application of suitable Remedies adding Light to her to act by and Power to overcome the present Stagnization For in so doing the Scene is altered and Nature rendred capable with ease to remove That which before could not be removed without too great Molestation For the Wisest of Men upon the first Appearance of a Tumor cannot by any known Rule judge of Nature's Capacity or Propensity to determinate the Evil or whether it be more profitable to resolve or suppurate the same As is apparent in some Tumors where by attempting Resolution the subtillest or thinnest Parts being separated the Remainder is so indurated as not to be resolved or suppurated and so it becomes the same that Chyrurgeons call a Schirrus But in suppurating Tumors great Pains Anguish and different Symptomes in differing forms of Heats Colds c. often happen through the Distress Nature falls under by reason of the Largeness of the Tumor and the difficulty to bring such Evils to perfect Suppuration and at last unless they open themselves and be judiciously handled they are often changed from one thing into another For 't is evident that the Opening of some Tumors by Incision and keeping them open by cramming in of Tents a Practice too often used doth either change the nature of the Tumor or at least prolong the Cure Whereas in either Case viz. in Resolution or Suppuration if Nature be well minded no such Symptomes or Accidents happen Now if such Errors be committed as is daily obvious they are in External Imposthumes how much more in the Internal I mean not those that are internally caused by Contusion or other Acts of Violence because of them I have elsewhere spoken which are never seen or known but by their Effects thô in truth every Internal Imposthumation hath the same occasional Cause as the External have For they being also caused by the Relicts of Nourishment not separated fall under the Laws of a disturbed or sensible Spirit which makes so great Variety in them not sensibly to be discerned by the Physician that he must of necessity either refer himself to the help of such virtual Remedies as are capable to take off the Disturbance and fortifie the sensible Power of right Distinction in Nature or he can never arrive to so much Satisfaction in himself as Scientifically to declare how or which way the Disease is or may be cured This is by reason of the great Uncertainty of the Inclination of Nature in these Cases for sometimes shee seeks to resolve or maturate the Relict in the Place where it is which is a true natural Way at another time invirons the same with a Cistis in order to Suppuration and at another Season and in another Place sends forth Bloud out of the Veins intending thereby to separate that Retent without Digestion by the common Passages which if stopped or letted by the way quickly tends to Pus and then if in that form it be separated the Irruption is so violent that it sometimes proves mortal as is too frequently apparent by those Cataracts of Bloud and Matter that in such Cases issue out by the Nosethrils by the Vreters by Vomiting by Stools and by the Womb. Here Nature her self erroneously acts like those Physicians who inconsiderately attempt to purge out Retents before they are digested contrary to the Mind of Hippocratâ—s and the known Rule of Paracelsus who saith Every Disease to which I add every Diseasy-Inclination ought to be cured in its own place For 't is evident that some Imposthumes are not wholly Sanguineous and the Retents being rarely such because the Veins as they have their own Valves so they have their peculiar Passages to evacuate Superfluities by the Bloud that attends them is rather in order to Resolution than Putrefaction provided Nature be in her own Path but if diverted therefrom either through the want of Light in her self to act by or the Physician 's Error in mis-application of Remedies those sad Effects above spoken of do inevitably follow For every Retent which Nature can neither resolve nor digest being forsaken naturally corrupts by the Heat and Moisture of the Place and so maketh a real Imposthume but Experience proves that those Actions of Corrupting may be prevented by a timely application of suitable Remedies as is apparent by the following Example Where Relicts of preceeding Feavers are there Nature sends Bloud to be materiated to maturate by putrefaction the offending Evil in order to its Expulsion but if prevented by due Medicines and Transpiration happens then no Putrefaction follows For where proper Means are used Bloud extra Vasa is not corrupted but kept from putrefying or otherwise resolved without Pus I my self having often seen Bloud after long extravasation coughed up dry and hard without the least Sign of Putrefaction Likewise every Vessel of what kind soever being over-filled and Nature not capable to separate the same by the Common Passages that Fullness by her forsaken becomes the Matter of Imposthumes Or if any Matter be stagnized that also is liable to the same Transchangement and produceth Effects as bad or worse than the former as is sufficiently witnessed by the Dry Belly-Ache in the West-Indies and by some of our Country-Men afflicted with the Scurvey in whom the Knots in their Nerves give a palpable Testimony not only of Siagnization but also of preternatural Congelation not much unlike to our knotty Gouis or Tophuses in the Lues which happen upon the Bones where for want of Internal Attraction of the Parts or External Separation from them the nutritive Juice of the Parts is indurated and thereby becomes the Matter it afterwards shews it self to be For when a floating Evil or Diseasy Spirit undetermin'd assaults the Life then Nature sends forth Bloud out of the Veins to encompass that Spiritual Evil to materiate the same and so makes Fiery Phlegmones and Diseases of like kind which are true real and natural Imposthumes proper Issues of her own Intentions Of Fiery Phlegmones in general and their Cure I forbear to write particular Examples of these Diseases because they are so numerous so frequently cured by my Method and so certainly known to the Patients themselves But in general the Tumors are large the Blood at first appearance uncorrupted yet it is not long before great Pains the Forerunners of Putrefaction discover themselves And thô at the first manifestation of these Tumors when only a weight and burthen upon the life is perceived letting Blood doth somewhat diminish the Tumor and prevent Pain yet if it have a diseasy Character that doth not hinder the foregoing determination of Nature towards separation but allaying part of her fury doth I acknowledge render the Suppurative Power less burthensome But if Quitter be begun to be made then Nature by Phlebotomy is hindred of her own Determination and being thereby weakened languisheth and labours to little purpose making those Distempers tedious in suppurating whereas had not that supposed Expedient been used
to compose those Confusions that cause so great a Complication and indetermination may indeed by its particular act alter the Scene but not the Tragedy and change the Seat of a Disease from one Bowel to another but if any do impartially observe the Event they will soon perceive that the change of Place hath rendred the Disease before easily cured not curable unless with great difficulty and not at all but by General Remedies Yet let no Man mistake me so far as to think these Medicines I mention to be very easily obtained No the Common Preparations have no such Endowments Nor can the converting of a Vomitive and Purging Medicine into a Diaphoretick render its Gifts more splendid nay rather what before in it self had an universal Disposition is now become only a particular Bemedy being no otherwise serviceable than where Sweats are needful And it is clear to every skilful Labourer in the way of natural Medicines that every universal Being tormented by Fire or fiery Spirits is not bettered thô changed For every direct Change is a diminishing of the Natural Gift And whosoever spends his time this way to alter General Medicines will injure both himself and his Neighbour and shall never arrive to any certainty in the true Matter of Medicine The outward Life of Metals or Minerals is poyson which unless overcome with Conservation of the Species of them they cannot exhibit their natural Gifts For Mineral Virtues are like Lillies among Thorns if a Man remove not these he will be wounded with their Prickles before he can attain the Sweetness of those The outward life of Minerals must dye and be annihilated their middle Life is Medicine Antidote against Poyson an Exhilirator and Server of Nature without any determinate Action a great Light impressed with a Divine Seal capable to extirpate the Characters of diseasy Images or at least to subvert their Acts having a natural faculty to remove every occasional Matter by Nature's own Power not compelling but exciting Her as hath been sensibly experimented This proved to me the Truth of Helmont's Theory which thô believed yet without this Testimonial Act I might with the generality of Searchers have ruined my Self by adhering to what was visible and supposing what I enjoyed not as impossible to be attained For every true Natural Medicine worketh not by its own Power which is ever inimical to Nature to Vomit Purge Sweat provoke Urine c. but by Nature's dispose being such as never operates on Bodies well and in health althô taken in a six-fold quantity nor on the diseased and sick but in the way Nature finds most conducent to health Because Nature is the Physicianess and all that is ministred to her ought to be at her Dispose And that she knoweth how to use Medicines of an universal Disposition appeareth in that she doth by them Purge Vomit or Sweat where occasion is and that as forcibly and sensibly as the strongest direct Medicines can do yet with so different Success that Sweats thô endured for many daies do not weaken so much as others thô only for some hours excited by a forcible Diaphoretick Nay the Patients each day grow stronger and stronger than the first Day of taking them So likewise in Vomiting and Purging there is no debility of Nature thô they work many Weeks together in such a measure that the gentlest of direct Purgers if used so long and wrought after the same manner would bring to Death's dore if not totally extinguish Life but these separate the occasional Matter only and weaken not Besides these Properties mentioned that prove their Subserviency which is but the dark part of Vniversal Remedies there are other more vital Separations which manifest their Endowments insomuch that the very same Medicines that did provoke do also stay Vomiting repress unnatural Sweats stop Fluxes cure the Dysentery and Gripings of the Guts as also all Fluxes of the Womb white or red stay the Menses if inordinate and bring them down when stopped hinder Abortion further the Birth when ripe prevent the After-pains yet cleanse more securely than any Specifick whatsoever dissolve or ripen Imposthumes transmit seemingly fixed Tumors from one part to another so as sensible Tumors of the Womb have by the use of them become Imposthumes of the Abdomen an Action if well noted of no small Advantage to the Sick and of great Comfort to an honest Ingenious Physician I have also known Urine in a great Obstruction thereof contrary to the Common course of Nature yet naturally vented through the fleshy parts about the Kidneys and that in such a Quantity as was not inconsiderable had it been voided the usual way thô this continued no longer than the Obstruction was separating for then Nature assumed her usual Passages And for a Crown to the Reality of Vniversal Medicines I shall add They more powerfully excite Nature by insensible Transpiration than by all the usual Passages which Operation If Physicians be not stark blind is of more service a Thousand fold especially in our days than Purging Vomiting Sweating c. were it not the grand unhappiness of Mankind to measure the offices of their Living Spirits by the Effects and Consequences of their intemperate Lives For these Remedies of an universal Tendency exciting Nature to Insensible Transpiration perform that part of Medicine which is least minded thô of greatest Concernment and althô of late years it hath been conceded to as true because sensibly experimented yet the Medium by which it is performed is a mystery to the greater part of Physicians But to proceed to more sensible and less disputable Actions what hath been already specified being most certain because so often known by my Self Nothing below an Universal Tendency is capable of such different Operations nor can it be so disposed as Nature may be capable by the same to extravert the introversate and that without Damage to the Parts or Organs since it is not given to Nature to create Gifts but to use them For every particular Remedy thô most pure cannot be extended beyond its Gift As for Instance The purest Stomachical that hath Gifts to fortifie to cleanse and separate the Impurities of that Part not being indowed with an Universal Disposition to strengthen Nature to war against those dark Images she hath conceived and by that means impressed on another Digestion and also a Capacity of removing occasional Causes it shall indeed corroborate the part for the present but at the same time shall separate the Impurity thereof to other Digestions and so rather render the Party worse because the Root of the Disease being in the Archeus and that Specifick is uncapable of communicating ought thereunto except what concerned that particular Bowel the Disease it self must necessarily be increased in the place to which it is transferr'd and never be subdued until the Darkness overwhelming the Spirit shall be driven away or the occasional Matter in which those Idea's are impressed nullify'd Whence it
Actions unto which she had no tendency and by taking her off from her own work to take part with the Disease The same Hippocrates long since declared that the Man who in all his Life brought forth nothing which was of Service or Benefit to his Neighbour deserved no remembrance among Men. Therefore if I have herein aimed according to my narrow Talent to be serviceable to Mankind I am thereby but a Disciple to that great Master yet if what is contained in this Treatise be of any advantage to Others the thanks thereof is not so much due to me as to my Opposers whose Provocations have excited me to this Vindication of my Proceedings like the Philosopher's contranatural Fire which in destroying the outward Form excites the inward Spirits to unite and concenter for their own Preservation to the begetting or bringing forth of some new Substance of another Species Charge not on me the Scribe's or Printer's faults Who see with Others Eyes but they whose Thoughts Vulgar Opinion governs are worse blind In me the Organ's dark in them the Mind The First Part. A Manuduction DISCOVERING The True Foundation of the Art of Medicine THE Practice of Physick being various and in the Judgment of most very uncertain because the Galenists have one Theory and Chymists another I cannot perceive any thing herein more serviceable to the Publick than to distinguish their Foundations and what use I have made of them The Galenists have 4 Humors 4 Complexions and 4 Qualities to raise their Structure on And when either of these exceed their due Temperament they judg a Disease present and to that apply their Remedies never so much as thinking of a Mover or first Cause of these Disorders The Chymists according to Paracelsus and Helmont establish their Theory on the first disturbance given to Nature in her own Inns and Acts not so much respecting Effects as Causes nor the Matter disturbing as the Spirit disturbed and to this they apply their Remedies This later Foundation with me under great trouble of Spirit at last overcame all doubtings and I readily adhered to these sublime Conceptions having for their Basis such perspicuity as the Light of Nature did really demonstrate and Hippocrates their allowed Patron doth attest saying Nature is the Physician and Curer of Diseases Yet upon Examination of their Remedies against this Spiritual assault or first being of Diseases I perceived they depended not upon any particular known Medicines but on universal Dispositions drawn from Metals Minerals Salts Animals or Vegetables Hence I began to despair of arriving at any certainty to attain Remedies so gifted as to be capable to reduce Nature to her Primitive Unity with and in the Faculties of the Body For I well knew that all the known Remedies of these Times were not the Medicines of our Famous Progenitors nor capable to answer to those Ends being the Products and Off-springs either of unfound Hearts or ignorant Heads too much devoted to Gain and Applause who having forsook the Substance embraced the Shadow and gave Names to Remedies as Paracelsick which have as much difference from his in Disposition as Light has from Darkness All their Medicines were either endued with particular Faculties and hostile Dispositions as Purging and Vomiting the Sound as well as the Sick or else curtailed by Fire and fiery Spirits and so rendred Diaphoretical under all which Considerations they became wholly unfit to answer that great End of Nature Curation I did not think those supream and general gifts were wanting in Nature but because I knew not the Artifice by which they might be attain'd they were to me as things of no value or concern having therefore suspended my thoughts till I better understood them I greatly bent my Mind to Animals Salts and Vegetables and from them endeavoured as far as in me lay to separate their Terrestreity and by Mistion their Specificality and having spiritualized them I found they were not unfit to be administred in any Case so far as communication of Strength was needful And so great a Blessing attended for some space of time that they seemed to answer the utmost desires of Nature Yet my Mind being not idle I allways feared that this Success might arise from the smallness of the Malignity or the happy Genius that prompted me to these Endeavours Nor was it long before my suspitions proved truths For when I found some Persons not cured thô the Principal Parts were not perished and that continual strife stirred up by Nature ended in her own Conquest I positively concluded that those Medicines that were fit to stir up Action if not also endued with a Vitality to keep Nature in Union with and in her own Organs to act unto the time of Death without loss of sensibility were far short of what a true Physician should endeavour to compass Now was I again bewildred my Grief renewed my Ignorance seemed greater then at first and my Labours I undervalued as things of no Moment Books could not help and Counsel at that time among Men was not to be hoped for Therefore I accused my self as rash in attempting that which seemed impossible to be attained and even despaired thereof But considering in my self that these my endeavours had not their Original in me by Education nor by any Consideration of Profit or Honour that might accrew from the pursuit of the same but from a natural Propensity strongly overweighing my other Inclinations which at that time to my outward Man were pleasing enough and not without great strife fully subdued I resigned my self to the good Pleasure of the Highest and endeavoured Stilness more then Understanding Indeed I plainly viewed all things but would not discuss them so far as to raise any Foundation therefrom or to bring thoughtfulness in my Self For I perceived a Disquisition of ought that stood not in Unity with all things would be particular uncertain and dangerous yea utterly unfit to answer the ends of Nature because I found it wanting to the attainment of true Healing and in this way of simplicity I was found of What I knew not how to search for Nature in stilness brought forth that which Reason without Light could never have acquired even under its most acute Scrutiny For it not being sensible there was no ground for Reasoning In this opening I saw that every Universal Remedy had its Root in the first or second Life of Minerals and Metals the last Life of them being either over-compact or venomous This Aspect was grateful to me and gave me strong hope that Time and Stilness might produce more Evidence Nor was I deceived for the way of destroying the last Life of some Subjects endued with an Universal Tendency was in the Properties of Nature made manifest to me Then did I see as in a Glass the wonderful Gifts implanted in Metals Minerals c. by the Pleasure of the Most High as a Relief to Mortals in this latter Age of the World wherein Diseases are
is clear in the Light of Nature That Remedies of an Universal Disposition are essential to true healing Not that I judge Specificks altogether useless because I certainly know that the great Art of Physicians consisteth in finding out and fitly applying the same yet with this Proviso Viz. That thay suit to Parts and the Operations thereof and be universalized as to Persons so that the sad the merry the cold and hot Constitutions may thence reap a like Benefit which is no such hard matter to accomplish For if a Specifick be fermented with an Vniversal by this means it is made more general and mindeth not Constitutions but the offended Part in the Operations thereof Yet these Remedies must be used with great Judgment because all Specificks have a direct Action whether they be Acidums or Alkalies Aperitives Diureticks Diaphoreticks Vomiting Purging Resolving Separating Contracting or Coagulating Medicines and if unduly or unseasonably applyed are direct Evils For whosoever giveth a Diaphoretick in the begining of a Feaver before any Digestion happens in the Febrile Matter doth by the same indeed produce Sweats but to the great disadvantage of the Sick because that Action of the Medicine contrary to the disposition of Nature carrieth the more subtile parts of the occasional Cause into the Blood And besides the Sweating Remedy because not gifted to strengthen Nature and incline her to her own Acts leaves the more gross and oft-times uncoctable diseasy Matter in the Stomach which proves fatal to the Patient or at least renders the Disease difficult to be healed Therefore Specificks thô never so pure or certain and having an universal Ferment but not having thereby universal Gifts cannot be used generally without apparent danger thô in defects of Parts and Faculties where Nature indicates her own Wants they act more swiftly and certainly than Remedies more general Yet it hath been obvious to me by manifold Observations that direct working Medicines given in the beginning of Diseases have generally injured the Persons afflicted by removing the offensive Matter to places where Nature without that force would never have done Let any One but observe the Progress of Malignant Feavers Small Pox Plague c. and he must necessarily discern that any Purging Remedy thô but a Clyster because Nature endeavours to make separation another way by the Skin doth notably hinder the then needful and necessary Expulsion and by attracting inward brings Death or a very great danger thereof Now althô in these Acute Diseases by reason of their swift Motion and sudden determination Errors are more obvious yet are they as certainly committed in the Chronical and more slow Distempers and attended with the same Consequences thô longer before they be manifested For whensoever by direct Remedies the Diseasy-Matter is transmitted from one Digestion to another must it not unavoidably be rendred worse and what was Originally an Evil in the Stomach or Spleen if carried to the Gaul or Liver and there hurting the Actions and Parts of the same shall it not be more difficult to cure seing those Bowels are remote from the Stomach and have a different Digestion and are not so easily reached by Physick For as Mustiness in a Barrel affects Wine Beer or Vinegar with the same Odour so doth it in like manner affect any urinous Liquor How much more shall diseasy Ferments if by separation without being overcome which no Purgative Remedy can do they be carried to the Duodenum necessarily infect the adjacent Parts Also if I understand any thing in Nature the original of all Chronical Diseases that are not seminal proceeds rather from the Errors of Physicians or the unruliness of Patients than from the Weakness of Nature or strength of increasing Diseases For it is almost daily seen that one Disease is changed into another not as progressing naturally thereto but through irregular Practice by Purging Bleeding Sweating and other direct Actions whereby acute Diseases become Chronical and Chronical Acute by the one making the Life miserable and by the other inferring sudden Death Which may easily be demonstrated and I intend something thereof when I shall treat of the Progress of Diseases Moreover it is very manifest that particular Medicines how prevalent soever to any particular Part and the Disease thereof where a Complication of Diseases is present act rather against than with Nature because they cannot be imployed by Her against the Complication or the Original of the defective Part for such Remedies acting particularly and not generally by cleansing the Part render it more fit for Reception of the Complicating Evil. So that by such irregular Practices Diseases of the first Digestion consequently become Distempers of the second or third c. And this is because Diseases of the first Digestion not being there subdued but carried thence to the second or third put on another Nature and sometimes become complicated thô simple before through a natural disposedness to receive all depending Evils of the Place the diseased live in or of the time or season of the Year or of the Parts they possess For when Diseases once degenerate they are excited Nature growing weaker by every adjacent Evil whereas in their first assault one Digestion alone being concerned Nature can much more easily overcome them If I thought what is here expressed were not sufficient to prove the Truth of this Matter I could easily demonstrate the same by the Practice either of Patients not timely using Remedies or of Physicians using things improper For I do not find Chronical Diseases in their beginnings to have took Root in Us except from the above specified Errors And althô some seminal Dispositions derived from Parents labouring under the same Affects may beget diseasy Inclinations yet they not being able to act without Matter may well be subdued or at least kept from further Increase if General Means be timely used unless some principal Vessel be naturally deficient Every seminal Disposition is incorporeal till Matter through debility of Nature be conjoyned with it for then it becomes active and a Disease but if the Matter which is the occasional Evil be removed the Action ceaseth Now this Matter at the first is easily expelled in a short time because every such occasional Matter is first manifested in the Stomach But when the seminal Disposition and that Matter have moved each with other any time strange Fâ—rments are begotten and the Actions of divers Parts injured thereby Then indeed Medicines thô never so speedy in the beginning cannot do much but require length of time by reason of the Complication which happens through the many Digestions damnified For in the first Motion thereof the first Digestion is but begun to be defiled therewith and strives against it then Universal Medicines can easily contest with the Matter and in small time overcome because the Disease is yet undeterminate and floating no Disease of any denomination having Existence in the Body except where some Vessel or Part is hurt till the first
Digestion submitteth to it as an admitted Guest and ceasing to strive against it sends Superfluities as Nourishment thereunto This is apparent in every true Gout Before the Paroxysm begins Loathing at the Stomach and a restless Disposition is perceived for a Day or two and the Pain never approacheth till the Burthen be thence removed thô indeed the Torture which happens afterward doth many times cause as it were a Loathing Yet that is rather the Effect of Anguish than of Matter For whereas at the first these Universal Remedies work upon the Matter by Vomits Sweats Stools or Urine and when the Pains exist in the Joynts have no action at all yet when the Dolours are removed then they operate the same way again And this is a sufficient proof of the possibility of keeping even Hereditary Diseases from growing or increasing to any great height by General Medicines if seasonably applyed These General Dispositions of Medicines here treated of are singularly useful to keep Physicians from Error because Medicines of an Universal Tendency do manifest the Distempers of particular Parts and as with the Finger point at the Seats of Diseases beyond the Imagination of Any that have not proved them for they most sensibly act on the diseased Part. And where such Medicines are first administred there particular Remedies that are specifick to Parts have afterwards the greater efficacy because Nature being assisted in General doth readily dispose of the Particular according to its Gift also For althô they cannot cure every Disease yet their clearing the first Digestion by strengthening and removing the Evil thereof cause the particular Medicine to act without any stop upon the affected part And by this method it is that Distempers accounted uncurable have often been cured But the great Occasions of Errors committed in the Medicinal Faculty are 1. Ignorance of Nature what she is able to do 2. Want of Knowledg of the possibility of Remedies to be so universal in their nature as to do or leave undone as it most conduceth to Nature's help 3. The grand mistake of Practitioners touching the Causes of Diseases judging all Distempers to have their Original from Humorous filths and in the mean while never thinking of Venoms arising through Ferments much less of the Spirit that makes the Assault For althô they hourly see the Effects of Anger Sorrow Envy Fear c. yet when they apply Remedies the first obvious Cause that turns the whole frame of Man is not consider'd by them and only what they produce is the Subject against which their Medicines are directed As for Example When Rage kindleth Choler they seek to allay Choler that is only the product of Rage Choler maketh not Men angry but Anger conceived maketh that sensible For Nothing liveth but hath enough of that Juice so called to be in Rage sufficiently yet unless the Spirit be defiled by a wrathful Image there is no sense of it apparent So also when our thoughts are greatly exercised with a strong desire to attain what is unknown the Constringing Fiat presently ferments the Chyle with so great a sharpness through the Contraction of the Spirit in that Exercise that it is manifest in the Gust or sensible Tast and is in Nature the Cause of what is called Melancholy but if persevered in so long till Separation happen without great helps a certain distraction is produced or some violence that is worse Envy and Malice have not much different Effects for the former cause when they are conjoyned with a strong desire except that Madness hence does more rarely happen yet in that Cold dark harsh fire they impregnate the Chyle and induce great Leaness on the Body harshness and darkness in the Skin and Hair and are not curable any more than the other by any Means applied to the Humour For althô that be altered by the force of Physick to day and wholly separated yet if the Spirit strenuously persist in the same Design the Disease in the twinkling of an Eye is generated again because what is once done may be done a second time and needs not any intervening Agent Althô 't is true that Matter once generated augments the Evil and increaseth the Darkness so largely that the Spirit is thereby more materiated more exasperated and in greater Anguish Fear stagnizes the Blood brings Coldness Sighing intermittent Pulses Convulsions and if strongly persisted in sudden Death or great Stupidity Now it is true that in case the occasion of Fear be removed it is no hard matter to conquer the Effects And so it is consequently true in other Idea's but if continued in thô but in a mere dejection or sinking of the Life they are rendred more difficult to cure than the more evil and active Passions Sorrow is accompanied with debility of Faculties a pining away of the Body and a wasting of the Spirits and is a Causer of Pains in peculiar Vessels through the alteration of Chyle the Parent of manifold Evils yet if once overcome the Effects are not long in expelling thô they have altered almost all the Constitution Now in as much as 't is evident that Disturbance of the Spirit is the Generator of defects in the Body can it be thought that real Venomes whether Epidemical Endemical or Artificial shall less distast then the aforementioned Conceptions since they absolutely assault the Spirit and endeavour the Extirpation of Vital Light the former arise as well from feigned as real Objects the later only from real active and after a sort living Essences therefore in reason more perceptible and causes of greater Wrath Fear Stupor Sorrow or irregular Action in our Nature unless we think every thing is agitated by Necessity as Sparks fly upward and that there is no living Understanding and Election in Us. But if we bring these things to a sensible Test it cannot be denyed but that we feel the force of Anger Fear c. in our Bodies which if the Spirit in Us were not the Ruler could never be so Yet to come nearer to our Selves Do not trivial Errors even of Meats and Drinks Heats and Colds primarily affect the Spirit Who is there whom fulness of Meats and Drinks doth not affect with Dulness and Heaviness Do not Heats when overmuch cause Faintings and Languishments and doth not the Supplement of Cordials actual or potential supply that defect Likewise is it not apparent that Cold when offensive stagnizeth the Bloud giveth Cause for dolour in the external Parts to Imposthumous Humors or stirs up Disorders internally through the let of vital Separations and is usually the Begetter if the Spirit be not helped to perform its natural Separations of Vomitings Fluxes Feavers Coughs and what not through the obstructing of the vital Spirit Yet however this can be no more than the Occasional Cause the Efficient must be the Spirit erring in its own Acts that must constitute this formal part of distemperature and bring it to a Disease And doth any thing sooner restore Nature
to her wonted Action than such things as fortifie her and help forward Transpiration which the Cold letted Also it is very clear that if any one upon the first Sense of a Distemper doth but use such Universal Means as can keep Nature to act without disturbance he will certainly find that all these Distempers so generally afflicting are driven away almost as soon as they came For by the first Assault the Archeus is only confused and hath not throughly impressed the obstructed Matter with a diseasy Character And this my Patients do generally find true insomuch that for many years few of them know ought of a compleat Disease unless they neglect their Remedies in the beginning For every Medicine of an Universal Tendency is gifted from above to withstand the Formation of Diseases if the Internal Spirit hath not given to them a Seminal Being inasmuch as it addeth Power and Activity to Nature through the Light and Life that is in it to Act regularly Therefore of how great Concern is the knowledg of Medicines strengthening exhilarating and pacifying Nature since she is the only Actor as well as Curer of her self How chary then ought a Physician to be of what he gives to his Patients that he may not compel Nature by the Crudeness Contrariety or Poysonous Property of Medicines which qualities all direct Purgers and Vomiters have to exhaust her strength by opposing one Evil with another If Physicians have not Remedies more general pure and friendly than those that are usually given I mean such as can excite Nature to Action give her strength be imployed by her to this or that Operation without leaving Reliques Offensive nay sometimes more troublesome than the Disease it self the want of such can be no excuse to them For GOD hath not left Mortals deprived of Remedies of a more friendly and benign Nature and Condition did not Pride Covetousness and an overweaning Conceit accompanied with Negligence attend some Book-Doctors keeping them from searching into the Mystery of true Practice These Men conclude if they administer according to a written Rule set out by any they esteem able let the success be what it will 't is justifiable because answearable to what was directed they themselves being Judges thô it be contrary to Nature in all Respects But were Nature more minded and the Receipts of Doctors less we should see an happier effect on diseased Persons And were the errors they commit writ on their Foreheads or the means by which they have attained their Grandeur among the People duly examined they would be ashamed of the one and abhor the other Nature is that we ought to observe to strengthen her where she is weak to enlighten her where dark to pacify her when inraged that Fear may vanish Rage may cease and Amazement be expelled Whosoever can accomplish this shall find the most stubborn and accounted uncurable Diseases to fly before him But Diligence a sound and unbyassed Understanding accompanied with Patience Love and Zeal are Essential to open these Deeps and to discover such Medicines as are fit to extirpate those Exorbitances Alas those that have trod this Path have been very few or they have concealed themselves and what they have written rather stirs up desire than satisfies The Famous Medicines of Paracelsus and Helmont notwithstanding their Voluminous Writings and frequent Citations of them contribute little to us only that they incite us to follow Nature but the Remedies themselves either dyed with them or are very secret No general Rule is extant whereby such Medicines may be obtained What shall we do Where shall we seek unless we can find the Path of Nature is general we shall not be able by Art to answer her deficiency in particular The Pious and Learned Silurist in his Silex Scintillans hath something fitted to this purpose where he saith When Nature on her Bosome saw Her Children dye And all her Fruits withred to Straw Her Breasts grown dry She made the Earth her Nurse and Tomb Sigh to the Sky Till to those sighs fetcht from her Womb Rain did reply So in the midst of all her Fears And faint Requests Her earnest Sighs procur'd those Tears That fill'd her Breasts What is most natural is most fit to be exemplary and will seldom fail those that follow it But to rake the Volumes of the Dead when their Sense is buryed with them to find Understanding is as irrational as for the Blind to endeavour to discern Colours Besides it is a great undervaluing of Mans own Capacity Natures Bounty and God's Blessing to judg what hath been once done may not be done again For altho their Medicines be dead with them or obscured yet Nature is still in being and her Lord the Dispenser of every Virtue lives for evermore loves his Creatures created Medicines for them and never faileth to impar◠Gifts to the Sons of Men according as they stand capacitated to receive them But if we think the old Metho◠of the Ancients set the natural Part thereof aside which is the least Particle thereof which is already known and found to be uncertain to be sufficient for Diseases which were not then in being it is as much as to fit one Hat to every Head and one Shoo to every Foot Let it be inquired how Remedies came first to be known seing we know Man is born into the World with the least Capacity to help himself and then Knowledg must either arise by instinct or by being acquired by Experience or be attained to by Education or by Something beyond all Assuredly Education cannot rightfully assume to it self the principal Place for it is most certain that that Knowledg which is real must either be taught from Natural Instinct or be acquired from Observation And if from either of these whensoever new Diseases happen must not the Cures of the same naturally arise from one of them two because there is no Rule nor can be any for what was not in being before If no Rule then certainly natural Instinct or Experience acquired by Observation must be the only available and truly prevalent Medium by which the most certain and proper Remedies of such new Evils can be known Education in these Cases cannot help For 't is apparently manifest that all Education ariseth from certain received Principles of supposed Conveniency or Inconveniency and as the Principles are true or false particular or general so do they enlarge or diminish the Understanding What takes being from Experience is true if they who possess the same have a true sentiment of the experiment and well understood the Causes being sensible yet as it hath being from Effects it is not always presidential for the future But what ariseth naturally and hath the inborn Principles in Man for its Guide is the true Patron of all General and Particular Knowledg I call to witness the Testimony of all Ages and ask Who instructed the first Authors of Physick when there were neither Books nor
their Fore-fathers never knew thinking that Man who was made in the Image of GOD hath no Light or Guide in himself sufficient to direct Him to his own help or the help of his Neighbour O great Blindness What Man the Summary of all created things that hath an immortal Soul shall not that in him which descended from above be capable to distinguish what is fit for his help Shall Birds and Beasts have the priviledge to know the fitness of Remedies and Man be judged uncapable thereof Shall barbarous Indians and rude Shepherds Husbandmen or Old Women do greater Cures than the Learned Doctors of our Age O Shame For to be ignorant of what illiterate Persons know is a great reproach to the Learned if they pretending great knowledg perform little even in the Faculty of which they call themselves Masters and the other pretending little are able to do much more than they But this is because the One is excited by natural Instinct and the Other only by credulous reading Althô at present these things may sound harsh to the Ears of some yet being true and having Nature for their Foundation they will perhaps out-live the Enemies of the same and in this latter Age be as generally received as heretofore in times of Apostacy they have been denyed Our Ancestors in Art though vulgarly reverenc'd under the notion of Antiquity were really but the Infancy of the World 't is our Age which by following long after theirs is indeed the true Antiquity Why then should we dote wholly upon their Childhood-inventions and not rather having the advantage of Example which the Beginners must needs have wanted proceed and grow old in Understanding as well as in Time a Pigmey set upon a Giant 's shoulders may be able to see farther than Him The Second Part. OF THE General Nature of Diseases A Person is then properly said to be Sick when some Part at least cannot perform its due Action and whatever produceth that Infirmity is styled the Cause and that Disability of the Part to do its proper Office or Function is call'd a Disease of which some are Simple some are Complicated Simple Diseases are either Natural Preternatural or Contranatural Pardon the Coinage of the last Word because it seems as analogical as the Terms Supernatural Vnnatural Connatural and the like Of the first Sort are all Hereditary Diseases transferr'd from Parents to Children and may be considered under the deficiency of Parts transmitted Idea's or corporeal Venoms sometimes singly as when any weakness of Parts in Parents not labouring under any other Disease is conveyed to their Off-spring who have those deficiencies during Life in one measure or other yet are not at all thereby the more lyable to greater Diseases but to the trouble of Nature's exercise where that deficiency is except Nature failing in her own endeavour admit Retents of things to her further Disturbance which yet may easily be prevented by the help of Remedies specifick to the Parts But if to the weakness of a Part a material Evil be added then indeed the Persons if not quickly cleared of that Disease through the weakness of their inward Parts do either soon die or live a miserable Life Nevertheless even in the conveyance of such Morbifick Idea's if the Parts be sound and no accidental thing happen to give vigour thereunto they perceive nothing thereof for a long time as is observable in the Derivative Gout which a Child thô begotten by Parents strongly possessed therewith feeleth many times nothing thereof till 40 or 50 years of Age For it is absolutely necessary and essential to every Ideal Disease except Mental Evils to have material filths for the Idea to work upon For instance I have observed that those who have contracted the poyson of the Lues mummially and have otherwise been of sound Parts have had no tokens nor appearance thereof in several Years themselves and perhaps never may yet some of the Children proceeding from the same Bodies have been naturally infected therewith And likewise I have known other Parents Ideally defiled to have had Issues that appeared sound and free because Seeds admit not of ought but Idea's for 7 10 or 12 Years and afterwards that Ideal Disease by occasional Matter hath manifested it self apparently as an hereditary Communication Besides it is observed generally that those who are contaminated with that Disease by a seminal Contact have never any Sense thereof for several Months and Others on whom the Disease so acquired breaks out at any time are conscious of some disorderly Acts that have introduced Superfluities for captivating the Spirits without which that Malady when seminally induced is not made manifest But if the Lues be materially contracted then the soundest Body and the clearest Spirit escape not free from the sense thereof for many hours or at the most not for above 3 days because it materially affects the Parts discovers its proper Signs and manifesteth it self to be material and the Archeus striving against it produceth Sores and Fluxes in the Parts infected thereby to center the Evil in the Part to prevent its further progress in the Body by which means Gororrhea's newly gotten are quickly healed all the internal Parts being sound nor do they ever arise to the Lues except Means be wanting to keep them from further spreading For Material Diseases thô very venomous by reason of their corporeity are easier overcome than the spiritual or Ideal because they aseend not to so great an height as to captivate Nature so as to make her nourish the Evil without resistance except great Errors are committed whereas the Ideal do at first darken the Spirits and then make them subservient through insensibleness of the unmateriated Venom to prepare Matter for the existence and nourishment of that spiritual Evil and then is the Disease formed Now for corporeal Evils that are derived from Parents having their original from maternal Nourishments they manifest their cruelty so soon as the Child is born by one Sign or other evident to the Sense as by Vomitings Loosness Restlessness Thrush or Convulsions sometimes by Acrimonies external or otherwise by which their Lives are quickly cut off if they be not helped with Remedies that can fortify the natural powers to resist those Evils And that general Opinion grounded upon the defectiveness of common Remedies that Physick is not fit for Children hath in all probability cast away many that might have been preserved for material Evils how great soever they seem are seldom mortal if the internal Powers are strengthened by natural Medicines because the Spirit in them is not so vitiated as to nourish the Evil thô indeed a diseasy Idea imprinted upon the Archeus of a Child striveth to bring the Disease into act upon the advantage of every occasional disorder Preternatural Diseases so called because they have no Root naturally from Parents or from diseasy Seeds but are accidentally begot by variety of Distempers as the Spirit or Part is more
Feavers Solution oâ— the Joynts c. are properly calleâ— Diseases of Resolution I should now subjoyn a discourâ— touching the Forms and Operation of â—â—enomes foremention'd in this Theory but because they rarely come in play I had rather supersede that Treatise until the Doctors vouchsafe to allow them an Existence Wherefore I shall here put a short end to the General Nature of Diseases whose universal Work it is to put such an end to Ours The Third Part. A Proof of the former Positions by Practice NOw I proceed to a direct Explanation of my Practice in Cure of Diseases consonant to the Theory above given But because I have elsewhere spoken of Cures by me performed in the same Method from the Year 1657 to the Year 1665 I will discourse only of those Distempers that since that Time thô of the Progress and Determination of the Plague alone then raging I could write a large Volume have fallen under my Care and been Cured without the help of any of the Compositions of the Shops or commonly known Chymical Remedies both which kinds of Medicines I do in a manner tacitly disclaim as unfit to serve the extream Necessities of Nature yet have I so far allowed of them as they may in some sort or degree be of use in Cases less difficult well knowing that 't is only the Prudence of Physicians in a due application of Remedies specifick to Parts or Juyces which renders them serviceable to the End for which they were made Nevertheless for brevity sake and because in my Theory to this present Practice of Physick I have at large discoursed about this matter I shall say no more of them but go on by the Practice it self to prove the Use of General Medicines to be rational and true certain in Nature and confirmed by Experience In order to which I begin with the Plague in the Year 1665 and the Diseases of the following Years wherein popular Distempers the Relicts of the preceding Plague did sufficiently manifest themselves in their Vigour and reigned long to the Astonishment of those Doctors who the Year before conscious to themselves of the Deficiency of their own Medicines fit to resist that Malignity forsook their Patients in a time when their Skill had it been worth Esteem would have been of greatest Service Having affirmed Diseases to be either Simple or Complicated Resolved or Congealed as I must with Paracelsus acknowledg all Diseases are it is now time to speak of their Cures first particularly and afterwards generally In order to which for order sake I intend to give a short hint of Cures both particular and general in discoursing of which I shall be exceeding brief afterward by many Examples produced from my own Experience of more than Eighteen Years since the last Plague confirm the Truth of this my Theory by my proper Practice in a larger manner Therefore first I thus say In Congealed Distempers Remedies furthering Transpiration by resolving those acrid Powers that hinder the same are most conducent to the Cure of them But in Resolution of the Powers where Faintings and Palpitations are predominant there Constringents are most serviceable Yet open Tinctures by which Nature may as in a Glass see her own Deficiency perform both the one and the other more strongly or more remissly according to the Excellency of them Of the Plague IN the beginning of the said Plague I used all the known Anti-pestilential Medicines both of Ancient and Modern Physicians which I found would indeed provoke Sweats yet not naturally but by help of Cloaths where a great Burning generally was before the Sweats appeared By reason whereof Nature being wearied through such a forcible way of acting could not be supported sufficiently to the extirpation of that Venome so as to dissolve Buboes without maturation nor ripen Blanes or Carbuncles but by a long Series of Time and great Conflicts of the Sick which too frequently ended in Death thô the Plague at that time was not come to the height of its Malignity Perceiving this I had recourse to my own Medicines which I had formerly found successful in most Feavers For by these Remedies such as came to me upon the first Assault if the Chyle was infected and any Fulness remained in the Stomach they usually Vomited at first and presently after fell into Sweats without preceding Burnings or the help of Cloaths And the Sweats for the first 12 or 24 Hours were like drops of Water from a Bucket for largeness yet was there not any Depression of Spirit but more ease and greater vitality or liveliness and the Continuation of the same Sweats was pleasant and refreshing by which Means Buboes dissolved and in the third Day at farthest the Malignity was separated And thô the same Remedies were continued yet after that time no Sweats appeared otherwise than was usual in an healthful Person the Time and Season being considered But where Blanes and Carbuncles appeared there Sweats were not so great nor so continual but usually on the third Day the Blanes and Carbuncles opened and their Eschars were divided from the Living Flesh and digestion so followed into Matter that in a short time comparatively to that where other Medicines were used perfect Health followed The different manner of Assaults at that time In the first Assaults of that Pestilence some were taken with great shivering Pains in the Back and Head others were afflicted with Lightness of the Head without pain but had Tremblings and Palpitations of the Heart and sometimes Swoonings Some were assayled as with a Stroak Stab or Prick Others with Blanes Buboes or Carbuncles without any manifest Sickness at their first appearance My Method of Cure Under all these various manifestations except where great fear was I always used one and the same Method When they were first taken ill I ordered them to go to Bed presently and lay no more Cloaths on than they usually did in time of health then I gave them my Pouder in a spoonful of Wine Ale or Beer and I gave my Aqua Pestilentialis if taken with shiverings two or three Spoonfuls but if hot then but one Spoonful or one Spoonful and half perswading them to lye still which if they did Sweats presently followed and for their supports therein they were allowed Mace-Ale Posset-Drink Sack or White-Wine thin Caudle with a little Wine in it and either of these somewhat often repeated but in small Quantities My Aqua Pestilentialis was taken as often as need required sometimes once in an hour sometimes more and sometimes less as Occasion was My Pouder was repeated once in two four or six hours according to the Capacity of Nature where Diminution of Sweats and of Strength hapned it was often taken but if the Patients continued sweating and strong and brisk only once in six hours But if there seemed a Tendency to a Loosness which in that Disease was usually fatal my Coralline Cordial was often used a spoonful at a time every half
hour until the Signs of Laxity disappeared Where great Thirst was concomitant with the Disease I used my Simplex mixed into the form of a small Cordial Drink ordering one spoonful at a time to be taken into the Patient's Mouth and swallowed down leisurely as it were by Drops And if great Restlesness hapned through want of Sleep I administred ten grains of Salt of Hartshorn purified and dissolved in Cytron-Water or White-Wine Posset-Drink and repeated the Dose once in two hours not neglecting the foresaid Pouder This Remedy thus seasonably given seemed to me far more successful in relieving Nature in that Exigency than any common Dormative Medicine of what kind soever But if presently after the Assault there appeared a Stupor Drowziness and a slow Pulse then did I make a strong Cordial of the Simplex and gave of it a Spoonful at a time once in an hour not neglecting either the said Pouder or the said Aqua Pestilentialis till the Pulse was raised and the Sweats flowed free and then I proceeded in all things as before specified In great Fear thô I gave the Pouder at first yet I always used large Quantities of the Coralline Cordial to refresh the declining Spirits and to procure free Sweats which if attained then the Method before spoken of was continued to the end of the Cure In the Anguish of Carbuncles and Blanes I applyed outwardly besides the internal Medicines my Resolving Cerot and changed the same once in 6 or 12 hours according as the Dolours were more intense or more remiss For I had by sad Experience seen the fruitlesness of all Magnetical Attractives whether Mineral Vegetable or Animal nay the prepared Toads so famous in the Year 1603 testifyed of by Helmont and before him highly extolled by Paracelsus proved here of no use either to extract the Venome or prevent the Malignity of that Disease I here write nothing of Buboes because where my Medicines were used they never ripened but dissolved except where Patients were disobedient and unwilling to continue in their Sweats and so gave Occasion to the maturation thereof which thô but seldom hapning I then applyed only my Resolving Cerot as before and found the same as well in ripening as in resolving to exceed all Poultisses and Plaisters I ever used before or since Remarks upon the Carelesness of Patients afflicted with the Plague or their Attendants c. WHen some Persons using my Medicines had layn in Sweats for 24 hours more or less and found themselves seemingly well and free from all Disturbances or Sense of the Pestilential Venome they notwithstanding their Sweats continued large and free would needs rise out of Bed and so checked those Sweats inferring on themselves sudden Death For I always observed that no One having that Disease who did rise out of Bed before the third Day or at least before Sweats excited by the use of my Medicines had wholly ceased did ever recover except by that long and tedious way of Maturation of Buboes which then admitted not of Dissolution because after that time Sweats could never more be naturally excited Also no less fatal Errours were committed by Nurses and such as attended the Sick in laying on too many Clothes during the time of their Sweats for so doing Violence was offered to Nature and the Spirits oppressed thereby languished under their own Burthen and were no longer capable of help by any Means whatsoever Moreover where People in time of the Pestilence to please their Appetites eat large Meals or over-cooling Foods as Fresh-Fish all sorts of Fruits Melons Cowcumbers c. thô in a remiss degree yet if the same Persons were taken with that Disease great Vomitings and Loosnesses followed which did generally end in Death Because such Persons could not by any Remedies be brought to Sweat after the manner of those that lived Temperately and avoided like Excesses Also these Patients were wont for the most part to impute their extream Loosnesses and Vomitings rather to their own inordinate Eating than to the Power of the Plague then Raging and so sought not Remedies against the invading Venome but used particular Medicines according as the present and by them thought only Occasion required Whereas on the Contrary Those that lived Temperately and were watchful over themselves so as to take Remedies presently after the first Sense of any Assault of that Venome and followed the Order before prescribed very rarely miscarried For whole Families that have been large and infected have all escaped through their proper Care and Prudence in duly observing the Directions above given Yet which is to be lamented I have observed that when Spots appeared of what kind soever they were the Nurses and Tenders of the Sick seeing them were seized with so great amazement that they forsook all their former Care insomuch as they gave up their Patients for dead thô those Spots were not the direct Signs of Mortality For all I have seen having such Spots except One did recover But that Spot which whosoever was seiz'd with dyed under it had a round Circle dark blew and green after the manner of Mixtions of Colours in the Rain-bow and in the Center thereof a Crimson Spot that felt hard under the Finger in comparison of the Softness of the other Flesh. This in that Plague was the infallible token of sudden Death Therefore such Spots were rightly called Tokens Of the Griping of the Guts THis Disease for some Years especially the first after the Plague did sufficiently manifest it self to be a Relict of that Popular Distemper For this Malady Exceeded all other acute Distempers the Patients afflicted therewith usually dying at the third or fifth day The reason of this was because the Veins opening the Bloud flowed out like a Torrent and passing through the Guts no laudable Excrement could be seen in the Stools but Bloud and a Gelly-like Matter that smelt like boyled Horns The Pains were excessive Stools almost continual thô in small Quantities and until such time as by the power of Nature alone or through the help of proper Medicines the Bloud was restrained the Gelly-like-Matter lessened and Excrements laudable both in Odour and Existence began to appear this Disease was never cured My Method of Cure Upon the first Assault or great Gripings and appearance of Bloud or Gelly-like-Matter in the Excrements I gave my Pouder above specifyed in the Plague once every two hours my Coralline Cordial once every hour and applyed to the Belly Tripe parboyled which was laid on warm and when that waxed Cool or Smelt other warm parboyled Tripe was applyed By this Method the first Day the Bloud was restrained and the Pain somewhat mitigated The second Day the Gelly-like-Matter lessened and some appearance of Excrement shewed it self And on the third Day laudable Excrements were seen and the Gelly-like-Matter disappeared Then by continuing the same Medicines in the former Method large Sweats were produced which being continued in but one Day or two perfect Health
succeeded Nor did I ever know any One from that time unto this very Day perish by ahe Malignity of this Disease if they took my Medicines and begun with them at first according to this Order The Order of Diet by me prescribed in this Disease I ordered Gelly of Hartshorn to be given to the Sick and thin Broth made of Tripe or Sheeps-feet with Bread not Oatmeal boyled in it Beer and Wine I forbid till the Disease slackned I permitted Milk and Water with Mallowes in it to be frequently drunk in small Quantities at a time But where great Thirst was I allowed Posset-Drink made white not green with a little Canary or Malago Wine in it Remarks upon the Errors of Physicians at that time in administring common Binders Opiates or other Restringents In the Cure of this Disease I deservedly rejected all Common Binders or Restringents too much at that time used by other Physicians how specifical soever they were or might be supposed to be because I discerned that Nature being enraged by the presence of that Corroding Venome wanted only suitable helps to restrain her own Exorbitances I likewise rejected Opiats because they were uncertain and thô they eased Pains they cured not For I had well observed in this Disease That whensoever a forcible Stop was made either by Opiats or Restringents if Nature were not at the same time very strong then Light-headedness and sudden Death followed For such Remedies having no Power to expel the present Venome did only Stop the Passages by which Nature her Self intended to separate that Evil so that instead of being natural Helps they proved no other than unnatural Introducers of Death Of the Scurvy THis being the general Disease of our Country seemeth both Nurse and Tomb to all other Distempers The last Plague was buried in it For when that Pestilence waxed more mild it plainly exhibited Scorbutick Symptomes The Lues is by it so masked that its Original cannot be discerned Autumnal Distempers are hid therein and every preternatural Disease of what kind soever if not radically expelled by suitable Remedies discovers it self under a Scorbutick Form Yea Paternal Diseases thô very various do never appear without some Signs of the Scurvy commixed with them Hence it comes to pass that when Particular Remedies are applyed to Particular Parts or the Vices of them no General Medicine being in the mean time used thô they may cure or remove the particular offences of these or those Parts yet it is but as the Cutting off the Hydra's Head in stead of which many more appear Now as it is apparent that all these Diseases are covered by the Scurvy so it is no less manifest that the same Distemper doth both nurse and nourish them For the Lues becometh more mild through the dark cold and stupifying Nature thereof so that it doth not so often occasion great pains in the Bones between the Joynts as were usual when the Lues was simple and not complicated with the Scurvy but wandereth in the Nerves disaffecteth the Brain produceth Gouts of a new strain Rheumatisms Convulsions Palsies Vertigo's Lethargies Atrophea's Lamenesses c. In every of these Diseases thô particular which by the Ancients according to what we read of former Ages were well known and often cured yet at this time if they be remedied it is rather casual than real because the greatest part of those Patients that in our time have been thus afflicted were never cured by any Medicines of the Ancients unless in a long Series of time where Nature her Self was the Sole and Principal Actor but by General Remedies they usually obtained a safe and speedy Cure For it is clear that when the Lues is new shaped by the modifying power of the Scurvy that the Remedies usually successful in expelling and annihilating the Rage of that Disease proved notoriously inimical to Nature by reason of the cruel Qualities of Mercury by the power of the Venome of the Lues made corporeal Which Corporeity where the Lues is simple is found to be of great Use and Service in abating the Rigour of that Disease but when Scorbutical it rather increases than lessens the same as I my Self can by sad Experience testify and Hartmannus did many Years ago in his own Practica Chymiatrica and in his Annotations upon Crollius his Basilica Chymica sufficiently manifest the Inimiciousness of Mercury to Persons in any measure afflicted with the Scurvy yet he highly praiseth the Virtue of Antimony in Scorbutick Distempers which plainly shews he had a true Sense of the different Nature of such Diseases and their Remedies The Gouts of our time very rarely appear Simple For in all my Practice for 30 Years past I never could discern above three Persons afflicted with that Disease which in them was Hereditary that did exactly answer to the Descriptions of the Ancients all the Other have appeared rather Scorbutical than otherwise and been by me cured after the same General Method above specifyed But in every true Gout simple and not complicated as in this our Day all such Distempers generally are the tormenting Pain thereof is only in the Joynt-Water or Synovy between the Joynts not elsewhere whereas these Complicated or Scorbutick Gouts are attended with Pains in the Muscles Nerves between the Joynts and in the Vertebra of the Back in the Os Sacrum and Head Places never mentioned by the Ancients in all their Descriptions of that Disease as lyable to Arthritick Dolours or more or less to be affected therewith Therefore Having thus far given a brief but true Definition of the Nature of the Scurvy shewing how it intermixeth it self with other Distempers disguising changing and nourishing them I now proceed to Examples of Cures of the same Disease as it hath manifested it self to Us in these our Days under several Forms Example 1. A Man of good repute having for some Years laboured under great debility of Faculties with dejection of Spirit and Leanness of Body insomuch that the Physicians he then used concluded an Atrophea or Consumption to be present therefore as the best Remedy for One in his Condition they ordered him to suck his Wife's Breasts This Means he used and other Remedies by them prescribed notwithstanding which a general Lameness followed with a Palsey and great Convulsions which wrought so great Confusion in his Physicians that not knowing what to do further they gave him over for dead or uncurable After which Application being made to Me when I had well weighed his deplorable State heard what had been done and saw the lamentable Effects thereof I discerned that the Source of all was the Scurvy and that nothing could alleviate that Evil but Medicines of another Strain Therefore I first of all gave him my Scorbutic Cordial the Brain being deeply affected with my Pouder repeating that once in six hours and the Cordial as oft as he pleased At Night going to Bed I gave my Arcanum Metallorum and my Scorbutic Tincture 30
this Child I used the same Medicines as before but not without other peculiar Auxiliaries too long to be here recited nevertheless I purpose to speak of them when I write as I intend hereafter of Particular Diseases and the Remedies I used in Cure of the same Of the Cure of Convulsions in Breeding Teeth In the Cure of these Convulsions I have by Experience discerned that thô the former Medicines were effectually helpful in this Case yet if Incision also were not used the Cure was not so easily compleated Of the Cure of Ideal Convulsions In Ideal Convulsions I have experimentally found my Pouder and my Arcanum Veneris to be of general Use and Service but could not so speedily as I desired compleat the Cure by them without the help of particular Auxiliaries For in these Convulsions the Variety of Idea's is so great that it requires a Judicious Application of various Specificks Of Lethargies Coma's and Apoplexies These Diseases have all their Original from one dark and stupefactive Source where the Gates of Sleep continually stand open for such as are afflicted with them are either troubled with over-much Drowsiness or oppressed with Sleeps too profound These Distempers differ only in the Degrees of their Power In the two first there are only subtile Vapours by the Schools called smoaky which having their Assent from the Diseasy Power of Darkness in Us do after an obtuse manner stifle the Natural Faculties but in the Latter viz. Apoplexies they more intensly act and materially by Bloud or otherwise suppress the Faculties of Life and so absolutely overwhelm all the Powers of Nature that the Body or the Spirit thereof becomes wholly Insensible I have great Reason to speak of these Diseases in this manner having been much exercised therein If called in the beginnings of them I have found them to be sooner removed than several other Distempers of less danger for if the Spirit can be timely excited to strive against the Evil they quickly vanish What Medicines are helpful to One are really helpful to All the Dose only considered but I never found in any of these Cases any other than general Remedies to be profitable or available in exciting Nature to free her self from the imimpending Danger therefore Generally In Order to Curation I here begin with my Cephalic Drops which I give once and a little while after they have been taken my Arcanum Metallorum and 6 hours after that my Pouder and so interchangeably using my Pouder and Arcanum except that sometimes as I see cause instead of my Arcanum Metallorum I give my Arcanum Veneris I proceed always giving my Cephalic Drops once every hour during the whole Cure which is usually compleated in three Dayes time during which Sweats rarely happen until the Drowsiness be wholly over but now and then loose Stools And in real Apoplexies Nature stirs up Vomitings Sneezings Bleedings at Nose or else expels by Urine great Quantities of insipid Water void of Odour Note Where Vomitings are which usually precede an Apoplexy if any Physician endeavour to restrain such Vomitings or the Patients themselves be unwilling to bear them then they inevitably fall under the Burthen of that Disease A particular Example of the Method I used in the Cure of a Lady of Sixty nine years of Age. THis Lady alwayes dreading an Apoplexy by reason her Relations had often dyed of the same desired I would give Order in Case of a sudden Assault what should be used Whereupon I left with her Woman some of my Arcanum Metallorum giving charge That if the Lady were suddenly taken with Vomiting o◠Lightheadedness she should give that to her first and not the Pouder thô she was formerly used to take it and to send immediately away for me because she then lived four Miles ou◠of London This Assault happening my Arcanum given and I sent for ◠hastning thither found her drowsie thô the Cold and Stupidity were somewhat less than before the taking what I had left for her I then gave her the Arcanum Antimonii Basilii which is not used or known by any one else that I can tell After the taking of which Warmth increased a little Sneezing hapned Vrine came away abundantly insomuch that in six hours time there was above 3 Pints of Water received void of all Urinous Odour or Saline Tast. The Head grew hot Bloud issued by Drops at the Nosethrils these Actions happened in the first six hours after the Assault After this the Spirit became more lively and the Bloud more frequently issued out at Nose and Mouth which continued more or less for three daies together In the mean time her Sleeps were short but refreshing Then my Pouder was given every 4 hours my Arcanum Metallorum once in 12 hours and my Cephalic Cordial once an hour And in four daies time all Symptomes of the Disease vanished Weakness only remained Note This Cure being taken in hand before the Brain was fully stupified the Remedies had the greater Effect for I have to my Grief too often seen the same Medicines prove useless thô the Dose was given in a threefold Quantity and where they were serviceable to prevent the Evil they did not bring away so much Bloud but caused Sneesings and Vrine in like Quantity and Frequency Also I have observed that Direct Vomitories given in this Disease as they too often are are as dangerous as things repressing Vomits before the Patient is throughly seized with the Disease but after the Stupor is at its height a forcible Vomit if it operate strongly enough may do good otherwise the Patient certainly dies The same may be said of Sacrification Phlebetomy thô that carry a seeming Conveniency in Sanguineous Apoplexies Blistering Clysters and other forcible things which cannot separate the Sanguineous Matter except accidentally only therefore are uncertain helps whereas Medicines of an Vniversal Tendency and truly gifted act just as Nature requires and so frequently act with greater force and certainty than any of a Specific operation can do But there is too often a great failing in Physicians that they discern not Apoplexies before they seize and so cannot contribute help for preventing them which is much to be bewailed Of Imposthumes IMposthumes are as various as the Juyces of the Body yet all of them have but one Original which is the Retents of Superfluities not capable to be separated without Apertion of the Skin except such Remedies be used that can further the Resolution of what is Congealed or Stagnized which Resolution so procured yields more ease to Nature and is performed with less Anxiety than when turned into Quitter For it is clear if Nature can separate things without Corrupting them her Government is not then much blemished in the performance of which General Medicines are only capable to assist her Here Books must be laid aside all Recipes dis-esteemed conclusive Judgment and all Indications neglected but Nature wholly tended and referred to We in the mean while by a due
increased and heightned by various Venoms the Relicts of popular Distempers and complicated through the Vices of Life and want of an unspotted vitality in our original constitution Besides it appears that the World it self waxeth old the Powers thereof are much altered all the external Virtues of its Superficies are declined but Metals and Minerals that have not known the force of the external Air the great Propagator of Life and Corruption are less Partakers of the Universal Debility than those Things which exist chiefly by that Air. Not that they have not their Air also but it is otherwise qualified rather to forward their Compaction and concentrate their Virtues than to corrupt them By which means they seem to be appointed since as to our Air they share an unspotted unchangeable Life as true Succours to withstand the Impressions of our external Air and the many Changes and Complications of Diseases that reign amongst us But Vegetables by reason of a seeming decay of Vigour in the Elements or the declining State of the External Virtues of the Worlds Superficies thô they have many Excellent and Peculiar Endowments which wisely used may be sometimes serviceable in the Cure of the Sick when freed from their Terrestreity and Grossness that in their Reception they put not Nature to too much trouble of Digestion yet if they be not so universalized by Vnition that they no longer serve under their particular Gifts they indeed cannot contribute any thing to Nature in her most deplorable Cases Whereas Mineral and Metalick Virtues being more concentrate have more universal Dispositions and so are more fit to serve Nature to all intents than the other For Minerals and Metals are not specificated to this or that Person or to this or that Disease but to the Properties of Nature in her first Operation in Bodies by which indeed as to the noble parts of principal Members one Mineral or Metal may be more suitable than another but as to Diseases and Persons there they solely act according to Nature's deficiency and so become true Succours because when they are prepared as requisite they are not transchanged in the Body the Light and Vigour or Ray of them being the Medicine So that the Substance of them passeth away unalter'd as to weight and therefore not being touched by our Ferments bringeth less trouble to Nature than one spoonful of Wine would do And this is because there is no reaction of Nature upon them as in other Medicines but if they be administred in so weak a state as before separation of the form they are cast out by the Draught then they are altogether useless Minerals and Metals have their Gifts from GOD not from Man's Art For Art doth not confer Virtue but by separating the Shell discovers the Kernel And their implanted Virtues are for our benefit posited there and not to be concealed neglected or slighted as things not to be used because Envy and Ignorance have condemned them for by that means the End of their Creation would be frustrated which will seem to the Rational an evil conceit Shall Wheat be contemned as unfit for nourishment because it hath husks or Almonds for their hard Shells I write not of the external Properties of Minerals and Metals but of their inward Parts in which is concentred a more vital Air than in other things by which they famously manifest their Universal Disposition Air we see above all things visible refresheth Man Now the Air inclosed in them is of an unsearchable power purity and penetration beyond what is in any single Concrete more friendly than ours wherein we breath for though it be lyable to it's Laws for transchangement yet its Virtues in order to Sanity are thereby not diminished But the external Parts of Minerals and Metals are indeed venomous and may justly be censured as altogether unfit to be relyed on for Succour in Diseases because they compel Nature to Expulsion and are not subservient to her in exciting natural Vigour except against their own poysonous hostility Therefore what hath been or shall be writ concerning this must not be understood of the Exterior Parts of Metals or Minerals or of the Medicines made thereof which are commonly known but of such Medicines as truly perform what I have specified by assisting Nature and are so vastly different from those of Common Use that their subsequent Operation can never be declared before they are taken to day they have one Action to morrow another and the third Day another as the Diseases happen to be changed by their Virtues As for Instance In all Acute Diseases if much material Vomits Stools or Vrine are largely provoked and then afterwards Sweats but after the Feavers are extinguished then Stools again till the Relicts are removed But in acute Diseases where there is more depression of Spirit and less Matter there Sweats arise at first and continue dayly till the Evil be overcome and then Stools for a Day or two according to the Relict and so they cease acting And all this is effected by the same Medicines which if continued from the Beginning to the End of Distempers will clearly manifest these Properties Now can any One imagin that this variety of Actions in one and the same Medicine in the same Body and in the same Disease is any thing else than the Action of Nature seeing it is evident that Vomiting and Purging Medicines never become Sweaters or Binders except Nature through Incapacity of expelling them falling under the Burthen of their Venome sends forth Sweats as Signs of an evil Guest Whatsoever therefore doth so directly fortify Nature as to make her act every way suitable to her own Necessities cannot be any other than Virtue and seeing it hath pleased GOD to implant such Virtues and Powers in Minerals and Metals no unbyass'd person will say 't is unfit they should be inquir'd into Medicines thus endowed are more safe than others as never performing ought that can be injurious seeing Nature only manageth them and they Purge not when they should provoke Sweat nor do they Vomit when purging by Vrine or Perspiration is required they leave no Relicts in the Body for they are clean having all unnatural Impurities removed The Child new born the Woman new layd the most aged and most weak safely take them without any the least dammage ensuing therefrom I write not this conjecturally but from the Experience of more than Twenty Years For these Remedies having an universal Tendency not working by Vomit Stool or Sweat upon the sound do only in the Sick Operate as Nature findeth most convenient and so are only her Servants but other Medicines that have not so universal a Disposition thô in former Ages when Diseases were more simple and had rarely any thing extraordinary in them they might be very profitable yet now they cannot be used without Danger For where Nature her self is undetermined a Remedy that hath not a Gift to reach the Life and strengthen her