in their circulation meeting with many Obstructions stagnized in those passages of the Tendon and then by the Humors following them were forced up to that Membrane which invests the Tendon where having formed a Cavity for themselves they were collected and the more viscous Particles were in some sort concreted the more thin Particles in the mean while passing out Hence the Tumor of which I here treat and is by many distinguished by the Name of a Ganglion derived its original I with my Thumb strongly compressed this Tumor and saw it by this means suddenly to vanish viz. when the Humors constituting the Tumour were again thrust out on every side through those small passages of the Tendon But because the Obstructions could not be so removed I feared their return therefore for attenuating the Viscous Humors and removing the remaining Obstructions I applied a Plaister of Frogs with Mercury and upon that a sufficiently strait Ligature which prevented the Viscous Humors from gathering again as before in the aforesaid Cavity But when this Tumor had continued for some years then it could not be removed by pressure of the Thumb but I was constreined to use a Wooden Ferula not differing from that which School-masters use in chastizing Boys onely that in the midst thereof a certain portion of Lead lay infused and with one onely stroak of such a Ferula the Patients Face being turned backwards from his affected hand I saw the Ganglion wholly to vanish which had full three years vexed the Patient whose Cure was then compleated in a short time after by the aforesaid Plaister and a strict Ligature OBSERVAT. IX Of a moveable round Tumour of the Lower-Lip A Young man Twenty three years of age shewed to me a round Tumor in his Lower-Lip movable and somewhat painful which in the mean while was not a little troublesome by reason of its bulk that equalized one of those Balls with which Children are wont to play but its colour differed not from the colour of the Lip This Patient three Months before had with his Teeth bit his Lower Lip and from that time he perceived this Tumor Now there is scarcely any man skill'd in Chyrurgy that knows not how many very small Glandules are inserted not onely in all the other parts of the Mouth but also in the Lower Lip one of which was undoubtedly so hurt that the Humors passing but from the small Artery their passage being shut up setled in the Glandule and by that means the small Glandule increased to such a large Tumour as is here in this Observation by me described Although this Tumour often occurs in the practice of our Art yet I know no man that hath explained the Cause thereof and and but One onely that hath by Example described the Cure of the same viz. Job Van Meeckeren Chyrurgeon of Amsterdam who if my memory fail me not to this Affect gave a name which in the Dutch Idiom is een steen knoop But why do you wonder that so very small a Glandule should be extended to so great a magnitude Consider I pray how much the magnitude of one and the same Womb differs in a Virgin and in a Woman with Child Peruse the Disputation which the most famous John Munnicks Ultra-jectine Professor published November 20 in the year 1678. in which he declares that the Womb of a certain maid was so largely extended that it did contain 112 Pounds of Water Why do you yet doubt I shall here offer yet one Experiment which comes more near to our purpose I myself when I was at any time above measure hurt by Cold have often found the Glandules about the Neck which in a state of health I cannot find by the touch to increase to so great a bulk that they have exceeded the largeness of a Pidgeons-Egg But now at last to hasten to the Cure I say Medicaments can neither be commodiously applied nor retained in such a place therefore I took away the whole Tumour at one time by Section with a Knife and healed the remaining Wound with Honey of Roses onely OBSERVAT. X. Of an Affect of the Month by us vulgarly called De Water-Kanker I Not long since saw a Man-child two years old who had for three whole Months been afflicted with a Quartane Fever and between his Upper-lip and Gum I found an Ulcer which took beginning four days before sufficiently tending upwards hollow hard painful blackish and ill-smelling The Bloud of this sick Child by his acid and sowering Meat and Drink as also by his long continued Quartane was become much more acid than was fit and being such did not so much settle any where as between the Upper-Lip and the Gum because the Bloud and Humors are there easily coagulated by the cold Air admitted by Inspiration also by the Reliques of Meats sticking between the Teeth and by their delay there contracting sharpness The Bloud and Humors stagnizing did in time become very corrosive and so not onely much vellicated the Fibrils of the Lip and Gum but also broak in sunder many of them and by this means a deep hard hollow and painful Ulcer took beginning But that we may the better find out the reason of the soon-after-induced Blackness I think good first to declare that I not long since did by the help of my Microscope look upon a small piece of white Linnen and all the Fibrils with which the Threads were twisted appeared transparent as Ice but every Thred made of those pellucid Fibrils were to the sight white no otherwise than as Water appears pellucid but the Froath which consists of many Superficies of the Water so superposited one above another that much Air is contained within them presents it self white to the fight But when I had burned this Linnen not onely all the Threds but also all the Fibrils of them presented to my sight strengthened by the Microscope a black colour viz. because the Pores in the Linnen were much distorted by the force of Fire and many Particles flew away from the burning Linnen in the form of Smoak insomuch that the Solar-Rays suffocated in those Pores could not be reflected to my Eye Now what Fire effected in the Linnen the same did the Acido-corrosive Particles effect in the Ulcer when they brake in sunder the Fibrils and otherwise figured and changed the Pores of them yea they compelled many Particles to evaporate from the Ulcer in the form of Vapour as was manifest by the stink But that I may remove from many their cause of wonder that I should write that Acidity concurs to the inducing of Blackness I would have them to examine how good Ink may be made with a Decoction of Galls in Vinegar in which filings of Steel have been first infused Or at least let them cut a Pome-citron with a Knife and they will soon see the Knife to wax very black Now the evil Odour of the Ulcer onely remains to be explained Wherefore that the aforesaid Comparison
may in this place also be subservient to me let any man smell to that ungrateful Odour which in burning of Linnen is wont to penetrate his Nostrils For what Fire acts in respect of Linnen the same operates the Acido-corrosive humor in an Ulcer whilst it corrupts many Particles of the Volatile Salt which in an healthful state is in great abundance contained in the parts of the Humane Body and in the parts of the Bodies of other Animals as Distillation plainly shews changeth their Figures and so causeth them their Bonds with which they were before tied being broken to fly away at which time by the Air wherewith they mix themselves forced into the Nostrils they affect the Fibrils of the Nerves subservient to Smelling with too great trembling and so to the Mind is exhibited a conception of evilly-smelling odour The Phaenomenons of this Disease so often occurring in the Praxis and by no man that I know of as yet sufficiently explained and discoursed of it will be all one to me whether with Hildanus it be called a Gangreen with Charles Battus a Cancer or with Cornelius vander Voorden an Eating Ulcer seeing I little regard those mere Disputes about the name being affected with nothing so much as the matter it self This Evil augments very swiftly and may in a short time strangle the sick as I two Months before experienced in a Maiden-Child four years old which was brought to me the fifth day after the invasion of the Disease so deformed as she seemed not to resemble Humane kind For half her Nose and a fourth part of her Tongue was already consumed her left Cheek hard as a stone perforated with a great hole by reason of which and other Symptomes according to my Prognostick she died within four days Therefore these things being by me seriously considered I prescribed the following Unguent resisting corrosive Acidity ℞ Of Treacle ʒij ss Of Vnguent Aegyptiac ℥ j. ss Of Gum Lacca Spirit of Salt Armoniac of each ℈ ij Mix and make an Vnguent With this mixt with a little Spirit of Wine I six times a day washed the affected part and applied thereto scraped Lint moistned in the same Medicine by which onely Remedy I have happily cured not this Child onely but also many others in a very short time The end of the Second Decade DECADE III. OBSERVAT. I. Of a Coadnate Tumour of the Forehead A Maiden-Infant Fourteen days old was deformed with a very red Tumor void of pain which she had contracted whilst in the Womb. For the Mother of this Infant when with child was wounded in her Forehead From that Wound which inferred great dolour much Bloud issued out Wherefore the Mother willing to be more certain of her own misfortune hastned to a Looking-glass and so was not a little terrified Now who knows not how strict the union is between the Mother and her Infant in the Womb This should not be accounted a wonder seeing the Circulation of the Bloud is common to both In the Hospital in Paris a Fool is reported to have lived till Twenty years of age the Bones of whose Legs Arms and other parts were broken from his Nativity The reason of this was because his Mother when with child of him had not without terrour beheld the Bones of a certain Malefactor publickly broken by the common Hangman If a pregnant Mother can impress so great evils upon her tender Young when she sees another afflicted with great dolour consider what greater evil may happen when she both sees and feels in her proper body a bleeding Wound But to write of the way how this happens that being little conducent to the Practick part I shall in this place forbear If any man be more curious in this matter let him peruse L. de la Forge his Annotations upon Cartesius his Treatise of Man also that most acute Author of a certain French Treatise intituled La Recherche de la Verité who very elegantly there discourseth of this Effect and how it is produced Having beheld and observed this Tumor I applied to it a Corrosive composed onely of Calx vive and common Soap mixt together which was extended all over the Tumor and by that means an Eschar was induced Common Soap is made of a strong Lixivium and Fatness so long boiled together as until the many small strings of the fat Particles are broken in sunder as is evident by this viz. because fatness produceth Spots in Clothes pertinaciously inherent by reason of those stringy Particles with which it infolds it self within the Fibrils of the Cloth and Soap on the contrary is easily washed off with Water only Calx vive is an Alcalick fixed and sufficiently acid Salt Therefore it is mixed with Water because that by reason of its effervescency with the Calx infringeth the powers of the same not with Fatness which too much obstructs the Pores of the Skin but with common Soap by its own Lixivial Salt not a little helping the virtues of the Calx This Corrosive being applied the Vapours in their usual manner passed out from the small Arteries through the Pores of the Cutis into the Air by which they again forced into the place they left a subtile matter which in its transit agitated both the saline Particles of the Calx and the slippery rigid and pungent Particles of the Soap and carried them with it self up to the Cutis and indeed according to the Longitude not according to the Latitude of the Particles as an Arrow shot up on high cuts the Air not transversively but by its Longitude because thus it finds less resistance and a more easie way in the Air. These saline Particles driven up to the Cutis and by the subtile matter egregiously agitated there broke the Fibrils of the Cutis in such wise that the small passages of the same were in so great a measure distorted that the circulation of the Bloud Humours and Spirits was there wholly impeded that part died presenting it self under the form of an Eschar which being in a short time separated all the Tumor vanished Seeing this I applied my Placentula in a form somewhat hard of which I have often made mention which compressed the Flesh otherwise easily luxuriant and induced a thin Cicatrice which was indeed at first somewhat red but that redness was afterward wholly taken away when that thin skin had been several times touched gently with Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium The Forehead of this Child being by these means happily freed from all Deformity Chyrurgeons should hence be excited to endeavour the removal of many like deformed Blemishes and Tumors in Infants impressed whilst they were held captive in the Prison of the Womb which by many have been accounted insanable OBSERVAT. II. Of an Vlcer with Rottenness of the Jaw-Bone A Matron aged 28 years was afflicted with a small deep and dolorous Ulcer of her Under-Jaw from which daily issued out a great abundance of Pus and
trouble whereas the Spirit of Nitre doth not a little corrode the Tongue because it is now at liberty and separated from the other Particles of the Nitre with which it was before mixed After the same manner Vitriolate Tartar bites the Tongue little whereas Spirit of Vitriol by distillation thence again separated recovers its pristine corrosive force which it had before These Acido-corrosive Particles freed from their Cells in which they before lay included and collected in a very small part of the Abdomen did with their sharpness in a wonderful manner continually agitate the Fibrils and so inferred that almost intolerable torment which must necessarily cease when these corrosive Particles were driven out with the Pus through the Issue OBSERVAT. VII Of a Bleeding Teat AN honest man's Wife giving suck whilst she was cleansing her Infant from his Excrements was not a little offended with their blackness the Infant in the mean while was somewhat ill I being consulted about this case first asked of the Infants Mother whether she felt any pain in her Nipple She answered she did I therefore bid her in my presence somewhat to compress her Nipple and then I saw Bloud issuing out thence because one or other of the small Vessels was hurt which assumed by the Infant and carried through the Belly waxed black by reason of the acid Ferment in the Infants Stomach mixed therewith The Mother by my order sprinkled Gum Arabic cut into thin slices dried and pulverized upon her finger first moistned with her proper Spittle and with that Finger touched her Nipple by this means she was the next day wholly freed from this Evil and remained well The most famous Sylvius in the third Book of his Medicinal Praxis Chap. 10. under the Title 28 and following instanceth this Bloud sometimes issuing from the Nipples of Women giving suck as an uncontroulable Argument to demonstrate that Milk is not generated of the Chyle but of the Bloud yet in this he is deceived because that Bloud issueth out from the sanguiferous Vessels hurt or otherwise opened by the Child's sucking Chaps are often seen in the Nipples of Suckling Women which affect them with very great torment and are difficultly healed because they can have little or no rest by reason of the Infants continual sucking But I have frequently healed these Chaps in a short time by every day often gently touching the Nipples with a Feather moistened with Oyl of Myrrh the description of which may be seen in the Amsterdam Pharmacopoea Prudent Old Women are wont to advise Young Men affecting Matrimony first with their hands gently to touch the Breasts of the Maids they love that so they may be assured that they either have or have not Nipples But though Virgins may often seem to be without Nipples yet Experience teacheth that the Nipples before hid when they become Mothers may easily by the help of a fit Instrument be drawn forth and commodiously enough perform their office therefore there is no need of Nurses to which many Mothers are much averse because they firmly perswade themselves that the Infants by the Milk they assume must needs imbibe the evil and bad qualities of their Nurses In this case I can determine nothing certainâ— yet this I know viz. that Infants daily nourished with Cows-milk do not thence acquire to themselves bruitish and Cow-like manners OBSERVAT. VIII Of an exceeding great Dolour of the Ear. A Virgin aged Twenty four years had now for 15 Weeks very much complained of an almost intolerable pain of her Ear which sometimes would whole nights hinder her sleep the Ear in the mean while daily poured out abundance of well digested Pus many Medicaments being adhibited in vain I being called gave heed to all and indeed the least Circumstances as circumspectly as I could and at length with my Fingers felt a certain Undulation of Pus deeply sited behind the affected Ear. This Abscess was not observed by others though it was the cause of the whole Evil. Well weighing and considering the matter I soon understood that this Abscess behind the Ear would never spontaneously viz. without external Artifice be opened not onely by reason of its depth but also because the Pus there contained had already sought an Exit for it self by the Ear although that passage was full of crooked turnings and not sufficient Wherefore I quickly applied a sufficiently sharp Corrosive by which the Eschar being separated an abundance of well-digested Pus issued out by the hole made by Art and after that time the dolour of the Ear and the out-flowing of Pus from the Cavity of the same wholly ceased The hole made by the Corrosive all the Pus being by it evacuated in the space of two Weeks wholly closed up and the Sick Maid was perfectly restored to her pristine state of health I judged this Aperture behind the Ear was to be made without delay lest otherwise the Pus should have touched the subjected Bone and in time have infected the same with rottenness although good Pus abiding for some time upon a Bone doth not always necessarily infect the same with rottenness as I shall easily demonstrate by the following Example A Man about the Thirty sixth year of his age travelling in very stormy Weather in the Winter-time soon after felt a great pain in his right Ear out of which every day after some Pus issued out and then followed no small abatement of that dolour Afterward the Pus flowing out no more the Sick man again complained of very great torture which in the night often producing a Dilirium had continued now for several Months and yielded to no external or internal Remedies Being called I found a Tumor behind the Ear extended far and wide in which I firmly perswaded my self Pus was contained although by reason of the deepness of the place in which the Pus lay hid no Undulation could be perceived by the touch therefore I applied a Corrosive by which a very gross Eschar being separated an incredible quantity of Pus issued out This Pus lay upon the Petrose Bone which was wholly bare as I could easily observe by my Probe Yet in the mean while without any separation of Fragments of the Bone the Patient in the space of six Weeks was perfectly healed and remained well afterward no other Medicaments being used than a fit Injection a good Digestive and at length the Bone being again covered my Tincture of Antimony which I daily find wonderfully profitable in many cases externally used The Drum of the Ear being eroded by an Ulcer the Hearing is recorded to have remained by Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius in his Fundamentals of Medicine page 148. Moreover I remember I have at Rotterdam with Jacob Lodensteyn chief Chyrurgeon of the Navy a most dexterous man seen all the small Bones pertinent to Hearing which after an Ulcer came out of the Ear of a certain Boy but that Boy never heard of the same Ear afterwards I
Is it not much more wonderful that to some persons very great benefit redounds from a Wound of the Head so very perilous that it is by most men accounted mortal especially seeing there want not Examples testifying the same So you may read in Schenkius how a certain man receiving a dangerous Wound in his Head was freed from an inveterate and very pertinacious Epilepsie Also if it be not too much trouble to you I would have you peruse the most famous Hildanus in his Second Century Observation VIII who exposeth to sight a case sufficiently rare where he saith A certain man received a Fracture of the Cranium upon the conjunction of the Sagital with the Coronal Suture and the same man afterward the Ulcer notwithstanding remaining was by this means freed from a great and troublesome Cephalalgy with which he had been for a long time before very much molested Such Histories as we have now related very rarely happen therefore in a Wound of the Head whatsoever it be it is best to be always too careful rather than at any time too secure But a Wound of the Head where the Patient is infected with the Veneral Lues is much more difficultly healed as also if the same part hath been often wounded before For usually in the Lues an Acido-corrosive Humor is peccant which contributes no small Impediment to the cure of Wounds But when it happens that the same part hath been often wounded it is well known that not a few of the small passages there remain distorted in a wonderful manner so that the Bloud and Humors are thereby not a little impeded in their Circular Motion by the benefit of which notwithstanding almost the whole cure of Wounds is effected That the Circulation of the Bloud and Humors is impeded in a part once or oftner wounded though the Wound be long before healed is manifest by this viz. that the parts formerly wounded are frequently sensible of the approach of Cold or Storms more than usual Moreover a Wound of the Head is more or less dangerous according to this or that part of the Head on which it is inflicted So a Wound of the hinder-part of the Head is judged less perilous because the Bone of that part by reason of its grossness and solidity seldom suffers a Fracture or Fissure although it receive a stroke very vehement and when it doth happen to be broken or crack then the Filth notwithstanding in this Fracture or Fissure collected doth not so easily distil down upon the subjected hard Meninges But a Wound inflicted on that small Bone of the Brain with which maturity of Age afterward fills up the open place in Infants is accounted and undoubtedly is very perilous because that Bone is tender and nigh the Suturos So a wound of the Temples is very formidable for many Causes and indeed first because the Temporal Muscle is covered with the Pericranium Secondly because there lies an Artery sufficiently great which being wounded induceth a very dangerous Hoemorrhagia which must needs be very difficultly stopped because while we speak or eat the Temporal Muscles are moved and so the flux of Bloud before cohibited is often wont to return and be renewed Thirdly because the Nerve in the Temporal Muscle hurt is wont to excite a Spasmus and indeed such as in Dutch is called de klem and hinders the Patients eating So when a Muscle of the Temples is very much hurt its opposite Muscle is contracted and that Affect excited which is called Torture or Wryness of the Mouth Fourthly because Artificial Section sometimes necessary in Wounds of the Head cannot be safely made in a Temporal Muscle Fifthly because the cure of Wounds requires rest of the wounded part which notwithstanding is often disturbed in a Wound of a Temporal Muscle viz. as oft as we eat or speak A Fissure in Sutures is also worse than elsewhere and most difficultly found So Hippocrates Epid. 5. freely confesseth himself to have been deceived and indeed to the ruine of the wounded man A Wound inflicted on the Eye-brow so as the Cavity be opened which is found in the Bone of the Forehead emits wind because that Cavity of the Bone is previous into the Noethrils that Wound can scarcely by any means be consolidated according to the testimony of Celsus and others that have seen such cases Chyrurgeons when they doubt of a Fracture or Fissure of the Cranium give to the wounded man a Nut to crack with his Teeth or they make a Thred one end of which the Patient holds in his mouth observing whether he can bear that trembling motion without trouble When the Cranium is bared we generally with a Probe search whether there be a Fissure or no. But that this Examen may be rightly instituted 't is behooful before all things exactly to know the accustomed site of Sutures least a Fissure be taken for the Suture or the Suture it self for a Fissure Also that this Errour may be wholly shunned it is expedient for the Artist always to bear in mind that the Sagittal Suture doth sometimes contrary to the usual custom slip down as far as the Nose and so deforms the Forehead yea also that it sometimes extends it self to the hinder-part of the Head and divides that Here likewise the Observation of a certain Anatomist is worthy of remarque who affirmeth he saw that little Bone of the Bregma with which in riper age the place lying open in young Children is filled up to be circumscribed with a small Suture In the Writings of Parey Fallopius and others we may read of wounded men in who being dead and opened the external Table of the Cranium which received the Wound was discerned to be intirely whole the Internal in the mean while not onely cleft but also exhibiting certain Fragments which by their punction molested the Meninges How could this happen I answer The vehement stroke had very much agitated the Subtile matter nearest and so this Subtile Matter most swiftly moved without delay freely passed through the first Table of the Cranium inferring no damage but when it came to the second Table of the Cranium much more solid than the first as Anatomists testifie it there met with Pores so very small and crooked that it could not pass unless by a new way which it in a moments time violently prepared for it self and so many Pores being broken through egregiously cleft the Internal Table of the Cranium As Lightning is reported to have melted a Sword leaving the Scabbard unhurt so Aqua Fortis dissolves Silver not hurting Wax Many declare that it sometimes happens that the right-side of the forepart of the head being struck the left-side is crackt the right-side remaining whole and such a Case is usually called a Contrafissure though this word Contrafissure is often extended to other cases also I willingly confess I never saw such a Contrafissure but Celsus affirms such a case hath happened Aegineta denies it therefore I
the dilated Artery For by this means I have certainly known some to have augmented the number of the Dead Moreover Ligatures must not be tyed too close for by this means I remember a mortal Sphacelus hath unexpectedly been introduced But if the Patient from the wound of an Artery lose so much Bloud as he suffers great Swoonings and Death seems to stand at the door what is then to be done Cannot the Transfusion of Bloud so much praised in this case profit especially seeing it is declared by credible men that a Dog from whom in one day so much Bloud was taken that he could scarcely move by Calves-Bloud received the next day in a moment of time shewed recovery of strength and incredible vigour I answer I cannot remember this Operation to have been at any time instituted by our Country-men therefore warily suspended my judgement about this matter OBSERVAT. V. Of a Fracture of the Tibia with a Wound A Virgin Twenty years of age by the sudden and unexpected discharge of a Gun I know not by what misfortune happening charged with Small-shot received a wound on the inside of her Leg a little below the Knee Which wound presented it self in length and breadth very large yea so large that it exceeded an hands breadth There was also present a very great Contrition and Commination of the Bone of the Tibia broken into very small pieces which extended it self the whole length of the Wound and thickness of the Bone of the Tibia Whence the sick Maid was afflicted with most cruel dolour which caused her to pass many Nights without sleep or if she at any time slept for a very little while she would suddenly awake not without very great terrour attended with a Convulsion as it were of her wounded Leg by which means the broken Bones were often distorted The broken Bones were reposited without great Extension and the Fragments which were wholly separated loose and at liberty were presently taken out without much trouble the remaining Fragments yet somewhat adhering were left till in process of time they should be separated Then was applied a digestive prepared of Turpentine the Yolk of an Egg Powder of the Roots of Flower de Luce and Birthwort with Myrrh and other things together with a Plaister and Lavament temperating Acidity After these was used a common Ligature and at length the affected Leg included in a case of Wood was aptly placed in the Bed over which hung a Rope by which the Patient might raise her body when necessity was and at her Feet was erected a Semi-circle of Wood lest the weight of the Bed-clothes should create any trouble to the wounded Leg. The cutting of a Vein which very many are wont to commend in such a case was wholly omitted because no benefit can thence arise nor were Purgers here according to the vulgar method revoked into use because in this Evil nothing is more desirable than Rest and nothing more pernitions than Motion Therefore whensoever the Patient was necessitated to discharge her Belly a four-doubled Cloath was laid under her to receive the Excrements In the mean while the Patient eat Foods easie of digestion drank new Beer and the first Evenings after she was wounded assumed a certain gentle Anodine for mitigating the dolour and removing that terror of which I spake The Bones were reposited as often as they were found distorted by that Nocturnal terror The Wound by reason of great abundance of Pus was dressed twice a day and so in process of time very many Fragments were separated And then we could daily see the Generation and Accretion of a Callus arising not from the Marrow but from the very small Pores or passages of the Bone through which are conveyed the nourishing Humors coming from the small Arteries This Wound so very perilous was closed up in a Months space and the Patient could again as well stand and walk as she had done before this wound was inflicted I remember another Woman afflicted with the same Evil to have been cured by my Father But these two Examples should not render any Artist so secure as slightly to regard a Fracture with a Wound For I have known that to have caused death in many So when in the Hospital as Rotterdam I was present with others daily for almost whole days dressing very many wounded Men which came from the Siege of the City of Graaf I remember all they that laboured with a Fracture and Wound of the Tibia died and among others one was afflicted with a Fracture and wound of the Tibia in whose wound I beheld not without Admiration very many broad thick and white shining Worms But whence had these Worms their Original I answer From Eggs fallen from the Air into the wound out of which the Worms were excluded when a certain Fermentation was excited in the stagnizing Humors So not a few Eggs fall from the Air into Milk of which Cheese is afterward made As long as that Cheese is new these Eggs are not excluded but when the Cheese putrifies that is when in process of time a certain Fermentation is produced in the Cheese then do the Worms crawl out of the Eggs. So in a very great contrition of a Bone the Fracture with the wound attending I remember to have been cured no otherwise than by cutting off the Leg a little below the Knee In a Fracture of the Tibia with a wound some are wont to use the Ligature of eighteen Heads which is in Dutch called een boexwiise Ligatuur but we have happily used the common which we changed twice a day by reason of the great quantity of out flowing Pus I knew a Chyrurgeon who instead of the wooden Case of which I spake used a certain Iron-Instrument into which the Leg affected was put and so kept extended and unmovable but I cannot here in words give a description of that Instrument In a simple Fracture of the Tibia Ferula's made of Pastboard are generally applied but in our Patient these were wholly omitted because in a wound so vast they seemed not convenient With our Digestive which was put upon the Wound by reason of the bared Bone no Fatness was admixed For that Fatness hurts the Bones Experience doth abundantly testifie the reason of which we have before given Parey in the Chyrurgick Practice was very deserving and had much Experience yet in a Fracture with a Wound he improperly commends Astringents which why and how much they hurt we have often shewed I suppose no man will take it in evil part that I should dare to reprehend so great a Man seeing the more famous any man is the more dangerous are his Errours because very many moved by the onely Authority of so great a Man with a certain blind force follow him treading a Path that hath been trod but not that which should be trod It is to be observed that a Callus is most difficultly produced in Fractures of women with Child
or giving Suck because the matter fit is withdrawn by the young in the Womb or by the Infant sucking So Fabritius Hildanus relates in the 87th Observation of his Fifth Century that for this cause in a Fracture of the Tibia with a wound the Bones were yet loose the 23d week after the hurt received In a Fracture as well Simple as Compound when a Callus hath again conjoyned the broken Bone the Patients are commonly sensible of some trouble in motion which happens because the newly-generated Callus occupies the place of some Muscles moving this or that part Before I put an end to this Observation two very intricate Problems seem very fit to be here unfolded by me The one is why Bones in clear Frosty-weather are more easily and sooner broken than at any other time The other whence proceeds the Terrour that generally invades the Sick afflicted with a Simple or Compounded Fracture presently after a short sleep To the First Some perhaps will answer the slipperiness of the Ice is the cause that men often fall to the Earth and so the Bones may happen to be easily broken But this doth not untye the Knot this removes not the Difficulty For not onely Bones but also Iron Wood and other hard Bodies are more easily broken in the Winter-season than at any other time Whence then doth this happen Attend a while and I will tell you The more pertinaciously and firmly the parts of hard Bodies are conjoyned each with other the more difficultly they are broken This is certain But what is that which effects coherency in the parts of hard Bodies Not Rest as some think because that is not any thing positive in the Body but onely a privation of motion Therefore Rest proproduceth not this Effect but the Air compressing the parts of hard Bodies conjoyns and causeth them to cohere as is evident by the Experiment cited in the Seventh Observation of the Third Decade The Air whilst Summer's Heat is most vehement presseth more than in Mid-winter partly because at that time it is more forcibly agitated by the heat of the Sun partly because then it is more heavy by reason it is mixt with very many gross Vapours forced upwards by the Solar heat Hence it is now manifest why Bones and other hard Bodies are more easily broken in Winter than in Summer Hence also it may readily be understood why Wood is much sooner consumed by burning in the extream cold Winter-season than whilst we enjoy the pleasant Summer The Winter-Air by its more weak pressure cannot very pertinaciously conjoyn the Particles of the Wood whence these Particles are easily separated from the Wood when they suffer violence by certain terrestrial Particles floating upon the onely most subtile matter of the World therefore most swiftly agitated Hence it is that the Winter-Air as being less pressing and containing fewer Vapours permits the Flame freely to enlarge it self We now come to the other Problem by which it is asked Whence ariseth Terrour invading the sick suffering a Fracture of the Bone in sleep and not while waking and often again distorting the broken Bones Parey a man endowed with great Experience in the Chyrurgic Art who himself once suffered a Fracture of the Tibia and Fibula with a Wound and in his own Body plainly enough experienced this Terrour as he saith a reason of which he endeavours to render in the 26th Chapter of his Book of Fractures but he there miserably philosophizeth producing nothing but Impertinencies and Chimoera's Therefore let us see whether we can give a more probable Reason that may come nearer to the truth We will at least attempt it When the Sick are not sleeping they see they hear they eat they drink and stir their Arms and by this means consume much of the Nervous Juice so that that cannot flow in so great abundance into the parts irritated c. but when the Sick indulge their Members with sleep the matter is far otherwise The Ears at that time hear not the Eyes are closed the Nosethrils perform not their wonted Office the Tongue is silent and the Arms rest Therefore when at such a time the Humors stagnizing and waxing acid about the Fracture with their distention molest the Fibrils and by their cutting property irritate them then I say the Nervous Juice which in the time of the Patients waking is not imployed in great abundance falls down upon the irritated Muscles which by this means swollen vehemently move the Leg and miserably distort the Extremities of the broken Bone one to this part the other to another whence ariseth pain cruel enough by which the Patient after a short sleep is awakened with terrour But that you may more readily give credit to the reason of this Phoenomenon I judge it fit to advise you to attend to these few Words following When you are awake and not sleepy and when your Semenary Vessels contain much fruitful Seed imagine to your self as strongly as you can some beautiful Maid yet as I judge you shall not by this means eject your Seed unless you use some other excitation But if whilst in a sound and pleasant sleep a very beautiful young Woman be by imagination presented to your Phantasie and if in the mean while your Semenary Vessels be sufficiently distended with the Seed the Seed not seldom by such means flows out with very great pleasure viz. because the Seminary Vessels are very much contracted by the Nervous Juice which in great abundance whilst you sleep is carried from the Brain into the Seminary Vessels distended and very much irritated by the Seed because it is not now imployed about other works to be done whilst waking So I knew two Epileptick Persons who never had Fit whilst awake but always when they soundly slept which doth not a little confirm my Opinion OBSERVAT. VI. Of Dislocation of the Talus or Ankle-bone with a Wound A Man aged Forty years fell from on high to the Ground and suffered a Dislocation in the interior Ankle-bone of his Left-leg conjoyned with a vast Wound out of which the Bone was prominent the breadth of three fingers and the dolour was almost intolerable This case is very perilous For not without great danger of life a Gangrene sometimes invades the great Toe infected by the Dislocation and Wound concomitant as I remember not long since to have happened But such horrid Symptomes are not to be feared if in the great Article of the Talus a Dislocation also be with a very large Wound This Affect is not onely perilous but also rare so that Parey Pigreus Aquapendens Barbette and other scarcely so much as mention the same in their Books although Scultetus in his Chyrurgic Armory speaks of it but whether credit is to be given to his Words or his Counsel followed we shall see after we have pondered the following Words written by himself If an Article be luxuriant so as it is either uncovered or be a little