THE ENGLISH REMEDY: OR, TALBOR's WONDERFUL SECRET, FOR CUREING OF Agues and Fevers. SOLD By the Author Sir Robert Talbor, to the most Christian King, and since his Death, ordered by his Majesty to be Published in French, for the Benefit of his Subjects.  
AND NOW Translated into English for Public Good.  
LONDON: Printed by J. Wallis, for Jos. Hindmarsh, at the Black Bull in Cornhill. MDCLXXXII.   

  

THE BOOKSELLER TO THE READER.  
THE Pulbisher of this Book in French, who is Chirurgeon to the Duke of Orleans, and Director of the College of New Discoveries in Physic, gives us an Account, That by Orders from the French King his Master, he had received from the hands of Monsieur D'Aquin, his Majesty's chief Physician, the Receipts of that Arcanum of Sir Robert Talbor, which for a long time was so successful both in England and France, in the Curing of all sorts of Agues; to be by him Published for the Benefit of his Country. That it is the same which (as he affirms) his Master purchased at a very dear rate from the Author, I think no man need to doubt; since it is published by Orders of that King who is so jealous of his Glory as not to suffer his Name to be abused, nor taken in vain by a subject; and that the value of it is such as to render it a public present suitable to the Grandeur of a great Monarch, the general Applause that it has obtained from the Learnedest of the Faculty of Medicine in that Country, and the Experience of thousands who have found the Benefit of it here in England, do sufficiently evince. The truth is, the Publisher is not wanting to set a just estimate upon the intrinsic worth of the Remedy, and to recommend it to the World as it deserves; but when he reflects upon it as an effect of the Liberality of his Prince (as indeed it is) he is transported into such raptures of Gratitude, that the Praises which upon that occasion he offers to his Majesty are so boundless, that little less than an Altar and Incense, can excuse them from Flattery: And that is the reason why the Translator has not Translated the Preface to the Book, seeing the humour of too many of this Kingdom is so far from flattering, that it hardly inclines them to be grateful to the very best of Princes, and much less to that King.  
Nevertheless I think no good man will reckon me guilty of flattery to say, That the French King hath learned of an English man the Secret of Cureing Agues in the natural body; so if occasion happen (which is not impossible) he may learn from the prudent Conduct of England's King (if it be not too hard to be imitated) the Royal Secret of stopping the Ague-fits of the State, occasioned by the Fermentation of corrupt and seditious humours in some of the Noble parts, and in the lower region of the Body Politic, and of curing the Distemper without much Purging and Blood-letting.  
The Book takes well in France, and that made the Translator recommend it to the Bookseller, who now publishes it for the Use and Benefit of his Country; wherein he hopes not to have deserved ill of the Public, which on all occasions he is ready to serve. Accept therefore of the Book, Reader, and make use of it to thy best advantage, the more thou findest therein the greater will be the satiisfaction and interest of the  
Bookseller.   

THE ENGLISH REMEDY: OR, TALBOR's WONDERFUL SECRET.  
QVinquina, or Kinakina, is the Bark of an Indian Tree, of the bigness of a Cherrytree, whose leaves much resemble the leaves of a young Oak, and beareth a fruit not unlike to an Acorn, the figure thereof given by Johnstonus may be seen at the end of the History of Trees written by Mantissa.  
It is hardly as yet thirty years since this Drug became known in Europe: since that time many Authors have wrote of it, as Johnstonus, James Chifflet, Denis Touquet, in his Royal Garden of Plants; Roland Sturmius, Melipus, Conigius, Gaudentius, Brunatius, Wolfangus, Hoeferus, Willis, Rolfincius, a Physician of Leyden that hath added to Scroderus, M. de Muve, in his Pharmaceutick Dictionary, the Author of the Treatise of the Cure of Fevers, etc. And last of all Mr. Lemery in the fourth Edition of his Course of Chemistry: several other curious Remarks are to be found in our Journals of Medicine upon the same subject.  
These Authors do not all agree upon the Etymology of its name, nor upon the place from whence it is brought; for some affirm that it comes from China, and therefore many have called it Cortex sineasis, and to distinguish it from that Root which is called China or Kina, they have named it Quinquina, or (which is the same thing) Kinakina: others again who are more in number, maintain that it is brought from Peru, where the Fever or Ague is called Quina, whence comes the name Quinquina; That the Natives of that Country call it Gannateride; that because of its extraction it ought to be called in Latin, Cortex Peruviana, and in the vulgar Language the Bark of Peru, and that the name of Jesuits Powder by which it commonly goes, was given it, because the Jesuits were the first that brought it from America, of which Peru is a part. However the matter be, they begin now to call it in Latin, Cortex febrilis; and the Spaniards name it, Palo de Culenturas, i. e. Feaver-wood.  
The reason why it was thought to come from China, was because much of it was brought from Portugal, but that makes nothing against the common opinion, because it is known that the Portugueze have Commerce with both Indies.  
Some Authors make two kinds of Quinquina, one which they say is wild and of little value, and another which they think is cultivated, and therefore say that it is the better of the two; but to make a true estimate of their quality, it were fit one should be upon the place where they grow.  
It is certain nevertheless that the goodness of it may be known by some marks which experience hath discovered; for the best hath always its upper rind or skin cut transversally or crossways with pretty deep streaks or lines, and long-ways with very superficial ones when it is fresh, and now the most part of the little squares or interstices of its skin, are of a silver white colour; it is otherways of a clear reddish colour, compact, very bitter, and gives to the boxes wherein it is kept a sweet and pleasant smell.  
But it is to be observed that that smell is much weaker and less aromatic than the scent of Cassia Cariophilata, which by cheats is Sold for Quinquina, mingling it with the bark of Cherrytree, which for some days before they have steeped in Water wherein Aloes hath been dissolved; and this is a very culpable sophistication, seeing these kinds of barks have nothing of the virtue of Quinquina.  
There is besides this, another way of cheating the Public as to the matter of the Jesuits Powder, for there are some Droguists that infuse it entire, and having by that means extracted the first Tincture out of it, for their own advantage, sell it afterward at the same rate as if it had not lost his chief virtue.  
Hitherto the price of Quinquina or Jesuits Powder, hath been very various and uncertain. When it was only in the hands of the Jesuits, it was sold at Rome and Paris for Eight or Nine Shillings Sterling the Dose, which consisted only of Two Drachms; but so soon as Droguists began to Trade in it, it began to fall in Price, so that Three or Four Years ago, the best might have been had for about Forty Shillings the Pound weight; but no sooner began the English Remedy to be in vogue, but men began every where to make Experiments with the Bark of Peru, which much enhansed the value of it: yet that was not all which raised it to the highest price; for Sir Robert Talbot observing that Febrifuges were prepared which came very near his own, and fearing least some body at length might discover it, resolved to buy up all the Quinquina, that he could find at Paris, and the other chief Towns of France, and of England also. The execution of this Design making some noise, several Physicians, Surgeons and Apothecaries, thought it concerned them, to make all haste to provide themselves; and some that they might not be wanting in Precaution, caused a considerable quantity of the Bark to be brought from Rouen and Bourdeaux, so that Mr. Audery and Mr. villain, the two most famous Droguists in Paris, having Sold all they had at the Rate of about Fifteen Pound the poundweight; and not being able to procure any more from any place, for above a Fortnight there was not a bit to be had at any Droguist's shop in Paris, nevertheless some small quantity came at length, but it was held up so dear, that it was like to have gone off at the rate of an Hundred Crowns the poundweight: since that time the Merchants having imported much from Spain and Portugal, and the English Remedy having lost the Advantages of the Mode; the price of that Commodity hath fallen daily, in so much that at present it does not yield above Four or Five Pound the poundweight; and I make no doubt, but that in a short time a Fleet from the West-Indies will make it much cheaper.  
Amongst the Authors whom I have named, there are some who endeavouring to explain the properties of Quinquina or the Jesuits Powder, according to the principles of the ancient Medicine, think it enough to say that it is hot and dry in the beginning of the Second Degree: and some others of the number of those who have introduced bad Principles into the New-Philosophy, think to mend the matter by saying, That Quinquina as an Alkali stops the motion of the acid which occasions the Fever: but that is to illustrate one obscurity by others that are far more obscure.  
That we may give the World somewhat more satisfactory as to that point, we must in the first place, (with Willis,) take our measures from Experience, and allow with him, That all things which are actually bitter, have great virtue in sifting preternatural fermentations; and upon that account it was that the Root of Gentian was heretofore in so great reputation for curing of Quartan Agues; and that the Flowers of the lesser Cantaury, the Root of Contrayerva, and Serpentaria, the leaves of Wormwood and Chervil, Scammony, and many other bitter Drogues, are really Febrifuges, though in virtue far inferior to the Jesuits Powder.  
Having laid down this from undoubted Truth, we must now inquire into the Natural Causes which produce Bitterness in mixed bodies: now supposing (as it is reasonable we should) that the true Elements of Bodies are acid, liquid, fiery, etherean, and terrestrial corpuscles; it will be a very easy matter to discover those Causes: for seeing all bitter things penetrate the Tongue, in such a manner that they leave therein a sense of their action for a long time after, and that of all the elements none are so proper as acids to produce that effect, we must conclude that they are predominant in mixts which have that taste; but also since being mingled with many liquid corpuscles, they produce only sharp and corroding liquors, as the spirits of Salt, Vitriol, Alum, etc. that being joined to fiery corpuscles, they make only Caustics, as corrosive sublimat; the spirit of Nitre, cauteres, etc. and that being in intimate conjunction with Sulphurous and Oily Particles, they only produce sweet mixts, as Honey, Sugar, etc. It follows that none but terrestrial corpuscles mingled with them in a proportionable quantity, can produce a bitter taste, and in effect the more of Earth there is in Salt, the bitterer it is, and on the contrary, the more it is refined and depurated, the less bitter it is: thus Sea Salt dissolved in a moist Air, and afterward filtrated through brown paper, has no other taste than of an acid spirit, though before that dissolution and filtration it was considerably bitter.  
Now since among the Elements that I have named, the acid is heaviest, and by consequence the coldest; and that though the terrestrial be not so heavy as it, nor yet as the liquid, yet it is more ponderous than the fiery and ethereal, we may say that it is temperate; I mean, of a quality equally distant from the two extremes, and that so, being with the acid predominant in a mixed body, the mixed must certainly be cooling, or at least proper to preserve the just temperament of our body.  
But because there are no bitter things made up solely of acid and terrestrial corpuscles, and that there are some wherein either the fiery, the ethereal or liquid particles are likewise in a considerable quantity; so there are some more or less bitter, and even more or less cooling and temperate; but if we mind the dryness of Quinquina, and yet how unapt it is to take fire, it will not be hard to conclude, That the three Elements which I have named last, enter but in a very small quantity into the composition thereof, and that by consequence amongst all bitter mixts none can be of a more temperate quality than it.  
From the Principle which I have now laid down concerning the nature of Quinquina, all the other properties thereof may be deduced; for seeing its predominant parts are the acids, whose property is to coagulate the more substantial liquors, such as Blood, Milk, etc. and the terrestrial which by absorbing the humidity and unctuosity that relaxates the solid parts, does bind and strengthen them; of necessity it must be styptic and astringent, and it is in effect in these two qualities principally, that the rarity and wonderfulness of its operation does consist, as I have made appear in former observations.  
But it is not to be thought as some have imagined, that this property of binding renders it so fixative as to keep within the febrifick matter, or other morbific causes dispersed in the humours, or adhering to the solid parts; it is so far from that, that by reviting the homogenous parts of the blood, it separates them from the heterogeneous or superabundant parts, whereby it facilitates their expulsion, for which Nature alone does often labour in vain, in the same manner as by strengthening and fortifying the viscera, it puts them in a condition of resisting all attacks, and of discharging themselves of the Impurties that oppress them.  
Experience well agrees with these remarks, for the heat that dries up and consumes the Hectics is often extinguished by the use of several Preparations of the Jesuits Powder. It is no less powerful against all other internal Inflammations, Fevers, and generally against all extraordinary and preternatural Fermentations; in a very short time it rectifies the depraved motion and the altered consistency of the mass of Blood, and it many times occasions such salutary evacuations, that having dreined the source of Dropsies, by the depuration of the natural voices, which through their depravation and transudation were become the antecedent cause of it, that it becomes the principal cause of the expulsion of the extravasated Superfluities which were the conjunct cause of the same.  
It is nevertheless strange, that among so many Authors, who with admiration have written of its effects, not so much as one have taken the pains to explain them by their true causes, nor indeed thought that it could be done; for Willis, who without doubt hath spoken most judiciously on that subject limits himself to this, that having never seen any other such like effects, and not being able to ground a general conclusion upon a particular experiment, all that is to be done is to endeavour to understand and well observe the phoenomina that depends thereon, without troubling one's self with the efficient principles thereof.  
But to make appear how far one may err in the explication of things, when they are not known by their proper causes, it will not be amiss here to relate some opinions of that Author touching the effects of the Jesuits Powder upon the mass of Blood: The first is that it always causes therein a certain Fermentation that only desirous, that of the Fever because it proceeds from another cause: Now the Jesuits Powder does indeed sift the fermentation of the Blood and the other Humonrs, but not excite any itself: The Second is, that it maintains its effect no longer than it is in the Vessels, and that so soon as all the parts thereof are spent and gone, the disposition that it had suppressed infallibly wears, in so much that the Relapse is as certain as the stopping of the Fit: Nevertheless, the contrary appears daily almost, to any who knows how to use it aright: to be short, the Third is, that it stops not the Fits of the Fever, neither by fixing nor yet by resolving the Blood as other febrifuges do; nevertheless it is certainly true that the principal effect of bitter, astringent and styptic februifuges is, the reuniting of the proper parts of the blood divided and scattered by the disordered Animal Spirits, or by Heterogeneous and superfluous matters.  
The Author of the Additions to Scroderus has had no better luck, in saying that Quinquina, or the Jesuits Powder cures the Fever by the virtue that it hath in Precipitating the Fabric Ferment, for besides that it is hard to be understood how a matter contained within Vessels, and mingled with the Blood, can be Precipitated by a Medicine whose principal action is directly opposite to that of evacuatives; those kinds of Precipitations being only to be made by Urines, by little and little, and in a considerable space of time, cannot rationally be attributed to the Jesuits Powder, that acts so powerfully, and so suddenly produces its effect, that many times a single Dose of it, stops and prevents the immediately approaching fit of an Ague.  
The Author of the Cure of Fevers and Agues by Quinquina, who makes the cause of the Fever to consist in a certain Acide Ferment, refers the effects of that Medicine to the faculty that it hath of subduing, mortifying, and resolving that Poison; but that Author hath not minded, that if in effect Quinquina were able to destroy or even to expel the Acides that are in the blood, it would not be taken without entirely perverting that Liquor, seeing it would deaden or drive out the very Acides that make naturally a part of the same, and that it must necessarily lose its form and be changed into another kind of juice, if the greatest part of one or the other of its Elementary principles were taken from it.  
Mr. Lame●y in his new course of Chemistry is not so wide of the Truth, when he says that Quinquina does fix and coagulate the Feverish Humour, much in the same manner as an Alcali sifts the motion of an Acide Salt; for in effect it is the property of that remedy, to rally, bring together, and rounite the parts of the liquid body wherewith it is mingled, as often as it is put in action by necessary dispositions; but that Author hath omited to take notice that this reunion is only made of the proper parts of the blood, and that the Febrifick matter remains confounded in the superfluous Serosity wherewith it is evacuated, either by Transpiration or by the way of Urine.  
The Principle that I have Established is of another Nature than the Opinions which I have now related; it is plain, clear, just, and every way conforms to all the Experiments that have hitherto been made upon the Jesuits Powder, and I cannot tell but that I may say to all that shall be made hereafter, for whether it be given for our sort of Fevers, or for another, for Vapours (against which I take it to be very good) for Dropsies, or for other Distempers, whether it be given in Substance, Infusion, Tincture, Opiate, Extract, or Quintessence: I am persuaded that its pincipal effect will always be to separate the proper and Homogenous parts of Liquors from those that are Heterogeneous and of a different Nature to them, to reunite the one, and by that reunion to facilitate the expulsion of the others, yet with this difference, that that effect will be more or less considerable, according to the good or bad use and Administration that shall be made thereof.  
Moreover, That we may not too slightly pass over the different Preparations that may be made of Quinquina, I am not to omit that Pol Fincius describes a kind of Essence of it, which is nothing else but its Tincture Extracted with excellent Wine, and afterward gently evaporated: That Sturmius makes a description of another much like to it, that the Author of the Cure of Fevers by Quinquina, will have it to be given in Bolus Extract, Fermented Liquors, and in Infusions made in Wine, Ale, Distilled Waters, Tisance, and in common water, that Mr. Lamery gives the Preparations of a Tincture, of an Extract, and of a Salt of Quinquina, that there are other ways of preparing it to be found in several Authors which I think needless, to cite, and that after all the more simple and less artificial of all these preparations are the best, as will appear in the description of the English Remedy; which being to be preferred to all that have hitherto been prepared with Quinquina, aught to serve us as a Pattern, until we have discovered some more Excellent.  
It is an Error in Physic to make a hodgepodge of a great many ingredients (though they be much of the same efficace) to satisfy one and the same indication; and therefore as Quinquina or the Bark of Peru, whereof I have now given you the History, is without contradiction the surest of all simple Febrifuges, so is it the only basis of the English Remedy, and it will even appear by the following description, that of the Physicians, Surgeons, and Apothecaries, that have endeavoured to imitate it, those who have prepared it most simply, have come the nearest to it, and hereby it is evident that that Author who boasted every where that he had found it out, was very far from it, since he always imagined that the virtue of Quinquina might be improved by fermenttaion, and by the addition of the flowers and salt of lesser Centaury, White Tartar, Sal-Armoniack, Sassafras-wood, Juniper-berries, and some other ingredients.  
To conclude, though that Remedy consists in several different preparations, yet still they refer indifferently to the principle of simplicity that I have mentioned; and this will better appear in the Receipts of them, that Sir Kobert Talbor gave the King, and which are here transcribed with all the exactness that the matter requires.  

The first infusion of Quinquina, or the Jesuits Powder making a part of the English Remedy.  
TAke a pound of the best bark of Quinquina beaten to a subtle powder and seared, besprinkle it interchangeably for the space of a day or two with the decoction of Anis and the juice of Parsley, than put the powder into an Earthen Pitcher holding about fifteen or sixteen quarts, pour upon it gently and still stirring the matter, as much good Claret Wine as the Vessel will hold, and having afterward stopped it well, let your mixture infuse for the space of eight days without setting it near the fire, but not forgetting to stir it two or three times a day with a stick or instrument fit to stir the bottom, afterward having poured off your liquor, through a close strainer, put it into glass bottles, which being well stopped and placed in a dry place not too Airy, will preserve it in full force and virtue two or three months and more.   

Directions given by the most Christian King's Chief Physician, concerning the use of this first infusion.  
This first infusion, which is the strongest and bitterest, is to be given to stop the fits of an Ague or Fever that one would Cure, the Dose of it for those of Age and strong persons, is five or six ounces, that is about half an English pint; but for those who are naturally delicate, of a hot constitution, or not much accustomed to Wine, this Dose aught to be a fourth part less, a third part, yea and sometimes one half less, observing to correct each Dose with the addition of a little of the juice of a Lemon or an Orange, when there is no consideration that hinders from choosing the most convenient time to give the first Dose of that infusion, it ought always to be at the end of a Fit, but seeing in Quartan Agues that choice might retard the Cure for three or four days, in that case it may be usefully given the night before the next fit that is expected; but than it is good to fortify each Doses, by some drops of the Essence or Tincture whereof we shall speak hereafter.  
After one hath began to give of this infusion, he must continue to make the Patient take it once every three hours until the time of the next fit, unless in time of sleep, which ought never to be interrupted, and renew again the use of it in the beginning of the intermission, but with this observation, that after the Patient hath miss one Fit, it will be enough to give a Dose in the morning fasting, and another a long time after Supper; which is only to be be continued for five or six days.   

The second infusion of Quinquina, making part of the English Remedy.  
Take the settle or remainder of the former infusion, put it into the same Earthen Pitcher, or into another of the same bigness, with half a pound of fresh Jesuits Powder prepared as hath been said, fill the Pot with the same Wine, and observe in general, as well for the preparation as the preservation of that second infusion, all the circumstances directed for the first, with this difference only, that for the making of this, ten days are to be employed.   

Directions given by the King's Chief Physician, concerning the Use of this second infusion.  
When after the Fever hath ceased, the first infusion hath been given morning and evening for the space of six days, the use of the second is to be begun and continued for Eight days, observing the same Dose as of the first, but only once a day in the morning when the Patient awakes.   

The third infusion of Quinquina, making part of the English Remedy,  
Take the settlings of the second infusion, and without any addition put it again into the same Pitcher with the same quantity of Wine, and having let it stand in infusion for the space of ten days, and observed the directions prescribed for the preparation and preservation of the two former infusions, keep it for the use hereafter mentioned.   

Directions given by the King's chief Physician concerning the use of the third Infusion.  
The eight days prescribed for the use of the second Infusion being expired, we must begin with the third, which is then sufficiently strong. It is not to be given for the first fortnight but in one Dose every other day, and then to desist by degrees, that is, for the next fortnight to reduce it to a Dose once every third day, and so to continue until the Patient hath taken of all the three Infusions about eight quarts.   

The Essence or Tincture of Quinquina, making part of the English Remedy.  
Take two Ounces of Quinquina, Pulverised, searched and then Alkolized upon a Marble Stone, put it into a Glass Bottle, and pour upon it eight Ounces of the best Spirit of Wine, set your Bottle in the Sun for the space of fifteen days, taking care to stir and shake it well at least once a day, afterward pour off your Tincture, and keep it in a Bottle closely stopped, to be used as occasion shall require.   

Directions given by the King's chief Physician; concerning the use of the Essence or Tincture of Quinquina.  
Besides what hath been said touching the use of this Essence or Tincture, when we spoke of the time of giving the first Infusion, it is still to be observed that the virtue of each Dose of that infusion is to be increased and fortified by the addition of five, six or even seven or eight drops of this Tincture, as often as the contumacy of the Ague hath resisted its operation after several Doses; but this addition is to be regulated by a skilful Physician, who is to take his indications from the nature of the Disease, and the dispositions of the subject.   

An Opiate prepared with Quinquina, making part of the English Remedy.  
Take what quantity you please of Jesuits Powder, prepared as is above directed, and incorporate it with a sufficient quantity of the syrup of Lemons, or of Grimes if it be for a Woman with Child; reducing all into the consistency of an Opiate by an exact mixture.   

Directions given by the King's Chief Physician, concerning the use of the Opiate.  
There are some Patients upon whom the first infusion though fortified by the addition of the Essence or Tincture has not sufficient virtue to stop the Ague fits; to these the specific is to be given in substance, and the best and most commodious way of doing it, is the Opiate that is now described, it may be given from four to six Drachms, once or twice a day according as need shall require, and that either upon the point of a Knife, in a Wafer, or in what other manner one pleases.   

A Purging Wine making part of the English Remedy.  
Take an Ounce of good Hiera Pica, and infuse it for the space of eight days in half a Pint or a little more of Claret wine, observing to stir the bottle wherein you have put it, only once a day for the first three days, and not at all to move or shake it during the other five, afterward pour out your infusion gently by inclining the bottle, into another bottle which is to be closely stopped, and keep it for the use follwing.   

Directions given by the King's Chief Physician, concerning the use of this Purging-Wine.  
When by reason of the Patient's repletion, or a supervement constipation the belly must be opened, we must add to each quart of the infusion of Quinquina three or four spoonfuls of the above-described Purging-Wine, mingling all exactly together, and use it in the same manner as hath been directed when we spoke of the infusions, that is to say, in a greater or smaller quantity, according as it shall happen in the time of the first, second, or third infusion, and also according to the indications taken from the present state of the Patient, and of the Disease.  
It is observed that when there is no considerable repletion, and that the costiveness is but moderate, simple glisters made of Milk and the yoalks of Eggs, are to be preferred before all kinds of purgatives, too great a looseness of the belly being always contrary to the operation of the specific.   

Other Directions given by the King's Chief Physician, concerning what is to be observed during the course of the English Remedy.  
As it is sometimes useful to open the belly during the use of the English Remedy, so at other times it is of great importance to stop it when by a preceding or supervenient looseness, the digestion is weakened, and the chyle rendered impure; for such dispositions are very much contrary to the Cure of Agues: in such a case it is necessary that besides the Doses of the specific that are given every day, there be at least two given mingled with an equal part of the tincture of Roses, extracted upon hot embers with common water, and without the addition of the spirit of Vitriol, or any other acid spirit; for that effect an ounce of red Roses is sufficient for a quart of water: this tincture is extracted in twenty four hours, and after it is poured off, three ounces of good white Sugar is to be added to each quart.  
In time of the intermission of the Fits, and as much as may be at the usual hours of eating, the Patients may feed upon what their appetite inclines them to, and choose such food as Nature seems to desire, without any reservation, unless it be of salt Pork and Bacon, yet still observing to prefer solid food before liquid, and in case of thirst or hunger, not to drink until a quarter of an hour, and not to eat till an hour after each Dose of the Specific, that the distribution and digestion that ought to be made thereof be not interrupted.  
It is moreover to be observed, that water and tizanne or barleywater do weaken the virtue of the remedy, and that so, Wine and Water, Beer or Ale, such as men drink when they are in health is to be preferred before all other Beurage. Furthermore, seeing the operation of the Specific tends always to the recovery of strength, and that other remedies do necessarily diminish it, they cannot be used both at a time, without interrupting many salutary operations, and without exposing the Patients to an almost certain danger, and especially those who by their proper Constitution, by Age or the Contumacy of the Disease, are already much weakened and extenuated; and therefore, as we have just now observed, the operation of the Remedy cannot be more efficaciously assisted than by the use of the most nourishing meats, because they concur with it to the reparation of strength, and put the Patients in a condition of enjoying perfect health so soon as the Ague is stopped.  
Nevertheless a prudent Physician who intends to give the Specificker may sometimes by Blood-letting, Purging, and other ordinary Medicines, correct the bad dispositions of the body, that might hinder the benefit which is to be expected from it; but these Remedies being only to be considered as simple preparatives, they are always to be used before the Specific, which is never more powerful than when it is given by its self.   

Other Observations of the King's chief Physician, concerning the Virtues of the English Remedy.  
Never did Remedy better deserve the name of a specific Febrifuge; for never did any as yet come to our knowledge, that hath so speedily and securely stopped, and cured Fevers and Agues, as that hath done. The truth is, Quinquind, which maketh the basis of it, and which we have had knowledge of for about thirty years, does almost infallibly stop the fits of Intermittent Fevers, when it is given in substance in white, some without other ceremony; that is to say, according to the method Prescribed by the Jesuits, who were the first that brought that Bark into Europe; And in Authors that have written since that time some other preparations are to be found which are believed to be more efficacious; but experience hath convinced us, that these Authors had not as yet found out the securest method to prevent those troublesome relapses, which to this present rendered that Remedy contemptible, and we must confess that we are in some manner obliged to Sir Robert Talbor, for having given us a Preparation much to be preferred before all others, whether he hath been the inventor of it, or that he hath hit upon it by chance; and it may be said, that his boldness (which would have been taken for a criminal rashness in any but an Empiric) hath not a little contributed to the knowledge which we have at present of its use and manner of application.  
The most wonderful effects of this Febrifuge appears in all intermittent Fevers, which are its true object; for it stops, and in fine wholly Cures Quotidian Agues, Tertian, double Tertian, Quartans, double and triple Quartans, and sometimes also other kinds of Fevers; for there are some continued Fevers, which having kinds of Intermissions and Regular Paroxysms observable by some small cold in the extremities of the Body, or some horror and shivering betwixt the Shoulders, are cured by the specific, almost as speedily and securely as the true Intermittent Fevers; and this happens often in respect of slow Hectic Fevers accompanied with a Consumption, such as Children are commonly affected with, because they have certain inequalities of remission and augmentation which give ground to the Remedy to exert its virtue to second the attempts of Nature, and by consequence to reduce the blood unto its former disposition, and to restore the Stomach to its Natural strength, so that for the future providing only good and well digested Chyle, it sends a Vivifying humidity to all the parts, which corrects their dryness and restores the lost Plumpness and good habit of body.  
It is nevertheless to be observed, that since the matter of continued Fevers is diffused through the whole mass of blood, that herein it causes a corruption hard to be rectified, and that it wholly takes up Nature without giving her any respite, she cannot be in a condition to concur the with Specific, but till by blood letting and Purging, the impure and Heterogeneous matter be in some manner expulsed, the irritation of the Spirins calmed, and the humours be in good enough temper to return into favour with Nature, without which the Specific, which does not always excite regular Evacuations, is not powerful enough to put a stop to the sedition, and compose the disorder, which is then in the great Vessels, and in all the other principle and more necessary parts of the body.  
For the better understanding of the abovementioned directions and observations, I would have it remarked, That every thing that occasions an extraordinary agitation in the spirits, humours, and generally in the liquid and fluid parts of our body, may be considered as the primitive cause of Fevers, that is to say, of those irregular motions which happen so often in the mass of blood, but seems the same motions would be quickly rectified by Nature, were they not kept in being by some permanent cause, and that besides, by discomposing all the oeconomy of Nature, they corrupt the Ferments that serve for Digestion, and by that means render the Chyle impure, and of a bad quality; the depraved Chylification may be looked upon as the immediate and antecedent cause of Fevers; so that a Remedy cannot truly be a Febrifuge, unless all at once it correct both the bad disposition of Stomach, and of the Ferments, of which I have been speaking, and that is the proper effect of the English Febrifuge, for like the most part of bitter Medicaments, it is very Stomachical, being proper to consume the superfluous humidities, and to restore the bone of the relaxated Fibres of the Ventricle, and by that means to increase the diminished appetite, and retrieve it when it is wholly lost, from whence depends the perfect digestion of the Victuals, even of the most solid Food; I cannot tell if one may not affirm it to be also more Cordial: for besides, that it re-establishes the scattered forces of the Body, and the decayed natural heat, it fixes the heterogeneous Particles that cause the Fermentation of the Blood, and rallies and calls together those which have been divided and scattered during its ebullition.  
This Augmentation of force and heat makes it sometimes appear as if this Febrifuge did re-kindle the Fever after the taking of the first Dose; but it only augments it that it may the better engage with it, and that apparent disorder is the surest sign of its triumph: for the more violent it renders one fit, the more we may be assured that it will not be followed by another.  
Many Physicians cannot conceive how this Remedy which seems only to be fixative, can radically cure Fevers and Agues (but it is to be observed that though it causes not always a sensible evacuation, yet it so powerful seconds the inclinations of nature, that during its operation the heterogeneous, impure or superfluous matters, are most commonly forced out to the superfice of the body, to be evacuated by insensible transpiration, and even very often by copious sweats, as also it is sometime the occasion of a critical looseness of the belly, and in many Patients, the way of the urine serves for so salutary an evacuation, that it cures both together, the Quartan Ague and the Dropsy occasioned by it.  
Furthermore, though the most certain and regular operation of the English Remedy, be to stop the fits of intermittent Fevers, yet the use of it is not to be thought of dangerous consequence; it causes no trouble in the oeconomy of Nature, being like other bitter temperate medicaments, incapable of making any bad impression on man's body, for the reunion that it makes of the parts of the blood, always facilitates the expulsion of morbific Causes, and though they should partly stay within after its operation; yet by means of it they are corrected and reconciled to nature, or at least by reiterated and continual digestions, they are at length concocted, ripened and dissipated,   

Observations of the King's chief Physician, concerning the practice of Sir Robert Talbor, in the prepation and distribution of his Remedy.  
The greatest secret of most of Empirics, consists only in disguising the the Drugs that they make use of; for since they are the very same whereof Physicians know the Nature and Properties, they could not make them pass for secret Remedies, unless they affectedly gave them an air of novelty; thus did Sir Robert Talbor in the preparation of the Jesuits Powder, either to make it be believed that the virtue of his Febrifuge did not depend on that Book, or to make it be thought that he understood it much better than those that had made use of it before him; for it was very ordinary with him to besprinkle fix Drachms of Red Roses with two Ounces of the juice of Lemons; and afterward to infuse them for the space of four hours in six Pound of Fountain water, to make use of that infusion for the making of his Remedy, adding thereunto eight ounces of Quinquina, powdered and besprinkled with four ounces of the Juice of Fennel Root, and put into infusion only for the space of twelve hours.  
Sometimes instead of that Juice he would employ the Juice of Smallage Leaves, and at other times again that of Parsley, especially in Tertian, and double Tertian Agues.  
In continued Fevers, he assured us, that on the contrary he made use of the Juices of the Plantin and Lettuce, and in Malignant Fevers of the Decoction of Scorsonera.  
In Quotidian Agues he commonly besprinkled his Powder with Vinegar of Squills, at the proportion of one ounce upon eight of the Jesuits Powder, which he afterwards infused sometimes in Rhenish Wine, and sometime in White Wine.  
For Quartan Agues he preferred the Juice of Pentaphyllum (Cinquefoil) and made his infusion sometimes in Spanish Wine.  
In slow and Hectic Fevers, he used the Juice of Colt's Foot and Ground Ivy, and made his infusion in one part of Wine, two parts of Barley Water, and one part of the Tincture of Roses.  
He followed that Practice indifferently for both Sexes, only with this difference, that with Women he ceased the use of his Remedy during their Courses, and Prepared it for those that were with Child, or in Childbed, in this manner; After that he had wet his Quinquina with two ounces of the Juice of Quinces, he infused it in equal parts of Wine and the Tincture of Roses.  
In respect of Complicated Agues, he observed always to give his Febrifuge either in the Declension of the Fit, or in the beginning of the sweeting, but that circumspection was commonly the more useless, that without considering, if these kinds of Fevers were the cause or the effects of other Distempers, he always bend himself wholly to the Cure of them; and it was by sticking to that pernicious Maxim, that he erred so grossly in the Distemper of the Dauphin of France, whose Fever proceeding from Vomiting and the weakness of his Stomach, was increased considerably by the use of his Febrifuge, and on the contrary ceased of it self, when Remedies were only applied to correct the indisposition that was the cause of it; not but that that Remedy hath some virtue against Vomiting and weakness of the Stomach which proceed from Crudities, Indigestion, and Relaxation of the Fibres of the Stomach; but it is absolutely contrary to those that are raised by a hot intemperature of the Viscera, and fomented by the irritation of overflowing choler, as that of the Dauphins was.  
Hence one may judge how dangerous it is to trust the life and health of men, to the conduct of such kind of People, whose knowledge is always too much limited, to reach beyond the general Rules and Directions contained in their Receipts, and to descend into the exceptions that are indicated by sound judgement, experience, and the Principles of a judicious Doctrine.  
It is true, Sir Robert Talbor did not always observe the directions prescribed in his Receipt, touching the time of the infusion of Quinquina; but in that he was the more to be blamed: for besides that, it is impossible that that Bark can in twelve; nay, even in twenty four hours, impart all its bitterness and virtue to the Wine; there is still much more time required to have the infusion so depurated as it is to be wished, that it may not be nauseous, nor apt to cause obstructions in the capillary Vessels, which hath caused troublesome inconveniences to many who have been treated by that Empiric.  
Upon the same account it was, that in these late times thinking it best to give the Jesuits Powder in Bolus, and by that means to revive in some measure the ancient and primitive method, which was to give it in substance; he hath often been the cause of many Diseases far more pernicious than the Ague, which he pretended to Cure, the different Juices wherewith he besprinkled his Powder, being incapable to render it so distributive as not to stick in some part.  
But what preference soever the infusions contained in the description of the English Remedy may deserve, it is still true that seeing they cannot be safe but by the right use of them, it is no wonder if their effect hath sometimes badly corresponded to the undertake of Sir Robert Talbor, since he gave them indifferently in all times of the Fever, which cannot be stopped in the beginning, without unpleasing consequences, that indisposition, to speak properly, being only a kind of Crisis excited by nature to force out of the Vessels, Grude impure and superfluous matters, which by consequent cannot be stop too early, but that the ferments will lurk and remain in their Focus' quarters, and subsist in full force, which hath been the cause of those dangerous relapses, that first brought the Jesuits Powder into contempt, which notwithstanding is a most excellent Febrifuge.  
I do nevertheless acknowledge that there are some occasions, wherein in the very beginning of the Fever an urgent danger seems to demund a speedy truce; but when, to have time to looae about us, we have capitulated with the Disease, we have procured an advantage that cannot without great danger be abused, and whereof we cannot secure ourselves the possession, but by observing the Maxims long since received, concerning the use of the Jesuits Powder; that is to say, without ordering a Diet, Blood Letting, and especially Purging, which by experience we know to be of indispensable necessity.  
And now since I speak of Purging, I ought not to omit to say that it may be practised with success, before, or in the time, and after the use of the specific, observing the following Directions. When there is nothing that hinders from preparing the Body to receive the Jesuits Powder, the essential part of that Preparation consists in Purging Patients well, after they have been once or twice Let Blood, and that with relation to the quantity of the superfluities and the degrees of repletion. When the action of the Ferments seems to resist the operation of the Febrifuge, and that therefore one is obliged to administer Purgatives in the very time of using it, its force is to be augmented, or the Doses doubled, to the end that by the motion of the matters which are to be evacuated, the perturbation of the Blood be not increased. In fine, when after we have done with the Remedy, we would by Purgatives prevent relapses, it is better to give moderate and reiterated Purges, than to give stronger Doses, and in less number.  
furthermore, the ambition of Sir Robert Talbor having inclined him to extend the use of his Remedy beyonds its efficacy, it is well known that he hath given it on divers occasions for continued Fevers, wherein there was neither intention nor remission to be observed, which was always attended with tragical symptoms, and very often with death itself; for that Remedy can never be successfully given in those kind of Fevers, unless when some manifest Paroxysms are observed, that they continued for several days, that the Patients have been Purged by all ways, and that they stand in need of a respite to recollect strength, and so to relieve Nature, and give her time to perfect the Cure of the Distemper, which in vain she strove to surmount without that aid and assistance.  
He was guilty of a no smaller fault, in forcing, if I may say so, his Patients to drink Wine, and to eat solid Food during the whole time of continued Fevers, and in time of the Fit in Agues; for though in the abatement of the one, and the intermission of the others, that kind of nourishment may back and fortify the operation of the Remedy; yet they considerably oppress the Patients, when Nature is taken up in defending herself against the vigour of the Distemper that attacks her, and then it appears that the prudence and skill of a Learned and Experienced Physician, are at least of as great relief on such occasions, as the most efficacious and salutory Medicines.  
I have no more to say to show how little confidence we ought to have in such kind of Empirics, but that it is strange that this man who hath prescribed to us so many juices, and such like trifles about the composition of his Febrifuge, whereof the principle effect is only to be attributed to the Jesuits Powder, should conceal the use that he made of Opium, whereof he many times added some drops of Tincture to this Febrifuge, which may be of great advantage when it is given seasonably in over watch, light headedness, and looseness, which are frequent symptoms in Fevers, and always allayed by the virtue of that excellent Medicine.  
I hope the Reader will take in good part, that I describe in this place a Febrifuge Opiate prepared with Quinquina, and afterward explain its effects, with relation to the Nature of Fevers and Agues.   

An Excellent Febrifuge.  
Take of the Jesuits Powder, the Flowers or Leaf of lesser Centaury subtly Pulverised, and of Treacle, of each a like weight, make them into an Opiate, of which the Patient twice a day shall take the weight of a Drachm and a half, during the space of six days, drinking upon it a Glass of good Claret with Plantin or Bugloss water.   

Reflections upon the use of this Febrifuge.  
The excellency of a Remedy is very often the cause why it is despised. Antimony hath been in our days a manifest instance of this, but the Jesuits Powder, and the English Febrifuge continue us more plainly of the truth of it so soon as chance or industry hath discovered a secret for any particular distemper; the people lay hold on't as of a Public Good, and apply it indifferently to all sorts of evils; and if on some occasion it succeed not, as it must unavoidably come to pass, it is cried down with as much Zeal and Precipitance as it was brought in vogue. This is the fortune of all the new Febrifuges, having seen wonderful effects of them in some kinds of Fevers, men took them for Universal Remedies; but so soon as they found them produce bad consequences in others for which they were not proper, it was then generally concluded that it was dangerous to make use of them. For this reason, that all scruples may be removed, which people may frame to themselves in the use of this Febrifuge, I have thought it pertinent carefully to engage into the Nature of Fevers, and to mark their differences, to observe those which are submitted to this Remedy, and those to which it may prove prejudicial, and lastly to prove with how much usefulness it may be employed, when that is done with all care and necessary circumspection.  
Two motions are to be conceived in the blood, that of the whole which is the circulation, and another of the parts proceeding from its liquidity. A Fever is a fermentation of the blood, fermentation is an irregular motion of the insensible parts (motus intestinus partium insensibilium) We must look into the causes of the regular motion of this liquid body, that by the rule of contraries we may discover those of the irregular motion.  
There are two causes that maintain Uniformity in the motion of the blood. 1. It's quantity, and the constantly equal force of the spirits, which are the immediate movers and impulsers of all the parts that compose this liquid mass. 2. the just proportion of the same parts, as well in their quantity and quality, as in their situation, that is to say, when the Sulphureous, Acide, Watery and Earthy corpuscles, are not only in a laudable proportion as to quanty; but likewise are so well adjusted, and united together, that they no ways annoy one another, and are moved by the Spirits or Celestial matter that animates them, in a regular and uniform motion. As long as things are thus, it may be said that the blood is in its Natural state of Health, and to that end the Author of Nature hath not only made our body transpirable, thereby to give vent to the too great quantity of Spirits, but hath also put in different places, Bowels and percolatories designed to filtrate the superfluous and exceeding parts, which might trouble the purety of that Liquor.  
From thence it may inferred that there are two immediate causes of the fermentation of the blood, the first is the too great quantity, or the tor great motion of the spirits, which may be excited by the heat of the Sun, violent exercise, watching, fasting, hot and spirituous nourishment; and the passions and perturbations of the mind, and from thence it is that all Fever's Ephemerae or of one days continuance, and simple Synoches, which are the slightest of all, and may be cured by transpiration alone do arise, the second is the mixture of irregular and fermentative corpuscles (rerum non miscibilium mixtio) which confounding the order and alliance of the parts of the Blood, raise a Sedition there, and deprave its motion. And of these Bodies some only raise a simple Fermentation, which at length may be governed and subdued by Nature, and the others being more Malignant and Venomous, cause Coagulations, Dissolutions, and Colliguations in the mass of Blood, and can in no manner be corrected. From the former of these proceed all intermittent, erratic, and continued Fevers, which are called subintrant, and from the other spring Burning, Pestilential, Malignant and spotted Fevers. It is now to be considered in what parts of our Body, and how these humours are produced.  
Though I have said that there are parts viscera appointed for the separation of the superfluities of the blood, yet seeing they do not always discharge their functions aright, either through a fault in themselves, or through the too great abundance of the same superfluities, the same are hurried away by the rapidity of the circulation, as filth is carried away by the impetuous current of a River; but in the same manner as there happens a turning in that River where the water is stiller, and where all that filth turning slowly with the current stops; so these heterogeneous bodies turn aside by the coeliack Artery into the branches of the Vena Porta, where the Blood circulates more slowly, and which for that reason may be compared to a Lake or standing Pool of Water in respect of the other vessels: there it is where wanting their former agitation, they have the means of fastening and uniting together, to produce obstructions which are the primitive Causes of all Fevers of the second order, and sometimes, but seldom, of those of the third, as I shall now illustrate.  
The Blood cannot be long stopped in a place without being exasperated and growing eager.  
The spirits which are constantly in motion fly away, and carry with them first the more volatile parts, than the sulphureous which blunted and edge of the Salts, and kept them as in fetters; which is the cause that these bodies having now nothing to stop their activity, break off and diffuse themselves through the mass of Blood to raise and ferment it, until that being dispersed and dissolved in the serosity, they are expelled by the ordinary ways, or otherways do so adjust and accommodate themselves with the other parts, that they disturb their alliance and motion no more.  
There is nothing in Fevers but may be explained by this system.  
The obstruction and the ferment which remains in that part which is called the Focus, make the Periodick Fits and Paroxysms, which are sometimes quicker and sometimes slower, according as the exasperated humour is more gross or more subtle: the duplicity of Focus' or Magazines make the double intermittent Fevers. In a word there happen sometimes so many of these nests, that giving no respite, they cause continued Fevers, which may be called subintrants.  
But it sometimes happens that these acid Salts, whether through their their too long continuance in a place, or by an excessive heat of the entrails, acquire a pretty violent degree of corrosion, and are exalted to that height as to become venomous enough for spoiling, and wholly ruining all the oeconomy of the blood, and causing those Fevers which by a general name are called Malignant; but since the more common cause of these Fevers, are Vrsenical Salts diffused through the Air which we breathe, or lurking in the Food we eat, and that it is rare that our Natural heat which is mild, should produce in our Bodies that which the most violent fire of Chemists can hardly perform in their Vessels; I said it was the less ordinary causes of those kinds of Fevers.  
Having laid down these Principles, I say that this Remedy is useless for the first, and dangerous for the third kind of Fevers; useless for the first, because they are commonly cured of themselves, and dangerous for the third, because a venomous Body, and such as in no ways can be subdued nor corrected ought never to be fixed; on the contrary it ought with all expedition to be driven out by sweats, or by other ways of evacuation: But I maintain that this Remedy answers all the indications that we can have for the Cure of those of the second order.  
The Explication which I have given of these Fevers, which by a general name may be called intermittent, furnishes me with four indications for their Cure. 1. To stop the Fermentation of the Blood. 2. To fix and correct the Acid which is the cause of it. 3. To dissolve, attenuate and drive out by the ordinary ways of evacuation the gross humours that make obstructions. 4. And lastly to repair the loss of the Sulphureous and Unctuous Corpuscles which sweetened the Blood, and which are evaporated by its offervescencie. 1. The feverish ebullition of the Blood is sufficiently stopped by the terrestrial and astringent parts of the Quinquina or Jesuits Powder, and by the lesser Centaury and the Opium that enters the composition of the Treacle. 2. After so many fair experiments, we have no cause to doubt, but that the fixed Salt of the Quinquina is the true corrective of the Fermentative Acid of the Fever. 3. Of all the ingredients that enter the composition of Treacle, there is none but drives out by sweeting and Urine the impurities of the Blood. Lastly we may be easily persuaded that the lesser Centaury is most proper for restoring the Sulphureous parts of the Blood which have been dissipated in the Fermentation, if we consider its wonderful virtue in consolidating of wounds; and if we observe that the reuniting of separated parts, is only performed by a Balsamic and Unctuous Sulphur wherewith that Plant abounds. The wine that is given immediately after contributes much also to that effect, especially when the activity of its spirits is checked by the mixture of the Plant in water, which on this occasion I should prefer before that of Bugloss. I pretend not for all this to exclude the general and common remedies of Physic. Nay, I maintain, that in the beginning once or twice Blood-letting, according to the strength and repletion of the Patient are necessary, as well for facilitating the circulation of the blood, as for remedying the pains of the head, and oppressions that Blood swelling in the fermentation, may cause in passing through the capillary vessels of the Brain and Lungs. This Remedy is not to be given till first by a dissolution of Cassia or Catholicum, the excrements of the lower region, which may trouble its operation, be evacuated. And lastly, seeing the blood, like other Liquors in their ebullition, drives always towards the Mesentery a great many impure and feculent parts like a scum, it is necessary in the declension of the evil to purge them out, if one would prevent relapses, and sometimes more troublesome consequences.  
Seeing it appears by the remarks of the King's chief Physician, and by the foregoing reflections, that Opium may usefully be added to the English Remedy, and other Febrifuges of the same Nature; I make no doubt but that you will Read with pleasure the Natural History of that excellent Medicine.   

The History of Opium.  
OPium by most of the Eastern people is still named Offium, in imitation of the Greeks, who commonly change p. into an f. it is the thickened juice of the Indian Poppy. Garrias du Jardin, saith that these Heads are big enough to contain four Ounces and a half. Our Poppies yield also a juice, which being thickened may pass for a kind of Opium; but it hath not the efficacy of that which is brought from hot Countries. The Author of the Poor man's Physician, proposes a very easy preparation of it, he would have us pound the Heads of our Poppies about the end of May, than put them in digestion in White Wine for the space of fifteen days, and afterwards by evaporation reduce the digested liquor into a due consistency.  
The true Indian Opium comes from the Eastern Countries, according to the testimony of Garrias du Jardin, and Christopher de la Coste. The Poppies from which it is taken grow commonly enough in Egypt, and therefore merchand's bring much of it from Grand Cairo; this is in greatest esteem, and is called Thebaick Opium.  
Not to mention the Opium that may be made of the Poppies of Longuedoc and Provence, nor of that which is made in Italy, we may divide into three kinds that which is brought us from the Indies; for there is one sort of it White, which the Indians keep for their own use, and which is only drawn out by exstillation, having made incision in the Heads of the Poppies; and it is to this properly that the Ancients gave the name of Opium; for as to the second kind which is black, and which is extracted only by expression, they called it Maeconium; the third sort is Yellowish and commonly sophisticated with the juice of Glaucium, which is an Herb whose Leaves resemble those of horned Poppy, and are bitter and of an evil smell: that Sophistication is discovered by dissolving that kind of Opium in some Liquor; for because of that juice of Glaucium which is Yellow, it looks like the Tincture of Saffron.  
The good Maeconium, that is say Opium of the second kind ought to be black, bitter, a little biting to the taste, of an unpleasant smell, pure, solid, ponderous, inflammable, and shining within when it is newly broken.  
In Europe it is only used in Physic, and most part of our Physicians are so scrupulous in using it, that they seem to look upon it as a most dangerous Poison, though it be indeed one of the safest and most wonderful of all our Medicines; but the Africans and Asians make extraordinory great use of it both in Health and Sickness; for most of them take it daily in so large a Dose, that it amounts commonly to forty or fifty Grains, and sometimes also to four or five Drachms, at least if we believe Garrias du Jardin; and which is more strange, when they leave off taking of it they are in danger of death, unless they drink Wine, which their Religion forbids: the reason of that custom is, because thereby they find themselves more strong and vigorous, and therefore it is, that the Turks never fail to take of it in a great Dose, when they are going to charge an Enemy, or Attack a place.  
Howsoevever it be, seeing pain is the cruelest Enemy that men have; so there is nothing they ought to esteem more than what eases them of it; and therefore some have called Opium a Divine Medicine; because it charms the most vehement pain, by procuring a soft and sweet sleep, and does so quiet and still the impetuous motion of the irritated spirits and exalted fiery Corpuscles, that it stops the operation of all those sharp and biting juices that depended thereupon.  
The Ancients in regard of these admirable effects, believed that the virtue of Opium consisted only in fixation, which could not proceed but from a cold quality; in the same manner as they believed that all dissolutions depended on heat. The Moderns, on the contrary, have observed that because of the Countries from whence it comes, its piercing smell, and how easily it is dissolved in the Spirit of Wine, it must of necessity be Resinous, Sulphureous and consequently of the Nature of those mixts to which a hot quality is assigned: In a word, some of the latest Authors who have written of it to reconcile those two Opinions, say that there are two substances in it, the one cold, which renders it stupefactive, and the other hot, which gives it a requisite volatility to convey it to the Brain; but seeing neither the one nor the other are in the right, as not having grounded their Opinions upon the true Nature of Opium, that is to say, with relation to the number, quality and quantity of the Elementary principles that enter into its composition; we must of necessity take another course in explaining more exactly the properties of that rare Medicine.  
For that end, seeing Opium is of the kind of bitter Medecines, it would seem that I should begin by an enquiry into the principles of bitterness; but seeing I have been large enough on that subject, when I treated of the Nature of Quinquina, I think it more pertinent to refer the Reader to that place; than here to make repetitions (which doubtless would be as unpleasant as useless) concerning the general Doctrine of bitter things.  
Nevertheless that I may descend into the particular Nature of Opium, that is to say into the enumeration of those things that distinguish it from other bitter mixts, I confess that that distinction being founded upon this, that it is both fixative and by consequence Febrifugrous, Somniferous, and by consequent Anodin; we must inquire in what manner it acts upon the blood and spirits in producing such wonderful effects: for a more clear notion of this, it is to be observed, that the particular motion of the parts of the blood, wherein its liquidity consists, becomes of necessity a hindrance to that of the whole mass, when it is grown irregular by fermentative causes, because the same parts being then violently agitated and every way dispersed, they justle irregularly one upon another, and so in some manner resist the action of the chief movers of the blood, that causes the depravation of its circulary motion, which according as it is more or less considerable, causeth a Fever, over watching, particular inflammations, and the extravasation of sharp and biteing juices, that produce all kinds of pain.  
Now seeing that some depravation may be rectified by bitter things, as I have demonstrated when I spoke of Quinquina, and that if amongst all mixts of that quality, those that are too week acting but imperfectly, and those that are too strong irritating many times the humours in stead of fixing them, such as are of a moderate force are of greature virtue than others; it is not strange if Opium which is but moderately bitter, so efficaciously restore to the blood the uniformity of its motion, and by consequent that pleasant tranquillity that charms us a sleep and eases our pains.  
But in as much as there are inflammations or (if one may say so) Fevers that are peculiar to every part of the body, and that because of disquietness and application to Study and Business, the Head is frequently subject to such, which cause watch, and which seem rather to proceed from the irritation of the Spirits, than the depravation of the motion of the blood, it must indeed be concluded that Opium which so quickly rectifies that disorder, hath some property which is not common to other bitter Medecines; but this is not hard to be explained; for supposing that all, or almost all the drogues of that quality, have the virtue to rally, reunite and fix the parts of the Liquors of our body, in which they are diffused; it is sufficient that Opium above all other bitter Medicines have as many volatile parts as are needful to make those parts wherein its bitterness and virtue of fixing liquids does consist, to be conveyed from the Stomach to the Brain, that by means of that Sublimation, they may have occasion of acting upon the extravasated Liquors, and consequently upon those that are appointed for retaining and hindering the dissipation of the Animal Spirits, whose impetuous motion causes watching, as their calm and stillness produces sleep.  
But to speak somewhat more intelligibly upon this Subject, I would have it observed in the first place, that the continual emission of Animal Spirits into all the Nerves, and by consequence into those that constitute the organs of the senses producing that state of Body, which we call being awake, and wherein the Body is capable of all the Functions that depend on the Will; the dissipation of the same Spirits, and every thing that hinders their passage, are the causes or sleep; which may be defined a disposition wherein the external senses are so dulled, that they are incapable of the perceptions which they give to the mind, and wherein all the other parts of the Body are weakened, relaxated and improper for those voluntary actions, to which Nature hath destined them 〈◊〉 for such never sleep sound who have their eyes open, speak, walk, or perform those functions asleep, which seem to depend on the Will, since they suppose the swelling, strength, and in a word the motion of the Nerves, which can only be referred to the motion of the Spirits, wherewith they are then possessed.  
This being supposed, it will not be hard to conceive why one falls naturally asleep after Labour and Travel, and after long Watching; for seeing those things dissipate many Spirits, they are at length too few to fill all the Nerves, to support the Body, and to render it fit for sansation and motion, insomuch that it necessarily remains as without motion and sense, until the Blood being depurated and subtilised by its continual circulation, discharges into the Brain a sufficient quantity of Spirits to make up the loss of the former dissipation.  
With the same facility may be given the reason of dullness which is so common during the digestion of Victuals; for seeing that cannot be performed without the elevation of Vapours into the Brain, which entangle the Spirits, and make a kind of obstruction in the Orifices of the Nerves, it is no wonder if the extremities of the Body droop, and be weak and dull, since they cannot be strong and proper for action, unless they have a continual and abundant supply of Spirits.  
This last Observation will be very useful to confirm the explication that I have given of sleep which is procured by Opium, seeing its Volatile and Vaporous parts are much more powerful than those that proceed from the digestion of Victuals, whether for fixing of the humours and spirits, or for obstructing the Nerves by which they are distributed through all the parts of the Body.  
Since than Opium procures sleep by the power that it hath to stop the Spirits in the Brain, it necessarily follows that it must assuage pain, suspend preternatural evacuations, and stop all kinds of Vapours, seeing these indispositions depend naturally upon the Fermentation of the Juice, and that the Spirits flowing no more towards the part where it happens, it must of necessity diminish as the Spirits that are contained in the fermented matter are dissipated, and wholly cease, when the same Spirits are entirely dispersed, because there comes no new supplies, and the substances that are destitute of the same, ferment no more, as experience confirms in the matters of cold abscesses and painless tumours.  
Though this explanation of the effects of Opium be very plain, yet it makes it evidently enough appear why it is so great a relief in watch, frenzy, inveterate and contumacious pains of the Head, Gonvulsions, Asthmas, Coughs, loss of Blood, Dissenteries, Colicks, Fluxes and Looseness, Gonorheas, and generally in all Diseases which are caused and continued by sharp, corrupt and fermentative Juices.  
Furthermore, when Opium is prepared with Aromatic and Cordial Medicines, it is called Laudanum; this Preparation is made with design to correct its imaginary coldness, and is therefore needless. It may be given then in substance without any scruple or ceremony, unless one had rather prepare it according to the advice of the Poor Man's Physician; which consists in drying of it well, that the impure Sulphers may exhale, and then dissolving it in rose Vinegar, to Cure it of its bad smell, and lessen its Volatility; but it's best Preparation is barely to dissolve it in the spirit of Wine, that it may be given by way of a Tincture, as the English Physician used to do, and is very convenient.  
Opiates have drawn their general Name from Opium, and I cannot tell why they have given the Name of Confection to Orvietan, Treacle and Mithridate, whereof it is an Ingredient; and on the contrary, have given that of Opium to many Compositions into which it enters not; for it is certainly the most efficacious of all Antidotes, and I have observed by experience, that Venice Treacle is only more excellent than others, because it contains Opium in a greater quantity.  
It is said, that if it were pure and without all falsification, it would cause blindness; but to prevent that, there is no more required than only to give it in the necessary Dose for the effect which we expect from it: besides, the Dose wherein we give that which is brought to us, being always proportionable to that I have been speaking of, it would follow that that accident should happen to those to whom it is given, if it were true that it is capable to cause it. To conclude, they who pretend that it ought to be ranked among Poisons, should confess that it kills not but when a bad use is made of it; and that so there is no more Poison in it, than in the best Medicines: and I dare be bold to say, that our very Food, of which Bread is he most innocent, being taken without measure, may cause a Surfeit, and Mortal Suffocation.  
FINIS.