THE DOCTRINE of ACIDS IN THE Cure of DISEASES Farther Asserted: Being an Answer to some Objections raised against it by Dr. F. TUTHILL of Dorchester in Dorsetshire. In which are contained some things relating to the History of Blood: As also an Attempt to prove what Life is, and that it is principally supported by an Acid and Sulphur. To which is added an exact Account of the Case of Edmund Turner Esq; deceased; as also the Case of another Gentleman now living, exactly parallel to Mr. Turner's. By JOHN COLBATCH, a Member of the College of Physicians, London.  
LONDON, Printed for Dan. Brown, at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple Bar; and Abel Roper at the Black-Boy in Fleetstreet. 1689.   

TO THE READER.  
THE Hypothesis I have advanced being new and contrary to the common received Opinions of other Physicians, a very few excepted, I am every day pestered with Objections of one kind or other; and therefore to save myself the labour of writing Pacquets of Letters every Post-day, I have thought fit to answer those Objections that are worth taking notice of in this public manner. The Gentleman whose Letter I have answered here, seems to be a Man of wonderful Candour and Ingenuity; and were it but for the satisfaction of him only, I should not think my time misspent: but however, hoping to do service to the Public by it, I have suffered these Papers to come abroad, as they are. I confess they are not sufficiently polished for public View; and at the same time the pains I have been at in composing of them is too great to have them confined to the private use of one person: and for the deficiences, I shall endeavour to supply them in some other Papers that shall be got ready for the Press as soon as possibly I can.  
He that would pass the Course of his Life without Envy, must believe what is generally believed, and speak as others do; and whoever takes upon him to do otherwise, let the Success of his Undertaking be what it will, the Reward he is like to meet with from the generality of Mankind, is to be reproached. The enquiry after Truth is an Undertaking in which little Assistance is to be hoped; and there are so many Guards on all the ways that lead to it, that it's a very hard task to break through. 'Tis an ancient Proverb, that, Non omnibus licet adire Corinthum. Whoever intends to overcome so many Difficulties, cannot hope to succeed, but by his Diligence, Eagerness, and Earnestness; which Methods I have pursued as much as the hurry of my Affairs would permit me.  
When I consider the great Number and the Potency of my Adversaries, I am sometimes under the greatest Discouragements imaginable; and wish that I had either gone on in the common Road, or else that I had never appeared in public, but have kept my own Notions within the Confines of my own Breast, and so I might have jogged on without Molestation. But when I call to my remembrance the Gild which that Person lay under, who made no Improvement of his one Talon, but hide it in a Napkin, it dispels the former Considerations, and withal animates me to go on in the Work I have begun; which although it may create me many Enemies, Truth at its first appearance never wanting Opposers, yet the thoughts of having endeavoured to serve my Generation to the utmost of my Power, gives me that Peace and Satisfaction of Mind, that all the united Force of my Enemies is not able to deprive me of.  
I never yet pretended to make People Immortal, my Endeavours having all terminated in this, viz. to be serviceable to my fellow Creatures in distress as much as I was able. The wise Man saith, That no Man hath Power in the Day of Death, and that there is no discharge in that War: The Issues of Life and Death being only in the hands of the Almighty. But I am that unfortunate Man, that if I have any Patient die once in three or four Months, though perhaps I scarce ever prescribed any thing for them, it is immediately spread abroad with all the Industry that Malice is capable of, that I have been their Murderer; by the means of which Reports I have sustained no small Damage: but however, in spite of all this, Thanks to God, I every day gain ground, and done't in the least doubt, but in a very little time to get out of the reach of my Enemy's Malice.  
I must confess that I am deficient in so many things in respect to the ornamentive part of Learning, which is scarce to be obtained out of the Universities, that I am altogether unfit to be a Champion in so great a Cause; but I have so much reason to be positive that the Hypothesis I have advanced is true, that from the Hints I have given I dare almost be confident, that even in my own time the Cudgels will be taken up, and the Hypothesis maintained and asserted by one who is able to go throughstitch with it better than I can. In the manifestation of the greatest Truths to the World, Men of very mean parts are frequently made use of to be the first Broachers of them, but the farther clearing of them is left to Men of the most subtle and refined parts; and were my Hypothesis but rightly handled, I don't doubt but it would prove the most Glorious of the kind that ever appeared upon the Stage of the World. However, till the thing is undertaken by some better Hand, I shall not be wanting to prosecute it as far as I am able.  
I have one thing to beg of those who shall give themselves the trouble of reading these Papers, and that is, that they would not pass a rash Judgement upon me, but that they will be pleased to examine well what I have offered both in this and my former Tracts, laying aside Partiality and Prejudice; and if they find that I have not made things sufficiently clear, if they will but inform me of it, and lay their Doubts before me, I will spare no Pains to make things yet more clear.  
Villers-street in York Buildings, October the 8th, 1697.   

BOOKS sold by Daniel Brown.  
FOur Treatises of Physic and Chirurrurgery: Viz.  

1. A Physico-Medical Essay concerning Alkaly and Acid.  
2. Farther Considerations by way of Appendix to the said Essay.  
3. Novum Lumen Chirurgicum, or a New Light of Chirurgery.  
4. Novum Lumen Chirurgicum Vindicatum, or the New Light of Chirurgery vindicated from many unjust Aspersions.   
The Second Edition corrected and enlarged.  
A Treatise of the Gout, wherein both its Causes and Cure are demonstrably made appear; to which are added some Medicinal Observations concerning the Cure of Fevers, etc. by the means of Acids.  
All by John Colbatch, M. D.   

Dorchester in Com. Dors. Aug. 9 97. SIR,  
I have perused your ingenious Treatise of the Gout; in which you seem to accuse Alkalies as the Original of all Distempers: Before I subscribe to this Opinion, I desire to be satisfied in a few Points. The Grand Argument on which you build your Hypothesis, is taken from the green Colour of the Serum which arises from its mixture with Syrup of Violets. It must be confessed, that Alkalies' usually give it this Tincture, and there may be something of an Alkaly, or at least analagous' to it, in the Serum: But notwithstanding this, the many Inferences which you are pleased to draw from this Phaenomenon, in my Opinion will hardly hold good. For, 1. If this Alkalizated Serum is the Original of Distempers, than it must follow that wheresoever we find this Serum, there must be likewise a Distemper: Now I appeal to yourself if the Blood of a healthy Person will not give Syrup of Violets a green Tincture, does not then the Argument labour? may we not impute this Phaenomenon to arise rather from a due mixture of the Principles, than from any vitiated Habit of Blood? But, secondly, there is another way of discovering an Alkaly besides that of its Appearance, and that is by its effects, to wit, its Fermentation with Spirit of Vitriol. Now I aver this green Serum will not ferment with the aforesaid Spirit: Wherefore if it be an Alkaly, it is an Alkaly of a particular nature. It must be granted that we oftentimes find in the Blood some Particles of a very warm nature predominant, in which cases I have found Acids to be of great use: but whether they are of an Alkaline nature or not, I leave the Learned to determine. If they are Alkalies, then either fixed or Volatile; if fixed, how comes it to pass, that on the Dissolution of the Texture of the Blood, they claim the highest Place, and nothing will serve their turn, but they must needs swim in the Serum? If volatile, how is it that we many times find this warm Serum to be little better than insipid? Volatile Salts you know are aculeated, and affect the  strongly. May they not rather be of a sulphureous Nature, since it is the Nature of such Substances to sit uppermost on the Dissolution of Bodies? But thirdly, if Alkalies are the Original of all Distempers, whence is it that in Dropsies, Catarrhs, some Gouts and other Distempers, we find the Texture of the Blood so thin? 'Tis observable that those Particles you term Alkalies, the more the Blood is saturated with them, of the more thick consistence it is, as we see in Pleurisies, Rheumatisms, and other inflammatory Cases (in which Distempers, if in any, these Alkalies abound) is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids? Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion, and render it thin? Besides, if Alkalies did always offend and cause Pain, it must follow that Acids must give ease: But I assure you I have often experienced the contrary; for upon the exhibition of Rhenish, White-wine, and other Acids, I have found the Pains immediately exasperated, and many times it has been a long while  they went off. Again, if the Gout proceed from an Alkaly, what is the reason you use so much Sassafras in its Cure? Is Sassafras an Acid, and so proper to subdue this Alkaly? I have only a word or two to speak concerning the green Colour of Syrup of Violets, and so I have done. I believe it may be turned green without an Alkaly: On the exhibition of it to Infants it comes away green very often, and brings away a great deal of green Matter by stool; and yet I believe they do not abound with Alkalies. You may read in a late Author of undoubted Credit, that upon an Infant's swallowing of a Dose of Testaceous Powder, an extraordinary Ferment was raised in the Stomach of the Child: Now how could this Ferment be raised, if it had not an Acid to work upon? Besides, does not Experience show that nothing is so proper in Infants Distempers as Alkalies? I have some more things to offer; but I desire you would be pleased to satisfy me as to these. I should be glad to close with your Opinion, and embrace any thing that is new; for I believe Medicine, though it has met with great Improvements of late, to be capable of far greater. I'll give you no farther trouble, only after Thanks to you for your indefatigable Labour in searching out the Truth of things, subscribe  
Your Humble Servant, F. TUTHILL.   

The Doctrine of ACIDS in the Cure of DISEASES farther asserted, etc.  

Worthy Sir,  
I Have read your Letter with all the Pleasure and Satisfaction imaginable, the Objections you have raised against my Hypothesis being the most solid and substantial I have ever yet met with: And you may assure yourself that I have so great a Value and Esteem for Truth, that I would not dare to contend for any thing which is the Product of my shallow Understanding, that in the least stands in opposition to it. But as I would not by any means in the World oppose Truth, so at the same time I would not be guilty of so much Cowardice, as to quit its Interest, because I meet with a multitude of Opposers. Although your Objections do carry the fairest show along with them of any thing I have met with of this kind; yet I done't at all doubt, but very easily to clear myself from them, the which I shall endeavour to do with as much Candour and Friendship as you propose them.  
Letter. I have perused your ingenious Treatise of the Gout, in which you seem to accuse Alkalies as the Original of all Distempers: Before I subscribe to this Opinion, I desire to be satisfied in a few Points. The Grand Argument on which you build your Hypothesis, is taken from the green Colour of the Serum, which arises from its mixture with Syrup of Violets. It must be confessed, that Alkalies' usually give it this Tincture, and there may be something of an Alkaly, or at least analagous' to it, in the Serum: But notwithstanding this, the many Inferences which you are pleased to draw from this Phaenomenon, in my opinion will hardly hold good.  
Answer. As for my accusing Alkalies as the Cause of all or most Distempers, I must confess it was a very bold Undertaking, especially when by so doing, I opposed such Multitudes of Great and Learned Men, who by very strenuous and learned Arguments asserted the quite contrary; whom I could not suppose but that I should greatly displease, by disturbing them in the quiet possession of an Opinion that had long been embraced by all sorts of people. I my self, as I elsewhere acknowledge, was formerly as great a Stickler for the Use of Alkalies in the Cure of Diseases, and did as little believe that they were the Causes of them, as any one of my hottest Opposers now doth. The Methods by which I came to change my Sentiments I shall here faithfully relate to you.  
Whilst I was fairly jogging on in the ordinary Method of Practice, a certain Gentleman recommended to me a powerful Acid, which he told me I might rely upon in the Cure of some sorts of Fevers. When I considered the thing as an Exalted Acid, I could scarce give the least Credit to what he said, though at the same time I knew he had no design to impose upon me: however considering the fatal Success that frequently attended the Use of Alkalies and Alexipharmicks, (which however at that time I durst not attribute to the Medicines, but the Malignity of the Distempers) I was resolved, upon the first poor Patient I had in a Fever, to try what the forementioned Acid would do; and after a Multitude of Trials, both upon Poor and Rich, I found I could by the means of my Acid cure most sorts of Fevers much more effectually and certainly than ever I before could by the means of Alkalies and Alexipharmicks. The Effects of this Medicine, (which is a very cheap one, and known to every body) backed with some other Observations, put me upon thinking that Fevers and other Distempers did not proceed from the Blood's abounding with Acid Particles, but on the contrary with Alkalious ones: for if it had abounded with Acids, the giving of more Acids must have aggravated the Symptoms, whereas on the contrary, I found by the means of my simple Acid (which however was communicated to me as the greatest Secret) I could take off the most dreadful Symptoms attending most Fevers with all the Ease imaginable. Upon which being greatly in love with Chemistry and Chemical Operations; and having a convenient Laboratory, and all Necessaries at hand, I was resolved to examine the Blood of Persons in all Distempers as fast as I could conveniently procure it, to see what Substances abounded; and after a multitude of Experiments in most Cases, I could never find any reason to charge Acids in any one. And that I may not be defective in my Duty to so friendly and ingenious an Objector, I shall here trouble you with some of my first Experiments.   

Experiment I.  
JUly the fifteenth I committed to Distillation the Blood of a corpulent Lady of a sanguine Complexion, who eats and drinks highly, and who had formerly had for some Years together an inveterate Leprosy, which I cured by Cinnabarine Medicines, etc. But at that time she had a severe Fit of a Rheumatism, occasioned by Cold taking. This Blood and Serum, as it came out of the Veins, weighed two Ounces, one Dram: I obtained from it nine Drams of a clear Phlegmy Liquor a little impregnated with Volatile Alkalious Salt, which although it was scarce manifest to the Taste, yet it might readily be discerned by pouring a little of it upon some good Syrup of Violets, which it presently would turn green. Besides which Phlegmy Liquor, I obtained five Drams ten Grains of a strong Volatile Alkalious Spirit, as strong as the Spirit of Hartshorn usually sold in the Shops; sixty five Grains of fetid Oil; and in the bottom of the Retort there remained seventy Grains of a light Caput Mortuum.   

Experiment II.  
JUly the thirtieth I committed to Distillation seven Ounces three Drams of the Blood of a Woman, who had for about three Weeks laboured under great Obstructions of her Nerves; she had a Lassitude and Faintness upon her, and in this time from Fatness she became very lean, and so weak as not to be able to go about the House; she likewise complained of a wonderful Coldness and Numbness in her Head, and was so deaf as not to hear any thing unless People spoke very loud to her. She had always before this Illness been used to eat and drink well, and was of a Constitution somewhat Phlegmatic. This seven Ounces three Drams of Blood, Serum, and all together, such as it came out of the Veins without standing to putrefy, afforded four Ounces five Drams of Phlegm, and in the Neck of the Receiver that caught the Phlegm a few Grains of Volatile Salt in a dry form, with which the Phlegm was so impregnated, that it would readily turn Syrup of Violets green. One Ounce five Drams and 15 Grains of a strong Volatile Alkaline Spirit, two Drams six Grains of fetid Oil, and in the bottom of the Retort there remained two Drams two Scruples of a very light Caput Mortuum.   

Experiment III.  
AUgust the first I committed to Distillation two Ounces and a half of the Blood of a Person in a deep Consumption, who had a constant Hectic, and coughed much, bringing up by Coughing a great quantity of purulent Matter: He was worn away to a mere Skeleton, his Appetite quite gone, and so short-breathed, that he was not able to walk at all: He sweat much for the first part of the Night, and when the Sweats left him, he burned prodigiously. It produced one Ounce six Drams of Phlegm, three Drams and a half of a strong Alkaline Spirit, thirty five Grains of fetid Oil, and sixty two Grains of Caput Mortuum as light as a Feather.   

Experiment IU.  
AUgust the fourth I committed to Distillation the Blood of a Gentleman, who had scrofulous, cancerous tumors in two parts of his Body, which at some times would be ulcerated, and at other times after the use of a certain Remedy, the Ulcers would be healed, but the Tumours still remained. This Blood weighed three Ounces six Drams, and a Scruple: It produced two Ounces one Dram of insipid Phlegm, seven Drams and a half of Volatile Alkalious Spirit; of fetid Oil forty Grains, and of Caput Mortuum one Dram eighteen Grains.   

Experiment V.  
AT the same time I committed to Distillation the Blood of a Gentlewoman, who had for many Years been afflicted with the Stone in the Kidneys, and at that time laboured under the most terrible Fit of the Gout that ever I saw: It weighed two Ounces seven Drams, two Scruples and seven Grains. It afforded two Drams of a most volatile Alkalious Spirit before the Phlegm, one Ounce four Drams of Phlegm, and six Drams twelve Grains of Volatile Alkalious Spirit of the common sort; two Drams of fetid Oil, and one Dram and half of Caput Mortuum. The Volatile Alkalious Spirit that came over before the Phlegm in this Experiment, was what I never saw before; but her Fit of the Gout was also the most extraordinary that ever I met with, there being scarce a Joint of any of the extreme Parts that was not at one and the same time affected.   

Experiment VI.  
AUgust the tenth I committed to Distillation four Ounces two Drams of the Blood of a young Man of a sanguine Complexion, and in a state of Health: It afforded two Ounces six Drams of Phlegm that was perfectly insipid, and so destitute of Volatile Alkaly, that an Ounce of it would but just discolour a very small quantity of Syrup of Violets. It afforded also five Drams of an Alkalious Spirit, three Drams of heavy Oil, and two Drams four Grains of Caput Mortuum; which being broke into small Atoms, each Atom appeared in my Microscope to be so many little Bodies of Fire. This Phaenomenon very rarely appears, but when it doth so, it is for the most part in the Caput mortuum of the Blood of people in a state of Health.   

Experiment VII.  
THe same day I committed to Distillation the Blood of a Gentlewoman, who for many Years had had a short convulsive Cough, and always subject to an Obstruction of her Menses; she was then big with Child, and besides her Cough, she then complained of a Sickness in her Stomach, and a loss of Appetite, with a lurking Fever, and an Inflammation in her Face. It weighed seven Ounces six Drams, and afforded four Ounces four Drams and a half of Phlegm, impregnated with a highly Volatile Alkalious Gas, that would readily turn Syrup of Violets green, and in quantity would effervesce with Spirit of Niter, Sea-Salt, Vitriol, etc. It afforded also one Ounce four Drams of highly exalted Alkalious Spirit, one Drop of which would turn a considerable quantity of a strong Solution of Syrup of Violets as green as Grass; about ten Grains of light Oil that swum upon the Spirit, and three Drams of a heavy fetid Oil, that sunk to the bottom of it, and two Drams two Scruples of Caput mortuum.   

Experiment VIII.  
AUgust the eleventh I committed to Distillation three Ounces two Drams of the Blood of a Man of a black swarthy Complexion, and of a highly scorbutical habit of Body. It afforded one Ounce three Drams and ten Grains of Phlegm, with a little volatile Alkalious Gas mixed with it; one Ounce fifteen Grains of a highly strong Alkalious Spirit, two Drams of fetid Oil, which all sunk to the bottom, and two Drams of Caput mortuum.   

Experiment IX.  
AUgust the twelfth I committed to Distillation the Blood of a Maid of a pale Complexion, who had what we call the Green-sickness: It weighed three Ounces six Drams, and afforded one Ounce seven Drams of Phlegm, unmixed with Gas, one Ounce two Drams and a half of a strong Alkalious Spirit, one Dram two Scruples and a half of fetid Oil, which all sunk to the bottom, and one Dram and a half of Caput mortuum.   

Experiment X.  
I Committed to Distillation three Ounces two Drams of the Blood of a very worthy Gentleman, who was very Hypocondriacal, and had had a very great Pain in his Back and Hips of many Years, and once a month had violent distending Pains in his left Side, and at that time was much troubled with Wind. It afforded me of an insipid Phlegm one Ounce six Drams; of a highly impregnated Alkalious Spirit one Ounce two Drams and a half; of fetid Oil, which all sunk to the bottom, one Dram seventeen Grains; of Volatile Alkalious Salt, which stuck in the Neck of the Retort in a dry form, seventeen Grains; and of Caput mortuum one Dram five Grains.   

Experiment XI.  
SEptember the ninth I committed to Distillation three Ounces of the Blood of an Honourable Lady, who had had for two Years a scrofulous Tumour in one of her Breasts, and of a very scorbutic habit of body, and subject to wand'ring Pains and nervous Obstructions: It afforded one Ounce six Drams of Phlegm, six Drams of strong Alkalious Spirit, one Dram seven Grains of fetid Oil, and one Dram ten Grains of Caput mortuum.   

I could add a multitude of Experiments of this kind, but they belonging to another Piece, I have thought fit to trouble you with no more; and in relation to these few, I think it necessary to premise a few things, that I may make things as clear as may be.  
To avoid the grand Objection, that by exposing things to violent Fires there are new Substances produced, which were not existent in the Concrete before, (which Objection I shall take occasion to make appear to be but a very trifling one) I took the following Method, as the only one by which I could most clearly satisfy myself, being the most plain and easy one imaginable.  
I first of all put the Blood as it came out of the Veins, Serum, and all together, into a glass Retort with a very wide Mouth, to which I had a Receiver adapted as fit as possibly I could. I afterwards put my Retort into a sand Furnace, under which I made a very gentle Fire, which I increased by degrees, till the Drops began to fall at about a Second distance one from another; in which state I continued it, till the Phlegm was all come over, and unless in one or two very extraordinary Cases I have always found the Phlegm come over first, which perhaps to some may appear a Paradox, that what we commonly call Volatile Spirit and Salt should not rise before the Phlegm; but upon trial, I am sure whoever will give themselves so much trouble, will find it true. When it had dropped so long that one Drop being dropped upon two Drams of a strong Solution of Syrup of Violets would turn it green, I then changed my Receiver, and continued my Fire till nothing more would come over; and this last I call Spirit, having always a proportion more or less of a fetid Oil mixed with it. Now what we call Spirit of this kind, is only a proportion of Volatile Alkalious Salt mixed with so much Phlegm as will well dissolve it: Therefore I confess the most nice way of making these Experiments, is to separate the Volatile Alkalious Salt by itself, without any mixture of Phlegm; but every Experiment requiring a fresh Vessel, and the Vessels themselves being very chargeable, it would be almost impossible for any private Man to make a sufficient number of Experiments without the assistance of the Public, which occasioned me in the Preface to my Tract of the Gout, to propose a Public Stock to carry on this Work, to bring things to an absolute certainty, if possible.  
However, although these Experiments are not the most accurate that might be made, yet they are plain and easy, and are capable of being made by those who want the common Apparatus for a Laboratory. An Iron Pot set up in the Corner of a Chimney, with a few Retorts and Receivers, are all that are necessary for the making of these Experiments; whereas for the other sort there are required long bolt- Heads, each of which will serve but for one Experiment, with nice Furnaces, and so much other charge and trouble, that few private Men are either capable or willing to be at, to make such a number of Experiments that are requisite. But by the way I have set down, a Man may make a vast number of Experiments for a small charge; it is but going by one Rule in the making of them: and I don't see, but a Man may act with as much certainty as in the other, only I must confess it is more liable to the Objections of Cavillers; but for such I have no value, it being only for such candid ingenious Persons as yourself, for whom I am willing to take pains.  
Let a Man but nicely observe to change the Receiver, when one Drop will turn the Syrup of Violets green, and that Blood that affords the greatest quantity of such Spirit afterwards that abounds with such Particles, may reasonably be supposed, nay I think does certainly appear to abound most with Volatile Alkaly, or at lest what by all Mankind is taken to be such, it answering all the Phaenomena that Spirit of Hartshorn and Salt Armoniac will do; affecting the  in the same manner, and making an Effervescence with all sorts of Acid Spirits, such as Spirit and Oil of Vitriol, Sulphur, Sea-Salt, Nitre, Vinegar, etc. Now if such a Substance as this be not to be called an Alkaly, I should be glad to be informed what is; but it is what I at present call so for want of a better Name: and that Blood that by this simple easy way of Distillation affords the greatest quantity of Spirit of equal Strength, I cannot forbear to charge with abounding with a greater quantity of Alkaly than that which affords less. And in examining the foregoing Experiments, it plainly appears that the Blood of People labouring under the Distempers there mentioned, doth afford a much greater quantity than that of the healthy Person; that of the Person in a Consumption affording the least of any of those in a morbid state, for which a very good reason may be given: the great quantity of luxuriant Alkaly being thrown upon the Lungs, which causeth the Ulceration there, and the discharge of such a quantity of Pus or Matter afterwards as emaciates the Body even to a Skeleton.  
As for the Fire's producing new Substances, which were not existent in Bodies before, or which is more pertinent to the point in hand, making Acids Alkalies or Alkalies' Acids, or producing Alkalies or Acids from Bodies in which they did not exist before, I think there is not the least weight in it: I am sure it is contrary to my Experience, and I believe to the Experience of all inquisitive Chemists that have ever gone before me; though I confess there have been some superficial ones that have dreamt such things; but to the best of my apprehension, without the least reason for so doing. I never could find, but manage Vitriol in what manner, or with what degree of Fire you please, and it will always produce an Acid Spirit; do the same by Hartshorn, Blood, etc. and it will always produce an Alkalious one, or at lest what we call so: for if people will cavil about Words, we shall never have an end of Controversies; and indeed most of the great Controversies we have had in the World have been more about Words than Things; Men have contended more earnestly for the Shadow than the Substance. But my present Controversy with my Worthy Brethren is not such; our Difference is whether Diseases proceed from the Blood's abounding with Alkalious or Acid Substances, things which differ much more than in Name, their Nature's being directly opposite one to the other. I confess there are some who have complained both of me and others that have written concerning Alkaly and Acid, that we have not sufficiently explained ourselves what we mean by those Names: This I take to be a Dispute about Words only, since there are few People in this day, who upon the first view of any of those things of either Tribe, especially of the manifest ones, cannot readily give their Judgements to which they belong, and this even amongst those who are not Physicians: and therefore although we may not be able perhaps to give an exact Definition of the Words; yet since by these Words all people know we mean such and such Substances whose Natures are directly contrary, that aught to breed no difference. And for my part, I know no other use of Words, than by the means of them to impart my Mind to others; and if that Intention be once answered, I care for no more, but shall leave the Philologists to squabble as long as they please. But as for the producing either Alkalies or Acids by the means of Fire out of those Bodies in which they did not exist before, or the changing of an Acid into an Alkaly, or producing either out of the other that was simply one of them before; if any one will show me such an Experiment, or demonstrate such a thing without Fallacy, I shall own myself his humble Servant.  
As for the Inferences I draw from the Serum of the Blood turning a Solution of Syrup of Violets from a blue Colour to that of Greenness, being what all manifest Alkalies will do, all manifest Acids changing the same blue Colour into Redness; I see no reason at all that I have to recede from what I have said concerning that matter: For if it be true that all manifest Acids do change a Solution of Syrup of Violets from a blue Colour to that of Redness, and all manifest Alkalies do change the said blue Colour into a green one; if the Serum of the Blood doth so change the Colour, a Man may, to the best of my Apprehension, without Presumption conclude, that that Serum which doth change a Solution of Syrup of Violets from blue to green, doth abound with Alkalious Particles: And I am sure if it did abound with Acids, it would not fail of changing the blue Colour of the said Solution into a red one: Which is a thing any Man may easily try; let but a sufficient quantity of any Acid Spirit be mixed with the Serum of a sick Man's Blood that will before in a small quantity turn a very large quantity of Solution of Syrup of Violets from blue to Greenness; if the Acid be so much as will overpower the Alkaly in the Serum, instead of turning a Solution of Syrup of Violets green, it will immediately upon the mixing of it become red.  
But that you may see I am not the only Person who has made use of this Experiment to distinguish between Alkalies and Acids, I shall produce an Authority or two for my so doing. Dr. Fran. Andre of Caen, in his Discourse concerning Acid and Alkaly, pag. the 65th, English Translation, tells us, That the principal Cause of permanent Colours comes only from the different nature and different mixture of Acid Salts with Alkaly Salts, which we may observe by divers Experiments.   

Experiment I.  
All Acids destroy blue Colours, and all Alkalies make them reappear.   

Experiment II.  
Syrup of Violets, which is a composition of Acid and Alkaly, becomes of the fairest green in the World when it is mingled with some Alkaly, as with Oil of Tartar made per deliquium, and reddish when some Acid is mingled therewith.  
Swalve in his Tract of Alkali and Acidum, pag. 141. hath it much to the same purpose: Syrupum Violarum prae oculis habeto, quia suspectam habes Solutionem plumbeam per Acetum in Saccharum redactam. Syrupus ille ab Acido quovis rufescit, ab Alkali virescit; hinc inservit aptissime dignotioni utriusque. Quodvis Acidum eum sistit rubrum, sicut quodvis Alkali viridem, fixa & volatilia uniusmodi sunt, etc.   

But my Hypothesis doth not altogether hang upon so slender a Thread as the change of Colour, though that be a better Foundation than a great many Hypotheses are built upon. You may very well remember that I brought this Experiment upon the Stage, only to satisfy Gentlemen who have not the conveniency of making more elaborate ones: And all Mankind having imbibed the Notion that if any thing ailed them, they immediately concluded that it proceeded from an Acidity of their Blood; I therefore thought it my Duty to convince them of the contrary in the most familiar manner I could; but I never expected that Physicians should take up with it, I referring them to a more certain Method, viz. to analize the Blood of their sick Patients, and to compare the Substances produced from it, with the Substances produced from the Blood of People in a state of Health: And if once they will but take that Method, I am morally certain that the number of my Enemies will every day decrease. But let People continue to say what they will of me, I shall endeavour to satisfy myself, and to act for my Patients with as clear a Conscience as possibly I can: And if after all I am reproached by my Brethren, I must bear it as well as I can. It never will be in any Physician's power to make people Immortal; but at the same time I am absolutely certain that people's Lives are frequently prolonged by the use of proper Remedies; and I doubt not but that they are also shortened by the use of improper ones: And if we are mistaken as to the Cause of Diseases, I don't see how we can readily find out proper Medicines.  
Letter. For first if this Alkalisated Serum is the Original of Distempers, than it must follow that wheresoever we find this Serum, there must be likewise a Distemper: now I appeal to yourself if the Blood of a healthy Person will not give Syrup of Violets a green Tincture, does not then the Argument labour? may we not then impute this Phaenomenon to arise rather from a due mixture of the Principles than from any vitiated Habit of Blood?  
Answer. I confess this is close arguing, and much to the purpose: But you may remember that I no where say that the Serum of well Persons Blood will not turn a Solution of Syrup of Violets from a blue Colour to that of Greenness. But on the other hand, I have asserted that the Blood of those labouring under any Distemper I have met with will do it, in order to prove that the said Distempers did not proceed from Acids; because if it had abounded with Acids, instead of turning it from blue to green, it would, as is before observed, have turned it from blue to red. Well, but still the Serum of the Blood of a well Person will cause the same change in the Solution of Syrup of Violets as that of a sick one; and therefore to rid myself of that Difficulty is the great thing I have now to do.  
First, I all along throughout my Tract of the Gout, the Piece you refer to, and elsewhere, do endeavour to prove that the Blood of Persons in a morbid state doth more abound with Alkalious Particles than that of well Persons, but no where say that the Blood of well Persons hath no Alkaly in it: And that the Blood of sick People in all or most Distempers doth abound with such Particles more than that of those that are in a state of Health, is to be demonstrated several Ways: First, If you take an equal Proportion of the Serum of the Blood of a healthy Person, and of that of a Person in a Fever, Pleurisy, etc. and pour them into the same Quantities of Solution of Syrup of Violets of equal Strength, you will find that wherein the Serum of the sick Person's Blood was poured, to be much greener than the other. Secondly, If you take two Ounces of the Blood of a healthy Person as it comes out of the Veins, Serum, and all together, and two Ounces of the Blood of a Person in a Fever, Pleurisy, a Fit of the Gout, etc. and commit them to Distillation in the same degree of Heat, you will find that the Blood of the sick Person will produce a much greater quantity of Alkaly than that of the Person in a state of Health.  
Secondly, What shall I do with this Alkaly that is to be found in the Blood of healthy Persons? Because every Body has some Alkaly in their Blood, must every Body therefore labour under some Distemper? Why truly I can't say that I ever yet met with that Person, who upon strict Enquiry had not some Complaint or other to make. Mankind since the Fall is subject to Death every moment; there being since that time a Principle of Death, in opposition to that of Life, implanted in our Natures; and not only in our Natures, but in the Natures of every thing else for our sakes: And God said to Adam (upon his Fall) Cursed be the Ground for thy sake, etc. I confess there are many in our Age, who will laugh at and ridicule me for having recourse to Sacred Writ, especially to the Writings of Moses, which they look upon as a kind of Romance; but let them laugh on. If there were not a Principle of Death within us, how is it possible for a Man one Hour to be in a good state of Health, and the very next to be expiring? How this may be I shall endeavour to demonstrate as clearly as possibly I can.  
All the Alkaly that there is to be found in the Blood is most certainly an Excrement, and in a way of being carried off by some of the Emunctories; and if any of the Emunctories chance to be stopped, that this excrementitious Alkaly hath not room to pass out by them, why then there is a Distemper of some kind or other caused, the Blood being overcharged with this excrementitious Matter. How many Distempers are occasioned by what we call taking of Cold, which is nothing else but a Constipation of the Pores? What is the Occasion of the Jaundice, but an Obstruction of those Vessels in the Liver, which separate the bilious Particles from the Blood? and what dreadful Distempers does the Jaundice frequently cause? How are Mortals tormented by the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder? and what is the original Cause of them, but an Obstruction in the Kidneys, whereby the excrementitious Alkaly, which should be carried off that way, by its over long stay in those Parts is converted into that Substance we call a Stone? And whoever will give themselves the trouble of distilling Stones either from the Kidneys or Bladder, will find that they are composed of Alkalious Particles. I could expatiate, and I doubt not give an Account of the Cause of all or most of the Distempers attending Human Bodies, from the excrementitious Alkaly being hindered from being carried off by the proper Emunctories. And I appeal to all Candid Ingenious Persons, even those who are my greatest Enemies, whether all the Excrements of our Bodies are not Alkalies. When I speak of Excrements, I don't mean that which is carried off by Stool, I having told you in another Place, that my squeamish Stomach would never yet give me leave to make Experiments upon that, to know what Parts it contained, but every Body knows that the Bile is the greatest part, if not all of it, carried off that way; and that the Bile is an Alkaly I suppose no Body doubts.  
I know there are a great many who will reply, That we will allow you that the Matter, or at least the Saline Substance that is discharged by the Glands of the Skin, by Urine, the Bile, Tears, etc. are Alkalious; but there is another Excrement, the which you take no notice of, which is a very considerable one, and that is the Matter discharged from the Glands of the Mouth, called Spittle, which in all respects seems to be an Acid. To which I answer,  
That the Saliva or Spittle is so far from being an Excrement, that it is one of the most noble Juices that our Body affords; it being the only Menstruum that Nature hath furnished us with for the dissolving of the solid Food we eat, and turning it into a nutritious Juice: For by chewing of our Meat we compress the Salival Glands, and cause them to throw out a sufficient quantity of the Juice contained in them; which being mixed with the Food, is along with it carried into the Stomach, where the Office of Digestion is performed. But those People, who swallow their Meat without chewing, seldom or never digest it, and are always lean. Now when I speak of Saliva or Spittle, I don't mean that inviscated, coagulated Substance that People hawk up in a Morning, or discharge when they have a Cold as they call it, that being a degenerate Saliva; but I mean that thin, Limpid Substance that some great Tobacco-Takers lavishly let run from them: which is the only reason that the smoking of Tobacco takes away most men's Appetites; for would they smoak Tobacco as a great and worthy Prelate and myself do, and as all the Turkish Nation do, which is to swallow their Spittle, they would rarely want an Appetite.  
But that I may return to my proper Business, which is to prove that all the Alkaly we have in our Blood is an Excrement, and in a way of being carried off as such, or for want of being carried off, would cause a Distemper of some kind or other. And here give me leave to acquaint you, that according to the best of my Apprehension, the Matter of all our Distempers is the same; but according to the difference of the Part immediately affected, the Distemper differs: And indeed when I consider the wonderful Structure of our Bodies, of what Multitudes of minute Parts it is composed, instead of being surprised at our being sick and out of order so often as we are, I am almost amazed to think we are ever well. All Alkalies that I know of will presently cause Rottenness and Putrefaction in Animal Substances, as may be seen in making of Glover's Leather, an Instance of which I have given in my Tract of the Gout, from a very good hand. Nay it is a thing very easily to be experimented by any one, for let but a Piece of Flesh of any kind be put into a Liquor well impregnated with Alkaly, and in a small time (though in the Winter, when things are not subject to putrefy) it will turn to a mere Putrilago, a Mass of Rottenness and Corruption. Whereas let a Piece of the same Flesh be put into Liquor impregnated equally strong with any Acid, and it will preserve it from Putrefaction. Alkalies, whether Volatile or fixed, being applied to the Skin, will either cause a Mortification, or destroy the Tone of the Part; whereas Acids of equal Strength will prevent Mortifications, where they are actually beginning, and frequently restore the Parts to their Tone, where it is lost.  
But it may very reasonably be asked, where is the Acid in the Blood that does us all that Service you speak of, or what becomes of all the Acid we take in, you owning Bread to be an Acid, and several other things that are every day used by all Mankind, when in your Analysis of the Blood you mention no such thing, and seem to intimate, that although People take them in never so great quantities, yet they never abound so as to cause a Distemper? This is what may reasonably be offered, and is very necessary that I should clear as well as I can.  
The Life of Man I take to be a Fire or Flame, and all we eat and drink, together with the Air we draw in, to be as Fuel for this Flame; and that which is not proper Fuel for it is cast off as Excrement. Now I appeal to all Mankind conversant in Chemistry, whether the Excrements of Fire, or of the Fuel of which it is made, viz. Ashes and Soot, be not Alkalies; and that our Lives are nothing else but a Flame or Fire of the same Nature with that commonly used, or very analogous to it, I think is plain.  
It is the Nature of all common Fire to consume whatever is a proper Pabulum or Fuel for it, and to leave its Excrements behind it, which, as is before observed, are Ashes and Soot; in the Ashes is contained a fixed Alkaly, and in the Soot a Volatile one. It is very plain that the Body of Man would soon be consumed, unless supplied with proper Food; and how could this be, unless there were something to consume it?  
Common Fire cannot subsist where there is not a due Access of Air to it: Is it not the very same thing with the Life of Man? let him be but enclosed in a Place where the Air is not capable of coming at him, and immediately he expires. It is well known that it is the common Practice of Miners, and those who have occasion to go into subterraneous Vaults or Passages, to carry Candles, Torches, or some such things along with them, not more for the conveniency of the Light they afford them in such dark Places, than for the Security they are to them against the most imminent Danger, viz. the Loss of their Lives: for as soon as they once perceive their Lights begin to grow dim, common Prudence and Experience teaches them to retreat; and whoever has chanced to be so foolhardy as to advance after the Light hath been extinguished, has scarce ever returned either to repent, or give an account of his Folly. A fatal Accident of this kind happened to two Men in a great Vault in a Yard belonging to my Father's House, into which Vault, if we put a large Pan of Charcoal well lighted, they would be extinguished in a moment; and the two Men before mentioned, as near as we could guests, lost their Lives in as small a time.  
Heat and Warmth are the constant Concomitants of Fire: And that there is both Heat and Warmth in the Body of Man, none that is Master of his Senses will deny: But why should I make a Distinction between Heat and Warmth, when they only differ in degree? But not to stand any longer about that matter: How is it possible for the Heat of our Bodies to be sustained, unless there were a Fire within us to do it? We are generally as hot, if not hotter in Bed, although we use no Exercise to excite the Motion of our Blood and Juices, than when we are up and in motion. Nay, mere Motion, let the great Des Cartes and his Followers say what they will, will never cause any Heat in fluid Bodies, although excited never so much: I confess in solid ones, upon violent Friction or the like, there will a Heat arise; but what relation hath that to us, when we are asleep?  
There is a received Maxim, that there is no Smoke but there is some Fire: Every Body must be sensible what vast quantities of Steams there are continually discharged from all Parts of our Bodies; and how that comes to be, unless occasioned from some Fire within us, I cannot understand.  
I confess I have the Concurrence of some of the greatest Men perhaps the World hath afforded, that the Life of Man is a Flame; but at present I have not leisure to peruse their Writings to see what they have said upon this Subject.  
If any Man shall ask me, how this Flame came to be first kindled? I shall make no other reply, but desire him to inform me how the Ouum came to be impregnated with the Masculine Seed, so as to make it capable of producing a Human Body? and when he hath done that, I will quickly tell him how this Flame came to be first kindled.  
The next thing I have to do, is to consider what is the proper Pabulum or Fuel for Fire, and this every body knows must be something that is sulphureous: Now there is scarce a Sulphur we know of that is not combined with an Acid; Sulphurs seeming to be the genuine Vehicles for Acids, with which they are generally united, few Sulphurs being devoid of Acids, and few Acids devoid of Sulphurs; and as the one or the other predominates, so they are denominated either Acido-Sulphurea or Sulphureo-Acida. As Sulphurs are the Vehicles of Acids, so Acids seem to be a sort of Vinculum to Sulphurs, by the means of which they are hindered from Dissipation. Whenever a Sulphur is devoid of Acid, it is of so Volatile a Nature, that it is scarcely to be preserved from Dissipation: Not that I suppose any Sulphurs to be perfectly destitute of an Acid; but the less Acid they have mixed with them, the more Volatile they are; such are Rectified Spirit of Wine, Camphire, etc. And Mr. Godfrey assures me that he can make Spirit of Wine so Volatile, that a Drop of it won't fall to the Ground, but disappear almost as soon as it is disengaged from the Mouth of the Bottle in which it is contained. Now the purer the Pabulum is, the less Excrement is produced; Spirit of Wine and Camphire produce little or no Excrement at all; whereas Oil Olive, Bees-Wax, Tallow, etc. afford a great deal of Soot, in which is contained the Volatile Alkaly. Most Vegetables commonly in use for burning, afford a great quantity both of Ashes and Soot, some more of one, and less of the other; as Oak a great quantity of Ashes in which is contained the fixed Alkaly, and but a little Soot, in which the Volatile Salt is contained. Beech on the other hand produces but a small quantity of Ashes, but a large quantity of Soot: this is what I have been informed of by those who burn quantities of Wood The Substances we live upon, and are nourished with, are not to be reckoned amongst the number of those which afford no Excrement upon burning: and by the way I can't understand what should become of all we eat and drink, unless, as is before observed, there were a Fire or Flame within us to consume it; and the Consumption is so great, that we are not able to live without a constant and frequent Supply. And which to me is none of the least Arguments to prove that our Life is a Flame, is what is manifest by every day's Experience, viz. Let a very fat Man be seized with a Fever, or any such Distemper, attended with a total loss of Appetite; and the Fat, which is the proper Fuel for Fire, will first be consumed: and in such Distempers it is frequently seen that very corpulent Persons will in a small time be wasted to a Skeleton; when at the same time the sensible Evacuations of Urine and Stool are less than in a time of Health; which thing could not be, unless there were a Flame to cause that Consumption: And wherever there is a Fire or Flame, especially when supplied with gross Matter, there must be a throwing off of Excrements; which is the reason that the Blood in Fevers, and other Distempers of that nature, abounds more with Volatile Alkaly than that of well People, because the Flame is more excited at that time, and the secretory Vessels designed for that purpose being some way or other obstructed, cannot carry off the Excrements so fast as they are produced.  
Let us consider what all the Alkalious Salts, whether Volatile or fixed, are. I suppose no one can produce me a fixed Alkaly, which is the bare Product of Nature: The very Name itself being derived from the Salt of the Ashes of the Herb Kaly, as I have observed in the Appendix to my Essay of Alkaly and Acid, in concurrence with several Authors, who have written upon the same Subject; though none that I know of have ever written upon it with the same design that I have done. But that you may see I am not singular, I shall produce two or three Authorities. Swalve in his Treatise of Alkaly and Acid, pag. 48. does thus define it. Originem Nominis Alkali ab incineratâ Herbâ AEgyptiacâ Kali desumptam haud ignoras: Salibus illud fixis & lixivialibus abhinc applicatum; illudque primariò judicatum Alkali, quod Gensin suam è cinere & lixivio traxerat. Tachenius in his Hypocrates Chymicus defines it much after the same manner. Fit itaque Sal Kali ex Herbâ Kali, magna copia in Aegypto proveniente, quae ibidem viridis exuritur, & ad nos transfertur; à quibusdam vocatur etiam Soda, Alumen catmum, & vero nomine Sal Kali appellatur; non reperitur tamen Sal Kali in Natura, nec in omnibus tribus Regnis, nisi ab Artifice ignis ope producatur. For my own part, I could never yet see any such thing as a fixed Alkaly to be obtained any other way than from the Ashes of Plants, which are that part of them that is altogether unfit for Fuel for common Fire, they plainly appearing to me to be an Excrement, and as such will rot and destroy all Bodies, especially Animal ones, that they are mixed with. In Animal Bodies there is no such thing to be found unless in the Bile, which is an Excrement, and seems to be as genuine an Excrement of Fire as any thing whatsoever, both from its burn Taste, Colour, etc. and I am sure if it be detained in the Body, will play the Devil.  
As for Volatile Alkalies, they are to be found in Soot, in Plants after Putrefaction, in Urine, in Horns and Hoofs of Animals, and in Blood; and although Sweat abound with a great quantity of it, yet that is not to be obtained in quantities sufficient to draw Volatile Salt from it. Soot is the Volatile Excrement of Fire, or of the Matter of which Fire is made. Urine is an Excrement of our Bodies, and the Volatile Salt in it the Excrement of Animal Fire, or of that which is its Pabulum or Fuel. The Horns and Hoofs of Beasts are generally allowed to be excrementitious Parts of their Bodies, and they afford the greatest quantity of Volatile Salt of any thing besides. As for Blood, the Volatile Alkaly to be obtained from it, is only the excrementitious part of it, or rather of the vital Flame, or the Pabulum of it, in a way of being carried off by some of the Emunctories, which, if it chance to be obstructed in its Passage, affects the Body with some Distemper or other. As for the Volatile Salt to be obtained from Plants after Putrefaction, I shall give you a particular account of it, by reason that some Men have made a great stir about it, and spent a great deal of time in quest after it, supposing it to be one of the grand Medicines of Nature. Most, if not all Vegetables do principally consist of a Volatile Acid and a Sulphur, which make them a proper Fuel for Fire: Now let any of the Aromatic Plants, such as Rosemary, Sage, Lavender, Mint, etc. be well dried, and afterwards be put into a Hole in a moist Cellar, and rammed down very hard; let them lie without a Cover till they grow hot; after they have done so some time, and the Acido-sulphureous parts are exhaled (which is much the same, as if they had been burnt) they will then contract a stinking ill Smell; when they are in this state, put them into a tall glass Bottle, with a glass Head, and in gentle Heat of Sand you will obtain a Volatile Alkalious Spirit and Salt, good for nothing else that I know of, but to bring other Bodies into the same state of Corruption that the Plants from which it was extracted were before it was drawn from them. Thus I have let you see what is my Judgement concerning Alkalies, and how they are produced.  
But as for the Acid that we take in as Food and otherwise, that, together with the Sulphur, are made use of as a Pabulum or Fuel for the vital Flame; and were not the sulphureous Particles in some measure suppressed and detained by the means of an Acid, the Thread of our Lives would be but very short. Dr. Andre of Caen in Normandy in his Discourse of Alkaly and Acid; speaking of Acid, pag. 21. Engl. Translation, he saith, There is nothing in this World which owes not its birth to an Acid Salt: Nothing can live nor be multiplied without it: It is that Soul of the World, of which the Ancients have so often told us. Tachenius in his Clavis Hippocratis Medicinae, from pag. 3, to pag. 11. gives strange Encomiums of it, some of which I shall here transcribe. Speaking of Acid, he brings in Lullius. Nos & multi alii, inquit, vocamus illum Filium Solis: nam primò per Solis influentiam fuit generatus per naturam sine adjutorio scientiae vel artis; & ideò Aristoteles vocavit Solem patrem & Terram matrem omnium vegetabilium, etc. He afterwards says, Acidum itaque est & pingue antiquissimum principium, & omnium rerum vita & fons, quod variis nominibus nominarunt Scriptores, ut ignem, , aurum, spiritum, sulphur, forma, & sexcentis aliis nominibus, quae omnia synonima sunt, estque eadem res, cui tamen diverso respectu diversa nomina imponuntur; nobis tamen eam hic & ubique commodiore opportunitate Acidum vocare libet. Again, A Sole itaque ut a fonte defluunt Acidum naturale & lumen vitale, quae reipsa sunt idem, sed officio distinguuntur: Acidi enim munus est ad interiora Naturae penetrare; luminis verò exteriora patefacere, utcumque solis radii operentur; adeoque Sol est primum naturale organum, cujus accessu & recessu omnes naturae operationes variae reguntur, intenduntur ac remittuntur. Hinc Cosmopolita ingeniosissimus; si non esset vis vegetabilis sulphuris (id est Acidum pingue & filius solis) non coagularetur aqua in herbas: si itaque Acidum à sole fluens infunditur in materiam ex gr. mineralem statim recipit determinationem naturae, & virtutis mineralis, & sic de caeteris animalibus, & de Vegetabilibus rebus dixit Luilius; & proptereà quòd haec aciditas naturalis omnibus mundi Materiis copulatur, Mercurii nomen à sapientibus adepta est: Et licet oculus vulgi quotidie videat Acidi naturalis multiplicationem, nec non incorporationem, attamen illud non cognoscit: exempli loco sit minera salis petrae Patavii jam evacuata, quae quinque vel septem annorum decursu rursus repletur, est enim terra ejus nutrix, Hermete teste, unde hic spiritus in illa corpus assumit, atque fit inflammabile nitrum.  
Acids are without doubt the most perfect Bodies in Nature, since they cannot undergo a Putrefaction; and what we take in by our Mouths is so far from being too much for us, that besides it we are not able to live without drawing in fresh Supplies from the Air every moment; and that the Air is filled with Acid Salts, a Multitude of common and obvious Experiments do evince: as for instance, Let Vitriol be distilled with the most violent Fire imaginable, so that it will not yield the least drop of Acid Spirit more; do but take out the Caput mortuum or Colcathar, and expose it to the open Air under a Shed, where it may not be reigned upon, and in a few months' time it will become good Vitriol again, and yield as much Acid Spirit as it did at first time, and this it will do ad infinitum: The same thing may be done by the Caput mortuum of Sea-salt, Nitre, etc. Now if the Air did not abound with Acid Particles, from whence came those insipid Bodies that were totally deprived of the Acid they had in them by the first Distillation, to regain the same quantity of Acid that they had before they were distilled? If you expose the Caput mortuum of those things that by Distillation had afforded an Alkalious Spirit or Salt, that Caput mortuum will never regain its Alkaly again, let it lie never so long; which argues plainly that the Particles of the Air are not Alkalious: And therefore were Acids so injurious to men's Bodies as some would have us believe they are, every Draught of Air we take in must poison us, since the Air is full of Acid Particles; and I believe no body doubts but that the Air has a free Communication with the Blood, if not by the Lungs, at least by the receptory Pores of Skin: But I think it's plain that there is a Communication with it both ways.  
By all the ways I could yet contrive, I have not been able to procure one Grain of pure Acid from the Blood of either healthy or sick People: But in the before recited Experiments you find there is always a proportion of fetid Oil, with which Oil the Acid is embodied to make it a proper Pabulum for the vital Flame; and when once Acid and Oleaginous Bodies are well united, which they will very readily do, it is no very easy matter to cause a Separation of them. Now the reason that this Oil hath such a very ill Savour is from its coming over the Helm along with the Volatile Alkaly; all Alkalies, whether Volatile or fixed, giving a very ill Smell to sulphureous oleaginous Bodies, especially if together they are exposed to a great degree of Heat; and the Heat that is required to bring them over the Helm is much greater than that of our Bodies, though in a burning Fever: Yet from the Action of the Volatile excrementitious Alkaly upon the sulphureous parts of the Blood, may I think a very good reason be given for the Symptoms that attend most, if not all Fevers; for all Alkalies destroy Sulphurs, as may be seen in the making of Soap, Hepar Sulphuris, etc. Sulphurs are the active Principle in both Animal and Vegetable Juices; Alkalies by breaking and dividing the Particles of the Sulphurs excite Fermentations, and by degrees cause a total Dissipation of them. Acids are a sort of Vinculum to Sulphurs, and therefore they suppress Fermentations, and keep the Sulphur from Dissipation: From whence I infer that a true Oleosum must be the great Medicine; but it must not be such a one as commonly goes under that Name, which is only a Combination of Volatile Alkaly with Spirit of Wine and Aromatic Oils or Spices, instead of which it must be an Acido-oleosum, an exalted Acid, combined after the foresaid manner: The Life of Man itself being principally supported by an Acido-oleosum.  
If any one asks me what I mean by Sulphur? My Answer is, whatsoever is inflammable. And with such kind of Substances the World is almost every where filled: For without them neither the Lives of Men nor Beasts could be any way supported; and therefore those places that are best supplied with them, are best stocked with Animals of all kinds; whereas those that are deficient in them, such as the Deserts of Arabia, etc. are almost wholly destitute of all kinds of living Creatures.  
Letter. But secondly, there is another way of discovering an Alkaly besides that of its Appearance, and that is by its effects, to wit, its Fermentation with Spirit of Vitriol. Now I aver this green Serum will not ferment with the foresaid Spirit: Wherefore if it be an Alkaly, it is an Alkaly of a particular nature. It must be granted that we oftentimes find in the Blood some Particles of a very warm nature predominant, in which cases I have found Acids to be of great use: but whether they are of an Alkaline Nature or not, I leave to the Learned to determine. If they are Alkalies, then either fixed or Volatile; if fixed, how comes it to pass, that on the Dissolution of the Texture of the Blood they claim the highest place, and nothing will serve their turn, but they must needs swim in the Serum? if Volatile, how is it that we many times find this warm Serum to be little better than insipid? Volatile Salts you know are aculeated, and affect the  strongly. May they not rather be of a sulphureous nature, since it is the Nature of such Substances to sit uppermost on the Dissolution of Bodies?  
Answer. I own it is one of the genuine and constant Effects of an Alkaly to cause an Effervescency, when mixed with Spirit of Vitriol or any other Acid Spirit; but whether this Effervescency be to be accounted a Fermentation, I greatly question: Tho Alkalies will excite Fermentation in fermentible Liquors, as is well known to many Mechanics, and I fear too well by the Brewers about this City. As for what you mean by the green Serum, which you say will not ferment or effervesce with Spirit of Vitriol, I cannot tell: But sure I am, that if you put a little Spirit or Oil of Vitriol into a small Bottle, and upon that pour some Serum of Blood that will turn Syrup of Violets green, it will immediately become intensely hot, and a great many Bubbles will immediately rise, which looks very like a Fermentation, if it be not one: therefore when you made this Experiment, upon which you are so confident, there must needs be some Error committed; for upon your urging this thing, the first Opportunity I had I made the Experiment afresh, and it succeeded the very first time; and I doubt not, but if you will give yourself the trouble of making this Experiment again, it will not fail of succeeding.  
As for those warm Particles that you say are often predominant in the Blood, I must confess I don't understand what you mean by them; the Blood, whilst we are in a state of Health, is always warm, the reason of which I have before given you. If we have a Fever upon us, the Blood exceeds its natural Temper, according as the Fever is more or less violent: Now the Cause of this Excess of Heat in a febrile state I take to be as follows; in most Fevers, especially in the beginning of them, there is a Constipation of some of the Emunctories; so that the excrementitious Alkaly, which should be carried off by them, is detained in the Blood, which by breaking of its Globules, and dividing of the sulphureous Particles, which are the Pabulum of the vital Flame, does either excite what we call a Fermentation, or rather by dividing the sulphureous Particles, and subduing the Acid that held them together, does increase the Flame to an intense degree. An Instance of which we have in common Fire, as I have elsewhere taken notice of, and shall here again repeat, viz. let the Matter of which Fire is made be laid close together, and then kindled, and it will consume leisurely and by degrees; whereas let it be laid at some little distances one from another, and it will consume with a rapid and intense Flame. Salt-Peter also and Brimstone being mixed together, will burn with a gentle and easy Flame; but by adding a Proportion of Charcoal-Dust (as is the Method in making Gunpowder) wherein is contained the fixed Alkaly of the Wood, the said Alkaly by causing a Division of the Particles of the Nitre and Sulphur, does so alter the Property of it, that instead of burning placidly and easily, the least Spark of Fire falling into it, will cause an Explosion, viz. make it take Fire all at once, and so be consumed as 'twere in an instant. Are not the Attacques of some Fevers and other acute Distempers much like to this Explosion, wherein Nature seems to be overthrown, and the whole Course of it put out of order almost in an instant? This is all at present I think necessary to take notice of in relation to the warm Particles you speak of; and that Acids are the only Medicines to suppress this unnatural Heat, I think I have already made appear. As for the Inferences you are pleased to draw from them, I think I have nothing more to do with them, but slightly to touch at them, they having already fallen under my Consideration. And I have sufficiently demonstrated that Alkalies are the Causes of all preternatural Heats in our Bodies.  
But supposing that preternatural Heats are occasioned by the superabundance of Alkalies in the Blood, you still seem to be dissatisfied about them also: For, say you, if they are fixed ones, how comes it to pass that on the Dissolution of the Texture of the Blood, they claim the highest Place, and nothing will serve their turn, but they must needs swim in the Serum? if Volatile, how is it that we oftentimes find this warm Serum little better than insipid? Volatile Salts you know are aculeated, and affect the  strongly. May they not rather be of a sulphureous Nature, since 'tis the Nature of such Substances to sit uppermost on the Dissolution of Bodies?  
First, I don't remember that I have any where said that fixed Alkalies do claim the highest Place in the Dissolution of Bodies, and that they swim uppermost in the Liquors, in which they are dissolved: But this I believe you infer from my Experiment with the Serum, which is the lightest part of the Blood, and therefore is uppermost in the Poringer, after it hath stood some time, and that a Separation is made in the Parts thereof. Now I did not make use of the Experiment with the Serum and Syrup of Violets, thereby to intimate that Serum only was over impregnated with Alkalious Particles; but that being the most colourless part of the Blood, was therefore most proper for such an Experiment: For should I have made such an Experiment with the fibrous and globulous Parts of the Blood, which are combined together in one Mass, they are so imbued with a scarlet Dye, that a small quantity of it would tinge a great quantity of Solution of Syrup of Violets with the same Colour, although at the same time it were greatly overcharged with Alkalious Particles. Therefore in my plain and easy way of analizing the Blood, I have made use of it altogether, as it came out of the Veins. But if a Man considers with what Rapidity the Blood moves along the Vessels, it is impossible but all the Parts must be so mixed together, that if the Serum be overcharged with Alkalious Particles, the other parts must be so also; or if the other parts be overcharged, the Serum must be in like manner so. But however, as for sixth Alkalies, the Blood is very rarely overcharged with them, the Substances we take in for our Nourishment affording very little of them after burning; and therefore Nature has provided but one Emunctory for the carrying them off, viz. the Ductus Biliaris, which empties itself into the Duodenum, and is conveyed off along with the Excrement of our Food by stool: Whereas there are Millions of Emunctories, besides that great Discharge that is made by Urine, to carry off the Volatile Alkaly. But if at any time the Glands of the Liver are obstructed, that the fixed Alkaly cannot be separated from the Blood, what fatal Effects does it produce?  
I have scarce ever known a true Ascites (which is that kind of Dropsy that is scarcely ever to be cured) which hath not had its Origine from an Obstruction of those Vessels in the Liver, which separate the Bile from the Blood. Nay frequently they have a Jaundice upon them thro' the whole Course of the Distemper. But if not so, I never yet knew an Ascites that had not a Jaundice preceded it; and in what manner the whole Oeconomy of the Body is destroyed in this Distemper, is but too well known. But this is not the only Distemper that hath its Origine from the Obstruction of these Vessels, though it be one of the most dangerous.  
Secondly, As for what you say concerning the Insipidness of the Taste of the warm Serum, I suppose you mean that Serum which is overheated in Fevers, etc. the Serum being always warm, whilst People are alive. I can assure you it is contrary to my long Experience; for of many Years, it has been my Custom to taste the Serum of the Blood not only in Fevers, but all other Distempers, where I have had occasion to prescribe Blood-letting; and in some Fevers I have found the Volatile Salt to by't my Tongue very severely, but never once could find the Serum insipid: and by this way of tasting I can better judge of the Condition of my Patient than from the Colour of the Blood. But in those Cases where the Serum is much inviscated, as in most Pleurisies, Rheumatisms, and many Fevers, the Volatile Alkaly is so involved, that it doth not very strongly affect the Taste, though it is never insipid that I could ever yet find. As for Volatile Salts being aculeated, and affecting the  strongly, I am very glad you take notice of it, since the general Notion that most people have of all Alkalies is, that they are of such a sweet, soft, mild Nature, that they carry a sanative Virtue along with them wherever they go.  
Thirdly, I own that sulphureous Substances are wont to sit uppermost in the Dissolution of Bodies; and that the Blood is impregnated with such Substances, I am far from denying; but they appear in all respects to be equally distributed through all its parts: but suppose they should sit uppermost here, and the Serum more impregnated with them than the globulous and fibrous parts of the Blood, Sulphureous Substances won't change Syrup of Violets from blue to green; and the Serum abounding with those Particles that will do so, which are Alkalies, these Alkalious Particles by breaking and dividing the Particles of the Sulphur will increase and excite the Flame, I have before taken notice of, to a more intense degree: For the Serum would not be the more hot, supposing it did abound with sulphureous Particles, unless the said Particles were some way or other enkindled.  
Letter. But thirdly, if Alkalies are the Original of all Distempers, whence is it that in Dropsies, Catarrhs, some Gouts, and other Distempers, we find the Texture of the Blood so thin? 'Tis observable that those Particles you term Alkalies, the more the Blood is saturated with them, the more thick consistence it is of, as we see in Pleurisies, Rheumatisms, and other inflammatory Cases (in which Distempers, if in any, these Alkalies abound) is not then its Tenuity rather to be imputed to Acids? Do not Acids immediately put the Blood in a Fusion, and render it thin?  
Answ. In most inflammatory Cases, where the Blood is immediately affected, there the Serum is viscous and sizy, being overcharged with Alkalious Particles; but in those Cases you mention, and in some others, where the Blood is over thin, it is not the over Thinness of the Blood which is the only Cause of those Diseases, but a Destruction of the Tone of the Parts; and where the Tone of any Part is once spoiled, the great quantity of excrementitious Matter is soon thrown thence, and so the Violence of the Malady is increased: Besides, in Dropsies the Quantity of fluid taken in, they being always thirsty, is so very disproportionate to what is carried off, they always making Water but in very small quantities in proportion to what they drink, that it's no marvel that their Blood is over thin. I have frequently in Dropsies known People drink three Quarts in a day, when they have not pissed a Pint: And that Acids should occasion the Thirst that attends Hydropical People, is ridiculous to imagine, when they are the only things in the World that will quench Thirst. Besides, do but consider the Nature of the Medicines that are most effectual to bring the Blood to a Consistence, when it is over thin. I have scarcely ever met with any thing equal to Calibeats, and that Steel is an Acid I have elsewhere endeavoured to prove: And as a farther Proof of it I shall produce the Testimony of Beckerus (no contemptible Man) in his Minera Arenaria, pag. the 88th. Non recensebo jam qualiter ille spiritus esurinus in aquis subterraneis latitans, varia sibi Salium, Aluminum, Vitriolorum, Sulphurum, Realgarium mineralium compositionum species producat; nec demonstrabo, quâ ratione supra terram in Aeris regione tractus quidam hujus Acidi spiritus de uno Polo ad alterum, & perillum acus Magnetica feratur. Hoc tantum hic loci allegabo, omne Acidum substantiae martialis esse, in quocunque oleo, pinguedine, fuligine, limo, silice & arena; imo etiam ipsa flamma reperibile, ac ad oculum demonstrari posse: quaecunque ergo naturae Acidae & martialis sunt, illa potestatem habent Alkali tanquam substantiam metallorum mercurialem alterandi & transmutandi. Now if this Thinness of the Blood be to be taken off, and the Blood brought to its due Consistence by the means of Acids, it is not reasonable to suppose that Acids should be the cause of its fusion. But then I confess here lies a great Difficulty, viz. how is it possible for Acids to make the Blood thin, when 'tis too thick and viscous, and to bring it to a due consistence, when it is over fluid? To which I answer, That should I pretend to give an account what Acids taken in the proper Latitude would do, I should be guilty of the greatest Arrogance imaginable; for that would be to pretend to as much Knowledge as Solomon had, who knew the Virtues of Plants even from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hyssop which grows upon the Wall. And Divine Providence had determined him to be the wisest of Men that had ever been before him, or that should come after him. All Plants from the greatest to the smallest are principally composed of Acido-sulphureous. Particles; for what Comparison is there to be made between the small quantity of fixed Alkaly that is to be found in the Ashes after burning, and of Volatile Alkaly in the Soot, in relation to the great quantity of Acido sulphureous matter that is spent in Flame? Or to come nearer to the matter, let a Pound of any Vegetable, which affords the greatest quantity of fixed Alkaly, viz. Broom, or any such Plant, be sufficiently dried, so that the superfluous Humidity may be evaporated; after that is done, let it be committed to Distillation per se, and it will afford between two and three Ounces of an Acid Spirit, with a good quantity of Oil, when all the Art of Man is not able to procure from the Caput Mortuum above two Drams of fixed Alkaly, and, as is before observed, Broom is one of those Plants that affords the largest quantity of fixed Alkaly. Now the Acid Spirit and Oil are those Substances, which in burning serve to supply the Flame: and from the Caput Mortuum, unless it be afterwards burnt, there is no fixed Alkaly to be obtained. But here again to obviate the Objection before taken notice of, viz. that the Fire may produce new Substances, which were not existent in Bodies before, or that for instance, the fixed Alkaly to be produced out of the Ashes of the Caput Mortuum of the Broom, is only the Product of the Fire: If this were so, why then the Ashes after all the Salt has been once extracted, being again committed to a Violent Fire must produce more Salt; whereas on the contrary let it be committed to the Fire in the most violent degree of heat, and continued there for never so long a time, yet it will never after afford the least quantity of Salt of any kind. But that I may return to answer the former Objection, viz. how Acids are capable of making the Blood thin when over viscous, and also to reduce it to its consistency when it is over thin: All the Bodies in Nature are differently specificated by the alwise Author of Nature, and at the same time are all animated by one Universal Acid Spirit, which is what the Ancients were wont to call the Soul of the World, and I think not improperly. Now the more any Bodies are impregnated with this universal Acid Spirit, and its beloved Sister Sulphur, the more perfect they are; and Gold, which is one of the most perfect and durable Bodies in Nature, seems to be composed of nothing else but a pure Acidum and Sulphur, as I think has been sufficiently made appear by some of the most strict Enquirers into Nature's Secrets. Now the more perfect any Bodies are, the more Acidum and Sulphur they contain, and afford the least quantity of Excrement, viz. Alkaly, that being the only Destroyer of all Bodies, and is what brings them to a state of Putrefaction and Corruption. Well, but what's all this to the answering of the Objection twice started? Why it's only to make my way clear. But I shall now apply myself to it. There are two general sorts of Acids, viz. manifest, and enveloped one's: the manifest ones are such as immediately appear to the Taste; and these, although originally the same, proceeding from the same universal Fountain, yet have different Operations upon Human Bodies. The enveloped one's are such as do not immediately appear to the Taste, but by taking of the Bodies asunder appear to be such. There is an Axiom that, Unumquodque in id dissolvitur unde compactum est: Every thing is dissolved into that whereof it is made. Now if this Axiom be true, as I think it is an infallible one, a Man may reasonably conclude that those Bodies, which upon their Dissolution are reduced into Acid Substances, are Acids, though before their Dissolution they did not appear to be so. Most Vegetables upon the Dissolution of them, or analyzing by the Fire, appear principally to be composed of Acid Substances; and therefore I think are to be accounted Acids, although they are so differently specificated, and have such different Operations upon Human Bodies, that a Man who has not nicely examined them, would be tempted to believe that the original constituent Parts of them were much more different than they are. Now the more perfect and durable any Vegetable is, the greater quantity of Acidum and Sulphur it affords, and less of excrementitious Alkaly. And from the different Combinations of the two Sisters Acidum and Sulphur, I believe it possible to give a very probable Account of all the differences in Plants as to Colour, Taste, etc. And as these two perfect (if it be lawful to call any natural thing perfect) Principles are more or less clogged with excrementitious Allkaly, so they are more or less durable as to themselves, and more or less friendly to Human Bodies, for whose use they were principally created; so that here you may see, that when I preach up Acids, it is not only Vinegar, Lemons, Oil of Vitriol, Oil of Sulphur, etc. that I recommend, but all the perfect Parts of the Creation, and decry the use of those things that are the Principles of Death and Destruction in Bodies, viz. Alkalies'. From what I have before said I think I may without Presumption, reckon Oak-bark amongst the number of Acids; and yet Oak-bark being given in Substance, or a Decoction of it, is so far from making the Juices over fluid or thin, that it will reduce them to a Consistence, when they are so: the same may be said of Bistort, Tormentil, and abundance of things of that Tribe: the same thing will Comfry Roots do, and all the things of that Tribe; the same I could say of many more, but here I have not room to expatiate. Asparagus, Parsley, etc. will make the Juices fluid when they are over thick and viscous, and so will a multitude of things more of that Tribe. I could range myself out into the mineral Kingdom, but the different Operations of them are so well known to every body, that I think it needless to take any particular notice of them: yet this much I will presume to say, although it be foreign to my present Design, that after having made all the Enquiry into the Nature of Metals that Human Industry is capable of, I am perfectly satisfied that they differ one from another only in degrees of Purity; and therefore for aught I know the Business of Transmutation is not so ridiculous a thing as some People would make it. As to those Acids that are manifestly so, they greatly differ in their Operations upon Human Bodies. I have before observed that there are those which may properly be called Acido-sulphurea, and others Sulphureo-Acida: but in Nature I don't know a simple Acid or a simple Sulphur, there being such an indestructible Bond of Union and Friendship between them, that they are never one without the other. Now those Acids that have most Sulphur united with them are Aperitives, Openers of Obstructions, and keep the Blood and Juices in a proper state of Fluidity: Those that have little Sulphur mixed with them are stiptics, and bring the Blood and Juices to a Consistence, when they are over fluid. What I have said upon this Subject is not the effect of Fancy, but of a Series of several Years strict and nice Observations.  
Letter. Besides, if Alkalies did always offend and cause Pain, it must follow that Acids must give ease: But I assure you I have often experienced the contrary; for upon the exhibition of Rhenish, White-Wine, and other Acids, I have found the Pains immediately exasperated, and many times it has been a long while  they went off.  
Answer. If Alkalies' cause Pain, I do agree with you, that Acids of consequence must give ease; but I don't suppose that an ill habit of Body, that has been perhaps some Months or Years a contracting, is to be altered with a few Doses of the most exalted Medicine in the World, let it be Acid, or what you please. But supposing Acids to be the most proper Medicines in the World to ease Pain, as I believe they are; yet it is not improbable, but upon the giving a small quantity of Acid in such cases where there is a large quantity of Alkaly lodged upon any Part, so as to cause Pain, it may only in part dissolve the Alkaly, which was before more fixed, and so by accident may exasperate the Pain; whereas by continuing the use of the Acid, the Alkaly would be perfectly dissolved and extirpated, and so the Pain would altogether vanish: But Pain being sometimes exasperated upon the first giving of them in too small quantities, has, I doubt not, been one great Cause of deterring people from proceeding in the use of them, and also of attributing to them the Cause of Pain: But in great Pains it is my constant Practice to apply Acids externally to the Part affected, as well as give them inwardly; and there are but very few Pains, especially Gouty and Rheumatic ones, that I am not able to overcome in a small time. And for the Pain you say you have often found to be excited upon the giving of Rhenish and White Wine, I have assigned a Reason for that, if they are drunk in too large quantities, both in my Essay of Alkaly and Acid, and in my Tract of the Gout; and therefore shall not again repeat it, but refer you thither.  
Letter. Again, if the Gout proceed from an Alkaly, what is the reason you use so much Sassafras in its Cure? Is Sassafras an Acid, and so proper to subdue this Alkaly?  
Answer. I can cure the Gout, if there were no such thing as Sassafras; I only use Sassafras in Apozems, as a proper Vehicle to dilute other Medicines in the Stomach. But however Sassafras is no contemptible Medicine; and if you will but give yourself the trouble of Distilling a Pound or two of it in a Retort per se, if you afterwards reckon Sassafras amongst the number of Alkalies, I am mistaken; and if I am so, I shall willingly own it.  
Letter. I have only a word or two to speak concerning the green Colour of Syrup of Violets, and so I have done. I believe it may be turned green without an Alkaly: On the exhibition of it to Infants it comes away green very often, and brings away a great deal of green Matter by stool; and yet I believe they do not abound with Alkalies.  
Answ. I own that upon the exhibition of Syrup of Violets to Infants it will frequently occasion green Stools: But from whence doth that proceed, but from its Mixture with the Bile in the small Guts? and that the Bile is an Alkaly I know not any one that doubts.  
Letter. You may read in a late Author of undoubted Credit, that upon an Infant's swallowing of a Dose of Testaceous Powder, an extraordinary Ferment was raised in the Stomach of the Child: Now how could this Ferment be raised, if it had not an Acid to work upon? Besides, does not Experience show that nothing is so proper in Infants Distempers as Alkalies?  
Answer. The Author you speak of is my singular good Friend, and a Man for whom I have a very great Value and Esteem; and as to the Truth of the Relation you mention, I can readily assent to it: But if you have read the Appendix to my Essay of Alkaly and Acid, you cannot but remember, that I there acknowledge that Acids may sometimes abound in the Stomach, and cause a Disorder, but in no other part of the Body; which thing I have so fully handled in that place, that should I recite what I have there said upon this Subject, my Enemies would accuse me of Tautology, and therefore thither I shall refer you: and if what I have there said be not satisfactory to you, I shall endeavour to give you what further Satisfaction I am able. As for the Cure of Infant's Diseases, I don't see but that they require the same Methods to be taken with them, as with grown People, only the Medicines given them must be more mild and gentle, and in less quantities, considering the wonderful Tenderness of their Natures.  
Letter. I have some more things to offer; but I desire you would be pleased to satisfy me as to these. I should be glad to close with your Opinion, and embrace any thing that is new; for I believe Medicine, though it has met with great Improvements of late, to be capable of far greater. I'll give you no farther trouble, only after thanks to you for your indefatigable Labour in searching out the Truth of things, subscribe  
Your humble Servant, F. T  
Answer. I have endeavoured to give you what satisfaction I am able as to the Objections you have already raised, and shall think no labour too much to answer any farther Objections you have to offer. I don't desire of you, or any else, to take up with any thing that comes from me, without examining it in the Balances of Reason and Experience; and if after such Examination you find what I have advanced to be Truth, I don't doubt but to find you a zealous Champion in my Cause: But if otherwise, I beg of you that you will convince me of my Errors, and I shall be very ready to write a Recantation. As for the Improvements that have been made of late, they have principally belonged to Anatomy, and indeed they have been very considerable; and of all the Physicians of Europe, those of our own Nation have had the greatest hand in them. But as for the Improvements in the practical Part of Physic (setting aside the Discovery of the use of the Peruvian Bark in the Cure of Agues) they are very inconsiderable: The most that has been done of that kind, was done by the indefatigably Industrious Dr. Sydenham, and I hearty wish that we had more Dr. sydenham's at this day.  
Sir, there are abundance of Imperfections that you will meet with; but if you did but know the great hurry I have been in, and how little time I have had to sit composedly in my Study, you would readily pardon a great many of them: But this I can assure you, that had I not had an earnest desire to serve you with some other such Candid, Ingenuous Persons as yourself, I would not have deprived myself of so many Hours Sleep (having little other time to command) as I have been forced to do, to put things in that Order they are: At present I have nothing more to add, but that I am  
Yours to Command, JOHN COLBATCH.    

The CASE of EDMUND TURNER Esq  
ON Monday Night about twelve a Clock, being August the thirtieth, Madam Turner came to my House, and told me that Mr. Turner was very ill at my Lord Wharton's at Winchington, and withal desired me, that I would immediately get myself ready, and go down to him to take care of him, which accordingly I did, and got to Winchington the next day by one a Clock. When I came there, I found Dr. Fry of Oxford had been there some time, and was then at Dinner; so I went up to Mr. Turner to inform myself as nicely as possibly I could of his Case; after I had done which, I came down to Dinner, and as soon as Dinner was over, I desired the Doctor that we might consult together what was proper to be done for the distressed Gentleman. But before I take notice of what passed between the Doctor and myself, I shall exactly relate the Case, with the Occasion of his Illness.  
On the Saturday Night before, Mr. Turner, with two other Gentlemen sat down to drink, and continued at it till seven or eight next Morning, but I cannot learn that the Quantities they drank were extraordinary: At which time they all went to bed, the other two Gentlemen lay in Bed the whole day, and eat nothing but Water-gruel; but Mr. Turner got up in the Afternoon, and eat boiled Mutton, with a great deal of strong. Broth with Mushrooms in it, and drank plentifully both of Wine and prodigious strong Beer, and then went to bed again, and presently fell asleep; but early next Morning he awaked in the most dreadful condition imaginable. When I came to him his Circumstances were as follow.  
He had a violent Pleurisy, and Peripneumony upon him, as was plainly to be perceived by a most sharp Pain in his left side, which he greatly complained of, and a prodigious Shortness of Breath. He also complained of a wonderful Nausea and Sickness at his Stomach, and had a Fever upon him to the most intense degree, with a great Stupor and Dulness in his Head.  
Dr. Fry had some Hours before I came sent a Prescription to Mr. William's an Apothecary at Ailesbury, of which I have here inserted an exact Copy.  
For Mr. Turner, August 31. 1697.  

℞ Ol. sem. Lin. rec. (sine igne) extract. lib. semis.  
Sig. The Oil.   

℞ Syr. Balsam. Tolat. Unc. quatuor.  
Sig. the Balsamic Syrup.   

℞ Antimonii Diaphoret.  
Corallii Rub. pp  
Margarit. pp ana Dracm. duas.  
M. f. pull. in Chart. 12 equal. reponend.  
Sig. the Pearl Powders.   

℞ Aq. Hissopi.  
Cichorei ana, unc. sex  
Limacum Mag.  
Lumbricor. Mag. ana Unc. unam sem.  
Cinnamom. Hord. Unc. unam  
Syr. Capillor. Ven.  
Violar. ana Dracm. sex  
M. f. Julap.  
Sig. the Julap.   

℞ Emp. de Cicut. cum Ammon. Uncduas.   

℞ Sem. Cumin. pull. Unc. semis.  
Dr. Fry.   
He had also about an hour before I came taken away about seven Ounces of Blood, the same quantity having been taken away (as I am informed) the Day before by the Order of Dr. Wilson a Physician of the Neighbourhood. I told Dr. Fry that I could not in conscience agree to the use of the Medicines he prescribed. The Nausea at his Stomach was so great, that I feared the Linseed Oil would increase it to such a degree, that it would be of ill consequence; and for the testaceous Powders, etc. they would excite the Hurry and Disorder in his Blood to a greater degree, and increase the Inflammation of his Lungs, and I feared inevitably ruin him. He asked me what Method I would propose? To which I replied, that in my Opinion according to the laudable Custom of the Great Dr. Cole, he ought to lose at least twenty Ounces of Blood more, which would empty the Vessels, and make room for the Blood to circulate through the Lungs: That at due Intervals he should take a moderate quantity of Tartarum Vitriolatum and Cremor Tartari in a Spoonful of Syrup of Vinegar, drinking afterwards a large Draught of Pectoral Decoction, which would take off the Nausea at his Stomach, and promote Expectoration, and perhaps gently carry off the undigested Matter, which lay in his Stomach by Stool: That he should be allowed moderately cooling Liquors as oft as he desired them, in every Draught of which he might take about ten Drops of dulcified Spirit of Nitre, which might help to take off the Inflammation of his Lungs, and calm his Blood: That he should take a Spoonful of a Mixture of Pectoral Syrups often, in which was contained a convenient quantity of Oximel of Squills, which is a great Promoter of Expectoration. To take off the Stupor and Dulness in his Head, I proposed a Cataplasm of Mustard, Horse-Raddish Roots, Rhue, and Castor, to be applied to the Bottoms of his Feet.  
To none of these things would the Doctor comply, neither could I comply with his Methods; so after many long Debates, we at last agreed to go up separately to Mr. Turner, and acquaint him, that we could not agree, and that he must discharge one of us. Dr. Fry went up first, and when he came down I went up; but for fear that things might be misrepresented, I would not go up unless Mr. Wats (a Man eminently known in this City) would go with me to hear what I said. Mr. Wats at first was unwilling, but at last consented. When I came up to Mr. Turner, I told him Dr. Fry and myself could not agree, and therefore one of us must be discharged; I likewise told him that I had sufficient reason to believe that the Method I had proposed for him might retrieve him, but that Dr. Fry was more positive as to the success of his than I would be of any Method I could use in a much less dangerous Case than his was, and therefore I thought it was his most prudent Method to continue him: To which he made me no other Answer, but desired me to go down again, and see if we could not find a Method of Reconciliation, or Words to that purpose: Upon which I went down, and told the Doctor what he said: After a farther Debate without any compliance on either side, we agreed at last to get Mr. Wats to go up and know who must be discharged: when Mr. Wat's came down, he brought us word that Mr. Turner desired to speak with us both together; accordingly we went up, and when he saw us, he desired we would not stand upon any little Punctilios, and begged of us that we would give him a Vomit, for that after any Surfeit he was wont to take a Vomit, which always relieved him. I readily consented to give him a Vomit, and proposed Oximel of Squills with large quantities of Posset-Drink (as Mr. Wat's may well remember) and if that did not work, to excite it with Salt of Vitriol: But to this neither would Dr. Fry agree, but closely urged the use of the Medicines he had prescribed, upon which Mr. Turner assented to take them. I stayed all that Afternoon and the Night following, but had no hand in any thing that was done. I went up with Dr. Fry about six a Clock to see how he did, and at that time his Pulse seemed to be somewhat mended, it having been extremely bad before. About ten (just before I went to bed) I went up again with the Doctor to see how he was, but then I found a most lamentable Pulse, there being nothing but a little trembling Motion to be felt; upon which I desired the Doctor to walk out of the Room a little, when I told him that things looked very ill, for that his Fever was extremely high, his Breath very short, and his Pulse as is before related, and that if he did not mend that Pulse he would drop his Patient; his answer was, that all was well enough: upon which I had nothing more to say, he not being my Patient. Next Morning about seven a Clock I went again to see him, and found him much after the same manner he had been the Night before, but the Doctor told me he hoped all would be well; so I went to Breakfast, and whilst I was at Breakfast, I told one of my Lord Wharton's Servants (to the best of my remembrance it was the Butler) what my Apprehensions of Mr. Turner were, and that I did not see any hopes of his Recovery: But Mr. Turner being solely under Dr. Fry's Care, I did not think fit to stay any longer to neglect my Patients in London, and do him no other Service than to go up now and then, and look at him: so away I came without taking my leave of him; but before I went, I wished the forementioned Servant, if Mr. Turner should inquire after me, and know I was gone, that he would acquaint him that I was unwilling to take my leave for fear of disturbing him. Of all that passed between the Servant and me, Mr. Turner's own Son was a Witness, and was much concerned that his Father was not under my Care. As I was coming home, about six Miles on this side Ailesbury I met Col. Cornwell going to see Mr. Turner, who sent his Man to me to inquire how he was; I made answer, that I hoped he was somewhat better, fearing that if I had told him my real Sentiments he would have pressed me to have gone back with him; and as things stood I did not care to return. By that time I had come about six Miles farther, I met Madam Turner, to whom when she asked me how Mr. Turner did, upon the same considerations I made the same reply I had done to Col. Cornwell. After I was gone Dr. Fry prescribed more Linseed Oil, and a Pearl Cordial.  
About eight a Clock at Night, being Wedensday, I came home, and after I had made two or three Visits, and eat my Supper, I went to bed; I had not been in Bed half an Hour, but Col. Cornwel's Man knocked at the Door, and desired to speak with me; When he came to me, he told me Mr. Turner was much worse than when I left him, that Dr. Fry was discharged, and he begged me that I would come down again to him; for that he would take nothing more from any one, but what I should direct. Upon which I got a Calash and four Horses as soon as possibly I could, and went down again. I got to Winchington on Thursday about twelve a Clock, and when I came there, I found the poor Gentleman in the most profuse Sweat imaginable, his Breath short to the last degree, and almost no Pulse at all: But the Pain in his Side was gone, which his Lady (who was then with him) and those about him took for a good Sign: But I told them that his Shortness of Breath continuing, and his Pulse being so very low, it was rather a bad one, and that he was in a most deplorable condition; and I appeal to every one of my Lord Wharton's Family, who asked me how he did, whether I once gave them the least Encouragement to believe that he would recover. His Shirt that he had upon him was as wet as if it had been dipped in a River, and as cold as Ice, and so were both the Sheets; therefore the first thing I did was to free him from this cold wet Linen; in order to which I got as large a Fire made in the next Room as the Chimney would bear; I than set a Shirt and a pair of Sheets that had been before used, to be well aired and heated: in the mean time his Lady and her Maid with hot Napkins rubbed him, and made him as dry as they could; after which with all the Caution imaginable, we put on a hot dry Shirt, and took away the cold wet Sheets, and put those that we had well heated and aired in their room. This matter just as I have related it I can have sufficiently attested, although it be positively said about the Town, that I took him out of the Sweat, and put him on clean Linen, without airing it at the Fire at all. He being prodigiously thirsty, begged of me that I would give him something that might allay it; upon which I ordered them to make him a Mixture of four Parts small Beer, one Part Whitewine, some Juice of Lemons to make it grateful, and to sweeten it with Loaf-sugar; and he being a great Lover of Nutmeg, desired that a little of it might be grated into it, which, considering the Stupidness in his Head, I agreed to. Of this Liquor I allowed him to drink as plentifully as he pleased; considering the Profuseness of the Sweats he had, had, I durst not then venture to bleed him, although his Fever was as violent as ever. But to the Apothecaries I prescribed as follows.  
For Mr. Turner Sept. 2d, 1697.  

℞ Oximel simp. Unc. quatuor  
Aq. Lactis Unc. sex  
Cinnamomi fort. Dracm. sex  
M. f. Mixtura, cap. Cochleare unum frequenter.   

℞ Oximel. squillit. Unc. duas  
Sig. Oximel of Squills.   

℞ Crem. Tart. Unc. sem.  
Tart. Vitriolat. Dracm. unam  
Sach. Alb. unc. sem.  
M. f. pull. in sex Chart. distribuend. ex quibus cap. unam tertiâ quâque horâ in Cochlear. Syr. Aceti superbibendo haust. Apozematis sequentis.   

℞ Fol. Hederae terrest.  
Flor. Hypericon, ana M. unum  
Rad. Altheae unc. duas  
Balls. tolutani Dracm. unam  
Aq. Font. lib. tres  
bulliantur ad tertiae partis consumption. & coletur, colaturae add  
Oximel. simp. unc. duas  
sp. Nitri dull. gut 30. M.   

℞ Sp. Nitri dull. Dracm. duas  
Sig. dulcified Spirit of Nitre.   
I afterwards sent a second Prescription, which was as follows.  

℞ Sem. Psillii  
Cydoniorum ana unc. sem.  
ponantur in Chart. separatim.   

℞ Electuarii Lenitivi unc. duas  
Crem. Tart. unc. sem. M. f.  
Elect.   
This last Electuary was for Mr. Turner's Man, who had sat up several Nights, and complained of a great inward Heat and Costiveness; but however, because it was inserted in a Bill with Mr. Turner's Name to it, I thought it convenient to take notice of it; though it is no Poison, and if Mr. Turner had taken it himself, it would not have murdered him.  
The forementioned things with Directions were taken as directed; and as to those, for the use of which there was no Direction given, I shall here give an account how they were taken.  
Once in about two Hours I mixed half a Spoonful of the Oximel of Squils in a small quantity of the Apozem, and gave it him. Of the dulcified Spirit of Nitre I gave him ten Drops in almost every Draught of Liquor he drank. As for the Flea Bean and Quince seeds, I had one half of them boiled in two Quarts of Water to the Consumption of one half; and of this mulaginous Decoction I now and then gave him a good Draught, it being a great Promoter of Expectoration. In the House I got made up a Lambative of fine salad Oil and Syrup of Vinegar, and of this I sometimes gave him a Spoonful. But all I could do availed nothing; I could by no artifice make him expectorate in any quantity, only sometimes he would discharge a green putrid Matter. He continued to be short breathed to extremity, his Fever no whit abated, his Pulse low and irregular, and sometimes would totally intermit for two or three seconds, with a Stupidness in his Head.  
About nine a Clock he again broke out into a most profuse Sweat, which I did by no means like, at which time I laid me down upon a Field Bed that was in the Room to sleep, choosing rather to lie so than go to bed, that I might be the more ready to be called upon occasion; but having traveled near sixscore Miles in three days, and been two Nights upon the Road, I was very sleepy. About eleven a Clock my Lord Wharton called Madam Turner into the next Room to consult about sending for Dr. Babo; she left his Man sitting upon the Bed by him, I being fast asleep upon the Field Bed. Whilst Madam Turner was in the next Room with my Lord Wharton, Mr. Turner in the midst of this profuse Sweat leaps out of the Bed, and walked round it to the Close-stool without any thing but his Shirt upon him: Madam Turner hearing some body walk in the Room barefoot, run in to see what was the matter, and found him in this posture; she was immediately followed by my Lord Wharton and some others: as soon as Madam Turner came in I awaked, and got up to help her to get him into the Bed. When he was put into Bed he laid himself into a Posture, out of which he never moved till he died, which was within a very few Hours. Whether this last getting out of the Bed was a shortening of his Lise, I cannot be positive, but it is very probable it might. It is to be observed that the Night before about eleven a Clock, he was in such extreme Agonies, that every body thought he would have died then, at which time his Nails turned bluish; but upon his recovering himself (which I believe was principally occasioned by the sight of his Lady, who just then came into him) his Nails never recovered their Colour, but continued bluish till he died. Now the Nails not returning to their Colour was as fatal a Symptom as could be.  
I am sorry I have been forced to rake up the Ashes of the Dead; but I having so often been charged with no less than the Murder of this Gentleman, I have been forced to write the Case in my own vindication. I am sure it was as much my Interest to preserve Mr. Turner as any one Man in England, there not being one to whom I am more obliged than I was to him, he having done me a great many singular pieces of Service; and I am sure I would have gone as far, and done as much to have saved his Life, as any Man could have done for his Friend.  
Before I conclude upon this Subject I shall presume to take notice of a thing, which happened, which was a kind of Praeludium to his Death; and for aught I know the Thoughts of it might deject his Spirits, and have a fatal Influence upon him.  
About April last Mr. Gadbury came to him, and told him, Mr. Turner, you will die in the Country this Summer, of a Surfeit of Drinking. He received it with a Smile, and said, I die with Drinking, who am the soberest Man in England? that's impossible. In May he went to the Bath, but before he went there, he made his Will, and was observed to be more melancholy than usual. He came back from the Bath very well, and told some of his Friends that Mr. Gadbury was deceived: Some time after he went to Winchington, and just as he was going, one of his Friends bid him remember what Mr. Gadbury had said, and beware of drinking: he said he would. As soon as he was taken ill (I suppose remembering Mr. Gadbury's Words) he told his Son that he should not recover.   

CASE II.  
JUly the eleventh I was sent for to Mr. Davis, a Gentleman of a very considerable Estate near Lynn in Norfolk, who then lodged at Chelsey. He had a little before had the Small Pox, and after that a malignant Fever, having been under the care of another Physician, who had treated him after the common Method with Alkalies and Alexipharmicks; but his Case was now so deplorable, that his Friends despaired of his Recovery, so the former Physician was discharged, and I was sent for; when I came to him, I found his Case as follows. He had a violent Peripneumony or Inflammation of his Lungs, his Breath being constantly very short; but at some times he was so extraordinary short breathed, that his Friends were afraid he would be strangled. He had a Fever upon him to a most intense degree, a great Stupor and Dulness in his Head, a Nausea at his Stomach, and his Pulse very low and irregular, with a great Depression and Lowness of his Spirits. I prescribed for him to Mr. Baxter an Apothecary in St. Martins-lane as follows.  

For Esq; Davis, July the 11th 97.  
℞ Cremor. Tartari Dracm. tres  
Salis Prunellae Dracm. duas  
Ol. Cinnamomi gut. duas  
Cons. Cynosbati Un. unam  
Syr. e Rubro Idaeo q. s. f. elect.  
cap. quant. Nucis Moscatae largae tertiâ quâque horâ superbibendo haust. parvum Julap. sequentis.   

℞ Aq. Cinnamoni Hord.  
Lactis Alex. ana Unc. sex  
Vini rub. Gal. un. quatuor  
Syr. e rubro idaeo Unc. tres  
Ol. sulphur. per camp. gut. xx  
M. f. Julap.   

℞ Syrup. Aceti Unc. tres  
de Rosis sic. Unc. unam  
M. f. Mixtura, cap. Cochleare unum in omni difficultate respirationis.   

℞ Aq. Cinnamomi Hord. Unc. quatuor  
Mirabilis Unc. unam semis  
Syr. Garrioph. Unc. semis  
Conf. Alkermes Scrup. duos  
M. f. Card. cap. cochlearia quatuor vel quinque quando spiritus languent.   
Besides the foremeneioned things, I ordered him to eat Lemon and Sugar very often, and to drink Lemonade in as plentiful quantities as he pleased.  
The next day I visited him again, and found him much after the same manner he was the day before, only his difficulty of breathing seemed to be somewhat abated; the Water he made in the Night was of a perfect Lead Colour, and his Pulse was very low and irregular, and would sometimes totally intermit. The Blackness of his Water and Irregularity of his Pulse made me very doubtful of his Recovery. I then prescribed the following Medicines.  

℞ Cons. Flor. Calendulae  
Lujulae, ana Dracm. sex  
Conf. Alkermes Dracm. unam  
Ol. Cinnamomi gut. tres  
Ol. Sulphur. per Campan. gut. xv  
Syr. Lujulae q. s. f. elect.  
cap. quant. Nucis Moscatae largae quartâ quâque horâ superbibendo haust. Julap. seq.   

℞ Aq. Lactis Alex.  
Cinnam. Hord. ana Unc. decem  
Theriacalis Unc. duas  
Syr. Lujulae Unc. tres  
Ol. sulp. per Camp. gut xv  
M. f. Julap.   

℞ Aq. Cinnamomi Hord. Unc. sex  
Mirabilis  
Epidem. ana Unc. unam  
Syr. Garrioph. Dracm. sex  
M. f. Cardiacum, cap. Cochlearia sex in languoribus.   
The thirteenth I visited him again, his Pulse continued low and irregular, his Urine very black, his Fever nothing abated, but he began to expectorate a little, at which I was well pleased. In the Night he was taken with a Looseness, which considering his long Illness before, he was not well able to bear. I prescribed as follows.  

℞ Aq. Cinnamomi Hord.  
Germ. querc. ana Unc. quatuor  
Epidem Unc. tres  
Mirabilis Unc. unam  
Theriacalis Dracm. sex  
Conf. de Hyacyn. Drac. unam sem.  
Syr. Garrioph. Dracm. sex  
M. f. Julap. Cap. Cochlearia quatuor vel quinque frequenter.   

℞ Lupulor. man. unum  
Passular Corinth.  
Salis Marini, ana Unc. quatuor  
Aceti Acer. q. s. f. Cataplasma  
Carpis applicand.   

℞ Rad. Petasitidis Unc. tres  
Angelicae Hispan. Unc. sem.  
Fol. Rutae pug. duos  
Aq. Font. lib. duas  
Aceti Acerrimi Unc. sex   
Infunde clausè & calidè in Vase terreo vitreato per horas quatuor, & coletur, cap. Unc. quatuor quartâ quâque horâ.  
The fourteenth I visited him again; his Looseness was quite stopped, he spit prodigiously, upon which his Shortness of Breath was almost totally gone; his Fever was greatly abated, and his Pulse extremely mended, and his Urine of a good Colour, and well digested. I prescribed as follows, and also ordered him to take liberally of his Mixture with Syrup of Vinegar to promote his Spitting.  
℞ Aq. Lactis Alex.  
Cinnamomi Hord. ana Unc. decem  
Vini Rubri Unc. sex  
Syr. Lujulae Unc. tres  
Ol. Sulphuris gut. xuj  
M. f. Julap. cap. haust. large. ad libitum.  
The fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth he continued to take the forementioned things, during which time he spit like one in a Salivation; but he continued very weak, and having something of his Fever lurking within him, the eighteenth I prescribed the following Medicines.  

℞ Cons. Calendulae  
Lujulae ana Unc. semis  
Conf. de Hyacyntho Dracm. duas  
Crem. Tart. Dracm. tres  
Ol. Cinnamomi gut. duas  
Ol. sulp. per Camp. gut. xv  
Syr. Lujulae q. s. f. elect.  
Cap. quant. Nucis Castan. tertiâ quâque horâ superbibendo haust. Apozematis sequentis.   

℞ Rad. Eringii Unc. duas  
Aq. Hordei lib. tres  
bulliatur ad tertiae partis consumptionem, & coletur, colaturae lib. unam sem. add  
Aq. Cinnamomi Hord.  
Vini Rubri ana Unc. quatuor  
Syr. Lujulae Unc. tres  
Ol. Sulphur per Camp. gut xx. M.   

℞ Ol. Vitriol. dull. per digest. fact.  
Dracm. duas cap. gut. octo in omni haust. potus.   
He continued the use of these things, and in a week's time his Fever was perfectly gone, he recovered Strength, and was perfectly free from his Shortness of Breath, and all the other Symptoms that he complained of. I then prescribed the following Purge, which was repeated two or three times at due distances, and he is now as hale and hearty a Man as any in England.  
℞ Rerinae Julap. gr. decem  
Antimonii Diaphoret. gr. xii  
Crem. Tart. scrup. unum  
Syr. Balls. q. s. f. bolus  
cap. primò manè cum regimine.  
FINIS.   

Advertisement.  
JUst as the last Sheet was going to the Press, I me with a Book called Alkali vindicatum, written by Dr. Coward, being Reflections on several things in the first part of my Essay of Alkaly and Acid. How far he has overthrown my Hypothesis I leave to all impartial Judges. For my part I don't think the Book worth a Reply: He has taken a great deal of Pains to show his Learning and Gentlemanlike Education in his scurrilous Reflections upon me; but considering the service his Book will do me, I think I have no reason to be angry with him.