is either in fieri or in its disposition or in facto or in its habit both require a peculiar way of Cure Of the former there are two chief cases in both of which the Therapeutick method regarding only the Procatarctick causes is ordered after the like manner to wit whether any Person be in danger of being seiz'd with the Palsey or recovering from it be in hazard of a relapse we must insist in a manner on the same Medicines Therefore the Intentious of Curing must be first that the functions of Chylification and Sanguification being duly perform'd a laudable matter for the generation of Animal Spirits be sent to the Brain in a sufficient plenty and then secondly that the Brain being still firm and of a due conformation admits into it and duly exalts into Animal Spirits all apt particles excluding such as are heterogeneous for these ends we have thought good to propose the following method which ought to be varied according to the various constitutions of the Diseased Spring and Fall let solemn courses of Physick be entred upon nay and the whole year besides let some Remedies be constantly used Bleeding is not generally proper for all Persons and if we forbid this it is not for the same reason with the Ancients supposing the Palsey to be a cold Disease but because the Animal Spirits are both engendred from the Blood and become elastick within the moving Fibres by reason of a sanguineous combination therefore if the store of this be lessened too much they will fail and flag Which truly I have observed in many and that for the most part in the Arm from which the Blood was drawn languishings and tremblings have begun Nevertheless a spare and moderate Bleeding sometimes agrees with some that are endued with a Blood that is hot and sharp and apt to too great effervescencies tho they are disposed to the Palsey About the Equinoxes purging ought to be ordered and to be repeated by due Intervals three or four times but in the first place let a Vomit if nothing indicates the contrary be given of Salt of Vitriol Sulphur of Antimony or an Infusion of crocus metallorum or Mercurius vitae afterward let Pillulae de succino or Aloephanginae be taken by themselves or with Rosm of Jalap every seventh or eighth day At other times let Cephalick Remedies such as we have prescribed for the sleepy affects viz Electuaries Powders Spirits and volatile Salts Tinctures Elixirs with distill'd Waters or Apozemes viz. sometimes these sometimes those or others be frequently used Let Issues be burnt in the Arm or Leg nay in gross and cachectical Persons together in both or near the Shoulder-blades Let a Physick-drink of Sage Betony Stoechas the wood Sassafras Winters bark c. be drank the whole year Wine and Venus ought either to be forbidden or to be allowed only sparingly But if the Palsey after a previous disposition in the whole or in one side or in certain members throughly seises and notwithstanding the first encounter of Physick comes on again for its cure a long and complicated method which is alwayes requisite often times does not suffice for not only the Disease or its conjunct or procatarctick Cause severally but all together must be assaulted for which ends blooding for the most part being forbidden only a gentle purge and that but now and then is proper Again and indeed chiefly against the Procatarxis of the Disease Cephaliâ—â— and Antiscorbutick Medicines are wont to do good but not all of these kinds agree with all Persons but as we have observed in the Scurvey according to the various Constitutions of the Diseas'd the Remedies also must be of a differing kind and vertue for with bilous paralyticks in whose sharp and hot blood there is much Salt and Sulphur and very little Serum hot Medicines and such as are endowed with very active Particles do not agree nay often prove offensive to them which nevertheless prove greatly beneficial to phlegmatick persons whose blood is colder and contains a great deal of Serum and a few active Elements Wherefore according to this two-fold state of the Diseased it seems fit for us to propose here a double method of Cure and two Classes of Medicines whereof this will do well to be given to cold paralyticks and the other to such as are hot In the former case for the removal of the procatarctick Cause after a Vomit and a Purge duely ordered I advise to be prescribed according to the following forms Take Conserve of the leaves of Garden Scurvy-grass and of Rochet made with an equal part of Sugar of each three ounces Ginger condited in the Indies an ounce the yellow coats of Oranges and Limons preserv'd of each six drams powder of the Claws and Eyes of Crabs of each four Scruples species diambroe two drams winters-bark a dram and a half roots of Zedoary the lesser Galingal Cubebs the seeds of Garden-cresses rochet of each a dram Spirit of Scurvy-grass and of Lavender of each two drams Syrup of the conditure of Ginger what suffices make an Electuary Let the quantity of a Walnut be taken at eight a clock in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking after it a pound of the following decoction or six ounces of the Tincture of Coffee with the Leaves of Sage boyled in it or three ounces of Viper-wine Take Raspings of Guaiacum six ounces Sarzaparilla Sassafras of each four ounces red and yellow Saunders shavings of Ivory and Harts-horn of each half an ounce infuse them according to art and boyle them in sixteen pounds of fountain-Water to a half adding Crude Antimony powdred and tyed in a Nodulus four ounces roots of Calamus Aromaticus the lesser Galingal of each half an ounce Florentine Orris an ounce Cardamum six drams Coriander seeds half an ounce six Dates make a Decoction and let it be used for ordinary drink Going to Bed and early in the Morning let a dose be taken either of the Spirit of Soot or of Harts-horn of Sal Armoniack succinated of Blood c. with three ounces of the following distilled Water Take of the Leaves or Roots of Aron a pound Leaves of Garden Scurvy-grass the greater Rochet Rosemary Sage Savory Time four handfuls Flowers of Lavender three handfuls the outward rinds of ten Oranges and six Limons Winters bark three Ounces Roots of the lesser Galingal Calamus Aromaticus Florentine Orris of each two ounces Cubebs Cloves Nutmegs of each an ounce all being slic'd and bridsed pour to them of White-wine and Brunswick Beer of each four pounds let them be distilled with common Organs and let the whole Liquour be mixt Sometimes instead of the Electuary for fifteen or twenty dayes let a dose of the Tincture of Sulphur terebinthinated or the Tincture of Antimony or of Amber sometimes also let the Elixir Proprietatis or of Peony be taken in a spoonful of the distilled Water drinking after it three ounces of the same Sometimes also let the
often drawn back become sad and timorous for since that Muscle is not actuated but by the influence of weak and irregular Spirits it is not able to perform its Contractions with Strength and Constancy enough whereby the Blood may be driven forward throughout the whole Body without stop or flying back Therefore the Blood and animal Spirits mutually affect each other with a reciprocal injury and bring dammage on each other the melancholy blood that is consisting of saline Particles exalted together with such as are sulphureous engenders animal Spirits of an acetous nature as we have shewn and these Spirits performing the vital Function amiss cause such a dyscrasy of the Blood to be encreas'd So far of Melancholy in genera viz. of its Essence conjunct Causes and chief Symptoms before we proceed to the kinds and differences of this Disease we ought to explicate from what causes both procatarctick and evident it is wont to arise and be fomented and first whence both parts of the Soul viz. both animal and vital acquire their morbid Dispositions Of these we have shewn the former to be acetous resembling Spirit of Vitriol or of Vinegar and the other to be Salino-Sulphureous or Atrabilarious moreover and that as they both soment each other so that they first engender each other for sometimes melancholy beginning from the animal Spirits being troubled and put in a certain confusion and persisting some time brings a melancholy habit to the Blood sometimes also the Blood contracting first that discrasy perverts the Nature of the Spirits That Melancholy oftentimes begins from the animal oeconomy it s easily seen in excessive Love extream Sadness pannick Terrours Envy Cares and immoderate Studies for on these occasions the animal Spirits being driven out of the wonted Paths of their Expansions and persisting in their errour through the assiduity of their Passion at length fall into devious Tracts which afterward keeping to they are with difficulty reduced into the ancient and right again Moreover since thereupon the Motion and Vigour of the Heart are diminish'd therefore the Blood falls from its due Crasis and Pneumatosis and thereby being rendred more fixt and salino-sulphureous furnishes only animal spirits degenerated to a sourness and so the Blood being depraved a posteriori gives a Fuel to the melancholy disposition begun by the Spirits Nor does it happen less frequently that the seeds of melancholy first laid in the Blood give at length that taint to the Spirits for this reason some hereditarily become obnoxious to that Disease Moreover a disorderly dyet the intermission of an exercise long us'd solemn Evacuations as of the Menses or Hemmorhoids also of the Seed or serous Ichor suddenly supprest and many other occasions easily defile the Blood and render it melancholick whose evil Disposition will afterward of necessity be communicated to the Spirits As to what a great many Physicians think that melancholy rises from a melancholick Humour engendred somewhere primarily and per se and assign particular Places for its Generation viz the Brain Spleen Womb and the whole Habit of the Body we do not easily grant all this for besides that no secret Stores of such a humour lying any where appear unless haply in the Spleen it is indeed the Blood it self which first conceives per se the melancholick Distemper or any other and afterward deposes recrements of that Nature in proper Emunctories or Receptacles nor would the yellow Choler be stor'd up in the Gall-Bladder or the black so call'd in the Spleen unless the mass of Blood first engendred those Humours If at any time these or other recrementitious humours some where depos'd be receiv'd by the mass of Blood they produce its effervescence but not presently or easily its distemperature 1. As to that therefore that the origine of Melancholy is sometimes ascrib'd to the Head and the distemperature of the Brain is accus'd by some as too hot and by others as cold I think we ought rather to say that the affect sometimes first begins from the Brain and from the Soul residing in it 2. As for the Origine of this affect being sometimes drawn from the Womb it must not be thought that the melancholy Humour is there first engendred but that the occasion of melancholy proceeds thence either because by reason of the Menses supprest the whole Blood being defil'd and become degenerate afterwards falls into a melancholy discrasy or for that by reason of the Stimuli of Venery restrain'd with a great reluctation of the corporeal Soul the animal Spirits being long contained and kept in at length become fixt and melancholick 3. That melancholy is sometimes either primarily raised or very much fomented by the Spleen being ill affected and thereupon by a peculiar word called Hypocondriacal it is both the common and our own Opinion but the Blood being first in the fault engendring in it self filthy melancholy Dregs at the beginning deposes them in the Spleen which afterward receiving again being exalted into the nature of an evil ferment it is vitiated more in its Crasis by their defilement 4. As to that that besides another species of melancholy distinct from the Hypocondriacal and the former is said to be engendred together in the whole Body it is nothing else than that the whole mass of Blood becoming degenerate from its right Nature by reason of errours in the six non-natural things and on many other occasions acquires a melancholick Discrasy that is where the Spirit being depress'd the sulphureous Particles together with the saline and some also that are terrene are exalted this melancholy disposition of the Blood being very much allyed to that sulphureo-saline Habit which we have shewn to be often prevalent in a certain kind of Scurvy The Prognostick of Melancholy tho as to Life or Death it be for the most part safe yet in reference to the event it is very uncertain for some recover soon others are not cur'd but after a long time and others not at all This affect rais'd on a sudden from some solemn evident cause as from a vehement passion is much safer than invading by degrees after a long Procatarixs for if the evident cause be presently remov'd that often ceases of its own accord or is cur'd with little ado but in this in regard both the mass of Blood and the whole troop of Animal Spirits have fallen from their due crasis and often the conformation of the Brain as to the tracts of the Spirits is altered a Cure does not happen but with great difficulty and not but after a long time Melancholy long protracted often passes into a Fatuity and sometimes also into a Mania or Madness Moreover sometimes it brings Convulsive affects or a Palsey or Apoplexy nay sometimes a violent Death There is little or no hope of a Cure if the affected being very stubborn and refractory refuse all Medicines and any method of management Moreover scarce any thing better may be expected from those who
mightily dread this Disease fall more readily into it for by Fear the Particles of the Miasm are convey'd from the Surface of the Body inward at the time that the Contagion is rife and the Small Pox is Epidemick all other Diseases in a manner degenerate into this 3. As to the Conjunct Cause of this Disease to wit what is the formal Reason of it or its way of coming to pass the thing seems a little more intricate It is vulgarly wont to be compared to the Effervescence of new Wine or of Ale when they are depurated in a Vessel being put in a Fermentation by the mixture of some heterogeneous Substance but if the thing be narrowly considered a great difference will here appear for the Miasm of the Small Pox is as a Ferment but corruptive and forces the Flood to ferment not towards a Perfection but a Depravation for when the venemous Particles of this Miasm light on a capable Subject they presently stir up Corpuscles like themselves and innate to us with which being joyn'd they pervade the whole Mass of Blood and make it grow mighty turgid and boyl and after some Effervescence to separate into Parts and to be coagulated to wit the dispers'd Seeds of the Venom dissolve the Mixture of the Blood presently subvert the more pure Spirits and afterward gather to themselves the more gross Particles of it and congeal them as it were by their Adhaesion The Portions so coagulated together with the Seeds of the Venom mingled with them being left by the rest of the Blood in its Circulation in the Extremities of the Vessels are fix'd on the Skin after which manner if Nature being strong enough sends off the whole Venom with the congeal'd Blood the rest of the Mass of the Blood tho depauperated is nevertheless good and capable of continuing Life but if the Blood being too much coagulated cannot be cleansed after this manner or if the Portions of the Blood closing with the Venom do not fully break forth they either restagnate inward again and wholly corrupt the Liquor of the Blood or fixing themselves on the Viscera and especially the Heart they destroy their Crasis and Strength The Portions of the Blood congeal'd with the Venom about the fourth day sometimes sooner sometimes later begin to break forth for the Coagulation is caused not presently but after some time that the Venom displays it self and by its Effervescence ferments the Blood first light Portions of the Blood being desil'd and those but few in number are fix'd in the Skin like Flea-bites soon after these more appear and those which brake forth first by the access of new matter and by the continual Appulse of the congealed Blood grow bigger and are rais'd into a Tumour afterward these Pushes which at first are red being encreased by degrees at length turn white to wit the Blood extravasated with the Venom by reason of the Heat and Stagnation is chang'd into a Pus About the seventh day after the Eruption the white Tumours turn to a dry Scab for the more subtle Part of the Matter being evaporated the rest grows hard which at length the Scarf Skin being eaten off and broken falls from the Skin When the Miasm of the Small Pox is once gotten into the Spirits and Mass of Blood it is very seldom that it can be destroy'd or clear'd off by Medicines or Bleeding but the latent Disposition will break forth into Act wherefore first it diffuses it self gently and inspires the Mass of Blood as it were with a Ferment hence an Ebullition and Effervescence are produced in the whole Body the Vessels are extended the Viscera are irritated the Membranes are twitch'd till the Seeds of the Contagion by fusing and coagulating the Blood at length being involv'd in its congeal'd Portions are thrust forth The Essence of this Disease will be the better known if I set down the Signs and and Symptoms which are observ'd in the whole Course of it and give you in order the Reasons of them and the Causes on which they depend Now these are either such as indicate the Disease present or such as fore-shew the height of it and its event As to the Diagnostick of this Affect whereby it may be known whether any one at first falling sick will have the Small Pox or not There must be considered at that time the force of the Contagion and the Concourse of the Symptoms first appearing for if by reason of the malignant Constitution of the Air this Disease generally reigns no one is then seised with a Fever without a suspicion of the Small Pox especially if the Person never had it before but if this Disease be more rare and there be no Fear of Contagion yet its unexpected Invasion in a short time discovers it self by these kinds of Signs and Symptoms 1. There is an inconstant Fever coming at random sometimes intense sometimes more remiss observing no set form of Increase or coming to a height so that the Diseas'd one while are mighty hot by and by without an evident Cause they are without any Fever the Cause of which is That the sermentative Seeds are not agitated with an even motion but like Fire half extinct one while they have an extraordinary Flash another while they lye quiet and dye as it were till the Burning spreading it self the Flame breaks forth every where 2. A Pain in the Head and Loins is so peculiar a sign in this Affect that it alone in a continual Fever signifies an imminent Small Pox the Cause of which is vulgarly imputed to the great Vessels being very much extended by the Effervescence of the Blood tho it does not appear why the same Pain should not be as well caused in other Parts by reason of the like Extension of the Vessels and why those kinds of Pains are rife in the Small Pox rather than in the Causon or other Fevers where the Blood boyls more Again you may observe that mighty Pains are pressing sometimes in the Head sometimes in the Brains when the Blood not being turgid the Vessels are not enlarg'd viz. in the beginning of the Disease when the Feverish Distemperature is not yet conspicuous while the Diseas'd are yet walking abroad and have a good Stomach the imminent Small Pox first discovers it self by these Pains wherefore it seems that the Cause of these kinds of Pains subsists rather in the Genus Nervosum to wit that those Pains arise in the Brain and spinal Marrow by reason of the Membranes and Nervous Parts being twitch'd by the Particles of the Venom for it is likely that the innate Seeds of the Small Pox are chiefly stored up in the Spermatick Parts and that the first Contagion of the Miasm for the most part seises the Animal Spirits hence the first Effervescence is raised in the Juice wherewith the Brain and nervous Parts but especially the spinal Marrow are irrigated and thence the taint is communicated to the Mass of Blood wherefore
ensued The next Morning the Small Pox brake forth which tho the Diseassed had very thick yet without any dangerous Illness or fear of Abortion she recover'd and perfectly compleated her Child bearing In the last Autumn a robust Man of an Athletick Habit of Body tho of a pale Countenance and a cold Temperament fell into a Fever On the second day he was tormented with a Heat and a Drought and a most violent Pain in the Loins when it was ordered that he should be let Blood in a small Quantity a Quack Chirurgion being called he took from him almost a pound and a half a little after the Diseased began to fall all into a cold Sweat and his Strength failing on a sudden to be seised with a Shivering a weak and uneven Pulse and a frequent Fainting being called at this time I ordered him temperate Cordials to be taken frequently then upon the restoring of his Pulse and Spirits the Fever was renewed which afterward held the Diseased for many Days nay Weeks after a very irregular manner for he was wont for three or four days to be very hot also to be infested with Thirst Watchings a Head-ach and other Symptoms afterward to fall into a copious and as it were critical Sweat all over his whole Body by which indeed in half a days time he found himself better tho afterward the Fever renewing again frequently heaped together a new Matter still to be blown off by a second and afterward by a third Crisis After that he had lay'n thus irregularly feverish for at least twenty days at length the Small Pox broke forth here and there in each part of the Body and then the Fever first began wholly to remit tho within a few days by reason of Errors committed in Diet a great many Pushes subsided again a few only being brought to a Ripeness however in the place of the subsiding Small Pox a mighty Bubo grew behind the right Ear which being suppurated and broken within a short time a great store of Pus flowed forth for many days and so at length the Taints of the Blood hardly to be blown off other ways were sent forth by degrees and the Diseased perfectly recovered his Health CHAP. XV. Of Fevers of Women in Child-bed VUlgar Experience abundantly testifies that the Fevers of Women in Child-bed are very dangerous above the Nature of our common Fevers also it clearly appears from the Signs and Symptoms of them duely considered that the same very much differ as to their Essences from a Synochus both simple and putrid wherefore I have thought it not amiss after malignant Fevers to treat of the acute Diseases of Women in Child-bed as being very much allied to them by reason of their Mortality But before I shall set upon the Explication of the Affects themselves we must consider their Subjects to wit the Bodies of Women that bring forth Children after what manner they are predisposed and with what Apparatus they become obnoxious to those kinds of Diseases Concerning this it first occurs That to undergo a Flux of menstruous Blood belongs to Humane Kind and that alway to Women concerning the Nature and Origine of which it does not concern us here to enquire but it may suffice to note that in them the Particles of the Blood to be voided periodically are very fermentative which if they are retain'd in the Body beyond the usual Custom of Nature they oftentimes become the Cause of many Sicknesses still excepting if the Woman has conceived with Child for all the time of Child-bearing the Menses stop without any great damage and mean while for the Nourishment of the Foetus Milk or a nourishable Humour is deposed in a great Plenty about the Placenta of the Womb but after Delivery that long Suppression of the Menses is recompenc'd by a copious flowing of the Lochia and the Milk within three days space leaving wholly the Womb flies plentifully into the Breasts at which time Child-bearing Women are wont to be set upon by a small Fever and if the Milk be driven from the Breasts it restagnates again towards the Womb and is voided forth together with the Lochia under the form of a whitish Humour Mean while after Delivery the Womb it self undergoes various Affects for often its Tone is injur'd its Unity is dissolv'd and a great many other Accidents are caused which render Women in Child-bed subject to a dangerous Condition wherefore that their acute Diseases may be duely explicated we must chiefly consider these three things to wit first concerning the Nourishment of the Foetus or of the Generation of Milk both in the Womb and in the Breast and of its Metastasis from either of them into the other Secondly of the Purgation of the Maternal Blood or of the flowing of the Lochia after the Menses being long supprest Thridly or the State of the Womb after Delivery and of its Influence on other parts of the Body And these things being premitted we shall speak of the Fevers of Women in Child-bed to wit both the Lacteal and that called Putrid which by reason of its Mortality deserves to be call'd Malignant First the Milk and nutritive Humour heap'd together in the Uterine Parts for the Nourishment of the Foetus are by Nature alike tho they differ somewhat in Consistency the Milk indeed is the thicker because being to be received in the Mouth it ought to be digested in the Stomach and afterwards it s more tender Portion to be convey'd into the Mass of Blood The other nourishable Humour is more thin and like to distill'd Water of Milk because it 's immediately infused into the Blood of the Embryo by the umbelical Vessels without a previous Digestion Both Juyces are thought to consist of the Chyle fresh made in the Mothers Stomach that which is deposed in the Breast is grosser and whiter by reason of the course Strainer and its Coction in the greater Glands it happens on the contrary in the Womb where the straining is closer and the Glands are very small Now it is greatly disputed among Authors by what Ductus's that Humour is conveyed both into the Breast and into the Placenta of the Womb. Some say that the Milk is engendred only from the Blood freely concocted in the Glands which nevertheless does not seem probable by reason of the immense Spendings of Milk which does not consist with the Blood Others affirm That the Chyle or Lacteal Humour is conveyed immediately into both Receptacles from the Viscera of Concoction through occult Passages without any Alteration But till those Ductus's appear it seems more likely to me that from the Food taken into the Mothers Stomach a Portion of the Chyle thence made is presently absorbed into the Veins which having gotten the Vehicle of the Blood and being brought by the Arteries into the Glands destinated here and there for receiving it before it is assimilated and being separated is depos'd again from the Mass of Blood
Citron Pills Make an Electuary the Dose is the quantity of a Nutmeg in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking after it of the following Julape three Ounces and walking upon it Take water of the Leaves of Wake Robin a pound of Pennyroyal and Hyssop of each four Ounces Sugar an Ounce Mix them make a Julape Take of the Tincture of Antimony an Ounce the Dose is from twenty to five and twenty drops twice a day with the said Julape Moreover amongst these we may place the Tincture of Steel and its Syrup also Elixir proprietatis with many others Secondly The panting of the Heart which is more frequent and much more violent happens through some fault in the Arteries belonging to the Heart which fault is either an Obstruction or a Convulsive affect The first default for the most part is continual and often incurable but especially if it arises from Consumptive Lungs or because the Roots of the Arteries are half stop'd or compress'd by reason of some Tuberculum or bony Excrescency in them And in this case all that can be done is to give some ease now and then by Hypnoticks Moreover it is not improbable that the Arteries sometimes are almost fill'd up with Polypous Concretions engendred in them and sometimes within the Cavities of the Heart it self and that thereby the free passage of the whole current of Blood is hindred but as it is diffcult to be satisfied when this is so so it is as rare to find a Cure for it When there is a suspicion of it Saline Medicines seem to be most proper and of those we must give such as have a Volatile or Acid Salt but we must not give them together but for a time those which failing of success try the others Take Spirit of Sal Armoniack Compound viz. distill'd with Millepedes or with other Anti-Asthmaticks three Drams the Dose is from fifteen drops to twenty thrice a day with the Julape or some proper distill'd water After the same manner you may try the Spirits of Hartshorn Soot Blood and of an old Scull Take Spirit of Sea Salt or of Vitriol distill'd and often Cohobated with the Spirit of Wine impregnated with Pneumonick Herbs three Drams the Dose is from fifteen drops to twenty after the same manner for these purposes the Spirits of Tartar Guaiacum and of Box are often us'd The panting of the Heart is very often a Convulsive affect and wont to be produc'd from the like Cause and manner of affecting as other Hypochondriack and Asthmatick affects and its Cure also ought to be attempted by Antispasmodick Remedies but a cholce of them must be made with some difference according as the Disease happens in a hot or cold temperament In respect of the former the following Medicines may be prescrib'd Take Spiritus succini Armoniaci three Ounces the Dose is from fifteen Drops to twenty twice a day with the Julape or some proper distill'd water After the same manner may be given interchangeably the Tincture of Tartar of Steel or of Antimony Of the trembling of the Heart and its Cure THe trembling of the Heart is an effect distinct from its panting or Palpitation and of a different nature from it for in that its carneous and moving Fibres seem affected by themselves nor does the Morbifick Cause as in the other affect seem to lie in the Blood or in the Arteries of the Heart The trembling of the Heart may be well describ'd to be a Spasmodick Convulsion or rather a trepidation of its flesh by which the moving Fibres hastily and only half contracted cause most swift turns of the Systoles and Diastoles but broken and as it were at halfs so that the Blood is brought into and carried forth of the Sinus 's of the Heart only in very small Portions As to the method of Cure to be us'd in the trembling of the Heart since this affect is meerly Convulsive therefore they are not Cordial Remedies but rather Cephalicks and Nervous Medicines that are Indicated which nevertheless according to the temperament and constitution of the Patient must be either more hot or moderate or now of this now of that nature To comprehend all in a few words since there are three sorts of Mecines that are wont to be mighty successful in this Distemper viz. testaceous Medicines Chalybeates and such as are endow'd with a volatile Salt I shall here briefly set down certain forms of each of these and their use Therefore in the first place a provision being made for the whole by evacuatives and a choice being made of that sort of Medicine which promises best you may prescribe as follows Take Coral prepar'd Pearl of each two Drams both Bezoars of each half a Dram white Amber two Scruples Amber-greece a Scruple Make a Powder the Dose is half a Dram twice or thrice a day with a distill'd water or some proper Julape Take Powder of Crabs Claws Compound two Drams Powder of Male Peony Roots and of Mans Scull prepar'd of each a Dram Flowers of Male Peony of Lillies of the Valley of each half a Dram Make a Powder to be taken after the same manner Take Ivory red Coral powdered of each three Drams Species Diambrae a Dram double refin'd Sugar dissolv'd in a sufficient quantity of water of Navews and boil'd to a consistency for Tablets seven Ounces Make Tablets according to Art weighing half a Dram let one or two be eaten often in a day as the person pleases Take Conserve of the Flowers of Lillies of the Valley six Ounces Powders of Coral prepar'd Pearl Ivory Crabs Eyes of each a Dram and a half Vitriol of Mars a Dram Syrup of Coral what suffices Make an Electuary the Dose is from a Dram to two Drams twice a day drinking after it a draught of the following Julape Take the water of Navews and of whole Citrons of each six Ounces of Orange Rines distill'd with Wine two Ounces Sugar half an Ounce Make a Julape Take of our Syrup of Steel six Ounces the Dose is a spoonful in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon with two Ounces of the Julape before written leaving out the Sugar or with distill'd water Take Powder of Ivory and of Coral of each two Drams and a half Species Diambrae a Dram Salt of Steel two Drams Sugar eight Ounces Amber-greece dissolv'd half a Scruple Make Tablets weithing half a Dram the Dose is three or four Drams twice a day Take fresh Strawberies eight pounds the outward Coats of twelve Oranges fresh Filings of Iron half a pound being bruis'd together pour to them eight pounds of Wine let them ferment in a Pot close cover'd for twenty four hours then distill it in common Organs Take Spirit of Hartshorn or of Blood or the like three Drams The Dose is twenty drops twice a day with a fit Vehicle Take Flowers of Sal Armoniack Coral prepar'd of each two Drams The Dose is a Scruple twice a day Take
augmented that its Vesiculae being distended or many of them broken into one and so a Solution of Continuity or an Ulcer being caus'd a greater Mass of Matter for the Consumption is daily heap'd together Moreover and that the matter in regard it is permitted to continue long there Putrisies and so still corrupts the Lungs more and taints the Blood passing through them In this case the Therapeutick Indieations are chiefly these three viz. First of all to stop the dissolution or the Blood which is the Root of all the mischief and to prevent it from pouring always matter in so great a plenty on the Lungs Secondly To evacuate by Expectoration the corruption gather d together within the Lungs and that sufficiently in some short time Thirdly To corroborate and dry the Lungs being dissolv'd as to their unity or become too lax and moist or otherwise weak lest they are daily more corrupted and receive the Morbifick matter always more and more Each of these Indications prompts us various intentions of Curing and requires divers sorts of Remedies and many ways of Administration of which I shall here briefly touch the chief Therefore what the first Indication suggests to wit to stop the dissolution of the Blood these three things as much as may be must be procur'd viz. First that the Mass of Blood may contain within it and assimilate whatever Nutritive Juice it is supply'd with and be so proportion'd with it that it be not faulty either in quantity or quality Secondly That the Acidities engendred either in the Blood or convey'd to it from elsewhere be so destroy'd that the Blood retaining always its Mixture or Crasis be not so subject to Fluxions or Fusions Thirdly That all dreggy Excrements in the Blood be deriv'd from the Lungs to other Emunctories and places of Evacuation As to the first of these intentions of Curing that the Nutritive Juice be proportion'd to the Blood before all things it must be ordered that Persons troubled with a Cough and Phthisick abstain as much as may be from Drink and take liquid things but in a very small quantity so that the Blood being weak in its Crasis may be able more easily to subdue the minute Portions of fresh Juice as long as it is not too much cloy'd with it and to retain it within its Texture Again let that fresh Juice consist of such Particles as are subtle and gentle that they may be mastered by the Blood and be assimilated without any eager heat of contest Wherefore Asses milk sometimes also Cows Mild or Goats Milk also Water-gruel Cream of Barley Ptisan Almond Milks and other simple sorts of food agree better and nourish more than Flesh Eggs or Gelly-broaths strong Ale Wine or any other kind of richer Fare Secondly That the Blood retaining its temperament be not easily dissolv'd into Serosities offending the Lungs as well it s own Acidities as those of the other humours that are mixt with it and especially of the Nervous and Lymphick humours must be destroy'd Which intention is excellently perform'd by Medicines prepar'd of Sulphur which therefore in this case so there be not a Hectick Feaver are frequently given and in a large Proportion Wherefore let the Tincture Balsam Syrup Flowers and Milk of Sulphur be given twice or thrice a day in a good large Dose for the same purpose Traumatick or Vulnerary Decoctions also Decoctions of Pectoral Herbs commonly so call'd and Roots are to be taken instead of ordinary drink Moreover Powder of Crabs Eyes of Millepedes and of other things containing an Alkalisate or Volatile Salt are often given with good success The Third intention of Curing referring to the First Indication viz. That the dreggy Excrements of the depraved Blood in case they much abound be withdrawn from the Lungs and Voided by other Emunctories suggests to us many ways to be put in practise for withdrawing them For besides Bleeding Evacuation by Urine and now and then a gentle Purge which have place in all Coughs even in a beginning Phthisick we ought also to range here Baths Breathing in a warm Air to promote perspiration also frictions of the extream parts Dropax's Issues Vesicatories shaving the Head Errhin's Apophlegmatisms and all other general or particular ways of Evacuating humours or vapours The Seeond Indication in a beginning Phthisick viz. that the corrupted matter depos'd within the Lungs be every day readily and clearly discharg'd is perform'd with expectorating Medicines These are said to operate in a two-fold manner according as their vertue is conveyed to the Lungs two ways For some of them taken by the mouth immediately send their active Particles into the Trachea which partly by making the passages slippery and by loosening at the same time the matter there sticking and partly by irritating the Excretory Fibres into Convulsions cause an Expectoration In which number Linctus's and Fumigations are esteem'd the chief Expectorating Remedies of the other kind which are justly esteem'd the best exert their Energy by the conveyance of the Blood for consistion of such Particles which cannot be subdued and assimilated by the Mass of Blood when they enter it being immiscible with it they are presently cast forth again and penetrate from the Arteries of the Lungs into the Ductus's of the Trachea where cleaving to the matter they divide attenuate and so exagitate it that the Fibres being thereby irritated and successively contracted in Coughing the Contents of the Trachea and of its Vesiculae are thrown up into the mouth Medicines proper for this use besides Sulphur and preparations of it are Artificial Balsams distill'd with Oyl of Turpentine Tinctures and Syrups of Gumm Ammoniacum Galbanum Assa-faetida Garlick Leeks and the like strong smelling things of which also Lohoch's and Eclegma's are prepar'd and these indeed work both ways so that partly by slipping down into the Trachea and partly by entring the Lungs by the Circuit of the Blood they set upon the Morbifick matter both before and behind and so throw it forth with the greater force As to the Third Indication viz. That the injur'd Conformation or vitiated constitution of the Lungs may be restor'd or amended such things must be us'd which resisting putrefaction mundify consolidate dry and corroborate for which ends also Medicines prepar'd of Sulphur Balsamicks and Traumaticks are proper Hence some Empiricks successfully preseribe not only the fume of Sulphur but likewise of Arsenick to be drawn through a Pipe or Funnel into the Lungs Moreover for this reason it is that the change of Habitation as from Cities to a Country or Sulphureous Air or travelling from one Country into another hotter proves so notably beneficial So far of the method of Cure which seems to be proper for a deeper Cough or a beginning Phthisick Now we must set down some Select Forms of Medicines according to each of those Therapeutick Indications which also according to the way us'd in a gentle Cough free from a Phthisick we shall distribute into certain
and let it Clarifie by setling the Dose is three or four Ounces in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon Take Powder of Aron Roots and of Crabbs Eyes of each three Drams Chrystal Mineral two Drams Vitriol of Mars a Dram and a half Sugar of Rosemary Flowers two Drams Mix them the Dose is half a Dram twice a Day with a fit Vehicle Hartman highly extolls the Liquor of the Flowers of the Herb Mullein as a Specifick Remedy in this Disease Put those Flowers fresh gather'd into an Alembick and press them in hard then the Vessell being carefully stopt that nothing can breath forth let it stand in an Oven whilst bread is bak't and afterwards the Flowers being taken forth press forth the Liquor very hard and let it be Distill'd in Balneo The Dose is a Scruple in Decoction of the Seeds and Roots of Fennel Certainly if this Medicine can do any thing it ought to be given in a greater Dose Johannes Anglicus Commends the Electuary Rosata Novella with Diatrion Santalon and Ants Eggs which Medicine truly being probable enough seems to promise something In Imitation of these I shall here propose the following Take Conserve of the Flowers of Cichory and Indian Cress of each three Ounces Powder of Aron Roots Lignum Aloes yellow Saunders of each a Dram Crabbs Eyes a Dram and a half Salt of Wormwood an Ounce Ants Eggs an Ounce Liguor of male Mullein half a Dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Citron Pills make an Electuary the Dose is two Drams twice a Day Drinking after it of the former Distill'd water or of the following Julape three Ounces Take water of the Leaves of Aron of the Juice of Elderberryes water of Juniper and of Elder Flowers of each six Ounces Magisteriall waters of Snails and of Earth-worms of each two Ounces Syrup of the Juice of Elderberryes two Ounces mix them make a Julape The third Indication being vital Prescribes Remedies chiefly against Faintings of the Spirits and difficulty of Breathing and against Watching and Thirst I shall briefly set down certain Forms of both kinds 1. Cordials TAke water of Navews of Marigold and Cammomill Flowers of each three Ounces Dr. Stevens's water two Ounces Tincture of Saffron two Drams Sugar an Ounce Pearl a Dram make a Julape the Dose is four or five Spoonfuls thrice or oftener in a Day in Faintings Take Conserve of Marigold Flowers two Ounces Confection of Alkermes and of Hyacinth of each two Drams Pearl Powdred an Ounces of the Juice of Citrons what suffices make a Confection take the quantity of a Nutmeg Evening and Morning drinking after it a Draught of the Julape 2. Hypnoticks TAke Aqua Hysterica six Drams Syrup de Meconio half an Ounce mix them take it late at Night Or Take small Cinnamon water an Ounce Diacodium three Ounces Tincture of Saffron two Drams mix them take to the quantity of a Spoonfull late at Night if Sleep be wanting Or Take Syrup of Cowslip Flowers three Spoonfulls Compound Peony water one Spoonfull Laudanum Tartarizd a Dram take a Spoonfull late at Night if you cannot Sleep Quenchers of Thirst must be frequently given in this most Thirsty Disease but it must be in a very small quantity that we may allay that most troublesom Symptom without much Drink which is always pernicious For which end Take Conserve of Wood-Sorrel passed through a Sieve three Ounces Pulp of Tamarinds two Ounces Sal Prunella a Dram Syrup of the Juice of Wood-Sorrel what suffices make a soft Lohoch of which let him lick often CHAP. V. Instructions and Prescripts for Curing the Anasarca AN Anasarca is describ'd after this manner that it is a white and soft Tumour of the whole outward part of the Body or of some parts of it yielding to the Touch and leaving a Pit uppon Compression proceeding from an Aqueous Homour extravasated and heapt together both within the Interstices of the Muscles and within the Pores of the Flesh and Skin and even of the Glands and Membranes That watery Humour proceeds wholly or for the greatest part from the Blood for being continually produc't within the Mass of Blood through the defect and fault of Sanguification it is pour'd forth of the Mouths of the Arteries in a greater quantity than that it can be receiv'd and carried back by the Veins and Limphaeducts and be sent forth by the Reins and Pores of the Skin and other Emissaries of the Serous Latex And Anasarca whilst it is simple is the least dangerous amongst all the species of Dropsies And a particular Anasarca occupying only the Inferior Members so the Belly do not swell withal is much safer than an Universal one In order to a right proceeding towards a Cure two chief scopes of Curing here present themselves viz. First we must take Care that the water betwixt the Skin and the Flesh be some way Evacuated and Consum'd and Secondly that a new supply be not continually engendred and heapt together For which end we must use what means we may both that the Viscera of Concoction being cleans'd from Excrements and free from Obstructions prepare always a good Chyle and supply the Mass of Blood with it in a due quantity and likewise that the Blood its Principles being restor'd to their fermenting Power may duly ferment and convert into its own Nature the Juice of the Chyle continually sent into it The Vital Indication seems not necessary in this Disease as in many others because Faintings of the Spirits or Watchings for which Cardiacks and Hypnoticks are required seldom happen here And there is little need of restoring Diets because Fasting and Abstinence do more good and most commonly are the greatest part of the Cure the reason is that the Vessels being drain'd by Fasting drink up the waters Stagnating betwixt the Skin and the Flesh or elsewhere and send them forth partly by the Reins the Pores of the Skin and other Emissaries and partly employ them most Advantageously for nourishing the Body they being yet full of a Nutritive Juice First to perform the first Indication which is for the Evacuation of the Morbifick matter all Hydragogue Medicines both Simple and Compound and likewise the Forms of Medicines set down before in the Chapter of the Ascites ought to be apply'd to use Moreover not only Catharticks and Diureticks but likewise Diaphoreticks have often place in the Cure of the Anasarca though for the most part they are forbidden in other kinds of the Dropsie In a simple Anasarca you may Purge Strongly and it often does much good I have given you before Forms of Hydragogue Catharticks of both kinds viz. of such as exert their force both upwards and downwards and both of a gentle and strong Operation from whence you may take them and apply them to the present Method of Curing If you ask how Catharticks work in this Disease and wherefore they carry forth waters better and more efficaciously than in other kinds of the
from the Skin when the ferment is Purg'd do not regurgitate into the Blood and Nervous Liquour and cause not only Discrasies in them but likewise as it often falls out bring great damage to the Brain and Praecordia Secondly it must be endeavour'd that the infectious Taint of the Humours and Noble parts contracted from the Scabby Matter be eradicated at the same time that the Nasty Distemper of the Skin is Cur'd All these intentions of Curing ought to be complicated or at leastwise to be interchangeably prosecuted by Remedies both inward and outward us'd together to the end that the Morbifick matter being chased from its private Receptacles may not any where retire and lie hid in any lurking places but being persued by Medicines in all parts both within and without may be wholly remov'd therefore Purges ought always to begin and end this Method of Cure whatsoever Helmont says to the contrary and I dare affirm that this Disease is scarce ever Cur'd easily and never with safety without that Medicine Moreover open a Vein one of the First things you do unless somewhat indicates the contrary besides these let alteratives have their turns such as purify the Blood and strenthen the Viscera and fortify them against the Ineursions of the Scabby Matter And in the mean time let Liniments or Baths or Topical Remedies of other kinds and appropriated to the Skin be apply'd for without them not only Catharticks and Bleeding but even Diaphoreticks Diureticks nay any kind of Medicines whatsoever evacuating or altering the Blood and Humours prove of no effect We shall set down some select Forms of the Medicines of each kind before mention'd And First for due Purging give a Purging Medicine or a Vomit the first thing you do Also after Bleeding if it be necessary let the person use a Purging Apozeme or Ale for seven or eight Days Take the Electuary Diacarthamum three Drams Species of Diaturbith with Rhubarb a Dram Cream of Tartar Salt of Wormwood of each half a Scruple Purging Syrup of Apples what suffices make a Bolus to be taken with Governance Or Take Sulphur of Antimony seven Grains Scammony Sulphurated eight Grains Cream of Tartar half a Scruple make a Powder Take Roots of Polypody of the Oak and of sharpe pointed Dock prepar'd of each an Ounce Leaves of Sena ten Drams Turbith Agarick Epithimum of each an Ounce Carthamus Seeds half an Ounce yellow Saunders two Drams Seeds of Annise and Caraway of each two Drams being slic'd and bruis'd digest them close luted and warm in four Pounds of White-wine for twentyfour hours pour off the clear Liquor without expression the Dose is six Ounces by it self or with a spoonful of Syrup of Epithimum Or Take the foresaid Ingredients and boyl them in six Pounds of fountain water to half then add of White-wine a Pound and strain it presently make an Apozeme give it after the same manner Or Take Roots of Polypody of the Oak and of sharpe pointed Dock of each three Ounces the best Sena four Ounces Epithimum Turbith Mechoacan of each two Ounces yellow Saunders an Ounce Coriander Seeds six Drams let them be prepar'd according to Art make a Bagg for four Gallons of Ale after five or six Days drink it and take to twelve Ounces more or less every Morning for eight or ten Days For ordinary Drink let a little Vessel of four Gallons be full'd with small Ale into which put the following Bag. Take tops of Tamarisk Fumitory dryed of each four handfuls Roots of sharpe pointed Dock dry'd six Ounces Rinds of Bitter-sweet two Ounces being slic't and bruis'd mix them or let a Bouchet of the Decoction of Sarsaparilla Saunders with the Shavings of Ivory Harts-horn Licorice c. be taken As to altering Remedies besides the Physick Ale for ordinary Drink there seems not need of many others only that a good Dyet be observ'd by avoiding Salt and Peppered Meats Shell-fish and others which have been laid in Brine Also let them forbear Wine strong Waters strong Beer and all Liquors apt to trouble the Blood too much and to ferment it In an obstinate Scab seizing a Cacochymical Body it 's proper to give the following Electuary with the distill'd water twice a Day Take Conserve of Fumitory of the Roots of sharpe pointed Dock of each three Ounces Troches of Rhubarb Species Diatrion Santalon of each a Dram and a half Salt of Wormwood a Dram Vitriol of Mars four Scruples with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Cichory with Rhubarb make an Electuary the Dose is from a Dram to two Drams twice a Day drinking after it of the following distill'd Water three Ounces Take Firr Tops seven handfuls Leaves of Fumitory Agrimony Female Fluellin Liver-wort Brook-limes of each four handfuls Roots of sharpe pointed Dock two Pounds Rinds of Elder two handfuls the outward Rinds of six Oranges being slic'd and bruis'd pour to them Whey made with midling Ale eight Pounds distil it in common Organs let the whole Liquor be mixt Ointments to be anointed on the Skin are prescrib'd most frequently and that very effectually for Curing the Itch Though those that are us'd to many other Tumours and Sores do no good here But Sulphur and preparations of it seem to have a certain Specifick Vertue in this Disease so that they are ingredients in almost all Ointments for the Itch and are the basis of the whole Composition This is a very common receipt with the vulgar Take of the Powder or Flowers of Sulphur half an Ounce Butter without Salt four Ounces Ginger powdred half a Dram make a Liniment Somewhat a neater prescript though not much more Efficacious is after this manner Take Vngentum Rosatum four Ounces Sulphur-vive powdred half an Ounce Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium what suffices make a Liniment to which add Oyl of Rhodium a Scruple to give it a scent When you will strengthen or raise the Energy of the Sulphur by the addition of other things Take of the Ointment of Elecampane without Mercury four Ounces Power of Sulphur half an Ounce Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium what suffices For the same purpose an Ointment is made of the Roots of sharp pointed Dock boyl'd in Butter or Oyl with White-wine till the Wine be consum'd and with Sulphur and Oyl of Tartar Moreover those Ointments are sometimes us'd by themselves by curious persons abhorring the ill odour of the Sulphur The Third kind of Liniment against the Itch is made of Mercury needing no assistance from Sulphur or Vegetables nay this being more than enough efficacious of it self is not wont to be apply'd to the whole Body but only to the Joints of the Arms and Leggs or being put in a Girdle is to be worn about the Loins for so it seldom fails of Curing the Itch Nevertheless there is danger lest this Practice as it often happens causes ill and pernicious Symptoms Frequently after the Mercury Ointment a Salivation sometimes also a Scotomia or
Disease For the corrupted Taints of the Blood after that upon long continuance they are become wholly Heterogeneous and unsubdueable gather to themselves at length the Saline Particles with which growing together in that Tartarous Concretion and driven to the Skin they produce Eruptions of the running Scab Concerning the Crue of the running Scab there are two primary Indications viz. the Preservatory which regards the cause of the Disease and the Curatory which has regard to the Symptom viz. the breaking forth of Pushes The Vital has seldom place in this case unless grown altogether desperate where there is a deficiency of Sleep and Strength The Method of Cure ought always to begin with the Preservatory Indication which removes the causes of the Disease by inward Remedies for otherwise outward things are scarce ever administred to any purpose as in the Itch but the roots of the Disease being cut off within the Blood the Cutaneous Pushes soon dye away Though for removing them we must proceed one way when the running Scab begins of it self and somewhat a differing way when it comes after an inveterate Scurvy or the French-pox ill or not Cur'd We shall consider each of these cases severally and distinctly by themselves When therefore this Disease is simple and primary and fresh coming let the evident and external cuases be remov'd let the ill Diet and the Unwholesomeness of the Air be corrected therefore let persons who have been long and too much us'd to feed on Salt Meats Pork or Fish betake themselves to a Diet of good Juice and easy of Concoction Moreover if they live by the Sea side or in Marshy places let them remove to a more dry and clear Air and withal let them be as careful of their Drink avoiding thick and dreggy Beer and thin and acid Wines which are too much fill'd with Tartar Finally let them take care that their Drink or Food be not prepar'd of Mineral waters apt to petrify 2. In respect of the Conjunct and Procatarctick cause viz. a Saturation of the Blod with Saline Particles of a differing Disposition and Nature there are two chief intents of Curing to wit that the Blood and Humours be forthwith cleans'd of their impurities and that the Acido-saline Discrasies of the Blood and Nervous Liquour be altered for the better to keep them from engendring a Tartarous matter For which ends both evacuating Remedies of divers kinds and altertives are wont to be prescrib'd Nevertheless because not all but in a manner only great Remedies are here proper therefore those that are chiefly in use and found to do most good are Catharticks Bleeding Whey Mineral waters coming from Iron Juicy expressions of Herbs Decoctions of Woods Chalybeat Medicines and Salivation We shall set down certain Forms of each of these and the manners of ussing them In the Frist place therefore a general Purge and Bleeding as in the Cure of the Itch being premitted let the following Cathartick Infusion or Tincture be prescrib'd whose Dose is from six Ounces to eight to be repeated whithin six or seven Days Take Roots of sharp pointed Dock dryed of Polypody of the Oak of each half an Ounce Sena ten Drams Epithymum six Drams Rhubaru Mechoacan of each half an Ounce yellow Saunders two Drams Celtick Spike half a Dram Salt of Tartar a Dram and a half put them in a Glass with three Pounds of White-wine and a Pound of Elder-flower water let them stand close covered in a cold place for three Days then use it pouring forth daily a sufficient quantity of the clear Liquour Secondly to sweeten the Blood and cleanse ti from its Salts drink every Morning to two or three Pounds of Whey by it self or with Fumitory preparations of Cichory and with sharp pointed Dock infus'd in it and let this Drink be continued for twenty or thirty Days if it agrees with the Stomack and withal in the Evening and early in the Morning let a Dose or the following Electuary be taken Take Conserve of the Roots of sharp pointed Dock six Ounces Crabbs Eyes Coral prepard of each two Drams Ivory a Dram Powder of Lignum Aloes yellow Saunders of each a Dram and a half Sal Prunella two Drams Vitriol of Mars a Dram and a half Syrup of the Juice of Wood-sorrel what suffices make an Electurary the Dose if two Drams Thirdly for the same reason as Whey also Mineral waters coming from Iron are prescrib'd against this Disease and often do great good For when all other Medicines have prov'd of no effect I have sometimes Cur'd a great and almost Leaprous running Scab with this alone Moreover to add to their efficacy we may fitly joyn the use of Sal Prunella or of Vitriol of Mars or of the Electuary before written Fourthly in some persons having much Serun and a Watery Constitution where drinking of Whey or Mineral waters is not proper it is good for them to take constantly a Decoction of Woods at Physical hours and likewise for their ordinary Drink Take Raspings of Willow-wood half a Pound Roots of Sarsaparilla eight Ounces white Saunders Wood of the Mastick-tree of each two Ounces Shavings of Ivory and Harts-horn of each six Drams Shavings of Tin crude Antimony of each four Ounces both tyed in a Rag Licorice an Ounce let them infuse according to Art and boil in sixteen Pounds of fountain water of half keep the straining for use Fisthly Chalybeat Medicines because generally accounted of among the more excellent Remedies are seldom omitted in this Disease though they as seldom prove successful For a gret many preparatious of Iron in which the Sulphurous Particles predo minate for as much as they ferment the Blood and put it upon Excretory Effervescencies encrease rather than diminish the Eruptions of the running Scab Nevertheless Vitriolick Salts Syrups Tinctures and Infusions in regard they fix the Blood and somewhat restrain the Exorbitant excesses of the Salts answer aptly enough to the intention of Curing now propos'd but being too weak cnnot master so Herculean a Disease Wherefore Sixthly these and a great many other Remedies doing no good many reommend Salivation as the stoutest Champion and only fit to contend with so potent an Enemy Yet the event does not always answer this mighty expectation for I must own to have try'd this Remedy my self in four persons afflicted with a greivous running Scab not yielding to other Medicines but without any benefit some of these were put in a very high Salivation by a Mercury Unction others by Pills of the Solar Praecipitate which Salivation they lay under for about twenty Days after which time all the Scaly breakings forth and clusters of Pushes vanisht Nevertheless for perfecting the Cure a Diet Drinkd ordered of the Decoction of Sarza with frequent Sweating under a Cradle and deu Puring betwixt while was continued for a Month Yet this course being ended when no footsteps of the running Scab seem'd to be left behind within the second Month a
new stock of the same Disease biginning to spring forth grew up in a short time to its wonted Maturity Moreover when one of these persons would repeat this Medicine and another after two returns of the Di2ease would try it a third time both of them at length despair'd of Cure after they had underwent so much Misery Whence it appears that the French-pox though Malignant in the highest Nature and causing most Filthy and Virulent Ulcers consuming the Flesh and Bones may much more easily and ceratinly be Cur'd than the running Scab The reason of ti is that the cause of the Pox consists in a Malignant and altogether Heterogeneous Miasin defiling and as ti were Poysoning the Blood and Nervous Liquor for some time though not wholly subverting their Crasis or utterly depraving them for the future Wherefore that Cure is perform'd by Salivation or a Sweating Diet extirpating all that Venom the Genuine Disposition of the Blood and Humours then remaining But in a deep sort of running Scab the Elementary and Originally composong Particles of the Blood are corrupted so that unless the Crasis and due Disposition of these be restor'd all sorts of Evacuations and Purgings of the Malignant and Venemous matter though never so fll and eradicative will effect little or nothing Wherefore it is not without ground that many famous Physitians formerly have judg'd this Disease when coufirm'd and drawing near to a Leaprosie to be hardly or never Cur'd 2. No better event attends this Disease when if succeeds an inveterate Scurvy Haply the intentions of Curing are somewhat more certainly pitcht upon when this effect is suppos'd to be the basis or root of that viz. the Terapeutick intention being thence taken we insist chiefly on Antiscorbutick Remedies but yet the more smart and hotter things of this kind as Scurvy-grass Cresses Horse-raddish Pepperwort and other things irritating the Blood too much in regard they more dissolve its Crasis and drive the Tartarous Concretions more plentifully to the Skin are always found rather prejudicial than advantageous And for this reason the use of hot Baths or Bathing in hot waters which in regard it evacuates the Humours of the whole Body by a most plentiful Sweat and cleanses the Pores of the Skin and mightily purges them amy seem to be very available in this Disease most commonly is so far from doing good that the Eruptions are wont thence to be mightily encreast and exasperated For I have known many persons not very much over-gone with the running Scab who going to our Bath to bathe themselves in the hot waters have return'd thence perfectly Leaprous Wherefore when this affect is a Symptom arising from the Scurvy all Smart and Elastick things being avoided let only the more temperate and such as are endow'd with a Nitrous Vitriolick or Volatile Salt be administred We shall give you some kinds and froms of each of these sorts In the First p ace things chiefly excelling in a Nitrous Sal are Chrystal Mineral the Juices or Decoctions of certain Herbs and some Purging Mineral waters Take Chrystal Mineral or Nitre purified to the highest degree an Ounce Flowers of Sal Armoniack a Dram bruise them together in a Glass Mortar give to a Dram thrice or four times in the space of twenty four hours Take Leaves of the great House-leek two handfuls being bruis'd boil them in two Pounds and a half of fresh Milk till it turn to Whey and Curd being strain'd let the clear Liquour be taken to a Pound twice a Day Take Leaves of Dandelyon six handfuls being bruis'd put them in a Glaz'd Earthen Pot with a cover which put in an Oven after the Bread is draum and let it stand for six or eight hours then the Mass being put in a strainer let the clear Liquour run out the Dose of which is from four Ounces to six thrice or oftner in a Day Cucumbers being endow'd with a Nitrous quality are found by experience to be good against this Disease wherefore let store of them be often eaten as a Sallet Moreover let three or four of them being cut into slices be infus'd and close stopt in three Pounds of fountain water all Night to the clear Liquour pour'd off add of Sal Prunella two or three Drams the Dose is half a Pound thrice or oftener in a Day for the same purpose also Decoctions of the Leaves together with the Fruit made in fountain water are proper Some Mineral Purging waters as especially those of North-hal being resolv'd by Evaporation mainifestly shew the Nitrous Salt wherewith they are imbued And I have sometimes found by expericence that dayly drinking about two quarts of them for many Days Cures a small running Scab 2. But as I have hinted before Mineral waters endow'd with a Vitriolick Salt as those of the Spaw and ours of Tunbridge and Astrope far exceed those Nitrous waters nay and all other Medicines and are of greater efficacy in the Cure of the running Scab To those who have not the conveniency of using these waters I ordinarily give with good success against this Disease common waters impregnated with our Steel and so most exactly resembling those Mineral waters It happens that Tin and Antimony by reason of their Mineral Salts or at leastwise by reason of the Mercurial Particles in them are extol'd by many for curing the running Scab and are wont to be prescrib'd with other Medicines Let Shavings of Tin and Powder of Antimony be infus'd in Beer for ordinary Drink they enter also the Decoctions of Sarza with Woods which are ordered against this affect The use of the Viper and preparations of it sufficiently recommend the excellent Vertue of Volatile Salt for the Cure of the deep sort of running Scab nay of the Leaprosie it self For it being manifest by frequent observations that Remedies prepar'd of Vipers do good in the running Scab and Leaporfie certainly the reason of the help it affords ought to be ascrib'd to the Volatile Salt with a great plenty of which this Animal is endowed For the Particles of this destroy the fixt and acid Salts predominating in the Blood of the Diseas'd and dissolve their Combinations Nevertheless the Salt Spirit and Oyl of Vipers Chymically extracted by reason of their Empyreumatick and mighty Elastick Particles which they draw from the Fire are not proper in this Disease so neither the Spirit or Volatile Salt of Harts-born Soot or Blood and other such like Armoniacks because by exagitating the Blood and Humours above measure they cause their Crasis to be more dissolv'd and their Corruptions to be driven forth more plentifully to the Skin Wherefore the more simple preparations of Vipers as Broaths of their Flesh boil'd in water Drinks impregnated with Infusions or Incoctions of the same and Powders made of the same dryed and beaten are rpescrib'd with more success against this Disease Moreover not only the Flesh of Vipers but of other kinds of Oviaprous Snakes being boil'd and eaten for ordinary Food
give often great relief The running Scab or scaly breakings forth of Pushes and growing in figures like clusterings is so frequent and familiar a Symptom of an inveterate French-pox that the first thing we do is to ask persons affected with the former Distemper whether they do not conveive that there amy be something of the Malignity of the other bying hid withim them and if it be found to be so presently all Specificks against the former and Antiscorbuticks being laid aside we forthwith betake our selves to Decoctions of Woods and those doing little or no good to Mercurial Medicines And truly by this Method I have soon and easily Cur'd many persons accounted to have a running Scab and Leaprosie who had been long under Cure and miserably tormented with Remedies appropriated to these Diseases And we refer this kind of running Scab to the Pathology of the French-pox whereof it is an Appendix The Second Indication which is Curatoyr having regard to the Disease it sefl and its primary Symptom viz. the scaly breakings forth and the clusters of Pushes prescribes Topical Remedies to be apply'd to the Skin outwardly for removing these effects For which purpose Baths and Liniments are peculiarly proper though they seldom or never Cure of themselves unless the Procatarctick ause viz. the Tartarous Disposition of the Blood be first clear'd There is a mighty store of these Topicks to be found as well among Physical Authours as among Empiricks and Quacks Though among them all Baths or Liniments made of Tar far exceed all the rest of the Remedies of both kinds So that in truth we should make use of these alone were it not for their ill smell wherefore I shall give you certain Forms of Compositions with Tar and without it Therefore for Baths it 's a common thing to use water kept some time in Vessels in which Tar has ben before and so impregnated by Infusion Or Take two Pounds of Tar and incorporate it into a prety thick Mass with white and sifted Ashes which boil in a sufficient quantity of fountain water adding Leaves of ground Ivy Fumitory white Horehound Roots of sharp pointed Dock and of Elecampane of each four handfuls Make a Bath to be us'd with governance or let such a Decoction be prepar'd without Tar for persons troubled with the running Scab and loathing the smell of Tar. Sulphurous Baths both Natural and Artificial are found by frequent experience not to agree nay and the former commonly to do hurt Moreover all Bathing whatsoever ought to be us'd with great caution for in regard this Administration exagitates and heats the Blood it endangers to dissolve its Crasis more as is said before and to disperse its corrupted Taints in a more plentiful manner to the Skin 2. Liniments whose use is more safe and proper are of three kinds or degrees viz. gentle mean and strong I shall give you an example or two of each of these 1. First therefore in a small running Scab where the breakings forth and clusters of Pushes are few and very small fasting Spittle is recommended Also the Liquour distilling from green Wood in the Fire So likewise a meer rubbing with the Root of sharp pointed Dock bruis'd and macerated in Vinegar Or Take Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium Oyl of Nuts or of bitter Almonds by expression of each equal parts make a Liniment to be apply'd to the places affected twice a Day 2. Liniments of the Second kind have Tar for an Ingredient which is esteem'd as good as all the rest Take Vnguentum Rosatum six Ounces Tar two Ounces being melted together let them let mixt Or Take a good fat piece of Weathers Mutton stick it with bits of the Roots of sharp pointed Sock spit it and roast it And baste it with Tar letting it drop leasurely on it keep the Dripping as a most excellent Ointment for the running Scab 3. The strongest Ointments against this affect are Mercurial which consist either of running Mercury or Praecipitate let the Forms and Cmposition of the foriner be the same as is prescrib'd before against the Itch. As to the other Take white Praecipitate three Drams Vnguentum Rosatum three Ounces Mix them to anoint the parts chiefly affected The use of these in this Disease ought to be very much suspected For if haply a Salivation be rais'd a mighty glut of Matter sticking in the pores of the Skin will be put in motion which if the whole rushing too much together towards the Ductus Salivales gathers in a body about the parts of the Throat it will endanger Suffocation Some years since a Virgin of a noble Family whose Temperament was hot as having originally a sharp and salt Blood after having liv'd a very long time almost from her Cradle somewhat toucht with a running Scab about the time of her coming to ripeness of years began to be troubled with it in a more grievous manner For clusters of scaly Pushes did not only every where overrun her Arms and Thighs and other parts of the Body out of sight but likewise made her Hands and Face so loathsome that she was asham'd to go abroad and converse with others of her quality An infinite number of the lesser sort of Remedies were given her without any success By the use of hot Baths she seem'd to grow better at first but in the end she became worse after them The waters of Astrope wells which have perfectly Cur'd some persons of a running Scab did her little or no good wherefore seeing all ordinary Methods would not do I propos'd that she should try Salivation as being a more powerful Remedy than all the rest and as it 's said the last The Patient and her Parents readily consenting to this advice presently her Body being duly prepar'd by Purging and Bleeding I gave her after our wonted manner Pills of the Solar Praeciptitae for two Days and after the Intermission of one the Medicine being repeated the third time she began to Salivate very well and freely it continuing upon her for a Month without any ill Symptom Nevertheless to keep it in its due Tenour I took care that a Mercurial Ointment was now and then apply'd to the Joynts of the Limbs sometimes to these and sometimes to others Before this course was ended all the breakngs forth were vanisht Notwithstanding which to perfect the Cure and withao to extirpate the Mercury she spent another Month in Purging Sweating under a Cradle and in a Diet Drink of a Decoction of Sarsa China c. at which time seeming to be perfectly Cur'd she continued so for about forty Days But from thence forwards though she observ'd an exact Form of Diet the same Disease began to spring forth afresh and encreasing by degrees rise at length to an overgrown state as before I being in some confusion at this event perswaded her to hope an alteration for the better after the flowing of her Menses which having not yet happen'd was expected in a short
and a half Confection of Alkermes a Dram mix them The Dose is three or four Spoonfuls Or Take Aqua Mirabilis six Ounces Water of Snails and of Wallnuts of each two Ounces Pearl powdred a Scruple Confection of Hyacinth a Dram Syrup of Clove-gilliflowers an Ounce mix them When Scorbutick Women are wont to be troubled with Hysterick Fits and Men with Convulsions Take Water of Bawm and Pennyroyal of each three Ounces compound Briony-water four Ounces Tincture of Castoremn half an Ounce Tincture of Saffron a Dram Syrup of Clove-gilliflowers a Dram and a half Castoreum tyed in a Nodulus and hung in the Glass a Dram. The Dose is three or four Spoonfuls For those who desire rather to have Cordial Medicines in a solid form let Electuaries or Tablets be prescrib'd Take Conserve of Clove-gilliflowers three Ounces Confection of Alkermes half an Ounce Pearl powdred a Dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Coral make an Electuary Take Species Diamargariti Frigidi and Diarrhodon Abbatis of each a Dram and a half Pearl powdred a Dram double refin'd Sugar dissolv'd in Treacle-water and boil'd to a consistency for Tablets four Ounces Oyl of Cinnamon six drops make Tablets according to Art As to Opiats and Anodine Medicines in some certain affects of Scorbutick persons I had rather be without any kind of Medicine besides than the use of them For not only against obstinate Pains and Watchings but in Asthmatick Fits in Vomitings a Diarrhaea and also in a Vertigo and Convulsive Passions as often as nature being irritated above measure falls into extream irregularities I have found no Remedy more excellent than to procure sleep by giving a safe Narcotick Mean while there is need of a very great caution that they be not taken if at any time something in the Constitution of the Diseas'd or in the nature or time of the Disease forbids the giving of such a Medicine Besides the Hypnoticks usual in Apothecaries Shops viz. Laudanum Opiatum Nepenthe the Philonia Diacodium and Syrup of red Poppies two other preparations of Opium are known to me which I use to give in the form of a Tincture or of a liquid Extract from ten drops to twelve with some other appropriate Liquour The Diet or Form of Living to be observ'd in Scorbutical persons is of no small importance in the Method of Cure for that being neglected or ill ordered the other Prescripts of Physick do little or nothing towards Health The Rule of Diet being extended to various things is chiefly concerning the Air and Situation of the Habitation Meat and Drink and the motion or rest of the Body As to the first what kind of habitations and places of Residence in respect of the Heavens and the Earth cause the Scurvy and consequently ought to be shun'd it is sufficiently manifested by what we have said before Those that endeavour to prevent or cure this Disease ought to take care to choose an Air moderately hot and dry and which also is subtle and pure and sufficiently expos'd to the Winds Such Food only is proper which has a good Juice and is easie of Concoction let such as is gross viscous and dryed in the Smoak mouldy and rank also such as is unfermented or greatly compounded all manner of Pulse Milk-meats and unripe Fruits be shun'd I so much disapprove things preserv'd or very much season'd with Sugar that I judge the invention of it and its immoderate use to have very much contributed to the vast increase of the Scurvy in this late Age For that Concret consists of a very sharp and corrosive Salt though mitigated with a Sulphur as it plainly appears from its Chymical Analysis For Sugar distil'd by it self yields a Liquour scarce inferior to Aqua Stygia And if you distil it in a Vefica with a great deal of Fountain-water pour'd to it though the fixt Salt will not so ascend nevertheless a Liquour will come from it like the Hottest Aqua Vitae burning and very pungent when therefore Sugar mixt almost with any sorts of Food is taken by us in so great a plenty how probable is it that the Blood and Humours are rendred salt and sharp and consequently Scorbutical by its daily use A certain famous Author has laid the cause of the English Consumption on the immoderate use of Sugar amongst our Countrymen I know not whether the cause of the spreading Scurvy may not also be rather hence deriv'd Let the Drink be midling Ale mild and clear and also let it be altered with Antiscorbutick Ingredients without an ungrateful favour Let it not be thick and sweet nor also too old and turning sharp Let this be taken in a moderate quantity and in a manner only at the set hours of Dinner and Supper The custom which has prevail'd with many viz. that assoon as they are out of their Beds they presently indulge themselves to drink a large Mornings Draught as they call it seems very pernicious For by this means the Blood Vessels are too much fill'd a store of new Chyle being almost continually sent into them and Crudities and Filthy Morbifick Dregs are engendred in the Blood and the office of Sanguification is greatly debilitated Truly it is better for most Men unless it be those whose Ventricle as long as it is empty is wont to be plainfully contracted and corrugated to keep themselves fasting till Dinner time Nor is that vulgar custom less contrary to Health to swill themselves with much Drink presently after Meat Wines and Ciders so they are mellow pure and not adulterated being taken in a moderate quantity do not offend But the same being counterfeit musty austere or turning sharp there is nothing more hurtful or injurious to our Health Exercises and Labour are so notably conducing both to the cure and prevention of the Scurvy that many by this sole Remedy either preserve or recover an entire Health For the Blood and Nervous Liquour of persons that lead an idle and sedentary Life like Stagnating Waters contract a clamminess and mouldiness But upon the assiduous and much motion of the Body the Humours and Spirits become clear and get a vigour the Excrementitious and Heterogeneous Particles evaporate the stuffings of the Bowels are purg'd and their Tone is corroborated CHAP. VI. Some Stories and rare Cases of Persons troubled with the Scurvy A Woman of Renown tall and graceful about the twenty fifth year of her Age had contracted a Scorbutick Taint by reason of various errours committed in Diet. The signs of which were a Spontaneous Lassitude a difficult Breathing Pains and Spots in the Legs and her Gums likewise swoll'n and full of Blood in the Spring time after an Abortion falling into a Tertian Ague she soon became in a languishing and weak condition from which Disease nevertheless first being Methodically proceeded with in Physick she had soon recovered but that indulging her self to eat Flesh and other improper things she soon had a Relaps and then being a weary
often begin the same on occasion or encrease them being begun 2. As to the Principles of which the mass of Blood consists in its mixture and what Proportion they have in it We do not allow of the Opinion of the Ancients That the Mass of Blood consists of the four Humours viz Blood Flegm Choler and Melancholy and that according to the Eminency of this or that Humour the divers Temperaments are form'd and that by reason of their fermentings or Exorbitances in a manner all Diseases arise nor has this Opinion been so generally used for solving the Phenomena of Diseases since the Circulation of the Blood and its other Affects before unknown came to light and since those Humours consist of other Principles viz. Choler of Salt and Sulphur with a mixture of Spirit and Water and Melancholy of the same with an addition of Earth and since the Blood is immediately composed of these kind of Principles and is wont to be sensibly resolved into them I have rather chosen omitting the vulgar Acceptation of the Humours to make use of these known Principles of the Chymists for explicating the nature and affects of the Blood therefore there are in the Blood as in all other Liquors apt to ferments a great deal of Water and Spirit a small Proportion of Salt and Sulphur and somewhat of Earth I shall briefly run over these Principles and endeavour to shew after what manner they constitute the Consistency Properties and Affects of the Blood 1. The Spirits which without Dispute have the first place are the subtle and most volatile part of the Blood their Particles being always expanded and endeavouring to fly away exagitate the grosser Corpuscles of the rest in which they are involv'd and keep them always in a motion of Fermentation by the Effervescence and even Expansion of these in the Vessels the liquor of the Blood continually boyls and the rest of the Principles are kept in an orderly Motion and in an exact Mixture if any thing that is heterogeneous or unapt for mixture comes into the Mass of Blood presently the Spirits being troubled in their Motion make an Effort exagitate the Blood and make it boyl vehemently till that which is extraneous and immiscible with it be either subdued or reduced or driven forth 2. From the Dissolution of Sulphur in the Blood it is likely that the ruddy Tincture of the Blood arises For sulphureous Bodies above all others give the highest saturated redness to a solving Menstruum and if at any time by reason of too much Crudity the Sulphur is not dissolv'd the Blood becomes pale and Watery that it scarce gives a redness to Linnen The mass of Blood impregnated with Sulphur together with Spirits is very fermentative and when the sulphureous part is raised and abounds too much in the Blood it perverts its Crasis from its due state that thereby the Blood being deprav'd or rendred bilous does not rightly concoct the nutritive Juice or being wholly inflamed falls into heats and burnings such as arise in a continual Fever For the Sulphur being too much exalted and growing more turgid than it ought raises mighty Effervescensies in the Blood and those whose Blood is plentifully impregnated with Sulphur are very obnoxious to Fevers by reason of the Particles of this incocted in the Nutritive Juice and thence applyed to the solid parts Fatness Softness and Tenderness happen to our Body 3. We discover Salt in the Blood by the Taste which is there highly volatiz'd by circulation and if at any time in the Blood by reason of an ill digestion the saline Particles are not duely exalted but continue crude and for the greatest part fixt thereby the Blood becomes thick and unapt for circulation so that obstructions are engendred in the Viscera and solid parts and serous Crudities are every where heapt together but if the Spirit being depress'd or fainting the Salt is exalted too much and comes to a flowing an acetous and austere disposition is brought on the Blood such as is observ'd in scorbutical Persons and in such as are troubled with a quartan Ague also from the Salt by this means variously coagulated the Gout Kings-evil the Nephritis the Leprosie and a great many Cronick Diseases arise When the Salt is exalted in a due measure the saline Particles restrain the wild efforts of the Spirits and especially of the Sulphur wherefore those who have the Blood well saturated with a volatile Salt are least subject to Fevers and so also those who are often let Blood are more apt to Fevers 4. By the earthy Particles in the Blood it s too great volatilisation is stay'd and it s over quick accension is hindred Moreover from the terrestrial Particles of the Blood and nutritive Juice the balk and increase happens to the Body 5. On the watery part of the Blood its fluidity depends for hereby its stagnation is hindred and the Blood is circulated in the Veins without growing thick also it s too great conflagration and adustion is qualified and its heat is allayed What we have said even now concerning the Principles of the Blood and the Affects to be drawn from thence will appear more clear if we consider a little the Blood according to its sensible Particles and compare it with the Liquours which are frequently in use among us Now those Liquours which have the greatest Analogy with the Blood are Wine and Milk as to its wayes of Fermentation and Effervescence it is most aptly compar'd to Wine as to its Consistency Coagulation and Separation of the parts from each other it is compar'd to Milk First therefore we may observe concerning Wine that as long as it is included in a Vessel its subtle and spirituous Parts continually exagitate and refringe the more gross and render them apt for an exact mixture that which is heterogeneous and unapt to be subdued is sever'd by effervescence mean while the depurated Liquour gently fermenting is in perpetual motion whereby all the parts expand themselves every way and pass by a constant circumgiration from the top to the bottom and again from the bottom to the top by the particular fretting and refraction a great many effluvia's of Attoms part from the Liquour which if they are kept in by a Vessel close stopt the Liquour ferments too much and often makes the Vessel flye in pieces So the Blood within the Veins is prest on by a constant circulation the vital Spirit subtilises refringes and presently subdues the grosser Particles drives forth that which is heterogeneous and immiscible mean while from the refraction and working of the Parts and Corpuscles the Effluvia of heat constantly flow forth and evaporate by the Pores upon the closing of which if transpiration be hindred presently by reason of the too great effervescence of the Blood a Fever is kindled Secondly we observe concerning Wines that they grow turgid if any thing that is extraneous and of a fermentative Nature be mixt with them nay that
sent forth and the confused and troubled Particles of the Blood are clear'd again and take to their former position and site in mixture Or secondly the Blood is troubled above measure because some Principle or Element which composesit viz. the Spirit or Sulphur is rais'd beyond the natural Temper and becomes exorbitant whereby the Particles of this or that not agreeing with the rest are loosned from their mixture being loos'd make an effort more then they ought exagitate the Liquour of the Blood and cause an effervescence which is not appeas'd till the Blood being inflam'd as it were has burnt a long time with a feverish blast But there is this difference betwixt these two boylings of the Blood that the Effervescence which depends on the mixture of an extraneous thing with the Blood is for the most part short or comming by Fits which when the heterogeneous thing is separated or subdued ceases of its own accord and the troubled and disordered parts of the Blood readily return to their natural Site or Crasis but the Ebullition which arises from the disordering of the exorbitant Spirit or Sulphur is continual to wit here the whole mass of Blood is so open'd and loosn'd from the strict bond of mixture that taking a fire like an oily Lpquour it does not cease to rage and flame till the Particles of the Spirit or Sulphur or of the combustible matter are for the greatest part consum'd There remains yet a third preternatural way of effervescency in which the Blood undergoes an alteration which does not happen to Wine but very frequently to Milk viz. sometimes a coagulation of that liquor is induc'd by a morbifick cause so that it substance is sus'd and separates into parts and there is a secretion made of that which is thick and earthy from the thin by reason of which the Blood is not meetly circulated in the Vessels but its congeal'd portions being apt to be fix'd in the extreme Parts or to stagnate in the Heart interrupt its even motion and greatly hinder it For restoring of which effervescencies greater than usual are rais'd in the Blood to wit such as every where occur in the Pleurisie Plague Small Pox and malignant Diseases CHAP. III. Of Intermitting Fevers AFever may be describ'd after this manner That it is a disorderly motion of the Blood and it s over great boyling with a heat and thirst and other symptoms besides with which the natural oeconomy is variously troubled As we observ'd before concerning the effervescence of the Blood so we may now concerning the Fever that its access is either short and coming by sits which therefore is called intermittent or great and drawn in length which is call'd a continual Fever We shall speak first of the intermittent Concerning this Fever we shall first enquire in general what kind of effervescence of the Blood it is which causes its Fit and whence it is rais'd Secondly Wherefore the Fit consists of a coldness with a shivering and a sweat ensuing Thirdly What is the cause of the intermission and of the set times of return Fourthly and lastly we shall subjoyn certain irregularities of Intermittent Fevers As to the first We must suppose that for an Intermittent Fever some heterogeneous thing is mix'd with the Blood whose Particles in regard they are not assimilated make so long an ebullition of the same till either being subdued they are rendred miscible or being subtilis'd they are sent forth wherefore such matter being subdued or sent forth the fit ceases and when this matter springs a fresh it causes a new Ebullition and consequently a new Fit happens Now that which causes an exactly periodical Effervescence of the Blood must of necessity be some thing which against each of the set returns or accesses of the Fever is engendred in our Body in a set measure and alwayes in an even proportion and is communicated to the mass of Blood wherewith when the Blood is saturated to a fulness presently it grows turgid and falls into an Effervescence now whatsoever others may think I judge this thing to be the nutritive Juice supplyed from the matter of things eaten and convey'd to the Blood in weight and measure which in regard it is not assimilated through defect of Sanguification being heap'd together to a fulness in the Vessels it causes a Turgescency in the Blood for its expulsion I have observed before a three-fold State concerning the Particles of the Blood viz. of Crudity Maturity and Decay that is to say the nutritive Juice supplyed from the daily Food comes crude being mixt with the Blood and circulated for some time it is assimilated and maturated into a perfect humour afterward waxing stale it runs into parts and is separated while the Blood is continually renewed after this even manner and its losses are repair'd it ferments quietly and is circulated within the Vessels without tumult or immoderate Effervescence but if the supply of the nutritive Juice be not maturated as before nor turns into Blood by a perfect digestion its Particles mixt with the Blood continue in its mass as some heterogeneous thing and not exactly agreeing with which when it is saturated to a fulness presently the Blood grows turgid and falls into a feverish Effervescence whereby the fresh supply of this depraved Juice is either subdued or sent forth If it be askt for what cause the nutritive Juice being mixt with the Blood is not assimilated but degenerates into a heterogeneous and fermentative matter I judge that this is done for the most part not through the fault of the Aliments or of the Viscera but of the Blood it self For the Blood even as Wines sometimes falls from its native and genuine Disposition into a sharp acid or austere nature and because the Blood sanguifies it happens that when that is fallen from its due temper it easily perverts the store of nutritive Juice wherewith it ought to be repaired Secondly as to the shivering and cold preceding the heat in this affect doubtless the true and genuine cause of those is the flowing and turgescencie of the nervous Juice degenerated into a nitrous Matter wherewith the Spirits and heat being charged are obunded and the nervous Bodies being irritated are put into a Trembling but afterward when these nitrous Particles being in part protruded to the Superficies of the Body the Blood is somewhat freed from their cumbrance and oppression the animal spirits recollect and begin to display themselves and then a most intense heat ensues because both the mass of Blood being opened by reason of its Effervescence with the febrile matter and its mixture being loosned the sulphureous Particles are freely kindled in the Heart and because the Pores of the Skin being possest by the same matter protruded toward the circumference of the Body the vapory Effluvia are inwardly restrained which much exagitate and heat the Blood and which heat continues still in it till the fermentative Matter being wholly burnt and fully
subdued and subtiliz'd together with the adust Recrements remaining after the Deflagration and joyning with the Serum they evaporate by Sweat or insensible Transpiration Thirdly from what is said it will be easy to shew the Causes of the Intermission and of the Set Returns viz. the Intermission follows because the Morbifick Matter is all clear'd at one fit and so till a new be brought in place an intermission follows of necessity Now a new matter begins to be engendred from the time that the last Fit ceas'd and when the Blood is filled again to a Turgescency it boyles and comes to a flowing As to the Set Returns of the Fits these happen because for the most part the nutritive Juice is supplied from the Viscera to the Blood passing in the Veins in an even measure and quantity tho sometimes if the Persons who have intermittent Fevers gorge themselves too much or are very abstemious the Fits happen sooner or later than usual If it be ask'd wherefore the Set Returns of Fevers are not of one kind and of the same distance but that some come every day some every third or fourth day the cause is the different constitution of the Blood whereby it is perverted from its due temper into a sharp sometimes an acid or austere disposition According to this differing Dyscrasy the nutritive Juice fresh brought falls more or less from its maturation and is perverted into a matter sooner or later apt to Ferment The Procatarctick Causes of this Disease plainly shew its Origine from the temper of the Blood being chang'd For intermitting Fevers are chiefly rife in that Season and those places in which the Blood receives the greatest alteration from the Air. The same thing is made out by the Cure of intermittent Fevers whether it be natural and critical or artificial and be perform'd by the help of Medicines As to the first Intermittent Fevers are wont to be terminated after a two-fold manner the first is when the temper of the Blood is altered by the Fits themselves and it is brought to its natural state the other way is when the change of the Air or Place of abode brings a mighty alteration of the Blood for so Fevers begun about the Equinoxes are terminated about the Solstices also the Diseas'd travelling into another Country often recover As to the Cure to be perform'd with Medicines it is undertaken either Empirically or Dogmatically and in this Disease Empyrical Remedies taken from Mountebanks or old Women are more esteem'd and often effect more than the Prescripts of Physicians given according to an exact method of Curing The Empyrical Remedies which are said to cure intermittent Fevers are such as without any evacuation keep off the invading Fit and are either taken inwardly or are outwardly apply'd where the Pulses chiefly beat viz. they are bound for the most part to the Region of the Heart or to the Hand-wrists or to the Soles of the Feet now it is worthy to be enquired into after what manner these work and by what means they stop the feverish accesses It is manifest in the first place that the vertue and action of these things which are outwardly applyed are communicated to the Blood and Spirits immediately and in regard they drive off the Fit by way of prevention without the evacuation of any humour or matter of necessity the reason of this effect must consist only in this that by the use of these kinds of Medicines the Turgescency and Fermentation of the Blood with the Febrile matter are stopt that is to say from the Medicine bound about the Vessels certain Corpuscles or Effluvia are communicated to the Blood which greatly fix and constringe its Particles or also by fusing and exagitating precipitate them as it were after both wayes the spontaneous Effervescence of the Blood is hindred like as when cold Water is put into a boyling Pot or as when Vinegar or Allum is put into new and working Beer presently the fermentation ceases and the Liquour acquires a new tast and consistency and is as fit for drinking as if it had been ripened a long time Now that these Febrifuges operate after this manner it seems plain enough because those that are of chiefest note excell in a styptick and astringent or also in a precipitating Virtue hence Sea-salt Nitre Sal Gemm the Juice of Plantain Shepherds pouch all astringent Herbs bruised with Vinegar and the like things bound to the Wrists the roots of Yarrow Tormentill also Camphire hung about the Neck are said to remove this Disease Moreover the things that are taken inwardly are of the like sort the Juice of Plantain red Rose-water Allum in as much as they fix and constringe the Blood a Decoction of Pepper Sal Armoniack or of Wormwood Spirit of Vitriol also a sudden Passion of Anger or Fear in as much as by fusing and exagitating the Blood they precipitate it often hinder the feverish access like as a concussion and exagitation of any Liquour or an infusion of astringent things in it hinder a spontaneous Effervescence or Effort It is usual with some Empiricks for the cure of intermittent Fevers to make a hard Ball of Flax or Paper rowled up and to bind it so colse to the Wrist where the Pulses beat that the circulation of the Blood in that place is in some manner stopt and by this means the invading fit of the Fever is driven away I have certainly known many cured after this manner of a long continued Disease the reason of which seems to be that whilst the Blood is stayed in its Motion in any part it stirrs more violently in the rest and so from that trouble raised in the whole Blood the spontaneous Effervescence of its Liquour which was to follow a while after is stopt and upon the Fits being put off twice or thrice Nature takes to the digestion of the matter and to its ancient regularity The dogmatical cure for the most part is undertaken by Vomits and Catharticks also by letting Blood with which the Diseased are miserably tormented and the Disease is seldom brought to an end tho sometimes Tertian Fevers are taken away by a Vomit given a little before the Fit which happens because by this means the Blood is pretty fully cleansed of its bilous Humour tho its worthy observation that Vomits do no good in a Quartan Ague and seldom in a Tertian unless they are given presently at the beginning when the febrile Disposition is yet light and not fully confirmed Concerning intermitting Fevers in general there remain yet to be explained certain irregularities of them in which they alter from the common way first therefore the fits are wont sometimes to be without cold or shivering an intermittent Fever was rise this Autumn whose accesses troubled the diseased only with heat and that very intense in many there was a violent vomiting but no cold or sweat after four or five returns had hapned as the fit invaded the diseased were wont
Motion of the Body or Perturbation of Mind from an ambient heat as that of the Sun or of a Stove by hot things inwardly taken as drinking of Wine eating of peppered Meats and the like for the Spirits of the Blood easily wax very hot of their own accord and being violently moved are not presently appeased but exagitate variously confound and force to a rapid and disorderly Motion other Particles of the Blood also by this Motion of the Spirits the Sulphur or the oily part of the Blood is more boyled a little more dissolved and somewhat more freely kindled in the Heart whence an intense heat is raised in the whole Body but for as much as the Sulphur is heated and inflamed only by minute Parts and not throughout the whole that fervour of the Spirits is soon allayed and ceases Wherefore the Fever which is raised after this manner is terminated for the most part within twenty four hours and therefore is called an Ephemera And if by reason of a greater heat of the spirituous Blood it be prorogued longer it seldom exceeds three dayes and it is called an Ephemera of many dayes or a Synochus not putrid but if it happens to be extended beyond this time this Fever readily passes into a putrid to wit from the long continued ebullition of the spirituous Blood at length the grosser Particles of the Sulphur fall a burning and involve the whole mass of Blood in this Effervescence An Ephemera Fever and a simple Synochus seldom begin without an evident Cause besides the things before-mentioned immoderate Labour Watchings a sudden Passion of the Mind a constriction of the Pores Surfeiting also a Bubo or Wound in Child-bearing Women an increase of milk are wont to bring these the procatarctick causes which dispose to them are a hot temper of Body an Athletick habit a Sedentary Life and a Disuse of Exercise The first beginnings of this Disease depend on the presence of an Evident Cause for either the Corpuscles of an extraneous heat mixt with Blood make it boyl like Water on the Fire or a Fever is brought by motion or by reason of Transpiration being letted even as when Wines being heated or stopt close in a Vessel are set in a strong working after what manner soever the inflammation be first rais'd presently the Spirits make an effort and moving hither and thither force the Blood to boyl and to inlarge it self in a greater space with a frothy rarefaction wherefore the Vessels are stretcht and the membranous Parts are vellicated hence a Pain especially in the Head and Loyns a spontaneous lassitude and an inflation as it were of the whole Body ensue But if with the Spirit of the Blood some sulphury Part withall be somewhat kindled a smart heat is diffus'd through the whole the Pulse becomes high and quick the Urine ruddy also Thirst Watchings and many other offensive Symptoms arise Concerning the Solution or Crisis of an Ephemera Fever and of a Synochus not putrid there are three things chiefly requisite viz. a removal of the evident Cause secondly a severing or difflation of the depraved or excrementitious matter from the Mass of Blood thirdly an appeasing of the parts of the Blood and their restitution to a natural and even motion and site According as these things happen sometimes sooner sometimes slower and with more difficulty this Disease is ended in a shorter or longer time 1. The Evident Cause which for the most part is extrinsecal is easily remov'd and Diseased Persons as soon as ever they perceive themselves injur'd by any thing are wont to avoid the presence of or continuance with that thing no Person being in a Fever upon drinking Wine continues still to drink it when any Person grows more hot than usual by the heat of a Bath or of the Sun it is irksome to him to continue in it longer 2. As to the excrementitious matter which ought to be separated and blown off from the Blood this is either brought from without as when by surfeiting drinking of Wine standing in the Sun or bathing in hot Water the Blood is infected with hot and fermentative effluvia's or Corpuscles or that matter is ingendred inwardly as when upon the deflagration of the Blood its Liquor is stuff't with adust Recrements or Particles both these Matters must be separated and blown off from the Blood and be sent forth either by Sweat or insensible Transpiration before the Fever is appeas'd wherefore when the Pores are clos'd and Transpiration is hindred the Ephemera Fever continues a longer time and passes from a simple Synochus into a putrid Fever 3. The Evident Cause being remov'd and this degenerated Matter blown off for a cessation of the burning heat there is required an appeasing of the Parts of the Blood and a reducement of them to order for a rapid and disorderly motion begun in the Blood is not presently stopt but ought to be allay'd by degrees also the divers Particles of the Blood disorder'd after this manner and being driven this way and that by reason of the feverish effervescence do not presently take to their former order of site and position but it is necessary that they be extricated by degrees and restored to their due mixture by little and little Tho this Disease after the removal of the Evident Cause ceases for the most part of its own accord yet some Physical Remedies are advantageously applied to Use especially where there is danger lest the Ephemera Fever passes into a putrid The chief Intentions must be to allay the fervour of the Blood and to procure a free Transpiration to which chiefly conduce blooding a very thin Diet or rather abstinence cooling Drinks a withdrawing the excrements of the Belly by Clysters but above the rest Sleep and Rest do most good which if wanting they must be seasonably procur'd by Opiats and Anodines A renowned young man about twenty years of age of an athletick habit of Body by an immoderate drinking of strong Wine fell into a feverish distemper with a drought heat and a mighty trouble of the Praecordia being blooded he drank a vast quantity of fountain-water and thereupon a copious sweat presently ensuing he soon recovered An ingenious young man of a sedentary Life and withall very much addicted to the study of Learning when of late he had exercis'd himself above measure in the Summer Sun began to complain of a Head-ach a want of Appetite a trouble of the Praecordia and a feverish distemperature over the whole Body To whom in regard he loathed all Physick I ordered a total Abstinence unless it were from small Beer and Barley-meats On the second day and again more on the third the Symptoms remitted by little and little at length on the fourth he became free from his Fever without any Medicine CHAP. IX Of the Putrid Fever A Putrid Fever is when the oily or sulphureous part of the Blood being too much heated grows turgid above measure and
vehemently by parts at length like Hay laid together wet after a long incalescence bursts forth all together into a flame through the violent boyling of the Blood at this time the Diseased complain of an intollerable thirst Moreover a head-ach obstinate watchings often also Deliriums a Phrensy and convulsive Motions molest them they loath all Food or cast it forth by Vomit or if happily it be retain'd being parcht by the too much heat it turns to a febrile matter there is also a bitterness in the Mouth an ungrateful savour a roughness of the Tongue a vehement and quick Pulse a Urine very ruddy for the most part troubled filled with contents without an Hypostasis or laudable sediment the Blood at this time being in a manner wholly kindled it engenders by its deflagration a mighty quantity of adust matter like the ashes remaining after a Fire whereby both the Serum being mightily fill'd yields a Urine that is thick and full of Contents and the Blood being loaded with it to a Turgescency is irritated into critical Motions wherewith that febrile mater if it may be being subdued and separated may be sent forth and this brings the height of the Fever in which judgment is given betwixt Nature and the Disease the contest being brought as it were to a tryal and therefore the evacuation which thereupon ensues is called a Crisis Therefore the height of a putrid Fever is that time of the Disease in which Nature attempts the expulsion of the adust matter remaining after the deflagration of the Blood to this are requir'd first that the Blood for the greatest part has past burning for in the midst of it Nature is not at leisure for a Crisis nor ever attempted it prosperously nor is it procur'd by Art with good success Secondly that the Spirit first in some manner subdue this adust matter of the Blood and separate it from that which is good and render it fit for expulsion Thirdly that this matter be heapt together in so great a plenty that by its Turgescency it irritates Nature to a critical Expulsion when either of those things is wanting the Crisis for the most part is of no effect and not to be relied on and seldom puts an end to the Disease A Crisis in a continual Fever is in a manner the same as the fit of intermittents for as in these when the mass of Blood is saturated to a fulness of Turgescency with the Particles of the nutritive Juice depraved and unfit for Maturation there happens a flowing secretion and expulsion of that matter so in a continual Fever after the deflagration of the Blood and nutritive Juice a great many Corpuseles of adust matter are heapt together with which the Blood being opprest when it is a little free from burning it subdues and separates them by degrees and then a flowing being raised endeavours to send them forth Wherefore as the fits of intermittents do not happen but at a set time and after so many hours so also critical Motions happen from the fourth day to the fourth or haply from the seventh to the seventh for in such a kind of space the Blood burns off and by its burning makes a heap of adust matter as it were of Ashes which being offensive to Nature causes critical Motions by its irritation Therefore as to what some say that the Crises depend altogether on the Influences of the Moon and Stars and that they follow their Quartile or opposite Aspects or their Conjunctions it is not true because critical Evacuations are determined only by the heaping together and Turgescency of the adust matter whose Particles if they can easily be separated from the Blood and the Pores of the Skin are open enough being involved in the Serum they are sent forth by sweat and this is the best way of a Crisis which if it succeeds well it often at one bout puts a perfect end to the Disease without fear of a relaps to this next succeeds that crisis which is attempted by an haemorrhagie for this matter as an Efflorescence arising with the Blood if by reason of an unfree perspiration it be not sent forth by sweat it is conveyed into some part remote from the Heart and is frequently sent into the Head by an impetuous sally of the Blood where if there be an open passage from the Sinus's spreading into the Nostrils the morbifick matter springs forth together with a portion of the Blood but otherwise often sticking in the Brain it brings a Delirium Frensy or other sore and lasting Diseases of the Head and it is to be observed that in almost any continual Fevers if at any time they come to an imperfect or difficult crisis so that the Blood is corrupted for a long time with a feverish matter or adust Recrements thereby the nervous Juyce as it seems comming to be tainted obstinate Affects viz. Watchings also Deliriums Tremblings Conlvulsive Motions and long sticking Weaknesses of the nervous Parts follow There are other wayes of Crisis's in which Nature endeavours to expell the febrile matter not at once and entirely but by little and little and by parts sometimes by Urine sometimes by Vomit or Seige sometimes by Pushes or Buboes which way soever it be done that it may be with good success it is requir'd that the deflagration of the Blood preceeds it and that the adust matter be concocted and rendred apt for separation Therefore the Height of the Disease is not one and simple nor always happens after the same manner but with a various diversity of Symptoms and with a tendency to events far differing now a prudent Physician must give his Prognostick in what space of time the Disease will come to its height and what event it will have If the Fever from the beginning be vehement and on a sudden pervades the whole mass of Blood with a burning if with the fierceness of Symptoms it presses in a constant and even manner without remission for the most part the Blood will so much burn off within four dayes that the adust matter which is to make a Crisis rises by that time to a plenitude of Turgescency but if the beginnings are slow and the accension of the Blood be often interrupted the Fever will come to its height about the seventh day if it begins yet more remisly the height of the Disease is wont to be protracted to the eleventh or fourteenth mean while it is to be noted that as the fits of intermittent Fevers return at set times so do critical Motions in such as are continual and for the most part they observe the fourth day for tho a perfect Crisis be prorogued to the fourteenth or seventeenth or haply to the twentieth day because all things requir'd to a full determination of the Disease do not concur yet in the middle space light motions happen with which the febrile matter rising by degrees to an increase is a little emptied and cut off as it were by parts till
was present enough to himself and had a quick Sense and Understanding being asked concerning his Health he said he was pretty well the Urine which before was ruddy and troubled appeared then pale thin and with a laudable Hypostasis that the Diseased especially because free from Thirst and an immoderate Heat seemed to be come to a perfect Crisis and free from the Fever The Morning following the ninth day of the Fever he continued still dull but being stirred up he seemed without a Distemperature and to be chearful in a state of Convalescence only that he began a little to faulter in his Speech in the Evening when things were not suspected the Fever being kindled again he fell on a sudden into a Lethargy that he was scarce able to be awaked from his Sleep and being pull'd up hardly to know any one or to speak articulately Tho so great a loss of Blood had preceded his Pulse was again quick high and strong and his Urine was ruddy after deriving and revulsing Remedies used all that Night this noble Youth seemed somewhat in a better state so that the next Morning he kept himself longer from Sleep began to turn his Eyes this way and that and to raise himself a little tho without Speech or Knowledge of the Standers by before Noon his Eyes being clos'd again he wholly lost the use of every Animal Faculty and lay as it were Apoplectical for three Days with a high and vehement Pulse a Palpitation of the Heart and a short and broken Respiration the Pulse at length growing less by degrees he died on the tenth day of the Fever On the 18th of February his little Sister having a feverish Distemperature and a Thirst began to complain of a Pain and Gripes in the Belly a trembling in the Hands and a painful Tension in the Muscles of the Neck On the last day of February being more openly feverish she was not able to keep out of Bed moreover she was affected with a running Heat sometimes in the Hands sometimes about the lower Parts she became also drowsie and sleepy awaking from her Sleep she did not forthwith come to her self On the first of March she was gently Purged with an Expression of Rhubarb which gave her ease the Urine was thick and ruddy also red Spots like Flea-bites as in the rest were plain to be seen We gave her afterward frequently for four days to wit every six hours Ten Drops of Spirit of Harts-horn in a Spoonful of a Cordial Julep the foresaid Symptoms afterward remitted by degrees and this sick Person recovered her Health tho slowly without a manifest Crisis About the same time a Brother of these the youngest of all fell sick almost after the same manner who nevertheless through a Loosness naturally happening voiding bilous and green Excrements for many days more easily recovered Also in the same Family a great many other Domesticks and some Strangers who came there as Attendants fell ill of the same Disease the Taint as it were being propagated by Contagion all of which notwithstanding escaped at length with a difficult and long Convalescence without any Crisis regularly made That this Fever was malignant it seems to be manifest from the Contagion Mortality the appearance of Spots like Flea-bites and many other Tokens tho that infecting Miasm whereby it passed from one to another was torpid and less efficacious for betwixt the Sicknesses of each many Days and often Weeks interceded that the Infection of this Disease tho acute and its Propagation in many were scarce ended within four Months space in the same House the Fever about the first Beginnings seem'd mild and gentle not very terrible by its Burning but the Matter heap'd together after the Deflagration of the Blood presently became masterless and difficult to be exterminated also offensive to the Brain and Genus Nervosum wherefore in each the Beginnings of the Disease were known rather by a Drowsiness and a Sleepyness than by a Sweat and Burning also the Crisis tho attempted various ways to wit by a Sweat a Loosness and an Haemorrhagie did not succced well but for the most part the Blood growing turgid by a critical Motion was forc'd to transfer the febrile Matter from its own Precincts into the mansion Places of the Animal Spirits nor did it self notwithstanding become purified after this manner but about the height of the Fever both Humours to wit the Blood and the nervous Juice being vitiated together and sorely blasted with an impure Mixture made the Event of the Disease either fatal or very dangerous CHAP. XIV Of the Small-Pox and Measles IN the rank of pestilential and malignant Fevers we place next the Small Pox and the Measles which in Truth are mixt Affects both according to and against our Nature As to their Origine they have a seminary Connate to us but as to the Affects they produce praeternatural Symptoms and venemous as the Plague it self so that they constitute a certain peculiar sort of Fevers which belong to all Mankind and only to them and that but once If haply any one lives free from them all his Life or some one falls often into those Affects these are rare and unusual Events of Nature which do not derogate to common Observation but it may pass for a Truth that all and only Mankind are obnoxious to the Measles and Small Pox and that they are usually freed of them at one Bout We shall speak of the Measles by themselves 1. As to the Small Pox The natural Praedisposition which inclines Mankind to it seems to be a certain Taint or Impurity of the Blood conceiv'd in the Womb with the first Rudiments of the Foetus All Authors in a manner will have this ascrib'd to the menstruous Blood which Opinion does not seem altogether improbable because in the Womb of a Woman otherwise than in most other Animals a certain Ferment is engendred which being communicated to the Mass of Blood gives it a Vigour and Pneumatosis and afterward procures at set Periods of Times a Turgescency and an Excretion of the superfluous Blood and at the time of Conception when the Menses wholly cease a great deal of this Ferment is communicated to the Foetus and its Particles being heterogeneous to all the rest whatsoever are disorderly confounded with the Mass of Blood and Humours as some extraneous thing in which being involved and being separated from each other they lye hid a long time tho afterward at some time being stirr'd by an evident cause they ferment with the Blood and cause in it an Ebullition and afterward a Coagulation from which most of the Symptoms of this Disease arise 2. The Evident Cause which stirs these Fermentative Seeds and oftentimes brings them into Act is said to be threefold viz. Contagion receiv'd from elsewhere the Disposition of the Air and an immoderate Perturbation of the Blood and Humours Persons related soon infect each other also those that are fearful and
Sleepy or Convnlsive affects ensue Moreover sometimes the Poyson of the Medicine produces within the Praecordia or Viscera horrible affects of the Asthma Leipothymia or Bloody-flux The vulgar Form of a Mercural Ointment for the Itch and very much in use is this Take Quick-silver reduc't into minute parts with an Acid and as they call it Killd an Ounce and a half Fresh Haggs â—ard six Ounces incorporate them well by stirring them a long 〈◊〉 in a Stone or Glass Mortar Nor only in the Form of a Liniment but many other ways the foresaid Medicines may be us'd For the Fume of Cinnaber which is prepar'd of Mercury with Sulphur cast on the Coals and taken in at the Mouth or breathing against the Superficies of the Body Cures the Itch The Mercurial Cosmetick water before written made about half weaker and apply'd to the Skin with a little Cloath in the Sorest places kills the Itch Yet the use of these is not so very safe as to be generally administred to all persons Of Sulphur and Vegetables either separately or conjunctly boil'd in water Baths are prepar'd which Cure this Distemper not by washing off only the Filth of the Skin as common Baths but likewise by destroying its ferment Besides these there is yet another easier and much more neat way of Curing the Itch viz. by boiling a Shift in fountain water with Powder of Brimstone and after it is dryed in the Sun or before the Fire to wear it four or five Days next the Skin For so that Disease is wont to be Cur'd without Bathing or the Nastiness or ill Odour of an Ointment Poor people usually Cure themselves of this Distemper only by taking the Powder of Brimstone in Milk inwardly and by anointing themselves with the said Powder mixt with Butter outwardly Sulphur seems to be so Specifick an Antidote against the Itch by reason of its Balsamick Vertue which destroys the Acidities and all Exotick and Corruptive Sharpnesses of the Blood and Humours and restores to each Latex a Benign that is a Mild and as it were Oyly Nature As to Mercury it 's no wonder if medicines made of it perfectly Cure any places of the Skin infested with the Itch where-ever they are apply'd For by the application hereof breakin gs forth and all Virulent Ulcers viz. any that are Venereal and Scorbutical are wholly conquered Moreover it seems not strange that this Medicine apply'd to some particular place should Cure an inveterate Itch in case it raises a Salivation but sometimes it Cures without any such thing as when a person wears a Girdle of it to this we say that the Particles of the Mercury pass then into the Venous Blood and after being diffus'd through its whole Mass are driven outward from all parts and depos'd in the Skin where they kill the Itch and when it happens that these Mercurial Particles are all again evaporated through the Skin after the Cure is performed then no Salivation or other inconvenience ensues CHAP. VII Instructions and Prescripts for the Cure of the running Scab or the Leaprosie of the Greeks AFter the Scab with the Itch it follows that we treat of another affect somewhat allyed to it in its breaking forth in Pushes which is commonly call'd the running Scab by some a Tetter or Ringworm or Morphew by others the Leaprosie of the Greeks but the Names of this affect being variously confounded and the Nature of it haply being differing in several Countries I shall describe it as it is now understood by us The running Scab begins and affects persons after this manner viz. First little red Wheals or Pushes sometimes single sometimes many of them joyn'd together arise in many parts of the Body but especially in the Arms or Leggs and grow at length in heaps or clusters the Surface of each Scab when grown in clusters appears rough and somewhat whitish and scaly so that upon scratching Scales fall away and a thin Ichor often issues forth though it s soon dryed again and hardens into another crusty Scale These clusters of Pushes at first are but small and few as in the Arm or Legg or some other particular Member haply three or four appear to the bigness of a peny or two pence Afterwards if the Disease be suffer'd to increase they break forth in many places and grow to a crowns breadth and at length if not stopt cover not only particular Members but the whole Body with a whitish Leaprosie which rais'd to this degree was judg'd for the most part incurable by the Ancients These breakings forth in some are only temporary as coming in the Winter and going away in the Summer in others on the contrary they come in the Summer and vanish in the Winter In many others this Distemper is continual having no time of remission or mean The running Scab differs from the Itch that in this the Pushes are generally single and separated from each other though but by small spaces but in the other they rise in clusters Again the Itch is extreamly infectious but the running Scab is not so This Disease is also distinguisht from the Leaprosie that this is likewise as infectious as the Itch and its breakings out are much more violent and terrible than in the running Scab wi viz. being crusty and scaly and diffus'd in a continued manner throughout the whole Body Hence it appears that the material cause of the running Scab is not a meer Cutaneous Humour depraved and degenerated from its Crasis by reason of some Corruptive Effluvia's receiv'd from without or upon other occasions because the infection is not easily communicated to others as in the Itch nor presently disperst through the whole Body but the Pushes first breaking forth about the beginning of the Disease seem to proceed from hence that some Acido-saline Concretions happen in the Mass of Blood like Tartar in Wine which seeing they can neither be subdued nor again dissolv'd are driven to the Skin as to the sides of the Vessel This Disease takes its rise for the most part on two chief occasions viz. First from an ill Diet as from frequent eating of Salt Meats Pork Shell-fish or others or Secondly from the corrupted Seminaries of other Diseases left in the Body as especially of the Scurvy and French-pox ill or not Cur'd For First those sorts of Food either because they are rank or otherwise disproportion'd convey Particles to our Blood that cannot enter a due mixture with it or are not easily mastered by it To which Heterogeneuos Particles gather'd together in great abundance by long continuance of such Diet Saline Particles of all kinds readily associate themselves and so make Tartarous Concretions which are driven to the Skin and are the Seminaries of the running Scab or Leaprous affects Secondly the Miasms of the Scurvy and French-pox lest left in the Body and at long run rais'd to the highest degree in Combinations of Exorbitant Salts and Sulphurs engender a most plentiful Seminary of this
Spirit of Blood Tincture of Antimony of Coral Decoctions of the Roots and Seeds of the great Burdock Ground-pine and Germander do excellently well and let those kinds of Remedies be taken twice or thrice a day with Antiscorbutick distill'd Waters A Water distill'd from Horse-dung with the addition of Scurvy-grass Brook-limes Ground-pine and the like is sometimes very profitable mean while let Fomentations Liniments Cataplasms or applications of other kinds which appease Pains be outwardly Administred Of the Scorbutick Gout moving from one place to another OF this Affect Eugalenus Wierus Medicus Campensis and Georgius Horstius have written peculiar Tracts If is said to be very Common in the Northern Parts of Belgia a certain token of which appears by putting a live Earth-worm to the place affected for its presently wont to spring bend and knit it self and to faint and dye which indeed I have found pretty often to happen in this Disease even amongst us which effect seems to proceed from the very sharp and as it were Corrosive Effluvia that plentifully flow from the place Pain'd and Swoll'n By Reason of the effect of that Experiment the Cure of the Disease is wont to be undertaken by Worms viz. by Remedies prepar'd of them though I know not whether being inwardly taken they will as certainly destroy the Disease as being outwardly applied they are dispatcht by it However Earth-worms as also Snailes Millepedes and other exanguious little Animals in as much as they abound with a volatile Salt often prove a pretty efficacious Remedy Henricus Petraeus tells us of two Remedies very much us'd in Westphalia against this Disease Take nine Earth-worms bruis'd with two Spoonfuls of Wine in a Mortar and strain'd through a Cloth to these let half a Measure of Wine be added let three Spoonfuls be taken at Morning Noon and Night for many days 2. Take two or three Branches of Savine Virgin Hony two spoonfuls boyl them with a Measure of Wine till it pitches two Fingers Let the straining be taken to four or five spoonfuls thrice a day To the former Medicine a certain vulger potion mentioned by Horstius called Monasteriensis is allied Take Sage Betony Rue of each five Leaves Earthworms with Circles about their Necks in number five a little Savine and Roots of Devils-bit in number two let them be bruis'd with Water of Elder Flowers and let the exprest Juice be given for raising a Sweat A like prescript also is propos'd in Forestus à Medico Campensi Certainly in this affect the Magistral Water of Earth-worms prescrib'd in the London Dispensatory is of excellent use And I have often given with good success the Spirit and Salt of Harts-horn Spirit of Blood and Flowers of Sal Armoniack Moreover teslaceous Powders viz. Crabs Eyes Coral Pearl and Vegetables which are accounted Antidotes against the Gout as Roots of round Broth-wort Leaves of Ground-pine Germander and the like being joyn'd with Antiscorbuticks conduce to the Cure of this Disease outwardly for appeasing Pains besides Anodynes which are us'd under the form of a Liniment Fomentation or Cataplesm Oyl of Earth-worms of Frogs and Toads are often very availing I have been told by a worthy Person who was very obnoxious to this Disease that Water drawn by Destillation from the Contents taken out of the Stomach of a Beefnewly kill'd and Cloaths being dipp'd into it when Warm and applied as a Fomentation would most certainly give ease Of Convulsive and Paralytick Affects that are wont to ensue upon the Scurvy IF at any time the Scrobutick taint passing into the Brain and Genus Nervosum greatly corrupts the Liquor residing in each Province thereupon divers kind of Affects and especially Paralytical or Convulsive are wont to arise viz. according as the Morbisick Matter brought in to be Animal Aeconomy is either Narcotick or Explosive Which kind of Affects though in this case they are Symptomatical yet when they are grown to a hight they challenge both the name and the better part of the Cure before the Scurvy their parent so that the diseased are said to be troubled with the Palsy or Convulsions rather than with the Scurvy also Medicines design'd against those Affects have the preference to any others at the same time required by reason of other intents For Curing these kinds of Affects hapning upon the Scurvy let this chiefly be observ'd that Remedies appropriated to those same be duly Complicated with Antiscorbuticks As to Convulsive Diseases the Remedies that are in the foregoing Tract may easily be Transfer'd hither And as to the Palsey Lethargy and many other Affects of the Brain and Genus Nervosum we shall discourse of them particulary in some other Tract Of the Atrophia also of the Scorbutick Fever which is often the Cause of the other or its Effect THere are three kinds of Causes having some orderly dependance on each other from one or more of which a Scorbutical Atrophia is wont to be produc'd without a Consumption of the Lungs viz. either the Chyle is perverted through the fault of the first passages so that a laudable or sufficient Store or it is not convey'd to the Blood Secondly or being brought into it yet through the fault of the Blood it is not duly chang'd into Blood and a nutritive Juice Thirdly and lastly the nutritive Juice prepar'd in the Mass of Blood is not duly assimilated to the solid parts through the fault of the nervous Liquor The Remedies appropriated to this Symptom regard either the amendment of the first Passages or the correction of the foresaid Humours As to the former it sometimes happens by reason of the Tone of the Stomach being broken or its Ferment being vitiated that the Food taken into it is not duly concocted but passes into an unprofitable Mass of Corruption For these sorts of evils let gentle Catharticks Digestives and Corroboratives be us'd But the work of Chylification is oftner hindred by reason of a Schirrous Tumour rais'd sometimes in the Ventricle sometimes in the Mesentery or in other adjacent parts In this Case Deobstruents and Dissolvents are proper the use of Spaw-waters has the preferance to any other Rinds of Medicines Moreover Fomentations Liniments or Plaisters ought to be outwardly applyed Again it sometimes happens that without any Tumour rais'd in the Viscera the Lacteal Vessels are so much obstructed by a gross and viscous matter sticking in them that a sufficient store of the Chyle though it be laudable enough and plentifully prepar'd is not convey'd into the Blood In this affect the Belly for the most part discharges Excrements plentifully but they are White like coagulated Milk and not as other Excrements ting'd with Choler or Stinking The reason of which is that the Blood being depauperated more sparingly engenders Choler from the eflusion of which into the Intestines the Colour and Stink of the Excrements proceed In this case Spaw-waters are chiefly proper also Deobstruents being inwarldly given let Liniments Fomentations and Baths be outwardly us'd
Against the Marasmus caus'd through the fault of the Blood degenerated from its Crasis Asses or Cows Milk diluted with Barley Water or a proper distill'd Water often give help Snail Broaths or Milk Drinks with Snals boyl'd in them moreover Waters distill'd of Milk or Whey with Snails and temperate Antiscorbutick Herbs are greatly conducing in this case For this end also Decoctions of vulnerary Herbs and Antiscorbutick Herbs infus'd in them are taken with good success Mean while let frictions be daily us'd to the outward parts with Cloaths moistned and made Warm with Vnguenticum Resumptivum or fresh oyl of Almonds When an Atrophia arises through the fault of the Blood being affected and consequently perverting the nutritive Juice it has for the most part a Feaver of irregular returns joyned with it with Night-sweats viz. in as much as the Mass of Blood is forc't to irregular and inconstant Effervescencies from that degenerated Juice and the matter so offending is cast forth by Night-sweats in this case a thin Dyet being ordered let Decoctions and Distill'd Waters that fuse and purifie the Blood be frequently taken with Antiscorbuticks mixt with them Take shavings of Ivory and Harts-horn of each two Drams and a half candied Eringo Roots six Drams Roots of Chervil and Dandelion of each half an Ounce Leaves of Harts tongue and Liverwort of each a handful one Apple slic't Raisins a handful Let them boil in four Pounds of Fountain-water till a third part be consumed let the straining be poured on Leaves of Brooklimes bruised two handfuls Sal Prunella a Dram and half or fixt Nitre a Dram make a close and warm Infusion for three Hours Let four or six Ounces be taken thrice a Day Take Leaves of Brooklimes four Pounds Roots and Leaves of Sorrel and Dandelion of each two Handfuls Snails cleansed a Pound and a half the Rinds of two Oranges being sliced and bruised pour to them of new Milk or of Whey made with Cider or fresh Juice of Apples six pounds let them be Distill'd after the vulgar way Let three Ounces be taken twice or thrice a day Of the Rheumatism WE conclude that this Affect proceeds from the congress and mutual effervescency of Salts that are of a different origine and Nature viz. of the fixt Salt coming from the Blood and of the acid Salt coming from the nervous Liquor The Subjects of both Salts are superfluous Dregs depos'd from the foresaid Humours forc'd into certain Turgescencies and discharg'd sometimes on these Parts sometimes on those Wherefore that the Disease may be Cur'd both let the Turgescencies of the Humours be appeas'd and their superfluous Dregs be purg'd forth and let the Salts degenerating both ways be reduc'd to a State of volatility For the two first intents a gentle Purge and Bleeding are chiefly requir'd and now and then as the strength will bear they ought to be repeated and also let Diureticks and Diaphoreticks be now and then given which any way convey forth the Saline Serosities And that these Evacuations proceeding calmly and with a well-bearing and Nature assisting may succeed the better let Opiats frequently be us'd For the other Intent in which the chief stress of the Cure consists Alteratives and especially such as are endow'd with a volatile Salt greatly conduce Wherefore in this case its a vulgar but no contemptible Medicine to give twice or thrice a day to four or six ounces of the Infusion of a Stone-horse Dung made in a small Wine or Ale or in an appropriate Distill'd Water and a Medicine somewhat more grateful and no less efficacious may be prepar'd if a Water be distill'd from that Dung with Antiscorbutick Ingredients infused in White-wine or Cider which may be given to three or four Ounces twice a day I have often prescribed Spirit of Harts-horn and of Blood in this case with a mighty benefit to the Diseased Of the Dropsie WHereas we conclude the Dropsie which is wont to happen upon the Scurvy to be twofold viz. habitual and occasional Concerning the Cure of the first for the most part all labour is lost for no Remedies are able to restore the Liver and the Lungs and sometimes other Viscera wholly vitiated and the Crasis of the Blood utterly subverted In such a case if any thing seems fit to be done the Scope of Physick is very narrow for there is no room left for Catharticks nor Diaphoreticks nor for a strong Evacuation of any other kind We must insist chiefly and in a manner only on Diureticks and Cordials For these ends let Elixirs Tinctures Electuaries Powders Infusions Decoctions distill'd Waters c. which consist partly of Antihydropicks partly of Antiscorbuticks be given the forms of which I have nevertheless thought good to omit as signifying little or nothing The Scorbutick Dropsie raised on a sudden from an evident cause or on some accident often admits of Cure for the more easie performance of which the tumults of Nature ought in the first place to be appeased and its disorders composed Wherefore if Watchings continue very offensive let sleep be procured by the use of Opiats and now and then as often as it seems very necessary let it be procured again As soon as strength will give leave for Purging let the following Powder be taken and let it be now and then repeated at due intervals of time mean while let the Belly be kept soluble by the frequent use of Clysters Take Mercurius Dulcis a Scruple Rosin of Julape from five Grains to ten Cloves half a Scruples mix them let it be given in a Spoonful of Panada at other times let Diureticks and sometimes Diaphoreticks be carefully taken Take Tincture of Salt of Tartar impregnated with the Infusion of Millepedes as much as you think good let it be given from a Scruple to two Scruples twice a day with an appropriated Liquor Take Spirit of Sal Armoniack what you think good the Dose is from half a Scruple to fifteen drops after the same manner Take Millepedes prepar'd three Drams Salt of Tartar two Drams Nutmegs a Dram mix them make a Powder The Dose is half a Dram twice a day with an appropriated Liquour Or Take Bees dryed and powdered two Drams Seeds of Bishops-weed powdered a Dram Oyle of Juniper a Scruple Turpentine what suffices make a Mass of Pills The Dose is from a Scruple to half a Dram twice a day drinking after it an appropriated Liquor Take Leaves of both Scurvy-grasses Watercresses Dittander Arsmart of each three handfuls Roots of Aron Briony Florentine Orrice of each four Ounces the middle Bark of Elder two Handfuls Winters-bark two Ounces the outward Coats of four Oranges and of three Lemons fresh Juniper-berries four Ounces being slic't and bruised pour to them of Rhenish-wine three Pounds Wine of the Juice of Elder-berries two Pounds Distill them the vulgar way let all the Water be mix't The Dose is from three Ounces to four twice a day after a Dose of some one of the Medicines