A REPLY TO John Colebatch, Upon his Late PIECE, CONCERNING The Curing the Biting of a Viper by Acids.  
By Charles Leigh, Doctor of Physic.  
LONDON, Printed; and Sold by John Shelmer dine, Bookseller in Manchester. 1698.   

To the Reader.  
IT is not in my Nature to treat any of the Faculty of Physic, as perhaps you may find in the following Lines, nor had I now done it, had not the Affronts offered upon all Societies of Learning, and Physicians, commanded it: For indeed, when all Mankind, except those that tread in his unwarrantable Paths, are blackened with the odious Characters of Fraud and Ignorance, in this Case what Returns could be made? From those Aspersions we must either quit ourselves, (and if so, I'm sure when we retort upon him, 'tis as impossible to give a true Account of the Pretender, without some Sting of satire, as to describe the Fury of a Lion, without describing his hideous Yells, and unmerciful Talons,) or else we must submit to his wild Notions; and if so, it's then evident we are the worst of Men, and merit not the Characters of Physicians. Wherefore to set things in their proper Light, that the true Air of the Spark may be taken to the Life, I could not but intermix frequent Shadows to screen his infatuating and alluring Beams, lest these should lead us into farther Errors. But methinks he of all Persons had the least Reason to Quarrel with Eminent and Regular Physicians, (who I doubt not may challenge equal Fame with the most Learned in the World,) that he, I say, who like a Soland Goose, can but, challenge an Equivocal Generation, (for as one from the Plank, so the other dropped from the Mortar,) should trample on Mankind, is not a vulgar Prodigy, and therefore commanded a Return according. I do protest I have no personal Prejudice against him, for as yet I never saw the Man, and so could have no premeditated Quarrel: But when I saw such False and Dangerous Positions transmitted to Posterity, and the rest of my Brethren so horribly blackened, I thought it high time, in Justice to Mankind, and our own Vindication, to put a Stop to this impetuous Torrent.  
The Doctrine of Acids hath from the Egyptians, Arabic, Grecian, German, Italian, and French Physicians, been transmitted to us as of great use in Physic, when proper Symptoms indicate, but never, till now, made a Panacaea, but indeed the Cause of too many Distempers, as may be observed in the Exercitationes Quinque, lately printed at Oxford, and the ensuing Lines; wherefore I shall not recapitulate, but to those refer the Curious. As these are not writ for any other Intent, but for the true Information of Matters, to the present and succeeding Ages, if they have this Effect, it is the utmost of my Ambition; for as for my part, I would neither be cramped with the Doctrine of Acid, or Alkali, since a Physician that confines himself to those Two, resigns up his Liberty of Thinking, and shuts himself up in a Pinfold. The Faculty of Physic is of far greater extent; wherefore I could wish my Brethren would apply themselves to the true Knowledge of Experimental Learning in all its several Branches, than they will easily see how Insufficient these Two are to explain all the Phaenomena of Nature: But till this be done with the utmost Application, we cannot expect any considerable Improvement in that Faculty. But, alas! we are too prone to crowd our Heads with a Landscape of it in a voluminous Theory, take Matters upon Trust, and never examine into the true nature of Things: And whilst Matters are thus managed, we give too just Reasons to our Adversaries to calumniate us; for indeed only knowing Physic at this rate, is but like writing an Account of a Country by superficial Glances o'er some Map or other, and so perhaps by that Method form some unpolished Ideas of the Shell, but never penetrate the Kernel. I will not now trespass farther upon your Patience, but subscribe myself  
Your Humble, Servant, C. L.   

To the most noted Pretender, in answer to those to the most unknown Colebatch, upon his several Tracts.  
WHat! Shall we still be tortured with the Tool?  
A Dull, Amphibious, yet Aspiring Fool!  
Shall his ill Notions still the Codrus be?  
And Truth in obscure Shades still masked lie?  
Awake my Muse, and now thy Choler vent  
On him, of Nonsense but the Sediment.  
Physic, before thy wicked Thesis came  
Abroad abortive, had a glorious Name;  
But since thy sour Chimeras took their Birth,  
A wild Destruction hovers o'er the Earth:  
But, Heaven be praised! too well we Mortals see,  
Not by Diseases, but we die by thee.  
If with thy vappy Lines we did but join,  
Sure was our Fate, as Infamy is thine.  
He like a Fool attempts the gilded Oar,  
We grasped at Juno, but a gloomy Shower  
We caught, a Cheat the like ne'er known before.  
Let then the Quack raise his Olympic Dust,  
And 'gainst Apollo's Sons his Venom cast:  
With Scorn they laugh but at his easy Dart,  
For whilst he writes he only feels the Smart.  
Thy nauseous Poet is to me unknown,  
But sure of Grubstreet an accomplished Son.  
Do then but once allow Mankind to think,  
And let Lethaean Streams compose the Ink  
That writ those Lines, this Happiness we have,  
We shall not then die Martyrs to the Grave.  
I'll therefore now dispatch my injured Muse,  
And in rough Prose the Emp'rick accuse.   

Worthy SIR,  
WITH all the Tenderness imaginable I accost you, for tho' you style yourself a Member of the College, yet since I find you such a weak one, and so thoroughly before confuted, and since these last Squeaks you make are only with your baffled Forces begging Quarter, shall fairly examine what you have urged afresh in this Treatise, and had you not again asserted an universal Regimen of Acids, the Owl should have perched sole Monarch in his Crabtree: Wherefore I shall begin with your Experiments of the Viper; but before I enter upon it, be pleased to let me return upon you the Expression of that most ingenious Lady, A. B.  That Reason was the Eternal Standard, which God Almighty, as a Ray of his own Image, hath impressed on Man, to the election or dislike of what may hurt or secure him, and where this is raised and improved, makes him an Angel; but where sunk and depressed, a grovelling Brute. 
Now, Sir, if upon Examination of the whole Matter, you be forced to sink to the lowest Ebb of Reason, it will then from this follow, you are but the Monkey of her most ingenious Father, or that long eared Animal that never spoke but once to Baalam.  
In the first Pages of your Treatise, you give us an Account of one Philipson that was bit by a Viper, and of giving Acids, as Elixir Vitrioli, in the beginning of the Distemper. Now by the buy, let me tell you, that if Elixir Vitrioli be truly prepared, it cannot properly be called an Acid, but rather a Neutral Spirit; in that Preparation a Vinous Spirit and an Acid being strictly united, and so consequently not purely an Acid: That which is prepared by Vigani, which I take to be the best I have any where seen, will scarce ferment with an Alkali; so that the first Prescription no ways corroborates your Notion of Acids, tho' it is true, from a Mixture of that, and Spirit of Hartshorn, will quickly arise Clouds; and the same may be observed by holding them close together, tho' in distinct Vials; but the Motion in the Mixture of the Liquors is scarce discernible, whence it is plain the Acid produced not those Effects in the By't of the Viper, by so powerfully destroying the Alkalis.  
Your next Prescription I find to be Elixir Vitrioliʒij, Rectified Spirit of Wine two Ounces. Now, Sir, it is most certain the Points of the Acid in this Prescription are so sheathed in the Vinous Spirit, that a greater Corrector of Acids cannot be thought of; for Spirit of Nitre itself we find by this Method to become a safe and good Medicine, by destroying the Acid: Whence it's plain, what was effected by this Medicine, could not be by its acidity, that being destroyed before by the Mixture. Your next Prescriptions are Infusions of Rue, Snakeweed, Angelica, Butter-burr, etc. Which from the ancient Physicians to these very Days, have always been found to have been Alexipharmacs or Counter-poisons, and in those Cases used with success: Must therefore a little Addition of White-wine and Vinegar, which is what J. C. adds, be the Specifik? or the noble Herbs before recited? If the latter, by the same Reason I might as well argue, that if I happened to give an acid Spirit with the Cortex in intermitting Fevers, the Cure was not completed by the Cortex but the Acid, which I think none but Colebatch will affirm; and if so, the Acids contributed no farther here, perhaps than to allay the Heat of the Patient; for I am pretty well satisfied, no Man that considers what a powerful Diaphoretick Snakeweed is, and consequently fines the Blood, and how again Acids fix it, I say, no Man in his Senses that considers these things, can affirm their Virtues to consist in acidity, but quite contrary in oleaginous, alkalious Particles; and if so, it's plain that Acids little or nothing contributed to the Cure in the recited Case: For did ●he Virtues of these Sudorificks consist in ●●n Acidity, how comes it to pass? Those which are really Acids, as Spirit of Vitriol, Sulphur, and the vegetable Acids, as Lujula, Berberis, etc. are not Diaphoreticks. Since then the Virtue of the recited Herbs consists in the Evacuations they make in the miliary Glands by Sweat, it's plain what is effected by them must be by their oleaginous and volatile Particles, which may by due Preparations be prepared from all of them.— Since their Oils are Diaphoretical, and their Acids, if they have any, quite contrary, must we then because those Plants contain an Acid which is not Diaphoretical, and an Oil which is, conclude the Virtue of the Plant consists in the Oil or the Acid? If in the latter, because at the fame time the Goa Stone, or Bezoar, and Juice of Lemons to acidulate as Julips are prescribed, does it thence follow because an Acid is only added to alleviate Thirst, the Cure was effected by the Bezoardick or the Acids? If with the latter, he may as well tell me because the Grand Signior constantly drinks Sherbet, and Coffee, eats all the Delicacies of the Eastern Countries, as Pine-Apples, Partridge, Mutton, Venison, etc. is not nourished by that generous Food, but with a little Vinegar which happened to be mixed with the Sauce. As for my part, I neither pity nor envy J. C. For as no Emulation of him can be an Object of my Ambition, so his wilful and elaborate Ignorance cannot merit the former: With what an unparallelled Impudence than does he browbeat the whole Body of Physicians, and in plain Terms makes them all Knaves or ignorant Pretenders! But, God be thanked, the World by a large Experience hath sufficiently found the contrary, which is the best Demonstration against an ignorant Pretender.  
He tells in one place, he never was a Member of the University, and in that I very readily believe him; and I am sure, had he never been a Member of the College, it had added to the Honour of the Faculty of Physic. His Reasonings against Lemery are as rude as empty, for in the biting of Vipers it's certain there is a sudden Coagulation of the Blood; and if so, the Poison cannot proceed from Volatile, Alkalious Salts, since by a Mixture of those with the Blood, it is certain the Blood is always more fluid, and prevented from Coagulation: And if so, J. C's Notion falls to the Ground.  
What then is become of that Ray of Reason God Almighty imprinted into him? I am sure, to abuse that, and transmit false Notions down to Posterity, is a Wickedness unaccountable, and deserves a severer Punishment than the Statutes of a College can inflict.  
And I speak it without Prejudice, he is much fit for a Bar than a Patient; wherefore I shall dismiss him upon this Point, and proceed to his other Particulars; and to use his own words, how Heathen Greek may sound to him, I know not, for I think he is as much an Heathen as a Grecian; but Currat Lex, would be a just Motto upon him.  Pag. 22. I believe I may boldly say it is the best and clearest Hypothesis in Physic now Extant, and upon the Foundation of which a Man may with the greater Certainty attempt the Cure of most Diseases, than upon any other that hath yet been made public. 
If this be so, I wonder the Precedent resigns him not his Chair, since here is not only a bold Defiance to that Society, but to all others whatever. But the shallowest Brooks run loudest, and the Puny Mouse is the Offspring of a Mountain.  In his Answer to Dr. Tuthill, pag. 23. I have a greater Esteem for you than those Scoundrels that have heretofore appeared in Print against me. 
If you esteem me one of them, I thank you for your Compliment, for be assured it's the greatest Favour you could do me, for should he, that upon trifling, and false Notions had imposed upon all Societies of Learning, and arrogated to himself a Knowledge above all Mankind, and at the same time but a mere Pretender, have treated me in another Dialect, it might perhaps have called in Question all the little Learning I dare pretend to; for when I consider the wonderful Works of Nature, I am far from Dogmatical Assertions, but only in my own Judgement offer the most probable Conjectures.  Pag. 24. And in very many Consumptive Cases it is usual for the Patient to spit up perfect Chalk, and that in great Quantities. 
In what Consumptive Cases? In none that I have yet met with, but the Spitting has been either Sweet, Acid, Austeres, Bitter, or Putrid, none of which are Indications of Chalk: But suppose such Chalky Matter was sometimes lodged in the Lungs, when the Stone or Gout is concomitant, it's plain then from the Arguments before recited by Dr. Covard, and those in the Exercitationes quinque, that the Blood in that Case is degenerated into too Saline a Crasis, and Precipitates too great a quantity of Alkali from the Blood, which indeed makes a kind of Magistery. By which it is plain the Blood in those Cases abounds more with Acid than Alkalious Particles, and I am sure the truest Method in those Distempers is either by Alkalious or Balsamic Medicines.  
What a Wickedness therefore must it be in John Colebatch, to impose such Dangerous Practice upon Mankind, which I am certain can centre in nothing but the Ruin of the Patient? For I dare Challenge him to produce one Instance, in a confirmed Consumption, where he recovered the Patient purely by Acids. How do you make out in Consumptive Persons the Sweat to be Alkalious? Their Tastes are manifestly Saline, their Smells frequently like those of the steams of Vinegar, which, if I am in my Senses, are no Indications of Alkalies, but presume Sense and Reason are as much strangers to J.C. as his Scribbling to Physic and Philosophy. Pag. 34. He runs down Pulu. è Chel. ♋ Comp. & Sp. C. C. in Malignant Fevers, and afterwards affirms, if after the Exhibition of them any thing was done, Nature itself deserves the whole Honour, nothing in the least being to be attributed to the Medicine. In Answer to this, I aver, that the last Winter I was concerned with 300 Persons in Pestilential Fevers, of these there were not six that died, which upon Occasion I can make out, and constantly used the Pulu. è Chel. Goa Stone, and frequently Sp. C.C. And surely the Recovery of so many could not wholly be attributed to Nature: I used Acids very temperately, just to allay their Thirst, but found that of themselves, without the Assistance of Alkali, they only suffered the Patient to sink insensibly. Which I think may serve as an Answer to that Point, and not let Mankind be so miserably abused by such Spurious Notions.  Pag. 41, 42, 43. You assert the Life of Man is a Flame, and that because the Phosphorus is a Thing may be obtained from all Animal Substances, and that by stroking the Back if a Cat in the dark, multitudes of small flashes of Fire will follow ones Hand. 
Certainly such an Inference was never made before, and if Transmigration of Souls be true, here is the clearest Demonstration of it: So that now nothing less perhaps than the Life of a Man has taken its flight to the Cat's Back, and since so, for aught I know, the Cat, instead of Caterwauling, may Argue as well as Colebatch, that so freely gave Life to her Halfmoons with no less than that of a Rational Creature. By your Favour, Sir, because the Phosphorus can be extracted from all Animals, does it thence follow, the Life is in that? By the same Reason I may as well Argue the Life to consist in Alkalies, since according to your own Concessions those may be abundantly prepared from all Animals; and if so, what then becomes of the Doctrine of Acids? For then to Attack these with sharppointed Acids, would be little less than Cutting of Throats. In what particularly Life consists, I presume Mankind, without blushing, may fairly own their Ignorance; but an Ignorant Pretender will attempt any thing, and prove nothing. How do you make out in a living Animal the Phosphorus is actually contained in the Blood, since from the Blood and Urine of Animals it is only prepared by Putrefaction; but this Notion I confess may help the Quaker out at a dead lift, he easily now may tell us, what he means by the Light within him. Pag. 51. I never could see or hear of any one that hath seen any such thing as either Volatile or fixed Alkalisate Salt, that was any other way to be obtained out of Vegetable or Mineral Bodies, than from the Bodies after they had been calcined. And who can help invincible Ignorance? For had you consulted Monsieur du Closs, of the Mineral Waters in France, or the Tentamen Novum of the Mineral Waters in Lancashire, or the Philosophical Transactions Printed about Twelve Years ago, you might in all these have found a large Description of Natural Alkalisate Salts, that were not made by Calcination, either of Mineral or Vegetable Bodies, and so consequently not as you term them, the Excrements of Fire; but I think yourself may be very well styled Inter Socraticos notissima fossa Cinoedos.  Pag. 52. I think it may not be amiss to infer, that the Alkali to be found in Animal Substances, is the Excrements of their Fire. 
Did ever any but a Lunatic lay down such a Position? For were the Alkali of the Blood prepared by Conflagration, there must then in that, as in Plants, be a total Dissolution of its whole Compages, and consequently there would be no such thing as a Living Animal. It's plain the Alkalious Parts of the Blood are separated from it by proper Glandules, for the most part, as in the Liver and Reins, and not prepared by Conflagration. But he that can affirm such Absurdities as these, may assert any thing, and may if he please affirm there never was any such thing as a Shadow made by the Gnomon of a Dial. But Logicians tells us, Contra Principia negantem non est disputandum; wherefore my Patience being quite tired out in that Point, I dismiss him.  
Pag. 64. How do you make out, Alkalies make the Serum of the Blood Gelatinous, since in Blood-letting, by mixing Alkalies with the Blood, we observe it to be made more fluid, which could not be, did Alkalies turn the Blood to a Jelly? In Pag. 70. How does it appear it is the Acid part of the Sulphur that ferments with an Acid, but rather the Oleaginous Particles, since were it the former, Spirit of Sulphur would ferment with Spirit of Sulphur, which is both false and absurd, and a true Brat of Colebatch's Genius. If it is not the Acid of the Sulphur that ferments with the Acid, what you offer is trifling and ridiculous, and no Answer at all to Dr. Tuthill's Objection. Nor do you any ways make it appear the Virtues of Bitters consist in an Acid, which till you fairly do, you still stand charged with those Objections: Bitterness in Plants I don't apprehend to consist either in a predominancy of Alkali or Acid, but in a particular Mixture of different Bodies, which by Calcination, or Distillation is destroyed, so that no Preparation from a bitter Plant will by any such Method, (viz.) Distillation or Calcination, ever answer the Virtue of the Vegetable; so that what he alleges in relation to the Acids of Bitters, is nothing to the Matter.  
Guaicum, Sassafras, and Bitters, you assert to be invelop'd Acids; but pray if it be in you Nature to think, is it by the Acids in these, the Scurvy, Inflammatory, and Venereal Distempers are cured, or by their Terebinthinate and Balsamic Particles.  
To affirm the former, you may with the same parity of Reason affirm, Mercurius Dulcis not by its Saline Particles makes that Alteration in the Mass of Blood, which no Man I suppose will Assert that understands the Nature of Sublimate; but indeed the Saline Particles being sheathed in the Mercurial ones, they by that means become a safe Medicine, and by their obtunded Points may help to incide the Viscid Humours, and by that means make room for the Mercurial Particles united with them; but then the Cure is not to be attributed to the Acids as such, but the Alkalious Particles conjoined: So that if it is this you mean by your invelop'd Acids, you may as well tell me a Wound may be as easily made by the Sword in the Scabbard, as what Cures you attributed to invelop'd Acids, were effected by their Acidity, but indeed quite contrary by their Balsamic Particles.  
Pray, Sir, in Diarthoea's, where a Person in Twenty Four hours, will sometimes haven an Hundred Stools, with intolerable Gripes, and the Faeces frequently clear, green, or viscid; I would gladly know whether those Humours are more highly saturated with Acids or Alkalies. If with the latter, how comes it to pass, that in the West-Indies, where that Distemper is most frequent, Chalk is found to be a certain Specific? In the like Case, the Honourable Mr. boil, highly applauds Lapis Calaminaris, which is a most Potent Alkali. Now in these Cases were the Blood so highly saturated with Alkalies as you mention, the giving of these would be only to add Oil to a Flame, and raise the Distemper the higher; but the quite contrary Effects are found from them: Wherefore once more scratch your Abortive Noddle, and give a full Answer to these two Instances.  
What Physician of Note ever rejected the prudent use Acids? But what makes that to Illustrate our Hypothesis? Were the Cures perfected by Acids? If not, as I'm sure they were not, what you urge is impertinent.  Pag. 86, 86. Bittern is the most Corroding fixed Alkali in Nature. 
Under Favour, Sir, you are mistaken, for were it so great an Alkali, it would ferment with any Acid, but will not with any but Oil of Vitriol; and if so, it is not so great an Alkali as you make it. Till you Answer the Arguments alleged by Dr. Coward and myself against you, for my part, I think not myself obliged to take any further notice of your undigested Scribble, but to give a full and clear Answer to those Arguments, Challenge you and your whole Party, otherwise I think it much safer to Practice upon Established Principles, than the Enthusiastic Notions of a Rambling Empirick.  
〈◊〉 Sir, with a little loss of Time, I have given you a Reply to your last Performances, and tremble to think of your designed Treatise of Fevers; you have had already sufficient Revenge upon the Thinking part of Mankind: Wherhfore, good Sir, Murder us not afresh, but if you have any Grains of Compassion, stop your Hand, and as you are Stout, be Merciful, lest by your Erecting these Castles in the Air, you give the World too just Reason to wish the same Punishment may be inflicted upon you, as one of the Russian Emperors did upon and Engineer, who because he had built such an awkward Fortress, ordered both his Eyes to be pulled out, that neither he himself might make, nor direct others to do the like.