's must not be rejected III. A fistula in the Perinaeum if it come from an internal cause is never perfectly cured it is indeed sometimes skinned over but it quickly returns upon the least internal cause yea and sometimes if it be stopt up for a while grievous Symptoms do follow Once when I had scarce cicatrized a fistula in a Man of Threescore which followed a caruncle and retention of Urine and the Patient after the cure was continually tormented again with difficulty of Urine and other Symptoms I was forced to open the fistula again upon which he not onely recovered but lived to above Threescore and seventeen Hence Patients may learn not to be so solicitous for the cure of such fistula's for they are a proper passage for the excretion of much excrements which by the benefit of Nature are cast off thither from the Liver Kidneys Bladder and the Spermatick Vessels For I have observed that they who have had such fistula's are usually free from other worse Diseases I reckon Ulcers in the Perinaeum when they come to the Urinary passage almost incurable because of abundance of Excrements wherewith old men abound and the weakness of the excretive faculty arising from Venus or from some other cause so great that it cannot discharge the Urine full of excrementitious humours by the anfractuous passage of the penis Hiâ—â—anus cent 5. 1 s 75. We need not despair of a cure in Children and young Men. IV. Some must not be cured according to Hippocrates 6. Epid. 3. 39. lib. de Humor 3. that is such as discharge the body of superfluous humours and preserve from other Diseases Such are in the lower parts old ones and remote from the principal parts They must not be closed yea rather they should be opened if they chance to heal up I have known people who have had a fistula in ano without any mischief for 25 years yea it has done them good Besides some fistula's in their own nature refuse a cure according to Albucasis lib. 2. cap. 28. such as reach to the great Veins Arteries or Nerves the Peritonaeum Guts Bladder Vertebra's of the Back and Ribs such as are in any joint of the hand or foot For they do not admit convenient Medicines ¶ I have often seen fistula's near the Eyes and the Anus cured Faâ— ab Aquapendente and pernicious Symptoms and death have followed thereupon I have also seen fistula's cured outwardly and a Sinus left within especially about the podex out of which sharp Ichores coming by transumption to the neck of the bladder use to raise such Symptoms as are ordinary in the Stone of the Bladder Sanctorius V. In one who 27 years since broke his Leg the wound could not be so healed but that an Ichor would always be ouzing out of it the Sore at last ending in a fistula A few years after he was sent to Madrid the care of his body being neglected because of his business yet he found after a few Months that the troublesome Serum stopt and ran not again for 3 years When he returned to Copenhagen the fistula opened by little and little and after the old manner ran a Serous matter daily for several years He is sent again into Spain upon some affairs the wound closed up again and did not run any thing for six years while he abode at Madrid Then returning to his Country he found the hole opened again in a few Months time which is not yet healed up Porriâ—hius in Actis Denicis the moist Air in the North opening what the dry Spanish Air had shut VI. One had two deep fistula's under the Arm-pit all that I had tried being in vain I cured him thus I burnt both the fistula's to the very bottom they reached to the very ribs with a red-hot Iron without a Case several times till the Callus was wholly and equally taken off the Sinus of the fistula's To deterge the Eschar I used Tents first of all long and thick anointed with Butter afterwards with a digestive When laudable Pus appeared I put in others anointed with Vnguentum ex betonica which I made every day shorter and shorter These things being removed I applied a Bolster of Linen under the Arm-pit compressing it with a strait Ligature Marchetti obs 38. I perfectly cured the Patient in 20 days time VII We must never proceed to burning of the Os Sternum because it does not scale off as others do which when they are not altogether corrupted but onely in part if they be burnt onely what is perished falls off the laudable part remaining Which does not so fall out in the Os Sternum because it being tough does not so easily scale off but rather when the burning reaches to the internal part of it the whole corrupt part must of necessity abscede not indeed in 30 or 40 days time as other bones do but sometimes in three years wherefore I advise you never to burn the Os Sternum For I have observed it to abscede in many not under 2 or 3 years So that the cure is easier and safer by Abrosion Idem â—â—s 39. VIII One had a Swelling with a fistula above the left side of his Collar-bone whose orifice was so narrow that it would scarce admit a pin's point About six months before he had been ill of a Fever which ended in an Abscess in that place The Ulcer after it had remained open for four weeks closed up a swelling and hardness remaining behind When he told me this I prescribed things to evacuate bilious humours wherewith he abounded for the matter was yellow which the fistula voided Then I dilated this very narrow fistula not with any cutting instruments whereby not onely the pectoral Muscle which had been sufficiently hurt by former incisions might be more hurt but also there was fear that if this were not used dextrously the Jugulars being dissected or but a little hurt might bleed the Man to death but with a tent of dried Gentian-root tied to a thread The next day I took it out swelled with a bilious ichor and black at the end and searching the quality of the Sinus and cause of the colour with a Probe I found some part of the clavicle rough and moveable Then I put in a root thicker than the former anointing the adjoining parts to hinder imminent inflammation The third day I put in a bigger piece of Gentian-root and so consequently till the hole seemed wide enough The sixth day I filled the fistula with round pieces of prepared Sponge tied to a Thread The seventh day I took them out and the fistula was wide enough for taking out of the Bone which I took out The eighth day the bloud stopping I strewed this powder on the sound bone uncovered Take of Root of Florentine Orice Aristolochia rotunda Peucedanum each 1 scruple and an half Euphorbium half a scruple Myrrhe 1
scruple I applied dry Lint till it was healed up with firm flesh I deterged the Ulcer every day by strowing on some powder of white Sugar which mitigates Bile every day and I cicatrized it with Diapalma Plaster For the hardness remaining Emplastrum Oxelaeum was applied with a Linen-cloth three double strained out of a decoction of strengthning things in Wine making convenient ligature that the relicks might be discussed Scultetus Armom obs 51. and a new afflux of humours might be hindred Thus within a month and 14 days the Patient was cured IX A young Man 18 years old had a hard Swelling in his right side which came to suppuration Being ill treated it turned into a callous Sinus or fistula Universals premised to search the quantity and quality of it I dilated the extreme narrow orifice with the pith of Elder very much writhen so that it would admit a round Probe with which gently put in through the corruption I touched a rough edge of the rib To consume the Callus I put in a tent of lint writhen anointed with this Ointment Take of powder of Henbane Seed 1 scruple burnt Alume burnt Vitriol each 1 scruple and an half Butter washt in Plantain water what is sufficient Mix them When the Callus was extirpated 1 put in a â—ent of Lint the top whereof wet in Decoctum divinum I strewed with powder of Euphorbium to correct the Caries of the rib but the rest of the tent that I might prevent the regeneration of callus I anointed with this Unguent Take of Vnguentum de Betonica 1 ounce Vnguentum Aegyptiacum 2 drachms I put it in every day till the corrupted rib after 2 months cast off some skales which being taken out I applied every day a less tent dipt in Ointment of Betony Idem obs 41. till the Ulcer being filled up with solid flesh was cicatrized by benefit of Ceratum divinum X. When an Ulcer is old and fistulous we must have recourse to that admirable magisterial Syrup described by the most excellent Fallopius lib. de Vulnerib c. 38. which does good with the greatest success in any inveterate fistula's of the breast whereof this is a description to which we also add China Take of Root of Marshmallow Leaves of Mislefoil Horehound Mugwort Dock Coleworts very green Burnet Bramble tops Roots of Madder with Leaves of Aristolochia rotunda Feaver-few lesser Centaury Honey-suckle each half an handfull Olibanum half a drachm Sarcocolla 1 ounce Seeds of Anise Plantain Fenil Hemp each half an ounce Saffron Rheubarb greater Centaury each 2 ounces odoriferous White-wine what is sufficient China 6 drachms Bruise the Ingredients infuse them in the Wine for 24 hours boil them without Water and strain them Epiphanius Ferdinaâ—dus Hist 32. add of the best Honey 4 pounds Let this Decoction boil up one ebullition with the Honey The Dose is 5 ounces in the morning XI Some order the Fistula to be filled with Hellebore and that it must be done for three days but when I did it once in a Fistula of the Spina dorsi near the region of the Heart the Patient fell into frequent Swoonings Therefore I' think it no safe Remedy especially if the Fistula be in any part of the Breast Chalmetaeus XII A Matron had been long troubled with a Defluxion upon her Teeth in her nether Jaw and when she had not taken care to get the Tooth pulled out upon which the Defluxion fell at length after an Inflammation and great Pain had risen about the roots of it an Abscess gathered which breaking outwardly the Pain abated The Ulcer degenerated into a Fistula which remained even for fourteen years Having undertaken the Cure I found the upper part of the Tooth at the Root whereof the Fistula was eaten away almost to the Alveolus I drew out the Root of the Tooth afterwards I applied a Tent anointed with my Ointment to waste the Callosity when the Callosity was eroded I strewed every day some Powder of precipitate upon it and applied Diapalma Plaster nor did I alter the Medicines before the Ulcer was perfectly cured which was within a month And the Root of the Tooth was eroded unequal and covered with a stony matter lying on it in manner of Scales Hildanus cent 3. obs 33. XIII A Lying-in Woman had an Inflammation in her right Breast from concretion of Milk which being too much hardned with Dissolvents turned to an Abscess then into a deep Fistula with a Callus of a narrow orifice Her Body being purged I sufficiently dilated the narrow orifice of the Fistula with tents of Gentian afterwards I wasted the Callus by once putting in a tent of Lint smeared with the following Ointment Take of Mercury precipitate burnt Alume Verdigreece salt Nitre each equal parts Mix them with Whites of Eggs beaten as much as is sufficient It quickly extirpates the Callus of Fistula's but in the nervous parts especially and such as are endued with an exquisite sense not so pleasantly and safely When the Callus was consumed the Ulcer was cleansed with Vnguentum Aegyptiacum incarnated with Vnguentum de Betonica consolidated with Ceratum divinum and the reliques of the hard tumour were dissolved with Ceratum oxaeleon Scultetus Armam obs 43. Emplastrum ex spermate Ceti Mynsichti cures hard Swellings from curdled Milk XIV When a Fistula in ano reaches to the Gut the finger anointed with Oil of Roses must be put into the anus and also a falceolus or a crooked Incision-knife with it and when the finger is thus put in the falceolus must be so guided that it do not err in cutting into the callous substance that it may also cut the haemorrhoid Veins I approve rather of Incision than of Detraction of the Callus which is made by ligature But we must take notice that the Callus must not reach above four inches lengthways into the Gut Otherwise we must use onely a palliative Cure or when it reaches to the bladder or the os sacrum proceeding beyond the sphincter because the sphincter would be cut and an involuntary excretion of the faeces would follow Then therefore it must be twice every day fomented with a Decoction of Mullein Chalmetaeus and the Decoction must be injected XV. Celsus l. 7. c. 4. and his Followers do cut a Fistula in ano which does not penetrate by breaking through the bottom of it they gather both ends of it with a twisted silken thread yet red silk single because of its tenuity and tincture cuts and eats in sooner and so straining it very hard with a little piece of a stick transverse they cut the whole sinus or the Interstice of both holes But Aquapendent deservedly rejects this Incision of Fistulae in ano by a thread because it is too slow and puts a Man to continual pain And he says it must never be used but when People are afraid of the Knife Scultetus Fab. 45. propounds a new way
Also Emplastrum de baccis lauri is very effectual in expelling of Wind. â—â—â—nertus For Intemperature 1. In a cold intemperature of the Stomach I have long experienced this Plaster to be of wonderful virtue Take of Diachylum majus Pitch or Turpentine each 2 drachms Diarrhodon Abbatis 2 drachms as much Wax as is sufficient Make a Plaster and apply it to the Stomach ¶ Oyl of Fir Indian Balsame and oyl of Mastich are also wonderful good in a dry cause Mercatus 2. Crocus metallorum Absynthiacus is excellent good in all Diseases of the Stomach Mynsichr 3. In a hot and moist intemperature of the Stomach I have often with success used this Electuary of Steel Take of prepared Coriander half an ounce Species Diatrion Santalon 2 drachms Roses powdered 1 drachm prepared Steel 6 drachms Sugar dissolved in Rose water what is sufficient Mix them Make an Electuary 4. This is an effectual Cataplasm in a cold intemperature of the Stomach which Rhases ad Almansorem makes of Styraz Spike Wormwood Calamus Aromaticus and Mastich sprinkled with old Wine and juice of Quinces ¶ In an intemperature of the Stomach coming from thick bile when it sticks fast to the Coats of the Stomach there can scarce be a better Remedy than Hiera ¶ In a cold and moist intemperature the following water is good which is good for a weak Stomach purges it of slimy Humours cures a Cachexy and hinders the breeding of Worms Take of Gentian lesser Centaury each 3 ounces Galangal Cinnamon Mace Cloves each 1 ounce flowers of Sage St. John's-wort Rosemary each half an handful white Wine 4 pounds Sennertus Digest them 8 dayes and then destill them 5. Flowers of Roman Wormwood and tops of Melilot boyled in Wine and strained The Colature drunk is highly commended in a cold intemperature of the Stomach ¶ Syrup of Carduus Benedictus is reckoned a present Remedy in a cold and moist Stomach if taken warm in the Morning Weikardus Ventris Dolor or the Belly-ach See the Colick Book III. Vertigo or Swimming in the Head The Contents The Method of Cure I. Whether a Vein may be breathed II. A Vein may he breathed in the Fit III. What Vein must be bled IV. Sweating may do good V. Arteriotomy sometimes does good VI. Issues Setons Burnings when and where they are proper VII Cured by an Issue in the Leg. VIII Whether we may Purge IX We must use gentle things X. Vomits are good XI Errhina do no hurt XII When Repellents may be applied XIII What Posture of Body should be used XIV Medicines I. AN accidental Vertigo or any that is new is for the most part cured by Bleeding and Purging sometimes For the cure of one that is habitual and inveterate there are three Medical Intentions 1. When all the matter for the Disease to feed upon is taken away we must endeavour to preserve the Brain free from new afflux of Morbifick matter for which purpose when a right course of Diet is ordered sometimes bleeding and a gentle purge given frequently at intervals will be convenient Let a dry and airy place be chosen let immoderate and unseasonable sleep and study be avoided let him abstain from Mornings and Evenings draughts instead of the former let him drink Tea or Coffee made with a few leaves of Sage mixt with them let an Issue be made in the Leg or Arm and sometimes let the Haemorrhoid Veins be opened let the Party affected alwayes rise betimes and every Morning wash his Temples and Fore-head with cold water and rub it with a course cloth 2. The second Intention will be to take away the procatarctick causes wherefore we must endeavour both that the cacochymick Dyscrasie of the Blood and the weak and too lax constitution of the Brain may be amended For the First Medicines that are powerful alteratives as temperate Antiscorbuticks chalybeates and sometimes Spaw-waters or Whey are proper To which because of the latter thing indicated cephalick Medicines must alwayes be added such namely as are made of Coral Amber Man's skull Male Paeony root Misletoe Peacock's dung c. 3. The third Intention which is properly curatory takes away the conjunct cause which nevertheless when the procatarctick are removed usually ceases of it self For if the approach of all extraneous matter into the Brain be prevented there will nothing remain but pure Spirits which having got liberty and room enough within the callous body they disperse themselves thence every way However for this scope of cure we must give now and then Medicines endued with a volatil Salt whose very subtil and active particles recreate the Animal Spirits such as especially are spirit of Harts horn Soot Sal Ammoniac impregnated with Amber Mans Skull c. Tinctures of Coral Amber Antimony Elixir of Paeony and the like Moreover it may not be amiss to adumbrate the method of cure a little more particularly in showing what must be done upon account of the cure in the Paroxysm and what for preservation out of it 1. As for the first although the coming of the Vertigo how cruel soever it seems have for the most part no danger in it and goes often off of it self because the Patients think they will dye and do desire the aid of Medicine in such a case after a Clyster has been given let Blood if the Pulse indicate it Then apply a blister to the Neck and smell to strong things as Castor spirit or volatil Salt of Harts-horn Urine or Sal Ammoniack These Spirits also may be given twice or thrice a day with a convenient dose of Cephalick decoction at the hour of sleep take a bolus of Mithridate with powder of Castor The next day if the Disease be not gone let him take a gentle Purge Or if the Patient be enclined or easie to vomit let him take a Vomit than which there is scarce a better Remedy 2. And now we must consider what must be done out of the Fit for the cure of an inveterate and almost continual Vertigo Therefore when I have put the Patient in a course of Bleeding and Purgeing according to his constitution and strength it is my custome to advise him to take a Vomit once a Month if nothing contra-indicate For which end the weaker sâ—rt after they have stuffed their Stomachs with slippery meats may take 2 or 3 ounces of Wine or Oxymel of Squils and afterwards drink store of Carduus posset drink till they vomit Others may take a Vomit of Salt of Vitriol or Sulphur of Antimony or infusion of Crocus Metallorum As for Issues Blisters Bleeding the Haemorrhoids Plasters or Caps for the Head also Plasters to the Feet or Wrists for revulsion or derivation sake let the Physician consider whether they be needful And because all things agree not with all People the Physician must try divers Medicines and various Methods sometimes one sometimes another The Vertiginous may drink for their ordinary drink
small Ale with leaves of Misletoe of an Appletree boyled in it instead of Hops And in a 4 Gallon Runlet let a bag with half a pound of Peacock's dung and 3 drachms of Cloves bruised be hung in it Willis II. Letting of Blood seems not proper because the Disease may arise from vaporous and spirituous exhalations which cloud Pallas her tower and these cannot be evacuated by Bleeding For Bleeding is rather proper in abundance of Blood either in respect of the whole in a Plethora or of some part in derivation and revulsion And the proximate cause of the Vertigo considered there is rather need of such things as break wind and prevent the breeding of it For the decision we must consider that in the cure of a Vertigo we must some times have respect to the antecedent cause which by a certain continuity upholds the conjunct Wherefore among other Remedies bleeding is prescribed by Aetius whether in the beginning or progress of the Disease if nothing hinder it especially where a bloody and hot matter gives original to those fuming exhalations that cause the Vertigo Galen l. de cur t. per v. s 10. approves the same A further limitation also may be here observed which Heurnâ—us sets If saith he accustomed excretion grow slow and the Disease encrease as in suppression of Sweat and Blood Blood may be let in the Arm. But you must not do this when the Disease comes from cold but where there is a Plethora the Disease bad and the Age strong a Vein may be opened sayes Aetius We had last year an instance of good success in a Vertigo cured by Bleeding that had long afflicted a principal Citizen who was of a hot constitution but a weak head who having been ill of a grievous Vertigo for several dayes by reason of vaporous and fuming Blood after he had taken a gentle Clyster and had in vain tried several proper Cephalicks was at last by once bleeding immediately eased of that Symptome that continually afflicted him Yea Paulus commends bleeding the Arteries about the Ears when hot exhalations are conveyed by the Arteries in great store to the Brain Instead of which Remedy they have now found a better which is a Cautery Horstius either actual or potential about the coronal Suture III. Although some disswade Bleeding in the time of the Fit lest strength which is then low should be further weakned yet if the Vertigo be long and violent and the constitution of the Patient such that he must of necessity be bled lest an Apoplexy seize him and if there be imminent danger of an Apoplexy there is no reason why Bleeding may not be allowed of Senâ—ertus if there be Indicants that require it IV. Bleeâ—ing in the humerary Vein is proper in Plethorick Persons not only if the source of the Disease lye in the Blood but also if there be either too much or spirituous Blood in the Head which occasions the Vertigo For seeing the Blood both of the Arteries and the Veins is confounded in the Sinuses of the Brain if a Vein be but opened spirituous Blood will come out in which if the mischief lye the main end of cure consists in bleeding And for this reason they advise Bleeding in the Jugulars Yea many teach that if Spirituous Blood cause the Vertigo it cannot be cured except the Arteries behind the Ears be opened and this sort of Remedy has proved well upon experience when all others have been tried in vain Yet we must not do this till we have tried all other wayes and are certain of the cause and know by the continual beating of the Arteries that it comes from spirituous Blood A Vein also may be opened in the Forehead if it come from this cause and in the Foot if Vapors ascend from thence And if the Menses be suppressed the Saphaena especially if the cause that sends the Vapours upwards lye about the Veins of the Womb. Upon which account the Haemorrhoids also may very well be provoked if the cause of the Disease lye in the Mesaraicks Platerus V. If neither Bleeding in the greater Veins nor in the wrist nor in the Haemorrhoids nor Cupping will do you good especially if you have tried them often and if you have used Purges stronger and weaker you must then without doubt have recourse to sweating with Guaiacum China c. especially if there be any suspicion of the Pox. But if these neither will do any good then necessity puts us on two sorts of Remedies the first whereof intercepts the passages by which any thing is transmitted either from the whole Body or from any part of it to the Brain And this comprehends the cutting of the Arteries behind the Ears celebrated among the Antients which they valued so much Which Remedy besides that it is suspected for Barrenness if we may believe Hippocrates and to cut an Artery any where is not without danger Besides also if they may safely either be cut or burnt we cannot therefore think that all the wayes whereby the Head receives are stopt presently since often the mischief gets into the Head by the internal Vessels which can neither be burnt nor cut Wherefore it were a madness to try a doubtful and suspected Remedy which is more dangerous than the pre-existent Ail But where the Ilness is extreme I should rather venture to burn the Veins of the Forehead and Temples by a Skilful hand If you dare not venture on this you may betake your self to the second sort of Remedies which is if the Veins be very turgid in the Head to empty the fulness of the Head by Bleedding under the Tongue Mercatus ¶ But if any one intend to abate the fullness of the Head omitting doubtful Remedies it is better to open the Jugulars which is a present Remedy and without danger VI. Arteriotomy is propounded by Galen and other Graecians Arabians and Latins made either behind the Ears as Galen advises or in the temporal Artery that is most tumid and beats most Now an Artery is cut either in the same manner as a Vein only for evacuation of the hot Blood as Paraeus advises whose counsel I have followed in this operation in other cases with success Or it is cut deep and quite through transverse so that the ends of the Arteries may contract themselves and close up whereupon no great effusion of Blood follows This operation more certainly intercepts evaporation by coalescence not by obstruction of the Arteries Although it be a question whether this transverse section stops the flux of the matter since a hot evaporation is made by the Arteries internal and external right and left Wherefore perhaps the interception would be greater if strong Astringents were frequently applied to the carotid and temporal Arteries Sylvaticus But the transverse section is now usual at Milan VII There are not wanting some who advise to burn the Head in several places with an hot Iron which indeed