imprint som mark of a vitious Constitution to the place to which it is ascribed It is impossible that any Diseas can be attributed unto it as properly Common by reason of the commodity of the Region Wherfore that we may comprehend all in a word although this Diseas in respect of the coldness and moistness thereof have a fomentation in the very Constitution of the Country Although also that it borrow three other occasions of invading from the Country Yet seing that those distempers may be prevented by a due observation of the Regiment of Health appropriated to the place and seing that the three other occasional causes are not properly blamable but desirable we must affirm that this Diseas is not properly Common to England And so we have put an end to the search of the causes of this Diseas CHAP. XX. The differences of the Diseas called the Rachites THere are many differences of the Rachites in regard of the concourse of several evils and more than any man would easily imagine some wherof are of great importance and others less considerable we have resolved here briefly to propound the chiefest For the knowledg of them is not only profitable to define the prognostical causes wherby the various events of a Diseas are distinctly fortold according to those differences but it also much conduceth both to the prevention and the cure of a Diseas namly that by a consideration of them apt and fit remedies may be chosen Now these differences arise either from the Essence of the Diseas or from the causes therof or lastly from Diseases conjoyned with it The Essence of a Diseas may vary many ways First By reason of the parts of the Secondary Essence either present or absent Secondly In regard of the magnitude of it Thirdly In respect of the vehemence Fourthly in regard of the Spirits And fiftly in respect of the times We grant indeed That there is a certain agreement between som differences comprehended under these titles yet seing that the formal conceptions of them are distinct it must be confessed that they deserve distinct considerations For although a Diseas even in that very respect may be called greater because it containeth many parts of the Secondary Essence in the same Patient yet this is a different distinct consideration from that of the magnitude of that Affect For the magnitude properly hath respect unto the degree of recess from the Natural State and not to the Nature of the part of the Essence either present or absent for hereupon resulteth more then a gradual difference In like manner some of the other differences do perhaps signify the same thing in ◠concrete and restrained acception which notwithstanding in an abstracted and formal consideration denote a diversity But let us proceed The first difference of this Diseas is that which ariseth from the presence of few or many of the parts of the Secondary Essence therof For although all the parts of the Primary Essence are perpetuà lly present with the Diseas it self yet there is no necessity that all the parts of the Secondary Essence should be always present For these are after-comers to the first Essence and do by degrees come upon it Yea some of them may be so highly intercepted by the intervention of resisting causes that they may not at all appear Hither you may refer that difference which we propounded at the foot of the precedent disputation and which we shewed might possibly though indeed very rarely befal those that were grown to ful age But because our purpose here is only to handle the Diseas as it is incident to Children we shall be content to pass by that difference thus noted by the way But even in Children themselves there somtimes happen some parts of the Secondary Essence which have a most strict conjunction with the Primary Essence at least they succeed them in the order of Nature For the Primary Essence hath the efficacy of a cause which in Nature doth ever go before the effect But in order of time some parts of the Secondary Essence do conspire as it were and concur with the Primary Essence in the invasion and others again do come afterwards these we must here distinguish For the former sort are absolutely inseparable the latter sort separable from this Affect The inseparable parts of the Secondary Essence may be reduced to these Heads First to the afflicted Tone of the first affected parts Secondly to the unequal and imperfect distribution of the Vital Blood Thirdly to the too smal participation of the Vital influx in the first affected parts Fourthly to the Secondary faults of the Animal Constitution These faults are sufficiently unfolded above in our discourse of the Secondary Essence of this Diseas where likewise because of their strict carriage with the Primary Essence any man may perceive with eas though they have a casual dependance upon the Primary Essence that they begin together at the same time But al the Organical faults which we have also already recited are found to be separable and somtimes actually separate from this Diseas For the magnitude of the Head and the leanness of the Joynts the crookedness of the Shank-bone or the Elbow the inflexions of the Joynts the sharpness of the Breast do not necessarily accompany this Diseas presently from the beginning but in process of time they bewray themselves by degrees and supervene upon the Affect And although the Consumption of the parts which in some sort hath an influence into the said faults may be said to be present in some slight degree from the begining of the Diseas yet is it indeed only a Symptom and not a Diseas neither is it able presently to produce those Diseases of magnitude Figure and Place Moreover it is not necessary that these Organical faults should equally and at the same time invade one that hath the Rachites we grant indeed that the extenuation of the first affected parts when the Diseas is of some continuance doth alwaies and necessarily succeed it neither can it afterwards upon the perseverence of the Diseas be removed that it is likewise a principal part of the separable parts of the secondary Essence yea that the extenuation whilst it is making doth immediatly follow the smalness of nourishment of the first affected parts almost no otherwise than the smalness of nourishment immediatly followeth the primary Essence of the Diseas in the said parts but withal we affirm that the extenuation being made which is it self a secondary part of the Diseas wherof we discours doth necessarily presuppose the motion and time of the Diseas and that it cannot be in the first moment of the existence of the Diseas We say moreover that Physitians do not acknowledg any change made in the parts exposed to the sens which doth not yet appear to the sense and by consequence they affirm that extenuation befalleth the first affected parts til it be made obvious to the senses which certainly doth necessarily
unaptly be referred Moreover the Spirits also although they prohibit all extream hot things yet they allow of these as mōderat and very congruous to Nature In like manner there is little or no particular repugnance between these causes and the Indicates albeit in respect of time and the order of administration som dissent may be observed as we shall see afterwards in due place Wherfore in what respect and how far these agree together whilst we intend a cure we do at once respect not only the Spirits but in som sort the causes by choosing such curative remedies or by mingling such ingredients with them which are able both to attenuate the thick matter to cut into the viscous to open the obstructed passages and the like In like manner whilst we are chiefly imployed either in preservation or in the rooting out of causes we make choice of such evacuants or els we compound them with such remedies as are also partly contrary to the Diseas And all these things we do to that purpose as that as hath been said we may be subservient to the most intentions we can Now having found out the actions simply requisit in the Species in the next place we shal enquire out their du circumstances 1. In regard that this is a great Diseas it requireth a great quantity of the Remedy in respect of it self For a Remedy unequal to the Diseas cannot extirpate it It is necessary therfore that the dose of the Medicine be equally to the magnitude of the Affect But in this Diseas the Spirits permit not so great a quantity of Remedies to be given at once Wherfore that quantity must be divided given by turns For this is a Chronical Diseas and of slow motion neither doth it necessarily require an hasty Cure and although the Spirits cannot wel endure either vehement Remedies or such as are given in a large dose yet they permit the use of Evacuant Medicins by an Epicrasis Wherfore by turns we must somtimes make use of Remedies Preparatory somtimes Evacuant somtimes Alterant and somtimes strengthing Secondly For so much as belongeth to the place of administration the general Rule is that the remedy ought to arive at the seat and penetrate to the very Cause of the Diseas If therfore it must have a passage into the Vessels it must be taken at the Mouth but if it will suffice to touch only the thick Guts it must be injected by the Fundament If the humors be naturally ready to move upwards expel them by vomit if downwards evacuat them by siege In like manner you must humor the inclination of Nature and root out the causes by spitting by Urin or by sweating Particular evacuations must be instituted in the very affected parts or in the parts adjacent For so the force of the Remedy doth the more surely make way to the seat of the Diseas and the morbifical Caus And for the same reason external and topical Medicines must be applied to the next convenient place Yet you must know that there is a certain Sympathy between som parts in which case the remedies ar frequently administred to the part wherwith that consent intercedeth and neither to the affected nor the adjacent part Thirdly The form of the Medicament doth partly depend upon the Rule last propounded For if the scope be to lenifie the Jaws or the Windpipe we chuse a licking or lapping form that by degrees the remedy may slide over the affected parts and stay the longer upon them In like manner if the Stomach be affected we often prescribe Pils Pouders or Electuaries that they may the longer abide in the Stomach To the Kidnies we rather design liquid things that they may the more easily be carried down to them with the wheyish part of the Blood The forms do also in som part depend upon the very nature of the Diseas as in burning Feavers liquid things are for the most part convenient dry things are scarce admitted on the other side in moist Diseases and when the Belly is oversoluble more solid forms are preferred Finally the forms of the Medicines do also partly depend upon the nature of the Ingredients So Cassia worketh most effectually in the form of a Bolus Hartshorn Coral and the like in the form of a Pouder in like manner bitter things such as beget a vomiting and stinking things are concealed in the form of Pills somtimes also they are guilded or els they are enwrapped in Wafers and exhibited in the form of a Bolus Now it must here be noted that for the most part the form of the Remedy is not so considerable as it gives place to the more easie and commodious administration in respect of the Admission or Reception of the Sick For many cannot swallow Pills others presently reject their Potions by vomit others are perhaps avers from other forms In this Affect in regard that all Children almost are loth to take Physick that form is to be preferred before the rest which shall be observed to be least distastful to them Fourthly As for the time of action you must so endeavor to sit your administrations that they may as little as possible be interupted with times of eating exercise or sleep for at this age the Spirits are scarce preserved sound and perfect without an interposition of those things by just internals Remedies evacuant opening attenuate and incident must be taken early in the morning upon an empty stomach and if they must be repeated the same day four of the Clock in the afternoon upon an empty stomach likewise is the most seasonable hour Strengthning and astringent Medicines and such as provoke sleep are to be taken rather in the evening than in the morning but perhaps som of these are most agreable after meals Medicines that are mingled with the nourishment ought to be gratful to the Palat lest they subvert the stomach and hinder concoction or caus a loathing of the meat or els empair the Spirits As for the order of proceeding there occur two general Rules The former is That that must first be don which being premised makes way for the following Remedies and therfore that ought first to be removed which hath the consideration of an impediment in respect of what must follow The later is That we must ever give our first help to the more urgent and weighty Indicant unless som impediment intervene If the Question therfore be Whether the Diseas or the Caus of the Diseas doth first require the help of Physick The answer wil be obvious according to the first Rule For the causes are reflected upon under the notion of an impediment in respect of the Cure of the Diseas for they cherish it and infringe the vertu of the Medicins Wherfore before that we are intent upon the vanquishing of the Diseas we premise all possible endeavors to root out the Caus or at least to lessen abate and retund it that it may oppose no considerable force to
properly relate to the secretive and excretive faculty of some Bowel or some other partt and is destinated to be severed and evacuated from it and therefore though the errors of the first concoction are scarce corrected in the second or third by Alteration yet they may be mended by local motion or excretion made from some part of the Body the unprofitable parts being separated and rejected In like manner the mass of blood being any ways preternaturally altered or infected with some Humor the peccant matter which cannot be otherwise subdued by Alteration is quickly exterminated perhaps by excression made from some part or Bowel unless withal the secretive or expulsive faculty thereof be hindred therefore it must needs be of great moment for a Physitian to know what Humors are particularly predominant in any Diseas and by what determinate ways they may be most properly spied out according to the intent and purpose of Nature For there are as many subordinate species of things spied out as there are distinct substances of the Bowels and other parts destinated to that office in the Body For it is credible that the Liver doth cast out one thing the Kidnies another the Sweet-Bread another the Spleen another the Stomach and Guts another the Lungs another the Brain another the Stones the Matrix the Kidnies the Kernel under the Canel Bone the glandulous parts of the Larynxes the Throat and Jaws another the scarf Skin and the Skin another For it seemeth scarce admittable that Nature should build and prepare for her self Organs of different kinds and yet should make use of divers of them for the performance of one and the same action Therfore when the excretion of any of the said parts hapneth to be restrained a certain peculiar filth will flow out from thence into the mass of Blood and so there wil be so many differences of things preternaturally retained as there are kinds of parts inservient to particular casting out and in like manner there wil be as many kinds of vitious excretion either by excess defect or depravation as there are divers wais thorow which the excretion may be made If any man demand Whether the several kinds of things excerned be sufficiently discovered and understood by us We answer that an exact knowledg is desired of that particular humor which is to be cast out thorow the new Vessel of the Sweet-Bread then in the next place what is cast out by the Kidnies the Kernel under the Canel Bone and the glandulous parts of the Larynx yea perhaps it is yet scare sufficiently known what is rejected by the Spleen For this cause therefore amongst others it seemed good unto us to supersede in this place any high and accurate disquisition of things secerned and retained either in relation to the parts and ways whereunto they belong or in order to the present affect and rather to insist on that fourfold division of Humors made by Galen namely into Choler Phlegm Blood Melancholy adding only undue transpiration and sweating For although we may doubt whether this division can deduce the humors to the subordinate Species as we have noted above more then four parts distinct in the species are evidently dedicated to the casting out of the humors yet seing that this division of the Humors is not only approved by al Classical Phisitians but that it is likewise profitable in it self and at least reduceth the Humors to certain Heads or Kinds however perhaps every kind may comprehend under it several species we are resolved for the present to insist upon it and so much the rather because under a general notion it very fitly conjoyneth and containeth both things altered and preternaturally contained within and also things to be spied out which are not yet excerned and in that respect it will eas our burden and contract our work For whilst we make our proceedings in this manner it will be needless to institute any other peculiar Chapter of the Causes of this Diseas namely of this altered which are preternaturally contained seing that they are comprehended as we have said under this Title We reduce therfore the internal Causes of this Diseas whether they be excrementitious humors retained or viciated by alteration either to Choller or to Melancholly or to Elegm and a Waterish humor or an undue Transpiration and sweating for the Blood properly so called is in this affect scarce observed to be faulty You may object That Practical Physitians do in this Diseas commonly prescribe the opening of a Vein in the hollow of the Ear observing that Evacuation to be very profitable which Reason could hardly admit unless the Blood were in some degree peccant We answer That this Remedy is available not in respect of the universal plenitude of the Blood but by reason of a peculiar plenitude of the Head it self For we have already shewed how that the Blood is uneqally dispensed to the parts of the Body and indeed illiberally to the first affected parts but to the Head superabundantly Therfore although there be not an universal redundancy of the Blood in this Diseas yet in respect of the particular Plenitude of the Head it self such a particular emptiness is perhaps profitably instituted those outward and smal Veins of the Ears being cut You may reply that we by this Answer do indeed decline the universal Plethora but that we grant a particular one of the Head which ought no less to be esteemed a caus of sickness We answer That we have at large explained this fault of the Blood when we discoursed of the unequal distribution of it unto which place it properly belongeth seing that it is a caus of the Secondary not of the Primary Essence of this Diseas and therfore a vain and superfluous repetition therof ought not in this place to be expected We will now therfore proceed to our purposed disquisition of the Humors and likewise the Transpiration aforesaid First Choller whether by this word you understand that excrementitious humor in the little Bladder and the Chollerick pore or a hot dry sharp and bitter part of the Mass of Blood or that unsavory humor that tasteth like stinking Oyl begotten and flowing in the Stomach by some corrupt aliment especially that which is fat addust or salt or certain sharp and corrosive Excrescences produced in the Body by corrupt Blood if it abound and luxuriate in the Body very probably be a caus of this affect For although it may rather seem to impugn that cold and moist distemper which is a part of the first Essence of this Diseas yet in regard that it is apt in some sort to hinder the nourishment of the Parts either by a vehement irritation of the expulsive faculty or by attenuation of the aliment and to extenuate and wast the very inherent constitution of the Parts and by consequence to consume and dissipate the Natural Spirits it may not unjustly be numbred among the causes of this Diseas For every one knows that
over whom they prevail But which way soever they happen they scarce continue so long as with sufficient efficacy to imprint this benummedness in the Natural Constitution of the parts Yet we grant that these affects may if perhaps they persist longer with life affect the Natural Constitution with that benummedness so that this Diseas may follow thereupon although we can neither justify nor assert it upon the credit of a single observation But the Diseases which do most frequently introduce an astonishment in the Natural Constitution of the first affected parts are those very same which hinder Children any way from ordinary actions and due exercises especially from the use of their feet as the luxation fracture or som wound of a foot or thigh or the leg or the Back-bone also tumors and pains or the like affects whether they afflict the parts aforesaid or others provided that they hinder the Children so that they cannot walk or play standing upon their legs or use any Masculine Exercises For hereupon by degrees the rigor and heat of the external parts waxeth dul which in this evil are the parts first affected and from thence the other parts of the Essence of this affect follow by an uninterrupted and linked succession as whosoever wil may see above We have now run over the Causes of this Affect and should in the next place proceed to the differences therof but that two difficulties do here interpose themselvs which properly result from a higher consideration of the Causes propounded For al those Causes now alleadged seem as wel common to Boys of big growth as to Children whereupon it may very pertinently be enquired How it comes to pass that they which are grown to mans Estate are not infested with this evil as wel as Children Then again Seing that the Causes propounded are al of them almost common both to England and many other Countreys som of them to al Climats of the Earth It may be demanded in the second place Why this diseas is more frequent and rife in England than in other Countreys These Questions we shal examine in order and shal freely deliver our judgment concerning them CHAP. XVIII The Former Question WHy they which are elder in years are not equally obnoxious to this Diseas as Children The terms of the Question seem to insinuate that this Affect may happen though very rarely to those of big age But we reserve the solution of this doubt til the close of the present determination Therfore in the mean time the Constitutions or dispositions both of Children that are chiefly obnoxious to this Diseas and also of bigger Boyes which are rarely subject unto it must be opposed and every way considered and thought on also of Youths Men and Old Men and that in order and relation to this Affect For the Question is not absolute but comparative therfore the first and best way of determining it wil be by a mutual comparison between the different dispositions of the said Subjects how they admit the impressions of the propounded causes either with case or difficulty Then certain accidental and peculiar conditions of Yong Children under such an age must be likewise considered in respect of which they are under one age rendred more under another less obnoxious to this Diseas That we may the more succesfully declare the former comparison we will distinguish the ages of men Here we comprehend Children of six months of age a year old two three four years old there we understand those of five years of age or more Youths Men and old men and those we cal by the general name of Juâ—â—ors and these by the name of Seniors unless pâ—â—â—â—ps the matter may require a subdistinction of the gâ—â—â—â—er sort these things being premised we ad 〈◊〉 our sâ—lvs to the collation First The yonger Children are of a colder temperament than the Elder For the heat of the temperament is augmented from the time of the birth to mans estate at which time it standeth at a stay being far more intensive than that of Children but afterwards it declineth by degrees unto extream old age and a little before that extream age it falleth into the same degree as it held in the time of Child-hood but before the approach of this term of extream old age the temperament of aged men is more hot than that of Children for although yong Children may enjoy a greater plenty of Natural heat and abound with Natural Spirits yet there is no necessity that they therfore must be of a hutter temperament for there is required a concurrence of many things to constitute a hot temperament beside the inherent Spirits and the inherent heat as for example a large portion of Chollerick humors and withal or chiefly a strong endeavor of the Vital faculty namely in the pulses and the Vital Spirits in their circulation Seing therfore that the yonger Children are more cold it is no wonder if they be more subject to cold Diseases than others such as this is As for old men especially such as are inclining to extream old age we grant that they also are more cold and upon every light occasion obnoxious to cold Diseases Wherfore from hence namely from the coldness of the temperament we infer no difference between yonger Children these old men in respect of an aptitude to fall into this affect Secondly The yonger Children are more moist than the elder for to wax old if it be taken in a sound sence is to wax dry For although old men after their manner may be likewise obnoxious to moist affects as Cathars Obstructions a Cachexy a Dropsie a Palsie a Lethargy a loosness and trembling of the Nervs and the like evils yet really there is some difference between a moist distemper which happeneth to Boys and that which befalleth aged Persons For in Children an adventitious humidity constituting the distemper doth not only penetrate the most retired substance of the solid parts but they are totally incorporated with the same But in old Men the solid parts even then when it is endued with a moist distemper doth not seem to part with its earthiness but to be in some sort compounded of that Earthy Nature and a certain adventitious crude and moist Juice or else an excrementitious drunk into the pores or into the substance of the parts yet it is not sufficiently incorporated or united For as sand being drenched in much water retaineth al its Earthy substance however it be somwhat moist So also the Bodies of old Men however they may be moystened with crude and excrementitious humors yet do they not deposite that terrene substance or that part which by the Chymicks is designed by the name of a dead Head which they dayly accumilate unto themselves from their first beginning This distemper therfore of old Persons is spurious not genuine crude and not perfectly digested into the substance of the parts And therefore although we grant that old men may in their way
Fourthly The Tone being over soft loos flavid and withered indicateth an avoidance of such things as are wont to mollifie loosen and weaken the parts and that such Medicines are to be outwardly applied and inwardly given as may render them more firm and solid The same Tone as it is internally too brittle brings a suspicion upon all such things as abound much with an inward slipperiness and seemeth to desire some roughness or indeed astriction in those things applied or taken Fifthly The corrupted Vital Constitution on the part of the Generation of the Vital Spirits is not so considerable but on the part of the distribution of the Vital Spirits the inequality therof is of great importance and indicateth a caution to be had of those things which promove the flux of the Blood towards the Head as also of such things as retard the passage therof to the first affected parts but that choice must be made of such things as stir the Pulses of the Arteries in the parts first affected and temper those that are in the Head A slow and diminute current of the Blood through the first affected parts indicateth the same things namely an evocation of the Puls to those parts But an over facile and slippery passage of the Blood through the habit of the parts is coincident in its indication with the slipperiness of the Tone lately recited A defect of the Vital Constitution on the part of the union sufficiently vigorous and pleasant between the Vital and the Natural Spirits indicateth an election of such things as can both nourish and cherish the Spirits and also excite them to a greater activity and that their contraries ought to be avoided The Vital heat as deficient indicates almost the same thing as a cold distemper provided that regard be had withal to the strength of the Heart and Arteries and to the vigor of the Vital Spirits Sixthly The unequal Nutrition Indicateth those things which promove the even and impartial distribution of the Aliment and Heat Or indeed that which is too liberal to the parts that are nourished beyond a due measure the extenuation of the parts requireth a fuller Nourishment The irregular magnitude of the Head chiefly things extenuant and such as are of the flux from the Head The Tumors of the Bones indicate the same thing the crookedness of the Bones require such things as attract the Aliment to the hollow side as moderate rubbings but things repressing chiefly on the gibbous and bunched side as strong bindings The bending of the Joynts insinuateth an Artificial erection of them as much as is possible The narrowness of the Breast pointeth to Pectorals and such things as have a faculty to dilate the Breast but the sharpness therof indicateth such things as have a dilative Vertue Sevently The imperfect distribution of Animal Spirits and somwhat defective in the first affected parts indicateth Cephalicals and such things as facilitate the distribution as exercises rubbings and the like A defect of due stretching in the Nerves or Nervous and Fibrous parts indicateth those things as Corroborate the Nerves and strengthen the parts Thus much of Indications Curative the Preservative follow CHAP. XXVI Indications preservative THese Indications are deduced either from the Antecedent or the present causes of a Diseas Those which flow from the former kind of causes concern the Prophylactical Part here we only propound those which proceed from causes that are present and contained in the Body namly from common causes or such as are proper to this Diseas Now although that common causes do not seem immediatly to attain to the production of the Essence of a Diseas yet even in this respect that they are esteemed an impediment and may retard the cure they Indicate their taking away These causes are either impurities or excrementitious humors collected and impacted in the first passages which unless they be taken away do not only infect the nourishment inward but they somwhat dul or otherwise hinder the appropriate Medicines They indicate therfore an evacuation either by a gentle vomit or by a lenitive purgation as occasion shal rather perswade to this or that or they are common causes deeper imbited into the Parts of the Body and these also require an evacuation But seing that according to this kind of common causes it is at the same time driven away and almost with the same Medicaments as are the causes which are proper to this Diseas we shal conjoyn both the kinds of them in this present consideration The causes therfore which are proper to this Diseas as also the Common causes which have a deeper penetration into the Body may be divided into Blood and Cacochymical humors The Blood indeed although it be rather deficient than redundant in the first Affected parts yet in the Head for the most part it requires a particular evacuation which usually is performed by scarification of the Veins in the hollow of the Ear. Hither likewise we may partly refer blisters raised between the first and second turning Joynt of the Neck although these perhaps may relate over and above in part to the Cacochymical humors Cachochymical humors are divided into those which stil flow in the channel of the Veins and into those which are impacted in certain parts of the Body The causes or humors flowing in the Veins do primarily and intentionally Indicate their evacuation But if they be unapt for motion as to the execution then they require som previous preparation But because it happens for the most part that not al the humors are equally unapt but that som are sufficiently flexible and others not so but resist the Medecines in this case they indicate a less evacuation and then a preparation Moreover These humors in the chanel of the Veyns may be subdivided into Feaverish namly if there be a putrid Feaver and not Feaverish The Feaverish humors are either swelling or not swelling The swelling that is those which are unquiet or impetuously agitated do Indicate a sudden evacuation at least a lesser unless perhaps they are carried of their accord to the external and more ignoble parts as it happens in the small Pox the Meazels and the like Affects But if a Feaver be present and that acute and yet the humors are not swelling they chiefly Indicate that peculiar preparation which they cal coction that by this means they may be obedient to the Medecine to be aftergiven and than evacution but if the Feaver not be acute but Chronical although the matter be not irritated and yet som part of it be sufficiently flexible in this case a lesser evacuation is first indicated at any time of the Diseas and afterwards the coction of the relicts that they also in their time may be evacuated The humors contained in the Veins which are not Feaverish if they are fluxible they first indicate evacuation but because in this Affect slow gross and clammy humors are almost perpetually present preparation at least wher a lesser
yet indeed by degrees and little and little For first the influent heat is manifestly an actual heat but the heat of the natural constitution is only potential wherefore we affirm that a cold distemper in respect of a natural and potential heat may consist with a hot distemper in respect of an actual and influent heat For indeed an actual heat is not so directly averse to a cold distemper which is so called by reason of a defect of the potential heat but it may the cause persevering consist for a good while with it As for example there is an actual heat in Simple Water Barly Water diverse Juleps and the like being made hot although at the same time they are potentially cold So that to be actually hot and potentially hot differ not in the Degree but in the Species neither are they so directly contrary to one another that one must presently expel the other out of a subject Moreover Secondly The influent hot distemper doth not so much correct the inherent cold distemper as by accident it augmenteth it namely by a wast and dissipation of the Natural Spirits wherein chiefly the natural and potential heat resides Just after the same manner as the actual heat introduced by the fire diminisheth the potential heat of the Wine Whereupon any kind of Feaver supervening upon this Disease usually brings more damage than advantage to the sick Secondly We affirm a moist distemper to be lodged together in the parts first affected this is manifest from the laxity and softness of the said parts and this sign likewise doth more strongly confirm the same thing because the said parts are extenuated so that unless there were a redundancy of moisture in them a certain rigidity and roughness would assault the touch again a cold distemper doth very rarely continue long without a moist and lastly things helpful and hurtful attest this truth for drying things are helpful and moistning things are hurtful Thirdly we affirm That in the parts first affected there is a penury of natural spirits This is proved by the very same arguments which we produced to evince it to be a cold distemper For first the unequal and imminute nutrition of the parts first affected doth not only argue a coldness of temper but withal a want of natural spirits for otherwise this defect of nutrition might be easily corrected For the cause of that coldness wherewith the defect of the spirit is conjoyned or some peccaut humor is not impacted is easily cashired and sooner then is wont in this disease as may b◠seen in the parts grown extream cold in the winte season for example sake in the handling of snow the parts so extreamly cooled provided that they be rightly handled wil return to their pristine temperamēt in few hours but wher there is a distemper with the matter of it as a case conjoynd or where ther is a defect of the inherent spirits such a distemper indeed is not so soon nor so easily removed But in the present affect we cannot affirm that a conjoyned or impacted matter of any note is at the least alwise caused in the parts first affected because they are observed to be more withered feeble and extreamly extenuated and seeing this affect is very different from Cachexia and the Virgins disease in the which for the most part it is not the want of Spirits but the conjoyned matter that cherisheth the cold distemper wherefore we may rightly infer that the pertinacity of this evil doth chiefly depend upon the defect of the natural Spirits Secondly The same is proved after the same manner by the second argument before alleadged for the cold distemper namly from sloth and aversness to excercise For activity hath not only a dependance upon the temper but chiefly upon the fulness of the Spirits as may be seen in strong and heathful men who in winter time and hardest frost are more prompt and inclinable to violent exercises then in summer when the inherent Spirits are wont to be somwhat dissolved Thirdly Feavers and long extenuating diseases as they often introduce a cold distemper so they evidently diminish and dissipate the inherent Spirits To these we ad that argument which is deduced from the constitution of the Parents the Parents that are more strong and lusty experience witnesseth it and accustomed to labour seldom bring forth children obnoxious to this disease on the contrary such as are weak sickly idle tender delicate very prone to immoderate premature or decriped Venery such as are troubled with a Gonorrhea c. for the most part beget children subject to this affect Namely because the Seminary principles are furnished only with a deficiency of Spirits We should now proceed to the fourth assertion but must first remove a remora that cometh in the way Object For some may object That the natural cold distemper is subordinated to the want of Spirits and not contradistinguished to it as is here supposed For the paucity of the Spirits seemeth to be the very cause of the cold distemper and the natural heat be it more intense or more remiss seemeth respectively to follow the proportion of the natural Spirits as being radicated in them as their first subject We answer First That the inherent heat is indeed first grounded and subjected in the inherent Spirits Moreover as the inward heat is divided into two par s namely the natural and the acquired heat so the inward Spirit must be also conceived to be twofold the primigenial or seminal derived from the Parents in the seed and the acquired Spirit contracted from a perfect assimilation of the aliment the former Spirit is the basis of the engrafted natural heat the latter of the inward acquired heat we mean not that these heats and Spirits are in themselves distinct in the species but only in their origin and degree of perfection which is sufficient to invest them with a various appellation For in nutrition the assimilation of the aliment proceedeth even to a specifical identity and not an individual although sometimes also it attaineth not the degree of original perfection For which cause it seemed sufficient to us to have named the implanted heat and the implanted Spirit without any higher distinction and therefore we grant that the implanted heat is first subjected and rooted in the Spirits and that it is nothing else then a certain modification of the said Spirits whereby they being irradiated by the vital heat do delight to indeavor to diffuse themselves and to enlarge their dominions by attracting retaining assimilating the aliments like unto themselves by severing the excrements and lastly by disposing the things acquired in due places we say likewise that this endeavor wherin we place the essence of heat by reason that it is diffusive doth somwhat dissipate and wast the implanted Spirits which because of this effect are vulgarly called by the name of radical moisture continually devoured and consumed by the heat Thus far we grant the argument
way from whence we have a little erred seing that the vitiated Tone may hurt as we have said the internal actions it doth not properly belong to that kind of Symptom which is wont to be called by the name of a changed quality Thirdly we say That this vitiated Tone seing it is neither a Morbifical caus nor a Symptom and yet is somthing preternatural must needs be the Diseas it self Moreover the same is clearly proved by the very definition of a Diseas For this vitiated Tone is a preternatural Constitution primarily or immediatly hurting the internal action therfore it is a Diseas For to what the definition is competible to that also the thing defined is competible That it is a preternatural Constitution is manifest by this because it is inherent in the solid parts of the body that it likewise depraveth the Internal actions is manifest from hence because an extream laxity lubricity and flaccidity of the parts being granted presently the agility is weakned no other cause approaching and a certain sluggishness deadeth the irritation of the vital Spirits In agility the matter is plain seing that firm and stretched bodies other things being answerable are more active and so on the contrary that the same thing also happeneth in the dulness of the irritation shal be shewed in its place for the present we labor to prove no other thing then that the vitiated Tone in this affect is a Diseas We say fourthly That this vitiated Tone in this Diseas is not any simple affect having an existence apart by it self but that it is so conjoyned and compounded in those same parts with the primary Essence that the whole Essence of the Diseas wherof we dispute may be said to consist of many Diseases united together in themselvs indeed simple if they be considered asunder and therfore that the vitiated Tone is only a part of the whol Diseas And this needeth no other proof then because the first Essence proposed above and the said vitiated Tone are both found in those same parts For that is properly called a compound Diseas which is produced by many simple Diseases conjoyned in the same Part. Fifthly We affirm that the vitiated Tone is not only a part of the whole Essence but such a part as hath some dependance upon the primary Essence and therfore that it is a secondary part of the Essence Before we proceed to the proof of this Proposition two grants or concessions are to be premised We grant first That the said Tone may be even immediatly vitiated in other causes perhaps and likewise by other causes although that happen not in this present Diseas For the inherent Tone of the Parts may be primarily loosned in the Animal Constitution and that suddenly as may be observed in the dead Palsy For the natural tensity and not the Animal only of the Paralytical member is loosned and indeed suddenly without any conspicuous intervention of any part of the aforesaid primary Essence After the same manner in a Lipothymy or defection of the mind loosness and languishing suddenly attatcheth al the parts Now we cannot in either of these two causes refer the cause of the loosness to the cold and moist distemper of the natural Constitution seeing that cannot be so suddenly and so sensibly changed Which let them consider that we may give warning of it by the way who wil have these common qualities to be always second and dependent upon the first alone yea on the other side let them in that cause observe how a cold and moist distemper doth afterwards by degree follow that loosness suddenly introduced Again as for the flaccidity of the parts that may be immediatly produced by large evacuations as a flux of the belly sweatings and the like immoderate vents the temperament being not yet considerably changed although we deny not but this may easily and doth usually follow Moreover an internal lubricity may be manifestly separated from coldness though very difficultly from moisture Secondly We grant that in the present Diseas the vitiated Tone doth not in any manner depend upon the first admitted Essence nor that in every respect is subordinate unto it For first the qualities of the Tone here vitiated do also ow somwhat to common causes namely to themselves and also to those that are common to the first granted Essence For extream moistening things by one and the same operation are apt to produce both too much moisture and also loosness In like manner from violent evacuations a want of Spirits and withal a witheredness doth arise Also from things too too slippery either outwardly administred or inwardly tataken or both an internal lubricity is augmented together with a moist distemper For there is so great a connexion of the whole Essence hitherto propounded with the common causes that there is scarce any thing which doth augment the first essence of the Diseas but at the same time more or less it hath an influence upon the vitiated Tone These things bring granted We say notwithstanding that in the present affect there is a very great dependance of the vitiated Tone upon the first Essence of this Diseas for which respect alone we have here referred the vitiated Tone to the secondary Essence If any list to contend That the said Tone in another respect may relate more clearly to the Secondary Essence because he may imagine that the primary Essence of every Diseas is necessarily similary and perpetually grounded upon the first qualities alone or because he may conceive that the qualities wherein the Tone consisteth are perpetually secondary and that they follow the first only as the shadow doth the Sun that man may take notice that we purposely decline such questions least we should straggle into an unwarrantable digression It remaineth therefore only that we prove the Dependance of the vitiated Tone upon the first Essence of this Diseas to be very great and that we shal do by parts We wil begin at the laxity We grant indeed that a laxity may be somtimes suddenly produced and in that cause a moyst distemper may often follow upon it Namely when the laxity primarily dependeth upon the fault either of the Animal or Vital Constitution but in this Diseas seing that neither the Animal nor the Vital Constitution are primarily affected there is a necessity that it must flow from other causes Moreover such is the condition of laxity and tensity that they are obnoxious to sudden alterations For the strings of a Lute may almost in a moment be stretched and loosned again the same thing likewise from some causes befalleth the Fibers of the Parts But in this affect the laxity stealeth on by degrees and slowly therfore necessary it is that it must begin be ruled and moderated by some caus leisurely and slowly augmented Although therfore we granted even now that the laxity doth own somwhat to the common causes of the Diseas yet the augmentation therof is chiefly restrained and moderated by
they enjoy a less quantity of Inherent Spirits But because they live perpetually in the waters therfore is their flesh more moist and slippery Whence it most evidently appeareth how effectual the inward lubricity and moisture are to facilitate the passage of the Blood As for those that are invaded with the Green sickness or afflicted with a Cachexia we grant indeed that the circulation of the Blood is difficult in them yet not only through a defect of inherent Spirits but by reason of stubborn obstructions lodging in the whol body Wherefore it must be granted notwithstanding the cold distemper the penury and stupefaction of the Spirits which procure a difficulty to the circulation that such a Mediocrity is imposed upon it by the moisture softness and internal slipperiness that the passage of the Blood may be reduced to a just if not an extream facility But if the moisture softness and inward slipperiness be so considerable to effectuate an easie circulation of the Blood Truly the distribution of it through the parts first affected seemeth to be expected more swift and not more slow We answer that the facility of the transition of the Blood is opposed to the slowness of the motion or to the smalness of the passage For a swift motion may be slow and in a smal Channel But the facility is here opposed to difficulty striving and labor which in this case if the circulation were difficult should happen to the Artery in the passage of the Blood But that the Arteries do undergo some labor in expediting the circulation of the Blood into the first affected parts shall anon be demonstrated we only affirm in this place that the facility of the passage of the Blood doth not sufficiently argue either the swiftness of the motion nor the widness of the passage For two causes do chiefly conspire to hasten the course of the Blood through the habit of the parts One is the aptitude of the part recipient or that through which the blood ought to flow and this cause is meerly passive and slothful the other is the impulsion of the Heart and Artery and also of the Arterious Blood contending to stretch and dilate it self This cause is active and full of vivacity For upon the cessation of this impulsion the distribution of the Blood will presently after totally cease however the passage may be otherwise supposed to be most easie manifest therfore it is that this impulsion is the principal active cause of the swiftnes and slownes and also of the quantity of the distribution of the Blood Wherfore those causes which do any way advance or hinder this impulsion do now come to undergo a more accurate examination For by these we shall know whether the destribution of the Blood in the parts first affected be really more sparing or slow than is meet These causes do chiefly concur to excite that impulsion First the plenty and activity of the Vital spirits contained in the Blood Secondly the perfect soundness of the Heart Thirdly The firmitude heat and just magnitude of the Arteries Fourthly An irritation both of the Heart and Arteries whether extrinsecally or intrinsecally caused These we will run over in their order that it may appear in what condition they are in this present Diseas First As for the plenty and activity of the Vital Spirits we have already shewed that in this affect the imperfect Vital Spirits are frequently excited in the right Ventricle of the Heart Seing therefore that the Blood tainted with these imperfect Spirits must be driven into the Lungs there is a necessity the destribution must there become more sparing and slow by reason of the defect of the Spirits Again seeing that the vital blood as we have also shewed above is somwhat cooled in the Arteries which are terminated in the first affected parts it is necessary likewise that the passage of it through the said parts must be diminished and more dull Secondly The vertue of the Heart unless peradventure by accident through the complication of some other Diseas is seldom seen to be viciated in this affect Thirdly For so much as concerneth the Arteries we cannot accuse their condition of any notable defect in reference to their strength But there is a manifest fault both in their heat and magnitude First in their heat the Arteries inserted into the first affected parts must necessarily by their cold distemper be somwhat affected with the like distemper For seing that a distemper of the parts first affected is active and permanent it is unavoidable but they must more or less introduce a like quality into the parts so neerly bordering to one another For natural agents are busily industrious to assimilate all Bodies placcd within the Sphear of their activity but especially such as are circumambient and neerly adjacent But if any man doubt whether that coldness of the Arteries can retard and lessen the current of the Blood through the first affected parts let him consider that frigidity is of it self an enemy to any kind of motion For it is the quality of cold by its own Nature to arrest Violences and impetuous oppositions to condensate to induce sloth to superinduce Somnolency stupefaction and immobility and when it attaineth a more intensive degree to congeal and mortifie the parts Therfore it must needs cast a Remora to the torrent or the Blood waving through the parts affected with that quality Besides In the opening of a Vein we have often observed upon the cooling of the member that the Blood hath flowed more slowly and sparingly and if the member be warmed again or the pulse be excited by rubbing or any other motion or means that then the Blood floweth again with a more plentiful and liberal current Moreover the application of cold things is sensibly effectual to stop Blood preternaturally bursting out of any part as on the contrary hot things do provoke the ebullition of it It may be objected That the Pulse is many times actuated and intended by the cold outwardly opposed as by the handling and playing with snow we see that not only the Pulse but the heat also is augmented in the hands of those that sport themselves with it We answer Cold things of themselves do alwaies move the passage of the Blood through the habit of the parts but that by accident they may intend the circulation of the Blood if at length they provoke the pulses of the Arteries as in the said case of the snow it happneth to beat stronger marches But this never comes to pass in this present affect For as we have already shewed the circulation of the Blood in this Diseas however it may suffer Immunitior or Retardation yet it continueth sufficiently easy and expedite neither doth any irritation of the puls arise from thence as anon we shal perceiv more plainly For seing it is manifest by what hath been said that the Arteries reaching to the first affected parts become more cold then ordinary or is
meet we may easily beleev that they become likewise more slender so in any cooled member we see the Veins and the Arteries become more slender then they were wont to be and it cannot be denyed but that actual cold doth straighten the Vessels But it is more then probable that a Potential coldness such as perhaps that may be said to be which is of an inward distemper doth likewise make the Veins and Arteries more slender So we see cold Complexions and also cold and moist to have less Veins and Arteries then the hot Corpulent bodies women children have narrower Vessels then lean men or youths Besides the very heat it self is an expansive quality that it may enlarge the Vessels and cold a contractive quality that it may restrain and straiten the Vessels Finally one of us observed that upon the dissection of the Bodies perishing by this affect He hath somtimes found the Veins and the Arteries tending towards the first affected parts to be of an undue slenderness but that those Arteries called Carotides and the Iugulary Veins were disproportinatly amplified and in is credible that this might have been perpetually observed had they that opened the bodies minded it with a attentive contemplation But this we peremptorily affirm not but leave it to future inquiry in the interim seing that it sufficiently appeareth by what hath been said that the circulation of the Blood in the first affected parts is diminished it is likewise agreable to reason that the Vessels also of those parts are straitned And seing that the left Ventricle of the Heart doth pour so great a quantity into the Aorta as may suffice al the parts and seing that so many parts primarily affected do sparingly sip that blood it is very probable that it is distributed with an unusual liberality thorow the other parts and namly thorow the Head and Liver and therefore the Vessels of these parts are somwhat dilated and amplified Concerning the lesned circulation of the Blood in this affect We ad this experiment only a ligature being wound about the arm or thighs of a yong boy grievously tormented with this Diseas the Veins did not so easily swel beyond the ligature neither did the habit of the part ful of Blood appear in that place so swell'd and colored as it usually doth in those that are sound From whence apparent it is that the transition of the Blood thorow those parts is more dul and less plentiful then it ought to be as a river stopped by a dam or wal doth sooner or later overflow the Banks according to the various swiftness and magnitude of the Torrent So likewise it happneth here the retiring of the Blood thorow the Vein to the inward parts is intercepted by the force of the ligature which if it were violent would in a short time fil the Veins and the habit of the parts beyond the ligature as we see it to happen otherwise in sound Persons but because in this Diseas it filleth them slowly and very dully we must conclude that the circulation of the Blood in those parts is extreamly lessened and slow and that the Arteries inserted into those parts are more cold and slender then they ought to be as we have most abundantly proved that the Arteries of the first affected parts are vitiated by a defect of just magnitude Fourthly As for the irritation of the Heart and Arteries which perhaps is the principle caus of many differences in the pulses it is manifestly found to be weak and ineffectual in the Arteries of the first affected parts We purpose not at this time to discourse of the nature causes differences and effects of irritation in the pulses only we observ in general that it may be either natural or violent and that each of them may be universal or particular and withal may arise either from within or from without And lastly that it may be excessive or defective In the handling of the present Diseas it wil suffice to touch upon the particular Irritation of the Arteries and afterwards to accommodate our Diseases to the present business 1. Therfore we affirm that the Arteries impel the Blood into the substance or habit of the parts by a certain labor and contention and that the parts which receiv that Blood do make som resistance and opposition that by reason of this conflict the Arteries are Irritated to make stronger resistances or pulses and that that Skirmishing is of so great moment to fortify the pulse and render it more vigorous that when it is weak the Puls can scarce be strong but where the contention is somwhat more increased yet so that it doth not overcome the opposition of the Arteries the pulse becomes more strong and lively provided that no impediment from som other caus doth intervene This we might illustrate by divers instances but we wil exemplify it only in a few in the winter the pulses are more ful hard strong and constant then in the summer but it is certain that at that time the outward parts of the body being bound up with cold are more firm and less passable and therfore that they do more strongly then at other times resist the Blood contending to pass thorow the substance of them in his circulation wherupon the Arteries when no other intervening matter hindreth must needs move more vigorously and drive the Blood more forcibly if they perform their office in perfecting the circulation of the Blood Hereupon those Arteries are irritated unless they be totally supprest or by some other means charmed and by degrees yeeld stronger strokes and withal the Spiritous Blood being pent in striving for more room they do wax a little more hot and are somwhat enlarged and somtimes having a little triumphed over the subdued opposition they drive forward the blood into the parts with a more swift copious torrent then before This is further confirmed by the heat augmented by handling snow for although at the first the Hands wax presently cold yet in a short time after they grow hot withal they are died colored with Blood as the intensiveness of the heat doth justify For upon the first contrectation or touch of the snow the parts are bound up and strongly resist the circulation of the Blood the Arteries also in those parts are at the same time contracted But unless the cold prevail to a total suppression of the Spirits contained in those Arteries and to a stupifying of the Arteries themselvs or at least a benummedness those Arteries are by degrees irritated and the interrupted Blood more forcibly contends for wider room and so at length by this counteropposition the Arteries wax hot and are dilated and the puls being increased they extrude the Blood more plentifully into the part before overcooled On the contrary in the summer when less resistance is opposed against the passage of the Blood the pulse becomes more feeble more languid and more soft From whence it appears that the defect of a
du irritation proceeding from the weak resistance of the parts which receav the Blood from the Arteries doth diminish the vigor of the pulses Secondly The same is yet more evidently seen when the Pulse is augmented by the motion of the Body for in any violent motion almost all the Muscles are stretched by reason wherof they somwhat more resist the passage of the Blood hereupon the Arteries are provoked to contention their heat is encreased and therefore more nimble strong and full Pulses are emitted Thirdly As the inflamation of a part doth sensibly irritate the Arteries thereof so it exciteth a more vehement Pulse and bauseth a more liberal Flux of the Blood The same may be said of pain Fourthly Hither also must be referred the bruising of any part For a bruised part doth difficultly receive the Blood flowing to it hereupon the Arteries provoked they beat more strongly and swell the bruised part resisting them into a tumor This might be demonstred by many more examples but we conceive these to be very sufficient and satisfactory Moreover It must be noted that the parts caused by the reception of the Blood in the Arteries may be very great and yet not sufficient effectually to irritate the Arteries in which case it rather remitteth and disturbeth them encreaseth or facilitateth the force of the torrent of the Blood For that opposition of it self interrupteth the channel of the Blood thorow the substance of the parts but becaus it doth withal irritate the Arteries to emit more lively strokes it quickneth the torrent of it by accident Wherfore we are here compelled into another involuntary digression by distinguishing between the resistance of the part that irritate and that which doth not or doth very little irritate the instances already alledged will suffice for the former and to explain the latter we will ad a few First Therefore there is a resistance that totally suppresseth the torrent of the Blood Such a one is caused by a strong ligature which doth altogether intercept the pulse in those parts beyond it neither yet doth it irritate the Arteries on this side of it because it overcometh all the force of the Artery beyond the Ligature and doth wholly break off the action thereof The same is seen in the parts mortified with cold or by other causes corrupted with an inflamation and perhaps in some hard swellings contractures and some confirmed wounds Secondly There is a resistance pressing down the Arteries even by the compression of the Arteries and this happeneth in a ligature indifferently bound Also in the compression of an Artery by some tumor in the adjacent parts as in a raw swelling also in a compression from any outward cause many things which belong to the lying down on the right side especially and the left are referred hither so in tumors on the right side the lying on the left side is many times endured with the least patience by the compression of the sound parts by those that are swelled c. and this compression however it resisteth the circulation of the Blood yet it doth not seem much to irritate the Arteries because it doth no less intercept the very pulsificative force then it diminisheth the action thereof Although perhaps it may somtimes irritate in the Lungs by reason of their vehement heat just as it useth to do in aching and inflamed parts Thirdly There is a resistance in part repressing the circulation of the Blood but without compression of the Arteries nor yet totally suppressing them nor very much irritating the Artery Such an one occurreth in obstructions caused by cold slow thick and moist humors which although they may somwhat retard the free passage of the Blood yet they provoke the Artery very little because at the same time they superinduce a certain benummedness in them at least a cold distemper as also in the Blood which they contain The same almost may be said of paralytical members but that in these a benummedness is more evidently introduced in their Arteries and the channel of the Blood is less retarded in them Moreover We affirm secondly that the parts first affected in this Diseas do not sufficiently irritate the Arteries by which the Blood is distributed through them For although in these parts both by reason of their solidity and also in respect of their coldness we grant some kind of resistance yet it is extream feeble and slow and very little provoking First because in those paris a moist is conjoyned with the cold distemper which of it self tempereth and qualifieth all manner of provocations Secondly Becaus there is a penury of inherent Spirits which otherwise where they abound are wont to cherish the vigor of the Arteries and the blood contained in them Thirdly Because those parts are loos weak and soft and therfore more prone to receive with facility that which the Arteries send in than to exasperate them by resistance And that the Arteries do not conveigh the Blood by any vigorous and considerable force into these parts is manifest by this sign becaus after the influx of the Spirits and the Blood they still continue loos soft and feeble when on the contrary strong Pulses are wont to render the parts otherwise weak ful swoln and stiff on a sudden Fifthly becaus the first affected parts have in them a similary lubricity For as the superficiary or external lubricity suffereth any thing to pass by without attritition so also the Internal or similary lubricity facilitates the circulation of the Blood so that the passage is accomplished with very smal opposition We conclude therfore that the proirritation of the Arteries is in this Diseas deficient and therfore that the Arteries are very dully and ineffectually excited to strengthen the puls Having at the length weighed al things which we propounded concerning the causes which actuate and advance the Blood in his circulation it sufficiently appeareth that the circulation of the Blood in this affect is easy and expedit enough but that it is lessened and passeth dully thorow the parts first affected both by reason of the sluggishness of the Arterious Blood contained in the Artery of the said parts and also becaus of the defective heat and slenderness of those Arteries and finally in regard of their ineffectual irritation And let these things suffice concerning the two former faults belonging to the distribution of the Blood in this affect namly the diminution and slowness therof It remaineth in the next place to examine the inequality of that distribution CHAP. XI The Inequality of the Distribution of the Blood in this Affect THis inequality is to be estimated by a comparison of the greatnes swiftness of the current of the Blood made in divers parts For if the circulation of the Blood according to a Geometrical proportion be either equally smal and slow or equally great and swift that must be judged equal by the scope of the present enquiries on the contrary if in some
second is likewise proved without difficulty For if the Vital heat radicated in the Arterious Blood consisteth in a certain motion or endeavor of that Blood uniformly diffused and withal at the same time somwhat restrained it must unavoydably excite the same motion in the solid parts thorow which it passeth seing that natural causes do always act to the extremity of their power and as much as is possible by way of assimilation If any man doubt whether the Essence of the Vital heat consist in such an uniform diffusive motion moderately restrained and intrinsically advancing let him know that the Essence of heat doth in general consist in motion or a rerefactive endeavor somwhat interrupted as Sr. Thomas Bacon doth most clearly demonstrate in his Novum Organum But this I say the Vital heat seing that it containeth in it self the tru nature of heat it wil be also necessarily such a rarefactive endeavor somwhat restrained But that this heat may be restrained to the Vital more conditions must be added which nevertheless we cannot in this place either reckon up or accuratly search into least we should run into an unreasonable digression In the interim that we may have the matter and the manner of enquiring whether or no in this affect the Vital heat be moderated according to nature it seemed good unto us to propound these subsequent conditions First That the Vital heat may be called Natural or according to Nature it is requisit that the Origin therof be Internal Namly in the Arterious Blood and that it be derived to the solid parts as hath been said by the implantation and union therof for that any thing may be called Natural it must needs flow from an Internal Principle although it be likewise tru that what things soever do moderatly cherish augment and excite that Internal Principle may in that respect deserve this appellation Secondly It is required that that heat be moderate not unequally remiss or intensive but communicated to the parts in an even degree Thirdly It is required that it be in some measure uniform and like it self in those parts that rejoyce in the same similary constitution provided that they be equidistant from the fountain of heat and after the same manner affected by some other concurrent and adjacent causes But in the parts further distant from the fountain of heat yet otherwise as hath been said after the same manner affected that it may be uniformly diminished And in like manner in the colder parts in respect of the inherent constitution that it may be also proportionably more remiss Lastly In the parts diversly affected by other causes so that one may be much more intensively hot then another it is requisite that between the hotter and the colder part there be found a heat gradually and as it were uniformly more remiss if you proceed gently from the hotter towards the colder part And even a certain uniformity may be observed in this deformity or disparity of heat so long as it continueth within the bounds of Nature For the parts immediatly and intermutually touching one another are in a preternatural capacity or condition If one of them be extreamly hot in comparison of the other For seing that this Vital heat consisteth in a rarefactive endeavor somwhat restrained if it be very unequal and disproportionate in the Parts bordering upon one another it will happen that that part which endeavoreth with vehemence doth withal endeavor to separate it self from that which useth no such vehemence and so that it wil becom a preternatural endeavor causing pain for pain consisteth in the solution of continuity not yet made but to be made Fourthly That this heat may not actuate or assist the action of any other hurtful conjoyned quality whatsoever For although in this case the conjoyned hurtful quality is chiefly peccant and meriteth the greater part of blame yet cannot the heat be altogether excused For an acrimonious and malignant heat denoteth other qualities to be conjoyned besides the bare heat yet the Vital heat it self in as much as it exasperateth and provoketh the activity of those conjoyned qualities to a more potent depravation and annoyance it must be judged partly culpable of their vitious actions Fifthly On the part of the resistance moderation is also required both in respect of the appeasing of the irritated Vital Spirit and also in regard of the passage of the Arterious Blood and finally in respect of the transpiration of the unappeased exhalations Sixthly A certain proportion must be observed between the expansive endeavor of the Vital heat and the resistance that restrains it an excess therefore in either of them in it self is not a fault but if one be disproportionate to another in that regard it must be reputed faulty Seventhly A certain harmony and order is observable both in the endeavor and in the resistance For they do not always proceed in one form and continuation but as it were fighting they are somtimes intended somtimes remitted And indeed they are chiefly increased in the Diastole of the Arteries wher the blood not being contained in his Marrow Vessels strugleth for more room and so stretcheth the Arteries til a competent portion of it falleth down into the habit of the parts and is there digested for then the place doth not compel the Blood into such straights but after a short time it desisteth from that impetuosity and among the causes of the pulsation this motion of the Blood is not the least considerable Now that we may apply these things to the present business amongst all the conditions now proposed the second alone seemeth manifestly to be desired in this affect For the Vital heat is not here moderate but defective and more remiss than the just and Natural Degree For seeing that the first affected parts are besieged with a cold and moist distemper and with a penury and benummedness of Spirits they must necessarily as we have already demonstrated somewhat rebate the heat of the Arterious Blood before it is transmitted into the substance of them wherupon those parts participate a more remiss degree of Vital heat than is due unto them And this shall suffice concerning the communication of the Vital hear to the Parts Thirdly As for the last part of the participative Life which indeed dependeth upon the two former and which is the first in the intention though the last in the execution of Nature we say that it is in some sort the end both of the Original Vital Constitution and also of the distribution thereof and finally of the aforesaid union and heat communicated to the parts For the Vital Spirits are not excited in the Arterious Blood for their own sakes alone neither are they distributed into the parts and united to them only for their own advantage but chiefly that they may enliven and dignifie the inherent constitution of the solid Parts and so actuate and promote their faculties For as the heat of it self is only potentially visible
unless it be irradiated with light so those inherent faculties of attracting retaining concocting secreving and forming are dead as it were and meerly potential when they are deprived of the vivification and erogation of the Vital afflux This is most clearly conspicuous in a lipothymy for upon the defect of the Vital influx all those faculties suddenly fail decay languish But seing all the faculties are established upon some constitution which is both the cause and subject of them it might be demanded in which Constitution of the parts it is grounded We answer in respect of the potential Nature they are radicated in the Natural Constitution which we have before described but that in reference to the Actuated and Elivened Essence that they depend likewise upon the Vital influx And we declare in general that the participative Vital Constitution which we have already asserted to consist in Three things conjoyned with the Natural Constitution is the total and adequate both cause and subject of all those faculties But it would be a tedious degression and inconsistent with our purpose to make enquiry how those Constitutions can produce this or that faculty determinate in its Species For the present we will only run over those faults of the faculties aforesaid which occur in this affect First The fashioning vertue here erreth by an unequal purging out of the Vital Blood in divers parts as we have discoursed above Hereupon the Head and the Liver grow to an unmeasurable bigness the first affected parts are extenuated the ends of the Bones stick out and somtimes the Bones themselves which are otherwise straight wax crooked Secondly The Concoctive faculty is weak in this Diseas and in the first affected part by reason of the inherent cold distemper the penury and benummedness of the Spirits the brittle and slippery union of the Vital spirits with the Natural Constitution and by reason of the feeble imprinted Vital heat Thirdly The Attractive Retentive and Expulsive Faculties seem not to recede much from their Natural Condition yet the Attractive is somwhat more slow than ought to be the Retentive by reason of the internal lubricity is somwhat weaker and the Expulsive is more vehement for the same Cause And thus at length we have dispatched the faithful examination of the faults of the Vital Constitution in this affect The Animal Constitution should now undergo the next disquisition but that som faults of the Natural Constitution namly the Organical faults therof which have some dependance upon some of the recited faults of the Vital Constitution do challenge this place as most proper to themselvs CHAP. XIII The Organical Faults of the Natural Constitution in this Affect SEing that the Organical faults in this Diseas belong to the Inherent Constitution of the parts thos indeed by the Law of just Method should be immediatly after the similary vices of the same Constitution but as we have noted above the Reason and Caus of them must be derived from the faults of the Vital Constitution lately mentioned and therfore we are constrained to premise the examination of these and to reserv the consideration of the other for another place The Organical faults in this affect are fitly reduced to these Heads First To the extenuation and leanness of certain parts namly the parts first affected Secondly To the unreasonably augmented magnitude of some parts as the Brain the whol Head and the Liver Thirdly To the tumors or lanching out of certain Bones as of the Bones to the Wrests to the Ankles and the ends of the ribs Fourthly To the bowing of certain Bones as it frequently happneth to the Bones of the Cubit and the Shin Bone somtimes to the Bone of the Thigh and Sholder Fifthly To the poynted figure and narrowness of the breast And these faults are reckoned beneath among the Symptoms and signs of the Diseas not because they are indeed meer Symptoms but becaus they are obvious to the Senses and so do fitly supply the place of signs both in respect of the parts of the Essence of the Diseas more deeply retired and also in respect of the hidden causes therof For whatsoever is perceived by the sens and besides it self representeth somwhat els to the understanding that is obscure hath the formality of a sign For indeed these faults are parts of the secondary Essence of the Diseas seing that they are the vitious Constitutions of the Organs depraving the action and have a dependance upon the other parts of the Essence of the Diseas The common caus almost of al these recited affects seems to be an uneven or disproportionate nourishment or Alogotrophy of the parts Now this dependeth chiefly upon two causes in this affect The first is the unequal inherent Constitution of the parts irregularly nourished The disparity between the inherent Constitutions of the first affected parts and the Head and Bowels cannot be so wel collected by what hath been already said but that it may deserve a further inculcation The last ca us which is indeed of equal moment is the very unequal distribution of the Arterious Blood into the parts unevenly nourished That the Blood is unequally distributed in this affect we have already shewed here we only infer that that must needs produce an unequal nutrition of the parts Al Creatures the more liberally they feed the more fat and fleshly they are unless som oother impediment doth intervene but if the du quantity of aliment be substracted they grow lean and are daily more and more extenuated Why should we not suppose that the same thing happeneth in the Parts of Creatures the Blood or at least somwhat contained in the Blood is acknowledged for the last aliment of al the parts wher therfore that is liberally dispensed to one part and sparingly to another certainly it is no wonder if one part be excessively augmented and another extreamly extenuated But these things may suffice in general In particular First We assert that the first affected parts in this Diseas do dayly wax lean and fal away Proof of this assertion cannot be reasonably expected seing that dayly experience yeeldeth an occular demonstration of it But why those parts are so extenuated that may require som reasons and we offer these The first is deduced from the primary essence of the Diseas namly from a cold distemper a penury and inactivity of the inherent Spirits in the parts aforesaid For by this means the attractive retentive and concoctive faculty do execute their functions in those parts unduly and ineffectually The second is brought from the loosness softness and internal slipperiness of the same parts for hereupon the expulsive faculty is too much irritated the breathing is too easy and dissipative the circulation of the Blood is to slippery the retentive faculty through the weaknes of it parteth with the aliment too soon and with too much facility and this very thing almost happneth here in these parts which befalleth the Guts in a Lyentery Howsoever it be
concerning the Animal faculty and otherwise expounding the matter do substitute a somwhat different description we thought good to offer both to the Readers consideration According to the former and vulgarly received opinion and description of the Animal faculty the animal constitution is that affection of the Body which consisteth in the generation and due motion of the Animal Spirits Now by the due motion of the Animal Spirits they understand the excursion of them from the Brain thorow the Nerves like lightning and again their recourse back to the Brain whereby they declare unto it what is perceived by the Organs of the outward Senses Others as we have said do otherwise explicate this matter They grant indeed that the Animal constitution doth include the generation and destribution of the Animal Spirits but they say that that swift motion of the Flux and Reflux of the Animal Spirits like lightning is inconceivable in the Nerves and if it be not unprofitable yet certainly it is very little necessary to establish the animal faculty But instead of this they substitute in time of waking a certain contractive motion of a moving endeavor of the very substance of the Brain of the Spinal Marrow of the Nerves arising from thence and of the parts into which they are destributed And this motion or endeavor produceth say they a certain Tensity in the aforesaid parts by whose force all the alterations imprinted in those parts by any objects are communicated to the Brain For as in a Harp when the strings are stretched to a just pitch if they be stricken in the most gentle manner at either end that motion in a moment at least a Physical one runneth to the other end so they likewise affirm that any Nerve being moved which is duly stretched without the Skull that motion is extended to the Brain it self by reason of the continuity and Tensity of the said parts and there fixeth a certain impression conformable to the caus thereof But in time of sleep they suppose the Brain the Spinal marrow and some of the Nerves to be somwhat loosned And indeed they say perpetually and simply that the foremost connexions of the Spinal Marrow with the Brain remain loos continually during sleep but they grant that the hindermost connexions with the Cerebethi are somwhat extended as in Night-walkers and so by that means they do in some sort discern outward objects but they judg not of them by common sense but as it were reflected from the memory to the Fantasie Neither do they suppose it necessary that all the inferior parts of the Spinal Marrow and therfore the Nerves from thence proceeding should be perpetually loosned during sleep seeing that most Birds sleep standing upon their feet seing that respiration in time of sleep doth presuppose the Tensity of some Nerves and lastly seing where sleep first steals in the uppermost Nerves are wholly loosned before the neathermost As for Dreams they conceive that they proceed from a various and chanceable agitation and commixture of divers impressions treasured up in the memory which are now again freshly perceived by reason of a retained Tensity in som parts of the Brain But when in deep and profound sleeps no dreams are represented then they say that the whol Brain is loosned Now whether the former opinion or this latter be most agreeable to truth for the present we do not much care Neither do we here undertake to determine this Controversie seing that the Animal faculty doth exercise his function both waies from the same causes and that the secondary vice doth happen by this affect in the Animal Constitution almost after the same manner For first as for the generation of the Animal Spirits whether the former or the latter opinion be true it wil be all one becaus we find no fault in the Brain unless perhaps some other Diseas be conjoyned wherin each opinion supposeth the Animal Spirits to be generated For we have shewed above that the Head ought not to be numbred among the first affected Parts and that the internal and proper actions therof are not viciated in this Diseas Then secondly As for the destribution of the Animal Spirits whether it be perfected backwards and forwards by that rapid and sudden motion like lightning or by a motion only made forwards and that too gentle and slow commonly the same fault occurreth in this Diseas For first Seing that that supposed rapid motion of the Animal Spirits is caused by their passage into the first affected Parts namely through the Spinal Martow without the Skul through the Nerves from thence proceeding and through the parts into which those Nervs are destributed and seing that all these parts in this affect do labor with a cold distemper with a paucity and dulness of inherent Spirits the due swiftness of that motion must needs be somwhat retarded For a cold distemper as also a benummedness and penury of Spirits are repugnant to any motion excepting a constrictive some may say that the opinion propounded in the first place doth suppose a wonderful activity and subtilty of the Animal Spirits wherby they can easily overcome this repugnance But however it may be seing that the parts react through which the Spirits have their passage and labor to communicate their coldness and dulness to them they must needs in some degree retard that activity of the Spirits lessen their subtilty and somwhat intercept that expedite transition Wherfore this opinion being supposed as true the Animal Constitution will be viciated in this affect in regard of the retundation of that motion of the Spirits And that secondarily seing that this motion is not interrupted by the primary fault of the Animal Spirits but by the fault of the first affected Parts as hath been said in like manner in the Opinion last proposed wherin the motion of the Spirits is supposed to be peaceable and gentle they must needs whilst they are somwhat slowly transmitted through the first affected parts contract some viciosity from the depraved inherent Constitution of those parts for the same Reasons which we alleaged in the Question immediatly preceding It will be therfore according to this Opinion also a Secondary vice in the destribution of the Animal Spirits Again As for the Tensity of the very substance of the Brain of the Spinal Marrow of the Nerves and the Nervous parts in time of waking which is supposed in the latter Opinion before propounded there must needs be some defect of a due Tensity in the Spinal Marrow without the Skull in the Nerves arising from thence and in the parts unto which they are destributed For first A cold and moist distemper is repugnant and advers to that due Tensitiy so also is that dulness and penury of inherent Spirits wherwith the Parts are without controversie rendred slothful and less apt to perform the Animal Actions the contrary wherof happeneth when the aforesaid parts obtain their due Tensity Secondly It is manifest by what
hath been said that the Tone of these parts is somwhat viciated in this affect by reason of their exceeding loosness slipperiness softness weakness and internal lubricity which qualities do most evidently enfeeble the just Tensity of the said Parts Although therfore that the Brain in this affect do for his part yield a due and just influx yet it is scarce possible nay it is altogether impossible that it should communicate that Tensity in a sufficient degree to to the Spinal Marrow without the Skull to the Nerves from thence proceeding c. because of the distemper benummedness and penury of the inherent Spirirs Thirdly The Symptoms in this Diseas that relate to the Animal faculty do most clearly confirm the same thing For Children afflicted with this Diseas do from the very beginning therof if they be compared with others of the same age move and exercise themselves very weakly and are less delighted in manly sports but upon the progress of the affect they are avers from any vehement motion as they stand upon their feet they reel wave and stagger seeking after somwhat to support them and can scarce go upright neither take they pleasure in any play unless sitting or lying along or when they are carried in their Nurses Arms Finally the weak Spine is scarce strong enough to bear the burden of the Head the Body being so extreamly extenuated and pined away All which things do abundantly demonstrate that the Tensity of the parts subservient to motion is less rigid in this affect than is justly requisite in time of waking If therfore that due Tensity in time of waking be a part of the Animal Constitution which we here suppose that being viciated must without all doubt necessarily constitute a Diseas in the Animal Constitution and seing that this fault hath no primary dependance upon the Brain it self but upon the inherent Constitution of the first affected parts it ought in all Reason to be reputed a Secondary fault in respect of the Animal Constitution Yet here we meet with a scruple Som may demand Why the sens as well as the faculty of motion is not vitiated in this affect The reason is plain a far greater tensity strength and vigor of the Nervs is required to exercise the motive then the sensitive faculty For almost the gentlest motion of the Nervs is sufficient for sense but not for motion So you may observe in the motion of any Joynt that the Muscles which move it are very hard and stiff but that hardness being remitted yet the sensation is easily performed Nor doth that any way hinder because that somtimes in the Palsy the sense is somwhat stupified and the motion remaineth for the Palsy is an affect very different from this for in that the primary fault resides in the very Animal Constitution therfore it may so fal out that both the sense and the motion may be equally affected Besides when perhaps one Nerve doth want the du influx of the Brain and another which is extended to the muscles of that part doth enjoy it it may be that for this cause also the sense may be abolished and yet the motion may continu although this case is not so frequent and that the motion is more usually taken away the sense remaining But we have said enough concerning this matter And thus at length we have produced those things which we have meditated of the integral Essence both primary and secondary of this Diseas and that with as much perspicuity as a matter so difficult and unsearcht into would bear In the next place we shal address our selvs to the examination of the causes of this Diseas CHAP. XV. The Causes of the Rachites And first those things which concern the Parents WE have largely explained above both the Primary and Secondary Essence of this Disease And indeed we have sufficiently demonstrated in the same place the dependance of the secondary upon the Primary Essence It may not therfore be here expected that we should again purposely and in particular discuss the causes of the secondary Essence which we have handled before It may suffice that we have found out the causes of the secondary Essence Yet if any cause do occur which at once hath an influx as wel into the primary or secondary Essence of the Diseas we shal not refuse to take notice of it by the way as we proceed But omitting al diligent search into the several kinds of causes we purpose to contract this our discours chiefly to two heads The former containeth the Infirmities and the diseased dispositions of the Parents which perhaps have so great an influence upon the Children that they suppeditate at least a proness to this affect and infer an aptitude to fal into it if they have not actually fallen into it from their very birth The latter comprehendeth the accessary causes of this Diseas namly those which happen to children after their birth Concerning the causes of the first kind we meet with a Question at the first entrance How and whether this Diseas may be said to be hereditary That we may the more succesfully proceed in the determination of this question an hereditary Diseas must be distinguished into that properly and that improperly so called And indeed an hereditary Diseas properly so called is ever supposed to be preexistent in both or one of the Parents and from thence to be derived to the Progeny But an hereditary Diseas improperly so called is not supposed to be preexistent in the same kind either in both or one of the Parents yet the same fault must always necessarily precede perhaps altogether of a different kind at least in one of them by vertu wherof a certain disposedness is imprinted in the children wherby they are made obnoxious to fal into this improperly hereditary Diseas Moreover An hereditary Diseas properly so called is twofold either in the conformation as when a lame Person begets a lame a deaf Father a deaf Son or a blind a blind or in the similary Constitution as when a Gowty Father begets a Gowty Child It is to be noted that in the first kind ther is an hereditary fault inherent in the first affected parts of the Conformation But in the latter there is no necessity that a Diseas of the same kind with the Diseas of the Parents should be actually inherent in the Embryon from the first formation But such a disposition imprinted by one or both of the Parents is sufficient which as the life is lengthened may be actuated into the same by the concours of other intervening causes Again an hereditary Diseas improperly so called may be likewise twofold namely either in the Conformation or in the similary Constitution In the formation as when neither of the Parents is blind pore-blind lame c. yet have begotten a Son blind pore-blind or lame by the very fault of the formation For in these cases that very fault which is sensible and conspicuous in the
either an unfruitful deed or such as is propense to this Diseas somtimes those parts are infested with a virulent vicious or waterish Gonorrhea and they excern a Seed not sufficiently elaborated the same must be said of the white and red Fluxes of Women Again some things outwardly applied to those parts have reference hither as Ointments of Hemlock and other Narcotical things especially if they be often anointed with them in like manner Oyntments that are incorporated with white or red Lead Chalk of Lead Litharge Sugar of Saturn and the like dayly and for a long time adhibited to those parts For such as these blunt the activity of the inherent Spirits in those Parts and introduce a certain dulness in them which being communicated to the Seed prepared in them disposeth the progeny to this affect At length we have finished our intended enumeration if not of all yet at least of all the most principal causes which happen before Conception about the Generation of the prolificative Seed and have any concurrence to produce this Diseas or to dispose to the production therof Now follow the faults and errors of the Mother in the time she beareth the Embryon in her Womb which also must be reputed among the causes of this Diseas before the Birth First There hapneth a cold and moist distemper of the Womb it self which as were we silent is easily manifest to every one may most readily be communicated to the Embryon by the perpetual contact of the Womb. In the Second place All those things offer themselves which suppeditate to the Embryon crude and impure Juyces converted by excrementions and corrupt humors instead of laudable aliment Hitherto principally belongeth the unwholsom and preposterous diet of Women with Child especially inclining to moisture coldness and the heaping together of crudities The same things also happen by the imperfection and defect of the first or second Concoction especially when they are not excerned by vomit or some other evacuation of the Crudities from thence proceeding but are at length transmitted with the Mothers Blood for the aliment of the Embryon Besides if a moist and cold Diseas as a cold and moist distemper with the matter an ill digestion a Cachexia or Dropsy c. do invade a woman with Child after Conception it may thereupon easily happen that the impure aliment also which nourisheth and cherisheth the Seeds of this Diseas be dispensed to the Embryon In the third place are to be reckoned al those things that defraud the Embryon of du aliment as any excessive evacuation especially a lashing flux of Blood in any part also a rash opening of a Vein or Phlebotomy that exceeds in quantity The suckling of another child may also divert the afflux of sufficient aliment from the Womb towards the Breasts Hitherto likewise belongeth inordinate fasting or any indigestion in the Mother any inappetency after meat or defect of concoction Moreover an acute Feaver hapning to a woman with Child besides other inconveniences may also defraud the Child of du aliment so also an Hectick Feaver All these things do not only infer to the Embryon a dejection of Vital Spirits and a defective nourishment but also they cause a want of natural Spirits For the Naturall Spirits are wasted and dissipated without due nourishment and are also destitute and disappointed of necessary reparation Seing therfore that a part of the Essence of this Diseas consisteth in the defect of Natural Spirits som disposition to this affect must need be bequeathed to the off-spring from the causes aforesaid 4ly lastly excessive sleepines of women with child slothfulness eas any vehement labor and exercise after Conception do also contribute their share For although violent motions and actions of any kind are forbidden to women in such causes yet moderate labors watchings and exercises which offer no violence to the womb or provoke to abortiveness do not only conduce to the health of the Mother but in som degree they drive away that dulness from the Embryon and augment the heat vigor and activity of it And thus we put an end to the first Chapter of the causes of this Diseas before the Birth Those which happen after the birth shall be the subject of our next examination CHAP. XVI The Causes of this Diseas incident to Children after their birth WE have noted in the precedent Chapter that Infants from their first Origin are seldom afflicted with this Diseas but by reason of the Causes there rehearsed that they are frequently affected with a natural disposedness and propension to the same We shal now prosecute those causes which are apt to actuate that Natural disposition after the birth or newly and fully to produce this Diseas For it must be known that the same causes which may actuat that predisposedness to this Diseas may produce this Diseas a new if they be sufficiently intensive in their degree And therfore we confess that those children which are prone to this Diseas from their Nativity are easily affected but that other which are free from al Natural corruption fall not into the same but upon more potent causes and yet those causes are the same for their kind and differ only in the degree We therfore thought it needless to speak of these things distinctly and apart it may suffice that we have spoken of them indescriminately and together At the very entrance a Question there is which importunes a Resolution namely Whether Contagion may be numbred among the causes of this Diseas and therfore whether this Diseas in a proper and right understanding be a contagious Diseas indeed he that considereth this Diseas unknown to the Ancients how it first invaded the Western Parts of England and in few years hath been since dispersed all England over will at the first thought easily judg it to be contagious and to have been spread so far and wide by the infection of it But the matter will seem to be otherwise to him that will consider it more intentively For although this Diseas may in some manner endeavor to imprint an affection like unto it self in other Bodies yet it scarce advanceth so far that it can totally produce a Diseas of the same kind For perhaps it may in one some slight inclination in another Body yea somtimes perhaps it may accelerate or hasten the invasion of an affect in a Body highly predisposed unto it yet it cannot therfore deserve the Name of a Diseas properly contagious For all Diseases conspire to change and assimilate those Bodies which are neerest to themselves yet that is not sufficient to denominate Diseases contagious For to constitute a contagious Diseas properly so called it is further required that out of it self it propagate a certain Seminal fermentation of it self which secretly insinuating it self into other Bodies may by degrees introduce into those Bodies a Diseas of the same Species But this Diseas containeth no such fermentation in its essence neither is it secretly propagated
by a precedent emission of Seed from it self which may imprint a Diseas of the same Species in the adjacent Bodies For we have already often said That the first essence of this Diseas consisteth in a cold and moist distemper and in a dulness and paucity of inherent Spirits which affections if they endeavor to assimilate any Bodies that are neer them they attempt and undertake it by open violence and not by snares and fraudulence or a preimmission of secret little fires In like manner if you reflect upon the Secondary Essence therof neither the viciated Tone nor the depraved Vital nor Animal Function nor the Organical faults are found apt and fit in this affect to insinuate themselves into other Bodies and to propagate their own Species Finally if we will consult experience the matter will quickly be vindicated from all doubt For we frequently observe Children either of the same age or very neer to the same age be brought up in the same House wherof one or other of them is perhaps afflicted with this Diseas whilst a third or many amongst them do escape it Yea We have known Children not only educated under one common Roof and delighting in the continual and mutual society of one another but dayly meeting at one Board and lying together in one Bed wherof one who hath been ill affected with this Diseas hath not infected any of his companions either by feeding or lying together Which could scarce possibly happen in a Diseas properly contagious Wherfore Contagion being excluded from the Catalogue of this Diseas we will address our selves to the finding out of such as are more true and unquestionable We divide the causes which produce this Diseas after Birth into two Classes The first containeth the errors which procure it in the use of the six nonnatural things The latter comprehendeth the precedent Diseases of divers kinds which are wont very often to leave behind them some Inclination to this affect As for the former Classis concerning the abuse of the six non-Natural things so far as they relate to this Diseas seing that children are seldom discomposed with any vehement passions of the mind and can thereupon very difficultly fal into this Diseas Again in regard that the use of Venery appertaineth not unto them we wil reduce and limit these cases to the five subsequent heads To the Air also to what things soever extrinsecally occur or are applyed to the body to meat and drink and such things as are inwardly received to motion and rest to the kind and manner of life to actions and exercise to sleep and watching lastly those things which are preternaturally retained in or severed from the body These several things we shal examine in the propounded order with al convenient brevity Of the Air and such things as happen outwardly A cold and moist Air doth powerfully contribute to this Diseas For seing that it doth more easily steal into the external and first affected parts in this Diseas then into the hidden and fenced bowels it directly helpeth to imprint in those parts that unequal namely that cold and moist distemper The constitution of this kind of Air is chiefly predominant about the beginning of the Spring at which time the Nurses ought to be cautious and circumspect How they too confidently expose their children which are subject to this affect to the injuries of the Air as also when the Air is cloudy thick rainy and ful of vaporous exhalations Hereupon places neer the Sea great Marishes that are obnoxious to much rain and showers and fed with a great number of Springs are wont to be caeteris paribus very fruitful of this affect In like manner houses neer the banks of great Rivers and Ponds or Meers are for this purpose condemned Moreover frequent bathing and washings with sweet water although they be applied actually hot yet in regard that they are potentially cold and moist they are also justly culpable for they do in som sort communicate their distemper unto the parts whereunto they are adhibited and more or less caus a softness and loosness in those parts and make the circulation of the Blood too slippery Hither we may also refer cold and moist liniments as also such as are loose and slippery being too often continued in that tender age especially about the Spine or the Origin of the Nervs lastly soft linnen cloaths if they be not wel dried they cherish the roots of this Diseas For this caus amongst others it hapneth that the Children of poor people are the less obnoxious to this Diseas because namely for the most part they are enwrapped in course cloaths and woolly integuments each of which doth rub and tickle the parts thereby exciting and augmenting the inward heat and irritating a more copious afflux of the Vital Blood unto the habit of the Body and are therefore very effectual to banish this Diseas But the softned fine linnen doth neither irritate the heat into the external parts nor laudably cherish it For if they chance to be for som short space of time removed from the touch of the parts they presently loose their warmth and at the next touch they conveigh a sense of coldness into the parts Wherefore such linnen cloaths being in the number of those things which are dedicated only to extrinsecal application and seing that they are hurtful by their sole coldnes softness we have referred them to this first Classes of causes the first part therof which containeth cold and moist things outwardly occurrent In the second place the Air being infected with any particular infection as noxious Metalline exhalations which for the most part sight against the inherent Spirits of the parts by a kind of venemous malignity and do either extinguish them or drive away and dissipate them withal they dissolve the Bone of the parts and the pulsificative force especially in the parts external where they first happen they at least diminish if they do not weaken it and affect it with a languidness These things are principally caused by exhalations from Lead Antimony Quick-silver and the like Moreover ointments made of the same are almost alike perillous if the first affected parts be frequently and unseasonably anointed therewith although perhaps these things do also belong to the fouth title of this Classis Finally we have observed som Children who have been anointed with Mercurial Unctions for the Scabs to have fallen afterwards into this Diseas In the third place an Air vehemently hot and subtle extreamly attenuant and dissolvent may likewise be numbred among the causes of this Diseas because it allureth forth dissipateth and consumeth the inherent Spirits In like manner hot liniments and especially discussive withal Chymical oils distilled and not sufficiently corrected by the commixture of things temperate for these in such a tender constitution of the parts do easily melt and resolve the Spirits into a volatile and Airy thinness and by consequence infer a penury of
with a putrid Feaver in a preternatural heat upon every slight Cause degenerate into it Yet it must here be noted That great Diseases are not so easily changed into smal as smal ones into great Besides not all Diseases which perhaps participate alike of the same Essence are with an equal facility reciprocally changed For some Diseases are more subject to change into others with whom in part they have some agreement than others And that for other Reasons beside the said agreement however it be if a cold and dry distemper should happen to a Child that would easily change into a cold and moist both in respect of the congruity of each Diseas to cold and also a peculiar inclination of that tender age to moisture For by reason of the coldness the digestion becomes imperfect and hereupon crudities or crude humidities are engendred which a cold distemper in so tender an age would easily and immediatly follow Moreover a cold and moist distemper in regard of the coldness would make a slow Pulse and in regard of the moisture would make it the more slippery and the less viscous wherupon the Vital heat being diminished a benummedness and dulness by little and little would steal upon the Vital Spirits Finally in respect of that slipperish retention arising from the internal slipperiness of the parts and by reason of the weak concoction the inherent Spirits of the first affected parts would also by degrees be diminished and so by little and little after this manner the perfect Essence of this Diseas wil be introduced Of the second kind Most Diseases making lean or any ways extenuating the Body although perhaps they no way participate of of the Essence of this Diseas like the Diseases of the first kind yet they do dispose the Body to the invasion of this affect and may also leave it after them For all great quotidian Diseases in process of time do extenuate the Body wast the inherent Spirits and dissolve the Tone of the parts and this attrition and attenuation of the parts doth chiefly refer to the first affected parts in this Diseas For as we have already asserted the substance of the Bowels are not so easily subjected to dissolution or dissipation But in the dissected Carcasses of those who have dyed of Chronical Affects the Bowels are observed to be no less yea many times much bigger when the external parts which in this Diseas are first affected are for the most part made lean with the vehemency of the affect And therefore seing that extenuating Diseases do chiefly communicate their force into the first affected parts it easily falleth out that in Children they help to introduce this Diseas For the inherent Spirits of the first affected parts being very much wasted a cold distemper must needs follow which by reason of the crudity is as we have said above received by a moist one and a benummedness because the heat activity and vigor of the parts do chiefly depend upon the plenty of Spirits And thus we have exhibited the manner wherby this Diseas doth follow and as it were tread in the footsteps of other foregoing affects of this kind which we now further subdistinguish into three Classes The first comprehendeth Diseases extenuating and consuming the habit of the body by ways insensible hither are referred almost al Feavers especially the Hectick and Consuming an Ulcer of Lungs with a putrid Feaver Also any continual Feaver that is violent as a burning malignant pestilential Feaver a Pleurisie and an inflamation of the Lungs also the smal Pox and the Meazels when they grievously afflict the Patient In like manner intermitting Chronical Feavers Lastly al Chronical Feavers that torment with vehemence do the same The second Classis containeth Diseases consuming by manifest passages and evacuating the solid substance of the parts Hither you may refer immoderate vomiting a Lyentery Dysentery Lask the Hepatical Flux the Diabetes any profuse Hemorrhage or Bloody Issue any excessive sweating any great Ulcer in any part eating deep and dayly casting out much matter For al these Affects do evidently extenuate the habit of the body and cause the introduction of this affect The third containeth the Diseases which are said to extenuate the substance of the parts not directly but by consequence as al Diseases interrupitng concoction or the distribution of the Blood For these prohibit the reparation of the parts continually fed upon by the Vital heat Hereupon several Diseases of the Ventricle Guts Mesentery Sweet-Bread Spleen Liver Yea Diseases in the Mouth Jaws or Throat which hinder only the assumption or swallowing of the Meat may in this respect be numbred among the causes of this Diseas As a distemper a tumor a nauseating a feeble appetite of the ventricle a distemper a tumor an obstruction Skirrhus of the Mesentery Sweet-bread or the Liver Spleen and the like effects of any of the said parts which by any means frustrate the due concoction and distribution of the nourishment and thereupon extenuate the parts by defect of nutrition Of the third kind Diseases that induce an astonishment to the first affected parts do also by a peculiar propriety conspire the production of this Affect For the Natural heat of those parts is somwhat dulled by them and is rendred less effectual whereupon a cold distemper stealeth in by degrees which is also as hath been said easily waited on with a moist distemper a softness and internal slipperiness Moreover the Puls of the Arteries reaching to those parts is secretly and by little and little weakned the distribution of the Blood and the Vital Heat is diminished the parts themselvs are sparingly nourished and at length there comes a defect of Natural Spirits So that from this Root also for some time persevering the Essence of this Diseas may at last bud forth The Apoplexy Palsy Lethargy and the like effects do chiefly belong hither Yet Children do exceeding rarely fall into this affect from these sleepy Causes and so rarely that we have not yet observed this Diseas to own its beginning to such affects If any demand a Reason of this rarity we say that the Bodies of Children by reason of their permeability and thinness are seldom subjected to those affects but if at any time they are invaded by them the Diseas doth not first assault the Natural or Vital but the Animal Constitution and consequently procureth for the most part a deprivation of the Animal Faculty before it interrupteth either the Natural or the Vital But the benummedness wherof we now speak belongeth to the Natural Constitution into which it cannot be presently transferred Moreover they are easily and speedily driven out by reason of the facility of transpiration in the Bodies of Children if peradventure those affects do gently invade them but if they rage and tyrrannize they easily and speedily dispatch and kil as being in their own Nature most terrible and grievous Diseases and the sooner because of the weakness of their Constitutions
as it were in a common Hypocaust or hot Hous Seing therfore that the first part of the Essence of this Diseas consisteth in an unequal cold distemper it is no wonder if these Defences and Fortifications of the Body do avert it at least for some short time The Third Reason may perhaps be the wholsomness of the Diet for Breast-Milk is the most solubrious and agreeable nourishment that tender age especially when it is sucked from the Breasts for it is a simple and uniform Meat full of nourishment easie to concoct and friendly and farmiliar to the constitution of Infants Therfore so long as they are conveniently nourished with it they incur the fewer errors of diet and are rendred the less obnoxious to this Diseas Yet it must be noted that if the Nurses milk be not laudable and good in it self or otherwise disagreable to the Constitution of the Infant then this reason is of no force Therefore if the Nurse be big with Child or immoderatly addicted to Venery or any ways sickly or given to drunkenness and inordinate feeding it is safer to hasten the weaning of the Infant unless you are provided of a better Nurse The fourth and last reason is the slowness of the motion of this Diseas in his first invasions For it stealeth on so slowly that it scarce bewrayeth any preparations to an assault til some months are expired unless the progress of it be advanced by some extraordinary and most vehement Causes as by some more violent Affect preceding or coming upon it Seing therefore that this Diseas doth so slowly take Root and seing that Children as we have formerly shewed are commonly born free from it it seldom hapneth to break out evidently into act til the sixth yea indeed til the ninth month And thus we have given the reasons why Infants newly born notwithstanding the weakness of their Constitution are for many months priviledged from this Diseas Secondly The causes why Children from the ninth to the eighteenth Month are every day more frequently infested with this affect are these First Becaus the first Caus even now propounded driving away this Diseas in those that are new born doth daily remit and before the ninth Month doth totally vanish Secondly In like manner the second propulsive Caus before alledged till that age doth every day grow more effectual For the hands of Infants after some Months if not before are usually set at liberty from the prison of their Blankets and perhaps their Feet also before they are six months old although at night they are swadled up again In the day time therfore at the least these outward Members are destitute of that common and comfortable warmth The Nurses likewise do many times er when they cloath the weak and feeble Infants too soon For they idly define the time of cloathing them by the number of the Months seing that they should rather give an estimation of it by the strength and activity of the motion of their Hands and Feet For when the motion and exercise of those parts doth avail more to excite and cherish their heat and to irritate their Pulses than the warmth of their swadling cloaths without all controversie that is the time to devest Infants from their swadling cloaths Moreover thirdly After the ninth Month Children usually are fed with other aliment besides Breast-Milk or other Milk and from that variety in feeding there easily resulteth some errors in point of Diet. Fourthly The slowness of the Motion of this Diseas doth not hinder but that it may break forth into act after the ninth Month. For the motion by reason of the unperceivable slowness of it at the end of certain months doth exhibit some effects and impressions Lastly the evils of breeding teeth do likewise contribute very much to the same purpose For the Teeth begin to breed commonly about the seventh Month and come accompanied with divers Symptoms which easily dispose tender Bodies to this affect Thirdly The Causes why this Diseas most frequently rageth when the Child is eighteen Months old are First Becaus the Causes before cited hastning this Diseas in the yonger Children are upon the approach of this age taken away or at least they operate with weak and ineffectual powers Secondly The evils of breeding Teeth although in respect of the immediate Symptoms which they produce perhaps before this time they nourish yet for the most part they leave behind them in the first affected parts a certain disposition which privily hiding it self within them after the term of some months produceth this Diseas But the breaking out of the Dog-teeth chiefly hath reference to this place seing that these break out a little before the Child is a year and an half old and their coming forth likewise is of al other the most painfull Thirdly Hitherto belong also those accidents which happen by reason of ablactation or weaning of the Child and at that time a great alteration befalleth Children in matter of Diet which they endure not without palpable molestation For herupon they are angry they cry the commotions of their minds makes them forsake the nourishment of their Bodies they are hard to be pleased neither do they sleep quietly All which things do easily imprint in the parts first affected at least a foregoing disposition although perhaps not till a long time after to this affect And so at length we have also run through this second Comparison namely of yong Children among themselves and we have briefly explained the Causes why those Children at one age are more and at another age are less exposed to this evil The Third part of the Question still remaineth which as we said we would reserve to be examined at the close of this Disputation namely Whether those that are of a greater age do somtimes fall though exceeding rarely into this Diseas We say first For so much as concerneth that part of the Essence of this Diseas which consisteth in a moist distemper that some difference must be expected to be between that distemper in yonger Children and those that are bigger in yong Men Men and especially in old Men for the same difference which we put before between the moist distemper of yong Children and old Men may according to quantity as more or less be observed between the middle Ages and therfore the humidity of the yonger Children will be better concocted and more genuine than that of the elder as it is obvious to collect mutatis mutandis from the same reasoning Secondly As for the organical faults we affirm that necessarily there concurreth a vast difference between Diseases of this kind incident to Children and perhaps to those of greater age for the tumors of the Bones in the Wrests and Ankles as also that narrowness of the Breast likewise that disproportionatly augmented bigness of the Head and Liver are either less conspicuous or altogether undescernable especially in those that are grown to full age For as the years encreas the Figure
and proportion of the Parts becomes more compact firm and stable neither doth it easily come to pass that one part doth much grow out more than another by true augmentation Thirdly We say that excepting the two premised conditions and that in that manner as they are propounded this affect according to the other parts of the Essence thereof although indeed very rarely and upon the highest causes only may happen to Boys Young Men Men and old Men. For first a cold distemper without al controversie may befal them though not so easily as Children Secondly A moist distemper may also invade them but yet only by the limitation propounded Thirdly A want of inherent Spirits may also befal them but then it must proceed from the most potent causes For Chronical Diseases and such as consume the habit of the parts or dissipate it into ayr or wast it by long fasting and an Atrophy do necessarily leave behind them a paucity of Natural Spirits We see the outward parts even in those that are grown to ful age when they are extenuated and consumed by such like causes to wax feeble to languish wither and become destitute of al sufficient Spirituosity Yet we grant that in those that are grown to full age the evil which causeth leanness being overcome the wasted Spirits may soon be repaired by the vigor of the Pulses and that the rudiments and impressions of this Diseas may be rooted out within one or two weeks and by consequence that they are seldom affected with it In the interim if it should so fal out that upon that consuming of the Inherent Spirits some impediment should intervene that might retard their reparation it is possible that this diseas may grow from thence in that manner as hath been said But a numbness of the Inherent Spirits must necessarily follow upon a fewness of them Fourthly The parts of the Secondary Essence seing that they have a strong dependance upon the Primary faults where these persevere long the Organical faults being excepted they may supervene in their order So that we do not doubt but this Diseas may happen to any age after childhood the restrictions which we have now propounded being granted and upon the urgency and perseverance of great and weighty causes One amongst us affirmeth that he had a Gentleman in cure about thirty yeers of age who by dayly immoderare use of Wine and Tobacco continued for some whole years having neglected the due receiving of his meat fel into such a weakness of Stomach that continually every morning he vomited and loathed al kind of Meat and if at any time he swallowed any with unwillingness he presently vomited it up again to appease this queziness of Stomach he was at last compelled to a continual use of ordinary Aqua vitae but afterwards his custome was to mingle it with stale Beer and a quantity of Sugar and with this drink alone he preserved himself alive for many months In the mean time all those parts which in this Diseas we cal the first affected were extreamly lean and became soft loose languid and withered so that he could neither turn himself in his bed nor rise nor walk nor stand upright yet he felt no pain neither was there any privation of sens and motion no cough no uneasy respiration his face was well colored and al the parts about his Head were in a good condition and wel habited so that had you judged of him by his countenance only you could scarce have suspected that he was sick As he lay in his bed he would chat with his Companions take Tobacco by turns and drink that mixture of Beer and Aqua vitae aforesaid The event of the Diseas doth not indeed belong to this place yet we shal set it down to gratify them who are desirous to know it The Physitian being sent for he strictly forbad al intemperance and amongst other remedies having given him one grain a half of Laudanum Londinensis he appeased the nauseous infirmity and tumult of his Stomach which part he likewise strengthned with internal and external applications and prescribed him such a diet as was most easy of concoction Instead of exercise he solicited the heat unto the outward parts with rubbing them every morning having first given a smal quantity of strengthning and opening Electuary made up with a little portion of Steel which he drank in two ounces of Wine composed of Wormwood and Mint a little Saffron being hung in it to give it a tincture three ounces of smal Beer being tempered with it and a quantity of Sugar to make the taste of it more pleasant Moreover he purged him by fits with gentle Medicines and in the evening comforted him with cordials Within twenty days he grew to such a degree of amendment that he could walk abroad for the space of an hour and could without any striving or much weariness climb ladders without any help But afterwards by a relaps into the like intemperance he died in the absence of his Physitian But let us return from this degression into the way direct our speech to our intended scope The Affect being now confirmed as it was upon the first coming of the Doctor Besides the faults of the Stomach it seemed to include a great part of the Essence of this Diseas we now treat of For in the parts subservient to motion namely those that are first affected in this Diseas there was a cold distemper either through defect of motion or by reason of the immunite afflux and dispensation of the Vital Blood Again the softness slipperiness laxity and litherness of those parts shewed that there was a moist distemper in them Also the extream leanness of those parts did sufficiently demonstrate a fewness of inherent Spirits and the unfitness to motion and affectation of rest and eas did strongly witness a numbness in those parts The ful and florishing habit of the parts about the Head when the other parts were extenuated was a forcible reason to prove the unequal distribution of the Blood But the peculiar cause of this inequality in this sick man might be his frequent vomiting whereby a more plentiful afflux of the Blood was driven to the parts about the Head the other being almost destitute of it Any man may perceive by what hath been said that at least the greatest part of the Essence of this Diseas was comprehended in this mentioned Affect From whence at length we may probably infer that it is possible for this Diseas to happen to those of ful growth being considered according to the propounded limitations although it very seldom coms to pass because great causes and length of time are required to the production of it And thus at last we have put an end to the search upon the former Question CHAP. XIX The latter Question Why this Diseas happeneth more frequently in England then in other Countreys And whether it be Natural to Englishmen IT is acknowledged by
of the complexion wherby they maintained the former resistance may fall at last into some common Diseas For the Plica of Poland and the Scurvy are common Diseases to the Sarmatians Polanders and the Inhabitants of the Baltick Ocean and they are likewise new Diseases and as all men confess totally unknown to the Ancients But to this day it is not known that any notable or remarkable Change or Innovation hath hapned to those Regions before the breaking out of those Diseases to which you might probably ascribe the beginning of a new Diseas Wherfore we ought rather to say that those new Diseases did proceed from some ancient and original fault of the places and yet that they did not bewray themselves at first by reason of a peculiar resistance made by the Natural strength of the Inhabitants For to this very day some Families in those places are free from those Diseases and very credible it is that they may so persevere not yielding to the injuries or threatnings of the Region Secondly A new common Diseas may result from the altered or innovated constitution of the place Such kind of innovations happen in Countries either by Earthquakes or Inundations of Water or the bursting forth of some new pernicious Springs or perhaps of some new Mineral Exhalations from the Caveous of the Earth or from some malignant Aspect of the Stars and the like Causes Thirdly A new common Diseas may proceed from the incongruity of the Place with the complexion of the Natives Such kind of Diseases chiefly happen to Nations when they transplant themselves from one Region to another especially when the Constitutions of those Countries which they go to possess are very different from those they forsook So the English who first inhabited Virginia were frequently afflicted with a swelling of the Abdomen and the Hypochondriacal parts who upon their return to England were cured without any difficulty but they who continued in Virginia were not so easily restored to health Moreover National and common Diseases differ among themselves Becaus some of them totally depend upon the inclemency of the Region and others in part only The mortification of the parts seemeth to be of the first kind which befalleth men in the Northern Tracts near the Poles For the whol Essence of the Diseas may be ascribed to the cold and sharpness of the Place Of the second kind the Venereous Pox among the West-Indians seemeth to be For there it is conceived to be partly gotten by impure Copulation and partly to be contracted from the Insalubrity of the place In like manner the Bloody Flux is predominent in Ireland depending partly upon the constitution of the place partly upon an erroneous and preposterous diet And thus much in general be spoken of the differences of common Diseases In the next place we must enquire why this Diseas is more rife in England than in other Regions And by the way it must be observed Whether and how far forth this Diseas may be said to be Natural to English men First it must be observed that England is an Island which borroweth some humidity from the adjacency of the Sea and some frigidity from the distance from the Equator then that it aboundeth with innumerable fountains discovering their Springs almost in al places Lastly That it is watred with many and frequent showers of rain more than other Regions All which things do sufficiently attest the frigidity and humidity of the place Seing therfore that a cold and moist distemper is a part of the Essence of this Diseas we may easily infer that the bodies of the Inhabitants are here more inclined to those distempers then in other hot and dry Countries If therefore you demand Whether this Diseas at least considered in this part of it may rightly be said to be natural to English men We answer That in som sort it may although perhaps not properly namely so far forth as the same is attributed as natural to other Regions alike cold and moist although perhaps it may not yet be observed in them For those Countries are as readily disposed to imprint a cold and moist distemper as England it self Yet it must be observed that a cold and moist distemper is a common part of the Essence of this Diseas and that it alone doth not manifest the Affect for every cold and moist distemper doth not introduce this evil Wherfore although we grant that an excess of cold and moisture may be imputed as a fault to England yet we deny that from thence it can be rightly inferred that the whol Diseas is common and Natural to English men Moreover Some Countries may perhaps be found out far exceeding England both in cold and moisture as Scotland Holland Zealand Ireland and Denmark and the like wherin notwithstanding this Diseas hath not been observed to appear much Therfore if this Diseas be not rightly imputed to these Regions wherein that common cause is predominant namely the excess of cold and moisture Certainly neither can it justly be imputed to England by reason of that common Cause which is here less prevalent Again The coldness and moistness of this Kingdom doth not so far transcend a a mediocrity but that by outward and inwaad applications exercises and the like namely a right use of the six things not Natural they may be sufficiently corrected to the cashiering of that imputation Wherefore if these things be so namely if a cold and moist distemper be only a common cause of the Diseas if other Regions wherein this Affect hath not yet been observed to make any impression are at least equally obnoxious to cold and moisture Finally if those distempers may be prevented by a Regiment of diet appropriated to the place certainly the reason drawn from the coldness and moisture of the Climate which even now we produced to shew why English men should be more frequently invaded with this Diseas then others will be very weak and insufficient so that we can by no means place our content in that alone and therefore we intended nothing more by that assignation than that England doth more dispose the Bodies of the Inhabitants to this Affect than hotter and drier Regions do the Bodies of their Inhabitants And â—o we proceed to the search of the other causes of the rifeness and frequency of this Affect In the second place we can note that England is very ruitful and Child-breeding being sufficiently favorable both to Conception and Child-bearing and not ubject to cause abortions Now from hence it comes to pass that not only strong and able bodied men and such as are endued with perfect health but the weak and sickly persons do also generate weak unsound women likewise and such as are prone to a consumption do conceive carry their children nine months and bring them forth in a decent and laudable manner But it is no wonder if the Issue begotten by such matter and which oweth its life almost to the clemency
prerequire some duration of the Diseas But the improportionat magnitude of the Head doth begin almost at the same time with that extenuation of the first affected parts but it may so fall out if a consuming Phtisick be joyned together with this Diseas that that magnitude of the Head may vanish before death as we have already proved by one example in our Anatomical Observations The Magnitude of the Head therfore is more separable from this affect than the extenuation of the first affected parts for this cannot be removed without the Diseas be cured The sticking out of the Bones appear somtimes sooner somtimes later and they somtimes grow out more somtimes less but upon any long continuance of the Diseas they are seldom if ever seen to be absent The narrowness of the Breast doth not appear but after a long time when the Diseas is confirmed and for the most part is the forerunner of a Ptysick Again the crookedness of the Bone in the Arm and the Shank-bone as also the inflexion of the Joynts may be absent through the whol cours of the Diseas and may be more or less present and indeed is the most chanceable among those things which follow this affect We conclude therfore that these Organical parts of the Secondary Essence are separable after that manner as we have said and as a more or fewer of them are present so the Difference of the Diseas is constituted as being more or less compounded The Second Difference of this Diseas resulteth from the magnitude therof And the magnitude is estimated from the greater or lesser recess from the natural condition of it There is a vast difference in this Diseas in respect of the magnitude For some are so gently affected with it that you would scarce suppose them to be sick They complain of nothing they eat they drink they sleep like those that are sound in health only they play with more unchearfulness and shew forth some other very slight signs of sickness By the only benefit of Nature likewise without any assistances of Art they perfectly recover neither their Parents Nurses nor the By-standers so much as once suspecting that they are affected with this evil On the contrary Others are so vehemently afflicted that they cannot be rescued from death or the danger of imunient death by the most approved remedies The Third Difference is from the vehemence of the affect Now this is valued by the violent motion of the Diseas and the resistance of Nature and also by the sharpness of the conflict of these things among themselves This Diseas although it be otherwise very great yet is it slow in motion unless some fewer or some other urgent affect be conjoyned with it and stir up the Nature of it to a fiercer opposition yet is the motion therof somtimes more vehement and somtimes very dull and thereupon it happeneth to be differenced The Fourth Difference is from the strength of the sick Child or Infant This is estimated by the greater or lesser presence of those things which are according to Nature Hither belongeth the condition of the temperament the plenty of inherent Spirits the activity and strength of the Tone the vigor of the Vital and Animal Constitution and the structure of the Organs For as these are more or less obedient to the prescriptions of Nature so their Spirits ought to be judged more or less strong and according to them the evil must be determined the more or less dangerous For this caus the yonger Children caeteris paribus are more dangerously affected than the elder The Fifth Difference is from the times of the Diseas And this difference in a qualified and limited acception includeth almost all the precedent for what difference soever hapneth to any Diseas must necessarily happen at some time of the Diseas Physitians reckon up four times of a Diseas The Begining the Augmentation the Consistance and the Declination But it must be noted that Physitians are not so exact in distinguishing the seasons of things as the Phylosophers for they do not restrain the beginning of a Diseas to that point of time wherin the Diseas begineth but so far they extend it till there appear so great an alteration of the Diseas that it may be known by certain and sensible evidences For the indivisible begining is not the time wherin the Physitians help is perfected and why should that distinction of a Diseas be profitable which could not be grounded upon any alteration of it known to us Galen therfore hath rightly deduced the times of Feavers and Inflamations from the understandible alteration of them that is The begining from the crudity of the matter causing the diseas the augmentation from the manifest coction therof the state from the Excretion and the Declination he computes from the Reduction of the Reliques to the Natural state and indeed these times do sweetly agree in the general and differ in particular from the crudity and coction of Feavers and Inflamations But the truth is That this distinction of times hath not the like success in many other diseases For in these Nature doth not so regularly proceed from crudity to coction so to expulsion and at last to reduction neither by thes can we truly and safly know the progress of the diseas Other alterations therfore of these Diseases such as are more cleer and easily known must be weighed Yet we grant that even thes diseases when they are directed to health do run thorow those four seasons the begining the augmentation the state or consistence and the declination But when they tend to the destruction of the Patent they scarce attain to the consistance but are daily more and more augmented even to the lest period of life Wherfore in thes the augmentation admitteth the greatest latitude neither doth it deserv a higher difference or a lower subdivision but when an indifferent state of a diseas of the same kind is made the Middle term between the begining and the end of such an augmentation than we can conveniently distinguish The encreas into an augmentation on this side or beyond or beneath or above the consistence An encreas of the first kind about the consistance we may cal a simple encreas in regard that it differeth not from the thing it self commonly received by that name an encreas beyond or above the state we call an encreas excrescent excessive transcendent and desperate Moreover Two kinds of declination may be observed in a Diseas The first is legitamate when the Diseas simply declineth towards health and recovery The later is spurious when a diseas remitting changeth into another of a different kind And so although there are in thos that recover health only four times of a diseas yet in others two more differences may be discerned Yet it must be noted that thes six times are never to be found in the same diseas or the same patient but where there is the same diseas in the Species in divers
retard the rooting out of the Diseas Yet in the interim whilst we are busie in the removal of the Causes the Essence of the Diseas must not be totally neglected as we have before admonished Yea when we have so subdued the Cause that it cannot for the present much interupt the Cure we may the Causes not being utterly over-come and cast out the more diligently and earnestly attempt the resisting of the affect yet with this condition That if the Causes revert and becom new impediments that then we are obliged presently to undertake the subduing and evacuation of them so that in this Chronical Affect somtimes the Causes somtimes the Diseas must be resisted by turns and the Spirits do better undergo this change of action than if we should continualy make our battery against the Causes till they were absolutely rooted out Moreover When the Causes of the Diseas in this Affect are unapt for motion by reason of their toughness grosness and perhaps setledness they must first be freed from this impediment and prepared before they are evacuated For according to the Rule of the great Dictator Quae movenda sunt fluida prius facere oportet In like manner that thickness toughness and setledness of matter if it be present indicate Remedies attenuant incident and opening But these things are not safly taken the impurities still flowing back into the first Passages for then perhaps they are carried along with the Medicines into the Veins and more defile the Blood or at least hinder the efficacy of the Remedies These therfore have the nature of an impediment and must be in the first place removed Lastly Universal Evacuants must be premised before Particular and Topical Remedies especially where it is not permitted at once to mind both intentions For the Universal Causes flowing in the Body are easily surrogated in the room of Particular Evacuations and renew the Afflux to the first affected part but the thinner part of Particular Causes and that which is most apt for motion is evacuated but the thicker perhaps is more impacted Wherfore Universal Causes yet flowing to and fro in the Body as considered are Impediments in respect of Particular Evacuation and by consequence must be first expelled The latter Rule was That we must releeve the more urgent and weighty Indicant first unless there be an interuption of som impediment That is termed an urgent Indicant which threatneth the most danger Now every such Indicant is supposed to induce great afflictions into the Body and not without manifest danger to wast the Spirits Therfore in this respect we must somtimes first help the Diseas the Caus being neglected Somtimes also we must neglect both the Diseas and the Causes and adress our endeavors to the pacification of the Symptoms as in a vehement Flux of the Belly long Watchings profuse and immoderat Sweating and the like But even in these cases we must have a prudent regard both to the Diseas and the Causes and when the urgent Symptom is corrected or the violence of the Diseas repressed then we must return to the regular Method of proceeding for this Rule belongs not to the ordinary and legitimate order of Cure but to the Method of Necessity Moreover to perfect the right administration of Indications there is required an exact and accurat knowledg of the Medical Matter whereof we shal discours in the subsequent Chapters CHAP. XXIX The Medical Matter answering to the Indications proposed and first the Chyrurgical THE Medical Matter must be found out by Experience and Analogismes or Arguments drawn by an answerable necessity from the Caus to the Effect although the truth is we conceive not any other Reasonings to be absolutly excluded It is vulgarly and not unaptly distributed into three kinds The Chirurgical the Pharmateutical and the Diatetical Of these in their order The Chirurgical commonly received and approved in this Affect and famous above the rest are chiefly two Scarification of the Ears and little Fountains or Issues But our enquiry as we shal see anon shal be extended to many more namly of Cuppin-Glasses Leeches Blisters Ligatures and Swathing-bands But the opening of a Vein the Spirits cannot brook as every one knows who but observes the frailty of the age the extenuation of the habit of the parts and the smalness of the Veins The Scarification of the Ears shal lead our discours The Empericks who undertake the cure of this Diseas make more of it than one would imagin For in their practice they celerate it with great vaporing and without it scarce hope for a happy cure But we although we disallow not this kind of remedy have seen many Children successfully recovered without the use therof And they themselves who attribute most unto it for the most part take away no considerable portion of Blood Yet some affirm that they have seen a large quantity of Blood drawn away with good event However it be it is credible that those Children do with most ease endure this remedy and obtain most profit by the use of it which are of a Sanguin complexion and wel habited and who are affected with an Alogotrophy rather than an Atrophy or a Consumption or any other remarkable extenuation of the parts Our Practitioners for most part repeat this operation two or three times in a week They seldom do it with an Instrument or sharp Pen-knife but most commonly with an ordinary blunt Knife taking no notice of the pain and crying of the Child Moreover For the most part they perform it in the hollow of the Ear but some extend it to the inward and outward circumference of the upper part of the Ear yea to the whol circumference No man hitherto as we know have attempted the Scarification of the hinder side of the Ear although indeed it is not easie to give a reason why it should conduce less being administred there than in the hollow part Yet it may be lawful for us to offer our conjectures why the hollow of the Ear should be chosen before the other parts for this operation which notwithstanding we will not confidently assert although we suppose we can at least probably assert it if that be true which the most diligent Chyrurgion Fubricius Hildanus hath written in his Observ 4. Centur. 1. de nervo quinti parts For this conjecture is grounded upon this Observation and if that be ruinous this perhaps must perish with it The Conjecture is this The distribution and use of the Nerve and of the fifth Pair before mentioned being supposed Scarification in the hollow of the Ear may very conveniently both free that Nerve from any kind of oppression and likewise shake off the numbness and give it vigor For the hollow of the Ear is the next place unto it which we can come at with an instrument Wherfore evacuation being here made may immediatly drive away the matter which commonly oppresseth the very beginning of that Nerve and withal causing pain and encreasing the
Pyrotical remedies which only raise Blisters in the Skin may be somtimes profitably admitted You wil say that Cantharides wherwith they are commonly made are extream hot and besides suspected to be of a venemous quality We answer That we may not here insert any thing of the qualities of Cantharides we grant that which is asserted But becaus they are administred only to the outward little Skin and only to a little part therof not much extended and becaus as soon as the blisters are raised they are removed the excess of their heat and their poyson scarce penetrates deeper into the Body than the bottom of the Epidermis and therfore this remedy may be applyed without any notable harm or danger But then you may demand what profit can arise from hence We affirm that it doth effectually correct a cold and moist distemper and potently dissipate the astonishment of the Marrow of the Back the Brain Nervs and the Nervous parts and withal that they make all the parts more firm and steady and stir up a stronger Pulse in the external parts al which things are of no smal moment in the cure of this Diseas One amongst us affirmeth that among other things he prescribed this remedy to a Child of two years old who was troubled with the Rachites and was also fallen into a continual and malignant Feaver and grown almost frantick Hereupon the Child found present and manifest eas and after a few days was delivered from his Feaver Afterwards having purged him twice or thrice with an infusion of Rhubarb c. Beyond the expectation of all that saw it he also subdued this Affect almost without any other remedies But as you can scarce find any commodity without a discommodity so neither is this remedy exempted from al inconveniences For it is unpleasing ful of pain and molestation to Children Moreover for a time it interrupteth their exercise and pastime in respect of which things unless perhaps som other complicated affect do point at an interdiction of exercise it may do much more prejudice than advantage Again the force of it suddenly wasteth and afterwards by degrees is consumed which doth not in all respects keep touch with a Chronical Diseas Finally an Issu which is proper to Chronical Diseases may very wel supply its place in this affect Wherfore we scarce admit the application of blisters in the cure of this malady unless som acute Diseas be complicated which may require this kind of Remedy as it fals out in the Cause propounded Now wher this administration is requisit it is most commodiously performed upon the turning Joynts of the Neck unless som Issu have prepossessed the place in which case you must administer them either behind the Ears or four Fingers below the Issu We deny not but it may be fitted to several other places in respect of the complication of other Diseases But we here design the place which a peculiar reference to the present Diseas Fourthly Ligatures also may be referred to this Title and indeed we grant that somtimes they are not altogether unuseful in this affect namly if they be very moderate and adhibited by just distances and unto convenient places but you must beware that they hinder not the growth of that part wherunto they are applyed which is don if they be sufficiently loose and made of soft wool if in the Day time or for som part of the Day they are tyed up and unbound at night if they be fitted to the Thighs and Legs upon the Knee and to the Arms upon the Elbow Yet Ligatures do here seem to conduce much to the stoppage of the Blood from flowing to the Head and that it ought to be fastned to the outward parts that are extenuated besides this Remedy is good to retard the over slippery return of the Blood in those parts unto which the Ligature is applyed Fifthly Hitherto also belong the Fasciation or swathing of certain parts for this hath an affinity with Ligatures For som use to enwrap the weak parts in wollen blankets therby to strengthen them and to cherish their heat namly the Feet the Legs the Knees and the adjacent parts of the Thighs But you must be careful that the overstraightness of them hinder not their growth F C B A C D D G A B C D A B Two Iron rings C D The Diameter of the Joynts of the Splents F G The two Splents Instead of the Splents you may more commodiously use thin plates of Iron and the whol Instrument may be made of Iron The two Axel trees or Diameters C D upon which the Shingles or Splents are bended F G are fastned with two rings or hoops But the hoops themselves A B C are made of plates of Iron of an exquisit thinness that they may not be burthensom and withal they ought to be wel smoothed and polisht that they hinder not the motion of the Splents These rings must be of an equal Latitude suppose about two fingers a cross and they must be so fitted together that on every side they may be paralels only let there be so much distance between them that they may fitly receive the tops of the Splents Moreover Those hoops must not only be coupled with a double Axel C and D but also with five smal Iron Nails Lastly The whol composition of the Instrument must be so made that it may be fast and fitly tied to the side of the bended knee sticking out and withal that it may serve as well for the extension as the ordinary bending of it but let it restrain the deflexion of it to either side especially to the part sticking out Which is the caus why the Axels are fastned with a double Hoop namely lest the Joynts should be loos and yield to the deflexion of the Knee In like manner the torsion and mishapen writhing of the Feet is also frequently corrected with Swathing Bands If the Toes are outwardly distorted they must every night be bound up little balls of Cotton being put between the Heels and the Ankles But if the Toes bend inwards then you must bind the Ankles and put a little Cotton between the great Toes Lastly To straighten the trunk of the Body or to keep it straight they use to make Breastplates of Whale-bone put into two woolen Cloaths and Sewed together which they so fit to the Bodies of the Children that they may keep the Backbone upright repress the sticking out of the Bones and defend the crookedness of them from a further compression But you must be careful that they be not troublesom to the Children that wear them and therfore the best way is to fasten them to the Spine of the Back with a handsom string fitted to that use CHAP. XXX Of the Pharmacentical matter and first of such things as clense the first Passages THis matter is of manifold and most noble use and satisfieth very many Indications For it comprehendeth al Medicaments those only accepted which concern
two Nurses the one holding it by a Hand the other by a Foot The two last motions seem to contribute somwhat to the erection of the crooked or bended Back-bone especially if the Hand which is laid upon the depressed Shoulder and the Foot which is belonging to the elevated Hip be drawn with more strength and vehemence than the other hand or foot To the same end also tendeth the lifting up of the Child taking him by his Feet only so that the trunk of his Body and his Head may for a time hang down in an inverted posture although indeed this action may also seem in some manner to relate unto the growing to of the Liver if any such at that time be as also that convolution of the Body whereby the Head being lowermost the Feet are lifted up and then again the Head being lifted up the whol Body is inverted Hitherto also may be referred that rouling of the Child which som use upon a Bed or Table the Body being laterally declined which we more approve if it be not rouled quite round about but only backwards and forwards laying a little hard Cushion underneath wheron the gibbous part may rest sustain the weight of the Body This exercise being rightly practised doth help much to straighten the Body Fourthly Sedentery Games and pastimes are the least profitable among all exercises for Children that have the Rachites and indeed they are only allowable to still and quiet them But the more beneficial wil be to tempt them to a frequent use of their Feet by playing some little Ball or Cat before them that they may be often kicking them But if the Body of the Child be crooked such sports must be invented as may allure him to move his Body to the contrary side When therfore one Shoulder is higher than another hold up som Gewgaw or Rattle before the Child that he may stretch out the Hand belonging to the lowest Shoulder to reach after the offered object But a thousand such like inventions may be found out and we leave them to the Nurses industry The Masculine Exercises of greater note we reduce to these three Titles 1 To Going 2 To an Artificial hanging of the Body 3 To Friction rubbing and contrectation of the Hypocondries and the Abdomen First Ostentation or waking may be numbred amongst the more noble Exercises For Children that are big and strong and used to run up and down every day do by walking and stirring about the more easily rid away this Diseas But this kind of Exercise must be refused unto them whose Joynts are not knit and confirmed and whose Ankles Knees Back are so weak that they cannot sustain the Body For when Children by the negligence of their Nurses are too soon committed to their Feet it easily coms to pass that they suffer those Joynts to be bended either inwards or outwards backwards or forwards and consequently they are the occasion of that deformity which befalleth the Bodies of most men and women Moreover those Children which have already contracted such a bending in their joynts either by the natural weakness and loosness of the Ligaments or by the bad usage or indiligence of their Nurses must be trusted to exercise their Legs till some splents or other instruments be provided which may be able to erect the bended Joynts and to keep them in an erected posture The driving of Children up and down in their Coaches or Chariots is much to the same purpose provided that they be so contrived that there be no danger of stumbling or overthrowing Secondly The artificial suspension of the Body is performed by the help of an Instrument cunningly made with swathing Bands first crossing the Breast and coming under the Armpits then about the Head and under the Chin and then receiving the hands by two handles so that it is a pleasure to see the Child hanging pendulous in the Air and moved to and fro by the Spectators This kind of Exercise is thought to be many waies conducible in this Affect for it helpeth to restore the crooked Bones to erect the bended Joynts and to lengthen the short Stature of the Body Moreover it exciteth the vital Heat and withal allureth a plentiful distribution of the Nourishment to the external and first affected parts and in the mean time it is rather a pleasure than a trouble to the Child Some that the parts may the more be stretched hang Leaden Shoos upon the Feet and fasten weights to the Body that the parts may the more easily be extended to an equal length But this exercise is only proper for those that are strong Thirdly Friction or rubbing may in some manner be likewise referred to Masculine Exercises nor indeed in respect of any active motion in the Child requisite to the administration therof for it is performed by an action of the Nurs rather than of the Child but in respect of a like force and efficacy which it hath in the curing of this Affect Now Friction seemeth to be twofold as partly belonging to the kind of Exercise and partly to those things which are outwardly to be applied for which caus we have reserved it unto this place that it might be the last in the number of the Exercises and immediately precede the external applications This must be done at least in the Winter time by a warm fire the Child being in all respects well fortified from the injuries of the weather and the violences of the cold Ayr. Some Nurses administer this Friction with a hot hand others with Linnen Cloathes dried and heated others with woolen Cloathes and others again with a little Brush and indeed some do most commend the Brush and prefer it before the other waies but becaus there seemeth to be so little difference in all the waies we approve them all and leave the choice to the Nurses wisdom But let them begin this Friction at the Back Bone the Child being laid upon his Belly and let them stir their Hands now upwards now downwards now on each side then to the Thighs Hips Legs Ankles the Soals of the Feet and all the parts of the Body those excepted where there is a sticking out of the Bones and there let them rub the hollow part of them This action must not be continued beyond a moderate ruddiness raised in the parts lest the Natural heat should be scattred rather than cherished This kind of exercise is most agreable to weak Children and such as are scarce able to stand or go For it supplieth the defect of running up and down exciteth the Natural heat summoneth the Vital and attracteth the Nourishment to the affected parts Yet we grant that Friction doth not so powerfully summon the heat and nourishment to the Flesh of the Muscles although perhaps it doth more to the Skin as exercise doth properly so called and consequently that it must yield in dignity and nature to true exercises To Friction also belongeth that contrectation of the