CHAP. I.

THat there have been made of late very considerable discoveries in Physick; That the Art is yet far­ther improvable; and, That the Galenick Hypothesis is insufficient to give a satisfa­ctory account of the Phaenomena of Health, and Diseases, are no more news to this Age, than that America is found out; that some parts of the world are yet unknown; and, that the ancient Maps were imper­fect: neither is this lesse questioned by G [...] ­ographers, than the other by Philosophers and Physitians, Wherefore in my opinion, the Author of Medela, ought to have been [Page 2]more civil to those sound Authors, (of whom, to compile a Book, he does every where, more than borrow;) than to make them speak to no purpose in his writings, who do alwayes, to so much, in their own: For, he might with no less extravagancy have inferred from Columbus his Discove­ries in the great World; That it would be for the Interest of all Kingdoms, and Com­mon-wealths, to furnish every pretender to Navigation (though never so ignorant) with Ships, Men, and Money, in hopes he may find out new Countries; than, from the famous Harvy's, or learned Willis's, in the lesser World, That it is for the benefit of Mankind, that the Lives and Purses of men should lye expos'd to the cheat of ig­norant Pretenders to Physick; upon pre­sumption, that they may find out new Re­gions, new Flouds and Channels in the Microcosm. But, to perswade the World, that he, and his Brethren, the Mounte­banks, are the onely Men, from whom Physick is to expect a farther improvement; he endeavours to render all those Physici­ans, who have more learning and modesty, than himself, as men wholly enslav'd to narrow Principles, and jejune Notions; and altogether confin'd to a beaten, and trite Road in Philosophy and Physick as [Page 3]being enemies to all advancement of Know­ledge: Which is a falshood so notorious, and obvious to be confuted, that I need onely to examine, Who have been the Authors of the waste improvement of Phy­sick (which M. N. himself acknowledges ‘to have been in twenty years so height­ned, M. del. Med. p. 215. that never any Science or Art in the World had such an advance, and alterati­on in so short a time) I use his own words;’ and it will appear, that the World is in­debted to the true Artists, rational Physici­ans, learned men; and not to the Medica­strorum Empiricorum Medicantiumque [...], the dregs and scum of mankind, Joha [...]. Ro­dolph. Ca­m [...]r [...]r. Me­mor. Med. Centur. 1. Po 37. as Camerarius calls them, to whom I will refer the Reader for a farther accompt of those precious Sons of Art; as desiring my self to be so civil to the Author of Medela, as not to give a Catalogue of that goodly pack of his Brotherhood.

To shew, that the improvement which Physick has receiv'd in this latter Age, ought to be ascrib'd to the learned Physicians, and men bred up in Universities and Colledges, I need go no further for Instances, than in our own Nation; and the rather, because (I believe) that Forrainers themselves will confess us to have far out-done the whole World in this matter: witness the Wri­tings [Page 4]of the renowned Harvey; the learn­ed Doctors, Glisson, Ent, Highmore, Whar­ton, and the present Ornament both of his University and Nation, Dr. Willis. For, notwithstanding that M. N. and some other touchy-Heads, Medel. Med. p. 17. (as he calls them) like his have pryed into one point, viz. ‘ Whether in the Practice of Physick, there need be the hundreth part of adoe about the Anatomy; especially seeing, that when the body is out of order by Diseases, the Blood and Humours have other vagaries than in their usual Channels:’ By his good favour, the great advantages which have accrued, both to the Theory and Practice of Physick, in these late years, must necessarily be acknowledged to have proceeded from the discoveries which have been made in Anatomy; and that Dogs, Pigs, and Monkeys, have contributed more to the advancement of Physick, than M. N. and his Fraternity ever did, or are like to do: Though it must be confessed, his en­deavours have not been wanting to be a Be­nefactor to the Chirurgions Hall; and possi­bly, being conscious that he might be more serviceable to Physick dead than alive, there was a time when he bid as fair for the Knife as any man. Vid A Rope for Pol. It is, I say, from the accurate inspections into Bodies, in which, of late, Physicians have been wonderfully curious [Page 5]and industrious, that Physick has attained to that wonderful height: For, since the Circulation of the blood has been found out by Doctor Harvey, that being laid as a new foundation, the whole Fabrick has been built from the very ground.

The Parts of the Body, as to their Fi­gure, Site, Relations, Vessels, Texture, Magnitude, Connexion, and Correspon­dencies, have been accurately examined, and their uses admirably assign'd. The blood, the nutricious, and nervous juyces have been by Dr. Willis, as to their Prin­ciples, Motions, Stagnations, Coagulati­ons, Dissolutions, Exaltations, Praecipita­tions, and all Alterations, which are inci­dent to Liquors, diligently considered; and from thence (more plainly and mechani­cally, than from the Seminalities, and fret­ting and fuming of the Archaeus, according to the Chymists; or indeed the indisposition or distemperature of the solid parts, accor­ding to the Galenists) have the causes of Di­seases been deduced, and excellently explain­ed.

It is not, I think, to be question'd, that a man is as Mechanically made as a Watch, or any other Automaton; and that his mo­tions, (the regularity of which we call Health) are perform'd by Springs, Wheels, [Page 6]and Engines, not much differing, (except as to the curiousness of their Work) from those pieces of Clock-work, which are to be seen at every Puppet-play. He, who has heard of Drebels Organ, which was set a going by the Sun-beams, or Memnon's-Statue; or but seen the subtil Workeman­ship of one Mark, an Englishman, who, (as the learned Muffet reports,) made for a Flea a chain of Gold of a fingers length, Muffet In­sect. Theat. c. 28. with a lock and key to it; which was so finely and exquisitely wrought, that the smal animal with much ease drew it after him; and yet with the lock, key, and, chain, did not exceed the weight of a grain: He, I say who considers these works of Art, and compares with them the subtil contrivances of Nature, will certainly rest better satisfied in the Me­chanical account of the operations, and diseases of an Animal, than in the Ens Pagoicum, Sen. de Con. & Dissen. Chym. cum Galen. Cagastricum, Illia­strum, Archaeus Re [...]lleum, Chironeum, E­vestrum, Yleck, Trarames, Turban, Leffas, Srannar, Perenda, Zend [...], and a thousand such conjuring unintelligible words of the Chymists; and will plainly see, that Anatomy is of no less use in the Curation of diseases, than is the understanding of the springs and Wheels of a Watch, to the [Page 7]man, who undertakes to mend it; and pro­bably this speculation will make a consider­ing man think it as possible, with a pre­paration of Antimony, or Mercury, or any Universal Medicine, to mend a Clock when it is at fault, as with it to cure all the diseases belonging to the Body of Man: That the body ought to be Mechanically considered, not onely as to its actions, but also in relation to its Di­seases; is, I think, the Opinion of every sound Philosopher. Des Cartes, in his Trea­tise of the Passions, gives an account of what it is, wherein a dead Man differs from a li­ving.

‘Let us consider, Des Cart de pa [...]sion. p [...]rt. 1 Art. c. 6. (saith he) that Death never happens through default of the Soul but onely through the corruption of one or other of the principal parts of our Body. And let us judge, that the Body of a living man doth differ from that of one dead, on­ly as much as a Clock, or any other Automaton, when it is in good order, and has within it the Corporal Principle of its motions, for whose use it was fram­ed, and all other things, which are requisite to its action; from the same clock or Engine, when it is broken, and the principle of its motions ceases to act.’

The truth of this is abundantly evident to every mans Senses: The shape and fa­brick of the Heart and Valves, the water­works of the Kidneys, the admirable work­man-ship of the Brain and Nerves, and the Artificial Structure of all other parts do e­vidently demonstrate the Mechanism of mans Body, and the usefulness, and necessi­ty of Knowledge in Anatomy, both for the preserving of it in its due frame, and like­wise for the setting it in good order, when it is out of it. Fits of the Mother, Epilep­sies, Apoplexies, Madness, and sundry other diseases of the Brain and Nervous Parts have usually by ignorant People, been ascti­bed to Witch-craft and possession of the Devil. And yet the causes of these astoni­shing distempers, may, without much dif­ficulty be understood from an Anatomical consideration of the Brain and Nerves: The whole structure of which has been examin'd with so much industry and sagacity, by the incomparable Dr. Willis, in his excellent book De Cerebro; in which, the wonderful Make of the Brain, the turnings and windings of the Vessels and Receptacles; the com­merce by the Nerves, with remote parts; the Chymical production of the Animal Spirits; and many more rarities of Nature, are so clearly deliver'd:) that now a skilful [Page 9]Anatomist may, without vanity, undertake to give a rational Account of those very strange Distempers and Affections of mans Body; which have formerly not only ama­zed the Vulgar, but caus'd the Roman Senate to break up their Assemblies, and adjourn their Consultations: Wherefore the Author of Medela, should, in my opi­nion, have been more wary in discovering his gross Ignorance, in this so material a Point, which is the Foundation and Cor­ner-stone of Physick; and, without which, nothing solid can be established. And, as for the Reason, why his Touchy-head ima­gines Anatomy to be of little use in Physick, ‘Because, forsooth, when the Body is out of order by diseases, the blood and humors have other Vagaries, than in their usual Channels:’ I do freely confess, I do as lit­tle understand his Vagaries, as, I believe, he does the true Motion of the blood, and other juyces.

As for Chymistrie, and his new Medicines and Secrets, wrought out of the fire, to which M. N. so much pretends; though I am a very great friend to that Art, and ac­knowledg, that Physick is indebted to it for many neat and effectual Remedies; yet I cannot be of that opinion, that by it all Philosophy, Anatomy, and Method, are to be [Page 10]justled out of the Schools, and the Disper­satories out of the Shops.

For doubtless, the advantages whic [...] came from Chymistry to Medicine, were ve­ry slender and inconsiderable, till it fell into the hands of Rational Learned Men; who by adapting it to the Atomical Philosophy have made excellent use of the Analysing o [...] Bodies, in giving an account of the Ap­pearances of Nature; and, by using Chy­mical Remedies with good Method, have found a more speedy and pleasant way o [...] ­curing Diseases, than probably was know [...] to the Antients. But it does not in the leas [...] follow from hence, that presently all the Medicines of the Shops are to be flun [...] away, which having been known, and tri­ed by long experience, (the Mother of all Knowledg,) upon which the Materia Me­dica is wholly grounded, are not so lightly to be set-by.

For that judicious Author, Sennert. de con. & dis­sen. Chy­mic. cum. Gal Cap. 18. Sennertus, tells us in his sober Treatise, De Consens. & dis­sens. Chym. cum Gal. that Chymists do often too curiously waste both their time and their mony, in preparing those Medicines which Nature has rightly prepared to our hands; as if Conserves of Roses, and ma­ny other, as also Condites and Powders, and Compounds made of these, were not [Page 11]used in Diseases with great success, and of­ten with more safety and convenience, than Oyls, or Spirits. Which (sayes he) I do not speak to the end that Chymical Reme­dies should be altogether rejected; which, in their place, deserve their due praise, and oftentimes have a prerogative before o­thers: But to shew that Medicines either whole, or the common way prepared, are not all venemous, and therefore to be de­spised; but that they are of good use in their proper place. And he asks the Chy­mists, Whether they do not season the meat which they eat themselves, and give their Patients, with Spices onely powder­ed, and not with the Essences and distilled Oyls of them. And a little farther in the same Chapter, he tells us, that some Medi­cines have their virtues diffused through the whole body, and that they lose them if there be made a separation of parts; and, What need is there of using Essences, when a Glyster will do the business? Of the same opinion is that great inquirer into Nature, Mr. Boyle, in his Sceptical Chymist. Mr. B yl S [...] C [...]m. p. 337. & 33 [...]. ‘There are, (says that learned Gentleman) divers Concretes, whose faculties reside in some one or other of those differing substances, that Chymists call their Sul­phures, Salts and Mercuries, and conse­quently [Page 12]may be best obtained by Analy­sing the Concrete, whereby the designed Principles may be had severed, or fre [...] from the rest; so there are other wherein the noblest properties lodge not in the Salt, or Sulphur, or Mercury, but depend immediately upon the form, or, (if you will) result from the determinate stru­cture of the whole Concrete; and conse­quently they who go about to extract the virtue out of such bodies, by exposing them to the violence of fire, do exceed­ingly mistake, and take the way to de­stroy what they would obtain. And he quotes the confession of Barthius, in his Notes upon Beguinus, Valde absurdum est ex omnibus rebus extracta facere, salia, quin­tas essentias; praesertim ex substantiis per se plane vel subtilibus, vel homogeneis, quales sunt Uniones, Corallia, Moschus, Ambra, &c. Consonant whereunto (continues Mr. Boyle)’ he also tells us (and vouches the famous Platerus, for having candidly given the same Advertisement to his Au­ditors) ‘that some things have greater virtues, and are better suited to our hu­mane nature when unprepared, than when they have passed the Chymists fire; as we see in Pepper, of which some grains swal­lowed, perform more towards the relief [Page 13]of a distempered stomach, than a great quantity of the oyl of the same Spice.’ [...]nnertus, in the Chapter which I last quo­ [...]d, speaks to the same purpose; Viresque [...]as integras, quales a Natura obtinent, reti­ [...]ant, nec ignis vi ac resolutione quicquam [...]niserint; & propterea morbos saepe tollant, [...]i chymicis medicamentis tolli non possunt: [...]cut Heurnius refert, se colicos dolores pla­ [...]sse saepe decocto anisi, quos oleo ejusdem destil­ [...]to tollere non potuerit. Id quod etiam in ali­ [...] accidit. Thus enim integrum curat vul­ [...]ra, quae oleo ejusdem non curantur. Animad. Jo. Zwelfer. p. 782. Zwel­ [...]r, in his Animadversions upon the Augu­ [...]n Dispensatory, preferrs the Powders [...]f Pearl, Coral, Harts-horn, and the like, [...]r before the Magisteries: Nay, he says, [...]inc & reliqua Magisteria ex Coralliis & [...]nsimilibus gemmis parvi pendo, immo peni­ [...]s rejicio. And certainly, there is very [...]ood reason why the bare Powders should [...]e of much more virtue than the Ma­ [...]steries; for these being made by an [...]timate union of the fluid Salts of the Men­ [...]ruum, with the particles of the body dis­olved by it, (by which the Menstruum is [...]eft insipid,) those Powders being already [...]log'd and saturated with Salts, are ren­ [...]ered thereby unapt to sweeten the acid [...]uyces of the stomach; and those which are [Page 14]mingled with the blood, or to restore an [...] refresh the decayed and languishing fe [...] ­ments of the Bowels, upon which score [...] these Medicines are usually administred b [...] men who understand their way of Opera­tion. For the same reason it is, that Pow­ders of Pearl, or Coral, will ferment, an [...] boyl with spirit of Vitriol, but the Mag [...] ­steries will not. Nor is an over-fondne [...] of all things which do smell of the Furnace [...] the cause only why many good Medicine are deprived of their virtues, and rendere [...] ineffectual: But too often likewise of th [...] ruin and murder of many sick persons, wh [...] not being Physitians themselves, and so n [...] able to judge of the ability of the person to whom they commit their health; a [...] often cheated out of their lives, by the i [...] ­pudent assertions of ignorant pretenders [...] Secrets, and Chymical Inventions: In com­parison of which, they despise the who [...] Art and Method of administring Physic [...] Paracelsus is taxed by the learned Crato, [...] his Epistle Theodorus Zwingerus, (and y [...] that judicious man was no enemy to Chy­mistry:) Jo C at. Epist. In multis Rebus-pub. & Aul [...] cum nominis mei quadam jactura, Chymi [...] Medicamenta sum tutatus, nihil ante 40. a [...] nos oleorum distillatorum, nullum extractu [...] nullus succus in pharmacopoliis est repert [...] [Page 15]A me autem pharmacopaei & medici, beneficio [...]ei, successu medicationis edocti sunt, ut nunc [...]bique ea parent & iis utantur. Insaniam [...]ero Paracelsi (qui summos in Arte Magi­ [...]ros, immo ipsam artem medicam propter sua [...]cana ut appellat, contemnit & novam nobis furnis medicinam fabricat, atque discentes bonis Autoribus ad fornaces ablegat, omnem [...]enique seculi nostri excellentiam dejicere stu­ [...]et, ut sua medicamenta extollat) nunquam [...]obavi.

And in another Epistle to Thomas Era­ [...]s, he tells him what the Emperor's opini­ [...]n was of this Celsus Paracelsus (as M. N. [...]arnedly quotes the quibble).

Imperatorem quem à maledicentia, & fal­ [...]tate alienissimum esse sciunt omnes boni, [...]aracelsum mendacissimum & impudentissi­ [...]um impostorem, qui cum doctis hominibus [...]unquam conversari voluerit, nominasse. The requent miscarriages which he was guilty [...]f; his often bringing slight Distempers, by [...]he application of his Remedies, into dange­ [...]ous and mortal Diseases, Sen. de co [...]. & diss [...]n. Chym. cun Gal. as the Particulars [...]re quoted by Sennertus; and then his own [...]ickness and death, which (though he promi­ [...]ed almost Immortality to other men) he [...]ould not defer beyond 47 years; nor in the [...]ean time with his so much admired skill, [...]ee himself from Contractions and Convulfi­ons, [Page 16]do sufficiently evince, That it is easie [...] for the Chymists, to abound with large Pro­mises, than real Performances.

The unfaithfulness and affected obscurity of their Writings, M [...]. Boyle Scept. Chym. praef. is justly reprehended by Mr. Boyle, in his Preface to his Sceptica [...] Chymist. ‘These things I add (sayes he) because a person any thing vers'd in the Writings of the Chymists, cannot but dis­cern, by their obscure, ambiguous, and almost aenigmatical way of expressing what they pretend to teach; that they have no mind to be understood at all, bu [...] by the Sons of Art (as they call them) nor be understood even by those, without difficult and hazardous tryals. And, as the obscurity of what some Writers de­liver, makes it very difficult to be under­stood; so the unfaithfulness of too many others, makes it unfit to be relied on. Fo [...] though unwillingly, yet must I for the Truths sake, and the Readers, warn him, Not to be forward to believe Chymical Experiments, when they are set down on­ly by way of Prescription, and not of Re­lation.’ The candid acknowledgment and warning of this learned Chymist, gives [...] sufficient Caution to all Sober men, to be wary how they Dote, either upon Notions they understand not, or Prescriptions which [Page 17]cannot safely be relied upon (considering Credulity is in no Art of so dangerous con­sequence, as in Physick) so much as to re­ject all Maxims and Remedies in Physick, established by the long and infallible expe­rience of the World; for those which are recommended, either by the Inadvertency, or wilful mistake of an undiscerning, or de­ceitful Writer. And if this Circum­spection ought to be used, even as to the best Chymical Writers; how much more to Pseudo-chymists, against whom Mr. Mr. Boyle Sc pt. Chym. P [...]f. Boyle (though it be far from his temper) cannot forbear a just Severity, and, somewhat more than ordinarily, sharpens his Pen. ‘I am far (sayes he) from being an Enemy to the Chymists Art, though I am no Friend to many that disgrace it by professing it,’ ( M. N. take notice of that) and perswade ‘them to believe me, when I declare, That I distinguish betwixt those Chymists that are either Cheats or but Laborants, and the true Ad [...]pti.’

For my part, I am resolved to be as fa­vourable as it is possible, to M. N. and his Brethren the Mountebanks, and allow, That a person wholly ignorant of the Art of Physick, may be possessed of good Reme­dies, and that a Cure has sometimes ensued upon the casual application of them. Bu [...] [Page 16] [...] [Page 17] [...] [Page 18]notwithstanding this accidental Success, there can constantly be expected no better performances in Physick from this mans un­skilful administration, than in Limning from a hand altogether rude, though arm'd with the Pencils and Colours of Vandike. For, granting that by chance a Cure may happen (as the foam of a Horse was once admira­bly expressed by the casual dash of a Pen­cil) yet can that be no more relied upon, than a Duel for the cure of an Aposteme; or the rude embraces of a Lyon, to fright away an Ague. To this purpose, Beguinus gives Advice, and makes it his Request, That Physitians would not acquaint Mounte­banks with his preparation of Turpeth Mi­neral. Beguin. Tyr. Chym. l. 2: c. 18. Suaderem autem (sayes he) ut ton­sores & balneatores nobilissimi hujus Medica­minis praeparatio Philosophica plane lateret, ab usu hujus ut illegitimo se abstinerent. Quot enim quaeso ejusmodi homines Mercurio hoc praecipitato, non Hermetice praeparato, praeci­pitarunt?

And he quotes the Opinion of that great Chymist Libanius, whose words I will the ra­ther transcribe, because they very fully de­clare the Sense, which as well the Chymists, as the Galenists have, of that fatal Liberty in the Profession of Physick, which M. N. so hot­ly and extravagantly pleads for. Illud ca­vendum [Page 19](sayes Libanius) ne audaculi im­periti in medicando, id adhibeant quod est medicorum circumspectissimorum exercitatis­simorumque: Veluti si essentia ex sublimato & regulo fiat, si flos ex antimonio, si laudanum ex opio, tu qui imperitus es methodi medendi & impudens, nec tibi facile nec aliis horum permitte usum, cum temeritate; ut ut s mel atque iterum forte possis, plus tamen deinceps peccare possis. Nam nobiles Medicinae in manu temerarii hominis, sunt ut culter, vel fax ardens, in manu pueri aut de­mentis.

And questionless, as there is more dan­ger that a Child may do mischief with a Knife of Steel, rather than with one of Bone; the hazard which Men run of their Lives in taking Chymical Remedies at the hands of Empericks, is so much the greater, by how much the preparations which they use, are of more force and virtue.

That Physick may be administred with security to the Patient, it is not only requi­site that the Physitian understand the Na­ture and Force of the Remedy; but like­wise the Constitution and Strength of the Patient, and the Nature and Motion of the Disease. As to the Nature and Force of Remedies, Experience is the only true and unerring Mistress, upon whose Credit we [Page 20]can certainly relie, for the knowledg of the Properties, Effects and Operations of all Medicines in the World upon the Humane Body. Remedies at first were either found out by Chance, or learnt from wild Beasts; who, by the kind Instinct of their Mother-Nature, resorted to them for help, when they were afflicted with Maladies. Thus the virtue of the Dictamnus of C [...]eet, to draw shafts and splinters out of Wounds, was learnt from the Goats of Creet, accord­ing to Virgil, Plutarch, and Pliny.

The Aegyptian Ibes was the Inventer of Glysters; a Bird not much unlike the Stork, and a great Enemy to Serpents; who, fil­ling his Beak with Salt-water, and spouting it up into his Guts when he was hard­bound, [Page 21]taught the World the convenience of provoking a Stool that way: The Swal­lows, by applying Celandine to the Eyes of their Young and by it procuring to them sight, discover'd it first to the use of Men: I might instance in many more particulars, but these are sufficient. I will grant, that some Remedies have been sound out by Analogy, from the enquiries of the Smell and Taste; and others possibly, by resolution of Bodies into their principles. But even these could not be relyed upon, till establi­shed by Experience: For if the virtues of many Simples depend upon the particular texture and disposition of the small Parti­cles (as I have before prov'd they do) they will confess very little of their Natures and Properties to the Chymist, though he tor­ture them ever so much with Fire, and other Dissolvents. And even in those Bodies; whose Faculties reside in their Salts or Sul­phurs, their Specifick virtue (if they diner at all, as most Chym [...]sts and Physitians inti­mate by their Prescriptions that they do) cannot be known, by obtaining the Principle wherein it is lodg'd. Mr. Mr. Boyle S [...]p C yn. p. 251. Boyle quotes Helmont, For assigning a virtue of curt [...]g the Epilepsie, to the vola il Salt of mans Blood, which is not to be allowed to the volatil Salt of Ʋrine; and he seems to promise an Account [Page 22]of the same virtue in the Salt of common Amber as to children, but not grown persons. I do not urge this, to discourage any person from enquiring into the Nature of Simples (which certainly is a laudable Industry) but to shew, That it is not so easie, as the Author of Medela would make it, to im­part Remedies, they being not in the least matter of phansie; and that such Medicins which have been established by the long ex­perience of the enquiring and judicious part of the World, by whole Colledges and Universities, who have made it the business of their Life, to inform themselves and others; are not easily to be laid aside, for those which have been invented by some ignorant Man, nay, possibly, a knowing one; till they by undergoing the same test of Experience, are allowed by that to be more effectual, and less inconvenient in all Cases whatsoever. Histories are full of the frequent Tragedies which have been acted by Mountebanks, in administring Medicins, whose Nature and Power they understood not. About Two years since, having visited my honoured, learned Friend, Dr. Cox, Phy­sitian in Ordinary to His Majesty, he ac­quainted me, That he had been lately cal­led to a Citizen of London, who, upon ta­king a Vomit from an Emperick, and a Hy­percatharsis [Page 23]ensuing upon it, fell into dismal Convulsions; in which, in despite of the most proper Remedies, he dyed. I do not wonder, that these sad Effects do often fol­low, upon the taking of Physick from igno­rant Men: For the Universal Medicin of the Empericks being usually some or other ill preparation of Antimony in substance, if it chance not to pass upwards or down­wards, but stick in the Coats of the Sto­mack, or be entangled in some tough viscous Matter, it being the Nature of that Mine­ral to communicate a vomiting quality, af­ter it has impregnated several Infusions; no wonder, if lying in the Stomack, it con­tinually imparts to the juyces, which flow thither out of the mass of blood, for a menstruum to dissolve the Meat, and to those Liquors which are taken in by the mouth, an emetick virtue, till the Patient, at length, has vomited up his Soul. Upon this Score, I do not find, that many Physitians are very forward in using Mercurius Vitae, especially in Pills or a solid Form; which though I have us'd, and seen us'd with good Success; yet, I judge it, given in Substance, not so safe: and nothing more effectual, than the Infusion of that excellent good preparation of Antimony, Crocus Metallo­rum; which (though it be to be met with [Page 24]in the Road of Dispensatories) with M. N's good leave, is no contemptible Medi­cin. How much, in Medicins, Experience is to be valued, and how like a Toleration of Assassinates it will look, to allow a Liberty to every Quack to make Experiments upon Mens bodies, will farther appear, if we consider, That the mixing of Things harm­less in themselves, may sometimes produce a Poyson. Thus out of Vitriol, Salt, Mer­cury, and Niter, is made Sublimate; of Vi­triol, Niter, and Allum, Aqua Fortis; which, though made of innocent Ingredients, are Mixtures most destructive to the Body of Man. And, I know not why in other Mix­tures the same thing may not come to pass, which may never be considered by a bold and unwary Experimenter of Medicins; nor known, but at the price of a Murder.

In the next place, There is an absolute Necessity, that he who will venture to give Physick, be able to judge of the Strength and Constitution of the Sick person whom he undertakes, if he expects with Safety and Success to manage the matter. Plutarch in a Dialogue, introduces Phaedrius and Socra­tes discoursing to this purpose.

Socrat: If any one should tell me, Truly I know how to apply these things to the Body, with which I can (when I please) make it hot or [Page 25]cold, vomit and purge, and cause other Eva­cuations; upon the understanding of which, I profess my self a Physitian, and affirm, That any man instructed with this Knowledge, may be one. What Answer do you think a Sober man would return to him?

Phaedr: Truly none at all, but ask him, Whether he likewise understood, to whom, and when, and in what proportion every one of these Medicins are to be given? of which if he be ignorant, the man must certainly be mad; who upon the Score, either of Gleanings from Au­thors, or for having been present at the Cures of some Physitian, and understands nothing of the Art, thinks he is presently become a Physitian. Many excellent, and in the hands of Artists, most safe Medicins, have suffered in their Credit, by falling into the hands of such persons, who either by over­dosing, or not suiting them to the Tem­per, Age and Sex of their Patients, have with them kill'd, instead of curing. Sennert. de Con. & Dissent. Chym. cum Gal. c. 13. Sen­nertus tells us, That he knew Two Chil­dren kill'd by Two Old Women, with Oyl of Amber. One of the Children being scarce Ten days old, after the Woman had given it some drops of Oyl of Amber, broke out all over the Body, as if scalding water had been pour'd upon it, and presently dy­ed. The other, more adult, having taken [Page 26]the same Oyl, dyed vomiting and scou­ring.

That very safe and effectual Remedy, Mercurius dulcis, so often celebrated in Ri­verius, under the name of Calomelanos (a name put upon it by Sir Theodore Mayern, from one Faire-black his man, who us'd to prepare it, as I find it in his Letter to my Father) has, in the giving of it to some Bodies and Constitutions, been accompa­nied with very ill Accidents. Sennertus tells of a Learned Physitian (a Friend of his) who had often given Mercurius dulcis to his Patients with very good Success, Sennert. de Con. & Dissent. Chym. com Gal. c. 18. and yet was in danger to have dyed by the ta­king of it himself. And I have observ'd, That this Medicin does best agree with those, whose Stomacks abound with Cru­dities, as Children; and not so well with those persons, whose Stomacks and Blood abounds with fluid Salts, and are troubled with acidity, and sharpness of their Liquors. For Mercurius dulcis being made of subli­mate Corrosive, and Quicksilver, by the sub­liming of which together, the sharp edges of the Corrosive Salts are blunted and abated; and so the Medicin sweetned, and made harmless; there is danger that in the stomack which abounds with Vitriolick Salts (for some I have seen, whose Vomits will gnaw [Page 27]Iron) the dulcified Mercury. may again be reduced to be Corrosive.

In the last place, That a Disease must be known, before it can be cur'd, is so gene­rally received a Maxim, that it is become Proverbial with the Vulgar, That the know­ledg of the Disease, is half the Cure. What skill in Anatomy and Philosophy is required to the knowledg of Diseases, I have al­ready Discoursed; to which, if I shall add the Doctrines of Pulses, Urines, and all other Semeioticks, it will not appear so ea­sie a thing, to understand the several Distem­pers of the Body of Man, that it may be presum'd, that every Old Woman or Jug­ler can cure them.

The time and motion of a Disease, are of so great moment in the giving of Phy­sick, that the very same Remedy which sav'd a mans Life to day, may in the same Dis­ease, at a different time, kill another to morrow. Physitians have taken great pains in distinguishing the times of Diseases, and proportioning Rules and Remedies to them. The Learned Dr. Willis, W [...]llis de Feb. c. 10. in his Book De Febribus, tells us, of what grand Import­ance the consulting of the Pulse and Urine is in putrid continual Feavers; and clearly Demonstrates, That the Administration of Vomits, Purgers, Sweaters, Cordials, or Nar­coticks, [Page 28]without observance of due Directions taken from them, is of so dangerous Conse­quence, as that any of these Medicins unsea­sonably given, will cause or hasten the death of the Patient. Willis de Feb. c. 11. In the 11 Chapter, the Doctor is very careful to set down what is to be done in the several times of the Disease; That in the Augment, both Purgers and Sweaters (which make too great a disturbance in the blood) are as dang [...]rous and destructive, as blasts of wind are to a House, whose Rafters are all in a flame; and in the State, the motion of Nature is to be watched, nothing is unad­visedly to be attempted; Blood-letting, and strong Purgations are altogether forbidden. No [...] is there only a necessity of consulting a Learned Physitian in Diseases which are Acute, but even in those which are Chro­nical; nay, inasmuch as Agues, in which Empirical Remedies carry the Vogue. Can any Cure certainly be effected, except the very Tools of the Mountebanks be managed by a judicious hand? For in Tertians, Plaisters to the Wrists, Breast, and other parts, seldom stop the Fit, except Purging or Vomiting; or (if it be required) Bleed­ing has first with judgment been used, as Dr. Willis observes, and I have found most true by daily experience. Willis de Feb. c. 4. Quotidians and Quartans require much more skill in the ma­nagement [Page 29]of them, there being several more intentions to be driven at than in Tertians, which require a rational Artist to apprehend and prosecute. I might run through all the Diseases in mans Body, and quote all the Cautions in Ludovicus Septalius, and others, to be used in the Cure of them, to farther evince, That Learning and Art are much more requisite to the preserving and resto­ring of Health, than affected Ignorance, and impudent Pretensions to Secrets and Reve­lations which are not at all in Nature. But having proved at large, That the Learned Physitians, have been the only Improvers of the Art of Physick; That the great Im­provements in Physick, have been upon the Score of the Discoveries in Anatomy; That skill in Anatomy, is most necessary to the understanding and cure of Diseases; That Chymistry has been rendred serviceable to Physick, only by the rational Physitian and Philosopher; That Medicins are often spoi­led by Chymical preparations; That Chymi­cal Medicins, by the confession of the best Chymists, are to be used with method, and are dangerous in the hands of unskilful men; That the Books of Chymists cannot be relied upon, because they are obscure, and unfaithful; That the bragging of Pseu­de-Chymists, can much less be credited; That [Page 30]it is not easie for them to experiment Me­dicins, nor invent new ones; That Physick cannot be administred, without the evident destruction of mens Lives, except the Phy­sitian understand the Nature and Force of the Remedy; the Constitution and Strength of the Patient; the Nature and Motion of the Disease. Having, I say, prov'd these particulars, I have answered all the grounds upon which M. N. pleads for a Liberty in the profession of Physick; and moreover Demonstrated, That that Liberty tends as little to the good of Mankind, as a Pesti­lence, War, or what is most destructive, to the Safety and Being of Humane Nature.

CHAP. II.

IN his second Chapter, M.N. pretends to prove, That there is so great an al­teration in the Diseases of this present time, from what they were in former, as to make void and useless the whole Art of Physick deliver'd down to us from the An­tients: But I do not question to make it appear, That the difference in Diseases both in relation to time and place, is not so great as he would make it; nor so considerable, but that a rational Physitian may make very good use of their Methods, Rules, and Me­dicins, in the Time and Countrey wherein we live.

I do not at all question, that Diseases here in England, are something different from those of the same kind in Greece, Italy, France, and Spain; and that they may in some particulars vary from the Descripti­ons left us by the Antients, by reason that the Countries wherein they liv'd, and made their Observations, have a very different in­fluence upon the Bodies and Constitutions of the Inhabitants of those parts, from what ours have upon us. But, that the Va­riety [Page 32]is to be ascribed to the alteration in time, rather than the difference of Climate and Dyet, I very much doubt. I think it no very absurd thing to believe, That Disea­ses here in England observed the same mo­tions, and afflicted men with the same Symptoms which now they do, even in the time of Hippocrates, or Galen; only allowing, that some Chronical Distempers may be somewhat altered by the change of ou [...] way of living, and Dyet; which being now more delicate, soft, and luxurious, must be confessed to render our Bodies more obnoxious to Infirmities, than the wholsom plainness of our rough Ancestors. But as to Epidemical Diseases, I suppose that then, as now, they differ'd almost every Year according to the variety of the wea­ther, and temperature of the seasons; and according to the impressions which the ex­cess of the qualities of the several Years made upon the blood, no less in their times, than ours, their Epidemical Feavers were accompanied with odd and new Symptoms. I know well, the French Disease is since come in upon us from America; but, that there is no body now free from a spice of it, and that it bears a great share in all Di­stempers, I have so much respect for my Countrey, and Mankind, as to think, That [Page 33]no man but M. N. will assert, who (I sup­pose) measures every mans body by his own; and like an Icterical man, sees all Objects yellow, because his own eyes are of that colour.

As to his instance in Agues, which, he sayes, give the greatest bafflle to Physitians; I suppose those baffled persons, to be men of his Rank, and Ability in Physick. For I have found it by sundry Experiments to be most true, That a Tertian may be cured as easily and constantly as any other Disease, if a right method be observ'd, before the blood be too much depraved by ill Diet, or unsea­sonable Physick.

The Author of Medela could not have pitched upon a Disease more unluckily for himself, there being no Distemper which suits more exactly with the descriptions of the ancient Physitians, than this. As for the authority of Sennertus in this point, though he himself be plain, M. N. either through Ignorance, or want of Sincerity, has falsly render'd him; for, in that place, where he sayes, Plurimae Febres, quae hic aegros in­festant, omnes notas febrium a Graecis & Ara­bibus descriptas non obtinent; it is manifest that the Particle hic, does not relate to time, but place, and that Febres is not to be Translated Agues, but Feavers in general; for [Page 34]it immediately follows, Sen [...]ert. pr. l. 3. p 5 S [...]ct. 2. c. 4. Sunt autem Febres eae varii generis; quandoque enim sunt lentae & continuae. quandoque intermittentes. Senner­tus in this place, discourses concerning the Feavers of Scorbutical persons, and the degenerating of Feavers sometimes into the Scurvy, in that part of Germany wherein he liv'd: But his Design is not in the least to prove (as any man may find who will con­sult him) That Diseases of late in general, (and much less Agues in particular) have been wholly altered from their former Na­ture, and are grown incurable by those me­thods by which they formerly were master­ed. As to Blood-letting, which M. N. so much condemns in the Ancients, and will not admit of in putrid Feavers; I must tell him, he will make foul work with his Pati­ents, if he be so sparing of his Launcet: For it is known to all the World, and con­firm'd by the experience and practice of both ancient and modern Physitians, That in putrid Feavers, Phlebotomy is one of the greatest and most effectual Remedies, with­out which, the practice of Physick in Fea­vers, cannot but be most lame and imper­fect; and as to his Objection against A [...]icen, for commanding Bleeding when the Urine is thick and red, I know, in many cases, it is to be justified; but it must be ordered [Page 35]by a more judicious Physitian than M. N. who does not at all distinguish between the times of a Disease, nor (for any thing I can perceive) know a water highly tin­ctur'd by a dissolution of abundance of the Sulphur which is fired in the Feaver, from the water of one who is Scorbutical, which often, without a Feaver, acquires a colour intensely red, from a large quantity of lixivat Salt. I doubt, Bleeding was un­timely administred to those whom he ob­served to grow so much worse after it, ei­ther in the state, or declining of the Disease, or when the mass of blood was low and poor, and the body cachectical; in which cases, Galenists themselves forbid Bleeding. If he consult the Learned Doctor Willis, he will find him tell him, Willis de Feb. c. 11. That at the begin­ning of a continual putrid Feaver, care is to be taken, that the Feaver be immediately ex­tinguished, that a stop should be given to the farther inflaming of the fired parts of the Sulphur. To which end, Blood-letting is in the first place most conducible; for by this means the Blood is eventilated, and the Sul­phureous Particles which were got into a body, and ready to burst into a flame, are dispersed, as when a new Hay-reek is preserv'd from burning, which is just ready to be on fire, by flinging the Hay abroad, and laying it open to the Air.

And in intermittent Feavers, he tells us, That by bleeding, Willis de F [...]b. c. 4. the blood is cool'd, and redu­ced to its natural temper; and he instances in a young man of a cholerick Constituti­on, in a Tertian, whom, being not able to bear Vomiting, he cured by Bleeding. But of this Subject enough at present, since I intend in another place to handle it more fully.

But now, Risum teneatis, amici? Enter M. N. upon the Stage, Out-quacking Scoto Mantuano in Ben. Johnson; and that he may recommend himself to the shrivel'd Sal­lad-eating Artizans, accosts them with this most elegant piece of Mountebankry, which (though I suppose it be to be met with, set out for the better advantage with Teeth and Scarlet, at the corner of every street) I will take the pains to Transcribe out of his learned Writings.

Forasmuch as abundance of People grow sickly, and languish under the appearance, it may be, of a Consumption, a Gowt, a Dropsie, an Ague, a slow Feaver, and sometimes an acute one; Sore-eyes, Green-sickness, and indeed of all manner of Diseases; which (when the other ordinary means have been long used in vain) have at length been relieved by an or­derly use of such antivenereous Remedies as I have on purpose invented; the Nature whereof, [Page 37]is to fight against Humors both great and small, in old or young, which have been any way touched with the venereal tincture, either through their own default, or by Sigillation of th [...]se seminal Principles which contribute to­wards the Being of Mankind in the Act of Ge­neration. ‘ —Et a tergo nondum finitus Orestes.’ And at this rate he goes on, in commenda­tion of his Secrets, in comparison of which,

But I will have done with his Buffone­ries, and pass to discourse more seriously of the Scurvy; which Disease (without being guilty of a Heresie in Physick) I am ve­ry apt to believe to have been as ancient in Britany, and other Northern Maritim Coun­tries, as the very first Inhabitants; and that ever since men were mortal, and subject to Diseases, the Climate and temperature of the Air in these Countries, did dispose the blood and humors of those who breath'd it to that Dyscrasie, or ill temper which we now call the Scurvy; and so rendered it a malady Endemial to the people.

That this Disease is the same with the Stomocace and Scelotyrbe of Pliny, seems very evident; for that Author tells us, That [...] cure of that Distemper was performed [...] called Britannica, which they of [...], where the Romans were encamped, shewed to the Souldiers; and, that this Britannica was Scurvy-grass, and named ei­ther from the Brittains teaching the Ger­mans the use of it, or from the quantity which grew in Brittany, is most probable. For Mr. Caenbd. Brit. Kent. Cambden in his Britannia, observes it to grow very plentifully in the Marshes of Kent, and affirms, That it was the opi­nion of Physitians, that that was the Brit­tannica of Pliny.

Sennertus is positively of the Opinion, That the Stomacace, S [...]nnert. pr. l 3. p. 5. S [...]ct. 2. and Scelotyrbe of Pli­ny, are the very Scurvy; for that even in the same place where Caesar then incamped, that Disease is now very frequent, and most easily contracted and propagated; and he doubts very much whether Pliny did rightly assign the cause of those Symptoms which afflicted the Roman Souldiers in their Mouths and Legs, to be the drinking of the water, since that now in Germany there is no Fountain known to be indued with such a power or property; and that Pliny himself writes, That they did not presently, but af­ter [Page 39]two Years, fall into this Disease; which more probably was caused by their ill Diet, and the natural disposition and contagion of the place, with which the Romans being altogether unacquainted, knew not what else to assign for the cause of this Distem­per, except the drinking of the water; the impurity of which, I confess, might possi­bly concur in corrupting of the Blood, and producing the Scurvy.

That the Scurvy was anciently Endemial to the more Northern parts of the World, and consequently of no new upstart Origi­nal, may be farther argued from the very nature and formality of that Disease, and the common general cause which produces it. That the Scurvy consists in the Bloods being degenerated from its spirituous Bal­samick, and volatilized condition, into a salt, sharp, and austere Liquor, wherein the volatil Spirits are either evapotated, or de­prest; and the gross Salts either being dis­join'd from the rest of the Principles, run together, and are said to be in the state of Fluidity, or continuing only their Combi­nation with the earthy parts of the Blood, render it wholly fixed and unactive; in which states it becomes either sharp and eager, like Vineger, or dead and flat, S [...]nnert. [...] l. 3 [...]. 5 S [...]ct. 2. c. 2 like decayed Drinks; is the Opinion of Sen­nertus, [Page 40]and Dr. Willis de Feb. c. 1. Willis, those Learned Au­thors.

And indeed I do not find that any Hypo­thesis gives so satisfactory an account of the Phaenomena and Symptoms of that Disease, as this by them assigned; for if we run through the affections of the animal, the vital, and the natural Faculties, from whence Eugalenus, and other Writers have drawn all their Di [...]gnosticks, we shall find, they may be all very naturally derived from the Saline Dyscrasie of the mass of Blood, whereby it is rendered unfit to separate the heterogeneous Particles both of the alimen­tary juyce, which is perpetually supplied from the stomack, and of the Air drawn in by the Lungs; which, though it furnish the Blood with a Nitre most necessary to life, yet oftentimes it comes impregnated with Atoms very destructive to the Being of Man; which if they be not seasonably ex­terminated, and separated by the active and volatil spirits of the Blood, in time easily corrupt, and destroy the temper and mix­ture of that Liquor. Hence disorderly Fer­mentations, Obstructions, Spontaneous Weariness, Difficulties of Breathing, Va­rieties of Pains, Defects in Motion, Palpi­tations, Giddiness, Paralytical Affects, Spots, Scurfs, and many more Distempers reck­oned [Page 41]up in Eugalenus, and other Writers; which of necessity must afflict the body of man, when the blood is once become unfit to maintain a regular flame in the heart, and duly to supply the nervous parts with a soft juyce, and well rectified animal spirit. Wherefore I make little question, but that even in the time when Julius Caesar invaded this Island; a man, who had been long sick of a Quartan, or tedious Feaver, especial­ly towards the Sea-Coasts, must in time have grown Scorbutical: For in long sick­ness, the volatil Salt of the blood is much wasted, as appears from Mr. Boyle's Obser­vation in his Essay of the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments, That Chymists assure him, Mr. Boyle's Ph. Essayes. (who have occasion to distill it in great quan­tity) that they find a notable Disparity be­twixt Ʋrines; that of healthy and young men abounding much more with volatil Salt, than that of sickly, and aged persons. And though in Spain, Italy, and other warm Countries, men do not, after tedious Feavers and Quartans (notwithstanding the volatil Salt of their blood must be allowed to be con­fiderably wasted) usually fall into the Scur­vy; yet the Air in these Northern parts of the World, G [...]ss [...]nd. Epicur. Philos. Me­tcor. abounding with fixed Salt (to which Gassendus ascribes the freezing, and [...]ongealing virtue of the Wind) is apt to [Page 42]dispose, and alter the blood into the same temper, if it be not furnished with a suffi­cient quantity of volatil Salt to maintain its own Liquor from too much fixation, and to subdue and volatilize those Salts of the Ambient Air, which the Lungs perpetu­ally draws in, andmingles with the mass of blood.

For, that Respiration is necessary to life, not upon the score of cooling the blood and Heart (since then Fishes might live in water, which is colder without Air, which yet many of them cannot do) but for the drawing in of Nitre to keep afoot the fer­mentation of the Heart, Ent. Apol. pro Circ. p. 98. is the Opinion of the Learned Doctor Ent, and other sound Philosophers. And Fernelius is inclinable to that Opinion, Fernel. de Calore in­nat. p. 4. c. 2. where he sayes, Si nulla in nobis esset tenuis & spirituosa substantia, vix ulla profecto nos ad inspirandum necessitas im­pelleret. Now if this be true (as is most probable) I suppose the Air in the Coun­tries which are infested with the Scurvy, to afford a Nitre to the blood less pure and volatil, and more infected with adventitious Salts, than that which is breathed in Coun­tries free from that Distemper. That there is this difference in Nitres, Mr. Boyle ob­serves; Mr. Boyle's Phi. Essayes. and that the Salt-Peter of East-In­dia is much to be preferred before that of [Page 43] Europe; and that Barbary Niter, before it is refin'd, abounds very much with an ad­ventitious Salt, which tastes much like Sea-Salt. From which difference of Niters in the Air, I conclude, That the firing of the blood in the Heart, and the fermentation of it afterwards in the Vessels, may be so di­versified, as to cause all the Symptoms ob­servable in the Scurvy. It is farther to be Noted, That the chief Specificks used in the cure of this Disease, are such, which perform their effect by the volatil Salt with which they abound, and with which they impregnate the flat and languishing blood; such are generally all things which strike the Tongue and Nose with a quick, smart, and brisk taste and smell; which though they for the present give relief, and change the habit of the body to the better, yet do they seldom make so perfect a cure, but that upon the intermission of the use of them, the Air, by its ill Impressions, reduces in short time the blood to the Scorbutick, or Saline Dyscrasie, from which it is no longer able to defend its self, than it is in­spired with the nimble, and volatil Salts of those anti-Scorbutick Remedies. The ge­neral cause then of this Endemial Disease the Scurvy, being the constitution of the Air is peculiar to the Northern parts of the [Page 44]World, and there appearing no reason why we should believe that to be altered for the worse in our times, from what it was in for­mer; I shall be apt to conclude, That it alwayes had the same effects upon the bo­dies of those men who breathed it, and that anciently, as well as in our times, it pro­duced the Scurvy in those Bodies; which through Errors in Dyet, want of Exercise, or antecedent Diseases, it found disposed to receive it.

As to the increase of it of late in the Bills of Mortality (as that ingenious per­son Mr. Grant has observed) I suppose, since the Scurvy has been familiarly taken notice of, and discoursed by the Physitians, (which has not been long) the name has from them been deriv'd down to the Nurse­keepers and Searchers; and is grown so common in their mouths, that Diseases which either they understand not, or have a mind to conceal, are now often given in under the name of the Scurvy.

The Rickets is, I think, very rightly sup­posed by the Learned Doctor Glisson, to be a Disease wholly new, and to have had for one of its chief, its procatactick Causes, the Peace, Security, and Plenty which the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation had long enjoyed, immediately before the first [Page 45]breaking forth of it: Glisson. de Rachid. p [...]. 241. From whence they had addicted themselves to a more soft, de­licate, and debauched way of living; and by that means, contracted a constitution of body more effeminate, flabby, and unfirm, than their Ancestors; who, by continual Toils, Wars, Dangers, and other Man­ly Exercises, not only preserved their own strength of body, and generosity of mind, but also deriv'd it entire to their Children. But I do not find, that it is observed by any able Physitian, That the face and appearance of it, is in the least altered from that in which it discovered its self at its first erup­tion; neither is it entered into any stricter complication with the Pox and Scurvy, than formerly. Glisson. de Rachid. c. 20. These being Diseases (as Doctor Glisson himself tells us) very little a-kin, and only by accident sometimes meeting in the same body. For the increase of the Con­sumption in the Bills of Mortality, Mr. Grant himself gives so sufficient a Reason, that we need go no farther to enquire the cause of it, nor to ascribe it to the alterati­on in the nature of that Disease, since he affirms, That almost all who dye of the French Disease, are put into the Bills of Mortality, under the name of Consumption. For upon enquiry, he sayes, he found, That all men­tioned to dye of the French Pox, were return­ed [Page 46]by the Clerk of St. Giles 's, and St. Mar­tins in the Fields, dead of the Consumption; from whence he concludes, Grant. Bills Mortal. c. 3. That only hated persons, and such whose very Noses were eaten off, were reported by the Searchers to have dyed of this Malady.

The Stopping of the Stomack, I can ima­gine to be nothing else but the Disease which Physitians call Asthma, or Dyspnaea, because I find not the least mention of this very frequent Malady in the Weekly Bills; and that I observe there is nothing more usual with the Vulgar in their complaints to Physitians, than to assign those Distempers to their stomacks, which properly belong to their Lungs.

The Rising of the Lights, is (I think) truly enough believed by M. N. to be, that frequent Symptom, which is vulgarly cal­led Suffocatio uterina, or [...]. And I am not of Opinion, that that Suffocation is only the proper affect of Women, and that solely it is caused from the disturbance of the Womb: For I have seen some men very much troubled with a rising up in their Throats, and especially in Hypocon­driacal Distempers, no less apprehensive of being choaked, than Hysterical Wo-

It is worth the taking notice of in this place, that the Author of Medela, who everywhere else inveighs so bitterly against the Aristotelean and Galenick Philosophy, when he pretends to give some account of the reasons and causes of these Symptoms, for want of truer apprehensions of his own, shelters himself under the very weakest, and most exploded part of that Philosophy. And flies to the pitiful and jejune notions of Vapors raised in the Lower-belly, especially about the Spleen in the stomack, and about the Midrif, and in the Cavity of the Omen­tum, which must needs, whilst they continue there, hinder the free motion of the Mid­rif. And, a little farther (that there may be no scruple left of his Ignorance in Ana­tomy) he acquaints us with the playing of the Scorbutick malignant Vapors through the Veins and Arteries to the Lungs, and by communication thence to the heart: Which Opinion is so contrary to the Doctrine of Circulation, that there is scarce a Butcher who is not able better to inform him; and he may learn at every Shambles (for 'tis not fit he should prophane a Theatre) that not one drop of blood enters the Lungs, before it has passed the right Ventricle of the heart.

And now, by reason this is a Subject very well worthy of a more accurate Disquisiti­on, and the Account which M. N. has pre­tended to give, seems very lame and un­satisfactory, I will beg leave to digress, and offer some apprehensions which I have con­cerning the Hysterical Passion, and other Distempers, which seem to come very near it, and agree in many of the Symptoms and Accidents.

CHAP. III.

THE Causes of the alteration of Dis­eases from their ancient state and condition, the Author of Medela assigns to be the Pox and Scurvey, which by carnal contact, by ill cures, by acci­dental contagion, by haereditary propagation and by lactation, he supposes, so to have o­verspread the whole face of Mankind as that by them there is introduced an universal alteration and depravation of Nature, from whence he would inferr, that the rules Methods and Medicines, which were used by the Ancients, in the curing of their dis­eases are become altogether uselesse in ours.

As to carnal contact, haereditary propa­gation, and lactation. I very readily grant that the Pox and scurvy may by those ways be communicated from the diseased per­sons to the sound. But as to accidental Contagion, as he calls it) upon which point lies the main stress of his Arguments for the universality of those diseases) by [Page 71]which they, like the Plague, infect at a distance, and by steams & emanations, taint the whole stock of Mankind, it is a meer whim of his own, and so far from being a solid truth, that it is point blank con­trary to the daily experiecne of the world and the authority and observations of the most learned and faithful Writers, and the very Nature and Essence of those diseases.

When M. N. comes to handle the point of the propagation of the Pox and Scurvy by ill cures; it is pleasant to observe, that he does not onely fling dirt upon the lear­ned Physitians, for letting blood and using the purgers of the Shops; but (that he may ingross all the sinners of the Town) he likewise falls foul upon his own Fra­ternity, the men of his own Rank and Abi­lity in Physick the poor Quacks and Moun­tebanks; who pretend to the Cure of the Venereal disease, and to make room for his own very injuriously tears down their bills from the Posts.

On my word he will make no ill trade of it, if he can perswade the whole Nati­on, that they have the French-Pox, and then that nobody but himself can cure it. But, passing by his immodest and uncleanly dis­course, as not designing to make my self acceptable to Stews, and Brothel-houses, [Page 72]I will fall upon the other more important and less offensive disquisition concerning Phlebotomy.

And as to that he tells us he could (for­sooth) willingly write a Treatise, (and a learned one it would be) touching the mis­chiefs done by bleeding in these Northern parts of the world in most Diseases, as well as Agues and Fevours, because of the mixture of the Scorbut, and his main reason is, be­cause, that if it be true (since the liver is turn'd out of the Office of Sanguification) Sanguis sanguificat blood makes blood of the chyle, and doth it ad modum tincturae. &c. Now I will grant to him that the li­ver is very justly discharged of the office of sanguification, as I will anon more large­ly prove, and that in some sense the blood may be said to make blood, and yet upon this score is it impossible for that great re­medy of bloud letting established by the Ex­perience and Authority of the whole learned worlp in the least to grow out of esteem.

First then I will tell hm, what Dr. Har­vey sayes upon this point. H [...]rv. de Gen. An. Ex. 51. But while I affirme (sayes that Oracle) the soul to re­side first and principally in the blood. I would not have any man hastily to conclude from hence, that all blood letting is dangerous or hurtful, or believe, with the vulgar, that as [Page 73]much blood, so much life is taken away, because Holy Writ placeth the life in the blood. For daily experience shews that letting Blood is a safe cure for several diseases, and the chiefest of universal remedies; because the default or superfluity of the blood is the Se­minary of most distempers; and a seasonable Evacuation of it, doth oftenescue men from most desperate maladies and even death it self: for look how much blood is according to Art taken away, so many years are added to the age. Nature her self was our tutor here, whom Physitians transcribe. For she of her own accord doth many times vanquish the most mortal infirmities by a plentifull and critical evacuation either by the nose, haemorrhoids, or by menstruous purgations. And therefore Young-people, who feed high, and live idely, unlesse a­bout the eighteenth or twentieth year of their age (at which time the stock of Bloud increases, together with the Bulk of their bodies) be disburdned of the load and oppression of their blood, either by a spontaneous release at the nose, or inferi­our parts, or by breathing a vein, they are dangerously set upon by Fevours, Small pox, Head-aches, and other more grievous Di­distempers, and Symptoms. Alluding to which, the Farriers do begin almost all cures [Page 74]of beasts with letting blood. This is the opinion of that great Secretary of Nature. Nor is it onely his sense, but the best Au­thors do affirm, and Riverius for one, that in the diseasecalled the Rheumatism (which seldome is without a high tincture of the Scorbute) blood must be taken away for ten or twelve dayes together, Riv. Prax. Med. l. 16. c. 3. every day till the pain vanishes, and the strength seems to fail, which does not by loss of blood in this disease. And in this case I can appeal to my own experience: For, be­ing called to a person of Quality in August, 1665. in Gloucestershire (in councell with that Judicious, and Learned Physitian Dr. Filding of Gloucester) who then lay mise­rably tormented with a Rheumatism, being free from pain in no part of his Body, not having the use of any of his Limbs, though he where a Person, who these many years has been highly Scorbutical, we drew from him at least the quantity of 70 ℥ of blood, before we could free him from pain, and restore him to his health.

Platerus makes mention of a Mad-wo­man, Plat. Obs. l. 1. p. 80. who was cured by being let blood in several Veins, seventy times in one Week. I might run through all other diseases, and shew the necessity of bleeding, which may happen in most of them: but because M. [Page 75]N's. main Argument, is founded upon Sanguification, I will endeavour to ex­plain, how the Chyle is turn'd into Blood, and in what parts of the body chiefly this work is effected: So that by discovering the true way of Sanguification, his Argu­ment may appear to be ill grounded.

That the Liver is not the Shop, where­in the Blood is made, is evident to any man who will examin the generation of Animals; for, Harv. de Gen. Ex 18. p. 63. Ex. 50. p. 153. Ex. 59. p. 207. he shall perceive the Heart beat, and Blood perfectly coloured, be­fore there appear any rudiments of the Li­ver; so that the Liver is made after the Blood, and, as it were, sticks upon little slender threds; and the Parenchyma of it, evidently grows out of the mouths of the Arteries, through which matter is supply­ed to the formation of it; so that the Pa­renchyma of it seems to be nothing else, but congealed blood. Again, the Chyle never goes to the Liver, but empties it self into the Subclavial Veins, and goes streight away to the right Ventricle of the Heart.

Now, the use and business of the Liver, Glisson Anat. Hep. c. 41. is without doubt, that which is assigned by the eminently learned D. Glisson, that it is made to receive the blood, which runs to it by the Porta, to separate the Choler from it, [Page 77]and then being freed from that, to deliver it to the Cava. The very Make and Stru­cture of that Bowel, argues as much: as also the distribution of the Vessels to every part of the Parenchyma: for the Porta equal­ly dispenses the blood into all parts of it, and the small Capillary threads of the Porus Biliarius, are every where dispersed, and ready to receive the choler, which is brought along mingled with the blood in­to every part. And in like manner, the small branches of the Vena Cava, are every where interwoven and at hand, to carry away the blood, when cleansed and freed from the bilious part of it. Now the choler is sepa­rated from the blood by a certain kind of Percolation. For, the blood issuing out from the Porta, into the Parenchyma or fleshy parts of the Liver, finds that sub­stance full of pores or little spaces of divers shapes and figures, and proportionable to the shape, sise, and figuration of the Par­ticles or Atoms of blood and choler, where­of those which are suitable to the shape of the parts of choler, open into the small pipes of the Porus biliarius; those which are answerable to the shape of the Atoms of blood, convey it into the little mouths of the Cava. These pores or little holes easily let pass those parts of mater which [Page 76]are correspondent to their shape, but re­fuse all of another Figure, as we see water will dissolve common salt, and imbibe it so long, till all the spaces which agree with the shape of it, be fill'd, and then will re­ceive no more; but yet afterwards will re­ceive sugar or salts of another Figure, so long, till they have fill'd the spaces suitable to their shape.

The separation of choler in the Liver may not unfitly be explain'd, by that which is made in Sieves, whereof some are made only to sever Chaff and dust, some for Fet­ches, some for Barley, others for Oats; which, according to the shape of the holes let passe or refuse, this or the other Grain.

Having thus explain'd the Anatomy of the Liver, I will proceed to discourse of the Nature of Blood it self, and the prin­cipal Engine which is employed in the ma­king of it; and to that end, let me trace the passage of the Chyle, that we may the better find when and where it is turn'd to blood. It is well known to every man, who has but in any measure inquired into Physick and Anatomy, Willis De­script. Nerv. that as soon as the meat is dissolv'd by the menstruum of the stomach, it is pressed down into the guts, and out of them all the way almost to the [Page 78]very Anus, the thinner and finer part is forced into the Lacteals, out of which it is delivered into the common Channel of the chyle, and being mingled with a whey, which comes out of the Lymphaticks, it enters the Subclavials, out of which it runs mingled with the blood into the great Trunk of the Vena Cava. Out of which, passing into the right Ventricle of the heart, by the motion of that Engin, through the Pulmonary Arteries, it is flung into the Lungs; out of which, having there sepa­rated some phlegmatick, or crude excre­ments, and being impregnated with the nitre of the air, which is drawn in by re­spiration (and being in the Lungs, as with a Churn, or Chocolate-mill, more exactly mingled with the blood) it hastens by the Pulmonary Vein, to the left Ventricle of the heart, out of which by the Aorta, it is sent to all the parts of the body.

Thus far the Chyle may be easily traced, and truly, I know not why it may not, ha­ving passed the last deflagration in the heart, be justly called Blood. I will not in this place bring the distinction of the Schools upon the Stage, which distinguishes that Liquor which runs in the Veins and Arte­ries into Three humours, and Blood, as being now out of doors with all ingenious [Page 79]men, and being no otherwise to be applied than as some portion of that Liquor has more often, other more seldome, or hard­ly yet at all, passed through the heart, and there been fired. But I, in general, term all those juices, Blood, which run in the Veins and Arteries, and have the form, colour, and consistence, of that liquor which is vulgarly called so, though it con­sists (as certainly all blood does) of parts very heterogeneous: and I think the Chyle it self, which comes very white and dilute into the Subclavials, when it has undergone the fermentation in the left Ventricle of the heart, may without impropriety be justly termed blood. For, though I do acknowledge, that this juice, before it arrive to perfection, does undergo several fermentations, and separations in divers parts of the body: as, for example, in the Liver, the choler is separated in the Kidneys, the whey in the habit of the bo­dy several excrements are refused, which can probably be no other wise blown off than by transpiration. And though a fermentati­on in the Spleen, Testicles, Uterus, and other parts, be requisite to give a vigour, life, and height to the blood: yet I take the Heart to be the chief Shop, where it is first made, and where it receives [Page 80]it's life, motion, and tincture.

In the heart (as to our purpose) three things are chiefly to be considered. 1. The Ventricles or Chambers of it: 2. The Parenchyma or Walls: and 3. The Me­chanick Spirits, (as Severinus Danus calls them) which lodge and reside in the in­scrutable recesses of the Parenchyma. These Spirits may be justly called the Artificers, or Labourers of blood and life: to these we owe all Action, Heat, Motion, Colour, and what not: These, first working in the punctum saliens or vesicula pulsans, with a wonderful skill and unexpressable art draw the lines & proportions of an animal, shape, all the Springs, wheels, pullies, and what­ever Engine is necessary for life; and after they have drawn the whole Fabrick in the small with an innate prudence, and indefa­tigable industry, they extend every line to the due Proportion, and build up the Fa­brick according to the design'd dimensions, and afterwards are no less careful in keep­ing the body in continual Repair, than they were at first in Building of it.

In the next place, the Ventricles or Chambers of the heart, being inclosed with their Parenchyma, as with strong Walls, do at the very first sight, from their mechanical Structure, sufficiently ap­pear [Page 81]to us, to be made for Laboratories for the Blood. Hogeland well observes, Hog. p. 81. That upon the Bloods rushing into the Heart, the like boyling and rarefaction is caused, as when Spirit of Nitre is poured upon butter of Anti­mony. Des Cartes, and the best Philosophers and Physitians are much of the same Opi­nion. This Fermentation seems to be cau­sed by the Mechanical Spirits, or Seminal Salts; or, if you please, Ferment of the Heart, which ferments with the active prin­ciples of the Blood and Chyle, and produ­ces heat, flame, motion, and a change of colour, the ordinary effects of Fermentati­on, as it is well known to Chymists.

In the act of Generation, the Seed, or resolv'd Salt being cast by the Male into the Womb, in the Conception frames the Heart; and by the heat either of incubati­on, or the cherishing warmth of the Womb, is excited, and gently falls a fermenting; and at length, boyling more violently, breaks into a flame, which is perpetually kept a foot by a new supply of Chyle, the old stock of Blood after some Deflagrations being left poor and unfit to maintain the Fire. That the Chyle in this Deflagration receives its Tincture, or Scarlet-die, is more than probable. Ent. Apol. p. 141. The Learned Doctor Ent, deduces the variety of Colours from [Page 82]the diversity of Seminal Salts, and certain­ly with very good Reason: For, since Co­lour is nothing else, than a certain percep­tion of a motion or stroak of Light reflect­ed from the Surface of a Body, and striking upon the tunica retinae of the Eye; and, that the Superficies of every Body is made up of numberless Particles of matter, vari­ously disposed among themselves, it fol­lows, That if upon the Fermentation of Bodies, the site and position of parts be so changed and transposed, that they return not again to the same order wherein they were first placed, the Superficies must be altered, and then the reflection, as also the stroak of light must be different; and, ex­cept it prove diaphanous, the Body must appear of a new colour.

Thus we see Water much agitated at Mills, and Chataracts looks white. The blew tincture of Violets having some drops of Spirit of Vitriol poured on it, turns Purple; and, immediately by adding some few drops of Spirit of Harts-horn, the Purple colour is turn'd into Green. Doctor Willis, Willis de Ferment. cap. 11. and other Learned Authors, have many pleasant instances of the alteration of colours, by mingling Liquors, which fer­ment with one and the other. That the Chyle is turn'd red in the Heart, after this [Page 83]manner, I am very apt to believe; and that the innate Salt or Ferment of the Heart by fermenting with the Chyle, which abounds with volatil Salt and Sulphur, produces this admirable tincture.

I have observ'd, as yet, but two wayes of producing a red colour in Bodies, either by the action of heat upon them, or else by the addition of Salts; by heat, white and pale colours are often changed into red, and that especially in Bodies which are not very fluid, and which admit of only a slow and leisurely Fermentation. Thus Quinces by long boyling, contract a Redness; Fruit by baking in an Oven, grows Redder, than Raw; and Bricks, by Heat, acquire a red colour. Nay, the Learned Doctor Glisson affirms, That in the hot Months of Summer, Glisson. Anat. Hep. Blood is often found in those Animals whom we account bloodless, as Oysters, and the like, by reason of the heat which excites the ferment­ing Sal [...]s which lay intangled, and, as it were, asleep, in the more slimy and unactive parts of those Animals; and, possibly, the reason why Snails, and such other Creatures, are not endued with Blood, is, because the Ferment of their Heart lies idle all the Winter.

The other way of producing a red colour, is by addition of a salt Menstruum. Dr. Ent. [Page 84]Thus Juleps are colour'd red with Spirit o [...] Vitriol, Infusions of Senna with Oyl of Tartar: And Berigardus tells us, He had a Chymical liquor, into which, if he put but a little piece of a certain Salt, Berig. Cinc. Ʋn. p. 9. the Liquor would turn from being white and cold, to be so red and hot, that he could not endure to hold the Bottle. After the same manner, the milky juyce of the Chyle is most pro­bably turned into Blood; for meeting with the Salt, or Ferment of the Heart, it is turned from white to red, and boils no less than the Chymists Liquor.

Having thus endeavoured to explain the manner of Sanguification, and having de­duced it chiefly from the firing of the Chyle in the Heart, I do not find, but that upon this Hypothesis (agreeable to the experience of the World) even in many Scorbutick Affects, Phlebotomy may be most necessary; but especially (as in some per­sons) where the Scorbutick Ferment is (as I may call it) a Stum to the Blood, as I have found it in many, especially in a Wo­man in Berkshire above 50 years of Age, who, every Fortnight, or three Weeks, has her Courses in so violent and large a man­ner, that except the Flux be by seasonable bleeding often moderated, she is continual­ly in danger of bleeding to death. Nay, [Page 85]even in other cases of the Scurvy, where by the adustness and sharpness of the Blood, the Chyle is perpetually corrupted and de­praved; by seasonable bleeding, the Blood is ventilated and enabled (there being more room for the mass to ferment in) to cast off many of its faeculent Salts, by Urine, and Transpiration; and the Chyle (the vitious fermentation of Scorbutick Salts, being, by breathing a vein, somewhat allay­ed) comes more sincere, and less perverted to the heart.

I come in the next place to his Excepti­ons against Purgation in the Scurvy, M [...]. Md. P. 88. By the Pills, Electuaries, Powders and Infusions, repu­ted Classical and Authentick; which (he tells us) work by offensive irritation of Nature; rather than an amicable Cl [...]se with her. What his amicable Close with Nature is, I under­stand not except he has explain'd himself in his cleanly Discourse of the French Disease. But as to Purgation, any man who shall se­riously consider how Medicins purgative perform their effects, shall find all those, which are properly call'd so, work either by a vellication of the Fibres of the Guts and Bowels; or by exciting a Fermentation in the Blood, or both wayes. Those which work by irritating of the Fibres, cause the Guts to thrust down their Excrements, and [Page 86]by contracting themselves to expell [...]em forth of the Body. Those Purgatives which by the Lactials (and, possibly, by the ends of the Meseraicks) pierce into the mass of Blood, work their effect by fer­menting the juyces of the Body, and stimu­lating the fibrous parts, in the most inward recesses of the Bowels, by which often the Morbifick matter is exterminated into the Guts, as Barm in the fermentation of Li­quors is separated, and forced out of the Barrel. Now as the Medicins differ in their Natures, so, I suppose, may a different Fermentation be excited in the Blood, and likewise a different Excrement or Barm be vented, and wrought off; upon which, I sup­pose, the whole business of elective Purga­tion to depend; and, whatever his Speci­ficks be, which he so much magnifies, they must necessarily perform their business by one or other of these wayes, except (with­out Canting) he can demonstrate a more reasonable.

In his Discourse of Contagion, and of the Infection, of the French Disease and Scurvy, at a distance, the Author of Mede­la (as everywhere else) discovers as much want of Civility as Philosophy, and treats the learned Fernelius, and the most acute and judicious Philosopher Sennertus, with [Page 87] [...] more respect than he does the Colledge of London, and Universities; and after he has made bold with several pieces of this Learned Author to patch up a Chapter, he gives him the Lye, tells him, That he's gross, P. 128.130. and that it matters not what his, or other Physitians phansie is, touching a particular Disease. And all this is, because that these Learned men do not, contrary to their ob­servation and experience, allow those Dis­eases to be communicable at a distance, and without corporal contact; in which, though their own experience and observation be of abundantly more weight, than his ill digest­ed ratiocinations; yet will it not be imper­tinent to shew, that though these Diseases are very deservedly accounted Contagious, or Infectious; and that Contagion is cau­sed by the insinuating of the Emanations of smal bodies from the morbifick matter into the Blood and Juyces of the persons in­fected, and that from all Bodies do conti­nually flow streams of Atoms; yet does it not in the least follow, that whatever infects or poysons by immediate Contact, will al­so work the same effect at a distance. Thus we see the poyson of a mad Dog insects not by the Effluvia from his Body; but ei­ther by bite, the touch of the some, or his blood. The Tarantula communicates venom [Page 88]by his bite, the Scorpion by the sting, and the like may be said of almost all poysons; nay, some require, as in Bees, Wasps, Hor­nets, and the like that the venom be con­veyed by the sting through the very skin in­to the blood, without which it may be questioned, whether barely thrown upon the skin, it would produce the effects of poy­son: And we evidently find, that these Creatures poyson not by any effluxes from them; but when the venom is closely ap­plied to the Body, and by Contact commu­nicated to the Blood.

Consonant to this, is an instance in an Epistle of Crato to Thomas Jordanus, Crat. Epist. Med. l. 2. of a kind of Plague in Moravia, which only in­fected those persons who were bled with Cupping-glasses, and that it seized upon them in that place where the skin was scar­rified, and the Cupping-glass fastned, and that way the venom got into the whole mass of Blood, and insinuated it self into the nervous parts. And discoursing of the reason of this Disease, he makes mention of a relation of the Emperor Ferdinand, concerning a poyson used in Spain, made of the juice of White Hellebore, with which the Huntsmen of Spain use to poyson their Arrows, and with them kill Deer, and other wild Beasts. In the beginning of Sum­mer, [Page 89]sayes the Author, they who prepare this poyson, press out the juice from the whole Plant, expose it to the heat of the Sun till it be prepar'd, and then pour it into a Bulls-horn, in which they keep it; but they are exceeding­ly careful, that it come not near any place wh [...]re there is the smell of Quinces, for then presently it loses all its virtue of poysoning. This poyson may without harm be tasted by the Tongue, but if the least drop of it be commu­nicated to the Blood, it proves most pernicious. And he adds, That if any one be but pricked with a Needle infected with this juyce, he would dye within a very few hours; and that the Deer wounded with the Arrows dipped in this poyson, first seem to be in a maze, and lose their sight, then run round; then fall down, and dye within half an hour at the far­thest. But that which seems strange, is, that the flesh of the Deer thus killed, should be eaten without any kind of harm, and that only the part where the wound was made, was flung away. He adds farther, That an Ass, whose back was galled with carrying Burdens, having a Deer laid cross his back, which was killed with one of these Arrows, some of the blood from the wound by chance dropping upon the place which was galled, fell down dead before he brought the Deer to the journies end. He tells us likewise, That the Emperor Rudolphus [Page 90] the Second, having shot a Deer with one of those Arrows in one of his Horns, which ran away, as though he ayled nothing, did, not­withstanding, some hours after, as he-came from Hunting, find him dead.

From this, and the like Instances, I sup­pose it may be very reasonably argued, That from the Doctrine of Atoms, it does not necessarily follow, that whatever Venom or Disease will infect the Blood, by a gross and corporeal Contact or Attrition, will likewise perform the same effects at a di­stance, by subtle Effluxes, or Emanati­ons of small Bodies or Atoms. For though we see in the Plague, and some other malig­nant Diseases, that the Venom, like Light­ning, quickly pierces the Pores, and insinu­ates it self into the mass of Blood, and that often at a considerable distance from the Body, out of which are sent those deadly and pernicious steams: yet we find this men­tioned Spanish poyson, though of more deadly and quick force to the destruction of life, when once mingled with the Blood, does not as much as penetrate the Pores of the Skin (possibly, by reason of the dispro­portion of Figures of the Atoms) nor, (though tasted by the Tongue, a part ve­ry sensible of all impressions) communicate to the Nerves or Veins any venemous or mortal Ferment.

Now to apply this something nearer to the American Disease, and the Scurvy, (which M. N. has most bountifully be­stowed upon all Mankind:) Though it be sufficient, that the most curious, and dili­gent observers of those Diseases, have una­nimously agreed, that they are only con­tracted by gross and corporeal Contact; yet, I think something may be argued from the History and Cure of the Pox, and Na­ture of the Scurvy, which may serve to res­cue Mankind from the apprehensions of be­ing universally tainted.

As to the Pox, or American Disease; the Original and Growth, as also what Obser­vations the World had then made of it, is very well delivered in the History of Guic­ciardin, Guicc. l. 2. Methinks it cannot be out of purpose (sayes his Translator) to leave to Memory and Tradition in what sort began the Disease which the French-men call, the Evil of Na­ples, and the Italians name the Botch, or, more commonly, the Disease of France. It hap­pened as an Infection to the French-men, whil'st they were at Naples; and by them, in their return from that War, was dispersed and spread through all Italy. This Disease, ei­ther altogether new, or at least unknown to that Age in our Hemisphere, otherwise than in the most extream and furthest parts, was for cer­tain [Page 92]Years so horrible, that it well deserveth mention as a most grievous Calamity: For it appeared alwayes either in vile Botches, or Buttons, which oftentimes proved Ulcers incu­rable; or else they tormented the whole Body with Pain and Aches in the Joynts and Si­news: And the Physitians having no experi­ence in Maladies of that Nature, and there­fore ignorant in the Remedies proper and natu­ral, applied oftentimes Cures directly resisting, and contrary; which inflamed the Infection to greater Rage, even to the killing of many bodies of all Ages and Sexes; and many be­came deformed with them, and subject to al­most Torments perpetual; yea, the most part, such as seemed to be delivered of them, re­turned eftso [...]ns in short time to the same mi­sery. But after the course of many Years, (either the influence above being appeased, which bred them so horrible, and raging; or by long experience, their proper Remedies and Cures being found out) the Disease began to be less malicious, changing it self into divers kinds of Maladies, differing from the first Ca­lamity; whereof truly the Regions and People of our Times might justly complain, if it hap­ned unto them without their proper disorder; seeing it is well approved by all those that have diligently studied and observed the Pro­perties of that Evil, that either never, or [Page 93]very rarely, it hapneth to any, otherwayes than by Contagious Whoredom. The French think it reasonable to acquit them of the Ignominie, for that it is known since, that such a Disease was transported out of Spain to Naples, and yet not proper or natural to that Nation; but brought thither from the Isles, which (in those Seasons) began to be known to our Regions by the Navigation of Christopher Columbus a Genoway; in which Isles (by the favour of Nature) are Remedies ready to cure that Ill, by drinking only of the juyce of a wood, (most singular for many other worthy Proper­ties) which gr [...]wing plentifully in those pla­ces, is a Remedy, no less easie, than absolute, and assured to the Inhabitants there.

By this Account of Guicciardin, it is evident, That by the most exact Observers of that Disease, both in its birth, increase, and spreading in Italy, 'twas found by expe­rience, that it was either never, or rarely, any other way contracted, than by Whore­dom, and Coition with infected per­sons.

And indeed, that the venom of the Ve­nereous Disease, is founded in a dull, heavy, and unactive matter, and not in a Ferment of so swift a motion, as to infect at a di­stance, appears very much from the way of its Cure; for whereas the Plague, which [Page 94]swiftly infects, is (before it has too much poysoned and corrupted the Blood and Juyces) by Sudorificks, easily expelled at the ends of the Arteries. The Venereous Disease on the other side, is of so sluggish parts, that there is no separating of the Morbifick matter from the mass of Blood, and nervous Liquor, without dreining the Body of almost all its Juyces, either by Sweating, or Salivation. I have observ'd in the Cure of some persons tainted with this Disease, That as long as they have in­dulg'd to themselves the drinking of Beer, though in a small quantity, no great benefit has ensued upon the most effectual Reme­dies; but when once they have strictly con­fin'd themselves to the use of appropriate Dyet-drinks, in the course of their other Remedies, in the space of three or four dayes, all ill Accidents have vanished. It is not therefore likely, that a Disease which sticks so stubbornly in the Blood and Juyces of the Body, should flie as swift, as light, all over the World, and leave not so much as a poor Thrasher or Milk-maid free from its Contagion.

In the next place, The Nature or Forma­lity of the Scurvy, consisting in the Bloods being overcharged with fixed or fluid Salts, renders that Disease very unfit to be com­municated [Page 95]at a distance. For whatever Disease acts upon, or infects a Body at a distance, must be of active, nimble and sub­til parts, easily flying out of the Pores of one Body, and with the like facility insinua­ting themselves into the mouths of an­other Bodie's veins; and of so swift motion, that the Contagious Corpuscles, when they are rambling in the Atmosphere, shall receive little or no alteration, either in their motions, from the occursion of other Bodies; or in their Figure, from the attri­tion or beating of other Particles of matter which they meet in their way (for upon these affections of matter, all virtues and operations of one Body upon another do depend.)

Now the essence of the Scurvy being ra­dicated in a fixation of the Salts of the Blood, it seems very improbable, That such fix'd Bodies, which cannot by the force of fire be carried up to the top of an Alem­bick, should be proper Messengers to com­municate Infection at a distance. Besides, Saline Particles being too gross to be put into those violent motions which are re­quired in infectious Ferments, though they may by Sweat, or insensible Transpiration, issue out of the diseased Body; yet if they Travel far in the Air, they will either in [Page 96]their way combine with other Particles of matter, and so lose their Properties (as we see the Salts of a Menstruum unite them­selves to Powder of Coral, and other te­staceous Bodies) or else in their Journey by the meeting and justling with other Atoms, have their motions and figures so altered, that they would wholly lose their former operations and virtues.

Now from the Instances which I have given of sundry poysonous Bodies, which, (though they must be allowed to be of a very active venom, and constantly to send forth streams, or Effluvia of Atoms) do, notwithstanding, never poyson at a distance. And of some which infect not by immedi­ate Contact with the Skin, and never but where they are mingled with the Blood; from the Accompt which Guicciardin gives of the Observations which the World made of the French Pox, in its Original and Growth; And from the Arguments drawn from the Cure of that Disease: As also from the Nature and Formality of the Scur­vy, it very clearly appears, That Fernelius and Sennertus are in the right, when (though they allow the Pox and Scurvy to be Con­tagious Diseases) they deny them to in­fect (like the Plague) at a distance. And that M. N. who upon supposition of the [Page 97]accidental Contagion or Infection at a di­stance of these Maladies, would infer an alteration of the Nature of all Diseases from their ancient state and condition, and consequently render useless and void the Rules, Methods, and Medicins of the An­cients; has not with any good Arguments prov'd the Point, which he has with much Confidence undertaken.

CHAP. IV.

THat the Scurvy and French Malady may be complicated with other Diseases, is not (I suppose) de­nied by any able Physitian. But (by M. N's leave) it does not from thence necessarily follow, That the Nature and Es­sence of all Diseases abstractly considered, is wholly altered. For Diseases in Bodies free from those Distempers (as many Thou­sands there are untainted) are still the same that they were formerly; and where a Dropsie or Gowt, or any other Distemper, meets with a Pocky Body, the ancient Dis­case by the Combination is not altered from its former condition, though there be an ad­dition of a new Malady. For his suppo­sition of the Pox and Scurvy, Med. Med. p. 156. being Conta­gious at a distance, and that by the continued Succession, Multiplication, and Concentration of many millions of Contagious Ferments, which have been floating and flying up and down, they must needs be Coessentially tinctu­red, and Combined with the very Blood, Hu­mors, [Page 99]Spirits, and, by consequence, universal­ly complicated more or less with all manner of D [...]seases, is (as I have demonstrated in the foregoing Chapter) a phansie so extrava­gant, that it is not reconcileable either to Experience or Reason.

As to his Quotation out of Sennertus, it makes nothing for him: that Author in that place, saying no more than what every Phy­sitian agrees with him in; to wit, That Fe­vers complicated with the Pox, are more dif­ficultly cur'd, than Simple ones; which is no more then what holds true as to all other Diseases, where there is a Complication, though the Pox do not make one. For cer­tainly many Diseases in one Body are not so easily encountered as one, and oftentimes the Indications contradicting one the other, the same Methods and Medicins which are proper for the quelling and extinguishing one of the Distempers, do at the same time strengthen and increase the other.

The Authority of his Friend Helmont, (who affirms, That from a Complication of the Pestilence with the French Ferment, the Plague is now more frequent than in former Ages; that it seizeth us upon the least occasi­on, cruelly pursueth, and more easily spreads it self, because of its being associated with this new venom or poyson) does not much weigh [Page 100]with me in this Point, as to which I can oppose History and Experience against him. For I do not find, but that the Records of former Ages, deliver Descriptions of as fre­quent, dreadful, and depopulating Plagues, as any have hapned in our times. Let him consult Kircher, De Peste (his admir'd Au­thor) and he will find at the latter end of his Book, a long Catalogue of Plagues which infested the World before ever the French Disease came out of America; and that they then, as now they usually afflicted Armies, and Camps, in which malignant E­pidemical Diseases are usually bred; not by any pocky Ferment, but by the Necessities, ill Dyet, and Nastiness, which usually ac­company the number, and motions of those vast Bodies.

For instance, After the Destruction of Troy, upon the occasion of that War, there sprang up a Plague which over-ran all Greece. That there was a great Plague which destroyed Xerxes his Army, when he rais'd it to fall into Greece, appears out of Herodotus, and by the Letters sent from the Governor of the Hellespont to Hippocrates. The Plague of Athens (which, as descri­bed by Thucydides, and Lucretius, seems to have been a more dismal Pestilence, than has ever hapned since to any one People) is [Page 101]said to have arisen upon the War between the Athenians and Lacedemonians. Again, Livy describes a horrible Plague which de­stroyed the Roman Army when Marcellus besieged Syracuse. And it is Recorded, that Anno Domini, 252. there was so universal a Pestilence, that no Province in the World was free from the same. These Instances sufficiently consute Helmont, whom I will dismiss with Mr. Boyle's Censure of him in his Preface introductory to his Sceptical Chymist; of whose Ratiocinations (sayes that Learned Gentleman) not only some seem very extravagant, but even the rest are not wont to be as considerable as his Expe­riments.

In the next place, M. N. tells us, Me. Med. p. 166. That the French Spirit, called Lues Venerea, haunts not only the inward parts of Men, but the outward also; appearing in the form of Ʋlcers, hard Bumps in the Flesh, inflamed Tumors, purulent Apostemes; as also renders Wounds hard to be cur'd, insomuch, that the best Chirurgions do complain, with admirati­on, That of late, even the slighter Wounds will hardly yield to the usual Remedies, so that there is need of a new foundation for Chirur­gery, as well as Physick. And the better to prove this, he acquaints us, That in the Year 1661. he himself had a hot fiery Impetigo, [Page 102]which ran through his Beard round like a Red Half-Moon, from one Ear to the other; and after all manner of Ʋnguents, Waters, Lot [...]ons, &c. used for Twelve Months in vain, he devis'd a Scorbutick Liquor, and in­fus'd in it a Mercurial Powder; which only by wetting the part therewith slightly with the top of his Finger twice a day, took it instantly away.

But to what purpose is this Story of the Beard and Ears, since it proves nothing, but that the French Malady was got very near his Nose, and that his Ears (which he has so often forfeited) are still upon his Head?

I know well, that Bodies infected with the French Disease, do usually break out in Bumps, Ulcers, Sores and Apostemes, which do not yield to ordinary Remedies, and only to such as do specifically respect the poyson of that Distemper. But the question in Dispute, is, Whether all sound Bodies which never have contracted any Venereal venom by gross and corporeal Contact, are notwithstanding so infected by the wandring Steams or Atoms of the Pox, that as much as a Cut-finger, or Broken­pate, cannot now adayes be cured, without the assistance of Antivenereal Remedies; and, as to this Point, M. N. has not in the [Page 103]least prov'd it, or, by his Beard, shew'd himself to be a Philosopher.

I come now to the Scurvy, which I wil­lingly grant may be often complicated with other Diseases; and indeed it must be con­fessed, that most Fevers which invade En­glish Bodies towards the declination, when the deflagration of the Blood is over, and the Mass is left impoverished of its Spirit, and richer part, do leave the Blood in al­most a necessary tendency and disposition to the Scurvy: And therefore judicious Physitians very usually, after the Crisis is over, have recourse to Antiscorbutical Re­medies, as the Salts of Plants, the acid Spirits of Minerals, Preparations of Steel, Juices and Extracts of Vegetables, and the like; by which, the languishing Ferments of the Bowels are reviv'd, and the Spirits of the Blood quickned, and restored; and the mixture of the Chyle with the old stock of Blood, the better and more orderly performed. But to make the Pocky and Scorbutick Ferment in all Diseases, as gene­ral a Refuge and Sanctuary for Ignorance, as the Devil, and Occult qualities, among the vulgar renderers of causes, is very unwor­thy of a Philosopher, and will at length so much debauch that most significant term of Ferment, that it will bring it into discredit [Page 104]with enquiring men, who cannot permit themselves to be satisfied with words, ex­cept something be represented by them. For in good earnest, I do not see how M. N. has better explained the Nature of the Disease, which he has treated of by the word Ferment, and other terms insignificant, as he uses them; than if he had fled to the Asylum Ignorantiae, Occult qualities. For there is not one question you can ask him in Physick concerning the cause of any Disease or Symptom, but he is presently ready to answer, That it flows from a Combination with a Pocky and Scorbutick Ferment; A very compendious way indeed, of being a Philosopher; but no whit more satisfactory in Physick, than, Bellarmine, Thou lyest; in answering all the difficulties and objections in Divinity.

CHAP. V.

THe Third Point from whence M.N. inferrs, That all Diseases are altered from their ancient state and condition, is (forsooth) Vermination, or breeding of Worms; and he pretends, That in these dayes they are more frequently appearing in all manner of Fevers, and other Diseases, than in former time; and his Reason is, Be­cause by the intermixture of the Pocky and Scorbutick Ferments, Humors are more vitia­ted, and a more poysonous, putredinous dispo­sition or corruption is introduced into mens Bodies, than was wont to be in elder time. But that this is no new thing, that it is not more frequent in Diseases than formerly, or hap­pens upon any score of the Pox or Scurvy, the Authority of the Ancients, the enqui­ry into the reason of the production of those Animals, and the observation of their Generation throughout all the Families of Nature, will evidently discover.

First then, as to the Authority of the Ancients, Hippocrates, Galen, and other Writers, do not only treat of three sorts of Worms which are usually generated in [Page 106]the Guts, but they have likewise some ca­ses of Worms, which in these days rare­ly have occurr'd to observation. For Ex­ample, Hippocrates treats of Worms being generated in Children whil'st they are in the Womb, which is seldom taken notice of by Modern Writers.

Plutarch gives an Account of a young man at Athens, Plut. 8. Symp. who voided Worms ming­led with his Seed.

Alsaravius in his Chapter of the Cough, Alsarav. Cap. de Tussi. treats of Animals generated in the Lungs, as one cause of it. And, without doubt, they may often be the cause of the Con­sumption, and Ulcers of that part, though I have not met with any Modern Writer who takes notice of it, except the Learned Muffet, who quotes a Story out of Hiero­nymus Gabucinus, of a Lady, Who spit up a Lump of Phlegm in the middle of which there was a Worm. The same thing hapned, not long since, to a learned Friend of mine, who affirm'd to me, That having an unto­ward Cough, he began to be very suspitious of his Lungs, and (being himself a Physitian) to use those Remedies which he judged most fitting. And one day observing diligently his Spittle, he observ'd a Red Spot to move in the midst of a Clot of it; which, when he had disengag'd from the slimy Phlegm which [Page 107]encompassed it, he discovered to be a long Red Worm with many Feet: After this, he Coughed up another of the same kind, and then grew very well, and has since continued free from his Cough.

There was a Disease of Worms amongst the Ancients (though in their Times and Countries, the Scurvy and Pox were not stirring) which is seldom to be met with in our Age; it was called by the Grecians, Drancucula, and by the Arabians, the Vena Civilis, or Medena. I have met only with two Modern Authors who treat of it. Muffet In­sect. l. 2. c. 20. The one is Muffet, who writes, That in India, and the Countries beyond Aegypt, a certain kind of Worms is bred in the Arms and Legs, and other musculous parts af the Body, which are endued with motion, and commonly called Dracontia. The other is, Petrus Mo­navius, in a Letter to Hieronymus Mercu­rialis, in the Fifth Book of Crato's Epistles set out by Scholzius, who relates, That there was a Disease in the place where he liv'd very frequent amongst Children, which, in their Language, they call Mittiser. The Children afflicted with it, pin'd and wasted away with­out any manifest cause. The way of curing them, was by rubbing the Back all over with the Crums, or Pith of Wheaten Bread, or the Flower of it tempered with Honey; and then [Page 108]the heads of some things like Worms, here and there appeared, which being cut off with a Razor, the Children presently grew well, and recovered. Some (sayes he) will have this Tabes to be the same with the Drancucula of the Grecians, or the Vena Civilis, or Me­dena of the Arabians; but, if I am not mi­staken (he continues) it comes nearer to the Disease in Kine, or the Worms bred under the Skin, which Nicolaus Florentinus makes mention of.

Aristotle in his History of Animals, Aristot. 5. Histor. Ani­mal. c. 32. makes mention of a small Animal generated under the Skin, which he calls [...], which is the same with those little Creatures which are call'd Syrones, [...], quia tractim sub cute repunt: they are a sort of Mites, which the English call Wheale-Worms, like to those which are bred in Cheese, and old Wax, which like Moles, dig their way under the Skin, and cause a very troublesom and importunate itching. They are sometimes (as Muffet observes) bred under the Coats of the Eye; and, he sayes, some Women were very skilful in picking them out with a Needle: And that John Arden, a learned English Chi­rurgion, has written, That the Eyes are cer­tainly cured, by washing them with sublimated Wine.

This very ancient Disease observ'd by Aristotle, hapned in a very great height (in Muffets own time) to the Lady Penrud­dock, Muffet In­sect. l. 2. c. 24. Who being very apprehensive of a Con­sumption of her Lungs, fell to the Drinking of Goats Milk in very large quantities, by which means, her whole Body became miserably af­flicted with swarms of Mites, insomuch, that she (having for some time liv'd (without any manner of sleep) in a most restless and painful condition, being intolerably tormented in her Eyes, Lips, Gums, Soles of her Feet, Head, Nose, and every other part of her Body; her Disease growing upon her, and her misery increasing, and all her flesh being, as it were, devoured by these Creatures, in spight of all Remedies, which were in vain used by the Phy­sitians) at length ended her miserable life. The same Author adds, That it was very observable, that by how much the more often, and diligently, the Mites were digged out of her Skin with her Womens Needles, the in­crease of their swarms was so much the great­er; and that when they had devoured her flesh, they appeared of a more considerable big­ness than at first.

I have observ'd in Berkshire, in the Months of July and August, a little Ani­mal no bigger than the Mite in a Cheese, of an Orange-Tawny Colour, which very [Page 110]much vexes the Skin with a troublesom itching, the Countrey-people call it a Har­vest-Louse: when it first begins to dig its way into the Skin (which is perceived by the itching of the part) it is easily picked out with a Needle; but if upon the first itching the part be rubb'd, the little Ani­mal shelters it self deep under the Skin, and by undermining the place, and digging or eating its way, causes an itching, and im­mediately a Pimple to rise. I suppose, that this Creature (though it be like the [...] of Aristotle, or the Syrones) is not the same, because I observe, that if it be digged out with a Needle, no Blister at all is rais'd; and therefore rather think, that this Animal is generated in the Air, or Corn at that time of the Year; whereas it is observed, that the Syrones, and the ti­neae are bred out of putrified Serum col­lected in a Pimple; and that they are sustained and fed by the same, and that this being dried away, they suddenly dye.

From these observations of Plutarch, Al­saravius, and Aristotle, of the Production of Insects in mens Bodies; it is most evident, That the intermixture of the Pocky and Scorbutick Ferments, have nothing to do in the generating of Worms, since in Ages and Places when and where those Distem­pers [Page 111]were never known, as frequent and strange cases of Worms, as any which have hapned in our times, have been ob­served. The truth of this will farther ap­pear, if we consider, that not only in hu­mane, but likewise in all sorts of other Bo­dies, and in all kinds of Creatures, which are not in the least subject to any alterati­ons from the force and infection of those Diseases, the like generations of Animals do continually happen. For not only in Animals and Vegetables (every one of which breeds its peculiar Insect) but in Metals, Stones, Fire and Snow, Worms are ingendred. Muffet affirms upon his own knowledg, and the authority of Pen­nius, Muffet. In­sect. c. 18. l. 2. That though nothing be bitterer than Gall, or Agarick, nothing salter than the Sea, nothing sowrer than Vinegar, nothing hotter than Fire, or colder than Snow, yet it is most certain, That Worms are bred out of all these.

As to Insects, being bred in other Ani­mals besides Man, every Farrier, Huntsman, Shepherd, Faulconer, and Butcher, can furnish us with innumerable Observati­ons.

I will instance in some few which I have met with in Authors.

Doctor Wharton in his Book De Glandu­lis, Dr. Wharton de Gland. c. 23. Muffet In­sect. c. 30. and before him, Muffet observes, That under the Horns of Does, Sheep, and Goats, there is a mucous kind of matter like a Gelly, out of which in April a great many Worms are produced, which coming away by the Nostrils and Palat, are turn'd into a flesh Flie. Sheep which dye of the Rott, have in their Livers Worms like Box Leaves.

Platerus tells us, Plat. ob. l. 3. p. 616. That upon Dissection of a Youth, he found his Guts full of long Worms, and those Worms full of lesser ones.

It is observ'd; that the long sort of Beetles have all of them a long Worm in their Bel­ly, near three times as long as them­selves.

Bartholinus in the second Century of his Epistles, the 56 Epistle, gives an account of the Dissection of a Dog, which had in the inside of his Oesophagus, several hard Swellings, out of which, when they were opened, crept a great number of Worms; in the inside of the Oesophagus, were very many little Holes belonging to each Swel­ling, through which (sayes he) it is very probable, that the Worms us'd to go down into the stomack, and return back again.

Not only in almost all sorts of Animals, but in Metals and Stones (as I have before intimated) Insects may be generated. [Page 113] Muffet observes, That Millers, who pick their grinding stones to make them ruffer, when they are grown too smooth with grinding, do often find Worms in the stones: And he tells us, that Platerus him­self told him, that he found a live Toad in the Center of a huge stone, which he di­vided asunder with a Saw; and (he sayes) the same thing happened in the Quarry of one Mr. W. Cave in Liecestershire. Neque sa­ne video (sayes that learned Author) cur magis in animalibus lapides, quam in lapidi­bus animalia nasci queant: atque ut nobis metallicos spiritus sacile tribuo, ita illis ani­males concedere (salvâ virtutis [...]ge) non timeo. Habent enim illi invisibiles, & tacitos meatus, nervos, venas, & sinus: quibus alie­num humorem, aliena semina, & peregrinos spiritus vel attrahunt, vel saltem vi illatos admittunt.

And indeed no wonder, since animarum plena sunt omnia, since the whole Creati­on is full of life and soul, if in all bodies whatsoever, which undergo either a quick or slow fermentation, Worms, In­sects, r Animals be continually produced. But in humane bodies, whose Juices and Blood are subject to disorderly and morbi­fick fermentations, upon dissolution of the Crasis, and Temperature of those Liquors, [Page 114]a generation of Infects must of necessity frequently ensue. For although whilst a man is in health, and a due temperament of the vital, animal, and natural Constitutions is maintain'd, by the power of the Spirits all heterogeneous Seeds are either kept un­der, and supprest; or else, as offensive guests, presently exterminated out of the Body; when once by Diseases the Spirits are aba­ted, and the right tone and temper of the parts, and mixture of the Juices is de­bauched, those extraneous Ferments which were before kept in subjection, rebell; and (being as it were at their own dispose, and uncontrolled) effect those generations which are most sutable to the nature of their Seminalities.

From this cause it proceeds, That often­times putrid and malignant Fevers are ac­companied with Worms, which are more commonly the Effects, than Causes of [...]ose Distempers; and are not produced by any intermixture of a Pocky and Scorbutick Ferment; but from the Salts or Seminali­ties of those Infects, which in the disorder and confusion of the Body in Fevers, are set at liberty. For those subtil and active parts of matter getting loose (during the intestine motion, or hurly burly of the Par­ticles of the Blood and Liquors) from [Page 115]other Concretions to which they were uni­ted, immediately seize upon some or other of the more gross parts, then form Organs for motion, and presently become Animals. From this Reason it is, That Children at the time of breeding their Teeth (which puts them into a feverish Distemper) are most commonly troubled with Worms, as Hippocrates observes in his Aphorisms, who speaking of the time of Childrens breed­ing Teeth, and the Diseases which they are then subject to, sayes thus, Ipsis vero gran­diusculis, tonsillarum inflammationes, Tileman in Hippoc. Aph. verte­brae in occipitio introrsum luxationes, asthma­ta, calculi, lumbrici rotundi, ascarides, &c. And indeed not only in the Body of man, but in almost all other Bodies in the World upon Fermentations, new Productions and Generations of Animals do usually happen. The learned Doctor Ent, in his Apology for the Circulation, observes, That small Flies are produced by that acid spirit of Moscatel Wine (which from them has its denominati­on) which evaporate in the first Ebullition. And the same Author affirms, That if a man put a small quantity of Vitriol into Wine or Water, he shall presently produce a great num­ber of Worms. And, to this purpose, he gives an excellent account of the generation of Insects.

Insecta omnia, sayes he, (licet non sem­per) mutuantur ab aliis: Dr. Ent. Apol. pro Circ. p. 247. idque vel a plan­tis arescentibus, ut culices; vel e Succis fer­mentatis, ut muscae espiritu vini; vel e rore ut erucae; & alia aliter; unus tamen horum generationis modus est. Spiritus nempe acidus, subtilis, volatilis, qui a leni calore vivificatur & pro subjecti natura (quae in sale ejus fixo potissimum nidulatur) varia quoque animan­tia producit. Hic Spiritus concentratur, sive unum in locum colligitur, in iis quae corde praedita sunt: In Erucis autem, vermibus, aliisque, Spiritus ille per universum corpus dif­funditur, & tota cor sunt.

Here we see this learned Philosopher and Physitian, does not ascribe the genera­tion of Worms, to the Pocky and Scorbu­tick Ferments; but to Salts, from the dif­ference of which it often comes to pass, that not only common Worms, but Insects of different species, and even Serpents have been produced in almost every part of hu­mane Bodies; and though one would ima­gine, that the Bladder of Gall, by the bit­terness of the Juice which it contains, which is very forcible to destroy Worms; and the Spleen, by the sharpness of its Li­quor, should be exempted from being liable to produce those Creatures: yet even in these parts, great numbers of Worms have [Page 117]been found. Muffet tells us of a Disease, which at one time was very frequent in Germany and Hungary, which the Polonians called Stowny Roback, and the Germans Hauptwurm; it seized them with a violent Hemicrania, insomuch, that they fell into a madness or phrensie; and when they were dead upon Dissection of the Brain, they found a Worm in it. The Physitians cured this Disease with Garlick in Spirit of Wine, which certainly cured all who took it in­wardly, but the rest inevitably perished. The same Author tells us, of a Student in Cambridge, who vented a Worm by Urine, which had a great many Feet; and that Pen­nius observ'd a great many Insects in the Hypostasis of the Urine of a person labour­ing of an Apostem of the Kidneys. He tells us likewise, that at Francfort he saw Worms like Ascarides, come out of a Wo­mans womb.

Anno Domini 1663. I was called to a Family, in which, one after another, six or seven persons fell sick of a malignant Fe­ver; it was of a dull, sluggish motion, and continued upon them whom it seized a Month, or Five weeks, before they recover­ed. One remarkable Accident which ac­companied it, was a continual Cough; by which the persons affected did continually [Page 118]both day and night, bring up an incredible quantity of ill-coloured and very bad scented phlegm, of which the Nurse-keep­er bringing me one day a Porringer full, shew'd me in it a twist as it were of Horse­hairs, each, at least, half as long as my fin­ger; we observed every one of them to be animated, and endued with a brisk and live­ly motion. It will not seem strange to any man, that these rare Productions of sundry species of Worms should happen in mens Bodies, if we consider, That in our Meats, Drinks, and Air, the Salts or Seminalities of sundry Insects may be conveyed into, and mingled with our Blood, which are kept under by the dominion of the Spirits, and never are permitted to exercise their own natural Operations, till in Diseases, and Disorders of the Body, they come to be set at liberty. Now the causes and reasons of the generation of Insects, as well in humane, as other Bodies, being as ancient as the Crea­tion it self (in which the Seeds of Worms, as well as Vegetables, received their power of multiplying) there appears no reason why Worms should in these times be more frequently appearing in Fevers, and other Diseases, than in former; or that any alte­ration should by vermination be brought in­to the nature of Diseases.

Now, as to the Experiments of Kircher, though I will not question the faith of that Author in delivering them, yet I do not doubt, but in former Ages, by the help of a good Microscope, the same Observations might have been made.

And though I will allow, that in times of Pestilence, by the indisposition of the Air, and the rambling of pernicious steams flowing from infected Bodies, more plen­tiful swarms and numerous productions of insects in the Air and other Bodies, may insue than in other more healthful seasons; yet I must beg leave of Kircher to appre­hend some difficulties in assenting to his Hy­pothesis, since the manner of infection from the plague, may be more easily made out from the figure and motion of Atoms, than by those swarms of living creatures, per­petually vented from the infected Body, which, if they poison the sound Body, by turning its Blood and Juices into the like pernicious Vermin, I see no reason, why they should not fill the whole Air with their fatal progeny, and impregnating the Winds with their Venemous Colonies, permit no man to be safe, though removed at a considerable distance from the places which are infected: Whereas, it is found true by constant Experience, (except by [Page 120]some common cause, which has corrupted the whole aire, the plague be produced) The pestilence insects not at a far distance, but only within a narrow Sphere. It is very possible, that not only the Blood of men in Feavers, but also that of healthy persons, may sometimes be observ'd to be full of Mites or Worms, as well as Milk and Vi­negar, and yet no malignant Distemper, much lesse the plague be produc'd by them. For we find, that these Liquors, though almost constituted of innumerable little Animals, are not in the least adverse to the nature of man: and, on the contrary, the best and sharpest Vinegar (which most abounds with Worms) to be an excellent Antidote and preservative against the plague. Neither will M. N. (I must tell him) be er'e the nearer, as to the curation of Diseases, from this Notion of Kir [...]her; For even those Remedies, which will de­stroy great Worms in the Stomach and Bowels, are, perhaps, apt to produce little Mites in the Blood; as, in the Experiments quoted out of Dr. Ent, the Spirit of Mos­catel produces Flies; and Vitriol, which is an admirable resister of all putrifaction, in Water or Wine, produces Worms.

As to the Cure of malignant Feavers, though I know well that in them Worms [Page 121]are often produced in the Bowels and other parts, from the putrifaction of the Aliment, and corruption of the Ferments of the parts, yet they are not seldome free from those accidents; and when they happen, Nature and Physicians have so ordered the matter, that generally most Medicines, which are Alexipharmical are likewise proper against the Worms. Riverius, River. Obs. 91. in his Observati­ons, recommends it as a thing worthy of especial notice, That Bezoar is of admirable virtue against VVorms, and, in another place, highly commends Scordium. The virtues of Treacle, Mithridate, Diascordium, Harts-horn, Coral, Pearls, Trochisks of Vipers, the acid juices of Minerals and Ve­getables, the Compound waters of the Shops, as, Aqua Scordii Composita, Theriacal, fri­gida Saxon: and many other Remedies used both by the Galenists and Chymists, are suffi­ciently known to be of admirable Virtue and Use in both cases: So that the very same Remedies, which are of force against the malignity of the Disease, are also very prevalent in destroying VVorms.

As to the Plague (as I have before inti­mated) the account which the Learned Gassendus gives of it, seems to me abundant­ly more satisfactory, than what Kircher pretends to, by his animated Effluxes.

Videtur inprimis (sayes that Learned Author) halitus pestilens idem posse propor­tione praestare in aere quod Coagulum in lacte. Gassend. c. de Calore Subterra­neo. Ut enim dum Corpuscula coaguli per lactis Substantiam diffusa excurrunt, ita situm partium illius commutant ut ex fluido fixum consistensque reddant (eo modo, quo si confu­sam, fluxamque congeriem tessularum exqui­site aequalium, perflans Ventus sic emoveret, ut facies faciebus exquisite coadunaret). Sic Corpuscula halitus pestilentis insinuata in a­erem intelligi possunt ea ratione invertere commutareque ejus situm ut ex salubri insa­luber evadat, & qui prius egregie naturae a­nimalis accommodabatur, incommodus illi summopere fiat; Neque mirum sit, si, qui pri­us animalis Corpus fovebat, continebatque in suo statu; illius partes deinceps conturbet, & immutare coactet. Deinde videri quoque pote [...] halitus idem, sive in aere, sive in animalis corpore, quod flamma, ignisve praestare. Ut enim dum flamma aeri admota in quem Naph­tha halitum pinguem, corpusculis-ve igneis turgentem circumfuderit, ipsum sui similem facit, creatve in eo flammam quatenus corpus­cula ignis subeuntia in halitum, quae sunt in eo sui similia hoc est ignea Corpuscula, ex ipsa halitus textura, quam discutiunt, ex­tricant, iisque similes suos motus reddunt: Sic dum halitus pestilens aeri, Corporive [Page 123]animalis admonetur, intelligi potest subeuntia [...]ejus corpuscula ita emovere illa, quae in ipsis sui similia reperiunt, ut ea in texturam no­vam segregent, & motus suis similes, exitiales utpote, induant. Nempe ut nemo diceret esse in illo aere circum Naphtham fuso, ne­que etiam in ligno, corpuscula ulla calorifica, quatenus propter conditionem ejus naturae ad quam spectant, indicium caloris nullum exhi­bent; sic nemo etiam diceret, esse in aere vi­so puro, animalive habito sano, venenata ulla, pestiserave corpuscula; quae esse tamen omni­no valeant utcunque ob eam Contexturam quam attinent, se minime prodant. Posse­mus id uberius ex Gangrenae effectu, aliisque, multis, declarare.

And indeed the Hypothesis which explains the way of the working of the pestilent In­fection upon the Air and Blood of sound persons, by the comparison of the Runnet's coagulating and fixing Milk (which is a very fluid Body) into Cheese (which is a very firm and fixed one) agrees very well to solve the Phaenomena of that Disease; for it is more than probable, that the Plague kills by coagulating the Blood, and ren­dring it unfit for Circulation; for the Spots or Tokens seem to be nothing else but quarred flakes of it, which being thrust out at the ends of the Arteries, there stick, [Page 124]can no more enter into the mouths of th [...] Veins, than Milk, when it is turned [...] Cheese, can pass through a Streiner.

The Definition which M. N. gives us i [...] this Chapter, of the cause of Diseases, me thinks, is very pretty, where he tells us, That the cause of all Diseases, Me. Med. p. 199. is a certa [...] Putrefaction secretly lurking among the hidd [...] Recesses of the Humors. This Definition, [...] dare swear for him, is his own, though he has the face to fasten it upon the Ʋnani­mous Consent of Physitians. For by its be­ing most unintelligible Fustian, I know it to be of the same Wofe and Thred, with the rest of Medela.

CHAP. VI.

I Have in the foregoing Chapters prov'd at large, that the Scurvy was a Disease, antiently Endemial to the Northern parts of the World: I have allowed a notable disparity to be between the Blood of the Inhabitants of the Regions, subject to this Disease, and that of those Persons, who breathed the Air where the Ancients liv'd, and made their Observations upon Dis­eases: Yet is not the difference so conside­rable, but that a rational Physician, may make admirable use of much of their Me­thod and Medicines, in the curing of Dis­eases in these Climates, and, even in such cases, where the Scurvy bears a consider­able share in the complication. And, as to Vermination, I have demonstrated, that Worms are more often the Effects than Causes of Diseases; that their productions in humane, and other natural Bodies, was no less frequent and observable in former times, than ours; and that from them, so great a change in all Diseases, as to make void all the Practise and Medicines of the [Page 126]Ancients can by no means be inferr'd: It is confessed, that the French Pox, is of late come in upon us from America, but M. N. has not in the least prov'd, that it has so tainted and infected the Stock and Nature of mankind, as to render all Diseases inci­dent to humane Bodies uncurable, by the Wayes, Methods, and Medicines, which the faithful experiences of former Ages have recommended to us as effectual. Some Maxims of Physick are (by M. N's. favor) as Eternal, as those of the Spanish Monar­chy. Though (by the way) he has un­luckily quoted Balzac for this expression, since it is very obvious to tell him, That Maxims of Monarchy and Physick, have been equally sacred to him: and that there was a time, when he treated Monarchs with less civil Language, than that is, which now he bestows upon the Princes of the Art of Physick; and he must give me leave to mind that he might as rationally inferr from that monstrous and new Disease of the late Re­bellion (which was by his virulent Pam­phlets diffus'd amongst the people, like the Plagu [...] by the infected raggs of greedy and malicious Nurse-keepers) that all Maxims in Policy and Government, are become in­significant and unnecessary, as to conclude, from the breaking out of the American Dis­ease, [Page 127]that the old way of Physick in respect of Method and Medicines, is insufficient and useless.

For many Maxims in Medicine, are founded upon the long and constant Obser­vations and Experience of the World, and so adapted to the very Nature and Consti­tution of Man, that in all places and times, they must of necessity be of admirable use. For indeed, many Rules of this Art, are not grounded upon any Hypothesis contriv'd by mans brain, but are themselves the very foundations, which will (though possibly Philosophers have raised upon them an ill contrived, and incommodious Structure) remain, (when the Superstructure is de­molished) stable and unshaken. And, though it must be confessed, that the Phy­siology and Pathology of the Ancients, are very insufficient to satisfie an inquiring man concerning the true causes of Diseases and their Symptoms, yet much of the Method certainly is not grounded upon them, but was long in use before those notions of Causes were invented.

The learned Dr. Willis de Feb. Willis speaks much to this purpose, in his Preface before his Book de Febribus. He tells us, that in the cure of Feavers, some indications anci­ently received, do in this age stand firm, and [Page 128]ought to be observed to the worlds end; and that they are not founded upon the precepts of Schools, but upon Experience, the Mistress and Teacher of the Art of Physick. And that, though the Hypotheses of the Ancients were erroneous, that did not hinder the pra­ctise of Physick, which was first established by induction from Observations, from going on successefully: And thence he concludes, that much less shall a Theory built upon true grounds be pernicious to the sick, or cause practitioners to leave that track, which Time and Experience has recommended to them as safe. And it cannot be denied, continues he, that bare Empericism, without the assistance of Method and Reason, does signifie very little; nay, that it does most commonly do a world of mischief, considering, that the very same Diseases, are not at all times and in all places to be encountred with the same Reme­dies: but he that has so joyned both together, that Reason shall not give Laws to Nature and Ex­perience, nor these corrupt Reason, seems to be a most absolute and compleat Physician. Now, if it be true (as this excellent Philosopher and Physitian affirms) that much of the method, and many of the precepts of Phy­sick do, and will alwayes continue firm and useful, because they are not established up­on phantastical Notion's (such as are the [Page 129]Author's of Medela) but upon unerring Experience: no lesse will those Medicines, which the constant trial of the World has recommended as effectual, remain service­able to Physitians, before such as are ima­gined by the touchy head of M. N. or any other whimsical Inventer of Secrets and Re­medies. For I have already prov'd at large in the first Chapter, that the Materia Me­dica is wholly founded upon Experience. That Medicines were at the first found out Crebro singularium tentamine, by a frequent Triall of each Medicine upon sundry per­sons. I have there shew'd how dangerous it is for ignorant Quacks, to Experiment Medicines (especially such as are hazard­ous) upon the Bodies of men.

I am, for my part, of the same opinion with Varandaeus, who told the ingenious and learned Doctor Primrose, Primr. Popular. Err. l. 1. c. 12. that those Remedies are the best which are no Secrets, but best known, as being confirmed by more cer­tain Experience. I confesse (sayes that e­minent Physitian) that all the virtues of Sim­ples are not yet perfectly known; as yet many lie hid. If therefore any man hath found out by Experience, the virtue of some simple Medicament not yet known, that increase of Art is to be commended, and deserves to be called a Secret; as he that first found out the [Page 130]Vomiting virtue of Antimony; He that in­vented the compounding, and found out the efficacy of Gun-powder; he that first brought Jalap into use, had Secrets greatly to be com­mended: such as these if any man have, he is worthy of commendation, and I think, no other secrets are to be admitted.

But I think it is very evident, that these Discoveries are not the products of Inven­tion but Chance, and upon this score man­kind is possibly more indebted to Nature, for discreetly concealing the way of making gold than if she had made it as common and easy to the Chymists, as she has the Art of making Cheese and Butter to the Countrey Housewives, for in the prosecution of that, she has casually intiched the world with many accidental Experiments, both in Philosophy and Physick, much more con­siderable and beneficial to men, than if she had taught us, like Midas, to turn all things which we touched into Gold. If I mistake not, Doctor Harvey does some­where tell us, that he never dissected a Bo­dy in his life for the examination of some part, or tracing some Vessel which he propos'd to himself, but in the operation, some new thing was unexpectedly offered to him, which was usually more considerable than the mat­ter which he designed. I am apt to believe, [Page 131]that we are not only in a great measure be­holding to Chance and Experience, for the Knowledge of the Virtues of Simples, but that even in Compound Medicines, there have often virtues and qualities resulted from the Mixture, which were never fore­seen nor designed by the Artist who put the ingredients together, but discovered by Experience.

We see, that as to those very ancient Medicines, Mithridate, Treacle, and Dia­scordium, which are Compounds esteem­ed sacred for their Virtues, as well by the Chymists as Galenists, it is much more easy to prove the truth of their efficacy, than to give the true reason of their Compo­sition.

I would fain know of M. N. how he could have been certain that Antimonium Diaphoreticum should not Vomit, or Mer­curius Dulcis not have retained in it the corrosive faculty of Sublimate, had not Experience cleared their innocencies, nei­ther can he promise, that the action of fire, or a Menstruum upon those Bodies shall not produce Concretes out of Antimony or Mercury, as highly venemous as these mentioned preparations are safe and be­nign. We see that Tobacco, which by all sorts of men is indifferently taken, with­out [Page 132]almost any sensible mischief, affords a Spirit one of the most sudden and potent poisons in the world; which, possibly, was at first discovered at the expence of a mans life, by some bold and venturous Chymist. It is Experience, and not Reason, that has taught the West-Indians that they may safely make their Bread of the Root of Casave, Bont. Med. Indor. p. 211. though the expressed juice of it (as Bontius tells us) be an arrant poy­son.

Therefore, though M. N. brag of his invented Medicines, and tell us, that doubtlesse he is a very wicked man, which will administer any Medicine, which he knows not whether it be safe or no; and a very ignorant one, that is not able to judge certainly, if he invent a new Medicin, whether it be fit or no; or who dares not adventure it first upon his own Body, yet shall presume to give it to another: I must plainly tell him, that it is very hard for an ignorant practiser of his own invented Medicines, not to be very wicked. And for his part (if he be not fouly abu­sed by the opinion of the World) I think there is no lesse danger in trusting to his Integrity than Skill. But indeed, he is a Gentleman very worthy upon whose Body (as the mortal force of Charous [Page 133]Cane in Italy, Sands Trav. is tried upon Malefactors and Doggs) dangerous and pernicious Medicins (especially his own) should be experimented.

And therefore I advise him (if he will needs be dabling in Physick) to content himself with his Collections from Far­riers and Herdsmen, and his good Aunt (to whom he ows most of his skill) the cunning Woman of Burford.

CHAP. VII.

I Am not so religiously sworn to the Phi­losophy of Aristotle and Galen, as to take upon me the defence of Elements, Qualities, Temperaments, and Humots.

Yet since the grave Sennertus gives ad­vice, De Con. & Dissen. Chym. cum Gal. That words, and terms, imposed by the first Inventers of the Art of Physick, and esta­blished by the Ʋse, Consent, and Approbation of all both Chymists and Galenists, ought to be reteined, and not unadvisedly laid aside; I will endeavour to shew, That Heat, Cold, Moistness, Dryness, may be most pertinently reckoned amongst the Causes of Diseases; and the terms of Temperaments, and Humors, may be not incommodiously retained, even to explicate the most refined Notions in the re­formed Theory of Physick.

For though I do agree with Hippocrates, That acid, bitter, sharp, and salt, and, possibly, a Thousand more different Medifications of matter, are to be reputed, as well as those vul­garly called, Sennert. de Con. & Dis­sen. Chym. cum Gal. c. 16. the four first Qualities, amongst morbifick Causes: Yet I cannot but assent to the learned Sennertus, who tells us, That the Chymists do ill, wholly to reject the first Qua­lities [Page 135]from being Causes of Diseases. For we find by experience, that as soon as a preter­natural Distemper, either hot, cold, moist, or day, is induced upon any part; the acti­on of the part is presently hindered neither is it able to perform its duty and office, till the natural temper be restor'd; which is commonly known to happen every day to the stomack: And he quotes Galen, for instancing, That some by sitting too long upon a cold stone, or by staying too long in cold water, have had the Muscle of the Anus resolv'd: And he makes mention of another, Who in a cöld and moist season, by wearing too long his wet Coat, fell into a Palsie of his hand, the Nerves which come from the spinal marrow to the hand, being thereby too much cool'd and moistned: No body is ignorant, how pre­judicial it is to a man to drink largely of cold water when he is hot. And since, ac­cording to Hippocrates, the Cure indicates the Disease, the same mentioned Author bids consult Galen, what great things may be done by Baths of water in Hectick Di­stempers. And he farther adds, that the advice of Scaliger to Cardan, may very well be made use of to them who resist both Sense and Experience, who upon Cardan's asserting, That Cold was only a Privation; to convince him, advis'd him, to leave off [Page 136]his Cloaths, and go Bare-leg'd, and Bare­headed in the extremity of Winter. Tra­vellers do often, to their Cost, find of what force Cold is, when they lose their Noses, Ears, Feet, and Hands, mortified by the violence of its congealing power. Far­thermore, every days Experience informs us, what changes and alterations are made upon our Bodies, as to Epidemical disea­ses, by the hot, cold, moist, or dry Consti­tutions of the Seasons and Years. And I cannot but wonder, that the Chymists should exclude the four first Qualities from having any causality in diseases; when in their own operations they observe a notable dis­parity between the effects of a dry, and moist heat: and they employ heat, as the common instrument of almost all their operations. But whil'st I assert the Essici­ency of the first qualities, in the causing of diseases in the humane Body; I would not be understood, to mean by the word Quali­ty, a Being or Entity distinct from matter or Body: But that I apprehend by hot, cold, moist, and dry, the parts of matter, or Atoms so figured, and moved, as to pro­duce those Effects which we call heating, cooling, moistning, and drying. For Ex­ample, We use to have an apprehension or notion of heat, from the relation it has to [Page 137]the sense, or as it is the efficient cause of that acute passion, or sensation, which we feel in our skin, or any other organ of touch, whil'st we are burnt or heated. But this being too particular an effect of heat, only as it works upon an Animal; we ought therefore to consider it from its more ge­neral, and comprehensive effects, upon which this which is more special does de­pend; which is to enter into the Pores of a Body, to penetrate through the parts of it; and to force, or rend them asunder from one another, and so to dissolve the union and continuity of the Body. This cannot be understood to be done by a bare naked quality, but by certain Atoms which are endued with such a motion, figure, and fize, as are fit to penetrate, discuss, dissolve, and perform all those effects which we usu­ally attribute to heat. On the other side, since we find cold the most opposite thing in the World to heat, if it be the proper­ty of heat to dissolve, discuss, and tear asunder, it is then the property of cold to congeal, fasten, and close together; and those Atoms, which by their shape and fi­gures are fit and proper for those effects, may, with very good Reason, be called A­toms of cold; and Bodies made up of such Particles, cold Bodies. Thus the Air (which [Page 138]is the common Receptacle of heat and cold) upon the blowing of North-winds, is usu­ally filled with such Atoms, as bind, and congeal the Earth, and Water; and in the body of man, both by mingling with the blood, and closing the pores, or breathing holes of his body, oftentimes produce con­siderable disorders. As for humidity, or moistness, it seems to be nothing else but a kind of fluidness; and Liquors are com­monly said to be moist, inasmuch as when they are poured upon hard and compact bo­dies, some small parts of them are left be­hind, either sticking in the little Cavities of the Surface, and then the body is said to be wet; or else have insinuated themselves in­to the most inward pores and recesses of the hard body, which then we commonly say is moistned. And, on the contrary, driness is nothing else but a kind of firm­ness, inasmuch as a dry body is upon that score the more firm for being void of all moisture.

And now I cannot see why these four first Qualities (as they are term'd) should be excluded from having a share in the number of the causes of Diseases, since they are notably active (especially the three first) modifications of matter; and not only apt to excite various motions, and cause, as well [Page 139]new Combinations, as dissolutions of bo­dies in the great World; but also power­fully to alter the Microcosm, and produce fundry different Symptoms, in relation to the motions and harmony of the humane Engin.

In the next place, though it be utterly untrue, that there are in the Vessels four di­stinct humors; but whatsoever is contained in the Arteries and Veins, is either the stale deflagrated blood, or the alimentary juice fresh come into the Vessels; or else the Serum or Whey returned by the Lympha­ticks, or else some Particles of Nitre, and other bodies received in by the Lungs and Mouths of the veins from the Ambient. And though the blood differ in several per­sons only as to the abundance, or defect of natural heat; yet are men not improperly said to be of a melancholick, cholerick, or some other temperament; inasmuch, as by how much the more vigorous or remiss the natural heat is in their bowels and entrals, by so much the more weakly or powerfully concoctions are perform'd, and consequent­ly the blood apt to be overcharged either with stale, and adust, or else crude, and phlegmatick Excrements: In which respect, the person either way disposed, is not im­properly said to be of a phlegmatick, or [Page 140]cholerick temper; and if the adust, or raw Excrements, be not rightly and duly sepa­rated out of the mass, by the effervenscy of the blood, I see no reason why I may not say, that a man abounds with a melancho­lick, cholerick, or phlegmatick humor; and if so, the Notions about Pharmacy, aim­ing at an evacuation, or else alteration of these humors, are not framed amiss, nor (whatever M. N. argues to the contrary) without very good reason. For, I suppose, it alters not much the case as to practice, whether a man suppose that there is too great a redundancy of one of the humors in the blood, or whether (which is the right Notion) he apprehend the blood de­praved, either with phlegmatick and raw juyces, or the bilious Excrement consisting of Salt and Sulphur, or the melancholick, in which the Caput mortuum, or earthy part, is most predominant. For either of these Notions will direct us (when the blood is unable to fine its self) to assist it with those alteratives which time and experience has recommended to us as proper in those ca­ses, and those Purgers which have been long observed more particularly to make a separation, either of the pituitous, chole­rick, or melancholick parts of the blood. For, though it be irrational to think, that [Page 141]Purgers do with a certain knowledge, or choice, lay hold of one humor rather than another; yet is that distinction of Purgers into Chologoga, Phlegmagoga, Melanagoga, and Hydragoga, of very good use, and founded upon observation and experience; inasmuch as these several Purgers by cau­sing very different Fermentations, and vari­ously agitating the Particles of the Blood, may, with very good reason, cause different separations; and so one Purger to evacuate that sort of Excrement, Barm or Lee, which another cannot.

And in this matter I do not find, that the Improvements which have been made in the Theory of Physick, have much alter­ed the Practice; for the indication for Purg­ing was not founded upon the Notion of the four Humors, but upon long observati­on, that when Distempers discovered them­selves by such and such signs, the body was to be emptied, and, by frequent tryals, one Purger (as especially Hellebor in Melan­choly) was found more essectual than an­other. The same may be said of altering Medicins; for Example, to instance in He­paticks, as Cichory, Gentian, Wormwood, Century, Steel, Agrimony, and the like; which are with admirable success used in Cachexies, Dropsies, and other Diseases, [Page 142]caused from imperfect Sanguification, though it be now agreed upon by general consent (upon the Dissection of Hydropi­cal persons, that part being often found lit­tle concern'd) that the Liver has primarily little or nothing to do in those Distempers, and is only secondarily affected, as being, (as I have shewn) very justly excluded from the office of Sanguification. And yet we see, that Hepaticks are still used in the same Distempers by the best, both Chymists and Galenists, though the ancient Hypothesis be flung out of doors.

As for M. N's denying the Spleen to be the Receptacle of Melancholy, and assign­ing it this use, That it is an Elaborator of the noblest juyce, viz. the arterial blood, by reason of that grand intertexture of Arteries, by which it holds a near communication with the vital parts of the body; for which, he quotes Bartholinus, Walaeus, and Highmore: I dare assure him, he does those worthy Au­thors great injury; and that neither in them, nor any good Author, who under­stands the Circulation of the blood, he ever met with any such opinion, That the Spleen, by the Arteries, can hold a near communi­cation with the vital parts of the body; nei­ther do those Authors which he quotes, de­ny the Spleen to be the Receptacle of Me­lancholy. [Page 143]And I would very fain learn of this excellent Anatomist, how the arterial blood in the Spleen should hold a near com­munication with the vital parts of the body by the Arteries, since it is evident, that the blood is brought thither by the Splenick branch of the Caeliac Arterie, and convey­ed thence to the vital parts, not by the Ar­teries, but Veins. As for the opinion of Walaeus, and Bartholinus, Barthol. Anat. c. 16. he has grosly scan­dalized them both; for Bartholinus in the 16 Chapter of his Anatomy, numbring up all the opinions which he met with concern­ing the use of the Spleen, sayes thus, Ultima sententia eaque verissima est Joh. Walaei. Pu­tat autem verosimile, sanguinem ulterius per­ficiendum, a cordis calore dissolvi, & ubi is a corde adigeretur per arterias Caeliacas in lie­nem, non totam illam massam retineri a liene; sed, ut vesica fellis tantum bilem, ita lienem partem sanguinis acidam capere, quam possis melancholiam appellare, non aliter ac distilla­tione Chymica segregari a rebus Spiritum aci­dum videmus: Illum acidum humorem perfi­ci a liene a quo lien nigricans & acidus senti­tur. Hunc acidum humorem permisceri po­stea sanguini in vasis, & Chylo in ventriculo, & eos reddere tenuiores: quare obstructo liene crassos in corpore humores coacervari, non quod crassi humores a liene non trahantur, quos nec [Page 142] [...] [Page 143] [...] [Page 144]in eo naturaliter licet invenire, sed quod lien attenuantem illum acidum nequeat sanguini Chylo recommunicare.

Nor has this man of Confidence with less Disingenuity, or Ignorance, fastned his absurd phansie upon the learned Dr. High­more, whose opinion I will deliver in his own words, as it is to be met with in his Anatomical disquisition of the body of man. Illorum partes agam, Highm. Anat. l. 1. p. 3. c. 3. qui Splenem cum Galeno succum melancholicum attrahere, eumque a sanguine separare autumant. And he goes on a little farther, Arteriae Splenicae a Caeli­aca ortae sanguinis partem melancholicam, post­quam ultimam in corde concoctionem subivit, ad lienem deferunt, ac in substantiam ejus in­fundunt (sicuti emulgentes Serosum in Renes ducunt) quam lien fermentat ac separat. These are the opinions of Bartholinus and Highmore, as I have faithfully quoted in their own words, whose sense either he un­derstands not, or fraudulently perverts.

CHAP. VIII.

I Have in the foregoing Chapters prov'd, that many of the Methods, Medicines, and Terms of the Ancients, are to be retained, and that many of their Notions about Phar­macy, will as well suit with the Modern, as they did with Ancient suppositions. The businesse of this Chapter is, to shew, that the particulars offer'd by M. N. in his eighth Chapter, do not either at all, or else no more than the Notions by him re­jected conduce to the practice of Phy­sick.

And first, he offers it to our considerati­on, that Diseases, like Pompions and Turnips do grow from their peculiar Seeds; and that the distemperatures which we find in our Bodies, are but the blossoms, fruits, and products of them; and that they, like Animals, ingender and propagate their kinds. This opinion is taken from Paracelsus, and Severinus Danus, and concerning the Origination of these Seminalities, they Phanatickly talk after this manner: They tell us, That though at [Page 172]the first Creation, when by the Divine im­pression, all Seeds of things received the pow­er of generating and multiplying, they were pure, entire, and perfect, and free from corruption and death; Yet after the fall of Adam, by a Curse of the Creator, new tin­ctures were added to those pure Seeds, by which mixture the Beauty of the whole Cre­ation was deform'd, and the pure Seeds of things were invested with new and pernicious Habits and Properties; and that these im­pure Seeds, received from the same Divine impression and word, from which the purer and more perfect did, powers and faculties of multiplying and transplanting.

This is the sum of what Paracelsus and Severines deliver, concerning the Seeds of Diseases, and out of them, the rest of Chy­mists who treat of them, have borrowed their notions. But the Opinion seems so Phantastical and Extravagant to all sober Chymists, that they have wholly rejected it as a whimsy, and have with much more reason, deduced the causes of Diseases, from the Exorbitancies and Combination either of three, or five Chymical Principles.

Sennertus particularly has shewed, Sennert. de Con. & Dissen. Chym. cum Gal. c. 16. the ab­surdity and impiety of this Opinion. In eo vero parum a delirio abest Manichaearum Seve­rinus quod post hominis lapsum primis illis Se­minibus [Page 173]puris maledictione divina novas tinctu­ras supervenisse scribit, quarum Commixtio­ne pura illa semina corrupta & inquinata sint, eaque semina voce, divina aeque ac alia semina vim sese multiplicandi accepisse. In qua opinione, multa absurda imo impia sunt. Primo, Deum auterem & Creatorem mali, morborum, & mortis faciunt; Eum­que aliquod malum Substantiale creasse sta­tuunt, quod impium. Deinde, duplicem fa­ciunt Creationem: priorem quae benedictione, & sex dierum spatio perficitur: alteram jam diebus sex elapsis, post hominis lapsum, qua maledictione Dei rerum puris seminibus & radicibus, radices malae, vel tincturae mor­borum & mortis autores concreatae & additae sunt. Cum tamen Literae Sacrae expresse te­stentur, Deum die septimo quie visse ab om­ni opere & nihil amplius creasse. Et, ma­ledictio Die tantum poenam indicavit, non vero naturam pravam induxit.

The next point which M. N. would have considered, as of great importance to the practice of Physick, is, to increase the number of Concoctions and Digestions of Aliment, which the Ancients have assigned to be but three.

And indeed, if we consider the grand dissolution, alteration, and apposition of the nourishment, the division of the Anci­ents [Page 174]will be found sufficiently comprehen­sive; For the great and remarkable alterati­ons of the Aliment, are the dissolving it into Chyle, the changing of that Chyle into Blood, and the apposition of the nu­tritious Particles of the Blood, to augment and nourish the Bulk. But if we reckon the separations and impregnations made in all parts of the Body, the generation of Spirits, the particular nutrition of each di­stinct Similar part, for Digestions and Concoctions of Aliment, (which, I think, is much too nice), I know not why there may not be assigned a hundred, or more.

But, by the way, how many soever there be, M. N. might very well have spar'd some of his kinds of Concoction. For through his ignorance of the Lacteals, he readily assents to a Concoction made in the Veins of the Mesentery; and in this, he sayes, the old Stagers and Helmont agree. From hence it may be well observ'd, that M. N. for want of insight into the true grounds of Physick, most commonly very easily swallows down the grossest Errors of the Ancients, and usually picks a quar­rel with them in matters where no fault is to be found. But, to mend the matter, he tells us, that the third Concoction is farther elaborated in the common Receptacle inven­ted [Page 175]by Pecquet. Now, (to let it passe that matters of Anatomy are not properly said to be the Objects of Invention, but Disco­very) it is very shreudly to be suspected, that he knows nothing of that passage but by hearsay; for if he had been conversant in dissections, he would have known, that the Chyle in that Receptacle differs not from that in the Lacteals; and that the swift passage of it through that Channel into the Subclavials, together with the formation of that Vessel, do sufficiently argue, that it receives not any alteration there, worthy the name of a Concoction, all that is imaginable, being the mixture of the Serum which returns from the Lympha­ticks, through the Communis ductus into the Blood.

As to this third particular, concerning Ferments, though I allow that term to be of excellent use, for that it has been of late imployed by learned men, to convey to the understanding an easy and familiar apprehension of the operations of nature, by referring it to the common and obvious arts of Brewing and Baking. Yet till the nature and operations of the Ferments of every part come to be more particularly explained, and more intelligibly discours'd of, than they are by M. N. I do not see [Page 176]that his Pratling about Ferments, will bet­ter conduce to the Practice of Physick, than Quality, Power, Virtue, Property, and the like terms of the Galenists.

The fourth Particular which M. N. of­fers, as of grand concern in the Practice of Physick, is the Notion of Helmont, who, (as he says) makes a Disease, a real sub­stantial thing, inherent in that which he calls the Archaeus, or vital Spirit. In which de­scription of a Disease, he abundantly con­vinces us of his want of Logick, by say­ing, That one real substantial thing, or body, inheres in another: Since the term Inhesion is only proper to express the Aristotelian Notion of the union of an accident with a substance; and so one material substance cannot be conceived to inhere in another, without allowing a penetration of bo­dies.

And now he comes in the fifth place, to describe what this Bug-bear the Archaeus is, and tells us, ‘That it is a thing very deli­cate to be conceived, that it is Medium quid inter vitam & corpus, & veluti auro nit [...]ns splendensque.’ And, why not as well Medium quid inter corpus & mortem? In­deed M.N. must have a very delicate under­standing, if he can make sense of this de­scription; for I think the Nature of the [Page 177] Archaeus is every jot as intelligibly explain­ed in these Verses, which were made in imitation of the mysterious and aenigmati­cal expressions of the Chymists.

All that any sober man can conceive of the Archaeus, or Spirit, is, That it is the most fine, volatil, and aethereal part of the blood, contained in the Arteries, Veins, and Nerves; and I grant, that the Dyscrasie of the blood, their Vehicle, is the cause of ma­ny Diseases. But this is a very different thing from the words of M. N. and, I sup­pose too, from his Notion of the Archaeus; which is either unintelligible by any ratio­nal man, or else must be the very same which the Ancients had of the Vital, Ani­mal, or Natural Spirits; and therefore, up­on either account, is very vainly offered, as a new particular of great moment and weight, for the meliorating the Practice of Physick.

As to his Quotations out of Fernelius and Heurnius, those Authors speak no more, than what is said by Hippocrates and Galen, and all their Followers, That the Spirits, the [Page 178]impetum facientia, are the immediate instru­ments of the Soul; that by them, all motions, sensations, and operations in human bodies are perform'd.

Wherefore the learned Sennertus (though he allow Paracelsus, and his Disciples, to impose new words upon new things) just­ly blames them, For introducing new, im­proper, insignificant, and barbarous terms, up­on notions and things anciently receiv'd; Sennert. de Con. & Dis­sen. Chym. cum Gal. c. 5. and rejecting such, as by long use and custom, had been rendered proper, familiar, and intelli­gible. And he asks Parac [...]lsus, What neces­sity there was to bring into use the word Ar­chaeus? since that upon diligent examination, that signifies nothing more than the Faculty, and natural Virtue, or the natural Spirit, the Servant of the natural Faculty, do in the Schools of the Philosophers and Physitians. And he adds, That neither Paracelsus, or Severinus, are such great persons, that we must presently for their fancy or humor, reject those familiar terms which have alwayes been us'd by the learned World; and in their stead, with­out reason, admit of the Paracelsian Gibberish. And certainly, if we consider the nature of the Spirits aright, we shall find, that nothing more than what is signified by them, can be meant (if that term signifie at all) by [Page 179]the Archaeus of the Chymists. For, the vi­tal Spirit is nothing else, but the more fine, more sublim'd, and subtilifed part of tho Blood, by which the Fermentation, and in­ternal motion of the Particles of that Li­quor is maintain'd; and that in its circular motion preserv'd from Coagulations, and Stagnations; and (when the body remains in the state of health) a separation is con­tinually made of all immiscible, and he­terogeneous bodies, which are either taken in with the Aliment, or else come into the blood from the Ambient. The animal Spi­rit, is nothing else but the same vital more volatilised, and refin'd in the brain, and from thence distributed together with the ner­vous juyce through the Nerves, to perform the offices of Sense and Motion. The na­tural, I take to be some of the animal Spi­rits, which take up their residence in the extream Fibers of the parts, and there re­main, and are continually refreshed and recruited, by an influence from the brain; and these the Schools call the innate Spirit, Faculty, or Virtue of a part. Either one of these, or all, must be meant by the Archaeus of the Chymists, or else that term be altogether insignificant Vox & prae­terea nihil: And whether it be considered [Page 180]as an idle word, or a new term, to express an old Notion; it cannot but be absurd, to offer it as a particular considerable in order to the Practice of Physick, in the place of the old Fundamentals, which he pretends to have demolished.

CHAP. IX.

IN his Ninth Chapter, M. N. proceeds to an examination of divers old Do­ctrines, which more immediately relate to the Practice of Physick; and first, he ca­shiers the Doctrine about Critical days, which he calls as childish a conceit, as ever was owned by any Long-beards, called the Children of Men. But I shall plainly prove, That this Doctrine is not so easily to be blown away, being of so absolute necessity to the true management of Fevers, that except a diligent heed be had to the Critical moti­ons of those Diseases, the best and most proper Remedies prove as dangerous to the sick, as a drawn Sword in the hands of a blind man, who lays about him at random, and knows not upon whom, or where the edge will light. For, though the Ancients possibly might be ignorant of the true cau­ses of the Critical motions of Diseases, that did no more hinder them from making true observations upon them, than the disa­greement of Philosophers concerning the reasons of the Fluxes, and Refluxes of the Sea, does cause Mariners to be ignorant of [Page 182]what Tides will carry them into and out of several Harbors.

And, though it must be confessed, that in these Northern Countries wherein we live, Fevers are neither so constantly, nor so or­derly terminated by Critical Evacuations, as punctually to agree with the descriptions of Hippocrates and Galen; by reason that in this colder Climate (which is perpetu­ally liable to alterations from the Air) the Blood when it is fired into a Fever, does not burn with so equal and constant a flame; and therefore cannot observe so ex­actly the times and periods of its burning, and consuming the sulphureous or combu­stible part. And for that the Blood of most Persons being tainted with the Scurvy, can­not so easily concoct, and at once separate the adust Recrements; but that they are often, instead of being Critically evacua­ted, translated upon the brain, and nervous parts.

Yet is not the Credit of those grave Authors, by every impertinent Man, to be called into question, concerning the truth of the observations which they made upon the motions, and burning of Fevers, in the Countries wherein they liv'd, and practis'd Physick; since they have been always repu­ted by the most Learned, of unsuspected [Page 183]Faith and integrity in delivering matters of fact, which fell under their own notice.

And indeed, if we consider the true causes of critical Evacuations, we cannot question, but that, in continual putri'd Feavers, in those parts of the World, in which, neither the coldnesse of the Air, nor the Scorbutick distemper made the dif­ference) Nature was as precise in obser­ving her periods, as she uses to be with us in Quotidians, Tertians, and Quartans.

For indeed, a Crisis in a continual Fea­ver, is the very same with a Paroxysm in an Intermittent, as Doctor Willis very well observes: Willis de Feb. c. 9. for (sayes he) as in an Inter­mittent, when the mass of blood is over­charged, with the Particles of the deprav'd Alimentary juice, which can by no means be subdued and assimilated, that falls aworking and by its fermentation, depurates its self and sends out by the pores of the skin the heterogenious matter; so, in a continual Feaver from the burning of the Blood and Alimentary juice much adust matter is mingled with the Blood, which, (when it amounts to so great a quantity as to op­press that active Liquor) Nature, as soon as there is the least respite from burning, by degrees subdues, then separates, and at last endeavours to exterminate out of [Page 184]the Body the morbifick matter.

Wherefore, as the fits of Intermittent Feavers invade at set times, and at the di­stance of a certain number of hours; so critical motions, observe either the fourth or seventh day, by reason, that in such a space of time, the fired Blood has done burning, and being overcharged with adust matter, or ashes, Nature, by the offensive irritation of it, is provoked to a Crisis. And (continues that learned Author) if the matter can be easily separated from the Blood, and that the pores of the skin be sufficiently free and open, the adust matter is together with the serous part of the Blood, thrust out of the Body by sweat; and this is much the best way of Crisis: for if it succeed aright, very often at once, in one single conflict, it puts an end to the Disease, without any danger of a Relapse.

The Crisis next best to this, is that which is perform'd by an Haemorrhage. For the adust matter moving about with the Blood, is (if it cannot be vented by sweat) transferred upon one part or other, as far distant as may be from the heart, and not seldome violently hurried up to the head, from whence (if the passages be open in­to the Nostrils) the morbifick matter, bursts forth, together with the Blood: but [Page 185]if it finds no passage, it remains fix'd upon the Brain, and there ensues a Phrensie De­lirium, or some other dangerous Distemper of that part. There are likewise other wayes of a Crisis, by which nature endea­vours to expell the febril matter, not en­tirely all at once, but by degrees, and by sundry attempts, some part at one time, and some at another, sometimes by Urine, sometimes by Vomit, or Stool, by Spots, Pimples, Botches, and the like; but what way soever she takes, it is requisite (if we expect any happy event) that the burning of the Blood be over, that the adust matter be concocted and rendred fit to be separated.

He goes on and tells us, that the state of the Disease is of one kind and Simple, and alwayes after the same manner, but with a very different variety of Symptoms, and with a tendency to Events which are very divers. But, notwithstanding this, it is requisite, that a prudent Physitian be able to pass his prognostick in what time the Disease will come to the state, and what issue it may be like to have.

If the Fever from the beginning be vehe­ment, and of a sudden fires the whole mass of blood; if with fierce Symptoms, it constantly and equally continue burning, without any remission, most commonly [Page 186]within four days there will have been so great a deflagration of the blood, that the adust matter, which is to provoke the Cri­sis, will arrive at its due fulness and turges­cency. But if the beginning be more mild and slow, and the burning of the blood oft­en interrupted, the Fever will not come to its heighth before the seventh day. But if the beginning be yet more sluggish and re­miss, the state of the Disease uses not to happen before the Eleventh or Fourteenth day.

Now although a perfect Crists happen not sometimes before the Fourteenth, Seven­teenth, or perhaps the Twentieth day, be­cause before that time, all the requisite conditions to the perfect judgment of the Disease do not concur; yet in the mean time, some slight skirmishes happen, by which the adust matter growing to a ful­ness, is by degrees something emptied, till Nature can be in a condition to attempt the discussing of the whole. But forasmuch as during the burning of the blood, continu­ally within the space of four days, great store of adust matter is increased within the Vessels, Nature (except she be by some accident disturb'd) is every fourth day provoked by the fulness of the matter, to free her self from her burden.

Wherefore most commonly on the Fourth, Seventh, Eleventh, and Fourteenth days, not from the influence of the Planets, but from a necessity in Nature, some Criti­cal motions use to happen.

This account of Critical days, and the reasons of them, I have taken out of Dr. Willis his Book, De Febribus; and the ra­ther, that I may do him right in relation to his judgment of the Doctrine of Critical days, since M. N. by quoting three or four words out of him, without taking any no­tice of the rest of his Discourse, would fain slighly insinuate, that this learned man is of his opinion; but he has not only suffi­ciently declared himself to the contrary, in the places by me already quoted, but else­where in his Pharmaceutick directions.

And now, let any man judge, whether the Doctrine of Critical days be to be ca­shier'd, as of no use in Physick; when cer­tainly the poor Patient, who in a Fever commits himself to a Physitian ignorant of the times and motions of the Disease, runs the same hazard with a ship expos'd to the Ocean without a Pilot, which is by the same Sails; which well managed, would have carried it into a safe Harbor, driven upon a Rock, and hastned to its Ruine. For though it be granted, That Fevers are often­times [Page 188]extinguished in the beginning, by sea­sonable bleeding, vomiting, or gentle purg­ing, as occasion shall require; yet, by M. N's favour, will they not always yield to these Methods much less to [...]s Charms, though he vainly brag, That without bleed­ing, and yet allowing of Wine, he will either extinguish a Fever by the Seventh day, or be able to pronounce what will become of the Patient. The latter of which I do not que­stion bu [...]e may do, since by his method he may determine of him as certainly as King James did of the Southsayer, who had pro­phesied of His death; when the King prov'd the better Prophet, by foretelling the day whereon the Wizard should be hang'd; M. N's Medicins being no less fallible than the Halter.

In the next place, M. N. picks a quarrel with the Ancients about their Doctrine of Pulses, Me. Med. p. 330. which, he says, let us regulate as well as we can, 'tis fit he should tell the World, there is little certainty of judgment to be made by them of a Patients case.

Now since he is resolved to cavil with the Ancients, for leaving to us too elaborate and acurate a Doctrine of the Pulse, he must give me leave to tell him, That if they Treat too nicely of the matter, he handles it much too loosely and slovenly. For certainly [Page 189]there is no Physitian who has been accusto­med to handle the Pulse of sick men, and has not his fingers constantly benum'd; but has discern'd in the beating of the Arte­ries, not only the absolute, but likewise the respective differences of Motions or Pulses.

And as a vehement, and a weak; a great, and a little; a swift, and a slow; a fre­quent, and a rare; a hard, and a soft; are by M. N. acknowledged to be established upon very good grounds: So, whosoever is frequent in handling the wrists of sick and dying men, will find that there is very good reason to admit the other differences; es­pecially such as arise in respect of equality and inequality, in respect of order, and in respect of Rythm or proportion; for the reasons of these, as well as the simple mo­tions, are not hard to be understood from the true consideration of the motion of the heart and blood, and are to be met with, accomodated to that Hypothesis in the Wri­tings of the learned Dr. Highmore, from whose account it is very clear, That the Pulsus [...], deficientes, intermittentes, High. Corp. Human. Disquis. l. 1. p. 2. c. 8. in­tercurrentes, caprizantes, dicroti, undosi, ver­miculares, formicantes, tremuli, serrati, are not (as M. N. calls them) Quirks, and Quillets, and hard words; but really dif­ferent [Page 190]motions of the Heart and Blood; and, he tells us, that In morituris semper aut unus aut singuli reperiuntur.

If any one be pleas'd with Extravagan­cies and Whimsies concerning the Pulse, he may find enough of them in Paracelsus, who gives this wild account of the Pulse.

Pulsus, Paracels. l. de Pestilent. Tract. 1. est mensura temperaturae in corpore secundum preprietatem Sex locorum quae Pla­netae occupant; duo in pedibus attribuuntur Saturno & Jovi, duo in collo veneri & Mar­ti, duo in temporibus Lunae & Mercurio; Pul­sus Solis est in sinistro latere sub corde; Hinc sequitur, si Pulsus celerius movetur quam fieri debebat, pati septem membra principalia, Cor cerebrum, hepar, fel, renes, unde & Pulsus irritetur sive ad iram concitetur. Si vero aliquod principale membrum a morbo vinca­tur, Pulsus debiliter movetur, quod aer, sive Spiritus vitae eo loci obstructus est: And he has farther in another place, Tom. 2. p. 743. Pulsum manere usque ad mortem, imo aliquando quadrantem horae post mortem.

Concerning this opinion of Paracelsus, the impartial Sennertus delivers his. What, I pray, says he, can be more absurd, and ar­gue a greater ignorance of humane body, Sennert. de Con. & Dis­sen. Chym. cum Gal. c. 18. than for Paracelsus to write, That the Gall, the Reins, the Liver, have peculiar Pulses; and to ascri [...]e to the Pulse the passion of Anger? [Page 191]For if we examine the Original of the Arte­ries, and the use and intent of the Pulse, we shall find, that every alteration in that, imme­diately comes from the Heart.

As to the Directions which are to be drawn from consideration of the Pulse in Diseases, they are of so much importance to a Physitian in a Fever, as the Card, and Nee­dle, to a Pilot in a storm; no hand of a Watch or Clock, does more exactly signi­fie the motions of their inward Springs and Wheels, than the Pulse does the alterations made in the great Engine of Life, the Heart. Framb. Can. & Consult. Med. p. 25. The Pulse is (says Frambesarius) Fidelis nuntius cordis ex quo certissima vitae ac mortis petuntur indicia, Pulsus magnus & ve­hemens est virium index in quibus sanitatis restituendae spes ponitur. Sed Pulsus parvus & languidus facultatis vitalis imbecillitatem indicat, unde mortis metus. Inaequalitas Pul­sus semper damnatur si perseveret intermis­sio juvenibus periculosissima repentinam quippe ill is mortem minatur nisi ex artertarum obstructione, & oppressione f [...]at, minus pueris, minime senibus.

The Pulse, says Dr. Willis (whom M. N. confesses to be no Defender of the un­justifiable Doctrines of the Ancients) is consulted like a Weather-glass, appointed by Nature to measure the degrees of the Heat, [Page 192]which in a Fever is caus'd by the Bloods be­ing set on fire; if that be intense, and causes a great Ebullition in the Blood, the Artery (as long as the Spirits continue vigorous) beats vehemently and swiftly; but when they begin to be spent, the strength of the Pulse abates, which is supplied by the swiftness, and the Pulse becomes small and swift. If the Fever be more mild, Willis de Feb. c. 10. and the Heat less tumultuous, the Pulse does less recede from its natural temper; and during the whole course of the Disease, a moderation in that, does signifie a Truce between Nature and the Distemper.

Nor does the Pulse only give intelligence of the forces of the Fever, as of an Enemy; but it acquaints us with the strength of Nature, and its ability to make resistance. As long as there is a good Pulse, all is safe, and there is all reason to hope well; but an ill condition of this, is a very ill Omen, and puts the sick person past hopes; so that without a frequent and diligent examination of the Pulse, the Physitian will neither be able truly to pass his Prognostick, nor safely to administer Physick. Nay, the Pulse is of so great importance in Fevers, that if it on a sudden alter for the worse (though all other Symptoms promise well) it is a dismal forerunner of death; and upon the other hand, if that continue good, though all other Symptoms threaten ill, [Page 193]we have reason to hope for a Recovery: He goes on, and shews, that without taking advice of the Pulse, neither Purgers, nor Vo­mits, nor Sweatters, Cardiacks, or Narcoticks can be administred without very great haz­zard.

I know very well, that what M. N. objects is true, that the Passions, the pre­sence of the Physitian, and many other ac­cidents, will make a confiderable alterati­on in the Pulse; but to inferr from hence, that no more credit is to be given to them by a Physitian, M [...]. Med. p. 33. than by a Wise man to a Gypsie, who crosses his hand to tell his Forune, is as absurd, as to conclude, from the variation of the Needle, that it is of no use in Navigation, or to affirm, that Watches are not useful to measure Time, because ac­cidental causes, as moist weather, walk­ing or riding with them in the Pocket, or the like, may in some sort retard, or ac­celerate their motions. The Methodists have been so careful, that in their Instituti­ons, when they treat of the Pulse, they acquaint us with what accidents may make an alteration in them. Therefore Senner­tus, and other writers of Institutions, ad­vise, that the Physitian do not, as soon as he comes to the Patient, presently feel his pulse, but stay till the motions which [Page 194]the presence of the Physitian has rais'd in his affections be over, and that then, when he is sedate and quiet, and free from passion, he examin the pulse; and then neither, not presently when he has been stirred, but after the disturbance which was caus'd in his Body by mo­ving of him be over; then, that the Hand of the Patient be free from all voluntary motion, that the Fingers be not too much bent or stretched, that the Hand be not sustained by the Patients own strength, lest it tremble, and alter the pulse; and then that the Physitian is to try the differ­ence of holding the Wrist upward or downward or Sidewayes, and that he must have frequently accustom'd himself to try the pulses of men in health, and (if it can be done) to learn what sort of pulse his Patient had when his Body was in good order.

From these, and several other Cautions given by the Learned, it appears, That though the Ancients held the Doctrine of Pulses to be of great concern in the curing of Diseases, yet they apprehended many difficulties, in giving an infallible determi­nation of their significations; and they seem no more to have believ'd, that every rude hand (which can only scribble an ill [Page 195]Book) could pass a true Judgment upon the Pulse, than a wise man will credit the Fortune which is told him by a Gypsie; which sort of Vagabonds (by the way) are reckoned up by Camerarius in his Cata­logue of Mountebanks and Empericks: And truly I think with good reason: for their Predictions are as much to be relied upon, as M. N's Physick; and therefore they may be both well ranked together, since he and they (though by different methods) drive at the same end; for as they with their Pedlers French, and crossing the hand, he with his Pox, and Canting, amuses the credulous Vulgar, that he may with the less suspition prose­cute his grand design upon their Pockets.

I will now conclude, and dismiss the Author of Medela, whose Book (though very slight and trivial) I have all along in this Treatise taken notice of, for that it pretends to argue, from the new Disco­veries which have been made of late in Physick, and, from I know not what ima­ginary change in the nature of all Diseases, that the old way of Physick, in respect of Method and Medicins, is become insuffi­cient and uselesse, and therefore the funda­mentals of it to be demolished, and a ri­diculous Chimaera of his own substituted in [Page 196]their room. Whereas, the modern Dis­coveries in Anatomy and Chymistry, are so far from destroying the Practice and Method of the Ancients, that they very firmly corroborate, and establish their Doctrines, by furnishing us with the true reasons of those Processes and Methods which were delivered down to us from them, only upon their experience and knowledge of the matter of Fact, though they were ignorant of the true causes. Thus we know the Ligature in letting of blood was alwayes used by the Chyrurgions, though the reason of it was never under­stood, before the Circulation of the blood was discovered. Most of the Doctrines in the Therapeutick part of Physick, are like this, founded upon experience; and there­fore the improvements in the Physiology, and Pathology of that Art, will not (as M. N. would have it) destroy, but illustrate them: Wherefore in the reforming of Physick, and suiting an Institution to the late Discoveries in Anatomy and Chymistry, care must be ta­ken, that we imitate wise and thrifty Buil­ders, who, in raising a new House in the place of an old one which they have pull'd down, make use of many of the old substan­tial Materials, some of which are often much the better for their age.