of this Distemper does plainly appear in the several Stages or Degrees of it as well to our very Reason as to Experience from what I have already said and therefore I shall not propose my Prognosticks though found out by much Practice and Experience after the usual manner that is like a Dictator and Magisteriously any further than as they are confirmed by Reason and proved the Nature of the thing it self As for instance Every Consumption of the Lungs is Chronical First Every Original Consumption of the Lungs strictly speaking is Chronical though when we compare them one Consumption may be more quick than another and in that respect may be said to be Acute But let it be whither it will it is always very hard to Cure because it depends upon a load of Humours and a stock of them heaped together in the Habit of the Body which cannot be emptied or drawn out by any sudden Crisis like a Fever and other Distempers that are properly called Acute A Consumption in the beginning is curable Secondly But yet in the beginning when the Lungs are only stufft yea in the Second degree of this Distemper when the Tubercles are already bred from a long stuffing and whilst they remain crude and not so subject to be inflam'd and ulcerated a Consumption does admit of a Cure as well as other Distempers but especially in the Spring-time which is wont mightily to conduce to this Cure whilst the Sun is advancing towards us It admits of a Cure I say either true or at least palliative according to the Nature of the Swelling and the present state of the Blood from which there arises a Swelling more or less Malignant and apt to be inflam'd and ulcerated To wit a true Cure as often as these Swellings being but few and benign happen to be dissolved by the Art of Physick And a palliative Cure so long as those Swellings can but be kept from an Inflammation and Exulceration Though the Cure is sometimes only palliative by the help of Balsamick and other such-like Medicines By which means it comes to pass that the Patient though he is sickly and subject to Fevers even upon every little occasion yet is able to do his ordinary business and many times lives to grow Old The Reasons why it is thought incurable And this Distemper comes to be reckoned such a stubborn and incurable Disease either because the Patient being deceived by the flattering Nature of the Distemper or through carelesness and the fear of Charges who commonly sets a lower Price upon himself than any thing else comes to desire the Physician 's Advice too late which very often happens or else lastly through the Ignorance of the Physician who not having a true Understanding of this Distemper in the several degrees of it knows not therefore how to treat it in a due Method Thirdly but a confirm'd Consumption A confirm'd Consumption rarely cured together with the Putrid Fever that is added to it caused by an Inflammation or Exulceration of the Lungs does very rarely admit of a perfect Cure But yet if it be but a small part of the Lungs that is ulcerated and the Matter be benign and contained in a proper Bag the Life of the Patient may be preserved many Years by the careful management of himself and the use of proper Medicines but he will be always sickly and subject to a Putrid Fever even upon the least occasion The more Acute the harder to Cure Fourthly A confirm'd Consumption by how much the more Acute it is by so much the more difficult it is to cure because it depends upon more Malignant Tubercles and is accompanyed with a greater Colliquation and likewise a quicker decay and loss of strength An hereditary c. Consumption generally Mortal Fifthly If a Consumption be Hereditary or proceeds from an ill conformation or make of the Breast for the most part it is Mortal because the cause which produces it lyes beyond the reach and power of our Art Very hard to Cure when 't is got by Infection Sixthly A Consumption that is got by Infection but especially whenever that Infection is derived from one that has an Acute and Malignant Consumption is when all other Circumstances are alike more difficult to cure and for the most part more Acute and Fatal than other Consumptions A Consumption in young Persons is very hard to Cure Seventhly A Consumption in Young Persons by reason it is more Acute and apt to bring a Putrid Fever sooner is harder to cure than when it falls upon one that is of a greater Age where the Blood as it is less disposed to be hot so it threatens a slower Fever and not so sudden a destruction as in the flower of their Age where all the Essays of Nature are made with strength and violence It cannot be owed in the Autumn or Winter Eigthly A Consumption in the Autumn or Winter though it may be relieved by a careful management and the convenient use of Medicines yet it can never be perfectly cured without the benefit of the Spring and of the approaching Sun For as the vesiculous substance of the Lungs is almost continually penetrated by the Air and by the Decree of Nature is blown up in the farthest corners of it by the continual succession of new Air that is driven in and out by Respiration so the present state of the Air must necessarily be of very great moment seeing it may either hinder or promote the Cure of this Distemper as it is found to be wholsomly dry and warm or unwholsom by being cold and cloudy So that the due constitution of the Air contributes not only to the Preservation of the Lungs when they are out of Order but also to their Cure more than the most pompous heap of Medicines which cannot be conveyed into the Blood and the Part affected so continually or in the same quantity as the Air is And therefore 't is usually in vain to expect the Cure of a Consumption in the Winter-time and in Autumn to wit whilst the state of the Air being cold thick and moist and consequently unwholsom does continually promote the Distemper more than a store even of the most proper Medicines can stop and check it when the edge of the most Powerful Remedies is taken off and their Efficacy weakned in this manner by the extreamly incommodious state of the Air. Ninthly Every Putrid Fever Every Putrid Fever promotes a Consumption though it proceeds meerly from an accidental Catarrh or taking of Cold does by heating the Lungs mightily promote a Consumption but especially if Bleeding be omitted in the beginning Tenthly An Original Consumption is harder to cure than one that is Symptomatical An Original Consumption of the Lungs is for the most part harder to cure than a Symptomatical Consumption because this last seems to arise not so much from the Habit of the Body as by
Whites that are of an ill Nature and Venereal when the Impurity proceeding from that Venom has once infected the Humors do often terminate in a Consumption of the Lungs unless they are timely and perfectly cur'd But of this kind of Consumption and of the Causes Degrees and Cure of it I shall Discourse more fully in its proper place to wit in the latter part of this Treatise when I shall professedly speak of a Symptomatical Consumption of the Lungs But for the present I do from a long Experience and Observation affirm that a Consumption does often arise from a simple or benign Gonorrhoea and Whites A Consumption sometimes proceed from a simple Gonorrhoea c. and therefore this sort arising from the continual substraction of the Nutritious Juice by the Seminal Glands must be reckoned under the Head of an Originary Consumption For in a Gonorrhoea and the Whites sometimes the Flux is so extraordinary and continues so long that the Mass is thereby plainly dispirited and rendred unfit for Nourishment whereupon the Blood being loaded with Heterogeneous and disagreeable Particles grows hot and at length a Hectick Disposition is by degrees brought upon the solid Parts and the Habit of the Body which is the same sort of Consumption that we are now treating of The presaging signs of this Consumption The Symptoms which presage this Consumption I have for the most part observed to be these to wit an Hypochondriacal Oppression Melancholy and too much Thoughtfulness with a decay of Strength and loss of Appetite in Men that are affected with a plentiful Running of the Reins but in Women that have been long afflicted with the Whites flowing in a great quantity a soft and blouted Habit of the Body a squalid and pale Countenance together with Hysterical Fits a remarkable Weariness and decay of Strength all which Symptoms proceed from the same cause to wit from the poor dispirited Nature of the Blood caused by a want of new Chyle whereby not only the Spirits are weakned and opprest but also the Habit of the Body is rendred Oedematous from the waterish disposition of the Blood as it is full of old and dispirited Chyle And therefore the Signs which presage this Consumption are as I said before Hypochondriacal Oppressions Hysterical Affections a decay and want of Strength a blouted habit of the Body and a want of Appetite Which Symptoms in progress of time that is when the Distemper comes to be confirm'd are followed also by some others as a Thirst a Hectical disposition Atrophy and wasting of the Flesh till at length the Body is plainly brought to the highest degree of a Consumption and that very often without any Cough or any other remarkable sign of a Consumption of the Lungs This Distemper is easily cured if the antecedent cause of it can be removed that is if the Gonorrhoea and Whites can be cured When confiâ—med it is incurable But when it comes once to be confirmed it is plainly incurable And therefore a Prudent and Honest Physician that is carefully concern'd for his own Reputation will not do well to undertake the Cure of it but ought rather to take his leave and walk off from such a Patient after he has made a Prognostick of his Death and so he will be just to his Art and may satisfie his Conscience though he loses some Fees and defrauds his own Pocket But if the Physician be sent for in time What a Physician is to do in the Cure of it when he is sent for in time he ought to do all he can by all proper means and a convenient Method to stop the Gonorrhoea or Whites which are the cause of this Consumption Which thing we shall speak of at some other time and shew how it is to be done in the Chapters of a Gonorrhoea and of the Whites This efflux of the Nutritious Juice being once stopt by Art we must endeavour with all our Power to replenish the dispirited and impoverisht Blood as soon as may be with new oily and benign Chyle And therefore as we hinted in the former Chapter such Food as is delicious and affords a good Juice and is most grateful to the Patient's Palate and Stomack must be given often in a day though in a little quantity at a time And that his Appetite may be the more excited let him be advised to be chearful For there is nothing that destroys the Appetite and confirms a Consumption more than Grief and Sadness Let him also enjoy the advantage of an open and benign Air which is very beneficial to the Nerves and consequently to the Appetite and Stomack Let him likewise use Exercise every day and rubbing of his Body even to the procuring of moderate Sweats if his strength will bear it that the load of old dispirited and unprofitable Chyle with which the Blood-Vessels and Habit of the Body are stufft may be sweated out to make more room for new and useful Chyle and consequently for the improvement of the Appetite in the Stomack But he must Religiously abstain from the liberal use of Wine Spirituous Liquors are to be avoided and Spirituous Liquors which are wont to put the Blood which is before become too hot No considerable Evacuations are to be made into a greater flame Let the Physician also take heed he does not prescribe any Purges or any Medicines whatsoever to procure any other considerable Evacuation which may create farther Expences to Nature when she is already weak But if a Hectical heat even in the least degree be kindled in the solid Parts he must presently endeavour with all his Industry to quench this flame by the use of Asses Milk a Milk Diet and of such Mineral Waters as are Chalybeate CHAP. V. Of a Consumption proceeding from Apostemes and large Vlcers I Have always observed that Apostemes Large Vlcers in any part may cause a Consumption and large Ulcers let them happen to any part whatsoever of the Body whether external or internal if they continue long and throw out much Serum or waterish Matter have at length rendred the Body of the Patient Consumptive and that even to the degree of a Fatal Consumption and I can say I have taken notice that these kind of Ulcers do bring on a Consumption as well when they are in the Muscles of the Back and in the Testicles yea in the Knee and the Foot as when they are in the Kidneys or Liver or in the Lungs themselves Besides that I have often observed that a Consumption of the Lungs has come upon these large and old Ulcers The cause of this Consumption without all question is the long and plentiful substraction of the Nutritious Juice continually flowing out of the Mass of Blood by the Ulcers The reason of this Consumption whereby the Blood which remains in the Vessels being deprived of its Oily Nutritious Juice does grow sour and contracts a Preternatural heat and is
Medicines such as the Balsamick Syrup Leucatella's Balsam c. As for Example Let the Patient take every Night Leucatella's Balsam Conserve of red Roses of each half a Dram or two Scruples with three or four drops of Balsam of Peru. Or a spoonful of the Balsamick Syrup truly made twice or thrice a day either by it self or dissolv'd in a draught of Sarsa Drink Or half a Dram of Balsam of Tolu made up into Pills at Physical Hours drinking a draught of the Sarsa Drink after it Or if there be no Feverish Heat let him take twice a day eight or ten drops of Natural Balsam mixt with a little Sugar-candy But when the Ulcer comes to heal Care must be taken that a Consumption of the Lungs does not follow upon healing of the Vlcers there must be a great deal of care taken lest a true Consumption of the Lungs follows in the room of a common Consumption from the substraction and loss of the Chyle which indeed does very often happen For this passage by which the Nutritious Juice uses to run off being now stopt by the Surgeons and Physicians Art if the Blood still remains dispirited and does not recover its former Balsamick and Oily Nature it is wont to grow more hot and sharp and thereupon that sharp and hot Nutritious Juice which was used before to be thrown out by the Ulcer it usually comes now to cast off upon the substance of the Lungs as being spungy and apt to receive the Humours Whereupon follows not only a stuffing of the Lungs and upon that a difficulty of Breathing but also a considerable swelling of the Glands which do often enough happen in these parts and upon that a dry and troublesome Cough yea a Heat and Inflammation and thereupon a Fever not only a Hectical one but also a Putrid or rather Inflammatory Fever and at length an Apostem and Ulcers with a Thirst and want of Appetite all which do at last end in a fatal and confirm'd Consumption of the Lungs The Signs which threaten it must be attended to And therefore as soon as ever these external and remote Ulcers begin to heal the Physician ought to make what Observation he can to find whether the least degree of a difficulty of Breathing or any other sign of an Affection of the Lungs comes upon it Yea if the Appetite continues weak or if but the least degree of a Preternatural Heat in the Habit of the Body does appear If they appear what is to be done which may give us the least occasion to suspect a Consumption of the Lungs the first Attack and Progress of it ought to be prevented with all the Physician 's Power in the manner following Let several Issues be made the Head shaved the use of the Balsamick Remedies before mentioned and the Sarsa Drink with the aforesaid Vulnerary Herbs be continued or for the farther temperating and altering of the Blood let the Patient be put into a Milk Diet and kept strictly to it For the same reason the Chalybeate Mineral Waters are here also of great use Also the Physician must make all the hast he can and disburden the Lungs that are stufft by Pectoral and Pulmonary Apozems expectorating Linctuses and other Medicines of that Nature which we shall afterwards describe in the Book of a Consumption of the Lungs before the Tone of the Parts is injured and a Feverish heat is brought on by the continual stagnation of hot and sharp Juices Let the Patient also have a very great care to preserve himself from Passions of his Mind Passions of the Mind Cold and violent Excercise are to be avoided and Cold and use no violent Exercises let him also abstain from the use of Wine and Spirituous Liquors which may make the motion of the Blood to and through the Lungs quicker than it ought to be and kindle a Preternatural heat in the Blood But if there be no suspicion of the Lungs What is to be done after the Vlcers are healed when there is no suspicion of the Lungs when the Ulcer comes to be healed let the Patient be enjoyn'd to be chearful let him be plac'd in a benign and open Air and eat plentifully of such Food as affords a good Juice but yet is mild and free from a sharpness and lastly let him use moderate Exercise by the use of all which the Blood may as soon as is possible recover its former Balsamick Temperate and Oily Nature and the Appetite of the Stomack may be increased By which Method we may not only prevent a Consumption that is coming but also cure one that is begun when it proceeds from external Ulcers as I have before discours'd more largely in the former Chapters of other Original Consumptions caused by the loss and want of the Nutritious Juice An History Mr. Wheatley's Wife near St. Sepulchres in London about Fifty Years old having been tormented for the space of two Years with an intolerable pain of her Loins first from an Inflammation and then an Aposteme of the Muscles of the Loins following upon the Inflammation was in progress of time by the uninterrupted pain racking her both Night and Day and by the continual loss of the Nutritious Juice discharging it self daily and plentifully into this Common-shore put into a Fever and at length brought into a Consumption and that even to the degree of a Marasmus with an intolerable Thirst a continual Weakness want of Appetite and want of Rest yet without any sign of a Consumption of the Lungs so that the poor Woman being always confin'd to her Bed lingred a long time crying out dreadfully as if she were ready to expire presently By reason of her mean Circumstances she did not ask the Advice of a Physician but thinking her Distemper to be the Stone in the Kidneys she miserably tormented her self every day with I know not what Medicines to break and dissolve the Stone such as every sorry Woman that came to see her did with assurance warrant should do her good But I being at length desired by the most Ingenious Dr. Tyson to go and see her and together with him observing the parts of the Loins to be swell'd and to resist a Pressure and perceiving the fluctuation of purulent Matter under our fingers when we prest it though it lay somewhat deep by reason of the thickness of the Muscles and of the Skin with the consent of my most worthy Colleague I ordered that after the application of a Caustick the Tumour should be opened in a convenient place Which was no sooner done but a great quantity first of clear then purulent Matter and a great Number of little Bags filled with a very clear Water at least Five Hundred gusht out with a great force We brought away for three Weeks or more taking out the Tent every day a great deal of Matter and small Bags filled with Water From the first opening of the Apostem her pains were
sometimes from the thickness and glutinous quality of the Lymphatick Juice that is separated in the Glandules from whence it comes to pass that it is not easily driven on nor thrown out by the very small and straight pore or passage of the Glandule And this is wont to happen to those that have the Kings-Evil swellings and such as have the Scurvy by reason of the great quantity of fixt Salt which their Blood has too much of From whence it comes to pass that Persons so distemper'd are more subject than other People to fixt and cold Swellings and those in the Lungs as well as in other parts of the Body and sometimes they dye of a very Chronical or lingring Consumption Sometimes also there is so great a quantity of Humour separated in the Glandules from a violent and great Catarrh that the excerning Faculty or Power by which the Part empties it self is plainly unable to throw it out From whence it comes to pass that the way by which new Serum should flow into it being stopt the Water which is then retain'd within the Glandules and stagnates there does by the Natural heat of the Part gradually turn to a dryer Matter and so into a substance that looks like Honey or is of the Nature of a Suet until the Tone of the Part being at length perfectly overthrown by being too much distended there follows an Inflammation and an Apostem upon it And for this reason a Consumption of the Lungs does often succeed to a Catarrh it self when a dry and hesky Cough comes in the room of that which was Catarrhous Which dry Cough is caused by a Tubercle or Glandulous Swelling occasioned by a Catarrh upon taking of Cold. Moreover it is easie to observe that a dry Cough The ill Cure of a Pleurisy c. sometimes occasions them and a very Acute Consumption do often come from an Inflammation of the Lungs a Pleurisy or some other Disease of the Lungs to wit because either through the neglect of the Physician or the timorousness of the Patient's Friends such timely or frequent or such plentiful Bleeding as is necessary to answer to the greatness of the Inflammation is omitted From whence it comes to pass that the Tone of the Parts especially those that are Glandulous being destroyed are never able to recover their Natural state again but here and there in those places where the Inflammation has before for some time prevailed there are hard Tubercles to be found dispersed up and down together with a dry Cough and a continual Hectick Fever from whence such Patients being once seized with a very Acute Consumption dye within a few Weeks for the Lungs having been before inflamed do very quickly Apostemate which brings on the last Scene of this Distemper with all the usual and fatal Symptoms accompanying it There is another Error in the Cure of this kind of Distemper no less fatal and that is Sometimes from the want of Pectoral Medicines when the necessary clearing of the Lungs from the Phlegm with which the Glandulous Parts especially are stufft is plainly omitted for want of using Pulmonary and Expectorating Medicines or when these Remedies are administred with too sparing a hand And much more Or from the unseasonable use of Opiates when that plenty of Lymphatick Juice which is separated in the Glandules is kept lockt up there by the unseasonable and indeed fatal use of Opium given in order to ease the pain From whence it comes to pass that although the Patient be delivered from the danger of the present Distemper which yet is very seldom the effect of it yet by those Tubercles or Glandulous Swellings which are left by this Method a ready way is made to a Fatal and Acute Consumption Which shews it self first by a Cough shortness of Breath and a Hectick Fever but afterwards does quickly bring on all the direful and fatal Symptoms of this Disease The most usual couse is some Spasmodick contraction of the Lungs But the most usual cause of these Tubercles is some little Spasmodick or Convulsive Contraction of the Lungs that is long and continual with the sense of a weight and oppression caused by Grief Fear Cares too much Thinking and other such-like Passions of the Mind For as the soft substance of the Lungs when they are contracted so long and continually comprest or squeez'd together is wont to grow hard of its own accord so likewise the Glandulous Parts of them being once deprived of their usual expansion are not able to throw or spew out be sure in a sufficient quantity that Lymphatick Liquor which was separated in them Wherefore no body has any reason to wonder that as a stuffing of their whole substance so likewise a hardness in the Glands themselves that resists a pressure follows upon it And thereupon it is easie to observe that as Hypochondriacal and Hysterical Persons are more subject than other People to a Consumption though it be a Chronical and lingring one so likewise that Distemper seizes them for the most part from the occasion of some Misfortune which thing does first cause Fear Grief Thoughtfulness or some other grievous Passions of the Mind and that long and fixt Secondly A Consumptive Cough 2. A Consumptive Cough is moderate in the day time in the very beginning as it is for the most part dry so in the beginning of the Distemper at least in the day-time it is mild and without any very great and vehement irritation and often returns by long and uncertain intervals But a Catarrh is in the very beginning fierce and almost continual It must indeed be confest that both Coughs are violent and troublesome enough in the night-time to wit a Catarrhous Cough because all separation of the soul Serum by the glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe and its branches is more plentiful at the time of lying down in our Beds but a Consumptive Cough because the Lungs are more constring'd and straightned in this posture of the Body Whereupon as the branches of the Wind-pipe being more comprest by the glandulous Swellings have upon this occasion more trouble from their compression So likewise there is a greater quantity of glandulous Liquor at such a time prest out of the Glands into the branches of the Wind-pipe by which the Lungs are more stufft and thereupon are likewise more provoked to cough And from this continual motion of the Lungs caused by the Cough proceed those pertinacious Watchings which contribute more than a little to the increase of the Fever which at first depended upon the Colliquative and Tumultuos state of the Blood Though I have sometimes observed especially in Consumptive Persons that have been Hypochondriacal long and troublesome Watchings without any Cough especially after their first sleep 3. A Vomiting after eating discovers a Consumptive Cough Thirdly as there is almost always a want of Appetite and a Thirstiness accompanying a Consumptive Cough so likewise a Vomiting
to great Sweating and to make much Urine so likewise to a continual spitting by the Salivatory Ducts to a hawking up of tough Phlegm from the Tonsils and to a frequent Cough proceeding from a continual spewing out of a Serous Liquor by the Glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe But this Scorbutical Lympha that is excern'd by the Tonsils and the other Glands though it admits of some Concoction yet as it abounds with a fixt Salt and is in its own proper Nature glutinous it has always some toughness The Cough in a Scorbutical Consumption is not violent and hereupon the Cough of this kind of Consumptive Persons though it be continual yet is not so violent and dry as it uses to be in others where the Serum that is thrown out by the Glandules is thinner whereupon there arises a fierce and troublesome Cough from the continual spewing out of that Serum by the Wind-pipe or at least a perpetual tickling molests them from the swelling of its Glandulous Coat whenever the Lympha does not find a convenient passage out of the Glandules and from hence for the most part there arises a violent and dry Cough From whence it comes to pass that in a Scorbutical Consumption by reason of the viscousness of the Matter that is separated by which the Coat of the Wind-pipe and of the branches of it is rather troublesomly besmeared than irritated the Patient is not so much provoked to Cough as he makes a Cough of his own accord to bring up the Phlegm that sticks and is troublesome to him But Asthmatical and hereupon this kind of Cough comes near to the Nature of an Asthmatical Cough and is attended with a greater Wheesing difficulty of Breathing Constriction and weight of the Lungs than we use to observe in other Consumptions This Consumption is very Chronical And from hence also a Scorbutical Consumption proves very Chronical and never threatens a sudden Fatality without a spitting of Blood or some other great Symptom coming upon it This kind of Consumptive Patients Every little Error makes these Patients Feverish though they spin out their Life to some length without any Medicines only by a due government and care in those six things called non-natural yet they live sickly and upon committing the least Error in their Diet or taking of Cold they are wont to be Feverish and to lose their Stomack The Signs that presage this Consumption The signs of this Consumption are especially two to wit a frequent eruption of Spots scattered up and down upon the whole Skin like the Miliary Shingles and a perpetual hawking up but especially in a Morning of Phlegm that is salt and troublesome thrown out by the Tonsils which is many times accompanied with an Exulceration and wasting of the Gums The manner how it is to be cured But in what manner the Cure of this Consumption is to be altered from the General Method I have already described I shall here briefly observe to wit Opium is hurtful First Opium is always mischievous unless it be upon the taking of new cold and then only it must be given to mitigate the Symptoms that arise from it because it makes the Phlegm more tough and hard to be expectorated Inciding Medicines are besâ— of Pectoraâ—s in this case Secondly Amongst the Pectoral Medicines those that are cutting and cleansing are alway to be preferred for helping and making the Expectoration easie or at least they must be mixt with others as Honey Mead Oxymel Gums and Balsams Wood-lice Syrup of Hedg-Mustard of the five Opening Roots the Balsamick Syrup But above all I commend my Balsamick Pills which I have already described the Use and Efficacy of which in a Scorbutical Consumption I have often had Experience of Antiscorbuticks must be mixt with the Pectoral Medicines Thirdly Antiscorbuticks must always be mixt with the Pectoral Medicines that at the same time when the flux of colliquated Matter is expectorated with the help of the Pectoral Medicines the Ferment that causes this Colliquation may be destroyed or at least abated by the Vertue of Antiscorbuticks Otherwise so long as the Cause is not taken away the Distemper it self cannot admit of a perfect Cure But we must make choice of the milder sort of Antiscorbuticks such as may cause the least heat and disorder in the Blood as Water-cresses Brook-lime Pine-tops the Leaves of Tun-hoof red Dock-roots Male Piony-roots c. of which a Bag may be made to be hung in Ale for ordinary Drink By which means the Volatile Salt of the Simples in which the Energy of the Medicine consists is better preserved than in Apozemes and so the Vertue of the Medicine is more freely communicated to the Blood and the Appetite is less injured by them Fourthly Steel is useful Also Steel is very useful in the Cure of this Consumption unless it runs hastily on to its Fatal Period If it be an Acid Scurvy then Salt of Steel will be proper a Grain or two of which may be mixt with every Dose of the Balsamick Pills If it be a Salt Scurvy Mynsicht's Extract which we have already taught how to give in the form of Pills Especially the Chalybeate Mineral Waters But in all Scorbutical Consumptions the Chalybeate Mineral Waters are to be preferred before any Artificial Preparation of Steel in the Summer-time if it be so the Consumption has not reached to the third degree because they are endued with an extraordinary power not only to open the Obstructions of the Nerves and to penetrate and dissolve the Tubercles but likewise to temper the Hectical Heat in the Blood and Spirits to quench the Drought restore the Appetite and to procure a Briskness and Chearfulness of Mind the Efficacy of which in curing this kind of Consumptions above any other Method of using Pectoral Medicines I have very often experienced with great Success And therefore I shall add at the end of this Chapter a History or two of their extraordinary Vertue in the curing of a Scorbutical Consumption But the use of them ought to be repeated every Year because this Chronical Distemper does not use to be overcome with one blow Fifthly If the Patient is costive What is to be done if the Patient is Costive the Purging Mineral Waters are here also very useful as also any Stomack-Pills before described by the help of which being repeated once or twice a Month my dear Father did happily prolong his Life in a Scorbutical Consumption for many Years Diversion and Chearfulness necessary for these Patients Sixthly The Patient must recreate his Mind and all Lawful means must be used to make him chearful For as this Distemper for the most part takes its Original so likewise its fatal Increase from Grief and disturbance of the Mind A Milk Diet seldom agrees with them Seventhly A Milk Diet seldom â—…ees with this kind of Consumptive Persons by â—eason of the Acid or
a Virgin that was Consumptive and as I remember dyed within a Year after she was married with an universal Colliquation and the other Symptoms of a fatal Consumption of the Lungs a few Months after her Death fell into a Consumption as I judg'd by Contagion To which fatal Disease an Haemoptoë prepared the way with which he was suddenly taken at Exeter and that in the Winter-time and he lost a great deal of Blood But as soon as his spitting of Blood was stopt by Phlebotomy a Milk Diet and Incrassating Medicines and he had recovered his strength in some measure being dismist by his Country Physician within a Fortnight which was much sooner than was fit he came back to London on Horse-back and presently sent for me But alas how much was he changed from what he was before I found the poor Patient very Feverish and always Coughing and extreamly wasted with a Colliquation that was now begun and troubled with a streightness and pains in his Breast I found it to be a mixt Fever partly Peripneumonick from a new Inflammation of some of the Tubercles partly Putrid from the purulency of other Glandules which had begun so soon to be ulcerated I judged the Distemper to be a very Acute Consumption of the Lungs from a spitting of Blood which as it was contracted by Infection so it was rendred more hasty and violent by his ill Government in his Journey and his return into our Air that is filled with the smoak of Coals The violence of the Pain and Fever requiting it I presently ordered a Vein to be opened but I took away but a little Blood because of the Consumption and Colliquation that was upon him Then I endeavoured at least to stave off this hasty Ruin for some time with temperate Juleps and Opiates and all sorts of convenient Pectoral Medicines Blisters and a due management in all things But all these things were to no purpose for within three or four Weeks he departed this Life with all the Symptoms of a very Acute Consumption of the Lungs CHAP. VI. Of a Consumption caused by Stones bred in the Lungs and by things slipt down into them from without as also by the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder Chalky stones are often bred in the Lungs I Have often observed Chalky Stones bred in the Lungs which when they have been Angular and disturbed with the shaking of the Lungs are wont to tear the tender substance of those parts from whence have arisen a violent and dry Cough and a horrible pain in the Breast like that in a Pleurisy and Peripneumony sometimes also an Haemoptoë with a considerable Flux of Blood and from thence Ulcers with the usual Signs of a Consumption of the Lungs Therefore when these horrid Pains happen with an Haemoptoë about the beginning of a Consumption When we may judge a Consumption to be from them we may justly suspect it to be a Consumption from Stones in the Lungs Although we cannot pronounce any thing certain of this thing till a Stone or two have been cough'd up For it often happens that these Stones passing by degrees through the Lungs do at length get into the branches of the Wind-pipe by which they are cough'd up and that seldom without a great flux of Blood But if these Stones are smooth and not such as may break or tear the substance of the Lungs they do not dispose the Patient much to a Consumption at least an Acute one nor indeed do they occasion any great mischief more than a dry Cough that is somewhat troublesome and something of an oppressing weight in the Breast as I have observed in several long ago in whose Lungs after they have been dead I have found many of these smooth Chalky Stones and some of them pretty large without the least Tubercle or Ulcer occasioned by them Where these Stones are sharp they cause a Consumption But where these Stones have been Angular and sharp and apt to break and tear the Lungs they have caused a Pain a spitting of Blood Ulcers and a Consumption it self as I have already hinted In which case as a pain does precede to and accompany the spitting of Blood so a spitting of Blood goes before and accompanies the Ulcers and Consumption What I have now said of Stones The same is true of Nails c. is likewise true of Nails Pins and other things that slip down into the Lungs as People laugh For unless they are quickly cough'd up again they prick the Lungs and cause a lancinating pain from whence a spitting of Blood Ulcers and a Consumption are wont to proceed Of which I shall add a remarkable History presently at the end of this Chapter These Ulcers as also the Consumption The Vlcers they cause cannot be cured before they are brought away which is the effect of them which we may likewise observe of Ulcers in the Kidneys and Bladder can never be cured without fetching away the Stone or Nail or Pin or whatever else it is of that Nature that breeds the Ulcers But these things which causing a continual pricking in the ulcerated part did by that means render the Cure of it impossible before being once come away though it be as it usually is with a great Haemorrhage yet the Ulcer and Consumption of the Lungs that proceed from them do oftentimes admit of an easie and perfect Cure because they have not their Original so much from a predisposed Habit of the Body as from a meer accidental Distemper of one single part Of which I shall relate one or two remarkable Histories at the end of this Chapter The Cure of this Consumption In the Cure of this kind of Ulcers Opiate and Balsamick Medicines with a Milk Diet are of very great use Opiates to obtund the sense of the torn and stimulated parts and to keep them as quiet as is possible whilst the Balsamicks exert their Healing Power And with the continual use of Milk the Hectick heat of the Blood contracted in this Consumptive state is to be allayed But although these sharp Stones can neither be made to lye quiet in that part of the Lungs which they occupy with the plentiful use of Laudanum nor brought away with the use of Lubricating Medicines but cause an Incurable Consumption and spitting of Blood and that such a one as returns by uncertain Intervals with a lancinating pain Yet this Consumption is in its own Nature slow and very Chronical as a Consumption from the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder uses to be and generally speaking every Consumption that depends meerly upon an indisposition or Ulcer of some particular part without an habitual disposition of the Blood contracted either by propagation from the Parents or a long abuse of the six things called non-natural But whenever a heap or stock of predisposed Humours does conspire with some such fatal Cause the Consumption which proceeds from thence is not only fatal from
were about her of a Remitting Fever accompanied with very direful Symptoms with the use of the Peruvian Bark amongst other Remedies when he himself was taken with a true and benign Tertian Ague Leaving his Friend and his known and familiar ordinary Physician he went with the Croud to Mr. Talbor and having paid five Guinea's he had an Ounce of the Bark for a great Secret which when he had taken he presently was well recovered But there being no care taken by that Emperick to prevent the return of the Fever after two or at most three Weeks the Distemper at length returned of which he was freed again and again with repeating the use of the Bark but not without giving in hand the former extravagant Price every time it returned The Gentleman being saving chose rather to pass the remaining part of the Winter under the miserable Symptoms of this Fever than to be always draining his Pocket in this manner hoping in the mean time that his Distemper would at least leave him the next Spring of its own accord But with the long continued course of this Fever which perhaps the frequent taking of Cold in the time of the Fit and the Old Women's and Quacks Receipts that were none of the wholsomest all which he was wont to use very greedily and without distinction did promote I say with the long continuance of this Ague there seemed at the beginning of the Spring to be kindled a continual Hectick Heat in the intervals of the Fits of the Putrid Fever attended with a great Cough difficulty of Breathing Colliquative Sweats a continual Thirst Nauseating and other Symptoms of this kind Whereupon before the end of June at which time he desired my help thinking he should soon dye of a Consumption he was so weak and emaciated that he had perfectly a Hippocratical Face and when I first saw him I should plainly have thought him past Cure if this Consumption had proceeded from any other cause than an Intermitting Fever But yet I did rightly judge a Consumption arising in this manner though to all outward appearance deplorable to be curable because it was in my Power at least at this time of the Year to give that great Antidote the Peruvian Bark in that manner as not only to take off the Intermitting Fever but also to prevent the return of it Whereupon I did not at all doubt but when the Fuel was once taken away the Hectical Flame would soon be extinguisht of its own accord together with the whole Company of Pulmonary Symptoms depending thereon Which Conjecture of mine was very quickly proved to be true by the happy Event For the Fits of the Intermitting Fever being once taken away by giving an Ounce of the Peruvian Bark in the form of Pills in the space of four or five days the Hectick Fever also vanisht of its own accord likewise the Cough with the other Pulmonary Symptoms was much lessened and his Appetite much increased But when the return of the Original Distemper was prevented by repeating the use of the same Bark all the Symptoms of the Consumption vanisht within the space of a Month even without a Grain of Pectoral Medicines And my Patient as far as I know to this very day looks well and is lusty History 3. Mr. Lane a Vintner at the Sign of the Queen's Head in Southwark a Man that was truly robust and tall about the middle of his Age in the beginning of the Autumn in the Year 1668. was seized with a violent Quartan Ague he presently committed himself to the care of a Skilful Physician who treated him with the usual Remedies and in the old Method to wit with Bleeding Vomiting frequent Purging Febrifuge Juleps and tedious Deobstruent and Altering Apozems But yet he grew every day worse at length his Ague was doubled yea trebled so that he was no day free from his Fever and about the end of December his Fits were so long that almost presently after one was off another came on He was so weak too that he could scarcely rise out of his Bed and his Stomack was so weak that he hardly could eat so much as Water-gruel He was continually and extreamly Thirsty because he never seemed to be free from his Original Fever or the Hectick which was come upon it and therefore being restless he was continually tossing himself up and down in his Bed And moreover there appeared Purple Scorbutical Spots and those very large every where almost all over his Body but especially in his Breast and Limbs His Legs and Thighs as also his Belly and Breast were very much swelled like those that have the Dropsie His Cough was troublesome and continual and his breathing difficult and very unequal So that the Patient at the first sight seemed to me to have not only an Intermittent Fever but also a continual Hectick arising from the former and upon that to have fallen into a Pulmonary Consumption and an Universal Dropsie When it was so that they plainly had no hopes of the Patient's Life I was at last sent for by his Friends not so much to Cure his Fever which they judged to be incurable before the Spring Weather came as to give him some help against his Consumption Dropsie and Scurvy Distempers that raged so violently that they seemed to threaten almost immediate Death But the Patient himself loathing even Food it self though the most delicious much more Medicines with the great quantity of which his Stomack had been long burdened did with a great deal of difficulty consent that I should attempt his Cure with any kind of Medicines But at length his Friends with much entreaty obtained this of him that he would for three or four days take my Specifick Pills made of the Peruvian Bark only for a Tryal In which time having taken six Drams of the Pouder he presently escaped the next Fit The next day when I came to see my Patient I found him plainly Triumphing over his Enemy eating a potch'd Egg and ready to ride out in a Coach which was now at the Door in order to follow his necessary Occasions But which seemed much more wonderful to me as all the Spots were disappeared so likewise that Dropsical Swelling went away without even any sensible Evacuation Also his difficulty of Breathing and Cough with the other Symptoms of an incipient Consumption seemed to be very much abated and they decreased every day till at last the Patient had by little and little recovered his former state of Health 'T is true indeed this Fever after a Month returned in the form of a simple Quartan and continued till he had had almost four Fits But yet it went quite away without the use of any Remedies or the former Symptoms following upon it from which time the Patient enjoyed his Health very well till at length after one Year and some part of another he dyed of a Bleeding at the Nose CHAP. XIII Of an Icterical or Hepatick Consumption