An Account of The Nature, Causes, Symptoms and Cure OF THE DISTEMPERS That are incident to Seafaring People. WITH Observations on the Diet of the Seamen IN HIS Majesty's Navy. Illustrated with some Remarkable Instances of the Sicknesses of the Fleet during the last Summer, historically related. Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, Non aliena meo pressi pede. Horat. epist. nineteen. lib. 1. By W. C. of the College of Physicians, London: And Physician to the Blue Squadron of his Majesty's Fleet. LONDON, Printed for Hugh Newman at the Grasshopper in the Poultry. 1696. TO THE Right Honourable THE Lord's Commissioners For executing The Office of Lord High Admiral of England, Ireland, etc. My Lords, YOUR Lordship's having been pleased to appoint me One of the Physicians of the Fleet, I thought myself obliged, to use my utmost endeavours for discharging the Trust you committed to me: and therefore I, not only, kept a Journal of the men's Names, and a History of their Sickness; but of the Medicines I gave them, with the Success they had. And when I had considered the way of their living, and other circumstances, there appeared to me a very reasonable View of the Diseases at Sea, which I first committed to Paper for my own Assistance in the Service; but am now persuaded to submit those Thoughts to the Censure of the World. Yet, in This I shall run no great Risque, under your Lordship's Protection, which, I hope, you will not deny me; since 'tis your Lordships gave Them, first, Life, and They have grown up under your Favour to what They are: so that if They obtain the End, I designed Them for, the public Good; 'Tis the Public must thank you for Them. I am, with great Respect, My Lords, Your Lordship's Most Humble and Faithful Servant, W. Cockburn. THE CONTENTS. THE usefulness of this Work pag. 1 A prospect of it 3 What the Sea Victuals are 5 The consequence of this Victualling 8 Is first the Scurvy 9 Its description ibid. How these symptoms are produced 10 How that extraordinary weakness 13 And unequal Pulse 15 How the Inflammation of the Gums 16 Their Rottenness and Itching ibid. How the Scurvy and Melancholia Hypochondriaca are distinguished 17 What may follow upon the use of their Bread 21 What from their Burgoo 24 And Pease 25 What the Inconveniencies from their Lodging 26 As catching Cold 27 And a Fever 28 Its description 29 An hypothesis for helping us to account for its symptoms ibid. How the weight & heaviness is produced 31 How the lesser activity 32 And lesser weakness ibid. How the Coldness over the whole body 33 How the Coldness in the extremities 34 And not in the Brain 35 How the pain is produced 36 And such an One as when one is beat 37 Why the Pulse is weak 38 Rare ibid. And depressed 39 How a want of Appetite 40 And Costiveness 41 How the sleepiness ibid. How the warmth begins 44 The Pulse becomes great and strong ibid. They are restless 45 And very dry ibid. How the roughness of the tongue 46 And its Blackness ibid. Why they are hard of Breathing ibid. How their breath is like fire 47 Why they are light headed ibid. Fevers end in death 48. Or by Sweeting, a Looseness, etc. 49 The former supposition is not a mere Hypothesis ibid. This interrupted perspiration makes Diarrheas 51▪ And Agues 53 An enumeration of their symptoms ibid. The symptoms accounted for, and first the Coldness after dinner 55 The Paleness of their Lips 56 Their Trembling ibid. Their weak Pulse 57 Why they are insensible, while their external senses are right ibid. How their Bodies like a Corpse 59 And a great drought ibid. Yet in the place of Death comes Warmth and Heat 60 Which ends in sweeting 61 Their Pulse stronger and more frequent ib. And a beating in their Head ib. A great drought 62 The Pulse natural for some time 63 Why it recurs every day, every third, or fourth 65 How it ends sometimes in death, and that in the return 70 The Seamens life, as to what concerns their temperance, etc. ibid. A hint at the diseases got nearer or under the line 73 Why I have neglected the common stories of Poison, etc. 74 Why Poison ibid. Why the Chemical Principles 77 Why Acid and Alkali 82 The Contents of the Second Part. THE Way of relating these Observations 89 First Observation of a Fever 90 General hints for its Cure ibid. Why the Practice is unsuccessful 91 What my thoughts are about these general hints 93 What of Blee●ding, Sweeting, etc. 94 A remarkable history of a Patient of Dr. Willis's 96 The particular Cure 99 Observation 2d of a Fever 101 Observation 3d 102 A Remark 104 Observation 4th 105 Observation 5th 106 Observation 6th 108 Observation 7th 110 Observation 8th of an Ague 112 The General Cure ibid. An Account of the Jesuits Bark 116 A necessary Corollary deduced from this account 119 The Chemists have given no account of its way of working 121 It's astringent power is unaccountable 123 Why the Bark has sometimes so pernicious effects 125 The particular Cure 126 Observation 9th 128 Observation 10th 131 An Examination of Helvetius' Bark-Clyster practise 135 Citations from his Book ibid. The answer 141 Observation 11th of the Scurvy 150 Observation 12th 152 A particular Remark 153 Observation 13th of a Diarrhea or Looseness 154 Observation 14th 155 A remark of a particular Medicine 156 Observation 15th 157 Observation 16th 159 Observation 17th of a Decay 161 Observation 18th of a Clap 164 A singular way of curing it ibid. Observation 19th of a Quinsey 168 Two Remarks 169 PART I. An account of those Sicknesses that are incident to Seafaring People. The usefulness of this Undertaking. THere are none who have used the Sea for any time, especially in the Royal Navy, but must be highly sensible how useful an undertaking of this nature is; and how assisting to most of the Surgeons, who pursue their employments at Sea, and particularly in the Meridian for which this is calculated; and yet 'twas never attempted by any, of what Nation soever, as far as I can learn, either by reading or conversation. Officers and Sailors must needs have their courage (which is naturally great, besides its being supported by the Applauses and Rewards of Honour) much augmented, by the security they may have in the suitable provision that is made for their health; and the Surgeons themselves, having a full view of all the maladies they are to encounter upon that Element, will surely be better provided than when their expectations are more general. It's use, I think, by these small hints, is put beyond all exception; and I do heartily wish I could have as good help to my practising in Medicine in our world, the marry Element; but since I can have none, I doubt not but the ingenious will very easily pardon a Treatise of this kind; and almost any mistakes, I can fall under, since the paths of former Curers are as little perceptible, as the furrows made upon the face of the angry Abyss, by our lofty floating Forts, can prove guides to the Seamen that steer the same course but next hour: for my own part, I should have no more ventured upon it, than I should have been the first that put to Sea, were it not that the station Providence has placed me in, might seem to demand some testimony of my diligence in the same; which, I must confess, is not so great as the Service requires. This I was, once, resolved to perform by the way of a Journal of those Sicknesses, that happen▪ d since my concern in the Fleet; but thinking, again, that this should be more complete, if I should consider in general, by their way of living, the Sicknesses they might be most subject to, and then year after year, so long as I am to continue with them, to give the particular History of the Sicknesses of that year, with an exact account of the success in the same; which will be so many confirmations of my general Theory, and evince how well or ill it is established. And therefore I shall first endeavour, to It's order. discover such sicknesses as may be peculiar to people that use our narrow Seas; to distinguish them from those that may be got nearer, or under, the line; from those that may be common upon the land, to what we have sometimes at Sea; and lastly, in the history of this year, to denote, in some measure, the Indications for, and the Method of Cure. But that all these may be pursued with the greatest exactness imaginable, it will be highly necessary, first to describe the particular way of their living; that from this we may see and deduce as naturally, as is possible, those infirmities, that most especially follow thereupon; and this we shall do, first by considering their victuals allowed them for their daily sustenance; their way of living; and lastly their life, as to their temperance or debauches. I am not ignorant how useful, yea necessary▪ it had been, to have had some respect to, and consideration of the temper and constitution of the air, they live in, and how satisfying it would have proved to such as are curious and ingenious, to have made some Remarks upon the differences of that at sea and land: but all I can say upon that head being so general and precarious, and of so little real use in my design, that I have rather chosen to pass it by in perfect silence, and not to offer that to the world, of which I have so little satisfaction myself: yet, this I did not leave quite unattempted, but did carry a very good Baryscope on board with me, and did hang it as conveniently as I could contrive; yet in the calmest weather, and at anchor, the heaving motion of the Ship did so much disturb my Mercury, that I did conclude it of no use, and perfectly unpracticable, when under sail with the easiest gale of wind; And therefore to say no more of this, I do betake myself to the considerations I have just now proposed. Their Victuals. And first, the victual, allowed them for their daily sustenance, are Pork and Pease On Sundays and Thursdays; on Mondays Oatmel (Burgoo) Butter and Cheese; on Tuesdays and Saturdays Beef and Pudding, or all Beef, which they please; on Wednesdays and Fridays But●er and Cheese, or Oatmeal and Pease, and with all these abundance of Bread. Now all these victuals are so sound, and the meat so well salted▪ that not only there can be no better found any where, but 'tis generally believed, that the Sea-Pork, especially, is the best in England; and they have a greater allowance of all these in their proper turns, than is sufficient to satisfy an ordinary Eater. So that whatever a Sailer may complain of in the Royal Navy, his victuals are a great deal better, and his allowance larger, than in any Navy or Merchant-ships in the world. Their drink is as good Table beer as any Family in England can drink; and the quantum is what they will. So that, in the general, if we consider the number of men, the length of the Voyages, in Convoys and Cruisers, the Grand Fleet in the Channel, and their Work; their Diet will be found, in all these circumstances, to be almost as well provided and adapted, even for the preservation of health, as it can possibly be. 'Tis true, salt victuals have been found, by experience, the worst of all other to digest; and Sanctorius, in his book of Statical Medicine, has declared, that they are the victuals by which we perspire least; and still less by Pork than the rest▪ and so, by the laws of Perspiration, it must be concluded to contain the grossest juices and the worst nourishment: but all this will be more plain and evident, than I could here, without a needless digression, demonstrate, if we consider the requisits for digestion and nutrition, which I have laid down very plainly, and in few words, when I purposely treated of that subject, in the beginning of my Aeconomy of the h●man body, printed last year, to which I refer you for a further information. Yet, after all, the bodies of such working people, not only make the best of such solid food; but this, even, seems necessary for those who are obliged to undergo so great labour; for though the stomaches of sedentary people, and of those who use little exercise, are not able to reduce such parched and solid food into Chyle, in twelve or fifteen hours' time; and when that is done, this Chyle is so thick, that it is scarcely able to perform its first voyage thro' the lacteal vessels, but stops and makes obstructions in those passages, and disposes such people to Dropsies, the Jaundice, and other Cachectical diseases. And even though it should escape these obstacles, brought its full length, the contraction of the Heart in those, and the force of their Lungs in the expiration are so faint, and most of their other Muscles being seldom acted, the Chyle, as it is carried along their blood-vessels, is not sufficiently pressed, or broken into small enough particles, that it may become homogeneous, at least to our senses, with the blood; and so is apt to produce all those inconveniencies, grosser blood or bodies greater than the blood carried about in it, are said to do: yet things being quite otherwise with our Sailors, and in one part of their business or another, scarce one muscle of the whole body being left unemployed, their digestion and nutrition not only go as well on with them in this diet, as the most delicate food with Ladies; but this sort of victuals is, even, necessary for their toil and labour, and that which is finer and more easily digested, would not prove of long enough continuance for their work. The consequence of this victualling. From what has been said, 'tis evident, that the greater the work and labour is, in this way of living, the digestion and nutrition will be the better performed; the motion of the blood will be more exact, and the health of the Sailors will be more firm; and, upon the other side, the less their work is, the hardness of the food, and its saltness, will proportionably have their effects, and the indigestion that follows upon the one, and the fiery heat that attends the other, will be the more sensible and considerable; and so, all this will fall more severely upon the Seamen of the Royal Navy, than upon those in the Merchant Service; because their labour and work is abundantly greater than that of the Men of War: though there is a sort of remedy against that, in their other victualling, as we shall see hereafter; and in effect, none find the smart of this so much as the Boatswains Favourites; for the most of them, especially of the pressed Land-men, are very fit theatres for this Tragedy, which is acted, indeed, to the life; and their case is just the same with that of the Ape's Puppies in the Fable; that which she hates comes to be a lusty strong Monkey, while she overlays the other thro' her fondness; the Seamen, whom the Boatswain turns out to their watch, and who have the fatigue of the Ship, are in perfect health, while his Favourites are overrun with the Scurvy; which Is first th●● Scurvy. appears first in red spots, which afterwards become blue, and then black, upon the legs and other parts, with an extraordinary weakness, and besides attended with a redness, itching, and rottenness of the gums, and a looseness of the teeth; their pulse all this while being very unequal, i. e. sometimes weak, and sometimes very great: and all these accompanied with a great many more severe symptoms singled out, and described by▪ Riverius, and our learned Doctor Willis; which, therefore, I shall forbear to enumerate, but especially since 'tis none of my design to write a Treatise of the Scurvy, but only to give such illustrations, as may be useful for understanding our Sea Sicknesses, and helping us in their Cure. 'Tis very evident from the heating properties of Salt, and especially of its corrosive bittern, that 'tis that only, which can produce such an extraordinary sense of heat, as we find after a meal of such victuals; and because that heat cannot be produced, without a greater degree of velocity of the blood, and a greater secretion of animal spirits, which contract the heart, and produce this velocity; and they cannot be separated without a greater attrition of the blood: therefore, since this heat is felt, it is this bittern of the S●lt that makes this attrition▪ and produces this heat: now in this production, both the parts of the bittern, that divide and break the particles of the blood, and the parts of the blood thus broken and divided, possess a greater space than when they were compact, and before there were other bodies added. So that, in this greater possession of space, rarefaction, and artificial moles, as we may say, the thinner, and more capillary vessels have not cohesion enough to resist this new bulk; but the blood breaks over its banks, and in as great a quantity as the force of the motion of the rarified blood, the greatness of the emissary, and the resistance of the place, into which it breaks, will allow; so that if this be superficial, if any great quantity is separated, and the blood's motion so weak, that there is not matter enough perspired, which both by its quantity and force may keep it fluxile, and carry off some of the smaller parts of the blood, thus let out by its ow● common motion; then, the blood, now fallen out, will corrupt after the same manner, we see it, when out of the body; having, always, respect to the quantity separated, and the place where it is lodged, i. e. the blood being thus separated, is in a state of quiet and corrupts; and, in the different degrees and transitions in this corruption is blue, black, etc. as we see in this, and cases of the like nature; only, it is longer a corrupting, because of its small quantity, the fluxility of the perspiring steams, and the temper of the place; as we might particularly demonstrate if it would not prove too long. And these mechaical intimations will take off the necessity of absorbing that is so much talked of in this case. Besides, this way of the blood's possessing greater space, may still be augmented, if we consider, that their victuals, we have just now spoke of, must needs breed very thick blood; which is not so easily broken in pieces, but ra●ifying in bulk, is more apt to stop, and by its stoppage to make a greater pressure in its channels, and to produce the abovementioned effects. And since the extraordinary space is possessed by this viscid and rarified blood, the blood vessels that are so filled, compress those parts that are contiguous to them, and have less power to resist, than their sides have to go outward; and therefore, in this stuffing of the Arteries in the soft brain, their sides, thus bending outwards, will especially press such vessels, that are touched by 'em, whether they are veins, arteries, or nerves; if their resistance be less than the force that thrusts 'em out, and so the liquors stagnating in all those, must press the neighbouring vessels, and hinder the transmission of their liquors, in proportion to those powers by which they are pressed. Thus a smaller quantity will be carried along their cavity; and by reason of this compression, the quantity of animal spirits that glides into the cavity of the nerves with an extraordinary weakness is diminished, because their coats are depressed, and their channels straitened; so that since by their influx into the nerves, and derivation into the muscles, their contraction is performed, and upon this the strength of the whole body depends; then, in this small distribution of the animal spirits, which is less than what is natural, the contraction of the muscles is not so powerful as naturally it ought With an extraordinary weakness. to be, and the weakness of the body extraordinary. Moreover, since the heart hath the same properties, and is subject to the same laws, with the other muscles; and they being more weakly contracted, because of a lesser quantity of animal spirits, that are derived into them; so must the heart be more faintly contracted too; and since, by the consent of Physicians, and the evidence of reason, the motion of the blood depends upon the strength of the heart's contraction; the contraction of the heart being weaker, 'tis plain, that this confused mixture of viscid and rarified blood, will have but a very weak motion; which is continued in the blood, till its return to the heart, bating what it has communicated, in its circulation, to the arteries and blood to be propelled; but since it is still losing part of its motion, the further it goes from the heart; the blood will be, on all occasions, apt to stagnate in the smaller and remoter vessels; and so produce those red, blue, etc. spots, we have spoken of. Besides, since the Pulse is only occasioned, by the greater quantity of blood propelled into the narrower sections of the arteries; and this impulsion depends upon the contraction of the heart, as we have said; therefore because, in this heated and rarified blood, there is sometimes a greater, and sometimes a less quantity of animal spirits separated; and since the contraction of the heart depends on their separation and influx, that will be sometimes greater, and sometimes weaker, and so the protrusion of the blood being sometimes performed in a shorter time, and sometimes in a longer, and in a greater or smaller quantity; consequently, And an unequal Pulse. the Pulse will be quicker and slower, greater and weaker, as we find by experience. Because the blood is thus viscid and rarified, and apt to stagnate in the capillary vessels, especially in the remotest parts; and while 'tis thus stopped by a greater power of obstruction, than the following blood has power to drive it forwards, the succeeding blood coming to the place, and not being able to propel the sticking blood, nor to recoil, because of the Impetus of the blood that succeeds it; it stagnates too, and increasing in quantity, distends the sides of the vessels, in which it stopped, to their utmost extent. If those vessels are superficial and visible to the eye, the blood will shine thro' in its ow● Their Gums inflamed, colour; and because the Gums are such, when they are thus stuffed, they appear swelled and red. And since the liquors that are thus slowly propelled, and subsist, and are wholly obstructed in some parts, the parts, Rotten and stinking, where this total obstruction happens, are ulcerated and stink; for the stagnating liquors are entirely corrupted, and become too sharp and weighty for their channels, and so break thro', as inulcers. But if, before this total stoppage and obstruction, the parts of the blood now greater than ordinary, can be carried thro' those parts by way of perspiration; yet in their passage they effect the pores, rub upon them, and produce that sense of And Itching. itching, which sometimes provokes us to scratch those parts; and, by the bleeding that follows upon that, we frequently prevent a more sudden obstruction. Yet, in all this misfortune, the Teeth losing their security, must needs become loose, and fall out. 'Tis from this viscid and weakened state of the blood, that we see such swellings of the legs, in chronical diseases, especially in the evening, after it is somewhat weakened, by the little exercise our bodies have in the day; while it cannot climb up, in its return to the ●eart, the steep precipices of our legs, out stops and begets that swelling we feel in the evening; till by the adventitious warmth of the bed, and the direct posture of our legs, it goeth off again against morning. After the same manner, by considering the condition of our other liquors, and their motion, I could demonstrate their depravation, and explain, (though at too great a length for this place) the other symptoms that appear. But seeing they may be brought from these fountains, which I have sufficiently dwelled upon; I think, I have said enough to explain the way, how this sickness is produced with us, and to show that 'tis a necessary consequence of an idle life, and of feeding on Salt Beef and Pork; and therefore I shall proceed to the next proposition, I laid down. Only, I must put you in mind, The Scurvy and Melanchol. Hypochon. are not the same. that I am not for confounding this distemper with the Melancholia Hypochondriaca, as Riverius, and some other Authors do; which makes us call every sickness a Scurvy or Scorbutical; because there are some symptoms common to both: For if this principle were allowed, we could have no distinct notions of diseases, but they would all be involved in one confused and inextricable Chaos. Thus, for example, we frequently see vomiting in Fevers, Scurvys, the Iliac Passion, the Stone in the Kidneys or ureters, a Fall, and many more; yet would it not be thought ridiculous to say, that a Fever is an Iliac Passion, the Stone, a Fall, etc. though they are both attended with vomiting. And (which is worse) this would prove very fatal in the curing of diseases: and therefore it were to be wished, that all diseases were exactly described, brought under certain Classes, and confined to their respective Families and Tribes. I cannot upon this occasion omit, what the most expert Physician Dr. Sydenham says on that subject, in the 307 page of his Practice of Physic, printed at London, in the year 1685, in the 5th Chapter of that Book▪ of the Rheumatism. Hic enim (says he) obiter, sed & libere tamen dicam, quod licet nullus dubitemquin Scorbutus in his Plagis Borealibus revera inveniatur, tamen eum morbum non tam frequentem, quam vulgi fert opinio, occurrere persuasum mihi habeo; multos autem ex iis affectibus (ne plurimos dicam) quorum nomine Scorbutum incusamus, vel morborum fientium nondum vero factorum, quique nullum adhuc certum induerunt typum, effe●tae esse; vel etiam infelices, reliquias morbi alicujus nondum penitus devicti, a quibus sanguis, caeterique humores contaminantur, v. gr. etc. By the way I must observe, that though I doubt not but the Scurvy is really to be found in these Northern Countries; yet, I am persuaded it is not so very frequent, as 'tis commonly imagined; but that many of those distempers (if not the most) we ascribe to the Scurvy, are either the effects of approaching ills, not yet formed into diseases, or the unhappy relics of some unconquered sickness, which still pollutes the blood and other humours, v. gr. etc. 'Tis true, the learned Dr. Willis has spoke a little more distinctly, when he calls the one a cold, and the other a hot Scurvy: but in this, he has too much sacrificed to the humour of the Ancients, since the last only deserves that name, and the other does not, really, differ from the Melanoholia Hypochondriaca▪ Of all Men, I have the least inclination to dispute about words; but if things were better settled by proper definitions and names, we should not fall into so many mistakes; and there's nothing more common, than to see people catching hold of some words, that are apt to misled them in their practice; for instance, besides the Banter of Openers, Malignant, and the like, who does not, but at the name of Scurvy, immediately fly to Scurvygrass, Water-●resses, and Horse-radishes; but to what advantage, may be easily understood by our foregoing Theory, and is fatally felt by such as are truly Scorbutical; But I'm afraid I have wandered already too far from my subject. And I shall proceed to the next thing to be considered in order, which may be sufficiently and easily understood, from what I have said of the preceding two. Their Bread. The next thing I shall consider is their bread, of which every man is allowed one pound a day. Moderate eating of bread has, in all ages, been esteemed to contribute very much to the preservation of our health, though none have approved of quantities. Omnis Repletio mala, panis pessima; a surfeit of any thing is bad, but one of bread is the worst: its substance is tough and tenacious; and therefore is not so easily broken and divided by the stomach, and if eaten at any time in a greater quantity, than is sufficient to give a body to the Chyle, it is very apt to make way for obstructions, and to breed very thick and gross humours. But an entire abstinence from bread deprives the Chyle of that due and necessary body, that is requisite to make its passage slow enough thro' the Guts, that it may be the better thrust into the indiscernible doors of the lacteal vessels: and therefore, in such a famine and scarcity of bread, the body is deprived of those juices that are made of our victuals, besides gripe, most troublesome loosenesses, and such other sicknesses as attend them. Having spoken thus much of bread, in the general, I shall neither pretend to determine the sufficient quantities of bread that are to be eaten, nor inquire, whether the crumb of crust of bread are the most wholesome. For these questions are not proper for this place; since all that concerns us, is the consideration of the effects our Sea-bisket may have upon their bodies, who are obliged to make it a part of their daily food. First then, a pound of bread so dry and solid as that must be, that it may be the fitter for keeping, if it were brought to the consistence of common bread, would at least be thrice as big as it is, while in Biscuit; which, I'm apt to believe, is a little too much for men generally to eat. Besides, after it is ground by the teeth, and sent into the stomach, 'tis extremely hard to be digested, if it be not very fine; and if fine, it so imbibes the small quantity of Chyle, that is made of the other victuals, that the mass of blood receives a very small quantity of it; and that mash which passeth the guts, where the lacteal vessels are inserted, is so hardened and compact, that people upon that diet but seldom trouble the Stool; which every one knows to be of very ill consequence, and especially at Sea. From what has been said, 'tis not only evident, that the abovementioned victuals, are not fine enough to produce those subtle animal spirits, that make people so easily advert to, and apprehend at sight, whatever is proposed; and so, not fit to make Wits: but by the grossness of their humours, the Seamen are disposed to most Chronical Diseases, so soon as they are in the least overcome with idleness and laziness: tho, otherwise, all the inconveniencies that happen, are excessive costiveness, that troublesome attendant of our sicknesses. So that we may say, that a little too much eating of such bread, not only thickens the humours too much, and so disposes our men to other sicknesses; but immediately produces that dangerous costiveness, which is apt to produce so many other Maladies, and always obstructs the cure of Fevers. For when our Intestins are stuffed with a great many days victuals, they are so distended, and the blood vessels in them so pressed or straitened, that the circulation through them is very much interrupted, and not only the blood that used to flow that way, but even that of the neighbouring parts is forced from its channels, and equally filling the channels of the rest of the parts of the body, that have less resistance, in some degree press the Origin of the Nerves in the Brain, and blood vessels of the eyes; and so produce that Stupor and Thickness of Sight, people frequently feel in that case. Besides the Chyle must needs be very much interrupted, and kept from being conveyed in a sufficient quantity for recruiting the mass of blood, by the pressure of the lacteal vessels, which are interwoven with the guts: for the Chyle is forced along the whole length of the guts, with the grosser mash; and so, the body is not only deprived of its necessary nourishment, but there's an eminent hazard of obstructions in the lacteal vessels, which very often produces those dangerous Ascites that are so seldom cured. Their Burgoo. Touching their Oatmeal victuals (or Burgoo) which of itself is very fit to correct that thickness of the humours and costiveness, that are the unavoidable consequences of the abovementioned diet joined with the least idleness: for Oats being of a thin substance, and of all the grains we use for victuals, that out of which the greatest quantity of oil may be drawn, they not only preserve that motion, that's requisite to make a due perspiration, by adding spirits to the blood, but preserve it in a convenient degree of fluxility; and by their cleansing power and virtue to keep the belly open, this Burgoo victualling is highly necessary for our seafaring people. Yet, 'tis the least liked of all their victuals because of the small quantity of Butter, they pretend is allowed them to sauce i●: and therefore perhaps 'twere worthy the consideration of those, to whom it belongs to order this supply, and who are every way so careful of the Seamen, to see whether an addition in their Butter might be allowed; for I am sure, that if that part of the victualling were made more grateful and agreeable to the Sailors, 'twould infinitely contribute to the preservation of their health. What I have said on this subject, is in a great measure applicable to their Pease, which in their own nature are Their Pease. more temperate than Oatmeal, since they are esteemed by Physicians, and the learned Galen, I De Aliment. Facultat. Cap. 21. A sort of medium between things of good and bad nourishment. And therefore I shall proceed to the next consideration I proposed, which was concerning their Lodging. Their Lodging. This is as convenient, warm and easy, as may be at Sea, and for such a number of men; yet what by the pilfering of Hammocks one from another, their lying on Deck▪ or betwixt Decks, when they are pretty warm after a Can of Slip; and the pressed men's real want of clothes, they sensibly contract a cold, which is the beginning of most of their miseries. 'Tis not necessary, I should demonstrate here, the way how that is catcht; since 'tis evidently so by that heaviness they complain of, pain of their breast, soreness in their bones, and such other symptoms, Physicians have determined to be the constant attendants of a Cold. But since I shall have occasion afterwards to treat more particularly of this subject, I shall at present content myself with putting you in mind, that I have already demonstrated in another place, and have put it beyond exception, in the judgement of very many, that there is no power in the Air, different from its weight or gravity, able to produce those symptoms, that are said to follow upon obstruction, or shutting up of the pores, when we catch cold, and so may disturb and interrupt perspiration, and breed so many fatal distempers, which 'twould be needless to insist upon in this place, since the thing is generally agreed upon; yet I cannot forbear observing, that an untimely use of Sweeting Medicines in some, and thickening Lozenges in others, is more frequently the productive cause of Fevers, Phthisicks, etc. and of more fatal consequence than a Cold could have been, if left to the strength of the blood and abstinence, without employing any other Auxiliaries; but more for the confirmation of this, may be easily collected from what follows in this Discourse. I say, then, since so far is already clear; and because too, the force of the perspiration is only kept up, by a certain impetus and degree of the velocity of the blood, and that is only interrupted by the falling or diminution of this, 'twould be an easy task to give a more genuine and conceivable account of catching cold, than is generally assigned to be done by (I don't know what) nitrosity or nitrous power in the Air; which, upon various occasions, Authors make use of for making the blood fluxile and tenacious, two very different effects; tho 'tis fit for neither, as I have already proved in its proper place. But I shall content myself at present with enumerating those symptoms, that constitute the essence of a cold, and then proceed to consider the effects of this, by the different symptoms that naturally attend it. Since then, I find 'tis agreed on by all Physicians, that perspiration in a catched cold, is not so free as in a natural state, but is interrupted; and a great deal of that substance, that is usually separated that way, is detain d in the mass of blood! That which is so detained, will proportionably increase its bulk, and fill the vessels; and so becomes the source of all those symptoms that are observed to attend a catched Cold, by a necessary consequence I shall afterwards have occasion to demonstrate: The Symptoms that usually appear in this case are these, and in this order. First, a weight or The Symptoms of our Fevers. heaviness, a pain in the breast, a less activity over all the body, sudden weakness, a coldness in all the extremities except the Brain, Costiveness, such a pain in the bones, as when one is beat, a weak, sunk, and depressed Pulse, sometimes accompanied with a great inclination to sleep; in a day or two the Pulse is great and strong, they become very warm, restless, and thirsty; the tongue is dry, black, and rough, the breathing difficult, the breath striking those that stand near the sick person like Fire; they are delirious, cannot sleep, and their sickness is terminated in Death, by Sweeting, Hemorrhagie, Looseness, etc. Having thus enumerated these symptoms, that appear constantly in our Fevers, and in the same order in which I have ranked them: I shall An Hypothesis. now endeavour to evince the necessity of their attending an interruption of perspiration, as I intimated before; and hereafter I shall endeavour to demonstrate, that that fullness, which gives rise to all these appearances, is more especially to be attributed to an interruption of perspiration than any other cause; and so the Hypothesis, though owned by every one, will be more than one that is merely such. First then, an interruption of perspiration will increase the Moles or bulk of the Fluids, proportionably to what is left unexpelled, of the quantity which usually passeth thro' the pores; and because Sanctorius in his Statical Medicine, has taught us that we perspire, according to the different constitutions of our bodies, about forty, fifty, or sixty ounces in 24 hours; therefore if but a sixth part of this be detained, as I could prove it to be; it must needs produce a very great Plethora in a day or two, in such that were in perfect health before, besides the addition may be supposed to be made by our daily food, and, perhaps, rarifying liquors. The blood upon this consideration admitting of a vast augmentation, distends the sides of its Channels, is more unfit for motion, and presseth the neighbouring parts, and so may easily produce the sense we have, and very often complain of an unnatural weight: for in this weight or heaviness we have the same sensation, as when loaded under a great burden, and therefore in this, the parts are the same way affected, as when a weight presses our body; but by this weight, the Membranes, Nerves and Muscles are so pressed, and the Bones so forced into their Joinings, that they could not subsist, if it were not for the violent Nisus of the Muscles; neither could those Muscles be contracted, but by a more abundant influx of the animal spirits overcoming this pressure; nor could they be propelled thro' the compressed Nerves, unless they were pushed on by a greater force; and by this greater force is known that by which is meant to press; and therefore 'tis evident, that the blood thus filling its vessels, may easily produce that sense of Weight, as The weight or heaviness. was said. The blood, while in this fullness, because of its bulk and the viscidity it contracts, by this stagnating fullness, both in its own nature, and by reason of the diminution of its motion, is not so capable to separate its subtle parts or animal spirits, because it is not so well divided or broken into such small particles. Now since the abundance and separation of the spirits in the brain, are necessary for the motion of the muscles, upon the contraction of which the strength and activity of the whole body depends; 'tis plain that in such a case, where the motion of the blood is so languid, and the secretion of the animal spirits so small; there will be a Less Activity. laziness and a diminution of activity over all the body. And because this artificial Plethora, that lessens the activity is very sudden, i. e. in two or three days, this less activity will be sudden Sudden Weakness. too, or a sudden weakness will happen; which was to be shown. When the blood is thus stopped, and become very viscid, 'tis evident that the body must proportionably want of its warmth; since that is only an effect of the greater liberty the small parts of the blood, that make the heat, have, to disperse themselves over the body; and this liberty is procured by the parts of the blood in their motion, justling and breaking each other into smaller parts. But the blood being viscid or tough, is not so easily, in its nature, broken and dissolved; and therefore the warmth is still more violently locked up and confined. Moreover, while the blood is so viscid, its motion is even slower than naturally it should be; and consequently the heat is lessened, and the blood not so well divided, because the breaking of it into smaller parts depends upon its motion. So that according as the motion is diminished, and the force of the viscidity greater, the coldness is proportionably greater over the whole Coldness over the whole body. body: and because the blood hath its motion from the heart, and in its whole journey round the body, is still losing part of that motion, (for the reasons assigned before) more or less in respect of the wideness of the vessels thro' which it is propelled, and their distance from the heart; therefore 'tis evident, that that Coldness will not be so sensible in the parts that are nearer the heart, or about the heart itself and the Thorax, as in the parts that are more remote or the extremities of the body; for, not only for the reasons we have just named, this Coldness is first felt in the parts that are furthest from the heart, but the motion of the muscles in the extremities is not so strong; and therefore they do not so powerfully press the blood that glides thro' those veins and arteries, that go to the composing of these muscles, as in the other muscles, whose contraction is performed with greater force and energy; And consequently the blood too, will be more apt to stagnate in those remote parts than in the other; A Coldness in all the extremities▪ so that this coldness will be more sensible in them, as was asserted. Moreover, the vessels in those remote parts, growing always smaller and smaller, the further they go; this thick blood will be propelled with the greater difficulty thro' these vessels, than if they were wider; besides, that by reason of the Glewiness of this ●ough and thick blood, 'tis more apt to stick to the coats of the vessels; and so more ready to subsist and to produce the abovementioned coldness; but though this coldness is more apt to begin in the extremities, than in any other parts, and though there are a great many small arteries in the Brain, as well as in the other parts; yet this coldness will not be felt in it so soon as in them, because the arteries are but short, and soon discharge themselves into the wide Sinus'; so that, though the blood is very apt to stagnate, and produce that coldness in the extremities; yet that happens not so soon in the Brain. Now, the real Except the Brain▪ continuation of this coldness over the whole body, may be very well conceived, if we consider, that while the blood is thus stopped in the capillary arteries, we can assign no time in the whole circulation, in which a lesser quantity of blood flows not from the arteries into the veins, than would have flown in a natural state; and therefore a lesser quantity of blood flowing more slowly, in the ordinary time of the circulation than is naturally usual, there will a lesser than a natural quantity come into the heart in every contraction; and this small quantity will not fill the arteries in that proportion, that is necessary to force it forward, so as to break and divide it, and to display its heat. Besides the blood being in this tough and viscid condition, there will even be fewer of its fine and subtle parts separated in the Brain, and disposed of into the muscles of the whole body▪ and the heart in course will have a fainter contraction, and a weaker power to propel the blood, which consequently will not be so well diulded, nor the heat so well diffused. Now supposing that this Lentor or Toughness could consist with the natural motion of the blood, and that the viscidity could not be broken or dissolved by the natural motion, it cannot be expected it ever should by a degree of motion, much below that which is natural; and therefore this sense of cold must be felt in the other parts, and over the whole body. Pain is nothing else but a solution or disjoining of continuous parts, and while the blood stagnates, and its quantity is constantly augmented, it must needs distend the sides of its channels, where it stops, and▪ stretch the arteries beyond their ordinary pitch. And therefore those vessels, that have not a natural or an adventitious resistance to oppose this forcing outward of the blood, will have their parts disunited, ●● Pain. i. e. this sense of pain will be produced in them. Now, the bones in themselves are not affected with pain, neither is there any such sensation produced in them, but by the membrane, that surrounds and invests them▪ called the Periostium: 'tis evident, that because this may be affected with any sort of pain, the bones are said to be thus affected; and in beating there are great contusions, i. e. the vessels have their sides so pressed, by the weight and motion of the instrument, by which these contusions are made, that the blood either circulates very slowly, or not at all in those sections of the vessels so compressed. And the Periostium is either so pressed by the contused muscles, that this feeling is produced in it; or, having its vessels a little compressed, the subsisting liquors in the compressed part do stop the succeeding liquors in the same channel, that they actually protrude the sides of their vessels, and make this sensation of pain: And since the blood in this accidental fullness and viscidity may affect the vessels after the same manner, 'tis but natural to conclude, that such a pain, as when one is beaten, may be produced in this state of the mass As when one is beat. of the blood. The blood in this state of viscidity, is less capable of separating its fine and subtle parts, as has been said; and there being a less quantity of them, the contraction of the whole muscles will be so much the weaker; and consequently, since the heart gives the greatest force to the blood's motion, and its contraction being weaker, the blood will be squeezed out of the left ventricle into the Aorta, and thro' the whole series of the Arteries, with less velocity; and therefore cannot distend the sides of the Arteries, with that force that is usual, but affects our touch more A weak Pulse. weakly; so that the Pulse is weak in this state of the blood: for the same reason those spirits being produced in a less quantity, and longer in falling into the muscles, and their contraction not being so frequent: Now the motion of the heart and arteries being synchronical, i. e. the contraction of the first, and the filling of the second, being performed at the same time, since the contraction of the Heart is not so frequent, the sides of the Arteries are not so frequently forced outward, and seldomer affect our touch, i. e. the pulse will be that A Pulse that's rare which we call a Rare Pulse. The blood too, in this its thick and viscid state, is less attrited and less fluxil, as has been said; but its parts being thus penned up and compact, cannot possess that space it did, when its parts rolled more freely one upon another, and were kept at a greater distance, by the impulse of its subtle parts; and therefore it has not force enough, to sustain the weight of the sides of its Channels, and they falling closer one upon another, diminish, as to their bigness, sensibly, and even to our sight; so that they being thus contracted, shrunk, and as 'twere withdrawn from our touch; and the pulse being thus removed, is said to be depressed, sunk, etc. While the And depressed. blood is so viscid, and the contraction of the muscles so weak, so few animal spirits separated, and all the secretions almost stopped; the musculous Coat of the Stomach will lose a great deal of its force, and the liquor of the Stomach will be separated in a less quantity; the contraction of the Ventricle is not only weaker, but our victuals that are lodged there, are not dissolved, attrited and turned to Chyle; but putrify and remain undigested; and therefore the Stomach being constantly full, there can be no A Want of Appetite, sense of hunger, as our experience tells us. The same Unactivity and want of contraction, we find in the muscles of the stomach, are felt, for the same reasons, in the muscles of the intestines; so that their vermicular contraction being much abated; whatever is contained in their cavity, will not be sufficiently compressed, that it may be protruded thro' the whole process of the guts; besides their incapacity in respect of the excrements, that are contained in them; for these excrements being in a very small quantity, both because of the small supply that is sent from the stomach, and yet smaller from the blood, by the known passages; they want of that weight, that is necessary to overcome the constriction of the muscles of the Anus; and little or no secretion being made into the guts from the blood, there's somewhat wanting of that due fluxility for their easier propulsion thro' the intestines, besides what excrements so fluxil may be supposed to do by way of Stimulus; so that upon all these accounts, especially by the help of our Biscuit, as has been said, there will be a vast disposition to costiveness. Lastly, if And Costiveness. at any time the blood is so viscid, that it is even interrupted, or has a great deal slower motion in the brain than is usual, and keeps the coats of the arteries bent outward; then, both because of the small secretion of spirits there, and the arteries compressing the origin of the nerves, there cannot be a sufficient quantity of spirits derived thro' these nerves; and consequently is produced that Stupor or Sometimes a Sleepiness. Sleepiness we sometimes observe. Now since the warm parts of the blood are confined and penned up in its viscid parts, and if they be so pressed, that the force of this pression (together with the natural force, that the small, hot, and fiery particles have to extricate themselves) be greater than the power that confines them; these hot particles will at last break out, and running along by the sensible parts, excite the sense of heat; and seeing this viscid blood stagnates and stops in the small arteries, they are so stuffed up with that constant supply, that is made in the parts where it thus stagnates, that this compression will be very considerable, by the blood that is constantly added, and by the power of contraction in the arteries, that hinder this stuffing and bending outwards of their sides; so that this compression being continually augmented, at length its power will become greater than the power of cohesion betwixt the viscid and small parts of the blood; and so the heat will be extricated, and give its sense to the nerves: and after that some part of it is set at liberty, and moves to and fro with all freedom, it must mightily facilitate the setting at liberty of the other small parts from the viscid parts of the blood, by wedging themselves into them, and breaking their continuity; and making the viscid parts themselves more fluxil. Now since the hot and warm parts of the blood are delivered from their confining viscid parts; because the power of compression is greater than the power of cohesion, which proceeds from that viscidity; and since the power of compression is proportionable to the velocity of the blood, and its velocity is greatest in these arteries that are next the heart; the power then of compression in those arteries, that are next the heart, will be greater than in these that are more remote, i. e. the heat will be felt in the parts that are more remote from the heart, or the extremities, a great while after 'tis felt in the parts that are nearer the heart, and they have been warm; and the coldness in the remote limbs, after the rest of the body has been warm, may last even till the power of compression in their arteries be augmented by the continual afflux of blood, and is able to subdue▪ the force of the viscid and intangling parts; and since these two powers are uncertain and undetermined, there can be no time assigned, wherein this coldness may last in the remote limbs, after the rest of the body has been hot; only we may assert, that the coldness will last the longer in the extremities, the more viscid the blood is, and the more firmly and closely it envelopes and confines the heat. Thus a great deal of heat being set at liberty, it is derived with the other parts, that can easily be dissolved and are more fluxile, into the veins; and therefore this heat being more free, rarefies and warms the blood it meets with in the They are very warm. veins, and excites a great sense and feeling of heat over all the body. The heat then proceeding thus, the blood is more free, movable, warm and rarified; and consequently the arteries are fuller, and distend their sides further, and so seem to rise up out of the flesh, and to come nearer the skin: and the vessels being fuller, the pulse will also feel greater; and because the blood is now more than naturally warm, more perfectly dissolved, and carried in a greater quantity to the Brain, there is also a more plentiful secretion of animal spirits, which coming into the heart in a greater quantity and degree of determination, make its contraction the stronger, and consequently propel the blood thro' the vessels with more force, and distend more strongly the sides of the arteries, and produce that sort of Their Pulse great and strong. Pulse we call strong: so that though the Pulse in the cold fit was not to be felt, either because the blood was not propelled thro' these parts, where we observe the Pulse, or propelled with lesser velocity than was necessary to affect our Touch: yet the velocity being recovered, the blood circulates thro' these parts again, affects our Touch, and makes the Pulse great and strong, as has been said: If we consider in the next place, the extraordinary warmth of which our Patients complain, we shall not need to have recourse to any unnatural contraction of the muscles to account for their Restlessness, and continual tossing about the Bed; but if we remember either what incites ourselves to it, or what our Patients tell us induces them, we may very fairly account for that symptom; and this is nothing but a constant desire to remove into those places we had not lain in before, for a relief to our scorching heat; and so as we warm in one place, we cast about and tumble into another, which is truly that Restlessness we may observe. Moreover, They are restless, in this extraordinary heat there is a less secretion of spittle, and that which is separated is immediately exhaled by this unnatural heat; and therefore the tongue and all that neighbourhood being very dry, the sense And very dry. of thirst is felt; but because of this dryness, and the particular contexture of the tongue, which has its fibres running across in its composition; Their Tongue is rough These fibres rise, stare, are stiff and rough, and appear to our touch as if we run our fingers over a grater, so soon as it is deprived of its humidity; and while the fibres and blood vessels stare thus, they cannot be easily contracted, and so the parts of the blood that are drier, cannot move, but stagnate under the surface of the tongue, while its more fluid parts are pressed forward; and the parts of the blood, that are thus stopped, being of a high red colour, appear very easily And black. to be black and a little inflamed. And if this heat increases naturally or by Art, 'tis evident, that the blood will be mightily rarified, and flowing thro' the lungs in this great and rarified quantity, 'twill press them violently on all sides; so that they will not be so easily expanded, and therefore the The Respiration difficult. Respiration will be also difficult, and the small quantity of Air, that is received into the unexpanded lungs, being warmed with the hot blood which then circulates thro' that part affects us so, when expired, as the Air of a Chamber that is agitated, by the small parts of our fires, that move among it, and this affects us with heat; so the breath of those sick, strikes those that stand near like fire. Seeing he blood is driven about Their Breathes like fire. in such a hu●●y▪ the animal spirits separated i● so great abundance, the blood so very fluxile, and these spirits running thro' a great many different Tracts in the Brain, present to us so many different Ideas, according to which we express ourselves; and they being different, and of several sorts, our thoughts are found very incoherent and unconnected, which is to Rave, or to be Delirious. That watchfulness They are delirious, and cannot sleep. too we daily observe, proceeds from these live representations, and velocity of the blood and spirits. And since in all the stages of this Illness, there either may be too great a distension of the blood-vessels in the Brain, and so no spirits derived into the Nerves, which will entirely destroy the contraction of the Heart, and bring Death; or the blood may be in such a condition, that it can give no supply of such spirits; and upon this account too, there can be no contraction of the heart, no motion of the blood, which is the want of life itself: and in both these respects They end in Death. 'tis evident, how Death may be the fatal consequence of this sickness; for in the first, the blood being either very viscid in the cold fit, or extremely rarified in the hot (by the patients own constitution, the heat of the place where he liveth, or warming Medicines) is so interrupted in the Arteries of the Brain, and being augmented by the succeeding blood, it may distend the sides of the Arteries, and produce the named effect; or if the blood in the cold fit is so viscid, and confines the spirits, that they cannot be separated, or there be a real want of spirits in the blood, which turn to the same account; there can be no secretion of spirits, where there are none; and therefore there will none be derived into the Nerves, for the motion of the muscles, and contraction of the heart. By the by, 'tis no less evident, that when the blood is thus infinitely comminuted, and still broken down into parts lesser and lesser, by an indiscreet management, and want of drinking of something, that may be a body to the spirits; the blood is not only deprived of that Serum, that should have preserved its fluxility, and been that Body, but of its spirits too, and so must needs produce the foregoing effect, and make this melancholy tragedy end at last in Death. Lastly, since the sick must continue in this condition, so long as the state of the blood is in this way, and seeing those parts, which are thus broken in this motion, may be carried off by the Glandules of the Skin, breaking open of the pipes, by the Intestins, etc. and by these means the blood may be Or the sickness cured by Sweeting, Hemor. Looseness. rendered more compact, and equal in its motion▪ therefore 'tis plain, that this Sickness may be judged by Sweeting, Hemorrhages, Looseness, etc. Thus having demonstrated the necessity of these Symptoms, from the supposition of an Interruption of Perspiration, The Vindication of the Hypothesis. I would proceed to considerations of the like nature, if I were not first obliged to vindicate this Hypothesis from one that is merely such, as I but lately promised: If therefore any one will take one, more, or all of these Symptoms, and let him have no respect to any hypothesis, but read them backward, according to the known and familiar rules of Nature, he shall find them necessarily proceeding from a real or factitious Fullness, which are the same as to their effects▪ and since we come by this fullness in our ordinary way of living, 'tis plain, that 'tis not that that is its cause: but there's no way else we can acquire it, except by retaining somewhat for some time we usually lose; and since 'tis not the first, the last is either by the suppression of the secretions made by Stool, by Urine, in the Respiration, or by the Skin, or Perspiration; now, we see the foregoing symptoms rendezvoused into a great number, while neither the Evacuations by Stool, Urine, or Respiration (the others I name not, they being very inconsiderable) seem to be much altered from what we see them in a natural state; and therefore 'tis Perspiration only, that is able to produce these effects and this Fullness, as I justly supposed. Moreover, Sanctorius has taught us, by making out the proportions of secretions in the 5, 6, 21, 59, 60th Aphorisms of the first sect of his Statical Medicine, that secretion by Perspiration, is at least double of all the other secretions; and therefore, when that is interrupted, it can produce that fullness in as short a time as all the secretions together could, and since they, or the most of them are good, while the named symptoms have grown into a great number; therefore this fullness has its rise from an Interrupted Perspiration, and so the supposition was just, and a great deal more than a mere Hypothesis, as I was obliged to prove. The Perspiration thus interrupted in hotter constitutious, hot Countries, or a warmer season, these Fevers do not begin with so long a continued coldness, but the heat succeeds a great deal sooner, as may be collected from what I'm to say hereafter, when I give some intimations of the sickness of hotter Countries. Yet, the blood having sometimes that velocity, we assigned it to have, in another place, when it is most apt to make secretions by the Stomach, Intestines and Pancrea's; which secretions being sent into the guts, in a greater or less quantity, and finding them less constricted, and the humour thus separated not so viscid as to subsist, it must needs get out the natural way and produce a Diarrhea's may be. Looseness: and though the guts were very firmly shut, yet if there be such a quantity, that the power of its Moles is greater, than the force whereby they are constracted, it will make way to itself by the intestines, as before. But supposing the guts thus shut up, and the quantity so small, that it cannot make its way by the intestines, because of its moles, yet if it's very thin, sharp, and forced forward, either by its own motion, or the compression of the neighbouring parts, or both; so that it can dilate the guts, there will be a Looseness, as is evident. But since in our way of living, and in the Channel, where the Air is seldom very sultry, 'tis but rare for our blood to be in these circumstances here required; and almost never but in scorbutical cases; therefore we shall trouble you no further about this affair, but mind you, we are to account our Diarrhea's amongst our accidental sicknesses, and to be treated as such in these observations that make the second part of this. Since we have seen, very plainly, these two different ways of the bloods being affected in an interrupted Perspiration, or a catcht Cold; there's a third, that in a colder season, with the blood a little weakened; wherein not only the blood, but the rest of the humours, contract such a lentor and viscidity, as we spoke of just now; yet, when 'tis comminuted, and has past the several stages, as before, returns again by a fresh supply of such matter, that is able to produce the same, or like effects; and in the discovering of this, I shall use the same method, I did in the former, i. e. I shall endeavour to give a plain and genuine History of the symptoms or appearances in that order they affect; and I shall unfold them, in a natural, familiar, and conceivable way; that we may be the better able to make such inferences, that may be useful in our Practice. First then, they feel a coldness after Dinner, their lips are pale, they tremble, their Pulse is weak; while they are thus affected they have an insensibleness, and trouble of mind, while all the external senses are right, and sometimes the external senses are faulty, when the mind is serene and thinks very clearly, their whole body like a dead Corpse, and have a great drought; yet instead of death comes warmth and heat, which lasts for some time and ends in sweeting; at this time the Pulse is strong, and more frequent than is usual, they have a beating in their head, a great drought, and after the sweeting the Pulse becomes sometimes natural; It recurrs every day, every third or fourth day inclusive, and acts over the same Tragedy, it ends sometimes in death, and that in the return. We have seen very clearly in the foregoing part of this discourse, that this viscidity of the blood, that confines the hot and small parts, and makes it so apt to stagnate in the extremities, and afterwards in the other parts, is the true and genuine cause of that coldness we observe; but the blood thus disposed, and not actually stagnating, and producing this coldness, is reduced to act by any thing that has greater parts than the parts of the blood; so that they cannot be intimately mixed with the blood, and become one homogeneous body; and since the chyle is of such a substance as is here requisite, as I have plainly shown in another place; therefore this viscidity will have its power to make the blood stagnate, after the chyle has entered the blood, and not throughly comminuted by the lungs, so that the parts of the chyle may glide along equally with the parts of the blood. And since the chyle is separated from the other mass into the lacteal vessels in an hour and an half, They feel a Coldness after Dinner. or two hours after dinner; therefore in an hour and a half, or two hours after dinner, this coldness is felt. Now in this viscid state of the blood, it is more compact, and distends not its channels sufficiently, and they, as 'twere, withdraw and disappear; and because the vessels of the lips are more superficial, and are only covered with a very thin skin, so that the blood in a natural state, may almost, be seen running in these vessels, and give that fine red we daily see; yet when the vessels thus subside, and withdraw, the blood is thicker and more compact, and nothing remains to be seen but the genuine colour of the membranes and fibres, that compose these muscles, and they being of a pale and Clay▪ like colour, the Lips will be pale, Their Lips are pale. as was said. The blood then being so viscid, weak, and having the spirits so confined, must needs separate very few animal spirits for the reasons often assigned; and so the Nerves will be but not perfectly empty; now the motion of the spirits I have already proved to be alternate, and the continual efflux to proceed only from the abundance of these spirits in the Nerves; and therefore, when at this time there are so few spirits separated, this fullness of the Nerves ceases, and so must the continual efflux too; and their alternate influx must be more sensible, i. e. because their motion is alternate, the motion of their propelling power being alternate, they flow alternately into the muscles, these weights which they are to sustain; and because of that alternate influx, they are contracted alternately, and this alternate contraction of the Antagonistial They ●emble. Muscles being that which Physicians call trembling; 'tis plain that there must be a trembling in this want of animal spirits; though Physicians have thought fit to express it quite another way. Now, supposing that this viscidity was so great, that it could even fill up the vessels in the brain, and therefore the viscid blood thus filling those vessels, being not so fit to separate animal spirits, and in this distension of the full vessels they do so compress the origin of the Nerves, that those spirits are not derived into the Nerves, and propelled in that quantity into the heart, that's fit to make its contraction able to force out the blood into the Arteries, that they may affect our touch as usually; and their sides neither being distended so much, as in a natural state, nor with so great a force, make that sort of Pulse which is called a Their Pulse is weak. weak Pulse. In the midst of all this viscidity, the spirits are both in a lesser quantity and more confined; therefore in this real want of spirits, the mind They may be insensible, the external senses being right. cannot execute its office, they being necessary for the functions of the soul. Thus the Patient is insensible, while all the external senses may be in a good state; though the converse of this may be true, that, viz. any one, or all the external senses may be faulty, when the mind is in a thinking condition; supposing that this viscid stuff is huddled up by chance in a greater quantity about any Artery or plexus of Arteries, and if these Arteries involve or go round the Nerve, that serves for Hearing, Seeing, Tasting, etc. These Arteries then being stuffed up, and filled by the continual afflux of new blood, their sides will be more distended and bend outwards; so that the Nerve that touches with them shall be compressed; till at length by this continual stuffing, the Nerve is so totally compressed, that it hinders the motion of the animal spirits, or at least interrupts their motion, though the sides of the Nerve are not quite squeeze▪ d together; and therefore it may very well happen, that one may be thick of hearing, or perfectly deaf, may not see, taste, etc. and yet recover of a sudden, the coldness being over, and this lentor protruded into the veins. And if this stoppage of the blood in the brain be so great, and its cohesion so firm, ●hat it cannot be dissolved by a thousand justlings in the plexus of the Pia Mater; so that almost no animal spirits flow thro' the Nerves, either because there can be no spirits made out of this viscid blood, or that those few that are made, cannot be derived in the Nerves, that are shut up by the force of this stagnating blood; then those spirits equally distributed into the muscles, keep them equally poised, and in this equilibration and viscidity there will be a want of motion and sense with an intense coldness, and these being the conditions of a dead body or Corpse, 'tis evident Their Body like a Corpse. at this time our bodies will be like a Corpse. This lentor being so great over all the body, 'tis so too in the Arteries that furnish matter, for the spital that is separated in the Glands about the mouth and throat, and no spital can be separated from the Arteries in these Glands; so that in this lesser secretion there can be no afflux of that moisture to these parts, and the want of that occasioning a dryness and drought, therefore this stoppage is attended with a A great Drought. drought. Yet though there is but a small quantity of animal spirits separated in the brain, and they derived into the compressed nerves and muscles very sparingly and disorderly; so that the actions of the body seem at an end, and the muscles in equilibrio, the heart which has no antagonistical muscle shall have its contraction continued; and if that motion thus continued can dissolve and attrite this blood not quite stagnating, the body In place of Death comes warmth and heat, that seemed dead and a Corpse shall become warm as before, and have its life prolonged. So the blood being once more free and fluxil, and the body hot, in the way we demonstrated before; the attrition and comminution, that produce this heat, depending very much upon the velocity of the blood, so that the greater it is, the greater is the solution of heat, and the greater the solution of heat is, the velocity is the greater too; because there's a greater quantity of animal spirits separated by this solution of heat; and so successively, til● the viscid blood thus subsisting is so comminuted and attrited, and acquires that degree of velocity, we determined it to have when fit for perspiring; and in that the small parts of the blood will be propelled thro' the neighbouring pores in a great quantity, and produce that appearance And ends in sweeting. we call Sweat, so that this warmth is continued and ends in Sweat, as we shall see more clearly in the sequel. Yet before this sweeting, while the blood is thus commiwted, there's both a greater quantity of animal spirits, and this quantity is faster conveyed to the heart, and the heart The Pulse stronger and more frequent. is oftener contracted, and that with greater force, and therefore the Pulse will be stronger and more frequent, than in a natural state. And because of the great rarifaction and comminution of the blood, and its rapid motion, the sides of the Arteries are distended to a greater pitch and very strongly; therefore the more superficial Arteries going outward with a great deal of force, affect the parts that are touched by them, and produce that feeling and noise, that's conveyed to us, upon the beating of one body upon They have beating in their head. another. While the blood is thus hurried about in this rapid and impetuous motion, and no great secretions of any sort; there is a great dryness in our mouth, because of the small quantity of spital that is separated, and that little is so divided into infinite parts by the force and warmth of the circulating blood, that these parts are left perfectly dry, and they despoiled A great Drought. of their moisture, produce that insatiable drought. And since this lentor is at length entirely carried out of the Arteries, they will be of their natural wideness, after it is carried out, and so the blood may be propelled thro' them, without its being more attrited, comminuted or dissolved, or the heat of the blood will not increase in its progress thro' the vessels: and since the blood thus dissolved, perspires very easily; this heat shall not only not increase, but be diminished, the Perspiration lessening its quantity. Moreover, the heat thus dissolved partly perspires, as was said; and is partly mixed with the rest of the blood, and is not comminuted, the slowness in which the blood moves thro' the veins giving sufficient time for this mixture; and the heat may easily insinuate itself into the grosser parts, and they may somewhat confine this heat, and restrain its force by opposing this Penetration. Besides, since there's an abundance of time betwixt both Excursus, the blood must frequently flow thro' the Lungs; and so be frequently dissolved, and have its hot parts conveniently mixed with the other parts, and for this reason The Pulse natural for some time. will be more natural; from which every thing that's natural will come; and therefore the body will be in perfect health, at least for some time. Tho then the paroxysm is thus judged by the assigned perspiration; yet if that viscidity that produced the first, is not consumed, but returns in a certain time: or if that is consumed and purged off by some of the known ways of Excretion, or so comminuted, that it is changed into the nature of sincere blood; yet the cause that produced the first viscidity, produces its like that can last out the same time, affect with the like symptoms, and be reduced to sincere blood like it; and so there are two ways of making these returns, as we see. Let us suppose then, that there are two returns every day, and at the same hour (there may be assigned the same reason for the rest, that recur in the same difference of time) and the first is produced by a lentor that lasts for one day, and threafter is either purged out of the body, or changed into sincere blood and the second, by a piece of viscidity of the same quantity and quality with that which occasioned the first then, I say, that either of these lentors, or any other that can invade a● the same hour, and takes up a whole day before it is consumed, may successively and by degrees be stored up in the blood vessels, so that it either flows thither insensibly, or constantly in the smallest particles, or be bre● within the same; till it can produce ● sense of cold, and the other symptom that attend that. And because, before that this cold and its attendant can seize us, 'tis necessary that thi● lentor subsist in the capillary Arteries which cannot be, unless its quantity i● so great, that it cannot be mixed with the blood, so that it may flow freely thro' the Arteries. Therefore, either this great quantity of lentor is bred a● once in the blood vessels, which i● possible; or is at once derived into them from somewhere else, which i● not unconceivable: but even this i● evident, that this very quantity ma● flow into the vessels by degrees, or b●bre● by degrees in the same; and therefore 'tis possible, that in the space of one day, either some lentor, or something that may breed this lentor may get into the vessels; yet in so small a quantity, that only after one day there be such a quantity collected, that is able to produce that coldness with its attendants. And therefore, in the end of the day this coldness will begin again, and will make a new return by this lentor, that was stored up in the space of a whole day; which lentor if consumed in the space of the next day; and, in the mean while, an It recurrs every day, every third, or fourth, etc. equal quantity of another lentor be stored up in the blood, 'twill make a third return, and so it may be said of the rest, not made by the same lentor returning oftener, though slowly, but made by a new one, the former being quite consumed: but this consumption may be sooner or later, in the same day, according to the different nature of that lentor, the bodies that are mixed with it, and their dissolution in the increase and height of the disease. It can be no objection that this lentor or viscidity of the blood is collected gradually, and therefore may be exterminated or comminuted, as soo● as it can be collected, since it circulates thro' the lungs and other part● some thousands of times in one day but this will seem not so difficult o● hard to be granted, if we consider some examples of as great difficulty and yet most certain: for there's non● that can be ignorant, how Nurse● Milk and our Urine retain, mor● than one day, the ● colour an● smell of Asparagus, Onions, Cassia, Rhubarb, Turpentine, etc. ● certain argument that there are some what of these bodies carried into th● breasts and kidneys, without ever losing of its nature; though it has bee● carried often, and even some thousands of times thro' the lungs; so that i● may be highly probable, that this visci● stuff may be very often carried roun● the body, without any considerable alteration. What is better known▪ than that the poison of a mad do● shows not itself before the thirtieth o● fortieth day, and sometimes longer so that before its appearing in these forty days, it has circulated some thousands of times thro' the lungs, without suffering any diminution of its strength; and therefore if some such ●hing be supposed of this viscidity, ●hat is mixed with the blood, there will be no place left for our further doubting. Now, this lentor may be supplied by every thing that gives us nourishment, passions, etc. which are ●oo remote, to be of any great use to us in knowing them: and therefore I ●hall confine myself to consider this ●entor, either coming from the primae viae in our Chyle or otherwise, or else being supplied by such viscera that are said to contain liquors: and first, if the Chyle or any other humour to be mixed with the blood, should be generated according to nature in the unnatural state of the blood (which is hard to be supposed) yet this natural humour mixing with the blood would be changed into its nature; and consequently become viscid, that is, a liquor fit to produce that lentor, which if mixed with the blood confusedly and without order, the returns too can have no order; but if it be carried into the blood in an exact order, the returns will be very exact and orderly: for if the blood have still that unnatural power, and the humour brought into it still retain its natural power, there will be always the sam● time required, to change that natural humour into that which is not natural; and this time may be one, two or three days; but if any one or all o● them are of a different nature, th● proportion of time will be chang'● and the Returns disorderly; but ●● this natural humour is derived at different times, from the same or different parts, and immediately, or in th● same distance and interval of time, acquires an unnatural power from th● unnatural blood; there may be abundauce of Returns orderly and disor●ly, as the Derivations are orderly o● confused: and if those humours are o● different natures, consisting of par●● of different sorts, every one of the● requiring a different interval of time before they can degenerate into th● kind of lentor; the variety of Return will be altogether uncertain, and kee● no order. Next, let us suppose that i● the Viscera, that are said to have considerable secretions made in them, th● liquors being viscid are returned b● their veins into the Cava, and in th● order of the former viscid parts circulate with the blood thro' the whole ●ody, till they acquire such a thickness or quantity of viscidity, that may make them fit to stagnate in the small ●apillary Arteries, and to produce ●hat Coldness and other Symptoms, ●s before: 'tis evident, not to resume our former reasoning, that their Returns will happen in certain intervals of time, orderly and disorderly, according as the supply is made from all ●hose Viscera, or from any one of them, and as that is mixed in a greater or less quantity, orderly or confusedly. But if there is so great a quantity of this lentor mixed with the blood, that it cannot be propelled from the small Arteries into the Veins; or though the quantity be less, yet if its adhesion to the vessels be stronger than can be broken off, so that it cannot be carried thro' them: then the blood cannot be propelled, and in a short time the body will be cold, there will be no blood derived into the Muscles, it either comes not to, or totally stagnates in the Brain, so that there can be no animal spirits separated in the nerves, and consequently there will be an irrecoverable deprivation of sense and motion, or (which is the same thing) there can nothing happen but Death since that lentor is supposed to be so great, that it cannot be protruded It ends sometimes in death and that in the Return. and carried thro' the Arteries: and all this happens while this lentor stops in the Arteries, and this stoppage being in the Return, 'tis evident, that Death will also happen in the Return. I have been longer upon this consideration than any of the rest, because the difficulties of Fevers and Agues are the greatest; though now, I presume, they are clearly demonstrated from the interruption of perspiration, that great and most considerable inconvenience of their Lodging: and now I shall proceed, and reflect upon the other propositions, in that order they Their Life, as to what concerns their temper. etc. come to hand; and therefore the next thing comes to be considered, is their life, in respect of their temperance and debauches. As to the first of these, 'tis certain, as there is nothing more valuable than a temperate life, so that is never more valuable than at Sea; and if we look a little back, and remember their salt Victuals, Cheese and Biscuit, there will be no great Rhetoric required to defend their innocent Saturday night's Cabals, in drinking the Wives; for without the temperate use of spiritous liquors, their victualling, with all their fatigue, will be little enough to afford necessary Chyle, gross enough to make their thick blood, that cannot be so easily sent round their bodies, without the help of a Bowl of Punch or a Can of Slip: So that, in short, they are so far from being dissuaded from such moderate drinking, that 'tis to be enjoined for health's sake; and I doubt not but this way of drinking will not only prevent, in a great measure, the sicknesses we have named, but even keep them from falling into the Dropsy, Jaundice, and Melancholia Hypochondriaca. Yet to speak truth for the honest Sailors, they seldom fail in this point, so long as they can have an occasion to exchange the base Metal for the noble Spirit of Wine: but are oftener very ill husbands, exchanging all at once, and destroying the whole purchase at a down-sitting; so that being got drunk, and not being able to crawl into their Hammocks, they spend the night fast asleep upon the cold Deck, and contract those sicknesses, that attend an interruption of Perspiration: Only their blood being full of the Spirits of this liquor, they do not lie so long under the Coldness that begins all Fevers, as in Fevers otherwise gotten; for the small parts of the liquor soone● break and divide the viscid parts o● blood, than when it is without them and because of the comminution o● this lentor, the small parts of th● blood are set at liberty, and the hea● felt over all the body: therefore whe● the perspiration is interrupted, an● the blood full of these Spirits, the attrition and comminution will be sooner performed, i. e. the Coldness wil● be sooner at an end, and so the Feverish heat begin a great deal th● sooner, which, according to the constitution and age of the patient, th● time of the year, and way of Cure will make the disease of greater difficulty. Thus having ended the discover of these Diseases, that are peculiar to people, that use our narrow Seas which is the first part of my promise I proceed to give an account of thos● that may be got nearer or under th● line; which it will be sufficient to hint at in short, and leave that to be finished by others, whose peculiar province it may be; and 'tis enough at this time, to have given such necessary views, that may help our curing in the Channel; though, in my opinion, the reasoning will hold somewhere else; but to speak no more of this, I say, that since the Diet and Victualling here and in other places is much after the same way, whatever proceeds from that may reasonably be supposed to hold, since that is only to be thought a cause, which, when it is supposed, the effect necessarily follows: so that the only difference will be in the Air; which we know is more se●ene and warm in those places: and therefore, because of its gravity, (which is always greatest in a serene Air) the blood and all that's carried along in it, are more minutely broken and divided in the lungs, as I have The diseases got nearer, or, etc. demonstrated in another place at great length; and therefore is more apt to separate its small and fine parts, and so to have a greater motion and all the consequences that follow upon that: besides, the Air too being very warm, the parts of the blood are extremely rarified, take up an infinite space, and distend the sides of their channels to a great wideness, compress the neighbouring parts, induce weakness, and even break thro' the smallest and thinnest of their channels, overflow their banks, and produce all the inconveniencies, that might be made out according to the abovementioned principles, if it was proper in this place. But as for those sicknesses that are not peculiar to the Sea, but are also common to the Land, I shall consider them as interloping diseases in the second part of this Treatise; where I am to lay down the Indications for, and Method of Cure: but before I leave this part, I shall give a short Why I have neglected the common stories of Poison, etc. Why Poison. account why, in this explication, I have not used the accustomed story of Poison, the Chemical Principles, and of Acid and Alkali; and then proceed to the observations themselves, which make up the second Part. And first, as to that poison, which some assert to be in the spirits, fit to produce these Fevers, 'tis altogether unexplained by its Patrons, and is very unintelligible as yet; neither is it allowable for us to run strait to the animal spirits for the solution of every Phenomenon, and to neglect the blood itself, of which they are made, and which must be always supposed in demonstrating their nature; and truly there can be nothing found in the most malignant Fevers, that does really distinguish them from any other continued Fever, for the whole difference that can be alleged, is ad majus & minus, and I doubt not but that they may be naturally accounted for, by a greater or lesser quantity of this lentor, it's greater or lesser cohesion, and its different solution. 'Tis better then to give laws to that boundless and unaccountable poison, so much spoken of by some Authors, though seldom more than by the name, without so much as its counterpoison for a Cure, which would been very necessary, considering how great differences there are betwixt poisons themselves. But what seems the strangest and most surprising to me is, that if in a Family of ten or a dozen people, there is one whom we should determine to have the best blood, to be of the most athletic and robust habit of body, before the invasion of this Malignant Fever; yet this one shall catch it the soon, and run the greatest Risque in his Life; while the more sickly, aged, etc. shall never feel it, or if he does, recover without any great care or pains. But, in short, those Fevers that are commonly reckoned malignant, are not really different from the containing Fevers; and that they have their beginning from the same lentor that causes other Fevers, may be evident from this; that the most of those malignant Fevers succeed these very Fevers, both quotidian and tertian, in which there are greater quantities of heat and humidity, that dissolve this lentor; though they come not so frequently after quartans, in which the viscidity is greater, and the warm parts more confined: so a single intermitting Fever easily degenerates into two intermitting Fevers, coming in the same time that the former did; they into two containing Fevers per subintrantiam, and they into one, which is quickly called malignant. And since all these changes are only certain degrees of this lentor, as 'tis more or less tenacious, and sticking to the vessels; 'tis evident, that no more can be said, but that the last of all these Fevers suceeeding in that order, or the formidable malignant Fever, is of the very same stock with the rest: and since they proceed gradually, from the smaller to the greater degrees of this lentor, this can only be said to have its time in a greater degree of the lentor, as I intimated before. Why the Chemical Principles. As for the Chemical principles, they are so far from being simple, and having the requisite properties of principles, as one of the learnedst Chemists has demonstrated, that 'tis strange any man should advise us to assume propositions so unknown, in order to the explaining of Sciences, that have so useful and necessary a practice; they think indeed, if they can tell us a story of the dissolution of some bodies, and give but a gross guess at the strength of their different menstrua, they may very well undertake the explication of all the phenomena in nature, by their different solutions and coagulations, before they have found out their universal dissolvent, which might prove of very great use: but they must commit infinite mistakes even in this, since they are entirely ignorant of those powers, that give fluxility, solidity, motion and rest to any Body, though their fermentations, solutions and coagulations depend upon them, as their frequent disappointments in their repeated practices must convince them, if the impudence, as well as ignorance, of the common Chemists were not incorrigible: and we shall find as little truth or solidity in their way of arguing concerning the strength of their Menstrua, if we pursue their ordinary way of reasoning; so little do they know of their own famed and beloved Menstrua. For when they assert that such a Menstruum is corrosive, and produces such effects by this power, 'tis evident, that corrosiveness being the productive cause of those effects, then by adding somewhat else that is corrosive, it should produce them better; whereas the contrary is so well known, that I should not allege any proof or instance, if I were not convinced they will deny what they daily see. Let us then take Aqua fortis, which, they say, is able to corrode Silver, and dissolve it into the most minute atoms, by its corroding power it has from the Vitriol and Allom, of which it is made; then, by adding another thing to the composition, that is equally sharp and corrosive, if not more, the Menstruum should in all reason act the more powerfully; and therefore by adding Sal Armoniac, which is a great deal more corrosive than Allom or Vitriol, it should still corrode the Silver more, which is so far from being true, that it is not able to make the least impression upon it, unless the plate be extremely thin, and red hot, and not much then. And that Nitre and Sulphur, which is so much inflamed in the blood, when we have a Fever; mixed together and burnt, make up the Sal prunellae, so much used in curing Inflammations and Fevers; but of this more hereafter: and I shall only add, that if the Chemical principles were allowed to have half the certainty their Authors pretend to, yet they never made them of use enough to us, since they were never able to give such laws, by which we may have any certainty of the degrees and application of Motion in their fermentation and Menstrua: and since it is motion in its different velocities, contacts and occurrencies, with other bodies in a different state, and in their several parts, that constitutes all the variety in the known world; our work should be to inquire into that, and so we should be better able to judge firmly of things, though we must not debar ourselves of any help, that may assist us in this disquisition. And truly, when a Chemist stumbles upon two or more liquors, that make a curious colour when mixed, he can say just as much of it, as of a white, red, or yellow Ribbon and no more; he can, perhaps, tell you how he made his Liquors, but how by their combination they came to give this colour, he can give no better account than the Dyer of his Ribbons; so that while we advance no further, we are like to make a wonderful progress in the knowledge of things. Now because the Chemists tell us, that a Fever is nothing but too great a quantity of sulphur in the blood, or that too much exalted; let's inquire into its power of doing this and producing that effect. And that we may proceed with more order and exactness, let us suppose this Rule, which is admitted by all the Philosophers, as most agreeable to the dictates of nature; namely, If any thing be supposed as a cause, and the effect always follows without the help of any thing else; we may, without doubting, assert and believe, that to be the productive cause of this effect: and on the contrary, if the pretended cause be there, and the effect follows not upon it; or if that which is said to be the effect, be present without the cause, than that cause never produces that effect. And therefore since adding of sulphureous Medicines to the blood, will not only heighten the power of the sulphur in the blood, but produce more; 'tis plain that upon that addition we must always have a Fever; yet after the drinking salt and sulphureous Bath▪ waters, which are intimately mixed with the blood, and disposed over all the body, we see no such feverish fits produced. Yea in a Suppression of Urine in the Stone, the sharp and pungent ammoniacal salts of the Urine, should infect the mass of the blood, and produce those feverish effects, which nevertheless are never observed to happen. Besides, we know that we can pour a drachm or two of Oil of Sulphur immediately into the blood of a live Dog by his blood vessels; and after the vessel, into which it is injected, is bound up with a moan or two, and the Dog set at liberty; he is so free and safe from any Fever, that he skips about full of health, and eats up whatever comes in his way for his purpose: and therefore if the blood, when altered with so great a quantity of Salt and Oil of Sulphur, is not in the least feverish; we must acknowledge that an alteration made in the blood by saline and sulphureous juices and spirits, is not the productive cause of a Fever. Why Acid and Alkali. And lastly, to discredit the principle of Acid and Alkali, it would be sufficient to observe, that they who set up for it have not let us know what it is, when they tell us, that an Acid is that which can ferment with an Alkali; and we know, that some Medicines both simple and compounded, ferment with such as are declared Acids, and then with others that are determined to be Alkalies; and it might seem very needless to allege their ridiculous evasion, but that they'll mumble it over at the reading of the objection; and 'tis this, that that Medicine contains some Acid and some Alkali in its parts, by which, in these two respects, it may ferment with both; and so by this settlement they make neither Acid nor Alkali, because the bodies are mixed, and all mixed bodies partake and share of all the principles, whatever they be, according to the Philosophers, and are said to be of this or that nature, Acid or Alkali, which ever predominates, and bears the greatest share in the composition; and if they be supposed equal, our noble principles must scuffle for the Mastery. And even though this were partly allowed, we might sufficiently disprove this Hypothesis, by considering any one disease, where we may find a vast number of not only antecedent causes, but other symptoms enumerated by Medicinal Writers, that can never be accounted for, either by an Acid or Alkali. Yea so much are its Patrons in the dark about their principle, that we find them daily betrayed into the greatest absurdities. For instance, its great stickler Dr. Blankard, who is followed by all the rest, has expressly declared, in a whole system of practice he composed according to those principles, that all Diseases proceed from the faultiness of the Acid only, which is the most ridiculous thing can be said in a few words: for supposing, that Acids and Alkalies are the true Ingredients or Components of bodies, and that they concur as principles in their action, and bear contre-parts in this action; then, because the influence of either upon the other, may be augmented, diminished or lost, and this is to be faulty or vicious; therefore 'tis evident, that either of 'em may have its defects, and consequently that the blame should not be entirely laid upon one. I hope, by this time, no reasonable person will censure me, for not speaking a language, which neither I nor its Admirers can understand, when I declare my thoughts about our Sea-sicknesses; which I have endeavoured to dispatch with all the shortness, plainness, and accuracy, I am capable of. The End of the First Part. The Second Part. CONTAINING Some Historical Observations OF THE Diseases in the FLEET During the last Summer. With the Method that was observed in their Cure. PART II. Historical Observations of the Sicknesses of the Fleet the Last Year, IF, in relating our Observations, I should oblige myself to give but the names of those I have visited, since my concern in the Fleet, they would make up a Book as large as these observations ought to be: and truly, considering the uncertainty of the Event, either thro' the negligence of some Surgeons in pursuing directions, or sometimes the same Medicines not being given according to order; it would prove of no use to any body to be informed of such a practice; and therefore I shall confine myself to such Observations, I made on board the same Ship, I was in my self, or in the Hospital, by the help of Mr. M'kie, and Mr. Connel, two careful and ingenious Surgeons on board these Ships. Observation I. Observe. I. Isaac Pett was taken ill, on board his Majesty's Ship the Elizabeth, with a heaviness in his head, pain in his bones and thorax, want of appetite, and a sudden weakness; his Pulse was depressed, and slower by 8 or 10 strokes in a minute; about 30 hours after, his Pulse was more free and quick, he had a great drought, and his tongue was very rough. Hints for Curing Fevers. In the Cure of Fevers, we see, that those people, that are left to themselves, and take no Medicines, shake off their Fever by Sweeting, Looseness, a Hemorrhagy, Diabetes, etc. which gave the first intimation to practitioners to provoke Sweat (some with internal Medicines, others in Baths, and the Irish of old by lapping themselves up in Blankets, throughly wet in cold water) to give Clysters (for farther their Hellebor, Aloes and Scammony would not allow them to go) to open a Vein or an Artery with Lancets, or by Cupping with Glasses or Horns (which some use to this day) to give Medicines that provoke Urine, etc. But even all these have been disproven in part, in some one place of the world or another; by observing, viz. in Bleeding, that, because it is more frequently used in France and Spain than in Italy, they conclude, that if Bleeding contributed notably to promote the Cure of Fevers; then, where that is practised, more would recover, than where it is neglected; and consequently, that if they did recover their Patients in Italy with as great success as in France or Spain, Bleeding may be reckoned indifferent: And in Turkey, where they cure their violent containing Fevers (as Physicians call them) with Abstinence and Sherbett, they condemn us for our frequent use of Diaphoreticks and Sudorificks; and we return the charge upon them, without any further consideration. The reason of unsuccessful practice. But, which is yet worse, men are apt to give up their reason, to such a degree, that they obstinately retain that sort of practice, in which they were bred, where ever they come, and will stiffly and positively maintain that to be the only safe method, and all others fatal and pernicious. But those Countries too, that are settled to one sort of practice, so soon as by some alteration in the Season, (perhaps to the better) and other circumstances of Curing, they find their way not to answer, and to be more uncertain (if any thing can be more so than a set practice); then the Disease is malignant, quite new, mankind changed, etc. which would make people believe, that, whatever certainty there may be in Medicine, yet there is little or none in the cure of Fevers. But besides all these mistakes, there is still another more considerable one, of which very many are guilty; and that is, because we see, that all these different ways of practice, are and have been successful in different Ages and Countries; therefore we may use them promiscuously, and all at once; whereas we should also consider the conveniencies for putting them in practice, and the way how we expect they are to produce their effects; and, because in the abovemention▪ d methods, the way of performing the one is quite opposite to the other, we shall seldom, if ever, succeed by doing all at once; and we are to bear with, any method already begun, and endeavour to make the best of it, even though it is not the most genuine, natural, and convenient; and must never venture upon any other in acute diseases, of which we speak, if it has been continued for some time. But to return to our subject; if we What our thoughts are about the former intimations. reflect upon the Theory demonstrated in the first part of this, 'twill be evident, that because this disease proceeds always, with us at least, from an interruption of perspiration, and because the mass of blood is corrupted and vitiated, by the quantity of the steams thus detained, that the genuine and natural way of curing this, is by evacuation, either according to the quantity of the detained moles; or at least in such a proportion, as may set the parts of the blood at greater liberty; and so, because the different secretions depend upon the different degrees of the blood's velocity, when the blood acquires a velocity, like that which is natural, it will also have natural secretions, and in this manner be reduced to its natural Contact and Cohesion, i. e. it will be propelled in its ordinary and natural way, and the Patient will recover his health; since health is nothing else but the most natural circulation of the blood. Now since Evacuation thus performed answers our Designs in Curing Fevers, both by lessening the quantity and altering the mass, 'tis certain, that all the consequences drawn from the former intimations are just, and may be put in practice upon reasonable occasions. The next question may be, which of all the mentioned ways may be the most natural and convenient for a general Practice: and since Blooding, Sweeting, and Purging, are most commonly received among us, I shall inquire which of these we may most generally depend upon. What of Bleeding, Sweeting and Purging. And first, since both they that allow of Sweeting, and they who recommend Purging for the most general Practice, affirm that Blooding is agreeable for both their designs, there is no occasion left for disputing about the Necessity or Usefulness of that Operation, if the necessary cautions be observed with regard to the quantity of blood that ought to be taken away, so that the controversy lies entirely betwixt Sweeting and Purging, which I shall endeavour to determine with all the impartiality imaginable, and that by enumerating the advantages and inconveniencies of both. And first, because the secretion by the pores, is double of all the other secretions in the rest of the body; 'tis plain, where this secretion can be performed, that there may be a greater quantity separated from the blood, in a certain time, than may be by all the other ways together in the same space of time; so that for that reason it may seem the most convenient and agreeable; yet since it must be excited by Medicines, that supply the blood with spirits, and consequently unlock the spirits of the blood, that are confined by its viscidity; if those Medicines be given to sick people, that are young, have an abundance of blood, and that very rich, 'tis plain that they must so break and divide the parts of the blood, and excite such a velocity, by which few or no secretions of any sort are made, as we see but too often in our daily practice; and therefore this practice can only agree with those that are older, and have not so rich blood. I need not give my judgement about the other two ways of provoking Sweat, since they are not in use with us; yet I think it will not be far from the purpose, to remember you of a story Dr. Willis tells us, in his Book of Fevers, of a young woman that lay ill, and was his Patient, and for whom he had prescribed a great many Medicines, that might judge her Fever by Sweeting, but all to no purpose; and at last, I think, he gave her two Drachms of the Spirit of Hartshorn, but nothing like Sweeting appeared: on the contrary, her Pulse was higher, she was very hot and delirious; and among the rest of her idle talk, being doubtless incited by an extraordinary drought, she desired to go a swimming, and up she got for her Journey; but was kept in, till her friends resolving to humour her, concluded to carry her to the water; and accordingly, they not living far from the River, carried her down (whether with the Doctor's consent I remember not) and when they had secured her from sinking, or going too far out of their reach, at length threw her into the water; and, after she was brought out again, was put to bed, where she sweat off her Fever. Some such like cases happen very often to our Sailors, who, in the time they are delirious or have Calentures (this word our Surgeons use for violent Fevers, yet 'tis only a general word in Spain for a Fever) when lying in their Hammocks in a calm Summer's day, they see the Sea thro' the Gun-Ports very plain and smooth, and imagining it to be a green Meadow, get up a walking, and fall into the Sea, if they are not stopped in their way; but if they get at last into the Sea, and are taken up and laid into their Hammocks, they sweat very plentifully, and shake off their Fever. I do not take notice of these instances, with a design to persuade people to such a practice, while we can perform the Cure a great deal better; but only to be an example in practice for the proposition I have established in a Theory of the velocity of the blood somewhere else, and named just now. And I think that proposition is very well confirmed by these instances: since we see, that this rapid motion of the blood in this dilirious and mad state is checked by the coldness of the water; and being thus checked sends out abundance of its parts by sweeting, as I alleged. Upon the other hand, if purging Medicines can evacuate as much out of the blood, as the moles that's detained amounts to, without heightening, or at least not considerably, the motion of the blood; then that will be a more certain practice, and no less reasonable than the other. Now, I could make it plain, by a great many experiments, that the detained steams, that produce these symptoms, we find in Fevers, do not exceed three or four lib. and since 'tis agreeable with our daily observation, that we can give Medicines that evacuate by Stool, a greater quantity without heating the body: Therefore 'tis very evident that the administering of Medicines that evacuate by Stool, will be a more certain and safe way of curing Fevers. But whatever may be said on this subject, I admire how that practice can be thought agreeable at Sea, where there is so piercing and sharp an Air for, at least, eight months of the year, that none that's overheated by any violent exercise, would think it convenient to go into, and far less to take a sweeting Medicine in it. This matter then being clear, I proceed to the way of curing our Patient; and because bleeding not only brings down the moles to a natural quantity, but sets at liberty the spirits thus huddled up; and his Pulse beating but about ten strokes less than naturally, I ordered twelve ounces of blood to be taken away, and prescribed him six grains of Tartarum Emeticum next morning; that there might be no conveyance of any thing from the stomach, that might confirm the cohesion of the stagnating parts, but might even break and divide those that were already in a stagnating condition; for the reasons to be mentioned hereafter. Having thus been let blood in one day about ten a clock in the morning, and next day his Vomit working very well; about four a clock in the afternoon of that next day, his Pulse was at least ten or twelve strokes higher than naturally, and therefore he took a dose of the following Powder, to restrain that growing motion about the evening. ℞ ocul. canc. pptʒ iij. sal. prunel. ℥ ss. crem. Tart. ʒ j M. ac Divid▪ in IX part▪ ●eq▪ Capiat unam ter in die. All the while he drunk as much Barley water, sharpened with Vinegar, as he pleased, in pursuance of this design; and after three days when his Powders were done, I prescribed him that which follows to be taken next morning. ℞ Pulver. Cornach. ʒ ss Tart. vitriolat. gr. v. M. ac Ca●piat cum debito regimine. It purged him some eight or ten times very gently; he slept very well that night, and got rid of his Fever: but that he might recover his strength the better, he eat nothing for three days but Burgoo, Water-gruel, and the like, and drunk six ounces of the Deco●tum amarum alterans every morning for that time; all which he did with the desired success. Observation II. Observe. 2. Shelborow Roydon, in the same Ship, a Man of about thirty years of age, and of such a constitution that has a Pulse of sixty strokes, or thereabouts, in a minute, was taken ill with a pain in his head, a want of appetite, a sudden weakness, a costiveness, a depressed Pulse, which grew more frequent the second day, and then he was very hot, restless, and his tongue dry. I ordered him to be let blood, for the reasons I intimated before; and because he had not gone to Stool for two or three days, I desired he might have a Clyster in the evening, that might purge him once or twice, and next morning six grains of Tartarum Emeticum, with which he vomited five times and purged twice; he was very easy after his vomiting, his pains began to go off▪ and his Pulse to beat a great deal quicker; on the third morning he took the first dose of the following Powder. ℞ ocul. cancr. ppt. vel pulver. testar▪ ovor▪ non calcinat. ʒ ij Sal prunell. ʒ jss. Sal Tart. ʒ ss aut ℈ ij. M. ac divid. in IX part. equal. ut capiat unam ter in die. Next morning after the taking all the doses of this Powder, he was purged with that which follows. ℞ Pulver. radic. Jalapp. ʒ ss. Resin. Jalap. gr. iij. Crem. Tart. ℈ i. M. ac capiat hora septima matutina. During the whole progress of his sickness I allowed him the Barley Decoction acidulated, as before: and while he took the Powders, he had one or two Stools a day; and after his Purging Powder the Fever was perfectly vanquished: but, that he might recover his strength the sooner, I ordered him twenty drops of Elixir Proprietatis in Barleywater for three or four days; and to begin to take them a day or two after his Fever was perfectly over. Observation III. Observ. 3. Walter Griffin, a man of five and twenty or six and twenty years, and of a bilious Constitution, was taken on the fifteenth of June last with a Shivering and Coldness, that lasted ten hours, his pulse was depressed, and he was troubled with pains over all his body: the same evening he began to be hot; his pulse beat 90 times in a minute, and he had an insatiable drought; about the time his Pulse began to rise, and his heat to increase, he had a very large sweeting, but without any benefit. He was let xii ounces of blood that morning; on the 16th he took iv grains of the vomiting Tartar, by which he vomited six or seven times, and went thrice to Stool; and was a great deal easier the greatest part of that day; on the 17th he begun to take a dose of the Testaceous Powders I prescribed, and continued till he had taken nine doses: but on the 18th his Pulse was very high, and beat more than a hundred in one minute, and he inclined to be delirious. And therefore I ordered him to be let sixteen ounces of blood more, and to continue the use of the Powders: only he took in the evening two grains of Camphire in that Dose, and had a very good night; on the 19th he took his Powder without any addition, and the following Purgative on the 20th. ℞ Decoct. Tamarind. amar. purgant. an ℥ iij. Syr. de Rhamno ℥ i. M. This purged him twelve times very easily, and so he got rid of his Fever: I ordered him all the time of his sickness to drink as much of the following ●ec●ction as he pleased; and he drank at least three quarts in some days. ℞ radic. oxylappath. acetoes an ℥ two hoard. mund. M. i. Coq. l. a. in S. q. aq. font. ad lb ij. circa finem addendo passul. Maj. integr. ℥ iij. Colatur. clarae affund. acet. a●errimi q. s. ad gratam aciditatem pro potu ordinario. Now, though by this method our Patients are speedily recovered, and are never, or very little delirious; yet all the Winter, and in the beginning of the Spring, (as I observed in visiting the Fleet at Black-stakes) the coldness lasts four or five days, though not such a coldness as we feel in Agues; and therefore there must be a great deal more circumspection used in Bleeding, sometimes in a lesser, and sometimes, though not so frequently, in a greater quantity; but this must be done with respect to the Patient's constitution and circumstances, provided always, that the powers of the faculties be not lessened; at this time too, 'tis sometimes necessary to repeat the Powders and Purgatives a second time, and sometimes to take the following Powder, when the pains are more obstinate and hard to be removed. ℞ Ocul. cancr. pat ʒ ss. Antimon. diaphoret. sal. Absynth. an. ℈ i. M. ac Divid. in 3 part. aeq. quas consumat partitis vicibus eodem die. Observation IU. Observ. 4. William Richards, on board the Elizabeth, being about 30 years of age, whose natural Pulse strikes 60 in a minute, was taken on the fifth of July last with a shivering, sudden weakness, a want of appetite, and pains in his bones; then he grew hot, restless, had a great drought, and could not sleep. He was let 12 ounces of blood on the 6th, by which his Pulse was sensibly raised while he was a bleeding. he took seven grains of Emetic Tartar, and being well plved with thin Water-gruel, after his Vomit began to work, he vomited five or six times, and went thrice to stool, and was very quiet all that day: I gave him no Paregorick in the evening, as I do in some other cases, because I constantly observe, that all Opiate Medicines heighten the Fever extremely, and make the Patient sooner delirious; and therefore he took nothing else that day: but on the 8th in the morning he began the restaceous Powders, of which I ordered nine doses to be prepared and taken as before. In the latter part of the tenth day he had a great blooding at the Nose, and lost about twenty ounces that way, though we had let him blood and vomited him before; and he had a Stool or two every day while he took his Powders; yet with his blooding his Fever went off. He continued the Barley-decoction sharpened with Vinegar for his ordinary Drink, and took the following Purge on the 14th in the morning. ℞ Decoct. amar. purgant. ℥ iv. Syr. de Rhamn. ʒ ij. aq. Theriacal. ʒ ss. M. This purged him five or six times very gently, and he recovered daily. Note, that his Pulse was very high, and his face of a red and fiery colour before the Hemorrhagie; which we did not very much endeavour to stop, though he bled a Pint. Observation V. Observ. 5▪ About the same time, when we had some very sultry days, John Wheeler, in the same Ship, about 38 years of age, was taken with a coldness, loss of strength, a want of appetite, and a nauseating of his victuals; his Pulse was depressed, and he had a pain in his breast: about 12 or 14 hours after came a violent heat, which made him very restless and dry. I ordered him to be let nine ounces of blood on the 9th of July, and that evening he took a Bolus of the Conserve of Wood-sorrel and Sal Prunellae; next morning six grains of Tartarum Emeticum, which began to work half an hour after he had taken it, and he drunk a large draught of thin Water gruel after every vomiting: he vomited six times, had two Stools, slept four hours after, and was much easier. On the 11th he begun the testaceous Powder, of which he had nine doses for three days, three to be taken every day, all that time he went to stool once a day, and pissed a great deal; on the 14th he took nothing but the Decoction, I had ordered him for his ordinary Drink, and on the 15th he took the following Purge. ℞ Pulu. radic. Jalapp. ʒ ss. resin. Jalapp. gr. iij▪ Crem. Tartar. ℈ i. M. This Purgative gave him eight Stools, and had done working by 12 a clock, after which he found himself a great deal better, his drought abating, and his Pulse more natural, he called for victuals, and eat a little Water-gruel; and that evening he lost six or seven ounces of blood at his Nose, and recovered daily. Observation VI. I observe. 6. one John Wallin on board the Hospital Ship, who was put on board her that day; he seemed to have been a man of a very good habit of body; but his Blood running about like Lightning; his Pulse beat 132 in a minute, he was very dry and delirious: he took that night Conserve Lujul. ʒss. Sal. prunell. ℈ i. in a Bolus with v. grains of Camphire. I ordered a large blistering Plaster to be laid to the Nape of his Neck, and one behind each Ear; they rose very well, and were removed next morning, and the parts dressed with the Empl. de Melil. simple. and so he was freed from his Delirium: he rested indifferently well that night, and next day took this Powder. ℞ Occul. cancr. ppt. ʒ j Sal. prunel. ℈ ij. Pulver. serpentar. virginian. gr. xv. M. ac divid. in vi p. ae. ac Capiat unam ter in die. Next day in the afternoon, a Clyster was injected, which purge▪ d him thrice▪ and made him very easy and sensible; he drunk what he would of the following Decoction, and recovered on board. ℞ Radio. Oxylapat. ℥ ij. aoetoes. ʒ i Scorzoner. ʒ ss. Hord. mundat. M. i. Coq. in s. q. aq. font. ad Hordei crepituram, circa finem addendo Passul. Maj. integr. ℥ iij. Colaturae, per subsidentiam, clarificatae, add aceti acerrimi q. s. ad gratam aciditatem. These, by the buy, are the fatal, but almost perpetual, consequences of a diaphoretical practice in Fevers; especially on young people, in a hot season of the year, or a warm climate: for when they are put into a Sweat, they catch cold in the end, relapse, take new doses of Diascordium, and Venice Treacle, which (especially when they are not allowed to drink liberally) dissipate and destroy the spirits and serum of the blood, that it cannot be kept fluxil, but by the hot parts of those Medicines, which break down the almost solid blood, and supply animal spirits to the last drop of blood, and so die unexpectedly as in Hectic Fevers; only their Fate is harder, and their Exit not so deliberate, for they are kept mad and delirious all the while, whereas the other die in their senses. Observation VII. Observ. 7. At the same time I saw another who was put on board there, on the 16th day of his Fever; his Pulse did not beat above 37 strokes in a minute, he could not speak, but stared, and made signs for drink. That night he had had three such Plasters, as I mentioned in the former case, applied to his Neck and behind his Ears. He took now and then two or three spoonfuls of a Julep made of ℥ vi. of Barley▪ decoction, ℥ ss of a Cordial Tincture, and ℥ i of Syrup of Clove-Gillo-flowers. This Cordial Tincture Mr. M▪ kie told me, he had made of the rad. serpentor. virginian. Cochinel. and Spirit of Wine; and, when by the use of these Medicines he had recovered his senses, he began to use this Powder. ℞ anʒl pulver. radic. serpentar. virginian. ʒss. M. ac Divid. in vi. p. ae. Capiat unam bis in die. He recovered apace while in the Ship; but she being ordered for England, our Patient in a day or two was sent ashore at Portsmouth, to the care of Dr. Smith, and my most ingenious Friend Mr. Heart. 'Twould be an easy task to produce many other instances of this kind, but these which are faithfully related, may suffice to convince us, that this Method is surer than the Diaphoretical Practice. And therefore I shall proceed, first to give an account of our other constant sicknesses, and then of our interloping distempers. Observation VIII. Observ. 8. Mr. Nobs, Purser to the Elizabeth, was taken after Dinner with a coldness and trembling, which lasted six hours; his Pulse was all the while extremely depressed, and beat not above 40 strokes in a minute; then came the warmth, which first begun about the trunk of his body, and was afterwards diffused over all. As it increased, he grew very restless, and his Pulse became very quick and strong; till at last he began to sweat, and his heat abated proportionably as the sweeting increased. He was well for the rest of that day and all the next, but was troubled with a looseness; and the third day he was taken ill again, and suffered over all the former symptoms. 'Tis very plain from what I said in The General Cure. the first part of this Book, that that viscid and slimy Lentor, which first stagnates in the capillary Arteries, and then in these larger Vessels, must be broken and divided, that it may be made a substance capable of being carried round the body without stopping or stagnating. And because this Lentor has its supply from the primae viae, the Liver or other viscera that are said to separate liquors, by some or all of these liquors being viscid; we must endeavour to cut off and intercept that supply, and to break and render fluxil the liquors that are thus tough and viscid. Now from which of all these this lentor proceeds and is supplied, is not always very evident, though sometimes it may happen to be so. Let us first suppose then, that this supply comes wholly from the primae viae; and upon this supposition we may conclude, that those things which empty the stomach and intestines of those impurities will do the business effectually. And because a Vomit performs that work with the greatest certainty, than a Vomit would be all that's requisite to complete that Cure, and the more gentle it is, 'twould be more for the ease of the Patient and satisfaction of the Physician. But I have proved before, that the other viscera may discharge some of their vitiated liquors into the blood, which not being changed into the perfect nature of the blood, they stagnate in the Capillary Arteries in that quantity and way, that are fit to produce the foregoing Phaenomena. And they being in such circumstances, as make them fit to affect the blood, 'tis evident that those faulty and vicious humours must be broken and divided, that they may be fitted to circulate with the blood without stagnating; and that the blood, which is thus affected, must be reduced to a state of greater fluxility. If they had their viscidity from the primae viae, that work could be done very easily; but 'tis certain that the blood may be infinitely changed, without any fault in these first passages; and the viscera, that are now affected, must have their juices altered, or else they will still be in a condition to give a continual supply, supposing the blood to be otherwise in a good condition. Now the only way that liquors, which stagnate in their channels, can be propelled and made fluxil is, by some power that may compress, break and divide the liquors thus stagnating; and because this breaking and dividing must be performed by somewhat, that contracts or violently compresses the obstructed parts, and breaks the stagnating juices; and this can only be performed by the contraction of the muscles, and their compressing the viscera, that are near them; therefore the moderate exercise of those Muscles will be very agreeable: but in our natural or voluntary contractions, they have not that violence, that is necessary to make a sufficient compression fit to break and divide this lentor. And since there are a great many Muscles, that are obstructed, and could have sufficiently broken the stagnating liquors in the neighbouring viscera, that cannot be moved and contracted by the power of our Will; some way must be contrived to make such a violent contraction of those Muscles especially, that are able to compress the neighbouring viscera; and if we examine all the consequences that attend the giving of any Medicine, we shall find none that exercises more Muscles, and that with greater violence than vomiting; for not only the Muscles of the Thorax and Abdomen are contracted with a prodigious force, and are able, by their contraction, to compress the Lungs, Stomach, Liver, Spleen, or any thing that may be contained in them, and in all their capacity, but even the whole Muscles of the Body are affected; and therefore 'tis vomiting only that can produce the required effect. Thus we have demonstrated the way of cutting off the supply of this lentor, that is made by the primae viae and the viscera, that are said to contain liquors; so that if there were not such a season of the year, in which the viscidity of the blood is much promoted and augmented, the blood extremely weakened and dispirited with repeated paroxysms or otherwise, this disease might be conquered by these very means. But when the Air is foggy, moist and cold, and the blood weak, we must have respect to that, if we will cure our Patient; and such things must be given, that may make the blood richer and maintain its fluxility. We have an infinite number of Medicines, that are said to produce such effects; but the long, tedious and unsuccessful practice of former ages convinces us of the contrary. We heard indeed a great deal of specific Medicines of opposite powers; but never saw any thing, that deserved that name before the Indian B●rk. We had diaphoretical and warming Medicines, that broke and divided the blood, and made it more fluxil for some time, but were so far from being able to keep it so, that on the contrary having destroyed the native spirits and serum of the blood, they rendered it more apt to stagnate and to be obstructed. The Indian Bark then, or Jesuits Powder, being by daily experience that Specific we desired, we ought not to neglect it, though it was not found in a Matras. But not to insist upon experience in a thing, where we have so many reasonable proofs, though that, of its self, is a sufficient proof: for we see how the sinking and languishing Pulse is raised by the taking of it, and that without any burning and extraordinary warmth; i. e. we find it has such a power as is able to introduce a freer motion, which cannot be done but by freeing the confined spirits, that they may be separated in due time and proper place. And since this ●●●●ing the spirits at liberty can only be performed by breaking the viscid blood, and this attrition is the thing required; therefore the Jesuits Powder, Quinquina, etc. answers our desire, and gives us what we require. Now, though 'tis plain that the Jesuits Powder produces this effect, it is not the Jesuits Powder, as such, or its name alone, that is able to charm and lull asleep this intermitting Fever; but since we see plainly that it can do so, we should give it in a sufficient quantity to produce that effect; and when we give it, to be sure it may be carried into the blood: For if this be not done, 'tis quite as good, if not better, to keep it in the Paper and look upon it, and from that to expect your Cure, than to take it into a foul stomach, full of thick impurities, there to be clogged up in impure matter, and perhaps to be carried out of the body with the excrements, or else to be carried in this condition into the mass of blood to the misfortune of the Patient: or, if neither of these happen, given in the time of a Looseness, to be immediately carried off by Stool, and never reaching the blood to communicate its efficacy and virtue. As to the way how its effect is produced, I know not, nor ever shall, without a revelation from that Being, who knows the determined motion, size of the parts, and the different cohesion of matter, that produce the modified bodies we see; and yet, I think, there may be sufficient certainty to assist us pretty exactly in doing such things, as the support of our infirm nature may require. For, considering the nature of intermitting Fevers, of which we are as certain as of any thing in Physics, and that we have a Medicine, that altars the condition of the blood and makes it more fluxil; and this fluxility being acquired in a certain way, therefore the China China is endued with a like power to that which makes the blood fluxil. This knowledge▪ we have of the Barks efficacy, without the knowledge of its constituent parts is so sure, that we can deduce very certain and almost infallible Corollaries from it, and this one for instance; If this Powder be able to break, divide, and make fluxil our viscid blood, then in a state where the blood is faulty thro' its fluxility, richness; and extraordinary motion, this Powder is never to be given; so that in a containing Fever, where the blood is such, the Jesuits Powder must be very noxious; and 'tis very obvious to every man's Observation, that the more the blood is in these circumstances, the consequence is always the more fatal. I cannot omit what that candid Relater of Medicinal cases Dr. Sydenham says, in the 36 p. of of his Letters, as they are printed in the Edition of his book in 1685, at London: At in Peste atque Epidemicis continuis, quae eandem ordine excipient, debellandis, non alios effectus ex ejus usu expectare licet, quam eos, quos hodie in Pleuritide, Peripneumonia, Anguina, ac id genus Febribus inflammatoriis videmus, quibus non tantum non prodest, sed & plane obest. But in curing the Plague and continual epidemics, which will orderly follow these, no other effects are to be expected from it, than these we now find it produces in a Pleurisy, Peripneumonia, Quinsey, and such other inflammatory Fevers, in which case 'tis not only useless, but evidently hurtful. But whatever may be thought of my pretended certainty; 'tis at lest as well grounded as a great many maxims in the hydrostatics, etc. which no Ship-Carpenter or Man of sense doubts of; but on the contrary, finds all his calculations and inferences orderly made, to▪ answer his expectation in his practice. The Chemists at present are engaged in an extraordinary bustle and smoke with their fire and menstrua, to resolve by their Instruments which they do not understand, the constituent parts of this Specific; and at last tell us that 'tis a Rosin, and that its power in curing Agues is lodged in its Rosin, which is as much in plain English as the first question; and we understand just as much, when they tell us of its virtue being in its Rosin, as if they had told us, that it is in the Bark. We know indeed that its tincture, made with any spirituous liquor, is the strongest, and that because 'tis the property of Rosins to be best dissolved in Spirits; 'tis plain that this Bark contains a great deal of Rosin, which is all that can be concluded from this experiment. But to proceed, let us suppose, that all the virtue is extracted in this Rosin, which cannot be pretended (because of a like experiment of its yielding its sanative power in common water) yet we shall still be as much puzzled about the way of this Rosins working, as the working of the Bark in Powder, before it was a Rosin▪ And if they think they have answered the question, by telling us that it produces these effects, as it is a Rosin, than all other Rosins will do the same; and therefore, they may trust to the Rosin of Jalap, or any other they're obliged to by their principles; and we shall have an opportunity to observe the conclusion. The other way, that has been taken, to account for the virtue of the Bark, is by imagining it to be astringent; a power quite destructive of the requisits, we have clearly laid down for curing an Ague; and no less repugnant to common observation, as I shall demonstrate. What has been the foundation of this assertion, I could no where find out so clearly, as in a Discourse written by one of the Members of the Royal Society, I think in the year 1678; where confuting the power of the Bark in curing Agues, he says, that if the Patient be troubled with a looseness while he is taking the Jesuits Powder, it can have no success; therefore, says he, the Bark has its power in a contrary way, and is astringent; then he subsumes for his own purpose, that, because it is astringent▪ it must be very hurtful in a disease that must be cured by evacuation. To pass by at this time, our Author's neglecting to prove that this disease must be cured ●y evacuation▪ which I very much doubt for the reasons intimated before; I have said enough already to evince the weakness of his Observation. 'Tis strange, that one should expect, that any kind of Medicines, which produce not their effect in a minute, but require some hours, at least, to affect the blood; should exert their virtue, when they never come thither; and this being the case of the Jesuits Powder in a Looseness, we may easily conclude, that the Quinquina will not cure an Ague in that case, whether it be astringent or not. By the buy, since I have had occasion to examine this argument against the Barks power of curing Agues, I cannot forbear taking notice of another very good argument this Author brings for the poisonous qualities of the Bark, and that is an experiment from its hindering the fermentation of Yeast and Wort; that, because if a due quantity of the Jesuits Powder be cast into Wort, before the Yeast is added, the Wort never ferments, and therefore this Powder is poisonous. I confess, I know not how to answer an argument which I do not comprehend; but if every thing that hinders the fermentation of Yeast and Wort be poisonous; what must become of us poor Mortals in the poisonous times either of a frosty or very hot season, for the Brewers find their Ale and Beer ferment but very ill in such seasons: and besides, Sugar, Spirit of Hearts▪ horn, etc. poured into Wort in a due quantity hinder its fermentation; yet they were never reckoned among the number of Poisons: But, on the contrary, if I thought the Hypothesis of Acid and Alkali tolerable, I should like the Bark the better for the experiment this Author has helped me to: for in that way, the blood in an Ague is viscid, by the power of the coagulating Acid, which can only be destroyed by a powerful Alkali, such as this experiment proves the Bark to be. Now as for the astringent power asserted, because it is so, and for no reason yet assigned, is very ridiculous: and if it cured Agues as it is astringent, then as strong, or more powerful astringents would have the same effect, which is contrary to any trial or observation can be made: on the contrary, we know 'tis used every day with the best success in Hysterical Fits, and the Suppression of women's Monthly Courses, where no body ever advised so powerful an astringing Medicine, as they would have the Bark to be. 'Tis true, we have seen some ill symptoms appearing after the giving the Powder; but the Question is, whether these symptoms are the Disease's, the Barks, or the physician's; and this I shall endeavour to resolve, by following out Helvetius, a Physician in France, who has lately writ a Book, he dedicates to the French King, and allows a great many of them to be owing to the Powders being given by the Mouth, and contrives a new way of giving it, and that by Clysters. I shall first then inquire, how far his allowance is good, and to be followed, and what's to be thought of his new practice; which, I think, will be very obliging. But before I do this, 'twill be necessary to show, that I have not forgot my Observation; and therefore when I have related one or two more I shall come to those Reflections. And first, because Mr. Nobs was troubled with a Looseness; and that it might not hinder the Operation of the Vomit, I intended to give him for the preceding reasons, the night before I prescribed him the following Bolus to be taken going to bed. ℞ Conserv. Ros. rub. ʒ ss. Sanguine. Dracon. ℈ i. Laudan. Opiate. gr. jss. Syr. de Mecon. Parum ut f. Bolus. Next day, being to have the Fit about two a clock in the afternoon, I ordered him, upon the former design, vi grains of Tartarum Emeticum to be taken about noon; he vomited five times, and drunk not so much after every Vomiting, as I allowed my Patients in Fevers; that the compression by the contraction of the Muscles might be the greater, he went once to Stool, and about the ●nd of the working his coldness began, and lasted only two hours; then succeeded a very sharp heat, which went off sooner than before, by sweeting, which was very plentifully: for I had desired him to bear with the hot Fit, and lie very close, that he might sweat, else I would give him no Medicine till the next Fit; which he did: and being temperate, the blood being now comminuted, and sufficiently fluxil for its motion, I ordered him to begin the Powder I had caused to be made up, into an Electuary, that it might be conveyed into the blood in its healthy state; that it might too, comminute more easily any viscid matter that would be conveyed to the blood by any of its ways of supply; and in that quantity I thought reasonably could destroy the viscidity of one paroxysm, and this he took in as great quantities, as he could easily digest before he took more. ℞. Pulu. Chin. Chin. subtiliss. pulverat ℥ j Conserv. Ros. rub. ℥ ss. Syr. e Chalyb. q. s. ut f. Electuar. Cujus capiat quantitatem Nucis Myristicae majoris, tertia quaque hora, superbibendo Vin. Hisp. Cochl. ij. In the Dose he took before Bedtime, I ordered him i. grain of London Laudanum. He missed of his Fit, and dined at five a clock in the afternoon upon a Chicken, and drunk a Glass or two of red Wine at Dinner. Next morning he began an Infusion I had ready for him to take of, till his blood was strong and should recover its strength, and 'twas this, ℞. Rad. Gentain. ℥ ij. Scorzoner. ℥ i. Serpentar. Virginian. ℥ ss. Summit at Centaur. Min. M. ij. Fl. Chamom. M. i. Cortic. Aurant. ℥ ss. Winter an ʒ ij. M. ae infundant. per Biduum in Vini Xeresens. generosiss. lb ij. Dein capiat Cochl. v. bis in die. By the use of these Medicines he recovered his Health, without the least suspicion of a Relapse. Observation IX. observ. 9 Mr.— Lient, of the—, was taken ill after Dinner with a Coldness, which lasted an hour and a quarter; his Pulse was depressed, and beat about 50 in a minute; for he being of a thin habit of body, his blood very warm, it beats about 80 in that time: he had a pain in his head, than came the heat, which began about the Trunk of the Body, and was sensibly diffused over the rest; it lasted three hours, after which he began to sweat and judged his Fit; it recurred the third day inclusive, and had his cold Fit not above half an hour, but the hot Fit lasted some seven or eight hours before he began to sweat; next day I wa● sent for, and ordered him iij grains of Tartarum Emeticum to be taken an hour and a half at least, before we expected the Fit: he vomited some six or seven times, and went twice to Stool; I ordered him to drink largely between his endeavours to vomit: when the Medicine was almost done working, the Fit began to seize him and the cold Fit lasted little more than a quarter of an hour, and as it was a going off, I ordered him to take the following Powder. ℞. Pulver. Gasconic. ℈ i Laudan. opiate. gr. ss. M. After he had taken it about twelve minutes he fell asleep, and slept almost two hours; but before he was awake he was in an excellent Sweat, so he lay still till the end of the Sweeting, and thereafter begun this Electuary. ℞. Pulver. Quinquin. subtiliss. ℥ i. Conserv. Acetosel. ʒ vi. Syr. e Succ. Citr. q. s. ●t f. Electuar. Molle. Quod capiat ad magnitudinem Avellanae tertia quaque hor a superbibendo Vini rubri Gallici Cochl. ij. vel tria. By the use of this Electuary he missed his Fit; and began next morning to this Infusion, I ordered for the strengthening his blood, ℞. Rad. Gentian. ℥ i. Scorzoner. Helen. ●n ℥ ss. fl. Chamom. M. ij. Summitat. Cent. min. M. i. Baccar. Juniper. ℥ ij. Cort. Aureant. ℥ ss. Tart. alb. crud. ʒ ij, pp●i● so a. affund. Vin. rubelli lb ij. Stint per biduum in Infusione, dein capiat colat●r. clarae Cochl. iv. bis in die. Repetatur Infusio super eadem Medicamenta ad alteram vicem. He continued in the use of these Medicines, and drunk both the Infusions without any thing of a Relapse. All the time I allowed him to eat any kind of meat that was easily digested and drink a glass of Wine or two in a day. Observation X. Obser. 100LS. Since the last two histories are two different cases, and we see required a different way of giving the Cortex, that it might not overheat the last: now, that I may keep up the variety, which is always delightful, though perhaps 'twere necessary to have two or three of one sort, which is too long at this time, and it may be I may have another opportunity for this: I must ask the liberty not only to go into another Ship, but even go back one year to give you an Observation of a poor Man, that was miserably afflicted with an Ague for eighteen months. This was one Mr. Humble in the Grafton, to whom I was called May 1694, at Spithead, by Mr. Leckie, who was then Surgeon to that Ship. He was first taken with a Tertian Ague, for which he was put ashore; and after he had stayed out his time, he came back with it upon him, for he was some Officer or another, and so would not leave the Service; and expecting his Cure aboard, he was taking something all that time, but to no advantage. So, when I was called he had a Quartan, and his cold Fit used to last him some four or five hours, his hot or Fever Fit one hour, or an hour and a half, and then sweat: he was brought very low. I asked him when he expected the next Fit, and he told me to morrow about eight in the morning; for it shifted forward and backward, from Tertian to Quotidian, from Quotidian to Tertian, from a Quartan to a Hemitritaea, and from that to a Quartan again. I ordered him to take iv grains of Emetic Tartar that morning, about 6 a clock; which had just done working as his Fit begun to come upon him; his cold Fit after his Vomit lasted two hours, his hot Fit two hours, and so went off by the Sweeting. I had been speaking to the Surgeon about the giving him the Jesuits Powder; but he told me he had been so often let blood, purged, and taken so much of the Powder ashore and aboard, that he could not take more; and therefore I was resolved to try the Powder, my learned Colleague Dr. Morton recommends in his Book of Fevers. ℞. Pulver. fl. Chamom. ℥ i. Sal. Absynth. Antimon. Diaphoret. an ℥ ss. ac capiat ʒ ss. tertia quaque hora, superbibendo Vini cujusvis generosi Cochl. iij. He took his Powders very orderly, till he had spent that vast quantity, but without the parting of his eighteen months' Companion. He did no more till the next return, but drunk of the following Infusion. ℞. Rad. Gentian. Raphan. Armorac. an ℥ ij. Zedoar. Serpentar. Virginian. an ʒ ij. Summitat. Centaur. min. Card. Benedict. an M. i. ss. fl. Chamom. M. i. Cortic. aurant. ℥ ss. Winteran ʒ ij. Limatur. Mart. ℥ i. Tart. alb. crud. ℥ ss. M. s. a. ac infund. in Vin. Hispan. generosis. lb iij. Stint per hor as vi. in Baln. aren. ac bibat Cochl. v. ter in die. And that morning he expected his Fit, he took the preceding Vomit, which wrought very well, and his cold Fit lasted not above an hour, and his hot an hour and a half, and judged the Fit by Sweeting. Things succeeded so well, I desired he would try the Jesuits Powder once more, and if it had no success, he should be at his choice; he was persuaded, and had it made up in this form. ℞. Pulver. Patrum ℥ iss. Conserv: Ros. rub. ℥ i. Theriac. Andromach. ʒ ij. Extract. Gentian. ʒ i. Sal Absynth. ℈ ij. Syr. e Chal. q. s. ut f. Elect. molle: cujus capiat quantitatem Nucis Moschatae maj. tertia quaque hora, superbib. Vin. Canarin. coach. iv. And if he scaped his Fit, to continue with the former Tincture till he recovered his strength; but the next day, after I left that Ship, I was taken with a violent containing Fever, which lasted five days with the practice before; and e'er I was fit to go abroad, our Fleet was divided, and that Ship went to the straits in company of the rest, that have made England the Admiration of all Europe, under the command of the Right Honourable Admiral Russel, who must needs make a great figure in the History of after-ages. I enquired, though, of one of the Surgeon's Mates, after this Humble, who, he tells me, is now in good health; and recovered, he thinks, before he left the English Air. And thus having ended the Observations, I trouble you with, of Agues, I proceed to the Considerations about Helveti●s's Bark-Clyster Practice. Places marked from this Author's Book, p. 4. The Reasons, he saith, in the 4th page, made him look out for another way of giving the Bark than by the Mouth, are the complaints some make, of an unsupportable weight and a violent pain in their Stomach: others finding their Thorax changed very much, from what it uses to be in a natural state, and such an extraordinary heat in their Breast as it were dried up: and lastly, because there's an abundance of people, that make resolutions every day never to take it more, though they have been cured in this way. Passing the known inconveniencies page 5 of the Quinquina, and the general complaint sick people make that way; besides the particular grievances page 6 of its disagreeable and ill taste, its bitterness, which we can never remove from this Medicine, in whatever way give it, provided we take it in at our Mouth; and 'tis still the more incommodious, that, notwithstanding the aversion sick people declare against it at first taking, yet must needs renew this troublesome and nauseous impression, by taking it a great many times a day, for six weeks at least: not accounting upon our necessity to begin its use a second time upon the occasion of a Relapse. And therefore 'twas, that thinking upon the train of disagreeable circumstances, that attend this Remedy, I have discovered this more convenient way of giving it, whereby we may enjoy all its good effects, and evite all that's troublesome in it. And this way is no other than by giving it in Clysters. page 7 Therefore he says, we must take an ounce of the best Quinquina in Powder, and mix it well, without any addition, with a Quart of milk-warm Water. In Intermitting Fevers this Clyster must be given in the end of the paroxysm, and must be repeated thrice every day, till the Patient is perfectly cured, which is not long ●'re 'tis done; for 'tis very extraordinary to see another Fit, very rarely two, and I, almost never, see a third. After he is page 8 cured, we must be sure to take the like Clysters for twelve days more, one in the morning and another in the evening for the first six days; and one in the evening only for the last six. And because 'tis very necessary, in page 9 this practice, to keep the Clysters as long as is possible; and there be some people that can keep them but a very little time, we must add for those, half an ounce of the Syrup of White Poppies to the Powder of Quinquina, which will mightily conduce to the keeping the Remedy without any trouble. We must observe, that those that page 12 can keep it but a little time, must continue its use the longer, to do that by a greater number that cannot be done by one, and so to promote the Cure. This must not only be understood of those, that take the whole Dose, but of those too, that take but a part. There's nothing amongst all the page 15 symptoms that attend Fevers, that page 16 can forbid the use of this Remedy, but the Swelling of the Belly. So there's no more to be observed, but that as there are some people that cannot keep this Clyster; so there are others that give no further account of it, and they find themselves swollen as 'twere, and puffed up; and therefore 'twill be their best way to take a purging Clyster once in two days, which will help them to disburden it: and 'tis not beside the purpose to take notice at this time, that those Clysters not having a purgative faculty, and not being given for that end, the sick people need not be disquieted or concerned, if they see not an Evacuation of Bile and other Humours; as in our ordinary Clysters. page 31 'Tis evident then, says he, that the sick person shall be no more offended with its bitterness, since he's to take it no more by the Mouth; besides he can find that weight in his Stomach no longer, because the thing that produced that effect, is no more there. page 32 But to get over the inconvenience of warming the Patient he takes a wonderful way; A l'egard, says he, de la Chaleur, il est certain, que les parties grossieres du Quinquina, qui en sont la seule Cause, ne sejournant plus dans le corps qu' autant de temps qu' il en faut a la Chaleur naturelle pour le digerer & en tirer ce qu' il a de volatile & the salutaire, le marc qui en rest etant rejette aussi-tot, sans etre oblige passer par toutes les voies qu' il parcourt quand il est pris par la bouche, le corps ne peut que profiter de tout ce qu' il y a ●aisse d'utile, sans jamais etre incommode de tout ce qu' il pourroit avoir de peasant, d'embarassant & the nuisible, qui est ce qui cause le Chaleur doubt on se plaint tant. Touching this heat, says he, 'tis certain that the gross parts of the Powder, which are its cause, staying no longer in the body than is necessary for the natural heat to digest it, and to extract its parts that are volatile and wholesome; and the Mash that remains, being cast out of the body, without being obliged to pass all those ways it goes alongst, when taken in by the Mouth: the body cannot but reap a vast advantage from all the useful parts that are left, without being, in the least, hurt by any thing of it that's heavy, embarrassing and injurious, which are the things, that make all those heats they complain of. He adds in the next paragraph, that the people that have the Piles, are the only to whom he gives not these Powder-Clysters; either not in so great a quantity, because the rough Powder, rubbing up the vessels in the passing, is apt to provoke the Piles, or else he gives a strong decoction of it, which does almost as well, and entirely prevents this inconvenience, page 39 Then, he rallies all his scattered proofs he had brought for the Cures being more certain by taking the Powder-Clysters, than in any way it can be taken by the Mouth: for first, it is given in a greater quantity than it can be by the Mouth; secondly, 'tis always given in substance, and so has the greater force: and thirdly, the subtle parts, which only act upon the ferment of the Fever, and destroy its ebullition, can insinuate themselves easier into the mass of blood by the orifices of these vessels, that open into the Intestins: and lastly, experience puts this more ready and sure way of curing beyond dispute. Thus having picked out almost all this Author says, either to the disadvantage of the Q●inquina's being taken in at the mouth; the benefit of his own way of giving it, and the consequences of that: I must confess the World is obliged to any one that endeavours to better any Science by useful and well established Theories, or Intimations to perfect its Practice, by discovering such instruments and helps, that can make it more sure: yet, I think, a man that communicates any thing, may claim and arrogate a little too much to himself; except the practice or opinion he advances be, without controversy, better than those that were established and thought of before: and therefore to speak my mind freely, without a Navy physician's declaring war against a French Doctor, I think that this Trial may stand us in very good stead, upon the pinch of saving the life of one, who rather chooses to die than taste this Medicine; and of these there are very few: but I should judge that man very rash, that would recede from the known way of giving the Jesuits Powder he has found so safe, that nothing can be more; and would go to a practice so very doubtful, and hardly pressed with the same difficulties, can be brought against the taking it by the Mouth, upon any lesser consideration; as we shall see immediately by the answering his Arguments, which I shall do with as great brevity and clearness as I can. As to the weight and pain some feel in their Stomaches, after having taken the Jesuits Powder, 'tis certainly a very great inconvenience; but shall be judged by all the world, if that swelling they feel in their Bellies be not quite as ill, and can sooner breed a Dropsy, Jaundice, etc. than any disease that can be so soon brought on by it: besides, if we will be at the trouble to look back to what I have said, in the first part of this Book, about that symptom of an Ague, the weight in the Stomach; he shall see it clearly made out, that this weight is nothing but a heap of undigested and slimy stuff that's lodged there; and therefore of itself is apt to make the necessary supply, to keep up the force of the Ague; and intercept too, any Medicines that are given in by the Mouth for its Cure, as I have said since I begun to speak of Agues. And if he would persuade us to the using his Clysters in these circumstances, we shall never be able to cure this Ague, though they were supposed to have a hundred times the force he pretends to: whereas if we give a Vomit to make a clear passage, we shall fallen no such inconvenience, but especially if the Fit were well judged before we began our Medicine; and so this complaint comes more from the neglect of something th●t ●hould been done, than from any defect in the Bark; unless, perhaps, it may add its own quantity to this nasty mass, and rarify that too by its subtle parts. And so the Argument will go no further than this. Opium, Steel, Antimony, etc. have been given in very ill times, and too great quantities, and no doubt there's been abundance killed so; but for all that, should we leave off the use of these Medicines? no surely; and they will prove useful and noble Medicines in good hands. But why may not our Author try, what a decoction of the Powder he uses for Clysters upon certain occasions, can do, to shun this inconvenience of the Powder; especially since our learned Colleague Dr. Morton, had published, some two years before this Author wrote his Book, such a decoction for this very end; which would have prevented most misfortunes from that hand, when we know not this fit time to give a Vomit. Then for the second inconvenience, 'tis much of the same kind; and if any one will consider the proof I brought for the way how the Bark had its effect, and the Corollary I deduced from it, shall not be very much puzzled to find out, that 'tis only those that are of thin habits of body, and whose blood is thin, easily rarified, and incline to be hectical, that find this burning Heat our Author assigns, and after they have taken the pure powder; and I dare appeal to himself, or any man of practice, if ever they found this accident but in these circumstances; and a wise Physician can easily provide against that, as I have endeavoured in part, by giving the Cortex as in my 9th Observation. but to see what a miserable shift he takes to weather this difficulty is wonderful, from what he says in the 32 page; and if he had done any thing he should first told us, what the ferment of the Fever is he talks of in the 39 page; how the parts, and what parts are fittest to bring it under; and lastly, what vessels these are that have their mouths open into the Intestins; none of these things he has told us any thing of, yet they were necessary to be known▪ and of all things in the world I doubt most of his certainty in the citation from the 32 page; and would have thought the gross parts of any body the least capable to produce heat; and to guide all this right, he tells us, that Nature keeps it just so long, and not one half second longer, than was necessary to separate those sanative parts from its grosser hot parts; this is indeed wonderful, but she that can do all this, why did she put him to the trouble of contriving Syrup of White Poppies, to cause some to keep their Clysters longer, and purging Clysters to help others off with theirs; I'll help him out for once, and remember him that Nature's of the she-kind, and he's an old man. But of this Banter too much. The rest of his Citations are about the way of giving it, which I have nothing to do with here; though I thought fit to show them, if any one be for them; and all the rest may be comprehended in this, that they may be better given his way, because, as he says, the Bark is given in substance, and in a greater quantity. And first, I believe all the Physicians in France, at least all or most here, give it in substance, and have done these thirty y●●●s, as well as Helvetius; and in a way too, that our six Drachms must turn to a greater account than his three ounces, and allow him ten more; and this we shall make very plain, by considering that betwixt the lower end of the Duodenum to the end of the Ileon, there are infinite numbers of Lacteal Vessels to be seen, whereby this Powder, its Tincture made in the Stomach, and other parts, may be very easily carried into the blood, and by which is carried of one substance and another, at least, 3, 4, 5 pounds in a day, and so may be a very good way for 3 drachms, ℥ ss, ʒvi, or ℥ j, of this Powder, however digested and prepared in a clean Stomach; whereas in his way, all the Lacteals that are said to be there, are supposed upon ill made experiments, and not one to be seen; and so, I think, our six drachms can produce more powerful effects than his thirteen ounces, we have allowed him; but suppose all the Colon were as full of Milky-Vessels, as the Milky-way is full of Stars (which we see he ●ust not pretend to) yet I'm in the opinion he could not much better himself; for his Clysters could get no great length; which will be very evident to any one, that will bring into his thoughts, or lay before his eyes the Guts in their natural posture, and any one with a Clyster-Syringe impelling the Liquor; I say, if he considers this, he shall have no great difficulty to agree to my assertion: for first, if they were supposed full, then 'tis evident the resistance of the Excrements were to be accounted for; and perhaps this would do the business: but now, we'll suppose them perfectly empty, and their sides flaccid, as we see them at that time; then, upon the one hand let us remember, that the motion they have is from the Stomach downward, and that they are tensile; then next, that the Colon, where it joins the Strait Gut, lies not rectum with the cavity of the Strait Gut, but cuts it at oblique angles; and upon the other hand all the force this impelled liquor has, is only by the compressing the sides of a Bladder, or a more valid propulsion by the Syringe; and therefore passing the small resistance from the motion of the Guts, there's first so much motion lost by raising the sides of the Strait Gut, whereinto it may be propelled without any other; but so soon as it comes to the joining of the Colon, it must reflect at every section of this Gut, and the reflection too, is to be made upon a soft, tensil body, which is more than enough to overcome a ten times greater force, than can be conceived to be given to this liquor by the propulsion by the Syringe. And therefore, since the Strait Gut has no lacteals, and the Colon were supposed to have; yet his Clysters not going any length there, could turn to no great account; at least, not the twentieth part, very modestly speaking, as the other way. But next, for the convenience of this Practice, I think 'tis the most inconvenient could have been contrived; for who can bear fifteen Clystering days, and to take about twenty four Clysters in that time; and then as many in case of a Relapse▪ this is not only one of the most troublesome Practices, but the most expensive that can be by the Jesuits Powder; for supposing an Apothecary should let us have them at Crowns apiece, this is no less than 12 l. for these 48 Clysters, besides other Medicines, which is a great deal too much for the most that grudge 4ss. and a Crown for an ounce of the Powder, which always cures them with the help of such a tincture I have spoke of in my Observations: and therefore by this time 'tis plain, that Helvetius' Practice is neither so reasonable, nor so convenient, as the giving the Powder by the Mouth; and the misfortunes complained of are truly the Physician's, and none of the Barks: but we must allow him that the taste will not be so ungrateful, as when taken our way; though in so many Clysters it will be felt, as I have found in curing of some very tender People of Claps by Clysters, which in three or four days became almost as nauseous, as if they had taken Medicines by their Mouth; yet at best this is but an inconvenience to a few, for a settled inconvenient, expensive, and unreasonable Practice. Observation XI. Obser. 11. The Scurvy. George Manning, aged 27 years, of a bilious Constitution, and a thin habit of body, was taken, on board the Elizabeth, with an out-breaking of abundance of red spots upon his Legs and Arms; a great many of those upon his Legs became of an olive colour, yellow, blue, and black. 'Tis evident from what I said before of the Scurvy, and as that is really distinguished from the Melancholia Hypocondriaca; that the ●retty, rarified, and disunited parts are to be made closer, and of a stricter cohesion: and thus the small parts of the blood, not being separated in so great a quantity, in the brain, by the perspiration, into the Intestines, etc. there can be no such feverish affections, faintings, quick and slow pulses eruption upon the skin, etc. as we see every day. Now this compactness and stricter cohesion, can only be acquired by such Medicines, that, by their quantity, or of their own nature, can give body to the blood, or make that more compact; which must be in a natural state, and produce every thing that is natural, so soon as it acquires this natural cohesion. Now, ashore, we have really great numbers of Medicines, that answer this design, which can produce wonderful effects, when given in time, and in a way that this view shows us. Those are all the Medicines, we call temperate, besides those that are Analeptical, and mostly prescribed in Hectic Fevers, into which this disease naturally runs, though sooner when helped on by the use of the common Antiscorbutics. But at Sea, where all the victuals, that are for their nourishment, encourage this sickness so much, and increase it: and all the provisions of Medicines, that is made for our Sea-sicknesses, have no respect to that: I think it not unreasonable to acknowledge that disease not to be cured at Sea. Yet I was willing to make the best I could of our Patients in Scurvies; and therefore, that the Medicines we have might have the better effect, and the Chyle, that's very often the best alterative, might be conveyed in its full force; I ordered him a Vomit of ʒss Sal vitriol. in ʒiij of Oxymel of Squils', to be encouraged with large draughts of thin Water-gruel; he vomited three times, and an abundance of nasty stuff: then I ordered him to take as little of his Beef or Pork, for his Meal, as possible; and rather to live upon Burgoo, or Water-gruel; his ordinary Drink was Barley Decoction, to every quart whereof I ordered ℥ ij of Syr. de Alth. to be added; and for Medicines, I prescribed him the following Electuary to be taken of thrice a day. ℞. Pulp. Passul. maj. ℥ iij. Cons. fl. Cynosbat ℥ ij. fl. Lujul. ℥ iss. ●c. 69 ppt. ʒ iij. Syr. e Suc. Limon. q. s. ut f. Elect. After these Medicines were taken for three weeks, which time he was very exact in following directions, he recovered apace, and came to his perfect health. Observation XII. Obser. 12. Thomas Leonard, in the same Ship, and much of the same habit of body, and constitution with the former, was troubled with red, blue, and black spots, which run into one, swelled and became a stinking fetid Ulcer. His Ulcers were dressed, and he had the same Diet, and Medicines, with what else the place would afford, to that design: he was a little better, but having no prospect of a perfect Cure was sent ashore, where he recovered his former health. These being all that had a true Scurvy, in the whole Summer I was in that Ship, I very willingly leave off this melancholy Practice of a disease, that's put out of our power to be cured at Sea▪ and at Land too, is one of the most troublesome, as every one, that knows its practice, unanimously acknowledges. But, before we leave this subject, I'm obliged to remember my Brethren of the Navy, that of all the sicknesses in Medicines, Evacuation is to be done here with the greatest discretion. There is no sickness where blooding can do more harm, and is of greater advantage; vomiting and purging Medicines work more violently, and in lesser doses; and every purgative that has Aloes or Scammony, for their ingredients, in any quantity, are intolerable; and heighten the disease beyond what we can think. And all other ways of evacuating are not so much as to be dreamt of. Observation XIII. Obser. 13. T— B— was troubled with a Looseness, that he went to ftool some 15 times a day, for two days. On the third I saw him, and ordered him next morning the following Medicines. ℞. Rha. b. el subtle. pulv. cina●n. an. ℈ i. M. ac capiat mane cum regimine. This Powder seemed not to make him go more frequently to stool than he had formerly, and rather not so often, for he had only eight Stools by it▪ yet, in the evening, I prescribed him the following Julep. ℞. Aq. Plantag. lact. alexiter. an ℥ two. cinam. hordeat. ℥ i. Syr. Myrtil ℥ ss. Diasc. Fracaster. ʒ i Confect. de Hyacinth. ʒ ss. M. ac capiat Cochl. 3 vel 4. singulis horis. He slept very well that night, and had but two Stools all the next 24 hours, and thereafter continued in a natural way, without any further help. 'Tis true those kinds of Medicines serve our purpose pretty well, when the cause of Diarrhea's is confined to the first passages, yet when they are produced in hot Countries, in people of a thin habit of body, and that very hot, etc. they are not quite so certain, but we must depend upon Medicines of greater force, and blooding to the strength of the Patient. 'Twere a work of Supererogation to unfold the nature, and different states of this sickness, after the way of the former, since it is not, so much, our constant Companion; and therefore, it should be a little from the purpose: yet, in short, I must advertise my brethren (contrary to the most of practice) that the most powerful Medicines given in a liquid form, and in any quantity, cannot prove half so successful, as Medicines of half the force in the contrary circumstances. Observation XIV. Obser. 14. 4. George Gardner, was taken ill with a Looseness, for ten days, by which he went above thirty times a day, for all that time. When I saw him his Pulse was weak and frequent, his tongue full of deep chinks, he had a great drought, and was a very Skeleton. I ordered him a drachm of a Powder, I give in such cases, made into Pills with a little old Conserve of Red Roses; which he took about bed time, and drunk none for two hours after; though I allowed him as much of the Decoctum album as he pleased to drink, when that time was over; he slept indifferently that night, and had not a Stool all next day, but recovered daily; though 'twas at least ten days before he recovered his flesh or colour. I conceal this Medicine, because I think it better than the Fr. Ipicochoana itself, by which Helvetius has made so plentiful a fortune; for I dare affirm with all modesty, that I have tried it with above 200, when I thought a Diarrhea was to be stopped, without ever missing of the success, and that without any vomiting or violent consequences that attend the other, and a great deal more certain. Yea I have given it with Balls. capoiv. Opobals. Balls. Peruvian. and the like, with wonderful success, in Dysenteries themselves, and but seldom was obliged to give a second dose. But it's further confirmation, I leave to experience, and the trial of others. I tried it for stopping Gonorrheas, in their proper time, but it did not answer expectation. Observation XV. Obser. 15. James Graham, of a thin habit of body, and very hot blooded, fell into a most violent Looseness, such as Physicians commonly call a Colliquative Diarrhea, he went some eight or ten times to stool every day. Having no symptom, that could signify to me any thing of an indigestion, or of those impurities in the Guts, that are said to, and may maintain, and produce a Looseness, and his blood being of that nature, and velocity to make considerable secretions that way; my design was to alter that cohesion and velocity by letting him blood: and therefore I ordered him to be let eight ounces of blood, which was all I judged he could spare for that end, and that the powers of the faculties might not be lessened; accordingly all that day he had no Stool, and was very regular▪ that way thereafter; but the Rectum and Anus being very much excoriated by the sharpness of the humour, which he complained of, as a violent heat in that part, three days after; and therefore to prevent any Inflammations and their Attendants, as a Sphacelus and Gangrene, I thought it most reasonable to prescribe him the following Clyster. ℞. Aq. font. moderate. tepidae ℥ x. Syr. de Alth. Fernel. ℥ iij. M. f. enema. He kept this Clyster two hours, and then rendered it, and was very easy and well. Now, when I relate this, it brings into my memory a pretty singular sort of a case that happened last year, when I was on board the Vanguard; and because 'twill not want its use, I shall presume to go back so far to relate it. Observation XVI. Obser. 16. Mr. Moxum, a very brave and good Officer, than a Lieutenant in the Vanguard, had a Looseness for a day or two, about the time the Fleet was at Diep; it went off, but he was troubled with a most violent Tenesmus, or a desire to go to stool. At that time I had been aboard the Royal William, attending the Marquis of Carmarthen in a Fever, and was commanded for England, at his desire, to perfect that Cure; so I knew nothing of that Gentleman's illness at home, till about eight days after the Fleet came to Spithead; and then I admired what a change was upon him, in ten days or a fortnight since I had seen him: he was a perfect Skeleton, he could not rest a nights, and his Tenesmus coutinued; I advised him to go ashore for his Recovery, which he did; but the Fleet sailing six days after to the Downs, he followed the Fleet in the Ship's Pinnace, which happened to be ashore when the Fleet sailed, and came to us six or seven hours after we came to an anchor in the Downs; he was then worse, and complained of an inflammatory sort of a pain in his Intestines, which was very troublesome, when he grew warm in bed. He told me he could but die, and that he would do aboard, under my care, if I would not order him Medicines ashore; so he went ashore by Capt. Fairborn's leave, and before he was four days in Deal, he was a great way in his Recovery, by the use of the following Medicines. ℞ Decoct. fortior. brassic. & fl. Melilot. in aq. common. ℥ x. Syr. de Alth. ℥ ij. Terebinth. Venet. Vitel. ovi solut. ʒ two Sal prunel. ʒ i. M. f. enema, quod injiciatur quoque mane hora nona, ac hora quinta pomeridiana. At bed times he took this Bolus. ℞ Balls. Lucatel. ʒ ss. nitr. corollat. ℈ i. Laudan. opiate. gr. i. Syr. de ros. sicc. q. s. ut f. Bolus. His ordinary Drink was a small Decoction of Sarsa and new Milk, and his Diet, Bread and Milk, or Bread and Whey; but after 4 or 5 days I allowed him Chicken, and such Victuals as are easily digested; and about eight days after, he came aboard in perfect health, and only took those Medicines for six or seven days more. Observation XVII. Obser. 17. — Follen, a Servant of Capt. Greenaway's, in the Elizabeth, was ill of a spitting and vomiting of blood a whole year, by which he was brought very low and weak; the night before I saw him he had vomited up a great deal, and was a spitting of blood that day. When I saw him I intended to make a Revulsion, and preserve the full force and determination of the blood into some other part by letting him blood, yet in such a quantity that he should not be further weakened; and therefore he was let seven ounces of blood in his right Arm, with the Orifice of the Wound wide enough to allow the blood a quick and free passage; all which succeeded so very well, that he declared he was a great deal lighter; and easier while a doing, and spit nor vomited any more all that day: yet to make the blood thicker for some time, that the broken capillaries might the better unite, I prescribed him the following Electuary▪ ℞ Conserv. ros. rub. antiquar. ℥ i. acetoes. germin. querc. an ℥ ss. sang. Dracon. ℈ ij. Lapid. haematit. ppt. ℈ i. syr. de ros. sicc. q. s. ut f. Electuar. De quo capiat quantitatem nuc. myristic. major bis in die. He consumed this Medicine in ten days; in all which time he had nothing of his vomiting or spitting of blood. The next thing to be done, was to repair this Skeleton, whose Pulse was very frequent, and in every seven strokes intermitted the time of two▪ and this I endeavoured by the following method. I first ordered him this P●isan for his ordinary drink. ℞ Rad. Sars. ℥ two. Symphit. ℥ i. chin. ℥ ss. lign. Sassaf. ʒ two. Coq. l. a. in s. q. aq. font. ad lb ij. circa finem addendo passul. maj. integr. ℥ iv. Colatura clara reponatur in lagaena vitrea pro usu. He took this Electuary for six weeks. ℞ Pulp. passul. major conserv. flor. cynosbat an ℥ ij. radic. helen. conduit. cortic. aurant conduit. an ℥ ss. Theriac. Andromach. ʒ ij. nitr. corollat. ʒ i. syr. alth. q. s. ut f. Electuar. mollior consistent. Capiat quantitatem nuc. avellan. bis in die, superbibendo vini Canarini cochlearia d●o. 'Twas surprising to see the change was made on him in a fortnight or three weeks; he recovered his flesh, strength and colour, till in the latter end of the year he got the Kentish Disease in the Downs, and was put sick ashore at Deal. Then I ordered him first to be vomited, next to take the Jesuits Powder, as I have prescribed it in the 9th Observation; and then to begin the use of his former Medicines, so soon as his Ague was removed, but to take the following Infusion, after his Electuary, in place of the Canary. ℞ Radic. Gentian. ℥ ss. fl. Chamomil. summitat menth. an M. ij. cortic. aurant peruvian. an ℥ ss. pptis s. a. affund. Vini rubelli lb ij. Stint per biduum in infusione; dein capiat cochl. 3 vel 4 tempore dicto. He missed of his Ague by these Medicines; but I can say no further about his Recovery, the Ship I was on board of being ordered to the Buoy of the North. Observation XVIII. Obser. 18. K— B— of the— was troubled with a pain in his Yard, after an impure copulation; which very soon appeared in a running, and that but very small, at first; but increased daily, and was of a green colour, he had an Chaude Piss, une chord, and the erection was very painful. He complained of it to me when at Sea, and I cured him of the Gonorrhaea, and its Appendices, in a fortnight, without taking one grain of Mercury, Mercurial Preparations, Turpentine, Decoctions of Woods, Injections, and other Medicines, that are generally prescribed with all the uncertainty imaginable. I could very willingly communicate this way of curing for public use, if I might in honour; being no longer at my own liberty to dispose of it, since I have communicated this method to a learned Member of our College, in lieu of a practice he values very much. Yet without any breach of Faith, I assert, that the tedious, uncertain, and dangerous practices in this disease, have proceeded from the misunderstanding Physicians are in about it; whereas if its place, force, and way of communication were more sensible and obvious, we might soon discover more certain, genuine, and more natural ways of curing▪ and those be, even, improved, beyond what any Man has hitherto thought of. But it not being convenient, upon this occasion, to evince those mistakes too particularly, for this place; I will content myself to prove, that the cause of this Disease is not entertained in the Prostatae, vesiculae seminales, or any ways further than the Yard itself; without going too deep into the argument, or answering the Objections may be reasonably made against its being there, thinking it the first part of knowledge not to be imposed upon, and the second the putting things to rights; and though we are not able to do this, and are sure of the first, yet ought we fairly to confess our ignorance, that very substantial piece of Humanity, rather than to speak things of which we have no thought, and a great deal less, to build our other reasonings and practice upon so sandy foundations: Now that we may do the first, and discharge our thoughts of such a cheat, let us call into our memory the Hypersarcoses we daily see, and let us but compare this spongy flesh, that thus fills up the passage of the Urine, with any thing else we find upon other occasions; and I'm sure a Man that sees like another, and has the sense to compare, can find it not much different (but especially in its growing) from the like Excrescencies that happen, in curing wounds, ulcers, etc. a certain Argument that there is a solution of unity in the part, where those Mushrooms sprout, which cannot be kept down and checked like other fungous' flesh, and is seldom to be prevented in the healthiest people by a disorderly practice. I know it may be said, that there may be little ulcers bred in the Urethra, by the sharpness of the matter that flows that way, from the affected parts, and they may make this false flesh, though these ulcers can never supply this running: but to drive this argument no great length, and not to outshut a common sight, I shall demonstrate very plainly, that these ulcers are begun only in the Yard, and afford this running from it; and at some other time make it plain, that this running comes not from above three inches within the Yard, and how that is done. For the present purpose let us remember, that our Anatomy teaches us, that there is a valve placed at that end of the Penis that's next the belly, that hinders the Regurgitation of the the Urine; and in the second place that Run can be stopped by Injections, though very often to the misfortune of the Patient. Now these Injections, at best, are as solid, if I may so say, as our Urine, and this valve hindering the repassing of the Urine, we may conclude, that it hinders the passage of a body not more fluxil than the Urine: but since these Injections stop a plentiful running, and yet not going out of the Yard, we may conclude, that it is in the Penis they have their effects; and if so, then it's from the Penis this supply is made, which was to be demonstrated, against the common Hypothesis; and therefore it is no wonder, that Men are not able to better the Practice, from so unthinking Theories. I foresee distinctly, the inconveniences can be alleged against what I hint at, yet I should think it an unpardonable digression to obviate them in this place, and do promise to demonstrate, even to a certainty, the seat and nature of this Disease, about which Physicians are as much in the dark, if not more, as about the time it was first known in the world. Observation XIX. Obser. 19 Captain Poulten, then commanding the Charles Galley, was taken with a violent Quinsey, on our Voyage to St. Malo; for which his Surgeon gave him some things; but that day being in very hot service, and being obliged to speak very much, in giving his necessary orders, the pain and inflammation were very great, and he could not sleep all that night: next day, being Saturday, he sent for me in the morning; and finding that he was sick three days before, my business was to discover the state of the Disease, and to what height it was come, that accordingly as the symptoms of suppuration appeared, o● not, I might proceed in the Cure. Finding, then, no intimations of the suppuration, and a sufficient revulsion being made, by the blood his Surgeon let him but two days before; considering too the violence of the other symptoms. I ordered him to be let ten ounces of blood out of the Jugular Vein of the most inflamed side; which being done, I troubled him not with Gargarisms, which are not always so safe, even when they can reach the part affected; but ordered him to keep the part warm, to eat only Water-gruel, and to use the following decoction for his ordinary Drink. ℞ Rad. Bardan. ℥ iij. acetoes. ℥ j hoard. mundat. M. i. Coq. s. a. in aq. font. q. s. ad crepituram horde●. Colatur. per subsidentiam depurat lb ij. add. mel. oped. q. s. ad gratiam. And next day he took this purging Potion. ℞ Fol. Sen. sine stipitib. ℥ ss Rad. Rhabarb. el. & incis. ʒ ss cinnamom. acerrim. ℈ i. Infund. per noctem in decocti passularum majorum ℥ vi▪ Colaturae per expressionem factae add. Syr. de Spin. Ceru. ʒ iij. M. ac bibat h●ra septima cum regimine. It purged him ten times very easily, and he was mightily relieved; he could swallow any thing down, and talked with any body if convenient. The Inflammation being thus vanquished, I begun the use of such Powders that promote the fluxility of the blood, but wrapped them up in a convenient Syrup, left they should offend the parts, in the passing, by their roughness. ℞ Ocul. cancr. ppt. coral. rub. ppti, an ʒ ss antimon. Diaphoretic. gr. xv syr. alth. ℥ ij. M. ac Capiat tribus vicibus, superbibendo cochlear. julapij sequentis, quod ℞ Aq. Spermat. ranar. fl. chamomil. (seu eorundem decoct.) an ℥ ij. aq. cinnamom. hordeat ℥ ss sal. prunell. ʒ ss syr. capil. vener. ℥ i. M. f. julap. He continued the use of the Ptisan prescribed for his ordinary drink, and on the Tuesday took his purging potion as before, and was perfectly well thereafter. There are two things I would have observed in this disease; first, that the Medicines upon the past design be never given till we be convinced that the obstruction in the capillary arteries, of the part thus affected, is not so powerful; for when they are given before that time, as a great many Authors persuade us, they only squeeze out the thinner part of the blood, and leave the rest despoiled of a vehicle fit to maintain its fluxility, and so very convenient to heighten the obstruction, which causes this inflammation and its consequences: and therefore he must be sure to blood plentifully, and the right way, before we think of giving internal Medicines. The other is, that we busy not, nor amuse ourselves with the idle, and not only idle, but useless, and impracticable distinction the Authors make in this disease; when they tell us, that since 'tis an inflammation about the Throat, if that be of the internal muscles of the Larynx it must be called a Cynanche; but if of the external muscles, a Paracynanche: and if on the internal muscles of the Pharynx, a Cynanche; if on the external muscles of that part a Paracynanche. And that this distinction is impracticable, is evident to any one that knows the Anatomy of these parts; how small the proper muscles of the Larynx are, and how near the internal and external muscles are one to another; and they only divided and parted by a thin membrane, which cannot only not hinder the inflamed muscles of the one sort to press hard upon the other, but is even itself affected with this Inflammation. But they should have told us too, the symptoms of This part's being affected, and such signs whereby we may distinguish the Inflammation of the one sort of these muscles from That of the other: but of this too much. Thus I have run over, with an indifferent exactness, my Disquisition into the marine diseases, and the History of those in the Fleet last Summer; which, I presume, may correct a great many errors and mistakes in that affair, and highly contribute to an amendment of others, of the same nature: and cannot doubt, but that the Candour of the ingenious will very easily cover any pieces of Frailty I may have committed in this first Essay; and for that favour, I shall endeavour to better it, if I find encouragement suitable to the Undertaking. Yet, all these things will better appear, in the Histories of the next years service, that are to be continued with this. FINIS. Books lately Printed for Hugh Newman, at the Grasshopper in the Poultry. OEconomia Corporis Animalis. 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