AN Elenchus OF OPINIONS Concerning the Cure OF THE SMALL POX. Together with problematical Questions Concerning the Cure OF THE FRENCH PEST. By T. WHITAKER Physician in Ordinary to His Majesty and household.  
LONDON, Printed by I. G. for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill, 1661.   

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.  
Candid Reader,  
I Have been studious to salute my Nation with some acceptable present. It is not as yet a complete year since my Landing with His Majesty in England, and in this short time have observed as strange a difference in this subject of my present discourse, as in the variety of opinions and dispositions of this Nation, with whom I have discoursed. This disease of the Small Pox, was Anciently and generally in the common place of Petit and Puerile diseases, and the Cure of no moment. The contagion that infected Rebellious Spirits, is known to come, and be received from the malicious breath of some venene Natures; and hath been permanent for many years, and conveyed to several parts of this Region (not extinct at this day.) But from what present constitution of the air this childish disease hath received such Pestilential Tinctures I know not, yet I am sure, that this disease, which hath for hundreds of years, and b●fore the practice of medicine was so Exquisite, hath been as commonly Cured as it happened; therefore in this age not incurable, as upon my own practice I can testify: therefore I have publicly endeavoured to cast my weak dart at death, and to abate the severity of this disease in those that are afflicted with it. If I have not given full satisfaction to my Country either in the matter or manner of my presentation, yet I have presented my velle and best respect unto them, with as much endeavour to fulfil their own desire. And in effecting thus much, I have snatched many hours from my sleep and other employments, well knowing I was not born only to serve myself, nor can I be confident of much longer time to serve others. I am no sooner passed the diseases of Youth, but in daily Expectation of the infirmities of Old Age. And thus Mankind is in perpetuo fluere, from the Cradle to the Saddle, and from thence to the grave; therefore I do put myself upon action for the general good of my Country so long as I have time amongst the Living, till I shall pass away and be seen no more. It is well known I have been buried in Exile from my own Country the major part of three Lives, and by the same providence am raised and restored again; and by the same providence expect another Resurrection, being assured tbat really I must enter into the Terrestrial womb of my Mother before this Corruption shall put on Incorruption. This short tract is my Will, In which I bequeath the All I have done at present, to those that please to accept it, and wish there were more in my present possession to bequeath. And this Donation at this time, is wished may be with as much respect received, as it is presented from  
A faithful Friend and Countryman T. WHITAKER.   

AN Elenchus of Opinions In Curing of the SMALL POX.  
THere are various Affects which besiege the body of man, and are continually storming and laying battery to it; such as are Luxury and intemperance in diet and exercise; also the distemper of the air and popular infection, with many other causes, some from Celestial influence without us, others from various firmentations within us; all subjecting humane bodies to depend upon remedies, and in these remedies either simple or compound, are contained the mystery of healing, with the industry of the Physician, expertly and regularly to dispense, and with judgement and experience specifically to apply them: and this is the only useful faculty of the Physician, producing all contemplation into act, not debasing or undervaluing the Theorical part of Physic; which argueth à priore, from the cause to the effect, and as the Sun doth clearly discover the atoms, and occult mysteries of science, and present them to public view. For though an argument à posteriore, from the effect to the cause, and from experience, be most sensible; yet when it receiveth a lustre and illumination from reason, 'tis more satisfying because more discursive; (as for example) The Smith shall forge out a piece of Iron into several figures, and if he be demanded the reason why he doth first put it into an intense fire, he will answer you, because his Master ever did so; but when he shall be informed that the subtle quality in fire doth open, segregate and soften the hardest body, which maketh it malleable, and so fitteth it for to receive the impression of the hammer: this reason will add a greater satisfaction to his sense, as the compliment and perfection of every Artist. And by this conjunction of Theory with Experience, I shall extract my subsequent Discourse concerning the most proper rheims dies in the Small Pox.  
There will never be wanting as many varieties of Opinions, as distinctions in complexions; but in no age so many separatists in Arts and Sciences, as in this present age; nor any Region so insane and ill-principled at present, as this Region of England hath lately been; our Universities for more than two Ages rather an Amsterdam of Opinators, than the learned schools of well-grounded Philosophers; O tempora! O mores! Myself hath been so many years dead in exile, that in this my resurrection I neither find the same places nor faces as I left them; as if the restless spirit of that mad Vanhelmont had set up his rest in the spawn of this late production: The subject of this Discourse is now disputed, whether it be a Disease, or any disposition preternatural? but I presume this is but a gymnastick exercise, argumentandi gratia, tossing each to other a few canting terms: for any well-instructed Physician will soon espy it to be a vitiation of the figure, and a disease Organical in general, such as is the disproportion of parts; and that it is a disfiguration is manifest to common sense; therefore as a disease it is the subject of my following Discourse.  
This Disease, which the English nominate the Small Pox, is much questioned amongst Authors, whether it were known to the Ancients or not; amongst whom I find joannes Manardus, famous for his excellent knowledge, to understand the Small Pox to be the same disease which Galen nameth Exanthemata, in lib. 5. De morbis curandis, cap. 2. where he discourseth of pestilential Pustules in the internal coat of the aspera arteria, and such as are in the external parts of the body, by no other appellation than in nomine Exanthematum: and the same Author in his Commentary upon Hypocrates his Vulgar Diseases, there doth affirm, that amongst other diseases in pestilential constitutions, there doth appear Ecthimata, which are great flourishing pustules in the skin, arising out of the ebullition of gross humours, by which he doth apparently demonstrate by what name the Small Pox, or Variola, passed amongst the Ancients. And Sebastianus de morbis puerorum, with many other Writers, are of the same opinion; from whom Marcus Antonius, the Florentine Physician, doth differ, quaest. 22. grounded upon the Authority of Galen 4 de sanitat. tuend. saying, Where there is a complication of lassitude with those pustules, which the Grecian nominateth Exanthemata, from those we may soon discover the particular excrement, which cannot signify the Small Pox, because other pustules do render the special excrement, with the same distinction of pure choler, burnt choler or phlegm, with their quality of saltness and sharpness: therefore my endeavour must be to discourse of that kind of Pox, which assaulteth humane bodies but once in the whole course of life, (except rarely.) Valeriola, whose memory is honourable, doth endeavour to prove the Small Pox or Measles which appear critically in inpestilential Fevers, not to be by Galen nominated Exanthemata, with whose opinion I do consent, because the appellation is of general extent to all kind of pustules, and of chollers, as is verified in his book De atra bile, (where he affirmeth) in deceased persons; where excretion by the lower belly is not sufficient, in such persons the whole body is affected with pustules, quae nigris exanthematis similes essent, circum undique scatuit; and in other places (he speaketh) of white pustules, (which Pliny nameth papulas) and of these Cornelius Celsus maketh more kinds of rough and sharp eruptions upon the skin, magis & minus being the only distinction of them: and many Moderns conceive these Pox to proceed from maternal menstruosity, others conceive them to be intercutaneal, ill juices or peccant humours, fermented by an intense heat in the superficies of the skin which corrupt humours (according to Fracastorius) are generated by corrupt diet, and therefore in his book De morbis, he placeth this disease of the Small Pox amongst diseases Epidemical; and as it is an affect cutaneal and epidemical, so it doth infect all children and young persons, because their temper is properly more moist and hot than old age, it being cold and dry in itself, but excrementitiously moist, only by the decay of natural heat, and altogether indisposed to receive the impression of it; old age being properly, & per se, cold and dry in temper, if otherwise, it is mirandum in morbo, and for such wonders in diseases I shall refer the Reader to Skenkius and Pe●rus Forestus, etc. There are not wanting ●ome Physicians, that are 〈◊〉 of that opinion of the Small Pox, that it is hereditary to those that are affected with it, and not to be avoided by their natural issue, let them be of any age or temper, and therefore no more to be admired than the Gout, Stone, Consumption, with Paralytic and Hydropical diseases, especially and more generally the Small Pox: against whose Opinions Fernelius is evidently opposite, (especially) to all Physicians that affirm the Small Pox to proceed from maternal menstruosity, but especially caused by the malignity of the air, conjunct with vicious humours, whose opinion is most reasonable, because the Vehicle of universal infection is the ambient air, which apprehendeth suddenly all matters subject and disposed to receive contagion. Moreover, when the Small Pox are universally spreading, they frequently usher in the grand Pest, upon a stronger infection of the air: and that it is a malignity especially of the air, hath been frequently proved by the creatures of the air, which have fallen dead to the earth, and killed by the poison of the air. Again, if this disease were conveyed in the principles of Nature, from maternal blood, which is administered to the production of all animals, than there were an universal reception of this disease, not only in humane nature, but also in all animals whose production is ex semine & sanguine. But this disease is apprehended by no subject matter indisposed to receive the impression of such venemosity, as is of this nature; nor is all mankind capable of such reception, although Riverius will not have one of one thousand of humane principles to escape it, yet in my conjecture there is not one of one thousand in the Universe, that hath any knowledge or sense of it, from their first ingress into the world, to their last egress out of this world; which could not be if it were so inherent a concomitant with maternal blood and seed; but the Small Pox is dedicated to Infants more particularly, which are most moist, and some more than others, abounding with vicious humours, drawn from maternal extravagancy and corrupt diet in the time of their gestation; and by this aptitude are well disposed to receive infection of the air upon the least infection, according to Epiphanius Ferdinandus, His cum quicquid recipi●ur, recipitur in subjectum benè disposit 'em. Moreover, the want of motion is a stagmatizing cause in Infants, by which their best humours may be altered into put refaction, and prepare that particular matter to a form fit for such matter; for Infants have no other exercise to digest their nutriment, but crying (according to Aristotle;) and common observation will manifest, that the most quiet Infants are of least duration, and most morbifical: the causes of the Small Pox (therefore) are upon the corrupt disposition of the humorable mass internal, and these two causes do produce that one effect which Galen nominateth Obstruction of all distribution internal, and Transpiration external, the permanency and continuation whereof doth effect an ill habit, and consequently all diseases, both similary, dissimilary and common, and thus I proceed to the signs of this particular disease.  
Although the signs by which this disease is signified and distinguished from other affects, are many, which are rendered from the Greeks, Arabians and Latins, yet from none of them more exactly than à joanne Pascalio medico Valentino, in their order, the first sign of them being a Pain of the back: the second, Itching of the nose: the third, Fearful and troubled sleeps: the fourth, a compunction of the sensible and nervy parts of the body: the fifth, a Heaviness or ponderosity of the whole body: the sixth, a flourishing colour in the face: the seventh is, the Lacrymation of the eyes: the eighth, a Burning heat and fervency of the whole body: the nineth, a Gaping, yawning and stretching of the whole body: the tenth is, a Palpitation intercutaneal: the eleventh is, a Compression and shortness of breath: the twelveth, a Raucedo or hoarseness: the thirteenth is, a thick spitting from much heat: the fourteenth is, the heaviness of the head: the fifteenth is, the trembling of the heart: the sixteenth is, a great siccity or drought and dryness of the mouth and tongue: the seventeenth is, the perturbation of the mind, with Convulsive motion: the eighteenth is, the soreness of the throat: the nineteenth, the trembling of the hands and feet: the twentieth is, a perturbed and pale Urine. These are the Pathognomical and proper signs of this disease in fieri and in facto; the prognostic of hope or fear in the course and motion of this disease, dependeth upon the mutation and alteration of these signs and symptoms, in the time and manner of their eruption conjunct with the colour of them as followeth.  
The signs of discouragement after their eruption, taken from their colour, is when they appear black or green, the black being worst and most mortal. Again, they are more dangerous when their eruption is exceeding in quantity, than when they are but few in number; because the impurity is sooner corrected and exhausted, and the spirits less exercised in the expulsion of them; those also are of more difficulty that are great and large, than the small; according to Aetius, and a contradiction diametrical to Avicen, (who saith) the largest Pox are most void of danger; his words are these translated, scil. The white are best and safest when they are few in number and large in quantity. Yet upon consideration the difference may be reconciled between them without much litigation, if Avicen be understood in this sense, That the greatest in quantity are best in judgement, because they educe with them from the centre to the circumference, a greater proportion of peccant humour, which is a great disoneration or disburthening of Nature: and Aelius to judge the largest in quantity, to indicate a greater fullness of the peccant cause, and more dangerous than the least in quantity, because the largest are significants of redundancy in the cause: and herein they both agree, that the plenitude of matter is the cause of danger, because not without more expense of spirit to be cast out; but if the same internal redundancy of the cause be equal, than the larger eruption is the greatest levamen to Nature. Besides this redundancy there are many other concurrences of circumstance, which are symptoms of as great danger in this disease, such as are the strictness and looseness of the belly, for any spontaneous flux of the belly must be of an ill signification, though the cause be plenitude, and the evacuation be à potentia naturae, because it is a retraction of the matter in motion from the circumference to the centre, which manifesteth (almost) an irrecoverable disorder in natural motion, and very few upon such accidents do escape death: and Physicians cannot behold this accident of spontaneal purging or vomiting in this disease, without narrow hope; some rare escapes there hath been reported, of which I can be no witness of any such recovery. Thus having fulfilled my own intention in applying myself to the meanest capacity, for observation and use of my own Country, which hath given me leave once more to breath in it, where I find this disease, heretofore of no moment, to be now of as great consideration; therefore as hitherto I have plainly presented to common view the causes both internal and external, with the signs of it in fieri & in facto, I shall proceed according to my engagement, to the reason of cure, and what remedies are most proper, and when to be used or applied.  
In the curing of this disease the principal scope of the Physician is to assist Nature in its regular motion, in the beginning with temperate correctives of the cause by diet and air, the diet according to Paulus Aegineta, must be moderate in quantity, neither too much, nor too sparingly adhibited, nor too hot nor too cold in quality; if the diet be too thin, the spirits will be enfeebled, and of no force or power to move the peccant cause to the circumference, which is the universal Emunctory of the body; and if the air of the place be overhot, the feverish distemper is augmented, and the spirits in danger of suffocation: therefore upon this hinge of moderation turneth the safety of every person affected with this disease, and this course being ordered with judgement and care, is instar ommum medicamentorum, for there will be little use of any other application, except externally to preserve the beauty and comeliness of the face: Yet according to my Theme I shall publish the variety of opinions in the curing of this disease, and after a little more enlargement of my own sense, I shall leave myself and all my Collations to the consideration of our English world, as well knowing other Regions to differ as much from us in Practice as Language, and set a value upon their own c●stom as will admit of no precept to the contrary, it appearing in a latitude to be an undervaluing of their own; nor can any man persuade the major part of strangers, but that they can ride any horse in the world, with as much ●ase and confidence, as they do their own Hobby-horses and Asses, for in truth those that they do so ride, are esteemed by the best Caballarist to be no other. But to enlarge myself, or explain my sense in the regimen of this disease, the whole work consisting in moderation of air and diet, without any other mixtures of violence or bland impediments, which may altogether pervert▪ or in or by a less force retard Nature in it● motion, the motion of Nature in this case being from the beginning of this disease to the eruption of the Pustules Critical, and in Critical motions the least application of any medicament is so dangerous, that no expert Physician will admit▪ For Nature hath at this time set herself in a Battalions posture, to encounter the enemy vi & armis; and if upon the charge it shall make discovery of assistance, it will retard the present encounter, which addeth courage to the enemy, and giveth him a greater choice of ground, but if any of these auxiliaries should put Natnre into a disorder by conjunction with it, the enemy will not neglect the opportunity of conquest: and in this argument a Simile may become this place, though it be not a perfect demonstration, because diseases are as mutineers against natural government; & Nature, when it is itself and without disturbance, will give no entertainmeut to a resisting, rebellious and heterogeneal quality, to incorporate itself into the most noble parts; but upon disorder and disturbance, then false appetites break in, and open t●e gates to all heterogeneality, to the ruin of the whole government; therefore when Nature is harmoniously set, the course is to preserve it so, by winding up any string at the first relax, which maintaineth harmony, and preserveth that string from contracting itself by rest, and grow so stubborn▪ that it cannot be wound up again without fear of ruption, which at the first slip might have b●en effected with much ease, and little fear of dismembering the Instrument, and disturbing the harmony; but if the relaxation by permanency hath over-stiffned and contracted this fiver of the Instrument, yet the musician will not use any violent motion to extend it, and reduce it to its former posture; but gradatim wind it up till it be properly si●ed and harmoniously fitte●● to consent with the rest of the members of the instrument; the same order is to be taken in the curing of this Disease; for although this affect by some malignity be exasperated, yet the motion being critical will admit of no violence, and therefore a moderate diet and temperate air is only to be continued: the dye●●eing alimentum medicamentosum, 〈◊〉 as is milk with Saffron, with flowers of Calendula especially, before the eruption of the ●ox; there being neither art or reason violently to move crudities in the beginning of any Disease, without antecedent preparation, which preparation in this case is nothing else but the quiet of nature, and fomenting of it with seasonable and moderate aliment, which is the best refrigerium or comfort to the spirits, whose spiritual motion is the unum necessarium in this Disease. I am not ignorant of young conceptions in this point; nor is it my intention to neglect any objection that may be urged by myself or any other Author, either ancient or modern, that may give more satisfaction to the Reader; who is (quatenus medicus) ignorant of several Sects of Physicians, as there are of Divines in Theology amongst us; the Erasistrateans will admit of no remedy in diseases, especially of plenitude, but fasting and abstinence from diet: Hypocrates commendeth a thin diet in the beginning of all acute distempers, and more plentiful in the declination. Gale● in the beginning of all firmentation universally adviseth Phlebotomy or blood-letting, as a general evacuation of all humours as they are mixed up in the mass of blood, whose opinion will be the basis of all my future discouse; there are many, and Physicians are Galenists in this point, and more especially, and universally the French Nation which make blood-letting the principal and sole remedy in all Diseases, Climes, Times, & Ages; and the greatest argument to confirm this practice (is the mode of France:) by the same argument they would prove stinking and putrid flesh, both of fish and fowl to be most comfortable to the sense, and corroborative to the animal spirits; and if their Rhetoric be no better than their Logic to persuade persons of reason and sense to accept of their mode, it is most probable it will prove the Nummismata of Galen, which is a quaere that will pass no farther then their own Country, and those that are satisfied with such invalid arguments must suffer the success; for one error in a logical brain being rooted, is without satisfaction; or extirpated with exceeding great difficulty.  
Therefore I shall not hope to persuade any of those modish persons from such rash practice, no more then to cleanse the Negro of his blackness. I call it rash and inconsiderate practi●e in this Disease, because it is a doubt indetermined amongst the most Learned Professors 〈◊〉 all Nations, both Greeks, Arabians, and Latins, and all other principled from them; bein● all of them unresolved of Phlebotomy in the small Pox, upo● any indication to be a safe remedy; and if the Disease b●●onjunct with an undeniab●● plethory of blood, which is the proper indication of Phlebotomy; yet such bleeding aught to be by scarification and cupping-glasses without the cutting of any major vessel, because the Section of such veins do not only evacuate too much spirit, 〈◊〉 also retract the peccant cause to the Centre which is intended to the circumference, and effected by a shallow scarification upon the arms, back and thighs; by which course there is a diminution of the cause in its mixture, and assistance to nature in its circumferential motion, with little expense of sixth or fluent spirit, which is a great support to universal nature in its conatus to discharge the most noble parts from danger of ruin. Contrarily, in the behalf of blood-letting, I have been urged much with the example of the now then their own Country, and those that are satisfied with such invalid arguments must suffer the success; for one error in a logical brain being rooted, is without satisfaction; or extirpated with exceeding great difficulty.  
Therefore I shall not hope to persuade any of those modish persons from such rash practice, no more then to cleanse the Negro of his blackness. I call it rash and inconsiderate practice in this Disease, because it is a doubt indetermined amongst the most Learned Professors 〈◊〉 all Nations, both Greeks, Arabians, and Latins, and all other principled from them; being all of them unresolved of Phlebotomy in the small Pox, upo● any indication to be a safe remedy; and if the Disease 〈◊〉 conjunct with an undeniab●● plethory of blood, which is the proper indication of Phlebotomy; yet such bleeding aught to be by scarification and cupping-glasses without the cutting of any major vessel, because the Section of such veins do not only evacuate too much spirit, but also retract the peccant cause to the Centre which is intended to the circumference, and effected by a shallow scarification upon the arms, back and thighs; by which course there is a diminution of the cause in its mixture, and assistance to nature in its circumferential motion, with little expense of ●ixt or fluent spirit, which is a great support to universal nature in its co●atus to discharge the most noble parts from danger of ruin. Contrarily, in the behalf of blood-letting, I have been urged much with the example of the now French King, who in this case was Phlebotomized about ten or eleven times (as I remember) myself being at St. german the same time, and upon this example they will ground a precept for universal practice; I do not deny, but that such rare escapes have been in all Diseases; but for the universal and common success of such practice, I shall leave to the observation and judgement of the Universe, regulating myself according to reasonable axioms which are eternal & of undeniable validity, if they be studiously followed and separated from fanatic ebulitions of an ill-principled brain: and if by this argumentation any person of an other sense shall be offended, they do most honourably for themselves to publish more certain, reasonable and assured grounds of their practice, to the great satisfaction of the unsatisfied vulgar; which can take no notice of any intervenient cause, but censure all practice according to success; it will also be a great instruction to others that are unacquainted with their mystery or solid ground upon which they limited their Doctrine and practice, to the glory of their Nation wherein they were educated and born, otherwise it will become them to acquiesce in the Doctrine and practice of the most learned, ancient and modern professors of healing, and not like Van●elmont, to blaspheme all University and School-education and methodical proceedings, contradicting all principles in Doctrine and practice, putting out all light, and leaving the world to grope in darkness without any spark of light from them; if they be wise their lip● preserve it, for nothing proceedeth from them of any such tincture, as if they did suppose we ought to know their meaning which the Devil doth not know, (nor themselves their own according to vulgar apprehension:) for what can silence prove more, than a plain acknowledgement of such an error as will not endure the light of reason, nor reduce any contrary disputant to an incommodum, but leave a censure upon the art itself, and all other that profess it, as if art were only a conjecture, and healing or curing of Diseases were but an accident, as if causes had no relation to their effects, nor the sublation of them artificially to any substantial predicament; which otherwise hath had an equal reputation of excellency in all Ages, and the professors thereof amongst all Nations. Witness very many Kings which have esteemed the contemplation and practice of medicine, as the one chief Jewel in their Crown, as hath been more largely expressed in my former writings. But to return from this digression, I shall resume my discourse of Phlebotomy, and show how unresolved and unsettled a remedy it is in this Disease. All the chief professors of medicine, establish it upon the indications either of plenitude of humours or magnitude of Diseases, these being most proper and universal indications of phlebotomy: and although it be a general precept according to the Doctrine of Galen, yet it is not without exception, and more especially excepted in this case of the small Pox. Because in this operation a retraction of the peccant humour from the circumference to the Centre cannot be avoided, which remedy must be as dangerous as unreasonable; because no person of reason will allow a revulsion from an ignoble part to the most vital and noble parts; and although plenitude of humours be an indication for evacuation, yet it doth not solely indicate phlebotomy, except it be a fullness and redundance of blood in predominance, for impure plenitude is a contra-indicant of phlebotomy; the blood offending more in quantity, then in quality, being the most proper indication of blood-letting: and though there be some predominancy of blood, yet blood-letting in such a case hath never proved a curative remedy, nor did I ever see a sanguineous apoplexy cured by blood-letting, and yet the indication of phlebotomy is proper, yet not curative, because it is not per se the cause of the Disease, for where the cause is external as a confusion in such case, though there be a predominancy of blood, yet blood-letting doth prove a remedy of no moment. There is also an exception against phlebotomy; though there be an apparent magnitude of disease. As for example, there is magnitudo morbi, in a lucuphlegmatia or dropsy; so also in a Cacexia, and yet in these and such like cases phlebotomy can be no remedy, nor is it indicated from the magnitude of these Diseases; in the Small Pox also, there is magnitude of disease, and though it be complicated with plethory of blood, yet the 〈◊〉 of a ●ein is not a proper or safe remedy especially, from the beginning to their eruption, because the motion of nature is critical: therefore those that practise phlebotomy upon the precept of Galen without distinction of cases, must consequently incur the censure of inconsiderate and rash practisers, or such as will abound in their own sense which is nonsense: and such fanatics there are in medicine equal to those in Theology, as doth appear by voluminous indigestions belched out in this Age, some of them mere ebullitions of bitterness, and others of heresy, fomenting faction and mutiny in the Schools of learning, as much as in the Common-weal. Some such Sectaries there are in Physic that deny phlebotomy to be a remedy in any case or disease, such as are the offspring of Vanhelmont, others that make it the sole-remedy in all cases, and their instructions are from the mode of France; which mode is of no Antiquity in that Nation, nor ever so commonly used by any of their Ancient professors, which do ordain it as it is in itself, a great remedy, if properly adhibited, viz. where there is magnitude and violence of disease conjunct with plethory of blood and consisting age, yet not without distinction of causes and diseases with other circumstances of time and clime. And those that do read the most learned of that Nation can find them no otherwise principled: yet I have heard Fernelius, which I take to be a glory to that Nation, to have had a most sad censure by some of Parisian practisers, and that it had been better for their Nation that he had been unborn. I have heard this language in discourse, but could never conceive from what part of his learning they extracted their bitterness. But to return to my Theme of phlebotomy in the Small Pox, in which case the agent standeth only like Archimedes in expectation of a place to fix his foot to dislodge the earthen Globe, for until such an assurance of certainty to depend upon, doth manifest itself, there will be no well-grounded assurance of curing this Disease by phlebotomy, not denying the practice upon just indications from the cause and disease rightly apprehended to be a most effectual remedy: but in this case although conjunct with plenitude of blood, which doth most properly indicate evacuation, yet this evacuation by blood-letting is insufficient, because according to Galen in his Books de Multitudine, de Element. de Morbis vulgaribus (saying) that blood is most temperate, because it is an equal mixture of all humours ad justitiam; and therefore Phlebotomy to be an equal evacuation of all humours conjunct with natural spirits, and by this operation the blood is left in its predominancy according to proportion, only the universal plenitude is equally lessened: and the morbifical cause still mixed with the remainder answerable both in quantity and quality to its first impression upon the whole mass, so that the disease is not extinguished by this remedy but lessened in the cause. And although, according to this Doctrine of Galen, there is an equal evacuation of humours, yet the Spirits do at this orifice unequally transpire, for in all blood-letting there is a pass of fixed and innate spirit with the fluent, and these cannot come within the compass of equality, because the fluent spirit is daily repaired: but the fixed never: otherwise if it came within the compass of repair, man should be eternal upon this earth; but every evacuation of this nature doth abreviate humane life, and hasten old Age, as may be observed in the French Children, which by this frequent Phlebotomising are withered in juvenile Age. Therefore Phlebotomy is not a common remedy, but in such extremity, as the person must lose some part of his subsistence to save the whole.  
Moreover in this universal evacuation there may be an expense of some humours which are necessary to be preserved in the mass, because they are not so suddenly repaired again, and from this cause nature may want a vehicle of motion, and suffer tyranny from the disease▪ as when the Phlegmatic part of humours is drawn from the choleric, the bilious humour is left as fire to tyrannize over the remaining humours and the spirits, which are more apt to be inflamed, and for this reason an universal evacuation by Phlebotomy in the Small Pox is and must be a doubtful remedy, because no man can justly prove that in a Phlebotick operation, he shall let out the predominant cause more or less, or equal to any of the mixture in the mass of blood. Therefore if the principal scope of the agent be to relieve nature offended and oppressed by the predominance and turgency of a single peccant cause, the remedy indicated must be a particular correction, separation and extinction of that particular predominance which is not to be effected by cutting a vein, because the evacuation is universal and equally of the whole mass of humours, leaving the predominant humour (according to proportion) as turbulent as before, and consequently it can be no specifical remedy in such a case where the scope of cure is indicated from the quantity of the humour in predomination. And thus I pass to the circumstance of clime which doth prohibit Phlebotomy universally to be used in all Regions.  
I am not ignorant of the Doctrine of Galen, nor of his precepts in this point of Phlebotomy, nor of Augenius his 17. Books upon the same Subject; and although Galen in very many places affirmeth Phlebotomy to be an universal and equal evacuation of the mixed mass of blood, yet not granted without his own exception to be an universal remedy in all Diseases, nor in all Regions: Therefore I shall now pass or urge his own exception against himself, which consisteth in the distinction of Regions and diversities of climes, which as they are distinct in the degrees of air, so also distinct in their diet, which doth maintain nature in its perp●tuo fluere; and as every Region hath a customary diet, so is their customary or common air most agreeable to the inhabitants as mud is to Eels, and these are principally their subsistence, and much disordered upon any alteration of their air and diet: and if this accident had not happened to William Parr (of our own Nation) his principles of nature might have lasted to this day unquenched: and it is a large vulgar error to defend the death of any person to be just according to the power of his principles: nor could any person persuade Sir Thomas More upon the Scaffold, but if it had been the King's pleasure he might have lived many more years upon the principles of nature; but these changes are accidental. But as every distinct Region hath their particular air and diet, so are the remedies or medicinal ingressions of their own clime most proper for their common and vulgar distempers, and those remedies will be more specifically sanative in that Region than any other aliu●de or contracted from another clime: and out of a general observation Galen hath excepted against his general precept of Phlebotomy in his 9th. Book de methodo medendi, where he saith in the extraction of blood, there are many scopes observable and to be considered by the Physician, viz. custom, strength of spirit, consisting Age, with the temper of the Region and place of Habitation; as also the time of the year with the State of the Heavens: and by reason of these circumstances, though blood-letting be necessary, yet without a necessity of coaction not to be adhibited, and if there be such a necessity, it is to be drawn sparingly and with great consideration as by these expressions of Galen, the whole universe may take cognizance, that as he esteemeth Phlebotomy to be a grand remedy, so he adviseth the use of it with as great circumspection and judgement: and the nonestablishment of this remedy neither by the ancient nor modern Professors of healing, is the cause of so much difference in consultation: every man embracing his own commentary upon it, which maketh the remedy more doubtful; otherwise it were (according to Gantius the Portugal Physician) the most pleasant and sudden remedy in all diseases, for it is quickly done and with as little trouble and pain. And now I pass to the circumstances of time to be observed in this operation.  
Riverius (I conceive) amongst all the Moderns to be the greatest assertor of Phlebotomy in variolis & morbillis, which are the Small Pox and Measles. And yet without the circumstances of time, age, and plethory of blood, he will not adhibit phlebotomy, nor upon redundance of blood if there appear any sign of their eruption; neither doth he admit of any inordinate sleep, Si pustulae erumpunt, and for this reason quia motus motui contrarius, for sleep doth colligate the sense and retract the spirit and humours to the Centre; and for the same reason Phlebotomy is prohibited. And the same Author saith, those that will begin the cure with blood-letting, must be sure that the foresaid indications of Age and redundance of blood be completed. Moreover it is very rare to meet with such a conjunction of indicants; plethory itself according to the proper signification is a fullness and redundance of the purest blood, and such a redundance as is ad distentionem vasorum▪ and very rarely discovered in Diseases: & therefore the remedy doubtful, and being uncertain it must be rashness or debility of intellect to apply such remedy. The same Author saith also, that if the Physician shall not be invited at the first ebullition, when this disease is in its first firmentation, and before there be any signification of eruption or very few in number and quantity, that at such time Phlebotomy may be profitable, and in the next lines contradicteth himself diametrically, where he saith, upon the eruption of the Pustules, the fervency and symptoms are abated: and the whole operation is left to the motion of nature, which is then propelling the cause to the skin from the central parts to the circumferential, and then Phlebotomy is unnecessary and of no use. Again the same Author affirmeth, that if this pustulous eruption be intense and conjunct with a difficulty of breathing, it is a sign that nature is onerated or overburdened; and therefore blood-letting is to be ordained for disoneration of nature, and enabling it to encounter the remainder; which is reasonable, if such a part of the onerating humour might solely & per se be extracted without the loss of spirit; for the support ofspirit is the principal sco●e of cure in this disease, which is no way effected by blood-letting. Therefore this practice is insignificant, otherwise the argument would be acceptable to all Logical persons, and as inacceptable to the whole Sect of Galenists which affirm phlebotomy to be an equal evacuation of all humours with fixed and fluent spirits, which are the principal prohibition of this practice in this case. Otherwise upon an universal oneration, it were reasonable disburthening of nature, and properly indicated, if seasonably administered and upon a critical motion. But to conclude with the determination of this Author, he in one wor● saith, blood-letting in the Small Pox is not to be adhibited neither in the beginning o● the ebulition, nor eruption of the pustules; neither is any blout to be drawn safely or without danger, insomuch that neither Riverius nor any other Author can afford any certain assurance of the practice of phlebotomy i● this disease, but rather these contradictory oppositions between the most Learned Ancients and Modern Professors of highest judgement and observation, do prove this scope of cure by blood-letting to be an unsafe and doubtful remedy in the Small Pox; and therefore I thought it my duty to publish so much to my own Nation and in their own tongue, that they may be instructed and enabled to avoid the danger of unsafe or rash proceeding in the curing of this disease: and if these expressions be insignificant to any persons of another sense, I shall leave them as courageous and valiant adventurers, and wish their returns may be more successful then of late they havebin.  
I have now most plainly expressed my own sense of blood-letting in this disease of the Small Pox particularly; yet it will admit of a more general extension to all circumferential motions in nature, for without dispute the intention in all afflictions is to expel all peccant and peternaturall causes from the Centre to the universal emunctory, or to some particular place of reception, from a more noble to a less noble part, according to its power in resisting the cause: for if it cannot effect a universal evacuation circumfercntial, nor an extreme impulsion from the most noble to the most ignoble part, such as is from head to foot, or from the breast to the back; than it moveth obliquely to some emunctory which may obtain the term of a perfect diversion to the next vicine part, or else to some neutral which hath a vicinity with both. As from the head to the Glandules of the throat, Glandules of the groin which are more remote, and so proveth neither a proper diversion, nor proper revulsion.  
And in these motions, phlebotomy may be indicated either ●or diversion or revulsion, or universal evacuation; which in Art ought to precede a particular evacuation, by which remedy some internal oppilations or obstructions in via may be removed, and Nature enabled more universally to free itself of a congestion. But since I have not consented to phlebotomy in the Small Pox, I am obliged to declare an undeniable regimen in this disease with considerable remedies, both external and internal to be applied; and although phlebotomy be in the Catalogue of external remedies, yet so of no use in this case, by reason that it is as difficult in this disease to find a proper indication to sense, as a simple intemperies in a veletudinary person; that is, such a disease as is without any other complication, such a disease imaginary there may be, but not demonstrative to sense: But if any proper indication with a necessity of coaction for drawing of blood, doth present itself to the agent, then as I said in my precedent discourse, the application of cupping-glasses upon the shoulders, arms, and thighs with scarification, is the safest remedy; with this caution that the scarification be superficial and not deep, lest they enter upon a vein or artery; and the evacuation be stopped with much difficulty and danger to the patient. And this applicatition thus performed, nature is assisted in its circumferential motion, if there be also a great care and circumspection in the contemperation of the ambient air of the place, that it be not so hot as to suffocate the spirits, nor so cold as to repel the humour in motion to the Centre; or so congregate and condense the intrinsical causes, that in conatu naturae, or in the endeavour of nature to dissolve and open, the porosities be inflamed, and the disease augmented, or totally stop the eruption of the pustules: and therefore to be advisedly ordered there are other external remedies which are to be used in the state of this disease unto the declension for the prevention of Escars, and these remedies are commonly the compliment of every experienced Nurse. But I shall first acquaint the Reader with such remedies as are ordained by Learned and ancient practitioners, viz. when the matter of the pustules doth corrode and make a deep impression in the face, Senertus appointeth a sufficient quantity of Mallow roots to be boiled in the Urine of the Patient. Some other Physicians and old Nurses have used an astringent wash, which in my sense is not to be andibited, because it stoppeth, or is the cause of retention of the humour in the face, and fixeth the cicatrix. Riverius ordaineth oil of sweet Almonds new pressed to anoint the face, and as an Anodine to contemperate the acrimony of the humour, which in some persons (as aqua fortis) hath penetrated the bone, according to the relation of Gartius. Fernelius applaudeth this subsequent ointment; Take sweet Almonds, white Lilies, of each one ounce, Capon's grease three drams, the powder of the root of paeony, flower de lys, Lithargy of Gold, of each half the scruple, Sugar-candy one scruple; mix all these in a hot Mortar and strain them through a lin●en cloth, and anoint the 〈◊〉 morning and night; and after this anointing wash the face with water distilled from Calf's feet. Gartius out of his observation recommended his unguentum citr●num to be in curing the cicatrix a proba●um; and myself shall present the oil of Eggs to be most incarnative and generating flesh, which doth fill up those cavities and prevent circatrising (or vulgarly pittings the flesh) not 〈…〉 when they come to 〈…〉 to open them with a 〈…〉 instrument, lest by the per●●nency of the pustulate 〈◊〉 there be a greater impression of the cicatrix. Some other Physicians (I know not upon what basis) dispute against this order of opening the pustules when they come to maturity; and I find their reason for it as weak as their opinion, for they urge such a diminution of natural heat in letting out the puruleut matter upon full maturity, that nature is so debilitated, that it is disabled to incarnate; and by want of this incarnation the cicatrix is more profound: but upon consideration of the opening of an Apostema when it is mature, it is a levamen to nature as much as the taking of the burden from a Porter doth refresh him, and doth prevent the tediosity of natural industry in mellowing or rotting the Coat in which the matter is involved; and consequently a proportionable corroborative to natural heat and motion, and more especially when they are supplied with remedies that are mundificative and carnative, as is before directed in the oil of Eggs. But because I hate prolixity, I do pass over a multitude of other Medicaments, well knowing the vanity of being overactive when a less motion is more satisfactory, & frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora.  
And therefore out of my own experience and quotidian practice, I have recommended and presented this short direction of Government in this disease, to those that please to accept of it as the most safe and successful. There remaineth now only one consideration in external remedies●, and then I shall conclude this brief discourse of the Small Pox, not doubting but to render as much satisfaction to those that do perpend it, as is needful to be received from any publication upon the same subject. And so I return to the last external remedy in this disease; and this is from the first eruption unto the time of maturation, in which time there is great inquietude and itching, principally in the plants of the feet, where the skin is most callous, hard and thick. And in this time I observe Riverius above all other Authors to ordain the bathe of the hands and feet, by reason of the density of these parts, in some more dense than in others, as in Smiths, Carpenters, and Foot-posts, whose hands and feet are harder than persons of a more tender and sedentary Trade or Profession. I cannot but acknowledge that humectation and attenuation to mollify those parts is properly indicated; but the mode of this application is observable, because upon the opening of the porosities by bathing, the ambient air may obtain the advantage of repelling the inquination of the morbisical matter from these ignoble and extreme parts to the more noble, by the ambient air in the course of sanguineous circulation, and hath proved fatal in such as have rare and tender skins, as is proved by the bathing the Illustrious Princess Royal. Therefore I shall rather ordain aperient fomentations in their bed, to assist their cruption and move sweat: and thus I conclude all external remedies.  
As I have plainly and briefly expressed my sense and practice concerning external remedies in this disease, I am now obliged to pass orderly to such remedies as are internally to be adhibited; and according to my former method, I shall in the first place entertain you with the practice of the best Professors and Authors in medicine from the beginning of this disease to the increment, from the increment to the state, and from the state to the declination; and then shall take boldness to enter myself into their Society, with all submission to Seniority, in joining my own Vote amongst them. The first internal remedy, according to all Ancient order, is the diet in this disease, which by the order of Paulus Aegineta, must be moderate in quantity and temperate in quality: Such as is Almond milk, or as temperate as the blood ought to be in heat and moisture, and we call it medicamentum alimentosum. As for other internal Medicaments they are corroborative, and such as support the spirits natural in the expulsion of the peccant cause, or Cathartical, or such as do purge and evacuate the humoral cause: but such medicines whether the form of glister or any other form, are universally censured as a motion contrary to the intention and industry of nature, because the quickness of such motion over-heateth the spirits, and lesseneth them in their quantitative power to force the cause to circumferential porosities, consequently to the ruin of the patient. Who is there of any observation that hath not the sad experience of purging glisters in the increase of this disease, and upon their eruption more especially pernicious, and in my opinion more mortal than blood-letting? it being the least evil because it doth more equally evaculate all humours, sine conatu naturae, and a less impowering of the spirits, because all purging Medicaments must be procured into act by the power of nature principally; & yet some patients have supervived such rash practice, yet not to be received as abhoristicall, nor logically proved, more than an accident to be a substance. But for the Ancient, and most Learned Moderns of all Ages, they are in this disease upon the scope of propeling Medicaments from the Centre to the circumference, or from the internal to the external skin; such as are decoctions of figs, Calendula flowers, and Saffron, in their just proportion boiled in milk, and all astringent Medicaments to be prohibited in the beginning of ebullitior, because their astringency is a Remora and delay to nature in propelling the peccant cause, except some supervenient flux of the belly shall urge it; but the precedent ordinance, I recommend as the safest from the beginning of this disease, to the declension, 〈◊〉 healing, expelling, and nourishing. And let it be a note in the Margin that this disease is most safely cured by regular Government and little medicine, and in this Land or Nation of English, to whom I appeals the most successful.  
And we must not rashly reject the Ancient, national and successful Government of our own Nation, ridiculously to perish by the mode of another, as much unknown to us, as we to them in Education, Humour, and Intellect; and as manifest a difference in all, as is in the original of colours: and every Nation doth build upon their own basis, and their own observations and experience, both natural and moral, which are the rule of their own Government and Commerce with strangers, which rule is natural to them, and the opposition as diametrical contrary as black and white; and such a pass from one extreme to the other is equally unreasonable, and such hasty motion can prove but Phaetontical and insuccessful. The mode of strange habits in apparel may be received according to appetite and fancy without peril of life; and artificers of several Regions must be most dexterous in their operation, and more compliant with the humour and fancy of the natives thereof; but the gift of healing is not equally dispensed in every Region: Hypocrates condemneth all the Gnydian Physicians as the worst orderers of diet in diseases of that age; and a great distinction there is between Physicians of all Nations in their success: so that the gift of healing is not equally dispensed to all the Sons of Art and Learning, for I have known as Learned Professors as are in the World; and the want of success in their practice, hath caused some to relinquish their Profession: therefore a disposition natural gaineth more in a short time of Excellency, than any compulsion can effect. And this natural difference in dispositions is the proper subject of that gift of healing, the donor a free agent, the recipient a subject fitted to receive the full impression without resistance, either to science or success; and these are Hypocrates his Sons of the gods by whom he swore, and that (plurality of deity excepted) was an Oath not over-matched by any Christian form of swearing; and his prayer at the Altar was a Sacrifice of the highest Antiquity.  
Besides this distinction, of Artists, especially Physicians of whom there can be none so expert & satisfactory in his applications to a native of a different clime and custom as the person who is born and Educated in the same place, and those ingredients to their remedy which will not agree with the curiosity nor reason of a strange Artist, shall prove by their custom to be a specifical remedy to those Natives in their own Region: as in Holland, their buttermilk and apples is their most cordial refershment in all diseases, and in all those places; and of more esteem than any other remedy, and most prescribed by their Native Physicians; and if you meet with the prescript of a pickled-herring, with an order to prepare it, you have then a Probatum in all diseases; for there is no full satisfaction given to any of that Nation, if these remedies be prohibited. And answerably there is a natural adherence in all Nations to their own custom, Suum cuique pulchrum, the Crow conceiveth her own bird the fairest, and so doth the Negro. And both man and beast, as they have an aliment proper to their own Nature, so naturally they elect their own Physic; the fowls that feed according to their kind upon corn, worms, and carrion, when they are diseased will seek out stones to cool them, and other disgorging remedies they find out, as the dog doth grass: therefore non omnia omnis fert tellus. But of all terrestrial inhabitants, the English do most distaste the productions of their own Country in Nature and Education, which presenteth an invitation to all Nations to supplant and impoverish the Natives and offspring of our own Country, or else enforceth them to stamp a strange name, especially upon pieces of Art, to make them vendible, to the great encouragement of strangers and impoverishing our own Nation: amongst whom there may by encouragement be picked out an equality to the whole Universe; the neglect whereof doth as much enfeeble the persons as the plants, without support answerable to their capacity. I have lived a long time amongst divers Nations, and according to my time have had as much conversation with all sorts of people and professions; and (without National indulgence) could not apprehend any excellency unmatchable in England, especially, before these latter Rebellious Ages, which was the discouragement of all Artists, and suppression of Arts and Sciences; and in policy fomented by all neighbouring-Nations for the universal advance of their profit, and reputation of their Nation: and by their Industry and our own rebellious spirits, the Gallantry, Honour, Education and Ancient renown of our own Country hath been sepulted in oblivion. And now those Sects of Sadduces, that would not entertain the faith of a resurrection, are now forced with grief and shame to confess it, and without doubt shall daily see this corruption to put on incorruption, and our Nation to return to their former principles more purified by this fiery trial, and to re-erect the Ancient Memory and Monuments of all the Ancient Professors of Arts, and Sciences so odious to the spawn of this last Age, some of which were then thankful they had forgot the Lords Prayer; and others that had turned all the Schools of Ancient Philosophy into furnaces and luxurious houses for sweeting intemperate persons; and these are the offspring of Phacton driving on their fiery Chariot, till they have cracked their skulls with their own sublimation of spirits, for air rarefied must find vent or force it. johannes Crato is not to be condemned because his Tutor Educated him in Chemistry, but to be highly applauded for his non-profession of it upon the uncertainty in the operation, quia totum opus constat in regimine ignis, and as a Mathematician ought to be a King according to Proverb, because of the expense his variety of instruments doth charge him with; so ought the operator to have more money than Learing, to fit himself with a furnace for that equal heat which shall without dispute separate his Homogeneals from his Heterogeneals; without which Regiment of fire it cannot be effected. And this is the reason why every pretender to excellency in Chemistry spendeth his whole industry in the figure of his furnace, and though he doth rejoice and warm himself at his own external furnace, yet those infiered spirits of minerals are to the spirits of animals and innate heat as overpowering, as the Sun is to all Culine fire which putteth it out; and so it hath proved to all operators which have been exact in their office; they have been buried very young in it. And this was a great observation of Crato, that Paracelsus which proclaimed eternity to himself in this World, did not live above 45. years; nor the German Princess, used to those medical preparations. And himself as a Galenist boasteth of living with three Emperors, and creating his own Grandchild Doctor of the Chair: but all such observations are out of date and superannuated; nor can an old man persuade children from playing with fire till they have burnt themselves. But more clearly to signify my own sense in Chemical operations, I cannot but approve the employment out of curiosity, because it is a great discovery of mixed bodies, and their mixture, which is a great pleasure to sense, but not as medicinal remedies to be acceptable or homogeneal to humane tempers: but the preparation of Vegetals without exception, exceeding useful in the composure of medicaments, because they are prepared in the womb or furnace of the Earth by a perfect temper of fire, and need nothing but a separation from their terra damnata; and their tincture very useful. And as it is more pleasure to the operator, so is it free from danger which cannot be avoided in working upon mineral and metalical bodies, as may be observed from Goldsmiths, the major part of them being enervated and paralytic before they are of any considerable age of consistency; and had they not their remedy always at hand, they would be soon ruined and useless in the world. The same accidents happen to miners that work in the earth amongst minerals and metals, who very often are suffocated or strangled in the place. These experiments being undeniable are arguments of sufficient force and demonstration to prove their non-agreement or consent with humane principles; but for the advancement of Art and Science, adventures must be made and adventures rewarded with respect and applause. The Navigator maketh discovery by the light of the Sun in its full splendour: but he that searcheth into the bowels of the earth hath no immediate assistance from that planet, therefore their discovery is more obscure, laborious and dangerous, and their reward ought to be more ample. And now I return to my proper subject, and briefly to the conclusion of this discourse of the specifical internal remedies in this disease of the Small Pox, about which there is much litigation and dispute between the Ancient and Modern professors of medicine, sufficient to stuff up a Volume of paper: therefore I shall upon my own experience and success recommend to my Country the sole use of Saffron and Milk, as a Probatum in this puerile disease, and according to the custom of our English Nation without alteration from the beginning to the declension of the disease, and for these reasons, because the milk is sufficiently nutritive and healing, and the Saffron a cordial propellent of the cause in ebullition from the Centre to the circumference; and for a common drink in the place of Ptysan to use a small decoction of Sulphur, which moveth by sweat to the universal emunctory of the skin, and drieth up superfluous moisture, lesseneth the quantity of matter, and giveth a levamen to the natural spirits in their motion; and for this practice I must return my acknowledgement and respect to Gartias the Portugal Physician. Amatus Lucitanus with other Moderns of the same sense, prescribeth for an ordinary drink in this disease, the decoction of barley with Sorrel, which cannot be so siguificant as the decoction of Salsa; because their refrigeration constantly will debilitate natural heat, and by reason of such a check the motion of nature is impedted; and therefore Fernelius affirmeth that hot diseases are more unsafe in their cure then diseases of cold; because cold remedies are altogether used as a contrary remedy to heat, by which cold correction of preternatural heat, natural heat itself is also extinguished, for which cause the application of constant Apozems ought to be moderately hot and moist, there may be much more argumentation upon the point, but very little more I conceive à proprio, for it is not argumentation that cureth diseases, but the seasonable application of specifical remedies; and he that will make more haste then good speed shall have little comfort in his undertake, and much less if his remedy be improper; for it is the specifical quantity of the remedy that cureth every disease; and cures according to Sanctorius, consist not in pluralities of medicaments, but the property of them answerable to the disease; and this is the reason why an old woman doth often by her experience of an imperical medicament make a cure of some particular affect relinquished by Learned practisers both in medicine and Chirurgery: neither are all diseases cured by a contrary remedy, (though the rule of contrary be universal, because it admitteth exception, as burning is sooner cured by the scorching heat of fire, then by any other cold remedy; so also a 〈◊〉 is a convulsive motion: and cured by sternation which is a like convulsive motion, so also a lassitude by exercise is cured by the like exercise. Thirdly, a fever is a hot and dry distemper, but this distemper is cured by hot and dry remedies, ●rgo the disease is cured by its simile, for if a tertian or ardent fever be cured by Rhabarb and Scammony, etc. which are hot & dry, than the remedies convein to the cause and not to the fever as a disease; and according to Galen lib. 6. Epid. one pain is cured by another. Hypocrates lib. 2. Aph. 46. the greater and most vehement pain obscureth the less pain, lib. 2. aphor. 26. a fever supervening a convuision is good▪ but not a convulsion upon a fever in his 4th. Book aphor. 57 in a convulsion or distension of the nerves if a fever shall supervene; it absolveth the disease in his 5. Book aphor. 21. so also is vomiting cured with vomiting, and purging with purging. Fourthly, a Tetanus is cured by pouring water upon the head, lib. 5. aphor. 25. but a return is from a cold cause, and cured by a cold remedy according to Epiphamus, Ferdinandus and Avicen lib. fen. 4. cap. 1. saith, that all diseases are not to be cured by contraries, because some are cured by diet, as is expressed formerly in the Small Pox, others by their simile, as is before said. Fifthly, those diseases are only to be cured by contrary remedies that can obtain their contrary remedies, for many diseases want their 〈◊〉 remedy, such as are diseases in via & numero. Sixthly, an apoplexia ever endeth in a Paralysis, which is, a resolution of the nerves, with a deprivation of sense and motion in the part. Gal. lib. 4 de loc. affect. So that one disease quantum ad causam is cured by the simile. In the 7th. place according to Arist. one contrary is corroborated by the other contrary being present; therefore cures cannot only be effected by contraries. To conclude, curing sometimes is effected by occult qualities, acting from the property of the whole substance, such as are bezoartics; therefore not by contraries, nor is this last proposition true in all things, because Hipp. lib. 5. aphor. 19 cold parts are always to be warmed except in a flux of blood, so that by this argumentation all diseases are to be cured by their specifical remedy, and not by the multiplication of ingredients In my sense the least variety of medicaments in this disease of the Small Pox, is most successful; for various and often applications and mixture in remedies doth perturb nature as much, if not more then continual eating and drinking in a sane body, and by irrecoverable vexation of the patient, doth frustrate the expectation of the agent. To conclude, what I have written is agreeable to Ancient and Learned Authority, and no fanatic conception, to make the world believe that these truths were not established before by Learned Professors, though not so far extended to vulgar apprehension. I am none of that society that dispute against that old axiom, quod nihil dictum quod non dictum prius, nor hath it been hitherto my fortune to cast any eye upon any Modern that had not his ante-delineation from some precedent, and deduced from a former illumination; but the addition to invention is common and frequent in every age, there are differences in Writers as much as in painters, but none did ever pencil a draught to life by a mere copy, nor can they do it without copy. So that the difference is in the aptitude of some above other to present the copy more lively, that only, that is the proceed of mere fancy, is to sense nothing but confusion and void of any signification; nor will appear in art any thing but a monstrosity, and in science some vulgar errors, some will have the Philosophy of Ducartus to be a new Philosophy of his own coining, but himself will not deny his illumination was from Aristotle. Dr. Harvy his circulation of blood was by the Ancients nominated a motion of blood by the continuation of parts, of which none were ignorant, though not expert in dissection of living bodies: so also is the nova medicina laboratory enfired by the ancient luminaries, and bellowsed up by operators of several and different fancies, and these additions are ordinary to invention; and such addition is but the extension of a first invention, as one that in his travel maketh a discovery of a land unknown before, cannot say that land was not in being before; and if by the exact travel of a second person a larger discovery be made, this discovery is but an enlargement and extension of the first discovery, and so may be a succession of discoveries ad infinitum, and so it is generally in all invention: as in medicine, the first invention of remedies was from experience deduced from observation; and upon further observation of more exacter intellects, the reason of such applications, and the specifical qualities of the remedy more exactly discovered, which is an addition to the first observation. Moreover, the motion of the blood was by the continuation of parts, as veins and arteries, and no farther discovered, until my most learned Predecessor by his exact observation demonstrated the manner of its motion to be circular, which is a farther extension of the first observation. And thus one Artist differeth from the other in the invention about the first discovery, which was the original copy and compass by which they steered. And thus I have steered this discourse to a haven where my intention is to lodge my vessel, and if the unlading prove profitable to my Country, let them take it at their own valuation.  
FINIS.   

QUESTIONS PROBLEMATICAL Concerning the French PEST. By Tebias Whitaker M. D. Physician in Ordinary to the King and his Household.  
LONDON, Printed for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhill, 1661.   

Questions Problematical Concerning the FRENCH PEST, etc.  
NAtural motion is from imperfection to perfection, and according to nature I do now move from the disease of children which is nominated the Small Pox, to the grand disease of mankind, which is nominated the French Pest. From whence they contracted it, is not now the question, but other questions of more subtlety, are my present Subject of Discourse as followeth.  

QUEST. I.  
Why this French disease should lodge in humane bodies for many years without signification or discovery, and then appear with its proper symptoms of malice and contagion.  
Mercurialis affirmeth that the poison in a mad dog is so lodged for many years before it appeareth in act; but giveth no farther reason why it is so; which is my present undertaking. As for the reality of it that is obvious to sense, and doth visibly appear, and how it is for longer or shorter time so lodged, will be as apparent to sense, as may be argued from the containing subject more or less, or in a longer or shorter time disposed to produce this occult quality into act, conjunct with activity of motion sooner, or impotency of natural power which doth retard it, and lodgeth it for a longer time without any symptom of eruption, and the malice is more according to the quantity of matter impregnated with a virulent quality. And that it doth so lodge without impediment or hindrance to the natural action of the person in whom it lodgeth, is manifest to sense in the menstruosity of women, which cast a venene-spot upon the speigle or lookingglass and yet in health, and sine actione laesa in themselves: and as it is a venomous quality in their blood, so hath it lodged in them until their time of puberty without any such discovery. And so doth the French disease lodge in the Spermatick matter of humane bodies some years before it appeareth, and for such time without sensible offence to them: but the time of latency longer or shorter dependeth upon quality of the recipient matter in which it is contained, as the putrifying quality in those that are subject to the Stone, which disturbeth some tempers sooner and stronger than others according to the quality of the matter in which it is involved: as is observable in all poisons which work according to the capacity of the recipient matter more or less disposed to receive impression. As in minerals, sulphur will sooner fire than amber, and in vegetals flax will sooner be fired then wood; and though these be sensible, yet there are occult qualities in poison imperceptible in their motion, and yet sensible in their effects and productions, as may be urged from the springing up of herbs and grass, which moveth imperceptibly; and yet that it doth move is sensibly discovered by its growth in a short time, and would appear in perfection at the first reception of the form, were it not impedited and delayed by the indisposition of the matter informed à vi plastica, and this is the reason of the latency of this disease so long time invisible.   

QUEST. II.  
Why this French Pest should be generated in men and women free from any venereal act or impure congression.  
That it may be so generated, and that it is so, common experience doth present to every eye; and the Ancients testify, viz. Galen de loc. affect. 5. in these words translated, affirmeth, that the retention of seed and suppression of menstrual courses doth terminate in such poison as will effect any disease according to the disposition and temperament of the body, and make impression upon other materials different in nature from animals, as before I have urged concerning women with their aspect upon looking-glasses in the time of menstruosity; and at the same time pollute all herbs within the sphere of activity or contact, and so observable amongst the French people, that they will not permit any of the female Sex within the circuit of such years of puberty to descend their Wine-cellars or approach their Vineyards: which upon observation hath been so destructive to their Vintage, and upon any impure congression with women at such time, are received some mortal and in curable diseases, as the feprosie, odious a curse to mankind: and the venereal congression with women at such time, was not only prohibited by the jews, but also the entrance into any bath with the●; therefore if the bathing such persons be of necessity to effect their health, my order should be for every such single person to have a fresh bath to themselves and their own private use. And thus I have proved that this disease may be generated in a man out of his own impurity, and without any impure congression or venereal act.   

QUEST. III.  
After what manner this Pest is lodged so long time imperceptible.  
This question is not void of difficulty to resolve, for if there were any opposition or repulsion from nature, than the venene quality upon such opposition must necessarily beget such a conflict as would appear sensible, or such a suppression as will very little differ from a total extinction of such venene motion; therefore my answer is, that viscosity and tenacity of the humours in which the spirits are involved, and in which they move, or their extreme coldness, by which both spirits and humours are so congregated, as without the reflection of a hotter beam, they cannot effect any motion; or by neglect of timely remedies to discharge the mass of blood of such malignity; for diseases not resisted in the beginning do insinuate and enter into the subject matter insensibly, until their eruption be inavoidable. Other causes may rise from irregularity of diet, or want of exercise to rarefie the spirits, attenuate the humours, and mundefie the mass of blood; for the want of such motion the blood is contaminated, as is apparent in water-vesselled up from the motion of air, without which motion all waters would be but an Ocean of putrefaction, to the ruin of all creatures upon the land as in the Sea. Moreover, the want of exercise doth incrassate the humours, and include the malicious quality in such manner, that it cannot so suddenly break out into act, but is covered like fiery embers under ashes, which send forth neither light nor heat till they be stirred up. And after this manner this disease is lodged in the subject matter impreceptibly, as is reported by Belocatus, that this French disease was lodged in certain noble persons of Verona thirty years before any Path●gnomical symptom did appear.   

QUEST. IV.  
Why this disease doth apprehend some persons most maliciously at the first co●tion, and leave other persons void of contagion, though very frequent in the act of Venery and of impure tempers, according to sense most ap● to receive the impression of such poison.  
I have in my former discourse expressed the differences of capacities, to receive the impression of distinct poison sooner or later, and in that discourse the answer to the first part of this question is included; that some tempers are like tinder enfired and infected at the first stroke or allision of the air between two hard bodies, when such sparks will make no impression upon straw or flax, which in their own nature are very combustible; so also are the different constitutions of humane bodies, some shall be by this Pest infected in the first act, when other persons of corrupt mixture and in sense most disposed to receive inquination or pollution shall not be apprehended with this disease though very frequent in impure congression: for that there must be a more proper aptitude to receive this contagion in the first act by that proper temper so infected, then in the other which is a disposition more sensibly disposed to receive such contamination in a higher degree; and yet they are not so really disposed as the first, which receiveth a sensible pollution. And this must be an occult quality more latent then patient in them, which will incorporate with any mixture, which is not generally observable in mixture; as for example, oil will not incorporate with water, but will separate each from other; and yet they are both humid bodies: and though not capable of incorporation together, yet capable of distinct impregnation either of saltness or sweetness; but oil will not receive these tinctures so suddenly nor completely as water; and therefore poisons of the sharpest quality are impedited and resisted in their corrosion by oily substances. And this is the reason why some dispositions receive pollution more fully and speedily then others: but where there is an homogeneality and sameness in the matter of mixture, there will be a perfect incorporation, although they be specifically distinct, as the mixture of wine and water in the plant, for there is in the juice of that plant both a vinose and aquose quality so mixed, that it is difficult to sense to discover any distinction from sameness or perfect homogenealities; but where there is no disposition capable to receive contagion itself, yet it may prove a vehicle of conveyance to a subject that is disposed. For many persons that have been in Venereal and impure congression with an infected person, though not infected themselves; yet upon the first act shall convey it to another person well-disposed to receive the contamination, for q●●cquid recipitur, recipitur secundum modum recipientis; and is proved by daily observation, that Cats, Pigeons and other creatures that have commerce with houses infected with the Pest, are not infected themselves with the plague, yet do convey it to other persons disposed to receive the impression of such contagion. And according to the observation of Sanctorius, the breath of a Cat in a room will affect a consumptive disposition, with difficulty of breathing and fainting sweats; though the Cat be unseen by the person affected▪ which he made the rule of discovery of a Consumptive inclination in such persons as come within the sphere of the forenamed creature. And although the disposition of the subject be the principal cause of receiving the impression of this French disease and production of it into act, yet not the only cause, for the continuance or long-stay in venereal act, and over-heating themselves with so long and laborious motion is the cause of infection in that act; which otherwise might be avoided, when these that Sparrow-like are not infected with many impure congressions; nor is any contamination so active as that which proceedeth from lively animals by the association of their intense heat; as for cold poison they are potential, and according to their potentiality more slow and dull in their motion and production of their effect.   

QUEST. V.  
What power this is which is nominated potential, and how it dedu●eth this venenosity into act,  
This term potential aught to be made clear to sense, because any cold poison potential cannot be active of itself; nor can nature as an agent natural produce it into act, but rather a contemperation or commoderation, Nor is it agreeable with my reason, that nature should produce poison into act; because nature is most adverse to poison, and poison a contrary opposite to nature, except Epiphanius Ferdinandus can persuade me to the contrary, for he will have something alimentable in all poison; and if there be not something nutritive in all poison according to his sense, there can be no part of poison, as poison, reduced into alimentable act by nature. Therefore it improbable, that although every ●art of poison is poison, and as poison opposite and contrary to nature, as it is simple poison, and cannot be alimentable, but as a mixed body; something may be extracted that may be reducible into aliment, or the whole mixture so contemperated with an alimentable, may receive such admission into our natural principles as may impregnate as much as the recipient subject is capable to receive, and gradatim produced into an act of the same mixture from whence it was extracted according to the quality of the poison, totally hot or cold; yet Galen doth urge another cause of nature, its production of poison into act, which 〈◊〉 from the repugnancy of nature with poison, by which contestation poisons a●e so rarefied, and by the repugnancy of nature made more subtle and forcible to enter the principles of nature, and by this power produce themselves into act, and the principles of nature into such compliance as is not much different from identity with themselves: and upon s●ch forceable ●●trance, though it be poison in tota 〈◊〉, and void of any alimentable condition, yet it receiveth entertainment by nature without any sensible impediment to natural action; and then digested, and so altered by natural heat as maketh it alimentable, and prepared for assimilation. And this reason is consented unto by Gal●n, lib. 3. de simplic. medic. where he affirmeth cold poisons to be attenuated, made hot and changed by the power of natural heat, by which mutation and alteration I conceive a full change of its own property into another nature, otherwise it will sooner or later return to its own natural body again, as Gold by the power and ●orce of heat dissolved, and seemingly mixed with other metals and mineral substances, it's own property being unalterable by heat, doth separate from all other mixture, and returneth to its own proper and natural body; nor can I conceive how Gold by the force of any fire should lose any atom of itself, except St. Anthony his fire, which effected his aurum potabil●, which challengeth entrance amongst vulgar errors.   

QUEST. VI  
Why a woman not infected herself, should infect another person with this disease,  
This node seemeth difficult to unwedge, as being contradictive to reason, that any thing should give that to another which it hath not in itself to give, or that any person should receive that which is not in being; therefore it cannot be understood of a mere nonentity, which is neither in act nor in power, but of an occult quality latens in massa sanguinea, without any sensible discovery, till a Masculine agitation shall make it effectual and visible in those that upon such motion receive the contamination; and such inquination or pollution is many times received from women who have no symptom of infection perceptible in themselves; and therefore I conceive it to be their own proper venene temper contigent in them, as in Scorpions and Asps and such other venomous creatures; or else contracted al●unde, and from venene aliment; the use whereof hath made it a natural nourishment to themselves and poison to others, as was observed by Avicen in that Puella that fed upon nothing but poisons, and was nourished with them as an aliment inoffensive and very nutritive to her, so as in common view she appeared to be of a most wholesome constitution, and yet her breath poisoned all other within the sphere of it, and with whom she had any commerce or conversation. Thus every man doth receive the infection of this disease, that hath coition with a woman of such venene temp●r, though not infected herself; and this is the reason why some such constituted women do abbreviate the lives of all men that have any congression with them in Wedlock or otherwise, and this venene quality is also in many men, which infect all they comply with, except those of their own venene temper, and such tempers are most homogeneally matched together; and if I were a professor of the Law, I should judge any sound and wholesome temper so conjoined in Matrimony to such a venene constituon, their Matrimony to be unlawful because unnatural. And Sir Francis Bacon in his Utopia doth very much agree with me in this opinion and judgement, where he admitteth of no Matrimonial conjunction without a strict paternal and materna inquest concerning the temper of each person and homogeneality in nature, and the hereditary diseases they are subject unto, as the Gout, Stone, and French Pest; that their propagation may be sound, strong and comely for the strength and duration of his new common-weal. And this may be the reason rather than the Religion of the Haunder, who maketh it lawful for the man and woman to make trial each of other after they be undertrood for some time before they are joined together in Matrimony, and if in that time they have cause of mislike, they may abstain from Marriage without any censure of impiety or breach of their Law, or imputation of dishonour.   

QUEST. VII.  
Whether there be any defensative against infection in the act of Venery with such persons as are maliciously infected with this disease.  
There are not wanting, and other Mountebanks upon every Stage and Marketplace to quack of various remedies of defence, and specifical preparations they have extracted to this purpose; though myself hath known many of them, and some Physicians that have forfeited their palate and noses in this venereal combat, and proved their defensatives to be more fabulous than effectual, because necessarily in all coition there must be attrition of the genitals which heateth and forceth open all porosities in the Members, and must of necessity give entrance to any venenosity of this disease which doth contaminate the spirits; and if they can prepare no condensing remedy to shut up the porosities in the genitals, than their defensative is a mere airy discourse, void of demonstration and appear a mist cast before the eyes of the spectators. For there is no such condensing medicine or remedy of any effect, because the friction of the genitals will relax and open the porosities of the parts, and the spirits must inavoidably receive the contamination of the disease in contempt of all opposition to the contrary. For this poison moveth distinctly from other poisons received at the mouth into the body, for they descend into the ventricle, and are not so suddenly mixed with the spirits because they are dispersed and scattered amongst the Viscera, and receive their contamination gradatim; but this contagion is conveyed to the spirits in the turn of an eye, and communicated to them by the nearest consent which is between the genitals, and most noble parts of the body. And these are the reasons of my non-consent to any defensative against the pollution of an unclean women, and if any medicament be ordered of preservation from this Pest, they must be such Antidotes as do cure it; and no remedy of cure more specific than Guiacum: and this remedy by daily experience we see will not do it, nor will any chemical medicament, though it doth seemingly cure the disease, yet it will not preserus them from reinfection: and very many persons that account themselves cured at present, and take boldness to make another adventure, are infected again before their bodies are cleared of their former medicaments; and though I said something of curative remedies, let me not be understood of absolute cure, for there is no such Cure.   

QUEST. VIII.  
Why this French disease of itself killeth no man.  
'Tis doubtless and without question that many persons of both Sexes do daily die with this disease upon them, because it admitteth of no perfect cure in any that are infected; and if any person persuade the contrary, I shall give them leave to comfort themselves with a false delight and pleasant dream: but that this French Pest is not Necant in itself, is the question to be argued, to which I answer with Galen, lib. de Marasmo, that the principle conatus of nature is to defend the heart, especially from poison of any quality; and that it doth most strenuously defend it from the contagion and poison of this disease. Another reason is because this disease in itself is void of a febrile distemper, and if any symptom of frebricitation doth appear, it is accidental, and from the complication of some other cause. Thirdly, this disease is void of the difficulty of breathing, except in the highest extremity. Fourthly, in this disease the pulse is never altered, neither are there any signs of it to be taken from the pulse, and these are demonstrative arguments to prove the heart to defend itself powerfully from the malignity of this disease. And this defensive power according to my opinion must principally depend upon the power of the vital spirits, which are more robust than the natural spirits, as doth appear by their containing vessels of each; for the artery that containeth the vital spirits is double coated, else the spirits contained in them would make eruption through them because of their inherent force; and the veins but single coated because their spirits in activity and strength is so much less than is the vital; and by the force of this vital spirit the heart is defended against the invasion of this Pest: and by this vital spirit the heart defendeth itself against the assault of choler, which is so great an enemy to it according to Arist. 4. de part. animal. And yet this question is not cleared from the exception of many Physicians, who reasonably do affirm the generation of vital spirits to proceed from the natural; and if the natural spirits have received contamination, how shall the vital spirits which are begotten of them be free from pollution? nor could it be otherwise, but from the purification they receive from the heart; after the same manner as Gold is separated from dross and other alien tincture▪ by the activity of ●ire, so also doth the heart by its cordial fire inherent in itself, purge and cleanse the natural spirits from all pollution, and the heart by its own power descendeth itself from the contamination of this disease, which is the cause in chief why this disease of itself doth not kill the person affected with it.   

QUEST. IX.  
Whether this disease be the proper disease of one particular Region.  
That every Region hath diseases inherent in themselves, and not contracted 〈◊〉, with remedies of their own more specifical, than any contracted from alien and different Regions; and that there is a, much difference as between clime and climb, or East and West, 〈◊〉 without doubt is the 〈◊〉 Catholica of all Nations; but what Region may be the proper womb of this French; 〈◊〉 is a present dispute between the French and Neapolitan the one will have it the proper disease of the Indians, and the French will have it proper to the Neopolit●ns; but because it hath made so great impression in 〈◊〉, most Modern Writers 〈◊〉 it the French disease so that they challenge the Right to it from Custom and long prescription, and I know no Nation challenge any of their privilege; but as they have spread their tongue very far in Europe and other Continents; so this disease hath commerce with the generality of Nations and Religions, both Mahometan, jew, 〈◊〉 and Heathen. But some particular Regions may be after this manner affected from their vicious air an● diet, witness those painful botches of the Arab●●as affirmed by Galen and Av●cen, that they are generated from the Locusts which they so greedily feed upon, as also in 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 from their delicacy in diet, and frequent use of Venery. Insomuch, that according to the diet and air, several Regions have their particular diseases. But the French disease proceedeth neither from the air of the place nor diet, but from mere Venery and impure Congression, and therefore it is an Universal disease more common in Venereal and hot Countries, where the Women are more salacious th●n in cold Regions; this Sex being in their temper more cold than men, by the heat 〈◊〉 the Region are prov●●ed and more hot in pleasure; by which themselves and others in conjunction with them are inflamed, insomuch that in those places this French dis●ase proveth Hereditary, and is conveyed from Family to Family in the principles of nature; as is the Small Pox according to some opinions conveyed in maternal menstruosity. And thus I have concluded the discourse of both Great and Small according to my promise.  
FINIS.