said before Nature has provided to our hands Oranges Lemmons Cittrons Limes and a great many more not necessary here to mention which for the most part answer our Intentions so that they are skilfully given by an experienced hand And as I hope I have given sufficient reasons to disswade the use of Alkalies and Diaphoreticks from the many direful effects that daily attend their use so I hope to give as cogent ones to enforce the use of Acids from the laudable good effects I have seen from them for in five hundred at least Patients that I have had of all Qualities to do with in this Distemper in Worcester and London where I have been called in at the beginning of the Distemper I do not know that I have had one that has died or been disfigured nay some that have been brought into very ill circumstances by the precedent use of Testacious Alkalious Powders and Diaphoreticks I have retrieved from the jaws of impending death by the use of fit and proper Acids It may be wondred at by some that I make a difference between Testacious Powders and Diaphoreticks when the Testatious Powders especially the compound ones as Gascons Powder Countess of Kents Lapis de Goa c. are accounted Diaphoreticks and indeed are so But the reason why I do it is because for the most part besides the said Alkalious Powders other more forcible Diaphoreticks are also given I having in short given some hints concerning the cause of the Small-Pox I need not again repeat them so I shall immediately proceed to the method I take in the cure of it which being according to Natures dictates is short and easie For Nature in performing her Operations makes short and easie cuts it being in the cure of Diseases as in finding out and giving an account of the Phaenomena of Nature by Phylosophical Disquisitions they that go upon the fewest Principles generally discover most of her secrets and are capable of giving the best and most rational account of them Whereas they that are clogged with multiplicity of Principles and wandring in tedious long and uncouth Paths thinking thereby to get admission into Natures Cabinet after they have spent much time and taken a great deal of pains at last fit down as wise as when they began and not one jot the wiser First of all when I come to a Patient who has the Symptoms of the Small-Pox upon them which are so well known even to Nurses that I need not spend any time about them In the first place if there be any manifest signs of the Stomachs being oppressed and clogged with viscous Matter as generally it is I first of all give a gentle easie vomit suitable to the age and constitution of the Patients and after that hath done operating some Syrupus E Meconio or any other pro-Opiat in due proportion Afterwards to allay the hurry and disorder in the Blood occasioned by the intromission of Hetrogeneous Particles which Nature is endeavouring to throw out And to confirm the Texture of the Blood so as to enable it to rid it self of its enemy I give large quantities of any of the following Julips Take of fresh juice of civil Oranges six Ounces Barly Water one quart double refined Sugar as much as is sufficient to make it grateful or to those Palats or Stomachs which are very few to whom juice of Oranges is ungrateful Take of juice of Lemmons or Lime juice that is not musty four Ounces Barly Water one quart Cinnamon Water half an Ounce Syrup of Rasberries as much as is sufficient to make it grateful Or Take of Barly Cinnamon Water one quart juice of Lemmons four Ounces Syrup of Wood-Sorrel three Ounces mix and make a Julip O any of these Julips I give my Patients to drink as oft and as freely as they please Drinking likewise small Beer with juice of Oranges in it in as large quantities as they please But during the whole course of the Distemper all sorts of flesh ought to be avoided To poor people instead of the aforesaid Julips and to save charges I order them large quantities of small Beer acidulated with Oyl of Vitriol or instead of that Vinegar or Verjuice Posset drink to be drank frequently and in large quantities But if in the beginning or at any other time I find the Brain very much disturbed and the Patient delirious I for the most part find it absolutely necessary to let Blood and that in a good quantity and then to flye to the use of more powerful Acids giving the following Julips in large quantities which presently calms the violent Motion â—nd Agitation of the Blood â—nd Spirit and sets â—ll to rights in a small â—ime Take of Barly Cinamon-waâ—â—r one quart Syrup of Rasâ—â—erries three Ounces Volatile Spirit of Vitriol one Dram and half or mix and make a Julip Take of Barly cinnamon-Cinnamon-water one quart Syrup of Rasberries three Ounces Gas Sulphuris as much as is sufficient to make it sharp Or Take of Barly Water one quart Epidemick Water two Ounces Syrup of Wood Sorrel three Ounces sweet Spirit of Niter or Vitriol two Scruples Or Take of red Rose Leaves six Drams put them into an earthen or glass Vessel pour upon them one quart of boyling Water let them stand covered for some time then pour on them two Scruples of Oyl of Vitriol or Oyl of Sulphur peâ— Campanam when cold strain out and add as much double refined Sugar as is sufficient to make it grateful If at any time I find my Patients Spirits languid and low I then give three or four spoonfuls of the following Cordial at due intervals Take of Aqua Mirabilis Epidemick Water of each three Ounces Spirit of Citrons half an Ounce Balm Water eight Ounces Syrup of Gilliflowers one Ounce and half mix and make a Julip By this method I have brought my Patients through the Distemper without so much almost as the least uneasiness or even confining themselves to their Beds and without the least fear of a secondary Fever which is that which frequently proves of most fatal consequence After the Pustles are quite gone I then take care to purge them well for five or six times with gentle and easie Purges after each Purge giving an Hypnottick After that I have done Purging for some time I give corroborating strengthning Medicines to confirm the Texture of the blood and Juices and bring them to their natural State by which means I prevent ill accidents that sometimes succeed the Small-Pox I have not given a full History of this Distemper that being contrary to my design but endeavoured to deter people from the use of those Methods and Medicines that have proved fatal to so many and to advance a better and safer Method and Medicines in their room Yet I would not have people wholly to rely upon the Method I have here set down but always have a Physitian by to obviate any unusual Symptoms that may chance to appear contrary
own that it may be rationally enough Objected That my Doctrine of Acids does mightily thwart with that of Specificks since there are many Specificks that are neither Alkalies nor Acids yet seldom fail of Curing Distempers as rationally to be supposed to proceed from Alkalious Particles abounding as any whatsoever To which I Answer That I have only brought my Doctrine of Acids upon the Stage as a general one in opposition to the general and pernicious Doctrine of Alkalies For should I deny the Doctrine of Specificks I must deny matter of fact which is what I shall never do till I am totally deprived of my Reason There is a little Herb called Paronichia cum foliis Rutaceis or Whitlow Grass with leaves like Rew the which the Honourable Mr. Boyle recommends as a Specifick in the King 's Evil Which Herb I have immerged both in moderately Acid and Alkalious Liquors yet could not perceive any Luctus or Effervescency yet I have known it do wonders in the forementioned Distemper and that without having the least sensible Operation I shall instance in one particular A poor Woman in Worcester having one only Child of about Ten years of Age who by Weaving of Bone-lace maintained both her Mother and her self The Mother of the Child came one day to me making a great complaint that she was undone I asked her the cause of her complaint she told me her Child who kept her in her old Age from Begging had for Two Years had Scrophulous Tumors in and about her Privities and that about Three Months before one of the said Tumors began to Ulcerate and that now the Ulcers were crept into her Body which made her uneapable of Sitting I went immediately with the poor Woman to see her Daughter and found what she said was true the poor Girl being the most miserable spectacle I ever saw I remembring what Mr. Boyle had said concerning Paronychia and being sufficiently satisfied that there was not the least reason of doubting the truth of any thing he had said when he related it as matter of Fact upon his own Knowledge I was resolved to try it upon this Girl I first of all Purged her Three or Four times with Calamelanos Rezin of Jallap and Cremor Tartar I afterwards gave her Two large Handfuls of the said Herb dried ordering her to put it into Two Gallons of small Beer after it had done working and let it stand Six Days and then to drink it for her constant Drink She continued to take it for about Two Months in which time without applying any thing to the Ulcers save Clean Cloths both Ulcers and Tumors vanished and she continued well till I left Worcester which was two years after the Cure was performed and is so still for ought I can hear I having several times enquired after her Another Instance of the Operation of Specificks without their being either Alkalies or Acids is that frequently experimented Decoction of Mercury after having been Boyled for a considerable time in Water has been found not to have lost the least Grain of its former Weight or imparting either Taste or Colour to the Water yet this Water in which the Mercury has been Decocted has not failed of killing and bringing away Worms when other Celebrated Medicines have failed Likewise Crocus Mettalorum and some other Preparations of Antimony being barely infused in Wine without losing the least Grain of their Weight or imparting either Smell Taste or Colour to the Wine in which they are infused yet never fail of giving the Wine a violently Emettick Quality I my self have at several times poured above Twenty Quarts of Canary upon one and the same Ounce of Crocus Mettalorum Powdered and found that the last Quart was as violently Emettick as the first altho after nice trial I could not find that the Powder was diminished one Grain in its Weight or had as is before-observed caused the least sensible Alteration in the Wine The Cortex that Noble Specifick in all Intermitting Fevers I don't apprehend to perform its office as it is either an Alkaly or Acid though being mix'd with Acids it performs its work much better than without them It is a general complaint against that Noble Medicine and is the only occasion of deterring some People from the use of it That being given in never so large quantities especially in Quartans it only puts off the Fit for a time but does not totally eradicate the Distemper it returning after a certain period To obviate which inconvenience I have been advised to give it after the following manner which seldom or never fails of preventing the return of the Distemper Two Hours before the Fit I give a gentle Emettick after that has done Working an Opiate when the Fit is over I give the quantity of a large Nutmeg of the following Electuary with the Decoction and repeat it every Four Hours for Five or Six Days ordering my Patients to eat something of easy Digestion within an Hour after each Dose After the expiration of Five or Six Days I give it only first in the Morning and at Five in the Afternoon for a Week Eating something after each Dose Take of Pick'd Peruvian Bark One Ounce make it into a very fine Powder and with good Syrup of Lemons as much as is sufficient make an Electuary Immediately after each Dose of which I give about a Quarter of a Pint of the following Decoction Take of Pick'd Peruvian Bark Half an Ounce Gentian Roots Two Drams Centaury Two Pugils spring-Spring-Water Two Quarts Boyl to the Consumption of One Half when Cold strain out and keep for use By this Method I have known Three or Four Ounces of the Cortex perfectly Cure Quartans without any Relapse after People have taken a Pound or more after the common Method which has only put by the Fits for a time The Reasons as I apprehend why this method of giving the Cortex should be more prevalent than that commonly taken are the Particles of the Cortex being very firm the Medicine being taken and the Patient Fasting Three or Four Hours after it it slides out of the Stomack into the small Guts and so on the small Guts being empty there is not pressure enough to squeeze but a very small quantity of it into the Lacteal Vessels so that the greatest quantity of it is carried away as Excrement But the Patient eating something of easy Digestion within so small a time as an Hour after it that eaten is turned into Chyle before tho Particles of the Cortex can be carried off and the Chyle being of a Viscous Nature retains the small Particles and carries them along with it into the Blood so that the Blood is more impregnated by one Dose this way given than with Twenty Doses without presently eating after it As a confirmation of the truth of what I have said concerning the firmness of the Texture of the Particles of the Cortex if you boyl it never so well the
suppose to be from a quantity of such Particles being some way or other admitted into the Blood which being of a quite different Texture from that of the Blood and so not capable of being mixt with it causes a hurry and disorder there which is what I * Nov. Lum Chyr elsewhere observe to be the occasion of both continued and Symptomatick Fevers Now it is well known that a Fever always precedes the Eruption of the Pustles in the Small-Pox And when the Pustles are well come out that is when the Heterogeneous or Particles of a different Texture from those of the Blood are thrown out to the Surface of the Body then the Fever ceases Now to assist Nature in throwing those Heterogeneous Particles out of the Blood to the extream Parts which they pretend to be mightily hindred by a great quantity of Acids in the Blood they give repeated and large quanties of Testatious Alkalious Powders and other Diaphoreticks Which indeed seldom fail of answering their Intentions in throwing out large quantities of Pustles even more than Nature is able to supply or bring to maturity and if she doth chance to cope with them is the only occasion of spoyling so many angelick Faces as we every day observe But the spoyling of Faces is not all for besides the throwing out of so great a quantity of Pustles by breaking off the Globules of the Blood when it is brought to the Cataneous Glands instead of those Glands separating the Excrementitious Serum which in a State of Health is all or most part of it to be carried off by sweat or insensible transpiration but at this time to supply the Pustles till they are brought to maturity I say by breaking off the Globules of the Blood when it is in its confused State Serum and all together the Excrementitious Serum only according to the Rules of Nature ought to be separated those Glands being so many strainers adapted to receive into them the Serum only and not the least drop of Blood when it is in its natural State and its Globules unbroken I can liken the separation of the Serum from the Blood by the mediation of the cutaneous Glands to nothing better then to a mixture of oyl and water made by continued agitation when that compound mixture seems to be one intire white liquor tho' with good eyes or a good glass the oyl may be seen floating in the Water in small Globules as the Blood doth in the Serum as I elsewhere * Nov. Lum Chyr observe Yet this mixture of Oyl and Water let it be done never so exactly if it be poured into a funnil lined with brown Paper wet before hand the Pores will be so disposed as to let all the Water run through though not the least Particle of the Oyl yet if there be some Alkalious Salts boyled with this mixture of Oyl and Water the Globules of the Oyl will be so broken as to pass readily with the Water through the forementioned brown Paper which before it would not in the least do In like manner the Globules of the Blood being broken by the means of Alkalious Medicines together with too great a quantity of Alkalious Particles being before admitted into it is by that means made capable of being received into the Cutaneous Glands which is the only occasion of those purple spots upon the surface of the skin not only in the Small-Pox but other Fevers which spots seldom or never fail of being the certain Prognosticators of future Death But this is not all for by the foresaid breaking of the Globules of the Blood by Alkalious Medicines these small broken Globules getting into the small Meanders of the Brain hinder the Motion of the Animal Spirits through the Nerves and so cause Deliriums and all those fatal disorders of the Brain that are but too frequently seen Likewise the Blood not being capable of being contained in its proper Channels is the occasion of violent Bleeding at the Nose bloody Urine c. which are none of the best Symptoms but what too frequently happen by the aforesaid means Besides breaking of the Globules of the Blood and causing the ill Symptoms before-mentioned with many others I don't think fit here to enumerate By their Diaphoretick quality there is so vast a waste made of the Serum of the blood that there is not a sufficient quantity left to supply and bring to maturity those many Pustles even more than Nature designed that those Medicines alone had thrown out So that about the ninth eleventh or thirteenth day for want of a sufficient quantity of Serum to supply them the Pustles fall and the Acrid corrosive matter being absorbed into the Blood causes secondary Fevers which oftentimes prove of very dangerous consequence I might expatiate a great deal more but I design brevity It may be said you have gone far enough in condemning the ordinary Practice as to the use of Alkalies and Diaphoreticks not having substituted a better and safer Method and Medicines in their room but not too fast that follows in its proper place The Small-Pox is a Distemper that requires the giving of as few Medicines as in any Distemper whatsoever unless in some extraordinary cases But yet I think it the most unreasonable thing in the World that People as is the common practice in this case should be left to the sole management of old Women and Nurses which thing alone I verily believe has been the destruction of more people than the Sword it self And although but very few Medicines as I said before are generally necessary yet the eye of a careful skilful Physitian and that from the beginning is as convenient as in any Distemper whatsoever that he seeing Natures operations may also see the fit time when to give the Medicines requisite I confess I have heard some people complain that such a Physitian has had so many Fees and never wrote one Bill for them for such people let me tell them that they complain without cause for in many cases especially in this the Physitian deserves his Fees better for not writing at all then for so doing I own my self to be a profest Chymist and in many things though not all a Disciple of Helmont and know nothing in this World so delightful to me as Chymical Operations Yet in this case nor indeed in scarce any acute Distemper do I judge Chymical Medicines to be absolutely necessary though many of them may do well and are sometimes to be used But I don't know any reason we have to flye to elaborate Preparations when Nature has provided Medicines ready to our hands Acids are the things skilfully and timely given which I have seen not only by my own but by other Great mens Practice to be the only safe effectual and seldom or never erring Medicines in this Distemper so that they are rightly timed and given with discretion and why should we flye to Acids Chymically prepared when as I