bruitish for the enumeration of their presumed successes because of this defect of Principles is not argumentative to conclude an attainment of Experience in regard that Reason did not make due collection from those tryals and periclitations but these in their practice act not unlike some who take pains rudely to heap stones together designing thereby to erect an artificial Structure the event being far otherwise for the higher the heap adspires the neerer is its downfal and ruine And so when the Empericks multiply their inartificial Experiments to meliorate their knowledg and to acquire experience fruitlesness attends their labors and destruction those who confide in their promised experience They in the mean time who have the luck to be the A B C of the Empericks first attempts and patiently submit to their Embrio experiments run no small hazard when their best grown Endeavors prove Molas-like unshapen and monstrous Births It is confessed that the advantages to Physick have been very considerable upon the account of dissatisfaction with some old Tenents whereupon just occasions of further search and inquiry were administred to make new and more useful discoveries but yet I cannot allow the inference by some late Writers in favor of the Vulgar Experimenters from hence deduced as if because the Medicinal Science by successive discoveries was so much improved a through alteration of what remains seemed no less necessary to its compleatment and perfection and therefore Empericism ought to be encouraged as the likeliest means to advance this hopeful work for the consequence is altogether illogical and fallacious to conclude from some particular defects in Physick that the whole Art is thereupon impleadable of the same misprision of insufficiency and uncertainty and that reasoning equally absurd which pleads for the Empericks to be countenanced as if their experimentings might very much further this pretended Reformation in Physick the new Doctrines are so far from designing the subversion of the ancient foundations that they appear considerable additions confirming and establishing them and they who have been prosperous in making discoveries did not in order to their scrutiny devoid themselves of all artificial helps but proceeded under the conduct of firme and allowed principles to their succesful disquisitions nay were it granted that not only every Age as is abundantly evident but each person should take notice of something before unobserved yet would not these hereby ruine the settled constitution of the Medicinal Science which notwithstanding all such successes is still permanent and unshaken indeed many who applaud their Service have troubled themselves rather to question Opinions in Physick which are conjectural and the Product of Fancy then well formed Aphorisms drawn immediatly from sensible observation on which the Science of Physick is chiefly founded and to this purpose not a few have misplaced their pains in examining and disputing the Hypotheses of Hippocrates Galen and their Disciples about the Humors Qualities and the like Sentiments of those Authors who thought fit thereby to express their Conceptions if any quarrel with those notions they may take the same liberty of substituting others more agreeable to the Phaenomena of Nature but the substantials of Physick are not altered by the various dresses wherein they appear suitable to every Age. As for the Empericks fitness to enterprise this pretended renovation of Physick there seems to be no sufficient ground for any such expectation because they in their experimentings wanting directive precepts can make no true judgment of their performances from whence also no Rule can be formed as their natural result they who would become Physicians are not educated as the raw Lacedemonian Souldiers were wont to be first learning to fight in the dark being emboldned to desperate attempts by this initiation in night service for gross ignorance is so far from accomplishing to attain the greatest difficulties in Physick that it utterly incapacitates for such undertakings When I have given an account of the several sorts of Empericks their inabilities to advance Physick may be easily apprehended of which in the next place The first sort of Empericks are such who try accidental and chance experiments on the diseased not having any sufficient ground of perswasion that the Medicaments thus proved are proper it may seem strange that any who pretend to Reason should after this manner sacrifice to Fortune and yet they cannot be numbred whom good luck and presumptuous hopes of success encourage to give Physick the business is not so much how likely or contrary the applications are to the Disease if a Cure is wrought thereby and I will not deny but that some of these are very prosperous by the use of Medicines not reduceable to any known Rules of Art if the reason is demanded I know not how to avoid the attributing of their successes to any other power then the Infernal Spirits assistance the Divines term this an implicite compact for that person as a reverend and late Writer notes Who applies the Creatures to those ends and uses to which either by its own propensity or by God's institution it was never inclined is at length taken in the snare of prestigious and diabolical delusion And the excellent Matthias Mairhofer is of the same judgment Quando aliquis assequitur effectum propositum non adhibendo causas legitimas legitimas causarum conditiones licet sciens deliberate non expetat Diaboli auxilium dat tamen operam in procurando effectu quibusdam occultis dubiisque modis qui à Viris bonis merito judicantur symbolum Diabolicae operationis clam intercedentis says he When any person designs the attainment of any effect without respect to natural Causes and not heeding the conditions necessary to its production although he doth not wittingly and with deliberation implore the Divels help yet working by occult and dubious waies he is most deservedly censured by all good men as guilty of a private and more secret Covenant with the Divel to co-operate with him I cannot distinguish between Charms and other known and solemn methods of Sorcery and Witchcraft and these no less prestigious and hellish practises in a business of such consequence I am willing to speak plain that the busie and officious people of both Sexes may understand their adventure when either out of an ambition to gain the popular repute of doing good or for profits sake they give Medicines at random not being able either to satisfie themselves or others concerning the true Vertues thereof and the reason of application if what is thus given succeeds not then must they answer at least to God the death of the Patient if the party recovers then is there just cause of suspition that the evil Feind is their Adjutor with his long experienced skill being willing to cure the Body of one to destroy the Soul of another When Learned and Experienced Physicians are at hand what occasion is there that these Empericks should hazard their best part and so
no person can be ignorant of the Experiments made on Gold because it as many think contains in it all necessary conditions to the universal Medicine which I need not recount but unless something is performed by the Diaphoretical vertue of the Menstruum no wonders have been wrought by it so that Billichius calls Aurum potabile aurum putabile since that all true Philosophers in their Preparation of their Medicinal stone did not mean the common Gold but that of the Philosophers as they mispent their pains who sought out dissolvents to make our Gold potable in expectation of making thereby the Elixir so it would be to as little purpose to discourse the possibility of gaining a Dissolvent not corrosive to elicite its medicinal tincture which at length will satisfie only a particular intention The hyperbolical Encomiums which have been given to the essences of Individuals might easily delude those who approve all things according to their commendations and doubtless in many respects such noble preparations might deserve a just esteem but the more prudent and wary of the Hermetical Philosophers observing the absurdity to expect an universal operation from a limited Agent did busie and employ themselves to find out the universal matter which is so enygmatically discoursed in the Writings of Chymical Authors as if they rather designed to encourage Humane Industry in the search after that which for no other cause they would seem to have known then give them any hopes of interpreting and unriddling their most obscure perplexed and mysterious descriptions of it saith one Fove fodeam usque ad genua accipe terram nostram in qua est rivulus unda viva scilicet universale menstruum aquam nostram ponticam in qua habitat sal armoniacum nostrum spiritus vivus universi qui omnia in se continet h. e. Dig a Pit knee deep and take our earth in which is a living stream viz. our universal Menstruum and take our Pontike water in which is found our Sal Armoniack and the universal spirit which contains all things in it and saith Bacon Elegant rem supra quam Naturae tantum primas operationes incepit h. e. Such a matter must be chosen on which Nature hath only done her first work He who is acquainted with the parabolical expressions of the Ancients relating to this Subject will be convinced that although they who write best hint a necessity of some universal matter which may yield by a Philosophical Preparation a most noble Medicine to cure Diseases may yet apprehend their dissentions about this matter and the improbabilities of others finding it out by their direction but if I should grant that the true Sons of Art might rightly understand the Ancients and gain the knowledg of the universal matter yet in regard that there is not an universal intention in the cure of Diseases I cannot see of what use it can be in Medicine to comfort the Archaeus and to garrison the heart which is the Royal Fort with invincible vertues answers only a particular intention That all Diseases do spring from one root is only the supposition of some who would patronize this Panacaea whereas others more rationally inform us that Sanity consists not in indivisibili but that different members in the body enjoy a different Sanity and having a divers complexion conformation and operation stand in need of a variety of Medicines to cure their distinct and sometimes contrary Diseases What though there sometimes happens a Metastasis of the Morbifick matter which varying its seat alters the symptomes according to the parts in which it fixeth it is not proved that hereupon what opposed it in one part is as proper and applicable notwithstanding the remove as before and that in curation no particular respect ought to be had to the parts constitution which is affected it may be that before the Metastasis 't was convenient to use Diaphoreticks and afterwards if the matter lodgeth in the breast what may evacuate it by promoting expectoration if in the lowest Ventricle Catharticks or Diureticks which may discharge he certainly knows little of the causes of Diseases who discerns not their difference in respect of the vessels or parts which they seize or most afflict whereupon the Methodus medendi is to be altered I need not enumerate the several causes of Diseases which the Galenists reckon but content my self with an observation that the best Chymists do account two grand Causes of the constant alteration in mans body disposing it to Diseases and death which are the consumption of radical moisture and the putrefaction of humors it is therefore incumbent on the Pretenders to a Panacaea to prove that by the same Medicine they can prevent this putrefaction of humors and hinder the consumption of radical moisture The Universalists have been very sollicitous to appropriate to their Medicine such vertues as might answer the indication both of a drying vertue to withstand and resist putrefaction and of moisture or unctuosity to supply the decaies and spendings of natural heat and therefore they assert that their Panacaea in respect of its activity and solar heat doth brighten fortifie and encrease our innate heat and hereby evaporates and dissipates all Morbifick Meteors which otherwise would stagnate and putrifie in respect of its substance is oleagenous fix'd and incombustible aptly recruiting any loss or spending of the radical moisture It this Panacaea can certainly do what is pretended it may seem strange that they who were esteemed Possessors of such a Medicine did not defend themselves and their Patients from the disease of Old Age and from Death for Old Age creeping on gradually may more probably be opposed then violent Diseases but when its apparant that neither in themselves nor others they were able to stop the course of old age and disappoint the stroke of death they would excuse their Art and Medicine by blaming some great neglects whilest they were young and tell us that if they had then taken such a Medicine it might have effected much in the prolongation of life but others well pondering the Vertues attributed to it Unde fit restauratio corporum per morbos debilitatorum prompte perfecte ea curans postea juventutem primumque vigorem diminutum per frigidum annorum acconitum fere extinctum restituens h. e. It is sufficient to restore the decaies of mens bodies most expeditiously and perfectly helping all Diseases changing the ruines of old age into youthfulness These I say being convinced by experience that such empty vaunts of the Panacaea are ridiculous do otherwise state the business and make little difference between the Polychresta of the Galenists and these more noble Medicines and if the Panacaeas which have been or at present are pretended to in the World are duly examined they undoubtedly will be found to answer some more general intention and by no means deserve the appellation of universal Medicines in the common and known sense and
discernable but t is as absurd from such a particular instance to draw a general conclusion as to argue from private causes to universal effects Since that the Nature of this Pest in relation to its primary cause is most obscure we cannot more surely arrive at the knowledge of it then by the discoveries it makes of it self in propagation when therefore I do well ponder the wonderful energy of Pestilential effluviums which can instantaneously imprint indeleble characters on bodies before found and healthful and conform them to the like efficacy in contagious communications I am induced to think that its principles are chiefly saline which appears by its activity and power I need not produce examples to illustrate the inexpressible vigor of these Ferments it being well known that many have dyed without the least sense of Contagion or apprehension of illness thereby it is reported by such who have seen experiments of the poysoned darts in India that a fleshy part being prickt or scratched with them the person so hurt is not onely killed in very few moments but his body is so putrified that one limb falls from the other the like is written of some Pests in hot Countreys by which some places have been depopulated whether any poisons artificially prepared do in power and activity excel the Pestilential tincture which is animal is besides my business at present to decide I come in the next place to the manner of the Pests invasion which is unanimously agreed on to be by Contagion viz. When venenate expirations are transmitted from infectious bodies to others working a like change and alteration in them whereupon I conclude that no person is seized with the Plague except he receives into his body these Pestilential effluxes which however they do more effectually infect by how much nearer the bodies are yet it is not to be doubted but that at a very considerable distance where no person is sick these most malignant corpuscles being carried in the motion of the Aire may so preserve their venome as to surprize such bodies amidst their greatest securities and I am apt to think that such effects are oftimes appropriated to imagination the operations of which can easily ferment the juices of the body and raise Symptomes not unlike those of the Pest I was called to three or four affected after this manner whose conditions at first did seem as bad as theirs who by reason of abode with some labouring of the Sickness most apparently took the infection but upon a strict inquiry into these cases I addrest my self with success to settle the fancies and bodies of such Patients whence I opine that Pestilential and poysonous emissions or ferments as I noted before do solely contribute to the spreading of the Contagion Notwithstanding that infection is so apparent in the Pest yet some have lately in their discourses and pamphlets argued that it is not Contagious such persons deserve rather the magistrates censure then my refutation the Order published by Queen Elizabeth was in those days the most proper expedient to suppress that opinion which is not otherwise now then by Authority to be silenced these ground their hypotheses upon the escape of some persons who converse with the infected but this proof is not admittable as sufficient because there are very many causes why such bodies are not equally obnoxious to Contagion as others for besides the particular Providence of God who is pleased to protect some in the same danger in which others do perish the security of such persons may be attributed to the shape of their pores not admitting pestilential atoms of a disproportioned figure or vigour of the spirits to expel this enemy before he can fixe in their bodies certainly such persons might as rationally affirm that Bullets will not wound and kill because some in the hottest battails amidst showers of small shot walk untoucht by any of them when as these escape rather upon the account of the various happy postures they are in during the charge then their fancy of being shot-free These infectious irradiations flowing from bodies inflamed with the Pest as they constantly issue out by transpiration and other more open passages so they diffuse their malignity accordingly as they are more or less subtile and spiritual if therefore the snuff of a candle which emits a gross and visible fume can in few moments so taint the circumambient air in a large room so as to render it most offensive to our smell certainly Pestilential exhalations by very many degrees more fine and subtile can insensibly and beyond such narrow limits spread their poison corrupting the air and making it pernicious to bodies dispos'd to receive such impressions the motion of these malignant corpuscles cannot by any help be discerned neither can any account be given of their sent as some do vainly imagine touching the steam of infected bodies I confess that when Buboes are opened Carbuncles cast off their Eschar the Pestilential emanations being imbodied in grosser vapours issuing from such sores may possibly be hereupon sensible to the Nose as in opening other impostumes and dressing common sordid ulcers is evident the like reason may be given of their vomitings stools and sweats hence it is that some have perceived the moment of their seisure which sent they could not otherwise express then by a cadaverous and as it were a suffocating stanch but although I have been very inquisitive in this particular I may confidently averre that not one in two hundred hath been apprehensive by sent of the infection the venenate particles communicating their malignity in a way imperceptable to our Senses How these Pestilential effluxes do operate on mans body comes next under consideration supposing that the infection hath newly insinuated it self the blood and juices do immediately receive the Alarum as being to undergo the first assault the blood in some by the deleterious quality of the poyson in few moments is mortified not unlike what happens in the death of such who are kil'd by lightning in others the blood is forthwith put into a fermentation either higher or lower according the state of the blood before infection or the condition and degree of the Contagion on which also depends the depuration of the blood producing Blaines Buboes and Carbuncles and such patients except something accidentally intervens to contraindicate for the most part escape but most commonly in this fermentation the blood coagulates in fewer or more vessels and according to the dissolution and discharge of these grumous parts before further putrefaction the condition of such persons is more secure or dangerous if the coagulation encreases a period at length is put to the bloods circulation lastly the blood doth sometimes suffer a Fusion for when the sulphureous parts are consumed the Pestilential tincture proves a Dissolvent and destroys the fibres of the blood not onely by way of liquation making it most fluid but corrupting its saline particles I have observed that such blood in
overcome these pestilential ferments mixed with the blood with its utmost vigour it attempts to expel and dissipate them and and if the poison of the disease is so powerful as to destroy the ferment of the Heart the blood soon coagulates the sequel of which is death Here I might particularly take notice of that strange lassitude which was very observable in most affected with this scorbutical Pest as well by reason of the distention of the vessels as the immediate mixture of the malignity with the serous humours abounding in such bodies but I shall not any longer insist on the Symptomes which are common in Pestilential Feavers but descend to those diagnosticks which most peculiarly discover the Pest as Blains Bubo's Carbuncles and discolorations vulgarly called tokens of which briefly in their order Blains are pustles or rather blisters sometimes greater or sometime less and for number fewer or more according to the quantity or quality of the Pestilential matter segregated from the blood and other liquors of the body by their fermentation these were obscurely incircled and coloured according to the serous humour either flowing to or discharged upon those parts where they appeared but as no place could plead exemption so those parts were most subject to these blaines which did lye nearest to this poysonous humour when it was forced out the liquor contained in these blysters was of the same nature with that which produced Carbuncles but more diluted and dispersed wherefore the Pest was rightly judged not so dangerous where onely blaines were discovered however if these grew numberless as I observed in one who from head to foot was full of them as the condition of that Patient was most desperate so a multitude of these blaines do indicate the excess of malignity and great hazzard thereupon Bubo's are tumours of the glandules if under the ear they are called Parotides others happen under the armes and in the groin Pestilential matter in circulation with the blood being retained in these glanduls whereby they are tumified and inflamed that some persons without any sense either of the Contagion or any illness by it have complained of these tumors must be ascribed to the mildness of the malignity having before upon others spent its virulency but most commonly these Buboes were an effect of the second sweat promoted by proper Alexipharmical remedies and such risings gave hope of the Patients recovery some of these tumours were indolent and hard continuing so many months notwithstanding means either to discuss or suppurate them and when these were unadvisedly opened by incision nothing else but an ichor gushed forth and the part wounded was very apt to mortifie but these risings were generally so painful that most could not endure the fierce and frequent lancinations and the extream burning they felt until the time of suppuration approached which upon this account was hastned by suitable applications of Cataplasmes and Plaisters the number of these Buboes was not certain some had two others three many four neither was their bigness limited the risings in some being very large so as to equal an half-penny loaf in others not exceeding an hens egg very many of these tumors were discussed if the patient at first submitted to effectual sweats and if afterwards they encreased great care was taken to further their enlagement and to break them the Feaver usually going off and declining as these tumours ripened and were fitted for apertion and here I must not omit to intimate that according to the condition of the Pus discharged these Buboes were more or less secure but I shall discourse more of these when I come to the method of curation A Carbuncle is a Pestilential sore appearing at first with a very small pustle and a circle about it of a red flaming colour which pustle either opening or rather the liquor in it being spent by the extream heat of the adjacent part soon hardens and growes crusty the incompasing inflammation spreading it self and by reason of the corrosive quality of the humour cauterizing that place where it fixes I have seen Carbuncles in most parts of the body which proved more or less dangerous in respect of the part affected and the degree of the malignity here I might produce innumerable cases which I have met with during this Visitation but I shall onely relate two or three I was called to one Patient who had a Carbuncle within two or three fingers breadth of a Bubo in the groin though they were differently handled in relation to the cure yet the business succeeded very well also one recovered when there was a large Carbuncle directly opposite to the Heart a third with one in her breast at the same time she gave suck and the child discovered no other infirmity then a loosness during his mothers cure another was afflicted with a large Carbuncle very neer the bottom of the stomack and she lived until cicatrization but then the malignity retiring within took her away my designed brevity in this answer forbids me to relate all necessary circumstances in these histories Carbuncles are sometimes very large I saw one on the thigh above two hands bredth with a large blister on it which being opened by the Chirurgion and scarisication made where the mortification did begin the Patient expired under this operation but most commonly these Carbuncles do not exceed the breadth of three or four fingers after few hours the skin shrivels into a crustiness of a duskish or brownish colour at certain times and in some especially scorbutical bodies these Carbuncles did mortifie and except timely care was taken by immargination scarifications or applications of actual Cauteries the Gangreen in few houres overspread that part and destroyed the Patient this most saline corrosive humour was not easily and by ordinary means brought to digestion and consequently not without much difficulty cured I shall not at present inlarge on the accidents attending these Carbuncles but proceed to the Tokens of which in the next place These tokens are spots upon the skin of a diverse colour and figure proceeding from chiefly extravased blood which by reason of its stagnation putrefies and produceth such mortifications discolouring the skin so then those spots which are the true tokens are profound mortifications caused by the extinction of natural heat upon the account of highly prevaling malignity because many spots arising upon the skin were onely cutaneous and so farre imposed on many Searchers and unskilful veiwers of them that they declared them to be true tokens experiment was alwaies made upon these discolorations by a lancet or large needle to try whether that part so affected was sensible if not then it was most apparent that such persons had those fatal marks upon their bodies which were most certain forerunners of death but if the Patient did discover sense upon the pricking or incision then such spots being onely cutaneous were not esteemed deadly and I have seen very many recover who were in this condition
this purpose and the great success of proper and fit preservatives doth irrefragably plead from their use in this answer I shall not publish any prescripts but onely hint the intentions which are alwaies to be observed in a true and regular Preservation from the Plague Care in the first place must be taken to free the body from superfluous humours which may be a fit fomes for the pestilential ferment this ought not to be performed by violent catharticks but gentle and yet effectual de-obstructing medicines and then the noble parts must be corroborated their ferments and use maintained and lastly the blood kept in a due and equal briskness and hereupon all Passions especially fear and anger are worthily censured by Physitians as conducing much to the introduction of the Pest a moderate and wholesome dyet must be cauteously observed and no error committed in the other things termed non-natural to conclude the society of infected persons is carefully to be avoided for certainly it is an high presumption that because some preservatives are and have been effectual to secure some persons others taking the like Antidotes should thereupon adventure into the utmost danger as this opinion hath cost many their lives so I fear if the fire should break out again which God forbid some will be bold notwithstanding the miscarriage of others to attempt the like adventures The Therapeutick part comes next in order but before I enter upon this subject if the scruple made by some whether the Pestilence is curable was grounded either on Authority or reason I would indeavour to remove it for however medicines do prove alike effectual to rescue all infected persons from the jawes of death mortality amongst people denoting the plague yet since that by Gods blessing and the care and skill of experienced Physitians very many recover these living testimonies do suffficiently evidence the absurdity and great impiety of that suggestion I rather think that a cogent argument may be drawn from the deadly nature of this distemper provoking all persons concerned to look out speedily for suitable help especially considering that dispondency is so considerable a promoter of the Pests fatality In relation to the cure of the Plague all the intentions which offer themselves must be diligently observed and truly answered otherwise no better account can be given of proceedings then what is produced by ignorant nurses or our pretended Chymists who are arived at such an height of confidence as that by warranting simple people their lives in order to their entertainment and thereupon advancing some rude and dangerous preparations not fitted to any intention they do surpass even the Pest it self in destructiveness so soon as any person findes or apprehends himself to be seized by the contagion every little illness in time of the Plague being justly suspected t is adviseable that he forthwith do betake himself to his bed taking warning by the miscarriage of very many who if they were not violently sick at first would struggle with the disease and vainly imagine by walking abroad in the fields to overcome their distemper until the best opportunities of applying remedies were ircoverably lost besides when the Patient is in that condition nature may more certainly shew the waies she designs to expel the malignity and discovering her deficiencies directs the Physitian who is alwaies intent on her motion to succour her by his Art although it is found most convenient that the Patient secure himself in his bed yet t is not allowable that he sleep until a check is given to the venenosity indeed some not well advised finding themselves drowzy who perhaps were seized with a stupidness or dulness signifying the worst quality of the Contagion committed themselves to rest and little thought that by calling in the pestilential matter from the habit of the body and fixing it in the brain such sleep was onely preparative to their deaths if then any find themselves thus disposed they must be kept waking and roused up by vesicatories their use number and places the Physitian who is called in will advise if the Patient vomits judgement must be truly made whether the stomack is clogged and loaded with undigested meat or fruit or ought else taken unseasonably or immoderatly that may burden it and become a fit fomes for the Pest if the stomack suffers upon this account by Carduus Posset drink taken in a large quanity with Oxymel of Squills not ascending much higher it must be disburdened and cleansed but if such vomittings are onely symptomatical as indeed most were proper remedies must be directed which may stop those inclinations to vomit and expell out of the stomack that Pestilential matter which so strongly irritates restoring likewise the ferment of the stomack much weakened and injured by this means for which purpose I cannot too much commend the Fixed Salts of Wormewood Carduus Rue Scordium Masterwort c. if likewise symptomes appear of the poysonous ferment fixing in the bowels and a Flux hereupon happens it is not safe without a most urgent cause to use Catharticks least a dysentery ensue and the pestilential matter be drawn by such evacuations from the circumference to the center our ignorant but bold practisers not understanding either this or any other danger in their desperate undertakings have chiefly dealt in Emetocatharticks not regarding the sad event which generally attended such attempts and acting herein in opposition to the advice given by the Colledge of Physicians in their Book these rash Medicasters not so much valuing the lives of the sick as their appearing in a contradictory way to the skillfullest and most learned Society in Europe and when these Chymical cheats have spent the Patients strength by such evacuations they immediately as to a refuge fly to Narcoticks and if the violent workings of such Medicines are a little quieted thereby and procured sleep alleviates somewhat and refreshes they applaud their accomplishments untill the approaches of death do too plainly manifest their unpardonable abuse and delusion of people in the great concern of their lives But to return unto my business in hand the chief intention in the cure consisting in an early expulsion of the malignity proper Alexipharmicks did mostly contribute to this end which by the expert Physicians skill were adapted to the constitution and present condition of the Patient their vertue and power perfectly preventing the great danger threatned by delay or the use of insufficient Medicines for although in the Cure of other diseases a progress from lower to higher and more prevalent processes is very allowable yet in the Pest where occasion must be taken by the foretop the slip of one opportunity being infinitely disadvantageous all true Sons of Art imployed their utmost abilities to select most proper Sudorificks one Dose of which might provoke a seasonable and effectual sweat whereby the blood and juices of the body were depured and freed from that pestilential ferment with which they were lately imbued and since that