length they worm out the life this like a nimble Arsenical combustible Mineral Sulphur sets roughly upon the vital Taper and with a quick malignant Blast extinguisheth it and that as it were it devours ore operto 2. This contagious Ferment is conceived either from within or from without the body from within as when an Idea of fear impresseth itâ— character upon some more then ordinary putrid excrementitious matter residing in the Intestines or in the ultimate digestion and the Idea clothes its self with corporiety in the putrid excrement of the body and the putrid matter becomes spiritful in the Idea and both together become by irritating and invigorating one another a fermental poyson which makes its on-set upon the vital Archeus entring the lists of contention therewith and by this virulency that they have one wrought the other into it becomes contagious so that every spark and vibration of this fermental fire retains the Idea and platform of the whole pestiferous contagion Vnica prava pecus c. For though one who is infected with this pernicious and most-what mortal Disease doth infect another yet doth it rage never awhit the less in the first nor is it in the second or he who is infected at the second hand any thing less though but a spark of the first or original so that every vibration though as to conception never so little of a fermental contagion retains the seed and that the whole platform of the Disease it self inasmuch as every ferment is as an Imp or Scion of a Fruit-tree which hides in it self the image of the whole Tree and wants but time and the conspiring of seasons Art having Nature for its ground-work to shew forth the Idea of the same Tree it was taken from both as to leaves flowers and fruit so that seeds are small in bulk even scarce imaginable and yet these according to the appointment of God in Nature have ferments annexed to them whereby the Idea's of things assume to themselves the elemental water for a body wherein they display the lively images of what lay dormant and not perceivable before in their minute corpuscles of Seed All which solves us this Medical Phaenomenon viz. How it comes to pass that those who most fear having the small Pox spotted Feaver and such like diseases which have a degree of virulency in them and therefore are a kind of Pest in an inferior manner how such I say who are most afraid are the soonest infected as I knew a Physician who had such an inbred fear against the small Pox that he would scarce if at all venture into a house where any was troubled with that disease and yet for all his curiosity of avoiding plates was snatch'd with it at length even in the flower of his years and â—ied I say it appears to me from what is laid down afore what may â—asily loose this knot and that is The Idea of fear or terror may so work upon an excrement even of any of the digestions for every digestion has its way of separating the impure from the pure which is nutrimental as to cause that excrement yet to degenerate further even to a putredness and in that â—ntred matter the Idea becomes corporeal and the putrid matter in the Idea becomes active and pestiferous and both become fermental and so work upon the blood and spirits defiling them with that inherent inquination and spreading Miasm whereby the vital flame burns dimly and at length becomes through the prevalency of the fermental Miasm quite extinct Hence it also appears that every Disease that has any thing of a venenum or venome in it as all manner of malignant Feavers are also fermental and therefore apt to propagate themselves by contagion oâ— infection some more some less according to the degrees of the conceived virulency And as the noble Helmont saith whom I confess to have given the greatest light to these conceptions that every Disease as other natural Beeings are constituted of an efficient and a material cause which two make up the complexion and essence of a Disease as well as of other positive Beeings for every Disease saving some casuall obstructions which may also fore-run other more complex Diseases has a root or beginning either in the digestions liquid juyces of the body as blood and other nutritive humors spirits or solid parts and after that a growth or spreading into branches or symptoms which carry along with them the Idea of the efficient and procatarctick or irritating cause which was forg'd in the Minera morbi so that the symptoms are proportionate to the efficient and bears the badges thereof as receiving its signature therefrom even as the fruit of a tree is answerable to the Idea lodging in the root a Pear-tree bears the Idea of the whole both in the root and in every Scion and the fruit thereof is Pears answerable to specifick difference of it from other trees and fruit For the outward natural life of the body if considered as in health and its integrity is as a flourishing Tree that puts forth grows florid and fruitful Which has all the digestions in right frame every one in their order and all its organs depurated and free from obstructions and offending sordes the blood freely circulating with its crimson hue in its own twisted Meanders of veins and arteries the motion of all the parts brisk and lively and all conspiring in that one point of co-incidence the health and flourishing of the body But if the seeds of Diseases as commonly through the evil access in nature they do become sown and grown up together with the life then they break the former harmony of health and life and shoot forth branches or symptoms answerable to their seeds or roots which disturb the oeconomy of the natural digestions and pervert the order and method of nature and at length subvert the whole frame of the Microcosmick fabrick and that much the sooner if the inseminated morbid seeds prove acute as in all sorts of common Feavers venomous fermental and contagious as in small Pox spotted and camp-Feaver and all other malignant Feavers the greatest of which the Plague these presently put to flight the vital forces and strangle Nature with her own cords by baffling the digestions and stifling the vital powers As from within the body so likewise from without may that unwelcom guest take â—nne which appears by the many ways that contagious Disease may arrest the body as for example the pestilent odor may lurk in old rags garments paper sweepings of houses stone-walls or any other body whose texture renders it capable of retaining those contagious Effluvia's which rebound either from infected places or persons and for ought I know even in the body of common Salt it self may the pestilent odor reside because that Salt in its coagulation acquires an impure halicuous sordes whereby it exasperates the Scurvy and may be retentive of a malignant fracedo or contagious hogoo
Zenexton Ante-Pestilentiale OR A short Discourse OF THE PLAGUE Its Antidotes and Cure According to the PLACETS of the best of Physicians HIPPOCRATES PARACELSUS and HELMONT By W. Simpson Philo-Medico-Chymic Opera danda est Chirurgo ut vires gemmarum herbarum radicum ac seminum coelitùs infusas ad pestem accurate cognoscat Paracels Chirur. Magn. p. 22. LONDON Printed for George Sawbridge at the Sign of the Bible upon Ludgate-hill 1665. TO THE READER Candid Friend I Have ventured here into a Bottom which whether it sink or swim in the Vulgar Opinion I matter not I have exposed my self to Publick View in the penning of these few Lines a Hazard I confess sufficient to have discouraged a Tyro to lie open to the Carpings of some and to the Criticalness of others byassed and prepossessed persons had not my Genius been born up by the satisfaction of the Truth of what I write and that from a good end and therefore have candidly imparted those grand Secrets of Hippocrates and Helmont against a Disease that at the writing hereof was on the increasing hand And therefore I shall say to the unbyassed Reader that I thought in my own breast I should do no small piece of Service to my own Country especially in such a Juncture as this in describing the Nature and Essence of this so direful a Disease as the Plague and also that we might not only know where the Malady lay but also be instructed where to find a Remedy Therefore I have set open one Gate into the Magazine or Treasury of Chymical Medicines whereby we may be furnished with at least some Spagyrical Antidotes which may by the blessing of God be useful in their places I shall I confess much wonder if many Errata's be not committed both by Me and the Printer seeing I have endeavor'd to huddle it up in haste having not had past eight days time since I begun and that too snatch'd from my other Affairs of my Elaboratory repairing of Housen and other domestick and abroad-Business Some perhaps will be ready to impeach me with Tautology in repeating the words Idea Ferment Archeus c. so often over to which I shall truly say That I was ready to accuse my self thereof but could not without impairing the sense leave them forth for though as to my self I could well have often forborn them yet I espied a flaw often if they were omitted which might easily invert the sense of the sentence therefore I rather let them pass If this be favorably received its probable it may give encouragement to the divulging of somewhat else in Chymical Physick viz. the fruits of my daily Labors in the Spagyrick Science In the interim peruse this with an unbyassed judgment and pass not sentence till thou knowest thou art a competent Judg. Farewell Thine W. Simpson Zenexton Ante-Pestilentiale c. TO give an account to the World why I attempt so difficult a Task as to treat of the Pest or Plague that greatest of Contagions that ever was in the World whereby God is pleased to permit multitudes of people to be swept away and thereby as it were to thin the Earth And not rather leave it to riper judgments and more mature understandings whose grey-hair'd Experience if nothing else might be deem'd to set off these Arcana Naturae abstrusiora or more hidden secrets of Nature with a better and more resplendent lustre I say the reasons why I set upon this Work which some may and that perhaps not enviously think unproportionable to my shoulders is First Because I have not seen as yet another step forth with his Bow and his Sling against this great Goliah which may probably if not prevented by Divine Providence either raising up Instruments who may shew forth his Wonders that he has planted in Nature or by a more immediate hand stay the Fury thereof may I say knock down thousands of people ere the sting thereof be dinted and therefore calls for some to stand up whose Names are written in the Volume of Nature as well as of Grace to shew forth the Wonders of the Most High 2. Because God has not left us destitute of means even in the most deplorable cases unless he has determin'd the ruine of a Family a Town a City Country or People through the crying sins thereof and for that purpose has planted in his wonder-works of Nature such a Treasury as therein to be found a Remedy for every Malady which are not often handed forth to the unworthy though otherwise never so industrious upon selfish interest who are like those that grope for light at noon-day who in the midst of light are yet in darkness but it pleaseth God the Primitive Author and Fountain of Nature to enlighten those in Him accepted persons with his gift of light and knowledg in the things of the outward Nature so as they may be enabled through his inspiring light from whom every good and perfect gift proceedeth to single forth those Specifick Remedies as they lie in the bosom of Nature against every Malady and Infirmity to which Humane Nature in its outward being is most prone who likewise are taught to exalt those Medicinal properties according to the intention of Nature to their highest energy and efficacy We therefore who are Sons of Pyrotechny and wait for our Diploma from the Most High are by the blessing of God succeeding our endeavors in a better capacity of making our grand inquests into the secrets of Nature the Hand-maid of God than those loiterers in the Vineyard I mean the Galenists who like the angry Wasps neither work themselves nor yet would willingly suffer others lest by the fruits of their Labors which at length will overcome the dronish Galenists in time be degraded who now according to all probability seeing a better light to Physick springs up from the anatomizing Art of Chymistry are at the declining hand 3. The third reason may be from the imminent danger and extraordinary urgency and necessity of the present time whereby this Nation is threatned with one if not more of that trine of those epidemical sweeping Judgments which God permits to come upon the face of the Earth when his wrath is stirred up by the exorbitant vanities and crying wickednesses of a People so that many Moses's had need to stand in the Gap and cry lest the Vials of wrath be poured forth after an extraordinary manner upon a gainsaying People And seeing as the Wise man saith that of the Most High cometh healing and that the Lord hath created Medicines out of the earth and he that is wise Will not abhor them And that God hath created the Physician And therefore the Wonders of God in his creation of Medicines out of the earth ought not to become as Cyphers through ignorance and unworthiness but by the strength and enabling power of God to improve our Abilities and Talents which he has bestowed upon us that we may not hide them in a
Napkin but improve them to the utmost every one in his capacity and order in his generation to do what good he can for we are here as Steward 's every one intrusted with a Talent to improve which who lays out to the best advantage and doth the most good in his place receives the greatest Reward of the Heavenly Donor 4. The last reason and that which as to my own particular was instar omnium was the bent of my own Genius which I confess has been captivated amongst the rest of my Spagrrick Inquiries after a peculiar manner to search for an Antidote and Cure of some highly malignant Feaver which I was apt to think might ere long appear upon the Stage of the World as an epidemical Disease and certainly the Plague is the highest and most malignant of Feavers It was the current I say of my own inclination prompted by an inward hand that led me that way that I could not but take notice of It was that amongst the rest of my Fire-works that put an edg upon my desire of doing good in my generation that I might not be found in idleness drolling away my precious time either in vanities or in empty speculations but in experimental essays of those Medicinal Vertues which otherwise lie dormant under their shells and husks seeing God keeps his Jewels of hidden Energetical Vertues such as are Healing Endowments of things under Lock and Key as I may say and will not let them go unless the Artist have the Key from him who thereby is let into the secret Meanders of beautiful Nature and sees the many and yet orderly windings and turnings in that great Labyrinth where indeed Healing is seen to be the gift of God Now that I may buckle to the Point and in short but compendious discourse waving prolixity may signifie the essential nature of the Plague its manner of surprizing and destroying the body also the probable way of Antidote and Cure if curable that so we may not appear altogether barren in the Theory The Plague therefore is a certain virulent and contagious Ferment conceiv'd from without or within the body seizing upon the vital Archeus or spirit of life with a kind of fear and terror and boyls in the blood and in its fermenting impresseth its malignity upon all the principal parts and humors of the body whereby the blood presently putrefies and sends forth bubo's sores stigmata c. the immediate badges of its mortification and so works in the blood and spirits til such time which is speedy as the vital Lamp burns dim and shortly becomes extinct much like a malignant combustible halituous Mineral Sulphur which is sometimes found in Mines under the earth which blows forth a Candle and sometimes stifles the vital fire of the Laborators First I say it is a virulent and contagious Ferment viz. A poysonous and infective operating power now Ferments are certain powers in Nature whereby all things are put into a way of change either for good or bad for Ferments are the Parents of transmutation out of one form into another or from one degree to another whereby things are brought on to their highest energy either for good or bad by Ferments fixed things are made volatile and volatile fix'd they are the keys of Nature whereby great changes and alterations are made in bodies Now every thing that has a vegetating life has also a ferment implanted in it which is a certain working power whereby the wheel of Nature becomes stirring and active in that beeing and demonstrates its self in the several gradations of the same thing both in its production increase acmn full growth declining and at length passing off the stage into another form Now as Ferments are indemonstrable à priori inasmuch as they are certain original operative powers which God has implanted in every natural beeing and therefore there is not any thing prius or before them by which they might be evidenc'd what they are but they shew themselves sufficiently that they are and what they are by their fruits effects and symptoms which are demonstrations à posteriori and sufficient to evince the truth of their existency as for instance that natural digestive power which God has plac'd in the stomach of all creatures whereby the Aliment that is taken in though of several sorts of food is all reduced by the analyzing vertue thereof into an acid cremor though taken in with other properties of sweet bitter c. and so turns all into a primitive prepared juyce for the nourishment of the body after its transits through other digestions fitted for the same purpose to bring the nutriment on by several degrees to become a balsamick spirituous liquor fit for irrigating and nourishing the solid parts which no solitary heat though never so artificially contrived could without these innate digestions or ferments ever bring to pass therefore they demonstrate themselves to be and to do what no other things can be or do besides themselves In like manner the Pest as also some other Diseases are entia realia viz. real beeings which have a beginning an encrease and growth a fulness of stature whereby they either conquer that which they rise up against viz. the vital spirit or they are conquered and begin to decline and are as other natural beeings transmuted into other forms Now I say the Pest is not demonstrable à priori though the spirit oâ— the humane life as considered in its integrity and soundness is pre-existent before the seizing of the virulency of the pestiferous ferment yet then they are as two distinct beeings which at their encounter strive for masterhood as two Antagonists or Champions striving to vanquish one another Insultat hostem c. And though the Pest have a real existency in its self as for instance its lying dormant in rags vestments flax walls c. Wherein it has yet all the lineaments and proportions lurking within its own sphere and as really the same beeing of the Plague or pestiferous ens as if it came in combat with the vital spirit yet I say as to us and as to the effect it would work it is as nothing or a meer dormitant ens that lieth buried in its ashes unless it be contemper'd with our humane Mummy and then it becomes an actual and fermental pestiferous entity producing its various effects and symptoms within the sphere of the Microcosm mostwhat to the ruine of the vital structure and doth not as most other diseases which with the suine of the vital flame extinguish â—lso themselves but out-lives the â—â—fe and skips into another body to â—ct the same scene over again after â—s tyrannical a manner as ever viresque acquirit eundo It is a poysonous ferment to the life and therefore in its fermenting or working it inverts the whole frame of Nature and what other diseases effect in a long time by as it were often biting and nibling and obscuring the vital flame till at
Those bodies which will not admit of the pestilent odor amongst Metals Gold though it may lurk in the sordes that casually may adhere to Gold and it may be polish'd Silver amongst Minerals possibly Mineral Cinnaber sulphur and that also all Pearls precious Stones and Amber which three last besides the politeness of their external surface which will not easily no more will other polish'd bodies admit of that venomous vapor their intrinsick specifick vertues may be a defence to them against that virulent odor whose vertues also may probably make them become tutelary to those who use them as for instance a piece of red Amber which a Spanish Chirurgion as Helmont relates used as his only Zenexton or preservative for three years together being Master of the Pest-house which he us'd to rub upon the seven principal and Planetary Pulses viz. upon both temples wrists ancles and left brest wherewith he was preserved as Helmont observes though the rest of his assistants taken away by the Plague Now as the Plague is as by what is declared a virulent and contagious Ferment conceived both from a pestilent Miasm arising from within or from without the body so it seizeth upon the vital Archeus or spirit of life with a kind of fear and terror For a noxious Ferment cannot work nor shew its propagating symptoms upon a cadaverous body inasmuch as a dead body cannot be infected nor can be stung with any Viper or Serpent because it wants a vital principle which we call an Archeus for the venom or infection to work upon so a potential or actual Cautery the last whereof may stigmatize and burn a dead body but neither of them is able to raise a blister swelling or other vital symptom and that because all blisters swellings pustul's inflammations pains or other symptoms which arise from infection or from biting of venomous beasts are vital products whose spring is immediatly from the very fountain of life the Archeus it self which disgusting those virulent impressions and hostile exotick Ferments as also all outward casual perplexing accidents of bruises bites wounds burnings scaldings dislocations c. doth shew its own vital strength in opposing the injury done to it by those vital symptoms of swellings fieriness frequent pulses and protrusion of the adjacent latex to the injured part as buckets to allay the scalefire The Archeus therefore is that in us which first feels and perceives the pestilent ens and becomes infected therewith shaping an Idea of fear and terror upon the most degenerate excrement of the body which is as Helmont saith the Tartar of the blood which speedily contracts a pestilent fracedo and becomes the seminary of this most-what mortal Enemy by putting on the form of a Cadaver or dead body whence the Archeus becomes more powerfully invigorated in its own primitive frightful Idea which also gives entrance for the seminal pestilent character to lord it over all the digestions by putting a stop thereto and causing an inward putrefaction to overspread the whole body whence mortal symptoms and at length death it self ensue Now the Plague surprizeth the Archeus with an Idea of fear after a twofold manner viz. both by an external fear as I may call it which comes from the hearing of such a mortal unfrequent tyrannous infectious Disease stirring abroad whence oftentimes a present horror shakes a man at the unexpectedness and uncothness of such news and those who are most startled with the novelty thereof are the soonest apprehended thereby for Idea's of fear and terror are not meer empty nothings nor yet meer entia rationis nor are idle but become more active by induing forms and assuming corporiety in the putrid excrements of the body more readily I say and more actually in some persons then others For we see there are some constitutions and tempers so far different from others that though they may have Idea's of sorrow heaviness melancholy by external crosses and thwarting providences yet those Idea's seize not upon the body so as to put an anxiousness and restlesness upon the spirits nor to become a Remora to the digestions and induce a tabes from a fretting nature but are laid aside and they are cheerful even in the midst of otherwise grieving Idea's Whereas on the other hand some are of such a fearful nature that Idea's are not only begot in their imaginative part as well from privative as positive objects but also these Idea's hew forth to themselves shapes and assume corporiety so as to become real morbid Entities to the prejudice of health nay hazard of the life it self hence wastings and consumptions from solicitous anxious careful thoughts or Idea's which often accelerate old age and make a man become gray and withered before he be well arriv'd to the prime of his years But I have not time to exspatiate And as from an external fear so also from an internal fear the Archeus may be surprized with a venomous and pestilent ens as when from some infectious air contaminated with unwholesom smells the Archeus secretly and inwardly and that it may be without the expectation or supposition of the party is seized upon with a strange kind of fear and terror which it keeps lurking within its own bosom and so hatcheth its own Cockatrice-eggs which at length become a lethal poyson to it self With this Panick fear the Archeus of the wisest and the soberest of men may be insensibly taken so as not only to shape and foster a Morbid Idea but also that that sickly Idea should incorporate it self into an excrementitious matter and become at length determin'd in a common and more inferior Disease or else in a virulent Ferment which works retrogradely upon the whole frame of Nature and hastens the terror of terrors Death Of the like nature with this fear of the Archeus which begets the Pest in the vital part is also those fears though seizing after another manner which surprize the Archeus of those who have a secret antipathy against any particular thing who can give no rational account why they have such a fear or horror upon them at the presence of such an object nor why they disgust such or such a thing with an utter detestation as for instance that some will sweat tremble and fear at the sight of Cheese another will have dread at the sight of a Cat a third will have an Idea of horror at the sight of a Toad another will sweat tremble and be in a kind of Agony at the presence of a Paper put under the bottom of a Pye which though not seen by the eye yet the Archeus is such an acute discerner of things that can by an intuitive kind of inspection presently discover what is friendly but chiefly what is inimicicious to it not that the object is really so as it is apprehended by the Archeus for then it would be so to all which jet we see daily experience saith to the contrary Therefore these disgusts are
of viz. the Pest In which Disease the putrefying â—erment is so great that if any of â—he Archeus his forts be safe I mean if any part of the blood be free from putrefaction the Archeus flieth thither as to his safest Port and there sculks awhile in ambush â—till the malignity either overspreads the whole blood and Archeus or else that the Archeus gains by retreating the more forces whereby it makes more conquerable assaults upon the vital enemy Hence it is that if the blood be â—â—t forth by opening a Vein it â—roves mortal both in this and all other malignant Diseases because the most pure and untainted part of the blood and where the Archeus chiefly lodgeth which is the Pillar of life is thereby exhausted and the putrefied part only lesâ— which is become a meer Cadaveâ— and hasteneth all the rest of the parts into a likeness with its selâ— whence death inevitably Where fore in all sorts of Feavers the Physician should seriously consider and weigh whether there may noâ— be somewhat of malignity in the Disease whose Diagnosticks hâ— propounds to himself as the rule 〈◊〉 proceeds by in the Therapeutick oâ— Curative part lest he order a Phlebotomy where there is a degree oâ— malignity and virulency that anâ—guis sub herbis in all infectiouâ— Feavers Therefore not only in the Plaguâ— but also in the small Pox camp-Feavers spotted Feavers putrid and other malignant Feavers the letting of blood is most dangerous if not presently mortal for it takes away not only the weapon Nature has to contend with but also her very Champion the Archeus and â—aves her destitute of help to strugâ—â—e with a potent enemy therefore she must needs flag and fall before his fury And indeed to tell you the summ â—f my thoughts I must needs say that bloodding is not only dangeâ—â—us and mortal in malignant Feaâ—â—ers but unnecessary in all other â—eavers though if any the Pleuâ—sie may seem to plead a necessity â—ut to whom Only to the Galeâ—â—sts who know no better remedy through their poverty in Chymical â—reparations of noble Medicines â—â—ea it is impertinent in most Chroâ—â—ick Diseases and also dangerous where the Ferments or Digestions â—f the body are weak the blood imâ—overished for want of due circulation restagnating in the parts and a through-want of illumination from the aura vitalis or vital â—last And lastly where all the powers and faculties are at the dâ—clining hand as in all lingering wasting and consumptive Disease where to let blood is to pump Nature of her very best Treasury I must confess I have found 〈◊〉 experience that some persons have found sensible good in some disease giving them a temporary ease but if their disease be Feavers they liâ—ger long before they come to theâ—â— full strength especially if blood wâ—â— drawn when Nature was brought to a low ebb for then it cannot regaiâ— strength nothing neer so soon aâ— when without blooding by a powerful Medicine Nature is helpeâ— and returns to its strength Alsâ— I have found that if Nature bâ— strong and some exotick pains oâ— some other slight Disease that arisâ— from the too great repletion of the Veins as sometimes Megrims and Vertigo's pains in the head c. which arise from the intumescence of the bloody vessels of those parts or else from a pungent acidity either in the blood latex or aqua lymphatica which may prick the Nervous and Membranous part of the Brain I mean the Pia-mater where in defect of other Medicines which may correct that spurious acidity and transpire the superfluous lat ex which swell'd the vessels blooding may be a little indulg'd but not with too prodigal a hand Also those whose sanguinious springsource is of a vegetating and strongly encreasing property may in some cases have a little indulgence herein though with moderation For if the spring of the fourth Digestion which is the Port to sanguification be veget the water I mean blood may be exhausted better and with less loss then where this spring is faint therefore those who according to the common Dialect say their Liver is strong and begets great store of blood taking for granted the common notion of sanguification in the Liver may a great deal the better bear the loss of blood by Phlebotomy and perhaps too may finde some present REMEDY for their MALADY especially if they have been accustomed to be blooded in the like cases because custom habituats the Archeus to an expectation of the same again and repeated actions become a second nature But to return but before I leave this subject let me add one thing and that is this That by blooding Nature oftentimes becomes so languid that if a Disease follow after she is not so able as with its wonted strength to give a strong repulse to the invading enemy which watches the slips and defects of Nature to trip her up at her weakest point for hereby her weapon the blood which is the seat of life is surreptitiously taken from her Now to the point in hand The blood boyling in the vessels from a virulent ens impressed therein ferments and like an evil leaven from which as also from the working of Eiquor hath the name Ferment had its original works till it have moulded all the principal parts and humors of the body into its own likeness in manner of a gangrenated Ulcer which feeds upon all near it and by its venomous Ferments turns all as far as it goes into its own likeness of mortified flesh For the blood has in this Disease got such a poysonful Ferment or leaven in it as that it ceaseth not inwardly to putrefie till it either mortifies the whole or a stop be put to its venomous progress In this inward putrefaction of the blood the outward parts are not long free from the Contagion but breaks forth in one place or other or all over in its own characters viz. Spots Bubo's swellings Sores intolerable pains c. which are outward badges of the inward mortification for no Ferment can rest till it either have a stop put thereto from some other more powerful supervening Ferment or have over-run the whole so that the outward is signed by the inward in respect of that concatenation of inward and outward parts Now if this pestilent Ferment putrefying the blood and in its making its issue forth contracts and centers its self in one place if within twenty four hours after the Contagion has not universally overspread the whole whence death inevitably then it is an argument that a stop is put to its spreading inward Gangrene and the outward issue is a Magnet which attracts or at least by which other proper Magnets may attract the virulency and poyson from the whole But if the contagious Ferment acts furiously within and that there is an obstipation or locking up of the Pores those little Portals through which sometimes the infectious odor is let in as also sometimes le ts forth the same poysonful
Gasi then it commonly kills before any greatly manifest symptoms of the outward parts break forth till after an expiring of the vital spirit the virulent Ferment goes on to over-spread the vegetative life in the last digestion which it doth after death and so I say the last digestion viz. of the solid parts becomes also infected and breaks forth even after death into spots pustul's and swellings for in these malignant Diseases where the venome first seizeth upon the vital parts or center and so spreads to the outward parts or circumference the vegetative or growing life or property which lodgeth in the ultimat digestion viz. of the solid parts is the last that 's wrought upon and slain whose badges do betray the Serpent that lurkt in the blood The intolerable pains that happen in these outward swellings come from the anxiety of the vital and animal spirits I mean the Archeus for those divisions of spirits are but different vibrations of one and the same Archeus which is sadly opprest with the close dogging of this virulent Ferment that has got footing in the Cottage of life The Virulency in respect of its great corrupting property has an acute acidity annexed thereto which pricking the nervous and membranous parts of the body especially of the part where the Contagion works to a head in the swelled place somewhat like to the pricking pains of the Pleurisie though more eminent in degree which proceeds from a punging acidity in the blood whereby it becomes Nature abhorring its hostile enemy therefore where it hath strength thrusts it forth hostile to the Archeus and is therefore extravasated out of the azugal Vein into the Plura and there by reason of its acidity which yet has not arriv'd to any virulency which is hostile to the Veins and Membranous parts lacerates and as it were by pricking tears the Membrain of the Plura which is a most sensible part thence comes those smart pains and stitches frequent in that kind of Feaver But in the Plague the corrupting acidity differs from others in that it has a contagious Ferment adjoyning to it and what the acidity causing pains and boylings in the blood and what the virulency causing a gangrenating property through the whole this Disease becomes determin'd into the most deadly enemy to the mortal life And from the boyling of this venomous leaven in the blood proceeds those direful symptoms which accompany this Disease as an inquenchable thirst which would drink all before it because of the fermental fire that centers in the bosom of the blood which boyls up continually in an anxious dark fire-source darkens the vital beams which should be irradiated through the whole and makes the lamp of life burn dimly For this outward temporary life of ours which at the best since the fall is caduce is truly and really a vital lamp or a luminous ens of a middle nature between the immortal Soul and the Elemental Body and is as the acute Helmont well calls it pedissequa or receptaculum animae immortalis not only the Hand-maid but Cottage of the immortal Soul or if I might call it the lowest Sphere to which the Soul is banish'd since it fell from the upper Sphere of Paradise where now its conversant amongst those Spinae tribuli those Briers and Thorns of Morbid Entities or Diseases and passions which disturb the otherwise pure and serene oeconomy of the generous Soul as it is born in the divine light The lives of all Creatures as Helmont saith are entia luminosa Dei dona Beeings of light and gifts of God implanted in every Creature for the governing the structure of the body with both the signatures of the life and inward spirit and also the stage wherein the Magia thereof produceth its wonders this spark of fire or light which quickens every body gives life motion sense capability of accepting or eschewing what is either of a like nature or what is of a different from its self and gives all the concomitant products of life is yet but a little in bulk and yet puts an activity into great bodies which otherwise would fall of their own weight ruit ipsa mole This is that Plastick principle that shapes every thing in the Embrio puts on the watery Element for an outward garment and appears in most delicate forms sporting it self according to the appointment of God in Nature in great variety to the wonderment of the great Spectator Man who if he be born with eyes cannot but admire the wisdom of the great Creator who has plac'd a vegetative spark in every Plant Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum If these lights are darkened the Creature falls into disorder deficiencies and weaknesses if it be extinct the body falls like a cadaverous bulk That which I would aim at herein is That seeing the outward fragil life of man consists in a spark of light which is a warming nourishing and inlightning lamp to the body is therefore exposed to all those many dangers which may hazard not only the dim dull and obscure burning ef the lamp of life but also the extinction of the same amongst those many puffs and blasts that hazard the extinguishing this vital flame that malignant blast of the Pest as also of other contagious fermental Diseases doth the soonest stifle the same and that because such infective odors are very active and nimble and therefore insinuate with their venom the more intimately reaching to the very root of life These pestilential Odors or Hogoo's surprize the vital flame of insected persons not much unlike the malignant Mineral Arsenical sulphur which is found in Mines that first darkens a Candle and at length blows it out which also they in effect do the same to the workers in the Mine by sometimes stifling their vital flame by the poysonful Arsenical vapor that comes out from the Caverns of the earth where there is as well unwholsom nay poysonous breaths as well as healthful Thus you see I have as succinctly as I could run through the description of the cause essence manner and symptoms of this devouring Disease the Plague together with some transient hints of other malignant Diseases so that Ex ungue leonem from one you may learn to measure another and them all in their own proportions and dimentions you may espy iâ— you observe a secret concatenation or cementing together of the notions laid down in order to the through discovery of this Monster though I confess much shorter then I might have done if I had time The nature of a Zenexton HAving thus determin'd the essence of this Disease it 's now time to discover if we can what may possibly concur to the assistance against it as also what may conduce probably to its Cure For the way to seek a right Remedy is first to be throughly satisfied of the Nature Cause and Essence of the Disease which may make way for a due application of Antidotes and
moisture â—f her Brain and so mortified the â—ptick Nerves from their present â—ork as that flagging they suffered â—e Pupil of the eyes to be extended â—nto that magnitude as we call a â—utta Serena whereby she was wholly blind but by the blessing of God I ordered her after other advice somewhat of Volatile Spirits both inwardly and also up her Nostrils which did super induce an irrigating moisture in the Pya-mater and Optick Nerves whereby the Nerves were again brought into their wonted posture and the Pupil contracted and shâ— in a short time receiv'd her sight again by the great mercy of God To whom be Glory That which I aim'd at in the fore said instance was That though Sulphur may by the fume thereof taken too immediately into the seâ—citive Organs prove hurtful tâ— Membranous parts or genus nervosum yet when it is taken ln the medium of another thing the Acidity is castigated and the fume oâ— odor thereof is as a Balm or Condiment that runs aloug in the Digestions leaving its Gas in every Stage as it posts from one part of the body to another So much for Sulphur as considered in its Gas or imbalming Odor Now as for Sulphur to be taken inwardly in its own substance requires a previous preparation therefore Hippocrates gives his though a very slight one because in his days Chymistry or the art of Anatomizing things into their constituent principles by a retrograde Analysis was but in Embrio and scarce got into swadling Clouts though considering the Genius of his time he was one that had as great an insight into the Wonders of Nature as any man then his preparation was a levigating it with water upon a Marble and then drying it and though this way may not want its commendation in the effect yet a better prepared one cannot but must be more efficacious in respect that all Minerals are but in a way of melioration I have therefore a Sulphur by me elevated from a few imbalming Vegetables whose vertues may not be a little contributary to the graduating of its preserving qualities which I give in Feavers that has any thing of malignity as a powerful Alexipharmick And as his preparation of Sulphur was sleight so his preparation of his Salt was but in the way to a further exaltation by depuration c. which let be spoken without any unhandsom reflection upon so noble a Physician For though he did thereby free his Salt from those peregrine halituous vapors which orderly are inherent in common Sal marins yet a terrestrious part was left therein which might dull it in his seasoning property so that both the terrestrious and Hydropick superfluities may be removed its depuration must be higher by taking away that which defiles it and exposeth it even to the contamination of infectious Odors which the pure part is free from For seeing it must help to absterse those fracid Impurities in the stomach got by the degenerating of the Ferment thereof after invasion of the Pest its self ought to be pure and clean The Vehicle wherein these are to be taken is a generous Wine and that hot lest given tepid it should cause a nauseousness upon the stomach With this he orders infected persons to sweat much given for three days together and that twice a day sweating for four hours together if they can bear it and during the time of sweating they are to have no kind of drink and after sweating they are to be fed with Cream of Barley and for their drink pitch'd Wine with a little of the aforesaid Powder For a Topick or outward application the leaves of Asarum Macerated in Vinegar plac'd hot upon a Bubo to the soles of the Feet and wrists of the hands which after twelve hours then stinking strongly he orders to be buried which by a secret Magnatism attracts the virulent contagious matter out of the body by those Emunctories whether Nature drives it Also clothes dipt in Greek Wine in which a little Sulphur is boyl'd therein applied to great Bubo's All which argues the Sagacity of the Noble Hippocrates who so levell'd his Medicines as that they might directly hit the Mark aim'd at that whether we consider his inward or outward Remedies or both they all strike at the virulent contagious Ferment and mortifie the Pestilent vennum and then Nature thrusts it forth of its own accord either through many small port-holes the Pores or the proper Pestilent Emunctories the Plague-sores There was another Arcanum by which as Helmont saith Hippocrates got Divine Honors and that was made of Vipers flesh by cutting off their heads and tails taking off their skins which together with the guts and gall was rejected only the heart and liver was reserv'd the flesh with the foresaid bowels and bones were bruis'd together and dry'd to a Powder which Powder was sprinkled with dispum'd Honey and to the palliating of the secret The Aroma of the Country was added the reason of which Arcanum working so strangely as by a poysonous creature to take away a poysonous Disease I shall not now stand to shew only this in short that every poysonful noxious creature has its Antidote plac'd also in it by the appointment of the great Creator who in his great work of the Creature has plac'd the Enemy which appear'd in the fall and by it stands his healing Vertue the badge of his Presence according to the capacity of the Creature even in the same very Creature and that as the Pestilent Infection is from a certain venome so this venenous Creature as is probable the like from other Sepents contains a singular Antidote there against but I forbear As for the Diet of infected persons it should be that which is light and easie of digestion and but very sparingly taken for as in every Feaver so especially in the Plague the Digestions are defective and therefore apter to corrupt the body the more food is taken according to Hippocrates his own Aphoaism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean bodies by how much the more they are nourished so much they are the more hurt or corrupted Helmont commends the Potion of Hippocrates to which he adds Ginger and the Black-berries of the Ivy concerning which last I remember what the most ingenious Boyle saith in one place of his experimental Philosophy that he had an Arcanum communicated to him from a person that had cured many of the Plague in Ireland which was the same aforesaid viz. a good Dose of the Powder of fully ripe Ivy-berries to which in the same Disease the juyce of Horse-dung was a Succedaneum both which us'd to work plentifully by sweat and Helmont saith concerning his that they are Diaphoretick and grateful to the Stomach So that Diaphoreticks is most proper in this case and not Solutives Phlebotomy nor swimming because the first liquates the blood into a Putrilage a second robs Nature of its sanguinary Treasure and the third shuts up the Wolf in the Stable by locking up the Pores keeps the virulent Ferment within which therefore works the more powerfully in its infecting the inward Vitals Thus I have run through the descriptiou of this direful Disease with its Symptoms Zenextons and Cures which I confess is short and it may be defective which yet is pardonable because huddled up in hast in respect of the urgency of the Season that seems to threaten no less then an Epidemical Disaster which God in his mercy avert or accomplish his own work thereby which no doubt will redound to the good of his Chosen And though naturally few Nations there are but one of three Judgments of Famine Sword or Pestilence reach them once in tweenty years space and that I say grounded naturally because where there is no one of these in any Nation or Country the Natives encrease so fast and multiply in such multitudes that unless they were swept away they would even over-run one another and as it were devour one another or prey upon each others Possessions so as to become burdensom to the Earth therefore a Beesom of wrath comes once in 10. 12. 15. or 20 years and sweeps away multitudes As to the foregoing Remedies against the Plague the Zenexton and Hippocrates his Alexipharmick I look upon as the most eminent which I have partly ready by me together with other assisting Medicines and the rest scarce yet finished but will be in a very short time even in a few days Other Medicines also proper in other cases I have by me having a Spagyrical Apparatus medicinalis which I have not now time to speak of June 26. 1665. From my Elaboratory at York FINIS