by the common consent of most is judged to arise in as much as the yellow choler not at all or not enough received The Jaundies from the ends of vena porta into the passages of the cholerick pore overflows into the mass of blood and pollutes it with its greenness whereby also the very skin is discolour'd That obstruction is wont to happen after many manners and in various places The cause of it For sometimes it happens near the extream ends of either kind of vessels viz. the end of the vena porta and the porus bilarius the interspaces whereof happen frequently to be compressed and stopt by reason of the Parenchyma of the Liver being tumefied or otherwise vitiated wherefore the humour of the gall not being transferred out of the separating vessels of the porta into the other receiving vessels turns back upon the blood Secondly the passage of the humour of the gall is sometimes intercepted in the middle passages of the cholerick pore for that the cavities of these are filled either with a viscous or sandy and sometimes with a stony matter as is plainly discerned in the Livers of beasts in the winter senson while they are fed with hay and straw Thirdly it is also manifest by Anatomical observation sometimes an obstruction in the very bladder or the gall or in the cystic passage is the cause of the Jaundies for if at any time it being filled with stones receive not the choler or being here shut up or grown together it restrains the descent of the choler towards the guts that humour although well separated from the blood is constrained to flow black into the mass thereof and so propagates the Jundies Against this most received opinion by which it is judged The opinion of Sylvius of the cause of the Jaundies that the cause of the Jaundies for the most part consists on this side the vesica fellis or about it towards the Liver the most Renowned Sylvius altogether places it without this viz. in the Cystic or common passage For supposing the choler not to be separated from the blood within the passages of the Liver but in the very bladder of the Gall to be propagated of a humour brought thither by the Arteries He judged the greatest part being carried upwards by the passage of the pori bilarii to be poured into the blood for some notable uses and also another part to descend beneath to the Intestines also for necessary uses wherefore if this latter sluce be shut all the choler is carried upwards into the blood and filling it too much with this humour perverts it from its genuine temper into an Icterical But truly lest the stopping of the passage of the bladder or of the common passage neither of which easily happens or from any light occasion may seem less efficacious to excite any Jaundies therefore whether such an obstruction hath place or no the most Renowned man ingeniously supposes besides The choler while it is generated in the bladder does undergo sometimes a notable change by which it is moved and is born about more plentifully and impetuously towards the blood with which yet it is less mingled than is was wont to be but only confounded together with it and so more easily departs from it and infects and tinges the solid parts with its colour But that the choler in the Jaundies may be rendred unfit a mix with the other humours or to be nearly united he determines it to be done by a spirit too valatile mixed plentifully with it and so making it more spirituous and immiscible with others He confirms this assertion by two instances viz. in as much as the most spirituous poison from the biting of a Viper and the too much use of the more generous drinks viz. Wine and Strong-waters causes sometimes the Jaundies Moreover he endeavours to procure credit to this Hypothesis for that this disease is wont to be cured not only by medicines opening obstructioins but by them which blunt the force of a raging volatile salt of which sort are the decoction of Hemp-seeds also Venice soape with many other things of the same sort It belongs not to this place neither is it to our purpose to descend to end this contention nor dare I now rashly determine it since it hath tired so many Renowned Wits of the Moderns whether really the choler be made in the bladder of the Gall or whether it be only separated from the blood in the Liver the great organ of separation I confess this latter opinion best pleases me The Authors opinion And weighing these things seriously I am induced to think the cause of the Jaundies to consist chiefly in this that the choler being sever'd in the Liver is not by reason of the ways being obstructed at all or not enough conveyed to the bladder of the Gall but that it must of necessity regurgitate into the mass of blood notwithstanding in the mean while we deny not but this affect may sometime arise although more rarely from the Cystic passage or common pipe being obstructed But also we think the fault of the blood to preceed in part and perhaps sometimes wholly for the morbific cause when to wit from its sulphurous and fixt Saline Particles above measure exalted the choler is more plentifully or quicklier generated in the mass of blood than can be separated or discharged forth by the ordinary ways wherefore this separating every where from the blood with the Serum The cause of this disease sometimes in the blood is affixed to the solid parts and impresses its tincture upon them And without doubt it is for this reason that some poisons and chiefly the biting of Vipers and the dayly use of more generous drinks induces the Jaundies in bodies before sound for whose cure sometime Phlebotomie and medicines reducing the blood to a right temper are wont to profit more than those opening obstructions Moreover it seems for this reason that a tertian intermiting Feaver so frequently terminates in the Jaundies for we may not suspect the passages of the Liver can be by any means obstucted since in all fits so great an agitation of the blood and humours by cold and heat and such an-evacuation of them happens either by vomit or sweat and truly even as feaverish fits are caused inasmuch as the sulphurous part of the blood being too much advanced in the first place perverts the nutritious juice into a morbific matter and afterwards being inflam'd consumes and exterminates it so when the fixt salt is at last exalted together with the sulphur in the blood and for that cause meer choler is abundantly engendered the feaversh enkindling of the blood ceases by reason of the restrictive force of the fixt salt and in place thereof the distemper of the Jaundies doth succeed But as the blood being too much advanced to a sulphureo-saline distemperature causes the Jaundies in any though least predispos'd to it so in others
of small Cinnamon-water one ounce Diacodium three ounces Tincture of Saffron two drams Mix them and take one spoonfull at night if sleep be wanting Or Take Syrup of Cowslip-flowers three spoonfuls compound Poeony-water one spoonful Laudanum tartarized one dram take one spoonful if Watchings require it 3. Extinguishers of Thirst in this Disease being very thirsty Things mitigating Thirst ought frequently and in small quantities to be administred that that troublesom symptom may be restrained without much drink which is perpetually pernicious For which purpose Take of Conserve of Wood-sorrel passed through a Sieve three ounces Pulp of Tamarinds two ounces Sal Prunella one dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of the juice of Wood sorrel make a Lohoch of which let him lick often SECT II. CHAP. V. Of an Anasarca NOw two kinds of Dropsies viz. Ascites and Tympanie according to common reckoning being finisht although the third to wit an Anasarca for that it is an affection rather of the whole body than of the nether Belly appertains not properly to this place notwithstanding the Pathologie thereof having some affiance with the former we think sit to deliver here also its Cure in short The description of an Anasarca An Anasarca is described after this manner That it is a white soft Tumour of the whole outward Body or of some of its parts yielding to the touch and leaving a dent upon compression proceeding from a watery humour extravasated and accumulated as well within the interspaces of the Muscles as within the pores of the flesh and skin yea of the Glandules and Membranes It differs from an Ascites as to its outward form and appearance How it differs from an Ascites yet not as to its morbific matter which being the same in both distempers as it is heaped within the greater or lesser hollownesses it gains divers Appellations of the Disease The watery humour procuring an Anasarca The Original from the blood doth proceed altogether or for the most part from the blood for it being continually produced within the mass of blood by the fault and defect of sanguification it is poured out in greater abundance from the extremities of the Arteries than can be received or brought back by the Veins or the Lymphaducts or can be discharged by the Reins or pores of the skin and other vents of the serous Juice From these it follows that the material cause of this Disease is a watery humour The material and efficient cause and the efficient is blood which engenders waters and deposits them in the places affected We will exactly weigh the reasons of either of them and the manner of becoming and effecting it and first we will treat of the efficient Cause of an Anasarca 1. The affection of the Blood or rather the Hydropical brood The Blood its efficient cause in a double respect consists in these two things to wit First by reason of a failure or fault of sanguification it doth not rightly assimilate the nutritious Juice perpetually infused into its mass but suffers it to degenerate into a watery humour Then secondly by reason of the too loose mixture thereof it doth not retain that humour so degenerated so long within its consistence untill it might be discharg'd through fit Emunctories or Emissaries but lets it out every where near to the ends of the Arteries into the inter-spaces of the Vessels and there leaves it Either of these vices of the Blood we will consider a little more In the first place as to the former for the most part it is confessed by all First that it doth not rightly sanguifie that the Blood it self and not the Heart or Liver sanguifies by what of late is plainly understood concerning the functions of these parts yet by what means the Blood assimilates Chyle infused to it self and converts it into fresh blood to be bestowed to so many and diverse sorts of uses doth not easily lie manifest to us But what some affirm that it is made only by the exact comminution and commixtion of particles and for that cause the particles of either kinde being confused together they think that within the straiter passages of the Liver and Lungs they are kneaded and wrought together as it were with little pestils seems little probable to me but on the contrary I think these bowels as I have shewed already are constituted the Organs rather of separation than of mixture The reason whereof enquired into but the reason of sanguification altogether consists in this that the active particles of the old blood to wit the saline and sulphureous being placed in vigour with the spirituous immediately act upon the like particles of the infused Chyle as yet existing in an inferiour state and do so stir them up and ferment them that thereupon being extricated from the coverings of the thicker parts they are carryed into a like degree of exaltation or perfection with the former and being at length associated with them and made also homogeneous they put on the same nature of Blood the more thick and heterogeneous particles being removed thence to another place from those which they had deserted and gone away from For truly Sanguification is altogether finisht by Fermentation even as the maturation of the Must into Wine or Ale but the reason of the difference is that Wine being shut up in the Tub still remaining entirely in the same Mass is flowly fermented as to its whole consistence and is not accomplished but in a long space of time but the Blood constituted in a perpetual flux by the loss of some parts and the reparation of others is fermented by the parts still received fresh and is generated anew The old Blood for the most part affords the same thing towards the fresh Chyle The reason and manner of sanguification explained as Ferment from the flower or faeces of old Ale being put into new Ale notwithstanding as it were by a contrary manner because the huge mass of blood being formerly fermented doth suddenly ferment and alter the small portions of the Chyle continually brought in but the fermenting liquor in Ale in a very little quantity is put to the great mass of the other liquor to be fermented which it brings not to maturity under a long space of time After the rudiments of blood are so cast by fermentation the conclusion and perfect assimilation into blood is acquired by accension for surely that it is so enkindled as I think I have formerly shewed by demonstration which arguments chiefly taken from its proper passion although many have cavil'd at none have been yet able to overthrow Wherefore while the whole mass of blood consists of Blood and Chyle confusedly mixt together it is fermented while it is circulating andbeing divided into most minute portions is spread through the whole Lungs that it might be kindled successively according to all its parts by the nitrous air suckt in for by that means both the
or blow inflicted upon the body The Solution of the Vnity always the cause of it for the same thing is used to be induced from cold heat wind from the extravasating of the blood and of other humours or their being heaped up together in several places oftentimes the fashioning of the member remaining as yet entire in which cases although the continued parts and chiefly the fibres and filaments are not at all cut off notwithstanding they are in every Affection of grief pulled from their usual position either by the oppression of the object or by strange particles forced like wedges and are compelled into too much tension or distorsion or divulsion and for that cause the inmate spirits being pulled from their mutual embraces and dissipated are ill at case and incur the passion of pain or grief Pleasure is opposed to Pain What Pleasure is and is a manner of Feeling clearly contrary thereunto which takes its origine inasmuch as a pleasant stroaking being made upon the organ of Sense the spirits flock thither and presently being thickly gathered together and overspread with a certain delight they do as it were exult and rejoyce together in the organ afterwards inasmuch as the spirits enter into the like triumph or rejoycing within the Corpus striatum a perception of pleasure is stirred up The greatest pleasure which is offered to the Touch It s formal Reason consists in this that the cause of Pain being removed the parts formerly affected by it may recover their wonted temper and frame for so the animal spirits being before put to flight and dispersed from one another It chiefly consists in removing of Pain they recollect themselves and rushing into the places from which they were banished with reinforced strength they prepare themselves to rejoyce From hence the Peripateticks placed the formal reason of Pleasure only in the removal of something that was troublesome as when the excesse of cold or heat is received by an opposite and more agreeable state Indeed the tangible object because it is alwayes thick and dull doth scarce any way else excepting Venery allure the animal spirits into heaps to the organ of Sense unless for that it removes their former confusion From these things so described concerning those passions What the Itch is it is easily manifest that the Itch according to the formal account thereof is neither perfectly nor fully either Pain or Pleasure but imperfectly and as beginning partakes of both For really the scabby matter being heaped up within the pores of the skin and making the solutin of Unity in many places enclines towards pain yet as it is volatile moving and hastens towards vent How the Spirits are moved in it for that cause the Animal spirits are not put to flight from the Fibres although pulled asunder neither are they driven back with sense of pain but the contrary as if being stronger than the humour infesting they were able to cast it forth they being wrapp'd up more thick but irregularly within the cutaneous fibres do twitch them together variously and draw them on that they may the sooner discharge the morbific matter and expell it forth Wherefore inasmuch as the Animal spirits being neither put to flight nor repulsed but flowing together in crouds into the organs of Touching they manage themselves there tumultuously and disorderly and as it were by tickling the sensible fibres do provoke them into small Convulsions no pleasure but a troublesom feeling nor also is it Pain but a Passion clearly diverse arises from it But as soon as by rubbing or scratching the plenty of Spirits assembled about the organ of Sense begin to be better disposed and as it were reduced into order from thence a thorough feeling of Pleasure is introduced Wherefore the Itching seems to be a middle-state between the betginning of Pain and Pleasure A certain medium between Pain and Pleasure or a passage of the Spirits from the rudiments of that towards the full compleating of this But from this Physical discourse by the by let us return to our Pathologie or discourse of the distemper From what is above said it is easie to collect the differences of this disease In the first place therefore the Psora as to its origine either is got by Contagion The difference of the Psora as to its origine or by reason of an ill Course of Diet the fierceness and supply thereof is communicated by the Chyle and Blood being vitiated or it is generated in the skin it self by reason of filth and the defect of Transpiration Whereto we may adde that sometimes Infants acquire this taint hereditarit contracted from their Parents Secondly These cutaneous Eruptions as to their form 2. As to its form vary according to the diverse Constitutions of the persons affected for in some persons of a cholerick dryer Temperament or Melancholy only a dry Scab is stirred up and inasmuch as it evaporates lessby reason of the defect of the Serum with an stching not altogether so troublesome but in others of a moister Temperament and of more unclean blood very many wheals and pustules imbued with schor and most of all itching do very much provoke to scratching and by reason of the Ulcers stirred up therewith the Itch is immediately altered into pain As to the Prognosticks although this Disease is never of it self mortal or very dangerous and always easie of Cure yet frequently it contains an evil event The Prognosticks of it inasmuch as being long continued it utterly depraves the blood and nervous Juice and from it hastily cured by reason of the matter received within while it is discuss'd from the Pores a pernicious taint is brought upon the Praecordia and Brain and other noble parts The greatest hazard from a Scab threatens Children and Cachectick persons Most dangerous to Children and ill juiced or cachictick persons as in both of which the taint is more easily impressed from this Cutaneous humour upon the nobler parts which afterwards when the outward malady is removed remaining within cannot be vanquished entirely but by a very long Course of Physick of which neither is capable nor patient wherefore such persons It s Cure all care and diligence being administred ought to be preserved from the infection of the Scab as from the Plague Coucerning the Cure of a Scab or Psora two chief Indications present themselves The first Indication curatory and each of them two-fold viz. The first intention Curatory respects these two things First that the glandulous Humour its corruptive ferment being wholly extinct may be reduced to a due temper Secondly afterwards that the Pores and passages of the skin being freed from those schorous congealings may recover their pristine frame or good temper The Second Indication Freservatory takes care to prevent these two things The second Indication preservatory viz. First lest the impurity of the Psora or corrupting Miasma's of the skin being discuss'd
be far from our purpose to deliver the true cause of the above-mentioned affects and to put our sickle not only into another mans harvest but also one far remote 2. Moreover there is another state of blood unfit for nourishment quite contrary to this to wit when being above measure hot and sulphureous and from thence always violently burning out it consumes the nutritious juice by its effervescence and raging and causes it too much to evaporate so that the solid parts being defrauded of their provision pine away The persons obnoxious to this distemper have large vessels and much distended with blood but their flesh withered and hardned by heat Though persons so affected seldom pine away to death yet they grow old sooner and end their life in a shorter space 2. The blood not only from its proper indoles This proceeds sometimes from a fault of the bowels or solid parts but also by reason of a Consumption elsewhere and chiefly communicated from the bowels and nervous juice is often unfit to nourish And first this frequently happens by fault of the bowels for these being ill-affected sometimes do not duly digest the Chyme to be conveyed over to the blood also oftentimes they pervert and defile it with their extraneous and heterogene ferments insomuch that the functions are frustrated in the faculties of breeding good blood and nourishment Moreover sometimes by reason of the Vessels bringing the Chyle obstructed within them though much be eaten yet little or less than due is conveyed into the bloody mass Also in the bowels of concoction sometimes Tumors Imposthumes and Ulcers happen from whose corruption the blood being infected in its passage contaminates the rest of the mass and renders it unapt to the work of nourishing How often do we see from a Schirrus happening in the Spleen Liver Pancreas or Mesentery or by an Ulcer or cancrous Tumour of some Gut as also of a Kidney Womb or Bladder or otherwise malignant Sore a deadly Atrophy to have succeeded without any notable fault of the Breast or Lungs Yea Tumors Imposthumes or cancrous and strumous Ulcers happening in the outward parts and especially in the Back do frequently end in a pernicious Consumption The reason whereof is plain viz. in as much as in such distempers both great plenty of the nutritious juice brought to the affected part through the Arteries is either entirely bestowed in the same place or from thence is poured forth abroad insomuch that all the other parts of the whole body are defrauded of their due provision as also that the virulent or very incongruous matter there engendered and lodged is swallowed up by again the Veins which defiles the blood by an impure black gore and from thence renders it altogether unapt to discharge the faculty of nourishing Neither only from the bowels and solid parts Or from the nervous juice but also from the nervous juice the stain by which it becomes unfit to nourish is frequently communicated to the blood For when this liquor degenerates from its genuine temper to wit sweet and volatile into an acid presently flowing out of the fibres and nervous parts and flowing back into the blood it doth precipitate the liquor thereof and compels it into fluxes whereby all the nutritive matter is cast forth and one while poured forth by Urine or Sweat another while by Vomit or Loosness The reasons of all these and how they come to pass we have explicated in a late Treatise But the nervous liquor sometimes by it self departing from its good temper The nervous juice sometimes of it self is chiefly the cause of an Atrophy and being vitiated in its temperament is a cause of want of nourishment which also happens to be made in a twofold respect or two manner of ways For sometimes that Juice being very much vitiated and degenerate proves as it were vappid and decayed so that it doth not actuate enough the fibres as well nervous as carnous and inlighten them with an animal spirit wherefore as the motive virtue so also the nutritrive fails in the solid parts From hence either the entire body or certain members and parts thereof being for some while affected with a Palsie at length they wither away as we have at large declared the reason thereof in another place 2. We have also observed that many labouring with a slow Feaver or as called by us a nervous do presently languish and in a short time become much emaciated In either case the same reason ought to be assigned for as is shewed in another place seeing the animal spirits together with the nervous liquor their vehicle which is as it were the masculine seed do actuate the nutritive humour every where collected by the solid parts even as the feminine seed and render it as it were pregnant with a nutritive faculty for that cause if that nervous liquor becomes either depraved or vappid the bulk of the solid parts pines away as if it were made barren So much of these things touching an Atrophy Two chief kinds of Atrophies or waxing lean and the formal reasons thereof the causes and various manners of its coming to pass in general Of this disease as there are many kinds and differences so two chiefly and more observably occurr whereof either will deserve a particular consideration viz. Tabes or Phthisis Dorsalis commonly so called Tabes Dorsalis and a Consumption of the Lungs This latter which properly belongs to this place shall be discussed in the following Chapter in the mean time concerning that because the knowledge thereof doth illustrate the Pathology of this we shall speak in a word Tabes Dorsalis Two kinds although it hath almost lost its name in this our Age or perhaps changed it into a Gonorrhoea yet Hippocrates makes mention of it and handling it avowedly From the nervous juice stopt or depraved in the loyns he assigned a twofold kind thereof viz. one from immoderate Venery and the other from a destillation into the Spine of the Back What relates to the latter I have often observed some to be most grievously vexed with a pain about their Loyns yea sometimes in the whole Back which when for some time some have so laboured under they afterwards come to be lame or crooked and at last fall away in the whole body all but the head The cause of which disease doubtless consists in this viz. first a humour or a certain incongruous morbific matter descending with the nervous juice through the spinal marrow did run into the branches of the vertebral Nerves and therefore from the beginning by reason of the Fibres being twitched a continual pain almost did arise afterwards by reason of some Fibres being resolved the opposite ones more vehemently contracted distort certain Vertebra's of the Spine and lastly seeing the animal Spirits cannot actuate enough the Nerves and Fibres belonging to the trunk and members by reason of the nourishment frustrated the withering of
have afterwards escaped altogether free from that former black spittle the reason whereof it that a heavier Cough abiding with plentiful spitting for several days altogether purges away those melancholy foeculencies from the blood and moreover it alters the temperament of the blood or rather takes away the ill temperament thereof 2. And sometimes it receives a consumptive taint from the nervous juice The nervous juice being frequently degenerated and with an abundant lympha returning back out of the fibres and nervous parts into the blood as it produces ill affects of the bowels and of the reins whereof in another place we have hinted so sometimes it causes a fierce and very troublesome Cough This kind of Cough one while is Catarrhal inasmuch as the Lympha having pass'd through the mass of blood is deposited in the Lungs by the arteries another while it is convulsive inasmuch as the Nerves and fibres constituted to move the breast are possest by that liquor and are provok'd into convulsive motions from either cause either conjunct or separately it comes to pass that more grievous passions of the brain and nervous kind frequently call on a troublesom Cough or are wholly changed into it 3. And sometimes by reason of a fault communicated from the Lympheducts Besides the faults of the blood and nervous juice frequently exciting a Cough it is probable that it sometimes arises from the Lympheducts being obstructed which belong unto the Lungs for whereas very many Vessels of this kind are spread abroad through the Lungs whose function it is to receive whatsoever is superfluous of the Lympha that is carryed through the Arteries into the Praecordia and not immediately brought back by the veins and to convey it to the trunk of the passage of the Thorax if by chance it happens that these passages are stopt or obstructed by viscous matter or compress'd or thickned by cold should not well discharge their duty it must needs be that those watery excrements shut out from their wonted sluces or whirling back into the blood do incite its fierce boyling up or being poured into the passages of the Trachea do stir up a Cough 4. Neither do the humors above-mentioned only The fourth reason is usual evacuations suppressed in as much as they either pervert or hinder the crasis or motion of the blood induce a Cough which frequently is the beginning of a Phthisis but moreover any usual or wonted Evacuations suppressed or let do usually impress a fault upon the Lungs The menstruous flux or the Haemorrhoids obstructed often bleeding at the Nose it by chance it ceases Issues closed up Pustles Scabs and Wheals driven back do frequently affix a taint in the Thorax If a plentiful spitting from the Glandules of the Mouth stops of its own accord or be cured by Medicine afterwards sometimes a consumptive Cough succeeds wherefore the same is vulgarly called a Rheum which had lately fallen from the Head into the Jaws and Throat and thence destilled deeper into the Lungs when indeed it is nothing else but a certain superfluous serosity of blood that being used to be put aside by the cephalic Arteries into the Glandules of the Mouth now being excluded thence is hurried through the preumonic Arteries into the Lungs Besides these private and periodical or extraordinary Evacuations By reason of transpiration hindred whose suppressions incline to a Cough and Phthisis there occurs another general and constant Evacuation viz. insensible transpiration which being either stopt or suppressed is oftner the occasion or parent of that evil than all the rest For the steams that usually evaporate by the Pores of the skin being restrained within ferment the blood and soon pervert it and cause it to be precipated into serosities which with other excrements of the mass of blood being immediately laid aside in the Lungs do stir up a troublesom Cough and often a consumptive one Hence it is a common observatioin that the catching of a cold by which the Pores are stopt whether it be by the blowing of cold air or being wet by rain or leaving off cloaths or by what other means it may come to pass disposes very many to distempers of the Thorax Wherefore in our Idiom the cause being put for the effect a Cough is called Catching of cold These are the chief causes and occasions which occur from the blood any ways depraved Partly from the Lungs and therefore depositing a peccant matter into the Lungs There follow other causes in regard of the Lung it self viz. those which dispose this Bowel more readily to a Cough or a Phthisis of which there are three sorts 1. An ill frame of the Breast From the breast ill formed From the hereditary disposition From foregoing distempers of the breast From incongruity of the air 2. An innate weakness of the Lungs or hereditary disposition to a Consumption 3. Preceding diseases of the Thorax as a Wound a Blow a Pleurisie a Peripneumony Empyema Spitting of blood the small Pox and Measles c. 4. The incongruity of air which is inspired as deserving a place among the procatarctic causes By reason of any one of these causes and sometimes of many together the matter provoking a Cough proving often after consumptive doth easily assault the Lungs and enters them and frequently imprints a deadly hurt On each of these we shall insist a little First therefore as to the frame of the Breast the case stands thus viz. that the Lungs being still whole and sound and free from any phthisical impression may be kept for a long time in their office it will behove that they sitll be exercised with a motion that is vigorous and with stretched our sails as it were to discharge the strong interchanges of the Systole and Diastole to that end that the air being plentifully suckt in The reason of the former exposed may be admitted to their inmost apartments and from thence immediately be cast back for the most part together with all the effluvia and sooty vapours at every change of breath Wherefore since the action of the Lungs doth depend much on the frame of the Thorax as being the moving Engine it must needs be that by reason of its ill fashioning the function of breathing becomes defective in many things There are two special kinds of a Breast ill framed viz. crookedness and shoulders like wings for which reason many are found prone to a Phthisis the reason of which is that in any such figure of the breast being either depressed or made long the Lungs do neither injoy a space so free and ample nor can the moving Muscles be so strongly contracted as in a square breast 2. What an hereditary disposition is The innate debility or hereditary disposition of the Lungs to a Consumption is so frequent and vulgarly known that when any is found inclining to a Consumption he is presently questioned whether his parents were not obnoxious to this distemper
difficulty ariseth The reasons of the case viz. whereas his Lungs were found altogether free from any Ulcer or notable wound whence that most dire stench of spittle and breath always a forerunner and companion of the bloody spittle the last invasion of this disease only excepted proceeded We have in another place given remarks upon all these things as that Ulcers of the Lungs and the purulent spittle of consumptive persons seldom or never stink but the matter cast out of an Imposthume of the Lungs doth frequently stink but that in the sick Doctor the Lungs being free from either affect breathed out so horrible a breath the reason will best of all appear if we inquire of the manner and cause of a stench in general For we observe this to be excited when the impure Sulphur is dissolved either by a lixivial or an acid Salt and is precipitated by the other Let common Sulphur or Sulphur of Antimony be dissolved by Oil of Tartar or Stygian water afterwards if you pour on this solution a dissolution of fixed Salt and upon that Vinegar a most hideous stench will arise In like manner we may conceive in the case proposed that the sulphureous particles of the blood being very impure were corroded by the fixt Salt with which its juice abounded very much afterwards when the acid humor having endured a flux reflows from the nervous parts into the mass of blood it precipitates the dissolved Sulphur and so causes that stench to be exhaled from the Lungs and whilst it forces the blood into a turgency a little after it compels to a spitting of blood I have known some endued with a breast firm enough and free from all Coughs and consumptive disposition who have for the most part breathed out a most hideous stench which could proceed from no other cause besides what even now we have observed The impure blood abounding with Sulphur dissolved with Salts if perhaps while it is rarified within the Lungs and loosned in its frame it meets with an acid humor it will exhale in breathing putrid and horrid effluvia's It happens by the like reason of the blood otherwise disposed that as the breath of some persons is very stinking so of others very sweet And indeed the breath or air reciprocated through Respiration for that it carries out with it the effluvia's of blood highly rarified within the Pracordia one while disperses a grateful vapor another while a most unpleasant SECT I. CHAP. VIII Of a Peripneumony or Inflammation of the Lungs APeripneumony is usually defined to be The description of a Peripneumony an inflammation of the Lungs with an acute Feaver a Cough and difficult breathing They who labour with this distemper are greatly sensible of a notable inflammation in their breast with a swelling of the Lungs and sometiems a pricking pain they draw a painful and short breath or as Hippocrates affirms a deep breath the Feaver presses with great thirst watching and painful Cough whereto also bloody spittle or streakt with blood succeeds By which Symptoms it clearly appears that this disease arises in as much as the blood boiling feaverishly doth not easily pass through the lesser pneumonic Vessels but sticking in their passages begets first an obstruction afterwards being more heaped and extravasated propagates a Phlegmon or inflammation with heat a Cough and discoloured spittle Moreover in as much as the blood so accumulated and stagnating puffs up these passages of the Lungs and compresses them a difficulty of breathing is caused and in as much as it pulls or distends the nervous Fibres a pain frequently arises But if it be asked After what manner a Phlegmor is bred in the Lungs how a Phlegmon should grow together in the frame of a Lung meerly bladdery and excarnous and after what manner it is distinguished from that distemper which is wont to be stirred up in musculous flesh or the substance of a bowel We must answer although the above-mentioned parts vary as to the texture notwithstanding the reason of the affect is altogether the same in each of them For the small sanguiferous vessels do every where alike embrace bind and variously gird about both all the Tracheal passages in the Lungs and also the fleshy fibres in the Muscles and lastly the little fibres and nervous threds with the thickest foldings like clusters of the Parenchyma But that which produces a Phlegmon is the blood it self which while it grows very hot and is hindred in its passage every where and especially in the Lungs whose vessels branch into very small foldings doth first beget an obstruction and then an inflammation Wherefore the formal reason and conjunct cause of a Peripneumony consists in these two things The conjunct cause of a Peripneumony consists in two things 1. That the blood boils 2. That it sticks in the passages Sometimes this disposition sometimes that is first viz. that the blood boils feaverishly and sticking also within the more narrow passages of the Lungs engenders there an obstruction causing inflammation Unless these two things concur there is an exemption from this disease for in many other Feavers especially in a burning Ague though the blood most intensly heated and inflaming all the Praecordia as also in the longing of women the Green-sickness and the Dropsie of the breast is very clammy yet though sticking very much in the passages of the Lungs it does not stir up a Peripneumony to produce which both distempers must concur and join their strength Nevertheless when there is an indisposition of both these one while this another while that is first in act and after a sort one is the cause or at least the occasion of the other For sometimes the blood irritated into a Feaver causes an obstruction of the Lungs and the blood also sometimes finding a remora in the Lungs receives a feaverish boiling from its proper obstruction Notwithstanding for the constituting the procatarctic cause of this disease the blood ought to be fitted as well for the boiling as for the obstructing the vessels of the Lungs Though it will not be easie to shew what this disposition of the bloody liquor is inclining to a Peripneumony What that is Phlebotomy discovers yet the reason thereof doth something appear by Phlebotomy always made use of in this disease with the best success For the blood being drawn from any labouring with this disease as also from those in a Pleurisie after it grows cold in its superficies instead of a Scarlet cream it hath a little film somewhat white or otherwise discoloured growing on it which also is very tough and viscous whence we may conjecture that the mass of blood being too strait in its frame whilst that in the circulation it doth not discharge its recrements grows too thick and as it were clammy and for that cause becomes too prone as well to boil as to stick within the narrow passages and especially of the Lungs But if farther inquisition be
made What affection of the blood produces it from whence this disposition of blood proceeds by which it becomes clammy and viscous like ropy wine the general reason hereof is this viz. that the more thick parts of blood are not made thin enough by the more subtile so that all of them being equally mixed and mutually incorporated at length the good humors separate themselves into their appropriate functions and the superfluous are perpetually discharged by their proper Emunctories But on the other side in as much as the sulphureous particles of the blood being combined together with the saline and earthy too much exalted ensnare and entangle all the rest for that cause its liquor containing within it self all its recrements and impurities grows clammy as glue and in that regard contracts an inflammable disposition For it is obvious to every person that the blood that grows clammy in this manner is rendred prone to obstruct the narrow passages of the vessels which surely are very small in the Lungs moreover for the same reason they are disposed to become fearish viz. because retaining obstinately within its own bosom all the feculencies and ecrements from the same presently gathered into a heap it is constrained into a great turgescence or swelling whereby of necessity an inflaming obstruction of the Lungs takes either its origine or augmentation Moreover as to the procatarctic cause of this disease The fault of the Lungs produces it very frequently the faultiness of the Lungs is joined herewith and determines that general intemperament of blood to affect this part in such a sort For as the clammy blood grows hot the more strong and sound Praecordia do frequently discharge the designed mischief from themselves and the taint being fixed to the Pleura or about the habit of the body a Pleurisie or Rheumatism is rather caused than a Peripneumony Nevertheless the tender Lungs being bnoxious to a Cough or formerly prejudiced in their frame either by spitting blood or other distempers of the breast from the blood boiling up while it is too much bound nd clammy in its own consistence they easily engender an obstructing Phlegmon Hitherto of the conjunct and procatarctic causes of a Peripneumony The evident causes of a Peripneumony as for what regards the evident causes whatsoever suddenly perverts the temperament of the blood or restrains its free transpiration ought to be referred hither as chiefly are excesses of heat and cold or the inordinate drinking of Wine or strong Waters any veement exercise and the drinking of some waters and those especially icy Besides sometimes a malignant distemperature of Air doth engender this disease in many and akes it Epidemical Authors in Physick do every where observe and it is also a vulgar observation a Peripneumony frequently succeeds or comes upon a Pleurisie It often succeeds or follows after a Pleurisie but nothing is more usual than in a Pleurisie a bloody and thick spittle and as it were purulent to be voided Hence a regat disquisition arises by what passage or ways the matter by spittle cast out can be conveyed from the Pleura to the Tracheal passages Some think that this being fallen into the cavity of Thorax is sucked into the Lungs as with a Sponge and others suppose that it is transferred thither by the Membranes adhering thereto by which the Lungs often stick unto the Pleura But truly either way seems improbable if not impossible For first that the Lungs do not suck in the contents of the hollowness of the Chest is manifest from hence because in a Dropsie or wound of the breast when they happen the Lungs being unhurt neither water nor blood is at all discharged by coughing though frequently great plenty of this or that humor be there which presently flows out of its own accord from the Thorax incision being made But that Sometimes the Membranes growing from the Lungs knit themselves tot he Pleura is clearly manifest by Anatomical observation yea and by this way of return I have sometimes known the purulent matter translated into the side and there by an Issue made by Art or Nature to have been evacuated with a heathful Crisis nevertheless such Membranes of the Lungs joined to the Pleura do seldom pre-exist and in a Pleurisie which is a very acute disease they cannot like a Mushroom be the issue of one or two days moreover though sometimes those obscure passages may be ready at hand which perhaps by some admirable instinct of Nature discharge something out of the Lungs towards the precincts of the Thorax yet it seems against the Oeconomy of Nature that they can derive any corruption outwardly engendered to this most noble part within which surely is the fountain both of life and heat As to this if it may be lawful to propound our Judgment The reason of this is inquired into I am induced to think that a Peripneumony and Pleurisie are one while singular and separate affects and another while bred together and coexisting from the first and another while are by course one after another or succedaneous For the procuring cause being stirred up into act so that the blood growing clammy and boiling together obstructs in some places the lesser vessels the nest of the disease sometimes is fastned on the Pleura or separately in the Lungs sometimes in each of them together and sometimes first in one and then in t'other but for the most part the Pleura being first healed presently the same morbific cause invades also the pneumonic Vessels Moreover we have known a various shifting of this affect viz. that it has first troubled the right or left side presently that being deserted to have occupied the Lungs and afterwards both being deserted to affect the Brain and frequently to transfer its seat from thence into the above-mentioned places But for the reason aforesaid a Peripneumony not only succeeds a Pleurisie but frequently a Squinancy and sometimes other distempers for while the blood growing clammy and boiling together continues a Feaver in the whole it transfers the obstruction causing a Phlegmon variously hither and thither And from hence the solution of that observation is clearly manifest which has so much puzled Interpreters viz. that a Palsie or dead Palsie of one side doth sometimes succeed a Peripneumony because the blood that being clammy had lately obstructed the pneumonic Vessels afterwards stuffing certain foldings of the vessels of the Carotides prohibits the engendring of animal spirits in this or that part of the head and so restrains their influence into the respective nervous parts The differences of this disease From what hath been said the chief differences of a Peripneumony are made plain namely that it is either a simple distemper or joined together with a Pleurisie Squinancy or some other and then it is either primary or secondary Moreover it is usually distinguished as to the Feaver and state of breathing to wit according as this is more or
vital flame is continued and all the particles of Blood having as it were passed the fire become more purified and more agreeable among themselves moreover they are so disposed of whilest they are kindling that while some go into Nourishment of the Spirits of the Nervous Juice and the folid parts and others less useful depart into the ferments or recrements of the bowels mean while others being more fixt abide longer in the mass of blood and sustain its consistence and by fermenting the Nutritious Juice still engender new Blood untill themselves being impoverished are at length discarded and give place to others that are fresh and Iustie Having shewed after this manner by what course Sanguification ought to be finished An Hydropick temper of the blood springs from a double respect as well by fermentation as accension of the Blood it will be easie to conceive wherein the fault confists producing an Hydropick dispdsition To wit this usually assumes its rise whensoever either or both those Conditions requisite to Sanguification ether fail or are perverted First therefore this bappens more frequently and rather Viz. First from the desect or fault of its Fermentation for that the blood being depraved in its temperature doth not rightly ferment the Nutritious Juice poured into it that so it might be changed into laudable blood For when the watery particles predominate with the earthy in the mass of Blood the Salt and Sulphur being depressed with the Spirit as all the functions both Vital and Animal from thence languish and waver so especially Sanguification it self fails and is perverted For the Juice of the Chyle commixt with the Blood when it cannot be dissolved and fermented with the particles thereof after the fashion of other liquors as often as being mixt they want ferment it degenerates perhaps into a watery acid or ropy or otherwise faulty humour which being afterwards daily encreased and at length rising to its fulness lyes heavy on the blood and oft-times almost stifles its heat from whence there is a necessity that it be forthwith discharged by some means and wheresoever it can get vent but afterwards for that the offices of separation fail in their sunctions the stock of the animal Spirits Languishng by reason of the diminished provision from the influxe of Blood the abounding Serum is deposited every where into the pores and next vacuities whether greater or lesser out of the little moughts of the Arteries from whose daily and great encrease after all the pores are filled arises that as it were fenny habit call'd Anasarca of the whole body outwardly or of some of its members Secondly not only the defect or fault of Fermentation Secondly from defect of Accension but also of the accension of the Blood induces sometimes an Hydropical disposition on the mass thereof which is clearly discern'd inasmuch as some persons inhabiting Maritime or moorish places fall into the Dropsie without any other cause or occasion than that they draw a thicker air endowed with heterogeneous vapours by which the Nitre is either driven away or obscured Therefore the blood becoming degenerate and vitiated as to its temperature because it is not duely kindled nor perfected by efflagration within the precordia doth not rightly dissolve and assimilate the Juice of the Chyle but suffers it to be perverted into a watery liquor But although in the first place the blood being depraved for this reason sometimes loses its fermenting vertue and therefore the rather and more immediately procures a Dropsie notwithstanding it is manifest the first fault thereof assumes its origine from unwholsom air suckt in and not duely enkindling the Blood because such Hydropicks removing their residence into Sunny and Mountainous places recover their health without any other Medicines Hitherto of the nearest Causes of an Anasarca and which are conjoyned to the Disease it self which namely are the depravation or defect of the mass of blood chiefly as to its fermentation and in some measure as to the enkindling thereof which latter is scarce wont to be effective but when if follows the former But what remains as to the more remote and procuring causes of this Disease to wit from which the defermentative affection arises that I may say no more of the defect or depravation of its enkindling I say that these appear so diverse and many that I judge it hardly possible to recite them all particularly notwithstanding very many or at least the chief may be reduced to these three heads to wit Reduced to three heads For that the watery distemperament of the blood doth arise inasmuch as its active Principles viz. Spirit Salt and Sulphur are not invested with their fermenting and sanguifying force or vertue I account this to come to pass either First because those particles are too much wasted by their great expences or Secondly because they are not repaired by convenient and proportionate Refections or Thirdly for that they are overwhelmed or obscured by some other duller or heterogeneous Particles being too much accumulated in the mass of Blood We will a little weigh the Reasons and ways of each of these their coming to passe In the first place the former of these is evidently discerned in frequent and inordinate Haemorrhages whereby many men although strong and formerly healthy First because the active particles of the blood are too much consumed are immediately enclined to a Dropsie more than from any other accident or occasion the reason whereof is that the blood is so impoverished through its more noble Particles issuing out in great abundance that afterwards it can neither duely ferment nor enkindle the Juice of the Chyle brought into it Moreover sometimes the same effect fucceeds although in a more slow degree from Feavers and other long maladies and languishings to wit inasmuch as the blood suffering under a long depression is so extenuated and robb'd that at length it becomes watery and defermentative Secondly the Blood sometimes deferting its genuine disposition Secondly because they are not enough repaired declines into an Hydropical one for that the nourishment being more slender than it was wont or ought to be bestowed upon it its active and sanguifying Particles are not enough repaired within its masse for so we have observed that some who have used themselves to Wine and stronger Drink after they have been reduced to homely Diet and smaller drink of water of small beer suddenly have become Hydropick It is a common observation and frequently true although of ill omen that Drunkards and darly drinkers if that wild Custom be left at length becoming sober and abstemious are much in hazard lest by reason of the usual fermentation of the blood being denressed they become obnoxious unto that Disease I knew a notable Drunkard who declared that a Priest very learned and Pious was guilty of his death because he gave him admonition to Temperance and to leave his Drunkenness Thirdly because they are buryed in duller
particles and he complying therewith incontinently fell into a mortal Dropsie But the third cause or occasion disposing to that Disease the most common and notable consists in this that the active Particles of the Blood being involved with other more dull or heterogeneous ones or being dissipated from one the other lose their fermentative power or cannot enough exercise it But such an affection of them as it is wont to be raised from various causes and accidents so chiefly from these three Whereof there are three causes one while solitary another while united together to wit First from the Non-naturals immoderately received Secondly from the Naturals unduely retain'd or Thirdly from the Preternaturals corruptly generated in the body The errors of Diet deservedly may be referred to the first rank of these whereby the stock of that Disease is always most abundant For it is a common Prognostick and in every bodies mouth First from Non-naturals immoderately ingested that Gluttons and great Drunkards dye at length of a Dropsie to which moreover not only Surfeits and immoderate and daily Tiplings incline but also frequent and unseasonable Treats and moreover the continual pouring in of absurd and hard to be digested Nourishment For from the evil course of Diet of each kind used any while whenas the Juice of the Chyle oftentimes crude incongruous and above measure plentiful is poured into the masse of blood it of necessity follows that it is first burdened and afterwards its Consistence being loosened the more noble Particles being forced asunder it is so involved or abated by the other heterogeneous ones that being hindred it desists from its fermentative or sanguisying virtue insomuch that the bowels being in a short time hurt by its assaults a Cachexia and then a Dropsie sollowes whereof that is alwayes a forerunner Secondly Secondly From Naturals unduely retained in this place are put all ordinary accustomed and solemn Evacuations suppressed It is observable enough that a Cachexie and often a Dropsie doth arise from a menstruous or Hemorrhoidal flux dimmished or stopt no less than from a too immoderate one by reason of the fermentation of blood impeded by the heterogeneity of Particles Moreover the same is often wont to be effected from Issues suddenly stopt or eruptions of the Skin suddenly repercuss'd Lastly suppression of Urine and sweating much hindred do render the blood more watery by an immediate and necessary affection and incline to the Dropsie Also it is an observation frequent enough fo healthful Persons who being compelled for some time to abstain from going to Bed that their feet have swoln Thirdly Thirdly From Preternaturals generated in the Body Preternatural things generated within the Body but especially Tumours and Humours do hinder the motion of the blood or pervert its temper and so induce an Hydropical disposition Tumours stirred up in some place about the Bowels inasmuch as they hinder or straiten the circuit of the Blood do cause its Serum to be there extravasated and poured out by the accumulation whereof within some cavity in the first place an Ascites as we have shewn above and at length an Anasarca a consequent of that doth frequently ensue Different manners hereof are reckoned Moreover Humours of divers sorts being engendred in divers places within and transferred into the blood do first pollute the masse thereof and defile it with heterogeneous Particles whereby at length it is so depraved in its temperament that it perverts the Juice of the Chyle brought in when it cannot further ferment and assimilate it into an hydropical liquor For this reason nothing is more usual than that Consumptive persons and those that are affected with strumous and cancrous Ulcers nay of any sort within the Reins Mesentery Guts or other Bowels of the lower Belly after they have been long consuming dye at length hydropical Hitherto concerning the next efficient cause of this Disease The material cause of an Anasarca is partly the Serum of the Blood and partly the nutritious Juice also of the chief remote ones as well procuring as evident But as to what appertains to the material cause it is obvious unto the Sense that it is a meer Lympha accumulated within the pores of the Skin and of the other outward parts which being deposited there by the blood the liquor thereof being partly serous and partly chylous Juice but failing in Sanguification and Nourishment of the body to which it was destinated it is cast off like recrements into the vacuous spaces of every vessel And though the matter of the Dropsie proceed from the Blood and Chyle yet it is no wonder if it appear neither like blood nor milkie but only limpid because the Urine even of healthful people after more plentiful drinking is rendred crude as well as watery and therefore it is manifest it is nothing changed by the blood but leaves in that place whatsoever of colour or thicker consistence it brings to its masse And although a reason may be given in either case that the Urine inasmuch as it is streined through the Kidneys and the hydropic matter thorough the pores of the solid parts even so become limpid and watery notwithstanding it is evident by observation that the watery part of the Chyle even while it is confounded with the blood is not intimately mixt with it but being deprived of its colour and consistency it remains under the form of Lympha within the pores of the blood the sure sign of which is that the blood taken from any Animal by Phlebotomy after being cold it is divided into parts Why the hydropick humour is limpid and not milkis nor bloody exhibits a watery liquor which consists of Serum and Nutritious Juice plainly limpid and separate from the other blood It will be from our present purpose to enquire any further into the reasons hereof and manner of being so and wherefore blood which being poured into water doth presently tinge the same and bloodies all solid bodies whensoever it is sprinkled thereon yet dyes the Serum of no colour with which it is intimately confounded and a long time circulated From the AEtiologie of this disease now delivered The Differences of the Disease the differences of it may easily be collected to wit first it is either universal when the whole habit of the body and all the members swell up or it is particular wherein for the most part the inferiour members only suffer in the mean time the rest of the body pining away for want of Nourishment which kind of distemper and not a Tympanie Prosper Martianus will have Hippocrates style the dry Dropsie in which what is reported of the Syren the dry is joyned to the watery Secondly an Anasarca whether universal or particular is either simple of conplicated with an Ascites and then either an Anasarca ensnes an Ascites or this disease follows that Moreover an Anasarca may be distinguished many ways in respect as well of the procatarctick as
no measure of flowing out and therefore being stirr'd into violence it flows out too much or secondly because the mouths of the vessels once opened do not presently close again nor are able to be shut or Thirdly because Nature endeavouring an excretion of blood doth it by places more open but often inconvenient as when an Hemorrhage happens through the Lungs the Kidneys Guts or other Bowels which therefore pass from a Critical into a Symptomical and often into a malignant Haemorrhage Neither only by these means but by many other failings of Nature or impediments 2. Symptomatical Hemorrhagies arise either do Symptomatical Haemorrhagies happen in all which either the Blood it self or the Vessels containing it or both of them together are wont to be chiefly in fault 1. In the first place the Blood besides the reasons above mentioned First by the fault of the blood to wit forasmuch as it becomes inflammable or fermentable above measure is apt also to be extravasated because either its liquor being empoisoned or otherwise corrupted cannot retain its due mixture but being apt to coagulate or putrifie divides it self into parts and whilst some of them being here and there planted sending forth spots wheals and other brands of Malignity do discolour the Flesh and the Skin and obstruct the proper passages others otherwise running out an breaking forth wheresoever there is a vent found do produce bloody Excretions in divers places as is commonly discerned in the Plague Small-pox Measles and malignant Feavers yea perhaps this in some measure is the reason why in scorbutick Distempers as spots and marks so also Haemorrhagies are so familiar 2. Secondly The vessels bringing Blood being faulty many and divers ways Secondly The fault of the Vessels for that they are ill formed but chiefly in these three do appear the cause of a symptomatical Haemorrhage viz. In the first place if perhaps any where some of them are obstructed as often as the blood assumes a more rapid motion either in the same place or in the contiguous parts and also sometimes in remote parts it is constrained to burst out Frequently from such a cause an Haemoptoe proceeds moreover Spitting of blood and the Haemorrhage of the Nostrils do often follow the suppression of the Terms and Hemorrhoids Secondly the little mouths of the vessels by reason of the fleshy Fibres being loosened or resolved by which they are clos'd sometimes are ill formed so that when the ends of the Arteries do gape too much the little mouths of the veips do close By reason of this affection Scorbutical and Cachectical persons are found obnoxious to Haemorrhagies as we have remarkt in another place But Thirdly Thirdly Forasmuch as they are convulsively affected it frequently comes to pass that the Vessels being so evilly formed are also convulsively affected and so the morbific cause being as it were doubled this evil is much encreased insomuch that the muscular fibres of the Vessels being inordinately contracted cause sudden and violent fluxes of the blood one while towards the upper parts anotehr while to wards the lower and so their little mouths being open in the mean time they provoke prodigious Haemorrhagies For I have observed in some persons when the current of blood was small enough with a small and weak pulse the Convulsions of the Vessels generated in some place and propagated under the likeness of wind running to and fro in the body to drive more impetuously the blood however slow of it self and to constrain it into violent eruptions and in cases of this sort when Phlebotomies and Medicines refrigerating and tempering the blood have not at all profited the greatest relief hath been found from Narcoticks Antispasmodicks and Ligatures 3. 3. From the blood and vessels being both in sault Thirdly If perhaps it shall happen that these faults of the Blood and Vessels are complicated and put forth their mischiefs joyntly at once from thence it will be of necessity that this evil will be more intense and more frequent and prodigious Haemorrhagies will be raised the reasons of which as they appear plain enough by what goes before it will be neither necessary nor seasonable here longer to dwell upon explicating of them but rather whereas we have designed hitherto the acts of Nature about spontaneous effusion of Blood and its courses both rightly instituted and also wrongfully and evilly constrained now it behoves us next to declare how far Art for the most part the Ape of Nature and sometimes Mistris or Moderatrix thereof can act likewise well or better about letting of blood and how sometimes it is wont to succeed worse We advertise of these things in general Emission of the Blood procured by art that a Physitian imitates Nature in some cases of letting blood exceeds her in other cases and frequently regulates and reduces her when acting amiss Moreover ther are some cases wherein Nature excells far the efficacy or Art concerning bloody excretions briefly of each of these Therefore in the first place 1. It either imitates Nature in whatever affects spontaneous Haemorrhagies are wont to bring help when these are wanting Physick the Handmaid of Nature rightly substitutes Phlebotomie Therefore if perchance the Blood be immoderately kindled by reason of its Sulphur being too much loosened and advanc'd by breathing a vein what is superfluous of that inflammable fuel will flow out as also the immoderate turgescency of Blood by reason of somewhat untamable being mixed with it will be allay'd by this course Wherefore letting of blood is advantageously administred as well against continual Feavers which proceed from the former cause as intermittent Feavers whose fits proceed from the latter cause Also in like manner as often as an accustomed evacuation being suppressed or a humour driven back from the ourward parts or a sudden stoppage of the pores or if a Surfeit drinking of Wine or other accidents of this nature cause a turgescency of blood inasmuch as they dash heterogeneous particles against it Phlebotomie is usually the most ready Remedy Secondly 2. Or excells and regulates it Physick in Blood-letting not only imitates Nature but often excells it and also succours her being weakened and reduces her often erring For if at any time the blood struck with violence rushes in a heap against any part and either presently breaks out in the same place or abundantly gathered together engenders an Inflammation a vein being pierced in a remote place stops that preternatural tendency of the blood and frequently carryes away the bleeding or inflammation Wherefore in a Pleurise a Squinancy a Peripneumonia in spitting or vomiting of blood when Nature is vanquished or being outragious seems to cast violent hands upon her self Chirurgery recalling the blood to another part and sending it out restores the matter that was almost desperate Moreover Physick frequently restrains or reduces Nature when too prodigal or prevaricating in pouring out of the blood for in truth all immoderate Haemorrhagies
of it self it is too powerfull to be applyed all over the body but only to the Joynts of the Arms and Thighs or worn about the Loyns made up in a Girdle for so it seldom fails in curing the Itch. But dangerous Notwithstanding there is danger lest this practice as it often happens produce evil and pernicious symptomes for from the Mercurial Oyntment frequently a salivation also sometimes dimness of the eyes or drowsie or convulsive Affections do proceed Also sometimes the Poyson of the medicine within the Praecordia or Bowels produces the dreadful Affections of short breathing Swouning or bloody Fluxes The vulgar form of a Mercurial Oyntment and chiefly in use for the itch is this The Form of it Take of Quick-silver reduced into small particles with an acid or as they say kill'd an ounce and a half fresh Hogs Lard six ounces incorporate them well stirring them long in a Stone or Glass mortar Neither only under the form of an Oyntment A Mercurial Water for the Itch. but also after many other wayes the aforesaid Medicines are wont to be often used For the fume of Cinabar which is prepared of Mercury with Sulphur cast upon Coals and taken in at the mouth or striking the superficies of the Body cures the Psora The Mercurial Cosmetick before described being weaker by two degrees if it be applyed upon the Skin chiefly on the ulcerated places it kills the Scab Notwithstanding the use of these is not always so secure as to be administred every where to all persons Baths are prepared of Sulphur and Vegetables either apart or together Baths being boyled in water which heal this Disease not as a common Bath by only washing off the filthiness of the Skin but also by destroying the ferment thereof Moreover beside these there is another more easie and neater manner of healing the Itch viz. Let a Shirt boyled with Powder of Brimstone in Spring-water A Sulphurous Shirt and dryed by the Sun or Fire be worn next the body for four or five dayes for so that disease is wont to be cured without bathing or nastiness of anoynting or evil smell It the Aetiologie of these be enquired into Why Sulphur is the Antidote of the Psora and first why Brimstone is such a specifick Antidote against the Itch that poor and ordinary men who have not wherewithall to use any other Medicine do take against this Distemper inwardly only powder of Brimstone with Milk and administer it outwardly with Butter I have already in part given an account where we have unfolded the balsamick vertue of Brimstone towards the Lungs Namely it is a good expedient in either case inasmuch as it destroyes the acidities of the Blood and Humours and all the exotick and corrupting roughnesses and restores a benign disposition to every Juice viz. a mild and an unctuous The Reason of it and so the Particles of Brimstone any way outwardly applyed do easily enter into the pores of the skin and being admitted inward do forthwith work upon the ulcerous Ichor there abounding kill the Salts there predominating and procure a balsamick nature to the cutaneous Juice that it may aftewards agree with the Blood and Serum continually flowing to it As to Mercury it is no wonder if Medicines prepared hereof do throughly heal the places of the skin affected with the Psora wherever applyed How Mercury cures this Disease for by the application hereof wheals and pushes and all malignant ulcers viz. Venereal and Scorbutick are wont to be tamed Neither is it a thing to be admired that these Remedies administred in any private places as long as they provoke salivation are a Cure of an Universal Itch but really that without spitting they can produce such an effect as that a Girdle wherein Quick-silver is sowed and worn about the Loyns should abolish the Scab of the whole body and that sometimes without any sensible evacuation or harm caused thereby I say the reason hereof is not so easily apparent Yet for the solution hereof The reason of its vertue we must say that the Particles of Mercury being able to extinguish the scabbiness of every Itchy ferment when they are applyed to any private part do presently take away the Scab of that place and besides being caught by the venous blood and diffused through the whole masse thereof and a little after they are not only carryed back by the arterious blood to the same place where taken in but being brought outward every where they are deposited in the skin of the whole body and in the same place destroy every Miasma of the Scab If it then shall happen that these Mercurial particles after they have finished the Cure should be all evaporated again out of the skin no salivation afterwards or other prejudice will follow SECT III. CHAP. VII Of the Impetigo or Lepra of the Greeks AFter the Scab with the Itch Several names of the Impetigo it follows that we treat of another Distemper a little a-kin to this by reason of the breakings out of little pustules which is commonly call'd Impetigo by some a Tetter and Morphew and by others the Leprosie of the Greeks And as it gains several names so they are variously applyed by Authors and by these they design one kind of Disease and by those another kind Wherefore as the names of this Distemper are variously confounded and perhaps that as to its nature and formal appearance it has been various in divers Regions neither may it be altogether the same in our generation as in former times for this cause my business here shall not be to describe this disease according to Boods but from the proper observation of the Patients themselves The Impetigo is wont to arise and affect after this manner It is described according to its appearances to wit little wheals or red pustules sometimes single and sometimes many together are raised in divers parts of the body but chiefly in the Arms or Thighs to each of which new ones every where are adjoyned the Disease augmenting and in a short space of time there become many heaps of risings of that kind like clusters For the little pimples breaking out daily near to their stemme and spreading still larger diffuse themselves into a Circle and so cause every heap of Eruptions to be enlarged The rough superficies of each appears something white and scaly so that upon scratching the scales fall off and often a thin Ichor sweats out which being presently dryed up again hardens into a shelly scale These Clusters of little Pimples being first small and fewer appear perhaps three or four in the Arm or Thigh or other particular member about the bigness of a Penny or half a dram but afterwards if the disease be suffered to augment they break out every where more frequent which being leisurely encreased in their ground after wards appear to equal or exceed the bitgness of a Silver Crown but